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As of August 3rd 2024, how many Emmy Award nominations does the main cast member that was introduced in Season 2 of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia have?

5

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Daniel Michael DeVito Jr. (born November 17, 1944) is an American actor and filmmaker. He gained prominence for his portrayal of the taxi dispatcher Louie De Palma in the television series Taxi (1978–1983), which won him a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award. He plays Frank Reynolds on the FXX sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005–present). He is known for his film roles in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Terms of Endearment (1983), Head Office (1985), Ruthless People (1986), Throw Momma from the Train (1987), Twins (1988), The War of the Roses (1989), Batman Returns (1992), Jack the Bear (1993), Junior (1994), Matilda (1996), L.A. Confidential (1997), The Big Kahuna (1999), Big Fish (2003), Deck the Halls (2006), When in Rome (2010), Wiener-Dog (2016), and Jumanji: The Next Level (2019). He has voiced roles in such films as Hercules (1997), The Lorax (2012), and Smallfoot (2018). DeVito and Michael Shamberg founded Jersey Films. Soon afterwards, Stacey Sher became an equal partner. The production company is known for films such as Pulp Fiction (1994), Garden State (2004), and Freedom Writers (2007). DeVito also owned Jersey Television, which produced the Comedy Central series Reno 911! DeVito and wife Rhea Perlman starred together in his 1996 film Matilda, based on Roald Dahl's children's novel. DeVito was also one of the producers nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture for Erin Brockovich (2000). From 2012 to 2013 he played Willie Clark in the West End revival of Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys. He made his Broadway debut as Gregory Solomon in the revival of Arthur Miller's The Price (2017), earning a Tony Award nomination for his performance. He returned to Broadway in the Theresa Rebeck play I Need That (2023). Early life and education DeVito was born at Raleigh Fitkin-Paul Morgan Memorial Hospital in Neptune Township, New Jersey, the son of Daniel DeVito Sr., a small business owner, and Julia DeVito (née Moccello). He grew up in a family of five, with his parents and two older sisters. He is of Italo-Albanian descent; his family is originally from San Fele, Basilicata, as well as from the Arbëresh Albanian community of Calabria. He was raised in Asbury Park, New Jersey. He lived a few miles away from the original Jersey Mike's location and would eat there frequently, which would inspire him to become the sub shop's first celebrity spokesman in a line of commercials that began to air in September 2022. DeVito was raised as a Catholic. When he was 14, he persuaded his father to send him to boarding school to "keep him out of trouble", and graduated from Oratory Preparatory School in Summit, New Jersey, in 1962. While working as a beautician at his sister's salon, his search for a professional makeup instructor led him to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where he graduated in 1966. In his early theater days, he performed with the Colonnades Theater Lab at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut. Along with his future wife Rhea Perlman, he appeared in plays produced by the Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective. Career Acting DeVito started his career acting off-Broadway in the plays Shoot Anything With Hair That Moves and The Man with the Flower in His Mouth both in 1969. DeVito played Martini in the 1975 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest directed by Milos Forman, reprising his role from the 1971 off-Broadway play of the same title. He had his feature film debut in the drama Dreams of Glass (1970). Early film roles include Lady Liberty (1971), Hurry Up, or I'll Be 30 (1973), and Deadly Hero (1975). In 1977, DeVito played the role of John "John John the Apple" DeAppoliso in the Starsky & Hutch episode "The Collector". DeVito gained fame in 1978 playing Louie De Palma, the short but domineering dispatcher for the fictional Sunshine Cab Company, on the hit TV show Taxi. For his performance he received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film. After his breakthrough on the sitcom Taxi, DeVito devoted more effort to a growing successful film career. He took a supporting role as Vernon Dalhart in the James L. Brooks directed comedy-drama Terms of Endearment (1983) acting alongside Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, and Jack Nicholson. The film earned critical acclaim as well as the Academy Award for Best Picture. The following year he acted in the crime comedy Johnny Dangerously (1984) and took the role as the comic rogue Ralph in the romantic adventure Romancing the Stone (1984), starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner; and its sequel, The Jewel of the Nile (1985). In 1986, DeVito starred in Ruthless People with Bette Midler and Judge Reinhold, and also voiced the character Grundle King in My Little Pony: The Movie. In 1987 he acted in director Barry Levinson's Tin Men (1987), as a rival salesman to Richard Dreyfuss' character. In 1990, he and Rhea Perlman played the couple Vic & Paula, commenting on the state of the environment in The Earth Day Special. The following year he acted in Other People's Money (1991) with Gregory Peck. In 1991 and 1992, DeVito voiced Herb Powell in The Simpsons episodes "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?" and "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?". In 1992 he portrayed the villain Oswald Cobblepot / The Penguin in director Tim Burton's Batman Returns (1992) acting opposite Michael Keaton, Michelle Pfeiffer and Christopher Walken. That same year he directed and produced the biographical drama film Hoffa (1992) starring Jack Nicholson. He also acted in the film portraying Bobby Ciaro. DeVito also acted opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in the comedies Twins (1988) and Junior (1994). In 1995, DeVito appeared in the gangster comedy Get Shorty. In 1996, he took supporting roles as Swackhammer in the Looney Tunes live-action / animated sports comedy Space Jam and reunited with Tim Burton's science fiction comedy Mars Attacks! starring Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Martin Short, and Natalie Portman. In 1997, he played Deck Shifflet in the legal thriller The Rainmaker starring Matt Damon and Claire Danes as well as Sid Hudgens, editor of a sleazy tabloid called Hush-Hush, who gets tips ahead of time of celebrity arrests in the neo-noir thriller L.A. Confidential with Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, and Kevin Spacey, the latter of which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. That same year he also voiced Phil in the Walt Disney Animated film Hercules (1997). Leonard Klady of Variety praised the voice performances writing, "As in Aladdin, the melding of character animation with the screen personae of the actors voicing the roles provides forceful and amusing entertainment, particularly in DeVito's turn as a physical trainer and the acid wit James Woods brings to his villainous role." He starred in Living Out Loud (1988) alongside Helen Hunt and Queen Latifah, reunited with Kevin Spacey in The Big Kahuna (1999), and hosted the last Saturday Night Live episode before the year 2000. In 1999, he produced and co-starred in the biographical drama film Man on the Moon, a film about the unusual life of his former Taxi co-star Andy Kaufman, played in the film by Jim Carrey. He also played Dr. Hornicker in the Sofia Coppola directed The Virgin Suicides (1999) starring Kirsten Dunst. He continued to take roles in comedy films such as Drowning Mona (2000), Screwed (2000), What's the Worst That Could Happen? (2001), Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), Anything Else (2003), and Be Cool (2005). He also acted in the drama films Heist (2001) and Big Fish (2004). He earned a 2004 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series nomination for his role of a stripper in the NBC sitcom Friends, In 2006, he joined the cast of the FX / FXX sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia as Frank Reynolds. DeVito stars opposite Glenn Howerton, Rob McElhenney, Kaitlin Olson, and Charlie Day. The character of Frank Reynolds is introduced at the beginning of Season 2. He received a nomination for the Satellite Award for Best Actor – Musical or Comedy Series. DeVito said of the show "I loved it. It was fucking outrageous just the way they are. I immediately said, ‘Yeah, this is an amazing show." Also in 2006 he starred opposite Matthew Broderick in the Christmas comedy film Deck the Halls. DeVito has an interest in documentaries. In 2006 he began a partnership with Morgan Freeman's company ClickStar, for whom he hosts the documentary channel Jersey Docs. He was also interviewed in the documentary Revenge of the Electric Car, discussing his interest in and ownership of electric vehicles. DeVito has directed eight short films between 1973 and 2016, five of which were released across 2010 and 2011. These are The Sound Sleeper (1973), Minestrone (1975), Oh Those Lips (2010), Evil Eye (2010), Poison Tongue (2011), Skin Deep (2011), Nest of Vipers (2011) and Curmudgeons (2016). In 2011, DeVito received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in television. In 2012, he voiced the title character in the animated version of Dr. Seuss' The Lorax. He appeared in the Angry Birds Friends "Champions for Earth" tournament advertisement in September 2015. Following the Japanese release of the Nintendo 3DS game Detective Pikachu, dedicated Pokémon fans submitted a 40,000-signature petition requesting that DeVito be the English voice actor for the title character. However, he declined to audition for the role, commenting that he was unfamiliar with the franchise. In April 2012, DeVito made his West End acting debut in a revival of the Neil Simon play The Sunshine Boys as Willie Clark, alongside Richard Griffiths. It previewed at the Savoy Theatre in London from April 27, 2012, opened on May 17, and played a limited 12-week season until July 28. DeVito played a fictional version of himself in the music video of One Direction's song "Steal My Girl" (2014). He also appeared in the short film Curmudgeons, which he also produced and directed. In 2013, he would voice Herb for a third time in the episode "The Changing of the Guardian". DeVito made his Broadway debut in a Roundabout Theatre Company revival of the Arthur Miller play The Price as Gregory Solomon. He acted opposite Mark Ruffalo, and Tony Shalhoub. Marilyn Stasio of Variety praised DeVito's performance writing, "DeVito, who holds the audience in the palm of his hand, tends to favor the comic side, making an extended meal out of an egg-eating visual gag. But he also draws on down-to-earth Jewish wisdom to keep family hostilities from boiling over and spoiling the financial negotiations". He went on to be nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. The production began preview performances at the American Airlines Theatre on February 16, 2017, and opened on March 16 for a limited run-through on May 7. In 2018 he had a guest starring role in the Netflix comedy series The Kominsky Method acting opposite Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin. He also voiced Dorgle in the Warner Bros. animated film Smallfoot (2018). The following year in 2019 he reunited with Tim Burton playing Max Medici in the live action Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Dumbo, a remake of the 1941 animated film. He acted alongside Colin Farrell, Michael Keaton and Eva Green. He also played Eddie Gilpin in the action comedy film Jumanji: The Next Level starring Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Karen Gillan. The film was a box office and critical success. In 2020 he voiced Bob, a stray dog in The One and Only Ivan. In 2021 he played Charlie Goldman the biographical HBO drama film The Survivor. That same year DeVito wrote a 12-page story centered on the Penguin and Catwoman for the anthology comic Gotham City Villains. In 2023 he acted in the Disney horror comedy Haunted Mansion, Chris Pine's directorial film debut Poolman, and the Illumination animated film Migration. Also in 2023 he returned to Broadway in the Theresa Rebeck play I Need That. Directing DeVito made his directorial debut in 1984 with The Ratings Game. In 1986, he directed and starred in the black comedy "The Wedding Ring", a season 2 episode of Steven Spielberg's anthology series Amazing Stories, where his character acquires an engagement ring for his wife (played by DeVito's real-life wife, actress Rhea Perlman). When the ring is slipped on his wife's finger, she is possessed by the ring's former owner, a murderous black widow. In 1987 he made his feature-directing debut with the dark comedy Throw Momma from the Train, in which he starred with Billy Crystal and Anne Ramsey. For his performance he earned a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy nomination. DeVito reunited with Jewel of the Nile co-stars Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner in 1989 when he directed and starred alongside them in The War of the Roses. In 1996 he directed Matilda (1996), a film adaptation of Roald Dahl's 1988 classic children's novel of the same name. Critic Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times wrote, "There is never a moment (except toward the happy ending) that we sense DeVito is anything other than quite serious about this material. He goes with Dahl's macabre vision." He also served as the Narrator and played the villainous used-car dealer father Harry Wormwood opposite his wife Rhea Perlman. The following year, he was in talks to direct the crime drama The Little Things with Robert De Niro at that time set to star, and The Crowded Room with Leonardo DiCaprio. Both projects were eventually realized in the 2020s, but without DeVito's involvement. In 1998, he committed to star in and direct both the sci-fi film Barthe for TriStar, about an alien who falls in love, and a remake of The Man Who Came to Dinner for DreamWorks. In 1999, DeVito was attached to star, direct and produce Jason Keller's spec script Sugar's Sweet Science of Bruising for New Line Cinema. For the next two years, DeVito was attached to film Michael Petroni's Revelations, a "supernatural religious thriller" that was to have starred George Clooney. The project was delayed due to rewrites however, and DeVito instead resurfaced with Death to Smoochy (2002) and Duplex (2003), which he made back-to-back. Before the release of the latter, he agreed to direct a remake of 1942's I Married a Witch for Tom Cruise and Columbia Pictures, announcing to Variety that he hoped to begin production by the end of the year. Instead of I Married a Witch, he sought to make Trump vs. Wynn as his next directorial project after receiving an offer from HBO. Written by Rick Cleveland, the script chronicles business tycoons Donald Trump and Steve Wynn's competition to build a casino in Atlantic City. DeVito was expected to direct, produce, and star in an unspecified role, but he dropped out after meeting with both figures, who protested the film's production. He directed the pilot episode for a proposed 2005 Imagine TV sitcom Queen B, which was not picked up by the network for series. In 2009, it was reported that DeVito would direct and produce the biopic Crazy Eddie, based on the life of consumer electronics king Eddie Antar, from a script by Peter Steinfeld. However the film could not be made due to a life rights deal that was made with Antar. Instead, he pivoted to making the apocalyptic horror thriller St. Sebastian, which completed post-production in 2012 but to this day has not been released. DeVito also worked on the independently financed Honeymoon with Dad, a comedy which never went into production. DeVito has written a film adaptation of, and been, since 2008, attached to direct The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle with Morgan Freeman, Pierce Brosnan and Saoirse Ronan starring. The production was halted when Freeman was seriously injured in a car accident two weeks before filming was scheduled to commence. DeVito returned to the subject in February 2013, saying he was looking for another young actress to star in the title role and scouting movie locations in Ireland. Production was expected to restart in July 2014. The release date is still classified as "TBD" without any new information as to whether it will be shot. Producing DeVito founded Jersey Films in 1991, producing films like Pulp Fiction (1994), Get Shorty (1995), Erin Brockovich (2000) (for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture), Gattaca (1997), and Garden State (2004). DeVito also produced the Comedy Central series Reno 911!, the film spin-off Reno 911!: Miami, and the revival on Quibi. In 2019, his company Jersey Films optioned the screen rights to make a film of Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation, by Dan Fagin. Personal life DeVito stands 4 feet 10 inches (1.47 metres) tall. His short stature is the result of multiple epiphyseal dysplasia (Fairbank's disease), a rare genetic disorder that affects bone growth. On January 17, 1971, DeVito met Rhea Perlman when she went to see a friend in the single performance of the play The Shrinking Bride, which featured DeVito. They moved in together two weeks later and married on January 28, 1982. They have three children: Lucy Chet DeVito (born March 11, 1983), Grace Fan DeVito (born March 1985), and Jacob Daniel DeVito (born October 1987). Perlman and DeVito have acted alongside each other several times, including in the television show Taxi and the feature film Matilda (where they played Matilda's parents). They separated in October 2012, after 30 years of marriage and over 40 years together, then reconciled in March 2013. They separated for a second time in March 2017, but remained on amicable terms and Perlman stated they had no intent of filing for divorce. In 2019, Perlman told interviewer Andy Cohen that she and DeVito have become closer friends after their separation than they were in their final years as a couple. DeVito and Perlman resided in a 14,579-square-foot (1,354 m2) house in Beverly Hills, California, that they purchased in 1994, until selling it for US$24 million in April 2015. They also own a bungalow near Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, and a multi-residence compound on Broad Beach in Malibu. They also frequented a home they owned in Interlaken, New Jersey, to get away from Los Angeles. DeVito has mentioned being a big fan of singer Mike Patton's various musical projects, being introduced to his work though his son Jacob in 2005. DeVito collaborated with Patton on a music video and has attended several of his concerts, with Perlman contributing an introductory voiceover to an album by Mr. Bungle, one of Patton's bands. In 2016, DeVito also included music from Patton's band Faith No More on It's Always Sunny in Philidalphia. Acting credits and accolades DeVito has an extensive film career, dating back to the early 1970s. Selected work: References External links Danny DeVito on Twitter Danny DeVito at IMDb Danny DeVito at the Internet Broadway Database Danny DeVito at the Internet Off-Broadway Database Danny DeVito at Emmys.com Danny DeVito at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television Danny DeVito on Charlie Rose Danny DeVito's Guest DJ Set on KCRW Danny DeVito interviewed by KVUE's Roy Faires in 1971 about "Throw Momma From The Train" from Texas Archive of the Moving Image

Danny DeVito has a large and varied body of work as an actor, producer and director in stage, television and film. He has received a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award, a Producers Guild Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards and Tony Award. In 2011 he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6909 Hollywood Blvd., for his contributions to television. Major associations Academy Awards BAFTA Awards Emmy Awards Golden Globe Awards Screen Actors Guild Award Tony Awards Miscellaneous awards American Comedy Award 1987 - Funniest Lead Actor in a Motion Picture - Ruthless People - nominee 1988 - Funniest Lead Actor in a Motion Picture - Throw Momma from the Train - nominee Broadway.com Audience Award 2024 - Favorite Leading Actor in a Play - I Need That - nominee 2024 - Favorite Funny Performance - I Need That - nominee Golden Berlin Award 1990 - Golden Berlin Bear - The War of the Roses - nominee Golden Raspberry Award 1982 - Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor - Going Ape! - nominee 1991 - Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director - Hoffa - nominee 1992 - Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor - Batman Returns - nominee 2007 - Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor - Deck the Halls - nominee MTV Movie Award 1992 - MTV Movie Award for Best Villain - Batman Returns - nominee Online Film & Television Award 1997 - Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror Picture - Gattaca - nominee 1997 - Best Comedy/Musical Picture - Wag the Dog - nominee 1997 - Best Voice-Over Performance - Hercules - nominee 2000 - Best Picture - Erin Brokovich - nominee Producers Guild of America Award 2000 - Best Theatrical Motion Picture - Erin Brokovich - nominee Satellite Award 1996 - Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy - Matilda - nominee 1997 - Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama - The Rainmaker - nominee 2008 - Best Actor in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy - It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - nominee Saturn Award 1992 - Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor - Batman Returns - nominee Tribeca Film Festival 2016 - Tribeca Film Festival Award for Best Narrative Short - Curmudgeons - nominee TV Land Award 2004 - TV Land Award for Bossiest Boss - Taxi - winner 2004 - TV Land Medallion Award - Taxi - winner Other awards Honorary awards == References ==

What is the atomic number in roman numerals for the element that has the same symbol as the first two letters of the 23rd most populous city (as of 2024) of the country represented between Italy and China at the World Showcase in Epcot?

LXXIX

Tabular reasoning | Multiple constraints | Post processing

Epcot, stylized in all uppercase as EPCOT, is a theme park at the Walt Disney World resort in Bay Lake, Florida. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Disney Experiences division. The park opened on October 1, 1982, as EPCOT Center, the second of four theme parks built at the resort. Often referred to as a "permanent world's fair", Epcot is dedicated to the celebration of human achievement, particularly technological innovation and international culture and is known for its iconic landmark Spaceship Earth, a geodesic sphere. During early development of the Florida property, Walt Disney wanted to build an experimental planned community showcasing modern innovation, known as "EPCOT", an acronym for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. After Disney's death in 1966, the company felt his grand vision was impractical. However, it laid the groundwork for EPCOT Center, a theme park that retained the core spirit of Disney's vision. The park was divided into two distinct areas, Future World reprises the idea of showcasing modern innovation through educational entertainment attractions inside avant-garde pavilions, while World Showcase highlights the diversity of human cultures from various nations. From the late 2010s to the early 2020s, the park underwent a major overhaul, adding new attractions and Future World was restructured into three areas: World Celebration, World Discovery and World Nature. The park spans 305 acres (123 hectares), more than twice the size of Magic Kingdom. In 2023, the park attracted 11.98 million guests, making it the eighth-most visited theme park in the world. History 1960s: Experimental concept The genesis for Epcot was originally conceived as a utopian city of the future by Walt Disney in the 1960s. The concept was an acronym for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, often interchanging "city" and "community." In Walt Disney's words in 1966: "EPCOT will take its cue from the new ideas and new technologies that are now emerging from the creative centers of American industry. It will be a community of tomorrow that will never be completed but will always be introducing and testing, and demonstrating new materials and new systems. And EPCOT will always be a showcase to the world of the ingenuity and imagination of American free enterprise." Walt Disney's original vision, sometimes called Progress City, would have been home to twenty thousand residents and would be a living laboratory showcasing cutting-edge technology and urban planning. It was to have been built in the shape of a circle with an urban city center in the center with community buildings, schools, and recreational complexes. It would be surrounded by rings of residential areas and industrial areas, all connected by monorail and PeopleMover lines. Automobile traffic would be kept underground, leaving pedestrians safe above ground. This radial plan concept is strongly influenced by British planner Ebenezer Howard and his Garden Cities of To-morrow. Disney went as far as petitioning the Florida State Legislature for the creation of the Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID), with the authority of a governmental body over the Walt Disney World land. The RCID was established in 1967. However, Walt Disney was not able to obtain funding and permission to start work on his Florida property until he agreed to first build the Magic Kingdom theme park. He died in 1966, nearly five years before Magic Kingdom opened. 1970s: Concept evolves into park After Walt Disney's death, the company decided that it did not want to be in the business of running a city without Walt's guidance. The original plans for the park showed indecision over the park's purpose. Some Imagineers wanted it to represent the cutting edge of emerging technologies, while others wanted it to showcase international cultures and customs. At one point, a model of the futuristic park was pushed together against a model of a World's Fair international theme, and the two were combined. The park was originally named EPCOT Center to reflect the ideals and values of the city. It was constructed for an estimated $800 million to $1.4 billion and took three years to build, at the time the largest construction project on Earth. The park spans 305 acres (123 hectares), more than twice the size of Magic Kingdom. The parking lot serving the park is 141 acres (57 ha) (including bus area) and can accommodate 11,211 vehicles. The park opened on October 1, 1982, in a ceremony with Disney chairman and CEO Card Walker and Florida Governor Bob Graham. 1980s: Opening and operation As part of the opening-day ceremony, dancers and band members performed "We've Just Begun to Dream". The Sherman Brothers wrote a song especially for the occasion entitled "The World Showcase March". During the finale, doves and many sets of balloons were released. Performing groups representing countries from all over the world performed in World Showcase. Water was gathered from major rivers across the globe and emptied into the park's Fountain of Nations with ceremonial containers to mark the opening. The theme park opened on October 1, 1982. On opening day, Future World featured six pavilions: Spaceship Earth, CommuniCore, Journey Into Imagination, The Land, Universe of Energy, and World of Motion. World Showcase featured nine pavilions: Mexico Pavilion, China Pavilion, Germany Pavilion, Italy Pavilion, The American Adventure Pavilion, Japan Pavilion, France Pavilion, United Kingdom Pavilion, and Canada Pavilion. During the 1980s, several additional pavilions opened: Horizons in 1983, Morocco Pavilion in 1984, The Living Seas in 1986, Norway Pavilion in 1988, and Wonders of Life in 1989. 1990s–2000s: Change in vision Despite its initial success, Epcot was constantly faced with the challenges of evolving with worldwide progress, an issue that caused the park to lose relevance and become outdated in the 1990s. To maintain attendance levels, Disney introduced seasonal events such as the International Flower & Garden Festival and the International Food & Wine Festival in 1994 and 1995, respectively. In the mid-1990s, Disney also began to gradually phase out the park's edutainment attractions in favor of more modern and thrilling attractions. As a result, many of the attractions within the Future World pavilions, were either overhauled or replaced entirely. The Land pavilion saw its attractions replaced under new sponsor Nestlé between late 1993 and January 1995, and Spaceship Earth was updated with music by Edo Guidotti and narration from Jeremy Irons in 1994. Universe of Energy was reconfigured as Ellen's Energy Adventure in 1996. Journey Into Imagination closed in 1998 and was replaced with Journey into YOUR Imagination the following year, World of Motion was replaced with Test Track, and Horizons was demolished in 1999 and replaced with Mission: Space in 2003. In 2000, Walt Disney World held the Millennium Celebration with the central focus of the event at Epcot, and a 25-story "magic wand" structure was built next to Spaceship Earth. Millennium Village was closed on January 1, 2001, and was turned into the World Showplace festival center, which is frequently used for Epcot festivals. Journey into YOUR Imagination closed in 2001 due to strong negative reception and was replaced with Journey into Imagination with Figment in 2002. The Living Seas was closed in 2005, and rethemed with the introduction of characters from Finding Nemo, as The Seas with Nemo & Friends. That same year, Soarin', a flight simulator ride originally developed for Disney's California Adventure, was added to The Land (replacing Food Rocks) following its massive popularity in California. The Wonders of Life pavilion closed in 2007, with the pavilion being occasionally used for the park's annual festivals until permanent closure. The Mexico pavilion's El Rio del Tiempo attraction closed on January 2, and Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros opened in its space a few months later. After the "magic wand" structure was removed from Spaceship Earth, the attraction's fourth version, narrated by Judi Dench, soft-opened on December 8. Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure opened at EPCOT in 2009. 2010s–present: Transformation and redesign Test Track was refurbished into new version presented by Chevrolet in 2012, and Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure was rethemed to Agent P's World Showcase Adventure the same year. The Norway pavilion's Maelstrom attraction closed in 2014 and replaced two years later by Frozen Ever After. Soarin' was also temporarily closed while a new film was added to the attraction. In November 2016, Disney revealed that Epcot would be receiving “a major transformation” that would help transition the park into being “more Disney, timeless, relevant, family-friendly”. In 2017, Mission: SPACE was divided into a new green/Earth mission, and the original orange/Mars mission. In July 2017, Disney formally announced that Epcot would undergo a multi-year, redesign and expansion plan that would introduce Guardians of the Galaxy and Ratatouille attractions to Future World and World Showcase, respectively, as well as maintaining the original vision and spirit for the park. As part of the announcement, Ellen's Energy Adventure closed the following month, and the pavilion's show building was reused for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, while the EPCOT 35 Legacy Showcase exhibition opened in the Odyssey Pavilion. That same year, the park reported the first drop in overall attendance ranking among the four Walt Disney World Resort parks, dropping from second to third place, the first in its history. On August 25, 2019, at the 2019 D23 Expo, Disney expanded on the plans for the improvements to Epcot. One of the most significant changes announced was the creation of four distinct "neighborhoods"; the subdivision of Future World into three areas (World Celebration, World Discovery, and World Nature) and World Showcase. Journey of Water—Inspired by Moana, a walkthrough attraction, was also announced. At the same expo, Disney also announced that Pinar Toprak would be composing a new musical anthem for the park. Toprak's EPCOT anthem was eventually used in various nighttime shows, such as Harmonious and Luminous, as well as featured in ambient music within the entrance plaza and throughout World Celebration. Disney began to stylize the name as "EPCOT" as an homage to both the park's original name and Walt Disney's original concept, although the name is no longer an acronym. On October 1, 2019, it was announced that a new nighttime fireworks show, Epcot Forever, and The EPCOT Experience Center, a preview space for the park's expansion project, would replace IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth and EPCOT 35 Legacy Showcase. In late 2019, EPCOT installed new directory signage in Seabase Alpha, restoring the former Living Seas logo, as the pavilion was renamed to The Seas Pavilion. That Agent P's World Showcase Adventure closed on February 23, 2020; it was slated to be replaced with DuckTales World Showcase Adventure, which did not open until 2022. The park was closed from March 16 to July 15, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Florida. Modified operations were established, including a pause on concerts and fireworks, in order to promote sufficient physical distancing. Spaceship Earth: Our Shared Story, the attraction's fifth update, the Wondrous China film, the PLAY! pavilion in World Discovery, and the United Kingdom pavilion's Cherry Tree Lane expansion were indefinitely delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the CommuniCore Hall exhibit space and the CommuniCore Plaza festival stage was built instead of a three-level festival pavilion. On September 29, 2021, the nighttime fireworks show Harmonious replaced Epcot Forever as part of the resort's 50th anniversary celebration. The show ended its run on March 31, 2023, in preparation for Luminous: The Symphony of Us which debuted later that year; Epcot Forever returned during the interim period. Remy's Ratatouille Adventure (duplicated from Disneyland Paris) opened in the France pavilion on October 1 as part of the same celebrations. The EPCOT Experience Center closed in 2022, and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, part of the Wonders of Xandar Pavilion, opened on May 27. Journey of Water opened in World Nature opened on October 16, 2023, and World Celebration Gardens, divided into five sections (Inspiration Gardens, CommuniCore Gardens, Connections Gardens, Creations Gardens, and Dreamers Point) opened on December 5 of that year. CommuniCore Hall and Plaza, named after the former Future World pavilion, opened to the general public on June 10, 2024. Test Track closed for refurbishment on June 17 to make way for the attraction's third iteration. At D23 2024, it was announced that this lounge will take the place of the former Siemens lounge attached to Spaceship Earth and will open in 2025. Park layout and attractions Epcot is divided into four main themed areas, known as "neighborhoods": World Celebration, World Discovery, World Nature and World Showcase. The park consists of a variety of avant-garde pavilions that explore innovative aspects and applications including technology and science, with each pavilion featuring self-contained attractions and distinct architecture in its design. Currently, the park features ten major pavilions: Galaxy, Imagination, Journey, Land, Motion, Odyssey, Seas, Space, Spaceship Earth, and World Showcase, which itself has eleven individual nation pavilions. World Celebration, Discovery, and Nature were originally grouped as one area called Future World, which debuted with six pavilions: Spaceship Earth, CommuniCore, Imagination!, The Land, Universe of Energy, and World of Motion. The Horizons pavilion opened the following year, and The Living Seas and Wonders of Life pavilions were added in 1986 and 1989, respectively, bringing the lineup to nine. CommuniCore, World of Motion, Horizons, Wonders of Life, Universe of Energy, and Innoventions closed in 1994, 1996, 1999, 2007, 2017, and 2019, respectively. The Fountain of Nations, a large circular musical fountain which debuted with the park, was removed in 2019 as well. Each pavilion was initially sponsored by a corporation which helped fund its construction and maintenance in return for the corporation's logos and some marketing elements appearing throughout the pavilion. Additionally, each pavilion of Future World featured a unique circular logo designed by Norm Inouye (except for the Wonders of Life logo due to its later introduction), which was featured on park signage and throughout the attractions themselves. The pavilion logos were gradually phased out in the early 2000s, as the pavilions instead were identified by name and recognized by the main attraction(s) housed inside. Several homages remained scattered throughout the park, including merchandising. However, in 2019, the circular pavilion logos were revived as part of Epcot's transformation, with both classic logos reprised and refreshed and newer logos introduced. World Celebration World Celebration serves as the park's main entrance and a central hub that honors global human interaction and connection, including communication, imagination, creativity, and the visual and culinary arts. The neighborhood features four major pavilions—Spaceship Earth, Imagination, Odyssey, and CommuniCore—as well as additional attractions, shops, and restaurants. Guests enter through the main entrance and walk underneath Spaceship Earth, an eighteen-story-tall geodesic sphere structure and the anchor pavilion, which also houses an eponymous dark ride attraction that depicts the history of communication. Directly behind Spaceship Earth are the World Celebration Gardens and Dreamers Point, featuring lush interactive gardens, lighting fixtures and Walt the Dreamer, a bronze statue commemorating Walt Disney. The Imagination! pavilion celebrates the concept of imagination and features Journey into Imagination with Figment, a dark ride starring Figment that explores the senses. CommuniCore Hall and Plaza is a multi-use pavilion used for exhibitions, gallery space, a mixology bar, a demonstration kitchen, and music performances, as well as meet-and-greets with Disney characters. The Odyssey Pavilion is an exhibition space during the park's annual festivals. World Celebration is also home to Creations Shop, the park's main gift shop; Connections Eatery & Cafe, a quick-service restaurant and Starbucks themed to global food history; and Club Cool, an Coca-Cola- themed attraction and shop featuring complimentary samples of Coca-Cola soft drinks from around the world. World Discovery World Discovery centers on space, science, technology and intergalactic exploration. Lying on the east side of World Celebration, the Discovery neighborhood currently features three major pavilions in clockwise layout: Galaxy, Space, and Motion. The Galaxy Pavilion, also known as the Wonders of Xandar Pavilion, houses Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, an enclosed spinning roller coaster based on the superhero team of the same name. The building originally opened as the Universe of Energy Pavilion. The Space Pavilion houses Mission: Space is a centrifugal motion simulator thrill ride that replicates a space flight experience to Mars and a low orbit tour over the surface of Earth. Next to it is Space 220, a themed restaurant simulating dining aboard a space station located 220 miles above Earth. The building is located on the original plot site of the Horizons Pavilion. The Motion Pavilion houses Test Track is a high-speed slot car ride inspired by the automobile testing procedures that Chevrolet uses to evaluate concept cars. The Motion Pavilion was one of the original pavilions of Epcot and has always housed an attraction sponsored by General Motors. In between the Galaxy and Space pavilions, is one standing but unused pavilion that once housed the Wonders of Life attraction. World Nature World Nature focuses on understanding and preserving the beauty, awe and balance of the natural world. Located on the west side of World Celebration, the Nature neighborhood features three major pavilions in counterclockwise layout—Seas, Water, and Land—inspired by human interaction with the Earth, specifically ocean exploration, hydrology, agriculture, horticulture, ecology, and travel. Based on ocean exploration and inspired by the Finding Nemo series, The Seas pavilion features the sixth-largest aquarium in the world with marine life exhibits; an Omnimover attraction inspired by Finding Nemo; and Turtle Talk with Crush, an interactive show hosted by Crush from Finding Nemo. Connected to the building is the Coral Reef Restaurant, a themed seafood restaurant that provides views into the aquarium. Nearby is the Journey of Water pavilion, an outdoor walkthrough water attraction depicting the Earth's water cycle, inspired by Moana. Finally, the Land pavilion features three attractions; Soarin' Around the World, an attraction that simulates a hang gliding flight over various regions of the world; Living with the Land, a narrated boat tour through Audio-Animatronics scenes, a greenhouse and hydroponics lab; and Awesome Planet, a short documentary film presented in the pavilion's Harvest Theater about the Earth's biomes and the perils of climate change. World Showcase World Showcase is the park's largest neighborhood, dedicated to representing the culture, history, cuisine, architecture, and traditions of 11 nations from across four continents—North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Each nation pavilion features attractions, shops, restaurants, and landscaping that celebrate or portray authentic settings from each country—several pavilions also contain recreations inspired by existing buildings and landmarks, such as the Eiffel Tower, Itsukushima Shrine, Hampton Court Palace, Château Laurier, Gol Stave Church, St Mark's Campanile, and the Kutubiyya Mosque. The nation pavilions surround the World Showcase Lagoon, a man-made lake located in the center of World Showcase with a perimeter of 1.2 miles (1.9 km), which is the site of the park's nighttime fireworks display, Luminous: The Symphony of Us. In counter-clockwise order, the 11 pavilions are: The American Adventure is the host pavilion of World Showcase, sharing its name with its marquee attraction in Liberty Theatre: a titular stage show detailing American history and hosted by Audio-Animatronics versions of Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain. The pavilion also includes the American Heritage Gallery, where the "Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief's Tribute to America's Warriors" exhibit will be hosted starting June 9, 2024. On the shores of the lagoon is the America Gardens Theatre, an outdoor amphitheater that hosts the park's festival concerts. The France Pavilion hosts Impressions de France in Palais du Cinéma, an 18-minute Cinerama-style film depicting the culture of France, and along with Beauty and the Beast: Sing-Along. Tucked behind the lagoon-facing portion of the pavilion is Remy's Ratatouille Adventure, a 3D dark ride inspired by Pixar’s Ratatouille. The Canada and China Pavilions each host Circle-Vision 360° films—Canada Far and Wide and Reflections of China—that depict the diverse cultures and countrysides of their respective countries. Two dark boat rides reside within the Norway and Mexico Pavilions—Frozen Ever After and Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros, respectively—inspired by Frozen and The Three Caballeros. A secondary park gate is located between the France and United Kingdom pavilions of World Showcase and is known as the International Gateway. The International Gateway is directly accessible to guests arriving from the Disney Skyliner and from watercraft transport, and by walkways from the nearby Epcot Area Resorts and Disney's Hollywood Studios. Of the 11 pavilions, only Morocco and Norway were not present at the park's opening, as they were added in 1984 and 1988 respectively. Each pavilion contains themed architecture, landscapes, streetscapes, attractions, shops and restaurants representing the respective country's culture and cuisine. In an effort to maintain the authenticity of the represented countries, the pavilions are primarily staffed by citizens of the respective countries as part of the Cultural Representative Program through Q1 visa agreements. Some pavilions also contain themed rides, shows, and live entertainment representative of the respective country. The Morocco pavilion was directly sponsored by the Moroccan government until 2020, when Disney took ownership of the pavilion. The remaining pavilions are primarily sponsored by private companies with affiliations to the represented countries. Originally, the showcase was to include partnerships with the governments of the different countries. According to Disney's 1975 Annual Report, the Showcase would: ...offer participating countries a permanent installation for such features as themed restaurants and shops, product exhibits, industrial displays, cultural presentations, a trade center, and even special facilities for business meetings. Major sponsorships for each participating nation will be asked to provide the capital to cover the cost of designing, developing and constructing its attraction and/or ride and all exhibits, as well as the Pavilion itself. It will also have the responsibility for funding the housing for its employees in the International Village. Its land lease will cover the cost of maintaining the attraction for a minimum of ten years. The Disney organization will be responsible for area development, including the construction of transportation systems and utilities. We will also build and operate the internal people moving system, the Courtyard of Nations and central theater facility. Proposed pavilions and unused locations There are currently seven undeveloped spots for countries around the World Showcase in between the locations of the current countries. Two sites are located on either side of the United Kingdom, one between France and Morocco, one between Morocco and Japan, one between Italy and Germany, and two between Germany and China. In 1982, Disney announced three pavilions were "coming soon": Israel, Spain and Equatorial Africa, blending elements of the cultures of countries such as Kenya and Zaire. A model of the Equatorial Africa pavilions was also shown on the opening day telecast. However, the pavilions were never built. Instead, a small African themed refreshment shop known as the "Outpost" currently resides in the area between China and Germany, where the Equatorial Africa pavilion was to be located. More than 50 nations, among them, Brazil, Chile, India, Indonesia, Israel, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Sweden and five African countries (Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Namibia, and South Africa), took part in the Millennium Village, a project that took place in Epcot during Millennium Celebration from 1999 to 2001. The Millennium Village was located inside a temporary structure built behind the United Kingdom pavilions that remains in use as World ShowPlace. Alcohol policy Unlike Magic Kingdom, which up until 2012 did not serve alcohol, most stores and restaurants at Epcot, especially in the World Showcase, serve and sell a variety of alcoholic beverages including specialty drinks, craft beers, wines, and spirits reflective of the respective countries. The park also hosts the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival, an annual event featuring food and drink samplings from all over the world, along with live entertainment and special exhibits. Annual events Epcot hosts a number of special events during the year: The Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival, inaugurated in 1994, uses specially-themed floral displays throughout the park, including topiary sculptures of Disney characters. Each event takes more than a full year to plan and more than 20,000 cast member hours. The Epcot International Food & Wine Festival, inaugurated in 1995, draws amateur and professional gourmets to sample delicacies from all around the world, including nations that do not have a permanent presence in World Showcase. Celebrity chefs are often on-hand to host the events. In 2008, the festival featured the Bocuse d'Or USA, the American semifinal of the biennial Bocuse d'Or cooking competition. The Epcot International Festival of the Arts, inaugurated in 2017, is a festival showcasing visual, culinary, and performing arts. The first annual event took place on weekends from January 13 through February 20, 2017. The Epcot International Festival of the Holidays (previously known as Epcot Holidays Around the World (1996–2016), inaugurated in 2017, is Epcot's annual holiday celebration. The World Showcase pavilions feature storytellers describing their nation's holiday traditions, and three nightly performances of the "Candlelight Processional" featuring an auditioned mass choir and a celebrity guest narrating the story of Christmas. Kiosks throughout the World Showcase feature holiday dishes. Disney's Candlelight Processional, performed at the America Gardens Theatre at the American Pavilion every year since 1994. On New Year's Eve, the park offers a variety of additional entertainment including live DJ dance areas throughout the park. Attendance The Walt Disney Company generally does not publish attendance figures for its theme parks, so industry groups such as the Themed Entertainment Association estimate these figures. See also List of Epcot attractions Epcot Resort Area WestCOT References Further reading Alcorn, Steve and David Green. Building a Better Mouse: The Story of the Electronic Imagineers Who Designed Epcot. Themeperks Press, 2007, ISBN 0-9729777-3-2. Mannheim, Steve (2002). Walt Disney and the Quest for Community. Routledge. ISBN 0754619745. External links Official website

As defined by the German Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development, a Großstadt (large city) is a city with more than 100,000 inhabitants. As of today, 80 cities in Germany fulfill this criterion and are listed here. This list refers only to the population of individual municipalities within their defined limits, which does not include other municipalities or suburban areas within urban agglomerations or metropolitan areas. List The following table lists the 80 cities in Germany with a population of at least 100,000 each on 31 December 2021, as estimated by the Federal Statistical Office of Germany. A city is displayed in bold if it is a state or federal capital, and in italics if it is the most populous city in the state. The table below contains the following information: The city rank by population as of 31 December 2021, as estimated by the Federal Statistical Office of Germany The city name The name of the state in which the city lies The city population as of 31 December 2021, as estimated by the Federal Statistical Office of Germany The city population as of 31 December 2015, as estimated by the Federal Statistical Office of Germany The city percentage population change from 31 December 2015 to 31 December 2021 The change in city rank by population from 31 December 2015 to 31 December 2021 The city land area as of 31 December 2021 The city population density as of 31 December 2021 (residents per unit of land area) The city latitude and longitude coordinates. Schwerin is the only state capital not listed. Gallery See also List of cities and towns in Germany List of towns and cities in Germany by historical population List of municipalities in Germany Metropolitan regions in Germany == References ==

Gold is a chemical element; it has symbol Au (from Latin aurum) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal, a group 11 element, and one of the noble metals. It is one of the least reactive chemical elements, being the second-lowest in the reactivity series. It is solid under standard conditions. Gold often occurs in free elemental (native state), as nuggets or grains, in rocks, veins, and alluvial deposits. It occurs in a solid solution series with the native element silver (as in electrum), naturally alloyed with other metals like copper and palladium, and mineral inclusions such as within pyrite. Less commonly, it occurs in minerals as gold compounds, often with tellurium (gold tellurides). Gold is resistant to most acids, though it does dissolve in aqua regia (a mixture of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid), forming a soluble tetrachloroaurate anion. Gold is insoluble in nitric acid alone, which dissolves silver and base metals, a property long used to refine gold and confirm the presence of gold in metallic substances, giving rise to the term 'acid test'. Gold dissolves in alkaline solutions of cyanide, which are used in mining and electroplating. Gold also dissolves in mercury, forming amalgam alloys, and as the gold acts simply as a solute, this is not a chemical reaction. A relatively rare element, gold is a precious metal that has been used for coinage, jewelry, and other works of art throughout recorded history. In the past, a gold standard was often implemented as a monetary policy. Gold coins ceased to be minted as a circulating currency in the 1930s, and the world gold standard was abandoned for a fiat currency system after the Nixon shock measures of 1971. In 2020, the world's largest gold producer was China, followed by Russia and Australia. As of 2020, a total of around 201,296 tonnes of gold exist above ground. This is equal to a cube, with each side measuring roughly 21.7 meters (71 ft). The world's consumption of new gold produced is about 50% in jewelry, 40% in investments, and 10% in industry. Gold's high malleability, ductility, resistance to corrosion and most other chemical reactions, as well as conductivity of electricity have led to its continued use in corrosion-resistant electrical connectors in all types of computerized devices (its chief industrial use). Gold is also used in infrared shielding, the production of colored glass, gold leafing, and tooth restoration. Certain gold salts are still used as anti-inflammatory agents in medicine. Characteristics Gold is the most malleable of all metals. It can be drawn into a wire of single-atom width, and then stretched considerably before it breaks. Such nanowires distort via the formation, reorientation, and migration of dislocations and crystal twins without noticeable hardening. A single gram of gold can be beaten into a sheet of 1 square metre (11 sq ft), and an avoirdupois ounce into 28 square metres (300 sq ft). Gold leaf can be beaten thin enough to become semi-transparent. The transmitted light appears greenish-blue because gold strongly reflects yellow and red. Such semi-transparent sheets also strongly reflect infrared light, making them useful as infrared (radiant heat) shields in the visors of heat-resistant suits and in sun visors for spacesuits. Gold is a good conductor of heat and electricity. Gold has a density of 19.3 g/cm3, almost identical to that of tungsten at 19.25 g/cm3; as such, tungsten has been used in the counterfeiting of gold bars, such as by plating a tungsten bar with gold. By comparison, the density of lead is 11.34 g/cm3, and that of the densest element, osmium, is 22.588±0.015 g/cm3. Color Whereas most metals are gray or silvery white, gold is slightly reddish-yellow. This color is determined by the frequency of plasma oscillations among the metal's valence electrons, in the ultraviolet range for most metals but in the visible range for gold due to relativistic effects affecting the orbitals around gold atoms. Similar effects impart a golden hue to metallic caesium. Common colored gold alloys include the distinctive eighteen-karat rose gold created by the addition of copper. Alloys containing palladium or nickel are also important in commercial jewelry as these produce white gold alloys. Fourteen-karat gold-copper alloy is nearly identical in color to certain bronze alloys, and both may be used to produce police and other badges. Fourteen- and eighteen-karat gold alloys with silver alone appear greenish-yellow and are referred to as green gold. Blue gold can be made by alloying with iron, and purple gold can be made by alloying with aluminium. Less commonly, addition of manganese, indium, and other elements can produce more unusual colors of gold for various applications. Colloidal gold, used by electron-microscopists, is red if the particles are small; larger particles of colloidal gold are blue. Isotopes Gold has only one stable isotope, 197Au, which is also its only naturally occurring isotope, so gold is both a mononuclidic and monoisotopic element. Thirty-six radioisotopes have been synthesized, ranging in atomic mass from 169 to 205. The most stable of these is 195Au with a half-life of 186.1 days. The least stable is 171Au, which decays by proton emission with a half-life of 30 μs. Most of gold's radioisotopes with atomic masses below 197 decay by some combination of proton emission, α decay, and β+ decay. The exceptions are 195Au, which decays by electron capture, and 196Au, which decays most often by electron capture (93%) with a minor β− decay path (7%). All of gold's radioisotopes with atomic masses above 197 decay by β− decay. At least 32 nuclear isomers have also been characterized, ranging in atomic mass from 170 to 200. Within that range, only 178Au, 180Au, 181Au, 182Au, and 188Au do not have isomers. Gold's most stable isomer is 198m2Au with a half-life of 2.27 days. Gold's least stable isomer is 177m2Au with a half-life of only 7 ns. 184m1Au has three decay paths: β+ decay, isomeric transition, and alpha decay. No other isomer or isotope of gold has three decay paths. Synthesis The possible production of gold from a more common element, such as lead, has long been a subject of human inquiry, and the ancient and medieval discipline of alchemy often focused on it; however, the transmutation of the chemical elements did not become possible until the understanding of nuclear physics in the 20th century. The first synthesis of gold was conducted by Japanese physicist Hantaro Nagaoka, who synthesized gold from mercury in 1924 by neutron bombardment. An American team, working without knowledge of Nagaoka's prior study, conducted the same experiment in 1941, achieving the same result and showing that the isotopes of gold produced by it were all radioactive. In 1980, Glenn Seaborg transmuted several thousand atoms of bismuth into gold at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. Gold can be manufactured in a nuclear reactor, but doing so is highly impractical and would cost far more than the value of the gold that is produced. Chemistry Although gold is the most noble of the noble metals, it still forms many diverse compounds. The oxidation state of gold in its compounds ranges from −1 to +5, but Au(I) and Au(III) dominate its chemistry. Au(I), referred to as the aurous ion, is the most common oxidation state with soft ligands such as thioethers, thiolates, and organophosphines. Au(I) compounds are typically linear. A good example is Au(CN)−2, which is the soluble form of gold encountered in mining. The binary gold halides, such as AuCl, form zigzag polymeric chains, again featuring linear coordination at Au. Most drugs based on gold are Au(I) derivatives. Au(III) (referred to as auric) is a common oxidation state, and is illustrated by gold(III) chloride, Au2Cl6. The gold atom centers in Au(III) complexes, like other d8 compounds, are typically square planar, with chemical bonds that have both covalent and ionic character. Gold(I,III) chloride is also known, an example of a mixed-valence complex. Gold does not react with oxygen at any temperature and, up to 100 °C, is resistant to attack from ozone: Au + O 2 ⟶ ( no reaction ) {\displaystyle {\ce {Au + O2 ->}}({\text{no reaction}})} Au + O 3 → t < 100 ∘ C ( no reaction ) {\displaystyle {\ce {Au{}+O3->[{} \atop {t<100^{\circ }{\text{C}}}]}}({\text{no reaction}})} Some free halogens react to form the corresponding gold halides. Gold is strongly attacked by fluorine at dull-red heat to form gold(III) fluoride AuF3. Powdered gold reacts with chlorine at 180 °C to form gold(III) chloride AuCl3. Gold reacts with bromine at 140 °C to form a combination of gold(III) bromide AuBr3 and gold(I) bromide AuBr, but reacts very slowly with iodine to form gold(I) iodide AuI: 2 Au + 3 F 2 → Δ 2 AuF 3 {\displaystyle {\ce {2Au{}+3F2->[{} \atop \Delta ]2AuF3}}} 2 Au + 3 Cl 2 → Δ 2 AuCl 3 {\displaystyle {\ce {2Au{}+3Cl2->[{} \atop \Delta ]2AuCl3}}} 2 Au + 2 Br 2 → Δ AuBr 3 + AuBr {\displaystyle {\ce {2Au{}+2Br2->[{} \atop \Delta ]AuBr3{}+AuBr}}} 2 Au + I 2 → Δ 2 AuI {\displaystyle {\ce {2Au{}+I2->[{} \atop \Delta ]2AuI}}} Gold does not react with sulfur directly, but gold(III) sulfide can be made by passing hydrogen sulfide through a dilute solution of gold(III) chloride or chlorauric acid. Unlike sulfur, phosphorus reacts directly with gold at elevated temperatures to produce gold phosphide (Au2P3). Gold readily dissolves in mercury at room temperature to form an amalgam, and forms alloys with many other metals at higher temperatures. These alloys can be produced to modify the hardness and other metallurgical properties, to control melting point or to create exotic colors. Gold is unaffected by most acids. It does not react with hydrofluoric, hydrochloric, hydrobromic, hydriodic, sulfuric, or nitric acid. It does react with selenic acid, and is dissolved by aqua regia, a 1:3 mixture of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid. Nitric acid oxidizes the metal to +3 ions, but only in minute amounts, typically undetectable in the pure acid because of the chemical equilibrium of the reaction. However, the ions are removed from the equilibrium by hydrochloric acid, forming AuCl−4 ions, or chloroauric acid, thereby enabling further oxidation: 2 Au + 6 H 2 SeO 4 → 200 ∘ C Au 2 ( SeO 4 ) 3 + 3 H 2 SeO 3 + 3 H 2 O {\displaystyle {\ce {2Au{}+6H2SeO4->[{} \atop {200^{\circ }{\text{C}}}]Au2(SeO4)3{}+3H2SeO3{}+3H2O}}} Au + 4 HCl + HNO 3 ⟶ HAuCl 4 + NO ↑ + 2 H 2 O {\displaystyle {\ce {Au{}+4HCl{}+HNO3->HAuCl4{}+NO\uparrow +2H2O}}} Gold is similarly unaffected by most bases. It does not react with aqueous, solid, or molten sodium or potassium hydroxide. It does however, react with sodium or potassium cyanide under alkaline conditions when oxygen is present to form soluble complexes. Common oxidation states of gold include +1 (gold(I) or aurous compounds) and +3 (gold(III) or auric compounds). Gold ions in solution are readily reduced and precipitated as metal by adding any other metal as the reducing agent. The added metal is oxidized and dissolves, allowing the gold to be displaced from solution and be recovered as a solid precipitate. Rare oxidation states Less common oxidation states of gold include −1, +2, and +5. The −1 oxidation state occurs in aurides, compounds containing the Au− anion. Caesium auride (CsAu), for example, crystallizes in the caesium chloride motif; rubidium, potassium, and tetramethylammonium aurides are also known. Gold has the highest electron affinity of any metal, at 222.8 kJ/mol, making Au− a stable species, analogous to the halides. Gold also has a –1 oxidation state in covalent complexes with the group 4 transition metals, such as in titanium tetraauride and the analogous zirconium and hafnium compounds. These chemicals are expected to form gold-bridged dimers in a manner similar to titanium(IV) hydride. Gold(II) compounds are usually diamagnetic with Au–Au bonds such as [Au(CH2)2P(C6H5)2]2Cl2. The evaporation of a solution of Au(OH)3 in concentrated H2SO4 produces red crystals of gold(II) sulfate, Au2(SO4)2. Originally thought to be a mixed-valence compound, it has been shown to contain Au4+2 cations, analogous to the better-known mercury(I) ion, Hg2+2. A gold(II) complex, the tetraxenonogold(II) cation, which contains xenon as a ligand, occurs in [AuXe4](Sb2F11)2. In September 2023, a novel type of metal-halide perovskite material consisting of Au3+ and Au2+ cations in its crystal structure has been found. It has been shown to be unexpectedly stable at normal conditions. Gold pentafluoride, along with its derivative anion, AuF−6, and its difluorine complex, gold heptafluoride, is the sole example of gold(V), the highest verified oxidation state. Some gold compounds exhibit aurophilic bonding, which describes the tendency of gold ions to interact at distances that are too long to be a conventional Au–Au bond but shorter than van der Waals bonding. The interaction is estimated to be comparable in strength to that of a hydrogen bond. Well-defined cluster compounds are numerous. In some cases, gold has a fractional oxidation state. A representative example is the octahedral species {Au(P(C6H5)3)}2+6. Origin Gold production in the universe Gold is thought to have been produced in supernova nucleosynthesis, and from the collision of neutron stars, and to have been present in the dust from which the Solar System formed. Traditionally, gold in the universe is thought to have formed by the r-process (rapid neutron capture) in supernova nucleosynthesis, but more recently it has been suggested that gold and other elements heavier than iron may also be produced in quantity by the r-process in the collision of neutron stars. In both cases, satellite spectrometers at first only indirectly detected the resulting gold. However, in August 2017, the spectroscopic signatures of heavy elements, including gold, were observed by electromagnetic observatories in the GW170817 neutron star merger event, after gravitational wave detectors confirmed the event as a neutron star merger. Current astrophysical models suggest that this single neutron star merger event generated between 3 and 13 Earth masses of gold. This amount, along with estimations of the rate of occurrence of these neutron star merger events, suggests that such mergers may produce enough gold to account for most of the abundance of this element in the universe. Asteroid origin theories Because the Earth was molten when it was formed, almost all of the gold present in the early Earth probably sank into the planetary core. Therefore, as hypothesized in one model, most of the gold in the Earth's crust and mantle is thought to have been delivered to Earth by asteroid impacts during the Late Heavy Bombardment, about 4 billion years ago. Gold which is reachable by humans has, in one case, been associated with a particular asteroid impact. The asteroid that formed Vredefort impact structure 2.020 billion years ago is often credited with seeding the Witwatersrand basin in South Africa with the richest gold deposits on earth. However, this scenario is now questioned. The gold-bearing Witwatersrand rocks were laid down between 700 and 950 million years before the Vredefort impact. These gold-bearing rocks had furthermore been covered by a thick layer of Ventersdorp lavas and the Transvaal Supergroup of rocks before the meteor struck, and thus the gold did not actually arrive in the asteroid/meteorite. What the Vredefort impact achieved, however, was to distort the Witwatersrand basin in such a way that the gold-bearing rocks were brought to the present erosion surface in Johannesburg, on the Witwatersrand, just inside the rim of the original 300 km (190 mi) diameter crater caused by the meteor strike. The discovery of the deposit in 1886 launched the Witwatersrand Gold Rush. Some 22% of all the gold that is ascertained to exist today on Earth has been extracted from these Witwatersrand rocks. Mantle return theories Much of the rest of the gold on Earth is thought to have been incorporated into the planet since its very beginning, as planetesimals formed the mantle. In 2017, an international group of scientists established that gold "came to the Earth's surface from the deepest regions of our planet", the mantle, as evidenced by their findings at Deseado Massif in the Argentinian Patagonia. Occurrence On Earth, gold is found in ores in rock formed from the Precambrian time onward. It most often occurs as a native metal, typically in a metal solid solution with silver (i.e. as a gold/silver alloy). Such alloys usually have a silver content of 8–10%. Electrum is elemental gold with more than 20% silver, and is commonly known as white gold. Electrum's color runs from golden-silvery to silvery, dependent upon the silver content. The more silver, the lower the specific gravity. Native gold occurs as very small to microscopic particles embedded in rock, often together with quartz or sulfide minerals such as "fool's gold", which is a pyrite. These are called lode deposits. The metal in a native state is also found in the form of free flakes, grains or larger nuggets that have been eroded from rocks and end up in alluvial deposits called placer deposits. Such free gold is always richer at the exposed surface of gold-bearing veins, owing to the oxidation of accompanying minerals followed by weathering; and by washing of the dust into streams and rivers, where it collects and can be welded by water action to form nuggets. Gold sometimes occurs combined with tellurium as the minerals calaverite, krennerite, nagyagite, petzite and sylvanite (see telluride minerals), and as the rare bismuthide maldonite (Au2Bi) and antimonide aurostibite (AuSb2). Gold also occurs in rare alloys with copper, lead, and mercury: the minerals auricupride (Cu3Au), novodneprite (AuPb3) and weishanite ((Au,Ag)3Hg2). A 2004 research paper suggests that microbes can sometimes play an important role in forming gold deposits, transporting and precipitating gold to form grains and nuggets that collect in alluvial deposits. A 2013 study has claimed water in faults vaporizes during an earthquake, depositing gold. When an earthquake strikes, it moves along a fault. Water often lubricates faults, filling in fractures and jogs. About 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) below the surface, under very high temperatures and pressures, the water carries high concentrations of carbon dioxide, silica, and gold. During an earthquake, the fault jog suddenly opens wider. The water inside the void instantly vaporizes, flashing to steam and forcing silica, which forms the mineral quartz, and gold out of the fluids and onto nearby surfaces. Seawater The world's oceans contain gold. Measured concentrations of gold in the Atlantic and Northeast Pacific are 50–150 femtomol/L or 10–30 parts per quadrillion (about 10–30 g/km3). In general, gold concentrations for south Atlantic and central Pacific samples are the same (~50 femtomol/L) but less certain. Mediterranean deep waters contain slightly higher concentrations of gold (100–150 femtomol/L), which is attributed to wind-blown dust or rivers. At 10 parts per quadrillion, the Earth's oceans would hold 15,000 tonnes of gold. These figures are three orders of magnitude less than reported in the literature prior to 1988, indicating contamination problems with the earlier data. A number of people have claimed to be able to economically recover gold from sea water, but they were either mistaken or acted in an intentional deception. Prescott Jernegan ran a gold-from-seawater swindle in the United States in the 1890s, as did an English fraudster in the early 1900s. Fritz Haber did research on the extraction of gold from sea water in an effort to help pay Germany's reparations following World War I. Based on the published values of 2 to 64 ppb of gold in seawater, a commercially successful extraction seemed possible. After analysis of 4,000 water samples yielding an average of 0.004 ppb, it became clear that extraction would not be possible, and he ended the project. History The earliest recorded metal employed by humans appears to be gold, which can be found free or "native". Small amounts of natural gold have been found in Spanish caves used during the late Paleolithic period, c. 40,000 BC. The oldest gold artifacts in the world are from Bulgaria and are dating back to the 5th millennium BC (4,600 BC to 4,200 BC), such as those found in the Varna Necropolis near Lake Varna and the Black Sea coast, thought to be the earliest "well-dated" finding of gold artifacts in history. Several prehistoric Bulgarian finds are considered no less old – the golden treasures of Hotnitsa, Durankulak, artifacts from the Kurgan settlement of Yunatsite near Pazardzhik, the golden treasure Sakar, as well as beads and gold jewelry found in the Kurgan settlement of Provadia – Solnitsata ("salt pit"). However, Varna gold is most often called the oldest since this treasure is the largest and most diverse. Gold artifacts probably made their first appearance in Ancient Egypt at the very beginning of the pre-dynastic period, at the end of the fifth millennium BC and the start of the fourth, and smelting was developed during the course of the 4th millennium; gold artifacts appear in the archeology of Lower Mesopotamia during the early 4th millennium. As of 1990, gold artifacts found at the Wadi Qana cave cemetery of the 4th millennium BC in West Bank were the earliest from the Levant. Gold artifacts such as the golden hats and the Nebra disk appeared in Central Europe from the 2nd millennium BC Bronze Age. The oldest known map of a gold mine was drawn in the 19th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt (1320–1200 BC), whereas the first written reference to gold was recorded in the 12th Dynasty around 1900 BC. Egyptian hieroglyphs from as early as 2600 BC describe gold, which King Tushratta of the Mitanni claimed was "more plentiful than dirt" in Egypt. Egypt and especially Nubia had the resources to make them major gold-producing areas for much of history. One of the earliest known maps, known as the Turin Papyrus Map, shows the plan of a gold mine in Nubia together with indications of the local geology. The primitive working methods are described by both Strabo and Diodorus Siculus, and included fire-setting. Large mines were also present across the Red Sea in what is now Saudi Arabia. Gold is mentioned in the Amarna letters numbered 19 and 26 from around the 14th century BC. Gold is mentioned frequently in the Old Testament, starting with Genesis 2:11 (at Havilah), the story of the golden calf, and many parts of the temple including the Menorah and the golden altar. In the New Testament, it is included with the gifts of the magi in the first chapters of Matthew. The Book of Revelation 21:21 describes the city of New Jerusalem as having streets "made of pure gold, clear as crystal". Exploitation of gold in the south-east corner of the Black Sea is said to date from the time of Midas, and this gold was important in the establishment of what is probably the world's earliest coinage in Lydia around 610 BC. The legend of the golden fleece dating from eighth century BCE may refer to the use of fleeces to trap gold dust from placer deposits in the ancient world. From the 6th or 5th century BC, the Chu (state) circulated the Ying Yuan, one kind of square gold coin. In Roman metallurgy, new methods for extracting gold on a large scale were developed by introducing hydraulic mining methods, especially in Hispania from 25 BC onwards and in Dacia from 106 AD onwards. One of their largest mines was at Las Medulas in León, where seven long aqueducts enabled them to sluice most of a large alluvial deposit. The mines at Roşia Montană in Transylvania were also very large, and until very recently, still mined by opencast methods. They also exploited smaller deposits in Britain, such as placer and hard-rock deposits at Dolaucothi. The various methods they used are well described by Pliny the Elder in his encyclopedia Naturalis Historia written towards the end of the first century AD. During Mansa Musa's (ruler of the Mali Empire from 1312 to 1337) hajj to Mecca in 1324, he passed through Cairo in July 1324, and was reportedly accompanied by a camel train that included thousands of people and nearly a hundred camels where he gave away so much gold that it depressed the price in Egypt for over a decade, causing high inflation. A contemporary Arab historian remarked: Gold was at a high price in Egypt until they came in that year. The mithqal did not go below 25 dirhams and was generally above, but from that time its value fell and it cheapened in price and has remained cheap till now. The mithqal does not exceed 22 dirhams or less. This has been the state of affairs for about twelve years until this day by reason of the large amount of gold which they brought into Egypt and spent there [...]. The European exploration of the Americas was fueled in no small part by reports of the gold ornaments displayed in great profusion by Native American peoples, especially in Mesoamerica, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. The Aztecs regarded gold as the product of the gods, calling it literally "god excrement" (teocuitlatl in Nahuatl), and after Moctezuma II was killed, most of this gold was shipped to Spain. However, for the indigenous peoples of North America gold was considered useless and they saw much greater value in other minerals which were directly related to their utility, such as obsidian, flint, and slate. El Dorado is applied to a legendary story in which precious stones were found in fabulous abundance along with gold coins. The concept of El Dorado underwent several transformations, and eventually accounts of the previous myth were also combined with those of a legendary lost city. El Dorado, was the term used by the Spanish Empire to describe a mythical tribal chief (zipa) of the Muisca native people in Colombia, who, as an initiation rite, covered himself with gold dust and submerged in Lake Guatavita. The legends surrounding El Dorado changed over time, as it went from being a man, to a city, to a kingdom, and then finally to an empire. Beginning in the early modern period, European exploration and colonization of West Africa was driven in large part by reports of gold deposits in the region, which was eventually referred to by Europeans as the "Gold Coast". From the late 15th to early 19th centuries, European trade in the region was primarily focused in gold, along with ivory and slaves. The gold trade in West Africa was dominated by the Ashanti Empire, who initially traded with the Portuguese before branching out and trading with British, French, Spanish and Danish merchants. British desires to secure control of West African gold deposits played a role in the Anglo-Ashanti wars of the late 19th century, which saw the Ashanti Empire annexed by Britain. Gold played a role in western culture, as a cause for desire and of corruption, as told in children's fables such as Rumpelstiltskin—where Rumpelstiltskin turns hay into gold for the peasant's daughter in return for her child when she becomes a princess—and the stealing of the hen that lays golden eggs in Jack and the Beanstalk. The top prize at the Olympic Games and many other sports competitions is the gold medal. 75% of the presently accounted for gold has been extracted since 1910, two-thirds since 1950. One main goal of the alchemists was to produce gold from other substances, such as lead — presumably by the interaction with a mythical substance called the philosopher's stone. Trying to produce gold led the alchemists to systematically find out what can be done with substances, and this laid the foundation for today's chemistry, which can produce gold (albeit uneconomically) by using nuclear transmutation. Their symbol for gold was the circle with a point at its center (☉), which was also the astrological symbol and the ancient Chinese character for the Sun. The Dome of the Rock is covered with an ultra-thin golden glassier. The Sikh Golden temple, the Harmandir Sahib, is a building covered with gold. Similarly the Wat Phra Kaew emerald Buddhist temple (wat) in Thailand has ornamental gold-leafed statues and roofs. Some European king and queen's crowns were made of gold, and gold was used for the bridal crown since antiquity. An ancient Talmudic text circa 100 AD describes Rachel, wife of Rabbi Akiva, receiving a "Jerusalem of Gold" (diadem). A Greek burial crown made of gold was found in a grave circa 370 BC. Etymology Gold is cognate with similar words in many Germanic languages, deriving via Proto-Germanic *gulþą from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃- 'to shine, to gleam; to be yellow or green'. The symbol Au is from the Latin aurum 'gold'. The Proto-Indo-European ancestor of aurum was *h₂é-h₂us-o-, meaning 'glow'. This word is derived from the same root (Proto-Indo-European *h₂u̯es- 'to dawn') as *h₂éu̯sōs, the ancestor of the Latin word aurora 'dawn'. This etymological relationship is presumably behind the frequent claim in scientific publications that aurum meant 'shining dawn'. Culture In popular culture gold is a high standard of excellence, often used in awards. Great achievements are frequently rewarded with gold, in the form of gold medals, gold trophies and other decorations. Winners of athletic events and other graded competitions are usually awarded a gold medal. Many awards such as the Nobel Prize are made from gold as well. Other award statues and prizes are depicted in gold or are gold plated (such as the Academy Awards, the Golden Globe Awards, the Emmy Awards, the Palme d'Or, and the British Academy Film Awards). Aristotle in his ethics used gold symbolism when referring to what is now known as the golden mean. Similarly, gold is associated with perfect or divine principles, such as in the case of the golden ratio and the Golden Rule. Gold is further associated with the wisdom of aging and fruition. The fiftieth wedding anniversary is golden. A person's most valued or most successful latter years are sometimes considered "golden years" or "golden jubilee". The height of a civilization is referred to as a golden age. Religion The first known prehistoric human usages of gold were religious in nature. In some forms of Christianity and Judaism, gold has been associated both with the sacred and evil. In the Book of Exodus, the Golden Calf is a symbol of idolatry, while in the Book of Genesis, Abraham was said to be rich in gold and silver, and Moses was instructed to cover the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant with pure gold. In Byzantine iconography the halos of Christ, Virgin Mary and the saints are often golden. In Islam, gold (along with silk) is often cited as being forbidden for men to wear. Abu Bakr al-Jazaeri, quoting a hadith, said that "[t]he wearing of silk and gold are forbidden on the males of my nation, and they are lawful to their women". This, however, has not been enforced consistently throughout history, e.g. in the Ottoman Empire. Further, small gold accents on clothing, such as in embroidery, may be permitted. In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Theia was seen as the goddess of gold, silver and other gemstones. According to Christopher Columbus, those who had something of gold were in possession of something of great value on Earth and a substance to even help souls to paradise. Wedding rings are typically made of gold. It is long lasting and unaffected by the passage of time and may aid in the ring symbolism of eternal vows before God and the perfection the marriage signifies. In Orthodox Christian wedding ceremonies, the wedded couple is adorned with a golden crown (though some opt for wreaths, instead) during the ceremony, an amalgamation of symbolic rites. On 24 August 2020, Israeli archaeologists discovered a trove of early Islamic gold coins near the central city of Yavne. Analysis of the extremely rare collection of 425 gold coins indicated that they were from the late 9th century. Dating to around 1,100 years back, the gold coins were from the Abbasid Caliphate. Production According to the United States Geological Survey in 2016, about 5,726,000,000 troy ounces (178,100 t) of gold has been accounted for, of which 85% remains in active use. Mining and prospecting Since the 1880s, South Africa has been the source of a large proportion of the world's gold supply, and about 22% of the gold presently accounted is from South Africa. Production in 1970 accounted for 79% of the world supply, about 1,480 tonnes. In 2007 China (with 276 tonnes) overtook South Africa as the world's largest gold producer, the first time since 1905 that South Africa had not been the largest. In 2020, China was the world's leading gold-mining country, followed in order by Russia, Australia, the United States, Canada, and Ghana. In South America, the controversial project Pascua Lama aims at exploitation of rich fields in the high mountains of Atacama Desert, at the border between Chile and Argentina. It has been estimated that up to one-quarter of the yearly global gold production originates from artisanal or small scale mining. The city of Johannesburg located in South Africa was founded as a result of the Witwatersrand Gold Rush which resulted in the discovery of some of the largest natural gold deposits in recorded history. The gold fields are confined to the northern and north-western edges of the Witwatersrand basin, which is a 5–7 km (3.1–4.3 mi) thick layer of archean rocks located, in most places, deep under the Free State, Gauteng and surrounding provinces. These Witwatersrand rocks are exposed at the surface on the Witwatersrand, in and around Johannesburg, but also in isolated patches to the south-east and south-west of Johannesburg, as well as in an arc around the Vredefort Dome which lies close to the center of the Witwatersrand basin. From these surface exposures the basin dips extensively, requiring some of the mining to occur at depths of nearly 4,000 m (13,000 ft), making them, especially the Savuka and TauTona mines to the south-west of Johannesburg, the deepest mines on Earth. The gold is found only in six areas where archean rivers from the north and north-west formed extensive pebbly Braided river deltas before draining into the "Witwatersrand sea" where the rest of the Witwatersrand sediments were deposited. The Second Boer War of 1899–1901 between the British Empire and the Afrikaner Boers was at least partly over the rights of miners and possession of the gold wealth in South Africa. During the 19th century, gold rushes occurred whenever large gold deposits were discovered. The first documented discovery of gold in the United States was at the Reed Gold Mine near Georgeville, North Carolina in 1803. The first major gold strike in the United States occurred in a small north Georgia town called Dahlonega. Further gold rushes occurred in California, Colorado, the Black Hills, Otago in New Zealand, a number of locations across Australia, Witwatersrand in South Africa, and the Klondike in Canada. Grasberg mine located in Papua, Indonesia is the largest gold mine in the world. Extraction and refining Gold extraction is most economical in large, easily mined deposits. Ore grades as little as 0.5 parts per million (ppm) can be economical. Typical ore grades in open-pit mines are 1–5 ppm; ore grades in underground or hard rock mines are usually at least 3 ppm. Because ore grades of 30 ppm are usually needed before gold is visible to the naked eye, in most gold mines the gold is invisible. The average gold mining and extraction costs were about $317 per troy ounce in 2007, but these can vary widely depending on mining type and ore quality; global mine production amounted to 2,471.1 tonnes. After initial production, gold is often subsequently refined industrially by the Wohlwill process which is based on electrolysis or by the Miller process, that is chlorination in the melt. The Wohlwill process results in higher purity, but is more complex and is only applied in small-scale installations. Other methods of assaying and purifying smaller amounts of gold include parting and inquartation as well as cupellation, or refining methods based on the dissolution of gold in aqua regia. Recycling In 1997, recycled gold accounted for approximately 20% of the 2700 tons of gold supplied to the market. Jewelry companies such as Generation Collection and computer companies including Dell conduct recycling. As of 2020, the amount of carbon dioxide CO2 produced in mining a kilogram of gold is 16 tonnes, while recycling a kilogram of gold produces 53 kilograms of CO2 equivalent. Approximately 30 percent of the global gold supply is recycled and not mined as of 2020. Consumption The consumption of gold produced in the world is about 50% in jewelry, 40% in investments, and 10% in industry. According to the World Gold Council, China was the world's largest single consumer of gold in 2013, overtaking India. Pollution Gold production is associated with contribution to hazardous pollution. Low-grade gold ore may contain less than one ppm gold metal; such ore is ground and mixed with sodium cyanide to dissolve the gold. Cyanide is a highly poisonous chemical, which can kill living creatures when exposed in minute quantities. Many cyanide spills from gold mines have occurred in both developed and developing countries which killed aquatic life in long stretches of affected rivers. Environmentalists consider these events major environmental disasters. Up to thirty tons of used ore can be dumped as waste for producing one troy ounce of gold. Gold ore dumps are the source of many heavy elements such as cadmium, lead, zinc, copper, arsenic, selenium and mercury. When sulfide-bearing minerals in these ore dumps are exposed to air and water, the sulfide transforms into sulfuric acid which in turn dissolves these heavy metals facilitating their passage into surface water and ground water. This process is called acid mine drainage. These gold ore dumps contain long-term, highly hazardous waste. It was once common to use mercury to recover gold from ore, but today the use of mercury is largely limited to small-scale individual miners. Minute quantities of mercury compounds can reach water bodies, causing heavy metal contamination. Mercury can then enter into the human food chain in the form of methylmercury. Mercury poisoning in humans causes incurable brain function damage and severe retardation. Gold extraction is also a highly energy-intensive industry, extracting ore from deep mines and grinding the large quantity of ore for further chemical extraction requires nearly 25 kWh of electricity per gram of gold produced. Monetary use Gold has been widely used throughout the world as money, for efficient indirect exchange (versus barter), and to store wealth in hoards. For exchange purposes, mints produce standardized gold bullion coins, bars and other units of fixed weight and purity. The first known coins containing gold were struck in Lydia, Asia Minor, around 600 BC. The talent coin of gold in use during the periods of Grecian history both before and during the time of the life of Homer weighed between 8.42 and 8.75 grams. From an earlier preference in using silver, European economies re-established the minting of gold as coinage during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Bills (that mature into gold coin) and gold certificates (convertible into gold coin at the issuing bank) added to the circulating stock of gold standard money in most 19th century industrial economies. In preparation for World War I the warring nations moved to fractional gold standards, inflating their currencies to finance the war effort. Post-war, the victorious countries, most notably Britain, gradually restored gold-convertibility, but international flows of gold via bills of exchange remained embargoed; international shipments were made exclusively for bilateral trades or to pay war reparations. After World War II gold was replaced by a system of nominally convertible currencies related by fixed exchange rates following the Bretton Woods system. Gold standards and the direct convertibility of currencies to gold have been abandoned by world governments, led in 1971 by the United States' refusal to redeem its dollars in gold. Fiat currency now fills most monetary roles. Switzerland was the last country to tie its currency to gold; this was ended by a referendum in 1999. Central banks continue to keep a portion of their liquid reserves as gold in some form, and metals exchanges such as the London Bullion Market Association still clear transactions denominated in gold, including future delivery contracts. Today, gold mining output is declining. With the sharp growth of economies in the 20th century, and increasing foreign exchange, the world's gold reserves and their trading market have become a small fraction of all markets and fixed exchange rates of currencies to gold have been replaced by floating prices for gold and gold future contract. Though the gold stock grows by only 1% or 2% per year, very little metal is irretrievably consumed. Inventory above ground would satisfy many decades of industrial and even artisan uses at current prices. The gold proportion (fineness) of alloys is measured by karat (k). Pure gold (commercially termed fine gold) is designated as 24 karat, abbreviated 24k. English gold coins intended for circulation from 1526 into the 1930s were typically a standard 22k alloy called crown gold, for hardness (American gold coins for circulation after 1837 contain an alloy of 0.900 fine gold, or 21.6 kt). Although the prices of some platinum group metals can be much higher, gold has long been considered the most desirable of precious metals, and its value has been used as the standard for many currencies. Gold has been used as a symbol for purity, value, royalty, and particularly roles that combine these properties. Gold as a sign of wealth and prestige was ridiculed by Thomas More in his treatise Utopia. On that imaginary island, gold is so abundant that it is used to make chains for slaves, tableware, and lavatory seats. When ambassadors from other countries arrive, dressed in ostentatious gold jewels and badges, the Utopians mistake them for menial servants, paying homage instead to the most modestly dressed of their party. The ISO 4217 currency code of gold is XAU. Many holders of gold store it in form of bullion coins or bars as a hedge against inflation or other economic disruptions, though its efficacy as such has been questioned; historically, it has not proven itself reliable as a hedging instrument. Modern bullion coins for investment or collector purposes do not require good mechanical wear properties; they are typically fine gold at 24k, although the American Gold Eagle and the British gold sovereign continue to be minted in 22k (0.92) metal in historical tradition, and the South African Krugerrand, first released in 1967, is also 22k (0.92). The special issue Canadian Gold Maple Leaf coin contains the highest purity gold of any bullion coin, at 99.999% or 0.99999, while the popular issue Canadian Gold Maple Leaf coin has a purity of 99.99%. In 2006, the United States Mint began producing the American Buffalo gold bullion coin with a purity of 99.99%. The Australian Gold Kangaroos were first coined in 1986 as the Australian Gold Nugget but changed the reverse design in 1989. Other modern coins include the Austrian Vienna Philharmonic bullion coin and the Chinese Gold Panda. Price Like other precious metals, gold is measured by troy weight and by grams. The proportion of gold in the alloy is measured by karat (k), with 24 karat (24k) being pure gold (100%), and lower karat numbers proportionally less (18k = 75%). The purity of a gold bar or coin can also be expressed as a decimal figure ranging from 0 to 1, known as the millesimal fineness, such as 0.995 being nearly pure. The price of gold is determined through trading in the gold and derivatives markets, but a procedure known as the Gold Fixing in London, originating in September 1919, provides a daily benchmark price to the industry. The afternoon fixing was introduced in 1968 to provide a price when US markets are open. As of September 2017, gold was valued at around $42 per gram ($1,300 per troy ounce). History Historically gold coinage was widely used as currency; when paper money was introduced, it typically was a receipt redeemable for gold coin or bullion. In a monetary system known as the gold standard, a certain weight of gold was given the name of a unit of currency. For a long period, the United States government set the value of the US dollar so that one troy ounce was equal to $20.67 ($0.665 per gram), but in 1934 the dollar was devalued to $35.00 per troy ounce ($0.889/g). By 1961, it was becoming hard to maintain this price, and a pool of US and European banks agreed to manipulate the market to prevent further currency devaluation against increased gold demand. The largest gold depository in the world is that of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank in New York, which holds about 3% of the gold known to exist and accounted for today, as does the similarly laden U.S. Bullion Depository at Fort Knox. In 2005 the World Gold Council estimated total global gold supply to be 3,859 tonnes and demand to be 3,754 tonnes, giving a surplus of 105 tonnes. After 15 August 1971 Nixon shock, the price began to greatly increase, and between 1968 and 2000 the price of gold ranged widely, from a high of $850 per troy ounce ($27.33/g) on 21 January 1980, to a low of $252.90 per troy ounce ($8.13/g) on 21 June 1999 (London Gold Fixing). Prices increased rapidly from 2001, but the 1980 high was not exceeded until 3 January 2008, when a new maximum of $865.35 per troy ounce was set. Another record price was set on 17 March 2008, at $1023.50 per troy ounce ($32.91/g). On 2 December 2009, gold reached a new high closing at $1,217.23. Gold further rallied hitting new highs in May 2010 after the European Union debt crisis prompted further purchase of gold as a safe asset. On 1 March 2011, gold hit a new all-time high of $1432.57, based on investor concerns regarding ongoing unrest in North Africa as well as in the Middle East. From April 2001 to August 2011, spot gold prices more than quintupled in value against the US dollar, hitting a new all-time high of $1,913.50 on 23 August 2011, prompting speculation that the long secular bear market had ended and a bull market had returned. However, the price then began a slow decline towards $1200 per troy ounce in late 2014 and 2015. In August 2020, the gold price picked up to US$2060 per ounce after a total growth of 59% from August 2018 to October 2020, a period during which it outplaced the Nasdaq total return of 54%. Gold futures are traded on the COMEX exchange. These contacts are priced in USD per troy ounce (1 troy ounce = 31.1034768 grams). Below are the CQG contract specifications outlining the futures contracts: Other applications Jewelry Because of the softness of pure (24k) gold, it is usually alloyed with other metals for use in jewelry, altering its hardness and ductility, melting point, color and other properties. Alloys with lower karat rating, typically 22k, 18k, 14k or 10k, contain higher percentages of copper, silver, palladium or other base metals in the alloy. Nickel is toxic, and its release from nickel white gold is controlled by legislation in Europe. Palladium-gold alloys are more expensive than those using nickel. High-karat white gold alloys are more resistant to corrosion than are either pure silver or sterling silver. The Japanese craft of Mokume-gane exploits the color contrasts between laminated colored gold alloys to produce decorative wood-grain effects. By 2014, the gold jewelry industry was escalating despite a dip in gold prices. Demand in the first quarter of 2014 pushed turnover to $23.7 billion according to a World Gold Council report. Gold solder is used for joining the components of gold jewelry by high-temperature hard soldering or brazing. If the work is to be of hallmarking quality, the gold solder alloy must match the fineness of the work, and alloy formulas are manufactured to color-match yellow and white gold. Gold solder is usually made in at least three melting-point ranges referred to as Easy, Medium and Hard. By using the hard, high-melting point solder first, followed by solders with progressively lower melting points, goldsmiths can assemble complex items with several separate soldered joints. Gold can also be made into thread and used in embroidery. Electronics Only 10% of the world consumption of new gold produced goes to industry, but by far the most important industrial use for new gold is in fabrication of corrosion-free electrical connectors in computers and other electrical devices. For example, according to the World Gold Council, a typical cell phone may contain 50 mg of gold, worth about three dollars. But since nearly one billion cell phones are produced each year, a gold value of US$2.82 in each phone adds to US$2.82 billion in gold from just this application. (Prices updated to November 2022) Though gold is attacked by free chlorine, its good conductivity and general resistance to oxidation and corrosion in other environments (including resistance to non-chlorinated acids) has led to its widespread industrial use in the electronic era as a thin-layer coating on electrical connectors, thereby ensuring good connection. For example, gold is used in the connectors of the more expensive electronics cables, such as audio, video and USB cables. The benefit of using gold over other connector metals such as tin in these applications has been debated; gold connectors are often criticized by audio-visual experts as unnecessary for most consumers and seen as simply a marketing ploy. However, the use of gold in other applications in electronic sliding contacts in highly humid or corrosive atmospheres, and in use for contacts with a very high failure cost (certain computers, communications equipment, spacecraft, jet aircraft engines) remains very common. Besides sliding electrical contacts, gold is also used in electrical contacts because of its resistance to corrosion, electrical conductivity, ductility and lack of toxicity. Switch contacts are generally subjected to more intense corrosion stress than are sliding contacts. Fine gold wires are used to connect semiconductor devices to their packages through a process known as wire bonding. The concentration of free electrons in gold metal is 5.91×1022 cm−3. Gold is highly conductive to electricity and has been used for electrical wiring in some high-energy applications (only silver and copper are more conductive per volume, but gold has the advantage of corrosion resistance). For example, gold electrical wires were used during some of the Manhattan Project's atomic experiments, but large high-current silver wires were used in the calutron isotope separator magnets in the project. It is estimated that 16% of the world's presently-accounted-for gold and 22% of the world's silver is contained in electronic technology in Japan. Medicine Metallic and gold compounds have long been used for medicinal purposes. Gold, usually as the metal, is perhaps the most anciently administered medicine (apparently by shamanic practitioners) and known to Dioscorides. In medieval times, gold was often seen as beneficial for the health, in the belief that something so rare and beautiful could not be anything but healthy. Even some modern esotericists and forms of alternative medicine assign metallic gold a healing power. In the 19th century gold had a reputation as an anxiolytic, a therapy for nervous disorders. Depression, epilepsy, migraine, and glandular problems such as amenorrhea and impotence were treated, and most notably alcoholism (Keeley, 1897). The apparent paradox of the actual toxicology of the substance suggests the possibility of serious gaps in the understanding of the action of gold in physiology. Only salts and radioisotopes of gold are of pharmacological value, since elemental (metallic) gold is inert to all chemicals it encounters inside the body (e.g., ingested gold cannot be attacked by stomach acid). Some gold salts do have anti-inflammatory properties and at present two are still used as pharmaceuticals in the treatment of arthritis and other similar conditions in the US (sodium aurothiomalate and auranofin). These drugs have been explored as a means to help to reduce the pain and swelling of rheumatoid arthritis, and also (historically) against tuberculosis and some parasites. Gold alloys are used in restorative dentistry, especially in tooth restorations, such as crowns and permanent bridges. The gold alloys' slight malleability facilitates the creation of a superior molar mating surface with other teeth and produces results that are generally more satisfactory than those produced by the creation of porcelain crowns. The use of gold crowns in more prominent teeth such as incisors is favored in some cultures and discouraged in others. Colloidal gold preparations (suspensions of gold nanoparticles) in water are intensely red-colored, and can be made with tightly controlled particle sizes up to a few tens of nanometers across by reduction of gold chloride with citrate or ascorbate ions. Colloidal gold is used in research applications in medicine, biology and materials science. The technique of immunogold labeling exploits the ability of the gold particles to adsorb protein molecules onto their surfaces. Colloidal gold particles coated with specific antibodies can be used as probes for the presence and position of antigens on the surfaces of cells. In ultrathin sections of tissues viewed by electron microscopy, the immunogold labels appear as extremely dense round spots at the position of the antigen. Gold, or alloys of gold and palladium, are applied as conductive coating to biological specimens and other non-conducting materials such as plastics and glass to be viewed in a scanning electron microscope. The coating, which is usually applied by sputtering with an argon plasma, has a triple role in this application. Gold's very high electrical conductivity drains electrical charge to earth, and its very high density provides stopping power for electrons in the electron beam, helping to limit the depth to which the electron beam penetrates the specimen. This improves definition of the position and topography of the specimen surface and increases the spatial resolution of the image. Gold also produces a high output of secondary electrons when irradiated by an electron beam, and these low-energy electrons are the most commonly used signal source used in the scanning electron microscope. The isotope gold-198 (half-life 2.7 days) is used in nuclear medicine, in some cancer treatments and for treating other diseases. Cuisine Gold can be used in food and has the E number 175. In 2016, the European Food Safety Authority published an opinion on the re-evaluation of gold as a food additive. Concerns included the possible presence of minute amounts of gold nanoparticles in the food additive, and that gold nanoparticles have been shown to be genotoxic in mammalian cells in vitro. Gold leaf, flake or dust is used on and in some gourmet foods, notably sweets and drinks as decorative ingredient. Gold flake was used by the nobility in medieval Europe as a decoration in food and drinks, Danziger Goldwasser (German: Gold water of Danzig) or Goldwasser (English: Goldwater) is a traditional German herbal liqueur produced in what is today Gdańsk, Poland, and Schwabach, Germany, and contains flakes of gold leaf. There are also some expensive (c. $1000) cocktails which contain flakes of gold leaf. However, since metallic gold is inert to all body chemistry, it has no taste, it provides no nutrition, and it leaves the body unaltered. Vark is a foil composed of a pure metal that is sometimes gold, and is used for garnishing sweets in South Asian cuisine. Miscellanea Gold produces a deep, intense red color when used as a coloring agent in cranberry glass. In photography, gold toners are used to shift the color of silver bromide black-and-white prints towards brown or blue tones, or to increase their stability. Used on sepia-toned prints, gold toners produce red tones. Kodak published formulas for several types of gold toners, which use gold as the chloride. Gold is a good reflector of electromagnetic radiation such as infrared and visible light, as well as radio waves. It is used for the protective coatings on many artificial satellites, in infrared protective faceplates in thermal-protection suits and astronauts' helmets, and in electronic warfare planes such as the EA-6B Prowler. Gold is used as the reflective layer on some high-end CDs. Automobiles may use gold for heat shielding. McLaren uses gold foil in the engine compartment of its F1 model. Gold can be manufactured so thin that it appears semi-transparent. It is used in some aircraft cockpit windows for de-icing or anti-icing by passing electricity through it. The heat produced by the resistance of the gold is enough to prevent ice from forming. Gold is attacked by and dissolves in alkaline solutions of potassium or sodium cyanide, to form the salt gold cyanide—a technique that has been used in extracting metallic gold from ores in the cyanide process. Gold cyanide is the electrolyte used in commercial electroplating of gold onto base metals and electroforming. Gold chloride (chloroauric acid) solutions are used to make colloidal gold by reduction with citrate or ascorbate ions. Gold chloride and gold oxide are used to make cranberry or red-colored glass, which, like colloidal gold suspensions, contains evenly sized spherical gold nanoparticles. Gold, when dispersed in nanoparticles, can act as a heterogeneous catalyst of chemical reactions. In recent years, gold has been used as a symbol of pride by the autism rights movement, as its symbol Au could be seen as similar to the word "autism". Toxicity Pure metallic (elemental) gold is non-toxic and non-irritating when ingested and is sometimes used as a food decoration in the form of gold leaf. Metallic gold is also a component of the alcoholic drinks Goldschläger, Gold Strike, and Goldwasser. Metallic gold is approved as a food additive in the EU (E175 in the Codex Alimentarius). Although the gold ion is toxic, the acceptance of metallic gold as a food additive is due to its relative chemical inertness, and resistance to being corroded or transformed into soluble salts (gold compounds) by any known chemical process which would be encountered in the human body. Soluble compounds (gold salts) such as gold chloride are toxic to the liver and kidneys. Common cyanide salts of gold such as potassium gold cyanide, used in gold electroplating, are toxic by virtue of both their cyanide and gold content. There are rare cases of lethal gold poisoning from potassium gold cyanide. Gold toxicity can be ameliorated with chelation therapy with an agent such as dimercaprol. Gold metal was voted Allergen of the Year in 2001 by the American Contact Dermatitis Society; gold contact allergies affect mostly women. Despite this, gold is a relatively non-potent contact allergen, in comparison with metals like nickel. A sample of the fungus Aspergillus niger was found growing from gold mining solution; and was found to contain cyano metal complexes, such as gold, silver, copper, iron and zinc. The fungus also plays a role in the solubilization of heavy metal sulfides. See also References Further reading Bachmann, H. G. The lure of gold : an artistic and cultural history (2006) online Bernstein, Peter L. The Power of Gold: The History of an Obsession (2000) online Brands, H.W. The Age of Gold: The California Gold Rush and the New American Dream (2003) excerpt Buranelli, Vincent. Gold : an illustrated history (1979) online' wide-ranging popular history Cassel, Gustav. "The restoration of the gold standard." Economica 9 (1923): 171–185. online Eichengreen, Barry. Golden Fetters: The Gold Standard and the Great Depression, 1919–1939 (Oxford UP, 1992). Ferguson, Niall. The Ascent of Money – Financial History of the World (2009) online Hart, Matthew, Gold: The Race for the World's Most Seductive Metal Gold : the race for the world's most seductive metal", New York: Simon & Schuster, 2013. ISBN 9781451650020 Johnson, Harry G. "The gold rush of 1968 in retrospect and prospect". American Economic Review 59.2 (1969): 344–348. online Kwarteng, Kwasi. War and Gold: A Five-Hundred-Year History of Empires, Adventures, and Debt (2014) online Vilar, Pierre. A History of Gold and Money, 1450–1920 (1960). online Vilches, Elvira. New World Gold: Cultural Anxiety and Monetary Disorder in Early Modern Spain (2010). External links "Gold" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 11 (11th ed.). 1911. Chemistry in its element podcast (MP3) from the Royal Society of Chemistry's Chemistry World: Gold www.rsc.org Gold at The Periodic Table of Videos (University of Nottingham) Getting Gold 1898 book, www.lateralscience.co.uk Technical Document on Extraction and Mining of Gold at the Wayback Machine (archived 7 March 2008), www.epa.gov Gold element information – rsc.org

The National Peace Corps Association was founded in 1979 by a United States politician. This founder then appointed the very first director of the Peace Corps, his brother-in-law. What is the first name of this director?

Robert

Multiple constraints

National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) is a North American nonprofit organization supporting the Peace Corps Agency community. Founded in 1979, the NPCA is headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States The NPCA maintains a database comprising around 150,000 records of volunteers, including figures such as the Peace Corps' founder, John F. Kennedy, and individuals from host countries. The NPCA has historically provided advisory support to Peace Corps volunteers. Its stated objectives include fostering a commitment to the global ideals of the Peace Corps community and advocating for the enhancement and expansion of the U.S. Peace Corps initiative. According to the Peace Corps mission statement, those ideals entail promoting "world peace and friendship" by fulfilling three goals: To help the countries interested in meeting their need for trained people. To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served. To help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans." History In the mid-1970s, at conferences of global educators in the Midwest, a group of returned Peace Corps volunteers began meeting to discuss their service experiences. They adopted a Peace Corps objective that President John F. Kennedy stated in 1961: "Come home and teach your neighbors about the communities where you served." Their aim was to offer returning Peace Corps volunteers in America a continuing mission and communal identity as Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs). In 1979, this group joined with RPCV community leaders in New York and Washington, D.C., to form the National Council of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, which was incorporated in 1981. In 1993, the organization’s name was later changed to the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA). In response to the Rwandan genocide in 1994, NPCA created the Emergency Response Network (ERN) of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers willing to respond to a crisis. Peace Corps Director Mark Gearan modeled the Crisis Corps (later renamed Peace Corps Response) after this program. In coordination with the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Washington, D.C., the NPCA organized 200 RPCVs to march in President Barack Obama's inaugural parade on January 20, 2009. That same year, the NPCA launched Peace Corps Connect, an online social networking platform to help current and returning Peace Corps volunteers interact and share ideas about projects, events, careers, and advocacy issues. In 2002, the NPCA was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, along with the Peace Corps. Advocacy Members of the NPCA continue to testify on U.S. Peace Corps legislation and key issues like safety and security. In 2005, NPCA successfully coordinated the removal of Peace Corps references from military recruitment legislation. Awards and recognition NPCA has encouraged and recognized the service of members of the Peace Corps community by awarding over 20 Sargent Shriver Awards for Distinguished Humanitarian Service. Programs Peace Corps Connect is the annual conference of the Peace Corps community.[1] Africa Rural Connect (ARC) is an online collaboration tool aiming to address some of the challenges in rural African communities. This project introduces and encourages collaboration to identify creative, new plans to deal with the fundamental problems of agricultural development and rural poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded a grant to the ARC project as part of its Agricultural Development initiative to give millions of smallholder farmers in developing countries the tools and opportunities they need to improve their yields, raise their incomes, and improve the quality of life for themselves and their families. The RPCV Mentoring Program assists returning Peace Corps Volunteers with their transition from service. The program connects recently returned Peace Corps Volunteers with RPCV mentors one year after their service ends. Mentors provide advice, key networking contacts, share experiences and adjustment issues, offer guidance on further education, review resumes, assist with career planning, and promote resources available to RPCVs to help them transition from serving abroad to serving at home. Publications NPCA publishes Worldview magazine four times a year. The magazine shares the Peace Corps' perspective on global issues through articles authored by and about Peace Corps Volunteers, Returned Peace Corps volunteers, and people who "share the global values of the Peace Corps experience". NPCA also produces email newsletters, including the monthly NPCA News, GlobalEdNews on global issues, and NPCA Advocacy on action alerts and news on legislation impacting the Peace Corps community. History of conferences and events Since the year before its founding, the NPCA has planned annual events. These events include large conferences, celebrations for major Peace Corps anniversaries, and general meetings to satisfy bylaws requirements. Oct. 1978: Omaha, Nebraska (Red Lion Hotel) Gathering predates the founding of NPCA. Oct. 1979: Omaha, Nebraska (Red Lion Hotel) Marked as the founding of NPCA. At this gathering, charter members formalized and signed the bylaws. Oct. 1980: Omaha, Nebraska (Red Lion Hotel) 1981: Washington, DC (Red Lion Hotel) The 20th Anniversary of the Peace Corps and the first of the major anniversary conferences (always held in Washington, DC.) June 1982: Los Angeles, CA (University of California-Los Angeles) 1983: Denver, CO (University of Denver) 1984: Boston, MA (Emmanuel College) 1985: Atlanta, GA (Georgia Tech) July 1986: San Antonio, TX (Trinity University) Sept. 1986: Washington, DC (National Mall) 25th Anniversary of Peace Corps 1987: Madison, WI (University of Wisconsin-Madison) 1988: Boulder, CO (University of Colorado) 1989: Kent, OH (Kent State University) 1990: Eugene, OR (University of Oregon and Hilton Hotel) Aug. 1991: Washington, DC (National Mall) 30th Anniversary of Peace Corps 1992: Fayetteville, AR (University of Arkansas-Fayetteville) 1993: Berkeley, CA (University of California-Berkeley) 1994: Atlanta, GA (CNN Center and Omni Atlanta Hotel) 1995: Austin, TX (University of Texas-Austin) Mar. 1–3, 1996: Washington, DC (Mayflower Hotel) 35th Anniversary of Peace Corps 1996: Shawnee-on-Delaware, PA (Resort Hotel) July 10–13, 1997: San Diego, CA (Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center) 1998: Columbus, OH (The Ohio State University) 1999: Saint Paul, MN (University of St. Thomas ) Aug. 11–13, 2000: Shawnee-on-Delaware (Resort Hotel) Sept. 21, 2001: Planned for Washington, DC Canceled due to attacks on World Trade Center and Pentagon June 20–23, 2002: Washington, DC (Omni Shoreham Hotel) Postponed celebration of the 40th Anniversary of Peace Corps Aug. 1–3, 2003: Portland, OR (University Place Hotel and Conference Center) Aug. 5–8, 2004: Chicago, IL (Palmer House Hilton) 2005: Annual General Meeting in Washington, DC Sept. 14–16, 2006: Washington, DC 45th Anniversary of Peace Corps June 30, 2007: Annual General Meeting in Washington, DC Oct. 3–4, 2008: San Francisco, CA (Jewish Community Center) June 30, 2009: Annual General Meeting in Washington, DC June 26, 2010: Annual General Meeting in Washington, DC Sept. 21–25, 2011: Washington, DC (Georgetown University) 50th Anniversary of Peace Corps June 27 – July 1, 2012: Minneapolis, MN (Minneapolis Convention Center) June 26–29, 2013: Boston, MA (Harvard University Medical School) June 20–21, 2014: Nashville, TN (Vanderbilt University and Country Music Hall of Fame) June 4–6, 2015: Berkeley, CA (University of California-Berkeley) Sept. 21–25, 2016: Washington, DC (George Washington University) 55th Anniversary of Peace Corps August 4–6, 2017: Denver, CO (University of Denver) August 23–25, 2018: Shawnee on Delaware, PA (Resort) June 20–22, 2019: Austin, TX (University of Texas-Austin) Sept. 26, 2020: "Peace Corps Connect to the Future" (Virtual Conference) Sept. 23–25, 2021: Washington, DC (Virtual Conference) 60th Anniversary of Peace Corps Sept. 24, 2022: Washington, DC (Virtual Conference) Sept. 8–9, 2023: Washington, DC (Virtual Conference) Starting in 1990, affiliated group leaders held the NPCA Presidents' Forum in conjunction with each annual meeting at Kent State University. In 2005, these meetings were renamed the "Group Leaders' Forum." Affiliate Groups The network includes over 180 affiliate groups. Affiliate groups may be geographic (e.g., Chicago Area Peace Corps Association); based on the country of Peace Corps service (e.g., Friends of Guatemala); associated with workplaces (e.g., RPCVs at USAID); driven by social action (e.g., Peace Corps Community for Refugees); or defined by affinity (e.g., the Peace Corps Oral History Project). Groups advocate in line with the stated goals of the organization. References External links Official website Peace Corps Volunteers Papers Numerical List, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to as JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the youngest person elected president. Kennedy served at the height of the Cold War, and the majority of his foreign policy concerned relations with the Soviet Union and Cuba. A Democrat, Kennedy represented Massachusetts in both houses of the United States Congress prior to his presidency. Born into the prominent Kennedy family in Brookline, Massachusetts, Kennedy graduated from Harvard University in 1940, joining the U.S. Naval Reserve the following year. During World War II, he commanded PT boats in the Pacific theater. Kennedy's survival following the sinking of PT-109 and his rescue of his fellow sailors made him a war hero and earned the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, but left him with serious injuries. After a brief stint in journalism, Kennedy represented a working-class Boston district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1953. He was subsequently elected to the U.S. Senate, serving as the junior senator for Massachusetts from 1953 to 1960. While in the Senate, Kennedy published his book, Profiles in Courage, which won a Pulitzer Prize. Kennedy ran in the 1960 presidential election. His campaign gained momentum after the first televised presidential debates in American history, and he was elected president, narrowly defeating Republican opponent Richard Nixon, the incumbent vice president. Kennedy's presidency saw high tensions with communist states in the Cold War. He increased the number of American military advisers in South Vietnam, and the Strategic Hamlet Program began during his presidency. In 1961, he authorized attempts to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro in the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion and Operation Mongoose. In October 1962, U.S. spy planes discovered Soviet missile bases had been deployed in Cuba. The resulting period of tensions, termed the Cuban Missile Crisis, nearly resulted in nuclear war. In August 1961, after East German troops erected the Berlin Wall, Kennedy sent an army convoy to reassure West Berliners of U.S. support, and delivered one of his most famous speeches in West Berlin in June 1963. In 1963, Kennedy signed the first nuclear weapons treaty. He presided over the establishment of the Peace Corps, Alliance for Progress with Latin America, and the continuation of the Apollo program with the goal of landing a man on the Moon before 1970. He supported the civil rights movement but was only somewhat successful in passing his New Frontier domestic policies. On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. His vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson, assumed the presidency. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the assassination, but he was shot and killed by Jack Ruby two days later. The FBI and the Warren Commission both concluded Oswald had acted alone, but conspiracy theories about the assassination persist. After Kennedy's death, Congress enacted many of his proposals, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Revenue Act of 1964. Kennedy ranks highly in polls of U.S. presidents with historians and the general public. His personal life has been the focus of considerable sustained interest following public revelations in the 1970s of his chronic health ailments and extramarital affairs. Kennedy is the most recent U.S. president to have died in office. Early life and education John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born outside Boston in Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 29, 1917, to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., a businessman and politician, and Rose Kennedy (née Fitzgerald), a philanthropist and socialite. His paternal grandfather, P. J. Kennedy, was an East Boston ward boss and Massachusetts state legislator. Kennedy's maternal grandfather and namesake, John F. Fitzgerald, was a U.S. Congressman and two-term Mayor of Boston. All four of his grandparents were children of Irish immigrants. Kennedy had an older brother, Joseph Jr., and seven younger siblings: Rosemary, Kathleen, Eunice, Patricia, Robert, Jean, and Edward. Kennedy's father amassed a private fortune and established trust funds for his nine children that guaranteed lifelong financial independence. His business kept him away from home for long stretches, but Joe Sr. was a formidable presence in his children's lives. He encouraged them to be ambitious, emphasized political discussions at the dinner table, and demanded a high level of academic achievement. John's first exposure to politics was touring the Boston wards with his grandfather Fitzgerald during his 1922 failed gubernatorial campaign. With Joe Sr.'s business ventures concentrated on Wall Street and Hollywood and an outbreak of polio in Massachusetts, the family decided to move from Boston to the Riverdale neighborhood of New York City in September 1927. Several years later, his brother Robert told Look magazine that his father left Boston because of job signs that read: "No Irish Need Apply." The Kennedys spent summers and early autumns at their home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, a village on Cape Cod, where they swam, sailed, and played touch football. Christmas and Easter holidays were spent at their winter retreat in Palm Beach, Florida. In September 1930, Kennedy, 13 years old, was sent to the Canterbury School in New Milford, Connecticut, for 8th grade. In April 1931, he had an appendectomy, after which he withdrew from Canterbury and recuperated at home. In September 1931, Kennedy started attending Choate, a preparatory boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut. Rose had wanted John and Joe Jr. to attend a Catholic school, but Joe Sr. thought that if they were to compete in the political world, they needed to be with boys from prominent Protestant families. John spent his first years at Choate in his older brother's shadow and compensated with rebellious behavior that attracted a clique. Their most notorious stunt was exploding a toilet seat with a firecracker. In the next chapel assembly, the headmaster, George St. John, brandished the toilet seat and spoke of "muckers" who would "spit in our sea," leading Kennedy to name his group "The Muckers Club," which included roommate and lifelong friend Lem Billings. Kennedy graduated from Choate in June 1935, finishing 64th of 112 students. He had been the business manager of the school yearbook and was voted the "most likely to succeed." Kennedy intended to study under Harold Laski at the London School of Economics, as his older brother had done. Ill health forced his return to the U.S. in October 1935, when he enrolled late at Princeton University, but had to leave after two months due to gastrointestinal illness. In September 1936, Kennedy enrolled at Harvard College. He wrote occasionally for The Harvard Crimson, the campus newspaper, but had little involvement with campus politics, preferring to concentrate on athletics and his social life. Kennedy played football and was on the JV squad during his sophomore year, but an injury forced him off the team, and left him with back problems that plagued him for the rest of his life. He won membership in the Hasty Pudding Club and the Spee Club, one of Harvard's elite "final clubs". In July 1938, Kennedy sailed overseas with his older brother to work at the American embassy in London, where his father was serving as President Franklin D. Roosevelt's ambassador to the Court of St. James's. The following year, Kennedy traveled throughout Europe, the Soviet Union, the Balkans, and the Middle East in preparation for his Harvard senior honors thesis. He then went to Berlin, where a U.S. diplomatic representative gave him a secret message about war breaking out soon to pass on to his father, and to Czechoslovakia before returning to London on September 1, 1939, the day that Germany invaded Poland; the start of World War II. Two days later, the family was in the House of Commons for speeches endorsing the United Kingdom's declaration of war on Germany. Kennedy was sent as his father's representative to help with arrangements for American survivors of the torpedoing of SS Athenia before flying back to the U.S. on his first transatlantic flight. While Kennedy was an upperclassman at Harvard, he began to take his studies more seriously and developed an interest in political philosophy. He made the dean's list in his junior year. In 1940, Kennedy completed his thesis, "Appeasement in Munich", about British negotiations during the Munich Agreement. The thesis was released on July 24, under the title Why England Slept. The book was one of the first to offer information about the war and its origins, and quickly became a bestseller. In addition to addressing Britain's unwillingness to strengthen its military in the lead-up to the war, the book called for an Anglo-American alliance against the rising totalitarian powers. Kennedy became increasingly supportive of U.S. intervention in World War II, and his father's isolationist beliefs resulted in the latter's dismissal as ambassador. In 1940, Kennedy graduated cum laude from Harvard with a Bachelor of Arts in government, concentrating on international affairs. That fall, he enrolled at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and audited classes, but he left after a semester to help his father complete his memoirs as an American ambassador. In early 1941, Kennedy toured South America. U.S. Naval Reserve (1941–1945) Kennedy planned to attend Yale Law School, but canceled when American entry into World War II seemed imminent. In 1940, Kennedy attempted to enter the army's Officer Candidate School. Despite months of training, he was medically disqualified due to his chronic back problems. On September 24, 1941, Kennedy, with the help of the director of the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) and the former naval attaché to Joe Sr., Alan Kirk, joined the United States Naval Reserve. He was commissioned an ensign on October 26, 1941, and joined the ONI staff in Washington, D.C. In January 1942, Kennedy was assigned to the ONI field office at Headquarters, Sixth Naval District, in Charleston, South Carolina. His hope was to be the commander of a PT (patrol torpedo) boat, but his health problems seemed almost certain to prevent active duty. Kennedy's father intervened by providing misleading medical records and convincing PT officers that his presence would bring publicity to the fleet. Kennedy completed six months of training at the Naval Reserve Officer Training School in Chicago and at the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons Training Center in Melville, Rhode Island. His first command was PT-101 from December 7, 1942, until February 23, 1943. Unhappy to be assigned to the Panama Canal, far from the fighting, Kennedy appealed to Massachusetts senator David Walsh, who arranged for him to be assigned to the South Pacific. Commanding PT-109 and PT-59 In April 1943, Kennedy was assigned to Motor Torpedo Squadron TWO, and on April 24 he took command of PT-109, then based on Tulagi Island in the Solomons. On the night of August 1–2, in support of the New Georgia campaign, PT-109 and fourteen other PTs were ordered to block or repel four Japanese destroyers and floatplanes carrying food, supplies, and 900 Japanese soldiers to the Vila Plantation garrison on the southern tip of the Solomon's Kolombangara Island. Intelligence had been sent to Kennedy's Commander Thomas G. Warfield expecting the arrival of the large Japanese naval force that would pass on the evening of August 1. Of the 24 torpedoes fired that night by eight of the American PTs, not one hit the Japanese convoy. On that moonless night, Kennedy spotted a Japanese destroyer heading north on its return from the base of Kolombangara around 2:00 a.m., and attempted to turn to attack, when PT-109 was rammed suddenly at an angle and cut in half by the destroyer Amagiri, killing two PT-109 crew members. Avoiding surrender, the remaining crew swam towards Plum Pudding Island, 3.5 miles (5.6 km) southwest of the remains of PT-109, on August 2. Despite re-injuring his back in the collision, Kennedy towed a badly burned crewman to the island with a life jacket strap clenched between his teeth. From there, Kennedy and his subordinate, Ensign George Ross, made forays through the coral islands, searching for help. When they encountered an English-speaking native with a canoe, Kennedy carved his location on a coconut shell and requested a boat rescue. Seven days after the collision, with the coconut message delivered, the PT-109 crew were rescued. Almost immediately, the PT-109 rescue became a highly publicized event. The story was chronicled by John Hersey in The New Yorker in 1944 (decades later it was the basis of a successful film). It followed Kennedy into politics and provided a strong foundation for his appeal as a leader. Hersey portrayed Kennedy as a modest, self-deprecating hero. For his courage and leadership, Kennedy was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, and the injuries he suffered during the incident qualified him for a Purple Heart. After a month's recovery Kennedy returned to duty, commanding the PT-59. On November 2, Kennedy's PT-59 took part with two other PTs in the rescue of 40–50 marines. The 59 acted as a shield from shore fire as they escaped on two rescue landing craft at the base of the Warrior River at Choiseul Island, taking ten marines aboard and delivering them to safety. Under doctor's orders, Kennedy was relieved of his command on November 18, and sent to the hospital on Tulagi. By December 1943, with his health deteriorating, Kennedy left the Pacific front and arrived in San Francisco in early January 1944. After receiving treatment for his back injury at the Chelsea Naval Hospital in Massachusetts from May to December 1944, he was released from active duty. Beginning in January 1945, Kennedy spent three months recovering from his back injury at Castle Hot Springs, a resort and temporary military hospital in Arizona. On March 1, 1945, Kennedy retired from the Navy Reserve on physical disability and was honorably discharged with the full rank of lieutenant. When later asked how he became a war hero, Kennedy joked: "It was easy. They cut my PT boat in half." On August 12, 1944, Kennedy's older brother, Joe Jr., a navy pilot, was killed on an air mission. His body was never recovered. The news reached the family's home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts a day later. Kennedy felt that Joe Jr.'s reckless flight was partly an effort to outdo him. To console himself, Kennedy set out to assemble a privately published book of remembrances of his brother, As We Remember Joe. Journalism (1945) In April 1945, Kennedy's father, who was a friend of William Randolph Hearst, arranged a position for his son as a special correspondent for Hearst Newspapers; the assignment kept Kennedy's name in the public eye and "expose[d] him to journalism as a possible career." That May he went to Berlin as a correspondent, covering the Potsdam Conference and other events. U.S. House of Representatives (1947–1953) Kennedy's elder brother Joe Jr. had been the family's political standard-bearer and had been tapped by their father to seek the presidency. After Joe's death, the assignment fell to JFK as the second eldest. Boston mayor Maurice J. Tobin discussed the possibility of John becoming his running mate in 1946 as a candidate for Massachusetts lieutenant governor, but Joe Sr. preferred a congressional campaign that could send John to Washington, where he could have national visibility. At the urging of Kennedy's father, U.S. Representative James Michael Curley vacated his seat in the strongly Democratic 11th congressional district of Massachusetts to become mayor of Boston in 1946. Kennedy established legal residency at 122 Bowdoin Street across from the Massachusetts State House. Kennedy won the Democratic primary with 42 percent of the vote, defeating nine other candidates. According to Fredrik Logevall, Joe Sr. spent hours on the phone with reporters and editors, seeking information, trading confidences, and cajoling them into publishing puff pieces on John, ones that invariably played up his war record in the Pacific. He oversaw a professional advertising campaign that ensured ads went up in just the right places the campaign had a virtual monopoly on [Boston] subway space, and on window stickers ("Kennedy for Congress") for cars and homes and was the force behind the mass mailing of Hersey's PT-109 article. Though Republicans took control of the House in the 1946 elections, Kennedy defeated his Republican opponent in the general election, taking 73 percent of the vote. As a congressman, Kennedy had a reputation for not taking much interest in the running of his office or his constituents' concerns, with one of the highest absenteeism rates in the House, although much was explained by illness. George Smathers, one of his few political friends at the time, claimed that he was more interested in being a writer than a politician, and at that time he suffered from extreme shyness. Kennedy found "most of his fellow congressmen boring, preoccupied as they all seemed to be with their narrow political concerns." The arcane House rules and customs, which slowed legislation, exasperated him. Kennedy served in the House for six years, joining the influential Education and Labor Committee and the Veterans' Affairs Committee. He concentrated his attention on international affairs, supporting the Truman Doctrine as the appropriate response to the emerging Cold War. He also supported public housing and opposed the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, which restricted the power of labor unions. Though not as vocally anti-communist as Joseph McCarthy, Kennedy supported the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which required communists to register with the government, and he deplored the "loss of China." During a speech in Salem, Massachusetts on January 30, 1949, Kennedy denounced Truman and the State Department for contributing to the "tragic story of China whose freedom we once fought to preserve. What our young men had saved [in World War II], our diplomats and our President have frittered away." Having served as a boy scout during his childhood, Kennedy was active in the Boston Council from 1946 to 1955 as district vice chairman, member of the executive board, vice-president, and National Council Representative. To appeal to the large Italian-American voting bloc in Massachusetts, Kennedy delivered a speech in November 1947 supporting a $227 million aid package to Italy. He maintained that Italy was in danger from an "onslaught of the communist minority" and that the country was the "initial battleground in the communist drive to capture Western Europe." To combat Soviet efforts to take control in Middle Eastern and Asian countries like Indochina, Kennedy wanted the United States to develop nonmilitary techniques of resistance that would not create suspicions of neoimperialism or add to the country's financial burden. The problem, as he saw it, was not simply to be anti-communist but to stand for something that these emerging nations would find appealing. Almost every weekend that Congress was in session, Kennedy would fly back to Massachusetts to give speeches to veteran, fraternal, and civic groups, while maintaining an index card file on individuals who might be helpful for a campaign for statewide office. Contemplating whether to run for Massachusetts governor or the U.S. Senate, Kennedy abandoned interest in the former, believing that the governor "sat in an office, handing out sewer contracts." U.S. Senate (1953–1960) As early as 1949, Kennedy began preparing to run for the Senate in 1952 against Republican three-term incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. with the campaign slogan "KENNEDY WILL DO MORE FOR MASSACHUSETTS". Joe Sr. again financed his son's candidacy (persuading the Boston Post to switch its support to Kennedy by promising the publisher a $500,000 loan), while John's younger brother Robert emerged as campaign manager. Kennedy's mother and sisters contributed as highly effective canvassers by hosting a series of "teas" at hotels and parlors across Massachusetts to reach out to women voters. In the presidential election, Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower carried Massachusetts by 208,000 votes, but Kennedy narrowly defeated Lodge by 70,000 votes for the Senate seat. The following year, he married Jacqueline Bouvier. Kennedy underwent several spinal operations over the next two years. Often absent from the Senate, he was at times critically ill and received Catholic last rites. During his convalescence in 1956, he published Profiles in Courage, a book about U.S. senators who risked their careers for their personal beliefs, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 1957. Rumors that this work was ghostwritten by his close adviser and speechwriter, Ted Sorensen, were confirmed in Sorensen's 2008 autobiography. At the start of his first term, Kennedy focused on fulfilling the promise of his campaign to do "more for Massachusetts" than his predecessor. Although Kennedy's and Lodge's legislative records were similarly liberal, Lodge voted for the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 and Kennedy voted against it. On NBC's Meet the Press, Kennedy excoriated Lodge for not doing enough to prevent the increasing migration of manufacturing jobs from Massachusetts to the South, and blamed the right-to-work provision for giving the South an unfair advantage over Massachusetts in labor costs. In May 1953, Kennedy introduced "The Economic Problems of New England", a 36-point program to help Massachusetts industries such as fishing, textile manufacturing, watchmaking, and shipbuilding, as well as the Boston seaport. Kennedy's policy agenda included protective tariffs, preventing excessive speculation in raw wool, stronger efforts to research and market American fish products, an increase in the Fish and Wildlife Service budget, modernizing reserve-fleet vessels, tax incentives to prevent further business relocations, and the development of hydroelectric and nuclear power in Massachusetts. Kennedy's suggestions for stimulating the region's economy appealed to both parties by offering benefits to business and labor, and promising to serve national defense. Congress would eventually enact most of the program. Kennedy, a Massachusetts Audubon Society supporter, wanted to make sure that the shorelines of Cape Cod remained unsullied by industrialization. On September 3, 1959, Kennedy co-sponsored the Cape Cod National Seashore bill with his Republican colleague Senator Leverett Saltonstall. As a senator, Kennedy quickly won a reputation for responsiveness to requests from constituents (i.e., co-sponsoring legislation to provide federal loans to help rebuild communities damaged by the 1953 Worcester tornado), except on certain occasions when the national interest was at stake. In 1954, Kennedy voted in favor of the Saint Lawrence Seaway which would connect the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, despite opposition from Massachusetts politicians who argued that the project would hurt the Port of Boston economically. In 1954, when the Senate voted to condemn Joseph McCarthy for breaking Senate rules and abusing an Army general, Kennedy was the only Democrat not to cast a vote against him. Kennedy drafted a speech supporting the censure. However, it was not delivered because Kennedy was hospitalized for back surgery in Boston. Although Kennedy never indicated how he would have voted, the episode damaged his support among members of the liberal community in the 1956 and 1960 elections. In 1956, Kennedy gained control of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, and delivered the state delegation to the party's presidential nominee, Adlai Stevenson II, at the Democratic National Convention in August. Stevenson let the convention select the vice presidential nominee. Kennedy finished second in the balloting, losing to Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee, but receiving national exposure. In 1957, Kennedy joined the Senate's Select Committee on Labor Rackets (also known as the McClellan Committee) with his brother Robert, who was chief counsel, to investigate racketeering in labor-management relations. The hearings attracted extensive radio and television coverage where the Kennedy brothers engaged in dramatic arguments with controversial labor leaders, including Jimmy Hoffa, of the Teamsters Union. The following year, Kennedy introduced a bill to prevent the expenditure of union dues for improper purposes or private gain; to forbid loans from union funds for illicit transactions; and to compel audits of unions, which would ensure against false financial reports. It was the first major labor relations bill to pass either house since the Taft–Hartley Act of 1947 and dealt largely with the control of union abuses exposed by the McClellan Committee but did not incorporate tough Taft–Hartley amendments requested by President Eisenhower. It survived Senate floor attempts to include Taft-Hartley amendments and passed but was rejected by the House. "Honest union members and the general public can only regard it as a tragedy that politics has prevented the recommendations of the McClellan committee from being carried out this year," Kennedy announced. That same year, Kennedy joined the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee. There he supported Algeria's effort to gain independence from France and sponsored an amendment to the Mutual Defense Assistance Act that would provide aid to Soviet satellite nations. Kennedy also introduced an amendment to the National Defense Education Act in 1959 to eliminate the requirement that aid recipients sign a loyalty oath and provide supporting affidavits. Kennedy cast a procedural vote against President Eisenhower's bill for the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and this was considered by some to be an appeasement of Southern Democratic opponents of the bill. Kennedy did vote for Title III of the act, which would have given the Attorney General powers to enjoin, but Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson agreed to let the provision die as a compromise measure. Kennedy also voted for the "Jury Trial Amendment." Many civil rights advocates criticized that vote as one which would weaken the act. A final compromise bill, which Kennedy supported, was passed in September 1957. As a senator from Massachusetts, which lacked a sizable Black population, Kennedy was not particularly sensitive to the problems of African Americans. Robert Kennedy later reflected, "We weren't thinking of the Negroes of Mississippi or Alabama—what should be done for them. We were thinking of what needed to be done in Massachusetts." Most historians and political scientists who have written about Kennedy refer to his U.S. Senate years as an interlude. According to Robert Dallek, Kennedy called being a senator "the most corrupting job in the world." He complained that they were all too quick to cut deals and please campaign contributors to ensure their political futures. Kennedy, with the luxury of a rich father who could finance his campaigns, could remain independent of any special interest, except for those in his home state of Massachusetts that could align against his reelection. According to Robert Caro, Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson viewed Kennedy as a "playboy", describing his performance in the Senate and the House as "pathetic" on another occasion, saying that he was "smart enough, but he doesn't like the grunt work". Author John T. Shaw acknowledges that while his Senate career is not associated with acts of "historic statesmanship" or "novel political thought," Kennedy made modest contributions as a legislator, drafting more than 300 bills to assist Massachusetts and the New England region (some of which became law). In 1958, Kennedy was re-elected to the Senate, defeating his Republican opponent, Boston lawyer Vincent J. Celeste, with 73.6 percent of the vote, the largest winning margin in the history of Massachusetts politics. In the aftermath of his re-election, Kennedy began preparing to run for president by traveling throughout the U.S. with the aim of building his candidacy for 1960. 1960 presidential election On January 2, 1960, Kennedy announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination. Though some questioned Kennedy's age and experience, his charisma and eloquence earned him numerous supporters. Kennedy faced several potential challengers, including Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson, Adlai Stevenson II, and Senator Hubert Humphrey. Kennedy traveled extensively to build his support. His campaign strategy was to win several primaries to demonstrate his electability to the party bosses, who controlled most of the delegates, and to prove to his detractors that a Catholic could win popular support. Victories over Senator Humphrey in the Wisconsin and West Virginia primaries gave Kennedy momentum as he moved on to the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. When Kennedy entered the convention, he had the most delegates, but not enough to ensure that he would win the nomination. Stevenson—the 1952 and 1956 presidential nominee—remained very popular, while Johnson also hoped to win the nomination with support from party leaders. Kennedy's candidacy also faced opposition from former President Harry S. Truman, who was concerned about Kennedy's lack of experience. Kennedy knew that a second ballot could give the nomination to Johnson or someone else, and his well-organized campaign was able to earn the support of just enough delegates to win the presidential nomination on the first ballot. Kennedy ignored the opposition of his brother Robert, who wanted him to choose labor leader Walter Reuther, and other liberal supporters when he chose Johnson as his vice-presidential nominee. He believed that the Texas senator could help him win support from the South. In accepting the presidential nomination, Kennedy gave his well-known "New Frontier" speech: For the problems are not all solved and the battles are not all won—and we stand today on the edge of a New Frontier. ... But the New Frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises—it is a set of challenges. It sums up not what I intend to offer the American people, but what I intend to ask of them. At the start of the fall general election campaign, the Republican nominee and incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon held a six-point lead in the polls. Major issues included how to get the economy moving again, Kennedy's Catholicism, the Cuban Revolution, and whether the space and missile programs of the Soviet Union had surpassed those of the U.S. To address fears that his being Catholic would impact his decision-making, he told the Greater Houston Ministerial Association on September 12: "I am not the Catholic candidate for president. I am the Democratic Party candidate for president who also happens to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my Church on public matters—and the Church does not speak for me." He promised to respect the separation of church and state, and not to allow Catholic officials to dictate public policy. The Kennedy and Nixon campaigns agreed to a series of televised debates. An estimated 70 million Americans, about two-thirds of the electorate, watched the first debate on September 26. Kennedy had met the day before with the producer to discuss the set design and camera placement. Nixon, just out of the hospital after a painful knee injury, did not take advantage of this opportunity and during the debate looked at the reporters asking questions and not at the camera. Kennedy wore a blue suit and shirt to cut down on glare and appeared sharply focused against the gray studio background. Nixon wore a light-colored suit that blended into the gray background; in combination with the harsh studio lighting that left Nixon perspiring, he offered a less-than-commanding presence. By contrast, Kennedy appeared relaxed, tanned, and telegenic, looking into the camera whilst answering questions. It is often claimed that television viewers overwhelmingly believed Kennedy, appearing to be the more attractive of the two, had won, while radio listeners (a smaller audience) thought Nixon had defeated him. However, only one poll split TV and radio voters like this and the methodology was poor. Pollster Elmo Roper concluded that the debates raised interest, boosted turnout, and gave Kennedy an extra two million votes, mostly as a result of the first debate. The debates are now considered a milestone in American political history—the point at which the medium of television began to play a dominant role. Kennedy's campaign gained momentum after the first debate, and he pulled slightly ahead of Nixon in most polls. On Election Day, Kennedy defeated Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections of the 20th century. In the national popular vote, by most accounts, Kennedy led Nixon by just two-tenths of one percent (49.7% to 49.5%), while in the Electoral College, he won 303 votes to Nixon's 219 (269 were needed to win). Fourteen electors from Mississippi and Alabama refused to support Kennedy because of his support for the civil rights movement; they voted for Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia, as did an elector from Oklahoma. Forty-three years old, Kennedy was the youngest person ever elected to the presidency (though Theodore Roosevelt was a year younger when he succeeded to the presidency after the assassination of William McKinley in 1901). Presidency (1961–1963) Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th president at noon on January 20, 1961. In his inaugural address, he spoke of the need for all Americans to be active citizens: "Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country." He asked the nations of the world to join to fight what he called the "common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself." He added: All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin." In closing, he expanded on his desire for greater internationalism: "Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. The address reflected Kennedy's confidence that his administration would chart a historically significant course in both domestic policy and foreign affairs. The contrast between this optimistic vision and the pressures of managing daily political realities would be one of the main tensions of the early years of his administration. Kennedy scrapped the decision-making structure of Eisenhower, preferring an organizational structure of a wheel with all the spokes leading to the president; he was willing to make the increased number of quick decisions required in such an environment. Though the cabinet remained important, Kennedy generally relied more on his staffers within the Executive Office. In spite of concerns over nepotism, Kennedy's father insisted that Robert Kennedy become U.S. Attorney General, and the younger Kennedy became the "assistant president" who advised on all major issues. Foreign policy Cold War and flexible response Kennedy's foreign policy was dominated by American confrontations with the Soviet Union, manifested by proxy contests in the global state of tension known as the Cold War. Like his predecessors, Kennedy adopted the policy of containment to stop the spread of communism. Fearful of the possibility of nuclear war, Kennedy implemented a defense strategy known as flexible response. This strategy relied on multiple options for responding to the Soviet Union, discouraged massive retaliation, and encouraged mutual deterrence. In contrast to Eisenhower's warning about the perils of the military-industrial complex, Kennedy focused on rearmament. From 1961 to 1964 the number of nuclear weapons increased by 50 percent, as did the number of B-52 bombers to deliver them. In January 1961, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev declared his support for wars of national liberation. Kennedy interpreted this step as a direct threat to the "free world." Decolonization and the Congo Crisis Between 1960 and 1963, twenty-four countries gained independence as the process of decolonization continued. Kennedy set out to woo the leaders and people of the "Third World," expanding economic aid and appointing knowledgeable ambassadors. His administration established the Food for Peace program and the Peace Corps to provide aid to developing countries. The Food for Peace program became a central element in American foreign policy, and eventually helped many countries to develop their economies and become commercial import customers. During the election campaign, Kennedy attacked the Eisenhower administration for losing ground on the African continent, and stressed that the U.S. should be on the side of anti-colonialism and self-determination. Kennedy considered the Congo Crisis to be among the most important foreign policy issues facing his presidency, and he supported a UN operation that prevented the secession of Katanga. Moïse Tshombe, leader of Katanga, declared its independence from the Congo and the Soviet Union responded by sending weapons and technicians to underwrite their struggle. On October 2, 1962, Kennedy signed United Nations bond issue bill to ensure U.S. assistance in financing UN peacekeeping operations in the Congo and elsewhere. Peace Corps In one of his first presidential acts, Kennedy signed Executive Order 10924 that officially started the Peace Corps. He named his brother-in-law, Sargent Shriver, as its first director. Through this program, Americans volunteered to help developing countries in fields like education, farming, health care, and construction. Kennedy believed that countries that received Peace Corps volunteers were less likely to succumb to a communist revolution. Tanganyika (present-day Tanzania) and Ghana were the first countries to participate. The organization grew to 5,000 members by March 1963 and 10,000 the year after. Since 1961, over 200,000 Americans have joined the Peace Corps, representing 139 countries. Vienna Summit and the Berlin Wall Kennedy anxiously anticipated a summit with Nikita Khrushchev. The proceedings for the summit got off to a problematic start when Kennedy reacted aggressively to a routine Khrushchev speech on Cold War confrontation in early 1961. The speech was intended for domestic audiences in the Soviet Union, but Kennedy interpreted it as a personal challenge. His mistake helped raise tensions going into the Vienna summit. The summit would cover several topics, but both leaders knew that the most contentious issue would be Berlin, which had been divided in two with the start of the Cold War. The enclave of West Berlin lay within Soviet-allied East Germany, but was supported by the U.S. and other Western powers. The Soviets wanted to reunify Berlin under the control of East Germany, partly due to the large number of East Germans who had fled to West Berlin. On June 4, 1961, Kennedy met with Khrushchev in Vienna and left the meeting angry and disappointed that he had allowed the premier to bully him, despite the warnings he had received. Khrushchev, for his part, was impressed with the president's intelligence but thought him weak. Kennedy did succeed in conveying the bottom line to Khrushchev on the most sensitive issue before them, a proposed treaty between Moscow and East Berlin. He made it clear that any treaty interfering with U.S. access rights in West Berlin would be regarded as an act of war. Shortly after Kennedy returned home, the Soviet Union announced its plan to sign a treaty with East Berlin, abrogating any third-party occupation rights in either sector of the city. Kennedy assumed that his only option was to prepare the country for nuclear war, which he thought had a one-in-five chance of occurring. In the weeks immediately following the summit, more than 20,000 people fled from East Berlin to the western sector, reacting to statements from the Soviet Union. Kennedy began intensive meetings on the Berlin issue, where Dean Acheson took the lead in recommending a military buildup alongside NATO allies. In a July 1961 speech, Kennedy announced his decision to add $3.25 billion (equivalent to $33.14 billion in 2023) to the defense budget, along with over 200,000 additional troops, stating that an attack on West Berlin would be taken as an attack on the U.S. The speech received an 85% approval rating. A month later, both the Soviet Union and East Berlin began blocking any further passage of East Germans into West Berlin and erected barbed-wire fences, which were quickly upgraded to the Berlin Wall. Kennedy acquiesced to the wall, though he sent Vice President Johnson to West Berlin to reaffirm U.S. commitment to the enclave's defense. In the following months, in a sign of rising Cold War tensions, both the U.S. and the Soviet Union ended a moratorium on nuclear weapon testing. A brief stand-off between U.S. and Soviet tanks occurred at Checkpoint Charlie in October following a dispute over free movement of Allied personnel. The crisis was defused largely through a backchannel communication the Kennedy administration had set up with Soviet spy Georgi Bolshakov. In remarks to his aides on the Berlin Wall, Kennedy noted that "it's not a very nice solution, but a wall is a hell of a lot better than a war." Bay of Pigs Invasion The Eisenhower administration had created a plan to overthrow Fidel Castro's regime though an invasion of Cuba by a counter-revolutionary insurgency composed of U.S.-trained, anti-Castro Cuban exiles led by CIA paramilitary officers. Kennedy had campaigned on a hardline stance against Castro, and when presented with the plan that had been developed under the Eisenhower administration, he enthusiastically adopted it regardless of the risk of inflaming tensions with the Soviet Union. Kennedy approved the final invasion plan on April 4, 1961. On April 15, 1961, eight CIA-supplied B-26 bombers left Nicaragua to bomb Cuban airfields. The bombers missed many of their targets, leaving most of Castro's air force intact. On April 17, the 1,500 U.S.-trained Cuban exile invasion force, known as Brigade 2506, landed at beaches along the Bay of Pigs and immediately came under heavy fire. The goal was to spark a widespread popular uprising against Castro, but no such uprising occurred. No U.S. air support was provided. The invading force was defeated within two days by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces; 114 were killed and Kennedy was forced to negotiate for the release of the 1,189 survivors. After twenty months, Cuba released the captured exiles in exchange for a ransom of $53 million worth of food and medicine. The incident made Castro wary of the U.S. and led him to believe that another invasion would take place. Biographer Richard Reeves said that Kennedy focused primarily on the political repercussions of the plan rather than military considerations. When it proved unsuccessful, he was convinced that the plan was a setup to make him look bad. He took responsibility for the failure, saying, "We got a big kick in the leg and we deserved it. But maybe we'll learn something from it." Kennedy's approval ratings climbed afterwards, helped in part by the vocal support given to him by Nixon and Eisenhower. He appointed Robert Kennedy to help lead a committee to examine the causes of the failure. The Kennedy administration banned all Cuban imports and convinced the Organization of American States (OAS) to expel Cuba. Operation Mongoose In late 1961, the White House formed the Special Group (Augmented), headed by Robert Kennedy and including Edward Lansdale, Secretary Robert McNamara, and others. The group's objective—to overthrow Castro via espionage, sabotage, and other covert tactics—was never pursued. In November 1961, he authorized Operation Mongoose. In March 1962, Kennedy rejected Operation Northwoods, proposals for false flag attacks against American military and civilian targets, and blaming them on the Cuban government to gain approval for a war against Cuba. However, the administration continued to plan for an invasion of Cuba in the summer of 1962. Cuban Missile Crisis In the aftermath of the Bay of Pigs invasion, Khrushchev increased economic and military assistance to Cuba. The Soviet Union planned to allocate in Cuba 49 medium-range ballistic missiles, 32 intermediate-range ballistic missiles, 49 light Il-28 bombers and about 100 tactical nuclear weapons. The Kennedy administration viewed the growing Cuba-Soviet alliance with alarm, fearing that it could eventually pose a threat to the U.S. On October 14, 1962, CIA U-2 spy planes took photographs of the Soviets' construction of intermediate-range ballistic missile sites in Cuba. The photos were shown to Kennedy on October 16; a consensus was reached that the missiles were offensive in nature and posed an immediate nuclear threat. Kennedy faced a dilemma: if the U.S. attacked the sites, it might lead to nuclear war with the Soviet Union, but if the U.S. did nothing, it would be faced with the increased threat from close-range nuclear weapons (positioned approximately 90 mi (140 km) away from the Florida coast). The U.S. would also appear to the world as less committed to the defense of the Western Hemisphere. On a personal level, Kennedy needed to show resolve in reaction to Khrushchev, especially after the Vienna summit. To deal with the crisis, he formed an ad-hoc body of key advisers, later known as EXCOMM, that met secretly between October 16 and 28. More than a third of U.S. National Security Council (NSC) members favored an unannounced air assault on the missile sites, but some saw this as "Pearl Harbor in reverse." There was some concern from the international community (asked in confidence) that the assault plan was an overreaction given that Eisenhower had placed PGM-19 Jupiter missiles in Italy and Turkey in 1958. It also could not be assured that the assault would be 100% effective. In concurrence with a majority vote of the NSC, Kennedy decided on a naval blockade (or "quarantine"). On October 22, after privately informing the cabinet and leading members of Congress about the situation, Kennedy announced the naval blockade on national television and warned that U.S. forces would seize "offensive weapons and associated materiel" that Soviet vessels might attempt to deliver to Cuba. The U.S. Navy would stop and inspect all Soviet ships arriving off Cuba, beginning October 24. Several Soviet ships approached the blockade line, but they stopped or reversed course. The OAS gave unanimous support to the removal of the missiles. Kennedy exchanged two sets of letters with Khrushchev, to no avail. UN Secretary General U Thant requested both parties to reverse their decisions and enter a cooling-off period. Khrushchev agreed, but Kennedy did not. Kennedy managed to preserve restraint when a Soviet missile unauthorizedly downed a U.S. Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft over Cuba, killing pilot Rudolf Anderson. At the president's direction, Robert Kennedy privately informed Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin that the U.S. would remove the Jupiter missiles from Turkey "within a short time after this crisis was over." On October 28, Khrushchev agreed to dismantle the missile sites, subject to UN inspections. The U.S. publicly promised never to invade Cuba and privately agreed to remove its Jupiter missiles from Italy and Turkey, which were by then obsolete and had been supplanted by submarines equipped with UGM-27 Polaris missiles. In the aftermath, a Moscow–Washington hotline was established to ensure clear communications between the leaders of the two countries. This crisis brought the world closer to nuclear war than at any point before or after, but "the humanity" of Khrushchev and Kennedy prevailed. The crisis improved the image of American willpower and the president's credibility. Kennedy's approval rating increased from 66% to 77% immediately thereafter. Latin America and communism Believing that "those who make peaceful revolution impossible, will make violent revolution inevitable," Kennedy sought to contain the perceived threat of communism in Latin America by establishing the Alliance for Progress, which sent aid to some countries and sought greater human rights standards in the region. In response to Kennedy's plea, Congress voted for an initial grant of $500 million in May 1961. The Alliance for Progress supported the construction of housing, schools, airports, hospitals, clinics and water-purification projects as well as the distribution of free textbooks to students. However, the program did not meet many of its goals. Massive land reform was not achieved; populations more than kept pace with gains in health and welfare; and according to one study, only 2 percent of economic growth in 1960s Latin America directly benefited the poor. U.S. presidents after Kennedy were less supportive of the program and by 1973, the permanent committee established to implement the Alliance was disbanded by the OAS. The Eisenhower administration, through the CIA, had begun formulating plans to assassinate Castro in Cuba and Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. When Kennedy took office, he privately instructed the CIA that any plan must include plausible deniability by the U.S. His public position was in opposition. In June 1961, the Dominican Republic's leader was assassinated; in the days following, Undersecretary of State Chester Bowles led a cautious reaction by the nation. Robert Kennedy, who saw an opportunity for the U.S., called Bowles "a gutless bastard" to his face. Laos After the election, Eisenhower emphasized to Kennedy that the communist threat in Southeast Asia required priority; Eisenhower considered Laos to be "the cork in the bottle" in regards to the regional threat. In March 1961, Kennedy voiced a change in policy from supporting a "free" Laos to a "neutral" Laos, indicating privately that Vietnam should be deemed America's tripwire for communism's spread in the area. Though he was unwilling to commit U.S. forces to a major military intervention in Laos, Kennedy did approve CIA activities designed to defeat Communist insurgents through bombing raids and the recruitment of the Hmong people. Vietnam During his presidency, Kennedy continued policies that provided political, economic, and military support to the South Vietnamese government. Vietnam had been divided into a communist North Vietnam and a non-communist South Vietnam after the 1954 Geneva Conference, but Kennedy escalated American involvement in Vietnam in 1961 by financing the South Vietnam army, increasing the number of U.S. military advisors above the levels of the Eisenhower administration, and authorizing U.S. helicopter units to provide support to South Vietnamese forces. On January 18, 1962, Kennedy formally authorized escalated involvement when he signed the National Security Action Memorandum (NSAM) – "Subversive Insurgency (War of Liberation)." Operation Ranch Hand, a large-scale aerial defoliation effort using the herbicide Agent Orange, began on the roadsides of South Vietnam to combat guerrilla defendants. Though Kennedy provided support for South Vietnam throughout his tenure, Vietnam remained a secondary issue for the Kennedy administration until 1963. On September 2, Kennedy declared in an interview with Walter Cronkite of CBS: In the final analysis, it is their war. They are the ones who have to win it or lose it. We can help them, we can give them equipment, we can send our men out there as advisers, but they have to win it, the people of Vietnam, against the Communists... But I don't agree with those who say we should withdraw. That would be a great mistake... [The United States] made this effort to defend Europe. Now Europe is quite secure. We also have to participate—we may not like it—in the defense of Asia. Kennedy increasingly soured on the president of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, whose violent crackdown on Buddhist practices galvanized opposition to his leadership. In August 1963, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. replaced Frederick Nolting as the U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam. Days after his arrival in South Vietnam, Lodge reported that several South Vietnamese generals sought the assent of the U.S. government to their plan of removing Diem from power. The Kennedy administration was split regarding not just the removal of Diem, but also their assessment of the military situation and the proper U.S. role in the country. After the State Department sent a diplomatic cable to Lodge that ordered him to pressure Diem to remove military authority from his brother, Ngô Đình Nhu, or face potential withdrawal of U.S. support and removal from power, Kennedy instructed Lodge to offer covert assistance to a coup d'état, excluding assassination. On November 1, 1963, a junta of senior military officers executed the coup which led to the arrest and assassinations of Diem and Nhu on November 2. By November 1963, there were 16,000 American military personnel in South Vietnam, up from Eisenhower's 900 advisors; more than one hundred Americans had been killed in action and no final policy decision was made. In the aftermath of the aborted coup in September 1963, the Kennedy administration reevaluated its policies in South Vietnam. Kennedy rejected the full-scale deployment of ground soldiers but also the total withdrawal of U.S. forces. Historians disagree on whether the U.S. military presence in Vietnam would have escalated had Kennedy survived and been re-elected in 1964. Fueling the debate are statements made by Secretary of Defense McNamara in the 2003 documentary film The Fog of War that Kennedy was strongly considering pulling out of Vietnam after the 1964 election, and comments made by Kennedy administration White House Counsel and speechwriter Ted Sorensen in a 2008 memoir suggesting that Kennedy was undecided about what policy direction to take. On October 11, 1963, Kennedy signed NSAM 263 ordering the withdrawal of 1,000 military personnel by the end of the year following the third recommendation of the McNamara–Taylor mission report, which concluded that the training program for the South Vietnamese military had sufficiently progressed to justify the withdrawal. However, NSAM 263 also approved the first recommendation of the report to continue providing support to South Vietnam to prevent the spread of communism and until the Viet Cong was suppressed, while the third recommendation suggested that even if the majority of the U.S. military objective was completed by the end of 1965 that continued presence of U.S. training personnel in more limited numbers could be necessary if the insurgency was not suppressed. West Berlin speech In 1963, Germany was enduring a time of particular vulnerability due to Soviet aggression to the east as well as the impending retirement of West German Chancellor Adenauer. At the same time, French President Charles de Gaulle was trying to build a Franco-West German counterweight to the American and Soviet spheres of influence. To Kennedy's eyes, this Franco-German cooperation seemed directed against NATO's influence in Europe. To reinforce the U.S. alliance with West Germany, Kennedy travelled to West Germany and West Berlin in June 1963. On June 26, Kennedy toured West Berlin, culminating in a public speech at the city hall in front of hundreds of thousands of enthusiastic Berliners. He reiterated the American commitment to Germany and criticized communism and was met with an ecstatic response from the massive audience. Kennedy used the construction of the Berlin Wall as an example of the failures of communism: "Freedom has many difficulties, and democracy is not perfect. But we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us." The speech is known for its famous phrase "Ich bin ein Berliner" ("I am a Berliner"). Middle East Kennedy ended the arms embargo that the Truman and Eisenhower administrations had enforced on Israel in favor of increased security ties, becoming the founder of the U.S.-Israeli military alliance. Describing the protection of Israel as a moral and national commitment, he was the first to introduce the concept of a 'special relationship' between the U.S. and Israel. In 1962, the Kennedy administration sold Israel a major weapon system, the Hawk antiaircraft missile. Historians differ as to whether Kennedy pursued security ties with Israel primarily to shore up support with Jewish-American voters, or because of his admiration of the Jewish state. In December 1961, Abd al-Karim Qasim's Iraqi government passed Public Law 80, which restricted the partially American-controlled Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC)'s concessionary holding to those areas in which oil was actually being produced (namely, the fields at Az Zubair and Kirkuk), effectively expropriating 99.5% of the IPC concession. British and U.S. officials demanded that the Kennedy administration place pressure on the Qasim regime. In April 1962, the State Department issued new guidelines on Iraq that were intended to increase American influence. Meanwhile, Kennedy instructed the CIA—under the direction of Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt Jr.—to begin making preparations for a military coup against Qasim. The anti-imperialist and anti-communist Iraqi Ba'ath Party overthrew and executed Qasim in a violent coup on February 8, 1963. Despite persistent rumors that the CIA orchestrated the coup, declassified documents and the testimony of former CIA officers indicate that there was no direct American involvement. The Kennedy administration was pleased with the outcome and ultimately approved a $55-million arms deal for Iraq. Ireland During his four-day visit to his ancestral home of Ireland beginning on June 26, 1963, Kennedy accepted a grant of armorial bearings from the Chief Herald of Ireland, received honorary degrees from the National University of Ireland and Trinity College Dublin, attended a State Dinner in Dublin, and was conferred with the freedom of the towns and cities of Wexford, Cork, Dublin, Galway, and Limerick. He visited the cottage at Dunganstown, near New Ross, County Wexford, where his ancestors had lived before emigrating to America. Kennedy was the first foreign leader to address the Houses of the Oireachtas, the Irish parliament. Kennedy later told aides that the trip was the best four days of his life. American University speech On June 10, 1963, Kennedy, at the high point of his rhetorical powers, delivered the commencement address at American University. Also known as "A Strategy of Peace", not only did Kennedy outline a plan to curb nuclear arms, but he also "laid out a hopeful, yet realistic route for world peace at a time when the U.S. and Soviet Union faced the potential for an escalating nuclear arms race." Kennedy also announced that the Soviets had expressed a desire to negotiate a nuclear test ban treaty, and that the U.S. had postponed planned atmospheric tests. Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Troubled by the long-term dangers of radioactive contamination and nuclear proliferation, Kennedy and Khrushchev agreed to negotiate a nuclear test ban treaty, originally conceived in Adlai Stevenson's 1956 presidential campaign. In their Vienna summit meeting in June 1961, Khrushchev and Kennedy reached an informal understanding against nuclear testing, but the Soviet Union began testing nuclear weapons that September. In response, the United States conducted tests five days later. Shortly afterwards, new U.S. satellites began delivering images that made it clear that the Soviets were substantially behind the U.S. in the arms race. Nevertheless, the greater nuclear strength of the U.S. was of little value as long as the Soviet Union perceived itself to be at parity. In July 1963, Kennedy sent W. Averell Harriman to Moscow to negotiate a treaty with the Soviets. The introductory sessions included Khrushchev, who later delegated Soviet representation to Andrei Gromyko. It quickly became clear that a comprehensive test ban would not be implemented, due largely to the reluctance of the Soviets to allow inspections to verify compliance. Ultimately, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union were the initial signatories to a limited treaty, which prohibited atomic testing on the ground, in the atmosphere, or underwater, but not underground. The U.S. Senate approved the treaty on September 23, 1963, and Kennedy signed it on October 7, 1963. France was quick to declare that it was free to continue developing and testing its nuclear defenses. Domestic policy New Frontier Kennedy called his domestic proposals the "New Frontier". However, Kennedy's small margin of victory in the 1960 election, his lack of deep connections to influential members of Congress, and his administration's focus on foreign policy hindered the passage of New Frontier policies. In 1961, Kennedy prioritized passing five bills: federal assistance for education, medical insurance for the elderly, housing legislation, federal aid to struggling areas, and an increase in the federal minimum wage. Kennedy's bill to increase the federal minimum wage to $1.25 an hour passed in early 1961, but an amendment inserted by conservative leader from Georgia, Carl Vinson, exempted laundry workers from the law. Kennedy also won passage of the Area Redevelopment Act and the Housing Act of 1961. The Area Redevelopment Act, a $394 million program, provided federal funding to economically struggling regions (primarily in Appalachia), while the Housing Act of 1961 provided funds for urban renewal and public housing and authorized federal mortgage loans to those who did not qualify for public housing. Kennedy proposed a bill providing for $2.3 billion in federal educational aid to the states, with more money going to states with lower per capita income. Though the Senate passed the education bill, it was defeated in the House by a coalition of Republicans, Southern Democrats, and Catholics. Kennedy's health insurance bill, which would have paid for hospitalization and nursing costs for the elderly, failed to pass either house of Congress. A bill that would have established the Department of Urban Affairs and Housing was also defeated. In 1962, Kennedy won approval of the Manpower Development and Training Act, a three-year program aimed at retraining workers displaced by new technology. Its impact on structural unemployment, however, was minimal. At the urging of his sister Eunice, Kennedy made intellectual disabilities a priority for his administration. In 1963, Congress passed the Community Mental Health Act, which provided funding to local mental health community centers and research facilities. Trade policy included both domestic and foreign policy. The 1962 Trade Expansion Act passed Congress by wide majorities. It authorized the president to negotiate tariff reductions on a reciprocal basis of up to 50 percent with the European Common Market. The legislation paved the way for the Kennedy Round of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade negotiations, concluding on June 30, 1967, the last day before expiration of the Act. Taxes Walter Heller, who served as the chairman of the CEA, advocated for a Keynesian-style tax cut designed to help spur economic growth, and Kennedy adopted this policy. The idea was that a tax cut would stimulate consumer demand, which in turn would lead to higher economic growth, lower unemployment, and increased federal revenues. To the disappointment of liberals like John Kenneth Galbraith, Kennedy's embrace of the tax cut shifted his administration's focus away from the proposed old-age health insurance program and other domestic expenditures. In January 1963, Kennedy proposed a tax cut that would reduce the top marginal tax rate from 91 to 65 percent, and lower the corporate tax rate from 52 to 47 percent. The predictions according to the Keynesian model indicated the cuts would decrease income taxes by about $10 billion and corporate taxes by about $3.5 billion. The plan included reforms designed to reduce the impact of itemized deductions, as well as provisions to help the elderly and handicapped. Republicans and many Southern Democrats opposed the bill, calling for simultaneous reductions in expenditures, but debate continued throughout 1963. Three months after Kennedy died, Johnson pushed the plan through Congress. The Revenue Act of 1964 lowered the top individual rate to 70 percent, and the top corporate rate to 48 percent. Economy Kennedy ended a period of tight fiscal policies, loosening monetary policy to keep interest rates down and to encourage growth of the economy. He presided over the first government budget to top the $100 billion mark, in 1962, and his first budget in 1961 resulted in the nation's first non-war, non-recession deficit. The economy, which had been through two recessions in three years and was in one when Kennedy took office, accelerated notably throughout his administration. Despite low inflation and interest rates, the GDP had grown by an average of only 2.2% per annum during the Eisenhower administration (scarcely more than population growth at the time), and it had declined by 1% during Eisenhower's last twelve months in office. The economy turned around and prospered during Kennedy's presidency. The GDP expanded by an average of 5.5% from early 1961 to late 1963, while inflation remained steady at around 1% and unemployment eased. Industrial production rose by 15% and motor vehicle sales increased by 40%. This sustained rate of growth in GDP and industry continued until around 1969. Kennedy was proud that his Labor Department helped keep wages steady in the steel industry, but was outraged in April 1962 when Roger Blough, the president of U.S. Steel, quietly informed Kennedy that his company would raise prices. In response, Attorney General Robert Kennedy began a price-fixing investigation against U.S. Steel, and President Kennedy convinced other steel companies to rescind their price increases until finally even U.S. Steel, isolated and in danger of being undersold, agreed to rescind its own price increase. An editorial in The New York Times praised Kennedy's actions and stated that the steel industry's price increase "imperil[ed] the economic welfare of the country by inviting a tidal wave of inflation." Nevertheless, the administration's Bureau of Budget reported the price increase would have caused a net gain for the GDP as well as a net budget surplus. The stock market, which had steadily declined since Kennedy's election in 1960, dropped 10% shortly after the administration's action on the steel industry took place. Civil rights movement Kennedy verbally supported civil rights during his 1960 presidential campaign; he telephoned Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther King Jr., who had been jailed while trying to integrate a department store lunch counter. Robert Kennedy called Georgia Governor Ernest Vandiver and obtained King's release from prison, which drew additional Black support to his brother's candidacy. Recognizing that conservative Southern Democrats could block legislation, Kennedy did not introduce civil rights legislation on taking office. He needed their support to pass his economic and foreign policy agendas, and to support his reelection in 1964. Kennedy did appoint many Blacks to office, including civil rights attorney Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Court of Appeals. Kennedy believed the grassroots movement for civil rights would anger many Southern Whites and make it more difficult to pass civil rights laws in Congress, and he distanced himself from it. As articulated by Robert Kennedy, the administration's early priority was to "keep the president out of this civil rights mess." Civil rights movement participants, mainly those on the front line in the South, viewed Kennedy as lukewarm, especially concerning the Freedom Riders. In May 1961, the Congress of Racial Equality, led by James Farmer, organized integrated Freedom Rides to test a Supreme Court case ruling that declared segregation on interstate transportation illegal. The Riders were repeatedly met with mob violence, including by federal and state law enforcement officers. Kennedy assigned federal marshals to protect the Riders rather than using federal troops or uncooperative FBI agents. Kennedy feared sending federal troops would stir up "hated memories of Reconstruction" among conservative Southern whites. The Justice Department then petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to adhere to federal law. By September 1961, the ICC ruled in favor of the petition. On March 6, 1961, Kennedy signed Executive Order 10925, which required government contractors to "take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated during employment without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin." It established the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. In September 1962, James Meredith enrolled at the all-White University of Mississippi but was prevented from entering. In response, Attorney General Robert Kennedy sent 400 federal marshals. The Ole Miss riot of 1962 left two dead and dozens injured, prompting Kennedy to send in 3,000 troops to quell the riot. Meredith did finally enroll in class. Kennedy regretted not sending in troops earlier and he began to doubt whether the "evils of Reconstruction" he had been taught or believed were true. On November 20, 1962, Kennedy signed Executive Order 11063, which prohibited racial discrimination in federally supported housing. On June 11, 1963, Kennedy intervened when Alabama Governor George Wallace blocked the doorway to the University of Alabama to stop two Black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from attending. Wallace moved aside only after being confronted by Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach and the Alabama National Guard, which had just been federalized by order of the president. That evening Kennedy gave his famous Report to the American People on Civil Rights speech on national television and radio, launching his initiative for civil rights legislation—to provide equal access to public schools and other facilities, and greater protection of voting rights. His proposals became part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The day ended with the murder of an NAACP leader, Medgar Evers, in Mississippi. As Kennedy had predicted, the day after his TV speech, and in reaction to it, House Majority leader Carl Albert called to advise him that his two-year signature effort in Congress to combat poverty in Appalachia had been defeated, primarily by the votes of Southern Democrats and Republicans. When Arthur Schlesinger Jr. complimented Kennedy on his remarks, Kennedy bitterly replied, "Yes, and look at what happened to area development the very next day in the House." He then added, "But of course, I had to give that speech, and I'm glad that I did." On June 16, The New York Times published an editorial which argued that while Kennedy had initially "moved too slowly and with little evidence of deep moral commitment" in regards to civil rights he "now demonstrate[d] a genuine sense of urgency about eradicating racial discrimination from our national life." A crowd of over 250,000, predominantly African Americans, gathered in Washington for the civil rights March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. Kennedy initially opposed the march, fearing it would have a negative effect on the prospects for the civil rights bills pending in Congress. These fears were heightened just prior to the march when FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover presented Kennedy with reports that some of King's close advisers, specifically Jack O'Dell and Stanley Levison, were communists. When King ignored the administration's warning, Robert Kennedy authorized the FBI to wiretap King and other leaders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Although Kennedy only gave written approval for limited wiretapping of King's phones "on a trial basis, for a month or so," Hoover extended the clearance so his men were "unshackled" to look for evidence in any areas of King's life they deemed worthy. The Department of Justice was assigned to coordinate the federal government's involvement in the March on Washington on August 28; several hundred thousand dollars to were channeled to the six sponsors of the March. To ensure a peaceful demonstration, the organizers and the president personally edited speeches that were inflammatory and collaborated on all aspects related to times and venues. Thousands of troops were placed on standby. Kennedy watched King's speech on TV and was very impressed. The March was considered a "triumph of managed protest," and not one arrest relating to the demonstration occurred. Afterwards, the March leaders accepted an invitation to the White House to meet with Kennedy and photos were taken. Kennedy felt that the March was a victory for him as well and bolstered the chances for his civil rights bill. Three weeks later on Sunday, September 15, a bomb exploded at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham; by the end of the day, four Black children had died in the explosion, and two others were shot to death in the aftermath. Due to this resurgent violence, the civil rights legislation underwent some drastic amendments that critically endangered any prospects for passage of the bill, to the outrage of Kennedy. He called the congressional leaders to the White House and by the following day the original bill, without the additions, had enough votes to get it out of the House committee. Gaining Republican support, Senator Everett Dirksen promised the legislation would be brought to a vote preventing a Senate filibuster. On July 2, 1964, the guarantees Kennedy proposed in his June 1963 speech became federal law, when President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. Status of women During the 1960 presidential campaign, Kennedy endorsed the concept of equal pay for equal work. In December 1961, Kennedy signed an executive order creating the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women to advise him on issues concerning the status of women. Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt led the commission. The commission's final report was issued in October 1963; it documented the legal and cultural discrimination women in America faced and made several policy recommendations to bring about change. On June 10, 1963, Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which amended the Fair Labor Standards Act and abolished wage disparity based on sex. Crime Under the leadership of the attorney general, the Kennedy administration shifted the focus of the Justice Department, the FBI, and the IRS to organized crime. Kennedy won congressional approval for five bills (i.e., Federal Wire Act of 1961) designed to crack down on interstate racketeering, gambling, and the transportation of firearms. On March 22, 1962, Kennedy signed into law a bill abolishing the mandatory death penalty for first degree murder in the District of Columbia, the only remaining jurisdiction in the United States with such a penalty. The death penalty has not been applied in D.C. since 1957 and has now been abolished. Agriculture Kennedy had relatively little interest in agricultural issues, but he sought to remedy the issue of overproduction, boost the income of farmers, and lower federal expenditures on agriculture. Under the direction of Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman, the administration sought to limit the production of farmers, but these proposals were generally defeated in Congress. To increase demand for domestic agricultural products and help the impoverished, Kennedy launched a pilot Food Stamp program and expanded the federal school lunch program. Native American relations Construction of the Kinzua Dam flooded 10,000 acres (4,000 hectares) of Seneca nation land that they had occupied under the Treaty of 1794, and forced 600 Seneca to relocate to Salamanca, New York. Kennedy was asked by the American Civil Liberties Union to halt the project, but he declined, citing a critical need for flood control. He expressed concern about the plight of the Seneca and directed government agencies to assist in obtaining more land, damages, and assistance to mitigate their displacement. Space policy In the aftermath of the Soviet launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite, NASA proposed a crewed lunar landing by the early 1970s. Funding for the program, known as the Apollo program, was far from certain as Eisenhower held an ambivalent attitude. Early in his presidency, Kennedy was poised to dismantle the crewed space program, but he postponed any decision out of deference to Vice President Johnson, who had been a strong supporter of the program in the Senate. With Jerome Wiesner, Johnson was given a major role in overseeing the administration's space policy, and at Johnson's recommendation Kennedy appointed James E. Webb to head NASA. In Kennedy's State of the Union address in 1961, he suggested international cooperation in space. Khrushchev declined, as the Soviets did not wish to reveal the status of their rocketry and space capabilities. In April 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to fly in space, reinforcing American fears about being left behind by the Soviet Union. Less than a month later, Alan Shepard became the first American to travel into space, strengthening Kennedy's confidence in NASA. The following year, John Glenn, aboard the Mercury craft Friendship 7, became the first American to orbit the Earth. In the aftermath of Gagarin's flight, as well as the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, Kennedy felt pressured to respond to the perceived erosion of American prestige. He asked Johnson to explore the feasibility of beating the Soviets to the Moon. Though he was concerned about the program's costs, Kennedy agreed to Johnson's recommendation that the U.S. commit to a crewed lunar landing as the major objective of the space program. In a May 25 speech to Congress, Kennedy declared, ... I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. Full text Though Gallup polling showed that many in the public were skeptical of the necessity of the Apollo program, members of Congress were strongly supportive in 1961 and approved a major increase in NASA's funding. Webb began reorganizing NASA, increasing its staffing level, and building two new centers: a Launch Operations Center for the large Moon rocket northwest of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and a Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. Kennedy took the latter occasion as an opportunity to deliver another speech promoting the space effort on September 12, 1962, in which he said: No nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in this race for space. ... We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. Full text On November 21, 1962, in a cabinet meeting with Webb and other officials, Kennedy explained that the Moon shot was important for reasons of international prestige, and that the expense was justified. On July 20, 1969, almost six years after Kennedy's death, Apollo 11 landed the first crewed spacecraft on the Moon. Judicial appointments In 1962, Kennedy appointed justices Byron White and Arthur Goldberg to the Supreme Court. Additionally, Kennedy appointed 21 judges to the United States Courts of Appeals, and 102 judges to the United States district courts. Assassination Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on November 22, 1963. He was in Texas on a political trip to smooth over frictions in the Democratic Party between liberals Ralph Yarborough and Don Yarborough (no relation) and conservative John Connally. Traveling in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza, he was shot once in the back, the bullet exiting via his throat, and once in the head. Kennedy was taken to Parkland Hospital, where he was pronounced dead 30 minutes later, at 1:00 p.m. He was 46 years old. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the murder of police officer J. D. Tippit and was subsequently charged with Kennedy's assassination. He denied shooting anyone, claiming he was a patsy, and was shot dead by Jack Ruby on November 24, before he could be prosecuted. Ruby was arrested and convicted for the murder of Oswald. Ruby successfully appealed his conviction but died of cancer on January 3, 1967, while the date for his new trial was being set. President Johnson quickly issued an executive order to create the Warren Commission—chaired by Chief Justice Earl Warren—to investigate the assassination. The commission concluded that Oswald acted alone in killing Kennedy and that Oswald was not part of any conspiracy. These conclusions are disputed by many. A Gallup Poll in November 2013 showed 61% believed in a conspiracy, and only 30% thought that Oswald did it alone. In 1979, the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded, with one third of the committee dissenting, "that Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy." The committee was unable to identify the other gunmen or the extent of the conspiracy. This conclusion was based largely on audio recordings of the shooting. Subsequently, investigative reports from the FBI and a specially appointed National Academy of Sciences Committee determined that "reliable acoustic data do not support a conclusion that there was a second gunman." The Justice Department concluded "that no persuasive evidence can be identified to support the theory of a conspiracy". Funeral Kennedy's body was brought back to Washington. On November 23, six military pallbearers carried the flag-draped coffin into the East Room of the White House, where he lay in repose for 24 hours. Then, the coffin was carried on a horse-drawn caisson to the Capitol to lie in state. Throughout the day and night, hundreds of thousands lined up to view the guarded casket, with a quarter million passing through the rotunda during the 18 hours of lying in state. Kennedy's funeral service was held on November 25, at St. Matthew's Cathedral in Washington, D.C. The Requiem Mass was led by Cardinal Richard Cushing, then the Archbishop of Boston. It was attended by approximately 1,200 guests, including representatives from over 90 countries. After the service, Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia. Personal life, family, and reputation The Kennedy family is one of the most established political families in the United States, having produced a president, three senators, three ambassadors, and multiple other representatives and politicians. While a congressman, Kennedy embarked on a seven-week trip to India, Japan, Vietnam, and Israel in 1951, at which point he became close with his then 25-year-old brother Robert, as well as his 27-year-old sister Patricia. Because they were several years apart in age, the brothers had previously seen little of each other. This 25,000-mile (40,000 km) trip was the first extended time they had spent together and resulted in their becoming best friends. Robert would eventually serve as his brother's attorney general and closest presidential advisor; he would later run for president in 1968 before his assassination, while another Kennedy brother, Ted, ran for president in 1980. Kennedy's nephew and Robert's son, Robert Jr., ran for president in 2024. Wife and children Kennedy met his wife, Jacqueline Lee "Jackie" Bouvier, when he was a congressman. Charles L. Bartlett, a journalist, introduced the pair at a dinner party. They were married on September 12, 1953, at St. Mary's Church in Newport, Rhode Island. The newlyweds honeymooned in Mexico, before settling in their new home, Hickory Hill in McLean, Virginia. In 1956, they sold their Hickory Hill estate to Kennedy's brother Robert, and bought a townhouse in Georgetown. The Kennedys also resided at an apartment in Boston, their legal residence during John's congressional career, and a summer home in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. After a miscarriage in 1955 and a stillbirth in 1956 (their daughter Arabella), their daughter Caroline was born in 1957. John Jr., nicknamed "John-John" by the press as a child, was born in late November 1960, 17 days after his father was elected. John Jr. died in 1999 when the small plane he was piloting crashed. In August 1963, Jackie gave birth to a son, Patrick. However, he died after two days due to complications from birth. Popular image Kennedy and his wife were younger than the presidents and first ladies who preceded them, and both were popular in the media culture in ways more common to pop singers and movie stars than politicians, influencing fashion trends and becoming the subjects of photo spreads in popular magazines. Although Eisenhower had allowed presidential press conferences to be filmed for television, Kennedy was the first president to ask for them to be broadcast live and made good use of the medium. In 1961, the Radio-Television News Directors Association presented Kennedy with its highest honor, the Paul White Award, in recognition of his open relationship with the media. The Kennedys invited a range of artists, writers and intellectuals to White House dinners, raising the profile of the arts in America. On the White House lawn, they established a swimming pool and tree house, while Caroline attended a preschool with 10 other children inside the home. Vaughn Meader's First Family comedy album, which parodied the president, the first lady, their family, and the administration, sold about four million copies. Health Despite a privileged youth, Kennedy was plagued by childhood diseases, including whooping cough, chicken pox, measles, and ear infections. These ailments compelled him to spend a considerable amount of time convalescing. Three months prior to his third birthday, in 1920, Kennedy came down with scarlet fever, a highly contagious and life-threatening disease, and was admitted to Boston City Hospital. During his years at Choate, Kennedy was beset by health problems that culminated with his emergency hospitalization in 1934 at Yale New Haven Hospital, where doctors suspected leukemia. While sick, he became a passionate reader and also a fatalist. In June 1934, he was admitted to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota; the ultimate diagnosis was colitis. After withdrawing from Princeton University, Kennedy was hospitalized for observation at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston. He then spent the spring of 1936 working as a ranch hand outside Benson, Arizona under Jack Speiden. Years after Kennedy's death, it was revealed that in September 1947, when he was 30 and in his first term in Congress, he was diagnosed by Sir Daniel Davis at The London Clinic with Addison's disease. Davis estimated that Kennedy would not live for another year, while Kennedy hoped he could live for ten. In 1966, White House physician Janet Travell revealed that Kennedy also had hypothyroidism. The presence of two endocrine diseases raises the possibility that Kennedy had autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type 2. Kennedy suffered from chronic severe back pain, for which he had surgery. His condition may have had diplomatic repercussions, as he appears to have been taking a combination of drugs to treat back pain during the 1961 Vienna Summit. The combination included hormones, animal organ cells, steroids, vitamins, enzymes, and amphetamines, and possible side effects included hyperactivity, hypertension, impaired judgment, nervousness, and mood swings. Kennedy at one time was regularly seen by three doctors, one of whom, Max Jacobson, at first was unknown to the other two, as his mode of treatment was controversial and used for the most severe bouts of back pain. Into late 1961, disagreements existed among Kennedy's doctors concerning the balance of medication and exercise. Kennedy preferred the former because he was short on time and desired immediate relief. The president's primary White House physician, George G. Burkley, set up gym equipment in the White House basement, where Kennedy did stretching exercises thrice weekly. Details of these and other medical problems were not publicly disclosed during Kennedy's lifetime. Burkley realized that treatments by Jacobson and Travell, including excessive use of steroids and amphetamines, were medically inappropriate, and took action to remove Kennedy from their care. In 2002, Robert Dallek wrote an extensive history of Kennedy's health based on a collection of Kennedy-associated papers from 1955 to 1963, including X-rays and prescription records from Travell. According to Travell's records, during his presidential years Kennedy suffered from high fevers; stomach, colon, and prostate issues; abscesses; high cholesterol; and adrenal problems. Travell kept a "Medicine Administration Record", cataloging Kennedy's medications: injected and ingested corticosteroids for his adrenal insufficiency; procaine shots and ultrasound treatments and hot packs for his back; Lomotil, Metamucil, paregoric, phenobarbital, testosterone, and trasentine to control his diarrhea, abdominal discomfort, and weight loss; penicillin and other antibiotics for his urinary-tract infections and an abscess; and Tuinal to help him sleep. Affairs and friendships Kennedy was single in the 1940s while having relationships with Danish journalist Inga Arvad and actress Gene Tierney. During his time as a senator, he had an affair with Gunilla von Post, who later wrote that the future president tried to end his marriage to be with her before having any children with his wife. Kennedy was also reported to have had affairs with Marilyn Monroe, Judith Campbell, Mary Pinchot Meyer, Marlene Dietrich, White House intern Mimi Alford, and his wife's press secretary, Pamela Turnure. There have been several conspiracy theories surrounding the deaths of Monroe and Meyer, alleging that Kennedy may have had a part in their deaths. The full extent of Kennedy's relationship with Monroe (who in 1962 famously sang "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" at Kennedy's birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden) is not known, though it has been reported that they spent a weekend together in March 1962 while he was staying at Bing Crosby's house. Furthermore, people at the White House switchboard noted that Monroe had called Kennedy during 1962. J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI director, received reports about Kennedy's indiscretions. These included an alleged tryst with an East German spy, Ellen Rometsch. According to historian Michael Beschloss, in July 1963, Hoover reportedly informed Robert Kennedy about the affair with a woman "suspected as a Soviet intelligence agent, someone linked to East German intelligence." Robert reportedly took the matter sufficiently seriously to raise it with leading Democratic and Republican figures in Congress. Former Secret Service agent Larry Newman recalled "morale problems" that the president's indiscretions engendered within the Secret Service. Kennedy inspired affection and loyalty from the members of his team and his supporters. According to Reeves, this included "the logistics of Kennedy's liaisons ... [which] required secrecy and devotion rare in the annals of the energetic service demanded by successful politicians." Kennedy believed that his friendly relationship with members of the press would help protect him from public revelations about his sex life. Sports Kennedy was a fan of Major League Baseball's Boston Red Sox and the National Basketball Association's Boston Celtics. Growing up on Cape Cod, Kennedy and his siblings developed a lifelong passion for sailing. He also took up golf; playing regularly at the Hyannisport Club in Massachusetts and the Palm Beach Country Club in Florida. Religion Kennedy was the first Catholic elected to the presidency. During his childhood, he attended St. Aidan's Church in Brookline, Massachusetts, where he was baptized on June 19, 1917. Historical evaluations and legacy Presidency Historians and political scientists tend to rank Kennedy as an above-average president, and he is usually the highest-ranking president who served less than one full term. A 2014 survey from The Washington Post of 162 members of the American Political Science Association's Presidents and Executive Politics section ranked Kennedy 14th highest overall among the 43 persons who have been president, including then-president Barack Obama. The survey found Kennedy to be the most overrated U.S. president. A 2017 C-SPAN survey has Kennedy ranked among the top ten presidents. A 2023 Gallup, Inc. survey showed Kennedy with a retrospective approval rating of 90 percent, the highest of all U.S. presidents in recent history. Assessments of his policies are mixed. Many of Kennedy's legislative proposals were passed after his death, during the Johnson administration, and Kennedy's death gave those proposals a powerful moral component. Kennedy came in third (behind Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Teresa) in Gallup's List of Widely Admired People of the 20th century. In 1961, he was awarded the Laetare Medal by the University of Notre Dame, considered the most prestigious award for American Catholics. He was posthumously awarded the Pacem in Terris Award (Latin: Peace on Earth) and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Camelot The term "Camelot" is often used to describe his presidency, reflecting both the mythic grandeur accorded Kennedy in death and powerful nostalgia for that era of American history. According to Richard Dean Burns and Joseph M. Siracusa, the most popular theme surrounding Kennedy's legacy is its replay of the legend of King Arthur and Camelot from Arthurian Literature. In an interview following Kennedy's death, his widow Jacqueline mentioned his affection for the Broadway musical Camelot and quoted its closing lines: "Don't let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief, shining moment that was known as Camelot." Critics, especially historians, have mocked the Camelot myth as a distortion of Kennedy's actions, beliefs, and policies. However, in the public memory, the years of Kennedy's presidency are still seen as a brief, brilliant, and shining moment. Memorials and eponyms Examples of the extensive list include: Idlewild Airport in Queens, New York City, renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport on December 24, 1963 NASA Launch Operations Center in Merritt Island, Florida named the John F. Kennedy Space Center on November 29, 1963. USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67), U.S. Navy aircraft carrier ordered in April 1964, launched May 1967, decommissioned August 2007; nicknamed "Big John" Kennedy half dollar, first minted in 1964 John F. Kennedy School of Government, part of Harvard University, renamed in 1966 John F. Kennedy Federal Building in the Government Center section of Boston, opened in 1966 John Fitzgerald Kennedy Memorial, opened in 1970 in Dallas National cultural center was named John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1964, opened in 1971 in Washington, D.C. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum on Columbia Point in Boston; opened in 1979 Statue of John F. Kennedy by Isabel McIlvain on the grounds of the Massachusetts State House in Boston; dedicated on May 29, 1990. Works Books Kennedy, John F. (1940). Why England Slept. W. Funk. ISBN 978-1-44-084990-9. Kennedy, John F. (1956). Profiles in Courage. Harper & Brothers. ISBN 978-0-06-095544-1. Kennedy, John F. (1958). A Nation of Immigrants. Anti-Defamation League. ISBN 978-0-06-144754-9. Select speeches See also Cultural depictions of John F. Kennedy Electoral history of John F. Kennedy History of the United States (1945–1964) Kennedy Doctrine Lincoln–Kennedy coincidences urban legend List of United States presidential assassination attempts and plots Presidential transition of John F. Kennedy Presidents of the United States on U.S. postage stamps "Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy" retort by Senator Lloyd Bentsen, 1988 VP debate Notes References Citations Works cited Further reading External links John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site Appearances on C-SPAN John F. Kennedy: A Resource Guide – the Library of Congress Extensive Essays on JFK with shorter essays on his cabinet and First Lady – Miller Center of Public Affairs Kennedy Administration from Office of the Historian, United States Government Printing Office Works by or about John F. Kennedy at the Internet Archive Works by John F. Kennedy at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) John F. Kennedy at Curlie Works by John F. Kennedy at Project Gutenberg Kennedy Convocation Collection at the Amherst College Archives & Special Collections, documenting one of his last visits before his assassination United States Congress. "John F. Kennedy (id: K000107)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

Robert Sargent Shriver Jr. (November 9, 1915 – January 18, 2011) was an American diplomat, politician, and activist. He was a member of the Shriver family by birth, and a member of the Kennedy family through his marriage to Eunice Kennedy. Shriver was the driving force behind the creation of the Peace Corps, and founded the Job Corps, Head Start, VISTA, Upward Bound, and other programs as the architect of the 1960s War on Poverty. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for vice president in the 1972 presidential election. Born in Westminster, Maryland, Shriver attended Yale University, then Yale Law School, graduating in 1941. An opponent of U.S. entry into World War II, he helped establish the America First Committee but volunteered for the United States Navy before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. During the war, he served in the South Pacific, participating in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. After being discharged from the navy, he worked as an assistant editor for Newsweek and met Eunice Kennedy, marrying her in 1953. He worked on the 1960 presidential campaign of his brother-in-law, John F. Kennedy, and helped establish the Peace Corps after Kennedy's victory. After Kennedy's assassination, Shriver served in the administration of Lyndon B. Johnson and helped establish several anti-poverty programs as director of the Office of Economic Opportunity from October 16, 1964, to March 22, 1968. He also served as the United States Ambassador to France from 1968 to 1970. In 1972, Democratic vice presidential nominee Thomas Eagleton resigned from the ticket, and Shriver was chosen as his replacement. The Democratic ticket of George McGovern and Shriver lost in a landslide election defeat to Republican President Richard Nixon and Vice President Spiro Agnew. Shriver briefly sought the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination but dropped out of the race after the first set of primaries. After leaving office, he resumed the practice of law, becoming a partner with Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson. He also served as president of the Special Olympics and was briefly a part-owner of the Baltimore Orioles. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2003 and died in Bethesda, Maryland, in 2011. Early life and education Robert Sargent Shriver Jr. was born in Westminster, Maryland, the younger of two sons. Shriver's parents Robert Sargent Shriver Sr. and Hilda, who had also been born with the surname Shriver, were second cousins. His elder brother was Thomas Herbert Shriver. Shriver was a member of the Shriver family that has been in Maryland since 1721 and have occupied the Union Mills Homestead. His grandfather, Thomas Herbert Shriver, guided J. E. B. Stuart to the battle of Gettysburg when Thomas was just seventeen years of age. He was also a descendant of David Shriver, who signed the Maryland Constitution and Bill of Rights at Maryland's Constitutional Convention of 1776. He spent his high school years at Canterbury School in New Milford, Connecticut, which he attended on a full scholarship. In his freshman year at Canterbury, he befriended future brother-in-law President John F. Kennedy. He was on Canterbury's baseball, basketball, and football teams, became the editor of the school's newspaper, and participated in choral and debating clubs. On June 9, 2023, Shriver was inducted into the Canterbury School Athletic Hall of Fame for all three sports. After graduating from The Browning School in 1934, Shriver spent the summer in Germany as part of The Experiment in International Living, returning in the fall of 1934 to enter Yale University, where he was a brother in the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, as well as a member of Yale's Scroll and Key society. Military career An early opponent of American involvement in World War II, Shriver was a founding member of the America First Committee, an organization started in 1940 by a group of Yale Law School students, also including future President Gerald Ford and future Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, which tried to keep the US out of the European war. Nevertheless, Shriver volunteered for the US Navy before the attack on Pearl Harbor and said he had a duty to serve his country even if he disagreed with its policies. He spent five years on active duty, mostly in the South Pacific, serving aboard the USS South Dakota (BB-57), reaching the rank of lieutenant commander (O-4). He was awarded a Purple Heart for wounds he received during the bombardment of Guadalcanal. Family life Shriver's relationship with the Kennedys began when he was working as an assistant editor at Newsweek after his discharge from the Navy. He met Eunice Kennedy at a party in New York, and shortly afterwards, family patriarch Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. asked him to look at diary entries written by his eldest son, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., who had died in a plane crash while he was on a military mission during World War II. Shriver was later hired to manage the Merchandise Mart, part of Kennedy's business empire, in Chicago, Illinois. After a seven-year courtship, Shriver married Eunice Kennedy on May 23, 1953, at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. She was the third daughter of Joseph Kennedy Sr. and Rose Kennedy. They had five children: Robert Sargent "Bobby" Shriver III (born April 28, 1954), Maria Owings Shriver (born November 6, 1955), Timothy Perry Shriver (born August 29, 1959), Mark Kennedy Shriver (born February 17, 1964), and Anthony Paul Kennedy Shriver (born July 20, 1965). The Shrivers were married for 56 years, and often worked together on projects. Shriver was admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia, Illinois, and New York, and at the US Supreme Court. A devout Catholic, Shriver attended daily Mass and always carried a rosary of well-worn wooden beads. He was critical of abortion and was a signatory to "A New Compact of Care: Caring about Women, Caring for the Unborn", which appeared in The New York Times in July 1992 and stated that "To establish justice and to promote the general welfare, America does not need the abortion license. What America needs are policies that responsibly protect and advance the interest of mothers and their children, both before and after birth." Public service and political career 1950s In May 1954, Shriver was appointed to the Chicago Board of Education by Chicago mayor Martin H. Kennelly. On October 26, 1955, Shriver was chosen to serve as president of the Chicago Board of Education by a vote of the board. Shriver would serve in the position of president for five years, resigning from the position on October 10, 1960. At the time he became president of the board, he was the second-youngest individual to hold that office, being only 39. At the time, Chicago Public Schools was the second-largest school district in the United States. Shriver also served as director of the Catholic Interracial Council, a group created to advocate for desegregation in Chicago schools. Shriver considered several runs for statewide office. His first consideration was for the Democratic nomination in the 1956 Illinois gubernatorial election. Shriver had been courted by many Chicago Democrats, including Mayor Richard J. Daley, but ultimately chose to stay out of the election. The primary was won by Cook County Treasurer Herbert C. Paschen who would be forced to withdraw as the nominee after becoming embroiled in scandals surrounding his work as Treasurer. District Court Judge Richard B. Austin, was chosen as the replacement and went on to narrowly lose the election to incumbent Governor William Stratton. 1960s In 1960, Shriver once again received serious courting by Democratic leaders in both Chicago and across the state to enter the Democratic primary for the 1960 Illinois gubernatorial election. Shriver even met with Mayor Daley and the Cook County Democratic Committee to gauge a possible run at Daley's urging. However his father-in-law, Joseph P. Kennedy, told Shriver he would not be able to run or else he could seriously cripple the Presidential campaign of his brother-in-law, John F. Kennedy. His father-in-law cited the oversaturation of Catholic candidates in Illinois could cost the Democrats the state in November (Kennedy, Shriver, and Daley were all Catholic). When John F. Kennedy ran for president, Shriver worked as a political and organization coordinator in the Wisconsin and West Virginia primaries. During Kennedy's presidential term, Shriver founded and served as the first director of the Peace Corps from March 22, 1961, to February 28, 1966. Shriver has been credited with convincing a hesitant Kennedy to contact Coretta Scott King after her husband, prominent civil rights activist Martin Luther King, was jailed for civil disobedience in Georgia in October 1960. Kennedy's phone call to Coretta Scott King was credited with helping to strengthen black support for Kennedy's candidacy. After Kennedy's assassination, Shriver continued to serve as Director of the Peace Corps and served as Special Assistant to President Lyndon Johnson. Under Johnson, he created the Office of Economic Opportunity and served as its first director. He is known as the "architect" of the Johnson administration's "War on Poverty". Hired by President Johnson to be the "salesman" for Johnson's War on Poverty initiative, Shriver initially was "not interested in hearing about community action proposals." The Job Corps movement was more consistent with his goals. Thus, soon after his appointment, Shriver "moved quickly to reconsider the proposed anti-poverty initiative." Shriver founded numerous social programs and organizations, including Head Start, VISTA, Job Corps, Community Action, Upward Bound, Foster Grandparents, Legal Services, the National Clearinghouse for Legal Services (now the Shriver Center), Indian and Migrant Opportunities and Neighborhood Health Services, in addition to directing the Peace Corps. He was active in the Special Olympics, which was founded in 1968 by his wife Eunice. Shriver was awarded the Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award in 1967. It was named after a 1963 encyclical letter by Pope John XXIII that calls upon all people of good will to secure peace among all nations. Pacem in terris is Latin for 'Peace on Earth'. In 1964 Shriver was considered one of the primary finalists on Johnson's shortlist to be vice president. After weighing the benefits of Shriver as the second spot on the ticket, Johnson ultimately chose Hubert Humphrey. Shriver again considered running for Governor of Illinois in the 1964 Illinois gubernatorial election. However, he demurred after being asked by President Johnson to stay on and continue leading the creation of many of the aforementioned War on Poverty programs that would become part of the Great Society. In 1968, Shriver was once again seriously courted by Illinois Democrats for both the 1968 Illinois gubernatorial election against increasingly unpopular incumbent Governor Otto Kerner, Jr. and the 1968 United States Senate election in Illinois against incumbent Republican Everett Dirksen. Shriver expressed little interest in serving in the Senate, not wanting to be overshadowed by his brothers-in-law Ted Kennedy and specifically Robert Kennedy, who he had expected to run for president in 1972. To move Shriver toward a run, Daley pitched to Illinois Democratic leaders and Shriver on recruiting Illinois State Treasurer Adlai E. Stevenson III to run for the Senate seat with Shriver running for Governor. Shriver even received Johnson's blessing to make the run as part of Daley's "Dream Ticket", should he choose to do so. However, when Stevenson spoke out against the Vietnam War, Daley rejected Stevenson's candidacy and again tried to recruit Shriver for the Senate seat. Johnson had offered Shriver the post of U.S. Ambassador to France, but asked for time to consider the offer, during which he considered his potential candidacy. When Stevenson lost Daley's support for the Senate seat and began trying to recruit Shriver again, Shriver decided to accept Johnson's offer of the Ambassadorship. Shriver served as U.S. Ambassador to France from 1968 to 1970, becoming a quasi-celebrity among the French for bringing what Time magazine called "a rare and welcome panache" to the normally sedate world of international diplomacy. Upon returning to the United States in 1970, Shriver was speculated to be considering challenging incumbent Democratic Governor Marvin Mandel for the Democratic nomination for the 1970 Maryland gubernatorial election, reports he did nothing to dissuade despite Mandel's sizable campaign fund and being the state's first Jewish Governor. Mandel had been elected by the Maryland Legislature to finish out the term Spiro Agnew had been elected to in 1966, but resigned from after being elected Vice President in 1968. After traveling the state to gauge the support a potential candidacy might have, Shriver met with Mandel in the Governor's office. After emerging from the meeting, Shriver declined to be a candidate. Mandel recalled years later, "We had a long discussion, and when it was over, he wasn't a candidate." Vice Presidential candidacy During the 1972 Democratic National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida, George McGovern considered Shriver as a vice presidential candidate, but his campaign was unable to reach Shriver, who was at the time visiting Moscow, Soviet Union. McGovern then selected Thomas Eagleton instead, who later resigned from the Democratic ticket following revelations of past mental health treatments. Shriver replaced Eagleton on the ticket. The McGovern-Shriver ticket lost to Republican incumbents Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew. Presidential candidacy Shriver unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976. In the months before the primaries began, political observers thought that Shriver would draw strength from legions of former colleagues from the Peace Corps and the War on Poverty programs, and he was even seen as an inheritor of the Kennedy legacy, but neither theory proved true. His candidacy was short-lived and he returned to private life. Life after politics Shriver was a partner of the Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson law firm in Washington, D.C., where he specialized in international law and foreign affairs, beginning in 1971. He retired as partner in 1986 and was then named of counsel to the firm. In 1981, Shriver was appointed to the Rockefeller University Council, an organization devoted exclusively to research and graduate education in the biomedical and related sciences. In 1984, he was elected president of Special Olympics by the board of directors; as president, he directed the operation and international development of sports programs around the world. Six years later, in 1990, he was appointed chairman of the board of Special Olympics. He was an investor in the Baltimore Orioles along with his eldest son Bobby Shriver, Eli Jacobs, and Larry Lucchino from 1989 to 1993. Illness and death Shriver was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2003. In 2004, his daughter, Maria, published a children's book, What's Happening to Grandpa?, to help explain Alzheimer's to children. The book gives suggestions on how to help and to show love to an elderly person with the disease. In July 2007, Shriver's son-in-law, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, speaking in favor of stem-cell research, said that Shriver's Alzheimer's disease had advanced to the point that "Today, he does not even recognize his wife." Maria Shriver discusses her father's worsening condition in a segment for the four-part 2009 HBO documentary series The Alzheimer's Project called Grandpa, Do You Know Who I Am?, including describing a moment when she decided to stop trying to correct his various delusions. On August 11, 2009, Shriver's wife of 56 years, Eunice, died at the age of 88. He attended her wake and funeral in Centerville and Hyannis, Massachusetts. Two weeks later, on August 29, 2009, he attended the funeral of her brother Ted Kennedy in Boston, Massachusetts. Shriver died on January 18, 2011, in Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, at age 95. Shriver's family released a statement calling him "a man of giant love, energy, enthusiasm, and commitment" who "lived to make the world a more joyful, faithful, and compassionate place." President Barack Obama also released a statement, calling Shriver "one of the brightest lights of the greatest generation". Aaron S. Williams, the director of the Peace Corps, said in a statement, "The entire Peace Corps community is deeply saddened by the passing of Sargent Shriver." He further noted that Shriver "served as our founder, friend, and guiding light for the past 50 years" and that "his legacy of idealism will live on in the work of current and future Peace Corps volunteers." He is buried alongside his wife Eunice at St. Francis Xavier Cemetery in Centerville, Massachusetts. Legacy In 1968, he was awarded the Laetare Medal by the University of Notre Dame, the oldest and most prestigious award for American Catholics. In 1993, Shriver received the Franklin D. Roosevelt Freedom From Want Award. On August 8, 1994, Shriver received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor, from President Bill Clinton. In December 1993, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County created the Shriver Center in honor of Shriver and his wife. The center serves as the university's civic engagement, and applied learning organization. The Shriver Center also is home to the Shriver Peaceworker Program and the Shriver Living Learning Community. The Job Corps dedicated a center to his name in 1998 – the "Shriver Job Corps Center" – located in Devens, Massachusetts. The National Clearinghouse for Legal Services (renamed the National Center on Poverty Law in 1995) was renamed the Shriver Center in 2002 and each year awards a Sargent Shriver Award for Equal Justice. Sargent Shriver Elementary School, located in Silver Spring, Maryland, is named after him. In January 2008, a documentary film about Shriver aired on PBS, titled American Idealist: The Story of Sargent Shriver. The Kennedy Shriver Aquatic Center in Bethesda, Maryland, is named after him and Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Following his death, Daniel Larison wrote: Shriver was an admirable, principled, and conscientious man who respected the dignity and sanctity of human life, and he also happened to be a contemporary and in-law of Kennedy. Not only did Shriver represent a "link" with JFK, but he represented a particular culture of white ethnic Catholic Democratic politics that has been gradually disappearing for the last fifty years. A pro-life Catholic, Shriver had been a founding member of the America First Committee, and more famously he was also on the 1972 antiwar ticket with George McGovern. In short, he represented much of what was good in the Democratic Party of his time. Electoral history 1972 United States presidential election Richard Nixon/Spiro Agnew (R) (inc.) – 47,168,710 (60.7%) and 520 electoral votes (49 states carried) George McGovern/Sargent Shriver (D) – 29,173,222 (37.5%) and 17 electoral votes (1 state and D.C. carried) John Hospers/Theodora Nathan (Libertarian) – 3,674 (0.00%) and 1 electoral vote (Republican faithless elector) John G. Schmitz/Thomas J. Anderson (AI) – 1,100,868 (1.4%) and 0 electoral votes Linda Jenness/Andrew Pulley (Socialist Workers) – 83,380 (0.1%) Benjamin Spock/Julius Hobson (People's) – 78,759 (0.1%) 1976 Democratic presidential primaries Jimmy Carter – 6,235,609 (39.27%) Jerry Brown – 2,449,374 (15.43%) George Wallace – 1,955,388 (12.31%) Mo Udall – 1,611,754 (10.15%) Henry M. Jackson – 1,134,375 (7.14%) Frank Church – 830,818 (5.23%) Robert Byrd – 340,309 (2.14%) Sargent Shriver – 304,399 (1.92%) Unpledged – 283,437 (1.79%) Ellen McCormack – 238,027 (1.50%) Fred R. Harris – 234,568 (1.48%) Milton Shapp – 88,254 (0.56%) Birch Bayh – 86,438 (0.54%) Hubert Humphrey – 61,992 (0.39%) Ted Kennedy – 19,805 (0.13%) Lloyd Bentsen – 4,046 (0.03%) Terry Sanford – 404 (0.00%) Portrayals in film The film Too Young the Hero (1988), about the life of Calvin Graham, features a scene during World War II in which Graham (played by Ricky Schroder) meets Shriver (played by Carl Mueller). Al Conti portrays Shriver in the 1983 miniseries Kennedy. He is played by David De Beck in the 2018 film Chappaquiddick. See also List of United States political appointments across party lines References Further reading Stossel, Scott (2004). Sarge: The life and times of Sargent Shriver. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books. ISBN 978-1-58834-127-3. Shriver, Mark (2012). A Good Man: Rediscovering My Father, Sargent Shriver. Henry Holt & Co. ISBN 978-0805095302. External links Sargent Shriver Peace Institute Appearances on C-SPAN FBI file on Sargent Shriver Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law Video: Sargent Shriver delivering a speech about the Peace Corps in 1965 Sargent Shriver at Find a Grave

As of August 3, 2024, what is the hometown of the captain of the team that won the Stanley Cup three years before 2017?

Manhattan Beach, CA

Numerical reasoning | Post processing

The 2014 Stanley Cup Finals was the championship series of the National Hockey League's (NHL) 2013–14 season, and the culmination of the 2014 Stanley Cup playoffs. The League realigned its divisions prior to the season, and changed the structure of the playoffs, but the championship series remained the same. The Western Conference champion Los Angeles Kings defeated the Eastern Conference champion New York Rangers four games to one to win their second championship in franchise history, marking the first time since 2007 that the championship series was determined in fewer than six games. Their Stanley Cup–winning run of 26 playoff games was later tied by the 2019 St. Louis Blues for the longest of any Stanley Cup–winning team in history. Los Angeles had home ice advantage in the series, as the Kings finished with a better regular season record than the Rangers. The series started on June 4 and ended on June 13 with the Kings winning their second Stanley Cup in three seasons. It was the first meeting between teams from New York City and Los Angeles for a major professional sports championship since the Yankees and the Dodgers played in the 1981 World Series. Coincidentally, 1981 was also the last time the Rangers and the Kings had met in the postseason; that was the last season where the league did not use a geographical based playoff format and as a result any two teams could meet in any round of the postseason regardless of geography. In 1981 the Rangers eliminated the Kings during the first round of the playoffs. Paths to the Finals New York Rangers This was New York's 11th appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals, and they were seeking their fifth Cup championship overall and their first one since 1994, 20 years earlier. Since their win in 1994, their only other post-season highlights were reaching the Conference Finals in 1997 and 2012. The Rangers entered the season after essentially swapping head coaches with the Vancouver Canucks: the Rangers and the Canucks fired John Tortorella and Alain Vigneault, respectively, and then coincidentally hired the other's former coach. While Vancouver, under Tortorella's first year, failed to make the playoffs, Vigneault guided New York to 96 regular season points and second place in the new Metropolitan Division. En route, the Rangers made a major trade with the Tampa Bay Lightning on March 5, acquiring Tampa Bay's captain Martin St. Louis in exchange for their own captain Ryan Callahan. The transaction happened as Callahan and the Rangers were not close to terms on a new contract, while St. Louis was unhappy at his initial omission from the Olympics by Steve Yzerman (general manager of both the Lightning and Team Canada). In the first round of the playoffs, the Rangers eliminated the Philadelphia Flyers in seven games. Then, in the second round against the Pittsburgh Penguins, New York overcame a 3–1 game deficit to win the series. In the Eastern Conference Finals, the Rangers defeated the Montreal Canadiens in six games to capture their first Eastern Conference championship in 20 years. In the process, the Rangers became the first team ever to play two full seven-game series in the first two rounds of the playoffs and reach the Stanley Cup Finals, a feat later matched and exceeded in the same postseason by the Kings. Due to trading away captain Ryan Callahan and not naming a successor for the remainder of the season, Rangers were the first team since the 1972–73 Chicago Black Hawks to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals without a captain. By reaching the Finals with the Rangers, Mats Zuccarello made history when he became the first Norwegian to play in the Stanley Cup Finals. Los Angeles Kings Los Angeles made their third appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals and sought to capture their second Cup championship after winning it in 2012. Much of the core from the Kings' 2012 championship remained on the team. Los Angeles made a late regular season trade on March 5, acquiring former Ranger Marian Gaborik from the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for Matt Frattin and two draft picks. The Kings then finished the regular season in third place in the Pacific Division with 100 points. The Finals were the only series in the 2014 playoffs in which the Kings had home ice advantage. Los Angeles needed three consecutive game sevens to advance to the Cup Finals (breaking the aforementioned Rangers' game sevens record just a couple of days later), winning all of them on the road. The team became the fourth team in NHL playoff history to win a seven-game series after losing the first three games, defeating the San Jose Sharks in the first round. The Kings eliminated their local rival Anaheim Ducks next, despite squandering a 2–0 series lead and then facing a 3–2 series deficit. In a rematch of the 2013 Western Conference Final, the Kings defeated the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks in the Western Conference Final who had forced a seventh game after trailing the series 3–1. Like their 2012 championship series, the Kings' 2014 Cup Finals was marked by a 3–0 series start of winning the first two games in overtime and the third as a shutout. With their 2014 Stanley Cup win, the Kings have the distinction of winning the first championship after the League's realignment as well as becoming the first team in the salary-cap era to win two championships in the span of three years or less. Their 2012 championship made them also the final team to win the Cup in the League's last full season before the realignment, as the 2012–13 season was shortened by a lockout. The Kings played a record 26 playoff games to win the Stanley Cup, the most ever for a champion (the St. Louis Blues matched this feat in 2019). Game summaries Number in parentheses represents the player's total in goals or assists to that point of the entire four rounds of the playoffs Game one The Kings overcame a two-goal deficit to defeat the Rangers 3–2 in the first game. New York built their 2–0 lead in the first period by scoring 1:42 apart. Benoit Pouliot scored first on a breakaway after stealing the puck from Drew Doughty, then shooting past Jonathan Quick. Carl Hagelin then recorded a short-handed goal, as his shot was initially blocked by Quick but then rebounded off of Slava Voynov's skate into the net. The Kings' comeback began with Kyle Clifford's goal late in the first period. Clifford shot it in from near the left post after receiving a pass from Jeff Carter. Doughty tied the game in the second period, beating Henrik Lundqvist from the left circle. In the third period, the Kings outshot the Rangers, 20–3, but neither Lundqvist nor Quick allowed any goals. In the final minute of regulation, Quick stopped Hagelin's shot on a breakaway, and seconds later Lundqvist barely kept Carter's wrap-around shot from crossing the goal line. In overtime, Daniel Girardi turned over the puck in the New York zone, leading Mike Richards to pass the puck to Justin Williams, who then put the puck over Lundqvist to win the game. Game two The Kings overcame three two-goal deficits to defeat the Rangers 5–4 in double overtime. Including their game seven victory in the Western Conference Final against the Chicago Blackhawks, Los Angeles became the first team in Stanley Cup playoffs history to overcome three consecutive two-goal deficits. With the first game also going to overtime, it marked the third consecutive year that the first two games of the Stanley Cup Finals went to overtime. Ryan McDonagh and Mats Zuccarello scored in the first period to give the Rangers a 2–0 lead. Jarret Stoll then cut New York's lead in half at 1:46 of the second period. The teams then traded power play goals with Martin St. Louis scoring for the Rangers and Willie Mitchell for the Kings. Eleven seconds after Mitchell's goal, Derick Brassard gave New York a 4–2 lead after miscommunication between Mitchell and Jonathan Quick behind the Kings net lead to a turnover. Dwight King's goal to cut the Rangers' lead to 4–3 early in the third period was controversial. King and McDonagh were fighting for position in front of Henrik Lundqvist when Matt Greene shot the puck from the right point. King made contact with Lundqvist in the crease as he touched the puck before it went into the net but no goaltender interference was called: the referee ruled that the contact occurred after the puck already sailed past Lundqvist. Marian Gaborik then tied the game with an unassisted goal at 7:36 of the third during a scramble in front of the New York net. At 10:26 of double overtime, Dustin Brown deflected Mitchell's shot from the left point into the net to give the Kings the 5–4 win. This gave the Kings a 2–0 series lead as the series shifted to New York City, despite never leading in either game during regulation time in Los Angeles. Game three This was the first Stanley Cup Finals game played in the state of New York since Game 6 of the 1999 Finals in Buffalo. The Kings won 3–0, led by the goaltending of Jonathan Quick, who shut out the Rangers on 32 shots. The first period was marked by tight checking, and only nine shots were recorded by the two teams. Mats Zuccarello nearly scored for the Rangers at 12:37 of the first, but his shot went off the post and Quick's stick to stay out. With one second to play, Jeff Carter's shot from the slot deflected off a Rangers defenceman past Henrik Lundqvist to put the Kings ahead by one. In the second period, Jake Muzzin scored from the point on another deflection off a Rangers player. Mike Richards scored later in the period, on a two-on-one, his attempted pass deflecting off a Rangers player back to him, leaving Lundqvist out of position to make the stop. Meanwhile, Quick stopped all 17 shots the Rangers put on the net in the second, including a stick save on Derick Brassard when he appeared to be well out of position to make the save. There was no scoring in the third and the Kings took a three games to none series lead, putting the Rangers on the brink of elimination. Game four The Rangers avoided becoming the first team since 1998 to get swept in the Finals by defeating the Kings 2–1. In a turn-around from game three, the Kings outshot the Rangers and lost as Rangers netminder Henrik Lundqvist saved 40 out of 41 shots. Like games one and two, the Rangers scored the first two goals, on goals by Benoit Pouliot and Martin St. Louis. Dustin Brown scored for the Kings in the second period to cut the margin to 2–1. In the third period, the Kings put pressure on the Rangers and nearly tied the score when the puck slid past Lundqvist to rest on the goal line before being cleared away. Earlier, in the first period, another shot by the Kings also rested on the goal line and did not go in. In all, the Kings outshot the Rangers 15–1 in the third, but did not score. Game five The Kings clinched their second Stanley Cup in franchise history, their first since 2012, by defeating the Rangers 3–2 on home ice. This was the first Stanley Cup–clinching game since 2010 to be determined in overtime, and the first time that the home team had the overtime Stanley Cup winner since 1980. The Kings played 26 playoff games on their road to the trophy, more than any previous Stanley Cup–winning team. The Kings grabbed the lead in the first period with an even-strength goal by Justin Williams. In the second, Chris Kreider converted on a Rangers power play before Brian Boyle scored a short-handed goal to put the road team up by one with 30 seconds left. In the third, Marian Gaborik tied the game at two on a Kings power play. No more goals were scored in regulation and the game went to overtime. The first overtime period featured one penalty for the Kings, but the Rangers were unable to score on the ensuing power play. With five minutes to go in the second overtime period and the Kings on a 3-on-2 breakaway, Tyler Toffoli fired a shot that Henrik Lundqvist kicked out directly to Alec Martinez, who fired it into the open net to win both the game and the series for the Kings. At that time, the Kings had outshot the Rangers 51–30. It was the longest game in Kings history until 2018. Team rosters Years indicated in boldface under the "Finals appearance" column signify that the player won the Stanley Cup in the given year. Los Angeles Kings New York Rangers Note: Brad Richards served as the Rangers unofficial team captain during the 2014 Stanley Cup playoffs. Richards was the alternate captain with the longest tenure in the league on the roster at the time of the playoffs. Stanley Cup engraving The 2014 Stanley Cup was presented to Kings captain Dustin Brown by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman following the Kings 3–2 overtime win over the Rangers in game five. The following Kings players and staff had their names engraved on the Stanley Cup 2013–14 Los Angeles Kings Players 1 Played both center and wing. Stanley Cup engraving (D) – **Jeff Schultz played 67 regular season and two playoff games for the Manchester Monarchs(AHL). He was recalled during the playoffs and played seven playoff games for Los Angeles, including one in the Conference Finals. He spent the whole regular season in the minors and did not play in the Stanley Cup Finals. Los Angeles requested that his name be included. It was included for playing in the Conference Finals and playing in his eighth NHL season (C) – Colin Fraser played 33 regular-season games for Los Angeles, but no playoff games. Fraser was sent to the minors in February. He played ten games for Manchester Monarchs (AHL) before getting injured. He later rejoined the Kings for the playoffs in April. Fraser did not play half of the Kings' regular-season games, or a single game in Finals (the criteria for being automatically included in the engravings), and Los Angeles did not request that his name be included. (Colin Fraser's name is on the Stanley Cup with Blackhawks in 2010 and Kings in 2012.) (C) – Linden Vey played in 18 regular-season games and spent most of the regular season in the minors before being recalled during the playoffs, where he did not play. Los Angeles did not request his name be included. (D) – Andrew Campbell played in three regular-season games and spent most of the regular season in the minors before being recalled during the playoffs, where he did not play. Los Angeles did not request his name be included. Edward P. Roski, Jr. (owner) asked that his name not be included, so that another member could get his name on the Stanley Cup (on cup in 2012). Rob Laird, (Sr. Pro Scout), and Ted Fikre (Chief Legal & Development Officer), who were listed on the cup with Los Angeles in 2012, agreed not to have their names engraved in 2014 so that two other scouts could be listed on the Stanley Cup for the first time. Six out of 12 scouts had their name on the Stanley Cup in 2014 (Missing six were Bob Crocker, Bob Friedlander, Bill Gurney, Denis Fugere, Mike Donelly, Christian Ruuttu). Canadian Robyn Regehr was the first player born in Brazil to win the Stanley Cup. He lived in Indonesia, before settling in Rosthern, Saskatchewan as a child. Included on team picture, but left off the Stanley Cup Colin Fraser (C), Ryan Van Asten (Strength and Conditioning Coach), Chris Pikosky (Massage Therapist), Denver Wilson (Asst. Equipment Manager), Bobby Halfacre (Equipment Asst.) Television This was the last year under the League's current Canadian TV contracts with CBC (English broadcasts of the Finals) and the cable network TSN (English broadcasts), and RDS (French broadcasts). The NHL's twelve-year contract with Rogers Communications would then take effect beginning next season, with English-language national coverage of the Finals being sub-licensed to CBC, and French-language telecasts being sub-licensed to TVA Sports. TSN will only be showing regional games for Toronto, Ottawa and Winnipeg starting the fall of 2014. In the United States, NBCSN broadcast games three and four, while NBC televised the remaining games. NBC Sports originally planned to repeat its coverage pattern from the last few seasons: NBCSN would televise game two and three, while NBC would broadcast game one, and then games four to seven. After the League scheduled game two on the day of the 2014 Belmont Stakes, coverage of games two and four were switched so NBC's telecast of the horse race would serve as lead-in programming to game two. Due to the death of a family member, NBC lead play-by-play announcer Mike Emrick missed game one. Kenny Albert, who was also the Rangers radio announcer for WEPN and announced several national games (including the Western Conference Finals) for NBC/NBCSN, filled in for Emrick in the first game. Quotes Starting back up with it now it’s Martinez in a three on two, Clifford gave it across. It’s held in a shot, save, rebound, SCORE! THE STANLEY CUP! MARTINEZ! References External links Official Site

Dustin James Brown (born November 4, 1984) is an American former professional ice hockey right winger. Brown spent his entire NHL career with the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League (NHL), who drafted him 13th overall in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft. He is the Kings all-time games leader and served as team captain from 2008 to 2016; during this time he led the Kings to the 2012 and 2014 Stanley Cup championships, becoming the first Kings captain and second American captain (behind Derian Hatcher) to win the Stanley Cup. During the 2012–13 NHL lockout, he played for ZSC Lions in the Swiss National League A. Brown was noted for his physical playing style, consistently ranking among NHL leaders in hits and penalties drawn, and his reserved, lead-by-example approach to his captaincy of the Kings. Internationally, Brown has represented the United States at three World Championships, winning a bronze medal in 2004, and two World Junior Championships. He won a silver medal as an alternate captain of the United States national team at the 2010 Winter Olympics. Brown received the 2011 NHL Foundation Player Award for his extensive charity work in the Los Angeles community, and the Mark Messier Leadership Award in 2014. Playing career Junior career After playing hockey at Ithaca High School for two years, Brown left his hometown to play junior hockey at age 16. He was drafted in the second round, 26th overall, by the Guelph Storm in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) Priority Selection Draft. Brown played three seasons for Guelph, scoring 194 points in 174 games. He was drafted by the Los Angeles Kings in the first round, 13 overall, in 2003. Los Angeles Kings (2003–2022) 2003–2008: Early seasons Brown signed a three-year entry-level contract with the Kings and made the Kings' 2003–04 team out of training camp. His first NHL game was October 9, 2003, against the Detroit Red Wings. Brown saw fourth-line ice time in his rookie year, and he scored his first NHL goal on November 22, 2003, in a 2–0 win over the Colorado Avalanche. He managed just 1 goal and 5 points in 31 games before his season was cut short by a high ankle sprain. Nonetheless, Brown's physicality made a favorable impression with the Kings' coaching staff. The following season was cancelled due to the NHL lockout. Brown was assigned to the Manchester Monarchs, the Kings' American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, in order to develop his offensive game. He performed well in Manchester, averaging nearly a point per game and readying himself for an expanded NHL role. With the lockout over, and NHL play resuming in 2005–06, Brown cemented his place on the team. As a 21-year-old checking forward, he managed 28 points in 79 games. More impressively, he led the team (and ranked 13th in the NHL) with 175 hits, and he drew the second most penalties in the NHL despite his limited ice time. A restricted free agent at the end of the year, Brown signed a two-year contract before the start of the 2006–07 season. Brown's third season saw an expansion in his role, as he was placed on the top line with star rookie center Anže Kopitar. The two young forwards became frequent linemates, as Brown's hitting abilities and willingness to shoot complemented Kopitar's dynamic passing and puck possession skills. Receiving the third-most ice time among Kings forwards, Brown responded with career-highs of 17 goals and 46 points in 81 games. Brown also received the most short-handed ice time among Kings forwards, a sign of his growing defensive reliability. He finished second in the NHL in hits, the first of six consecutive years that he ranked top three in the NHL in that category. On October 26, 2007, shortly after the start of the 2007–08 season, the Kings and Brown agreed to a six-year, $19.05 million contract extension that ran through the 2013–14 season. The contract was signed a full year before Brown hit restricted free agency, partially because young forwards Dustin Penner of the Anaheim Ducks and Thomas Vanek of the Buffalo Sabres had just received lucrative offer sheets in restricted free agency, and the Kings did not want Brown to receive one. Brown produced his best offensive season that year. Continuing to play top-line minutes with Kopitar, he recorded 33 goals and 60 points. To date, that season remains the only year Brown has managed to reach the 30-goal plateau. Despite his personal success, the rebuilding Kings missed the Stanley Cup playoffs for the fifth-straight year. 2008–2016: Stanley Cup championships and captaincy The Kings named Brown the 13th captain in team history on October 8, 2008, just after the start of the 2008–09 season. Brown's appointment filled the vacancy created when prior captain Rob Blake left the Kings in free agency to sign with the San Jose Sharks on July 3, 2008. Just 23 years old when he assumed the captaincy, Brown became the youngest captain and the only American captain in Kings history. Head coach Terry Murray pointed to Brown's work ethic and commitment to the Kings to explain the decision, saying Brown "shows that he cares tremendously about this team, about winning every night. I just want him to follow through with that, and he will because that's his personality. Just keep blazing that trail, and players on the team will follow". Kings management was impressed by Brown's emergence as a vocal leader in the locker room, especially after the departure of veteran presences Mattias Norström and Rob Blake. On the ice, Brown's numbers dipped slightly from 2007–08, in part because of an 8.2% shooting percentage, his lowest since his rookie season. However, his 292 shots led the team, and his 24 goals were third. Brown was chosen to represent the Western Conference at the 2009 All-Star Game. The Kings missed the playoffs for a franchise-worst sixth straight year. Brown again posted solid numbers in 2009–10, playing all 82 games for the first time and registering 24 goals and a career-high 32 assists. He scored his 100th NHL goal on January 14, 2010, against the Anaheim Ducks. With Brown leading a rapidly improving young core that included center Anze Kopitar, defenseman Drew Doughty and goaltender Jonathan Quick, the Kings finally snapped the eight-year playoff drought after clinching the sixth seed in the West to qualify for a playoff spot. Brown had one goal and four assists in six games as the Kings lost in the first round of the 2010 playoffs to the third seeded Vancouver Canucks. Brown and the Kings entered the 2010–11 season with higher expectations. Brown again played all 82 games and scored 28 goals and 29 assists for 57 points. Anže Kopitar's late season ankle injury forced the Kings to settle for a seventh-seeded finish in the Western Conference and a matchup with the second-seeded San Jose Sharks in the first round of the 2011 playoffs. The Kings lost in six games for the second straight year, with Brown recording two points (a goal and an assist) in the series. Brown began the 2011–12 season on a line with newly acquired center Mike Richards, but was shuffled throughout the lineup for most of the season. He maintained his consistent production, topping 20 goals and 50 points for the fifth-straight year. However, along with the rest of the Kings, he struggled to score in the first half of the season. Head coach Terry Murray was fired midway through the season, and as the Kings fell further out of the playoff picture, they were rumored to be listening to trade offers for Brown. New head coach Darryl Sutter called the Brown-Kopitar tandem "stale" and said Brown was not playing the "straight-line, up-and-down, go-to-the-net, shoot-the-puck, run-over-people" style Brown needed to be effective. Brown's scoring pace picked up amidst the trade rumors, and he scored three goals on Corey Crawford and an assist on a Willie Mitchell goal in the last game before the NHL trade deadline, a 4–0 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on February 25, 2012. The Kings retained Brown, who responded with 11 points in the nine games following the trade deadline. Brown later said he was playing with "a chip on his shoulder" and "whether those rumors are true or not, they're still out there, it gives you maybe a bit more motivation". With Brown producing and the trade-deadline acquisition of Jeff Carter, the Kings were one of the highest-scoring NHL teams down the stretch and made the playoffs as an eighth seed. After moving up-and-down the lineup for most of the season, Brown found stability playing on the first line with Anže Kopitar and Justin Williams. That line would remain intact throughout the entire 2012 playoffs. Brown recorded four goals and one assist for five points in the first round against the back-to-back Presidents' Trophy-winning Vancouver Canucks, including two shorthanded goals on Canucks' goaltender Roberto Luongo in a 4–2 Game 2 win. Brown is the first and only player as of 2022 with two shorthanded goals in a playoff game. In Game 3, he delivered a devastating open-ice check to Canucks center and captain Henrik Sedin directly in front of the Vancouver' bench. The hit left Sedin uninjured but dazed on the ice for several seconds until fellow Canuck' center Manny Malhotra, who was on the bench with his linemates at the time of the play, had to guide Henrik off the ice and on to the bench. Brown later scored the game-winning goal in the third period. Many observers, including TSN's Bob McKenzie and Sports Illustrated' Michael Farber, called the hit the decisive moment in the series. The Kings upset the heavily favored top-seeded Canucks in five games, and then recorded the first sweep in franchise history over the second seeded St. Louis Blues in the second round. Brown registered two goals and four assists in the series. Both of his goals came in the decisive Game 4, a 3–1 Kings victory. The Kings then beat the third seeded Arizona Coyotes in five games in the Western Conference Finals. Brown scored the game-winning goal in Game 1 of that series and did not score again until Game 6 of the 2012 Stanley Cup Finals against the sixth seeded New Jersey Devils, although he did manage five assists in that span. After being benched for the final minutes of a Game 5 loss, Brown produced three points in Game 6 to secure the Kings' first-ever Stanley Cup. He scored the first of three goals on a five-minute power play, and shortly afterwards, fired a shot that Jeff Carter deflected into the net for the eventual Cup-winning goal. Later, he assisted on another Carter goal. The Kings defeated the Devils 6–1, making Brown the second American-born captain to lead a team to a Stanley Cup championship and the Kings the second California-based team to win the Stanley Cup. With eight goals and 12 assists for 20 points in 20 games, Brown tied teammate Anže Kopitar for the lead in overall playoff point total. On July 28, 2012, Brown had his "Day with the Cup". Each year after a team has won the Stanley Cup, players, front office and hockey operation staff each get a day with the Stanley Cup. Brown hinted on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno he would bring the Cup back home. He did just that, bringing it to Ithaca High School in late July. During the lockout-shortened season, Brown finished shortened regular season with 18 goals and 11 assists for 29 points in 46 games. The Kings reached the Western Conference Finals for a second-straight year, but fell in five games to the Presidents’ Trophy-winning and eventual Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks. On July 18, 2013, the Kings signed Brown to an eight-year, $47 million contract extension. In the 2014 Stanley Cup Finals, Brown led the Kings to another Stanley Cup title, despite facing some criticism for more muted contributions on the team's run to the title. In the Finals against the New York Rangers, Brown scored the overtime winner in Game 2 to give the Kings a 5–4 victory and a 2–0 series lead, and he scored again during the Kings' 2–1 loss in Game 4. At the conclusion of the 2013–14 season, Brown was awarded the Mark Messier Leadership Award "in recognition of his commitment and service to charities in his community". On November 26, 2014, Brown recorded his 200th NHL goal in a 4–0 Kings win over the Minnesota Wild. After the Kings missed the playoffs entirely for the first time since 2009 in 2015, Brown and the Kings returned to the playoffs in 2016 only to fall in the first round in five games to the San Jose Sharks. 2016–2022: Later years Following back-to-back seasons of scoring less than 30 points, Brown was replaced as the Kings captain by Anže Kopitar on June 16, 2016. Speaking on the decision to have his captaincy stripped, Brown stated, "I understand the decision and I respect the decision. Part of my problem was how it was handled. It just put me in an awkward spot." The 2017–18 season marked a resurgence for Brown. After earning 36 points the season prior, Brown managed 28 goals and 33 assists for a career-high 61 points in 81 contests played. On December 21, 2017, Brown played in his 1,000th career NHL game. The Kings defeated the Colorado Avalanche 2–1 in overtime, where Brown scored the game-winning goal. On April 5, 2018, Brown scored four goals, including the overtime winner, against the Minnesota Wild. In the pandemic-shortened 2020–21 season opener in a 4–3 OT loss against the Minnesota Wild on January 13, 2021, Brown recorded his 300th NHL goal. Brown was eventually re-promoted to alternate captain since his demotion, and announced on April 28, 2022 before the 2021–22 season finale against the Vancouver Canucks that he would retire after the completion of the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs, for which his Kings team qualified for the first time since 2018. At the time of the announcement, Brown had 28 points (9 goals, 19 assists) in 64 games in the 2021–22 regular season. In the season finale against the Canucks, he was named team captain for the Kings. In the 2022 playoffs, Brown's Kings would be eliminated in seven games in the first round by the Edmonton Oilers, with Brown skating in all seven appearances and recording two points, his final game was on May 14. Brown was honored with a statue on February 11, 2023, joining Wayne Gretzky and Luc Robitaille as the only Kings players with statues. The Kings also retired his #23 jersey that night, making him the sixth King so honored. International play Brown has played for the United States in multiple international tournaments. During the World Championship tournament of 2008, Brown received negative attention for a controversial hit that made contact with the head of Finnish player Jussi Jokinen as the final horn sounded. Brown was named an alternate captain of the United States at the 2010 Winter Olympics and again in 2014. Style of play Brown was known for his physical, north–south style of game. Brown considered himself a clean hitter: after a controversial hit on Phoenix Coyotes defenseman Michal Rozsíval in the 2012 Western Conference Finals, Brown defended himself by saying, "I take pride in playing the game clean and hard. There are going to be hits that are unfortunate but still clean." Brown had never been issued a fine or suspension from the NHL Department of Player Safety until April 24, 2013, when he received two-game suspension for an illegal elbow to the head of Minnesota Wild forward Jason Pominville on April 23, 2013. Brown's former teammate Rob Blake said Brown "comes at guys straight on, face-to-face. He goes right through guys." Despite his aggressive style, Brown did not miss a game due to injury over a span of four seasons. Brown was one of the most effective NHL players at drawing penalties, having led the NHL in that category in five of seven post-lockout seasons. Brown's unparalleled success in that area led several commentators, including ex-NHL referee Kerry Fraser, to say that Brown acquired a reputation for embellishing infractions in order to draw penalties. Beyond his physicality and agitation, Brown provided a consistent offensive threat for the Kings, scoring at least 22 goals for five consecutive years. Brown played an effective two-way game and matured into an elite defensive and penalty-killing forward. Personal life Brown has 3 sons Jake, Mason, Cooper and one daughter MacKenzie, with his wife Nicole and lives in Buffalo, New York. Brown had a speech impediment early in his career, which he received therapy for before his professional career. He was heavily involved in charity work in the Greater Los Angeles Area during his playing years and was awarded the 2011 NHL Foundation Player Award for his community efforts and involvement. Career statistics Regular season and playoffs Bold indicates led league International Awards and honours References External links Biographical information and career statistics from NHL.com, or Eliteprospects.com, or Hockey-Reference.com, or The Internet Hockey Database, or TSN.ca Dustin Brown on Twitter

Tell me the names of the two famous people I'm thinking of by using the following clues: They both have the initials M.T. Both were known by nicknames that included the word "Iron" One became the world champion in his sport while the other was her country's political leader

Mike Tyson and Margaret Thatcher

Multiple constraints | Temporal reasoning

Michael Gerard Tyson (born June 30, 1966) is an American professional boxer who competed from 1985 to 2005, and is scheduled to compete once again in 2024. Nicknamed "Iron Mike" and "Kid Dynamite" in his early career, and later known as "the Baddest Man on the Planet", Tyson is regarded as one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time. He reigned as the undisputed world heavyweight champion from 1987 to 1990. Tyson won his first 19 professional fights by knockout, 12 of them in the first round. Claiming his first belt at 20 years, 4 months, and 22 days old, Tyson holds the record as the youngest boxer ever to win a heavyweight title. He was the first heavyweight boxer to simultaneously hold the WBA, WBC and IBF titles, as well as the only heavyweight to unify them in succession. The following year, Tyson became the lineal champion when he knocked out Michael Spinks in 91 seconds of the first round. In 1990, Tyson was knocked out by underdog Buster Douglas in one of the biggest upsets in boxing history. In 1992, Tyson was convicted of rape and sentenced to six years in prison. He was released on parole after three years. After his release in 1995, he engaged in a series of comeback fights, regaining the WBA and WBC titles in 1996 to join Floyd Patterson, Muhammad Ali, Tim Witherspoon, Evander Holyfield and George Foreman as the only men in boxing history to have regained a heavyweight championship after losing it. After being stripped of the WBC title in the same year, Tyson lost the WBA title to Evander Holyfield by an eleventh round stoppage. Their 1997 rematch ended when Tyson was disqualified for biting Holyfield's ears, one bite notoriously being strong enough to remove a portion of his right ear. In 2002, Tyson fought for the world heavyweight title, losing by knockout to Lennox Lewis. Tyson was known for his ferocious and intimidating boxing style as well as his controversial behavior inside and outside the ring, which he explained was inspired by Sonny Liston, a boxer who is widely regarded as the most intimidating man in the history of boxing. With a knockout-to-win percentage of 88%, he was ranked 16th on The Ring magazine's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time, and first on ESPN's list of "The Hardest Hitters in Heavyweight History". Sky Sports described him as "perhaps the most ferocious fighter to step into a professional ring". He has been inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame and the World Boxing Hall of Fame. Early life Michael Gerard Tyson was born in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, New York City, on June 30, 1966. He has an older brother named Rodney (born c. 1961) and had an older sister named Denise, who died of a heart attack at age 24 in February 1990. Tyson's mother, born in Charlottesville, Virginia, was described as a promiscuous woman who might have been a prostitute. Tyson's biological father is listed as "Purcell Tyson", a "humble cab driver" (who was from Jamaica) on his birth certificate, but the man Tyson had known as his father was a pimp named Jimmy Kirkpatrick. Kirkpatrick was from Grier Town, North Carolina (a predominantly black neighborhood that was annexed by the city of Charlotte), where he was one of the neighborhood's top baseball players. Kirkpatrick married and had a son, Tyson's half-brother Jimmie Lee Kirkpatrick, who would help to integrate Charlotte high school football in 1965. In 1959, Jimmy Kirkpatrick left his family and moved to Brooklyn, where he met Tyson's mother, Lorna Mae (Smith) Tyson. Kirkpatrick frequented pool halls, gambled and hung out on the streets. "My father was just a regular street guy caught up in the street world," Tyson said. Kirkpatrick abandoned the Tyson family around the time Mike was born, leaving Tyson's mother to care for the children on her own. Kirkpatrick died in 1992. The family lived in Bedford-Stuyvesant until their financial burdens necessitated a move to Brownsville when Tyson was 10 years old. Throughout his childhood, Tyson lived in and around neighborhoods with a high rate of crime. According to an interview in Details, his first fight was with a bigger youth who had pulled the head off one of Tyson's pigeons. Tyson was repeatedly caught committing petty crimes and fighting those who ridiculed his high-pitched voice and lisp. By the age of 13, he had been arrested 38 times. He ended up at the Tryon School for Boys in Johnstown, New York. Tyson's emerging boxing ability was discovered there by Bobby Stewart, a juvenile detention center counselor and former boxer. Stewart considered Tyson to be an outstanding fighter and trained him for a few months before introducing him to boxing manager and trainer Cus D'Amato. Tyson dropped out of high school as a junior. He was later awarded an honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Central State University in 1989. Kevin Rooney also trained Tyson, and he was occasionally assisted by Teddy Atlas, although Atlas was dismissed by D'Amato when Tyson was 15. Rooney eventually took over all training duties for the young fighter. Tyson's mother died when he was 16, leaving him in the care of D'Amato, who would become his legal guardian. Tyson later said, "I never saw my mother happy with me and proud of me for doing something: she only knew me as being a wild kid running the streets, coming home with new clothes that she knew I didn't pay for. I never got a chance to talk to her or know about her. Professionally, it has no effect, but it's crushing emotionally and personally." Amateur career As an amateur, Tyson won gold medals at the 1981 and 1982 Junior Olympic Games, defeating Joe Cortez in 1981 and beating Kelton Brown in 1982. Brown's corner threw in the towel in the first round. In 1984 Tyson won the gold medal at the Nation Golden Gloves held in New York, beating Jonathan Littles. He fought Henry Tillman twice as an amateur, losing both bouts by decision. Tillman went on to win heavyweight gold at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Professional career Early career Tyson made his professional debut as an 18-year-old on March 6, 1985, in Albany, New York. He defeated Hector Mercedes via first-round TKO. He had 15 bouts in his first year as a professional. Fighting frequently, Tyson won 26 of his first 28 fights by KO or TKO; 16 of those came in the first round. The quality of his opponents gradually increased to journeyman fighters and borderline contenders, like James Tillis, David Jaco, Jesse Ferguson, Mitch Green, and Marvis Frazier. His win streak attracted media attention and Tyson was billed as the next great heavyweight champion. D'Amato died in November 1985, relatively early into Tyson's professional career, and some speculate that his death was the catalyst to many of the troubles Tyson was to experience as his life and career progressed. Rise up the ranks Tyson's first nationally televised bout took place on February 16, 1986, at Houston Field House in Troy, New York, against journeyman heavyweight Jesse Ferguson, and was carried by ABC Sports. Tyson knocked down Ferguson with an uppercut in the fifth round that broke Ferguson's nose. During the sixth round, Ferguson began to hold and clinch Tyson in an apparent attempt to avoid further punishment. After admonishing Ferguson several times to obey his commands to box, the referee finally stopped the fight near the middle of the sixth round. The fight was initially ruled a win for Tyson by disqualification (DQ) of his opponent. The ruling was "adjusted" to a win by technical knockout (TKO) after Tyson's corner protested that a DQ win would end Tyson's string of knockout victories, and that a knockout would have been the inevitable result. In July, after recording six more knockout victories, Tyson fought former world title challenger Marvis Frazier in Glens Falls, New York, on another ABC Sports broadcast. Tyson won easily, charging at Frazier at the opening bell and hitting him with two consecutive uppercuts, the second of which knocked Frazier unconscious thirty seconds into the fight. After his win over Frazier, Tyson was booked to fight José Ribalta at the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1986. Ribalta would hit Tyson in the body throughout the fight. Tyson knocked down Ribalta three times in the 2nd, 8th, and 10th round when the referee called the fight off. Tyson would go on to say that Ribalta was his toughest fight commenting, "I hit Jose Ribalta with everything, and he took everything and kept coming back for more. Jose Ribalta stood toe to toe with me. He was very strong in the clinches," and "Ribalta was a game fighter who actually engaged me. I felt nauseous from all Ribalta’s body blows, even hours after the fight. I never felt that much general pain again." WBC heavyweight champion Tyson vs. Berbick On November 22, 1986, Tyson was given his first title fight against Trevor Berbick for the World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight championship. Tyson won the title by TKO in the second round, and at the age of 20 years and 4 months became the youngest heavyweight champion in history. He added the WBA and IBF titles after defeating James Smith and Tony Tucker in 1987. Tyson's dominant performance brought many accolades. Donald Saunders wrote: "The noble and manly art of boxing can at least cease worrying about its immediate future, now [that] it has discovered a heavyweight champion fit to stand alongside Dempsey, Tunney, Louis, Marciano, and Ali." Tyson intimidated fighters with his strength, combined with outstanding hand speed, accuracy, coordination and timing. Tyson also possessed notable defensive abilities, holding his hands high in the peek-a-boo style taught by his mentor Cus D'Amato to slip under and weave around his opponent's punches while timing his own. Tyson's explosive punching technique was due in large part to crouching immediately prior to throwing a hook or an uppercut: this allowed the "spring" of his legs to add power to the punch. Among his signature moves was a right hook to his opponent's body followed by a right uppercut to his opponent's chin. Lorenzo Boyd, Jesse Ferguson and José Ribalta were each knocked down by this combination. Unified heavyweight champion Tyson vs. Smith, Thomas Expectations for Tyson were extremely high, and he was the favorite to win the heavyweight unification series, a tournament designed to establish an undisputed heavyweight champion. Tyson defended his title against James Smith on March 7, 1987, in Las Vegas, Nevada. He won by unanimous decision and added Smith's World Boxing Association (WBA) title to his existing belt. "Tyson-mania" in the media was becoming rampant. He beat Pinklon Thomas in May by TKO in the sixth round. Undisputed heavyweight champion Tyson vs. Tucker On August 1 he took the International Boxing Federation (IBF) title from Tony Tucker in a twelve-round unanimous decision 119–111, 118–113, and 116–112. He became the first heavyweight to own all three major belts – WBA, WBC, and IBF – at the same time. Tyson vs. Biggs, Holmes, Tubbs Another fight, in October of that year, ended with a victory for Tyson over 1984 Olympic super heavyweight gold medalist Tyrell Biggs by TKO in the seventh round. During this time, Tyson came to the attention of gaming company Nintendo. After witnessing one of Tyson's fights, Nintendo of America president Minoru Arakawa was impressed by the fighter's "power and skill", prompting him to suggest Tyson be included in the upcoming Nintendo Entertainment System port of the Punch-Out!! arcade game. In 1987, Nintendo released Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, which was well received and sold more than a million copies. Tyson had three fights in 1988. He faced Larry Holmes on January 22, 1988, and defeated the legendary former champion by KO in the fourth round. This was the only knockout loss Holmes had in 75 professional bouts. In March, Tyson then fought contender Tony Tubbs in Tokyo, Japan, fitting in an easy second-round TKO victory amid promotional and marketing work. Tyson vs. Spinks On June 27, 1988, Tyson faced Michael Spinks. Spinks, who had taken the heavyweight championship from Larry Holmes via fifteen-round decision in 1985, had not lost his title in the ring but was not recognized as champion by the major boxing organizations. Holmes had previously given up all but the IBF title, and that was eventually stripped from Spinks after he elected to fight Gerry Cooney (winning by TKO in the fifth round) rather than IBF Number 1 Contender Tony Tucker, as the Cooney fight provided him a larger purse. However, Spinks did become the lineal champion by beating Holmes and many (including Ring magazine) considered him to have a legitimate claim to being the true heavyweight champion. The bout was, at the time, the richest fight in history and expectations were very high. Boxing pundits were predicting a titanic battle of styles, with Tyson's aggressive infighting conflicting with Spinks's skillful out-boxing and footwork. The fight ended after 91 seconds when Tyson knocked Spinks out in the first round; many consider this to be the pinnacle of Tyson's fame and boxing ability. During this period, Tyson's problems outside the ring were also beginning to emerge. His marriage to Robin Givens was heading for divorce, and his future contract was being fought over by Don King and Bill Cayton. In late 1988, Tyson parted with manager Bill Cayton and fired longtime trainer Kevin Rooney, the man many credit for honing Tyson's craft after the death of D'Amato. Following Rooney's departure, critics alleged that Tyson began to show less head movement and combination punching. Tyson vs. Bruno, Carl Williams In 1989, Tyson had only two fights amid personal turmoil. He faced the British boxer Frank Bruno in February. Bruno managed to stun Tyson at the end of the first round, although Tyson went on to knock Bruno out in the fifth round. Tyson then knocked out Carl "The Truth" Williams in the first round in July. Tyson vs. Douglas By 1990, Tyson seemed to have lost direction, and his personal life was in disarray amidst reports of less vigorous training prior to the Buster Douglas match. In a fight on February 11, 1990, he lost the undisputed championship to Douglas in Tokyo. Tyson was a huge betting favorite; indeed, the Mirage, the only casino to put out odds for the fight, made Tyson a 42/1 favorite. Tyson failed to find a way past Douglas's quick jab that had a 12-inch (30 cm) reach advantage over his own. Tyson did catch Douglas with an uppercut in the eighth round and knocked him to the floor, but Douglas recovered sufficiently to hand Tyson a heavy beating in the subsequent two rounds. After the fight, the Tyson camp would complain that the count was slow and that Douglas had taken longer than ten seconds to get back on his feet. Just 35 seconds into the tenth round, Douglas unleashed a brutal uppercut, followed by a four-punch combination of hooks that knocked Tyson down for the first time in his career. He was counted out by referee Octavio Meyran. The knockout victory by Douglas over Tyson, the previously undefeated "baddest man on the planet" and arguably the most feared boxer in professional boxing at that time, has been described as one of the most shocking upsets in modern sports history. Return to the ring Despite the shocking loss, Tyson has said that losing to Douglas was the greatest moment of his career: "I needed that fight to make me a better person and fighter. I have a broader perspective of myself and boxing." After the loss, Tyson recovered with first-round knockouts of Henry Tillman and Alex Stewart in his next two fights. Tyson's victory over Tillman, the 1984 Olympic heavyweight gold medalist, enabled Tyson to avenge his amateur losses at Tillman's hands. These bouts set up an elimination match for another shot at the undisputed world heavyweight championship, which Evander Holyfield had taken from Douglas in his first defense of the title. Tyson vs. Ruddock Tyson, who was the number one contender, faced number two contender Donovan "Razor" Ruddock on March 18, 1991, in Las Vegas. Ruddock was seen as the most dangerous heavyweight around and was thought of as one of the hardest punching heavyweights. Tyson and Ruddock went back and forth for most of the fight, until referee Richard Steele controversially stopped the fight during the seventh round in favor of Tyson. This decision infuriated the fans in attendance, sparking a post-fight melee in the audience. The referee had to be escorted from the ring. Tyson vs Ruddock II Tyson and Ruddock met again on June 28 that year, with Tyson knocking down Ruddock twice and winning a twelve-round unanimous decision 113–109, 114–108, and 114–108. A fight between Tyson and Holyfield for the undisputed championship was scheduled for November 8, 1991, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, but Tyson pulled out after sustaining a rib cartilage injury during training. Trial and incarceration Tyson was arrested in July 1991 for the rape of 18-year-old Desiree Washington at the Canterbury Hotel in Indianapolis. Washington, who had previously been "crowned Miss Black Rhode Island", was a contestant in the Miss Black America pageant, rehearsals for which were being held in the city. Tyson was charged with "one count of rape, two counts of criminal deviate conduct, and one count of criminal confinement—charges that carried a maximum sentence of 63 years." Tyson's rape trial at the Marion County superior court lasted from January 26 to February 10, 1992. Washington herself testified that Tyson had "called her around 1:45 a.m. to tour the city, then picked her up in his limo, took her back to his room, and made small talk as they both sat on the bed." After propositioning her for sex, Washington stated that she firmly refused and went to use the bathroom before leaving. "After using the bathroom, she said, she noticed some discharge on her panty shield. Washington said she removed the liner and threw it away." When she came out, "Tyson then pulled her to the bed, pinned her down and raped her, she testified. “He was mean, evil,” she said. “I got on top and started to try to get away, but he slammed me down again.”". "Three days after the assault, Washington went to the police and accused Tyson of rape." Partial corroboration of Washington's story came via testimony from Tyson's chauffeur, Virginia Foster, who confirmed Desiree Washington's "state of shock" after the incident. Foster also testified that Tyson had previously attempted to sexually assault her too, having "lured her to his hotel room, tried to touch her, and then exposed himself". Further testimony came from the emergency room physician, Dr. Thomas Richardson, who examined Washington after the incident and confirmed that Washington's physical condition was consistent with rape. Richardson testified that Washington had suffered "two small vaginal abrasions, consistent with 20 to 30 percent of the injuries seen in sexual assault cases", and that in approximately 20,000 cases over a period of 20 years, "only twice [...] had he ever seen such abrasions following consensual sex." Under lead defense lawyer Vincent J. Fuller's direct examination, Tyson claimed that everything had taken place with Washington's full consent and he claimed not to have forced himself upon her. When he was cross-examined by lead prosecutor Gregory Garrison, Tyson denied claims that he had misled Washington and insisted that she wanted to have sex with him. "In a misguided attempt to show that Washington must have known that Tyson wanted sex, the defense called witness after witness to testify about their client’s lewd remarks and crude behavior during his encounters with the Miss Black America contestants, and even with Washington herself." Former attorney Mark Shaw argued that Tyson's "case was mishandled, citing a jury-selection process that allowed a conservative ex-Marine to become foreman, a defense “strategy” of making Tyson look as bad as possible, and a disastrous decision to allow the defendant to testify at the grand jury hearing, the trial, and his sentencing." Despite Fuller's reputation as "one of the most skillful and respected defense attorneys not only in Washington, but in the country [...] the defense team embarked on a game plan filled with ill-fated decisions and questionable strategies. [...] While the famous Fuller seemed to give Tyson an imposing advantage, his background made him an illogical choice. [...] Though he’d represented such notables as John Hinckley Jr. and junk-bond king Michael Milken, his reputation came mostly from federal court white-collar cases such as tax fraud and bribery. He simply wasn’t familiar with the rough-and-tumble county criminal courts, and lacked recent experience in sex-crime cases. He couldn’t locate exhibits, fumbled his delivery, exhibited a lack of knowledge of Indiana law, and generally handled Tyson’s defense more like a first-year law student than a seasoned pro." Fuller had also successfully defended Tyson's manager, Don King, "against federal tax-evasion charges" in 1985, which may have been one of the reasons King chose him to represent Tyson. Tyson himself would later describe Fuller as "a horrible lawyer". According to Shaw, Fuller "never challenged obvious problems in Washington’s story. Exactly why did she remove her panty shield? How did Tyson perform oral sex on her and still keep her pinned to the bed? If Tyson is one of the strongest men in the world, where were the bruises on the 108-pound woman?" Tyson was convicted of the rape charge on February 10, 1992, after the jury deliberated for nearly 10 hours. Alan Dershowitz, acting as Tyson's counsel, filed an appeal urging error of law in the Court's exclusion of evidence of the victim's past sexual conduct (known as the Rape Shield Law; Dershowtiz alleged that Washington had "falsely accused one of her high school classmates of rape"), the exclusion of three potential defense witnesses, and the lack of jury instructions on honest and reasonable mistake of fact. The Indiana Court of Appeals ruled against Tyson in a 2–1 vote. The Indiana Supreme Court let the lower court opinion stand due to a 2–2 split in its review. The tie vote was due to the fact that the Chief Justice, Randall T. Shepard, recused himself from the case. The Chief Justice later revealed he did so because of a heated argument between his wife and Dershowitz at a Yale Law School reunion concerning the case. On March 26, 1992, Tyson was sentenced to six years in prison along with four years of probation. He was assigned to the Indiana Youth Center (now the Plainfield Correctional Facility) in April 1992, and he was released in March 1995 after serving less than three years of the sentence. He left with prison tattoos of tennis player Arthur Ashe and Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong; Tyson also dates his tattoo of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara to this time. Due to his conviction, Tyson was required to register as a Tier II sex offender under federal law. Tyson has continued to maintain his innocence. In 1992, Erinn Cosby, the daughter of comedian and actor Bill Cosby, publicly accused Tyson of sexually assaulting her in 1989, although no criminal charges were ever sought. Comeback After being paroled from prison, Tyson easily won his comeback bouts against Peter McNeeley and Buster Mathis Jr. Tyson's first comeback fight was marketed as "He's back!" and grossed more than US$96 million worldwide, including a United States record $63 million for PPV television. The viewing of the fight was purchased by 1.52 million homes, setting both PPV viewership and revenue records. The 89-second fight elicited criticism that Tyson's management lined up "tomato cans" to ensure easy victories for his return. TV Guide included the Tyson–McNeeley fight in their list of the 50 Greatest TV Sports Moments of All Time in 1998. Second reign as unified heavyweight champion Tyson vs. Bruno II, Seldon Tyson regained one belt by easily winning the WBC title against Frank Bruno in March 1996. It was the second fight between the two, and Tyson knocked out Bruno in the third round. In 1996, Lennox Lewis turned down a $13.5 million guarantee to fight Tyson. This would've been Lewis's highest fight purse to date. Lewis then accepted $4 million from Don King to step aside and allow Tyson to fight Bruce Seldon for an expected $30 million instead with the intention that if Tyson defeated Seldon, he would fight Lewis next. Tyson added the WBA belt by defeating champion Seldon in the first round in September that year. Seldon was severely criticized and mocked in the popular press for seemingly collapsing to innocuous punches from Tyson. Tyson vs. Holyfield Tyson attempted to defend the WBA title against Evander Holyfield, who was in the fourth fight of his own comeback. Holyfield had retired in 1994 following the loss of his championship to Michael Moorer. It was said that Don King and others saw former champion Holyfield, who was 34 at the time of the fight and a huge underdog, as a washed-up fighter. On November 9, 1996, in Las Vegas, Nevada, Tyson faced Holyfield in a title bout dubbed "Finally". In a surprising turn of events, Holyfield, who was given virtually no chance to win by numerous commentators, defeated Tyson by TKO when referee Mitch Halpern stopped the bout in round eleven. Holyfield became the second boxer to win a heavyweight championship belt three times. Holyfield's victory was marred by allegations from Tyson's camp of Holyfield's frequent headbutts during the bout. Although the headbutts were ruled accidental by the referee, they would become a point of contention in the rematch. Post-title career Tyson vs. Holyfield II Tyson and Holyfield fought again on June 28, 1997. Originally, Halpern was supposed to be the referee, but after Tyson's camp protested, Halpern stepped aside in favor of Mills Lane. The highly anticipated rematch was dubbed The Sound and the Fury, and it was held at the Las Vegas MGM Grand Garden Arena, site of the first bout. It was a lucrative event, drawing even more attention than the first bout and grossing $100 million. Tyson received $30 million and Holyfield $35 million, the highest paid professional boxing purses until 2007. The fight was purchased by 1.99 million households, setting a pay-per-view buy rate record that stood until May 5, 2007, being surpassed by Oscar De La Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. Soon to become one of the most controversial events in modern sports, the fight was stopped at the end of the third round, with Tyson disqualified for biting Holyfield on both ears. The first time Tyson bit him, the match was temporarily stopped. Referee Mills Lane deducted two points from Tyson and the fight resumed. However, after the match resumed, Tyson bit him again, resulting in his disqualification, and Holyfield won the match. The first bite was severe enough to remove a piece of Holyfield's right ear, which was found on the ring floor after the fight. Tyson later stated that his actions were retaliation for Holyfield repeatedly headbutting him without penalty. In the confusion that followed the ending of the bout and announcement of the decision, a near riot occurred in the arena and several people were injured. Tyson Holyfield II was the first heavyweight title fight in over 50 years to end in a disqualification. As a fallout from the incident, US$3 million was immediately withheld from Tyson's $30-million purse by the Nevada state boxing commission (the most it could legally hold back at the time). Two days after the fight, Tyson issued a statement, apologizing to Holyfield for his actions and asked not to be banned for life over the incident. Tyson was roundly condemned in the news media but was not without defenders. Novelist and commentator Katherine Dunn wrote a column that criticized Holyfield's sportsmanship in the controversial bout and charged the news media with being biased against Tyson. On July 9, 1997, Tyson's boxing license was rescinded by the Nevada State Athletic Commission in a unanimous voice vote; he was also fined US$3 million and ordered to pay the legal costs of the hearing. As most state athletic commissions honor sanctions imposed by other states, this effectively made Tyson unable to box in the United States. The revocation was not permanent, as the commission voted 4–1 to restore Tyson's boxing license on October 18, 1998. During his time away from boxing in 1998, Tyson made a guest appearance at WrestleMania XIV as an enforcer for the main event match between Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin. During this time, Tyson was also an unofficial member of Michaels's stable, D-Generation X. Tyson was paid $3 million for being guest enforcer of the match at WrestleMania XIV. In January 1999, Tyson returned to the ring for a match against the South African Francois Botha. This match also ended in controversy. While Botha initially controlled the fight, Tyson allegedly attempted to break Botha's arms during a tie-up and both boxers were cautioned by the referee in the ill-tempered bout. Botha was ahead on points on all scorecards and was confident enough to mock Tyson as the fight continued. Nonetheless, Tyson landed a straight right hand in the fifth round that knocked out Botha. Critics noticed Tyson stopped using the bob and weave defense altogether following this return. Promoting the fight on Secaucus, New Jersey television station WWOR-TV, Tyson launched into an expletive-laden tirade that forced sports anchor Russ Salzberg to cut the interview short. Legal problems arose with Tyson once again. On February 5, 1999, Tyson was sentenced to a year's imprisonment, fined $5,000, and ordered to serve two years probation along with undergoing 200 hours of community service for assaulting two motorists after a traffic accident on August 31, 1998. He served nine months of that sentence. After his release, he fought Orlin Norris on October 23, 1999. Tyson knocked down Norris with a left hook thrown after the bell sounded to end the first round. Norris injured his knee when he went down and said that he was unable to continue. Consequently, the bout was ruled a no contest. In 2000, Tyson had three fights. The first match in January was staged at the MEN Arena in Manchester, England against Julius Francis. Following controversy as to whether Tyson was allowed into the country, he took four minutes to knock out Francis, ending the bout in the second round. He also fought Lou Savarese in June 2000 in Glasgow, winning in the first round; the fight lasted only 38 seconds. Tyson continued punching after the referee had stopped the fight, knocking the referee to the floor as he tried to separate the boxers. It was after this fight that Tyson called out Lennox Lewis with his post fight speech proclaiming that he was the "best ever" and he was "Sonny Listion and Jack Dempsey, cut from their cloth." In October, Tyson fought the similarly controversial Andrew Golota, winning in round three after Gołota was unable to continue due to a broken cheekbone, concussion, and neck injury. The result was later changed to no contest after Tyson refused to take a pre-fight drug test and then tested positive for marijuana in a post-fight urine test. Tyson fought only once in 2001, beating Brian Nielsen in Copenhagen by TKO in the seventh round. Tyson vs. Lewis Tyson once again had the opportunity to fight for a heavyweight championship in 2002. Lennox Lewis held the WBC, IBF, IBO and Lineal titles at the time. As promising fighters, Tyson and Lewis had sparred at a training camp in a meeting arranged by Cus D'Amato in 1984. Tyson sought to fight Lewis in Nevada for a more lucrative box-office venue, but the Nevada Boxing Commission refused him a license to box as he was facing possible sexual assault charges at the time. Two years prior to the bout, Tyson had made several inflammatory remarks to Lewis in an interview following the Savarese fight. The remarks included the statement "I want your heart, I want to eat your children." On January 22, 2002, the two boxers and their entourages were involved in a brawl at a New York press conference to publicize the planned event. A few weeks later, the Nevada State Athletic Commission refused to grant Tyson a license for the fight, and the promoters had to make alternative arrangements. After multiple states balked at granting Tyson a license, the fight eventually occurred on June 8 at the Pyramid Arena in Memphis, Tennessee. Lewis dominated the fight and knocked out Tyson with a right hand in the eighth round. Tyson was respectful after the fight and praised Lewis on his victory. This fight was the highest-grossing event in pay-per-view history at that time, generating $106.9 million from 1.95 million buys in the US. In another Memphis fight on February 22, 2003, Tyson beat fringe contender Clifford Etienne 49 seconds into round one. The pre-fight was marred by rumors of Tyson's lack of fitness. Some said that he took time out from training to party in Las Vegas and get a new facial tattoo. This eventually proved to be Tyson's final professional victory in the ring. In August 2003, after years of financial struggles, Tyson finally filed for bankruptcy. Tyson earned over $30 million for several of his fights and $300 million during his career. At the time, the media reported that he had approximately $23 million in debt. On August 13, 2003, Tyson entered the ring for a face-to-face confrontation against K-1 fighter Bob Sapp immediately after Sapp's win against Kimo Leopoldo in Las Vegas. K-1 signed Tyson to a contract with the hopes of making a fight happen between the two, but Tyson's felony history made it impossible for him to obtain a visa to enter Japan, where the fight would have been most profitable. Alternative locations were discussed, but the fight ultimately did not take place. On July 30, 2004, Tyson had a match against British boxer Danny Williams in another comeback fight, and this time, staged in Louisville, Kentucky. Tyson dominated the opening two rounds. The third round was even, with Williams getting in some clean blows and also a few illegal ones, for which he was penalized. In the fourth round, Tyson was unexpectedly knocked out. After the fight, it was revealed that Tyson was trying to fight on one leg, having torn a ligament in his other knee in the first round. This was Tyson's fifth career defeat. He underwent surgery for the ligament four days after the fight. His manager, Shelly Finkel, claimed that Tyson was unable to throw significant right-hand punches since he had a knee injury. Retirement On June 11, 2005, Tyson quit before the start of the seventh round in a close bout against journeyman Kevin McBride. In the 2008 documentary Tyson, he stated that he fought McBride for a payday, that he did not anticipate winning, that he was in poor physical condition and fed up with taking boxing seriously. After losing three of his last four fights, Tyson said he would quit boxing because he felt he had lost his passion for the sport. In 2000 Tyson dismissed everyone who was working for him and enlisted new accountants, who prepared a statement showing he started the year $3.3 million in debt but earned $65.7 million. In August 2007, Tyson pleaded guilty to drug possession and driving under the influence in an Arizona court, which stemmed from an arrest in December where authorities said Tyson, who has a long history of legal contentions, admitted to using cocaine that day and to being addicted to the drug. In his 2013 autobiography Undisputed Truth, Tyson admitted to using the urine of his then wife Monica Turner to pass doping tests. He was married to Turner from 1997 to 2003. He also used his infant's urine for the same purpose. Tyson vs. Paul In March 2024, it was announced that Tyson would be making his ring return against Jake Paul in a heavyweight bout on July 20, 2024, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. On April 29, 2024, it was announced that the fight would be sanctioned as a professional boxing match by Texas Department of Licensing and Regulations (TDLR). On May 26, 2024, Tyson suffered an ulcer flare aboard a plane. On May 31, 2024, it was announced that the fight was postponed per medical advice from Tyson's doctor, allowing him to recover from his ulcer flareup. On June 7, 2024, it was announced that the fight will take place at the same arena on November 15, 2024. Exhibition bouts Mike Tyson's World Tour To help pay off his debts, Tyson announced he would be doing a series of exhibition bouts, calling it Tyson's World Tour. For his first bout, Tyson returned to the ring in 2006 for a four-round exhibition against journeyman heavyweight Corey Sanders in Youngstown, Ohio. Tyson, without headgear at 5 ft 10 in and 216 pounds, was in quality shape, but far from his prime against Sanders, at 6 ft 6 in who wore headgear. Tyson appeared to be "holding back" in the exhibition to prevent an early end to the "show". "If I don't get out of this financial quagmire there's a possibility I may have to be a punching bag for somebody. The money I make isn't going to help my bills from a tremendous standpoint, but I'm going to feel better about myself. I'm not going to be depressed", explained Tyson about the reasons for his "comeback". After the bout was poorly received by fans the remainder of the tour was canceled. Tyson vs. Jones It was announced in July 2020 that Tyson had signed a contract to face former four-division world champion, Roy Jones Jr., in an eight-round exhibition fight. Mixed martial arts coach Rafael Cordeiro was selected to be Tyson's trainer and cornerman. The bout—officially sanctioned by the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC)—was initially scheduled to take place on September 12 at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California, however, the date was pushed back to November 28 in order to maximize revenue for the event. The fight went the full 8 rounds, and was declared a draw. The fight was a split draw and the three judges scored the fight as follows: Chad Dawson (76–76 draw), Christy Martin (79–73 for Tyson), and Vinny Pazienza (76–80 for Jones). Mike Tyson's Legends Only League In July 2020, Mike Tyson announced the creation of Mike Tyson's Legends Only League. Tyson formed the league in partnership with Sophie Watts and her company, Eros Innovations. The league provides retired professional athletes the opportunity to compete in their respective sport. On November 28, 2020, Mike Tyson fought Roy Jones Jr. at the Staples Center in the first event produced under Legends Only League. The event received largely positive reviews and was the highest selling PPV event of 2020, which ranks in the Top-10 for PPV purchased events all-time. Legacy Tyson was The Ring magazine's Fighter of the Year in 1986 and 1988. A 1998 ranking of "The Greatest Heavyweights of All-Time" by The Ring magazine placed Tyson at number 14 on the list. Despite criticism of facing underwhelming competition during his run as champion, Tyson's knockout power and intimidation factor made him the sport's most dynamic box-office draw. According to Douglas Quenqua of The New York Times, "The [1990s] began with Mike Tyson, considered by many to be the last great heavyweight champion, losing his title to the little-known Buster Douglas. Seven years later, Mr. Tyson bit Evander Holyfield's ear in a heavyweight champion bout—hardly a proud moment for the sport." He is remembered for his attire of black trunks, black shoes with no socks, and a plain white towel fit around his neck in place of a traditional robe, as well as his habit of rapidly pacing the ring before the start of a fight. In his prime, Tyson rarely took a step back and had never been knocked down or seriously challenged. According to Martial Arts World Report, it gave Tyson an Honorable Mention in its Ten Greatest Heavyweights of All Time rather than a ranking because longevity is a factor and the peak period of Tyson's career lasted only about 5 years. BoxRec currently ranks Tyson at number 20 among the greatest boxers that had their last fight at heavyweight. In The Ring magazine's list of the 80 Best Fighters of the Last 80 Years, released in 2002, Tyson was ranked at number 72. He is ranked number 16 on The Ring magazine's 2003 list of 100 greatest punchers of all time. Tyson has defeated 11 boxers for the world heavyweight title, the seventh-most in history. On June 12, 2011, Tyson was inducted to the International Boxing Hall of Fame alongside legendary Mexican champion Julio César Chávez, light welterweight champion Kostya Tszyu, and actor/screenwriter Sylvester Stallone. In 2011, Bleacher Report omitted Tyson from its list of top 10 heavyweights, saying that "Mike Tyson is not a top 10 heavyweight. He killed the fighters he was supposed to beat, but when he fought another elite fighter, he always lost. I'm not talking about some of those B-level fighters he took a belt from. I'm talking about the handful of good boxers he fought throughout his career." In 2013, Tyson was inducted into the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame and headlined the induction ceremony. Tyson was inducted into the Southern Nevada Hall of Fame in 2015 along with four other inductees with ties to Southern Nevada. Tyson reflected on his strongest opponents in ten categories for a 2014 interview with The Ring magazine, including best jab, best defense, fastest hands, fastest feet, best chin, smartest, strongest, best puncher, best boxer, and best overall. In 2017, The Ring magazine ranked Tyson as number 9 of 20 heavyweight champions based on a poll of panelists that included trainers, matchmakers, media, historians, and boxers, including: Trainers: Teddy Atlas, Pat Burns, Virgil Hunter, and Don Turner Matchmakers: Eric Bottjer, Don Chargin, Don Elbaum, Bobby Goodman, Ron Katz, Mike Marchionte, Russell Peltz, and Bruce Trampler. Media: Al Bernstein, Ron Borges, Gareth A Davies, Norm Frauenheim, Jerry Izenberg, Harold Lederman, Paulie Malignaggi, Dan Rafael, and Michael Rosenthal Historians: Craig Hamilton, Steve Lott, Don McRae, Bob Mee, Clay Moyle, Adam Pollack, and Randy Roberts Boxers: Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson participated in the poll, but neither fighter ranked himself. Instead, a weighted average from the other panelists was assigned to their respective slots on their ballots. In 2020, Bill Caplan of The Ring magazine listed Tyson as number 17 of the 20 greatest heavyweights of all time. Tyson spoke with The Ring magazine in 2020 about his six greatest victories, those over Trevor Berbick, Pinklon Thomas, Tony Tucker, Tyrell Biggs, Larry Holmes, and Michael Spinks. In 2020, CBS Sports boxing experts Brian Campbell and Brent Brookhouse ranked the top 10 heavyweights of the last 50 years and Tyson was ranked number 7. Life after boxing In an interview with USA Today published on June 3, 2005, Tyson said, "My whole life has been a waste – I've been a failure." He continued: "I just want to escape. I'm really embarrassed with myself and my life. I want to be a missionary. I think I could do that while keeping my dignity without letting people know they chased me out of the country. I want to get this part of my life over as soon as possible. In this country nothing good is going to come of me. People put me so high; I wanted to tear that image down." Tyson began to spend much of his time tending to his 350 pigeons in Paradise Valley, an upscale enclave near Phoenix, Arizona. Tyson has stayed in the limelight by promoting various websites and companies. In the past Tyson had shunned endorsements, accusing other athletes of putting on a false front to obtain them. Tyson has held entertainment boxing shows at a casino in Las Vegas and started a tour of exhibition bouts to pay off his numerous debts. In October 2012, Tyson launched the Mike Tyson Cares Foundation. The mission of the Mike Tyson Cares Foundation is to "give kids a fighting chance" with innovative centers that provide for the comprehensive needs of kids from broken homes. In August 2013, Tyson teamed up with Acquinity Sports to form Iron Mike Productions, a boxing promotions company. In September 2013, Tyson was featured on a six-episode television series on Fox Sports 1 that documented his personal and private life entitled Being: Mike Tyson. In November 2013, Tyson's Undisputed Truth was published, which appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list. At the Golden Podium Awards Ceremony, Tyson received the Sportel Special Prize for the best autobiography. In May 2017, Tyson published his second book, Iron Ambition, which details his time with trainer and surrogate father Cus D'Amato. In February 2018, Tyson attended the international mixed martial arts (MMA) tournament in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. Tyson said: "As I have travelled all over the country of Russia I have realised that the people are very sensitive and kind. But most Americans do not have any experience of that." On May 12, 2020, Tyson posted a video on his Instagram of him training again. At the end of the video, Tyson hinted at a return to boxing by saying, "I'm back". On May 23, 2020, at All Elite Wrestling's Double or Nothing, Tyson helped Cody defeat Lance Archer alongside Jake Roberts and presented him the inaugural AEW TNT Championship. Tyson alongside Henry Cejudo, Rashad Evans, and Vitor Belfort appeared on the May 27 episode of AEW Dynamite facing off against Chris Jericho and his stable The Inner Circle. Tyson returned to AEW on the April 7, 2021, episode of Dynamite and helped Jericho from being attacked by The Pinnacle, beating down Shawn Spears in the process. He was the special guest enforcer on the April 14 episode of Dynamite for a match between Jericho and Dax Harwood of The Pinnacle, a preview of the upcoming Inner Circle vs. Pinnacle match at Blood and Guts. Tyson made an extended cameo appearance in the Telugu-Hindi movie Liger, which released on August 25, 2022. Personal life Marriages and children Tyson resides in Seven Hills, Nevada. He has been married three times, and has seven children, one deceased, with three women; in addition to his biological children, Tyson includes his second wife's oldest daughter as one of his own. Tyson married actress Robin Givens on February 7, 1988, at Holy Angels Catholic Church during a traditional ceremony in Chicago. Givens was known at the time for her role on the sitcom Head of the Class. Tyson's marriage to Givens was especially tumultuous, with allegations of violence, spousal abuse, and mental instability on Tyson's part. Matters came to a head when Tyson and Givens gave a joint interview with Barbara Walters on the ABC TV newsmagazine show 20/20 in September 1988, in which Givens described life with Tyson as "torture, pure hell, worse than anything I could possibly imagine." Givens also described Tyson as "manic depressive" – which was later confirmed by doctors – on national television while Tyson looked on with an intent and calm expression. A month later, Givens announced that she was seeking a divorce from the allegedly abusive Tyson, with the two officially separating on February 14, 1989. According to the book Fire and Fear: The Inside Story of Mike Tyson, Tyson admitted that he punched Givens and stated, "that was the best punch I've ever thrown in my entire life." Tyson claimed that the book was "filled with inaccuracies." Tyson and Givens had no children, but she reported having had a miscarriage; Tyson claimed that she was never pregnant and only used that to get him to marry her. During their marriage, the couple lived in a mansion in Bernardsville, New Jersey. Tyson's second marriage was to Monica Turner from April 19, 1997, to January 14, 2003. At the time of the divorce filing, Turner worked as a pediatric resident at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C. She is the sister of Michael Steele, the former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland and former Republican National Committee chairman. Turner filed for divorce from Tyson in January 2002, claiming that he committed adultery during their five-year marriage, an act that "has neither been forgiven nor condoned." The couple had two children; son Amir and Ramsey who self-identifies as non-binary. On May 25, 2009, Tyson's four-year-old daughter Exodus was found by her seven-year-old brother Miguel unconscious and tangled in a cord, dangling from an exercise treadmill. The child's mother, Sol Xochitl, untangled her, administered CPR and called for medical attention. Tyson, who was in Las Vegas at the time of the incident, traveled back to Phoenix to be with her. She died of her injuries on May 26, 2009. Eleven days after his daughter's death, Tyson wed for the third time, to longtime girlfriend Lakiha "Kiki" Spicer, age 32, exchanging vows on Saturday, June 6, 2009, in a short, private ceremony at the La Bella Wedding Chapel at the Las Vegas Hilton. They have two children; daughter Milan and son Morocco. Religious beliefs Raised as a Catholic, Tyson has stated that he converted to Islam before entering prison and that he made no efforts to correct what was reported in the media, although it was falsely reported that he converted to Islam during his time in prison and adopted the Muslim name Malik Abdul Aziz; some sources report it as Malik Shabazz. Tyson never changed his given name to an Islamic one, despite the rumors. In November 2013, Tyson stated "the more I look into the churches and mosques for god, the more I start seeing the devil". But, just a month later, in a December 2013 interview with Fox News, Tyson said that he is very grateful to be a Muslim and that he needs Allah in his life. In the same interview Tyson talked about his progress with sobriety and how being in the company of good people has made him want to be a better and more humble person. He first completed the Islamic pilgrimage Umrah in July 2010 and more recently in December 2022 accompanied by DJ Khaled, a Palestinian American Muslim. Diet In March 2011, Tyson appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show to discuss his new Animal Planet reality series Taking On Tyson. In the interview with DeGeneres, Tyson discussed some of the ways he had improved his life in the past two years, including sober living and a vegan diet. However, in August 2013 he admitted publicly that he had lied about his sobriety and was on the verge of death from alcoholism. Tyson also revealed that he is no longer vegan, stating, "I was a vegan for four years but not anymore. I eat chicken every now and then. I should be a vegan. [No red meat] at all, no way! I would be very sick if I ate red meat. That's probably why I was so crazy before." Political views In 2015, Tyson announced that he was supporting Donald Trump's presidential candidacy. Controversies and legal challenges On December 29, 2006, Tyson was arrested in Scottsdale, Arizona, on suspicion of DUI and felony drug possession; he nearly crashed into a police SUV shortly after leaving a nightclub. According to a police probable-cause statement, filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, "[Tyson] admitted to using [drugs] today and stated he is an addict and has a problem." Tyson pleaded not guilty on January 22, 2007, in Maricopa County Superior Court to felony drug possession and paraphernalia possession counts and two misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence of drugs. On February 8 he checked himself into an inpatient treatment program for "various addictions" while awaiting trial on the drug charges. On September 24, 2007, Tyson pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine and driving under the influence. He was convicted of these charges in November 2007 and sentenced to 24 hours in jail. After his release, he was ordered to serve three years' probation and complete 360 hours of community service. Prosecutors had requested a year-long jail sentence, but the judge praised Tyson for seeking help with his drug problems. On November 11, 2009, Tyson was arrested after getting into a scuffle at Los Angeles International airport with a photographer. No charges were filed. In September 2011, Tyson gave an interview in which he made comments about former Alaska governor Sarah Palin including crude and violent descriptions of interracial sex. These comments were reprinted on The Daily Caller website. Journalist Greta van Susteren criticized Tyson and The Daily Caller over the comments, which she described as "smut" and "violence against women". On April 20, 2022, on a JetBlue flight from San Francisco to Florida, Tyson repeatedly punched a male passenger who was harassing him, including throwing water on Tyson; he did not face criminal charges. In 2023, an unnamed woman filed a $5 million lawsuit against Tyson, accusing him of raping her in his limousine in the early 90s. She accused Tyson of kissing her several times before pulling off her pants and raping her, despite repeatedly telling him to stop. The woman claims to have experienced "guilt, loss of self-esteem, shame, embarrassment, sadness, anger, depression, anxiety, violent tendencies, drug and alcohol addiction and confusion", as well as inability "to maintain and/or develop healthy relationships with men or other people in general". In November 2023, Tyson found himself amidst criticism and rumors regarding his alleged donation to the Israeli Defense Forces after he was photographed attending a November 13 event sponsored by Friends of the IDF (FIDF) to fundraise for the Israel–Hamas war, which seemed to clash with his previous statements about Palestinians. This led to a social media backlash, prompting Tyson to release the following statement on Instagram: "I want to clarify the recent portrayal of an event I attended," he wrote on Thursday. "Invited for a casual evening out by a friend, I was unaware of the arranged fundraiser and no donations were made by me or on my behalf. As a Muslim and human, I support peace. My prayers have been and continue to be with my brothers and sisters." In popular culture At the height of his fame and career in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, Tyson was among the most recognized sports personalities in the world. In addition to his many sporting accomplishments, his outrageous and controversial behavior in the ring and in his private life has kept him in the public eye and in the courtroom. As such, Tyson has been the subject of myriad popular media including movies, television, books and music. He has also been featured in video games and as a subject of parody or satire. Tyson became involved in professional wrestling and has made many cameo appearances in film and television. The film Tyson was released in 1995 and was directed by Uli Edel. It explores the life of Mike Tyson, from the death of his guardian and trainer Cus D'Amato to his rape conviction. Tyson is played by Michael Jai White. In 2006, Tyson appeared as himself in a cameo role in the film Rocky Balboa. Published in 2007, author Joe Layden's book The Last Great Fight: The Extraordinary Tale of Two Men and How One Fight Changed Their Lives Forever, chronicled the lives of Tyson and Douglas before and after their heavyweight championship fight. In 2008, the documentary Tyson premiered at the annual Cannes Film Festival in France. Tyson played a fictionalized version of himself in the 2009 film The Hangover. After debuting a one-man show in Las Vegas, Tyson collaborated with film director Spike Lee and brought the show to Broadway in August 2012. In February 2013, Tyson took his one-man show Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth on a 36-city, three-month national tour. Tyson talks about his personal and professional life on stage. The one-man show was aired on HBO on November 16, 2013. In 2013, he appeared in an episode of Law and Order: SVU as a survivor of child-abuse awaiting execution for murder. He is the titular character in Mike Tyson Mysteries, which started airing on October 27, 2014, on Adult Swim. In the animated series, Tyson voices a fictionalized version of himself, solving mysteries in the style of Scooby-Doo. In early March 2015, Tyson appeared on the track "Iconic" on Madonna's album Rebel Heart. Tyson says some lines at the beginning of the song. In late March 2015, Ip Man 3 was announced. With Donnie Yen reprising his role as the titular character, Bruce Lee's martial arts master, Ip Man, while Mike Tyson has been confirmed to join the cast. Principal photography began on March 25, 2015, and was premiered in Hong Kong on December 16, 2015. In January 2017, Tyson launched his YouTube channel with Shots Studios, a comedy video and comedy music production company with young digital stars like Lele Pons and Rudy Mancuso. Tyson's channel includes parody music videos and comedy sketches. He hosts the podcast Hotboxin' with Mike Tyson. In October 2017, Tyson was announced as the new face of Australian car servicing franchise Ultra Tune. He took over from Jean-Claude van Damme in fronting television commercials for the brand, and the first advert aired in January 2018 during the Australian Open. However, the ad was quickly attacked, even leading Tyson himself to describe it as "a little sexist." A joint Mainland China-Hong Kong-directed film on female friendship titled Girls 2: Girls vs Gangsters (Vietnamese: Girls 2: Những Cô Gái và Găng Tơ) that was shot earlier from July–August 2016 at several locations around Vietnam was released in March 2018, featuring Tyson as "Dragon". Tiki Lau released a dance music single, "Mike Tyson", in October 2020, which includes vocals from Tyson. In 2021, Mike's Hard Lemonade Seltzer featured ads with Tyson. In March 2021, it was announced that Jamie Foxx will star in, and also executive produce the official scripted series Tyson. The limited series will be directed by Antoine Fuqua and executive produced by Martin Scorsese. A two-part documentary series titled Mike Tyson: The Knockout premiered on May 25, 2021, on ABC. Tyson and his family appeared in the 300th episode of Hell's Kitchen as VIP guests in the Blue Team's kitchen during Season 20's opening dinner service that aired on June 7, 2021. On August 25, 2022, Hulu released a biographical drama limited series about Tyson, entitled Mike, depicting his life and career. On August 6, 2022, Tyson spoke out about the series, saying, "Hulu stole my story" and telling the service that "I'm not a n****r you can sell on the auction block." Professional boxing record Exhibition boxing record Pay-per-view bouts Boxing PPV home television Closed-circuit theater TV Select pay-per-view boxing buy rates at American closed-circuit theater television venues: Professional wrestling World Wrestling Federation All Elite Wrestling Filmography Awards and honors Humane letters The Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, in 1989 awarded Tyson an honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters: "Mike demonstrates that hard work, determination and perseverance can enable one to overcome any obstacles." Boxing Ring magazine Prospect of the Year (1985) 2× Ring magazine Fighter of the Year (1986, 1988) 2× Sugar Ray Robinson Award winner (1987, 1989) BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality (1989) International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee (Class of 2011) "Guirlande d'Honneur" by the FICTS (Milan, 2010) Professional wrestling Pro Wrestling Illustrated Faction of the Year (2021) – with The Inner Circle WWE WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2012) See also List of celebrities who own cannabis businesses List of undisputed boxing champions List of heavyweight boxing champions World heavyweight boxing championship records and statistics Notes References External links Official website Boxing record for Mike Tyson from BoxRec (registration required) Boxing Hall of Fame ESPN.com ESPN.com – additional information ESPN.com – Boxing Topics: Mike Tyson Mike Tyson amateur boxing record Mike Tyson at IMDb "Mike Tyson Film Takes a Swing at His Old Image", 2008 article at The New York Times "Mike Tyson Moves to the Suburbs", 2011 article at The New York Times

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, (née Roberts; 13 October 1925 – 8 April 2013) was a British stateswoman and Conservative politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century and the first woman to hold the position. As prime minister, she implemented economic policies known as Thatcherism. A Soviet journalist dubbed her the "Iron Lady", a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. Thatcher studied chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, and worked briefly as a research chemist before becoming a barrister. She was elected Member of Parliament for Finchley in 1959. Edward Heath appointed her secretary of state for education and science in his 1970–1974 government. In 1975, she defeated Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election to become leader of the opposition, the first woman to lead a major political party in the UK. On becoming prime minister after winning the 1979 general election, Thatcher introduced a series of economic policies intended to reverse high inflation and Britain's struggles in the wake of the Winter of Discontent and an oncoming recession. Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised greater individual liberty, the privatisation of state-owned companies, and reducing the power and influence of trade unions. Her popularity in her first years in office waned amid recession and rising unemployment. Victory in the 1982 Falklands War and the recovering economy brought a resurgence of support, resulting in her landslide re-election in 1983. She survived an assassination attempt by the Provisional IRA in the 1984 Brighton hotel bombing and achieved a political victory against the National Union of Mineworkers in the 1984–85 miners' strike. In 1986, Thatcher oversaw the deregulation of UK financial markets, leading to an economic boom, in what came to be known as the Big Bang. Thatcher was re-elected for a third term with another landslide in 1987, but her subsequent support for the Community Charge (also known as the "poll tax") was widely unpopular, and her increasingly Eurosceptic views on the European Community were not shared by others in her cabinet. She resigned as prime minister and party leader in 1990, after a challenge was launched to her leadership, and was succeeded by John Major, her chancellor of the Exchequer. After retiring from the Commons in 1992, she was given a life peerage as Baroness Thatcher (of Kesteven in the County of Lincolnshire) which entitled her to sit in the House of Lords. In 2013, she died of a stroke at the Ritz Hotel, London, at the age of 87. A polarising figure in British politics, Thatcher is nonetheless viewed favourably in historical rankings and public opinion of British prime ministers. Her tenure constituted a realignment towards neoliberal policies in Britain; the complex legacy attributed to this shift continues to be debated into the 21st century. Early life and education Family and childhood (1925–1943) Margaret Hilda Roberts was born on 13 October 1925 in Grantham, Lincolnshire. Her parents were Alfred Roberts (1892–1970), from Northamptonshire, and Beatrice Ethel Stephenson (1888–1960), from Lincolnshire. Her father's maternal grandmother, Catherine Sullivan, was born in County Kerry, Ireland. Roberts spent her childhood in Grantham, where her father owned a tobacconist's and a grocery shop. In 1938, before the Second World War, the Roberts family briefly gave sanctuary to a teenage Jewish girl who had escaped Nazi Germany. With her pen-friending elder sister Muriel, Margaret saved pocket money to help pay for the teenager's journey. Alfred was an alderman and a Methodist local preacher. He brought up his daughter as a strict Wesleyan Methodist, attending the Finkin Street Methodist Church, but Margaret was more sceptical; the future scientist told a friend that she could not believe in angels, having calculated that they needed a breastbone 6 feet (1.8 m) long to support wings. Alfred came from a Liberal family but stood (as was then customary in local government) as an Independent. He served as Mayor of Grantham from 1945 to 1946 and lost his position as alderman in 1952 after the Labour Party won its first majority on Grantham Council in 1950. Roberts attended Huntingtower Road Primary School and won a scholarship to Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School, a grammar school. Her school reports showed hard work and continual improvement; her extracurricular activities included the piano, field hockey, poetry recitals, swimming and walking. She was head girl in 1942–43, and outside school, while the Second World War was ongoing, she voluntarily worked as a fire watcher in the local ARP service. Other students thought of Roberts as the "star scientist", although mistaken advice regarding cleaning ink from parquetry almost caused chlorine gas poisoning. In her upper sixth year, Roberts was accepted for a scholarship to study chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, a women's college, starting in 1944. After another candidate withdrew, Roberts entered Oxford in October 1943. Oxford (1943–1947) Following her arrival at Oxford, Roberts began studies under X-ray crystallographer Dorothy Hodgkin, the tutor in chemistry for Somerville College since 1934. Hodgkin considered Roberts a "good" student, and later recalled: "One could always rely on her producing a sensible, well-read essay." She opted to read for a classified honours degree, entailing an additional year of supervised research. As her thesis supervisor, Hodgkin assigned Roberts to work with Gerhard Schmidt, a researcher in Hodgkin's lab, to determine the structure of the antibiotic peptide gramicidin S. Although the research made some progress, the peptide's structure proved more complex than anticipated, and Schmidt would only determine its full structure much later; Roberts (by then Thatcher) learned this in the 1960s while visiting the Weizmann Institute, where her former research partner was then working. Roberts graduated in 1947 with a second-class honours degree in chemistry, and in 1950 also received the degree of Master of Arts (as an Oxford BA, she was entitled to the degree 21 terms after her matriculation). Although Hodgkin would later be critical of her former student's politics, they continued to correspond into the 1980s, and Roberts in her memoirs would describe her mentor as "ever-helpful", "a brilliant scientist and a gifted teacher". As prime minister, she would keep a portrait of Hodgkin at 10 Downing Street. Later in life, she was reportedly prouder of becoming the first prime minister with a science degree than becoming the first female prime minister. While prime minister she attempted to preserve Somerville as a women's college. Twice a week outside study she worked in a local forces canteen. During her time at Oxford, Roberts was noted for her isolated and serious attitude. Her first boyfriend, Tony Bray (1926–2014), recalled that she was "very thoughtful and a very good conversationalist. That's probably what interested me. She was good at general subjects". Roberts's coursework involved subjects beyond chemistry as she was already contemplating an entry into law and politics. Her enthusiasm for politics as a girl made Bray think of her as "unusual" and her parents as "slightly austere" and "very proper". Roberts became President of the Oxford University Conservative Association in 1946. She was influenced at university by political works such as Friedrich Hayek's The Road to Serfdom (1944), which condemned economic intervention by government as a precursor to an authoritarian state. Post-Oxford career (1947–1951) After graduating, Roberts secured a position as a research chemist for British Xylonite (BX Plastics) following a series of interviews arranged by Oxford; she subsequently moved to Colchester in Essex to work at the firm. Little is known about her brief time there. By her own account, she was initially enthusiastic about the position, as she had been intended to function as a personal assistant to the company's head of research and development, providing opportunities to learn about operations management: "But on my arrival it was decided that there was not enough to do in that capacity." Instead, she seems to have researched methods of attaching polyvinyl chloride (PVC) to metals. While with the firm, she joined the Association of Scientific Workers. In 1948, she applied for a job at Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) but was rejected after the personnel department assessed her as "headstrong, obstinate and dangerously self-opinionated". Jon Agar in Notes and Records argues that her understanding of modern scientific research later impacted her views as prime minister. Roberts joined the local Conservative Association and attended the party conference at Llandudno, Wales, in 1948, as a representative of the University Graduate Conservative Association. Meanwhile, she became a high-ranking affiliate of the Vermin Club, a group of grassroots Conservatives formed in response to a derogatory comment made by Aneurin Bevan. One of her Oxford friends was also a friend of the Chair of the Dartford Conservative Association in Kent, who were looking for candidates. Officials of the association were so impressed by her that they asked her to apply, even though she was not on the party's approved list; she was selected in January 1950 (aged 24) and added to the approved list post ante. At a dinner following her formal adoption as Conservative candidate for Dartford in February 1949, she met divorcé Denis Thatcher, a successful and wealthy businessman, who drove her to her Essex train. After their first meeting, she described him to Muriel as "not a very attractive creature – very reserved but quite nice". In preparation for the election, Roberts moved to Dartford, while she supported herself by working as a research chemist for J. Lyons and Co. in Hammersmith, reportedly as part of a team developing emulsifiers for ice cream. As the work was more theoretical in nature than during her prior role with BX Plastics, Roberts found it "more satisfying". While at Lyons, she worked under the supervision of Hans Jellinek, who headed the company's physical chemistry section. Jellinek assigned her to research the saponification of α-monostearin (glycerol monostearate), which has properties as an emulsifier, stabiliser and food preservative. Agar has noted the research may have been connected with the emulsification of ice cream, but only as a possibility. In September 1951, their research was published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, a recently launched publication of the Society of Chemical Industry, as "The saponification of α-monostearin in a monolayer". This would be Roberts's sole scientific publication. In 1979, following his former assistant's election as prime minister, Jellinek, by then a professor of physical chemistry at Clarkson University in the United States, said she had done "a very good job" on the project, "showing great determination". She sent Jellinek a congratulatory letter upon his retirement in 1984, and another letter shortly before his death two years later. Roberts married at Wesley's Chapel and her children were baptised there, but she and her husband began attending Church of England services and would later convert to Anglicanism. Early political career In the 1950 and 1951 general elections, Roberts was the Conservative candidate for the Labour seat of Dartford. The local party selected her as its candidate because, though not a dynamic public speaker, Roberts was well-prepared and fearless in her answers. A prospective candidate, Bill Deedes, recalled: "Once she opened her mouth, the rest of us began to look rather second-rate." She attracted media attention as the youngest and the only female candidate; in 1950, she was the youngest Conservative candidate in the country. She lost on both occasions to Norman Dodds but reduced the Labour majority by 6,000 and then a further 1,000. During the campaigns, she was supported by her parents and by her future husband Denis Thatcher, whom she married in December 1951. Denis funded his wife's studies for the bar; she qualified as a barrister in 1953 and specialised in taxation. Later that same year their twins Carol and Mark were born, delivered prematurely by Caesarean section. Member of Parliament (1959–1970) In 1954, Thatcher was defeated when she sought selection to be the Conservative Party candidate for the Orpington by-election of January 1955. She chose not to stand as a candidate in the 1955 general election, in later years, stating: "I really just felt the twins were [...] only two, I really felt that it was too soon. I couldn't do that." Afterwards, Thatcher began looking for a Conservative safe seat and was selected as the candidate for Finchley in April 1958 (narrowly beating Ian Montagu Fraser). She was elected as MP for the seat after a hard campaign in the 1959 election. Benefiting from her fortunate result in a lottery for backbenchers to propose new legislation, Thatcher's maiden speech was, unusually, in support of her private member's bill, the Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960, requiring local authorities to hold their council meetings in public; the bill was successful and became law. In 1961 she went against the Conservative Party's official position by voting for the restoration of birching as a judicial corporal punishment. On the frontbenches Thatcher's talent and drive caused her to be mentioned as a future prime minister in her early 20s although she herself was more pessimistic, stating as late as 1970: "There will not be a woman prime minister in my lifetime – the male population is too prejudiced." In October 1961 she was promoted to the frontbench as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry for Pensions by Harold Macmillan. Thatcher was the youngest woman in history to receive such a post, and among the first MPs elected in 1959 to be promoted. After the Conservatives lost the 1964 election, she became spokeswoman on housing and land. In that position, she advocated her party's policy of giving tenants the right to buy their council houses. She moved to the Shadow Treasury team in 1966 and, as Treasury spokeswoman, opposed Labour's mandatory price and income controls, arguing they would unintentionally produce effects that would distort the economy. Jim Prior suggested Thatcher as a Shadow Cabinet member after the Conservatives' 1966 defeat, but party leader Edward Heath and Chief Whip William Whitelaw eventually chose Mervyn Pike as the Conservative shadow cabinet's sole woman member. At the 1966 Conservative Party conference, Thatcher criticised the high-tax policies of the Labour government as being steps "not only towards Socialism, but towards Communism", arguing that lower taxes served as an incentive to hard work. Thatcher was one of the few Conservative MPs to support Leo Abse's bill to decriminalise male homosexuality. She voted in favour of David Steel's bill to legalise abortion, as well as a ban on hare coursing. She supported the retention of capital punishment and voted against the relaxation of divorce laws. In the Shadow Cabinet In 1967, the United States Embassy chose Thatcher to take part in the International Visitor Leadership Program (then called the Foreign Leader Program), a professional exchange programme that allowed her to spend about six weeks visiting various US cities and political figures as well as institutions such as the International Monetary Fund. Although she was not yet a Shadow Cabinet member, the embassy reportedly described her to the State Department as a possible future prime minister. The description helped Thatcher meet with prominent people during a busy itinerary focused on economic issues, including Paul Samuelson, Walt Rostow, Pierre-Paul Schweitzer and Nelson Rockefeller. Following the visit, Heath appointed Thatcher to the Shadow Cabinet as fuel and power spokeswoman. Before the 1970 general election, she was promoted to shadow transport spokeswoman and later to education. In 1968, Enoch Powell delivered his "Rivers of Blood" speech in which he strongly criticised Commonwealth immigration to the United Kingdom and the then-proposed Race Relations Bill. When Heath telephoned Thatcher to inform her that he would sack Powell from the Shadow Cabinet, she recalled that she "really thought that it was better to let things cool down for the present rather than heighten the crisis". She believed that his main points about Commonwealth immigration were correct and that the selected quotations from his speech had been taken out of context. In a 1991 interview for Today, Thatcher stated that she thought Powell had "made a valid argument, if in sometimes regrettable terms". Around this time, she gave her first Commons speech as a shadow transport minister and highlighted the need for investment in British Rail. She argued: "[I]f we build bigger and better roads, they would soon be saturated with more vehicles and we would be no nearer solving the problem." Thatcher made her first visit to the Soviet Union in the summer of 1969 as the Opposition transport spokeswoman, and in October, delivered a speech celebrating her ten years in Parliament. In early 1970, she told The Finchley Press that she would like to see a "reversal of the permissive society". Education Secretary (1970–1974) The Conservative Party, led by Edward Heath, won the 1970 general election, and Thatcher was appointed to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Education and Science. Thatcher caused controversy when, after only a few days in office, she withdrew Labour's Circular 10/65, which attempted to force comprehensivisation, without going through a consultation process. She was highly criticised for the speed at which she carried this out. Consequently, she drafted her own new policy (Circular 10/70), which ensured that local authorities were not forced to go comprehensive. Her new policy was not meant to stop the development of new comprehensives; she said: "We shall [...] expect plans to be based on educational considerations rather than on the comprehensive principle." Thatcher supported Lord Rothschild's 1971 proposal for market forces to affect government funding of research. Although many scientists opposed the proposal, her research background probably made her sceptical of their claim that outsiders should not interfere with funding. The department evaluated proposals for more local education authorities to close grammar schools and to adopt comprehensive secondary education. Although Thatcher was committed to a tiered secondary modern-grammar school system of education and attempted to preserve grammar schools, during her tenure as education secretary, she turned down only 326 of 3,612 proposals (roughly 9 per cent) for schools to become comprehensives; the proportion of pupils attending comprehensive schools consequently rose from 32 per cent to 62 per cent. Nevertheless, she managed to save 94 grammar schools. During her first months in office, she attracted public attention due to the government's attempts to cut spending. She gave priority to academic needs in schools, while administering public expenditure cuts on the state education system, resulting in the abolition of free milk for schoolchildren aged seven to eleven. She held that few children would suffer if schools were charged for milk but agreed to provide younger children with 0.3 imperial pints (0.17 L) daily for nutritional purposes. She also argued that she was simply carrying on with what the Labour government had started since they had stopped giving free milk to secondary schools. Milk would still be provided to those children that required it on medical grounds, and schools could still sell milk. The aftermath of the milk row hardened her determination; she told the editor-proprietor Harold Creighton of The Spectator: "Don't underestimate me, I saw how they broke Keith [Joseph], but they won't break me." Cabinet papers later revealed that she opposed the policy but had been forced into it by the Treasury. Her decision provoked a storm of protest from Labour and the press, leading to her being notoriously nicknamed "Margaret Thatcher, Milk Snatcher". She reportedly considered leaving politics in the aftermath and later wrote in her autobiography: "I learned a valuable lesson. I had incurred the maximum of political odium for the minimum of political benefit." Leader of the Opposition (1975–1979) The Heath government continued to experience difficulties with oil embargoes and union demands for wage increases in 1973, subsequently losing the February 1974 general election. Labour formed a minority government and went on to win a narrow majority in the October 1974 general election. Heath's leadership of the Conservative Party looked increasingly in doubt. Thatcher was not initially seen as the obvious replacement, but she eventually became the main challenger, promising a fresh start. Her main support came from the parliamentary 1922 Committee and The Spectator, but Thatcher's time in office gave her the reputation of a pragmatist rather than that of an ideologue. She defeated Heath on the first ballot, and he resigned from the leadership. In the second ballot she defeated Whitelaw, Heath's preferred successor. Thatcher's election had a polarising effect on the party; her support was stronger among MPs on the right, and also among those from southern England, and those who had not attended public schools or Oxbridge. Thatcher became Conservative Party leader and Leader of the Opposition on 11 February 1975; she appointed Whitelaw as her deputy. Heath was never reconciled to Thatcher's leadership of the party. Television critic Clive James, writing in The Observer prior to her election as Conservative Party leader, compared her voice of 1973 to "a cat sliding down a blackboard". Thatcher had already begun to work on her presentation on the advice of Gordon Reece, a former television producer. By chance, Reece met the actor Laurence Olivier, who arranged lessons with the National Theatre's voice coach. Thatcher began attending lunches regularly at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a think tank founded by Hayekian poultry magnate Antony Fisher; she had been visiting the IEA and reading its publications since the early 1960s. There she was influenced by the ideas of Ralph Harris and Arthur Seldon and became the face of the ideological movement opposing the British welfare state. Keynesian economics, they believed, was weakening Britain. The institute's pamphlets proposed less government, lower taxes, and more freedom for business and consumers. Thatcher intended to promote neoliberal economic ideas at home and abroad. Despite setting the direction of her foreign policy for a Conservative government, Thatcher was distressed by her repeated failure to shine in the House of Commons. Consequently, Thatcher decided that as "her voice was carrying little weight at home", she would "be heard in the wider world". Thatcher undertook visits across the Atlantic, establishing an international profile and promoting her economic and foreign policies. She toured the United States in 1975 and met President Gerald Ford, visiting again in 1977, when she met President Jimmy Carter. Among other foreign trips, she met Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi during a visit to Iran in 1978. Thatcher chose to travel without being accompanied by her shadow foreign secretary, Reginald Maudling, in an attempt to make a bolder personal impact. In domestic affairs, Thatcher opposed Scottish devolution (home rule) and the creation of a Scottish Assembly. She instructed Conservative MPs to vote against the Scotland and Wales Bill in December 1976, which was successfully defeated, and then when new Bills were proposed, she supported amending the legislation to allow the English to vote in the 1979 referendum on Scottish devolution. Britain's economy during the 1970s was so weak that then Foreign Secretary James Callaghan warned his fellow Labour Cabinet members in 1974 of the possibility of "a breakdown of democracy", telling them: "If I were a young man, I would emigrate." In mid-1978, the economy began to recover, and opinion polls showed Labour in the lead, with a general election being expected later that year and a Labour win a serious possibility. Now prime minister, Callaghan surprised many by announcing on 7 September that there would be no general election that year and that he would wait until 1979 before going to the polls. Thatcher reacted to this by branding the Labour government "chickens", and Liberal Party leader David Steel joined in, criticising Labour for "running scared". The Labour government then faced fresh public unease about the direction of the country and a damaging series of strikes during the winter of 1978–79, dubbed the "Winter of Discontent". The Conservatives attacked the Labour government's unemployment record, using advertising with the slogan "Labour Isn't Working". A general election was called after the Callaghan ministry lost a motion of no confidence in early 1979. The Conservatives won a 44-seat majority in the House of Commons, and Thatcher became the first female British prime minister. "Iron Lady" I stand before you tonight in my Red Star chiffon evening gown, my face softly made up and my fair hair gently waved, the Iron Lady of the Western world. In 1976, Thatcher gave her "Britain Awake" foreign policy speech which lambasted the Soviet Union, saying it was "bent on world dominance". The Soviet Army journal Red Star reported her stance in a piece headlined "Iron Lady Raises Fears", alluding to her remarks on the Iron Curtain. The Sunday Times covered the Red Star article the next day, and Thatcher embraced the epithet a week later; in a speech to Finchley Conservatives she likened it to the Duke of Wellington's nickname "Iron Duke". The "Iron" metaphor followed her throughout ever since, and would become a generic sobriquet for other strong-willed female politicians. Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1979–1990) Thatcher became prime minister on 4 May 1979. Arriving at Downing Street she said, paraphrasing the Prayer of Saint Francis: In office throughout the 1980s, Thatcher was frequently referred to as the most powerful woman in the world. Domestic affairs Minorities Thatcher was the Opposition leader and prime minister at a time of increased racial tension in Britain. During the 1977 local elections, The Economist commented: "The Tory tide swamped the smaller parties – specifically the National Front [NF], which suffered a clear decline from last year." Her standing in the polls had risen by 11% after a 1978 interview for World in Action in which she said "the British character has done so much for democracy, for law and done so much throughout the world that if there is any fear that it might be swamped people are going to react and be rather hostile to those coming in", as well as "in many ways [minorities] add to the richness and variety of this country. The moment the minority threatens to become a big one, people get frightened". In the 1979 general election, the Conservatives had attracted votes from the NF, whose support almost collapsed. In a July 1979 meeting with Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington and Home Secretary William Whitelaw, Thatcher objected to the number of Asian immigrants, in the context of limiting the total of Vietnamese boat people allowed to settle in the UK to fewer than 10,000 over two years. The Queen As prime minister, Thatcher met weekly with Queen Elizabeth II to discuss government business, and their relationship came under scrutiny. Campbell (2011a, p. 464) states: One question that continued to fascinate the public about the phenomenon of a woman Prime Minister was how she got on with the Queen. The answer is that their relations were punctiliously correct, but there was little love lost on either side. As two women of very similar age – Mrs Thatcher was six months older – occupying parallel positions at the top of the social pyramid, one the head of government, the other head of state, they were bound to be in some sense rivals. Mrs Thatcher's attitude to the Queen was ambivalent. On the one hand she had an almost mystical reverence for the institution of the monarchy [...] Yet at the same time she was trying to modernise the country and sweep away many of the values and practices which the monarchy perpetuated. Michael Shea, the Queen's press secretary, in 1986 leaked stories of a deep rift to The Sunday Times. He said that she felt Thatcher's policies were "uncaring, confrontational and socially divisive". Thatcher later wrote: "I always found the Queen's attitude towards the work of the Government absolutely correct [...] stories of clashes between 'two powerful women' were just too good not to make up." Economy and taxation Thatcher's economic policy was influenced by monetarist thinking and economists such as Milton Friedman and Alan Walters. Together with her first chancellor, Geoffrey Howe, she lowered direct taxes on income and increased indirect taxes. She increased interest rates to slow the growth of the money supply, and thereby lower inflation; introduced cash limits on public spending and reduced expenditure on social services such as education and housing. Cuts to higher education led to Thatcher being the first Oxonian post-war prime minister without an honorary doctorate from Oxford University after a 738–319 vote of the governing assembly and a student petition. Some Heathite Conservatives in the Cabinet, the so-called "wets", expressed doubt over Thatcher's policies. The 1981 England riots resulted in the British media discussing the need for a policy U-turn. At the 1980 Conservative Party conference, Thatcher addressed the issue directly with a speech written by the playwright Ronald Millar, that notably included the following lines:To those waiting with bated breath for that favourite media catchphrase, the "U" turn, I have only one thing to say. "You turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning." Thatcher's job approval rating fell to 23% by December 1980, lower than recorded for any previous prime minister. As the recession of the early 1980s deepened, she increased taxes, despite concerns expressed in a March 1981 statement signed by 364 leading economists, which argued there was "no basis in economic theory [...] for the Government's belief that by deflating demand they will bring inflation permanently under control", adding that "present policies will deepen the depression, erode the industrial base of our economy and threaten its social and political stability". By 1982, the UK began to experience signs of economic recovery; inflation was down to 8.6% from a high of 18%, but unemployment was over 3 million for the first time since the 1930s. By 1983, overall economic growth was stronger, and inflation and mortgage rates had fallen to their lowest levels in 13 years, although manufacturing employment as a share of total employment fell to just over 30%, with total unemployment remaining high, peaking at 3.3 million in 1984. During the 1982 Conservative Party Conference, Thatcher said: "We have done more to roll back the frontiers of socialism than any previous Conservative Government." She said at the Party Conference the following year that the British people had completely rejected state socialism and understood "the state has no source of money other than money which people earn themselves [...] There is no such thing as public money; there is only taxpayers' money." By 1987, unemployment was falling, the economy was stable and strong, and inflation was low. Opinion polls showed a comfortable Conservative lead, and local council election results had also been successful, prompting Thatcher to call a general election for 11 June that year, despite the deadline for an election still being 12 months away. The election saw Thatcher re-elected for a third successive term. Thatcher had been firmly opposed to British membership of the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM, a precursor to European Economic and Monetary Union), believing that it would constrain the British economy, despite the urging of both Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson and Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe; in October 1990 she was persuaded by John Major, Lawson's successor as chancellor, to join the ERM at what proved to be too high a rate. Thatcher reformed local government taxes by replacing domestic rates (a tax based on the nominal rental value of a home) with the Community Charge (or poll tax) in which the same amount was charged to each adult resident. The new tax was introduced in Scotland in 1989 and in England and Wales the following year, and proved to be among the most unpopular policies of her premiership. Public disquiet culminated in a 70,000 to 200,000-strong demonstration in London in March 1990; the demonstration around Trafalgar Square deteriorated into riots, leaving 113 people injured and 340 under arrest. The Community Charge was abolished in 1991 by her successor, John Major. It has since transpired that Thatcher herself had failed to register for the tax and was threatened with financial penalties if she did not return her form. Industrial relations Thatcher believed that the trade unions were harmful to both ordinary trade unionists and the public. She was committed to reducing the power of the unions, whose leadership she accused of undermining parliamentary democracy and economic performance through strike action. Several unions launched strikes in response to legislation introduced to limit their power, but resistance eventually collapsed. Only 39% of union members voted Labour in the 1983 general election. According to the BBC's political correspondent in 2004, Thatcher "managed to destroy the power of the trade unions for almost a generation". The miners' strike of 1984–85 was the biggest and most devastating confrontation between the unions and the Thatcher government. In March 1984, the National Coal Board (NCB) proposed to close 20 of the 174 state-owned mines and cut 20,000 jobs out of 187,000. Two-thirds of the country's miners, led by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) under Arthur Scargill, went on strike in protest. However, Scargill refused to hold a ballot on the strike, having previously lost three ballots on a national strike (in January and October 1982, and March 1983). This led to the strike being declared illegal by the High Court of Justice. Thatcher refused to meet the union's demands and compared the miners' dispute to the Falklands War, declaring in a speech in 1984: "We had to fight the enemy without in the Falklands. We always have to be aware of the enemy within, which is much more difficult to fight and more dangerous to liberty." Thatcher's opponents characterised her words as indicating contempt for the working class and have been employed in criticism of her ever since. After a year out on strike in March 1985, the NUM leadership conceded without a deal. The cost to the economy was estimated to be at least £1.5 billion, and the strike was blamed for much of the pound's fall against the US dollar. Thatcher reflected on the end of the strike in her statement that "if anyone has won", it was "the miners who stayed at work" and all those "that have kept Britain going". The government closed 25 unprofitable coal mines in 1985, and by 1992 a total of 97 mines had been closed; those that remained were privatised in 1994. The resulting closure of 150 coal mines, some of which were not losing money, resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of jobs and had the effect of devastating entire communities. Strikes had helped bring down Heath's government, and Thatcher was determined to succeed where he had failed. Her strategy of preparing fuel stocks, appointing hardliner Ian MacGregor as NCB leader and ensuring that police were adequately trained and equipped with riot gear contributed to her triumph over the striking miners. The number of stoppages across the UK peaked at 4,583 in 1979, when more than 29 million working days had been lost. In 1984, the year of the miners' strike, there were 1,221, resulting in the loss of more than 27 million working days. Stoppages then fell steadily throughout the rest of Thatcher's premiership; in 1990, there were 630 and fewer than 2 million working days lost, and they continued to fall thereafter. Thatcher's tenure also witnessed a sharp decline in trade union density, with the percentage of workers belonging to a trade union falling from 57.3% in 1979 to 49.5% in 1985. In 1979 up until Thatcher's final year in office, trade union membership also fell, from 13.5 million in 1979 to fewer than 10 million. Privatisation The policy of privatisation has been called "a crucial ingredient of Thatcherism". After the 1983 election, the sale of state utilities accelerated; more than £29 billion was raised from the sale of nationalised industries, and another £18 billion from the sale of council houses. The process of privatisation, especially the preparation of nationalised industries for privatisation, was associated with marked improvements in performance, particularly in terms of labour productivity. Some of the privatised industries, including gas, water, and electricity, were natural monopolies for which privatisation involved little increase in competition. The privatised industries that demonstrated improvement sometimes did so while still under state ownership. British Steel Corporation had made great gains in profitability while still a nationalised industry under the government-appointed MacGregor chairmanship, which faced down trade-union opposition to close plants and halve the workforce. Regulation was also significantly expanded to compensate for the loss of direct government control, with the foundation of regulatory bodies such as Oftel (1984), Ofgas (1986), and the National Rivers Authority (1989). There was no clear pattern to the degree of competition, regulation, and performance among the privatised industries. In most cases, privatisation benefited consumers in terms of lower prices and improved efficiency but results overall have been mixed. Not all privatised companies have had successful share price trajectories in the longer term. A 2010 review by the IEA states: "[I]t does seem to be the case that once competition and/or effective regulation was introduced, performance improved markedly [...] But I hasten to emphasise again that the literature is not unanimous." Thatcher always resisted privatising British Rail and was said to have told Transport Secretary Nicholas Ridley: "Railway privatisation will be the Waterloo of this government. Please never mention the railways to me again." Shortly before her resignation in 1990, she accepted the arguments for privatisation, which her successor John Major implemented in 1994. The privatisation of public assets was combined with financial deregulation to fuel economic growth. Chancellor Geoffrey Howe abolished the UK's exchange controls in 1979, which allowed more capital to be invested in foreign markets, and the Big Bang of 1986 removed many restrictions on the London Stock Exchange. Northern Ireland In 1980 and 1981, Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) prisoners in Northern Ireland's Maze Prison carried out hunger strikes to regain the status of political prisoners that had been removed in 1976 by the preceding Labour government. Bobby Sands began the 1981 strike, saying that he would fast until death unless prison inmates won concessions over their living conditions. Thatcher refused to countenance a return to political status for the prisoners, having declared "Crime is crime is crime; it is not political". Nevertheless, the British government privately contacted republican leaders in a bid to bring the hunger strikes to an end. After the deaths of Sands and nine others, the strike ended. Some rights were restored to paramilitary prisoners, but not official recognition of political status. Violence in Northern Ireland escalated significantly during the hunger strikes. Thatcher narrowly escaped injury in an IRA assassination attempt at a Brighton hotel early in the morning on 12 October 1984. Five people were killed, including the wife of minister John Wakeham. Thatcher was staying at the hotel to prepare for the Conservative Party conference, which she insisted should open as scheduled the following day. She delivered her speech as planned, though rewritten from her original draft, in a move that was supported across the political spectrum and enhanced her popularity with the public. On 6 November 1981, Thatcher and Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Garret FitzGerald had established the Anglo-Irish Inter-Governmental Council, a forum for meetings between the two governments. On 15 November 1985, Thatcher and FitzGerald signed the Hillsborough Anglo-Irish Agreement, which marked the first time a British government had given the Republic of Ireland an advisory role in the governance of Northern Ireland. In protest, the Ulster Says No movement led by Ian Paisley attracted 100,000 to a rally in Belfast, Ian Gow, later assassinated by the PIRA, resigned as Minister of State in HM Treasury, and all 15 Unionist MPs resigned their parliamentary seats; only one was not returned in the subsequent by-elections on 23 January 1986. Environment Thatcher supported an active climate protection policy; she was instrumental in the passing of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, the founding of the Hadley Centre for Climate Research and Prediction, the establishment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the ratification of the Montreal Protocol on preserving the ozone. Thatcher helped to put climate change, acid rain and general pollution in the British mainstream in the late 1980s, calling for a global treaty on climate change in 1989. Her speeches included one to the Royal Society in 1988, followed by another to the UN General Assembly in 1989. Foreign affairs Thatcher appointed Lord Carrington, an ennobled member of the party and former Secretary of State for Defence, to run the Foreign Office in 1979. Although considered a "wet", he avoided domestic affairs and got along well with Thatcher. One issue was what to do with Rhodesia, where the white minority had determined to rule the prosperous, black-majority breakaway colony in the face of overwhelming international criticism. With the 1975 Portuguese collapse in the continent, South Africa (which had been Rhodesia's chief supporter) realised that their ally was a liability; black rule was inevitable, and the Thatcher government brokered a peaceful solution to end the Rhodesian Bush War in December 1979 via the Lancaster House Agreement. The conference at Lancaster House was attended by Rhodesian prime minister Ian Smith, as well as by the key black leaders: Muzorewa, Mugabe, Nkomo and Tongogara. The result was the new Zimbabwean nation under black rule in 1980. Cold War Thatcher's first foreign-policy crisis came with the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. She condemned the invasion, said it showed the bankruptcy of a détente policy and helped convince some British athletes to boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics. She gave weak support to US president Jimmy Carter who tried to punish the USSR with economic sanctions. Britain's economic situation was precarious, and most of NATO was reluctant to cut trade ties. Thatcher nevertheless gave the go-ahead for Whitehall to approve MI6 (along with the SAS) to undertake "disruptive action" in Afghanistan. As well as working with the CIA in Operation Cyclone, they also supplied weapons, training and intelligence to the mujaheddin. The Financial Times reported in 2011 that her government had secretly supplied Iraq under Saddam Hussein with "non-lethal" military equipment since 1981. Having withdrawn formal recognition from the Pol Pot regime in 1979, the Thatcher government backed the Khmer Rouge keeping their UN seat after they were ousted from power in Cambodia by the Cambodian–Vietnamese War. Although Thatcher denied it at the time, it was revealed in 1991 that, while not directly training any Khmer Rouge, from 1983 the Special Air Service (SAS) was sent to secretly train "the armed forces of the Cambodian non-communist resistance" that remained loyal to Prince Norodom Sihanouk and his former prime minister Son Sann in the fight against the Vietnamese-backed puppet regime. Thatcher was one of the first Western leaders to respond warmly to reformist Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Following Reagan–Gorbachev summit meetings and reforms enacted by Gorbachev in the USSR, she declared in November 1988 that "[w]e're not in a Cold War now" but rather in a "new relationship much wider than the Cold War ever was". She went on a state visit to the Soviet Union in 1984 and met with Gorbachev and Council of Ministers chairman Nikolai Ryzhkov. Ties with the US Despite opposite personalities, Thatcher bonded quickly with US president Ronald Reagan. She gave strong support to the Reagan administration's Cold War policies based on their shared distrust of communism. A sharp disagreement came in 1983 when Reagan did not consult with her on the invasion of Grenada. During her first year as prime minister, she supported NATO's decision to deploy US nuclear cruise and Pershing II missiles in Western Europe, permitting the US to station more than 160 cruise missiles at RAF Greenham Common, starting in November 1983 and triggering mass protests by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. She bought the Trident nuclear missile submarine system from the US to replace Polaris, tripling the UK's nuclear forces at an eventual cost of more than £12 billion (at 1996–97 prices). Thatcher's preference for defence ties with the US was demonstrated in the Westland affair of 1985–86 when she acted with colleagues to allow the struggling helicopter manufacturer Westland to refuse a takeover offer from the Italian firm Agusta in favour of the management's preferred option, a link with Sikorsky Aircraft. Defence Secretary Michael Heseltine, who had supported the Agusta deal, resigned from the government in protest. In April 1986 she permitted US F-111s to use Royal Air Force bases for the bombing of Libya in retaliation for the alleged Libyan bombing of a Berlin discothèque, citing the right of self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter. Polls suggested that fewer than one in three British citizens approved of her decision. Thatcher was in the US on a state visit when Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August 1990. During her talks with President George H. W. Bush, who succeeded Reagan in 1989, she recommended intervention, and put pressure on Bush to deploy troops in the Middle East to drive the Iraqi Army out of Kuwait. Bush was apprehensive about the plan, prompting Thatcher to remark to him during a telephone conversation: "This was no time to go wobbly!" Thatcher's government supplied military forces to the international coalition in the build-up to the Gulf War, but she had resigned by the time hostilities began on 17 January 1991. She applauded the coalition victory on the backbenches, while warning that "the victories of peace will take longer than the battles of war". It was disclosed in 2017 that Thatcher had suggested threatening Saddam with chemical weapons after the invasion of Kuwait. Crisis in the South Atlantic On 2 April 1982, the ruling military junta in Argentina ordered the invasion of the British Overseas Territories of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia, triggering the Falklands War. The subsequent crisis was "a defining moment of [Thatcher's] premiership". At the suggestion of Harold Macmillan and Robert Armstrong, she set up and chaired a small War Cabinet (formally called ODSA, Overseas and Defence committee, South Atlantic) to oversee the conduct of the war, which by 5–6 April had authorised and dispatched a naval task force to retake the islands. Argentina surrendered on 14 June and Operation Corporate was hailed a success, notwithstanding the deaths of 255 British servicemen and three Falkland Islanders. Argentine fatalities totalled 649, half of them after the nuclear-powered submarine HMS Conqueror torpedoed and sank the cruiser ARA General Belgrano on 2 May. Thatcher was criticised for the neglect of the Falklands' defence that led to the war, and especially by Labour MP Tam Dalyell in Parliament for the decision to torpedo the General Belgrano, but overall, she was considered a competent and committed war leader. The "Falklands factor", an economic recovery beginning early in 1982, and a bitterly divided opposition all contributed to Thatcher's second election victory in 1983. Thatcher frequently referred after the war to the "Falklands spirit"; Hastings & Jenkins (1983, p. 329) suggests that this reflected her preference for the streamlined decision-making of her War Cabinet over the painstaking deal-making of peacetime cabinet government. Negotiating Hong Kong In September 1982, she visited China to discuss with Deng Xiaoping the sovereignty of Hong Kong after 1997. China was the first communist state Thatcher had visited as prime minister, and she was the first British prime minister to visit China. Throughout their meeting, she sought the PRC's agreement to a continued British presence in the territory. Deng insisted that the PRC's sovereignty over Hong Kong was non-negotiable but stated his willingness to settle the sovereignty issue with the British government through formal negotiations. Both governments promised to maintain Hong Kong's stability and prosperity. After the two-year negotiations, Thatcher conceded to the PRC government and signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration in Beijing in 1984, agreeing to hand over Hong Kong's sovereignty in 1997. Apartheid in South Africa Despite saying that she was in favour of "peaceful negotiations" to end apartheid, Thatcher opposed sanctions imposed on South Africa by the Commonwealth and the European Economic Community (EEC). She attempted to preserve trade with South Africa while persuading its government to abandon apartheid. This included "[c]asting herself as President Botha's candid friend" and inviting him to visit the UK in 1984, despite the "inevitable demonstrations" against his government. Alan Merrydew of the Canadian broadcaster BCTV News asked Thatcher what her response was "to a reported ANC statement that they will target British firms in South Africa?" to which she later replied: "[...] when the ANC says that they will target British companies [...] This shows what a typical terrorist organisation it is. I fought terrorism all my life and if more people fought it, and we were all more successful, we should not have it and I hope that everyone in this hall will think it is right to go on fighting terrorism." During his visit to Britain five months after his release from prison, Nelson Mandela praised Thatcher: "She is an enemy of apartheid [...] We have much to thank her for." Europe Thatcher and her party supported British membership of the EEC in the 1975 national referendum and the Single European Act of 1986, and obtained the UK rebate on contributions, but she believed that the role of the organisation should be limited to ensuring free trade and effective competition, and feared that the EEC approach was at odds with her views on smaller government and deregulation. Believing that the single market would result in political integration, Thatcher's opposition to further European integration became more pronounced during her premiership and particularly after her third government in 1987. In her Bruges speech in 1988, Thatcher outlined her opposition to proposals from the EEC, forerunner of the European Union, for a federal structure and increased centralisation of decision-making:We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them re-imposed at a European level, with a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels. Sharing the concerns of French president François Mitterrand, Thatcher was initially opposed to German reunification, telling Gorbachev that it "would lead to a change to postwar borders, and we cannot allow that because such a development would undermine the stability of the whole international situation and could endanger our security". She expressed concern that a united Germany would align itself more closely with the Soviet Union and move away from NATO. In March 1990, Thatcher held a Chequers seminar on the subject of German reunification that was attended by members of her cabinet and historians such as Norman Stone, George Urban, Timothy Garton Ash and Gordon A. Craig. During the seminar, Thatcher described "what Urban called 'saloon bar clichés' about the German character, including 'angst, aggressiveness, assertiveness, bullying, egotism, inferiority complex [and] sentimentality'". Those present were shocked to hear Thatcher's utterances and "appalled" at how she was "apparently unaware" about the post-war German collective guilt and Germans' attempts to work through their past. The words of the meeting were leaked by her foreign-policy advisor Charles Powell and, subsequently, her comments were met with fierce backlash and controversy. During the same month, German chancellor Helmut Kohl reassured Thatcher that he would keep her "informed of all his intentions about unification", and that he was prepared to disclose "matters which even his cabinet would not know". Challenges to leadership and resignation During her premiership, Thatcher had the second-lowest average approval rating (40%) of any post-war prime minister. Since Nigel Lawson's resignation as chancellor in October 1989, polls consistently showed that she was less popular than her party. A self-described conviction politician, Thatcher always insisted that she did not care about her poll ratings and pointed instead to her unbeaten election record. In December 1989, Thatcher was challenged for the leadership of the Conservative Party by the little-known backbench MP Sir Anthony Meyer. Of the 374 Conservative MPs eligible to vote, 314 voted for Thatcher and 33 for Meyer. Her supporters in the party viewed the result as a success and rejected suggestions that there was discontent within the party. Opinion polls in September 1990 reported that Labour had established a 14% lead over the Conservatives, and by November, the Conservatives had been trailing Labour for 18 months. These ratings, together with Thatcher's combative personality and tendency to override collegiate opinion, contributed to further discontent within her party. In July 1989, Thatcher removed Geoffrey Howe as foreign secretary after he and Lawson had forced her to agree to a plan for Britain to join the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM). Britain joined the ERM in October 1990. On 1 November 1990, Howe, by then the last remaining member of Thatcher's original 1979 cabinet, resigned as deputy prime minister, ostensibly over her open hostility to moves towards European monetary union. In his resignation speech on 13 November, which was instrumental in Thatcher's downfall, Howe attacked Thatcher's openly dismissive attitude to the government's proposal for a new European currency competing against existing currencies (a "hard ECU"): How on earth are the Chancellor and the Governor of the Bank of England, commending the hard ECU as they strive to, to be taken as serious participants in the debate against that kind of background noise? I believe that both the Chancellor and the Governor are cricketing enthusiasts, so I hope that there is no monopoly of cricketing metaphors. It is rather like sending your opening batsmen to the crease only for them to find, the moment the first balls are bowled, that their bats have been broken before the game by the team captain. On 14 November, Michael Heseltine mounted a challenge for the leadership of the Conservative Party. Opinion polls had indicated that he would give the Conservatives a national lead over Labour. Although Thatcher led on the first ballot with the votes of 204 Conservative MPs (54.8%) to 152 votes (40.9%) for Heseltine, with 16 abstentions, she was four votes short of the required 15% majority. A second ballot was therefore necessary. Thatcher initially declared her intention to "fight on and fight to win" the second ballot, but consultation with her cabinet persuaded her to withdraw. After holding an audience with the Queen, calling other world leaders, and making one final Commons speech, on 28 November she left Downing Street in tears. She reportedly regarded her ousting as a betrayal. Her resignation was a shock to many outside Britain, with such foreign observers as Henry Kissinger and Gorbachev expressing private consternation. Chancellor John Major replaced Thatcher as head of government and party leader, whose lead over Heseltine in the second ballot was sufficient for Heseltine to drop out. Major oversaw an upturn in Conservative support in the 17 months leading to the 1992 general election and led the party to a fourth successive victory on 9 April 1992. Thatcher had lobbied for Major in the leadership contest against Heseltine, but her support for him waned in later years. Later life Return to backbenches (1990–1992) After leaving the premiership, Thatcher returned to the backbenches as a constituency parliamentarian. Her domestic approval rating recovered after her resignation, though public opinion remained divided on whether her government had been good for the country. Aged 66, she retired from the House of Commons at the 1992 general election, saying that leaving the Commons would allow her more freedom to speak her mind. Post-Commons (1992–2003) On leaving the Commons, Thatcher became the first former British prime minister to set up a foundation; the British wing of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation was dissolved in 2005 due to financial difficulties. She wrote two volumes of memoirs, The Downing Street Years (1993) and The Path to Power (1995). In 1991, she and her husband Denis moved to a house in Chester Square, a residential garden square in central London's Belgravia district. Thatcher was hired by the tobacco company Philip Morris as a "geopolitical consultant" in July 1992 for $250,000 per year and an annual contribution of $250,000 to her foundation. Thatcher earned $50,000 for each speech she delivered. Thatcher became an advocate of Croatian and Slovenian independence. Commenting on the Yugoslav Wars, in a 1991 interview for Croatian Radiotelevision, she was critical of Western governments for not recognising the breakaway republics of Croatia and Slovenia as independent and for not supplying them with arms after the Serbian-led Yugoslav Army attacked. In August 1992, she called for NATO to stop the Serbian assault on Goražde and Sarajevo to end ethnic cleansing during the Bosnian War, comparing the situation in Bosnia–Herzegovina to "the barbarities of Hitler's and Stalin's". She made a series of speeches in the Lords criticising the Maastricht Treaty, describing it as "a treaty too far" and stated: "I could never have signed this treaty." She cited A. V. Dicey when arguing that, as all three main parties were in favour of the treaty, the people should have their say in a referendum. Thatcher served as honorary chancellor of the College of William & Mary in Virginia from 1993 to 2000, while also serving as chancellor of the private University of Buckingham from 1992 to 1998, a university she had formally opened in 1976 as the former education secretary. After Tony Blair's election as Labour Party leader in 1994, Thatcher praised Blair as "probably the most formidable Labour leader since Hugh Gaitskell", adding: "I see a lot of socialism behind their front bench, but not in Mr Blair. I think he genuinely has moved." Blair responded in kind: "She was a thoroughly determined person, and that is an admirable quality." In 1998, Thatcher called for the release of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet when Spain had him arrested and sought to try him for human rights violations. She cited the help he gave Britain during the Falklands War. In 1999, she visited him while he was under house arrest near London. Pinochet was released in March 2000 on medical grounds by Home Secretary Jack Straw. At the 2001 general election, Thatcher supported the Conservative campaign, as she had done in 1992 and 1997, and in the Conservative leadership election following its defeat, she endorsed Iain Duncan Smith over Kenneth Clarke. In 2002 she encouraged George W. Bush to aggressively tackle the "unfinished business" of Iraq under Saddam Hussein, and praised Blair for his "strong, bold leadership" in standing with Bush in the Iraq War. She broached the same subject in her Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World, which was published in April 2002 and dedicated to Ronald Reagan, writing that there would be no peace in the Middle East until Saddam was toppled. Her book also said that Israel must trade land for peace and that the European Union (EU) was a "fundamentally unreformable", "classic utopian project, a monument to the vanity of intellectuals, a programme whose inevitable destiny is failure". She argued that Britain should renegotiate its terms of membership or else leave the EU and join the North American Free Trade Area. Following several small strokes, her doctors advised her not to engage in further public speaking. In March 2002 she announced that, on doctors' advice, she would cancel all planned speaking engagements and accept no more. On 26 June 2003, Thatcher's husband, Sir Denis, died aged 88; his body was cremated on 3 July at Mortlake Crematorium in London. Final years (2003–2013) On 11 June 2004, Thatcher (against doctors' orders) attended the state funeral service for Ronald Reagan. She delivered her eulogy via videotape; in view of her health, the message had been pre-recorded several months earlier. Thatcher flew to California with the Reagan entourage, and attended the memorial service and interment ceremony for the president at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. In 2005, Thatcher criticised how Blair had decided to invade Iraq two years previously. Although she still supported the intervention to topple Saddam Hussein, she said that (as a scientist) she would always look for "facts, evidence and proof" before committing the armed forces. She celebrated her 80th birthday on 13 October at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hyde Park, London; guests included the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, Princess Alexandra and Tony Blair. Geoffrey Howe, Baron Howe of Aberavon, was also in attendance and said of his former leader: "Her real triumph was to have transformed not just one party but two, so that when Labour did eventually return, the great bulk of Thatcherism was accepted as irreversible." In 2006, Thatcher attended the official Washington memorial service to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the US. She was a guest of Vice President Dick Cheney and met Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her visit. In February 2007 Thatcher became the first living British prime minister to be honoured with a statue in the Houses of Parliament. The bronze statue stood opposite that of her political hero, Winston Churchill, and was unveiled on 21 February 2007 with Thatcher in attendance; she remarked in the Members' Lobby of the Commons: "I might have preferred iron – but bronze will do [...] It won't rust." Thatcher was a public supporter of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism and the resulting Prague Process and sent a public letter of support to its preceding conference. After collapsing at a House of Lords dinner, Thatcher, suffering low blood pressure, was admitted to St Thomas' Hospital in central London on 7 March 2008 for tests. In 2009 she was hospitalised again when she fell and broke her arm. Thatcher returned to 10 Downing Street in late November 2009 for the unveiling of an official portrait by artist Richard Stone, an unusual honour for a living former prime minister. Stone was previously commissioned to paint portraits of the Queen and Queen Mother. On 4 July 2011, Thatcher was to attend a ceremony for the unveiling of a 10 ft (3.0 m) statue of Ronald Reagan outside the US embassy in London, but was unable to attend due to her frail health. She last attended a sitting of the House of Lords on 19 July 2010, and on 30 July 2011 it was announced that her office in the Lords had been closed. Earlier that month, Thatcher was named the most competent prime minister of the past 30 years in an Ipsos MORI poll. Thatcher's daughter Carol first revealed that her mother had dementia in 2005, saying "Mum doesn't read much any more because of her memory loss". In her 2008 memoir, Carol wrote that her mother "could hardly remember the beginning of a sentence by the time she got to the end". She later recounted how she was first struck by her mother's dementia when, in conversation, Thatcher confused the Falklands and Yugoslav conflicts; she recalled the pain of needing to tell her mother repeatedly that her husband Denis was dead. Death and funeral (2013) Thatcher died on 8 April 2013, at the age of 87, after suffering a stroke. She had been staying at a suite in the Ritz Hotel in London since December 2012 after having difficulty with stairs at her Chester Square home in Belgravia. Her death certificate listed the primary causes of death as a "cerebrovascular accident" and "repeated transient ischaemic attack"; secondary causes were listed as a "carcinoma of the bladder" and dementia. Reactions to the news of Thatcher's death were mixed across the UK, ranging from tributes lauding her as Britain's greatest-ever peacetime prime minister to public celebrations of her death and expressions of hatred and personalised vitriol. Details of Thatcher's funeral had been agreed upon with her in advance. She received a ceremonial funeral, including full military honours, with a church service at St Paul's Cathedral on 17 April. Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh attended her funeral, marking only the second and final time in the Queen's reign that she attended the funeral of any of her former prime ministers, after that of Churchill, who received a state funeral in 1965. After the service at St Paul's, Thatcher's body was cremated at Mortlake, where her husband's had been cremated. On 28 September, a service for Thatcher was held in the All Saints Chapel of the Royal Hospital Chelsea's Margaret Thatcher Infirmary. In a private ceremony, Thatcher's ashes were interred in the hospital's grounds, next to her husband's. Legacy Political impact Thatcherism represented a systematic and decisive overhaul of the post-war consensus, whereby the major political parties largely agreed on the central themes of Keynesianism, the welfare state, nationalised industry, and close regulation of the economy, and high taxes. Thatcher generally supported the welfare state while proposing to rid it of abuses. She promised in 1982 that the highly popular National Health Service was "safe in our hands". At first, she ignored the question of privatising nationalised industries; heavily influenced by right-wing think tanks, and especially by Sir Keith Joseph, Thatcher broadened her attack. Thatcherism came to refer to her policies as well as aspects of her ethical outlook and personal style, including moral absolutism, nationalism, liberal individualism, and an uncompromising approach to achieving political goals. Thatcher defined her political philosophy, in a major and controversial break with the one-nation conservatism of her predecessor Edward Heath, in a 1987 interview published in Woman's Own magazine: I think we have gone through a period when too many children and people have been given to understand "I have a problem, it is the Government's job to cope with it!" or "I have a problem, I will go and get a grant to cope with it!" "I am homeless, the Government must house me!" and so they are casting their problems on society and who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then also to help look after our neighbour and life is a reciprocal business and people have got the entitlements too much in mind without the obligations. Overview The number of adults owning shares rose from 7 per cent to 25 per cent during her tenure, and more than a million families bought their council houses, increasing from 55 per cent to 67 per cent in owner-occupiers from 1979 to 1990. The houses were sold at a discount of 33–55 per cent, leading to large profits for some new owners. Personal wealth rose by 80 per cent in real terms during the 1980s, mainly due to rising house prices and increased earnings. Shares in the privatised utilities were sold below their market value to ensure quick and wide sales rather than maximise national income. The "Thatcher years" were also marked by periods of high unemployment and social unrest, and many critics on the left of the political spectrum fault her economic policies for the unemployment level; many of the areas affected by mass unemployment as well as her monetarist economic policies remained blighted for decades, by such social problems as drug abuse and family breakdown. Unemployment did not fall below its May 1979 level during her tenure, only falling below its April 1979 level in 1990. The long-term effects of her policies on manufacturing remain contentious. Speaking in Scotland in 2009, Thatcher insisted she had no regrets and was right to introduce the poll tax and withdraw subsidies from "outdated industries, whose markets were in terminal decline", subsidies that created "the culture of dependency, which had done such damage to Britain". Political economist Susan Strange termed the neoliberal financial growth model "casino capitalism", reflecting her view that speculation and financial trading were becoming more important to the economy than industry. Critics on the left describe her as divisive and say she condoned greed and selfishness. Leading Welsh politician Rhodri Morgan, among others, characterised Thatcher as a "Marmite" figure. Journalist Michael White, writing in the aftermath of the 2007–2008 financial crisis, challenged the view that her reforms were still a net benefit. Others consider her approach to have been "a mixed bag" and "[a] Curate's egg". Thatcher did "little to advance the political cause of women" within her party or the government. Some British feminists regarded her as "an enemy". June Purvis in Women's History Review says that, although Thatcher had struggled laboriously against the sexist prejudices of her day to rise to the top, she made no effort to ease the path for other women. Thatcher did not regard women's rights as requiring particular attention as she did not, especially during her premiership, consider that women were being deprived of their rights. She had once suggested the shortlisting of women by default for all public appointments and proposed that those with young children should leave the workforce. Thatcher's stance on immigration in the late 1970s was perceived as part of a rising racist public discourse, which Martin Barker terms "new racism". In opposition, Thatcher believed that the National Front (NF) was winning over large numbers of Conservative voters with warnings against floods of immigrants. Her strategy was to undermine the NF narrative by acknowledging that many of their voters had serious concerns in need of addressing. In 1978 she criticised Labour's immigration policy to attract voters away from the NF to the Conservatives. Her rhetoric was followed by increased Conservative support at the expense of the NF. Critics on the left accused her of pandering to racism. Many Thatcherite policies influenced the Labour Party, which returned to power in 1997 under Tony Blair. Blair rebranded the party "New Labour" in 1994 with the aim of increasing its appeal beyond its traditional supporters, and to attract those who had supported Thatcher, such as the "Essex man". Thatcher is said to have regarded the "New Labour" rebranding as her greatest achievement. In contrast to Blair, the Conservative Party under William Hague attempted to distance himself and the party from Thatcher's economic policies in an attempt to gain public approval. Shortly after Thatcher died in 2013, Scottish first minister Alex Salmond argued that her policies had the "unintended consequence" of encouraging Scottish devolution. Lord Foulkes of Cumnock agreed on Scotland Tonight that she had provided "the impetus" for devolution. Writing for The Scotsman in 1997, Thatcher argued against devolution on the basis that it would eventually lead to Scottish independence. Reputation Thatcher's tenure of 11 years and 209 days as British prime minister was the longest since Lord Salisbury in the late 19th century (13 years and 252 days, in three spells) and the longest continuous period in office since Lord Liverpool in the early 19th century (14 years and 305 days). Having led the Conservative Party to victory in three consecutive general elections, twice in a landslide, she ranks among the most popular party leaders in British history regarding votes cast for the winning party; over 40 million ballots were cast in total for the party under her leadership. Her electoral successes were dubbed a "historic hat trick" by the British press in 1987. Thatcher ranked highest among living persons in the 2002 BBC poll 100 Greatest Britons. In 1999, Time deemed Thatcher one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century. In 2015 she topped a poll by Scottish Widows, a major financial services company, as the most influential woman of the past 200 years; and in 2016 topped BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour Power List of women judged to have had the biggest impact on female lives over the past 70 years. In 2020, Time magazine included Thatcher's name on its list of 100 Women of the Year. She was chosen as the Woman of the Year in 1982 when the Falklands War began under her command, resulting in the British victory. In contrast to her relatively poor average approval rating as prime minister, Thatcher has since ranked highly in retrospective opinion polling and, according to YouGov, is "see[n] in overall positive terms" by the British public. Just after her death in 2013, according to a poll by The Guardian, about half of the public viewed her positively while one third viewed her negatively. In a 2019 opinion poll by YouGov, most Britons rated her as Britain's greatest post-war leader (with Churchill coming second). According to the poll, more than four in ten Britons (44%) think that Thatcher was a "good" or "great" prime minister, compared to 29% who think she was a "poor" or "terrible" one. She was voted the fourth-greatest British prime minister of the 20th century in a 2011 poll of 139 academics organised by MORI. In a 2016 University of Leeds survey of 82 academics specialising in post-1945 British history and politics, she was voted the second-greatest British prime minister after the Second World War. Cultural depictions According to theatre critic Michael Billington, Thatcher left an "emphatic mark" on the arts while prime minister. One of the earliest satires of Thatcher as prime minister involved satirist John Wells (as writer and performer), actress Janet Brown (voicing Thatcher) and future Spitting Image producer John Lloyd (as co-producer), who in 1979 were teamed up by producer Martin Lewis for the satirical audio album The Iron Lady, which consisted of skits and songs satirising Thatcher's rise to power. The album was released in September 1979. Thatcher was heavily satirised on Spitting Image, and The Independent labelled her "every stand-up's dream". Thatcher was the subject or the inspiration for 1980s protest songs. Musicians Billy Bragg and Paul Weller helped to form the Red Wedge collective to support Labour in opposition to Thatcher. Known as "Maggie" by supporters and opponents alike, the chant song "Maggie Out" became a signature rallying cry among the left during the latter half of her premiership. Wells parodied Thatcher in several media. He collaborated with Richard Ingrams on the spoof "Dear Bill" letters, which ran as a column in Private Eye magazine; they were also published in book form and became a West End stage revue titled Anyone for Denis?, with Wells in the role of Thatcher's husband. It was followed by a 1982 TV special directed by Dick Clement, in which Thatcher was played by Angela Thorne. Since her premiership, Thatcher has been portrayed in a number of television programmes, documentaries, films and plays. She was portrayed by Patricia Hodge in Ian Curteis's long unproduced The Falklands Play (2002) and by Andrea Riseborough in the TV film The Long Walk to Finchley (2008). She is the protagonist in two films, played by Lindsay Duncan in Margaret (2009) and by Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady (2011), in which she is depicted as suffering from dementia or Alzheimer's disease. She is a main character in the fourth season of The Crown, played by Gillian Anderson. Thatcher has a supporting role in the 2024 biographical film Reagan, played by Lesley-Anne Down. Titles, awards and honours Thatcher became a privy counsellor (PC) on becoming a secretary of state in 1970. She was the first woman entitled to full membership rights as an honorary member of the Carlton Club on becoming Conservative Party leader in 1975. As prime minister, Thatcher received two honorary distinctions: 24 October 1979 (1979-10-24): Honorary Fellowship (Hon.) of the Royal Institute of Chemistry (FRIC), which was merged into the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) the following year; 1 July 1983 (1983-07-01): Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS), a point of controversy among some of the then-existing Fellows. Two weeks after her resignation, Thatcher was appointed Member of the Order of Merit (OM) by the Queen. Her husband Denis was made a hereditary baronet at the same time; as his wife, Thatcher was entitled to use the honorific style "Lady", an automatically conferred title that she declined to use. She would be made Lady Thatcher in her own right on her subsequent ennoblement in the House of Lords. In the Falklands, Margaret Thatcher Day has been marked each 10 January since 1992, commemorating her first visit to the Islands in January 1983, six months after the end of the Falklands War in June 1982. Thatcher became a member of the House of Lords in 1992 with a life peerage as Baroness Thatcher, of Kesteven in the County of Lincolnshire. Subsequently, the College of Arms granted her use of a personal coat of arms; she was allowed to revise these arms on her appointment as Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter (LG) in 1995, the highest order of chivalry. In the US, Thatcher received the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award from the Reagan Presidential Foundation in 1998; she was designated a patron of the Heritage Foundation in 2006, where she established the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom. Published works See also Cadby Hall Economic history of the United Kingdom List of elected and appointed female heads of state and government Political history of the United Kingdom (1979–present) Social history of the United Kingdom (1979–present) References Explanatory notes Citations General bibliography External links Margaret Thatcher Centre at the Wayback Machine (archived 5 February 2020) Margaret Thatcher Foundation, with thousands of online documents and primary sources Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Margaret Thatcher Works by or about Margaret Thatcher at the Internet Archive Library resources in your library and in other libraries about Margaret Thatcher Works by Margaret Thatcher at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) "Archival material relating to Margaret Thatcher". UK National Archives. Appearances on C-SPAN Margaret Thatcher at IMDb Margaret Thatcher collected news and commentary at The Guardian Margaret Thatcher collected news and commentary at The New York Times Portraits of Margaret Thatcher at the National Portrait Gallery, London Obituary (BBC News Online) at the Wayback Machine (archived 8 April 2013) History of Baroness Margaret Thatcher (Gov.uk) at the Wayback Machine (archived 5 October 2013)

If we added the sum of all ages as of 2010 (assuming they were still alive) of the inventors of the cotton gin, vacuum pump, and commercial toilet paper (ignoring the month) and then subtracted the ages of the inventors of the safety pin and the sewing machine what number would we have?

622

Numerical reasoning | Temporal reasoning

A cotton gin—meaning "cotton engine"—is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation. The separated seeds may be used to grow more cotton or to produce cottonseed oil. Handheld roller gins had been used in the Indian subcontinent since at earliest AD 500 and then in other regions. The Indian worm-gear roller gin was invented sometime around the 16th century and has, according to Lakwete, remained virtually unchanged up to the present time. A modern mechanical cotton gin was created by American inventor Eli Whitney in 1793 and patented in 1794. Whitney's gin used a combination of a wire screen and small wire hooks to pull the cotton through, while brushes continuously removed the loose cotton lint to prevent jams. It revolutionized the cotton industry in the United States, but also inadvertently led to the growth of slavery in the American South. Whitney's gin made cotton farming more profitable and efficient so plantation owners expanded their plantations and used more of their slaves to pick cotton. Whitney never invented the machine to harvest cotton: it still had to be picked by hand. The invention has thus been identified as an inadvertent contributing factor to the outbreak of the American Civil War. Modern automated cotton gins use multiple powered cleaning cylinders and saws, and offer far higher productivity than their hand-powered precursors. Purpose Cotton fibers are produced in the seed pods ("bolls") of the cotton plant where the fibers ("lint") in the bolls are tightly interwoven with seeds. To make the fibers usable, the seeds and fibers must first be separated, a task which had been previously performed manually, with production of cotton requiring hours of labor for the separation. Many simple seed-removing devices had been invented, but until the innovation of the cotton gin, most required significant operator attention and worked only on a small scale. Mechanism The gin is made with two rotating cylinders. The first cylinder has lines of teeth around the circumference, and angled against this cylinder is a metal plate with small holes, "ginning ribs", through which the teeth can fit with minimal gaps. The teeth grip the cotton fibers as the mechanism rotates, dragging them through these small holes. The seeds are too big to fit through the holes, and are thus removed from the rotating cotton by the metal plate, before they fall into a collecting pot. On the other side of the first cylinder, there is a second cylinder, also rotating, with brushes attached. This second cylinder wipes the cotton from the first, and deposits it into the collecting bucket. The seed is reused for planting or is sent to an oil mill to be further processed into cottonseed oil and cottonseed meal. The lint cleaners again use saws and grid bars, this time to separate immature seeds and any remaining foreign matter from the fibers. The bale press then compresses the cotton into bales for storage and shipping. Modern gins can process up to 15 tonnes (33,000 lb) of cotton per hour. History A single-roller cotton gin came into use in India by the 5th century. An improvement invented in India was the two-roller gin, known as the "churka", "charki", or "wooden-worm-worked roller". Early cotton gins The earliest versions of the cotton gin consisted of a single roller made of iron or wood and a flat piece of stone or wood. The earliest evidence of the cotton gin is found in the fifth century, in the form of Buddhist paintings depicting a single-roller gin in the Ajanta Caves in western India. These early gins were difficult to use and required a great deal of skill. A narrow single roller was necessary to expel the seeds from the cotton without crushing the seeds. The design was similar to that of a mealing stone, which was used to grind grain. The early history of the cotton gin is ambiguous, because archeologists likely mistook the cotton gin's parts for other tools. Medieval and Early Modern India Between the 12th and 14th centuries, dual-roller gins appeared in India and China. The Indian version of the dual-roller gin was prevalent throughout the Mediterranean cotton trade by the 16th century. This mechanical device was, in some areas, driven by waterpower. The worm gear roller gin, which was invented in the Indian subcontinent during the early Delhi Sultanate era of the 13th to 14th centuries, came into use in the Mughal Empire sometime around the 16th century, and is still used in the Indian subcontinent through to the present day. Another innovation, the incorporation of the crank handle in the cotton gin, first appeared sometime during the late Delhi Sultanate or the early Mughal Empire. The incorporation of the worm gear and crank handle into the roller cotton gin led to greatly expanded Indian cotton textile production during the Mughal era. It was reported that, with an Indian cotton gin, which is half machine and half tool, one man and one woman could clean 28 pounds of cotton per day. With a modified Forbes version, one man and a boy could produce 250 pounds per day. If oxen were used to power 16 of these machines, and a few people's labor was used to feed them, they could produce as much work as 750 people did formerly. United States The Indian roller cotton gin, known as the churka or charkha, was introduced to the United States in the mid-18th century, when it was adopted in the southern United States. The device was adopted for cleaning long-staple cotton but was not suitable for the short-staple cotton that was more common in certain states such as Georgia. Several modifications were made to the Indian roller gin by Mr. Krebs in 1772 and Joseph Eve in 1788, but their uses remained limited to the long-staple variety, up until Eli Whitney's development of a short-staple cotton gin in 1793. Eli Whitney's patent Eli Whitney (1765–1825) applied for a patent of his cotton gin on October 28, 1793; the patent was granted on March 14, 1794, but was not validated until 1807. Whitney's patent was assigned patent number 72X. There is slight controversy over whether the idea of the modern cotton gin and its constituent elements are correctly attributed to Eli Whitney. The popular image of Whitney inventing the cotton gin is attributed to an article on the subject written in the early 1870s and later reprinted in 1910 in The Library of Southern Literature. In this article, the author claimed Catharine Littlefield Greene suggested to Whitney the use of a brush-like component instrumental in separating out the seeds and cotton. Greene's alleged role in the invention of the gin has not been verified independently. Whitney's cotton gin model was capable of cleaning 50 pounds (23 kg) of lint per day. The model consisted of a wooden cylinder covered by rows of slender wires which caught the fibers of the cotton bolls. Each row of wires then passed through the bars of a comb-like grid, pulling the cotton fibers through the grid as they did. The comb-like teeth of the grids were closely spaced, preventing the seeds, fragments of the hard dried calyx of the original cotton flower, or sticks and other debris attached to the fibers from passing through. A series of brushes on a second rotating cylinder then brushed the now-cleaned fibers loose from the wires, preventing the mechanism from jamming. Many contemporary inventors attempted to develop a design that would process short staple cotton, and Hodgen Holmes, Robert Watkins, William Longstreet, and John Murray had all been issued patents for improvements to the cotton gin by 1796. However, the evidence indicates Whitney did invent the saw gin, for which he is famous. Although he spent many years in court attempting to enforce his patent against planters who made unauthorized copies, a change in patent law ultimately made his claim legally enforceable – too late for him to make much money from the device in the single year remaining before the patent expired. McCarthy's gin While Whitney's gin facilitated the cleaning of seeds from short-staple cotton, it damaged the fibers of extra-long staple cotton (Gossypium barbadense). In 1840 Fones McCarthy received a patent for a "Smooth Cylinder Cotton-gin", a roller gin. McCarthy's gin was marketed for use with both short-staple and extra-long staple cotton but was particularly useful for processing long-staple cotton. After McCarthy's patent expired in 1861, McCarthy type gins were manufactured in Britain and sold around the world. McCarthy's gin was adopted for cleaning the Sea Island variety of extra-long staple cotton grown in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. It cleaned cotton several times faster than the older gins, and, when powered by one horse, produced 150 to 200 pounds of lint a day. The McCarthy gin used a reciprocating knife to detach seed from the lint. Vibration caused by the reciprocating motion limited the speed at which the gin could operate. In the middle of the 20th Century gins using a rotating blade replaced ones using a reciprocating blade. These descendants of the McCarthy gin are the only gins now used for extra-long staple cotton in the United States. Munger system gin For a decade and a half after the end of the Civil War in 1865, a number of innovative features became widely used for ginning in the United States. They included steam power instead of animal power, an automatic feeder to assure that the gin stand ran smoothly, a condenser to make the clean cotton coming out of the gin easier to handle, and indoor presses so that cotton no longer had to be carried across the gin yard to be baled. Then, in 1879, while he was running his father's gin in Rutersville, Texas, Robert S. Munger invented additional system ginning techniques. Robert and his wife, Mary Collett, later moved to Mexia, Texas, built a system gin, and obtained related patents. The Munger System Ginning Outfit (or system gin) integrated all the ginning operation machinery, thus assuring the cotton would flow through the machines smoothly. Such system gins use air to move cotton from machine to machine. Munger's motivation for his inventions included improving employee working conditions in the gin. However, the selling point for most gin owners was the accompanying cost savings while producing cotton both more speedily and of higher quality. By the 1960s, many other advances had been made in ginning machinery, but the manner in which cotton flowed through the gin machinery continued to be the Munger system. Economic Historian William H. Phillips referred to the development of system ginning as "The Munger Revolution" in cotton ginning. He wrote, "The Munger innovations were the culmination of what geographer Charles S. Aiken has termed the second ginning revolution, in which the privately owned plantation gins were replaced by large-scale public ginneries. This revolution, in turn, led to a major restructuring of the cotton gin industry, as the small, scattered gin factories and shops of the nineteenth century gave way to a dwindling number of large twentieth-century corporations designing and constructing entire ginning operations." One of the few (and perhaps only) examples of a Munger gin left in existence is on display at Frogmore Plantation in Louisiana. Effects in the United States Prior to the introduction of the mechanical cotton gin, cotton had required considerable labor to clean and separate the fibers from the seeds. With Eli Whitney's gin, cotton became a tremendously profitable business, creating many fortunes in the Antebellum South. Cities such as New Orleans, Louisiana; Mobile, Alabama; Charleston, South Carolina; and Galveston, Texas became major shipping ports, deriving substantial economic benefit from cotton raised throughout the South. Additionally, the greatly expanded supply of cotton created strong demand for textile machinery and improved machine designs that replaced wooden parts with metal. This led to the invention of many machine tools in the early 19th century. The invention of the cotton gin caused massive growth in the production of cotton in the United States, concentrated mostly in the South. Cotton production expanded from 750,000 bales in 1830 to 2.85 million bales in 1850. As a result, the region became even more dependent on plantations that used black slave labor, with plantation agriculture becoming the largest sector of its economy. While it took a single laborer about ten hours to separate a single pound of fiber from the seeds, a team of two or three slaves using a cotton gin could produce around fifty pounds of cotton in just one day. The number of slaves rose in concert with the increase in cotton production, increasing from around 700,000 in 1790 to around 3.2 million in 1850. The invention of the cotton gin led to increased demands for slave labor in the American South, reversing the economic decline that had occurred in the region during the late 18th century. The cotton gin thus "transformed cotton as a crop and the American South into the globe's first agricultural powerhouse". The invention of the cotton gin led to an increase in the use of slaves on Southern plantations. Because of that inadvertent effect on American slavery, which ensured that the South's economy developed in the direction of plantation-based agriculture (while encouraging the growth of the textile industry elsewhere, such as in the North), the invention of the cotton gin is frequently cited as one of the indirect causes of the American Civil War. Modern cotton gins In modern cotton production, cotton arrives at industrial cotton gins either in trailers, in compressed rectangular "modules" weighing up to 10 metric tons each or in polyethylene wrapped round modules similar to a bale of hay produced during the picking process by the most recent generation of cotton pickers. Trailer cotton (i.e. cotton not compressed into modules) arriving at the gin is sucked in via a pipe, approximately 16 inches (41 cm) in diameter, that is swung over the cotton. This pipe is usually manually operated but is increasingly automated in modern cotton plants. The need for trailers to haul the product to the gin has been drastically reduced since the introduction of modules. If the cotton is shipped in modules, the module feeder breaks the modules apart using spiked rollers and extracts the largest pieces of foreign material from the cotton. The module feeder's loose cotton is then sucked into the same starting point as the trailer cotton. The cotton then enters a dryer, which removes excess moisture. The cylinder cleaner uses six or seven rotating, spiked cylinders to break up large clumps of cotton. Finer foreign material, such as soil and leaves, passes through rods or screens for removal. The stick machine uses centrifugal force to remove larger foreign matter, such as sticks and burrs, while the cotton is held by rapidly rotating saw cylinders. The gin stand uses the teeth of rotating saws to pull the cotton through a series of "ginning ribs", which pull the fibers from the seeds which are too large to pass through the ribs. The cleaned seed is then removed from the gin via an auger conveyor system. The seed is reused for planting or is sent to an oil mill to be further processed into cottonseed oil and cottonseed meal. The lint cleaners again use saws and grid bars, this time to separate immature seeds and any remaining foreign matter from the fibers. The bale press then compresses the cotton into bales for storage and shipping. Modern gins can process up to 15 tonnes (33,000 lb) of cotton per hour. Modern cotton gins create a substantial amount of cotton gin residue (CGR) consisting of sticks, leaves, dirt, immature bolls, and cottonseed. Research is currently under way to investigate the use of this waste in producing ethanol. Due to fluctuations in the chemical composition in processing, there is difficulty in creating a consistent ethanol process, but there is potential to further maximize the utilization of waste in the cotton production. See also Prattville Gin Factory Cotton bale References Notes Bibliography Lakwete, Angela (2003). Inventing the Cotton Gin: Machine and Myth in Antebellum America. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 9780801873942. External links Overview of a Cotton Gin – USDA site The Story of Cotton – National Cotton Council of America site National Cotton Ginners Association US Cotton Gin Industry – EH.Net Encyclopedia of Economic History Invention of Cotton Gin – eHistory.com Cotton: the fiber of life – includes a schematic diagram illustrating the seed removal process Video of manual cotton gin in operation via YouTube "The Old Cotton-gin" By John Trotwood Moore · 1910 The Old Cotton-gin

Pneumatics (from Greek πνεῦμα pneuma 'wind, breath') is the use of gas or pressurized air in mechanical systems. Pneumatic systems used in industry are commonly powered by compressed air or compressed inert gases. A centrally located and electrically-powered compressor powers cylinders, air motors, pneumatic actuators, and other pneumatic devices. A pneumatic system controlled through manual or automatic solenoid valves is selected when it provides a lower cost, more flexible, or safer alternative to electric motors, and hydraulic actuators. Pneumatics also has applications in dentistry, construction, mining, and other areas. Gases used in pneumatic systems Pneumatic systems in fixed installations, such as factories, use compressed air because a sustainable supply can be made by compressing atmospheric air. The air usually has moisture removed, and a small quantity of oil is added at the compressor to prevent corrosion and lubricate mechanical components. Factory-plumbed pneumatic-power users need not worry about poisonous leakage, as the gas is usually just air. Any compressed gas other than air is an asphyxiation hazard—including nitrogen, which makes up 78% of air. Compressed oxygen (approx. 21% of air) would not asphyxiate, but is not used in pneumatically-powered devices because it is a fire hazard, more expensive, and offers no performance advantage over air. Smaller or stand-alone systems can use other compressed gases that present an asphyxiation hazard, such as nitrogen—often referred to as OFN (oxygen-free nitrogen) when supplied in cylinders. Portable pneumatic tools and small vehicles, such as Robot Wars machines and other hobbyist applications are often powered by compressed carbon dioxide, because containers designed to hold it such as SodaStream canisters and fire extinguishers are readily available, and the phase change between liquid and gas makes it possible to obtain a larger volume of compressed gas from a lighter container than compressed air requires. Carbon dioxide is an asphyxiant and can be a freezing hazard if vented improperly. History Although the early history of pneumatics is murky, the field's founder is traditionally traced back to Ctesibius of Alexandria "who worked in the early 3rd century BCE and invented a number of mechanical toys operated by air, water, and steam under pressure." Though no documents written by Ctesibius survive, he is thought to have heavily influenced Philo of Byzantium while writing his work, Mechanical Syntaxis, as well as Vitruvius in De architectura. In the first century BC, the ancient Greek mathematician Hero of Alexandria compiled recipes for dozens of contraptions in his work, Pneumatics. It has been speculated that much of this work can be attributed to Ctesibius. The pneumatic experiments described in these ancient documents later inspired the Renaissance inventors of the thermoscope and the air thermometer, devices which relied upon the heating and cooling of air to move a column of water up and down a tube.: 4–5  German physicist Otto von Guericke (1602-1686) invented the vacuum pump, a device that can draw out air or gas from the attached vessel. He demonstrated the vacuum pump to separate the pairs of copper hemispheres using air pressures. The field of pneumatics has changed considerably over the years. It has moved from small handheld devices to large machines with multiple parts that serve different functions. Comparison to hydraulics Both pneumatics and hydraulics are applications of fluid power. Pneumatics uses an easily compressible gas such as air or a suitable pure gas—while hydraulics uses relatively incompressible liquid media such as oil. Most industrial pneumatic applications use pressures of about 80 to 100 pounds per square inch (550 to 690 kPa). Hydraulics applications commonly use from 1,000 to 5,000 psi (6.9 to 34.5 MPa), but specialized applications may exceed 10,000 psi (69 MPa). Advantages of pneumatics Simplicity of design and control—Machines are easily designed using standard cylinders and other components, and operate via simple on-off control. Reliability—Pneumatic systems generally have long operating lives and require little maintenance. Because gas is compressible, equipment is less subject to shock damage. Gas absorbs excessive force, whereas fluid in hydraulics directly transfers force. Compressed gas can be stored, so machines still run for a while if electrical power is lost. Safety—There is a very low chance of fire compared to hydraulic oil. New machines are usually overload safe to a certain limit. Advantages of hydraulics Fluid does not absorb any of the supplied energy. Capable of moving much higher loads and providing much lower forces due to the incompressibility. The hydraulic working fluid is practically incompressible, leading to a minimum of spring action. When hydraulic fluid flow is stopped, the slightest motion of the load releases the pressure on the load; there is no need to "bleed off" pressurized air to release the pressure on the load. Highly responsive compared to pneumatics. Supply more power than pneumatics. Can also do many purposes at one time: lubrication, cooling and power transmission. Pneumatic logic Pneumatic logic systems (sometimes called air logic control) are sometimes used for controlling industrial processes, consisting of primary logic units like: And units Or units Relay or booster units Latching units Timer units Fluidics amplifiers with no moving parts other than the air itself Pneumatic logic is a reliable and functional control method for industrial processes. In recent years, these systems have largely been replaced by electronic control systems in new installations because of the smaller size, lower cost, greater precision, and more powerful features of digital controls. Pneumatic devices are still used where upgrade cost, or safety factors dominate. Examples of pneumatic systems and components See also Compressed air Ozone cracking - can affect pneumatic seals Pneudraulics History of pneumatic power Notes References Brian S. Elliott, Compressed Air Operations Manual, McGraw Hill Book Company, 2006, ISBN 0-07-147526-5. Heeresh Mistry, Fundamentals of Pneumatic Engineering, Create Space e-Publication, 2013, ISBN 1-49-372758-3. External links Four Ways to Boost Pneumatic Efficiency

Joseph C. Gayetty (c.1827 – May 2, 1895) was an American inventor credited with the invention of commercial toilet paper. It was the first and remained only one of the few commercial toilet papers from 1857 to 1890 remaining in common use until the invention of splinter-free toilet paper in 1935 by the Northern Tissue Company. Biography Joseph C. Gayetty's origins remain somewhat obscure. The first record with his name is the 1850 United States Census, which records that he was born in 1817 in Massachusetts. By 1850 he was living in New York City, had married Margaret Louisa Bogart and had two young children. That year he was working at a public house. Ten years later, on the 1860 Census, Gayetty had begun his toilet paper business and was listed as being in the "medicated paper" industry. By this time he and his wife had 5 children, a personal servant, and a modest personal estate valued at $1000. In the 1860 Census, however, he reports that he was born in 1827 in Pennsylvania. Additional records have not been able to clear up his exact birth date or place of birth. Additionally, Gayetty's date and place of death have not been located. Gayetty and his wife had one daughter and four sons. Their youngest son, Henry K. Gayetty, took over his father's business and was in control of the trademarks and licensing by 1891, when the trademark ownership came into question. Invention of Toilet Paper Joseph C. Gayetty first marketed toilet paper on December 9, 1857. Each sheet of pure Manila hemp paper was watermarked "J C Gayetty N Y". The original product contained aloe as a lubricant and was marketed as an anti-hemorrhoid medical product. Gayetty was attacked as a quack by at least one medical society. Yet his advertisement of the same year called his product "The Greatest Necessity of the Age" and warned against the perils of using toxic inked papers on sensitive body parts. A different advertisement, also printed in 1859, says his business was located at 41 Ann Street, and he was selling 1,000 sheets for one dollar. The Gayetty name and product were involved in a lawsuit that was filed in 1891, when B.T. Hoogland's Sons, toilet paper dealers, filed suit against the Gayetty Paper Company, specifically Harry K. Gayetty, for trademark infringement. B.T. Hoogland and Son's claim was that they were entitled to the use of the Gayetty name due to an unpaid debt. A paper dated December 5, 1866, was allegedly given to a creditor in lieu of $25 debt and subsequently sold to B.T. Hoogland (senior) for one dollar. However, on January 1, 1866, J.C. Gayetty had entered a ten-year contract for the exclusive right to sell and vend in his name with Demas Barnes and Company, which had taken out a copyright on the product on October 27, 1891. The suit was dismissed in 1894, but another suit was brought. B.T. Hoogland's Sons next sued to stop Harry K. Gayetty and the Diamond Mills Paper Company from using the Gayetty name, and in this case they were successful. Harry Gayetty appealed, but lost at the Appellate Court. Finally, in July 1900, the New York Supreme Court permanently enjoined the Diamond Mills Paper Company and Harry K. Gayetty from using the name on any similar paper product labels. In 1900, an advertisement shows that B.T. Hoogland's Sons of New York were distributing the watermarked "Papel Medicado De Gayetty" and giving credit to the invention of the paper in 1857 by Joseph C. Gayetty, Inventor. Nearly the same advertisement was run in English in 1907. The product continued to be marketed until the 1920s. == References ==

Walter Hunt (July 29, 1796 – June 8, 1859) was an American mechanical engineer. Through the course of his work he became known for being a prolific inventor. He first became involved with mechanical innovations in a linseed producing community in New York state that had flax mills. While in New York City to promote his inventions he got involved in inventing the streetcar gong that was used throughout the United States. This then led him to invent other useful items like the safety pin and sewing machine. He invented the precursor to the repeating rifle and fountain pen. About two dozen of his inventions are used today in basically the same form as he had patented them. In spite of his many useful innovative creations he never became wealthy since he sold off most of his patent rights to others at low prices with no future royalties. Others made millions of dollars from his safety pin device. Early life and education Walter Hunt was born July 29, 1796, in the town of Martinsburg, in Lewis County in the state of New York. He was the first born child of Sherman Hunt and Rachel Hunt. He had twelve siblings. Hunt received his childhood education in a one-room schoolhouse. Hunt was muscular, tall and slender with a ruddy complexion. He married Polly Loucks in 1814 and they had four children. Hunt went to college and earned a master's degree in masonry in 1817 at the age of 21. Mid life Hunt traveled to New York City in 1826 to get money for one of his inventions. While there he witnessed an accident where a horse-drawn carriage ran over a child. The accident event motivated him to come up with a metal bell that was operated with a hammer that could be controlled by one of driver's feet without letting go of the horse reins. Hunt patented his new innovation on July 30, 1827. He promoted his concept to many prospects and eventually was able to sell his foot operated coach alarm mechanism idea to the stagecoach operators Kipp and Brown. Hunt's innovation was soon adopted by most public horse-drawn vehicles throughout the city. Hunt's coach alarm was further developed and used throughout the United States. Inventions Hunt was a prolific inventor. From 1827 to 1830, while earning a living in the real estate field, he invented a fire engine, an improvement for hard coal-burning stoves, the first home knife sharpener, and a restaurant steam table apparatus. He also invented the precursor of the Winchester repeating rifle and the forerunner of the American fountain pen as used in the twentieth century. Additionally, Hunt invented a flax spinner, an improved oil lamp, artificial stone, the first rotary street sweeping machine, mail sorting machinery, velocipedes, and ice plows. He also made improvements to guns, cylindro-conoidal bullets, ice-breaking wooden hull boats, paraffin oil candles, velocipedes, machines for making rivets and nails, and self-closing inkwells. He also invented the Antipodean Performers suction-cup shoes claimed to be used by circus performers to ascend up solid side walls and walk upside down across high ceilings. He did not realize the significance of many of his inventions when he produced them and sold off most of his patent rights to others for low prices making little for himself in the long run. In the twentieth century many of his patented devices were widely used everyday common products. Sewing machine He developed the first modern feasible operating sewing machine sometime between the years 1835 and 1837 at his Amos Street shop that was up a narrow alley in Abingdon Square at the borough of Manhattan in the city of New York. He manufactured and sold a few of these machines at the time. He never initially patented the mechanical device he created that used a lockstitch for sewing. It had a characteristic of an eye-pointed needle and used two threads whereby one thread passed through a twisted loop in the other thread and then both interlocked. The uniqueness of this was that it was the initial time an engineer or technician inventor had not imitated a single stitch done by hand and used two interlocking threads at a seam. He used a technique for sewing which was revolutionary at the time. The eye opening was near the point of the needle and operated on a vibrating arm and a loop was formed under the cloth by this thread through which a shuttle, reeling off another thread, was forced back and forth making an interlocked stitch. Hunt completed his working model before he showed it to anyone. Hunt sold one-half the patent rights in 1834 to businessman and blacksmith George A. Arrowsmith who never manufactured it to sell. He instead had Hunt's wooden version duplicated in iron by Adoniram, Hunt's brother. Adoniram was a skilled mechanic and duplicated the original wooden version. It performed better because no splinters of wood impeded the passage of the cloth. Arrowsmith had no interest patenting the sewing machine then and had decided to postpone that step for a later time. He gave as reasons for not procuring a patent that 1) he was busy with other businesses then; 2) the expense of getting the appropriate drawings and paperwork together to register a patent was more than he could afford and; 3) the difficulty of introducing the new sewing machine into public use, saying it would have cost two thousand (equivalent to $61,040 in 2023) or three thousand (equivalent to $91,560 in 2023) dollars to start the sewing machine business. Had he seen the newspaper article titled Sewing by Machinery of December 1835 and January 1836 that was in many nationwide newspapers he may have applied for a patent right away, because it said that a mechanic of Rochester had invented a machine for making clothes which would thereafter take the place of fingers and thimbles. Hunt did not seek a patent for his sewing machine at the time because he worried it would create unemployment with seamstresses. History records show that his wife and daughter advised him against marketing his sewing apparatus. Hunt's daughter Caroline operated a corset-making shop with twelve seamstress ladies and was watching out for their interest and thousands of other seamstresses. This ultimately led to a court case in 1854 when the lockstitch sewing machine concept was applied for by Elias Howe in a patent application. Hunt submitted his initial application for his 1834 sewing machine on April 2, 1853. Records at the Supreme Court show Hunt's invention was made before Howe's machine and the Patent Office identified Hunt's preexistence but it did not issue a patent to him for this. The reason was because he had not filled out the proper paperwork for a patent before Howe's paperwork application and had abandoned the design experiment of the 1830s. Hunt acquired public acknowledgement for his invention, however Howe's official patent remained lawful because of the technicality of the timing of the paperwork. Isaac Singer arranged to give Hunt $50,000 (equivalent to $1,760,770 in 2023) in installments for his sewing machine design in 1858 in order to clear up the patent confusion about sewing machines, but Hunt died before Singer was able to consummate the agreement. Safety pin Hunt thought little of the safety pin, his best-known invention. He sold his patent of it for $400 (equivalent to $14,650 in 2023) to W R Grace and Company, to pay a draftsman he owed $15 to (equivalent to $550 in 2023). J.R. Chapin pressured Hunt to pay off what was due to him for the drafting work he had done on previous inventions that needed patent drawings for application submissions. Hunt came up with the safety pin ("C") in 1849 through experimentation with high tension wire. His invention was an improvement on the current way clothing items were attached together before because of a protective clasp ("D") at the end and a coiled wire design ("B") with a spring tension on the pointed end leg ("A") to keep it in the protective clasp even if the pin device was moved around. The basic design is the same in the twentieth century as when Hunt came up with the device in the nineteenth century and is manufactured inexpensively now. W R Grace and Company made millions of dollars profit off the product. Other inventions One of Hunt's popular inventions was a paper shirt collar. This time he sold the patented design and negotiated for royalty payments, but the item only became popular after he died. The unusual item was first put on sale in New York City in 1854 and used then mostly for stage purposes. In time it became fashionable and the general public then started using them. High production of the item came about and at one time there were as many as forty factories making paper collars in the United States. The manufactured output in 1868 became 400,000 that were sold to the general public. Hunt often used the legal services and patent research work of Charles Grafton Page, a certified patent lawyer who had worked at the Patent Office before, when seeking a potential patent for one of his inventions. His inventions covered a wide variety of fields and subjects. About two dozen of Hunt's inventions are still used in the form in which he created them over one hundred years ago. Some of Hunt's important inventions are shown below with the patent drawings. Later life and death Hunt created numerous usable everyday inventions in his lifetime, however he never became independently wealthy from them. He died of pneumonia at his place of business in New York City on June 8, 1859. He is interred in Green-Wood Cemetery at Brooklyn, New York. His grave is marked by a small red granite shaft about a hundred feet from Howe's massive bust monument. Legacy Hunt was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006 for the safety pin invention. Many of Hunt's invention ideas are in actual use today and are basically the same device as when he patented them more than a hundred years ago. Some of those others besides the safety pin and sewing machine are a device which regulates the amount of liquid that comes from a bottle with each tilt, a bottle stopper, springy attachment for adjustments to belts and suspenders, and a nail making machine. See also Daniel Davis Jr. References Sources Abbot, Charles Greeley (1944). The Smithsonian series. Smithsonian Institution. OCLC 936943099. His second patent was for a coach alarm, and through the years he received patents for a variety of things including a knife sharpener, heating stove, ice boat, nail machine, inkwell, fountain; pen, safety pin, bottle stopper, sewing machine (1854), paper collars, and a reversible metallic heel. Ayres, Robert U. (2021). The history and future of technology : can technology save humanity from extinction?. Cham: Marshall Cavendish Corporation. ISBN 978-3-030-71393-5. OCLC 1262192914. Bowman, Hank Wieand (1958). Famous guns from the Winchester Collection. Arco Company. OCLC 2481891. Brandon, Ruth (1977). Singer and the sewing machine : a capitalist romance. London: Barrie & Jenkins. ISBN 0-214-20156-2. OCLC 3270495. Byrn, Edward Wright (1900). Progress of Invention in Nineteenth Century. Munn & Company. OCLC 84303615. Between 1832 and 1835 Walter Hunt made a lock-stitch sewing machine, but abandoned it. Cooper, Grace Rogers (1968). Invention of the Sewing machine. Smithsonian Institution. pp. 243 v. OCLC 453666. Sometime between 1832 and 1834 he produced at his shop in New York a machine that made a lockstitch. Fulton, Robert (2008). Inventors and Inventions. Springer International Publishing. ISBN 9780761477617. Hellstrom, Carl R. (1953). Smith & Waeeon. Pioneer publishing company. OCLC 775873942. Hunt, Clinton N. (1935). Walter Hunt, American inventor. C.N. Hunt. OCLC 250585694. Page 5 -1847, January13 - Foundation pen. The forerunner of the modern fountain pen. Kane, Joseph Nathan (1997). Necessity's child : the story of Walter Hunt, Americaʼs forgotten inventor (1st ed.). Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7864-0279-3. OCLC 35777327. 1847, January13 - Foundation pen. The forerunner of the modern fountain pen. Keeley, Joseph Charles (1950). Making inventions pay. Whittlesey House. OCLC 2618845. Hunt; obtained patents on many devices, among them the fountain pen, the breech-loading rifle, nail-making machines, and paper collars. ... Keiper, Frank (1924). Pioneer inventions + pioneer patents. Pioneer publishing company. OCLC 1382071. Klooster, John W. (2009). Icons of invention : the makers of the modern world from Gutenberg to Gates. Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-34744-3. OCLC 647903993. Lamphier, Peg A.; Welch, Rosanne (2019). Technical innovation in American history : an encyclopedia of science and technology. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO Publishing. ISBN 978-1-61069-093-5. OCLC 1054271035. Lewtin, Frederick Lewis (1930). Servant in the house - brief history of sewing machine. Publication ;3056. Washington DC Government Printing Office. United States National Museum / Curator, Division of Textiles. OCLC 45451578. Meyer, Jerome Sydney (1962). Great Inventions. Pocket Books. OCLC 655232775. Parton, James (1872). History of the sewing machine. The Howe machine company. OCLC 68784579. Post, Robert C. (1976). Physics, Patents, and Politics - Biography of Charles G. Page (1st ed.). New York: Science History Publications. ISBN 9780882020464. OCLC 2869290. Singer Sewing Machine (1897). Story of the Sewing Machine. Press of F. V. Strauss. OCLC 8998696. Thanhauser, Sofi (2022). Worn: a people's history of clothing (First ed.). New York: Doubleday Publishing. ISBN 9781524748395. OCLC 1248598617. Tonson, J and R (1848). The Tatler, Lucubrations of Isaac Bickerstaff, Volume 1. Buckland H. Woodfall. Walter Hunt City of New York January 13, 1847 - for improvement in the Fountain Pen. Wilson, Paul C. (2017). How Inventions Really Happened. Dog Ear Publishing. Hunt's fountain pen closely resembled the type universally used in the first half of the twentieth century. External links You Tube video on Walter Hunt's safety pin patent history Walter Hunt - The Man Who Invented Sewing Machine

What are the combined ages of the Guildford 4 at the time of their trial, divided by the number of the Birmingham 6 who were originally from the capital of Northern Ireland? Round it and provide the answer in binary.

10001

Numerical reasoning | Post processing

The Guildford Four and Maguire Seven were two groups of people, mostly Northern Irish, who were wrongly convicted in English courts in 1975 and 1976 for the Guildford pub bombings of 5 October 1974, and the Woolwich pub bombing of 7 November 1974. All the convictions were eventually quashed after long campaigns for justice, and the cases, along with those of the Birmingham Six, diminished public confidence in the integrity of the English criminal justice system. Background On 22 October 1975 at the Old Bailey in London, the Guildford Four were convicted of bombings carried out by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). Subsequently, the Maguire Seven were convicted of handling explosives found during the investigation into the bombings. Both groups' convictions were eventually declared "unsafe and unsatisfactory" and reversed in 1989 and 1991, respectively, after they had served up to 15 to 16 years in prison. Along with the Guildford Four and Maguire Seven, a number of other people faced charges relating to the bombings, six of them charged with murder, but these charges were dropped. In the wake of the scandal, in October 1989 the UK Government appointed Appeal Court Justice Sir John May to undertake a judicial inquiry into the suspect convictions of the Guildford Four and Maguire Seven. The findings of the inquiry criticised the trial judge Lord Donaldson of Lymington. It unearthed improprieties in the handling of scientific evidence that were relevant to the other cases and declared the convictions unsound and recommended referral back to the Court of Appeal, but no action was taken. No one else has been charged with the Guildford and Woolwich bombings, or with supplying the material. Three police officers were charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice in the wake of the inquiry, but found not guilty in 1993. Over 700 documents, including secret testimony, were collected by the inquiry and were due to be unsealed for public access in The National Archives on 1 January 2020. However, on 31 December 2019 the Home Office removed all 700 records from the National Archive and took them back into Government control just one day before they were to be opened to the public. The files remain sealed for now. Guildford Four The Guildford Four were charged with direct involvement with the IRA attacks. They were: After their arrest, all four defendants confessed to the bombing under intense interrogation by the police. These confessions were later retracted but remained the basis of the case against them. They would later be alleged to be the result of coercion by the police, ranging from intimidation to torture—including threats against family members—as well as the effects of drug withdrawal. Conlon wrote in his autobiography that a key factor in his coerced confession was the fact that strengthened anti-terrorism laws passed in the early 1970s allowed the police to hold suspects without charges for up to a week, rather than the previous limit of 48 hours and that he might have been able to withstand the treatment he had received had the original time limit been in effect. The four were convicted on 22 October 1975 for murder and other charges and sentenced to life imprisonment—mandatory for adults convicted of murder. Richardson, a minor at the time of the bombings, received an indeterminate "at Her Majesty's pleasure" sentence for murder and a life sentence for conspiracy. Justice Lord Donaldson of Lymington, who also presided over the Maguire Seven trial, expressed regret that the Four had not been charged with high treason, which still had a mandatory death penalty. Although no hangings had been carried out in the UK since 1964, treason still carried the death penalty until 1998. The normal practice was for judges to be consulted by the Home Secretary when considering release from a life sentence, rather than giving a tariff at trial but the judge, believing he might be dead by the time they were released, recommended 30 years for Conlon, 35 for Armstrong and until "great age" for Hill. The Guildford Four did not "fit the bill" of IRA involvement according to the way they lived. Paddy Armstrong and Carole Richardson, an Englishwoman, lived in a squat and were involved with drugs and petty crime. Conlon asserted at several points in his autobiography that the IRA would not have taken him due to his record for shoplifting and other petty crimes, and that he had been expelled from Fianna Éireann, an Irish republican youth organisation with strong ties to the Provisional IRA. Maguire Seven The Maguire Seven were charged with possessing nitroglycerine allegedly passed to the IRA to make bombs after the police raided the West Kilburn house of Anne Maguire (Conlon's aunt) on 3 December 1974. They were tried and convicted on 4 March 1976 and received the following sentences: Giuseppe Conlon had travelled from Belfast to help his son, Gerry Conlon, in the Guildford Four trial. Conlon, who had troubles with his lungs for many years, died in prison in January 1980, while the other six served their sentences and were released. Appeals The Guildford Four and the Maguire Seven sought leave to appeal their convictions immediately and were refused. Despite this, a growing body of disparate groups pressed for a re-examination of the case. In February 1977, during the trial of the Balcombe Street ASU, the four IRA men instructed their lawyers to "draw attention to the fact that four totally innocent people were serving massive sentences", referring to the Guildford Four. Despite claims to the police that they were responsible they were never charged with these offences and the Guildford Four remained in prison for another twelve years. The Guildford Four tried to obtain from the Home Secretary a reference to the Court of Appeal under Section 17 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1968 (later repealed), but were unsuccessful. In 1987, the Home Office issued a memorandum recognising that it was unlikely they were terrorists, but that this would not be sufficient evidence for appeal. Campaigns Following the failure of the 1977 court appeal, a number of 'lone voices' publicly questioned the conviction; among them were David Martin in The Leveller, Gavin Esler and Chris Mullin in the New Statesman and David McKittrick in the Belfast Telegraph. On 26 February 1980, BBC One Northern Ireland aired Spotlight: Giuseppe Conlon and the Bomb Factory, which contained an interview by Patrick Maguire and the BBC's Gavin Esler. Quashing of the Guildford Four verdict In 1989, detectives from Avon and Somerset Constabulary, investigating the handling of the case, found significant pieces of evidence in relation to Surrey Police's handling of the Guildford Four and their statements. Typed notes from Patrick Armstrong's police interviews had been extensively edited. Deletions and additions had been made and the notes had been rearranged. The notes and their amendments were consistent with hand-written and typed notes presented at the trial, which suggested that the hand-written notes were made after the interviews had been conducted. The notes presented had been described in court as contemporaneous records. Manuscript notes relating to an interview with Hill showed that Hill's fifth statement was taken in breach of Judges' Rules and may well have been inadmissible as evidence. The information was not made available to the DPP or the prosecution and the officers involved had denied under oath that such an interview had happened. Detention records were inconsistent with the times and durations of the claimed interviews, as reported by the Surrey police. An appeal was already under way on the basis of other evidence. Lord Gifford represented Paul Hill, and others were represented by human rights solicitor Gareth Peirce. The appeal hearing had been adjourned to January 1990 at the request of the Guildford Four but once the findings of the Somerset and Avon report were available, the hearing was resumed, with the Crown stating that it did not wish to support the convictions. The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Lane, concluded that, regardless of the impact of the content of the material discovered by Avon and Somerset, or the alibis or additional evidence the appellants wished to introduce, the level of duplicity meant that all the police evidence was suspect, and the case for the prosecution was unsafe. Lane remarked We have no doubt that these events make the convictions of all of these four appellants in respect of the Guildford and the Woolwich events unsafe, even though the latest revelations have no direct bearing on the evidence relating to the Woolwich bombing. The Four were released on 19 October 1989, after having their convictions quashed. Paul Hill had also been convicted of the murder of a British soldier, Brian Shaw, based on his confession while in the custody of Surrey Police. This did not fall under the ambit of the Lane appeal, but he was released on bail pending his appeal against this conviction. In 1994, Her Majesty's Court of Appeal in Belfast quashed Hill's conviction for Shaw's murder. Quashing of the Maguire verdicts On 12 July 1990, the Home Secretary, David Waddington, published the Interim Report on the Maguire Case: The Inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the convictions arising out of the bomb attacks in Guildford and Woolwich in 1974, which criticised the trial judge, Mr Justice Donaldson and unearthed improprieties in the handling of scientific evidence, declared the convictions unsound and recommended referral back to the Court of Appeal. The report "strongly criticise[d] the decision by the prosecution at the Guildford Four's trial not to disclose to the defence a statement supporting Mr Conlon's alibi." The convictions of the Maguire Seven were quashed in 1991. Aftermath Guildford Four and Maguire Seven Neither the bombings nor the wrongful imprisonment resulted in convictions. The bombings were most likely the work of the Balcombe Street ASU, who claimed responsibility. They were already serving life sentences, but were released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. Three British police officers—Thomas Style, John Donaldson and Vernon Attwell—were charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, but each was found not guilty. On 9 February 2005, Tony Blair, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, issued an apology to the families of the eleven people imprisoned for the bombings in Guildford and Woolwich and those related to those who were still alive. He said, in part, "I am very sorry that they were subject to such an ordeal and injustice... they deserve to be completely and publicly exonerated." Anne Maguire was awarded a Benemerenti medal by the Roman Catholic Church for her "remarkable ability to forgive" and her community work. In 1993, Paul Hill married Courtney Kennedy, a daughter of assassinated American senator Robert F. Kennedy and a niece of assassinated president John F. Kennedy. They had a daughter in 1997 named Saoirse. Paul had a daughter in a previous relationship named Cara with Gina Tohill in 1975. Paul and Courtney legally separated in 2006. Their daughter, Saoirse Kennedy Hill, died in 2019 at the age of 22. Hill had a televised meeting with the brother of murdered soldier Brian Shaw, who continued to accuse him. He travelled to Colombia to attend the trial of the Colombia Three. Gerry Conlon's autobiography Proved Innocent was adapted into the film In the Name of the Father, with actor Daniel Day-Lewis portraying Conlon. The film depicts Conlon's attempt to rebuild his shattered relationship with his father but is partly fictional, Conlon never shared a cell with his father. He is reported to have settled with the government for a final payment of compensation in the region of £500,000. Conlon gave support to Tommy Sheridan in relation to the charges brought against him. Sarah Conlon, who had spent 16 years campaigning to have the names of her husband and son cleared and helped secure the apology, died on 20 July 2008. Paddy Armstrong had problems with drinking and gambling. He eventually married and moved to Dublin. Carole Richardson married and had a daughter soon after her release. She kept out of the public eye and died in 2012 aged 55. The autobiography of the youngest member of the Maguire Seven, Patrick Maguire, My Father's Watch: The Story of a Child Prisoner in 70s Britain was released in May 2008. It tells his story before, during and after his imprisonment and details its impact on his life and those of his family. Gerry Conlon later joined a campaign to free the "Craigavon Two", Brendan McConville and John Paul Wootton, convicted of the murder of a police officer in Northern Ireland. Conlon died at home in Belfast on 21 June 2014. His family issued a statement: "He brought life, love, intelligence, wit and strength to our family through its darkest hours. He helped us to survive what we were not meant to survive. We recognise that what he achieved by fighting for justice for us had a far, far greater importance—it forced the world's closed eyes to be opened to injustice; it forced unimaginable wickedness to be acknowledged; we believe it changed the course of history". Sir John Donaldson went on to an illustrious judicial career and became Master of the Rolls, Head of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal. The appeal case itself for R v Maguire 1981, is now the leading case for disclosure to the defence. In November 2018 the BBC broadcast a documentary A Great British Injustice: The Maguire Story, with the involvement of surviving members of the Maguire family. Key prosecution figures Several of the key figures in the British legal and criminal justice establishment who were responsible for the wrongful prosecution of the Guildford Four and Maguire Seven, while later facing public criticism, were never formally held accountable for their role in the scandal. Indeed, in what is believed to be the final media interview he gave before his pre-mature death in 2014, Gerry Conlon pointed out to Italian documentary maker and photographer Lorenzo Moscia in 2013, that all the key British figures involved in his wrongful conviction had subsequently been promoted and reached the top of their respective legal or policing professions. He contrasted this with the struggles and hardships he and the other wrongfully convicted people faced in the years following their release from prison. Lord Justice Donaldson (trial judge) Two months after Margaret Thatcher became British Prime Minister in 1979, the trial judge in the Guildford Four case, Lord Justice (John) Donaldson, was made a Lord Justice of Appeal and a Privy Counsellor. In 1982 he was appointed Master of the Rolls, the second-most-senior judicial office in England and Wales as head of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales and Head of Civil Justice. In 1988 he was elevated to the House of Lords with a life peerage as Baron Donaldson of Lymington. Sir Peter Imbert (Police investigator) Peter Imbert, the then deputy head of the Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist Branch in 1974, was the police officer who oversaw the arrest and interrogation of the Guildford Four and Maguire Seven. This investigation was later characterised by Lord Chief Justice Lane as "a sequence of false confessions and police deceits." In late 1975 Imbert led the police operation which saw the arrest of the IRA's Balcombe Street ASU, members of whom later confessed to being the real bombers in Guildford and Woolwich, a fact Imbert was aware of. In 1976 Imbert was appointed Assistant Chief Constable, and later Deputy Chief Constable of Surrey Constabulary (the police force which investigated the Guildford pub bombings). In 1979, he became Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, the youngest Chief Constable in the country at that time. He returned to the Metropolitan Police as Assistant Commissioner in 1985, and in 1987 he was appointed Commissioner of the Met (the most senior police force position in the UK) by then Conservative Home Secretary Douglas Hurd. Peter Imbert retired from the police in 1992 and in was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Greater London from 1998 until 2008. He was appointed to the House of Lords as a life peer as Baron Imbert, of New Romney in the County of Kent in 1999, sitting as a crossbencher. Sir Norman Skelhorn (Director of Public Prosecutions) Sir Norman Skelhorn was the Director of Public Prosecutions in England and Wales in 1974 oversaw the Crown's prosecution of Guildford Four and Maguire Seven, as well as the prosecution of the Birmingham Six. Skelhorn had a chequered history in relation to prosecution of terrorist offences related to the Troubles. He became entangled in the row that erupted around the use of torture in Northern Ireland. Edward Heath, Prime Minister since 1970, had banned sensory deprivation in light of the report by Sir Edmund Compton into internment and interrogation techniques used by the British Army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary. In October 1973, while being questioned at a meeting of the Harvard Law School Forum, Sir Norman did not deny that torture had taken place. On the contrary, he stated that "when dealing with "Irish terrorists" any methods were justified." Skelhorn retired as DPP before the publication of the critical report by Lord Devlin published in 1977 recommended statutory prosecution safeguards, on which the then Callaghan Government took no action. Lord (Michael) Havers (Prosecuting counsel) British barrister and Conservative politician Sir Michael Havers MP, was selected by DPP Norman Skelhorn to lead both the prosecution of the Guildford Four and the Maguire Seven in 1974, and the Crown's case in opposing the subsequent appeals of both groups in the Court of Appeal. Havers was from a distinguished legal family. His father was High Court judge Sir Cecil Havers, and his sister was Baroness Butler-Sloss who in 1988 became the first woman named to the Court of Appeal and later President of the Family Division. Sir Michael was the father of the well-known English actor Nigel Havers. Sir Michael Havers was elected to the House of Commons in 1970 as Conservative MP for Wimbledon (a seat he held until 1987). He served as Solicitor General for England and Wales under Prime Minister Edward Heath from 1972 to 1974. By October 1974, with the Conservatives in opposition, Sir Michael acted for the DPP in both prosecutions. In the case of the Guildford Four, the DPP was found to have suppressed alibi evidence that supported Gerry Conlon and Paul Hill's claims of innocence. The DPP, for which Havers was acting, was also found to have suppressed confessions by Provisional IRA bombers in the Balcombe Street Gang, claiming responsibility for the Guildford and Woolwich bombings. While it was never directly shown Sir Michael knew of the evidence the DPP suppressed, many including Labour MP Chris Mullin cast doubt on Havers' integrity in the matter in his submission to the May Inquiry into the wrongful convictions. In 1977 Sir Michael became a member of the Privy Council. In May 1979 Margaret Thatcher reappointed him as Attorney-General for England and Wales and as Attorney General for Northern Ireland, holding both posts until 1987. During the Falklands War in 1982, Havers was included in Thatcher's War Cabinet, to which he provided advice on international law and rules of engagement. Following his retirement from the House of Commons in the 1987 UK general election, Margaret Thatcher appointed him Lord Chancellor and consequently became a life peer as Baron Havers, of St Edmundsbury in the County of Suffolk. At the time, this made him a senior Minister of the Crown, the most senior judicial officer holder in the UK, as well as presiding officer of the House of Lords. In popular culture In March 1991 Paul Hill appeared on the Channel 4 discussion programme After Dark with, among others, Patrick Cosgrave, J. P. Donleavy, David Norris, Emily O'Reilly and Francis Stuart. In May 1994 Paul Hill gave a half-hour Opinions lecture televised on Channel 4 and subsequently published in The Independent as "Prisoners on the Outside". The film In the Name of the Father starring Daniel Day-Lewis was based on the story of the Guildford Four. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards. The Guildford Four are mentioned in the track "Fifty in Five" from the Australian hip-hop album State of the Art which compiles major events of the past fifty years condensed into a five-minute song. The song "The Guildford Four" on the album "Himself" by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Andy White tells the story of their wrongful conviction. It was released in 1990 on Cooking Vinyl. See also Good Friday Agreement Birmingham Six Maamtrasna trial References External links Life for a life sentences to warn the IRA – A report on the sentencing phase of the original trial, The Guardian, 23 October 1975 Miscarriages of justice Summary of the cases from the BBC Justice:Denied's review of the book and movie version of In the Name of the Father Background to the Irish cases

The Birmingham Six were six Northern Irishmen who were each sentenced to life imprisonment in 1975 following their false convictions for the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings. Their convictions were declared unsafe and unsatisfactory and quashed by the Court of Appeal on 14 March 1991. The six men were later awarded financial compensation ranging from £840,000 to £1.2 million. Birmingham pub bombings The Birmingham pub bombings took place on 21 November 1974 and were attributed to the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). Improvised explosive devices were placed in two central Birmingham pubs: the Mulberry Bush at the foot of the Rotunda, and the Tavern in the Town – a basement pub in New Street. The resulting explosions, at 20:25 and 20:27, collectively were the deadliest attacks in the UK since World War II (until surpassed by the Denmark Place fire in 1980); 21 people were killed (ten at the Mulberry Bush and eleven at the Tavern in the Town) and 182 people were injured. Arrests and questioning Six men were arrested: Hugh Callaghan, Patrick Joseph Hill, Gerard Hunter, Richard McIlkenny, William Power and John Walker. Five were Belfast-born, while John Walker was born in Derry. All six had lived in Birmingham since the 1960s. All the men except for Callaghan had left the city early on the evening of 21 November from New Street Station, shortly before the explosions. They were travelling to Belfast to attend the funeral of James McDade, an IRA member whom they all knew. McDade had accidentally killed himself on 14 November when his bomb detonated prematurely while he was planting it at a telephone exchange in Coventry. When they reached Heysham, Lancashire, they and others were subject to a Special Branch stop and search. The men did not tell the police of the true purpose of their visit to Belfast, a fact that was later held against them. While the search was in progress the police were informed of the Birmingham bombings. The men agreed to be taken to Morecambe, Lancashire, police station for forensic tests. On the morning of 22 November, after the forensic tests and questioning by the Morecambe police, the men were transferred to the custody of West Midlands Serious Crime Squad police unit. Callaghan was taken into custody on the evening of 22 November. While the men were in the custody of the West Midlands Police they were allegedly deprived of food and sleep, and were sometimes interrogated for as much as 12 hours without a break. Threats were made against them and they suffered abuse: punches, dogs being let loose within a foot of them, and a mock execution. William Power said that officers from Birmingham police Criminal Investigation Department assaulted him. Richard McIlkenny's daughter said, "When they (the family) saw him the next day, he had been so badly beaten he was unrecognisable." Power confessed while in Morecambe while Callaghan, Walker and McIlkenny confessed at Queens Road in Aston, Birmingham. Trial On 12 May 1975, the six men were charged with murder. Three other men, James Kelly, Mick Murray and Michael Sheehan, were charged with conspiracy. The trial began on 9 June 1975 at the Crown Court sitting at Lancaster Castle, before Mr Justice Bridge and a jury. After legal arguments the statements made in November were deemed admissible as evidence. The unreliability of these statements was later established. Thomas Watt provided circumstantial evidence about John Walker's association with Provisional IRA members. Forensic scientist Dr Frank Skuse used positive Griess test results to claim that Hill and Power had handled explosives. Callaghan, Hunter, McIlkenny and Walker all had tested negative. GCMS tests at a later date were negative for Power and contradicted the initial results for Hill. Skuse's claim that he was 99% certain that Power and Hill had explosives traces on their hands was opposed by defence expert Dr Hugh Kenneth Black of the Royal Institute of Chemistry, the former HM Chief Inspector of Explosives, Home Office. Skuse's evidence was clearly preferred by Bridge. The jury found the six men guilty of murder. On 15 August 1975, they were each sentenced to 21 life sentences. Criminal charges against prison officers and civil actions against police On 28 November 1974, the men appeared in court for the second time after they had been remanded into custody at HM Prison Winson Green. All showed bruising and other signs of ill-treatment. Fourteen prison officers were charged with assault in June 1975, but were all acquitted at a trial presided over by Mr. Justice Swanwick. The Six brought a civil claim for damages against the West Midlands Police in 1977, which was struck out on 17 January 1980 by the Court of Appeal (Civil Division), constituted by the Master of the Rolls, Lord Denning, Goff LJ and Sir George Baker, under the principle of estoppel. Appeals In March 1976 their first application for leave to appeal was dismissed by the Court of Appeal, presided over by Lord Widgery CJ. Journalist Chris Mullin investigated the case for Granada TV's World in Action series. In 1985, the first of several World in Action programmes casting doubt on the men's convictions was broadcast. In 1986, Mullin's book, Error of Judgment: The Truth About the Birmingham Pub Bombings, set out a detailed case supporting the men's claims that they were innocent. It included his claim to have met some of those who were actually responsible for the bombings. The Home Secretary, Douglas Hurd, referred the case back to the Court of Appeal. In January 1988, after a six-week hearing (at that time the longest criminal appeal hearing ever held), the convictions were ruled to be safe and satisfactory. The Court of Appeal, presided over by the Lord Chief Justice Lord Lane, dismissed the appeals. Over the next three years, newspaper articles, television documentaries and books brought forward new evidence to question the safety of the convictions. Their second full appeal, in 1991, was allowed. Hunter was represented by Lord Gifford QC, the others by Michael Mansfield QC. The Crown decided not to resist the appeals on the basis of new evidence of police fabrication and suppression of evidence, the successful attacks on both the confessions, and the 1975 forensic evidence. The Court of Appeal, constituted by Lord Justices Lloyd, Mustill and Farquharson, stated that "in the light of the fresh scientific evidence, which at least throws grave doubt on Dr. Skuse's evidence, if it does not destroy it altogether, these convictions are both unsafe and unsatisfactory." On 14 March 1991 the six walked free. In 2001, a decade after their release, the six men were awarded compensation ranging from £840,000 to £1.2 million. Richard McIlkenny, one of the six men wrongly convicted of the Birmingham pub bombings, died of cancer on 21 May 2006, aged 73. He had returned to Ireland shortly after he was freed from prison, and died in hospital with his family at his bedside. McIlkenny was buried on 24 May in Celbridge, County Kildare. The other members of the Birmingham Six were present at his wake and funeral. Hugh Callaghan died on 27 May 2023, aged 93. Of the four surviving members of the Birmingham Six, Patrick Hill currently resides in Ayrshire; Gerard Hunter in Portugal; John Walker in Donegal; William Power in London. Consequences The success of the appeals and other miscarriages of justice caused the Home Secretary to set up a Royal Commission on Criminal Justice in 1991. The commission reported in 1993 and led to the Criminal Appeal Act 1995 which established the Criminal Cases Review Commission in 1997. Superintendent George Reade and two other police officers were charged with perjury and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice but were never prosecuted. During the inquest into the bombings in 2016, Hill stated that he knew the identities of three of the bombers who were still "free men" in Ireland. Granada Television productions On 28 March 1990, ITV broadcast the Granada Television docudrama, Who Bombed Birmingham?, which re-enacted the bombings and subsequent key events in Chris Mullin's campaign. Written by Rob Ritchie and directed by Mike Beckham, it starred John Hurt as Mullin, Martin Shaw as World in Action producer Ian McBride, Ciarán Hinds as Richard McIlkenny, one of the Six, and Patrick Malahide as Michael Mansfield (QC). It was repackaged for export as The Investigation – Inside a Terrorist Bombing, and first shown on American television on 22 April 1990. Granada's BAFTA-nominated follow-up documentary after the release of the six men, World in Action Special: The Birmingham Six – Their Own Story, was telecast on 18 March 1991. It was released on DVD in 2007 in Network's first volume of World in Action productions. In 1994, Frank Skuse brought libel proceedings against Granada, contending that World in Action had falsely portrayed him as negligent. His counsel asserted in the High Court that scientific tests performed in 1992, after the Crown's substantive concession of the accused men's third appeal, showed that traces of nitroglycerine were detected on swabs taken after the bombings from the hands of Hunter and Hill, and on rail tickets handled by McIlkenny and Power. Granada maintained there were never any traces of explosives on the six men. Skuse abandoned the action later that year. Freedom of speech In December 1987, the Court of Appeal granted an injunction which prevented Channel 4 from re-enacting portions of a hearing in the litigation, as it was "likely to undermine public confidence in the administration of justice" if shown during the appeal, in violation of the Contempt of Court Act 1981. In their book The Three Pillars of Liberty (1996) Keir Starmer, Francesca Klug, and Stuart Weir said the decision had had a "chilling effect" on other news and current affairs programmes. In January 1988 after their first appeal failed, The Sun published an article with the headline "Loony MP Backs Bomb Gang" and an editorial said, "If The Sun had its way, we would have been tempted to string 'em up years ago". In 1993 and 1994, the Birmingham Six received an undisclosed amount from both The Sunday Telegraph and The Sun in an action for libel for the newspapers' reporting of police statements. The New York Times reported in 1997 that the Six had brought libel actions against publications for reporting slurs against them, and that a libel law that usually favours plaintiffs was sending a chill through the British press. The Conservative MP David Evans was sued by them in March 1997 for saying that they were guilty of killing hundreds of people before they were caught. Evans apologised 16 months later. He paid both damages and costs and promised he would never repeat the allegation again. Attempt to force journalist to reveal sources During his investigation, which proved crucial in establishing the innocence of the Six, Chris Mullin located one of the actual bombers and persuaded him to provide information which helped the men falsely convicted. Mullin promised that he would never reveal his source. At the time the police were not interested, as they believed that they had already arrested the culprits. However, in 2018 the West Midlands police reopened the investigation, almost 50 years after the event. Two of the four bombers had died. Mullin cooperated with the investigation as far as he felt was possible, for example providing notes of interviews with dead bomber Michael Murray and a redacted copy of notes of other interviews. But Mullin refused to name other people interviewed. The West Midlands police applied for an order under the Terrorism Act 2000 to compel Mullin to reveal his sources; he refused, later saying that source protection is a cornerstone of the free press in a democracy. In March 2022 Judge Lucraft ruled that it was not in the public interest to oblige Mullin to identify the living perpetrator. Mullin's legal team later said, hailing the ruling, that the right of a journalist to protect their sources was fundamental to a free press in a democracy. See also Guildford Four and Maguire Seven, two sets of people falsely convicted of the Guildford pub bombings which were carried out by the Provisional IRA's Balcombe Street Gang in 1974. Reykjavik Six, a gang of youths falsely accused of the murder of two disappeared people in Iceland in 1974. Maamtrasna trial "Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six", a song by The Pogues in support of the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four List of miscarriage of justice cases References Further reading Transcript of Appeal Hearing: McIlkenny & Ors, R. v, 1991, EWCA Crim 2 (27 March 1991) Criminal Cases Review Commission House of Commons Debate BBC – On This Day Innocence Network UK (INUK) Birmingham Pub Bombings The Birmingham Framework Cain Conflict Chronology Miscarriages of Justice Organisation Birmingham Six Error of Judgment: The Truth About the Birmingham Bombings; Chris Mullin The Birmingham Six and Other Cases; Louis Blom-Cooper; ISBN 0-7156-2813-5. Forever Lost, Forever Gone; Paddy Joe Hill

Northern Ireland (Irish: Tuaisceart Éireann [ˈt̪ˠuəʃcəɾˠt̪ˠ ˈeːɾʲən̪ˠ] ; Ulster Scots: Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland that is variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares an open border to the south and west with the Republic of Ireland. At the 2021 census, its population was 1,903,175, making up around 3% of the UK's population and 27% of the population on the island of Ireland. The Northern Ireland Assembly, established by the Northern Ireland Act 1998, holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters, while other areas are reserved for the UK Government. The government of Northern Ireland cooperates with the government of Ireland in several areas under the terms of the Belfast Agreement. The Republic of Ireland also has a consultative role on non-devolved governmental matters through the British–Irish Governmental Conference (BIIG). Northern Ireland was created in 1921, when Ireland was partitioned by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, creating a devolved government for the six northeastern counties. As was intended by unionists and their supporters in Westminster, Northern Ireland had a unionist majority, who wanted to remain in the United Kingdom; they were generally the Protestant descendants of colonists from Britain. Meanwhile, the majority in Southern Ireland (which became the Irish Free State in 1922), and a significant minority in Northern Ireland, were Irish nationalists (generally Catholics) who wanted a united independent Ireland. Today, the former generally see themselves as British and the latter generally see themselves as Irish, while a Northern Irish or Ulster identity is claimed by a significant minority from all backgrounds. The creation of Northern Ireland was accompanied by violence both in defence of and against partition. During the conflict of 1920–22, the capital Belfast saw major communal violence, mainly between Protestant unionist and Catholic nationalist civilians. More than 500 were killed and more than 10,000 became refugees, mostly Catholics. For the next fifty years, Northern Ireland had an unbroken series of Unionist Party governments. There was informal mutual segregation by both communities, and the Unionist governments were accused of discrimination against the Irish nationalist and Catholic minority. In the late 1960s, a campaign to end discrimination against Catholics and nationalists was opposed by loyalists, who saw it as a republican front. This unrest sparked the Troubles, a thirty-year conflict involving republican and loyalist paramilitaries and state forces, which claimed over 3,500 lives and injured 50,000 others. The 1998 Good Friday Agreement was a major step in the peace process, including paramilitary disarmament and security normalisation, although sectarianism and segregation remain major social problems, and sporadic violence has continued. The economy of Northern Ireland was the most industrialised in Ireland at the time of partition, but soon began to decline, exacerbated by the political and social turmoil of the Troubles. Its economy has grown significantly since the late 1990s. Unemployment in Northern Ireland peaked at 17.2% in 1986, but dropped back down to below 10% in the 2010s, similar to the rate of the rest of the UK. Cultural links between Northern Ireland, the rest of Ireland, and the rest of the UK are complex, with Northern Ireland sharing both the culture of Ireland and the culture of the United Kingdom. In many sports, there is an All-Ireland governing body or team for the whole island; the most notable exception is association football. Northern Ireland competes separately at the Commonwealth Games, and people from Northern Ireland may compete for either Great Britain or Ireland at the Olympic Games. History The region that is now Northern Ireland was long inhabited by native Gaels who were Irish-speaking and predominantly Catholic. It was made up of several Gaelic kingdoms and territories and was part of the province of Ulster. In 1169, Ireland was invaded by a coalition of forces under the command of the English crown that quickly overran and occupied most of the island, beginning 800 years of foreign central authority. Attempts at resistance were swiftly crushed everywhere outside of Ulster. Unlike in the rest of the country, where Gaelic authority continued only in scattered, remote pockets, the major kingdoms of Ulster would mostly remain intact with English authority in the province contained to areas on the eastern coast closest to Great Britain. English power gradually eroded in the face of stubborn Irish resistance in the centuries that followed; eventually being reduced to only the city of Dublin and its suburbs. When Henry VIII launched the 16th century Tudor re-conquest of Ireland, Ulster once again resisted most effectively. In the Nine Years' War (1594–1603), an alliance of Gaelic chieftains led by the two most powerful Ulster lords, Hugh Roe O'Donnell and the Earl of Tyrone fought against the English government in Ireland. The Ulster-dominated alliance represented the first Irish united front; prior resistance had always been geographically localized. Despite being able to cement an alliance with Spain and major victories early on, defeat was virtually inevitable following England's victory at the siege of Kinsale. In 1607, the rebellion's leaders fled to mainland Europe alongside much of Ulster's Gaelic nobility. Their lands were confiscated by the Crown and colonized with English-speaking Protestant settlers from Britain, in the Plantation of Ulster. This led to the founding of many of Ulster's towns and created a lasting Ulster Protestant community with ties to Britain. The Irish Rebellion of 1641 began in Ulster. The rebels wanted an end to anti-Catholic discrimination, greater Irish self-governance, and to roll back the Plantation. It developed into an ethnic conflict between Irish Catholics and British Protestant settlers and became part of the wider Wars of the Three Kingdoms (1639–53), which ended with the English Parliamentarian conquest. Further Protestant victories in the Williamite-Jacobite War (1688–91) solidified Anglican Protestant rule in the Kingdom of Ireland. The Williamite victories of the siege of Derry (1689) and Battle of the Boyne (1690) are still celebrated by some Protestants in Northern Ireland. Many more Scots Protestants migrated to Ulster during the Scottish famine of the 1690s. Following the Williamite victory, and contrary to the Treaty of Limerick (1691), a series of Penal Laws were passed by the Anglican Protestant ruling class in Ireland. The intention was to disadvantage Catholics and, to a lesser extent, Presbyterians. Some 250,000 Ulster Presbyterians emigrated to the British North American colonies between 1717 and 1775. It is estimated that there are more than 27 million Scotch-Irish Americans now living in the United States, along with many Scotch-Irish Canadians in Canada. In the context of institutional discrimination, the 18th century saw secret, militant societies develop in Ulster and act on sectarian tensions in violent attacks. This escalated at the end of the century, especially during the County Armagh disturbances, where the Protestant Peep o' Day Boys fought the Catholic Defenders. This led to the founding of the Protestant Orange Order. The Irish Rebellion of 1798 was led by the United Irishmen; a cross-community Irish republican group founded by Belfast Presbyterians, which sought Irish independence. Following this, the government of the Kingdom of Great Britain pushed for the two kingdoms to be merged, in an attempt to quell violent sectarianism, remove discriminatory laws, and prevent the spread of French-style republicanism. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was formed in 1801 and governed from London. During the 19th century, legal reforms known as the Catholic emancipation continued to remove discrimination against Catholics, and progressive programs enabled tenant farmers to buy land from landlords. Home Rule Crisis By the late 19th century, a large and disciplined cohort of Irish Nationalist MPs at Westminster committed the Liberal Party to "Irish Home Rule"—self-government for Ireland, within the United Kingdom. This was bitterly opposed by Irish Unionists, most of whom were Protestants, who feared an Irish devolved government dominated by Irish nationalists and Catholics. The Government of Ireland Bill 1886 and Government of Ireland Bill 1893 were defeated. However, Home Rule became a near-certainty in 1912 after the Government of Ireland Act 1914 was first introduced. The Liberal government was dependent on Nationalist support, and the Parliament Act 1911 prevented the House of Lords from blocking the bill indefinitely. In response, unionists vowed to prevent Irish Home Rule, from Conservative and Unionist Party leaders such as Bonar Law and Dublin-based barrister Edward Carson to militant working class unionists in Ireland. This sparked the Home Rule Crisis. In September 1912, more than 500,000 unionists signed the Ulster Covenant, pledging to oppose Home Rule by any means and to defy any Irish government. In 1914, unionists smuggled thousands of rifles and rounds of ammunition from Imperial Germany for use by the Ulster Volunteers (UVF), a paramilitary organisation formed to oppose Home Rule. Irish nationalists had also formed a paramilitary organisation, the Irish Volunteers. It sought to ensure Home Rule was implemented, and it smuggled its own weapons into Ireland a few months after the Ulster Volunteers. Ireland seemed to be on the brink of civil war. Unionists were in a minority in Ireland as a whole, but a majority in the province of Ulster, especially the counties Antrim, Down, Armagh and Londonderry. Unionists argued that if Home Rule could not be stopped then all or part of Ulster should be excluded from it. In May 1914, the UK Government introduced an Amending Bill to allow for 'Ulster' to be excluded from Home Rule. There was then debate over how much of Ulster should be excluded and for how long. Some Ulster unionists were willing to tolerate the 'loss' of some mainly-Catholic areas of the province. The crisis was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, and Ireland's involvement in it. The UK government abandoned the Amending Bill, and instead rushed through a new bill, the Suspensory Act 1914, suspending Home Rule for the duration of the war, with the exclusion of Ulster still to be decided. Partition of Ireland By the end of the war (during which the 1916 Easter Rising had taken place), most Irish nationalists now wanted full independence rather than home rule. In September 1919, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George tasked a committee with planning another home rule bill. Headed by English unionist politician Walter Long, it was known as the 'Long Committee'. It decided that two devolved governments should be established—one for the nine counties of Ulster and one for the rest of Ireland—together with a Council of Ireland for the "encouragement of Irish unity". Most Ulster unionists wanted the territory of the Ulster government to be reduced to six counties so that it would have a larger Protestant unionist majority, which they believed would guarantee its longevity. The six counties of Antrim, Down, Armagh, Londonderry, Tyrone and Fermanagh comprised the maximum area unionists believed they could dominate. The area that was to become Northern Ireland included counties Fermanagh and Tyrone, even though they had nationalist majorities in the 1918 Irish general election. Events overtook the government. In the 1918 Irish general election, the pro-independence Sinn Féin party won the overwhelming majority of Irish seats. Sinn Féin's elected members boycotted the British parliament and founded a separate Irish parliament (Dáil Éireann), declaring an independent Irish Republic covering the whole island. Many Irish republicans blamed the British establishment for the sectarian divisions in Ireland, and believed that Ulster unionism would fade once British rule was ended. The British authorities outlawed the Dáil in September 1919, and a guerrilla conflict developed as the Irish Republican Army (IRA) began attacking British forces. This became known as the Irish War of Independence. Meanwhile, the Government of Ireland Act 1920 passed through the British parliament in 1920. It would divide Ireland into two self-governing UK territories: the six northeastern counties (Northern Ireland) being ruled from Belfast, and the other twenty-six counties (Southern Ireland) being ruled from Dublin. Both would have a shared Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, who would appoint both governments and a Council of Ireland, which the UK government intended to evolve into an all-Ireland parliament. The Act received royal assent that December, becoming the Government of Ireland Act 1920. It came into force on 3 May 1921, partitioning Ireland and creating Northern Ireland. the 1921 Irish elections were held on 24 May, in which unionists won most seats in the Northern Ireland parliament. It first met on 7 June and formed its first devolved government, headed by Ulster Unionist Party leader James Craig. Irish nationalist members refused to attend. King George V addressed the ceremonial opening of the Northern parliament on 22 June. During 1920–22, in what became Northern Ireland, partition was accompanied by violence "in defence or opposition to the new settlement" during The Troubles (1920–1922). The IRA carried out attacks on British forces in the north-east but was less active than in the rest of Ireland. Protestant loyalists attacked Catholics in reprisal for IRA actions. In the summer of 1920, sectarian violence erupted in Belfast and Derry, and there were mass burnings of Catholic property in Lisburn and Banbridge. Conflict continued intermittently for two years, mostly in Belfast, which saw "savage and unprecedented" communal violence between Protestants and Catholics, including rioting, gun battles, and bombings. Homes, businesses, and churches were attacked and people were expelled from workplaces and mixed neighbourhoods. More than 500 were killed and more than 10,000 became refugees, most of them Catholics. The British Army was deployed and the Ulster Special Constabulary (USC) was formed to help the regular police. The USC was almost wholly Protestant. Members of the USC and regular police were involved in reprisal attacks on Catholic civilians. A truce between British forces and the IRA was established on 11 July 1921, ending the fighting in most of Ireland. However, communal violence continued in Belfast, and in 1922 the IRA launched a guerrilla offensive along the new Irish border. The Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed between representatives of the governments of the UK and the Irish Republic on 6 December 1921, laying out the process for the creation of the Irish Free State. Under the terms of the treaty, Northern Ireland would become part of the Free State unless its government opted out by presenting an address to the king, although in practice partition remained in place. The Irish Free State came into existence on 6 December 1922, and on the following day, the Parliament of Northern Ireland resolved to exercise its right to opt out of the Free State by making an address to King George V. The text of the address was: Most Gracious Sovereign, We, your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Senators and Commons of Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled, having learnt of the passing of the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922, being the Act of Parliament for the ratification of the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty between Great Britain and Ireland, do, by this humble Address, pray your Majesty that the powers of the Parliament and Government of the Irish Free State shall no longer extend to Northern Ireland. Shortly afterwards, the Irish Boundary Commission was established to decide on the border between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland. Owing to the outbreak of the Irish Civil War, the work of the commission was delayed until 1925. The Free State government and Irish nationalists hoped for a large transfer of territory to the Free State, as many border areas had nationalist majorities. Many believed this would leave the remaining Northern Ireland territory too small to be viable. However, the commission's final report recommended only small transfers of territory, and in both directions. The Free State, Northern Ireland, and UK governments agreed to suppress the report and accept the status quo, while the UK government agreed that the Free State would no longer have to pay a share of the UK national debt. 1925–1965 Northern Ireland's border was drawn to give it "a decisive Protestant majority". At the time of its creation, Northern Ireland's population was two-thirds Protestant and one-third Catholic. Most Protestants were unionists/loyalists who sought to maintain Northern Ireland as a part of the United Kingdom, while most Catholics were Irish nationalists/republicans who sought an independent United Ireland. There was mutual self-imposed segregation in Northern Ireland between Protestants and Catholics such as in education, housing, and often employment. For its first fifty years, Northern Ireland had an unbroken series of Ulster Unionist Party governments. Every prime minister and almost every minister of these governments were members of the Orange Order, as were all but 11 of the 149 Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) MPs elected during this time. Almost all judges and magistrates were Protestant, many of them closely associated with the UUP. Northern Ireland's new police force was the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), which succeeded the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). It too was almost wholly Protestant and lacked operational independence, responding to directions from government ministers. The RUC and the reserve Ulster Special Constabulary (USC) were militarized police forces due to the perceived threat of militant republicanism. In 1936 the British advocacy group - the National Council for Civil Liberties characterised the USC as "nothing but the organised army of the Unionist party". They "had at their disposal the Special Powers Act, a sweeping piece of legislation which allowed arrests without warrant, internment without trial, unlimited search powers, and bans on meetings and publications". This 1922 Act was made permanent in 1933 and was not repealed until 1973. The Nationalist Party was the main political party in opposition to the UUP governments. However, its elected members often protested by abstaining from the Northern Ireland parliament, and many nationalists did not vote in parliamentary elections. Other early nationalist groups which campaigned against partition included the National League of the North (formed in 1928), the Northern Council for Unity (formed in 1937) and the Irish Anti-Partition League (formed in 1945). The Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) of 1922 allowed for the altering of municipal and rural boundaries. This Act led to the gerrymandering of local election boundaries in the Nationalists majority cities of Derry City, Enniskillen, Omagh, Armagh and many other towns and rural districts. That action ensured Unionist control over local councils in areas where they were a minority. The UUP governments, and some UUP-dominated local authorities, discriminated against the Catholic and Irish nationalist minority; especially by the gerrymandering of local electoral boundaries, the allocation of public housing, public sector employment, and policing, showing "a consistent and irrefutable pattern of deliberate discrimination against Catholics". Many Catholics/Nationalists saw the gerrymandered local electoral boundaries and the abolishing of proportional representation as proof of government-sponsored discrimination. Until 1969 a system was in place called plural voting which was a practice whereby one person might be able to vote multiple times in an election. Property and business owners could vote both in the constituency where their property lay and that in which they lived, if the two were different. This system often resulted in one person being able to cast multiple votes. Decades later, UUP First Minister of Northern Ireland, David Trimble, said that Northern Ireland under the UUP had been a "cold house" for Catholics. During World War II, recruitment to the British military was noticeably lower than the high levels reached during World War I. In June 1940, to encourage the neutral Irish state to join with the Allies, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill indicated to Taoiseach Éamon de Valera that the British government would encourage Irish unity, but believing that Churchill could not deliver, de Valera declined the offer. The British did not inform the government of Northern Ireland that they had made the offer to the Dublin government, and de Valera's rejection was not publicised until 1970. Belfast was a key industrial city in the UK's war effort, producing ships, tanks, aircraft, and munitions. The unemployment that had been so persistent in the 1930s disappeared, and labour shortages appeared, prompting migration from the Free State. The city was thinly defended, and had only 24 anti-aircraft guns. Richard Dawson Bates, the Minister for Home Affairs, had prepared too late, assuming that Belfast was far enough away to be safe. The city's fire brigade was inadequate, and as the Northern Ireland government had been reluctant to spend money on air raid shelters, it only started to build them after the Blitz in London during the autumn of 1940. There were no searchlights in the city, which made shooting down enemy bombers more difficult. In April–May 1941, the Belfast Blitz began when the Luftwaffe launched a series of raids that were the most deadly seen outside London. Working-class areas in the north and east of the city were particularly hard hit, and over 1,000 people were killed and hundreds were seriously injured. Tens of thousands of people fled the city in fear of future attacks. In the final raid, Luftwaffe bombs inflicted extensive damage to the docks and the Harland & Wolff shipyard, closing it for six months. Half of the city's houses had been destroyed, highlighting the terrible slum conditions in Belfast, and about £20 million worth of damage was caused. The Northern Ireland government was criticised heavily for its lack of preparation, and Northern Ireland Prime Minister J. M. Andrews resigned. There was a major munitions strike in 1944. The Ireland Act 1949 gave the first legal guarantee that the region would not cease to be part of the United Kingdom without the consent of the Parliament of Northern Ireland. From 1956 to 1962, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) carried out a limited guerrilla campaign in border areas of Northern Ireland, called the Border Campaign. It aimed to destabilize Northern Ireland and bring about an end to partition but failed. In 1965, Northern Ireland's Prime Minister Terence O'Neill met the Taoiseach, Seán Lemass. It was the first meeting between the two heads of government since partition. The Troubles The Troubles, which started in the late 1960s, consisted of about 30 years of recurring acts of intense violence during which 3,254 people were killed with over 50,000 casualties. From 1969 to 2003 there were over 36,900 shooting incidents and over 16,200 bombings or attempted bombings associated with The Troubles. The conflict was caused by escalating tensions between the Irish nationalist minority and the dominant unionist majority; Irish nationalists object to Northern Ireland staying within the United Kingdom. From 1967 to 1972 the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA), which modelled itself on the US civil rights movement, led a campaign of civil resistance to anti-Catholic discrimination in housing, employment, policing, and electoral procedures. The franchise for local government elections included only rate-payers and their spouses, and so excluded over a quarter of the electorate. While the majority of disenfranchised electors were Protestant, Catholics were over-represented since they were poorer and had more adults still living in the family home. NICRA's campaign, seen by many unionists as an Irish republican front, and the violent reaction to it proved to be a precursor to a more violent period. As early as 1969, armed campaigns of paramilitary groups began, including the Provisional IRA campaign of 1969–1997 which was aimed at the end of British rule in Northern Ireland and the creation of a United Ireland, and the Ulster Volunteer Force, formed in 1966 in response to the perceived erosion of both the British character and unionist domination of Northern Ireland. The state security forces – the British Army and the police (the Royal Ulster Constabulary) – were also involved in the violence. The UK Government's position is that its forces were neutral in the conflict, trying to uphold law and order in Northern Ireland and the right of the people of Northern Ireland to democratic self-determination. Republicans regarded the state forces as combatants in the conflict, pointing to the collusion between the state forces and the loyalist paramilitaries as proof of this. The "Ballast" investigation by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland has confirmed that British forces, and in particular the RUC, did collude with loyalist paramilitaries, were involved in murder, and did obstruct the course of justice when such claims had been investigated, although the extent to which such collusion occurred is still disputed. As a consequence of the worsening security situation, the autonomous regional government for Northern Ireland was suspended in 1972. Alongside the violence, there was a political deadlock between the major political parties in Northern Ireland, including those who condemned the violence, over the future status of Northern Ireland and the form of government there should be within Northern Ireland. In 1973, Northern Ireland held a referendum to determine if it should remain in the United Kingdom, or be part of a united Ireland. The vote went heavily in favour (98.9%) of maintaining the status quo. Approximately 57.5% of the total electorate voted in support, but only 1% of Catholics voted following a boycott organised by the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). Peace process The Troubles were brought to an uneasy end by a peace process that included the declaration of ceasefires by most paramilitary organisations and the complete decommissioning of their weapons, the reform of the police, and the corresponding withdrawal of army troops from the streets and sensitive border areas such as South Armagh and Fermanagh, as agreed by the signatories to the Belfast Agreement (commonly known as the "Good Friday Agreement"). This reiterated the long-held British position, which had never before been fully acknowledged by successive Irish governments, that Northern Ireland will remain within the United Kingdom until a majority of voters in Northern Ireland decides otherwise. The Constitution of Ireland was amended in 1999 to remove a claim of the "Irish nation" to sovereignty over the entire island (in Article 2). The new Articles 2 and 3, added to the Constitution to replace the earlier articles, implicitly acknowledge that the status of Northern Ireland, and its relationships within the rest of the United Kingdom and with the Republic of Ireland, would only be changed with the agreement of a majority of voters in each jurisdiction. This aspect was also central to the Belfast Agreement which was signed in 1998 and ratified by referendums held simultaneously in both Northern Ireland and the Republic. At the same time, the UK Government recognised for the first time, as part of the prospective, the so-called "Irish dimension": the principle that the people of the island of Ireland as a whole have the right, without any outside interference, to solve the issues between North and South by mutual consent. The latter statement was key to winning support for the agreement from nationalists. It established a devolved power-sharing government, the Northern Ireland Assembly, located on the Stormont Estate, which must consist of both unionist and nationalist parties. These institutions were suspended by the UK Government in 2002 after Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) allegations of spying by people working for Sinn Féin at the Assembly (Stormontgate). The resulting case against the accused Sinn Féin member collapsed. On 28 July 2005, the Provisional IRA declared an end to its campaign and has since decommissioned what is thought to be all of its arsenal. This final act of decommissioning was performed under the watch of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) and two external church witnesses. Many unionists, however, remained sceptical. The IICD later confirmed that the main loyalist paramilitary groups, the Ulster Defence Association, UVF, and the Red Hand Commando, had decommissioned what is thought to be all of their arsenals, witnessed by former archbishop Robin Eames and a former top civil servant. Politicians elected to the Assembly at the 2003 Assembly election were called together on 15 May 2006 under the Northern Ireland Act 2006 to elect a First Minister and deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland and choose the members of an Executive (before 25 November 2006) as a preliminary step to the restoration of devolved government. Following the election on 7 March 2007, the devolved government returned on 8 May 2007 with Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Ian Paisley and Sinn Féin deputy leader Martin McGuinness taking office as First Minister and deputy First Minister, respectively. In its white paper on Brexit the United Kingdom government reiterated its commitment to the Belfast Agreement. Concerning Northern Ireland's status, it said that the UK Government's "clearly-stated preference is to retain Northern Ireland's current constitutional position: as part of the UK, but with strong links to Ireland". Executive crisis 2022–2024 On 3 February 2022, Paul Givan resigned as first minister, which automatically resigned Michelle O'Neill as deputy first minister and collapsed the executive of Northern Ireland. On 30 January 2024, leader of the DUP Jeffrey Donaldson announced that the DUP would restore an executive government on the condition that new legislation was passed by the UK House of Commons. Politics Background The main political divide in Northern Ireland is between unionists, who wish to see Northern Ireland continue as part of the United Kingdom, and nationalists, who wish to see Northern Ireland unified with the Republic of Ireland, independent from the United Kingdom. These two opposing views are linked to deeper cultural divisions. Unionists are predominantly Ulster Protestant, descendants of mainly Scottish, English, and Huguenot settlers as well as Gaels who converted to one of the Protestant denominations. Nationalists are overwhelmingly Catholic and descend from the population predating the settlement, with a minority from the Scottish Highlands as well as some converts from Protestantism. Discrimination against nationalists under the Stormont government (1921–1972) gave rise to the civil rights movement in the 1960s. While some unionists argue that discrimination was not just due to religious or political bigotry, but also the result of more complex socio-economic, socio-political and geographical factors, its existence, and the manner in which nationalist anger at it was handled, were a major contributing factor to the Troubles. The political unrest went through its most violent phase between 1968 and 1994. In 2007, 36% of the population defined themselves as unionist, 24% as nationalist, and 40% defined themselves as neither. According to a 2015 opinion poll, 70% express a long-term preference of the maintenance of Northern Ireland's membership of the United Kingdom (either directly ruled or with devolved government), while 14% express a preference for membership of a united Ireland. This discrepancy can be explained by the overwhelming preference among Protestants to remain a part of the UK (93%), while Catholic preferences are spread across several solutions to the constitutional question including remaining a part of the UK (47%), a united Ireland (32%), Northern Ireland becoming an independent state (4%), and those who "don't know" (16%). Official voting figures, which reflect views on the "national question" along with issues of the candidate, geography, personal loyalty, and historic voting patterns, show 54% of Northern Ireland voters vote for unionist parties, 42% vote for nationalist parties, and 4% vote "other". Opinion polls consistently show that the election results are not necessarily an indication of the electorate's stance regarding the constitutional status of Northern Ireland. Most of the population of Northern Ireland is at least nominally Christian, mostly Roman Catholic and Protestant denominations. Many voters (regardless of religious affiliation) are attracted to unionism's conservative policies, while other voters are instead attracted to the traditionally leftist Sinn Féin and SDLP and their respective party platforms for democratic socialism and social democracy. For the most part, Protestants feel a strong connection with Great Britain and wish for Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom. Many Catholics however, generally aspire to a United Ireland or are less certain about how to solve the constitutional question. Catholics have a slight majority in Northern Ireland, according to the latest Northern Ireland census. The make-up of the Northern Ireland Assembly reflects the appeals of the various parties within the population. Of the 90 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs), 37 are unionists and 35 are nationalists (the remaining 18 are classified as "other"). The 1998 Good Friday Agreement acts as a de facto constitution for Northern Ireland. Local government in Northern Ireland since 2015 has been divided between 11 councils with limited responsibilities. The First Minister and deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland are the joint heads of government of Northern Ireland. Governance Since 1998, Northern Ireland has had devolved government within the United Kingdom, presided over by the Northern Ireland Assembly and a cross-community government (the Northern Ireland Executive). The UK Government and UK Parliament are responsible for reserved and excepted matters. Reserved matters comprise listed policy areas (such as civil aviation, units of measurement, and human genetics) that Parliament may devolve to the Assembly some time in the future. Excepted matters (such as international relations, taxation and elections) are never expected to be considered for devolution. On all other governmental matters, the Executive together with the 90-member Assembly may legislate for and govern Northern Ireland. Devolution in Northern Ireland is dependent upon participation by members of the Northern Ireland executive in the North/South Ministerial Council, which coordinates areas of cooperation (such as agriculture, education, and health) between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Additionally, "in recognition of the Irish Government's special interest in Northern Ireland", the Government of Ireland and Government of the United Kingdom co-operate closely on non-devolved matters through the British–Irish Intergovernmental Conference. Elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly are by single transferable vote with five Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) elected from each of 18 parliamentary constituencies. In addition, eighteen representatives (Members of Parliament, MPs) are elected to the lower house of the UK parliament from the same constituencies using the first-past-the-post system. However, not all of those elected take their seats. Sinn Féin MPs, currently seven, refuse to take the oath to serve the King that is required before MPs are allowed to take their seats. In addition, the upper house of the UK parliament, the House of Lords, currently has some 25 appointed members from Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Office represents the UK Government in Northern Ireland on reserved matters and represents Northern Ireland's interests within the UK Government. Additionally, the Republic's government also has the right to "put forward views and proposals" on non-devolved matters about Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Office is led by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, who sits in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland is a distinct legal jurisdiction, separate from the two other jurisdictions in the United Kingdom (England and Wales, and Scotland). Northern Ireland law developed from Irish law that existed before the partition of Ireland in 1921. Northern Ireland is a common law jurisdiction and its common law is similar to that in England and Wales. However, there are important differences in law and procedure between Northern Ireland and England and Wales. The body of statute law affecting Northern Ireland reflects the history of Northern Ireland, including Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the Northern Ireland Assembly, the former Parliament of Northern Ireland and the Parliament of Ireland, along with some Acts of the Parliament of England and of the Parliament of Great Britain that were extended to Ireland under Poynings' Law between 1494 and 1782. Descriptions There is no generally accepted term to describe what Northern Ireland is. It has been described as a country, province, region, and other terms officially, by the press, and in common speech. The choice of term can be controversial and can reveal one's political preferences. This has been noted as a problem by several writers on Northern Ireland, with no generally recommended solution. ISO 3166-2:GB defines Northern Ireland as a province. The UK's submission to the 2007 United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names defines the UK as being made up of two countries (England and Scotland), one principality (Wales) and one province (Northern Ireland). However, this term can be controversial, particularly for nationalists for whom the title province is properly reserved for the traditional province of Ulster, of which Northern Ireland comprises six out of nine counties. Some authors have described the meaning of this term as being equivocal: referring to Northern Ireland as being a province both of the United Kingdom and the traditional country of Ireland. The UK Office for National Statistics and the website of the Office of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom describe the United Kingdom as being made up of four countries, one of these being Northern Ireland. Some newspaper style guides also consider country as an acceptable term for Northern Ireland. However, some authors reject the term. "Region" has also been used by UK government agencies and newspapers. Some authors choose this word but note that it is "unsatisfactory". Northern Ireland can also be simply described as "part of the UK", including by the UK government offices. Alternative names Many people inside and outside Northern Ireland use other names for Northern Ireland, depending on their point of view. Disagreement on names, and the reading of political symbolism into the use or non-use of a word, also attaches itself to some urban centres. The most notable example is whether Northern Ireland's second-largest city should be called "Derry" or "Londonderry". Choice of language and nomenclature in Northern Ireland often reveals the cultural, ethnic, and religious identity of the speaker. Those who do not belong to any group but lean towards one side often tend to use the language of that group. Supporters of unionism in the British media (notably The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Express) regularly call Northern Ireland "Ulster". Many media outlets in the Republic use "North of Ireland" (or simply "the North"), as well as the "Six Counties". The New York Times has also used "the North". Government and cultural organisations in Northern Ireland often use the word "Ulster" in their title; for example, the University of Ulster, the Ulster Museum, the Ulster Orchestra, and BBC Radio Ulster. Although some news bulletins since the 1990s have opted to avoid all contentious terms and use the official name, Northern Ireland, the term "the North" remains commonly used by broadcast media in the Republic. Unionist Ulster, strictly speaking, refers to the province of Ulster, of which six of nine historical counties are in Northern Ireland. The term "Ulster" is widely used by unionists and the British press as shorthand for Northern Ireland, and is also favoured by Ulster nationalists. In the past, calls have been made for Northern Ireland's name to be changed to Ulster. This proposal was formally considered by the Government of Northern Ireland in 1937 and by the UK Government in 1949 but no change was made. The Province refers to the historic Irish province of Ulster but today is used by some as shorthand for Northern Ireland. The BBC, in its editorial guidance for Reporting the United Kingdom, states that "the Province" is an appropriate secondary synonym for Northern Ireland, while "Ulster" is not. It also suggests that "people of Northern Ireland" is preferred to "British" or "Irish", and the term "mainland" should be avoided in reporting about Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Nationalist North of Ireland – used to avoid using the name given by the British-enacted Government of Ireland Act 1920. The Six Counties (na Sé Chontae) – the Republic of Ireland is similarly described as the Twenty-Six Counties. Some of the users of these terms contend that using the official name of the region would imply acceptance of the legitimacy of the Government of Ireland Act. The Occupied Six Counties – used by some republicans. The Republic, whose legitimacy is similarly not recognised by republicans opposed to the Belfast Agreement, is described as the "Free State", referring to the Irish Free State, which gained independence (as a Dominion) in 1922. British-Occupied Ireland – Similar in tone to the Occupied Six Counties, this term is used by more dogmatic republicans, such as Republican Sinn Féin, who still hold that the Second Dáil was the last legitimate government of Ireland and that all governments since have been foreign-imposed usurpations of Irish national self-determination. Other Norn Iron or "Norniron" – is an informal and affectionate local nickname used to refer to Northern Ireland, derived from the pronunciation of the words "Northern Ireland" in an exaggerated Ulster accent (particularly one from the greater Belfast area). The phrase is seen as a lighthearted way to refer to Northern Ireland, based as it is on regional pronunciation. It often refers to the Northern Ireland national football team. Geography and climate The volcanic activity which created the Antrim Plateau also formed the geometric pillars of the Giant's Causeway on the north Antrim coast. Also in north Antrim are the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, Mussenden Temple and the Glens of Antrim. Northern Ireland was covered by an ice sheet for most of the last ice age and on numerous previous occasions, the legacy of which can be seen in the extensive coverage of drumlins in Counties Fermanagh, Armagh, Antrim and particularly Down. The centrepiece of Northern Ireland's geography is Lough Neagh, at 151 square miles (391 km2) the largest freshwater lake both on the island of Ireland and in the British Isles. A second extensive lake system is centred on Lower and Upper Lough Erne in Fermanagh. The largest island of Northern Ireland is Rathlin, off the north Antrim coast. Strangford Lough is the largest inlet in the British Isles, covering 150 km2 (58 sq mi). There are substantial uplands in the Sperrin Mountains (an extension of the Caledonian mountain belt) with extensive gold deposits, the granite Mourne Mountains and the basalt Antrim Plateau, as well as smaller ranges in South Armagh and along the Fermanagh–Tyrone border. None of the hills are especially high, with Slieve Donard in the dramatic Mournes reaching 850 metres (2,789 ft), Northern Ireland's highest point. Belfast's most prominent peak is Cavehill. The Lower and Upper River Bann, River Foyle and River Blackwater form extensive fertile lowlands, with excellent arable land also found in North and East Down, although much of the hill country is marginal and suitable largely for animal husbandry. The valley of the River Lagan is dominated by Belfast, whose metropolitan area includes over a third of the population of Northern Ireland, with heavy urbanisation and industrialisation along the Lagan Valley and both shores of Belfast Lough. Climate The vast majority of Northern Ireland has a temperate maritime climate, (Cfb in the Köppen climate classification) rather wetter in the west than the east, although cloud cover is very common across the region. The weather is unpredictable at all times of the year, and although the seasons are distinct, they are considerably less pronounced than in interior Europe or the eastern seaboard of North America. Average daytime maximums in Belfast are 6.5 °C (43.7 °F) in January and 17.5 °C (63.5 °F) in July. The highest maximum temperature recorded was 31.4 °C (88.5 °F), registered in July 2021 at Armagh Observatory's weather station. The lowest minimum temperature recorded was −18.7 °C (−1.7 °F) at Castlederg, County Tyrone on 23 December 2010. Flora and fauna Until the end of the Middle Ages, the land was heavily forested. Native species include deciduous trees such as oak, ash, hazel, birch, alder, willow, aspen, elm, rowan and hawthorn, as well as evergreen trees such Scots pine, yew and holly. Today, only 8% of Northern Ireland is woodland, and most of this is non-native conifer plantations. As of the 21st century, Northern Ireland is the least forested part of the United Kingdom and Ireland, and one of the least forested countries in Europe. The only native reptile in Northern Ireland is the viviparous lizard, or common lizard, which is widely distributed, particularly in heaths, bogs and sand dunes. The common frog is a very widespread species. Some lakes support internationally important bird populations, Lough Neagh and Lough Beg hold up to 80,000 wintering waterfowl of some 20 species, including ducks, geese, swans and gulls. The otter is the fourth largest land mammal in Northern Ireland. It can be found along the river systems, although it is seldom seen and will avoid contact with humans. 356 species of marine algae have been recorded in the northeast of Ireland; 77 species are considered rare. Demographics Counties Northern Ireland consists of six historic counties: County Antrim, County Armagh, County Down, County Fermanagh, County Londonderry, and County Tyrone. These counties are no longer used for local government purposes; instead, there are eleven districts of Northern Ireland which have different geographical extents. These were created in 2015, replacing the twenty-six districts which previously existed. Although counties are no longer used for local governmental purposes, they remain a popular means of describing where places are. They are officially used while applying for an Irish passport, which requires one to state one's county of birth. The name of that county then appears in both Irish and English on the passport's information page, as opposed to the town or city of birth on the United Kingdom passport. The Gaelic Athletic Association still uses the counties as its primary means of organisation and fields representative teams of each GAA county. The original system of car registration numbers largely based on counties remains in use. In 2000, the telephone numbering system was restructured into an 8-digit scheme with (except for Belfast) the first digit approximately reflecting the county. The county boundaries still appear on Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland Maps and the Philip's Street Atlases, among others. With their decline in official use, there is often confusion surrounding towns and cities which lie near county boundaries, such as Belfast and Lisburn, which are split between counties Down and Antrim (the majorities of both cities, however, are in Antrim). In March 2018, The Sunday Times published its list of Best Places to Live in Britain, including the following places in Northern Ireland: Ballyhackamore near Belfast (overall best for Northern Ireland), Holywood, County Down, Newcastle, County Down, Portrush, County Antrim, Strangford, County Down. Cities and major towns Population The population of Northern Ireland has risen yearly since 1978. The population at the time of the 2021 census was 1.9 million, having grown 5% over the previous decade. The population in 2011 was 1.8 million, a rise of 7.5% over the previous decade. The current population makes up 2.8% of the UK's population (67 million) and 27% of the island of Ireland's population (7.03 million). The population density is 135 inhabitants / km2. As of the 2021 census, the population of Northern Ireland is almost entirely white (96.6%). In 2021, 86.5% of the population were born in Northern Ireland, with 4.8% born in Great Britain, 2.1% born in the Republic of Ireland, and 6.5% born elsewhere (more than half of them in another European country). In 2021 the largest non-white ethnic groups were black (0.6%), Indian (0.5%), and Chinese (0.5%). In 2011, 88.8% of the population were born in Northern Ireland, 4.5% in Great Britain, and 2.9% in the Republic of Ireland. 4.3% were born elsewhere; triple the amount there were in 2001. As of the 2021 Census 1,165,168 (61.2%) residents lived in an urban environment and 738,007 (38.8%) lived in a non-urban environment. Identity and citizenship In Northern Ireland censuses, respondents can choose more than one national identity. In 2021: 42.8% identified as British, solely or along with other national identities 33.3% identified as Irish, solely or along with other national identities 31.5% identified as Northern Irish, solely or along with other national identities The main national identities given in recent censuses were: As of the 2021 census, regarding national identity, four of the six traditional counties had an Irish plurality and two had a British plurality. Religion At the 2021 census, 42.3% of the population identified as Roman Catholic, 37.3% as Protestant/other Christian, 1.3% as other religions, while 17.4% identified with no religion or did not state one. The biggest of the Protestant/other Christian denominations were the Presbyterian Church (16.6%), the Church of Ireland (11.5%) and the Methodist Church (2.3%). At the 2011 census, 41.5% of the population identified as Protestant/other Christian, 41% as Roman Catholic, 0.8% as other religions, while 17% identified with no religion or did not state one. In terms of background (i.e. religion or religion brought up in), at the 2021 census 45.7% of the population came from a Catholic background, 43.5% from a Protestant background, 1.5% from other religious backgrounds, and 5.6% from non-religious backgrounds. This was the first time since Northern Ireland's creation that there were more people from a Catholic background than Protestant. At the 2011 census, 48% came from a Protestant background, 45% from a Catholic background, 0.9% from other religious backgrounds, and 5.6% from non-religious backgrounds. In recent censuses, respondents gave their religious identity or religious upbringing as follows: As of the 2021 census, regarding religious background, four of the six traditional counties had a Catholic majority, one had a Protestant plurality, and one had a Protestant majority. Several studies and surveys carried out between 1971 and 2006 have indicated that, in general, most Protestants in Northern Ireland see themselves primarily as British, whereas most Catholics see themselves primarily as Irish. This does not, however, account for the complex identities within Northern Ireland, given that many of the population regard themselves as "Ulster" or "Northern Irish", either as a primary or secondary identity. A 2008 survey found that 57% of Protestants described themselves as British, while 32% identified as Northern Irish, 6% as Ulster, and 4% as Irish. Compared to a similar survey in 1998, this shows a fall in the percentage of Protestants identifying as British and Ulster and a rise in those identifying as Northern Irish. The 2008 survey found that 61% of Catholics described themselves as Irish, with 25% identifying as Northern Irish, 8% as British, and 1% as Ulster. These figures were largely unchanged from the 1998 results. People born in Northern Ireland are, with some exceptions, deemed by UK law to be citizens of the United Kingdom. They are also, with similar exceptions, entitled to be citizens of Ireland. This entitlement was reaffirmed in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement between the British and Irish governments, which provides that: ...it is the birthright of all the people of Northern Ireland to identify themselves and be accepted as Irish or British, or both, as they may so choose, and accordingly [the two governments] confirm that their right to hold both British and Irish citizenship is accepted by both Governments and would not be affected by any future change in the status of Northern Ireland. As a result of the Agreement, the Constitution of the Republic of Ireland was amended. The current wording provides that people born in Northern Ireland are entitled to be Irish citizens on the same basis as people from any other part of the island. Neither government, however, extends its citizenship to all persons born in Northern Ireland. Both governments exclude some people born in Northern Ireland, in particular persons born without one parent who is a British or Irish citizen. The Irish restriction was given effect by the twenty-seventh amendment to the Irish Constitution in 2004. The position in UK nationality law is that most of those born in Northern Ireland are UK nationals, whether or not they so choose. Renunciation of British citizenship requires the payment of a fee, currently £372. In recent censuses, residents said they held the following passports: Languages Irish is an official language of Northern Ireland as of 6 December 2022 when the Irish Language Act (Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Act 2022) became law. The Irish Language Act officially repealed legislation from 1737 that banned the use of Irish in courts. English is a de facto official language. English is also spoken as a first language by 95.4% of the Northern Ireland population. Under the Good Friday Agreement, Irish and Ulster Scots (an Ulster dialect of the Scots language, sometimes known as Ullans), are recognised as "part of the cultural wealth of Northern Ireland". The Irish Language Act of 2022 also legislated commissioners for both Irish and Ulster Scots. Two all-island bodies for the promotion of these were created under the Agreement: Foras na Gaeilge, which promotes the Irish language, and the Ulster Scots Agency, which promotes the Ulster-Scots dialect and culture. These operate separately under the aegis of the North/South Language Body, which reports to the North/South Ministerial Council. The UK Government in 2001 ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Irish (in Northern Ireland) was specified under Part III of the Charter, with a range of specific undertakings about education, translation of statutes, interaction with public authorities, the use of placenames, media access, support for cultural activities, and other matters. A lower level of recognition was accorded to Ulster-Scots, under Part II of the Charter. English According to the 2021 census, in 94.74% of households, all people aged 16 and above spoke English as their main language. The dialect of English spoken in Northern Ireland shows influence from the lowland Scots language. There are supposedly some minute differences in pronunciation between Protestants and Catholics, for instance; the name of the letter h, which Protestants tend to pronounce as "aitch", as in British English, and Catholics tend to pronounce as "haitch", as in Hiberno-English. However, geography is a much more important determinant of dialect than religious background. Irish The Irish language (Irish: an Ghaeilge), or Gaelic, is the second most spoken language in Northern Ireland and is a native language of Ireland. It was spoken predominantly throughout what is now Northern Ireland before the Ulster Plantations in the 17th century and most place names in Northern Ireland are anglicised versions of a Gaelic name. Today, the language is often associated with Irish nationalism (and thus with Catholics). However, in the 19th century, the language was seen as a common heritage, with Ulster Protestants playing a leading role in the Gaelic revival. In the 2021 census, 12.4% (compared with 10.7% in 2011) of the population of Northern Ireland claimed "some knowledge of Irish" and 3.9% (compared with 3.7% in 2011) reported being able to "speak, read, write and understand" Irish. In another survey, from 1999, 1% of respondents said they spoke it as their main language at home. The dialect spoken in Northern Ireland, Ulster Irish, has two main types, East Ulster Irish and Donegal Irish (or West Ulster Irish), is the one closest to Scottish Gaelic (which developed into a separate language from Irish Gaelic in the 17th century). Some words and phrases are shared with Scots Gaelic, and the dialects of east Ulster – those of Rathlin Island and the Glens of Antrim – were very similar to the dialect of Argyll, the part of Scotland nearest to Ireland. The dialects of Armagh and Down were also very similar to the dialects of Galloway. The use of the Irish language in Northern Ireland today is politically sensitive. The erection by some district councils of bilingual street names in both English and Irish, invariably in predominantly nationalist districts, is resisted by unionists who claim that it creates a "chill factor" and thus harms community relationships. Efforts by members of the Northern Ireland Assembly to legislate for some official uses of the language have failed to achieve the required cross-community support. In May 2022, the UK Government proposed a bill in the House of Lords to make Irish an official language (and support Ulster Scots) in Northern Ireland and to create an Irish Language Commissioner. The bill has since been passed, and received royal assent in December 2022. There has recently been an increase in interest in the language among unionists in East Belfast. Ulster Scots Ulster Scots comprises varieties of the Scots language spoken in Northern Ireland. For a native English speaker, "[Ulster Scots] is comparatively accessible, and even at its most intense can be understood fairly easily with the help of a glossary." Along with the Irish language, the Good Friday Agreement recognised the dialect as part of Northern Ireland's unique culture and the St Andrews Agreement recognised the need to "enhance and develop the Ulster Scots language, heritage and culture". At the time of the 2021 census, approximately 1.1% (compared to 0.9% in 2011) of the population claimed to be able to speak, read, write and understand Ulster-Scots, while 10.4% (compared to 8.1% in 2011) professed to have "some ability". Sign languages The most common sign language in Northern Ireland is Northern Ireland Sign Language (NISL). However, because in the past Catholic families tended to send their deaf children to schools in Dublin where Irish Sign Language (ISL) is commonly used, ISL is still common among many older deaf people from Catholic families. Irish Sign Language (ISL) has some influence from the French family of sign language, which includes American Sign Language (ASL). NISL takes a large component from the British family of sign language (which also includes Auslan) with many borrowings from ASL. It is described as being related to Irish Sign Language at the syntactic level while much of the lexicon is based on British Sign Language (BSL). As of March 2004 the UK Government recognises only British Sign Language and Irish Sign Language as the official sign languages used in Northern Ireland. Education Unlike most areas of the United Kingdom, in the last year of primary school, many children sit entrance examinations for grammar schools. Integrated schools, which attempt to ensure a balance in enrolment between pupils of Protestant, Roman Catholic, and other faiths (or none), are becoming increasingly popular, although Northern Ireland still has a primarily de facto religiously segregated education system. In the primary school sector, 40 schools (8.9% of the total number) are integrated schools and 32 (7.2% of the total number) are Gaelscoileanna (Irish language-medium schools). As with the island of Ireland as a whole, Northern Ireland has one of the youngest populations in Europe and, among the four UK nations, it has the highest proportion of children aged under 16 years (21% in mid-2019). In the most recent full academic year (2021–2022), the region's school education system comprised 1,124 schools (of all types) and around 346,000 pupils, including: 796 primary schools with 172,000 pupils; 192 post-primary schools with 152,000 pupils; 126 non-grammar post-primary schools with 86,000 pupils; 66 grammar schools with 65,000 pupils; 94 nursery schools with 5,800 pupils; 39 special schools with 6,600 pupils (specifically for children with special educational needs); and 14 independent schools with 700 children. Enrolments in further and higher education were as follows (in 2019–2020) before disruption to enrolments and classes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic: six regional further education colleges with 132,000 students; two universities – Queen's University Belfast and Ulster University – with 53,000 students; two teacher training colleges – Stranmillis University College and St Mary's University College, Belfast – with 2,200 students; the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise with 1,700 students on three campuses; and the Open University with 4,200 students. Statistics on education in Northern Ireland are published by the Department of Education and the Department for the Economy. The main universities in Northern Ireland are Queen's University Belfast and Ulster University, and the distance learning Open University which has a regional office in Belfast. Health care Since 1948 Northern Ireland has a health care system similar to England, Scotland and Wales, though it provides not only health care, but also social care. Health care performance has been decreasing since the mid-2010s and reached crisis levels since 2022. Economy Northern Ireland traditionally had an industrial economy, most notably featuring shipbuilding, rope manufacture, and textiles. In 2019, 53% of GVA was generated by services, 22% by the public sector, 15% by production, 8% by construction and 2% by agriculture. Belfast is the United Kingdom's second largest tech hub outside of London with more than 25% of their jobs being technology related. Many established multinational tech companies such as Fujitsu, SAP, IBM and Microsoft have a presence here. It is regarded an appealing place to live for tech professionals and has a low cost of living compared to other cities. In 2019 Northern Ireland welcomed 5.3m visitors, who spent over £1billion. A total of 167 cruise ships docked at Northern Ireland ports in 2019. Tourism in recent years has been a major growth area with key attractions including the Giants Causeway and the many castles in the region with the historic towns and cities of Belfast, Derry, Armagh and Enniskillen being popular with tourists. Entertainment venues include the SSE Arena, Waterfront Hall, the Grand Opera House and Custom House Square. Tourists use various means of transport around Northern Ireland such as vehicle hire, guided tours, taxi tours, electric bikes, electric cars and public transport. Belfast currently has an 81-acre shipyard which was purposely developed to be able to take some of the world's largest vessels. It has the largest dry dock for ships in Europe measuring 556m x 93m and has 106m high cranes, it is ideally situated between the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea. The shipyard can build ships and complete maintenance contracts such as the contracts awarded by P&O and Cunard cruise ships in 2022. Northern Ireland feeds around 10 million people when their population is only 1.8 million. The predominant activity on Northern Ireland farms in 2022 was cattle and sheep. 79 per cent of farms in Northern Ireland have some cattle, 38 per cent have some sheep. Over three-quarters of farms in Northern Ireland are very small, in 2022 there were 26,089 farms in Northern Ireland with approximately one million hectares of land farmed. Northern Ireland is in a unique position where it can sell goods to the rest of the United Kingdom and the European Union tariff-free, free from customs declarations, rules of origin certificates and non-tariff barriers on the sale of goods to both regions. Below is a comparison of the goods being sold and purchased between Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom, compared with the goods being exported and imported between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Infrastructure and transportation Northern Ireland has underdeveloped transport infrastructure, with most infrastructure concentrated around Greater Belfast, Greater Derry, and Craigavon. Northern Ireland is served by three airports—Belfast International near Antrim, George Best Belfast City integrated into the railway network at Sydenham in East Belfast, and City of Derry in County Londonderry. There are upgrade plans to transform the railway network in Northern Ireland including new lines from Derry to Portadown and Belfast to Newry, though it will take the best part of 25 years to deliver. There are major seaports at Larne and Belfast which carry passengers and freight between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Passenger railways are operated by NI Railways. With Iarnród Éireann (Irish Rail), NI Railways co-operates in providing the joint Enterprise service between Dublin Connolly and Belfast Grand Central. The whole of Ireland has a mainline railway network with a gauge of 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm), which is unique in Europe and has resulted in distinct rolling stock designs. The only preserved line of this gauge on the island is the Downpatrick and County Down Railway, which operates heritage steam and diesel locomotives. Main railway lines linking to and from Belfast Grand Central Station and Lanyon Place railway station are: The Derry Line and the Portrush Branch. The Larne Line The Bangor Line The Newry/Portadown Line The Derry line is the busiest single-track railway line in the United Kingdom, carrying 3 million passengers per annum, the Derry-Londonderry Line has also been described by Michael Palin as "one of the most beautiful rail journeys in the world". Main motorways are: M1 connecting Belfast to the south and west, ending in Dungannon M2 connecting Belfast to the north. An unconnected section of the M2 also by-passes Ballymena Additional short motorway spurs include: M12 connecting the M1 to Portadown M22 connecting the M2 to near Randalstown M3 connecting the M1 (via the A12) and M2 in Belfast with the A2 dual carriageway to Bangor M5 connecting Belfast to Newtownabbey The cross-border road connecting the ports of Larne in Northern Ireland and Rosslare Harbour in the Republic of Ireland is being upgraded as part of an EU-funded scheme. European route E01 runs from Larne through the island of Ireland, Spain, and Portugal to Seville. Culture Northern Ireland shares both the culture of Ulster and the culture of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland has witnessed rising numbers of tourists. Attractions include concert venues, cultural festivals, musical and artistic traditions, countryside and geographical sites of interest, public houses, welcoming hospitality, and sports (especially golf and fishing). Since 1987 public houses have been allowed to open on Sundays, despite some opposition. Parades are a prominent feature of Northern Ireland society, more so than in the rest of Ireland or the United Kingdom. Most are held by Protestant fraternities such as the Orange Order, and Ulster loyalist marching bands. Each summer, during the "marching season", these groups have hundreds of parades, deck streets with British flags, bunting and specially-made arches, and light large towering bonfires in the "Eleventh Night" celebrations. The biggest parades are held on 12 July (The Twelfth). There is often tension when these activities take place near Catholic neighbourhoods, which sometimes leads to violence. The Ulster Cycle is a large body of prose and verse centring on the traditional heroes of the Ulaid in what is now eastern Ulster. This is one of the four major cycles of Irish mythology. The cycle centres on the reign of Conchobar mac Nessa, who is said to have been the king of Ulster around the 1st century. He ruled from Emain Macha (now Navan Fort near Armagh), and had a fierce rivalry with queen Medb and king Ailill of Connacht and their ally, Fergus mac Róich, former king of Ulster. The foremost hero of the cycle is Conchobar's nephew Cúchulainn, who features in the epic prose/poem An Táin Bó Cúailnge (The Cattle Raid of Cooley, a casus belli between Ulster and Connaught). Symbols Northern Ireland comprises a patchwork of communities whose national loyalties are represented in some areas by flags flown from flagpoles or lamp posts. The Union Jack and the former Northern Ireland flag are flown in many loyalist areas, and the Tricolour, adopted by republicans as the flag of Ireland in 1916, is flown in some republican areas. Even kerbstones in some areas are painted red-white-blue or green-white-orange, depending on whether local people express unionist/loyalist or nationalist/republican sympathies. The official flag is that of the state having sovereignty over the territory, i.e. the Union Flag. The former Northern Ireland flag, also known as the "Ulster Banner" or "Red Hand Flag", is a banner derived from the coat of arms of the Government of Northern Ireland until 1972. Since 1972, it has had no official status. The Union Flag and the Ulster Banner are used exclusively by unionists. The UK flags policy states that in Northern Ireland, "The Ulster flag and the Cross of St Patrick have no official status and, under the Flags Regulations, are not permitted to be flown from Government Buildings." The Irish Rugby Football Union and the Church of Ireland have used the Saint Patrick's Saltire or "Cross of St Patrick". This red saltire on a white field was used to represent Ireland in the flag of the United Kingdom. It is still used by some British Army regiments. Foreign flags are also found, such as the Palestinian flags in some nationalist areas and Israeli flags in some unionist areas. The United Kingdom national anthem of "God Save the King" is often played at state events in Northern Ireland. At the Commonwealth Games and some other sporting events, the Northern Ireland team uses the Ulster Banner as its flag—notwithstanding its lack of official status—and the Londonderry Air (usually set to lyrics as Danny Boy), which also has no official status, as its national anthem. The Northern Ireland national football team also uses the Ulster Banner as its flag but uses "God Save The King" as its anthem. Major Gaelic Athletic Association matches are opened by the national anthem of the Republic of Ireland, "Amhrán na bhFiann (The Soldier's Song)", which is also used by most other all-Ireland sporting organisations. Since 1995, the Ireland rugby union team has used a specially commissioned song, "Ireland's Call" as the team's anthem. The Irish national anthem is also played at Dublin home matches, being the anthem of the host country. Northern Irish murals have become well-known features of Northern Ireland, depicting past and present events and documenting peace and cultural diversity. Almost 2,000 murals have been documented in Northern Ireland since the 1970s. Media and communications The BBC has a division called BBC Northern Ireland with headquarters in Belfast and operates BBC One Northern Ireland and BBC Two Northern Ireland. As well as broadcasting standard UK-wide programmes, BBC NI produces local content, including a news break-out called BBC Newsline. The ITV franchise in Northern Ireland is UTV. The state-owned Channel 4 and the privately owned Channel 5 also broadcast in Northern Ireland. Access is also available to satellite and cable services. All Northern Ireland viewers must obtain a UK TV licence to watch live television transmissions or use BBC iPlayer. RTÉ, the national broadcaster of the Republic of Ireland, is available over the air to most parts of Northern Ireland via reception overspill of the Republic's Saorview service, or via satellite and cable. Since the digital TV switchover, RTÉ One, RTÉ2 and the Irish-language channel TG4, are now available over the air on the UK's Freeview system from transmitters within Northern Ireland. Although they are transmitted in standard definition, a Freeview HD box or television is required for reception. As well as the standard UK-wide radio stations from the BBC, Northern Ireland is home to many local radio stations, such as Cool FM, Q Radio, Downtown Radio and U105. The BBC has two regional radio stations which broadcast in Northern Ireland, BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Foyle. Besides the UK and Irish national newspapers, there are three main regional newspapers published in Northern Ireland. These are the Belfast Telegraph, The Irish News and The News Letter. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations (UK) the average daily circulation for these three titles in 2018 was: Northern Ireland uses the same telecommunications and postal services as the rest of the United Kingdom at standard domestic rates and there are no mobile roaming charges between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. People in Northern Ireland who live close to the border with the Republic of Ireland may inadvertently switch over to the Irish mobile networks, causing international roaming fees to be applied. Calls from landlines in Northern Ireland to numbers in the Republic of Ireland are charged at the same rate as those to numbers in Great Britain, while landline numbers in Northern Ireland can similarly be called from the Republic of Ireland at domestic rates, using the 048 prefix. Sports Many sports are organised on an all-Ireland basis, with a single governing body or team for the whole island. The most notable exception is association football (soccer), which has a separate governing body, league and national team for Northern Ireland. The Irish Football Association (IFA) serves as the organising body for men's domestic and national association football in Northern Ireland, it is a member of the International Football Association Board which sets the rules for association football. The NIWFA are responsible for women's domestic and national association football in Northern Ireland. The NIFL Premiership is a professional men's football league which operates at the highest division of the Northern Ireland Football League, the current format has been organised with 12 clubs. The winners will enter the first qualifying round of the Champions League, if they do not progress they will enter the Europa League or Europa Conference League depending on performance. The two runners-up progress to the Europa Conference League with play-offs for another Europa Conference League position. The NLFL Women's Premiership is a professional women's football league which operates at the highest division in Northern Ireland with 10 clubs. The winner qualifies for a spot in the UEFA Women's Champions League. The men's Northern Ireland national football team qualified for the 1958 FIFA World Cup, 1982 FIFA World Cup and 1986 FIFA World Cup, making it to the quarter-finals in 1958 and 1982 and made it the first knockout round in the European Championships in 2016. The IRFU is the governing body for the sport of Rugby Union on the island of Ireland (Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland). Rugby in Northern Ireland is run within the historic province of Ulster which includes Northern Ireland plus 3 counties from the Republic of Ireland - Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan. The Ireland national rugby league team has participated in the Emerging Nations Tournament (1995), the Super League World Nines (1996), the World Cup (2000, 2008, 2013, 2017, 2021), European Nations Cup (since 2003) and Victory Cup (2004). The Ireland A rugby league team competes annually in the Amateur Four Nations competition (since 2002) and the St Patrick's Day Challenge (since 1995). The Ireland cricket team represents both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. It is a full member of the International Cricket Council, having been granted Test status and full membership by the ICC in June 2017. The side competes in Test cricket, the highest level of competitive cricket in the international arena, and is one of the 12 full-member countries of the ICC. Ireland men's side has played in the Cricket World Cup and T20 World Cup and has won the ICC Intercontinental Cup four times. The women's side has played in the Women's World Cup. One of the men's side's regular international venues is Stormont in Belfast. The governing body for golf on the island of Ireland is Golf Ireland, it is the successor to the Golfing Union of Ireland, governing body for men's and boy's amateur golf, and the oldest golfing union in the world, which was founded in Belfast in 1891, and the Irish Ladies Golf Union. Northern Ireland's golf courses include the Royal Belfast Golf Club (the earliest, formed in 1881), Royal Portrush Golf Club, which is the only course outside Great Britain to have hosted The Open Championship, and Royal County Down Golf Club (Golf Digest magazine's top-rated course outside the United States). Northern Ireland had three major champions in the space of just 14 months from the U.S. Open in 2010 to The Open Championship in 2011. Notable golfers include Fred Daly (winner of The Open in 1947), Ryder Cup players Ronan Rafferty and David Feherty, leading European Tour professionals David Jones, Michael Hoey (a five-time winner on the tour) and Gareth Maybin, as well as three recent major winners Graeme McDowell (winner of the U.S. Open in 2010, the first European to do so since 1970), Rory McIlroy (winner of four majors) and Darren Clarke (winner of The Open in 2011). Northern Ireland has also contributed several players to the Great Britain and Ireland Walker Cup team, including Alan Dunbar and Paul Cutler who played on the victorious 2011 team in Scotland. Dunbar also won The Amateur Championship in 2012, at Royal Troon. See also List of Ulster-related topics Outline of Northern Ireland Outline of the United Kingdom Notes References Sources Lynch, Robert (2019). The Partition of Ireland: 1918–1925. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1107007734. Further reading Jonathan Bardon, A History of Ulster (Blackstaff Press, Belfast, 1992), ISBN 0-85640-476-4 Brian E. Barton, The Government of Northern Ireland, 1920–1923 (Athol Books, 1980) Paul Bew, Peter Gibbon and Henry Patterson The State in Northern Ireland, 1921–72: Political Forces and Social Classes, Manchester (Manchester University Press, 1979) Tony Geraghty (2000). The Irish War. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-7117-7. Robert Kee, The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism (Penguin, 1972–2000), ISBN 0-14-029165-2 Osborne Morton, Marine Algae of Northern Ireland (Ulster Museum, Belfast, 1994), ISBN 0-900761-28-8 Henry Patterson, Ireland Since 1939: The Persistence of Conflict (Penguin, 2006), ISBN 978-1-84488-104-8 P. Hackney (ed.) Stewart's and Corry's Flora of the North-east of Ireland 3rd edn. (Institute of Irish Studies, Queen's University of Belfast, 1992), ISBN 0-85389-446-9(HB) External links Northern Ireland Executive (Northern Ireland devolved government) Discover Northern Ireland (Northern Ireland Tourist Board) Geographic data related to Northern Ireland at OpenStreetMap

Who was the King of Siam during the 6th deadliest single-day terrorist attack in U.S. history?

King Prajadhipok

Tabular reasoning | Temporal reasoning

In the United States, a common definition of terrorism is the systematic or threatened use of violence in order to create a general climate of fear to intimidate a population or government and thereby effect political, religious, or ideological change. This article serves as a list and a compilation of acts of terrorism, attempts to commit acts of terrorism, and other such items which pertain to terrorist activities which are engaged in by non-state actors or spies who are acting in the interests of state actors or persons who are acting without the approval of foreign governments within the domestic borders of the United States. During the American Civil War, pro-Confederate Bushwhackers and pro-Union Jayhawkers in Missouri and Kansas respectively engaged in cross border raids, committed acts of violence against civilians and soldiers, stole goods and burned down farms. The most infamous event occurred in Lawrence, Kansas on August 21, 1863, when Quantrill's Raiders led by William Quantrill ransacked the town and murdered about 190 civilians because of the town's anti-slavery sentiment. Other acts of terrorism occurred during the war included the 1863 Chesapeake Affair and the 1864 St. Albans Raid, the former being committed by British subjects. Since the end of the Civil War, organized groups or lone wolf white supremacists have committed many acts of domestic terrorism against African-Americans. This form of terrorism has consisted of lynchings, hate crimes, shootings, bombings and other acts of violence. Such acts of violence overwhelmingly occurred in the Southern United States, and they included acts of violence which were committed by the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). White supremacist terrorist incidents include the Tulsa race massacre of 1921, the Rosewood massacre of 1923, and the Wilmington insurrection of 1898. On November 19, 2019, according to remarks which were made by Matthew Alcoke, Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI Counterterrorism Division, Alcoke defines domestic terrorists as "individuals who commit violent criminal acts in furtherance of ideological goals stemming from domestic issues." Although acts of violence by domestic extremists consistently meet the definition, no US criminal charge for domestic terror exists. Rather, the phrase is an FBI investigative category which is used to classify four types of extremism: "racially motivated violent extremism, anti-government/anti-authority extremism, animal rights/environmental extremism, and abortion extremism." A 2017 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that out of the 85 deadly extremist incidents which had occurred since September 11, 2001, white supremacist extremist groups were responsible for 73%, while radical Islamist extremists were responsible for 27%. The total number of deaths which was caused by each group was about the same. However, 41% of the deaths were attributable to radical Islamists and they all occurred in a single event — the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting in which 49 people were killed by a lone gunman. No deaths were attributed to left-wing groups. A 2017 report by Type Media Center and The Center for Investigative Reporting analyzed a list of the terrorist incidents which occurred in the US between 2008 and 2016 and included the 2014 killings of NYPD officers and the 2016 shooting of Dallas police officers (a total of seven deaths saying that they could "plausibly be attributed to a perpetrator with such sympathies"). In 2018, most ideologically motivated murders in the United States of America were linked to right-wing extremism. As of 2020, right-wing extremist terrorism accounted for the majority of terrorist attacks and plots in the US and has killed more people in the continental United States since the September 11 attacks than Islamic terrorism. The United States Department of Homeland Security reported in October 2020 that white supremacists posed the top domestic terrorism threat, which FBI director Christopher Wray confirmed in March 2021, noting that the bureau had elevated the threat to the same level as ISIS. Totals in the U.S. A 2017 report by The Nation Institute and the Center for Investigative Reporting analyzed a list of the terrorist incidents which occurred in the US between 2008 and 2016. It found: 115 far-right inspired terrorist incidents. 35% of these incidents were foiled (this number means that no terrorist attacks occurred) and 29% of them resulted in fatalities. These incidents caused 79 deaths. 63 Islamist inspired terrorist incidents. 76% of these terrorist incidents were foiled (this number means that no terrorist attacks occurred) and 13% of them resulted in fatalities. These incidents caused 90 deaths. 19 far-left inspired terrorist incidents. 20% of these terrorist incidents were foiled (this number means that no terrorist attacks occurred) and 10% of them resulted in fatalities. Two of these incidents were described as "plausibly" attributed to a perpetrator with left-wing sympathies and caused 7 deaths. These are not included in the official government database. According to a report which is based on Justice Department figures which were released by the U.S. government in January 2018, about three out of four people who were convicted on charges of international terrorism between September 11, 2001, to December 31, 2016, were foreign-born. According to the Justice Department, 549 people were convicted on charges of international terrorism, including 254 people who were citizens of other countries, 148 people were naturalized citizens and 148 people were natural-born-citizens. In a speech which he made before a joint session of Congress on February 28, 2017, President Donald Trump incorrectly attributed these findings to domestic terrorism, in actuality, these findings were based on cases in which international terrorists may have been brought to the United States for prosecution. In 2015, the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security and the Police Executive Research Forum conducted a nationwide survey of 382 police and sheriff departments. Nearly 74% of respondents stated that anti-government violence was their top concern with regard to threats from violent extremists, while about 39% of respondents stated that "Al Qaeda-inspired" violence was their top concern. For the past decade, the national conversation on terrorism has largely focused on Islamic extremist acts, however, law enforcement groups have made it clear that Muslim extremists perpetrate a minute percentage of the ideologically based terrorist attacks which are perpetrated in the United States. Since November 9, 2001, only about 9 American Muslims per year have taken part in terrorist plots in the United States, in total, 20 incidents resulted in about 50 deaths. A 2012 study showed that in about the same time period right-wing extremists were responsible for about 337 attacks per year, in total, they killed more than 5 times the number of people killed by Muslims in the United States. The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism maintains Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States, a database which contains over 1,800 profiles of individuals who have been radicalized by ideologies since 1948. The database shows that from 1948 through 2016, 40.0% of identified extremists were far-right, 24.5% of identified extremists were Islamist and 17.4% of identified extremists were far-left, while 18.2% of identified extremists were "single issue" individuals. In May 2019 and for the first time in its history, the FBI identified fringe conspiracy theories as a potential source of domestic terrorism, it specifically cited QAnon. A June 2020 study of domestic terrorist incidents by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) reported that during the previous 25 years, the majority of attacks and plots were perpetrated and hatched by far-right attackers. This trend has accelerated in recent years, with this sector being responsible for about 66% of all of the attacks and plots which were perpetrated in 2019, and it was also responsible for 90% of all of those attacks which were perpetrated in 2020. The next most potentially dangerous group has been "religious extremists", the majority "Salafi jihadists inspired by the Islamic State and al-Qaeda", while the number planned by the far left has reduced to a minute fraction since the mid-2000s. In October 2020, the Department of Homeland Security released the Homeland Threat Assessment, a report detailing various domestic threats to US national security. It states that, out of all domestic terror attacks resulting in lethal threats to life between 2018 and 2019, "WSEs [white supremacist extremists] conducted half of all lethal attacks (8 of 16), resulting in the majority of deaths (39 of 48)". Attacks by type Anti-abortion violence Since 1997, there have been 8 murders, 17 attempted murders, 42 bombings, and 186 arson attacks aimed at abortion clinics and multiple providers across the US. In some cases small groups of clinics have been attacked multiple times. 1993: David Gunn was murdered by anti-abortion activist Michael F. Griffin 1994: Abortion provider John Britton and James Barrett (both killed) and his wife June (shot but not killed) became victims of Reverend Paul Jennings Hill. 1996–1998: anti-abortion extremist Eric Rudolph cited biblical passages as his motivation for a series of bombings, including Atlanta's Olympic Centennial Park, a lesbian bar, and several abortion clinics. Rudolph acknowledges his attacks were religiously motivated, but denies that his brief association with the racist Christian Identity movement was a motivation for his attacks. 1996: Dr. Calvin Jackson of New Orleans, Louisiana was stabbed 15 times, losing 4 pints of blood. Donald Cooper was charged with second degree attempted murder and was sentenced to 20 years. "Donald Cooper's Day of Violence", by Kara Lowentheil, Choice! Magazine, December 21, 2004 1998: James Kopp killed at least one and went on a series of anti-abortion shooting sprees, both in the U.S. and Canada. 2006: David McMenemy of Rochester Hills, Michigan, crashed his car into the Edgerton Women's Care Center in Davenport, Iowa. He then doused the lobby in gasoline and started a fire. McMenemy committed these acts in the belief that the center was performing abortions; however, Edgerton is not an abortion clinic. Time magazine listed the incident in a "Top 10 Inept Terrorist Plots" list. 2009: Anti-abortion activist Scott Roeder killed George Tiller in Kansas. 2015: Robert Lewis Dear killed three people in a shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado. At his court hearings Dear declared himself a "warrior for the babies". Antisemitism October 12, 1958: Bombing of the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple of Atlanta, Georgia. The acts were carried out by white supremacists. June 18, 1984: Alan Berg, a Jewish lawyer-talk show host was shot and killed in the driveway of his home on Capitol Hill, Denver, Colorado, by members of a neo-Nazi group called The Order. Earlier and on the show, Berg had stridently argued with a member of the group who was later convicted of his murder. 1977 Washington, D.C. attack and hostage taking of Jewish hostages at the B'nai B'rith by members of a black Muslim group that had split away from the Nation of Islam. August 10, 1999: Los Angeles Jewish Community Center shooting in Granada Hills, California of Los Angeles. 5 people were wounded in the Jewish community center and its daycare facility. The gunman, Buford O. Furrow had antisemitic and anti-government views. Shortly thereafter, Furrow murdered a mail carrier, fled the state, and finally surrendered to authorities. June 10, 2009: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum shooting: 88-year-old James Wenneker von Brunn, a white supremacist and neo-Nazi, walked into the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., shooting and mortally wounding Stephen Tyrone Johns, a security guard. Von Brunn was wounded when other museum guards immediately returned fire and on January 6, 2010, while he was awaiting trial, von Brunn died of natural causes in a hospital which was located near the prison where he was being held. During the investigation it was discovered that von Brunn had planned to target White House senior adviser David Axelrod leading to increased protection for Axelrod and other steps. April 13, 2014: Overland Park Jewish Community Center shooting: 3 killed and 1 critically injured in shootings at Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City and Village Shalom in Overland Park, Kansas. Suspect is 74-year-old Frazier Glenn Miller, Jr. On April 27, 2015, Miller told the Associated Press that he planned to plead guilty and he also stated that his motivation was to "put the Jews on trial where they belong". January 10, 2018: Murder of Blaze Bernstein: A 19 year old gay Jewish student from the University of Pennsylvania was killed by a former classmate and member of the neo-Nazi terrorist organization Atomwaffen Division in Orange County, California. October 27, 2018: Pittsburgh synagogue shooting: A mass shooting occurred at Tree of Life – Or L'Simcha Congregation in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on October 27, 2018, while a service was being held. Eleven people were killed, and six were injured. The sole suspect, 46-year-old Robert Gregory Bowers, was arrested and charged with 29 federal crimes and 36 state crimes. April 27, 2019: Poway synagogue shooting: A 19 year old nursing student, inspired by the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and the Christchurch mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, announced his plans to shoot up the synagogue on 8chan by posting an open letter. One woman was killed, and three were injured. Environmental terrorism University of Washington firebombing incident 1989 California medfly attack Islamic extremism September 11, 2001: (New York City): Hijackers take control of two commercial jets containing passengers and fuel, flying them into the World Trade Center, killing hundreds on impact and an additional 2,606 when the towers subsequently collapsed. More than 6,000 people were injured. (Arlington County, Virginia): 5 Hijackers fly a Boeing 757-223 containing 53 passengers and 6 crew into the Pentagon, killing all 64 aboard and an additional 125 people on the ground. (Stonycreek Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania): 33 passengers and 7 crew are killed after attempting to regain control from four hijackers that planned to fly the Boeing 757 into either the U.S. Capitol building or the White House. All 44 occupants died on impact after hijackers forced the plane into a nose dive. June 1, 2009: Little Rock recruiting office shooting, (Little Rock, AR): A man shoots a local soldier to death inside a recruiting center explicitly in the name of Allah. November 5, 2009: Fort Hood shooting, Ft. Hood, Texas: A Muslim psychiatrist guns down thirteen unarmed soldiers while yelling praises to Allah. April 15, 2013: Boston Marathon bombing (Boston, MA): Foreign-born Muslims detonate two bombs packed with ball bearings at the Boston Marathon, killing three people and causing several more to lose limbs. September 25, 2014: Vaughan Foods beheading incident, (Moore, OK): A Sharia advocate beheads a woman after calling for Islamic terror and posting an Islamist beheading photo. July 16, 2015: Chattanooga shootings, Chattanooga, Tennessee: A Muslim commits a shooting spree at a recruiting center at a strip mall and a naval center, leaving five soldiers dead at the latter location. November 4, 2015: University of California, Merced stabbing attack by Islamist extremist December 2, 2015: San Bernardino attack, San Bernardino, California: A couple opens fire at a Christmas party, leaving fourteen dead. January 7, 2016: Shooting of Jesse Hartnett, Philadelphia police officer Jesse Hartnett is ambushed by a gunman who later pledged allegiance to ISIS. February 11, 2016: Ohio restaurant machete attack by Islamist extremist June 12, 2016: Orlando nightclub shooting, Orlando, Florida: Omar Mateen shoots and kills 49 people and injures 58 more at a gay bar, the largest mass shooting in U.S. history at the time. November 28, 2016: Ohio State University attack, Columbus, Ohio: A Somali student, Abdul Artan, who came to the U.S. as a refugee, intentionally rammed a car into pedestrians on a busy campus sidewalk on Monday morning and then began slashing passers-by with a butcher knife, the authorities said, injuring 11 students and faculty and staff members. October 31, 2017: 2017 New York City truck attack, New York City: 29-year-old Sayfullo Habibullaevich Saipov rented a Home Depot pickup truck and intentionally drove it through a bicycle path. He crashed into a school bus and then exited the vehicle wielding look-a-like weapons. He was shot by NYPD. 8 people were killed and 12 were injured. December 6, 2019: Naval Air Station Pensacola shooting, Pensacola, Florida: A second lieutenant of the Saudi Royal Air Force training at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola opened fire in one of the classroom buildings killing 3 and wounding 8 others before being shot dead by responding police officers. May 21, 2020: Corpus Christi, Texas: At the Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Adam Alsahi crashed through a northern perimeter gate at NAS Corpus Christi, activating vehicle barriers. The driver then got out and opened fire before being shot and killed. A Navy police officer was shot but was protected by a ballistic vest. Alsahi had expressed support for terrorist networks including ISIS. The FBI announced the incident as terrorism-related. Left-wing and anti-government extremism September 6, 1901: President William McKinley assassinated by Michigan born Russian-Polish anarchist, Leon Czolgosz, in Buffalo, New York. October 1, 1910: Los Angeles Times bombing. The Los Angeles Times building in Los Angeles was destroyed by dynamite, killing 21 workers. The bomb was apparently placed due to the paper's opposition to unionization of its employees; the McNamara brothers were found guilty. November 24, 1917: A bomb explodes in a Milwaukee police station, killing nine officers and a civilian. Anarchists were suspected. 1919 United States anarchist bombings September 16, 1920: Wall Street bombing 1969–1977: Weather Underground, a radical socialist movement, committed dozens of bombings and other terrorist activities over this time period. List of Weatherman actions August 7, 1969: Twenty were injured by radical leftist Sam Melville in a bombing of the Marine Midland Building in New York City. September 18, 1969: The Federal Building in New York City was bombed by radical leftist Jane Alpert. October 7, 1969: Fifth floor of the Armed Forces Induction Center in New York City was devastated by explosion attributed to radical leftist Jane Alpert. November 12, 1969: A bomb was detonated in the Manhattan Criminal Court building in New York City. Jane Alpert, Sam Melville, and 3 other militant radical leftists were arrested hours later. August 24, 1970: Sterling Hall bombing by anti-war activists, making 1 dead and 3 wounded. 1971–1975: The New World Liberation Front was a radical left-wing group in the San Francisco area in the 1970s that conducted multiple bombings in the Bay area over a 3-year period. They claim nearly 50 successful bombings. March 1, 1971: The radical leftist group Weather Underground exploded a bomb in the United States Capitol to protest the U.S. invasion of Laos. January 2–4, 1973: A bomb exploded at a United States Navy recruiting center in Portland, Oregon and two days later an Army recruiting center in the same city was dynamited by a group of anti-war activists in a conspiracy which included academic and bookseller Frank Stearns Giese. June 13, 1974: The 29th floor of the Gulf Tower in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was bombed with dynamite at 9:41 pm resulting in no injuries. The radical leftist group Weather Underground took credit, but no suspects have ever been identified. May 31, 1975 – 1978: George Jackson Brigade bombings January 26, 1980: The home and car of Nguyen Thanh Hoang, a Vietnamese anti-communist journalist, were firebombed, while Hoang and his family were asleep in Arlington, Virginia. The attack only left several material damages. Prior to the attack, Hoang had received letters urging him to stop his anti-communist propaganda. Additionally, after the incident, two letters which claimed responsibility for the bombings, were signed by a group calling itself the Action Squad. November 7, 1983: U.S. Senate bombing. The Armed Resistance Unit, a militant leftist group, bombed the United States Capitol in response to the U.S. invasion of Grenada. May and June 1984: Earl Steven Karr planted over 20 pipe-bombs all around Minnesota, Illinois and Wisconsin. He was arrested in Mason City, Iowa after a pipe-bomb he was transporting detonated in the trunk of his car. Karr suffered second degree burns in the explosion. Only one person is known to have been injured by his explosives. Karr, a man with mental problems who stated he was a "former homosexual", left notes near the bombs which named the "North Central Gay Strike Force Against Public and Police Oppression" as the responsible party. A motive could not be determined other than a dislike of the towns the bombs were placed in. 19 May 2012: Three men were arrested after a raid an apartment, seized pipe bomb instructions, an improvised mortar made of PVC piping, a crossbow, knives, Shurikens, a map of Chicago and four fire bombs, authorities confirmed. On April 25, 2014, the three men were sentenced to eight to five years in prison, considerably reducing initial penalties of up to thirty years. June 14, 2017: Congressional baseball shooting. James T. Hodgkinson was distraught over the 2016 election of President Donald J. Trump, and opened fire on an Alexandria, Virginia, baseball field where the Republican congressional team was practicing for the following day's Congressional Baseball Game. Majority whip Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana was one of four who were wounded. Hodgkinson was fatally shot by police who arrived at the scene within a few minutes of the shooting. Palestinian and anti-Israel militancy June 5, 1968: Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian with Jordanian citizenship, assassinated Democratic presidential nominee, Robert F. Kennedy, in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California, because of Kennedy's strong support of Israel. Some scholars believe the assassination was one of the first major incidents of political violence in the United States stemming from the Arab–Israeli conflict in the Middle East. March 4, 1973: A failed terrorist attack by Palestinian group Black September, with car bombings in New York City while Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir was visiting the city June 1, 1973: Yosef Alon, the Israeli Air Force attache in Washington, D.C., was shot and killed outside his home in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Palestinian militant group Black September is suspected, though the case remains unsolved. July 1, 1973: In Montgomery County, Maryland, an Israeli diplomat is gunned down in his driveway by Palestinian activist. February 26, 1993 World Trade Center bombing, (New York City): Ramzi Yousef detonates a massive truck bomb under the World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring over 1,000 in an effort to collapse the towers. 1994 Brooklyn Bridge shooting a van filled with Jewish schoolboys to avenge of Cave of the Patriarchs massacre. February 23, 1997: A Palestinian teacher, Ali Hassan Abu Kamal traveled to the top of the Empire State building where he shot seven people before killing himself. January 5, 2002: Charlie J. Bishop stole a Cessna 172, and crashed into the Bank of America Tower in downtown Tampa, Florida. Bishop was the sole fatality and no one else was injured. Bishop wrote a letter, saying that he was inspired by Osama bin Laden and 9/11 and praised the attacks as a "justified response to actions against Palestinians and Iraqis", and was acting on behalf of Al-Qaeda July 4, 2002: Los Angeles International Airport shooting: Two people were killed and four others injured by a terrorist who opened fire at the El Al ticket counter. July 28, 2006: Seattle Jewish Federation shooting, (Seattle, WA): An "angry" Pakistani-American who converted to Christianity uses a young girl as a hostage in an attempt to enter a local Jewish center, where he shoots six women, one of whom dies. Puerto Rican nationalism March 1, 1954: United States Capitol shooting incident. Four Puerto Rican nationalists shoot and wound five members of the United States Congress during an immigration debate. October 14, 1969: The Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN), a Puerto Rican nationalist group, claims responsibility for a small bomb explosion at Macy's Herald Square January 24, 1975: FALN bombs Fraunces Tavern in New York City, killing four and injuring more than 50. December 29, 1975: A bomb set off by FALN in East Harlem, New York, permanently disables a police officer while causing him to lose an eye. August 3, 1977: FALN bombs exploded on the twenty-first floor of 342 Madison Avenue in New York City, which housed United States Department of Defense security personnel, as well as the Mobil Building at 150 East Forty-Second Street, killing one. In addition the group warned that bombs were located in thirteen other buildings, including the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center resulting in the evacuation of one hundred thousand people. Five days later a bomb attributed to the group was found in the AMEX building. May 3, 1979: FALN exploded a bomb outside of the Shubert Theatre in Chicago, injuring five people. March 15, 1980: Armed members of FALN raided the campaign headquarters of President Jimmy Carter in Chicago and the campaign headquarters of George H. W. Bush in New York City. Seven people in Chicago and ten people in New York were tied up as the offices were vandalized before the FALN members fled. A few days later, Carter delegates in Chicago received threatening letters from FALN. May 16, 1981: One was killed in an explosion in the toilets at the Pan Am terminal at New York's JFK airport. The bombing is claimed by the Puerto Rican Resistance Army. December 31, 1982: FALN explodes bombs outside of the 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, Federal Bureau of Investigation Headquarters and a United States courthouse in Brooklyn. Three New York Police Department police officers are blinded with one officer losing both eyes. All three officers sustained other serious injuries trying to defuse a second Federal Plaza bomb. Right-wing and anti-government extremism August 21, 1863: Lawrence Massacre: The Confederate guerrilla group Quantrill's Raiders led by William Quantrill raided and committed a massacre on the Unionist town of Lawrence, Kansas due to the town's long support of abolition, killing about 190 civilians. December 7, 1863: Chesapeake affair: Pro-Confederate British subjects from the Maritime Provinces hijacked the American steamer Chesapeake off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, killing a crew member and wounding three others in the ensuing gunfight. The intent of this hijacking was to use the ship as a blockade runner for the Confederacy under the belief that they had an official Confederate letter of marque. October 19, 1864: St. Albans Raid: Confederate soldiers without proper uniform raided the border town of St. Albans, Vermont from the Province of Canada, robbing $208,000 from three banks, holding hostages, killing a civilian and wounding two others, and attempting to burn the entire town with Greek fire. April 19, 1995: Oklahoma City bombing: A truck bomb destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, killing 168 people. Far-right terrorists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were convicted in the bombing; McVeigh was executed by lethal injection in 2001. July 27, 1996: Centennial Olympic Park bombing by Eric Robert Rudolph occurred in Atlanta, Georgia, during the Atlanta Olympics. One person was killed and 111 injured. In a statement released in 2005 Rudolph said the motive was to protest abortion and the "global socialist" Olympic Movement. July 27, 2008: Knoxville Unitarian Universalist church shooting: Jim David Adkisson enters the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee with a shotgun, killing two and injuring several congregants before being tackled to the ground. Adkisson stated to the police and in a manifesto that he desired to kill Democrats, liberals, African Americans and homosexuals. Adkisson pleaded guilty to the crime in February 2009 and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. November 1, 2013: 2013 Los Angeles International Airport shooting: 23-year-old Paul Ciancia kills a Transportation Security Administration agent and wounds 7 others, 3 of them TSA agents. Ciancia was shot and taken into custody. A note found in Ciancia's pocket said he believed he was a "patriot" upset at former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and that he wanted to kill "TSA and pigs". March 14, 2014: Robert James Talbot Jr, from Katy, Texas was arrested,after a nearly eight-month operation by the FBI, Secret Service, Houston Police and Harris Sheriff's Office, investigated after creating a Facebook page called "American Insurgent Movement", with the aim of recruiting five of six persons for tried to theft of a stock car and banks, and start a ring of attacks against government buildings and law enforcements in the Greater Houston zone. June 8, 2014: 2014 Las Vegas shootings: Two Las Vegas police officers while eating pizza in a restaurant and one civilian were shot to death by Jerad and Amanda Miller, a married couple, in a suicide attack. A Gadsden flag, swastika and a note promising "revolution," was placed on the deceased officers bodies. The couple were thrown out of a patriot group defending rancher Cliven Bundy. The Millers were both killed in a shootout with police on the same day. October 22 – November 1, 2018: October 2018 United States mail bombing attempts: At least twelve confirmed packages containing pipe bombs were mailed within the U.S. Postal Service system to several prominent critics of U.S. President Donald Trump, including various Democratic Party politicians (Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Eric Holder, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Maxine Waters, Cory Booker), actor Robert De Niro, billionaire investor George Soros, former CIA Director John O. Brennan, and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. On October 26, a 56-year-old man named Cesar Altieri Sayoc Jr. was arrested by authorities in Plantation, Florida in connection with the explosive devices. The suspect has a criminal history. A white van covered in stickers (several showing support for Donald Trump) was also seized by authorities. January 6, 2021: Supporters of President Donald Trump, some of whom were armed, stormed the Capitol building after a rally held in Washington D.C by the President, his sons, and his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani. They broke through barriers, broke down doors, smashed through windows, and stole public property. The supporters obtained access to the Senate Floor, balconies, and offices; and sat at the Senate President's desk. White nationalism and white supremacy June 1, 1921: The Tulsa race massacre, the destruction of the city's prosperous African-American community by white supremacists. The European-American authorities tolerated and frequently participated in the destruction of the Greenwood District, the wealthy area of Black-owned businesses which was known as "Black Wall Street". Airplanes were reported to have dropped incendiary devices on the city, contributing to a firestorm. 1951: Wave of hate related terrorist attacks in Florida. As well as Black people being dragged and beaten to death, there were 11 race related bombings, dynamiting of synagogues and a Jewish School in Miami. Explosives were found outside Catholic churches in Miami. 1963: The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was a terrorist bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama on September 15, 1963. The bombing was committed by a white supremacist terrorist group. 1988: Frazier Glenn Miller Jr. a Vietnam War veteran and the founder of the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan/White Patriot Party in the early 1980s served three years in Federal penitentiary for trying to assassinate Morris Dees founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center. The FBI found a cache of weapons in his home after they used tear gas to drive him out and arrest him. He testified against 14 White Supremacists as part of a plea bargain deal. January 17, 2011: 2011 Spokane bombing attempt: Kevin William Harpham attempted to bomb a Martin Luther King Day parade in Spokane, Washington but failed. August 5, 2012: Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting: Wade Michael Page killed six people at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin before being killed by police officers. During the investigation of the crime, police found out that Page was a member of white supremacist and neo-Nazi organizations such as the Hammerskin Nation/Hammerskins. The police concluded that racism and ethnic hatred was the main cause of the murders. April 13, 2014: Overland Park Jewish Community Center shooting: Klansman and Neo-Nazi Frazier Glenn Miller killed three people at Jewish community centers in Overland Park, Kansas. June 17, 2015: Charleston church shooting: Dylann Roof carried out a mass shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. The church is one of the United States' oldest black churches and has long been a site for community organization around civil rights. Nine people were killed, including the senior pastor, Clementa C. Pinckney, a state senator. A tenth victim was also shot, but survived. The FBI has not officially classified the act as terrorism, which was met with controversy. March 20, 2017: Murder of Timothy Caughman: James Harris Jackson, a 28-year-old War in Afghanistan veteran, traveled to New York City from his hometown of Baltimore with the intention of killing black men there. Three days after arriving at New York City, Jackson stabbed Caughman, a black man, to death with an 18-inch sword. He then turned himself in to authorities. Jackson was charged with one count each of murder in the first and second degrees as an act of terrorism, second-degree murder as a hate crime, and three counts of criminal possession of a weapon. August 12, 2017: 2017 Charlottesville attack: James Alex Fields of the neo-Nazi group Vanguard America (VA) drove into the front of a crowd of marchers on the street, who witnesses say were counter-protesting the "Unite the Right" rally which began the night before. One person died and 19 were injured. August 3, 2019: 2019 El Paso shooting: Patrick Crusius committed a violent domestic terrorist attack/mass shooting targeting Latinos at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, killing 23 people and injuring 22 others. May 14, 2022: 2022 Buffalo shooting: Payton S. Gendron committed a mass shooting targeting African-Americans at a Tops Friendly Markets supermarket in Buffalo, New York, killing 10 people and injuring 3 others. Eleven of the 13 victims shot were Black while two others were White. Organized KKK violence Deadliest attacks The following is a list of the deadliest known single-day terrorist attacks in the United States to date. Only incidents with ten or more deaths, excluding those of the perpetrators, are included. † Was previously the deadliest terrorist attack. Failed attacks November 25, 1864: Confederate Army of Manhattan Fires were set at 19 New York City hotels, P.T. Barnum's Museum, and 2 hay barges resulting in minor damage. Plot to burn down New York City organized by Confederate Lieutenant Colonel Robert Martin failed because the Greek fire incendiary devices were defective and the Lincoln Administration had been tipped off by a double agent and intercepted telegraph messages. After the conspirators found out the plot had been discovered they escaped to Canada. Confederate Captain Robert C. Kennedy became the only conspirator apprehended when he was arrested following his return to the U.S. Kennedy was tried by a military tribunal and hanged. June 1940: Two dynamite bombs were discovered outside of the Philadelphia Convention Hall during the Republican National Convention. A total of seven bombs were discovered in the greater Philadelphia area during this period. November 1, 1950: Attempted assassination of Harry S. Truman by members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party at the Blair House in Washington, D.C. 1965 The Monumental Plot – New York Police thwart an attempt to dynamite the Statue of Liberty, Liberty Bell, and the Washington Monument by three members of the pro-Castro Black Liberation Front and a Quebec Separatist. March 6, 1970: Three members of the Weather Underground were killed when their "bomb factory" located in New York's Greenwich Village accidentally exploded. WUO members Theodore Gold, Diana Oughton, and Terry Robbins died in this accident. The bomb was intended to be planted at a non-commissioned officer's dance at Fort Dix, New Jersey. The bomb was packed with nails to inflict maximum casualties upon detonation. See Greenwich Village townhouse explosion. April 1971: Pipe bombs found at the embassies of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in Washington, D.C. 1972: Two Jewish Defense League members were arrested and charged with bomb possession and burglary in a conspiracy to blow up the Long Island residence of the Soviet mission to the United Nations. March 6, 1973: 1973 New York bomb plot Explosives found in the trunks of cars were defused at the El Al air terminal at Kennedy Airport, the First Israel Bank and Trust Company, and the Israel Discount Bank, in New York City. The plot was foiled when the National Security Agency intercepted an encrypted message sent to the Iraqi foreign ministry in Baghdad to the Palestine Liberation Organization's office. The attacks were meant to coincide with visit of Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. Khalid Duhham al-Jawary of the Black September was convicted on charges relating to the attacks in 1993 and was released to immigration authorities in 2009. September 22, 1975: Sarah Jane Moore tries to assassinate President Gerald Ford outside of the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. The attempt fails when a bystander grabs her arm and deflects the shot. Moore has stated the motive was to create chaos to bring "the winds of change" because the government had declared war on the left wing. 1984: According to Oregon law enforcement there was an abortive plot by the Rajneeshee cult to murder United States Attorney for Oregon, Charles Turner. April 1985: The FBI arrested several members of a Sikh terrorist group who were plotting to kill Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi when he visited New York in June. April 12, 1988: Yū Kikumura, a member of the Japanese Red Army, is arrested with three pipe bombs on the New Jersey Turnpike. According to prosecutors, Kikumura planned to bomb a military recruitment office in the Veteran's Administration building in lower Manhattan on April 14, the anniversary of the U.S. raid on Libya. February 26, 1993: 1993 World Trade Center bombing: Ramzi Yousef, a member of Al Qaeda, masterminds the truck-bombing of the World Trade Center. The bomb is meant to destabilize the foundation of the building, causing it to collapse and destroy surrounding buildings, leading to mass casualties. It failed to do so, but the detonation killed 6 people and injured more than 1000. June 1993: New York City landmark bomb plot. Followers of radical cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman were arrested while planning to bomb landmarks in New York City, including the UN headquarters. August 1994: Two far-right extremists, Douglas Baker & Leroy Wheeler, both members of the Minnesota Patriots Council, are arrested for making ricin, a deadly toxin. The two will later be convicted of attempting to poison federal agents. March 1995: Charles Ray Polk is arrested while attempting to buy plastic explosives and machine guns in order to assassinate four police officers and a female judge, and to bomb the IRS offices in Tyler, Texas. November 9, 1995: Willie Ray Lampley, a self-proclaimed Prophet, along with his wife Cecilia and a family friend John Dare Baird, were arrested for a plot to bomb numerous targets, including the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, the Anti-Defamation League offices in Dallas and Houston, Texas, as well as a number of gay bars & abortion clinics. December 1995: Tax protesters Joseph Martin Bailie and Ellis Edward Hurst attempt to blow up the Internal Revenue Service building in Reno, Nevada with a 100-pound ANFO bomb. April 1996: Anti-government activist & survivalist Ray Hamblin is arrested after authorities find 460 pounds of the high explosive Tovex, 746 pounds of ANFO blasting agent, and 15 homemade hand grenades on his property in Hood River, Oregon during an investigation into a series of explosions in his storage sheds. July 1996: Twelve members of an Arizona militia group called the Viper Team are arrested on federal conspiracy, weapons and explosive charges after planning to bomb a number of Federal office buildings, including one that houses the office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the FBI. July 1996: Washington State Militia leader John Pitner and seven others are arrested on weapons and explosives charges in connection with a plot to build pipe bombs for a confrontation with the federal government. Pitner and four others will be convicted on weapons charges, while conspiracy charges against all eight will end in a mistrial. Pitner will later be retried on that charge, convicted and sentenced to four years in prison. October 1996: Seven members of the Mountaineer Militia are arrested in a plot to blow up the FBI's national Criminal Justice Information Services Division in Clarksburg, West Virginia. In 1998, leader Floyd "Ray" Looker, will be sentenced to 18 years in prison. March 17, 1997: anti-abortion extremist Peter Howard puts 13 gas cans and three propane tanks in his truck, and drives it through the door of a California women's clinic in a failed attempt to fire bomb the clinic. September 1999: anti-abortion extremist Clayton Lee Waagner was pulled over by the Pennsylvania State Police, but fled into the woods and evaded capture, leaving behind a stolen car that contained firearms, explosives, fake ID, and a list of abortion clinics. Later in September 1999, while on a self-described "Mission from God", he took his wife and their nine children on a cross-country road trip headed west in a stolen Winnebago, planning to murder various abortion doctors, beginning with one in Seattle, Washington. However, after crossing into Illinois his vehicle broke down, and Waagner was arrested when Illinois State Police stopped to investigate. Waagner was convicted on charges of interstate transportation of a stolen motor vehicle and for being a convicted felon in possession of firearms. Waagner later escaped and used a cross country crime spree to continue to fund his anti-abortion mission. January 1, 2000: 2000 millennium attack plots, plan to bomb LAX Airport in Los Angeles December 5, 2001: anti-abortion extremist Clayton Lee Waagner is arrested in a Kinko's while he was preparing to fax bomb threats to a mass list of abortion clinics. December 12, 2001: Jewish Defense League plot by Chairman Irv Rubin and follower Earl Krugel to blow up the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City, California and the office of Lebanese-American Congressman Darrell Issa foiled. December 22, 2001: British citizen and self-proclaimed Al Qaeda member Richard Reid attempted to detonate the C-4 explosive PETN concealed in his shoes while on a flight from Paris to Miami. He was subdued by crew and passengers with the plane landing safely in Boston. 2004 financial buildings plot: Al-Qaeda plan to bomb the International Monetary Fund, New York Stock Exchange, Citigroup and Prudential buildings broken up after arrest of computer expert in Pakistan and plotters in Britain. 2004 Columbus Shopping Mall bombing plot: A loosely organized group of young men planned to carry out an attack on an unnamed shopping mall. September 11, 2006: A man rammed his car into a women's clinic that he thought was an abortion clinic and set it ablaze in Davenport, Iowa causing $20,000 worth of damage to the building. April 25, 2007: A bomb was left in a women's clinic in Austin, Texas but failed to explode. 2009: 2009 New York bomb plot December 25, 2009: British and Nigerian citizen and self-described Al-Qaeda member Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly attempted to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 in flight over Detroit by igniting his underpants which were filled with the C-4 explosive PETN. He has been indicted in a U.S. federal court; charges include the attempted murder of 289 people. Several days later, Al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen and Saudi Arabia claimed responsibility for the attempted attack. Addressing America, the group threatened to "come for you to slaughter." On January 24, 2010, an audio tape that US intelligence believes is authentic was broadcast in which Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the attempted bombing. The intelligence officials expressed doubt about the veracity of bin Laden's claim. On October 12, 2011, Abdulmutallab pled guilty to all counts against him and read a statement to the court saying "I attempted to use an explosive device which in the U.S. law is a weapon of mass destruction, which I call a blessed weapon to save the lives of innocent Muslims, for U.S. use of weapons of mass destruction on Muslim populations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and beyond". May 1, 2010 2010 Times Square car bomb attempt and plot: An attempted evening car bombing in crowded Times Square in New York City failed when a street vendor saw smoke emanating from an SUV and called police. The White House has blamed Tehrik-e-Taliban the Pakistani Taliban for the failed attack and said Faisal Shahzad aged 30, an American of Pakistani origin who has been arrested in relation to the incident was working for the group. In July 2010, the Pakistani Taliban released a video featuring Shahzad in which he urged other Muslims in the West to follow his example and to wage similar attacks. On May 3, Shahzad was arrested at Kennedy Airport as he was preparing to fly to Dubai. The device was described as crude and amateurish but potent enough to cause casualties. On May 13 the F.B.I. raided several locations in the Northeast and arrested 3 on alleged immigration violations. Several suspects were arrested in Pakistan including the co-owner of a prominent catering firm used by the US embassy. On June 21 Shahzad pled guilty to 10 counts saying he created the bomb to force the US military to withdraw troops and stop drone attacks in a number of Muslim countries. Shahzad said he chose the location to cause mass civilian casualties because the civilians elected the government that carried out the allegedly anti Muslim policies. On October 4, 2010, Shahzad was sentenced to life in prison. During his sentencing, he threatened that "the defeat of the U.S. is imminent" and that "we will keep on terrorizing you until you leave our lands." Shahzad planned on detonating a second bomb in Times Square two weeks later. July 21, 2010: Bryon Williams captured after shootout with California Highway Patrol with guns strapped on his body armor alleged to have confessed that he was on his way to kill workers at the American Civil Liberties Union and follow it up with and attack on Tides Center allegedly was angry with left-wing politics and inspired by conspiracy theories of Glenn Beck and hoped the attack would ignite a revolution. January 17, 2011: Spokane bombing attempt: A small pipe bomb in a backpack designed to be detonated by remote control and spread shrapnel in a specific direction was discovered during a Martin Luther King Day parade in Spokane, Washington. White supremacist Kevin Harpham is convicted and sentenced to 32 years in federal prison. April 8, 2013: Letters believed to contain the poison Ricin were sent to President Barack Obama and Mississippi Republican Senator Roger Wicker and a Mississippi Justice official. Tests on the granular substance found in the letters tested positive for "low grade" ricin. April 25, 2013: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing, told investigators that he and his brother discussed using leftover explosives to attack Times Square. According to NYC Police commissioner Raymond Kelly the plan was conceived after they attacked Boston and was foiled when their SUV ran out of gas as they tried to escape from the Boston marathon bombing manhunt. January 15, 2015: Washington, DC. A 20-year-old Ohio man was arrested by the FBI for wanting to set off pipe bombs at the U.S. Capitol as a way of supporting ISIS. Federal authorities identified the man as Christopher Lee Cornell, also known as Raheel Mahrus Ubaydah. Cornell, who lived in the Cincinnati area, allegedly told an FBI informant they should "wage jihad," and showed his plans for bombing the Capitol and shooting people, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court. The FBI said Cornell expressed his desire to support the Islamic State. Authorities say Cornell was arrested Wednesday after buying two semi-automatic rifles and about 600 rounds of ammunition, but an FBI agent says the public was never in danger. May 3, 2015: Garland, Texas. Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, roommates from North Phoenix, Arizona, were killed by a security guard when they started shooting at a building holding a Mohammad cartoon contest sponsored by Stop Islamization of America. A school security officer helping with security at the event was shot in the leg. October 14, 2016: Three men were arrested in Garden City, Kansas, for plotting a car bomb attack against an apartment complex were Somali and Muslim migrants live. The three attackers were part of a group called "The Crusaders". October 22–26, 2018: At least twelve packages containing pipe bombs were mailed within the U.S. Postal Service system to several prominent critics of U.S. President Donald Trump, including various Democratic Party politicians (Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Eric Holder, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Maxine Waters, Cory Booker), actor Robert De Niro, billionaire investor George Soros, former CIA Director John O. Brennan, and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. October 8, 2020: The FBI announced the arrests of 13 people for attempting to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and overthrow the state government. May 22, 2023: A Missouri man allegedly attempted to crash a U-Haul truck into the White House, but instead hit a nearby security barrier. Sai Varshith Kandula, 19, who had a Nazi flag with him and made verbal threats against President Biden and Vice President Harris, was arrested. He told police he wanted to "seize power" and kill the president, and that he admired Nazi authoritarianism and eugenics. Conspiracy theorists on Twitter began labeling the attack a false flag, in part due to Kandula's ethnicity, which reportedly is Telugu. Kandula is not a U.S. citizen but he does have a green card; if convicted, he will likely be deported. Alleged and proven plots November 1864: Plan by Confederate Lieutenant Colonel Robert Martin and the Copperheads organization Sons of Liberty to attack New York City and disrupt elections collapsed when the Sons of Liberty backed out upon seeing large numbers of Union troops. February 28, 1865 Dahlgren Affair: Alleged plot by Union General Judson Kilpatrick to burn down Richmond, Virginia and kill Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet. Allegations based on papers recovered by a 13-year-old member of the Confederate home guard. The authenticity of the papers have been a matter of dispute. January 1940: The FBI shuts down the Christian Front after discovering that its members were arming themselves for a plot to "murder Jews, communists, and 'a dozen Congressmen'" and establishing a government modeled after Nazi Germany. March 31, 1943: Clarence Cull arrested and charged with attempting to assassinate President Franklin D. Roosevelt by suicide bombing. Cull blamed Roosevelt for lost convoys of merchant ships. November 9, 1995: Oklahoma Constitutional Militia members arrested while in the planning stages for bombings of Southern Poverty Law Center, gay bars and abortion clinics. January 1, 1996: Members of the Viper Militia are arrested after they caught surveying government buildings in Arizona. July 13, 1996: John J. Ford, 47, of Bellport, Long Island, a former court officer and president of the Long Island U.F.O. Network, and Joseph Mazzachelli plotted to poison local politicians with radium and shoot them if that did not work. They believed the government was covering up knowledge of UFO landings. November 11, 1996: Seven members of the Mountaineer Militia are arrested in a plot to blow up the FBI fingerprint records center in West Virginia. July 4, 1997: Members of the splinter militia group the Third Continental Congress are arrested while planning attacks on military bases which they believed were being used to train United Nations troops to attack U.S. citizens. July 30, 1997: Two men who were planning to bomb the New York City subway the next day were arrested. A resident of their apartment informed police after he overheard the men discussing the plot. March 18, 1998: Members of the North American Militia are arrested in plot to bomb Federal Buildings in Michigan, a television station and an interstate highway intersection. December 5, 1999: Members of the San Joaquin Militia are arrested on charges of plotting to bomb critical infrastructure locations in hopes of sparking an insurrection. The leaders of the group pled guilty to charges of plotting to kill a Federal judge. December 8, 1999: The leader of the Southeastern States Alliance militia group is arrested in plot to bomb energy faculties with the goal of causing power outages in Florida and Georgia. March 9, 2000: The former leader of the Texas Militia is arrested in a plot to attack the Federal Building in Houston. February 8, 2002: Two members of Project 7 are arrested plotting to kill judges and law enforcement officials in order to kick off a revolution. May 8, 2002: José Padilla, accused by John Ashcroft of plotting to attack the United States with a dirty bomb, declared as an enemy combatant, and denied habeas corpus. No material evidence has been produced to support the allegation. July 26, 2002: 2002 White supremacist terror plot: Two white supremacists were convicted of conspiring to start a race war by bombing landmarks associated with Jews and Blacks. September 3, 2002: An Idaho Mountain Militia Boys plot to kill a judge and a police officer and break a friend out of jail is uncovered. April 24, 2003: William Krar is charged for his part in the Tyler poison gas plot, a white supremacist related plan. A sodium cyanide bomb was seized with at least 100 other bombs, bomb components, machine guns, and 500,000 rounds of ammunition. He faces up to 10 years in prison. May 1, 2003: Iyman Faris pleads guilty to providing material support to al-Qaeda and plotting to bring down the Brooklyn Bridge by cutting through cables with blowtorches. He had been working as a double for the FBI since March, but in October was sentenced to 20 years in prison. August 31, 2005 2005 Los Angeles bomb plot: Kevin James, Hammad Samana, Gregory Patterson, and Levar Washington were indicted on charges to wage war against the U.S. government through terrorism in California. The men planned attacks against Jewish institutions and American military locations in Los Angeles during the Yom Kippur holiday. February 21, 2006: The Toledo terror plot where three men were accused of conspiring to wage a "holy war" against the United States, supply help to the terrorist in Iraq, and threatening to kill the US president. June 23, 2006: The Miami bomb plot to attack the Sears Tower where seven men were arrested after an FBI agent infiltrated a group while posing as an al-Qaeda member. No weapons or other materials were found. On May 12, 2009, after two mistrials due to hung juries five men were convicted and one acquitted on charges related to the plot. Narseal Batiste, the group's ringleader, was convicted on four charges, the only defendant to be convicted on all four charges brought against the defendants. July 7, 2006: Three suspects arrested in Lebanon for plotting to blow up a Hudson River tunnel and flood the New York financial district. November 29, 2006: Demetrius Van Crocker a white supremacist from rural Tennessee was sentenced to 30 years in prison for attempting to acquire Sarin nerve gas and C-4 explosives that he planned to use to destroy government buildings. December 8, 2006: Derrick Shareef, 22, a Muslim convert who talked about his desire to wage jihad against civilians was charged in a plot to set off four hand grenades in garbage cans December 22 at the Cherryvale Mall in Rockford, Illinois. March 5, 2007: A Rikers Island inmate offered to pay an undercover police officer posing as a hit man to behead New York City police commissioner Raymond Kelly and bomb police headquarters in retaliation for the controversial police shooting of Sean Bell. The suspect wanted the bombing to be considered a terrorist act. May 1, 2007: Five members of a self-styled Birmingham, Alabama area anti-immigration militia were arrested for planning a machine gun attack on Mexicans. May 7, 2007: Fort Dix attack plot. Six men inspired by Jihadist videos arrested in a failed homegrown terrorism plot to kill soldiers. Plot unravels when Circuit City clerk becomes suspicious of the DVDs the men had created and report it to authorities who place an informant in the group. In October 2008 one man pleaded guilty to charges related to the plot. On December 22, 2008, five other men were convicted with conspiracy to kill American soldiers but were acquitted of attempted murder. Dritan, Shain and Eljvir Duka were sentenced to life in prison. June 3, 2007: John F. Kennedy International Airport terror plot. Four men indicted in plot to blow up jet-fuel supply tanks at JFK Airport and a 40-mile (64 km) connecting pipeline. One suspect is a U.S. citizen and one, Abdul Kadir, a former member of parliament in Guyana. The airport was targeted because one of the suspects saw arms shipments and missiles being shipped to Israel from that locale. In a recorded conversation one of the suspects allegedly told an informant that "Anytime you hit Kennedy, it is the most hurtful thing to the United States. To hit John F. Kennedy, wow.... They love JFK – he's like the man". Plot unraveled when a person from law enforcement was recruited. On June 29, 2010, Abdel Nur pled guilty to material support charges. Due to health reasons Kareem Ibrahim was removed from the case and will be tried separately. On August 2 Russell M. Defreitas and Abdul Kadir were convicted for their role in the plot. March 26, 2008: Michael S. Gorbey who was detained in January 2008 for carrying a loaded shotgun two blocks from the Capitol Building has been charged planning to set off a bomb after a device containing can of gunpowder duct-taped to a box of shotgun shells and a bottle containing buckshot or BB pellets was found in the pickup truck he was driving. The pickup truck was moved to a government parking lot where for a three-week period the device inside it went unnoticed. Michael Gorbey gets 22 years prison, but he insisted that police planted weapons. October 27, 2008: Federal agents claim to thwarted a plot by two white power skinheads to target an African American High School and kill 88 blacks and decapitate 14 more (the numbers 88 and 14 are symbolic to white supremacists) and although expecting to fail try to assassinate Barack Obama. May 20, 2009: 2009 New York City bomb plot Three U.S. citizens and one Haitian from Newburgh, New York were arrested in a plot to bomb a Riverdale Temple and a Riverdale Jewish Center in The Bronx, New York City in an alleged homegrown terrorist plot. It was also alleged that they planned to shoot down military planes operating out of Stewart Air National Guard Base also in Newburgh. One of the suspects whose parents are from Afghanistan was said to be "unhappy that many Muslim people were being killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan by the United States Military forces." On October 18, 2010, the four were convicted on most of the charges brought against them. On June 29, 2011, three of the men were sentenced to 25 years imprisonment by a judge who criticized the governments handling of the case. A 2014 award-winning HBO documentary about the four, The Newburgh Sting, claimed that it was a clear case of entrapment and an egregious miscarriage of justice. September: 2009 New York City Subway and United Kingdom plot: Najibullah Zazi of Denver was indicted on charges of trying to build and detonate a weapon of mass destruction by purchasing hydrogen peroxide, acetone and other chemicals. He and two others allegedly planned to detonate the homemade explosives on the New York City subway system. On February 22, 2010, Zazi pled guilty to conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and providing material support for a terrorist organization. Zazi said he was recruited by al-Qaeda as part of a "martyrdom plan". Zazi agreed to cooperate with authorities and has told them that the groups planned to walk into the Times Square and Grand Central stations with backpack bombs at rush hour and then choose which subway lines to attack. Several days later Adis Medunjanin and Zarein Ahmedzay high school classmates of Zazi were indicted and pled not guilty to charges of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and providing material support for a terrorist organization. On April 12 a fourth man was arrested in Pakistan. On April 23 Prosecutors said that two Senior Al Queda officials who were reportedly later killed in drone attacks ordered the attacks and Zarein Ahmedzay pleaded guilty to plot related charges. On July 7 five others were indicted including al-Qaeda leader Adnan Shukrijumah, and it was alleged the United Kingdom was also a target of the plot. While in Pakistan, Zazi, Ahmedzay and Medunjanin were allegedly recruited and directed by Shukrijumah, a former Florida student who is designated as one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists, to conduct a terrorist attack in the U.S. On August 6 new charges were brought against Medunjanin and 4 others including Shukrijumah. Medunjanin pleaded not guilty. August – September 2009: On September 24, William Boyd and Hysen Sherifi charged with "conducting reconnaissance of the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Virginia and obtaining armor-piercing ammunition with the intent to attack Americans". Boyd, two of his sons and several other suspects had been charged on international terrorism charges in August, but at the time there was no indication that they wanted to plot a United States attack. An audio tape of Boyd decrying the U.S. military, discussing the honor of martyrdom, and bemoaning the struggle of Muslims was played at an August hearing. It is the first case of a ring of homegrown terrorists having specific targets. September 24, 2009: Michael Finton/Talib Islam a 29-year-old man from Illinois charged with trying to kill federal employees by detonating a car bomb at the federal building in Springfield, Illinois. Charges based on F.B.I. sting operation. He is said to idolize American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh. September 24, 2009: Hosam Maher Husein Smadi a 19-year-old illegal immigrant from Jordan charged with trying the bomb the 60 story Fountain Place office tower in Dallas, Texas. Charges are based on an FBI sting operation in which agents posed as members of an al-Qaeda sleeper cell. January 7, 2010: Adis Medunjanin, an alleged 2009 New York City Subway plotter, attempts a suicide attack by intentionally crashing his car on the Whitestone Bridge in New York City. He is indicted for this on July 7. Medunjanin has since been charged for his role in an Al Qaeda plot to conduct coordinated suicide bombings on New York's subway system. May 2010: Paul Rockwood Jr. a meteorologist who took official weather observations and his pregnant wife Nancy from King Salmon, Alaska compiled a list of 20 targets, including members of the military and media and had moved to the operational phase of their plan pled guilty to lying to FBI about the list and making false statements to the FBI. Under a plea agreement Mr. Rockwood will serve eight years in prison and three years probation while Ms. Rockwood will serve probation. Motive was revenge for alleged descecration of Islam. September 20, 2010: Sami Samir Hassoun, 22, a Lebanese citizen living in Chicago, was charged with one count each of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted use of an explosive device after placing a backpack with what he thought was a bomb near Wrigley Field. Alleged plot was foiled by FBI informant. Hassoun discussed other ideas for mass destruction attacks with informant. October 27, 2010: Farooque Ahmed, 34, a naturalized U.S. citizen indicted for conspiracy to bomb four Washington Metro stations with people he thought were al-Qaeda. November 26, 2010: Mohamed Osman Mohamud, a 19-year-old Somali-American, is alleged to have attempted a car bombing at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland, Oregon. The device was a dud created by the FBI. Motive is reported to be Jihad. On January 31, 2013, a jury found Mohamud guilty of the charge of trying to use a weapon of mass destruction. December 8, 2010: Antonio Martinez, also known as Muhammad Hussain, was arrested after a sting operation in an alleged plot to bomb a military recruiting center in Catonsville, Maryland. The 21-year-old suspect is an American who converted to Islam. The suspect was reported to be upset that the military continues to kill Muslims. December 21, 2010: Internet radio broadcaster Hal Turner sentenced to 33 months in prison after he published the work addresses and photographs of three judges who had upheld gun control laws and advocated for their assassination. February 24, 2011: Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, a 20-year-old Saudi Arabian student, was arrested for building bombs to use in alleged terrorist attacks. Targets allegedly were the home of George W. Bush, hydroelectric dams, nuclear power plants, nightclubs and the homes of soldiers who were formerly stationed at the Abu Ghraib prison. In Aldawsari's journal he wrote he was inspired by the speeches of Osama bin Laden. Alleged plot uncovered when a supplier noticed suspicious purchases. May 11, 2011: In the 2011 Manhattan terrorism plot, Ahmed Ferhani, a resident of Queens, New York and native of Algeria, and Mohamed Mamdouh, aged 20, also from Queens and a Moroccan native, were arrested in a Lone Wolf plot against a New York Synagogue that had yet to be chosen. It also alleged that they hoped to attack the Empire State Building. The pair were arrested after buying two Browning semi-automatic pistols, one Smith & Wesson revolver, ammunition and one grenade. The pair disguised themselves as Jewish temple goers and pretended to pray. The suspects were said to be "committed to violent jihad". June 23, 2011: Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif and Walli Mujahidh of Long Beach, California are arrested on charges of buying machine guns and grenades and conspiring to attack a federal building housing a Military Entrance Processing Station in Seattle, Washington. The plot was uncovered by an informant. His motive was to send a message in protest of US action abroad. On April 8, 2013, Walli Mujahidh apologized and was sentenced to 17 years for his role in the plot. July 27, 2011: AWOL U.S. Army Private, and conscientious objector, Naser Jason Abdo from Garland, Texas was arrested in an alleged plot against Fort Hood, Texas. Materials for up to two bombs were found with jihadist materials in Abdo's motel room. An investigation began when the owner of a local gun store called police after becoming suspicious when Abdo asked questions indicating he did not know about the items he was purchasing. September 28, 2011: Rezwan Ferdaus, a US citizen, was indicted for allegedly plotting to use remote-controlled aircraft carrying explosives to bomb the Pentagon and the US Capitol. He also allegedly planned to hire people to shoot at people fleeing the Pentagon. Ferdaus was said to be motivated by Al Queada videos and the alleged plot was uncovered by an FBI sting operation. In July 2012 he pleaded guilty to plotting an attack on the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol and attempting to provide material support to terrorists. Under a plea bargain, he was sentenced to 17 years in prison and then 10 years of supervised release. October 11, 2011: Operation Red Coalition. Alleged plot that was "conceived, sponsored and was directed from Iran" to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, Adel al-Jubeir, with a bomb and bomb the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington, D.C. It is not known if Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei or President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had knowledge of the plot. The alleged plot was disrupted by an FBI and DEA investigation. The investigation began in May 2011 when an Iranian-American approached a DEA informant seeking the help of a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate the Saudi ambassador. Iran has denied the allegations. October–November 2011: Georgia terrorist plot. Four elderly men from a Georgia militia arrested for plotting to buy ricin in preparation for an attack they claimed would "save the Constitution". They allegedly discussed blowing up IRS and ATF buildings, dispensing ricin from a plane over Atlanta and other cities, and assassinating "un-American" politicians. Informant used to break up alleged plot. November 20, 2011: Jose Pimentel, aged 27, an American citizen and a convert to Islam from New York City, is arrested and accused of being in the process of building pipe bombs (and one hour away from building his first bomb) to target Post Offices, police cars and U.S. military personnel returning from abroad in New York City and Bayonne, New Jersey. He was said to be a follower of the late al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki. The FBI did not consider Pimentel, who was said to be radicalized via the internet, enough of a threat to investigate, but NYC police considered him a 2 on a threat scale of 1 to 5. January 7, 2012: Sami Osmakac, a naturalized American from Kosovo, was arrested in a plot to create mayhem in Tampa, Florida by car bombing, hostage taking and exploding a suicide belt. Alleged bomb targets included nightclubs in Ybor City, a bar, the operations center of the sheriff's office and South Tampa businesses. Osmakac allegedly told an FBI undercover agent "We all have to die, so why not die the Islamic way?". Osmakac pled not guilty on February 8. February 17, 2012: Amine El Khalifi a Moroccan man from Alexandria, Virginia was arrested in an alleged suicide bombing plot of the U.S. Capitol. He was arrested as a result of an FBI sting operation. As a result of a plea agreement El Khalifi was sentenced to 30 years in prison on September 14. May 1, 2012: Five self-described anarchists were arrested in an alleged plot to blow up a bridge in Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Brecksville, Ohio. The group was being monitored as part of an FBI undercover operation and had considered other plots previously. One of the suspects expressed a desire to cause financial damage to companies while avoiding casualties. August 27, 2012: Four non-commissioned officers from Fort Stewart in Georgia, along with five other men, were charged in an alleged plot to poison an apple orchard and blow up a dam in Washington State, seize control of Fort Stewart, set off explosives in a park in Savannah, Georgia, and assassinate President Barack Obama. The alleged plot was on behalf of the "FEAR" militia for the long term purpose of overthrowing the government. October 17, 2012: Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, aged 21, was arrested in a plot to bomb the Manhattan office of the Federal Reserve Bank on behalf of "our beloved Sheikh Osama bin Laden". His motive was to destroy the economy and possibly force the cancellation of the Presidential election. The suspect, who had a student visa, was a Bangladeshi national who came to the U.S. to launch a terrorist attack. His arrest was the result of a joint FBI-New York City Police sting operation. The suspect was pulling the detonator on a disabled 1000-pound van bomb when he was arrested. On August 9, 2013, Nafis was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Prior to his sentencing Nafis wrote a letter apologizing to the people of America and New York for his actions, which he said were caused by personal and family problems and said he is now pro-American. November 29, 2012: Raees Alam Qazi and his brother Sheheryar Alam Qazi of Florida, naturalized citizens of Pakistani descent, were arrested for being in the aspirational stages of a plot to attack New York City. Raees Alam Qazi is alleged to be inspired by Al Queda and of trying to contact terrorists abroad. On June 11, 2015, Raees and Sheheryar were sentenced to 35 and 20 years respectively for the plot and attacking federal officials while in custody. June 19, 2013: Two middle aged upstate New York men, Scott Crawford and Eric J. Feight, were arrested by the FBI in an alleged plot to target a political figure, reported to be President Obama, and a Muslim group deemed enemies of Israel, by constructing and using an X-Ray Gun that was described by the FBI as "useful and "functional". Obama was believed by the pair to be allowing Muslims into the country without background checks. An investigation was launched when a synagogue and the Ku Klux Klan, whom Crawford was a member of, told authorities that Crawford tried to recruit them to take part in the alleged plot. December 13, 2013: Terry Lee Loewen, an Avionics Technician, was arrested for attempting to bomb the Wichita Mid-Continent Airport. A Muslim-convert inspired by Anwar Al-Awlaki, he is alleged to have spent several months planning a suicide attack with a car-load of explosives. 2014: Brandon Orlando Baldwin and Olajuwon Ali Davis allegedly plotted to kill St. Louis County, Missouri Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch and Ferguson, Missouri Police Chief Tom Jackson as well as bomb the Gateway Arch in reaction to the shooting of Michael Brown. The suspects were caught as a result of an undercover operation. March 26, 2015: Hasan R. Edmonds, an Illinois National Guardsman, and his cousin, Jonas M. Edmonds, arrested in an alleged terrorist plot against a Northern Illinois military base. The alleged plot involved Hasan leaving the country and Jones using Hasan's uniform to gain access. The motive was to bring "the flames of war to the heart" of America. Alleged plot broken up by sting operation. April 2, 2015: Two women from Queens, New York, 28-year-old Noelle Velentzas and 31-year-old Asia Siddiqui, arrested on charges of trying to detonate explosives in the US. They had purchased propane tanks. It is believed to be first case of a women-only conceived terror plot in the US. Suspects caught in a sting operation. Siddiqui was alleged to have Al-Qaeda contact. On May 7, the two pled not guilty. April 10, 2015: The FBI arrested 20 year old John Booker Jr. (aka Mohammad Abdullah Hassan) and a co-conspirator, 28 year old Alexander Evan Blair, after Booker made the final connections to arm a 1,000 pound bomb inside a mini-van near Fort Riley, Kansas. Booker intended the inert device, built by undercover FBI agents that Booker had solicited to assist him with his attack, to be detonated at the base hospital. Prior to his attack, Booker made several martyrdom videos in which he stated that he was conducting the suicide attack against a military target in support of the Islamic State. Booker received a 30-year sentence as part of a plea agreement in which he pled guilty to attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to destroy government property by an explosive device. His accomplice, Alexander Blair, pled guilty to Conspiracy and was sentenced to 15 months, admitting to providing Booker with money to fund the attack knowing what was planned. April 10, 2015: the FBI arrested 63-year old Robert Rankin Doggart, of Signal Mountain, Tennessee, who ran as a congressional candidate in 2014. He was wiretapped explaining plans to raise a militia to burn down a mosque, school and cafeteria and gun down Muslims in an enclave called Islamberg in New York. He planned to amass M4 carbines, pistols, Molotov cocktails and machetes, saying "We will offer [our] lives as collateral to prove our commitment to our God," and "We shall be Warriors who inflict horrible numbers of casualties upon the enemies," and "If it gets down to the machete, we will cut them to shreds." He has a Ph.D. from a diploma mill and an ordination from an ordination mill. He pled guilty on May 15, 2015. June 17, 2015: Fareed Mumuni, 21 of Staten Island and Munther Omar Saleh, 20 of Queens arrested for allegedly trying to conspire to assist ISIS in committing an attack in the New York area. Both suspects allegedly charged at law enforcement trying to arrest them with a knife. July 3–5, 2015: FBI Director James Comey said his agency disrupted multiple July 4 weekend terror plots. July 13, 2015: Alexander Ciccolo, 23, of Adams, Massachusetts, the son of a Boston Police Captain, is arrested in a plot to attack a state college and broadcast executions of students on the internet. The suspect, who was turned in by his father, was said to be inspired by ISIS and reportedly characterized America as "Satan" and "disgusting". Ciccolo had guns and possible bomb making equipment. August 22, 2015: Kevin Norton, 18, and James Stumbo, 27 of Iowa were arrested in a plot to shoot up the 2015 Pokémon World Championships. The two posted status updates and images of their weaponry on social media, which were noticed by various Pokémon fans who treated them as supposed threats against the tournament. The two were arrested on charges of unlicensed possession of firearms and ammunition. The weapons recovered were a recently purchased Remington shotgun, an AR-15, a hunting knife and several hundred rounds of ammunition. November 11, 2015: Robert Curtis Doyle, Ronald Beasley Chaney III and Charles Daniel Halderman from Virginia were arrested trying to buy weapons and explosives from an undercover agent, The attackers plot assault and kill a silver and coin dealer and use the money to finance a ring of attacks against black churches and synagogues. In June 2016, Ronald Chaney was sentenced to 105 months in prison, Robert Curtis Doyle to 17 ½ years and Charles Halrderman was sentenced the following month to 7 years. October 14, 2016: Curtis Wayne Allen, 49; Patrick Eugene Stein, 47; and Gavin Wayne Wright, 49 are arrested in Garden City, Kansas after an eight month long investigation conducted by the FBI finds that the men were plotting to use explosives to kill an estimated 120 persons at an apartment complex inhabited by Somali immigrants. The men claimed allegiance to a far right nationalist group called "The Crusaders". Stein was sentenced to 30 years, Wright to 26 years, and Allen to 25 years for conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction. March 2020: Timothy Wilson, a member of the Atomwaffen Division was planning on bombing a COVID-19 hospital with a car bomb. He was killed in a shootout with the FBI on the March 24. January 2024: Two brothers from Astoria, Queens, Andrew and Angelo Hatziagelis, were arrested and charged on over 130 counts after allegedly hoarding explosives and ghost guns and maintaining a “hit list” that targeted celebrities and authority figures. The brothers, who police described as having “evil intent” and “anti-society” views with an admiration for Charles Manson, reportedly had eight fully operable bombs. See also Antisemitism in the United States, a form of racism in the United States and a form of religious discrimination in the United States Crime in the United States American Mafia Hate crime laws in the United States Definition of terrorism Domestic terrorism#United States Domestic terrorism in the United States Ethnic violence Global Terrorism Database Global Terrorism Index Hindu terrorism, a form of religious violence in India Violence against Christians in India Violence against Muslims in independent India History of terrorism, worldwide Islamic terrorism in Europe, a form of terrorism in Europe Islamophobia in the United States, another form of religious discrimination in the United States Left-wing terrorism Communist terrorism List of terrorist incidents in New York City List of terrorist incidents in Seattle List of white nationalist organizations Fascism in North America#United States List of fascist movements#United States List of fascist movements by country#United States of America List of Ku Klux Klan organizations List of neo-Nazi organizations Nazism in the Americas#United States List of organizations designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as hate groups List of organizations designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as anti-LGBTQ hate groups Lynching in the United States List of lynching victims in the United States Lynching of American Jews Mass racial violence in the United States List of expulsions of African Americans Nationalist terrorism Misogynist terrorism Outline of terrorism in the United States Political violence Radicalism in the United States Radical right (United States) Religious terrorism, a form of religious violence Right-wing terrorism Sectarian violence, another form of religious violence]] Stochastic terrorism Terrorism in Europe Timeline of terrorist attacks in the United States United States and state terrorism United States and state-sponsored terrorism Explanatory notes References External links Southern Poverty Law Center List of U.S. Ecoterror incidents 1984–2002 Archived December 28, 2005, at the Wayback Machine Anti-Defamation League's Criminal Proceedings: A Timeline of U.S. Terror Cases Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States — Interactive database of over 2,000 profiles of individuals radicalized by ideologies in the United States since 1948 U.S. laws aren't keeping up with spread of hate online, says civil rights advocate on YouTube published on April 9, 2019 PBS NewsHour West Point Combating Terrorism Center - Challengers from the sidelines understanding Americas violent far right Challengers from the sidelines

The Supreme Council of State of Siam (Thai: อภิรัฐมนตรีสภา) was an advisory and legislative council established by King Prajadhipok of Siam (Rama VII) that existed from 1925 to 1932. The Eton- and Sandhurst-educated monarch wished to create a council similar to a cabinet, where the most important government officials could meet to decide on state affairs. The council was founded on 28 November 1925 by royal command. Prajadhipok only succeeded to the throne three days earlier, after the death of his brother Vajiravudh on 25 November 1925. Members The council was composed of five members, each a prince of the Chakri dynasty who had held ministerial positions during the reigns of King Rama V and Rama VI (Prajadhipok's father and older brother). The councillors were: The council was not the only organ of government at the time. The king also had a Privy Council (Thai: สภากรรมการองคมนตรี) and a Council of Secretaries (Thai: เสนาบดีสภา). However, the Supreme Council was regarded as the most important. Prince Paribatra was the most dominant member of the Council of State, since he was then regent and Minister of the Interior. History Prajadhipok was the youngest son of King Chulalongkorn, the youngest prince of his generation. Senior princes (Prajadhipok's uncles and older brothers) had dominated the running of the government since the end of the 19th century, and were unwilling to lessen their grip on their power. Prajashipok acquiesced to most of their demands and were willing to pass off many responsibilities to the council. The appointment of Prince Damrong Rajanubhab to the council also signalled his return to government, after his removal by Vajiravudh from all of his offices in 1915. During its existence the council took many initiatives. For example, in 1929 the council decided to cut public spending on the government including civil servant's pay and defence spending, an action which was one of the main justifications the Khana Ratsadon (the People's Party) gave for the Revolution of 1932. The council filled many civil service and military positions with their own relatives from the dynasty, replacing many commoners appointed under King Vajiravudh (Rama VI), which also created discontent in the country. The council increased taxes on the populace to try to stem the economic downturn the country faced after the British Empire, Siam's largest trading partner, abandoned the gold standard. The most important action by the council was the rejection of King Prajadhipok's draft Constitution for the Kingdom of Siam in early 1932, on the 150th anniversary of the House of Chakri and the foundation of Bangkok. The constitution would have given the people their first parliament, with a popularly elected lower house and an expanded Supreme Council as an upper house. A few months later the Khana Ratsadon staged a coup which ended the absolutist monarchy and replaced it with a constitutional monarchy. The constitution in which they promulgated abrogated the many powers of the monarch and dissolved the Supreme Council; it exiled the influential Prince Paripatra Sukhumband for life. See also Prajadhipok Bhanurangsi Savangwongse Narisara Nuvadtivongs Damrong Rajanubhab Kitiyakara Voralaksana Siamese Revolution of 1932 Privy Council of Thailand References Royal Gazette, Royal Command on the establishment of the Supreme Council of State, Volume 42, Page 2618, 28 November 2468 B.E. Senate of Thailand Stowe, Judith A. Siam Becomes Thailand: A Story of Intrigue. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 1991

Roberto Álamo starred in a film with Inma Cuesta, I think it was released in 2021 but I can't remember the name. What was the movie called and who did he play?

El páramo / The Wasteland. He played Salvador.

Multiple constraints

Inmaculada Cuesta Martínez (born 25 June 1980) is a Spanish actress. She has starred in films such as The Sleeping Voice (2011), Three Many Weddings (2013), and The Bride (2015). Some of her best known television credits include performances in Águila Roja and Arde Madrid. Early life Inmaculada Cuesta Martínez was born in Valencia on 25 June 1980. Born to parents from Andalusia, Cuesta spent her childhood in Arquillos, province of Jaén (Andalusia). Her father was an upholsterer, so she used to collect the leftovers to make handbags and sell them to finance her studies. Aged 18, she moved to Córdoba to study a Degree at the School of Dramatic Art. After completing her studies, she continued her training in Seville. In 2005 she moved to Madrid and entered the Conservatory and School of Dance, a performing arts center run by Carmen Roche. Career Once settled in the capital of Spain, Cuesta undertook her career in the world of the theater from the hand of Nacho Cano starring in the musical Hoy no me puedo levantar. Her first starring role in television was in the series Amar en tiempos revueltos, playing the role of Elisa, a humble girl who became a well-known singer of the time. After three seasons and almost three years in the musical she signed for another television series, Plan América with Pepe Sancho (TVE 2008). Very soon she got her first change in the cinema with the 2007 comedy Love Expresso, in which she featured alongside Asier Etxeandía, Alejo Sauras, Diego Paris, Terele Pávez and Elena Ballesteros, among others. Later, she starred together with Fele Martínez and Angel de Andrés the film El kaserón. In 2009, she began to play the role of Margarita in the series Águila roja which was broadcast by the Spanish public television service TVE. She shot Águila Roja: la película, the film version of the series, and starred in the film Cousinhood, a comedy by Daniel Sánchez Arévalo, along with Quim Gutiérrez, Raúl Arévalo and Antonio de la Torre. On 21 October 2011 she premiered The Sleeping Voice, a film by Benito Zambrano, co-starring with María León. At the beginning of 2012, she was a candidate for the Goya Awards as Best Actress thanks to her role in The Sleeping Voice. That year, she also participated in the shooting of the film Unit 7 (Alberto Rodríguez) with Mario Casas and Antonio de la Torre. Also, she played the role of Carmen de Triana in Blancanieves, a silent and black-and-white version of fairy tale Snow White, in which actresses Maribel Verdú, Ángela Molina and Macarena García also participated. Almost at the same time, she starred in the short film by Rodrigo Atíza, Muchacha con paisaje and participated in Words with Gods (based on Guillermo Arriaga's idea) from the hand of Álex de la Iglesia in a project where directors from all around the world present an episode about religion. In November 2012, she starred together with Alberto Ammann, Karra Elejalde and Antonio de la Torre on Daniel Calparsoro’s last film, Invader, for which she won the nomination for best supporting actress at the Mestre Mateo Awards. In 2013 she played Ruth in Javier Ruiz Caldera's story Three Many Weddings, with Martiño Rivas, Paco León, Quim Gutiérrez, Rossy de Palma and Laura Sánchez, among others. She returned to the musicals with Javier Gutiérrez and Marta Ribera with the work ¡Ay, Carmela!. In 2016, along with Argentine actor Ricardo Darín, she performed a young girl from a small villa in Buenos Aires in the film Kóblic by Sebastián Borensztein. Personal life Cuesta has a relationship. She has two children with her girlfriend. Filmography Film Television Theater Accolades References External links Inma Cuesta at IMDb

The Wasteland (Spanish: El páramo), also known during the production stage as The Beast (La bestia), is a 2021 Spanish horror drama film directed by David Casademunt from a screenplay by Casademunt, Fran Menchón, and Martí Lucas. The film stars Inma Cuesta, Asier Flores, and Roberto Álamo. It was released on Netflix on 6 January 2022. Plot Diego is a boy who lives with his parents in a shack in the middle of nowhere. His mother, Lucía, is kind, while his father, Salvador, is stern and solemn. One evening, Diego's father tells him about a beast that follows a person around and feeds on their fear. One day, the family finds a badly injured man in a boat. Salvador attempts to heal the man. The man wanders into the shack and picks up a rifle, pointing it at Diego and Lucía. A gunshot is heard, and the man is seen, shot in the head. While going through his belongings, they find a family portrait. That night, Diego's father tells him about his sister, who saw the beast at their home. Salvador, who cannot see the beast, tells Diego that if anyone spots it, their life becomes hopeless. Salvador decides to go find the man's family on his own. Over the following days, Lucía sees a presence approaching the shack each night; Diego doesn't see it. His mother begins to act erratically and cuts off her hair. She tells Diego that the presence is outside and pushes him out, telling him the beast desires her. Diego forces his way back into the shack and finds his mother badly injured on the floor. He then sees the beast walking towards them. Diego eventually finds enough courage to face the beast; he picks up a gun and shoots at it. He then sets the shack on fire and drags his mother outside. He puts her in a wheelbarrow and wheels towards the river, only to find out that she has died. He floats her body down the river and walks purposefully away. Cast Inma Cuesta as Lucía Roberto Álamo as Salvador Asier Flores as Diego Alejandra Howard as Juana Víctor Benjumea as the man in the boat Production Spanish filmmaker David Casademunt initially conceived the original concept for the film in 2012 and began to develop the idea into a screenplay. In September 2017, the film officially entered development as part of the Sitges Film Festival Pitchbox program, with Casademunt set to direct the project from his own screenplay. Within the following year, the film received backing from Ventana Sur's Blood Window pitching program in Latin America and funding from The Madrid Film School. The script was completed by August 2018, and the Toronto International Film Festival invited Casademunt to their Filmmaker Lab for backing and financing. He described the selection as a "huge prize" and said that he would create a film that "could be loved by all audiences". In February 2020, Spanish production company Rodar y Rodar joined the project as the main producer. Marina Padró of Rodar y Rodar called Casademunt a "new promise of the Spanish cinema". Frequent collaborators Fran Menchón and Martí Lucas were credited as co-writers of the screenplay, and Casademunt described the feature as "a film about the demons we have inside [and] how these demons transform us into defective adults." During a press conference in October 2020, it was announced that Netflix had acquired worldwide distribution rights to the project. Inma Cuesta, Roberto Álamo, and Asier Flores were cast in lead roles in February 2021. Principal photography began in early February 2021 and lasted until July of that year. Filming predominantly took place in a moorland in the province of Teruel, as well as in the municipalities of Blancas and Villarquemado, with the lagoons of Gallocanta and El Cañizar serving as shooting locations. Release The film was set for a world premiere on 11 October 2021 at the 54th Sitges Film Festival, as part of the festival's official selection. It was released on Netflix worldwide on 6 January 2022. Reception Reviewing for Cinemanía, Miguel Ángel Romero gave the film 3 out of 5 stars and considered that Inma Cuesta and Asier Flores reflect the delicacy of the human mind. He also pointed out that the film helps in the visibility of mental illnesses at a time when mental health advocacy is paramount. Raquel Hernández Luján of HobbyConsolas gave it 68 out of 100 points, considering the atmosphere, the performances, and the musical score to be the best about the film, while negatively assessing that the film features repetitive parts and moments in which the internal logic is compromised. See also List of Spanish films of 2022 References External links The Wasteland on Netflix The Wasteland at IMDb

What was the age difference, in years, between the seventh former President of Murray State University and the comic book artist who worked on *Superman & Bugs Bunny* and *New Guardians* when the comic book artist graduated from college?

7 years

Numerical reasoning | Temporal reasoning

The New Guardians are a DC Comics superhero team featured in the short-lived eponymous series The New Guardians. It was a spin-off from the Millennium event and ran for twelve issues, from 1988 through 1989, before being canceled. The characters first appeared in Millennium #1, (January 1988), written by Steve Engelhart and drawn by Joe Staton. The series has since gained infamy among comic fans due to its poor writing and second issue, which features "Snowflame", a supervillain who gained powers from the use of cocaine. History The New Guardians, who were also initially known as the Chosen, were a group of people selected by a Guardian of the Universe named Herupa Hando Hu and a Zamaron named Nadia Safir in the DC Comics crossover Millennium. These "Chosen" were then given powers by their selectors. Members of the Chosen were selected from several nationalities to form a superhero group representative of the entire human race. Original members Betty Clawman - Formerly an Australian woman, now a disembodied cosmic force with ill-defined abilities, residing in the aboriginal Dreamtime. Extraño - Peruvian male, the team's resident magician was also one of the first obviously homosexual characters in comics (due to the publication standards of the time, the character's homosexuality could only be implied), and was one of the first to reveal that he was HIV-positive. Floronic Man - Formerly American male, who became a plant-human creature with a variety of nature-related powers. The character has since been seen in the pages of the Son of Vulcan mini-series where he returned to acting as a villain. Gloss - A Chinese woman who channels the mystic Dragon Lines of the Earth, and thus sports an array of Earth-related powers. She later joined the Global Guardians, where she remained a member until she was killed by Prometheus. Harbinger - Agent of the Monitor in Crisis on Infinite Earths, she possessed the powers of flight, self-replication and undefined energy blasts. Keeper of the histories of the multiverse, Harbinger died in the pages of Superman/Batman. Donna Troy has since taken up her mantle. Jet - An English girl who could manipulate electromagnetic fields to a variety of effects. She was infected with HIV after being bitten by The Hemogoblin, a vampire with AIDS. After apparently giving her life to fend off an alien invasion, Jet is now alive again and leading the Global Guardians. Ram - Formerly a Japanese man, now a being of silicon and electronics, Ram was physically durable and also had the ability to communicate with electrical equipment over great distances (such as satellites in orbit). He was reportedly killed during a battle in Roulette's casino. Thomas Kalmaku - An Inuit friend of Hal Jordan's, Tom originally turned down the Guardian's offer of advancement, but later developed the super power to "bring out the best in people". He subsequently left the team and has shown no further signs of possessing such powers. Green Lantern: New Guardians Green Lantern: New Guardians is an American comic book series written by Tony Bedard with art by Tyler Kirkham and Batt and published by DC Comics. The team is made up of a representative of each of the Corps that tap into a particular portion of the emotional spectrum; its members are Kyle Rayner (Green Lantern Corps), Arkillo (Sinestro Corps), Bleez (Red Lantern Corps), Glomulus (Orange Lantern Corps), Munk (Indigo Tribe), Saint Walker (Blue Lantern Corps) and Fatality (Star Sapphires). An earlier version of the team, consisting of Hal Jordan, Carol Ferris, Sinestro, Atrocitus, Agent Orange, Saint Walker and Indigo-1, was seen during the Brightest Day story arc in Green Lantern. References External links DC Database: New Guardians DCU Guide: New Guardians Unofficial Crossover Index: Millennium Truly Awful Comics: New Guardians #1 Steve Engelhart.com Guide to Millennium Cosmic Teams: The New Guardians

Joe Staton ( born January 19, 1948) is an American comics artist and writer. He co-created the Bronze Age Huntress (Helena Wayne), as well as the third Huntress (Helena Bertinelli), Kilowog and the Omega Men for DC Comics. He was the artist of the Dick Tracy comic strip from 2011 to October 2021. Early life Joe Staton grew up in Tennessee and graduated from Murray State University in 1970. Career Staton started his comics career at Charlton Comics in 1971 and gained notability as the artist of the super-hero series E-Man. Staton produced art for various comics published by Charlton, Marvel Comics, and Warren Publishing during the 1970s. Hired initially by Roy Thomas to work for Marvel, Staton was then recruited by Paul Levitz to work on DC Comics' revival of the Justice Society of America in All Star Comics and later Adventure Comics. In these titles he illustrated stories including the origin of the JSA in DC Special #29 and the death of the Earth-Two Batman. Staton also illustrated the solo adventures of two female JSA members created during the JSA revival – drawing Power Girl in Showcase and the Huntress. During that time, Staton additionally drew Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, the 1970s revival of the Doom Patrol in Showcase, and the Metal Men. In 1979, Staton began a two-and-a-half-year run on Green Lantern, during which he co-created the Omega Men with writer Marv Wolfman. Staton served as art director for First Comics for three years in the 1980s. He returned to DC Comics afterwards for a second run on Green Lantern and with writer Steve Englehart, oversaw the title's name change to Green Lantern Corps. Staton and Englehart also created the DC weekly crossover series Millennium (Jan.–Feb. 1988). Staton was one of the contributors to the DC Challenge limited series in 1986. In addition, he illustrated Guy Gardner, The Huntress, The New Guardians, and Superman & Bugs Bunny. In the early 1990s, Staton provided the artwork on the Mike Danger Sunday comic strip, written by Max Allan Collins. From the late 90s to the late 2000s, Staton drew DC's Scooby-Doo title for younger readers, as well as the more mature-themed Femme Noir for Ape Entertainment. On January 19, 2011, Tribune Media Services announced that Staton and writer Mike Curtis would replace Dick Locher as the creative team of the Dick Tracy comic strip. The new creative team has worked together on Scooby-Doo, Richie Rich, and Casper the Friendly Ghost and started on March 14, 2011. He pencilled DC Retroactive: Green Lantern – The '80s #1, written by Len Wein, published the same year. Staton also illustrated Charles Santino's graphic novel adaptation of Ayn Rand's Anthem (2011). Awards Joe Staton received an Inkpot Award in 1983. Staton and writer Mike Curtis received the Best Syndicated Strip Harvey Award for Dick Tracy in 2013, 2014, and 2015. Bibliography AC Comics Femforce #121 (Femme Noir) (2003) Alpha Productions The Detectives #1 (Michael Mauser, Private Eye) (1993) E-Man #1 (1993) E-Man Returns #1 (1994) Ape Entertainment Ape Entertainment's Cartoonapalooza #2 (Femme Noir) (2009) Femme Noir: The Dark City Diaries #1–4 (2008) Apple Press ElfQuest: Siege at Blue Mountain #1–5 (inker) (1987–1988) The New Crime Files of Michael Mauser, Private Eye #1 (1992) Archie Comics Archie & Friends Double Digest Magazine #1–5 (2011) Archie's Super Teens #1 (1994) Jughead's Double Digest #139–142 (2008) Bill Spicer Fantasy Illustrated #2 (1964) Caliber Press Dominique: Protect and Serve #1 (1995) Negative Burn #18, 20, 33, 49 (1995–1997) Century Comics For Action Hero Actor Comics Presents #1 (2006) CFD Productions Noir #2 (Michael Mauser, Private Eye) (1995) Charlton Comics Charlton Bullseye #4 (E-Man) (1976) E-Man #1–10 (1973–1975) Ghost Manor #5–6, 10, 13 (1972–1973) Ghostly Haunts #28, 32, 35–36 (1972–1973) Ghostly Tales #104, 117 (1973–1975) Haunted #11–12, 18, 21–22, 26 (1973–1976) Haunted Love #1–5 (1973) I Love You #91, 110 (1971–1975) Love and Romance #6 (1972) Love Diary #79, 88 (1972–1974) The Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves #30, 36–37, 41, 43, 47 (1972–1974) Midnight Tales #1–11, 13–14 (1972–1975) Monster Hunters #1 (1975) Primus #1–7 (1972) Scary Tales #1, 4 (1975–1976) Secret Romance #21 (1972) The Six Million Dollar Man #1–6 (1976–1978) Space 1999 #1–3, 5 (1975–1976) Sweethearts #133 (1973) Teen-Age Love #87 (1972) Teen Confessions #78 (1973) Vengeance Squad #1–6 (Michael Mauser, Private Eye) (1975–1976) Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch #1, 4–5 (1975–1976) Charlton Neo Paul Kupperberg's Secret Romances #2 (2015) The Charlton Arrow vol. 2 #1–3 (E-Man) (2017–2018) Comico E-Man #1–3 (1989–1990) Johnny Quest #2 (inker), #11 (penciller) (1986–1987) Maze Agency #6 (1989) CPL/GANG Publications The Charlton Bullseye #4 (E-Man) (1976) CrossGen Crossovers #7–9 (2003) Dark Horse Michael Chabon Presents: The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist #2 (2004) DC Comics 9-11: The World's Finest Comic Book Writers & Artists Tell Stories to Remember, Vol. 2 (2002) Action Comics #525–526, 531, 535–536 (1981–1982) Adventure Comics #445–447 (inker); #456–478 (penciller) (1976–1980) All-Star Comics #66–74 (1977–1978) Batman #334 (1981) Batman 80-Page Giant #3 (2000) Batman & Superman Adventures: World's Finest #1 (1997) Batman and Robin Adventures #17, 21, Annual #2 (1997) Batman and Robin Adventures: Sub-Zero #1 (1998) Batman Beyond #4–6 (1999) Batman Chronicles #15 (1999) Batman Family #18–20 (Huntress) (1978) Batman: Blackgate #1 (1997) Batman: Death of Innocents #1 (1996) Batman: Gotham Adventures #29 (2000) Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #65–68, Annual #4 (1994–1995) Batman: Penguin Triumphant #1 (1992) Batman: Shadow of the Bat #14–15, 42, Annual #2 (1993–1995) Batman: Two-Face Strikes Twice #1–2 (1993) Blackhawk #271 (1984) Brave & the Bold #148, 197 (1979, 1983) DC Challenge #7 (1986) DC Comics Presents #9–11, 15–16, 21, 23, 39, 96 (1979–1981, 1986) DC Retroactive: Green Lantern – The '80s #1 (2011) DC Special #29 (1977) DC Special Series #10 (Doctor Fate) (1978) DC Super Friends #2 (2008) DC Super Stars #17 (Huntress) (1977) DCU Holiday Bash #3 (1998) Doctor Fate #21 (1990) Family Man #1–3 (1995) Green Lantern vol. 2 #123–155, 188–205 (1979–1982, 1985–1986) Green Lantern vol. 3 #9–13, 18–19, 25 (1991–1992) Green Lantern Corps #206–217, 221–222 (1986–1988) Green Lantern Corps Quarterly #1 (1992) Green Lantern Secret Files #2 (1999) Gross Point #2, 4–7, 9–12 (1997–1998) Guy Gardner #1–14, 44, Annual #2 (1992–1993, 1996) Guy Gardner Reborn #1–3 (1992) Heroes Against Hunger #1 (inker) (1986) House of Mystery #300 (1982) Huntress #1–19 (1989–1990) Karate Kid #1–9 (inker) (1976–1977) Justice League Adventures #7 (2002) Justice League of America #244 (1985) Justice League International Special #2 (1991) Legion of Superheroes #259–260 (1980) The Life Story of the Flash HC (with Gil Kane) (1998) Looney Tunes #140 (2006) Metal Men #50–56 (1977–1978) Millennium #1–8 (1988) Mystery in Space #113 (1980) New Guardians #1–9 (1988–1989) Outsiders #4 (Metamorpho story) (1986) Power Company: Skyrocket #1 (2002) Power of Shazam #19 (1996) Secret Origins #36, 50 (1989–1990) Scooby-Doo #3, 5, 10–14, 16–23, 26–39, 41–48, 50, 52–67, 69, 71, 73–75, 77–78, 80–89, 91, 93, 95–100, 102–107, 109, 111–112, 119, 125–126, 143, 158 (#16 also writer) (1997–2010) Showcase #94–96 (Doom Patrol); #97–99 (Power Girl); #100 (1977–1978) Showcase '95 #10 (1995) Superboy and the Legion of Superheroes #227, 243–249, 252–258 (1976, 1978–1979) Superman & Bugs Bunny #1–4 (2000) Superman Adventures #41, Annual #1 (1997, 2000) Superman Adventures: Dimension of the Dark Shadows #1 (promo) (1998) Superman Family #191–194 (Superboy) (1978–1979) Super Friends #43, 45 (Plastic Man) (1981) Tales of the Green Lantern Corps #1–3 (1981) Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #3–4, 7 (1985) Wonder Woman #241; #271–287, 289–290, 294–299 (Huntress feature) (1978, 1980–1983) World's Finest Comics #262, 273 (1980–1981) Digital Webbing E-Man Recharged #1 (2006) E-Man: Course of the Idol oneshot (2009) E-Man: Dolly #1 (2007) Digital Webbing Jam 2007 oneshot (E-Man) (2007) Disney Disney Adventures #4 (1997) EC Mad #340 (1995) Eclipse Comics Destroyer Duck #1 (1982) First Comics American Flagg! #28–32, 39–40 (1986–1987) Badger Goes Berserk #3 (1989) Crossroads #3 (1988) E-Man #1–25 (#9, 11–23 also writer) (1983–1985) Gift #1 (1990) Grimjack #5, 33 (1984, 1987) Meta-4 #3 (inker) (1991) P.I.'s: Michael Mauser and Ms. Tree #1–3 (1984–1985) Warp #1 (inker) (1983) Hamilton Comics Captain Cosmos, The Last Starveyer #0 (1997) Grave Tales #1–3 (1991–1992) Maggots #1, 3 (1991–1992) Innovation Comics Maze Agency Special #1 (1990) IPC 2000 AD and Tornado #133 (1979) Kitchen Sink Press The Spirit #30 (penciller, two pages) (1981) Malibu Comics Dinosaurs for Hire #8 (1993) Prime #21 (1995) Marvel Comics Amazing Spider-Man #150 (layouts, with Gil Kane) (1975) Avengers #127–134 (1974–1975) Avengers: Celestial Quest #7 (2002) Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #28, 31–32 (1976–1977) Fallen Angels #5–6, 8 (1987) Fred Hembeck Destroys the Marvel Universe #1 (inker, with Vince Colletta) (1989) Incredible Hulk #187–189, 191–209 (inker) (1974–1977) Justice #4 (1987) Marvel Comics Presents #74 (1991) Marvel Fanfare #39, 50 (1988, 1990) Silver Surfer vol. 3 #11, 13–14, Annual #1 (1988) Toxic Crusaders #2, 4 (1992) Vampire Tales #8 (1974) What The--?! #21–22 (1992) Ni-Cola Productions Captain Cosmos, The Last Starveyer #2, 4 (2001–2006) Penguin (New American Library) Anthem GN (2011) Star*Reach Star*Reach #5–7 (1976–1977) Topps Comics Exosquad #0 (1994) Return to Jurassic Park #1–4 (1995) Warren Publishing Creepy #42, 136 (1971, 1982) Wonderful Publishing Company Witzend #10 (1976) Ybor City Publishers Captain Cosmos, The Last Starveyer #1 (1998) References Further reading Bethke, Marlyn and Alexandre Koehn, "From E-Man to Batman: Joe Staton Interview", The Comics Journal #45 (March 1979), pp. 37–45. External links Joe Staton at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original) Joe Staton at the Grand Comics Database "DC Profiles #51: Joe Staton" at the Grand Comics Database Joe Staton at Mike's Amazing World of Comics Joe Staton at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators Biography on Steve Englehart.com

Constantine W. Curris is an American academic administrator. Curris also served as president of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities an organization of more than 400 colleges and universities. Education and honors Constantine William Curris was born in Lexington, Kentucky, on November 13, 1940 and graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1962 with a B.A. in political science. He obtained an M.A. in political science and public administration from the University of Illinois in 1965 and an Ed.D. in higher education from the University of Kentucky in 1967. He received the Alumni Achievement Award from the College of Arts and Science at the University of Illinois. He is a member of the University of Kentucky Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame, the University of Kentucky College of Education Hall of Fame, and he was inducted into the University of Kentucky Hall of Distinguished Alumni on May 19, 2000. Career Curris began his work in higher education in 1965 as vice president and dean of the faculty at Midway College in Kentucky. In 1968 he became director of academic programs for the West Virginia Board of Education. From 1969 through 1971 he was dean of student personnel programs at Marshall University in West Virginia, and for the following two years was the vice president and dean of the faculty at the West Virginia Institute of Technology. In 1973, the 32-year-old Curris was selected as the president of Murray State University, a position he held until 1983. After Curris's contract was not continued at Murray State in 1983, he was hired as president of University of Northern Iowa. That same year, the Murray State University Board of Regents named the school's new student center after Curris. Curris was president and professor of public policy at the University of Northern Iowa from 1983 to 1995. During his tenure, Curris began his active involvement with the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. One of the buildings constructed at UNI during Curris's tenure was subsequently named the Curris Business Building by the Iowa State Board of Regents. From 1995 to 1999, he served as president and professor of public policy of Clemson University. Curris was named president of AASCU in 1999 and served until 2008. He has also been an occasional contributor to The Chronicle of Higher Education, including articles about the public purposes of public colleges, in support of a unit-record system of collecting student data, and about getting college students to the polls. Boards and commissions Other professional experiences for Curris include appointments to the 1998 Commission on the Future of the South, the Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land-Grant Universities, the Education Commission of the States, the Iowa Board of Economic Development, the South Carolina Research Authority, The Sigma Chi Foundation, and the chairmanships of American Humanics and the Iowa Task Force on Teacher Education and Certification. Retirement Since his retirement from AASCU in 2008 Curris has been a consultant in academic searches. In 2009 he was appointed to the Murray State University Board of Regents and now serves as chairman. Curris is married to Jo Hern Curris, a tax attorney. They live in Lexington, Kentucky and are the parents of two adult children: Robert Alexander and Elena Diane. == References ==

Murray State University (MSU) is a public university in Murray, Kentucky, in the Southern United States. In addition to the main campus in Calloway County in southwestern Kentucky, Murray State operates extended campuses offering upper-level and graduate courses in Paducah, Hopkinsville, Madisonville, and Henderson. History Murray State University was founded after the passage of Senate Bill 14 by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, which created two normal schools in the early 20th century to address the growing demand for professional teachers. One was to be located in the western part of the state, and many cities and towns bid for the new normal school. Rainey T. Wells spoke on behalf of the city of Murray to convince the Normal School Commission to choose his city. On September 2, 1922, Murray was chosen as the site of the western normal school, while Morehead was chosen for the eastern normal school. On November 26, 1922, John Wesley Carr was elected the first president of the Murray State Normal School by the State Board of Education. Believing it had the authority to elect the president, the Normal School Commission picked Rainey Wells as the first president. On May 15, 1923, the Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled for the State Board of Education, and Carr became Murray's first president. Murray State Normal School opened on September 24, 1923. In 1924, the first building on Murray State's campus, the Administrative Building, was constructed. Before this, all MSU classes had been held on the first floor of what is now Murray Middle School, located on Main Street. Designed by Joseph & Joseph in the Collegiate Gothic style the Administrative Building, later known as Wrather Hall, housed classrooms, a dining hall, offices, and a chapel. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, and renovated soon after, finally being renamed to Wrather West Kentucky Museum, named for Murray State executive vice-president Marvin O. Wrather. All students lived at home or boarded with local families until the first dormitory, Wells Hall, was constructed in 1925. Wilson Hall was also completed under Carr's presidency, with other structures in progress. In 1926, Rainey T. Wells, recognized as the founder of Murray State, became its second president. Wells served from 1926 to 1932, and during this time Lovett Auditorium, Carr Health Building, and Pogue Library were all completed. In 1926, the Normal School was renamed Murray State Normal School and Teachers College, with a four-year curriculum, and the General Assembly granted it authority to confer baccalaureate degrees. In 1928, the college was accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. In 1930, the name was changed to Murray State Teachers College and it was granted authority to offer liberal arts and pre-professional courses. The name was changed again in 1948 to Murray State College, with the expansion of the programs to include graduate-level courses, in 1966 the General Assembly authorized the Board of Regents to change the name to Murray State University. The Shield The Shield has the heraldic coat of arms of the family of William Murray, Earl of Mansfield, and Lord Chief Justice of Great Britain in 1756. William Murray is an ancestor of the Murray family from whom the city and the university take their names. The shield is blue with a double gold border—its three stars represent hope, endeavor, and achievement. Campus The Quad The oldest and most easily recognizable buildings on the Murray State campus are situated around a large, grassy, tree-lined area on the south side of the campus. This part of the campus, known as the Quad, is bounded by 16th Street to the west, 15th Street to the east, Lovett Auditorium to the north, and Wilson Hall to the south. In the southwest corner of the Quad is the oldest building on campus, now known as Wrather West Kentucky Museum. It was first known as the Administration Building and then as Wrather Hall, and housed classrooms and offices, before it became a museum. Ground for Wrather was broken on October 15, 1923, and it has been in use since 1924. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, and features a large auditorium that is frequently used for lectures and meetings. Faculty Hall, Wells Hall, and the Business Building line the western edge of the Quad. The Lowry Center, Pogue Library, and the Price Doyle Fine Arts Center line the eastern side of the Quad. The 11-story Doyle Fine Arts Center is the tallest building on campus, housing numerous classrooms, practice rooms, recital halls, the Robert E. Johnson Theatre, Clara Eagle Art Gallery, WKMS-FM, and television studios used for student work. Directly south of the Quad is Sparks Hall. The five-story, 39,000-square-foot (3,600 m2), Sparks Hall was completed in 1967 for $1,308,514, and functions as the main administrative building, housing the offices of student financial aid, admissions and registration, accounting and financial services, vice president for administrative services, Center for Continuing Education and Academic Outreach, human resources and university communications. To the south of the Quadrangle, and directly west of Sparks Hall is Oakhurst, the residence of the university president. Construction of the mansion, originally known as Edgewood, began in 1917 and was completed in 1918. The home was built by Dr. and Mrs. Rainey T. Wells. The Board of Regents purchased the home from Rainey T. Wells in June 1936. It was remodeled that year and renamed Oakhurst in preparation for James H. Richmond's occupation of the house. Central campus The central portion of the Murray State campus lines 15th Street between Chestnut Street and Olive Boulevard. This portion of 15th Street was originally open to automobile traffic but has since been closed and converted into a pedestrian thoroughfare. Along the west side of the pedestrian pathway are the Martha Layne Collins Center for Industry and Technology, Blackburn Science Building, and Oakley Applied Science Building. To the east of the pedestrian pathway lies the Curris Center, Carr Health Building and Cutchin Fieldhouse, Waterfield Library, Mason Hall, and the front facade of the now-demolished Ordway Hall. Woods Hall, a former dormitory located behind Waterfield Library, was razed in the summer of 2019, and the space it occupied will soon be replaced with a park. Ordway Hall was the most historic building in the central portion of campus. It was completed in 1931. Originally used as a men's dormitory, 38,600-square-foot Ordway Hall later housed event space and several offices. Because of costly renovation needs, Ordway was razed in 2013. The front facade was retained as a monument to its significance. Science campus An aggressive building campaign on campus has resulted in a westward expansion of the main academic campus of Murray State. The expansion began with a massive renovation and expansion of what is now known as Alexander Hall on the west side of 16th Street near Calloway Avenue. The project was the first to unveil a new architectural style that would become consistent through all renovation and new construction projects on campus. Alexander Hall houses classrooms and offices for the College of Education. Construction continued with the new state-of-the-art science complex for biology and chemistry that is located just to the southwest of Alexander Hall. The massive new science complex was constructed in phases, with the Biology Building opening in 2004, and the rest of the complex and centerpiece clock tower reaching completion in March 2008. The new clock tower was dedicated in 2007 as the Jesse L. Jones Family Clock Tower. A physics and engineering building was completed in the summer of 2017. Sports and recreation facilities The majority of the university's sports and recreation facilities are located on the northernmost edge of the campus, along the KY-121 Bypass. The most prominent structure in the sports complex is Roy Stewart Stadium. The stadium, the home field to the Murray State Racers football program, was completed in 1973 and named for former Murray State football coach Roy Stewart. It seats 16,800. The outdated AstroTurf surface was replaced with FieldTurf in 2007. Located on the second floor of the seven-story press box and seating structure is the Pat Spurgin Rifle Range, home of the three-time NCAA champion rifle squad. The 8,602-seat CFSB Center was completed in 1998 to replace the aging Racer Arena, which had been outgrown by the men's and women's basketball teams. Racer Arena remains in use by the women's volleyball team. On April 16, 2005, the new Susan E. Bauernfeind Student Recreation and Wellness Center was dedicated. The 73,000-square-foot (6,800 m2) student recreation center includes a swimming pool, two racquetball courts, a walking/jogging track, an aerobic studio, basketball courts, and free weights and cardio workout machines. The center is located just north of the residential colleges, near Roy Stewart Stadium. Residence halls A building campaign is underway to replace many of the older residence halls. A replacement building for Clark College was completed and ready for residents at the beginning of the 2007 fall semester. Clark Hall was the newest building, and the first residence hall specifically designed around the residential college concept and model. A new four-story, 270-bed, 79,900-square foot Richmond Hall was opened for James H. Richmond Residential College in fall 2009. It has a similar concept and design as Clark College. In the fall of 2009, the old Clark Hall building was torn down. Following the completion of the spring 2011 semester, the university began renovation to Elizabeth Hall, which houses the Elizabeth Residential College. The $7.2 million renovation project closed the building for the entire 2011–12 academic year as the highrise was upgraded to meet Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards. The renovation also included new heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) silver status. The renovated Elizabeth Hall reopened on August 18, 2012. Hester Hall is the next highrise residence hall scheduled for renovation; however, the timeline for that project has not been announced. Academics Murray State University offers eleven associate programs, 64 bachelor programs, 42 master and specialist programs, and three doctoral programs which are administered through four academic colleges, two schools, 30 departments, and one joint program shared by the College of Business and the College of Science, Engineering, and Technology. The College of Business is the largest at Murray State, enrolling 23% of the undergraduate students. Murray State has been institutionally accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, Commission on Colleges, continuously since 1928. It is one of eight schools in the state of Kentucky to achieve AACSB accreditation of business programs; however, the school is not AACSB-accredited in accounting programs. Several other programs have achieved specialized accreditation: primarily programs in teaching, fine arts and nursing. As a former normal school and teachers' college, Murray State is best known for its NCATE-accredited education programs. The Clinical Psychology Master's program is accredited by the Masters in Psychology and Counseling Accreditation Council (MPCAC). The university has also gained national recognition for its fine arts programs. The Department of Music has been a member of the National Association of Schools of Music since 1936. Rankings For 29 years, Murray State University has been recognized by U.S. News & World Report's Best Colleges as one of the top regional universities in the United States. The 2019 rankings listed Murray State at 11th place among the public regional universities in the South and 24th overall among all regional universities in the South. Murray State has consistently been one of the top-ranked public regional universities in Kentucky in the Regional Universities-South category, which consists of both private and public schools. Murray State has also been ranked by Forbes among America's Top Colleges since 2008. Tuition policies Presumably, due to its location near multiple state borders, Murray State offers discounts from its normal out-of-state tuition rates to residents of several regional states. These discounts apply only to residential students; all online students pay the same rate regardless of residency. Tuition for doctoral students also does not vary by state of residence. Residents of Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, and Mississippi receive what Murray State calls a "regional" rate for both undergraduate and graduate programs. Residents of Tennessee receive the regional rate for graduate programs, but undergraduate programs receive a special rate between the regional and in-state rates. Residents of specific counties in Illinois, Indiana, and Tennessee are treated as Kentucky residents for tuition purposes: Illinois: Massac County (directly across the Ohio River from Paducah, the largest city in Murray State's home Purchase region) Indiana: Posey, Vanderburgh, and Warrick Counties (all directly across the Ohio from Kentucky; Evansville is in Vanderburgh County) Tennessee: Henry, Montgomery, Obion, Stewart, and Weakley Counties (all bordering Kentucky; Clarksville is in Montgomery County) International students 401 international students from 45 countries studied at Murray State as of 2021. MSU has several international student groups, including the International Student Organization, the Saudi Student Association, and the Indian Student Association. Murray State University provides an English as a Second Language (ESL) program to assist international students who are not fluent in English to come to Kentucky to study. This program provides English-speaking, listening, reading, and writing instruction while teaching students about American culture. The ESL program also offers conversation partner practice, where international students are paired with students from the United States to practice speaking English. Campus life Residential colleges As of fall 2012, Murray State had 2,831 students living on campus. Murray State was the first public university in the United States to adopt a successful campus-wide residential college program. The residential college structure, which took form on the campus in 1996, is based on similar, but much more established programs at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge in the United Kingdom as well as Yale University, Harvard College and Princeton University in the United States. The Murray State model does not include some components of the classical residential college model, such as dining halls and libraries at each college. In the Murray State model students do share central dining areas and recreation areas. However, as the older structures are being phased out, the university is taking steps with the new residential colleges to address many of those needs. Although the physical structures of all of Murray State's residential colleges do not match those of institutions such as Oxford or Yale, the basic residential college concept was successfully implemented. All faculty, staff, and students, even those who live off-campus, are assigned to one of the eight residential colleges. Once assigned to a residential college, a person remains a member of that college throughout their time at the university. The eight colleges of Murray State Clark College, named for Lee Clark, who assisted Rainey T. Wells in founding the university. Clark later served as the superintendent of grounds and buildings. The current Clark College opened in August 2007 as the first new residence hall built on campus since 1970. It is also the first residence hall at Murray to be specifically designed to support the residential college concept. Elizabeth College, named for Elizabeth Harkless Woods, wife of fourth Murray State President Ralph H. Woods Hart College, named for George Hart, a Board of Regents member and former mayor of Murray Hester College, named for Cleo Gillis Hester, who served Murray State University from 1927 to 1960, as registrar Regents College, named in honor of the outstanding citizens who have served on Murray State University's Board of Regents; completed in 1970 Richmond College, named for the third president of the university, James H. Richmond Springer-Franklin College, named for O.B. Springer, member of the Board of Regents from 1950 to 1958 and 1960 to 1970, and Hollis C. Franklin, who served on the board from 1947 to 1956 White College, named for R.H. "Bob" White, a Board of Regents member Student Government Association The Student Government Association (SGA) is the officially organized body governing all students and student organizations at Murray State University. Its purpose is to promote the welfare, growth, and development of student life in an environment of academic excellence, to represent the students in all phases of administrative effort, and to provide a means of promoting cooperative efforts for the general welfare of the university community. The SGA is made up of four branches: Senate, Campus Activities Board, Judicial Board, and the Residential College Association. The Senate is the main branch of SGA, and it is the governing body with the power to pass resolutions, bills, rules, and regulations necessary for the general welfare of the university, and to implement and maintain any programs consistent with SGA purposes. The president of SGA holds the student seat on the Board of Regents. Greek life Murray State is home to twenty-six chapters of both social and professional Greek organizations. The oldest social fraternity on campus is Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia and the oldest professional fraternity is Sigma Alpha Iota (both relating to music) with the oldest social sorority being Sigma Sigma Sigma. As of the spring 2016 semester, 1,438 students were officially reported to be involved with Greek life, representing 19% of the undergraduate student population. As of Fall 2019, 16% of undergraduate students make up Murray State Greek Life. The average chapter size for the Panhellenic Council is 93; Interfraternity Council is 50; and National Pan-Hellenic Council is 5. The average Greek GPA is 3.20. (All statistics come from the Murray State University Office of Greek Life website.) Greek life has been banned on campus several times in past decades, namely 2012 and 2018. The 2012 incidents involved Alpha Gamma Rho and Alpha Tau Omega fraternity houses. The 2018 ban on Greek life and social events followed the death of 19-year-old Zach Wardrip. In both cases, several persons were hospitalized for alcohol poisoning and ensuing violence. In 1998, a fatal dormitory fire on campus was attributed to GLOs. Traditions Alma mater The alma mater of Murray State University is sung to the tune of "Annie Lisle" and has two verses. A.B. Austin, one-time Dean of Men, wrote the words in 1935. It is traditionally sung at student orientation, convocation and commencement ceremonies, athletic events, and other special events on campus. All-Campus Sing All-Campus Sing is an annual event, first held in 1958, that takes place each April in which residential colleges, fraternities, sororities, and other student organizations compete in a choreographed song and dance competition. The event is hosted by the Iota Beta chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota (the original organizer of the event), with financial assistance from the MSU Alumni Association and the Office of Student Affairs. It is held on the steps of historic Lovett Auditorium. Campus Lights Campus Lights is the longest-running student-produced and performed musical in the South. The show was started in 1938 by the Gamma Delta chapter of Phi Mu Alpha as a fundraiser to pay the chapter's chartering fees. Campus Lights is now produced by a joint effort of the Gamma Delta chapter of Phi Mu Alpha and the Iota Beta chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota. All proceeds from the show are given to the Department of Music to fund scholarships. Racer One In 1976, the tradition of having a thoroughbred run around the track after every MSU football touchdown began. The name of that first racehorse was Violet Cactus. She died in 1984 and was buried at Roy Stewart Stadium, near the area where the current Racer One begins its run around the football field after a Racer touchdown. She is the only mascot to be interred inside the walls of the stadium. Since 1985, each horse that has circled the football field after touchdowns has been known as Racer One. Several horses have filled the role of Racer One since 1985, and the position is currently held by a horse named Vegas. Each fall, sophomores and juniors with riding experience can try out to serve as jockeys of Racer One for the following football season. The position is typically held by a student in his or her senior year. Shoe Tree Located in front of Pogue Library, Murray State tradition dictates if a couple gets married after meeting at Murray State, they return to the Quad and each one nails one of their shoes to the "Shoe Tree." Many of the shoes include names and dates written on them. If the couple has a baby, the baby's shoes are sometimes also nailed to the tree. The shoe tree tradition originated around 1965. This tree (due to the high zinc content from the nails) is a common target of lightning and has caught fire in the past. Previous incarnations of the Shoe Tree were removed in 1999 and 2015 due to safety reasons; the tradition continues through the third tree. The Shoe Tree was featured in Danish pop band Lukas Graham's September 2018 music video for their song "Love Someone." Tent City An annual tradition since 1989, Tent City is an event that takes place before every homecoming football game. At Tent City, more than 50 tents are set up on the track at Roy Stewart Stadium, representing fraternities, sororities, student organizations, and residential colleges. An average of 100 organizations participate each year. Students use this event as a chance to talk to and meet with alumni to help raise money for their activities throughout the school year. Athletics The Murray State athletic teams are called the Racers. Their historic nickname had been the "Thoroughbreds", but all teams changed over time to "Racers", with the last holdout of baseball making the change in 2014. The university is a member of the NCAA Division I ranks (for football, the Football Championship Subdivision), primarily competing in the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) since the 2022–23 academic year. The Racers previously competed in the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) from 1948–49 to 2021–22; and in the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (currently known as the River States Conference (RSC) since the 2016–17 school year) of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) from 1933–34 to 1947–48. Murray State competes in 15 intercollegiate varsity sports: Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, football, and golf; while women's sports include basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, tennis, track & field, and volleyball; and co-ed sports include rifle. Move to the MVC In July 2022, Murray State and Belmont will both leave the OVC to join the MVC. Because the MVC does not sponsor football, Murray State plans to remain in OVC football for the 2022 season before leaving for the Missouri Valley Football Conference (a separate entity from the MVC) in 2023. MSU will also maintain OVC membership in rifle, another sport not sponsored by the MVC. Accomplishments Murray State is particularly renowned for its men's basketball program, which has made 18 appearances in the NCAA Tournament, most recently in 2022. In 2010, as a 13-seed, Murray State won their second-ever NCAA tournament game on a buzzer-beater against 4th-seeded Vanderbilt. Former Alabama head basketball coach Mark Gottfried coached the Racers to three Ohio Valley Conference Championships all three years he coached there, the only OVC coach to accomplish such a mark. The Racer men's basketball team was also led to the 2012 OVC championship by Coach Steve Prohm. The basketball program has been recognized as one of the top 30 basketball programs in modern history by ESPN. Murray State also is home to one of the nation's top rifle programs. The Racers claimed national championships in 1978 (NRA), 1985 (NCAA) and 1987 (NCAA) and have produced six individual NCAA national champions, including two-time national titlist and 1984 Summer Olympics gold medalist Pat Spurgin. In addition, MSU is also recognized as a National Historic Chemical Landmark (NHCL) for William Kelly's Iron and Steel Making Process [NHCL, American Chemical Society, 2015]. The football program has become a stepping-stone to major college-coaching success. Frank Beamer, the former Virginia Tech head coach who built that program into a national power in the 1990s and early 2000s, and former Ole Miss head coach Houston Nutt are both former Racers head coaches. Former Maryland head coach Ralph Friedgen was a Racers assistant under Beamer, and former Illinois head coach Ron Zook was an assistant under former ESPN college football analyst Mike Gottfried, who was Beamer's predecessor as head coach. Murray State is also the home of a nationally ranked collegiate bass fishing team that has won multiple titles, including national championships. Publications The Murray State News The Murray State News is the student newspaper of Murray State University. The newspaper has been the recipient of several ACP Pacemaker awards, the highest award given to collegiate newspapers, most recently in 2004. In October 2013 the newspaper won third place best-in-show for four-year weekly broadcast at the National College Media Convention in New Orleans. The Murray State News gained notoriety between 1998 and 2001 through the work of cartoonist Darin Shock. Shock earned the honor of top college cartoonist in the nation from the College Media Advisers in 2000. He had earned second-place honors the previous year. Gateway Gateway Magazine is a full-color, glossy magazine published annually as an imprint of The Murray State News. The Shield The school yearbook, The Shield, was awarded three Pacemaker awards and two CSPA Silver Crowns. The Shield ceased publication with its 2008 edition due to financial concerns. New Madrid The university's national literary magazine, New Madrid with editor Ann Neelon, featured work from a range of nationally recognized authors and received acclaim from sources as diverse as La Bloga, a leading Hispanic journal, and New Pages, a leading national review of literary magazines. A lack of funding led to the suspension of publication in 2018. Radio WKMS-FM (91.3 FM) is a non-commercial, educational National Public Radio-affiliated station licensed and operated by Murray State University. It features a variety of NPR programming and local music shows ranging from classical music, bluegrass, alternative rock, jazz, electronica, and world music. Former Presidents of the University Presidents of the university include: John W. Carr, 1923–1926 Rainey T. Wells, 1926–1932 John W. Carr, 1933–1936 James H. Richmond, 1936–1945 Ralph H. Woods, 1945–1968 Harry M. Sparks, 1968–1973 Constantine W. Curris, 1973–1983 Kala M. Stroup, 1983–1990 James L. Booth, 1989–1990 (Acting) Ronald J. Kurth, 1990–1994 Samuel Kern Alexander, 1994–2001 Fieldon King Alexander, 2001–2005 Samuel Kern Alexander, 2006 (interim) Tim Miller, 2006 (interim) Randy J. Dunn, 2006–2013 Tim Miller, 2013–2014 Robert O. Davies, 2014–2018 Robert Jackson, 2018–present Notable alumni References External links Official website Murray State athletics website

Of the top 3 women's WTA singles ranking as of 29th July 2024, which has a father who was an ice hockey player?

Aryna Sablenka

Multiple constraints

Aryna Siarhiejeŭna Sabalenka (born 5 May 1998) is a Belarusian professional tennis player. She is a former world No. 1 in both singles and doubles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). Sabalenka has won three major singles titles at the 2023 and 2024 Australian Opens and the 2024 US Open, and two major doubles titles, at the 2019 US Open and the 2021 Australian Open, both partnering with Elise Mertens. She has won 22 career titles, 16 in singles and 6 in doubles. Sabalenka came to prominence in 2017 when, together with Aliaksandra Sasnovich, they led the Belarus Fed Cup team to a runner-up finish despite both of them being ranked outside the top 75 at the time. She finished 2018 and 2019 ranked No. 11 in the world in singles. Following two major singles semifinal appearances in 2021, Sabalenka peaked at the world No. 2 ranking but struggled to maintain that success in 2022 consistently. In 2023, she won her first major singles title at the Australian Open, reached the semifinals at all four major tournaments (also finishing runner-up at the US Open), and obtained the world No. 1 ranking, being named the ITF World Champion for the season. Sabalenka also began playing doubles regularly in 2019. With Mertens as her partner, she completed the Sunshine Double by winning the two Premier Mandatory tournaments in March, the Indian Wells Open and the Miami Open. After the US Open doubles title later in the year, she also qualified for the WTA Finals for the first time. With the 2021 Australian Open doubles title, she became the world No. 1 in the discipline. Sabalenka has a very aggressive style of play, often accumulating high numbers of winners and unforced errors. With her height, she also has a very powerful serve. Early life and background Sabalenka was born in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. Her father, Sergey (d. 2019), was an ice hockey player. Sabalenka started playing tennis by chance. She said, "One day, my dad was just driving me somewhere in the car, and he saw tennis courts on the way. So he took me to the courts. I liked it and enjoyed it, and that's how it was. That's how it started." She began training at the National Tennis Academy in Minsk when it opened in 2014. In 2015, the Belarusian Tennis Federation persuaded Sabalenka and her team to focus on playing low-level professional events instead of junior tournaments, even though she was still eligible to compete at the junior level. Junior career Sabalenka had a late start on the ITF Junior Circuit, instead competing on the U14 and U16 Tennis Europe tours at a younger age. She did not compete in the main draw of any ITF events until 2013 at the low-level Grade-4 Tallink Cup in Estonia at the age of 15. She never played in the junior Grand Slam tournaments or any other high-level Grade-A and Grade-1 events. Without the higher point levels from these bigger tournaments, she had a career-high ranking of just No. 225. Sabalenka won her first ITF title in doubles at the lowest-level Grade-5 Alatan Tour Cup in Belarus in late 2013 with compatriot Vera Lapko as her partner. In 2014, she excelled at Grade 4 events. She reached her first singles final at the Estonian Junior Open in June and won her first singles title at the MTV Total Junior Cup in Finland in October. At the end of the season, Sabalenka defended her Alatan Tour Cup doubles title, this time with compatriot Nika Shytkouskaya, and also won the singles title. She only played in one tournament in 2015, the European Junior Championships. As a Grade B1 event, this was the highest-level junior tournament she played in. She lost in the second round to top seed Markéta Vondroušová. Professional career 2012–2016: Top 200, Fed Cup debut Sabalenka began playing on the ITF Women's Circuit in 2012, even before she competed on the ITF Junior Circuit. Her first five tournaments were in her hometown of Minsk and spread out over two years, but she did not win a main draw match in any of them. She won her first professional match at the very end of 2014 in Istanbul. The following season in October, she won her first two titles in back-to-back weeks in Antalya, both at the $10k level. Sabalenka also won a $25k title the last week of the year. This title put her into the top 300 WTA rankings for the first time at the start of 2016. That year, she made her Fed Cup debut in April, losing her only match. She also won her two biggest titles to date at the $50k level. The first in Tianjin put her into the top 200 in May and the second in Toyota in November helped her finish the year ranked at No. 137 in the world. 2017: Fed Cup heroics, WTA 125 title, top 100 Despite some early season success in the Fed Cup, Sabalenka had a quiet start to the year. She played in her first WTA Tour main draw in February as a qualifier at the Dubai Open; however, she did not win her first WTA Tour match until Wimbledon in July. In her Grand Slam debut, she again reached the main draw through qualifying and defeated Irina Khromacheva in the opening round. Sabalenka followed up this achievement with another win at the Washington Open over No. 34 Lauren Davis, the 2016 runner-up and the highest-ranked player she had defeated at the time. After losing in qualifying at the US Open, Sabalenka reached her first ever WTA semifinal at the Tashkent Open, defeating third seed and world No. 53, Tatjana Maria, along the way. A few weeks later, she entered the Tianjin Open as the 119th-ranked player in the world, but managed to reach her first WTA tournament final. There, she faced her childhood idol Maria Sharapova, but ultimately lost in two tight sets. With this performance, she rose to No. 76 in the rankings, entering the top 100 for the first time. After losing a tight Fed Cup final to the United States, Sabalenka finished the season by winning the biggest title of her career at the time at the Mumbai Open, a WTA 125 event. The title cemented her at No. 73 at the end of the year. 2018: Newcomer of the Year, Premier 5 title After playing relatively few WTA events in 2017, Sabalenka used her higher ranking to play exclusively on the WTA Tour 2018. She reached two quarterfinals to begin the year, but lost her opening-round match at the Australian Open to top-ranked Australian and world No. 18 Ashleigh Barty. She then won her first matches at a Premier tournament with a third-round appearance at the Indian Wells Open before the early-year hardcourt season came to a close, including a victory over No. 19, Svetlana Kuznetsova. Sabalenka began the clay-court season by reaching a second career final at the Ladies Open Lugano, where she finished runner-up to No. 20 Elise Mertens. This success put her in the top 50 for the first time. However, she did not win another match for the rest of the clay-court season; this included a first-round loss to No. 22 Kiki Bertens at the French Open. Sabalenka had stronger results on grass, playing in tune-ups during each of the three weeks before Wimbledon. She made it to the quarterfinals at the Rosmalen Grass Court Championships and the final at the Premier level Eastbourne International. At the latter event, she won five consecutive three-set matches, including three over top 20 opponents and her first top-ten victory against defending champion and world No. 7 Karolína Plíšková. Sabalenka lost the final to world No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki. For the third consecutive Grand Slam event, she went out in the first round at Wimbledon. During the North American hardcourt summer season, Sabalenka rose through the rankings. At the two Premier 5 tournaments, she reached the third round at the Canadian Open and the semifinals at the Cincinnati Open. In the former, she avenged her previous loss to world No. 2, Wozniacki, for the biggest win of her career, hitting 64 winners during the match. In the latter, she recorded two more top-ten wins over No. 8 Plíšková and No. 5 Caroline Garcia before losing to world No. 1, Simona Halep. Just a week later, Sabalenka won her first WTA Tour title at the Premier-level Connecticut Open with wins over world No. 9, Julia Görges, in the semifinal, and Carla Suárez Navarro in the final. Playing a fourth consecutive week, she closed out this part of the season with her best result at a Grand Slam tournament to date, making it to the fourth round at the US Open. In particular, she upset world No. 5, Petra Kvitová, in the third round before losing to the eventual champion, Naomi Osaka. She was the only player to win a set against Osaka in the tournament. After the US Open, Sabalenka earned her first No. 1 seed at the Tournoi de Québec but lost her opening match. Nonetheless, she followed this up by winning the Premier 5 level Wuhan Open, the biggest title of her career. During the event, she upset No. 6 Elina Svitolina in the second round and did not drop a set in her last four matches. The following week, Sabalenka reached the quarterfinals of the China Open, a run that included a win over defending champion and No. 4, Caroline Garcia, for her eighth top-ten victory of the season. This success in China helped her climb to No. 11 in the world. At the end of the season, Sabalenka qualified for the WTA Elite Trophy, where she was grouped with Garcia and Ashleigh Barty. She defeated Barty to open the group but lost to Garcia in the group's final match. Barty, having defeated Garcia with fewer games lost, advanced out of the group through the tiebreak criteria to end Sabalenka's season. Nonetheless, she was named the WTA Newcomer of the Year for her excellent performance in her first full year on the WTA Tour. 2019: Top 10 debut in singles, world No. 2 in doubles Singles: Elite Trophy, three titles in China in total Although Sabalenka once again struggled at the Grand Slam tournaments, she ultimately finished the year with the same year-end ranking as in 2018 on the strength of three titles, all in China. She began the season by winning her third career WTA title at the Shenzhen Open, defeating Alison Riske in the final in a tight three-set match. Due to rain delays in the earlier rounds, she needed to play both the semifinal and the final on the last day of the tournament. However, she could not build on this success in the rest of the first half of the year. Sabalenka lost to 17-year-old Amanda Anisimova in straight sets at both the Australian Open and the French Open in the third and second rounds, respectively. She had been considered the third-leading favourite for the title at the Australian Open. Nonetheless, she made her top-10 debut following the event. Sabalenka fared worse at Wimbledon, losing her opening match to No. 139 Magdaléna Rybáriková. In-between the Grand Slam tournaments, Sabalenka's best result was a semifinal loss to No. 8, Kiki Bertens, at the Premier-level St. Petersburg Trophy in February. She also made the fourth round at the Indian Wells Open. Her best result on clay was a semifinal at the Internationaux de Strasbourg in May. Sabalenka had a better second half of the season. In her first tournament following Wimbledon, she finished runner-up to Zheng Saisai at the Silicon Valley Classic, a Premier-level event. She did not perform well at either Premier 5 tournament in August or the US Open, losing in the second round at the last Grand Slam tournament of the year. Sabalenka returned to China following the US Open, and produced three strong results in four events. After a quarterfinal at the Zhengzhou Open, she defended her title at the Premier 5 Wuhan Open. During the event, she defeated No. 8 Kiki Bertens in the third round and No. 1 Ashleigh Barty in the semifinals, her first victory over a current world No. 1 player. She won the final over Alison Riske. At the end of the season, Sabalenka qualified for the WTA Elite Trophy for the second consecutive year. She swept her round-robin group of Maria Sakkari and her doubles partner Elise Mertens. In the knockout rounds, Sabalenka defeated Karolína Muchová and Bertens for her fifth career title, and her third title of the year in China. Doubles: US Open champion, Sunshine Double Sabalenka started the year ranked No. 73 in doubles. She began partnering with Elise Mertens in January, when the pair lost to top seeds Barbora Krejčíková and Kateřina Siniaková in the third round of the Australian Open. They had their breakthrough in March at the two Premier Mandatory tournaments. In only their second tournament together, Sabalenka and Mertens won the Indian Wells Open. They defeated three of the top five seeds in the event, including second seeds Tímea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic in the first round and top seeds Krejčíková and Siniaková in the final. The pair matched this success at their next event by winning the Miami Open to complete the Sunshine Double. They defeated three of the top six seeds, including third seeds Hsieh Su-wei and Barbora Strýcová in the second round. They won the final against sixth seeds Samantha Stosur and Zhang Shuai. With these two titles, Sabalenka rose to No. 21 in the world. Sabalenka and Mertens continued to partner together throughout the year, entering eleven events before the year-end championships. Sabalenka did not have much success in the Grand Slam singles events, but she produced much better results in doubles. Sabalenka and Mertens reached the semifinals at the French Open, losing to second seeds Babos and Mladenovic. They then reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, losing to third seeds Hsieh and Strýcová. These were Sabalenka's first two appearances in at least the quarterfinals at a Grand Slam event. Sabalenka and Mertens had their best result of the year at the US Open. As the fourth seed at the event, they made it to the final without playing another top-ten-seeded team. In the final, they faced eighth seeds Victoria Azarenka and Ashleigh Barty, the latter of whom had won the title a year earlier with CoCo Vandeweghe. Sabalenka and Mertens defeated Azarenka and Barty in straight sets for their first Grand Slam title in any discipline. With this title, Sabalenka made her top 10 debut in doubles at No. 6 in the world. Sabalenka and Mertens made one more final during the year, finishing runner-up at the Wuhan Open, where Sabalenka won the singles title. Their three big titles helped them win the Race to Shenzhen and qualify for the WTA Finals as the top seeds. Before the event, Sabalenka and Mertens moved up to No. 2 and No. 3 in the rankings, respectively, behind only world No. 1, Barbora Strýcová. At the WTA Finals, the pair were placed in a round robin group with third seeds Babos and Mladenovic, fifth seeds Chan Hao-ching and Latisha Chan, as well as eighth seeds Anna-Lena Grönefeld and Demi Schuurs. In their opening match, they were upset by Grönefeld and Schuurs in a match tiebreak. After defeating the Chan sisters, Sabalenka and Mertens lost to Babos and Mladenovic in another match tiebreak. They did not advance out of their group. 2020: Three WTA Tour titles, year-end top 10 Sabalenka continued her late-season surge by reaching the semifinals in Adelaide. She came from a 3–5 final set deficit against Hsieh Su-wei before sliding past Bernarda Pera and shocking second seed Simona Halep, whom she had never won a set against before, in straight sets. She then lost in straight sets to eventual runner-up Dayana Yastremska. Despite her excellent start to the season, she was upset by Carla Suárez Navarro in two tie-breakers in the first round of the Australian Open. She enjoyed moderate success in doubles, with Mertens reaching the quarterfinals before losing to the Chan sisters. Her next tournament was the Dubai Tennis Championships, where she made the quarterfinals with wins over Maria Sakkari and doubles partner Mertens. There she faced Simona Halep. Despite taking the first set, she could not repeat her earlier upset, falling to the eventual champion in three sets. She rebounded at the Qatar Open, reaching the final with wins over Anett Kontaveit, Maria Sakkari, Zheng Saisai and Svetlana Kuznetsova. In the final, she defeated Petra Kvitová in straight sets to claim her third Premier-5 title. After tennis resumed in August due to COVID-19, she was the second seed in Lexington, where she survived Madison Brengle in three sets but then fell in a three set thriller to 16-year-old Coco Gauff. Her results continued to disappoint as she seeded fifth and crashed out in the second round of Cincinnati and New York to Jessica Pegula and a resurgent Victoria Azarenka. She had moderate success in doubles, reaching the quarterfinals of both events. Her results in singles began to improve on clay as she reached the semifinals in Strasbourg and the third round of the French Open losing to Elina Svitolina and Ons Jabeur, respectively. That was Sabalenka's last loss of the season. In Ostrava, she came from 5–2 in the decider down to avenge her Lexington loss to Gauff and lost the first ten games of her quarterfinal match against Sara Sorribes Tormo before winning the next twelve to win. In the final, she avenged her US Open loss to Azarenka, defeating her compatriot in straight sets. She then also took the Linz title by beating Elise Mertens in the final. This gave Sabalenka the first year-end top-10 finish in her career. 2021: World No. 1 in doubles, two major semifinals, world No. 2 in singles Sabalenka entered 2021 on a nine-match winning streak and participated in her first tournament at the Abu Dhabi Open as the fourth seed. She defeated Polona Hercog in straight sets, coming back from a 5–2 deficit in the first set, and then defeated Ajla Tomljanović and Ons Jabeur to reach the quarterfinals, similarly in straight sets. She beat Elena Rybakina in the quarterfinals, where she dropped her first set of the week before defeating Maria Sakkari in straight sets. In the final, Sabalenka defeated first-time finalist Veronika Kudermetova in straight sets, losing just four games in total. The run to the title at Abu Dhabi extended her winning streak to 15 matches and catapulted her to a new ranking of No. 7. Sabalenka went into the Australian Open looking to make a Grand Slam singles quarterfinal for the first time in her career. In three sets, she was defeated in the fourth round by 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams. Sabalenka won the doubles competition with Elise Mertens. By winning the title, Sabalenka ascended to world No. 1 in the doubles rankings for the first time in her career on 22 February 2021. As defending champion at the Qatar Open in Doha, and after receiving a first-round bye, Sabalenka was defeated in her first match by eventual finalist Garbiñe Muguruza in three sets. At the Dubai Tennis Championships, in her first tournament since becoming No. 1 in doubles, Sabalenka and Mertens received a bye in the first round. They lost their opening match to Jessica Pegula and Bethanie Mattek-Sands. Sabalenka cruised through to the quarterfinals in the singles event, defeating 15th seed Anett Kontaveit along the way, before losing to Muguruza for the second time in as many weeks, again in three sets. Sabalenka won the title at the Madrid Open, facing Ashleigh Barty in the championship match. It was a rematch of the 2021 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix final, two week earlier, as Sabalenka faced her vanquisher, world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty. As a result of her fourth WTA 1000 title, she entered the top 5 rankings in singles at world No. 4. Sabalenka and compatriot Victoria Azarenka won the doubles event at the German Open, defeating the top-seeded pair of Demi Schuurs and Nicole Melichar. Seeded second at Wimbledon, Sabalenka reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal and semifinal, defeating 18th seed Elena Rybakina and 21st seed Ons Jabeur in straight sets, respectively. She then lost her semifinal match against Karolína Plíšková in three sets. As a result of her performance at Wimbledon, she reached a career-high ranking in the world No. 3 in the WTA singles rankings. Sabalenka became the third Belarusian woman to reach the last four of Wimbledon following Natasha Zvereva in 1998 and Victoria Azarenka in 2011 and 2012. Sabalenka continued her season at the Canadian Open in Montreal. She reached the semifinals but lost to Karolína Plíšková, in straight sets. She then lost her opening-round match against Paula Badosa at the Cincinnati Open. Despite the loss, Sabalenka reached a career-high ranking of world No. 2. At the US Open, Sabalenka reached her second consecutive (and second overall) major semifinal following wins over Danielle Collins, Elise Mertens, and Barbora Krejčíková. In the semifinal, she lost to Leylah Fernandez in three sets. Due to a positive COVID-19 test, Sabalenka was not able to play at Indian Wells. 2022: WTA Finals runner-up, US Open semifinal Sabalenka began her season at the 2022 Adelaide International 1 as the second seed. After a first-round bye, Sabalenka lost in the second round in straight sets to Kaja Juvan. Sabalenka served 18 double faults to five aces. Next, Sabalenka received a wildcard to enter the Adelaide International 2 and was seeded top, but lost her first round to a qualifier, world No. 93 Rebecca Peterson, in three sets. Once again, Sabalenka struggled with her serve, recording 21 double faults for the match. She entered the Australian Open as the second seed. Sabalenka's serving struggles continued, but she managed to dig out three-set wins against world No. 128 Storm Sanders, No. 100 Wang Xinyu, and No. 41 Markéta Vondroušová to advance to the fourth round for the second time in her career. She faced off against giant-killer Kaia Kanepi, who had defeated the 16th seed Angelique Kerber in the first round. Kanepi prevailed in a tight three-set match, which ended in a third-set super-tiebreak. Sabalenka managed to save four match points during the match, but also served 15 double faults to Kanepi's four. She found some form, reaching the quarterfinals at the Qatar Open, beating Alizé Cornet and Jil Teichmann, before losing to the eventual champion Iga Świątek in the semifinals. Following early exits in Indian Wells, Miami and Charleston, she reached her first final of 2022 at the Women's Stuttgart Open, defeating Bianca Andreescu, world No. 6 Anett Kontaveit and Paula Badosa, the new world No. 2, eventually losing to world No. 1, Świątek, again. Entering as the defending champion at the Madrid Open, Sabalenka was knocked out by Amanda Anisimova in the first round. At the Italian Open, after defeating Zhang Shuai, Amanda Anisimova, and Jessica Pegula, she lost to Świątek in the semifinals for the third time in 2022. At the French Open, Sabalenka lost in the third round to Camila Giorgi in three sets. Sabalenka began the grass-court season at the Libéma Open as the top seed, where she made the final, losing to Ekaterina Alexandrova. She then entered the German Open as the third seed but lost in the first round to Veronika Kudermetova. Due to Wimbledon's ruling on Russian and Belarusian players, Sabalenka was banned from participating in the event due to the Russia's invasion of Ukraine, cutting her grass season short. She opened the US hardcourt swing in Silicon Valley Classic, losing to Daria Kasatkina in the quarterfinals. She then played the Canadian Open, losing to Coco Gauff in the third round. Her best result since Stuttgart came at Cincinnati Open, where as the sixth seed, she made the semifinals, defeating Anna Kalinskaya, Shelby Rogers, and Zhang Shuai before losing to eventual champion Caroline Garcia in three sets. She then made her best run of the season at the US Open. Seeded sixth, she defeated Catherine Harrison, Kaia Kanepi, Clara Burel, 19th seed Danielle Collins, and 22nd seed & former world No. 1 Karolína Plíšková to reach the semifinals, matching her previous best result from 2021. In her second-round match against Kanepi, Sabalenka came back from 6–2, 5–1 down to win in three sets, saving two match points in the process. In the semifinals, she was defeated by world No. 1, Iga Świątek, for the fourth time this season. At the San Diego Open, Sabalenka defeated Sloane Stephens in three sets before losing to Donna Vekić in the quarterfinals. In receipt of a first-round bye in Guadalajara, she lost to Liudmila Samsonova in the second round. However, she managed to qualify for the WTA Finals for a second straight year. There, she reached the final, defeating world No. 3 Jessica Pegula and No. 2 Ons Jabeur in the round-robin stage, and No. 1 Iga Świątek in the semifinals, but lost to Caroline Garcia in straight sets. She became the fourth woman to defeat the top 3 players at the same tournament, joining Steffi Graf (1999 Roland Garros), Serena Williams (2002 Miami Open), and Venus Williams (2008 WTA Finals). 2023: Australian Open champion, US Open final, No. 1 Sabalenka entered Adelaide 1 as the second seed. She reached her first final of the season by defeating Liudmila Samsonova, Markéta Vondroušová, Irina-Camelia Begu en route. Then she defeated Czech teenage qualifier Linda Nosková to win her first title since Madrid 2021 and 11th career title without dropping a single set. Sabalenka entered the Australian Open as the fifth seed and one of the title contenders. She defeated Tereza Martincová, Shelby Rogers, former doubles partner and 26th seed Elise Mertens, and the previous week's Adelaide 2 champion and world no. 10 Belinda Bencic to reach her first-ever Australian Open quarterfinal. She then beat Donna Vekić to reach her fourth Grand Slam semifinal, and won her tenth consecutive match by beating Magda Linette in the semifinal to make her first ever major final. In the final, she defeated reigning Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in three sets to win her first major title. She became the second Belarusian to ever win a major singles title, and the first since Victoria Azarenka a decade earlier. After winning the title in Melbourne, Sabalenka rose back to No. 2 in the WTA rankings. In Dubai, Sabalenka defeated Lauren Davis and Jeļena Ostapenko to reach the quarterfinals, where she fell to the eventual champion Barbora Krejčíková in three sets. She then participated in Indian Wells, where she defeated Evgeniya Rodina and took revenge on Krejčíková for her last defeat in three sets. Then she beat Coco Gauff and Maria Sakkari to reach her first Indian Wells final, where she lost to Elena Rybakina in a rematch of the 2023 Australian Open final. In Miami, Sabalenka defeated Shelby Rogers, Marie Bouzková, and Krejčíková each in straight sets to reach the quarterfinals, where she was defeated by Sorana Cîrstea. Sabalenka started her clay court season in Stuttgart, where she defeated Krejčíková, Paula Badosa, and Anastasia Potapova to reach her fourth final of the year. In the final, a rematch of last year's final, she was defeated by world No. 1 Iga Świątek in straight sets for the second consecutive year. In Madrid, Sabalenka reached her second final at this tournament, defeating Sorana Cîrstea, Camila Osorio, Mirra Andreeva, Mayar Sherif, and Maria Sakkari, dropping just one set en route to the final. In the final, she once again faced Świątek, and won her third title of the year in three sets. In Rome, Sabalenka suffered her first early defeat of the year, losing in straight sets to former Grand Slam champion Sofia Kenin. At the French Open, she reached the semifinals without dropping a set, defeating Marta Kostyuk, Iryna Shymanovich, Kamilla Rakhimova, Sloane Stephens, and Elina Svitolina. In the semifinals, she lost to Karolína Muchová in three sets, despite leading 5–2 and holding match point. Sabalenka began her grass court season in Berlin, defeating Vera Zvonareva before losing to Veronika Kudermetova. Sabalenka next competed at Wimbledon, where she reached her fourth straight major semifinal. Sabalenka defeated Panna Udvardy, Varvara Gracheva, Anna Blinkova, Ekaterina Alexandrova, and Madison Keys, before losing to Ons Jabeur, despite leading by a set and a break. Her next tournament was Montréal, where she defeated Petra Martić, before losing in three sets to eventual runner-up Liudmila Samsonova. She next reached the semifinals in Cincinnati, defeating Ann Li, Daria Kasatkina, and Ons Jabeur, before falling once again in three sets to Karolína Muchová. At the US Open, Sabalenka reached the semifinals by defeating Maryna Zanevska, Jodie Burrage, Clara Burel, Daria Kasatkina, and Zheng Qinwen in straight sets, dropping just 21 games in all five matches. Following these wins, Sabalenka became the first player since Serena Williams in 2016 to reach the semifinals of all four Grand Slam events in one year. She faced Madison Keys in the semifinals, recovering from a set and break deficit and serving to stay in the match four times in the final two sets. In her second major final of the year, Sabalenka faced Coco Gauff, and lost in three sets. Due to the loss of world No. 1 Iga Świątek in the fourth round, Sabalenka became, for the first time, the world No. 1 tennis player at the conclusion of the tournament. Sabalenka became the 29th player to be ranked No. 1 in the world on the WTA Tour, and the second Belarusian, after Victoria Azarenka. She was also just the eighth female player to have been ranked No. 1 in the Open Era in both singles and doubles at some point in their careers. With Sabalenka reaching the final, she became the first woman since Serena Williams to reach the semifinals or better at all four majors in a season since 2016. After the US Open, Sabalenka reached the quarterfinals of the China Open, losing to Rybakina. At the WTA Finals, she defeated Rybakina and Sakkari and lost to Pegula in the group stage. Sabalenka then lost in the semifinals to Świątek, who would go on to win the event. As a result, Świątek reclaimed the world No. 1 ranking and Sabalenka finished as year-end No. 2. In December, Sabalenka was named the ITF World Champion. 2024: Australian and US Open titles In January, Sabalenka reached the final of the Brisbane International, defeating three seeded opponents: Zhu Lin (third round), Daria Kasatkina (quarterfinal) and Victoria Azarenka (semifinal) before falling to Elena Rybakina. Sabalenka won the 2024 Australian Open without losing a set and became the first woman to defend her title there since Azarenka in 2013. Sabalenka received praise for her consistent and dominant performances throughout the tournament. Notable victories included wins against former world No. 2, Barbora Krejčíková (9th seed), reigning US Open champion Coco Gauff (4th seed) and Zheng Qinwen (12th seed) who was playing in her first Grand Slam final. Gauff had previously defeated Sabalenka a few months prior in the final of the 2023 US Open. In the final itself, she did not commit any double faults, in stark contrast to previous performances at major tournaments. After less successful appearances in Dubai, Indian Wells, and Miami, she reached the quarterfinals at Stuttgart, where she was eliminated by Markéta Vondroušová. As the defending champion in Madrid, she defeated Magda Linette, Robin Montgomery, Danielle Collins and Mirra Andreeva before edging a three-set semifinal victory over world No. 4 Elena Rybakina. In total, she played four three-set matches to reach the final, dropping 60 games in the process, the most to reach the women's singles final in Madrid. In a rematch of the previous year's final, she faced Świątek. During an intense three-set battle, Sabalenka had three championship points, but eventually lost. In Rome she saved three match points in her fourth-round match against Elina Svitolina and endured a lower-back injury before defeating her opponent in three sets. In the quarterfinal, she earned her third WTA Top-10 win of the year by defeating Jeļena Ostapenko. It was followed by a semifinal victory over Danielle Collins, before Sabalenka fell again to Świątek in the final, this time in straight sets. She entered the French Open as the second seed, and defeated Erika Andreeva, Moyuka Uchijima, Paula Badosa and 22nd seed Emma Navarro in straight sets. In the quarterfinal, she was visibly hampered by stomach issues and lost to Mirra Andreeva in three tight sets. It was the first time in a Grand Slam tournament since 2022 US Open where she did not reach at least the semifinals. With this loss, she fell in the WTA ranking to No. 3. Sabalenka suffered a right shoulder injury that forced her to retire during her quarterfinal match against Anna Kalinskaya at the 2024 Berlin Ladies Open in June, and she withdrew from the 2024 Wimbledon Championships, having failed to recover in time to play. She won the Cincinnati Open in August, with a victory over Iga Swiatek in the semifinals and over Jessica Pegula in the final. In September, Sabalenka won the US Open, overcoming qualifier Priscilla Hon, Lucia Bronzetti, 29th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova, former doubles partner Elise Mertens, Olympic champion and 7th seed Zheng Qinwen and 13th seed Emma Navarro, before defeating sixth seed Jessica Pegula in straight sets in the final to claim her third Grand Slam title. National representation Fed Cup Early appearances Sabalenka represented Belarus at the Junior Fed Cup in 2014, with the team finishing in sixth place. She then made her senior Fed Cup debut for Belarus in April 2016, losing a dead rubber doubles match against Russia. Nonetheless, the Belarusian team led by Victoria Azarenka and Aliaksandra Sasnovich won the tie to qualify for the top-tier World Group the following season for the first time in their history. 2017: Surprise runner-up in World Group debut The Belarus Fed Cup team made their debut in the World Group and ultimately reached the final, despite being the underdogs in all three ties. Little was expected from the team because they were without their veteran leader Azarenka, who missed the first two ties on maternity leave and the last because of a custody battle. Without her, Belarus was led by Sabalenka and Sasnovich, neither of whom had ever been ranked above No. 76 by the time of the final. However, they did have the advantage of playing all of their ties at home in Minsk. The ties in the quarterfinals against the Netherlands in February and the semi-finals against Switzerland in April both played out in the same way. While Sabalenka lost her opening matches to their opponents' respective top-ranked players of Kiki Bertens and Timea Bacsinszky, Sasnovich was able to give Belarus a 2–1 lead in each instance. Sabalenka then clinched both ties, with wins over Michaëlla Krajicek and No. 54 Viktorija Golubic, respectively. She was only ranked No. 125 at the time of the semifinal, with no career tour match wins outside of Fed Cup. On the opening day of the final against the United States, Sabalenka upset the reigning US Open champion and world No. 13, Sloane Stephens, to level the tie after Sasnovich lost her first rubber to No. 10, CoCo Vandeweghe. The next day began with Sabalenka losing to Vandeweghe, before Sasnovich again levelled the tie by defeating Stephens. Sabalenka and Sasnovich were then selected for the decisive doubles rubber for the Fed Cup crown, but the duo were comprehensively defeated by Vandeweghe and Shelby Rogers. Despite finishing as runner-up, Belarus's Fed Cup success helped popularize women's tennis in Belarus, and vaulted Sabalenka and Sasnovich into international prominence. Sasnovich said, "When we played the quarterfinals and semi-finals in Minsk, a lot of people were coming to see our matches. They finally saw tennis in life, and it's like a popularization... I want my country to improve even more in tennis, because I think we can have even more from Belarus." 2018–19: Avoiding demotion, another semifinal Belarus was unable to repeat their 2017 Fed Cup success in 2018. Their quarterfinal tie was held in Minsk against Germany. Although Sabalenka won both of her singles rubbers, Sasnovich and Vera Lapko lost each of theirs to set up a decisive doubles rubber. Sabalenka and doubles specialist Lidziya Marozava were selected for the match, with Sabalenka playing on short rest directly after her last singles match. After taking the first set against Anna-Lena Grönefeld and Tatjana Maria, they ultimately lost the rubber and the tie. Their next tie was again contested in Minsk as part of the World Group play-offs, with Slovakia competing to take Belarus's place in the World Group the following season. Sabalenka and Sasnovich each split their two singles rubbers, with Sabalenka being upset by Viktória Kužmová. Doubles specialists Lapko and Marozava were chosen for the final rubber and the pair won the match to keep Belarus in the World Group for 2019. In the 2019 Fed Cup, Belarus were drawn against Germany in the quarterfinals for the second consecutive year. After Sasnovich won the opening rubber against Maria, Sabalenka won both of her singles rubbers against Andrea Petkovic and Laura Siegemund to clinch the tie. They advanced to face Australia in the semi-finals. Only two players from each team participated: Sabalenka and Azarenka for Belarus, and Ashleigh Barty and Samantha Stosur for Australia. Both Sabalenka and Azarenka defeated Stosur, but lost to Barty. In the decisive doubles rubber, Barty and Stosur won in three sets to eliminate Belarus. Rivalries Iga Świątek Sabalenka and Iga Świątek have met 12 times since 2021, with Świątek in control of the head-to-head at 8–4. Their rivalry is seen as becoming one of the greatest in women's tennis. Their most praised match is the 2024 Madrid Open final in which Świątek defeated defending champion Sabalenka in three sets in 3 hours and 11 minutes, saving three championship points in the process. Playing style Sabalenka is a baseliner with a powerful, aggressive style. She has a powerful serve, and equally powerful groundstrokes, and her game is based around taking control of points and hitting winners. She has said "I hope all my shots can be strong, but my serve, I feel is the best." Sabalenka's strong serve, which can reach 200 km/h (124 mph), allows her to serve a large number of aces; in 2023, she ranked third of all players in aces served, at 401. Her serve is inconsistent, however, leading to a high double fault count; she served 166 double faults in 2020, the most of any player. Sabalenka notably suffered from the yips from the 2021 WTA Finals and into 2022, serving 152 double faults in 11 matches, an average of 14 double faults a match. Her second serve began to show improvements from August 2022, having worked with a biomechanics expert following the 2022 Canadian Open. Overall, Sabalenka served 440 double faults in 2022. Her groundstrokes are often hit with relentless pace and depth. Tennis broadcaster and former professional player Mary Carillo praised the power in her style of play along with her fierce attitude, describing her game as "big babe tennis personified". Although Sabalenka can hit a lot of winners, they can be accompanied by a lot of unforced errors. In her first career top ten victory against Karolína Plíšková, she hit 40 winners and 39 unforced errors. Her second career top ten victory against Caroline Wozniacki was similar, featuring 64 winners and 54 unforced errors. Her coach Dmitry Tursunov credited her improvement in the summer of 2018 on developing better shot selection. He said, "The major thing is she stopped trying [to] hit a winner with every shot." Sabalenka prefers playing on grass and hard courts. She commented, "This year [in 2017] I played for the first time on grass courts [during Wimbledon]. And I really liked it. I enjoyed my game on the grass courts, the feeling of grass, that's nice. I think my game is suited for grass and for hard courts." On clay, she made both the singles and doubles finals at the 2018 Ladies Open Lugano. She won her first clay court title at the 2021 Madrid Open. Sabalenka frequently accompanies her shots with loud grunting. She said, "Honestly, I don't even hear myself when I am playing." She expressed her hope that her grunting does not disturb her opponents. At the Australian Open in 2018, the crowd mocked her habit in a match against Ashleigh Barty. Coaches Sabalenka had worked with Khalil Ibrahimov for two years up until early 2018. At this point, she began working with former Swedish professional tennis players Magnus Norman and Magnus Tideman. Dmitry Tursunov became her primary coach in time for the grass court season in 2018. Sabalenka briefly split with Tursunov after the 2019 US Open. Although they reunited later in the year, she made the split permanent at the end of the season. Sabalenka briefly worked with Dieter Kindlmann before switching coaches to her longtime hitting partner and compatriot Anton Dubrov, aged 25 at the time. As of 2024, her coaching team includes Dubrov; fitness trainer Jason Stacy, a martial arts expert; and hitting partner Andrei Vasilevski. Sponsorships Sabalenka has been endorsed by Nike for apparel and shoes since the beginning of her professional career. Nike began to design custom garments for Sabalenka starting from the 2023 US Open. She is also endorsed by Wilson, specifically using the Wilson Blade range of racquets. Personal life Sabalenka has a tiger tattoo on her left arm that has earned her the nickname "The Tiger", which she has used to refer to herself. She studied at the Belarusian State University in a sports-related program. Her tennis idols growing up were Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova. Sabalenka's father, Sergey Sabalenka, a former ice hockey player, died suddenly in 2019 at age 43. He had meningitis. Sabalenka's boyfriend since 2021, Konstantin Koltsov, died of an apparent suicide in March 2024 at age 42. Sabalenka later confirmed the couple were separated at the time of his death. Political views In August 2020, during the 2020–2021 Belarusian protests, Sabalenka criticized the government of Alexander Lukashenko for its dispersal of peaceful protests and called for no violence but was criticized by members of the Belarusian opposition for not using her platform to advocate the protest movement's goals. She separately praised the Belarusian government for "everything that is done for the country in general and for sports in particular". In 2020, during widespread protests after the disputed election, Sabalenka signed an open letter that said that sport should remain outside of politics. Belarusian media considered the letter supportive of Lukashenko, as it followed an open letter by Belarusian sporting figures demanding the election be invalidated. Following the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sabalenka expressed support for the Ukrainian people and the use of Ukraine-colored ribbons: "I feel like people need our support. I just hope they understand that we're all really concerned. I think even 'sad' isn't even the right word." In January 2023, with regard to the war and the banning of Russian and Belarusian players from the 2022 Wimbledon Championships, Sabalenka said, "I just understand that it's not my fault." Her comments on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the situation of Ukrainian tennis players were criticized by Lesia Tsurenko's coach Nikita Vlasov and former Ukrainian player Sergiy Stakhovsky for lacking substance and compassion. Sabalenka later indicated support for ending the war in Ukraine, saying: "If I could stop the war I would do it but unfortunately that doesn't lie in my hands. I just hope for peace." During a press conference at the 2023 French Open, when asked about the war by Ukrainian journalist Daria Meshcheriakova, she said: "Nobody in this world, Russian athletes or Belarusian athletes, support the war. Nobody. How can we support the war? Nobody, normal people will never support it." She later said: "I don't want my country to be in any conflict, I don't support war, meaning I don't support Lukashenko right now." Television and film Sabalenka appears in the tennis docuseries Break Point, which premiered on Netflix on 13 January 2023. Career statistics Grand Slam tournament performance timelines Singles Doubles Grand Slam tournament finals Singles: 4 (3 titles, 1 runner-up) Doubles: 2 (2 titles) Year-end championships finals Singles: 1 (runner-up) Notes References External links Official website (in English) Aryna Sabalenka at the Women's Tennis Association Aryna Sabalenka at the International Tennis Federation Aryna Sabalenka at the Billie Jean King Cup Aryna Sabalenka at Olympedia

Cori Dionne "Coco" Gauff ( GAWF; born March 13, 2004) is an American professional tennis player. Gauff has career-high WTA rankings of world No. 2 in singles and of world No. 1 in doubles. She has won seven WTA Tour singles titles, including the 2023 US Open, and nine doubles titles, including the 2024 French Open. Gauff made her WTA Tour debut in March 2019 at the Miami Open at the age of 15. She received a wild card into the qualifying draw at the 2019 Wimbledon Championships, where she became the youngest player in the tournament's history to qualify for the main draw. There, she won over Venus Williams and reached the fourth round. Gauff won her first WTA Tour singles title at the 2019 Linz Open. She reached her first major final in women's doubles at the 2021 US Open and reached her first Grand Slam singles final at the 2022 French Open. In 2023, Gauff won her first WTA 1000 title at the Cincinnati Open and her first Major singles title at the US Open. Early life Gauff was born in Atlanta, Georgia on March 13, 2004, to Candi (née Odom) and Corey Gauff, both from Delray Beach, Florida. She has two younger brothers. Her father played college basketball at Georgia State University and later worked as a health care executive. Her mother was a track and field athlete at Florida State University and worked as an educator. Gauff lived her early years in Atlanta. She began playing tennis at the age of six. When she was seven, her family moved back to Delray Beach to have better training opportunities. She worked with Gerard Loglo at the New Generation Tennis Academy starting from the age of eight. Gauff recalled, "I wasn't much of a team person. I loved tennis. I was so-so about it in the beginning because when I was younger I didn't want to practice at all. I just wanted to play with my friends. When I turned eight, that was when I played 'Little Mo' and after that I decided to do that for the rest of my life." Gauff's parents gave up their careers to focus on training their daughter. Her father later became her primary coach, while her mother oversaw her homeschooling. Her father had limited experience playing tennis growing up. At the age of 10, Gauff began to train at the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in France run by Patrick Mouratoglou, longtime coach of Serena Williams. Mouratoglou commented, "I'll always remember the first time I saw Coco. She came over to the Mouratoglou Academy in 2014 to try out and she impressed me with her determination, athleticism and fighting spirit.... When she looks at you and tells you she will be number one, you can only believe it." He helped sponsor Gauff through his Champ'Seed foundation, which he created to provide funding for talented juniors who did not have the financial resources to afford high-level training. Gauff won the USTA Clay Court National 12-and-under title at the age of 10 years and three months to become the youngest champion in the tournament's history. Junior career French Open singles champion, US Open doubles champion Gauff is a former world No. 1 junior. She entered the prestigious Les Petits As 14-and-under tournament in 2016 at age 12 and made it to the semifinals. Gauff began playing on the ITF Junior Circuit at the age of 13, skipping directly to the highest-level Grade A and Grade 1 tournaments. She finished runner-up to Jaimee Fourlis in her third career event, the Grade 1 Prince George's County Junior Tennis Championships in Maryland. At her next event, Gauff made her junior Grand Slam debut at the 2017 US Open and finished runner-up to Amanda Anisimova. Gauff did not drop a set before the final in either tournament. She became the youngest girls' singles finalist in US Open history. After beginning 2018 with a semifinal at the Grade 1 Traralgon Junior International in Australia, Gauff lost her opening round match at the Australian Open. She did not enter another tournament in singles until the French, where she won her first career junior Grand Slam tournament title at the 2018 French Open. She did not drop a set until the final, where she came from behind to defeat McNally in three sets. With the title, Gauff became the fifth youngest girls' singles champion in French Open history. A month later, following another final win against McNally at the Grade 1 Junior International Roehampton, she became the No. 1 junior in the world. Gauff reached the quarterfinals in singles at the final two Grand Slam tournaments of the year. She fared better in doubles at both tournaments, reaching the semifinals at Wimbledon with partner María Lourdes Carlé and winning her first junior Grand Slam doubles title at the 2018 US Open with McNally. Gauff and McNally defeated compatriots Hailey Baptiste and Dalayna Hewitt in the final, all in straight sets. In September 2018, Gauff represented the United States at the Junior Fed Cup with Alexa Noel and Connie Ma. The team reached the final against Ukraine. After Gauff won her singles rubber and Noel lost hers, Gauff and Noel won the Junior Fed Cup by defeating Lyubov Kostenko and Dasha Lopatetskaya 11–9 in a match tiebreak. Gauff finished the year with another Grade A title in singles at the Orange Bowl. She ended the season ranked world No. 2 behind Clara Burel. Professional career 2018–19: First titles, top 100 Gauff made her debut on the ITF Women's Circuit in May 2018 at the age of 14 as a qualifier in the $25k event at Osprey, where she won her first professional match. She received a wild card into qualifying at the US Open, but lost her opening match five months after turning 14 years old. In her first 2019 tournament, she finished runner-up in doubles at the $100k Midland Tennis Classic alongside Ann Li. Two weeks later, Gauff played her next event at the $25k level in Surprise and reached the finals in both singles and doubles. She finished runner-up in singles and won her first WTA Tour title in doubles alongside Paige Hourigan. In March, at the Miami Open, she recorded her first WTA Tour match win against Caty McNally. Gauff lost the second round of qualifying at the French Open. At Wimbledon, she defeated Aliona Bolsova and Greet Minnen. Gauff became the youngest player to reach the main draw at Wimbledon by qualifying in the Open Era at the age of 15 years and three months. In her main-draw debut, she upset five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams in straight sets. Gauff won over Magdaléna Rybáriková and No. 60 Polona Hercog, saving two match points against Hercog. The hype surrounding Gauff's first-round match win led to her third rounder moving to Centre Court. She was eliminated with a fourth-round loss to eventual champion Simona Halep. All four of Gauff's matches were most-watched matches on ESPN on their respective days during the first week of coverage. With this performance, she rose to world No. 141. Gauff played in one US Open Series tournament at the Washington Open, where she qualified for the main draw but lost in the first round. She entered the doubles event with McNally and defeated Fanny Stollár and Maria Sanchez in the final for their first career WTA title in their first joint WTA. At the US Open, Gauff wild-carded into the singles and doubles main draws. She continued her Grand Slam success in singles with two three-set wins over Anastasia Potapova and Tímea Babos, both on Louis Armstrong. She was defeated in the third round by world No. 1 and defending champion Naomi Osaka. In doubles, Gauff and McNally won two matches, including an upset over ninth seeds Nicole Melichar and Květa Peschke. They lost in the third round to eventual runners-up Ashleigh Barty and Victoria Azarenka. Although Gauff lost in qualifying at the Linz Open, she entered the main draw as a lucky loser and won the title, notably upsetting top seed Kiki Bertens in the quarterfinals for her first top-10 victory. She defeated Jeļena Ostapenko in the final to become the youngest WTA player, at age 15, to win a singles title since 2004. With this title as well as a semifinal in doubles with McNally, Gauff made her top-100 debuts in both the WTA singles and doubles rankings. Gauff and McNally ended their year with a second WTA doubles title at the Luxembourg Open over Kaitlyn Christian and Alexa Guarachi. 2020: Australian Open fourth round Starting 2020 at the Auckland Open ranked No. 67 in the world, Gauff defeated Viktória Kužmová before losing to Laura Siegemund in the second round. Playing doubles with McNally, Gauff reached the semifinals. At the Australian Open, Gauff defeated Venus Williams in straight sets in the first round and Sorana Cîrstea in the second round, making it three straight Grand Slams where she reached the third round. She defeated defending champion Osaka in the third, becoming the youngest player to defeat a top-5 player since Jennifer Capriati beat Gabriela Sabatini at the 1991 US Open. In the fourth round, she lost to the eventual champion, Sofia Kenin. In doubles, Gauff and McNally recorded their best result in a Grand Slam championship to date, reaching the quarterfinals before falling to second seeds and eventual champions, Kristina Mladenovic and Tímea Babos. Gauff beat two top-50 players at the Lexington Challenger, before losing in straight sets to world No. 49, Jennifer Brady. At the Western and Southern Open, played in New York, Gauff lost in the first round to world No. 21, Maria Sakkari. At the US Open, Gauff was defeated in the first round by Anastasija Sevastova. Gauff, ranked 53, beat world No. 34, Ons Jabeur, in the first round of the Italian Open before losing to two-time Grand Slam champion Garbiñe Muguruza. At the French Open, Gauff defeated the ninth seed and world No. 13, Johanna Konta, in the first round, but went on to lose to eventual quarterfinalist Martina Trevisan in a second-round match in which Gauff hit 19 double faults. At the Ostrava Open, she qualified for the main draw and was defeated by world No. 12, Aryna Sabalenka, in the second round. 2021: Top 20, first major singles quarterfinal & doubles final Starting the year ranked No. 48, in the Abu Dhabi Open, she beat Norwegian Ulrikke Eikeri before falling in the next round to Maria Sakkari. At the Australian Open, in singles, Gauff again beat Teichmann in the first round, but fell in the round of 64 to the fifth-seeded Elina Svitolina, in straight sets. In doubles, she and McNally failed to Demi Schuurs and Nicole Melichar in the quarterfinals. At Adelaide, she failed to second seeded Belinda Bencic. In doubles, she partnered with Canadian Sharon Fichman, and they bowed out in the first round to Duan Yingying and Zheng Saisai. This run brought her to a then-career-high of No. 38 in singles. After the Dubai Championships, she reaches a career high of No. 35 in singles. In the Miami Open, she played her first WTA 1000 event while seeded (as the 31st). In May, Gauff reached the first semifinal at a WTA 1000 in her career at the Italian Open due to then-No. 1, Barty, retiring with a right arm injury in their quarterfinal match. As a result, she entered top 30 for the first time. She then lost to the eventual champion, Iga Świątek. Gauff won her second singles and third doubles (with McNally) titles at the Emilia-Romagna Open in Parma. She became the youngest player to win both the singles and doubles titles at an event since Maria Sharapova won both titles at the 2004 Birmingham Classic. Gauff thus rose to new career-high rankings of world No. 25 in singles and No. 41 in doubles. She became the youngest American to make her top 25 debut in nearly 23 years (since Serena Williams, June 8, 1998). Seeded 24th at the French Open (her first time being seeded at a Grand Slam), she beat Aleksandra Krunić and Wang Qiang in straight sets, received a walkover when leading one set to love against 13th seed and Australian Open runner-up Jennifer Brady, and beat 25th seed Ons Jabeur in just 53 minutes to reach her first Grand Slam quarterfinal. As a result, she became the youngest female player (17 years, three months) to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal since Nicole Vaidišová at the 2006 French Open, the youngest American to reach a quarterfinal at Roland Garros since Jennifer Capriati in 1993 and the youngest American to reach the quarterfinals of any Grand Slam since Venus Williams reached the 1997 US Open final. Subsequently, Gauff was eliminated after losing in straight sets to the eventual champion, unseeded Barbora Krejčíková. As a result, she reached a new career-high of No. 23. At Wimbledon, Gauff reached the fourth round for a second consecutive time defeating Elena Vesnina in straight sets in 70 minutes, and Kaja Juvan in straight sets in the third round. Gauff lost her next match to Angelique Kerber in straight sets, eliminating her from the tournament. She also reached the third round in doubles with Caty McNally and as a result entered the top 40 in the doubles rankings at No. 38 on 12 July. At 17 years old, she was selected for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, becoming the second youngest American player after Jennifer Capriati competed at 16 in 1992 and the youngest Olympic tennis player of any gender since Mario Ančić in 2000. However, she tested positive for COVID-19 and was forced to withdraw. At the Cincinnati Open, Gauff reached the second round and lost to second seed, and world No. 2, Naomi Osaka. At the US Open, Gauff beat Magda Linette in the first round, before falling to Sloane Stephens in the next. In the women's doubles, Gauff and McNally stormed into their first Grand Slam semifinal without dropping a set and in the finals, they lost to Sam Stosur and Zhang Shuai. 2022: French Open final & top 5 in singles, world No. 1 in doubles Seeded 18th at the Australian Open, Gauff lost in the first round against Wang Qiang in straight sets. In February, Gauff reached the quarterfinals at the Qatar Open by defeating Shelby Rogers, Caroline Garcia and third seed Paula Badosa. In the quarterfinals, Gauff lost to sixth seed Maria Sakkari. In doubles, Gauff paired with Jessica Pegula to win her first WTA 1000 doubles title, beating third-seeded pair of Veronika Kudermetova and Elise Mertens in the final. With the win, she climbed to a career-high No. 10 in the doubles rankings on February 28, 2022. Gauff reached her first Grand Slam singles final at the French Open, defeating Rebecca Marino, Alison Van Uytvanck, Kaia Kanepi, 31st seed Elise Mertens, Sloane Stephens, and Martina Trevisan, before losing to Iga Świątek in straight sets. She reached the final in doubles with Jessica Pegula where they were defeated by Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic. As a result, she secured a new career-high of world No. 13 in singles and the top 5 in doubles. After winning her first two matches at Wimbledon Championships as the 11th seed against unseeded Romanians Elena-Gabriela Ruse and Mihaela Buzărnescu, Gauff lost in the third round to 20th Amanda Anisimova in three sets. As a result, she reached a new career-high ranking of world No. 11, on 11 July. Seeded sixth at the Silicon Valley Classic, she reached the quarterfinals defeating Anhelina Kalinina in the first round, and next Naomi Osaka who saved seven match points. In her quarterfinal match, she struggled with her serve and lost in straight sets to Paula Badosa. At the Canadian Open, she became the youngest player to reach back-to-back quarterfinals in Canada since Jennifer Capriati in 1990 and 1991. She beat sixth seed Aryna Sabalenka, a day after ousting Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, winning both matches in a third-set tiebreak. She lost to eventual champion Simona Halep, in straight sets. Seeded third in doubles at the same tournament she reached the semifinals with Pegula defeating fifth seeds Desirae Krawczyk and Demi Schuurs. Next they defeated Madison Keys/Sania Mirza in the semifinals and Nicole Melichar/Ellen Perez in the final to win their second WTA 1000 title together. As a result, Gauff became the No. 1 doubles player in the world. At the US Open, she reached the quarterfinals of this major for the first time with wins over 20th seed Madison Keys and Zhang Shuai becoming the youngest American woman to achieve this feat since 2009, when Melanie Oudin was 17. As a result, she guaranteed herself a top 10 debut in the singles rankings at world No. 8 after the tournament. Subsequently, Gauff was defeated by Caroline Garcia, in straight sets. Seeded second in doubles, Gauff and partner Pegula were defeated in the first round by Leylah Fernandez and Daria Saville. In October, Gauff became the youngest player in singles since Maria Sharapova in 2005 to qualify for the year-end WTA Finals championships. She and partner Jessica Pegula also both qualified for the doubles' championships. Gauff and Pegula are the first Americans since Serena and Venus Williams in 2009 to qualify for both the singles and doubles year-end championships. 2023: US Open champion, WTA 1000 singles & doubles titles Gauff started her 2023 season at the Auckland Open, where she defeated Rebeka Masarova in the final in straight sets. At the Australian Open, Gauff advanced to the fourth round, where she lost to Jeļena Ostapenko in straight sets. At the Qatar Ladies Open, Gauff reached the quarterfinals after defeating two-time champion Petra Kvitová in the second round. At the same tournament in doubles, Gauff and Jessica Pegula defended their title, defeating Lyudmyla Kichenok and Jeļena Ostapenko in a three-set match. At Dubai, Gauff reached the semifinals by defeating Madison Keys in the quarterfinals, before losing to Iga Świątek. At Indian Wells, Gauff lost in the quarterfinals to second seed and eventual runner-up, Aryna Sabalenka. In Miami, Gauff lost against 27th seed Anastasia Potapova in the third round. In doubles at the same tournament, Gauff won her fifth overall and third WTA 1000 team title with her partner Jessica Pegula. They became the first all-American duo to win the Miami Open doubles title in 22 years, defeating Leylah Fernandez and Taylor Townsend in the final. In August, Gauff won the Washington Open title, beating Maria Sakkari in the final. It was Gauff's first WTA 500 singles title, and her biggest singles title to date. She became the first teenager to win the tournament. Gauff won her first WTA 1000 title at the 2023 Cincinnati Open, defeating world No. 1 Iga Świątek in the semifinals and world No. 10, Karolína Muchová, in the final. In September, Gauff won the US Open, her first major singles title, beating world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka in three sets and becoming the first American teenager to win the US Open since Serena Williams in 1999. As a result, she reached world No. 3 in the rankings on 11 September 2023 and was nominated at the Laureus World Sports Awards for Breakthrough of the Year. Gauff and Pegula returned to the world No. 1 doubles ranking on 23 October 2023, after qualifying for the 2023 WTA Finals as a pair and also individually, becoming the first players to qualify in both disciplines in back-to-back years since Sara Errani in 2012–13. 2024: World No. 2 in singles, French Open doubles champion At the Italian Open she reached the semifinal for the second time at this tournament and second at the WTA 1000 level for the season defeating Magdalena Fręch, Jaqueline Cristian, Paula Badosa and seventh seed Zheng Qinwen. With the win, she passed Caroline Wozniacki for the most WTA 1000 wins before turning 21. She lost to world No. 1 Iga Świątek, in straight sets. At the same tournament, partnering Erin Routliffe, she reached a consecutive final in doubles. At the 2024 French Open with new partner Katerina Siniaková, she lifted her first Grand Slam doubles trophy defeating 11th seeds Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in the final. In singles, also at Roland Garros, she reached the semifinals and was defeated by eventual champion Iga Swiatek, but despite the loss reached a new career-high ranking of world No. 2 in singles on 10 June 2024. At the 2024 Wimbledon Championships, Gauff went out in the fourth-round to Emma Navarro. Gauff was chosen by her Olympic teammates to be the female flag-bearer for the United States at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, alongside LeBron James. She became the youngest athlete to be so honored. In singles, she lost in the third round to Donna Vekić in straight sets. Playing style and coaching Gauff's favorite surface is hard, and she describes her playing style as aggressive as possible with a big serve. She depends on her quickness and athleticism to keep her in any point, and describes herself as a "fighter". From July 2023 to September 2024 her coach was Brad Gilbert. In September 2024 Gauff hired coach Matt Daly. Endorsements Gauff uses a Head Boom MP 2022 with 16 main and 19 cross strings. She wears New Balance clothing and tennis shoes. In October 2018, Gauff signed her first multi-year sponsorship contract, with New Balance. At the 2021 French Open, Gauff wore a New Balance outfit of bold mismatched color splotches to contrast with the all-white ensemble of doubles partner Venus Williams. In March 2019, Gauff announced a multi-year sponsorship agreement with Italian food company Barilla, which also sponsors Roger Federer. In January 2023, Gauff was announced as a brand ambassador for advisory CPA firm Baker Tilly US, LLP. In January 2024 at the Australian Open, Gauff debuted a new New Balance pair of shoes with geographical coordinates specially inscribed on the soles. She revealed in a post-match interview that the coordinates (26 28 0.75” N 80 5’ 1.4” W) pointed to public tennis courts in Delray Beach where she grew up and trained. Personal life Gauff is a Christian. Since she was eight years old, she has prayed with her father before every match that she and her opponent would be safe. After winning the Cincinnati Open in August 2023, she said: "… I'd like to thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I spent a lot of nights alone, crying trying to figure it out. I still have a lot to figure out, but I thank Him for covering me." After winning her first Grand Slam title in September 2023, she said: "… I don't pray for results, I just ask that I get the strength to give it my all and whatever happens happens. I'm so blessed in this life." Gauff's tennis idols are Serena and Venus Williams. "Serena Williams has always been my idol...and Venus," she has said. "They are the reason why I wanted to pick up a tennis racquet." Gauff first met Serena when she won the Little Mo national tournament at the age of eight, and later met her again to film a commercial for Delta Air Lines and at the Mouratoglou Academy. After defeating Venus Williams at Wimbledon in 2019, Gauff expressed her respect when they shook hands at the net. "I was just telling her thank you for everything she's done for the sport," Gauff said. "She's been an inspiration for many people. I was just really telling her thank you." Gauff stated in 2020 that she had experienced depression and stress related to her sporting career, though her parents clarified that she was not diagnosed with depression in the clinical sense, and had not sought medical attention relating to her psychological well-being. Gauff is a fan of anime, including My Hero Academia. In July 2023, Gauff and actress Storm Reid helped fund a new playground and purple-painted tennis courts in East Atlanta's Brownwood Park. Career statistics Grand Slam tournament performance timelines Singles Doubles Grand Slam tournament finals Singles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up) Doubles: 3 (1 title, 2 runner-ups) References External links Coco Gauff at the Women's Tennis Association Coco Gauff at the International Tennis Federation Coco Gauff at the Billie Jean King Cup Coco Gauff at Wimbledon Coco Gauff at Olympics.com

How many times could Usain Bolt span the length of a standard Olympic-sized swimming pool if Tom Daley was standing on his head? Please answer to a whole Usain or Tom without exceeding the length of the pool.

13

Numerical reasoning | Post processing

An Olympic-size swimming pool is a swimming pool which conforms to the regulations for length, breadth, and depth made by World Aquatics (formerly FINA) for swimming at the Summer Olympics and the swimming events at the World Aquatics Championships. Different size regulations apply for other pool-based events, such as diving, synchronized swimming, and water polo. Less onerous breadth and depth regulations exist for lesser swimming competitions, but any "long course" event requires a course length of 50 metres (164 ft 0.5 in), as distinct from "short course" which applies to competitions in pools that are 25 metres (82 ft 0 in) in length (or 75 feet (22.9 m) in the United States). If touch pads are used in competition, then the distance is relative to the touch pads at either end of the course, so that the pool itself is generally oversized to allow for the width of the pads. An Olympic-size swimming pool is used as a colloquial unit of volume, to make approximate comparisons to similarly sized objects or volumes. It is not a specific definition, as there is no maximum limit on the depth of an Olympic pool. The value has an order of magnitude of 1 megaliter (ML). Some style guides caution against the hyperbole of describing any relatively large pool as "Olympic-size[d]". Specifications World Aquatics specifications for an Olympic-size pool are as follows: There must be two spaces 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) wide outside lanes 1 and 8 (in effect, two empty lanes). The length of 50 metres (164 ft) must be between the touch pads at the end of each lane, if they are used. If starting blocks are used, then there must be a minimum depth of 1.35 metres (4.4 ft) from between 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) from the end of the pool to at least 6 metres (19 ft 8 in) from the end of the pool. At all other points, the minimum depth is 1 metre (3 ft 3 in). If the pool is used for Olympic Games or World Championships, then the minimum depth is increased to 2 metres (6 ft 7 in). Whereas the Water Cube pool used for the 2008 Olympics was 3 metres (9 ft 10 in) deep, the temporary pool used in 2024 was only 2.2 metres (7 ft 3 in), which commentators suggested made for slower race times. Ten-lane pools At FINA's 2009 Congress, rules were approved for 10-lane courses for competition, as an alternative to the more traditional 8-lane course. This version of the Olympic-sized swimming pool debuted in the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. Beforehand, the Summer Olympics featured the more traditional 8-lane course with a depth of roughly seven feet, now the minimum depth requirement. Twenty-five world records were broken at this pool, although this is more heavily attributed to the polyurethane “supersuits” worn by many competitors (banned by FINA in 2010). The new Olympic-sized swimming pool was designed to provide advantages to competitors. Increasing the lane count from eight to ten introduces a "buffer lane", helping to absorb waves generated by movements of the swimmers. The increased depth of the pool assists the lane lines in dissipating water churn, thereby creating less hydrodynamic drag. See also Sport venue List of long course swimming pools in the United Kingdom List of long course swimming pools in the Republic of Ireland List of Olympic-size swimming pools in the Philippines List of largest swimming pools List of Olympic venues in swimming == References ==

Usain St. Leo Bolt (; born 21 August 1986) is a Jamaican retired sprinter who is widely considered to be the greatest sprinter of all time. He is an eight-time Olympic gold medalist and the world record holder in the 100 metres, 200 metres, and 4 × 100 metres relay. Bolt is the only sprinter to win Olympic 100 m and 200 m titles at three consecutive Olympics (2008, 2012, and 2016). He also won two 4 × 100 relay gold medals. He gained worldwide fame for his double sprint victory in world record times at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which made him the first person to hold both records since fully automatic time became mandatory. An eleven-time World Champion, he won consecutive World Championship 100 m, 200 m and 4 × 100 metres relay gold medals from 2009 to 2015, with the exception of a 100 m false start in 2011. He is the most successful male athlete of the World Championships. Bolt is the first athlete to win four World Championship titles in the 200 m and is one of the most successful in the 100 m with three titles, being the first person to run sub-9.7s and sub-9.6s. Bolt improved upon his second 100 m world record of 9.69 with 9.58 seconds in 2009 – the biggest improvement since the start of electronic timing. He has twice broken the 200 metres world record, setting 19.30 in 2008 and 19.19 in 2009. He has helped Jamaica to three 4 × 100 metres relay world records, with the current record being 36.84 seconds set in 2012. Bolt's most successful event is the 200 m, with three Olympic and four World titles. The 2008 Olympics was his international debut over 100 m; he had earlier won numerous 200 m medals (including 2007 World Championship silver) and held the world under-20 and world under-18 records for the event until being surpassed by Erriyon Knighton in 2021. His achievements as a sprinter have earned him the media nickname "Lightning Bolt", and his awards include the IAAF World Athlete of the Year, Track & Field Athlete of the Year, BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year (three times), and Laureus World Sportsman of the Year (four times). Bolt was included in Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2016. Bolt retired after the 2017 World Championships, when he finished third in his last solo 100 m race, opted out of the 200 m, and pulled up injured in the 4×100 m relay final. Early years Usain St. Leo Bolt was born on 21 August 1986 to parents Wellesley and Jennifer Bolt in Sherwood Content, a small town in Jamaica. Jennifer named her son Usain at the suggestion of her nephew-in-law, who suggested the name as he had a classmate of that name, while Bolt's middle name, St Leo, was given to him by his aunt. He has a brother, Sadiki, and a sister, Sherine. His parents ran the local grocery store in the rural area, and Bolt spent his time playing cricket and football in the street with his brother, later saying, "When I was young, I didn't really think about anything other than sports." As a child, Bolt attended Waldensia Primary, where he began showing his sprint potential when he ran in his parish's annual national primary school meet. By the age of twelve, Bolt had become the school's fastest runner over the 100 metres distance. Bolt also developed an affection for European football teams Real Madrid and Manchester United. Upon his entry to William Knibb Memorial High School, Bolt continued to focus on other sports, but his cricket coach noticed Bolt's speed on the pitch and urged him to try track and field events. Pablo McNeil, a former Olympic sprint athlete, and Dwayne Jarrett coached Bolt, encouraging him to focus his energy on improving his athletic abilities. The school had a history of success in athletics with past students, including sprinter Michael Green. Bolt won his first annual high school championships medal in 2001; he took the silver medal in the 200 metres with a time of 22.04 seconds. McNeil soon became his primary coach, and the two enjoyed a positive partnership, although McNeil was occasionally frustrated by Bolt's lack of dedication to his training and his penchant for practical jokes. Early competitions Representing Jamaica in his first Caribbean regional event, Bolt clocked a personal best time of 48.28 s in the 400 metres in the 2001 CARIFTA Games, winning a silver medal. The 200 m also yielded a silver, as Bolt finished in 21.81 s. He made his first appearance on the world stage at the 2001 IAAF World Youth Championships in Debrecen, Hungary. Running in the 200 m event, he failed to qualify for the finals, but he still set a new personal best of 21.73 s. Bolt still did not take athletics or himself too seriously, however, and he took his mischievousness to new heights by hiding in the back of a van when he was supposed to be preparing for the 200 m finals at the CARIFTA Trials. He was detained by the police for his practical joke, and there was an outcry from the local community, which blamed coach McNeil for the incident. However, the controversy subsided, and both McNeil and Bolt went to the CARIFTA Games, where Bolt set championship records in the 200 m and 400 m with times of 21.12 s and 47.33 s, respectively. He continued to set records with 20.61 s and 47.12 s finishes at the Central American and Caribbean Junior Championships. Bolt is one of only eleven athletes (along with Valerie Adams, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Armand Duplantis, Jacques Freitag, Yelena Isinbayeva, Kirani James, Faith Kipyegon, Jana Pittman, Dani Samuels, and David Storl) to win world championships at the youth, junior, and senior level of an athletic event. Former Prime Minister P. J. Patterson recognised Bolt's talent and arranged for him to move to Kingston, along with Jermaine Gonzales, so he could train with the Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association (JAAA) at the University of Technology, Jamaica. Rise to prominence The 2002 World Junior Championships were held in front of a home crowd in Kingston, Jamaica, and Bolt was given a chance to prove his credentials on a world stage. By the age of 15, he had grown to 1.95 metres (6 ft 5 in) tall, and he physically stood out among his peers. He won the 200 m in a time of 20.61 s, which was 0.03 s slower than his personal best of 20.58 s, which he set in the 1st round. Bolt's 200 m win made him the youngest world-junior gold medallist ever. The expectation from the home crowd had made him so nervous that he had put his shoes on the wrong feet, although he realized the mistake before the race began. However, it turned out to be a revelatory experience for Bolt, as he vowed never again to let himself be affected by pre-race nerves. As a member of the Jamaican sprint relay team, he also took two silver medals and set national junior records in the 4×100 metres and 4×400 metres relay, running times of 39.15 s and 3:04.06 minutes respectively. The rush of medals continued as he won four golds at the 2003 CARIFTA Games and was awarded the Austin Sealy Trophy for the most outstanding athlete of the games. He won another gold at the 2003 World Youth Championships. He set a new championship record in the 200 m with a time of 20.40 s, despite a 1.1 m/s (4.0 km/h; 2.5 mph) head wind. Michael Johnson, the 200 m world-record holder, took note of Bolt's potential but worried that the young sprinter might be over-pressured, stating, "It's all about what he does three, four, five years down the line". Bolt had also impressed the athletics hierarchy, and he received the IAAF Rising Star Award for 2002. Bolt competed in his final Jamaican High School Championships in 2003. He broke the 200 m and 400 m records with times of 20.25 s and 45.35 s, respectively. Bolt's runs were a significant improvement upon the previous records, beating the 200 m best by more than half a second and the 400 m record by almost a second. Bolt improved upon the 200 m time three months later, setting the former World youth best at the 2003 Pan American Junior Championships. The 400 m time remains No. 6 on the all-time youth list, surpassed only once since, by future Olympic champion Kirani James. Bolt turned his main focus to the 200 m and equalled Roy Martin's world junior record of 20.13 s at the Pan-American Junior Championships. This performance attracted interest from the press, and his times in the 200 m and 400 m led to him being touted as a possible successor to Johnson. Indeed, at sixteen years old, Bolt had reached times that Johnson did not register until he was twenty, and Bolt's 200 m time was superior to Maurice Greene's season's best that year. Bolt was growing more popular in his homeland. Howard Hamilton, who was given the task of Public Defender by the government, urged the JAAA to nurture him and prevent burnout, calling Bolt "the most phenomenal sprinter ever produced by this island". His popularity and the attractions of the capital city were beginning to be a burden to the young sprinter. Bolt was increasingly unfocused on his athletic career and preferred to eat fast food, play basketball, and party in Kingston's club scene. In the absence of a disciplined lifestyle, he became ever-more reliant on his natural ability to beat his competitors on the track. As the reigning 200 m champion at both the World Youth and World Junior championships, Bolt hoped to take a clean sweep of the world 200 m championships in the Senior World Championships in Paris. He beat all comers at the 200 m in the World Championship trials. Bolt was pragmatic about his chances and noted that, even if he did not make the final, he would consider setting a personal best a success. However, he suffered a bout of conjunctivitis before the event, and it ruined his training schedule. Realising that he would not be in peak condition, the JAAA refused to let him participate in the finals, on the grounds that he was too young and inexperienced. Bolt was dismayed at missing out on the opportunity, but focused on getting himself in shape to gain a place on the Jamaican Olympic team instead. Even though he missed the World Championships, Bolt was awarded the IAAF Rising Star Award for the 2003 season on the strength of his junior record-equalling run. Professional athletics career 2004–2007 Early career Under the guidance of new coach Fitz Coleman, Bolt turned professional in 2004, beginning with the CARIFTA Games in Bermuda. He became the first junior sprinter to run the 200 m in under twenty seconds, taking the world junior record outright with a time of 19.93 s. For the second time in the role, he was awarded the Austin Sealy Trophy for the most outstanding athlete of the 2004 CARIFTA Games. A hamstring injury in May ruined Bolt's chances of competing in the 2004 World Junior Championships, but he was still chosen for the Jamaican Olympic squad. Bolt headed to the 2004 Athens Olympics with confidence and a new record on his side. However, he was hampered by a leg injury and was eliminated in the first round of the 200 metres with a disappointing time of 21.05 s. American colleges offered Bolt track scholarships to train in the United States while continuing to represent Jamaica on the international stage, but the teenager from Trelawny refused them all, stating that he was content to stay in his homeland of Jamaica. Bolt instead chose the surroundings of the University of Technology, Jamaica, as his professional training ground, staying with the university's track and weight room that had served him well in his amateur years. The year 2005 signalled a fresh start for Bolt in the form of a new coach, Glen Mills, and a new attitude toward athletics. Mills recognised Bolt's potential and aimed to cease what he considered an unprofessional approach to the sport. Bolt began training with Mills in preparation for the upcoming athletics season, partnering with more seasoned sprinters such as Kim Collins and Dwain Chambers. The year began well, and in July, he knocked more than a third of a second off the 200 m CAC Championship record with a run of 20.03 s, then registered his 200 m season's best at London's Crystal Palace, running in 19.99 s. Misfortune awaited Bolt at the next major event, the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki. Bolt felt that both his work ethic and athleticism had much improved since the 2004 Olympics, and he saw the World Championships as a way to live up to expectations, stating, "I really want to make up for what happened in Athens. Hopefully, everything will fall into place". Bolt qualified with runs under 21 s, but he suffered an injury in the final, finishing in last place with a time of 26.27 s. Injuries were preventing him from completing a full professional athletics season, and the eighteen-year-old Bolt still had not proven his mettle in the major world-athletics competitions. However, his appearance made him the youngest ever person to appear in a 200 m world final. Bolt was involved in a car accident in November, and although he suffered only minor facial lacerations, his training schedule was further upset. His manager at the time, Norman Peart, made Bolt's training less intensive, and he had fully recuperated the following week. Bolt had continued to improve his performances, and he reached the world top-5 rankings in 2005 and 2006. Peart and Mills stated their intentions to push Bolt to do longer sprinting distances with the aim of making the 400 m event his primary event by 2007 or 2008. Bolt was less enthusiastic, and demanded that he feel comfortable in his sprinting. He suffered another hamstring injury in March 2006, forcing him to withdraw from the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, and he did not return to track events until May. After his recovery, Bolt was given new training exercises to improve flexibility, and the plans to move him up to the 400 m event were put on hold. The 200 m remained Bolt's primary event when he returned to competition; he bested Justin Gatlin's meet record in Ostrava, Czech Republic. Bolt had aspired to run under twenty seconds to claim a season's best but, despite the fact that bad weather had impaired his run, he was happy to end the meeting with just the victory. However, a sub-20-second finish was soon his, as he set a new personal best of 19.88 s at the 2006 Athletissima Grand Prix in Lausanne, Switzerland, finishing behind Xavier Carter and Tyson Gay to earn a bronze medal. Bolt had focused his athletics aims, stating that 2006 was a year to gain experience. Also, he was more keen on competing over longer distances, setting his sights on running regularly in both 200 m and 400 m events within the next two years. Bolt claimed his first major world medal two months later at the IAAF World Athletics Final in Stuttgart, Germany. He passed the finishing post with a time of 20.10 s, gaining a bronze medal in the process. The IAAF World Cup in Athens, Greece, yielded Bolt's first senior international silver medal. Wallace Spearmon from the United States won gold with a championship record time of 19.87 s, beating Bolt's respectable time of 19.96 s. Further 200 m honours on both the regional and international stages awaited Bolt in 2007. He yearned to run in the 100 metres but Mills was skeptical, believing that Bolt was better suited for middle distances. The coach cited the runner's difficulty in smoothly starting out of the blocks and poor habits such as looking back at opponents in sprints. Mills told Bolt that he could run the shorter distance if he broke the 200 m national record. In the Jamaican Championships, he ran 19.75 s in the 200 m, breaking the 36-year-old Jamaican record held by Don Quarrie by 0.11 s. Mills complied with Bolt's demand to run in the 100 m, and he was entered to run the event at the 23rd Vardinoyiannia meeting in Rethymno, Crete. In his debut tournament, he won the gold medal in a time of 10.03 s, feeding his enthusiasm for the event. He built on this achievement at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, Japan, winning a silver medal. Bolt recorded 19.91 s with a headwind of 0.8 m/s (2.9 km/h; 1.8 mph). The race was won by Tyson Gay in 19.76 s, a new championship record. Bolt was a member of the silver medal relay team with Asafa Powell, Marvin Anderson, and Nesta Carter in the 4×100 metres relay. Jamaica set a national record of 37.89 s. Bolt did not win any gold medals at the major tournaments in 2007, but Mills felt that Bolt's technique was much improved, pinpointing improvements in Bolt's balance at the turns over 200 m and an increase in his stride frequency, giving him more driving power on the track. World-record breaker The silver medals from the 2007 Osaka World Championships boosted Bolt's desire to sprint, and he took a more serious, more mature stance towards his career. Bolt continued to develop in the 100 m, and he decided to compete in the event at the Jamaica Invitational in Kingston. On 3 May 2008, Bolt ran a time of 9.76 s, with a 1.8 m/s (6.5 km/h; 4.0 mph) tail wind, improving his personal best from 10.03 s. This was the second-fastest legal performance in the history of the event, second only to compatriot Asafa Powell's 9.74 s record set the previous year in Rieti, Italy. Rival Tyson Gay lauded the performance, especially praising Bolt's form and technique. Michael Johnson observed the race and said that he was shocked at how quickly Bolt had improved over the 100 m distance. The Jamaican surprised even himself with the time, but coach Glen Mills remained confident that there was more to come. On 31 May 2008, Bolt set a new 100 m world record at the Reebok Grand Prix in the Icahn Stadium in New York City. He ran 9.72s with a tail wind of 1.7 m/s (6.1 km/h; 3.8 mph). This race was Bolt's fifth senior 100 m. Gay again finished second and said of Bolt: "It looked like his knees were going past my face." Commentators noted that Bolt appeared to have gained a psychological advantage over fellow Olympic contender Gay. In June 2008, Bolt responded to claims that he was a lazy athlete, saying that the comments were unjustified, and he trained hard to achieve his potential. However, he surmised that such comments stemmed from his lack of enthusiasm for the 400 metres event; he chose not to make an effort to train for that particular distance. Turning his efforts to the 200 m, Bolt proved that he could excel in two events—first setting the world-leading time in Ostrava, then breaking the national record for the second time with a 19.67 s finish in Athens, Greece. Although Mills still preferred that Bolt focus on the longer distances, the acceptance of Bolt's demand to run in the 100 m worked for both sprinter and trainer. Bolt was more focused in practice, and a training schedule to boost his top speed and his stamina, in preparation for the Olympics, had improved both his 100 m and 200 m times. 2008 Summer Olympics Bolt doubled-up with the 100 metres and 200 metres events at the Beijing Summer Olympics. As the new 100 m world-record holder, he was the favourite to win both races. Michael Johnson, the 200 m and 400 m record holder, personally backed the sprinter, saying that he did not believe that a lack of experience would work against him. Bolt qualified for the 100 m final with times of 9.92 s and 9.85 s in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, respectively. In the Olympic 100 m final (16 August), Bolt broke new ground, winning in 9.69 s (unofficially 9.683 s) with a reaction time of 0.165 s. This was an improvement upon his own world record, and he was well ahead of second-place finisher Richard Thompson, who finished in 9.89 s. Not only was the record set with no favourable wind (0.0 m/s), but he also visibly slowed down to celebrate before he finished and his shoelace was untied. Bolt's coach reported that, based upon the speed of Bolt's opening 60 m, he could have finished with a time of 9.52 s. After scientific analysis of Bolt's run by the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics at the University of Oslo, Hans Eriksen and his colleagues also predicted a sub 9.60 s time. Considering factors such as Bolt's position, acceleration and velocity in comparison with second-place-finisher Thompson, the team estimated that Bolt could have finished in 9.55±0.04 s had he not slowed to celebrate before the finishing line. Bolt stated that setting a world record was not a priority for him, and that his goal was just to win the gold medal, Jamaica's first of the 2008 Games. Olympic medallist Kriss Akabusi construed Bolt's chest slapping before the finish line as showboating, noting that the actions cost Bolt an even faster record time. IOC president Jacques Rogge also condemned the Jamaican's actions as disrespectful. Bolt denied that this was the purpose of his celebration by saying, "I wasn't bragging. When I saw I wasn't covered, I was just happy". Lamine Diack, president of the IAAF, supported Bolt and said that his celebration was appropriate given the circumstances of his victory. Jamaican government minister Edmund Bartlett also defended Bolt's actions, stating, "We have to see it in the glory of their moment and give it to them. We have to allow the personality of youth to express itself". Bolt then focused on attaining a gold medal in the 200 m event, aiming to emulate Carl Lewis' double win in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Michael Johnson felt that Bolt would easily win gold but believed that his own world record of 19.32 s set at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta would remain intact at the Olympics. Bolt eased through the first and second rounds of the 200 m, jogging towards the end of his run both times. He won his semi-final and progressed to the final as the favourite to win. Retired Jamaican sprinter Don Quarrie praised Bolt, saying he was confident that Johnson's record could be beaten. The following day, at the final, he won Jamaica's fourth gold of the Games, setting a new world and Olympic record of 19.30 s. Johnson's record fell despite the fact that Bolt was impeded by a 0.9 m/s (3.2 km/h; 2.0 mph) headwind. The feat made him the first sprinter since Quarrie to hold both 100 m and 200 m world records simultaneously and the first to hold both records since the introduction of electronic timing. Furthermore, Bolt became the first sprinter to break both records at the same Olympics. Unlike in the 100 m final, Bolt sprinted hard all the way to the finishing line in the 200 m race, even dipping his chest to improve his time. Following the race, "Happy Birthday" was played over the stadium's sound system as his 22nd birthday would begin at midnight. Two days later, Bolt ran as the third leg in the Jamaican 4 × 100 metres relay team, increasing his gold medal total to three. Along with teammates Nesta Carter, Michael Frater, and Asafa Powell, Bolt broke another world and Olympic record, their 37.10 s finish breaking the previous record by three-tenths of a second. Powell, who anchored the team to the finishing line, lamented the loss of his 100 m record to Bolt but showed no animosity towards his Jamaican rival, stating that he was delighted to help him set his third world record. In January 2017 the Jamaican relay teammates were stripped of their gold medals when a blood sample taken from Carter after the race was retested and found positive for a banned substance. Following his victories, Bolt donated US$50,000 to the children of Sichuan province in China to help those harmed by the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Bolt's record-setting runs caused commentators not only to praise his achievements but to speculate about his potential to become one of the most successful sprinters in history. Critics hailed his Olympic success as a new beginning for a sport that had long suffered through high-profile drug scandals. The previous six years had seen the BALCO scandal, Tim Montgomery and Justin Gatlin stripped of their 100 m world records, and Marion Jones returning three Olympic gold medals. All three sprinters were disqualified from athletics after drugs tests detected banned substances in their systems. Bolt's record-breaking performances caused suspicion among some commentators, including Victor Conte, and the lack of an independent Caribbean anti-doping federation raised more concerns. The accusations of drug use were vehemently rejected by Glen Mills (Bolt's coach) and Herb Elliott (the Jamaican athletics team doctor). Elliott, a member of the IAAF anti-doping commission, urged those concerned about the issue to "come down and see our programme, come down and see our testing, we have nothing to hide". Mills had been equally ardent that Bolt was a clean athlete, declaring to the Jamaica Gleaner: "We will test any time, any day, any part of the body...[he] doesn't even like to take vitamins". Bolt stated that he had been tested four times prior to the Olympics, and all had tested negative for banned substances. He also welcomed anti-doping authorities to test him to prove that he was clean, stating, "We work hard and we perform well and we know we're clean". I was slowing down long before the finish and wasn't tired at all. I could have gone back to the start and done it all over again. After the 2008 Olympics At the end of the 2008 athletics season, Bolt competed in the ÅF Golden League, beginning in Weltklasse Zürich. Despite having the slowest start among his competitors in the 100 m race, he still crossed the finishing line in 9.83 s. Even though the time was slower than both his newly set world record and Asafa Powell's track record, it was still among the top-fifteen 100 m finishes by any sprinter to that date. Bolt admitted that he was not running at full strength because he was suffering from a cold, but he concentrated on winning the race and finishing the season in good health. At the Super Grand Prix final in Lausanne, Bolt ran his second-fastest 200 m with a time of 19.63 s, equalling Xavier Carter's track record. However, it was the 100 m final, featuring Asafa Powell, that drew the most interest. Powell had moved closer to Bolt's world record after setting a new personal best of 9.72 s, reaffirming his status as Bolt's main contender. Bolt's final event of the season came three days later at the Golden League final in Brussels. This was the first 100 m race featuring both Bolt and Powell since the final in the Olympics. Both Jamaicans broke the track record, but Bolt came out on top with a time of 9.77 s, beating Powell by 0.06 s. Victory, however, did not come as smoothly as it had in Beijing. Bolt made the slowest start of the nine competitors and had to recover ground in cold conditions and against a 0.9 m/s (3.2 km/h; 2.0 mph) headwind. Yet the results confirmed Jamaican dominance in the 100 m, with nine of the ten-fastest legal times in history being recorded by either Bolt or Powell. On his return to Jamaica, Bolt was honoured in a homecoming celebration and received an Order of Distinction in recognition of his achievements at the Olympics. Additionally, Bolt was selected as the IAAF Male Athlete of the year, won a Special Olympic Award for his performances, and was named Laureus World Sportsman of the Year. Bolt turned his attention to future events, suggesting that he could aim to break the 400 metres world record in 2010 as no major championships were scheduled that year. 2009 Berlin World Championships Bolt started the season competing in the 400 metres in order to improve his speed, winning two races and registering 45.54 s in Kingston, and windy conditions gave him his first sub-10 seconds finish of the season in the 100 m in March. In late April, Bolt suffered minor leg injuries in a car crash. However, he quickly recovered following minor surgery and (after cancelling a track meet in Jamaica) he stated that he was fit to compete in the 150 metres street race at the Manchester Great City Games. Bolt won the race in 14.35 s, the fastest time ever recorded for 150 m. Despite not being at full fitness, he took the 100 and 200 m titles at the Jamaican national championships, with runs of 9.86 s and 20.25 s respectively. This meant he had qualified for both events at the 2009 World Championships. Rival Tyson Gay suggested that Bolt's 100 m record was within his grasp, but Bolt dismissed the claim and instead noted that he was more interested in Asafa Powell's return from injury. Bolt defied unfavourable conditions at the Athletissima meet in July, running 19.59 seconds into a 0.9 m/s (3.2 km/h; 2.0 mph) headwind and rain, to record the fourth fastest time ever over 200 m, one hundredth off Gay's best time. The 2009 World Championships were held during August at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, which was coincidentally the same month and venue where Jesse Owens had achieved world-wide fame 73 years earlier. Bolt eased through the 100-m heats, clocking the fastest ever pre-final performance of 9.89 seconds. The final was the first time that Bolt and Gay had met during the season, and Bolt set a new world record—which stands to this day—with a time of 9.58s to win his first World Championship gold medal. Bolt took more than a tenth of a second off his previous best mark, and this was the largest-ever margin of improvement in the 100-m world record since the beginning of electronic timing. Gay finished with a time of 9.71 s, 0.02 s off Bolt's 9.69 s world-record run in Beijing. Although Gay withdrew from the second race of the competition, Bolt once again produced world record-breaking time in the 200 metres final. He broke his own record by 0.11 seconds, finishing with a time of 19.19 seconds. He won the 200 m race by the largest margin in World Championships history, even though the race had three other athletes running under 19.90 seconds, the greatest number ever in the event. Bolt's pace impressed even the more experienced of his competitors; third-placed Wallace Spearmon complimented his speed, and the Olympic champion in Athens 2004 Shawn Crawford said "Just coming out there...I felt like I was in a video game, that guy was moving – fast". Bolt pointed out that an important factor in his performance at the World Championships was his improved start to the races: his reaction times in the 100 m (0.146) and 200 m (0.133) were significantly faster than those he had produced in his world record runs at the Beijing Olympics. However, he, together with other members of Jamaican 4×100 m relay team, fell short of their own world record of 37.10 s set at 2008 Summer Olympics by timing 37.31 s, which is, however, a championship record and the second fastest time in history at that date. On the last day of the Berlin Championships, the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit, presented Bolt with a 12-foot high section of the Berlin Wall in a small ceremony, saying Bolt had shown that "one can tear down walls that had been considered as insurmountable." The nearly three-ton segment was delivered to the Jamaica Military Museum in Kingston. Several days after Bolt broke the world records in 100 and 200 metres events, Mike Powell, the world record holder in long jump (8.95 metres set in 1991) argued that Bolt could become the first man to jump over 9 metres, the long jump event being "a perfect fit for his speed and height". At the end of the season, he was selected as the IAAF World Athlete of the Year for the second year running. 2010 Diamond League and broken streak Early on in the 2010 outdoor season, Bolt ran 19.56 seconds in the 200 m in Kingston, Jamaica for the fourth-fastest run of all time, although he stated that he had no record breaking ambitions for the forthcoming season. He took to the international circuit May with wins in East Asia at the Colorful Daegu Pre-Championships Meeting and then a comfortable win in his 2010 IAAF Diamond League debut at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix. Bolt made an attempt to break Michael Johnson's best time over the rarely competed 300 metres event at the Golden Spike meeting in Ostrava. He failed to match Johnson's ten-year-old record of 30.85 and suffered a setback in that his 30.97-second run in wet weather had left him with an Achilles tendon problem. After his return from injury a month later, Bolt asserted himself with a 100 m win at the Athletissima meeting in Lausanne (9.82 seconds) and a victory over Asafa Powell at Meeting Areva in Paris (9.84 seconds). Despite this run of form, he suffered only the second loss of his career in a 100 m final at the DN Galan. Tyson Gay soundly defeated him with a run of 9.84 to Bolt's 9.97 seconds, and the Jamaican reflected that he had slacked off in training early in the season while Gay had been better prepared and in a better condition. This marked Bolt's first loss to Gay in the 100 m, which coincidentally occurred in the same stadium where Powell had beaten Bolt for the first time two years earlier. 2011 World Championships Bolt went undefeated over 100 m and 200 m in the 2011 season. He began with wins in Rome and Ostrava in May. He ran his first 200 m in over a year in Oslo that June and his time of 19.86 seconds was a world-leading one. Two further 200 m wins came in Paris and Stockholm the following month, as did a 100 m in Monaco, though he was a tenth of a second slower than compatriot Asafa Powell before the world championships. Considered the favourite to win in the 100 metres at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, Bolt was eliminated from the final, breaking "ridiculously early" according to the starter in an interview for BBC Sport, and receiving a false start. This proved to be the highest profile disqualification for a false start since the IAAF changed the rules that previously allowed one false start per race. The disqualification caused some to question the new rule, with former world champion Kim Collins saying it was "a sad night for athletics". Usain Bolt's countryman, Yohan Blake, won in a comparatively slow 9.92 seconds. In the World Championships 200 m, Bolt cruised through to the final which he won in a time of 19.40. Though this was short of his world record times of the two previous major tournaments, it was the fourth fastest run ever at that point, after his own records and Michael Johnson's former record, and left him three tenths of a second ahead of runner-up Walter Dix. This achievement made Bolt one of only two men to win consecutive 200 m world titles, alongside Calvin Smith. Bolt closed the championships with another gold with Jamaica in the 4 × 100 metres relay. Nesta Carter and Michael Frater joined world champions Bolt and Blake to set a world record time of 37.04. Following the World Championships, Bolt ran 9.85 seconds for the 100 m to win in Zagreb before setting the year's best time of 9.76 seconds at the Memorial Van Damme. This run was overshadowed by Jamaican rival Blake's unexpected run of 19.26 seconds in the 200 m at the same meeting, which brought him within seven hundredths of Bolt's world record. Although Bolt failed to win the Diamond Race in a specific event, he was not beaten on the 2011 IAAF Diamond League circuit, taking three wins in each of his specialities that year. 2012 Summer Olympics Bolt began the 2012 season with a leading 100 m time of 9.82 seconds in May. He defeated Asafa Powell with runs of 9.76 seconds in Rome and 9.79 in Oslo. At the Jamaican Athletics Championships, he lost to Yohan Blake, first in the 200 m and then in the 100 m, with his younger rival setting leading times for the year. However, at the 2012 London Olympics, he won the 100 metres gold medal with a time of 9.63 seconds, improving upon his own Olympic record and duplicating his gold medal from the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Blake was the silver medallist with a time of 9.75 seconds. Following the race, seventh-place finisher Richard Thompson of Trinidad and Tobago declared "There's no doubt he's the greatest sprinter of all time", while USA Today referred to Bolt as a Jamaican "national hero", noting that his victory came just hours before Jamaica was to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its independence from the United Kingdom. With his 2012 win, Bolt became the first man to successfully defend an Olympic sprint title since Carl Lewis in 1988. I'm now a legend. I'm also the greatest athlete to live. Bolt followed this up with a successful defence of his Olympic 200 metres title with a time of 19.32 seconds, followed by Blake at 19.44 and Warren Weir at 19.84 to complete a Jamaican podium sweep. With this, Bolt became the first man in history to defend both the 100 m and 200 m Olympic sprint titles. He was dramatic in victory: in the final metres of the 200 m race, Bolt placed his fingers on his lips, gesturing to silence his critics, and after crossing the line he completed five push-ups – one for each of his Olympic gold medals. On the final day of the 2012 Olympic athletics, Bolt participated in Jamaica's gold medal-winning 4×100 metres relay team along with Nesta Carter, Michael Frater and Blake. With a time of 36.84 seconds, they knocked two tenths of a second from their previous world record from 2011. He celebrated by imitating the "Mobot" celebration of Mo Farah, who had claimed a long-distance track double for the host nation. International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge initially stated that Bolt was not yet a "legend" and would not deserve such acclaim until the end of his career, but later called him the best sprinter of all time. Following the Olympics he was confirmed as the highest earning track and field athlete in history. Bolt ended his season with wins on the 2012 IAAF Diamond League circuit; he had 200 m wins of 19.58 and 19.66 in Lausanne and Zürich before closing with a 100 m of 9.86 in Brussels. The latter run brought him his first Diamond League title in the 100 m. 2013 World Championships Bolt failed to record below 10 seconds early season and had his first major 100 m race of 2013 at the Golden Gala in June. He was served an unexpected defeat by Justin Gatlin, with the American winning 9.94 to Bolt's 9.95. Bolt denied the loss was due to a hamstring issue he had early that year and Gatlin responded: "I don't know how many people have beaten Bolt but it's an honour". With Yohan Blake injured, Bolt won the Jamaican 100 m title ahead of Kemar Bailey-Cole and skipped the 200 m, which was won by Warren Weir. Prior to the 2013 World Championships in Athletics, Bolt set world leading times in the sprints, with 9.85 for the 100 m at the London Anniversary Games and 19.73 for the 200 m in Paris. Bolt regained the title as world's fastest man by winning the World Championships 100 metres in Moscow. In wet conditions, he edged Gatlin by eight hundredths of a second with 9.77, which was the fastest run that year. Gatlin was the sole non-Jamaican in the top five, with Nesta Carter, Nickel Ashmeade and Bailey-Cole finishing next. Bolt was less challenged in the 200 m final. His closest rival was Jamaican champion Warren Weir but Bolt ran a time of 19.66 to finish over a tenth of a second clear. This performance made Bolt the first man in the history of the 200 metres at the World Championships in Athletics to win three gold medals over the distance. Bolt won a third consecutive world relay gold medal in the 4 × 100 metres relay final, which made him the most successful athlete in the 30-year history of the world championships. The Jamaican team, featuring four of the top five from the 100 m final were comfortable winners with Bolt reaching the finish line on his anchor leg three tenths of a second ahead of the American team anchored by Gatlin. Bolt's performances were matched on the women's side by Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, meaning Jamaica took a complete sweep of the sprint medals at the 2013 World Championships. After the championships, Bolt took 100 m wins on the 2013 IAAF Diamond League circuit in Zürich and Brussels. He remained unbeaten in the 200 m and his only loss that year was to Gatlin over 100 m in Rome. For the fifth time in six years, Bolt was named IAAF World Male Athlete of the Year. 2014: Injury and Commonwealth Games An injury to Bolt's hamstring in March 2014 caused him to miss nine weeks of training. Having recovered from surgery, Bolt competed in the 4 × 100 metres relay of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Not in peak form Bolt said that he was attending the Games for the fans and to show his progress since the injury. Bolt and his teammates won the 4 × 100 metres relay in 37.58 seconds – a Commonwealth Games record. This was the foremost competition of the year for Bolt, given no Olympics or World Championships in 2014. In August 2014, Bolt set the indoor 100 m world record in Warsaw with a time of 9.98 seconds. This was his sole individual outing of the 2014 season. Soon afterwards he ended his season early in order to be fit for the 2015 season. In Bolt's absence, Justin Gatlin had dominated the sprints, holding the year's fastest times, including seven of the top ten 100 m runs that season. 2015 Beijing World Championships At the start of 2015, he intended to make the 2017 World Championships in Athletics his last major competition before retirement. Upon his return from injury, Bolt appeared a reduced figure at the start of the 2015 season. He ran only two 100 m and three 200 m before the major championship. He opened with 10.12 seconds for the 100 m and 20.20 for the 200 m. He won the 200 m in New York and Ostrava, but his season's best time of 20.13 seconds ranked him 20th in the world going into the championships. Two 100 m runs of 9.87 in July in London showed better form, but in comparison, Justin Gatlin was easily the top ranked sprinter – the American had times of 9.74 and 19.57 seconds, and had already run under 9.8 seconds on four occasions that season. Bolt entered the World Championships to defend his sprint titles but was not the comfortable favourite he had been since 2008. In the World Championships 100 m, Bolt won his semi-final in 9.96, which lagged Gatlin's semi-final win in 9.77 seconds. However, Gatlin did not match that form in the final while Bolt improved through the rounds. In a narrow victory, Bolt leaned at the line to beat Gatlin 9.79 to 9.80 seconds. Bolt joined Carl Lewis and Maurice Greene on a record three 100 m world titles. A similar outcome followed in the 200 m World finals. In the semi-final, Gatlin outpaced Bolt – the Jamaican at 19.95 and the American at 19.87. Despite such slow times prior to Beijing, Bolt delivered in the final with his fifth fastest run ever for the 200 m at 19.55 seconds. Gatlin failed to reach his early season form and finished almost two-tenths of a second behind Bolt. Bolt's four consecutive wins over 200 m at the World Championships was unprecedented and established him clearly as the best ever sprinter at the competition. There was also a fourth straight win in the 4 × 100 metres relay with the Jamaica team (Nesta Carter, Asafa Powell, Nickel Ashmeade, Usain Bolt). The Americans initially had a lead, but a poor baton exchange saw them disqualified and Jamaica defend their title in 37.36 seconds – well clear of the Chinese team who took a surprise silver for the host nation. Conscious of his injuries at the start of the season, he did not compete after the World Championships, skipping the 2015 IAAF Diamond League final. 2016 Rio Olympics Bolt competed sparingly in the 200 m before the Olympics, with a run of 19.89 seconds to win at the London Grand Prix being his sole run of note over that distance. He had four races over 100 m, though only one was in Europe, and his best of 9.88 seconds in Kingston placed him fourth on the world seasonal rankings. As in the previous season, Gatlin appeared to be in better form, having seasonal bests of 9.80 and 19.75 seconds to rank first and second in the sprints. Doping in athletics was a prime topic before the 2016 Rio Olympics, given the banning of the Russian track and field team for state doping, and Bolt commented that he had no problem with doping controls: "I have no issue with being drug-tested...I remember in Beijing every other day they were drug-testing us". He also highlighted his dislike of rival Tyson Gay's reduced ban for cooperation, given their close rivalry since the start of Bolt's career, saying "it really bothered me – really, really bothered me". I want to be among greats Muhammad Ali and Pelé. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Bolt won the 100 metres gold medal with a time of 9.81 seconds. With this win, Bolt became the first athlete to win the event three times at the Olympic Games. Bolt followed up his 100 m win with a gold medal in the 200 m, which also makes him the first athlete to win the 200 m three times at the Olympic Games. Bolt ran the anchor leg for the finals of the 4 × 100 m relay and secured his third consecutive and last Olympic gold medal in the event. With that win, Bolt obtained the "triple-triple", three sprinting gold medals in three consecutive Olympics, and finished his Olympic career with a 100% win record in finals. However, in January 2017, Bolt was stripped of the 4 × 100 relay gold from the Beijing Games in 2008 because his teammate Nesta Carter was found guilty of a doping violation. 2017 season Bolt took a financial stake in a new Australia-based track and field meeting series – Nitro Athletics. He performed at the inaugural meet in February 2017 and led his team (Bolt All-Stars) to victory. The competition featured variations on traditional track and field events. He committed himself to three further editions. In 2017, the Jamaican team was stripped of the 2008 Olympics 4×100 metre title due to Nesta Carter's disqualification for doping offences. Bolt, who never failed a dope test, was quoted by the BBC saying that the prospect of having to return the gold was "heartbreaking". The banned substance in Carter's test was identified as methylhexanamine, a nasal decongestant sometimes used in dietary supplements. At the 2017 World Athletics Championships, Bolt won his heat uncomfortably after a slow start in 10.07, in his semi-final he improved to 9.98 but was beaten by Christian Coleman by 0.01. That race broke Bolt's 4 year winning streak in the 100 m. In his final individual race, in the final, Bolt won the bronze medal in 9.95, 0.01 behind silver medalist Coleman and 0.03 behind World Champion Justin Gatlin. It was the first time Bolt had been beaten at a major championship since the 4×100 m relay of the 2007 World Athletics Championships. Also at the 2017 World Athletics Championships, Bolt participated as the anchor runner for Jamaica's 4×100-metre relay team in both the heats and the final. Jamaica won their heat comfortably in 37.95 seconds. In what was intended to be his final race, Bolt pulled up in agony with 50 metres to go and collapsed to the track after what was later confirmed to be another hamstring injury. He refused a wheelchair and crossed the finish line one last time with the assistance of his teammates Omar McLeod, Julian Forte, and Yohan Blake. Following his 2017 season, Bolt had a statue of him unveiled in his honour at the National Stadium in Kingston on 3 December 2017. The statue shows him in his signature "lightning bolt" pose. Personal life Bolt expresses a love for dancing and his character is frequently described as laid-back and relaxed. His Jamaican track and field idols include Herb McKenley and former Jamaican 100 m and 200 m world record holder Don Quarrie. Michael Johnson, the former 200 m world and Olympic record holder, is also held in high esteem by Bolt. Bolt has the nickname "Lightning Bolt" due to his name and speed. He is Catholic and known for making the sign of the cross before racing competitively, and he wears a Miraculous Medal during his races. His middle name is St. Leo. In 2010, Bolt also revealed his fondness of music, when he played a reggae DJ set to a crowd in Paris. He is also an avid fan of the Call of Duty video game series, saying, "I stay up late [playing the game online], I can't help it." In his autobiography, Bolt wrote that he suffered from scoliosis, a curvature of the spine which made his right leg 1⁄2 inch (13 mm) shorter than his left. This condition causes an uneven stride, with his left leg remaining on the ground for longer than his right, and hitting the ground with a lesser force. Biomechanics researchers have studied, with no firm conclusions, whether this asymmetry has helped or hurt Bolt in his sprinting career. He popularised the "lightning bolt" pose, also known as "to di world" or "bolting", which he used both before races and in celebration. The pose consists of extending a slightly raised left arm to the side and the right arm folded across the chest, with both hands have the thumb and index finger outstretched. His performance of the pose during his Olympic and World Championship victories led to widespread copying of the move, from American President Barack Obama to small children. It has been suggested that the pose comes from Jamaican dancehall moves of the period, though Olympic sprint champion Bernard Williams also had performed similar celebration moves earlier that decade. His habit of fist bumping the volunteers for good luck has been noted in the media. In 2021, Bolt told the BBC that his love for video games, such as Mario Kart and Mortal Kombat, helped him during his Olympic career. Financial crisis On 19 January 2023, Bolt had fallen victim to a fraud scheme, resulting in the disappearance of more than $12 million from his retirement savings account, according to a letter from his attorneys obtained by the Associated Press. The account, held with Kingston-based investment firm Stocks and Securities Ltd., showed a balance of only $12,000, down from its previous $12.8 million. Bolt's legal team had stated that if the allegations were true, a serious act of fraud or larceny had been committed against their client. Family On 17 May 2020, Bolt's longtime girlfriend Kasi Bennett gave birth to their first child, daughter Olympia Lightning. Bolt and Bennett then welcomed twin boys Thunder and Saint Leo in June 2021. Other sports Cricket was the first sport to interest Bolt, and he said if he were not a sprinter, he would be a fast bowler instead. As a child, he admired the bowling of Waqar Younis. He is also a fan of Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar, West Indian opener Chris Gayle, and Australian opener Matthew Hayden. During a charity cricket match, Bolt clean-bowled Gayle, who was complimentary of Bolt's pace and swing. Bolt also struck a six off Gayle's bowling. Another bowler complimentary of Bolt's pace was former West Indies fast-bowling great Curtly Ambrose. After talking with Australian cricketer Shane Warne, Bolt suggested that if he were able to get time off he would be interested in playing in the cricket Big Bash League. Melbourne Stars chief executive Clint Cooper said there were free spots on his team should he be available. Bolt stated that he enjoyed the Twenty20 version of the game, admiring the aggressive and constant nature of the batting. On his own ability, he said, "I don't know how good I am. I will probably have to get a lot of practice in." Bolt is also a fan of Premier League football team Manchester United. He has declared he is a fan of Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy. Bolt was a special guest of Manchester United at the 2011 UEFA Champions League Final in London, where he stated that he would like to play for them after his retirement. In 2013, Bolt played basketball in the NBA All-Star Weekend Celebrity Game. He scored two points from a slam dunk but acknowledged his other basketball skills were lacking. In an interview with Decca Aitkenhead of The Guardian in November 2016, Bolt said he wished to play as a professional footballer after retiring from track and field. He reiterated his desire to play for Manchester United if given a chance and added, "For me, if I could get to play for Manchester United, that would be like a dream come true. Yes, that would be epic." In 2018, after training with Norwegian side Strømsgodset, Bolt played for the club as a forward in a friendly match against the Norway national under-19 team. He wore the number "9.58" in allusion to his 100 m world record. Bolt wore the same number whilst captaining the World XI during Soccer Aid 2018 at Old Trafford. On 21 August 2018, on his 32nd birthday, Bolt started training with Australian club Central Coast Mariners of the A-League. He made his friendly debut for the club as a substitute on 31 August 2018 against a Central Coast Select team, made up of players playing in the local area. On 12 October, he started in a friendly against amateur club Macarthur South West United and scored two goals, both in the second half, with his goal celebration featuring his signature "To Di World" pose. Bolt was offered a two-year contract from Maltese club Valletta, which he turned down on 18 October 2018. On 21 October 2018, Bolt was offered a contract by the Mariners. The Australian FA was helping the Mariners to fund it. Later that month, Perth Glory forward Andy Keogh was critical of Bolt's ability, stating his first touch is "like a trampoline." He added Bolt has "shown a bit of potential but it's a little bit of a kick in the teeth to the professionals that are in the league." Bolt left the Mariners in early November 2018 after 8 weeks with the club. In January 2019, Bolt decided not to pursue a career in football, saying his "sports life is over." Bolt, a Green Bay Packers fan, stated in July 2021 he could have considered a career as a wide receiver in the National Football League had the rules on violent tackles related to concussions been as tightly regulated 'back in the day' as they were by that stage. If he had switched to gridiron football, his concern was that he would have been a high-priced target for very heavy hits which made him back out of his desire to try the sport. He also felt certain that even at 34 and being retired he would comfortably be the fastest player in the league. Documentary film A documentary film based on the athletic life of Bolt to win three Olympic gold medals, titled I Am Bolt, was released on 28 November 2016 in United Kingdom. The film was directed by Benjamin Turner and Gabe Turner. Sponsorships and advertising work After winning the 200 m title in the 2002 World Junior Championships in Kingston, Bolt signed a sponsorship deal with Puma. To promote Bolt's chase for Olympic glory in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, Puma released a series of videos including Bolt's then-world-record-setting run in Icahn Stadium and his Olympic preparations. After his record-breaking run in New York City, which was preceded by a lightning storm, the press frequently made puns on the Jamaican's name, nicknaming him "Lightning Bolt" and the "Bolt from the blue". During the 2008 Beijing 100 m final, Bolt wore golden Puma Complete Theseus spikes that had "Beijing 100 m Gold" emblazoned across them. Writing of Bolt's performance at the Olympics, The Associated Press said: Almost single-handedly, Bolt has helped track transform itself from a dying sport to one with a singular, smiling, worldwide star. In September 2010, Bolt travelled to Australia where his sponsor Gatorade was holding an event called the "Gatorade Bolt" to find Australia's fastest footballer. The event was held at the Sydney International Athletic Centre and featured football players from rugby league, rugby union, Australian rules football, and association football. Prior to the race Bolt gave the runners some private coaching and also participated in the 10th anniversary celebrations for the 2000 Summer Olympic Games. In January 2012, Bolt impersonated Richard Branson in an advertising campaign for Virgin Media. The campaign was directed by Seth Gordon and features the Virgin founder Branson to promote its broadband service. In March 2012, Bolt starred in an advert for Visa and the 2012 Summer Olympics. In July 2012, Bolt and RockLive launched Bolt!, an Apple iOS game based on his exploits. Bolt! quickly became the No. 1 app in Jamaica and climbed the UK iTunes charts to reach No. 2 on the list of Top Free Apps. In 2012, Bolt collaborated with headphone maker Soul Electronics to design his own line of headphones. Bolt designed both an in-ear bud and over-ear model with the Jamaican color scheme and his signature "To Di World" pose. Bolt's autobiography, My Story: 9.58: Being the World's Fastest Man, was released in 2010. Bolt had previously said that the book "...should be exciting, it's my life, and I'm a cool and exciting guy." His athletics agent is PACE Sports Management. As part of his sponsorship deal with Puma, the manufacturer sends sporting equipment to his alma mater, William Knibb Memorial High School, every year. At Bolt's insistence, advertisements featuring him are filmed in Jamaica, by a Jamaican production crew, in an attempt to boost local enterprise and gain exposure for the country. In 2017, Bolt had the third highest earning social media income for sponsors among sportspeople (behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar), and he was the only non-footballer in the top seven. Bolt is the highest paid athlete in the history of the sport. In 2016, Bolt earned about $33 million in one year putting him at No. 32 on Forbes list of The World's Highest-paid Athletes making him the only track and field athlete on the list. Entrepreneurship Usain Bolt co-founded electric scooter company Bolt Mobility in 2018, created in his namesake. Bolt founded the micromobility company, which provides electric scooters and other yet-to-be released mobility devices, such as the company's upcoming Bolt Nano. Bolt appeared in Bolt Mobility's debut commercial, released through YouTube and his official Facebook account. Bolt appeared in a number of interviews for the company, alongside CEO Sarah Pishevar Haynes. Bolt made his first public appearance for the company in March 2019, during the company's New York City launch and in CNBC interviews on the NYSE. In May 2019, the company expanded its services to Europe, introducing the product first in Paris. In May 2019, Bolt spoke in Paris at the Viva Technology conference, where he introduced the company's future release of the Nano minicar. He also met with French president Emmanuel Macron while at the conference. While in France, Bolt participated in a CNN interview where he revealed his reasons for founding the company. Bolt argues that his scooter is different, which allows bag, shopping and mobile phone storage. The scooters have capabilities to reach up to 30 mph, but are typically capped at 15 mph depending on city regulation. The company has begun operations in a number of U.S. cities, and plans to expand throughout Europe and Asia. In early July 2022, Bolt Mobility abruptly ceased operations, leaving bike-sharing programs up in the air, including Burlington, Vermont; Portland, Oregon; Richmond, California; and Richmond, Virginia. Music production In July 2019, Bolt made his debut as a dancehall music producer with the release of the Olympe Rosé riddim that featured 5 tracks from Jamaican dancehall artistes: Dexta Daps "Big Moves", Munga Honorable "Weekend", Christopher Martin "Dweet", Ding Dong "Top A Di Top" and football player turned artist Ricardo "Bibi" Gardner "Mount A Gyal". In November 2019, he followed up with another compilation called Immortal Riddim that included tracks from Vybz Kartel, Masicka, Munga Honorable and Christopher Martin. In early January 2021, Bolt released a single titled "Living the Dream" with his childhood friend and manager Nugent 'NJ' Walker. Recognition IAAF World Athlete of the Year: 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016 Track & Field Athlete of the Year: 2008, 2009 Laureus World Sportsman of the Year: 2009, 2010, 2013, 2017 BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year: 2008, 2009, 2012 L'Équipe Champion of Champions: 2008, 2009, 2012, 2015 Jamaica Sportsman of the year: 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013 AIPS Male Athlete of the Year: 2015 Marca Leyenda (2009) In October 2008, he was made a Commander of the Order of Distinction, which entitles him to use the post nominal letters CD. In 2009, at age 23, Usain Bolt became the youngest member so far of the Order of Jamaica. The award was "for outstanding performance in the field of athletics at the international level". In the Jamaican honours system, this is considered the equivalent of a knighthood in the British honours system, and entitles him to be formally styled "The Honourable", and to use the post nominal letters OJ. Statistics Personal bests Records Bolt's personal best of 9.58 seconds in 2009 in the 100 metres is the fastest ever run. Bolt also holds the second fastest time of 9.63 seconds, the current Olympic record, and set two previous world records in the event. Bolt's personal best of 19.19 s in the 200 metres is the world record. This was recorded at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics in Berlin against a headwind of −0.3 m/s (−1.1 km/h; −0.67 mph). This performance broke his previous world record in the event, his 19.30 s clocking in winning the 2008 Olympic 200 metres title. Bolt has been on three world-record-setting Jamaican relay teams. The first record, 37.10 seconds, was set in winning gold at the 2008 Summer Olympics, although the result was voided in 2017 when the team was disqualified due to his team member Nesta Carter's urine sample being retested and found positive for the prohibited substance methylhexaneamine. The second record came at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics, a time of 37.04 seconds. The third world record was set at the 2012 Summer Olympics, a time of 36.84 seconds. Bolt also holds the 200 metres world teenage best results for the age categories 15 (20.58 s), 16 (20.13 s, former world youth record), 17 (19.93 s) and 18 (19.93 s, world junior record). He also holds the 150 metres world best set in 2009, during which he ran the last 100 metres in 8.70 seconds, the quickest timed 100 metres ever. Bolt completed a total of 53 wind-legal sub-10-second performances in the 100 m during his career, with his first coming on 3 May 2008 and his last on 5 August 2017 at the World Championships. His longest undefeated streak in the 200 m was in 17 finals, lasting from 12 June 2008 to 3 September 2011. He also had a win-streak covering 14 100 m finals from 16 August 2008 to 16 July 2010. Guinness World Records Bolt claimed 19 Guinness World Records, and, after Michael Phelps, holds the second-highest number of accumulative Guinness World Records for total number of accomplishments and victories in sports. Fastest run 150 metres (male) Most medals won at the IAAF Athletics World Championships (male) Most gold medals won at the IAAF Athletics World Championships (male) Most Athletics World Championships Men's 200 m wins Most consecutive Olympic gold medals won in the 100 metres (male) Most consecutive Olympic gold medals won in the 200 metres (male) Most Olympic men's 200 metres Gold medals Fastest run 200 metres (male) Most Men's IAAF World Athlete of Year Trophies First Olympic track sprint triple-double Highest annual earnings for a track athlete Most wins of the 100 m sprint at the Olympic Games First athlete to win the 100 m and 200 m sprints at successive Olympic Games Fastest run 100 metres (male) First man to win the 200 m sprint at successive Olympic Games Most Athletics World Championships Men's 100 m wins Most tickets sold at an IAAF World Championships Most competitive 100 m sprint races completed in sub 10 seconds Fastest relay 4×100 metres (male) Average and top speeds From his record time of 9.58 s for the 100 m sprint, Usain Bolt's average ground speed equates to 37.58 km/h (23.35 mph). However, once his reaction time of 0.148 s is subtracted, his time is 9.44 s, making his average speed 38.18 km/h (23.72 mph). Bolt's top speed, based on his split time of 1.61 s for the 20 metres from the 60- to 80-metre marks (made during the 9.58 WR at 100 m), is 12.42 m/s (44.72 km/h (27.79 mph)). Season's bests World rank in parentheses World rankings International competitions National titles Jamaican Athletics Championships 100 m: 2008, 2009, 2013 200 m: 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009 Circuit wins Other distances Manchester GreatCity Games: 2010 (150 m) Ostrava Golden Spike: 2010 (300 m) Publications Allen, Matt; Bolt, Usain (2013). Faster Than Lightning: My Autobiography. London: HarperSport. ISBN 978-0-00-752364-1. Bolt, Usain; Custis, Shaun (2010). Usain Bolt: 9.58. London: HarperSport. ISBN 978-0-00-737139-6. Bolt, Usain; Custis, Shaun (2012). The Fastest Man Alive: The True Story of Usain Bolt. New York: Sports Publishing. ISBN 978-1-61321-067-3. See also Athletics in Jamaica Jamaica at the Olympics List of multiple Olympic gold medalists List of multiple Olympic gold medalists at a single Games Men's 100 metres world record progression Men's 200 metres world record progression Sport in Berlin Notes References External links Media related to Usain Bolt at Wikimedia Commons Usain Bolt at Wikinews Quotations related to Usain Bolt at Wikiquote Official website Usain Bolt at World Athletics Usain Bolt timeline via The Daily Telegraph Videos Usain Bolt wins the 2009 IAAF World Championships in Athletics men's 100 metres final in 9.58 seconds via IAAF on YouTube Usain Bolt wins the 2009 Great CityGames Manchester men's 150 metres final in 14.35 seconds via Athletics Weekly on YouTube Usain Bolt wins the 2009 IAAF World Championships in Athletics men's 200 metres final in 19.19 seconds via IAAF on YouTube Usain Bolt wins the 2012 Olympic Games men's 100 metres final in 9.63 seconds via the Olympic Channel on YouTube Usain Bolt wins the 2012 Olympic Games men's 200 metres final in 19.32 seconds via the Olympic Channel on YouTube Usain Bolt wins the 2016 Olympic Games men's 100 metres final in 9.81 seconds via the Olympic Channel on YouTube Usain Bolt wins the 2016 Olympic Games men's 200 metres final in 19.79 seconds via the Olympic Channel on YouTube All of Usain Bolt's Olympic Games finals via the Olympic Channel on YouTube

Thomas Robert Daley (born 21 May 1994) is an English retired diver, YouTuber and television personality. He is an Olympic champion in the men's synchronised 10-metre platform event at the 2020 Olympics and double world champion in the FINA 10-metre platform event, winning in 2009 at the age of fifteen, and again in 2017. He is an Olympic bronze medallist in the 2012 platform event, the 2016 synchronised event, and the 2020 platform event, He won the silver medal in the men's synchronised 10-metre at the 2024 Olympics, making him the first British diver to win 5 Olympic medals. Daley also competes in team events, winning the inaugural mixed team World title in 2015, and repeating the win in 2024, his fourth World title in all. He is an Olympic champion, four-time World Champion, a two-time junior World Champion, a five-time European champion and four-time Commonwealth champion. Daley started diving at the age of seven and is a member of Plymouth Diving Club, where his talent was identified early, and made an impact in national and international competitions from age nine. He represented Great Britain at the 2008 Summer Olympics where he was Britain's youngest competitor, age fourteen, and the youngest from any nation to participate in a final. In 2009, Daley reached a career-best ranking of number one in the FINA World Aquatics Championships Diving Rankings for the 10 m platform. He won two gold medals for England at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, in the 10 m synchro diving (with Max Brick) and the 10 m Individual Platform competition. After the 2012 Summer Olympics and a summer of increased sporting interest amongst the UK public, television network ITV approached Daley to have a role in their new celebrity diving reality TV show Splash! Daley made his debut in the show's premiere on 5 January 2013 as a mentor to the celebrity competitors taking part. In 2023, Daley became an assistant diving coach at UCLA. In August 2024, a day after the 2024 Summer Olympics concluded, Daley announced his retirement from professional diving. Early life Thomas Robert Daley was born on 21 May 1994 at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, Devon, England, the son of Debbie (née Selvester) and Robert Daley. He has two brothers – William who is three years younger, and Ben who is five years younger. Their father, Robert, died from a brain tumour on 27 May 2011, aged 40, a few days after Daley's 17th birthday. His early diving hero was Canadian diver Alexandre Despatie, who won gold at the 1998 Commonwealth Games at the age of 13, and British diver Leon Taylor, who later mentored him. Daley was spotted by a coach taking part in regular diving lessons and was placed in a competitive squad in September 2002. His first competition was the National Novice Championships in April 2003 where he won a medal in the 8/9-year-old boys category. In September 2003, he took part in an invitational event in Southampton where he won the 1 m, 3 m and platform events, and first made his mark on the wider audience. Daley won his age group at the British Championships in the 1 m springboard, the 3 m springboard, and platform in 2004, 2005, and 2006. In June 2004, the month after his 10th birthday, he won the platform competition in the National Junior (under-18) group, making him the youngest winner of that event. In 2005, Daley competed as a guest competitor in the Australian Elite Junior Nationals and placed first in platform and second in 3 m springboard in the 14–15 age group event. He also competed in the 14–15 category at the 2005 Aachen Junior International, placing second in platform and third in 3 m springboard. He met the qualification standard for the 2006 Commonwealth Games, but was not selected for the England team because of his age. In 2006, he was the under-18 British champion in platform and 3 m springboard, and he placed second in the 10 m platform at the 2007 senior British Championships, which were held in December 2006. Education From age 11 to 14, Daley attended Eggbuckland Community College in Plymouth. At 13, he became a celebrity supporter of Childline, a children's helpline run by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), and at that time it was revealed that he had been bullied eighteen months earlier. In April 2009, Daley told Plymouth's main local newspaper The Herald that he had been bullied at school since the Olympics, and his father told the BBC that he had temporarily withdrawn him from that school because its response to the problem had been "ineffective". Daley was praised in the media for speaking out about his problem. Daley was offered a full scholarship to board at independent school Brighton College, but his father turned this down due to the distance from home, and instead accepted a "very significant scholarship" from local independent school Plymouth College. Daley took his GCSEs in small batches to fit around his diving commitments. He persuaded supermodel Kate Moss to pose for a recreation of an original portrait by David Hockney, as part of a GCSE photography project recreating great works of art, after meeting her on a photo shoot for Italian Vogue. In 2012, Daley finished his two-year A-level studies in mathematics, Spanish and photography. Daley decided not to undertake an International Baccalaureate course because of the pressures he faced in his preparation for the 2012 Olympics. He passed all GCSE and A-level exams with A or A*. International competitions 2007 In January 2007, at the age of twelve, Daley was given a special dispensation to compete at the 2007 Australian Youth Olympic Festival. The usual minimum age is fifteen. Competing with a persistent thumb injury, Daley won the silver medal with synchro-partner Callum Johnstone in the 10 m synchronised diving final. Later in 2007, he won the senior platform title at the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) National Championships, the national championship for English divers. In 2007, he also began to compete on International Swimming Federation's (FINA) international diving circuit of Grand Prix and World Series events, twice finishing fourth in individual competition. Daley won the 2007 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Young Personality award. He was considered a medal prospect for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London from this time, and was one of the British Olympians being tracked through the years leading up to London 2012 by the BBC television series Olympic Dreams. 2008 In January 2008, Daley won the 10 m platform event at the British Championships and became the youngest winner of the senior British 10 m title. He also won the 10 m platform synchro title with new partner Blake Aldridge. Two weeks later, Daley won his first medals on the FINA circuit, winning a bronze in the individual platform competition and a silver in synchro at the Madrid Grand Prix. Daley and Aldridge won bronze in synchro at the 2008 FINA Diving World Cup. Their score was a British record and Daley became the youngest ever male medallist in a world diving event. Daley came seventh in the individual competition. In March 2008, Daley became the youngest person to win a gold medal at the European Championships, held in Eindhoven. The previous youngest winner was the Scottish swimmer Ian Black, who won a European gold in 1958 at the age of 17. Daley qualified for the Beijing 2008 Olympics in the individual 10 m dive competition and, following the retirement of 2004 silver medallist Leon Taylor, in the 10 m platform synchro competition. Some in the British media reported that in competing he would become the youngest-ever male British Olympian, until it was ascertained that Ken Lester, cox to the rowing pair at the 1960 Summer Olympics, had been 13 years and 144 days old at the time. In the Olympic synchronized 10 m platform competition, they placed eighth, while in the individual 10 m platform competition, he finished seventh. A month after his appearance at the Olympics, Daley participated in the FINA Junior World Championships for the first time (being too young to enter before). He finished second in the category "B" platform competition (for 14- and 15-year-old boys) with 549.60 points, between China's Qiu Bo (551.85 points) and Wu Dongliang (474.00 points). He came second in the 3-metre springboard competition in the same category with 485.25 points, sandwiched between the two Chinese divers, Wu Dongliang (510.25 points) and Wang Peng (470.40 points). 2009 In February 2009, Daley retained his individual British 10 m championship, setting a competition personal best score of 517.55 points, 133.45 points ahead of the second-placed diver. He was unable to defend his 10 m synchronized title, as his dive partner Blake Aldridge had been injured in a brawl at a nightclub several days before the championships and was unable to dive. In March 2009, he improved his personal best to 540.70 in coming third at a Diving World Series event in China, and the following month he improved it to 540.85 while finishing second at the World Series event in Sheffield. During the Olympics, Daley had a row with diving partner Blake Aldridge when the latter phoned his mother between rounds. When Aldridge missed the British Championships because of the injury sustained in the nightclub incident, Daley's father said he would like his son to have a different diving partner. In April 2009, he started to dive with Max Brick, who is two years his senior, compared with the twelve-year gap with Aldridge. The pair achieved a silver medal in the 10 m synchronized event at Fort Lauderdale on 8 May 2009. Daley won the individual event in a new personal best of 554.90, scoring a perfect set of seven 10s for one of his dives. In the 2009 FINA World Championships, held in Rome, Daley unexpectedly won the individual platform title despite his lower tariff, with a score of 539.85 points, when his opponents had poor final dives – Qiu Bo finished on 532.20 points, Zhou Luxin on 530.55. In the 10 m platform synchronized event at the World Championships, Daley and Brick finished in 9th place following an inconsistent series of dives by the new pairing. 2010 In the February 2010 British Championships individual 10 m competition, Daley unveiled his 5255B dive (back two-and-a-half somersault, one-and-a-half twists, with pike) in competition for the first time, giving him a 3.6 tariff dive (reduced from 3.8 in FINAs' September 2009 DD tables). In this competition Daley finished in second place, 40.05 points behind Peter Waterfield. In the March 2010 FINA Diving World Series event in Qingdao individual 10 m competition, Daley showcased his two new dives and finished in 4th place, 520.35 points (his best score of the year). In the first April 2010 FINA Diving World Series event held in Veracruz, Mexico, Daley failed to qualify for the final round of the individual 10 m competition. A second event was held in the same venue three days later to replace the Sheffield DWS event which was cancelled because of the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull. Daley finished in fourth place, with a score of 519.70 points – his second highest score of the season (just 0.8 points away from bronze). In August 2010, Daley attended the European Championships in Budapest, Hungary, intending to defend his individual 10 m title. However, an injury to his triceps muscle in the 10 m synchro competition forced his withdrawal from the synchro and individual 10 m competitions, and placed his participation in the inaugural Youth Olympics in Singapore in the following two weeks in doubt. It was later announced that Daley would dive in the 3 m springboard but not in the 10 m platform. Daley took part in the 3 m springboard diving competition and finished in 9th place. On 12 October 2010, Daley attended the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India. He and his teammate Max Brick won the gold medal for Synchronized 10 m Platform Competition. The following day he also won gold in the 10 m Individual Platform competition. In November 2010, Daley was announced as a nominated sportsman for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2010 and the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year 2010. He won BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year 2010 for the third time in his career, and is the first person to receive this award three times. 2011 For the 2011 season, Daley was paired in the synchronized competitions with 2004 Athens Olympic silver medallist Peter Waterfield in British Swimming's continuing efforts to find the best synchro pairing for the 2012 Olympics. At the 2011 National Cup, the British Championship was held in the new Southend Swimming and Diving Centre on 28–30 January and Daley came second in the 3m springboard competition behind Jack Laugher. With Waterfield, he won the 10 m platform synchronized competition. The following day, Waterfield beat Daley to the individual 10 m platform title for the second successive year, by 494.25 points to 472.35, with Max Brick third with 399.80. In the 2011 World Championships, held in Shanghai, China, he was again paired with Waterfield in the 10 m synchro event. In the week before the competition, Waterfield was struck by a flu-like illness for five days, and consequently they finished in sixth place. In the individual event, Daley finished in fifth place on 505.10 points, behind Qiu Bo (585.45), David Boudia (544.25), Sascha Klein (534.50), and Viktor Minibaev (527.50). On 27 July 2011, Daley took the first dive in London's newly built Olympic Park Aquatics Centre marking the one-year countdown until the games begin. It was broadcast live on BBC One and when interviewed he said "Marking the one year to go, by diving in the Aquatics Centre is an incredible honour. Only a few years ago, this was a distant dream. The fact that I qualified at the weekend and am taking the first dive is a complete privilege. I can't wait for next year and the honour of representing Team GB." 2012 In the 2012 season, a thumb injury forced Daley's withdrawal from the National Cup a few days before the competition (the 10m platform title was won by Max Brick). In February 2012, British Diving's Performance Director Alexei Evangulov criticised Daley's work ethic, stating that he feared Daley's media and commercial activities were to the detriment of his training for the Olympics – a comment which was seemingly backed up when Daley and Pete Waterfield could only finish 7th in the 10 m synchro competition in the FINA World Cup event held at the London Aquatics Centre. Following a clear-the-air meeting between Daley, Evangulov, and Daley's representatives, Daley participated in the 2012 FINA Diving World Series. In the first event held in Dubai, Daley and Waterfield finished 4th in the 10 m synchro event, while Daley won silver in the individual 10 m event. In the event held in Beijing a week later, Daley and Waterfield won the silver medal in the 10 m synchro event, while in the individual event Daley won silver and Waterfield the bronze. Three weeks later, in the Moscow event, Daley won silver in the individual platform event, while the pairing finished fifth in the synchro. In the final DWS meet of the year, in Tijuana, Mexico, Daley won gold in the individual platform event, and the pairing with Waterfield won bronze in the synchro event, although the Chinese did not compete in these events at this meet. Over the whole 2012 Diving World Series, Daley and the Daley/Waterfield pairing won both the overall individual and synchro 10-metre competitions. In April 2012, Daley won the British elite juniors 10-metre platform title by a margin of 140 points at the Plymouth Life Centre. In May 2012, Daley regained the European 10-metre platform title when he won gold at the Eindhoven championships with a score of 565.05 points, 49.65 ahead of Viktor Minibaev in silver position. In the British Gas Diving Championships held in Sheffield in June 2012, which were also the Olympic trials, Daley and Waterfield won the 10 m synchro platform title with a new British record score of 475.77, more than 140 points ahead of silver medallists Daniel Goodfellow and Ross Haslam on 333.72. In the individual 10 m championship, Daley regained the title for the first time since 2009 with a score of 547.60, ahead of Peter Waterfield on 452.80 and James Denny on 390.20. Olympics In Britain, Daley had long been considered one of the "poster boys" of the 2012 Summer Olympics, (literally – an 80-foot tall banner depicting him adorned the John Lewis department store in Cardiff, while a 40-foot tall banner of his female equivalent, heptathlete Jessica Ennis, was on the Sheffield branch of the store chain.) It was hoped that the 10 m men's synchronized platform event, on the first Monday of the Games, would provide Daley and Waterfield with an opportunity to supply Team GB's first medal of the Games. However, while the pairing was leading the competition after three dives, a poor reverse 3 1/2 somersaults with tuck in the fourth round put them out of contention and they ended the competition in fourth place on 454.65 points, behind the Chinese pairing of Cao Yuan and Zhang Yanquan on 486.78 points, the Mexican pairing of Iván García and Germán Sánchez on 468.90 points, and the US pairing of David Boudia and Nick McCrory on 463.47 points. Following this disappointment, there was controversy when Daley was the subject of some abusive Twitter messages, which resulted in the police arresting a 17-year-old boy in Weymouth, Dorset, and a 28-year-old professional footballer for publishing offensive messages. Returning to the Aquatics Centre on the final Friday of the Games for the 10 m men's platform event, Daley initially gave his fans cause for concern with a poor performance in the preliminary round where he was ranked 15th of the 18 qualifying divers for the semi-final with 448.45 points (the eventual gold medal winner, David Boudia, ranked 18th). A much better performance in the semi-finals the next morning left Daley in fourth position on 521.10 points, behind Qiu Bo on 563.55, Lin Yue on 541.80, and Boudia on 531.15. The final round began in dramatic form when Daley's star status almost led to his undoing – a large number of camera flashes while he was diving distracted him and he only scored 75 points; a protest to the referee resulted in him being allowed to retake the dive, when he scored 91.80. By the beginning of the final round of dives in an enthralling contest, Daley was in the lead over Qiu Bo and David Boudia by 0.15 points, but Daley's final dive had a degree of difficulty of only 3.3 while his rivals both had 3.6 dives, and Daley won the bronze medal with 556.95 points while Boudia won gold with 568.65 points and Qiu Bo won silver with 566.85 points. World Junior Diving Championships At the 19th FINA World Junior Diving Championships, held in October 2012 in Adelaide, Australia, Daley led a strong British team and rather unexpectedly won the Boys "A" 3 m synchronized springboard competition together with Jack Laugher, who had won the individual 3 m competition, they had had little practice together. Daley and Laugher scored 338.85 points, over 30 points ahead of Ilia Kuzmin and Maxim Popkov. In the 10m individual platform event, Daley won the competition with a score of 663.95, ahead of Yang Jian on 611.95 and Chen Aisen on 597.20, scoring five 10's and two 9.5's on his fifth dive. 2013 In January 2013, Daley was involved in the ITV celebrity diving show Splash!, where he was an expert adviser to the celebrity contestants. While the show got a largely negative critical response, it nevertheless got the largest ratings on each of the five Saturday nights it was broadcast, and was renewed for a second season in 2014. Daley was warned by British Swimming chief executive David Sparkes that taking part in the series would risk damaging his chances of winning an Olympic gold medal in the future. At the British Gas Diving Championships held at his home pool in Plymouth on 8–10 February, Daley only competed in the individual 10-metre platform event, which he won with 501.00 points, ahead of James Denny on 374.90 points and Daniel Goodfellow on 340.25 points. Daley did not compete in the 10 m synchro platform event, as his partner Peter Waterfield had lost his funding following this Olympiad, and his future synchro partner had yet to be determined. Daley's participation in competitive diving in 2013 was seriously restricted by an injury in May. In April he won the 10 m competition at the Edinburgh leg of the Diving World Series, but while subsequently training for the Diving Grand Prix event at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Daley injured his elbow and was forced to withdraw from the Fort Lauderdale competition and the subsequent DWS event in Mexico. In training for the 2013 World Championships, in Barcelona, Daley suffered a torn triceps for the third time, and only competed following intense medical attention and painkilling injections; he finished the individual 10 m competition in 6th place. 2014 At the beginning of 2014, Daley moved his training base from the Life Centre in Plymouth to the London Aquatics Centre at the Olympic Park in east London, with a new coach, Jane Figueiredo. In January 2014 Daley was involved in the second series of Splash!. Ratings were not as good as the first season, and the show was cancelled. In the FINA Diving World Series, Daley came third in the 10m platform competition at the Beijing round, scoring 525.05 points, behind China's Cao Yuan on 579.45 and Qiu Bo on 534.05 points. In 2014, Daley hosted a six-part travel series for ITV2 called Tom Daley Goes Global. At the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Daley won a silver medal in the men's synchronized 10 m platform with diving partner James Denny and gold in the men's 10 m platform, with 516.55 points, retaining his title from the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in 2010. In August 2014 at the European Championships in Berlin, the Daley/Denny partnership finished fourth in the 10 m platform synchro competition, in only their second competition, while Daley won the silver medal in the 10 m platform competition, with 535.45 points, behind Russia's Viktor Minibaev who had 586.10 points. 2015 For the 2015 season, Daley dropped the "demon dive" (backward 2.5 somersault with 2.5 twists, piked) which he had experienced difficulty with for several years, and replaced it with a forward 3.5 somersaults with one twist, which he called his "firework" dive and displayed for the first time at the British championships in Plymouth in February. At the British championships held in his old home pool in Plymouth, Daley won the individual 10 m platform title for the fifth time, with 493.70 points, ahead of 14-year-old Matthew Dixon on 427.15, and Matty Lee on 413.20. In the season's opening meet of the FINA Diving World Series, in Beijing, Daley conceded that the new dive still needed "work to be done" on it, as he failed to qualify for the final round. Overall, throughout the years' DWS meets, in the 10 m platform competition Daley won the silver medal in the Dubai, Windsor, Ontario, and Mérida, Mexico legs, and gold in London, whilst with Alicia Blagg he won bronze in the mixed synchronized 3m springboard at Windsor and at Mérida. At the World Championships held in Kazan, Russia, Daley won the gold medal with Rebecca Gallantree in the inaugural team event competition (Daley diving twice from the 10 m platform and once from the 3 m springboard, Gallantree diving once from the platform and twice from the springboard). In the individual 10 m platform event he later won the bronze medal with 537.95 points, behind Qiu Bo on 587.00 and David Boudia on 560.20, having recovered from being in ninth place after the second round. 2016 For the 2016 season, Daley was paired with Daniel Goodfellow for the 10 m men's platform synchro competition, with a view to competing in the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics in this sport. At the British National Diving Cup, the British Championships, held in January, Daley won a gold in the individual 10 m platform competition with 545.80 points, ahead of Matty Lee on 461.00 and Dan Goodfellow on 419.35 points. In the synchronized 10 m platform competition, Daley and Goodfellow won the competition, but they were the only entrants in the competition after Lee and James Denny withdrew following a power cut at the venue. Daley and Goodfellow got bronze at the 2016 FINA Diving World Cup, earning them a spot in the 10 m synchro competition at the Olympic Games. At the 2016 FINA Diving World Series, which consisted of four competitions, Daley earned six medals. In the synchro event, he and Goodfellow medalled at each of the four competitions, earning two silver and two bronze medals. In the individual event, Daley earned a silver and a bronze medal. At the 2016 Summer Olympics, Daley and Goodfellow won a bronze medal in the synchronized 10 m platform. In the individual 10 m platform, Daley placed first in the preliminaries (with an Olympic record score of 571.85 points, which was later broken by Chen Aisen in the finals). However, he had difficulties the next day, placing 18th in the semi-finals and failing to qualify for the finals. 2017 In the 2017 FINA World Series, Daley took home 1 bronze medal in Beijing (10 m Platform), 3 bronze medals in Kazan (10 m Platform, 10 m Synchro, and 3 m Mixed), and one silver medal in Guangzhou (10 m Platform). On 22 July 2017, he won the gold medal in the 10 m platform event at the FINA World Championships held in Budapest. 2018–2019 In the 2018 FINA Diving World Series, Daley won 1 silver medal and 1 bronze medal in Beijing (3 m Mixed and 10 m Synchro), 1 silver medal in Fuji (3 m Mixed), 1 silver medal in Montreal (3 m Mixed), and 1 silver medal in Kazan (3 m Mixed). At the 2018 Commonwealth Games held at the Gold Coast, Australia, Daley and Goodfellow won gold on the men's synchronized 10-metre platform. Daley partnered with Matty Lee starting in October 2018 in the men's synchronized 10-metre platform. At the 2019 World Aquatics Championships held in Gwangju, South Korea, Daley and Lee finished in the bronze position in the 10 m synchro. 2021 At the 2021 FINA Diving World Cup, which was held in Japan as an official test event for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Daley won his first World Cup gold with Matty Lee in synchronized 10 m platform. He also won gold in the individual 10 m platform. At the European Championships held in Budapest, Daley and Lee also won gold in synchronized 10 m platform, and a silver in the individual 10 m platform. On 26 July, Daley and Lee won the 2020 Olympic gold medal in the Men's synchronized 10 m platform diving event. On 7 August, Tom Daley qualified for the final of Men's individual 10 m platform diving, improving on his performance in the individual event at Rio 2016. He went on to win bronze in the final. 2024 Daley was selected to take part in the 10 metre platform synchronised event at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris with Noah Williams; the pair went on to win the silver medal. He was also chosen to be one of Team GB's flag-bearers at the opening ceremony alongside rower Helen Glover. The day after the closing ceremony, Daley announced his official retirement from diving. Competitive history British champion in all events (1 m, 3 m, platform) in 2004, 2005 and 2006 in the relevant age group. † with Blake Aldridge § with Max Brick @ with Peter Waterfield ? with Jack Laugher % with James Denny & with Rebecca Gallantree * with Alicia Blagg = with Daniel Goodfellow ♠ with Grace Reid £ with Matty Lee # with Noah Williams ** semi-final result Daley's current dives are: 307C: Reverse 3 1/2 Somersault Tucked (3.4 Tariff) 407C: Inward 3 1/2 Somersault Tucked (3.2 Tariff) 5172B: Forward 3 1/2 Somersault w/ 1 Twist Piked (3.6 Tariff) 626B: Armstand Back Triple Somersault Piked (3.5 Tariff) 109C: Forward 4 1/2 Somersault Tucked (3.7 Tariff) 207B: Back 3 1/2 Somersault Piked (3.6 Tariff) Personal life Daley created a YouTube channel on 23 August 2010. His channel covers various topics such as vlogs, exercise and food. As of August 2024, Daley has over 1.2 million subscribers with over 180 million views. On 2 December 2013, Daley released a YouTube video announcing that he had been in a relationship with a man since early that year. He said: "I've never been happier." Daley said that it had been a tough decision to speak out about his private life, but he had never before felt that feeling of love, which happened very quickly when he met his husband, American film screenwriter, director and producer Dustin Lance Black. Daley and Black met at an industry event, with Daley later saying that it was "a real love-at-first-sight thing". He announced their engagement on 1 October 2015. Daley and Black married at Bovey Castle in Devon on 6 May 2017. Their first child, a son, was born through surrogacy in June 2018. The couple's second son was born in March 2023. When asked about his sexual orientation in a July 2015 interview with The Guardian, Daley said: "I don't put a particular label on any of it because right now I'm in a relationship with a guy, but I still have sexual feelings towards girls". He said in another interview that he had been in sexual relationships with girls, but his sexual feelings became "much more intense" when he met Lance. In an April 2018 interview with PinkNews, Daley said he was "queer... not 100 percent straight... not 100 percent gay". Three years later he referred to himself as a "gay man". Daley likes to knit and crochet, hobbies he took up when the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown began. During the 2020 and 2024 Summer Olympics television coverage of diving events, Daley was frequently shown knitting in the stands while he watched other athletes compete. He maintains a separate Instagram account dedicated to his knitting and crochet projects. Views In August 2014, Daley was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue. In a statement made on the eve of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2018, Daley called on Commonwealth countries to repeal their anti-gay laws. In response, the-then UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat that he would raise concerns about gay rights with leaders of countries where homosexuality is illegal. There have been repeated calls from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights for governments to safeguard the rights of their vulnerable LGBT minorities. Prime Minister Theresa May said she "deeply regretted" Britain's historical legacy of anti-gay laws across the British Commonwealth. In October 2021, Daley said he would make it his "mission" to campaign for countries where homosexuality is punishable by death to be banned from the next Olympics, "to make it so that the countries [where it's] punishable by death for LGBT people are not allowed to compete at the Olympic Games." Media activities In 2015, Daley became a patron of the LGBT+ charity Switchboard and collaborated with YouTuber Calum McSwiggan to relaunch the charity under its new name. In October 2017, Daley hosted the Virgin Holidays Attitude Awards for the first time. On 30 September 2018, he was the guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. His favourite choice was "How Long Will I Love You" by Ellie Goulding. His book choice was Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling and his luxury item was an oven. On 25 December 2021, he delivered the Alternative Christmas message for Channel 4. In July 2024, it was announced that Daley would join Eurosport as part of its on-screen team of pundits for its coverage at the Paris Olympics. Honours and awards Daley was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to diving, LGBTQ+ rights and charity. Named Youngster of the Year by BBC South West in 2005. Named BBC South West Sports Personality of the Year, 2009. Short-listed to the final ten for the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year award in 2006. Short-listed to the final three for the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year award in 2008. Named BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year 2007, 2009 and 2010 (only person ever to win this award more than once). Short-listed to the final ten for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award in 2009 and 2010. Ranked No. 63 in Time's 2008 edition of 100 Olympic Athletes To Watch. Won LEN Magazine's "Athlete of the Year" award for men's divers, 2009, on behalf of the European Swimming Federation. The award is voted for by representatives of all European Aquatic Federations and the media. Nominated for the 2010 Laureus World Sports Award for Breakthrough of the Year. Included in The Sunday Times' "100 Makers of the 21st Century" list. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate on 27 September 2017 by the University of St Mark and St John in Plymouth, Devon. He was awarded the Freedom of the City of Plymouth, Devon by the Plymouth City Council on 13 September 2021. For the 2020 Summer Olympics, FINA named Daley winning the gold medal in the synchronized 10 metre platform event with his diving partner Matty Lee as the number three moment from the Olympic Games. Notes References External links Thomas Daley at World Aquatics Tom Daley at British Swimming Tom Daley at Olympedia Tom Daley at Team GB Tom Daley at Team England Thomas Daley at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games (archived) Tom Daley's channel on YouTube Tom Daley at IMDb Plymouth Diving Club profile "Diver Daley Wins BBC Young Sports Personality 2007" – British Olympic Association "Tom Daley", number 63 on Time's list of "100 Olympic Athletes To Watch" Students interview Tom Daley

Who was Prime Minister when Will Young won Pop Idol?

Tony Blair

Multiple constraints | Post processing | Temporal reasoning

Pop Idol is a British music competition television series created by Simon Fuller which ran on ITV from 2001 to 2003. The aim of the show was to decide the best new young pop singer (or "pop idol") in the UK based on viewer voting and participation. Two series were broadcast, one in 2001–2002 and a second in 2003. An immense success when it launched in 2001, Maggie Brown in The Guardian wrote, "the show became a seminal reality/entertainment format once on air that autumn". Series judge Simon Cowell became a major public figure in entertainment, and the show produced instant No. 1 chart hits, including for the first series winner Will Young, whose single "Evergreen" was the fastest-selling debut in UK chart history and the best-selling song of 2002. Pop Idol was subsequently put on an indefinite hiatus after Simon Cowell announced the launch of The X Factor in the UK in April 2004. The show has become an international TV franchise since, spawning multiple Idol series worldwide. In the meantime, a legal dispute arose with the makers of Popstars, which eventually led to the word "pop" being excluded from the titles of all the spin-offs, such as American Idol, Australian Idol, Arab Idol, Canadian Idol, Indonesian Idol, Indian Idol, New Zealand Idol, Latin American Idol, Idol (Norway), Idol (Poland), Idol (Sweden), Singapore Idol, Idols (South Africa), Pakistan Idol, Bangladeshi Idol and Ídolos (same name for the Portuguese and Brazilian series). The show's theme music was written by Gingell/Stone and Cathy Dennis. Format One of the UK's top-earning TV format exports, Pop Idol made extensive use of premium-priced viewer interactivity, with viewers voting by telephone, mobile telephone texting (not used on series one), through the "red button" on digital television sets, or via the official website. The final of the first series of Pop Idol in February 2002 received the highest-ever one-night vote for a UK TV show, making the show one of ITV's most profitable. The sister show on ITV2, Pop Idol Extra, hosted by Kate Thornton also made extensive use of mobile phone text messages to raise additional revenue. The first Pop Idol received very high voting figures despite allowing only telephone and Internet voting and not making use of texting or the "red button". However, the 'voting' system was effectively meaningless, as any individual was permitted to make an unlimited number of votes, the winning contestant thus being merely the one with the most persistent supporters. The Saturday night primetime show initially followed the audition process, as hopefuls sang before four judges (record producer and music executive Pete Waterman, music executive and music manager Simon Cowell, music promoter and music manager Nicki Chapman and Radio DJ and television personality Neil "Dr" Fox) at various locations around the UK. Besides the successful auditionees, the poorest "singers" were often aired due to their obvious lack of talent or presence. Poor singers often faced harsh criticisms from the judges, especially from Simon Cowell (whose controversial rantings also made him famous on American Idol). The judges' reactions to such performances often ranged from disgust to nearly open laughter; their style of judgement and attitude towards pop-star wannabes resulted in the controversial opinions of others about the show's setup, including that of Take That manager Nigel Martin Smith. The viewing public quickly fell in love with the format though, as viewing figures indicated. The judges' policy of speaking candidly would have to be sanitised in series 2, however, as it received condemnation from MPs. Once the first round of auditions was completed, the series moved to the Criterion Theatre, where further auditions saw the judges decide on a group of 50. Unusually, this was the final point at which the judges had direct control over the contestants' fates, as the remainder of the results would be driven solely by viewer voting. Stage 3 of the series took place in a conventional TV studio. The 50 contestants were split into five groups of ten, each of whom sang one song for the judges, accompanied only by a piano. Each judge offered their opinion, and at the end of the pre-recorded show phone lines opened for votes. Later the same evening a live show followed in which the voting results were revealed, the top two earning a place in the final ten. In series 2, a wildcard round (an innovation that originated on American Idol) was added, in which the judges selected ten rejected contestants and gave them a second chance. In this special edition, one contestant, Susanne Manning, was selected by the viewer vote, and one, Sam Nixon, was chosen by the judges. This meant that the next stage began with twelve contestants, rather than the ten in series 1. For the final stage, the show moved to a more lavish TV set, where all remaining contestants sang on live television, accompanied by either a backing track or live band. Most editions had a theme, with contestants singing songs from a particular genre or artist (no original songs were performed at any stage in the competition). Again, the judges offered comments, but the results were decided by viewer voting. Again, a live results show was broadcast later in the evening, but this time the singer with the fewest votes was eliminated, the rest continuing to the following week until only the winner remained. Exceptions to the usual format were limited. In series 1, Darius Danesh was promoted to the live shows when Rik Waller dropped out. Danesh was third in the results for the group where Waller had won his place. Also, the first two live shows of series 2 saw two contestants leave, in order to rebalance the numbers after the addition of the two extra performers from the wildcard show. Results and legacy The first series was won by Will Young, with Gareth Gates coming second. Michelle McManus won the second series. All of the top three contestants from series 1 had number-one singles in the UK. Young continues to be a recording artist. Gates initially had great success as a recording artist, releasing three studio albums and seven top 5 singles. He has since moved on to a successful career in musical theatre appearing as lead in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, as Marius in Les Misérables, on tour and in the West End and as Claude in Hair. In 2013, he became a member of the supergroup 5th Story. Darius Danesh had two hit albums and appeared in the West End musicals Chicago, playing the role of Billy Flynn, and Gone with the Wind, originating the role of Rhett Butler. He also appeared in the touring version of Guys and Dolls as Sky Masterson. Finalists Rosie Ribbons and Zoe Birkett have both scored chart hits, Birkett also moving on to a career in musical theatre whilst Jessica Garlick represented the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002. Semi-finalist Sarah Whatmore had two chart hits, despite failing to be voted into the top 10. Series 2 contestants enjoyed significantly less chart success, which many believe damaged the credibility of the show and helped hasten its demise in its home country. Immediately after the second series of Pop Idol, the same set was used to host World Idol, in which winners of various Idol series around the world, including original Pop Idol winner Will Young, American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson and Australian Idol winner Guy Sebastian, competed in a one-off competition, complete with a large judging panel featuring one judge from each country (Simon Cowell officially representing American Idol, with Pete Waterman the "official" UK judge). The surprise winner was Norway's Kurt Nilsen, who proceeded to minor UK chart success. Cowell was strongly critical of World Idol, and it is highly unlikely to be staged again. After the second series of Pop Idol, ITV put the show on indefinite hiatus when in April 2004 judge and music executive Simon Cowell announced the launch of his own show, The X Factor, which he and his record label (Syco) held the rights to. In September 2004, Pop Idol creator Simon Fuller filed a lawsuit against The X Factor producers claiming that the format was copied from his own show. The case was eventually settled out of court in November 2005, and as part of the settlement, Simon Fuller was made a joint partner in The X Factor show, and Simon Cowell was obliged to stay on as a judge on American Idol for a further five years. ITV's licence to produce Pop Idol has since expired, meaning that other channels could theoretically acquire the series. Despite rumours (see below), no broadcaster has since acquired the rights to the format in the UK. Despite running for only two series, Pop Idol's impact was immense and led 19 Entertainment and FremantleMedia to roll the format out globally; currently there are over 50 versions in 110 countries, including, notably, American Idol, on which Cowell was a judge until 2010, before launching The X Factor USA in 2011. Series 1 (2001–02) Colour key 1 Had been eliminated in previous rounds, but reinstated following Rik Waller's exit. Series 2 (2003) Following the completion of the series, the official Pop Idol companion book published percentages of votes for each contestant every week. In some circumstances, the book suggested that the bottom 2 or 3 contestants were not the same as announced by the show hosts. It is not known if the incorrect result was announced, or if the book merely made a typing error. However, the contestant deemed to have had the lowest percentage was always eliminated on that week, meaning the overall result of the show was not changed. Colour key In week 1 of the finals, Chris and Marc received the same vote percentage as did Roxanne and Brian. In week 4, Mark and Chris received the same vote percentage. Video games Pop Idol was released as a video game developed by Codemasters for the PlayStation 2 and Game Boy Advance it was also released for the PC on 30 October 2003. The player creates his/her own singer, then they must sing their way through the auditions, theatre stages, heats, and then the finals. The game increases in difficulty as the player progresses through the competition. With each stage of the finals, one or two players with the least public vote tally are eliminated. The gameplay mainly consists of lining up a moving symbol with a fixed object in the centre of the screen and pressing the corresponding symbol on the game's controller. If the player presses it when the symbol is in the middle of the circle, their singer sings a good note. If he or she presses it when it is not in the circle, or mistimes their press, the singer sings a bad note. Related programmes The Idol format has been launched in dozens of nations worldwide, and there have been many imitations of the programme. A World Idol international television special was held in December 2003, featuring national first series Idol contest winners competing against each other; viewers worldwide voted Norwegian Idol's Kurt Nilsen "World Idol". The similar Popstars format preceded Pop Idol, and was succeeded in Britain by one series of Popstars: The Rivals and fifteen series of The X Factor as of 2018. After Popstars producers threatened legal action, a deal was struck that, among other clauses, does not allow the use of the word "pop" in the title of Pop Idol editions outside of the UK. See also Pop Idol discography Pop Idol: The Big Band Album American Idol Australian Idol Ídolos Popstars Fame Academy The X Factor Starmania References External links Pop Idol at IMDb

This is a graphical timeline of prime ministers of Great Britain and the United Kingdom from when the first prime minister of Great Britain in the modern sense, Robert Walpole, took office in 1721, until the present day. From 1801 until 1922, British prime ministers also held the office for the whole of Ireland. Great Britain United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Combined timeline Career-based timeline This timeline shows most of the early life, the political career and death of each prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1846. The first prime minister was Robert Walpole in the early 18th century (Dickinson 1973). Unlike countries where the leader is elected directly to the highest political office of a separate executive, the prime minister must first establish a political career in the UK Parliament and typically serves many years in the House of Commons before becoming prime minister, and in some cases for many years afterwards. Since the Marquess of Salisbury in 1895, all time in parliamentary service before being prime minister has been in the House of Commons, apart from Sir Alec Douglas-Home's period as a member of the Government while in the House of Lords (1951–63; though he was previously the elected member for Lanark, 1931–1945). After becoming prime minister, Douglas-Home returned to the Commons by winning a by-election on the recess death of MP Gilmour Leburn. Uniquely, Cameron's brief parliamentary activity as Foreign Secretary from November 2023 to July 2024 was served while a member of the House of Lords. Key Each dark coloured bar denotes the time spent as prime minister A light colour denotes time spent in Parliament before or after serving as prime minister A grey colour bar denotes the time the prime minister spent outside the House of Commons or the entire Parliament, either before or after their political career Notable moments since 1800 two separate periods in office: Russell, Palmerston, Disraeli, MacDonald, Churchill, Wilson three separate periods in office: Derby, Salisbury, Baldwin four separate periods in office: Gladstone crossed the floor: Palmerston, Derby, Gladstone, Churchill (twice) died in office: Canning, Palmerston, Perceval (assassinated) died less than six months after leaving office: Portland, Campbell-Bannerman, Law, Chamberlain left Parliament on leaving office: Russell, Baldwin, Blair lived for more than twenty years after leaving the House of Commons: Macmillan, Douglas-Home, Thatcher, Major less than twenty years in Parliament before being prime minister: Baldwin, Chamberlain, Wilson, Major, Blair, Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss, Sunak, Starmer more than twenty years in Parliament after being prime minister: Rosebery, Balfour, Lloyd George, Heath served as prime minister after an interruption to their parliamentary career: MacDonald, Churchill, Macmillan (twice), Douglas-Home, Johnson served as prime minister for two monarchs: Walpole, Newcastle, Liverpool, Wellington, Melbourne, Peel, Salisbury, Asquith, Churchill, Truss served as prime minister for three monarchs: Baldwin served as prime minister for less than two months: Truss over 65 years of age when first appointed: Palmerston, Campbell-Bannerman, Aberdeen, Chamberlain, Grey, Churchill under 45 years of age when first appointed: Goderich, Blair, Addington, Cameron, Sunak, Liverpool Timeline References Dickinson, Harry T. (1973), Walpole and the Whig Supremacy, London: English Universities Press, ISBN 0-340-11515-7

I'm thinking of a diving duck, the largest found in North America, that breeds in the Prairie Pothole Region. This duck, smothered in blackcurrant sauce, was once described by Edith Wharton as an "especially luxurious dinner" which was served in New York City in the 1870s. Which duck am I thinking of?

The canvasback.

Multiple constraints

The diving ducks, commonly called pochards or scaups, are a category of duck which feed by diving beneath the surface of the water. They are part of Anatidae, the diverse and very large family that includes ducks, geese, and swans. The diving ducks are placed in a distinct tribe in the subfamily Anatinae, the Aythyini. While morphologically close to the dabbling ducks, there are nonetheless some pronounced differences such as in the structure of the trachea. mtDNA cytochrome b and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 sequence data indicate that the dabbling and diving ducks are fairly distant from each other, the outward similarities being due to convergent evolution. Alternatively, the diving ducks are placed as a subfamily Aythyinae in the family Anatidae which would encompass all duck-like birds except the whistling-ducks. The seaducks commonly found in coastal areas, such as the long-tailed duck (formerly known in the U.S. as oldsquaw), scoters, goldeneyes, mergansers, bufflehead and eiders, are also sometimes colloquially referred to in North America as diving ducks because they also feed by diving; their subfamily (Merginae) is a very distinct one however. Although the group is cosmopolitan, most members are native to the Northern Hemisphere, and it includes several of the most familiar Northern Hemisphere ducks. This group of ducks is so named because its members feed mainly by diving, although in fact the Netta species are reluctant to dive, and feed more like dabbling ducks. These are gregarious ducks, mainly found on fresh water or on estuaries, though the greater scaup becomes marine during the northern winter. They are strong fliers; their broad, blunt-tipped wings require faster wing-beats than those of many ducks and they take off with some difficulty. Northern species tend to be migratory; southern species do not migrate though the hardhead travels long distances on an irregular basis in response to rainfall. Diving ducks do not walk as well on land as the dabbling ducks; their legs tend to be placed further back on their bodies to help propel them when underwater. Systematics Three genera are included in the Aythyini. The marbled duck which makes up the monotypic genus Marmaronetta, however, seems very distinct and might have diverged prior to the split of dabbling and diving ducks as indicated by morphological and molecular characteristics. The probably extinct pink-headed duck, previously treated separately in Rhodonessa, has been suggested to belong into Netta, but this approach has been questioned. DNA sequence analyses have found it to be the earliest diverging member of the pochard group. The molecular analysis also suggests that the white-winged duck should be placed into a monotypic genus Asarcornis which is fairly close to Aythya and might belong into this subfamily. Family Anatidae Subfamily Anatinae Tribe Aythyini Genus Rhodonessa Pink-headed duck (Rhodonessa caryophyllacea) ; probably extinct (1945?) Genus Marmaronetta Marbled duck (Marmaronetta angustirostris) Genus Netta (provisionally including Rhodonessa) Red-crested pochard (Netta rufina) Southern pochard (Netta erythrophthalma) Rosy-billed pochard (Netta peposaca) Genus Aythya Canvasback (Aythya valisineria) Common pochard (Aythya ferina) Redhead (Aythya americana) Ring-necked duck (Aythya collaris) Hardhead (Aythya australis) Baer's pochard (Aythya baeri) Ferruginous duck (Aythya nyroca) Madagascar pochard (Aythya innotata) – feared to be extinct, rediscovered (2006) Réunion pochard, (Aythya cf. innotata) – extinct (c. 1690s) New Zealand scaup (Aythya novaeseelandiae) Tufted duck (Aythya fuligula) Greater scaup (Aythya marila) Lesser scaup (Aythya affinis) == References ==

The Prairie Pothole Region (PPR; French: Région des cuvettes/fondrières des prairies) is an expansive area of the northern Great Plains that contains thousands of shallow wetlands known as potholes. These potholes are the result of glacier activity in the Wisconsin glaciation, which ended about 10,000 years ago. The decaying ice sheet left behind depressions formed by the uneven deposition of till in ground moraines. These depressions are called potholes, glacial potholes, kettles, or kettle lakes. They fill with water in the spring, creating wetlands, which range in duration from temporary to semi-permanent. The region covers an area of about 800,000 sq. km and expands across three Canadian provinces (Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Alberta) and five U.S. states (Minnesota, Iowa, North and South Dakota, and Montana). The hydrology of the wetlands is variable, which results in long term productivity and biodiversity. The PPR is a prime spot during breeding and nesting season for millions of migrating waterfowl. Hydrology Few natural surface water drainage systems occur in the region as pothole wetlands are not connected by surface streams. They receive most of their water from spring snowmelt and precipitation. Some pothole wetlands also receive groundwater inflow, so they typically last longer each year than those that only receive water from precipitation. Shorter-duration wetlands fed only by precipitation typically are sources of groundwater recharge. The hydrology of the potholes is very variable, responding to changes in precipitation and groundwater, and results in regular wet-and-dry cycles. Vegetation The vegetation of the PPR consists of emergent plants and tall grasses, while the prairie surrounding the region has dense grassland vegetation. The composition of a local plant community is heavily affected by the amount of water available. In wetter wetlands that retain water through the summer, the common plant is hard-stem bulrush, along with soft-stem bulrush and common threesquare in slightly drier regions of the wetlands. The vegetation in permanently flooded wetlands is more aquatic; duckweeds, pondweeds, aquatic buttercups, and aquatic smartweeds are some of the most common. In drier wetlands of the PPR, the vegetation varies from spikerush, which is found in the wetter areas of the wetland, to foxtail barley and wheatgrass on the outer edges of the wetland. The variable availability of water in the Prairie Pothole Region is buffered by an abundant seed bank under the soil, comprising species that thrive under different water regimes. During times of drought, shortgrass species increase and expand their range, while during wetter periods, tallgrass and mixed prairie communities become more common. Wildlife The Prairie Pothole Region provides important habitats for migratory waterfowl and other wildlife, supporting more than 50% of North America's migratory waterfowl. In particular, the region is one of North America's most important breeding areas for ducks. Although the region contains only about one-tenth of the continent's habitat area for breeding of waterfowl, roughly half the primary species of game ducks on the continent breed there. The region accounts for more than 60% of the breeding populations of mallard, gadwall, blue-winged teal, northern shoveler, northern pintail, redhead, and canvasback ducks. Threats Conversion of land for agriculture is a significant factor in the loss of wetlands in the PPR. More than half of the wetlands have been drained for farming. In particular, 90% of the prairie wetlands of the Minnesota River basin have been lost as habitat. The wetlands that do persist, surrounded as they are by agricultural lands, are also affected. Chemical runoff, sedimentation, and nutrient flow into the wetlands have adverse impacts. Climate change is an adverse factor in the long-term viability of PPR wetlands for breeding ducks and other birds. Without mitigation, severe droughts and rising temperatures will cause many pothole wetlands to dry up sooner in the spring. In turn, due to the timing of waterfowl migrations, these dried wetlands will not present suitable breeding habitat. Warming-related drought may affect as much as 90 percent of the PPR's remaining wetlands. Simulations suggest that climate change will shift the most productive wetlands from the center of the region (southeastern Saskatchewan and the Dakotas) to edges of the PPR in the east and north. However, research has suggested that the effect of global warming is overshadowed by that of intensified land use and drainage of wetlands. See also Geography of Alberta Geography of Saskatchewan Geography of Manitoba Geography of Montana Geography of North Dakota Geography of South Dakota Geography of Minnesota Geography of Iowa References External links "The Small Wetlands Program: A Half Century of Conserving Prairie Habitat". National Wildlife Refuge System. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Retrieved 9 July 2018. "Welcome to the Prairie Pothole Joint Venture". Prairie Pothole Joint Venture. Retrieved 9 July 2018. "Prairie Potholes". Wetlands. United States Environmental Protection Agency. 2016-10-06. Retrieved 2018-07-09. America’s Grasslands: A Threatened National Treasure Documentary produced by Prairie Public Television Land-use Change, Economics, and Rural Well-being in the Prairie Pothole Region of the United States United States Geological Survey

The canvasback (Aythya valisineria) is a species of diving duck, the largest found in North America. Taxonomy Scottish-American naturalist Alexander Wilson described the canvasback in 1814. The genus name is derived from Greek aithuia, an unidentified seabird mentioned by authors, including Hesychius and Aristotle. The species name valisineria comes from the wild celery Vallisneria americana, whose winter buds and rhizomes are the canvasback's preferred food during the nonbreeding period. The celery genus is itself named for seventeenth century Italian botanist Antonio Vallisneri. The duck's common name is based on early European inhabitants of North America's assertion that its back was a canvas-like color. In other languages it is just a white-backed duck; for example in French, morillon à dos blanc, or Spanish, pato lomo blanco. In Mexico it is called pato coacoxtle. Description It ranges from 48–56 cm (19–22 in) in length and weighs 862–1,600 g (1.900–3.527 lb), with a wingspan of 79–89 cm (31–35 in). It is the largest species in the genus Aythya, being similar in size to a mallard but with a heavier and more compact build than it. 191 males wintering in western New York averaged 1,252 g (2.760 lb) and 54 females there averaged 1,154 g (2.544 lb). The canvasback has a distinctive wedge-shaped head and long graceful neck. The adult male (drake) has a black bill, a chestnut red head and neck, a black breast, a grayish back, black rump, and a blackish brown tail. The drake's sides, back, and belly are white with fine vermiculation resembling the weave of a canvas, which gave rise to the bird's common name. The bill is blackish and the legs and feet are bluish-gray. The iris is bright red in the spring, but duller in the winter. The adult female (hen) also has a black bill, a light brown head and neck, grading into a darker brown chest and foreback. The sides, flanks, and back are grayish brown. The bill is blackish and the legs and feet are bluish-gray. Its sloping profile distinguishes it from other ducks. Breeding The breeding habitat of the canvasback is in North American prairie potholes. The bulky nest is built from vegetation in a marsh and lined with down. Loss of nesting habitat has caused populations to decline. The canvasback usually takes a new mate each year, pairing in late winter on ocean bays. It prefers to nest over water on permanent prairie marshes surrounded by emergent vegetation, such as cattails and bulrushes, which provide protective cover. Other important breeding areas are the subarctic river deltas in Saskatchewan and the interior of Alaska. It has a clutch size of approximately 5–11 eggs, which are greenish drab. The chicks are covered in down at hatching and able to leave the nest soon after. The canvasback sometimes lays its eggs in other canvasback nests and redheads often parasitize canvasback nests. Migration The canvasback migrates through the Mississippi Flyway to wintering grounds in the mid-Atlantic United States and the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley (LMAV), or the Pacific Flyway to wintering grounds along the coast of California. Historically, the Chesapeake Bay wintered the majority of canvasbacks, but with the recent loss of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) in the bay, their range has shifted south towards the LMAV. Brackish estuarine bays and marshes with abundant submergent vegetation and invertebrates are ideal wintering habitat for canvasbacks. A small number of birds are also known to have crossed the Atlantic, with several sightings being recorded in the United Kingdom. In December 1996, a canvasback was observed in a quarry in Kent, which was followed by an additional sighting in Norfolk in January 1997. At least five more sightings have since been confirmed in England. Diet The canvasback feeds mainly by diving, sometimes dabbling, mostly eating seeds, buds, leaves, tubers, roots, snails, and insect larvae. Besides its namesake, wild celery, the canvasback shows a preference for the tubers of sago pondweed, which can make up 100% of its diet at times. The canvasback has large webbed feet adapted for diving and its bill helps it dig tubers from the substrate. In the late 1930s, studies showed that four-fifths of the food eaten by canvasbacks was plant material. In the early 1950s it was estimated that there were 225,000 canvasbacks wintering in the Chesapeake Bay; this represented one-half of the entire North American population. By 1985, there were only 50,000 ducks wintering there, or one-tenth of the population. Canvasbacks were extensively hunted around the start of the 20th century, but federal hunting regulations now restrict their harvest, so hunting is ruled out as a cause for the decline. Scientists have now concluded that the decline in duck populations was due to the decline in sub-aquatic vegetation acreage. Today the population has stabilized and is even increasing slightly, although it is nowhere near previous levels. Studies have now shown that by the 1970s four-fifths of the ducks' diet was made up of Baltic Clams, which are very common in the Chesapeake Bay: the ducks have been able to adapt to the decline in sub-aquatic vegetation by changing their diet. Redheads, which also feed on the tubers of sub-aquatic vegetation, have not been able to adapt, and their population remains low. Cuisine Canvasback ducks were a particularly prestigious game dish in mid-19th-century America. They were rarely found on everyday menus, and often featured at banquets. They were generally sourced from Maryland and Chesapeake Bay, and their flavor was attributed to their diet of wild celery. By the end of the century, though, they had become "scarce, expensive, or unobtainable". Edith Wharton refers to canvasback with blackcurrant sauce as an especially luxurious dinner served in New York City in the 1870s. Canvasback duck was a canonical element, along with Terrapin à la Maryland, of the elegant "Maryland Feast" menu, an "elite standard... that lasted for decades". Conservation Populations have fluctuated widely. Low levels in the 1980s put the canvasback on lists of special concern, but numbers increased greatly in the 1990s. The canvasback is particularly vulnerable to drought and wetland drainage on the prairies of North America. Many species of ducks, including the canvasback, are highly migratory, but are effectively conserved by protecting the places where they nest, even though they may be hunted away from their breeding grounds. Protecting key feeding and breeding grounds is key for conserving many types of migratory birds. References External links Canvasback - Aythya valisineria - USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter "Canvasback media". Internet Bird Collection. Canvasback photo gallery at VIREO (Drexel University) Interactive range map of Aythya valisineria at IUCN Red List maps Mowbray, Thomas B. (2020-03-04). Poole, Alan F; Gill, Frank B (eds.). "Canvasback (Aythya valisineria)". Birds of the World. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. doi:10.2173/bow.canvas.01. S2CID 216414904. Retrieved 2021-04-20.

I'm thinking of an Actor that won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor two years after being nominated for the same award, but not winning. The same year that the actor won the Oscar, the Actor also won a BAFTA in the same category and for the same film. The Actor also won a Tony award in 1974.

Christopher Plummer

Tabular reasoning | Multiple constraints | Post processing | Temporal reasoning

The 28th Annual Tony Awards ceremony was held on April 21, 1974, at the Shubert Theatre in New York City, and broadcast by ABC television. Hosts were Peter Falk, Florence Henderson, Robert Preston and Cicely Tyson. The theme was "Homecoming", where stars from TV and film returned to Broadway to help present the awards or perform. The ceremony Presenters: Alan Alda, Ed Asner, Karen Black, David Carradine, Johnny Carson, Bette Davis, Peter Falk, Henry Fonda, Elliott Gould, Ken Howard, Glynis Johns, Cloris Leachman, Michael Learned, Elizabeth Montgomery, Carroll O'Connor, Al Pacino, Suzanne Pleshette, Jane Powell, Lynn Redgrave, Esther Rolle, Marlo Thomas, Lesley Ann Warren. Performers: Beatrice Arthur, Carol Channing, Will Geer, Joel Grey, Florence Henderson, Cleavon Little, Charles Nelson Reilly, Nancy Walker. Musicals represented: Over Here! ("Over Here"/"Charlie's Place" - Patty and Maxene Andrews and Company) Raisin ("Whole Lot of Sunshine" - Virginia Capers/"Sidewalk Tree" - Ralph Carter) Lorelei ("Men" - Carol Channing, Peter Palmer and Ian Tucker) Good News ("You're the Cream in My Coffee" - Alice Faye and John Payne) Seesaw ("I'm Way ahead"/"Seesaw" - Michele Lee) Fanny ("Welcome Home" - Florence Henderson) A Mother's Kisses ("There Goes My Life" - Bea Arthur) Medley of Songs from Broadway Shows - Charles Nelson Reilly The Cradle Will Rock (Medley - Will Geer) George M! (Medley - Joel Grey) Phoenix '55 ("Upper Berth" - Nancy Walker and Men) Purlie ("New Fangled Preacher Man" - Cleavon Little) Winners and nominees Winners are in bold Special Tony awards Liza Minnelli, for adding lustre to the Broadway season Bette Midler, for adding lustre to the Broadway season Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, co-stars and authors of Good Evening A Moon for the Misbegotten, an outstanding dramatic revival of an American classic. Produced by Lester Osterman, Elliott Martin and Richard Hurner Candide, an outstanding contribution to the artistic development of the musical theatre. Produced by Chelsea Theatre Group, Harold Prince and Ruth Mitchell Actors' Equity Association Theatre Development Fund John F. Wharton, veteran theatrical attorney Harold Friedlander, the industry's foremost printing expert Multiple nominations and awards External links Tony Awards Official Site

The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It has been awarded since the 9th Academy Awards to an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a supporting role in a film released that year. The award is traditionally presented by the previous year's Best Supporting Actress winner. In lieu of the traditional Oscar statuette, supporting acting recipients were given plaques up until the 16th Academy Awards, when statuettes were awarded to each category instead. The Best Supporting Actor award has been presented a total of 88 times, to 79 actors. The first winner was Walter Brennan for his role in Come and Get It. The most recent winner is Robert Downey Jr. for Oppenheimer. The record for most wins is three, held by Brennan–who won every other year within a succession of the first five years. Seven other actors have won twice. Brennan is also tied for receiving the most nominations in the category (with four altogether) along with Jeff Bridges, Robert Duvall, Arthur Kennedy, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Claude Rains, and Mark Ruffalo. Nominations process Nominees are currently determined by single transferable vote within the actors branch of AMPAS; winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the Academy. Winners and nominees In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of film release in Los Angeles County; the ceremonies are always held the following year. For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned twelve months, from August 1 to July 31. For the 6th ceremony held in 1934, the eligibility period lasted from August 1, 1932, to December 31, 1933. Since the 7th ceremony held in 1935, the period of eligibility became the full previous calendar year from January 1 to December 31. 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Multiple wins and nominations The following individuals received two or more Best Supporting Actor awards: The following individuals received three or more Best Supporting Actor nominations: Age superlatives Films with multiple Supporting Actor nominations There have been 22 instances in which films have produced more than one nominee within this category. All resulted in two nominations, with the exceptions of On the Waterfront (1954); The Godfather (1972); and The Godfather Part II (1974), which each obtained three. Winners are in bold. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) -- Harry Carey Sr. and Claude Rains Quo Vadis (1951) -- Leo Genn and Peter Ustinov Shane (1953) -- Brandon deWilde and Jack Palance On the Waterfront (1954) -- Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden, and Rod Steiger Peyton Place (1957) -- Arthur Kennedy and Russ Tamblyn Anatomy of a Murder (1959)-- Arthur O'Connell and George C. Scott The Hustler (1961) -- Jackie Gleason and George C. Scott Bonnie and Clyde (1967) -- Gene Hackman and Michael J. Pollard The Last Picture Show (1971) -- Jeff Bridges and Ben Johnson The Godfather (1972) -- James Caan, Robert Duvall, and Al Pacino The Godfather Part II (1974) -- Robert De Niro, Michael V. Gazzo, and Lee Strasberg Rocky (1976) -- Burgess Meredith and Burt Young Julia (1977) -- Jason Robards and Maximilian Schell Ordinary People (1980) -- Judd Hirsch and Timothy Hutton Terms of Endearment (1983) -- John Lithgow and Jack Nicholson Platoon (1986) -- Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe Bugsy (1991) -- Harvey Keitel and Ben Kingsley Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) -- Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell The Irishman (2019) -- Al Pacino and Joe Pesci Judas and the Black Messiah (2020) -- Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield The Power of the Dog (2021) -- Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) -- Brendan Gleeson and Barry Keoghan Multiple character nominations Max "Pop" Corkle from Here Comes Mr. Jordan (James Gleason, 1941) & Heaven Can Wait (Jack Warden, 1978) Thus far, this is the only instance of the same character producing two nominated performances within this particular same category. See also All Academy Award acting nominees List of awards for supporting actor List of Academy Award–nominated films Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Notes References Bibliography Crouse, Richard (2005). Reel Winners: Movie Award Trivia. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-1-55002-574-3. Kinn, Gail; Piazza, Jim (2014), The Academy Awards: The Complete Unofficial History (5 ed.), New York, United States: Workman Publishing Company, ISBN 978-1-57912-986-6 Levy, Emanuel (2003), All About Oscar: The History and Politics of the Academy Awards, New York, United States: Continuum International Publishing Group, ISBN 978-0-82641-452-6 Thise, Mark (2008), Hollywood Winners & Losers A to Z, New York, United States: Limelight Editions, ISBN 978-0-87910-351-4 External links Oscars.org Archived January 22, 2009, at the Wayback Machine (official Academy website) The Academy Awards Database (official website) Oscar.com Archived September 9, 2014, at the Wayback Machine (official ceremony promotional website)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role is a British Academy Film Award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding supporting performance in a film. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), is a British organisation that hosts annual awards shows for film, television, children's film and television, and interactive media. Since 1968, selected actors have been awarded with the BAFTA award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role at an annual ceremony. In the following lists, the titles and names in bold with a gold background are the winners and recipients respectively; those not in bold are the nominees. The years given are those in which the films under consideration were released, not the year of the ceremony, which always takes place the following year. History The Best Supporting Actor award has been presented a total of 54 times to 48 different actors. No award was given out in this category in 1980, when no actors, male or female, were nominated for supporting roles. In addition, the award was replaced with a gender-neutral category for Best Supporting Artist, allotted for the year 1981 only, with all four nominees that year being male. The first winner was Ian Holm for his role in The Bofors Gun. The most recent winner is Robert Downey Jr. for his role in Oppenheimer. The record for most wins is three, held by Denholm Elliott, who won three consecutive times, while five other actors have won twice. Elliott also holds the record for most nominations, with seven. Winners and nominees 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Multiple wins and nominations Multiple nominations Multiple wins 3 wins Denholm Elliott 2 wins Edward Fox Ian Holm Ray McAnally Geoffrey Rush Christoph Waltz See also Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture Guldbagge Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role Notes References External links BAFTA Awards Database

The following is a List of awards and nominations received by Christopher Plummer. Christopher Plummer is a Canadian actor known for his diverse roles on stage and screen. Plummer is one of the few actors to have received the Triple Crown of Acting, having won the Academy Award, Emmy Award and Tony Award. Other awards Plummer has received include a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Plummer was just a Grammy Award away from achieving the EGOT status (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony), which is considered the "grand slam" of American show business. Plummer won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor at the age of 82 for playing an elderly gay man in Mike Mills' comedy drama Beginners (2010), becoming the oldest person to win an acting award (a distinction he held until being supplanted by 83-year-old Anthony Hopkins in 2021). He was Oscar-nominated for playing Leo Tolstoy in the drama The Last Station (2009) and J. Paul Getty in the crime thriller All the Money in the World (2017), the later making him the oldest person to be nominated in an acting category at the age of 88. For his work on the Broadway stage he won two Tony Awards, his first for Best Actor in a Musical for playing Cyrano de Bergerac in the musical Cyrano (1974) and Best Actor in a Play for playing John Barrymore in the play Barrymore (1997). He was Tony-nominated for his performances in the plays J.B. (1959), Othello (1982), No Man's Land (1994), King Lear (2004), and Inherit the Wind (2007). For his work on television he has also received seven Primetime Emmy Award nominations winning twice for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie for Arthur Hailey's the Moneychangers (1977) and Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for Madeline in 1994. He has also received a Grammy Award for Best Children's Album nomination for Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker in 1986. Major associations Academy Awards BAFTA Awards Emmy Awards Golden Globe Awards Grammy Awards Screen Actors Guild Awards Tony Awards Critics associations Miscellaneous awards Other theatre awards Honorary awards Canadian Honours Canadian Honours System Notes See also Christopher Plummer on screen and stage == References ==

In the George Eliot novel described by Virginia Woolf as "one of the few English novels written for grown-up people", one of the main characters shares a first name with a former prime minister of Burkino Faso who went on the join the board of a Canadian mining company. What forename do they share?

Tertius

Multiple constraints

Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrote seven novels: Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Romola (1862–1863), Felix Holt, the Radical (1866), Middlemarch (1871–1872) and Daniel Deronda (1876). As with Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy, she emerged from provincial England; most of her works are set there. Her works are known for their realism, psychological insight, sense of place and detailed depiction of the countryside. Middlemarch was described by the novelist Virginia Woolf as "one of the few English novels written for grown-up people" and by Martin Amis and Julian Barnes as the greatest novel in the English language. Scandalously and unconventionally for the era, she lived with the married George Henry Lewes as his conjugal partner, from 1854–1878, and called him her husband. He remained married to his wife and supported their children, even after she left him to live with another man and have children with him. In May 1880, eighteen months after Lewes's death, George Eliot married her long-time friend, John Cross, a man much younger than she, and she changed her name to Mary Ann Cross. Life Early life and education Mary Ann Evans was born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England, at South Farm on the Arbury Hall estate. She was the third child of Welshman Robert Evans (1773–1849), manager of the Arbury Hall estate, and Christiana Evans (née Pearson, 1788–1836), daughter of a local mill-owner. Her full siblings were: Christiana, known as Chrissey (1814–1859), Isaac (1816–1890), and twin brothers who died a few days after birth in March 1821. She also had a half-brother, Robert Evans (1802–1864), and half-sister, Frances "Fanny" Evans Houghton (1805–1882), from her father's previous marriage to Harriet Poynton (1780–1809). In early 1820, the family moved to a house named Griff House, between Nuneaton and Bedworth. The young Evans was a voracious reader and obviously intelligent. Because she was not considered physically beautiful, Evans was not thought to have much chance of marriage, and this, coupled with her intelligence, led her father to invest in an education not often afforded to women. From ages five to nine, she boarded with her sister Chrissey at Miss Latham's school in Attleborough, from ages nine to thirteen at Mrs. Wallington's school in Nuneaton, and from ages thirteen to sixteen at Miss Franklin's school in Coventry. At Mrs. Wallington's school, she was taught by the evangelical Maria Lewis—to whom her earliest surviving letters are addressed. In the religious atmosphere of the Misses Franklin's school, Evans was exposed to a quiet, disciplined belief opposed to evangelicalism. After age sixteen, Evans had little formal education. Thanks to her father's important role on the estate, she was allowed access to the library of Arbury Hall, which greatly aided her self-education and breadth of learning. Her classical education left its mark; Christopher Stray has observed that "George Eliot's novels draw heavily on Greek literature (only one of her books can be printed correctly without the use of a Greek typeface), and her themes are often influenced by Greek tragedy". Her frequent visits to the estate also allowed her to contrast the wealth in which the local landowner lived with the lives of the often much poorer people on the estate, and different lives lived in parallel would reappear in many of her works. The other important early influence in her life was religion. She was brought up within a low church Anglican family, but at that time the Midlands was an area with a growing number of religious dissenters. Move to Coventry In 1836, her mother died and Evans (then 16) returned home to act as housekeeper, though she continued to correspond with her tutor Maria Lewis. When she was 21, her brother Isaac married and took over the family home, so Evans and her father moved to Foleshill near Coventry. The closeness to Coventry society brought new influences, most notably those of Charles and Cara Bray. Charles Bray had become rich as a ribbon manufacturer and had used his wealth in the building of schools and in other philanthropic causes. Evans, who had been struggling with religious doubts for some time, became intimate friends with the radical, free-thinking Brays, who had a casual view of marital obligations and the Brays' "Rosehill" home was a haven for people who held and debated radical views. The people whom the young woman met at the Brays' house included Robert Owen, Herbert Spencer, Harriet Martineau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Through this society Evans was introduced to more liberal and agnostic theologies and to writers such as David Strauss and Ludwig Feuerbach, who cast doubt on the literal truth of Biblical texts. In fact, her first major literary work was an English translation of Strauss's Das Leben Jesu kritisch bearbeitet as The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined (1846), which she completed after it had been left incomplete by Elizabeth "Rufa" Brabant, another member of the "Rosehill Circle". The Strauss book had caused a sensation in Germany by arguing that the miracles in the New Testament were mythical additions with little basis in fact. Evans's translation had a similar effect in England, with the Earl of Shaftesbury calling her translation "the most pestilential book ever vomited out of the jaws of hell." Later she translated Feuerbach's The Essence of Christianity (1854). The ideas in these books would have an effect on her own fiction. As a product of their friendship, Bray published some of Evans's own earliest writing, such as reviews, in his newspaper the Coventry Herald and Observer. As Evans began to question her own religious faith, her father threatened to throw her out of the house, but his threat was not carried out. Instead, she respectfully attended church and continued to keep house for him until his death in 1849, when she was 30. Five days after her father's funeral, she travelled to Switzerland with the Brays. She decided to stay on in Geneva alone, living first on the lake at Plongeon (near the present-day United Nations buildings) and then on the second floor of a house owned by her friends François and Juliet d'Albert Durade on the rue de Chanoines (now the rue de la Pelisserie). She commented happily that "one feels in a downy nest high up in a good old tree". Her stay is commemorated by a plaque on the building. While residing there, she read avidly and took long walks in the beautiful Swiss countryside, which was a great inspiration to her. François Durade painted her portrait there as well. Move to London and editorship of the Westminster Review On her return to England the following year (1850), she moved to London with the intent of becoming a writer, and she began referring to herself as Marian Evans. She stayed at the house of John Chapman, the radical publisher whom she had met earlier at Rosehill and who had published her Strauss translation. She then joined Chapman's ménage-à-trois along with his wife and mistress. Chapman had recently purchased the campaigning, left-wing journal The Westminster Review. Evans became its assistant editor in 1851 after joining just a year earlier. Evans's writings for the paper were comments on her views of society and the Victorian way of thinking. She was sympathetic to the lower classes and criticised organised religion throughout her articles and reviews and commented on contemporary ideas of the time. Much of this was drawn from her own experiences and knowledge and she used this to critique other ideas and organisations. This led to her writing being viewed as authentic and wise but not too obviously opinionated. Evans also focused on the business side of the Review with attempts to change its layout and design. Although Chapman was officially the editor, it was Evans who did most of the work of producing the journal, contributing many essays and reviews beginning with the January 1852 issue and continuing until the end of her employment at the Review in the first half of 1854. Eliot sympathized with the 1848 Revolutions throughout continental Europe, and even hoped that the Italians would chase the "odious Austrians" out of Lombardy and that "decayed monarchs" would be pensioned off, although she believed a gradual reformist approach to social problems was best for England. In 1850–51, Evans attended classes in mathematics at the Ladies College in Bedford Square, later known as Bedford College, London. Relationship with George Henry Lewes The philosopher and critic George Henry Lewes (1817–1878) met Evans in 1851, and by 1854 they had decided to live together. Lewes was already married to Agnes Jervis, although in an open marriage. In addition to the three children they had together, Agnes also had four children by Thornton Leigh Hunt. In July 1854, Lewes and Evans travelled to Weimar and Berlin together for the purpose of research. Before going to Germany, Evans continued her theological work with a translation of Feuerbach's The Essence of Christianity, and while abroad she wrote essays and worked on her translation of Baruch Spinoza's Ethics, which she completed in 1856, but which was not published in her lifetime because the prospective publisher refused to pay the requested £75. In 1981, Eliot's translation of Spinoza's Ethics was finally published by Thomas Deegan, and was determined to be in the public domain in 2018 and published by the George Eliot Archive. It has been re-published in 2020 by Princeton University Press. The trip to Germany also served as a honeymoon for Evans and Lewes, who subsequently considered themselves married. Evans began to refer to Lewes as her husband and to sign her name as Mary Ann Evans Lewes, legally changing her name to Mary Ann Evans Lewes after his death. The refusal to conceal the relationship was contrary to the social conventions of the time, and attracted considerable disapproval. Career in fiction While continuing to contribute pieces to the Westminster Review, Evans resolved to become a novelist, and set out a pertinent manifesto in one of her last essays for the Review, "Silly Novels by Lady Novelists" (1856). The essay criticised the trivial and ridiculous plots of contemporary fiction written by women. In other essays, she praised the realism of novels that were being written in Europe at the time, an emphasis on realistic storytelling confirmed in her own subsequent fiction. She also adopted a nom-de-plume, George Eliot; as she explained to her biographer J. W. Cross, George was Lewes's forename, and Eliot was "a good mouth-filling, easily pronounced word". Although female authors were published under their own names during her lifetime, she wanted to escape the stereotype of women's writing being limited to lighthearted romances or other lighter fare not to be taken very seriously. She also wanted to have her fiction judged separately from her already extensive and widely known work as a translator, editor, and critic. Another factor in her use of a pen name may have been a desire to shield her private life from public scrutiny, thus avoiding the scandal that would have arisen because of her relationship with Lewes, who was married. In 1857, when she was 37 years of age, "The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton", the first of the three stories included in Scenes of Clerical Life, and the first work of "George Eliot", was published in Blackwood's Magazine. The Scenes (published as a 2-volume book in 1858), was well received, and was widely believed to have been written by a country parson, or perhaps the wife of a parson. Eliot was profoundly influenced by the works of Thomas Carlyle. As early as 1841, she referred to him as "a grand favourite of mine", and references to him abound in her letters from the 1840s and 1850s. According to University of Victoria professor Lisa Surridge, Carlyle "stimulated Eliot's interest in German thought, encouraged her turn from Christian orthodoxy, and shaped her ideas on work, duty, sympathy, and the evolution of the self." These themes made their way into Evans's first complete novel, Adam Bede (1859). It was an instant success, and prompted yet more intense curiosity as to the author's identity: there was even a pretender to the authorship, one Joseph Liggins. This public interest subsequently led to Mary Anne Evans Lewes's acknowledgment that it was she who stood behind the pseudonym George Eliot. Adam Bede is known for embracing a realist aesthetic inspired by Dutch visual art. The revelations about Eliot's private life surprised and shocked many of her admiring readers, but this did not affect her popularity as a novelist. Her relationship with Lewes afforded her the encouragement and stability she needed to write fiction, but it would be some time before the couple were accepted into polite society. Acceptance was finally confirmed in 1877 when they were introduced to Princess Louise, the daughter of Queen Victoria. The queen herself was an avid reader of all of Eliot's novels and was so impressed with Adam Bede that she commissioned the artist Edward Henry Corbould to paint scenes from the book. When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, Eliot expressed sympathy for the Union cause, something which historians have attributed to her abolitionist sympathies. In 1868, she supported philosopher Richard Congreve's protests against governmental policies in Ireland and had a positive view of the growing movement in support of Irish home rule. She was influenced by the writings of John Stuart Mill and read all of his major works as they were published. In Mill's The Subjection of Women (1869) she judged the second chapter excoriating the laws which oppress married women "excellent." She was supportive of Mill's parliamentary run, but believed that the electorate was unlikely to vote for a philosopher and was surprised when he won. While Mill served in parliament, she expressed her agreement with his efforts on behalf of female suffrage, being "inclined to hope for much good from the serious presentation of women's claims before Parliament." In a letter to John Morley, she declared her support for plans "which held out reasonable promise of tending to establish as far as possible an equivalence of advantage for the two sexes, as to education and the possibilities of free development", and dismissed appeals to nature in explaining women's lower status. In 1870, she responded enthusiastically to Lady Amberley's feminist lecture on the claims of women for education, occupations, equality in marriage, and child custody. However, it would not be correct to assume that the female protagonists of her works can be considered "feminist", with the sole exception perhaps of Romola de' Bardi, who resolutely rejects the State and Church obligations of her time. After the success of Adam Bede, Eliot continued to write popular novels for the next fifteen years. Within a year of completing Adam Bede, she finished The Mill on the Floss, dedicating the manuscript: "To my beloved husband, George Henry Lewes, I give this MS. of my third book, written in the sixth year of our life together, at Holly Lodge, South Field, Wandsworth, and finished 21 March 1860." Silas Marner (1861) and Romola (1863) soon followed, and later Felix Holt, the Radical (1866) and her most acclaimed novel, Middlemarch (1871–1872). Her last novel was Daniel Deronda, published in 1876, after which she and Lewes moved to Witley, Surrey. By this time Lewes's health was failing, and he died two years later, on 30 November 1878. Eliot spent the next six months editing Lewes's final work, Life and Mind, for publication, and found solace and companionship with longtime friend and financial adviser John Walter Cross, a Scottish commission agent 20 years her junior, whose mother had recently died. Marriage to John Cross and death On 16 May 1880, eighteen months after Lewes' death, Eliot married John Walter Cross (1840–1924) and again changed her name, this time to Mary Ann Cross. While the marriage courted some controversy due to the 21 year age differences, it pleased her brother Isaac that she was married in this relationship. He had broken off relations with her when she had begun to live with Lewes, and now sent congratulations. While the couple were honeymooning in Venice, Cross, in a suicide attempt, jumped from the hotel balcony into the Grand Canal. He survived, and the newlyweds returned to England. They moved to a new house in Chelsea, but Eliot fell ill with a throat infection. This, coupled with the kidney disease with which she had been afflicted for several years, led to her death on 22 December 1880 at the age of 61. Due to her denial of the Christian faith and her relationship with Lewes, Eliot was not buried in Westminster Abbey. She was instead interred in Highgate Cemetery (East), Highgate, London, in the area reserved for political and religious dissenters and agnostics, beside the love of her life, George Henry Lewes. The graves of Karl Marx and her friend Herbert Spencer are nearby. In 1980, on the centenary of her death, a memorial stone was established for her in the Poets' Corner between W. H. Auden and Dylan Thomas, with a quote from Scenes of Clerical Life: "The first condition of human goodness is something to love; the second something to reverence". Personal appearance George Eliot was considered by contemporaries to be a physically unattractive woman; she herself knew this and made jokes about her appearance in letters to friends. Yet somehow the force of her personality overcame her ugliness. This was noted by numerous acquaintances. Of his first meeting with her on 9 May 1869, Henry James wrote: ... To begin with she is magnificently ugly — deliciously hideous. She has a low forehead, a dull grey eye, a vast pendulous nose, a huge mouth, full of uneven teeth & a chin & jawbone qui n'en finissent pas ["which never end"] ... Now in this vast ugliness resides a most powerful beauty which, in a very few minutes steals forth & charms the mind, so that you end as I ended, in falling in love with her. Spelling of her name She spelled her name differently at different times. Mary Anne was the spelling used by her father for the baptismal record and she uses this spelling in her earliest letters. Within her family, however, it was spelled Mary Ann. By 1852, she had changed to Marian, but she reverted to Mary Ann in 1880 after she married John Cross. Her memorial stone reads Here lies the body of'George Eliot'Mary Ann Cross Memorials and tributes Several landmarks in her birthplace of Nuneaton are named in her honour. These include the George Eliot Academy, Middlemarch Junior School, George Eliot Hospital (formerly Nuneaton Emergency Hospital), and George Eliot Road, in Foleshill, Coventry. Also, The Mary Anne Evans Hospice in Nuneaton. A statue of Eliot is in Newdegate Street, Nuneaton, and Nuneaton Museum & Art Gallery has a display of artifacts related to her. A tunnel boring machine constructing the Bromford Tunnel on High Speed 2 was named in honour of her. Literary assessment Throughout her career, Eliot wrote with a politically astute pen. From Adam Bede to The Mill on the Floss and Silas Marner, Eliot presented the cases of social outsiders and small-town persecution. Felix Holt, the Radical and The Legend of Jubal were overtly political, and political crisis is at the heart of Middlemarch, in which she presents the stories of a number of inhabitants of a small English town on the eve of the Reform Bill of 1832; the novel is notable for its deep psychological insight and sophisticated character portraits. The roots of her realist philosophy can be found in her review of John Ruskin's Modern Painters in Westminster Review in 1856. Eliot also express proto-Zionist ideas in Daniel Deronda. Readers in the Victorian era praised her novels for their depictions of rural society. Much of the material for her prose was drawn from her own experience. She shared with Wordsworth the belief that there was much value and beauty to be found in the mundane details of ordinary country life. Eliot did not, however, confine herself to stories of the English countryside. Romola, an historical novel set in late fifteenth century Florence, was based on the life of the Italian priest Girolamo Savonarola. In The Spanish Gypsy, Eliot made a foray into verse, but her poetry's initial popularity has not endured. Working as a translator, Eliot was exposed to German texts of religious, social, and moral philosophy such as David Friedrich Strauss's Life of Jesus and Feuerbach's The Essence of Christianity; also important was her translation from Latin of Jewish-Dutch philosopher Spinoza's Ethics. Elements from these works show up in her fiction, much of which is written with her trademark sense of agnostic humanism. According to Clare Carlisle, who published a new biography on George Eliot in 2023, the overdue publication of Spinoza's Ethics was a real shame, because it could have provided some illuminating cues for understanding the more mature works of the writer. She had taken particular notice of Feuerbach's conception of Christianity, positing that our understanding of the nature of the divine was to be found ultimately in the nature of humanity projected onto a divine figure. An example of this philosophy appeared in her novel Romola, in which Eliot’s protagonist displayed a "surprisingly modern readiness to interpret religious language in humanist or secular ethical terms." Though Eliot herself was not religious, she had respect for religious tradition and its ability to maintain a sense of social order and morality. The religious elements in her fiction also owe much to her upbringing, with the experiences of Maggie Tulliver from The Mill on the Floss sharing many similarities with the young Mary Ann Evans. Eliot also faced a quandary similar to that of Silas Marner, whose alienation from the church simultaneously meant his alienation from society. Because Eliot retained a vestigial respect for religion, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche excoriated her system of morality for figuring sin as a debt that can be expiated through suffering, which he demeaned as characteristic of "little moralistic females à la Eliot." She was at her most autobiographical in Looking Backwards, part of her final published work Impressions of Theophrastus Such. By the time of Daniel Deronda, Eliot's sales were falling off, and she had faded from public view to some degree. This was not helped by the posthumous biography written by her husband, which portrayed a wonderful, almost saintly, woman totally at odds with the scandalous life people knew she had led. In the 20th century she was championed by a new breed of critics, most notably by Virginia Woolf, who called Middlemarch "one of the few English novels written for grown-up people". In 1994, literary critic Harold Bloom placed Eliot among the most important Western writers of all time. In a 2007 authors' poll by Time, Middlemarch was voted the tenth greatest literary work ever written. In 2015, writers from outside the UK voted it first among all British novels "by a landslide". The various film and television adaptations of Eliot's books have re-introduced her to the wider reading public. Works Novels Adam Bede (1859) The Mill on the Floss (1860) Silas Marner (1861) Romola (1863) Felix Holt, the Radical (1866) Middlemarch (1871–1872) "Quarry for Middlemarch", MS Lowell 13, Houghton Library, Harvard University (A digital facsimile of the manuscript of research notes) Daniel Deronda (1876) Short story collection and novellas Scenes of Clerical Life (1857) The Sad Fortunes of the Rev. Amos Barton Mr Gilfil's Love Story Janet's Repentance The Lifted Veil (1859) Brother Jacob (1864) Impressions of Theophrastus Such (1879) Translations Das Leben Jesu, kritisch bearbeitet (The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined) Volume 2 by David Strauss (1846) Das Wesen des Christentums (The Essence of Christianity) by Ludwig Feuerbach (1854) The Ethics of Benedict de Spinoza by Benedict de Spinoza (1856) Poetry Knowing That I Must Shortly Put Off This Tabernacle (1840) In a London Drawingroom (1865) A Minor Prophet (1865) Two Lovers (1866) The Choir Invisible (1867) The Spanish Gypsy (1868) Agatha (1868) Brother and Sister (1869) How Lisa Loved the King (1869) Armgart (1870) Stradivarius (1873) Arion (1873) The Legend of Jubal (1874) I Grant You Ample Leave (1874) Evenings Come and Go, Love (1878) Self and Life (1879) A College Breakfast Party (1879) The Death of Moses (1879) Non-fiction "Three Months in Weimar" (1855) "Silly Novels by Lady Novelists" (1856) "The Natural History of German Life" (1856) Review of John Ruskin's Modern Painters in Westminster Review, April 1856 "The Influence of Rationalism" (1865) Explanatory notes References Citations General and cited sources Ashton, Rosemary (1997). George Eliot: A Life. London: Penguin, 1997. Bloom, Harold. (1994). The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages. New York: Harcourt Brace. Cross, J. W. (ed.), (1885). George Eliot's life as related in her letters and journals, 3 vols. London: William Blackwood and Sons. Fleishman, Avrom (2010). George Eliot's Intellectual Life. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511691706. ISBN 9780511691706. Haight, Gordon S. (1968). George Eliot: A Biography. New York: Oxford University Press. Henry, Nancy (2008). The Cambridge Introduction to George Eliot. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511793233. ISBN 9780511793233. Karl, Frederick R. (1995). George Eliot: Voice of a Century: A Biography, New York, W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1995, ISBN 0-393-31521-5. Szirotny, June Skye (2015). George Eliot's Feminism. doi:10.1057/9781137406156. ISBN 978-1-349-48784-4. Further reading Haight, Gordon S., ed., George Eliot: Letters, New Haven, Connecticut, Yale University Press, 1954, ISBN 0-300-01088-5. Henry, Nancy, The Life of George Eliot: A Critical Biography, Wiley-Blackwell, 2012 Stephen, Leslie. George Eliot, Cambridge University Press, 2010, ISBN 978-1-108-01962-0 (1st ed. 1902). Context and background Beer, Gillian, Darwin's Plots: Evolutionary Narrative in Darwin, George Eliot and Nineteenth-Century Fiction, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983, ISBN 0-521-78392-5. Gilbert, Sandra M., and Gubar, Susan, The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination, New Haven, Connecticut, Yale University Press, 1979, ISBN 0-300-08458-7. Hughes, Kathryn, George Eliot: The Last Victorian, New York, Farrar Straus Giroux, 1998, ISBN 0-374-16138-0. Maddox, Brenda, George Eliot in Love, New York, St. Martin's Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0230105188. Mintz, Steven. A Prison of Expectations: The Family in Victorian Culture, New York University Press, 1983. Pinney, Thomas, ed., Essays of George Eliot, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1963, ISBN 0-231-02619-6. Rignall, John, ed., Oxford Reader's Companion to George Eliot, Oxford University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-19-860099-2 Shuttleworth, Sally, George Eliot and Nineteenth-Century Science: The Make-Believe of a Beginning, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1984, ISBN 0-521-25786-7. Speaight, Robert, George Eliot, London, Arthur Barker, 1954. (The English Novelists series) Uglow, Jenny, George Eliot, London, Virago Press, 1987, ISBN 0-86068-400-8. Critical studies Alley, Henry, The Quest for Anonymity: The Novels of George Eliot, University of Delaware Press, 1997. Beaty, Jerome, Middlemarch from Notebook to Novel: A Study of George Eliot's Creative Method, Champaign, Illinois, University of Illinois, 1960. Calder, Simon. "George Eliot, Spinoza, and the Ethics of Literature" in Spinoza Beyond Philosophy, Beth Lord, ed. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press 2012, 268–187. Carlisle, Clare, The Marriage Question: George Eliot's Double Life. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023. Carroll, Alicia, Dark Smiles: Race and Desire in George Eliot, Ohio University Press, 2003. Carroll, David, ed., George Eliot: The Critical Heritage, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1971. Daiches, David, George Eliot: Middlemarch, London, Edward Arnold, 1963. Arnold, Jean, ed., Marz Harper, Lila, ed., George Eliot: Interdisciplinary Essays, Springer International Publishing, 2019. Gatens, Moira. "The Art and Philosophy of George Eliot". Philosophy and Literature 33(1) 2009, pp. 74–90. Graver, Suzanne, George Eliot and Community: A Study in Social Theory and Fictional Form, Berkeley, California, University of California Press, 1984. Hardy, Barbara Nathan, The Novels of George Eliot: A Study in Form. Oxford UP, 1967. Harvey, W J, The Art of George Eliot, London, Chatto & Windus, 1961. Leavis, F R, The Great Tradition, London, Chatto & Windus, 1948. External links George Eliot Archive George Eliot Review Online George Eliot Scholars The George Eliot Fellowship The Victorian Web: George Eliot George Eliot Archived 18 June 2021 at the Wayback Machine at the British Library Online editions Works by George Eliot at the George Eliot Archive, Works about George Eliot at the George Eliot Archive, George Eliot Review Online, and George Eliot Scholars Works by George Eliot in eBook form at Standard Ebooks Works by George Eliot at Project Gutenberg Works by George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) at Faded Page (Canada) Works by or about George Eliot at the Internet Archive Works by George Eliot at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)

Middlemarch, A Study of Provincial Life is a novel by English author George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Ann Evans. It appeared in eight installments (volumes) in 1871 and 1872. Set in Middlemarch, a fictional English Midlands town, in 1829 to 1832, it follows distinct, intersecting stories with many characters. Issues include the status of women, the nature of marriage, idealism, self-interest, religion, hypocrisy, political reform, and education. Despite comic elements, Middlemarch uses realism to encompass historical events: the 1832 Reform Act, early railways, and the accession of King William IV. It looks at medicine of the time and reactionary views in a settled community facing unwelcome change. Eliot began writing the two pieces that formed the novel in 1869–1870 and completed it in 1871. Initial reviews were mixed, but it is now seen widely as her best work and one of the great English novels. Background Middlemarch originates in two unfinished pieces that Eliot worked on during 1869 and 1870: the novel "Middlemarch" (which focused on the character of Lydgate) and the long story "Miss Brooke" (which focused on the character of Dorothea). The former piece is first mentioned in her journal on 1 January 1869 as one of the tasks for the coming year. In August she began writing, but progress ceased in the following month amidst a lack of confidence in it and distraction by the illness of George Henry Lewes's son Thornie, who was dying of tuberculosis. (Eliot had been living with Lewes since 1854.) After Thornie's death on 19 October 1869, all work on the novel stopped; it is uncertain whether Eliot intended at the time to revive it at a later date. In December she wrote of having begun another story, on a subject that she had considered "ever since I began to write fiction". By the end of the month she had written 100 pages of this story and entitled it "Miss Brooke". Although a precise date is unknown, the process of incorporating material from "Middlemarch" into the story she had been working on was ongoing by March 1871. While composing, Eliot compiled a notebook of hundreds of literary quotations, from poets, historians, playwrights, philosophers, and critics in eight different languages. By May 1871, the growing length of the novel had become a concern to Eliot, as it threatened to exceed the three-volume format that was then the norm in publishing. The issue was compounded because Eliot's most recent novel, Felix Holt, the Radical (1866) – also set in the same pre-Reform Bill England – had not sold well. The publisher John Blackwood, who had made a loss on acquiring the English rights to that novel, was approached by Lewes in his role as Eliot's literary agent. He suggested that the novel be brought out in eight two-monthly parts, borrowing the method used for Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables. This was an alternative to the monthly issues that had been used for such longer works as Dickens's David Copperfield and Thackeray's Vanity Fair, and avoided Eliot's objections to slicing her novel into small parts. Blackwood agreed, although he feared there would be "complaints of a want of the continuous interest in the story" due to the independence of each volume. The eight books duly appeared during 1872, the last three instalments being issued monthly. With the deaths of Thackeray and Dickens in 1863 and 1870, respectively, Eliot became "recognised as the greatest living English novelist" at the time of the novel's final publication. Plot Middlemarch centres on the lives of residents of Middlemarch, a fictitious Midlands town, from 1829 onwards – the years up to the 1832 Reform Act. The narrative may be considered to consist of four plots with unequal emphasis: the life of Dorothea Brooke, the career of Tertius Lydgate, the courtship of Mary Garth by Fred Vincy, and the disgrace of Nicholas Bulstrode. The two main plots are those of Dorothea and Lydgate. Each plot occurs concurrently, although Bulstrode's is centred on the later chapters. Dorothea Brooke is a 19-year-old orphan, living with her younger sister, Celia, as a ward of her uncle, Mr Brooke. Dorothea is an especially pious young woman whose hobby involves the renovation of buildings belonging to the tenant farmers, although her uncle discourages her. Dorothea is courted by Sir James Chettam, a man close to her own age, but she is oblivious to him. She is attracted instead to the Rev. Edward Casaubon, a 45-year-old scholar. Dorothea accepts Casaubon's offer of marriage, despite her sister's misgivings. Chettam is encouraged to turn his attention to Celia, who has developed an interest in him. Fred and Rosamond Vincy are the eldest children of Middlemarch's town mayor. Having never finished university, Fred is widely seen as a failure and a layabout, but is content because he is the presumed heir of his childless uncle Mr Featherstone, a rich but unpleasant man. Featherstone keeps as a companion a niece of his by marriage, Mary Garth; although she is considered plain, Fred is in love with her and wants to marry her. Dorothea and Casaubon experience the first tensions in their marriage on their honeymoon in Rome, when Dorothea finds that her husband has no interest in involving her in his intellectual pursuits. She meets Will Ladislaw, Casaubon's much younger disinherited cousin whom he supports financially. Ladislaw begins to feel attracted to Dorothea; she remains oblivious, but the two become friendly. Fred becomes deeply in debt and finds himself unable to repay what he owes. Having asked Mr Garth, Mary's father, to co-sign the debt, he now tells Garth he must forfeit it. As a result, Mrs Garth's savings from four years of income, held in reserve for the education of her youngest son, are wiped out, as are Mary's savings. Mr Garth thus warns Mary against ever marrying Fred. Fred comes down with an illness and is treated by Dr Tertius Lydgate, a newly arrived doctor in Middlemarch. Lydgate has modern ideas about medicine and sanitation which draw the ire and criticism of many in town. He allies himself with Bulstrode, a wealthy, church-going landowner and developer who wants to build a hospital and clinic that follow Lydgate's philosophy, despite the misgivings of Lydgate's friend, Farebrother, about Bulstrode's integrity. Lydgate also becomes acquainted with Rosamond Vincy, who is beautiful and educated, but shallow and self-absorbed. Seeking to make a good match, she decides to marry Lydgate, who comes from a wealthy family, and uses Fred's sickness as an opportunity to get close to him. Lydgate initially views their relationship as pure flirtation and backs away from Rosamond after discovering that the town considers them practically engaged. However, on seeing her a final time, he breaks his resolution and the two become engaged. Casaubon arrives back from Rome about the same time, but suffers a heart attack. Lydgate attends him and tells Dorothea it is difficult to pronounce on the nature of Casaubon's illness and chances of recovery: that he may indeed live about 15 years if he takes it easy and ceases his studies, but it is equally possible the disease may develop rapidly, in which case death will be sudden. As Fred recovers, Mr Featherstone falls ill. On his deathbed, he reveals that he has made two wills and tries to get Mary to help him destroy one. Unwilling to be involved in the business, she refuses, and Featherstone dies with both wills still intact. Featherstone's plan had been for £10,000 to go to Fred Vincy, but his estate and fortune instead go to his illegitimate son, Joshua Rigg. Casaubon, in poor health, has grown suspicious of Dorothea's goodwill to Ladislaw. He tries to make Dorothea promise, if he should die, to forever "avoid doing what I should deprecate, and apply yourself to do what I should desire". She is hesitant to agree, and he dies before she can reply. Casaubon's will is revealed to contain a provision that, if Dorothea marries Ladislaw, she will lose her inheritance. This leads to the general suspicion that Ladislaw and Dorothea are lovers, creating awkwardness between the two. Ladislaw is in love with Dorothea but keeps this secret, having no desire to involve her in scandal or cause her disinheritance. She realizes she has romantic feelings for him, but must suppress them. He remains in Middlemarch, working as a newspaper editor for Mr Brooke, who is mounting a campaign to run for Parliament on a Reform platform. Lydgate's efforts to please Rosamond soon leave him deeply in debt, and he is forced to seek help from Bulstrode. Meanwhile, Fred Vincy's humiliation at being responsible for Caleb Garth's financial setbacks shocks him into reassessing his life. He resolves to train as a land agent under the forgiving Caleb. He asks Farebrother to plead his case to Mary Garth, not realizing that Farebrother is also in love with her. Farebrother does so, thereby sacrificing his own desires for the sake of Mary, who he realises truly loves Fred and is just waiting for him to find his place in the world. John Raffles, a mysterious man who knows of Bulstrode's shady past, appears in Middlemarch, intending to blackmail him. In his youth, the church-going Bulstrode engaged in questionable financial dealings; his fortune is founded on his marriage to a wealthy, much older widow. The widow's daughter, who should have inherited her mother's fortune, had run away; Bulstrode located her but failed to disclose this to the widow, so that he inherited the fortune in lieu of her daughter. The widow's daughter had a son, who turns out to be Ladislaw. On grasping their connection, Bulstrode is consumed with guilt and offers Ladislaw a large sum of money, which Ladislaw refuses as being tainted. Bulstrode's terror of public exposure as a hypocrite leads him to hasten the death of the mortally sick Raffles, while lending a large sum to Lydgate, whom Bulstrode had previously refused to bail out of his debt. However, the story of Bulstrode's misdeeds has already spread. Bulstrode's disgrace engulfs Lydgate: knowledge of the loan spreads and he is assumed to be complicit with Bulstrode. Only Dorothea and Farebrother retain any faith in him, but Lydgate and Rosamond are still encouraged to leave Middlemarch by the general opprobrium. Disgraced and reviled, Bulstrode's one consolation is that his wife stands by him as he too faces exile. When Mr Brooke's election campaign collapses, Ladislaw decides to leave the town and visits Dorothea to say his farewell, but Dorothea has fallen in love with him. She renounces Casaubon's fortune and shocks her family by announcing that she will marry Ladislaw. At the same time, Fred, having been successful in his new career, marries Mary. The "Finale" details the ultimate fortunes of the main characters. Fred and Mary marry and live contentedly with their three sons. Lydgate operates a successful practice outside Middlemarch and attains a good income, but never finds fulfilment and dies at the age of 50, leaving Rosamond and four children. After he dies, Rosamond marries a wealthy physician. Ladislaw engages in public reform, and Dorothea is content as a wife and mother to their two children. Their son eventually inherits Arthur Brooke's estate. Characters Dorothea Brooke: An intelligent, wealthy woman with great aspirations, Dorothea avoids displaying her wealth and embarks upon projects such as redesigning cottages for her uncle's tenants. She marries the elderly Reverend Edward Casaubon, with the idealistic idea of helping him in his research, The Key to All Mythologies. However, the marriage was a mistake, as Casaubon fails to take her seriously and resents her youth, enthusiasm, and energy. Her requests to assist him make it harder for him to conceal that his research is years out of date. Faced with Casaubon's coldness on their honeymoon, Dorothea becomes friends with his relative, Will Ladislaw. Some years after Casaubon's death she falls in love with Will and marries him. Tertius Lydgate: An idealistic, talented, but naive young doctor, is relatively poor, but of good birth. He hopes to make big advances in medicine through his research, but ends up in an unhappy marriage with Rosamond Vincy. His attempts to show he is answerable to no man fail, and he eventually has to leave town, sacrificing his high ideals to please his wife. Rev. Edward Casaubon : A pedantic, selfish, elderly clergyman who is so taken up with his scholarly research that his marriage to Dorothea is loveless. His unfinished book, The Key to All Mythologies, is intended as a monument to Christian syncretism, but his research is out of date as he cannot read German. He is aware of this but admits it to no one. Mary Garth: The plain, kind daughter of Caleb and Susan Garth serves as Mr Featherstone's nurse. She and Fred Vincy were childhood sweethearts, but she will not let him woo her until he shows himself willing and able to live seriously, practically and sincerely. Arthur Brooke: The oft-befuddled, none-too-clever uncle of Dorothea and Celia Brooke has a reputation as the worst landlord in the county, but stands for Parliament on a Reform platform. Celia Brooke: Dorothea's younger sister is a beauty. She is more sensual than Dorothea and does not share her idealism and asceticism. She is only too happy to marry Sir James Chettam when Dorothea rejects him. Sir James Chettam: A neighbouring landowner, he is in love with Dorothea and helps with her plans to improve conditions for the tenants. When she marries Casaubon, he marries Celia Brooke. Rosamond Vincy: Vain, beautiful and shallow, Rosamond has a high opinion of her own charms and a low opinion of Middlemarch society. She marries Tertius Lydgate, believing he will raise her social standing and keep her comfortable. When her husband meets financial difficulties, she thwarts his efforts to economise, seeing such sacrifices as beneath her and insulting. She cannot bear the idea of losing social status. Fred Vincy: Rosamond's brother has loved Mary Garth from childhood. His family hopes he will advance socially by becoming a clergyman, but he knows Mary will not marry him if he does. Brought up to expect an inheritance from his uncle, Mr Featherstone, he is a spendthrift, but later changes through his love for Mary and finds by studying under Mary's father a profession that gains Mary's respect. Will Ladislaw: This young cousin of Mr Casaubon has no property, as his grandmother married a poor Polish musician and was disinherited. He is a man of verve, idealism and talent, but no fixed profession. He is in love with Dorothea, but cannot marry her without her losing Mr Casaubon's property. Humphrey Cadwallader and Elinor Cadwallader: Neighbours of the Brookes, Mr Cadwallader is a rector and Mrs Cadwallader a pragmatic and talkative woman who comments on local affairs with wry cynicism. She disapproves of Dorothea's marriage and Mr Brooke's parliamentary endeavours. Walter Vincy and Lucy Vincy: A respectable manufacturing couple, they wish their children to advance socially and are disappointed by Rosamond's and Fred's marriages. Vincy's sister is married to Nicholas Bulstrode. Mrs Vincy was an innkeeper's daughter and her sister the second wife of Mr. Featherstone. Caleb Garth: Mary Garth's father is a kind, honest, generous surveyor and land agent involved in farm management. He is fond of Fred and eventually takes him under his wing. Camden Farebrother: A poor but clever vicar and amateur naturalist, he is a friend of Lydgate and Fred Vincy and loves Mary Garth. His position improves when Dorothea appoints him to a living after Casaubon's death. Nicholas Bulstrode: A wealthy banker married to Vincy's sister, Harriet, he is a pious Methodist keen to impose his beliefs in Middlemarch society. However, he has a sordid past he is desperate to hide. His religion favours his personal desires and lacks sympathy for others. Peter Featherstone: An old landlord of Stone Court, he is a self-made man, who has married Caleb Garth's sister. On her death he takes Mrs Vincy's sister as his second wife. Jane Waule: A widow and Peter Featherstone's sister, she has a son, John. Mr Hawley: A foul-mouthed businessman, he is an enemy of Bulstrode. Mr Mawmsey: A grocer Dr Sprague: A Middlemarch physician Mr Tyke: A clergyman favoured by Bulstrode Joshua Rigg Featherstone: Featherstone's illegitimate son, he appears at the reading of Featherstone's will and receives a fortune instead of Fred. He is also the stepson of John Raffles, who comes into town to visit Rigg, but instead reveals Bulstrode's past. His appearance in the novel is crucial to the plot. John Raffles: Raffles is a braggart and a bully, a humorous scoundrel in the tradition of Sir John Falstaff, and an alcoholic. But unlike Falstaff, Raffles is a truly evil man. He holds the key to Bulstrode's dark past and Lydgate's future. Historical novel The action of Middlemarch takes place "between September 1829 and May 1832", or 40 years before its publication in 1871–1872, a gap not so pronounced for it to be regularly labelled as a historical novel. By comparison, Walter Scott's Waverley (1814) – often seen as the first major historical novel – takes place some 60 years before it appears. Eliot had previously written a more obviously historical novel, Romola (1862–1863), set in 15th-century Florence. The critics Kathleen Blake and Michael York Mason argue that there has been insufficient attention given to Middlemarch "as a historical novel that evokes the past in relation to the present". The critic Rosemary Ashton notes that the lack of attention to this side of the novel may indicate its merits: "Middlemarch is that very rare thing, a successful historical novel. In fact, it is so successful that we scarcely think of it in terms of that subgenre of fiction." For its contemporary readers, the present "was the passage of the Second Reform Act in 1867"; the agitation for the Reform Act of 1832 and its turbulent passage through the two Houses of Parliament, which provide the structure of the novel, would have been seen as the past. Though rarely categorised as a historical novel, Middlemarch's attention to historical detail has been noticed; in an 1873 review, Henry James recognised that Eliot's "purpose was to be a generous rural historian". Elsewhere, Eliot has been seen to adopt "the role of imaginative historian, even scientific investigator in Middlemarch and her narrator as conscious "of the historiographical questions involved in writing a social and political history of provincial life". This critic compares the novel to "a work of the ancient Greek historian Herodotus", who is often described as "The Father of History". Themes A Study of Provincial Life The fictional town of Middlemarch, North Loamshire, is probably based on Coventry, where Eliot had lived before moving to London. Like Coventry, Middlemarch is described as a silk-ribbon manufacturing town. The subtitle—"A Study of Provincial Life"—has been seen as significant. One critic views the unity of Middlemarch as achieved through "the fusion of the two senses of 'provincial'": on the one hand it means geographically "all parts of the country except the capital"; and on the other, a person who is "unsophisticated" or "narrow-minded". Carolyn Steedman links Eliot's emphasis on provincialism in Middlemarch to Matthew Arnold's discussion of social class in England in Culture and Anarchy essays, published in 1869, about the time Eliot began working on the stories that became Middlemarch. There Arnold classes British society in terms of Barbarians (aristocrats and landed gentry), Philistines (urban middle class) and Populace (working class). Steedman suggests Middlemarch "is a portrait of Philistine Provincialism". It is worth noting that Eliot went to London, as her heroine Dorothea does at the end of the book. There Eliot achieved fame way beyond most women of her time, whereas Dorothea takes on the role of nurturing Will and her family. Eliot was rejected by her family once she had settled in her common-law relationship with Lewes, and "their profound disapproval prevented her ever going home again". She omitted Coventry from her last visit to the Midlands in 1855. The "Woman Question" Central to Middlemarch is the idea that Dorothea Brooke cannot hope to achieve the heroic stature of a figure like Saint Teresa, for Eliot's heroine lives at the wrong time, "amidst the conditions of an imperfect social state, in which great feelings will often take the aspect of error, and great faith the aspect of illusion". Antigone, a figure from Greek mythology best known from Sophocles' play, is given in the "Finale" as a further example of a heroic woman. The literary critic Kathleen Blake notes Eliot's emphasis on St Teresa's "very concrete accomplishment, the reform of a religious order", rather than her Christian mysticism. A frequent criticism by feminist critics is that not only is Dorothea less heroic than Saint Teresa and Antigone, but George Eliot herself. In response, Ruth Yeazell and Kathleen Blake chide these critics for "expecting literary pictures of a strong woman succeeding in a period [around 1830] that did not make them likely in life". Eliot has also been criticised more widely for ending the novel with Dorothea marrying Will Ladislaw, someone so clearly her inferior. The novelist Henry James describes Ladislaw as a dilettante who "has not the concentrated fervour essential in the man chosen by so nobly strenuous a heroine". Marriage Marriage is one of the major themes in Middlemarch. According to George Steiner, "both principal plots [those of Dorothea and Lydgate] are case studies of unsuccessful marriage". This suggests that these "disastrous marriages" leave the lives of Dorothea and Lydgate unfulfilled. This is arguably more the case with Lydgate than with Dorothea, who gains a second chance through her later marriage to Will Ladislaw, but a favourable interpretation of this marriage depends on the character of Ladislaw himself, whom numerous critics have viewed as Dorothea's inferior. In addition, there is the "meaningless and blissful" marriage of Dorothea's sister Celia Brooke to Sir James Chettam, and more significantly Fred Vincy's courting of Mary Garth. In the latter, Mary Garth will not accept Fred until he abandons the Church and settles on a more suitable career. Here Fred resembles Henry Fielding's character Tom Jones, both being moulded into a good husband by the love they give to and receive from a woman. Dorothea is a St Teresa, born in the wrong century, in provincial Middlemarch, who mistakes in her idealistic ardor, "a poor dry mummified pedant... as a sort of angel of vocation". Middlemarch is in part a Bildungsroman focusing on the psychological or moral growth of the protagonist: Dorothea "blindly gropes forward, making mistakes in her sometimes foolish, often egotistical, but also admirably idealistic attempt to find a role" or vocation that fulfils her nature. Lydgate is equally mistaken in his choice of a partner, as his idea of a perfect wife is someone "who can sing and play the piano and provide a soft cushion for her husband to rest after work". So he marries Rosamond Vincy, "the woman in the novel who most contrasts with Dorothea", and thereby "deteriorates from ardent researcher to fashionable doctor in London". Critical reception Contemporary reviews The Examiner, The Spectator and Athenaeum reviewed each of the eight books that comprise Middlemarch as they were published from December 1871 to December 1872; such reviews speculated on the eventual direction of the plot and responded accordingly. Contemporary response to the novel was mixed. Writing as it was being published, the Spectator reviewer R. H. Hutton criticised it for what he saw as its melancholic quality. Athenaeum, reviewing it after "serialisation", found the work overwrought and thought it would have benefited from hastier composition. Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine reviewer W. L. Collins saw as the work's most forceful impression its ability to make readers sympathise with the characters. Edith Simcox of Academy offered high praises, hailing it as a landmark in fiction owing to the originality of its form; she rated it first amongst Eliot's œuvre, which meant it "has scarcely a superior and very few equals in the whole wide range of English fiction". Henry James presented a mixed opinion, Middlemarch, according to him, was "at once one of the strongest and one of the weakest of English novels ... Middlemarch is a treasure-house of details, but it is an indifferent whole". Among the details, his greatest criticism ("the only eminent failure in the book") was of the character of Ladislaw, who he felt was an insubstantial hero-figure as against Lydgate. The scenes between Lydgate and Rosamond he especially praised for their psychological depth – he doubted whether there were any scenes "more powerfully real... [or] intelligent" in all English fiction. Thérèse Bentzon, for the Revue des deux Mondes, was critical of Middlemarch. Although finding merit in certain scenes and qualities, she faulted its structure as "made up of a succession of unconnected chapters, following each other at random... The final effect is one of an incoherence which nothing can justify." In her view, Eliot's prioritisation of "observation rather than imagination... inexorable analysis rather than sensibility, passion or fantasy" means that she should not be held amongst the first ranks of novelists. The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who read Middlemarch in a translation owned by his mother and sister, derided the novel for construing suffering as a means of expiating the debt of sin, which he found characteristic of "little moralistic females à la Eliot". Despite the divided contemporary response, Middlemarch gained immediate admirers: in 1873, the poet Emily Dickinson expressed high praise for the novel, exclaiming in a letter to a friend: "What do I think of Middlemarch? What do I think of glory." In separate centuries, Florence Nightingale and Kate Millett remarked on the eventual subordination of Dorothea's own dreams to those of her admirer, Ladislaw. Indeed, the ending acknowledges this and mentions how unfavourable social conditions prevented her from fulfilling her potential. Later responses In the first half of the 20th century, Middlemarch continued to provoke contrasting responses; while Leslie Stephen dismissed the novel in 1902, his daughter Virginia Woolf described it in 1919 as "the magnificent book that, which with all its imperfections, is one of the few English novels written for grown-up people." However, Woolf was "virtually unique" among the modernists in her unstinting praise for Middlemarch, and the novel also remained overlooked by the reading public of the time. F. R. Leavis's The Great Tradition (1948) is credited with having "rediscovered" the novel: The necessary part of great intellectual powers in such a success as Middlemarch is obvious ... the sheer informedness about society, its mechanisms, the ways in which people of different classes live ... a novelist whose genius manifests itself in a profound analysis of the individual. Leavis' appraisal of it has been hailed as the beginning of a critical consensus that still exists towards the novel, in which it is recognised not only as Eliot's finest work, but as one of the greatest novels in English. V. S. Pritchett, in The Living Novel, two years earlier, in 1946 had written that "No Victorian novel approaches Middlemarch in its width of reference, its intellectual power, or the imperturbable spaciousness of its narrative ... I doubt if any Victorian novelist has as much to teach the modern novelists as George Eliot ... No writer has ever represented the ambiguities of moral choice so fully". In the 21st century, the novel is still held in high regard. The novelists Martin Amis and Julian Barnes have both called it probably the greatest novel in the English language, and today Middlemarch is frequently included in university courses. In 2013, the then British Education Secretary Michael Gove referred to Middlemarch in a speech, suggesting its superiority to Stephenie Meyer's vampire novel Twilight. Gove's comments led to debate on teaching Middlemarch in Britain, including the question of when novels like Middlemarch should be read, and the role of canonical texts in teaching. The novel has remained a favourite with readers and scores high in reader rankings: in 2003 it was No. 27 in the BBC's The Big Read, and in 2007 it was No. 10 in "The 10 Greatest Books of All Time", based on a ballot of 125 selected writers. In 2015, in a BBC Culture poll of book critics outside the UK, the novel was ranked at number one in "The 100 greatest British novels". On 5 November 2019, the BBC News reported that Middlemarch is on the BBC list of 100 "most inspiring" novels. Legacy and adaptations Middlemarch has been adapted several times for television and the stage. In 1968 it appeared as a BBC-produced TV mini-series of the same name, directed by Joan Craft, starring Michele Dotrice. The first episode, "Dorothea", is missing from the BBC Archives, while the third episode, "The New Doctor", can be viewed online, although only as a low-quality black and white telerecording owned by a private collector. The other five episodes have been withheld from public viewing. In 1994 it was again adapted by the BBC as a television series of the same name, directed by Anthony Page with a screenplay by Andrew Davies. This was a critical and financial success and revived public interest adaptating the classics. In 2013 came a stage adaptation, and also an Orange Tree Theatre Repertory production adapted and directed by Geoffrey Beevers as three plays: Dorothea's Story, The Doctor's Story, and Fred & Mary. The novel has never been made into a film, although the idea was toyed with by the English director Sam Mendes. In April 2022, Dash Arts produced The Great Middlemarch Mystery, an immersive theatre experience staged across three locations in Coventry, including Drapers Hall. The opera Middlemarch in Spring by Allen Shearer, to a libretto by Claudia Stevens, has a cast of six and treats only the central story of Dorothea Brooke. It was first staged in San Francisco in 2015. In 2017, a modern adaptation, Middlemarch: The Series, aired on YouTube as a video blog. Lyrics for the song "How Soon Is Now?" by The Smiths were taken from Middlemarch ("I am the son and heir, of nothing in particular"). Notes References Bibliography Ashton, Rosemary (1983). George Eliot. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-287627-9. Ashton, Rosemary (1994). "Introduction". In Eliot, George (ed.). Middlemarch. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-141-43954-9. Beaty, Jerome (1960). Middlemarch from Notebook to Novel: A Study of George Eliot's Creative Method. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Blake, Kathleen (1976). "Middlemarch and the Woman Question". Nineteenth-Century Fiction. 31 (3): 285–312. doi:10.2307/2933580. JSTOR 2933580. (subscription required) Chase, Karen (1991). Eliot: Middlemarch (Landmarks of World Literature). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521359155. Eliot, George. Middlemarch, A Study of Provincial Life. Vol. 1 (first (1871-2) ed.), Eliot, George Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4 Eliot, George. Middlemarch free PDF of Blackwood's 1878 Cabinet Edition (the critical standard with Eliot's final corrections) at the George Eliot Archive James, Henry (March 1873). "Review of Middlemarch". The Galaxy – via complete-review.com. Leavis, F. R. (1950). The Great Tradition: George Eliot, Henry James, Joseph Conrad. New York: George W. Stewart. Steedman, Carolyn (Summer 2001). "Going to Middlemarch: History and the Novel". Michigan Quarterly Review. XL (3): n.p. Steiner, F. George (1955). "A Preface to Middlemarch". Nineteenth-Century Fiction. 9 (4): 262–279. doi:10.2307/3044392. JSTOR 3044392. Swinden, Patrick, ed. (1972). George Eliot: Middlemarch: A Casebook. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-02119-3. Woolf, Virginia (1925). The Common Reader. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company. Wynne–Davies, Marion, ed. (1990). The Bloomsbury Guide to English Literature. New York: Prentice Hall. Further reading Adam, Ian, ed. (1975). This Particular Web: essays on Middlemarch. Toronto: University of Toronto Press Bloom, Harold, ed. (2009). George Eliot. Philadelphia, PA: Chelsea ISBN 9781438116006. Beaty, Jerome (December 1957). "History by Indirection: The Era of Reform in Middlemarch". Victorian Studies. 1 (2): 173–179. ISSN 0042-5222. Carroll, David, ed. (1971). George Eliot: The Critical Heritage. London: Routledge & K Paul. ISBN 0-7100-6936-7 Chase, Karen, ed. (2006). Middlemarch in the Twenty-First Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press Daiches, David (1963). George Eliot: Middlemarch. London: Arnold Dentith, Simon (1986). George Eliot. Brighton, Sussex: Harvester Press. ISBN 0-7108-0588-8 Garrett, Peter K (1980). The Victorian Multiplot Novel: Studies in Dialogical Form. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-02403-7 Graver, Suzanne (1984). George Eliot and Community: A Study in Social Theory and Fictional Form. Berkeley: University of California Press.ISBN 0-520-04802-4. Harvey, W. J. (1961). The Art of George Eliot. London: Chatto & Windus Harvey, W. J. (1967). "Criticism of the Novel: Contemporary Reception". In Hardy, Barbara Nathan. Middlemarch: Critical Approaches to the Novel (2013 ed.). London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781472536143 Kettle, Arnold (1951). An Introduction to the English Novel, Volume I: To George Eliot. London: Hutchinson Mead, Rebecca (2014). My Life in Middlemarch. New York: Crown. ISBN 9780307984760 Neale, Catherine (1989). George Eliot, Middlemarch. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-077173-5 Tillotson, Geoffrey(1951). Criticism and the Nineteenth Century Novel. Trainini, Marco, Vendetta, tienimi compagnia. Due vendicatori in "Middlemarch" di George Eliot e "Anna Karenina" di Lev Tolstoj, Milano, Arcipelago Edizioni, 2012, ISBN 8876954759. Contemporary reviews Athenaeum, 7 December 1872 Bentzon, TH. Revue des deux Mondes, February 1873 Broome, F. N. The Times, 7 March 1873 Collins, W. L. Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, December 1872 Colvin, Sidney, The Fortnightly Review, 1 January 1873 Hutton, R. H. The Spectator, 1 June 1872 Hutton, R. H. British Quarterly Review, 1 April 1873 Simcox, Edith, The Academy, 1 January 1873 Later reviews Woolf, Virginia, "George Eliot", The Times Literary Supplement, 20 November 1919 External links Middlemarch at Standard Ebooks Middlemarch free PDF of Blackwood's 1878 Cabinet Edition (the critical standard with Eliot's final corrections) at the George Eliot Archive Manuscript of Middlemarch Archived 2 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine at the British Library Middlemarch Archived 24 May 2015 at the Wayback Machine on the British Library's Discovering Literature website Middlemarch public domain audiobook at LibriVox Middlemarch at Project Gutenberg Middlemarch at Victorian Web

Tertius Zongo (born 18 May 1957) was the Prime Minister of Burkina Faso from June 2007 to April 2011. Biography Zongo was born in Koudougou. He has an extensive background in economics and accounting. He became Minister Delegate for Budget and Planning, under the Minister of the Economy, Finances, and Planning, in June 1995. In February 1996 he became Government Spokesman in addition to his role as Minister Delegate, and he remained Government Spokesman until November 2000. His portfolio was changed to that of Minister Delegate for Finance and Economic Development, under the Prime Minister, in September 1996; he was subsequently promoted to the post of Minister of the Economy and Finance on 10 June 1997. He remained in the latter position until November 2000. On 14 February 2002 he became Ambassador to the United States, serving in that post until he was named prime minister in June 2007. Zongo also served as governor for Burkina Faso to the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the African Development Bank and the Islamic Bank of Development. In 1992, he worked as director general of Cooperation at the Ministry of Finances and Planning and as chief of the Department of Multilateral Cooperation from 1988 to 1992. He has also been a professor of accounting, business economy and financial analysis at the University of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. Zongo holds a master's degree in economic sciences from the Institut d'Administration des Entreprises in France. Prime minister Following the May 2007 parliamentary election, Zongo was appointed prime minister by President Blaise Compaore on 4 June 2007. His government, composed of 34 members, was appointed on 10 June; its 34 members (excluding Zongo himself) included two ministers of state, 26 ministers, and six minister-delegates. Zongo took office as prime minister on 11 June, succeeding Paramanga Ernest Yonli. Amidst serious unrest, Compaore appointed Luc-Adolphe Tiao to replace Zongo on 18 April 2011. Zongo was subsequently appointed to the Board of Directors of SEMAFO, a Canadian mining company with operations in Burkina Faso and other West African countries, in May 2012. == References ==

What is the population of the town (as of December 2020) that holds the Mountain Cheese Olympics?

5793

Numerical reasoning | Multiple constraints

The International Mountain Cheese Olympics is a cheese festival and competition that has been ongoing for over 18 years. Cheesemakers from all over the world, including Switzerland, Japan, Mexico, Canada, Germany, Italy and many others compete to have the most exceptional quality of artisan mountain cheese. In previous years, the festival was held in Appenzell, Switzerland, and was originally intended to help promote the economic interests of the mountain regions of Switzerland. Currently, the festival is held in Galtür, Austria, a small ski resort village. Some popular tourist attractions in Galtür include hiking, biking, and open-air thermal spas regularly enjoyed by tourists and natives alike. Many people love the mountain air and crystal-clear lakes, but it is high-altitude sunlight, not snow, that is the new obsession. The festival will celebrate its 25th edition in September 2019. Mountain cheeses are particularly important to this festival and differ from mass-produced cheese sold all around the world. The festival focuses on "mountain cheese" because they have separate and more distinct qualities that other kinds of cheese don't. Mountain cheeses are most often made from sheep or goat milk, and tend to be softer than most types of cheeses. This cheese, focused on in the International Mountain Cheese Olympics, can also be known as Alpine cheese. The term "Alpine cheese" simply means any cheese indigenous to the Alps, the European mountain range marking the borders of Switzerland, France, Austria, and Italy. These cheeses have achieved global fame and replication, however, because of the centuries-old recipes and methods that make these cheeses so special. This particular group of cheese is made from animals, such as sheep and goats, that have grazed in the high elevation pastures. This type of cheese is important because it has a rich and complex flavour, which is why people from around the world come to compete for the best mountain cheese. The cheesemakers allowed to compete in this event have to be cheese artisans, making cheeses at altitudes over 600 m (1,970 ft), with prizes for taste and quality. The 2021 International Mountain Cheese Olympics will be held in Galtür, Austria, which is a small, well known ski resort village located in the upper Paznaun valley in the state of Tyrol. The Mountain Cheese Olympics were founded in 2002 "to promote the mountain region economy", and the festival itself consists of many events. This annual celebration allows festival visitors to purchase all different types of mountain cheeses by the competitors and explore international cuisine. The competition is the main highlight of the entire annual event, centering around how the mountain cheese is shaped and displayed, as well as taste. According to experts, the cheese industry is affected by several factors; economic factors like marketing and sales, and cultural factors related to the areas where the cheese is manufactured. This is why, at first, Switzerland started this competition to help their economic interest and allow individuals from all around the world to share their appreciation for mountain cheese. Though it was started primarily by Switzerland, France and Italy happen to dominate its awards, and there are typically over 100 entries, from all over the world, including Japan, Mexico, and Ethiopia. == References ==

Appenzell District is a district of the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden in Switzerland. It has a population of 5,793 (as of December 2020). The area of Appenzell is 16.88 km2 (7 sq mi). The district of Appenzell consists of a part of the village Appenzell, as well as Rinkenbach, Kau and Meistersrüte. History Prehistoric Appenzell While a single late Bronze Age site has been discovered in the forest outside Appenzell, there is no evidence of a prehistoric settlement. The region around Appenzell remained forested and very lightly settled until the end of the Early Middle Ages. Under the Abbots of St. Gall Under the authority of the abbots of the monastery of St. Gall settlers began to colonization of the Sitter river valley in the late 11th century. It is mentioned, in a deed granting rights to clear land, in 1071 as Abbacella. At the same time, the parish of St. Mauritius was established. By 1200, the parish included the area of the modern district as well as villages of Brenden, Lank, Lehn and Meistersrüte. The meager records before 1500 does not allow accurate reconstruction of the early residential development. It is likely that the first village houses were along the road between church and abbot's farm, which was built at what is now Reichsstrasse near the Gansbach stream. This gave the early village an east–west orientation. East of the church the Metzibrücke bridge was built over the Sitter. This led to the extension of the village across the river. The eastern end of the village was a conglomerate of economic and administrative buildings. In 1291, Appenzell was devastated by the troops of the Count of Werdenberg-Sargans. In 1353, it was granted the market right and an open plaza, the Schmäuslemarkt, opened to the south of the main street and opposite from the town hall. At the same time, a row of houses grew up to line the Hauptgasse and Hirschengasse streets. The latter road (Hirschengasse) was added as a major cross street running in the north–south direction. Additional connecting roads, squares and open areas were built at around the same time. The village of Ried, south of the village center, was founded in 1483 as a charitable foundation for poor villagers. As the village began to grow in power it began to be mentioned as a separate entity from the rest of the abbatis cella (meaning the cell (i.e. estate) of the abbot). Starting on 10 November 1367, and often in the 15th century, the village and court are called Hof to distinguish it from the rest of ze Appacelle. The villagers of Appenzell are still known as Hofer, to distinguish them from the surrounding farmers. Starting in the 14th century, a variety of craftsmen and traders lived and worked in Appenzell. The Answer and Mandate Book of 1547 includes regulations and controls for farmers, millers and butchers. The number of fairs was increased to two on 23 September 1353 and the village was given the right to collect tolls. In the 15th century there is evidence of a tavern in Appenzell village and a set of weights and measures for regulating commercial activities. By about 1360, conflicts over grazing rights, taxes, and tithes were causing concern for both the abbot and the farmers of Appenzell. Both parties wanted to protect their rights and interests by joining the new Swabian League. In 1377 Appenzell was allowed to join the League with the support of the cities of Konstanz and St. Gallen (the city of St. Gallen was often at odds with the neighboring Abbey of St. Gall). With the support of League, Appenzell refused to pay many of the gifts and tithes that the Abbot Kuno von Stoffeln demanded. In response to the loss of revenue from his estates, Kuno approached the Austrian House of Habsburg for help. In 1392 he made an agreement with the Habsburgs, which was renewed in 1402. In response, in 1401 Appenzell entered into an alliance with the city of St. Gallen to protect their rights and freedom. Part of the Swiss Confederation Following increasing conflicts between the Appenzellers the abbot's agents, including the bailiff of Appenzell demanding that a dead body be dug up because he wanted the man's clothes, the Appenzellers planned an uprising. On a certain day, throughout the abbot's lands, they attacked the bailiffs and drove them out of the land. Following unsuccessful negotiations Appenzell and St. Gallen entered into a treaty. The treaty between St. Gallen and Appenzell marked a break between the abbot and his estates. Perhaps fearing the Habsburgs, in 1402 the League expelled Appenzell. During the same year, St. Gallen reached an agreement with the abbot and Appenzell could no longer count on St. Gallen's support. Appenzell declared itself ready to stand against the abbot, and in 1403 formed an alliance with the Canton of Schwyz, a member of the Old Swiss Confederation that had defeated the Austrians in the last century. Glarus provided less support, but authorized any citizen who wished to support Appenzell to do so. In response, the League raised an army and marched to St. Gallen before heading toward Appenzell. On 15 May 1403, they entered the pass to Speicher and outside the village of Vögelinsegg met the Appenzell army. A small force of Appenzell and Confederation troops defeated the League army and signed a short lived peace treaty. Following another Appenzell victory on 17 June 1405, at Stoss Pass on the border of Appenzell village, the new canton continued to expand. During the expansion, Appenzell had even captured the abbot of St Gall and in response they were excommunicated by the Bishop of Constance. However, while the Bund expanded the Austrians used the peace to regain their strength. On September 11, 1406, an association of nobles formed a knightly order known as the Sankt Jörgenschild (Order of St. George's Shield) to oppose the rebellious commoners of the Bund. Following a defeat at Bregenz, Appenzell was unable to hold the Bund together. The city of St. Gallen and the Canton of Schwyz each paid off the Austrians to avoid an attack, and the Bund was dissolved by King Rupert on April 4, 1408. As part of the peace treaty, the abbot gave up his ownership of Appenzell, but was still owned certain taxes. However, it wasn't until 1410 that the area was at peace. In 1411 Appenzell signed a defensive treaty with the entire Swiss Confederation (except Bern), which strengthened their position against the abbot. Appenzell joined the Confederation as an "Associate Member", and wouldn't become a full member until 1513. Following another battle, in 1429, Appenzell was granted freedom from the obligations in the future. This treaty represented the end of Appenzell's last financial tie to the Abbey of St. Gall, and a movement to closer relationships with the Confederation. By no later than the end of the 1440s Appenzell provided linen to the embroidery factories of the city of St. Gallen. Later Appenzell began to establish independent foreign trade relations (1494 Venice, 1497 Constance, about 1499 Lyon, 1529 Frankfurt am Main). Starting in the last quarter of the 15th century there was a weekly yarn and weaving market held in village. However, efforts to create an independent cloth weaving and embroidery industry in Appenzell failed repeatedly in the face of tough competition from the city of St. Gallen. Division of the Appenzell On 18 March 1560 the village was destroyed by fire. It was rebuilt mostly using the old foundations and following the pre-fire roads. The reconstruction was considered the most part of the old homesteads and foundations. Following the division of Appenzell into two half cantons in 1597, Appenzell village lost much of its importance as the capital. Fires partially destroyed the village in 1679 and again in 1701. Most of the notable buildings, were built in the 16th century. The parish church is from 1560 to 1584, the ossuary in 1560–65 and the Rathaus (city hall) in 1560–83. On the southeastern edge of village, the so-called Castle was built in 1563–70 and the armory was built around 1568. The Capuchin monastery was built in 1587–88 financial statements, followed by the Capuchin nunnery in 1611–22. A comparison of historic views (from 1586, 1642 and 1839) shows that the size and structure of the village did not change between the 16th century and the mid-19th century. In the 16th–18th centuries, foreign military service played an important role in the economy of the village. Numerous families (especially the Sutter, Bischofberger, Büchler, Knusert and Ulmann) grew to dominate the foreign mercenary industry in the village. Creation of the Appenzell district The district was formally established in 1872 by joining the rhodes Lehn and Rinkenbach. Coat of arms The coat of arms shows an upright black bear with red claws on a silver background. The bear holds a red ring between its forepaws. This ring is the hamlet ring, representing the market village of Appenzell. The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Argent a bear Sable langued, armed and priapic in his virility Gules between his front paws an Annulet of the same. Geography Appenzell has an area, as of 2011, of 16.9 square kilometers (6.5 sq mi). Of this area, 66.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while 22.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 10.7% is settled (buildings or roads) and 0.7% is unproductive land. The district (equivalent to a municipality in other cantons) is the capital of the half canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden. It also includes the Feuerschaugemeinde (fire-fighting municipality), Kirchgemeinde (parish) and Schulgemeinde (school district). The village of Appenzell is located in the center of the Sitter river valley on the eastern border of the district. It borders the districts of Rüte (north of the Sitter) and Schwende (south of the Sitter). Demographics Appenzell has a population (as of December 2020) of 5,793. As of 2008, 18.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 4.8%. It has changed at a rate of 6.1% due to migration and at a rate of 5.7% due to births and deaths. Most of the population (as of 2000) speaks German (4,723 or 86.7%), with Serbo-Croatian being second most common (302 or 5.5%) and Italian being third (98 or 1.8%). There are 14 people who speak French and 3 people who speak Romansh. Of the population in the district 2,794 or about 51.3% were born in Appenzell and lived there in 2000. There were 486 or 8.9% who were born in the same canton, while 1,115 or 20.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 1,018 or 18.7% were born outside of Switzerland. In 2008 there were 142 live births to Swiss citizens and 7 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 116 deaths of Swiss citizens and 1 non-Swiss citizen death. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 26 while the foreign population increased by 6. There were 8 Swiss men and 7 Swiss women who emigrated from Switzerland. At the same time, there were 29 non-Swiss men and 34 non-Swiss women who immigrated from another country to Switzerland. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) was a decrease of 4 and the non-Swiss population increased by 20 people. This represents a population growth rate of 0.3%. As of 2000, there were 2,469 people who were single and never married in the district. There were 2,489 married individuals, 340 widows or widowers and 149 individuals who are divorced. As of 2000 the average number of residents per living room was 0.59 which is about equal to the cantonal average of 0.59 per room. In this case, a room is defined as space of a housing unit of at least 4 m2 (43 sq ft) as normal bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, kitchens and habitable cellars and attics. About 45.3% of the total households were owner occupied, or in other words did not pay rent (though they may have a mortgage or a rent-to-own agreement). As of 2000, there were 2,107 private households in the district, and an average of 2.5 persons per household. There were 693 households that consist of only one person and 254 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 2,144 households that answered this question, 32.3% were households made up of just one person and there were 30 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 527 married couples without children, 734 married couples with children There were 84 single parents with a child or children. There were 39 households that were made up of unrelated people and 37 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing. In 2000 there were 646 single family homes (or 47.2% of the total) out of a total of 1,370 inhabited buildings. There were 264 multi-family buildings (19.3%), along with 331 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (24.2%) and 129 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (9.4%). Of the single family homes 169 were built before 1919, while 81 were built between 1990 and 2000. In 2000 there were 2,351 apartments in the district. The most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 581. There were 121 single room apartments and 839 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 2,023 apartments (86.0% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 197 apartments (8.4%) were seasonally occupied and 131 apartments (5.6%) were empty. As of 2009, the construction rate of new housing units was 5.3 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the district, in 2010, was 0.57%. Historic Population The historical population is given in the following chart: Heritage sites of national significance There are nine sites in Appenzell that are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The list includes two farm houses around the village, the Kuenzes farm house at Lehnstrasse 102 and the Horersjokelis House with Barn at Lehn 76. The religious buildings on the list include the Capuchin Monastery Maria der Engel and the Parish Church of St. Mauritius. The secular buildings on the list include the Landesarchiv Appenzell Innerrhoden, the Museum Appenzell, the Rathaus (city hall) and the Castle. Finally, the entire medieval and early modern village of Appenzell was on the list. The entire village of Appenzell is also part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites. Politics In the 2007 federal election the CVP received 84.46% of the vote. In the federal election, a total of 786 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 20.6%. Economy As of 2010, Appenzell had an unemployment rate of 2.7%. As of 2008, there were 180 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 93 businesses involved in this sector. 1,380 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 117 businesses in this sector. 2,489 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 344 businesses in this sector. There were 2,842 residents of the district who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 43.5% of the workforce. In 2008 the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 3,425. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 127, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 1,251 of which 785 or (62.7%) were in manufacturing and 407 (32.5%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 2,047. In the tertiary sector; 653 or 31.9% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 78 or 3.8% were in the movement and storage of goods, 202 or 9.9% were in a hotel or restaurant, 32 or 1.6% were in the information industry, 170 or 8.3% were the insurance or financial industry, 225 or 11.0% were technical professionals or scientists, 112 or 5.5% were in education and 309 or 15.1% were in health care. In 2000, there were 1,776 workers who commuted into the district and 989 workers who commuted away. The district is a net importer of workers, with about 1.8 workers entering the district for every one leaving. Of the working population, 7.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 44.4% used a private car. Transport The district has two railway stations, Appenzell and Sammelplatz. The former is located at the junction of the Appenzell–St. Gallen–Trogen and Gossau–Wasserauen lines. Both are served by Appenzell Railways. A third station, Hirschberg, is located in the village of Appenzell within the adjacent district of Rüte. Religion From the 2000 census, 4,143 or 76.1% were Roman Catholic, while 494 or 9.1% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 181 members of an Orthodox church (or about 3.32% of the population), and there were 51 individuals (or about 0.94% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 3 individuals (or about 0.06% of the population) who were Jewish, and 379 (or about 6.96% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 8 individuals who were Buddhist, 5 individuals who were Hindu and 5 individuals who belonged to another church. 150 (or about 2.75% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 28 individuals (or about 0.51% of the population) did not answer the question. Weather Appenzell has an average of 158.5 days of rain or snow per year and on average receives 1,698 mm (66.9 in) of precipitation. The wettest month is June during which time Appenzell receives an average of 212 mm (8.3 in) of rain or snow. During this month there is precipitation for an average of 15.5 days. The month with the most days of precipitation is May, with an average of 15.8, but with only 163 mm (6.4 in) of rain or snow. The driest month of the year is February with an average of 99 mm (3.9 in) of precipitation over 11.7 days. Education In Appenzell about 1,849 or (33.9%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 529 or (9.7%) have completed additional higher education (either University or a Fachhochschule). Of the 529 who completed tertiary schooling, 66.2% were Swiss men, 17.8% were Swiss women, 10.2% were non-Swiss men and 5.9% were non-Swiss women. As of 2000, there were 816 students in Appenzell who came from another district, while 81 residents attended schools outside the district. Appenzell is home to the Innerhodische Kantonsbibliothek und Volksbibliothek library. The library has (as of 2008) 54,448 books or other media, and loaned out 77,789 items in the same year. It was open a total of 265 days with average of 31.5 hours per week during that year. References Appenzell District in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland. External links Appenzell Tourism Appenzell (in German)

How old would James Logan have been when the estate of his descendent donated Neshaminy State Park land to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania?

282 years

Numerical reasoning

Neshaminy State Park is a 330-acre (134 ha) Pennsylvania state park in Bensalem Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in the United States. Visitors to the park can catch a glimpse of the Philadelphia skyline from a hiking trail on Logan Point. The park is located at the confluence of Neshaminy Creek and the Delaware River. Neshaminy State Park is just off Interstate 95 on Pennsylvania Route 132. History Most of the lands of Neshaminy State Park were donated to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania by the estate of Robert R. Logan in 1956. Logan was a descendant of James Logan who was the colonial secretary to William Penn the founder of Pennsylvania. Dunks Ferry Road, which forms the western boundary of the park, is one of the oldest roads in Pennsylvania. It was built in 1679 by Dunken Williams to provide access to his ferry which crossed the Delaware River. For forty years, the oral historian Alice of Dunk's Ferry collected tolls from those crossing the river. Dunks Ferry Inn was a major rest stop that served travelers from the mid-18th until the late 19th century. Ecology Neshaminy State Park is 116 miles (187 km) from the Atlantic Ocean, but it is at sea level. This combination of distance and elevation creates an estuary. The tidal effect causes the river to rise and fall each day. The Lenape who once lived on the banks of the river used tides to help them harvest fish. They built low fences in the tidal zone. At high tide the fish would swim in and be caught by the fences when the waters receded at low tide. According to the A. W. Kuchler U.S. potential natural vegetation types outside of the estuary, Neshaminy State Park would have a dominant vegetation type of Appalachian Oak (104) with a dominant vegetation form of Eastern hardwood forest (25). Recreation The Delaware River Neshaminy State Park is the home of a 370 slip marina on the Delaware River. Demand for slips in the marina is always very high and the waiting list is long. This is due to the location of the park, it is located squarely within the heart of heavily populated southeastern Pennsylvania. Recreational boating on the Delaware River is especially popular in the summer months. Unlimited horsepower boats are permitted on the river. All boats must display a current registration with any state or have a launch permit from the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. The Delaware River is a warm water fishery. All fishermen are expected to follow the rules and regulations of the fish commission. Swimming Swimming is not permitted in the river. A swimming pool is open daily from 12:00 pm until 6:00pm weekdays and 12:00 pm until 6:00 pm weekends, Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend. Lifeguards are on duty. Thirteen dollars cash admission is charged to the pool area. For more info, contact http://www.neshaminypool.com. Hiking There are 4 miles (6.4 km) of hiking trails at Neshaminy State Park. Logan Walk is the former driveway to the Logan home. This tree lined trail is paved and serves as a hiking trail and park service road. River Walk Trail is a loop that begins and ends at Logan Walk. It follows the bank of the Delaware River and passes by the estuary and tidal marsh. Climate Neshaminy State Park lies in the transition zone between the Temperate Continental climate to the north and the Humid subtropical climate to the south. According to the Trewartha climate classification system, Neshaminy State Park has a Temperate Oceanic climate (Do) with hot summers (a), cool winters (k) and year-around precipitation. Dcak climates are characterized by all months having an average mean temperature > 32.0 °F (0 °C), four to seven months with an average mean temperature ≥ 50.0 °F (10 °C), at least one month with an average mean temperature ≥ 72.0 °F (22 °C) and no significant precipitation difference between seasons. Although most summer days are slightly humid at Neshaminy State Park, episodes of heat and high humidity can occur with heat index values > 109 °F (43 °C). Since 1981, the highest air temperature was 103.1 °F (40 °C) on 07/22/2011, and the highest daily average mean dew point was 76.3 °F (25 °C) on 08/13/1999. The average wettest month is July which corresponds with the annual peak in thunderstorm activity. Since 1981, the wettest calendar day was 6.44 inches (164 mm) on 08/27/2011. During the winter months, the plant hardiness zone is 7a with an average annual extreme minimum air temperature of 2.3 °F (−17 °C). Since 1981, the coldest air temperature was −8.2 °F (−22 °C) on 01/22/1984. Episodes of extreme cold and wind can occur with wind chill values < −8 °F (−22 °C). The average annual snowfall (Nov-Apr) is between 24 and 30 inches (61 and 76 cm). The average snowiest month is February which corresponds with the peak in nor’easter activity. Nearby state parks The following state parks are within 30 miles (48 km) of Neshaminy State Park: Benjamin Rush State Park (Philadelphia County) Bull's Island Recreation Area (New Jersey) Delaware Canal State Park (Bucks and Northampton Counties) Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park (New Jersey) Evansburg State Park (Montgomery County) Fort Washington State Park (Montgomery County) Nockamixon State Park (Bucks County) Norristown Farm Park (Montgomery County) Ralph Stover State Park (Bucks County) Rancocas State Park (New Jersey) Ridley Creek State Park (Delaware County) Tyler State Park (Bucks County) Washington Crossing State Park (New Jersey) References External links "Neshaminy State Park official map" (PDF). (320.0 KB)

James Logan (20 October 1674 – 31 October 1751) was a Scots-Irish colonial American statesman, administrator, and scholar who served as the fourteenth mayor of Philadelphia and held a number of other public offices. Logan was born in the town of Lurgan in County Armagh, Ireland to Ulster Scots Quakers. He served as colonial secretary to William Penn. He was a founding trustee of the College of Philadelphia, the predecessor of the University of Pennsylvania. Early life Logan was born in Lurgan, County Armagh in present-day Northern Ireland, on 20 October 1674, to parents Patrick Logan (1640–1700) and Isabella, Lady Hume (1647–1722), who married in early 1671, in Midlothian, Scotland. His father had a Master of Arts degree from the University of Edinburgh, and originally was an Anglican clergyman before converting to Quakerism. James Logan apprenticed with a Dublin-based linen draper, received a good classical and mathematical education, and acquired a knowledge of modern languages not common at the period. The War of 1689–91 obliged him to follow his parents, first to Edinburgh, and then to London and Bristol, England where, in 1693, James replaced his father as schoolmaster. In 1699, he came to the colony of Pennsylvania aboard the Canterbury as William Penn's secretary. Logan is described as "tall and well-proportioned, with a graceful yet grave demeanor. He had a good complexion, and was quite florid, even in old age; nor did his hair, which was brown, turn grey in the decline of life, nor his eyes require spectacles." Career Logan supported proprietary rights in the colonial-era Province of Pennsylvania and became a major landowner in the growing colony; he was also a slave-owner. Logan advanced through several political offices, including clerk (1701), commissioner of property (1701), receiver general (1703), and member of the provincial council (1703). In 1717, Logan's mother came to live with him in Philadelphia; she died on 17 January 1722, at his family home at Stenton in present-day neighbourhood of Logan, named in Logan's honour, in Philadelphia. Philadelphia and Pennsylvania government In 1722, Logan was elected mayor of Philadelphia. During his tenure as mayor, Logan allowed Irish Catholic immigrants to participate in the city's first public Mass. He later served as the colony's chief justice from 1731 to 1739, and in the absence of a governor of Pennsylvania, became acting governor from 1736 to 1738. As acting governor, he opposed Quaker pacifism and war tax resistance, and encouraged pacifist Quakers to give up their seats in the Pennsylvania Assembly so that it could make requisitions for the American Revolution, which had begun in many of the initial Thirteen Colonies. On October 9, 1736, Logan responded to requests from Native American leaders to control the sale of alcohol, which was creating serious social problems, by prohibiting the sale of rum in indigenous communities, but since the penalty was merely a fine of ten pounds and the law was poorly enforced, it did not have a significant effect. During his tenure as acting governor, Logan played an active role in the territorial expansion of the colony. While William Penn and his immediate successors pursued a policy of friendly relations with the Lenape Indian tribe, Logan and other colony proprietors, including William Penn's indebted sons, John, Richard and Thomas Penn, pursued a policy of land acquisition. Such efforts to expand were spurred by increased immigration to the colony and fears that the New York Colony was infringing on Pennsylvania's northern borders in the Upper Delaware river valley. In addition, many proprietors (including Logan and the Penn brothers) had engaged in extensive land speculation, selling off lands occupied by the Lenape to new colonists before concluding an official treaty with the tribe. Walking Purchase As part of his efforts to expand Pennsylvania, Logan signed the Walking Purchase with the Lenape, forcing the tribe to vacate lands in the present-day Lehigh Valley and Northeastern Pennsylvania in Pennsylvania and parts of present-day western New Jersey under the auspices of the tribe having committed to sell the lands to William Penn in 1686, a treaty whose ratifying document is considered by some sources to have been a fabrication, but which was upheld in several federal lawsuits in the early 21st century. Under the terms of the treaty, the Lenape agreed to cede as much territory as a man could walk in one and one-half days to the Pennsylvania colony; however, Logan used the treaty's vague wording, the Lenape's unclear diplomatic status, and a heavily influenced (scouts were sent ahead to clear the path of the runners selected to represent the colony) "walk" to claim a much larger territory than was originally expected by the Lenape. Meanwhile, Logan preemptively negotiated with the powerful Iroquois Confederacy to allow for the treaty to take place. As a result, the Iroquois (nominally the diplomatic overlords and protectors of the Lenape people) rebuffed Lenape attempts to have the Iroquois intervene on their behalf. The net result of the Walking Treaty was an increase in the colony's size of over 1,200,000 acres, the scattering of the Lenape in a regional diaspora, and the breakdown of diplomatic relations between Pennsylvania and the tribe. Wealth and writings Throughout his life in the Province of Pennsylvania, Logan engaged in various mercantile pursuits, especially fur trading, with such success that he became one of the wealthiest men in the Thirteen Colonies. Logan authored several scholarly papers published by the American Philosophical Society and European journals. Logan was also a natural scientist whose primary contribution to the emerging field of botany was a treatise that described experiments on the impregnation of plant seeds, especially corn. He tutored John Bartram, the American botanist, in Latin and introduced him to Linnaeus. Logan's daughter, Sarah, married Isaac Norris, a Philadelphia businessman and statesman. Death Logan died in 1751 in Stenton in the present-day Logan neighbourhood, named in Logan's honour, in Philadelphia at the age of 77. He was interred in the graveyard of Arch Street Friends Meeting House, built in 1804, in Philadelphia. Colonial bibliophile While Logan would eventually become mayor of Philadelphia, chief justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, lieutenant governor, and acting governor he is perhaps best known for being a bibliophile, confessing once that "Books are my disease".: 130  He collected a personal library of over 3,000 volumes. Some commentators consider Logan's library to have been the largest and best collection of classical writings in America at that time. Logan would in time become known to Benjamin Franklin and his "Junto"; an influential group of friends that would meet weekly and discuss scholarly and political issues. He became a mentor to Franklin, who published Logan's translation of Cicero's essay "Cato Maior de Senectute".: 56  Eventually, the Junto decided to establish a subscription library, a cooperative endeavour where members would pay a fee for use of the library. Franklin and the other members of the Junto considered Logan the "best Judge of Books in these parts" and chose him to select the first 43 titles for the Library Company of Philadelphia.: 32  At the same time Logan was helping to build the collection for the Library Company of Philadelphia, he was adding to his own personal library which was considered substantial in number and breadth.: 32  He planned on donating his library for public use after his death and to this end he had a building constructed on Sixth Street in Philadelphia.: 32  Upon Logan's death, and after a lengthy delay due to some confusion in his will, through an act of the Pennsylvania Assembly and the governor on March 31, 1792, the 3,953 volumes and other property of the Loganian Library were "vested in the Library Company of Philadelphia, their successors and assigns, for ever, in trust for the support and increase of the said Loganian Library." The Loganian Library The Loganian Library, as he wished it to be called,: 135  was diverse. The catalogue of its final holdings is now lost but a partial inventory done in 1760 reveals a wide selection of books.: 35–37  The book distribution by date reveals nothing out of the ordinary. Most were from the seventeenth century with 57 percent. Next came those from the eighteenth century at 27 percent. Finally, there was a good number from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries at 16 percent. The collection was mostly British and northern European with 33 percent from Britain; the Netherlands, 24 percent; Germany, 17 percent; France, 13 percent; Switzerland, 9 percent; Italy, 2 percent; and others (Scandinavia, Spain, Poland, Russia, America) at 2 percent The distribution of the books by subject in the 1760 catalogue is equally diverse with history, antiquities, geography, chronology, etc. at 22 percent. Religious subjects of divinity and ecclesiastical history constituted 15 percent. Scientific subjects such as "physick," "mathematicks", and natural history was at 16 percent. Literary subjects such as orators, poets, fables, romances, etc. at 14 percent with philology at 13 percent. Philosophy, surprisingly, was only 6 percent while arts, liberal and mechanical, "magick," etc. was 3 percent. The remaining subjects were as follows: medicine, surgery, and "chymistry," 2 percent; law, 2 percent; voyages and travels, 1 percent; philosophical history, 1 percent, and miscellaneous, 5 percent. Logan's library contained many 17th and 16th century classical works such as a 1615 edition of Archimedes' works, the mathematical treatise of Pappus of Alexandria printed in 1660, an Aratus of Soles from 1672, Elzevir's architecture publication of 1649 from Amsterdam, Johann Vossius' De Quatuar Artibus Popularibus published in 1650, and a 1599 edition of astronomy edited by Barthelemy Pitiscus.: 35  In one famous episode, Logan was reading a treatise on early astronomy by Johann Fabricius and read that the first printed edition of Greek astronomer Ptolemy's Almagest was printed in Greek in 1538. Logan was certain that it was released in an earlier Latin version, having sold it and his other books in Dublin before he left in 1699. Logan wrote Fabricius and politely explained his conviction. In reply, Fabricius reaffirmed his contention and sent his own 1538 copy as proof. Unconvinced, Logan wrote his agent in London, explaining that he had sold his library to a bookseller who lived on Castle Street and to see if he knew of the book's location. His agent was successful in finding the book and sent to Logan where it was confirmed that it was a Latin edition of the Almagest published in 1515.: 132–133  Such was the strength of Logan's bibliographic mind as professed by Benjamin Franklin. Legacy In Philadelphia, the Logan neighbourhood and the landmark Logan Circle are both named in honour of Logan. His 1730 estate Stenton in the Logan neighbourhood has been named a National Historic Landmark and operates as a public museum. See also Walking Purchase References Sources Strahan, Edward (1875). A Century After, picturesque glimpses of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Allen, Lane & Scott and J. W. Lauderbach. Claus Bernet (2010). "James Logan (statesman)". In Bautz, Traugott (ed.). Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German). Vol. 31. Nordhausen: Bautz. cols. 790–798. ISBN 978-3-88309-544-8. Further reading Armistead, Wilson (1851). Memoirs of James Logan. C. Gilpin. Tolles, Frederick B. (1957). James Logan and the Culture of Provincial America. Little, Brown, and Company. External links Abstract of his life at GwyneddMeeting.org Archived 11 May 2015 at the Wayback Machine Biography and portrait at the University of Pennsylvania Biography at USHistory.org An essay by Logan urging support for war requisitions

Is the time between Oasis's first album and 2024 shorter or longer than between Oasis's first album and The Beatles' last album?

Longer.

Numerical reasoning

Oasis are an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1991. The group initially consisted of Liam Gallagher (lead vocals), Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs (guitar), Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan (bass guitar) and Tony McCarroll (drums), with Liam asking his older brother Noel Gallagher (lead guitar, vocals) to join as a fifth member a few months later to finalise their formation. Noel became the de facto leader of the group and took over the songwriting duties for the band's first four albums. They are characterised as one of the defining and most globally successful groups of the Britpop genre. Oasis signed to independent record label Creation Records in 1993 and released their record-setting debut album Definitely Maybe (1994), which topped the UK Albums Chart and quickly became the fastest-selling debut album in British history at the time. The following year they released (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995), in the midst of a highly publicised chart rivalry with peers Blur. Spending ten weeks at number one on the British charts, (What's the Story) Morning Glory? was also an international chart success and became one of the best-selling albums of all time, the fifth-best-selling album in the UK and the best-selling album in the UK of the 1990s. The Gallagher brothers featured regularly in tabloid newspapers throughout the 1990s for their public disputes and wild lifestyles. In 1996, Oasis performed two nights at Knebworth for an audience of 125,000 each time, the largest outdoor concerts in UK history at the time. In 1997, Oasis released their highly anticipated third studio album, Be Here Now, which became the fastest-selling album in UK chart history but retrospectively was seen as a critical disappointment. Founding drummer McCarroll left in 1995 and was replaced by Alan "Whitey" White. Founding members Arthurs and McGuigan left in 1999 during the recording of the band's fourth studio album Standing on the Shoulder of Giants (2000). They were replaced by former Heavy Stereo guitarist Gem Archer on guitar and former Ride guitarist Andy Bell on bass guitar. White departed in 2004, replaced by guest drummer Zak Starkey, and later by Chris Sharrock. Oasis released three more studio albums in the 2000s: Heathen Chemistry (2002), Don't Believe the Truth (2005) and Dig Out Your Soul (2008). The group abruptly disbanded in 2009 after the sudden departure of Noel Gallagher. The remaining members of the band continued under the name Beady Eye until their disbandment in 2014. Both Gallagher brothers have had successful solo careers. In 2024, Oasis announced that they would reform for performances around the world in 2025 for the Oasis Live '25 Tour. As of 2022, Oasis have sold over 70 million records worldwide, making them one of the best-selling music artists of all time. They are among the most successful acts in the history of the UK Singles Chart and the UK Albums Chart, with eight UK number-one singles and eight UK number-one albums. The band also achieved three Platinum albums in the US. They won 17 NME Awards, nine Q Awards, four MTV Europe Music Awards and six Brit Awards, including one in 2007 for Outstanding Contribution to Music and one for the "Best Album of the Last 30 Years" for (What's the Story) Morning Glory?. They were also nominated for two Grammy Awards. History 1991–1993: Formation and early years In 1991, bassist Paul McGuigan, guitarist Paul Arthurs, drummer Tony McCarroll, and singer Chris Hutton formed a band called the Rain. Unsatisfied with Hutton, Arthurs invited and auditioned acquaintance Liam Gallagher as a potential replacement. Liam suggested that the band name be changed to Oasis, inspired by an Inspiral Carpets tour poster in the childhood bedroom he shared with his brother Noel, which listed the Oasis Leisure Centre in Swindon as a venue. Oasis played their first gig on 14 August 1991 at the Boardwalk club in Manchester, bottom of the bill below the Catchmen and Sweet Jesus. Noel, who was working as a roadie for Inspiral Carpets, went with them to watch Liam's band play, and he was impressed with what he heard. Noel approached the group about joining on the provision that he would become the band's sole songwriter and leader, and that they would commit to an earnest pursuit of commercial success. Arthurs recalled, "He had loads of stuff written. When he walked in, we were a band making a racket with four tunes. All of a sudden, there were loads of ideas." Under Noel, the band crafted a musical approach that relied on simplicity, with Arthurs and McGuigan restricted to playing barre chords and root bass notes, McCarroll playing basic rhythms, and the band's amplifiers turned up to create distortion. Oasis thus created a sound described as being "so devoid of finesse and complexity that it came out sounding pretty much unstoppable". 1993–1995: Breakthrough with Definitely Maybe After over a year of live shows, rehearsals and a recording of a demo, the Live Demonstration tape, in May 1993, Oasis were spotted by the Creation Records co-owner Alan McGee. Oasis were invited to play a gig at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut club in Glasgow by Sister Lovers, who shared their rehearsal rooms. Oasis, along with a group of friends, hired a van and made the journey to Glasgow. When they arrived, they were refused entry as they were not on that night's set list. They and McGee have given contradicting statements about how they entered the club. They were given the opening slot and impressed McGee, who was there to see 18 Wheeler, and Sister Lovers, whose member Debbie Turner was a close friend of McGee's from his days frequenting the Haçienda in Manchester. McGee offered them a recording contract; however, they did not sign until several months later. Due to problems securing an American contract, Oasis signed a worldwide contract with Sony, which in turn licensed Oasis to Creation in the UK. Following a limited white label release of the demo of their song "Columbia", Oasis went on a UK tour to promote the release of their first single, "Supersonic", playing venues such as the Tunbridge Wells Forum, a converted public toilet. "Supersonic" was released in April 1994, reaching number 31 in the charts. The release was followed by "Shakermaker", which became the subject of a plagiarism suit, with Oasis paying $500,000 in damages. Their third single, "Live Forever", was their first to enter the top ten of the UK Singles Chart. After troubled recording and mixing sessions, Oasis's debut album, Definitely Maybe, was released on 29 August 1994. It entered the UK Albums Chart at number one within a week of its release, and at the time becoming the fastest selling debut album in the UK. Nearly a year of constant live performances and recordings, along with a hedonistic lifestyle, damaged the band. This behaviour culminated during a gig in Los Angeles in September 1994, leading to an inept performance by Liam during which he made offensive remarks about American audiences and hit Noel with a tambourine. Upset, Noel temporarily quit the band and flew to San Francisco (it was from this incident the song "Talk Tonight" was written). He was tracked down by Creation's Tim Abbot and they made a trip to Las Vegas. Once there, he was persuaded to continue with the band. He reconciled with Liam and the tour resumed in Minneapolis. The group followed up with the fourth single from Definitely Maybe, "Cigarettes & Alcohol", and the Christmas single "Whatever", issued in December 1994, which entered the British charts at number three. 1995–1996: (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, international success, and peak popularity In April 1995, "Some Might Say" became their first number-one UK single. At the same time, McCarroll was ousted from the band. He said he was "unlawfully expelled from the partnership" for what he called a "personality clash" with the brothers. The Gallaghers were critical of McCarroll's musical ability, with Noel saying: "I like Tony as a geezer but he wouldn't have been able to drum the new songs." He was replaced by Alan White, formerly of Starclub and the brother of the percussionist Steve White, who was recommended to Noel by Paul Weller. White made his debut with Oasis on a Top of the Pops performance of "Some Might Say". Oasis began recording material for their second album that May in Rockfield Studios near Monmouth. During this period, the British press seized upon a supposed rivalry between Oasis and another Britpop band, Blur. Previously, Oasis had not associated with the Britpop movement and were not invited to perform on the BBC's Britpop Now programme introduced by Blur's singer, Damon Albarn. On 14 August 1995, Blur and Oasis released singles on the same day, setting up the "Battle of Britpop" that dominated the national news. Blur's "Country House" outsold Oasis's "Roll with It" 274,000 copies to 216,000 during the week. Oasis's management argued that "Country House" had sold more because it was less expensive (£1.99 vs £3.99) and because there were two versions of the "Country House" single, with different B-sides, forcing fans to buy two copies. Creation said there were problems with the barcode on the "Roll with It" single case, which did not record all sales. Noel Gallagher told The Observer in September that he hoped members of Blur would "catch AIDS and die", which caused a media furore. He apologised in a formal letter to various publications. McGuigan briefly left Oasis in September 1995, citing nervous exhaustion. He was replaced by Scott McLeod, formerly of the Ya Ya's, who was featured on some of the tour dates as well as in the "Wonderwall" video before leaving abruptly while on tour in the US. McLeod contacted Noel, saying he felt he had made the wrong decision. Noel replied: "I think you have, too. Good luck signing on." Although a softer sound initially led to mixed reviews, Oasis's second album, (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, was a worldwide commercial success, selling over four million copies and becoming the fifth-best-selling album in UK chart history. By 2008, it had sold up to 22 million copies globally, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time. The album produced two more singles, "Wonderwall" and "Don't Look Back in Anger", which reached numbers two and one. It also contained "Champagne Supernova", which featured guitar and backing vocals by Paul Weller and received critical acclaim. The song reached number one on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart. In November 1995, Oasis played on back-to-back nights at Earls Court in London, the biggest ever indoor gigs in Europe at the time. Noel played a customised Sheraton guitar emblazoned with a Union Jack, commercially released by Epiphone as the "Supernova". On 27 and 28 April 1996, Oasis played their first headline outdoor concerts, at Maine Road football stadium, home of Manchester City F.C., of whom the Gallagher brothers had been fans since childhood. Highlights from the second night featured on the video ...There and Then, released later the same year (along with footage from their Earls Court gigs). As their career reached its zenith, Oasis performed to 80,000 people over two nights at Balloch Country Park at Loch Lomond in Scotland on 3 and 4 August, before back-to-back concerts at Knebworth House on 10 and 11 August. The band sold out both shows within minutes. The audience of 125,000 people each night (2.5 million people applied for tickets, and 250,000 were actually sold, meaning the possibility of 20 sold out nights) was a record-breaking number for an outdoor concert held in the UK and remains the largest demand for a show in British history. Oasis were due to record an episode of MTV Unplugged at the Royal Festival Hall but Liam pulled out, citing a sore throat. He watched the performance from a balcony with beer and cigarettes, heckling Noel's singing between songs. Four days later the group left for a tour of American arenas but Liam refused to go; the band decided to continue the tour with Noel on vocals. Liam rejoined the tour on 30 August and on 4 September 1996, Oasis performed "Champagne Supernova" at the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Liam made gestures at Noel during his guitar solo, then spat beer all over the stage before storming off. A few weeks later Noel flew home without the band, who followed on another flight. This event prompted media speculation that the group were splitting up. The brothers soon reconciled and decided to complete the tour. 1996–1999: Be Here Now and The Masterplan Oasis spent the end of 1996 and the first quarter of 1997 at Abbey Road Studios in London and Ridge Farm Studios in Surrey recording their third album. Quarrels between the Gallagher brothers plagued the recording sessions. Be Here Now was released in August 1997. Preceded by the UK number one single "D'You Know What I Mean?", the album was their most anticipated effort, and as such became the subject of considerable media attention. Footage of excited fans clutching copies made ITV News at Ten, leading anchorman Trevor McDonald to intone the band's phrase "mad for it". By the end of the first day of release, Be Here Now had sold 424,000 units and first week sales reached 696,000, making it the fastest-selling album in British history until Adele released 25 in 2015. The album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 in the US, but its first week sales of 152,000—below expected sales of 400,000 copies—were considered a disappointment. Predominantly written by Noel Gallagher during a holiday with Kate Moss, Johnny Depp and Mick Jagger, Gallagher has since expressed regret over the writing process of Be Here Now, adding it doesn't match up to the standard of the band's first two albums; In the studio it was great, and on the day it came out it was great. It was only when I got on tour that I was thinking, "It doesn't fucking stand up." ... People are prepared to have stand-up rows with me in the street: "I fucking love that album!" And I'm like, "Mate, look, I wrote the fucking thing. I know how much effort I put into it. It wasn't that much." Noel had been ambivalent about the album in pre-release interviews, telling NME, "This record ain't going to surprise many people." However, there was nobody around him to echo his reservations. "Everyone's going: 'It's brilliant!'" he later said. "And right towards the end, we're doing the mixing and I'm thinking to myself: 'Hmmm, I don't know about this now.'" When the album was released Oasis were woven into Britain's cultural fabric like no other band since the Beatles, and according to their former press officer Johnny Hopkins: "There were more hangers-on, constantly telling them they were the greatest thing. That tended to block out the critical voices." Dorian Lynskey writes, "If it couldn't be Britpop's zenith, then it must be the nadir. It can't be just a collection of songs – some good, some bad, most too long, all insanely overproduced – but an emblem of the hubris before the fall, like a dictator's statue pulled to the ground by a vengeful mob." After the conclusion of the Be Here Now Tour in early 1998, amidst much media criticism, the group kept a low profile. Later in the year, Oasis released a compilation album of fourteen B-sides, The Masterplan. "The really interesting stuff from around that period is the B-sides. There's a lot more inspired music on the B-sides than there is on Be Here Now itself, I think," said Noel in an interview in 2008. 1999–2001: Line-up change and Standing on the Shoulder of Giants In early 1999, the band began work on their fourth studio album. First details were announced in February, with Mark Stent revealed to be taking a co-producing role. Things were not going well and the shock departure of founding member Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs was announced in August. This departure was reported at the time as amicable, with Noel stating Arthurs wanted to spend more time with his family. Arthurs' statement clarified his leaving as "to concentrate on other things". However, Noel has since offered a contradicting version: that a series of violations of Noel's "no drink or drugs" policy (imposed by Noel so that Liam could sing properly) for the album's sessions resulted in a confrontation between the two. Two weeks later the departure of bassist Paul McGuigan was announced. The Gallagher brothers held a press conference shortly thereafter, in which they assured reporters that "the future of Oasis is secure. The story and the glory will go on." After the completion of the recording sessions, the band began searching for replacement members. The first new member to be announced was new lead/rhythm guitarist Colin "Gem" Archer, formerly of Heavy Stereo, who later claimed to have been approached by Noel Gallagher only a couple of days after Arthurs' departure was publicly announced. Finding a replacement bassist took more time and effort: the band were rehearsing with David Potts, but he quickly resigned, and they brought in Andy Bell, former guitarist/songwriter of Ride and Hurricane #1 as their new bassist. Bell had never played bass before and had to learn to play it (with Noel since saying, "I was amazed that Andy was up for actually playing the bass y'know, cos he's such a good guitarist"), along with a handful of songs from Oasis's back catalogue, in preparation for a scheduled US tour in December 1999. With the folding of Creation Records, Oasis formed their own label, Big Brother, which released all of Oasis's subsequent records in the UK and Ireland. Oasis's fourth album, Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, was released in February 2000 to good first-week sales. It reached number one on the British charts and peaked at number 24 on the Billboard charts. Four singles were released from the album: "Go Let It Out", "Who Feels Love?", "Sunday Morning Call" and "Where Did It All Go Wrong?", of which the first three were top five UK singles. The "Go Let It Out" music video was shot before Bell joined the group and therefore featured the unusual line-up of Liam on rhythm guitar, Archer on lead guitar and Noel on bass. With the departure of the founding members, the band made several small changes to their image and sound. The cover featured a new "Oasis" logo, designed by Gem Archer, and the album was also the first Oasis release to include a song written by Liam Gallagher, entitled "Little James". The songs also had more experimental, psychedelic influences. Standing on the Shoulder of Giants received lukewarm reviews and sales slumped in its second week of release in the US. To support the record the band staged an eventful world tour. While touring in Barcelona in 2000, Oasis were forced to cancel a gig when an attack of tendinitis caused Alan White's arm to seize up, and the band spent the night drinking instead. After a row between the two brothers, Noel declared he was quitting touring overseas altogether, and Oasis were supposed to finish the tour without him. Noel eventually returned for the Irish and British legs of the tour, which included two major shows at Wembley Stadium. A live album of the first show, called Familiar to Millions, was released in late 2000 to mixed reviews. 2001–2003: Heathen Chemistry Throughout 2001, Oasis split time between sessions for their fifth studio album and live shows around the world. Gigs included the month-long Tour of Brotherly Love with the Black Crowes and Spacehog and a show in Paris supporting Neil Young. The album, Heathen Chemistry, Oasis's first album with new members Andy Bell and Gem Archer, was released in July 2002. The album reached number 1 in the UK and number 23 in the US, although critics gave it mixed reviews. There were four singles released from the album: "The Hindu Times", "Stop Crying Your Heart Out", "Little by Little/She Is Love" which were written by Noel, and "Songbird", written by Liam and the first single not to be written by Noel. The record blended the band's sonic experiments from their last albums, but also went for a more basic rock sound. The recording of Heathen Chemistry was much more balanced for the band, with all of the members, apart from White, writing songs. Johnny Marr provided additional guitar as well as backup vocals on a couple of songs. After the album's release, the band embarked on a successful world tour that was once again filled with incidents. In August 2002, while the band were on tour in the US, Noel, Bell and touring keyboardist Jay Darlington were involved in a car accident in Indianapolis. While none of the band members sustained any major injuries, some shows were cancelled as a result. In December 2002, the latter half of the German leg of the band's European tour had to be postponed after Liam Gallagher, Alan White and three other members of the band's entourage were arrested after a violent brawl at a Munich nightclub. The band had been drinking heavily and tests showed that Liam had used cocaine. Liam lost two front teeth and kicked a police officer in the ribs, while Alan suffered minor head injuries after getting hit with an ashtray. Two years later Liam was fined around £40,000. The band finished their tour in March 2003 after returning to those postponed dates. 2003–2007: Alan White's departure and Don't Believe the Truth Oasis began recording a sixth album in late December 2003 with producers Death in Vegas at Sawmills Studios in Cornwall. The album was originally planned for a September 2004 release, to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the release of Definitely Maybe, However, long-time drummer Alan White, who at this time had played on nearly all of the band's material, had been asked to leave the band. At the time, his brother Steve White stated on his own website that "the spirit of being in a band was kicked out of him" and he wanted to be with his girlfriend. White was replaced by Zak Starkey, the Who's drummer and the son of the Beatles' drummer, Ringo Starr. Though Starkey performed on studio recordings and toured with the band, he was not officially a member and the band were a four-piece for the first time in their career. Starkey played publicly for the first time at Poole Lighthouse. A few days later, Oasis, with Starkey, headlined the Glastonbury Festival for the second time in their career and performed a largely greatest hits set, which included two new songs — Gem Archer's "A Bell Will Ring" and Liam Gallagher's "The Meaning of Soul". The performance received negative reviews, with NME calling it a "disaster". The BBC's Tom Bishop called Oasis's set "lacklustre and uneventful ... prompting a mixed reception from fans", mainly because of Liam's uninspired singing and Starkey's lack of experience with the band's material. After much turbulence, the band's sixth album was finally recorded in Los Angeles-based Capitol Studios from October to December the same year. Producer Dave Sardy took over the lead producing role from Noel, who decided to step back from these duties after a decade of producing leadership over the band. In May 2005, after three years and as many scrapped recording sessions, the band released their sixth studio album, Don't Believe the Truth, fulfilling their contract with Sony BMG. It followed the path of Heathen Chemistry as being a collaborative project again, rather than a Noel-written album. The album was the first in a decade not to feature drumming by Alan White, marking the recording debut of Starkey. The record was generally hailed as the band's best effort since Morning Glory by fans and critics alike, spawning two UK number one singles: "Lyla" and "The Importance of Being Idle", whilst "Let There Be Love" entered at number 2. Oasis picked up two awards at the Q Awards: one People's Choice Award and the second for Don't Believe the Truth as Best Album. Following in the footsteps of Oasis's previous five albums, Don't Believe the Truth also entered the UK album charts at number one. By 2013 the album had sold more than 6 million copies worldwide. In May 2005, the band's new line-up embarked on a large scale world tour. Beginning on 10 May 2005 at the London Astoria, and finishing on 31 March 2006 in front of a sold-out gig in Mexico City, Oasis played more live shows than at any time since the Definitely Maybe Tour, visiting 26 countries and headlining 113 shows for over 3.2 million people. The tour passed without any major incidents and was the band's most successful in more than a decade. The tour included sold-out shows at New York's Madison Square Garden and LA's Hollywood Bowl. A rockumentary film made during the tour, entitled Lord Don't Slow Me Down directed by Baillie Walsh was released in October 2007. Oasis released a compilation double album entitled Stop the Clocks in 2006, featuring what the band considers to be their "definitive" songs. The band received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music in February 2007, playing several of their most famous songs afterwards. Oasis released their first ever digital-only release, "Lord Don't Slow Me Down", in October 2007. The song debuted at number ten in the UK singles chart. 2007–2009: Dig Out Your Soul The band's resurgence in popularity since the success of Don't Believe the Truth was highlighted in February 2008 when, in a poll to find the fifty greatest British albums of the last fifty years conducted by Q magazine and HMV, two Oasis albums were voted first and second (Definitely Maybe and (What's The Story) Morning Glory? respectively). Two other albums by the band appeared in the list – Don't Believe The Truth came in at number fourteen, and the album that has previously been heavily criticised by some of the media, Be Here Now, made the list at no. 22. Oasis recorded for a couple of months in 2007 – between July and September – completing work on two new songs and demoing the rest. They then took a two-month break because of the birth of Noel's son. The band re-entered the studio on 5 November 2007 and finished recording around March 2008 with producer Dave Sardy. In May 2008, Zak Starkey left the band after recording Dig Out Your Soul, the band's seventh studio album. He was replaced by former Icicle Works and the La's drummer Chris Sharrock on their tour but Chris was not an official member of the band and Oasis remained as a four-piece. The first single from the record was "The Shock of the Lightning" written by Noel Gallagher, and was pre-released on 29 September 2008. Dig Out Your Soul, the band's seventh studio album, was released on 6 October and went to number one in the UK and number five on the Billboard 200. The band started touring for a projected 18-month-long tour expected to last till September 2009, with support from Kasabian, the Enemy and Twisted Wheel. On 7 September 2008, while performing at Virgin Festival in Toronto, a member of the audience ran on stage and physically assaulted Noel. Noel suffered three broken and dislodged ribs as a result from the attack, and the group had to cancel several shows while he recovered. In June 2008, the band re-signed with Sony BMG for a three-album deal. On 25 February 2009, Oasis received the NME Award for Best British Band of 2009, as well as Best Blog for Noel's 'Tales from the Middle of Nowhere'. On 4 June 2009, Oasis played the first of three concerts at Manchester's Heaton Park and after having to leave the stage twice due to a generator failure, came on the third time to declare the gig was now a free concert; it delighted the 70,000 ticket holders, 20,000 of whom claimed the refund. The band's two following gigs at the venue, on 6 and 7 June, proved a great success, with fans turning out in the thousands despite the changeable weather and first night's sound issues. 2009–2024: Split and aftermath After Liam contracted laryngitis, Oasis cancelled a gig at V Festival in Chelmsford on 23 August 2009. Noel stated in 2011 that the gig was cancelled due to Liam having "a hangover". Liam subsequently sued Noel, and demanded an apology, stating: "The truth is I had laryngitis, which Noel was made fully aware of that morning, diagnosed by a doctor." Noel issued an apology and the lawsuit was dropped. The band were due to perform on 28 August 2009 at the Rock en Seine festival near Paris, however mid-way through Bloc Party's set at the festival their frontman Kele Okereke (alongside Bloc Party tour manager Peter Hill) announced that Oasis would not be performing. Two hours later, a statement from Noel appeared on the band's website: It is with some sadness and great relief...I quit Oasis tonight. People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer. Liam and the remaining members of Oasis decided to continue under the name Beady Eye, releasing two studio albums until their break-up in 2014. Liam started a solo career and has released three studio albums, with Arthurs joining him occasionally on tour. Noel formed a solo project, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds and has released four studio albums, with Sharrock and Archer later joining as members. Bell reunited with former band Ride. On 16 February 2010, Oasis won Best British Album of the Last 30 Years – for (What's the Story) Morning Glory? – at the 2010 Brit Awards. Liam collected the award alone before presenting his speech, which thanked Bonehead, McGuigan and Alan White but not Noel, and throwing his microphone and the band's award into the crowd; he later defended his actions. Time Flies... 1994–2009, a compilation of singles, was released on 14 June 2010. It became the band's final album to reach number one on the UK Albums Chart. A remastered 3-disc version of Definitely Maybe was released on 19 May 2014. A documentary titled Oasis: Supersonic was released on 26 October 2016, which tells the story of Oasis from their beginnings to the height of their fame during the summer of 1996. Another concert documentary film was released in September 2021, in celebration of the 25th anniversary of Oasis's two record breaking concerts at Knebworth Park in August 1996. A new demo recording, "Don't Stop...", previously only known from a recording during a soundcheck in Hong Kong, was rediscovered during the COVID-19 pandemic, and was released on 3 May 2020; it passed 1 million views on YouTube that morning and reached number 80 on the UK Singles Chart based on streaming alone. 2024–present: Reunion and Oasis Live '25 Tour On 27 August 2024, almost 15 years to the date of their 2009 split, Oasis announced that they would reform for performances in the UK and Ireland in July and August 2025, stating "The guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned. The great wait is over. Come see. It will not be televised." After the announcement of the reunion, it was rumoured that former members Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs, Gem Archer, Andy Bell, Zak Starkey and some members of Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds will perform alongside the two brothers. Former drummer Alan White also teased his involvement in the reunion even though it's rumored he won't peform with the band, while original drummer Tony McCarroll said he doesn't think that he will be back. Liam Gallagher also teased on Twitter that new members could join the band on tour and also revealed on Twitter that Oasis had finished a new album. On 30 August 2024, following the news of the reunion Oasis released the 30th anniversary edition of their debut album Definitely Maybe. A week later the album charted at number 1 in the UK Official Albums Chart Top 100, 30 years after its release along with Time Flies and Morning Glory which rose to number 3 and 4 in the charts. Three more Oasis albums also entered the top 100 in the charts, The Masterplan at number 41, Be Here Now at number 42 and Heathen Chemistry at number 97. Oasis's single "Live Forever" charted at number 8 in the UK Official Singles Chart Top 40, two places higher than it originally finished in 1994, along with "Don't Look Back In Anger" which reached number 9 and "Wonderwall" which reached number 11. Musical style and influences Musically, Oasis have been regarded as a rock band. More specifically, the band has been described as Britpop, indie rock, alternative rock, pop rock, neo-psychedelia, psychedelic rock, and power pop. Oasis were most heavily influenced by the Beatles, an influence that was frequently labelled as an "obsession" by British media. The band were also strongly influenced by the other 1960s British Invasion acts, including the Kinks, the Rolling Stones, and the Who. Another major influence, especially during the band's early career, was 1970s British punk rock, in particular the Sex Pistols and their album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols (1977), as well as the Damned, and the Jam/Paul Weller. In addition, members of Oasis have cited as an influence or inspiration AC/DC, Acetone, Burt Bacharach, Beck, the Bee Gees, David Bowie, the Doors, Peter Green–era Fleetwood Mac, Grant Lee Buffalo, the La's, MC5, Nirvana, Pink Floyd, Slade, the Smiths, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, the Specials, the Stone Roses, the Stooges, T. Rex, the Verve, the Velvet Underground/Lou Reed, and Neil Young. Oasis albums consistently featured loud tracks characterized by nasal vocals. These dynamic Britpop compositions stood in stark contrast to the more polished pop tunes of Blur, their chart rivals. Especially in their early years, Oasis's musical style and lyrics were grounded in the working-class backgrounds of Liam and Noel. The brothers became known for their rebellious demeanor, self-assured personalities, and sibling rivalry; these characteristics garnered media interest from the band's beginnings and endured throughout their entire career. Legal battles over songwriter credits Legal action has been taken against Noel Gallagher and Oasis for plagiarism on three occasions. The first was the case of Neil Innes (formerly of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and the Rutles) suing to prove the Oasis song "Whatever" borrowed from his song "How Sweet to Be an Idiot". Innes was eventually awarded royalties and a co-writer credit. Noel Gallagher said in 2010 that the plagiarism was unintentional and he was unaware of the similarities until informed of Innes's legal case. In the second incident, Oasis were sued by Coca-Cola and forced to pay $500,000 in damages to the New Seekers after it was alleged that the Oasis song "Shakermaker" had lifted words and melody from "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing". When asked about the incident, Noel Gallagher joked "Now we all drink Pepsi." On the third and final occasion, when promotional copies of (What's the Story) Morning Glory? were originally distributed, they contained a previously unreleased bonus song called "Step Out". This promotional CD was quickly withdrawn and replaced with a version that omitted the controversial song, which was allegedly similar to the Stevie Wonder song "Uptight (Everything's Alright)". Official releases of "Step Out", as the B-side to "Don't Look Back in Anger" and on Familiar to Millions, listed "Wonder, et al." as co-writers. The 2003 song "Life Got Cold" by UK band Girls Aloud received attention due to similarities between the guitar riff and melody of the song and that of the Oasis song "Wonderwall". A BBC review stated "part of the chorus sounds like it is going to turn into 'Wonderwall' by Oasis." Warner/Chappell Music has since credited Noel Gallagher as co-songwriter. Legacy and influence Despite parting ways in 2009, Oasis remain hugely influential in British music and culture and are now recognised as one of the biggest and most acclaimed bands of the 1990s. They are widely recognized as one of the spearheads of Britpop, which has claimed a prominent place in the British musical landscape. With their record breaking sales, concerts, sibling disputes, and their high-profile chart battle with Britpop rivals Blur, Oasis were a major part of 1990s UK pop culture, an era dubbed Cool Britannia. Many bands and artists have cited Oasis as an influence or inspiration, including Arctic Monkeys, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Deafheaven, the Killers, Alvvays, Maroon 5, Coldplay, and Ryan Adams. The band's success also helped local businesses. Pete Caban, owner of Bandwagon Music Supplies in Perth, Scotland, which closed in 2020 after 37 years in business, said: "The highlight years were the mid-90s to the early 2000s. That was the peak period. The Oasis period, as I call it, where everyone wanted to buy a guitar. That was the game changer for music and for me here in Perth. I was shovelling guitars out the door at the point. So hurrah for Noel Gallagher." In 2007, Oasis were one of the four featured artists in the seventh episode of the BBC/VH1 series Seven Ages of Rock – an episode about British indie rock – along with Britpop peers Blur in addition to the Smiths and the Stone Roses. In 2023, an unofficial music project by the name of AISIS was the first full-length album to use AI vocals. The project was a success and attracted more than half a million views within six weeks of publication, including multiple newspaper articles written about it, and brought Breezer, the band that created the project, out of obscurity and landed them with prestigious live dates. Bobby Geraghty and his Breezer bandmates wrote original Oasis-style songs and then used AI to create audio deepfakes based on Liam Gallagher's voice alongside their original instrumentation. Liam himself approved of the album, saying that he "sounded mega". Oasis received a nomination for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on their sixth year of eligibility in February 2024. Initially, the members included in the nomination were the Gallagher brothers, McGuigan, White, Arthurs, McCarroll, Archer, and Bell. Band members Current members Liam Gallagher – vocals, tambourine (1991–2009, 2024–present); acoustic guitar (2001–2002, 2007–2008) Noel Gallagher – lead guitar, vocals (1991–1994, 1994–2009, 2024–present); rhythm guitar (1991, 1999–2009, 2024–present); keyboards (1993–1994, 1994–2009); bass (1993–1994, 1995, 1999) Former members Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs – rhythm guitar (1991–1999); lead guitar (1991, 1994); keyboards (1994–1997); bass (1995) Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan – bass (1991–1995, 1995–1999) Tony McCarroll – drums (1991–1995) Alan "Whitey" White – drums, percussion (1995–2004) Gem Archer – rhythm and lead guitar (1999–2009); backing vocals (2002–2003); keyboards (2002–2005); harmonica (2005–2009) Andy Bell – bass (1999–2009); rhythm guitar (2003–2009); keyboards (2007–2009) Former touring members Scott McLeod – bass (1995) Janette Mason - keyboards (1996) Mark Feltham - harmonica (1996) Mike Rowe – keyboards (1997–2000, 2001) Matt Deighton – rhythm guitar (2000) Steve White – drums (2001) Zeb Jameson – keyboards (2000–2001) Jay Darlington – keyboards (2002–2009) Zak Starkey – drums, percussion (2004–2008) Chris Sharrock – drums, percussion (2008–2009) Timeline Touring timeline Discography Definitely Maybe (1994) (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995) Be Here Now (1997) Standing on the Shoulder of Giants (2000) Heathen Chemistry (2002) Don't Believe the Truth (2005) Dig Out Your Soul (2008) Concert tours Definitely Maybe Tour (1994–1995) (What's the Story) Morning Glory? Tour (1995–1996) Be Here Now Tour (1997–1998) Standing on the Shoulder of Giants Tour (1999–2001) The Tour of Brotherly Love (2001) 10 Years of Noise and Confusion Tour (2001) Heathen Chemistry Tour (2002–2003) Don't Believe the Truth Tour (2005–2006) Dig Out Your Soul Tour (2008–2009) Oasis Live '25 Tour (2025) Awards and nominations Brit Awards: 6 wins from 18 nominations, including Outstanding Contribution to Music and Best Album of the Last 30 Years for "(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?". Grammy Awards: 2 nominations, including Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group and Best Rock Song. NME Awards: 17 wins from 26 nominations. Q Awards: 9 wins from 19 nominations. MTV Europe Music Awards: 4 wins from 4 nominations. Ivor Novello Awards: 2 wins from 3 nominations. Oasis has also been recognized by other award bodies, such as the MTV Japan Awards, UK Video Music Awards, and the Mercury Prize. See also List of best-selling music artists References Footnotes Bibliography External links Official website

The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the development of 1960s counterculture and the recognition of popular music as an art form. Rooted in skiffle, beat and 1950s rock 'n' roll, their sound incorporated elements of classical music and traditional pop in innovative ways. The band also explored music styles ranging from folk and Indian music to psychedelia and hard rock. As pioneers in recording, songwriting and artistic presentation, the Beatles revolutionized many aspects of the music industry and were often publicized as leaders of the era's youth and sociocultural movements. Led by primary songwriters Lennon and McCartney, the Beatles evolved from Lennon's previous group, the Quarrymen, and built their reputation by playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg, Germany, over three years from 1960, initially with Stuart Sutcliffe playing bass. The core trio of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, together since 1958, went through a succession of drummers, including Pete Best, before inviting Starr to join them in 1962. Manager Brian Epstein moulded them into a professional act, and producer George Martin guided and developed their recordings, greatly expanding their domestic success after they signed with EMI Records and achieved their first hit, "Love Me Do", in late 1962. As their popularity grew into the intense fan frenzy dubbed "Beatlemania", the band acquired the nickname "the Fab Four". Epstein, Martin or other members of the band's entourage were sometimes informally referred to as a "fifth Beatle". By early 1964, the Beatles were international stars and had achieved unprecedented levels of critical and commercial success. They became a leading force in Britain's cultural resurgence, ushering in the British Invasion of the United States pop market. They soon made their film debut with A Hard Day's Night (1964). A growing desire to refine their studio efforts, coupled with the challenging nature of their concert tours, led to the band's retirement from live performances in 1966. During this time, they produced albums of greater sophistication, including Rubber Soul (1965), Revolver (1966) and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967). They enjoyed further commercial success with The Beatles (also known as "the White Album", 1968) and Abbey Road (1969). The success of these records heralded the album era, as albums became the dominant form of record use over singles. These records also increased public interest in psychedelic drugs and Eastern spirituality and furthered advancements in electronic music, album art and music videos. In 1968, they founded Apple Corps, a multi-armed multimedia corporation that continues to oversee projects related to the band's legacy. After the group's break-up in 1970, all principal former members enjoyed success as solo artists, and some partial reunions occurred. Lennon was murdered in 1980, and Harrison died of lung cancer in 2001. McCartney and Starr remain musically active. The Beatles are the best-selling music act of all time, with estimated sales of 600 million units worldwide. They are the most successful act in the history of the US Billboard charts, holding the record for most number-one albums on the UK Albums Chart (15), most number-one hits on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart (20), and most singles sold in the UK (21.9 million). The band received many accolades, including seven Grammy Awards, four Brit Awards, an Academy Award (for Best Original Song Score for the 1970 documentary film Let It Be) and fifteen Ivor Novello Awards. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility, 1988, and each principal member was individually inducted between 1994 and 2015. In 2004 and 2011, the group topped Rolling Stone's lists of the greatest artists in history. Time magazine named them among the 20th century's 100 most important people. History 1956–1963: Formation The Quarrymen and name changes In November 1956, sixteen-year-old John Lennon formed a skiffle group with several friends from Quarry Bank High School in Liverpool. They were called the Quarrymen, a reference to their school song "Quarry men old before our birth." Fifteen-year-old Paul McCartney met Lennon on 6 July 1957, and joined as a rhythm guitarist shortly after. In February 1958, McCartney invited his friend George Harrison, then aged fifteen, to watch the band. Harrison auditioned for Lennon, impressing him with his playing, but Lennon initially thought Harrison was too young. After a month's persistence, during a second meeting (arranged by McCartney), Harrison performed the lead guitar part of the instrumental song "Raunchy" on the upper deck of a Liverpool bus, and they enlisted him as lead guitarist. By January 1959, Lennon's Quarry Bank friends had left the group, and he began his studies at the Liverpool College of Art. The three guitarists, billing themselves as Johnny and the Moondogs, were playing rock and roll whenever they could find a drummer. They also performed as the Rainbows. Paul McCartney later told New Musical Express that they called themselves that "because we all had different coloured shirts and we couldn't afford any others!" Lennon's art school friend Stuart Sutcliffe, who had just sold one of his paintings and was persuaded to purchase a bass guitar with the proceeds, joined in January 1960. He suggested changing the band's name to Beatals, as a tribute to Buddy Holly and the Crickets. They used this name until May, when they became the Silver Beetles, before undertaking a brief tour of Scotland as the backing group for pop singer and fellow Liverpudlian Johnny Gentle. By early July, they had refashioned themselves as the Silver Beatles, and by the middle of August simply the Beatles. Early residencies and UK popularity Allan Williams, the Beatles' unofficial manager, arranged a residency for them in Hamburg. They auditioned and hired drummer Pete Best in mid-August 1960. The band, now a five-piece, departed Liverpool for Hamburg four days later, contracted to club owner Bruno Koschmider for what would be a 3+1⁄2-month residency. Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn writes: "They pulled into Hamburg at dusk on 17 August, the time when the red-light area comes to life ... flashing neon lights screamed out the various entertainment on offer, while scantily clad women sat unabashed in shop windows waiting for business opportunities." Koschmider had converted a couple of strip clubs in the district into music venues, and he initially placed the Beatles at the Indra Club. After closing Indra due to noise complaints, he moved them to the Kaiserkeller in October. When he learned they had been performing at the rival Top Ten Club in breach of their contract, he gave them one month's termination notice, and reported the underage Harrison, who had obtained permission to stay in Hamburg by lying to the German authorities about his age. The authorities arranged for Harrison's deportation in late November. One week later, Koschmider had McCartney and Best arrested for arson after they set fire to a condom in a concrete corridor; the authorities deported them. Lennon returned to Liverpool in early December, while Sutcliffe remained in Hamburg until late February with his German fiancée Astrid Kirchherr, who took the first semi-professional photos of the Beatles. During the next two years, the Beatles were resident for periods in Hamburg, where they used Preludin both recreationally and to maintain their energy through all-night performances. In 1961, during their second Hamburg engagement, Kirchherr cut Sutcliffe's hair in the "exi" (existentialist) style, later adopted by the other Beatles. Later on, Sutcliffe decided to leave the band early that year and resume his art studies in Germany. McCartney took over bass. Producer Bert Kaempfert contracted what was now a four-piece group until June 1962, and he used them as Tony Sheridan's backing band on a series of recordings for Polydor Records. As part of the sessions, the Beatles were signed to Polydor for one year. Credited to "Tony Sheridan & the Beat Brothers", the single "My Bonnie", recorded in June 1961 and released four months later, reached number 32 on the Musikmarkt chart. After the Beatles completed their second Hamburg residency, they enjoyed increasing popularity in Liverpool with the growing Merseybeat movement. However, they were growing tired of the monotony of numerous appearances at the same clubs night after night. In November 1961, during one of the group's frequent performances at the Cavern Club, they encountered Brian Epstein, a local record-store owner and music columnist. He later recalled: "I immediately liked what I heard. They were fresh, and they were honest, and they had what I thought was a sort of presence ... [a] star quality." First EMI recordings Epstein courted the band over the next couple of months, and they appointed him as their manager in January 1962. Throughout early and mid-1962, Epstein sought to free the Beatles from their contractual obligations to Bert Kaempfert Productions. He eventually negotiated a one-month early release in exchange for one last recording session in Hamburg. On their return to Germany in April, a distraught Kirchherr met them at the airport with news of Sutcliffe's death the previous day from a brain haemorrhage. Epstein began negotiations with record labels for a recording contract. To secure a UK record contract, Epstein negotiated an early end to the band's contract with Polydor, in exchange for more recordings backing Tony Sheridan. After a New Year's Day audition, Decca Records rejected the band, saying, "Guitar groups are on the way out, Mr. Epstein." However, three months later, producer George Martin signed the Beatles to EMI's Parlophone label. Martin's first recording session with the Beatles took place at EMI Recording Studios (later Abbey Road Studios) in London on 6 June 1962. He immediately complained to Epstein about Best's drumming and suggested they use a session drummer in his place. Already contemplating Best's dismissal, the Beatles replaced him in mid-August with Ringo Starr, who left Rory Storm and the Hurricanes to join them. A 4 September session at EMI yielded a recording of "Love Me Do" featuring Starr on drums, but a dissatisfied Martin hired drummer Andy White for the band's third session a week later, which produced recordings of "Love Me Do", "Please Please Me" and "P.S. I Love You". Martin initially selected the Starr version of "Love Me Do" for the band's first single, though subsequent re-pressings featured the White version, with Starr on tambourine. Released in early October, "Love Me Do" peaked at number seventeen on the Record Retailer chart. Their television debut came later that month with a live performance on the regional news programme People and Places. After Martin suggested rerecording "Please Please Me" at a faster tempo, a studio session in late November yielded that recording, of which Martin accurately predicted, "You've just made your first No. 1." In December 1962, the Beatles concluded their fifth and final Hamburg residency. By 1963, they had agreed that all four band members would contribute vocals to their albums – including Starr, despite his restricted vocal range, to validate his standing in the group. Lennon and McCartney had established a songwriting partnership, and as the band's success grew, their dominant collaboration limited Harrison's opportunities as a lead vocalist. Epstein, to maximise the Beatles' commercial potential, encouraged them to adopt a professional approach to performing. Lennon recalled him saying, "Look, if you really want to get in these bigger places, you're going to have to change – stop eating on stage, stop swearing, stop smoking ...." 1963–1966: Beatlemania and touring years Please Please Me and With the Beatles On 11 February 1963, the Beatles recorded ten songs during a single studio session for their debut LP, Please Please Me. It was supplemented by the four tracks already released on their first two singles. Martin considered recording the LP live at The Cavern Club, but after deciding that the building's acoustics were inadequate, he elected to simulate a "live" album with minimal production in "a single marathon session at Abbey Road". After the moderate success of "Love Me Do", the single "Please Please Me" was released in January 1963, two months ahead of the album. It reached number one on every UK chart except Record Retailer, where it peaked at number two. Recalling how the Beatles "rushed to deliver a debut album, bashing out Please Please Me in a day", AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote: "Decades after its release, the album still sounds fresh, precisely because of its intense origins." Lennon said little thought went into composition at the time; he and McCartney were "just writing songs à la Everly Brothers, à la Buddy Holly, pop songs with no more thought of them than that – to create a sound. And the words were almost irrelevant." Released in March 1963, Please Please Me was the first of eleven consecutive Beatles albums released in the United Kingdom to reach number one. The band's third single, "From Me to You", came out in April and began an almost unbroken string of seventeen British number-one singles, including all but one of the eighteen they released over the next six years. Issued in August, their fourth single, "She Loves You", achieved the fastest sales of any record in the UK up to that time, selling three-quarters of a million copies in under four weeks. It became their first single to sell a million copies, and remained the biggest-selling record in the UK until 1978. The success brought increased media exposure, to which the Beatles responded with an irreverent and comical attitude that defied the expectations of pop musicians at the time, inspiring even more interest. The band toured the UK three times in the first half of the year: a four-week tour that began in February, the Beatles' first nationwide, preceded three-week tours in March and May–June. As their popularity spread, a frenzied adulation of the group took hold. On 13 October, the Beatles starred on Sunday Night at the London Palladium, the UK's top variety show. Their performance was televised live and watched by 15 million viewers. One national paper's headlines in the following days coined the term "Beatlemania" to describe the riotous enthusiasm by screaming fans who greeted the band – and it stuck. Although not billed as tour leaders, the Beatles overshadowed American acts Tommy Roe and Chris Montez during the February engagements and assumed top billing "by audience demand", something no British act had previously accomplished while touring with artists from the US. A similar situation arose during their May–June tour with Roy Orbison. In late October, the Beatles began a five-day tour of Sweden, their first time abroad since the final Hamburg engagement of December 1962. On their return to the UK on 31 October, several hundred screaming fans greeted them in heavy rain at Heathrow Airport. Around 50 to 100 journalists and photographers, as well as representatives from the BBC, also joined the airport reception, the first of more than 100 such events. The next day, the band began its fourth tour of Britain within nine months, this one scheduled for six weeks. In mid-November, as Beatlemania intensified, police resorted to using high-pressure water hoses to control the crowd before a concert in Plymouth. On 4 November, they played in front of The Queen Mother and Princess Margaret during the Royal Variety Performance at the Prince of Wales Theatre. Please Please Me maintained the top position on the Record Retailer chart for 30 weeks, only to be displaced by its follow-up, With the Beatles, which EMI released on 22 November to record advance orders of 270,000 copies. The LP topped a half-million albums sold in one week. Recorded between July and October, With the Beatles made better use of studio production techniques than its predecessor. It held the top spot for 21 weeks with a chart life of 40 weeks. Erlewine described the LP as "a sequel of the highest order – one that betters the original". In a reversal of then standard practice, EMI released the album ahead of the impending single "I Want to Hold Your Hand", with the song excluded to maximise the single's sales. The album caught the attention of music critic William Mann of The Times, who suggested that Lennon and McCartney were "the outstanding English composers of 1963". The newspaper published a series of articles in which Mann offered detailed analyses of the music, lending it respectability. With the Beatles became the second album in UK chart history to sell a million copies, a figure previously reached only by the 1958 South Pacific soundtrack. When writing the sleeve notes for the album, the band's press officer, Tony Barrow, used the superlative the "fabulous foursome", which the media widely adopted as "the Fab Four". First visit to the United States and the British Invasion EMI's American subsidiary, Capitol Records, hindered the Beatles' releases in the United States for more than a year by initially declining to issue their music, including their first three singles. Concurrent negotiations with the independent US label Vee-Jay led to the release of some, but not all, of the songs in 1963. Vee-Jay finished preparation for the album Introducing... The Beatles, comprising most of the songs of Parlophone's Please Please Me, but a management shake-up led to the album not being released. After it emerged that the label did not report royalties on their sales, the licence that Vee-Jay had signed with EMI was voided. A new licence was granted to the Swan label for the single "She Loves You". The record received some airplay in the Tidewater area of Virginia from Gene Loving of radio station WGH and was featured on the "Rate-a-Record" segment of American Bandstand, but it failed to catch on nationally. Epstein brought a demo copy of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" to Capitol's Brown Meggs, who signed the band and arranged for a $40,000 US marketing campaign. American chart success began after disc jockey Carroll James of AM radio station WWDC, in Washington, DC, obtained a copy of the British single "I Want to Hold Your Hand" in mid-December 1963 and began playing it on-air. Taped copies of the song soon circulated among other radio stations throughout the US. This caused an increase in demand, leading Capitol to bring forward the release of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" by three weeks. Issued on 26 December, with the band's previously scheduled debut there just weeks away, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" sold a million copies, becoming a number-one hit in the US by mid-January. In its wake Vee-Jay released Introducing... The Beatles along with Capitol's debut album, Meet the Beatles!, while Swan reactivated production of "She Loves You". On 7 February 1964, the Beatles departed from Heathrow with an estimated 4,000 fans waving and screaming as the aircraft took off. Upon landing at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, an uproarious crowd estimated at 3,000 greeted them. They gave their first live US television performance two days later on The Ed Sullivan Show, watched by approximately 73 million viewers in over 23 million households, or 34 per cent of the American population. Biographer Jonathan Gould writes that, according to the Nielsen rating service, it was "the largest audience that had ever been recorded for an American television program". The next morning, the Beatles awoke to a largely negative critical consensus in the US, but a day later at their first US concert, Beatlemania erupted at the Washington Coliseum. Back in New York the following day, the Beatles met with another strong reception during two shows at Carnegie Hall. The band flew to Florida, where they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show a second time, again before 70 million viewers, before returning to the UK on 22 February. The Beatles' first visit to the US took place when the nation was still mourning the assassination of President John F. Kennedy the previous November. Commentators often suggest that for many, particularly the young, the Beatles' performances reignited the sense of excitement and possibility that momentarily faded in the wake of the assassination, and helped pave the way for the revolutionary social changes to come later in the decade. Their hairstyle, unusually long for the era and mocked by many adults, became an emblem of rebellion to the burgeoning youth culture. The group's popularity generated unprecedented interest in British music, and many other UK acts subsequently made their American debuts, successfully touring over the next three years in what was termed the British Invasion. The Beatles' success in the US opened the door for a successive string of British beat groups and pop acts such as the Dave Clark Five, the Animals, Petula Clark, the Kinks, and the Rolling Stones to achieve success in America. During the week of 4 April 1964, the Beatles held twelve positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, including the top five. A Hard Day's Night Capitol Records' lack of interest throughout 1963 did not go unnoticed, and a competitor, United Artists Records, encouraged its film division to offer the Beatles a three-motion-picture deal, primarily for the commercial potential of the soundtracks in the US. Directed by Richard Lester, A Hard Day's Night involved the band for six weeks in March–April 1964 as they played themselves in a musical comedy. The film premiered in London and New York in July and August, respectively, and was an international success, with some critics drawing a comparison with the Marx Brothers. United Artists released a full soundtrack album for the North American market, combining Beatles songs and Martin's orchestral score; elsewhere, the group's third studio LP, A Hard Day's Night, contained songs from the film on side one and other new recordings on side two. According to Erlewine, the album saw them "truly coming into their own as a band. All of the disparate influences on their first two albums coalesced into a bright, joyous, original sound, filled with ringing guitars and irresistible melodies." That "ringing guitar" sound was primarily the product of Harrison's 12-string electric Rickenbacker, a prototype given to him by the manufacturer, which made its debut on the record. 1964 world tour, meeting Bob Dylan, and stand on civil rights Touring internationally in June and July, the Beatles staged 37 shows over 27 days in Denmark, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand. In August and September, they returned to the US, with a 30-concert tour of 23 cities. Generating intense interest once again, the month-long tour attracted between 10,000 and 20,000 fans to each 30-minute performance in cities from San Francisco to New York. In August, journalist Al Aronowitz arranged for the Beatles to meet Bob Dylan. Visiting the band in their New York hotel suite, Dylan introduced them to cannabis. Gould points out the musical and cultural significance of this meeting, before which the musicians' respective fanbases were "perceived as inhabiting two separate subcultural worlds": Dylan's audience of "college kids with artistic or intellectual leanings, a dawning political and social idealism, and a mildly bohemian style" contrasted with their fans, "veritable 'teenyboppers' – kids in high school or grade school whose lives were totally wrapped up in the commercialised popular culture of television, radio, pop records, fan magazines, and teen fashion. To many of Dylan's followers in the folk music scene, the Beatles were seen as idolaters, not idealists." Within six months of the meeting, according to Gould, "Lennon would be making records on which he openly imitated Dylan's nasal drone, brittle strum, and introspective vocal persona"; and six months after that, Dylan began performing with a backing band and electric instrumentation, and "dressed in the height of Mod fashion". As a result, Gould continues, the traditional division between folk and rock enthusiasts "nearly evaporated", as the Beatles' fans began to mature in their outlook and Dylan's audience embraced the new, youth-driven pop culture. During the 1964 US tour, the group were confronted with racial segregation in the country at the time. When informed that the venue for their 11 September concert, the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida, was segregated, the Beatles said they would refuse to perform unless the audience was integrated. Lennon stated: "We never play to segregated audiences and we aren't going to start now ... I'd sooner lose our appearance money." City officials relented and agreed to allow an integrated show. The group also cancelled their reservations at the whites-only Hotel George Washington in Jacksonville. For their subsequent US tours in 1965 and 1966, the Beatles included clauses in contracts stipulating that shows be integrated. Beatles for Sale, Help! and Rubber Soul According to Gould, the Beatles' fourth studio LP, Beatles for Sale, evidenced a growing conflict between the commercial pressures of their global success and their creative ambitions. They had intended the album, recorded between August and October 1964, to continue the format established by A Hard Day's Night which, unlike their first two LPs, contained only original songs. They had nearly exhausted their backlog of songs on the previous album, however, and given the challenges constant international touring posed to their songwriting efforts, Lennon admitted, "Material's becoming a hell of a problem". As a result, six covers from their extensive repertoire were chosen to complete the album. Released in early December, its eight original compositions stood out, demonstrating the growing maturity of the Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership. In early 1965, following a dinner with Lennon, Harrison and their wives, Harrison's dentist, John Riley, secretly added LSD to their coffee. Lennon described the experience: "It was just terrifying, but it was fantastic. I was pretty stunned for a month or two." He and Harrison subsequently became regular users of the drug, joined by Starr on at least one occasion. Harrison's use of psychedelic drugs encouraged his path to meditation and Hinduism. He commented: "For me, it was like a flash. The first time I had acid, it just opened up something in my head that was inside of me, and I realised a lot of things. I didn't learn them because I already knew them, but that happened to be the key that opened the door to reveal them. From the moment I had that, I wanted to have it all the time – these thoughts about the yogis and the Himalayas, and Ravi's music." McCartney was initially reluctant to try it, but eventually did so in late 1966. He became the first Beatle to discuss LSD publicly, declaring in a magazine interview that "it opened my eyes" and "made me a better, more honest, more tolerant member of society". Controversy erupted in June 1965 when Queen Elizabeth II appointed all four Beatles Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) after Prime Minister Harold Wilson nominated them for the award. In protest – the honour was at that time primarily bestowed upon military veterans and civic leaders – some conservative MBE recipients returned their insignia. In July, the Beatles' second film, Help!, was released, again directed by Lester. Described as "mainly a relentless spoof of Bond", it inspired a mixed response among both reviewers and the band. McCartney said: "Help! was great but it wasn't our film – we were sort of guest stars. It was fun, but basically, as an idea for a film, it was a bit wrong." The soundtrack was dominated by Lennon, who wrote and sang lead on most of its songs, including the two singles: "Help!" and "Ticket to Ride". The Help! album, the group's fifth studio LP, mirrored A Hard Day's Night by featuring soundtrack songs on side one and additional songs from the same sessions on side two. The LP contained all original material save for two covers, "Act Naturally" and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy"; they were the last covers the band would include on an album until Let It Be's brief rendition of the traditional Liverpool folk song "Maggie Mae". The band expanded their use of vocal overdubs on Help! and incorporated classical instruments into some arrangements, including a string quartet on the pop ballad "Yesterday". Composed and sung by McCartney – none of the other Beatles perform on the recording – "Yesterday" has inspired the most cover versions of any song ever written. With Help!, the Beatles became the first rock group to be nominated for a Grammy Award for Album of the Year. The group's third US tour opened with a performance before a world-record crowd of 55,600 at New York's Shea Stadium on 15 August – "perhaps the most famous of all Beatles' concerts", in Lewisohn's description. A further nine successful concerts followed in other American cities. At a show in Atlanta, the Beatles gave one of the first live performances ever to make use of a foldback system of on-stage monitor speakers. Towards the end of the tour, they met with Elvis Presley, a foundational musical influence on the band, who invited them to his home in Beverly Hills. Presley later said the band was an example of a trend of anti-Americanism and drug abuse. September 1965 saw the launch of an American Saturday-morning cartoon series, The Beatles, that echoed A Hard Day's Night's slapstick antics over its two-year original run. The series was the first weekly television series to feature animated versions of real, living people. In mid-October, the Beatles entered the recording studio; for the first time when making an album, they had an extended period without other major commitments. Until this time, according to George Martin, "we had been making albums rather like a collection of singles. Now we were really beginning to think about albums as a bit of art on their own." Released in December, Rubber Soul was hailed by critics as a major step forward in the maturity and complexity of the band's music. Their thematic reach was beginning to expand as they embraced deeper aspects of romance and philosophy, a development that NEMS executive Peter Brown attributed to the band members' "now habitual use of marijuana". Lennon referred to Rubber Soul as "the pot album" and Starr said: "Grass was really influential in a lot of our changes, especially with the writers. And because they were writing different material, we were playing differently." After Help!'s foray into classical music with flutes and strings, Harrison's introduction of a sitar on "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" marked a further progression outside the traditional boundaries of popular music. As the lyrics grew more artful, fans began to study them for deeper meaning. While some of Rubber Soul's songs were the product of Lennon and McCartney's collaborative songwriting, the album also included distinct compositions from each, though they continued to share official credit. "In My Life", of which each later claimed lead authorship, is considered a highlight of the entire Lennon–McCartney catalogue. Harrison called Rubber Soul his "favourite album", and Starr referred to it as "the departure record". McCartney has said, "We'd had our cute period, and now it was time to expand." However, recording engineer Norman Smith later stated that the studio sessions revealed signs of growing conflict within the group – "the clash between John and Paul was becoming obvious", he wrote, and "as far as Paul was concerned, George could do no right". Controversies, Revolver and final tour Capitol Records, from December 1963 when it began issuing Beatles recordings for the US market, exercised complete control over format, compiling distinct US albums from the band's recordings and issuing songs of their choosing as singles. In June 1966, the Capitol LP Yesterday and Today caused an uproar with its cover, which portrayed the grinning Beatles dressed in butcher's overalls, accompanied by raw meat and mutilated plastic baby dolls. According to Beatles biographer Bill Harry, it has been incorrectly suggested that this was meant as a satirical response to the way Capitol had "butchered" the US versions of the band's albums. Thousands of copies of the LP had a new cover pasted over the original; an unpeeled "first-state" copy fetched $10,500 at a December 2005 auction. In England, meanwhile, Harrison met sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, who agreed to train him on the instrument. During a tour of the Philippines the month after the Yesterday and Today furore, the Beatles unintentionally snubbed the nation's first lady, Imelda Marcos, who had expected them to attend a breakfast reception at the Presidential Palace. When presented with the invitation, Epstein politely declined on the band members' behalf, as it had never been his policy to accept such official invitations. They soon found that the Marcos regime was unaccustomed to taking no for an answer. The resulting riots endangered the group and they escaped the country with difficulty. Immediately afterwards, the band members visited India for the first time. Almost as soon as they returned home, the Beatles faced a fierce backlash from US religious and social conservatives (as well as the Ku Klux Klan) over a comment Lennon had made in a March interview with British reporter Maureen Cleave. "Christianity will go", Lennon had said. "It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right and I will be proved right ... Jesus was alright but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me." His comments went virtually unnoticed in England, but when US teenage fan magazine Datebook printed them five months later, it sparked a controversy with Christians in America's conservative Bible Belt region. The Vatican issued a protest, and bans on Beatles records were imposed by Spanish and Dutch stations and South Africa's national broadcasting service. Epstein accused Datebook of having taken Lennon's words out of context. At a press conference, Lennon pointed out, "If I'd said television was more popular than Jesus, I might have got away with it." He claimed that he was referring to how other people viewed their success, but at the prompting of reporters, he concluded: "If you want me to apologise, if that will make you happy, then okay, I'm sorry." Released in August 1966, a week before the Beatles' final tour, Revolver marked another artistic step forward for the group. The album featured sophisticated songwriting, studio experimentation, and a greatly expanded repertoire of musical styles, ranging from innovative classical string arrangements to psychedelia. Abandoning the customary group photograph, its Aubrey Beardsley-inspired cover – designed by Klaus Voormann, a friend of the band since their Hamburg days – was a monochrome collage and line drawing caricature of the group. The album was preceded by the single "Paperback Writer", backed by "Rain". Short promotional films were made for both songs; described by cultural historian Saul Austerlitz as "among the first true music videos", they aired on The Ed Sullivan Show and Top of the Pops in June. Among the experimental songs on Revolver was "Tomorrow Never Knows", the lyrics for which Lennon drew from Timothy Leary's The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Its creation involved eight tape decks distributed about the EMI building, each staffed by an engineer or band member, who randomly varied the movement of a tape loop while Martin created a composite recording by sampling the incoming data. McCartney's "Eleanor Rigby" made prominent use of a string octet; Gould describes it as "a true hybrid, conforming to no recognisable style or genre of song". Harrison's emergence as a songwriter was reflected in three of his compositions appearing on the record. Among these, "Taxman", which opened the album, marked the first example of the Beatles making a political statement through their music. As preparations were made for a tour of the US, the Beatles knew that their music would hardly be heard. Having originally used Vox AC30 amplifiers, they later acquired more powerful 100-watt amplifiers, specially designed for them by Vox, as they moved into larger venues in 1964; however, these were still inadequate. Struggling to compete with the volume of sound generated by screaming fans, the band had grown increasingly bored with the routine of performing live. Recognising that their shows were no longer about the music, they decided to make the August tour their last. The band performed none of their new songs on the tour. In Chris Ingham's description, they were very much "studio creations ... and there was no way a four-piece rock 'n' roll group could do them justice, particularly through the desensitising wall of the fans' screams. 'Live Beatles' and 'Studio Beatles' had become entirely different beasts." The band's concert at San Francisco's Candlestick Park on 29 August was their last commercial concert. It marked the end of four years dominated by almost non-stop touring that included over 1,400 concert appearances internationally. 1966–1970: Studio years Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Freed from the burden of touring, the Beatles embraced an increasingly experimental approach as they recorded Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, beginning in late November 1966. According to engineer Geoff Emerick, the album's recording took over 700 hours. He recalled the band's insistence "that everything on Sgt. Pepper had to be different. We had microphones right down in the bells of brass instruments and headphones turned into microphones attached to violins. We used giant primitive oscillators to vary the speed of instruments and vocals and we had tapes chopped to pieces and stuck together upside down and the wrong way around." Parts of "A Day in the Life" featured a 40-piece orchestra. The sessions initially yielded the non-album double A-side single "Strawberry Fields Forever"/"Penny Lane" in February 1967; the Sgt. Pepper LP followed with a rush-release in May. The musical complexity of the records, created using relatively primitive four-track recording technology, astounded contemporary artists. Among music critics, acclaim for the album was virtually universal. Gould writes: The overwhelming consensus is that the Beatles had created a popular masterpiece: a rich, sustained, and overflowing work of collaborative genius whose bold ambition and startling originality dramatically enlarged the possibilities and raised the expectations of what the experience of listening to popular music on record could be. On the basis of this perception, Sgt. Pepper became the catalyst for an explosion of mass enthusiasm for album-formatted rock that would revolutionise both the aesthetics and the economics of the record business in ways that far outstripped the earlier pop explosions triggered by the Elvis phenomenon of 1956 and the Beatlemania phenomenon of 1963. In the wake of Sgt. Pepper, the underground and mainstream press widely publicised the Beatles as leaders of youth culture, as well as "lifestyle revolutionaries". The album was the first major pop/rock LP to include its complete lyrics, which appeared on the back cover. Those lyrics were the subject of critical analysis; for instance, in late 1967 the album was the subject of a scholarly inquiry by American literary critic and professor of English Richard Poirier, who observed that his students were "listening to the group's music with a degree of engagement that he, as a teacher of literature, could only envy". The elaborate cover also attracted considerable interest and study. A collage designed by pop artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth, it depicted the group as the fictional band referred to in the album's title track standing in front of a crowd of famous people. The heavy moustaches worn by the group reflected the growing influence of the hippie movement, while cultural historian Jonathan Harris describes their "brightly coloured parodies of military uniforms" as a knowingly "anti-authoritarian and anti-establishment" display. Sgt. Pepper topped the UK charts for 23 consecutive weeks, with a further four weeks at number one in the period through to February 1968. With 2.5 million copies sold within three months of its release, Sgt. Pepper's initial commercial success exceeded that of all previous Beatles albums. It was the first rock album to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. It sustained its immense popularity into the 21st century while breaking numerous sales records. Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine Two Beatles film projects were conceived within weeks of completing Sgt. Pepper: Magical Mystery Tour, a one-hour television film, and Yellow Submarine, an animated feature-length film produced by United Artists. The group began recording music for the former in late April 1967, but the project then lay dormant as they focused on recording songs for the latter. On 25 June, the Beatles performed their forthcoming single "All You Need Is Love" to an estimated 350 million viewers on Our World, the first live global television link. Released a week later, during the Summer of Love, the song was adopted as a flower power anthem. The Beatles' use of psychedelic drugs was at its height during that summer. In July and August, the group pursued interests related to similar utopian-based ideology, including a week-long investigation into the possibility of starting an island-based commune off the coast of Greece. On 24 August, the group were introduced to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in London. The next day, they travelled to Bangor for his Transcendental Meditation retreat. On 27 August, their manager's assistant, Peter Brown, phoned to inform them that Epstein had died. The coroner ruled the death an accidental carbitol overdose, although it was widely rumoured to be a suicide. His death left the group disoriented and fearful about the future. Lennon recalled: "We collapsed. I knew that we were in trouble then. I didn't really have any misconceptions about our ability to do anything other than play music, and I was scared. I thought, 'We've fuckin' had it now.'" Harrison's then-wife Pattie Boyd remembered that "Paul and George were in complete shock. I don't think it could have been worse if they had heard that their own fathers had dropped dead." During a band meeting in September, McCartney recommended that the band proceed with Magical Mystery Tour. The Magical Mystery Tour soundtrack was released in the UK as a six-track double extended play (EP) in early December 1967. It was the first example of a double EP in the UK. The record carried on the psychedelic vein of Sgt. Pepper, though in line with the band's wishes, the packaging reinforced the idea that the release was a film soundtrack rather than a follow-up to Sgt. Pepper. In the US, the soundtrack appeared as an identically titled LP that also included five tracks from the band's recent singles. In its first three weeks, the album set a record for the highest initial sales of any Capitol LP, and it is the only Capitol compilation later to be adopted in the band's official canon of studio albums. Magical Mystery Tour first aired on Boxing Day to an audience of approximately 15 million. Largely directed by McCartney, the film was the band's first critical failure in the UK. It was dismissed as "blatant rubbish" by the Daily Express; the Daily Mail called it "a colossal conceit"; and The Guardian labelled the film "a kind of fantasy morality play about the grossness and warmth and stupidity of the audience". Gould describes it as "a great deal of raw footage showing a group of people getting on, getting off, and riding on a bus". Although the viewership figures were respectable, its slating in the press led US television networks to lose interest in broadcasting the film. The group were less involved with Yellow Submarine, which featured the band appearing as themselves for only a short live-action segment. Premiering in July 1968, the film featured cartoon versions of the band members and a soundtrack with eleven of their songs, including four unreleased studio recordings that made their debut in the film. Critics praised the film for its music, humour and innovative visual style. A soundtrack LP was issued seven months later; it contained those four new songs, the title track (already issued on Revolver), "All You Need Is Love" (already issued as a single and on the US Magical Mystery Tour LP) and seven instrumental pieces composed by Martin. India retreat, Apple Corps and the White Album In February 1968, the Beatles travelled to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram in Rishikesh, India, to take part in a three-month meditation "Guide Course". Their time in India marked one of the band's most prolific periods, yielding numerous songs, including a majority of those on their next album. However, Starr left after only ten days, unable to stomach the food, and McCartney eventually grew bored and departed a month later. For Lennon and Harrison, creativity turned to question when an electronics technician known as Magic Alex suggested that the Maharishi was attempting to manipulate them. When he alleged that the Maharishi had made sexual advances to women attendees, a persuaded Lennon left abruptly just two months into the course, bringing an unconvinced Harrison and the remainder of the group's entourage with him. In anger, Lennon wrote a scathing song titled "Maharishi", renamed "Sexy Sadie" to avoid potential legal issues. McCartney said, "We made a mistake. We thought there was more to him than there was." In May, Lennon and McCartney travelled to New York for the public unveiling of the Beatles' new business venture, Apple Corps. It was initially formed several months earlier as part of a plan to create a tax-effective business structure, but the band then desired to extend the corporation to other pursuits, including record distribution, peace activism, and education. McCartney described Apple as "rather like a Western communism". The enterprise drained the group financially with a series of unsuccessful projects handled largely by members of the Beatles' entourage, who were given their jobs regardless of talent and experience. Among its numerous subsidiaries were Apple Electronics, established to foster technological innovations with Magic Alex at the head, and Apple Retailing, which opened the short-lived Apple Boutique in London. Harrison later said, "Basically, it was chaos ... John and Paul got carried away with the idea and blew millions, and Ringo and I just had to go along with it." From late May to mid-October 1968, the group recorded what became The Beatles, a double LP commonly known as "the White Album" for its virtually featureless cover. During this time, relations between the members grew openly divisive. Starr quit for two weeks, leaving his bandmates to record "Back in the U.S.S.R." and "Dear Prudence" as a trio, with McCartney filling in on drums. Lennon had lost interest in collaborating with McCartney, whose contribution "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" he scorned as "granny music shit". Tensions were further aggravated by Lennon's romantic preoccupation with avant-garde artist Yoko Ono, whom he insisted on bringing to the sessions despite the group's well-established understanding that girlfriends were not allowed in the studio. McCartney has recalled that the album "wasn't a pleasant one to make". He and Lennon identified the sessions as the start of the band's break-up. With the record, the band executed a wider range of musical styles and broke with their recent tradition of incorporating several musical styles in one song by keeping each piece of music consistently faithful to a select genre. During the sessions, the group upgraded to an eight-track tape console, which made it easier for them to layer tracks piecemeal, while the members often recorded independently of each other, affording the album a reputation as a collection of solo recordings rather than a unified group effort. Describing the double album, Lennon later said: "Every track is an individual track; there isn't any Beatle music on it. [It's] John and the band, Paul and the band, George and the band." The sessions also produced the Beatles' longest song yet, "Hey Jude", released in August as a non-album single with "Revolution". Issued in November, the White Album was the band's first Apple Records album release, although EMI continued to own their recordings. The record attracted more than 2 million advance orders, selling nearly 4 million copies in the US in little over a month, and its tracks dominated the playlists of American radio stations. Its lyrical content was the focus of much analysis by the counterculture. Despite its popularity, reviewers were largely confused by the album's content, and it failed to inspire the level of critical writing that Sgt. Pepper had. Abbey Road, Let It Be and separation Although Let It Be was the Beatles' final album release, it was largely recorded before Abbey Road. The project's impetus came from an idea Martin attributes to McCartney, who suggested they "record an album of new material and rehearse it, then perform it before a live audience for the very first time – on record and on film". Originally intended for a one-hour television programme to be called Beatles at Work, in the event much of the album's content came from studio work beginning in January 1969, many hours of which were captured on film by director Michael Lindsay-Hogg. Martin said that the project was "not at all a happy recording experience. It was a time when relations between the Beatles were at their lowest ebb." Lennon described the largely impromptu sessions as "hell ... the most miserable ... on Earth", and Harrison, "the low of all-time". Irritated by McCartney and Lennon, Harrison walked out for five days. Upon returning, he threatened to leave the band unless they "abandon[ed] all talk of live performance" and instead focused on finishing a new album, initially titled Get Back, using songs recorded for the TV special. He also demanded they cease work at Twickenham Film Studios, where the sessions had begun, and relocate to the newly finished Apple Studio. His bandmates agreed, and it was decided to salvage the footage shot for the TV production for use in a feature film. To alleviate tensions within the band and improve the quality of their live sound, Harrison invited keyboardist Billy Preston to participate in the last nine days of sessions. Preston received label billing on the "Get Back" single – the only musician ever to receive that acknowledgment on an official Beatles release. After the rehearsals, the band could not agree on a location to film a concert, rejecting several ideas, including a boat at sea, a lunatic asylum, the Libyan desert, and the Colosseum. Ultimately, what would be their final live performance was filmed on the rooftop of the Apple Corps building at 3 Savile Row, London, on 30 January 1969. Five weeks later, engineer Glyn Johns, whom Lewisohn describes as Get Back's "uncredited producer", began work assembling an album, given "free rein" as the band "all but washed their hands of the entire project". New strains developed between the band members regarding the appointment of a financial adviser, the need for which had become evident without Epstein to manage business affairs. Lennon, Harrison and Starr favoured Allen Klein, who had managed the Rolling Stones and Sam Cooke; McCartney wanted Lee and John Eastman – father and brother, respectively, of Linda Eastman, whom McCartney married on 12 March. Agreement could not be reached, so both Klein and the Eastmans were temporarily appointed: Klein as the Beatles' business manager and the Eastmans as their lawyers. Further conflict ensued, however, and financial opportunities were lost. On 8 May, Klein was named sole manager of the band, the Eastmans having previously been dismissed as the Beatles' lawyers. McCartney refused to sign the management contract with Klein, but he was out-voted by the other Beatles. Martin stated that he was surprised when McCartney asked him to produce another album, as the Get Back sessions had been "a miserable experience" and he had "thought it was the end of the road for all of us". The primary recording sessions for Abbey Road began on 2 July. Lennon, who rejected Martin's proposed format of a "continuously moving piece of music", wanted his and McCartney's songs to occupy separate sides of the album. The eventual format, with individually composed songs on the first side and the second consisting largely of a medley, was McCartney's suggested compromise. Emerick noted that the replacement of the studio's valve-based mixing console with a transistorised one yielded a less punchy sound, leaving the group frustrated at the thinner tone and lack of impact and contributing to its "kinder, gentler" feel relative to their previous albums. On 4 July, the first solo single by a Beatle was released: Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance", credited to the Plastic Ono Band. The completion and mixing of "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" on 20 August was the last occasion on which all four Beatles were together in the same studio. On 8 September, while Starr was in hospital, the other band members met to discuss recording a new album. They considered a different approach to songwriting by ending the Lennon–McCartney pretence and having four compositions apiece from Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, with two from Starr and a lead single around Christmas. On 20 September, Lennon announced his departure to the rest of the group but agreed to withhold a public announcement to avoid undermining sales of the forthcoming album. Released on 26 September, Abbey Road sold four million copies within three months and topped the UK charts for a total of seventeen weeks. Its second track, the ballad "Something", was issued as a single – the only Harrison composition that appeared as a Beatles A-side. Abbey Road received mixed reviews, although the medley met with general acclaim. Unterberger considers it "a fitting swan song for the group", containing "some of the greatest harmonies to be heard on any rock record". Musicologist and author Ian MacDonald calls the album "erratic and often hollow", despite the "semblance of unity and coherence" offered by the medley. Martin singled it out as his favourite Beatles album; Lennon said it was "competent" but had "no life in it". For the still unfinished Get Back album, one last song, Harrison's "I Me Mine", was recorded on 3 January 1970. Lennon, in Denmark at the time, did not participate. In March, rejecting the work Johns had done on the project, now retitled Let It Be, Klein gave the session tapes to American producer Phil Spector, who had recently produced Lennon's solo single "Instant Karma!" In addition to remixing the material, Spector edited, spliced and overdubbed several of the recordings that had been intended as "live". McCartney was unhappy with the producer's approach and particularly dissatisfied with the lavish orchestration on "The Long and Winding Road", which involved a fourteen-voice choir and 36-piece instrumental ensemble. McCartney's demands that the alterations to the song be reverted were ignored, and he publicly announced his departure from the band on 10 April, a week before the release of his first self-titled solo album. On 8 May 1970, Let It Be was released. Its accompanying single, "The Long and Winding Road", was expected to be the Beatles' last; it was released in the US, but not in the UK. The Let It Be documentary film followed later that month, and would win the 1970 Academy Award for Best Original Song Score. Sunday Telegraph critic Penelope Gilliatt called it "a very bad film and a touching one ... about the breaking apart of this reassuring, geometrically perfect, once apparently ageless family of siblings". Several reviewers stated that some of the performances in the film sounded better than their analogous album tracks. Describing Let It Be as the "only Beatles album to occasion negative, even hostile reviews", Unterberger calls it "on the whole underrated"; he singles out "some good moments of straight hard rock in 'I've Got a Feeling' and 'Dig a Pony'" and praises "Let It Be", "Get Back", and "the folky 'Two of Us', with John and Paul harmonising together". McCartney filed suit for the dissolution of the Beatles' contractual partnership on 31 December 1970. Legal disputes continued long after their break-up, and the dissolution was not formalised until 29 December 1974, when Lennon signed the paperwork terminating the partnership while on vacation with his family at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. After the breakup 1970s Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr all released solo albums in 1970. Their solo records sometimes involved one or more of the other members; Starr's Ringo (1973) was the only album to include compositions and performances by all four ex-Beatles, albeit on separate songs. With Starr's participation, Harrison staged the Concert for Bangladesh in New York City in August 1971. Other than an unreleased jam session in 1974, later bootlegged as A Toot and a Snore in '74, Lennon and McCartney never recorded together again. Two double-LP sets of the Beatles' greatest hits, compiled by Klein, 1962–1966 and 1967–1970, were released in 1973, at first under the Apple Records imprint. Commonly known as the "Red Album" and "Blue Album", respectively, each has earned a Multi-Platinum certification in the US and a Platinum certification in the UK. Between 1976 and 1982, EMI/Capitol released a wave of compilation albums without input from the ex-Beatles, starting with the double-disc compilation Rock 'n' Roll Music. The only one to feature previously unreleased material was The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl (1977); the first officially issued concert recordings by the group, it contained selections from two shows they played during their 1964 and 1965 US tours. The music and enduring fame of the Beatles were commercially exploited in various other ways, again often outside their creative control. In April 1974, the musical John, Paul, George, Ringo ... and Bert, written by Willy Russell and featuring singer Barbara Dickson, opened in London. It included, with permission from Northern Songs, eleven Lennon–McCartney compositions and one by Harrison, "Here Comes the Sun". Displeased with the production's use of his song, Harrison withdrew his permission to use it. Later that year, the off-Broadway musical Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road opened. All This and World War II (1976) was an unorthodox nonfiction film that combined newsreel footage with covers of Beatles songs by performers ranging from Elton John and Keith Moon to the London Symphony Orchestra. The Broadway musical Beatlemania, an unauthorised nostalgia revue, opened in early 1977 and proved popular, spinning off five separate touring productions. In 1979, the band sued the producers, settling for several million dollars in damages. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978), a musical film starring the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton, was a commercial failure and an "artistic fiasco", according to Ingham. Accompanying the wave of Beatles nostalgia and persistent reunion rumours in the US during the 1970s, several entrepreneurs made public offers to the Beatles for a reunion concert. Promoter Bill Sargent first offered the Beatles $10 million for a reunion concert in 1974. He raised his offer to $30 million in January 1976 and then to $50 million the following month. On 24 April 1976, during a broadcast of Saturday Night Live, producer Lorne Michaels jokingly offered the Beatles $3,000 to reunite on the show. Lennon and McCartney were watching the live broadcast at Lennon's apartment at the Dakota in New York, which was within driving distance of the NBC studio where the show was being broadcast. The former bandmates briefly entertained the idea of going to the studio and surprising Michaels by accepting his offer, but decided not to. 1980s In December 1980, Lennon was shot and killed outside his New York City apartment. Harrison rewrote the lyrics of his song "All Those Years Ago" in Lennon's honour. With Starr on drums and McCartney and his wife, Linda, contributing backing vocals, the song was released as a single in May 1981. McCartney's own tribute, "Here Today", appeared on his Tug of War album in April 1982. In 1984, Starr co-starred in McCartney's film Give My Regards to Broad Street, and played with McCartney on several of the songs on the soundtrack. In 1987, Harrison's Cloud Nine album included "When We Was Fab", a song about the Beatlemania era. When the Beatles' studio albums were released on CD by EMI and Apple Corps in 1987, their catalogue was standardised throughout the world, establishing a canon of the twelve original studio LPs as issued in the UK plus the US LP version of Magical Mystery Tour. All the remaining material from the singles and EPs that had not appeared on these thirteen studio albums was gathered on the two-volume compilation Past Masters (1988). Except for the Red and Blue albums, EMI deleted all its other Beatles compilations – including the Hollywood Bowl record – from its catalogue. In 1988, the Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, their first year of eligibility. Harrison and Starr attended the ceremony with Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, and his two sons, Julian and Sean. McCartney declined to attend, citing unresolved "business differences" that would make him "feel like a complete hypocrite waving and smiling with them at a fake reunion". The following year, EMI/Capitol settled a decade-long lawsuit filed by the band over royalties, clearing the way to commercially package previously unreleased material. 1990s Live at the BBC, the first official release of unissued Beatles performances in seventeen years, appeared in 1994. That same year McCartney, Harrison and Starr collaborated on the Anthology project. Anthology was the culmination of work begun in 1970, when Apple Corps director Neil Aspinall, their former road manager and personal assistant, had started to gather material for a documentary with the working title The Long and Winding Road. During 1995–96, the project yielded a television miniseries, an eight-volume video set, and three two-CD/three-LP box sets featuring artwork by Klaus Voormann. Documenting their history in the band's own words, the Anthology project included the release of several unissued Beatles recordings. Alongside producer Jeff Lynne, McCartney, Harrison and Starr also added new instrumental and vocal parts to songs recorded as demos by Lennon in the late 1970s, resulting in the release of two "new" Beatles singles, "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love". A third Lennon demo, "Now and Then", was also attempted, but abandoned due to the low quality of the recording. The Anthology releases were commercially successful and the television series was viewed by an estimated 400 million people. A book, The Beatles Anthology, followed in October 2000. In 1999, to coincide with the re-release of the 1968 film Yellow Submarine, an expanded soundtrack album, Yellow Submarine Songtrack, was issued. 2000s The Beatles' 1, a compilation album of the band's British and American number-one hits, was released on 13 November 2000. It became the fastest-selling album of all time, with 3.6 million sold in its first week and 13 million within a month. It topped albums charts in at least 28 countries. The compilation had sold 31 million copies globally by April 2009. Harrison died from metastatic lung cancer in November 2001. McCartney and Starr were among the musicians who performed at the Concert for George, organised by Eric Clapton and Harrison's widow, Olivia. The tribute event took place at the Royal Albert Hall on the first anniversary of Harrison's death. In 2003, Let It Be... Naked, a reconceived version of the Let It Be album, with McCartney supervising production, was released. One of the main differences from the Spector-produced version was the omission of the original string arrangements. It was a top-ten hit in both Britain and America. The US album configurations from 1964 to 1965 were released as box sets in 2004 and 2006; The Capitol Albums, Volume 1 and Volume 2 included both stereo and mono versions based on the mixes that were prepared for vinyl at the time of the music's original American release. As a soundtrack for Cirque du Soleil's Las Vegas Beatles stage revue, Love, George Martin and his son Giles remixed and blended 130 of the band's recordings to create what Martin called "a way of re-living the whole Beatles musical lifespan in a very condensed period". The show premiered in June 2006, and the Love album was released that November. In April 2009, Starr performed three songs with McCartney at a benefit concert held at New York's Radio City Music Hall and organised by McCartney. On 9 September 2009, the Beatles' entire back catalogue was reissued following an extensive digital remastering process that lasted four years. Stereo editions of all twelve original UK studio albums, along with Magical Mystery Tour and the Past Masters compilation, were released on compact disc both individually and as a box set. A second collection, The Beatles in Mono, included remastered versions of every Beatles album released in true mono along with the original 1965 stereo mixes of Help! and Rubber Soul (both of which Martin had remixed for the 1987 editions). The Beatles: Rock Band, a music video game in the Rock Band series, was issued on the same day. In December 2009, the band's catalogue was officially released in FLAC and MP3 format in a limited edition of 30,000 USB flash drives. 2010s Owing to a long-running royalty disagreement, the Beatles were among the last major artists to sign deals with online music services. Residual disagreement emanating from Apple Corps' dispute with Apple, Inc., iTunes' owners, over the use of the name "Apple" was also partly responsible for the delay, although in 2008, McCartney stated that the main obstacle to making the Beatles' catalogue available online was that EMI "want[s] something we're not prepared to give them". In 2010, the official canon of thirteen Beatles studio albums, Past Masters, and the "Red" and "Blue" greatest-hits albums were made available on iTunes. In 2012, EMI's recorded music operations were sold to Universal Music Group. In order for Universal Music to acquire EMI, the European Union, for antitrust reasons, forced EMI to spin off assets including Parlophone. Universal was allowed to keep the Beatles' recorded music catalogue, managed by Capitol Records under its Capitol Music Group division. The entire original Beatles album catalogue was also reissued on vinyl in 2012; available either individually or as a box set. In 2013, a second volume of BBC recordings, On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2, was released. That December saw the release of another 59 Beatles recordings on iTunes. The set, titled The Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1963, had the opportunity to gain a 70-year copyright extension conditional on the songs being published at least once before the end of 2013. Apple Records released the recordings on 17 December to prevent them from going into the public domain and had them taken down from iTunes later that same day. Fan reactions to the release were mixed, with one blogger saying "the hardcore Beatles collectors who are trying to obtain everything will already have these." On 26 January 2014, McCartney and Starr performed together at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The following day, The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to the Beatles television special was taped in the Los Angeles Convention Center's West Hall. It aired on 9 February, the exact date of – and at the same time, and on the same network as – the original broadcast of the Beatles' first US television appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, 50 years earlier. The special included performances of Beatles songs by current artists as well as by McCartney and Starr, archival footage, and interviews with the two surviving ex-Beatles carried out by David Letterman at the Ed Sullivan Theater. In December 2015, the Beatles released their catalogue for streaming on various streaming music services including Spotify and Apple Music. In September 2016, the documentary film The Beatles: Eight Days a Week was released. Directed by Ron Howard, it chronicled the Beatles' career during their touring years from 1961 to 1966, from their performances in Liverpool's the Cavern Club in 1961 to their final concert in San Francisco in 1966. The film was released theatrically on 15 September in the UK and the US, and started streaming on Hulu on 17 September. It received several awards and nominations, including for Best Documentary at the 70th British Academy Film Awards and the Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special at the 69th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards. An expanded, remixed and remastered version of The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl was released on 9 September, to coincide with the release of the film. On 18 May 2017, Sirius XM Radio launched a 24/7 radio channel, The Beatles Channel. A week later, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was reissued with new stereo mixes and unreleased material for the album's 50th anniversary. Similar box sets were released for The Beatles in November 2018, and Abbey Road in September 2019. On the first week of October 2019, Abbey Road returned to number one on the UK Albums Chart. The Beatles broke their own record for the album with the longest gap between topping the charts as Abbey Road hit the top spot 50 years after its original release. 2020s In November 2021, The Beatles: Get Back, a documentary directed by Peter Jackson using footage captured for the Let It Be film, was released on Disney+ as a three-part miniseries. A book also titled The Beatles: Get Back was released on 12 October, ahead of the documentary. A super deluxe version of the Let It Be album was released on 15 October. In January 2022, the album Get Back (Rooftop Performance), consisting of newly mixed audio of the Beatles' rooftop performance, was released on streaming services. In 2022, McCartney and Starr collaborated on a new recording of "Let It Be" with Dolly Parton, Peter Frampton and Mick Fleetwood, which was released on Parton's album Rockstar in November 2023. In October, a special edition of Revolver was released, featuring unreleased demos, studio outtakes, the original mono mix and a new stereo remix using AI de-mixing technology developed by Peter Jackson's WingNut Films, which had previously been used to restore audio for the documentary Get Back. New music videos were produced for "Here, There and Everywhere" and "I'm Only Sleeping", the latter of which won the Grammy Award for Best Music Video at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards. In June 2023, McCartney announced plans to release "the final Beatles record" later in the year, using Jackson's de-mixing technology to extract Lennon's voice from an old demo of a song that he had written as a solo artist. In October 2023, the song was revealed to be "Now and Then", with a physical and digital release date of 2 November 2023. The official music video for "Now and Then" was released the following day, garnering upwards of 8 million views in its first 12 hours, as the song arrived on Spotify's rankings as one of the most-streamed current songs. "Now and Then" debuted simultaneously across music, alternative, news/talk and sports stations. The song's premiere achieved the record for the most radio stations to simulcast a music track. The song became their first UK number one single since 1969. On 8 May 2024 the 1970 film Let It Be, digitally restored by Peter Jackson's Park Road Post, was released on Disney+, marking the first time it has been publicly screened since its original theatrical release. Artistry Development In Icons of Rock: An Encyclopedia of the Legends Who Changed Music Forever, Scott Schinder and Andy Schwartz describe the Beatles' musical evolution: In their initial incarnation as cheerful, wisecracking moptops, the Fab Four revolutionised the sound, style, and attitude of popular music and opened rock and roll's doors to a tidal wave of British rock acts. Their initial impact would have been enough to establish the Beatles as one of their era's most influential cultural forces, but they didn't stop there. Although their initial style was a highly original, irresistibly catchy synthesis of early American rock and roll and R&B, the Beatles spent the rest of the 1960s expanding rock's stylistic frontiers, consistently staking out new musical territory on each release. The band's increasingly sophisticated experimentation encompassed a variety of genres, including folk-rock, country, psychedelia, and baroque pop, without sacrificing the effortless mass appeal of their early work. In The Beatles as Musicians, Walter Everett describes Lennon and McCartney's contrasting motivations and approaches to composition: "McCartney may be said to have constantly developed – as a means to entertain – a focused musical talent with an ear for counterpoint and other aspects of craft in the demonstration of a universally agreed-upon common language that he did much to enrich. Conversely, Lennon's mature music is best appreciated as the daring product of a largely unconscious, searching but undisciplined artistic sensibility." Ian MacDonald describes McCartney as "a natural melodist – a creator of tunes capable of existing apart from their harmony". His melody lines are characterised as primarily "vertical", employing wide, consonant intervals which express his "extrovert energy and optimism". Conversely, Lennon's "sedentary, ironic personality" is reflected in a "horizontal" approach featuring minimal, dissonant intervals and repetitive melodies which rely on their harmonic accompaniment for interest: "Basically a realist, he instinctively kept his melodies close to the rhythms and cadences of speech, colouring his lyrics with bluesy tone and harmony rather than creating tunes that made striking shapes of their own." MacDonald praises Harrison's lead guitar work for the role his "characterful lines and textural colourings" play in supporting Lennon and McCartney's parts and describes Starr as "the father of modern pop/rock drumming". Influences The Beatles' earliest influences include Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Gene Vincent. During the Beatles' co-residency with Little Richard at the Star-Club in Hamburg, from April to May 1962, he advised them on the proper technique for performing his songs. Of Presley, Lennon said, "Nothing really affected me until I heard Elvis. If there hadn't been Elvis, there would not have been the Beatles." Chuck Berry was particularly influential in terms of songwriting and lyrics. Lennon noted, "He was well advanced of his time lyric-wise. We all owe a lot to him." Other early influences include Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, Roy Orbison, the Everly Brothers and Jerry Lee Lewis. The Beatles continued to absorb influences long after their initial success, often finding new musical and lyrical avenues by listening to their contemporaries, including Bob Dylan, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Who, Frank Zappa, the Lovin' Spoonful, the Byrds and the Beach Boys, whose 1966 album Pet Sounds amazed and inspired McCartney. Referring to the Beach Boys' creative leader, Martin later stated: "No one made a greater impact on the Beatles than Brian [Wilson]." Ravi Shankar, with whom Harrison studied for six weeks in India in late 1966, had a significant effect on his musical development during the band's later years. Genres Originating as a skiffle group, the Beatles quickly embraced 1950s rock and roll and helped pioneer the Merseybeat genre, and their repertoire ultimately expanded to include a broad variety of pop music. Reflecting the range of styles they explored, Lennon said of Beatles for Sale, "You could call our new one a Beatles country-and-western LP", while Gould credits Rubber Soul as "the instrument by which legions of folk-music enthusiasts were coaxed into the camp of pop". Although the 1965 song "Yesterday" was not the first pop record to employ orchestral strings, it marked the group's first recorded use of classical music elements. Gould observes, "The more traditional sound of strings allowed for a fresh appreciation of their talent as composers by listeners who were otherwise allergic to the din of drums and electric guitars." They continued to experiment with string arrangements to various effect; Sgt. Pepper's "She's Leaving Home", for instance, is "cast in the mold of a sentimental Victorian ballad", Gould writes, "its words and music filled with the clichés of musical melodrama". The band's stylistic range expanded in another direction with their 1966 B-side "Rain", described by Martin Strong as "the first overtly psychedelic Beatles record". Other psychedelic numbers followed, such as "Tomorrow Never Knows" (recorded before "Rain"), "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", and "I Am the Walrus". The influence of Indian classical music was evident in Harrison's "The Inner Light", "Love You To", and "Within You Without You" – Gould describes the latter two as attempts "to replicate the raga form in miniature". Innovation was the most striking feature of their creative evolution, according to music historian and pianist Michael Campbell: "'A Day in the Life' encapsulates the art and achievement of the Beatles as well as any single track can. It highlights key features of their music: the sound imagination, the persistence of tuneful melody, and the close coordination between words and music. It represents a new category of song – more sophisticated than pop ... and uniquely innovative. There literally had never before been a song – classical or vernacular – that had blended so many disparate elements so imaginatively." Philosophy professor Bruce Ellis Benson agrees: "The Beatles ... give us a wonderful example of how such far-ranging influences as Celtic music, rhythm and blues, and country and western could be put together in a new way." Author Dominic Pedler describes the way they crossed musical styles: "Far from moving sequentially from one genre to another (as is sometimes conveniently suggested) the group maintained in parallel their mastery of the traditional, catchy chart hit while simultaneously forging rock and dabbling with a wide range of peripheral influences from country to vaudeville. One of these threads was their take on folk music, which would form such essential groundwork for their later collisions with Indian music and philosophy." As the personal relationships between the band members grew increasingly strained, their individual tastes became more apparent. The minimalistic cover artwork for the White Album contrasted with the complexity and diversity of its music, which encompassed Lennon's "Revolution 9" (whose musique concrète approach was influenced by Yoko Ono), Starr's country song "Don't Pass Me By", Harrison's rock ballad "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", and the "proto-metal roar" of McCartney's "Helter Skelter". Contribution of George Martin George Martin's close involvement in his role as producer made him one of the leading candidates for the informal title of the "fifth Beatle". He applied his classical musical training in various ways, and functioned as "an informal music teacher" to the progressing songwriters, according to Gould. Martin suggested to a sceptical McCartney that the arrangement of "Yesterday" should feature a string quartet accompaniment, thereby introducing the Beatles to a "hitherto unsuspected world of classical instrumental colour", in MacDonald's description. Their creative development was also facilitated by Martin's willingness to experiment in response to their suggestions, such as adding "something baroque" to a particular recording. In addition to scoring orchestral arrangements for recordings, Martin often performed on them, playing instruments including piano, organ and brass. Collaborating with Lennon and McCartney required Martin to adapt to their different approaches to songwriting and recording. MacDonald comments, "while [he] worked more naturally with the conventionally articulate McCartney, the challenge of catering to Lennon's intuitive approach generally spurred him to his more original arrangements, of which "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" is an outstanding example." Martin said of the two composers' distinct songwriting styles and his stabilising influence: Compared with Paul's songs, all of which seemed to keep in some sort of touch with reality, John's had a psychedelic, almost mystical quality ... John's imagery is one of the best things about his work – 'tangerine trees', 'marmalade skies', 'cellophane flowers' ... I always saw him as an aural Salvador Dalí, rather than some drug-ridden record artist. On the other hand, I would be stupid to pretend that drugs didn't figure quite heavily in the Beatles' lives at that time ... they knew that I, in my schoolmasterly role, didn't approve ... Not only was I not into it myself, I couldn't see the need for it; and there's no doubt that, if I too had been on dope, Pepper would never have been the album it was. Perhaps it was the combination of dope and no dope that worked, who knows? Harrison echoed Martin's description of his stabilising role: "I think we just grew through those years together, him as the straight man and us as the loonies; but he was always there for us to interpret our madness – we used to be slightly avant-garde on certain days of the week, and he would be there as the anchor person, to communicate that through the engineers and on to the tape." In the studio Making innovative use of technology while expanding the possibilities of recorded music, the Beatles urged experimentation by Martin and his recording engineers. Seeking ways to put chance occurrences to creative use, accidental guitar feedback, a resonating glass bottle, a tape loaded the wrong way round so that it played backwards – any of these might be incorporated into their music. Their desire to create new sounds on every new recording, combined with Martin's arranging abilities and the studio expertise of EMI staff engineers Norman Smith, Ken Townsend and Geoff Emerick, all contributed significantly to their records from Rubber Soul and, especially, Revolver onwards. Along with innovative studio techniques such as sound effects, unconventional microphone placements, tape loops, double tracking, and vari-speed recording, the Beatles augmented their songs with instruments that were unconventional in rock music at the time. These included string and brass ensembles as well as Indian instruments such as the sitar in "Norwegian Wood" and the swarmandal in "Strawberry Fields Forever". They also used novel electronic instruments such as the Mellotron, with which McCartney supplied the flute voices on the "Strawberry Fields Forever" intro, and the clavioline, an electronic keyboard that created the unusual oboe-like sound on "Baby, You're a Rich Man". Legacy Former Rolling Stone magazine associate editor Robert Greenfield compared the Beatles to Picasso, as "artists who broke through the constraints of their time period to come up with something that was unique and original ... [I]n the form of popular music, no one will ever be more revolutionary, more creative and more distinctive ..." The British poet Philip Larkin described their work as "an enchanting and intoxicating hybrid of Negro rock-and-roll with their own adolescent romanticism" and "the first advance in popular music since the War". In 1964, the Beatles' arrival in the U.S. is credited with initiating the album era; the music historian Joel Whitburn says that LP sales soon "exploded and eventually outpaced the sales and releases of singles" in the music industry. They not only sparked the British Invasion of the US, they became a globally influential phenomenon as well. From the 1920s, the US had dominated popular entertainment culture throughout much of the world, via Hollywood films, jazz, the music of Broadway and Tin Pan Alley, and later, the rock and roll that first emerged in Memphis, Tennessee. The Beatles are regarded as British cultural icons, with young adults from abroad naming the band among a group of people whom they most associated with UK culture. Their musical innovations and commercial success inspired musicians worldwide. Many artists have acknowledged the Beatles' influence and enjoyed chart success with covers of their songs. On radio, their arrival marked the beginning of a new era; in 1968 the programme director of New York's WABC radio station forbade his DJs from playing any "pre-Beatles" music, marking the defining line of what would be considered oldies on American radio. They helped to redefine the album as something more than just a few hits padded out with "filler", and they were primary innovators of the modern music video. The Shea Stadium show with which they opened their 1965 North American tour attracted an estimated 55,600 people, then the largest audience in concert history; Spitz describes the event as a "major breakthrough ... a giant step toward reshaping the concert business". Emulation of their clothing and especially their hairstyles, which became a mark of rebellion, had a global impact on fashion. According to Gould, the Beatles changed the way people listened to popular music and experienced its role in their lives. From what began as the Beatlemania fad, the group's popularity grew into what was seen as an embodiment of sociocultural movements of the decade. As icons of the 1960s counterculture, Gould continues, they became a catalyst for bohemianism and activism in various social and political arenas, fuelling movements such as women's liberation, gay liberation and environmentalism. According to Peter Lavezzoli, after the "more popular than Jesus" controversy in 1966, the Beatles felt considerable pressure to say the right things and "began a concerted effort to spread a message of wisdom and higher consciousness". Other commentators such as Mikal Gilmore and Todd Leopold have traced the inception of their socio-cultural impact earlier, interpreting even the Beatlemania period, particularly on their first visit to the US, as a key moment in the development of generational awareness. Referring to their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show Leopold states: "In many ways, the Sullivan appearance marked the beginning of a cultural revolution ... The Beatles were like aliens dropped into the United States of 1964." According to Gilmore: Elvis Presley had shown us how rebellion could be fashioned into eye-opening style; the Beatles were showing us how style could have the impact of cultural revelation – or at least how a pop vision might be forged into an unimpeachable consensus. Established in 2009, Global Beatles Day is an annual holiday on 25 June each year that honours and celebrates the ideals of the Beatles. The date was chosen to commemorate the date the group participated in the BBC programme Our World in 1967, performing "All You Need Is Love" broadcast to an international audience. Awards and achievements In 1965, Queen Elizabeth II appointed Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). The Beatles won the 1971 Academy Award for Best Original Song Score for the film Let It Be (1970). The recipients of seven Grammy Awards and fifteen Ivor Novello Awards, the Beatles have six Diamond albums, as well as 20 Multi-Platinum albums, 16 Platinum albums and six Gold albums in the US. In the UK, the Beatles have four Multi-Platinum albums, four Platinum albums, eight Gold albums and one Silver album. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. The best-selling band in history, the Beatles have sold more than 600 million units as of 2012. From 1991 to 2009 the Beatles sold 57 million albums in United States, according to Nielsen Soundscan. They have had more number-one albums on the UK charts, fifteen, and sold more singles in the UK, 21.9 million, than any other act. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the Beatles as the most significant and influential rock music artists of the last 50 years. They ranked number one on Billboard magazine's list of the all-time most successful Hot 100 artists, released in 2008 to celebrate the US singles chart's 50th anniversary. As of 2017, they hold the record for most number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100, with twenty. The Recording Industry Association of America certifies that the Beatles have sold 183 million units in the US, more than any other artist. They were collectively included in Time magazine's compilation of the 20th century's 100 most influential people. In 2014, they received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. On 16 January each year, beginning in 2001, people celebrate World Beatles Day under UNESCO. This date has direct relation to the opening of the Cavern Club in 1957. In 2007, the Beatles became the first band to feature on a series of UK postage stamps issued by the Royal Mail. Earlier in 1999, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp dedicated to the Beatles and Yellow Submarine. In 2004 and 2011, Rolling Stone named them the greatest artist of all time. Personnel Timeline Discography The Beatles' core catalogue consists of thirteen studio albums and one compilation album which collects all the UK non-album singles and EP tracks: Song catalogue Until 1969, the Beatles' catalogue was published almost exclusively by Northern Songs Ltd, a company formed in February 1963 by music publisher Dick James specifically for Lennon and McCartney, though it later acquired songs by other artists. The company was organised with James and his partner, Emmanuel Silver, owning a controlling interest, variously described as 51% or 50% plus one share. McCartney had 20%. Reports again vary concerning Lennon's portion – 19 or 20% – and Brian Epstein's – 9 or 10% – which he received in lieu of a 25% band management fee. In 1965, the company went public. Five million shares were created, of which the original principals retained 3.75 million. James and Silver each received 937,500 shares (18.75% of 5 million); Lennon and McCartney each received 750,000 shares (15%); and Epstein's management company, NEMS Enterprises, received 375,000 shares (7.5%). Of the 1.25 million shares put up for sale, Harrison and Starr each acquired 40,000. At the time of the stock offering, Lennon and McCartney renewed their three-year publishing contracts, binding them to Northern Songs until 1973. Harrison created Harrisongs to represent his Beatles compositions, but signed a three-year contract with Northern Songs that gave it the copyright to his work through March 1968, which included "Taxman" and "Within You Without You". The songs on which Starr received co-writing credit before 1968, such as "What Goes On" and "Flying", were also Northern Songs copyrights. Harrison did not renew his contract with Northern Songs when it ended, signing instead with Apple Publishing while retaining the copyright to his work from that point on. Harrison thus owned the rights to his later Beatles songs such as "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Something". That year, as well, Starr created Startling Music, which holds the rights to his Beatles compositions, "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden". In March 1969, James arranged to sell his and his partner's shares of Northern Songs to the British broadcasting company Associated Television (ATV), founded by impresario Lew Grade, without first informing the Beatles. The band then made a bid to gain a controlling interest by attempting to work out a deal with a consortium of London brokerage firms that had accumulated a 14% holding. The deal collapsed over the objections of Lennon, who declared, "I'm sick of being fucked about by men in suits sitting on their fat arses in the City." By the end of May, ATV had acquired a majority stake in Northern Songs, controlling nearly the entire Lennon–McCartney catalogue, as well as any future material until 1973. In frustration, Lennon and McCartney sold their shares to ATV in late October 1969. In 1981, financial losses by ATV's parent company, Associated Communications Corporation (ACC), led it to attempt to sell its music division. According to authors Brian Southall and Rupert Perry, Grade contacted McCartney, offering ATV Music and Northern Songs for $30 million. According to an account McCartney gave in 1995, he met with Grade and explained he was interested solely in the Northern Songs catalogue if Grade were ever willing to "separate off" that portion of ATV Music. Soon afterwards, Grade offered to sell him Northern Songs for £20 million, giving the ex-Beatle "a week or so" to decide. By McCartney's account, he and Ono countered with a £5 million bid that was rejected. According to reports at the time, Grade refused to separate Northern Songs and turned down an offer of £21–25 million from McCartney and Ono for Northern Songs. In 1982, ACC was acquired in a takeover by Australian business magnate Robert Holmes à Court for £60 million. In 1985, Michael Jackson purchased ATV for a reported $47.5 million. The acquisition gave him control over the publishing rights to more than 200 Beatles songs, as well as 40,000 other copyrights. In 1995, in a deal that earned him a reported $110 million, Jackson merged his music publishing business with Sony, creating a new company, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, in which he held a 50% stake. The merger made the new company, then valued at over half a billion dollars, the third-largest music publisher in the world. In 2016, Sony acquired Jackson's share of Sony/ATV from the Jackson estate for $750 million. Despite the lack of publishing rights to most of their songs, Lennon's estate and McCartney continue to receive their respective shares of the writers' royalties, which together are 331⁄3% of total commercial proceeds in the US and which vary elsewhere around the world between 50 and 55%. Two of Lennon and McCartney's earliest songs – "Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You" – were published by an EMI subsidiary, Ardmore & Beechwood, before they signed with James. McCartney acquired their publishing rights from Ardmore in 1978, and they are the only two Beatles songs owned by McCartney's company MPL Communications. On 18 January 2017, McCartney filed a suit in the United States district court against Sony/ATV Music Publishing seeking to reclaim ownership of his share of the Lennon–McCartney song catalogue beginning in 2018. Under US copyright law, for works published before 1978 the author can reclaim copyrights assigned to a publisher after 56 years. McCartney and Sony agreed to a confidential settlement in June 2017. Selected filmography Fictionalised A Hard Day's Night (1964) Help! (1965) Magical Mystery Tour (1967) Yellow Submarine (1968) (brief cameo) Documentaries and filmed performances The Beatles at Shea Stadium (1966) Let It Be (1970) The Compleat Beatles (1982) It Was Twenty Years Ago Today (1987) (about Sgt. Pepper) The Beatles Anthology (1995) The Beatles: 1+ (2015) (collection of digitally restored music videos) The Beatles: Eight Days a Week (2016) (about Beatlemania and touring years) The Beatles: Get Back (2021) Now and Then: The Last Beatles Song (2023) (short film about the creation of "Now and Then") Concert tours See also Outline of the Beatles The Beatles timeline Grammy Award records – most Grammys won by a group List of songs recorded by the Beatles Notes References Citations Sources Further reading External links Official website The Beatles at Amazon Music The Beatles on the Internet Archive The Beatles on Twitter The Beatles at Curlie The Beatles – FBI file The Hugo Keesing Collection on the Beatles, University of Maryland, hdl:1903.1/4593

Ysaires Restituyo was a volleyball player known for playing in the NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit. How much older was her partner in 2007 than her partner in 2009?

2 years

Numerical reasoning

Ysaires Restituyo is a female beach volleyball player from Dominican Republic, who played in the NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit 2007 with Cinthia Piñeiro, 2008, with Ingrid Carmona and 2009 with Ana Ligia Fabian; at Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. References Ysaires Restituyo at the Beach Volleyball Database

Ana Ligia Fabian Hernández (born November 7, 1988) is a volleyball player from the Dominican Republic, who participated in the 2007 Junior World Championship in Thailand. She competed as wing spiker, wearing the #4 jersey. At the 2006 U-20 NORCECA Women´s Junior Continental Championship, she took with her team the silver medal. She participated with Ingrid Carmona at the NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit in 2007 and 2009 with Ysaires Restituyo, finishing in 11th and 9th position. Clubs Mirador (2003) Los Prados (2004–2005) Mirador (2006) Aviación (2006) Distrito Nacional (2007) San Juan (2008) References External links Ana Ligia Fabian Hernandez at the FIVB World Grand Prix 2006 Ana Ligia Fabian Hernandez at the Beach Volleyball Database Ana Ligia Fabian Hernandez at the FIVB beach volleyball database

Demi Moore shares a birthday with which costar from the movies "Margin Call" and "Deconstructing Harry"?

Stanley Tucci

Multiple constraints

Deconstructing Harry is a 1997 American black comedy film written, directed by, and co-starring Woody Allen, with an ensemble cast, including Caroline Aaron, Kirstie Alley, Bob Balaban, Richard Benjamin, Eric Bogosian, Billy Crystal and Judy Davis, as well as Jennifer Garner in her feature film debut. The film tells the story of a successful writer named Harry Block, played by Allen, who draws inspiration from people who he knows in real life, and from events that happen to him, sometimes causing these people to become alienated from him as a result. The central plot features Block driving to a university from which he was once thrown out, to receive an honorary degree. Three passengers accompany him on the trip: a prostitute, a friend, and his son, who he has kidnapped from his ex-wife. There are many flashbacks, segments taken from Block's writing, and interactions with his own fictional characters. Deconstructing Harry received moderately positive reviews from critics. Plot One night, Lucy takes a taxi to the home of famous Manhattan author Harry Block. She has just read Harry's latest novel, in which the character Leslie is having an affair with her sister's husband Ken. Lucy is angry because the novel is patently based on her and Harry's own affair; as a result, everyone knows about it. Lucy pulls a gun from her purse, threatening to kill herself. She turns the gun on Harry and begins firing. As she chases him onto the roof, he insists that he has already been punished: his latest girlfriend Fay has left him for his best friend Larry. To distract Lucy, Harry tells her a story that he is currently writing: a semi-autobiographical story of a sex-obsessed young man named Harvey who is mistakenly claimed by Death during an encounter with a prostitute. In therapy, Harry realizes that he has not changed since his sex-obsessed youth. He discusses his honoring ceremony at his old university in upstate New York, taking place the next day; he is particularly unhappy that he has nobody with whom to share the occasion. After the session, Harry asks his ex-wife and former therapist Joan if he can take their son Hilliard to the ceremony. She refuses, stating that Harry is a bad influence on Hilliard. She is also furious at Harry for the novel he wrote. In it, the character Epstein marries his therapist Helen, but the marriage begins to crumble after the birth of their son. Harry runs into an acquaintance, Richard, who is worried about his health. After accompanying Richard to the hospital, Harry invites him to the university ceremony; Richard claims that he will be busy that day. Harry meets with his ex-girlfriend Fay, who reveals that she is now engaged. Harry begs Fay to get back together with him. He asks Fay to accompany him to his ceremony, but it clashes with her wedding, scheduled the following day. That night, Harry sleeps with a prostitute, Cookie, who agrees to accompany him to his ceremony. In the morning, Richard unexpectedly arrives to join Harry and Cookie on the trip. On a whim, Harry decides to "kidnap" his son Hilliard. Along the way, they stop at a carnival, then at Harry's half-sister Doris's. Doris, a devoted Jew, is upset by Harry's portrayals of Judaism in his stories, as is her husband. During the trip, Harry encounters his fictional creations Ken and Helen, who force him to confront some painful truths about his life. Before arriving at the university, Richard dies peacefully in the car. While filming, Harry's fictional alter ego Mel literally slides out of focus, becoming blurred. The university's staffers gush over Harry, asking what he plans to write next. He describes a story about a man (based on himself) who journeys to Hell to reclaim his true love (based on Fay) from the Devil (based on Larry). Harry and the Devil engage in a verbal duel regarding who is truly the more evil of the two. Harry argues that he is a kidnapper, but the story is interrupted by the arrival of the police. Harry is arrested for kidnapping Hilliard, for possessing a gun (it was Lucy's), and for having drugs in the car (belonging to Cookie). Larry and Fay come from their wedding to bail out Harry from jail. Harry reluctantly gives them his blessings. At his apartment, a miserable Harry fantasizes that the university's ceremony is taking place. He eventually overcomes his writer's block by starting to write a book about a man who, like him, can function only in art, not in life. Cast Casting Woody Allen offered the role of Harry Block to Elliott Gould, Dustin Hoffman, Dennis Hopper and Albert Brooks, all of whom turned it down. Allen took the role himself. Influences The film is a general reworking of Allen's 1980 film Stardust Memories, which also had an artist attend a ceremony in his honor, while reminiscing over past relationships and trying to fix and stabilize current ones. Allen is an admirer of several renowned European directors, and his films in particular often draw on the works of Ingmar Bergman and Federico Fellini. The rough outline of the plot of Deconstructing Harry, that of an academic on a long drive to receive an honorary award from his old university while reflecting on his life's experiences, essentially mirrors that of Bergman's Wild Strawberries. Additionally, the film is similar to Fellini's 8½, in being about an artist struggling with his current relationships and remembering his old ones, interspersed with dream sequences, as well as works based on events from his life. It is acknowledged by some critics that Allen based the name of Harry Block on Antonius Block (Max von Sydow), the protagonist from Bergman's The Seventh Seal. Some critics, including Roger Ebert, have suggested that the character of Harry Block is based on real-life author Philip Roth, and not on Allen. Soundtrack Reception Critical reaction On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 73%, based on 37 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2/10. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 61 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Writing for Variety, David Stratton stated: "Deconstructing Harry is abrasive, complex, lacerating and self-revelatory. It's also very funny, most of the time. Woody Allen's latest is one of his most provocative and challenging films." Accolades Allen was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. The film was nominated for the Satellite Award for Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical. References External links Deconstructing Harry at IMDb Deconstructing Harry at AllMovie Deconstructing Harry at Box Office Mojo Deconstructing Harry at Rotten Tomatoes

Margin Call is a 2011 American drama film written and directed by J. C. Chandor in his feature directorial debut. The principal story takes place over a 24-hour period at a large Wall Street investment bank during the initial stages of the 2007–2008 financial crisis. It focuses on the actions taken by a group of employees during the subsequent financial collapse. The title comes from a finance term for when an investor must increase the securities or other assets used as collateral for a loan when their value falls below a certain threshold. The film stars an ensemble cast consisting of Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Mary McDonnell, Demi Moore, and Stanley Tucci. The film was produced by the production companies Myriad Pictures, Benaroya Pictures and Before the Door Pictures (first to sign on, and owned by Zachary Quinto). It was also produced in association with Washington Square Films. Theatrically, it was commercially distributed by Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions in North America, with Myriad distributing the film internationally through independent distributors elsewhere. The director and screenwriter, J. C. Chandor, is himself the son of an investment banker; the screenplay was partially informed by Chandor's own foray into real estate investments in New York City shortly before the financial crash. Preceding its theatrical release, Margin Call was met with positive critical reviews. Following its wide release in theaters, the film garnered award nominations from the Detroit Film Critics Society, along with several separate nominations for its screenplay and direction from recognized award organizations, including a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The score was composed by musician Nathan Larson. The film made its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2011, and opened in theaters nationwide in the United States on October 21, 2011. Though it grossed just $5.4 million in domestic ticket sales from 199 theaters, the film had a ground-breaking day-and-date release that earned more than $10 million in video-on-demand sales. The DVD and Blu-ray editions of the film were released in the United States on December 20, 2011. Plot In 2008, an unnamed investment bank begins laying off a large number of employees. Among those affected is Eric Dale, head of risk management. Dale's attempts to speak about the implications of a model he is working on are ignored. On his way out, he gives a flash drive containing his work to Peter Sullivan, an associate in his department, warning him to "be careful." Sullivan, intrigued, works after hours to complete Dale's model. Sullivan discovers that the assumptions underpinning the firm's present risk profile are wrong; historical volatility levels in mortgage-backed securities are being exceeded, which means that the firm's position in those assets is over-leveraged and the debt incurred from those over-leveraged assets will bankrupt the company. Sullivan calls his colleague, Seth Bregman, to return to work with the head of credit trading, Will Emerson. Emerson in turn summons Sam Rogers, his boss, after reviewing Sullivan's findings. Attempts by the four to contact Dale end unsuccessfully due to his company phone having been shut off. Sullivan and Bregman go out to find Dale, while Rogers and Emerson inform the company's senior management of the situation. A subsequent meeting of division head Jared Cohen, chief risk management officer Sarah Robertson, and other senior executives concludes that Sullivan's findings are accurate, and firm CEO John Tuld is called. Upon Tuld's arrival, and after Sullivan explains the problem, Rogers, Cohen, and Tuld spar regarding a course of action: Cohen's plan, favored by Tuld, is a fire sale of the problematic assets. Rogers disagrees, pointing out that the sale will damage the firm's relationships and reputation within the industry and will cause major instability in the markets. Tuld stresses that his desire to avoid the firm's bankruptcy is worth that risk and the cost. After the meeting with Tuld, Emerson is informed by Dale's wife that he has returned home. Emerson travels to Dale's residence with Bregman and attempts to persuade him to return to the firm, but he refuses. During the drive back, Bregman asks if he will lose his job; Emerson responds that he likely will, but, philosophizing on the nature of the financial markets, tells him not to lose faith, and that his work is necessary. Tuld tells Robertson that he will assign the blame to her in front of the traders and the board of directors; Robertson argues that she warned Tuld and Cohen about the situation over a year ago, and that both Tuld and Cohen acknowledged the risks, but fails to persuade him. Meanwhile, Eric Dale is bribed and forced into cooperating with Cohen's plan, with the firm threatening to cut his benefits and severance if he refuses. He spends the day commiserating with Robertson. Despite his misgivings, Rogers rallies his traders and informs them of the fire sale. He acknowledges the damage likely to be done to their reputations and careers, but informs them that they will be well compensated with 7-figure bonuses if most of the traders' assigned assets are sold by day's end. As trading progresses, the firm elicits suspicion and eventually anger from their counterparties and incurs heavy losses, but they are able to sell off most of the bad assets. Another round of layoffs begins; Rogers, upon finding out that he was spared, confronts Tuld and submits his resignation. Tuld dismisses Rogers' view of the situation by recalling past economic crises, arguing that such events always happen and that Rogers should not feel guilty for acting in his and the firm's interests. Tuld asks Rogers to stay on for two more years and Rogers reluctantly accepts, citing his personal financial need. Tuld also informs Rogers that Sullivan is going to be promoted. The film ends with Rogers burying his euthanized dog in his ex-wife's front yard during the night. Cast Production Principal photography began on June 21, 2010, in New York City, and was shot in just 17 days. More than 80% of the action was shot on the 42nd floor of One Penn Plaza, which had recently been vacated by a trading firm. The film premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. The film also played In Competition at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival and was nominated for the Golden Bear. The film was produced by Zachary Quinto's production company, Before the Door Pictures, by Quinto and his two producing partners and Carnegie Mellon University classmates, Neal Dodson and Corey Moosa. Reception Critical response On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 87% of 174 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The website's consensus reads: "Smart, tightly wound, and solidly acted, Margin Call turns the convoluted financial meltdown of '08 into gripping, thought-provoking drama." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 76 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. The New Yorker film critic David Denby said it was "easily the best Wall Street movie ever made". Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three and half stars out of four, and said: "Margin Call employs an excellent cast who can make financial talk into compelling dialogue." A. O. Scott of The New York Times wrote: "It is hard to believe that Margin Call is Mr. Chandor’s first feature. His formal command – his ability to imply far more than he shows or says and to orchestrate a large, complex drama out of whispers, glances, and snippets of jargon – is downright awe inspiring." In 2022, Bloomberg News financial columnist Matt Levine said that Margin Call was "the best finance movie". Box office Margin Call grossed $5.4 million domestically (United States and Canada), and $14.2 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $19.5 million, against a budget of $3.5 million. Themes Roger Ebert wrote: "I think the movie is about how its characters are concerned only by the welfare of their corporations. There is no larger sense of the public good. Corporations are amoral, and exist to survive and succeed, at whatever human cost. This is what the Occupy Wall Street protesters are angry about: They are not against capitalism, but about Wall Street dishonesty and greed. ... [The cast] reflects the enormity of what is happening: Their company and their lives are being rendered meaningless." A. O. Scott wrote: "Margin Call is a thriller, moving through ambient shadows to the anxious tempo of Nathan Larson’s hushed, anxious score. It is also a horror movie, with disaster lurking like an unseen demon outside the skyscraper windows and behind the computer screens. It is also a workplace comedy of sorts. The crackling, syncopated dialogue and the plot, full of reversals and double crosses, owe an obvious debt to David Mamet’s profane fables of deal-making machismo. Hovering over all of it is the dark romance of capital: the elegance of numbers; the kinkiness of money; the deep, rotten, erotic allure of power." Although the film does not depict any real Wall Street firm, and the fictional firm is unnamed, the plot has similarities to some events during the 2008 financial crisis: Goldman Sachs similarly moved early to hedge and reduce its position in mortgage-backed securities, at the urging of two employees, which essentially mirrors Tuld's comment about the advantage of moving first. Lehman Brothers moved second and went bankrupt. John Tuld's name is said to be a combination of Merrill Lynch's ex-CEO John Thain and Lehman Brothers' ex-CEO Richard Fuld. Accolades See also Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Great Recession Other films Wall Street (1987) Inside Job (2010, documentary) Too Big to Fail (2011) The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) 99 Homes (2014) The Big Short (2015) The Hummingbird Project (2018) References Footnotes External links Margin Call at IMDb Margin Call at AllMovie Margin Call at Rotten Tomatoes Margin Call at Metacritic Margin Call at Box Office Mojo

Stanley Tucci Jr. ( TOO-chee Italian pronunciation: [ˈtuttʃi]; born November 11, 1960) is an American actor. Known as a character actor, he has played a wide variety of roles ranging from menacing to sophisticated. Tucci has earned numerous accolades, including six Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards as well as nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Tony Award. Tucci made his film debut in John Huston's Prizzi's Honor (1985), and continued to play a variety of supporting roles in films such as Deconstructing Harry (1997), Road to Perdition (2002), and The Terminal (2004). He made his directorial debut with the comedy Big Night (1996), which he also co-wrote and starred in. Following roles in The Devil Wears Prada (2006) and Julie & Julia (2009), Tucci was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for The Lovely Bones (2009). Tucci's other film roles include Burlesque (2010), Easy A (2010), Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), Margin Call (2011), The Hunger Games film series (2012–2015), Spotlight (2015), Supernova (2020), and Worth (2021). He has starred in numerous television series such as the legal drama Murder One (1995–96), the medical drama 3 lbs (2006), Ryan Murphy's limited series Feud: Bette & Joan (2017), and the drama Limetown (2018). He played Stanley Kubrick in the HBO film The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004). For his portrayal of Walter Winchell in the HBO film Winchell (1998) he received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie. Since 2020, Tucci has voiced Bitsy Brandenham in the Apple TV+ animated series Central Park. From 2021 to 2022, he hosted the CNN food and travel documentary series Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy for which he won two consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Hosted Nonfiction Series. He was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his role in Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (2003), and a Grammy Award for narrating the audiobook The One and Only Shrek! (2008). Early life and education Tucci was born on November 11, 1960, in Peekskill, New York, and grew up in nearby Katonah, New York. His parents, Joan (née Tropiano), a secretary and writer, and Stanley Tucci Sr. an art teacher at Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, New York, both of Italian descent, have roots in the town of Marzi in Calabria, South Italy. Tucci is the oldest of three children, including his sister, actress Christine Tucci. Screenwriter Joseph Tropiano is a cousin. During the early 1970s, the family spent a year living in Florence, Italy. He attended John Jay High School, where he played on the soccer and baseball teams, although his main interest lay in the school's drama club, where he and fellow actor and high school friend, Campbell Scott, son of actors George C. Scott and Colleen Dewhurst, gave well-received performances at many of John Jay's drama club productions. Tucci then attended State University of New York at Purchase, where he majored in acting and graduated in 1982. Among his classmates at SUNY Purchase was fellow acting student Ving Rhames. It was Tucci who gave Rhames, born Irving, the Ving nickname by which he is known. Career 1982–1995: Early roles and Broadway debut In 1982, Tucci earned his Actors' Equity card when actress Colleen Dewhurst, the mother of Tucci's high-school friend, actor Campbell Scott, arranged for the two young men to have parts as soldiers in a Broadway play in which she was co-starring, The Queen and the Rebels which premiered on September 30, 1982. Around this time, Tucci also worked as a model, with his most notable work being a television commercial for Levi's 501 jeans. In 1985, Tucci made his film debut as a Soldier in John Huston's black comedy crime film Prizzi's Honor starring Jack Nicholson and Kathleen Turner. During this period Tucci portrayed minor and supporting roles in a number of films including the psychological horror film Monkey Shines (1988), the comedy-drama Slaves of New York (1989) and the comedy Fear, Anxiety & Depression (1989). In 1991, he acted in the biographical drama film Billy Bathgate starring Dustin Hoffman and Nicole Kidman. Here Tucci portrayed mobster Lucky Luciano. That same year he performed the role of Scapino at the Yale Repertory Theatre in Molière's Scapin. In 1992, Tucci acted in the family comedy Beethoven and the romantic fantasy Prelude to a Kiss. The former spawned a franchise of the same name due to the success of the 1992 film. Tucci continued to take roles in films such as the legal thriller The Pelican Brief (1993) starring Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts, and the romantic comedy It Could Happen to You (1994) with Nicolas Cage and Bridget Fonda. From 1995 to 1996, Tucci starred in the television series Murder One as the mysterious Richard Cross. Tucci received his first Primetime Emmy Award nomination for his performance in the series, specifically for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. Following disappointing ratings, ABC decided to revamp the series resulting in Tucci being dismissed from the series. 1996–2005: Directorial debut and other roles In 1996, Tucci co-wrote, co-directed the comedy-drama film Big Night. Tucci starred alongside Tony Shalhoub and co-wrote the screenplay with his cousin Joseph Tropiano and directed the film with friend Campbell Scott. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival where it was nominated for the "Grand Jury Prize". Tucci and Tropiano won the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay for writing the screenplay of the film. The film also featured his sister Christine and their mother, who wrote a cookbook for the film. The film also starred Minnie Driver, Isabella Rossellini, Ian Holm, and Allison Janney. Critic Roger Ebert praised the film writing, "To some degree this film must represent a break for [Tucci]: He has been in good movies before, but not enough of them...Now here is their labor of love. Their perfect risotto. They include just what is needed and nothing else." That same year Tucci also acted in the independent drama The Daytrippers which was written and directed by Greg Mottola. The film also starred Hope Davis, Liev Schreiber, and Parker Posey. The following year he appeared in Woody Allen's comedy Deconstructing Harry which received an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay nomination. In 1998, Tucci wrote, directed, co-produced and starred in the comedy film The Impostors. The film starred Tucci and Oliver Platt who play Laurel and Hardy like comedians who are struggling in the 1930s. The film premiered at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival where it received positive reviews. Shortly thereafter, Tucci starred in the HBO biographical television film Winchell (1998) in which Tucci portrayed columnist Walter Winchell. For his portrayal of Winchell, Tucci won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film. Tucci also received a Screen Actors Guild Awards nomination for his performance in the film. In 1999, he played Robin Goodfellow / Puck in the Michael Hoffman adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 2000, Tucci directed, produced and starred in the drama film Joe Gould's Secret, based on a 1964 biographical essay about Gould by The New Yorker reporter Joseph Mitchell. In 2001, Tucci starred in the HBO television war film Conspiracy as Adolf Eichmann. The project also starred Kenneth Branagh and Colin Firth. For his portrayal of Eichmann, Tucci won another Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film. The film was critically acclaimed and won a Peabody Award. In 2002, Tucci returned to the stage by starring in the revival of Terrence McNally's Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. Tucci received a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play nomination for his performance in the play. Also in 2002, he starred in Sam Mendes' Road to Perdition opposite Tom Hanks. The film went on to receive $181 million at the box office and received six Academy Award nominations. He reunited with Hanks in Steven Spielberg's The Terminal (2004). That same year Tucci appeared in Shall We Dance (2004). Tucci also portrayed Stanley Kubrick in the HBO television film, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004). He also was a guest caller in an episode of Frasier. Also that year, Caedmon Audio released an audiobook of Tucci reading Kurt Vonnegut's 1973 novel Breakfast of Champions. In 2005, Tucci had his first voice role in the animated film Robots, which features other notable actors' voices such as Ewan McGregor, Halle Berry, and Robin Williams. 2006–2010: Work with Meryl Streep and acclaim In 2006, Tucci had a major role in the comedy film The Devil Wears Prada, opposite Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, and Emily Blunt. Tucci portrays Nigel Kipling, a loyal confidant of Miranda Priestly (Streep). The film was a breakout role for him, with A.O. Scott of The New York Times declaring, "Mr. Tucci, has never been better". The film was Tucci's highest grossing-film until Captain America: The First Avenger in 2011. Also in 2006, Tucci made an appearance on the television series Monk, for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series. Tucci returned to broadcast television by starring in the drama series 3 lbs, which premiered on November 14, 2006. However, due to low ratings CBS cancelled the series. The following year, Tucci went on to recur in the medical drama series ER. For his performance in ER, Tucci was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. In 2009, Tucci portrayed George Harvey, a serial killer of young girls, in The Lovely Bones starring Saoirse Ronan. The film, Peter Jackson's adaptation of Alice Sebold's novel, earned Tucci Academy and Golden Globe award nominations for Best Supporting Actor. To prepare for the role, he consulted with retired FBI profiler John Douglas. Also in 2009, Tucci reunited with Meryl Streep in Nora Ephron's biographical comedy Julie & Julia. In the film Tucci portrayed Paul Child, the husband of Julia Child (Streep). They were praised for their on-screen chemistry with Peter Travers of Rolling Stone declaring, "Tucci and Streep are magical together, creating a portrait of an unconventional marriage that deserves its own movie." The following year, Tucci directed a revival of the Ken Ludwig play Lend Me a Tenor on Broadway, starring Tony Shalhoub. Furthermore, Tucci had a supporting role in the teen coming-of-age romantic comedy film Easy A (2010) starring Emma Stone. Tucci and Patricia Clarkson portrayed her easy going and funny parents in the film. That same year Tucci starred alongside Cher and Christina Aguilera in Burlesque. The following year Tucci played Dr. Abraham Erskine in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) starring Chris Evans. 2011–2019: Franchise roles and other work In 2011, Tucci took the role of Eric Dale in the J.C. Chandor directed drama film Margin Call starring Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Demi Moore, and Zachary Quinto. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival where it earned critical acclaim and later a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. In the fall of 2012, Tucci released his first cookbook titled The Tucci Cookbook. Tucci was also a co-owner of the Finch Tavern restaurant in Croton Falls, New York. He played Henry Warren Chang in the 30 Rock episode "Alexis Goodlooking and the Case of the Missing Whisky" in 2012. From 2012 to 2015, Tucci portrayed Caesar Flickerman in The Hunger Games (2012) and its sequels The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014) and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (2015). In 2013, Tucci played the role of the Ancient Greek God Dionysus in Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters. Also in 2013, he lent his voice to an episode of the animated series American Dad!. During this time Tucci portrayed CEO Joshua Joyce in Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014). The same year, he voiced Leonardo da Vinci in the animated film Mr. Peabody & Sherman and had a cameo in Muppets Most Wanted. From 2014 to 2020, he had a recurring role, voicing character Herb Kazzaz in the animated series BoJack Horseman. Tucci portrayed Philippe I, Duke of Orléans in Alan Rickman's biographical costume romance drama A Little Chaos starring Kate Winslet. The following year Tucci portrayed Mitchell Garabedian, a lawyer representing victims of sexual abuse in the biographical drama film Spotlight. The film was directed by Tom McCarthy and starred Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, John Slattery, and Liev Schrieber. The film received rave reviews with Geoffrey Mcnab of The Independent writing, "Spotlight is an old-fashioned film that tells its story in a painstaking and thoroughly absorbing fashion. It's the kind of movie that you could imagine Henry Fonda or James Stewart starring in as decent, upstanding journalist heroes who refuse to give up on their story in the face of considerable difficulty and intimidation." The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture as well as Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Also in 2015, Tucci starred in the British series Fortitude as DCI Eugene Morton. In 2017, Tucci directed and wrote the drama film Final Portrait. The same year, Tucci played the role of the composer Maestro Cadenza in the live-action adaptation of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, co-starring with Emma Watson and Dan Stevens. Tucci also returned to the Transformers film series by portraying Merlin in Transformers: The Last Knight. Furthermore, Tucci played the husband of Dame Fiona Maye, a British High Court judge, opposite Emma Thompson in The Children Act (2017), based on the book of the same name by Ian McEwan. Also in 2017, Tucci starred in the miniseries Feud as Warner Bros. studio head Jack L. Warner. Feud received critical acclaim and Tucci received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie. In 2018, Tucci starred the independent films Patient Zero, A Private War and Night Hunter. In 2019, Tucci starred in the drama series Limetown, based on the podcast of the same name. Facebook cancelled the series after one season had aired. The same year, Tucci starred in the horror film The Silence. 2020–present In 2020, Tucci began voicing the character Bitsy Brandenham in the animated series Central Park. The series received a two-season order from Apple Inc., with each season set to consist of 13 episodes each. The series premiered on May 29, 2020. In the same year, Tucci narrated the series The California Century, on notable people in the history of California told from the point of view of a screenwriter. In 2020, Tucci starred in the British drama film Supernova opposite Colin Firth. The film explores the relationship between a couple played by Tucci and Firth as one of them succumbs to early onset dementia. The film premiered at the San Sebastián International Film Festival and since has received critical acclaim. Guy Lodge, critic for Variety wrote of their chemistry: "Firth and Tucci are such reliable stalwarts that we tend not to regard their presence too closely in films these days: Almost invariably, they fulfill our expectations of their refined gravitas. But there's something lovely and surprising in what they bring out of each other here, as they complement and reflect each other's curtness, evasiveness and occasional spillages of tenderness in the way that long-term couples do." In 2021, Tucci hosted the culinary travel series, Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, a six-part original CNN series following the actor on a food tour of Italy. The series received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations, including one for Outstanding Hosted Nonfiction Series, and was renewed for a second season set to air in 2022. Caroline Framke of Variety praised the series writing, "It’s exactly the picturesque scenario you might expect and want from a travel series hosted by Tucci, an extraordinarily charming presence who knows and loves Italian food". Tucci acted in the title role in the BBC One thriller series Inside Man (2022). The series was created by Steven Moffat and also starred David Tennant. In September, Tucci was cast as Grammy-winning producer Clive Davis in Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody (2022), a biopic on Whitney Houston. In 2023 Tucci acted in the Amazon Prime Video series Citadel starring Priyanka Chopra and Richard Madden. Personal life Marriages and families Tucci married Kathryn Spath (born 1962) in 1995. She was a social worker and former wife of actor and stage manager Alexander R. Scott They had three children together. The couple also raised Kathryn's two children from her previous marriage. Spath died of breast cancer in 2009. In 2010 Tucci met Felicity Blunt (born 1981), a British literary agent of the Curtis Brown Group, at the wedding of actor John Krasinski to Felicity's sister, British actress Emily Blunt. Tucci and Felicity became engaged in 2011 and married in a civil ceremony in the summer of 2012, followed by a larger observance at Middle Temple Hall in London on September 29, 2012. They have a son and a daughter. Charity work On September 12, 2016, Tucci, alongside other celebrities, appeared in a video from the United Nations' refugee agency UNHCR to help raise awareness of the global refugee crisis. The video, titled "What They Took With Them", has the actors reading a poem, written by Jenifer Toksvig and inspired by primary accounts of refugees, and is part of UNHCR's #WithRefugees campaign, which also includes a petition to governments to expand asylum to provide further shelter, integrating job opportunities, and education. On May 21, 2021, Tucci received a Doctorate Honoris Causa in Humane Letters from the American University of Rome, in Rome, Italy, for his lifelong contribution to the arts and humanities. Health issues In September 2021, Tucci revealed that he had been diagnosed with oropharyngeal cancer three years earlier. He had received treatment (chemotherapy and radiation) after a tumor was found at the base of his tongue, and said it was unlikely that the tumor would return. In November 2022, he said there are still some foods he cannot eat, as a result of his cancer. In October 2021, his memoir Taste: My Life Through Food was published, which describes his encounter with cancer and his love of food. As of February 20, 2022, Taste: My Life Through Food had been on The New York Times Best Seller List for 18 weeks. Acting credits and accolades Published works Tucci, Stanley (October 9, 2012). The Tucci Cookbook. Gallery Books. ISBN 978-1451661255. Tucci, Stanley; Blunt, Felicity (2014). The Tucci Table: Cooking With Family and Friends. Gallery Books. ISBN 978-1476738567. Tucci, Stanley (October 5, 2021). Taste: My Life Through Food. Gallery Books. ISBN 978-1982168018. References External links Stanley Tucci at IMDb Stanley Tucci at the Internet Broadway Database

Demi Gene Moore ( də-MEE; née Guynes; born November 11, 1962) is an American actress. A leading actress in the late 1980s and early 1990s, she was the world's highest-paid actress by 1995. Though her career saw a downturn by the end of that decade, she remains a subject of substantial media interest. Moore's accolades include nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and three Golden Globe Awards. A former model, Moore joined the cast of the soap opera General Hospital in 1981. After departing the show in 1983, she rose to prominence as a member of the Brat Pack with roles in the films Blame It on Rio (1984), St. Elmo's Fire (1985), and About Last Night... (1986). She established herself as a star with the top-grossing romance film Ghost (1990). She had further box-office successes in A Few Good Men (1992), Indecent Proposal (1993), and Disclosure (1994), and received an unprecedented $12.5 million to star in Striptease (1996). Moore's output decreased significantly after The Scarlet Letter (1995), The Juror (1996), and G.I. Jane (1997) fell below commercial expectations. She has since held sporadic leading roles in arthouse films, as well as supporting roles in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003), Bobby (2006), Mr. Brooks (2007), and Margin Call (2011). Moore's television work include the anthology If These Walls Could Talk (1996), a guest arc on Empire (2015–2017), and the miniseries Feud: Capote vs. The Swans (2024). In 2024, she received renewed critical recognition for her starring role in the body horror film The Substance. Moore has been married three times. From 1981 to 1985, she was married to musician Freddy Moore. From 1987 to 2000, she was married to Bruce Willis, with whom she has three daughters. She was married to Ashton Kutcher from 2005 to 2013. Her memoir Inside Out (2019) became a New York Times Best Seller. Early life Moore was born November 11, 1962, in Roswell, New Mexico. Her biological father, Air Force airman Charles Foster Harmon Sr., deserted her then-18-year-old mother, Virginia (née King), after a two-month marriage before Moore's birth. Charles came from Lanett, Alabama, and Virginia was born in Richmond, California but had grown up in Roswell. Moore's maternal grandmother was raised on a farm in Elida, New Mexico. Moore has deep roots in the South Central and Southern United States, particularly Oklahoma, Arkansas and Georgia. When Moore was three months old, her mother married Dan Guynes, a newspaper advertising salesman who frequently changed jobs; as a result, the family moved many times. In 1967 they had Moore's half-brother Morgan. Moore said in 1991, "My dad is Dan Guynes. He raised me. There is a man who would be considered my biological father who I don't really have a relationship with." Moore has half-siblings from Charlie Harmon's other marriages, but she does not keep in touch with them either. Moore's stepfather Dan Guynes married and divorced Virginia twice. On October 20, 1980, a year after their second divorce from each other, Guynes committed suicide. Her biological father Harmon died in 1997 from liver cancer in Brazoria, Texas. Moore's mother had a long arrest record which included drunk driving and arson. Moore broke off contact with her in 1989, when Guynes walked away halfway through a rehab stay Moore had financed at the Hazelden Foundation in Minnesota. Virginia Guynes posed nude for the magazine High Society in 1993, where she spoofed Moore's Vanity Fair pregnancy and bodypaint covers and parodied her clay scene from Ghost. Moore and Guynes reconciled shortly before Guynes died of a brain tumor on July 2, 1998. Moore spent her early childhood in Roswell, and later, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. Bob Gardner, a photographer for the Monongahela Daily Herald when Dan Guynes was head of advertising, recalled that Moore "looked malnourished and not so much abused as neglected. That haunting look as a child made me feel uneasy." She suffered from strabismus, which was corrected by two operations, as well as kidney dysfunction. Moore learned that Guynes was not her real father at age 13, when she discovered a marriage certificate and inquired about the circumstances since she "saw my parents were married in February 1963. I was born in '62." At age 14, Moore returned to her hometown of Roswell and lived with her grandmother for six months before relocating to Washington state, where her recently separated mother was residing near Seattle. Several months later, the family moved again to West Hollywood, California, where Moore's mother took a job working for a magazine distribution company. Moore attended Fairfax High School there. In 2019, she stated she was raped at 15 by landlord Basil Doumas, then 49. Doumas claimed he had paid Moore's mother to get access to Moore to rape her, although Moore said it is unclear if this were true. In November 1978, Moore moved in with 28-year-old guitarist Tom Dunston, quitting high school in her junior year to work as a receptionist at 20th Century Fox—a job she secured through Dunston's mother, who was an executive assistant to producer Douglas S. Cramer. She signed with the Elite Modeling Agency, then enrolled in acting classes after being inspired by her next-door neighbor, 17-year-old German starlet Nastassja Kinski. In August 1979, three months before her 17th birthday, Moore met married musician Freddy Moore, at the time leader of the band Boy, at the Los Angeles nightclub The Troubadour. He obtained a divorce in late 1980 and married Demi six weeks later. Career 1980s Moore co-wrote three songs with Freddy Moore and appeared in the music video for their selection "It's Not a Rumor", performed by his band, The Nu-Kats. She continues to receive royalty checks from her songwriting work (1980–1981). Moore appeared on the cover of the January 1981 issue of the adult magazine Oui, taken from a photo session in which she had posed nude. In a 1988 interview, Moore claimed she "only posed for the cover of Oui—I was 16; I told them I was 18". Interviewer Alan Carter said, "However, some peekaboo shots did appear inside. And later, nude shots of her turned up in Celebrity Sleuth—photos that she once said 'were for a European fashion magazine'." In 1990, she told another interviewer, "I was 17 years old. I was underage. It was just the cover." Moore made her film debut as the protagonist's girlfriend in Choices (1981), a sports drama directed by Silvio Narizzano. It was shown at the Montreal and Chicago international film festivals, but would not garner much attention until after Moore became a household name, with home video releases heavily hyping up her appearance. Her second feature was the 3-D sci-fi horror Parasite (1982), for which director Charles Band had instructed casting director Johanna Ray to "find me the next Karen Allen." It proved to be a minor hit on the drive-in circuit, ultimately grossing $7 million. Moore had already joined the cast of the ABC soap opera General Hospital several months before the film's release, playing the role of investigative reporter Jackie Templeton through 1983. During her tenure on the series, she made an uncredited cameo appearance in the 1982 spoof Young Doctors in Love. Moore's film career took off in 1984 following her appearance in the sex comedy Blame It on Rio. She then played the female lead in No Small Affair (1984), opposite Jon Cryer. Her commercial breakthrough came in Joel Schumacher's yuppie drama St. Elmo's Fire (1985), which received negative reviews, but was a box office success and brought Moore widespread recognition. Because of her association with that film, Moore was often listed as part of the Brat Pack, a label she felt was "demeaning". She progressed to more serious material with About Last Night... (1986), co-starring Rob Lowe, which marked a positive turning point in her career, as Moore noted that, following its release, she began seeing better scripts. Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars and praised her performance, writing, "There isn't a romantic note she isn't required to play in this movie, and she plays them all flawlessly." The success of About Last Night... was unrivaled by Moore's other two 1986 releases, One Crazy Summer and Wisdom, the last youth-oriented films in which she would star. Moore made her professional stage debut in an off-Broadway production of The Early Girl, which ran at the Circle Repertory Company in fall 1986. In 1988, Moore starred as a prophecy-bearing mother in the apocalyptic drama The Seventh Sign—her first outing as a solo film star— and in 1989, she played the quick-witted local laundress and part time prostitute in Neil Jordan's Depression-era allegory We're No Angels, opposite Robert De Niro. 1990s Moore's most successful film to date is the supernatural romantic melodrama Ghost, which grossed over US$505 million at the box office and was the highest-grossing film of 1990, as well as the most rented videocassette of 1991. She played a young woman in jeopardy to be protected by the ghost of her murdered boyfriend through the help of a reluctant psychic. The love scene between Moore and Patrick Swayze that starts in front of a potter's wheel to the sound of "Unchained Melody" has become an iconic moment in cinema history. Ghost was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, while Moore's performance earned her a Golden Globe nomination and the Saturn Award for Best Actress. She started fashion trends with her uncharacteristically gamine look, and legions of women emulated the short haircut she sported throughout the film. At one point, Ghost and Die Hard 2, starring Moore's then-husband Bruce Willis, would occupy the number one and number two spots at the box office, a feat that would not be accomplished again for a married Hollywood couple until 2024. In 1991 Moore starred in the horror comedy Nothing but Trouble, co-produced and appeared in the mystery thriller Mortal Thoughts, and played a blonde for the first time in the romantic comedy The Butcher's Wife, with Roger Ebert's review describing her as "warm and cuddly". All three films were commercial disappointments, but Moore sustained her A-list status with her starring roles in Rob Reiner's A Few Good Men (1992), Adrian Lyne's Indecent Proposal (1993), and Barry Levinson's Disclosure (1994)—all of which opened at No. 1 at the box office and were blockbuster hits. By 1995 Moore was the highest paid actress. However, she subsequently had a string of unsuccessful films starting with The Scarlet Letter (1995), a "freely adapted" version of the historical romance novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, in which her portrayal of Hester Prynne was met with harsh criticism. The coming-of-age drama Now and Then (1995) found moderate box office success. Moore was paid a record-breaking salary of US$12.5 million in 1996 to star in Striptease. Much hoopla was made over Moore's willingness to dance topless for the part, though this was the sixth time she had shown her breasts on film. The film opened to overwhelmingly negative reviews with Moore's performance being criticised. It was a moderate financial success, grossing US$113 million worldwide, and Moore received the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress. Moore starred in the thriller The Juror (1996). It was a box office bomb and was heavily panned by critics. Moore produced and starred in a controversial miniseries for HBO called If These Walls Could Talk (1996), a three-part anthology about abortion alongside Sissy Spacek and Cher. Its screenwriter, Nancy Savoca, directed two segments, including one in which Moore played a widowed nurse in the early 1950s seeking a back-alley abortion. For the film, Moore received two Golden Globe nominations: Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film and Best Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television. Also in 1996, she provided the speaking voice of the beautiful Esmeralda in Disney's animated adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Moore shaved her head to play the first woman to undergo training in the Navy SEALs in Ridley Scott's G.I. Jane (1997). Budgeted at US$50 million, the film was a moderate commercial success, with a worldwide gross of US$97.1 million. During the production of G.I. Jane, it was reported that Moore had ordered studio chiefs to charter two planes for her entourage and her, which reinforced her negative reputation for being a diva—she had previously turned down the Sandra Bullock role in While You Were Sleeping because the studio refused to meet her salary demands, and was dubbed "Gimme Moore" by the media. Moore took on the role of an ultrapious Jewish convert psychiatrist in Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry, also in 1997. 2000s After G.I. Jane, Moore retreated from the spotlight and moved to Hailey, Idaho, on a full-time basis to devote herself to raising her three daughters. She was off screen for three years before re-emerging in the arthouse psychological drama Passion of Mind (2000), the first English-language film from Belgian director Alain Berliner. Her performance as a woman with dissociative identity disorder was well received, but the film itself garnered mixed reviews and was deemed "naggingly slow" by some critics. Moore then resumed her self-imposed career hiatus and continued to turn down film offers. Producer Irwin Winkler said in 2001, "I had a project about a year and a half ago, and we made an inquiry about her—a real good commercial picture. She wasn't interested." Moore returned to the screen playing a villain in the 2003 film Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, opposite Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu. A commercial success, the film made US$259.1 million worldwide, and Rolling Stone, on Moore's role, remarked: "It's a relief when Demi Moore shows up as fallen angel [...] Moore, 40, looks great in a bikini and doesn't even try to act. Her unsmiling sexiness cuts through the gigglefest as the angels fight, kick, dance and motocross like Indiana Jones clones on estrogen". Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle was followed by yet another three-year absence. In the interim, Moore signed on as the face of the Versace fashion brand and the Helena Rubinstein brand of cosmetics. In Emilio Estevez's drama Bobby (2006), Moore portrayed an alcoholic singer whose career is on the downswing, as part of an ensemble cast, about the hours leading up to the Robert F. Kennedy assassination. As a member of the cast, she was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Cast in a Motion Picture. The film won the Hollywood Film Festival Award for Best Ensemble Cast. Moore had a lead role as grieving and tormented novelist in the mystery thriller Half Light (2006) alongside Hans Matheson, then took on the role of a driven police officer investigating a serial killer in the psychological thriller Mr. Brooks (2007), with Kevin Costner. The film received mixed reviews and grossed $48.1 million worldwide. Rolling Stone wrote that "the cop on the case, played by Demi Moore with a striking directness that deserved better than being saddled with an absurd back story as an heiress with a fortune-hunting husband." Moore reunited with Blame It on Rio co-star Michael Caine for the British crime drama film Flawless (2008), which saw her portray an American executive helping to steal a handful of diamonds from the London Diamond Corporation during the 1960s. Moore received positive reviews from critics; Miami Herald wrote: "The inspired pairing of Demi Moore and Michael Caine as a pair of thieves in the diamond-heist semi-caper movie Flawless goes a long way toward overcoming the film's slack, leisurely pacing". 2010s In 2010, Moore took on the role of a daughter helping her father deal with age-related health problems in the dramedy Happy Tears, opposite Parker Posey and Rip Torn, and starred as the matriarch of a family moving into a suburban neighborhood in the comedy The Joneses, with David Duchovny. The latter film was largely highlighted upon its theatrical release, with critics concluding that it "benefits from its timely satire of consumer culture—as well as a pair of strong performances" from Duchovny and Moore. In Bunraku (2010), a film Moore described as a "big action adventure," she played a courtesan and a femme fatale with a secret past. Moore portrayed a chief risk management officer at a large Wall Street investment bank during the initial stages of the financial crisis of 2007–08 in the critically acclaimed corporate drama Margin Call (2011), where she was part of an ensemble cast that included Kevin Spacey, Simon Baker, and Paul Bettany. The cast garnered nominations for the "Best Ensemble" award from the Gotham Awards, the Phoenix Film Critics Society and the Central Ohio Film Critics Association. Also in 2011, Moore received a Directors Guild of America Award nomination for Outstanding Directing – Miniseries or TV Film for her work as a director in a segment of the 2011 Lifetime anthology film Five, and starred opposite Ellen Barkin, Ellen Burstyn and George Kennedy in Sam Levinson's black comedy Another Happy Day, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Moore appeared as the mother of Miley Cyrus' character in the romantic drama film LOL (2012). She played a similar mother role in her next film, the likewise coming-of-age dramedy Very Good Girls (2013), which co-starred Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen. Her part as an old flame of a quick-draw killer in the Western drama Forsaken (2015), with Donald Sutherland and Kiefer Sutherland, was followed by the role of the daughter of a retired high school teacher in the road comedy Wild Oats, which premiered on Lifetime in August 2016, and in a limited release the following month. In her next film, the drama Blind (2017), Moore starred opposite Alec Baldwin, portraying the neglected wife of an indicted businessman having an affair with a novelist blinded in a car crash. In 2017, Moore joined the cast of Empire, in the recurring role of a take-charge nurse with a mysterious past. The comedy film Rough Night (2017) featured Moore as one half of a nymphomaniac couple seducing a member of a bachelorette party gone wrong. The film opened to mixed reviews and lukewarm box office. She played Selma in the Indian drama film Love Sonia (2018), which tells the story of a young girl's journey to rescue her sister from the dangerous world of international sex trafficking. She portrayed Lucy, a superficial CEO in the comedy horror film Corporate Animals (2019), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Moore's memoir, Inside Out, was published in 2019, by HarperCollins. The book reached number one on The New York Times' Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction best-sellers list and the Hardcover Nonfiction best-sellers list. 2020s In 2020, Moore played Piper Griffin, the matriarch of a powerful family "who will stop at nothing to protect her family and her way of life" in the pandemic-themed thriller produced by Michael Bay, Songbird, alongside Craig Robinson, Paul Walter Hauser and Peter Stormare. Moore has a leading role as Diana in Amazon's drama series, Dirty Diana, which is based on the podcast of the same name. The podcast is voiced by Moore and she also serves as producer with screenwriter Shana Feste. Moore was among the celebrities who made cameo appearances modeling lingerie at Rihanna's Savage x Fenty Vol. 2 fashion show in 2020. In 2024, she was cast as socialite Ann Woodward in the Ryan Murphy created anthology series Feud: Capote vs. The Swans on FX on Hulu. Moore acted alongside Tom Hollander, Naomi Watts, Diane Lane, and Chloë Sevigny. She also stars in Coralie Fargeat's body horror film The Substance, which premiered at 2024 Cannes Film Festival, where she portrays an aging star who used a black market drug to make herself younger. Her performance was praised by critics. Media image Status and persona Moore is viewed as a pioneer for equal salary for women in Hollywood. She was paid $12.5 million for her role in Striptease, which was more money than any other woman in Hollywood had ever been offered at the time. Producers for Striptease and G.I. Jane got into a bidding war to see who could get Moore to film first. Striptease won and Moore became the highest paid actress in Hollywood in 1995. "She became a pioneer for other actresses by being the first female lead to demand the same salary, benefits and billing as her male counterparts," Lifetime wrote. "Her screen persona always has something indestructible about it. There's a toughness, a strength, a determination," The Guardian described in 2007. She was also the subject of an E! True Hollywood Story special in 2003 and of Celebrity Style Story special in 2012. Moore has been included in magazine lists of the world's most beautiful women. She was selected as one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in the world in 1996. In 1999, Moore became a guest editor for the November issue of Marie Claire. In 1999, she was ranked eighth on Forbes' list of Top 20 Actresses, based on three separate lists of box office receipts. In 2004, People ranked her ninth on their list of All-Time Most Beautiful Women. She was voted seventh on Life & Style magazine's Best Dressed Female poll in December 2006. On December 31, 2019, The Wall Street Journal listed a cover story about Moore as one of their most-read stories in 2019. Moore has 4.5 million followers on Twitter as of January 2020. She uses Twitter as a platform to raise awareness of sexual trafficking and slavery. "She is practicing what she preaches: More than half of her posts are on the subject, directing followers where to get involved," Harper's Bazaar reported in August 2010. "I like to connect to people in the virtual world.. exchanging thoughts and ideas, when in the physical world we might never have the opportunity to cross paths," Moore told Harper's Bazaar. As of February 2024, Moore has 5 million Instagram followers. Moore has graced the cover of numerous international fashion magazines, including France's Elle; UK's Grazia; US' W, Vanity Fair, Interview, Rolling Stone, Glamour and InStyle; Australia's Harper's Bazaar and Turkey's Marie Claire. She has also appeared on the front cover of Vogue (Portugal, France and US). Moore has appeared in commercials and print ads throughout her career. She has appeared in television commercials for Keds, Oscar Mayer, Diet Coke, Lux, Jog Mate and Seibu Department Stores, and print ads for Versace and Ann Taylor. Vanity Fair controversies In August 1991, Moore appeared nude on the cover of Vanity Fair under the title More Demi Moore. Annie Leibovitz shot the picture while Moore was seven months pregnant with her second child, Scout LaRue Willis, intending to portray "anti-Hollywood, anti-glitz" attitude. The cover drew a lot of attention, being discussed on television, radio, and in newspaper articles. The frankness of Leibovitz's portrayal of a pregnant sex symbol led to divided opinions, ranging from suggestions of sexual objectification to celebrations of the photograph as a symbol of empowerment. The photograph was subject to numerous parodies, including the Spy Magazine version, which placed Moore's then-husband Bruce Willis's head on the body of a male model with a false belly. In Leibovitz v. Paramount Pictures Corp., Leibovitz sued over one parody featuring Leslie Nielsen, made to promote the 1994 film Naked Gun 33+1⁄3: The Final Insult. In the parody, the model's body was attached to what is described as "the guilty and smirking face" of Nielsen. The teaser said "Due this March." The case was dismissed in 1996 because the parody relied "for its comic effect on the contrast between the original." In November 2009, the Moroccan magazine Femmes du Maroc emulated the pose with Moroccan news reporter Nadia Larguet, causing controversy in the majority-Muslim nation. In August 1992, Moore again appeared nude on the cover of Vanity Fair, this time modeling for body painting artist Joanne Gair in Demi's Birthday Suit. In October 2019, she posed nude on the cover of Harper's Bazaar. Activism and philanthropy Moore has supported numerous charities, including All Day Foundation, American Foundation for AIDS Research, Artists for Peace and Justice, Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking, Declare Yourself, Free The Slaves, Healthy Child Healthy World, Raising Malawi, The Art of Elysium and UNICEF. In 2010, Moore defeated Kevin Bacon to win $250,000 in the Pepsi Refresh Celebrity Challenge. She chose to support the organization GEMS: Girls Educational & Mentoring Services, a nonprofit group which aims to empower young women who have been the victims of commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking. She traveled to Haiti with the Artists for Peace and Justice following the earthquake of 2010. She has also supported Chrysalis, a non-profit organization which offers employment opportunities to the homeless. Moore became a special contributor to the CNN Freedom Project and traveled to Nepal to meet with 2010 CNN Hero of the Year Anuradha Koirala and her organization, Maiti Nepal, which has rescued more than 12,000 stolen Nepalese children from sex trafficking since 1993. Moore was the narrator and anchor of CNN's documentary on child trafficking, called Nepal's Stolen Children, which aired on June 26, 2011. In the documentary, Moore talked to Nepal's prime minister, Jhalanath Khanal, and young girls who were forced into prostitution before being saved by a Nepalese nonprofit. Moore appeared on PETA's Worst-Dressed List in 2009 for wearing fur; two years later she supported the group's efforts to ban circus workers' use of bullhooks on elephants. In 2009, Moore and Kutcher launched DNA Foundation, a nonprofit, non-governmental organization directed towards fighting child sexual slavery. The foundation's first campaign included several celebrities, including Justin Timberlake, Sean Penn, Bradley Cooper appearing in a series of viral videos proclaiming: "Real Men Don't Buy Girls." In November 2012, the foundation said it was renaming as Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children, which aimed "to disrupt and deflate the predatory behavior of those who abuse and traffic children, solicit sex with children or create and share child pornography". Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children, assisted law enforcement in identifying 5,894 child sex trafficking victims and rescuing 103 children from "situations where their sexual abuse was recorded and distributed" in 2017, according to the organization's 2017 impact report. In 2018, Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization, Visionary Women honored Moore with its inaugural Visionary Woman Award for her work to combat human trafficking. In 2022, Thorn found 824,466 child sexual abuse material files and identified 1,895 victims of child sexual abuse. Personal life On February 8, 1981, at the age of 18, Moore married singer Freddy Moore, then 30 and recently divorced from his first wife, Lucy. Before their marriage, Demi had already begun using Freddy's surname as her stage name. The pair separated in 1983, after which Demi had a relationship with Timothy Hutton. She filed for divorce from Freddy in September 1984; it was finalized on August 7, 1985. Moore was then engaged to actor Emilio Estevez, with whom she co-starred in St. Elmo's Fire and Wisdom, a crime drama he also wrote and directed. The pair planned to marry on December 6, 1986, but called off the engagement after a woman filed a $2 million paternity suit against Estevez. On November 21, 1987, Moore married her second husband, actor Bruce Willis. She and Willis have three children together: Rumer Glenn Willis (born 1988), Scout LaRue Willis (born 1991), and Tallulah Belle Willis (born 1994). They announced their separation on June 24, 1998, and divorced on October 18, 2000. Despite the divorce, Moore maintains a close friendship with Willis and his current spouse Emma Heming Willis, and has assisted her and their respective children with caretaking for Willis as his health has declined. Moore had a three-year romance with martial arts instructor Oliver Whitcomb, whom she dated from 1999 to 2002. In 2003, Moore began dating actor Ashton Kutcher. Soon after they began dating, Moore became pregnant and she suffered a stillbirth six months into the pregnancy. They married on September 24, 2005. The wedding was attended by about 150 close friends and family of the couple, including Willis. In November 2011, after months of media speculation about the state of the couple's marriage, Moore announced her decision to end her marriage to Kutcher. After over a year of separation, Kutcher filed for divorce from Moore on December 21, 2012, in Los Angeles Superior Court, citing irreconcilable differences. Moore filed her response papers in March 2013, requesting spousal support and payment of legal fees from Kutcher. On November 26, 2013, their divorce was finalized. Moore claims that her good health is due to a raw vegan diet. Moore was at one point a follower of Philip Berg's Kabbalah Centre religion, and initiated Kutcher into the faith, having said that she "didn't grow up Jewish, but [...] would say that [she has] been more exposed to the deeper meanings of particular rituals than any of [her] friends that did." She is no longer affiliated with Berg's organization. According to The New York Times, Moore is "the world's most high-profile doll collector", and among her favorites is the Gene Marshall fashion doll. At one point, she kept a separate residence to house her 2,000 dolls. Filmography Bibliography Inside Out: A Memoir; HarperCollins (2019), ISBN 978-0-062-04953-7 Awards and nominations Moore is the recipient of many accolades, including nominations for a Critics' Choice Award, three Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Notes References External links Demi Moore at IMDb Demi Moore interview by KVUE in 1986 discussing About Last Night from Texas Archive of the Moving Image Demi Moore at the Internet Broadway Database Demi Moore at the Internet Off-Broadway Database Thorn (formerly the Demi and Ashton Foundation) Demi Moore at AllMovie

If the Great North Run took place on York's Medieval Walls how many circuits of them would the athletes run? Round to the nearest tenth of a circuit.

6.2 circuits.

Numerical reasoning

York has, since Roman times, been defended by walls of one form or another. To this day, substantial portions of the walls remain, and York has more miles of intact wall than any other city in England. They are known variously as York City Walls, the Bar Walls and the Roman walls (though this last is a misnomer as very little of the extant stonework is of Roman origin, and the course of the wall has been substantially altered since Roman times). The walls are generally 13 feet (4m) high and 6 feet (1.8m) wide. They are the longest town walls in England. History Roman walls The original walls were built around 71 AD, when the Romans erected a fort (castra) occupying about 50 acres or 21.5 hectares near the banks of the River Ouse. The rectangle of walls was built as part of the fort's defences. The foundations and the line of about half of these Roman walls form part of the existing walls, as follows: a section (the west corner, including the Multangular Tower) in the Museum Gardens the north-west and north-east sections between Bootham Bar and Monk Bar a further stretch between Monk Bar and the Merchant Taylors' Hall, at the end of which the lower courses of the east corner of the Roman wall can be seen on the city-centre side of the existing wall. The line of the rest of the Roman wall went south-west from the east corner, crossing the via principalis of the fortress where King's Square is now located. The south corner was in what is now Feasegate, and from here the wall continued northwest to the west corner. The point where the wall crossed the via praetoria is marked by a plaque in St Helen's Square near the Mansion House. Multangular Tower The Multangular Tower in the Museum Gardens is the most noticeable and intact structure remaining from the Roman walls. It was constructed as part of a series of eight similar defensive towers. The walls are almost certainly the creation of Septimius Severus; however, the Multangular Tower is probably a later addition of Constantine the Great around 310–320 AD. It has ten sides, based on a regular fourteen-sided figure designed so that a circle through the internal angles of the internal face is tangential to the curve. The rear four sides are missing to provide access to the interior of the tower. A low plinth or skirt extends out from the lowest course. The tower stands almost 30 feet (9.1 m) tall, has an external diameter of 48.5 feet (14.8 m) at the base and 46 feet (14 m) above the skirt. Length of each side varies from 7.5 feet (2.3 m) to 11 feet (3.4 m) on the inner face. The tower projects beyond the curtain wall to a distance of 36.75 feet (11.20 m). The foundations are concrete, atop which the tower extends having a rubble and mortar core between ashlar faced courses of small magnesian limestone blocks. At 15 feet (4.6 m) a scarcement reduces the thickness of the wall from 5 feet (1.5 m) to 3.25 feet (0.99 m), which continues for a further 4 feet (1.2 m) before being capped by 11 feet (3.4 m) of 13th century masonry in which arrowslits can be seen. After the Romans The Danes occupied the city in 867. By this time the Roman defences were in poor repair, and the Danes demolished all the towers save the Multangular Tower and restored the walls. The majority of the remaining walls, which encircle the whole of the medieval city, date from the 13th – 14th century. From the east corner of the Roman walls, the medieval wall extends to Layerthorpe Bridge. After the bridge, the King's Fishpool, a swamp created by the Normans' damming of the River Foss, provided adequate security for the city, and no walls were ever built in this area. In the Middle Ages the defence of the city was further helped not just by the walls but on the rampart underneath and the ditch surrounding them. The ditch along the walls was once 60 feet (18.3m) wide and 10 feet (3m) deep. In modern times the ditch was almost all filled in and no longer exists. For this reason the ground directly around the walls is higher in most places than it would have been in medieval times. The walls resume beyond the now canalised Foss at the Red Tower, a brick building which has been much restored over the years. They continue south and west around the Walmgate area, terminating in another tower (Fishergate Postern), near York Castle, which was formerly surrounded by its own walls and a moat. A small stretch of wall on the west side of Tower Gardens terminates at Davy Tower, another brick tower located next to the River Ouse. This originally ran up to the castle walls, with a postern on Tower Street. Beyond the Ouse, the walls resume at Skeldergate, where there was once another postern. They climb past Baile Hill, take a right turn and proceed north-west parallel to the Inner Ring Road. Near the railway station, they turn right again in a north-easterly direction, finishing at Barker Tower on the Ouse. Barker Tower was once linked to Lendal Tower by a chain across the river, parallel to the 19th-century Lendal Bridge. A small stretch of wall then leads to the entrance to Museum Gardens, the Multangular Tower and the original line of the Roman walls. The walls were repaired during the English Civil War by Parliamentarians as well as during the later Jacobite Risings due to fears of an invasion from Scotland. The walls were restored in the Victorian period after falling into disrepair. The Victorians widened the wall-walk as well as extending it in some areas, (such as in the northern area with views of the cathedral), previously, in some areas, there probably would have only been narrow ledges that could be used to support a timber wall-walk in times of danger. They also rebuilt the battlements and sometimes the tops of the walls. Some slit windows are at the wrong height and some are narrow for the full width of the parapet. Some parts of the walls still have small holes called musket loops from the 17th century for muskets to fire from although they are of uncertain age due to restoration. In the northern area where you have views of the Cathedral, the walls were defended from interval towers which would have been higher than they are now after the Victorian restoration. Some of the merlons spaced along the walls were added by the Victorians. However,some pre-date this period as can be seen in the 1782 Micklegate Bar illustration and the 1807 illustration showing the Multangular Tower and walls, although, very few original Medieval merlons remain. Perhaps one of the most notable additions to the wall was Robin Hood tower, built in 1889. Today the walls are a scheduled ancient monument and a grade I listed building. Bars The walls are punctuated by four main gatehouses, or 'bars', (Bootham Bar, Monk Bar, Walmgate Bar and Micklegate Bar below). These restricted traffic in medieval times, and were used to extract tolls, as well as being defensive positions in times of war. Bootham Bar Although much of Bootham Bar was built in the 14th and 19th centuries, it also has some of the oldest surviving stonework, dating to the 11th century. It stands almost on the site of porta principalis dextra, the north western gate of Eboracum. It was named in the 12th century as barram de Bootham, meaning bar at the booths, after the nearby market booths. It was the last of the bars to lose its barbican, which was removed in 1835. Monk Bar This four-storey gatehouse is the tallest and most elaborate of the four, and was built in the early 14th century. It was intended as a self-contained fort, and each floor is capable of being defended separately. The current gatehouse was built to replace a 12th-century gate known as Munecagate, which stood 100 yards (91 m) to the north-west, on the site of the Roman gate porta decumana – that location is indicated by a slight dip in the earth rampart. From 1993 to 2020, Monk Bar housed a museum called the Richard III Experience at Monk Bar and today, it retains its portcullis in working order. Walmgate Bar Most of Walmgate Bar was built during the 14th century, although the inner gateway dates from the 12th century. It was originally called Walbegate, the word Walbe possibly being an Anglo-Scandinavian personal name. The Bar's most notable feature is its barbican, which is the only one surviving on a town gate in England. It also retains its portcullis and has reproduction 15th century oak doors. On the inner side, an Elizabethan house, supported by stone Tuscan order columns (originally of Roman origin but modified in 1584), extends out over the gateway. The house was occupied until 1957. The Bar has been repaired and restored many times over the years, most notably in 1648, following the 1644 Siege of York in the English Civil War when it was bombarded by cannon fire, and in 1840 after it had suffered years of neglect. It was also damaged in 1489 when, along with Fishergate Bar, it was burnt by rebels who were rioting over tax raises. Micklegate Bar The name of this four-storey-high gatehouse is from the Old Norse 'mykla gata' or 'great road', and leads onto Micklegate. It was the traditional ceremonial gate for monarchs entering the city, who, in a tradition dating to Richard II in 1389, touch the state sword when entering the gate. The lower section was built in the 12th century while the top storeys in the 14th; the original barbican was removed in 1826. At least six reigning monarchs passed through this gate. Its symbolic value led to traitors' severed heads being displayed on the defences. Heads left there to rot included: Henry Hotspur Percy (1403), Henry Scrope, 3rd Baron Scrope of Masham (1415), Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York (1461), and Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland (1572). The Bar was inhabited until the 20th century. The upper two floors contain living quarters, which today are a museum known as the City Walls Experience at Micklegate Bar. A restoration of the Bar was completed in late 2017. Minor bars Besides the four main bars, there are two smaller bars. Fishergate Bar This Bar originally dates from around 1315, when it was documented as being called Barram Fishergate. It was bricked up following riots in 1489, but was reopened in 1827 and today provides pedestrian access through the walls between the Fishergate area (actually Fawcett Street/Paragon Street) and George Street. Victoria Bar As the name suggests, this bar is a 19th-century addition to the walls. It was opened in 1838 to provide direct access between Nunnery Lane and Bishophill. However, during its construction the remains of an ancient gateway were found beneath it. This was probably the gateway known in the 12th century as the lounelith or secluded gateway (in comparison to Micklegate Bar or the great bar located four hundred yards away). This was a small entrance to the city which dated back to early medieval times but was blocked up later with earth and stone, possibly during the period when the walls consisted solely of a wooden palisade before they were rebuilt in stone (from around 1250). See also List of town walls in England and Wales History of York Eboracum Museum Gardens Siege of York References Sources Pevsner, Nikolaus; Neave, David (1995) [1972]. Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (2nd ed.). London: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-071061-8. Wilson, Barbara; Mee, Frances (2005). The City Walls and Castles of York: The Pictorial Evidence. York Archaeological Trust. ISBN 978-1-874454-36-6. Walking the Walls: An easy stage by stage guide to York's medieval walls. Huntington, York: Village. 1985. Beal, Pauline (1994). Walking the Walls. Village Publishing. External links York City Walls – information from City of York Council (responsible for caring for the City Walls) The Friends of York Walls website "York' City Walls Trail" – by The Friends of York Walls A new audio guide using the Guide.AI app – "Introducing – "York’s City Walls Audio Trail"" – Friends of York Walls CIO. "York Walls Walk - Walking Tour of York City Walls", york-united-kingdom.co.uk "Theme: The York City Walls" on the History of York website

The Great North Run (branded the AJ Bell Great North Run for sponsorship purposes) is the largest half marathon in the world, taking place annually in North East England each September. Participants run between Newcastle upon Tyne and South Shields. The run was devised by former Olympic 10,000 m bronze medallist and BBC Sport commentator Brendan Foster. The first Great North Run was staged on 28 June 1981, when 12,000 runners participated. By 2011, the number of participants had risen to 54,000. For the first year it was advertised as a local fun run; nearly thirty years on it has become one of the biggest running events in the world, and the biggest in the UK. Only the Great Manchester Run and London Marathon come close to attracting similar numbers of athletes each year. The 1992 edition of the race incorporated the 1st IAAF World Half Marathon Championships. The event also has junior and mini races attached with these being run the Saturday before the main race on the Newcastle Quayside. Martin Mathathi holds the current men's course record with his run of 58:56 in 2011. In 2019, Brigid Kosgei's women's course record of 64:28 bettered the previous mark by over a minute and was also the fastest ever half marathon by a woman; however, the course was not eligible for records. That same year, Mo Farah won a record sixth consecutive men's Great North Run. Course The Great North Run starts in Newcastle upon Tyne on the A167 road (the central motorway), on the edge of both the city centre and the Town Moor. The route heads east and south down the motorway section, around the eastern side of the city centre, then crosses the Tyne Bridge into Gateshead. It heads around the eastern side of Gateshead town centre, then at a roundabout turns east and heads down the A184 (the Felling Bypass) in the direction of Sunderland. After 3.5 miles (5.6 km), the route turns off the A184 and heads north-east towards South Shields down the A194 (Leam Lane). 2.5 miles (4.0 km) later, the route reaches the southern side of Jarrow and it turns east down the A1300 (John Reid Road). The route passes through the south of South Shields (through Harton and Marsden) until it reaches the seafront just over 3.5 miles (5.6 km) later, where it turns north up the A183. The last mile (1.6 km) of the route runs along the seafront road to the finishing line at South Shields. All roads on the course are closed several hours before the race begins, however multiple vehicles including TV crews, emergency services, event staff, and a fleet of buses carrying participants' belongings are authorised to travel between Newcastle and South Shields on the closed course roads ahead of and following the participants. History The run was devised by former Olympic 10,000 m bronze medallist and BBC Sport commentator Brendan Foster. Foster was inspired after running in the Round the Bays Race in New Zealand in 1979, and has built upon the Great North Run with a series of other Great Run road races. The first Great North Run was staged on 28 June 1981, when 12,000 runners participated. By 2003, the number of participants had risen to 47,000. The 2011 event saw an announced field of 54,000. The number of finishers was 35,777 in 2007, the largest half marathon and the 13th largest running race that year. In 2014, the event had 41,615 finishers, making it the largest half-marathon in the world as certified by Guinness World Records in 2016. For the first nine races, eight of them were held in June. Since 1990, the race has instead been held in the autumn, usually in September but occasionally in October. Since 1990, the earliest date the race has been held on is 7 September (2014) and the latest is 22 October (2000). Bupa was the title partner of the Great North Run from the early 1990s until 2014, one of Britain's longest ever sports sponsorship agreements. In 2015 Morrisons announced their sponsorship of the Great Run series. In November 2015, the Great Run Company announced it was searching for a new title sponsor which includes the Great North Run. The 2016 Great North Run was the first staging of the event without a title sponsor. Simplyhealth became the new lead sponsor for 2017. AJ Bell was announced as the new lead sponsor for the Great Run series in 2023 in a 5-year partnership Events In 2004 a runner died (the eighth death in the event's then 24-year history). The 2005 Great North Run was the twenty-fifth edition of the race. Events to mark the anniversary included the launch of the Great North Run Cultural Programme at the Sage Gateshead. The race was started by Mike McLeod, the winner of the inaugural race in 1981. During the race, four participants died en route to South Shields. An inquest into the four deaths from 2005 began on Monday 5 June 2006 at Gateshead Council Chambers. In subsequent events, more emergency service personnel were brought in to ensure there was adequate cover. In spite of increased medical provision at the 2006 race, a man in his twenties died. The 2007 Great North Run was held on 30 September and was started by former England and Newcastle United manager Sir Bobby Robson. Kara Goucher defeated Paula Radcliffe in an impressive victory for the American. Goucher's winning time was 1:06:57. The 2008 Great North Run was held on 5 October and was started by former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair. The 2009 Great North Run was held on 20 September and was started by the musician Sting. The 2010 Great North Run was the 30th running of the event and was held on 19 September and was started by TV presenters Ant & Dec. The number of finishers (half marathon only) was 39,459. The 2011 Great North Run took place on the morning of Sunday, 18 September 2011. The race was started by World 5,000-metre champion Mo Farah. In 2013 the 33rd Great North Run had 56000 participants, most of whom were raising money for charity. The elite races had Olympic Gold Medalists and World Champion long-distance runners participating including in the men's race, Mo Farah, Kenenisa Bekele and a regular supporter of the event, Haile Gebrselassie. Ethiopian Bekele won the men's event just ahead of Farah. Kenya's Priscah Jeptoo came first the women's race and multi Olympic Gold Medalist David Weir won the wheelchair event. In 2014 the 34th Great North Run had 57000 participants, celebrated the 1 millionth runner to cross the finish line, and was the first to have a British man win in 29 years. Mo Farah completed the race in exactly 1 hour, while Mary Keitany completed in 1:05:39 seconds - surpassing the previous course record of 1:05:40 by 1 second, a record held by Paula Radcliffe. Tracey Cramond, who was raising money for Butterwick Hospices, was the 1 millionth person to complete the run, stating she was "gobsmacked" and that it was her "moment of fame". The Great North Run was the first International Athletics Association Event (IAAF) event in the world to reach such a milestone. In 2015 a 58 year old male runner died. The 2020 Great North Run was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2022 event cancelled its Junior and Mini events due to the death of Elizabeth II. Eddie Howe started the 2023 Great North Run for the 60,000 participants. The race was Mo Farah's last ever before his retirement. The 2024 Great North Run took place on 8th September and was started by Olympic Silver Medalist Kieran Reilly. A 29 year old male runner died after collapsing during the race. Past winners Key: Course record Wheelchair race Course record See also Northeast of England References Results Butler, Mark (2012-11-17). Great North Run Half Marathon. Association of Road Racing Statisticians. Retrieved on 2013-01-20. History and Tradition Archived 26 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Great Run. Retrieved on 2013-01-20. External links Official website

A half marathon is a road running event of 21.0975 kilometres (13 miles 192.5 yards)—half the distance of a marathon. It is common for a half marathon event to be held concurrently with a marathon or a 5K race, using almost the same course with a late start, an early finish or shortcuts. If finisher medals are awarded, the medal or ribbon may differ from those for the full marathon. The half marathon is also known as a 21K, 21.1K, or 13.1 miles, although these values are rounded and not formally correct. A half marathon world record is officially recognised by the International Association of Athletics Federations. The official IAAF world record for men is 57:31, set by Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda in November 2021 in Lisbon, Portugal, and for women is 1:04:02, set by Ruth Chepng'etich of Kenya on April 4, 2021, in Istanbul, Turkey. Participation in half marathons has grown steadily since 2003, partly because it is a challenging distance, but does not require the same level of training that a marathon does. In 2008, Running USA reported that the half marathon is the fastest-growing type of race. History The concept of the half-marathon emerged in the 1960s. The first half marathon was the Route du Vin Half Marathon founded in 1961. Although the race was technically not the official current distance until it was standardized in 1995. The event grew in popularity leading to the eventual establishment of the World Athletics Road Running Championships in 1992, originally titled the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships. All-time top 25 Men Correct as of September 2024. Notes Below is a list of other times equal or superior to 58:43: Jacob Kiplimo also ran 57:37 (2020), 57:56 (2022) and 58:09 (2024). Kibiwott Kandie also ran 57:40 (2023), 58:10 (2022) and 58:38 (2020). Sabastian Sawe also ran 58:05 (2024), 58:24 (2024), 58:29 (2023). Abraham Kiptum ran 58:18, but it was expunged for doping. Zersenay Tadese also ran 58:30 (2011). Yomif Kejelcha also ran 58:32 (2022). Philemon Kiplimo also ran 58:34 (2021). Daniel Mateiko also ran 58:40 (2022). Women Correct as of September 2024. Notes Below is a list of other times equal or superior to 1:05:15: Yalemzerf Yehualaw also ran 1:03:44 Mx a (2021, not legal), 1:04:22 Mx (2022), 1:04:40 Mx (2021), 1:04:46 (2020). Brigid Kosgei also ran 1:04:28 Mx a (2019). Hellen Obiri also ran 1:04:48 (2022), 1:04:51 Mx (2021). Joyciline Jepkosgei also ran 1:04:46 (2023), 1:04:51 (2017), 1:04:52 (2017). Sheila Chepkirui also ran 1:04:53 Mx (2021). Ruth Chepngetich also ran 1:05:06 (2020). Tsehay Gemechu also ran 1:05:08 Mx (2021). Joan Chelimo also ran 1:05:09 Mx (2021). Margaret Kipkemboi also ran 1:05:11 Mx (2024). Florence Jebet Kiplagat also ran 1:05:12 (2014). Mary Jepkosgei Keitany also ran 1:05:13 (2017). Season's bests This table lists the best half marathon performances per year since 1970, as recorded by the ARRS. The largest half marathon ever held was Broloppet (the Bridge race) between Copenhagen in Denmark and Malmö in Sweden with 79,719 finishers, held in connection with the Øresund Bridge inauguration in 2000. See also List of half marathon races World Athletics Half Marathon Championships Mini marathon Quarter marathon Half marathon world record progression One hour run Notes References Further reading Nilson, Finn; Lundkvist, Erik; Wagnsson, Stefan; Gustafsson, Henrik (2019-12-19). "Has the second 'running boom' democratized running? A study on the sociodemographic characteristics of finishers at the world's largest half marathon". Sport in Society. 24 (4): 659–669. doi:10.1080/17430437.2019.1703687. ISSN 1743-0437. External links IAAF list of half-marathon records in XML

What was the 2021 population of the birthplace of the leader of the party that won the 1869 Newfoundland general election?

9,162 was the population of Shaftesbury (the birthplace of Charles Fox Bennett) in the 2021 census.

Tabular reasoning | Multiple constraints

The 1869 Newfoundland general election was held in 1869 to elect members of the 10th General Assembly of Newfoundland in the Newfoundland Colony. 21 Anti-Confederates (A-C) were elected against 9 Confederates (Con), ending for a moment the debate over joining the Dominion of Canada. Results by party Elected members Twillingate-Fogo Charles Duder (A-C) Smith McKay (A-C) Bonavista Bay James L. Noonan (A-C) William M. Barnes (A-C) Francis Winton (A-C) Trinity Bay Stephen Rendell (Con) Thomas H. Ridley (Con) Alexander Graham (later in a by-election) Robert Alsop (A-C) (defeated after named to cabinet post in 1870) John H. Warren (later, in a by-election) Bay de Verde John Bemister (Con) James J. Rogerson (later, in a by-election) Carbonear John Rorke (Con) Harbour Grace John Munn (Con) William S. Green (Con) Brigus-Port de Grave James B. Woods (A-C) St. John's East William P. Walsh (A-C) James Jordan (A-C) Robert J. Parsons, senior (A-C) St. John's West Peter Brennan (A-C) Thomas Talbot (A-C) Maurice Fenelon (later in a by-election) Henry Renouf (A-C) Lewis Tessier (later, in a by-election) Harbour Main James I. Little (A-C) John Kennedy (A-C) Ferryland Thomas Glen (A-C) Thomas Badcock (or Battcock) (A-C) Placentia-St. Mary's Charles Fox Bennett (A-C) (Leader of the Anti-Confederates) Robert J. Parsons, junior (A-C) Henry Renouf (A-C) Burin Frederick Carter (Con) (Leader of the Confederates) Edward Evans (Con) Fortune Bay Thomas R. Bennett (A-C) (Speaker of the Assembly) Burgeo-LaPoile Prescott Emerson (Con) == References ==

Charles James Fox Bennett (11 June 1793 in Shaftesbury, England – 5 December 1883) was a merchant and politician who successfully fought attempts to take Newfoundland into Canadian confederation. Bennett was a successful businessman and one of the colony's richest residents with interests in the fisheries, distillery and brewery industry and shipbuilding. His brother Thomas Bennett, a magistrate and member of Newfoundland's first House of Assembly, was a partner in the business. Bennett became involved in politics in the 1840s as a leader of the colony's Anglican community and an opponent of responsible government, an argument he lost when an alliance of Catholics and non-Anglican Protestants persuaded the Colonial Office to grant Newfoundland self-government. In the 1860s, he led the Anti-Confederation Party opposing the proposals by Sir Frederick Carter to join Canada. Bennett's party defeated Carter's Conservatives on the Confederation issue in the 1869 elections, allowing Bennett to form a government in 1870. However, as Premier he was unable to keep his party united, and in 1874 resigned, allowing Carter to return to power. The issue of Confederation had become a moot point and would not be seriously raised again until the Great Depression. Bennet also commissioned extensive mineral surveys along the coasts, and in the 1860s developed the prosperous copper mine at Tilt Cove (Notre Dame Bay). Bennett's anti-Confederates reformed themselves into the colony's Conservative Party. References External links Hiller, James K. (1982). "Bennett, Charles James Fox". In Halpenny, Francess G (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. XI (1881–1890) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.

Shaftesbury () is a town and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is on the A30 road, 20 miles (32 kilometres) west of Salisbury and 23 miles (37 kilometres) north-northeast of Dorchester, near the border with Wiltshire. It is the only significant hilltop settlement in Dorset, being built about 215 metres (705 feet) above sea level on a greensand hill on the edge of Cranborne Chase. The town looks over the Blackmore Vale, part of the River Stour basin. Shaftesbury is the site of the former Shaftesbury Abbey, which was founded in 888 by King Alfred and became one of the richest religious establishments in the country, before being destroyed in the dissolution in 1539. Adjacent to the abbey site is Gold Hill, a steep cobbled street used in the 1970s as the setting for Ridley Scott's television advertisement for Hovis bread. In the 2021 census the town's civil parish had a population of 9,162. Toponymy Shaftesbury has acquired a number of names throughout its history. Writing in 1906, Sir Frederick Treves referred to four of these names from Celtic, Latin and English traditions in his book Highways & Byways in Dorset: The city has had many names. It was, in the beginning, Caer Palladour. By the time of the Domesday Book it was Sceptesberie. It then, with all the affectation of a lady in an eighteenth-century lyric, called itself Sophonia. Lastly it became Shaston, and so the people call it to this day, while all the milestones around concern themselves only with recording the distances to "Shaston". The original Celtic name is first recorded in Medieval Welsh literature as Caer Vynnydd y Paladr (The Mountain Fort/City of the Spears) and Thomas Gale records the name as Caer Palladour in his work of 1709. Though "Palladour" was described by one 19th-century directory as "mere invention", it has continued to be used as a poetic and alternative name for the town. The English name was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Sceptesberie, and the use of "Shaston" () was recorded in 1831 in Samuel Lewis's A Topographical Dictionary of England and in 1840 in The parliamentary gazetteer of England and Wales. Thomas Hardy used both "Shaston" and "Palladour" to refer to the town in the fictional Wessex of his novels such as Jude the Obscure. History There is no substantive evidence that Shaftesbury was the "Caer Palladur" (or "Caer Palladwr") of Celtic and Roman times, and instead the town's recorded history dates from Anglo-Saxon times. By the early eighth century there was an important minster church here, and in 880 Alfred the Great founded a burgh (fortified settlement) here as a defence in the struggle with the Danish invaders. The burgh is recorded in the early-10th-century Burghal Hidage as one of only three that existed in the county (the others being at Wareham and 'Bredy' – which is probably Bridport). In 888 Alfred founded Shaftesbury Abbey, a Benedictine nunnery by the town's east gate, and appointed his daughter Ethelgifu as the first abbess. Æthelstan founded two royal mints, which struck pennies bearing the town's name, and the abbey became the wealthiest Benedictine nunnery in England. On 20 February 981 the relics of St Edward the Martyr, the teenage King of England, were transferred from Wareham and received at the abbey with great ceremony, thereafter turning Shaftesbury into a major site of pilgrimage for miracles of healing. King Canute died here in 1035, though he was buried at Winchester. Edward the Confessor licensed a third mint for the town. By the time of the Norman conquest in 1066 Shaftesbury had 257 houses, though many were destroyed in the ensuing years of conflict, and by the time the Domesday Book was compiled twenty years later, there were only 177 houses remaining, though this still meant that Shaftesbury was the largest town in Dorset at that time. In the first English civil war (1135–1154) between Empress Matilda and King Stephen, an adulterine castle or fortified house was built on a small promontory at the western edge of the hill on which the old town was built. The site on Castle Hill, also known locally as Boltbury, is now under grass and is a scheduled monument. In 1240 Cardinal Otto of Tonengo, legate to the Apostolic See of Pope Gregory IX visited the abbey and confirmed a charter of 1191, the first entered in the Glastonbury chartulary. During the Middle Ages the abbey was the central focus of the town; the abbey's great wealth was acknowledged in a popular saying at the time, which stated that "If the abbot of Glastonbury could marry the abbess of Shaftesbury their heir would hold more land than the king of England". In 1260 a charter to hold a market was granted. By 1340 the mayor had become a recognised figure, sworn in by the steward of the abbess. In 1392 Richard II confirmed a grant of two markets on different days. Edwardstowe, Shaftesbury's oldest surviving building, was built on Bimport at some time between 1400 and 1539. Also in this period a medieval farm owned by the Abbess of Shaftesbury was established, on a site now occupied by the Tesco supermarket car park. In 1539, the last Abbess of Shaftesbury, Elizabeth Zouche, signed a deed of surrender, the (by then extremely wealthy) abbey was demolished, and its lands sold, leading to a temporary decline in the town. Sir Thomas Arundell purchased the abbey and much of the town in 1540, but when he was later exiled for treason his lands were forfeit, and the lands passed to Pembroke then Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, and finally to the Grosvenors. Shaftesbury was a parliamentary constituency returning two members from 1296 to the Reform Act of 1832, when it was reduced to one, and in 1884 the separate constituency was abolished. In Survey of Dorsetshire, written in about 1630 by Thomas Gerard of the Dorset village of Trent, Shaftesbury is described as a "faire Thorough Faire, much frequented by Travellers to and from London". The town was broadly Parliamentarian in the Civil War, but was in Royalist hands. Wardour Castle fell to Parliamentary forces in 1643; Parliamentary forces surrounded the town in August 1645, when it was a centre of local clubmen activity. The clubmen were arrested and sent to trial in Sherborne. Shaftesbury took no part in the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685. In the 17th century the cloth industry formed part of Shaftesbury's economy, though much of the actual production took place as a cottage industry in the surrounding area. In the 18th century the town produced a coarse white woollen cloth called 'swanskin', that was used by fishermen of Newfoundland and for uniforms. Buttonmaking also became important around this time, though with the later advent of industrialisation this subsequently declined, resulting in unemployment, starvation and emigration, with 350 families leaving for Canada. Malting and brewing were also significant in the 17th and 18th centuries, and like other Dorset towns such as Dorchester and Blandford Forum, Shaftesbury became known for its beer. The railways however bypassed the town, which had consequences for Shaftesbury's economy; during the 19th century the town's brewing industry was reduced to serving only local markets, as towns elsewhere in the country could transport their produce more cheaply. During the 19th century the population of the town grew little. The town hall was built in 1837 by Earl Grosvenor after the guildhall was pulled down to widen High Street. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building. Shaftesbury Town Hall is next to the 15th-century St Peter's Church which is Grade II* listed. The Westminster Memorial Hospital was constructed on Bimport in the mid-19th century with a legacy from the wife of the Duke of Westminster. In 1918 Lord Stalbridge, 2nd Baron Stalbridge, Hugh Grosvenor, sold a large portion of the town, which was purchased by a syndicate and auctioned piece by piece over three days. The entire Stalbridge Estate of some 13,500 acres was sold and the title became extinct with the death of Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Baron Stalbridge in 1949. His only son and heir had been killed in a flying accident in 1930. Most of Shaftesbury's buildings date from no earlier than the 18th century, as the Saxon and most of the medieval buildings have not survived. Governance In the United Kingdom national parliament, Shaftesbury is in the North Dorset parliamentary constituency, represented since 2015 by Simon Hoare of the Conservative Party. In local government, Shaftesbury is administered by Dorset Council (a unitary authority) and Shaftesbury Town Council, which has responsibilities that include open spaces and recreational facilities, allotments, litter, street markets, public conveniences, grants to voluntary organisations, cemetery provision, bus shelters, crime prevention initiatives, civic events and the town hall, planning (as a consultee) and the war memorial. Shaftesbury is covered by an electoral ward called Shaftesbury Town, which elects two members to Dorset Council. Prior to changes in 2019, the town elected one member of Dorset County Council and four members of North Dorset District Council. Geography The old centre of Shaftesbury is sited on a westward-pointing promontory of high ground in northeast Dorset, on the scarp edge of a range of hills that extend south and east into Cranborne Chase and neighbouring Wiltshire. The town's built-up area extends down the promontory slopes to lower ground at St James, Alcester and Enmore Green, and eastwards across the watershed towards the hill's dip slope. Shaftesbury's altitude is between about 165 metres (541 feet) at the lowest streets below the promontory, to about 235 m (771 ft) at Wincombe Business Park on the hilltop in the north, with the promontory and town centre being at about 215 m (705 ft). Below the town to the west is the Blackmore Vale, which undulates between about 60 and 110 m (200 and 360 ft). About 2 mi (3 km) west of the town and within the Blackmore Vale is the conical mound of Duncliffe Hill, visible for miles and home to Duncliffe Wood and a nature reserve. The countryside east of the town is part of the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Geologically, Shaftesbury's hill mostly comprises Upper Greensand, which is overlain by Lower Chalk in the east. These date from the Cretaceous, with the greensand having been formed in the Albian and early Cenomanian, and the chalk also in the Cenomanian. The greensand is composed of three beds: the oldest and lowest is a layer of Cann Sand, which is found in the lower parts of the town, such as St James and Alcester, that are below the promontory; above this is a layer of Shaftesbury Sandstone, which generally forms the steepest slopes around the promontory, and on top of this is a layer of Boyne Hollow Chert, which is found on top of the hill and on which most of the town is built. Below the Cann Sand, on the lower slopes of the hill to the north, west and south of the town, are extensive landslip deposits. Economy In 2012 there were 3,400 people employed in Shaftesbury, 65% of whom were working full-time and 35% part-time. Excluding agriculture, the most important employment sectors were public administration, education and health (31% of non-agricultural employment), production and construction (29%), and distribution, accommodation and food (26%). Significant employers include Dorset County Council, Pork Farms, Guys Marsh Prison, Royal Mail, Tesco, Port Regis School, Wessex Electricals, Stalbridge Linen Services, Blackmore Press and Dorset Chilled Foods. There are two industrial estates in the town: Longmead Industrial Estate, covering 7.7 hectares (19 acres), and Wincombe Business Park, covering 6.5 hectares (16 acres). In 2005 there were 75 shops in the town, with a total floorspace of 7,200 square metres (78,000 sq ft). The retail catchment area for major food shopping extends about 4+1⁄2 mi (7 km) in all directions. National retail chains with a presence in the town include the Body Shop, Boots, Somerfield, Superdrug, Tesco and WHSmith. A site has been identified for a projected parkway station on the West of England main railway line. It would be situated to the north of the town, beneath the A350 road, and a bus service would connect it with the town. Currently the nearest railway station is located in neighbouring Gillingham. Demography In the 2011 census Shaftesbury's civil parish had 3,493 dwellings, 3,235 households and a population of 7,314. The average age of inhabitants was 43, compared to 39.3 for England as a whole. 22.1% of inhabitants were age 65 or older, compared to 16.4% for England as a whole. 92% of Shaftesbury's residents were born in the United Kingdom, compared to 86.2% for England as a whole. Previous census figures for the total population of the civil parish are shown in the table below: Culture, art and media Shaftesbury Arts Centre was established in 1957 and stages a variety of exhibitions, performances, workshops and training courses. It is based in the old covered market in the town centre and is a charitable company that is run wholly by its volunteer members. Shaftesbury has two museums: Gold Hill Museum at the top of Gold Hill, and Shaftesbury Abbey Museum in the abbey grounds. Gold Hill Museum was founded in 1946 and displays many artefacts that relate to the history of Shaftesbury and the surrounding area, including Dorset's oldest fire engine, dating from 1744. Shaftesbury Abbey Museum tells the story of the abbey and also has a herb garden and medieval orchard. Shaftesbury Snowdrops is a Diamond Jubilee Community Legacy with the aim of creating a series of free and accessible snowdrop walks by planting snowdrops within the publicly open spaces and along the pathways throughout the town. The project was started in the winter of 2012 with the planting of 60,000 bulbs. Since 2013 there has been an annual Snowdrop Festival to encourage tourists to see the snowdrops in flower. Highlights of the festival include the Snowdrop Art Exhibition and the Snowdrop Lantern Parade. In 2014 Shaftesbury Snowdrops started a heritage collection of rare and unusual snowdrops. These are held in trust for the people of Shaftesbury and displayed in Shaftesbury Abbey during the annual Snowdrop Festival. The collection is being built through sponsorship and donations. Gold Hill Fair usually occurs in the first weekend of July and has food stalls, arts stalls and local music that can be found in the abbey ruins. In 2016, Shaftesbury's first open arts fringe festival was organised and has since grown to become one of the key fringe festivals in the country. The fringe is always held on the first weekend in July and attracts an eccentric mix of performers from local singers to celebrity comics heading for Edinburgh. Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC West and ITV West Country. Television signals are received from the Mendip TV transmitter. Shaftesbury's local radio stations are BBC Radio Solent, Vale FM, and Heart West Country. The town is home to a volunteer-run community radio station, Alfred, broadcasting local news, speech programming and music on 107.3 FM and online. It was awarded an Ofcom licence in 2020, having grown from a weekly podcast which went daily during the COVID-19 pandemic. The podcast won the gold award in the community radio awards in 2021. Representations Thomas Hardy used the names Shaston or Palladour to describe Shaftesbury in the fictional Wessex of his novels. In Jude the Obscure he described the loss of the town's former architectural glories, principally the abbey: "Vague imaginings of its castle, its three mints, its magnificent apsidal abbey, the chief glory of south Wessex, its twelve churches, its shrines, chantries, hospitals, its gabled freestone mansions—all now ruthlessly swept away—throw the visitor, even against his will, into a pensive melancholy, which the stimulating atmosphere and limitless landscape around him can scarcely dispel." In the 1970s Ridley Scott used Gold Hill, a steep cobbled street in the town, as the setting for a television advertisement for Hovis bread, in which a bread delivery boy is seen pushing his bicycle up the street before freewheeling back down. The advertisement made the street nationally famous. Transport Shaftesbury is served by the A30, between Salisbury and Yeovil, and the A350, which connects Poole and Chippenham. The town is 7 miles (11 km) south of the main A303 trunk road between London and South West England. Shaftesbury has never had a direct railway connection. The challenging topography likely played a significant role in this, as constructing a railway up the steep slopes would have been difficult and costly. In 1859, the Salisbury and Yeovil Railway established a station at Semley, 2+1⁄2 miles (4.0 km) north of Shaftesbury. This station allowed residents and visitors to access the broader railway network. Semley station closed in the Beeching cuts of 1966. The closest railway station to Shaftesbury is now Gillingham railway station (Dorset), 4 miles (6.4 km) northwest of the town, on the West of England line from London Waterloo to Exeter. Local bus services connect the town to surrounding villages and towns. Amenities Shaftesbury has a non-League football club, Shaftesbury F.C., who play at Cockrams. The Shaftesbury Lido, an open air swimming pool at Barton Hill, is open during the summer months. Shaftesbury has a community hospital, opened in 1874 and named Westminster Memorial Hospital in memory of the Marquis of Westminster, whose widow donated the site. The town has a public library operated by Dorset Council. Notable people Cnut the Great, King of England, Denmark, and Norway, died in Shaftesbury on 12 November 1035; he was buried in Winchester. Poet William Chamberlayne lived there his whole life, from 1619 to 1689. Philosopher Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury (1671–1713), an influential thinker on modern aesthetics. Actor Robert Newton, best known for his portrayals of Long John Silver and Bill Sikes in the 1948 David Lean film Oliver Twist, was born there. Architect Richard Upjohn, famous for his Gothic Revival churches in the United States, including Trinity Church in New York, was also born in Shaftesbury. Electronic music producer Seamus Malliagh, known professionally as Iglooghost, grew up in Shaftesbury. Electronic music producer and artist Kai Whiston grew up in Shaftesbury. Lavinia Young (1911–1986 ), born in Bimport, was elected Mayor of Shaftesbury (1970) and was Matron of Westminster Hospital, London from 1951 to 1966. See also St Mary's School, Shaftesbury Shaftesbury School References Notes General references Bettey, J. H. (1974). Dorset. City & County Histories. David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-6371-9. Pitt-Rivers, Michael, 1979. Dorset. London: Faber & Faber. Berry, Geoffrey (1985). AA Illustrated Guide to: Country Towns and Villages of Britain. Contributions from The Automobile Association. Drive Publications. ISBN 9780903356343. External links Shaftesbury Tourist Information Centre Shaftesbury Town Council Shaftesbury at Curlie

After Meat Loaf legally changed his name due to a commercial, what was the first new brand launched by the company to whom the commercial belonged?

Dockers

Temporal reasoning

Michael Lee Aday (born Marvin Lee Aday; September 27, 1947 – January 20, 2022), known professionally as Meat Loaf, was an American singer and actor. He was known for his powerful, wide-ranging voice and theatrical live shows. His Bat Out of Hell album trilogy—Bat Out of Hell (1977), Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell (1993), and Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose (2006)—has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. The first album stayed on the charts for over nine years and is one of the best-selling albums in history, still selling an estimated 200,000 copies annually as of 2016. Despite the commercial success of Bat Out of Hell and Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell, and earning a Grammy Award for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance for the song "I'd Do Anything for Love", Meat Loaf nevertheless experienced some difficulty establishing a steady career within the United States. However, his career still saw success due to his popularity in Europe, especially in the United Kingdom and Ireland. He received the 1994 Brit Award in the United Kingdom for best-selling album and single, and was ranked 23rd for the number of weeks spent on the UK charts in 2006. He ranks 96th on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock". Meat Loaf also acted in over 50 films and television shows, sometimes as himself or as characters resembling his stage persona. His notable film roles include Eddie in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), the bus driver in Spice World (1997), and Robert Paulson in Fight Club (1999). His early stage work included dual roles in the original Broadway cast of The Rocky Horror Show; he also appeared in the musical Hair, both on and Off-Broadway. Early life Marvin Lee Aday was born in Dallas, Texas, on September 27, 1947, the son of Wilma Artie (née Hukel), a schoolteacher and member of the Vo-di-o-do Girls gospel music quartet, and Orvis Wesley Aday, a former police officer who went into business selling a homemade cough remedy with his wife and a friend under the name of the Griffin Grocery Company. He stated in an interview that when he was born, he was "bright red and stayed that way for days" and that his father said he looked like "nine pounds of ground chuck,” and convinced hospital staff to put the name "Meat" on his crib. He was later called "M.L." in reference to his initials, but when his weight increased, his seventh-grade classmates referred to him as "Meat Loaf", referring to his 5-foot-2-inch (157 cm), 240-pound (110 kg) stature. He also attributed the nickname to an incident where, after he stepped on a football coach's foot, the coach yelled 'Get off my foot, you hunk of meatloaf!'” Meat Loaf's father binge-drank alcohol for days at a time, a habit he started when he was medically discharged from the U.S. Army during World War II after being wounded by fragments from a mortar shell. Meat Loaf often accompanied his mother in driving to the bars in Dallas to look for his father, and often stayed with his grandmother. He attended church and Bible study every Sunday. He was 16 years-old on November 22nd, 1963, the day of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. That morning, Meat Loaf had seen the President when he arrived at Dallas Love Field. Later, after hearing of Kennedy's death, a friend and he drove to Parkland Hospital where he witnessed Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, covered in her husband's blood, getting out of the car that brought her to the hospital. In 1965, Meat Loaf graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School, having appeared in school stage productions such as Where's Charley? and The Music Man. He played high school football as a defensive tackle. After attending college at Lubbock Christian College, he transferred to North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas). In 1967, when Meat Loaf was 19 years old: his mother died of cancer, and his father lunged at him with a knife after falsely accusing the teen of having girls in his bedroom. Meat Loaf used the money his mother left him, to rent an apartment in Dallas, where he isolated for three and a half months, at which time a friend found him. Soon after, he went to the airport and caught the next flight to Los Angeles. Meat Loaf intentionally gained 60 pounds (27 kg) to fail his physical examination for the Vietnam War draft. Despite this strategy, he still received his notice to appear before his local draft board, but chose to ignore it. Career Early career In Los Angeles, Meat Loaf formed his first band, Meat Loaf Soul. The band received several recording contracts. Meat Loaf Soul's first gig was in Huntington Beach, California in 1968 at the Cave, opening for Van Morrison's band Them and Question Mark and the Mysterians. Meat Loaf later described his early days in the music industry as being treated like a "circus clown". The band underwent several changes of lead guitarists, changing the name of the band each time, to names including Popcorn Blizzard and Floating Circus. As Floating Circus, they opened for the Who, the Fugs, the Stooges, MC5, the Grateful Dead, and the Grease Band. Their regional success led them to release a single, "Once Upon a Time", backed with "Hello". Meat Loaf then joined the Los Angeles production of the musical Hair. 1970s With the publicity generated from Hair, Meat Loaf accepted an invitation by Motown, in Detroit. In addition to appearing as "Mother" and "Ulysses S. Grant" at Detroit's Vest Pocket Theatre, he recorded the vocals with fellow Hair performer Shaun "Stoney" Murphy on an album of songs written and selected by the Motown production team. The album, titled Stoney & Meatloaf (with Meatloaf spelled as one word), was released in September 1971 and included the single "What You See Is What You Get"; it reached number 36 on the Best Selling Soul Singles chart and number 71 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Meat Loaf and Stoney toured with Jake Wade and the Soul Searchers, opening for Richie Havens, the Who, the Stooges, Bob Seger, Alice Cooper, and Rare Earth. Meat Loaf left Motown soon after the label replaced his and Stoney's vocals from the one song he liked, "Who Is the Leader of the People?" with new vocals by Edwin Starr. He moved to Freeland, Michigan for a year and was the opening act at the Grande Ballroom 80 times. In December 1972, Meat Loaf was in the original off-Broadway production of Rainbow at the Orpheum Theatre in New York. After the tour, Meat Loaf rejoined the cast of Hair, this time at a Broadway theater. After he hired an agent, he auditioned for the Public Theater's production of More Than You Deserve. During the audition, Meat Loaf met Jim Steinman. He sang a Stoney and Meat Loaf favorite of his, "(I'd Love to Be) As Heavy as Jesus", and subsequently got the part of Rabbit, a maniac that blows up his fellow soldiers so they can "go home". Ron Silver and Fred Gwynne were also in the show. In the summer between the show's workshop production (April 1973) and full production (November 1973 – January 1974), Meat Loaf appeared in a Shakespeare in the Park production of As You Like It with Raul Julia and Mary Beth Hurt. In late 1973, Meat Loaf was cast in the original L.A. Roxy cast of The Rocky Horror Show, playing the parts of Eddie and Dr. Everett Scott. The success of the musical led to the filming of The Rocky Horror Picture Show in which Meat Loaf played only Eddie, a decision he said made the movie not as good as the musical. About the same time, Meat Loaf and Steinman started work on Bat Out of Hell. Meat Loaf convinced Epic Records to shoot music videos for four songs, "Bat Out of Hell", "Paradise by the Dashboard Light", "You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth", and "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad" and convinced Lou Adler, the producer of Rocky Horror, to run the "Paradise" video as a trailer to the movie. During his recording of the soundtrack for Rocky Horror, Meat Loaf recorded two more songs: "Stand by Me" (a Ben E. King cover), and "Clap Your Hands". They remained unreleased for a decade, until 1984, when they appeared as B-sides to the "Nowhere Fast" single. In 1976, Meat Loaf recorded lead vocals for Ted Nugent's album Free-for-All when regular Nugent lead vocalist Derek St. Holmes temporarily quit the band. Meat Loaf sang lead on five of the album's nine tracks. That same year, Meat Loaf appeared in his final theatrical show in New York City, the short-lived Broadway production of Gower Champion's rock musical Rockabye Hamlet. It closed two weeks into its initial run. Meat Loaf and Steinman started working on Bat Out of Hell in 1972, but did not get serious about it until the end of 1974. Meat Loaf then decided to leave theater and concentrate exclusively on music. Meat Loaf was cast as an understudy for John Belushi in The National Lampoon Show. It was at the Lampoon show that Meat Loaf met Ellen Foley, the co-star who sang "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" and "Bat Out of Hell" with him on the album Bat Out of Hell. Meat Loaf and Steinman spent time seeking a record deal; however, their approaches were rejected by each record company, because their songs did not fit any specific recognized music industry style. Todd Rundgren, under the impression that they already had a record deal, agreed to produce the album as well as play lead guitar along with other members of Rundgren's band Utopia and Max Weinberg. They then shopped the record around, but they still had no takers until Steve Popovich's Cleveland International Records took a chance, releasing Bat Out of Hell in October 1977. Meat Loaf and Steinman formed the band Neverland Express to tour in support of Bat Out of Hell. Their first gig was opening for Cheap Trick in Chicago. Meat Loaf gained national exposure as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live on March 25, 1978. In 1978, Meat Loaf jumped off a stage in Ottawa, Ontario, breaking his leg. He finished his tour performing in a wheelchair. Bat Out of Hell has sold an estimated 43 million copies globally, including 15 million in the United States, making it one of the bestselling albums of all time. In the United Kingdom alone, its 2.1 million sales put it in 38th place. Despite peaking at No. 9 and spending only two weeks in the top ten in 1981, it has now spent 485 weeks on the UK Albums Chart (May 2015), a figure bettered only by Rumours by Fleetwood Mac with 487 weeks. In Australia, it knocked the Bee Gees off the No. 1 spot and became the biggest-selling album of all time in that country. Bat Out of Hell has, as of December 2020, spent a total of 522 weeks in the Top 200 in the UK chart. 1980s In 1979, Steinman started to work on Bad for Good, the intended follow-up to 1977's Bat Out of Hell. During that time, a combination of touring, drugs and exhaustion had caused Meat Loaf to lose his voice. Without a singer, and pressured by the record company, Steinman decided that he should sing on Bad for Good himself. While Steinman worked on Bad for Good, Meat Loaf played the role of Travis Redfish in the movie Roadie until his singing voice returned. Steinman then wrote a new album for Meat Loaf, Dead Ringer, which was released in September 1981. Steinman had written five new songs which, in addition to the track "More Than You Deserve" (sung by Meat Loaf in the stage musical of the same name) and a reworked monolog, formed the album Dead Ringer, which was produced by Meat Loaf and Stephan Galfas, with backing tracks produced by Todd Rundgren, Jimmy Iovine, and Steinman. In 1976, Meat Loaf appeared on the track "Keeper Keep Us", from the Intergalactic Touring Band's self-titled album, produced by Galfas. The song "Dead Ringer for Love" was the pinnacle of the album, and launched Meat Loaf to even greater success. While it failed to chart in the US, it reached No. 5 in the United Kingdom and stayed in the UK Singles Chart for 19 weeks. Cher provided the lead female vocals in the song. On December 5, 1981, Meat Loaf and the Neverland Express were the musical guests for Saturday Night Live where he and former fellow Rocky Horror Picture Show actor Tim Curry performed a skit depicting a One-Stop Rocky Horror Shop. Also on the show, Curry performed "The Zucchini Song" and Meat Loaf & the Neverland Express performed "Bat Out of Hell" and "Promised Land". Following a dispute with his former songwriter Jim Steinman, Meat Loaf was contractually obliged to release a new album, resulting in Midnight at the Lost and Found, released in May 1983. According to Meat Loaf, Steinman had given the songs "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and "Making Love Out of Nothing at All" to Meat Loaf for this album. However, Meat Loaf's record company did not want Meat Loaf to sing Steinman's songs, saying that nobody wanted to hear them. Bonnie Tyler's version of "Eclipse" and Air Supply's version of "Making Love" topped the charts together, holding No. 1 and No. 2 for a period during 1983. Meat Loaf is credited with having been involved in the writing of some of the tracks on the album, including the title track, "Midnight at the Lost and Found". Poor money management as well as 45 lawsuits totaling US$80 million, including ones from Steinman, resulted in Meat Loaf filing for personal bankruptcy in 1983. The bankruptcy resulted in Meat Loaf losing the rights to his songs, although he received royalties for Bat Out of Hell in 1997. In 1984, Meat Loaf went to England, where he felt increasingly at home, to record the album Bad Attitude; it was released that year. It features two songs by Steinman, both previously recorded, "Nowhere Fast" and "Surf's Up". The American release on RCA Records was in April 1985 and features a slightly different track list, as well as alternate mixes for some songs. The title track features a duet with the Who's lead singer Roger Daltrey. It was a minor success with a few commercially successful singles, the most successful being "Modern Girl". In 1985, Meat Loaf took part in some comedy sketches in the UK with Hugh Laurie. Meat Loaf also tried stand-up comedy, appearing several times in Connecticut. Meat Loaf worked with songwriter John Parr on his next album, Blind Before I Stop, which was released in 1986 by Arista Records. It features production, mixing, and general influence by Frank Farian. Meat Loaf was involved in the composition of three of the songs on the album. Meat Loaf performed "Thrashin" for the soundtrack of the 1986 skateboarding film Thrashin' (directed by David Winters and starring Josh Brolin). 1990s Following the success of Meat Loaf's touring in the 1980s, he and Steinman began work during December 1990 on Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell; the album was released in September 1993. The immediate success of Bat Out of Hell II led to the sale of over 15 million copies, and the single "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" reached number one in 28 countries. In March 1994, at the 36th Annual Grammy Awards, Meat Loaf won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo for "I'd Do Anything for Love". This song stayed at No. 1 in the UK chart for seven consecutive weeks. The single featured a female vocalist who was credited only as "Mrs. Loud". Mrs. Loud was later identified as Lorraine Crosby, a performer from England. Meat Loaf promoted the song with American vocalist Patti Russo, who performed lead female vocals on tour with him. Also in 1994, he sang the U.S. national anthem "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. He released the single "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through", which reached No. 13 in the United States. In 1995, Meat Loaf released his seventh studio album, Welcome to the Neighborhood. The album went platinum in the United States and the United Kingdom. It included three singles that hit the top 40, including "I'd Lie for You (And That's the Truth)" (which reached No. 13 in the United States and No. 2 in the UK), and "Not a Dry Eye in the House" (which reached No. 7 in the UK chart). I'd Lie for You (And That's the Truth) was a duet with Patti Russo, who had been touring with Meat Loaf and singing on his albums since 1993. Of the twelve songs on the album, two are written by Steinman. Both are cover versions, the "Original Sin" from Pandora's Box's Original Sin album and "Left in the Dark" first appeared on Steinman's own Bad for Good as well as the 1984 album Emotion by Barbra Streisand. His other singles, "I'd Lie for You (And That's the Truth)" and "Not a Dry Eye in the House", were written by Diane Warren. In 1998, Meat Loaf released The Very Best of Meat Loaf. The album featured three new songs co-written by Steinman – two with Andrew Lloyd Webber and one with Don Black, "Is Nothing Sacred", released as a single. The single version of this song is a duet with Patti Russo, whereas the album version is a solo song by Meat Loaf. 2000s In 2003, Meat Loaf released his album Couldn't Have Said It Better. For only the third time in his career, Meat Loaf released an album without any songs written by Steinman (not counting live bonus tracks on special edition releases). Although Meat Loaf claimed that Couldn't Have Said It Better was "the most perfect album [he] did since Bat Out of Hell", it was not as commercially successful. The album was a minor commercial success worldwide and reached No. 4 on the UK Albums Chart, accompanied by a sellout world tour to promote the album and some of Meat Loaf's best selling singles. One such performance on his world tour was at the 2003 NRL Grand Final in Sydney. There were many writers for the album including Diane Warren and James Michael, who were both asked to contribute to his 2006 album, Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose. The album featured duets with Patti Russo and Meat Loaf's daughter Pearl Aday. On November 17, 2003, during a performance at London's Wembley Arena, on his Couldn't Have Said It Better tour, he collapsed of what was later diagnosed as Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome, a condition marked by an extra electrical pathway in the heart which causes symptoms like a rapid heartbeat. The following week, he underwent a surgical procedure intended to correct the problem. As a result, Meat Loaf's insurance agency did not allow him to perform for any longer than one hour and 45 minutes. From February 20 to 22, 2004, during an Australian tour, Meat Loaf performed with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, in a set of concerts recorded for the album Bat Out of Hell: Live with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. The performances included the Australian Boys' Choir singing back-up on a Couldn't Have Said It Better track, "Testify". Meat Loaf and Steinman had begun to work on the third installment of Bat Out of Hell when Steinman suffered a heart attack. According to Meat Loaf, Steinman was too ill to work on such an intense project while Steinman's manager said health was not an issue. Steinman had registered the phrase "Bat Out of Hell" as a trademark in 1995. In May 2006, Meat Loaf sued Steinman and his manager in federal District Court in Los Angeles, seeking $50 million and an injunction against Steinman's use of the phrase. Steinman and his representatives attempted to block the album's release. An agreement was reached in July 2006. Denying reports in the press over the years of a rift between Meat Loaf and Steinman, in an interview with Dan Rather, Meat Loaf stated that he and Steinman never stopped talking, and that the lawsuits reported in the press were between lawyers and managers, and not between Meat Loaf and Steinman. The album Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose was released on October 31, 2006, and was produced by Desmond Child. The first single from the album "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (featuring Marion Raven) was released on October 16, 2006. It entered the UK Singles Chart at No. 6, giving Meat Loaf his highest UK chart position in nearly 11 years. The album debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard 200, and sold 81,000 copies in its opening week, but after that did not sell as well in the United States and yielded no hit singles, although it was certified gold. The album also featured duets with Patti Russo and Jennifer Hudson. In the weeks following the release of Bat III, Meat Loaf and the Neverland Express did a brief tour of the U.S. and Europe, known as the Bases are Loaded Tour. In October 2006, Meat Loaf's private jet had to make an emergency landing at London Stansted Airport after the plane's forward landing gear failed. In 2007, Meat Loaf began The Seize the Night Tour, with Marion Raven, serving as a supporting act. Portions of the tour in February 2007 were featured in the documentary Meat Loaf: In Search of Paradise, directed by Bruce David Klein. The film was an official selection of the Montreal World Film Festival in 2007. It opened in theaters in March 2008 and was released on DVD in May 2008. During a performance at the Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, on October 31, 2007, at the opening of "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" Meat Loaf walked off the stage early in the song and said that it was his last performance. His tour promoter, Andrew Miller, said that it was a result of "exhaustion and stress" and said that Meat Loaf would continue touring after suitable rest. The next two gigs in the tour, at the NEC and Manchester Evening News Arena were canceled because of "acute laryngitis" and were rescheduled for late November. The concert scheduled for November 6, 2007, at London's Wembley Arena was also canceled. Meat Loaf canceled his entire European tour for 2007 after being diagnosed with a cyst on his vocal cords. On June 27, 2008, Meat Loaf began The Casa de Carne Tour in Plymouth, England alongside his longtime duet partner Patti Russo, who debuted one of her own original songs during the show. The tour continued through July and August with twenty dates throughout England, Ireland, Germany, Portugal, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark. Six U.S. shows were also added for October and December 2008. In May 2009, Meat Loaf began work on the album Hang Cool Teddy Bear in the studio with Green Day's American Idiot album producer Rob Cavallo, working with such writers as Justin Hawkins, Rick Brantley, Ollie Wride, Tommy Henriksen, and Jon Bon Jovi. The album is based on the story of a fictional soldier, whose "story" furnishes the theme. The album is based on a short story by the Los Angeles-based screenwriter and director Kilian Kerwin, a long-time friend of the singer. Hugh Laurie and Jack Black both perform on the album, Laurie plays piano on the song "If I Can't Have You", while Black sings a duet with Meat Loaf on "Like A Rose". Patti Russo and Kara DioGuardi also duet on the album. Brian May of Queen features on guitar along with Steve Vai. It received positive reviews from critics and fans alike. The first single from the album, "Los Angeloser", was released for download on April 5 with the album charting at number 4 in the UK Albums Chart on April 25, 2010. The Hang Cool Tour followed in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. Patti Russo accompanied him on the tour, continuing through mid-2011. 2010s Hell in a Handbasket, released in October 2011 for Australia and New Zealand, and February 2012 for the rest of the world, was recorded and produced by Paul Crook; Doug McKean did the mix with input from Rob Cavallo. The album features songs called "All of Me", "Blue Sky", "The Giving Tree", "Mad, Mad World", and a duet with Patti Russo called "Our Love and Our Souls". At the 2011 AFL Grand Final, the pre-match entertainment was headlined by a 12-minute medley performed by Meat Loaf. The performance was panned as the worst in the 34-year history of AFL Grand Final pre-game entertainment in a multitude of online reviews by football fans and Australian sport commentators. Meat Loaf responded by calling online critics "butt-smellers", and the AFL "jerks", vowing to convince other artists not to play at the event. In 2011, Meat Loaf planned to release a Christmas album called Hot Holidays featuring Garth Brooks and Reba McEntire, but the album was never released. In September 2016, Braver Than We Are, a 10-track album created with Jim Steinman, was released. Meat Loaf recorded reworked versions of Steinman's songs "Braver Than We Are", "Speaking in Tongues", "Who Needs the Young", and "More" (previously recorded by the Sisters of Mercy) for the album. Additionally, the song "Prize Fight Lover", originally issued as a download-only bonus track for Hang Cool Teddy Bear, was re-recorded for the album. Later projects and Jim Steinman's death In January 2020, during an interview for The Mirror, Meat Loaf announced "I'm not old. I've got songs for another record and I'm reading a script." In a February 2020 Facebook post, Meat Loaf announced his intention to record a new album containing 'four or five new tracks', including Steinman's "What Part of My Body Hurts the Most" (a song long requested by fans, but previously under contract restrictions for the Bat Out of Hell musical), along with the original 1975 demo recordings made for the Bat Out of Hell album. Meat Loaf's longtime collaborator Jim Steinman died on April 19, 2021, of kidney failure. In a Facebook post in November 2021, he further elaborated that he and his band would be returning to the studio in January 2022 to record seven new songs for a forthcoming album, which would also include live tracks from the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. However, on January 20, 2022, he died at age 74. At the time of his death, the recording process had not yet begun. Acting In addition to his role in 1975 for Rocky Horror Picture Show, Meat Loaf also had a career as an actor in television and film. 1992 he was a main character in Leap Of Faith where he played as the band director/bus driver/piano player, He also played a small role as a doorman/bouncer in Wayne's World. He appeared as the Spice Girls' bus driver in the 1997 movie Spice World and as Red in the 1998 thriller/drama film Black Dog alongside Patrick Swayze and Randy Travis. In David Fincher's 1999 film Fight Club he played Robert Paulsen, a man who joins a men's self-help group. He also reportedly assisted director David Fincher with the editing of the film. In 2000, he played a character in the sixth-season episode "Gettysburg" of The Outer Limits. Meat Loaf appears (uncredited) as Jack Black's father in the 2006 film Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny, providing vocals on the film's opening song "Kickapoo". In 2009, Meat Loaf acted in House (TV Series) S5 E20 "Simple Explanation", playing Eddie - a husband who is determined to die in order to donate his liver to his wife. On October 26, 2010, Meat Loaf (credited as Meat Loaf Aday) appeared on the Fox television series Glee in "The Rocky Horror Glee Show", the series' tribute episode to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. In 2011, he was a contestant in season 11 of Celebrity Apprentice, during which he was eliminated after task number 12. In the course of the contest he had a notable dramatic showdown with fellow contestant Gary Busey which was then televised. Personal life Family and residences In December 1978, Meat Loaf went to work with Steinman in Woodstock, New York, where his future wife, Leslie G. Edmonds, was working as a secretary at Bearsville Studios; they were married in early 1979. From a previous marriage, Leslie had a daughter named Pearl, who later married Anthrax rhythm guitarist Scott Ian. Meat Loaf adopted Pearl in 1979, and her last name was changed to Aday. Also in 1979, he and his family moved to a house on Eagle Drive in Stamford, Connecticut. In 1981, Leslie gave birth to Amanda Aday, later a television actress. For a brief time after Amanda's birth, they lived in Westport, Connecticut. He coached children's baseball or softball in each of the Connecticut towns where he lived, including for his daughter's team at Joel Barlow High School. He lived on Orchard Drive in Redding, Connecticut, from 1989 to 1998. He had also lived on Beach Road in Fairfield, Connecticut. In February 1998, the family purchased a house in Beverly Hills, California for $1.6 million. Meat Loaf and Leslie divorced in 2001. In 2001, he sold his 5,083-square-foot house in Mandeville Canyon near Los Angeles to Greg Kinnear for $3.6 million. In 2003, the BBC said that he was seeking a residence in Hartlepool; Meat Loaf supported Hartlepool United F.C. In May 2005, he purchased a 7,142-square-foot Spanish-style home off Mulholland Highway in Calabasas, California, for $2,999,000; he sold it for $3,065,000 in May 2011. He married Deborah Gillespie in 2007. In May 2012, he moved to Austin, Texas, purchasing a newly constructed 5,200-square-foot house at 17701 Flagler Drive for $1,475,000. Before his death, he lived in Brentwood, Tennessee. Name change In 1984, Meat Loaf legally changed his first name from Marvin to Michael because he was "haunted" by a Levi Strauss & Co. commercial which—according to him—contained the line “Poor fat Marvin can't wear Levi's.” Sports Meat Loaf was a fan of the New York Yankees. He got Phil Rizzuto to recite the play-by-play of a young man racing around the bases in "Paradise by the Dashboard Light". He participated in multiple fantasy baseball leagues every season. He also expressed support for the English Association football team Hartlepool United F.C. In June 2008, he took part in a football penalty shootout competition on behalf of two cancer charities in Newcastle upon Tyne. He auctioned shots to the 100 highest bidders and then took his place between the goal posts. He also participated in celebrity golf tournaments. In April 2005, he was one of the celebrity drivers in the 2005 Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race, finishing seventh among the 12 celebrity drivers in the race. Social anxiety He revealed that he had social anxiety and said, "I never meet anybody much in a social situation because when I go into a social situation, I have no idea what to do." He said that he does not "even go anywhere" and that he felt that he led a "boring life", in having said that he "completely freaked" when having to attend a party and that he was "so nervous, so scared" of the idea. He also said that he spent time with fellow musicians mainly in work-related situations rather than social ones. He also said that as a kid, "Being too fat to play with the other children, I had to spend a lot of time alone, which probably has a lot to do with the way I am today. I'm usually alone in my hotel room from right after the show until the next day's sound check. And I'm never bored; I don't get bored. Probably because mothers wouldn't let their kids play with me." Vegetarianism Meat Loaf was a vegetarian from 1981 to 1992. Discussing the confusion caused by his contrasting stage name and dietary habits, he once told Entertainment Weekly, "There've been vegetarians who wouldn't speak to me because of my name. I was sitting with Jon Bon Jovi at one of those awards things, and I say, 'Oh, man, I love k.d. lang. I'd really like to meet her.' They went to find out if it was okay, and she goes, 'No. His name is Meat Loaf.' I stopped being a k.d. lang fan after that." He declared in 2019 that he would try veganism for Veganuary in 2020 and would be partnering with UK restaurant chain Frankie & Benny's to promote its vegan options. Religion Although he did not belong to any faith-based institution, Meat Loaf was religious. While growing up, he attended church with his mother and studied the Bible, which influenced his work. Several of his songs, such as "40 Days" and "Fall from Grace", have religious themes. He prayed every night. Politics Political affiliations Meat Loaf was not officially registered with any political party. In 1997, he performed at an inaugural ball during the second inauguration of Bill Clinton, and attended the first inauguration of George W. Bush in 2001. He donated to the presidential campaigns of Republican candidates Rick Santorum and John McCain, the latter of whom became the party's nominee in the 2008 United States presidential election. On October 25, 2012, Meat Loaf endorsed Mitt Romney for president, citing poor Russia–United States relations as a major reason he had been "arguing for Mitt Romney for a year". He said, "I have never been in any political agenda in my life, but I think that in 2012 this is the most important election in the history of the United States." He then said there are "storm clouds" over the United States and "thunder storms" over Europe: "There are hail storms – and I mean major hail storms! – in the Middle East. There are storms brewing through China, through Asia, through everywhere." The same day, he performed "America the Beautiful" standing next to Romney. In a 2017 interview with Billboard, he made positive remarks about President Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, and Donald Trump Jr.; they had worked together on The Celebrity Apprentice in 2011. When asked if he would vote for Trump, Meat Loaf said: "I would vote for you. In fact, I'll help you with your campaign." In 2020, however, he said he was not 100% supportive of Trump. Climate change views Meat Loaf said that he did not believe in climate change. In an interview with the Daily Mail in 2020, he called Greta Thunberg "brainwashed" due to her views on climate change, saying: "I feel for that Greta. She has been brainwashed into thinking that there is climate change and there isn't. She hasn't done anything wrong but she's been forced into thinking that what she is saying is true.” Criticism of COVID-19 rules He was critical of the COVID-19 lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, telling the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in August 2021: "I hug people in the middle of COVID ... I understood stopping life for a little while, but they cannot continue to stop life because of politics." He opposed mask mandates and described a person who called for people on airplanes to wear masks as a "Nazi" and "power-mad". Meat Loaf then said: "If I die, I die, but I'm not going to be controlled." Health In 2003, Meat Loaf was diagnosed with Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome, a condition marked by an extra electrical pathway in the heart that causes symptoms like a rapid heartbeat. Meat Loaf had asthma and, in July 2011, he fainted on stage while performing in Pittsburgh due to an asthma attack. He collapsed again while on stage in Edmonton in June 2016 due to severe dehydration, after having already canceled two other shows due to illness. The playback containing his pre-recorded, voice-over vocal track continued while he lay unconscious on the stage, which caused controversy over lip syncing, claims that Meat Loaf denied, saying that his mic was live. After the incident, Meat Loaf used acupuncture, physical therapy and a trainer for four days a week, an hour and a half each session. Meat Loaf had emergency back surgery in November 2016 including a spinal fusion due to a cyst that was pinching nerves, and in 2019, he was using a cane and a wheelchair to get around. At the 2019 Texas Frightmare Weekend at the Hyatt Regency DFW hotel, Meat Loaf fell off an interview stage and broke his clavicle. Meat Loaf and his wife sued Texas Frightmare Weekend and Hyatt due to the accident. Death Meat Loaf died in Nashville, Tennessee, on the evening of January 20, 2022, at the age of 74. No official cause of death was released. He was reportedly ill with COVID-19 earlier in January, and reporting by TMZ suggested that he died from COVID-19 complications. As his health rapidly declined, his two daughters rushed to see him in the hospital with his wife being beside him as he died. His daughter had posted to Instagram in early January that: "We are not sick, but we have too many friends and family testing positive [for COVID-19] right now, positive but doing OK". Notable people who posted tributes include Bonnie Tyler, Cher, Brian May, Boy George, Travis Tritt, Marlee Matlin, Stephen Fry, his Rocky Horror co-star Nell Campbell, and Donald Trump. The Queen's Guard performed a rendition of "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)". Discography Tours Filmography Film Television Books Meat Loaf (1999). To Hell and Back: An Autobiography. ReganBooks. ISBN 0-06-039293-2. See also List of bestselling music artists References External links Meat Loaf at AllMusic Meat Loaf at IMDb Meat Loaf at the Internet Broadway Database

I'm a concert venue in Washington, D.C. Blink-182 played here on their tour the same year Brazil won their fifth FIFA World Cup. What was my name in 2010?

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The Brazil national football team (Portuguese: Seleção Brasileira de Futebol), nicknamed Seleção Canarinho ("Canary Squad", after their bright yellow jersey), represents Brazil in men's international football and is administered by the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), the governing body for football in Brazil. They have been a member of FIFA since 1923 and a member of CONMEBOL since 1916. Brazil is the most successful national team in the FIFA World Cup, being crowned winner five times: 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002. The Seleção also has the best overall performance in the World Cup competition, both in proportional and absolute terms, with a record of 76 victories in 114 matches played, 129 goal difference, 247 points, and 19 losses. It is the only national team to have played in all World Cup editions without any absence nor need for playoffs, and the only team to have won the World Cup in four different continents: once in Europe (1958 Sweden), once in South America (1962 Chile), twice in North America (1970 Mexico and 1994 United States), and once in Asia (2002 South Korea/Japan). Brazil was also the most successful team in the now-defunct FIFA Confederations Cup, winning it four times, in 1997, 2005, 2009, and 2013. With the capture of the gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics, Brazil has become one of only two countries, the others being France, to have won all men's FIFA 11-player competitions at all age levels. In ranking standings, Brazil has the highest average football Elo rating, and the fourth all-time peak football Elo rating, established in 2022. In FIFA's ranking system Brazil holds the record for most Team of the Year first ranking wins with 13. Many commentators, experts, and former players have considered the Brazil team of 1970 to be the greatest team of all time. Other Brazilian teams are also highly esteemed and regularly appear listed among the best teams of all time, such as the Brazil teams of 1958–62 and the squads of the 1994–02 period, with honorary mentions for the gifted 1982 side. In 1996, the Brazil national team achieved 35 consecutive matches undefeated, a feat which they held as a world record for 25 years. Brazil has developed many rivalries through the years, with the most notable ones being with Argentina—known as the Superclássico das Américas in Portuguese, Italy—known as the Clássico Mundial in Portuguese or the World Derby in English, Uruguay—known as the Clássico do Rio Negro, due to the traumatic Maracanazo, and the Netherlands due to several important meetings between the two teams at several World Cups. History Early history (1914–1922) It is generally believed that the inaugural game of the Brazil national football team was a 1914 match between a Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo select team and the English club Exeter City, held in Fluminense's stadium. Brazil won 2–0 with goals by Oswaldo Gomes and Osman, though it is claimed that the match was a 3–3 draw. In contrast to its future success, the national team's early appearances were not brilliant. Other early matches played during that time include several friendly games against Argentina (being defeated 3–0), Chile (first in 1916) and Uruguay (first on 12 July 1916). However, led by the goalscoring abilities of Arthur Friedenreich, they were victorious at home in the South American Championships in 1919, repeating their victory, also at home, in 1922. First World Cup and title drought (1930–1949) In 1930, Brazil played in the first World Cup, held in Uruguay. The squad defeated Bolivia but lost to Yugoslavia, being eliminated from the competition at group stage. They lost in the first round to Spain in 1934 in Italy, but reached the semi-finals in France in 1938, being defeated 2–1 by eventual winners Italy. Brazil were the only South American team to participate in this competition. The 1949 South American Championship held in Brazil ended a 27-year streak without official titles. The last one was in the 1922 South American Championship, also played on Brazilian soil. The 1950 Maracanazo After that, Brazil first achieved international prominence when it hosted the 1950 FIFA World Cup. The team went into the last game of the final round, against Uruguay at Estádio do Maracanã in Rio, needing only a draw to win the World Cup. Uruguay, however, won the match and the Cup in a game known as "the Maracanazo". The match led to a period of national mourning. For the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland, Brazil was then almost completely renovated, with the team colours changed (to a new design by Aldyr Schlee) from all white to the yellow, blue and green of the national flag, to forget the Maracanazo, but still had a group of star players. Brazil reached the quarter-final, where they were beaten 4–2 by tournament favourites Hungary in one of the ugliest matches in football history, known as the "Battle of Berne". Pelé and the First Golden Era (1958–1970) For the 1958 World Cup, Brazil were drawn in a group with England, the USSR and Austria. They beat Austria 3–0 in their first match, then drew 0–0 with England. Before the match, coach Vicente Feola made three substitutions that were crucial for Brazil to defeat the Soviets: Zito, Garrincha and Pelé. From the kick-off, they kept up the pressure relentlessly, and after three minutes, which were later described as "the greatest three minutes in the history of football", Vavá gave Brazil the lead. They won the match by 2–0. Pelé scored the only goal of their quarter-final match against Wales, and they beat France 5–2 in the semi-final. Brazil then beat Sweden 5–2 in the final, winning their first World Cup and becoming the first nation to win a World Cup title outside of its own continent. Pelé described it tearfully as a nation coming of age. In the 1962 World Cup, Brazil earned its second title with Garrincha as the star player, a mantle and responsibility laid upon him after the regular talisman, Pelé, was injured during the second group match against Czechoslovakia and unable to play for the rest of the tournament. In the 1966 World Cup, Brazil had their worst performance in a World Cup. The 1966 tournament was remembered for its excessively physical play, and Pelé was one of the players most affected. Against Portugal, several violent tackles by the Portuguese defenders caused forward player Pelé to leave the match and the tournament. Brazil lost this match and was eliminated in the first round of the World Cup for the first time since 1934. They have not failed to reach the knockout stages of the competition since. Brazil became the second nation to be eliminated in the first round while holding the World Cup crown following Italy in 1950. After the 1998, 2002, 2010, 2014 and 2018 World Cups, France, Italy, Spain and Germany were also added to this list. After the tournament, Pelé declared that he did not wish to play in the World Cup again. Nonetheless, he returned in 1970. Brazil won its third World Cup in Mexico in 1970. It fielded what has been widely considered the best World Cup football squad ever, led by Pelé in his last World Cup finals, captain Carlos Alberto Torres, Jairzinho, Tostão, Gérson and Rivellino. Even though Garrincha had retired, this team was still a force to be reckoned with. They won all six of their games—against Czechoslovakia, England and Romania during group play, and against Peru, Uruguay and Italy in the knockout rounds. Jairzinho was the second top scorer with seven goals, and is the only player to score in every match in a World Cup; Pelé finished with four goals. Brazil lifted the Jules Rimet trophy for the third time (the first nation to do so), which meant that they were allowed to keep it. A replacement was then commissioned, though it would be 24 years before Brazil won it again. The dry spell (1974–1990) After the international retirement of Pelé and other stars from the 1970 squad, Brazil was not able to overcome the Netherlands at the 1974 World Cup in West Germany, and finished in fourth place after losing the third place game to Poland. In the second group stage of the 1978 World Cup, Brazil competed with tournament hosts Argentina for top spot and a place in the finals. In their last group match, Brazil defeated Poland 3–1 to go to the top of the group with a goal difference of +5. Argentina had a goal difference of +2, but in its last group match, it defeated Peru 6–0, and thus qualified for the final in a match accused of ultimately-unproven match fixing. Brazil subsequently beat Italy in the third place play-off, and were the only team to remain unbeaten in the tournament. At the 1982 World Cup, held in Spain, Brazil were the tournament favorites, and easily moved through the early part of the draw, but a 3–2 defeat in Barcelona to Italy, in a classic World Cup match, eliminated them from the tournament in the match that they refer to as "Sarriá's Tragedy", referencing the stadium's name. The 1982 team, with a midfield of Sócrates, Zico, Falcão and Éder, is remembered as perhaps the greatest team never to win a World Cup. Several players, including Sócrates and Zico, from 1982 returned to play at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. Brazil, still a very good team and more disciplined defensively than four years earlier, met the Michel Platini-led France in the quarter-finals in a classic of Total Football. The game played to a 1–1 draw in regulation time, and after a goalless extra time, it all came down to a penalty shoot-out, where Brazil was defeated 4–3. After a 40-year hiatus, Brazil was victorious in the 1989 Copa América, this being their fourth victory in four tournaments hosted in Brazil. This achievement ended Brazil's 19-year streak without an official championship since the 1970 World Cup. At the 1990 World Cup in Italy, Brazil was coached by Sebastião Lazaroni, who had been the coach in the 1989 Copa América. With a defensive scheme, whose main symbol was midfielder Dunga, forward Careca and three centre-backs, the team lacked creativity but made it to the second round. Brazil was eliminated by Diego Maradona-led Argentina in the round of 16 in Turin, losing to their South American archrivals 1–0. The Second Golden Era (1994–2002) Brazil went 24 years without winning a World Cup or even participating in a final. Their struggles ended at the 1994 tournament in the United States, where a solid side headed by Romário and Bebeto in attack, captain Dunga in midfield, goalkeeper Cláudio Taffarel and defender Jorginho, won the World Cup for a then-record fourth time. Highlights of their campaign included a 1–0 victory over the United States in the round of 16 at Stanford University, a 3–2 win over the Netherlands in the quarter-finals in Dallas, and a 1–0 victory over Sweden in the semi-finals at Pasadena's Rose Bowl. This set up Brazil–Italy in the final in Pasadena. A game played in searing heat which ended as a goalless draw, with Italy's defence led by Franco Baresi keeping out Romário, penalty kicks loomed, and Brazil became champions with Roberto Baggio missing Italy's last penalty. Despite the triumph, the 1994 World Cup winning team is not held in the same high esteem in Brazil as their other World Cup winning teams. FourFourTwo magazine labelled the 1994 team "unloved" in Brazil due to their pragmatic, defensive style over the more typical Brazilian style of attacking flair. Entering the 1998 World Cup as defending champions, Brazil finished runner-up. Having topped their group and won the next two rounds, Brazil beat the Netherlands on penalties in the semi-final following a 1–1 draw. Player of the tournament Ronaldo scored four goals and made three assists en route to the final. The build up to the final itself was overshadowed by Ronaldo suffering a convulsive fit only hours before kick off. The starting line up without Ronaldo was released to a shocked world media, but after pleading that he felt fine and requested to play, Ronaldo was reinstated by the coach, before giving a below par performance as France, led by Zidane, won 3–0. Fuelled by the "Three R's" (Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho), Brazil won its fifth championship at the 2002 World Cup, held in South Korea and Japan. Brazil beat all three opponents in group play in South Korea and topped the group. In Brazil's opening game against Turkey, in Ulsan, Rivaldo fell to the ground clutching his face after Turkey's Hakan Ünsal had kicked the ball at his legs. Rivaldo escaped suspension but was fined £5,180 for play-acting, and became the first player ever to be punished in FIFA's crackdown on diving. In their knockout round matches in Japan, Brazil defeated Belgium 2–0 in Kobe in the round of 16. Brazil defeated England 2–1 in the quarter-finals in Shizuoka, with the winning goal coming from an unexpected free-kick by Ronaldinho from 40 yards out. The semi-final was against Turkey in Saitama; Brazil won 1–0. The final was between Germany and Brazil in Yokohama, where Ronaldo scored two goals in Brazil's 2–0 triumph. Ronaldo also won the Golden Shoe as the tournament's leading scorer with 8 goals. Brazil's success saw them receive the Laureus World Sports Award for Team of the Year. Brazil won the 2004 Copa América, their third win in four competitions since 1997. Brazil also won the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup for the second time. Manager Carlos Alberto Parreira built his side through a 4–2–2–2 formation. Nicknamed the "Magic quartet", the attack was built around four players: Ronaldo, Adriano, Kaká and Ronaldinho. World Cup drought (2006–present) In the 2006 World Cup, Brazil won their three group games against Croatia (1–0), Australia (2–0) and Japan (4–1). Ronaldo scored twice and equalled the record for the most goals scored across all World Cups. In the round of 16, Brazil beat Ghana 3–0. Ronaldo's goal was his 15th in World Cup history, breaking the record. Brazil, however, were eliminated in the quarter-finals against France, losing 1–0 to a Thierry Henry goal. Dunga was appointed as Brazil's new team manager in 2006. Brazil then won the 2007 Copa América. Two years later, Brazil won the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup, defeating the U.S. 3–2 in the final, to seal their third Confederations Cup title. At the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Brazil won their first two matches against North Korea (2–1) and the Ivory Coast (3–1), respectively. Their last match, against Portugal, ended in a 0–0 draw. They faced Chile in the round of 16, winning 3–0, although in the quarter-final they fell to the Netherlands 2–1. In July 2010, Mano Menezes was named as Brazil's new coach. At the 2011 Copa América, Brazil lost against Paraguay and was eliminated in the quarter-finals. In November 2012, coach Mano Menezes was sacked and replaced by Luiz Felipe Scolari. On 6 June 2013, Brazil was ranked 22nd in the FIFA ranking, their lowest-ever rank. At the 2013 Confederations Cup, Brazil defended their title, beating Spain in the final, winning 3–0 and sealing their fourth Confederations Cup title. 2014 FIFA World Cup In the opening match of the 2014 World Cup against Croatia, two goals from Neymar and one from Oscar saw the Seleção off to a winning start in their first World Cup on home soil in 64 years. The team then drew with Mexico, before confirming qualification to the knockout stage by defeating Cameroon 4–1. Brazil faced Chile in the round of 16, needing penalties to prevail to the next round following a 1–1 draw. The team again faced South American opposition in the quarter-final, defeating Colombia 2–1. However, late in the match, Neymar was stretchered off after suffering a fractured vertebra, ruling him out for the remainder of the tournament. The Seleção went on to lose 7–1 to the Germans – their biggest ever defeat at the World Cup and first home loss in a competitive match since 1975. The match has been nicknamed the Mineirazo, making reference to the nation's previous World Cup defeat on home soil, the Maracanazo against Uruguay in 1950, and the Estádio do Mineirão where the match took place. Brazil subsequently lost 3–0 to the Netherlands in the third-place play-off match. Following the tournament, Scolari announced his resignation. Return of Dunga (2014–2016) On 22 July 2014, Dunga was announced as the new manager of Brazil, returning to the position for the first time since the team's exit at the 2010 World Cup. At the 2015 Copa América, Brazil finished first in Group C to advance to the knockout stages. However, they were eliminated in the next round, losing on penalties to Paraguay. At the 2016 Copa América Centenario, Brazil began the tournament with a goalless draw with Ecuador before beating Haiti 7–1 in the next match. Needing only a draw to progress to the knockout stage of the tournament, Brazil suffered a controversial 1–0 loss to Peru, with Raúl Ruidíaz scoring in the 75th minute. This defeat saw Brazil eliminated from the tournament in the group stage for the first time since 1987. 2016–present On 14 June 2016, Tite replaced Dunga as manager of Brazil. At the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Brazil finished top of their group. After defeating Mexico in the round of 16, Brazil were eliminated in the quarter-finals by Belgium, losing 2–1. Despite elimination from the tournament, Tite remained as head coach ahead of the 2019 Copa América held on home soil. He would lead Brazil to their first Copa América title since 2007. After beating rivals Argentina 2–0 in the semi-finals, Brazil beat Peru in the final to win their ninth Copa América title. At the 2021 Copa América, Brazil reached the final match again, but this time they were defeated by Argentina 1-0 in the Maracana Stadium. At the 2022 World Cup, Brazil finished first in their group. The team then faced South Korea in the round of 16, winning with a 3-goal margin, and progressed to the quarter-finals where they eventually lost 4–2 on penalties to Croatia. Following their exit from the World Cup, Tite resigned as head coach. At the 2024 Copa América, Brazil were eliminated on penalties by Uruguay in the quarter-finals following a 0–0 draw. Team image Uniforms Brazil's first team colors were white with blue collars, but following the defeat at Maracanã in the 1950 World Cup, the colors were criticized for lacking patriotism. With permission from the Brazilian Sports Confederation, the newspaper Correio da Manhã held a competition to design a new kit incorporating the four colors of the Brazilian flag. The winning design was a yellow jersey with green trim and blue shorts with white trim drawn by Aldyr Garcia Schlee, a nineteen-year-old from Pelotas. The new colors were first used in March 1954 in a match against Chile, and have been used ever since. Topper were the manufacturers of Brazil's kit up to and including the match against Wales on 11 September 1991; Umbro took over before the next match, versus Yugoslavia in October 1991. Nike began making Brazil kits in late 1996, in time for the 1997 Copa América and the 1998 World Cup. The use of blue and white as the second kit colors owes its origins to the defunct latter-day Portuguese monarchy and dates from the 1930s, but it became the permanent second choice accidentally in the 1958 World Cup Final. Brazil's opponents were Sweden, who also wore yellow, and a draw gave the home team, Sweden, the right to play in yellow. Brazil, who traveled with no second kit, hurriedly purchased a set of blue shirts and sewed the badges taken from their yellow shirts on them. Kit sponsorship Nicknames The Brazil national team is known by different names in various parts of the world. Nicknames for the squad in Brazil include: Canarinho, meaning 'Little Canary', a reference to a species of bird commonly found in Brazil that has a vivid yellow color, this phrase was popularized by the late cartoonist Fernando "Mangabeira" Pieruccetti during the 1950 World Cup despite the team not wearing the color yet back then Amarelinha (Little Yellow One) Seleção (The National Squad) Verde-amarela (The Green and Yellow) Pentacampeão (Five-time Champions) Esquadrão de Ouro (The Golden Squad) Some Latin American commentators often refer to the Brazil team as El Scratch (The Scratch), among others. In 2022 FIFA World Cup, FIFA's YouTube channel referred to the team as Samba Boys. Training camp Brazil's training camp is the Granja Comary in Teresópolis, located 90 km (56 mi) from Rio de Janeiro. Granja Comary was opened in 1987, and underwent significant renovations in 2013 and 2014. Results and fixtures The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled. Win Draw Loss Fixture 2023 2024 Coaching staff Players Current squad The following 23 players were called up for the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification against Chile and Peru on 10 and 15 October 2024, respectively. Caps and goals are correct as of 10 September 2024, after the match against Paraguay. Recent call-ups The following players have also been called up to the Brazil squad in the last twelve months. Individual records As of 12 October 2023. Players in bold are still active with Brazil. Most capped players Top goalscorers Other records Youngest goalscorer Pelé (16 years and nine months) vs. Argentina, 7 July 1957 Oldest goalscorer Romário (39 years and two months) vs. Guatemala, 27 April 2005 Most goals scored in a single match Evaristo (5 goals) vs. Colombia, 24 March 1957 First goal scored Oswaldo Gomes vs. Exeter City FC, 21 July 1914 (unofficial game) Rubens Salles vs. Argentina, 27 September 1914 (official game) Most clean sheets Cláudio Taffarel (52 matches) Most matches as a captain Cafu (66 matches) Most yellow cards received Neymar (31 yellow cards) Most red cards received Dunga and Éder Aleixo (3 red cards each) Manager records Mário Zagallo became the first person to win the FIFA World Cup both as a player (1958 and 1962) and as a manager (1970). In 1970, when he was of age 38, he won the FIFA World Cup which made him the second youngest coach to win the FIFA World Cup. While still in Brazil as an assistant coach, the team won the 1994 FIFA World Cup. Competitive record Champions Runners-up Third place Fourth place Tournament played fully or partially on home soil FIFA World Cup Brazil has qualified for every FIFA World Cup they entered, never requiring a qualifying play-off. With five titles, they have won the tournament on more occasions than any other national team. *Draws include knockout matches decided via penalty shoot-out. Copa América FIFA Confederations Cup Olympic Games Head-to-head record Below is a result summary of all matches Brazil have played against FIFA recognized teams. Updated to 10 September 2024, after the match against Paraguay. Positive Record Neutral Record Negative Record Matches against non-FIFA and clubs Honours Major competitions Worldwide FIFA World Cup Champions (5): 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002 Runners-up (2): 1950, 1998 Third place (2): 1938, 1978 FIFA Confederations Cup Champions (4): 1997, 2005, 2009, 2013 Runners-up (1): 1999 Olympic Games Silver medal (2): 1984, 1988 Continental South American Championship / Copa América Champions (9): 1919, 1922, 1949, 1989, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2007, 2019 Runners-up (12): 1921, 1925, 1937, 1945, 1946, 1953, 1957, 1959 (Argentina), 1983, 1991, 1995, 2021 Third place (7): 1916, 1917, 1920, 1942, 1959 (Ecuador), 1975, 1979 Panamerican Championship Champions (2): 1952, 1956 Runners-up (1): 1960 CONCACAF Gold Cup Runners-up (2): 1996, 2003 Third place (1): 1998 Friendly Roca Cup (vs Argentina) Winners (8): 1914, 1922, 1945, 1957, 1960, 1963, 1971 (shared), 1976 Superclásico de las Américas (vs Argentina) Winners (4): 2011, 2012, 2014, 2018 Copa Confraternidad (vs Argentina) Winners: 1923 Copa 50imo Aniversario de Clarín (vs Argentina) Winners: 1995 Copa Río Branco (vs Uruguay) Winners (7): 1931, 1932, 1947, 1950, 1967 (shared), 1968, 1976 Copa Rodrigues Alves (vs Paraguay) Winners (2): 1922, 1923 Taça Oswaldo Cruz (vs Paraguay) Winners (8): 1950, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1961, 1962, 1968, 1976 Copa Bernardo O'Higgins (vs Chile) Winners (4): 1955, 1959, 1961, 1966 (shared) Copa Teixeira (vs Chile) Winners: 1990 (shared) Taça Jorge Chavéz / Santos Dumont (vs Peru) Winners: 1968 Taça Interventor Federal (vs EC Bahia) Winners: 1934 Taça Dois de Julho (vs Bahia XI) Winners: 1934 Copa Emílio Garrastazú Médici (vs Mexico) Winners: 1970 Taça Independência Winners: 1972 Taça do Atlântico Winners (3): 1956, 1970, 1976 U.S.A. Bicentennial Cup Tournament Winners: 1976 Taça Centenário Jornal O Fluminense (vs Rio de Janeiro XI) Winners: 1978 Saudi Crown Prince Trophy (vs Al Ahli Saudi FC) Winners: 1978 Rous Cup Winners: 1987 Australia Bicentenary Gold Cup Winners: 1988 Amistad Cup Winners: 1992 Umbro Cup Winners: 1995 Nelson Mandela Challenge Winners: 1996 Lunar New Year Cup Winners: 2005 Kirin Challenge Cup Winners: 2022 Awards FIFA Team of the Year Winners (13): 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2022 World Soccer Team of the Year Winners (2): 1982, 2002 Laureus World Team of the Year Winners: 2003 Gazzetta Sports World Team of the Year Winners (2): 1994, 2002 FIFA World Cup Fair Play Trophy Winners (4): 1982, 1986, 1994, 2006 FIFA Confederations Cup Fair Play Trophy Winners (2): 1999, 2009 Copa América Fair Play Trophy Winners (2): 2019, 2021 Chronology of titles Summary See also Brazil national football team results (2010–present) Brazil national under-23 football team Brazil national under-20 football team Brazil national under-17 football team Brazil national futsal team Brazil national beach soccer team Brazilian football songs List of Brazil national football team managers Pra Frente Brasil References Sources Ruy Castro (2005). Garrincha – The triumph and tragedy of Brazil's forgotten footballing hero. Translated by Andrew Downie. London: Yellow Jersey Press. ISBN 0-224-06433-9. Ivan Soter (2015). Enciclopédia da Seleção: 100 anos de seleção brasileira de futebol. Rio de Janeiro: Folha Seca. ISBN 978-85-87199-29-4. External links Official website (in Portuguese) Brazil FIFA profile Brazil CONMEBOL profile Brazilian Football – Guide to Football in Brazil RSSSF Brazil All about Brazilian Football – Sambafoot.com

Blink-182 is an American rock band formed in 1992 in Poway, California. Their current and best-known line-up consists of bassist and vocalist Mark Hoppus, guitarist and vocalist Tom DeLonge, and drummer Travis Barker. Though their sound has diversified throughout their career, their musical style, described as pop-punk, blends catchy pop melodies with fast-paced punk rock. Their lyrics primarily focus on relationships, adolescent frustration, and maturity—or lack thereof. The group emerged from a suburban, Southern California skate punk scene and first gained notoriety for high-energy live shows and irreverent humour. The band's debut studio album, Cheshire Cat, was released in 1994. Their second studio album, Dude Ranch, came out in 1997. After years of independent recording and touring, including stints on the Warped Tour, the group signed to MCA Records. Their third and fourth albums—Enema of the State (1999) and Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001)—reached their furthest commercial success while their singles, "All the Small Things", "Dammit" and "What's My Age Again?" became hit songs and MTV staples. Later efforts, including an untitled album (2003), Neighborhoods (2011), and an EP Dogs Eating Dogs (2012), marked stylistic shifts. Hoppus is the only member to remain in the band throughout its entire history. DeLonge left the group twice, both times a decade apart, before returning once more. Founding drummer Scott Raynor recorded and toured with the group before being dismissed in 1998, thereafter being replaced by Barker. During DeLonge's absence from 2015 to 2022, the band included Alkaline Trio singer and guitarist Matt Skiba, with whom they recorded two albums, California (2016), and Nine (2019), and toured in support of both. Their ninth album, One More Time..., was released on October 20, 2023. Blink-182's straightforward approach and simple arrangements, which helped initiate pop-punk's second mainstream rise, made them popular among generations of audiences. Worldwide, the group has sold 50 million albums and moved 15.3 million copies in the U.S. History Formation and initial years (1992–1994) Blink-182, originally named only Blink, was formed in August 1992 in Poway, California, a northern suburb of San Diego. Guitarist Tom DeLonge was expelled from Poway High School for being drunk at a basketball game and was forced to attend another school, Rancho Bernardo High School, for one semester. There, he performed at a Battle of the Bands competition, where he was introduced to drummer Scott Raynor. He also befriended Kerry Key, who was also interested in punk rock music. Key was dating Anne Hoppus, sister of bassist Mark Hoppus, who had recently moved from Ridgecrest, California, to work at a record store and attend college. Both Hoppus and DeLonge grew up listening to punk rock music, with both particularly enamoured by the Descendents. Southern California had a large punk population in the early 1990s, aided by an active surfing, skating, and snowboarding scene. In contrast to East Coast punk music, the West Coast wave of groups typically introduced more melodic aspects. "New York is gloomy, dark and cold. It makes different music. The Californian middle-class suburbs have nothing to be that bummed about," said DeLonge. Anne introduced her brother to DeLonge on August 2, 1992. The pair instantly connected and played for hours in DeLonge's garage, exchanging lyrics and co-writing songs—one of which became fan favorite "Carousel". Hoppus, hoping to impress DeLonge, fell from a lamppost in front of DeLonge's home and cracked his ankles, putting him on crutches for three weeks. The trio began to practice together in Raynor's bedroom, spending time writing music, seeing movies and punk concerts, and playing practical jokes. The trio first operated under a variety of names, including Duck Tape and Figure 8, until DeLonge rechristened the band "Blink". Hoppus' girlfriend of the time was annoyed by his constant attention to the band, and demanded he make a choice between the band and her, which resulted in Hoppus leaving the band not long after its formation. Shortly thereafter, DeLonge and Raynor borrowed a four-track recorder from friend and collaborator Cam Jones and were preparing to record a demo tape, with Jones on bass. Hoppus promptly broke up with his girlfriend and returned to the band. Flyswatter—a combination of original songs and punk covers—was recorded in Raynor's bedroom in May 1993. The band began booking shows, and were on stage nearly every weekend, even at Elks Lodges and YMCA centres. DeLonge constantly called clubs in San Diego asking for a spot to play, as well as local high schools, convincing them that Blink was a "motivational band with a strong antidrug message" in hopes to play at an assembly or lunch. San Diego at this time was "hardly a hotbed of [musical] activity", according to journalist Joe Shooman and the band's popularity grew as did punk rock concurrently in the mainstream. They quickly became part of a circuit that also included bands such as Ten Foot Pole and Unwritten Law, and Blink soon found its way onto the bill as the opening band for acts performing at Soma, a local all-ages venue. "The biggest dreams we ever had when we started was to [headline] a show at Soma", Hoppus said later. Meanwhile, Hoppus' manager at the record store, Patrick Secor, fronted the group money to properly record another demo at a local studio Doubletime. The result was Buddha (1994), which the members of the band viewed as the band's first legitimate release. That year, however, Raynor's family relocated to Reno, Nevada, and he was briefly replaced by musician Mike Krull. The band saved money and began flying Raynor out to shows, and he eventually moved back and in with Hoppus in mid-1995. During that time, the band would record its first album, first music video, and develop a larger following. Early releases and touring (1995–1998) The heart of the local independent music scene was Cargo Records, which offered to sign the band on a "trial basis," with help from O, guitarist for local punk band Fluf, and Brahm Goodis, a friend of the band whose father was president of the label. Hoppus was the only member to sign the contract, as DeLonge was at work at the time and Raynor was still a minor. The band recorded their debut album—Cheshire Cat, released in February 1995—in three days at Westbeach Recorders in Los Angeles, fueled by both new songs and re-recordings of songs from previous demos. "M+M's", the band's first single, garnered local radio airplay from 91X, and Cargo offered the band a small budget to film a music video for it. Meanwhile, the record also drew the attention of Irish band Blink. Unwilling to engage in a legal battle, the band agreed to change their name. Cargo gave the band a week, but the trio put off the decision for more than two afterward. Eventually, Cargo called the trio, demanding that they "change the name or [we'll] change it for you," after which the band decided on a random number, 182. The band soon hired a manager, Rick DeVoe, who had worked with larger bands such as NOFX, Pennywise and The Offspring. In addition, the group drew the attention of Rick and Jean Bonde of the Tahoe booking agency, who were responsible for "spreading the name of the band far and wide." In late 1995, the trio embarked on their first national tour, promoting the surf video Good Times with Unwritten Law, Sprung Monkey and 7 Seconds. Good Times was directed by filmmaker Taylor Steele, who was a friend of DeVoe. In preparation for the trek, the band members purchased their own tour van, which they nicknamed the Millennium Falcon. The Good Times tour extended outside the States with a leg in Australia; the trio were financially unable to go, but Pennywise's members paid for their plane tickets. Fletcher Dragge, guitarist of Pennywise, believed in the band strongly. He demanded that Kevin Lyman, founder of the traveling rock-based Warped Tour, sign the band for its 1996 iteration, predicting they would become "gigantic." That year, the band toured heavily, with several domestic shows on and off the Warped Tour, trips to Canada and Japan, and more Australian dates. Australia was particularly receptive to the band and their humorous stage antics, which gained the band a reputation, but also made them ostracized and considered a joke. By March 1996, the trio began to accumulate a genuine buzz among major labels, resulting in a bidding war between Interscope, MCA and Epitaph. MCA promised the group complete artistic freedom and ultimately signed the band, but Raynor held a great affinity for Epitaph and began to feel half-invested in the band when they chose MCA. The group, discouraged by Cargo's lack of distribution and faith in the group, held no qualms about signing to a major label but were fiercely criticized in the punk community. After nonstop touring, the trio began recording their follow-up LP, Dude Ranch, over the period of a month in late 1996 with producer Mark Trombino. The record was released the following June, and the band headed out on the 1997 Warped Tour. "Dammit", the album's second single, received heavy airplay on modern rock stations. Dude Ranch shipped gold by 1998, but an exhaustive touring schedule brought tensions among the trio. Raynor had been drinking heavily to offset personal issues, and he was fired by DeLonge and Hoppus in mid-1998 despite agreeing to attend rehab and quit drinking. Travis Barker, drummer for tour-mate The Aquabats, filled in for Raynor, learning the 20-song setlist in 45 minutes before the first show. By July, he joined the band full-time and later that year, the band entered the studio with producer Jerry Finn to begin work on their third album. Mainstream breakthrough and continued success (1999–2004) At the onset of the millennium, the band became one of the biggest international rock acts with the release of their third album, the fast-paced, melodic Enema of the State (1999). It became an enormous worldwide success, moving over fifteen million copies. Singles "What's My Age Again?", "All the Small Things", and "Adam's Song" became radio staples, with their music videos and relationship with MTV cementing their stardom. It marked the beginning of their friendship with producer Jerry Finn, a key architect of their "polished" pop-punk rhythm; according to journalist James Montgomery, writing for MTV News, the veteran engineer "served as an invaluable member of the Blink team: part adviser, part impartial observer, he helped smooth out tensions and hone their multiplatinum sound." This style and sound made for an extensive impact on pop punk, igniting a new wave of the genre. It became a transitionary time for the group, adjusting to larger venues than before, including amphitheaters, arenas, and stadiums. At the beginning of the album's promotional cycle, the trio were driving from show to show in a van with a trailer attached for merchandise and equipment; by its end, they were flying on private jets. Hoppus recalled that "we had gone from playing small clubs and sleeping on people's floors to headlining amphitheaters and staying in five-star hotels." In the public eye, Blink became known for their juvenile antics, including running around nude; the band made a cameo appearance in the similarly bawdy comedy American Pie (1999). This goofy branding, encompassing video documentaries and merchandise, "made fans feel like members of their extended social circle," according to music critic Kelefa Sanneh. While grateful for their success—which the trio parlayed into various business ventures, like Famous Stars and Straps, Atticus Clothing and Macbeth Footwear—they gradually became unhappy with their public image. In one instance, the European arm of UMG had taken photos shot lampooning boy bands and distributed them at face value, making their basis for parody appear thin. In response, a conscious effort was made to make the trio appear more authentic with their next album—the comically titled Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001). It became the first punk rock album to reach number one in the U.S., and spawned the singles "The Rock Show", "Stay Together for the Kids" and "First Date". The band supported the LP with the Pop Disaster Tour, a series of co-headlining dates with Green Day. The relentless pace began to wear on the group: they felt rushed into making a follow-up album, with the record label reportedly penalizing the group if they did not "make their quarterly revenue statements." Meanwhile, with time off from touring, DeLonge felt a desire to broaden his musical palette. He channelled his chronic back pain and resulting frustration into Box Car Racer (2002), a project emulating post-hardcore influences. Finn naturally returned to produce, and DeLonge invited Barker to record drums—making Hoppus the odd man out. It marked a major rift in their friendship: while DeLonge claimed he was not intentionally omitted, Hoppus nonetheless felt betrayed. With A&R representatives from MCA eager to market a new band by the guitarist, Box Car Racer quickly evolved into a full-fledged side project, launching two national tours throughout 2002. Barker also extended his love of hip-hop into the rap rock outfit Transplants, a collaboration with Rancid's Tim Armstrong. The band regrouped in 2003 to record its fifth studio album, infusing experimentalist elements into its usual pop-punk sound, inspired by lifestyle changes: all three band members became fathers before the album was released. The new Blink-182 album—its front cover emblazoned with a "smiley face" logo—was released in November 2003 through Geffen Records, which absorbed sister label MCA earlier that year. Critics generally complimented the new, more emo direction taken for the album and its lead singles "Feeling This" and "I Miss You" were well-received. The global touring schedule, which saw the band travel to Japan and Australia, also found the three performing for troops stationed in the Persian Gulf during the first year of the Iraq War. The band came to regard this period as a "huge turning point" in their career, marking a change in the way they write and record music, as well as view themselves. As the aughts wore on however, unresolved tensions within the trio—stemming from the gruelling schedule, Box Car Racer, and DeLonge's desire to spend more time with his family—started to become evident. Hiatus, side projects, and Barker's plane crash (2005–2008) In February 2005, a press statement announced the band's "indefinite hiatus"; the band had broken up after members' arguments regarding their future and recording process. DeLonge felt increasingly conflicted both about his creative freedom within the group and the toll touring was taking on his family life. He expressed his desire to take a half-year respite from touring; Hoppus and Barker felt that was overly long. Rehearsals for a benefit concert grew contentious, rooted in the trio's increasing bitterness toward one another; DeLonge considered his bandmates' priorities incompatible, coming to the conclusion that they had simply grown apart. Instead, DeLonge founded Angels & Airwaves, both a band and "multimedia project" composed of albums, films, and interactive services. Hoppus and Barker made one album with their next outfit, +44. Barker remained particularly famous; his rocky relationship with former Miss USA Shanna Moakler, chronicled in his MTV reality series Meet the Barkers, made them tabloid favorites. The band members did not speak from their breakup until 2008. That August, former producer and mentor Jerry Finn suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died. The following month, Barker and collaborator Adam Goldstein were involved in a plane crash that killed four people, leaving them the only two survivors. Barker sustained second and third degree burns and developed post-traumatic stress disorder, and the accident resulted in sixteen surgeries and multiple blood transfusions. Goldstein's injuries were less severe, but less than a year later, he died from a drug overdose. Barker's brush with death prompted him, DeLonge and Hoppus to meet that October, laying the grounds for the band's reunion. The three opened up, discussing the events of the hiatus and their break-up, and DeLonge was the first to approach the subject of reuniting. Hoppus remembered: "I remember [Tom] said, 'So, what do you guys think? Where are your heads at?' And I said, 'I think we should continue with what we've been doing for the past 17 years. I think we should get back on the road and back in the studio and do what we love doing.'" Reunion (2009–2014) After five years apart, the band appeared on stage together as presenters at the February 2009 Grammy Awards, and announced their reunion. The trio embarked on successful a reunion tour of North America from July to October 2009, with a European trek following from August to September 2010. Barker, suffering from a fear of flying after his accident, travelled via bus domestically and in Canada, and by an ocean liner for overseas dates. The recording process for Neighborhoods (2011), the band's sixth studio album, was stalled by its studio autonomy, tours, managers, and personal projects. DeLonge recorded at his studio in San Diego while Hoppus and Barker recorded in Los Angeles—an extension of their strained communication. The self-produced album—their first without Jerry Finn since Enema of the State—was released in September 2011 and peaked at number two on the Billboard 200; its singles, "Up All Night" and "After Midnight", only attracted modest chart success. Pop punk was in a period of diminished commercial relevance, and label Interscope—now their home after a series of corporate mergers—was reportedly disappointed with album sales. The band continued to tour in the early 2010s, "despite growing evidence of remaining friction" between the members, according to AllMusic biographer John Bush. They headlined the 10th Annual Honda Civic Tour in North America in 2011 with My Chemical Romance, and launched a 20th Anniversary Tour the next year. For that tour, the band played in Europe twice, North America, and Australia; drummer Brooks Wackerman filled-in for Barker, as he was not yet ready to fly. Additionally, the trio pursued a tenth anniversary celebration of Blink-182 with a series of shows, and played the Reading and Leeds Festivals; it was the band's fourth appearance at the festival and second headlining slot. The band also parted ways with long-time label UMG, self-releasing their next project, Dogs Eating Dogs, an EP. DeLonge's final performance with the group was at the Wine Amplified Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada, on October 11, 2014. This initial reunion of the band has been characterized as dysfunctional by both Barker and DeLonge. Hoppus commented on this era of the band in a later interview: "Everything was always very contentious. There was always just a strange vibe. [...] I knew there was something wrong." In his memoir, Can I Say, Barker claims DeLonge's behavior on tour was "introverted" until "money started coming in," after which "he'd get excited about Blink." He states DeLonge abruptly quit sometime in mid-2014, and re-joined the following day. DeLonge's second exit and Matt Skiba era (2015–2021) The group planned to begin writing their seventh album in January 2015, which had continually seen delays. "I'd do interviews and I just felt awful for fans because they were promised albums for years and we couldn't do it," Barker later said. A record deal with independent service BMG was finalized and sessions were booked before DeLonge's manager informed the band he intended to spend more time on "non-musical activities" and indefinitely depart from the group. In his own statement, DeLonge remarked that he "Never planned on quitting, [I] just find it hard as hell to commit." For the rest of the 2010s, DeLonge focused on his company To the Stars... Academy of Arts & Sciences full-time, devoted to investigating UFOs. Hoppus and Barker decided to continue on without DeLonge, and enlisted Alkaline Trio vocalist/guitarist Matt Skiba to "fill in" for three shows in March 2015. Hoppus and Skiba had been wanting to work together musically for several years, so he was the first and only person considered for the role. After legal battles with DeLonge were worked out, Skiba joined Blink-182 as an official member and began preparations for new music. The resulting album, California, was produced by John Feldmann, the group's first new producer since long-time collaborator Jerry Finn. Upon its July 2016 release though BMG, California became the band's second number-one album on the Billboard 200, and first in 15 years; it also topped the charts for the first time in the United Kingdom. Its lead single, "Bored to Death", became their biggest hit in years, marking their third domestic chart-topper on the Alternative Songs chart. Both the single and album became their first gold-certified releases in over a decade, with the LP earning the band their first Grammy Award nomination. The band supported the album with a large headlining tour across North America between July and October 2016, and a European leg in June and July 2017. A double-disc deluxe edition of California was issued in 2017. During these years, the band was active in collaborating with a variety of outside artists, sometimes without Skiba's involvement; the group jointly issued singles with XXXTentacion, Lil Wayne, Goody Grace, Steve Aoki, Powfu, Oliver Tree, and the Chainsmokers. The trio moved back to a major label, Columbia, for their eighth studio effort, Nine (2019). While Nine builds upon their partnership with Feldmann, it also utilizes additional outside producers and songwriters. Musically, the LP augments the band's pop punk sound with hip hop-inspired programming, as well as electronics. The promotional cycle for NINE was stunted by the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020; a planned tour with the Used was shelved, with live concerts considered unsafe. The band responded with the release of "Quarantine", though the track–credited only to Barker, Hoppus, and other songwriters–raised questions about Skiba's continued involvement in the band. A partially-completed EP did not see release, and the band's last performance with Skiba, a pre-pandemic gig at iHeartRadio's 2020 ALTer EGO, took place in Los Angeles on January 18, 2020. Hoppus' cancer battle and DeLonge's second return (2022–present) As the band entered its fourth decade, a series of events prompted a change in the band’s direction. Barker—experiencing a renewed spotlight due to his marriage to Kourtney Kardashian— helped re-ignite a rise in pop-punk's mainstream viability, and also overcame his long-held fear of flying. That same year, Hoppus was diagnosed with a deadly lymphoma; he underwent extensive chemotherapy and emerged cancer-free by late 2021. His diagnosis prompted DeLonge to re-convene with him and Barker again and overcome old disputes. Barker felt that the band having successfully toured and made albums in DeLonge's absence established themselves; he termed it a "wake-up call" for DeLonge. Likewise, Barker's renewed ability to travel by air opened possibilities to tour in areas the band had never, namely Latin America. With restored friendship and focus, the three tentatively began recording in secret in early 2022. Skiba quietly stepped aside with poise for DeLonge to reclaim his spot, maintaining he was happy for his time in the band. The band announced DeLonge's return in October 2022, as well as a large world tour. News of DeLonge's imminent return had swirled in fan communities for months. A new single, "Edging", accompanied the announcement, which became their fourth number one on Billboard's Alternative Airplay, and the band's highest-charting single on the all-genre Hot 100 in eighteen years. The band returned to the stage with a surprise appearance at Coachella in April 2023, their first performance with DeLonge in nine years. The North American leg of the World Tour began mid-year, and became their best-performing outing yet, grossing over $85 million; a European tour commenced in September. The band continued to perform throughout 2024, with the band mounting their first tour of Australia in over a decade, and first-ever South American shows as a part of Lollapalooza in Chile, Argentina, and Brazil. They undertook a second North American leg alongside Pierce the Veil midway through the year, and headlined Reading and Leeds in the U.K. in August, marking the tenth anniversary since their last time headlining. These tours marked the first time the group were able to upgrade to stadiums. The band's ninth studio album, One More Time..., was released in October 2023, and became the band's third number-one album on the Billboard 200 in the U.S., reaching the top five in a dozen other countries. The LP received largely favorable responses from music critics, with most celebrating the band's back-to-basics approach. The album's title track became the band's longest-running number one single on the Alternative Airplay chart domestically. A deluxe edition of One More Time called One More Time... Part-2 was released on September 6, 2024. In August 2024, DeLonge stated that while they intended to take a break once the tour concluded, the band will "be the priority forever [...] Honestly, I think this is a whole new beginning for the band. With what we’re planning on doing, who we’ve become, and how we’re doing it now I think it’s really, really exciting." Musical style, lyrical themes, and influences Blink-182's musical style is mainly considered pop-punk, a genre that combines influences of pop music with traditional punk rock. Throughout the band's career, though their sound has diversified, a large component of the band's music favors fast tempos, catchy melodies, prominent electric guitar with distortion, and power chord changes. Earlier albums by the band have also been considered as skate punk and punk rock, owing to the genre's most representative bands which they were influenced by and toured with. In addition, the band has also been classified under the umbrella of alternative rock as a whole. The band have claimed punk rock group the Descendents to be their greatest influence on a number of occasions. They have also named The Beatles, The Ramones, The Beach Boys, The Cure, Depeche Mode, U2, Stiff Little Fingers, All, Dinosaur Jr., NOFX, Bad Religion, Refused, Fugazi, Screeching Weasel, The Vandals, the Queers, and Jimmy Eat World as inspirations. Common lyrical themes for the band involve relationships, suburbia, toilet humour, and teen angst. Hoppus and DeLonge, and later Skiba, split songwriting duty, and much of their lyrics tend toward autobiography. According to Nitsuh Abebe, of New York, the band's biggest recurring topic is maturity—"more specifically, their lack of it, their attitude toward their lack of it, or their eventual wide-eyed exploration of it". One of the band's biggest singles, "What's My Age Again?", specifically addresses the Peter Pan syndrome, while "Dammit", the band's first mainstream hit single, contains the hook "Well, I guess this is growing up." Albums such as Take Off Your Pants and Jacket near-exclusively deal in toilet humour and teen-cantered lyrics, leading Rolling Stone to dub it a concept album chronicling adolescence. For Hoppus, these themes were not exclusively adolescent: "The things that happen to you in high school are the same things that happen your entire life. You can fall in love at sixty; you can get rejected at eighty." Mid-career albums, such as Neighborhoods (2011), explore darker territory, such as depression and loss. More recent efforts, like California (2016), aim for universality but also focus on miscommunication and loss of identity. Musically, the band's sound has progressed throughout their 30-year career. Tom DeLonge's guitar style, which trades solos for riffs, is often down-stroked and power-chord heavy, with large amounts of palm muting. His later guitar work heavily delves into effects, exploring ambience and delay prominently. Many Blink songs centre on the I–V–vi–IV progression. As a bassist, Hoppus is known for his well-defined midrange tone. Since the band is a trio, he approaches his role as a combination of being a rhythm guitarist and bassist. Early albums, such as Cheshire Cat (1995) and Dude Ranch (1997), were recorded with original drummer Scott Raynor, and consist of fast-paced, double-time songs. Drummer Travis Barker diversified the band's sound rhythmically when he joined in 1998. Throughout their discography, Barker's drumming references myriad musical genres, including Afro-Cuban music, bossa nova, reggae, and hip hop. Barker grew up playing in marching band, and it still influences his drum fills and kit setup. Blink-182 were considered more radio-friendly than their predecessors. Jon Caramanica of The New York Times writes that the band "[took] punk's already playful core and [gave] it a shiny, accessible polish." Luke Lewis, writing for Total Guitar in 2003, summarized it aptly: "They wrote catchy songs, radio stations played them." The band's biggest hit, "All the Small Things", was written partially because DeLonge figured the label might want a song for radio. "It was obvious from the beginning it would fit that format," he told Lewis. "There's nothing wrong with that. We don't want obstacles between us and our audience." DeLonge commented on the band's mainstream appeal in an interview in 2014: Punk rock was becoming polished. NOFX [was] a punk band we grew up listening to, and they had a record called Punk in Drublic, and it was awesome. It was game-changing; it sounded good. We wanted to take it to the next level. [...] There had never been a pop punk band that sounded like nursery rhymes on steroids, on the mainstream level at least. And that's what I used to have daydreams of. I used to think the radio could use that, could use a band that was really powerful and catchy and fast and youthful and angsty. Public image Over the band's thirty-year career, the public image of Blink-182 has evolved with their sound. Whereas other punk acts emerged from sometimes dangerous urban environments, Blink-182 professed a love for their upbringing in the suburbs—"beige little boxes in a row", Hoppus extolled in one song. "They weren't selling out; they were buying in," observed Pitchfork critic Jeremy Gordon. "Part of that was Hoppus and Delonge's exurban SoCal upbringing, which encouraged a sunny prankishness at odds with urban despair." The band attracted criticism for their simplified arrangements and clean sound. British publication NME was particularly critical, with reviewer Steven Wells comparing them to "that sanitized, castrated, shrink-wrapped 'new wave' crap that the major US record companies pumped out circa 1981 in their belated attempt to jump on the 'punk' bandwagon." Blink-182 were frequently listed among the most derided global rock acts in the 2000s, alongside acts like Creed or Nickelback; meanwhile, a 2001 Federal Trade Commission report condemned the entertainment industry for marketing lewd lyrics to American youth, specifically naming Blink-182 as among the most explicit acts. Their goofy public image and juvenilia also found detractors. Original punk veterans like John Lydon dismissed them as "comedy act", and forebears like Green Day openly critiqued their stage presence. NOFX, progenitors of this clownish camaraderie, felt they had copied their act; Fat Mike, its frontman, was known to sing "fuck fans of Blink-182" at shows. The band's conventional appeal, as well as partnerships with MTV, boardsport companies, and clothing brands, led to accusations that they were betraying the independent spirit of punk rock. The band were considered sellouts from the underground punk scene as early as 1996, when they first partnered with music conglomerate UMG. A more far-left segment of the scene decried their fixation on female fans flashing them at concerts, in addition to lyrics considered sexist or misogynistic. Some writers have called their stage banter—juvenile, occasionally homophobic or sexist for shock value—an accurate reflection of millennial male conversation in its era. Others have considered them among the least offensive of the aughts pop-punk wave and its common disdain for the opposite sex. "Many of Blink's best songs endure because they turn inward: the lovelorn boy has sense enough to wonder what's wrong with him," observed Kelefa Sanneh. To this end, the band has also been examined through a homosocial lens, with the band's internal drama and the friendship between DeLonge and Hoppus scrutinized in this light: "A queer reading of Blink-182 may almost be too obvious to make," admitted Spencer Kornhaber of The Atlantic, "but playing with and panicking at the idea of being gay was actually vital to the band's identity [...] the guys' [brotherhood] is part of what inspires "shipping" blogs and slash fanfiction." Legacy Blink-182 was one of the most popular rock bands at the turn of the millennium, and spearheaded the second wave of pop-punk and its journey into the mainstream. The glossy production instantly set Blink-182 apart from the other crossover punk acts of the era, such as Green Day. Its third LP Enema of the State catapulted the band to stardom, creating what New York's Abebe described as a "blanket immersion among America's twenty-some million teenagers." At the band's commercial peak, albums such as Take Off Your Pants and Jacket and Enema sold over 14 and 15 million copies worldwide, respectively. According to Kelefa Sanneh of The New Yorker, Blink-182 "spawned more imitators than any American rock band since Nirvana. Their seeming ordinariness convinced a generation of goofy punks that maybe they, too, could turn out deceptively simple songs as well constructed as anything on the pop chart." Most Blink-182 songs are considered straightforward and easy to play on guitar, making them a popular choice of practice for beginner musicians. Lewis of Total Guitar notes that this was key in influencing a generation of kids to "pick up the guitar and form bands of their own." Despite this, the band never received particularly glowing reviews, with many reviewers dismissing them as a joke. Nevertheless, subsequent reviews of the band's discography have been more positive. Andy Greenwald of Blender wrote, "the quick transformation from nudists to near geniuses is down-right astonishing." James Montgomery of MTV said that "despite their maturation, Blink never took themselves particularly seriously, which was another reason they were so accessible." A new generation of rock fans found the Blink sound "hugely influential," according to Nicole Frehsée of Rolling Stone. Sanneh concurred: in his 2021 book Major Labels, he calls the band a "generational touchstone", arguing their sound and humor aged gracefully. In 2011, Jon Caramanica of The New York Times asserted that "no punk band of the 1990s has been more influential than Blink-182," stating that even as the band receded after their initial 2005 split, "its sound and style could be heard in the muscular pop punk of Fall Out Boy or in the current wave of high-gloss Warped Tour punk bands, like All Time Low and The Maine." Montgomery agrees: "...without them, there'd be no Fall Out Boy, no Paramore, or no Fueled by Ramen Records." Maria Sherman of The Village Voice took this a step further, writing "Apart from the sound, Blink's ideology has been popularized [...] their presence is everywhere." "When it comes to having inestimable influence, Blink-182 might well be contemporary punk's version of the Beatles", wrote Scott Heisel in a 2009 Alternative Press cover story on the band. The same magazine later ranked Blink the fourth of the "30 Most Influential Bands of the Past 30 Years," just behind Radiohead, Fugazi, and Nirvana. Bands such as Panic! at the Disco and All Time Low originated covering Blink-182 songs, while You Me at Six, and 5 Seconds of Summer have also named the band as influences. "Anyone in our genre would be lying if they said they weren't influenced by Blink-182," said Joel Madden of Good Charlotte. The band's influence extends beyond punk and pop-punk groups as well: the band has been cited as an influence by Avril Lavigne, Best Coast, Juice Wrld, Lil Peep, DIIV, FIDLAR, Grimes, Male Bonding, Neck Deep, Mumford & Sons, A Day to Remember, Machine Gun Kelly, Owl City, Charly Bliss, Tucker Beathard, Joyce Manor, Wavves, Taylor Swift and the Chainsmokers; the latter even mentioned the band in the lyrics of their number-one hit song "Closer". In 2019, Blink-182's song "All the Small Things" became the theme song of the National Hockey League's Colorado Avalanche. Band members Current members Mark Hoppus – bass, vocals (1992–2005, 2009–present); guitars (2020) Tom DeLonge – guitars, vocals (1992–2005, 2009–2015, 2022–present); keyboards (2012) Travis Barker – drums (1998–2005, 2009–present; touring member 1998); occasional backing vocals (2003, 2016, 2023–present), keyboards, piano (2012, 2018–2019) Former members Scott Raynor – drums (1992–1998) Matt Skiba – guitars, vocals (2015–2022; touring member 2015) Former touring musicians Timeline Discography Buddha (1994) Cheshire Cat (1995) Dude Ranch (1997) Enema of the State (1999) Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001) Blink-182 (2003) Neighborhoods (2011) California (2016) Nine (2019) One More Time... (2023) Tours Headlining Co-headlining Pop Disaster Tour (with Green Day) (2002) Summer Tour 2004 (with No Doubt) (2004) 10th Annual Honda Civic Tour (with My Chemical Romance) (2011) Blink-182 and Lil Wayne Tour (with Lil Wayne) (2019) Awards and nominations Notes References Bibliography External links Official website Blink-182 at AllMusic

The Pop Disaster Tour was a concert tour co-headlined by American rock bands Blink-182 and Green Day. The two groups, with supporting acts Jimmy Eat World, Kut U Up, Saves the Day, and Simple Plan toured for two months across the United States, as well as one in Canada, mostly in outdoor amphitheatres. Background The tour was conceived by Blink-182 to echo the famous Monsters of Rock tours; the idea was to have, effectively, a Monsters of Punk tour. The tour, from the band's point of view, had been put together as a show of unity in the face of consistent accusations of rivalry between the two bands, especially in Europe. Instead, Green Day's Tré Cool acknowledged in a Kerrang! interview that they committed to the tour as an opportunity to regain their status at the top of the tree, as their spotlight had faded over the years. "We set out to reclaim our throne as the most incredible live punk band from you know who", said Cool. Cool contended that "we heard they were going to quit the tour because they were getting smoked so badly […] We didn't want them to quit the tour. They're good for filling up the seats up front." Riding in Vans with Boys The 2003 film Riding in Vans with Boys follows the Pop Disaster Tour throughout the U.S from Kut U Up's perspective. DeLonge and Hoppus had the idea for the film, and enlisted Matt Beauchesne, who also worked on their documentary The Urethra Chronicles II: Harder Faster Faster Harder, to direct. It was designed to be "a social experiment that shows exactly what would happen if an average Joe band spent two months with two of the biggest groups in rock." Set list Tour dates Reception Many reviewers were unimpressed with Blink-182's headlining set following Green Day. "Sometimes playing last at a rock show is more a curse than a privilege […] Pity the headliner, for instance, that gets blown off the stage by the band before it. Blink-182 endured that indignity Saturday at the Shoreline Amphitheatre", a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle wrote in 2002. The Pop Disaster Tour as a whole grossed nearly $20 million from 45 shows. Personnel See also Hella Mega Tour References Shooman, Joe (June 24, 2010). Blink-182: The Bands, The Breakdown & The Return. Independent Music Press. ISBN 978-1-906191-10-8. == Notes ==

Capital One Arena is an indoor arena in Washington, D.C. Located in the Chinatown section of the larger Penn Quarter neighborhood, the arena sits atop the Gallery Place rapid transit station of the Washington Metro. The arena was opened on December 2, 1997, as MCI Center but renamed to Verizon Center in 2006 when MCI was acquired by Verizon Communications and changed again to its current name in 2017. Owned and operated by Monumental Sports & Entertainment, it is the home arena of the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League (NHL), the Washington Wizards of the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the Georgetown University men's basketball team. It was also home to the Washington Mystics of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) from 1998 to 2018, after which they moved to the Entertainment and Sports Arena in southeast Washington for the 2019 season. Though the arena project was a commercial success for its backers, it has contributed to the gentrification of the surrounding area, the displacement of most of its Asian-American residents (the local Chinese-American population, which numbered over 3,000 before the arena's construction, was a mere 300 in 2023), and the replacement of most of the small businesses and restaurants that served the Asian-American community by large national corporations. History The block where the arena was built, between 6th and 7th and F and G Streets, historically held a mix of residences and small businesses. By the 1960s, it was suffering from urban decay, like much of the eastern end of Downtown Washington. In 1973, while the Gallery Place Metro station was being developed below it, the District government bought the land in hopes of redeveloping it. Capital Landmark Associates was selected in 1979 to develop the site with a planned mixed-use complex including retail, offices, apartments, and a hotel. Most of the remaining buildings on the site were demolished in 1985. The project languished for many years but never materialized, and was finally canceled in 1992. Before the arena's opening, the Capitals and the Wizards (then known as the Washington Bullets) played at USAir Arena in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland. The teams experienced subpar attendance because the location was inconvenient for both Washington and Baltimore residents, and their arena, though only 20 years old, was not up to the standards of other NBA and NHL venues. In December 1993, Abe Pollin, the owner of both teams, began studying options to move the teams to a new arena to be built with public financing, with possible locations including Baltimore, downtown Washington, and Laurel, Maryland. A group of Washington business leaders brokered a deal between Pollin and the District government to build an arena at the Gallery Place site, with the District paying for the $150 million project, which was envisioned to have shopping, food, and exhibitors for daily use even when there was no arena event. The D.C. Council approved a special tax on businesses to finance the deal. However, a competing proposal soon emerged, when Robert Johnson, head of Black Entertainment Television, offered to build the arena with mostly private financing. With the arena deal facing criticism amid the District's budget crisis, Pollin eventually agreed to privately fund the construction of the building, which ultimately came to $200 million (US$365 million in 2023 dollars). The District would pay for other costs, including purchasing the portion of the land it did not already own, preparing the site, and expanding the Metro station; these eventually amounted to $79 million (US$138 million in 2023 dollars). The District leased the land to Pollin at a below-market rate of $300,000 per year. A naming rights deal was struck with MCI Communications to name the arena as the MCI Center. The groundbreaking ceremony for the project was held in October 1995. On December 2, 1997, the arena held its first event, a game between the Wizards and the Seattle SuperSonics, with President Bill Clinton in attendance. The arena had a 25,000-square-foot (2,300 m2) Discovery Channel Store from 1998 to 2001 and the MCI National Sports Gallery, an interactive sports museum with interactive games, memorabilia, and the American Sportscasters Hall of Fame inside from 1998 to 2000 or 2001 which was repurposed for office space. Clinton toured the gallery before the game, playing the museum games. A block of F Street NW between 6th and 7th Street NW outside the arena was declared Fun Street, complete with signage. This block later was declared Abe Pollin Way in 2007. The arena was noted for building spectator seats vertically rather than out, creating better views for all attending albeit with limited leg room in the upper levels, as well as spacious quarters for players and coaches with advanced competitive research technology. The arena concourse featured multimedia arenaNet stations where fans could check scores, watch highlights, and send digital postcards over email. These replaced an abandoned idea to have smart seats with televisions and technology that was scrapped due to technological challenges. Arena technology was powered by a virtual LAN software and switching technology called ArenaNET from Cabletron Systems. In 1999, a group led by technology executive Ted Leonsis bought a 36% stake in Pollin's holdings, including the MCI Center, as well as full ownership of the Capitals. The Leonsis group increased its stake to 44% in 2000. In January 2006, Verizon Communications purchased MCI and the arena's name was changed accordingly to Verizon Center. VIDA Fitness opened its first location in the arena that same year. The following year, in 2007, the "first true indoor high-definition LED scoreboard" was installed in the arena. In May 2024, VIDA Fitness announced they will be closing their Gallery Place location. Gallery Place, a 14-screen movie theater, opened at Capital One Arena in 2004. In June 2010, following Pollin's death in November 2009, the Leonsis group, newly organized as Monumental Sports & Entertainment, bought out Pollin's interests, gaining full ownership of the arena and the Wizards. A report emerged in May 2015 that Verizon would not renew its naming rights to the Verizon Center when its agreement with Monumental was to end in 2018. In the same week, it was announced that Etihad Airways signed a deal to become the official airline of the arena, sparking speculation that Etihad might be the leading contender to assume naming rights in 2017. However, on August 9, 2017, it was announced the bank Capital One had purchased the rights, renaming the venue Capital One Arena. In 2019 and 2020, Monumental Sports undertook a $30 million renovation of the stadium. This included completely replacing the arena's seating, improving the concourse, and altering many of the arena's dining options. A new, larger overhead video board was also added as well as a new SkyRing video screen that goes around the top of the arena. In July 2020, bookmaker William Hill opened a sportsbook at the arena, following the 2018 legalization of sports betting in Washington. It was the first brick-and-mortar sportsbook in the District, and the first to open at a professional sports venue in the United States. On June 23, 2023, The Washington Post reported that Monumental Sports was considering moving the Capitals and Wizards to a new arena in the National Landing area of Arlington in Northern Virginia if the Washington, D.C. government did not invest in upgrades to the arena and surrounding area. Despite this, the article outlined that the city intended on continuing its dialogue with the company to keep both teams in Capital One Arena. Monumental later pivoted to a part of the National Landing area lying in a different Northern Virginia jurisdiction, announcing on December 13, 2023, that it planned to build the new arena in the Potomac Yard area of Alexandria. Under the revised plan, Capital One Arena would have remained in use as a concert and event venue during the NBA and NHL seasons, and also become the permanent home of Monumental's Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team, the Washington Mystics. In March 2024, after officials in Alexandria announced that the $2 billion entertainment and sports complex plans were scrapped, Washington, D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser announced she has signed a deal with both teams' majority owner, Ted Leonsis, to keep the Capitals and Wizards in the District "at least until 2050." In May 2024, Capital One Arena was ranked as the 8th most dangerous arena based on factors including fan behavior and the crime rates for the surrounding area. Sports Ice hockey The arena has been home to the Capitals NHL team since its opening. As a result, numerous memorable moments in franchise history have occurred in the arena. The arena hosted games three and four of the 1998 Stanley Cup Finals, when the Capitals lost to the Detroit Red Wings in four games. The Red Wings hoisted the namesake Stanley Cup in the arena on June 16, 1998, after winning game four by a score of 4–1. On April 5, 2008, the Capitals won the Southeast Division in the last game of the regular season, after beating the Florida Panthers 3–1. Game 2 of the 2009 Eastern Conference semifinals between the Capitals and the Pittsburgh Penguins, played on May 4, 2009, saw dueling hat tricks from Ovechkin and rival Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins, culminating in a 4–3 victory for Washington thanks to an additional goal from David Steckel. The arena also hosted games three and four of the 2018 Stanley Cup Finals. The Capitals won both games and then went on to win game five in Las Vegas to capture the Stanley Cup for the first major sports championship for a Washington, D.C. team since the 1991 Washington Redskins. The Capitals had their Stanley Cup banner installation ceremony in the arena before their first game of the next season, which took place on October 3, 2018. Non-NHL hockey events The arena hosted the 2009 "Frozen Four", the final round of the 2009 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament Boston University took Miami OH in overtime 4–3. The JMU vs UVA non-varsity club teams played a 60 min thrilling rink-of-dreams-style match shortly after Washington's win against New York UVA Took JMU 6–4. The inaugural 2024 Capital Hockey Classic is scheduled to take place on December 12, 2024, This event marks the first full-fledged college hockey event since the 2009 D1 Finals. It will feature military and club collegiate ice hockey teams, showcasing talent and competition. The Capital Hockey Classic aims to capture attention, especially since it occurs just two days before the Army-Navy game at the nearby Commanders Field. The event will include two matches: the first game will feature Army vs Navy Club hockey, followed by the Army Black Knights vs. the Penn State Nittany Lions. Basketball The arena has been home to the Wizards NBA team since its opening and was home to the Washington Mystics WNBA team from 1998 to 2018, before the Mystics moved to a new, smaller arena in the Congress Heights area of southeast Washington. In 2024, the Mystics relocated their June 7 and September 19 games against the Indiana Fever to CapitalOne Arena, citing the demand of tickets as a result of the rising popularity of Caitlin Clark. The Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team has also played there since the arena's opening. The arena has hosted three basketball all star games: the 2001 NBA All-Star Game and the 2002 and 2007 WNBA All-Star Games. The arena has been home to many playoff games, but has yet to host an NBA Finals. The arena has hosted games for the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament several times. It hosted first- and second-round games in 1998, 2002, 2008 and 2011, and hosted the regional finals in 2006, 2013 and 2019. Most notably the 2005–06 George Mason Patriots men's basketball team from nearby Fairfax, Virginia advanced to the Final Four in the arena. The arena also hosted the Atlantic 10 men's basketball tournament in 2018 and 2022. It hosted the ACC men's basketball tournament in 2005, 2016, and 2024. In 2017 the arena hosted the Big Ten men's basketball tournament. The Harlem Globetrotters play in the arena on an annual basis. Fighting and wrestling In the professional fighting world, the arena has hosted WWE events, as well as the final four editions of WCW's Starrcade. The arena has hosted Backlash in 2000, SummerSlam in 2005, Cyber Sunday in 2007, Survivor Series in 2009, Capitol Punishment in 2011, and Battleground in 2016. The arena frequently hosts Raw and SmackDown shows as well. The arena was also home to Mike Tyson's final non-exhibition fight (Mike Tyson vs. Kevin McBride) on June 11, 2005. On October 1, 2011, UFC Live: Cruz vs. Johnson was held at the arena. On December 7, 2019, UFC on ESPN: Overeem vs. Rozenstruik was held at the arena. On October 2, 2019, Capital One Arena hosted AEW Dynamite, the first televised professional wrestling event by All Elite Wrestling. It was broadcast on TNT in the United States of America and on ITV4 in the United Kingdom. Arena football In 2017, the Washington Valor began play at the arena for their inaugural season in the Arena Football League. The Valor folded in 2019 and the arena has not hosted an Arena League game since. Gymnastics and figure skating The arena hosted the 2003 World Figure Skating Championships and the 2016 Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions. Music and other entertainment The arena is a major location for concerts and cultural events in the D.C. region. Among the musical performers, cultural figures, and entertainment shows that have performed at the arena are Olivia Rodrigo, Duran Duran, Ricardo Arjona, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Muse, Paul McCartney, Queen, U2, Iron Maiden, Shakira, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Britney Spears, The Three Tenors, Drake, Barbra Streisand, Bon Jovi, Prince, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Beyoncé, the Dalai Lama, Tina Turner, Keith Urban, Paul Simon, Sting, The Police, Taylor Swift, Tame Impala, Coldplay, Tyler, the Creator, Elton John, Usher, Green Day, blink-182, The Who, Bad Bunny, Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Harry Styles, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Cage the Elephant, Monster Jam, Disney on Ice, K-POP groups Ateez, Seventeen, NCT DREAM, Jonas Brothers, AJR, IU, Howard University graduation speech by U.S. President Joe Biden, and a Michelle Obama book tour event. The Washington International Horse Show took place every October in the arena for more than 20 years through 2019, after which it was moved out because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Criticism Gentrification When the arena opened, there was concern that it would lead to the displacement of Chinese businesses and culture in the area that is the city's Chinatown. The surrounding area has indeed been dramatically gentrified, and most of the Chinese residents and businesses who lived and operated in the neighborhood when the arena first opened have been displaced because of the spike in real estate prices. 2011 estimates hold that the number of Chinese in the neighborhood is down to around 400 to 500. The Chinese-owned restaurants and businesses in the Chinatown area are largely gone and there has not been a full-service Chinese grocery in the neighborhood since 2005. A similar stadium project proposed for Philadelphia's Chinatown sparked comparisons in 2023 to the Capital One Arena, and has caused some community backlash. Ice quality issues In December 2007, then-Capitals captain Chris Clark stated that he believed the arena had the worst ice in the NHL. "There's a lot of ruts in the ice. It's soft. It's wet half the time. I could see a lot of injuries coming from the ice there. It could cost [players] their jobs... Even guys on other teams say the same thing. When we're facing off, they say, 'How do you guys play on this?'" Capitals owner Ted Leonsis addressed this criticism directly. The ice quality issue has been persistent both since the opening of the facility and with the Capitals franchise in general. Since Leonsis' acquisition of the facility, the quality of the ice has improved and number of complaints has noticeably decreased. During playoff games, the arena installs additional portable refrigeration units outside the arena to aid the ice conditions during the warm and humid summer months. Gallery See also List of NCAA Division I basketball arenas List of National Hockey League arenas List of National Basketball Association arenas Sports in Washington, D.C. References External links Official website

Which prime minister has been in office between 2017 and 2022 and also shares their middle name with a former monarch of Scotland.

Theresa (Mary) May

Multiple constraints | Temporal reasoning

The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the principal minister of the crown of His Majesty's Government, and the head of the British Cabinet. There is no specific date for when the office of prime minister first appeared, as the role was not created but rather evolved over time through a merger of duties. The term was regularly, if informally, used by Robert Walpole by the 1730s. It was used in the House of Commons as early as 1805, and it was certainly in parliamentary use by the 1880s, although did not become the official title until 1905, when Arthur Balfour was prime minister. Historians generally consider Robert Walpole, who led the government of the Kingdom of Great Britain for over twenty years from 1721, to be the first prime minister. Walpole is also the longest-serving British prime minister by this definition. The first prime minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was William Pitt the Younger at its creation on 1 January 1801. The first to use the title in an official act was Benjamin Disraeli who signed the 1878 Treaty of Berlin as "Prime Minister of Her Britannic Majesty". In 1905, the post of prime minister was officially given recognition in the order of precedence, with the incumbent Henry Campbell-Bannerman the first officially referred to as "prime minister". The first prime minister of the current United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland upon its effective creation in 1922 (when 26 Irish counties seceded and created the Irish Free State) was Bonar Law, although the country was not renamed officially until 1927, when Stanley Baldwin was the serving prime minister. The incumbent prime minister is Keir Starmer, who assumed the office on 5 July 2024. Before the Kingdom of Great Britain Before the Union of England and Scotland in 1707, the Treasury of England was led by the Lord High Treasurer. By the late Tudor period, the Lord High Treasurer was regarded as one of the Great Officers of State, and was often (though not always) the dominant figure in government: Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (lord high treasurer, 1547–1549), served as lord protector to his young nephew King Edward VI; William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (lord high treasurer, 1572–1598), was the dominant minister to Queen Elizabeth I; Burghley's son Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, succeeded his father as Chief Minister to Elizabeth (1598–1603) and was eventually appointed by King James I as lord high treasurer (1608–1612). By the late Stuart period, the Treasury was often run not by a single individual (i.e., the lord high treasurer) but by a commission of lords of the Treasury, led by the first lord of the Treasury. The last lords high treasurer, Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin (1702–1710) and Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford (1711–1714), ran the government of Queen Anne. From 1707 to 1721 Following the succession of George I in 1714, the arrangement of a commission of lords of the Treasury (as opposed to a single lord high treasurer) became permanent. For the next three years, the government was headed by Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend, who was appointed Secretary of State for the Northern Department. Subsequently, Lords Stanhope and Sunderland ran the government jointly, with Stanhope managing foreign affairs and Sunderland domestic. Stanhope died in February 1721 and Sunderland resigned two months later; Townshend and Robert Walpole were then invited to form the next government. From that point, the holder of the office of first lord also usually (albeit unofficially) held the status of prime minister. It was not until the Edwardian era that the title prime minister was constitutionally recognised. The prime minister still holds the office of first lord by constitutional convention, the only exceptions being the Earl of Chatham and the Marquess of Salisbury. Since 1721 Prime ministers Disputed prime ministers Due to the gradual evolution of the post of prime minister, the title is applied to early prime ministers only retrospectively; this has sometimes given rise to academic dispute. William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath and James Waldegrave, 2nd Earl Waldegrave are sometimes listed as prime ministers. Bath was invited to form a ministry by George II when Henry Pelham resigned in 1746, as was Waldegrave in 1757 after the dismissal of William Pitt the Elder, who dominated the affairs of government during the Seven Years' War. Neither was able to command sufficient parliamentary support to form a government; Bath stepped down after two days and Waldegrave after four. Modern academic consensus does not consider either man to have held office as prime minister; they are therefore listed separately. List notes Timeline See also References Citations Works cited Further reading External links "Past Prime Ministers". Gov.uk. UK Government. Archived from the original on 25 August 2008. "Prime Ministers and Politics Timeline". History. BBC. Archived from the original on 27 May 2011.

Theresa Mary May, Baroness May of Maidenhead, (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956), is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served as Home Secretary from 2010 to 2016. She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Maidenhead from 1997 to 2024, and has been a member of the House of Lords since 2024. May is the second female UK prime minister, after Margaret Thatcher, and the first woman to have held two of the Great Offices of State. Ideologically, May is a one-nation conservative. May grew up in Oxfordshire and attended St Hugh's College, Oxford. After graduating in 1977, she worked at the Bank of England and the Association for Payment Clearing Services. She also served as a councillor for Durnsford in Merton. After two unsuccessful attempts to be elected to the House of Commons, she was elected as the MP for the new seat of Maidenhead at the 1997 general election. From 1999 to 2010, May held several roles in shadow cabinets and was Chair of the Conservative Party from 2002 to 2003. Following the formation of the coalition government after the 2010 general election, May was appointed Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities, giving up the latter role in 2012. Reappointed after the Conservatives won the 2015 general election, she became the longest-serving home secretary in more than 60 years. During her tenure as home secretary, she pursued reform of the Police Federation, implemented a harder line on drugs policy, including banning khat, and further restricted immigration. She oversaw the introduction of elected police and crime commissioners, the deportation of Abu Qatada and the creation of the College of Policing and the National Crime Agency. Although she supported the unsuccessful remain campaign, May supported Brexit following the outcome of the 2016 referendum. She was elected and appointed prime minister unopposed to succeed Cameron after Andrea Leadsom withdrew from the contest. As prime minister, May began the process of withdrawing the UK from the EU, triggering Article 50 in March 2017. In April, she announced a snap general election, with the aim of strengthening her hand in Brexit negotiations and highlighting her "strong and stable" leadership. This resulted in a hung parliament with the number of Conservative seats reduced to 317 (from 330), despite the highest vote share since 1983 and the largest increase in electoral support enjoyed by a governing party since 1832. The loss of an overall majority prompted her to enter a confidence-and-supply arrangement with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) of Northern Ireland to support a minority government. Following the 2017 election, May's premiership continued to be dominated by Brexit, in particular by her government's negotiations with the EU, adhering to the Chequers plan, which led to a draft Brexit withdrawal agreement. Other events that occurred during May's premiership included terrorist attacks in Westminster, at the Manchester Arena and at London Bridge, the Grenfell Tower fire, and the Windrush scandal. Her government announced the NHS Long Term Plan and was responsible for negotiating and approving the near-entirety of the UK's terms of exit from the EU. May was also a prominent figure in leading the international condemnation and response to Russia over the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in March 2018. May survived two votes of no confidence in December 2018 and in January 2019, but after versions of her draft withdrawal agreement were rejected by Parliament three times and her party's poor performance in the 2019 European Parliament election, she left office on 24 July and was succeeded by Boris Johnson, her former foreign secretary. May remained in the House of Commons as a backbencher until she stood down at the 2024 general election, and was succeeded as MP for Maidenhead by the Liberal Democrats' Joshua Reynolds. She was elevated to the House of Lords later that year as Baroness May of Maidenhead. In historical rankings of prime ministers, academics and journalists have ranked May in the bottom fourth quartile. Early life and education Theresa May was born on 1 October 1956 in Eastbourne, Sussex. She is the only child of Zaidee Mary (née Barnes; 1928–1982) and Hubert Brasier (1917–1981). Her father was a Church of England clergyman (and an Anglo-Catholic) who was chaplain of an Eastbourne hospital. He later became vicar of Enstone with Heythrop and finally of St Mary's at Wheatley, to the east of Oxford. May's mother was a supporter of the Conservative Party. Her father died in 1981, from injuries sustained in a car accident, and her mother of multiple sclerosis the following year. May later stated she was "sorry they [her parents] never saw me elected as a Member of Parliament". May initially attended Heythrop Primary School, a state school in Heythrop, followed by St. Juliana's Convent School for Girls, a Roman Catholic independent school in Begbroke, which closed in 1984. At the age of 13, she won a place at the former Holton Park Girls' Grammar School, a state school in Wheatley. During her time as a pupil, the Oxfordshire education system was reorganised, and the school became the new Wheatley Park Comprehensive School. May attended the University of Oxford, read geography at St Hugh's College, and graduated with a second class BA degree in 1977. She was taught political geography at St Hugh's by John Patten, Baron Patten, a future Conservative Secretary of State for Education under John Major. At St Hugh's, May's contemporaries included the barrister Alicia Collinson, wife of May's future deputy Damian Green; businesswoman Louise Patten; and Emma Hood, wife of former Oxford University Vice-Chancellor John Hood. She worked at a bakery on Saturdays to earn pocket money and was a "tall, fashion-conscious young woman who from an early age spoke of her ambition to be the first woman prime minister," according to those who knew her. According to a university friend, Pat Frankland: "I cannot remember a time when she did not have political ambitions." Early career Between 1977 and 1983, May worked at the Bank of England. From 1985 to 1997, she was a financial consultant at the Association for Payment Clearing Services (APACS). She served as Head of the European Affairs Unit from 1989 to 1996 and Senior Adviser on International Affairs from 1996 to 1997 in the organisation. May served as a councillor for Durnsford ward on the Borough Council of the London Borough of Merton from 1986 to 1994, where she was Chairman of Education (1988–1990) and Deputy Group Leader and Housing Spokesman (1992–1994). In the 1992 general election May was the Conservative Party candidate for the safe Labour seat of North West Durham, placing second to incumbent MP Hilary Armstrong, with future Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron placing third. May then stood at the 1994 Barking by-election, which was prompted by the death of Labour MP Jo Richardson. The seat had been continuously held by Labour since it was created in 1945, and Labour candidate Margaret Hodge was expected to win easily, which she did. May placed a distant third. Election Around 18 months ahead of the 1997 general election, May was selected as the Conservative candidate for Maidenhead, a new seat which was created from parts of the safe seats of Windsor and Maidenhead and Wokingham. She was elected comfortably with 25,344 votes (49.8%), almost double the total of second-placed Andrew Terence Ketteringham of the Liberal Democrats, who took 13,363 votes (26.3%). Despite this, her party suffered their worst defeat in over 150 years. Early parliamentary career Having entered Parliament, May became a member of William Hague's front-bench Opposition team, as Shadow Spokesman for Schools, Disabled People and Women (1998–1999). She became the first of the 1997 MPs to enter the Shadow Cabinet when in 1999 she was appointed Shadow Education and Employment Secretary. After the 2001 election the new Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith kept her in the Shadow Cabinet, moving her to the Transport portfolio. May was appointed the first female Chairman of the Conservative Party in July 2002. During her speech at the 2002 Conservative Party Conference, she explained why, in her view, her party must change: "You know what people call us? The Nasty Party. In recent years a number of politicians have behaved disgracefully and then compounded their offences by trying to evade responsibility. We all know who they are. Let's face it, some of them have stood on this platform." She accused some unnamed colleagues of trying to "make political capital out of demonising minorities", and charged others with indulging themselves "in petty feuding or sniping instead of getting behind a leader who is doing an enormous amount to change a party which has suffered two landslide defeats". She admitted that constituency selection committees seemed to prefer candidates they would "be happy to have a drink with on a Sunday morning", continuing to say, "At the last general election 38 new Tory MPs were elected. Of that total, only one was a woman and none was from an ethnic minority. Is that fair? Is one half of the population entitled to only one place out of 38?" In 2003, after Michael Howard's election as Conservative Party and Opposition Leader in November that year, May was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Transport and the Environment. In June 2004, she was moved to become Shadow Secretary of State for the Family. Following the 2005 general election she was also made Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. After David Cameron's election as Conservative Party and Opposition Leader, he appointed May as Shadow Leader of the House of Commons in December 2005 and as Shadow Minister for Women and Equality in July 2007. In January 2009, May was made Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. On 6 May 2010, May was re-elected MP for Maidenhead with an increased majority of 16,769 – 60% of the vote. This followed an earlier failed attempt by the Liberal Democrats to unseat her in 2005, as one of that party's leading "decapitation-strategy" targets. Home Secretary Following the formation of the coalition government after the 2010 general election on 12 May 2010, May was appointed Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities by Prime Minister David Cameron as part of his first Cabinet. She became the fourth woman to hold one of the British Great Offices of State, after Margaret Thatcher (Prime Minister), Margaret Beckett (Foreign Secretary) and Jacqui Smith (Home Secretary). As Home Secretary, May was also a member of the National Security Council. She was the longest-serving Home Secretary for over 60 years, since James Chuter Ede who served over six years and two months from August 1945 to October 1951. May's appointment as Home Secretary was somewhat unexpected, with Chris Grayling having served as shadow Home Secretary in opposition. May's debut as Home Secretary involved overturning several of the previous Labour government's measures on data collection and surveillance in England and Wales. By way of a government bill which became the Identity Documents Act 2010, she brought about the abolition of the Labour government's National Identity Card and database scheme and reformed the regulations on the retention of DNA samples for suspects and controls on the use of CCTV cameras. In May 2010, May announced the adjournment of the deportation to the United States of alleged computer hacker Gary McKinnon. She also suspended the registration scheme for carers of children and vulnerable people, with May saying that the measures were "draconian. You were assumed to be guilty until you were proven innocent, and told you were able to work with children." On 4 August 2010, it was reported that May was scrapping the former Labour government's proposed "go orders" scheme to protect women from domestic violence by banning abusers from the victim's home. In June 2010, May faced her first major national security incident as Home Secretary with the Cumbria shootings. She delivered her first major speech in the House of Commons as Home Secretary in a statement on this incident, later visiting the victims with the Prime Minister. Also in June 2010, May banned the Indian Muslim preacher Zakir Naik from entering the United Kingdom. According to The Daily Telegraph, a Home Office official who disagreed with this decision was suspended. In late June 2010, May announced plans for a temporary cap on UK visas for non-EU migrants. The move raised concerns about the impact on the British economy. In August 2013, May supported the detention of David Miranda, partner of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, under the Terrorism Act 2000, saying that critics of the Metropolitan Police action needed to "think about what they are condoning". Lib Dem peer and former Director of Public Prosecutions Ken Macdonald accused May of an "ugly and unhelpful" attempt to implicate those who were concerned about the police action of "condoning terrorism". The High Court subsequently acknowledged there were "indirect implications for press freedom" but ruled the detention legal. A 2016 ruling by the Court of Appeal found that the provision of the Terrorism Act used for Miranda's detention was "incompatible with the European convention on human rights", but that the detention itself was lawful. May also championed legislation popularly dubbed the Snooper's Charter, requiring internet and mobile service providers to keep records of internet usage, voice calls, messages and email for up to a year in case police requested access to the records while investigating a crime. The Liberal Democrats had blocked the first attempt, but after the Conservative Party obtained a majority in the 2015 general election May announced a new Draft Investigatory Powers Bill similar to the Draft Communications Data Bill, although with more limited powers and additional oversight. Police and crime Speaking at the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) conference in June 2010, May announced radical cuts to the Home Office budget, likely to lead to a reduction in police numbers. In July 2010, May presented the House of Commons with proposals for a fundamental review of the previous Labour government's security and counter-terrorism legislation, including "stop and search" powers, and her intention to review the 28-day limit on detaining terrorist suspects without charge. In July 2010, May announced a package of reforms to policing in England and Wales in the House of Commons. The previous Labour Government's central crime agency, Soca (Serious Organised Crime Agency), was to be replaced by a new National Crime Agency. In common with the Conservative Party 2010 general election manifesto's flagship proposal for a "Big Society" based on voluntary action, May also proposed increasing the role of civilian "reservists" for crime control. The reforms were rejected by the Opposition Labour Party. Following the actions of some members of Black Bloc in vandalising allegedly tax-avoiding shops and businesses on the day of the March 2011 TUC march, the Home Secretary unveiled reforms curbing the right to protest, including giving police extra powers to remove masked individuals and to police social networking sites to prevent illegal protest without police consent or notification. In 2012, despite inquiries by both Scotland Yard and the Independent Police Complaints Commission ruling that there was no new evidence to warrant further investigation, after discussions with Doreen Lawrence, May commissioned Mark Ellison to review Scotland Yard's investigations into alleged police corruption. The report was presented to Parliament by May on 6 March 2014. Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police said the report, which has prompted an inquiry into undercover policing, was "devastating". In July 2013, May welcomed the fact that crime had fallen by more than 10% under the coalition government, while still being able to make savings. She said that this was partly due to the government removing red tape and scrapping targets to allow the police to concentrate on crime-fighting. In 2014, May delivered a speech to the Police Federation, in which she criticised aspects of the culture of the police force. In the speech, she said: When you remember the list of recent revelations about police misconduct, it is not enough to mouth platitudes about "a few bad apples". The problem might lie with a minority of officers, but it is still a significant problem and a problem that needs to be addressed ... according to one survey carried out recently, only 42% of black people from a Caribbean background trust the police. That is simply not sustainable ... I will soon publish proposals to strengthen the protections available to whistleblowers in the police. I am creating a new criminal offence of police corruption. And I am determined that the use of stop and search must come down, become more targeted and lead to more arrests. On 9 December 2010, in the wake of violent student demonstrations in central London against increases to higher-education tuition fees, May praised the actions of the police in controlling the demonstrations but was described by The Daily Telegraph as "under growing political pressure" due to her handling of the protests. In December 2010, May declared that deployment of water cannon by police forces in mainland Britain was an operational decision which had been "resisted until now by senior police officers." She rejected their use following the widespread rioting in summer 2011 and said: "the way we police in Britain is not through use of water cannon. The way we police in Britain is through consent of communities." May said: "I condemn utterly the violence in Tottenham... Such disregard for public safety and property will not be tolerated, and the Metropolitan Police have my full support in restoring order." In the aftermath of the riots May urged the identification of as many as possible of the young criminals involved. She said: "when I was in Manchester last week, the issue was raised to me about the anonymity of juveniles who are found guilty of crimes of this sort. The Crown Prosecution Service is to order prosecutors to apply for anonymity to be lifted in any youth case they think is in the public interest. The law currently protects the identity of any suspect under the age of 18, even if they are convicted, but it also allows for an application to have such restrictions lifted, if deemed appropriate." May added that "what I've asked for is that CPS guidance should go to prosecutors to say that where possible, they should be asking for the anonymity of juveniles who are found guilty of criminal activity to be lifted". Anti-social behaviour In July 2010, May proposed to review the previous Labour Government's anti-social behaviour legislation signalling the abolition of the "Anti-Social Behaviour Order" (ASBO). She identified the policy's high level of failure with almost half of ASBOs breached between 2000 and 2008, leading to "fast-track" criminal convictions. May proposed a less punitive, community-based approach to tackling social disorder. May suggested that anti-social behaviour policy "must be turned on its head", reversing the ASBO's role as the flagship crime control policy legislation under Labour. Former Labour Home Secretaries David Blunkett (who introduced ASBOs) and Alan Johnson expressed their disapproval of the proposals. Drug policy In July 2013, May decided to ban the stimulant khat, against the advice of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD). The council reached the conclusion that there was "insufficient evidence" it caused health problems. Explaining the change in the classification May said: "The decision to bring khat under control is finely balanced and takes into account the expert scientific advice and these broader concerns", and pointed out that the product had already been banned in the majority of other EU member states, as well as most of the G8 countries including Canada and the US. A report on khat use by the ACMD published in January 2013 had noted the product had been associated with "acute psychotic episodes", "chronic liver disease" and family breakdown. However, it concluded that there is no risk of harm for most users, and recommended that khat remain uncontrolled due to lack of evidence for these associations. Liberal Democrat minister Norman Baker accused May of suppressing proposals to treat rather than prosecute minor drug offenders from a report into drug policy commissioned by the Home Office. The Home Office denied that its officials had considered this as part of their strategy. Baker cited difficulties in working with May as the reason for his resignation from the Home Office in the run-up to the 2015 general election. Immigration In 2010, May promised to bring the level of net migration down to less than 100,000. The Independent reported in February 2015, "The Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced a net flow of 298,000 migrants to the UK in the 12 months to September 2014—up from 210,000 in the previous year." In total, 624,000 people migrated to the UK in the year ending September 2014 and 327,000 left in the same period. Statistics showed "significant increases in migration among both non-EU citizens—up 49,000 to 292,000—and EU citizens, which rose by 43,000 to 251,000." In May 2012 she told The Daily Telegraph of her intention "to create here in Britain a really hostile environment for illegal migration". May rejected the European Union's proposal of compulsory refugee quotas. She said that it was important to help people living in war-zone regions and refugee camps but "not the ones who are strong and rich enough to come to Europe". In May 2016, The Daily Telegraph reported that she had tried to save £4m by rejecting an intelligence project to use aircraft surveillance to detect illegal immigrant boats. Family migration In June 2012, May announced that new restrictions would be introduced to reduce the number of non-European Economic Area family migrants. The changes were mostly intended to apply to new applicants after 9 July 2012. The newly introduced rules came into effect on 9 July 2012 allowing only those British citizens earning more than £18,600 to bring their spouses or their children to live with them in the UK. This figure would rise significantly in cases where visa applications are also made for children. They also increased the current two-year probationary period for partners to 5 years. The rules also prevent any adult and elderly dependents from settling in the UK unless they can demonstrate that, as a result of age, illness or disability, they require a level of long-term personal care that can only be provided by a relative in the UK. The House of Lords was concerned about the immigration issue and therefore addressed the PM in Parliament as to whether she had examined the impact on communities and families on modest incomes, but it received no direct response. The human rights group Liberty concluded that the new rules showed scant regard to the impact they would have on genuine families. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Migration conducted an evidence based inquiry into the impact of the rules and concluded in their report that the rules were causing very young children to be separated from their parents and could exile British citizens from the UK. Deportation decisions At the Conservative Party Conference in October 2011, while arguing that the Human Rights Act needed to be amended, May gave the example of a foreign national who the Courts ruled was allowed to remain in the UK, "because—and I am not making this up—he had a pet cat". In response, the Royal Courts of Justice issued a statement, denying that this was the reason for the tribunal's decision in that case, and stating that the real reason was that he was in a genuine relationship with a British partner, and owning a pet cat was simply one of many pieces of evidence given to show that the relationship was "genuine". The Home Office had failed to apply its own rules for dealing with unmarried partners of people settled in the UK. Amnesty International said May's comments only fuelled "myths and misconceptions" about the Human Rights Act and Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke subsequently called May's comments "laughable and childlike." In June 2012, May was found in contempt of court by Judge Barry Cotter, and stood accused of "totally unacceptable and regrettable behaviour", being said to have shown complete disregard for a legal agreement to free an Algerian from a UK Immigration Detention Centre. As she eventually allowed the prisoner to be freed, May avoided further sanctions including fines or imprisonment. May responded to a Supreme Court decision in November 2013 to overturn her predecessor Jacqui Smith's revocation of Iraqi-born terror suspect Al Jedda's British citizenship by ordering it to be revoked for a second time, making him the first person to be stripped twice of British citizenship. May was accused by Lord Roberts of Llandudno of being willing to allow someone to die "to score a political point" over the deportation of mentally ill Nigerian man Isa Muazu. According to Muazu's solicitor, May had arranged for the asylum seeker, who was said to be "near death" after a 100-day hunger strike, to be deported by a chartered private jet. To strengthen the Home Office's tough stance, an "end of life" plan was reportedly offered to Muazu, who was one of a number of hunger strikers at the Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre. Abu Qatada deportation In July 2013, Abu Qatada, a radical cleric arrested in 2002, was deported to Jordan after a decade-long battle that had cost the nation £1.7 million in legal fees, and several prior Home Secretaries had not resolved. The deportation was the result of a treaty negotiated by May in April 2013, under which Jordan agreed to give Qatada a fair trial, by not using evidence that may have been obtained against him through torture. May pointed to Qatada's deportation as a triumph, guaranteeing in September 2013 that "he will not be returning to the UK", and declaring in her 2016 leadership campaign announcement that she was told that she "couldn't deport Abu Qatada" but that she "flew to Jordan and negotiated the treaty that got him out of Britain for good". The Qatada deportation also shaped May's views on the European Convention on Human Rights and European Court of Human Rights, saying that they had "moved the goalposts" and had a "crazy interpretation of our human rights laws", as a result, May has since campaigned against the institutions, saying that British withdrawal from them should be considered. "Go Home" advertisements In August 2013, the Home Office engaged in an advertising campaign directed at illegal immigrants. The advertisements, in the form of mobile advertising hoardings on the back of lorries, told illegal immigrants to "go home or face arrest", with an image of a person in handcuffs, and were deployed in six London boroughs with substantial ethnic minority populations. They were widely criticised as creating a hostile atmosphere for members of ethnic minority groups. The shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, described their language as being reminiscent of that used by the National Front in the 1970s. An adjudication by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said that "the claim [that 106 arrests were made last week] was misleading and had not been substantiated" was followed by the advertisements being withdrawn after being banned by the ASA. Passport backlog In mid 2014, the Passport Office faced a backlog in developing processing passport applications, with around 30,000 applications hit by delays. David Cameron suggested this had come about due to the Passport Office's receiving an "above normal" 300,000-rise in applications. It was revealed, however, that May had been warned the year before, in July 2013, that a surge of 350,000 extra applications could occur owing to the closure of processing overseas under Chancellor Osborne's programme of cuts. Around £674,000 was paid to staff who helped clear the backlog. Windrush scandal In April 2018, May's hostile environment policy became the focus of British politics in what came to be known as the Windrush scandal, in which members of the Windrush generation of Afro-Caribbean Britons were threatened with deportation by the Home Office and in at least 83 cases, illegally deported from the UK. The policy also affected the lives of many thousands of people who were in the United Kingdom legally by causing them to be sacked from employment, preventing access to health care, illegally demanding money, exiling them and preventing their return to the UK, and leaving them destitute. The scandal led to the resignation of May's successor Amber Rudd as Home Secretary, and her replacement by Sajid Javid. Responding to questions in Parliament on the Windrush scandal on 25 April, May maintained that the hostile environment policy would remain government policy. Birmingham schools row In June 2014, an inflamed public argument arose between Home Office and Education Ministers about responsibility for alleged extremism in Birmingham schools. Prime Minister David Cameron intervened to resolve the row, insisting that May sack her Special Advisor Fiona Cunningham (now Hill) for releasing on May's website a confidential letter to May's colleagues, and that Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, apologise to the Home Office's head of Security and Counter-Terrorism, Charles Farr, for uncomplimentary briefings of him appearing on the front page of The Times. Minister for Women and Equalities May held the office of Minister for Women and Equalities in parallel to her office of Home Secretary from 2010 to September 2012, when this role was taken over by Maria Miller. May's appointment as Minister for Women and Equalities was controversial, and was met with criticism by many in the LGBT community due to May's record of consistently opposing LGBT rights from 1997 to 2004: she voted against equalising the age of consent in 1998, she spoke in favour of Section 28 in 2001, and she spoke against greater adoption rights for homosexuals in 2002. May later stated, during an appearance on the BBC's Question Time in 2010, that she had "changed her mind" on gay adoption. Writing for PinkNews in June 2010, May detailed proposals for improving LGBT rights including measures to tackle homophobia in sport, advocating British society's need for "cultural change". In July 2010, May stated she would be supporting the previous Labour Government's Anti-Discrimination Laws enshrined in the Equality Act 2010 despite having previously opposed it. The Equality Act came into effect in England, Wales and Scotland on 1 October 2010. She did however announce that a clause she dubbed "Harman's Law" which would have required public bodies to consider how they can reduce socio-economic inequalities when making decisions about spending and services would be scrapped on the grounds that it was "unworkable". Leadership bid In June 2016, May announced her candidacy for the leadership of the Conservative Party to succeed David Cameron, who resigned following the outcome of the European Union membership referendum in which 52 per cent of voters voted in favour of leaving the EU. May emphasised the need for unity within the party regardless of positions on leaving the EU, saying she could bring "strong leadership" and a "positive vision" for the country's future. Despite having backed a vote to remain in the EU, she insisted that there would be no second referendum, saying: "The campaign was fought... and the public gave their verdict. There must be no attempts to remain inside the EU, no attempts to rejoin it through the back door... Brexit means Brexit". An opinion poll that day found 47 per cent of people choosing May as their preferred candidate to be prime minister. May's supporters included a number of Cabinet ministers, such as Amber Rudd, Chris Grayling, Justine Greening, Jeremy Hunt, Michael Fallon and Patrick McLoughlin. She received the most votes in the first round of voting on 5 July, receiving support from 165 MPs, with rivals Andrea Leadsom receiving 66 votes and Michael Gove 48. The two candidates with the fewest votes, Liam Fox and Stephen Crabb, immediately announced their support for May. May came in first place in the second ballot on 7 July with an overwhelming majority of 199 MPs, compared with 84 for Leadsom and 46 for Gove, who was eliminated. Afterwards, May stated that she was delighted with her support among MPs, and she progressed to a vote of the Conservative Party membership against Leadsom. In July, Leadsom announced her withdrawal from the leadership contest hours after May had made her first official campaign speech, saying her lack of support amongst Conservative MPs compared to May would be too great a hindrance to becoming a credible prime minister. As the sole remaining candidate, May was formally declared Leader of the Conservative Party that evening. Premiership (2016–2019) Appointment On 13 July 2016, two days after becoming Leader of the Conservative Party, May was appointed prime minister by Queen Elizabeth II, becoming the second female British prime minister after Margaret Thatcher. Addressing the world's media outside 10 Downing Street, May said that she was "honoured and humbled" to become prime minister. On becoming prime minister, May became the first woman to have held two of the Great Offices of State. Responding to some calls for an early general election, "sources close to Mrs May" said there was no need for such an election. In a speech after her appointment, May emphasised the term "Unionist" in the name of the Conservative Party, reminding all of "the precious, precious bond between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland." By 15 July, May had travelled to Edinburgh to meet with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to reinforce the bond between Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom. "I'm coming here to show my commitment to preserving this special union that has endured for centuries," she explained. Cabinet changes May's first Cabinet appointment was described by Reuters as "one of the most sweeping government reshuffles for decades", and called "a brutal cull" by The Daily Telegraph. Nine of Cameron's ministers, including several prominent members, were sacked or resigned from their posts. The early appointments were interpreted both as an effort to reunite the Conservative Party in the wake of the UK's vote to leave the EU and as "a shift to the right," according to The Guardian. ITV's Political Editor Robert Peston commented: "Her rhetoric is more left-wing than Cameron's was, her cabinet is more right-wing than his was." Although May had supported remaining in the EU, she appointed several of the most prominent advocates of Brexit to key Cabinet positions responsible for negotiating the United Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union, including Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary, David Davis as Brexit Secretary, and Liam Fox as International Trade Secretary, the latter two being new positions. Other key appointees included Amber Rudd as Home Secretary and Philip Hammond as Chancellor of the Exchequer. First term (2016–2017) The First May ministry delayed the final approval for the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in July 2016, a project which May had objected to when she was Home Secretary. Her political adviser Nick Timothy wrote an article in 2015 to oppose China's involvement in sensitive sectors. He said that the government was "selling our national security to China" without rational concerns and "the Government seems intent on ignoring the evidence and presumably the advice of the security and intelligence agencies". In July 2016, when George Kerevan asked her whether she would be prepared to authorise the killing of a hundred thousand innocent persons by a nuclear strike; during the "Trident debate" inside the House of Commons, May said "Yes. And I have to say to the honourable gentleman: the whole point of a deterrent is that our enemies need to know that we would be prepared to use it. Unlike some suggestions that we could have a nuclear deterrent but not actually be willing to use it, which come from the Labour Party frontbench." On 20 July, May attended her first Prime Minister's Questions since taking office, then afterwards made her first overseas trip as prime minister, visiting Berlin for talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. During the visit, May said that she would not trigger Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon—the process for withdrawing from the European Union—before 2017, suggesting it would take time for the UK to negotiate a "sensible and orderly departure" from the EU. However, although Merkel said it was right for the UK to "take a moment" before beginning the process, she urged May to provide more clarity on a timetable for negotiations. Shortly before travelling to Berlin, May had also announced that in the wake of the referendum, Britain would relinquish the presidency of the Council of the European Union, which passes between member states every six months on a rotation basis, and that the UK had been scheduled to hold in the second half of 2017. May supported the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen and defended selling arms to Saudi Arabia, which is accused of committing war crimes in Yemen, insisting that Britain's close relationship with Saudi Arabia was "helping keep people on the streets of Britain safe". On 21 January 2017, following the inauguration of Donald Trump as US President, the White House announced that May would meet the President on 27 January, making her the first foreign leader to meet Trump since he took office on 20 January. In a joint press conference, May indicated an interest in increased trade between the United States and the United Kingdom. She also affirmed a desire to maintain an American involvement in NATO. May was criticised by members of major parties, including her own, for refusing to condemn Trump's Executive Order 13769, as well as for inviting Trump to a state visit with Queen Elizabeth II. In January 2017, when it came to light that a Trident test had malfunctioned in June 2016, May refused to confirm whether she knew about the incident when she addressed parliament. May's Chancellor, Philip Hammond, continued government policies of freezing benefits in his 2017 budget. 2017 general election In May announced that she would call a parliamentary vote to hold an early general election on 8 June, saying that it was the "only way to guarantee certainty and security for years ahead". May had previously ruled out an early election on five occasions over nine months. The election was the first snap election held under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 after MPs gave May the two-thirds super-majority required. Unveiling the Conservative manifesto in Halifax on 18 May, May promised a "mainstream government that would deliver for mainstream Britain". It proposed to balance the budget by 2025, raise spending on the NHS by £8bn per annum and on schools by £4bn per annum by 2022, remove the ban on new grammar schools, means-test the winter fuel allowance, replace the state pension "triple lock" with a "double lock" and require executive pay to be approved by a vote of shareholders. It also contained May's previously-announced flagship energy reform of a cap on gas and electricity bills for households on standard variable tariffs. It dropped the 2015 pledge to not raise income tax or national insurance contributions but maintained a commitment to freeze VAT. New sovereign wealth funds for infrastructure, rules to prevent foreign takeovers of "critical national infrastructure" and institutes of technology were also proposed. The manifesto was noted for its intervention in industry, lack of tax cuts and increased spending commitments on public services. On Brexit it committed to leaving the single market and customs union while seeking a "deep and special partnership" and promised a vote in parliament on the final agreement. The manifesto also proposed reforms to social care in England that would raise the threshold for free care from £23,250 to £100,000 while including property in the means test and permitting deferred payment after death. After attracting substantial media attention, four days after the manifesto launch May stated that the proposed social care reforms would now include an "absolute limit" on costs in contrast to the rejection of a cap in the manifesto. She criticised the "fake" portrayal of the policy in recent days by Labour and other critics who had termed it a "dementia tax". Evening Standard editor George Osborne called the policy change a "U-turn". The Financial Times contrasted her "Strong and Stable" leadership slogan with her own record of nine rapid U-turns claiming she was "making a habit of retreating from policies." The general election in June resulted in a hung parliament, prompting her to broker a deal with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), involving £1 billion of additional public funding for Northern Ireland. Second term (2017–2019) Less than two weeks after the 2017 State Opening of Parliament, May ordered a full public inquiry into the contaminated blood scandal. For this she was widely praised as successive governments going back to the 1980s had refused such an inquiry, some though speculated that May had simply been forced to announce the inquiry after a group legal action and news of fresh evidence were brought by Jason Evans. Additionally, Andy Burnham had threatened to take evidence to the police if an inquiry were not announced. With over 1,000 core participants, the Infected Blood Inquiry is the biggest public inquiry ever held in the UK. Myanmar May is the first British prime minister to visit Buenos Aires after the Falklands War. In November 2017, May said the actions of Myanmar Army and police against the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar "looks like ethnic cleansing". According to May, "it is something for which the Burmese authorities – and especially the military – must take full responsibility." From the 2017 general election to December 2017, May suffered no defeats in whipped votes in the House of Commons. On 13 December 2017, May lost a vote on the EU Withdrawal Bill by 309 votes to 305, due to 11 Conservatives voting against the government, including Stephen Hammond who was then vice-chairman of the Conservative Party. Russia May accused Russia of "threatening the international order", "seeking to weaponise information" and "deploying its state-run media organisations to plant fake stories". She further suggested the country had been meddling in the 2017 German federal election in contradiction of German government officials and security experts, who had dismissed the possibility. May's government accused Russia for orchestrating the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal. The UK's official assessment of this incident was supported by 28 other countries, who expelled an unprecedented total of 153 Russian diplomats. May said in the House of Commons on 12 March: It is now clear that Mr Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia. This is part of a group of nerve agents known as 'Novichok'. Based on the positive identification of this chemical agent by world-leading experts at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down; our knowledge that Russia has previously produced this agent and would still be capable of doing so; Russia's record of conducting state-sponsored assassinations; and our assessment that Russia views some defectors as legitimate targets for assassinations; the Government has concluded that it is highly likely that Russia was responsible for the act against Sergei and Yulia Skripal. Mr Speaker, there are therefore only two plausible explanations for what happened in Salisbury on 4 March. Either this was a direct act by the Russian State against our country. Or the Russian government lost control of this potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent and allowed it to get into the hands of others. China May promised to confront China on human rights but was praised in Communist Party-controlled media for "sidestepping" human rights in China during her first official visit to the country. The Global Times said: "For the Prime Minister, the losses outweigh the gains if she appeases the British media at the cost of the visit's friendly atmosphere." Assassination plot In 2017, Islamic State terrorist Naa'imur Zakariyah Rahman was foiled in a plot to assassinate May at Downing Street. Turkey In May 2018, during a three-day state visit to the UK by Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, May declared that Britain is a "true friend" of Turkey, but she added that "It is important that in defence of democracy, which has been facing extraordinary pressures from the failed coup, instability across the border from Syria and from Kurdish terrorism, Turkey does not lose sight of the values it is seeking to defend." Contempt of Parliament On 4 December 2018, on a motion passed by MPs by 311 to 293 votes, the May Government was found in contempt of Parliament; the first government to be found in contempt in history. The vote was triggered by the government failing to lay before Parliament any legal advice on the proposed withdrawal agreement on the terms of the UK's departure from the European Union, after a humble address for a return was unanimously agreed to by the House of Commons on 13 November 2018. The government then agreed to publish the full legal advice for Brexit that was given to the Prime Minister by the Attorney General during negotiations with the European Union. Vote of confidence (Conservative Party) In December 2018, May faced a vote of confidence in her leadership of the Conservative Party over opposition to her negotiated Brexit deal, after the number of Conservative MPs exceeded the 48 no-confidence letter threshold that the 1922 Committee Chairman, Sir Graham Brady required for the vote of confidence to be held. May won the vote with 200 Conservative MPs voting for her, compared to 117 voting against. As part of her speech to the Parliamentary Conservative Party before the confidence vote was opened, it was reported that May conceded that she would step down as prime minister after delivering Brexit and would not lead the Conservative Party into the next General Election in exchange for Conservative MPs voting to have confidence in her leadership so that she would be able to keep the party, Parliament and the UK stable during the final stages of Brexit. May later confirmed this to BBC News Political editor, Laura Kuenssberg after meeting EU leaders, including Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels. Vote of no confidence (House of Commons) On 17 December 2018 in the House of Commons, the Leader of the Opposition and Labour Party Leader, Jeremy Corbyn, tabled a motion of no confidence in May's premiership, citing May's refusal to set the date for the meaningful vote on her Brexit deal before Christmas, and instead pushing it back to mid-January. The following day the government refused to allow time for the motion to be debated. John Bercow, Speaker of the House of Commons, confirmed that they were under no obligation to do so. Following the defeat of May's Brexit deal on 15 January 2019, Corbyn tabled a motion of no confidence in the Government, to be voted on by parliament the following evening. The motion was defeated by 325 votes to 306; a majority of 19. Brexit deal defeats In January 2019, May's government was defeated in the House of Commons by a margin of 230 votes (202 in favour and 432 opposed) in a vote on her deal to leave the European Union ("first meaningful vote"). It was the largest majority against a United Kingdom government in history. In March, May was again defeated in the Commons by 149 votes (242 in favour and 391 against) on her latest deal after she secured last-minute concessions from the EU ("second meaningful vote"). May was then again defeated by 58 votes in the Commons (286 in favour and 344 against) on the withdrawal deal but not the political declaration ("third meaningful vote"). Resignation I will shortly leave the job that it has been the honour of my life to hold – the second female Prime Minister but certainly not the last. I do so with no ill-will, but with enormous and enduring gratitude to have had the opportunity to serve the country I love. On 27 March 2019 at a meeting of the 1922 Committee, May confirmed that she will "not lead the UK in the next stage of Brexit negotiations", meaning she was expected to resign after the third meaningful vote, if it had passed successfully. However, no date was stated, and her reported wording was ambiguous and thus carried no binding force. On 29 March, the third meaningful vote was defeated, and while May did not state anything in regards to standing down, Corbyn stated that if May could not find an alternative to her deal "she must go, not at an indeterminate date in the future but now." On 22 April it was announced that the leaders of 70 Conservative Associations had signed a petition calling for a vote of no confidence. Under party rules an Extraordinary General Meeting must be convened if one is demanded by 65 associations. The non-binding vote, to be determined by 800 of the party's senior officials, would be the first time such an instance has occurred. On 24 April, the party's 1922 Committee ruled out changing the leadership challenge rules, but its chair, Graham Brady, asked for clarity on when May would step down from office. On 24 May she confirmed that she would resign as Conservative Party leader on 7 June, stating, "it is now clear to me that it is in the best interests of the country for a new prime minister to lead that effort." She continued to serve as prime minister until she tendered her resignation to the Queen on 24 July. This coincided with the arrival of Boris Johnson as prime minister, who was elected by the Conservative Party membership. By constitutional convention May did not step down until she assured the Queen that Johnson would be able to command the confidence of the House of Commons. In one of May's last Prime Minister's Questions, Barry Sheerman, the Labour MP for Huddersfield, urged May not to "cut and run" and instead reconsider her resignation. May responded by saying she would return to the role of a backbench MP after leaving office. On 24 July 2019, May ended her consecutive service at the frontbench since 1998 when she had been appointed Shadow Spokesman for Schools, Disabled People and Women. Ministerial resignations May's premiership had 51 resignations with 33 relating to Brexit. These included 12 departures from the Cabinet. The pace and number of resignations have been described as 'unprecedented' by the Institute for Government, with resignations impacting the functioning of the government. In less than three years, May received more resignations than Thatcher (11 years) or Blair (10 years). The Chief Whip Julian Smith described May's Cabinet as exhibiting the 'worst cabinet ill-discipline in history'. Public opinion May had a high approval rating during her first week as prime minister. The results of an Ipsos MORI survey released in July 2016 indicated that 55% of those surveyed believed that May was a suitable PM while only 23% believed that the Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn would make a good prime minister. A ComRes poll taken in September 2016 after her election suggested May was seen as substantially more "in touch with ordinary British people" than her predecessor David Cameron and a majority of voters saw her as "the right person to unite the country". At the beginning of 2017, nearly six months after becoming prime minister, a ComRes found May was the most popular UK politician with a net rating of +9 which was described as the longest honeymoon period enjoyed by any sitting Conservative prime minister since the end of the Second World War. The Conservative Party had a 21-point lead over Labour in a poll released the day before May announced a snap election but this lead narrowed substantially. In mid-June, following the election, a YouGov poll showed that May's popularity had dropped to a rating of −34. In April 2018, May had a higher approval rating than Corbyn for the first time since the general election, leading him by −13 to −23. Plans to reform social care came to dominate the Conservative election campaign during the 2017 snap election, with some arguing it ultimately cost May her majority. May's promised green paper on the future of adult social care was plagued by frequent delays, ultimately never materialising during her premiership. A December 2019 poll by learning disabilities charity Hft found that 59% of social care providers in England believed that the situation in social care worsened under May's premiership, compared to just 3% who said it was slightly better. Political positions May has identified herself with the one-nation conservative position within her party. Since coming into prominence as a front-bench politician, May's public image has divided media opinion, especially from some in the traditionalist right-wing press. Commenting on May's debut as Home Secretary, Anne Perkins of The Guardian observed that "she'll be nobody's stooge", while Cristina Odone of The Daily Telegraph predicted her to be "the rising star" of the Coalition Government. Allegra Stratton, then with The Guardian, praised May as showing managerial acumen. Describing her as a liberal Conservative, the Financial Times characterised May as a "non-ideological politician with a ruthless streak who gets on with the job", in doing so comparing her to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Conversely, in The Independent, Rebecca Glover of the Policy Innovation Research Unit contrasted May to Boris Johnson, claiming that she was "staunchly more conservative, more anti-immigration, and more isolationist" than he was. During her leadership campaign, May said that "We need an economy that works for everyone", pledging to crack down on executive pay by making shareholders' votes binding rather than advisory and to put workers onto company boards (although she later claimed that the last pledge was not to be mandatory), policies that The Guardian describes as going further than the Labour Party's 2015 general election manifesto. After she became prime minister, May's first speech espoused the left, with a promise to combat the "burning injustice" in British society and to create a union "between all of our citizens" and promising to be an advocate for the "ordinary working-class family" and not for the affluent in the UK. "The government I lead will be driven not by the interests of the privileged few but by yours. We will do everything we can to give you more control over your lives ... When we take the big calls, we'll think not of the powerful, but you. When we pass new laws we'll listen not to the mighty, but to you. When it comes to taxes we'll prioritise not the wealthy but you." May has described herself as a personal supporter of fox hunting with hounds, saying that foxes' numbers had to be controlled and that hunting them with dogs was the most humane way to do it. The Conservative manifesto for the 2017 election included a pledge to hold a parliamentary vote to repeal the Hunting Act 2004, which prohibits a range of hunting activities. After the Conservatives' manifesto for the 2017 election was released, some people, including Fraser Nelson of The Spectator, called her a "red Tory", saying that she had moved her party to the left in politics. Politico called her policies "Mayism", saying that Mayism was "a working-class conservatism openly critical of the "cult of individualism" and globalization". May praised the former prime minister Winston Churchill and has a portrait of Churchill on the wall of her study. May's spokesman said: "The prime minister has quoted and referenced Sir Winston Churchill on many occasion and acknowledged him as one of the great prime ministers of the 20th century." May welcomed the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, saying that "no one is above the law." Assange had fled to the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2012 after being accused of sexual assault in Sweden. He is also wanted by the US for "conspiracy to commit computer intrusion" relating to the Wikileaks release of classified material in 2010, including footage of US soldiers killing civilians in Iraq. Foreign policy In 2003, May voted to approve the invasion of Iraq and in 2013 voted in favour of British military intervention in the Syrian civil war. The May Ministry delayed the final approval for the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in July 2016, a project which May had objected to when she was Home Secretary. Her political adviser Nick Timothy wrote an article in 2015 to oppose People's Republic of China's involvement in sensitive sectors. He said that the government was "selling our national security to China" without rational concerns and "the Government seems intent on ignoring the evidence and presumably the advice of the security and intelligence agencies." Politicians and human rights activists urged Theresa May's government to vote against Saudi Arabian retention of the membership of the UN Human Rights Council. Amnesty International's UK Foreign Policy Programme Director Polly Truscott said: "Rather than turning a blind eye to Saudi Arabia's continuing bully tactics, the UK should publicly hold the Saudi authorities to account for its appalling human rights record and the ongoing war crimes in Yemen and should stop selling weapons to Saudi as a matter of urgency." May defended selling arms to Saudi Arabia stating that close ties with the country "keep people on the streets of Britain safe". Economic policy Prior to her premiership, May outlined plans to backtrack on the longstanding government plan to achieve a surplus by 2020, following the UK's withdrawal from the European Union. With uncertainty surrounding the economic outlook, Chancellor of the Exchequer Phillip Hammond has suggested that the government's Autumn Statement may be used to "reset" economic policy. In 2015, while May was Home Secretary, an 18% funding cut in the police force had taken place with the loss of around 20,000 police officers. Before the Manchester Arena bombing and after the Paris attacks, she was warned by a Manchester senior police officer that the cuts in the force and community policing risked terror attacks in the city due to the lack of resources to undertake proper intelligence and anti-terrorist measures. In May and Hammond's 2017 budget, continued government policies were confirmed regarding freezing benefits. May's government published a Green Paper in November 2016 which considered forcing companies to reveal the difference between what their CEOs are paid and what their ordinary workers are paid. On 1 January 2019 new regulations came into force for UK listed companies with over 250 employees to annually disclose the ratio of their CEO's pay to the median, lower quartile, and upper quartile pay of their UK employees. Workers' representatives Before her premiership began, May said that she planned to have workers represented on company boards, saying "If I'm prime minister ... we're going to have not just consumers represented on company boards, but workers as well." May aimed to put workers' and consumers' representatives on boards to make them more accountable. Nils Pratley, a journalist at The Guardian, wrote in July "Fundamental principles of Britain's boardroom governance are being rethought. It is a very welcome development. In the more enlightened quarters of the UK corporate world, they can see that boardroom pay has eroded trust in business." Workers' representatives, it appeared, would have made UK companies more like those in Germany and France. May was accused of backtracking in November 2016 when she said that firms would not be forced to adopt the proposal, saying "there are a number of ways in which that can be achieved". Environmental policy Following the impact of Blue Planet II in 2017, the May administration outlined plans to approve further green policy. A particular focus has been on plastic and its impact on the environment. Her government's "25 Year Environment Plan" was published in January 2018: targets were set for achievement of a number of environmental benefits with dates ranging from 2025 to 2060. In March 2018, May announced plans for a plastic deposit scheme modelled on a similar policy in Norway to boost recycling. EU and Brexit May publicly stated her support for the UK remaining in the EU during the 2016 referendum campaign, but did not campaign extensively in the referendum and criticised aspects of the EU in a speech. It was speculated by political journalists that May had sought to minimise her involvement in the debate to strengthen her position as a future candidate for the Conservative party leadership. Some in David Cameron's ministry likened May to a "submarine" on the issue of Brexit due to her perceived indifference towards the referendum and the EU. In a leaked recording prior to the Brexit referendum, May stated: I think the economic arguments are clear. I think being part of a 500-million trading bloc is significant for us. I think, as I was saying to you a little earlier, that one of the issues is that a lot of people will invest here in the UK because it is the UK in Europe. If we were not in Europe, I think there would be firms and companies who would be looking to say, do they need to develop a mainland Europe presence rather than a UK presence? So I think there are definite benefits for us in economic terms. May also said Britain was more secure as part of the EU due to the European arrest warrant and Europe-wide information sharing among other factors. She said, "There are definitely things we can do as members of the European Union that I think keep us more safe". May's public reticence during the referendum campaign resulted in tensions with David Cameron and his pro-EU team. Following the referendum and her election as party leader, May signalled that she would support full withdrawal from the EU and prioritise immigration controls over remaining within the single market, leading some to contrast this with her earlier remarks on the earlier economic arguments. She later went on to say before the 2017 United Kingdom general election that she would be willing to leave the EU without a deal, saying that "no deal is better than a bad deal. We have to be prepared to walk out". The Lib Dem leader, Tim Farron, said it was "disappointing that Theresa May lacked the political courage to warn the public as she did a bunch of bankers in private about the devastating economic effects of Brexit. More disappointing is that now she is supposedly in charge, she is blithely ignoring her own warnings and is prepared to inflict an act of monumental self-harm on the UK economy by pulling Britain out of the single market." Phil Wilson for the Open Britain group said, "It's good to know that privately Theresa May thinks what many of us have been saying publicly for a long time, leaving the single market would be bad for businesses and for our economy. Now she is prime minister, Theresa May is in an unrivalled position to act on her previous concerns, starting by putting membership of the single market at the heart of her government's negotiating position." On 22 September 2017, May officially made public the details of her Brexit proposal during a speech in Florence, urging the European Union to maintain a transitional period of two years after Brexit during which trade terms remain unaltered. During this period, the UK would also continue to honour its budget commitments of about €10 billion per annum, and accept immigration from Europe. Her speech was criticised by leading Eurosceptic Nigel Farage. The European Union's Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier welcomed May's proposal as "constructive," but said it also "must be translated into negotiating positions to make meaningful progress." May did not initially wish to give MPs a vote on withdrawal from the European Union. Nicky Morgan stated "in 2016 MPs aren't asking for a veto but they do want a say and we hope the Prime Minister will remember her earlier words". Anna Soubry and Nick Clegg also called for more parliamentary involvement. In November 2016, the High Court ruled in R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union that parliament must vote on the decision to leave the EU but May appealed to the Supreme Court. Nicola Sturgeon, Scottish First Minister has joined the case as did representatives from Wales and Northern Ireland. Sturgeon felt that the Scottish Parliament should also consent to the UK triggering of Article 50. She said she was not seeking to prevent England and Wales leaving but wanted to preserve Scotland's place in the EU. In the end the Supreme Court required a vote in the UK parliament. May was accused of not having a plan if Brexit talks broke down. There were fears that if talks failed Britain could be left trading under WTO rules which it was feared by some analysts would seriously damage jobs and livelihoods in Britain and Europe. May's ministers repeatedly promised to walk away from a bad final deal but, it was argued by some commentators, had no plans for how to manage without a deal. Ivan Rogers described May's Brexit strategy as "an accident waiting to happen". He said completing Brexit was "guaranteed" to take a decade and alleged May's hopes of a trade deal made to order meant that instability in the next few months was "quite likely". In late October 2018, the National Audit Office claimed that it was already too late to prepare the necessary Irish border security checks in the event of a No-deal scenario—a weakness that could be exploited by criminals. On 5 February 2019, May gave a speech to business leaders in Belfast to address Brexit stating the United Kingdom's relationship with Ireland was closer than the 26 other members of the EU. She affirmed the government's "absolute" commitment to the Good Friday Agreement and stated that Britain would seek to have no hard border in Northern Ireland. It was reported in 2020 that former MI6 operative Christopher Steele accused May, while Boris Johnson was foreign secretary, of ignoring claims that Russia may have secretly funded Brexit. Steele accuses May's government of selling British interests short by not taking matters further: "In this case, political considerations seemed to outweigh national security interests. If so, in my view, HMG made a serious mistake in balancing matters of strategic importance to our country." In July 2020 the Intelligence and Security Committee report on Russia was released. It stated that the British government and intelligence agencies failed to conduct any assessment of Russian attempts to interfere with the 2016 Brexit referendum. It stated the government "had not seen or sought evidence of successful interference in UK democratic processes". Stewart Hosie, SNP member said "The report reveals that no one in government knew if Russia interfered in or sought to influence the referendum because they did not want to know". However, the report stated no firm conclusion could be ascertained on whether the Kremlin had or had not successfully interfered in the referendum. Feminism In 2005, May co-founded the mentoring and pressure group Women2Win. This group and May's personal efforts have been credited with increasing the number of Conservative women MPs and with supporting them. In government she lobbied for improvements to maternity leave, and as Home Secretary she acted on FGM and introduced a law on coercive control. However, she has been criticised for the financial cuts made by her government, which have been claimed to have had the greatest impact on poor and vulnerable women. Same-sex relationships In 1998, May voted against lowering the age of consent for homosexual acts. May was also a supporter of Section 28, calling a failed repeal in 2000 to be "a victory for commonsense". She was absent for the vote when it was successfully repealed in 2003. She also voted against the Adoption and Children Act 2002 that allowed same-sex couples to adopt. Beginning in 2012, however, May expressed support for the introduction of same-sex marriage by recording a video for the Out4Marriage campaign, in which she stated "I believe if two people care for each other, if they love each other, if they want to commit to each other... then they should be able to get married and marriage should be for everyone". In May 2013, May voted in favour of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill, which legalised same-sex marriage in England and Wales. In 2017, May apologised for her past votes while taking credit for helping advance LGBT rights within her party. Post-premiership (2019–present) After leaving 10 Downing Street, May took her place on the backbenches, remaining an MP to "devote her full time" to her constituency of Maidenhead, Berkshire. In the 2019 general election she was re-elected as the constituency's MP. In May 2020, May criticised Dominic Cummings when he broke lockdown rules during the COVID-19 pandemic. She abstained in the vote on the second lockdown in Parliament. On 13 July 2021, May was one of 24 Conservative MPs who voted against their party, defying the whip for the first time in 24 years, over the government's proposal to cut its foreign aid budget. She criticised the government, saying in an address to Parliament, "We made a promise to the poorest people in the world. The Government have broken that promise." Amid the Partygate scandal, May was critical of Boris Johnson after the publication of the summary of the Sue Gray report, stating "either my right honourable friend had not read the rules or didn't understand what they meant and others around him, or they didn't think the rules applied to Number 10. Which was it?" On 16 March 2022, Russia banned May from visiting the country over its invasion of Ukraine. In September 2023, the House of Commons official portrait of May by artist Saied Dai was unveiled. In a radio interview with Nick Robinson she said that her Brexit deal would have been better and that she regretted saying "nothing has changed". Also in that month, May's book titled The Abuse of Power - Confronting Injustice in Public Life was published. In October 2023, May appeared as the guest star in 2 episodes of The Rest Is Politics: Leading, hosted by Alastair Campbell, and a former minister in her government, Rory Stewart. In March 2023, May was reselected as the Conservative candidate for Maidenhead at the 2024 general election, however in March 2024, May announced that she would not seek re-election as an MP at the general election, joining a record number of Conservative MPs standing down at the election. May said she is spending much of her time on causes "close to my heart": "These causes have been taking an increasing amount of my time. Because of this, after much careful thought and consideration, I have realised that, looking ahead, I would no longer be able to do my job as an MP in the way I believe is right and my constituents deserve." Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called May a "relentless campaigner" who had been "fiercely loyal" to Maidenhead, and added that she "defines what it means to be a public servant". Her predecessor David Cameron called her "a brilliant public servant" who could "hold her head high", and said she had done much to "modernise the Conservative Party and promote women in public life". Leader of the Opposition Keir Starmer thanked May for her service, saying that she had "served this House and her constituents with a real sense of duty" and added that her "unwavering commitment to ending modern slavery is commented by all of us." She was succeeded as MP for Maidenhead by Liberal Democrat Joshua Reynolds, the first liberal MP to be elected to represent this constituency in over 100 years. May has been mentioned as a possible candidate to replace NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg following his retirement. In June 2021, British Secretary of State for Defence Ben Wallace expressed support for a potential May candidacy, saying "she would be an excellent candidate." Following her retirement from the House of Commons, May has been identified as a potential candidate in the 2024 University of Oxford Chancellor election to succeed Chris Patten. Peerage After standing down as an MP, May was nominated for a life peerage in the 2024 Dissolution Honours. She was created Baroness May of Maidenhead, of Sonning in the Royal County of Berkshire, on 21 August 2024. She was introduced to the House of Lords on 12 September 2024. Personal life May has been married to Sir Philip May, an investment relationship manager, since 6 September 1980. It has been reported that former prime minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto introduced the two during their time at Oxford. May credits future Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull for encouraging Philip to propose to her. May has expressed regret that she and her husband did not have children. The Mays are passionate walkers, and they regularly spend their holidays hiking in the Swiss Alps. May is also a cricket fan, stating that Sir Geoffrey Boycott was one of her sporting heroes. She also enjoys cooking, and has said that she owns 100 cookery books. Philip has said that she "is a very good cook". May and her husband reside in the Thames village of Sonning which is within her former constituency. She is the first cousin once removed of the Labour MP Alistair Strathern. May is a member of the Church of England and regularly worships at church (usually at St Andrew's, Sonning) on Sundays. The daughter of an Anglican priest, Hubert Brasier, May has said that her Christian faith "is part of me. It is part of who I am and therefore how I approach things". She was raised in the Anglo-Catholic or High Church tradition of Anglicanism, of which her Mirfield-trained father was a proponent. May is known for a love of fashion, and in particular of distinctive shoes; she wore leopard-print shoes at her 'Nasty Party' speech in 2002, as well as her final Cabinet meeting as Home Secretary in 2016. On Desert Island Discs in 2014, she chose a subscription to Vogue as her luxury item. However, she has been critical of the media focusing on her fashion instead of her achievements as a politician. May was diagnosed with diabetes mellitus type 1 in November 2012. She is treated with daily insulin injections. Honours and arms Commonwealth honours Foreign honours Scholastic University degrees Chancellor, visitor, governor, and fellowships Honorary degrees Freedom of the City 30 August 2018: Abuja, Nigeria. Memberships and Fellowships Awards Prior to and since her appointment to Government, May has actively supported a variety of campaigns on policy issues in her constituency and at national level. She has spoken at the Fawcett Society promoting the cross-party issue of gender equality. She is the Patron of Reading University Conservative Association, in Berkshire (the county of her Maidenhead constituency). Her activism has earned her a number of awards. She was nominated as one of the Society's Inspiring Women of 2006. In February 2013, BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour described her as Britain's second-most powerful woman after Queen Elizabeth II; May was Home Secretary at the time, and the most senior woman in that government. In 2001 she was made a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Marketors. In September 2017, she was listed by Forbes as the second most powerful woman in the world, behind Angela Merkel. Arms See also Electoral history of Theresa May References Further reading Allen, Nicholas. "‘Brexit means Brexit’: Theresa May and post-referendum British politics." British Politics 13 (2018): 105-120. online Allen, Nicholas. "Brexit, Butchery and Boris: Theresa May and her first cabinet." Parliamentary Affairs 70.3 (2017): 633-644. online Atkins, Judi, and John Gaffney. "Narrative, persona and performance: The case of Theresa May 2016–2017." British journal of politics and international relations 22.2 (2020): 293-308. online Blackburn, Virginia. Theresa May-The Downing Street Revolution (Kings Road Publishing, 2016) online. Brusenbauch Meislova, Monika. "Brexit means Brexit—or does It? The legacy of Theresa May's discursive treatment of Brexit." Political Quarterly 90.4 (2019): 681-689. Cole, Mike. Theresa May, the hostile environment and public pedagogies of hate and threat: The case for a future without borders (Routledge, 2019) online. Dyson, Stephen Benedict. "Theresa May and Brexit: Leadership style and performance." British Politics 19.2 (2024): 213-233. Harrois, Thibaud. "Towards ‘Global Britain’? Theresa May and the UK’s Role in the World after Brexit." Observatoire de la société britannique 21 (2018): 51-73. online Holman, Mirya R., Jennifer L. Merolla, and Elizabeth J. Zechmeister. "The curious case of Theresa May and the public that did not rally: Gendered reactions to terrorist attacks can cause slumps not bumps." American Political Science Review 116.1 (2022): 249-264. online Prince, Rosa. Theresa May: The enigmatic prime minister (Biteback Publishing, 2017) online. Schnapper, Pauline. "Theresa May, the Brexit negotiations and the two-level game, 2017–2019." in The Nested Games of Brexit (Routledge, 2022) Pp. 68-79. online Williams, Blair E. "A tale of two women: A comparative gendered media analysis of UK Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May." Parliamentary Affairs 74.2 (2021): 398-420. Worthy, Ben, Jessica C. Smith, and Laura Richards-Gray. "Remind you of anyone? Comparing the gendered heroic leadership of Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May." British Politics 19.2 (2024): 288-306. online External links Constituency website of Theresa May MP Theresa May on Twitter Profile at the Conservative Party website Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom Contributions in Parliament at Hansard Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005 Voting record at Public Whip Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou Appearances on C-SPAN

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born 19 June 1964) is a British politician and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He was previously Foreign Secretary from 2016 to 2018 and Mayor of London from 2008 to 2016. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Henley from 2001 to 2008 and Uxbridge and South Ruislip from 2015 to 2023. In his youth Johnson attended Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford, and he was elected President of the Oxford Union in 1986. In 1989 he began writing for The Daily Telegraph, and from 1999 to 2005 he was the editor of The Spectator. He became a member of the Shadow Cabinet of Michael Howard in 2001 before being dismissed over a claim that he had lied about an extramarital affair. After Howard resigned Johnson became a member of David Cameron's Shadow Cabinet. He was elected Mayor of London in 2008 and resigned from the House of Commons to focus his attention on the mayoralty. He was re-elected mayor in 2012, but did not run for re-election in 2016. At the 2015 general election he was elected MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip. Johnson was a prominent figure in the Brexit campaign in the 2016 European Union membership referendum. After the referendum Prime Minister Theresa May appointed him foreign secretary. He resigned from the position in 2018 in protest at both the Chequers Agreement and May's approach to Brexit. Johnson succeeded May as prime minister. He re-opened Brexit negotiations with the European Union and in early September he prorogued Parliament; the Supreme Court later ruled the prorogation to have been unlawful. After agreeing to a revised Brexit withdrawal agreement but failing to win parliamentary support, Johnson called a snap general election to be held in December 2019, in which he won a landslide victory. During Johnson's premiership, the government responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by introducing various emergency powers to mitigate its impact and approved a nationwide vaccination programme. He also responded to the Russian invasion of Ukraine by imposing sanctions on Russia and authorising foreign aid and weapons shipments to Ukraine. In the Partygate scandal it was found that numerous parties had been held at 10 Downing Street during national COVID-19 lockdowns, and COVID-19 social distancing laws were breached by 83 individuals, including Johnson, who in April 2022 was issued with a fixed penalty notice. The publishing of the Sue Gray report in May 2022 and a widespread sense of dissatisfaction led in June 2022 to a vote of confidence in his leadership amongst Conservative MPs, which he won. In July 2022, revelations over his appointment of Chris Pincher as deputy chief whip of the party while knowing of allegations of sexual misconduct against him led to a mass resignation of members of his government and to Johnson announcing his resignation as prime minister. He was succeeded as prime minister by Liz Truss, his foreign secretary. He remained in the House of Commons as a backbencher until 9 June 2023, when he received the draft of the Commons Privileges Committee investigation into his conduct that unanimously found that he had lied to the Commons on numerous occasions. Johnson resigned his position as MP the same day. Johnson is a controversial figure in British politics. His supporters have praised him for being humorous, witty, and entertaining, with an appeal reaching beyond traditional Conservative Party voters, viewing him as an electoral asset to the party. Conversely, his critics have accused him of lying, elitism, cronyism, and bigotry. During his premiership his supporters praised him for "getting Brexit done", overseeing the UK's COVID-19 vaccination programme, which was amongst the fastest in the world, and being one of the first world leaders to offer humanitarian support to Ukraine following the Russian invasion of the country. His tenure also encompassed several controversies and scandals, and is viewed as the most scandalous premiership of modern times by historians and biographers alike. Early life and education Childhood Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson was born on 19 June 1964 in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City, to Stanley Johnson, then studying economics at Columbia University, and Charlotte Fawcett, an artist, whose father Sir James Fawcett, was a prominent barrister and president of the European Commission of Human Rights from 1972 to 1981. Johnson is one of only two British prime ministers to have been an American citizen (see Honorary citizenship of the United States). Johnson's parents returned to the UK in September 1964 so Charlotte could study at the University of Oxford. She lived with her son in Summertown, Oxford, and in September 1965 she gave birth to a daughter, Rachel. In July 1965, the family moved to Crouch End in north London, and in February 1966 they relocated to Washington, DC, where Stanley worked with the World Bank. Stanley then took a job with a policy panel on population control, and moved the family to Norwalk, Connecticut, in June. A third child, Leo, was born in September 1967. The family returned to the UK in 1969, and lived at West Nethercote Farm, Somerset, Stanley's family home in Exmoor. His father was regularly absent, leaving Johnson to be raised largely by his mother, assisted by au pairs. As a child, Johnson was quiet, studious, and deaf, resulting in several operations to insert grommets into his ears. He and his siblings were encouraged to engage in intellectual activities from a young age. Johnson's earliest recorded ambition was to be "world king". Having no other friends, the siblings became very close. In late 1969, the family moved to Maida Vale in west London, while Stanley began post-graduate research at the London School of Economics. In 1970, Charlotte and the children briefly returned to Nethercote, where Johnson attended Winsford Village School, before returning to London to settle in Primrose Hill, where they were educated at Primrose Hill Primary School. A fourth child, Joseph, was born in late 1971. After Stanley secured employment at the European Commission in April 1973, he moved his family to Uccle, Brussels, where Johnson attended the European School, Brussels I and learnt to speak French. Charlotte had a nervous breakdown and was hospitalised with depression, after which Johnson and his siblings were sent back to the UK in 1975 to attend Ashdown House, a preparatory boarding school in East Sussex. There, he developed interests in rugby, Ancient Greek, and Latin. In December 1978 his parents' relationship broke down; they divorced in 1980, and Charlotte moved to Notting Hill, London, where her children joined her for much of their time. Eton and Oxford: 1977–1987 Johnson gained a King's Scholarship to study at Eton College, a boarding school near Windsor, Berkshire. Arriving in the autumn term of 1977, he began going by his middle name Boris, and developed "the eccentric English persona" for which he became famous. He denounced Catholicism and joined the Church of England. School reports complained about his idleness, complacency, and lateness, but he was popular at Eton. Johnson's friends were largely from the wealthy upper classes; his best friends were Darius Guppy and Charles Spencer. Both would go on to accompany him at the University of Oxford and remained his friends into adulthood. Johnson excelled in English and the Classics, winning prizes in both, and became secretary of the school debating society and editor of the school newspaper. In late 1981, he became a member of Pop, a small, self-selecting elite group of school prefects. After leaving Eton, Johnson went on a gap year to Australia, where he taught English and Latin at Timbertop, an Outward Bound-inspired campus of Geelong Grammar, an independent boarding school. Johnson won a scholarship to read Literae humaniores at Balliol College, Oxford, a four-year course in Classics, ancient languages, literature, history, and philosophy. Matriculating in late 1983, he was one of a generation of Oxford undergraduates who dominated British politics and media in the early 21st century, including Cameron, William Hague, Michael Gove, Jeremy Hunt and Nick Boles. While at Oxford, Johnson joined the college's rugby union team as a tighthead prop. To his later regret, he joined the Bullingdon Club, an exclusive drinking society notorious for vandalism. Many years later, a group photograph including himself and Cameron in Bullingdon Club formal dress led to much negative press coverage. While at Oxford, he began a relationship with Allegra Mostyn-Owen, cover girl for Tatler magazine and daughter of Christie's Education chairman William Mostyn-Owen. They became engaged. Johnson was popular and well known at Oxford. Alongside Guppy, he edited the university's satirical magazine Tributary. In 1984, Johnson was elected secretary of the Oxford Union, and campaigned unsuccessfully for the position of Union President. In 1986, Johnson ran successfully for President, but his term was not distinguished or memorable, and questions were raised regarding his competence and seriousness. At graduation, Johnson was awarded an upper second-class degree, and was deeply unhappy he did not receive a first. Early career The Times and The Daily Telegraph: 1987–1994 In September 1987, Johnson and Mostyn-Owen married. They settled in West Kensington, London. In late 1987, through family connections, he began work as a graduate trainee at The Times. Scandal erupted when Johnson wrote an article for the newspaper on the archaeological discovery of Edward II's palace, having invented a quote which he falsely attributed to the historian Colin Lucas, his godfather. After the paper's editor, Charles Wilson, learnt of the matter, he dismissed Johnson. Johnson secured employment on the lead-writing desk of The Daily Telegraph, having met its editor, Max Hastings, while at university. His articles appealed to the newspaper's Conservative-voting "Middle England" readership, and he was known for his distinctive literary style, replete with old-fashioned phrasing and for regularly referring to the readership as "my friends". In early 1989, Johnson was appointed to the newspaper's Brussels bureau to report on the European Commission, remaining in the post until 1994. A strong critic of the integrationist Commission president Jacques Delors, he established himself as one of the city's few Eurosceptic journalists. He wrote articles about euromyths: that Brussels had recruited sniffer dogs to ensure that all manure smelt the same, they were about to dictate the acceptable curve of British bananas, limit the power of their vacuum cleaners and order women to return their old sex toys. He wrote that euro notes made people impotent and that a plan to blow up the Berlaymont building was in place because asbestos cladding made the building too dangerous to inhabit. Many of his fellow journalists were critical of his articles, saying they often contained lies designed to discredit the commission. The Europhile Conservative politician Chris Patten later said that Johnson was "one of the greatest exponents of fake journalism". Johnson opposed banning handguns after the Dunblane school massacre, writing in his column "Nanny is confiscating their toys. It is like one of those vast Indian programmes of compulsory vasectomy." According to one of his biographers, Sonia Purnell, – who was Johnson's Brussels deputy – he helped make Euroscepticism "an attractive and emotionally resonant cause for the Right", whereas it had been associated previously with the Left. Johnson's articles exacerbated tensions between the Conservative Party's Eurosceptic and Europhile factions. As a result, he earned the mistrust of many party members. His writings were also a key influence on the emergence of the eurosceptic UK Independence Party (UKIP) in the early 1990s. Conrad Black, then proprietor of The Daily Telegraph, said Johnson "was such an effective correspondent for us in Brussels that he greatly influenced British opinion on this country's relations with Europe". In February 1990, Johnson's wife Allegra broke up with him; after several attempts at reconciliation, their marriage ended in April 1993. He began a relationship with childhood friend Marina Wheeler, who had moved to Brussels in 1990. They were married in May 1993. Soon after, Marina gave birth to a daughter. Johnson and his new wife settled in Islington, north London, an area known for its association with the left-liberal intelligentsia. Under the influence of this milieu and of his wife, Johnson moved in a more liberal direction on issues such as climate change, LGBT rights and race relations. While in Islington, the couple had three more children, all given the surname Johnson-Wheeler. They were sent to the local Canonbury Primary School and then to private secondary schools. Devoting much time to his children, Johnson wrote a book of verse, The Perils of the Pushy Parents: A Cautionary Tale, which was published to largely poor reviews. Political columnist: 1994–1999 Back in London, Hastings turned down Johnson's request to become a war reporter, instead promoting him to assistant editor and chief political columnist. Johnson's column received praise for being ideologically eclectic and distinctively written, and earned him Commentator of the Year Award at the What the Papers Say awards. Some critics condemned his writing style as bigotry; in columns he used the words "piccaninnies" and "watermelon smiles" when referring to Africans, championed European colonialism in Uganda and referred to gay men as "tank-topped bumboys". In 1993, Johnson outlined his desire to run as a Conservative in the 1994 European Parliament elections. Andrew Mitchell convinced Major not to veto Johnson's candidacy, but Johnson could not find a constituency. He turned his attention to obtaining a seat in the House of Commons instead. After being rejected as Conservative candidate for Holborn and St. Pancras, he was selected the Conservative candidate for Clwyd South in north Wales, then a Labour Party safe seat. Spending six weeks campaigning, he attained 9,091 votes (23 per cent) in the 1997 general election, losing to Labour candidate Martyn Jones. Scandal erupted in June 1995 when a recording of a 1990 telephone conversation between Johnson and his friend Darius Guppy was made public. In it, Guppy said that his criminal activities involving insurance fraud were being investigated by News of the World journalist Stuart Collier, and he asked Johnson to provide him with Collier's private address, seeking to have the latter beaten. Johnson agreed, although he expressed concern that he would be associated with the attack. When the phone conversation was published, Johnson stated that ultimately he had not obliged Guppy's request. Hastings reprimanded Johnson but did not dismiss him. Johnson was given a regular column in The Spectator, sister publication to The Daily Telegraph, which attracted mixed reviews and was often thought rushed. In 1999, he was also given a column reviewing new cars in the American men's monthly magazine GQ. The large number of parking fines that Johnson acquired while testing cars frustrated staff. At The Daily Telegraph and The Spectator, he was consistently late delivering copy, forcing staff to stay late to accommodate him; some related that if they published without his work, he would shout at them with expletives. Johnson's April 1998 appearance on the BBC's satirical current affairs show Have I Got News for You brought him national fame. He was invited back on to later episodes, including as a guest presenter; for his 2003 appearance, Johnson was nominated for the BAFTA Television Award for Best Entertainment Performance. After these appearances, he came to be recognised on the street, and was invited to appear on other shows, such as Top Gear, Parkinson, Breakfast with Frost, and Question Time. The Spectator and MP for Henley: 1999–2008 In July 1999, Conrad Black offered Johnson the editorship of The Spectator on the condition he abandon his parliamentary aspirations; Johnson agreed. While retaining The Spectator's traditional right-wing bent, Johnson welcomed contributions from leftist writers and cartoonists. Under Johnson's editorship, the magazine's circulation grew by 10% to 62,000 and it became profitable. His editorship also drew criticism; some opined that under him The Spectator avoided serious issues, while colleagues became annoyed that he was regularly absent from the office, meetings, and events. He gained a reputation as a poor political pundit because of incorrect political predictions. His father-in-law Charles Wheeler and others strongly criticised him for allowing Spectator columnist Taki Theodoracopulos to publish racist and antisemitic language. Journalist Charlotte Edwardes wrote in The Times in 2019 that Johnson had squeezed her thigh at a private lunch at the Spectator in 1999 and that another woman had told her he had done the same to her. A spokesman denied the allegation. In 2004, Johnson published an editorial in The Spectator after the murder of Ken Bigley suggesting that Liverpudlians were wallowing in their victim status and "hooked on grief" over the Hillsborough disaster, which Johnson partly blamed on "drunken fans". In an appendix added to a later edition of his 2005 book The Dream of Rome, Tell MAMA and the Muslim Council of Britain criticised Johnson for arguing Islam has caused the Muslim world to be "literally centuries behind" the West. Becoming an MP Following Michael Heseltine's retirement, Johnson decided to stand as Conservative candidate for Henley, a Conservative safe seat in Oxfordshire. The local Conservative branch selected him although it was split over Johnson's candidacy. Some thought him amusing and charming while others disliked his flippant attitude and perceived lack of knowledge of the local area. Assisted by his television fame, Johnson won the seat in the 2001 general election. Alongside his Islington home, Johnson bought a farmhouse outside Thame in his new constituency. He regularly attended Henley social events and occasionally wrote for the Henley Standard. His constituency surgeries proved popular, and he joined local campaigns to stop the closure of Townlands Hospital and the local air ambulance. In Parliament, Johnson was appointed to a standing committee assessing the Proceeds of Crime Bill, but missed many of its meetings. Despite his credentials as a public speaker, his speeches in the House of Commons were widely deemed lacklustre. He attended around half of Commons votes, usually supporting the Conservative party line. In free votes, he demonstrated a more socially liberal attitude, supporting the Gender Recognition Act 2004 and the repeal of Section 28. However, in 2001, Johnson had spoken out against plans to repeal Section 28, saying it was "Labour's appalling agenda, encouraging the teaching of homosexuality in schools". After initially stating he would not, he supported the government's plans to join the United States in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and in April 2003 visited occupied Baghdad. In August 2004, he backed unsuccessful impeachment procedures against Prime Minister Tony Blair for "high crimes and misdemeanours" regarding the war, and in December 2006 described the invasion as "a colossal mistake and misadventure". Although labelling Johnson "ineffably duplicitous" for breaking his promise not to become an MP, Black decided not to dismiss him because he "helped promote the magazine and raise its circulation". Johnson remained editor of The Spectator, while also writing columns for The Daily Telegraph and GQ, and making television appearances. His 2001 book, Friends, Voters, Countrymen: Jottings on the Stump, recounted that year's election campaign, while 2003's Lend Me Your Ears collected previously published columns and articles. In 2004, HarperCollins published his first novel: Seventy-Two Virgins: A Comedy of Errors revolved around the life of a Conservative MP and contained autobiographical elements. Responding to criticism that he was juggling too many jobs, he cited Winston Churchill and Benjamin Disraeli as exemplars who combined political and literary careers. To manage stress, he took up jogging and cycling, and became so well known for the latter that Gimson suggested he was "perhaps the most famous cyclist in Britain". Following William Hague's resignation as Conservative leader, the party elected Iain Duncan Smith. Johnson had a strained relationship with Duncan Smith, and The Spectator became critical of his party leadership. Duncan Smith was succeeded by Michael Howard in November 2003; Howard deemed Johnson to be the most popular Conservative politician with the electorate and appointed him vice-chairman of the party, responsible for overseeing its electoral campaign. In his Shadow Cabinet reshuffle of May 2004, Howard appointed Johnson as shadow arts minister. In October, Howard ordered Johnson to apologise publicly in Liverpool for publishing a Spectator article – anonymously written by Simon Heffer – which said the crowds at the Hillsborough disaster had contributed to the incident and that Liverpudlians had a predilection for reliance on the welfare state. In November 2004, the tabloids revealed that since 2000 Johnson had been having an affair with Spectator columnist Petronella Wyatt, resulting in two abortions. Johnson denied the allegations but they were subsequently proven to be true, and Howard dismissed him as vice-chairman and shadow arts minister when he refused to resign. Second term At the 2005 general election, Johnson was re-elected MP for Henley. Labour won the election and Howard stood down as Conservative leader; Johnson backed David Cameron as his successor. After Cameron was elected, he appointed Johnson as the shadow higher education minister. Interested in streamlining university funding, Johnson supported Labour's proposed top-up fees. He campaigned in 2006 to become the Rector of the University of Edinburgh, but his support for top-up fees damaged his campaign, and he came third. In April 2006, the News of the World alleged that Johnson was having an affair with journalist Anna Fazackerley; the pair did not comment, and shortly afterwards Johnson began employing Fazackerley. In September 2006, Papua New Guinea's High Commission protested after he compared the Conservatives' frequently changing leadership to cannibalism in the country. In 2005, The Spectator's new chief executive, Andrew Neil, dismissed Johnson as editor. To make up for this loss of income, Johnson negotiated with The Daily Telegraph to raise his salary from £200,000 to £250,000, averaging £5,000 per column. He presented a popular history television show, The Dream of Rome, which was broadcast in January 2006; a book followed in February. A sequel, After Rome, focused on early Islamic history. In 2007, he earned £540,000, making him the third-highest-earning MP that year. Mayor of London (2008–2016) Mayoral election: 2007–2008 In September, Johnson was selected as the Conservative candidate for Mayor of London after a public London-wide primary. Johnson's campaign focused on reducing youth crime, making public transport safer, and replacing the articulated buses with an updated version of the AEC Routemaster. Targeting the Conservative-leaning suburbs of outer London, it capitalised on perceptions that the Labour Mayoralty had neglected them in favour of inner London. His campaign emphasised his popularity, even among those who opposed his policies, with opponents complaining a common attitude among voters was: "I'm voting for Boris because he is a laugh." The campaign of Labour incumbent Ken Livingstone portrayed Johnson as an out-of-touch toff and bigot. In the election, Johnson received 43% and Livingstone 37% of first-preference votes; when second-preference votes were added, Johnson was victorious with 53% to Livingstone's 47%. Johnson subsequently announced his intention to stand down as MP for Henley. First term: 2008–2012 After Johnson became mayor, those in City Hall deemed too closely allied to Livingstone's administration had their employment terminated. Johnson appointed Tim Parker as his deputy mayor, but after Parker began taking increasing control at City Hall, Johnson dismissed him. Many in the Conservative Party initially distanced themselves from Johnson's administration, fearing it would be damaging for the 2010 general election. During the campaign, Johnson had confided to Brian Paddick he was unsure how he would maintain his lifestyle on the mayoral salary of £140,000 a year. He agreed to continue his Daily Telegraph column, thus earning a further £250,000 a year. His team believed this would cause controversy and made him promise to donate 20% of his Daily Telegraph salary to a charitable cause. Johnson resented this, and ultimately did not pay the full 20%. Controversy erupted when on the BBC's HARDtalk he referred to the £250,000 salary as "chicken feed"; this was at the time approximately 10 times the average yearly wage for a British worker. During his first administration, Johnson was embroiled in several personal scandals. After moving to a new house in Islington, he built a shed without obtaining planning permission; after neighbours complained, he dismantled it. The press also accused him of having an affair with Helen Macintyre and of fathering her child, allegations that he did not deny. Johnson was accused of warning Damian Green that police were planning to arrest him; Johnson denied the claims. He was accused of cronyism, in particular for appointing Veronica Wadley as the chair of London's Arts Council. In the parliamentary expenses scandal, he was accused of excessive expenses claims for taxis. Johnson remained a popular figure in London with a strong celebrity status in the city. Policies Johnson made no major changes to the mayoral system of the previous administration. However, he did reverse several other measures implemented by Livingstone: ending the city's oil deal with Venezuela, abolishing The Londoner newsletter, and scrapping the half-yearly inspections of black cabs, which was reinstated three years later. Abolishing the western wing of the congestion charging zone, he cancelled plans to increase the congestion charge for four-wheel-drive vehicles. He was subsequently accused of failing to publish an independent report on air pollution commissioned by the Greater London Authority, which revealed the city breached legal limits on nitrogen dioxide levels. Johnson retained Livingstone projects such as Crossrail and the 2012 Olympic Games, but was accused of trying to take credit for them. He introduced a public bicycle scheme that had been mooted by Livingstone's administration; colloquially known as "Boris Bikes", the part privately financed system was a significant financial loss but proved popular. Despite Johnson's support of cycling, and his much-publicised identity as a cyclist, some cycling groups argued he had failed to make the city's roads safer for cyclists. As per his election pledge, he commissioned the development of the New Routemaster buses for central London. He also ordered the construction of a cable car system that crossed the River Thames between the Greenwich Peninsula and the Royal Docks. Johnson's first policy initiative was a ban on drinking alcohol on public transport. He announced plans to extend pay-as-you-go Oyster cards to national rail services in London. A pledge in Johnson's manifesto was to retain Tube ticket offices, in opposition to Livingstone's proposal to close up to 40. On 2 July 2008, the Mayor's office announced the closure plan was to be abandoned. On 21 November 2013, Transport for London announced that all London Underground ticket offices would close by 2015. In financing these projects, Johnson's administration borrowed £100 million, while public transport fares were increased by 50%. During his first term, Johnson was perceived as having moved leftward on certain issues, supporting the London Living Wage and endorsing an amnesty for illegal migrants. He tried placating critics who had deemed him a bigot by appearing at London's gay pride parade and praising ethnic minority newspapers. Johnson broke from the traditional protocol of those in public office not publicly commenting on other nations' elections by endorsing Barack Obama for the 2008 United States presidential election. Relations with the police, finance, and the media Johnson appointed himself chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), and in October 2008 successfully pushed for the resignation of Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair, after Blair was criticised for allegedly handing contracts to friends and for his handling of the death of Jean Charles de Menezes. This earned Johnson respect among Conservatives, who interpreted it as his first act of strength. Johnson resigned as chairman of the MPA in January 2010, but throughout his mayoralty was highly supportive of the Metropolitan Police, particularly during the controversy surrounding the death of Ian Tomlinson. Overall crime in London fell during his administration, but his claim that serious youth crime had decreased proved to be false, and he acknowledged the error. He was criticised for his response to the 2011 London riots. Johnson championed London's financial sector and denounced what he saw as "banker bashing" following the financial crisis of 2007–08, condemning the anti-capitalist Occupy London movement that appeared in 2011. He collected donations from the city's wealthy for a charitable enterprise, the Mayor's Fund, which he had established to aid disadvantaged youths. It initially announced the fund would raise £100 million, but by 2010 it had only earnt £1.5 million. He also maintained extensive personal contacts throughout the British media, which resulted in widespread favourable press coverage of his administration. In turn he remained largely supportive of his friends in the media, including Rupert Murdoch, during the News International phone hacking scandal. The formation of the Forensic Audit Panel was announced on 8 May 2008. The panel was tasked with monitoring and investigating financial management at the London Development Agency and the Greater London Authority. Johnson's announcement was criticised by Labour for the perceived politicisation of this nominally independent panel. The head of the panel, Patience Wheatcroft, was married to a Conservative councillor and three of the four remaining panel members also had close links to the Conservatives. Re-election campaign Up for re-election in 2012, Johnson again hired Crosby to orchestrate his campaign. Before the election, Johnson published Johnson's Life of London, a work of popular history that historian A. N. Wilson characterised as a "coded plea" for votes. Polls suggested that while Livingstone's approach to transport was preferred, voters in London placed greater trust in Johnson on crime and the economy. Johnson's campaign emphasised the accusation that Livingstone was guilty of tax evasion, for which Livingstone called Johnson a "bare-faced liar". Political scientist Andrew Crines believed that Livingstone's campaign focused on criticising Johnson rather than presenting an alternate and progressive vision of London's future. Johnson was re-elected. Second term: 2012–2016 After a successful bid under Livingstone in 2005, London hosted the 2012 Summer Olympics, with Johnson as board co-chair. He improved transportation around London by making more tickets available and adding buses around the capital when thousands of spectators were temporary visitors. Johnson was accused of covering up pollution ahead of the games by deploying dust suppressants to remove air particulates near monitoring stations. In November 2013, Johnson announced major changes to the operation of the London Underground, including the extension of operating hours. All staffed ticket offices were replaced with automated ticketing systems. Johnson was close friends with American entrepreneur and model Jennifer Arcuri, with The Sunday Times describing him as a regular visitor to her flat, and implying they were in a sexual relationship. Arcuri and her company, Innotech, were awarded substantial government grants, and Johnson intervened to allow her onto three trade mission trips. The Sunday Times said in September 2019 that Johnson failed to declare his personal relationship as a conflict of interest. The Greater London Authority referred the matter to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) "so it can assess whether or not it is necessary to investigate the former mayor of London for the criminal offence of misconduct in public office", for the Mayor is also London's police and crime commissioner. On 9 November 2019 it was revealed that the IOPC had decided to publish its report after the general election on 12 December. The IOPC eventually issued its report in May 2020, concluding that, although there was no basis for any criminal charge, there was evidence that the close relationship between Johnson and Arcuri had influenced decisions, that Johnson should have declared an interest, and that his failure to do this could have breached the London Assembly's code of conduct. In 2015, Johnson criticised then-presidential candidate Donald Trump's false comments that there were no-go zones in London inaccessible for non-Muslims. Johnson said Trump was "betraying a quite stupefying ignorance that makes him frankly unfit to hold the office of President of the United States", becoming the first senior politician in the UK to declare Trump unfit for office, but rejecting calls for him to be banned from the country. In 2016, he said he was "genuinely worried that [Trump] could become president", telling ITV's Tom Bradby that being mistaken for Trump in New York was "one of the worst moments" of his life. Johnson did not run for a third mayoral and stepped down on 5 May 2016 following the election. A YouGov poll commissioned at the end of Johnson's term revealed that 52% of Londoners believed he did a "good job" while 29% believed he did a "bad job". Return to Parliament Johnson initially said that he would not return to the House of Commons while mayor. After much media speculation, in August 2014 he sought selection as the Conservative candidate for the safe seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip at the 2015 general election. In the 2015 general election, Johnson was elected. There was speculation that he had returned to Parliament because he wanted to replace Cameron as Conservative leader and prime minister. Brexit campaign: 2015–2016 In February 2016, Johnson endorsed Vote Leave in the "Out" campaign for the 2016 European Union membership referendum. Following this announcement, which was interpreted by financial markets as making Brexit more probable, the pound sterling slumped by nearly 2% against the US dollar, reaching its lowest level since March 2009. In April 2016, in response to a comment by President Barack Obama that Britain should remain in the European Union, Johnson wrote an "ancestral dislike" of Britain owing to his "part-Kenyan" background may have shaped Obama's views. Several politicians condemned his comments as racist and unacceptable. Conversely, former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith and UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage defended them. Johnson supported Vote Leave's statement that the government was committed to Turkish accession to the EU. Vote Leave was accused of implying that 80 million Turks would come to the UK if it stayed in the EU. When interviewed in January 2019, he said he had not mentioned Turkey during the campaign. On 22 June 2016, Johnson declared 23 June could be "Britain's independence day" in a televised debate. Following the victory of the "Leave" campaign, Cameron resigned. Johnson was widely regarded as the front-runner to succeed him. Johnson announced he would not stand in the Conservative leadership election. Shortly before this, Michael Gove, hitherto a Johnson ally, concluded that Johnson "cannot provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead". The Daily Telegraph called Gove's comments "the most spectacular political assassination in a generation". Johnson endorsed Andrea Leadsom's candidature, but she dropped out, leaving Theresa May to be elected uncontested. Foreign Secretary: 2016–2018 May appointed Johnson foreign secretary in July 2016. Analysts saw the appointment as a tactic to weaken Johnson politically: the new positions of "Brexit secretary" and international trade secretary left the foreign secretary as a figurehead. Johnson's appointment ensured he would often be out of the country and unable to mobilise backbenchers against her, while forcing him to take responsibility for problems caused by withdrawing from the EU. Some journalists and foreign politicians criticised Johnson's appointment because of his controversial statements about other countries. His tenure attracted criticism from diplomats and foreign policy experts. A number of diplomats, FCO staff and foreign ministers who worked with Johnson compared his leadership unfavourably to previous foreign secretaries for his perceived lack of conviction or substantive positions on foreign policy issues. A senior official in Obama's government suggested Johnson's appointment would push the US further towards Germany at the expense of the Special Relationship with the UK. On one occasion Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi walked out of a meeting with Johnson after a meeting did not "get beyond the pleasantries". Johnson's visit to Turkey in September 2016 was somewhat tense because he had won Douglas Murray's offensive poetry competition about the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, four months earlier. When questioned by a journalist whether he would apologise for the poem, Johnson dismissed the matter as "trivia". Johnson pledged to help Turkey join the EU and expressed support for Erdogan's government. Johnson described the Gülen movement as a "cult" and supported Turkey's post-coup purges. Johnson supported the Saudi Arabian–led intervention in Yemen and refused to block UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia. In September 2016, human rights groups accused him of blocking the UN inquiry into Saudi war crimes in Yemen. Given the UK-Saudi alliance, in December 2016, he attracted attention for commenting the Saudis were akin to the Iranians in "puppeteering and playing proxy wars". In November 2017, Johnson told the Foreign Affairs Select Committee that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – a British-Iranian citizen imprisoned in Iran after being arrested for training citizen journalists and bloggers in a BBC World Service Trust project – had been "simply teaching people journalism". Facing criticism, Johnson stated he had been misquoted and that nothing he said had justified Zaghari-Ratcliffe's sentence. In May 2018, Johnson backed the Iran nuclear deal framework, despite Donald Trump's withdrawal. In April 2017, Johnson said that Gibraltar's sovereignty was "not going to change" after Brexit. Johnson promised while in Northern Ireland that Brexit would leave the Irish border "absolutely unchanged". Johnson visited Anguilla and Tortola in September 2017 to confirm the UK's commitment to helping restore British territories devastated by Hurricane Irma. In September 2017, he was criticised for reciting lines from Rudyard Kipling's poem Mandalay while visiting a Myanmar temple; the British ambassador, who was with him, suggested it was "not appropriate". In October 2017, he faced criticism for stating the Libyan city of Sirte could become an economic success like Dubai: "all they have to do is clear the dead bodies away". Initially favouring a less hostile approach to Russia, Johnson soon backed a more aggressive policy. Following the March 2018 poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, an act which the UK government blamed on Russia, Johnson compared Vladimir Putin's hosting of the World Cup in Russia to Adolf Hitler's hosting of the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936. Russia's Foreign Ministry denounced Johnson's "unacceptable and unworthy" parallel towards Russia, a "nation that lost millions of lives in fighting Nazism". Johnson described the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany as "divisive" and a "threat" that left Europe dependent on a "malign Russia" for its energy supplies. Johnson condemned the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, comparing the situation with the displacement of Palestinians in 1948. Johnson supported the Turkish invasion of northern Syria aimed at ousting the Syrian Kurds from Afrin. He accused the UNHRC of focusing disproportionately on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories. In a September 2017 op-ed, Johnson reiterated the UK would regain control of £350m a week after Brexit, suggesting it go to the National Health Service (NHS). Cabinet colleagues subsequently criticised him for reviving the assertion. Following the 2017 general election, Johnson denied media reports he intended to challenge May's leadership. In a February 2018 letter to May, Johnson suggested that Northern Ireland may have to accept border controls after Brexit and that it would not seriously affect trade, having initially said a hard border would be unthinkable. In June, he was reported as having said "fuck business" when asked about corporate concerns regarding a 'hard' Brexit. Secret recordings obtained by BuzzFeed News in June 2018 revealed Johnson's dissatisfaction with Prime Minister Theresa May's negotiating style, accusing her of being too collaborative with the European Union in Brexit negotiations. Comparing May's approach to that of the US president Donald Trump – who at the time was engaged in a combative trade war with the EU because it raised tariffs on metal – Johnson said: "Imagine Trump doing Brexit. He'd go in bloody hard ... There'd be all sorts of breakdowns, all sorts of chaos. Everyone would think he'd gone mad. But actually you might get somewhere." He accused individuals of scaremongering over a Brexit "meltdown", saying "No panic. Pro bono publico, no bloody panic. It's going to be all right in the end." In April 2018, Johnson travelled to Italy to attend a party at the Palazzo Terranova, owned by the former KGB agent Alexander Lebedev and hosted by his son Evgeny. He travelled without security protection or other officials, and did not document the trip, which led to accusations of Johnson having misled parliament. In June 2023, it was revealed that Lord Simon McDonald, the most senior civil servant of his department, was not aware of the trip. Johnson stated that "no government business was discussed" at the event as far as he was aware. Lebedev's villa was monitored by the Italian secret service at the time, who, according to a Channel 4 documentary, suspected it to be used for espionage activities. Johnson granted a peerage to Evgeny in 2020, against the advice of the MI6, and met with criticism over potential security concerns. In July 2018, three days after the cabinet had its meeting to agree on a Brexit strategy, Johnson, along with Brexit secretary David Davis, resigned his post. Return to the backbenches: 2018–2019 Johnson returned to the role of a backbench MP. In July, he delivered a resignation speech, stating "it is not too late to save Brexit". In January 2019, Johnson came under criticism for remarks he had made during the 2016 Leave campaign regarding the prospect of Turkish accession to the European Union; he denied making such remarks. In March 2019, he was criticized for saying that expenditure on investigating historic allegations of child abuse was money "spaffed up the wall". Journalism In July 2018, Johnson signed a 12‑month contract to write articles for the Telegraph Media Group. The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) reported that this was a breach of the Ministerial Code. Johnson was ordered to apologise for failing to declare £50,000 of earnings. The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards found the errors were not inadvertent, and that Johnson had failed on nine occasions to make declarations within the rules. In September 2018, Johnson wrote: "We have opened ourselves to perpetual political blackmail. We have wrapped a suicide vest around the British constitution – and handed the detonator to Michel Barnier." Senior Tories heavily criticised him, with Alan Duncan of the Foreign Office vowing to ensure the comments marked "the political end of Boris Johnson". In April 2019, the Independent Press Standards Organisation ruled that a claim in a 6 January 2019 article in The Daily Telegraph, "The British people won't be scared into backing a woeful Brexit deal nobody voted for", authored by Johnson, that a no-deal Brexit was "by some margin preferred by the British public" was false, and "represented a failure to take care over the accuracy of the article in breach of Clause 1 (i)" of its guidelines, and required that a correction be published. 2019 Conservative Party leadership election On 12 June 2019, Johnson launched his campaign for the Conservative Party leadership election, saying, "we must leave the EU on 31 October." On the campaign trail, Johnson warned of "catastrophic consequences for voter trust in politics" if the government pushed the EU for further delays. He advocated removing the backstop from any Brexit deal. On 25 and 26 August, he announced plans to retain £7 or £9 billion of the £39 billion divorce payment the UK is due to transfer to the EU upon withdrawal. Johnson initially pledged to cut income tax for earners of more than £50,000 but backed away from this plan in June 2019 after coming under criticism in a televised BBC debate. Johnson was elected leader with 92,153 votes (66%) to Hunt's 46,656 (34%). Premiership (2019–2022) First term (July–December 2019) On 24 July 2019, the day following Johnson's election as Conservative Party leader, Queen Elizabeth II accepted Theresa May's resignation and appointed Johnson as prime minister. This made Johnson the first prime minister to be born outside British territories. Johnson appointed Dominic Cummings as his senior advisor. Brexit policy In his first speech as PM, Johnson said that the United Kingdom would leave the European Union on 31 October 2019 with or without a deal, and promised to remove the Irish backstop from the withdrawal agreement. Johnson declared his intention to re-open negotiations, but talks did not immediately resume as the EU refused to accept Johnson's condition that the backstop be removed. On 28 August 2019, UK and EU negotiators agreed to resume regular meetings. Also on 28 August 2019, Johnson declared he had asked the Queen to prorogue Parliament from 10 September, reducing the time in which Parliament could block a no-deal Brexit and causing a political controversy. The Queen at Privy Council approved prorogation later the same day, and it began on 10 September, scheduled to last until 14 October. Some suggested that this prorogation amounted to a self-coup, and on 31 August 2019, protests occurred throughout the United Kingdom. By 2 September 2019, three separate court cases challenging Johnson's action were in progress or scheduled to take place, and on 11 September, three Scottish judges ruled the prorogation of the UK Parliament to be unlawful. On 12 September, Johnson denied lying to the Queen over suspension of the Parliament, while a Belfast Court rejected claims that his Brexit plans would have a negative impact on Northern Ireland's peace policy. On 24 September, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Johnson's advice to prorogue Parliament was unlawful, and therefore the prorogation was rendered null. When Parliament resumed on 3 September 2019, Johnson indicated he would call a general election under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act after opposition and rebel Conservative MPs successfully voted against the government to take control of the order of business to prevent a no-deal exit. Despite government opposition, the Benn Act, a bill to block a no-deal exit, passed the Commons on 4 September 2019, causing Johnson to propose a general election on 15 October. His motion was unsuccessful as it failed to command the support of two-thirds of the House. In October 2019, following bilateral talks between Johnson and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, the UK and EU agreed to a revised deal, which replaced the backstop with a new Northern Ireland Protocol. First Cabinet Johnson appointed his Cabinet on 24 July 2019, dismissing 11 senior ministers and accepting the resignation of six others. The mass dismissal was the most extensive postwar Cabinet reorganisation without a change in the ruling party. Among other appointments, Johnson made Dominic Raab the First Secretary of State and foreign secretary and appointed Sajid Javid and Priti Patel as the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Home Secretary, respectively. Loss of working majority On 3 September 2019, Phillip Lee crossed the floor to the Liberal Democrats following a disagreement with Johnson's Brexit policy. This left the government without a working majority in the House of Commons. Later that day, 21 Conservative MPs had the party whip withdrawn for defying party orders and supporting an opposition motion. (The whip was restored to 10 former Conservative ministers on 29 October.) On 5 September 2019, Johnson's brother Jo Johnson resigned from the government and announced that he would step down as MP, describing his position as "torn between family and national interest". Two days later, Amber Rudd resigned as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and from the Conservative Party, describing the withdrawal of the party whip as an "assault on decency and democracy". 2019 general election In October 2019, Parliament was dissolved, and an election called for 12 December. The election resulted in the Conservative Party winning 43.6% of the vote and a parliamentary landslide majority of 80 seats. A key slogan used in the Conservative campaign was "Get Brexit Done". Second term (December 2019 – September 2022) Second Cabinet Johnson reshuffled his cabinet in February 2020. Five Cabinet ministers were sacked, including the Northern Ireland secretary Julian Smith, a decision that was criticised by several politicians and commentators following his success in restoring the Northern Ireland Executive devolved government. Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid resigned from the Cabinet and was replaced by Rishi Sunak; Javid later returned to Johnson's Cabinet as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in June 2021 following the resignation of Matt Hancock. Johnson reshuffled his cabinet again in September 2021. Changes included the dismissal of Education Secretary Gavin Williamson who had received significant criticism for his handling of disruption to education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dominic Raab was moved from foreign secretary to deputy prime minister and justice secretary. Raab was replaced as foreign secretary by Liz Truss. COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic emerged as a serious crisis within the first few months of Johnson's second term. Johnson's non-attendance of five COBR briefings during the early months and the failure of the UK government to prepare for and control the outbreak has been criticised. The UK was among the last major European states to close schools, ban public events and order a lockdown. This response is thought by some scientists to have contributed to the UK's high death toll from COVID-19, which as of January 2021 was among the highest in the world. Reuters reported that scientists were critical of Johnson both for acting too slowly to stop the spread of COVID-19 and for mishandling the government's response; Politico quoted Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty as saying that an earlier initial lockdown would have significantly lowered the death toll. The BMJ published several editorials critical of the policies adopted during the country's public health response. Johnson's public communication over the virus and the UK's test and trace system were also criticised. On 3 March 2020, Johnson claimed to have shaken hands with COVID-19 patients in hospital on the same day that SAGE had advised the government to warn the public not to shake hands and minimise physical contact, though it was unclear whether the hospital he visited actually contained any coronavirus patients. He continued to shake hands publicly in the following days. On 23 March, a COVID-19 lockdown was imposed throughout the UK, except for a few limited purposes, backed up by new legal powers. On 27 March, it was announced that Johnson had tested positive for COVID-19. On 5 April, he was admitted to a hospital. The next day, he was moved to the hospital's intensive care unit. Johnson left intensive care on 9 April, and left hospital three days later to recuperate at Chequers. After a fortnight at Chequers, he returned to Downing Street on 26 April. Johnson later said that he had been given emergency oxygen while in intensive care, and that doctors had made preparations in case he died. A scandal in May 2020 involved Johnson's chief political advisor Dominic Cummings, who made a trip with his family to Durham during the March 2020 lockdown while experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. Both Cummings and Johnson rejected widespread calls that Cummings resign. Johnson's defence of Cummings and his refusal to sack him caused a widespread backlash. This resulted in a loss of confidence in the government and specifically its response to the pandemic, referred to as 'the Cummings effect' in The Lancet. Concerns were raised in the study that this could affect the public's compliance with pandemic restrictions. The Johnson ministry was accused of cronyism in their assignment of contracts related to the pandemic response. Procurement of government contracts for key COVID-19 supplies became less transparent as a result of emergency measures bypassing the usual competitive tendering process. In October 2020, Johnson conceded that the UK's test and trace system and its specially developed contact tracing app, which had been criticised for their cost and operational issues, had caused "frustrations". Johnson reportedly resisted calls from SAGE and within the government to enact a second lockdown throughout September as COVID-19 infections rose. In April 2021, Johnson denied allegations he had said he would rather "let the bodies pile high in their thousands" on 30 October 2020. The government enacted a second national lockdown on 31 October. Throughout December 2020, COVID-19 cases across the UK rose significantly, straining emergency services and hospitals. In response, the government enacted further restrictions to large parts of southern and eastern England and on 21 December shortened a planned household mixing period over Christmas. Britain began its COVID-19 vaccination programme in December 2020. Half of UK adults had received at least their first vaccine dose by 20 March 2021. A third lockdown for the whole of England was introduced on 6 January 2021. Record numbers of infections and daily deaths were recorded in the UK throughout January, and the government began exploring quarantine procedures on arrival. Johnson said he was "deeply sorry" and "take[s] full responsibility" as the UK passed 100,000 deaths from COVID-19, the first European country to do so, on 26 January. In July 2021, Johnson announced that most generalised public health restrictions in England would be lifted and replaced by recommendations. This took place despite an increase in cases driven by the Delta variant. In September 2021, Johnson was pictured in a cabinet meeting, with "at least 30 people crammed shoulder-to-shoulder", without anyone wearing masks and with all windows apparently closed, contradicting government advice. Johnson was also photographed without a face mask during a visit to a hospital in November. In December 2021, more stringent "Plan B" restrictions for England were put forward, a partial renewal of previous measures due to the increased incidence of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant. These proposals included face coverings to be required in more public settings, guidance to work from home wherever possible, and requirements of COVID-19 passports to enter certain venues. The government experienced the largest rebellion of Conservative MPs during Johnson's premiership, in opposition to these measures. Immigration In 2019, Johnson promised to reduce net migration to the United Kingdom (the number of people immigrating minus the number emigrating) below 250,000 per year by the next election. In 2021, net migration to the UK was 488,000, up from 184,000 in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the migrants came from non-EU countries. As a result of Brexit, more EU nationals left the UK than arrived. In 2021, Johnson's government launched a scheme for Hongkongers following the Hong Kong national security law, with more than 200,000 Hong Kong residents immigrating to the UK. Long-term net migration to the UK reached a record high of 764,000 in 2022, with immigration at 1.26 million and emigration at 493,000. Legislative agenda At the State Opening of Parliament on 11 May 2021, a range of proposed laws were announced, including the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Bill, which would restore the royal prerogative to dissolve Parliament; a Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill to combat deplatforming at universities; an Online Safety Bill that would impose a statutory duty of care on online companies and empower Ofcom to block particular websites; and an Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill that would legally recognise animal sentience. Further laws would introduce mandatory voter identification at general elections, reform the national immigration system, and implement a levelling up policy to reduce imbalances between areas. 2021 Downing Street refurbishment controversy In April 2021, Cummings alleged that Johnson had arranged for donors to "secretly pay" for renovations on the private residence at 11 Downing Street. On 27 April Johnson asked the Cabinet Secretary, Simon Case, to hold a review about the refurbishment. On 28 April, the Electoral Commission announced it had opened a formal investigation. On the same day Johnson said that he had not broken any laws over the refurbishment and had met the requirements he was obliged to meet. During Prime Minister's Questions, the leader of the opposition, Keir Starmer, asked: "Who initially paid for the redecoration of his Downing Street flat?"; Johnson responded: "I paid for Downing Street's refurbishment personally." On 28 May Lord Geidt published a report on the allegations which concluded that Johnson did not breach the Ministerial Code and that no conflict, or reasonably perceived conflict, of interest arose. However, Lord Geidt expressed that it was "unwise" for Johnson to have proceeded without "more rigorous regard for how this would be funded". The Electoral Commission reported on 9 December that it found that the Conservative Party had failed to follow the law in not accurately reporting donations to the party from Lord Brownlow and imposed a £17,800 fine on the party. The Herald said the commission's report outlined how, in March, all the money paid by Brownlow and his company had been reimbursed, as had the payments made by the Conservative Party and Cabinet Office. Downing Street had said at the time that the full cost of the works had been met personally by the prime minister. Owen Paterson controversy In November 2021, Johnson backed a motion to block the suspension of Owen Paterson, a Conservative MP found to have abused his position by the independent standards commissioner after undertaking paid lobbying. The motion called for the creation of a new Conservative-majority committee to examine reforms of the standards investigation process. Many Conservative MPs refused to support the motion, and 13 defied a three-line whip to vote against it. Following the announcement by opposition parties that they would boycott the new committee, and faced with a backlash in the media and from MPs of all parties, the government announced that a new vote would take place on whether Paterson should be suspended. Paterson announced his resignation as an MP the same day. A by-election in Paterson's former constituency of North Shropshire saw the Liberal Democrat candidate, Helen Morgan, overturn a Conservative majority of nearly 23,000, the seventh largest swing in United Kingdom by-election history. Partygate scandal In December 2021, reports emerged that social gatherings of government and Conservative Party staff in Downing Street had taken place ahead of Christmas 2020 against COVID-19 regulations. Johnson denied these allegations. Following a leaked video showing Downing Street staff joking about a "fictional party", at a press conference rehearsal recorded days after one alleged party took place, Johnson apologised for the contents of the video and suggested he had been misled but had now ordered an inquiry. On 10 January 2022, ITV News reported that a planned party had taken place on 20 May 2020, during the first lockdown. ITV had obtained an email sent by principal private secretary Martin Reynolds to staff inviting them to "socially distanced drinks" in the garden of No. 10. At the time, people outdoors were not allowed to meet more than one person from outside their household. Two eyewitnesses later alleged that Johnson and Symonds attended, contradicting Johnson's insistence in December 2021 that there were "no parties". On 12 January 2022, Johnson apologised to MPs in the Commons for "attending an event in the Downing Street garden during the first lockdown", stating he believed it was "a work event". He said that MPs should await the outcome of the independent inquiry, led by senior civil servant Sue Gray, which he said "will report as soon as possible". There were calls across the House for Johnson to resign. On 19 January, Bury South MP Christian Wakeford defected from the Conservative Party to the Labour Party. Conservative former minister David Davis called for Johnson to resign, quoting Leo Amery calling on Neville Chamberlain to resign during the Norway Debate in 1940, and saying: "You have sat there too long for all the good you have done. In the name of God, go." On 25 January, the Metropolitan Police's chief commander, Cressida Dick, announced that they were commencing investigations into the Downing Street Parties. An abbreviated version of the Sue Gray report into the controversy was released on 31 January, where Gray concluded there was a "failure of leadership" over the events that she had examined. The release of the full report was delayed pending the Metropolitan Police's investigation. In April 2022, Johnson was issued a fixed penalty notice as police determined that he committed a criminal offence by breaching the COVID-19 lockdown regulations. Johnson therefore became the first prime minister in British history to have been sanctioned for breaking the law while in office. According to Downing Street insiders, Johnson was involved in instigating a party on the occasion of Lee Cain leaving Number 10. What had begun as press office drinks became a party after Johnson arrived, gave a speech and poured drinks for staff. Labour's deputy leader, Angela Rayner said, "If the latest reports are true, it would mean that not only did the prime minister attend parties, but he had a hand in instigating at least one of them. He has deliberately misled the British people at every turn. The prime minister has demeaned his office." On 21 April, MPs voted to refer Johnson to the Parliamentary Privileges Committee to investigate whether he knowingly misled Parliament. Steve Baker said Johnson's "marvellous contrition... only lasted as long as it took to get out of the headmaster's study". Following the May 2022 local elections, many leading Conservatives in areas where the Conservatives had done badly blamed Johnson and calling on Johnson to resign. On 6 June, Graham Brady announced that the threshold for a vote on Johnson's leadership had been passed; the vote was scheduled for later that same day. On 3 March 2023, an interim report from the Commons Select Committee of Privileges said there was evidence that "strongly suggests" breaches of coronavirus regulations would have been "obvious" to Johnson. The report also said "There is evidence that those who were advising Mr Johnson about what to say to the press and in the House were themselves struggling to contend that some gatherings were within the rules". Johnson said none of the evidence showed he "knowingly" misled Parliament. The report stated that the Commons may have been misled on multiple occasions and Johnson "did not correct the statements [at the] earliest opportunity". The committee also stated that Johnson had "personal knowledge" over lockdown gatherings in No 10, which he could have disclosed. Starmer slur controversy While speaking in the House of Commons in January 2022, Johnson falsely blamed Starmer for the non-prosecution of the serial sex offender Jimmy Savile when Starmer was Director of Public Prosecutions in the Crown Prosecution Service. Starmer was DPP in the years immediately prior to Savile's death but there is no evidence he was involved in the decision to not have him prosecuted. A few days later, Johnson defended his comments but conceded that Starmer "had nothing to do personally with those decisions" by the CPS not to investigate Savile. Vote of confidence In the week prior to and throughout the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II in June 2022, it had been speculated that a vote of confidence in Johnson's leadership of the Conservative Party might soon occur. On 6 June 2022, the Conservative Party announced that Johnson would face a vote of confidence in his leadership of the party, after at least 54 Conservative MPs wrote no-confidence letters to Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee. Johnson won the vote, with 211 in favour and 148 against. The number of rebel MPs was larger than had been expected. The result was described by Keir Starmer as the "beginning of the end" for Johnson's premiership. June 2022 by-elections Following heavy Conservative defeats in the 23 June 2022 by-elections in Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton, former party leader Michael Howard called for Johnson to resign, saying: "[Mr Johnson's] biggest asset has always been his ability to win votes but I'm afraid yesterday's results make it clear that he no longer has that ability." Oliver Dowden, the Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party, resigned saying: "somebody must take responsibility". Johnson announced that he had no intention of changing or resigning; senior Conservatives accused him of increasingly "delusional" behaviour. On 26 June 2022 Johnson said: "At the moment I'm thinking actively about the third term and what could happen then, but I will review that when I get to it." He also claimed that he intended to stay as prime minister until the mid-2030s, although Number 10 later said that he had been joking. Pincher scandal Government Deputy Chief Whip Chris Pincher resigned on 30 June 2022, saying he had "drunk far too much" the night before at the Carlton Club in St James's, London, and having "embarrassed myself and other people". It was later alleged that he sexually assaulted two men, and he was suspended as an MP. On 3 July 2022 six new allegations against Pincher emerged, involving behaviour over a decade. Johnson allegedly referred to Pincher as "handsy" and Cummings said Johnson joked about him being "Pincher by name, pincher by nature" in 2020, leading to calls for Johnson to explain how much he knew about Pincher's behaviour. Ministers initially said that Johnson was unaware of any specific complaints against Pincher when he was appointed as deputy chief whip. The BBC then reported, however, that an official complaint and subsequent investigation into Pincher, while he was at the Foreign Office (July 2019 to February 2020), had confirmed his misconduct, and that Johnson had been made aware at that time. Sir Simon McDonald, former Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, later said that the prime minister had been briefed "in person" about Pincher. Mass resignations On 5 July 2022, Sunak and Javid resigned within minutes of each other, followed over the next 24 hours by 11 other ministers, as well as Conservative MPs from parliamentary private secretary and other Government positions; other backbenchers also withdrew their support for Johnson. Many of the MPs stated that the Pincher affair had led them to change their minds on the suitability of Johnson to be prime minister. It was reported on 6 July that Johnson could face another confidence vote, with members of the 1922 Committee considering changing the rules as soon as that evening to allow this to happen. By 6 July, there had been a total of 31 resignations. As of May 2022, the government comprised 122 ministers. Announcement of resignation By the morning of 7 July, the newly installed Chancellor of the Exchequer, Nadhim Zahawi, publicly stated his belief that Johnson should resign. Within hours, the BBC and other media reported Johnson's intention to resign. Johnson announced his resignation at 12.30 pm. I know that there will be many who are relieved, but perhaps quite a few who will be disappointed. And I want you to know how sad I am to give up the best job in the world - but them's the breaks. Upon reports of his resignation, the pound sterling temporarily strengthened in value, and UK stocks rose. He remained as prime minister until September, while the Conservative Party chose a new leader. On 5 September 2022, it was announced that Liz Truss had won the Conservative leadership election. She became prime minister the next day. During his farewell speech outside 10 Downing Street on 6 September 2022 Johnson referred to the Roman statesman Cincinnatus. Some commentators noted that, while, as Johnson said, Cincinnatus returned to his plough, he was also later recalled to power. Environmental policies In November 2020, Johnson announced a 10-point plan for a "green industrial revolution", to include ending the sale of petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030, quadrupling the amount of offshore wind power capacity within a decade, funding emissions-cutting proposals, and spurning a proposed green post-COVID-19 recovery. In 2021, the Johnson government announced plans to cut carbon emissions by 78% by 2035. Johnson announced that the UK would join the Global Methane Pledge to cut methane emissions by 30% by 2030 at the COP26 summit, which the UK hosted. Before the summit, representatives of Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth criticised Johnson's comments on plans to introduce "enforceable limits" on carbon emissions for other countries, which they accused of being unsubstantive, and his government faced criticism from environmental groups for cutting taxes on domestic air travel, given the environmental impact of aviation. In April 2022, Johnson announced that eight more nuclear reactors would be built on existing nuclear power plant sites and called for an expansion in wind energy. Under these plans, up to 95% of the UK's electricity could come from low-carbon power sources by 2030. Foreign policy Johnson supported the European Union–Mercosur Free Trade Agreement, which would form one of the world's largest free trade areas. Johnson's government placed importance on the "Special Relationship" with the United States. In 2022, his government introduced an asylum deal whereby people entering the UK illegally would be sent to Rwanda. Hong Kong and China Johnson said in July 2019 that his government would be very "pro-China" in an interview with the Hong Kong broadcaster Phoenix TV. He voiced support for Chinese president Xi Jinping's infrastructure investment effort, the Belt and Road Initiative, and promised to keep the United Kingdom "the most open economy in Europe" for Chinese investment. In June 2020, Johnson announced that if China were to continue pursuing the Hong Kong national security law, the UK would offer 350,000 Hong Kong residents who are British National (Overseas) passport holders, and 2.6 million other eligible individuals, the chance to move to the UK. China accused the UK of interfering in its internal affairs. Johnson declined to describe the Chinese government's treatment of the Uyghur people as "genocide", despite use of the term by the United States. Johnson's government argued that genocide should be decided by the International Criminal Court. Nevertheless, he called what is happening to the Uyghurs in Xinjiang as "utterly abhorrent". The UK joined the AUKUS defence pact with the United States and Australia in September 2021. The pact was denounced by China and caused a French backlash, as it usurped existing plans for Australia to procure French submarines. Afghanistan On 8 July 2021, the day after saying he was "apprehensive" about the future of Afghanistan following what was then the impending withdrawal of US troops, while announcing the near completion of British troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, Johnson expressed the view that there was "no military path to victory for the Taliban". Following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, he blamed the United States for the crisis, saying that NATO alliance members "could not continue this US-led mission, a mission conceived and executed in support of America, without American logistics, without US air power and without American might". UK–EU trade negotiation Following the formal withdrawal from the European Union in January 2020, Johnson's government entered trade negotiations with the EU. Fisheries was a major topic of the negotiations. On 16 October 2020 Johnson said that the UK "must get ready" for no trade deal with the EU. It was announced on 24 December 2020 that the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement had been reached; it came into force formally on 1 May. A fisheries dispute between the UK and France occurred shortly afterwards. Introduction of new UK border checks were delayed until 2022 to minimise the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In May 2022, Johnson readied a draft that would unilaterally change parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol, citing issues with medical supplies and cuts in VAT. One of the thornier points of contention involves safety regulations for food and plants, where the British government is opposed to a closer alignment with existing EU regulations. The EU rebuffed the idea of changing the text of the treaty to accommodate the British. A unilateral override by the UK would be tantamount to a breach of the agreement. As Johnson sought a more conciliatory tone, sources within the government began to stress that the draft is designed to be an "insurance policy" and would take years to become law. Russia and Ukraine In November 2021, Johnson warned that the European Union faces "a choice" between "sticking up for Ukraine" and approving the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline from Russia to Europe. During the prelude to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Johnson's government warned the Russian Government not to invade Donbas. Johnson and Vladimir Putin agreed in a phone call to work towards a "peaceful resolution". On 1 February 2022, Johnson arrived in Kyiv on a diplomatic visit. He called the presence of the Russian Armed Forces near the Russia–Ukraine border "the biggest security crisis that Europe has faced for decades". The Kremlin denied that it wanted to attack Ukraine. On 20 February 2022, Johnson warned that Russia is planning the "biggest war in Europe since 1945" as Putin intends to invade and encircle Kyiv. On 21 February 2022, Johnson condemned Russia's diplomatic recognition of two self-proclaimed republics in Donbas. On 24 February 2022, Johnson condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and ensured the UK joined in international sanctions on Russian banks and oligarchs. He later announced the UK would phase out Russian oil by the end of 2022. On 9 April 2022, Johnson travelled to Kyiv and met the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. On 16 April 2022, Russia's Ministry for Foreign Affairs banned Johnson and a number of senior British politicians from visiting Russia, saying that Britain aimed to isolate Russia politically and supply "the Kyiv regime with lethal weapons and coordinating similar efforts on the part of NATO". Within Ukraine, Johnson is praised by many as a supporter of anti-Russian sanctions and military aid for Ukraine. On 3 May, Johnson virtually addressed the Ukrainian Parliament, becoming the first world leader to speak in Ukraine since the invasion. He pledged an extra £300m in military aid to Ukraine, praised Ukraine's resistance to Russia as its "finest hour" and said that the West had been "too slow to grasp what was actually happening" prior to Russia's invasion. In July 2022, Johnson warned that it would be a mistake to cease fire and freeze the conflict. In August 2022, Johnson blamed Vladimir Putin for the emerging global energy crisis. Post-premiership (2022–present) After stepping down, Johnson reverted to being a backbench MP. Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Johnson took part in Charles III's Accession Council. After Liz Truss announced her resignation as Conservative Party leader on 20 October 2022, Johnson received more than the 100 MPs' nominations required to stand in the leadership election, but soon announced that he would not stand. In May 2023, Johnson was referred to the police by the Cabinet Office regarding previously unknown potential breaches of COVID regulations between June 2020 and May 2021, to which Johnson's office issued a statement criticising the "unfounded suggestions" which "has all the hallmarks of yet another politically motivated stitch-up". On 9 June 2023, the publication of his 2022 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours led to a public feud with Sunak. Johnson supporter Nadine Dorries announced that she was resigning as an MP due to not being included as a peer on the honours list. The same day, after receiving a confidential report from a committee of the House of Commons that was looking into whether he had lied to Parliament over lockdown-breaking parties, Johnson announced his resignation as MP. His resignation statement said he is "not alone in thinking that there is a witch-hunt under way, to take revenge for Brexit and ultimately to reverse the 2016 referendum result". On 15 June, the Commons Privileges Committee published their report, which concluded that Johnson lied to and deliberately misled the House of Commons over Partygate, misled the Committee themselves during the hearing, and acted in contempt of the Committee itself through a "campaign of abuse and intimidation". The report noted that had Johnson still been an MP, the Committee would have recommended he be suspended from Parliament for 90 days. The contents of the report represented a recommendation to the House of Commons, which accepted the report by 354 votes to seven.On 16 June, Johnson was unveiled as a new columnist for the Daily Mail. The news website Politico Europe reported that Johnson would be paid a "very-high six-figure sum". Johnson reportedly informed the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments half an hour before the columnist assignment was publicly announced. The committee ruled that Johnson committed a "clear breach" of the rules since he had not sought its advice on the matter within an appropriate timeframe. In October 2023, Johnson announced he would join the television channel GB News as a commentator and programme maker for the next general election and US presidential election. Johnson condemned Hamas' attack on Israel, saying "there can be no moral equivalence between the terrorism of Hamas and the actions of the Israeli Defense Forces". He rejected calls for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip during the Israel–Hamas war, and criticised pro-Palestinian protests in the UK. On 5 November 2023, Johnson visited Israel to express solidarity. In February 2024, Johnson had a private meeting with the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro. In March 2024, The Times reported that Johnson is expected to campaign for the Conservatives in the next General Election. On 2 May 2024 Johnson was turned away from his polling station for the Thames Valley Police and Crime Commissioner, after forgetting to bring valid photographic identification, a requirement of the Elections Act, which Johnson introduced while in office. When he arrived he had nothing to prove his identity except the sleeve of his copy of Prospect magazine, on which his name and address had been printed. He said that when he returned a few minutes later, with his driving licence, he was then able to vote. During the 2024 general election, Johnson campaigned for the Conservatives, who lost the election in a landslide to Labour. Johnson's memoirs Unleashed are scheduled to be released in October 2024. Political positions and ideology Ideologically, Johnson has been described as a "One-Nation Tory". Political scientists have described Johnson's political positions as ambiguous and contradictory, encompassing nativist, authoritarian and free market tendencies on the one hand, and one-nation liberal conservatism on the other. Some scholars have questioned Johnson's commitment to one-nation conservativism, instead characterising his ideology as flexible and populist. Purnell stated that Johnson regularly changed his opinion on political issues, commenting on what she perceived to be "an ideological emptiness beneath the staunch Tory exterior". During his tenure as mayor, Johnson gained a reputation as "a liberal, centre-ground politician", according to Business Insider. In 2012, the political scientist Tony Travers described Johnson as "a fairly classic—that is, small-state—mildly eurosceptic Conservative" who also embraced "modern social liberalism". The Guardian stated that while mayor, Johnson blended economic and social liberalism, with The Economist saying that in doing so Johnson "transcends his Tory identity" and adopts a more libertarian perspective. According to political scientist Richard Hayton, Johnson's premiership was about Brexit, which served as a "national cause". Johnson evoked the discourse of popular sovereignty and anti-establishment populism to portray Parliament as seeking to "sabotage" Brexit, and in doing so, presented himself "as the true representative of 'the people'". Scholars of comparative politics have drawn comparisons between Johnson and other populist leaders such as Donald Trump and Viktor Orban. Some commentators have likened Johnson's political style to Trumpism, although others have argued that Johnson's stance on matters such as social policy, immigration and free trade is liberal. Johnson biographer Gimson wrote that Johnson is economically and socially "a genuine liberal", although he retains a "Tory element" through his "love of existing institutions, and a recognition of the inevitability of hierarchy". In 2019, reacting to reports in The Sun, that Johnson had told cabinet colleagues he was "basically a Brexity Hezza", former deputy leader of the Conservative Party Michael Heseltine wrote: "I fear that any traces of liberal conservatism that still exist within the prime minister have long since been captured by the rightwing, foreigner-bashing, inward-looking view of the world that has come to characterise his fellow Brexiters." Environment Johnson expressed climate sceptical views in several columns, conflating the distinction between weather and climate and highlighting a factually incorrect claim by weather forecaster and conspiracy theorist Piers Corbyn that reduced solar activity could lead to a "mini-Ice Age". Bloomberg News suggested that Johnson's interest in climate change increased after becoming prime minister, and suggested this could have been influenced by his wife Carrie Symonds and father Stanley Johnson, who are both environmental campaigners. In 2019 and 2020, Johnson expressed support for the UK to have "net-zero" greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and spoke about increasing ambition for mitigating climate change through carbon capture and storage and a renewable energy transition. During the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Johnson called for greater efforts towards climate change mitigation, and welcomed the prospect of coal phase-out. It was reported in 2022 that Johnson was convinced of the scientific consensus on climate change following a briefing by the chief scientist of the Met Office in January 2020, and subsequently made the issue a priority for his government. According to TheyWorkForYou as of 2022, Johnson has "generally voted against" what it described as "key measures to prevent climate change" while an MP, and other sources confirm this. Immigration and the European Union Purnell believed it was the influence of Johnson's maternal family that led to him developing "a genuine abhorrence of racial discrimination". In 2003, Johnson said, "I am not by any means an ultra-Eurosceptic. In some ways, I am a bit of a fan of the European Union. If we did not have one, we would invent something like it." As mayor, Johnson was known as a supporter of immigration. From 2009, he advocated a referendum on Britain's EU membership. In 2018, during Brexit negotiations, Johnson called for Britain to leave the Single Market and advocated a more liberal approach to immigration than that of Prime Minister May. He stated many people believed that Britain's EU membership had led to the suppression of British wages and said the EU was intent on creating a "superstate" that would seek to rob Britain of its sovereignty. In 2019, Johnson said he would take Britain out of the EU on 31 October whether there was a trade deal in place or not. Johnson also stated his opposition to a referendum on the Brexit withdrawal agreement. On 19 August 2019, Johnson wrote a letter to the EU asking for the removal of the "backstop" accord. The president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, rejected the proposal. On 26 August 2019, Johnson said that Britain would not pay £39 billion for the withdrawal agreement were the UK to leave without a deal. The European Parliament Brexit coordinator Guy Verhofstadt said there would be no further negotiation unless the UK agreed to pay the entire sum. Unionism and devolution Johnson described himself as a "fervent and passionate unionist". He proposed building an Irish Sea Bridge, but he later scrapped this initiative. The devolved administrations have criticised the Internal Market Bill for its re-centralisation of control over commerce. Public image Johnson has said that "humour is a utensil that you can use to sugar the pill and to get important points across". He is said to have a genuine desire to be liked. Johnson has been described as having a light-hearted and charming persona; many biographers and commentators suggest he has put significant effort into developing this version of himself. He has also been described as heavily focused on his own interests, with an often vitriolic or irresponsible way of conducting himself in private. Johnson has been described as a divisive, controversial figure in British politics. Supporters have praised him as witty and entertaining. Johnson has been accused of lying or making misleading statements throughout his career, and has been compared to former US president Donald Trump. He has been considered a figure with broad appeal outside of the usual Conservative support base. Johnson's premiership has been described by historians as the most controversial and scandal-affected since that of David Lloyd George about a century earlier. Personal life Since Johnson was born in New York City to British parents, he held British-American dual citizenship. In 2015, he agreed to pay capital gains tax to the US tax authorities on a property that he inherited in the UK. He renounced his US citizenship the following year. Johnson has knowledge of French, Italian, German, Spanish, Latin and Ancient Greek, frequently making classical allusions in his newspaper columns and his speeches. Sonia Purnell wrote in 2011 that Johnson was a "highly evasive figure" when it came to his personal life, who remained detached from others and who had few intimate friends. Among friends and family, Johnson is more commonly known as Al (short for his forename Alexander), rather than Boris. In 2007, Johnson said he had smoked cannabis before he went to university. He has also said he had used cocaine. Johnson partakes in cycling, tennis and pilates, and returned to road running in 2023. He was considered obese in 2018 and overweight in 2020, and has spoken of making efforts to lose weight. Johnson previously owned a £1.3 million buy-to-let townhouse in Camberwell, South London. According to HM Land Registry documents, he bought the four-bedroom property with his then-girlfriend Carrie Symonds in July 2019. The register of MPs' interests states that Johnson had a rental income of at least £10,000 a year. In 2023, Johnson and Symonds bought Brightwell Manor, a £3.8 million moated mansion in Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, Oxfordshire. Religion Johnson was baptised Catholic and later confirmed in the Church of England, but has said that his faith "comes and goes" and that he is not a serious practising Christian. In 2020, his son Wilfred was baptised Catholic. Johnson and Symonds married in a Catholic ceremony at Westminster Cathedral on 29 May 2021. Since he was baptised Catholic, but his previous weddings were not conferred by the Catholic Church, the Catholic Church considered them putatively invalid. Johnson holds ancient Greek statesman Pericles as a personal hero. According to Johnson's biographer, Andrew Gimson, regarding ancient Greek and Roman polytheism: "it is clear that [Johnson] is inspired by the Romans, and even more by the Greeks, and repelled by the early Christians". Johnson views secular humanism positively and sees it as owing more to the classical world than to Christian thinking. However, in 2021, Johnson was asked if he held pre-Christian beliefs, which he denied, saying, "Christianity is a superb ethical system and I would count myself as a kind of very, very bad Christian... Christianity makes a lot of sense to me." Relationships In 1987, Johnson married Allegra Mostyn-Owen, daughter of the art historian William Mostyn-Owen and Italian writer Gaia Servadio. The couple's marriage ended in divorce or annulment in 1993 and 12 days later Johnson married Marina Wheeler, a barrister, daughter of journalist Charles Wheeler. Five weeks later, their first child was born. They have four children: Lara Lettice, Milo Arthur, Cassia Peaches and Theodore Apollo. Between 2000 and 2004, Johnson had an affair with Spectator columnist Petronella Wyatt when he was its editor, resulting in a terminated pregnancy and a miscarriage. In April 2006, the News of the World alleged that Johnson was having an affair with Guardian journalist Anna Fazackerley. The pair did not comment; shortly afterward, Johnson employed Fazackerley. In 2009, Johnson fathered a daughter with Helen Macintyre, an arts consultant. In September 2021, Johnson stated that he had (then) six children, thereby denying the existence of further illegitimate children. In September 2018, Johnson and Wheeler issued a statement confirming that they had separated months earlier; they divorced in 2020. Jennifer Arcuri said that she had an affair with Johnson from 2012 to 2016. In 2019, Johnson was living with Carrie Symonds, the daughter of Matthew Symonds, co-founder of The Independent newspaper. Johnson and Symonds became engaged in late 2019 and their son, Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson, was born in April 2020. On 29 May 2021, Johnson married Symonds at Westminster Cathedral. Their daughter, Romy Iris Charlotte Johnson, was born in December 2021. Their third child, a son named Frank Alfred Odysseus Johnson, was born in July 2023. Family and ancestors Johnson is the eldest of the four children of Stanley Johnson, a former Conservative member of the European Parliament, and the painter Charlotte Johnson Wahl (née Fawcett), the daughter of Sir James Fawcett, president of the European Commission of Human Rights. His younger siblings are Rachel Johnson, a writer and journalist, Leo Johnson, a broadcaster, and Jo Johnson, ex-minister of state and former Conservative MP for Orpington, who resigned from his brother's government in September 2019 and is now a member of the House of Lords. Johnson's stepmother, Jenny, the second wife of his father Stanley, is the stepdaughter of Teddy Sieff, the former chairman of Marks & Spencer. Having been a member of the Conservatives between 2008 and 2011, Rachel Johnson joined the Liberal Democrats in 2017. She stood as a candidate for Change UK in the 2019 European Elections. Johnson also has two half-siblings, Julia and Maximilian, through his father's later marriage to Jennifer Kidd. Johnson's paternal grandfather, Wilfred Johnson, was an RAF pilot in Coastal Command during the Second World War. Wilfred Johnson's father was the Ottoman Interior Minister and journalist Ali Kemal. Ali Kemal's father was a Turk while his mother was a Circassian reputedly of slave origin. His other paternal ancestry includes English, German and French; one of his German ancestors was said to be the illegitimate daughter of Prince Paul of Württemberg and thus a descendant of George II of Great Britain, which was later confirmed on an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? Johnson's mother is the granddaughter of Elias Avery Lowe, a palaeographer and a Russian Jewish immigrant to the US, and Pennsylvania-born Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter, a translator of Thomas Mann. Referring to his varied ancestry, Johnson has described himself as a "one-man melting pot". Johnson was given the middle name "Boris" after a White Russian émigré named Boris Litwin, who was a friend of his parents. Honours Honorary degree of Doctor of Laws (LLD) from Brunel University London, 2007 Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Institute of British Architects (Hon FRIBA), 2011 Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK, 26 January 2014 Sworn in as a Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council on 15 July 2016, upon his appointment as foreign secretary. This gave him the honorific title "The Right Honourable" for life. Medical Education Ig Nobel Prize, 2020. Honorary Citizen of Odesa, 2 July 2022 Member of the Order of Liberty (Ukraine), 24 August 2022 Honorary Citizen of Kyiv, 19 January 2023 Honorary Doctorate from Ivan Franko National University, Lviv Works Notes References Footnotes Sources Further reading Dale, Iain. The Little Book of Boris. (Harriman House Ltd., 2007) ISBN 978-1-905641-64-2 Gimson, Andrew. Boris: The Adventures of Boris Johnson (Simon & Schuster, 2012). Heppell, Timothy; McMeeking, Thomas (2021). "The Conservative Party Leadership Transition from Theresa May to Boris Johnson: Party Popularity and Leadership Satisfaction". Representation. 57 (1): 59–73. doi:10.1080/00344893.2020.1778512. S2CID 225753305. Johnson, Stanley (2009). Stanley I Presume. London: Fourth Estate. ISBN 978-0-00-729673-6. Retrieved 30 July 2022. Anthony Seldon and Raymond Newell. Johnson at 10 (Atlantic, 2023) O'Toole, Fintan, "The King of Little England", The New York Review of Books, vol. LXVIII, no. 10 (10 June 2021), pp. 44–46. Vasudevan, A. The Thinking Man's Idiot: The Wit and Wisdom of Boris Johnson (New Holland Publishers (UK) Ltd., 2008) ISBN 978-1-84773-359-7 External links Official website Boris Johnson on Twitter Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom Contributions in Parliament at Hansard Appearances on C-SPAN Boris Johnson at IMDb Boris Johnson, columnist — The Daily Telegraph Boris Johnson on the Muck Rack journalist listing site Portraits of Boris Johnson at the National Portrait Gallery, London

Mary Elizabeth Truss (born 26 July 1975) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from September to October 2022. On her fiftieth day in office, she stepped down amid a government crisis, making her the shortest-serving prime minister in British history. The member of Parliament (MP) for South West Norfolk from 2010 to 2024, Truss held various Cabinet positions under three prime ministers—David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson—lastly as foreign secretary from 2021 to 2022. Truss studied philosophy, politics and economics at Merton College, Oxford, and was the president of the Oxford University Liberal Democrats. In 1996 she joined the Conservative Party. She worked at Royal Dutch Shell and Cable & Wireless and was the deputy director of the think tank Reform. After two unsuccessful attempts to be elected to the House of Commons, she became the MP for South West Norfolk at the 2010 general election. As a backbencher she called for reform in several policy areas including the economy, childcare and mathematics in education. Truss co-founded the Free Enterprise Group of Conservative MPs and wrote or co-wrote a number of papers and books, including After the Coalition and Britannia Unchained. Truss was the parliamentary under-secretary of state for childcare and education from 2012 to 2014 before Cameron appointed her secretary of state for the environment, food and rural affairs in a cabinet reshuffle. Although she campaigned for the UK to remain in the European Union, Truss supported Brexit following the outcome of the 2016 referendum. Following Cameron's resignation in 2016 his successor, Theresa May, appointed her secretary of state for justice and lord chancellor, making Truss the first woman to serve as lord chancellor in the office's thousand-year history; in the aftermath of the 2017 general election she was demoted to chief secretary to the Treasury. After May announced her resignation in May 2019 Truss supported Johnson's successful bid to become Conservative leader and prime minister. He appointed Truss secretary of state for international trade and president of the Board of Trade in July and subsequently to the additional role of minister for women and equalities in September. Johnson promoted Truss to foreign secretary in the 2021 cabinet reshuffle; during her time in the position she led negotiations on the Northern Ireland Protocol and the UK's response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In September 2022 Truss defeated Rishi Sunak in a leadership election to succeed Johnson, who had resigned because of an earlier government crisis, and was appointed as prime minister by Elizabeth II two days before the monarch's death; her government's business was subsequently suspended during a national mourning period of ten days. In response to the rising cost of living and increased energy prices, her ministry announced the Energy Price Guarantee. The government then announced large-scale tax cuts and borrowing, which led to financial instability and were largely reversed. Facing mounting criticism and loss of confidence in her leadership, Truss announced her resignation as leader of the Conservative Party on 20 October. Sunak was elected unopposed as her successor, and appointed prime minister on 25 October. After spending the duration of Sunak's premiership on the backbenches, Truss lost her seat at the 2024 general election. Early life and education (1975–1996) Mary Elizabeth Truss was born on 26 July 1975 at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, England. She was the second child of John and Priscilla Truss (née Grasby); the year before Truss's birth, their first son, Matthew, had died. Truss was known by her middle name, Elizabeth, from early childhood, with her father—a professor of pure mathematics at the University of Leeds—using it regularly, which she preferred; after being given a badge with "Mary" on it on her first day of school, Truss asked her teacher that it be changed. She later described her parents' politics as being "to the left of Labour"; her mother, a teacher and nurse, was a member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. When Truss stood for election as a Conservative, her mother agreed to campaign with her but her father declined to do so. Her parents divorced in 2003. In 1977 Truss and her parents moved to Warsaw, but returned to Britain after John and Priscilla found it "quite grim". After living briefly in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, the family moved to Paisley in Scotland when Truss was four years old, where she attended West Primary School. In 1985 they moved south to Leeds, where Truss attended Roundhay School; she later said in 2022 that at the school she "saw kids ... being let down", a claim which was criticised as inaccurate by several former Roundhay pupils. When Truss was 12 she and her family spent a year in Burnaby, British Columbia, where she attended Parkcrest Elementary School whilst her father taught at Simon Fraser University. Truss praised the Canadian curriculum and the attitude that it was "really good to be top of the class", which she contrasted with her education at Roundhay. Truss's parents had initially wanted her to study at the University of Cambridge, but Truss instead elected to go to Oxford in what her biographers, Cole and Heale, call a "bout of teenage rebellion". She applied to Merton College but was instead pooled to the all-women's St Hilda's College; annoyed, she then complained to both colleges, after which she was accepted by Merton and began her studies there in September 1993. Truss read philosophy, politics and economics and graduated in 1996. During her time at university, Truss was active in the Liberal Democrats and was a member of the Oxford Reform Club. She became the president of the Oxford University Liberal Democrats in her first year and a member of the national executive committee of Liberal Democrat Youth and Students (LDYS) in 1995. During Truss's previous, unsuccessful bid for the LDYS executive, the party's leader, Paddy Ashdown, said she was "a good debater and is utterly fearless". As a Liberal Democrat, Truss supported the abolition of the monarchy and the legalisation of cannabis, and campaigned against the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. However, by November 1995 Truss had become critical of the Liberal Democrats, as she "realised the Tory Party was saying quite sane things"; in her last year at the university, she resigned from the LDYS. By 1996 Truss had joined the Conservative Party. Career Employment and candidatures (1996–2010) From 1996 to 2000 Truss worked for Royal Dutch Shell, living in Lewisham and Greenwich and qualifying as a chartered management accountant. In 2000 she was employed by Cable & Wireless and rose to the position of economic director before leaving in 2005; one of her colleagues there, the Labour peer George Robertson, said that Truss "had a passion for politics ... she [was] fresh minded, enthusiastic and the Tory Party needed people like that". In January 2008, after losing her first two elections, Truss became the deputy director of Reform, a centre-right think tank, where she advocated for more focus on countering serious and organised crime and higher standards in schools and action to tackle what Reform perceived as Britain's "falling competitiveness". She co-authored The Value of Mathematics, Fit for Purpose, A New Level, Back To Black and other reports. Whilst working at Shell, Truss served as the chair of the Lewisham Deptford Conservative Association from 1998 to 2000, having been introduced to the branch by her friend and later Conservative MP Jackie Doyle-Price. During this time, at a reception at the Greenwich Conservative Association, Truss met her future husband, Hugh O'Leary, whom she married in 2000 and with whom she has two daughters: Frances (born 2006) and Liberty (born 2008). Truss unsuccessfully stood for election twice in Greenwich London Borough Council: for Vanbrugh ward in 1998 and Blackheath Westcombe in 2002. The deputy leader of Greenwich Conservatives, Graeme Coombes, recalled in 2022 that Truss "said [in 1998] she was hoping to stand for Parliament ... she was destined for bigger and better things". However, Alex Grant, the candidate who had defeated Truss in 2002, called her "largely invisible during the campaign". In the 2006 council election, Truss was elected for Eltham South, but did not seek re-election to the council in 2010, standing down the day she became an MP. At the 2001 general election Truss was selected for the safe Labour seat of Hemsworth, West Yorkshire, coming a distant second but achieving a 3.2 per cent swing to the Conservatives, thought impressive by her party colleagues. The election saw the Conservatives make a net gain of one seat, which was considered a disappointment; the party leader William Hague subsequently resigned, with Truss supporting the former defence secretary Michael Portillo's unsuccessful leadership campaign. In January 2005 Sue Catling, the parliamentary candidate for the Calder Valley constituency, was forced to resign by the local Conservative Association because of an affair with the association's chairman. Catling claimed that the members of the party that had opposed her were sexist and said that she was "accused of everything except murder and paedophilia". Truss, who was selected as the candidate for the seat, narrowly lost to the Labour incumbent after an active Conservative campaign which The Yorkshire Post described as "Blitzkrieg". Beginning in 2004, Truss embarked on an 18-month affair with the Conservative MP Mark Field, which ended shortly after the following year's election. Following the 2005 general election David Cameron replaced Michael Howard as leader, and Truss was added to the party's A-List, a list of potential Conservative candidates; in October 2009 she was selected for the constituency of South West Norfolk by members of the local Conservative Association, winning over 50 per cent of the vote in the first round of the final against 5 other candidates, including the future deputy prime minister Thérèse Coffey. Shortly after her selection, some members of the constituency association objected to Truss's selection because of her failure to declare her affair with Field. The Mail on Sunday was the first to report on the affair, and party members claimed to have been misled over Truss's "skeleton in the cupboard". A motion was proposed to terminate Truss's candidature; the proponents of Truss's deselection were branded the "Turnip Taliban" by Conservative Party officials and the press, including by the Mail, a reference to stereotypes about Norfolk being a county of farmers. There was also controversy over the fact that Truss was not from Norfolk, with some in the association asking for a local candidate and saying that she had been "parachuted in". On 16 November, the motion was put to the association: following both sides making their arguments, including what Cole and Heale call an "impassioned" speech from Truss, it was defeated by 132 votes to 37. Backbencher (2010–2012) Truss was elected as an MP in the 2010 general election, which saw 148 other Conservatives become MPs for the first time; many of what The Independent described as the "golden generation" would later reach high ranks in government. The Conservatives did not reach an overall majority in the House of Commons and entered into a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats, with Cameron becoming prime minister. Following her election to Parliament, Truss campaigned for issues relating to her constituency, including the retention of the Tornado GR4 airbase at RAF Marham in her constituency; the replacement of the old aircraft with around 150 new F-35 strike fighters; the conversion of the A11 west of Thetford into a dual carriageway, which was completed in 2014; and preventing a waste incinerator being built in King's Lynn. Truss co-founded the Free Enterprise Group (FEG)—a grouping of over 30 Thatcherite Conservative MPs—in October 2011; the month prior, she had co-authored After the Coalition with some of the people that would later join the FEG: Priti Patel, Kwasi Kwarteng, Dominic Raab and Chris Skidmore. The book advocated for a number of policies, including a reduction in the top rate of tax to 40 pence per pound and the introduction of a carbon tax to reduce pollution. On the publication, Truss wrote: Our message must be that the state cannot do everything: while the government can help, it can never fully solve any individual's problems. The NHS can't keep you healthy if you don't eat or exercise properly. A teacher can't get you the grades if you aren't prepared to work. The job centre can't find you work if you aren't prepared to write a CV. Another book by the same authors, Britannia Unchained, was published in September 2012. The book attracted controversy for claiming that "the British are among the worst idlers in the world. We work among the lowest hours, we retire early and our productivity is poor". In 2022 Truss stated that the authors had each written a different chapter of the book; Raab had written the chapter which contained that claim. Truss soon became well known amongst members of Parliament in Norfolk for her frequent photo ops but was well respected amongst Conservative MPs, who recognised her as dedicated and hard-working, and by staff as attentive to local issues. Some of Truss's earliest contributions to parliamentary discourse were on the subject of education: she advocated for more rigorous teaching in school subjects, especially mathematics, calling for mathematics lessons to be compulsory for all students until the age of 18 and expressing concern about a perceived overreliance on calculators from primary school pupils. Truss criticised "[giving] media studies the same value as further maths" and suggested in 2011 that students should have to sit GCSEs for "5 traditional academic subjects". Education under-secretary (2012–2014) In September 2012 Truss was appointed as parliamentary under-secretary of state for education and stepped back from the leadership of the FEG, with Kwarteng taking her place. Truss was pleased with her appointment, and praised Michael Gove, the secretary of state for the department; she also formed a friendly rivalry with the future health secretary Matt Hancock. In January 2013, Truss wrote a white paper—More Great Childcare—in which she proposed increasing the maximum number of children childminders could look after at a time from three to four, as a means of reducing childcare costs. The press, including Conservative-leaning papers like The Daily Telegraph and The Times, were largely hostile to the plan. The former claimed that prices would not fall; the latter claimed that "her appointment signal[led] a rapid deregulation of the sector"; and the Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee challenged Truss to demonstrate how to care for so many children on her own. Following a negative response from trade unions and childminders, Truss met with the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, who told her that "some of this is fine" but the maximum childminder increase went "much too far", and advised her to revise the proposal; Truss ignored Clegg and pushed ahead with the plan, angering Clegg, who then blocked the proposals. Truss also announced proposals to reform A-levels by concentrating exams at the end of two-year courses and said that the UK should attempt to "out-educate" countries in Asia. Environment secretary (2014–2016) In July 2014 during a cabinet reshuffle, Truss was appointed secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs; the changes made the Cabinet one third women. Truss was originally to be made a minister of state, but Cameron changed his mind on the morning of the reshuffle. Truss's predecessor Owen Paterson "stormed out" of Cameron's Commons study when told he was to be dismissed; nevertheless, he gave her his phone number and offered his support. Paterson was dismissed partly because of his culling plans for badgers with tuberculosis, which Truss later supported. Truss's early actions at the department included setting up a "food crime unit" to prevent incidents similar to the 2013 horse meat scandal, approving planning for the Thames Tideway Tunnel and development of Flood Re, a scheme designed to insure homes at a high risk of flooding. During her two years in the department Truss launched a ten-year strategy to counter falling bee populations, approved the limited temporary lifting of a European Union ban on the use of two neonicotinoid pesticides and cut subsidies for solar panels on agricultural land. In March 2015 Truss was one of two cabinet ministers to vote against the government's proposal to mandate plain packaging for cigarettes. When she had been asked previously about the issue during a constituency meeting, Truss said "when it comes to things like this, I take a more libertarian approach ... I don't know if it's the government's role to regulate this". At the Conservative Party conference in September 2014 Truss made a speech in which she said "we import two thirds of our cheese. That is a disgrace" and "in December, I'll be in Beijing, opening up new pork markets". Four days after Truss delivered the speech, parts of the video were featured on the satirical panel show Have I Got News For You; the awkward, stilted delivery led her to be mocked and clips of the speech went viral online. During the 2016 referendum on leaving the European Union, Truss endorsed Remain, saying that the Conservatives had "a golden chance to reform Britain over the next few years" and to avoid "[spending] that time negotiating Britain's exit from the European Union". The referendum resulted in the defeat of Remain and Cameron's resignation; the home secretary Theresa May won the ensuing leadership election and subsequently became leader of the Conservative Party and prime minister. Justice secretary and lord chancellor (2016–2017) In July 2016 Truss was appointed as secretary of state for justice and lord chancellor in the first May ministry, becoming the first female lord chancellor in the office's thousand-year history. May's decision to appoint her was criticised by the minister of state for justice, Edward Faulks, who resigned from the government, questioning whether Truss would "have the clout to be able to stand up to the Prime Minister when necessary, on behalf of the judges". Other Conservative members of Parliament criticised Truss's appointment owing to her lack of legal experience; in response, Truss's supporters accused one of the MPs, Bob Neill, of "thinly veiled misogyny". Before Truss's arrival, the budget of the Ministry of Justice—which is responsible for the administration of British prisons—had been subjected to successive cuts under the coalition government. The cuts were blamed for the prisons' rising rates of violence owing to the consequential drop in prison officer numbers. Truss lobbied the chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, for £104 million in order to hire an additional 2,500 officers, which Hammond reluctantly delivered. In November 2016, Truss was accused of failing to support the judiciary after three judges of the High Court were criticised by politicians and by the Daily Mail—which ran with the headline "Enemies of the People"—for ruling against the government on whether Article 50—which would begin the process of leaving the EU—could be triggered without Parliament's approval. A former lord chancellor, Charlie Falconer, suggested that, like her immediate predecessors, Truss lacked legal expertise and called for her to be dismissed as justice secretary as her perceived inadequate response "[signalled] to the judges that they have lost their constitutional protector". She denied that she had failed to defend them, writing:An independent judiciary is the cornerstone of the rule of law, vital to our constitution and freedoms. It is my duty as lord chancellor to defend that independence. I swore to do so under my oath of office. I take that very seriously, and I will always do so. Chief secretary to the Treasury (2017–2019) In June, following the 2017 general election, May demoted Truss from justice secretary to chief secretary to the Treasury, meaning she could attend cabinet meetings but was not a full member; Truss was enraged and called the demotion "incredibly unfair" and was, according to one of her friends, "seething for a good couple of days". Despite what Cole and Heale describe as her "knocked" confidence from the demotion, Truss soon began to contribute to the department, using it, according to a Treasury worker, "like her own personal think tank" by asking for research and advice on monetary policy. In her first few months there, she was largely left out of decision-making processes by Hammond, who was described by Kwarteng as "quite a closed, centrally controlling chancellor"; nevertheless, Truss and the Chancellor were reported to have a good relationship. Beginning in December 2017 she developed an enthusiasm for cultivating her presence on Twitter and Instagram; Truss began to plan ministerial visits around photo ops for her social media. Some of her civil servants were reported as finding her tenure as chief secretary "exhausting", owing to her work schedule and asking them multiplication questions, a tactic she had first employed as an MP. Despite her governmental role, Truss remained relatively unknown by the public, with only seven per cent recognising her in March 2019. In June 2018 Truss gave a speech criticising rules and regulations which she said "just g[ot] in the way of consumers' choices and lifestyles", including the government's efforts to reduce alcohol consumption and unhealthy eating habits, and warned that raising taxes could see the Conservatives being "crushed" at the polls. She also attacked colleagues who she said should realise "it's not macho just to demand more money", a jibe at the defence secretary Gavin Williamson, who had mounted a largely unsuccessful campaign for an extra £20 billion for his department, including threatening to write "Liz Truss blocked your pay" to everybody in the British Armed Forces. Truss's speech, which also mocked Michael Gove, was criticised by Hammond; Ed Vaizey, an ally of Gove's; and Gove himself; a speech she gave in November similarly joked about Matt Hancock, the newly appointed home secretary, Sajid Javid, and the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt. Before May's resignation announcement on 24 May 2019 Truss had sought the opinion of her colleagues on whether she could credibly stand and courted media attention. As it became apparent she could not win, she ruled herself out the day after May announced her resignation and subsequently endorsed the former foreign secretary Boris Johnson, the first minister to do so. International trade secretary (2019–2021) After Johnson became prime minister Truss was widely expected to be promoted because of her endorsement of his leadership campaign; it was thought she might have been appointed chancellor or business secretary, but she was instead promoted to the position of secretary of state for international trade and president of the Board of Trade. Following the resignation of Amber Rudd, Truss was additionally appointed minister for women and equalities in September that year. Shortly after becoming international trade secretary, Truss embarked on international trips to the US, New Zealand, Australia and Japan. Truss met with her American counterpart Robert Lighthizer on her first trip to the US, where she gave what Cole and Heale describe as an "incendiary" speech on a potential US–UK trade deal. In Australia she made unscripted comments on their free-trade negotiations with the UK; both events were to the dismay of Downing Street officials. Sebastian Payne described Truss's tenure as international trade secretary as "enthusiastic yet disruptive". She continued to document her trips through social media. In February 2020 a reshuffle took place following the general election which had been held in December. Truss feared that she would be dismissed after the comments she had made on her previous international trips, but Johnson decided to keep her in post following Javid's resignation as chancellor. During her time at the department Truss became notorious for leaking information. Dominic Cummings, Johnson's chief adviser, later wrote that Truss was "the only minister I shouted at in Number 10" because of her "compulsive pathological leaking". Truss's pursuit of a trade deal with the US concerned some in the National Farmers' Union (NFU), which worried about an influx of lower-quality food products if passed; the NFU, along with The Mail on Sunday, campaigned against such a deal in May. The COVID-19 lockdowns eliminated international travel, and Truss instead attended virtual meetings. By early 2021 Truss's attempted US trade deal was deemed futile. Instead, she focused on joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, which necessitated free trade agreements with Australia, Japan and New Zealand. The Australia deal, finalised in December, was described by one of Truss's aides as "the hardest thing she's ever got through"; the New Zealand deal was agreed to shortly thereafter. By mid-2021 she had started to ingratiate herself with the parliamentary party in anticipation of a leadership election. In September plans for a National Insurance increase were opposed by Truss; Downing Street expected her resignation, but Truss later decided against it. Foreign secretary (2021–2022) In September 2021, during a cabinet reshuffle, Johnson promoted Truss from international trade secretary to secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, replacing Dominic Raab, who had been criticised for holidaying in Crete during the Fall of Kabul; the move was despite Johnson finding Truss "flaky", according to the historian Anthony Seldon. Truss became the second woman to occupy the office and kept the post of equalities minister. Her early actions as foreign secretary included negotiating at the United Nations General Assembly for the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe; meeting with her Japanese, Canadian and German counterparts; mounting an unsuccessful attempt to join the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement; and a visit to Estonia where—like Margaret Thatcher in West Germany—she was photographed in a tank, with the pictures generating both praise and mockery. In early 2022 Truss's attention was directed towards a build-up of Russian troops near the Russia–Ukraine border. Truss supported a plan which declassified a large amount of intelligence on Russia, releasing it to the public for the first time in order to weaken the Russian government in the event of an invasion. On 10 February 2022 she met the Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow, becoming the first British minister to go on a diplomatic trip there since the 2018 Salisbury poisonings. The meeting was, according to Payne, a "disaster": Lavrov described it as being "between the dumb and the deaf", and the two ministers spoke over each other and found it difficult to communicate. Five days later, Truss stated that the world was on the "brink of war in Europe", which transpired in the early hours of 24 February as Russia invaded Ukraine. Before the invasion and during its immediate aftermath, Truss advocated for sanctions on Russia and encouraged other G7 leaders to impose them; in March 2022 she stated that the sanctions would end only in the event of a "full ceasefire and withdrawal". Johnson praised Truss's actions, saying that "she was always terrific on Ukraine ... other governments faffed around ... she was very clear and focused". Throughout the first half of 2022 Johnson's position as prime minister became increasingly unstable owing to successive scandals damaging his government and his personal reputation, including Partygate, which resulted in him and the chancellor Rishi Sunak receiving fixed penalty notices. During this time, Truss announced the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which was intended to overhaul the Northern Ireland Protocol, including measures to free goods produced in Great Britain from what she described as "unnecessary bureaucracy" entering Northern Ireland. The plan was criticised by the European Commission but was received well by the European Research Group—a Eurosceptic faction within the parliamentary Conservative party—and the right-wing Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party. Amid mounting pressure on Johnson following the Chris Pincher scandal, on 5 July Sunak and Javid resigned within minutes of each other. Johnson again considered giving Truss the chancellorship, but decided against it owing to what Payne calls the "fragile geopolitical situation" and instead selected Nadhim Zahawi as Sunak's replacement. However, Johnson's premiership proved untenable and on 7 July he announced his resignation as leader of the Conservative Party, a move which Truss called "the right decision". Leadership election (July–September 2022) On 10 July Truss announced her intention to run in the leadership election to replace Johnson. She pledged to cut taxes, said she would "fight the election as a Conservative and govern as a Conservative" and would take "immediate action to help people deal with the cost of living". She said she would cancel a planned rise in corporation tax and reverse the increase in National Insurance rates, funded by delaying the date by which the national debt was planned to fall, as part of a "long-term plan to bring down the size of the state and the tax burden". The political scientist Vernon Bogdanor said in a 2022 article that "[Truss] appreciated that winning over the membership required not detailed policy proposals but the creation of a mood". Truss received 50 votes on the first of Conservative MPs' 5 ballots, with the number of votes cast for her increasing in each; on 20 July Truss and Sunak were chosen by the parliamentary party to be put forward to the membership for the final leadership vote, with Truss receiving 113 votes to Sunak's 137. In the membership vote, the leader of the 1922 Committee, Graham Brady, announced on 5 September that 43 per cent of ballots were for Sunak and 57 per cent for Truss, making her the new leader. In Truss's victory speech, she said that she would deliver on her campaign promises and pledged to win a "great victory" for the Conservatives at the next general election. Premiership (2022) Cabinet and death of Elizabeth II As the leader of the Conservative Party, the majority party in the House of Commons, Truss was appointed as prime minister by Elizabeth II at Balmoral Castle on 6 September 2022 and began to select her cabinet ministers. With the appointment of Kwarteng as chancellor of the Exchequer, James Cleverly as foreign secretary and Suella Braverman as home secretary, for the first time in British history, no white men held any of the Great Offices of State. Other appointments included Thérèse Coffey as deputy prime minister and health secretary, Jacob Rees-Mogg as business secretary, Kemi Badenoch as international trade secretary, Kit Malthouse as education secretary, Penny Mordaunt as leader of the House of Commons and Michelle Donelan as culture secretary. Truss retained Ben Wallace as defence secretary, Alok Sharma as president for COP26, Alister Jack as Scotland secretary, Robert Buckland as Wales secretary and James Heappey as minister of state for the armed forces and veterans. Her cabinet was composed almost entirely of those who had supported her during the leadership contest. Truss was the fifteenth and final British prime minister to serve under Elizabeth II, who died on 8 September, two days after appointing Truss. She was told in the early morning that the Queen was unwell and likely to survive a "matter of hours, not days"; Truss ordered black clothes from her Greenwich home in anticipation of the Queen's death, as she had not yet had time to move her belongings to Westminster. Upon Elizabeth's death, Truss delivered a statement outside 10 Downing Street paying tribute to her: Queen Elizabeth II was the rock on which modern Britain was built. Our country has grown and flourished under her reign. Britain is the great country it is today because of her. ... Through thick and thin, Queen Elizabeth II provided us with the stability and the strength that we needed. She was the very spirit of Great Britain, and that spirit will endure. On 10 September Truss attended Charles III's accession ceremony and took an oath of allegiance to the King with fellow senior MPs. On 19 September she attended the Queen's funeral service in Westminster Abbey, reading the second lesson. Domestic policies and mini-budget On 8 September, in response to the ongoing cost of living crisis, Truss announced the Energy Price Guarantee, which was planned to cap average household energy bills at £2,500 per year, costing between 31 and £140 billion for the two years it covered. Truss, who announced the measure in the House of Commons, made an effort to keep the energy cap and the tax plan announcements—which the Chancellor was planned to unveil—separate. On 23 September Kwarteng announced a controversial mini-budget which proposed cutting taxation significantly, including abolishing the 45 per cent rate of income tax and the proposed Health and Social Care Levy, cutting stamp duty and the basic rate of income tax and cancelling rises in National Insurance contributions and corporation tax; the package, which had been constructed by Truss and Kwarteng together, was to be funded by borrowing and was intended to stimulate growth. The mini-budget was received badly by financial markets because it included temporary spending measures whilst permanently cutting tax rates. It was blamed for the pound falling to its lowest ever rate against the US dollar (US$1.033) and prompted a response from the Bank of England which, amongst other measures, bought up government bonds; the public reaction was also broadly negative. The mini-budget was criticised by the International Monetary Fund, the US president Joe Biden, the Labour Party and many within Truss's party, including the senior politicians Michael Gove and Grant Shapps. Government crisis and resignation After initially defending the mini-budget, on 3 October Truss instructed Kwarteng to reverse the abolition of the 45 per cent income tax additional rate. She later reversed the cut in corporation tax and dismissed Kwarteng, replacing him with Jeremy Hunt on 14 October. Hunt reversed many of the remaining policies announced in the mini-budget, leading to further instability; because of Truss's perceived weakness, he was described by some Conservative MPs and newspapers as the de facto prime minister. During this time, Truss became increasingly unpopular with the public, and contributed to a large fall in support for the Conservatives; in October, she became the most unpopular prime minister in British history, with her personal approval rating recorded in one survey as nine per cent. She was pilloried in national and international press as a u-turner, and a chaotic vote on fracking along with the resignation of Braverman as home secretary compounded a rapid deterioration of confidence in her leadership. On 19 October, in response to a question by the leader of the opposition, Keir Starmer, Truss said that she was a "fighter and not a quitter", quoting a 2001 phrase by Peter Mandelson. Shortly before noon on 20 October, Truss's forty-fifth day in office, Brady held a meeting with Truss where she asked if she would be able to remain in office; his response was "I don't think so, Prime Minister". At 1:35 pm, Truss announced her resignation as the leader of the Conservative Party and as prime minister. She gave the following 89-second-long statement: I came into office at a time of great economic and international instability. Families and businesses were worried about how to pay their bills. Putin's illegal war in Ukraine threatens the security of our whole continent. And our country has been held back by for too long by low economic growth. I was elected by the Conservative Party with a mandate to change this. We delivered on energy bills and on cutting National Insurance. And we set out a vision for a low-tax, high-growth economy that would take advantage of the freedoms of Brexit. I recognise though, given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party. I have therefore spoken to His Majesty the King to notify him that I am resigning as leader of the Conservative Party. This morning I met the chairman of the 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady. We've agreed there will be a leadership election to be completed within the next week. This will ensure that we remain on a path to deliver our fiscal plans and maintain our country's economic stability and national security. I will remain as prime minister until a successor has been chosen. Thank you. Heale describes a "funereal atmosphere" within the government in the days following her resignation statement. She was succeeded by Sunak as leader of the Conservative Party on 24 October and the next day advised the King to appoint him as the new prime minister; Sunak went on to further reverse many of the economic measures she had made as prime minister but retained Hunt as chancellor. Resigning on her fiftieth day, Truss became the shortest-serving prime minister in British history, surpassing George Canning, who was prime minister for 119 days in 1827. The short length of her premiership was the subject of much ridicule, including a livestream of a head of lettuce, started the week prior, which invited viewers to speculate whether Truss would resign before the lettuce wilted. Post-premiership (2022–present) Truss was reselected as the Conservative candidate for South West Norfolk in February 2023 and in August that year, she submitted the list of her resignation honours, which were released in December to coincide with the 2024 New Year Honours. In early September 2023 she announced her memoirs about her time as prime minister, Ten Years to Save the West, which was published in April 2024. That same month, Truss gave a speech to the Institute for Government think tank in which she blamed "groupthink" amongst officials and the media for the collapse of her premiership. Similarly, in October at the Conservative Party Conference, she held an event dubbed the "Great British Growth Rally" which was attended by hundreds of Conservative Party members, in contrast to government ministers who gave speeches to a hall which was, according to the Telegraph, "at times almost empty". In February 2024 she co-launched the Popular Conservatism group with others including Jacob Rees-Mogg, Lee Anderson and Priti Patel and spoke at its inaugural event. The 2024 general election, held on 4 July, resulted in Truss losing her seat, in which she was defending a majority of over 26,000, to the Labour challenger, Terry Jermy; the result was described as a Portillo moment by The Spectator, a right-leaning magazine. Political positions Domestic issues Truss has economically liberal views and supports free trade and deregulation. She supports the neoliberal philosophy of supply-side economics, often referred to as "trickle-down economics". After Truss's dismissal of Kwarteng and Hunt's reversal of many of the mini-budget's economic measures, the BBC's political editor Faisal Islam wrote that "Trussonomics is dead". During her time as a Liberal Democrat, Truss supported the abolition of the monarchy. In 2022 a video of a 19-year-old Truss at the 1994 Liberal Democrat conference criticising the notion of people being "born to rule" resurfaced; in an interview with LBC during her leadership campaign, Truss stated that "almost as soon as I made the speech, I regretted it". In 2021 Truss stated that the Conservatives should "reject the zero-sum game of identity politics, [reject] the illiberalism of cancel culture, and [reject] the soft bigotry of low expectations that holds so many people back". She voted to legalise same-sex marriage but has opposed the expansion of transgender rights. Truss spoke against gender self-identification, stating that "medical checks are important" and that "only women have a cervix". Despite initially supporting single-sex toilets being restricted on the basis of biological sex, she later said in February 2022 that the government was not interested in enacting such a measure. Foreign policy Truss was described as a hawkish foreign secretary. She called for Britain to reduce its economic dependency on China and Russia and supported certain diplomatic and economic sanctions imposed by the British government against the former. Truss has supported Taiwan in the context of deteriorating cross-strait relations but, citing precedent, refused to visit the island as prime minister and condemned the Chinese government's treatment of the Uyghur people as "genocide". In 2022 she called Saudi Arabia an ally of Britain but said she was not "condoning" the country's policies, including its handling of human rights and its treatment of women. Truss supported the United Kingdom remaining in the European Union during the 2016 referendum. Since the referendum, Truss has supported Brexit, and publicly stated in 2017 that she had changed her mind. During the July 2022 leadership election Truss said that "I was wrong and I am prepared to admit I was wrong". Notes and references Notes References Sources Books and journals News Websites and others Further reading External links Official website Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom Contributions in Parliament at Hansard Voting record at Public Whip Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou Appearances on C-SPAN

Rishi Sunak (born 12 May 1980) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2022 to 2024. He has been Leader of the Conservative Party since October 2022; after the general election in July 2024, he became Leader of the Opposition. The first British Asian to hold those offices, he previously held two Cabinet positions under Boris Johnson, latterly as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2020 to 2022. Sunak has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Richmond and Northallerton, previously Richmond (Yorks), since 2015. He is the most recent Conservative Party prime minister. Sunak was born in Southampton to parents of Indian descent who immigrated to Britain from East Africa in the 1960s. He was educated at Winchester College, studied philosophy, politics and economics at Lincoln College, Oxford, and earned a Master of Business Administration from Stanford University in California as a Fulbright Scholar. During his time at Oxford University, Sunak undertook an internship at Conservative Central Office, and joined the Conservatives. After graduating, Sunak worked for Goldman Sachs and later as a partner at the hedge fund firms the Children's Investment Fund Management and Theleme Partners. Sunak was elected to the House of Commons at the 2015 general election. As a backbencher, Sunak supported the successful campaign for Brexit in the 2016 European Union membership referendum. Sunak was appointed to the junior ministerial position of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Local Government by Theresa May in 2019, and was appointed to the cabinet-attending role of Chief Secretary to the Treasury by Johnson in 2019. In 2020, Sunak was promoted to Chancellor of the Exchequer. During his time in the position, Sunak was prominent in the government's financial response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impact, including the furlough and Eat Out to Help Out schemes, and was also prominent in the government's response to the cost-of living crisis. He resigned as chancellor in July 2022 amid a government crisis that culminated in Johnson's resignation, and stood in the leadership election to succeed him. He received the most votes in each of the series of MP votes, but lost the members' vote to Liz Truss. After spending the duration of Truss's premiership on the backbenches, Sunak was elected unopposed in the leadership election to succeed Truss, who resigned amid another government crisis; aged 42 at the time he became prime minister, Sunak became the youngest prime minister since The Earl of Liverpool in 1812. During his premiership, Sunak attempted to improve the economy and stabilise national politics. He outlined five key priorities: halving inflation, growing the economy, cutting debt, reducing National Health Service waiting lists, and stopping the illegal small-boat crossings of the English Channel by enacting the Rwanda asylum plan. On foreign policy, Sunak authorised foreign aid and weapons shipments to Ukraine in response to the Russian invasion of the country, and pledged support for Israel after the attacks which began the Israel–Hamas war whilst later calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. He did not avert further unpopularity for the Conservatives, reflected in the party's poor performances in the 2023 and 2024 local elections. Sunak called a general election for July 2024 despite being widely expected to call the election in the autumn; the Conservatives lost this election in a landslide to the opposition Labour Party led by Keir Starmer, ending 14 years of Conservative government. After leaving office, Sunak became Leader of the Opposition and has remained Conservative leader while the leadership election to replace him is taking place, and formed a shadow cabinet. He also intends to remain as a backbench MP for the next five years. As chancellor, Sunak received high approval and popularity ratings in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, although his popularity later declined amid the cost-of living crisis in 2022. Early life and education (1980–2001) Rishi Sunak was born on 12 May 1980 in Southampton General Hospital in Southampton, Hampshire, to East African-born Hindu parents of Indian Punjabi descent. His father was born in the Kenya Colony in 1949, while his mother was born in the Tanganyika Territory (modern-day Tanzania). His paternal grandfather Ramdas Sunak had migrated from Gujranwala, located in present-day Pakistan, to the Kenyan capital of Nairobi in 1935, while his maternal grandfather, Raghubir Berry, grew up in Punjab before eventually moving to Tanzania as an engineer. Both of Sunak's parents had moved to the UK in 1966. While in the UK they eventually met and would get married in 1977.Sunak attended Stroud School, a preparatory school in Romsey, and later studied at Winchester College as a dayboy, becoming head boy of the college. He worked as a waiter, at the curry house Kuti's Brasserie in Southampton, during his summer holidays. He read philosophy, politics and economics at Lincoln College, Oxford, graduating with a first in 2001. During his time at university, he undertook an internship at Conservative Campaign Headquarters and joined the Conservative Party. In 2006 Sunak earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Stanford University as a Fulbright Scholar. Sunak's paternal grandfather was from Gujranwala (in present-day Pakistan), while his maternal grandfather was from Ludhiana (in present-day India); both cities at the time were part of the Punjab province in British India. His grandparents migrated to East Africa, and then to the United Kingdom in the 1960s. His father was born and raised in the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya (present-day Kenya), and was a general practitioner in the National Health Service (NHS). His mother, born in Tanganyika (which later became part of Tanzania), was a pharmacist who owned the Sunak Pharmacy in Southampton between 1995 and 2014, and has a degree from Aston University. Sunak is the eldest of three siblings. His brother is a psychologist and his sister works in New York as chief of strategy and planning at Education Cannot Wait, the United Nations Global Fund for Education in Emergencies and Protracted Crises. Career Business career (2001–2015) Sunak worked as an analyst for the investment bank Goldman Sachs between 2001 and 2004. He then worked for hedge fund management firm The Children's Investment Fund Management (TCI), becoming a partner in September 2006. He left in November 2009 to join former colleagues in California at a new hedge fund firm, Theleme Partners, which launched in October 2010 with $700 million under management (equivalent to $978 million in 2023). At both hedge funds, his boss was Patrick Degorce. Sunak was also a director of the investment firm Catamaran Ventures, owned by his father-in-law, the Indian businessman N. R. Narayana Murthy of Infosys, between 2013 and 2015. Backbencher (2015–2018) Sunak was selected as the Conservative candidate for Richmond (Yorks) in October 2014. The seat was previously held by William Hague. In the same year Sunak was head of the Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Research Unit of the conservative think tank Policy Exchange, for which he co-wrote a report on BME communities in the UK. He was elected as MP for the constituency at the 2015 general election with a majority of 19,550 (36.2%). During the 2015–2017 Parliament he was a member of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee.Sunak supported the successful campaign to leave the European Union in the 2016 European Union membership referendum, criticising the EU's immigration laws: "We are discriminating against countries with whom we have ties of history, language and culture" That year, he wrote a report for the Thatcherite think tank Centre for Policy Studies supporting the establishment of free ports after Brexit, and the following year wrote a report advocating the creation of a retail bond market for small and medium-sized enterprises. Following Cameron's resignation, Sunak endorsed Michael Gove in the 2016 Conservative Party leadership election, and later endorsed successful candidate Theresa May after Gove was eliminated in the second round of voting. Sunak was re-elected at the 2017 general election with an increased majority of 23,108 (40.5%). In the same year, Sunak wrote a paper for Policy Exchange on the importance and fragility of the UK's undersea infrastructure. Sunak was re-elected at the 2019 general election with an increased majority of 27,210 (47.2%). Following boundary changes in the 2024 general election, Sunak won the seat of Richmond and Northallerton, which replaced his former seat of Richmond (Yorks), with a majority of 23,059 (51.4). Local government under-secretary (2018–2019) Sunak was appointed to a junior ministerial position in May's second government as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Local Government in the 2018 cabinet reshuffle. Sunak voted for May's Brexit withdrawal agreement on all three occasions, and voted against a second referendum on any withdrawal agreement. May's withdrawal agreement was rejected by Parliament three times, leading to May announcing her resignation in May 2019. Sunak supported Boris Johnson's successful bid to succeed May in the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election and co-wrote an article with fellow MPs Robert Jenrick and Oliver Dowden to advocate for Johnson during the campaign in June. Chief secretary to the Treasury (2019–2020) Sunak was appointed to the senior cabinet role of chief secretary to the Treasury by Johnson, serving under Sajid Javid. He became a member of the Privy Council the next day. During the 2019 general election, Sunak represented the Conservatives in debates. Chancellor of the Exchequer (2020–2022) In the weeks leading up to Johnson's first cabinet reshuffle in February 2020, a number of briefings in the press had suggested that a new economic ministry led by Sunak might be established, to reduce the power and political influence of the Treasury. By February 2020, it was reported that Javid would remain in his role as Chancellor and that Sunak would stay on as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, in order to "keep an eye" on Javid. On 13 February 2020, the day of the reshuffle, Javid resigned as Chancellor, following a meeting with Johnson. During the meeting, Johnson had offered to allow Javid to keep his position on the condition that he dismiss all his advisers at the Treasury and replace them with ones selected by 10 Downing Street. Upon resigning, Javid told the Press Association that "no self-respecting minister would accept those terms". Sunak was promoted to chancellor to replace Javid as part of Johnson's first cabinet reshuffle later that day. COVID-19 pandemic In response to the first confirmed COVID-19 cases in January 2020, Sunak introduced advice for travellers coming from affected countries in late January and February 2020, and began contact tracing, although this was later abandoned. There were further societal restrictions on the public as the virus spread across the country in the following weeks, initially resisting more stringent measures introduced elsewhere in Europe and Asia. On 23 March 2020, as COVID-19 had become a pandemic and began rapidly spreading across the country, Sunak became prominent in the government's response to the pandemic and its economic impact. On 20 March 2020, Sunak gave a statement on COVID-19, saying: Now, more than any time in our history, we will be judged by our capacity for compassion. Our ability to come through this, won’t just be down to what government or businesses do, but by the individual acts of kindness that we show each other. When this is over, we want to look back on this moment and remember the many small acts of kindness done by us and to us. We want to look back on this time and remember how we thought first of others and acted with decency. We want to look back on this time and remember how, in the face of a generation-defining moment, we undertook a collective national effort - and we stood together. It’s on all of us. Furlough scheme Sunak introduced a programme providing £330 billion in emergency support for businesses, as well as the Coronavirus Job Retention furlough scheme for employees. This was the first time a British government had created such an employee retention scheme. The scheme was introduced on 20 March 2020 as providing grants to employers to pay 80% of a staff wage and employment costs each month, up to a total of £2,500 per person per month. The cost was estimated at £14 billion a month to run. The furlough scheme initially ran for three months and was backdated to 1 March. Following a three-week extension of the countrywide lockdown the scheme was extended by Sunak until the end of June 2020. At the end of May, Sunak extended the scheme until the end of October 2020. The decision to extend the job retention scheme was made to avoid or defer mass redundancies, company bankruptcies and potential unemployment levels not seen since the 1930s. In March 2021, Sunak announced that the scheme had been extended once more until September 2021. Eat Out to Help Out In July 2020, Sunak unveiled a plan for a further £30 billion of spending which included a stamp duty holiday, a cut to value-added tax (VAT) for the hospitality sector, a job retention bonus for employers and the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, aimed at supporting and creating jobs in the hospitality industry. The government subsidised food and soft drinks at participating cafes, pubs and restaurants at 50%, up to £10 per person. The offer was available from 3 to 31 August on Monday to Wednesday each week. In total, the scheme subsidised £849 million in meals. Patrick Vallance and Chris Whitty were not informed of the scheme. Some considered the scheme to be a success in boosting the hospitality industry, whilst others disagreed. A 2020 study found that the scheme contributed to a rise in COVID-19 infection, which Johnson acknowledged but the Treasury rejected. It was later said by Vallance during the COVID-19 Inquiry that Sunak had not informed medical advisers of the scheme until it was announced, whereas written evidence from Sunak said that the scheme had been discussed with medical advisers, including Vallance, and they had not objected. Cost of living crisis and energy crisis Amid the rising cost of living and energy crises, Sunak intensified efforts to respond to the crisis in May 2022, with a £5 billion windfall tax on energy companies to help fund a £15 billion support package for the public. The package included every household getting a £400 discount on energy bills, which would be in addition to a £150 council tax refund the government had already ordered. For about 8 million of the UK's lowest income households, a further £650 payment was announced. Additionally, pensioners or those with disability would qualify for extra payments, on top of the £550 that every household gets, and the £650 they would receive if they had a low income. Budgets Sunak presented his first budget, Delivering on Our Promises to the British People, on 11 March 2020. It was scheduled to be followed by another budget in the autumn, but in September 2020 he announced that budget would be scrapped because of the COVID-19 pandemic, stating "now is not the right time to outline long-term plans – people want to see us focused on the here and now". Instead, additional statements were given by the chancellor in both summer and autumn. The Winter Economy Plan was delivered by Sunak on 24 September 2020. The purpose of the statement was to announce measures aimed at further helping to promote economic recovery following the impact of COVID-19. The plan aimed to further promote economic recovery while preserving jobs and businesses which were considered viable. After a second lockdown in England on 31 October 2020, the programme was extended several times, until 30 September 2021. The July 2020 summer statement (also known as the coronavirus mini-budget) was delivered by Sunak on 8 July 2020. The purpose of the statement was to announce measures aimed at helping to promote economic recovery following the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The statement was delivered to the House of Commons, where Sunak unveiled a spending package worth £30bn. Concerns were subsequently raised by organisations including HM Revenue and Customs and the Institute for Fiscal Studies about the statement's impact, as well as its cost-effectiveness, while at least one major retailer declined to take advantage of a financial bonus scheme intended for rehiring employees placed on furlough during the pandemic. In his March 2021 budget, Sunak emphasized the effect the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the economy, with 700,000 people losing their jobs, the economy shrinking by 10% (the largest fall in 300 years), and the highest borrowing outside wartime. The budget included an increase in the rate of corporation tax from 19% to 25% in 2023, a five-year freeze in the tax-free personal allowance and the higher rate income tax threshold, and the extension of the furlough scheme until the end of September. Sunak was the first Chancellor to raise the corporation tax rate since Labour's Denis Healey in 1974. In October 2021, Sunak made his third and final budget statement, which included substantial spending promises related to science and education. The budget increased in-work support through the Universal Credit system by increasing the work allowances by £500 a year, and reducing the post-tax deduction taper rate from 63% to 55%. £560 million of investment was announced for the Levelling Up White Paper. Many of the announcements to be made in the budget were previewed before budget day, drawing criticism and anger from the House of Commons. In response to the criticism, Sunak said the budget "begins the work of preparing for a new economy". Sunak made what would ultimately be his final budget, his spring statement, on 23 March 2022. He cut fuel duty, removed VAT on energy saving equipment (such as solar panels and insulation) and reduced national insurance payments for small businesses and, while continuing with a planned national insurance rise in April, he promised to align the primary threshold with the basic personal income allowance as of July. He also promised a reduction in income tax in 2024. Sunak also provided some funding which was intended to help vulnerable people cope with the cost of living. Other actions Sunak hosted a G7 summit in London in June 2021. A tax reform agreement was signed, which in principle sought to establish a global minimum tax on multinationals and online technology companies. In October 2021, the OECD signed an accord to join the tax reform plan. Later that month, Sunak attended COP26 in Glasgow. During his speech given on 3 November, he said that he felt optimism despite daunting challenges and that by bringing together finance ministers, businesses and investors, COP26 could begin to deliver targets from the Paris Agreement. Resignation On 5 July 2022, Sunak and Javid resigned almost simultaneously amid a scandal surrounding the sexual harassment allegations against Chris Pincher, which arose after it was revealed that Johnson had promoted Pincher to the position of Deputy Chief Whip while knowing of the allegations beforehand. Sunak was the second of 61 Conservative MPs to resign during the government crisis. He was succeeded as chancellor by Nadhim Zahawi. Following the resignations of Sunak and Javid, numerous junior ministers and among the parliamentary private secretary (PPS) also resigned, most of whom cited a lack of honesty and integrity on the part of Johnson. In the following 24 hours, 36 MPs resigned from their roles in government and Johnson announced his resignation. In his resignation letter Sunak said: The public rightly expect government to be conducted properly, competently and seriously. I recognise this may be my last ministerial job, but I believe these standards are worth fighting for and that is why I am resigning. It has become clear to me that our approaches are fundamentally too different. I am sad to be leaving Government but I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that we cannot continue like this. Conservative leadership bids On 8 July 2022, Sunak announced his candidacy in the leadership election to replace Johnson. Sunak launched his campaign in a video posted to social media, writing that he would "restore trust, rebuild the economy and reunite the country". He said that his values were "patriotism, fairness, hard work", and pledged to "crack down on gender neutral language". During the campaign, Sunak pledged to included tax cuts only when inflation was under control, scrapping of the 5% VAT rate on household energy for one year, introducing a temporary £10 fine for patients who fail to attend GP appointments, capping of refugee numbers, and a tightening of the definition of asylum. On 20 July, Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss emerged as the final two candidates in the contest on 20 July to be put forward to the membership for the final leadership vote. He had received the most votes in each of the series of MP votes with Sunak receiving 137 to Truss's 113 in the final round. Sunak opposed Truss' economic plans and predicted they would result in economic damage, saying "Liz, we have to be honest. Borrowing your way out of inflation isn’t a plan, it’s a fairytale.” A spokesperson for Sunak later said: “The reality is that Truss cannot deliver a support package as well as come good on £50bn worth of unfunded, permanent tax cuts in one go. To do so would mean increasing borrowing to historic and dangerous levels, putting the public finances in serious jeopardy and plunging the economy into an inflation spiral." In the membership vote, Truss received 57.4% of the vote, making her the new leader. Sunak responded by offering his support to Truss, saying "It’s right we now unite behind the new PM, Liz Truss, as she steers the country through difficult times." He spent the duration of Truss's premiership on the backbenches. As Sunak predicted, Truss announced large-scale tax cuts and borrowing in a mini-budget on 23 September, which was widely criticised and – after it rapidly led to financial instability – largely reversed. She announced her resignation on 20 October 2022 amid a government crisis, triggering a leadership contest. On 22 October, it was reported that Sunak had the required number of supporters—100 members of the House of Commons—to run in the ballot on 24 October. The total number of MPs who publicly declared support passed 100 on the afternoon of 22 October. On 23 October, Sunak declared that he would stand for election. After Johnson ruled himself out of the race and Penny Mordaunt withdrew her candidacy, Sunak was announced as the new leader on 24 October. Premiership (2022–2024) As the leader of the majority party in the House of Commons, Sunak was appointed as prime minister by Charles III on 25 October 2022, becoming the first British Asian to take the office. At 42, Sunak became the youngest prime minister since Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, in 1812. In his first speech as prime minister, Sunak said that Truss "was not wrong" to want to improve growth and that he "admired her restlessness to create change", but admitted that "some mistakes were made", and that he was elected prime minister in part to fix them: I will place economic stability and confidence at the heart of this government’s agenda. I will unite our country, not with words, but with action. I will work day in and day out to deliver for you. This government will have integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level. Trust is earned. And I will earn yours. Cabinet Sunak selected his cabinet ministers after his appointment as prime minister. Jeremy Hunt was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Dominic Raab was also re-appointed as deputy prime minister and Justice Secretary, he later resigned from these roles in April 2023 and was replaced by Oliver Dowden. James Cleverly was appointed Foreign Secretary with Suella Braverman as Home Secretary. Ben Wallace was appointed Secretary of State for Defence. Michael Gove was appointed Levelling Up Secretary, Grant Shapps was appointed as Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and Penny Mordaunt became Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the council. Other key appointments included Simon Hart as Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury and Chief Whip of the House of Commons, Nadhim Zahawi as Chairman of the Conservative Party, Oliver Dowden as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Thérèse Coffey as Environment Secretary, Mel Stride as Work and Pensions Secretary and Mark Harper as Transport Secretary. Reshuffles Sunak's first cabinet reshuffle in February 2023 saw a significant restructuring of government departments. New departments included those for Business and Trade, Energy Security and Net Zero, and Science, Innovation and Technology. The Department for International Trade and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy were split and merged into other departments. Ministers who joined the cabinet in the first reshuffle included Greg Hands took over as chairman from Zahawi, though later resigned and replaced by Richard Holden. Lucy Frazer became Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport taking over from Donelan. Rachel Maclean left the backbenches and joined the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Sunak's last cabinet reshuffle in November 2023 saw the return of former prime minister David Cameron to government following a seven-year absence from frontline politics, replacing James Cleverly as foreign secretary. It also saw the departures of Braverman and Coffey from government and Hands from the cabinet, and the appointment of Laura Trott as Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Foreign policy In February 2023, Sunak negotiated a proposed agreement with the EU on Northern Ireland's trading arrangements which was published as the Windsor Framework. On 27 February, Sunak delivered a statement to the House of Commons, saying that the proposed agreement "protects Northern Ireland's place in our Union. On 22 March, the date of the parliamentary vote, 22 Conservative MPs and six DUP MPs voted against the government legislation. The vote ultimately passed by 515 votes to 29. Immigration In 2019 the Conservative Party and Boris Johnson pledged to reduce net migration below 250,000 per year, but Sunak said in 2023 that the priority was not to reduce legal immigration but to stop illegal immigration. Nearly 30,000 undocumented migrants crossed the Channel in small boats to the UK in 2023. Long-term net migration to the United Kingdom (the number of people immigrating minus the number emigrating) reached a record high of 764,000 in 2022, with legal immigration at 1.26 million and emigration at 493,000. Of the 1,218,000 legal migrants coming to the UK in 2023, only 10% were EU Nationals. Sunak continued the Rwanda asylum plan to have asylum seekers and illegal immigrants sent to Rwanda for processing. After the plan was blocked by the UK's Court of Appeal in June 2023 due to concerns over international law and the possibility of refoulement (persecution of those sent to Rwanda), Sunak vowed to appeal against the verdict to the Supreme Court. On 15 November 2023, the Supreme Court upheld the ruling and declared the plan unlawful. In response, Sunak sent Cleverly to Rwanda to negotiate a treaty with Rwanda focused on preventing refoulement which must now be ratified by the British and Rwandan Parliaments. The government also introduced the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill, emergency legislation giving ministers the power to disapply sections of the Human Rights Act 1998 and certain aspects of international law in order to allow them to declare Rwanda a safe country according to UK law. The bill was criticised by many on the right of the party for not going far enough, resulting in the resignation of the minister for immigration, Robert Jenrick. On 12 December 2023 Sunak secured a government majority of 44 for the Safety of Rwanda Bill, despite the opposition of all other parties and abstentions from members of the European Research Group. Russia and Ukraine Following the 15 November missile explosion in Poland, Sunak met US President Joe Biden and delivered a speech about it. Sunak later met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and pledged to give Ukraine £50 million in aid. After meeting Zelenskyy, Sunak said: "I am proud of how the UK stood with Ukraine from the very beginning. And I am here today to say the UK and our allies will continue to stand with Ukraine, as it fights to end this barbarous war and deliver a just peace." Sunak visited Ukraine on 12 January 2024 to sign a new U.K.-Ukraine Agreement on Security Cooperation with Zelenskyy promising £2.5 billion in military aid to Ukraine, including long-range missiles, artillery ammunition, air defence and maritime security, in addition to £200 million to be spent on military drones, making the UK the largest deliverer of drones to Ukraine out of any nation according to Downing Street. Israel and Palestine In October 2023, Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel that devolved into a war and a growing humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. Sunak pledged the UK's support for Israel and declared that Israel "has an absolute right to defend itself". Sunak backed calls for humanitarian pauses to allow for aid to be brought into Gaza, although he initially rejected calls for a full ceasefire as he argued that this would only benefit Hamas. Israel used British-supplied weapons in the war. However, Sunak later condemned the high number of civilian casualties in Gaza and called for a "sustainable ceasefire" in which all Israeli hostages were returned to Israel, attacks against Israel ceased and humanitarian aid was allowed into Gaza. His government supported the two-state solution as a resolution to the conflict. When the International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan announced that he would seek to charge Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with war crimes, Sunak criticised the move as "unhelpful" and accused Khan of drawing a moral equivalence between Israel and Hamas. Local election results Sunak was faced with the task of rebuilding the Conservatives' reputation which had been significantly damaged by the controversies and scandals of the previous year and the Truss ministry. While their poll ratings recovered slightly over the following months, it still wasn't enough to bring them back to pre-Truss levels. Sunak contested his first local elections as leader on 4 May 2023, where the Conservatives suffered heavy losses. Two months later, on 20 July 2023, they lost two seats in by-elections; one to Labour and one to the Liberal Democrats. Their fortunes remained unchanged throughout policy changes of the following year, such as the shelving of the HS2 northern phase in October. The Conservatives lost two further seats in by-elections on 15 February 2024. In March 2024, there were suggestions that Sunak could face a leadership challenge before the upcoming general election — which was expected within the calendar year — if the Conservatives perform poorly at the local elections on 2 May. Sunak however said he would resist a challenge, even if that ends up being the case. As predicted, 2 May saw grim showing for the Conservatives, who suffered their worst local election results since 1996. Additionally, they lost another seat to Labour in the Blackpool South by-election, and narrowly lost the West Midlands mayoral election in a knife-edge vote. Sunak's premiership was described as more stable than that of his two predecessors, while still not being able to represent a turnaround for the Conservatives. 2024 general election and resignation On the afternoon of 22 May 2024, Sunak announced that he had asked the King to call a general election for 4 July 2024, surprising his own MPs. Though Sunak had the option to wait until December 2024 to call the election, he said that he decided on the date because he believed that the economy was improving, and that "falling inflation and net migration figures would reinforce the Conservatives' election message of 'sticking to the plan'". Sunak sought to rebuild the Conservative's reputation following a slump in popularity after the short-lived Truss ministry and a slew of controversies including Partygate that irreparably damaged Johnson's ministry, through campaigning on stabilising the economy, the Rwanda asylum plan, further strengthening the State Pension, and introducing National Service. He released the Conservative manifesto Clear Plan. Bold Action. Secure Future. on 11 June, addressing the economy, taxes, welfare, expanding free childcare, education, healthcare, environment, energy, transport, and crime. Sunak stated during the general election campaign that if his party lost the election he intended to remain as a backbench MP for the next 5 years. On 6 June 2024, the 80th anniversary of D-Day, Sunak was heavily criticised for leaving commemoration events early to do an interview with ITV, including by veterans. Sunak apologised three times over the following week. Labour won a landslide victory in the general election, ending 14 years of Conservative government. A record number of Conservative MPs either stood down or lost their seats at the election. Three Cabinet members stood down and eight full members and four who attended Cabinet lost their seats, the highest number of sitting cabinet seat losses in history. Sunak conceded the election on 5 July. In his resignation speech before tending his resignation to the King, Sunak apologised to Conservative voters and candidates for the party's heavy defeat, and announced his intention to resign as party leader once a new leader is elected. He also offered support to the incoming prime minister Keir Starmer, saying he was "a decent, public-spirited man" he respected and expressed hope he would be successful. To all the Conservative candidates and campaigners who worked tirelessly but without success, I am sorry that we could not deliver what your efforts deserved. It pains me to think how many good colleagues, who contributed so much to their communities and our country, will now no longer sit in the House of Commons. I thank them for their hard work, and their service. Following this result, I will step down as party leader, not immediately, but once the formal arrangements for selecting my successor are in place. It is important that after 14 years in government the Conservative Party rebuilds, but also that it takes up its crucial role in Opposition professionally and effectively. Post-premiership (2024–present) Leader of the Opposition (2024–present) After Starmer succeeded Sunak as prime minister, Sunak immediately became Leader of the Opposition and formed his shadow cabinet on 8 July. Most members of Sunak's cabinet heading into the 2024 general election were given the same portfolios in the shadow cabinet, including former chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who became shadow chancellor, and former home secretary James Cleverly, who became shadow home secretary. Former foreign secretary David Cameron chose to retire from frontline politics, with his former deputy Andrew Mitchell becoming shadow foreign secretary instead. Richard Holden resigned as party chairman, and was succeeded by Richard Fuller in an interim capacity outside shadow cabinet. Sunak appointed new officeholders to the portfolios held by the eleven cabinet ministers who lost their seats in the election, including Edward Argar, who became shadow justice secretary after the outgoing justice secretary Alex Chalk lost his seat, as well as Helen Whately, who became shadow transport secretary after the outgoing transport secretary Mark Harper also lost his seat. Among other noteworthy appointments, Kemi Badenoch became the shadow housing, communities and local government secretary and former deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden became deputy leader of the opposition. Sunak will remain leader until his successor is elected in the 2024 Conservative Party leadership election, which is expected to take place later in the year. Responding to the 2024 State Opening of Parliament, Sunak said his party would not oppose the government "for the sake of it", but would hold them to account on their election promises. On proposals to change planning laws, Sunak said that though such changes were needed "a system that does not allow local people to have a say will damage public consent for more housing in the long term". While he respected Starmer's decision to scrap the Rwanda asylum plan, Sunak said that there needed to be an alternative deterrent, otherwise "a large number of those who crossed the Channel illegally will end up remaining here". On the Government benches life comes at you fast. Soon you might be fortunate enough to be tapped on the shoulder and be offered a junior ministerial role, then you’ll find yourself attending cabinet, then in the cabinet and then when the prime minister’s position becomes untenable you might end up being called to the highest office. And before you know it you have a bright future behind you and you’re left wondering whether you can credibly be an elder statesman at the age of 44. Political positions Sunak has been described as a moderate within his party with a technocratic or managerial leadership style. According to Euronews, Sunak is "frequently perceived as a pragmatist and as belonging to the centre-ground of the Conservative Party". He opposed the economic policies of Truss, and although described as a fellow Thatcherite, he is viewed as less economically liberal than Truss. In April 2023, Sunak's perception as a centrist contrasted with descriptions of his government's policies on transgender and migration issues as being socially conservative, with Jessica Elgot of The Guardian describing Sunak as "perhaps the most socially conservative PM of his generation". Robert Shrimsley of the Financial Times described Sunak as someone whose "easy manner, career in global finance and ethnic background might suggest a more cosmopolitan conservative", even though he is socially conservative and pragmatic. Meanwhile, the New Statesman described Sunak as uneasily straddling both liberal-conservative and national-conservative instincts. In July 2023, The Economist described him as "the most right-wing Conservative prime minister since Margaret Thatcher". Public image Following his appointment as chancellor, Sunak arrived in public discourse from relative obscurity. Some political commentators saw Sunak's appointment as signalling the end of the Treasury's independence from Downing Street, with Robert Shrimsley, chief political commentator of the Financial Times, arguing that "good government often depends on senior ministers – and the Chancellor in particular – being able to fight bad ideas". In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, he was popular by the standards of British politics, described by one analyst as having "better ratings than any politician since the heydays of Tony Blair". Various polls showed Sunak remained overwhelmingly popular among Conservative supporters and many other Britons throughout 2020. In an Ipsos MORI poll in September 2020, Sunak had the highest satisfaction score of any British chancellor since Labour's Denis Healey in April 1978, and was widely seen as the favourite to become the next Conservative leader. Sunak developed a cult media following, with jokes and gossip about his attractiveness widespread on social media and in magazines, gaining the nickname "Dishi Rishi". Public attitudes towards Sunak remained broadly positive in 2021, though his popularity declined steadily over time. By early 2022, with the cost of living becoming a growing focus of public concern, Sunak's response as chancellor was perceived as inadequate and he received some of his lowest approval ratings, which continued as the Sunak family's financial affairs came under scrutiny. By the time he resigned as chancellor in July 2022, Sunak's approval ratings slightly recovered. In October 2022, following his appointment as prime minister, Sunak's personal favourability ratings increased. By July 2023, Sunak's approval ratings had decreased back to a similar level to when he resigned as chancellor. The New Statesman named him as the second most powerful right-wing figure of 2023, behind only Nigel Farage. By his resignation as prime minister in July 2024, he had his lowest approval ratings to date. Following the 2024 general election, Sunak has received praise for being gracious in defeat, with some commentators recommending for the Conservatives to keep him on as leader. Personal life In August 2009, Sunak married Akshata Murty, the daughter of N. R. Narayana Murthy and Sudha Murty. His father-in-law is the founder of the technology company Infosys, in which Murty owns a stake. Sunak and Murty met while studying at Stanford University in the US; they have two daughters: the first born in 2011 and the second in 2013. In November 2020, Sunak was reported by The Guardian to have not declared a significant amount of his wife and family's financial interests on the register of ministers' interests, including a combined £1.7 billion shareholding in the Indian company Infosys. Ministers are required to declare interests that are "relevant" to their responsibilities and "which might be thought to give rise to a conflict" with their public duties. The independent adviser on ministers' interests investigated and concluded that Sunak had not broken any rules. In early 2022, newspapers reported that Murty had non-domiciled status, meaning she did not have to pay tax on income earned abroad while living in the UK. The status cost approximately £30,000 to secure, and allowed her to avoid paying an estimated £20 million in UK taxes. On 8 April Murty issued a statement saying that she would pay UK taxes on her global income, and that she regretted the issue had become "a distraction for [her] husband". An inquiry was set up to identify the source of the leak regarding her tax status. Reporting around this time also revealed that Sunak had continued to hold United States' permanent resident (green card) status he had acquired in the 2000s until 2021, including for 18 months after he was made chancellor, which required filing annual US tax returns. An investigation into both his wife's tax status and his residency status found that Sunak had not broken any ministerial rules. Sunak and Murty own several houses, including one in North Yorkshire; a mews house in Earl's Court in central London; a flat on the Old Brompton Road, South Kensington; and a penthouse apartment on Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica, California. In April 2022, it was reported that Sunak and Murty had moved out of the flat above 10 Downing Street to a newly refurbished West London home for domestic reasons. In October 2022, the Sunaks resumed residence of their former official home at 10 Downing Street, this time as prime minister and reversing the trend started in 1997 of prime ministers living in the four-bedroom flat above 11 Downing Street. In April 2022, amid the Partygate scandal, Sunak was issued a fixed penalty notice by the police who believed he had committed offences under COVID-19 regulations by attending a birthday gathering for Boris Johnson on 19 June 2020. The police also issued 125 fixed penalty notices to 82 other individuals, including Johnson and his wife Carrie Symonds, who all apologised and paid the penalties. After receiving the penalty notice, Sunak said he was "extremely and sincerely sorry" for the hurt caused by him attending the party, and that he respected the police's decision to give him a fine. In January 2023, Sunak was issued a fixed penalty notice by Lancashire Constabulary after a social media video of him failing to wear a seat belt in a moving vehicle was published. Sunak apologised for the incident and said he made a "brief error of judgment". Sunak is a teetotaller. He stated in 2022 that he had seven dental fillings due to excessive consumption of Coca-Cola when he was younger, and expressed a strong preference for Mexican Coke. He was previously a governor of the East London Science School. Sunak has a Labrador called Nova and is a cricket and horse racing enthusiast. As chancellor, Sunak rose early for a daily Peloton workout and was a fan of fitness instructor Cody Rigsby. Sunak is a close friend of The Spectator's former political editor James Forsyth, whom he has known since their school days. Sunak was the best man at Forsyth's wedding to the journalist Allegra Stratton, and they are godparents to each other's children. He appointed Forsyth as his political secretary in December 2022. Sunak is a steadfast Southampton F.C. fan. When asked what his ideal job would be if he was not a politician, he replied that if he could "run Southampton Football Club" he would be a "very happy man". Sunak is a Hindu and identifies as British Indian, stating that he is "thoroughly British" but with an Indian religious and cultural heritage. He took his oath as an MP at the House of Commons on the Bhagavad Gita. During the coronation of Charles III, Sunak gave a reading from the New Testament book of Epistle to the Colossians – Colossians 1:9–17. After the murder of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin, Sunak said he had also faced racism in his life. Speaking about his childhood during the 2024 general election campaign, Sunak said his parents "wanted to put everything into our education and that was a priority" and that he didn't have Sky TV growing up. See also Electoral history of Rishi Sunak Notes References Further reading External links Official website Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom Contributions in Parliament at Hansard Voting record at Public Whip Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou Appearances on C-SPAN Final Speech as Prime Minister after July 4, 2024 election on The Guardian

The monarch of Scotland was the head of state of the Kingdom of Scotland. According to tradition, Kenneth I MacAlpin (Cináed mac Ailpín) was the founder and first King of the Kingdom of Scotland (although he never held the title historically, being King of the Picts instead). The Kingdom of the Picts just became known as the Kingdom of Alba in Scottish Gaelic, which later became known in Scots and English as Scotland; the terms are retained in both languages to this day. By the late 11th century at the very latest, Scottish kings were using the term rex Scottorum, or King of Scots, to refer to themselves in Latin. The Kingdom of Scotland was merged with the Kingdom of England to form a single Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. Thus, Queen Anne became the last monarch of the ancient kingdoms of Scotland and England and the first of Great Britain, although the kingdoms had shared a monarch since 1603 (see Union of the Crowns). Her uncle Charles II was the last monarch to be crowned in Scotland, at Scone in 1651. He had a second coronation in England ten years later. Heraldry List of monarchs of Scotland House of Alpin (848–1034) The reign of Kenneth MacAlpin begins what is often called the House of Alpin, an entirely modern concept. The descendants of Kenneth MacAlpin were divided into two branches; the crown would alternate between the two, the death of a king from one branch often hastened by war or assassination by a pretender from the other. Malcolm II was the last king of the House of Alpin; in his reign, he successfully crushed all opposition to him and, having no sons, was able to pass the crown to his daughter's son, Duncan I, who inaugurated the House of Dunkeld. *Eochiad was a son of Run, King of Strathclyde, but his mother was a daughter of Kenneth I. Evidence of his reign is unclear. He may have never actually been king and if he was, he was co-king with Giric. ¤Amlaíb is known only by a reference to his death in 977, which reports him as King of Alba; since Kenneth II is known to have still been King in 972–973, Amlaíb must have taken power between 973 and 977. House of Dunkeld (1034–1040) Duncan succeeded to the throne as the maternal grandson of Malcolm II. The House of Dunkeld was therefore closely related to the House of Alpin. Duncan was killed in battle by Macbeth, another maternal grandson of Malcolm II. House of Moray (1040–1058) Macbeth came to power in 1040 after killing Duncan I in battle and had a long and relatively successful reign. Macbeth was a cousin of Duncan and was a maternal grandson of Malcolm II. In a series of battles between 1057 and 1058, Duncan's son Malcolm III defeated and killed Macbeth and Macbeth's stepson and heir Lulach and became the king, thereby passing the throne back to the House of Dunkeld. House of Dunkeld (restored) (1058–1286) In a series of battles between 1057 and 1058, Duncan's son Malcolm III defeated and killed Macbeth and Macbeth's stepson and heir Lulach, claiming the throne. The dynastic feuds did not end there: on Malcolm III's death in battle, his brother Donald III, known as "Bán", claimed the throne, expelling Malcolm III's sons from Scotland. A civil war in the family ensued, with Donald III and Malcolm III's son Edmund opposed by Malcolm III's English-backed sons, led first by Duncan II and then by Edgar. Edgar triumphed, sending his uncle and brother to monasteries. After the reign of David I, the Scottish throne was passed according to rules of primogeniture, moving from father to son, or where not possible, brother to brother. Alexander III was the last ruler from the house of Dunkeld, and having no sons, the throne was inherited by his granddaughter Margaret, Maid of Norway. House of Sverre (1286–1290) Margaret, Maid of Norway inherited the throne in 1286, but died in 1290 in Orkney on her way to be crowned. During her absence, Scotland was ruled by a set of guardians. After her death, Scotland entered a period of interregnum, where 13 contenders fought for the throne and ultimately, John Balliol succeeded. The status of Margaret, as a Scottish monarch is debated by historians. She was never crowned, and her contemporaries in Scotland described her as "queen" very rarely, referring to her instead as Scotland's "lady", "heir", or "lady and heir". On the other hand, documents issued from late 1286 no longer refer to the "king whosoever he may be", indicating that the throne may have been regarded as already occupied by Margaret. In modern historiography she is nearly unanimously called "queen", and reference books give 19 March 1286, the date of Alexander III's death, as the start of her reign. First Interregnum (1286–1292) The First Interregnum began upon the death of Alexander III of Scotland in 1286. Alexander's only surviving descendant was his granddaughter Margaret, Maid of Norway, a young child, who inherited the throne in 1286. A set of guardians were appointed to rule Scotland in her absence since she was living in Norway where her father Eric II was king. She was finally sent to Scotland in 1290 but died before arriving in Scotland. The next king of Scots was not determined until completion of an arbitration in 1292. House of Balliol (1292–1296) The death of Margaret of Norway began a two-year interregnum in Scotland caused by a succession crisis. With her death, the descent of William I became extinct and there was no obvious heir. Thirteen candidates presented themselves; the most prominent were John Balliol, great-grandson of William I's younger brother David of Huntingdon, and Robert de Brus, 5th Lord of Annandale, grandson of David of Huntingdon. The Scottish magnates invited Edward I of England to arbitrate the claims. He did so but forced the Scots to swear allegiance to him as overlord. Eventually, it was decided that John Balliol should become king. He proved weak and incapable and, in 1296, was forced to abdicate by Edward I who then attempted to annex Scotland into the Kingdom of England. Second Interregnum (1296–1306) John Balliol abdicated in March 1296. That same month Edward I invaded Scotland. The second set of guardians were appointed under Edward I who ruled from 1296 to 1306, until the election of Robert the Bruce as the king of Scotland. House of Bruce (1306–1371) For ten years, Scotland had no king. The Scots, however, refused to tolerate English rule. First William Wallace and Andrew Moray, then John Comyn, and finally Robert the Bruce (the grandson of the 1292 competitor, Robert de Brus, 5th Lord of Annandale who in turn was the grandson of David of Huntingdon, younger brother of William I) fought against the English. Bruce and his supporters had murdered their rival to the throne of Scotland, John Comyn, Lord of Badenoch, on 10 February 1306 at Greyfriars Church in Dumfries. Shortly after in 1306, Robert was crowned King of Scots at Scone. Robert Bruce was then hunted down for his crime of murder, and subsequently, he escaped to the outskirt islands, leaving the country completely leaderless, and the English invaded once again. Bruce returned a year later and gained support for his cause. His energy, and the corresponding replacement of the vigorous Edward I with his weaker son Edward II in 1307, allowed Scotland to free itself from English rule. At the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, the Scots routed the English, and by 1328 the English had agreed by treaty to accept Scottish independence. Robert's son, David, acceded to the throne as a child. The English renewed their war with Scotland, and David was forced to flee the kingdom by Edward Balliol, son of King John, who managed to get himself crowned (1332–1356) and to give away Scotland's southern counties to England before being driven out again. David spent much of his life in exile, first in freedom with his ally, France, and then in prison in England. He was only able to return to Scotland in 1357. Upon his death, childless, in 1371, the House of Bruce came to an end. House of Balliol (Disputed claimant) (1332–1356) Edward Balliol was the son of King John Balliol, who had himself ruled for four years following his election in the Great Cause. Following his abdication, John Balliol lived out his life in obscurity in Picardy, France. During the minority of David II, Edward Balliol seized the opportunity to assert his claim to the throne, and backed by the English, he defeated the forces of David's regency and was himself crowned king at Scone in 1332. He was quickly defeated by loyalist forces and sent back to England. With English support, he would mount two more attempts to seize the throne again, in 1333 and 1335, each time his actual control of the throne was brief before being sent back to England, for the last time in 1336. When David returned from exile in 1341 to rule in his own right, Edward lost most of his support. When David II was captured in battle in 1346, Edward made one last attempt to seize the throne for himself but had little support and the campaign fizzled before it gained much traction. In 1356 he renounced all claims to the throne. House of Stewart/Stuart (1371–1651) Robert the Stewart was a grandson of Robert I by the latter's daughter, Marjorie. Having been born in 1316, he was older than his uncle, David II. Consequently, he was at his accession a middle-aged man, already 55, and unable to reign vigorously, a problem also faced by his son Robert III, who also ascended in middle age at 53 in 1390, and suffered lasting damage in a horse-riding accident. These two were followed by a series of regencies, caused by the youth of the succeeding five boy kings. Consequently, the Stewart era saw periods of royal inertia, during which the nobles usurped power from the crown, followed by periods of personal rule by the monarch, during which he or she would attempt to address the issues created by their minority and the long-term effects of previous reigns. Governing Scotland became increasingly difficult, as the powerful nobility became increasingly intractable. James I's attempts to curb the disorder of the realm ended in his assassination. James III was killed in a civil war between himself and the nobility, led by his son. When James IV, who had governed sternly and suppressed the aristocrats, died in the Battle of Flodden, his wife Margaret Tudor, who had been nominated regent for their young son James V, was unseated by noble feuding, and James V's wife, Mary of Guise, succeeded in ruling Scotland during the regency for her young daughter Mary I only by dividing and conquering the noble factions, distributing French bribes with a liberal hand. Finally, Mary I, the daughter of James V, found herself unable to govern Scotland faced with the surliness of the aristocracy and the intransigence of the population, who favored Calvinism and disapproved of her Catholicism. She was forced to abdicate, and fled to England, where she was imprisoned in various castles and manor houses for eighteen years and finally executed for treason against the English queen Elizabeth I. Upon her abdication, her son, fathered by Henry, Lord Darnley, a junior member of the Stewart family, became King as James VI. James VI became King of England and Ireland as James I in 1603 when his cousin Elizabeth I died. Thereafter, although the two crowns of England and Scotland remained separate, the monarchy was based chiefly in England. Charles I, James's son, found himself faced with the Civil War. The resultant conflict lasted eight years and ended in his execution. The English Parliament then decreed their monarchy to be at an end. The Scots Parliament, after some deliberation, broke their links with England and declared that Charles II, son, and heir of Charles I, would become King. He ruled until 1651 when the armies of Oliver Cromwell occupied Scotland and drove him into exile. Third Interregnum (1651–1660) House of Stuart (restored) (1660–1707) With the Scottish Restoration, the Stuarts became Kings of Scotland once more but Scotland's rights were not respected. During the reign of Charles II, the Scottish Parliament was dissolved and James was appointed Governor of Scotland. James II himself became James VII in 1685. His Catholicism was not tolerated, and he was driven out of England after three years. In his place came his daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange, the ruler of the Dutch Republic. The two were accepted as monarchs of Scotland after a period of deliberation by the Scottish Parliament and ruled together as William II and Mary II. An attempt to establish a Scottish colonial empire through the Darien Scheme, in rivalry to that of England, failed, leaving the Scottish nobles who financed the venture for their profit bankrupt. This coincided with the accession of Queen Anne, daughter of James VII. Anne had multiple children but none of these survived her, leaving as her heir her half-brother, James, then living in exile in France. The English favored the Protestant Sophia of Hanover (a granddaughter of James VI) as heir. Many Scots preferred Prince James, who as a Stuart was a Scot by ancestry, and threatened to break the Union of Crowns between England and Scotland by choosing him for themselves. To preserve the union, the English elaborated a plan whereby the two Kingdoms of Scotland and England would merge into a single Kingdom, the Kingdom of Great Britain, ruled by a common monarch, and with a single Parliament. Both national parliaments agreed to this (the Scots albeit reluctantly, motivated primarily by the national finances), and some subterfuge as a total majority of signatories were needed to ratify the Scottish parliament's assent, bribes, and payments. Thereafter, although monarchs continued to rule over the nation of Scotland, they did so first as monarchs of Great Britain, and from 1801 of the United Kingdom. Acts of Union The Acts of Union were twin Parliamentary Acts passed during 1706 and 1707 by the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland, putting into effect the terms of the Treaty of Union, agreed on 22 July 1706, following prolonged negotiation between Queen Anne's Commissioners representing both parliaments. The Acts joined the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland to form a united Kingdom of Great Britain. Scotland and England had shared a common monarch since the Union of the Crowns in 1603 when the Scottish king James VI succeeded to the English throne. Although described as a Union of Crowns, before the Acts of Union of 1707, the crowns of the two separate kingdoms had rested on the same head. Three unsuccessful attempts (in 1606, 1667, and 1689) were made to unite the two kingdoms by Acts of Parliament, but it was not until the early 18th century that the idea had the will of both political establishments to succeed, thereby bringing the two separate states together under a single parliament as well as a single monarch. Later claimants James VII continued to claim the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland. When he died in 1701, his son James inherited his father's claims and called himself James VIII of Scotland and III of England and Ireland. He would continue to do so all his life, even after the Kingdoms of England and Scotland were ended by their merging as the Kingdom of Great Britain. In 1715, a year after the death of his half-sister, Queen Anne, and the accession of their cousin George of Hanover, James landed in Scotland and attempted to claim the throne. He failed and was forced to flee back to the Continent. A second attempt by his son Charles, on behalf of his father, in 1745–6, also failed. Both James's children died without legitimate issue, bringing the Stuart family to an end. "James VIII", also known as The Old Pretender, son of James VII, was claimant from 1701 until he died in 1766. "Charles III", also known as The Young Pretender and often called Bonnie Prince Charlie, son of James VIII, was claimant from his father's death until his death in 1788 without legitimate issue. "Henry I", brother of Charles III and youngest son of James VIII. Died unmarried in 1807. After 1807, the Jacobite claims passed first to the House of Savoy (1807–1840), then to the Modenese branch of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine (1840–1919), and finally to the House of Wittelsbach (since 1919). The current heir is Franz, Duke of Bavaria. Neither he nor any of his predecessors since 1807 have pursued their claim. In 1971, Ugandan President Idi Amin proclaimed himself to be the uncrowned king of Scotland, although this claim gained no international recognition. Timeline of Scottish monarchs Coronation oath The Scottish coronation oath sworn by James VI, Charles I, and Charles II and approved by the Parliament of Scotland in 1567: I, N.N., promise faithfully, in the presence of the eternal, my God, that I, enduring the whole Course of my Life, shall serve the same Eternal, my God, to the utmost of my Power, accordingly as he required in his most Holy Word, revealed and contained in the New and Old Testament; and according to the same Word shall maintain the true Religion of Jesus Christ, the preaching of his Holy Word, and due and right administration of his Sacraments, now received and practised within this Realm; and shall abolish and oppose all false Religion contrary to the same; and shall rule the People committed to my Charge, according to the Will and Command of God, revealed in his foresaid Word, and according to the lovable Laws and Constitutions received in this Realm, in no way repugnant to the said Word of the Eternal, my God; and shall procure to my utmost to the Kirk of God and whole Christian people true and perfect Peace in all times coming; the Rights and Rents, with all just privileges of the Crown of Scotland, I shall preserve and keep inviolate, neither shall I transfer nor alienate the same; I shall forbid and repress in all Estates and all Degrees theft, Oppression and all kind of Wrong; in all Judgements, I shall command and procure that Justice and Equity be kept to all creatures without exception, as he be merciful to me and you that is the Lord and Father of all Mercies; and out of all my lands and empire I shall be careful to root out all Heresy and Enemies to the true Worship of God, that shall be convicted by the true Kirk of God of the foresaid Crimes; and these Things above-written I faithfully affirm by my solemn Oath. The coronation oath sworn by William II, Mary II and Anne was approved by the Parliament of Scotland on 18 April 1689. The oath was as follows: WE William and Mary, King and Queen of Scotland, faithfully promise and swear, by this our solemn Oath, in presence of the Eternal God, that during the whole Course of our Life we will serve the same Eternal God, to the uttermost of our Power, according as he has required in his most Holy Word, revealed and contained in the New and Old Testament; and according to the same Word shall maintain the true Religion of Christ Jesus, the preaching of his Holy Word, and the due and right Ministration of the Sacraments, now received and preached within the Realm of Scotland; and shall abolish and gainstand all false Religion contrary to the same, and shall rule the People committed to our Charge, according to the Will and Command of God, revealed in his aforesaid Word, and according to the laudable Laws and Constitutions received in this Realm, no ways repugnant to the said Word of the Eternal God; and shall procure, to the utmost of our power, to the Kirk of God, and whole Christian People, true and perfect Peace in all time coming. That we shall preserve and keep inviolated the Rights and Rents, with all just Privileges of the Crown of Scotland, neither shall we transfer nor alienate the same; that we shall forbid and repress in all Estates and Degrees, Reif, Oppression and all kind of Wrong. And we shall command and procure, that Justice and Equity in all Judgments be kept to all Persons without exception, us the Lord and Father of all Mercies shall be merciful to us. And we shall be careful to root out all Heretics and Enemies to the true Worship of God, that shall be convicted by the true Kirk of God, of the aforesaid Crimes, out of our Lands and Empire of Scotland. And we faithfully affirm the Things above-written by our solemn Oath. See also Notes References Bibliography Anderson, Alan Orr, Early Sources of Scottish History: AD 500–1286, 2 Vols (Edinburgh, 1922). Broun, Dauvit (2007), Scottish Independence and the Idea of Britain. From the Picts to Alexander III., Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 978-0-7486-2360-0 Duncan, Archibald Alexander McBeth (2002). The Kingship of the Scots, 842–1292: Succession and Independence. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0748616268. Hudson, Benjamin T., Kings of Celtic Scotland (Westport, 1994). Oram, Richard (2002). The Canmores: Kings & Queens of the Scots, 1040–1290. Tempus. ISBN 0752423258. Reid, Norman (1982). "Margaret, "Maid of Norway" and Scottish Queenship" (PDF). Reading Medieval Studies. 8: 75–96. Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 September 2022. Skene, W. F. (ed.), Chronicles of the Picts, Chronicles of the Scots and other Early Memorials of Scottish History (Edinburgh, 1867) External links Scottish Monarchs British Royal Family History – Kings and Queens of Scotland

Who were the first two women who won the Nobel Prize, in any category, who were also mothers?

Marie Curie and Grazia Deledda

Numerical reasoning | Multiple constraints

Maria Salomea Skłodowska-Curie (Polish: [ˈmarja salɔˈmɛa skwɔˈdɔfska kʲiˈri] ; née Skłodowska; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934), known simply as Marie Curie ( KURE-ee; French: [maʁi kyʁi]), was a Polish and naturalised-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win a Nobel Prize twice, and the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two scientific fields. Her husband, Pierre Curie, was a co-winner of her first Nobel Prize, making them the first married couple to win the Nobel Prize and launching the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes. She was, in 1906, the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris. She was born in Warsaw, in what was then the Kingdom of Poland, part of the Russian Empire. She studied at Warsaw's clandestine Flying University and began her practical scientific training in Warsaw. In 1891, aged 24, she followed her elder sister Bronisława to study in Paris, where she earned her higher degrees and conducted her subsequent scientific work. In 1895, she married the French physicist Pierre Curie, and she shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with him and with the physicist Henri Becquerel for their pioneering work developing the theory of "radioactivity"—a term she coined. In 1906, Pierre Curie died in a Paris street accident. Marie won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her discovery of the elements polonium and radium, using techniques she invented for isolating radioactive isotopes. Under her direction, the world's first studies were conducted into the treatment of neoplasms by the use of radioactive isotopes. She founded the Curie Institute in Paris in 1920, and the Curie Institute in Warsaw in 1932; both remain major medical research centres. During World War I, she developed mobile radiography units to provide X-ray services to field hospitals. While a French citizen, Marie Skłodowska Curie, who used both surnames, never lost her sense of Polish identity. She taught her daughters the Polish language and took them on visits to Poland. She named the first chemical element she discovered polonium, after her native country. Marie Curie died in 1934, aged 66, at the Sancellemoz sanatorium in Passy (Haute-Savoie), France, of aplastic anemia likely from exposure to radiation in the course of her scientific research and in the course of her radiological work at field hospitals during World War I. In addition to her Nobel Prizes, she received numerous other honours and tributes; in 1995 she became the first woman to be entombed on her own merits in the Paris Panthéon, and Poland declared 2011 the Year of Marie Curie during the International Year of Chemistry. She is the subject of numerous biographical works. Life and career Early years Maria Skłodowska was born in Warsaw, in Congress Poland in the Russian Empire, on 7 November 1867, the fifth and youngest child of well-known teachers Bronisława, née Boguska, and Władysław Skłodowski. The elder siblings of Maria (nicknamed Mania) were Zofia (born 1862, nicknamed Zosia), Józef (born 1863, nicknamed Józio), Bronisława (born 1865, nicknamed Bronia) and Helena (born 1866, nicknamed Hela). On both the paternal and maternal sides, the family had lost their property and fortunes through patriotic involvements in Polish national uprisings aimed at restoring Poland's independence (the most recent had been the January Uprising of 1863–65). This condemned the subsequent generation, including Maria and her elder siblings, to a difficult struggle to get ahead in life. Maria's paternal grandfather, Józef Skłodowski, had been principal of the Lublin primary school attended by Bolesław Prus, who became a leading figure in Polish literature. Władysław Skłodowski taught mathematics and physics, subjects that Maria was to pursue, and was also director of two Warsaw gymnasia (secondary schools) for boys. After Russian authorities eliminated laboratory instruction from the Polish schools, he brought much of the laboratory equipment home and instructed his children in its use. He was eventually fired by his Russian supervisors for pro-Polish sentiments and forced to take lower-paying posts; the family also lost money on a bad investment and eventually chose to supplement their income by lodging boys in the house. Maria's mother Bronisława operated a prestigious Warsaw boarding school for girls; she resigned from the position after Maria was born. She died of tuberculosis in May 1878, when Maria was ten years old. Less than three years earlier, Maria's oldest sibling, Zofia, had died of typhus contracted from a boarder. Maria's father was an atheist, her mother a devout Catholic. The deaths of Maria's mother and sister caused her to give up Catholicism and become agnostic. When she was ten years old, Maria began attending the boarding school of J. Sikorska; next, she attended a gymnasium for girls, from which she graduated on 12 June 1883 with a gold medal. After a collapse, possibly due to depression, she spent the following year in the countryside with relatives of her father, and the next year with her father in Warsaw, where she did some tutoring. Unable to enrol in a regular institution of higher education because she was a woman, she and her sister Bronisława became involved with the clandestine Flying University (sometimes translated as Floating University), a Polish patriotic institution of higher learning that admitted women students. Maria made an agreement with her sister, Bronisława, that she would give her financial assistance during Bronisława's medical studies in Paris, in exchange for similar assistance two years later. In connection with this, Maria took a position first as a home tutor in Warsaw, then for two years as a governess in Szczuki with a landed family, the Żorawskis, who were relatives of her father. While working for the latter family, she fell in love with their son, Kazimierz Żorawski, a future eminent mathematician. His parents rejected the idea of his marrying the penniless relative, and Kazimierz was unable to oppose them. Maria's loss of the relationship with Żorawski was tragic for both. He soon earned a doctorate and pursued an academic career as a mathematician, becoming a professor and rector of Kraków University. Still, as an old man and a mathematics professor at the Warsaw Polytechnic, he would sit contemplatively before the statue of Maria Skłodowska that had been erected in 1935 before the Radium Institute, which she had founded in 1932. At the beginning of 1890, Bronisława—who a few months earlier had married Kazimierz Dłuski, a Polish physician and social and political activist—invited Maria to join them in Paris. Maria declined because she could not afford the university tuition; it would take her a year and a half longer to gather the necessary funds. She was helped by her father, who was able to secure a more lucrative position again. All that time she continued to educate herself, reading books, exchanging letters, and being tutored herself. In early 1889 she returned home to her father in Warsaw. She continued working as a governess and remained there until late 1891. She tutored, studied at the Flying University, and began her practical scientific training (1890–91) in a chemistry laboratory at the Museum of Industry and Agriculture at Krakowskie Przedmieście 66, near Warsaw's Old Town. The laboratory was run by her cousin Józef Boguski, who had been an assistant in Saint Petersburg to the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleyev. Life in Paris In late 1891, she left Poland for France. In Paris, Maria (or Marie, as she would be known in France) briefly found shelter with her sister and brother-in-law before renting a garret closer to the university, in the Latin Quarter, and proceeding with her studies of physics, chemistry, and mathematics at the University of Paris, where she enrolled in late 1891. She subsisted on her meagre resources, keeping herself warm during cold winters by wearing all the clothes she had. She focused so hard on her studies that she sometimes forgot to eat. Skłodowska studied during the day and tutored evenings, barely earning her keep. In 1893, she was awarded a degree in physics and began work in an industrial laboratory of Gabriel Lippmann. Meanwhile, she continued studying at the University of Paris and with the aid of a fellowship she was able to earn a second degree in 1894. Skłodowska had begun her scientific career in Paris with an investigation of the magnetic properties of various steels, commissioned by the Society for the Encouragement of National Industry. That same year, Pierre Curie entered her life: it was their mutual interest in natural sciences that drew them together. Pierre Curie was an instructor at The City of Paris Industrial Physics and Chemistry Higher Educational Institution (ESPCI Paris). They were introduced by Polish physicist Józef Wierusz-Kowalski, who had learned that she was looking for a larger laboratory space, something that Wierusz-Kowalski thought Pierre could access. Though Curie did not have a large laboratory, he was able to find some space for Skłodowska where she was able to begin work. Their mutual passion for science brought them increasingly closer, and they began to develop feelings for one another. Eventually, Pierre proposed marriage, but at first Skłodowska did not accept as she was still planning to go back to her native country. Curie, however, declared that he was ready to move with her to Poland, even if it meant being reduced to teaching French. Meanwhile, for the 1894 summer break, Skłodowska returned to Warsaw, where she visited her family. She was still labouring under the illusion that she would be able to work in her chosen field in Poland, but she was denied a place at Kraków University because of sexism in academia. A letter from Pierre convinced her to return to Paris to pursue a PhD. At Skłodowska's insistence, Curie had written up his research on magnetism and received his own doctorate in March 1895; he was also promoted to professor at the School. A contemporary quip would call Skłodowska "Pierre's biggest discovery". On 26 July 1895, they were married in Sceaux; neither wanted a religious service. Curie's dark blue outfit, worn instead of a bridal gown, would serve her for many years as a laboratory outfit. They shared two pastimes: long bicycle trips and journeys abroad, which brought them even closer. In Pierre, Marie had found a new love, a partner, and a scientific collaborator on whom she could depend. New elements In 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen discovered the existence of X-rays, though the mechanism behind their production was not yet understood. In 1896, Henri Becquerel discovered that uranium salts emitted rays that resembled X-rays in their penetrating power. He demonstrated that this radiation, unlike phosphorescence, did not depend on an external source of energy but seemed to arise spontaneously from uranium itself. Influenced by these two important discoveries, Curie decided to look into uranium rays as a possible field of research for a thesis. She used an innovative technique to investigate samples. Fifteen years earlier, her husband and his brother had developed a version of the electrometer, a sensitive device for measuring electric charge. Using her husband's electrometer, she discovered that uranium rays caused the air around a sample to conduct electricity. Using this technique, her first result was the finding that the activity of the uranium compounds depended only on the quantity of uranium present. She hypothesized that the radiation was not the outcome of some interaction of molecules but must come from the atom itself. This hypothesis was an important step in disproving the assumption that atoms were indivisible. In 1897, her daughter Irène was born. To support her family, Curie began teaching at the École Normale Supérieure. The Curies did not have a dedicated laboratory; most of their research was carried out in a converted shed next to ESPCI. The shed, formerly a medical school dissecting room, was poorly ventilated and not even waterproof. They were unaware of the deleterious effects of radiation exposure attendant on their continued unprotected work with radioactive substances. ESPCI did not sponsor her research, but she would receive subsidies from metallurgical and mining companies and from various organizations and governments. Curie's systematic studies included two uranium minerals, pitchblende and torbernite (also known as chalcolite). Her electrometer showed that pitchblende was four times as active as uranium itself, and chalcolite twice as active. She concluded that, if her earlier results relating the quantity of uranium to its activity were correct, then these two minerals must contain small quantities of another substance that was far more active than uranium. She began a systematic search for additional substances that emit radiation, and by 1898 she discovered that the element thorium was also radioactive. Pierre Curie was increasingly intrigued by her work. By mid-1898 he was so invested in it that he decided to drop his work on crystals and to join her. The [research] idea [writes Reid] was her own; no one helped her formulate it, and although she took it to her husband for his opinion she clearly established her ownership of it. She later recorded the fact twice in her biography of her husband to ensure there was no chance whatever of any ambiguity. It [is] likely that already at this early stage of her career [she] realized that... many scientists would find it difficult to believe that a woman could be capable of the original work in which she was involved. She was acutely aware of the importance of promptly publishing her discoveries and thus establishing her priority. Had not Becquerel, two years earlier, presented his discovery to the Académie des Sciences the day after he made it, credit for the discovery of radioactivity (and even a Nobel Prize), would instead have gone to Silvanus Thompson. Curie chose the same rapid means of publication. Her paper, giving a brief and simple account of her work, was presented for her to the Académie on 12 April 1898 by her former professor, Gabriel Lippmann. Even so, just as Thompson had been beaten by Becquerel, so Curie was beaten in the race to tell of her discovery that thorium gives off rays in the same way as uranium; two months earlier, Gerhard Carl Schmidt had published his own finding in Berlin. At that time, no one else in the world of physics had noticed what Curie recorded in a sentence of her paper, describing how much greater were the activities of pitchblende and chalcolite than uranium itself: "The fact is very remarkable, and leads to the belief that these minerals may contain an element which is much more active than uranium." She later would recall how she felt "a passionate desire to verify this hypothesis as rapidly as possible." On 14 April 1898, the Curies optimistically weighed out a 100-gram sample of pitchblende and ground it with a pestle and mortar. They did not realize at the time that what they were searching for was present in such minute quantities that they would eventually have to process tonnes of the ore. In July 1898, Curie and her husband published a joint paper announcing the existence of an element they named "polonium", in honour of her native Poland, which would for another twenty years remain partitioned among three empires (Russian, Austrian, and Prussian). On 26 December 1898, the Curies announced the existence of a second element, which they named "radium", from the Latin word for "ray". In the course of their research, they also coined the word "radioactivity". To prove their discoveries beyond any doubt, the Curies sought to isolate polonium and radium in pure form. Pitchblende is a complex mineral; the chemical separation of its constituents was an arduous task. The discovery of polonium had been relatively easy; chemically it resembles the element bismuth, and polonium was the only bismuth-like substance in the ore. Radium, however, was more elusive; it is closely related chemically to barium, and pitchblende contains both elements. By 1898 the Curies had obtained traces of radium, but appreciable quantities, uncontaminated with barium, were still beyond reach. The Curies undertook the arduous task of separating out radium salt by differential crystallization. From a tonne of pitchblende, one-tenth of a gram of radium chloride was separated in 1902. In 1910, she isolated pure radium metal. She never succeeded in isolating polonium, which has a half-life of only 138 days. Between 1898 and 1902, the Curies published, jointly or separately, a total of 32 scientific papers, including one that announced that, when exposed to radium, diseased, tumour-forming cells were destroyed faster than healthy cells. In 1900, Curie became the first woman faculty member at the École Normale Supérieure and her husband joined the faculty of the University of Paris. In 1902 she visited Poland on the occasion of her father's death. In June 1903, supervised by Gabriel Lippmann, Curie was awarded her doctorate from the University of Paris. That month the couple were invited to the Royal Institution in London to give a speech on radioactivity; being a woman, she was prevented from speaking, and Pierre Curie alone was allowed to. Meanwhile, a new industry began developing, based on radium. The Curies did not patent their discovery and benefited little from this increasingly profitable business. Nobel Prizes In December 1903 the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Pierre Curie, Marie Curie, and Henri Becquerel the Nobel Prize in Physics, "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel." At first the committee had intended to honour only Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel, but a committee member and advocate for women scientists, Swedish mathematician Magnus Gösta Mittag-Leffler, alerted Pierre to the situation, and after his complaint, Marie's name was added to the nomination. Marie Curie was the first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize. Curie and her husband declined to go to Stockholm to receive the prize in person; they were too busy with their work, and Pierre Curie, who disliked public ceremonies, was feeling increasingly ill. As Nobel laureates were required to deliver a lecture, the Curies finally undertook the trip in 1905. The award money allowed the Curies to hire their first laboratory assistant. Following the award of the Nobel Prize, and galvanized by an offer from the University of Geneva, which offered Pierre Curie a position, the University of Paris gave him a professorship and the chair of physics, although the Curies still did not have a proper laboratory. Upon Pierre Curie's complaint, the University of Paris relented and agreed to furnish a new laboratory, but it would not be ready until 1906. In December 1904, Curie gave birth to their second daughter, Ève. She hired Polish governesses to teach her daughters her native language, and sent or took them on visits to Poland. On 19 April 1906, Pierre Curie was killed in a road accident. Walking across the Rue Dauphine in heavy rain, he was struck by a horse-drawn vehicle and fell under its wheels, fracturing his skull and killing him instantly. Curie was devastated by her husband's death. On 13 May 1906 the physics department of the University of Paris decided to retain the chair that had been created for her late husband and offer it to Marie. She accepted it, hoping to create a world-class laboratory as a tribute to her husband Pierre. She was the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris. Curie's quest to create a new laboratory did not end with the University of Paris, however. In her later years, she headed the Radium Institute (Institut du radium, now Curie Institute, Institut Curie), a radioactivity laboratory created for her by the Pasteur Institute and the University of Paris. The initiative for creating the Radium Institute had come in 1909 from Pierre Paul Émile Roux, director of the Pasteur Institute, who had been disappointed that the University of Paris was not giving Curie a proper laboratory and had suggested that she move to the Pasteur Institute. Only then, with the threat of Curie leaving, did the University of Paris relent, and eventually the Curie Pavilion became a joint initiative of the University of Paris and the Pasteur Institute. In 1910 Curie succeeded in isolating radium; she also defined an international standard for radioactive emissions that was eventually named for her and Pierre: the curie. Nevertheless, in 1911 the French Academy of Sciences failed, by one or two votes, to elect her to membership in the academy. Elected instead was Édouard Branly, an inventor who had helped Guglielmo Marconi develop the wireless telegraph. It was only over half a century later, in 1962, that a doctoral student of Curie's, Marguerite Perey, became the first woman elected to membership in the academy. Despite Curie's fame as a scientist working for France, the public's attitude tended toward xenophobia—the same that had led to the Dreyfus affair—which also fuelled false speculation that Curie was Jewish. During the French Academy of Sciences elections, she was vilified by the right-wing press as a foreigner and atheist. Her daughter later remarked on the French press's hypocrisy in portraying Curie as an unworthy foreigner when she was nominated for a French honour, but portraying her as a French heroine when she received foreign honours such as her Nobel Prizes. In 1911 it was revealed that Curie was involved in a year-long affair with physicist Paul Langevin, a former student of Pierre Curie's, a married man who was estranged from his wife. This resulted in a press scandal that was exploited by her academic opponents. Curie (then in her mid-40s) was five years older than Langevin and was misrepresented in the tabloids as a foreign Jewish home-wrecker. When the scandal broke, she was away at a conference in Belgium; on her return, she found an angry mob in front of her house and had to seek refuge, with her daughters, in the home of her friend, Camille Marbo. International recognition for her work had been growing to new heights, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, overcoming opposition prompted by the Langevin scandal, honoured her a second time, with the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. This award was "in recognition of her services to the advancement of chemistry by the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, by the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element." Because of the negative publicity due to her affair with Langevin, the chair of the Nobel committee, Svante Arrhenius, attempted to prevent her attendance at the official ceremony for her Nobel Prize in Chemistry, citing her questionable moral standing. Curie replied that she would be present at the ceremony, because "the prize has been given to her for her discovery of polonium and radium" and that "there is no relation between her scientific work and the facts of her private life". She was the first person to win or share two Nobel Prizes, and remains alone with Linus Pauling as Nobel laureates in two fields each. A delegation of celebrated Polish men of learning, headed by novelist Henryk Sienkiewicz, encouraged her to return to Poland and continue her research in her native country. Curie's second Nobel Prize enabled her to persuade the French government to support the Radium Institute, built in 1914, where research was conducted in chemistry, physics, and medicine. A month after accepting her 1911 Nobel Prize, she was hospitalised with depression and a kidney ailment. For most of 1912, she avoided public life but did spend time in England with her friend and fellow physicist, Hertha Ayrton. She returned to her laboratory only in December, after a break of about 14 months. In 1912 the Warsaw Scientific Society offered her the directorship of a new laboratory in Warsaw but she declined, focusing on the developing Radium Institute to be completed in August 1914, and on a new street named Rue Pierre-Curie (today rue Pierre-et-Marie-Curie). She was appointed director of the Curie Laboratory in the Radium Institute of the University of Paris, founded in 1914. She visited Poland in 1913 and was welcomed in Warsaw but the visit was mostly ignored by the Russian authorities. The institute's development was interrupted by the coming war, as most researchers were drafted into the French Army, and it fully resumed its activities in 1919. World War I During World War I, Curie recognised that wounded soldiers were best served if operated upon as soon as possible. She saw a need for field radiological centres near the front lines to assist battlefield surgeons, including to obviate amputations when in fact limbs could be saved. After a quick study of radiology, anatomy, and automotive mechanics, she procured X-ray equipment, vehicles, and auxiliary generators, and she developed mobile radiography units, which came to be popularly known as petites Curies ("Little Curies"). She became the director of the Red Cross Radiology Service and set up France's first military radiology centre, operational by late 1914. Assisted at first by a military doctor and her 17-year-old daughter Irène, Curie directed the installation of 20 mobile radiological vehicles and another 200 radiological units at field hospitals in the first year of the war. Later, she began training other women as aides. In 1915, Curie produced hollow needles containing "radium emanation", a colourless, radioactive gas given off by radium, later identified as radon, to be used for sterilizing infected tissue. She provided the radium from her own one-gram supply. It is estimated that over a million wounded soldiers were treated with her X-ray units. Busy with this work, she carried out very little scientific research during that period. In spite of all her humanitarian contributions to the French war effort, Curie never received any formal recognition of it from the French government. Also, promptly after the war started, she attempted to donate her gold Nobel Prize medals to the war effort but the French National Bank refused to accept them. She did buy war bonds, using her Nobel Prize money. She said: I am going to give up the little gold I possess. I shall add to this the scientific medals, which are quite useless to me. There is something else: by sheer laziness I had allowed the money for my second Nobel Prize to remain in Stockholm in Swedish crowns. This is the chief part of what we possess. I should like to bring it back here and invest it in war loans. The state needs it. Only, I have no illusions: this money will probably be lost. She was also an active member in committees of Polonia in France dedicated to the Polish cause. After the war, she summarized her wartime experiences in a book, Radiology in War (1919). Postwar years In 1920, for the 25th anniversary of the discovery of radium, the French government established a stipend for her; its previous recipient was Louis Pasteur, who had died in 1895. In 1921, she was welcomed triumphantly when she toured the United States to raise funds for research on radium. Mrs. William Brown Meloney, after interviewing Curie, created a Marie Curie Radium Fund and raised money to buy radium, publicising her trip. In 1921, U.S. President Warren G. Harding received her at the White House to present her with the 1 gram of radium collected in the United States, and the First Lady praised her as an example of a professional achiever who was also a supportive wife. Before the meeting, recognising her growing fame abroad, and embarrassed by the fact that she had no French official distinctions to wear in public, the French government offered her a Legion of Honour award, but she refused. In 1922 she became a fellow of the French Academy of Medicine. She also travelled to other countries, appearing publicly and giving lectures in Belgium, Brazil, Spain, and Czechoslovakia. Led by Curie, the Institute produced four more Nobel Prize winners, including her daughter Irène Joliot-Curie and her son-in-law, Frédéric Joliot-Curie. Eventually it became one of the world's four major radioactivity-research laboratories, the others being the Cavendish Laboratory, with Ernest Rutherford; the Institute for Radium Research, Vienna, with Stefan Meyer; and the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry, with Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner. In August 1922 Marie Curie became a member of the League of Nations' newly created International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation. She sat on the committee until 1934 and contributed to League of Nations' scientific coordination with other prominent researchers such as Albert Einstein, Hendrik Lorentz, and Henri Bergson. In 1923 she wrote a biography of her late husband, titled Pierre Curie. In 1925 she visited Poland to participate in a ceremony laying the foundations for Warsaw's Radium Institute. Her second American tour, in 1929, succeeded in equipping the Warsaw Radium Institute with radium; the Institute opened in 1932, with her sister Bronisława its director. These distractions from her scientific labours, and the attendant publicity, caused her much discomfort but provided resources for her work. In 1930 she was elected to the International Atomic Weights Committee, on which she served until her death. In 1931, Curie was awarded the Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh. Death Curie visited Poland for the last time in early 1934. A few months later, on 4 July 1934, she died aged 66 at the Sancellemoz sanatorium in Passy, Haute-Savoie, from aplastic anemia believed to have been contracted from her long-term exposure to radiation, causing damage to her bone marrow. The damaging effects of ionising radiation were not known at the time of her work, which had been carried out without the safety measures later developed. She had carried test tubes containing radioactive isotopes in her pocket, and she stored them in her desk drawer, remarking on the faint light that the substances gave off in the dark. Curie was also exposed to X-rays from unshielded equipment while serving as a radiologist in field hospitals during the First World War. When Curie's body was exhumed in 1995, the French Office de Protection contre les Rayonnements Ionisants (OPRI) "concluded that she could not have been exposed to lethal levels of radium while she was alive". They pointed out that radium poses a risk only if it is ingested, and speculated that her illness was more likely to have been due to her use of radiography during the First World War. She was interred at the cemetery in Sceaux, alongside her husband Pierre. Sixty years later, in 1995, in honour of their achievements, the remains of both were transferred to the Paris Panthéon. Their remains were sealed in a lead lining because of the radioactivity. She became the second woman to be interred at the Panthéon (after Sophie Berthelot) and the first woman to be honoured with interment in the Panthéon on her own merits. Because of their levels of radioactive contamination, her papers from the 1890s are considered too dangerous to handle. Even her cookbooks are highly radioactive. Her papers are kept in lead-lined boxes, and those who wish to consult them must wear protective clothing. In her last year, she worked on a book, Radioactivity, which was published posthumously in 1935. Legacy The physical and societal aspects of the Curies' work contributed to shaping the world of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Cornell University professor L. Pearce Williams observes: The result of the Curies' work was epoch-making. Radium's radioactivity was so great that it could not be ignored. It seemed to contradict the principle of the conservation of energy and therefore forced a reconsideration of the foundations of physics. On the experimental level the discovery of radium provided men like Ernest Rutherford with sources of radioactivity with which they could probe the structure of the atom. As a result of Rutherford's experiments with alpha radiation, the nuclear atom was first postulated. In medicine, the radioactivity of radium appeared to offer a means by which cancer could be successfully attacked. In addition to helping to overturn established ideas in physics and chemistry, Curie's work has had a profound effect in the societal sphere. To attain her scientific achievements, she had to overcome barriers, in both her native and her adoptive country, that were placed in her way because she was a woman. She was known for her honesty and moderate lifestyle. Having received a small scholarship in 1893, she returned it in 1897 as soon as she began earning her keep. She gave much of her first Nobel Prize money to friends, family, students, and research associates. In an unusual decision, Curie intentionally refrained from patenting the radium-isolation process so that the scientific community could do research unhindered. She insisted that monetary gifts and awards be given to the scientific institutions she was affiliated with rather than to her. She and her husband often refused awards and medals. Albert Einstein reportedly remarked that she was probably the only person who could not be corrupted by fame. Commemoration and cultural depictions As one of the most famous scientists in history, Marie Curie has become an icon in the scientific world and has received tributes from across the globe, even in the realm of pop culture. She also received many honorary degrees from universities across the world. Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win two Nobel Prizes, the only woman to win in two fields, and the only person to win in multiple sciences. Awards and honours that she received include: Nobel Prize in Physics (1903, with her husband Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel) Davy Medal (1903, with Pierre) Matteucci Medal (1904, with Pierre) Actonian Prize (1907) Elliott Cresson Medal (1909) Legion of Honour (1909, rejected) Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1911) Civil Order of Alfonso XII (1919) Franklin Medal of the American Philosophical Society (1921) Order of the White Eagle (2018, posthumously) Entities that have been named after Marie Curie include: The curie (symbol Ci), a unit of radioactivity, is named in honour of her and Pierre Curie (although the commission which agreed on the name never clearly stated whether the standard was named after Pierre, Marie, or both). The element with atomic number 96 was named curium (symbol Cm). Three radioactive minerals are also named after the Curies: curite, sklodowskite, and cuprosklodowskite. The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions fellowship program of the European Union for young scientists wishing to work in a foreign country In 2007, a metro station in Paris was renamed to honour both of the Curies. The sole Polish nuclear reactor in operation, the research reactor Maria The 7000 Curie asteroid Marie Curie, a registered charitable organisation in the United Kingdom The IEEE Marie Sklodowska-Curie Award, an international award presented for outstanding contributions to the field of nuclear and plasma sciences and engineering, was established by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2008. The Marie Curie Medal, an annual science award established in 1996 and conferred by the Polish Chemical Society The Marie Curie–Sklodowska Medal and Prize, an annual award conferred by the London-based Institute of Physics for distinguished contributions to physics education Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, Poland Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris Maria Skłodowska-Curie National Research Institute of Oncology in Poland École élémentaire Marie-Curie in London, Ontario, Canada; Curie Metropolitan High School in Chicago, United States; Marie Curie High School in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Lycée français Marie Curie de Zurich, Switzerland; see Lycée Marie Curie for a list of other schools named after her Rue Madame Curie in Beirut, Lebanon. Numerous biographies are devoted to her, including: Ève Curie (Marie Curie's daughter), Madame Curie, 1938. Françoise Giroud, Marie Curie: A Life, 1987. Susan Quinn, Marie Curie: A Life, 1996. Barbara Goldsmith, Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie, 2005. Lauren Redniss, Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie, a Tale of Love and Fallout, 2011, adapted into the 2019 British film. Marie Curie has been the subject of a number of films: 1943: Madame Curie, a U.S. Oscar-nominated film by Mervyn LeRoy starring Greer Garson. 1997: Les Palmes de M. Schutz, a French film adapted from a play of the same title, and directed by Claude Pinoteau. Marie Curie is played by Isabelle Huppert. 2014: Marie Curie, une femme sur le front, a French-Belgian film, directed by Alain Brunard and starring Dominique Reymond. 2016: Marie Curie: The Courage of Knowledge, a European co-production by Marie Noëlle starring Karolina Gruszka. 2016: Super Science Friends, an American Internet animated series created by Brett Jubinville featuring Hedy Gregor as Marie Curie. 2019: Radioactive, a British film by Marjane Satrapi starring Rosamund Pike. Curie is the subject of the 2013 play False Assumptions by Lawrence Aronovitch, in which the ghosts of three other women scientists observe events in her life. Curie has also been portrayed by Susan Marie Frontczak in her play, Manya: The Living History of Marie Curie, a one-woman show which by 2014 had been performed in 30 U.S. states and nine countries. Lauren Gunderson's 2019 play The Half-Life of Marie Curie portrays Curie during the summer after her 1911 Nobel Prize victory, when she was grappling with depression and facing public scorn over the revelation of her affair with Paul Langevin. The life of the scientist was also the subject of a 2018 Korean musical, titled Marie Curie. The show was since translated in English (as Marie Curie a New Musical) and has been performed several times across Asia and Europe, receiving its official Off West End premiere in London's Charing Cross Theatre in summer 2024. Curie has appeared on more than 600 postage stamps in many countries across the world. Between 1989 and 1996, she was featured on a 20,000-zloty banknote designed by Andrzej Heidrich. In 2011, a commemorative 20-zloty banknote depicting Curie was issued by the National Bank of Poland on the 100th anniversary of the scientist receiving the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In 1994, the Bank of France issued a 500-franc banknote featuring Marie and Pierre Curie. As of the middle of 2024, Curie is depicted on French 50 euro cent coins to commemorate her importance in French history. See also Charlotte Hoffman Kellogg, who sponsored Marie Curie's visit to the US Eusapia Palladino: Spiritualist medium whose Paris séances were attended by an intrigued Pierre Curie and a sceptical Marie Curie List of female Nobel laureates List of female nominees for the Nobel Prize List of Poles in Chemistry List of Poles in Physics List of Polish Nobel laureates Timeline of women in science Treatise on Radioactivity, by Marie Curie Women in chemistry Explanatory notes References Further reading Nonfiction Curie, Eve (2001). Madame Curie: A Biography. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-81038-1. Curie, Marie (1921). The Discovery of Radium . Poughkeepsie: Vassar College. Dzienkiewicz, Marta (2017). Polish Pioneers: Book of Prominent Poles. Translated by Monod-Gayraud, Agnes. Illustrations: Rzezak, Joanna; Karski, Piotr. Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Dwie Siostry. ISBN 9788365341686. OCLC 1060750234. Giroud, Françoise (1986). Marie Curie: A Life. Translated by Lydia Davis. New York: Holmes & Meier. ISBN 978-0-8419-0977-9. OCLC 12946269. Kaczorowska, Teresa (2011). Córka mazowieckich równin, czyli, Maria Skłodowska-Curie z Mazowsza [Daughter of the Mazovian Plains: Maria Skłodowska–Curie of Mazowsze] (in Polish). Związek Literatów Polskich, Oddział w Ciechanowie. ISBN 978-83-89408-36-5. Retrieved 15 March 2016. Opfell, Olga S. (1978). The Lady Laureates : Women Who Have Won the Nobel Prize. Metuchen, N.J.& London: Scarecrow Press. pp. 147–164. ISBN 978-0-8108-1161-4. Pasachoff, Naomi (1996). Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-509214-1. Quinn, Susan (1996). Marie Curie: A Life. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-201-88794-5. Redniss, Lauren (2010). Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-135132-7. Wirten, Eva Hemmungs (2015). Making Marie Curie: Intellectual Property and Celebrity Culture in an Age of Information. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-23584-4. Retrieved 15 March 2016. Fiction Olov Enquist, Per (2006). The Book about Blanche and Marie. New York: Overlook. ISBN 978-1-58567-668-2. A 2004 novel by Per Olov Enquist featuring Maria Skłodowska-Curie, neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot, and his Salpêtrière patient "Blanche" (Marie Wittman). The English translation was published in 2006. External links Works by Marie Curie at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) Works by Marie Curie at Open Library Works by Marie Curie at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Marie Curie at the Internet Archive Newspaper clippings about Marie Curie in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW Marie Curie on Nobelprize.org

Grazia Maria Cosima Damiana Deledda (Italian: [ˈɡrattsja deˈlɛdda]; Sardinian: Gràssia or Gràtzia Deledda [ˈɡɾa(t)si.a ðɛˈlɛɖːa]; 27 September 1871 – 15 August 1936) was an Italian writer who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1926 "for her idealistically inspired writings which with plastic clarity picture the life on her native island [i.e. Sardinia] and with depth and sympathy deal with human problems in general". She was the first Italian woman to receive the prize, and only the second woman in general after Selma Lagerlöf was awarded hers in 1909. Biography Deledda was born in Nuoro, Sardinia, into a middle-class family, to Giovanni Antonio Deledda and Francesca Cambosu, as the fourth of seven siblings. She attended elementary school (the minimum required at the time) and was then educated by a private tutor (a guest of one of her relatives) and moved on to study literature on her own. It was during this time that she started displaying an interest in writing short novels, mostly inspired by the life of Sardinian peasants and their struggles. Her teacher encouraged her to submit her writing to a newspaper and, at age 13, her first story was published in a local journal. Some of Deledda's early works were published in the fashion magazine L'ultima moda between 1888 and 1889. In 1890 Trevisani published Nell'azzurro (Into the Blue), her first collection of short stories. Deledda's main focus was the representation of poverty and the struggles associated with it through a combination of imaginary and autobiographical elements. Her family wasn't particularly supportive of her desire to write. Deledda's first novel, Fiori di Sardegna (Flowers of Sardinia) was published in 1892. Her 1896 book Paesaggi sardi, published by Speirani, is characterized by a prose both informed by fiction and poetry. Around this time Deledda initiated a regular collaboration with newspapers and magazines, most notably La Sardegna, Piccola Rivista and Nuova Antologia. Her work earned significant visibility as well as critical interest. In October 1899, Deledda met Palmiro Madesani, a functionary of the Ministry of Finance, in Cagliari. Madesani and Deledda were married in 1900 and the couple moved to Rome right after the publication of Deledda's Il vecchio della montagna (The Old Man from the Mountain, 1900). Despite the birth of her two sons, Sardus (1901) and Francesco "Franz" (1904), Deledda managed to continue to write prolifically, publishing about a novel a year. In 1903 she published Elias Portolu, which was met with commercial and critical success, boosting her reputation as a writer. This was followed by Cenere (Ashes, 1904); L'edera (The Ivy, 1908); Sino al confine (To the Border, 1910); Colombi e sparvieri (Doves and Sparrows, 1912); and her most popular book, Canne al vento (Reeds in the Wind, 1913). In 1916 Cenere was the inspiration for a silent movie with famed Italian actress Eleonora Duse. It was the first and only time that Duse, a theatre performer, appeared in a film. Deledda was one of the contributors of the nationalist women's magazine, Lidel, which was established in 1919. In 1926 Henrik Schück, a member of the Swedish Academy, nominated Deledda for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Deledda won "for her idealistically inspired writings which with plastic clarity picture the life on her native island and with depth and sympathy deal with human problems in general." She was awarded the Prize in a ceremony in Stockholm in 1926. Her initial response to the news was "Già?" ("Already?") Deledda's win contributed to an increase in popularity of her writing. Benito Mussolini, who had just consolidated his grip on power, sent Deledda a signed portrait of himself with a dedication where he expressed his "profound admiration" for the writer. Flocks of journalists and photographers started visiting her home in Rome. Deledda initially welcomed them but eventually grew tired of the attention. One day she noticed that her beloved pet crow, Checca, was visibly irritated by the commotion, with people constantly coming in and out of the house. "If Checca has had enough, so have I," Deledda was quoted as saying, and she returned to a more retired routine. The events also put a strain on Deledda's extremely methodical writings schedule. Her day would start with a late breakfast, followed by a morning of hard reading, lunch, a quick nap and a few hours of writing before dinner. Deledda continued to write even as she grew older and more fragile. Her subsequent works, La Casa del Poeta (The House of the Poet, 1930) and Sole d'Estate (Summer Sun, 1933), indicate a more optimistic view of life even as she was experiencing serious health issues. Deledda died in Rome at the age of 64 of breast cancer. La chiesa della solitudine (The Church of Solitude, 1936), Deledda's last novel, is a semi-autobiographical depiction of a young Italian woman coming to terms with a fatal disease. A completed manuscript of the novel Cosima was discovered after her death and published posthumously in 1937. Accolades Deledda's work has been highly regarded by writers of Italian literature, including Luigi Capuana, Giovanni Verga, Enrico Thovez, Pietro Pancrazi, Renato Serra. Sardinian writers including Sergio Atzeni, Giulio Angioni and Salvatore Mannuzzu, were greatly influenced by her work, prompting them to found what has later become known as the Sardinian Literary Spring. In 1947 artist Amelia Camboni was commissioned a portrait of Deledda, currently standing close to her home in Rome in the Pincio neighbourhood. Deledda's birthplace and childhood home in Nuoro was declared a national heritage building and purchased in 1968 by the Municipality of Nuoro, which in 1979 handed it over to the Regional Ethnographic Institute (ISRE) for the symbolic price of 1,000 Italian Lire. The Institute transformed the house into a museum commemorating the writer, and it's now called the Museo Deleddiano. The museum consists of ten rooms showcasing the most important episodes in Deledda's life. A coal power plant opened in Portoscuso in 1965. As of 2013, this powerplant called Grazia Deledda has a capacity of 590 MW. Tribute On 10 December 2017 Google celebrated her with a Google Doodle. Work The life, customs, and traditions of the Sardinian people are prominent in Deledda's writing. She often relies on detailed geographical descriptions and her characters often present a strong connection with their place of origins. Many of her characters are outcasts who silently struggle with isolation. Overall Deledda's work focuses on love, pain and death, upon which rests feelings of sin and fatality. Her novels tend to criticize social values and moral norms rather than the people who are victims of such circumstances. In her works it can be recognized the influence of the verism of Giovanni Verga and, sometimes, also that of the decadentism of Gabriele D'Annunzio, although her writing style is not so ornate. Despite her groundbreaking role in Italian and World literature, Deledda has failed to be acknowledged as a feminist writer, possibly due to her tendency of depicting women's pain and suffering as opposed to women's autonomy. Complete list of works Below is a complete list of Deledda's works: See also List of female Nobel laureates References Bibliography Attilio Momigliano, "Intorno a Grazia Deledda", in Ultimi studi, La Nuova Italia, Florence, 1954. Emilio Cecchi, "Grazia Deledda", in Storia della Letteratura Italiana: Il Novecento, Garzanti, Milan, 1967. Antonio Piromalli, "Grazia Deledda", La Nuova Italia, Florence, 1968. Natalino Sapegno, "Prefazione", in Romanzi e novelle, Mondadori, Milan, 1972. Giulio Angioni, "Grazia Deledda: l'antropologia positivistica e la diversità della Sardegna", in Grazia Deledda nella cultura contemporanea, Satta, Nuoro, 1992 Giulio Angioni, "Introduzione", in Tradizioni popolari di Nuoro, Ilisso, Biblioteca Sarda, Nuoro, 2010. "Museo Deleddiano di Nuoro". Fidelity House (in Italian). 5 February 2015. Retrieved 24 May 2016. Garwood, Duncan (2009). Sardinia. Lonely Planet. p. 193. ISBN 978-1741048193. Retrieved 24 May 2016. Onnis, Omar; Mureddu, Manuelle (2019). Illustres. Vita, morte e miracoli di quaranta personalità sarde (in Italian). Sestu: Domus de Janas. ISBN 978-88-97084-90-7. OCLC 1124656644. Voice recording The voice of Grazia Deledda speaking (in Italian) at the Nobel Prize Ceremony in 1926. External links Media related to Grazia Deledda at Wikimedia Commons Works by Grazia Deledda in eBook form at Standard Ebooks Works by Grazia Deledda at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Grazia Deledda at the Internet Archive Works by Grazia Deledda at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) Grazia Deledda on Nobelprize.org Werkverzeichnis Summary of works by Grazia Deledda and complete texts Martha King's English translation of Cosima. Martha King's English translation of Canne al vento as Reeds in the Wind. BBC Radio 4's 10-part dramatisation of Reeds in the Wind 2012 Il bilinguismo di Grazia Deledda - Il Manifesto Sardo (article written in Italian) Biography: Deledda, Grazia at The Italian Women Writers project Newspaper clippings about Grazia Deledda in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW

The Nobel Prizes are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to Mankind." Additionally, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel was established by Sveriges Riksbank in 1968 and awarded to a "person or persons in the field of economic sciences who have produced work of outstanding importance." As of 2023, 65 Nobel Prizes and the Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences have been awarded to 64 women. Unique Nobel Prize laureates include 894 men, 64 women, and 27 organizations. The distribution of Nobel prizes awarded to women is as follows: nineteen women have won the Nobel Peace Prize (16.3% of 110 awarded); seventeen have won the Nobel Prize in Literature (14.28% of 119 awarded); thirteen have won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (5.6% of 230 awarded); eight have won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (4.1% of 191 awarded); five have won the Nobel Prize in Physics (1.8% of 224 awarded); and three (Elinor Ostrom, Esther Duflo and Claudia Goldin) have won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2.17% of 92 awarded). The first woman to win a Nobel Prize was Marie Curie, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 with her husband, Pierre Curie, and Henri Becquerel. Curie is also the first person and the only woman to have won multiple Nobel Prizes; in 1911, she won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Curie's daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935, making the two the only mother–daughter pair to have won Nobel Prizes and of Pierre and Irène Curie the only father-daughter pair to have won Nobel Prizes by the same occasion, whilst there are 6 father-son pairs who have won Nobel Prizes by comparison. The most Nobel Prizes awarded to women in a single year was in 2009, when five women became laureates in four categories. The most recent women to be awarded a Nobel Prize were Claudia Goldin in Economics, Narges Mohammadi for Peace, Anne L'Huillier in Physics and Katalin Karikó in Physiology or Medicine (2023), Annie Ernaux in Literature and Carolyn R. Bertozzi for Chemistry (2022), Maria Ressa for Peace (2021), Louise Glück in Literature, Andrea M. Ghez in Physics, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna in Chemistry (2020), and Esther Duflo in Economics (2019). Female laureates Physiology or Medicine Physics Chemistry Literature Peace Economic Sciences See also List of female nominees for the Nobel Prize List of female Clarivate Citation laureates References Specific General "Nobel Prize awarded women". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2022-10-06. "Women - Nobel Prize laureates". nobelists.org. Retrieved 24 June 2024. Further reading Sanchez, Chelsey (2 November 2021). "These Are the Four Women Who Won Nobel Prizes in 2020". Harper's Bazaar. Retrieved 22 May 2022. Alan Asaid (26 September 2009). "Så ratade Akademien kvinnorna" [How the Academy Rejected the Women]. SvD (in Swedish).

Irène Joliot-Curie (French: [iʁɛn ʒɔljo kyʁi] ; née Curie; 12 September 1897 – 17 March 1956) was a French chemist, physicist and politician, the elder daughter of Pierre Curie and Marie Skłodowska–Curie, and the wife of Frédéric Joliot-Curie. Jointly with her husband, Joliot-Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935 for their discovery of induced radioactivity, making them the second-ever married couple (after her parents) to win the Nobel Prize, while adding to the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes. This made the Curies the family with the most Nobel laureates to date. Her mother Marie Skłodowska–Curie and herself also form the only mother–daughter pair to have won Nobel Prizes whilst Pierre and Irène Curie form the only father-daughter pair to have won Nobel Prizes by the same occasion, whilst there are six father-son pairs who have won Nobel Prizes by comparison. She was also one of the first three women to be a member of a French government, becoming undersecretary for Scientific Research under the Popular Front in 1936. Both children of the Joliot-Curies, Hélène and Pierre, are also prominent scientists. In 1945, she was one of the six commissioners of the new French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) created by de Gaulle and the Provisional Government of the French Republic. She died in Paris on 17 March 1956 from an acute leukemia linked to her exposure to polonium and X-rays. Biography Early life and education Irène was born in Paris, France, on 12 September 1897 and was the first of Marie and Pierre's two daughters. Her sister was Ève, born in 1904. They lost their father early on in 1906 due to a horse-drawn wagon incident and Marie was left to raise them. Education was important to Marie and Irène's education began at a school near the Paris Observatory. This school was chosen because it had a more challenging curriculum than the school nearby the Curie's home. In 1906, it was obvious Irène was talented in mathematics and her mother chose to focus on that instead of public school. Marie joined forces with a number of eminent French scholars, including the prominent French physicist Paul Langevin, to form "The Cooperative", which included a private gathering of nine students that were children of the most distinguished academics in France. Each contributed to educating these children in their respective homes. The curriculum of The Cooperative was varied and included not only the principles of science and scientific research but such diverse subjects as Chinese and sculpture and with great emphasis placed on self-expression and play. Irène studied in this environment for about two years. Irène and her sister Ève were sent to Poland to spend the summer with their Aunt Bronia (Marie's sister) when Irène was thirteen. Irène's education was so rigorous that she still had a German and trigonometry lesson every day of that break. Irène re-entered a more orthodox learning environment by going back to high school at the Collège Sévigné in central Paris until 1914. She then went onto the Faculty of Science at the Sorbonne to complete her baccalaureate, until 1916 when her studies were interrupted by World War I. World War I Irène took a nursing course during college to assist her mother, Marie Curie, in the field as her assistant. She began her work as a nurse radiographer on the battlefield alongside her mother, but after a few months she was left to work alone at a radiological facility in Belgium. She taught doctors how to locate shrapnel in bodies using radiology and taught herself how to repair the equipment. She moved throughout facilities and battlegrounds including two bombsites, Furnes and Ypres, and Amiens. She received a military medal for her assistance in X-ray facilities in France and Belgium. After the war, Irène returned to the Sorbonne in Paris to complete her second baccalaureate degree in mathematics and physics in 1918. Irène then went on to work as her mother's assistant, teaching radiology at the Radium Institute, which had been built by her parents. Her doctoral thesis was concerned with the alpha decay of polonium, the element discovered by her parents (along with radium) and named after Marie's country of birth, Poland. Irène became a Doctor of Science in 1925. Research As she neared the end of her doctorate in 1924, Irène Curie was asked to teach the precision laboratory techniques required for radiochemical research to the young chemical engineer Frédéric Joliot, whom she would later wed. From 1928 Joliot-Curie and her husband Frédéric combined their research efforts on the study of atomic nuclei. In 1932, Joliot-Curie and her husband Frédéric had full access to Marie's polonium. Experiments were done using gamma rays to identify the positron. Though their experiments identified both the positron and the neutron, they failed to interpret the significance of the results and the discoveries were later claimed by Carl David Anderson and James Chadwick respectively. These discoveries would have secured greatness indeed, as together with J. J. Thomson's discovery of the electron in 1897, they finally replaced John Dalton's model of atoms as solid spherical particles. However, in 1933, Joliot-Curie and her husband were the first to calculate the accurate mass of the neutron. The Joliot-Curies continued trying to get their name into the scientific community; in doing so they developed a new theory from an interesting experiment they conducted. During an experiment bombarding aluminium with alpha rays, they discovered that only protons were detected. Based on the undetectable electron and positron pair, they proposed that the protons changed into neutrons and positrons. Later in October 1933, this new theory was presented to the Seventh Solvay Conference. The Solvay Conferences consisted of prominent scientists in the physics and chemistry community. Irene and her husband presented their theory and results to their fellow scientists, but they received criticism of their finding from most of the 46 scientists attending. However they were able to build on the controversial theory later on. In 1934, the Joliot-Curies finally made the discovery that sealed their place in scientific history. Building on the work of Marie and Pierre Curie, who had isolated naturally occurring radioactive elements, the Joliot-Curies realised the alchemist's dream of turning one element into another: creating radioactive nitrogen from boron, radioactive isotopes of phosphorus from aluminium, and silicon from magnesium. Irradiating the natural stable isotope of aluminium with alpha particles (i.e. helium nuclei) resulted in an unstable isotope of phosphorus: 27Al + 4He → 30P + 1n. This phosporus isotope is not found in nature and decays emitting a positron. This discovery is formally known as positron emission or beta decay, where a proton in the radioactive nucleus changes to a neutron and releases a positron and an electron neutrino. By then, the application of radioactive materials for use in medicine was growing and this discovery allowed radioactive materials to be created quickly, cheaply, and plentifully. The Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1935 brought with it fame and recognition from the scientific community and Joliot-Curie was awarded a professorship at the Faculty of Science. The work that Irène's laboratory pioneered, research into radium nuclei, would also help another group of physicists within Germany. Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman on 19 December 1938 bombarded uranium with neutrons, but misinterpreted their findings. Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch would theoretically correct Hahn and Strassmann's findings, and after replicating their experiment based on Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard's theory that he had confided to Meitner back in 1933, confirmed on 13 January 1939 that Hahn and Strassmann had indeed observed nuclear fission: the splitting of the nucleus itself, emitting vast amounts of energy. Lise Meitner's now-famous calculations actually disproved Irène's results and proved that nuclear fission was possible and replicable. In 1948, using work on nuclear fission, the Joliot-Curies along with other scientists created the first French nuclear reactor. The Joliot-Curies were a part of the organization in charge of the project, the Atomic Energy Commission, Commissariat à l'énergie atomique (CEA). Irène was the commissioner of the CEA and Irène's husband, Frédéric, was the director of the CEA. The reactor, Zoé (Zéro énergie Oxyde et Eau lourde) used nuclear fission to generate five kilowatts of power. This was the beginning of nuclear energy as a source of power for France. Years of working so closely with radioactive materials finally caught up with Joliot-Curie and she was diagnosed with leukemia. She had been accidentally exposed to polonium when a sealed capsule of the element exploded on her laboratory bench in 1946. Treatment with antibiotics and a series of operations relieved her suffering temporarily but her condition continued to deteriorate. Despite this, Joliot-Curie continued to work and in 1955 drew up plans for new physics laboratories at the Orsay Faculty of Sciences, which is now a part of the Paris-Saclay University, south of Paris. Political views The Joliot-Curies had become increasingly aware of the growth of the fascist movement. They opposed its ideals and joined the Socialist Party in 1934, the Comité de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes a year later, and in 1936 they actively supported the Republican faction in the Spanish Civil War. In the same year, Joliot-Curie was appointed Undersecretary of State for Scientific Research by the French government, in which capacity she helped in founding the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. Frédéric and Irène visited Moscow for the two hundred and twentieth anniversary of the Russian Academy of Science and returned sympathizing with Russian colleagues. Frédéric's close connection with the Communist Party caused Irène to later be detained on Ellis Island during her third trip to the US, coming to speak in support of Spanish refugees, at the Joint Antifascist Refugee Committee's invitation. The Joliot-Curies had continued Pierre and Marie's policy of publishing all of their work for the benefit of the global scientific community, but afraid of the danger that might result should it be developed for military use, they stopped: on 30 October 1939, they placed all of their documentation on nuclear fission in the vaults of the French Academy of Sciences, where it remained until 1949. Joliot-Curie's political career continued after the war and she became a commissioner in the Commissariat à l'énergie atomique. However, she still found time for scientific work and in 1946 became director of her mother's Institut Curie. Joliot-Curie became actively involved in promoting women's education, serving on the National Committee of the Union of French Women (Comité National de l'Union des Femmes Françaises) and the World Peace Council. The Joliot-Curies were given memberships to the French Légion d'honneur; Irène as an officer and Frédéric as a commander, recognising his earlier work for the resistance. Personal life Irène and Frédéric hyphenated their surnames to Joliot-Curie after they married in 1926. The Joliot-Curies had two children, Hélène, born eleven months after they were married, and Pierre, born in 1932. Between 1941 and 1943 during World War II, Joliot-Curie contracted tuberculosis and was forced to spend time convalescing in Switzerland. Concern for her own health together with the anguish of her husband's being in the resistance against the German troops and her children in occupied France was hard to bear. She did make several dangerous visits back to France, enduring detention by German troops at the Swiss border on more than one occasion. Finally, in 1944, Joliot-Curie judged it too dangerous for her family to remain in France and she took her children back to Switzerland. Later in September 1944, after not hearing from Frédéric for months, Irene and her children were finally able to rejoin him. Irène fought through these struggles to advocate for her own personal views. She was a passionate member of the feminist movement, especially regarding the sciences, and also advocated for peace. She continually applied to the French Academy of Sciences, an elite scientific organization, knowing that she would be denied. She did so to draw attention to the fact they did not accept women in the organization. Irène was also involved in many speaking functions such as the International Women's Day conference. She also played a big role for the French contingent at the World Congress of Intellectuals for Peace, which promoted the World Peace movement. In 1948, during a strike involving coal miners, Joliot-Curie reached out to Paris Newsletters to convince families to temporarily adopt the children of the coal miners during the strike. The Joliot-Curies adopted two girls during that time. Death In 1956, after a final convalescent period in the French Alps, Joliot-Curie was admitted to the Curie Hospital in Paris, where she died on 17 March at the age of 58 from leukemia, possibly due to radiation from polonium-210. Frédéric's health was also declining, and he died in 1958 from liver disease, which too was said to be the result of overexposure to radiation. Joliot-Curie was an atheist and anti-war. When the French government held a national funeral in her honor, Irène's family asked to have the religious and military portions of the funeral omitted. Frédéric was also given a national funeral by the French government. Joliot-Curie's daughter, Hélène Langevin-Joliot, went on to become a nuclear physicist and professor at the University of Paris. Joliot-Curie's son, Pierre Joliot, went on to become a biochemist at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. Notable honours Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935 for the discovery of artificial radioactivity with Frédéric Joliot-Curie. Barnard Gold Medal for Meritorious Service to Science in 1940 with Frédéric Joliot-Curie. Officer of the Legion of Honor. Her name was added to the Monument to the X-ray and Radium Martyrs of All Nations erected in Hamburg, Germany. See also List of female Nobel laureates Women in chemistry Stefania Maracineanu Timeline of women in science Radioactive (film) References Further reading Opfell, Olga S. (1978). The Lady Laureates: Women Who have Won the Nobel Prize. Metuchen, N.J. & London: Scarecrow Press. pp. 165–182. ISBN 0810811618. Conference (Dec. 1935) for the Nobel prize of F. & I. Joliot-Curie, online and analysed on BibNum [click 'à télécharger' for English version]. External links Newspaper clippings about Irène Joliot-Curie in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW Irène Joliot-Curie on Nobelprize.org including the Nobel Lecture on 12 December 1935 Artificial Production of Radioactive Elements

Of the non-Americans who have won the Phoenix Open as of 2024, who was the youngest at the time of his win?

Hideki Matsuyama

Numerical reasoning | Temporal reasoning

The Phoenix Open (branded as the WM Phoenix Open for sponsorship reasons) is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour, held in early February at TPC Scottsdale in Scottsdale, Arizona, United States. The tournament was originally the Arizona Open but was known for most of its history as the Phoenix Open until the investment bank Friedman Billings Ramsey became the title sponsor in October 2003. For the next six editions, it was known as the FBR Open. Waste Management, Inc. began its sponsorship in 2010. The event's relaxed atmosphere, raucous by professional golf standards, has earned it the nickname "The Greatest Show on Grass" and made it one of the most popular events on the PGA Tour calendar. History The Phoenix Open began 92 years ago in 1932 but was discontinued after the 1935 tournament. The rebirth of the Phoenix Open came in 1939 when Bob Goldwater Sr. convinced fellow Thunderbirds to help run the event. The Thunderbirds, a prominent civic organization in Phoenix, were less enthusiastic about running the event than he was, leaving Goldwater Sr. to do most of the work in getting a golf open started. The event was played at the Phoenix Country Club in Phoenix (33.48°N 112.06°W / 33.48; -112.06), both in its earlier incarnations and after Goldwater resuscitated it. Beginning in 1955, the Arizona Country Club (also in Phoenix) (33.49°N 111.96°W / 33.49; -111.96), alternated as event host with Phoenix Country Club; this arrangement lasted until Phoenix Country Club took The Arizona Country Club's turn in 1975 and became the event's permanent home again. The tournament moved 37 years ago in 1987 to its current home, the Stadium Course at TPC Scottsdale, northeast of downtown Phoenix. The approximate average elevation of the course is 1,530 feet (465 m) above sea level. The purse was $8.2 million in 2022, then increased over 140% to $20 million for 2023, with a winner's share of $3.6 million. Popularity The five-day attendance of the tournament is usually around a half million, the best-attended event in golf. In 2016, it set a PGA Tour and Phoenix Open single-day attendance record with 201,003 fans on Saturday, February 6, and a tournament week attendance record of 618,365 fans. The most popular location for spectators is the par-3 16th hole, nicknamed "The Coliseum." (33.64°N 111.91°W / 33.64; -111.91) One of the shortest holes on tour at 162 yards (148 m), it is enclosed by a temporary 20,000-seat grandstand. The hole could be described as "one big party," with many students from the nearby Arizona State University in Tempe in attendance. Poor shots at the 16th hole receive boos because the hole is straightforward by the PGA's standards. Good shots, however, are cheered loudly. Players who make holes in one at the 16th will cause the gallery to erupt, leading to beverages and other objects being tossed in celebrations; Tiger Woods (1997), Jarrod Lyle (2011), and Sam Ryder (2022) have each aced the hole on Saturday, creating raucous celebrations at the hole. The anger of a poor shot can lead to tempers flaring, as Justin Leonard gave obscene gestures to the gallery after a poor shot one year. After 2013, the PGA Tour banned the practice of caddies racing the 150 yards (140 m) from the tee box to the green, citing injury concerns. Former Arizona State players are very popular at the Phoenix Open, with many often wearing a Pat Tillman jersey when entering the 16th-hole stadium. Phil Mickelson and Jon Rahm are popular there for that reason. In addition to golf, there is a concert/party held in the Scottsdale area called the Birds Nest, at which music artists like Huey Lewis and the News play. The Thunderbirds are still highly active in organizing the tournament. The Thunderbirds use portions of the proceeds to fund Special Olympics activities in Phoenix. Conflicts with the Super Bowl Since 1973, the Phoenix Open has been played on the weekend of the Super Bowl. In 1976, coverage of the tournament's final round was joined in progress immediately after CBS's coverage of Super Bowl X. In 1996, it was played Wednesday through Saturday, as Super Bowl XXX was held at Sun Devil Stadium in nearby Tempe. In 2009, the tournament overlapped with Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa, Florida, when Kenny Perry and Charley Hoffman went to a playoff. That denied the spectators a chance to watch the beginning of the game on NBC, which featured the local Arizona Cardinals. Because of the Super Bowl weekend status, the PGA Tour's television contracts with CBS and NBC include an alternating tournament. Usually, a CBS tournament occurs when NBC or FOX televises the Super Bowl, the Phoenix Open airs on NBC when CBS has the Super Bowl, and NBC's Honda Classic aired on CBS during the 2018 Winter Olympics. Highlights 1949: Ben Hogan loses in a playoff; driving home with his wife; he is involved in a near-fatal accident. 1987: Paul Azinger wins the first edition of the Phoenix Open held at TPC Scottsdale. 1990: Tom Pernice Jr. makes the first double eagle in tournament history on the par-5 15th hole. 1996: Grant Waite sets the course record of 60 (−11). Phil Mickelson, an alumnus of nearby Arizona State University, wins the tournament for the first time. 1997: Tiger Woods aces the par-3 16th hole in the third round on Saturday. 2000: Andrew Magee makes the first ace on a par-4 in PGA Tour history on the par-4 17th hole. 2001: Mark Calcavecchia sets the tournament record for lowest aggregate score with 256 (−28), including a course record-tying 60 (−11) in the second round. 2011: Jarrod Lyle aces the par-3 16th hole in the first round. 2019: Amy Bockerstette, a golfer with Down syndrome, pars the par-3 16th hole during the pro-am in front of Gary Woodland, a moment that went viral on social media. 2020: Woodland and Bockerstette reunite one year after their viral moment with a $25,000 contribution to the I Got This! Foundation, launched the previous year. 2022: Sam Ryder aces on the par-3 16th hole during the third round on Saturday. Records The tournament's lowest 72-hole score was set by Mark Calcavecchia in 2001 with 256 (–28), which was matched by Mickelson in 2013. In the second round Calcavecchia scored a 60 (–11), which equalled the lowest score at the Phoenix Open (by Grant Waite in 1996) and subsequently matched by Mickelson in 2005 and 2013. Calcavecchia had 32 birdies in the tournament, which was also an all-time record. There have been only two double eagles in the history of the Phoenix Open. Tom Pernice Jr. made the first one on the 558-yard (510 m) par-5 15th hole in 1990. Andrew Magee scored the second on the 332-yard (304 m) par-4 17th hole in 2001, and was the first-ever ace on a par-4 in PGA Tour history. Winners Note: Green highlight indicates scoring records. Sources: Notes References External links Official website Coverage on the PGA Tour's official site

Nicholas Alexander Taylor (born April 14, 1988) is a Canadian professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. After turning professional in 2010, Taylor has won on the PGA Tour four times, including becoming the first Canadian to win the Canadian Open since 1954, which he did in 2023 at the Oakdale Golf & Country Club. Taylor had strong junior, collegiate, and amateur careers, winning the 2007 Canadian Amateur Championship at the age of 19, the top 8 of the 2007 U.S. Amateur, and finishing as a runner-up in the 2008 NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championship. He was a two-time All American and Pac-10 Golfer of the Year for the University of Washington Huskies. As an amateur in the 2009 U.S. Open, Taylor carded the lowest amateur round in U.S. Open history with a second round 65, finishing tied for 36th with the honour of the low amateur of the major. He was awarded the 2009 Mark H. McCormack Medal as the leading player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, and the 2010 Ben Hogan Award as the best college golf player in the United States. Taylor played on PGA Tour Canada from 2011 to 2013, and on the Web.com Tour before graduating to the PGA Tour in 2014. In his inaugural PGA Tour season he won the 2014 Sanderson Farms Championship, and picked up his second win in the 2020 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Early life and amateur career Taylor was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba and moved to Abbotsford, British Columbia when he was three. His home golf course is Ledgeview Golf and Country Club where he started golfing at the age of 10. Taylor attended Yale Secondary School, where he and his teammates won back to back provincial championships. Afterwards he attended the University of Washington on a golf scholarship where he graduated with a degree in economics. In 2007, at the age of 19, Taylor won the Canadian Amateur Championship at the Riverside Country Club in Saskatoon, defeating Michael Knight in two playoff holes. At the 2007 U.S. Amateur at the Olympic Club, Taylor won the 51st seed and advanced through three rounds of the tournament, including defeating future PGA golfer Jamie Lovemark. Taylor was defeated in the quarter-finals by eventual champion Colt Knost. In the May 2008 NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championship, Taylor finished tied for second in the individual competition with Jorge Campillo, three strokes back of champion Kevin Chappell. Taylor's Washington Husky's team finished in seventh place. He was named an Honorable Mention for the GCAA Division I PING All-America Team. In 2008, Taylor qualified for the U.S. Open, in which he missed the cut by three strokes. In the July 2009 U.S. Amateur Public Links, Taylor finished as the runner-up to Brad Benjamin. He also finished T53 at the 2008 RBC Canadian Open with a final score of −1. In the 2008 Canadian Amateur, Taylor finished in ninth place with a final score of −2. In the May 2009 NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championship, Taylor finished the individual competition tied for ninth place, while his Washington Husky's team finished tied for third place. He was named on the Division I GCAA All-America Team with future PGA golfers Rickie Fowler and Billy Horschel. He qualified for the 2009 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black, where he made the cut, carding a 65 in the second round, the record for lowest by an amateur in major's history. He finished tied for 36th, being the lowest amateur of the championship. Taylor won the July 2009 Sahalee Players Championship. In the 2009 Canadian Amateur at Blainvillier Golf Club, he finished tied for 3rd with a final score of −5. He also became the number one world amateur golfer according to the World Amateur Golf Ranking. In September 2009, he won the Mark H. McCormack Medal for being on top of the World Amateur Golf Ranking after the U.S. Amateur. In his final amateur year in 2010, Taylor finished 41st at the May 2010 NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championship, while his Washington Husky's team finished in fourth place. He was named a Ping First-Team All-American for the second season in a row, along with Washington teammates Chris Williams and Richard H. Lee. Taylor was eliminated from the U.S. Amateur in the first round by Chan Kim. In the 2010 Canadian Amateur, Taylor finished tied for 33rd at +3. He won the 2010 Ben Hogan Award for the top men's collegiate golfer, and also won his second consecutive Pac-10 Golfer of the Year award. Professional career Taylor turned professional in late 2010, making his professional debut at the October Russell Brewing VGT Tour Championship on the Vancouver Golf Tour. He played on PGA Tour Canada from 2011 to 2013, compiling 10 top-10 finishes in 25 starts. In 2013, he finished 7th on the Order of Merit and earned an exemption into the final stage of the Web.com Tour qualifying school, where he finished 11th to earn status for the 2014 season. He finished 69th in the 2014 Web.com Tour regular season, then 23rd in the Web.com Tour Finals to earn his PGA Tour card for the 2014–15 season. 2014–15 PGA Tour season: inaugural season and first victory Taylor made his first start in the 2014–15 PGA Tour season at the January Hyundai Tournament of Champions at the Kapalua Resort. He finished at −6, securing a tie for 29th place. In November 2014, Taylor achieved his first victory on the PGA Tour at the Sanderson Farms Championship, hosted at the Country Club of Jackson, finishing with a score of −16. Taylor's win was the first on the PGA Tour for a Canadian-born player in seven years, following Mike Weir's victory at the 2007 Fry's Electronics Open. Taylor qualified for only one major, competing in the 2015 PGA Championship. He finished with a score of +4 and tied for 68th place. In his inaugural season on the PGA Tour, Taylor competed in 28 events, making 17 cuts, with two top-25 finishes, and one win. At the conclusion of the FedEx Cup race, Taylor finished at 101st place with 613 FedEx Cup points, and finished the season with $1,072,360 in prize money. 2015–16 to 2018–19 PGA Tour seasons: limited success In his second season, the 2015–16 PGA Tour season, Taylor made his best finish at the March Puerto Rico Open, finishing at −10 and in a tie for 5th place, marking his only top-20 finish. Taylor did not qualify of an majors during the year, and was cut from the Players Championship. In the 2015–16 PGA Tour season, Taylor competed in 26 events, making 16 cuts with five top-25 finishes. He finished the FedEx Cup race at 129th with 441 FedEx Cup points, and won $628,756 in prize money. In the 2016–17 PGA Tour season, Taylor made his first top-10 finish at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, finishing −8 and tied for 10th place. Taylor made his second top-10 finish of the season at the Wells Fargo Championship, finishing −6 and tied for eighth, his best finish for the 2016–17 PGA Tour season. His third top-10 finish came only a few weeks later at the AT&T Byron Nelson, finishing at −7 and tied for ninth, and his final top-10 finish came at the Greenbrier Classic, finishing −9 and tied for ninth place. For the second season in a row, Taylor failed to qualify for any major championships. In the 2016–17 PGA Tour season, Taylor competed in 29 events, making 20 cuts with eight top-25 finishes. He finished the FedEx Cup race at 93rd with 554 FedEx Cup points, and won $1,255,259 in prize money. In the 2017–18 PGA Tour season, Taylor started out hot finishing tied for 9th in the Safeway Open with a final score of −9. He followed that up with a tied 13th at the CIMB Classic, and tied 23rd at the CJ Cup. Taylor struggled in the middle of the season missing six consecutive cuts between March and May 2018. He made one more top-10 finish at the Wyndham Championship with a final score of −15 and tied for 8th place. Taylor failed to qualify for any major championships. In the 2017–18 PGA Tour season, Taylor competed in 30 events, making 17 cuts with six top-25 finishes. He finished the FedEx Cup race at 123rd with 420 FedEx Cup points, and won $899,373 in prize money. In the 2018–19 PGA Tour season, Taylor finished his fifth tournament of the season, the 2018 World Cup of Golf in Australia, tied for 4th place with a final score of −17. He had only one other top-10 finish on the season, finishing tied for 9th at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with a final score of −19. Taylor failed to qualify for any major championships. In the 2018–19 PGA Tour season, Taylor competed in 28 events, making 21 cuts with four top-25 finishes. He finished the FedEx Cup race at 102nd place with 408 FedEx Cup points, and won $892,663 in prize money. 2019–20 PGA Tour season: second victory In the 2019–20 PGA Tour season, Taylor finished the Safeway Open at tied for 10th place with a final score of −11. In February 2020, he entered the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am with a one shot lead over Phil Mickelson. Taylor shot a final round 70 in windy conditions and won the tournament by four strokes over Kevin Streelman with a final score of −19. The win was his first full-strength tournament victory on the PGA Tour, and his second overall. The win qualified him for his first Masters Tournament. A month later, the PGA Tour season was paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the season pausing after the first round of the 2020 Players Championship. Taylor had shot an opening round 73, and was tied for 98th when the tournament was cancelled. In his first tournament after the season pause, Taylor finished tied for 48th at the Workday Charity Open with a final score of −3. In his major championship appearance at the 2020 PGA Championship, his first since 2015, Taylor did not make the cut finishing +9 after two rounds. In the 2019–20 PGA Tour season, Taylor competed in 18 events, making 11 cuts with three top-25 finishes. He finished the FedEx Cup race at 48th place with 741 FedEx Cup points, and won $1,897,539 in prize money. 2020–21 to 2021–22 PGA Tour season: limited success In the 2020–21 PGA Tour season, Taylor competed in his first Masters Tournament, finishing tied for 29th with a final score of −3. He experienced limited success in the season, finishing tied 11th at the Sony Open in Hawaii, tied 20th at the Genesis Invitational, and tied 48th at the 2021 Players Championship. At the Wyndham Championship, the final tournament of the season, Taylor made his only top 10 finish, tied for 10th with a final score of −13. In the 2020–21 PGA Tour season, Taylor competed in 29 events, making 18 cuts with three top 25 finishes. He finished the FedEx Cup race at 141st place with 370 FedEx Cup points, and won $862,159 in prize money. In the 2021–22 PGA Tour season, Taylor had his best finish at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at tied for 14th place with a final score of −11. In the 2021 US Open, Taylor was cut after the second round with a score of +5. In the 2021–22 PGA Tour season, Taylor competed in 28 events, making 16 cuts with four top 25 finishes. He finished the FedEx Cup race at 134th place with 334 FedEx Cup points, and won $832,637 in prize money. 2022–23 PGA Tour season: victory at Canadian Open In the 2022–23 PGA Tour season, Taylor started hot with a tied 6th place finish at the opening Fortinet Championship with a score of −11. He made his second top-10 finish of the season at the Sony Open in Hawaii, finishing tied for 7th with a final score of −13. In February 2023, Taylor finished runner-up at the WM Phoenix Open, two shots behind Scottie Scheffler with a final score of −17. This result also moved him to his highest world ranking at 73rd. Taylor and fellow Canadian teammate Adam Hadwin finished runner up at the April Zurich Classic of New Orleans, with a final score of −28, two strokes behind the team of Nick Hardy and Davis Riley. In the 2023 PGA Championship, Taylor was cut after the second round finishing at +7. Taylor won his third career tournament at the June RBC Canadian Open, at the Oakdale Golf & Country Club. In the third round, Taylor scored a tournament low 63, and fourth round a 66 to finish for a tie for first with Tommy Fleetwood. In the playoff, both golfers birdied the first, and parred the second and third holes. On the par-5 fourth hole, Taylor holed a 72-foot putt for eagle to win. He became the first Canadian citizen to win their national open since 1954, and the first born in Canada to win it since 1914. 2024 PGA Tour season: victory at the WM Phoenix Open After a slow start to the 2024 PGA Tour season that saw him finish 52nd or worse in three of his first four events, Taylor picked up his fourth career victory at the WM Phoenix Open in a playoff over Charley Hoffman with a birdie on the second playoff hole. Amateur wins 2006 BC Junior 2006 Canadian Junior 2007 Canadian Amateur Championship 2009 Sahalee Players Championship Other amateur career accomplishments Recipient of the 2010 Ben Hogan Award Recipient of the 2009 Mark H. McCormack Medal Runner-up, 2009 U.S. Amateur Public Links Number one, World Amateur Golf Ranking, June 14, 2009, for 20 weeks Low amateur, 2009 U.S. Open Placed 2nd in the 2008 NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championships Placed 10th at the 2008 U.S. Amateur 2008 National Men's Order of Merit Royal Canadian Golf Association National Amateur Team member Advanced to quarterfinals of the 2007 U.S. Amateur Advanced to quarterfinals of the 2006 Canadian Amateur Placed third at 2005 Canadian Junior Championship Professional wins (5) PGA Tour wins (4) PGA Tour playoff record (2–0) Gateway Tour wins (1) 2013 Arizona Fall 3 Results in major championships Results not in chronological order in 2020. LA = low amateur CUT = missed the half-way cut "T" = tied NT = no tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic Results in The Players Championship CUT = missed the halfway cut "T" indicates a tie for a place C = Canceled after the first round due to the COVID-19 pandemic Results in World Golf Championships 1Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic NT = No tournament "T" = Tied Note that the Championship and Invitational were discontinued from 2022. The Champions was discontinued from 2023. Team appearances Amateur Eisenhower Trophy (representing Canada): 2008 Four Nations Cup (representing Canada): 2009 (winners) Professional World Cup (representing Canada): 2018 See also 2014 Web.com Tour Finals graduates References External links Nick Taylor at the PGA Tour official site Nick Taylor at the Official World Golf Ranking official site

Hideki Matsuyama (松山 英樹, Matsuyama Hideki, born 25 February 1992) is a Japanese professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. He is the first-ever Japanese professional golfer to win a men's major golf championship – the 2021 Masters Tournament. As of August 2024, Matsuyama has 19 worldwide wins, an Olympic bronze medal, ten career top-10 finishes in major championships, and five Presidents Cup appearances. Matsuyama is a two-time winner of tournaments in the World Golf Championships, two-time winner of the Waste Management Phoenix Open, eight-time Japan Golf Tour winner, two-time winner of the Asian Amateur Championship, and most recently winner of the FedEx St. Jude Championship. His 10 wins on the PGA Tour make him the most successful Japanese member of the PGA Tour in history. He attained his highest rank of second in the Official World Golf Ranking for men in June 2017. Early life and amateur career Matsuyama was born on 25 February 1992 in Matsuyama, Ehime, Japan. He was introduced to golf at the age of four, by his father. During eighth grade, he transferred to Meitoku Gijuku Junior & Senior High School in Kochi Prefecture, in search of a better golf environment. Matsuyama studied at Tohoku Fukushi University in Sendai. He won the 2010 Asian Amateur Championship with a score of 68-69-65-67=269. This gave him the chance to compete as an amateur in the 2011 Masters Tournament, becoming the first Japanese amateur to do so. At the Masters, Matsuyama was the leading amateur and won the Silver Cup, which is presented to the lowest scoring amateur. He was the only amateur to make the cut. A week after his victory, he finished in a tie for third at the Japan Open Golf Championship which is an event on the Japan Golf Tour. In 2011, Matsuyama won the gold medal at the 2011 World University Games. He also led the Japan team to the gold medal in the team event. In October 2011, he also successfully defended his title at the Asian Amateur Championship. In November, Matsuyama won the Mitsui Sumitomo Visa Taiheiyo Masters on the Japan Golf Tour while still an amateur. In August 2012, Matsuyama reached number one in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. Professional career 2013 Matsuyama turned professional in April 2013 and won his second professional tournament, the 2013 Tsuruya Open on the Japan Golf Tour. Five weeks later, Matsuyama won his third title on the Japan Golf Tour at the Diamond Cup Golf tournament. Following a top 10 finish at the 2013 U.S. Open, Matsuyama entered the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking. He won his fourth Japan Golf Tour event in September at the Fujisankei Classic. Matsuyama would win his fifth Japan Golf Tour event in December at the Casio World Open. The win also made Matsuyama the first rookie to lead the Japan Tour's money list. 2014 For 2014, Matsuyama qualified for the PGA Tour through non-member earnings. In just seven PGA Tour-sanctioned events, Matsuyama had six top-25 finishes, including a T-6 at the 2013 Open Championship. Matsuyama earned his first PGA Tour win at the 2014 Memorial Tournament, beating Kevin Na in a playoff and moving to a career-high OWGR ranking of 13th. The win was the first for a Japanese player since Ryuji Imada in 2008. In his first full season as a PGA tour member, he finished 28th in the FedEx Cup standings. Matsuyama would win his sixth Japan Golf Tour event late in the 2014 season. In November, the victory came at the Dunlop Phoenix in a playoff over Hiroshi Iwata. 2015 Matsuyama finished fifth at the 2015 Masters Tournament, the best major finish of his career to that point. He finished 16th in the FedEx Cup standings. In 8–11 October, he played for the International Team in the 2015 Presidents Cup and went 2–1–1 (win–loss–half). 2016 On 7 February 2016, Matsuyama won the Waste Management Phoenix Open in a playoff with Rickie Fowler. He secured his victory on the fourth hole. The win moved him to 12th in the Official World Golf Ranking, the highest in his career. On 16 October 2016, Matsuyama captured the Japan Open by three strokes over Yuta Ikeda and Lee Kyoung-hoon. The win was Matsuyama's first title at his country's national open and his seventh victory in Japan. The title gives Matsuyama victories in four of the Japan Golf Tour's five ¥200,000,000 events. On 30 October 2016, Matsuyama followed up his Japan Open triumph by winning the WGC-HSBC Champions, colloquially known as "Asia's Major", in Shanghai. Matsuyama became the first Asian golfer to claim a World Golf Championship since the series was inaugurated in 1999. With the victory, Matsuyama rose to number 6 in the Official World Golf Ranking, his highest position and the second highest ever by a Japanese player after Masashi Ozaki, who achieved a ranking of fifth. He later moved up to fifth in the world after the Farmers Insurance Open. On 13 November 2016, Matsuyama won his second Taiheiyo Masters, following his victory as a 19-year-old amateur in 2011. He romped to a seven-shot win over South Korea's Song Young-han. On 4 December 2016, Matsuyama won the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas. 2016 Olympics withdrawal Although he was the highest ranked male Japanese golfer at the time, Matsuyama withdrew from participating in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games out of concern about the 2016 Zika virus epidemic, which caused several of the world's top players to withdraw from the Olympic golf event. 2017 In Matsuyama's return to the Waste Management Phoenix Open, he again entered a playoff on Sunday to defend his title, this time against Webb Simpson. On the fourth playoff hole, Matsuyama made birdie to win the tournament for the second time in as many years. After finishing second in the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills, while the top three players in the world at the time (Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy and Jason Day) failed to make the cut, Matsuyama reached 2nd in the Official World Golf Ranking, his highest ever, and the highest ever for a male Japanese golfer. The 2017 season has been a breakthrough year with Matsuyama winning three Tour titles, including his first World Golf Championship, and three second-place finishes in his first 15 events, as well as winning $5,945,990, putting him second on the money list behind Dustin Johnson, before the month of July. He then won the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in August, shooting a course record-tying 61 in the final round to win by five strokes. At the 2017 PGA Championship, Matsuyama had opening rounds of 70–64 to share the 36-hold lead, with Kevin Kisner at Quail Hollow. 2019 In December 2019, Matsuyama played on the International team at the 2019 Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Australia. The U.S. team won, 16–14. Matsuyama went 2–1–1 and halved his Sunday singles match against Tony Finau. 2021 On 11 April 2021, Matsuyama won the Masters Tournament, becoming both the first Japanese player and the first Asian-born player to win the tournament. He finished with an overall score of 278 (−10), one shot ahead of runner-up Will Zalatoris. At the conclusion of the tournament, Matsuyama's caddie, Shota Hayafuji, bowed to the 18th fairway of the Augusta course as a gesture of Japanese respect. In August, Matsuyama finished in a tie for 3rd place at the Olympic Games. He lost in a 7-man playoff for the bronze medal. The following week Matsuyama was tied for the lead after 72 holes at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. He was beaten in the playoff when Abraham Ancer birdied the second extra hole. In October 2021, Matsuyama won the Zozo Championship at Narashino Country Club. The Zozo Championship is the only PGA Tour event held in Japan. Matsuyama won by five strokes over Cameron Tringale and Brendan Steele. 2022 On 16 January 2022, Matsuyama won the Sony Open in Hawaii; having made up a five-shot deficit on the back nine to get into a playoff with Russell Henley, he made an eagle on the first extra hole to claim the victory. It was his eighth win on the PGA Tour, tying K. J. Choi for most tour victories by an Asian-born player. On 2 June 2022, at the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, Matsuyama was disqualified midway through his first round due to having a white paint-like substance on the face of his 3-wood. The substance was said to have been applied by his equipment technician to help with alignment. Matsuyama qualified for the International team at the 2022 Presidents Cup; he won one, tied one and lost three of the five matches he played. 2024 On 18 February 2024, Matsuyama won the Genesis Invitational. He entered the final round six strokes off the lead, but overcame the deficit, shooting a 62 to win his first PGA Tour event since the 2022 Sony Open in Hawaii. Matsuyama posted the second-lowest round in course history. It was also the lowest in the fourth round of a tournament at Riviera Country Club. In August, Matsuyama won the bronze medal at the 2024 Olympic Games. He finished two shots behind Scottie Scheffler, the gold medalist, and one shot behind Tommy Fleetwood, the silver medalist, with a score of 267 (−17). Later that month, he won the FedEx St. Jude Championship by two strokes with a score of 263 (−17). Matsuyama nearly lost control of a five shot lead in the final round after errant shots on the back nine, but birdies on the last two holes brought him his 10th victory on the PGA Tour. Personal life Matsuyama and his wife Mei (married in January 2017) have a daughter born in July 2017. After winning a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics in August 2024, Matsuyama became the victim of a robbery in London, while in the city during a layover to Memphis, Tennessee for the FedEx St. Jude Championship. His wallet was stolen, and both his caddie and his coach had their passports stolen. Matsuyama's Olympic medal was not among the stolen items. Amateur wins 2010 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship 2011 Japan Collegiate Championship, World University Games, Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship 2012 Japan Collegiate Championship Professional wins (19) PGA Tour wins (10) 1Co-sanctioned by the Japan Golf Tour, but unofficial money event. PGA Tour playoff record (4–1) Japan Golf Tour wins (8) *Note: The 2013 Mitsui Sumitomo Visa Taiheiyo Masters was shortened to 54 holes due to weather. The Japan Open Golf Championship is also a Japan major championship. Japan Golf Tour playoff record (2–0) Other wins (1) Major championships Wins (1) Results timeline Results not in chronological order in 2020. LA = low amateur CUT = missed the half-way cut "T" indicates a tie for a place NT = no tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic Summary Most consecutive cuts made – 18 (2020 PGA – 2024 Open Championship, current) Longest streak of top-10s – 2 (2013 U.S. Open – 2013 Open Championship) Results in The Players Championship CUT = missed the halfway cut "T" indicates a tie for a place C = Cancelled after the first round due to the COVID-19 pandemic World Golf Championships Wins (2) Results timeline Results not in chronological order before 2015. 1Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic WD = Withdrew QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play NT = No tournament "T" = tied Note that the Championship and Invitational were discontinued from 2022. The Champions was discontinued from 2023. PGA Tour career summary * As of the 2023 season Team appearances Amateur Eisenhower Trophy (representing Japan): 2008, 2012 World University Games (representing Japan): 2011 (winners) Bonallack Trophy (representing Asia/Pacific): 2012 Professional Presidents Cup (representing the International team): 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2024 World Cup (representing Japan): 2016 References External links Hideki Matsuyama at the Japan Golf Tour official site Hideki Matsuyama at the PGA Tour official site Hideki Matsuyama at the Official World Golf Ranking official site

Aaron John Baddeley (born 17 March 1981) is an Australian professional golfer. He was born in Lebanon, New Hampshire, U.S. and now plays on the U.S.-based PGA Tour. He has joint U.S. and Australian citizenship and was raised in Australia from the age of two. He represents Australia in golf. Professional career When he was in his late teens, Baddeley was seen as one of the most promising talents in the world of golf. He was the youngest player ever to represent Australia in the Eisenhower Trophy and he won the Holden Australian Open as an amateur in 1999 and retained his title in 2000, by which time he had turned professional. He was awarded the 2000 Australian Young Male Athlete of the Year. In 2001, he won the Greg Norman Holden International in Australia. He won the PGA Tour of Australasia's Order of Merit in 2000/01. However, in the following few years he came to be overshadowed by his Australian contemporary Adam Scott, who is less than a year older than Baddeley but reached the world top 10 in 2005. In 2002, Baddeley played on the second tier Nationwide Tour in the U.S. and placed tenth on the money list to earn a PGA Tour card for 2003. He had second-place finishes on the PGA Tour in 2003 at the Sony Open in Hawaii and 2004 at the Chrysler Classic of Tucson. However he struggled for consistency, and after a solid rookie season, when he finished 73rd on the money list, he only just retained his card in 2004, when he came 124th. In 2005 he moved back up the rankings to 78th and in 2006 he won his first PGA Tour title at the Verizon Heritage. Baddeley won his second PGA Tour tournament in early 2007 and reached the top 50 of the world rankings. By September, he had entered the top 20. His career high ranking was 17th in 2008. Baddeley was the leader after the third round of the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club on 16 June 2007 with a two over par score of 212 (72-70-70). He finished with an 80 and ended T-13. After a lull in form over the following few seasons, where he was finishing only in the lower reaches of the top-125 on the money list, Baddeley returned to the winner's circle when he won the 2011 Northern Trust Open in California. He defended a one-shot third round lead over Kevin Na and veteran Fred Couples, completing a steady closing round of 69 to beat another veteran, Vijay Singh, by two strokes. In October 2011, Baddeley was selected by Greg Norman as one of his two wildcard picks for the 2011 Presidents Cup team. He was selected along with fellow Australian Robert Allenby to compete at Royal Melbourne in November. Statistically speaking, Baddeley frequently ranks as one of the very best putters on the PGA Tour. As of 2010, he has qualified for the Tour's end-of-season statistical rankings 8 times; of those, he finished among the circuit's top 10 in putts per green in regulation five times, and among the top 15 seven times. The only qualified season in which Baddeley was not among the PGA Tour's top 15 putters by that metric came in 2004, when he finished 64th out of 196 players. Baddeley started the 2015–16 season playing out of the Past Champions category after finishing 157th in the FedEx Cup and failing to regain a PGA Tour card through the Web.com Tour Finals. He earned his first win in five years at the 2016 Barbasol Championship, beating Kim Si-woo in a four-hole playoff. Personal life Baddeley is a committed Christian and has confessed that it was his faith that prevented him giving up professional golf on numerous occasions. Baddeley's wife Richelle, whom he married on 15 April 2005, sums up Baddeley's faith in God, saying: "It never faltered. He never asked, 'What are you trying to teach me? I want you to be the man you want me to be. I will go through these [bad] times if that is Your will'." Richelle has also been pivotal to Baddeley's resurgence. "I had to learn the balance of letting him be alone when he comes home sometimes upset. It's sheer frustration from him. He's played his best, and it just hasn't happened," she said. Baddeley and his wife have six children: Jewell, Jolee, Jeremiah, Josiah, Jaddex and Jedidiah. Amateur wins this list may be incomplete 1998 Victorian Amateur Championship, Victorian Junior Masters 1999 Riversdale Cup Professional wins (8) PGA Tour wins (4) PGA Tour playoff record (1–1) European Tour wins (2) 1Co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour of Australasia European Tour playoff record (2–0) PGA Tour of Australasia wins (4) 1Co-sanctioned by the European Tour PGA Tour of Australasia playoff record (2–0) Results in major championships CUT = missed the half-way cut "T" = tied for place Summary Most consecutive cuts made – 4 (2014 U.S. Open – 2018 U.S. Open) Longest streak of top-10s – 0 Results in The Players Championship CUT = missed the halfway cut "T" indicates a tie for a place C = Canceled after the first round due to the COVID-19 pandemic Results in World Golf Championships DQ = Disqualified QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play "T" = Tied Note that the HSBC Champions did not become a WGC event until 2009. PGA Tour career summary * Through the 2020 season. Note: Baddeley did not join the PGA Tour until 2003 so he was not ranked on the money list until then. Team appearances Amateur Eisenhower Trophy (representing Australia): 1998, 2000 Australian Men's Interstate Teams Matches (representing Victoria): 1998, 1999 Professional World Cup (representing Australia): 2001 Presidents Cup (International Team): 2011 See also 2002 Buy.com Tour graduates References External links Aaron Baddeley at the PGA Tour of Australasia official site Aaron Baddeley at the PGA Tour official site Aaron Baddeley at the European Tour official site Aaron Baddeley at the Official World Golf Ranking official site Aaron Baddeley player profile, Golf Australia

Vijay Singh (Fiji Hindi: विजय सिंह pronounced [ˈʋɪdʒəj sɪ̃ɦ]; born 22 February 1963) is a Fijian professional golfer. In 1982, Singh turned professional and played on the local Asia Golf Circuit. However, his early career met with controversy, as he was accused of numerous rules violations, and he was banned from the AGC. Singh turned to Africa and Europe where he had much success on the respective tours, the Safari Circuit and European Tour, winning several times on each. In 1993, he won the PGA Tour's Buick Classic, earning him tour membership and ultimately Rookie of the Years honors. In 1998, he won his first major championship, the PGA Championship, and two years later the Masters. In 2004, Singh had one of the best seasons in the history of golf, winning nine times including the PGA Championship, usurping Tiger Woods as the #1 golfer in the world. Early life Singh recollected to reporters about his childhood: "When we were kids we couldn't afford golf balls so we had to make do with coconuts. My father used to say, 'Little Vijay, golf balls don't fall off trees you know,' so I found some that did!" Growing up, he played snooker, cricket, football, and the country's most popular sport, rugby. He is the son of Mohan Singh, an airplane technician who also taught golf. Growing up, he admired the swing of Tom Weiskopf, using it as an early model for his own. Professional career Asia Golf Circuit Singh turned professional in 1982. Two years later, he won the 1984 Malaysian PGA Championship. However, his career was plunged into crisis after he was suspended from the Asia Golf Circuit in 1985 over allegations he doctored his scorecard. It was alleged that he lowered his score from one over to one under in order to make the cut, but Singh denies this, saying that in any case, it should only have resulted in disqualification from the event rather than a ban. After investigation by the Tour of this and other alleged violations proved true, John Bender, Asian PGA Tour president, issued Singh a lifetime ban on Asian PGA Tour play. Singh felt he had been more harshly treated because the marker was "the son of a VIP in the Indonesian PGA." He then took a job at the Keningau Club in Sabah, Malaysia, before his move to the Miri Golf Club in Sarawak. While this was a period of hardship for him, he continued to gain experience. European Tour Singh saved the money he needed to resurrect his career and began to re-enter tournaments. In 1988 he teamed up with a sponsor, Red Baron, which funded a trip to Africa to compete on the now-defunct Safari Circuit, an offshoot circuit of the European Tour. Singh captured his first event, the 1988 Nigerian Open, as locals cheered him loudly. At the end of that year he entered the European Tour Qualifying school for the second consecutive year, and was successful on this occasion. In 1989, Singh won his first European Tour title at the Volvo Open Championship in Italy and finished 24th on the European Tour Order of Merit, putting his early struggles firmly behind him. He won four times in 1989, at the Volvo Open di Firenze, Ivory Coast Open, Nigerian Open and Zimbabwe Open. He also finished tied for 23rd at The Open Championship. He won on the European Tour again in 1990 and did so twice in 1992. He also won several tournaments in Asia and Africa in this period. PGA Tour Singh earned membership for the PGA Tour in 1993, winning his first tournament, the Buick Classic in a playoff over Mark Wiebe. That victory led to his being named the 1993 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year. After being hampered with back and neck problems in 1994, he came back to win the Buick Classic again in 1995 as well as the Phoenix Open. After playing well in 1996 (but with no victories), he won both the Memorial Tournament and the Buick Open in 1997. In 1998, Singh was victorious at the PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Washington, playing a 70-66-67-68 over the four days (the 66 tied a course record) and earning him his first Major title. He followed this up by winning The Masters in 2000, with a three-stroke victory over Ernie Els. Singh did not win on the PGA Tour in 2001, but finished the year with a Tour-best 14 top-10 finishes and was fourth on the money list with $3,440,829 for the year. In 2002, he won at the Shell Houston Open at TPC at The Woodlands, setting a new tournament 72-hole scoring record with a 266, and at the Tour Championship, winning by two strokes over Charles Howell III. 2003 proved to be a very successful year for Singh. He won four tournaments, had 18 top-10 finishes and was the PGA Tour's money leader (and had the second-highest single-season total in PGA Tour history) with $7,573,907, beating Tiger Woods by $900,494, though Singh played 27 tournaments compared to Woods' 18 tournaments. Singh also tied a 9-hole scoring record at the U.S. Open with a 29 on the back nine of his second round. His victories came at the Phoenix Open, the EDS Byron Nelson Championship, the John Deere Classic and the FUNAI Classic at the Walt Disney World Resort. He narrowly lost the vote for the PGA of America's Player of the Year to Tiger Woods. However, the 2003 season was also spotted with controversy involving Singh surrounding the year's event at the Bank of America Colonial. LPGA star Annika Sörenstam became the first woman to play at a PGA Tour event since Babe Zaharias at the 1945 Los Angeles Open. Surrounding this fervor, Singh was misquoted as having said that Sörenstam "didn't belong" on the men's tour and that he would not play if he were paired with her. What he actually said is that he would not be paired with her because his playing partner was being selected from the past champion's pool. Singh later clarified, "There are guys out there trying to make a living. It's not a ladies' tour. If she wants to play, she should—or any other woman for that matter—if they want to play the man's tour, they should qualify and play like everybody else." Singh began 2004 by winning the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am at −16 and winning $954,000 in prize money. This was his first win on tour in 2004 and his 16th all-time on the PGA Tour. It was his 12th consecutive top-10 finish, which is two shy of Jack Nicklaus' all-time record. Singh won the final major of 2004, winning the PGA Championship, his third major, in a three-hole aggregate playoff over Justin Leonard and Chris DiMarco. Singh was the leader by one shot over Leonard going into the final round, but made no birdies in the final round, finishing regulation at 67-68-69-76=280. His final round of 76 was the highest winning score by a major champion since 1955. The playoff was a tense affair, and Singh's birdie on the first playoff hole, his first birdie of the day, proved to be the difference. On 6 September 2004 (Labor Day), Singh won the Deutsche Bank Championship in Norton, Massachusetts. With the win, he overtook Tiger Woods at the top of the Official World Golf Ranking, ending Woods' streak of 264 weeks at the top of the golf world. Singh finished the 2004 season with a career-best nine victories, 18 top-10s, and a record $10,905,166 in earnings and was named the PGA Tour's and PGA of America's Player of the Year. The former award is decided by a vote of active PGA Tour players. Despite picking up a win early in 2005, Singh lost his world number 1 ranking when Tiger Woods won the Ford Championship at Doral on 6 March, but just two weeks later he took it back again after notching up top-three finishes in three consecutive weeks. Following Woods' win at the 2005 Masters, Singh once again lost his place as World No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking and finished tied for fifth place. In April, he became the youngest living person elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame, garnering 56% of the ballot. Thirty-year-old Karrie Webb was inducted into the Hall of Fame in October 2005, but Singh remained the youngest living electee, as Webb qualified for the Hall without an election process. (The 19th century great Tom Morris, Jr., who was elected in 1975, died at age 24.) Singh deferred his induction for a year, and it took place in October 2006. In 2006, Singh played enough European Tour events to be listed on the European Tour Order of Merit title for the first time since 1995. At the start of the 2007 season, Singh won the Mercedes-Benz Championship which was the first FedEx Cup event in PGA Tour history. This win got Singh his 18th tour win over the age of 40, surpassing Sam Snead as most over 40 wins, and making all-time over 40 tour winner. He won again at The Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, but did not win for the rest of the year which turned into a disappointing year for Singh. He did not finish in a top ten of a major for the first time in ten years and finished 10th in the FedEx Cup race. He went through swing changes during the end of 2007 which resulted in weeks of missed cuts and staying outside the top ten through the Presidents Cup. A new swing brought big changes for Singh in 2008, although he had good opportunities at Pebble Beach and Bay Hill, he was not competing at a high level for the first half of the year. His game was plagued by poor putting for the better part of two years, but his season started to turn around with a tie for fifth at the Travelers Championship. After missing the cut at The Open Championship, Singh won the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in early August for his first win of the year and first World Golf Championship. His win had been a relief after missing short putts throughout the week. He missed the cut the following two weeks including at Oakland Hills for the PGA Championship and entered the PGA Tour FedEx Cup playoffs ranked 7th in the standings. At the first playoff event, Singh prevailed for his first FedEx Cup win defeating Sergio García and Kevin Sutherland in a playoff. On the first playoff hole García and Singh matched long birdie putts before Singh won with birdie on the second playoff hole. Singh was propelled into first place in the FedEx Cup race with three events remaining. At the second event of the playoffs, he triumphed once again, this time at the Deutsche Bank Championship bewildering the field with a five strokes victory and a final round 63. He had won three times in his last five starts and created an almost insurmountable lead in the points race. He would not contend in the remaining two events, but by playing in both the 2008 FedEx Cup title belonged to Singh. His season which looked to be a major disappointment in July turned into an historic year for Singh: he won the PGA Tour money list for the third time in his career and he surpassed Harry Cooper for most PGA Tour wins of all time for a non-American. Singh has won 22 times on the PGA Tour since turning 40 – beating the record previously set by Sam Snead. He is the second man to reach $60 million in PGA Tour career earnings, after Tiger Woods. His 34 career victories are the most on the PGA Tour by a non-American player and place him 14th on the all-time list. He has spent over 540 weeks ranked in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking. Singh's longevity on the PGA Tour and his number of wins earn him a lifetime exemption on the PGA Tour. Kenny Perry, another player who found success at a late age is good friends with Singh, who calls him "Biggie". Of Singh, Perry said "Vijay has always been good to me. We talk a lot. He wants to know how my family is doing. I think the world of him." After the 2008 playoffs, Singh announced his withdrawal from a couple of Asian Tour events because of a nagging back injury and was advised by doctors to rest. He missed two and a half months, returning to win Tiger Woods's tournament, the Chevron World Challenge at Sherwood Country Club in California in December. It was his first victory in the event. During the start of the 2009 season Singh announced that he would miss three weeks after undergoing arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee. Singh had a mediocre 2009 season, with no top 5 finishes and ended the year with his lowest ever ranking on the PGA Tour money list in 68th. His poor form continued into 2010, resulting in him being 66th on the PGA Tour money list. He dropped out of the top 50 in the world rankings for the first time since the early 1990s. After returning from knee surgery, Singh started the 2011 season making five out of his first five cuts. In February, Singh was in contention to win his first PGA Tour Title since 2008 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open in Scottsdale, Arizona. Despite shooting a final round 66, Singh finished two shots behind Jason Dufner and eventual winner Mark Wilson. A couple of weeks later, Singh was in contention again, this time at the Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club. However, he came up short again, not helped by back-to-back bogeys on holes 12 and 13. He would eventually finish two shots back of the winner Aaron Baddeley, although he did secure second spot on his own. This early season form however was not enough to secure a spot at the opening World Golf Championship of the year, the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship the following week. However, at number 10 in the 2011 FedEx Cup standings, it was just enough to secure a spot at the WGC-Cadillac Championship in March. On 6 June 2011, Singh missed his tee-time for the U.S. Open qualifying in Columbus, Ohio. At the time, this ended the longest active streak of consecutive majors played by a professional golfer, at 67. On 30 January 2013, Singh admitted to using deer-antler spray while not knowing that it is a banned substance. The PGA Tour later dropped its case against him. On 8 May 2013, Singh sued the PGA Tour for exposing him to public humiliation and ridicule during a 12-week investigation into his use of deer-antler spray. On 20 November 2018, the PGA Tour and Singh announced that the lawsuit had been settled. The PGA Tour confirmed that it does not believe that Singh intended to gain an unfair advantage over his fellow competitors in this matter. Other terms of the settlement were not announced. Senior career Singh played his first PGA Tour Champions event in 2013, finishing T6 at the Pacific Links Hawai'i Championship. During this era, he still played some PGA Tour events, finishing second at the Quicken Loans National, three strokes behind winner Billy Hurley III. In 2017, Singh won his first senior event, the Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf with Carlos Franco. In March 2018, Singh won the Toshiba Classic. Four months later, in July, Singh won one of the PGA Tour Champions' major tournaments, the Constellation Senior Players Championship in a playoff over Jeff Maggert. At the end of the season, in November, Singh won the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Phoenix, Arizona. The victory was worth $440,000. By winning the tournament, he also finished fourth in the season-long Charles Schwab Cup, winning an additional $200,000. In March 2019, Singh shot his way into the final group of the final round of the Honda Classic. Singh shot even-par to finish sixth, three strokes behind winner Keith Mitchell. Personal life An Indo-Fijian practising Hinduism, Singh was born in Lautoka, Fiji and grew up in Nadi. A resident of Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, he is known for his meticulous preparation, often arriving hours before, and staying long after his tournament rounds to work on his game on the driving range and putting greens. Singh has a brother named Krishna who is also a professional golfer. Media relations Controversy surrounded Singh in 2003 before the Bank of America Colonial. Annika Sörenstam was scheduled to play the event, and Singh was quoted as saying, "I hope she misses the cut ... because she doesn't belong out here." He later said that the substance of his interview to an Associated Press reporter was that she would be displacing some other struggling male player, for whom he had his sympathies. However, the media focused on this statement. Golf Digest wrote that Singh had become "pro golf's bad guy". After Singh's win at the Masters, Ernie Els took issue with some of the negative press his friend received. He wrote an article in Sports Illustrated to defend him, saying, "Golf should be proud of Vijay Singh." Later Els said of Singh "He's a wonderful guy. I've known him for the better part of 10 years now. He's a great competitor. I think people have a misconception of Vijay. He's a really good guy." In May 2005, Singh was appointed a goodwill ambassador for Fiji. He said that he did not expect anything in return from the Fijian government for representing his country. At a press conference on 18 May 2005, Singh commented on what he said was a deterioration in race relations in Fiji, saying that for such a small country, people of all races should live together, put their differences aside, and get on with life. Relations between Indo-Fijians and indigenous Fijians had been more harmonious when he was younger, he said. Awards and honors In 1993, Singh won PGA Tour's Rookie of the Year honors In 2006, Singh was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame. In 2008, Singh won the FedEx Cup. Professional wins (66) PGA Tour wins (34) *Note: The 1997 Memorial Tournament was shortened to 54 holes due to rain. PGA Tour playoff record (8–4) European Tour wins (13) 1Co-sanctioned by the Southern Africa Tour 2Co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour European Tour playoff record (2–0) Asian Tour wins (5) 1Co-sanctioned by the European Tour 2Co-sanctioned by the Korean Tour Asian Tour playoff record (2–0) Asia Golf Circuit wins (1) Southern Africa Tour wins (2) 1Co-sanctioned by the European Tour Safari Circuit wins (4) Swedish Golf Tour wins (1) Other wins (8) Other playoff record (1–2) PGA Tour Champions wins (5) PGA Tour Champions playoff record (1–0) Major championships Wins (3) 1Defeated Justin Leonard and Chris DiMarco in three-hole playoff: Singh (3-3-4=10), Leonard (4-3-x=x), and DiMarco (4-3-x=x) Results timeline Results not in chronological order in 2020. CUT = missed the half way cut WD = withdrew "T" indicates a tie for a place. NT = No tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic Summary Most consecutive cuts made – 15 (2002 PGA – 2006 U.S. Open) Longest streak of top-10s – 7 (2004 PGA – 2006 U.S. Open) Results in The Players Championship CUT = missed the halfway cut "T" indicates a tie for a place World Golf Championships Wins (1) Results timeline 1Cancelled due to 9/11 QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play "T" = tied NT = No tournament Note that the HSBC Champions did not become a WGC event until 2009. Senior major championships Wins (1) Results timeline Results not in chronological order before 2022. CUT = missed the halfway cut WD = withdrew "T" indicates a tie for a place NT = no tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic PGA Tour career summary *As of the 2020 season. There is a summary of Singh's European Tour career here. Team appearances Amateur Eisenhower Trophy (representing Fiji): 1980 Professional Presidents Cup (International Team): 1994, 1996, 1998 (winners), 2000, 2003 (tie), 2005, 2007, 2009 World Cup (representing Fiji): 2001, 2002, 2013 Alfred Dunhill Challenge (representing Australasia): 1995 See also List of golfers with most PGA Tour wins List of golfers with most European Tour wins List of golfers with most Asian Tour wins List of men's major championships winning golfers Longest PGA Tour win streaks Most PGA Tour wins in a year Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Pravasi Bharatiya Samman References External links Official website Vijay Singh at the PGA Tour official site Vijay Singh at the European Tour official site Vijay Singh at the Japan Golf Tour official site Vijay Singh at the Asian Tour official site Vijay Singh at the Official World Golf Ranking official site

Jesper Bo Parnevik (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈjɛ̌sːpɛr ˈpɑ̂ːɳɛˌviːk]; born 7 March 1965) is a Swedish professional golfer. He spent 38 weeks in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking in 2000 and 2001. Early years and amateur career Parnevik was born in Botkyrka, Stockholm County, and is the son of Swedish entertainer Bosse Parnevik and his wife Gertie (b. 1940). He grew up in Åkersberga. Parnevik became a member of the first group of students in Sweden to combine studying with golf training at the Swedish upper secondary sports school in Danderyd outside Stockholm. At age 15, Parnevik spent 10 days in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and developed an appreciation for life in the United States; he later moved to Palm Beach County, Florida, to attend Palm Beach Junior College in Lake Worth on a golf scholarship. Parnevik was a member of the team representing Sweden at the 1984 and 1986 Eisenhower Trophy. He was also part of the Swedish team finishing second, after losing in the final against Scotland, at the 1985 European Amateur Team Championship on home soil in Halmstad, Sweden, where Parnevik won individually at the initial qualifying stroke-play competition. Professional career Parnevik turned professional in 1986. After winning the Swedish Golf Tour Order of Merit in 1988, including a runner-up finish to Vijay Singh at the 1988 Swedish PGA Championship, he scored four wins on the European Tour. His breakthrough came when he out-dueled Payne Stewart at the 1993 Scottish Open at Gleneagles King's Course. With victories in 1995 and 1998, Parnevik became the first Swede to win twice on the European Tour on home soil. At his first victory at the Scandinavian Masters in 1995 at Barsebäck Golf & Country Club, he played 72 holes competition and 18 holes pro-am without a bogey, but with one double-bogey. Based in Florida, he joined the PGA Tour in the mid-90s, subsequently winning five events. His playing career also includes three Ryder Cup appearances (1997, 1999, and 2002) and two runner-up finishes in The Open (1994 and 1997). His career best world ranking of seventh, which he attained on 14 May 2000, was the highest world ranking achieved by a Swedish golfer until Henrik Stenson reached the top five in February 2007. In late 2000, Parnevik underwent hip surgery at the persuasion of Greg Norman, who had undergone similar surgery. Parnevik finished second in the Valero Texas Open in October 2007, losing to Justin Leonard in a playoff. In 2009, after a tie for 17th at the SAS Masters in Sweden, Parnevik underwent further hip surgery in Vail, Colorado, United States, which cut short his 2009 season on the PGA Tour. He also cited the hip injury as the reason for his withdrawal from the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament ("Q-School") in December 2009. In 2010, Parnevik missed cuts in his first three tournaments and had to withdraw again after a first round 68 at the Northern Trust Open because of an ailing back. He had emergency surgery where it was discovered that he had a broken lumbar vertebrae that could put his career in jeopardy. Parnevik played the 2011 PGA Tour season on a fully exempt status for his Top 50 All-Time Earnings ranking. He was allowed to reuse this one-time exemption after being able to play only five tournaments in 2010. He played the 2012 and 2013 seasons on a Medical Extension after suffering a severe injury to his right hand in a boating accident. Despite his limited play, Parnevik made news in 2013 after bogeying the 18th hole at the RBC Heritage, which allowed a record-tying 91 players to make the 36 hole cut. Plagued by injuries for years, Parnevik staged a comeback on the Champions Tour when he became eligible in 2015. He started 2016 with a tie for third at the Chubb Classic, losing out to former world number one golfers Bernhard Langer and Fred Couples. He got his first win on the Champions Tour in the same year at the Insperity Invitational. Style Parnevik is known for his distinctive and eccentric taste in clothes and fashion as well as his playing achievements, a fashion sense that led golf writer Dan Jenkins to describe him as "the last guy to climb out of the clown car at the circus". His on-course trademark was the upturned bill on his baseball cap. While on the European Ryder Cup team, he received a customized team cap with the Ryder Cup logo on the bottom of the bill instead of the front, so that it could be seen with the bill turned up. He has since stopped wearing the flipped-bill hat, opting for strawhats and visors but retains a flamboyant sense of fashion, such as disco-style purple trousers and other golf apparel designed by Johan Lindeberg. He has been politely described as "eclectic", and has been known to change outfits at the halfway stage of a round of tournament golf. Beginning in 2006, one of his new on-course fashion statements was a necktie worn under a vest. Puma Golf signed Jesper Parnevik in 2014 and he gets credited for his influence on their LUX Golf Appearel Line. Since wearing Puma Clothes he once again wears a custom made and more modern looking flipped bill hat. He is also known to eat volcanic dust as a dietary supplement. Parnevik's nickname on tour is "Spaceman". Awards, personal life In 1998, Parnevik was awarded honorary member of the PGA of Sweden. He was awarded the 1999 Swedish Golfer of the Year. In 2003, the three Swedish teammates of the victorious European Ryder Cup team the previous year, Niclas Fasth, Pierre Fulke and Parnevik, was each, by the Swedish Golf Federation, awarded the Golden Club, the highest award for contributions to Swedish golf, as the 30th, 31st and 32nd recipients. Parnevik has an eclectic acting career, including a cameo in the 2007 comedy, Who's Your Caddy, in which he plays himself. An allegedly thoughtful historian in his free time, and a man with varied tastes, he was once asked with whom he would like to have dinner. He quickly replied that it would have to be a choice between Albert Einstein and Elvis Presley. When told he could only have one, he shot back, "OK, Elvis Einstein." Parnevik is credited with having introduced fellow professional golfer Tiger Woods to Swedish au pair Elin Nordegren (previously employed by Parnevik), whom Woods eventually married. Parnevik subsequently stated in 2009 that he regretted his responsibility for this introduction after reports of Woods' infidelity surfaced that year. Parnevik and his family starred in a reality TV show, Parneviks, which aired on TV3 in Sweden for four seasons from 2015 to 2018, giving insights into his life in Florida. He is married to Mia Parnevik (née Sandsten 1968), and they have three daughters and one son. His oldest daughter Peg Parnevik has a career as a pop singer. Another daughter, Penny, is married to former NHL ice hockey player Douglas Murray. His son Phoenix is named after Parnevik's first PGA Tour win at the 1998 Phoenix Open. Parnevik has a waterfront home in Tequesta, Florida. Amateur wins 1985 Swedish Junior Stroke-play Championship Professional wins (15) PGA Tour wins (5) PGA Tour playoff record (1–1) European Tour wins (4) European Tour playoff record (0–1) Challenge Tour wins (1) Swedish Golf Tour wins (2) Other wins (2) 1988 Open Passing Shot (France) 1997 Johnnie Walker Super Tour PGA Tour Champions wins (1) Results in major championships CUT = missed the half-way cut DQ = Disqualified "T" = tied Summary Most consecutive cuts made – 11 (1995 Open Championship – 1998 Open Championship) Longest streak of top-10s – 2 (1999 Open Championship – 1999 PGA) Results in The Players Championship CUT = missed the halfway cut "T" indicates a tie for a place Results in World Golf Championships 1Cancelled due to 9/11 QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play "T" = Tied WD = Withdrew NT = No tournament Results in senior major championships "T" indicates a tie for a place CUT = missed the halfway cut DQ = disqualified NT = no tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic Team appearances Amateur European Boys' Team Championship (representing Sweden): 1982 Jacques Léglise Trophy (representing the Continent of Europe): 1982 European Youths' Team Championship (representing Sweden): 1984 Eisenhower Trophy (representing Sweden): 1984, 1986 European Amateur Team Championship (representing Sweden): 1985 St Andrews Trophy (representing the Continent of Europe): 1986 Professional Europcar Cup (representing Sweden): 1988 (winners) Dunhill Cup (representing Sweden): 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997 World Cup (representing Sweden): 1994, 1995 Ryder Cup (representing Europe): 1997 (winners), 1999, 2002 (winners) See also 1993 PGA Tour Qualifying School graduates References External links Jesper Parnevik at the PGA Tour official site Jesper Parnevik at the European Tour official site Jesper Parnevik at the Official World Golf Ranking official site

Alexander Walter Barr "Sandy" Lyle (born 9 February 1958) is a Scottish professional golfer. He has won two major championships during his career. Along with Nick Faldo and Ian Woosnam, he became one of Britain's top golfers during the 1980s. He spent 167 weeks in the top-10 of the Official World Golf Ranking from its introduction, in 1986, until 1989. Lyle was inducted to the World Golf Hall of Fame in May 2012. Lyle was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2024 Birthday Honours for services to golf. Early life Lyle was born in Shrewsbury, England and now lives in Scotland with his wife Jolande and children Lonneke and Quintin. He represented Scotland during his professional career. He was introduced to golf by his father, Alex, who had taken the family from Scotland to England in 1955 when he became resident professional at Hawkstone Park golf course. Their family home was just 40 yards from the pro-shop and 18th green. He began playing with miniature clubs at the age of 3. At schoolboy, junior and amateur level Lyle represented England. Amateur career In the summer of 1974, Lyle received a golf scholarship to the University of Houston. However, he did not pass the entrance examination and was not allowed to attend the university. Lyle returned to Britain "to find another route into professional golf." As an amateur Lyle made his debut in The Open Championship at age 16 in 1974 and won the Brabazon Trophy in 1975 and 1977. He was a member of the Walker Cup team in 1977. Professional career In 1977 he turned professional and decided to represent Scotland. He was medalist at the 1977 Qualifying School tournament for the European Tour. His first professional win came in the 1978 Nigerian Open, and he also won the Sir Henry Cotton Award as European Rookie of the Year that season. Lyle attained the first of an eventual 18 European Tour titles in 1979. Lyle, for Scotland, finished runner-up at the World Cup of Golf team event in 1979, 1980 and 1987; in the latter year Lyle captured the low individual trophy in that event. Lyle showed his quality by winning The Open Championship at Royal St George's Golf Club in 1985. He was the first British winner since Tony Jacklin in 1969, and continued the rise of European golfers in the world scene. Lyle was a member of five European Ryder Cup teams, from 1979 to 1987 inclusive. Highlights from those years included the team that was victorious at the Belfry in the autumn of 1985, and the 1987 team which won for the first time ever on American soil, at Muirfield Village. For many golf fans he is best known for the fairway bunker shot and the subsequent birdie putt at the 18th hole in the final round of the Masters in 1988 when he became the first Briton to wear the green jacket. He also won two other events on the PGA Tour that season, along with the World Match Play Championship, after being a losing finalist on several occasions. Lyle topped the European Tour's order of merit in 1979, 1980 and 1985. He finished in the top ten nine times between 1979 and 1992. He was also a member of the PGA Tour for several years and finished seventh on the US money list in 1988, despite a limited playing schedule. He won the 1987 Tournament Players Championship, one of the most prestigious American titles. Lyle's form dropped after 1992, when he was 34, and he has not won a significant event since. Legacy As a player, Lyle is known for his cool temperament and placid exterior. In his peak years, he was very long from the tee and through the set, and had enough accuracy to master any course. His achievements inspired fellow rivals such as Nick Faldo and Ian Woosnam to raise their games, and go on to win the majors. Lyle published his first book, "To the Fairway Born" in 2006. In the same year he was assistant captain to Ian Woosnam when Europe won the Ryder Cup. He had been hoping to be picked as the captain for the 2010 European Ryder Cup team but missed out to Colin Montgomerie. In July 2009, Lyle became involved in a public row with Colin Montgomerie where he unfavourably compared Montgomerie's actions at the Indonesian Open four years previously with his own actions in not completing a round at the 2008 Open Championship. Reaction to this was mixed with some players supporting Lyle while other players and commentators felt that Lyle's timing was unfortunate and that any point he may have had was lost in the ensuing controversy. Senior career On turning 50 in 2008, Lyle played on the Champions Tour and the European Senior Tour. Lyle won his first tournament in 19 years when he captured his first European Senior Tour title at the 2011 ISPS Handa Senior World Championship, held in China. He took up hickory golf, winning the World Hickory Open in his native Scotland in 2014 and 2016. Lyle referred to the 2016 victory as his "fourth major" to go along with the 2014 crown, as well as the 1988 Masters and 1985 Open titles. Amateur wins 1975 Brabazon Trophy, Carris Trophy 1977 Brabazon Trophy, Berkshire Trophy, British Youths Open Amateur Championship, Berkhamsted Trophy, Hampshire Hog Professional wins (30) PGA Tour wins (6) PGA Tour playoff record (3–1) European Tour wins (18) European Tour playoff record (3–3) PGA of Japan Tour wins (1) PGA of Japan Tour playoff record (1–0) Safari Circuit wins (1) Other wins (5) Other playoff record (1–0) European Senior Tour wins (1) Playoff record Korean Tour playoff record (0–1) Major championships Wins (2) Results timeline Results not in chronological order in 2020. CUT = missed the half way cut (3rd round cut in 1974 and 1983 Open Championships) WD = withdrew "T" indicates a tie for a place NT = No tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic Summary Most consecutive cuts made – 12 (1984 Open Championship – 1988 Open Championship) Longest streak of top-10s – 1 (four times) The Players Championship Wins (1) Results timeline CUT = missed the halfway cut "T" indicates a tie for a place Results in senior major championships Results not in chronological order before 2021. CUT = missed the halfway cut "T" indicates a tie for a place NT = No tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic Team appearances Amateur Walker Cup (representing Great Britain and Ireland): 1977 Commonwealth Tournament (representing Great Britain): 1975 St Andrews Trophy (representing Great Britain & Ireland): 1976 (winners) European Amateur Team Championship (representing England): 1977 Professional Ryder Cup (representing Europe): 1979, 1981, 1983, 1985 (winners), 1987 (winners) World Cup (representing Scotland): 1979, 1980 (individual winner), 1987 Hennessy Cognac Cup (representing Great Britain and Ireland): 1980 (winners), 1982 (winners), (representing Scotland) 1984 (individual winner) Dunhill Cup (representing Scotland): 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992 Nissan Cup/Kirin Cup (representing Europe): 1985 (individual winner), 1986, 1987 UBS Cup (representing the Rest of the World): 2004 See also List of golfers with most European Tour wins References External links Sandy Lyle at the European Tour official site Sandy Lyle at the PGA Tour official site Sandy Lyle at the Japan Golf Tour official site Sandy Lyle at the Official World Golf Ranking official site Sandy Lyle at the World Golf Hall of Fame Sandy Lyle at the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame

Bruce Crampton (born 28 September 1935) is an Australian professional golfer. Early life and amateur career Crampton was born in Sydney, New South Wales, and attended Kogarah High School from 1948 to 1950. In August 1953 he reached final of the New South Wales Amateur Championship, losing 5&4 to Harry Berwick. In October, he led the Lakes Open after two rounds. According to Norman Von Nida, he was "probably" the first amateur in roughly 15 years, since Jim Ferrier, "to lead a big tournament after two rounds." Von Nida also stated that, "Crampton proves my prediction that he would become one of the greatest players Australia has produced." Professional career Crampton turned professional in late 1953, becoming an assistant to Billy McWilliam at Beverley Park in Sydney. His decision to turn professional came soon after he had been left out of the Australian amateur team to tour Britain in 1954 and play in the Commonwealth Tournament at St Andrews. Crampton won the Vardon Trophy for the player with the lowest stroke average on the PGA Tour in 1973 and 1975. He had 14 career wins on the PGA Tour between 1961 and 1975 and was runner up in four major championships – one Masters, one U.S. Open, and two PGA Championships – all to Jack Nicklaus. He was ranked among the top five golfers in the world in both 1972 and 1973, according to Mark McCormack's world golf rankings. His other regular career victories included the Australian Open, New Zealand PGA Championship, Far East Open and the Philippine Open. As a senior, he won 20 times on the Champions Tour, and topped the money list in 1986. Awards and honors Crampton was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2001. Professional wins (45) PGA Tour wins (14) PGA Tour playoff record (0–2) PGA Tour satellite wins (1) 1968 West End Classic Other wins (8) this list may be incomplete 1954 New Zealand PGA Championship 1956 Australian Open, Speedo Tournament 1957 Pelaco Tournament 1958 North Coast Open 1959 Far East Open, Philippine Open 1971 Wills Masters Senior PGA Tour wins (20) *Note: The 1986 Pepsi Senior Challenge was shortened to 36 holes due to rain. Senior PGA Tour playoff record (2–2) Other senior wins (2) 1987 Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf (with Orville Moody) 1988 Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf (with Orville Moody) Results in major championships CUT = missed the half-way cut "T" indicates a tie for a place Summary Most consecutive cuts made – 33 (1961 U.S. Open – 1973 Masters) Longest streak of top-10s – 2 (twice) Team appearances Amateur Australian Men's Interstate Teams Matches (representing New South Wales): 1953 Professional World Cup (representing Australia): 1957, 1963, 1964, 1967, 1972 Slazenger Trophy (representing British Commonwealth and Empire): 1956 Vicars Shield (representing New South Wales): 1956 (winners) See also List of golfers with most Champions Tour wins References External links Media related to Bruce Crampton at Wikimedia Commons Bruce Crampton at the PGA Tour official site Bruce Crampton at the Sport Australia Hall of Fame

George Alfred Christian Knudson, CM (June 28, 1937 – January 24, 1989) was a Canadian professional golfer, who along with Mike Weir holds the record for the Canadian with the most wins on the PGA Tour, with eight career victories. Early life and career Born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Knudson learned to play golf at the St. Charles Country Club. He won the 1954 and 1955 Manitoba Junior Championships, and the 1955 Canadian Junior Championship. He moved to Toronto in 1958, and worked at the Oakdale Golf & Country Club, where he received instruction and encouragement from the Club, to improve his game; the club has named one of its three nines after him. He was then able to secure some financial backing to try the PGA Tour. He won the Manitoba Open in 1958, 1959, and 1960, and the Ontario Open in 1960, 1961, 1971, 1976 and 1978. Between 1961 and 1972, he won eight tournaments on the PGA Tour. He won the Canadian PGA Championship five times, and won the World Cup with Al Balding in 1968. He wrote a book, The Natural Golf Swing (ISBN 0-7710-4534-4) with Lorne Rubenstein. Knudson's last official PGA TOUR victory was the Kaiser Invitational in October 1972. However, Knudson nearly won again the next week at the Sahara Invitational. He carried the lead going into the final round at 15-under par after shooting 65-70-66, but a final round 76 dropped him into a T-7th at 11-under. Knudson's best finish in a major championship was a tie for second in the 1969 Masters Tournament, one shot behind champion George Archer. Knudson's birdie putt on the 72nd hole to tie Archer came up 3 inches short. In seven Masters appearances, Knudson posted three top-10s, including 10th in his 1965 debut and sixth a year later. Knudson left tournament golf in the late 1970s, and started teaching golf, with success, at a facility in the Toronto area. His teaching methods have since been adopted by the Canadian PGA. In 1988, he was inducted into both Royal Canadian Golf Association Hall of Fame, the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and Museum and was made a member of the Order of Canada. He was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1969, and the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 1996. Personal life Knudson had long been a heavy smoker and was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1987. He recovered well enough to compete at the 1988 Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf Senior tournament. Shortly thereafter, it was discovered the cancer had spread to his brain. George Knudson died in January 1989 at age 51 and was buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto. Amateur wins 1954 Manitoba Junior Championship 1955 Manitoba Junior Championship, Canadian Junior Championship Professional wins (30) PGA Tour wins (8) PGA Tour playoff record (3–0) Other wins (22) This list may be incomplete 1958 Manitoba Open 1959 Manitoba Open 1960 Manitoba Open, Ontario Open 1961 Ontario Open 1962 Maracaibo Open Invitational, Puerto Rico Open 1963 Panama Open 1964 Canadian PGA Championship, Caracas Open 1966 Millar Trophy, Canada Cup (individual event) 1967 Canadian PGA Championship 1968 Canadian PGA Championship, World Cup (team event with Al Balding) 1969 Wills Masters (Australia) 1971 Ontario Open 1976 Canadian PGA Championship 1976 Ontario Open 1977 Canadian PGA Championship, Shrine Pro-Am (shared with Dan Halldorson and Gar Hamilton) 1978 Ontario Open, Shrine Pro-Am Results in major championships Note: Knudson never played in The Open Championship. CUT = missed the half-way cut "T" indicates a tie for a place Summary Most consecutive cuts made – 16 (1962 PGA – 1970 PGA) Longest streak of top-10s – 1 (three times) Team appearances Amateur Americas Cup (representing Canada): 1956 Professional World Cup (representing Canada): 1962, 1964, 1965, 1966 (individual winner), 1967, 1968 (winners), 1969, 1976, 1977 References External links Profile at Canadian Golf Hall of Fame George Knudson's biography at Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and Museum George Knudson at the PGA Tour official site George Knudson at Find a Grave

Arthur D'Arcy "Bobby" Locke (20 November 1917 – 9 March 1987) was a South African professional golfer. He is generally regarded as one of the greatest golfers of all time. He won The Open Championship four times and 15 PGA Tour events in total. In addition, he was a prolific tournament winner in South Africa, ultimately recording over 50 significant victories in his home country, including the South African Open nine times. Early life Locke was born in Germiston, South Africa the only son of Mr. C.J. and Mrs. O. Locke of 70 Nottingham Road, Kensington, Johannesburg. He obtained his Educational Junior Certificate pass at Benoni High School in 1934. Amateur career Locke won the South African Open for the first of nine times in 1935, at the Parkview Golf Club in Johannesburg, with a score of 296, playing as an amateur. He played in his first Open Championship in 1936, when he was 18 years old, and finished as the low amateur. Professional career He turned professional in March 1938 at the age of 20 and was engaged by the Maccauvlei Country Club as club professional in December 1939. Problems arose when Locke wanted to give lessons to non-members as well as take leave of absence, without advance request, to take part in outside competitions such as the U.S. Open. Locke resigned from the club, by letter, on 26 July 1940. His golf career was interrupted by service in the South African Air Force during World War II. PGA Tour Following the end of World War II, Locke successfully resumed his career in South Africa in 1946. He hosted Sam Snead, one of the top American golfers of the day, for a series of exhibition matches in South Africa in January/February 1947, winning 12 out of the 16 matches, two were halved and Snead won two.: 147  So impressed was Snead that he suggested that Locke come to the United States and give the PGA Tour a try, advice that Locke quickly followed. Locke arrived in the U.S. for the first time in April 1947, well after the American Tour season had begun. In two-and-a-half years on the PGA Tour, Locke played in 59 events; he won 11, and finished in the top three in 30, just over half. In 1947, despite a late start, Locke dominated the American tour, winning six tournaments (including four in a five-week period), and finishing second to Jimmy Demaret on the money list. In 1948, he won the Chicago Victory National by 16 strokes, which remains a PGA Tour record for margin of victory (tied for margin of victory with J. Douglas Edgar's win in the 1919 Canadian Open). The following year, Locke was banned from the tour, ostensibly because of a dispute over playing commitments. Locke had indeed given several advance commitments to appear at tournaments and exhibitions, then had not turned up nor given adequate notice nor explanations for his absences. However, the 1948 Masters champion Claude Harmon stated, unsolicited, to another golf personality during that era: "Locke was simply too good. They had to ban him." The ban was lifted in March 1950. However, Locke chose not to return to play in the United States, except for a few isolated appearances. Locke explained his point of view and events leading up to the banning.: 57, 58  He stated that he had accepted invitations, organised through the PGA to play in two local tournaments, The Inverness Fourball and Western Open. He explained how he had been helped to iron out a putting problem which led to him winning the 1949 Open Championship. He gives the "Open" win as one of his reasons to breach his contract. The text indicates that he understood the contractual nature of his dealings with the PGA. Worldwide success After leaving the PGA Tour, Locke continued his career in Europe and Africa, where he felt more comfortable. He won 23 times in Europe, most notably a quartet of successes in The Open Championship, which came in 1949, 1950, 1952 and 1957. He was the first of many South Africans who subsequently won major championships, including Gary Player, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Trevor Immelman, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel. His win in the 1957 Open Championship was with some controversy. Locke had failed to properly replace his ball after marking on the 72nd green, and proceeded to putt out. This had been confirmed through newsreel footage provided to the Royal and Ancient after the trophy presentation. The rules at the time made no provision for a two shot penalty, thus Locke's win could have been overturned through disqualification. However, the Championship committee did not enforce the disqualification rule, citing "equity and spirit of the game" as overriding factors in sustaining the posted result. During this time Locke also played many other parts of the world. In 1955 he won the Australian Open held at Gailes Golf Club in Queensland; he later rated this as one of the best courses he had ever played. In 1959, Locke was involved in a serious car accident. Medical issues related to this incident contributed to the end of his career. Playing attributes Locke built his success around his outstanding putting ability, coining the phrase "You drive for show, but putt for dough." Wearing his trademark knickerbockers, white shoes, and stockings, Locke played the game at a slow and deliberate pace, perhaps another reason that American pros were annoyed with him. On the greens, Locke was a bona fide genius, using a very unusual putting style (he would bring the putter back far to the inside on the backstroke, then virtually "trap" the ball with a hooded, closed clubface on the forward stroke, imparting a tremendous amount of overspin), and a great eye for reading breaks, to put on veritable putting clinics every time he played. Locke believed he could put spin on putts (similar to full-swing shots) and make them "hook" and "slice", and used his unorthodox technique to great success. Locke was not particularly long from the tee, but placed great emphasis on accuracy in hitting fairways and greens; he employed an extreme right-to-left ball flight (one that bordered on a hook) on nearly every full shot. Australian contemporary pro Jim Ferrier, who played the U.S. Tour during the late 1940s with Locke, described Locke's putting method as being designed to overcome the very heavy grain present on many Bermuda-grass greens of that era, particularly in warm-climate regions such as South Africa and the southern United States. In these regions, greens had to be constructed during that era using Bermuda-grass turf in order to survive the extreme summer heat; turfgrass research eventually developed a wider variety of strains which could be used. Locke's putting method allowed the ball to glide on top of the grass without being affected very much by the grain. Ferrier explained that Locke had apparently learned the technique from an Englishman in Egypt, while he was stationed there during World War II. Locke had in fact learned the technique from Walter Hagen during the "Haigs" tour of South Africa with Joe Kirkwood Sr. in 1938. Military service Locke served in the South African Air Force during World War II. His Official War Record is held at the South African Department of Defence archives under his Service No: 103940. Those records show that he first trained as a pilot and later a pilot instructor. He was deployed to the Middle East from December 1944 to May 1945, and then to Italy, post VE Day, on transport duties until August 1945. He was honourably discharged in October 1945 having attained the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. He received the Italy Star and 1939-45 War Medal/Africa Service Medal. Alternate descriptions of Locke's war record Other descriptions of Locke's war record suggest he was more active than the transport duties he undertook, with SAAF Number 31 Squadron in Italy, that are described by the official SANDF archives. The descriptions include: he spent twelve months in a Liberator Squadron in Italy: 40  he was a bomber pilot who bombed Monte Casino, he fought for Britain as a bomber pilot; he flew over 100 missions over Europe with the SAAF; and 'served with distinction as a Royal Air Force Bomber pilot'. Locke also claims that: In a photograph of him and others,: 39  he was playing golf at Gizeh Golf & Country Club, in Cairo, in 1943, and "My stay in the Air Force lasted five years and three months, in which time I completed 1,800 hours on single-, twin- and four-engined aircraft": 39, 40 Personal life Following the car crash that ended his competitive career in 1960, Locke suffered from migraines and eye problems, although he continued competing occasionally after that, without much success. Mental health issues followed, including bouts of depression, alcoholism and even an attempted murder charge following a dispute with a decorator, Big Boy Ndlovu. Locke considered Ndlovu's work below par and refused to pay the 220 rand Ndlovu asked for. Following an argument, Locke shot Ndlovu in the shoulder. Locke was fined 120 rand and had his gun licence suspended for six months. He died of meningitis in Johannesburg, South Africa in March 1987. After his death, his wife Mary and daughter Carolyn became reclusive and died together in a suicide pact at their home in 2000, aged 80 and 40 respectively. Honors and awards Winner of the Harry Vardon Trophy in 1946, 1950, and 1954. In 1977, Locke was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame. Amateur wins 1931 South Africa Boys 1935 South African Amateur, Natal Amateur, Transvaal Amateur 1936 Natal Amateur, Lucifer Empire Trophy 1937 South African Amateur, Transvaal Amateur, Orange Free State Amateur Professional wins (94) PGA Tour wins (15) PGA Tour playoff record (4–0) South Africa wins (50) 1935 Natal Open, South African Open (both as an amateur) 1936 Natal Open (as an amateur) 1937 South African Open, Transvaal Open (both as an amateur) 1938 South African Open, South Africa Professional, Transvaal Open 1939 South African Open, South Africa Professional, Transvaal Open 1940 South African Open, South Africa Professional, Transvaal Open 1946 South African Open, South Africa Professional, Transvaal Open 1949 Stanley Motors 1,000 Guineas Tournament, Transvaal Open 1950 Dunlop £1.000 Tournament, Stanley Motors 1,000 Guineas Tournament, Transvaal Open, Western Transvaal Open, Grey Slax £1,000 Tournament, South Africa Professional, South African Open, Grey Slax £1,000 Tournament 1951 Stag £1,000 Matchplay, Stanley Motors 1,000 Guineas Tournament, Transvaal Open, East Rand Open, South Africa Professional, South African Open, Dunlop Masters £1,000 Tournament 1952 Stag £1,000 Matchplay, Stanley Motors 1,000 Guineas Tournament 1953 SANTA Open, Natal Open 1954 SANTA Open, Transvaal Open, Mills 1,000 Guineas Tournament 1955 Transvaal Open, South African Open, South Africa Professional 1956 Western Province Open 1957 East Rand Open 1958 Transvaal Open, Western Province Open, East Rand Open (tie with Eric Moore) 1960 East Rand Open Other wins (29) 1938 Irish Open, New Zealand Open 1939 Dutch Open 1946 Yorkshire Evening News Tournament, Brand-Lochryn Tournament, Dunlop Masters 1947 Carolinas Open, Carolinas PGA Championship 1948 Carolinas Open 1950 Dunlop Tournament, Spalding Tournament, North British-Harrogate Tournament 1952 French Open, Mexican Open, Lotus Tournament, Carolinas Open 1953 French Open 1954 Egyptian Open, German Open, Swiss Open, Dunlop Tournament, Dunlop British Masters (tie with Jimmy Adams), Egyptian Match Play, Swallow-Harrogate Tournament (Stroke play stage) 1955 Australian Open 1957 Daks Tournament, Bowmaker Tournament (tied with Frank Jowle) 1959 New Hampshire Open, Bowmaker Tournament Major championships Wins (4) 1 Defeated Harry Bradshaw in 36-hole playoff: Locke (135), Bradshaw (147) Results timeline NT = No tournament LA = Low amateur CUT = missed the half-way cut WD = Withdrew "T" indicates a tie for a place Sources: 1936 Amateur Championship, 1937 Amateur Championship Summary Most consecutive cuts made – 19 (1936 Open Championship – 1952 Masters) Longest streak of top-10s – 5 (1949 U.S. Open – 1951 Open Championship) Team appearances South African Amateur Golf Team to England 1937.: 25  Canada Cup (representing South Africa): 1953, 1954, 1956, 1960 Slazenger Trophy (representing British Commonwealth and Empire): 1956 Hopkins Trophy (representing Canada): 1952, 1953, 1954 See also List of men's major championships winning golfers References External links Official website Bobby Locke at the PGA Tour official site Bobby Locke at the World Golf Hall of Fame

The US Naval ship that sunk in Havana Harbor on February 15, 1898, is named for a state that was admitted to the Union while what woman was serving as First Lady?

Elizabeth Monroe

Multiple constraints | Temporal reasoning

Maine was a United States Navy ship that sank in Havana Harbor on February 15, 1898, contributing to the outbreak of the Spanish–American War in April. U.S. newspapers, engaging in yellow journalism to boost circulation, claimed that the Spanish were responsible for the ship's destruction. The phrase, "Remember the Maine! To hell with Spain!" became a rallying cry for action. Although the Maine explosion was not a direct cause, it served as a catalyst that accelerated the events leading up to the war. Maine is described as an armored cruiser or second-class battleship, depending on the source. Commissioned in 1895, she was the first U.S. Navy ship to be named after the state of Maine. Maine and its contemporary the battleship Texas were both represented as an advance in American warship design, reflecting the latest European naval developments. Both ships had two-gun turrets staggered en échelon, and full sailing masts were omitted due to the increased reliability of steam engines. Due to a protracted 9-year construction period, Maine and Texas were obsolete by the time of completion. Far more advanced vessels were either in service or nearing completion that year. Maine was sent to Havana Harbor to protect U.S. interests during the Cuban War of Independence. She exploded and sank on the evening of 15 February 1898, killing 268 sailors, or three-quarters of her crew. In 1898, a U.S. Navy board of inquiry ruled that the ship had been sunk by an external explosion from a mine. However, some U.S. Navy officers disagreed with the board, suggesting that the ship's magazines had been ignited by a spontaneous fire in a coal bunker. The coal used in Maine was bituminous, which is known for releasing firedamp, a mixture of gases composed primarily of flammable methane that is prone to spontaneous explosions. An investigation by Admiral Hyman Rickover in 1974 agreed with the coal fire hypothesis, penning a 1976 monograph that argued for this conclusion. The cause of her sinking remains a subject of debate. The ship lay at the bottom of the harbor until 1911, when a cofferdam was built around it. The hull was patched up until the ship was afloat, then she was towed to sea and sunk. Maine now lies on the seabed 3,600 feet (1,100 m) below the surface. The ship's main mast is now a memorial in Arlington National Cemetery. Background In response to the delivery of the Brazilian battleship Riachuelo in 1883 and the acquisition of other modern armored warships from Europe by Brazil, Argentina and Chile, the head of the House Naval Affairs Committee, Hilary A. Herbert, stated to Congress: "if all this old navy of ours were drawn up in battle array in mid-ocean and confronted by Riachuelo it is doubtful whether a single vessel bearing the American flag would get into port." These developments helped bring to a head a series of discussions that had been taking place at the Naval Advisory Board since 1881. The board knew at that time that the U.S. Navy could not challenge any major European fleet; at best, it could wear down an opponent's merchant fleet and hope to make some progress through general attrition. Moreover, projecting naval force abroad through the use of battleships ran counter to the government policy of isolationism. While some on the board supported a strict policy of commerce raiding, others argued it would be ineffective against the potential threat of enemy battleships stationed near the American coast. The two sides remained essentially deadlocked until Riachuelo manifested. The board, now confronted with the concrete possibility of hostile warships operating off the American coast, began planning for ships to protect it in 1884. The ships had to fit within existing docks and had to have a shallow draft to enable them to use all the major American ports and bases. The maximum beam was similarly fixed, and the board concluded that at a length of about 300 feet (91 m), the maximum displacement would be about 7,000 tons. A year later the Bureau of Construction and Repair (C & R) presented two designs to Secretary of the Navy William Collins Whitney, one for a 7,500-ton battleship and one for a 5,000-ton armored cruiser. Whitney decided instead to ask Congress for two 6,000-ton warships, and they were authorized in August 1886. A design contest was held, asking naval architects to submit designs for the two ships: armored cruiser Maine and battleship Texas. It was specified that Maine had to have a speed of 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph), a ram bow, and a double bottom, and be able to carry two torpedo boats. Her armament was specified as: four 10-inch (254 mm) guns, six 6-inch (152 mm) guns, various light weapons, and four torpedo tubes. It was specifically stated that the main guns "must afford heavy bow and stern fire." Armor thickness and many details were also defined. Specifications for Texas were similar but demanded a main battery of two 12-inch (305 mm) guns and slightly thicker armor. The winning design for Maine was from Theodore D. Wilson, who served as chief constructor for C & R and was a member on the Naval Advisory Board in 1881. He had designed a number of other warships for the navy. The winning design for Texas was from a British designer, William John, who was working for the Barrow Shipbuilding Company at that time. Both designs resembled the Brazilian battleship Riachuelo, having the main gun turrets positioned out over the sides of the ship and echeloned. The winning design for Maine, though conservative and inferior to other contenders, may have received special consideration due to a requirement that one of the two new ships be American–designed. Congress authorized construction of Maine on 3 August 1886, and her keel was laid down on 17 October 1888, at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. She was the largest vessel built in a U.S. Navy yard up to that time. Design Maine's building time of nine years was unusually protracted as a result of the limits of American industry at the time. (The delivery of her armored plating took three years, and a fire in the drafting room of the building yard, where Maine's working set of blueprints were stored, caused further delay.) During the nine-year construction span, naval tactics and technology changed radically and left Maine's role in the navy ill-defined. At the time when she was laid down, armored cruisers such as Maine were intended to serve as small battleships on overseas service and were built with heavy belt armor. Great Britain, France and Russia had constructed such ships to serve this purpose and sold others of this type, including Riachuelo, to second-rate navies. Within a decade, this role had changed to one of commerce raiding, for which fast, long-range vessels, with only limited armor protection, were needed. The advent of lightweight armor, such as Harvey steel, made this transformation possible. As a result of these changing priorities, Maine was caught between two separate positions and could not perform either one adequately. She lacked both the armor and firepower to serve as a ship-of-the-line against enemy battleships and the speed to serve as a cruiser. Nevertheless, she was expected to fulfill more than one tactical function. In addition, because of the potential of a warship sustaining blast damage to herself from cross-deck and end-on fire, Maine's main-gun arrangement was obsolete by the time she entered service. General characteristics Maine was 324 feet 4 inches (98.9 m) long overall, with a beam of 57 feet (17.4 m), a maximum draft of 22 feet 6 inches (6.9 m) and a displacement of 6,682 long tons (6,789.2 t). She was divided into 214 watertight compartments. A centerline longitudinal watertight bulkhead separated the engines and a double bottom covered the hull only from the foremast to the aft end of the armored citadel, a distance of 196 feet (59.7 m). She had a metacentric height of 3.45 feet (1.1 m) as designed and was fitted with a ram bow. Maine's hull was long and narrow, more like that of a cruiser than that of Texas, which was wide-beamed. Normally, this would have made Maine the faster ship of the two, but Maine's weight distribution was ill-balanced, which slowed her considerably. Her main turrets, awkwardly situated on a cutaway gundeck, were nearly awash in bad weather. Because they were mounted toward the ends of the ship, away from its center of gravity, Maine was also prone to greater motion in heavy seas. While she and Texas were both considered seaworthy, the latter's high hull and guns mounted on her main deck made her the drier ship. The two main gun turrets were sponsoned over the sides of the ship and echeloned to allow both to fire fore and aft. The practice of en echelon mounting had begun with Italian battleships designed in the 1870s by Benedetto Brin and followed by the British Navy with HMS Inflexible, which was laid down in 1874 but not commissioned until October 1881. This gun arrangement met the design demand for heavy end-on fire in a ship-to-ship encounter, tactics that involved ramming the enemy vessel. The wisdom of this tactic was largely theoretical at the time when it was implemented. A drawback of an en echelon layout limited the ability for a ship to fire broadside, a key factor when employed in a line of battle. To allow for at least partial broadside fire, Maine's superstructure was separated into three structures. This allowed both turrets to fire across the ship's deck (cross-deck fire), between the sections. This ability was limited as the superstructure restricted each turret's arc of fire. This profile view and plan show Maine with eight six-pounder guns. Another early published plan shows the same. In both cases, the photographs show a single extreme bow mounted six-pounder and confirm that she did not carry that gun. Maine's armament setup in the bow was not identical to that of the stern, which had a single six-pounder mounted at extreme aft of the vessel. Maine carried two six-pounders forward, two on the bridge and three on the stern section, all one level above the abbreviated gun deck that permitted the ten-inch guns to fire across the deck. The six-pounders located in the bow were positioned more forward than were the pair mounted aft, which necessitated the far aft single six-pounder. Propulsion Maine was the first American capital ship for which its power plant was afforded as high a priority as was its fighting strength. Her machinery, built by the N. F. Palmer Jr. & Company's Quintard Iron Works of New York, was the first designed for a major ship under the direct supervision of Arctic explorer and future commodore George Wallace Melville. She had two inverted vertical triple-expansion steam engines, mounted in watertight compartments and separated by a fore-to-aft bulkhead, with a total designed output of 9,293 indicated horsepower (6,930 kW). Cylinder diameters were 35.5 inches (900 mm) (high-pressure), 57 inches (1,400 mm) (intermediate pressure) and 88 inches (2,200 mm) (low-pressure). Stroke for all three pistons was 36 inches (910 mm). Melville mounted Maine's engines with the cylinders in vertical mode, a departure from conventional practice. Previous ships had had their engines mounted in horizontal mode so that they would be completely protected below the waterline. Melville believed that a ship's engines needed ample room to operate and that any exposed parts could be protected by an armored deck. He therefore opted for the greater efficiency, lower maintenance costs and higher speeds offered by the vertical mode. The engines were constructed with the high-pressure cylinder aft and the low-pressure cylinder forward. According to the ship's chief engineer A. W. Morley, this was done so that the low-pressure cylinder could be disconnected when the ship was under low power. This allowed the high and intermediate-power cylinders to be run together as a compound engine for efficient running. Eight single-ended Scotch marine boilers provided steam to the engines at a working pressure of 135 pounds per square inch (930 kPa; 9.5 kgf/cm2) at a temperature 364 °F (184 °C). On trials, she reached a speed of 16.45 knots (30.47 km/h; 18.93 mph), failing to meet her contract speed of 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph). She carried a maximum load of 896 long tons (910,000 kg) of coal in 20 bunkers, 10 on each side, which extended below the protective deck. Wing bunkers at each end of each fire room extended inboard to the front of the boilers. This was a very low capacity for a ship of Maine's rating, which limited her time at sea and her ability to run at flank speed, when coal consumption increased dramatically. Maine's overhanging main turrets also prevented coaling at sea, except in the calmest of waters; otherwise, the potential for damage to a collier, herself or both vessels was extreme. Maine also carried two small dynamos to power her searchlights and provide interior lighting. Maine was designed initially with a three-mast barque rig for auxiliary propulsion in case of engine failure and to aid long-range cruising. This arrangement was limited to "two-thirds" of full sail power, determined by the ship's tonnage and immersed cross-section. The mizzen mast was removed in 1892, after the ship had been launched, but before her completion. Maine was completed with a two-mast military rig and the ship never spread any canvas. Armament Main guns Maine's main armament consisted of four 10-inch (254 mm)/30 caliber Mark II guns, which had a maximum elevation of 15° and could depress to −3°. Ninety rounds per gun were carried. The ten-inch guns fired a 510-pound (231 kg) shell at a muzzle velocity of 2,000 feet per second (610 m/s) to a range of 20,000 yards (18,000 m) at maximum elevation. These guns were mounted in twin hydraulically powered Mark 3 turrets, the fore turret sponsoned to starboard and the aft turret sponsoned to port. The 10-inch guns were initially to be mounted in open barbettes (the C & R proposal blueprint shows them as such). During Maine's extended construction, the development of rapid-fire intermediate-caliber guns, which could fire high-explosive shells, became a serious threat and the navy redesigned Maine with enclosed turrets. Because of the corresponding weight increase, the turrets were mounted one deck lower than planned originally. Even with this modification, the main guns were high enough to fire unobstructed for 180° on one side and 64° on the other side. They could also be loaded at any angle of train; initially the main guns of Texas, by comparison, with external rammers, could be loaded only when trained on the centerline or directly abeam, a common feature in battleships built before 1890. By 1897, Texas' turrets had been modified with internal rammers to permit much faster reloading. The en echelon arrangement proved problematic. Because Maine's turrets were not counterbalanced, she heeled over if both were pointed in the same direction, which reduced the range of the guns. Also, cross-deck firing damaged her deck and superstructure significantly due to the vacuum from passing shells. Because of this, and the potential for undue hull stress if the main guns were fired end-on, the en echelon arrangement was not used in U.S. Navy designs after Maine and Texas. Secondary and light guns The six 6-inch (152 mm)/30 caliber Mark 3 guns were mounted in casemates in the hull, two each at the bow and stern and the last two amidships. Data is lacking, but they could probably depress to −7° and elevate to +12°. They fired shells that weighed 105 pounds (48 kg) with a muzzle velocity of about 1,950 feet per second (590 m/s). They had a maximum range of 9,000 yards (8,200 m) at full elevation. The anti-torpedo boat armament consisted of seven 57-millimeter (2.2 in) Driggs-Schroeder six-pounder guns mounted on the superstructure deck. They fired a shell weighing about 6 lb (2.7 kg) at a muzzle velocity of about 1,765 feet per second (538 m/s) at a rate of 20 rounds per minute to a maximum range of 8,700 yards (7,955 m). The lighter armament comprised four each 37-millimeter (1.5 in) Hotchkiss and Driggs-Schroeder one-pounder guns. Four of these were mounted on the superstructure deck, two were mounted in small casemates at the extreme stern and one was mounted in each fighting top. They fired a shell weighing about 1.1 pounds (0.50 kg) at a muzzle velocity of about 2,000 feet per second (610 m/s) at a rate of 30 rounds per minute to a range about 3,500 yards (3,200 m). Maine had four 18-inch (457 mm) above-water torpedo tubes, two on each broadside. In addition, she was designed to carry two 14.8-long-ton (15.0 t) steam-powered torpedo boats, each with a single 14-inch (356 mm) torpedo tube and a one-pounder gun. Only one was built, but it had a top speed of only a little over 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) so it was transferred to the Naval Torpedo Station at Newport, Rhode Island, as a training craft. Armor The main waterline belt, made of nickel steel, had a maximum thickness of 12 inches (305 mm) and tapered to 7 inches (178 mm) at its lower edge. It was 180 feet (54.9 m) long and covered the machinery spaces and the 10-inch magazines. It was 7 feet (2.1 m) high, of which 3 feet (0.9 m) was above the design waterline. It angled inwards for 17 feet (5.2 m) at each end, thinning to 8 inches (203 mm), to provide protection against raking fire. A 6-inch transverse bulkhead closed off the forward end of the armored citadel. The forward portion of the 2-inch-thick (51 mm) protective deck ran from the bulkhead all the way to the bow and served to stiffen the ram. The deck sloped downwards to the sides, but its thickness increased to 3 inches (76 mm). The rear portion of the protective deck sloped downwards towards the stern, going below the waterline, to protect the propeller shafts and steering gear. The sides of the circular turrets were 8 inches thick. The barbettes were 12 inches thick, with their lower portions reduced to 10 inches. The conning tower had 10-inch walls. The ship's voicepipes and electrical leads were protected by an armored tube 4.5 inches (114 mm) thick. Two flaws emerged in Maine's protection, both due to technological developments between her laying-down and her completion. The first was a lack of adequate topside armor to counter the effects of rapid-fire intermediate-caliber guns and high-explosive shells. This was a flaw she shared with Texas. The second was the use of nickel-steel armor. Introduced in 1889, nickel steel was the first modern steel alloy armor and, with a figure of merit of 0.67, was an improvement over the 0.6 rating of mild steel used until then. Harvey steel and Krupp armors, both of which appeared in 1893, had merit figures of between 0.9 and 1.2, giving them roughly twice the tensile strength of nickel steel. Although all three armors shared the same density (about 40 pounds per square foot for a one-inch-thick plate), six inches of Krupp or Harvey steel gave the same protection as 10 inches of nickel. The weight thus saved could be applied either to additional hull structure and machinery or to achieving higher speed. The navy would incorporate Harvey armor in the Indiana-class battleships, designed after Maine, but commissioned at roughly the same time. Launching and delay Maine was launched on 18 November 1889, sponsored by Alice Tracy Wilmerding, the granddaughter of Navy Secretary Benjamin F. Tracy. Not long afterwards, a reporter wrote for Marine Engineer and Naval Architect magazine, "it cannot be denied that the navy of the United States is making rapid strides towards taking a credible position among the navies of the world, and the launch of the new armoured battleship Maine from the Brooklyn Navy Yard ... has added a most powerful unit to the United States fleet of turret ships." In his 1890 annual report to congress, the Secretary of the Navy wrote, "the Maine ... stands in a class by herself" and expected the ship to be commissioned by July 1892. A three-year delay ensued, while the shipyard waited for nickel steel plates for Maine's armor. Bethlehem Steel had promised the navy 300 tons per month by December 1889 and had ordered heavy castings and forging presses from the British firm of Armstrong Whitworth in 1886 to fulfil its contract. This equipment did not arrive until 1889, pushing back Bethlehem's timetable. In response, Navy Secretary Benjamin Tracy secured a second contractor, the newly expanded Homestead mill of Carnegie, Phipps & Company. In November 1890, Tracy and Andrew Carnegie signed a contract for Homestead to supply 6000 tons of nickel steel. Homestead was, what author Paul Krause calls, "the last union stronghold in the steel mills of the Pittsburgh district." The mill had already weathered one strike in 1882 and a lockout in 1889 in an effort to break the union there. Less than two years later, came the Homestead Strike of 1892, one of the largest, most serious disputes in U.S. labor history. A photo of the christening shows Wilmerding striking the bow near the plimsoll line depth of 13, which caused speculation that the ship was "unlucky" from the launching. Operations Maine was commissioned on 17 September 1895, under the command of Captain Arent S. Crowninshield. On 5 November 1895, Maine steamed to Sandy Hook Bay, New Jersey. She anchored there two days, then proceeded to Newport, Rhode Island, for fitting out and test firing of her torpedoes. After a trip, later that month, to Portland, Maine, she reported to the North Atlantic Squadron for operations, training maneuvers and fleet exercises. Maine spent her active career with the North Atlantic Squadron, operating from Norfolk, Virginia, along the East Coast of the United States and the Caribbean. On 10 April 1897, Captain Charles Dwight Sigsbee relieved Captain Crowninshield as commander of Maine. Sinking In January 1898, Maine was sent from Key West, Florida, to Havana, Cuba to protect American interests during the Cuban War of Independence. She arrived at 11:00 local time on January 25. At 21:40 on 15 February, an explosion on the Maine occurred in the Havana harbor (23°08′07″N 082°20′3″W). Later investigations revealed that more than 5 long tons (5.1 t) of powder charges for the vessel's six- and ten-inch guns had detonated, obliterating the forward third of the ship. The remaining wreckage rapidly settled to the bottom of the harbor. Most of Maine's crew were sleeping or resting in the enlisted quarters, in the forward part of the ship, when the explosion occurred. The ship's crew consisted of 355 men: 26 officers, 290 enlisted sailors and 39 marines. Of these, there were 261 fatalities: Two officers and 251 enlisted sailors or marines were killed by the explosion or drowned Seven others were rescued but soon died of their injuries One officer later died of "cerebral affection" (shock) Of the 94 survivors, 16 were uninjured. Captain Sigsbee and most of the officers survived because their quarters were in the aft portion of the ship. The City of Washington, an American merchant steamship, aided in rescuing the crew. The cause of the accident was immediately debated. Waking President McKinley to break the news, commander Francis W. Dickins called it an "accident". Commodore George Dewey, commander of the Asiatic Squadron, "feared at first that she had been destroyed by the Spanish, which of course meant war, and I was getting ready for it when a later dispatch said it was an accident." Navy captain Philip R. Alger, an expert on ordnance and explosives, posted a bulletin at the Navy Department the next day communicating that the explosion had been caused by a spontaneous fire in the coal bunkers. Assistant Navy secretary Theodore Roosevelt wrote a letter protesting this statement, which he viewed as premature. Roosevelt argued that Alger should not have commented on an ongoing investigation, saying, "Mr. Alger cannot possibly know anything about the accident. All the best men in the Department agree that, whether probable or not, it certainly is possible that the ship was blown up by a mine." Yellow journalism The New York Journal and New York World, owned respectively by William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, sensationalized the Maine incident with intense press coverage, employing tactics that would later be labeled "yellow journalism." Both newspapers exaggerated and distorted much of the information they obtained, sometimes even fabricating news to fit their agendas. For a week following the sinking, the Journal devoted a daily average of eight and a half pages of news, editorials and pictures to the event. Its editors sent a full team of reporters and artists to Havana, including Frederic Remington, and Hearst announced a reward of $50,000 "for the conviction of the criminals who sent 258 American sailors to their deaths." The World, while overall not as lurid or shrill in tone as the Journal, nevertheless indulged in similar theatrics, insisting continuously that Maine had been bombed or mined. Privately, Pulitzer felt that "nobody outside a lunatic asylum" really believed that Spain sanctioned Maine's destruction. However, his New York World insisted that the only "atonement" that Spain could offer the U.S. for the loss of ship and life was the granting of complete Cuban independence. The paper accused Spain of "treachery, willingness, or laxness" for failing to ensure the safety of Havana Harbor. Many members of the American public, already agitated over reported Spanish atrocities in Cuba, were driven to increased hysteria. Hearst's reporting on the Maine incident generated support for military action against the Spanish in Cuba regardless of their actual involvement in the sinking. He frequently cited various naval officers saying that the explosion could not have been an on-board accident. He quoted an "officer high in authority" as saying: "The idea that the catastrophe resulted from an internal accident is preposterous. In the first place, such a thing has never occurred before that I have ever heard of either in the British navy or ours." Spanish–American War Maine's destruction did not result in an immediate declaration of war with Spain, but the event created an atmosphere that endangered a peaceful solution. The Spanish investigation found that the explosion had been caused by spontaneous combustion of the coal bunkers, but the Sampson Board ruled that the explosion had been caused by an external explosion from a torpedo. The episode focused national attention on the crisis in Cuba. The McKinley administration did not cite the explosion as a casus belli, but others were already inclined to wage war with Spain over perceived atrocities and loss of control in Cuba. Advocates of war used the rallying cry, "Remember the Maine! To hell with Spain!" The Spanish–American War began on April 21, 1898, two months after the sinking. Investigations In addition to the inquiry commissioned by the Spanish government to naval officers Del Peral and De Salas, two naval courts of inquiry were ordered: the Sampson Board in 1898 and the Vreeland board in 1911. In 1976, Admiral Hyman G. Rickover commissioned a private investigation, and the National Geographic Society investigated in 1998, using computer simulations. All investigations agreed that an explosion of the forward magazines caused the destruction of the ship, but different conclusions were reached regarding the exact cause of the explosion. 1898 Del Peral and De Salas inquiry The Spanish inquiry, conducted by Del Peral and De Salas, collected evidence from officers of naval artillery, who had examined the remains of the Maine. Del Peral and De Salas identified the spontaneous combustion of the coal bunker, located adjacent to the munition stores in Maine, as the likely cause of the explosion. The possibility that other combustibles, such as varnish, drier or alcohol products, had caused the explosion was not discounted. Additional observations included that: Had a mine been the cause of the explosion, a column of water would have been observed. The wind and the waters were calm and hence a mine could have only been detonated by electricity, but no cables had been found. No dead fish were found in the harbor, as would be expected following an explosion in the water. Munition stores do not usually explode when a ship is sunk by a mine. The conclusions of the report were not reported at the time by the American press. 1898 Sampson Board's Court of Inquiry A naval inquiry was ordered by the United States shortly after the incident, headed by Captain William T. Sampson. Ramón Blanco y Erenas, Spanish governor of Cuba, had instead proposed a joint Spanish-American investigation. Captain Sigsbee had written that "many Spanish officers, including representatives of General Blanco, now with us to express sympathy." In a cable, the Spanish minister of colonies Segismundo Moret had advised Blanco "to gather every fact you can, to prove the Maine catastrophe cannot be attributed to us." According to Dana Wegner, who worked with Rickover on his 1974 investigation of the sinking, the Secretary of the Navy had the option of personally selecting a board of inquiry. Instead, he resorted to protocol and assigned the commander-in-chief of the North Atlantic squadron to do so. The commander produced a list of junior line officers for the board. The fact that the officer proposed to be court president was junior to the captain of Maine, Wegner writes, "would indicate either ignorance of navy regulations or that, in the beginning, the board did not intend to examine the possibility that the ship was lost by accident and the negligence of her captain." Eventually, navy regulations prevailed in leadership of the board, Captain Sampson being senior to Captain Sigsbee. The board arrived on 21 February and took testimony from survivors, witnesses and divers who investigated the wreck underwater. The Sampson Board produced its findings in two parts: the proceedings, which consisted mainly of testimonies, and the findings, which were the facts as determined by the court. Between the proceedings and the findings, there was what Wegner calls "a broad gap" in which the court "left no record of the reasoning that carried it from the often-inconsistent witnesses to [its] conclusion." Another inconsistency, according to Wegner, was that the board summoned only one technical witness, Commander George Converse, from the Torpedo Station at Newport, Rhode Island. Captain Sampson read Commander Converse a hypothetical situation of a coal-bunker fire igniting the reserve six-inch ammunition, with a resulting explosion sinking the ship. He then asked Commander Converse about the feasibility of such a scenario. Commander Converse "simply stated, without elaboration, that he could not realize such an event happening." The board concluded that Maine had been destroyed by a mine, which, in turn, caused the explosion of her forward magazines. They reached this conclusion based on the fact that the majority of witnesses stated that they had heard two explosions and that part of the keel was bent inward. The official report from the board, which was presented to the Navy Department in Washington on 21 March, specifically stated the following: "At frame 18 the vertical keel is broken in two and the flat keel is bent at an angle similar to the angle formed by the outside bottom plating. ... In the opinion of the court, this effect could have been produced only by the explosion of a mine situated under the bottom of the ship at about frame 18, and somewhat on the port side of the ship." (part of the court's 5th finding) "In the opinion of the court, the Maine was destroyed by the explosion of a submarine mine, which caused the partial explosion of two or more of her forward magazines." (the court's 7th finding) and "The court has been unable to obtain evidence fixing the responsibility for the destruction of the Maine upon any person or persons." (the court's 8th finding). 1911 Vreeland Board's Court of Inquiry In 1910, the decision was made to conduct a second court of inquiry. Doing so would also facilitate the recovery of bodies so they could be buried in the United States. The fact that the Cuban government wanted the wreck removed from Havana Harbor might also have played a role; it at least offered the opportunity to examine the wreck in greater detail than had been possible in 1898, while simultaneously obliging the newly independent Cubans. Wegner suggests that the fact that this inquiry could be held without the threat of war, which had been the case in 1898, lent it the potential for greater objectivity than had been possible previously. Moreover, as several of the members of the 1910 board would be certified engineers, they would be better qualified to evaluate their findings than had been the line officers of the 1898 board. Beginning in December 1910, a cofferdam was built around the wreck and water was removed, exposing the wreck by late 1911. Between 20 November and 2 December 1911, a court of inquiry headed by Rear Admiral Charles E. Vreeland inspected the wreck. They concluded that an external explosion had triggered the explosion of the magazines. This explosion was farther aft and lower-powered than had been concluded by the Sampson Board. The Vreeland Board also found that the bending of frame 18 was caused by the explosion of the magazines, not by the external explosion. After the investigation, the newly located dead were buried in Arlington National Cemetery and the hollow, intact portion of the hull of Maine was refloated and ceremoniously scuttled at sea on 16 March 1912. 1974 Rickover investigation Rickover became intrigued with the disaster and began a private investigation in 1974, using information from the two official inquiries, newspapers, personal papers, and information on the construction and ammunition of Maine. He concluded that the explosion was not caused by a mine, and speculated that spontaneous combustion was the most likely cause, from coal in the bunker next to the magazine. He published a book about this investigation in 1976 entitled How the Battleship Maine Was Destroyed. In the 2001 book Theodore Roosevelt, the U.S. Navy and the Spanish–American War, Wegner revisits the Rickover investigation and offers additional details. According to Wegner, Rickover interviewed naval historians at the Energy Research and Development Agency after reading an article in the Washington Star-News by John M. Taylor. The author claimed that the U.S. Navy "made little use of its technically trained officers during its investigation of the tragedy." The historians were working with Rickover on a study of the Navy's nuclear propulsion program, but they said that they knew no details of Maine's sinking. Rickover asked whether they could investigate the matter, and they agreed. Wegner says that all relevant documents were obtained and studied, including the ship's plans and weekly reports of the unwatering of Maine in 1912 (the progress of the cofferdam) written by William Furgueson, chief engineer for the project. These reports included numerous photos annotated by Furgueson with frame and strake numbers on corresponding parts of the wreckage. Two experts were brought in to analyze the naval demolitions and ship explosions. They concluded that the photos showed "no plausible evidence of penetration from the outside," and they believed that the explosion originated inside the ship. Wegner suggests that a combination of naval ship design and a change in the type of coal used to fuel naval ships might have facilitated the explosion postulated by the Rickover study. Up to the time of the Maine's building, he explains, common bulkheads separated coal bunkers from ammunition lockers, and American naval ships burned smokeless anthracite coal. With an increase in the number of steel ships, the Navy switched to bituminous coal, which burned at a hotter temperature than anthracite coal and allowed ships to steam faster. Wegner explains that anthracite coal is not subject to spontaneous combustion, but bituminous coal is considerably more volatile and is known for releasing the largest amounts of firedamp, a dangerous and explosive mixture of gases (chiefly methane). Firedamp is explosive at concentrations between 4% and 16%, with most violence at around 10%. In addition, there was another potential contributing factor in the bituminous coal: iron sulfide, also known as pyrite, was likely present. The presence of pyrites presents two additional risk factors, the first involving oxidation. Pyrite oxidation is sufficiently exothermic that underground coal mines in high-sulfur coal seams have occasionally experienced spontaneous combustion in the mined-out areas of the mine. This process can result from the disruption caused by mining from the seams, which exposes the sulfides in the ore to air and water. The second risk factor involves an additional capability of pyrites to provide fire ignition under certain conditions. Pyrites derive their name from the Greek root word pyr, meaning fire, as they can cause sparks when struck by steel or other hard surfaces. Pyrites were used to strike sparks to ignite gunpowder in wheellock guns, for example. The pyrites could have provided the ignition capability needed to create an explosion. A number of bunker fires of this type had been reported aboard warships before the Maine's explosion, in several cases nearly sinking the ships. Wegner also cites a 1997 heat transfer study that concluded that a coal bunker fire could have taken place and ignited the ship's ammunition. 1998 National Geographic investigation In 1998, National Geographic magazine commissioned an analysis by Advanced Marine Enterprises (AME). This investigation, done to commemorate the centennial of the sinking of USS Maine, was based on computer modeling, a technique unavailable for previous investigations. The results reached were inconclusive. National Geographic reported that "a fire in the coal bunker could have generated sufficient heat to touch off an explosion in the adjacent magazine [but] on the other hand, computer analysis also shows that even a small, handmade mine could have penetrated the ship's hull and set off explosions within." The AME investigation noted that "the size and location of the soil depression beneath the Maine 'is more readily explained by a mine explosion than by magazine explosions alone'." The team noted that this was not "definitive in proving that a mine was the cause of the sinking" but it did "strengthen the case." Some experts, including Rickover's team and several analysts at AME, do not agree with the conclusion. Wegner claims that technical opinion among the Geographic team was divided between its younger members, who focused on computer modeling results, and its older ones, who weighed their inspection of photos of the wreck with their own experience. He adds that AME used flawed data concerning the Maine's design and ammunition storage. Wegner was also critical of the fact that participants in the Rickover study were not consulted until AME's analysis was essentially complete, far too late to confirm the veracity of data being used or engage in any other meaningful cooperation. 2002 Discovery Channel Unsolved History investigation In 2002, the Discovery Channel produced an episode of the Unsolved History documentaries, entitled "Death of the U.S.S. Maine." It used photographic evidence, naval experts, and archival information to argue that the cause of the explosion was a coal bunker fire, and it identified a weakness or gap in the bulkhead separating the coal and powder bunkers that allowed the fire to spread from the former to the latter. False flag operation conspiracy theories Several claims have been made in Spanish-speaking media that the sinking was a false flag operation conducted by the U.S. and those claims are the official view in Cuba. The Maine monument in Havana describes Maine's sailors as "victims sacrificed to the imperialist greed in its fervor to seize control of Cuba" and claims that American agents deliberately blew up their own ship. Eliades Acosta was the head of the Cuban Communist Party's Committee on Culture and a former director of the José Martí National Library in Havana. He offered the standard Cuban interpretation in an interview to The New York Times, but he adds that "Americans died for the freedom of Cuba, and that should be recognized." This claim has also been made in Russia by Mikhail Khazin, a Russian economist who once ran the cultural section at Komsomolskaya Pravda, and in Spain by Eric Frattini, a Spanish Peruvian journalist in his book Manipulando la historia. Operaciones de Falsa Bandera. Del Maine al Golpe de estado de Turquía. Operation Northwoods was a series of proposals prepared by Pentagon officials for the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1962, setting out a number of proposed false flag operations that could be blamed on the Cuban Communists in order to rally support against them. One of these suggested that a U.S. Navy ship be blown up in Guantanamo Bay deliberately. In an echo of the yellow press headlines of the earlier period, it used the phrase "A 'Remember the Maine' incident". Raising and final sinking For several years, the Maine was left where she sank in Havana harbor, but it was evident she would have to be removed sometime. It took up valuable space in the harbor, and the buildup of silt around her hull threatened to create a shoal. In addition, various patriotic groups wanted mementos of the ship. On 9 May 1910, Congress authorized funds for the removal of the Maine, the proper interment in Arlington National Cemetery of the estimated 70 bodies still inside, and the removal and transport of the main mast to Arlington. Congress did not demand a new investigation into the sinking at that time. The Army Corps of Engineers built a cofferdam around the Maine and pumped water out from inside it. By 30 June 1911, the Maine's main deck was exposed, revealing just how damaged the ship was: Forward of frame 41 was completely destroyed, leaving only a twisted mass of steel that bore no resemblance to a bow, and the rest of the wreck was severely corroded. When the water was fully drained, army engineers used oxyacetylene torches to cut away the damaged superstructure and decks. Then, midway through the wreck, they cut away what was left of the forward portion of the ship and built a concrete and wooden bulkhead to seal the after-section. Holes were cut in the bottom of the after-section, through which jets of water were pumped, to break the mud seal holding the ship, then plugged, with flood cocks, which would later be used for sinking the ship. The Maine had been outfitted with Worthington steam pumps. After lying on the bottom of Havana harbor for fourteen years these pumps were found to be still operational; they were subsequently cleaned and used by the Army Corps of Engineers to aid them in their work on the wreck. During the salvage, the remains of 66 men were found, of whom only one, Harry J. Keys (an engineering officer), was identified and returned to his home town; the rest were reburied at Arlington National Cemetery, making a total of 229 Maine crew buried there. All recovered bodies were removed to the armored cruiser North Carolina for repatriation. Finally, on 13 February 1912, the engineers let water back into the interior of the cofferdam. Three days later, the interior of the cofferdam was full and the extant after-section of the Maine was refloated. Two days after that, the Maine was towed out by the tug Osceola On 16 March, the Maine was towed four miles from the Cuban coast by Osceola, escorted by North Carolina and the light cruiser Birmingham. She was loaded with dynamite as a possible aid to her sinking. Flowers adorned Maine's deck, and an American flag was strung from her jury mast. At 5pm local time, with a crowd of over 100,000 persons watching from the shore, her sea cocks were opened, and just over twenty minutes later, Maine sank, bow first, in 600 fathoms (3,600 ft; 1,100 m) of water, to the sound of Taps and a twenty-one gun salute, courtesy of the men on the Birmingham and North Carolina. Rediscovery On October 18, 2000, the wreck of Maine was rediscovered in about 3,770 feet (1,150 m) of water roughly 3 miles (4.8 km) northeast of Havana Harbor by Advanced Digital Communications, a Toronto-based expedition company. The team, led by marine engineer Paulina Zelitsky, accidentally stumbled across the ship while working with Cuban scientists and oceanographers from the University of South Florida College of Marine Science to test underwater exploration technology. The researchers, who referred to the wreck as the "square" due to its unique shape, did not initially believe it to be the Maine, since the ship was discovered east of where it was reportedly scuttled. (This displacement was likely due to currents pushing the ship as it sank.) Once the team began to explore the wreck with a Remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV), they discovered that the hull had not overly oxidized, allowing them to "see all of [the ship's] structural parts." The researchers confirmed the ship's identity both by scrutinizing the design of its doors, hatches, anchor chain, and propellers, and by identifying the telltale bulkhead that had been created when the bow was removed in 1912. Near the wreck, the team also located a boiler and a debris field of coal. Memorials Arlington, Annapolis, Havana, Key West In February 1898, the recovered bodies of sailors who died on Maine were interred in the Colon Cemetery, Havana. Some injured sailors were sent to hospitals in Havana and Key West, Florida. Those who died in hospitals were buried in Key West. In December 1899, the bodies in Havana were disinterred and brought back to the United States for burial at Arlington National Cemetery. In 1915, President Woodrow Wilson dedicated the USS Maine Mast Memorial to those who died. The memorial includes the ship's main mast. Roughly 165 were buried at Arlington, although the remains of one sailor were exhumed for his home town, Indianapolis, Indiana. Of the rest, only 62 were known. Nine bodies were never recovered and 19 crewmen, several unidentified, are buried in Key West Cemetery under a statue of a U.S. sailor holding an oar. The explosion-bent fore mast of Maine is located at the United States Naval Academy. In 1926, the Cuban government erected a memorial to the victims of Maine on the Malecon, near the Hotel Nacional, to commemorate United States assistance in acquiring Cuban independence from Spain. The monument features two of Maine's four 10-inch guns. In 1961, the memorial was damaged by crowds, following the Bay of Pigs Invasion, and the eagle on top was broken and removed. The Communist government then added its own inscription blaming "imperialist voracity in its eagerness to seize the island of Cuba" for Maine's sinking. The monument was cleaned and restored in 2013. The eagle's head was retained by the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, and the body by the city's museum. USS Maine Monument, New York City Other memorials In 1898, Georges Méliès made his movie, Divers at Work on the Wreck of the "Maine", about rescuers freeing bodies from the sunken Maine. On March 25, 1912, a cowl from the USS Maine arrived in Woburn, Massachusetts and is still on display in Woburn Center. In 1912, a porthole cover and a section of the base mast was given to the City of Newburgh Heights, Ohio. The relics were mounted on a large rock in the city's Washington Park in 1948. In 1914, one of Maine's six anchors was taken from the Washington Navy Yard to City Park in Reading, Pennsylvania, and dedicated during a ceremony presided over by Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was then assistant secretary of the navy. A brass torpedo tube hatch recovered from Maine is on display at Lakeside Park in Oakland, California. It was stolen from its mount in the park in May 2011, but quickly recovered by authorities after the thieves attempted to sell it for scrap metal. The large piece was relocated and mounted by OPW Facility Services in front of Oakland's Veterans building on Grand Ave. A memorial including the shield and scrollwork from the bow of the ship is located in Bangor, Maine. A 6-inch gun from Maine is in Washington, D.C., at the National Museum of the United States Navy. A 6-inch gun from Maine is in Fort Allen Park in Portland, Maine. A 6-inch gun from Maine is displayed on the front lawn of city hall in Alpena, Michigan, as well as a bronze plaque made from the vessel. The base of Maine's conning tower is currently on display at Westbrook Veterans' Memorial Park in Canton, Ohio, hometown of President McKinley. Shells from the main battery were placed along with small plaques as memorials at the Soldier's Home in Marion, Indiana (now a VA hospital and national cemetery), at the St. Joseph County Courthouse lawn in South Bend, Indiana, and at Point Defiance Park in Tacoma, Washington. A shell from the main battery is located in Veterans Park in Lewiston, Maine. A monument for Maine with a portion of a bronze engine room ventilator shaft is located in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey. The capstan of the ship was secured for Charleston, South Carolina, where it was displayed on the Battery until 2006; it is currently awaiting reinstallation. A shell from the Maine is on display at the Hoboken Public Library in Hoboken, New Jersey. There is a plaque dedicated to Maine at the war memorial in Stephen R. Gregg Park in Bayonne, New Jersey. The plaque is made from metal salvaged from the ship.CITEREFCoughlin A 6-pound deck gun from Maine is on the North lawn of the South Carolina State House in Columbia, South Carolina. A 6-pound deck gun from Maine is at the White Plains Public Works Yard in White Plains, New York, after being removed from Battle Whitney Park. A bronze torpedo tube and armored hatch form part of a memorial in West Park, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, just south of West North Avenue. There is also a USS Maine Memorial plaque (visible in photographs and physically in situ) at the south door of the Jefferson County Courthouse, in Steubenville, Ohio. The Maine State Museum in Augusta has a porthole on display, recovered in 1910. It has other artifacts which are not on display. There is a porthole cover from the USS Maine located in Woodlawn Cemetery, Wadsworth, Ohio, as part of a Spanish War Memorial. It was erected by Wadsworth Camp 24 U.S.W.V. See also List of battleships of the United States Navy U.S. Navy memorials Monument to the Victims of the USS Maine (Havana) Wat Tyler Cluverius Jr. – last surviving officer of the sinking (died 1952) Explanatory notes References Citations Bibliography This article incorporates public domain material from The Destruction of USS Maine. United States Navy. Alden, John D. (1989). American Steel Navy: A Photographic History of the U.S. Navy from the Introduction of the Steel Hull in 1883 to the Cruise of the Great White Fleet. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-248-2. Allen, Francis J. (1998). "Honoring the Heroes: The Raising of the Wreck of the U.S. Battleship Maine, Part I". Warship International. XXXV (4): 386–405. ISSN 0043-0374. "Battleship Maine". The Spanish American War Centennial Website. www.spanamwar.com. 1996. Retrieved 2 April 2012. "Casualties on USS Maine". Naval History & Heritage Command. US Navy Department. 6 February 1998. Retrieved 2 October 2011. Coughlin, Bill (2012). "U.S.S. Maine Memorial Marker". Bill Coughlin. Archived from the original on 22 November 2018. Retrieved 25 July 2014. Cowan, Mark D.; Sumrall, Alan K. (2011). "Old Hoodoo": The Battleship Texas: America's First Battleship, 1895–1911. Charleston, South Carolina: CreateSpace. ISBN 978-1-4662-4894-6. Crawford, Michael J.; Hayes, Mark L.; Sessions, Michael D. (30 November 1998). "The Spanish–American War : Historical Overview and Select Bibliography". Naval Historical Center, U.S. Department of the Navy. Retrieved 2 October 2011. Dober, Mark; Keough, Daniel E. & Koehler, R. B. (2006). "Question 20/04: Artifacts from USS Maine (ACR-1)". Warship International. XLIII (2): 131–33. ISSN 0043-0374. Friedman, Norman (1984). U.S. Cruisers, An Illustrated Design History. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-718-0. Friedman, Norman (1985). U.S. Battleships, An Illustrated Design History. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-715-9. Gardiner, Robert, ed. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. New York: Mayflower Books. ISBN 978-0-312-24023-3. Jackson, Robert (2004). Fighting Ships of the World. London: Amber Books. p. 421. ISBN 978-1840136470. Krause, Paul, ed. (1992). The Battle for Homestead, 1880–1892: politics, culture, and steel. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 978-0-8229-5466-8. Love, Robert W. Jr., ed. (1992). History of the U.S. Navy, Volume One: 1775–1941. Harriburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-0-8117-1862-2. "Maine (BB-2)". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Navy Department, Naval History and Heritage Command. Retrieved 2 October 2011. Miller, David, ed. (2001). Illustrated Directory of Warships of the World. Osceloa, WI: Zenith Press. ISBN 978-0-7603-1127-1. Misa, Thomas J., ed. (1999). A Nation of Steel: The Making of Modern America, 1865–1925. Baltimore, Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-6052-2. Morley, A. W. (1895). "Contract Trial of the United States Armored Cruiser Maine". Journal of the Society of American Engineers. Morrison, Samuel Loring, ed. (2003). The American Battleship. Osceloa, WI: Zenith Press. ISBN 978-0-7603-0989-6. Musicant, Ivan (1998). Empire by Default: The Spanish–American War and the Dawn of the American Century. New York: Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 978-0-8050-3500-1. O'Toole, G. J. A. (1984). The Spanish War: An American Epic 1898. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 9780393018394. Paine, Lincoln P. (2000). Warships of the World to 1900. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-395-98414-7. Parkinson, Roger (2008). The Late Victorian Navy: The Pre-Dreadnought Era and the Origins of the First World War. Rochester, New York: Boydell Press. ISBN 978-1-84383-372-7. Pater, Alan F., ed. (1968). United States Battleships: The History of America's Greatest Fighting Ships. Beverly Hills, California: Monitor Book Company. LCCN 68-17423. Peifer, Douglas Carl (2016). Choosing War. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-026868-8. Putnam, William Lowell (2000). Arctic Superstars. New York: Amer Alpine Club. ISBN 978-0-930410-82-7. Reilly, John C.; Scheina, Robert L. (1980). American Battleships 1886–1923: Predreadnought Design and Construction. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-524-7. Rickover, Hyman George (1995). How the Battleship Maine was Destroyed (Second Revised ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-717-4. "Sinking of USS Maine, 15 February 1898". Naval History & Heritage Command. US Navy Department. Retrieved 2 October 2011. "Survivors of USS Maine". Naval History & Heritage Command. US Navy Department. 6 February 1998. Retrieved 2 October 2011. "The Destruction of USS Maine". Naval History & Heritage Command. US Navy Department. 13 August 2003. Archived from the original on 18 August 2007. Retrieved 2 October 2011. United States Army Corps of Engineers (1914). Final Report on Removing Wreck of USS Maine from Harbor of Habana, Cuba. Washington: United States Army Corps of Engineers. "USS Maine (1895–1898), originally designated as Armored Cruiser # 1". Naval History & Heritage Command. US Navy Department. 17 November 1998. Archived from the original on 10 January 2015. Retrieved 2 October 2011. Weems, John Edward (1992). The Fate of the Maine. College Station, Texas: Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 978-0-89096-501-6. Wegner, Dana (2001). "Chapter 2: New Interpretations of How the USS Maine Was Lost". In Marolda, Edward J. (ed.). Theodore Roosevelt, the U.S. Navy and the Spanish–American War. London: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-1370-5501-9. Wisan, Joseph Ezra (1965) [c. 1934]. The Cuban Crisis as Reflected in the New York Press, 1895–1898. Octagon Books. OCLC 435153688. Further reading Allen, Thomas B. "Remember the Maine?" National Geographic, Vol. 193, No 2 (February 1998): 92–111. Allen, Thomas B. ed. "What Really Sank the Maine?" Naval History 11 (March/April 1998): 30–39. Blow, Michael. A Ship to Remember: The Maine and the Spanish–American War. New York: William Morrow & Co., 1992. ISBN 978-0-688-09714-1. Foner, Philip S. The Spanish-Cuban-American War and the Birth of American Imperialism 1895–1902. 2 Volumes, New York/London 1972 (very detailed with plenty of sources from US archives). Samuels, Peggy and Harold. Remembering the Maine. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC and London 1995 ISBN 978-1-56098-474-0. External links USS Maine from the Library of Congress at Flickr Commons Hartshorn, Byron, "Visiting the USS Maine around Washington, DC" Naval History & Heritage Command (history.navy.mil): USS Maine The Destruction of the USS Maine Archived 18 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine United States Navy, Bureau of Steam Engineering, Specifications for triple-expansion twin-screw propelling machinery for U.S.S. Maine at Google Books. Retrieved 6 April 2012. U.S.S. Maine Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery, at ArlingtonCemetery.net, 14 July 2022, an unofficial website From spanamwar.com: Background information on the Maine Theories on the loss of the Maine Official 1898 Court of Inquiry Report How Likely was a Coal Bunker Fire Aboard the Battleship Maine? USS Maine Pictures from the Library of Congress American Memory website Photo gallery of Maine at NavSource Naval History – Construction – Active Service USS Maine from NARA Black, William F. "The Story of the Maine" in Proceedings of the Municipal Engineers of the City of New York – via Google Books

Maine ( MAYN) is a state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Lower 48. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and northwest, and shares a maritime border with Nova Scotia. Maine is the largest state in New England by total area, nearly larger than the combined area of the remaining five states. Of the 50 U.S. states, it is the 12th-smallest by area, the 9th-least populous, the 13th-least densely populated, and the most rural. Maine's capital is Augusta, and its most populous city is Portland, with a total population of 68,408, as of the 2020 census. The territory of Maine has been inhabited by Indigenous populations for about 12,000 years, after the glaciers retreated during the last ice age. At the time of European arrival, several Algonquian-speaking nations governed the area and these nations are now known as the Wabanaki Confederacy. The first European settlement in the area was by the French in 1604 on Saint Croix Island, founded by Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons. The first English settlement was the short-lived Popham Colony, established by the Plymouth Company in 1607. A number of English settlements were established along the coast of Maine in the 1620s, although the rugged climate and conflict with the local Indigenous people caused many to fail. As Maine entered the 18th century, only a half dozen European settlements had survived. Loyalist and Patriot forces contended for Maine's territory during the American Revolution. During the War of 1812, the largely undefended eastern region of Maine was occupied by British forces with the goal of annexing it to Canada via the Colony of New Ireland, but returned to the United States following failed British offensives on the northern border, mid-Atlantic and south which produced a peace treaty that restored the pre-war boundaries. Maine was part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts until 1820 when it voted to secede from Massachusetts to become a separate state. On March 15, 1820, under the Missouri Compromise, Maine was admitted to the Union as the 23rd state. Today, Maine is known for its jagged, rocky Atlantic Ocean and bayshore coastlines, mountains, heavily forested interior, and its cuisine, particularly wild lowbush blueberries and seafood such as lobster and clams. Coastal and Down East Maine have emerged as important centers for the creative economy, especially in the vicinity of Portland, which has also brought gentrification to the city and its metropolitan area. History The earliest known inhabitants of the territory that is now Maine were Algonquian-speaking Wabanaki peoples, including the Passamaquoddy, Maliseet, Penobscot, Androscoggin, and Kennebec. During the later King Philip's War, many of these peoples would merge in one form or another to become the Wabanaki Confederacy, aiding the Wampanoag of Massachusetts and the Mahican of New York. Afterwards, many of these people were driven from their natural territories, but most of Maine's tribes continued, unchanged, until the American Revolution. Before this point, however, most of these people were considered separate nations. Many had adapted to living in permanent, Iroquois-inspired settlements, while those along the coast tended to move from summer villages to winter villages on a yearly cycle. They would usually winter inland and head to the coasts by summer. European contact with what is now called Maine may have started around 1200 CE when Vikings are believed to have interacted with the native Penobscot in present-day Hancock County, most likely through trade. If confirmed, this would make Maine the site of the earliest European discovery in the entire US. About 200 years earlier, from the settlements in Iceland and Greenland, the Norse first identified America and attempted to settle areas such as Newfoundland, but failed to establish a permanent settlement. Archeological evidence suggests that Vikings in Greenland returned to North America for several centuries after the initial discovery to trade and collect timber, with the most relevant evidence being the Maine Penny, an 11th-century Norwegian coin found at a Native American dig site in 1954. The first European confirmed settlement in modern-day Maine was in 1604 on Saint Croix Island, led by French explorer Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons. His party included Samuel de Champlain, noted as an explorer. The French named the entire area Acadia, including the portion that later became the state of Maine. The Plymouth Company established the first English settlement in Maine at the Popham Colony in 1607, the same year as the settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. The Popham colonists returned to Britain after 14 months. The French established two Jesuit missions: one on Penobscot Bay in 1609, and the other on Mount Desert Island in 1613. The same year, Claude de La Tour established Castine. In 1625, Charles de Saint-Étienne de la Tour erected Fort Pentagouet to protect Castine. The coastal areas of eastern Maine first became the Province of Maine in a 1622 land patent. The part of western Maine north of the Kennebec River was more sparsely settled and was known in the 17th century as the Territory of Sagadahock. A second settlement was attempted in 1623 by English explorer and naval Captain Christopher Levett at a place called York, where he had been granted 6,000 acres (24 km2) by King Charles I of England. It also failed. The 1622 patent of the Province of Maine was split at the Piscataqua River into the Province of New Hampshire to the south and New Somersetshire to the north. A disputed 1630 patent split off the area around present-day Saco as Lygonia. Justifying its actions with a 1652 geographic survey that showed an overlapping patent, the Massachusetts Bay Colony had seized New Somersetshire and Lygonia by force by 1658. The Territory of Sagadahock between the Kennebec River and St. Croix River notionally became Cornwall County, Province of New York under a 1664 grant from Charles II of England to his brother James, at the time the Duke of York. Some of this land was claimed by New France as part of Acadia. All of the English settlements in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Province of New York became part of the Dominion of New England in 1686. All of present-day Maine was unified as York County, Massachusetts under a 1691 royal patent for the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Central Maine was formerly inhabited by the Androscoggin tribe of the Abenaki nation, also known as Arosaguntacook. They were driven out of the area in 1690 during King William's War. They were relocated to St. Francis, Canada, which was destroyed by Rogers' Rangers in 1759, and is now Odanak. The other Abenaki tribes suffered several severe defeats, particularly during Dummer's War, with the capture of Norridgewock in 1724 and the defeat of the Pequawket in 1725, which significantly reduced their numbers. They finally withdrew to Canada, where they were settled at Bécancour and Sillery, and later at St. Francis, along with other refugee tribes from the south. Maine was much fought over by the French, English, and allied natives during the 17th and 18th centuries. These natives conducted raids against settlers and each other, taking captives for ransom or, in some cases, kidnapped for adoption by Native American tribes. A notable example was the early 1692 Abenaki raid on York, where about 100 English settlers were killed and another estimated 80 taken hostage. The Abenaki took captives taken during raids of Massachusetts in Queen Anne's War of the early 1700s to Kahnewake, a Catholic Mohawk village near Montreal, where some were adopted and others ransomed. After the British defeated the French in Acadia in the 1740s, the territory from the Penobscot River east fell under the nominal authority of the Province of Nova Scotia, and together with present-day New Brunswick formed the Nova Scotia county of Sunbury, with its court of general sessions at Campobello. American and British forces contended for Maine's territory during the American Revolution and the War of 1812, with the British occupying eastern Maine in both conflicts via the Colony of New Ireland. The territory of Maine was confirmed as part of Massachusetts when the United States was formed following the Treaty of Paris ending the revolution, although the final border with British North America was not established until the Webster–Ashburton Treaty of 1842. Maine was physically separate from the rest of Massachusetts. Longstanding disagreements over land speculation and settlements led to Maine residents and their allies in Massachusetts proper forcing an 1807 vote in the Massachusetts Assembly on permitting Maine to secede; the vote failed. Secessionist sentiment in Maine was stoked during the War of 1812 when Massachusetts pro-British merchants opposed the war and refused to defend Maine from British invaders. In 1819, Massachusetts agreed to permit secession, sanctioned by voters of the rapidly growing region the following year. Statehood and Missouri Compromise Formal secession from Massachusetts and admission of Maine as the 23rd state occurred on March 15, 1820, as part of the Missouri Compromise, which geographically restricted the spread of slavery and enabled the admission to statehood of Missouri the following year, keeping a balance between slave and free states. Maine's original state capital was Portland, Maine's largest city, until it was moved to the more central Augusta in 1832. The principal office of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court remains in Portland. The 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment, under the command of Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, prevented the Union Army from being flanked at Little Round Top by the Confederate Army during the Battle of Gettysburg. Four U.S. Navy ships have been named USS Maine, most famously the armored cruiser USS Maine (ACR-1), whose sinking by an explosion on February 15, 1898, precipitated the Spanish–American War. Geography To the south and east is the Gulf of Maine, and to the west is the state of New Hampshire. The Canadian province of New Brunswick is to the north and northeast, and the province of Quebec is to the northwest. Maine is the northernmost and largest state in New England, accounting for almost half of the region's entire land area. Maine is the only state to border exactly one other American state. Approximately half the area of Maine lies on each side of the 45th parallel north in latitude. Maine is the easternmost state in the Contiguous United States both in its extreme points and its geographic center. The town of Lubec is the easternmost organized settlement in the United States. Its Quoddy Head Lighthouse is also the closest place in the United States to Africa and Europe. Estcourt Station is Maine's northernmost point, as well as the northernmost point in New England. (For more information see extreme points of the United States) Maine's Moosehead Lake is the largest lake wholly in New England, since Lake Champlain is located between Vermont, New York, and Quebec. A number of other Maine lakes, such as South Twin Lake, are described by Thoreau in The Maine Woods (1864). Mount Katahdin is the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, which extends southerly to Springer Mountain, Georgia, and the southern terminus of the new International Appalachian Trail which, when complete, will run to Belle Isle, Newfoundland and Labrador. Machias Seal Island and North Rock, off the state's Downeast coast, are claimed by both Canada and the Maine town of Cutler, and are within one of four areas between the two countries whose sovereignty is still in dispute, but it is the only one of the disputed areas containing land. Also in this easternmost area in the Bay of Fundy is the Old Sow, the largest tidal whirlpool in the Western Hemisphere. Maine is the least densely populated state east of the Mississippi River. It is called the Pine Tree State; over 80% of its total land is forested or unclaimed, the most forest cover of any U.S. state. In the wooded areas of the interior lies much uninhabited land, some of which does not have formal political organization into local units (a rarity in New England). The Northwest Aroostook unorganized territory in the northern part of the state, for example, has an area of 2,668 square miles (6,910 km2) and a population of 10, or one person for every 267 square miles (690 km2). Maine is in the temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome. The land near the southern and central Atlantic coast is covered by the mixed oaks of the Northeastern coastal forests. The remainder of the state, including the North Woods, is covered by the New England–Acadian forests. Maine has almost 230 miles (400 km) of ocean coastline (and 3,500 miles (5,600 km) of tidal coastline). West Quoddy Head in Lubec is the easternmost point of land in the 48 contiguous states. Along the famous rock-bound coast of Maine are lighthouses, beaches, fishing villages, and thousands of offshore islands, including the Isles of Shoals which straddle the New Hampshire border. There are jagged rocks and cliffs and many bays and inlets. Inland are lakes, rivers, forests, and mountains. This visual contrast of forested slopes sweeping down to the sea has been summed up by American poet Edna St. Vincent Millay of Rockland and Camden, in "Renascence": Geologists describe this type of landscape as a "drowned coast", where a rising sea level has invaded former land features, creating bays out of valleys and islands out of mountain tops. A rise in land elevation due to the melting of heavy glacier ice caused a slight rebounding effect of underlying rock; this land rise, however, was not enough to eliminate all the effect of the rising sea level and its invasion of former land features. Much of Maine's geomorphology was created by extended glacial activity at the end of the last ice age. Prominent glacial features include Somes Sound and Bubble Rock, both part of Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island. Carved by glaciers, Somes Sound reaches depths of 175 feet (50 m). The extreme depth and steep drop-off allow large ships to navigate almost the entire length of the sound. These features also have made it attractive for boat builders, such as the prestigious Hinckley Yachts. Bubble Rock, a glacial erratic, is a large boulder perched on the edge of Bubble Mountain in Acadia National Park. By analyzing the type of granite, geologists discovered that glaciers carried Bubble Rock to its present location from near Lucerne, 30 miles (48 km) away. The Iapetus Suture runs through the north and west of the state, being underlain by the ancient Laurentian terrane, and the south and east underlain by the Avalonian terrane. Acadia National Park is the only national park in New England. Areas under the protection and management of the National Park Service include: Acadia National Park near Bar Harbor Appalachian National Scenic Trail Maine Acadian Culture in St. John Valley Roosevelt Campobello International Park on Campobello Island in New Brunswick, Canada, operated by both the U.S. and Canada, just across the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Bridge from Lubec Saint Croix Island International Historic Site at Calais Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument Lands under the control of the state of Maine include: Maine State Parks Maine Wildlife Management Areas (WMA) Climate Maine has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfb), with warm and sometimes humid summers, and long, cold and very snowy winters. Winters are especially severe in the northern and western parts of Maine, while coastal areas are moderated slightly by the Atlantic Ocean, resulting in marginally milder winters and cooler summers than inland regions. Daytime highs are generally in the 75–85 °F (24–29 °C) range throughout the state in July, with overnight lows in the high 50s °F (around 15 °C). January temperatures range from highs near 30 °F (−1 °C) on the southern coast to overnight lows averaging below 0 °F (−18 °C) in the far north. The state's record high temperature is 105 °F (41 °C), set in July 1911, at North Bridgton. Precipitation in Maine is evenly distributed year-round, but with a slight summer maximum in northern/northwestern Maine and a slight late-fall or early-winter maximum along the coast due to "nor'easters" or intense cold-season rain and snowstorms. In coastal Maine, the late spring and summer months are usually driest—a rarity across the Eastern United States. Maine has fewer days of thunderstorms than any other state east of the Rockies, with most of the state averaging fewer than twenty days of thunderstorms a year. Tornadoes are rare in Maine, with the state averaging two per year, although this number is increasing. Most severe thunderstorms and tornadoes occur in the southwestern interior portion of the state, where summer temperatures are often the warmest and the atmosphere is thus more unstable compared to northern and coastal areas. Maine rarely sees the direct landfall of tropical cyclones, as they tend to recurve out to sea or are rapidly weakening by the time they reach the cooler waters of Maine. In January 2009, a new record low temperature for the state was set at Big Black River of −50 °F (−46 °C), tying the New England record. Annual precipitation varies from 35.8 in (909 mm) in Presque Isle to 56.7 in (1,441 mm) in Acadia National Park. Flora and fauna Maine exhibits a diverse range of flora and fauna across its varied landscapes, including forests, coastline, and wetlands. Forested areas consist primarily of coniferous and deciduous trees, such as balsam fir, sugar maple, and its state tree, the Eastern white pine. Coastal regions are characterized by hardy sea milkwort, sea-blight, bayberry, and the invasive rugosa rose. Maine's terrestrial fauna comprises mammals such as moose, black bears, and white-tailed deer, along with smaller species like red squirrels, snowshoe hares, and raccoons. Maine has the largest populations of moose and black bears in the contiguous United States. Avian diversity is evident with migratory birds like piping plovers, American oystercatcher, and northern harrier, as well as resident species like black-capped chickadees, blue jays, and barred owls. Wetlands provide habitat for amphibians such as spotted salamanders, wood frogs, and toads. Freshwater habitats support fish species like brook trout, landlocked salmon, and multiple gamefish, while marine life in offshore waters includes Atlantic puffins, harbor seals, minke whales, and lobster. Maine's abundance of lobster makes the state the largest producer of lobster in the United States. Demographics Population The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that the population of Maine was 1,344,212 on July 1, 2019, a 1.19% increase since the 2010 United States census. At the 2020 census, 1,362,359 people lived in the state. The state's population density is 41.3 people per square mile, making it the least densely populated state east of the Mississippi River. As of 2010, Maine was also the most rural state in the Union, with only 38.7% of the state's population living within urban areas. As explained in detail under "Geography", there are large tracts of uninhabited land in some remote parts of the interior of the state, particularly in the North Maine Woods. The mean population center of Maine is located in Kennebec County, just east of Augusta. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is the most densely populated with nearly 40% of Maine's population. This area spans three counties and includes many farms and wooded areas; the 2016 population of Portland proper was 66,937. Maine has experienced a very slow rate of population growth since the 1990 census; its rate of growth (0.57%) since the 2010 census ranks 45th of the 50 states. In 2021 and 2022, however, Maine had the highest proportion of arriving residents to departing residents of any state in the country, with 1.8 arrivals for every departure. The modest population growth in the state has been concentrated in the southern coastal counties; with more diverse populations slowly moving into these areas of the state. However, the northern, more rural areas of the state have experienced a slight decline in population from 2010 to 2016. As of 2020, Maine has the highest population age 65 or older in the United States. According to the 2010 census, Maine has the highest percentage of non-Hispanic White of any state, at 94.4% of the total population. In 2011, 89.0% of all births in the state were to non-Hispanic White parents. Maine also has the second-highest residential senior population. According to HUD's 2022 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, there were an estimated 4,411 homeless people in Maine. The table below shows the racial composition of Maine's population as of 2016. According to the 2016 American Community Survey, 1.5% of Maine's population were of Hispanic or Latino origin (of any race): Mexican (0.4%), Puerto Rican (0.4%), Cuban (0.1%), and other Hispanic or Latino origin (0.6%). The six largest ancestry groups were: English (20.7%), Irish (17.3%), French (15.7%), German (8.1%), American (7.8%) and French Canadian (7.7%). People citing that they are American are of overwhelmingly English descent, but have ancestry that has been in the region for so long (often since the 17th century) that they choose to identify simply as Americans. Maine has the highest percentage of French Americans of any state. Most of them are of Canadian origin, but in some cases have been living there since prior to the American Revolutionary War. There are particularly high concentrations in the northern part of Maine in Aroostook County, which is part of a cultural region known as Acadia that goes over the border into New Brunswick. Along with the Acadian population in the north, many French-Canadians came from Quebec as immigrants between 1840 and 1930. The upper Saint John River valley area was once part of the so-called Republic of Madawaska, before the frontier was decided in the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842. Over a quarter of the population of Lewiston, Waterville, and Biddeford are Franco-American. Most of the residents of the Mid Coast and Down East sections are chiefly of British heritage. Smaller numbers of various other groups, including Irish, Italian, Swedish and Polish, have settled throughout the state since the late 19th and early 20th century immigration waves. Today there are four federally recognized tribes in Maine, including the Mi'kmaq Nation. In 2020, 7,885 identified as being Native American alone, and 25,617 did in combination with one or more other races. Birth data Note: Births in table do not sum to 100% because Hispanics are counted both by their ethnicity and by their race. Since 2016, data for births of White Hispanic origin are not collected, but included in one Hispanic group; persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race. In 2018, The top countries of origin for Maine's immigrants were Canada, the Philippines, Germany, India and Korea. Language Maine does not have an official language, but the most widely spoken language in the state is English. The 2010 census reported 92.91% of Maine residents aged five and older spoke only English at home. French-speakers are the state's chief linguistic minority; census figures show that Maine has the highest percentage of people speaking French at home of any state: 3.93% of Maine households are French-speaking, compared with 3.45% (including Cajun and Creole) in Louisiana, which is the second highest state. Spanish is the third-most-common language in Maine, after English and French. Religion According to the Pew Research Center in 2014, the religious affiliations of Maine were: Protestant 37% (in particular: Evangelical Protestant 14%, Mainline Protestant 21%, Historical Black Protestant 2%), Atheism or Agnosticism 6%, Nothing in Particular 26%, Roman Catholic Church 21%, other Christians 5%, non-Christian religions including Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism and Baháʼí 7%, and Pagans and Unitarians 5%. In 2014, the Roman Catholic Church was the largest religious denomination and the Baptists (7% Evangelical and 5% Mainline) were the state's largest Protestant denomination, followed by the Methodists (6%) and the Congregationalists (5%). The atheists and the agnostics are only 6% of the state, but 26% of Mainers said that they "Believe in God but they are Unaffiliated." Eighty-one percent of Mainers believed in God, while 3% did not know and 16% did not believe in God. Thirty-four percent of Mainers thought that religion was "very important" and 29% said that it was "important", while 21% said that religion was not important. According to a survey through the Public Religion Research Institute in 2020, approximately 62% of the population were Christian; the religiously unaffiliated slightly increased to 33% from the separate 2014 study by the Pew Research Center. In a 2022 study by the Public Religion Research Institute, 63% of the population were Christian, and 30% were religiously unaffiliated. Among the non-Christian population in 2022, 1% were Unitarian Universalist, 5% Jewish, and 1% New Ager. According to the Association of Religion Data Archives in 2020, with Christianity as the dominant faith, the largest denominations by number of adherents were Catholicism (219,233 members), non-denominational Protestantism (45,364), and United Methodists (19,686). According to the same study, there were an estimated 16,894 Muslims in the state. Economy Total employment (May 2024): 674,900 Total employer establishments (2021): 42,519 Maine's total gross state product was $91.1 billion in 2023. The state's per capita personal income for 2023 was $63,117, ranking 30th in the nation, and its median gross income was $69,543. As of September 2022, Maine's unemployment rate is 3.3%. As of September 2023, Maine's minimum wage is $13.80. Maine's agricultural outputs include poultry, eggs, dairy products, cattle, wild blueberries, apples, maple syrup, and maple sugar. Aroostook County is known for its potato crops. Potatoes make the state $166,672,000 a year. Commercial fishing, once a mainstay of the state's economy, maintains a presence, particularly lobstering and groundfishing. While lobster is the main seafood focus for Maine, the harvest of both oysters and seaweed are on the rise. In 2015, 14% of the Northeast's total oyster supply came from Maine. In 2017, the production of Maine's seaweed industry was estimated at $20 million per year. The shrimp industry of Maine is on a government-mandated hold. With an ever-decreasing Northern shrimp population, Maine fishermen are no longer allowed to catch and sell shrimp. The hold began in 2014 and is expected to continue until 2021. Western Maine aquifers and springs are a source of bottled water for companies like Poland Spring. Maine's industrial outputs consist chiefly of paper, lumber and wood products, electronic equipment, leather products, food products, textiles, and bio-technology. Naval shipbuilding and construction remain key as well, with Bath Iron Works in Bath and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery. Brunswick Landing, formerly Naval Air Station Brunswick, is also in Maine. Formerly a large support base for the U.S. Navy, the BRAC campaign initiated the Naval Air Station's closing, despite a government-funded effort to upgrade its facilities. The former base has since been changed into a civilian business park, as well as a new satellite campus for Southern Maine Community College. Maine is the top U.S. producer of low-bush blueberries. Preliminary data from the USDA for 2012 also indicate Maine was the largest blueberry producer of the major blueberry producing states, with a total production of 91,100,000 lbs. This data includes both low (wild) and high-bush (cultivated) blueberries. Tourism and outdoor recreation play a major and increasingly important role in Maine's economy. The state is a popular destination for sport hunting (particularly deer, moose, and bear), sport fishing, snowmobiling, skiing, boating, camping and hiking, among other activities. Along with the tourist and recreation-oriented economy, Maine has developed a burgeoning creative economy, most notably centered in the Greater Portland vicinity. Historically, Maine ports played a key role in national transportation. Beginning around 1880, Portland's rail link and ice-free port made it Canada's principal winter port, until the aggressive development of Halifax, Nova Scotia in the mid-20th century. In 2013, 12,039,600 short tons passed into and out of Portland by sea, which places it 45th of U.S. water ports. Portland International Jetport has been expanded, providing the state with increased air traffic from carriers such as JetBlue and Southwest Airlines. Maine has very few large companies that maintain headquarters in the state, and that number has fallen due to consolidations and mergers, particularly in the pulp and paper industry. Some of the larger companies that do maintain headquarters in Maine include Covetrus in Portland, Fairchild Semiconductor in South Portland, IDEXX Laboratories in Westbrook, Hannaford Bros. Co. in Scarborough, and L.L.Bean in Freeport. Maine is also the home of the Jackson Laboratory, the world's largest non-profit mammalian genetic research facility and the world's largest supplier of genetically purebred mice. Taxation Maine has an income tax structure containing two brackets, 6.5 and 7.95 percent of personal income. Before July 2013, Maine had four brackets: 2, 4.5, 7, and 8.5 percent. Maine's general sales tax rate is 5.5 percent. The state also levies charges of nine percent on lodging and prepared food and ten percent on short-term auto rentals. Commercial sellers of blueberries, a Maine staple, must keep records of their transactions and pay the state 1.5 cents per pound ($1.50 per 100 pounds) of the fruit sold each season. All real and tangible personal property located in the state of Maine is taxable unless specifically exempted by statute. The administration of property taxes is handled by the local assessor in incorporated cities and towns, while property taxes in the unorganized territories are handled by the State Tax Assessor. Shipbuilding Maine has a long-standing tradition of being home to many shipbuilding companies, such as Bath Iron Works and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Maine was home to many shipyards that produced wooden sailing ships. The main function of these ships was to transport either cargos or passengers overseas. One of these yards was located in Pennellville Historic District in what is now Brunswick, Maine. This yard, owned by the Pennell family, was typical of the many family-owned shipbuilding companies of the time period. Other such examples of shipbuilding families were the Skolfields and the Morses. During the 18th and 19th centuries, wooden shipbuilding of this sort made up a sizable portion of the economy. Transportation Airports Maine receives passenger jet service at its two largest airports, the Portland International Jetport in Portland, and the Bangor International Airport in Bangor. Both are served daily by many major airlines to destinations such as New York, Atlanta, and Orlando. Essential Air Service also subsidizes service to a number of smaller airports in Maine, bringing small turboprop aircraft to regional airports such as the Augusta State Airport, Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport, Knox County Regional Airport, and the Northern Maine Regional Airport at Presque Isle. These airports are served by regional providers such as Cape Air with Cessna 402s, and CommutAir with Embraer ERJ-145 aircraft. Many smaller airports are scattered throughout Maine, serving only general aviation traffic. The Eastport Municipal Airport, for example, is a city-owned public-use airport with 1,200 general aviation aircraft operations each year from single-engine and ultralight aircraft. Highways Interstate 95 (I-95) travels through Maine, as well as its easterly branch I-295 and spurs I-195, I-395 and the unsigned I-495 (the Falmouth Spur). In addition, U.S. Route 1 (US 1) starts in Fort Kent and travels to Florida. The eastern terminus of the eastern section of US 2 starts in Houlton, near the New Brunswick, Canada border to Rouses Point, New York, at US 11. US 2A connects Old Town and Orono, primarily serving the University of Maine campus. US 201 and US 202 flow through the state. US 2, Maine State Route 6 (SR 6), and SR 9 are often used by truckers and other motorists of the Maritime Provinces en route to other destinations in the United States or as a short cut to Central Canada. Rail Passenger The Downeaster passenger train, operated by Amtrak, provides passenger service between Brunswick and Boston's North Station, with stops in Freeport, Portland, Old Orchard Beach, Saco, and Wells. The Downeaster makes five daily trips. Freight Freight service throughout the state is provided by a handful of regional and shortline carriers: Pan Am Railways (formerly known as Guilford Rail System), which operates the former Boston and Maine and Maine Central railroads; St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad; Maine Eastern Railroad; Central Maine and Quebec Railway; and New Brunswick Southern Railway. Shipping Cargo The International Marine Terminal in Portland provides shipping container transport. In 2021 an estimated 36,700 shipping containers moved through the terminal. In 2017, a total of 17,515 shipping containers were transported. The Icelandic shipping company Eimskip opened its United States headquarters in Portland in 2013. Its ships stop in Portland once a week in a route that includes Atlantic Canada and Iceland with connections to northern Europe and Asia. In 2015, the terminal moved 10,500 containers. The Maine Port Authority in 2016 began a $15.5 million expansion and improvement of the terminal. The Maine Port Authority leased the International Marine Terminal from the city of Portland in 2009. Law and government The Maine Constitution structures Maine's state government, composed of three co-equal branches—the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The state of Maine also has three Constitutional Officers (the Secretary of State, the State Treasurer, and the State Attorney General) and one Statutory Officer (the State Auditor). The legislative branch is the Maine Legislature, a bicameral body composed of the Maine House of Representatives, with 151 members, and the Maine Senate, with 35 members. The Legislature is charged with introducing and passing laws. The executive branch is headed by the Governor of Maine (currently Janet Mills). The Governor is elected every four years; no individual may serve more than two consecutive terms in this office. The current attorney general of Maine is Aaron Frey. As with other state legislatures, the Maine Legislature can by a two-thirds majority vote from both the House and Senate override a gubernatorial veto. Maine is one of seven states that do not have a lieutenant governor. The highest court in the state's judicial branch is the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. The lower courts are the District Court, Superior Court and Probate Court. All judges except for probate judges serve full-time, are nominated by the Governor, and confirmed by the Legislature for terms of seven years. Probate judges serve part-time and are elected by the voters of each county for four-year terms. In a 2020 study, Maine was ranked as the 14th easiest state for citizens to vote in. In 2012, Maine became one of the first U.S. states to establish marriage rights for same-sex couples. Politics Maine politics are dynamic in nature, with parties loosely hung together, governors often winning by pluralities rather than majorities, and significant turnover both in members and parties in legislative districts. In his 2010 article Maine's Paradoxical Politics, Kenneth Palmer suggests that "Maine's political leaders find themselves as centrists, primarily because they want to find practical solutions to difficult problems." The results of the elections are often varied. Maine is seen as a blue-leaning swing state, with unusually high support for independent candidates. The Republican Party have won Maine in 11 out of the past 20 presidential elections, and the governorship has been won by Democrats and independents three times each, and Republicans four times, since 1974. Maine uses ranked choice voting in primary elections for state and federal offices, as well as in general elections for federal offices. Ranked choice voting was adopted by voters in a 2016 referendum. Counties Maine is divided into political jurisdictions designated as counties. Since 1860 there have been 16 counties in the state, ranging in size from 370 to 6,829 square miles (958 to 17,700 km2). Law enforcement Municipalities Organized municipalities An organized municipality has a form of elected local government which administers and provides local services, keeps records, collects licensing fees, and can pass locally binding ordinances, among other responsibilities of self-government. The governmental format of most organized towns and plantations is the town meeting, while the format of most cities is the council-manager form. As of 2022 the organized municipalities of Maine consist of 23 cities, 430 towns, and 30 plantations. Collectively these 483 organized municipalities cover less than half of the state's territory. Maine also has three Reservations: Indian Island, Indian Township Reservation, and Pleasant Point Indian Reservation. The largest municipality in Maine, by population, is the city of Portland (pop. 68,408). The smallest city by population is Eastport (pop. 1,288). The largest town by population is Brunswick (pop. 21,756). The smallest town by population is Frye Island, a resort town which reported zero year-round population in the 2000 Census; one plantation, Glenwood Plantation, also reported a permanent population of zero. In the 2000 census, the smallest town aside from Frye Island was Centerville with a population of 26, but since that census, Centerville voted to disincorporate and therefore is no longer a town. The next smallest town with a population listed in that census is Beddington (pop. 60 at the 2020 census). The largest municipality by land area is the town of Allagash, at 128 square miles (332 km2). The smallest municipality by land area is Monhegan Island, at 0.86 square miles (2.2 km2). The smallest municipality by area that is not an island is Randolph, at 2.23 square miles (6 km2). Unorganized territory Unorganized territory (UT) has no local government. Administration, services, licensing, and ordinances are handled by the state government as well as by respective county governments who have townships within each county's bounds. The unorganized territory of Maine consists of more than 400 townships (in Maine, towns are incorporated, townships are unincorporated), plus many coastal islands that do not lie within any municipal bounds. The UT land area is slightly over half the entire area of the State of Maine. Year-round residents in the UT number approximately 9,000 (about 1.3% of the state's total population), with many more people staying there only seasonally. Only four of Maine's sixteen counties (Androscoggin, Cumberland, Waldo and York) are entirely incorporated, although a few others are nearly so, and most of the unincorporated area is in the vast and sparsely populated Great North Woods of Maine. Most populous cities and towns Throughout Maine, many municipalities, although each separate governmental entities, nevertheless form portions of a much larger population base. There are many such population clusters throughout Maine, but some examples from the municipalities appearing in the above listing are: Portland, South Portland, Cape Elizabeth, Westbrook, Scarborough, and Falmouth Lewiston and Auburn Bangor, Orono, Brewer, Old Town, and Hampden Biddeford, Saco and Old Orchard Beach Brunswick and Topsham Waterville, Winslow, Fairfield, and Oakland Presque Isle and Caribou Education There are thirty institutions of higher learning in Maine. These institutions include the University of Maine, which is the oldest, largest and only research university in the state. UMaine was founded in 1865 and is the state's only land grant and sea grant college. The University of Maine is located in the town of Orono and is the flagship of Maine. There are also branch campuses in Augusta, Farmington, Fort Kent, Machias, and Presque Isle. Bowdoin College is a liberal arts college founded in 1794 in Brunswick, making it the oldest institution of higher learning in the state. Colby College in Waterville was founded in 1813 making it the second oldest college in Maine. Bates College in Lewiston was founded in 1855 making it the third oldest institution in the state and the oldest coeducational college in New England. The three colleges collectively form the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Consortium and are ranked among the best colleges in the United States; often placing in the top 10% of all liberal arts colleges. Maine's per-student public expenditure for elementary and secondary schools was 21st in the nation in 2012, at $12,344. The collegiate system of Maine also includes numerous baccalaureate colleges such as: the Maine Maritime Academy (MMA), College of the Atlantic, Unity College, and Thomas College. There is only one medical school in the state, (University of New England's College of Osteopathic Medicine) and only one law school (The University of Maine School of Law). There is one art school in the state, Maine College of Art, along with a private graduate school, Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts, which offers a Doctor of Philosophy to visual artists. The Maine Community College System, founded in 1985 also serves "to provide associate degree, diploma and certificate programs directed at the educational, career and technical needs of the State's citizens and the workforce needs of the State's employers." This system includes Southern Maine Community College (SMCC), York County Community College (YCCC), Central Maine Community College (CMCC), Eastern Maine Community College (EMCC), Kennebec Valley Community College (KVCC), Northern Maine Community College (NMCC), and Washington County Community College (WCCC). Private schools in Maine are funded independently of the state and its furthered domains. Private schools are less common than public schools. A large number of private elementary schools with under 20 students exist, but most private high schools in Maine can be described as "semi-private". Maine also has Vocational Schools, such as the Biddeford Regional Center of Technology and Sanford Regional Technical Center that teach trades such as welding, construction and vehicle repair to students. Culture Agriculture Maine was a center of agriculture before it achieved statehood. Prior to colonization, Wabanaki nations farmed large crops of corn and other produce in southern Maine. Maine was a center of grain production in the 1800s, until grain production moved westward. However, in the early 2000s the local food movement spurred renewed interested in locally grown grains. In 2007, the Kneading Conference was founded. In, 2012, the Skowhegan grist mill Maine Grains opened. The revival of grain farming and milling in Maine has led to the creation of other businesses, including bakeries and malthouses. Maine has many vegetable farms and other small, diversified farms. In the 1960s and 1970s, the book "Living the Good Life" by Helen Nearing and Scott Nearing caused many young people to move to Maine and engage in small-scale farming and homesteading. These back-to-the-land migrants increased the population of some counties. Maine is home to the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association and had 535 certified organic farms in 2019. Festivals Maine has multiple fairs and festivals that are held annually, which include La Kermesse, a celebration of the state's French and French Canadian heritage, the Fryeburg Fair, the Cumberland Fair, the Union Fair, the Common Ground Country Fair, a number of Old Home Days festivals, and a number of Portland Food Festivals. Food Along with the growth of the local food movement over the last several decades, Maine has received national recognition for its food and restaurant scene. Portland was named Bon Appetit magazine's Restaurant City of the Year in 2018. In 2018, HealthIQ.com named Maine the 3rd most vegan-friendly state. Biddeford was selected by Food & Wine in 2022 as one of America's next great food cities. Maine food shares many ingredients with Wabanaki cuisine, including corn, beans, squash, wild blueberries, maple syrup, fish, and seafood. By 1902, the Maine Italian sandwich had been invented in Portland. Sandwich shops across Maine serve the sandwiches. Baked beans are a common dish in Maine, served at community suppers where the beans are sometimes cooked underground in a bean hole. In New England, Maine baked beans are one of two well-known regional styles of baked beans, the other being Boston baked beans. Maine baked beans use thicker skinned, native bean varieties such like Marafax, soldier, and yellow-eye beans. From 1913 until 2021, baked beans were canned on the Portland waterfront at the B&M Baked Beans factory. Sports teams Professional Maine Celtics, basketball, NBA G League Portland Sea Dogs, minor league baseball, Double-A Northeast Maine Mariners, ice hockey, ECHL Upcoming Portland Hearts of Pine, soccer, USL League One, to begin play in 2025 Non-professional Portland Phoenix FC, soccer, Premier Developmental League Maine Roller Derby, roller derby, Women's Flat Track Derby Association NCAA Maine Black Bears Husson University USCAA York County Community College University of Maine at Augusta Terminology Maine maintains some vernacular and terminology that is unique in comparison to the rest of the country. Some of these include: "From away" - A non-native person of Maine. "Upta camp" - Going to a more out-of-the-way, rustic place. Popularized by Bob Marley after his special of the same name. "Ayuh" - An affirmative response, like "Yes". People from Maine Citizens of Maine are often known as Mainers. The term Downeaster may be applied to residents of the northeast coast of the state. The term Mainiac is considered by some to be derogatory, but is embraced with pride by others, and is used for a variety of organizations and for events such as the YMCA Mainiac Sprint Triathlon & Duathlon. See also Index of Maine-related articles Outline of Maine Maine portal New England portal United States portal References Notes Citations External links State government Maine government Maine Office of Tourism Search for tourism-related businesses Visit Maine (agriculture) Maine fairs, festivals, etc.—Agricultural Dept. U.S. government Maine State Guide, from the Library of Congress U.S. EIA Energy Profile for Maine—economic, environmental and energy data U.S. Geological Survey Real-time, geographic, and other scientific resources of Maine U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Maine State Facts—agricultural U.S. Census Bureau Quick facts on Maine Portland Magazine Editorial on Maine news, events, and people Information Maine at Curlie Maine Historical Society Old USGS maps of Maine. 1860 Map of Maine by Mitchell. 1876 Panoramic Birdseye View of Portland by Warner at LOC., Geographic data related to Maine at OpenStreetMap

The first lady of the United States is the hostess of the White House. The position is traditionally filled by the wife of the president of the United States, but, on occasion, the title has been applied to women who were not presidents' wives, such as when the president was a bachelor or widower, or when the wife of the president was unable to fulfill the duties of the first lady. The first lady is not an elected position; it carries no official duties and receives no salary. Nonetheless, she attends many official ceremonies and functions of state either along with or in place of the president. Traditionally, the first lady does not hold outside employment while occupying the office, although Eleanor Roosevelt earned money writing and giving lectures, but gave most of it to charity, and Jill Biden has maintained her regular job as an educator during her time in the role. The first lady has her own staff, including the White House social secretary, the chief of staff, the press secretary, the chief floral designer, and the executive chef. The Office of the First Lady is also in charge of all social and ceremonial events of the White House, and is a branch of the Executive Office of the President. There have been total of 54 first ladies including 43 official and 11 acting, within 46 first ladyships. This discrepancy exists because some presidents had multiple first ladies. Following Joe Biden's inauguration on January 20, 2021, his wife, Jill Biden, became the 43rd official first lady. There are four living former first ladies: Hillary Clinton, married to Bill Clinton; Laura Bush, married to George W. Bush; Michelle Obama, married to Barack Obama; and Melania Trump, married to Donald Trump. The most recent first lady to die was Rosalynn Carter, married to Jimmy Carter. The first first lady was Martha Washington, married to George Washington. Presidents John Tyler and Woodrow Wilson had two official first ladies; both remarried during their presidential tenures. The wives of four presidents died before their husbands were sworn into office but are still considered first ladies by the White House and National First Ladies' Library: Martha Wayles Skelton, married to Thomas Jefferson; Rachel Jackson, married to Andrew Jackson; Hannah Van Buren, married to Martin Van Buren; and Ellen Lewis Herndon Arthur, married to Chester A. Arthur. One woman who was not married to a president is still considered an official first lady: Harriet Lane, niece of bachelor James Buchanan. The other non-spousal relatives who served as White House hostesses are not recognized by the First Ladies' Library. In 2007, the United States Mint began releasing a set of half-ounce $10 gold coins under the First Spouse Program with engravings of portraits of the first ladies on the obverse. When a president served without a spouse, a gold coin was issued that bears an obverse image emblematic of Liberty as depicted on a circulating coin of that era and a reverse image emblematic of themes of that president's life. This is true for the coins for Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, and James Buchanan's first ladies, but not the coin for Chester A. Arthur's first lady, which instead depicts suffragette Alice Paul. Current living first ladies Living first ladies as of September 2024 (from oldest to youngest): List This list includes all persons who served as first ladies, regardless of whether they were married to the incumbent president or not, as well as persons who are considered first ladies by the official White House website and the White House Historical Association. It is sorted by the name the first ladies were commonly known as. Other spouses of presidents of the United States Certain spouses of presidents of the United States are not considered first ladies of the United States. Four presidents were widowed prior to their presidencies: Thomas Jefferson was married to Martha Wayles from 1772 until her death in 1782. Andrew Jackson was married to Rachel Donelson from 1794 until her death in 1828. Martin Van Buren was married to Hannah Hoes from 1807 until her death in 1819. Chester A. Arthur was married to Ellen Lewis Herndon from 1859 until her death in 1880. Two presidents were widowed and remarried prior to their presidencies: Theodore Roosevelt was married to Alice Hathaway Lee from 1880 until her death in 1884. He was subsequently married to Edith Carow from 1886 to his death in 1919. Joe Biden was married to Neilia Hunter from 1966 until her death in 1972. He has subsequently been married to Jill Jacobs since 1977. Two presidents were divorced and remarried prior to their presidencies: Ronald Reagan was married to Jane Wyman from 1940 until 1949. He was subsequently married to Nancy Davis from 1952 to his death in 2004. Donald Trump was married to Ivana Zelníčková from 1977 until 1992 and to Marla Maples from 1993 until 1999. He has subsequently been married to Melania Knauss since 2005. Two presidents remarried after their presidencies: Millard Fillmore was married to Caroline Carmichael McIntosh from 1858 until his death in 1874. Benjamin Harrison was married to Mary Scott Lord Dimmick, the niece of his first wife, from 1896 until his death in 1901. See also Bibliography of United States presidential spouses and first ladies Second ladies and gentlemen of the United States First family of the United States List of children of presidents of the United States List of current United States first spouses List of memoirs by first ladies of the United States List of presidents of the United States List of First Lady of the United States firsts Spouse of the prime minister of Canada First Lady of Mexico Category:Acting first ladies of the United States Notes References External links The First Ladies – White House Biographies of the First Ladies of the United States of America – National First Ladies' Library First Ladies National Historic Site

As of the 2023 Major League Baseball season, who is the only player in the top 15 lists of career home runs, career runs batted in, and career hits, who was also named (in 2007) the all-time Gold Glove team?

Willie Mays

Tabular reasoning | Multiple constraints

This is a list of the 300 Major League Baseball players who have hit the most career home runs in regular season play (i.e., excluding playoffs or exhibition games). In the sport of baseball, a home run is a hit in which the batter scores by circling all the bases and reaching home plate in one play, without the benefit of a fielding error. This can be accomplished either by hitting the ball out of play while it is still in fair territory (a conventional home run) or by an inside-the-park home run. Barry Bonds holds the Major League Baseball home run record with 762. He passed Hank Aaron, who hit 755, on August 7, 2007. The only other players to have hit 700 or more are Babe Ruth with 714, and Albert Pujols with 703. Alex Rodriguez (696), Willie Mays (660), Ken Griffey Jr. (630), Jim Thome (612), and Sammy Sosa (609) are the only other players to have hit 600 or more. Giancarlo Stanton is the active home run leader with 429. Players in bold face are active as of the 2024 Major League Baseball season (including free agents), with the number in parentheses designating the number of home runs they have hit during the 2024 season. The last change in the cutoff for the top 300 occurred on September 22, 2024 when Jose Altuve hit his 229th career home run, tying Nomar Garciaparra and Jayson Werth. Key List Stats updated as of September 29, 2024. See also 500 home run club 600 home run club List of Major League Baseball annual home run leaders List of Major League Baseball progressive career home runs leaders List of Major League Baseball single-game home run leaders Notes References External links MLB Official Career Home Run List Career Leaders & Records for Home Runs Active Leaders for Home Runs

This is a list of Major League Baseball players who have compiled 1,000 runs batted in (RBIs). RBIs are usually accumulated when a batter in baseball enables a runner on base (including himself, in the case of a home run) to score as a result of making contact at-bat (except in certain situations, such as when an error is made on the play or during a double play). A batter is also credited with an RBI if he reaches first base with the bases loaded via a base on balls (walk), being hit by a pitch, or interference. As of September 22, 2024, Freddie Freeman is the active leader in career RBIs and is 145th overall with 1,232. MLB's official list does not include RBIs accumulated before 1920 when runs batted in became an official statistic. The list on this page is compiled from Baseball-Reference, which credits RBIs from 1907 to 1919 as recorded by baseball writer and historian Ernest Lanigan. One difference between the lists is that Babe Ruth is ranked third by Baseball Reference, but seventh by MLB, which does not count Ruth's 224 RBI compiled before 1920. Key List Stats updated as of September 29, 2024. Through September 29, 2024, these active players have at least 850 RBIs. Bryce Harper (976) 87 in 2024 Anthony Rizzo (965) 35 in 2024 José Abreu (960) 7 in 2024 Mike Trout (954) 14 in 2024 Salvador Pérez (916) 104 in 2024 Marcell Ozuna (878) 102 in 2024 José Ramírez (864) 118 in 2024 Notes References External links "Career Leaders & Records for RBI". Baseball-Reference.com. MLB official list Major League Baseball ESPN

Listed are all Major League Baseball players who have reached the 2,000 hit milestone during their career in MLB. Pete Rose holds the Major League record for most career hits, with 4,256. Rose and Ty Cobb, second most, are the only players with 4,000 or more career hits. George Davis was the first switch hitter to collect 2,000 hits, achieving that total during the 1902 season. Players with 2,000 or more hits Stats updated as of the end of the 2024 season. Other active players with 1,800 or more hits through the end of the 2024 season. Manny Machado (1,900) 163 in 2024 Nolan Arenado (1,826) 157 in 2024 See also List of Nippon Professional Baseball career hits leaders List of KBO career hits leaders Notes References Specific External links Baseball Reference MLB official list Retrosheet - Ty Cobb

The Rawlings Gold Glove Award, usually referred to as simply the Gold Glove or Golden Glove, is the award given annually to the Major League Baseball (MLB) players judged to have exhibited superior individual fielding performances at each fielding position in both the National League (NL) and the American League (AL). The Gold Glove is widely considered one of the most prestigious defensive awards in baseball. Winners for position awards are determined from voting by the managers and coaches in each league, who are not permitted to vote for their own players. Additionally, a sabermetric component provided by the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) accounts for about 25 percent of the vote. For the utility player awards, the sabermetric component and other defensive statistics are exclusively used to select the winners, without any voting by coaches. In 1957, the baseball glove manufacturer Rawlings created the Gold Glove Award to commemorate the best fielding performance at each position. Winners receive a glove made from gold lamé-tanned leather and affixed to a walnut base. In the inaugural year, one Gold Glove was awarded to the top fielder at each position in MLB; since 1958, separate awards have been given to the top fielders in each league. In 2020, Rawlings began issuing a Gold Glove Award for team defense, with one recipient each in the American and National Leagues. Starting in 2022, a Gold Glove Award in each league has been awarded to a utility player. For 2016–2019, a Gold Glove was also awarded each year to one fastpitch softball player in the National Pro Fastpitch league. History For the first four seasons of the award (1957 to 1960), individual awards were presented to left fielders, center fielders, and right fielders. From 1961 through 2010, the phrase "at each position" was no longer strictly accurate, since the prize was presented to three outfielders irrespective of their specific position. Any combination of outfielders, often three center fielders, could win the award in the same year. Critics called for awarding a single Gold Glove for each individual outfield position, arguing that the three outfield positions are not equivalent defensively. Starting in 2011, separate awards for each outfield position were once again presented. In the 1985 American League voting, a tie for third-place resulted in the presentation of Gold Glove Awards to four outfielders (Dwayne Murphy, Gary Pettis, Dwight Evans and Dave Winfield); this scenario was repeated in the National League in 2007 (Andruw Jones, Carlos Beltrán, Aaron Rowand, and Jeff Francoeur). Criticism Before the involvement of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) in the voting process in 2013, The Boston Globe writer Peter Abraham argued the Fielding Bible Awards "are far more accurate (and accountable)" than the Gold Glove awards since statistics are used along with the opinions of an expert panel. The Gold Gloves are selected by managers and coaches who may have seen a player as few as six times during the season. Naturally, statistics can be contentious, and there is still no universally agreed system of fielding stats (even with advanced metrics) in 2024; moreover, a manager gets to see each team in their league during a season, and can indeed form an opinion over that span of whom they felt was the best fielder at each position. Bill Chuck of Comcast SportsNet New England claimed that Gold Glove voters frequently counted only errors to determine winners. Geoff Baker of The Seattle Times maintained the votes for the Gold Gloves rely largely on a player's past reputation. The Associated Press proposed that "some fans have viewed the Gold Gloves as mostly a popularity contest, even suggesting that a player's performance at the plate helped draw extra attention to his glove." After winning the AL Gold Glove at first base in both 1997 and 1998, Rafael Palmeiro won again in 1999 with the Texas Rangers while only appearing in 28 games as a first baseman; he played in 128 games as a designated hitter that season, resulting in a controversy. Derek Jeter, winner of five Gold Gloves, believes that many defensive factors cannot be quantified. In 2013, Rawlings collaborated on the Gold Glove Award with SABR, who provided the SABR Defensive Index (SDI) to add a sabermetric component to the selection process. The index accounted for 25 percent of the vote, while managers and coaches continued to provide the majority. Afterwards, Jay Jaffe of Sports Illustrated wrote that the Gold Gloves "appear to have significantly closed the gap on their more statistically driven counterparts." SABR and FiveThirtyEight believed that the impact to the voting results by SDI, which is also included on the voters' ballots, went beyond its own 25% weight and also influenced the managers' and coaches' voting. Multiple winners The most Gold Gloves ever won by one player is 18 by pitcher Greg Maddux. He won 13 consecutive awards from 1990 to 2002, all in the National League. Brooks Robinson has the most wins for a position player, with 16 Gold Gloves, all at third base, and is tied for the second-highest total overall with pitcher Jim Kaat; both players won their 16 awards consecutively. Iván Rodríguez has won the most Gold Gloves as a catcher, with 13 career awards in the American League. Ozzie Smith has 13 wins at shortstop; he and Rodríguez are tied for the fourth-highest total among all winners. Among outfielders, Roberto Clemente and Willie Mays, who played primarily right field and center field, respectively, are tied for the lead with 12 Gold Gloves. Keith Hernandez, the leader at first base, has won 11 times, and Roberto Alomar leads second basemen with 10 wins. Other players with 10 or more wins include shortstop Omar Vizquel (11), catcher Johnny Bench (10), third basemen Mike Schmidt (10), and Nolan Arenado (10) and outfielders Ken Griffey Jr., Ichiro Suzuki, Andruw Jones, and Al Kaline (10 each). The only player to win Gold Gloves as an infielder and outfielder is Darin Erstad, who won Gold Gloves as an outfielder in 2000 and 2002 and as a first baseman in 2004, all with the Anaheim Angels. The only other player to win Gold Gloves at multiple positions is Plácido Polanco, who won at second base (2007, 2009 AL) and third base (2011 NL). Family pairs to win Gold Gloves include brothers Ken and Clete Boyer (third base), brothers Sandy Alomar Jr. (catcher) and Roberto Alomar (second base), Bengie and Yadier Molina (catcher), father and son Bobby and Barry Bonds (outfield), and father and son Bob (catcher) and Bret Boone (second base). The 2021 St. Louis Cardinals hold the record for most Gold Gloves by a single team in a single season with five. They also won the team Gold Glove for the National League in the same year. Winners by Year ^LF won as a left fielder ^CF won as a center fielder ^RF won as a right fielder All-time Gold Glove Team On February 20, 2007, Major League Baseball and Rawlings announced that an all-time Gold Glove Team would be named during the 50th anniversary of the first Gold Glove Awards. Rawlings asked 70 baseball reporters, former players, and former managers to select 50 names for the ballot, from an initial selection of 250 names. The team was selected by fans, who voted at the Rawlings Gold Glove website, at United States Postal Service offices, and at sporting goods stores. The results were announced at the 2007 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. Teammates Middle infield duos In the history of the Gold Glove Award, there have been twelve double-play combinations, or pairs of middle infielders, that have won awards in the same year. Shortstops and second basemen depend upon each other for the majority of double plays. The most common type of double play occurs with a runner on first base and a ground ball hit towards the middle of the infield. The player fielding the ball (generally the shortstop or second baseman) throws to the fielder covering second base, who steps on the base before the runner from first arrives to force that runner out, and then throws the ball to the first baseman to force out the batter for the second out. Mark Belanger won four Gold Gloves with the Baltimore Orioles alongside winning partner Bobby Grich, and Joe Morgan paired with Dave Concepción for four combination wins with the Cincinnati Reds. The most recent teammates to accomplish the feat are Dansby Swanson and Nico Hoerner, who won with the Chicago Cubs in 2023. † = Hall of Fame Batteries Since 1957, there have been five Gold Glove batteries. The pitcher and catcher, collectively known as the battery, are the only two players on the field involved in every pitch. In particular, the pitcher and catcher control the running game with tools such as pickoffs or the strength of the catcher's throwing arm. The first pitcher and catcher on the same team to win Gold Gloves in the same year were Jim Kaat and Earl Battey, with the Minnesota Twins in 1962. Only two pairs of batterymates have won Gold Gloves together more than once: Iván Rodríguez and Kenny Rogers won with the Texas Rangers in 2000, and again with the Detroit Tigers in 2006. Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright matched the feat, winning in both 2009 and 2013. Platinum Glove Award In 2011, Rawlings added an annual Platinum Glove Award awarded to the best defensive player in each league, as selected by fans from the year's Gold Glove winners. Numbers after a player's name indicate that he has won the award multiple times. National Pro Fastpitch In 2016, Rawlings announced it would begin awarding a gold glove annually to a female fastpitch softball player in the National Pro Fastpitch (NPF) league. NPF coaches and managers vote for a winner (excluding those on their respective teams). This award is in addition to the collegiate and high school awards added in 2007, the 50th anniversary of the inaugural Gold Glove Awards. See also Silver Slugger Award - the offensive counterpart to the award Wilson Defensive Player of the Year Award Esurance MLB Awards – Best Defensive Player Rawlings Woman Executive of the Year Award – a minor league award also presented by Rawlings Baseball awards § United States Notes References External links MLB Awards (Gold Glove Winners) Archived 2007-03-02 at the Wayback Machine Rawlings Gold Glove Award website Archived 2007-02-19 at the Wayback Machine

Who had the best career batting average out of every player to hit a home run in the 2002 World Series matchup between the Anaheim Angeles and San Francisco Giants?

Barry Bonds with a .298 lifetime batting average.

Tabular reasoning

The 2002 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB)'s 2002 season. The 98th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League (AL) champion Anaheim Angels and the National League (NL) champion San Francisco Giants; the Angels defeated the Giants, four games to three, to win their first, and, to date, only World Series championship. The series was played from October 19–27, 2002, at Pacific Bell Park in San Francisco and Edison International Field of Anaheim in Anaheim. This was the first World Series since the 1995 inception of the wild card in MLB (and the last until 2014) in which both wild card teams would vie for the title. The Angels finished the regular season in second place in the AL West division. They defeated the four-time defending AL champion New York Yankees, three games to one, in the best-of-five AL Division Series, and in doing so won their first postseason series in franchise history. They then defeated the Minnesota Twins, four games to one, in the best-of-seven AL Championship Series to advance to the World Series, another first in franchise history. The Giants finished the regular season in second place in the NL West division. They defeated the Atlanta Braves in the NL Division Series and the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Championship Series to advance to the World Series, giving the team their 20th NL pennant and 17th appearance in the Fall Classic but only their third since moving from New York City to San Francisco in 1958. The series was the fourth World Series played between two teams from California, after 1974, 1988, and 1989, and the latest Fall Classic that featured teams from the same city or state (since 2000 between cross-town rivals Mets & Yankees). Barry Bonds, Reggie Sanders, and J. T. Snow each hit home runs to help propel the Giants to win Game one. Game two was a high-scoring affair that the Angels ultimately won on Tim Salmon's eighth-inning home run. The Angels routed the Giants in Game three, but lost Game four on a tie-breaking eighth-inning single by the Giants' David Bell. The Giants brought the Angels to the brink of elimination by winning Game five in a blowout. The Giants were eight outs away from winning the Series in Game six, but late game home runs by Scott Spiezio and Darin Erstad, as well as a two-RBI double by Troy Glaus helped the Angels overcome a five-run, seventh-inning deficit to win. A three-run double by Garret Anderson was the difference in the Angels' Game seven win to clinch the series. Glaus was named the World Series Most Valuable Player. The two teams set a record for combined most home runs in a World Series (21), which stood until 2017. Background This was the fourth World Series played between two teams from California and the last World Series as of today involving two teams from the same state (since 2000 between cross-town rivals New York Mets and New York Yankees). The 1974 World Series saw the Oakland Athletics defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers; the 1988 series saw the Los Angeles Dodgers getting revenge by defeating the Oakland Athletics. In 1989 the San Francisco Giants were defeated by the Oakland Athletics. The managers of the two clubs, Mike Scioscia of the Angels and Dusty Baker of the Giants, were teammates on the Dodgers from 1980 to 1983, and won a World Series in 1981. This was the first World Series to feature opposing managers who had been teammates on a World Championship team as players. San Francisco Giants Since their 1958 move from New York City to San Francisco, the Giants franchise and its fans had a long history of futility, frustration, and disappointment. The Giants had won their last World Series crown before the move, in 1954. Since the move, the Giants made it to the World Series twice but lost both times. These included a dramatic, down-to-the-wire loss to the New York Yankees in the seven-game classic 1962 World Series, and a four-game sweep by their crosstown rival Oakland Athletics in the 1989 World Series that was marred by the Loma Prieta earthquake. Their most recent postseason appearance was in 2000, when they were defeated by the New York Mets in the NLDS. In addition, the Giants narrowly missed winning the National League pennant in 1959, 1964, 1965 and 1966. They finished in second place five years in a row from 1965 to 1969 and lost the 1971 National League Championship Series to the Pittsburgh Pirates. 2002 was Dusty Baker's tenth season as manager of the Giants. It was also their third season playing at Pacific Bell Park (now Oracle Park). The Giants finished the previous season with a record of 90–72, finishing in second place in the National League West, two games behind the Arizona Diamondbacks. They also finished in second place in the NL wild card standings, three games behind the St. Louis Cardinals. Notable player departures included 2001 midseason acquisition Andrés Galarraga, who departed as a free agent, and Shawn Estes, who was traded to the New York Mets in exchange for Tsuyoshi Shinjo and Desi Relaford. Notable player acquisitions included Reggie Sanders, a free agent, and David Bell, who the Giants received from the Seattle Mariners in exchange for Desi Relaford and cash. During the season the Giants also acquired Kenny Lofton from the Chicago White Sox in exchange for two minor leaguers. Sanders, Bell, Shinjo, and Lofton helped bolster a Giants offense led by longtime Giants Barry Bonds, J. T. Snow, Rich Aurilia, and Jeff Kent, as well as relative newcomer Benito Santiago. The starting pitching rotation was led by Kirk Rueter and Jason Schmidt, with a bullpen led by Tim Worrell and closer Robb Nen. During the 2002 regular season, the Giants led the NL West standings for most of April and a few days in May; however, by the end of May they had fallen to third place behind the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks. They spent most of the next three months in third place, but on September 9 they took second place for good, while the Dodgers either tied them or fell to third place for the rest of the season. The Giants finished the regular season with a record of 95–66, 2+1⁄2 games behind the NL West champion Diamondbacks. They won the NL wild card, 3+1⁄2 games ahead of the runner-up Dodgers. In the 2002 postseason, the wild-card Giants' first opponent was the top-seeded Atlanta Braves, who they defeated in five games to return to the NLCS for the first time since 1989. In the NLCS, the Giants defeated the #3 seed St. Louis Cardinals in five games to advance to the World Series for the 17th time in franchise history. Dusty Baker became the first black manager to participate in a World Series since Cito Gaston for Toronto in 1992 and 1993. This was Giants' outfielder Reggie Sanders' second consecutive World Series appearance with different teams—in 2001 he got there with the Arizona Diamondbacks. This was the first time this happened since Don Baylor did it in three consecutive years with the Boston Red Sox in 1986, the Minnesota Twins in 1987, and with the Oakland Athletics in 1988. Anaheim Angels Like the Giants, the Angels and their fans carried a long history of futility and disappointment. Enfranchised in 1961, the Angels had never before played in the World Series. They came close several times, including ALCS losses in 1979 to the Baltimore Orioles, 1982 to the Milwaukee Brewers, and in 1986 to the Boston Red Sox. After dropping the 1979 ALCS in four games, the Angels brought their opponents to the brink of elimination in each of those last two series, before losing the next three consecutive games and the series. The 1986 ALCS, in which the Angels were as close as 1 strike away from the World Series, was the Angels' latest postseason appearance, though they came close in 1995 when they lost a one-game tie-breaker for the AL West championship to the Seattle Mariners after blowing a 14-game lead in the standings. 2002 was the Angels' third season under manager Mike Scioscia. The Angels finished the previous injury marred season with a record of 75–87, finishing in third place in the AL West. The most notable personnel change during the offseason was the trade of first baseman Mo Vaughn to the New York Mets in exchange for pitcher Kevin Appier. Offensively, the team was led by longtime Angels Garret Anderson, Darin Erstad, Troy Glaus and Tim Salmon, as well as relative newcomers Adam Kennedy and David Eckstein. The starting pitching rotation was led by Ramón Ortiz and Jarrod Washburn, as well as mid-season call-up John Lackey, while the bullpen was led by setup man Brendan Donnelly and closer Troy Percival. The bullpen was bolstered in late September by the addition of 20-year-old reliever prospect Francisco Rodriguez. The Angels spent much of the season trailing the first-place Seattle Mariners and on occasion the Oakland Athletics in the AL West standings. However, the Athletics and Angels both mounted late-season comebacks that, coupled with a poor August record for the Mariners, knocked the Mariners down to third place. The Athletics won 20 straight games at one point, and the Angels finished the season in second place with a 99–63 record, four games behind the Athletics, but won the AL wild card, six games ahead of the Boston Red Sox and Seattle Mariners. Their 99 wins was third best in the A.L. and fourth best in baseball. In the 2002 postseason, the wild-card Angels first faced off against the overall #1 seed and four-time defending American League champion New York Yankees in the ALDS. The Angels shocked the four-time defending AL champions in four games to return to the ALCS for the first time since 1986. Their opponent in the ALCS was the third-seeded Minnesota Twins, who they defeated in five games to advance to the World Series for the first time in franchise history. Summary Anaheim won the series, 4–3. Matchups Game 1 San Francisco won 4–3 at Edison International Field of Anaheim (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim) to take a 1–0 series lead. As he strode into the batter's box to open the second inning, Barry Bonds was finally making his first (and only) World Series appearance; in his first at bat on a 2–1 pitch from Angels starter Jarrod Washburn, Bonds smoked a line drive for a home run to right field, which gave the Giants a quick 1–0 lead. Reggie Sanders then followed that up with an opposite-field homer later in the inning. With the Giants leading 2–1 in the fifth, Giants batter J. T. Snow (who formerly played for the Angels) hit a two-run shot over the center field wall after Sanders singled to give San Francisco a three-run advantage. Eventual Series MVP Troy Glaus hit two home runs for the Angels, one in the second and another in the sixth off Giants starter Jason Schmidt. Adam Kennedy drove in a run with a base hit in the sixth as well to trim the deficit to 4–3. However, Schmidt was effective otherwise, along with reliever Félix Rodríguez and closer Robb Nen, as they held off the Halos the rest of the way. Game 2 Game 2 was a slugfest that saw the lead fluctuate wildly between the two teams. The Angels plated five runs in the first inning by batting around against Giants starting pitcher Russ Ortiz. David Eckstein singled to lead off and scored on Darin Erstad's double. After Tim Salmon singled, Garret Anderson's RBI single made it 2–0 Angels. After Troy Glaus flew out, consecutive RBI singles by Brad Fullmer and Scott Spiezio made it 4–0 Angels. Fullmer stole home plate for the Angels' fifth run of the inning. In the second inning, however, Kevin Appier surrendered most of the lead by allowing a three-run homer to Sanders followed by a shot to David Bell. The Angels answered with a two-run home run from veteran Tim Salmon to make it 7–4 in the Angels' favor. Ortiz would not finish the inning and was relieved by Chad Zerbe, who provided four innings of relief. Appier did not last much longer than Ortiz, as he was pulled in the third and replaced by John Lackey, the Angels scheduled starter for Game 4, after surrendering a lead-off home run to Jeff Kent. Lackey temporarily quieted the Giants' offense but ran into trouble in the fifth inning, allowing a double and intentional walk. Ben Weber relieved him but allowed a single to Benito Santiago to load the bases, then a two-run single to J. T. Snow that tied the game. After Reggie Sanders struck out, consecutive RBI singles by David Bell and Shawon Dunston gave the Giants a 9–7 lead. The Angels turned to 20-year-old rookie reliever Francisco Rodriguez, who answered by shutting down the Giants offense for the next three innings. He retired nine batters in a row on 25 pitches (22 were strikes). Meanwhile, the Angels chipped away at their deficit. In the bottom of the fifth, Glaus and Fullmer hit back-to-back leadoff singles before the former scored on Spezio's sacrifice fly. Next inning, Erstad doubled with two outs. Zerbe was relieved by Jay Witasick, who walked Tim Salmon. Aaron Fultz relieved Witasick and allowed an RBI single to Anderson to tie the game, but Salmon was thrown out at third to end the inning. Salmon drilled a two-run home run with two outs in the eighth inning off of Félix Rodríguez, giving Anaheim an 11–9 lead. Closer Troy Percival retired the first two batters in the ninth, and, after allowing a mammoth shot from Bonds that landed halfway up the right field bleachers, retired Benito Santiago to even the series. Bonds became the first player since Ted Simmons in the 1982 World Series to hit a home run in his first two World Series games, joining Simmons, Dusty Rhodes in the 1954 World Series and Jimmie Foxx in the 1929 World Series. The feat would later be duplicated by Craig Monroe of the Tigers in the 2006 World Series. Giants pitchers failed to strike out a batter for the entire game, the first time this had happened in the World Series since Game 7 of the 1960 World Series; as of 2021 it remains the last time a team has not recorded a strikeout in a World Series game. The Angels won despite giving up four home runs to the Giants, compared to two by the Angels. Game 3 Anaheim won 10–4 in the first World Series game at Pacific Bell Park (now Oracle Park). The Angels batted around twice without a home run in either of their four-run innings. They became the first team in World Series history to bat around in consecutive innings. Barry Bonds hit another home run, becoming the first player to homer in his first three World Series games. The Giants struck first on Benito Santiago's based-loaded groundout in the first off of Ramón Ortiz, but Giants starter Liván Hernández walked David Eckstein to lead off the third and allowed a subsequent double to Darin Erstad. An error on Tim Salmon's groundball allowed Eckstein to score. After Garret Anderson flew out, Troy Glaus hit an RBI single and Scott Spiezio followed with a two-run triple. Next inning, Anderson's RBI groundout with runners on second and third chased Hernandez. Jay Witasick entered in relief and walked Glaus before allowing RBI singles to Spiezio, Adam Kennedy and Bengie Molina, which increased Anaheim's lead to 8–1. Rich Aurilia hit a one-out home run in the fifth for the Giants. After Jeff Kent singled, Bonds's home run made it 8–4, but the Giants did not score after that. The Angels added to their lead on Eckstein's RBI single in the sixth off of Aaron Fultz and Erstad's bases-loaded fielder's choice in the eighth off of Scott Eyre. Giants public address announcer Renel Brooks-Moon is recognized by the Baseball Hall of Fame as the first female announcer of a championship game in any professional sport for her role in the 2002 World Series. Her scorecard from Game 3 is on display in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. Until 2014, this game was the Giants' only World Series loss at home since Pacific Bell Park opened in 2000. They proceeded to win the final two games in this series, then won four straight home games in their next two World Series appearances in 2010 and 2012 until finally losing at home in Game 3 in 2014. Game 4 The Angels struck first in the second on David Eckstein's bases-loaded sacrifice fly, then made it 3–0 next inning on Troy Glaus's two-run home run off of starter Kirk Rueter. In the bottom of the fifth, however, Angels starter John Lackey allowed three consecutive leadoff singles, the last of which by Rich Aurilia scoring Rueter. Jeff Kent's sacrifice fly cut the Angels' lead to 3–2 and NLCS MVP Benito Santiago tied the game with a single in after the Angels walked Barry Bonds with a runner on second and two outs. David Bell put the Giants ahead with an RBI single in the bottom of the eighth off of Francisco Rodriguez. The run was unearned, due to Anaheim catcher Bengie Molina's passed ball during the previous at-bat, allowing J. T. Snow to move to second. Tim Worrell got the win for the Giants. San Francisco scored a 4–3 victory to tie the series and ensured a return trip to Anaheim. Game 5 San Francisco took a 16–4 blowout win in a game in which the Angels never led. The most well-known moment in this game occurred in the bottom of the seventh when Giants first baseman J. T. Snow scored off a Kenny Lofton triple. Three-year-old batboy Darren, son of Giants manager Dusty Baker, ran to home plate to collect Lofton's bat before the play was completed and was quickly lifted by the jacket by Snow with one hand as he crossed the plate, with David Bell close on his heels. Had Snow not acted quickly, Darren could have been seriously injured in a play at home plate. Giants' second-baseman Jeff Kent hit two home runs to break out of a slump (hitting his first home run since Game 2), driving in four runs. In the bottom of the first, Barry Bonds's double off of Jarrod Washburn with runners on first and second gave the Giants an early lead. Benito Santiago's sacrifice fly, followed by three consecutive walks made it 3–0 Giants. Next inning, Benito's bases-loaded single scored two and Reggie Sanders's sacrifice fly scored another. Orlando Palmeiro doubled to lead off the top of the fifth, moved to third on David Eckstein's single and scored on Darin Erstad's sacrifice fly. After Tim Salmon singled, a wild pitch by starter Jason Schmidt allowed Eckstein to score. After Garret Anderson struck out, Troy Glaus's RBI double cut the Giants' lead to 6–3. The Angels cut it to 6–4 next inning off of Chad Zerbe on Eckstein's groundout with runners on second and third, but did not score again. Kent's two-run home run in the bottom half off of Ben Weber widened the Giants' lead to 8–4. Next inning, Kenny Lofton's two-run triple made it 10-4 Giants. Scot Shields relieved Weber and after Aurilia struck out, Kent's second home run of the game made it 12–4 Giants. Next inning, Shields allowed consecutive one-out singles to J. T. Snow and David Bell, then an error on Tsuyoshi Shinjo's ground ball made it 13–4 Giants. After Lofton grounded out, Aurilia capped the scoring with a three-run home run. Scott Eyre retired the Angels in order in the ninth as the Giants were one win away from a World Series title. Chad Zerbe earned the win for the Giants. This game shares one peculiar record with Game 2 of the 1960 World Series. The two games share the World Series record for most runs scored by a game winning team who ultimately went on to lose the series. Game 6 The turning point in the Series came in Game 6. Following the top of the seventh inning, the Giants led 5–0 but then proceeded to surrender three runs in the bottom of the inning and another three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning and lost the game 6–5. The game was scoreless through the first four innings. In the top of the fifth, San Francisco took the lead. David Bell singled with one out, then Shawon Dunston's home run made it 2–0 Giants. After Kenny Lofton doubled, Francisco Rodríguez relieved Kevin Appier. Lofton stole third and scored on a wild pitch. In the top of the sixth, Barry Bonds homered off Rodriguez to make it 4–0, and the Giants added another run in the top of the seventh when Lofton singled and stole second and was driven in by a single by Jeff Kent. Leading 5–0 with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning, eight outs away from the Giants' first World Series title since moving to San Francisco in 1958, Giants manager Dusty Baker pulled starting pitcher Russ Ortiz, who had shut out the Angels during the game, for setup man Félix Rodríguez after Ortiz gave up consecutive singles to third baseman Troy Glaus and designated hitter Brad Fullmer. In a move noted in later years, Baker gave Ortiz the game ball as he sent him back to the dugout, as Ortiz wanted a souvenir ball (contrary to some belief, the Angels did not see the move in real time). During the pitching change the Rally Monkey came on the JumboTron, sending 45,037 Angels fans into a frenzy. Angels first baseman Scott Spiezio then fouled off pitch after pitch before finally hitting a three-run home run that barely cleared the wall in right field. Ortiz would be charged with two runs and a no-decision, his second of the series. The rally continued in the eighth inning, as Angels center fielder Darin Erstad hit a leadoff line-drive home run, followed by consecutive singles by Tim Salmon and Garret Anderson. When Bonds misplayed Anderson's shallow left field bloop single, Chone Figgins (who had pinch-run for Salmon) and Anderson took third and second base, respectively. With no outs, two runners in scoring position and now only a 5–4 lead, Baker brought in closer Robb Nen to pitch to Glaus, hoping that Nen could induce a strikeout that might yet preserve the Giants' slim lead; prior to that game, he was seven of seven in postseason saves that year despite dealing with a shoulder injury. However, Glaus slugged a double to the left-center field gap over Bonds' head to drive in the tying and go-ahead runs and giving Nen a blown save. Nen managed to keep Glaus from scoring before leaving the game, which ended up being his final appearance as a major league player. In the ninth inning, Angels closer Troy Percival struck out Tom Goodwin, induced a foul popout from Lofton, and struck out Rich Aurilia to preserve the 6–5 victory in front of the jubilant home crowd. The comeback from a five-run deficit was the largest in World Series history for an elimination game. No other team overcame a five-run deficit to win a World Series game until Game 1 of the 2022 World Series, when the Philadelphia Phillies did so against the Houston Astros. That Astros team, like the Giants, was managed by Dusty Baker. This game ranked number 2 as ESPN's Game of the Year in 2002. Game 7 Game 7 proved to be somewhat anticlimactic after the drama of Game 6. The Giants scored the first run in the top of the second inning when Reggie Sanders hit a sacrifice fly to score Benito Santiago from third, but the Angels responded with a run-scoring double from catcher Bengie Molina that scored Scott Spiezio from first after he had walked with two outs. A three-run double to right field from left fielder Garret Anderson pushed the Angels to a 4–1 lead and gave San Francisco starter Liván Hernández the loss. Hernández was yanked following Anderson's double, and Chad Zerbe got out of the nightmarish inning. Zerbe, Kirk Rueter, and Tim Worrell held the Angels scoreless, but it was not enough. Rookie starting pitcher John Lackey maintained that lead through five innings, and turned the game over to the strong Angels bullpen. In the ninth inning, closer Troy Percival provided some tense moments as he opened the inning by putting two Giants players on base, with only one out. But Tsuyoshi Shinjo—the first Japanese-born player in a World Series game—struck out swinging, and Kenny Lofton, also representing the tying run, flied out to Darin Erstad in right-center field to end the Series. The Angels won Game 7, 4–1, to claim their franchise's first and only World Series championship to date. John Lackey became the first rookie pitcher to win a World Series Game 7 since 1909. In Game 7, three rookie pitchers (John Lackey, Brendan Donnelly, and Francisco Rodríguez) combined to throw eight innings while only giving up one run combined. The Angels won the World Series despite scoring fewer runs (41) than the Giants (44). The Angels lost the first game in all three rounds of the playoffs (Division Series, League Championship Series, and World Series), yet rebounded to win each time. They were the first, and to date only, team to do this since the new postseason format was created in 1994. Until 2017, this was the last time a franchise would win its first World Series title. It was also the second year in a row that the feat had been accomplished; in 2001, the Diamondbacks beat the Yankees in just their fourth year of existence. Also in those two years, both teams won the World Series in just their first appearance, which did not happen again until 2019, when the Washington Nationals would accomplish the feat. The Angels became the first American League (AL) champion team not representing the AL East Division to win the World Series since the Minnesota Twins in 1991. The Angels were also the first American League Wild Card winner to win the World Series. With this win the Angels got rid of the supposed curse on their head stemming from Anaheim Stadium being built on an ancient Indian burial ground. This was Dusty Baker's final game as manager of the Giants, as he left to become manager of the Chicago Cubs in the offseason. Composite box 2002 World Series (4–3): Anaheim Angels (A.L.) over San Francisco Giants (N.L.) Impact and aftermath The Angels and the Giants combined to log 85 runs over the course of the series, the largest combined run total for both teams in World Series history. This remains the most recent World Series that was played entirely within one state. There would not be another postseason match-up between two California teams until the 2020 National League Division Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, which took place at neutral site (Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas) due to the COVID-19 outbreak. This was the last World Series where home-field advantage alternated between the National and American Leagues each year. As a result of the tie in the 2002 All-Star Game, beginning in 2003 home-field advantage in the World Series was controversially granted to the league that won the All-Star Game. That practice ended after the 2016 Series; beginning in 2017, the team with the better regular season record will enjoy home field advantage, the same format used in the National Basketball Association's Finals and National Hockey League's Stanley Cup Finals. Following the Darren Baker incident in game 5, MLB changed their rules requiring batboys and batgirls be at least 14 years old. This is currently the earliest World Series in which no personnel from either team have been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Angels Just before the start of the 2003 season, the Walt Disney Company sold the Angels for $180 million to businessman Arte Moreno. Nevertheless, the 2002 World Series win began the most successful era in Angels franchise history, making six postseason appearances from 2002 to 2009. Before 2002, they had been to the postseason three times in franchise history (1979, 1982, and 1986). They advanced to the ALCS in 2005 and 2009, but lost those series respectively to the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees, each while en route to their own World Series championship. The Angels were the most recent team to win the championship in its first World Series appearance until the Washington Nationals accomplished the feat in 2019; between 2002 and 2019, all first-time World Series participants would lose—the Houston Astros in 2005, Colorado Rockies in 2007, Tampa Bay Rays in 2008, and Texas Rangers in 2010. The 2002 Series run would be the highpoint of the Angels run with Mike Scioscia as manager. From 2002 to 2009, the Angels would make the playoffs six times. They advanced to the American League Championship Series two further times (2005, 2009), losing twice. After one further appearance in 2014, the Angels fired Scioscia in 2018. The Angels would sparingly use the Rally Monkey mascot after the 2002 World Series and unofficially retired it after the 2009 postseason. Both David Eckstein and Scott Spiezio later played for the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals world championship team. Eckstein and Spiezio played alongside Yadier Molina, younger brother of Bengie and José Molina, on the Cardinals. José later won a second World Series title with the 2009 Yankees, while John Lackey added two World Series rings with the 2013 Boston Red Sox and 2016 Chicago Cubs. Giants Game 7 of the series was Dusty Baker's final game as manager of the Giants, as he left in the offseason to take the same position with the Cubs due to disagreements with ownership. Game 7 was also Jeff Kent's last game in San Francisco, as he signed a free-agent contract to play for the Houston Astros during the off-season. The departure of manager Baker, a season-long feud with Barry Bonds and a desire to be closer to his family's Texas ranch factored into Kent's eventual decision to leave the Giants. He retired as the all-time leader in home runs as a second baseman. The 2000 MVP would inducted into the San Francisco Giants Wall of Fame in 2009. The Giants would return to the postseason the following season under new manager Felipe Alou with a 100 win season (the first time in ten years), but they would lose in the NLDS to the Florida Marlins, a Wild Card team that later won the World Series championship. After a second-place finish in 2004, the Giants had losing seasons for the next four years, and they replaced Alou with Bruce Bochy in 2007. After losing 90 games in 2008, the Giants won 88 games for a surprising third-place finish in 2009. Building on their 2009 season, the Giants returned to the postseason in 2010 as a Divisional Winner team, defeating the Braves in the NLDS, and the Phillies in the NLCS en route to the World Series, where they defeated the Rangers in five games, earning the long-awaited championship they could not reach in 2002. In 2012, after fighting back from down two games to none in the NLDS against the Cincinnati Reds (led by Baker) and down three games to one against the defending World Series Champions, the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS, they swept the Detroit Tigers for their second World Series Championship in three years. In 2014, the Giants added their third title in five seasons by defeating the Kansas City Royals in seven games. Of the players from the 2002 Giants (excluding previous World Series champions Liván Hernández, Robb Nen and Reggie Sanders), only Scott Eyre and Pedro Feliz went on to win a World Series ring with another team. Eyre and Feliz became teammates on the 2008 Philadelphia Phillies world championship team. By the time San Francisco won their first World Series in 2010, there were no members of the 2002 squad still on that team. Barry Bonds In terms of personal accolades, Barry Bonds would break Hank Aaron's all-time homerun record in 2007. Bonds also won two more National League MVPs in 2003 and 2004, extending his record for most MVP Awards to seven. Bonds would enter free agency at the end of the 2007 season for the first time since coming over from Pittsburgh to San Francisco in 1993, but there were no teams interested in signing him. Bonds would not play another major league game after the 2007 season. He retired as one of the greatest players in MLB history to never to win a championship, along with Ted Williams and Ty Cobb. Bonds' last few seasons and his post-playing career would be mired due to performance enhancing drugs allegations. The only way Bonds could make the National Baseball Hall of Fame would be through the Veterans Committee, as he lost out to David Ortiz in the 2022 ballot, his 10th and final one. This was met with negative reaction from some fans, as fans complained that Ortiz had made the Hall of Fame, despite testing positive for PEDs in 2003, whilst Bonds never tested positive for any PEDs. Dusty Baker Dusty Baker received great fan ire for his decision to pull Russ Ortiz in Game 6 with a 5–0 lead and just a few more outs away from clinching San Francisco's first World Series in the city. Baker would serve as the manager for the Chicago Cubs in 2003 after mutually parting ways in San Francisco after the World Series. As with the Giants, he would help break a postseason drought, as he led them to a series victory in the 2003 National League Division Series over Atlanta, the first postseason series victory in 95 years for Chicago. However, they would lose in the 2003 National League Championship Series to the Florida Marlins when they were five outs from clinching a pennant in Game 6. This was the first of a long line of postseason futility for Baker, who went to the postseason five further times in his next eleven seasons as a manager but failed to win a single series. In 2020, he was hired to manage the Houston Astros. He broke his postseason drought with the team by winning in the Wild Card Series that year (2020) and then returned to the World Series the following year (where they ultimately lost to Atlanta in six games) after winning the 2021 American League Championship Series. In 2022, he finally won a World championship on his third try, defeating Philadelphia in six games to set a new mark of being the manager with the most regular season victories (2,093) before winning their first championship. Russ Ortiz, the pitcher who nearly won Baker a world championship 20 years prior, congratulated Baker on his first championship as a manager on Instagram. Radio and television Fox's telecast of this World Series marked the first time the World Series was telecast in high-definition. Jon Miller, who called this World Series for ESPN Radio, has been play-by-play man for the San Francisco Giants since 1997. Coincidentally, KNBR, the Giants' longtime flagship station, was also San Francisco's ESPN Radio affiliate. This would be the only World Series called by Angels play-by-play man Rory Markas, who died of a heart attack in January 2010. Notes See also 2002 Japan Series References Forman, Sean L. "2002 World Series". Baseball-Reference.com – Major League Statistics and Information. Archived from the original on December 17, 2007. Retrieved December 9, 2007. Gavant, David (Prod.); Chaplin, Curt (Narrator) (September 26, 2002). 2002 World Series (Documentary / DVD). Anaheim, California: MLB Productions / WEA. Retrieved September 21, 2008. External links 2002 World Series at Baseball Almanac 2002 World Series at Baseball-Reference.com The 2002 Post-Season Games (box scores and play-by-play) at Retrosheet History of the World Series - 2002 at The Sporting News. Archived from the original in May 2006. Media related to 2002 World Series at Wikimedia Commons Official MLB.com Coverage

Barry Lamar Bonds (born July 24, 1964) is an American former professional baseball left fielder who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). Bonds was a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1986 to 1992 and the San Francisco Giants from 1993 to 2007. He is considered to be one of the greatest baseball players of all time. Recognized as an all-around player, Bonds received a record seven National League (NL) Most Valuable Player Awards and 12 Silver Slugger Awards, along with 14 All-Star selections. He holds many MLB hitting records, including most career home runs (762), most home runs in a single season (73, set in 2001), and the records for the most walks and intentional walks in a career, season, and in consecutive games. Bonds led MLB in on-base plus slugging six times and placed within the top five hitters in 12 of his 17 qualifying seasons. For his defensive play in the outfield, he won eight Gold Glove Awards. He also had 514 stolen bases, becoming the first and only MLB player to date with at least 500 home runs and 500 stolen bases. Bonds is ranked first in career Wins Above Replacement among all major league position players by Baseball-Reference.com and second by FanGraphs, behind only Babe Ruth. Despite his accolades, Bonds led a controversial career, notably as a central figure in baseball's steroids scandal. He was indicted in 2007 on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice for allegedly lying to a grand jury during the federal government's investigation of BALCO, a manufacturer of an undetectable steroid. After the perjury charges were dropped, Bonds was convicted of obstruction of justice in 2011, but was exonerated on appeal in 2015. During his 10 years of eligibility, he did not receive the 75% of the vote needed to be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Some voters of the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) stated they did not vote for Bonds because they believe he used performance-enhancing drugs. Early life Bonds was born in Riverside, California, to Patricia (née Howard) and former major leaguer Bobby Bonds, and grew up in San Carlos and attended Junípero Serra High School in San Mateo, where he excelled in baseball, basketball, and football. He played on the junior varsity team during his freshman year and on the varsity team for the remainder of his high school career. He garnered a .467 batting average his senior year, and was named prep All-American. The Giants drafted Bonds in the second round of the 1982 MLB draft as a high school senior but the Giants and Bonds were unable to agree on contract terms when Tom Haller's maximum offer was $70,000 ($220,000 today) and Bonds's minimum to go pro was $75,000, so Bonds instead decided to attend college. College career Bonds attended Arizona State University, hitting .347 with 45 home runs and 175 runs batted in (RBI). In 1984 he batted .360 and had 30 stolen bases. In 1985, he hit 23 home runs with 66 RBIs and a .368 batting average. He was a Sporting News All-American selection that year. He tied the NCAA record with seven consecutive hits in the College World Series as a sophomore and was named to All-Time College World Series Team in 1996. Bonds was not well-liked by his Sun Devil teammates, in part because in the words of longtime coach Jim Brock, he was "rude, inconsiderate and self-centered." When he was suspended for breaking curfew, the other players initially voted against his return even though he was easily the best player on the team. He graduated from Arizona State in 1986 with a degree in criminology. He was named ASU On Deck Circle Most Valuable Player; other winners include Dustin Pedroia, Willie Bloomquist, Paul Lo Duca, and Ike Davis. During college, he played part of one summer in the amateur Alaska Baseball League with the Alaska Goldpanners. Professional career Draft and minor leagues The Pittsburgh Pirates drafted Bonds as the sixth overall pick of the 1985 Major League Baseball draft. He joined the Prince William Pirates of the Carolina League and was named July 1985 Player of the Month for the league. In 1986, he hit .311 in 44 games for the Hawaii Islanders of the Pacific Coast League. Pittsburgh Pirates (1986–1992) Before Bonds made it to the major leagues in Pittsburgh, Pirate fan attendance was low, with 1984 and 1985 attendance below 10,000 per game for the 81-game home schedule, with attendance woes being a combination of the economic problems of Western Pennsylvania in the early 1980s as well as the Pittsburgh drug trials that directly affected the Pirates going from World Series champions to nearly relocating to Denver in only six years. Bonds made his major league debut on May 30, 1986. In 1986, Bonds led National League (NL) rookies with 16 home runs, 48 RBI, 36 stolen bases, and 65 walks, but he finished 6th in Rookie of the Year voting. He played center field in 1986 but switched to left field with the arrival of centerfielder Andy Van Slyke in 1987. In his early years, Bonds batted as the leadoff hitter. With Van Slyke also in the outfield, the Pirates had a venerable defensive tandem that worked together to cover a lot of ground on the field although they were not close off the field. The Pirates experienced a surge in fan enthusiasm with Bonds on the team and set the club attendance record of 52,119 in the 1987 home opener. That year, he hit 25 home runs in his second season, along with 32 stolen bases and 59 RBIs. Bonds improved in 1988, hitting .283 with 24 home runs. The Pirates broke the record set the previous year with 54,089 attending the home opener. Bonds now fit into a highly respected lineup featuring Bobby Bonilla, Van Slyke, and Jay Bell. He finished with 19 homers, 58 RBIs, and 14 outfield assists in 1989, which was second in the NL. Following the season, rumors that he would be traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Jeff Hamilton and John Wetteland, but the team denied the rumors and no such trade occurred. Bonds won his first MVP Award in 1990, hitting .301 with 33 home runs and 114 RBIs. He also stole 52 bases, which was third in the league, to become a first-time member of the 30–30 club. He won his first Gold Glove Award and Silver Slugger Award. That year, the Pirates won the National League East title for their first postseason berth since winning the 1979 World Series. However, the Cincinnati Reds, whose last post-season berth had also been in 1979 when they lost to the Pirates in that year's NLCS, defeated the Pirates in the NLCS en route to winning the 1990 World Series. In 1991, Bonds also put up great numbers, hitting 25 homers and driving in 116 runs, and obtained another Gold Glove and Silver Slugger. He finished second to the Atlanta Braves' Terry Pendleton (the NL batting champion) in the MVP voting. In March 1992, Pirates general manager Ted Simmons agreed to a deal with Atlanta Braves counterpart John Schuerholz to trade Bonds, in exchange for Alejandro Peña, Keith Mitchell, and a player to be named later. Pirates manager Jim Leyland opposed the trade vehemently, and the proposal was rescinded. Bonds stayed with Pittsburgh and won his second MVP award that season. While hitting .311 with 34 homers and 103 RBIs, he propelled the Pirates to their third straight National League East division title. However, Pittsburgh was defeated by the Braves in a seven-game National League Championship Series. Bonds participated in the final play of Game 7 of the NLCS, whereby he fielded a base hit by Francisco Cabrera and attempted to throw out Sid Bream at home plate. But the throw to Pirates catcher Mike LaValliere was late and Bream scored the winning run. For the third consecutive season, the NL East Champion Pirates were denied a trip to the World Series. Following the loss, Bonds and star teammate Doug Drabek were expected to command salaries too high for Pittsburgh to again sign them. Bonds was never well-liked by reporters or fans while in Pittsburgh, despite winning two MVP awards. One paper even gave him an "award" as the "MDP" (Most Despised Pirate). San Francisco Giants (1993–2007) 1993 season In 1993, Bonds left the Pirates to sign a lucrative free agent contract worth a then-record $43.75 million (equivalent to $92.3 million in 2023) over six years with the Giants, with whom his father had spent the first seven years of his career, and with whom his godfather Willie Mays played 22 of his 24 Major League seasons. The deal was at that time the largest in baseball history, in terms of both total value and average annual salary. Once he signed with the Giants, Bonds had intended to wear the number 24, his number during most of his stay with the Pirates and, after receiving Mays's blessing, the Giants were willing to unretire it until the public commotion from fans and media became too much. To honor his father, Bonds switched his jersey number to 25, as it had been Bobby's number in San Francisco. In an emotional press conference announcing the signing, Bonds described joining the Giants as going "home" and following in the footsteps of his father and godfather as "unbelievable" and "a boyhood dream come true." His father joined the team as a coach in the same year. During a game against the Colorado Rockies on May 12, 1993, both Bonds and his father, along with Jerald Clark and Ron Hassey of the Rockies, were ejected for their role in an on-field fight. Bonds hit .336 in 1993, leading the league with 46 home runs and 123 RBI en route to his second consecutive MVP award, and third overall. As good as the Giants were (winning 103 games), the Atlanta Braves won 104 in what some call the last great pennant race (because the wild card was instituted the year after). 1994 season In the strike-shortened season of 1994, Bonds hit .312 with 37 home runs and a league-leading 74 walks, and he finished 4th in MVP voting. 1995 season In 1995, Bonds hit 33 homers and drove in 104 runs, hitting .294 but finished only 12th in MVP voting. In 1994, he appeared in a small role as himself in the television film Jane's House, starring James Woods and Anne Archer. 1996 season In 1996, Bonds became the first National League player and second major league player (of the current list of six) to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in the same season. The other members of the 40–40 club are José Canseco (1988), Alex Rodriguez (1998), Alfonso Soriano (2006), Ronald Acuna Jr. (2023), and Shohei Ohtani (2024). His father Bobby Bonds was one home run short in 1973 when he hit 39 home runs and stole 43 bases. Bonds hit his 300th and 301st home runs off the Florida Marlins' John Burkett on April 27. He became the fourth player in history to join the 300–300 club with 300 stolen bases and 300 home runs for a career, joining Willie Mays, Andre Dawson, and his father. Bonds's totals for the season included 129 runs driven in, a .308 average and a then-National League record 151 walks. He finished fifth in the MVP balloting. 1997 season In 1997, Bonds hit .291, his lowest average since 1989. He hit 40 home runs for the second straight year and drove in 101 runs, leading the league in walks again with 145. He also stole 37 bases, tying his father for having the most 30–30 seasons (5), and he again placed fifth in the MVP balloting. 1998 season With two outs in the 9th inning of a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks on May 28, 1998, Bonds became only the fifth player in baseball history to be given an intentional walk with the bases loaded. Nap Lajoie (1901), Del Bissonette (1928) and Bill Nicholson (1944) were three others in the 20th century who received that rare honor. The first to receive one was Abner Dalrymple in 1881. On August 23, Bonds hit his 400th career home run. By doing so, he became the first player ever to enter the 400–400 club by having career totals of 400 home runs and 400 stolen bases; he is still the only player to have achieved this feat. The milestone home run came off Kirt Ojala, who, like Burkett, was pitching for the Marlins. For the season, he hit .303 with 37 home runs and drove in 122 runs, winning his eighth Gold Glove, He finished 8th in the MVP voting. 1999 season 1999 marked a career-low, up to that point, for Bonds in terms of playing time. Bonds started off the 1999 season hitting well by batting .366 in the month of April with 4 home runs and 12 RBIs in the Giants' first 12 games of the season. But on April 18 he was placed on the 15-day disabled list for only the 2nd time in his career up to that point. Bonds had suffered a torn tendon in his biceps as well as bone spurs in his elbow, both of which required surgery and cost him the rest of April and all of May. Upon returning to action on June 9, Bonds struggled somewhat at the plate for the remainder of the 1999 season. A series of nagging injuries including elbow pain, knee inflammation and groin issues hampered his play. Only hitting .248 after his return from the disabled list, he still managed to slug 34 home runs, drive in 83 runs as well as hit for a .617 slugging percentage, despite missing nearly two full months with injuries and only playing in 102 games. Bill James ranked Bonds as the best player of the 1990s. He added that the decade's second-best player, Craig Biggio, had been closer in production to the decade's 10th-best player than to Bonds. In 1999, with statistics through 1997 being considered, Bonds ranked Number 34 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, making him the highest-ranking active player. When the Sporting News list was redone in 2005, Bonds was ranked 6th behind Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, and Hank Aaron. Bonds was omitted from 1999's Major League Baseball All-Century Team, to which Ken Griffey Jr. was elected. James wrote of Bonds, "Certainly the most unappreciated superstar of my lifetime. ... Griffey has always been more popular, but Bonds has been a far, far greater player." In 1999, he rated Bonds as the 16th-best player of all time. "When people begin to take in all of his accomplishments," he predicted, "Bonds may well be rated among the five greatest players in the history of the game." 2000 season In 2000, the following year, Bonds hit .306 with career bests through that time in both slugging percentage (.688) and home runs (49) in just 143 games. He also drew a league-leading 117 walks. 2001 season The next year, Bonds's offensive production reached even higher levels, breaking not only his own personal records but several major league records. In the Giants' first 50 games in 2001, he hit 28 home runs, including 17 in May—a career high. This early stretch included his 500th home run hit on April 17 against Terry Adams of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He also hit 39 home runs by the All-star break (a major league record), drew a major league record 177 walks, and had a .515 on-base average, a feat not seen since Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams over forty years earlier. Bonds' slugging percentage was a major league record .863 (411 total bases in 476 at-bats), and he ended the season with a major league record 73 home runs. On October 4, by homering off Wilfredo Rodríguez in the 159th game of the season, Bonds tied the previous record of 70 set by Mark McGwire—which McGwire set in the 162nd game in 1998. He then hit numbers 71 and 72 the following night off Chan Ho Park. Bonds added his 73rd off Dennis Springer on October 7. The ball was later sold to toy manufacturer Todd McFarlane for $450,000. He previously bought Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball from 1998. Bonds received the Babe Ruth Home Run Award for leading MLB in home runs that season. 2002 season Bonds re-signed with the Giants for a five-year, $90 million contract in January 2002. He hit five home runs in the Giants' first four games of the season, tying Lou Brock's 35-year record for most home runs after four games. He won the NL batting title with a career-high .370 average and struck out only 47 times. He hit 46 home runs in 403 at-bats. Despite playing in nine fewer games than the previous season, he drew 198 walks, a major-league record; 68 of them were intentional walks, surpassing Willie McCovey's 45 in 1969 for another Major League record. He slugged .799, then the fourth-highest total all time. Bonds broke Ted Williams' major league record for on-base average with .582. Bonds also hit his 600th home run, less than a year and a half after hitting his 500th. The home run came on August 9 at home against Kip Wells of the Pirates. 2002 postseason Bonds batted .322 with eight home runs, 16 RBI, and 27 walks in the postseason en route to the 2002 World Series, which the Giants lost 4–3 to the Anaheim Angels. 2003 season In 2003, Bonds played in just 130 games. He hit 45 home runs in just 390 at-bats, along with a .341 batting average. He slugged .749, walked 148 times, and had an on-base average well over .500 (.529) for the third straight year. He also became the only member of the career 500 home run/500 stolen base club by stealing second base on June 23 off of pitcher Éric Gagné in the 11th inning of a tied ball game against the Los Angeles Dodgers (against whom Bonds had tallied his 500th home run). Bonds scored the game-winning run later that inning. 2004 season In 2004, Bonds had perhaps his best season. He hit .362 en route to his second National League batting title, and broke his own record by walking 232 times (including an MLB record 120 intentional walks). He slugged .812, which was fourth-highest of all time, and broke his on-base percentage record with a .609 average. Bonds passed Mays on the career home run list by hitting his 661st off of Ben Ford on April 13. He then hit his 700th off of Jake Peavy on September 17. Bonds hit 45 home runs in 373 at-bats, and struck out just 41 times, putting himself in elite company, as few major leaguers have ever had more home runs than strikeouts in a season. Bonds would win his fourth consecutive MVP award and his seventh overall. His seven MVP awards are four more than any other player in history. In addition, no other player from either league has been awarded the MVP four times in a row. (The MVP award was first given in 1931). The 40-year-old Bonds also broke Willie Stargell's 25-year record as the oldest player to win a Most Valuable Player Award (Stargell, at 39 years, 8 months, was National League co-MVP with Keith Hernandez in 1979). On July 4, he tied and passed Rickey Henderson's career bases on balls record with his 2190th and 2191st career walks. As Bonds neared Aaron's record, Aaron was called on for his opinion of Bonds. He clarified that he was a fan and admirer of Bonds and avoided the controversy regarding whether the record should be denoted with an asterisk for Bonds's alleged steroid usage. He felt recognition and respect for the award was something to be determined by the fans. As the steroid controversy received greater media attention during the offseason before the 2005 season, Aaron expressed some reservations about the statements Bonds made on the issue. Aaron expressed that he felt drug and steroid use to boost athletic performance was inappropriate. Aaron was frustrated that the media could not focus on events that occurred in the field of play and wished drugs or gambling allegations such as those associated with Pete Rose could be emphasized less. In 2007, Aaron felt the whole steroid use issue was very controversial and decided that he would not attend any possible record-breaking games. Aaron congratulated Bonds through the media including a video played on the scoreboard when Bonds eventually broke Aaron's record in August 2007. 2005 season Bonds's salary for the 2005 season was $22 million, the second-highest salary in Major League Baseball (the Yankees' Alex Rodriguez earned the highest, $25.2 million). Bonds endured a knee injury, multiple surgeries, and rehabilitation. He was activated on September 12 and started in left field. In his return against the San Diego Padres, he nearly hit a home run in his first at-bat. Bonds finished the night 1-for-4. Upon his return, Bonds resumed his high-caliber performance at the plate, hitting home runs in four consecutive games from September 18 to 21 and finishing with five homers in only 14 games. 2006 season In 2006, Bonds earned $20 million (not including bonuses), the fourth-highest salary in baseball. Through the 2006 season he had earned approximately $172 million during his then 21-year career, making him baseball's all-time highest-paid player. Bonds hit under .200 for his first 10 games of the season and did not hit a home run until April 22. This 10-game stretch was his longest home run slump since the 1998 season. On May 7, Bonds drew within one home run of tying Babe Ruth for second place on the all-time list, hitting his 713th career home run into the second level of Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, off pitcher Jon Lieber in a game in which the Giants lost to the Philadelphia Phillies. The towering home run—one of the longest in Citizens Bank Park's two-season history, traveling an estimated 450 feet (140 m)—hit off the facade of the third deck in right field. On May 20, Bonds hit his 714th career home run to deep right field to lead off the top of the 2nd inning, tying Ruth for second all-time. The home run came off left-handed pitcher Brad Halsey of the Oakland A's, in an interleague game played in Oakland, California. Since this was an interleague game at an American League stadium, Bonds was batting as the designated hitter in the lineup for the Giants. Bonds was quoted after the game as being "glad it's over with" and stated that more attention could be focused on Albert Pujols, who was on a very rapid home run pace in early 2006. On May 28, Bonds passed Ruth, hitting his 715th career home run to center field off Colorado Rockies pitcher Byung-hyun Kim. The ball was hit an estimated 445 feet (140 m) into center field where it went through the hands of several fans but then fell onto an elevated platform in center field. Then it rolled off the platform where Andrew Morbitzer, a 38-year-old San Francisco resident, caught the ball while he was in line at a concession stand. Mysteriously, radio broadcaster Dave Flemming's radio play-by-play of the home run went silent just as the ball was hit, apparently from a microphone failure. But the televised version, called by Giants broadcaster Duane Kuiper, was not affected. On September 22, Bonds tied Henry Aaron's National League career home run record of 733. The home run came in the top of the 6th inning of a high-scoring game against the Milwaukee Brewers, at Miller Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The achievement was notable for its occurrence in the very city where Aaron began (with the Milwaukee Braves) and concluded (with the Brewers, then in the American League) his career. With the Giants trailing 10–8, Bonds hit a blast to deep center field on a 2–0 pitch off the Brewers' Chris Spurling with runners on first and second and one out. Though the Giants were at the time clinging to only a slim chance of making the playoffs, Bonds's home run provided the additional drama of giving the Giants an 11–10 lead late in a critical game in the final days of a pennant race. The Brewers eventually won the game, 13–12, though Bonds went 3-for-5, with two doubles, the record-tying home run, and six runs batted in. On September 23, Bonds surpassed Aaron for the NL career home run record. Hit in Milwaukee like the previous one, this was a solo home run off Chris Capuano of the Brewers. This was the last home run Bonds hit in 2006. In 2006, Bonds recorded his lowest slugging percentage (a statistic that he had historically ranked among league leaders season after season) since 1991 with the Pittsburgh Pirates. In January 2007, the New York Daily News reported that Bonds had tested positive for amphetamines. Under baseball's amphetamine policy, which had been in effect for one season, players testing positive were to submit to six additional tests and undergo treatment and counseling. The policy also stated that players were not to be identified for a first positive test, but the New York Daily News leaked the test's results. When the Players Association informed Bonds of the test results, he initially attributed it to a substance he had taken from the locker of Giants teammate Mark Sweeney, but would later retract this claim and publicly apologize to Sweeney. 2007 season On January 29, 2007, the Giants finalized a contract with Bonds for the 2007 season. After the commissioner's office rejected Bonds's one-year, $15.8 million deal because it contained a personal-appearance provision, the team sent revised documents to his agent, Jeff Borris, who stated that "At this time, Barry is not signing the new documents." Bonds signed a revised one-year, $15.8 million contract on February 15 and reported to the Giants' Spring training camp on time. Bonds resumed his march to the all-time record early in the 2007 season. In the season opener on April 3, all he had was a first-inning single past third base with the infield shifted right, immediately followed by a stolen base and then thrown out at home on a baserunning mistake, followed by a deep fly-out to left field, late in the game. Bonds regrouped the next day with his first at-bat in the second game of the season at the Giants' AT&T Park. Bonds hit a pitch from Chris Young of the San Diego Padres just over the wall to the left of straight-away center field for career home run 735. This home run put Bonds past the midway point between Ruth and Aaron. Bonds did not homer again until April 13, when he hit two (736 and 737) in a 3 -or-3 night that included 4 RBI against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Bonds splashed a pitch by St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Ryan Franklin into McCovey Cove on April 18 for home run 738. Home runs number 739 and 740 came in back to back games on April 21 and 22 against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The hype surrounding Bonds's pursuit of the home run record escalated on May 14. On this day, Sports Auction for Heritage (a Dallas-based auction house) offered US$1 million to the fan who would catch Bonds's record-breaking 756th-career home run. The million-dollar offer was rescinded on June 11 out of concern of fan safety. Home run 748 came on Father's Day, June 17, in the final game of a three-game road series against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, where Bonds had never previously played. With this homer, Fenway Park became the 36th major league ballpark in which Bonds had hit a home run. He hit a Tim Wakefield knuckleball just over the low fence into the Giants' bullpen in right field. It was his first home run off his former Pittsburgh Pirate teammate, who became the 441st different pitcher to surrender a four-bagger to Bonds. The 750th career home run, hit on June 29, also came off a former teammate: Liván Hernández. The blast came in the 8th inning and at that point tied the game at 3–3. On July 19, after a 21 at-bat hitless streak, Bonds hit two home runs, numbers 752 and 753, against the Chicago Cubs. He went 3-for-3 with two home runs, six RBIs, and a walk on that day. The struggling last-place Giants still lost the game, 9–8. On July 27, Bonds hit home run 754 against Florida Marlins pitcher Rick VandenHurk. Bonds was then walked his next four at-bats in the game, but a two-run shot helped the Giants win the game 12–10. It marked the first time since he had hit #747 that Bonds had homered in a game the Giants won. On August 4, Bonds hit a 382 foot (116 m) home run against Clay Hensley of the San Diego Padres for home run number 755, tying Hank Aaron's all-time record. Bonds greeted his son, Nikolai, with an extended bear hug after crossing home plate. Bonds greeted his teammates and then his wife, Liz Watson, and daughter Aisha Lynn behind the backstop. Hensley was the 445th different pitcher to give up a home run to Bonds. Ironically, given the cloud of suspicion that surrounded Bonds, the tying home run was hit off a pitcher who had been suspended by baseball in 2005 for steroid use. He was walked in his next at-bat and eventually scored on a fielder's choice. On August 7 at 8:51 PM PDT, at Oracle Park (then known as AT&T Park) in San Francisco, Bonds hit a 435 foot (133 m) home run, his 756th, off a pitch from Mike Bacsik of the Washington Nationals, breaking the all-time career home run record, formerly held by Hank Aaron. Coincidentally, Bacsik's father had faced Aaron (as a pitcher for the Texas Rangers) after Aaron had hit his 755th home run. On August 23, 1976, Michael J. Bacsik held Aaron to a single and a fly out to right field. The younger Bacsik commented later, "If my dad had been gracious enough to let Hank Aaron hit a home run, we both would have given up 756." After hitting the home run, Bonds gave Bacsik an autographed bat. The pitch, the seventh of the at-bat, was a 3–2 pitch which Bonds hit into the right-center field bleachers. The fan who ended up with the ball, 22-year-old Matt Murphy from Queens, New York City, (and a Mets fan), was promptly protected and escorted away from the mayhem by a group of San Francisco police officers. After Bonds finished his home run trot, a 10-minute delay followed, including a brief video by Aaron congratulating Bonds on breaking the record Aaron had held for 33 years, and expressing the hope that "the achievement of this record will inspire others to chase their own dreams." Bonds made an impromptu emotional statement on the field, with Willie Mays, his godfather, at his side and thanked his teammates, family and his late father. Bonds sat out the rest of the game. The commissioner, Bud Selig, was not in attendance in this game but was represented by the Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations, Jimmie Lee Solomon. Selig called Bonds later that night to congratulate him on breaking the record. President George W. Bush also called Bonds the next day to congratulate him. On August 24, San Francisco honored and celebrated Bonds' career accomplishments and breaking the home run record with a large rally in Justin Herman Plaza. The rally included video messages from Lou Brock, Ernie Banks, Ozzie Smith, Joe Montana, Wayne Gretzky and Michael Jordan. Speeches were made by Willie Mays, Giants teammates Omar Vizquel and Rich Aurilia, and Giants owner Peter Magowan. Mayor Gavin Newsom presented Bonds the key to the City and County of San Francisco and Giants vice president Larry Baer gave Bonds the home plate he touched after hitting his 756th career home run. The record-setting ball was consigned to an auction house on August 21. Bidding began on August 28 and closed with a winning bid of US$752,467 on September 15 after a three-phase online auction. The high bidder, fashion designer Marc Ecko, created a website to let fans decide its fate. Subsequently, Ben Padnos, who submitted the $186,750 winning bid on Bonds' record-tying 755th home run ball also set up a website to let fans decide its fate. Ten million voters helped Ecko decide to brand the ball with an asterisk and send it to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Of Ecko's plans, Bonds said "He spent $750,000 on the ball and that's what he's doing with it? What he's doing is stupid." Padnos, on the other hand, sold five-year ads on a website, www.endthedebate.com, where people voted by a two-to-one margin to smash the ball. Bonds concluded the 2007 season with a .276 batting average, 28 home runs, and 66 RBIs in 126 games and 340 at-bats. At the age of 43, he led both leagues in walks with 132. Post-playing career On September 21, 2007, the San Francisco Giants confirmed that they would not re-sign Bonds for the 2008 season. The story was first announced on Bonds' own website earlier that day. Bonds officially filed for free agency on October 29, 2007. His agent Jeff Borris said: "I'm anticipating widespread interest from every Major League team." There was much speculation before the 2008 season about where Bonds might play. However, no one signed him during the 2008 or 2009 seasons. If he had returned to Major League Baseball, Bonds would have been within close range of several significant hitting milestones, needing just 65 hits to reach 3,000, four runs batted in to reach 2,000, and 38 home runs to reach 800. He would have needed 69 more runs scored to move past Rickey Henderson as the all-time runs champion, and 37 extra base hits to move past Hank Aaron as the all-time extra base hits champion. As of November 13, 2009, Borris maintained that Bonds was still not retired. On December 9, however, Borris told the San Francisco Chronicle that Bonds had played his last major league game. Bonds announced on April 11, 2010, that he was proud of McGwire for admitting his use of steroids. Bonds said that it was not the time to retire, but he noted that he was not in shape to play immediately if an interested club called him. In May 2015, Bonds filed a grievance against Major League Baseball through the players' union arguing that the league colluded in not signing him after the 2007 season. In August 2015, an arbitrator ruled in favor of MLB and against Bonds in his collusion case. On December 15, 2011, Bonds was sentenced to 30 days of house arrest, two years of probation and 250 hours of community service, for an obstruction of justice conviction stemming from a grand jury appearance in 2003. However, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston then delayed the sentence pending an appeal. In 2013 his conviction was upheld on appeal by a three judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. However, the full court later granted Bonds an en banc rehearing, and on April 22, 2015, an 11-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit voted 10–1 that his testimony was not obstruction. On March 10, 2014, Bonds began a seven-day stint as a roving spring training instructor for the Giants. On December 4, 2015, he was announced as the new hitting coach for the Miami Marlins, but was relieved of his duties on October 3, 2016, after just one season. He followed up with a public thank-you letter, acknowledging owner Jeffrey Loria, and the opportunity as "one of the most rewarding experiences of my baseball career." In 2017, Bonds officially re-joined the Giants organization as a special advisor to the CEO. On July 8, 2017, Bonds was added to the Giants Wall of Fame. On February 6, 2018, the San Francisco Giants announced their intentions to retire his number 25 jersey, which happened on August 11, 2018. His number 24 with the Pirates remains in circulation, most prominently worn by Brian Giles from 1999 to 2003 and by Pedro Alvarez from 2011 to 2015. National Baseball Hall of Fame consideration In his ten years of eligibility for the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Bonds fell short of the 75% of the votes from the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) needed for induction. His vote percentages from 2013 through 2022 were: 36.2%, 34.7%, 36.8%, 44.3%, 53.8%, 56.4%, 59.1%, 60.7%, 61.8% and 66%. He appeared on 260 of 394 ballots in his last year. Despite falling off the ballot, Bonds remained eligible through the Hall of Fame's Today's Game Committee, a committee "comprised of 16 members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, executives, and veteran media members" (hence the nickname of "veterans' committee") who consider retired players who lost ballot eligibility while still having made notable contributions to baseball from 1986 to 2016. The vote was held in December 2022; twelve of the sixteen votes were required for induction, but Bonds received fewer than four. Public persona During his playing career, Bonds was frequently described as a difficult person, surly, standoffish and ungrateful. In a 2016 interview with Terence Moore, he said he regretted the persona he had created. He attributed it to a response to the pressure he felt to perform as a young player with the Pirates. Remarked Bonds, Hell, I kick myself now, because I'm getting great press [since being more cooperative], and I could have had a trillion more endorsements, but that wasn't my driving force. The problem was, when I tried to give in a little bit, it never got better. I knew I was in the midst of that image, and I determined at that point that I was never going to get out of it. So I just said, 'I've created this fire around me, and I'm stuck in it, so I might as well live with the flames.' Bonds reports that for a short time during his playing days with the Giants he changed his demeanor at the behest of a group of teammates, smiling much more frequently and engaging more with others with a pleasant attitude. Shortly thereafter, Bonds says, in the midst of a slump, the same group of teammates pleaded that he revert, having seemingly lost his competitive edge, and causing the team to lose more. In spite of his protest that they would not appreciate the results, his teammates insisted. Bonds says he complied, maintaining that familiar standoffish edge the rest of his playing career. On May 9, 1996, Bonds shoved USA Today journalist Rod Beaton in the team's clubhouse. As Beaton was waiting to interview Robby Thompson one hour before a game against the St. Louis Cardinals, Bonds told Beaton to leave. The reporter replied that Major League Baseball rules allowed him 15 minutes more to talk with players. Bonds waved a finger in Beaton's face and shoved him in the chest, after which members of the team's coaching staff and front office interceded. Bonds and Beaton spoke again after the game. Beaton later said, "He accused me of having an attitude" and "I told him he went over the line by shoving me, but there was no apology." Bonds felt that the incident was overblown and said that, "We don't have a problem. We like each other. It was a big joke. He just got whacked out." Beaton filed no formal complaint about the incident, but USA Today filed a grievance with the team. Controversies BALCO scandal Since 2003, Bonds has been a key figure in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) scandal. BALCO marketed tetrahydrogestrinone ("the Clear"), a performance-enhancing anabolic steroid that was undetectable by doping tests. He was under investigation by a federal grand jury regarding his testimony in the BALCO case, and was indicted on perjury and obstruction of justice charges on November 15, 2007. The indictment alleges that Bonds lied while under oath about his alleged use of steroids. In 2003, BALCO's Greg Anderson, Bonds's trainer since 2000, was indicted by a federal grand jury in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California and charged with supplying anabolic steroids to athletes, including a number of baseball players. This led to speculation that Bonds had used performance-enhancing drugs during a time when there was no mandatory testing in Major League Baseball. Bonds declared his innocence, attributing his changed physique and increased power to a strict regimen of bodybuilding, diet, and legitimate supplements. During grand jury testimony on December 4, 2003, Bonds said that he used a clear substance and a cream that he received from his personal strength trainer, Greg Anderson, who told him they were the nutritional supplement flaxseed oil and a rubbing balm for arthritis. Later reports on Bonds's leaked grand-jury testimony contend that he admitted to unknowingly using "the cream" and "the clear." In July 2005, all four defendants in the BALCO steroid scandal trial, including Anderson, struck deals with federal prosecutors that did not require them to reveal names of athletes who might have used banned drugs. Perjury case On November 15, 2007, a federal grand jury indicted Bonds on four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice as it relates to the government investigation of BALCO. He was tried in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. On February 14, 2008, a typo in court papers filed by Federal prosecutors erroneously alleged that Bonds tested positive for steroids in November 2001, a month after hitting his record 73rd home run. The reference was meant instead to refer to a November 2000 test that had already been disclosed and previously reported. The typo sparked a brief media frenzy. His trial for obstruction of justice was to have begun on March 2, 2009, but jury selection was postponed by emergency appeals by the prosecution. The trial commenced on March 21, 2011, with Judge Susan Illston presiding. He was convicted on April 13, 2011, on the obstruction of justice charge, for giving an evasive answer to a question under oath. On December 15, 2011, Bonds was found guilty for an obstruction of justice conviction stemming from a grand jury appearance in 2003. However, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston then delayed the sentence pending his appeal. He was sentenced to 30 days of house arrest. He also received two years of probation and was ordered to perform 250 hours of community service. Bonds appealed his conviction to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In 2013, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit affirmed his conviction, but in 2015 his appeal was reheard by the full court en banc, which voted 10–1 to overturn his conviction. Players' union licensing withdrawal In 2003, Bonds withdrew from the MLB Players Association (MLBPA) licensing agreement because he felt independent marketing deals would be more lucrative for him. Bonds is the first player in the 30-year history of the licensing program not to sign. Because of this withdrawal, his name and likeness are not usable in any merchandise licensed by the MLBPA. In order to use his name or likeness, a company must deal directly with Bonds. For this reason, he does not appear in some baseball video games, forcing game-makers to create generic athletes as replacements. These generic video games replacements tended to be white and sometimes had different handedness which was done likely to avoid potential player likeness lawsuits from Bonds. Game of Shadows In March 2006 the book Game of Shadows, written by Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada, was released amid a storm of media publicity including the cover of Sports Illustrated. Initially small excerpts of the book were released by the authors in the issue of Sports Illustrated. The book alleges Bonds used stanozolol and a host of other steroids, and is perhaps most responsible for the change in public opinion regarding Bonds's steroid use. The book contained excerpts of grand jury testimony that is supposed to be sealed and confidential by law. The authors have been steadfast in their refusal to divulge their sources and at one point faced jail time. On February 14, 2007, Troy Ellerman, one of Victor Conte's lawyers, pleaded guilty to leaking grand jury testimony. Through the plea agreement, he will spend two and a half years in jail. Love Me, Hate Me In May 2006, former Sports Illustrated writer Jeff Pearlman released a revealing biography of Bonds entitled Love Me, Hate Me: Barry Bonds and the Making of an Anti-Hero. The book also contained many allegations against Bonds. The book, which describes Bonds as a polarizing, insufferable braggart with a legendary ego and staggering talent, relied on over five hundred interviews, none with Bonds himself. Bonds on Bonds In April 2006 and May 2006, ESPN aired a few episodes of a 10-part reality TV (unscripted, documentary-style) series starring Bonds. The show, titled Bonds on Bonds, focused on Bonds's chase of Babe Ruth's and Hank Aaron's home run records. Some felt the show should be put on hiatus until baseball investigated Bonds's steroid use allegations. The series was canceled in June 2006, ESPN and producer Tollin/Robbins Productions citing "creative control" issues with Bonds and his representatives. Personal life Bonds met Susann ("Sun") Margreth Branco, the mother of his first two children (Nikolai and Shikari), in Montreal, Quebec, in August 1987. They eloped to Las Vegas February 5, 1988. The couple separated in June 1994, divorced in December 1994, and had their marriage annulled in 1997 by the Catholic Church. The divorce was a media affair because Bonds had his Swedish spouse sign a prenuptial agreement in which she "waived her right to a share of his present and future earnings" and which was upheld. Bonds had been providing his wife $20,000/month in child support and $10,000 in spousal support at the time of the ruling. During the hearings to set permanent support levels, allegations of abuse came from both parties. The trial dragged on for months, but Bonds was awarded both houses and reduced support. On August 21, 2000, the Supreme Court of California, in an opinion signed by Chief Justice Ronald M. George, unanimously held that "substantial evidence supports the determination of the trial court that the [prenuptial] agreement in the present case was entered into voluntarily." In reaction to the decision, significant changes in California law relating to the validity and enforceability of premarital agreements soon followed. In 2010, Bonds's son Nikolai, who served as a Giants batboy during his father's years playing in San Francisco and always sat next to his dad in the dugout during games, was charged with five misdemeanors resulting from a confrontation with his mother, Sun Bonds, who was granted a restraining order against Nikolai. In 1994, Bonds and Kimberly Bell, a graphic designer, started a relationship that lasted from 1994 through May 2003. Bonds purchased a home in Scottsdale, Arizona, for Kimberly. On January 10, 1998, Bonds married his second wife, Liz Watson, at the San Francisco Ritz-Carlton Hotel in front of 240 guests. The couple lived in Los Altos Hills, California, with their daughter Aisha during their ten-and-a-half years of marriage before Watson filed for legal separation on June 9, 2009, citing irreconcilable differences. On July 21, 2009, just six weeks later, Watson announced that she was withdrawing her Legal Separation action. The couple were reconciled for seven months before Watson formally filed for divorce in Los Angeles on February 26, 2010. On June 6, 2011, Bonds and Watson filed a legal agreement not to take the divorce to trial and instead settle it in an "uncontested manner," agreeing to end the marriage privately at an unspecified later date without further court involvement. Several of Bonds's family and extended family members have been involved in athletics as either a career or a notable pastime. Bonds has a younger brother, Bobby Jr., who was also a professional baseball player. His paternal aunt, Rosie Bonds, is a former American record holder in the 80 meter hurdles, and competed in the 1964 Olympics. In addition, he is a distant cousin of Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson. Among Bonds's many real estate properties is a home he owns in the exclusive gated community of Beverly Park in Beverly Hills, California. An avid cyclist, Bonds chose the activity to be a primary means of keeping in shape and great passion since his playing career. Because knee surgeries, back surgeries, and hip surgeries made it much more difficult to run, cycling has allowed him to engage in sufficient cardiovascular activity to help keep in shape. As a result of the cycling, he has lost 25 pounds from his final playing weight of 240 pounds. Bonds is an active practitioner of Brazilian jiu-jitsu and was promoted to blue belt in the martial art in 2023. Legacy During late 2007, Chicago rapper Kanye West recorded a song titled "Barry Bonds" named after the slugger for his album Graduation. Career distinctions Besides holding Major League career records in home runs (762), walks (2,558), and intentional walks (688), at the time of his retirement, Bonds also led all active players in RBI (1,996), on-base percentage (.444), runs (2,227), games (2,986), extra-base hits (1,440), at-bats per home run (12.92), and total bases (5,976). He is 2nd in doubles (601), slugging percentage (.607), stolen bases (514), at-bats (9,847), and hits (2,935), 6th in triples (77), 8th in sacrifice flies (91), and 9th in strikeouts (1,539), through September 26, 2007. Bonds is the lone member of the 500–500 club, which means he has hit at least 500 home runs (762) and stolen at least 500 bases (514); no other player has even 400 of both. He is also one of only five baseball players all-time to be in the 40–40 club (1996), which means he hit 40 home runs (42) and stole 40 bases (40) in the same season; the other members are José Canseco, Alex Rodriguez, Alfonso Soriano, and Ronald Acuña Jr. Records held Home runs in a single season (73), 2001 Home runs in a career (762) Home runs since turning 40 years old (74) Home runs in the year he turned 43 years old (28) Consecutive seasons with 30 or more home runs (13), 1992–2004 Slugging percentage in a single season (.863), 2001 Slugging percentage in a World Series (1.294), 2002 Consecutive seasons with .600 slugging percentage or higher (8), 1998–2005 On-base percentage in a single season (.609), 2004 Walks in a career (2,558) Walks in a single season (232), 2004 Consecutive games with a walk (18) Intentional walks in a career (688) Intentional walks in a single season (120), 2004 Consecutive games with an intentional walk (6) MVP awards (7—closest competitors trail with 3), 1990, 1992–93, 2001–2004 Consecutive MVP awards (4), 2001–2004 National League Player of the Month selections (13) (2nd place, either league, Frank Thomas, 8; 2nd place, N.L., George Foster, Pete Rose, and Dale Murphy, 6) Oldest player (age 38) to win the National League batting title (.370) for the first time, 2002 Putouts as a left fielder (5,226) Career games with at least one home run and one stolen base (102) Records shared Consecutive plate appearances with a walk (7) Consecutive plate appearances reaching base (15) Tied with his father, Bobby, for most seasons with 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases (5); they are the only father-son members of the 30–30 club Other accomplishments Awards and distinctions Five-time SF Giants Player of the Year (1998, 2001–2004) Three-time NL Hank Aaron Award winner (2001–02, 2004) Listed at #6 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, the highest-ranked active player, in 2005. Named a finalist to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team in 1999, but not elected to the team in the fan balloting. Rating of 340 on Baseball-Reference.com's Hall of Fame monitor (100 is a good HOF candidate); 10th among all hitters, highest among eligible hitters not in HOF yet. Only the second player to twice have a single-season slugging percentage over .800, with his record .863 in 2001 and .812 in 2004. Babe Ruth was the other, with .847 in 1920 and .846 in 1921. Became the first player in history with more times on base (376) than official at-bats (373) in 2004. This was due to the record number of walks, which count as a time on base and as a plate appearance, but not an at-bat. He had 135 hits, 232 walks, and 9 hit-by-pitches for the 376 number. Tenth all-time in plate appearances with 12,606. He is the only player in the top ten of this category to not obtain 3,000 hits and just one of two players with as many as 12,000 plate appearances to not do so (the other being Omar Vizquel). With his father Bobby (332, 461), leads all father-son combinations in combined home runs (1,094) and stolen bases (975), respectively through September 26, 2007. Played minor league baseball in both Alaska and Hawaii. In 1983, he played for the Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks in the Alaska Baseball League, and in 1986, he played for the Hawaii Islanders in the Pacific Coast League. Featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He has appeared as the main subject on the cover eight times in total; seven with the Giants and once with the Pirates. He has also appeared in an inset on the cover twice. He was the most recent Pirate player to appear on the cover, until Jason Grilli was featured in SIs edition of July 22, 2013. See also References External links Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet Barry Bonds at the SABR Baseball Biography Project Barry Bonds at Baseball Almanac Barry Bonds at Pura Pelota (Venezuelan Professional Baseball League) Barry Bonds Official website Barry Bonds at IMDb Bonds archive at Los Angeles Times

Darin Charles Erstad (; born June 4, 1974) is an American former professional baseball player and the former head coach of the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers baseball team. Erstad spent most of his playing career with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim franchise (1996–2006) before signing with the Chicago White Sox in 2007. Erstad batted and threw left-handed. He was a two-time MLB All-Star and a three-time Gold Glove Award winner. He was the first overall pick in the 1995 Major League Baseball draft. Early life High school Erstad graduated in 1992 from Jamestown High School in Jamestown, North Dakota. He was a placekicker and punter on the school football team, logging a school-record 50-yard field goal. Erstad also played hockey (36 goals and 24 assists in 26 games) and participated in track and field (winning state titles in 110 and 300-meter hurdles). Erstad played American Legion baseball (Jamestown had no high school baseball team) and hit .492 with 18 home runs and 86 RBI for Jamestown in 1992. He was also 10–2 with a 2.18 ERA as a pitcher, and was named AP North Dakota Athlete of the Year in 1992. College Erstad attended the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, playing baseball there for three years and held the school record for career hits with 261. In his final year there, Erstad hit .410 with 19 home runs and 79 RBIs, earning First-Team All-American status and was a finalist for the 1995 Golden Spikes Award. Darin started his junior campaign on a tear and never stopped hitting. He was at his best against the conference's top team, Oklahoma. In five games with the first-place Sooners, he batted .429 and blasted three home runs. Oklahoma lefty Mark Redman—with whom Darin would share conference Player of the Year honors—was among his biggest victims. The Huskers finished 35–23, and Darin led the Big Eight with a .410 average. He was the only batter in the conference to surpass 100 hits, and also led all players with seven triples. Named a First Team All-American by Collegiate Baseball, Darin set career highs with 19 homers and 76 RBIs. In 1993 and 1994, Erstad played collegiate summer baseball with the Falmouth Commodores of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL). He was named league MVP in 1994 and in 2001 was inducted into the CCBL Hall of Fame. Erstad was also the starting punter on the Cornhuskers football team and was part of their 1994 National Championship squad, averaging 42.6 yards per punt, the 14th best mark in the country that year. Professional career In his 14-season career, Erstad compiled a .282 batting average with 124 home runs and 699 RBIs in 1654 games. His career .9955 fielding percentage as an outfielder is second all-time through 2019 behind Jon Jay. He was selected to the American League All-Star team twice (1998, 2000) and had eight game-ending walk-off RBI in his career. Angels 1995–2000 The then California Angels chose Erstad as the first pick overall in the 1995 Major League Baseball draft from the University of Nebraska. He made his major league debut the next year, batting .284 over 57 games. Erstad played his first full season in 1997, batting .299 with 16 home runs and 99 runs scored. Posting similarly solid statistics the next year, Erstad made his first of two All-Star appearances before having a disappointing season in 1999. Erstad had a career season in 2000, when he finished eighth in the American League in MVP voting. That year, he led the American League in hits (240), singles (170) and at-bats (676); he was second in total bases (366) and third in runs (121). Erstad also hit .355, finishing second in the batting race behind Nomar Garciaparra (.372), became the first player in Major League history to record 100 RBIs as a leadoff hitter, and won the AL Silver Slugger Award. On June 10, 2000, Erstad hit a double in the Angels' 10–3 win over Arizona. With a major league-leading 100 hits in 61 games, he became the fastest to reach the 100-hit mark since Hall of Famer Heinie Manush did it in 60 games for the 1934 Washington Senators. With three hits on August 29, 2000, he reached 200 hits faster than any player in 65 years. Erstad was just 26 years old at the end of the season, an age at which many players enter their prime, leading many to believe more superstar seasons were ahead of him. Erstad is one of only five batters, through August 2009, to have hit both a leadoff and walk-off home run in the same game (having done so in 2000), the others being Billy Hamilton (1893), Victor Power (1957), Reed Johnson (2003), and Ian Kinsler (2009). 2001–2006 Although Erstad never hit .300 again after the 2000 season, he was a vital part of the 2002 World Series Champion Angels. After batting .421 in the American League Division Series against the New York Yankees and .364 in the American League Championship Series against the Minnesota Twins, Erstad batted .300 in the seven-game series vs. the National League Champion San Francisco Giants. He hit a key home run in Game 6 of the series with the Angels trailing, 5–3, in the eighth inning and facing elimination, and he also caught the final out of Game 7 hit by Kenny Lofton off Troy Percival into center field. When the Angels won the World Series in 2002, Erstad became the second player hailing from North Dakota to be on a World Series winning roster. Roger Maris was the first with the 1961 Yankees and 1967 Cardinals. Throughout Erstad's Angels career, his defense remained exceptionally strong. He led all major league center fielders in range factor (3.39) in 2002. Erstad won Gold Glove awards in 2000, 2002, and 2004, when he made a transition from the outfield to first base. He is the only player in MLB history to have won Gold Gloves as an infielder and as an outfielder. He was also the first to win the award at different positions (though all outfield Gold Gloves are voted on together) until Plácido Polanco won an NL Gold Glove as a third baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies in 2011 after having won two Gold Gloves as a second baseman, thus both being infield awards. Though he compiled a career high 21 game hit streak in 2005, he only played in 40 games in 2006, his last season with the Angels. In 11 years with the franchise, Erstad compiled a .286 batting average and a cumulative .339 postseason average over three seasons. He currently ranks near the top of several franchise records. White Sox and Astros Having signed a $750,000 contract in the off-season, Erstad hit a home run in his first at-bat as a member of the Chicago White Sox on opening day 2007 off CC Sabathia. He finished the season having batted .248 with a .650 OPS over 87 games. He played the following two seasons with the Houston Astros. Erstad found success in the first season, batting .276, but struggled near the end of the second season as a role player, ending the season with a .194 batting average. When catcher Chris Coste joined Erstad on the Astros roster in July 2009, they became the first two players born in North Dakota to play together on the same team in major league history. On June 17, 2010, when asked if he would continue playing baseball, Erstad said that he was "done". Erstad was on the 2015 ballot to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Erstad received one vote and fell off the ballot. Coaching career On July 5, 2010, the Lincoln Journal Star reported that Erstad accepted a position to become a volunteer coach for the Nebraska baseball team. On July 8, Nebraska head baseball coach Mike Anderson revealed Erstad as the college team's next hitting coach. On June 2, 2011, after Anderson was fired, Erstad was hired as Nebraska's head baseball coach. Erstad was named the 23rd head coach of the Nebraska baseball program. During his eight years as head coach, the Huskers made four NCAA tournament appearances and qualified for the Big Ten Tournament seven times. He had a coaching record of 267-193-1, which was the fourth-best in Nebraska baseball history for a head coach. Erstad was named Big Ten Coach of the Year in 2017 after leading the Huskers to the conference championship during the regular season. Six times, Nebraska finished in the top four of the conference standings, including four times in the top two. Three times, Nebraska finished second in the Big Ten Tournament. Erstad resigned as coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers after eight seasons on June 3, 2019. Head coaching record Personal and hometown Erstad has three children with his wife, Jessica: a daughter, Jordan Elizabeth, and two sons, Zack and Adam. During Erstad's tenure with the Angels, his hometown carried all Angels games over the radio; most North Dakota stations only carry Minnesota Twins games. As of July 2009, he ranked second to Travis Hafner in all-time home runs hit by a player born in North Dakota. See also List of Major League Baseball career stolen bases leaders References External links Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet

David Michael Bell (born September 14, 1972) is an American former professional baseball third baseman and second baseman, former coach, and former manager who most recently managed the Cincinnati Reds of Major League Baseball (MLB). Over the course of his 12-year MLB playing career, Bell appeared at all four infield positions while playing for the Cleveland Indians, St. Louis Cardinals, Seattle Mariners, San Francisco Giants, Philadelphia Phillies, and Milwaukee Brewers, but played primarily at third and second. Bell made his MLB debut for the Indians in 1995. After his retirement as an active player, Bell served as a coach for the Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals. After managing the Triple-A Louisville Bats and (former) Double-A Carolina Mudcats, both of which are or were in the Reds organization, Bell was chosen as the Reds manager in 2018. Bell spent seven seasons with the team before he was fired just before the end of the 2024 season. The grandson of Gus Bell, son of Buddy Bell, and brother of Mike Bell, David Bell is a member of one of five families to have three generations play in the Major Leagues. In addition, David and Buddy are the fifth father-son pair to serve as major league managers, joining Connie and Earle Mack, George and Dick Sisler, Bob and Joel Skinner, and Bob and Aaron Boone. Amateur career Bell attended Moeller High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. Playing for the school's varsity baseball team for three years, where he ranks in the Top Ten in five career categories including doubles and plate appearances. He ranks among the top in Single Season Doubles and Most Doubles in one game. He also played Mickey Mantle and Connie Mack Baseball National Championship teams in 1988 and 1989 respectively as well as leading Moeller to a state championship in 1989. Bell was also a member of the Moeller boys' basketball team. Bell committed to play baseball at the University of Kentucky as a junior. Professional career Cleveland Indians After the Cleveland Indians selected Bell with their pick in the seventh round (190th overall), Bell decided to forgo his commitment to Kentucky. Bell made his major league debut on May 3, 1995 as a pinch hitter for Jim Thome and stayed in the game in a defensive replacement. He was optioned to the Buffalo Bisons on May 8, 1995. He hit .272 with eight home runs and 34 RBIs in 70 games. St. Louis Cardinals On July 27, 1995, Bell was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals along with Pepe McNeal and Rick Heiserman for Ken Hill. Return to Cleveland On April 14, 1998, Bell was claimed off waivers by the Indians. On April 15, he hit the first inside-the-park home run in Jacobs Field history, and the first for the Indians since 1989. Seattle Mariners On August 31, 1998, Bell was traded to the Seattle Mariners for Joey Cora. Bell was re-signed on December 19, 2001. San Francisco Giants On January 25, 2002, Bell was traded to the San Francisco Giants for Desi Relaford so he could have a chance to play every day. Bell scored the 2002 NLCS winning run for the San Francisco Giants from second on Kenny Lofton's single. Bell was the runner bearing down on home plate in Game 5 of the 2002 World Series when J. T. Snow lifted 3 year old batboy Darren Baker out of harm's way. Near the end of the season, he won the 2002 Willie Mac Award for his spirit and leadership – as voted on by his teammates and coaching staff. Philadelphia Phillies On December 2, 2002, Bell signed a four-year $17 million deal with the Philadelphia Phillies. He made Major League history on June 28, 2004, by joining his grandfather, Gus Bell, as the first grandfather-grandson combination to hit for the cycle. Milwaukee Brewers Bell was traded from the Philadelphia Phillies to the Milwaukee Brewers on July 28, 2006, in a deal that swapped him for minor league pitcher Wilfrido Laureano. The Brewers chose not to re-sign Bell after the 2006 season, and he became a free agent. Coaching career On October 31, 2008, the Cincinnati Reds named Bell the manager for their Double-A affiliate, the Carolina Mudcats. Bell spent three seasons as the Mudcats manager. In November 2011 he was named manager of the Reds' Triple-A affiliate Louisville Bats. On October 23, 2012, the Chicago Cubs named Bell the third base coach for the Major League club. On December 17, 2013, the St. Louis Cardinals announced hiring Bell as their new assistant hitting coach. From 2015 through 2017, Bell served as the Cardinals' bench coach. He left the team on October 20, 2017, to become the vice president of player development for the San Francisco Giants. Managing career Cincinnati Reds On October 21, 2018, the Cincinnati Reds announced Bell had been hired as the 63rd manager in franchise history. The contract spans three years with a club option for a fourth. In an April 7, 2019, game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Bell was ejected after his role in a bench clearing incident involving Chris Archer, Derek Dietrich, Yasiel Puig, Amir Garrett, Keone Kela, and Felipe Vázquez. This was Bell's first career managerial ejection. Bell received a one-game suspension following the incident on April 9. On July 30, 2019, another bench-clearing mash-up occurred between the Reds and Pirates, with Bell (who had been ejected from the game in the previous half-inning) involved in it. On August 1, 2019, Bell received a 6-game suspension without eligibility to appeal. On September 22, 2021, Bell agreed to a two-year contract extension with the Reds. On July 28, 2023, Bell agreed to a contract extension with the Reds through 2026. However, on September 22, 2024, the Reds fired Bell with five games left in the season. Managerial record As of September 22, 2024 See also References External links Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet David Bell managerial career statistics at Baseball-Reference.com David Bell at the SABR Baseball Biography Project David Bell at Baseball Almanac

Jeffrey Franklin Kent (born March 7, 1968) is an American former professional baseball second baseman. He played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1992 to 2008 for the Toronto Blue Jays, New York Mets, Cleveland Indians, San Francisco Giants, Houston Astros, and Los Angeles Dodgers. Kent won the National League Most Valuable Player award in 2000 with the San Francisco Giants, and is the all-time leader in home runs among second basemen. He drove in 90 or more runs from 1997 to 2005. Kent is a five-time All-Star, and his 560 career doubles put him in 30th on the all-time doubles list. Kent attended the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), where he played college baseball for the Golden Bears before being selected in the 20th round of the 1989 MLB draft by the Blue Jays. Early life Born in Bellflower, California, Kent graduated from Edison High School in Huntington Beach, California, where he was dismissed from the baseball team after clashing with his coach over a position change. College career Kent played college baseball at UC Berkeley from 1987 to 1989. In 1988 he played both collegiate summer baseball with the Cotuit Kettleers of the Cape Cod Baseball League and the College World Series. Professional career Draft and minor leagues Kent was selected in the 20th round of the 1989 MLB Draft by the Toronto Blue Jays. Toronto Blue Jays (1992) After three seasons in the minor leagues, Kent was invited to spring training with the Blue Jays in 1992 and made the opening day roster. He made his debut on April 12 against the Baltimore Orioles and recorded his first career hit in his first career at-bat, a double in the 6th inning against José Mesa. He hit his first home run on April 14 against New York Yankees pitcher Lee Guetterman. He saw limited at-bats early in the season; however, an injury to starting third baseman Kelly Gruber granted Kent a more regular role in the line-up. New York Mets (1992–1996) Kent was traded to the Mets on August 27, 1992, for pitcher David Cone, as Toronto bolstered their pitching rotation for a successful World Series run; Kent earned a World Series ring despite the trade. Kent's time with the Mets was marked with some success and some failure. Although he batted well, particularly for a second baseman, the Mets were among the worst teams in the National League. Furthermore, he acquired a very poor reputation in the clubhouse, where he was known for a quick temper and isolationism. He refused to participate in his hazing ritual with the Mets, feeling he had left his rookie status back in Toronto. During the 1992 season, he started the only game of his career at shortstop in order to allow Willie Randolph to play his final career game at second base. Cleveland Indians (1996) In a deal made prior to the 1996 trade deadline, the Mets sent Kent and José Vizcaíno to the Cleveland Indians for Álvaro Espinoza and Carlos Baerga. The following offseason, Kent was again traded, this time to the San Francisco Giants along with José Vizcaíno and Julián Tavárez. The San Francisco trade was initially very unpopular, as it sent Matt Williams, a longtime Giant and a fan-favorite, to the Indians. Brian Sabean, in his first year as general manager of the Giants, was so widely criticized for the move that he famously defended himself to the media by saying, "I am not an idiot." San Francisco Giants (1997–2002) Kent's career took off in San Francisco, starting in 1997. Immediately inserted in the line-up behind superstar Barry Bonds, and with the confidence of manager Dusty Baker, Kent finally rose to his full potential, hitting .250 with 29 home runs and 121 RBI. He was consistently among the top RBI hitters in the league over his next five seasons with the Giants, amassing 689 RBI over six years. He also won the 1998 Willie Mac Award for his spirit and leadership. Kent's contributions were recognized in 2000 (33 home runs, 125 RBI, .334 batting average, and a .986 fielding percentage) with the National League MVP Award, beating out teammate and perennial MVP candidate Barry Bonds. Despite the fact that Bonds overshadowed Kent in almost every offensive category, it was Kent's clutch hitting in RBI spots that won many games for the Giants that year, and ultimately won him the award. The Giants finished first in the NL West at 97–65, but lost to the Mets in the National League Division Series 3–1. In 2002, Kent had another stellar year for a second baseman (37 home runs, 108 RBI, .313 batting average, and a .978 fielding percentage). The combination of Kent and MVP-winner Bonds propelled the Giants to a 95–66 record, good enough for the NL Wild Card. The Giants would beat the Atlanta Braves in the National League Division Series 3–2 and the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Championship Series 4–1. In the World Series for the first time since 1989, the Giants would nearly clinch the championship (failing to hold a 5–0, 7th-inning lead) in the sixth game, before falling to the Anaheim Angels in seven games. Despite the team's success that season, Kent's relationship with the Giants had soured. The Giants front office had lost confidence in Kent after an incident during spring training left him with a broken wrist. Kent had initially claimed that he had broken his wrist after slipping and falling while washing his truck; ensuing media reports indicated that, in reality, Kent had crashed his motorcycle while performing wheelies and other stunts, in direct violation of his contract. In addition, growing tension that had been developing between Kent and Bonds for years finally boiled over: a midseason fight in the Giants dugout was widely reported in 2002 and caught on television. The feud between the two was so bad that, at the end of the season, San Francisco Chronicle beat reporter Ray Ratto said of the two, "The one who lives longer will attend the other's funeral, just to make sure he's dead." The departure of manager Dusty Baker also factored into Kent's eventual decision to leave the Giants. Houston Astros (2003–2004) During the 2002 offseason, Kent signed a two-year, $19.9 million deal with the Houston Astros, citing his desire to be closer to his family's Texas ranch. Kent turned one of the outs and collected an assist during a triple play on August 19, 2004, against Philadelphia, when Todd Pratt grounded out with the bases loaded in the fifth inning. Kent forced Marlon Byrd out at second base before throwing Pratt out at first base. It was Houston's first triple play turned in 13 years. From May 14 to June 11, he collected a hit in 25 straight games, which set a new franchise record; Willy Taveras topped his mark in 2006. On October 2, 2004, he hit his 288th home run as a second baseman, surpassing Ryne Sandberg as the all-time home run leader at that position. In Game 5 of the 2004 National League Championship Series, Kent hit a three-run walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth to break a scoreless tie and put Houston ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals three games to two in the series. However, the Cardinals would win Games 6 and 7 in St. Louis to capture the pennant. Los Angeles Dodgers (2005–2008) On December 14, 2004, he signed a $21 million contract for three years with his hometown Los Angeles Dodgers. Kent started at second base for the National League in the 2005 Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Comerica Park, his fifth career All-Star selection and fourth career All-Star start. Kent became the first player in the history of the Dodgers–Giants rivalry to make and start the Midsummer Classic for both clubs. Joc Pederson has since joined this list. Kent had a good 2005 season, leading the Dodgers in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging, runs, hits, doubles, home runs and RBI (.289, .377, .512, 100, 160, 36, 29, and 105 respectively). While missing games early on in the 2006 season because of an oblique injury, he came back late in the season and helped the Dodgers reach the postseason. After the 2005 season, Kent signed an extension that would take him to the 2008 season. His last major league at-bat took place on October 15, 2008 in game five of the 2008 NLCS, in which he struck out looking against Cole Hamels to end the 7th inning. Following 2008, Kent announced his retirement from baseball on January 22, 2009. Career statistics In 2,298 games over 17 seasons, Kent posted a .290 batting average (2461-for-8498) with 1320 runs, 560 doubles, 47 triples, 377 home runs, 1518 RBI, 94 stolen bases, 801 bases on balls, .356 on-base percentage and .500 slugging percentage. He finished his career with a .978 fielding percentage. In 49 postseason games, he hit .276 (47-for-170) with 25 runs, 11 doubles, 9 home runs, 23 RBI and 13 walks. Kent hit 351 home runs as a second baseman, the most in MLB history in either league; he is one of only two second baseman to hit 300 home runs at the position of second base. Post-playing career Kent and his wife Dana reside near Austin, Texas, where they raise their four children, a daughter and three sons. He also owns the 4,000-acre (1,600 ha) "Diamond K" cattle ranch near Tilden, Texas. In 2008, Kent purchased the Lakecliff Country Club in Spicewood, Texas. Kent also owns Kent Powersports, a chain of motorcycle and ATV dealerships. Kent appeared as a contestant on the Summer 2009 television series Superstars, where he was teamed with actress Ali Landry in a series of sports competitions. They finished in fifth place in the competition. In 2012, Kent participated in Survivor: Philippines, the 25th season of the American CBS competitive reality television series Survivor. He was the ninth contestant voted off, which placed him tenth and made him the second member of the jury, giving him a right to vote for the eventual winner at the Final Tribal Council. When he was voted off, Kent claimed that the million dollar prize was "six hundred grand by the time Obama takes it". He has been an advocate for Major League Baseball using blood tests for HGH. Since 2011, Kent has served as a spring training instructor for the San Francisco Giants. He also coaches his sons' Little League teams, and in 2014 he became a volunteer assistant for Southwestern University's baseball team. In 2011, Kent donated $100,000 and raised awareness to help reinstate the Cal baseball program, which was being cut for cost-saving purposes. In 2014, Kent announced the creation of the Jeff Kent Women Driven Scholarship Endowment to provide a full scholarship each year to one female student-athlete at UC Berkeley in perpetuity. In 2008, Kent donated to the campaign to ban same-sex marriage in California. National Baseball Hall of Fame consideration Eligible for the National Baseball Hall of Fame for the first time in 2014, Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) voters gave Kent just 15.2% of their votes in his first year, well short of the 75% required for induction. Among 17 returnees to the ballot in 2015, Kent was one of only three who saw a decrease in support, dropping to 14.0%. His support increased in subsequent elections, reaching 32.7% in 2022, his ninth appearance on the ballot. In 2023, his tenth and final appearance on the BBWAA ballot, he received 46.5%, falling short of the necessary threshold. Kent's underperformance relative to his offensive prowess has been attributed to poor defense, the tainted era he played in, and his reputation as a negative presence in the locker room. Personal life Kent and his wife, Dana, are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His daughter, Lauren, and his eldest son, Hunter, both attended Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah. Lauren graduated from BYU in December 2017, and Hunter played on the practice squad for the Cougars, before taking leave to serve a two-year mission in Mexico. Kent's son, Colton, played his prep baseball at Lake Travis High School, in Austin, Texas. Colton signed to play college baseball at BYU, but transferred to the College of Southern Idaho (CSI) after a year at BYU. Kent's other son, Kaeden, currently plays baseball at Texas A&M University. Accomplishments Five-time All-Star (1999–2001, 2004–05) Four-time Silver Slugger (2000–2002, 2005) National League MVP (2000) Finished 6th in National League MVP voting (2002) Finished 8th in National League MVP voting (1997) Finished 9th in National League MVP voting (1998) Finished Top-5 in RBIs (1997, 1998, 2000, 2002) All-time leader in home runs as a second baseman (377) Only second baseman to have 100 or more RBIs in six consecutive seasons (1997–2002) Hit for the cycle (1999) See also List of Major League Baseball career home run leaders List of Major League Baseball career hits leaders List of Major League Baseball career doubles leaders List of Major League Baseball career runs scored leaders List of Major League Baseball career runs batted in leaders List of Major League Baseball career total bases leaders List of Major League Baseball players who hit for the cycle References External links Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet, or Pelota Binaria (Venezuelan Winter League)

Jack Thomas Snow Jr. (born February 26, 1968) is an American former professional baseball player and television sports color commentator, and current bench coach for the Oakland Ballers. He played as a first baseman in Major League Baseball from 1992 to 2006, most notably as a member of the San Francisco Giants. Snow excelled as a defensive player, winning six consecutive Gold Glove Awards as a first baseman between 1995 and 2000. After his playing career, Snow worked in radio and television broadcasting. He has also worked as a special assistant to the General Manager for the Giants. Early life Snow was born in Long Beach, California, to former NFL player Jack Snow and Merry Carole Shane, who died in 1998 from thyroid cancer. He has two sisters, Michelle and Stephanie. His father worked with him at first base, throwing balls from shortstop purposely in the dirt to improve his fielding skills. He played recreational baseball in Seal Beach, for what is now known as, Seal Beach PONY. Snow attended Los Alamitos High School in Los Alamitos, California and was awarded All-Orange County honors in baseball, football, and basketball. He played safety his junior year (1984) and quarterback his senior year (1985) on the varsity football team. Receiver Rob Katzaroff set an Orange County record with 93 single-season receptions (a record which still stands after the 2022 season) while Snow played quarterback. On the basketball team, Snow played point guard. On the baseball team, Snow played with future Giants reliever Robb Nen and future UCLA Bruins outfielder Katzaroff. All three Griffin baseball players from the 1985 season were eventually drafted to play minor league baseball. College career After high school, Snow attended the University of Arizona and played three seasons for the Arizona Wildcats baseball team, where his teammates included Kenny Lofton, Alan Zinter, Scott Erickson, Trevor Hoffman, and Kevin Long. In 1988, he played collegiate summer baseball for the Orleans Cardinals of the Cape Cod Baseball League. Professional career Draft and minor leagues The New York Yankees selected Snow in the fifth round of the 1989 Major League Baseball draft. New York Yankees (1992) He made his major league debut with the Yankees at the end of the 1992 season. California Angels (1993–1996) After the 1992 season, the Yankees traded Snow, Jerry Nielsen, and Russ Springer to the California Angels for Jim Abbott. Snow played for the Angels from 1993 to 1996, where he won two Gold Glove Awards. San Francisco Giants (1997–2005) Snow was traded to the Giants after the 1996 season for left-handed pitcher Allen Watson and minor league pitcher Fausto Macey. While a switch-hitter earlier in his career, Snow batted exclusively left-handed after 1998. In 2000, he led the league in sacrifice flies with 14. After a two-year injury-riddled stretch from 2002 to 2003 when his batting average was .246, Snow rebounded in 2004 with a .327 average, hitting .387 after the All-Star break (which ranked second only to Ichiro Suzuki in the Major Leagues). On June 26, 1999, Snow tagged out Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Carlos Pérez using the "hidden ball trick", the last successful execution of the play in the 20th century. In the 2000 National League Division Series against the New York Mets, with the Giants trailing 4–1 in the bottom of the ninth, Snow hit a three-run pinch-hit homer against Mets reliever Armando Benítez. However, the Giants failed to capitalize on their momentum, eventually falling in the 10th inning and going on to lose the series. In the 2002 World Series, Snow was scoring a run in Game 5 off a Kenny Lofton triple and lifted 3-year-old Darren Baker, the Giants' batboy and son of then Giants’ manager Dusty Baker, by the jacket as he was crossing home plate. Darren had run out to collect Lofton's bat before the play was completed. This turned into a touching and memorable incident, but easily could have resulted in disaster with a small child wandering into the path of Snow and David Bell as they both barreled home to score. Following the incident with Darren Baker, Major League Baseball required batboys and girls to be at least 14 years of age. A photograph of this incident now hangs in the Baseball Hall of Fame, in Cooperstown, New York. In the 2003 National League Division Series against the Florida Marlins, with the Giants trailing 7–6 in Game 4 in the ninth inning, he attempted to score from second base on a single to left field, but Jeff Conine's throw to the plate came in time as catcher Iván Rodríguez tagged Snow at the plate as Snow barreled into him, ending the game and the series. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was the first postseason series to end with the potential tying run thrown out at the plate. Boston Red Sox (2006) Snow's tenure with the Giants effectively ended when the team declined to offer him salary arbitration before the 2006 season. He signed a one-year, $2 million contract with the Boston Red Sox on January 6, 2006. After his father's death in 2006, Snow wore his father's number 84 in his honor. He served primarily in a platoon with Kevin Youkilis at first base until he requested to be designated for assignment due to a lack of playing time. He was granted his designation June 19, and was officially released eight days later. San Francisco Giants (2008) and retirement At the end of the 2006 season, Snow retired from baseball and began working as a color commentator on Giants radio broadcasts alongside play-by-play announcer Dave Flemming. He has also served as an advisor to the Giants' general manager, Brian Sabean, and as a roving minor league instructor for the Giants. Since 2013, he has worked as a college baseball broadcaster for the Pac-12 Network. On September 24, 2008, the Giants signed Snow to a one-day contract to allow him to retire as a Giant. However, rather than immediately retiring after signing the symbolic contract and receiving no actual pay as is usually done, Snow was penciled into the starting lineup and took the field on September 27 against the Dodgers, but was replaced before the first pitch. It was a move that allowed Snow to officially take the field as a Giants player one last time. Eugenio Vélez, Omar Vizquel, and Rich Aurilia threw balls in the dirt to mess with Snow during fielding practice prior to the first pitch, but Snow still made the plays. For his brief official appearance, he received the prorated league minimum salary of $2,100. In 28 postseason games, Snow batted .327 (32-for-98) with 11 runs, 3 home runs and 15 RBI. Coaching career On January 18, 2024, Snow was announced as the first base coach and bench coach for the Oakland Ballers of the Pioneer League during their inaugural season. Personal life Snow lives in Northern California with his wife Gina. References External links Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet

Reginald Laverne Sanders (born December 1, 1967) is an American former right fielder in Major League Baseball. He batted and threw right-handed. He played professionally with the Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, Atlanta Braves, San Francisco Giants, San Diego Padres and Kansas City Royals, and was a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks' 2001 World Series championship over the New York Yankees. Sanders possessed a rare capacity for power and speed and is one of only eight MLB players to record over 300 home runs and over 300 steals. Early career Sanders was 23 years old when he made his major league debut on August 22, 1991, after being selected in the seventh round of the 1987 amateur draft by the Cincinnati Reds. He attended Spartanburg Methodist College before beginning his pro career with the Rookie-level Billings Mustangs of the Pioneer League in 1988. Baseball career Sanders gained some notoriety during the 1994 season when Pedro Martínez hit him with a pitch to end his bid for a perfect game with one out in the eighth inning. Sanders responded by charging the mound and igniting a bench-clearing brawl. He was ridiculed by some in the press for believing that a pitcher would abandon an attempt at a perfect game to intentionally hit a batter. On August 20, 2003, Sanders became the fortieth player in MLB history to hit two home runs in an inning, doing so for the Pittsburgh Pirates against the St. Louis Cardinals in the top of the 5th inning. He was only the third Pirates player to accomplish the feat. Sanders' first home run of the inning came as the third in a back-to-back-to-back string for the Pirates; the second was a grand slam. With the Cardinals, Sanders had a breakout of sorts during the 2005 National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres. In a three-game sweep of the Padres, Sanders had 10 runs batted in, a new record for a division series. In Game 1 of the 2005 NLCS, Sanders hit a two-run home run to give the Cardinals a two-run lead, making it his seventh career postseason home run. However, the Cardinals would lose the series in six games, giving the Houston Astros their first NL pennant and trip to the World Series. On June 10, 2006, as a member of the Royals, Sanders hit his 300th home run. This made him the fifth member of Major League Baseball's 300-300 club, as he had stolen the 300th base of his career on May 1. He became the first player in history to join the club at his home stadium. Steve Finley of the San Francisco Giants joined the 300-300 club as its sixth member on June 14, four days after Sanders achieved the feat. Sanders hit 20 or more home runs in one season for six different teams. He hit at least 10 home runs in a season for every major league team he played for (seven in all). Sanders missed the majority of the 2007 season due to an injury and became a free agent after the season. Career statistics In 64 postseason games, Sanders batted .195 (43-for-221) with 24 runs, 7 home runs, 25 RBI, 9 stolen bases and 26 walks. See also List of Major League Baseball career home run leaders List of Major League Baseball career runs scored leaders List of Major League Baseball career stolen bases leaders References External links Career statistics and player information from ESPN, or Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs

Richard Santo Aurilia (; born September 2, 1971) is an American former Major League Baseball shortstop who played for several teams between 1995 and 2009. Amateur career Aurilia was born in Brooklyn, New York and grew up a New York Mets fan. Before being drafted by Texas, Aurilia was a standout at St. John's University, where he represented the Red Storm as an All-Big East selection in 1992. In 1991, he played collegiate summer baseball in the Cape Cod Baseball League for the Hyannis Mets. Aurilia is also a graduate of Xaverian High School in Brooklyn, New York. He was inducted into the school's Hall of Fame, and his number 22 was retired by his local baseball league, Our Lady of Grace, where he played as a youngster in Gravesend, Brooklyn, New York. Professional career Texas Rangers (1992–1994) The 24th round pick of the Texas Rangers in the 1992 Major League Baseball draft, Aurilia played in the Rangers minor league system before being traded along with Desi Wilson to the San Francisco Giants for John Burkett on December 22, 1994. He had worked as a stagehand at the Metropolitan Opera House during the 1993–94 baseball offseason. San Francisco Giants (1995–2003) Aurilia made his Major League debut on September 6, 1995, as a defensive replacement in a game against the Montréal Expos. This would begin his long, solid run as the Giants shortstop. On June 14, 1997, during his first stint with the Giants, Aurilia hit the first-ever grand slam in interleague play at the expense of the Anaheim Angels' Allen Watson, a former teammate. The Giants went on to win the game 10–3. 2001 would prove to be a banner year for Aurilia as he collected a National League best 206 hits, all leading to a .324 batting average with 37 home runs, 97 RBI, an NL All-Star nod, and a Silver Slugger Award. However, his career best 37 home run year in 2001 was overshadowed by teammate Barry Bonds' record breaking 73 home runs in the same season. From 1999 to 2001, he led NL shortstops in home runs. Production trailed off in 2002, but Aurilia shined once again in San Francisco's failed 2002 run for a World Series Championship. In 14 postseason games that season, he batted .296, with 5 home runs and 14 RBI (an NL record for a shortstop in the postseason). He also was a Roberto Clemente Award nominee. Seattle Mariners (2004) After offensive stagnation in 2003, the Giants severed their nine-year relation with the shortstop, granting him free agency on October 27. Soon after, Aurilia signed on with the Seattle Mariners to patrol the M's infield. San Diego Padres (2004) The lifetime National Leaguer could not get a grip on American League pitching, and was dealt to the San Diego Padres in July 2004. He continued to struggle in spacious Petco Park, and was not tendered a contract for 2005. Cincinnati Reds (2005–2006) Needing a veteran infielder, the Reds signed Aurilia to a minor league contract on January 22, 2005. The versatile infielder played well for the Reds, collecting 14 home runs and 68 RBI while playing games at shortstop, second base, and third base. The Reds then re-signed him on January 8, 2006. Aurilia served as an everyday player rotating between shortstop, second base, first base and third base for the Reds in 2006. He finished the year with 23 home runs, 70 RBI, and a batting average of exactly .300—his highest in all three categories since 2001. San Francisco Giants (2007–2009) In the 2006 offseason, Aurilia signed a two-year, $8 million contract with his old team, the Giants. During the 2007 season, he appeared in 99 games (mostly at first base), starting in 81 of them. Aurilia was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a neck injury that had been slow to heal, limiting his range of movement and causing headaches. At the time, he was batting only .236 with two home runs. Aurilia returned to the Giants' lineup on July 4, hitting a home run in a 9–5 win over the Cincinnati Reds. He finished the season batting .252 with five home runs, 33 RBI, and a .304 on-base percentage. Aurilia posted better numbers in each of those categories during the 2008 season, where he remained generally healthy throughout the year, one factor that led him to have considerably more playing time (99 games started). On February 9, 2009, Aurilia re-signed with the San Francisco Giants to a minor league deal. It was announced on April 4 that Aurilia had made the Giants final roster. He went on to appear in 60 games during the 2009 season, starting in 22 of them, playing either first or third base. There was considerable uncertainty whether Aurilia would stay with the team for the entire season, but he was placed on the DL twice in order to free up a roster spot long enough for the September roster expansion. Knowing that the organization would not be bringing him back for the 2010 season, Aurilia played his final game as a Giant on October 1 at home against the Arizona Diamondbacks, receiving standing ovations from the home fans in appreciation for 12 years with the team. Retirement Aurilia announced his retirement on April 11, 2010. He is currently a member of NBC Sports Bay Area. Career statistics In 1652 games over 15 seasons, Aurilia posted a .275 batting average (1576-for-5721) with 745 runs, 301 doubles, 22 triples, 186 home runs, 756 RBI, 450 bases on balls, .328 on-base percentage and .433 slugging percentage. He finished his career with a .976 fielding percentage playing at shortstop, first, second and third base. In 25 postseason games, he hit .224 (22-for-98) with 17 runs, 6 doubles, 6 home runs, 18 RBI and 7 walks. Personal life He finished second in a pro on pro challenge on Guy's Grocery Games on September 20, 2015. His charity was the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Aurilia married Raquel Garcia on January 18, 1997, with whom he has two sons: Chaz Aiden, (born August 18, 2001) and Gavin Shea, (born October 1, 2003). Both he and his wife appeared as Jurors No. 9 and 10 in episodes of General Hospital which aired on December 11 and 12, 2003. The storyline was the trial of Sonny Corinthos, played by Maurice Benard who made the arrangement possible and is a cousin of Aurilia's Giants teammate Marvin Benard. He and his family reside in homes in Healdsburg, California and Phoenix, Arizona. See also List of NL Silver Slugger Winners at Shortstop References External links Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball Reference (Minors)

Scott Edward Spiezio (; born September 21, 1972) is an American former professional baseball infielder. He is well known for his time as a member of the Anaheim Angels, when he hit a three-run home run in Game Six of the 2002 World Series against the San Francisco Giants, sparking the Angels to a dramatic come-from-behind victory. He also played for the Oakland Athletics, Seattle Mariners, and St. Louis Cardinals, and is the son of former major leaguer Ed Spiezio. In addition to Spiezio's pivotal moment helping the Angels win the World Series, 2002 was also his most productive full season, with a .807 OPS. Spiezio was a utility player on the St. Louis Cardinals 2006 World Series championship team. Amateur career Spiezio attended Morris High School in Morris, Illinois, and was a letterman in baseball. In baseball, he was named his league's MVP and was an All-State selection. Spiezio played college baseball for the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. He made the All-Big 10 Team in baseball in 1992 and 1993. In 1992, he played collegiate summer baseball with the Wareham Gatemen of the Cape Cod Baseball League, and returned to the league in 1993 to play for the Cotuit Kettleers. Professional career Oakland A's Spiezio was selected by the Oakland Athletics in the 1993 player draft and signed later that year. He made his debut with the 1996 A's and established himself as a classic utility player, making starts at first base, second base, and third base, and as a switch hitter with more power when batting left-handed. Anaheim Angels Spiezio signed as a free agent with the Anaheim Angels ahead of the 2000 season. During his years with the Angels, he made appearances in left field and right field, as well as first, second, and third base. In 2002, he had a career year. Playing every day, he set career highs in batting average, on-base percentage and RBI. It was in the postseason that he had his greatest success. Spiezio batted 18 for 55 (.327) for Anaheim in the playoffs that year. In Game 6 of the 2002 World Series, with Anaheim trailing three games to two in the series, trailing 5–0 in the seventh inning of the game, and facing a Series loss, Spiezio hit a three-run homer off of Félix Rodríguez to pull his team to within two runs. A lead off homer by Darin Erstad followed by a two-run double by Troy Glaus in the next inning won the game for the Angels by a 6–5 score, and the Angels would go on to win their first ever World Series championship 4–3. Spiezio tied Sandy Alomar Jr.'s postseason record with 19 RBI in one postseason that was set in 1997. Seattle Mariners After the 2003 season, Spiezio became a free agent and signed a contract with the Seattle Mariners. The next two seasons were the worst of his career. He tripped over a mound during 2004 spring training, resulting in a debilitating back injury. At one point, there were concerns the injury could threaten his career and potentially leave him paralyzed. He hit .215 that season and played only 29 games the next year (compiling an .064 average) before the Mariners released him on August 19, 2005. St. Louis Cardinals On February 18, 2006, Spiezio signed a minor league contract with the St. Louis Cardinals with an invitation to the club's spring training. Spiezio played well enough during the Cardinals' exhibition to secure a roster spot with the team as a reserve infielder entering the 2006 season. This move would reunite Spiezio with his former Angels teammate, shortstop David Eckstein. Spiezio, used as a pinch hitter and all-around reserve player as well as the primary backup to Scott Rolen at third base, had his best season since 2002 for the 2006 Cardinals, hitting 13 home runs and driving in 52 runs despite only getting 276 at-bats. He would have another dramatic moment in the playoffs. With the Cardinals trailing, 6–4, in the seventh inning of Game 2 of the 2006 National League Championship Series, Spiezio hit a two-run triple to tie the score. The Cardinals went on to win the game and the series in seven games, then proceeded to win the 2006 World Series, earning Spiezio his second World Series ring. On November 16, 2006, Spiezio signed a two-year contract to return to the Cardinals until the end of the 2008 season, with a club option for 2009. The deal was worth an estimated $4.5 million. On June 15, 2007, Spiezio took the mound as a relief pitcher in the bottom of the eighth inning of a lopsided loss against the Athletics. His fastball was clocked as high as 87 mph. He pitched one inning, giving up one walk, no hits, no runs, and no strikeouts. After having pitched in one game, Spiezio played six positions in his career (seven counting designated hitter), missing catcher, shortstop, and center field. Release On August 7, 2007, Spiezio received IV fluids. He was described as being "irritable and anxious". Spiezio disconnected his IV and left the stadium rather than accept medical treatment. On August 9, 2007, the Cardinals placed him on the restricted list. The Cardinals stated that Spiezio would be seeking treatment for an unspecified substance abuse problem. On September 14, 2007, Spiezio was removed from the restricted list after 36 days and also reactivated to play in that evening's home game. On February 27, 2008, the Cardinals released Spiezio after police in Irvine, California issued a warrant for his arrest. The warrant was issued on six charges relating to a car crash on December 30, 2007. According to Irvine police, a drunken Spiezio crashed his BMW into a fence, then ran from the scene. In April, he pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors and was sentenced to three years' probation and 80 hours community service. He was also ordered to undergo three months of alcohol treatment and attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. On March 31, 2008, Spiezio signed a minor league deal with the Atlanta Braves and was assigned to their top affiliate, the Richmond Braves. He showed signs of his old form, batting .333 in five games. However, he was released on April 12 for being unprepared to play in a game. Spiezio later said that while he was sober at the time, he was in a deep depression after being released by the Cardinals and wasn't ready to take the field. Combined with a strained relationship with his first wife and the prospect of not being able to see his kids for two months, he decided to go home for the year. Independent leagues Spiezio believed he was finished with baseball after his major league career, but decided to give it another shot in 2009. The Angels put him in touch with the Orange County Flyers of the independent Golden Baseball League. Flyers manager Phil Nevin, a former major leaguer, decided to sign Spiezio after letting him work out for a week and getting assurances he was mentally ready to play. Spiezio signed another one-year deal to play the 2010 season for the Newark Bears. He hit .279 with three home runs and 35 RBI while appearing in 52 games. Personal life Spiezio is the son of two-time World Series champion Ed Spiezio. On April 7, 2015, at 2:30 AM, police in Ottawa, Illinois, responded to a call that Spiezio punched out a window at the apartment where his then-girlfriend and infant son lived. Spiezio fled police and was later found through the use of a K-9 tracker behind a building, resulting in him being tased in order to be brought into custody. No charges were immediately filed. In a 2022 interview with The Athletic, Spiezio revealed that he had spent the better part of 13 years battling substance abuse. He traced his downward spiral to the 2004 spring training injury, when the strain of being sidelined led him to begin drinking heavily, eventually drinking as much as a gallon of vodka per day. Over the years, he also became a cocaine addict. He admitted that during his time with the Cardinals, he frequently drank during games. As early as 2006, he had alienated so many of his friends in his hometown that no one joined him to celebrate the 2006 World Series win; in contrast, his friends threw him a huge party after the 2002 Series. By 2022, he had 12 stints in rehab and five arrests. His drug habit cost him both of his marriages and strained relationships with his family. His parents did not speak to him at all from 2005 to 2007 and had only sporadic contact with him from 2007 to 2011. He finally bottomed out in 2018, when he went to the hospital with severe jaundice from a badly damaged liver. He has been sober since then. See also List of second-generation Major League Baseball players References External links Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball Reference (Minors)

Shawon Donnell Dunston (born March 21, 1963) is an American former professional baseball player. A shortstop, Dunston played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1985 through 2002. On January 13, 2023, he was selected as a member of the 2023 class of the Chicago Cubs Hall of Fame. Dunston was the first overall pick in the 1982 MLB draft by the Chicago Cubs, and played for the Cubs (1985–95, 1997), San Francisco Giants (1996, 1998, 2001–02), Pittsburgh Pirates (1997), Cleveland Indians (1998), St. Louis Cardinals (1999, 2000) and New York Mets (1999). Dunston was named an All-Star in 1988 and 1990. Early life Dunston was born in the East New York section of Brooklyn, New York, on March 21, 1963. As a youth, he lived in the Linden Apartments, a public housing facility, with his father, Jack, mother, Brenda, and younger sister, Kindra. Jack worked as a cab driver and delivered furniture, while Brenda worked in a women's clothing store. Dunston attended the nearby Thomas Jefferson High School. He played for the school's baseball team as an infielder. In his senior season at Thomas Jefferson, Dunston had a .790 batting average, 10 home runs, and stole 37 bases without being caught stealing in 26 games. Playing career As a shortstop, Dunston was considered one of the best prospects available in the 1982 Major League Baseball draft. The Chicago Cubs selected Dunston with the first overall selection of the draft out of Thomas Jefferson High School. He was the first player from the New York area to be chosen with the first overall pick in the draft. Opting to represent himself, Dunston signed a one-year contract with the Cubs for $100,000, and was assigned to the Cubs' Rookie-level minor league baseball affiliate in the Gulf Coast League. Dunston competed with Larry Bowa for the role as the starting shortstop for the Cubs in spring training in 1985. Dunston initially won the job over Bowa. He made his debut in the major leagues on April 9. However, Dunston struggled offensively and defensively, batting .194 and committing nine errors in 23 games. As a result, he was sent back to the minor leagues, with Bowa regaining the starting role. After playing well for the Iowa Cubs, the Cubs recalled Dunston in August, and released Bowa. In 1988 and 1990 he joined double-play partner Ryne Sandberg as an All-Star and was a key contributor to the Cubs' NL East division title in 1989, hitting .278 with 20 doubles, 6 triples, 9 home runs, 60 runs batted in and 19 stolen bases. Due to become a free agent after the 1991 season, Dunston instead signed a four-year, $12 million contract to remain with the Cubs without testing the open market. However, he injured his back that offseason, and required surgery to repair a herniated disk in May 1992. The Cubs opted not to protect Dunston from being eligible to be selected in the 1992 Major League Baseball expansion draft, but neither the Colorado Rockies nor the Florida Marlins selected him. After the 1995 season, he was granted free agency. The Cubs wanted to move Dunston to third base, but he preferred to remain at shortstop. As a result, he signed with the San Francisco Giants for the 1996 season, receiving a one-year contract worth $1.5 million. He signed with the Cubs for the 1997 season, receiving $2 million. On August 31, 1997, the Cubs traded Dunston to the Pittsburgh Pirates, who lost two shortstops, Kevin Elster and Kevin Polcovich, to injuries. He hit two home runs in his first game with the Pirates, and three in his first three games. He became a free agent after the season, and signed a one-year contract with the Cleveland Indians for $400,000. On July 23, 1998, the Indians traded Dunston, José Mesa, and Alvin Morman to the Giants for Jacob Cruz and Steve Reed. Dunston was batting .237 at the time of the trade. With the Giants, Dunston batted .176 in 51 at-bats. Dunston became a free agent after the season and signed with the St. Louis Cardinals on a one-year contract worth $500,000. On July 31, 1999, the Cardinals traded Dunston to the New York Mets for Craig Paquette. He replaced rookie Melvin Mora on the Mets roster. Dunston became a free agent after the season and signed with the Cardinals for the 2000 season. He signed with the Giants that next offseason, playing with them in 2001 and 2002. He reached the 2002 World Series, his first, as a member of the Giants. He hit a home run off Kevin Appier of the Anaheim Angels in game six, but the Angels won the game and the series. Dunston was a career .269 hitter with 150 home runs and 668 RBI in 1814 games. He seldom walked, so in spite of his batting average, his on-base percentage was the second-worst among players with at least 4500 plate appearances during their careers. At the end of his career, he was used mainly as a fourth outfielder and a role player off the bench. He wore jersey #12 while with the Chicago Cubs. Playing style Bill James noted that Dunston was an "eternal rookie, a player who continued until the end of his career to make rookie mistakes." Dunston was known, especially early in his career, for his unusually strong throwing arm at the shortstop position. He won the 1996 Willie Mac Award for his spirit and leadership. Post-playing career Dunston became eligible for the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2008; 75% of the vote was necessary for induction, and 5% was necessary to stay on the ballot. He received 0.2% of the vote, thus being dropped off the Baseball Writers' Association of America's ballot. During his career, Dunston resided in Fremont, California. Personal Dunston has a son, Shawon Jr., who has played minor league baseball. One of Dunston's three daughters, Jasmine Dunston, became the White Sox Director of Minor League Operations in 2022. See also List of Major League Baseball career stolen bases leaders References External links Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet "Shawon-O-Meter"

Troy Edward Glaus (; born August 3, 1976) is an American former professional baseball third baseman and first baseman. Glaus played in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Anaheim Angels (1998–2004), Arizona Diamondbacks (2005), Toronto Blue Jays (2006–2007), St. Louis Cardinals (2008–2009), and the Atlanta Braves (2010). Glaus lettered in baseball while attending UCLA. He won a bronze medal in baseball at the 1996 Summer Olympics as a member of the U.S. national baseball team. Glaus was a four-time All-Star and won World Series MVP honors in 2002. Professional career In 13 seasons, Glaus hit .254 with 320 home runs and 950 RBI in 1537 games. In 19 postseason games, he hit .347 with nine home runs and 16 RBI. Glaus has been selected to four All-Star Games, three with the Angels and one with the Blue Jays. Anaheim Angels Glaus began his career with the Angels in 1998 and was installed as the team's starting third baseman in 1999. Glaus had a breakout season in 2000, becoming the all-time single season home run leader in Angels history with 47 while leading third baseman in adjusted range factor (2.95) in 2000. Glaus participated in the 2001 MLB All-Star Game and posted his second consecutive 40 home run season with 41 on the year. In 2002, Glaus failed to reach the 40 home run club for the first time since the 1999 season, but he managed to hit thirty home runs in helping the Angels make the playoffs for the first time in 16 years. The Angels beat the San Francisco Giants in seven games in the 2002 World Series to win their first world championship title in team history. Glaus was awarded the World Series MVP award as he hit .385 with three home runs and eight RBIs and hit a go-ahead double in Game 6 to finish a five-run comeback for the Angels. Glaus had another All-Star year in 2003. Glaus missed much of the 2004 season with a shoulder injury. 2004 was the last year of his contract with the Angels. As an established veteran, he was in demand on the free agent market and able to field lucrative offers for long-term contracts. Although Glaus had spent his entire career an Angel, and was a fan favorite, the team decided not to pursue Glaus' return. Amid concerns about Glaus' future health after his injury, the team decided to go with the much lower-priced alternative of turning the third base position over to young prospect Dallas McPherson, whom they felt had a good chance to soon become as productive as Glaus had been. Arizona Diamondbacks Glaus ultimately signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks for US$45 million over four years. He worked through his back problems in the 2005 season with the Diamondbacks, hitting 37 home runs with 97 RBIs. He also led the league in adjusted range factor (2.92), but his 24 errors tied him with David Wright for the most errors by a third baseman in the Major Leagues, and he had a Major League-low .946 fielding percentage at third. Toronto Blue Jays After the 2005 season, Glaus was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays in the off-season along with minor league shortstop Sergio Santos. The trade sent pitcher Miguel Batista and second baseman Orlando Hudson to the Diamondbacks. The Jays badly needed a power bat a year after letting go of Carlos Delgado, however the emergence of Hudson at second base gave the statistical advantage of this trade to the Diamondbacks. Although Glaus was converted from shortstop to third base in the minors (and played 10 games at shortstop for the Angels), he started at shortstop for the Toronto Blue Jays against the Chicago White Sox on May 26, 2006, due to the demotion of shortstop Russ Adams. Glaus was not expected to do much fielding due to the fact the pitcher that day was known to induce many fly balls, instead of ground balls. This defensive alignment didn't affect his hitting, collecting two hits with a home run. Glaus made several starts at shortstop for the Blue Jays, usually when Toronto was facing National League opponents at their home ballpark, where there is no DH. After hitting 38 home runs and 104 RBI in the 2006 season, Glaus earned a single 10th place vote for the 2006 American League MVP Award. In 2006, Glaus had the lowest zone rating of any Major League third baseman (.741). In 2007 Glaus's production was hampered all year by foot injuries and his production fell. On December 13, 2007, he was cited in the Mitchell Report. St. Louis Cardinals Glaus was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for fellow third baseman Scott Rolen on January 14, 2008. This worked out well for the Cardinals, as Glaus did about as well as, or better than, his career rates in most offensive categories. Furthermore, Glaus committed only seven errors in 146 games and led the league with a .982 fielding percentage at 3B. On September 3, 2008, he hit his 300th career home run off Doug Davis of the Arizona Diamondbacks in the third inning. He underwent arthroscopic right shoulder surgery on January 21, 2009. The Cardinals initially expected him to be ready around the start of 2009 season, but after a setback in his rehabilitation he was placed on the 15-day DL; after another reassessment the Cardinals announced that they did not expect him to return until June 2009. On July 11, 2009, he was assigned to the Palm Beach Cardinals of the Florida State League on a rehabilitation assignment. He returned September 2, against the Brewers in the bottom of the 6th inning. Atlanta Braves Following an injury-shortened 2009 season with the St. Louis Cardinals, Glaus signed a one-year $1.75 million contract with the Atlanta Braves, a deal that allowed him to earn an additional $2.25 million in performance and roster bonuses. He became the starting first baseman in 2010. After a rough April in which he hit below the Mendoza Line, Glaus rebounded to become Player of the Month in May, hitting .330 with six home runs and 28 RBI. As of August 9, Glaus was hitting .242 with 14 home runs and 63 RBI. Glaus's production faltered in July and August. After Atlanta acquired Derrek Lee on August 18 to play first base, Glaus was placed on the DL with knee fatigue. Glaus had a few setbacks, but returned to Atlanta in a back-up role behind Derrek Lee and rookie Freddie Freeman. Glaus made only one appearance at third base during the regular season, but was used at third base in Game 2 of the NLDS against the San Francisco Giants, starting a key double play. Glaus then started Game 4 of the series at third base. Personal life Glaus relocated to San Diego in 2020, with his wife, Ann. He also has one son, Ty. See also References External links Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet, or Behind the Dugout, or St. Louis Cardinals Scout, or Pura Pelota (Venezuelan Winter League) Troy Glaus at Olympedia Troy Glaus at Olympics.com

Out of all of the feature-length theatrical films that John Carpenter directed before 2015, which has the longest running time?

Starman (1984)

Tabular reasoning

John Carpenter is an American film director, producer, writer and composer. He has contributed to many projects as either the producer, writer, director, actor, composer or a combination of the five. Films As writer, producer and/or composer only Editor only Last Foxtrot in Burbank (1973) Executive producer only The Philadelphia Experiment (1984) Vampires: Los Muertos (2002) Short films Acting roles Highest-grossing films This is a list of films directed by John Carpenter that grossed more than $10 million at the US box office according to Box Office Mojo. Carpenter's films have grossed domestically a total of more than $282 million, with an average of $18 million per film. Television TV movies TV series Video games See also John Carpenter's unrealized projects References Bibliography External links John Carpenter filmography at IMDb

Dark Star is a 1974 American independent science fiction comedy film produced, scored and directed by John Carpenter and co-written with Dan O'Bannon. It follows the crew of the deteriorating starship Dark Star, twenty years into their mission to destroy unstable planets that might threaten future colonization of other planets. Beginning as a University of Southern California student film produced from 1970 to 1972, it was gradually expanded to feature-length until it appeared at Filmex in 1974, and subsequently received a limited theatrical release in 1975. Its final budget is estimated at $60,000. While initially unsuccessful with audiences, it was relatively well received by critics, and continued to be shown in theaters as late as 1980. The home video revolution of the early 1980s helped the movie achieve "cult classic" status. O'Bannon collaborated with home video distributor VCI in the production of releases on VHS, LaserDisc, DVD, and eventually Blu-ray. Dark Star was Carpenter's feature directorial debut; he also scored the film. It was the feature debut for O'Bannon, who also served as editor, production designer, and visual effects supervisor, and appeared as Sergeant Pinback. Plot In the mid-22nd century, mankind has begun to colonize interstellar space. Armed with artificially intelligent Thermostellar Triggering Devices, which can talk and reason, the scout ship Dark Star searches for "unstable planets" which might threaten future colonization. Twenty years into its mission (the crew only aging three years in that time), the Dark Star has aged and suffers frequent malfunctions of most systems. Commanding officer Powell has died in one such event (electrocuted by his malfunctioning chair), but remains aboard in cryogenic suspension. Lieutenant Doolittle, a former surfer from Malibu, has taken over as commander. The tedium of their work has driven the crew of Pinback, Boiler, and Talby "around the bend", so they have created distractions for themselves. Pinback plays practical jokes, maintains a video diary, and has adopted a ship's mascot in the form of a mischievous beach-ball-like alien who refuses to stay in a storage room. After it attempts to push him down an elevator shaft, he eventually accidentally kills it with a tranquilizer gun (which pops the alien like a balloon). He claims to really be Bill Froug and says that the real Pinback committed suicide prior to the mission, and he inadvertently took Pinback's place. En route to their next target in the Veil Nebula, the Dark Star is hit by electromagnetic energy during a space storm, resulting in another on-board malfunction. Thermostellar Bomb #20 receives an erroneous order to deploy, but the ship's computer talks it back into the bomb bay, which it reluctantly does. Subsequently, Pinback's alien activates the bomb circuits while loose from the storage room, causing Bomb #20 to again emerge from the bomb bay. Once again, the computer is able to convince the bomb to return to the bomb bay, which the bomb again reluctantly does, but not before warning, "This is the last time." An accident with a laser while the ship's crew is preparing for a real bomb run causes mayhem, seriously damages the ship's computer, and damages the bomb-dropping mechanism, causing Bomb #20 to become stuck in the bomb bay while counting down to detonation. This time the crew cannot convince the bomb to stand down. Doolittle revives Powell, who advises him to teach the bomb phenomenology. Doolittle space walks out to have a philosophical conversation with the bomb, but accidentally teaches it Cartesian doubt. With seconds left until detonation, the bomb agrees to suspend its countdown for the moment while it ponders Doolittle's ideas. Pinback opens the airlock to admit Doolittle back into the ship, but accidentally ejects Talby, who was in the airlock attempting to repair the laser. Doolittle uses his rocket pack to go after Talby, who is in a space suit but has no maneuvering device. The bomb, having learned Cartesian doubt, trusts only itself. It is convinced that only it exists, and that its sole purpose in life is to explode, and it does so. Dark Star is destroyed, along with Pinback and Boiler. Talby and Doolittle, at a distance from the ship, are thrown clear. The former drifts into and is taken away by the Phoenix Asteroids, a travelling cluster with which he has long been fascinated. Doolittle, falling toward the unstable planet, finds an oblong hunk of debris, and surfs into the atmosphere, to die as a falling star. Cast Brian Narelle as Lieutenant Doolittle Dan O'Bannon as Sergeant Pinback O'Bannon also voiced Bomb #19 and Bomb #20, although he is credited for those roles as "Alan Sheretz" and "Adam Beckenbaugh" respectively. Cal Kuniholm as Boiler Andreijah "Dre" Pahich as Talby John Carpenter as Talby (voice) Joe Saunders as Commander Powell John Carpenter as Commander Powell (voice) Barbara "Cookie" Knapp as Computer Miles Watkins as Mission Control Nick Castle as Alien Production Screenplay The screenplay was written by Carpenter and O'Bannon while they were film students at the University of Southern California. Initially titled The Electric Dutchman, to the original concept was Carpenter's, while O'Bannon "flesh[ed] out many of the original ideas" and contributed many of the funniest moments. The title was changed to Planetfall, before settling with Dark Star. According to O'Bannon, "The ending was copped from Ray Bradbury's story 'Kaleidoscope'", found in the short story collection The Illustrated Man (1951). O'Bannon references one of his USC teachers, William Froug, when Pinback says in a video diary entry, "I should tell you my name is not really Sergeant Pinback, my name is Bill Frug." Filming, reshoots, and edits The film began as a 45-minute 16mm student project with a final budget of six thousand dollars. Beginning with an initial budget of one thousand dollars from USC in late 1970, Carpenter and O'Bannon completed the first version of the film in early 1972. Carpenter had to dub his own voice over that of Pahich, who had a thick accent. With no money left, they needed an investor to achieve feature film length, and Jonathan Kaplan gave them $10,000 in financial support, which with the support of Canadian distributor Jack Murphy (credited as "Production Associate") allowed them to shoot an additional fifty minutes 1973. These scenes included the asteroid storm, Doolittle playing bottles on strings as a musical instrument, the scenes in the crew sleeping quarters, the scenes in the hallways of the ship (Pinback with the sunlamp, Boiler with the laser gun, etc.), and, importantly, all the scenes featuring the beach ball alien. Kuniholm and Pahich had shorter hair by this time, and wore wigs for continuity with the 1971 footage. Through John Landis, a friend of O'Bannon, the movie came to the attention of producer-distributor Jack H. Harris, who obtained the theatrical distribution rights. Deeming about 30 minutes of the film "boring and unusable" (including a protracted scene of the crew sleeping in their quarters, not responding to the computer voice), he insisted that cuts be made, and additional 35mm footage be shot to bring the movie back up to a releasable length. Other edits that Harris mandated, in order to secure a more marketable G rating, toned down rough language, and blurred of a wall of nude centerfolds. O'Bannon later lamented that as a result of the alterations for commercial distribution, "We had what would have been the world's most impressive student film and it became the world's least impressive professional film". Special effects O'Bannon created many of the special effects. Ron Cobb designed the ship, O'Bannon and Greg Jein did the model work, and Bob Greenberg did the animation. Cobb drew the original ship design on a napkin while eating at the International House of Pancakes. To depict the transit of the Dark Star into hyperspace, O'Bannon devised an animated effect in which the stars in the background turn into streaks of light while the ship appears to be motionless. He achieved this by tracking the camera while leaving the shutter open. This is considered to be the first depiction in cinema history of a spaceship jumping into hyperspace. It is thought that O'Bannon was influenced by the striking "star gate" sequence created by Douglas Trumbull for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). The same effect was later employed in Star Wars (1977). Soundtrack Dark Star's score mainly consists of electronic music created by Carpenter, using a modular synthesizer. In 1980, subsequent to the film's re-release the previous year, a soundtrack album was released, containing not only music, but also sound effects and dialogue from the film. The album was remastered for a limited 2016 vinyl rerelease, which included an additional seven-inch record containing remakes and other bonus tracks. The song played during the opening and closing credits is "Benson Arizona". It concerns a man who travels the galaxy at the speed of light, while missing his beloved back on Earth. The music was written by Carpenter, and the lyrics by Bill Taylor. The lead vocalist was John Yager, a college friend of Carpenter. Yager was not a professional musician, "apart from being in a band in college". Benson, Arizona is a real-life location, and has named a county road "Dark Star Road" in honor of the film. Additionally, the famous reverb/delay VST Valhalla Supermassive includes a preset called Benson Arizona in tribute to the movie. Release The completed film premiered on March 30, 1974, at Filmex, the Los Angeles International Film Exposition. At the time, Carpenter described the movie as "Waiting for Godot in outer space." Harris sold it to Bryanston Pictures, which opened it in fifty theatres on January 16, 1975. In June 1979, after Carpenter and O'Bannon had found commercial success with other films, Atlantic Releasing Corporation rereleased Dark Star, noting on a promotional poster that it was "from the author of Alien & the director of Halloween", and including the tag line, "The Ultimate Cosmic Comedy!" Home media In August 1983, VCI Entertainment released a theatrical cut of Dark Star on videocassette. It was criticized by O'Bannon. A new video master was sourced from O'Bannon's personal 35mm print, and a widescreen "Special Edition" of the film was released by 1986. O'Bannon later re-edited the movie into a seventy-two minute director's cut, removing much of the footage that had been shot and added after Harris had bought the distribution rights. This version was released on LaserDisc in 1992. The film was released on DVD March 23, 1999. Both the original theatrical version and a shorter, sixty-eight minute "special edition" were included. A two-disc "Hyperdrive Edition" DVD set was released on October 26, 2010. Along with the two versions of the movie previously released on DVD, it included a feature-length documentary, Let There be Light: The Odyssey of Dark Star, which explores the origins and production of the film. In 2012, a "Thermostellar Edition" was released on Blu-ray. It included the special features of the 2010 release, but not the shorter special edition of the movie, only the theatrical version. Reception Audience reactions While greeted enthusiastically by the crowd at Filmex, the film was not well-received upon its initial theatrical release. Carpenter and O'Bannon reported nearly empty theatres, and little reaction to the humor in the movie. However, the home video revolution of the early 1980s saw Dark Star become a cult film among sci-fi fans. Director Quentin Tarantino called the film a "masterpiece." Critical response An early review from Variety, recalled by Carpenter as "the first bad review I got", described the film as "a limp parody of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey that warrants attention only for some remarkably believable special effects achieved with very little money." After its re-release in 1979, Roger Ebert gave the movie three stars out of four, writing: "Dark Star is one of the damnedest science fiction movies I've ever seen, a berserk combination of space opera, intelligent bombs, and beach balls from other worlds." Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 73% "Fresh" score based on 33 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "A loopy 2001 satire, Dark Star may not be the most consistent sci-fi comedy, but its portrayal of human eccentricity is a welcome addition to the genre." Leonard Maltin awarded it two and a half stars, describing it as "enjoyable for sci-fi fans and surfers", and complimenting the effective use of the limited budget. Legacy Influence The "Beachball with Claws" segment of the film was reworked by O'Bannon into the science fiction-horror film Alien (1979). After witnessing audiences failing to laugh at parts of Dark Star which were intended as humorous, O'Bannon commented, "If I can't make them laugh, then maybe I can make them scream." Doug Naylor has said in interviews that Dark Star was the inspiration for Dave Hollins: Space Cadet, the radio sketches that evolved into science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf. Dark Star has also been cited as an inspiration for the machinima series Red vs. Blue by its creator Burnie Burns. Metal Gear series creator Hideo Kojima revealed the iDroid's voice was inspired by the female computer voice from Dark Star. Benson, Arizona, has a Dark Star Road, referencing the film's song named after the city. Indie rock band Pinback adopted its name from the character Sergeant Pinback, and often used samples from the movie in its early work. Synth-pop band Erasure sampled dialogue from this film (along with Barbarella) in their song "Sweet, Sweet Baby", the B-side to "Drama!", the debut single off their album Wild! (1989). The Human League used a sample from the film at the end of "Circus of Death", the B-side of their debut single, "Being Boiled". Cem Oral, under the alias Oral Experience, sampled dialogue from this film in his song "Never Been on E". The name of Pinbacker, the antagonist in Danny Boyle's film Sunshine (2007), also was inspired by Sergeant Pinback. Trevor Something used samples from Doolittle's conversation with the bomb in his 2014 mixtape Trevor Something Does Not Exist. Progressive metal band Star One used the plot of the movie for their song "Spaced Out," with the name take from the film tagline "The Spaced Out Odyssey". German Digital Hardcore artist Bomb 20 is named after Bomb #20 from this film. Gravity Wine Co., based in Victoria, Australia, produces a red wine blend of Syrah and Grenache that is called Dark Star and which has "Dark Star - Phoenix Asteroids" written as a title at the top of the information section on its label. See also List of American films of 1974 References Further reading Holdstock, Robert. Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Octopus Books, 1978, pp. 80–81. ISBN 0-7064-0756-3 Cinefex magazine, issue 2, Aug 1980. Article by Brad Munson: "Greg Jein, Miniature Giant". (Discusses Dark Star, among other subjects.) Fantastic Films magazine, Oct 1978, vol. 1 no. 4, pages 52–58, 68–69. James Delson interviews Greg Jein, about Dark Star and other projects Jein had worked on. Fantastic Films magazine, Sep 1979, issue 10, pages 7–17, 29–30. Dan O'Bannon discusses Dark Star and Alien, other subjects. (Article was later reprinted in "The very best of Fantastic Films", Special Edition #22 as well.) Fantastic Films magazine, Collector's Edition #17, Jul 1980, pages 16–24, 73, 76–77, 92. (Article: "John Carpenter Overexposed" by Blake Mitchell and James Ferguson. Discusses Dark Star, among other things.) Bradbury, Ray, Kaleidoscope Doubleday & Company 1951 Foster, Alan Dean. Dark Star, Futura Publications, 1979. ISBN 0-7088-8048-7. (Adapted from the script by Dan O'Bannon and John Carpenter) External links Dark Star at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films Dark Star at IMDb Dark Star at the TCM Movie Database Dark Star at AllMovie Dark Star at Rotten Tomatoes Dark Star at The Official John Carpenter Dark Star at the British Film Institute

Assault on Precinct 13 is a 1976 American independent action thriller film written, directed, scored, and edited by John Carpenter. It features Austin Stoker as a police officer who defends a defunct precinct against a relentless criminal gang, and Darwin Joston as a death row-bound convict who assists him. Laurie Zimmer, Tony Burton, Martin West, and Nancy Kyes co-star as other defenders of the precinct. Carpenter was approached by producer J. Stein Kaplan to make a low-budget exploitation film for under $100,000, on the condition that Carpenter would have total creative control. Carpenter's script, originally titled The Anderson Alamo, was inspired by the Howard Hawks Western film Rio Bravo and the George A. Romero horror film Night of the Living Dead. Despite controversy with the MPAA over a scene involving the violent killing of a young girl, the film received an R rating and opened in the United States on November 5, 1976. Assault on Precinct 13 was initially met with mixed reviews and unimpressive box-office returns in the United States, but when the film premiered in the 1977 London Film Festival, it received an ecstatic review by festival director Ken Wlaschin that led to critical acclaim first in Britain and then throughout Europe. It has garnered a cult following and reappraisal from critics, with many evaluating the film as one of the best action films of its era and of Carpenter's career. A remake was released in 2005, directed by Jean-François Richet and starring Ethan Hawke and Laurence Fishburne. Plot In South-Central Los Angeles, a local gang, Street Thunder, steals a cache of assault rifles and pistols. At 3:00 am on a Saturday in Anderson, a crime-infested ghetto, a team of heavily armed LAPD officers ambush and kill six members of the gang. Later, the gang's four warlords swear a blood oath of revenge against the police and the citizens of Los Angeles. Lieutenant Ethan Bishop, a newly promoted highway patrol officer, is assigned to take charge of the decommissioned Anderson police precinct during the last few hours before it is permanently closed. Only a skeleton staff remains, including Sergeant Chaney and the station's two secretaries, Leigh and Julie. A prison bus commanded by a man named Starker arrives seeking medical help for one of three men being transported to the state penitentiary: Napoleon Wilson, a convicted murderer; Wells; and Caudell, who is sick. Across town, the Street Thunder warlords drive around looking for people to kill. One of the warlords fatally shoots a little girl, Kathy, and the driver of an ice cream van. Kathy's father, Lawson, pursues and kills the warlord before other gang members chase him into the Anderson precinct. In shock, Lawson is unable to communicate what has happened to him. As Starker's prisoners are placed in cells, the telephone lines go dead, and the station's electricity goes out. While Starker prepares to move the prisoners back onto the bus, the gang opens fire on the precinct, using weapons fitted with silencers. In seconds, they kill Chaney, the bus driver, Caudell, Starker, and two officers accompanying Starker. Bishop unchains Wilson from Starker's body and puts Wilson and Wells back into the cells. When the gang members begin a second wave of shooting, Bishop sends Leigh to release Wells and Wilson, and the four of them repel an attempted invasion. However, Julie is killed during the firefight, while Leigh is shot and wounded in one arm. The gang members remove all evidence of the skirmish to avoid attracting outside attention. Bishop hopes that someone has heard the police weapons firing, but the neighborhood is too sparsely populated, due to most of the housing being scheduled for demolition, for nearby residents to pinpoint the location of the noise. Wells is chosen to sneak out of the precinct through a sewer line. After hot-wiring a nearby car, he is killed by a gang member hiding in the back seat before he can get to a telephone. Meanwhile, two police officers responding to reports of gunfire find the dead body of a telephone repairman hanging from a pole near the police station and call for backup. As the gang rallies for an all-out final assault, Wilson, Leigh, and Bishop retreat to the station's basement, taking the still-catatonic Lawson with them. They protect themselves with a large, durable metal sign as the gang violently storms the building. Bishop shoots a tank full of acetylene gas, which explodes and kills all the gang members in the narrow basement hallway. The remainder of the gang flees as police arrive to secure the station. Venturing down into the basement, the officers discover that Bishop, Leigh, Wilson, and Lawson are the only survivors. Lawson is strapped onto a stretcher and removed. Another stretcher is offered to Leigh, but, after she and Wilson exchange a long look, she declines it and exits unassisted. When an officer attempts to handcuff Wilson, Bishop angrily intervenes before asking Wilson to walk out of the station with him. Cast Production Following the release of Dark Star, Assault and a second script entitled Eyes were supposed to be two low-budget films written and directed by John Carpenter, with financing by J. Stein Kaplan. After reviewing the first draft of Assault and following the sale of the script Eyes to Barbra Streisand and Jon Peters, later renamed Eyes of Laura Mars, Kaplan and Kaufman concentrated on just Assault. "J. Stein Kaplan was a friend of mine from USC," said Carpenter. "He knew Joseph Kaufman from his days in Philadelphia … Basically their fathers were funding Assault on Precinct 13". The two families of the producers formed the CKK Corporation to finance the film.: 1 Screenplay Carpenter had hoped to make a Howard Hawks-style Western like El Dorado or Rio Lobo, but when the $100,000 budget prohibited it, Carpenter refashioned the basic scenario of Rio Bravo into a modern setting.: 2  Carpenter employed the pseudonym "John T. Chance" for his original version of the script, entitled The Anderson Alamo, but he used his own name for the writing credit on the completed film.: 3  The script was written in eight days. Carpenter joked, "The script came together fast, some would say too fast." Carpenter's script makes many allusions to film history and inspirations for this film. It has many references to the films of Howard Hawks. For example, the character of Leigh, played by Laurie Zimmer, was a reference to Rio Bravo writer Leigh Brackett. The running gag of having Napoleon Wilson constantly ask, "Got a smoke?", was inspired by the cigarette gags used in many of Hawks's Westerns. Also, subtle references are made to directors Sergio Leone and Alfred Hitchcock. The day and time titles were used to make the film feel more like a documentary.: 5&10 Pre-production Assault underwent several months of preproduction.: 44  Carpenter assembled a main cast that consisted mostly of experienced but relatively obscure actors. The two leads were Austin Stoker, who had appeared previously in Battle for the Planet of the Apes and Sheba, Baby, and Darwin Joston, who had worked primarily in television and was also Carpenter's next-door neighbor. After an open casting call, Carpenter added Charles Cyphers and Nancy Loomis to the cast. Behind the scenes, Carpenter worked with cinematographer Douglas Knapp (a fellow USC student), art director Tommy Lee Wallace, sound mixer Bill Varney and property master Craig Stearns. "I hardly knew what the job required," said Wallace, "but he believed in me, and, of course my price was right. It was typical of John during those lean days. He made the very best of whatever talent and facilities he had around him." Carpenter drew storyboards for key sequences, including the "ice cream truck" sequence, the death of the white warlord, Napoleon Wilson struggling to get the keys off the guard after the siege starts, and the failed escape by prisoner Wells.: 13 Principal photography Assault started in November 1975 and was shot in only 20 days, including Thanksgiving, on a budget of $100,000.: 43  The film was shot on 35-mm Panavision in a 2.39:1 anamorphic aspect ratio on Metrocolor film stock, and was Carpenter's first experience with Panavision cameras and lenses. Carpenter has referred to this film as the most fun he has ever had directing. Two weeks of shooting indoors were followed by two weeks on-location.: 70  The interiors of the police station were shot on the now-defunct Producers Studios set, while the exterior shots and jail cells were from the old Venice police station.: 87  The bus traveling to Sonora was shot on a closed section of the Los Angeles freeway system, with cast and crew having lunch on the freeway.: 77–86  Carpenter's philosophy to making Assault, which he believes can be applied to making any low-budget film, was to shoot as little footage as possible and extend the scenes for as long as he could. The first scene, in which several gang members of Street Thunder are gunned down by cops, was shot at USC. The gang members were played by USC students, who Carpenter remembered had a lot of fun finding ways of dying while spilling blood over themselves. "The first night I saw dailies," replied art director Wallace, "projected on a bedsheet in the producer's ratty apartment… My jaw dropped and I sat up so straight I cast a shadow with my head. This looked like a zillion dollars. This looked like a real movie." Music One of the film's distinctive features is its score, written in three days by John Carpenter and performed by Carpenter and Tommy Lee Wallace.: 192  Carpenter, assisted by Dan Wyman, had several banks of synthesizers that would each have to be reset when another sound had to be created, taking a great deal of time. "When I did my original themes for [Assault] … it was done with very old technology," replied Carpenter. "It was very difficult to get the sounds, and it took very long to get something simple." Carpenter made roughly three to five separate pieces of music and edited them to the film as appropriate. The main title theme, partially inspired by both Lalo Schifrin's score to Dirty Harry and Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song", is composed of a pop synthesizer riff with a drum machine underneath that "builds only in texture, but not thematically," according to David Burnand and Miguel Mera. A held, high synthesizer note, with no other changes except inner frequency modulations, becomes the musical motif of the gang members, and reoccurs during certain violent acts in the film. In the film, synthesizers and drum machines represent the city and the gang. Carpenter also uses a plaintive electric piano theme when Lt. Bishop first enters the abandoned precinct. It reoccurs in the film during the quiet moments of the siege, becoming in effect a musical articulation of rhythm of the siege itself. Bishop is heard whistling the tune of this particular theme at the beginning and end of the film, making the electric piano theme "a non-diegetic realization of a diegetic source." Burnand and Mera have noted that "there is some attempt to show the common denominators of human behavior regardless of 'tribal' affiliations, and there is a clear attempt to represent this through simple musical devices." Many film critics who praised the film also praised the musical score by Carpenter. As John Kenneth Muir noted, "Carpenter wrote the riveting musical score for Assault... The final result was a unique, synthetic sound that is still quite catchy, even after 20 years … Delightfully, it even serves as a counterpoint in one important scene." Dave Goldner of SFX wrote that Assault had "one of the most catchy theme tunes in film history." In early 2004, Piers Martin of NME wrote that Carpenter's minimalist synthesizer score accounted for much of the film's tense and menacing atmosphere and its "impact, 27 years on, is still being felt." A vocal version of the theme, titled You Can't Fight It, with lyrics and production by Kenny Lynch, was recorded by Trinidad singer Jimmy Chambers and released in the UK as a 45 on the Pye label in April 1978, but it failed to chart and is now a rare item. Beyond its use in the film, the score is often cited as an influence on various electronic and hip hop artists with its main title theme being sampled by artists including Afrika Bambaataa, Tricky, Dead Prez, and Bomb the Bass.: 192  The main theme was reworked in 1986 as an Italo disco 12" and more famously as the 1990 UK-charting rave-song "Hardcore Uproar". Despite this influence, except for a few compilation appearances,: 193–195  the film's score remained available only in bootleg form until 2003, when it was given an official release through the French label, Record Makers. Post-production Carpenter edited the film using the pseudonym John T. Chance, the name of John Wayne's character in Rio Bravo; his frequent collaborator Debra Hill served as assistant editor.: 49  According to Carpenter, the editing process was a bare-bones process. One mistake Carpenter was not proud of was one shot "cut out of frame", which means the cut is made within the frame so a viewer can see it. Assault was shot on Panavision, which takes up the entire negative, and edited on Moviola, which cannot show the whole image, so if a cut was made improperly (i.e., frame line not lined up properly), then one would cut a half of a sprocket into the film and "cut out of frame," as happened to Carpenter. In the end, it did not matter because he said, "It was so dark, no one could see it, thank God!" Tommy Lee Wallace, the film's art director, spoke admiringly about Carpenter during post. "[Carpenter] asked if I could cut sound effects. The answer, of course, was 'Sure!' Once again, here I was, a perfectly green recruit, yet John made a leap of faith … he further insisted we get the best processing money could buy, which at that time was the legendary MGM color labs. Finally, he insisted we get the best post-production sound money could buy, which was Samuel Goldwyn Sound, another legend. The expense for this unorthodox approach ate up a huge amount of the budget. The production manager fumed that we were exploiting people to pay for processing— and it was true." Release Although the film's title is Assault on Precinct 13, the action mainly takes place in a police station referred to as Precinct 9, Division 13, by Bishop's staff sergeant over the radio. The film's distributor was responsible for the misnomer. Carpenter originally called the film The Anderson Alamo before briefly changing the title to The Siege to shop to distributors. The film was acquired by Irwin Yablans. During post-production, however, the distributor rejected Carpenter's title in favor of the film's present name. The moniker "Precinct 13" was used to give the new title a more ominous tone. When the film became popular in Britain, Michael Myers of Miracle Films purchased the British theatrical distribution rights. The film was released in Germany on September 3, 1979, under the title Assault – Anschlag bei Nacht, or Assault–Attack at Night.: 168  The most infamous scene in the movie occurs when a gang member casually shoots a little girl (Kathy) standing near an ice-cream truck, with her death being shown in graphic, bloody detail. The MPAA, headed by Richard Heffner at the time, threatened to give the film an X rating if the scene were not cut. Following the advice of his distributor, Carpenter gave the appearance of complying by cutting the scene from the copy he gave to the MPAA, but he distributed the film with the "ice-cream truck" scene intact, a common practice among low-budget films. Carpenter regrets shooting the ice-cream scene in such an explicit fashion: "…it was pretty horrible at the time … I don't think I'd do it again, but I was young and stupid." The film eventually received an R rating and has a running time of 91 minutes. Reception Initial reception Assault was first released in Los Angeles at the State Theater on November 3, 1976, to mixed reviews and unimpressive box-office earnings. Whitney Williams of Variety wrote, "Some exciting action in the second half packs enough interest to keep this entry alive for the violence market... John Carpenter's direction of his screenplay, after a pokey opening half, is responsible for the realistic movement." Dan O'Bannon, Carpenter's co-writer on Dark Star, attended the Los Angeles premiere. At this point in their professional relationship, O'Bannon was jealous of Carpenter's success and reluctantly attended the premiere. O'Bannon was disgusted by the film and told Carpenter so. According to author Jason Zinoman, O'Bannon saw a reflection of the coolness that Carpenter displayed toward him in the film's casual disregard for the humanity of its characters. It reminded him of how easily their friendship had been discarded. "His disdain for human beings would be serviced if he could make a film without people in it," replied O'Bannon. The film opened at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1977, where it received favorable notices from some of the British critics. "Carpenter at Cannes wiped us off the face of the earth with Precinct 13" replied director George A. Romero, who was at the festival with his film Martin. "Right from the scene when the little girl gets blown away, I was blown away." As a result, festival director Linda Myles booked the film for the Edinburgh Film Festival in August 1977. However, the film did not get critical acclaim until it was screened at the 21st London Film Festival on December 1, 1977.: 153  Ken Wlaschin, festival director, described the film in the brochure: John Carpenter, whose small-budget science-fiction epic Dark Star was widely acclaimed, has turned his inventive imagination to the thriller for his first solo directional effort. The result, even without taking into consideration his tiny budget and cast of unknowns, is astonishing. Assault on Precinct 13 is one of the most powerful and exciting crime thrillers from a new director in a long time. It grabs hold of the audience and simply doesn't let go as it builds to a crescendo of irrational violence that reflects only too well our fears of unmotivated attack... It is a frightening look at the crumbling of rational ideas of law and order under an irresistible attack by the forces of irrationality and death. Wlaschin found Assault to be the best film of the London Film Festival and included it in his "Action Cinema" section of that festival. It became one of the festival's best-received films, garnering tremendous critical and popular acclaim.: 156  According to Derek Malcolm of the Guardian, the applause was "deafening". Carpenter was delighted by the new praise. The overwhelmingly positive British response to the film led to its critical and commercial success throughout Europe. Derek Malcolm of Cosmopolitan wrote, "[The film] is fast becoming one of the cult movies of the year ... The great virtue of the film is the way it grabs hold of its audience and simply refuses to let go. It exploits all our fears of irrational violence and unmotivated attack, and at the same time manages to laugh at itself without spoiling the tension - a very considerable feat. Carpenter, who is clearly a director with places to go, has succeeded in making a comedy that scares the pants off us. And don't think you're laughing at it. As a matter of fact, it's laughing at you." Malcolm later wrote that he held some reservations about the film: "I don't feel like going on and on about the movie, partly because I think it is in grave danger of being oversold anyway, and partly because it isn't much more to me than tremendous fun". The film broke one house record in the UK and was named one of the best films of the year by critics and moviegoers.: 162 Later reception Over the years, the film has received acclaim from critics, emphasizing John Carpenter's resourceful abilities as director, writer, editor, and music composer, and Douglas Knapp's stylish cinematography, as well as exceptional acting from Austin Stoker, Darwin Joston, Laurie Zimmer, and Tony Burton. Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote, "[Assault] is a much more complex film than Mr. Carpenter's 'Halloween,' though it's not really about anything more complicated than a scare down the spine. A lot of its eerie power comes from the kind of unexplained, almost supernatural events one expects to find in a horror movie but not in a melodrama of this sort … If the movie is really about anything at all, it's about methods of urban warfare and defense. Mr. Carpenter is an extremely resourceful director whose ability to construct films entirely out of action and movement suggests that he may one day be a director to rank with Don Siegel." Jeffrey Wells of Films In Review wrote, "Skillfully paced and edited, Assault was rich with Hawksian dialogue and humor, especially in the clever caricature of the classic 'Hawks woman' by Laurie Zimmer." Tom Allen and Andrew Sarris of the Village Voice described the film as "one of the most stylishly kinetic independent films of the 1970s." Alan Jones of Starburst wrote, "Bravura remake of Rio Bravo." Dave Golder of SFX magazine hailed the film as, "A superb, bloody thriller about a siege in an abandoned L.A. cop station." In his book The Horror Films of the 1970s, John Kenneth Muir gave the film three and a half stars, calling it "a lean, mean exciting horror motion picture... a movie of ingenuity, cunning and thrills." Mick Martin & Marsha Porter of the Video Movie Guide gave the film four and a half stars out of five, writing, "…John Carpenter's riveting movie about a nearly deserted L.A. police station that finds itself under siege by a youth gang. It's a modern day version of Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo, with exceptional performances by the entire cast." In 2003, Dalton Ross of Entertainment Weekly described Assault as "a tight, tense thriller … Carpenter's eerie score and Douglas Knapp's stylish cinematography give this low-budget shoot-out all the weight of an urban Rio Bravo." Leonard Maltin also gave the film three and a half stars out of four: "A nearly deserted L.A. police station finds itself under a state of siege by a youth gang in this riveting thriller, a modern-day paraphrase of Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo. Writer/director Carpenter also did the eerie music score for this knockout." Tim Pulleine of The Guardian described the film as superficial despite successfully meeting the requirements of the genre. Brian Lindsey of Eccentric Cinema gave the film 6 out of a scale of 10, saying the film "isn't believable for a second—yet this doesn't stop it from being a fun little B picture in the best drive-in tradition". The film has a 96% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 50 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10. It is Carpenter's highest-rated film as writer-director on the website. The site's consensus reads: "Lean, taut and compellingly gritty, John Carpenter's loose update of Rio Bravo ranks as a cult action classic and one of the filmmaker's best." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 89 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "Universal acclaim". Accolades John Carpenter won the 1978 annual British Film Institute award for the "originality and achievement of his first two films", Dark Star and Assault, at the 1977 London Film Festival. The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists: 2001: AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills – Nominated Legacy and remake Assault on Precinct 13 is now considered by many to be one of the greatest and most underrated action films of the 1970s, as well as one of the best films in John Carpenter's career. In the July 1999 issue, Premiere put the film on its list of 50 "Lost and Profound" unsung film classics, writing: A trim, grim, vicious, and incredibly effective action movie with no cut comic-relief bit players, no winks at the audience, and no stars. Just a powder keg of a premise (lifted in part from Howard Hawks's Rio Bravo), in which a quasiterrorist group's killing spree culminates in the action described in the title. Carpenter's mastery of wide-screen and almost uncanny talent at crafting suspense and action sequences make Assault such a nerve-racking experience that you may have to reupholster your easy chair after watching it at home. In 1988, Alan Jones of Starburst said Assault is "arguably still the best film [Carpenter] ever made." In 2000 John Kenneth Muir placed the film at No. 3 on his rated list of John Carpenter's filmography, behind The Thing and Halloween. In October 2007, Noel Murray and Scott Tobias of The A.V. Club also ranked Assault at No. 3 of John Carpenter's best films ("The Essentials"), saying, "The first John Carpenter film that really feels like a John Carpenter film, this homage to Howard Hawks Westerns suggests a path that Carpenter's career might've taken if Halloween hadn't become such a hit. Carpenter's made many different kinds of movies over the course of his long career, but he hasn't gotten to return often enough to terse tales of gun-toting heroes and villains." In Jeff Chang's 2005 book, Can't Stop Won't Stop, he cites Assault on Precinct 13 as the start of "the urban horror" genre. Chang describes the film Instead of Indian braves, Zulu warriors, or graveyard zombies, Assault on Precinct 13's heroes defended themselves in a desolate police station against marauding waves of dark, heavily armed gang members seeking revenge for their cop-killed brothers. In his fifth edition of The New Biographical Dictionary of Film in 2010, film historian David Thomson described Assault as "a Hawksian set of a police station besieged by hoodlums - economical, tense, beautiful, and highly arousing. It fulfills all Carpenter's ambitions for gripping the audience emotionally and never letting go." Writers Michelle Le Blanc and Colin Odell have written of the film: "[Assault] looks as fresh as the day it was first screened; its violence still shocking, its soundtrack still effective, and both the dialogue and its delivery are top notch, all in a film whose $100,000 budget wouldn't satisfy the catering demands of the average Hollywood picture. This is because there is an overriding vision, a consistency to Carpenter's work that rewards repeat viewing and presents a single unifying world view." Film director Edgar Wright and actor Simon Pegg are big fans of Assault. "You wouldn't really call it an action film," claims Pegg, "because it was pre- the evolution of that kind of film. And yet it is kind of an action film in a way." "It's very much his [Carpenter's] kind of urban Western", adds Wright, "in the way it is staging Rio Bravo set up in downtown '70s LA... And the other thing is, for a low-budget film particularly, it looks great." In October 2011, artist Tyler Stout premiered his mondo-style poster of Assault. Stout's poster would later serve as the cover on the Region B Blu-ray of Assault. Assault has influenced a number of action films that came after, setting the rules for the genre that would continue with films such as Die Hard and The Matrix. The second section of From Dusk till Dawn was described by Variety as a "Night of the Living Dead-tinged offshoot of ... Assault on Precinct 13". The character of Scott wears a t-shirt with the words 'Precinct 13' on it as a homage to the film. In 2002, the film inspired Florent Emilio Siri's quasi-remake The Nest. The core plot of the film has reportedly inspired a 2019 Indian Tamil film Kaithi. As a result of the film, John Carpenter went on to work with producer Irwin Yablans on Halloween, the most successful film of Carpenter's career. Due to the success of Assault in London, Carpenter named the Shape in Halloween after Michael Myers of Miracle Films, the British distributor for Assault. Myers's son Martin considered the tribute as a "tremendous honor" and "a lasting memorial to his late father". Donald Pleasence would go on to star in Carpenter's Halloween because his daughters were big fans of Assault. Debra Hill, the film's script supervisor, went on to produce Carpenter's future features and become his girlfriend. In 2005, the film was remade by director Jean-François Richet and starring Ethan Hawke and Laurence Fishburne. The Richet remake has been praised by some as an expertly made B-movie, and dismissed by others as formulaic, with many critics preferring the original Assault to the remake. Themes and analysis Critics and commentators have often described Assault as a cross between Howard Hawks's Rio Bravo and George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead. Carpenter acknowledges the influence of both films. In his 2000 book The Films of John Carpenter, John Kenneth Muir deconstructs Carpenter's use of Rio Bravo as a template for Assault: "Although [the film's] premise may sound like typical 1970s picture, it was quintessential Carpenter in execution — which meant it was really quintessential Howard Hawks. Of primary importance was not the bloodshed or action, but rather the developing friendship and respect in evidence between the white convict Napoleon Wilson and black cop Lt. Bishop … also important in [Assault]'s homage to director Hawks was the unforgettable presence of actress Laurie Zimmer as a prototypical 'Hawksian Woman,' i.e., a female who gives as good as she gets and is both tough and feminine at the same time." As with most of Carpenter's antagonists, Street Thunder is portrayed as a force that possesses mysterious origins and almost supernatural qualities. "Rather than going for any particular type of gang," replied Carpenter, "I decided to include everybody." The gang members are not humanized and are instead represented as though they were zombies or ghouls—they are given almost no dialogue, and their movements are stylized, with a slow, deliberate, relentless quality. Carpenter has acknowledged the influence of George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead on his portrayal of the gang. Assault was shot in 2.35:1 anamorphic Panavision widescreen, Carpenter's first use of the format that he would use on all of his feature films. "I just love Panavision," replied Carpenter. "It's a cinematic ratio." Home video releases Assault was released on VHS by Media Home Entertainment in 1978 and on laserdisc by Image Entertainment on March 12, 1997. The '97 laserdisc came with commentary by John Carpenter, an isolated music score track and the original theatrical trailer. The film was one of the first films to be released on the DVD medium on November 25, 1997, also by Image Entertainment. On March 11, 2003, Image Entertainment released in new widescreen "Special Edition" DVD of the film. Dalton Ross of Entertainment Weekly gave this 2003 DVD release a B+. Brian Lindsay of Eccentric Cinema gave the film's 2003 DVD release a 10 out of 10, the website's highest rating. Special features of the 2003 DVD release include: Film shown in anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) with monaural Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. Q & A interview session with writer/director John Carpenter and actor Austin Stoker at American Cinematheque's 2002 John Carpenter retrospective (23 minutes) Original theatrical trailer 2 radio spots Behind-the-scenes and lobby card stills gallery (16 minutes) Full-length audio commentary by writer/director Carpenter taken from a 1997 laserdisc release Isolated music score, also taken from the 1997 laserdisc release The film was later released on UMD video for the PlayStation Portable on July 26, 2005 and in a "Restored Collector's Edition" for both DVD and Blu-ray Disc in 2008 and 2009, respectively. Both releases have all of the special features found on the 2003 "Special Edition" DVD. Assault on Precinct 13 was re-released on November 19, 2013, as Shout! Factory acquired the rights to release the film in the United States under its sublabel Scream Factory in a 'Collector's Edition'. Special features for this set include new interviews with actress Nancy Loomis Kyes and art director/sound effects designer Tommy Lee Wallace, and from previous editions, audio commentary from John Carpenter and Austin Stoker, theatrical trailer, and radio spots. All other special features from the previous editions have been excluded from this set. The film has also received Blu-ray releases in Germany, on May 25, 2012, in a '3-Disc Limited Collector's Edition' which includes two DVDs and contains a 24-page booklet in addition to the special features available on the Image Entertainment DVD and Blu-ray, with a subsequent standard edition released on November 16, 2012, in Australia, it is available via Umbrella Entertainment, released August 5, 2015. A '40th Anniversary Edition' became available in the United Kingdom by Second Sight, and features John Carpenter's score for the film on a bonus disc. The Blu-ray of the film is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1, with 5.1 DTS-HD surround sound and dual mono sound, and a plethora of special features including new interviews with actor Austin Stoker, executive producer Joseph Kaufman, and art director and sound effects designer Tommy Lee Wallace, along with commentaries from Wallace and John Carpenter, trailer and radio spots, and five art cards. See also List of American films of 1976 List of hood films Notes References Further reading Boulenger, Gilles (2003). John Carpenter: The Prince of Darkness (First US ed.). Beverly Hills, CA: Silman-James Press. ISBN 1-879505-67-3. Conrich, Ian; Woods, David, eds. (2004). The Cinema of John Carpenter: The Technique of Terror. London, England: Wallflower Press. ISBN 1-904764-14-2. Le Blanc, Michelle; Odell, Colin (April 28, 2011). John Carpenter (Creative Essentials) (Paperback ed.). Great Britain: Kamera Books. ISBN 978-1842433386. Muir, John Kenneth (2000). The Films of John Carpenter (Hardcover ed.). New York, NY: McFarland and Company Inc. ISBN 0-7864-0725-5. Zinoman, Jason (July 7, 2011). Shock Value: How a Few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, Conquered Hollywood, and Invented Modern Horror (Hardcover ed.). New York, NY: The Penguin Press. ISBN 978-1594203022. Baily, K. (March 12, 1978). Sunday People. Barker, F. (March 9, 1978). The Evening News. Barkley, F. (March 12, 1978). Sunday Express. Bernandes, H. (1995). Armante Cinema 45 (in Spanish). p. 37. Bitomsky, Hartmut; Hofmann, Felix (February 2, 1979). "Assault on Precinct 13" (in German). Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin [Program]. Retrieved 2012-08-25. Bordwell, David (April 10, 2006). The Way Hollywood Tells It: Story and Style in Modern Movies (First ed.). University of California Press. p. 59. ISBN 978-0520246225. Brien, A. (March 12, 1978). Sunday Times. Christie, I. (March 11, 1978). Daily Express. Chute, David (March 13, 1979) "Second sight: on becoming king of the Bs". Boston Phoenix. pp. 4, 12. Retrieved 2012-08-25. Coleman, J. (March 10, 1978). New Statesman. Combs, Richard (1977/8). Sight and Sound 47. pp. 1, 58-9. Davies, R. (March 12, 1978). Observer. Dignam, V. (March 10, 1978). Morning Star. Dixon, Wheeler Winston (August 24, 2010). A History of Horror (Paperback ed.). Rutgers University Press. pp. 130, 132 & 135. ISBN 978-0813547961. Divine, C. (2000). "Noir Romantics: The Urban Poetry of Assault on Precinct 13". Creative Screenwriting. pp. 5,7, 20-22. Gibbs, P. (March 10, 1978). Daily Telegraph. Gow, G. (1978). Films and Filming. pp. 5, 24, 45. Harmsworth, M. (March 12, 1978). "Cracker in the ghetto". Sunday Mirror. Hutchinson, T. (March 12, 1978). Daily Telegraph. Klein, David (December 30, 2011). If 6 Was 9 And Other Assorted Number Songs (Paperback ed.). lulu.com. p. 73. ISBN 978-1257759330. Maltin, Leonard (Winter 2007/2008). "Overstaying Your Welcome". DGA Quarterly. Retrieved 2012-08-04. Maltin, Leonard (August 12, 2008). "Post #2". Penguin.com. Retrieved 2012-08-04. Milne, Tom (1978). Monthly Film Bulletin 529. p. 19-20. Plowright, M. (September 1978). "A hoodlum siege that could happen". Glasgow Herald. Sigal, C. (March 18, 1978). Spectator. S.M. (1978). Films Illustrated. Thirkell, A. (March 10, 1978). "Guns in the ghetto". Daily Mirror. Walker, A. (March 9, 1978). Eveing Standard. Williams, T. (1979). "Assault on Precinct 13: The Mechanics of Repression". In Wood, Robin; Lippe, R. (eds). The American Nightmare: Essays on the Horror Film. Toronto, Canada: Festivals of Festivals. pp. 67–73. External links Assault on Precinct 13 at IMDb Assault on Precinct 13 at AllMovie Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) on the Official John Carpenter website Assault on Precinct 13 Trailer on YouTube

Halloween (advertised as John Carpenter's Halloween) is a 1978 American independent slasher film directed and scored by John Carpenter, who co-wrote it with its producer Debra Hill. It stars Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis (in her film debut), P. J. Soles, and Nancy Loomis. Set mostly in the fictional Illinois town of Haddonfield, the film follows mental patient Michael Myers, who was committed to a sanitarium for murdering his teenage sister one Halloween night during his childhood; he escapes 15 years later and returns to Haddonfield, where he stalks teenage babysitter Laurie Strode and her friends while his psychiatrist Dr. Samuel Loomis pursues him. The film was shot in Southern California throughout April and May 1978, produced by Compass International Pictures and Falcon International Productions. The film was released by Compass International and Aquarius Releasing in October and grossed $70 million on a budget of $300,000–325,000, becoming one of the most profitable independent films of all time. Primarily praised for Carpenter's direction and score, many critics credit the film as the first in a long line of slasher films inspired by Psycho (1960) and Black Christmas (1974). It is considered one of the greatest and most influential horror films ever made. In 2006, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Halloween spawned a film franchise comprising 13 films which helped construct an extensive backstory for Michael Myers, sometimes narratively diverging entirely from previous installments; a novelization, video game, and comic book series have also been based on the film. Plot On the night of Halloween 1963 in the suburban Illinois town of Haddonfield, six-year-old Michael Myers brutally stabs his teenage sister Judith to death with a chef's knife. 15 years later, his psychiatrist Dr. Samuel Loomis drives with nurse Marion Chambers to the sanitarium where Michael is incarcerated to escort him to a court hearing. After Loomis exits their car to unlock the main gate, Michael jumps on the roof and attacks Marion. She runs from the vehicle, allowing Michael to steal the car and drive away. Michael makes his way back to Haddonfield, killing a mechanic and stealing his coveralls before stealing a white mask from a local hardware store. He begins stalking teenager Laurie Strode, whom he saw drop off a key at his long-abandoned childhood home that her father is trying to sell. Laurie notices Michael throughout the day, but her friends Annie Brackett and Lynda Van Der Klok dismiss her concerns. Loomis arrives in Haddonfield and discovers that Michael has stolen Judith's tombstone from the local cemetery. He meets up with the town sheriff, Annie's father Leigh Brackett, and they begin to search for Michael. While they investigate the old Myers house, Loomis describes how he realized that Michael is pure evil. That night, Michael follows Annie and Laurie to their babysitting jobs. Laurie watches Tommy Doyle, while Annie stays with Lindsey Wallace across the street. Michael spies on Annie and kills the Wallace family dog. Tommy spots Michael from the windows and thinks he is the boogeyman, but Laurie dismisses him. Annie later takes Lindsey to the Doyle house for the night so she can pick up her boyfriend. Michael hides in her car and strangles her before slitting her throat. Lynda and her boyfriend Bob arrive at the Wallace house and find it empty. After having sex, Bob goes downstairs to get a beer from the kitchen, where Michael pins him to the wall with a chef's knife. Michael then poses as Bob in a ghost costume and confronts Lynda, who teases him to no effect. Annoyed, she calls Laurie to find out what happened to Annie, but Michael strangles her to death with the phone cord while Laurie listens on the other end. Meanwhile, Loomis discovers the stolen car and searches the streets. Worried by the phone call, Laurie goes to the Wallace house and finds her friends' bodies and Judith's tombstone in the upstairs bedroom. She runs to the hallway where Michael slashes her arm, causing her to fall over the banister. Dazed and injured, she manages to escape the house with him in pursuit. She makes it back to the Doyle house, but realizes she has lost the keys to the front door. Tommy lets her in and she orders him and Lindsey to hide. Laurie calls for help, only to find the phone is dead. Michael sneaks in through the window and attacks her again, but she stabs him in the neck with a knitting needle. Thinking Michael is dead, Laurie staggers upstairs to check on the children, where Michael appears again. While Tommy and Lindsey hide in the bathroom, Laurie hides in the bedroom closet. Laurie stabs Michael in the eye with a coat hanger and then in the chest with his own knife. After she sends Tommy and Lindsey to a neighbor's house to call the police, Michael rises again. Seeing the children running from the house, Loomis goes to investigate and sees Michael strangling Laurie. She breaks free by pulling his mask off, revealing his face. Loomis shoots him six times, knocking him off the balcony. When Loomis goes to check on the body, he is unsurprised to see that Michael has vanished. He stares off into the distance as Laurie sobs in terror. Cast Analysis Themes Scholar Carol J. Clover has argued that the film, and its genre at large, links sexuality with danger, saying that killers in slasher films are fueled by a "psychosexual fury" and that all the killings are sexual in nature. She reinforces this idea by saying that "guns have no place in slasher films" and when examining the film I Spit on Your Grave she notes that "a hands-on killing answers a hands-on rape in a way that a shooting, even a shooting preceded by a humiliation, does not." Equating sex with violence is important in Halloween and the slasher genre according to film scholar Pat Gill, who made a note of this in her essay "The Monstrous Years: Teens, Slasher Films, and the Family". She remarks that Laurie's friends "think of their babysitting jobs as opportunities to share drinks and beds with their boyfriends. One by one they are killed ... by Michael Myers an asylum escapee who years ago at the age of six murdered his sister for preferring sex to taking care of him." Carpenter has distanced himself from these interpretations, saying "It has been suggested that I was making some kind of moral statement. Believe me, I'm not. In Halloween, I viewed the characters as simply normal teenagers." In another interview, Carpenter said that readings of the film as a morality play "completely missed the point," adding, "The one girl who is the most sexually uptight just keeps stabbing this guy with a long knife. She's the most sexually frustrated. She's the one that's killed him. Not because she's a virgin but because all that sexually repressed energy starts coming out. She uses all those phallic symbols on the guy." Debra Hill, who co-wrote and produced the film, also dismissed the idea saying, "There was absolutely no intent for that to be the underlying reason. I was raised a Catholic schoolgirl and what leaked into the script is my Catholic sensibility. It was totally unintentional." Some feminist critics, according to historian Nicholas Rogers, "have seen the slasher movies since Halloween as debasing women in as decisive a manner as hard-core pornography." Critics such as John Kenneth Muir state that female characters such as Laurie Strode survive not because of "any good planning" or their own resourcefulness, but sheer luck. Although she manages to repel the killer several times, in the end, Strode is rescued in Halloween and Halloween II only when Dr. Loomis arrives to shoot Myers. However, Clover has argued that despite the violence against women, Halloween and other slasher films turned women into heroines. In many pre-Halloween horror films, women are depicted as helpless victims and are not safe until they are rescued by a strong masculine hero. Despite the fact that Loomis saves Strode, Clover asserts that Halloween initiates the role of the "final girl" who ultimately triumphs. Strode fights back against Myers and severely wounds him. Had Myers been a normal man, Strode's attacks would have killed him; even Loomis, the male hero of the story, who shoots Michael repeatedly with a revolver, cannot kill him. Aviva Briefel argued that moments such as when Michael's face was temporarily revealed are meant to give pleasure to the male viewer. Briefel further argues that these moments are masochistic in nature and give pleasure to men because they are willingly submitting themselves to the women of the film; they submit themselves temporarily because it will make their return to authority even more powerful. Critics, such as Gill, see Halloween as a critique of American social values. She remarks that parental figures are almost entirely absent throughout the film, noting that when Laurie is attacked by Michael while babysitting, "No parents, either of the teenagers or of the children left in their charge, call to check on their children or arrive to keen over them." According to Gill, the dangers of suburbia is another major theme that runs throughout the film and the slasher genre at large: Gill states that slasher films "seem to mock white flight to gated communities, in particular the attempts of parents to shield their children from the dangerous influences represented by the city." Halloween and slasher films, generally, represent the underside of suburbia to Gill. Myers was raised in a suburban household and after he escapes the mental hospital he returns to his hometown to kill again; Myers is a product of the suburban environment, writes Gill. Michael is thought by some to represent evil in the film. This is based on the common belief that evil never dies, nor does evil show remorse. This idea is demonstrated in the film when Dr. Loomis discusses Michael's history with the sheriff. Loomis states, "I spent eight years trying to reach him [Michael Myers], and then another seven trying to keep him locked up because I realized that what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply ... evil." Loomis also refers to Michael as "evil" when he steals his car at the sanitarium. Aesthetic elements Historian Nicholas Rogers notes that film critics contend that Carpenter's direction and camera work made Halloween a "resounding success." Roger Ebert remarks, "It's easy to create violence on the screen, but it's hard to do it well. Carpenter is uncannily skilled, for example, at the use of foregrounds in his compositions, and everyone who likes thrillers knows that foregrounds are crucial . ... " The opening title, featuring a jack-o'-lantern placed against a black backdrop, sets the mood for the entire film. The camera slowly moves toward the jack-o'-lantern's left eye as the main title theme plays. After the camera fully closes in, the jack-o'-lantern's light dims and goes out. Film historian J.P. Telotte says that this scene "clearly announces that [the film's] primary concern will be with the way in which we see ourselves and others and the consequences that often attend our usual manner of perception." Carpenter's first-person point-of-view compositions were employed with steadicam; Telotte argues, "As a result of this shift in perspective from a disembodied, narrative camera to an actual character's eye ... we are forced into a deeper sense of participation in the ensuing action." Along with the 1974 Canadian horror film Black Christmas, Halloween made use of seeing events through the killer's eyes. The first scene of the young Michael's voyeurism is followed by the murder of Judith seen through the eye holes of Michael's clown costume mask. According to scholar Nicholas Rogers, Carpenter's "frequent use of the unmounted first-person camera to represent the killer's point of view ... invited [viewers] to adopt the murderer's assaultive gaze and to hear his heavy breathing and plodding footsteps as he stalked his prey." Film analysts have noted its delayed or withheld representations of violence, characterized as the "false startle" or "the old tap-on-the-shoulder routine" in which the stalkers, murderers, or monsters "lunge into our field of vision or creep up on a person." Critic Susan Stark described the film's opening sequence in her 1978 review: In a single, wonderfully fluid tracking shot, the camera establishes the quiet character of a suburban street, the sexual hanky-panky going on between a teenage couple in one of the staid-looking homes, the departure of the boyfriend, a hand in the kitchen drawer removing a butcher's knife, the view on the way upstairs from behind the eye-slits of a Halloween mask, the murder of a half-nude young girl seated at her dressing table, the descent downstairs and whammo! The killer stands speechless on the lawn, holding the bloody knife, a small boy in a satin clown suit with a newly-returned parent on each side shrieking in an attempt to find out what the spectacle means. Production Concept After viewing Carpenter's film Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) at the Milan Film Festival, independent film producer Irwin Yablans and financier Moustapha Akkad sought out Carpenter to direct a film for them about a psychotic killer that stalked babysitters. In an interview with Fangoria magazine, Yablans stated: "I was thinking what would make sense in the horror genre, and what I wanted to do was make a picture that had the same impact as The Exorcist." Carpenter agreed to direct the film contingent on his having full creative control, and was paid $10,000 for his work, which included writing, directing, and scoring the film. He and his then-girlfriend Debra Hill began drafting the story of Halloween. There were claims as early as 1980 that the film at one point was supposed to be called The Babysitter Murders but Yablans has since debunked this stating that it was always intended to be called (and take place on) Halloween. Carpenter said of the basic concept: "Halloween night. It has never been the theme in a film. My idea was to do an old haunted house film." Film director Bob Clark suggested in an interview released in 2005 that Carpenter had asked him for his own ideas for a sequel to his 1974 film Black Christmas (written by Roy Moore) that featured an unseen and motiveless killer murdering students in a university sorority house. As also stated in the 2009 documentary Clarkworld (written and directed by Clark's former production designer Deren Abram after Clark's tragic death in 2007), Carpenter directly asked Clark about his thoughts on developing the anonymous slasher in Black Christmas: ... I did a film about three years later, started a film with John Carpenter, it was his first film for Warner Bros. (which picked up Black Christmas), he asked me if I was ever gonna do a sequel and I said no. I was through with horror, I didn't come into the business to do just horror. He said, 'Well what would you do if you did do a sequel?' I said it would be the next year and the guy would have actually been caught, escape from a mental institution, go back to the house and they would start all over again. And I would call it Halloween. The truth is John didn't copy Black Christmas, he wrote a script, directed the script, did the casting. Halloween is his movie and besides, the script came to him already titled anyway. He liked Black Christmas and may have been influenced by it, but in no way did John Carpenter copy the idea. Fifteen other people at that time had thought to do a movie called Halloween but the script came to John with that title on it. Screenplay It took approximately 10 days to write the screenplay. Yablans and Akkad ceded most of the creative control to writers Carpenter and Hill (whom Carpenter wanted as producer), but Yablans did offer several suggestions. According to a Fangoria interview with Hill, "Yablans wanted the script written like a radio show, with 'boos' every 10 minutes." By Hill's recollection, the script took three weeks to write, and much of the inspiration behind the plot came from Celtic traditions of Halloween such as the festival of Samhain. Although Samhain is not mentioned in the plot of the first film, Hill asserts that: ... the idea was that you couldn't kill evil, and that was how we came about the story. We went back to the old idea of Samhain, that Halloween was the night where all the souls are let out to wreak havoc on the living, and then came up with the story about the most evil kid who ever lived. And when John came up with this fable of a town with a dark secret of someone who once lived there, and now that evil has come back, that's what made Halloween work. Hill, who had worked as a babysitter during her teenage years, wrote most of the female characters' dialogue, while Carpenter drafted Loomis' speeches on the soullessness of Michael Myers. Many script details were drawn from Carpenter's and Hill's own backgrounds and early careers: The fictional town of Haddonfield, Illinois was derived from Haddonfield, New Jersey, where Hill was raised, while several of the street names were taken from Carpenter's hometown of Bowling Green, Kentucky. Laurie Strode was allegedly the name of one of Carpenter's old girlfriends, while Michael Myers was the name of an English producer who had previously entered, with Yablans, Assault on Precinct 13 in various European film festivals. Homage is paid to Alfred Hitchcock with two characters' names: Tommy Doyle is named after Lt. Det. Thomas J. Doyle (Wendell Corey) from Rear Window (1954), and Dr. Loomis' name was derived from Sam Loomis (John Gavin) from Psycho, the boyfriend of Marion Crane (Janet Leigh, who is the real-life mother of Jamie Lee Curtis). Sheriff Leigh Brackett shared the name of a Hollywood screenwriter and frequent collaborator of Howard Hawks. In devising the backstory for the film's villain, Michael Myers, Carpenter drew on "haunted house" folklore that exists in many small American communities: "Most small towns have a kind of haunted house story of one kind or another," he stated. "At least that's what teenagers believe. There's always a house down the lane that somebody was killed in, or that somebody went crazy in." Carpenter also took inspiration from the character of The Gunslinger from Westworld (1973) for Michael Myers. Carpenter's inspiration for the "evil" that Michael embodied came from a visit he had taken during college to a psychiatric institution in Kentucky. There, he visited a ward with his psychology classmates where "the most serious, mentally ill patients" were held. Among those patients was an adolescent boy, who possessed a blank, "schizophrenic stare." Carpenter's experience inspired the characterization that Loomis gave of Michael to Sheriff Brackett in the film. Debra Hill has stated the scene where Michael kills the Wallaces' German Shepherd was done to illustrate how he is "really evil and deadly". The ending scene of Michael disappearing after being shot six times and falling off the balcony, was meant to terrify the imagination of the audience. Using a montage of the houses as Michael's breathing is heard, Carpenter tried to keep the audience guessing as to who Michael Myers really is—he is gone, and everywhere at the same time; he is more than human; he may be supernatural, and no one knows how he got that way. To Carpenter, keeping the audience guessing was better than explaining away the character with "he's cursed by some..." Carpenter has described Halloween as: "True crass exploitation. I decided to make a film I would love to have seen as a kid, full of cheap tricks like a haunted house at a fair where you walk down the corridor and things jump out at you." Casting The cast of Halloween included veteran actor Donald Pleasence and then-unknown actress Jamie Lee Curtis. The low budget limited the number of big names that Carpenter could attract, and most of the actors received very little compensation for their roles. Pleasence was paid the highest amount at $20,000, Curtis received $8,000, and Nick Castle earned $25 a day. The role of Dr. Loomis was originally intended for Peter Cushing, who had recently appeared as Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars (1977); Cushing's agent rejected Carpenter's offer due to the low salary. Christopher Lee was approached for the role; he too turned it down, although the actor later told Carpenter and Hill that declining the role was the biggest mistake he made during his career. Yablans then suggested Pleasence, who agreed to star because his daughter Lucy, a guitarist, had enjoyed Assault on Precinct 13 for Carpenter's score. In an interview, Carpenter admits that "Jamie Lee wasn't the first choice for Laurie. I had no idea who she was. She was 19 and in a TV show at the time, but I didn't watch TV." He originally wanted to cast Anne Lockhart, the daughter of June Lockhart from Lassie, as Laurie Strode. However, Lockhart had commitments to several other film and television projects. Hill says of learning that Jamie Lee was the daughter of Psycho actress Janet Leigh: "I knew casting Jamie Lee would be great publicity for the film because her mother was in Psycho." Curtis was cast in the part, though she initially had reservations as she felt she identified more with the other female characters: "I was very much a smart alec, and was a cheerleader in high school, so [I] felt very concerned that I was being considered for the quiet, repressed young woman when in fact I was very much like the other two girls." Another relatively unknown actress, Nancy Kyes (credited in the film as Nancy Loomis), was cast as Laurie's outspoken friend Annie Brackett, daughter of Haddonfield sheriff Leigh Brackett (Charles Cyphers). Kyes had previously starred in Assault on Precinct 13 (as had Cyphers) and happened to be dating Halloween's art director Tommy Lee Wallace when filming began. Carpenter chose P. J. Soles to play Lynda Van Der Klok, another loquacious friend of Laurie's, best remembered in the film for dialogue peppered with the word "totally." Soles was an actress known for her supporting role in Carrie (1976) and her minor part in The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976) and would subsequently play Riff Randall in the 1979 film Rock 'n Roll High School. According to Soles, she was told after being cast that Carpenter had written the role with her in mind. Soles's then-husband, actor Dennis Quaid, was considered for the role of Bob Simms, Lynda's boyfriend, but was unable to perform the role due to prior work commitments. The role of "The Shape"—as the masked Michael Myers character was billed in the end credits—was played by Nick Castle, who befriended Carpenter while they attended the University of Southern California. After Halloween, Castle became a director, taking the helm of films such as The Last Starfighter (1984), The Boy Who Could Fly (1986), Dennis the Menace (1993), and Major Payne (1995). Tony Moran plays the unmasked Michael at the end of the film. Moran was a struggling actor before he got the role. At the time, he had a job on Hollywood and Vine dressed up as Frankenstein. Moran had the same agent as his sister, Erin, who played Joanie Cunningham on Happy Days. When Moran went to audition for the role of Michael, he met for an interview with Carpenter and Yablans. He later got a call back and was told he had got the part. Moran was paid $250 for his appearance. Will Sandin played the unmasked young Michael in the beginning of the film. Carpenter also provided uncredited voice work as Paul, Annie's boyfriend. Filming Akkad agreed to put up $300,000 ($1.4 million in 2022) for the film's budget, which was considered low at the time (Carpenter's previous film, Assault on Precinct 13, had an estimated budget of $100,000). Akkad worried over the tight, four-week schedule, low budget, and Carpenter's limited experience as a filmmaker, but told Fangoria: "Two things made me decide. One, Carpenter told me the story verbally and in a suspenseful way, almost frame for frame. Second, he told me he didn't want to take any fees, and that showed he had confidence in the project". Carpenter received $10,000 for directing, writing, and composing the music, retaining rights to 10 percent of the film's profits. Because of the low budget, wardrobe and props were often crafted from items on hand or that could be purchased inexpensively. Carpenter hired Tommy Lee Wallace as production designer, art director, location scout and co-editor. Wallace created the trademark mask worn by Michael Myers throughout the film from a Captain Kirk mask purchased for $1.98 from a costume shop on Hollywood Boulevard. Carpenter recalled how Wallace "widened the eye holes and spray-painted the flesh a bluish white. In the script it said Michael Myers's mask had 'the pale features of a human face' and it truly was spooky looking. I can only imagine the result if they hadn't painted the mask white. Children would be checking their closet for William Shatner after Tommy got through with it." Hill adds that the "idea was to make him almost humorless, faceless—this sort of pale visage that could resemble a human or not." Many of the actors wore their own clothes, and Curtis' wardrobe was purchased at J.C. Penney for around $100. Wallace described the filming process as uniquely collaborative, with cast members often helping move equipment, cameras, and helping facilitate set-ups. The vehicle stolen by Michael Myers from Dr Loomis and Nurse Marion Chambers at the Smith Grove Sanitarium was an Illinois government-owned 1978 Ford LTD station wagon rented for two weeks of filming. When filming was complete, the car was returned to the rental company who put it up for auction. Its next owner left it in a barn for decades until selling it to its new owner who has completely restored both its interior and exterior. Halloween was filmed in 20 days over a four-week period in May 1978. Much of the filming was completed using a Panaglide, a clone of the Steadicam, the then-new camera that allowed the filmmakers to move around spaces smoothly. Filming locations included South Pasadena, California; Garfield Elementary School in Alhambra, California; and the cemetery at Sierra Madre, California. An abandoned house owned by a church stood in as the Myers house. Two homes on Orange Grove Avenue (near Sunset Boulevard) in the Spaulding Square neighborhood of Hollywood were used for the film's climax, as the street had few palm trees, and thus closely resembled a Midwestern street. Some palm trees, however, are visible in the film's earlier establishing scenes. The crew had difficulty finding pumpkins in the spring, and artificial fall leaves had to be reused for multiple scenes. Local families dressed their children in Halloween costumes for trick-or-treat scenes. Carpenter worked with the cast to create the desired effect of terror and suspense. According to Curtis, Carpenter created a "fear meter" because the film was shot out-of-sequence and she was not sure what her character's level of terror should be in certain scenes. "Here's about a 7, here's about a 6, and the scene we're going to shoot tonight is about a 9⁠1/2⁠", remembered Curtis. She had different facial expressions and scream volumes for each level on the meter. Carpenter's direction for Castle in his role as Myers was minimal. For example, when Castle asked what Myers' motivation was for a particular scene, Carpenter replied that his motivation was to walk from one set marker to another and "not act." By Carpenter's account the only direction he gave Castle was during the murder sequence of Bob, in which he told Castle to tilt his head and examine the corpse as if it "were a butterfly collection." Musical score Carpenter did the score as he was told that the film "wasn't scary" after doing a test screening. Instead of utilizing a more traditional symphonic soundtrack, the film's score consists primarily of a piano melody played in a 10/8 or "complex 5/4" time signature, composed and performed by Carpenter. It took him three days to compose and record the entire score for the film. Following the film's critical and commercial success, the "Halloween Theme" became recognizable apart from the film. Carpenter said it was also done in an hour. Critic James Berardinelli calls the score "relatively simple and unsophisticated", but admits that "Halloween's music is one of its strongest assets". Carpenter once stated in an interview, "I can play just about any keyboard, but I can't read or write a note." In Halloween's end credits, Carpenter bills himself as the "Bowling Green Philharmonic Orchestra", but he also received assistance from composer Dan Wyman, a music professor at San José State University. Some non-score songs can be heard in the film, one an untitled song performed by Carpenter and a group of his friends in a band called The Coupe De Villes. The song can be heard as Laurie steps into Annie's car on her way to babysit Tommy Doyle. Another song, "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" by classic rock band Blue Öyster Cult, also appears in the film. It plays on the car radio as Annie drives Laurie through Haddonfield with Myers in silent pursuit. The soundtrack was first released in the United States in October 1983, by Varèse Sarabande/MCA. It was subsequently released on CD in 1985, re-released in 1990, and reissued again in 2000. On the film's 40th anniversary, coinciding with the release of Anthology: Movie Themes 1974–1998, a cover of the theme by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross was released. Release Theatrical distribution Halloween premiered on October 24, 1978, in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, at the AMC Empire theatre. Regional distribution in the Philadelphia and New York City metropolitan areas was acquired by Aquarius Releasing. It grossed $1,270,000 from 198 theatres across the U.S. (including 72 in New York City and 98 in Southern California) in its opening week. The film grossed $47 million in the United States and an additional $23 million internationally, making the theatrical total $70 million, making it one of the most successful independent films of all time; the film sold approximately 20,153,846 tickets during its initial theatrical release, and remains the most successful release of any Halloween film and the third most successful film in the slasher genre behind Scream (1996) and Scream 2 (1997). On September 7, 2012, the official Halloween Movies Facebook page announced that the original Halloween would be re-released starting October 25, 2013, in celebration of the film's 35th anniversary in 2013. A new documentary was screened before the film at all locations, titled You Can't Kill the Boogeyman: 35 Years of Halloween, written and directed by HalloweenMovies.com webmaster Justin Beahm. Television rights In 1980, the television rights to Halloween were sold to NBC for approximately $3 million. After a debate among Carpenter, Hill and NBC's Standards and Practices over censoring of certain scenes, Halloween appeared on television for the first time in October 1981. To fill the two-hour time slot, Carpenter filmed twelve minutes of additional material during the production of Halloween II. The newly filmed scenes include Dr. Loomis at a hospital board review of Michael Myers and Dr. Loomis talking to a then-6-year-old Michael at Smith's Grove, telling him, "You've fooled them, haven't you, Michael? But not me." Another extra scene features Dr. Loomis at Smith's Grove examining Michael's abandoned cell after his escape and seeing the word "Sister" scratched into the door. Finally, a scene was added in which Lynda comes over to Laurie's house to borrow a silk blouse before Laurie leaves to babysit, just as Annie telephones asking to borrow the same blouse. The new scene had Laurie's hair hidden by a towel, since Curtis was by then wearing a much shorter hairstyle than she had worn in 1978. In August 2006, Fangoria reported that Synapse Films had discovered boxes of negatives containing footage cut from the film. One was labeled "1981" suggesting that it was additional footage for the television version of the film. Synapse owner Don May Jr. said, "What we've got is pretty much all the unused original camera negative from Carpenter's original Halloween. Luckily, Billy [Kirkus] was able to find this material before it was destroyed. The story on how we got the negative is a long one, but we'll save it for when we're able to showcase the materials in some way. Kirkus should be commended for pretty much saving the Holy Grail of horror films". He later claimed: "We just learned from Sean Clark, long time Halloween genius, that the footage found is just that: footage. There is no sound in any of the reels so far, since none of it was used in the final edit". Home media Since Halloween's premiere, it has been released in several home video formats. Early VHS versions were released by Media Home Entertainment. This release subsequently became a collectors' item, with one copy from 1979 selling on eBay for $13,220 in 2013. On August 3, 1995, Blockbuster Video issued a commemorative edition of the film on VHS. As stated, the film was first released on VHS in 1979 and again in 1981 by Media Home Entertainment. The synopsis on the back misspelled Myers as Meyers. The film was also released on Betamax around that same time. It was not released in CED format (capacitance electronic disc), unlike Halloween II and Halloween III, but it was released on Laser Disc. The film was released for the first time on DVD in the United States by Anchor Bay Entertainment on October 28, 1997. To date, that DVD release is the only one to feature the original mono audio track as heard in theaters in 1978 and on most home video releases that preceded it. Anchor Bay re-released the film on DVD in various other editions; among these were an "extended edition," which features the original theatrical release with the scenes that were shot for the broadcast TV version edited in at their proper places. In 1999, Anchor Bay issued a two-disc limited edition, which featured both the theatrical and "extended editions," as well as lenticular cover art and lobby cards. In 2003, Anchor Bay released a two-disc "25th Anniversary edition" with improved DiviMax picture and audio, along with an audio commentary by Carpenter, Curtis and Hill, among other features. On October 2, 2007, the film was released for the first time on Blu-ray by Anchor Bay/Starz Home Entertainment. The following year, a "30th Anniversary Commemorative Set" was issued, containing DVD and Blu-ray versions of the film, the sequels Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, and a replica Michael Myers mask. A 35th-anniversary Blu-ray was released in October 2013, featuring a new transfer supervised by cinematographer Dean Cundey. This release earned a Saturn Award for Best Classic Film Release. In September 2014, Scream Factory teamed with Anchor Bay Entertainment to release the film as part of a Blu-ray boxed set featuring every film in the series (up to 2009's Halloween II), made available in a standard and limited edition. The film was released by Lionsgate Home Entertainment (Anchor Bay's successor) in an Ultra HD Blu-ray and Blu-ray edition for the film's 40th anniversary. It is also available online for computer and other devices viewing (streaming rentals) and downloadable files through Amazon.com, Apple's iTunes Store download application and Vudu.com computer servers. In September 2021, Scream Factory released a new 4K Ultra HD Dolby Vision scan of the film, as well as its first four sequels. Reception Critical response Contemporaneous Upon its initial release, Halloween performed well with little advertising, relying mostly on word-of-mouth, but many critics seemed uninterested or dismissive of the film. Pauline Kael wrote a scathing review in The New Yorker suggesting that "Carpenter doesn't seem to have had any life outside the movies: one can trace almost every idea on the screen to directors such as Hitchcock and Brian De Palma and to the Val Lewton productions" and musing that "Maybe when a horror film is stripped of everything but dumb scariness—when it isn't ashamed to revive the stalest device of the genre (the escaped lunatic)—it satisfies part of the audience in a more basic, childish way than sophisticated horror pictures do." The Los Angeles Times deemed the film a "well-made but empty and morbid thriller", while Bill von Maurer of The Miami Times felt it was "surprisingly good", noting: "Taken on its own level, Halloween is a terrifying movie—if you are the right age and the right mood." Susan Stark of the Detroit Free Press branded Halloween a burgeoning cult film at the time of its release, describing it as "moody in the extreme" and praising its direction and music. Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film three and a half stars out of four and called it "a beautifully made thriller" that "works because director Carpenter knows how to shock while making us smile. He repeatedly sets up anticipation of a shock and delays the shock for varying lengths of time. The tension is considerable. More than once during the movie I looked around just to make sure that no one weird was sitting behind me." Gary Arnold of The Washington Post was negative, writing "Since there is precious little character or plot development to pass the time between stalking sequences, one tends to wish the killer would get on with it. Presumably, Carpenter imagines he's building up spine-tingling anticipation, but his techniques are so transparent and laborious that the result is attenuation rather than tension." Lou Cedrone of The Baltimore Evening Sun referred to it as "tediously familiar" and whose only notable element is "Jamie Lee Curtis, whose performance as the intended fourth victim, is well above the rest of the film." Tom Allen of The Village Voice praised the film in his November 1978 review, noting it as sociologically irrelevant but praising its Hitchcock-like technique as effective and "the most honest way to make a good schlock film". Allen pointed out the stylistic similarities to Psycho and George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968). The following month, Voice lead critic Andrew Sarris wrote a follow-up feature on cult films, citing Allen's appraisal of Halloween and writing in the lead sentence that the film "bids fair to become the cult discovery of 1978. Audiences have been heard screaming at its horrifying climaxes". Roger Ebert gave the film similar praise in his 1979 review in the Chicago Sun-Times, referring to it as "a visceral experience—we aren't seeing the movie, we're having it happen to us. It's frightening. Maybe you don't like movies that are really scary: Then don't see this one." Ebert also selected it as one of his top 10 films of 1978. Once-dismissive critics became impressed by Carpenter's choice of camera angles and simple music and surprised by the lack of blood and graphic violence. Retrospective Years after its debut, Halloween is considered by many critics as one of the best films of 1978. On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, which records both contemporaneous and more recent reviews, Halloween holds a 96% approval rating based on 84 critic reviews, with an average rating of 8.8/10. The consensus reads: "Scary, suspenseful, and viscerally thrilling, Halloween set the standard for modern horror films." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 90 out of 100 based on 21 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Many compared the film with the work of Alfred Hitchcock, although TV Guide calls comparisons made to Psycho "silly and groundless" and some critics in the late 1980s and early 1990s blamed the film for spawning the slasher subgenre, which they felt had rapidly descended into sadism and misogyny. Scholars such as Adam Rockoff dispute the recurring descriptions of Halloween as overtly violent or gory, commenting that the film is in fact "one of the most restrained horror films", showing very little onscreen violence. Almost a decade after its premiere, Mick Martin and Marsha Porter critiqued the first-person camera shots that earlier film reviewers had praised and later slasher-film directors used for their own films (for example, 1980's Friday the 13th). Claiming it encouraged audience identification with the killer, Martin and Porter pointed to the way "the camera moves in on the screaming, pleading victim, 'looks down' at the knife, and then plunges it into chest, ear, or eyeball. Now that's sick." Accolades Halloween was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Horror Film by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films in 1979, but lost to The Wicker Man (1973). In 2001, Halloween ranked #68 on the American Film Institute TV program 100 Years ... 100 Thrills. The film was #14 on Bravo's The 100 Scariest Movie Moments (2004). Similarly, the Chicago Film Critics Association named it the 3rd scariest film ever made. In 2006, Halloween was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." In 2008, the film was selected by Empire magazine as one of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time. In 2010, Total Film selected the film as one of The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time. In 2017, Complex magazine named Halloween the best slasher film of all time. The following year, Paste listed it the best slasher film of all time, while Michael Myers was ranked the greatest slasher villain of all time by LA Weekly. American Film Institute lists AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Thrills – #68 AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Heroes & Villains: Michael Myers – Nominated Villain AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – Nominated Legacy Halloween is a widely influential film within the horror genre; it was largely responsible for the popularization of slasher films in the 1980s and helped develop the slasher genre. Halloween popularized many tropes that have become completely synonymous with the slasher genre. Halloween helped to popularize the final girl trope, the killing off of characters who are substance abusers or sexually promiscuous, and the use of a theme song for the killer. Carpenter also shot many scenes from the perspective of the killer in order to build tension. These elements have become so established that many historians argue that Halloween is responsible for the new wave of horror that emerged during the 1980s. Due to its popularity, Halloween became a blueprint for success that many other horror films, such as Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street, followed, and that others like Scream parodied. The major themes present in Halloween also became common in the slasher films it inspired. Film scholar Pat Gill notes that in Halloween, there is a theme of absentee parents but films such as A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th feature the parents becoming directly responsible for the creation of the killer. There are slasher films that predated Halloween, such as Silent Night, Bloody Night (1972), The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and Black Christmas (1974) which contained prominent elements of the slasher genre; both involving a group of teenagers being murdered by a stranger as well as having the final girl trope. Halloween, however, is considered by historians as being responsible for the new wave of horror films, because it not only used these tropes but also pioneered many others. Rockoff notes that it is "difficult to overestimate the importance of Halloween," noting its pioneering use of the final girl character, subjective point-of-view shots, and holiday setting. Rockoff considers the film "the blueprint for all slashers and the model against which all subsequent films are judged." Related works Novelization and video game A mass market paperback novelization of the same name, written by Curtis Richards (a pseudonym that was used by author Richard Curtis), was published by Bantam Books in 1979. It was reissued in 1982. it later went out of print. The novelization adds aspects not featured in the film, such as the origins of the curse of Samhain and Michael Myers' life in Smith's Grove Sanatorium, which contradict its source material. For example, the novel's version of Michael speaks during his time at the sanitarium; in the film, Dr. Loomis states, "He hasn't spoken a word in fifteen years." In 1983, Halloween was adapted as a video game for the Atari 2600 by Wizard Video. None of the main characters in the game were named. Players take on the role of a teenage babysitter who tries to save as many children as possible from an unnamed, knife-wielding killer. In another effort to save money, most versions of the game did not even have a label on the cartridge. It was simply a piece of tape with "Halloween" written in marker. The game contained more gore than the film, however. When the babysitter is killed, her head disappears and is replaced by blood pulsating from the neck as she runs around exaggeratedly. The game's primary similarity to the film is the theme music that plays when the killer appears onscreen. Sequels and remake Halloween spawned nine sequels, an unrelated spin-off film and two films in a remake series. Of the subsequent films, only the first sequel was written by Carpenter and Hill. It begins exactly where Halloween ends and was intended to finish the story of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode. Carpenter did not direct any of the subsequent films in the Halloween series, although he and Hill did produce Halloween III: Season of the Witch, the plot of which is unrelated to the other films in the series due to the absence of Michael Myers. He, along with Alan Howarth, also composed the music for the second and third films. After the negative critical and commercial reception for Season of the Witch, the studio brought back Michael Myers in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. Financier Moustapha Akkad continued to work closely with the Halloween franchise, acting as executive producer of every sequel until his death in the 2005 Amman bombings. With the exception of Halloween III, the sequels further develop the character of Michael Myers and the Samhain theme. Even without considering the third film, the Halloween series contains continuity issues, which some sources attribute to the different writers and directors involved in each film. A remake was released in 2007, and was followed by a 2009 sequel. An eleventh installment was released in 2018, as a direct sequel to the original film, disregarding the previous sequels, and retconning the ending of the first film. It was followed by two direct sequels: Halloween Kills (2021) and Halloween Ends (2022). See also List of films set around Halloween Notes References Works cited External links Halloween essay by Murray Leeder on the National Film Registry website [1] Halloween essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 ISBN 0826429777, pages 748–750 America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry Official website of the Halloween series Halloween at IMDb Halloween at AllMovie Halloween at Box Office Mojo Halloween at Rotten Tomatoes Halloween at the TCM Movie Database Halloween at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films

The Fog is a 1980 American independent supernatural horror film directed by John Carpenter, who also co-wrote the screenplay and created the music for the film. It stars Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Atkins, Janet Leigh and Hal Holbrook. It tells the story of a strange, glowing fog that sweeps over a small coastal town in Northern California. Filmed in the spring of 1979, The Fog was scheduled to be released at Christmas that year by AVCO Embassy Pictures, but its release date was delayed to February 1, 1980. The film divided critics upon release, receiving praise for its visuals and acting, and criticism for its structure and screenplay. Despite mixed reviews, the film grossed $21.3 million domestically. The Fog contains themes of revenge and repressed corrupt historical events resurfacing in contemporary small-town America. In the years since its original release, it has established a cult following. A remake was released in 2005. Plot On the eve of the centennial of the small coastal town Antonio Bay in Northern California, old Mr. Machen tells ghost stories to children by a campfire on the beach. One story is about a clipper ship that crashed against the rocks nearby, causing all of its crew to drown after mistaking a campfire for a lighthouse while sailing through an unearthly fog. Machen finishes the story as midnight strikes and paranormal activity begins occurring around the town. Town priest, Father Malone, discovers his grandfather's diary. The journal reveals that a century earlier, in 1880, the 6 founders of Antonio Bay (including Malone's grandfather) deliberately wrecked a clipper ship named the Elizabeth Dane, so that its wealthy, leprosy-afflicted owner Blake would not establish a leper colony nearby. The conspirators used the gold plundered from the ship to establish the town. Meanwhile, out at sea, a strange, glowing fog envelops a fishermen's trawler. The fog brings with it the Elizabeth Dane, carrying the vengeful ghosts of Blake and his crew, who kill the fishermen. The following morning, local radio DJ Stevie Wayne is given a piece of driftwood by her son Andy, who found it on the beach. It is inscribed with the word "DANE". Stevie takes it with her to the lighthouse where she broadcasts her radio show. As she is listening to music on a cassette, the driftwood begins seeping water. As the water touches her cassette player, a man's voice is inexplicably heard on the tape, swearing revenge, and the words "6 must die" appear on the wood before it bursts into flames. Stevie extinguishes the fire and sees that the wood once again reads "DANE", and the tape is once again playing normally. Town resident Nick and hitchhiker Elizabeth find the lost fishing trawler adrift and the corpse of one of the fishermen. Later, while Elizabeth is in the autopsy room alone, the fisherman's corpse briefly comes to life and accosts her before collapsing. Nick and coroner Dr. Phibes see the now-lifeless corpse has carved the number 3 on the floor with a scalpel. That evening, as the town begins its celebrations, local weatherman Dan is killed by the ghosts at the weather station. The fog has returned and starts moving inland, disrupting the town's telephone and power lines. Using a backup generator, Stevie begs her listeners to go to her house and save her son. The ghosts kill her son's babysitter but Nick and Elizabeth rescue Andy. Stevie advises her listeners to head to the town's church, but then finds herself trapped and under siege by the ghosts when the fog envelops her lighthouse. Seeking refuge inside the church, a group of townsfolk finds a large gold cross in the wall cavity, made from the rest of the stolen gold from the Elizabeth Dane, just as the fog begins enveloping the church and the ghosts begin their attack. Malone, knowing that the ghosts have returned to take 6 lives instead of the 6 original conspirators, offers the gold and himself to spare the others. The ghost of Blake himself seizes the gold cross and he and his crew disappear in a blinding flash of light as the fog miraculously vanishes. Stevie, now alone again at the lighthouse, warns her listeners that the fog could come again and instructs any ships that can hear her to keep an eye out for it. After everyone leaves the church, Malone remains inside and wonders why he was spared given that there were only 5 deaths. The fog then reappears along with the ghosts, and Blake decapitates Malone, making 6. Cast Themes and interpretations The Fog's central themes are revenge and the resurfacing of "repressed past events" in small-town America, as it focuses on the supernatural vengeance inflicted on the residents of a community that has prospered from looted salvage. William Fischer of Collider describes the film as one preoccupied with "an all-American town getting ready to celebrate its founding, a founding marred by a dark crime. When Father Patrick Malone discovers the horrible truth and brings it to the attention of Mayor Kathy Williams, she shrugs it off and dismisses any impact or introspection it might cast over the centenary. It was so long ago, she reasons, and what is there to do about it? And she has a point; there’s no changing the past, and at a certain distance, there’s no rectifying it." Writer Peter Hutchings notes that, while the film contains these implicit themes, that Carpenter is "more interested in conjuring up a sinister atmosphere than he is in exploring some of the social ramifications of such a story". Production Development The initial inspiration for The Fog came to Carpenter when he and his collaborator and then-girlfriend, Debra Hill, were promoting their film Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) in England; the two visited Stonehenge during the trip, where they witnessed an eerie fog rolling over the landscape from a distance. Carpenter stated that he drew additional inspiration for the story from the British film The Trollenberg Terror (1958), which dealt with monsters hiding in the clouds. In the DVD audio commentary for the film, Carpenter noted that the story of the deliberate wreckage of a ship and its subsequent plundering was based on an actual event (the wrecking of the Frolic) that took place in the 19th century near Goleta, California (this event was portrayed more directly in the 1975 Tom Laughlin film, The Master Gunfighter). The premise also bears strong resemblances to Massimo Pupillo's 1965 Terror-Creatures from the Grave as well as the John Greenleaf Whittier poem The Wreck of the Palatine which appeared in The Atlantic Monthly in 1867, about the wreck of the ship Princess Augusta in 1738, at Block Island, within Rhode Island. Carpenter named characters in the screenplay after people with whom he had collaborated on previous projects. Among them are Dan O'Bannon, a screenwriter who worked with Carpenter on Dark Star (1974); Nick Castle, who portrayed Michael Myers in Halloween; Tommy Wallace, an editor, sound designer and art designer who worked on Dark Star and Assault on Precinct 13, as well as several other subsequent projects. The babysitter in the film, Mrs. Kobritz, is named after Richard Kobritz, who produced Carpenter's 1978 television film Someone's Watching Me!. Other references that are interwoven into the film include the name of the John Houseman character "Mr. Machen" (a reference to Welsh horror fantasist Arthur Machen); a radio report that mentions Arkham Reef; and the town's coroner Dr. Phibes was named after the titular character of the horror films starring Vincent Price from the early 1970s. The Fog was part of a two-picture deal with AVCO Embassy Pictures, along with Escape from New York (1981). Casting Cast as the female lead was Adrienne Barbeau, Carpenter's wife, who had appeared in Carpenter's TV movie Someone's Watching Me! in 1978. This was her first feature film. Barbeau also appeared in Carpenter's next film, Escape from New York (1981). Tom Atkins, a friend of Barbeau's, was cast as Nick Castle. The Fog was Atkins' first appearance in a Carpenter film, and he also appeared in Carpenter's next film, Escape from New York (1981) as well as Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), which was produced and scored by Carpenter. Jamie Lee Curtis, who was the main star of Carpenter's 1978 hit Halloween, appeared as Elizabeth. Commenting on the role and on appearing in another of Carpenter's films, she said: "That's what I love about John. He's letting me explore different aspects of myself. I'm spoiled rotten now. My next director is going to be almost a letdown." In a retrospective interview, Curtis stated that her part was written into the film by Carpenter, who felt sympathy for her after the success of Halloween had failed to lead to her obtaining other roles. This was the first collaboration between Carpenter and character actor George Buck Flower, who would go on to appear in four more films directed by Carpenter: Escape from New York (1981), Starman (1984), They Live (1988) and Village of the Damned (1995). Filming Filming took place from April to May 1979 at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood, California (interior scenes) and on location at several other cities in California, including Point Reyes; Bolinas; Inverness; and the Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Sierra Madre. The original production budget was approximately $900,000. The film was shot by cinematographer Dean Cundey, and Carpenter stated the appearance of the film was inspired by the Val Lewton-produced horror films I Walked with a Zombie (1943) and Isle of the Dead (1945), which he described as "very shadowy, all suggestion, and he has all sorts of melodrama going. I was a real fan of that sort of thing." Although a lower-budget independent film, Carpenter chose to shoot in the anamorphic 2.35:1 format to elevate its visual appearance. Post-production After viewing a rough cut of the film, Carpenter was dissatisfied with the results. Recalling the experience, Carpenter commented: "It was terrible. I had a movie that didn't work, and I knew it in my heart". Carpenter subsequently added the prologue with Mr. Machen (John Houseman) telling ghost stories to fascinated children by a campfire (Houseman played a similar role in the opening of the 1981 film Ghost Story), which was filmed on a soundstage. Carpenter added several other new scenes and re-shot others in order to make the film more comprehensible, more frightening and gorier. Among the additions were the sequence in which Curtis's character is approached by a walking-dead corpse in the morgue, as well as the finale in which Barbeau's character ascends to the roof of the lighthouse to escape the mariner ghosts. Carpenter and Debra Hill said the necessity of a re-shoot became especially clear to them after they realized that The Fog would have to compete with horror films that had higher gore content. Approximately one-third of the finished film is the additional footage completed during reshoots. The reshoots increased the film's budget from $900,000 to $1.1 million. Music Carpenter's musical score for The Fog features prominent synthesizer and elements of drone music, and was largely composed in the key of A minor. As the film progresses, its score shifts to the key of B major and features a flatter pitch. The score has been released on compact disc and vinyl in several different editions since the film's release. Release Marketing In addition to the final $1.1 million production budget, AVCO Embassy spent over $3 million solely on advertising which included TV spots, radio spots, print ads and even the placement of fog machines (costing £350 each) in the lobbies of selected theaters where the film was showing. A further undisclosed amount was spent on 600 prints of the film, 540 of which were distributed to American cinemas. Originally, the film was set for release during Christmas 1979, but AVCO Embassy president Bob Rehme opted to wait until February 1980, when there would be less major box office competition from other films and more theater screens available. Box office The film was given a staggered release in various cities by AVCO Embassy Pictures beginning February 1, 1980, before expanding to further locations later that month. Its theatrical run lasted a total of 152 weeks, and it ultimately grossed $21.3 million in the United States and Canada, with $11 million of that total being "rentals" (i.e. the share of the film's box office gross that goes to the film's distributors/studio). Home media The Fog has been released on various home video formats since the early 1980s: Magnetic Video released it on betamax and VHS in the fall of 1980, Embassy Home Entertainment reissued the film again on VHS in 1985. MGM Home Entertainment released the film on VHS in 2000 before issuing a special edition DVD in August 2002. Another special edition DVD was released in Europe in 2004. Scream Factory released the film on Blu-ray in July 2013, before reissuing it on 4K UHD on September 13, 2022, in both standard and limited steelbook editions. Reception Contemporaneous Upon its original release, The Fog received mixed responses from film critics. Ernest Leogrande of the New York Daily News gave the film a middling two out of four-star review, praising the performances but writing that "Carpenter obviously is entranced by ghost stories, but he seems willing to sacrifice story for effect." Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times similarly lauded the acting, and complimented the film as "an elegant and scary thriller of the supernatural that's far more impressive and satisfying than Carpenter's grisly and pointless (but profitable) Halloween." The New York Times's Vincent Canby praised the film's visual elements, but felt it ultimately paled in comparison to Carpenter's Halloween, describing it as "neither a rewarding ghost story nor... science-fiction, though it borrows freely from both genres... Unlike Halloween, which was a model of straight-forward terror and carefully controlled suspense, The Fog is constructed of random diversions. There are too many story lines, which necessitate so much cross-cutting that no one sequence can ever build to a decent climax." In his 1980 review, Roger Ebert gave the film two out of four stars, commenting: "The movie's made with style and energy, but it needs a better villain. This isn't a great movie but it does show great promise from Carpenter." Similarly, Leonard Maltin rated the film 21⁄2-stars-out-of-4 and called it a "well-directed but obvious ghost story." Reassessment In the years following its release, The Fog has amassed a cult following, and later came to be considered, as Carpenter opined regarding his creation, "a minor horror classic" though he also stated it was not his favorite film due to re-shoots and low production values. This is one of the reasons he agreed to the 2005 remake. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 75% of 69 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The website's consensus reads: "A well-crafted return to horror for genre giant John Carpenter, The Fog rolls in and wraps viewers in suitably slow-building chills." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 55 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. In a 2002 review (for the DVD release of the film), Slant reviewer Ed Gonzalez gave the film 3.5 stars out of four, and stated that "Carpenter's use of 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen is beyond legendary and his compositions evoke a town that may as well be the last remaining one on the face of the earth." In 2018, The Guardian called it "one of the director's most atmospheric, the shots of a wave-lashed cove and fog-choked headland making the town's impending reckoning almost poetic." In the early 2010s, Time Out conducted a poll of over 100 authors, directors, actors and critics who have worked within the horror genre to vote for their top horror films. The Fog placed at number 77 on their top 100 list. Zombiemania: 80 Movies to Die For author Arnold T. Blumberg wrote that the film was "a very effective small scale chiller" and "an attempt to capture the essence of a typical spooky American folktale while simultaneously paying homage to the EC Comics of the 1950s and the then very recent Italian zombie influx." Novelization A novelization of the movie, written by Dennis Etchison, was published by Bantam Books in January 1980. The novel clarifies the implication in the film that the six who must die were not random but in fact descendants of the six original conspirators. Remake In 2005, the film was remade under the direction of Rupert Wainwright with a screenplay by Cooper Layne and starring Tom Welling and Maggie Grace. Though based on Carpenter and Hill's original screenplay, the remake was made more in the vein of a "teen horror film" and given a PG-13 rating (the original film was rated R). Green-lit by Revolution Studios with just eighteen pages of script written, the film was panned for its poor script and acting and has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 4%. See also List of ghost films References Sources External links The Fog – official John Carpenter website The Fog at AllMovie The Fog at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films The Fog at IMDb The Fog at the TCM Movie Database The Fog at Rotten Tomatoes The Fog at Mubi

Escape from New York is a 1981 American independent science fiction action film co-written, co-scored and directed by John Carpenter, and starring Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence, Isaac Hayes, Adrienne Barbeau and Harry Dean Stanton. The film, set in the near-future world of 1997, concerns a crime-ridden United States, which has converted Manhattan Island in New York City into the country's sole maximum security prison. Air Force One is hijacked by anti-government insurgents who deliberately crash it into the walled borough. Former Special Forces and current federal prisoner Snake Plissken (Russell) is given just 24 hours to go in and rescue the President of the United States, after which, if successful, he will be pardoned. Carpenter wrote the film in the mid-1970s in reaction to the Watergate scandal. After the success of Halloween (1978), he had enough influence to begin production and filmed it mainly in St. Louis, Missouri, on an estimated budget of $6 million. Debra Hill and Larry J. Franco served as the producers. The film was co-written by Nick Castle, who played Michael Myers in Halloween. Released in the United States on July 10, 1981, the film received positive reviews from critics and was a commercial success, grossing more than $25.2 million at the box office. The film was nominated for four Saturn Awards, including Best Science Fiction Film and Best Direction. The film became a cult classic and was followed by a sequel, Escape from L.A. (1996), which was also directed and written by Carpenter and starred Russell. Plot In a dystopian 1988, amidst war between the United States and an alliance of China and the Soviet Union, Manhattan has been converted into a maximum security prison to address a 400% increase in crime. The island is walled off from the outside world and under heavy police surveillance. In 1997, while flying President John Harker to a peace summit in Hartford, Air Force One is hijacked by a terrorist. The President is handcuffed with a briefcase and put into an escape pod that drops into Manhattan as the aircraft crashes. Police are dispatched to rescue the President. Romero, a subordinate of the Duke of New York (a powerful crime boss), warns the President has been captured and will be killed if any further rescue attempts are made. Meanwhile, former Special Forces soldier Snake Plissken is about to be imprisoned in Manhattan after being convicted of robbing the Federal Reserve. Police Commissioner Bob Hauk offers a deal to Snake: if he rescues the President in time for the summit, Hauk will arrange a presidential pardon. To ensure his cooperation, Hauk has Snake jet injected with micro-explosives that will sever his carotid arteries in 22 hours. If Snake is successful, Hauk will neutralize the explosives. Snake uses a stealth glider to land atop the World Trade Center, then follows the signal of the President's tracking device to a vaudeville theater, only to find that the tracker now hangs from the wrist of a deluded vagrant. Convinced the President is dead, Snake radios Hauk but is told he will be killed if he returns without the President. Inspecting the escape pod, Snake is ambushed by dozens of starving "crazies" and his radio is destroyed. He is rescued by "Cabbie", a jovial character who drives a taxi. Cabbie takes Snake to Harold "Brain" Hellman, an adviser to the Duke and a former associate of Snake's. An engineer by trade, Brain has established a small gasoline refinery fueling the city's remaining cars; he tells Snake that the Duke plans to lead a mass escape across the 69th Street Bridge by using the President as a human shield. Snake forces Brain and his girlfriend Maggie to lead him to the Duke's hideout at Grand Central Terminal. Snake finds the President but gets shot in the leg with a crossbow bolt and is overpowered by the Duke's men. While Snake is forced to fight against Duke's champion Slag in a deathmatch, Brain and Maggie kill Romero and flee with the President. Snake kills Slag and finds the trio trying to escape in the glider. Inmates drop the glider off the roof, forcing the group back down to street level where Cabbie offers to take them across the bridge. Cabbie reveals that he bartered with Romero for a cassette tape that contains information about nuclear fusion, intended to be an international peace offering. The President demands the cassette, but Snake retains it. The Duke pursues them onto the bridge in his customized Cadillac, setting off mines as he tries to catch up. Brain guides Snake, but they hit a mine and Cabbie is killed. As they continue on foot, Brain accidentally stumbles onto another mine. A distraught Maggie sacrifices herself to slow down the Duke. Snake and the President reach the containment wall and guards hoist the President up. The Duke opens fire with Snake's MAC-10, killing the guards before Snake subdues him. As Snake is being lifted up by the rope, the Duke attempts to shoot him, but the President takes up a dead guard's rifle and kills the Duke. Snake is hoisted to safety and Hauk's doctor removes the explosives with seconds to spare. As the President prepares for a televised speech to the leaders at the summit meeting, he thanks Snake for saving him but offers only half-hearted regret for the deaths of his colleagues; Snake walks away in disgust. Hauk offers Snake a job as his deputy but he keeps walking. The President's speech commences and he plays the cassette. To his embarrassment, it only plays Cabbie's favorite song, "Bandstand Boogie". As Snake walks away a free man, he pulls the real cassette from his pocket and destroys it. Cast In addition, frequent Carpenter collaborators Nancy Stephens appeared as the "Hijacker" and Buck Flower appeared as the "Drunk with the president's tracker", respectively, while then-active professional wrestler Ox Baker played "Slag". The narrator was voiced by an uncredited Jamie Lee Curtis. Actor Joe Unger filmed scenes as Snake's partner-in-crime Bill Taylor, but they were cut from the final film. Production Development and writing Carpenter originally wrote the screenplay for Escape from New York in 1976, in the aftermath of Nixon's Watergate scandal. Carpenter said, "The whole feeling of the nation was one of real cynicism about the president." He wrote the screenplay, but no studio wanted to make it because, according to Carpenter, "[i]t was too violent, too scary, [and] too weird". He had been inspired by the film Death Wish, which was very popular at the time. He did not agree with this film's philosophy, but liked how it conveyed "the sense of New York as a kind of jungle, and I wanted to make a science-fiction film along these lines". International Film Investors agreed to provide 50% of the budget, and Goldcrest Films signed a co-financing deal with them. They ended up providing £720,000 of the budget and making a profit of £672,000 from their investment after earning £1,392,000. Casting AVCO Embassy Pictures, the film's financial backer, preferred Charles Bronson, Tommy Lee Jones or Chuck Norris to play the role of Snake Plissken to Carpenter's choice of Kurt Russell, who was trying to overcome the "lightweight" screen image conveyed by his roles in several Disney comedies. Carpenter refused to cast Bronson on the grounds that he was too old, and because he worried that he could lose directorial control over the film with an experienced actor. At the time, Russell described his character as "a mercenary, and his style of fighting is a combination of Bruce Lee, The Exterminator, and Darth Vader, with Eastwood's vocal-ness." Russell suggested that the character should wear an eyepatch. All that matters to Snake, according to the actor, is "the next 60 seconds. Living for exactly that next minute is all there is." Russell used a rigorous diet and exercise program to develop a lean and muscular build. He also endeavored to stay in character between takes and throughout the shooting, as he welcomed the opportunity to get away from the Disney comedies he had done previously. He did find it necessary to remove the eyepatch between takes, as wearing it constantly seriously affected his depth perception. Pre-production Carpenter had just made Dark Star, but no one wanted to hire him as a director, so he assumed he would make it in Hollywood as a screenwriter. The filmmaker went on to do other films with the intention of making Escape later. After the success of Halloween, Avco-Embassy signed producer Debra Hill and him to a two-picture deal. The first film from this contract was The Fog. Initially, the second film he was going to make to finish the contract was The Philadelphia Experiment, but because of script-writing problems, Carpenter rejected it in favor of this project. However, Carpenter felt something was missing and recalls, "This was basically a straight action film. And at one point, I realized it really doesn't have this kind of crazy humor that people from New York would expect to see." He brought in Nick Castle, a friend from his film-school days at University of Southern California, who played "The Shape" in Halloween. Castle invented the Cabbie character and came up with the film's ending. The film's setting proved to be a potential problem for Carpenter, who needed to create a decaying, semi-destroyed version of New York City on a shoestring budget. The film's production designer Joe Alves and he rejected shooting on location in New York City because it would be too hard to make it look like a destroyed city. Carpenter suggested shooting on a movie back lot, but Alves nixed that idea "because the texture of a real street is not like a back lot." They sent Barry Bernardi, their location manager (and associate producer), "on a sort of all-expense-paid trip across the country looking for the worst city in America," producer Debra Hill remembers. Bernardi suggested East St. Louis, Illinois, because it was filled with old buildings "that exist in New York now, and [that] have that seedy run-down quality" that the team was looking for. East St. Louis, sitting across the Mississippi River from the more prosperous St. Louis, Missouri, had entire neighborhoods burned out in 1976 during a massive urban fire. Hill said in an interview, "block after block was burnt-out rubble. In some places, there was absolutely nothing, so that you could see three and four blocks away." Also, Alves found an old bridge to serve as the "69th St. Bridge". The filmmaker purchased the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge for one dollar from the government and then gave it back to them, for the same amount, once production was completed, "so that they wouldn't have any liability," Hill remembers. Locations across the river in St. Louis were used, including Union Station and the Fox Theatre, both of which have since been renovated, as well as the building that would eventually become the Schlafly Tap Room microbrewery. Filming Carpenter and his crew persuaded the city to shut off the electricity to 10 blocks at a time at night. The film was shot from August to November 1980. It was a tough and demanding shoot for the filmmaker as he recalls. "We'd finish shooting at about 6 am and I'd just be going to sleep at 7 when the sun would be coming up. I'd wake up around 5 or 6 pm, depending on whether or not we had dailies, and by the time I got going, the sun would be setting. So for about two and a half months I never saw daylight, which was really strange." The gladiatorial fight to the death scene between Snake and Slag (played by professional wrestler Ox Baker) was filmed in the Grand Hall at St. Louis Union Station. Russell has stated, "That day was a nightmare. All I did was swing a [spiked] bat at that guy and get swung at in return. He threw a trash can in my face about five times ... I could have wound up in pretty bad shape." In addition to shooting on location in St. Louis, Carpenter shot parts of the film in Los Angeles. Various interior scenes were shot on a sound stage; the final scenes were shot at the Sepulveda Dam in Sherman Oaks. New York served as a location, as did Atlanta, to use their futuristic-looking rapid-transit system (the latter scenes were cut from the final film). In New York City, Carpenter persuaded federal officials to grant access to Liberty Island. "We were the first film company in history allowed to shoot on Liberty Island at the Statue of Liberty at night. They let us have the whole island to ourselves. We were lucky. It wasn't easy to get that initial permission. They'd had a bombing three months earlier and were worried about trouble". Carpenter was interested in creating two distinct looks for the movie. "One is the police state, high tech, lots of neon, a United States dominated by underground computers. That was easy to shoot compared to the Manhattan Island prison sequences, which had few lights, mainly torch lights, like feudal England". Certain matte paintings were rendered by James Cameron, who was at the time a special-effects artist with Roger Corman's New World Pictures. Cameron was also one of the directors of photography on the film. As Snake pilots the glider into the city, three screens on his control panel display wireframe animations of the landing target on the World Trade Center and surrounding buildings. Carpenter initially wanted high-tech computer graphics, which were very expensive, even for such a simple animation. The effects crew filmed the miniature model set of New York City they used for other scenes under black light, with reflective tape placed along every edge of the model buildings. Only the tape is visible and appears to be a three-dimensional wireframe animation. Music Soundtrack Release Home media LaserDisc releases Escape from New York was released on LaserDisc 10 times between 1983 and 1998. A 1994 Collector's Edition includes a commentary track by John Carpenter and Kurt Russell that is still included on more recent DVD releases of the film. DVD releases Escape from New York was released on DVD twice by MGM (USA), and once by Momentum Pictures (UK). One MGM release is a barebones edition containing just the theatrical trailer. Another version is the Collector's Edition, a two-disc set featuring a high definition remastered transfer with a 5.1 stereo audio track, two commentaries (one by John Carpenter and Kurt Russell, another by producer Debra Hill and Joe Alves), a making-of featurette, the first issue of a comic book series titled John Carpenter's Snake Plissken Chronicles, and the 10-minute Colorado bank robbery deleted opening sequence. MGM's special edition of the 1981 film was not released until 2003 because the original negative had gone missing. The workprint containing deleted scenes finally turned up in the Hutchinson, Kansas, salt-mine film depository. The excised scenes feature Snake Plissken robbing a bank, introducing the character of Plissken and establishing a backstory. Director John Carpenter decided to add the original scenes into the special edition release as an extra only: "After we screened the rough cut, we realized that the movie didn't really start until Snake got to New York. It wasn't necessary to show what sent him there." The film has been released on the UMD format for Sony's PlayStation Portable. Blu-ray release On August 3, 2010, MGM Home Entertainment released Escape From New York as a bare-bones Blu-ray. Scream Factory, in association with Shout! Factory, released the film on a special edition Blu-ray on April 21, 2015. Reception Box office Escape from New York opened in New York and Los Angeles July 10, 1981. The film grossed $25.2 million in American theaters in summer 1981. Critical response The film received generally positive reviews. Newsweek magazine wrote of Carpenter: "[He has a] deeply ingrained B-movie sensibility – which is both his strength and limitation. He does clean work, but settles for too little. He uses Russell well, however". In Time magazine, Richard Corliss wrote, "John Carpenter is offering this summer's moviegoers a rare opportunity: to escape from the air-conditioned torpor of ordinary entertainment into the hothouse humidity of their own paranoia. It's a trip worth taking". Vincent Canby, in his review for The New York Times, wrote, "[The film] is not to be analyzed too solemnly, though. It's a toughly told, very tall tale, one of the best escape (and escapist) movies of the season". On the other hand, in his negative review for the Chicago Reader, critic Dave Kehr, wrote "it fails to satisfy – it gives us too little of too much". Christopher John reviewed Escape from New York in Ares Magazine #10 and commented that "It is solid summer entertainment of unusually high caliber. By not pretending to be more than it is, but by also not settling for any less than it could be, Escape becomes an exciting, fast-moving drama, the likes of which we haven't seen in years." On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 88% of 72 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The website's consensus reads: "Featuring an atmospherically grimy futuristic metropolis, Escape from New York is a strange, entertaining jumble of thrilling action and oddball weirdness." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 76 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Legacy Cyberpunk pioneer William Gibson credits the film as an influence on his 1984 science fiction novel Neuromancer. "I was intrigued by the exchange in one of the opening scenes where the Warden says to Snake 'You flew the Gullfire over Leningrad, didn't you?' It turns out to be just a throwaway line, but for a moment it worked like the best SF where a casual reference can imply a lot". Popular video game director Hideo Kojima copied aspects of the film for his Metal Gear series. Solid Snake heavily resembles the character Snake Plissken. In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Snake even uses the alias "Pliskin" to hide his real identity during most of the game. J. J. Abrams, producer of the 2008 film Cloverfield, mentioned that a scene in his film, which shows the head of the Statue of Liberty crashing into a New York street, was inspired by the poster for Escape from New York. Empire magazine ranked Snake Plissken number 29 in their "The 100 Greatest Movie Characters" poll. Other media Sequels A sequel, Escape from L.A., was released in 1996, with Carpenter returning along with Russell, now also a producer and co-writer. A remake for Escape from New York began development in 2007, when New Line Cinema won the rights to remake in a bidding war. Gerard Butler was attached to play Snake Plissken, Neal H. Moritz would produce through his Original Film company, and Ken Nolan would be in charge of the screenplay. Len Wiseman was announced to direct, but was later replaced by Brett Ratner, who also stepped down from the project. In April 2010, Variety reported that Breck Eisner was being looked at to direct a remake of Escape from New York, with David Kajganich and Allan Loeb providing revisions to the script. It was later announced in 2011 that New Line had dropped the remake completely. In January 2015, 20th Century Fox purchased the remake rights, with The Picture Company producing. In March 2017, it was announced that Robert Rodriguez would direct a remake of the film with Carpenter producing it. In February 2019, it was reported that Leigh Whannell would be writing the script after Luther creator Neil Cross completed a recent iteration of the project. Wyatt Russell, son of Kurt, was considered to portray Snake Plissken, but he expressed no interest in playing the role, considering it "career suicide." In November 2022, it was revealed that Radio Silence would be directing the film, with Andrew Rona, Alex Heineman, and Radio Silence producing, and Carpenter serving as an executive producer. They are currently searching for a writer. The next month, the film was confirmed to be a sequel, rather than a remake. Novelization In 1981, Bantam Books published a movie tie-in novelization written by Mike McQuay that adopts a lean, humorous style reminiscent of the film. The novel includes significant scenes that were cut from the film, such as the Federal Reserve Depository robbery that results in Snake's incarceration. The novel provides background on the relationship between Snake and Hauk—presenting the characters as disillusioned war veterans, and deepening the relationship that was only hinted in the film. The novel also explains how Snake lost his eye during the Battle for Leningrad in World War III, how Hauk became warden of New York, and Hauk's quest to find his crazed son, who lives somewhere in the prison. The novel gives greater detail on the world in which these characters live, at times presenting a future even bleaker than the one depicted in the film. It explains that the West Coast is a no-man's land, and the nation's population is gradually being driven insane by nerve gas as a result of World War III. The novel also clarifies that the president's plan for the cassette tape is not benevolent. Rather than presenting to the world a new energy source in the form of nuclear fusion (as claimed in the film), the tape actually reveals the successful development of a "fallout-free thermonuclear weapon, which would grant the US supremacy in the global conflict. Comic books Marvel Comics released the one-shot The Adventures of Snake Plissken in January 1997. The story takes place sometime between Escape from New York and before his famous Cleveland escape mentioned in Escape from L.A. Snake has robbed Atlanta's Centers for Disease Control of some engineered metaviruses and is looking for buyers in Chicago. Finding himself in a deal that is really a set-up, he makes his getaway and exacts revenge on the buyer for ratting him out to the United States Police Force. In the meantime, a government lab has built a robot called ATACS (Autonomous Tracking And Combat System) that can catch criminals by imprinting their personalities upon its program to predict and anticipate a specific criminal's every move. The robot's first test subject is America's public enemy number one, Snake Plissken. After a brief battle, the tide turns when ATACS copies Snake to the point of fully becoming his personality. Now recognizing the government as the enemy, ATACS sides with Snake. Unamused, Snake sucker punches the machine and destroys it. As ATACS shuts down, it can only ask him, "Why?" Snake just walks off, answering, "I don't need the competition". In 2003, CrossGen published John Carpenter's Snake Plissken Chronicles, a four-part comic book miniseries. The story takes place a day or so after the events of Escape from New York. Snake has been given a military Humvee after his presidential pardon and makes his way to Atlantic City. Although the director's cut of Escape from New York shows Snake was caught after a bank job, this story has Snake finishing up a second heist that was planned before his capture. The job entails stealing the car in which John F. Kennedy was assassinated from a casino before delivering it to a buyer in the Gulf of Mexico. Snake partners with a man named Marrs who ends up double-crossing him. Left for dead in a sinking crab cage, Snake escapes and is saved by a passing fisherman named Captain Ron (an in-joke referring to Kurt Russell's 1992 comedy, Captain Ron). When Ron denies Snake's request to use his boat to beat Marrs to the robbery, Snake decides to kill him. When Snake ends up saving Ron from the Russian mob, who wants money, Ron changes his mind and helps Snake. Once at the casino, Snake comes face-to-face with Marrs and his men, who arrive at the same time, ending in a high-speed shootout. Snake gets away with the car and its actress portraying Jackie Kennedy, leaving Marrs to be caught by the casino owner, who cuts him a deal to bring his car back and live. After some trouble, Snake manages to finally get the car to the buyer's yacht, using Ron's boat, and is then attacked by Marrs. Following the firefight, the yacht and car are destroyed, Marrs and Captain Ron are dead, and Snake makes his escape in a helicopter with the 30 million credits owed to him for the job. In 2014, BOOM! Studios began publishing an Escape from New York comic book by writer, Christopher Sebela. The first issue of the series was released on December 3, 2014, and the story picks up moments after the end of the film. BOOM! released a crossover comics miniseries between Snake and Jack Burton titled Big Trouble in Little China/Escape from New York in October 2016. Board games An Escape from New York board game was released in 1981 by TSR, Inc. Another board game was crowd-funded in 2022. Cancelled anime In 2003, Carpenter was planning an anime spin-off of Escape from New York, with Outlaw Star's Mitsuru Hongo slated to direct. Cancelled video game A video game adaptation was in development in 2004-2005. References Bibliography John Walsh,Escape from New York: The Official Story of the Film, Titan Books, December 14, 2021. External links Escape from New York at IMDb Escape from New York at the TCM Movie Database Escape from New York at AllMovie Escape from New York at Box Office Mojo Escape from New York at John Carpenter's official website

The Thing is a 1982 American science fiction horror film directed by John Carpenter from a screenplay by Bill Lancaster. Based on the 1938 John W. Campbell Jr. novella Who Goes There?, it tells the story of a group of American researchers in Antarctica who encounter the eponymous "Thing", an extraterrestrial life-form that assimilates, then imitates, other organisms. The group is overcome by paranoia and conflict as they learn that they can no longer trust each other and that any of them could be the Thing. The film stars Kurt Russell as the team's helicopter pilot R.J. MacReady, with A. Wilford Brimley, T. K. Carter, David Clennon, Keith David, Richard Dysart, Charles Hallahan, Peter Maloney, Richard Masur, Donald Moffat, Joel Polis, and Thomas G. Waites in supporting roles. Production began in the mid-1970s as a faithful adaptation of the novella, following 1951's The Thing from Another World. The Thing went through several directors and writers, each with different ideas on how to approach the story. Filming lasted roughly twelve weeks, beginning in August 1981, and took place on refrigerated sets in Los Angeles as well as in Juneau, Alaska, and Stewart, British Columbia. Of the film's $15 million budget, $1.5 million was spent on Rob Bottin's creature effects, a mixture of chemicals, food products, rubber, and mechanical parts turned by his large team into an alien capable of taking on any form. The Thing was released in 1982 to negative reviews that described it as "instant junk" and "a wretched excess". Critics both praised the special effects achievements and criticized their visual repulsiveness, while others found the characterization poorly realized. The film grossed $19.6 million during its theatrical run. Many reasons have been cited for its failure to impress audiences: competition from films such as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which offered an optimistic take on alien visitation; a summer that had been filled with successful science fiction and fantasy films; and an audience living through a recession, diametrically opposed to The Thing's nihilistic and bleak tone. The film found an audience when released on home video and television. In the subsequent years, it has been reappraised as one of the best science fiction and horror films ever made and has gained a cult following. Filmmakers have noted its influence on their work, and it has been referred to in other media such as television and video games. The Thing has spawned a variety of merchandise – including a 1982 novelization, "haunted house" attractions, board games – and sequels in comic books, a video game of the same title, and a 2011 prequel film of the same title. Plot In Antarctica, a Norwegian helicopter pursues a sled dog to an American research station. The Americans witness the passenger accidentally blow up the helicopter and himself. The pilot fires a rifle and shouts at the Americans, but they cannot understand him and he is shot dead in self-defense by station commander Garry. The American helicopter pilot, R.J. MacReady, and Dr. Copper leave to investigate the Norwegian base. Among the charred ruins and frozen corpses, they find the burnt corpse of a malformed humanoid, which they transfer to the American station. Their biologist, Blair, autopsies the remains and finds a normal set of human organs. Clark kennels the sled dog, and it soon metamorphoses and absorbs several of the station dogs. This disturbance alerts the team, and Childs uses a flamethrower to incinerate the creature. Blair autopsies the Dog-Thing and surmises it is an organism that can perfectly imitate other life-forms. Data recovered from the Norwegian base leads the Americans to a large excavation site containing a partially buried alien spacecraft, which Norris estimates has been buried for over a hundred thousand years, and a smaller, human-sized dig site. Blair grows paranoid after running a computer simulation that indicates the creature could assimilate all life on Earth in a matter of years. The group implements controls to reduce the risk of assimilation. The remains of the malformed humanoid assimilate an isolated Bennings, but Windows interrupts the process and MacReady burns the Bennings-Thing. The team also imprisons Blair in a tool shed after he sabotages all the vehicles, kills the remaining sled dogs, and destroys the radio to prevent escape. Copper suggests testing for infection by comparing the crew's blood against uncontaminated blood held in storage, but after learning the blood stores have been destroyed, the men lose faith in Garry's leadership, and MacReady takes command. He, Windows, and Nauls find Fuchs's burnt corpse and surmise he committed suicide to avoid assimilation. Windows returns to base while MacReady and Nauls investigate MacReady's shack. During their return, Nauls abandons MacReady in a snowstorm, believing he has been assimilated after finding his torn clothes in the shack. The team debates whether to allow MacReady inside, but he breaks in and holds the group at bay with dynamite. During the encounter, Norris appears to suffer a heart attack. As Copper attempts to defibrillate Norris, his chest transforms into a large mouth and bites off Copper's arms, killing him. MacReady incinerates the Norris-Thing, but its head detaches and attempts to escape before also being burnt. MacReady hypothesizes that the Norris-Thing demonstrated that every part of the Thing is an individual life-form with its own survival instinct. He proposes testing blood samples from each survivor with a heated piece of wire and has each man restrained, but is forced to kill Clark after he lunges at MacReady with a scalpel. Everyone passes the test except Palmer, whose blood recoils from the heat. Exposed, the Palmer-Thing transforms, breaks free of its bonds, and infects Windows, forcing MacReady to incinerate them both. Childs is left on guard while the others go to test Blair, but they find that he has escaped, and has been using vehicle components to assemble a small flying saucer, which they destroy. Upon their return, Childs is missing, and the power generator is destroyed, leaving the men without heat. MacReady speculates that, with no escape left, the Thing intends to return to hibernation until a rescue team arrives. MacReady, Garry, and Nauls agree that the Thing cannot be allowed to escape and set explosives to destroy the station, but the Blair-Thing kills Garry, and Nauls disappears. The Blair-Thing transforms into an enormous creature and breaks the detonator, but MacReady triggers the explosives with a stick of dynamite, destroying the station. While MacReady sits by the burning remnants, Childs returns, claiming he got lost in the storm while pursuing Blair. Exhausted and slowly freezing to death, they acknowledge the futility of their distrust and share a bottle of Scotch whisky. Cast Kurt Russell as R.J. MacReady, the helicopter pilot A. Wilford Brimley as Blair, the senior biologist T. K. Carter as Nauls, the cook David Clennon as Palmer, the assistant mechanic Keith David as Childs, the chief mechanic Richard Dysart as Dr. Copper, the physician Charles Hallahan as Norris, the geologist Peter Maloney as George Bennings, the meteorologist Richard Masur as Clark, the dog handler Joel Polis as Fuchs, the assistant biologist Donald Moffat as Garry, the station commander Thomas Waites as Windows, the radio operator The Thing also features Norbert Weisser as one of the Norwegians, and an uncredited dog, Jed, as the Dog-Thing. The only female presence in the film is the voice of MacReady's chess computer, voiced by Carpenter's then-wife, Adrienne Barbeau. Producer David Foster, associate producer Larry Franco, and writer Bill Lancaster, along with other members of the crew, make a cameo appearance in a recovered photograph of the Norwegian team. Camera operator Ray Stella stood in for the shots where needles were used to take blood, telling Carpenter that he could do it all day. Franco also played the Norwegian wielding a rifle and hanging out of the helicopter during the opening sequence. Stunt coordinator Dick Warlock also made a number of cameos in the film, most notably in an off-screen appearance as the shadow on the wall during the scene where the Dog-Thing enters one of the researcher's living quarters. Clennon was originally intended to be in the scene, but due to his shadow being easily identifiable Carpenter decided to use Warlock instead. Warlock also played Palmer-Thing and stood in for Brimley in a few scenes that involved Blair. Production Development Development of the film began in the mid-1970s when David Foster and fellow producer Lawrence Turman suggested to Universal Pictures an adaptation of the 1938 John W. Campbell novella Who Goes There?. It had been loosely adapted once before in Howard Hawks's and Christian Nyby's 1951 film The Thing from Another World, but Foster and Turman wanted to develop a project that stuck more closely to the source material. Screenwriters Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins held the rights to make an adaptation, but passed on the opportunity to make a new film, so Universal obtained the rights from them. In 1976, Wilbur Stark had purchased the remake rights to 23 RKO Pictures films, including The Thing from Another World, from three Wall Street financiers who did not know what to do with them, in exchange for a return when the films were produced. Universal in turn acquired the rights to remake the film from Stark, resulting in him being given an executive producer credit on all print advertisements, posters, television commercials, and studio press material. John Carpenter was first approached about the project in 1976 by co-producer and friend Stuart Cohen, but Carpenter was mainly an independent film director, so Universal chose The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) director Tobe Hooper as they already had him under contract. The producers were ultimately unhappy with Hooper and his writing partner Kim Henkel's concept. After several more failed pitches by different writers, and attempts to bring on other directors, such as John Landis, the project was put on hold. Even so, the success of Ridley Scott's 1979 science fiction horror film Alien helped revitalize the project, at which point Carpenter became loosely attached following his success with his influential slasher film Halloween (1978). Carpenter was reluctant to join the project, for he thought Hawks's adaptation would be difficult to surpass, although he considered the film's monster to be unnotable. Cohen suggested that he read the original novella. Carpenter found the "creepiness" of the imitations conducted by the creature, and the questions it raised, interesting. He drew parallels between the novella and Agatha Christie's mystery novel And Then There Were None (1939), and noted that the story of Who Goes There? was "timely" for him, meaning he could make it "true to [his] day" as Hawks had in his time. Carpenter, a fan of Hawks's adaptation, paid homage to it in Halloween, and he watched The Thing from Another World several times for inspiration before filming began. Carpenter and cinematographer Dean Cundey first worked together on Halloween, and The Thing was their first big-budget project for a major film studio. After securing the writer and crew, the film was stalled again when Carpenter nearly quit, believing that a passion project of his, El Diablo (1990), was on the verge of being made by EMI Films. The producers discussed various replacements including Walter Hill, Sam Peckinpah and Michael Ritchie, but the development of El Diablo was not as imminent as Carpenter believed, and he remained with The Thing. Universal initially set a budget of $10 million, with $200,000 for "creature effects", which at the time was more than the studio had ever allocated to a monster film. Filming was scheduled to be completed within 98 days. Universal's production studios estimated that it would require at least $17 million before marketing and other costs, as the plan involved more set construction, including external sets and a large set piece for the original scripted death of Bennings, which was estimated to cost $1.5 million alone. As storyboarding and designs were finalized, the crew estimated they would need at least $750,000 for creature effects, a figure Universal executives agreed to after seeing the number of workers employed under Rob Bottin, the special make-up effects designer. Larry Franco was responsible for making the budget work for the film; he cut the filming schedule by a third, eliminated the exterior sets for on-site shooting, and removed Bennings's more extravagant death scene. Cohen suggested reusing the destroyed American camp as the ruined Norwegian camp, saving a further $250,000. When filming began in August, The Thing had a budget of $11.4 million, and indirect costs brought it to $14 million. The effects budget ran over, eventually totaling $1.5 million, forcing the elimination of some scenes, including Nauls's confrontation of a creature dubbed the "box Thing". By the end of production, Carpenter had to make a personal appeal to executive Ned Tanen for $100,000 to complete a simplified version of the Blair-Thing. The final cost was $12.4 million, and overhead costs brought it to $15 million. Writing Several writers developed drafts for The Thing before Carpenter became involved, including Logan's Run (1967) writer William F. Nolan, novelist David Wiltse, and Hooper and Henkel, whose draft was set at least partially underwater, and which Cohen described as a Moby-Dick-like story in which "The Captain" did battle with a large, non-shapeshifting creature. As Carpenter said in a 2014 interview, "they were just trying to make it work". The writers left before Carpenter joined the project. He said the scripts were "awful", as they changed the story into something it was not, and ignored the chameleon-like aspect of the Thing. Carpenter did not want to write the project himself, after recently completing work on Escape from New York (1981), and having struggled to complete a screenplay for The Philadelphia Experiment (1984). He was wary of taking on writing duties, preferring to let someone else do it. Once Carpenter was confirmed as the director, several writers were asked to script The Thing, including Richard Matheson, Nigel Kneale, and Deric Washburn. Bill Lancaster initially met with Turman, Foster and Cohen in 1977, but he was given the impression that they wanted to closely replicate The Thing from Another World, and he did not want to remake the film. In August 1979, Lancaster was contacted again. By this time he had read the original Who Goes There? novella, and Carpenter had become involved in the project. Lancaster was hired to write the script after describing his vision for the film, and his intention to stick closely to the original story, to Carpenter, who was a fan of Lancaster's work on The Bad News Bears (1976). Lancaster conceived several key scenes in the film, including the Norris-Thing biting Dr. Copper, and the use of blood tests to identify the Thing, which Carpenter cited as the reason he wanted to work on the film. Lancaster said he found some difficulty in translating Who Goes There? to film, as it features very little action. He also made some significant changes to the story, such as reducing the number of characters from 37 to 12. Lancaster said that 37 was excessive and would be difficult for audiences to follow, leaving little screen time for characterization. He also opted to alter the story's structure, choosing to open his in the middle of the action, instead of using a flashback as in the novella. Several characters were modernized for contemporary audiences; MacReady, originally a meteorologist, became a tough loner described in the script as "35. Helicopter pilot. Likes chess. Hates the cold. The pay is good." Lancaster aimed to create an ensemble piece where one person emerged as the hero, instead of having a Doc Savage-type hero from the start. Lancaster wrote thirty to forty pages but struggled with the film's second act, and it took him several months to complete the script. After it was finished, Lancaster and Carpenter spent a weekend in northern California refining the script, each having different takes on how a character should sound, and comparing their ideas for scenes. Lancaster's script opted to keep the creature largely concealed throughout the film, and it was Bottin who convinced Carpenter to make it more visible to have a greater impact on the audience. Lancaster's original ending had both MacReady and Childs turn into the Thing. In the spring, the characters are rescued by helicopter, greeting their saviors with "Hey, which way to a hot meal?". Carpenter thought this ending was too shallow. In total, Lancaster completed four drafts of the screenplay. The novella concludes with the humans clearly victorious, but concerned that birds they see flying toward the mainland may have been infected by the Thing. Carpenter opted to end the film with the survivors slowly freezing to death to save humanity from infection, believing this to be the ultimate heroic act. Lancaster wrote this ending, which eschews a The Twilight Zone-style twist or the destruction of the monster, as he wanted to instead have an ambiguous moment between the pair, of trust and mistrust, fear and relief. Casting Anita Dann served as casting director. Kurt Russell had worked with Carpenter twice before and was involved in the production before being cast, helping Carpenter develop his ideas. Russell was the last actor to be cast, in June 1981, by which point second unit filming was starting in Juneau, Alaska. Carpenter wanted to keep his options open for the lead R.J. MacReady, and discussions with the studio considered Christopher Walken, Jeff Bridges, and Nick Nolte, who were either unavailable or declined, and Sam Shepard, who showed interest but was never pursued. Tom Atkins and Jack Thompson were strong early and late contenders for the role of MacReady, but the decision was ultimately made to go with Russell. In part, Carpenter cited the practicality of choosing someone he had found reliable before, and who would not balk at the difficult filming conditions. It took Russell about a year to grow his hair and beard out for the role. At various points, the producers also met with Brian Dennehy, Kris Kristofferson, John Heard, Ed Harris, Tom Berenger, Jack Thompson, Scott Glenn, Fred Ward, Peter Coyote, Tom Atkins, and Tim McIntire. Some passed on the idea of starring in a monster film, while Dennehy became the choice to play Copper. Each actor was to be paid $50,000, but after the more-established Russell was cast, his salary increased to $400,000. Geoffrey Holder, Carl Weathers, and Bernie Casey were considered for the role of mechanic Childs, and Carpenter also looked at Isaac Hayes, having worked with him on Escape from New York. Ernie Hudson was the front-runner and was almost cast until they met with Keith David. The Thing was David's first significant film role, and coming from a theater background, he had to learn on set how to hold himself back and not show every emotion his character was feeling, with guidance from Richard Masur and Donald Moffat in particular. Masur (dog handler Clark) and David discussed their characters in rehearsals and decided that they would not like each other. For senior biologist Blair, the team chose the then-unknown Wilford Brimley, as they wanted an everyman whose absence would not be questioned by the audience until the appropriate time. The intent with the character was to have him become infected early in the film but offscreen, so that his status would be unknown to the audience, concealing his intentions. Carpenter wanted to cast Donald Pleasence, but it was decided that he was too recognizable to accommodate the role. T. K. Carter was cast as the station's cook Nauls, but comedian Franklyn Ajaye also came in to read for the role. Instead, he delivered a lengthy speech about the character being a stereotype, after which the meeting ended. Bottin lobbied hard to play assistant mechanic Palmer, but it was deemed impossible for him to do so alongside his existing duties. As the character has some comedic moments, Universal brought in comedians Jay Leno, Garry Shandling, and Charles Fleischer, among others, but opted to go with actor David Clennon, who was better suited to play the dramatic elements. Clennon had read for the Bennings character, but he preferred Palmer's "blue-collar stoner" role to a "white collar science man". Powers Boothe, Lee Van Cleef, Jerry Orbach, and Kevin Conway were considered for the role of station commander Garry, and Richard Mulligan was also considered when the production experimented with the idea of making the character closer to MacReady in age. Masur also read for Garry, but he asked to play the dog handler Clark instead, as he liked the character's dialogue and was also a fan of dogs. Masur worked daily with the wolfdog Jed and his handler, Clint Rowe, during rehearsals, as Rowe was familiarizing Jed with the sounds and smells of people. This helped Masur's and Jed's performance onscreen, as the dog would stand next to him without looking for his handler. Masur described his character as one uninterested in people, but who loves working with dogs. He went to a survivalist store and bought a flip knife for his character, and used it in a confrontation with David's character. Masur turned down a role in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial to play Clark. William Daniels and Dennehy were both interested in playing Dr. Copper, and it was a last-second decision by Carpenter to go with Richard Dysart. In early drafts, Windows was called Sanchez, and later Sanders. The name Windows came when the actor for the role, Thomas Waites, was in a costume fitting and tried on a large pair of dark glasses, which the character wears in the film. Russell described the all-male story as interesting since the men had no one to posture for without women. Filming The Thing was storyboarded extensively by Mike Ploog and Mentor Huebner before filming began. Their work was so detailed that many of the film's shots replicate the image layout completely. Cundey pushed for the use of anamorphic format aspect ratio, believing that it allowed for placing several actors in an environment, and making use of the scenic vistas available, while still creating a sense of confinement within the image. It also enabled the use of negative space around the actors to imply something may be lurking just offscreen. Principal photography began on August 24, 1981, in Juneau, Alaska. Filming lasted about twelve weeks. Carpenter insisted on two weeks of rehearsals before filming as he wanted to see how scenes would play out. This was unusual at the time because of the expense involved. Filming then moved to the Universal lot, where the outside heat was over 100 °F (38 °C). The internal sets were climate-controlled to 28 °F (−2 °C) to facilitate their work. The team considered building the sets inside an existing refrigerated structure but were unable to find one large enough. Instead, they collected as many portable air conditioners as they could, closed off the stage, and used humidifiers and misters to add moisture to the air. After watching a roughly assembled cut of filming to date, Carpenter was unhappy that the film seemed to feature too many scenes of men standing around talking. He rewrote some already completed scenes to take place outdoors to be shot on location when principal photography moved to Stewart, British Columbia. Carpenter was determined to use authentic locations instead of studio sets, and his successes on Halloween and The Fog (1980) gave him the credibility to take on the much bigger-budget production of The Thing. A film scout located an area just outside Stewart, along the Canadian coast, which offered the project both ease of access and scenic value during the day. On December 2, 1981, roughly 100 American and Canadian crew members moved to the area to begin filming. During the journey there, the crew bus slid in the snow toward the unprotected edge of the road, nearly sending it down a 500-foot (150 m) embankment. Some of the crew stayed in the small mining town during filming, while others lived on residential barges on the Portland Canal. They would make the 27-mile (43 km) drive up a small, winding road to the filming location in Alaska where the exterior outpost sets were built. The sets had been built in Alaska during the summer, atop a rocky area overlooking a glacier, in preparation for snow to fall and cover them. They were used for both interior and exterior filming, meaning they could not be heated above freezing inside to ensure there was always snow on the roof. Outside, the temperature was so low that the camera lenses would freeze and break. The crew had to leave the cameras in the freezing temperatures, as keeping them inside in the warmth resulted in foggy lenses that took hours to clear. Filming, greatly dependent on the weather, took three weeks to complete, with heavy snow making it impossible to film on some days. Rigging the explosives necessary to destroy the set in the film's finale required 8 hours. Keith David broke his hand in a car accident the day before he was to begin shooting. David attended filming the next day, but when Carpenter and Franco saw his swollen hand, they sent him to the hospital where it was punctured with two pins. He returned wearing a surgical glove beneath a black glove that was painted to resemble his complexion. His left hand is not seen for the first half of the film. Carpenter filmed the Norwegian camp scenes after the end scenes, using the damaged American base as a stand-in for the charred Norwegian camp. The explosive destruction of the base required the camera assistants to stand inside the set with the explosives, which were activated remotely. The assistants then had to run to a safe distance while seven cameras captured the base's destruction. Filmed when the heavy use of special effects was rare, the actors had to adapt to having Carpenter describe to them what their characters were looking at, as the effects would not be added until post-production. There were some puppets used to create the impression of what was happening in the scene, but in other cases, the cast would be looking at a wall or an object marked with an X. Art director John J. Lloyd oversaw the design and construction of all the sets, as there were no existing locations used in the film. Cundey suggested that the sets should have ceilings and pipes seen on camera to make the spaces seem more claustrophobic. Post-production Several scenes in the script were omitted from the film, sometimes because there was too much dialogue that slowed the pace and undermined the suspense. Carpenter blamed some of the issues on his directorial method, noting that several scenes appeared to be repeating events or information. Another scene featuring a snowmobile chase pursuing dogs was removed from the shooting script as it would have been too expensive to film. One scene present in the film, but not the script, features a monologue by MacReady. Carpenter added this partly to establish what was happening in the story and because he wanted to highlight Russell's heroic character after taking over the camp. Carpenter said that Lancaster's experience writing ensemble pieces did not emphasize single characters. Since Halloween, several horror films had replicated many of the scare elements of that film, something Carpenter wanted to move away from for The Thing. He removed scenes from Lancaster's script that had been filmed, such as a body suddenly falling into view at the Norwegian camp, which he felt were too clichéd. Approximately three minutes of scenes were filmed from Lancaster's script that elaborated on the characters' backgrounds. A scene with MacReady absentmindedly inflating a blow-up doll while watching the Norwegian tapes was filmed but was not used in the finished film. The doll would later appear as a jump scare with Nauls. Other scenes featured expanded or alternate deaths for various characters. In the finished film, Fuchs's charred bones are discovered, revealing he has died offscreen, but an alternate take sees his corpse impaled on a wall with a shovel. Nauls was scripted to appear in the finale as a partly assimilated mass of tentacles, but in the film, he simply disappears. Carpenter struggled with a method of conveying to the audience what assimilation by the creature actually meant. Lancaster's original set piece of Bennings's death had him pulled beneath a sheet of ice by the Thing, before resurfacing in different areas in various stages of assimilation. The scene called for a set to be built on one of Universal's largest stages, with sophisticated hydraulics, dogs, and flamethrowers, but it was deemed too costly to produce. A scene was filmed with Bennings being murdered by an unknown assailant, but it was felt that assimilation, leading to his death, was not explained enough. Short on time, and with no interior sets remaining, a small set was built, Maloney was covered with K-Y Jelly, orange dye, and rubber tentacles. Monster gloves for a different creature were repurposed to demonstrate partial assimilation. Carpenter filmed multiple endings for The Thing, including a "happier" ending because editor Todd Ramsay thought that the bleak, nihilistic conclusion would not test well with audiences. In the alternate take, MacReady is rescued and given a blood test that proves he is not infected. Carpenter said that stylistically this ending would have been "cheesy". Editor Verna Fields was tasked with reworking the ending to add clarity and resolution. It was finally decided to create an entirely new scene, which omitted the suspicion of Childs being infected by removing him completely, leaving MacReady alone. This new ending tested only slightly better with audiences than the original, and the production team agreed to the studio's request to use it. It was set to go to print for theaters when the producers, Carpenter, and executive Helena Hacker decided that the film was better left with ambiguity instead of nothing at all. Carpenter gave his approval to restore the ambiguous ending, but a scream was inserted over the outpost explosion to posit the monster's death. Universal executive Sidney Sheinberg disliked the ending's nihilism and, according to Carpenter, said, "Think about how the audience will react if we see the [Thing] die with a giant orchestra playing". Carpenter later noted that both the original ending and the ending without Childs tested poorly with audiences, which he interpreted as the film simply not being heroic enough. Music Ennio Morricone composed the film's score, as Carpenter wanted The Thing to have a European musical approach. Carpenter flew to Rome to speak with Morricone to convince him to take the job. By the time Morricone flew to Los Angeles to record the score, he had already developed a tape filled with an array of synthesizer music because he was unsure what type of score Carpenter wanted. Morricone wrote complete separate orchestral and synthesizer scores and a combined score, which he knew was Carpenter's preference. Carpenter picked a piece, closely resembling his own scores, that became the main theme used throughout the film. He also played the score from Escape from New York for Morricone as an example. Morricone made several more attempts, bringing the score closer to Carpenter's own style of music. In total, Morricone produced a score of approximately one hour that remained largely unused but was later released as part of the film's soundtrack. Carpenter and his longtime collaborator Alan Howarth separately developed some synth-styled pieces used in the film. In 2012, Morricone recalled: I've asked [Carpenter], as he was preparing some electronic music with an assistant to edit on the film, "Why did you call me, if you want to do it on your own?" He surprised me, he said – "I got married to your music. This is why I've called you." ... Then when he showed me the film, later when I wrote the music, we didn't exchange ideas. He ran away, nearly ashamed of showing it to me. I wrote the music on my own without his advice. Naturally, as I had become quite clever since 1982, I've written several scores relating to my life. And I had written one, which was electronic music. And [Carpenter] took the electronic score. Carpenter said: [Morricone] did all the orchestrations and recorded for me 20 minutes of music I could use wherever I wished but without seeing any footage. I cut his music into the film and realized that there were places, mostly scenes of tension, in which his music would not work ... I secretly ran off and recorded in a couple of days a few pieces to use. My pieces were very simple electronic pieces – it was almost tones. It was not really music at all but just background sounds, something today you might even consider as sound effects. Design Creature effects The Thing's special effects were largely designed by Bottin, who had previously worked with Carpenter on The Fog (1980). When Bottin joined the project in mid-1981, pre-production was in progress, but no design had been settled on for the alien. Artist Dale Kuipers had created some preliminary paintings of the creature's look, but he left the project after being hospitalized following a traffic accident before he could develop them further with Bottin. Carpenter conceived the Thing as a single creature, but Bottin suggested that it should be constantly changing and able to look like anything. Carpenter initially considered Bottin's description of his ideas as "too weird", and had him work with Ploog to sketch them instead. As part of the Thing's design, it was agreed anyone assimilated by it would be a perfect imitation and would not know they were the Thing. The actors spent hours during rehearsals discussing whether they would know they were the Thing when taken over. Clennon said that it did not matter, because everyone acted, looked and smelled exactly the same before (or after) being taken over. At its peak, Bottin had a 35-person crew of artists and technicians, and he found it difficult to work with so many people. To help manage the team, he hired Erik Jensen, a special effects line producer who he had worked with on The Howling (1981), to be in charge of the special make-up effects unit. Bottin's crew also included mechanical aspect supervisor Dave Kelsey, make-up aspect coordinator Ken Diaz, moldmaker Gunnar Ferdinansen, and Bottin's longtime friend Margaret Beserra, who managed painting and hair work. In designing the Thing's different forms, Bottin explained that the creature had been all over the galaxy. This allowed it to call on different attributes as necessary, such as stomachs that transform into giant mouths and spider legs sprouting from heads. Bottin said the pressure he experienced caused him to dream about working on designs, some of which he would take note of after waking. One abandoned idea included a series of dead baby monsters, which was deemed "too gross". Bottin admitted he had no idea how his designs would be implemented practically, but Carpenter did not reject them. Carpenter said, "What I didn't want to end up with in this movie was a guy in a suit ... I grew up as a kid watching science-fiction monster movies, and it was always a guy in a suit." According to Cundey, Bottin was very sensitive about his designs, and worried about the film showing too many of them. At one point, as a preemptive move against any censorship, Bottin suggested making the creature's violent transformations and the appearance of the internal organs more fantastical using colors. The decision was made to tone down the color of the blood and viscera, although much of the filming had been completed by that point. The creature effects used a variety of materials including mayonnaise, creamed corn, microwaved bubble gum, and K-Y Jelly. During filming, then-21-year-old Bottin was hospitalized for exhaustion, double pneumonia, and a bleeding ulcer, caused by his extensive workload. Bottin himself explained he would "hoard the work", opting to be directly involved in many of the complicated tasks. His dedication to the project saw him spend over a year living on the Universal lot. Bottin said he did not take a day off during that time and slept on the sets or in locker rooms. To take some pressure off his crew, Bottin enlisted the aid of special effects creator Stan Winston to complete some of the designs, primarily the Dog-Thing. With insufficient time to create a sophisticated mechanical creature, Winston opted to create a hand puppet. A cast was made of makeup artist Lance Anderson's arm and head, around which the Dog-Thing was sculpted in oil-based clay. The final foam-latex puppet, worn by Anderson, featured radio-controlled eyes and cable-controlled legs, and was operated from below a raised set on which the kennel was built. Slime from the puppet would leak onto Anderson during the two days it took to film the scene, and he had to wear a helmet to protect himself from the explosive squibs simulating gunfire. Anderson pulled the tentacles into the Dog-Thing and reverse motion was used to create the effect of them slithering from its body. Winston refused to be credited for his work, insisting that Bottin deserved sole credit; Winston was given a "thank you" in the credits instead. In the "chest chomp" scene, Dr. Copper attempts to revive Norris with a defibrillator. Revealing himself as the Thing, Norris-Thing's chest transforms into a large mouth that severs Copper's arms. Bottin accomplished this scene by recruiting a double amputee and fitting him with prosthetic arms filled with wax bones, rubber veins and Jell-O. The arms were then placed into the practical "stomach mouth" where the mechanical jaws clamped down on them, at which point the actor pulled away, severing the false arms. The effect of the Norris-Thing's head detaching from the body to save itself took many months of testing before Bottin was satisfied enough to film it. The scene involved a fire effect, but the crew were unaware that fumes from the rubber foam chemicals inside the puppet were flammable. The fire ignited the fumes, creating a large fireball that engulfed the puppet. It suffered only minimal damage after the fire had been put out, and the crew successfully filmed the scene. Stop-motion expert Randall William Cook developed a sequence for the end of the film where MacReady is confronted by the gigantic Blair-Thing. Cook created a miniature model of the set and filmed wide-angle shots of the monster in stop motion, but Carpenter was not convinced by the effect and used only a few seconds of it. It took fifty people to operate the actual Blair-Thing puppet. The production intended to use a camera centrifuge – a rotating drum with a fixed camera platform – for the Palmer-Thing scene, allowing him to seem to run straight up the wall and across the ceiling. Again, the cost was too high and the idea abandoned for a stuntman falling into frame onto a floor made to look like the outpost's ceiling. Stuntman Anthony Cecere stood in for the Palmer-Thing after MacReady sets it on fire and it crashes through the outpost wall. Visuals and lighting Cundey worked with Bottin to determine the appropriate lighting for each creature. He wanted to show off Bottin's work because of its details, but he was conscious that showing too much would reveal its artificial nature, breaking the illusion. Each encounter with the creature was planned for areas where they could justify using a series of small lights to highlight the particular creature-model's surface and textures. Cundey would illuminate the area behind the creature to detail its overall shape. He worked with Panavision and a few other companies to develop a camera capable of automatically adjusting light exposure at different film speeds. He wanted to try filming the creature at fast and slow speeds thinking this would create a more interesting visual effect, but they were unable to accomplish this at the time. For the rest of the set, Cundey created a contrast by lighting the interiors with warmer lights hung overhead in conical shades so that they could still control the lighting and have darkened areas on set. The outside was constantly bathed in a cold, blue light that Cundey had discovered being used on airport runways. The reflective surface of the snow and the blue light helped create the impression of coldness. The team also made use of the flamethrowers and magenta-hued flares used by the actors to create dynamic lighting. The team originally wanted to shoot the film in black-and-white, but Universal was reluctant as it could affect their ability to sell the television rights for the film. Instead, Cundey suggested muting the colors as much as possible. The inside of the sets were painted in neutral colors such as gray, and many of the props were also painted gray, while the costumes were a mix of somber browns, blues, and grays. They relied on the lighting to add color. Albert Whitlock provided matte-painted backdrops, including the scene in which the Americans discover the giant alien spaceship buried in the ice. A scene where MacReady walks up to a hole in the ice where the alien had been buried was filmed at Universal, while the surrounding area, including the alien spaceship, helicopter, and snow, were all painted. Carpenter's friend John Wash, who developed the opening computer simulation for Escape from New York, used a Cromemco Z-2 to design the computer program showing how the Thing assimilates other organisms. Colors were added by placing filters in front of an animation camera used to shoot the computer frames. Model maker Susan Turner built the alien ship approaching Earth in the pre-credits sequence, which featured 144 strobing lights. Drew Struzan designed the film's poster. He completed it in 24 hours, based only on a briefing, knowing little about the film. Release Marketing The lack of information about the film's special effects drew the attention of film exhibitors in early 1982. They wanted reassurance that The Thing was a first-rate production capable of attracting audiences. Cohen and Foster, with a specially employed editor and Universal's archive of music, put together a 20-minute showreel emphasizing action and suspense. They used available footage, including alternate and extended scenes not in the finished film, but avoided revealing the special effects as much as possible. The reaction from the exclusively male exhibitors was generally positive, and Universal executive Robert Rehme told Cohen that the studio was counting on The Thing's success, as they expected E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial to appeal only to children. While finalizing the film, Universal sent Carpenter a demographic study showing that the audience appeal of horror films had declined by seventy percent over the previous six months. Carpenter considered this a suggestion that he lower his expectations of the film's performance. After one market research screening, Carpenter queried the audience on their thoughts, and one audience member asked, "Well what happened in the very end? Which one was the Thing ...?" When Carpenter responded that it was up to their imagination, the audience member responded, "Oh, God. I hate that." After returning from a screening of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the audience's silence at a trailer of The Thing caused Foster to remark, "We're dead". The response to public pre-screenings of The Thing resulted in the studio changing the somber, black-and-white advertising approved by the producers to a color image of a person with a glowing face. The tagline was also changed from "Man is the warmest place to hide" – written by Stephen Frankfort, who wrote the Alien tagline, "In space, no one can hear you scream" – to "The ultimate in alien terror", trying to capitalize on Alien's audience. Carpenter attempted to make a last-minute change of the film's title to Who Goes There?, to no avail. The week before its release, Carpenter promoted the film with clips on Late Night with David Letterman. In 1981, horror magazine Fangoria held a contest encouraging readers to submit drawings of what the Thing would look like. Winners were rewarded with a trip to Universal Studios. On its opening day, a special screening was held at the Hollywood Pacific Theatre, presided over by Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, with free admission for those in costume as monsters. Box office The Thing was released in the United States on June 25, 1982. During its opening weekend, the film earned $3.1 million from 840 theaters – an average of $3,699 per theater – finishing as the number eight film of the weekend behind supernatural horror Poltergeist ($4.1 million), which was in its fourth weekend of release, and ahead of action film Megaforce ($2.3 million). It dropped out of the top 10 grossing films after three weeks, and ended its run earning a total of $19.6 million against its $15 million budget, making it only the 42nd highest-grossing film of 1982. It was not a box office failure, nor was it a hit. Subsequent theatrical releases have raised the box office gross to $19.9 million as of 2023. Reception Critical reception The film received negative reviews on its release, and hostility for its cynical, anti-authoritarian tone and graphic special effects. Some reviewers were dismissive of the film, calling it the "quintessential moron movie of the 80's", "instant junk", and a "wretched excess". Starlog's Alan Spencer called it a "cold and sterile" horror movie attempting to cash in on the genre audience, against the "optimism of E.T., the reassuring return of Star Trek II, the technical perfection of Tron, and the sheer integrity of Blade Runner". The plot was criticized as "boring", and undermined by the special effects. The Los Angeles Times's Linda Gross said that The Thing was "bereft, despairing, and nihilistic", and lacking in feeling, meaning the characters' deaths did not matter. Spencer said it featured sloppy continuity, lacked pacing, and was devoid of warmth or humanity. David Ansen of Newsweek felt the film confused the use of effects with creating suspense, and that it lacked drama by "sacrificing everything at the altar of gore". The Chicago Reader's Dave Kehr considered the dialogue to be banal and interchangeable, making the characters seem and sound alike. The Washington Post's Gary Arnold said it was a witty touch to open with the Thing having already overcome the Norwegian base, defeating the type of traps seen in the 1951 version, while New York's David Denby lamented that the Thing's threat is shown only externally, without focusing on what it is like for someone who thinks they have been taken over. Roger Ebert considered the film to be scary, but offering nothing original beyond the special effects, while The New York Times's Vincent Canby said it was entertaining only if the viewer needed to see spider-legged heads and dog autopsies. Reviews of the actors' performances were generally positive, while criticizing the depictions of the characters they portrayed. Ebert said they lacked characterization, offering basic stereotypes that existed just to be killed, and Spencer called the characters bland even though the actors do the best they can with the material. Time's Richard Schickel singled Russell out as the "stalwart" hero, where other characters were not as strongly or wittily characterized, and Variety said that Russell's heroic status was undercut by the "suicidal" attitude adopted toward the film's finale. Other reviews criticized implausibilities such as characters wandering off alone. Kehr did not like that the men did not band together against the Thing, and several reviews noted a lack of camaraderie and romance, which Arnold said reduced any interest beyond the special effects. The film's special effects were simultaneously lauded and lambasted for being technically brilliant but visually repulsive and excessive. Cinefantastique wrote that the Thing "may be the most unloved monster in movie history ... but it's also the most incredible display of special effects makeup in at least a decade." Reviews called Bottin's work "genius", noting the designs were novel, unforgettable, "colorfully horrific", and called him a "master of the macabre". Arnold said that the "chest chomp" scene demonstrated "appalling creativity" and the subsequent severed head scene was "madly macabre", comparing them to Alien's chest burster and severed head scenes. Variety called it "the most vividly gruesome horror film to ever stalk the screens". Conversely, Denby called them more disgusting than frightening and lamented that the trend of horror films to open the human body more and more bordered on obscenity. Spencer said that Bottin's care and pride in his craft were shown in the effects, but both they and Schickel found them to be overwhelming and "squandered" without strong characters and story. Even so, Canby said that the effects were too "phony looking to be disgusting". Canby and Arnold said the creature's lack of a single, discernible shape was to its detriment, and hiding it inside humans made it hard to follow. Arnold said that the 1951 version was less versatile but easier to keep in focus. Gross and Spencer praised the film's technical achievements, particularly Cundey's "frostbitten" cinematography, the sound, editing, and Morricone's score. Spencer was critical of Carpenter's direction, saying it was his "futile" attempt to give the audience what he thinks they want and that Carpenter was not meant to direct science fiction, but was instead suited to direct "traffic accidents, train wrecks, and public floggings". Ansen said that "atrocity for atrocity's sake" was ill-becoming of Carpenter. The Thing was often compared to similar films, particularly Alien, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), and The Thing from Another World. Ebert and Denby said that The Thing seemed derivative compared to those films, which had portrayed the story in a better way. Variety called it inferior to the 1951 version. Arnold considered The Thing as the result of Alien raising the requirement for horrific spectacle. The Thing from Another World actor Kenneth Tobey and director Christian Nyby also criticized the film. Nyby said, "If you want blood, go to the slaughterhouse ... All in all, it's a terrific commercial for J&B Scotch". Tobey singled out the visual effects, saying they "were so explicit that they actually destroyed how you were supposed to feel about the characters ... They became almost a movie in themselves, and were a little too horrifying." In Phil Hardy's 1984 book Science Fiction, a reviewer described the film as a "surprising failure" and called it "Carpenter's most unsatisfying film to date". The review noted that the narrative "seems little more than an excuse for the various set-pieces of special effects and Russell's hero is no more than a cypher compared to Tobey's rounded character in Howard Hawks' The Thing". Clennon said that introductory scenes for the characters, omitted from the film, made it hard for audiences to connect with them, robbing it of some of the broader appeal of Alien. Accolades The Thing received nominations from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films for Best Horror Film and Best Special Effects, but lost to Poltergeist and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, respectively. The film was nominated at the Razzie Awards for Worst Musical Score. Post-release Performance analysis and aftermath In a 1999 interview, Carpenter said audiences rejected The Thing for its nihilistic, depressing viewpoint at a time when the United States was in the midst of a recession. When it opened, it was competing against the critically and commercially successful E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial ($619 million), a family-friendly film released two weeks earlier that offered a more optimistic take on alien visitation. Carpenter described it as the complete opposite of his film. The Thing opened on the same day as the science fiction film Blade Runner, which debuted as the number two film that weekend with a take of $6.1 million and went on to earn $33.8 million. It was also regarded as a critical and commercial failure at the time. Others blamed an oversaturation of science fiction and fantasy films released that year, including Conan the Barbarian ($130 million), Poltergeist ($121.7 million), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan ($97 million), Mad Max 2 ($34.5 million), and Tron ($33 million). Some analysts blamed Universal's poor marketing, which did not compete with the deluge of promotion for prominent films released that summer. Another factor was the R rating it was given, restricting the audience to those over the age of 17 unless accompanied by an adult. In contrast, Poltergeist, another horror film, received a PG rating, allowing families and younger children to view it. The impact on Carpenter was immediate – he lost the job of directing the 1984 science fiction horror film Firestarter because of The Thing's poor performance. His previous success had gained him a multiple-film contract at Universal, but the studio opted to buy him out of it instead. He continued making films afterward but lost confidence, and did not openly talk about The Thing's failure until a 1985 interview with Starlog, where he said, "I was called 'a pornographer of violence' ... I had no idea it would be received that way ... The Thing was just too strong for that time. I knew it was going to be strong, but I didn't think it would be too strong ... I didn't take the public's taste into consideration." Shortly after its release, Wilbur Stark sued Universal for $43 million for "slander, breach of contract, fraud and deceit", alleging he incurred a financial loss by Universal failing to credit him properly in its marketing and by showing his name during the end credits, a less prestigious position. Stark also said that he "contributed greatly to the [screenplay]". David Foster responded that Stark was not involved with the film's production in any way, and received proper credit in all materials. Stark later sued for a further $15 million over Foster's comments. The outcome of the lawsuits is unknown. Home media While The Thing was not initially successful, it was able to find new audiences and appreciation on home video, and later on television. Sidney Sheinberg edited a version of the film for network television broadcast, which added narration and a different ending, where the Thing imitates a dog and escapes the ruined camp. Carpenter disowned this version, and theorized that Sheinberg had been mad at him for not taking his creative ideas on board for the theatrical cut. The Thing was released on DVD in 1998 and featured additional content, such as The Thing: Terror Takes Shape – a detailed documentary on the production, deleted and alternate scenes, and commentary by Carpenter and Russell. An HD DVD version followed in 2006 containing the same features, and a Blu-ray version in 2008 featuring just the Carpenter and Russell commentary, and some behind-the-scenes videos available via picture-in-picture during the film. A 2016 Blu-ray release featured a 2K resolution restoration of the film, overseen by Dean Cundey. As well as including previous features such as the commentary and Terror Takes Shape, it added interviews with the cast and crew, and segments that focus on the music, writing, editing, Ploog's artwork, an interview with Alan Dean Foster, who wrote the film's novelization, and the television broadcast version of The Thing that runs fifteen minutes shorter than the theatrical cut. A 4K resolution restoration was released in 2017 on Blu-ray, initially as a United Kingdom exclusive with a limited run of eight thousand units. The restoration was created using the original film negative, and was overseen by Carpenter and Cundey. A 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray was released in September 2021. MCA released the soundtrack for The Thing in 1982. Varèse Sarabande re-released it in 1991 on compact disc and Compact Cassette. These versions eventually ceased being manufactured. In 2011, Howarth and Larry Hopkins restored Morricone's score using updated digital techniques and arranged each track in the order it appears in the film. The album also includes tracks composed by Carpenter and Howarth for the film. A remastered version of the score was released on vinyl on February 23, 2017; a deluxe edition included an exclusive interview with Carpenter. In May 2020, an extended play (EP), Lost Cues: The Thing, was released. The EP contains Carpenter's contributions to The Thing's score; he re-recorded the music because the original masterings were lost. Other media A novelization of the film was published by Alan Dean Foster in 1982. It is based on an earlier draft of the script and features some differences from the finished film. A scene in which MacReady, Bennings, and Childs chase infected dogs out into the snow is included, and Nauls's disappearance is explained: Cornered by the Blair-Thing, he chooses suicide over assimilation. In 2000, McFarlane Toys released two "Movie Maniacs" figures: the Blair-Thing and the Norris-Thing, including its spider-legged, disembodied head. SOTA Toys released a set featuring a MacReady figure and the Dog-Thing based on the film's kennel scene, as well as a bust of the Norris-Thing's spider-head. In 2017, Mondo and the Project Raygun division of USAopoly released The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31, a board game. Players take on the role of characters from the film or the Thing, each aiming to defeat the other through subterfuge and sabotage. In April 2023, it was announced that The Thing and characters from the film would be featured in the upcoming video game, Funko Fusion, set to be released in 2024. The game is set to include R.J. MacReady, Childs and Dr. Copper. In November 2023, it was announced that The Thing would be featured in the video game, Pinball M. The Thing Pinball, a table based on the film, was released on November 30, 2023. The table includes R.J. MacReady and various other elements from the film. Thematic analysis The central theme of The Thing concerns paranoia and mistrust. Fundamentally, the film is about the erosion of trust in a small community, instigated by different forms of paranoia caused by the possibility of someone not being who they say they are, or that your best friend may be your enemy. It represents the distrust that humans always have for somebody else and the fear of betrayal by those we know and, ultimately, our bodies. The theme remains timely because the subject of paranoia adapts to the age. The Thing focuses on being unable to trust one's peers, but this can be interpreted as distrust of entire institutions. Developed in an era of cold-war tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, the film refers to the threat of nuclear annihilation by mutually assured destruction. Diabolique's Daniel Clarkson Fisher notes that preferring annihilation to defeat is a recurring motif, both in MacReady's destruction of the chess computer after being checkmated and his vow to destroy the Thing even at the expense of the team. Clarkson Fisher and Screen Rant's Michael Edward Taylor see the team's accusatory distrust and fear of assimilation as an expression of the American Red Scare of the 1950s and 1960s, while Taylor also sees a commentary on the isolationism of the me generation in the 1970s. Slant Magazine's John Lingsan said the men display a level of post-Vietnam War (1955–1975) "fatigued counterculturalism" – the rejection of conventional social norms, each defined by their own eccentricities. The Atlantic's Noah Berlatsky said that unlike typical horror genre films, women are excluded, allowing the Thing to be identified as a fear of not being a man, or being homosexual. Vice's Patrick Marlborough considered The Thing to be a "scathing examination" of manliness, noting that identifying the Thing requires intimacy, confession, and empathy to out the creature, but "male frailty" prevents this as an option. Trapped by pride and stunted emotional growth, the men are unable to confront the truth out of fear of embarrassment or exposure. Berlatsky noted that MacReady avoids emotional attachments and is the most paranoid, allowing him to be the hero. This detachment works against him in the finale, which leaves MacReady locked in a futile mistrust with Childs, each not really knowing the other. Nerdist's Kyle Anderson and Strange Horizons's Orrin Grey analyzed The Thing as an example of author H. P. Lovecraft's cosmic horror. Anderson's analysis includes the idea of cosmic horror in large part coming "from the fear of being overtaken," connecting it to Lovecraft's xenophobia and Blair's character arc of becoming what he most fears. In contrast, Anderson compares Blair to MacReady, who represents a more traditional Hollywood film protagonist. Grey describes the creature as fear of the loss of self, using Blair's character as an example. Discussing The Thing in the context of the first of three films in Carpenter's "Apocalypse Trilogy", Grey states the threat the monster poses to the world "is less disconcerting than the threat posed to the individual concept of self." The Thing never speaks or gives a motive for its actions, and ruthlessly pursues its goal. Den of Geek's Mark Harrison and Ryan Lambie said that the essence of humanity is free will, which is stripped away by the Thing, possibly without the individual being aware that they have been taken over. In a 1982 interview, when given the option to describe The Thing as "pro-science" like Who Goes There? or "anti-science" like The Thing from Another World, Carpenter chose "pro-human", stating, "It's better to be a human being than an imitation, or let ourselves be taken over by this creature who's not necessarily evil, but whose nature it is to simply imitate, like a chameleon." Further allusions have been drawn between the blood-test scene and the epidemic of HIV at the time, which could be identified only by a blood test. Since its release, many theories have been developed to attempt to answer the film's ambiguous ending shared by MacReady and Childs. Several suggest that Childs was infected, citing Dean Cundey's statement that he deliberately provided a subtle illumination to the eyes of uninfected characters, something absent from Childs. Similarly, others have noted a lack of visible breath from the character in the frigid air. While both aspects are present in MacReady, their absence in Childs has been explained as a technical issue with the filming. During production, Carpenter considered having MacReady be infected, and an alternate ending showed MacReady having been rescued and definitively tested as uninfected. Russell has said that analyzing the scene for clues is "missing the point". He continued, "[Carpenter] and I worked on the ending of that movie together a long time. We were both bringing the audience right back to square one. At the end of the day, that was the position these people were in. They just didn't know anything ... They didn't know if they knew who they were ... I love that, over the years, that movie has gotten its due because people were able to get past the horrificness of the monster ... to see what the movie was about, which was paranoia." However, Carpenter has teased, "Now, I do know, in the end, who the Thing is, but I cannot tell you." Legacy Retrospective reassessment In the years following its release, critics and fans have reevaluated The Thing as a milestone of the horror genre. A prescient review by Peter Nicholls in 1992 called The Thing "a bleak, memorable film [that] may yet be seen as a classic". It has been called one of the best films directed by Carpenter. John Kenneth Muir called it "Carpenter's most accomplished and underrated directorial effort", and critic Matt Zoller Seitz said it "is one of the greatest and most elegantly constructed B-movies ever made". Trace Thurman described it as one of the best films ever, and in 2008, Empire magazine selected it as one of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time, at number 289, calling it "a peerless masterpiece of relentless suspense, retina-wrecking visual excess and outright, nihilistic terror". It is now considered to be one of the greatest horror films ever made, and a classic of the genre. Several publications have called it one of the best films of 1982, including Filmsite.org, Film.com, and Entertainment Weekly. Muir called it "the best science fiction-horror film of 1982, an incredibly competitive year, and perhaps even the best genre motion picture of the decade". Complex named it the ninth-best of the decade, calling it the "greatest genre remake of all time". Numerous publications have ranked it as one of the best science fiction films, including number four by IGN (2016); number 11 by Rotten Tomatoes (2024); number 12 by Thrillist (2018); number 17 by GamesRadar+ (2018); number 31 by Paste (2018); number 32 by Esquire (2015) and Popular Mechanics (2017). Similarly, The Thing has appeared on several lists of the top horror films, including number one by The Boston Globe; number two by Bloody Disgusting (2018); number four by Empire (2016); and number six by Time Out (2016). Empire listed its poster as the 43rd best film poster ever. In 2016, the British Film Institute named it one of ten great films about aliens visiting Earth. It was voted the ninth best horror film of all time in a Rolling Stone readers poll, and is considered one of the best examples of body horror. GamesRadar+ listed its ending as one of the 25 best of all time. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, which has compiled old and contemporary reviews, reports that 84% of 83 critics provided positive reviews for the film, with an average rating of 7.4/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Grimmer and more terrifying than the 1950s take, John Carpenter's The Thing is a tense sci-fi thriller rife with compelling tension and some remarkable make-up effects." On Metacritic, a similar website that aggregates both past and present reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 57 out of 100 based on 13 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". In a 2011 interview, Carpenter remarked that it was perhaps his favorite film from his own filmography. He lamented that it took a long time for The Thing to find a wider audience, saying, "If The Thing had been a hit, my career would have been different. I wouldn't have had to make the choices that I made. But I needed a job. I'm not saying I hate the movies I did. I loved making Christine (1983) and Starman (1984) and Big Trouble in Little China (1986), all those films. But my career would have been different." Cultural influence The film has had a significant effect on popular culture, and by 1998, The Thing was already considered a cult classic. It is listed in the film reference book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, which says "one of the most influential horror movies of the 1980s, much imitated but rarely bettered ... It is one of the first films to unflinchingly show the rupture and warp of flesh and bone into grotesque tableaus of surreal beauty, forever raising the bar of cinematic horror." It has been referred to in a variety of media, from television (including The X-Files, Futurama, and Stranger Things) to games (Resident Evil 4, Tomb Raider III, Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden, and Among Us), and films (The Faculty, Slither, and The Mist). Several filmmakers have spoken of their appreciation for The Thing or cited its influence on their own work, including Guillermo del Toro, James DeMonaco, J. J. Abrams, Neill Blomkamp, David Robert Mitchell, Rob Hardy, Steven S. DeKnight, and Quentin Tarantino. In 2011, The New York Times asked prominent horror filmmakers what film they had found the scariest. Two, John Sayles and Edgar Wright, cited The Thing. The 2015 Tarantino film The Hateful Eight takes numerous cues from The Thing, from featuring Russell in a starring role, to replicating themes of paranoia and mistrust between characters restricted to a single location, and even duplicating certain angles and layouts used by Carpenter and Cundey. Pieces of Morricone's unused score for The Thing were repurposed for The Hateful Eight. Tarantino also cited The Thing as an inspiration for his 1992 film Reservoir Dogs. The film is screened annually in February to mark the beginning of winter at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station. In January 2010, Clarkesworld Magazine published "The Things", a short story by Peter Watts told from the Thing's point of view; it is unable to understand why humans are hostile toward it and horrified to learn that they do not shapeshift. The story received a 2011 Hugo Award nomination. In 2017, a 400-page art book was released featuring art inspired by The Thing, with contributions from 350 artists, a foreword by director Eli Roth, and an afterword by Carpenter. The 2007 Halloween Horror Nights event at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, featured "The Thing: Assimilation", a haunted attraction based on the film. The attraction included MacReady and Childs, both held in stasis, the Blair-Thing and the outpost kennel. Sequels Dark Horse Comics published four comic book sequels starring MacReady, beginning in December 1991 with the two-part The Thing from Another World by Chuck Pfarrer, which is set 24 hours after the film. Pfarrer was reported to have pitched his comic tale to Universal as a sequel in the early 1990s. This was followed by the four-part The Thing from Another World: Climate of Fear in July 1992, the four-part The Thing from Another World: Eternal Vows in December 1993, and The Thing from Another World: Questionable Research. In 1999, Carpenter said that no serious discussions had taken place for a sequel, but he would be interested in basing one on Pfarrer's adaptation, calling the story a worthy sequel. A 2002 video game of the same name was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, and Xbox to generally favorable reviews. The game's plot follows a team of U.S. soldiers investigating the aftermath of the film's events. In 2005, the Syfy channel planned a four-hour miniseries sequel produced by Frank Darabont and written by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick. The story followed a Russian team who recover the corpses of MacReady and Childs, as well as remnants of the Thing. The story moves forward 23 years, where the Thing escapes in New Mexico, and follows the attempts at containment. The project never proceeded, and Universal opted to continue with a feature film sequel. A prequel film, also titled The Thing, was released in October 2011 to a $31 million worldwide box office gross and mixed reviews. The story follows the events after the Norwegian team discovers the Thing. In 2020, Universal Studios and Blumhouse Productions announced the development of a remake of Carpenter's The Thing. The remake was described as incorporating elements of The Thing from Another World and The Thing, as well as the novella Who Goes There? and its expanded version Frozen Hell, which features several additional chapters. Although released years apart, and unrelated in terms of plot, characters, crew, or even production studios, Carpenter considers The Thing to be the first installment in his "Apocalypse Trilogy", a series of films based around cosmic horror, entities unknown to man, that are threats to both human life and the sense of self. The Thing was followed by Prince of Darkness in 1987, and In the Mouth of Madness in 1994. All three films are heavily influenced by Carpenter's appreciation for the works of Lovecraft. References Notes Citations Works cited External links The Thing at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films The Thing at AllMovie The Thing at IMDb The Thing at the TCM Movie Database The Thing at Discogs (list of releases) The Thing at Letterboxd The Thing at theofficialjohncarpenter.com Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell, the novella on which The Thing is based

Christine (titled onscreen as John Carpenter's Christine) is a 1983 American supernatural horror film co-scored and directed by John Carpenter and starring Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, Robert Prosky and Harry Dean Stanton. The film also features supporting performances from Roberts Blossom and Kelly Preston. Adapted by Bill Phillips (who has a cameo as the boombox-toting junkyard worker) from Stephen King's 1983 novel of the same name, the movie follows the changes in the lives of Arnie Cunningham, his friends, his family, and his teenage enemies after he buys a classic red and white 1958 Plymouth Fury named Christine, a car that seems to have a mind of its own and a jealous, possessive personality, which has a bad influence on Arnie. Released in the United States on December 9, 1983, Christine received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $21 million at the box office. The film has since become a cult classic. Plot In 1957, at a car factory in Detroit, a red 1958 Plymouth Fury slams its hood shut by itself on a worker's hand, while another worker is found dead inside the car after dropping cigar ash on its seats. In 1978 Rockbridge, California, nerdy high school senior Arnold "Arnie" Cunningham is bullied on the first day of school by classmate Buddy Repperton and his gang, but Arnie's best friend Dennis Guilder intervenes with help from a teacher, who sends Buddy and his gang to the principal's office. Buddy is subsequently expelled for carrying a switchblade. After school, Arnie and Dennis see a dilapidated 1958 Plymouth Fury for sale at the home of George LeBay, the brother of the recently deceased original owner, who tells them the car's name is Christine. Despite Dennis' objections, Arnie purchases the car. Since Arnie's parents refuse to let him keep the car at their house, he begins to restore Christine at a local garage owned by the gruff Will Darnell, who offers Arnie a part-time job and access to parts he needs to fix Christine. Soon, Arnie develops a rebellious, arrogant personality, worrying his parents and Dennis. Dennis confronts LeBay, who reveals that his late brother was also obsessed with Christine, that his five-year-old niece choked to death in the car, and that his sister-in-law and later his brother both committed suicide in it. At night, Dennis breaks into the garage to inspect Christine, but when Christine's radio begins playing 1950s rock and roll music, he flees. Arnie begins a relationship with a new student, Leigh Cabot, who has rejected all the other boys at school. While playing a football game, Dennis is stunned by the sight of Arnie and Leigh kissing in front of the now fully restored Christine, causing him to sustain a severe injury that permanently ends his football career. One night, when Arnie and Leigh are attending a drive-in theater, Leigh expresses jealousy over Christine. While alone in the car, Leigh nearly chokes to death on a hamburger, as Christine briefly locks her doors to keep Arnie from saving her. After Arnie drives Leigh home, she vows to never get into his car again. Later that night, Buddy and his gang sneak into Darnell's garage and vandalize Christine. Arnie, angered by the destruction, breaks up with Leigh and assaults his father when he confronts him about Christine after dinner. The next day, Arnie returns to the garage alone and watches as Christine repairs herself. Over two evenings, the car kills Buddy and all his gang members, blowing up a gas station in the process. Christine drives away in flames and returns to Darnell's garage, where she crushes him to death against the steering wheel. By morning, Christine is back in perfect condition when the police find Darnell's body. State Police detective Rudy Junkins questions Arnie about the death of Darnell and one of Buddy's gang members, but the car's pristine condition and Arnie's alibi convince the detective he was not involved. Leigh and Dennis conclude that Christine is responsible for Arnie's insanity. They plan to lure Christine to Darnell's garage and smash her with a bulldozer, but Christine surprises them by emerging from a pile of scrap metal. Leigh flees on foot while Dennis battles Christine with the bulldozer. Arnie is now driving Christine, and in an attempt to run Leigh down, Christine crashes into Darnell's office. Arnie is thrown through the windshield and impaled on a shard of glass. He reaches out to touch Christine's grille one last time, and Christine responds by playing "Pledging My Love" by Johnny Ace on her radio as Arnie dies. Christine continues to attack, until Dennis and Leigh corner her and flatten her with the bulldozer. The next day, Dennis, Leigh, and Junkins watch as the remains of Christine are crushed into a cube at a junkyard. Junkins congratulates the teens for stopping Christine, but they regret not being able to save Arnie. The sound of a 1950s rock and roll song spooks them briefly, but it proves to be coming from a boombox carried by a junkyard worker. Unnoticed by any of them, Christine's grill twitches slightly. Cast Production Conception Producer Richard Kobritz had previously produced the 1979 miniseries Salem's Lot, also based on a Stephen King novel. Through producing the miniseries, Kobritz became acquainted with King, who sent him manuscripts of two of his novels, Cujo, and Christine. Kobritz purchased the rights to Christine after finding himself attracted to the novel's "celebration of America's obsession with the motorcar." Kobritz's first choice for director was John Carpenter, who was initially unavailable owing to two projects: an adaptation of another King novel, Firestarter, and an adaptation of the 1980 Eric Van Lustbader novel The Ninja. However, production delays on these projects allowed Carpenter to accept the director position for Christine. Kobritz and Carpenter had previously collaborated in the 1978 television film Someone's Watching Me!. Bill Phillips was Carpenter's choice for writer and was brought on shortly after Carpenter arrived. Carpenter was also joined by special effects supervisor Roy Arbogast, who had previously worked with Carpenter in The Thing (1982). According to Carpenter, Christine was not a film he had planned on directing, saying that he directed the film as "a job" as opposed to a "personal project." He had previously directed The Thing, which had done poorly at the box office and led to critical backlash. In retrospect, Carpenter stated that upon reading Christine, he felt that "It just wasn't very frightening. But it was something I needed to do at that time for my career." King's novel, the source material for Carpenter's film, made it clear that the car was possessed by the evil spirit of its previous owner, Roland D. LeBay, whereas the film version of the story shows that the evil spirit of the car manifested itself on the day it was built. Other elements from the novel were altered for the film, particularly the execution of the death scenes, which the filmmakers opted for a more "cinematic approach." Casting Initially, Columbia Pictures had wanted to cast Brooke Shields in the role of Leigh because of her publicity after the release of The Blue Lagoon (1981), and Scott Baio as Arnie. The filmmakers declined the suggestion, opting to cast young actors who were still fairly unknown. Kevin Bacon auditioned for the role, but opted out when offered the lead in Footloose (1984). Carpenter cast Keith Gordon in the role of Arnie after an audition in New York City; Gordon had some experience in film, and was also working in theater at the time; John Stockwell was cast at an audition in Los Angeles. Nineteen-year-old Alexandra Paul was cast in the film after an audition in New York City; according to Carpenter, Paul was an "untrained, young actress" at the time, but brought a "great quality" about the character of Leigh. According to Paul, she had not read any of King's books or seen Carpenter's films, and read the novel in preparation. Filming Christine was shot largely in Los Angeles, California, while the location for Darnell's garage was located in Santa Clarita. Filming began in April 1983, mere days after the King novel had been published. An abandoned furniture factory in Irwindale was used for the opening scene. The film's stunts were primarily completed by stunt coordinator Terry Leonard, who was behind the wheel of the car during the high-speed chase scenes, as well as the scene in which the car drives down a highway engulfed in flames. During that scene, Leonard wore a Nomex firefighter's suit complete with breathing apparatus. Alexandra Paul's identical twin sister Caroline Paul wrote that she and her sister pulled a prank during filming, sending Caroline on set in place of Alexandra without telling Carpenter that they had made the switch until after he had shot a scene. She wrote, "My highly skilled clutch-pushing actually made it into the movie." The car Although the car in the film is identified as a 1958 Plymouth Fury – and in 1983 radio ads promoting the film, voiceover artists announced, "she's a '57 Fury" – two other Plymouth models, the Belvedere and the Savoy, were also used to portray the malevolent automobile onscreen. John Carpenter placed ads throughout Southern California searching for models of the car, and was able to purchase twenty-four of them in various states of disrepair, which were used to build a total of seventeen copies of the film car. All cars were two door hardtops. Total production for the 1958 Plymouth Fury was only 5,303, and they were difficult to find and expensive to buy at the time. In addition, the real-life Furys only came in one color, "Sandstone White" with a "Buckskin Beige" interior, seen on the other Furys on the assembly line during the initial scenes of the movie, though the car in King's novel was ordered with a red-and-white custom paint job. Originally, Carpenter had not planned to film the car's regeneration scenes, but gave special effects supervisor Roy Arbogast three weeks to devise a way for the car to rebuild itself. Arbogast and his team made rubber molds from one of the cars, including a whole front end. One of the cars was stripped of its engine to accommodate internally-mounted hydraulics that pulled the framework inward, crumpling the car, with the shot then run backwards in the final film. Twenty-three cars were used in the film. Initially sold as scrap metal after filming ended, one of the best known surviving vehicles was eventually rescued from the junkyard and restored. It was subsequently bought by collector Bill Gibson of Pensacola, Florida. One of the Christines was auctioned off at an auto-auction in Florida in January 2020. Release Box office Christine was released in North America on December 9, 1983, to 1,045 theaters. In its opening weekend Christine brought in $3,408,904 landing at #4. The film dropped 39.6% in its second weekend, grossing $2,058,517 slipping from fourth to eighth place. In its third weekend, it grossed $1,851,909 dropping to #9. The film remained at #9 its fourth weekend, grossing $2,736,782. In its fifth weekend, it returned to #8, grossing $2,015,922. Bringing in $1,316,835 in its sixth weekend, the film dropped out of the box office top ten to twelfth place. In its seventh and final weekend, the film brought in $819,972 landing at #14, bringing the total gross for Christine to $21,017,849. Critical response On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Christine holds a 72% approval rating based on 39 reviews, with an average rating of 6.1/10. The consensus reads: "The cracks are starting to show in John Carpenter's directorial instincts, but Christine is nonetheless silly, zippy fun.” Roger Ebert gave the movie three out of four stars, saying: "By the end of the movie, Christine has developed such a formidable personality that we are actually taking sides during its duel with a bulldozer. This is the kind of movie where you walk out with a silly grin, get in your car, and lay rubber halfway down the Eisenhower." Janet Maslin of The New York Times gave the film a middling review, saying: "The early parts of the film are engaging and well acted, creating a believable high-school atmosphere. Unfortunately, the later part of the film is slow in developing, and it unfolds in predictable ways." Variety gave the film a negative review, stating: "Christine seems like a retread. This time it's a fire-engine red, 1958 Plymouth Fury that's possessed by the Devil, and this deja-vu premise [from the novel by Stephen King] combined with the crazed-vehicle format, makes Christine appear pretty shop worn." Time Out said of the film: "Carpenter and novelist Stephen King share not merely a taste for genre horror but a love of '50's teenage culture; and although set in the present, Christine reflects the second taste far more effectively than the first." In 2023, John Carpenter reflected on the movie:“I love my cast in that movie. Keith Gordon was fabulous, and Alexandra Paul was… I believe she’d been a model, and she’s just a terrific actress. And the great character actor Harry Dean Stanton was on that. Harry Dean is quite a character, I really loved him. But it was a fun movie to make and easy — nothing tough about it. And it did OK, you know, it opened alright. So people were kind, which is nice.“ King's reaction While he was promoting the film adaptation of Dreamcatcher in 2003, Stephen King mentioned Christine as one of two film adaptations of his work that had "bored" him, stating: "I may just be the most adapted novelist in modern times... and I don't say that with pride so much as with a kind of stunned bemusement. Several honorable adaptations have come from this thirty-year spew of celluloid... and the best of those have had few of the elements I'm best known for: science fiction, fantasy, the supernatural, and pure gross-out moments... The books that do have those elements have, by and large, become films that are either forgettable or outright embarrassing. Others -- I'm thinking chiefly of Christine and Stanley Kubrick's take on The Shining -- should have been good but just... well, they just aren't. They're actually sort of boring. Speaking for myself, I'd rather have bad than boring." Home media The film was released on VHS by Columbia Pictures, and on DVD on August 4, 1998, and re-released on DVD in 2004. On March 12, 2013, Twilight Time video released the film on Blu-ray for the first time in a limited edition run numbered at 3,000 copies. On September 29, 2015, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment re-released the film on Blu-ray. The film was released on 4K UHD Blu-ray on September 11, 2018. Soundtrack Two soundtracks were released, one consisting purely of the music written and composed by John Carpenter and Alan Howarth, the other consisting of the contemporary pop songs used in the film. Score Songs appearing in film The soundtrack album containing songs used in the film was entitled Christine: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and was released on LP and cassette on Motown Records. It contained 10 (of the 15) songs listed in the film's credits, plus one track from John Carpenter and Alan Howarth's own score. The track listing was as follows: George Thorogood and the Destroyers – "Bad to the Bone" Buddy Holly & the Crickets – "Not Fade Away" Johnny Ace – "Pledging My Love" Robert & Johnny – "We Belong Together" Little Richard – "Keep A-Knockin'" Dion and The Belmonts – "I Wonder Why" The Viscounts – "Harlem Nocturne" Thurston Harris – "Little Bitty Pretty One" Danny & The Juniors – "Rock 'n' Roll is Here to Stay" John Carpenter & Alan Howarth – "Christine Attacks (Plymouth Fury)" Larry Williams – "Bony Moronie" The following tracks were not included on this LP release, but were used in the film and listed in the film's credits: ABBA – "The Name of the Game" Bonnie Raitt – "Runaway" Ritchie Valens – "Come on, Let's Go" Tanya Tucker – "Not Fade Away" The Rolling Stones – "Beast of Burden" Proposed remake In June 2021, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Blumhouse Productions announced the development of a remake of the film with Bryan Fuller set to write and direct the film and Jason Blum, Vincenzo Natali and Steve Hoban producing. As of September 2023, no aspect of the project has moved forward. Cultural references The film Taarzan: The Wonder Car by Indian filmmaking duo Abbas–Mustan is loosely based on Christine. The film is parodied in the Futurama episode "The Honking", wherein a metamorphic Bender-turned-car haunts the crew. The film is referred to in the song "Autopilot" by Allison Ponthier. David Gordon Green said his 2022 film Halloween Ends is a love letter to Christine and John Carpenter's body of work in general. See also List of films about automobiles List of American films of 1983 References Bibliography Benjaminson, James (1994). Plymouth, 1946–1959. Motorbooks International. ISBN 978-0-87938-840-9. Von Doviak, Scott (2014). Stephen King Films FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the King of Horror on Film. Applause Theatre & Cinema. ISBN 978-1-48035-551-4. Kerr, Joe; Wollen, Peter (2004). Autopia: Cars and Culture. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-1-86189-132-7. External links Christine at IMDb Christine at AllMovie Christine at Box Office Mojo Christine at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films Christine at the TCM Movie Database

Starman is a 1984 American science fiction romance drama film directed by John Carpenter that tells the story of a non-corporeal alien who has come to Earth and cloned a human body (portrayed by Jeff Bridges) in response to the invitation found on the gold phonograph record installed on the Voyager 2 space probe. The original screenplay was written by Bruce A. Evans and Raynold Gideon, with Dean Riesner making uncredited re-writes. The film received positive reviews but faltered in its initial box office debut. Bridges was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role. It inspired the short-lived Starman television series in 1986. Plot "Starman is a love story. It's It Happened One Night.— John Carpenter The Voyager 2 space probe, launched in 1977, carries a phonographic disc with a message of peace, inviting alien civilizations to visit Earth. The probe is intercepted by a planet which then sends a scout vessel to establish first contact with Earth. Instead of greeting the vessel, the U.S. government shoots it down. Crashing in Chequamegon Bay, Wisconsin, the lone alien occupant, looking like a floating ball of energy, finds the home of recently widowed Jenny Hayden. The alien uses a lock of hair from her deceased husband, Scott, to clone a body for himself. The alien "Starman" has seven spheres with him which provide energy to perform miraculous feats. He uses the first to send a message to his people stating that Earth is hostile and his spacecraft was destroyed. He arranges to rendezvous with them in three days' time. He then uses the second sphere in self-defense and the third to create a holographic map of the United States, coercing Jenny into taking him to the rendezvous in Arizona. Jenny, however, attempts to escape. Having a very basic understanding of the English language from the phonographic disk, the Starman learns to communicate with Jenny and assures her that he means no harm. He explains that if he does not reach the rendezvous point, Arizona's Barringer Crater, in three days, he will die. Jenny teaches him how to drive a car and use credit cards, so he can continue the journey alone. When he resurrects a dead deer, she is moved and decides to stay with him. The authorities pursue the pair across the country. A police officer shoots and critically wounds Jenny. To escape, the Starman crashes their car into a gas tanker and uses another sphere to protect them from the explosion. They take refuge in a mobile home that is being towed. He uses another sphere to heal Jenny. After being assured that Jenny will recover, he proceeds to hitchhike toward Arizona without her, but Jenny reaches him while he and his driver are stopped at a roadblock. Reunited, they hitchhike together, resuming their journey towards the crater. Later, while stowing away on a railroad boxcar, the two have sex. The Starman tells Jenny, "I gave you a baby tonight." Jenny reveals that she is infertile, but he assures her that she is pregnant. He explains that Scott is the posthumous father, as Starman used Scott's DNA to clone himself. As a child also of Starman, their son will possess all the Starman's knowledge and will grow up to be a teacher. Starman offers to stop the pregnancy if she wishes, but Jenny embraces him, accepting the gift. They accidentally travel too far on the train and arrive in Las Vegas. Jenny loses her wallet. The Starman uses one of their last quarters in a slot machine, which he manipulates to win the $500,000 jackpot. They buy a Cadillac to complete their journey to Arizona. National Security Agency director George Fox learns that the Starman's flight trajectory, prior to being shot down, was to the Barringer Crater and arranges to have the Army capture the Starman, dead or alive. SETI scientist Mark Shermin, another government official involved in the case, criticizes Fox's heavy-handed approach and reminds him that the Starman was invited to Earth. Appalled to learn that Fox is planning to vivisect the alien, Shermin then resolves to help the Starman escape rather than let Fox capture him. Jenny and the dying Starman reach the crater as Army helicopters pursue them. Just as they are surrounded, a large spaceship appears and descends into the crater. Light surrounds the couple and the Starman is fully healed. While preparing to leave, he tells Jenny he will never see her again. Jenny asks him to take her with him, but he says she would die on his world. He then gives her his last sphere, saying that their son will know what to do with it. Jenny watches as the ship departs. Cast Production Starman spent five years in development at Columbia. The original script by Bruce A. Evans and Raynold Gideon was purchased by the studio at the urging of executive producer Michael Douglas, shortly before it optioned Steven Spielberg's Night Skies. Evans and Gideon's first, and only, rewrite was rejected by both the studio and Douglas. Screenwriter Dean Riesner came onto the project in late 1981 after director Mark Rydell left the project due to artistic differences with Douglas. Riesner had no idea that he would spend over two years struggling with the incessant demand for rewrites—he eventually authored five rewrites of Starman with six different directors, but did not receive screen credit because, according to him, "the Writers Guild, in their infinite wisdom, decided I didn't contribute 50 percent of the screenplay." Carpenter personally campaigned for Riesner's credit; advocating Evans and Gideon's initial draft was an entirely different movie (than the shooting script Riesner later authored) -- Carpenter said that the alien actually flew around like Superman in the initial script. Carpenter was reportedly outraged when the WGA arbitration ruled in favor of original writers, Gideon and Evans. The director resolved to thank his screenwriter by including an on-screen dedication to Reisner in the film's end credits sequence. The Writers' Guild deemed Carpenter's on-screen accolade as a deliberately provocative violation of their ruling. For a short time the Guild were threatening to force Columbia to destroy all prints of the film (in exhibition) containing Carpenter's offending dedication to Reisner! Other uncredited writers who worked on the script were Edward Zwick and Diane Thomas. Columbia chairman, Frank Price was disappointed with Spielberg's Night Skies script. Price consulted with their marketing department, it was determined Night Skies' narrative was too Disney and would only appeal to children (Starman was for a more mature audience). Insisting the picture would not be profitable, Frank Price put their Spielberg project into turnaround. Night Skies was eventually retitled E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which became the highest-grossing film of its time; whereas Starman would make less the a tenth of the revenue E.T. garnered—upon which Riesner commented, "Goes to show how wrong you can be in this business." According to Riesner, producers at Columbia were concerned at the initial box office returns for E.T., because Starman (while Riesner was working its second rewrite) was too similar. Adrian Lyne worked with Michael Douglas on the project, for about a year, before departing to direct Flashdance for Paramount. He was replaced by John Badham, who worked with Douglas for 'some months' (developing the project); Columbia actually gave them an October, 1982 start-date to begin principal photography. In 1985 Badham acknowledged his initial enthusiasm for the script, "I wanted Tom Conti for the lead role [Badham had seen him in London doing “Whose Life Is It Anyway?"] and he was anxious to do it." But in the summer of 1982, Variety published the first review of E.T., as soon as he read it he realized the two projects were too similar. Douglas immediately ordered script revisions, but Badham eventually moved on to take over directing duties on WarGames. Riesner was charged with keeping Starman essentially the same while making it distinct from E.T, and would work with three subsequent directors: Tony Scott, Peter Hyams, and John Carpenter. Whereas Scott was more interested in style than narrative drive and wanted to cast Philip Anglim, and Hyams pushed for a more conventional science fiction approach, Carpenter, who was eager to shed his image as a maker of exploitative thrillers, wished to emphasize the cross-country rapport that develops between the two leads, as in The Defiant Ones, The 39 Steps, and It Happened One Night over special effects. Riesner dropped the "heavy political implications" from the script to comply with this. Parts of the film were shot in Tennessee, Iowa, Arizona, Nevada, and Monument Valley, Utah. Reception Box office Starman grossed $2.9 million in its opening weekend, debuting at number 6. It was released the same week as David Lynch's film Dune and one week after the release of Peter Hyams's film 2010: The Year We Make Contact. The film grossed a total of $28.7 million from its domestic run. Critical response The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 86% based on 35 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "What initially begins as sci-fi transforms into a surprisingly sweet, offbeat drama, courtesy of John Carpenter's careful direction." The aggregator Metacritic gives the film a score of 71 out of 100, based on seven critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four and wrote "Starman contains the potential to be a very silly movie, but the two actors have so much sympathy for their characters that the movie, advertised as space fiction, turns into one of 1984's more touching love stories." In a highly positive review praising the film along with its actors and director, Janet Maslin stated "If Starman doesn't make a major difference in Jeff Bridges's career, Mr. Bridges is operating in the wrong galaxy." Duane Byrge wrote for The Hollywood Reporter that the film had "an amusing and appealing storyline" and a "winning performance" by Jeff Bridges, describing it as "an often on-target look at current American culture". However, he found the script "one-dimensional in certain plotting aspects, especially in regard to the single-minded military forces", but praised it for "an uplifting and humane message" and Carpenter for "fluid storytelling", and commended the "evocative score and the special visual effects" as "first-rate". Mark Harrison wrote for Den of Geek that it was "a classic sci-fi date movie" and "not only an outlier in [Carpenter's] body of work but also an inarguable product of his direction". According to Harrison, Carpenter had taken "a potential E.T. knock-off and turned it into a modern spin on a more classical Hollywood genre", and praised it for a "canny reversal of gender roles" where "Bridges is the naïve ingenue who knows nothing about the world (or our world, anyway) and Allen is the more cynical character who is pulled into a cross-country adventure with him." He added "the film really lives or dies on the chemistry of the leads. Fortunately, Bridges and Allen are both on spectacular form here", believing that Karen Allen's portrayal "might be her best ever performance." He concluded that "Starman is a bittersweet, genre-bending date movie that really ought to be celebrated as one of the more lovable entries in the John Carpenter canon." Alan Jones awarded it four stars out of five for Radio Times, arguing that "John Carpenter's religious sci-fi parable has as much heart and emotion as it does special effects, and gives Oscar-nominated Jeff Bridges a real chance to stretch his acting talent." He described it as "funny, suspenseful and moving" and concluded that "this engaging space odyssey is one of Carpenter's best efforts." Halliwell's Film Guide was less positive, describing it as a "derivative but eccentric science-fiction fantasy with lapses of narrative and a general attempt to make the love story predominant over the hardware". The review by Time Out called it "a rather lame sci-fi love story" which "lacks the drive, energy and surprise which one associates with Carpenter." It continued "The best special effects are in the first five minutes. Thereafter, it's all rather predictable. The normally excellent Bridges shuffles his way through a robotic performance as though he's just been unplugged, and the film's (very) basic gag – his naïve response to what he experiences – wears thin pretty quick." Colin Greenland reviewed Starman for Imagine magazine, and stated that it "starts well, with engaging performances from Karen Allen as the woman trying not to go crazy and Jeff Bridges as the man in the borrowed body. But then director John Carpenter changes his mind, and turns it into an irritatingly soft-headed love story. What a waste of a promising idea." Awards and honors Jeff Bridges was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, making Starman the only film by John Carpenter to receive an Academy Award nomination. Bridges was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Drama and was awarded the Saturn Award for Best Actor. Karen Allen also received a nod for Best Actress from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. The film itself was nominated Best Science Fiction Film. Jack Nitzsche received a Golden Globe nomination for his score. The film was nominated for, but does not appear on the following lists: 2002: AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions – Nominated 2008: AFI's 10 Top 10: Nominated Science Fiction Film Soundtrack The soundtrack to Starman was released on December 14, 1984. The album also contains a rendition of "All I Have to Do Is Dream" performed by stars Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen. Home media The film was released on Blu-ray on August 11, 2009. A collector's edition reissue would later be released on December 18, 2018 by Shout Factory. Remake In April 2016, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Shawn Levy would direct and produce a remake written by Arash Amel. Michael Douglas, who was a producer of the original, was also on board to produce, while Dan Cohen and Robert Mitas were executive producing, and Matt Milam and Adam North were overseeing the project for Columbia. In 2021, Levy declared the remake to be improbable, as he could not find a good draft that was worthy of adaptation. In popular culture The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra covered "Starman Leaves (End Title)" for their 2005 cover compilation album, The Science Fiction Album. The 2010 single "Symphonies" by Dan Black, and its remix featuring Kid Cudi, sampled CoPPO's cover of the song. At the end of the music video the lead character is beamed away by a bright circular spaceship, similar to the manner in which the Starman from the film departs Earth. The music video itself contains scenes which pay homage to several Jeff Bridges films, including Tron and King Kong. In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2, flashbacks revealing the courtship of Peter Quill's parents feature a 1978 Ford Mustang King Cobra. See also Starman (TV series) References External links Starman at IMDb Starman at the TCM Movie Database Starman at Rotten Tomatoes Starman at Metacritic Starman at AllMovie

Big Trouble in Little China (also known as John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China) is a 1986 American fantasy action-comedy film directed by John Carpenter, and starring Kurt Russell, Kim Cattrall, Dennis Dun and James Hong. The film tells the story of truck driver Jack Burton (Russell), who helps his friend Wang Chi (Dun) rescue Wang's green-eyed fiancée from bandits in San Francisco's Chinatown. They go into the mysterious underworld beneath Chinatown, where they face an ancient sorcerer named David Lo Pan (Hong), who requires a woman with green eyes to marry him in order to be released from a centuries-old curse. Although the original screenplay by first-time screenwriters Gary Goldman and David Z. Weinstein was envisioned as a Western set in the 1880s, screenwriter W. D. Richter was hired to rewrite the script extensively and modernize it. The studio hired Carpenter to direct the film and rushed Big Trouble in Little China into production so that it would be released before a similarly themed Eddie Murphy film, The Golden Child, which was slated to come out around the same time. The project fulfilled Carpenter's long-standing desire to make a martial arts film. Despite receiving generally positive reviews, the film was a commercial failure, grossing $11.1 million in North America, below its estimated $19 to $25 million budget. This left Carpenter disillusioned with Hollywood and influenced his decision to return to independent filmmaking. In later years, the film gained a steady audience on home video, and has become a cult classic. Plot Truck driver Jack Burton wins a bet with his friend Wang Chi. To make sure he follows through on payment, Jack accompanies him to the airport to pick up Wang's Chinese fiancée Miao Yin, where a Chinese-American street gang, the Lords of Death, tries to kidnap another Chinese girl. She is being met by her friend Gracie Law. After Jack intervenes, they take Miao Yin instead. Jack and Wang track the Lords of Death to Chinatown, where they find a funeral procession that erupts into a battle between the Chang Sing and Wing Kong, two ancient Chinese warrior societies. When "The Three Storms" – Thunder, Rain, and Lightning, warriors with weather-themed powers – appear, slaughtering the Chang Sing, Jack attempts to gun his big-rig through the crowd, but runs over David Lo Pan, a man directing the Three Storms. Horrified, Jack exits his truck, but finds Lo Pan unhurt and glowing with magic. Wang hurriedly guides Jack through the alleys; they escape, but Jack's truck is stolen. Wang takes Jack to his restaurant, where they meet with Gracie, her journalist friend Margo, Wang's friend Eddie Lee, and magician Egg Shen, a local authority on mysticism and Lo Pan. They explain to Jack (who only wants his truck back) the ancient knowledge and sorcery the Chinese brought with them to America. The group devises a plan to infiltrate a brothel, where they believe Miao Yin is held. They break in, but are interrupted by the Storms who kidnap Miao Yin, and take her to Lo Pan. Jack and Wang track down the front business used by Lo Pan and impersonate telephone repairmen to gain access, but are quickly subdued by Rain. After being tied up and beaten by Thunder, they meet Lo Pan – however, he now appears as a crippled old man. Wang tells Jack that Lo Pan needs a green-eyed girl to break an ancient curse, and he intends to sacrifice Miao Yin. Centuries ago, Lo Pan was defeated in battle by Emperor Qin Shi Huang. He cursed Lo Pan with incorporeality; although he can be temporarily granted a decrepit body by supplication to the gods, he can permanently break the curse by marrying a woman with green eyes and sacrificing her. Jack and Wang's friends attempt to save them, and are also captured. After getting the drop on Thunder, Jack, Wang, and Eddie escape and free women kept in cells. An orangutan-like Wild-Man recaptures Gracie before she escapes. Lo Pan notes that Gracie has green eyes, too, and decides to sacrifice her while making Miao Yin his wife. Wang and Jack regroup with the Chang Sing and Egg Shen, and enter a cavern to return to Lo Pan's headquarters. Egg pours the group a potent potion. They interrupt the wedding, and start a battle. Wang kills Rain in a sword duel, while Jack and Gracie chase Lo Pan, who has regained his corporeal form by consuming a few drops of Miao Yin's blood. Wang joins them; Lo Pan attempts to kill Jack with a throwing knife, but he catches it and kills him with a throw to his head. Thunder – who had been distracted with Wang – reappears, and, enraged at finding Lo Pan dead, swells up and explodes. Jack, Wang, Gracie, and Miao Yin are cornered by Lightning in a corridor, who triggers a collapse. Egg rescues them with a rope and kills Lightning by dropping a Buddha statue on him when he tries to follow. After finding Jack's truck and dealing with the remaining Wing Kong guards, the group escapes back to Wang's restaurant. The group celebrates in the restaurant; Wang and Miao Yin prepare to marry, while Eddie pairs with Margo. With his old enemy defeated, Egg takes a long overdue vacation. Gracie offers to join Jack, but he leaves alone. Unbeknownst to him, the Wild-Man survived the battle and has stowed away on his truck. Cast Al Leong, Gerald Okamura and Nathan Jung appear as Wing Kong hatchet men. Lia Chang and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa have minor roles as Wing Kong members. Frank Ho, Conan Lee (Uncredited) and James Lew (the film's martial arts choreographer) appear as Chang Sing warriors. Jerry Hardin appears in the beginning of the film as a lawyer. Production Screenplay Big Trouble in Little China originated from a script by first-time screenwriters Gary Goldman and David Z. Weinstein. Goldman had been inspired by a new wave of martial arts films that had "all sorts of weird actions and special effects, shot against this background of Oriental mysticism and modern sensibilities", such as The Butterfly Murders; Weinstein, for his part, was fascinated by the historical Tong Wars of 19th-century San Francisco's Chinatown. The duo combined these interests with a shared fondness for classic westerns to write the first iteration of the screenplay. Entitled Lotus, the script took place in the 1880s: friends cowboy Wiley Prescott and Chinese railroad worker Sun are set to meet Sun's fiancée Lotus as she arrives to San Francisco, but are opposed by sorcerer Lo Pan who captures Sun's fiancée and separates Prescott from his horse as the story progresses into a mystical realm. They submitted the script to TAFT Entertainment Pictures executive producers Paul Monash and Keith Barish during the summer of 1982; the script, now renamed Big Trouble in Little China, was soon optioned by 20th Century Fox. The Weird West setting of the screenplay led to objections from producers; Monash remarked that "the problems [with the script] came largely from the fact it was set in turn-of-the-century San Francisco." Because Goldman and Weinstein were unwilling to update their story to a modern setting, and from the producer's desire to bring a new perspective to the writing, the original duo were removed from the project while screenwriter/script doctor W. D. Richter (Academy Award-nominated writer of Brubaker) was brought in to extensively rewrite the script. Richter modernized the setting to avoid distancing audiences; though basic elements of the story were retained, such as Lo Pan, Richter rewrote the story "nearly from scratch". In particular, he approached the story as a comedy: the straightforward cowboy hero Prescott reimagined as the blowhard trucker Jack Burton. His draft was written in 10 weeks, a process that included research into Chinese mythology. While admitting that he invented or changed some lore, Richter expressed a desire for those portions of the script to be "as authentic as possible" despite coming from a white writer, contrasting his approach with modern criticisms of Charlie Chan. Richter's script was shopped around to directors by the studio. Fox wanted to deny Goldman and Weinstein writing credit, and eliminated their names from press releases in favor of solely crediting Richter. In March 1986, the Writers Guild of America, West determined that "written by" credit would go to Goldman and Weinstein, based on the WGA screenwriting credit system which protects original writers; Richter would instead receive an "adaptation by" credit for his work on the script. Direction The project was also offered to Richter to direct, due to its perceived similarity to his previous directorial outing The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension; however, Richter turned it down as he wished to direct smaller movies rather than another expansive action-adventure film. Barish and Monash first offered the project to Carpenter in July 1985, with the idea he would produce an adventure movie in the model of Indiana Jones. Having found the earlier Goldman/Weinstein script creative but unfocused – "too huge and bizarre" – Carpenter was impressed by Richter's scripting of "an action/adventure/comedy/mystery/ghost story/monster movie" and signed onboard. Carpenter made his own additions to Richter's rewrites, which included strengthening the Gracie Law role by linking her directly to Chinatown, removing a few action sequences due to budgetary restrictions, and adjusting material that could offend Chinese Americans. Richter, who had befriended Carpenter while the two were attending USC film school, found that Carpenter's notes built on what had already been established and made his part in the script-editing process easy. Carpenter remarked that the "offbeat" characters had a "very 1930s Howard Hawks" quality to them — with respect to their rapid-fire delivery of dialogue, especially between Jack Burton and Gracie Law. Carpenter had discovered a fondness for Hong Kong action cinema while in film school, with the "strange, yet bloody and violent and innocent [and] 'what is this exactly?' vibe" of movies like Five Fingers of Death, Master of the Flying Guillotine, and Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain providing inspiration. He saw Big Trouble in Little China as the opportunity to fulfill a decade-long desire to make his own kung fu movie. Carpenter and Russell saw the film as an inverse of traditional scenarios in action films that featured a Caucasian protagonist helped by a minority sidekick. In Big Trouble in Little China, Jack Burton, despite his bravado, is constantly portrayed as rather bumbling; in a climactic fight sequence, he knocks himself unconscious before the battle begins. Wang Chi, on the other hand, is constantly portrayed as highly skilled and competent. On the commentary track recorded for the DVD release, Carpenter described the film as about a sidekick (Burton) who thinks he is a leading man. According to Carpenter, the studio "didn't get it" and made him write something that would explain the character of Jack Burton. Carpenter came up with a prologue scene where Egg Shen reassures the audience (vis-à-vis a lawyer character) that "Jack Burton is a man of courage." Competition with The Golden Child Production of Big Trouble in Little China was partially shaped by its anticipation of competition with Paramount Pictures' upcoming The Golden Child. The two movies share similar themes, both comedic action-adventures following a Californian everyman drawn into a plot centering around Chinese mysticism. Carpenter himself had been offered The Golden Child, declining due to his commitment to Big Trouble; though he initially dismissed the films as "not really similar", as production of The Golden Child progressed he came to view the two movies as "basically the same". The box-office draw of superstar Eddie Murphy led Fox to fear their movie would lose in a direct competition. To beat the rival production to in theaters, Big Trouble went into production in October 1985 so it could open in July 1986, five months before The Golden Child's Christmas release. Carpenter was hired by 20th Century Fox because of his reputation for working fast, and the film had a limited preproduction schedule of 10–12 weeks. Casting Carpenter initially looked for a major star for the lead role to compete with The Golden Child's casting of Murphy; the director wanted Clint Eastwood or Jack Nicholson, but neither actor was available. The studio felt Kurt Russell was an up-and-coming star — additionally, Russell had previously been directed by Carpenter in Elvis, Escape from New York, and The Thing and the duo had developed a longstanding friendship. Russell was initially unsure if he could find an interesting way to play Burton, but valued working with Carpenter. After discussions with the director and rereading the script, he saw the movie as a opportunity to play a type of action hero that differed from his prior roles like Snake Plissken. mixing a leading-man archetype with comic-relief behavior: "I've never played a hero who has so many faults. Jack is and isn't the hero. He falls on his ass as much as he comes through. [...] He thinks he knows how to handle situations and then gets into situations he can't handle but somehow blunders his way through anyhow." Russell took inspiration from John Wayne's characters in portraying Burton, albeit heightening the bravado to a comedic level. Carpenter and Russell's familiarity allowed the actor to improvise and explore outside the script during shooting. Kim Cattrall, cast as Gracie Law, considered Big Trouble in Little China an ideal role for that point in her career. Keen to avoid typecasting — first as a dramatic actress due to work in various TV dramas, then as a comedienne from roles in Porky's and Police Academy — Cattrall saw the role as not only synthesizing both drama and humor but also showing new facets of her acting ability. Though her character is often in peril, Cattrall did not view Law as a damsel in distress: "I'm not screaming for help the whole time. I think the humor comes out of the situations and my relationship with Jack Burton. I’m the brains and he's the brawn". Carpenter liked how Cattrall had a "comedic sense" yet could be serious, standing up for her acting abilities against studio pressure to cast a "rock star" as the love interest. Casting the Asian characters in the movie was approached with care. Year of the Dragon, released 1985, had drawn much controversy for its depiction of Chinese-Americans. Carpenter and producers met with community leaders to assuage concerns about the writing of the movie and hired a casting director who represented many Chinese and Asian-American actors. Dennis Dun was drawn to Big Trouble in Little China as he was a fan of Richter's Buckaroo Banzai. Carpenter was familiar with Dun's role in Year of the Dragon, and met with the actor twice before casting him in the role of Wang Chi only a few days before principal photography. He was drawn to the portrayal of Asian characters in the movie, appreciating that, like him, Wang was second-generation American and could be portrayed as Chinese yet still "a regular, American guy" rather than "foreign" or a punchline as many of Dun's previous roles had made him feel. The martial arts sequences were not hard for Dun, who had "dabbled" in training as a kid and performed in Chinese opera as an adult. Principal photography Kurt Russell lifted weights and began running two months before production began to prepare for the physical demands of principal photography. In addition, Carpenter and his cast and crew did a week's rehearsals that mainly involved choreographing the martial arts scenes. Although the early exterior establishing scenes were filmed on location in Chinatown, most of the film was shot on sets built in the Fox lot in Los Angeles. Production designer John Lloyd designed the elaborate underground sets and recreated Chinatown with three-story buildings, roads, streetlights, sewers and so on. This was necessary for the staging of complicated special effects and kung fu fight sequences that would have been very hard to do on location. This forced the filmmaker to shoot the film in 15 weeks with a $25 million budget. For the film's many fight scenes Carpenter worked with martial arts choreographer James Lew, who planned out every move in advance. Says Carpenter, "I used every cheap gag – trampolines, wires, reverse movements and upside-down sets. It was much like photographing a dance." Visual effects Boss Film Studios handled the numerous effects for the film. Richard Edlund, head of Boss Film Studios, described Big Trouble as probably its favorite film at the time after Ghostbusters. The effects budget for the film was just under $2 million; though Edlund considered this barely adequate, as Big Trouble was Boss Film's first project for Fox he viewed the production as an opportunity to secure further work from the studio. Richter's script included many fantastical creatures and settings, though many were only loosely defined and left up to Boss Film to design the ultimate appearance of. Steve Johnson led work on many effects, including Lo Pan's old age makeup (a wizened appearance inspired by Dick Smith's work on Little Big Man) and transformation into his middle-aged form, the "wild man" (a shaggy-haired apelike demon), a fishlike "sewer demon" (designed by Screaming Mad George and puppeteered by Noble Craig), and the explosive death of Thunder. One of the most difficult effects was the "Guardian", a floating creature dotted with eyeballs that scouts for Lo Pan. Also designed by Screaming Mad George, this complex effect took approximately 60 artists and cost over $100,000 to create due to its many points of articulation — far more complex than the similar character Slimer the crew had created for Ghostbusters. It was powered by several puppeteers and dozens of cables to control its facial expressions. To create the appearance of the Guardian flying freely, two puppets were created — a front and rear view — and it was filmed with a proprietary matting system specially designed for it. Though Carpenter found Edlund professional and straightforward to work with, he had concerns during production about the scale of Boss Film's operation; the director would notice instances where they called to cut down on effects due to budget or capability, only for such concerns to recede when the company secured additional work (a pattern of behavior he had noticed with many effects shops). Edlund was surprised by these remarks, reflecting that despite limited preparation time the studio had no major difficulties on Big Trouble. Music With the soundtrack, Carpenter wanted to avoid a stereotypically "Chinese" sound, as he found that "other scores for American movies about Chinese characters are basically rinky tink, chop suey music. I didn’t want that for Big Trouble". Carpenter instead focused on a general fantasy-music feeling with his trademark synthesizer scoring, bringing in a rock 'n' roll feel. As with several of his other film scores, Carpenter collaborated with Alan Howarth. The title theme, "Pork Chop Express", was partially inspired by the temp score's use of "Just Got Paid" by ZZ Top for the opening scene. The theme song "Big Trouble in Little China", which plays over the closing credits, was performed by The Coup De Villes — a group consisting of Carpenter alongside friends Tommy Lee Wallace (second-unit director on the film) and Nick Castle. Though all three members appear in the music video, the song was primarily performed by Carpenter excepting backing vocals by Castle. John Carpenter was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Music for this film. Reception Box office Opening in 1,053 theaters on July 2, 1986, Big Trouble in Little China grossed $2.7 million in its opening weekend and went on to gross $11.1 million in North America, well below its estimated budget of $19–25 million, making it a box-office bomb. The film was released in the midst of the hype for James Cameron's blockbuster Aliens, which was released 16 days after. On the DVD commentary for Big Trouble in Little China, Carpenter and Russell discuss this among possible reasons for the film's disappointing box office gross. Critical response On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 74% based on 65 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The site's consensus reads: "Brimming with energy and packed with humor, Big Trouble in Little China distills kung fu B-movies as affectionately as it subverts them." On Metacritic it has a score of 53% based on reviews from 15 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B+" on scale of A to F. Ron Base, in his review for the Toronto Star, praised Russell's performance. "He does a great John Wayne imitation. But he's not just mimicking these heroes, he is using them to give his own character a broad, satiric edge." Walter Goodman in The New York Times wrote, "In kidding the flavorsome proceedings even as he gets the juice out of them, the director, John Carpenter, is conspicuously with it." Writer Harlan Ellison, widely known in Hollywood for his brutally honest critiques, praised the film, writing that it had "some of the funniest lines spoken by any actor this year to produce a cheerfully blathering live-action cartoon that will give you release from the real pressures of your basically dreary lives." In his review for Time, Richard Corliss wrote, "Little China offers dollops of entertainment, but it is so stocked with canny references to other pictures that it suggests a master's thesis that moves." However, in his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert wrote, "special effects don't mean much unless we care about the characters who are surrounded by them, and in this movie the characters often seem to exist only to fill up the foregrounds," and felt that it was "straight out of the era of Charlie Chan and Fu Manchu, with no apologies and all of the usual stereotypes." Paul Attanasio, in The Washington Post, criticized the screenwriters for being "much better at introducing a character than they are at developing one". David Ansen wrote, in his review for Newsweek, "though it is action packed, spectacularly edited and often quite funny, one can't help feeling that Carpenter is squeezing the last drops out of a fatigued genre." In his review for The Times, David Robinson felt that Carpenter was "overwhelmed by his own special effects, without a strong enough script to guide him." Alex Stewart reviewed Big Trouble in Little China for White Dwarf No. 83, and stated that the film was "Amiable nonsense, delivered with panache by fearsome demons and flying swordsmen; and the jokes work. Wayne Crawford should take notes." Legacy After the commercial and critical failure of the film, Carpenter became very disillusioned with Hollywood and became an independent filmmaker. He said in an interview, "The experience [of Big Trouble] was the reason I stopped making movies for the Hollywood studios. I won't work for them again. I think Big Trouble is a wonderful film, and I'm very proud of it. But the reception it received, and the reasons for that reception, were too much for me to deal with. I'm too old for that sort of bullshit." It has since enjoyed a resurgence on television and home video, and has received a good deal of retroactive positive press. Some critics and fans considered it one of Carpenter's best movies. Empire magazine voted Big Trouble in Little China the 430th greatest film in their "500 Greatest Movies of All Time" list. Home media Big Trouble in Little China was released on a two-disc special edition DVD set on May 22, 2001. Entertainment Weekly gave the DVD a "B+" rating and wrote, "The highlight of this two disc set – which also features deleted scenes, an extended ending, trailers, and a 1986 featurette – is the pitch perfect Russell and Carpenter commentary, which delves into Fox's marketing mishaps, Chinese history, and how Russell's son did in his hockey game." In his review for the Onion A.V. Club, Noel Murray wrote, "If nothing else, this is a DVD designed for Big Trouble cultists; it's packed with articles from Cinefex and American Cinematographer that only a genre geek would appreciate." A single-disc movie-only DVD version was later released, with the only special features being the Carpenter/Russell commentary and the theatrical trailer. A Blu-ray Disc edition of the film was released on August 4, 2009. It contains the same content as the double-disc DVD release. In 2013, the film was released on Blu-ray Disc in the United Kingdom by Arrow Films as a regular case and Steelbook. On December 3, 2019, Scream Factory released a two-disc "Collector's Edition" Blu-ray of the film in the U.S., which included a bevy of new bonus features. Other media Sequel In June 2015, TheWrap reported that Dwayne Johnson was developing a remake to be produced under his Seven Bucks Productions film studio. Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz were hired as screenwriters, with Johnson planned to star as Burton. Though Johnson expressed interest in having the original director involved in the film, Carpenter remained "ambivalent" about a remake and did not meet with Johnson. By 2018, Seven Bucks was instead developing the film to be a sequel rather than a remake. In a 2019 interview, screenwriter Stentz explained that his script had been for a remake and he had not been contacted about the film's revised concept; he was unaware of any new scripts being commissioned and also suspected that the then-recent acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney had placed the project into limbo. Video game A tie-in video game of the same name was published in 1986 by Electric Dreams Software for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC. Critical reception was mixed. Comic book series On February 27, 2014, Boom! Studios announced they were working on a comic book series. The comic book is written by Eric Powell and John Carpenter with artwork by Brian Churilla. The series began in June 2014. Boom! released a crossover limited series between Jack Burton and Snake Plissken titled Big Trouble in Little China/Escape from New York in October 2016. A previously projected comic book series previewed by Top Cow Productions at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con failed to appear. On June 14, 2017, Boom! announced a new four-issue limited series, to be published in September 2017, called Big Trouble in Little China: Old Man Jack, written by Carpenter and Anthony Burch, with art by Jorge Corona. Taking place in 2020, Jack Burton comes out of retirement to battle Ching Dai and save the world. Vinyl figures In February 2015, Funko released a line of ReAction and Pop! vinyl figures based on Big Trouble in Little China. Board game On July 15, 2016, Boom! Studios announced a partnership with Everything Epic and Flipside to create a board game based on the film. It was released in 2018, and is a highly thematic cooperative miniatures board game for 1–4 players. Card game In August 2016, Upper Deck released the Legendary: Big Trouble in Little China deck-building card game. It is a semi-cooperative game for 2–5 players using the deck-building mechanic in which players purchase cards from a central pool to work together against the "villain" deck. The cards feature original artwork based on characters from the movie. It comes with 400 cards and a special playmat, and retails for around $40. Influence Marvel supervillain The Mandarin in the 1990s Iron Man comic run by John Byrne and John Romita Jr. was modeled in appearance after Lo Pan. The film's portrayal of the lightning sorcerer/demigod character has been occasionally described as an inspiration for the character of Raiden from Mortal Kombat, introducing the archetype of a straw hat–wearing monk able to control lightning with his hands to non-Asian audiences (in traditional Chinese and Japanese culture, the lightning god has an appearance more similar to that of a traditional Asian creature). Additionally, the character David Lo Pan has been credited as the original inspiration for the soul-stealing Mortal Kombat villain Shang Tsung. The twenty-third episode of the second season of the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV series, "A Chinatown Ghost Story," uses concepts from the film, but renames the antagonist Lo Pan to Ho Chan and replaces the Storm figure Rain with Wind. In addition, James Hong (Lo Pan) reprises his Little China performance as the principal villain character. The song "We Have Candy" by the South African rap-rave group Die Antwoord features lead singer Ninja reciting some of Jack Burton's dialogue from the film. In 2006, American experimental rock band Man Man released an album with the title Six Demon Bag, which is a reference to a line in the film. A 2012 parody music video of the song "Gangnam Style" was entitled Lo Pan Style and featured the storyline and characters from the movie, including a cameo by James Hong. New Zealand director Taika Waititi cited the film as an influence on Thor: Ragnarok (2017). The Regular Show season 3 episode "Fortune Cookie" features a villain called The Warlock, who bears a resemblance to Lo Pan; he also played by James Hong. The title of the Rick and Morty season 2 episode "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez" is a reference to the film. In the Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja season 2 episode "Big Trouble in Little Norrisville," the titular place is a reference to Little Chinatown (the title of the episode also references the film). James Hong (who played Lo Pan) also provides a guest voice role as the Shopkeeper. The American hard rock band Lo-Pan is named after Hong's character in the movie. See also List of cult films List of martial arts films References External links Big Trouble in Little China at IMDb Big Trouble in Little China at AllMovie Big Trouble in Little China at Box Office Mojo Big Trouble in Little China at John Carpenter's official website The Wing Kong Exchange discussion of film influence. Erasing Clouds retrospective article

The Ward (titled onscreen as John Carpenter's The Ward) is a 2010 American supernatural psychological horror film directed by John Carpenter and starring Amber Heard, Mamie Gummer, Danielle Panabaker, Laura-Leigh, Lyndsy Fonseca and Jared Harris. Set in 1966, the film chronicles a young woman who is institutionalized after setting fire to a house, and who finds herself haunted by the ghost of a former inmate at the psychiatric ward. As of 2024, this is Carpenter's most recent film as a director. The film was shot on location at the Eastern State Hospital in Medical Lake, Washington. Plot In rural Oregon, at the North Bend Psychiatric Hospital in 1966, a young patient named Tammy is killed by an unseen force at night. Kristen (Amber Heard), a troubled young woman, sets fire to an abandoned farmhouse and is arrested. The local police take her to North Bend, where she meets the other patients in the ward: artistic Iris (Lyndsy Fonseca), seductive Sarah (Danielle Panabaker), wild Emily (Mamie Gummer), and child-like Zoey (Laura-Leigh). Kristen is taken to a room previously occupied by their friend, Tammy, and meets therapist Dr. Stringer (Jared Harris). She reveals that she is unable to recall anything about her past. She is attacked by a horribly deformed figure that had been staring at her earlier, but upon telling the nurse this, she is drugged and put through intense electroshock therapy. Dr. Stringer uses hypnotherapy to unlock Iris's hidden memories. After the session, Iris is killed by transorbital lobotomy by the deformed figure. Kristen finds Iris' sketch of her attacker with the name 'Alice Hudson', a former patient at the hospital. That night, Kristen and Emily attempt to find Iris and escape. However, Kristen is thwarted by Alice and loses consciousness while Emily is caught. Alice kills Sarah. Kristen discovers that all the girls had killed Alice together because Alice constantly hurt them. Now she is after the girls for revenge. Kristen tries to talk Emily down from attempting suicide but Alice kills her by slitting her throat with a scalpel. Kristen plans to escape again by holding Zoey as a pretend hostage but is drugged and placed in a straitjacket. She escapes it and she and Zoey try to get out. Zoey is killed by Alice off-screen. After a lengthy chase, Kristen seemingly manages to destroy Alice. She finds Alice's file in Dr. Stringer's office, which has each of the girls' names, including Kristen herself. Dr. Stringer, catching her in his office, reveals that Kristen is actually one of many personalities of the real Alice Hudson, who was kidnapped at age eleven, eight years earlier, and left chained for two months in the basement of the same farmhouse Kristen burned down. In order to survive the trauma, she developed Dissociative Identity Disorder, creating each one of the girls from the ward as a different personality. Over time, Alice's own personality became so overwhelmed by the others that she became lost. Dr. Stringer attempted experimental techniques to bring Alice's own personality back, resulting in the manifestation of Ghost Alice, who destroyed the individual personalities one by one. Her treatments were working until 'Kristen' appeared, as an attempt of Alice's mind to protect the other personalities so she wouldn't need to face her trauma. As the Kristen personality tries to come to terms with all this, Ghost Alice appears before her and the two begin to fight, each determined to emerge as the dominant personality. During this hallucinatory altercation, "Kristen" falls out the window and hits the ground several stories below. Alice manages to survive the incident, and the Kristen personality finally fades away, reverting Alice to her true self. While being treated for her injuries, Alice is visited by her parents, whom her other personalities had originally written off as strangers. She tells Dr. Stringer that she remembers what happened, and finally accepts that she has to face her trauma, resolving not to run from it anymore. At the end of the movie, Alice, who has seemingly been rehabilitated, packs her belongings as she prepares to leave the hospital. But, when she opens the medicine cabinet above her sink, Kristen lunges out at her, suggesting that the personality is still strong and refuses to be destroyed. Cast Amber Heard as Kristen, the main protagonist. A girl with no memories of her life but a strong belief that she is not crazy. She feels the constant need to escape the ward no matter the cost. She is the first to notice the other girls are disappearing and that a vengeful ghost might be the one behind it. Mamie Gummer as Emily. She is tough and free-spirited but also the one who mostly acts in a wild, insane manner, annoys the other patients, and calls everyone crazy, which often starts conflict among girls, especially between her and Sarah. Initially, she tries to intimidate and scare Kristen, but eventually, Kristen's strength makes her admire her. She hides a guilty feeling inside her though it seems unlikely she will open to it. Danielle Panabaker as Sarah, a vain, beautiful redhead and the flirtatious one of the group. She flirts with a male nurse but is turned down because she is a mental patient. She often puts down the other girls through her snobbish and snooty disposition. Laura-Leigh as Zoey, a girl who has suffered emotional trauma so severe that she keeps acting and dressing like a little girl. She carries around a stuffed rabbit everywhere she goes. She seems oppressed by the others due to her instant trust in Kristen. Lyndsy Fonseca as Iris, artistically talented, prim, and proper, is the first of the girls to befriend Kristen. She is nice and kind to everyone. She also carries a sketchbook where she likes to draw. She seems to be the most aware of their situation in the ward since she explains to Kristen everything about their seclusion. Mika Boorem as Alice, a girl who used to be a patient at the ward but is nowhere to be found anymore. Kristen tries to find out what happened to her during her time at the Ward. Jared Harris as Dr. Stringer, the girls' psychiatrist. He seems hopeful about curing Kristen, though his real intentions seem mysterious the whole time. Sydney Sweeney as Young Alice, a young girl who Kristen sees in flashbacks, both hands chained in a cellar. Nothing is really explained about her in the beginning. Dan Anderson as Roy, the chief orderly at the ward. Serious and unpredictable, tries to maintain order inside the ward. He is the main target of Sarah's flirting. Susanna Burney as Nurse Lundt, the chief nurse at the ward, tends to consider Kristen a loose end, and constantly tries to act without the authority of Dr. Stringer. Sali Sayler as Tammy, a girl who disappears from the ward unexpectedly. Her disappearance upsets the other girls. Her empty room is later occupied by Kristen. She is the mastermind behind Alice's "death" at the hands of the girls. Mark Chamberlin as Mr. Hudson, the sad man (as Emily describes him and his wife). They constantly visit the ward and are often seen watching the girls from a window. Jillian Kramer as Monster Alice, the ghost responsible for the disappearances. Using surgical tools as torture means on her victims. Not much is clear about her other than the fact that she is getting rid of the girls one by one. Production The film marks a return for Carpenter after a ten-year hiatus of not making any films; his last was the 2001 film Ghosts of Mars. According to Carpenter, "I was burned out...I had fallen out of love with cinematic storytelling". Despite this, in the meantime he had done two episodes for the anthology TV show Masters of Horror. Carpenter said that the series reminded him of why he fell in love with the craft in the first place. Carpenter said that the script "came along at the right time for me", and he was particularly fascinated by how the film took place within a single location. The film was shot on location in Spokane, Washington, and at the Eastern State Hospital in Medical Lake, Washington. The outside of the hospital is based on the real life, now demolished, McAuley hospital set in the adjacent town of Coos Bay, OR. The film was shot at a real operating mental hospital, and the crew was caged in to prevent patients from intervening. Release The first footage revealed from the film was on the French channel Canal+. The film premiered on September 13 at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival. The Ward was released in the UK on January 21, 2011. After its debut in a handful of film festivals in late 2010, The Ward was released in a few US theatres on July 8, 2011, where it grossed $7,760. The worldwide gross was $5.3 million. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in the US on August 16, 2011, and in the UK on October 17, 2011. Reception The Ward received generally negative reviews. Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 33% of 72 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 4.5/10. The site's consensus states: "Lacking the hallmarks of his best work, The Ward proves to be a disappointingly mundane swan song for director John Carpenter." Metacritic rated it 38/100 based on 18 reviews. Dennis Harvey of Variety wrote, "As usual Carpenter uses the widescreen frame with aplomb, but pic suffers from too little character detailing (even if a late twist explains that), rote scares, and emphasis on a hectic pace over atmosphere." Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter called it "an atmospheric supernatural thriller that has been stripped of the filmmaker's later excesses". Tim Grierson of Screen International wrote, "Tight as a drum and plenty of fun, John Carpenter's first film in nine years is hardly a groundbreaker, but when the execution is this expert, why complain?" Film Journal International wrote, "Genre veteran John Carpenter's sleekly professional ghost story is well-acted and directed but sadly derivative. Horror fans have seen it all before." The Guardian's Phelim O'Neill also considered the film to be unoriginal, but nevertheless "a well-made film, with some finely crafted shocks" Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times wrote that the film "continues the painful decline of a director who seems more nostalgic for past glories than excited about new ideas". Robert Abele of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film "feels like a foot-wetting exercise rather than a full-bodied romp in familiar waters". Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly rated it B− and wrote, "While he does bring his trademark craftsmanship to this snake-pit mental-asylum thriller, the picture has too many old-movie bits rattling around in it." Adam Nayman of Fangoria wrote, "The problem with The Ward is not so much its lack of style as the fact that the director doesn't seem to have much interest in the material". David Harley of Bloody Disgusting rated it 1/5 stars and wrote, "If someone other than Carpenter had been at the helm of The Ward, then no one would be talking about it." Serena Whitney of Dread Central rated it 3.5/5 stars and wrote, "John Carpenter's The Ward is a mediocre thriller that lacks any true original scares and blatantly rips off a twist ending from a far better film." References Further reading Radish, Christina (June 8, 2011). "Exclusive: Director John Carpenter Talks THE WARD and His Thoughts on Hollywood Remaking His Films". Collider. Retrieved April 22, 2015. Radish, Christina (September 11, 2010). "John Carpenter Exclusive Interview THE WARD". Collider. Retrieved April 22, 2015. Eggertsen, Chris (June 3, 2011). "Interview with 'The Ward' Director John Carpenter". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved April 22, 2015. Nemiroff, Perri (July 6, 2011). "Interview: The Ward's Lyndsy Fonseca". Cinema Blend. Retrieved April 22, 2015. Radish, Christina (June 7, 2011). "Amber Heard Talks THE WARD and NBC's THE PLAYBOY CLUB". Collider. Retrieved April 22, 2015. Zinoman, Jason (June 24, 2011). "A Lord of Fright Reclaims His Dark Domain". The New York Times. Retrieved April 22, 2015. Bibbiani, William (July 5, 2011). "Interview: John Carpenter on 'The Ward'". CraveOnline. Retrieved April 22, 2015. External links The Ward at IMDb The Ward at AllMovie The Ward at Metacritic The Ward at Rotten Tomatoes

How much taller (in centimetres) is Mark O'Halloran (ex West Tigers rugby league player) than the London Broncos' player with the heritage number 341?

11cm

Numerical reasoning | Multiple constraints | Post processing | Temporal reasoning

Robert Fico (Slovak: [ˈrɔbert ˈfitsɔ]; born 15 September 1964) is a Slovak politician who is currently serving as the prime minister of Slovakia since 2023. He previously served as prime minister from 2006 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2018. He founded the left-wing political party Direction – Social Democracy in 1999 and has led the party since. Fico holds a record as the longest-serving prime minister in the country's history, having served for over 10 years. First elected to Parliament in 1992, he was appointed the following year to the Czechoslovak delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly to the Council of Europe. Following his party's victory in the 2006 parliamentary election, he formed his first Cabinet. His political positions have been described as populist, left-wing and conservative. After the 2010 parliamentary election, Fico served as an opposition member of parliament, effectively holding the position of the leader of the opposition. Following a motion of no confidence against the Iveta Radičová cabinet, Fico was re-appointed prime minister after leading Smer to a landslide election victory in the 2012 parliamentary election, winning 83 seats and forming a government with an absolute majority in Parliament, the first such since 1989. In 2013, Fico declared his candidacy for the 2014 presidential election. Fico lost the election to his political rival Andrej Kiska in the second round of voting on 29 March 2014. In March 2018, owing to the political crisis following the murder of Ján Kuciak, Fico delivered his resignation to Kiska, who then charged Deputy Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini with the formation of a new government. During the 2023 parliamentary election, Fico vowed to end military support for Slovakia's neighbor Ukraine, which was being invaded by Russia. His party Smer won 22.95% of the vote and 42 seats, becoming the largest party. Fico formed a coalition with Voice – Social Democracy (Hlas), a party founded in 2020 by Pellegrini and other dissidents of Fico's Smer, and with the Slovak National Party, and began his fourth term as prime minister on 25 October. Fico's government has stopped military aid to Ukraine, moved to take greater control of the media, and abolished the Special Prosecutor's Office that dealt with corruption. These moves sparked mass protests. On 15 May 2024, Fico was hospitalized after an attempted assassination. Following initial reports of his "life-threatening" condition, he underwent emergency surgery and survived. Early life and education Fico was born on 15 September 1964 in the town of Topoľčany, northwestern Nitra Region. His father, Ľudovit Fico, was a forklift operator, and his mother, Emilie Ficová, worked in a shoe store. He has two siblings. His brother Ladislav is a construction entrepreneur, and his sister Lucia Chabadová, who is fourteen years younger, is a prosecutor. Fico grew up and lived with his family in the village of Hrušovany, until the age of six, when they moved to the nearby town of Topoľčany. Fico has described his childhood ambitions as wanting to become either a politician, a sports reporter, or an archaeologist. After completing elementary school, he enrolled in the local Gymnasium of Topoľčany, graduating in the summer of 1982. Later the same year he enrolled in the Law Faculty of the Comenius University in Bratislava, in what was then Czechoslovakia. His teachers were impressed with him, and one of his teachers from university, the future prime minister Jozef Moravčík, described him as "ambitious, very confident and very involved in discussions." He graduated as juris doctor in 1986 specializing in criminal law. After graduating from university, Fico completed his mandatory military service as an assistant military investigator, stationed in the now-Czech town of Janovice, between 1986 and 1987. He later worked for the Institute of State and Law of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, as well as with the Justice Ministry until 1992. During this period he wrote and completed his PhD degree, with a thesis on "The death penalty in Czechoslovakia". In the early 1990s, he undertook studies at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies in London under a Masaryk scholarship. In 2002, he completed his postgraduate study, earning him the title of associate professor. Early career (1992–2006) Fico joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1986, having applied in 1984. After the Velvet Revolution of 1989, and the collapse of the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia, Fico joined the Party of the Democratic Left (SDĽ), a successor of the Communist Party of Slovakia. He was first elected as Member of Parliament in 1992. From 1994 to 2000 Fico represented Slovakia as its legal counsel at the European Court of Human Rights but lost all 14 cases which he handled. In 1998, he was elected deputy chairman of the party. Later in 1998, Fico ran for the post of general prosecutor; his party endorsed another candidate instead, arguing that Fico was too young. In the 1998 elections that saw the fall of the government of Vladimír Mečiar, Fico received the biggest number of preferential votes among his party colleagues. A year later, when support for the SDĽ dropped below the threshold required to get into parliament, he left the party, saying he was disappointed with the way the government worked. As early as in the autumn of 1998, a four-person group consisting of Fico, his associate Frantisek Határ, political strategist Fedor Flašík, and media executive Monika Flašíková-Beňová had begun to discuss and lay plans for launching a new political party on the left. These plans were driven by the falling popularity of the existing parties, and the rising popularity of Fico. Almost immediately after leaving SDĽ, the group founded Direction – Social Democracy (SMER), which Fico first labelled a party of the third way, with himself as leader. Fico established himself as an opposition politician criticizing the unpopular reforms of the right-wing government of Mikuláš Dzurinda. In order to keep SMER from repeating the fate of his previous party, Fico introduced a strict set of regulations for his new party, called the "clean hands" policy. The rules stipulated that no one with ties from the previous Communist regime or people who had background with other political parties was allowed to hold party office. This created a new generation of politicians uninvolved in previous corruption scandals; among them was Monika Flašíková-Beňová, Robert Kaliňák, and Pavol Paška. Another rule was that all party chapters on the regional and local levels were to be 100% financially self-sufficient, and all financial donations were to be made public to the media. Between 2002 and 2006, Smer was the main opposition party in the Slovak parliament. In 2004, it merged with nearly all the leftist parties active on the Slovak political scene, including its parent party SDĽ, becoming the single most dominant political party in Slovakia. First premiership (2006–2010) In the 2006 Slovak parliamentary election, SMER won with 29.1% of the votes. The election victory came after a campaign focused on reversing the deeply unpopular austerity reforms within the healthcare and education sectors, reforms which were pushed through by then ministers Rudolf Zajac and Martin Fronc. They subsequently formed a coalition government with Vladimír Mečiar's People's Party – Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) and Ján Slota's Slovak National Party (SNS). SNS is a right-wing populist party which has been known for making anti-Roma and anti-Hungarian comments, including a drunken public speech by Ján Slota, in which he threatened to "get in tanks and level Budapest to the ground." A large part of Fico's election victory in 2006 was attributed to his loud criticism of the previous right-wing government's economic, tax, social, pension and legislative reforms, which had been backed by international bodies like the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the OECD. One reaction to the coalition came from the European-wide Party of European Socialists (PES), who suspended SMER's application to join the PES. In late February 2008, the Assembly of the PES conditionally reinstated the application after both SMER and SNS signed a letter committing themselves to respect minority rights. Fico never publicly condemned SNS' remarks and speeches, and government-level relations between Slovakia and Hungary deteriorated in his first term in office. Several meetings between the two countries' prime ministers were abruptly cancelled, and those few that did take place resulted in little improvement of relations. On 10 April 2007, the deputy director of the Slovak Land Fund and HZDS nominee Branislav Bríza signed a contract on the basis of which restitutors from eastern Slovakia became the owners of lucrative land in the Tatra village of Veľký Slavkov. These restitutors then quickly sold the land to the company GVM for 13 million Slovak crowns (Slovak currency prior to euro). The figurehead of the company was a friend of Mečiar Milan Bališ. Bríza did so while his boss Hideghéty was on vacation. 10 April was the last day when Bríza had full power acting on behalf of his boss in the absence of his boss. This was the seventh suspicious contract he had signed up to that point. Such practices were previously criticized by Fico as they were common during the tenure of his Coalition partner HDZS leader Mečiar. This scandal almost led to the collapse of the Coalition. It led to the Minister of Agriculture for HDZS Miroslav Jureňa resigning. Fico demanded Bríza to resign. Estimated damage to the state was half a billion Slovak crowns. Justice was delivered on 8 September 2015 when Bríza was deemed guilty and sentenced to 2 years probation. Leader of the Opposition (2010–2012) Before the 2010 election, Fico's party was in a relatively strong position according to several polls; however, just before the election, a political scandal broke out, and was described as one of the gravest in the country's 17-year history. A voice recording surfaced, with a voice strongly resembling that of Fico, in which he claimed to have raised several million euros in undeclared funds for the 2002 election, as well as calling for a "parallel financial structure" to be created for the financing of Smer's election campaign. Slovak media sources, such as Sme, carried the news about the recording in great detail; Fico dismissed it as a forgery. Fico attacked the media sources that published information about the recording, saying: "Should I go over there and give you a smack because you are scoundrels? What you are doing is unheard of. You are masturbating on the prime minister every day." Sme announced Fico has since been questioned on the matter. Former Minister of Justice Daniel Lipšic told the press he has "handed the recording to the general attorney office." In the election, Fico's SMER remained the biggest party in Parliament, with 62 seats, while his coalition partners were decimated, with the HZDS being completely shut out. Unable to find a partner willing to give him the 14 seats he needed to stay in office, Fico resigned. He said he "respects the election result", and expressed his desire to lead a resolute opposition after his narrow loss. Second premiership (2012–2018) 2012 parliamentary election Following the fall of the centre-right coalition government that replaced his, Fico's Smer-SD returned to power being the first party since the breakup of Czechoslovakia to win an absolute majority of seats. Fico initially sought to form a national unity government with SDKU or KDH. When this failed, he formed the first one-party government in Slovakia since 1993. 2014 presidential election On 18 December 2013, Fico officially announced his candidacy for the upcoming 2014 presidential election. He said: "I understand my candidacy as a service to Slovakia." He argued that he did not see his candidacy as an adventure, an escape or an attempt to culminate his political career. His campaign ran under the motto "Ready for Slovakia". On 9 January 2014, the Slovak Parliament, under Speaker Pavol Paška, officially approved the candidatures of Fico and 14 other candidates. Fico was defeated by the independent candidate Andrej Kiska, whose support from the Slovak right wing led him to victory by a wide margin (approximately 59%–41%) in the second round of voting on 29 March 2014. 2016 parliamentary election Fico's party won the 2016 parliamentary elections, amassing a plurality of seats; it failed to win a majority. On 7 March 2016, Andrej Kiska, the then President of Slovakia, invited each elected party, with the exception of Kotleba – People's Party Our Slovakia, for post-election talks. Fico was given the first opportunity by the President to form a stable coalition. On 17 March, Fico informed Kiska that he would form a four-party government coalition, including Smer–SD, the Slovak National Party, Most–Híd and Network. Resignation On 14 March 2018, Fico publicly stated that he was ready to tender his resignation as prime minister in order to avoid a snap election, as well as to "solve the political crisis" involving the murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak. Kuciak also examined the work of the Italian mafia 'Ndrangheta in Slovakia. According to the police, Mária Trošková, who is an assistant to Fico, could have ties to 'Ndrangheta. In the immediate aftermath of the crime, Fico implied that he had taken personal control of the investigation while posing with €1m in cash. At the time, he said he wanted to give a clear pro-European and pro-NATO orientation direction to his party. Fico had earlier in March accused President Kiska of plotting with George Soros to topple his government. Fico's announcement came after a meeting with President Kiska. In that meeting, Fico laid out a number of specific conditions that needed to be met by the president in order for him to resign. Those conditions were amongst others, that the result of the 2016 Slovak parliamentary election be respected, that the current ruling government coalition must continue, and that Smer-SD as the largest party currently in parliament, name the next prime minister. Fico stated that he already had a candidate in mind. Slovak media widely reported that the next prime minister would be Deputy Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini. On 15 March, President Kiska formally accepted the resignation of prime minister Fico and his cabinet, and thereby tasked Pellegrini with forming a new government. Political wilderness (2018–2022) Fico spent a number of years after his 2018 resignation in the political wilderness. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Fico advocated against vaccines, masks and lockdowns and spread disinformation about vaccine effects. Third premiership (2023–present) In 2022 and 2023, Fico was a loud critic of the Von der Leyen Commission and her foreign and military policies in relation to Russian invasion of Ukraine. He also expressed disagreements with the European Commission in questions of immigration. Simultaneously, he continued to applaud and support his party's former presidential candidate and European Commissioner candidate Maroš Šefčovič. His campaign for premier used all of these planks. Fico's new cabinet was sworn in on 25 October 2023. Fico attended a two-day European Union (EU) summit that began the next day. In 2023, Fico referred to adoption by same-sex couples as a perversion, stated that he would never support same-sex marriage. He said that "gender ideology in schools is unacceptable". Fico's ruling coalition passed a law that shut down the Special Prosecutor's Office, which had dealt with serious corruption. Investigations by the office had led to many high-profile corruption cases and convictions, many of them involving Fico's MPs, party members and business partners. The changes also include a reduction in punishment for corruption. The ruling coalition fast-tracked the amendments through parliament, limiting the time for debate and preventing the draft law from being reviewed by experts and others usually involved in the process. The changes were opposed by the Slovak president and opposition, and sparked large protests in Slovakia. Fico's government has also moved to take greater control of the media. Under the plans, the current public radio and television network RTVS would be replaced by a new organization, controlled by a government-appointed council. This was condemned as an attack on press freedom by President Zuzana Caputova, local journalists, the opposition, international media organizations, the European Commission and others, who warned that the changes would give the government full control of Slovak public television and radio. These proposed changes also led to mass protests. Attempted assassination On 15 May 2024, around 14:30 (2:30 PM), Fico was injured in a shooting in Handlová, Slovakia, in front of the city's House of Culture after a government meeting, and was subsequently hospitalized at the F.D. Roosevelt Hospital in Banská Bystrica. A 71-year-old poet named Juraj Cintula was immediately detained by police as a primary suspect. Fico was reportedly in a "life-threatening" condition following the attack, having suffered wounds to his stomach, arms, and legs but was stabilised following emergency surgery, and was expected to recover according to deputy prime minister Tomáš Taraba. On 30 May, Fico was discharged from hospital and was allowed to continue his recovery at home. On 5 June 2024, Fico made his first comments on the attack, saying that he forgave the attacker as he is only the "messenger of evil" of the opposition. He added that he expected to return to work later that month or in July. Senior politicians from Fico's ruling coalition blamed independent media and the opposition for the assassination attempt, alleging that they influenced the shooter. Slovak journalists and opposition leaders feared that the government would use the assassination attempt to crack down on them. The shooting was unanimously condemned by the National Council. Ideological views Fico originally advocated the third way (recognition of the value of the market and business, but the role of government and a strong state), at the same time but his views gradually evolved. He is committed to the left and patriotism, on the basis of which he renamed the Smer party to the Slovak Social Democracy. Fico is critical of the Western model of the left, which he calls "the Brussels left". In response to the fact that the European Socialists suspended Smer's full membership and Hlas's associate membership of the Party of European Socialists (PES), Fico said that he was proud of his party, Smer, and did not intend to change his views. Fico appreciates Alexander Dubček, Gustáv Husák, Milan Rastislav Štefánik, Ľudovít Štúr, Anton Bernolák, Vladimír Clementis, Ladislav Novomeský, Vladimír Mináč, and Christian personalities of Slovak history, starting with Cyril and Methodius and ending with Cardinal Korec. Among foreign politicians, he appreciates Willy Brandt. He has also been compared to right-wing European leaders such as Viktor Orbán. Fico is a member of the Slovak Matica, which he supports, and Slovak Union of Anti-Fascist Fighters. From a geopolitical point of view, he has been talking about "the politics of the four world directions" for a long time. Domestic policy Mass media Fico's government has moved to take greater control of the media. The public radio and television network RTVS was replaced by a new organization, controlled by a government-appointed council. There was strong opposition to the plans both inside and outside Slovakia. Noel Curran, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) director general, said in a statement that "This appears to be a thinly veiled attempt to turn the Slovak public service broadcaster into state-controlled media". In 2023, Fico's government also cut off communication with four domestic media outlets, calling them "hostile" and "not objective enough". Instead, it favors pro-Russian media such as Hlavné správy. Labour policies At the start of his second term as Prime Minister in 2012, Fico introduced a new Labour Code, which granted entitlement to a lay-off notice period, as well as severance pay, reduced overtime, making layoffs more expensive for employers, shorter temporary work contracts, and more power for trade unions. In addition, it curbed the chaining of fixed-term employment contracts, whereby it was possible to extend a fixed-term employment contract three times over three years. The Labour Code was revised in 2014 when it introduced severe restrictions of the work on agreement performed outside regular employment. Under the latest revision, employers were able to conclude agreements with employees for 12 months only. Finance One of the few modifications Fico's government implemented was a slight modification to the unusual flat tax system introduced by the previous government, in a way that slightly decreased or eradicated a tax-free part of income for higher income earners. A lower value added tax was imposed on medications and books; despite his electoral promises, Fico failed to extend this onto a wider group of products such as groceries. Among the measures were controversial legislative changes which effectively banned private health insurance companies from generating profit. As a result, Slovakia is being sued by several foreign shareholders of local health insurers through international arbitrations. Road toll failure In 2010, Fico faced large-scale protests and a blockade of major cities by truckers upset about what they considered to be badly implemented tolls on the highways. Truckers demanded that fuel prices be lowered to compensate for the tolls. Fico initially refused to speak with representatives of the truckers, saying he would not "be blackmailed". A few days later, he capitulated, and the cuts given to truckers amounted to about €100,000,000. Food price regulation failure In 2007, Fico unsuccessfully tried to regulate retail food prices, an unprecedented effort in a generally free-market EU. Nationalization attempts In August 2008, Fico threatened the foreign shareholders of the local gas distributor SPP (the French Gaz de France and the German E.ON) with nationalization of their subsidiary and seizure of their ownership shares in a dispute over retail gas prices. Foreign policy European Union In foreign relations with Europe, Fico's government faced controversies due to its affiliation with the internationally isolated parties of Vladimír Mečiar and Ján Slota. Under his leadership, Slovakia entered the Eurozone in 2009, and Fico himself in a speech to the Oxford Union praised Slovakia's entry into the EU as a "success story." Fico opposed Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia, which he called a "major mistake". Slovakia has not recognised Kosovo as a sovereign state; one of Fico's three cabinets have recognised Kosovo and he continued to iterate his opposition towards recognition afterwards. Responding to the 2013 Euromaidan protests in Ukraine, Fico declared that the "EU is no religious obligation", and said the EU was "so in love with itself" that it is convinced there is no better alternative to it in the world. He subsequently condemned the use of violence but said that the protests were an internal affair in Ukraine. Commenting on Brexit in November 2016, Fico stated that it was unclear what the United Kingdom (UK) wanted, adding that it "must suffer" more than the 27 countries who would remain in the bloc. He also stated that the UK would not be allowed to make EU workers "second-class citizens" while still receiving the benefits of the EU single market. In light of the election of Donald Trump, he commented that it might spur Europe to bolster its military. In August 2017, Fico said: "The fundamentals of my policy are being close to the (EU) core, close to France, to Germany. I am very much interested in regional cooperation within the Visegrád Four but Slovakia's vital interest is the EU. Immigration and Islam Fico rejected European Commission's plan to distribute refugees and economic migrants from the Middle East and Africa among EU member states, saying: "As long as I am prime minister, mandatory quotas will not be implemented on Slovak territory." He stated that "thousands of terrorists and Islamic State fighters are entering Europe with migrants, and added: "We monitor every single Muslim in Slovakia." In May 2016, Fico stated that Slovakia would not accept "one single Muslim" migrant into the country, weeks before the country was scheduled to take over the Presidency of the Council of the EU. He further stated: "When I say something now, maybe it will seem strange, but I'm sorry, Islam has no place in Slovakia. I think it is the duty of politicians to talk about these things very clearly and openly. I do not wish there were tens of thousands of Muslims." On 30 November 2016, the Slovak parliament under Fico government passed a bill that requires all religious movements and organizations to have a minimum of 50,000 verified practicing members in order to become state-recognized, up from 20,000. Russia After coming to power in 2006, Fico declared that Slovakia's relations with Russia would improve after eight years of "neglect". Fico referred to "Slavonic solidarity". which was a central theme of the Slovak National Awakening in the 1850s. On 4 April 2008, during a visit by Russian prime minister Viktor Zubkov, Fico said: "In Slovakia, there have been efforts to deliberately ignore Slavonic solidarity." Slovakia modernised Russian MiG fighters in Russia and did not buy new jets from the West. Fico accused Georgia of "provoking Russia" in 2008 when Russia invaded Georgia. In June 2008, The Slovak Spectator published a piece which summarized his foreign policy in this way: Compensating for his lack of close political allies within the EU, the former Czech Social Democratic Party leader Jiří Paroubek being a notable exception, Fico sought to strengthen relations with several non-EU countries such as Serbia and Russia. This broke with a pro-NATO, Western-focused trend established after the 1998 Slovak election. Under his premiership, the Slovak foreign ministry rejected the March 2014 Crimean status referendum, which incorporated Crimea into Russia; Fico himself remained silent on the issue. Regarding the EU sanctions against Russia for its illegal annexation, Fico denounced them as "senseless" and a "threat to the Slovak economy". Fico condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022; he also opposed European sanctions against Russia for the invasion, arguing that the sanctions help Russian autarky and only harm the Russian population and European population rather than the regime. Fico invited the Russian diplomat Igor Bratchikov to speak at the celebration of the Slovak National Uprising on 29 August 2022. In 2023, Fico said that the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation violated international law but that Ukraine re-taking Crimea would not solve the Russo-Ukrainian War. Ukraine Responding to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Slovakia's neighbor, Fico opposed helping Ukraine to defend itself militarily. He also vowed to block Ukraine from joining NATO and argued that the accession of Ukraine to the EU by 2025 was unrealistic. Fico said that selling or sending Ukraine weapons and military equipment to defend itself has only encouraged more violence. In September 2023, he vowed that if his party won the election "We will not send a single bullet to Ukraine". Fico said that efforts should instead focus on reaching a ceasefire and pushing Ukraine and Russia toward peace talks. He said "Why don't we force the warring parties [to] sit down and find some sort of compromise that would guarantee security for Ukraine?". In May 2023, Fico praised the peace plans put forward by the Holy See, Brazil and China. In October 2023, after his re-election, Fico announced Slovakia would not sell or send any more military equipment to Ukraine but would continue to help Ukraine in a humanitarian way and would try to start peace talks. In January 2024 Fico said that "Ukraine is not an independent and sovereign country" and said the only way to end Russia's invasion is for Ukraine to give up some of its land to the invaders.Fico has been accused of spreading pro-Russian disinformation about the Ukrainian war, for example repeating Kremlin claims that the Donbas War began when "Ukrainian Nazis and fascists started murdering the Russian population of Donbas". Members of the Party of European Socialists called for Fico's party to be expelled from the group for allegedly spreading Russian propaganda and for seeking a coalition with the neo-fascist Republic Movement. Hungary Tension between Slovakia and Hungary, unstable from the past, was inflamed in 2006 following the parliamentary election and Fico's decision to include nationalist Ján Slota and his Slovak National Party into his governing coalition. Slota was known for his fierce anti-Hungarian rhetoric, including that "Hungarians are a tumor on the Slovak nation that needs to be immediately removed." In the wake of the election several incidents occurred which further inflamed nationalist sentiment on both sides, including the alleged beating of a Hungarian woman in South Slovakia. Fico reacted by condemning the extremism but rebuked the Hungarian government by declaring: "The Slovak government doesn't need to be called on to strike against extremism." The row heated up again in September 2007, when Fico's government introduced a law making the Beneš decrees inviolable. This was in response to demands from ethnic Hungarian politicians that compensations should be made to persons affected by the decrees. In May 2008, Fico labelled Hungary a potential threat during a speech commemorating the 161st anniversary of the day that Slovaks demanded national equality with other nations within the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Fico used the anniversary to openly criticise the political situation in Hungary and warn about the influence it might have on Slovakia. Especially he warned against the Hungarian right-wing politician Viktor Orbán, and his party Fidesz, which he called an "extreme nationalist party." Since then, relations between the two countries have slightly improved. By 2022, Fico's relationship with Orbán's government in Hungary had warmed considerably. In 2022, Fico welcomed Orbán's re-election in Hungary, praising his nationalistic approach and stance on the Russo-Ukrainian war. Similarly, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó welcomed Fico's return to office in 2023, commenting: "Robert Fico has the same views on the war, migration and gender issues as us." United States Fico was a vocal opponent of the one-time planned construction of new U.S. anti-ballistic missile and radar systems in military bases in neighbouring Czech Republic and Poland, and one of his first steps upon taking office was withdrawing Slovak troops from Iraq. Fico described the Iraq War as "unjust and wrong" and said that the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 "caused huge tensions", adding that to speak "about any democracy in Iraq is a fantasy" and that "the security situation [in Iraq] is catastrophic". In November 2013, Fico visited the U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington, D.C., where they spoke about the US-Slovak partnership, which Fico's spokesperson said is "based on shared democratic values and principles," after which he affirmed the strategic partnership between the two countries. In February 2023, Fico and SMER-SD were vocal opponents of the Slovak–American Defence Cooperation Agreement as disadvantageous to Slovakia, attacking Cabinet of Eduard Heger, especially Minister of Defence Jaroslav Naď, as well as President Zuzana Čaputová, accusing the latter of being an "American servant", in reference to promotion of American military and political interests in Slovakia. Israel In October 2023, Fico condemned the Hamas-led attack on Israel but rejected "considerations of razing the Gaza Strip to the ground or denying humanitarian aid in this area". In December 2023, he criticized the "hypocrisy" of the EU, which he claimed was reluctant to talk about the high civilian death toll in the Gaza Strip. Relationship with the media During his press conferences he often verbally attacks, belittles and taunts the present journalists, often accusing them of bias and attacks on his government. On several occasions he has openly and on record used profanities against specific journalists, such as "idiots", "pricks", "prostitutes", "snakes", and "hyenas". He has also been recorded ridiculing journalists' physical appearance. In 2009, Fico repeatedly described the Slovak press as a "new opposition force" that was biased and was harming national and state interests. Fico also accused the press of failing to "stand behind the common people." In July 2012, Fico declared "Eternal Peace" between him and the Slovak press. He also stated his desire to change his attitude towards the media, saying "I think it is enough" and that he does not plan any further lawsuits against media outlets except in extraordinary situations. Fico further said: "You have to spend an incredible amount of energy on it [lawsuits], it means several years of conflict, one conflict takes usually five or six years [to resolve]." He added that lawsuits involve "legal fees, paying a lawyer, everything around that". In November 2016, Fico termed journalists questioning him about allegations of public procurement rules during Slovakia's EU presidency as "dirty, anti-Slovak prostitutes". He also stated the accusations were a targeted attack to smear the country's presidency of the EU. In November 2021, Fico described journalists as "Soros' corrupt gang of swines for whom water is already boiling." He says that the media is "obsessed" with him and his party; they want to "destroy" it and are "waging a jihad against it." In 2022, Fico repeatedly stated that journalists were an "organized criminal group with the aim of breaking Slovak statehood" and called on the Slovak Police Force to investigate them. In June 2023, Reporters Without Borders asked Fico to stop legitimizing harassment of journalists. This occurred after Fico participated in a discussion with Daniel Bombic, a Slovak YouTuber known as Danny Kollar, for whose arrest three international warrants had been issued due to alleged online harassment and extremist crimes. Matej Príbelský, a journalist of Aktuality.sk who reported on the discussion, received multiple hateful messages and comments, including calls for violence, after Bombic asked his followers to "transmit their comments and impressions" to Príbelský, saying that "the score-settling will follow". RDF reasoned that Fico was legitimizing harassment of journalists by participating in the discussion and not denouncing the calls for violence against Príbelský. Personal life Fico is married to Svetlana Ficová (née Svobodová), a lawyer and associate professor from Žilina. They were classmates while both were studying law at the Comenius University in Bratislava, and they married in 1988. They have one son together, Michal, who studied at the University of Economics in Bratislava. Apart from his native Slovak, Fico is fluent in English and Russian. Religion Fico has rarely discussed his religious life in public. In his application to join the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1984, Fico stated that he was "strictly atheistic", as was required in order to be accepted. According to the testimonial from college added to the application, he held a "scientific Marxist-Leninist worldview" and "no problems with regards to religion." In a promotional video during presidential election campaign in 2014, Fico said he grew up in a Catholic family and that he considers himself a Catholic. He discussed his baptism, Holy Communion, Confirmation and how the Catholic faith had impacted his childhood. He stated: "Perhaps if I did my profile in relation to the Catholic Church, I would end up better off than any MP of the KDH." He also described growing up with his grandfather, a man who "very strictly respected the rules of standard Christian life", stating that it profoundly impacted him. Patrik Dubovský, a historian and former researcher of the National Memory Institute, considers it to be an attempt to manipulate public opinion because "confirmation was in direct conflict with Communist Party membership, whose political programme was based on atheism." During the Communist period, religiously active people were severely persecuted, especially after the repression of Charter 77. During a televised debate, Fico refused to answer a television presenter's question about whether he is a Christian or an atheist, and said that he considered it a private matter. Regarding the sacraments, Fico said that he was baptised as an infant and the Holy Communion with Confirmation followed afterwards, as he said it was with every child who grew up in his home village. Alleged extramarital affairs In August 2010, Fico was photographed around midnight in a gay bar in downtown Bratislava together with a woman, who was later revealed to be 25-year-old Jana Halászová, a secretary at the Smer-SD party headquarters. It was later revealed that Halászová had been given extensive privileges, including her own parking space in the Parliament car park, without being a member. In addition, both her sister and step-mother had recently been given jobs within various ministries. In August 2013, Fico was photographed while embracing and kissing his now-secretary Halászová, after taking her for a private dinner at a chateau in Čereňany, 160 kilometres from Bratislava. The photos created another round of speculation about the true nature of their relationship, as well as whether or not he had used public funds to pay for the dinner. In 2020, Slovak daily newspaper Denník N identified Katarína Szalayová as Fico's lover. She used a luxury car worth around €40,000, even though her net monthly salary of the prosecution office employee was around €600. After leaving the prosecution office, Szalayová gained employment in the law firm of Robert Kaliňák, former deputy prime minister during Fico's cabinets and incumbent member of SMER–SD party presidium. References External links "The Fico Threat", by Martin M. Simecka (March 2009 essay in Salon) "Fico profile" "Slovakia's election: Slovakia turns left". The Economist. 11 March 2012.

The London Broncos are a professional rugby league club based in Wimbledon, England. They play their home games at Plough Lane and compete in Super League, the top tier of British rugby league. Whilst the club has never won a major trophy, they have finished second in the League Championship once and have been Challenge Cup runners-up once. They have also won the Championship Grand Final, to gain promotion to the Super League, on two occasions. Originally formed as Fulham Rugby League Club in 1980, they have also previously been known as London Crusaders and Harlequins Rugby League. London's home colours are black and red. History Origins Professional rugby league was briefly represented in London during the 1930s by London Highfield (1933), Acton and Willesden (1935–36) and Streatham and Mitcham (1935–36). All these were speculative clubs set up by local businessmen purely as money making exercises, and were ultimately driven out of business through poor finances. Thereafter, the sport of rugby league in England remained exclusively a northern based game for over forty years until the formation in 1980 of a new club in London, Fulham. 1980–1991: Fulham R.L.F.C. In June 1980, Fulham Football Club chairman Ernie Clay set up a rugby league team at Craven Cottage, with the primary intention of creating another income stream for the football club. Warrington director Harold Genders, who had helped to persuade Clay of the potential benefits of establishing a rugby league club in the capital, resigned from the Warrington board to become managing director of Fulham R.L.F.C. The Rugby Football League (RFL), keen to encourage the expansion of the sport beyond its traditional northern heartland, accepted the new club at once. One of the game's leading players, Reg Bowden, was recruited by Genders to act as player-coach and the club's first signing was Roy Lester, on a free transfer from Warrington. Within nine weeks, Genders and Bowden had assembled a team of very experienced players, most of whom were approaching retirement, together with a few promising youngsters. The first match, on 14 September 1980, was a major success; nearly 10,000 Londoners attended the game at Craven Cottage to see the newly formed side convincingly beat highly regarded Wigan 24–5. On 15 February 1981, more than 15,000 were present to see Fulham take on Wakefield Trinity in the Challenge Cup, a club attendance record that still stands. The new Fulham RL team quickly proved to be very competitive and went on to win promotion at the end of their inaugural season. After that initial success, however, immediate relegation from the first division in 1981–82 was something of a reality check. Fulham played two "home" games against Swinton and Huddersfield at Widnes in 1983 as the pitch at the Cottage had disintegrated in the wet winter following the collapse of the main drain to the River Thames under the Miller Stand. The club also played several one-off games in 1983 at various football grounds around London; matches were played at Wealdstone's Lower Mead stadium, Hendon's Claremont Road ground, Brentford's Griffin Park and Chelsea's Stamford Bridge. Despite winning the Division Two Championship comfortably in 1982–83, a second immediate relegation in 1983–84, coupled with continuing financial losses, saw Clay, under pressure from the Fulham football club board, pull the plug at the end of their fourth season. However, with the backing of supporters Roy and Barbara Close and the appointment of a new coach, former player Roy Lester, Fulham RL still had a future. Most of the existing players moved on as free agents, and a new squad began life based at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre for the 1984–85 season. After a single season, the club then moved to a new home at Chiswick Polytechnic Sports Ground in the summer of 1985, and would remain there for five years. Bill Goodwin replaced Lester as coach from 1986 to 1987. In August 1986, Fulham hit a serious cash crisis and were forced to withdraw temporarily from the RFL only 11 days before the start of the season, but were able to re-launch in September. Bev Risman was appointed coach at Fulham in 1987. The team was in the bottom half of the second division and continually struggled for success, and Risman left after a couple of seasons and Bill Goodwin returned. Phil Sullivan was coach for just two months between January and February 1989, thereafter Goodwin came in for his third spell and held the reins until May 1989 when Ross Strudwick was appointed. The club returned to the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in 1990, this time making it their home for three seasons. In May 1991, York and Fulham toured Russia. 1991–1994: London Crusaders Prior to the start of the 1991–92 season the club's name was officially changed from Fulham RLFC to London Crusaders RLFC. A slightly more successful period on the pitch begun at this point. Ross Strudwick was replaced as coach by Darryl van der Velde in 1992 but continued as club manager until 1993. In June 1993 the club moved once again, from Crystal Palace National Sports Centre to Barnet Copthall arena. In November 1993, London Crusaders imposed a 20% pay cut on all staff to ease financial problems. With the club in financial straights, the RFL briefly took ownership of the Crusaders in 1993–94 to protect their southern outpost, but the club were then acquired by new owners Britannic Shipping; Strudwick stepped down as manager to give the club's new owners a clean slate. Despite the club's financial problems, the team proved very competitive on the pitch under coach Tony Gordon and narrowly missed out on automatic promotion back to the First Division by a single point. The climax of the Crusaders' era was a May 1994 appearance in the Divisional Premiership Final at Old Trafford; although they lost 22–30 to Workington Town, the club had gone into the game with the knowledge that an exciting take-over bid had just been announced. 1994–2005: London Broncos In the spring of 1994, just prior to the Divisional Premiership Final, it was announced that the successful Australian NRL club Brisbane Broncos was buying the London Crusaders club, which would be renamed London Broncos from the start of the forthcoming 1994–95 season. Gordon was replaced by a Brisbane coach, Gary Grienke. The first home game under the new Broncos moniker was against Keighley at Hendon F.C.'s ground at Claremont Road, though most home games were still played at Barnet Copthall. For the 1995–96 season the club found another new home base, returning to south-west London at The Stoop Memorial Ground, home of Harlequins Rugby Union Club. Despite finishing fourth in the Second Division the previous season, London Broncos were selected by the RFL to be part of the radical new Super League competition scheduled to begin in the summer of 1996, on the basis that the RFL felt it was commercially essential for the sport's national profile to have a team based in the nation's capital. The regular 1995–96 season, deliberately made brief to accommodate for Super League, ran from August 1995 to January 1996 and saw London included together with the top ten teams from the 1994–95 First Division in a 'Centenary League Championship', effectively a "dry run" for Super League. Faced with much stronger opposition, London struggled and finished second from last. The club moved once more prior to the start of the 1996 inaugural summer season of Super League, this time to south-east London to play at The Valley, home of Charlton Athletic, which is when current owner David Hughes initially became involved with the club. Former Brisbane Broncos coach Tony Currie was appointed to the role of head coach. The team performed far beyond initial expectations and eventually finished a highly creditable fourth, with Greg Barwick the top points scorer for the club. That season also brought the best London home attendances since the first season at Craven Cottage. Tony Rea retired from playing to take up the Chief Executive role at the club. After only one season at The Valley, the club were on their way back to south-west London to play at the Stoop Memorial Ground again for the 1997 season. The second season of Super League saw an even greater improvement in the team's performance, finishing a remarkable second to the eventual champions, Bradford Bulls. This represents London's best ever final league position to date. Richard Branson's highly successful Virgin Group became the majority shareholders and primary sponsors of the club, and the immediate future looked very bright. Highlights that year included victories at the Stoop over Canberra in the World Club Challenge and comprehensive league victories against Bradford and Wigan. In 1998, as part of rugby league's "on the road" scheme, London Broncos played Bradford Bulls at Tynecastle in Edinburgh in front of over 7,000 fans. Success continued in 1998 with a first appearance in the Challenge Cup semi-finals, losing to Wigan. Head coach Tony Currie left the club at the end of the 1998 Super League season and was replaced by Dan Stains. In 1999, the club went one stage better in the Challenge Cup. Following a famous last-minute semi-final victory over Castleford, the Broncos reached the Challenge Cup Final at Wembley Stadium for the first time, but despite taking a shock early lead in the game and performing bravely, they were soundly defeated 52–16 by red-hot favourites Leeds. The club returned to the Valley for the 2000 season, but sacked Stains after enduring a long losing streak. Tony Rea was appointed temporary joint head coach with Stains' assistant Les Kiss. Rea and Kiss managed to steer Broncos out of the slump. In 2000, the experienced John Monie was appointed Head Coach. Monie only stayed in the job until the last month of the 2000 Super League season with the club having had mediocre results during his tenure. Rea took over as caretaker coach until the end of the season and Broncos eventually reached mid-table security. Rea then resigned his Chief Executive role at the end of the 2000 season to become Head Coach on a full-time basis. York made an approach to the Virgin Group to buy the London Broncos in August 2001, with the aim of buying a Super League place for a proposed merged club to be based in York under a new name, York Wasps. This attempt was thrown out when Richard Branson rebuffed the offer as 'ridiculous, and speculative at best'. In 2002, fervent club supporter David Hughes purchased the majority shareholding from Virgin in a major restructuring of the club. The Broncos moved once again, to play their home matches at Griffin Park as tenants of Brentford FC. 2003 marked the club's first Super League playoff appearance, losing in the first round to St. Helens 24–6 at Knowsley Road. The 2005 season was marked by significant activity off the pitch as the club welcomed new chairman and majority shareholder Ian Lenagan who had bought 65% of the shares. This was followed by the announcement of a partnership with Harlequins Rugby Union Club that saw the club return to The Stoop Memorial Ground, this time formally renamed as Harlequins RL and adopting the host club's kit and crest for the 2006 season. 2006–2011: Harlequins Rugby League Ian Lenagan became the majority shareholder in the London Broncos in July 2005 and within a week of his arrival, the team was formally renamed "Harlequins RL". Press releases of the time suggested that this would make the combined club "a powerhouse in both codes" according to Mark Evans of the Union club and provide a "very, very strong future for rugby league in the capital" according to Lenagan. The arrangement between the clubs was described as a "long-term partnership". At the time of the announcement there were many projected benefits of the two clubs sharing and pooling; both clubs were to play at the same ground and have access to the training facilities at the Richardson Evans Playing Fields, Roehampton Vale, though this was little more than a public park and not actually fit for a professional club of either code. In practice, there was no integration between the rugby codes, no joint player development, and the administrative and commercial resource sharing was little more than the RU club allowing the RL club some shared office space. The sole integration programme appeared to be a combined fund raising lottery – which folded long before the Rugby League club permanently left the Twickenham Stoop – and two "double header" match days. These were in 2006, in which the Union side played first, followed by the League side, but the lengthy two hour gap between fixtures was a deterrent to the Union supporters and the majority had left the ground before the kick-off of the League fixture. Plymouth Albion and Leeds Carnegie were the Union opponents for the Union team whilst the Rugby League team played Huddersfield and St Helens. On the field, the Harlequins RL club started with an encouraging 8,213 watching the home game against St Helens on 11 February 2006 but a heavy loss was followed by further consecutive home losses against Wakefield and Castleford, before a thumping 0–60 home defeat to Leeds. It was not until the fifth home game in the season that the team won at the Twickenham Stoop against Catalans Dragons in round 9. Whilst the club started with a goal of 5,500 average home ground attendance by mid 2007. the actual attendance average was around the 3,500 level. A 38–18 loss against bottom of the table Catalan, who were in their first year in Super League, was followed by a close home defeat to a Wigan team after each team scored. Harlequins were at this point 9th out of 12. On 8 July 2006, Ian Lenagan removed Tony Rea as head coach, and moved him "upstairs" to a position on the club's board of directors. In his place, Brian McDermott, an assistant coach at Leeds Rhinos, was appointed as head coach. Results at home improved, taking Harlequins RL to 7th place in Super League XI. The 2007 season saw the team pull off an incredible opening win against St Helens and by 7 July the team was 5th in the table, but a collapse in form in the second half of the season – a recurring theme of the McDermott reign – saw the team win only once from eight matches to finish 9th. At the end of the season, Ian Lenagan took over control of fellow Super League side Wigan Warriors and was given two years to sell his Harlequins shares. In 2008, Harlequins RL got off to a good start, winning six from the first ten games, but as was customary a second half of the season collapse saw the club won only five from the last seventeen games to finish in 9th again. In 2009, the club was playing very well in the early part of the season, which extended up until 12 June with ten wins from sixteen, but yet again the rest of the season proved miserable with one win from 12 seeing the club slide from 5th position to 11th. Home supporters were particularly displeased with the 0–48 home loss to Castleford and the 0–36 half time score v Bradford. By round 12 in 2010, the club had won only one game from the first eleven and were bottom of the table, meaning that McDermott had seen the team win just twice in twenty three games, and at half-time away at Wigan the team were losing 24–6 before pulling off their finest comeback as Harlequins RL to win 38–26. That result seemed to spur the team into life briefly, with three more wins from the next four, but after that there was an end-of-season collapse to join the start-of-season collapse. The round 25 game at Catalan saw the Quins bottom of the table with Catalan on a similar points tally and the game looked likely to decide who would finish bottom. The Quins were winning 16–12 with just a couple of minutes to go when Catalan were over the line with ball in hand, but Will Sharp stripped the ball from the Dragons player and Quins managed to hold out for the win. The final game under McDermott saw Harlequins lose to Warrington at home; 7 wins from his last 38 games. It was a shock to Harlequins RL supporters to see McDermott's assistant take over but this bizarre decision seemed to be warranted as Rob Powell oversaw three wins from their first three matches, placing them at the top of the ladder. Away wins at Leeds Rhinos and St Helens seemed to herald a new dawn, however, the club's run of success was ended with a club record 82–6 defeat to Warrington Wolves on 20 March 2011 and the team were within a try of losing by the all-time Super League record margin of −80 held by Salford City Reds. After that the Harlequins only won two more games in the next six months and the Harlequins RL era drew to a close when the club played St Helens in their final game under that name on 10 September 2011. 2012–present: Return to London Broncos The club announced on 1 November 2011 that it would be returning to the London Broncos name from the 2012 season. In addition, the team unveiled a new logo as well as new colours of black, light blue and silver. On 4 February, London Broncos played their first competitive match against St. Helens since reverting to that name. The game was won by St. Helens 34–24 in front of a 4,924 crowd, which was higher than all of their attendances in the year before. In the match, seven players made their debuts for the club. In the 2012 season, the Broncos played two home games "on the road" away from the Twickenham Stoop, on 6 June vs Bradford at Leyton Orient FC's Brisbane Road, where they were narrowly beaten 22–29 in front of 2,844 fans, and on 20 June vs Hull F.C. at Gillingham FC's Priestfield Stadium, as recognition for the work Medway Dragons had done in growing rugby league in Kent. The game proved to be popular with 3,930 turning up to watch London narrowly beaten 12–14 by Hull. Tony Rea was appointed as the club's head coach for a second time in August 2012 taking over from Rob Powell. In 2013, London Broncos used four venues for their home games with the majority being played at the Twickenham Stoop. On 8 June 2013, London once again played a home game at Priestfield Stadium, this time being heavily beaten 82–10 by Warrington in front of 3,041 fans. On 28 March, London had to play a home game at Esher RFC's ground at Molesey Road due to a waterlogged pitch at the Stoop. For the next home game on 6 April, Harlequins RU didn't allow London to use the Stoop due to a Heineken Cup game, forcing them to play Bradford at Adams Park in High Wycombe. London Broncos had a successful Challenge Cup campaign in 2013, reaching the semi-finals for the first time since their Wembley appearance in 1999. In round 4, London beat part-timers Featherstone Rovers 24–12 and in round 5, defeated Bradford 25–16. In the quarter-finals, London Broncos beat part-timers Sheffield Eagles 29–10 to book a place in the semi-finals. On 27 July, London Broncos' dream of reaching the Wembley final for the second time came emphatically to an end with a televised 0–70 defeat by Wigan, a record score in a Challenge Cup semi-final. On 29 June 2013, London Broncos announced the loan signing of Australian Jamie Soward until the end of the season. Soward quickly became a fans favourite with a man of the match performance on his debut v Salford (scoring a try and kicking five goals) and received a standing ovation from the crowd despite being defeated 30–44. Soward put in impressive performances in his short venture in England and in 9 games scored 67 points (5 tries, 23 goals, 1 drop goal). The club's financial struggles were made evident when, on 20 November 2013, the club announced that it would have to enter administration in ten working days if a new owner was not found. On 3 December 2013, London Broncos announced, "The club will be instructing lawyers to file a further notice of intention to appoint administrators at court, which shall be effective for 10 business days". The club's saviour David Hughes later decided to carry on putting millions into the club. On 13 December 2013, London Broncos announced a move to the Hive Stadium in Canons Park, the new home of Barnet F.C., from the start of the 2014 season. After London lost 21 players from their 2013 squad, they faced a huge task to build up their squad again with minimal finances. The Broncos managed to retain twelve players from 2013 and in the off season signed 16 players (five on loan) including Tongan international fullback Nesiasi Mataitonga and former England international hooker Scott Moore. Tony Rea quit as coach following Broncos' 11-game winless start to the new Super League season. Assistant coach Joey Grima became head coach, having been asked to take charge for the rest of the season and next.Rea replaced by Grima at Broncos. Despite several closely contested games in 2014, the team struggled throughout the season against teams with far more strength in depth and much greater financial resources, and finished the season bottom of the Super League table, with only one win. A supporters club (the LBSA) was founded in 2014 in order for fans to have a voice regarding their team. In July, at a pre-match lunch hosted by former Broncos Martin Offiah and Shaun Edwards, the LBSA announced its Hall of Fame, with six inaugural inductees: Reg Bowden, Peter Gill, Mark Johnson, Hussain M’Barki, Rob Purdham, Steele Retchless and Scott Roskell. 2015–2018: Relegation to the Championship On 13 July 2014, London Broncos were relegated from the Super League to the Championship after a 72–12 loss to Warrington. The capital club had competed in all 19 Super League seasons and this was the club's first relegation since 1984 as Fulham RL and the first time the club competed in the second tier since 1995. Relegation bought another mass exodus of players, with the club losing many key homegrown and non-homegrown players. In the 2015 season, London Broncos had a poor season. Head Coach Joey Grima had issues with senior players like Foran, Cordoba, Mathers, Adamson and Lovegrove which meant that by about a third of the way into the season none were selectable. The club trained players went into the double digits that season but of them only Alex Walker and Matt Davis would be successful in the long run. As pressure built, Grima resigned leaving Andrew Henderson in charge. Henderson had too much to do and Broncos were a long way short of making the Super 8 play-offs that would have given them a chance of promotion back to Super League. However a surprise away win in the qualifiers at Dewsbury Rams saw the club make it to the Championship Shield Grand Final in Widnes but they were heavily beaten 36–4 by Featherstone Rovers. In 2016, London Broncos moved to Ealing having signed a three-year deal to play at the Trailfinders Sports Ground, home of rugby union side Ealing Trailfinders. On 3 July, the Broncos beat Dewsbury 36–6 to secure a place in the Qualifiers against the bottom 4 Super League teams for promotion. Henderson signed Penrith Panthers playmaker Jamie Soward, who had previously played for the Broncos in 2013, until the end of the season. London Broncos finished 2nd in the Championship heading into the Qualifiers for a place in the Super League. The Broncos started the Qualifiers with a narrow 34–30 away loss to Leigh. London then won their first game in the competition, setting a record club score victory over Batley 76–16 at the Trailfinders Sports Ground. The following week, Henderson's team put in a gutsy performance despite going down 28–42 to Leeds in front of a record rugby league crowd at the ground of 1,845 in front of the Sky Sports cameras. In 2017 the Broncos again finished second and reached the qualifiers for a second consecutive year. The team put in several impressive performances including a close 38–40 loss against Warrington Wolves; lost by just two points against Catalans Dragons away and came within six points of beating Hull KR. However the last two games were both hammerings whilst Broncos also blew the lead against Featherstone to draw on the hooter and only actually beat Halifax. Shortly after the season finished Andrew Henderson, who had successfully managed the club through a troubled period, left to help manage Warrington Wolves. Danny Ward was promoted to Head Coach and in 2018 the Broncos got off to a flying start with seven wins in a row to go first in the Championship table with five straight wins, breaking their previous record for the best start to a season with a 68–12 home victory over Batley Bulldogs. A mid-season slump saw the club needing an improbable sequence of results to make the play-offs but six wins and a draw from the last seven saw the club achieve exactly that and make Super 8s – the Qualifiers. 2018–present: Promotion and subsequent relegation Following a strong 2018 campaign in the Championship, Danny Ward carried off the Championship Head Coach of the Year Award at the end of season awards dinner held at the Principal Hotel in Manchester. The Broncos finished second in the regular season and commenced their Super 8s – Qualifiers campaign with a one-point win over the Widnes Vikings in which Jarrod Sammut kicked a vital 79th minute drop goal to secure the victory. This good start was followed up with key victories over Salford, Toulouse and Halifax to leave the Broncos with 8 points in the Qualifiers table sitting in fifth behind the Toronto Wolfpack in fourth, which meant London faced the Wolfpack away at the Lamport Stadium in Toronto on 7 October 2018 to decide the final Super League place in the so-called 'Million Pound Game'. London won a very tense and defensive game 4–2, thus earning promotion to Super League for the 2019 season. However, in spite of handing table leaders St Helens two of their three losses in the 2019 season, and several other notable wins against stronger opponents, Broncos were relegated after only one season back in the top flight, after losing their final game of the season to Wakefield. With the entire 2020 Championship season cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the RFL advised the Broncos that their present ground at Ealing would be deemed as unsuitable for top level matches should they return to the Super League, so in December 2020 the club entered into discussions with AFC Wimbledon to groundshare at their newly built Plough Lane stadium in Wimbledon. The agreement was confirmed in mid July 2021 and the club played its first game at its new home in January 2022, a pre-season friendly against Widnes. In the 2022 RFL Championship season, London started poorly and for most of the season were in the relegation zone. The club managed to win four of their last ten matches in the league to avoid relegation and finish 11th on the table. The 2023 RFL Championship season saw London finish 5th in the table and qualify for the playoffs. They would go on to defeat Sheffield in the opening playoff game and then beat league leaders Featherstone, who had finished 18 points above them in the regular season, to reach the playoff final. London would then go on to upset Toulouse Olympique in the Million Pound Game 18–14 to seal a spectacular return to the Super League. London started the 2024 Super League season with ten consecutive losses where they conceded nearly 40 points a game. London earned their first win in round 11 against fellow strugglers Hull F.C., recording a 34–18 victory. Further victories came in an upset against play-off chasers Catalans Dragons and the return fixture against Hull F.C. The Broncos finished bottom of the table on the final day of the season, following a 0–54 defeat to Warrington Wolves, having entered the matchweek one point difference higher than Hull F.C. At the end of the season, David Hughes, who had owned the club for 27 years, put the club up for sale. Stadium The Broncos have played home matches at numerous different grounds around London since the club's original formation. In 2021 they hoped to move their home ground to Plough Lane stadium in Wimbledon, as tenants of AFC Wimbledon, looking to agree a ten-year lease with break and extension clauses. Until an arrangement to use Plough Lane was reached, the club continued to play at Trailfinders Sports Ground. The Broncos finally began play at Plough Lane in 2022. Colours and badge Colours The original Fulham team wore an all black kit, with a broad white chevron, bordered with red, across the chest. As London Crusaders, the kit used the same colours, but in a variety of designs over the seasons. London Broncos wore red, yellow and blue also in a variety of styles, with red being the predominant colour for the last 5 years of their existence. When the club became known as Harlequins RL they adopted the colours of host rugby union side Harlequins. When the club returned to being known as the London Broncos, the home kit was black with a light blue trim and the reverse for the away kit. In 2015, the London Broncos reverted to their original Fulham colours, much to the approval of long-term fans, with their home kit being predominantly black with a broad white chevron and a red strip bordering the chevron. The away kit is predominantly red with a broad black chevron with white border. For the 2022 season, the club will play in blue and yellow, referencing the traditional colours of their new hosts in Wimbledon. The club have indicated that they will revert to Black from 2023. Badge As Fulham RLFC, the club utilised the badge of the host football club, which at the time was the emblem of the local administrative borough, Hammersmith and Fulham. The first badge as London Broncos was a red and white crest with a horse's head on the front with London inscripted on the top. This was worn, with some minor adjustments, until 2006 when the club became known as Harlequins RL. As Harlequins RL, the club crest was the same as that of the host rugby union team. This was used up until 2011. In 2012, the club reverted to the name London Broncos and created a new crest, based on the original Broncos badge but featuring a horse's head in a modern stylised fashion, depicted in silver and blue. Kit sponsors and manufacturers 2024 squad Where a player has played internationally for more than one country, the nations are indicated with the most recently represented first. A slash (/) indicates an uncapped player of dual nationality. 2024 transfers Players In Club officials Backroom staff Chairman: David Hughes CEO: Jason Loubser Head of Commercial: Mark Kemp Football Manager: Dom Fenton Head of Community: John Keyes Commercial: Izzy Lovell Head of Medical: 1st Team / Lead Academy Physiotherapist: Sports therapist: Coaching staff Head coach: Mike Eccles Assistant coach: Rhys Lovegrove Head of Youth: Chris Baxter Academy & Reserves Head Coach: Kieran Robertson List of former head coaches Also see Category:London Broncos coaches. Seasons Supporters' Player of the Year Awards The London Broncos Supporters Association (LBSA) inaugurated the Fan's Player and Young Player of the Year awards in 2014, with Matt Cook and Joe Keyes the first winners. The award has been held every year, with the exception of the cancelled 2020 season. In 2022, a Women's Player of the Year was awarded for the first time. Honours League Division 1 / Super League: Runners up (1): 1997 Division 2 / Championship: Winners (2): 1982–83, 2023 Runners up (3): 2016, 2017, 2018 Million Pound Game: Winners (1): 2018 Domestic Cups Challenge Cup: Runners up (1): 1999 Player Records Up to and including 20 September 2024. Current players appear in bold. Most appearances Most tries Most goals Most points Note: Tries scored before the 1983–84 season were worth 3pts Hall of Fame In 2014, the LBSA launched the club's Hall of Fame, and announced seven inaugural inductees. As of 2019, the Hall of Fame has 11 members: Team Records Up to and including 12 May 2024. Note: The attendance for the match against Trafford Borough on 7 January 1990 is unknown. Biggest Wins Biggest Defeats Highest Home Attendances Lowest Home Attendances Note: This list does not include matches during the COVID-19 affected 2020 and 2021 seasons. Women's team In 2021, the London Broncos formed a women's team to take part the inaugural season of the RFL Women's Super League South. In 2022, the Broncos finished the regular season at the top of the table, but lost to Cardiff Demons in the Grand Final. The following season they took the 2023 Women's Super League South title with a 22–10 win over Cardiff in the Grand Final. In 2024, the Super League South became the Southern Women's Championship. On 7 September 2024, London defeated Cardiff 28–8 in the Grand Final of the Southern Championship to qualify for the National Championship final. See also Sport in London Notes References External links Official website

Steele Retchless (born 16 June 1971) is a former United States international rugby league footballer who played as a second-row and prop forward in the 1990s, and 2000s. He played for the Brisbane Broncos and the South Queensland Crushers in the ARL Premiership and the London Broncos in the European Super League. He also played for the Ipswich Jets and Easts Tigers in the Queensland Cup. Background Steele Retchless is the son of former Brisbane Rugby League player Mick Retchless. Playing career Early years He played his junior football for Fortitude Valley Diehards and made his senior début for the club in 1991. In 1993, Retchless switched to Wests Panthers contesting successive finals and winning the Brisbane Rugby League premiership in his first year at the club. Retchless joined first grade Australian Rugby League premiership side the Brisbane Broncos in 1995. During a two-year contract he made 11 appearances. In 1997, Retchless moved to the South Queensland Crushers and participated in 22 matches. The Crushers picked up a second successive wooden spoon and folded at the end of the season. London Broncos The collapse of the Crushers presented an opportunity to play in Britain's Super League for the London Broncos. During seven seasons at the club, Retchless set a club record number of appearances. In 1998 against Bradford Bulls, he made a Super League record of 66 tackles in a game. That season he was named in 1998's Super League III Dream Team. In 1999, Retchless scored a memorable last minute try in the Challenge Cup semi-final to earn the London Broncos a place in their first ever final. In his final season at the club, 2004, Retchless was awarded Player of the Year. Post-Broncos career and retirement After his time in London, Retchless returned to Australia to play in the Queensland Wizard Cup for Ipswich Jets in 2005. After finishing that season as a leading contender for the Qantas Player of the Year, Retchless played a season for Easts Tigers in 2006. Easts made the finals but were subsequently beaten by Redcliffe in the major Semi-Final, with Redcliffe going on to win the premiership. Retchless won the Player of the Year award for Easts Tigers and also Best Forward in his final season. Retchless played his last game for Easts Tigers in a Queensland Wizard Cup preliminary final defeat by the Redcliffe Dolphins in 2006. Retchless is currently on the coaching staff at Easts Tigers alongside former International Darren Smith. Personal life He is the father to 2 boys and 1 girl. Career highlights Junior Clubs: Fortitude Valley Diehards Senior Clubs: Fortitude Valley Diehards, Western Suburbs Panthers, Brisbane Broncos, South Queensland Crushers, London Broncos, Ipswich Jets, Eastern Suburbs Tigers First Grade Stats: 143 career games in QLD Comp (Approx.) 235 career games in ARL & English Super League scoring 21 tries, including a club record 202 games for London Broncos. Most tackles made in any Super League Match: 66 by Steele Retchless (against Bradford in 1998. This was all-time Super League record). – since beaten by Morgan Smithies Representative games Retchless qualified to play for the USA Tomahawks through his grandfather, Stuart Beck, who was raised in Iowa, and his mother, who was born in Washington, D.C. Beck arrived in Australia from the United States, captaining his adopted homeland in the sport of baseball. References External links Steele Retchless – A Life Less Ordinary London Broncos profile

This founder of the Academy of Science, St. Louis became established as a botonist for a monograph he did in 1842. What is the scientic name for plant featured in that monograph?

Cuscuta

Multiple constraints

The Academy of Science, St. Louis (sometimes rendered as Academy of Science - St. Louis) is a non-profit organization in St. Louis, Missouri, dedicated to science literacy and education. Founded in 1856 by a group of scientists and businessmen, including George Engelmann and James B. Eads, the Academy has been involved in many science-related activities in the city. The Academy was long known for its study collections, library, and museums—most notably the Museum of Science and Natural History in Clayton, Missouri, which operated from 1959 until about 1990. The organization gave its books to local college libraries, while some of its study collections were absorbed by the St. Louis Science Center, which the Academy helped to raise funds for. Today, the Academy works to expand scientific outreach, education, resource sharing, and the recognition of scientific accomplishment. History Early years In the 1830s, a Western Academy of Natural Sciences in St. Louis was founded as a counterpart to the Eastern Academy of Natural Sciences. It aimed to explore the West and discover natural resources. In 1856, the Academy was reorganized into the Academy of Science of St. Louis by 15 founding members, including a dozen physicians, a lawyer, an engineer and a businessman. The new Academy held its first meeting on March 10, 1856, and pledged to advance science in what was then the rapidly growing city of St. Louis. More specifically, the Academy's mission was to promote "Zoology, Botany, Geology, Mineralogy, Paleontology, Ethnology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Meteorology, Comparative Anatomy, and Physiology." Founders Dr. George Engelmann, a physician and the Academy's first president and a prominent amateur botanist, helped plan the renowned Missouri Botanical Garden. Frederick Adolphus Wislezenus, a doctor and an accomplished observer of Western natural history, helped found the Missouri Historical Society. Karl Andreas Geyer, a naturalist, was also a strong influence on the organization. James B. Eads, a self-taught engineer, who built the Eads Bridge over the Mississippi River; Attorney Nathaniel Holmes, who acquired numerous publications from other science societies for the Academy; Charles P. Chouteau, owner of the American Fur Trading Co., who studied the region's natural history and contributed to the museum's collections. Benjamin Shumard, who assisted in Missouri's first exhaustive geological survey; Simon Pollak, who helped found the Missouri School for the Blind; Moses Linton, a St. Louis University Medical School teacher, who first published the St. Louis Medical and Surgical Journal; William M. McPheeters (1815-1905), a St. Louis Medical College and Missouri Medical College teacher; Moses M. Pallen, a St. Louis University teacher who served as St. Louis' health officer; Charles A. Pope, a St. Louis Medical College Dean, who allowed Academy members to meet and house their collections and library in one of the college's buildings; Hiram A. Prout, who came to teach medicine and became an expert paleontologist; Charles W. Stevens, a St. Louis Medical College teacher, who became superintendent of the St. Louis County Insane Asylum; W. H. Tingley, a physician; John H. Watters, a St. Louis Medical College and Missouri Medical College teacher. First century (1856-1956) Academy members started a museum collection, maintained a library, published a journal, and corresponded with leading scientists of the day, providing information concerning the lands that lay adjacent and to the west of St. Louis. Early members of the Academy collected natural history specimens for their society. These items were stored and made available to the public in various museums throughout the Academy's history. Choteau and Wislizenus accumulated botanical, zoological and geological specimens from the vast and little-known regions of the American West. In later years, collectors such as Henry M. Whelpey (Native American artifacts) and Stratford Lee Morton (minerals, sea shells and fossils) donated their collections to the Academy. For many years, the Academy published one of the world's most respected scientific journals, Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis. Scientific societies of the eastern United States and in Europe were eager to receive copies of Transactions, which contained papers on the natural history and geology of the American West. Outstanding scientist and Academy member African-American Charles Henry Turner, a devoted entomologist, published over 50 papers on subjects in neurology, invertebrate ecology and animal behavior in the Academy's world-renowned Transactions. Second century (1956-) In 1958, the Academy sold its building at 4642 Lindell Boulevard, leaving the organization temporarily homeless. That same year, Murl Deusing, curator of education at the Milwaukee Public Museum, was hired to become the Academy's director at an annual salary of $12,000 a year ($126,727 today). His offices were to be in the academy's planned museum in Oak Knoll Park in Clayton, Missouri. This was to be the fourth Academy museum: the St. Louis Museum of Science and Natural History. It was partially funded through a $50,000 gift from J. Lionberger Davis, a St. Louis lawyer and banker who had previously given objects worth "hundreds of thousands of dollars" to the Saint Louis Art Museum. The donation to the Academy helped the organization qualify for a $45,000 grant from the trust fund of one A. P. Greensfelder, whose grant specified that it be disbursed only after the Academy raised another $135,000. Academy president Stratford Lee Morton said at the time that he hoped to raise a total of $500,000 for the academy's proposed museum of science and industry and museum of Ozark-area natural history. In 1959, the academy installed part of its collections in two stone mansions in the park and opened the museum. The academy paid just $1 per year in rent, but was responsible for upkeep on the buildings. The museum, which was free to enter, was immediately popular with the public. Its informal science classes drew thousands of children, while exhibits such as an Egyptian mummy and an adult gorilla skeleton attracted adults as well. Its study collections included local rocks and minerals; fossil mollusks; archeological items; herpetology; and antique lamps, lighting equipment, and radios. Archival holdings at the museum included two linear feet of meeting minutes and other Academy documents from 1856 to 1941. But within a few years, the academy was struggling to fund its maintenance. Similar funding problems with the Saint Louis Zoo and the Saint Louis Art Museum led city leaders in 1969 to propose a tax levy to support all three institutions. When voters approved the levy in 1971, control of the museum and its collection passed to a Board of Commissioners. The museum was eventually closed and part of the collection was transferred to the new Saint Louis Science Center. In the late 1980s, the Academy helped lead the campaign to build the new science center, which opened in 1992. Throughout its history, the Academy has promoted important scientific work and continues to be a staunch supporter of mathematics and science education. Academy-sponsored lectures, exhibits and television productions have been an important part of the St. Louis area's educational scene. The Academy promotes science and increasing science literacy among students and the general public. More than 600 professional scientists have volunteered through the Academy to speak at elementary and secondary schools, universities, civic and youth organizations and other community groups. Many also serve as mentors for the over 450 students who are members of the Junior Academy of Science of St. Louis, for students in the sixth through twelfth grades in the St. Louis Area. References External links As of this edit, this article uses content from "official website", which is licensed in a way that permits reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, but not under the GFDL. All relevant terms must be followed. Academy of Science of St. Louis: Meeting Minutes Finding Aid at the St. Louis Public Library

George Engelmann, also known as Georg Engelmann, (2 February 1809 – 4 February 1884) was a German-American botanist. He was instrumental in describing the flora of the west of North America, then very poorly known to Europeans; he was particularly active in the Rocky Mountains and northern Mexico, one of his constant companions being another German-American, the botanical illustrator Paulus Roetter. Biography Origins George Engelmann was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, the oldest of thirteen children, nine of whom reached maturity. His father, Julius Bernhardt Engelmann, was a member of a family from which for several successive generations were chosen ministers for the Reformed Church at Bacharach-on-the-Rhine. Julius was a graduate of the University of Halle, and was also educated for the ministry, but he devoted his life to education. He established a school for young women in Frankfurt, which was rare at the time. George Engelmann's mother, Julie Antoinette, was the only daughter of Antoinette André and George Oswald May. The latter, in his earlier years, was an artist of note at the Court of Weimar. Julie Antoinette was Julius Engelmann's coadjutor in the school for young women, and its success was largely due to her management and tact. His cousin, Adolph Engelmann, was a colonel during the Mexican-American War and the American Civil War. Education George Engelmann received his early education at the gymnasium in Frankfurt. According to himself, he first became interested in plants around age 15. He voluntarily devoted much of his time after school duties to studying history, modern languages, and drawing. Assisted by a scholarship (founded by the “Reformed Congregation of Frankfurt”), in 1827 he began to study sciences at the University of Heidelberg, where he met Karl Schimper and Alexander Braun. With the latter especially an intimate friendship and correspondence were preserved unbroken until Braun's death in 1877. He also retained friendship with Schimper. However, that erratic genius abandoned botany despite obtaining a remarkable grasp of philosophical botany and laying the foundations of phyllotaxy. In 1828 young Engelmann's studies at Heidelberg were interrupted by his having joined the students in a political demonstration. He thereupon left Heidelberg and entered the University of Berlin, where he stayed for two years. In 1831, he received the degree of MD from the University of Würzburg. His dissertation for the medical degree, more related to botany than to medicine, was published at Frankfurt in 1832 under the title of De Antholysi Prodromus. It was devoted to morphology — mainly to the structure of monstrosities and aberrant forms of plants — and was illustrated by five plates of figures drawn and transferred to the lithographic stone by the author's own hand. Its subject was so directly in line with that of a treatise on the metamorphosis of plants by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe that it was heartily welcomed by the poet-philosopher, whose own life was then approaching its close. Having received Engelmann's treatise through his correspondent Marianne von Willemer, Goethe inquired after the young author, saying that Engelmann had completely apprehended Goethe's ideas concerning vegetable morphology, and had shown a peculiar genius for their development. So strong was his confidence in Engelmann's ability that he offered to give him his whole store of unpublished notes and sketches. In 1832 Engelmann went to Paris, where he again became associated with Braun, and also with Louis Agassiz. Emigration to United States Wishing to visit America, he accepted a proposition from his uncles to become their agent for the purchase of lands in the United States. In September 1832, he sailed from Bremen for Baltimore, Maryland. In addition to his duties assessing land investment opportunities, he also spent time on botanical travels, first visiting Thomas Nuttall in Philadelphia. He then went to St. Louis, Missouri, and from there around to the adjacent states. He settled with his relatives and the lawyer Gustav Koerner on a farm in St. Clair County, Illinois near Belleville for three years. For the purpose of forming a correct judgment of the lands of the new country to which he had come, he made many long, lonesome, and often adventurous horse-back journeys in Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas. He often suffered sickness and hardship upon those journeys, but he persevered until he finished all the business he had planned to do. He made much use of his scientific, as well as practical, knowledge in the prosecution of that business, doing mineralogical and geological work, but only the botanical notes which he then made were used in his subsequent scientific career. Medical practice Having completed his business engagement, in the autumn of 1835 Engelmann moved to St. Louis and established a medical practice. During the three years that had passed since he left his native land the slender means he brought with him became exhausted, and he began the practice of his profession in absolute poverty. To furnish an office he was even obliged to part with his gun and with the faithful horse which had carried him on so many long and lonesome journeys. At that time St. Louis was little more than a frontier trading post, but Engelmann had strong faith in its future greatness, and he lived to see it become one of the chief cities of the United States. In 1836 he founded a German newspaper called Das Westland, which contained valuable articles on life and manners in the United States, and gained a high reputation both in the United States and in Europe. Four years were passed before he had laid the foundation of his medical practice and had earned the means of making a visit to his old German home. In 1840 he returned to Germany, where in Kreuznach he married his cousin Dorothea Horstmann on June 11. (Their son George Julius Engelmann became a noted gynecologist.) They soon returned to America. Upon reaching New York City, Engelmann for the first time met Asa Gray, already the most noted of American botanists, and the friendship between those two eminent men thus begun was broken only by death. This friendship is noteworthy because of the evidently beneficial effect which it had upon botanical science in America. Upon his return to St. Louis with his young wife, Engelmann immediately resumed his medical practice. Then, and long afterward, a large proportion of the inhabitants of St. Louis were of French and German-speaking families, and his familiarity with those languages, as well as with the English, gave him great advantage in extending his practice. Because of this and of his great professional ability, as the years went on he acquired a financial competence that gave him an independence. Never, however, did he take advantage of his success in this respect to lessen his labors, for whenever his medical labors were relaxed his scientific work fully engrossed his attention. The confidence he inspired in his medical clientele was such that as he grew older he could take long vacations and resume his practice almost at will. After 1869, he no longer kept a medical office and attended the few patients he saw in his study. Still, it was always difficult for him to refuse medical aid to those who sought it, and even up to the last year of his life there were old friends to whose families he was the only acceptable medical adviser and whose appeal for aid he could not refuse. Illustrating this fact, as well as Engelmann's energetic manner, his son relates the following incident: “It was a bitter, sleety winter night, when the ringing of the doorbell awoke me, and I heard an urgent call for father from the messenger of a patient. I would not arouse him, and proposed to go myself; but he had heard all, and, hurrying into his clothes, was ready to go in spite of my remonstrance 'What of the night?' he said, vexed at my interference, 'Am I already useless, to be cast aside? I would rather die in harness than rust out.' So I helped him down the icy steps, through the blinding sleet, into his carriage, and off on his mission of mercy.” Botanical studies Engelmann devoted himself to his medical practice, but in his later years made a specialty of botany. An 1842 monograph on dodders, a very difficult genus to examine, had established his reputation as a botanist. He took several vacations from his medical practice and devoted them all to the gathering of data for his scientific work, the details of which were elaborated at his home. One of these vacations extended from 1856 to 1858, the greater part of the first summer having been spent in botanical work at the Harvard gardens and herbarium in companionship with Asa Gray. Then, with his wife and young son, he visited his native land and other parts of Europe, occupying his time with scientific observation and study. In 1868 Dr. Engelmann and his wife again visited Europe for a year, the son being then in Berlin pursuing his medical studies. These visits to Europe were also the occasions of frequent and familiar personal interviews with men whose names were well known to the scientific world, such as Joseph Dalton Hooker, Alexander Braun, De Bary, Virchow, and others. In 1859, he published Cactaceae of the Boundary which studied cacti on the border of the United States and Mexico. He also made special studies of the pines, rushes, spurges, and other little-known and difficult groups, contributing numerous articles on them to the St. Louis Academy of Sciences, to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and to government reports. Material in his specialties collected by the federal government was sent to him for examination. He was one of the earliest to study the North American vines, and nearly all that is known scientifically of the American species and forms is due to his investigations. His first monograph on The Grape-Vines of Missouri was published in 1860, and his latest on this subject shortly before his death. His two major works on cacti remain important today. He was a founder and longtime president of the St. Louis Academy of Sciences, and encouraged the wealthy St. Louis businessman Henry Shaw to develop his gardens to be of scientific as well as public use; "Shaw's Gardens" became the Missouri Botanical Garden. On a visit to England in 1857, he had consulted with William Jackson Hooker on the establishment of Shaw's gardens. He was also one of the original founders of the National Academy of Sciences. With Asa Gray and Ferdinand Lindheimer he edited the exsiccata-like series Lindheimer Flora Texana exsiccata. Phylloxera In 1861, Engelmann had published a pioneering paper in the United States examining plant diseases. It focussed on the grape. He also established an herbarium for 10 species of grape he had discovered. He then played an important, but little known role in rescuing the French wine industry. In the 1870s French vineyards came under attack by a small insect, Phylloxera vastatrix, an aphid-like pest which sucks sap from the roots of grape vines. Growers observed that certain imported American vines resisted this pest, and the French government dispatched a scientist to St. Louis to consult with the Missouri state entomologist and with Engelmann, who had studied American grapes since the 1850s. Engelmann verified that certain living American species had resisted Phylloxera for nearly 40 years. In addition, Vitis riparia, a wild vine of the Mississippi Valley, did not cross pollinate with less resistant species, the cause of previous grafting failures. Engelmann arranged to have millions of shoots and seeds collected and sent to France, where the species proved to be very successful in providing rootstock. Other fields While botanical investigations constituted much the greater part of Dr. Engelmann's scientific work, he always had in hand data for other investigations. For example, he began meteorological observations when he first settled at St. Louis, and personally, or by proxy during his absence, he continued them without intermission until his death — a longer period, it is believed, than that of similar observations by any one man in America. Engelmann often compared meteorological data with his friend and contemporary Augustus Fendler. The two also collaborated on horticultural experiments on cacti, and frequently corresponded on the matter of specimen collection. Among the animals he studied were tapeworms (Taenia), the opossum, squirrels and mudpuppies (Menobranchus). He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1862. Later explorations The death of his wife on January 29, 1879, greatly affected him. He turned to plants, seeking relief in study, but life and a continuance of its labors seemed to be almost hopeless. His condition changed but little during the remainder of the winter, but when in the spring C. S. Sargent came with the proposition that he should join him in a journey through the forests of the Pacific Coast region he accepted it. That journey, although a difficult one for a man of his age, was of great benefit to him physically. His shattered spirit also was much revived and, among his friends, he resumed and sustained his lifelong habit of cheerfulness of manner. Legacy He is commemorated in the names of several plants, including Engelmann Oak (Quercus engelmannii), Engelmann Spruce (Picea engelmannii), Apache Pine (Pinus engelmannii), Engelmann's quillwort or Appalachian quillwort (Isoetes engelmannii), and Engelmann's Prickly-pear (Opuntia engelmannii). Engelmann's botanical collection, valuable as containing the original specimens from which many western plants have been named and described, was given to the Missouri Botanical Garden. This gift led to the founding of the Henry Shaw School of Botany as a department of Washington University in St. Louis, where an Engelmann professorship of botany has been established by Shaw in his honor. Engelmann was interred in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis. Bibliography See also Thomas Volney Munson, another phylloxera consultant and grape expert Friedrich Adolph Wislizenus, plant collector Notes References Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). "Engelmann, George" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton. Isely, Duane (2002). One Hundred and One Botanists. Purdue University Press. McKelvey, Susan Delano (1955). Botanical Exploration of the Trans-Mississippi West. Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University. Shaw, Elizabeth A. (1986). "Changing botany in North America: 1835–1860, The Role of George Engelmann". Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden. 73 (3): 508–519. doi:10.2307/2399190. JSTOR 2399190. White, Charles Abiather (1896). Biographical Memoir of George Engelmann . Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences. External links Engelmann Online-an effort by the Missouri Botanical Garden to digitize various Engelmann collections under a shared portal. Views of the Borderlands: The Report on the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey, 1857–1859 - Paula Rebert Archived 2012-06-25 at the Wayback Machine

Cuscuta (), commonly known as dodder or amarbel, is a genus of over 201 species of yellow, orange, or red (rarely green) parasitic plants. Formerly treated as the only genus in the family Cuscutaceae, it now is accepted as belonging in the morning glory family, Convolvulaceae, on the basis of the work of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. The genus is found throughout the temperate and tropical regions of the world, with the greatest species diversity in subtropical and tropical regions; the genus becomes rare in cool temperate climates, with only four species native to northern Europe. Folk names include strangle tare, strangleweed, scaldweed, beggarweed, lady's laces, fireweed, wizard's net, devil's guts, devil's hair, devil's ringlet, goldthread, hailweed, hairweed, hellbine, love vine, pull-down, angel hair, and witch's hair. Description Cuscuta can be identified by its thin stems appearing leafless, with the leaves reduced to minute scales. In these respects it closely resembles the similarly parasitic, but unrelated genus, Cassytha. From mid-summer to early autumn, the vines can produce small fruit that take the same color as the vine, and are approximately the size of a common pea. It has very low levels of chlorophyll; some species such as Cuscuta reflexa can photosynthesize slightly, while others such as C. europaea are entirely dependent on the host plants for nutrition. Dodder flowers range in color from white to pink to yellow to cream. Some flower in the early summer, others later, depending on the species. The seeds are minute and produced in large quantities. They have a hard coating, and typically can survive in the soil for 5–10 years, sometimes longer. Dodder seeds sprout at or near the surface of the soil. Although dodder germination can occur without a host, it has to reach a green plant quickly and is adapted to grow towards the nearby plants by following chemosensory clues. If a plant is not reached within 5 to 10 days of germination, the dodder seedling will die. Before a host plant is reached, the dodder, as other plants, relies on food reserves in the embryo; the cotyledons, though present, are vestigial. Parasitism After a dodder attaches itself to a plant, it wraps itself around it. If the host contains food beneficial to dodder, the dodder produces haustoria that insert themselves into the vascular system of the host. The vestigial root of the dodder in the soil then dies. The dodder can grow and attach itself to multiple plants. In tropical areas, it can grow more or less continuously and may reach high into the canopy of shrubs and trees; in cold temperate regions, it is an annual plant and is restricted to relatively low vegetation that can be reached by new seedlings each spring. Dodder is parasitic on a very wide variety of plants, including a number of agricultural and horticultural crop species, such as alfalfa, lespedeza, flax, clover, potatoes, chrysanthemum, dahlia, helenium, trumpet vine, ivy and petunias. It is an ectoparasite and is categorized as holoparasitic plant, or a plant that is non-photosynthetic and is completely dependent on a host. Dodder ranges in severity based on its species and the species of the host, the time of attack, and whether any viruses are also present in the host plant. By debilitating the host plant, dodder decreases the ability of plants to resist viral diseases, and dodder can also spread plant diseases from one host to another if it is attached to more than one plant. This is of economic concern in agricultural systems, where an annual drop of 10% yield can be devastating. There has been an emphasis on dodder vine control in order to manage plant diseases in the field. Host location A report published in Science in 2006 demonstrated that dodder use airborne volatile organic compound cues to locate their host plants. Seedlings of C. pentagona exhibit positive growth responses to volatiles released by tomato and other species of host plants. When given a choice between volatiles released by the preferred host tomato and the non-host wheat, the parasite grew toward the former. Further experiments demonstrated attraction to a number of individual compounds released by host plants and repellence by one compound released by wheat. These results do not rule out the possibility that other cues, such as light, may also play a role in host location. Host defenses Less is known about host defenses against dodder and other parasitic plants than is known about plant defenses against herbivores and pathogens. In one study, tomato plants were found to employ complex mechanisms to defend against dodder. Two pathways, using jasmonic acid and salicylic acid, were activated in response to attack by Cuscuta pentagona. Dodder attack was also found to induce production of volatiles, including 2-carene, α-pinene, limonene, and β-phellandrene. It is not known if or how these volatiles defend the host, but they could potentially interfere with the dodder's ability to locate and select hosts. Also, the presence of trichomes on the tomato stem effectively blocks the dodder from attaching to the stem. Prevention and treatment Many countries have laws prohibiting import of dodder seed, requiring crop seeds to be free of dodder seed contamination. Before planting, all clothes should be inspected for dodder seed when moving from an infested area to a non-infested crop. When dealing with an infested area, swift action is necessary. Recommendations include planting a non-host crop for several years after the infestation, pulling up host crops immediately, particularly before the dodder produces seed, and use of preemergent herbicides such as Dacthal in the spring. Examples of non-host crops include grasses and many other monocotyledons. If dodder is found before it chokes a host plant, it may be simply removed from the soil. If choking has begun, the host plant must be pruned significantly below the dodder infestation, as dodder is versatile and able to grow back from its haustoria. Use in Chinese traditional medicine C. chinensis seeds (simplified Chinese: 菟丝子; traditional Chinese: 菟絲子; pinyin: túsīzǐ) have long been used for osteoporosis in China and some other Asian countries. C. chinensis is a commonly used traditional Chinese medicine which is believed to strengthen the liver and kidneys. Cuscuta species are also used as medicine in Himalayan regional medical traditions. See also List of Cuscuta species Gallery References Further reading Everitt, J.H.; Lonard, R.L.; Little, C.R. (2007). Weeds in South Texas and Northern Mexico. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press. ISBN 0-89672-614-2 Haupt, S.; Oparka, KJ; Sauer, N; Neumann, S (2001). "Macromolecular trafficking between Nicotiana tabacum and the holoparasite Cuscuta reflexa". Journal of Experimental Botany. 52 (354): 173–177. doi:10.1093/jexbot/52.354.173. ISSN 1460-2431. PMID 11181727. Hibberd, J. M.; Bungard, R. A.; Press, M. C.; Jeschke, W. D.; Scholes, J. D.; Quick, W. P. (1998). "Localization of photosynthetic metabolism in the parasitic angiosperm Cuscuta reflexa". Planta. 205 (4): 506–513. Bibcode:1998Plant.205..506H. doi:10.1007/s004250050349. ISSN 0032-0935. S2CID 20017828. Haberhausen, Gerd; Zetsche, Klaus (1994). "Functional loss of all ndh genes in an otherwise relatively unaltered plastid genome of the holoparasitic flowering plant Cuscuta reflexa". Plant Molecular Biology. 24 (1): 217–222. doi:10.1007/BF00040588. ISSN 0167-4412. PMID 8111019. S2CID 36298133. Jeschke, W. Dieter; Bäumel, Pia; Räth, Nicola; Czygan, Franz-C.; Proksch, Peter (1994). "Modelling of the flows and partitioning of carbon and nitrogen in the holoparasiteCuscuta reflexaRoxb. and its hostLupinus albusL". Journal of Experimental Botany. 45 (6): 801–812. doi:10.1093/jxb/45.6.801. ISSN 0022-0957. Stewart, Amy (2009). Wicked Plants: The Weed that Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities. Etchings by Briony Morrow-Cribbs. Illustrations by Jonathon Rosen. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. ISBN 978-1-56512-683-1. Cudney, D.W.; Orloff, S.B.; Reints, J.S. (1992). "An integrated weed management procedure for the control of dodder (Cuscuta indecora) in alfalfa (Medicago sativa)". Weed Technology. 6 (3): 603–606. doi:10.1017/S0890037X00035879. External links Costea, M. 2007–onwards. Digital Atlas of Cuscuta (Convolvulaceae) Cuscuta on Parasitic Plant Connection Cuscuta on National Public Radio Flora of China: Cuscuta Lanini, W. T., et al. Dodder. Pest Notes Jan 2002: 1–3. 15 July 2005. Online (pdf file). Swift, C. E. Cuscuta and Grammica species – Dodder: A Plant Parasite. Colorado State University Cooperative Extension. Online. Dodder (Cuscuta species). Weed Listings. 2005. Online. Medicinal uses of Cuscuta in Armenia Chamovitz, D. Common Scents: Plants Constantly Catch a Whiff of Their Neighbors' Perfume. Scientific American May 22, 2012.

Which American actress, born the same year Denzel Washington won his first Best Actor in a Leading Role Academy Award, had a supporting role in the second season of the Netflix series "You"?

Jenna Ortega

Numerical reasoning | Multiple constraints | Post processing | Temporal reasoning

The following article is a List of awards and nominations received by Denzel Washington. Denzel Washington is an American actor, director, and producer. He has received numerous accolades including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Tony Award as well as nominations for a Grammy Award, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. Over his career, he has received numerous honorary awards including the BAFTA Los Angeles Britannia Award in 2007, the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2016, and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2019. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Joe Biden in 2022. Washington has received ten Academy Award nominations winning once for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of a soldier in the Edward Zwick Civil War film Glory (1989), and Best Actor for playing a corrupt cop in Antoine Fuqua's crime thriller Training Day (2001). He was Oscar-nominated for playing Steve Biko in the historical epic Cry Freedom (1987), the title role in the biographical drama Malcolm X (1992), Rubin Carter in the sports drama The Hurricane (1999), an Airline pilot fighting substance abuse in Flight (2012), a working class family man in the period drama Fences (2015), a Los Angeles lawyer in the legal drama Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017), and Macbeth in the thriller The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021). Washington is one of eight actors who has been nominated for an acting Academy Award in five different decades (1980s, '90s. 2000s, '10s and '20s), joining Laurence Olivier, Katharine Hepburn, Paul Newman, Jack Nicholson, Michael Caine, Meryl Streep and Frances McDormand. He has received nine Golden Globe Award nominations winning twice for his performances in Glory (1989) and The Hurricane (1999). He has also received seven Screen Actors Guild Award nominations winning for Outstanding Actor in a Leading Role for his performance in the film adaptation of Fences (2015). For his work on stage he received the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his role as Troy Maxon in the Broadway revival of the August Wilson play Fences (2010). He was Tony-nominated for playing a Hickey, hardware salesman in the revival of the Eugene O'Neill play The Iceman Cometh (2018). He received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his work with documentary series on the baseball player Hank Aaron and photographer Gordon Parks. He was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for the folk tale, John Henry in 1996. Major associations Academy Awards Emmy Awards Golden Globe Awards Grammy Awards Screen Actors Guild Awards Tony Awards Critics awards Miscellaneous awards Honorary awards Notes == References ==

Jenna Marie Ortega (born September 27, 2002) is an American actress. She began her career as a child and received recognition for her role as a younger version of Jane in The CW comedy-drama series Jane the Virgin (2014–2019). She then won an Imagen Award for her leading role as Harley Diaz in the Disney Channel series Stuck in the Middle (2016–2018). She played Ellie Alves in the thriller series You (2019) and starred in the family film Yes Day (2021), both for Netflix. Ortega received praise for her performance as a traumatized high school student in the drama film The Fallout (2021). She gained wide recognition for portraying Wednesday Addams in the Netflix horror-comedy series Wednesday (2022–present), for which she received nominations at the Golden Globe, Primetime Emmy, and Screen Actors Guild Awards. She also starred in the slasher films Scream, X (both 2022) and Scream VI (2023), which established her as a scream queen, and the fantasy film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024). Ortega has been featured on lists such as The Hollywood Reporter's 2023 Power 100 and Forbes's 2024 30 Under 30. Outside of acting, Ortega has supported various charitable causes and worked as an ambassador for multiple brands. Early life Jenna Marie Ortega, the fourth of six siblings, was born on September 27, 2002, in Palm Desert, California. Her father, a former sheriff who works at a California district attorney's office, is of Mexican descent, and her mother, who is of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent, works as an emergency room nurse. Ortega's maternal great-grandmother was an undocumented immigrant from Sinaloa, Mexico, and her maternal grandfather was from Puerto Rico. Ortega grew up in La Quinta, California, and has described her childhood self as "loud and extroverted". She wanted to act from the age of six and begged her mother to let her pursue a career for three years. Her mother attempted to distract her with other activities, including soccer and school. Ortega almost quit pursuing acting to participate in the former. Her mother later bought her a monologue book and posted a video of nine-year-old Ortega performing. A casting director watched the video and signed her to an agency. Ortega's mother began driving her to Los Angeles to attend auditions, a trip that sometimes took as long as six hours roundtrip, up to five days a week. She struggled to secure parts because few roles for Latinas existed and she "didn't look [a certain] way"; such experiences damaged her self-esteem. She considered dyeing her hair blonde in an attempt to book more roles. For the first year, Ortega, who had no connections in the film industry, limited her auditions to commercials; she secured parts in 12 national campaigns, including three McDonald's commercials. From Mondays to Fridays, she acted in Los Angeles for a few days and returned home to attend school. She enrolled in public school, attending Amelia Earhart Elementary School and John Glenn Middle School. She dropped out of school during eighth grade to act in Disney projects and got an apartment in Los Angeles after securing a role in Stuck in the Middle (2016–2018). During that time, Ortega worked in Los Angeles during the workweek and went home on weekends. Career 2012–2017: Early acting roles and Disney Ortega made her acting debut in the sitcom Rob (2012) and later made a guest appearance in the CSI: NY episode "Unspoken". In 2013, she made her film debut in a minor role as the vice president's daughter in the superhero film Iron Man 3. In the same year, Ortega appeared in the horror film Insidious: Chapter 2 as a part of the supporting cast. From 2014 to 2019, Ortega had a recurring role on The CW comedy television series Jane the Virgin as a younger version of Jane Villanueva, who is portrayed by Gina Rodriguez as an adult. Declan Gallagher of Entertainment Weekly commended Ortega's performance, writing that "she eschews the trappings of a typical child actor". She also starred in the direct-to-video comedy film The Little Rascals Save the Day (2014) and the Netflix sitcom Richie Rich (2015). Ortega appeared in the comedy-drama film After Words (2015) as Anna Chapa, the daughter of a male escort. The Los Angeles Times praised her as "adorable", whereas The Arizona Republic found her "horribly cloying". From 2016 to 2018, Ortega led the Disney Channel sitcom Stuck in the Middle as Harley Diaz, an aspiring inventor who is the middle child of the seven siblings. She said that booking the role was "one of the best days of my life". Ortega drew inspiration from her own family and relationships with her siblings; she felt her experience starring on the show was akin to reality television. Common Sense Media praised Ortega's performance, saying she "commands this role, pleading her case as a long-suffering middle kid while finding the humor in the many calamities that befall her efforts to shine". Ortega garnered three Imagen Award nominations for Best Young Actor – Television, including a win in 2018. She also voiced Princess Isabel in Elena and the Secret of Avalor (2016) and Elena of Avalor (2016–2020). 2018–2021: Transition to mature roles In 2018, Ortega starred in the film Saving Flora in the lead role of Dawn, a circus owner's daughter. After Stuck in the Middle ended, she aimed to act in more mature projects but found people assumed Disney roles were "all you can do, or all you were meant for". She considered quitting acting several times, saying that she "was too old for the young roles and too young for the older roles". In 2018, she was cast as Ellie Alves in the second season of the Netflix thriller series You, which was released on December 26, 2019. Like the show's first season, the second season received positive reviews; The Hollywood Reporter's Robyn Bahr noted Ortega as "a standout performer". Ortega was slated to return for the third and fourth seasons but was unable to do so due to scheduling conflicts. Ortega played Phoebe, the love interest of Judah Lewis's character, in Netflix's horror film The Babysitter: Killer Queen, which was released in September 2020 to negative critical reviews. She also voiced a travel vlogger named Brooklynn in the Netflix animated show Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous (2020–2022). In 2021, she made her writing debut with the book It's All Love: Reflections for Your Heart & Soul, which contains a series of quotes and statements regarding faith and love. She starred in the Netflix comedy movie Yes Day (2021), portraying a stubborn teenager who wants more independence from her parents. She appreciated how people of color were shown in "a casual setting where it's acknowledged" in lieu of "shoving it down your throat". Yes Day was released in March 2021 to mixed reviews. IndieWire lauded Ortega as "very capable", and the Associated Press referred to her as "an impressively poised young actor". Ortega had a leading role in the high-school drama film The Fallout, starring as a student who is navigating her emotional trauma after a school shooting. To prepare for the role, she looked at photographs and watched videos and interviews about school shootings; processing such events afterward "kind of came naturally". She also participated in the March for Our Lives movement, which led demonstrations in support of U.S. gun control legislation. Ortega, who describes herself as "such an insecure individual", found it easy to portray her character as relatable. The Fallout premiered at South by Southwest on March 17, 2021, and was released on HBO Max on January 27, 2022. The film received a positive response from critics, and Ortega's acting was applauded. Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times described her performance as "grounded and deeply moving", while The Hollywood Reporter wrote that her "beautifully nuanced turn understands the nothing-to-look-at-here façade and the chinks in the armor". 2022–present: Mainstream breakthrough In the slasher film Scream (2022)—the fifth film in the Scream franchise—Ortega played Tara Carpenter, on which she stated: "I don't even think there are words in the English language to correctly express how happy, excited and nervous I am for this journey". Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett cast Ortega because of her ability to play both horror and comic tones, and for the sound of her scream. She felt nervous about joining a well-known franchise, wanting to "do it justice" without "ripping anybody off". She said that working on the film taught her the importance of cast chemistry to the natural flow of the production process. Scream was a critical and commercial success, becoming the 28th-highest-grossing film of 2022. According to The A.V. Club, Ortega demonstrated "incredible" resilience and resolve in her role. She also won the MTV Movie Award for Most Frightened Performance. Ortega later appeared in the Foo Fighters–led horror film Studio 666 (2022). Reviewers said she was underused; according to the Los Angeles Times, "[n]ot even [a] cameo from ... 2022's newly minted Scream Queen Jenna Ortega ... can offer true horror bona fides to this flick". She then starred in the slasher film X (2022), which was directed and written by Ti West, who said Ortega was "fearless in her commitment". Ortega signed onto the project because of its script, calling it "the most outrageous thing I've ever read", and the opportunity to work with West. She found the filming process to be enjoyable and unique due to West's style of shooting. X became Ortega's best-reviewed film on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes; The Australian dubbed her and co-star Mia Goth "scene-stealers". The comedy-horror American Carnage was Ortega's final film release of 2022. The A.V. Club said she was continuing "her streak as the new it-girl of horror with a stubborn punk persona that masks her care for other people", while IGN lauded her "no-shits-given shell". In May 2021, Ortega was cast as Wednesday Addams in the Netflix comedy-horror series Wednesday (2022), which she called a "new chapter" in her career. She auditioned through a Zoom call with director Tim Burton, during which she read a four-page monologue. The casting team felt her portrayal offered the character the necessary empathy. She was initially hesitant to accept the part because she wanted to focus on film acting and feared working on another television series would prevent her from booking the roles she wanted. To prepare for the role, Ortega underwent "the most physical transformation I've ever done", cutting her hair and dying it black, as well as altering her mannerisms, style of speaking, and facial expressions. She also learned to play cello and speak German, read the original Addams Family comic, and watched the 1960s television adaptation. Ortega called the production of Wednesday's first season her "most overwhelming job" in 2022, and spoke about being in a constant state of confusion and stress over the direction of the series and character. She said that she had never "had to put my foot down on a set in the way that I had to on Wednesday", believing that the initial writing was nonsensical from a character standpoint and did not suit Wednesday's personality. While filming some scenes, Ortega would change her lines without informing the crew. Upon Wednesday's release, critics widely praised Ortega: CNN said that her performance sets the series apart from similar spin-offs, being "relentlessly strange, a portrait in unblinking intensity and oddly endearing all at once". Wednesday became one of Netflix's most-watched shows, receiving over 1 billion viewing hours within a month. Ortega's performance received nominations for a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She was also nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, becoming the category's second-youngest nominee. She later spoke about her discomfort with becoming well-known for her work on the show, having had a creatively unpleasant experience filming it. In March 2023, Ortega hosted an episode of NBC's sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live. Ortega reprised her role as Tara Carpenter in Scream VI. She said her character had more personality in the film than in the previous installment, in which she "was screaming and crying the entire time". When creating Tara's personality, Ortega considered several of the character's traits, including her favorite color, fashion style, makeup, and sense of humor. Scream VI was released in March 2023 and grossed over $169 million on a budget of $33–35 million. Deadline Hollywood attributed its box-office success partially to Ortega's star power. In a review, Variety's Owen Gleiberman praised her "surly spunk", and Slant Magazine said she "fantastically embodie[d] the role". In November 2023, Ortega reportedly exited the Scream franchise due to scheduling conflicts with the filming of Wednesday's second season. The Hollywood Reporter later said she left the franchise after an unsuccessful request for seven-figure pay. In the crime thriller film Finestkind (2023), she played Mabel, a drug dealer's daughter who is seeking her own path in life. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to negative reviews. Many journalists said Ortega had been miscast. Ortega began 2024 with a starring role in the drama Miller's Girl, opposite Martin Freeman. The film tells the story of Cairo Sweet (Ortega), a high schooler whose writing ability captures her teacher's interest, which leads to a complicated relationship between the two. She called her character "the most complex character that I've ever played" and described the material as risky since she thought it would provoke discussions on topics people may find disturbing. RogerEbert.com's Christy Lemire found Ortega "magnetic enough" to maintain the viewer's interest, although she thought the character's motives were predictable and illogical; Mark Kennedy of the Associated Press dubbed the film "a pointless, awkward turn" in her career. Ortega appeared in and executive produced the romantic drama Winter Spring Summer or Fall, which premiered at the 2024 Tribeca Festival. Director Tiffany Paulsen described Ortega as the casting team's first choice for the role of Remi Aguilar, a driven genius who falls in love with a rebellious musician. She later starred in the music video for Sabrina Carpenter's song "Taste". Ortega starred in Burton's fantasy film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)—a sequel to Beetlejuice (1988)—playing Astrid Deetz, the cynical teenage daughter of Lydia Deetz. It opened the 81st Venice International Film Festival and received generally positive reviews. The Guardian commented that Ortega portrayed her character with "just the right note of soulful sullenness". Rolling Stone said she was an "unimpeachable" casting choice and commended the emotions she conveyed using a "world-class deadpan stare". In a more negative review, The Independent stated that she "can't help but seem a little bland and strait-laced" acting opposite Michael Keaton as Betelgeuse. Upcoming projects Ortega has joined the cast of Klara and the Sun (2025) to be directed by Taika Waititi. She is set to appear in and executive produce an untitled Trey Edward Shults film that will co-star The Weeknd and Barry Keoghan. She is due to star in Death of a Unicorn (2025), a dark comedy co-starring Paul Rudd, and Alba; both will be produced and distributed by A24. Ortega is slated to reprise her role as Wednesday in the second season of Wednesday. She became an executive producer, which she described as a "natural progression" since the first season was "naturally already very collaborative". Ortega helped oversee the costumes, characters, and scripts. Other ventures Activism and philanthropy Ortega has used her platform to support various causes, including Pride Over Prejudice—a DoSomething campaign that advocates for immigrants and refugees—the National Bullying Prevention Center, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, Planned Parenthood, and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS. She is pro-immigration and anti-discrimination, telling Teen Vogue: "It's important to embrace your culture today because there are so many different ethnicities in America. At the end of the day, you are you. You've got to stay true to yourself, and you can't change yourself in order to fit in or to make someone else feel comfortable." Ortega is also an advocate for women's rights. In 2016, Ortega organized a meet-and-greet event for fans to raise money for a young girl with cancer. At the 2018 Radio Disney Music Awards, Ortega wore a jacket displaying the words "I Do Care and U Should Too" in response to the clothing First Lady of the United States Melania Trump wore on a visit to see immigrant children who were being housed without their parents. Trump's jacket read, "I Really Don't Care, Do U?". Ortega's protest gained significant media coverage; she told the Associated Press that Trump's apparel displayed a lack of judgement and as the first lady, she ought to show concern for migrant children. Ortega later said: "We should all care about each other and our country ... we are one country under God". In 2019, Ortega appeared at numerous We Day benefit concerts across the U.S. and Canada to raise funds for WE Charity. In 2023, Ortega, as part of a group called Artists4Ceasefire, signed a letter urging the United States Congress and President Joe Biden to call for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip during the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. She later condemned the Tel al-Sultan massacre and emphasized the need for a ceasefire. Endorsements In 2020, Ortega was named a brand ambassador for the cosmetics manufacturer Neutrogena and was the face of its "My Quinceañera Journey" campaign. In 2023, she became an ambassador for the sportswear company Adidas and the luxury fashion brand Dior. She was the face of Adidas Sportswear, the company's first new line in 50 years, as well as one of the faces of the #DareInGrisDior campaign. She starred alongside Danny Ramirez, Olivia Negron, and Patricia Mauceri in an advertisement for Doritos that aired at the Super Bowl LVIII in February 2024. The A.V. Club enjoyed the ad but opined that fans of Wednesday would be dissatisfied by Ortega's lack of goth, while TVLine stated that her limited screen time was "a real miscalculation". Artistry Influences Ortega was initially inspired to pursue acting after watching Dakota Fanning in the 2004 thriller film Man on Fire. Ortega was unable to understand how a young child could perform in a way that could scare her so much; she analyzed the film several times and decided she wanted to be "the Puerto Rican version of [Fanning]". She also admired Fanning's sister, Elle, and followed both of their careers as a child. As she matured, Ortega aspired to be "the female version" of Denzel Washington, who appeared alongside Dakota Fanning in Man on Fire. She also admires Gina Rodriguez and fellow Disney Channel stars Selena Gomez and Zendaya. Ortega said she admires Rodriguez because they are both Latina actresses who struggled to break into the acting industry due to their lack of connections. In 2021, Ortega named Riz Ahmed as a career role model and praised his acting, manner of speaking, and activism. Acting style and role choices Megan Park, who directed Ortega in The Fallout, said that she knows "when to give her all and when to hold back" while acting, adding that "to have that understanding of herself as a performer at such a young age" is extremely rare. Burton compared Ortega's acting style to silent film acting, saying she expresses emotion through her eyes without words. Ortega says she tries not to be more prepared than necessary for a scene because "you never know what you're going to say next or what your next facial expression is going to be" in real life. The Dodge College professor and agent Joe Rosenberg describes Ortega as an actress who has "a feel for the right project at the right time" and is "savvy" with her role choices. Ortega feels taking more varied acting roles is important to her to avoid being typecast; she told Entertainment Tonight in 2021 that she did not want to be "pigeonholed as an actor" and that her desire to accept the most diverse roles possible made the transition to mature roles easier for her. Ortega stated that she looks for projects that will have a "forever effect" for her, such as The Fallout. She has said she feels most comfortable starring in horror works, describing such projects as "very therapeutic". In 2023, Ortega said she is mindful of not "over-indexing on the gore scale" and feels "very conflicted" about her interests because there is "a part of me that always feels like the girl in the Coachella Valley". Media image Commenting on Ortega's off-screen persona, Who What Wear wrote in 2022 that she is "poised, mature, and wise beyond her years" while providing "an essence of relatability". A 2023 Harper's Bazaar story describes her as "quiet and contemplative", while Vanity Fair wrote that she has a "black-hole persona" but is "much warmer and more cheerful than you'd expect". Ortega has been noted for her work in horror and has been described as a horror icon by journalists. Media publications have dubbed her "Gen Z's scream queen", and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association called her the "scream queen for the 21st century". Ortega attributes her "instinctive" scream and "really ugly crying face" for the positive reception her horror work has received from audiences. In 2018, The Hollywood Reporter named Ortega one of "Hollywood's Top 30 Stars Under Age 18". The magazine later referred to her as the "Next Big Thing" in 2022 and "The Gen Z Obsession" in 2024. In 2023, Ortega appeared on Variety's "Young Hollywood Impact Report", a list of breakthrough performers, and The Hollywood Reporter's Power 100, a list of the most powerful women in entertainment. Complex also listed her among the best actors in their 20s. Forbes included her on the 2024 edition of its 30 Under 30 in the Hollywood & Entertainment category. Ortega has also been called a style icon by Harper's Bazaar. Her initial red-carpet style featured bright colors, patterned clothing, and many accessories. Enrique Melendez, her stylist, dressed Ortega in RED Valentino and Thom Browne, wanting her wardrobe to be age-appropriate, fashionable, and stylistically interesting. They later tried to move away from the "feminine and flirty and frilly" style of other Disney actresses. After her role in You, Ortega began wearing heavier makeup and darker clothing. Media publications said her later style borrowed from Wednesday's while incorporating high fashion and described it as goth glam. According to Vogue, her off-screen style has a "dark, gothic fashion sensibility". Ortega said that playing Wednesday has "changed my taste a lot" and she has "a hard time getting her off of me, at least clothing-wise". Ortega is active on Instagram but has described social media overall as being a "comparing game" and "very manipulative". She has said she became fearful of her comments on social media being misinterpreted following the release of Wednesday, adding: "Because I naturally tend to be sarcastic or dry, it's very easy for me to find myself in trouble ... [People] see your vulnerability and twist it in a way that you don't always expect." As a minor, Ortega was sent explicit images of herself that were AI-generated, which later led to her deleting her Twitter account. Personal life Ortega stated that she would like to be a "private person" and not discuss her romantic life publicly, believing that it distracts audiences from her work. She has described the concept of celebrities as "absolutely ridiculous". Ortega has said that her friends and family give her a sense of safety that helps her deal with the more challenging parts of her career, adding that her family "keep[s] [her] feet on the ground". She states that growing up in an industry dominated by adults forced her to mature faster than normal. Filmography Film Television Music videos Awards and nominations Notes References External links Jenna Ortega on Instagram Jenna Ortega at IMDb

Victoria Pedretti (born March 23, 1995) is an American actress. Her breakthrough roles were Eleanor "Nell" Crain in The Haunting of Hill House (2018) and Danielle "Dani" Clayton in The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020), which established her as a scream queen. She earned additional recognition for playing Love Quinn in You (2019–2023). Her accolades include a MTV Award, and nominations for two Critics' Choice Awards and a Saturn Award. In film, Pedretti has played Leslie Van Houten in the comedy-drama Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), Katherine in the biographical-drama Shirley (2020), Irma Eckler in the biographical-drama Origin (2023), and Angel in the thriller-drama Ponyboi (2024). She made her Broadway debut playing Petra Stockmann in a revival of An Enemy of the People (2024). Early life and education Victoria Pedretti was born on March 23, 1995, in Philadelphia. She was raised Jewish, and had a bat mitzvah. She was diagnosed with ADD when she was seven years old. She first expressed an interest in musical theatre while attending Pennsbury High School in Fairless Hills. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama in Pittsburgh, where she said her professors advised her not to pursue acting. Career Pedretti began acting in 2014, having roles in two short films: Sole where she played the female protagonist, and Uncovering Eden where she played Edie. Pedretti had her breakthrough starring on Netflix's 2018 series The Haunting of Hill House, in which she played Eleanor "Nell" Crain. She earned Saturn Award and MTV Award nominations for the role and was established as a scream queen. Chad Collins of Dread Central called Pedretti the "soul of The Haunting of Hill House". Lucy Mangan of The Guardian labeled her "scene-stealing". Dakota Moss of MovieWeb wrote that "Pedretti's emotions to the role add a horrifying realism to the character, and viewers can feel all of Nell's pain and anguish to the very end. This is one of the defining roles for Victoria Pedretti, and she's only getting started." She later stated that her experiences with The Haunting of Hill House helped her to grow comfortable playing darker roles in the horror and thriller genres, and that she has "got a knack for" them. Pedretti auditioned for the role of Guinevere Beck on the thriller series You but did not land the part. The directors later cast her as Love Quinn in the show's second season, after seeing her previous acting work and her chemistry with her co-star Penn Badgley. The second season was released by Netflix in 2019 to critical acclaim. Also in 2019, Pedretti appeared as Leslie Van Houten in Quentin Tarantino's comedy-drama film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which was a commercial success, and earned her a shared nomination for the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Acting Ensemble. In 2020, Pedretti starred as Evelyn Porter in the pilot episode of the anthology series Amazing Stories. She also appeared in the short film This is Not a Love Letter and played Katherine in the biographical-drama film Shirley. A follow up series to The Haunting of Hill House was announced in 2019 with Pedretti cast in the leading role; it was released as The Haunting of Bly Manor in 2020 and saw Pedretti playing Danielle "Dani" Clayton. For the role, she cited Timothée Chalamet's acting in Call Me by Your Name as an inspiration. Alan Sepinwall of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that "Her appealing vulnerability, and her talent for making the supernatural feel like something painfully real to Dani, do a lot of the heavy lifting this time around. Katerina Daley of Screen Rant said that her performance "has absolutely been a star-making one..." Angelica Jade Bastién of Vulture magazine said Pedretti "has proven herself to be one of the most exciting young actors to watch". She was nominated for a Critics' Choice Super Award and won Best Frightened Performance at the 2021 MTV Movie & TV Awards. Pedretti reprised the role of Love Quinn for the third season of You, which was released on October 15, 2021. Filming was done amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, where the intimate scenes posed a challenge to film: "This is not a show where you can be like, 'Nobody's going to kiss. It'll be fine.' So it took months to figure out how to do it safely. [...] It's weird. We have a rapport. We played a couple before, but it didn't just immediately come back after being in a global pandemic." She was nominated for Best Villain at the 2022 MTV Movie & TV Awards. Also in 2021, Pedretti appeared in singer-songwriter Kacey Musgraves' Star-Crossed: The Film, a companion feature to Musgraves' album of the same name, in a cameo role as a woman participating in a heist. A clip from the film featuring Pedretti later served as the music video for Musgraves' song "Simple Times". Pedretti was announced in 2021 to star in the film Lucky, based on the memoir of the same name, in which she would be portraying writer Alice Sebold during her freshman year at Syracuse University. However, in November that same year, the film was cancelled after losing its financing. She was announced in 2022 to be headlining the Hulu original series Saint X, but she reportedly left the series due to creative differences, with Alycia Debnam-Carey replacing her in the lead role. In 2023, Pedretti played Irma Eckler in Ava DuVernay's acclaimed biographical drama film Origin. In 2024, Pedretti starred as Angel in the thriller-drama film Ponyboi, which was described as the "queer breakout" of that year's Sundance Film Festival. On accepting the role, Pedretti said that "I think the most important films to be made are the ones that deal with subject matters that people aren't well-versed in and with characters they haven't seen before. This was an incredible opportunity for that to happen." She also starred in the short films Fall Risk and Merci, Poppy as Dylan and Poppy respectively. That same year, she made her Broadway debut in the Sam Gold directed adaptation of the Henrik Ibsen play, An Enemy of the People, at the Circle in the Square Theatre. Gold said of her casting that "She worked really hard in auditions and won the part for proving herself a really strong state actor who could take direction and take [it] all on her shoulders..." On her first stage production, Pedretti said that "doing theater, it’s very ideal. I’d love to keep doing this." Greg Evans of Deadline Hollywood believed Pedretti "is ready-made for her strong-willed, occasionally fretful, role". Pedretti will next star in If She Burns, written and directed by Alex Wolff, and The Last Day, directed by Rachel Rose and inspired by Virginia Woolf's 1925 novel Mrs Dalloway. Personal life Pedretti briefly dated actor Dylan Arnold in 2021, whom she co-starred with on You. She currently resides in New York. Filmography Film Television Stage Music videos "Simple Times" (2021), by Kacey Musgraves Awards and nominations Notes References External links Victoria Pedretti at IMDb

Carmela Zumbado (born February 27, 1991) is an American actress. Her breakthrough role was as Delilah Alves in the Netflix thriller series You (2019). She subsequently earned praise for playing Ximena Arista in the drama film The Wall of Mexico (2019), and has additionally played Jeny B in the sports film Need for Speed (2014) and Denise Martinez on the musical series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2019). She appeared on season nine of Chicago P.D. in a recurring role. Career Zumbado began acting in 2012, making her debut with two appearances on the television crime series America’s Most Wanted, appearing first as Karen Martinez, then as Teresa Martinez. In the same year, she appeared in the television film Freestyle Love Supreme as Rachel, a film which was later adapted onto Broadway. Zumbado continued to make appearances on shows such as Necessary Roughness and Graceland in 2013, and in the same year made a cameo appearance in the film Identity Thief, as a salesperson at a salon. In 2014, she made her film debut as Jeny B in the action-thriller film Need for Speed. The film was a commercial success and critical failure. She made appearances on various television shows that same year, including a cameo appearance in the Netflix series Bloodline. Zumbado had a recurring role as Windi Stewart in the crime series NCIS: New Orleans and appeared as Susan in the crime series NCIS: Los Angeles. In 2016, she had a guest role as Denise Martinez on the comedic television series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which she later reprised in 2019. In 2019, she starred as Ximena Arista in the drama film The Wall of Mexico, which was favorably received. In the same year, it was announced that she was cast in the role of Delilah Alves in the second season of the Netflix thriller series You. Zumbado had a guest role as Paloma Ball on the final season of the television series The Magicians, and played Gwen, the ex-wife of character Freddie Benson on the sitcom reboot iCarly. In 2023, she appeared as part of the main cast in season two of Power Book IV: Force as Mireya Garcia. Filmography Film Television References External links Carmela Zumbado at IMDb Carmela Zumbado on Instagram

Ambyr Childers is an American actress known for her portrayal of Susan Atkins in the NBC crime drama Aquarius, Ashley Rucker in the Showtime crime drama Ray Donovan, and Candace Stone in the Lifetime/Netflix thriller series You. Early life Childers was born in Cottonwood, Arizona, and raised in Murrieta, Riverside, California. She has two sisters. Childers attended Vista Murrieta High School. Career After appearing in the 2003 film Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, she played Colby Chandler on the daytime soap opera All My Children from 2006 to 2008. She also played Elizabeth "E" Dodd in The Master. Childers and Kate Bosworth teamed up to co-create Ambyr Childers Jewelry, a new line of delicate pieces that mixes Childers's Native American heritage with Bosworth's "essential cool-girl vibe". Childers starred as Candace Stone in Lifetime's television adaptation of You, which premiered on September 9, 2018. On December 3, 2018, it was announced that You would move to Netflix as a "Netflix Original" title, ahead of the premiere of the second season. On February 1, 2019, Deadline announced that Childers had been promoted to a series regular role, ahead of the second season's premiere. The second season was released on December 26, 2019. Personal life Childers married film producer Randall Emmett in 2009. The couple had a daughter in 2010 and a second daughter in 2013. Emmett filed for separation from Childers in April 2015, but dismissed the petition the following year. Childers filed for divorce in January 2017. It was finalized in December 2017. Filmography Film Television References External links Ambyr Childers at IMDb Ambyr Childers Jewelry

Saffron Domini Burrows is a British and American actress who has appeared in films such as Circle of Friends, Wing Commander, Deep Blue Sea, Gangster No. 1, Enigma, Troy, Reign Over Me, and The Bank Job. On the small screen she starred as Lorraine Weller on Boston Legal, Dr. Norah Skinner on My Own Worst Enemy, Detective Serena Stevens on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and Victoria Hand on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. She appeared as Cynthia Taylor on the Prime Video series Mozart in the Jungle and as Dottie Quinn in the Netflix series You. Early life A Londoner, Saffron Burrows was born in St Pancras in central London and grew up in Stoke Newington, her mother is a trade unionist and primary school teacher in Hackney and her father is an architect and teacher. Her parents and stepfather were Socialist Workers Party members, and Burrows was politically active from a young age. Burrows attended William Tyndale Primary School in Islington and then Stoke Newington School in Stoke Newington. When asked for her preference of a school in Hackney or Hampstead, she said she wanted to be in a multicultural and inclusive environment. She enrolled in acting classes at the Anna Scher Theatre in Islington when she was 11. Burrows had a successful modelling career after she was discovered at age 15 in Covent Garden by fashion photographer Beth Boldt. For five years she divided her time between London and Paris, where she learned French. She found the modelling world's "obsession with the ideal of the body" troubling. Career Acting Burrows made her film debut in 1993 with a small role in Jim Sheridan's In the Name of the Father. Her first significant acting roles came in 1995, as an ambitious young Irishwoman in Circle of Friends, and in Ngozi Onwurah's Welcome II The Terrordome. In 1996 she starred in the BBC production of Dennis Potter's Karaoke and in Hotel de Love; the next year she was seen in Lovelife, Nevada, The Matchmaker and Mike Figgis' One Night Stand. In 1999 she appeared in Figgis' experimental film The Loss of Sexual Innocence, in which she played twins – one raised in England, the other in Italy. In 1999, she appeared in the thriller Deep Blue Sea, and had the title role in Figgis' film adaptation Miss Julie, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. She starred for Figgis again alongside Stellan Skarsgård in Timecode (2000), a split-screen digital experimental film shot in a single take with no edits. She followed it with Gangster No. 1, starring Malcolm McDowell, Paul Bettany and David Thewlis. She next co-starred with Kate Winslet and Dougray Scott in Michael Apted's 1940s drama Enigma and starred in Tempted, an improvised thriller set in New Orleans, with Burt Reynolds and Peter Facinelli. Figgis' ensemble feature Hotel followed, reuniting Burrows with colleagues from Timecode including Salma Hayek and Danny Huston on location in Venice, where she played the Duchess of Malfi. She had a cameo in Frida, Hayek's 2002 biopic of artist Frida Kahlo. Burrows performed in Spanish in The Galindez File, a film written by Spanish novelist Vazquez Montalban, about a woman seeking the truth about the disappearance of a critic of the Dominican dictator Trujillo. In 2004, she played the part of Andromache in Troy. Burrows dedicated herself to stage work in the early 2000s. She appeared at the Royal National Theatre in Jeanette Winterson's The Powerbook, directed by Deborah Warner; the play also went on tour, visiting the Theatre National Du Chaillot in Paris and the Teatro Argentina in Rome. In January 2005, she created the role of Janey Morris in the world premiere of Earthly Paradise at the Almeida Theatre. The play centered on the love triangle of Janey, her husband William Morris (the writer and proponent of the Arts and Crafts movement), and the Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti. London theatre critic Nicholas De Jongh said of her performance: "Burrows takes to the stage like a swan to water... She deserves no end of watching." On 30 October 2005, she appeared on stage at the Old Vic theatre in London in a rehearsed reading of the 24-hour play Night Sky, alongside Christopher Eccleston. Burrow has since participated in the "24 Hour Plays" in New York and Los Angeles. In 2006, Burrows was the female lead in the New Zealand thriller Perfect Creature, appeared in Hal Hartley's film Fay Grim, and co-starred in Klimt, Chilean director Raoul Ruiz' cinematic portrait of Gustav Klimt. Burrows played opposite John Malkovich as the artist's lover, a woman of many personalities and nationalities. Onstage in 2006, she starred opposite David Schwimmer in the world premiere of Neil Labute's Some Girl(s) at the Gielgud Theatre, London. She then appeared in Mike Binder's film Reign Over Me with Don Cheadle and Adam Sandler. Burrows also had lead roles in the Indian thriller Broken Thread and in director Peter Howitt's drama Dangerous Parking. On television, she played attorney Lorraine Weller on ABC's Boston Legal (Season 4) from 2007 to 2008. She starred in the NBC series My Own Worst Enemy in 2008. Also in 2008, Burrows starred in the independent film The Guitar as a woman who suffers several life setbacks all at once, including a cancer diagnosis and bankruptcy, and survives them all. Amy Redford's directorial debut, the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. She also had a starring role in Roger Donaldson's heist film The Bank Job, and appeared opposite Kevin Spacey in Jonas Pate's Shrink. She contributed to an Actors Come Clean for Congo video for the Enough Project's campaign in support of conflict mineral issues. In 2010, she starred as Detective Serena Stevens on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, departing at the end of the ninth season. In September 2010, she took part in the documentary feature The People Speak, televised on the History Channel. The film was directed and produced by Colin Firth and Anthony Arnove. Burrows modeled for Marks & Spencer's autumn 2010 campaign for their Portfolio range. In 2012, she performed opposite Rob Lowe in the political comedy Knife Fight. In 2013 and 2014, Burrows joined the ABC television show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She played agent Victoria Hand in a recurring role. She also starred in the Amazon Video series Mozart in the Jungle as Cynthia Taylor, a cellist with the New York Symphony. The series ran for four seasons from 2014 to 2018. In 2019, Burrows starred in the recurring role of Dottie Quinn on the second season of the Netflix thriller You. She reprised her role in the third season, which was released in October 2021. Writing Burrows has written diaries, book reviews and newspaper and magazine articles for The Guardian, The Independent, and The Times and the New Statesman. Personal life Burrows is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She is bisexual, and said that she "prefers the company of women". She was engaged to actor Alan Cumming in the 1990s and dated director Mike Figgis for five years until 2002. She was previously in a relationship with actress Fiona Shaw. Burrows married writer Alison Balian, her girlfriend of six years, in August 2013. Burrows gave birth to their son in 2012 and their daughter in 2017. Burrows and Balian separated in 2020. Burrows has expressed sympathy for European style social democracies and for French Socialist politician Ségolène Royal. She joined an anti-racism group when she was 11 years old and went on to become the Vice President of the National Civil Rights Movement. Burrows is a campaigner for disabled rights and equality. In 2009, she became an American citizen. Filmography Film Television Awards and nominations Blockbuster Entertainment Award 2000: Nominated, "Favorite Newcomer Actress" – Deep Blue Sea Screen Actors Guild Awards 2008: Nominated, "Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series" – Boston Legal 2009: Nominated, "Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series" – Boston Legal References External links Saffron Burrows at IMDb Saffron Burrows biography and filmography at the BFI's Screenonline Articles written by Saffron Burrows for the New Statesman UK Saffron Burrows' Guest DJ Set on KCRW KCRW Guest DJ Set

Tatiana Gabrielle Hobson (born January 25, 1996) is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Gaia on The CW science fiction television series The 100, Prudence on the Netflix original series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and Marienne Bellamy on the Netflix series You. She also provided the voice of Willow Park on the Disney Channel animated series The Owl House, and played Jo Braddock in the 2022 movie Uncharted and Hannah Kim on the Netflix series Kaleidoscope. Early life and education Hobson was born on January 25, 1996, in San Francisco, California. She is one of three children born to Traci (née Hewitt) and Terry Hobson. Her father is African American, and her mother was born in Korea to a Korean woman and African American soldier. At age four, her mother was adopted by an African American military family that was stationed in Japan at the time. Hobson began acting in the third grade, in an adaptation of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, where she played the main role of Lemony Snicket. She auditioned for Oakland School for the Arts in middle school and was accepted into their theatre program. She has performed in and directed several productions and has won multiple awards for her work at various theatre festivals, including the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. Hobson graduated from Oakland School for the Arts with a 3.7 GPA. She moved to Atlanta after high school to attend Spelman College, where she majored in drama and French. Career Gabrielle's first credit was under the name Tatiana Hobson, in the 2014 short film To Stay the Sword. In 2015, Gabrielle moved to Los Angeles. She starred in the 2015 short film Tatterdemalion and the 2016 television film Just Jenna as Monique. Her first credit as Tati Gabrielle came in 2016 for her guest role as Wacky Jacky in the "Tightrope of Doom" episode of the Disney Channel comedy series K.C. Undercover. Later that year, Gabrielle also starred in Nickelodeon's The Thundermans in the episode "Stealing Home" as Hacksaw. In 2017, Gabrielle landed her first recurring role as Gaia in The CW apocalyptic drama The 100. That same year, she was featured in an episode titled "Bob" of the Hulu anthology series Dimension 404, where she portrayed Amanda's sister. Gabrielle also voiced Addie in the 2017 film The Emoji Movie, her first major film role, and recurred in the second season of Hulu's Freakish as Birdie and on the TBS animated series Tarantula. In March 2018, Gabrielle was cast as a series regular in the role of Prudence in the Netflix original series, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. In 2020, Gabrielle was cast as Marienne Bellamy on the third season of the Netflix psychological thriller series You, and reprised her role on the fourth season. In 2022, Gabrielle starred as the villain Jo Braddock in the film Uncharted. In May 2023, Gabrielle was cast as Jade in an untitled sequel to the 2021 Mortal Kombat film. Filmography References External links Tati Gabrielle at IMDb

You is an American psychological thriller television series based on the books by Caroline Kepnes, developed by Greg Berlanti and Sera Gamble, and produced by Berlanti Productions, Alloy Entertainment, and A+E Studios in association with Warner Horizon Television, now Warner Bros. Television. The first season, which is based on the novel You, premiered on Lifetime in September 2018, and follows Joe Goldberg, a bookstore manager and serial killer who falls in love and develops an extreme obsession. The season stars Penn Badgley, Elizabeth Lail, Luca Padovan, Zach Cherry, and Shay Mitchell. Lifetime announced in July 2018 that You had been renewed for a second season, based on Kepnes' follow-up novel Hidden Bodies. The series later moved to Netflix and the second season was released in December 2019. The season follows Joe as he moves to Los Angeles and falls in love with local heiress Love Quinn. For the second season, Ambyr Childers was upgraded to a series regular, joining newly cast Victoria Pedretti, James Scully, Jenna Ortega, and Carmela Zumbado. In January 2020, the series was renewed for a third season by Netflix, which was released on October 15, 2021. In the third season, Saffron Burrows was upgraded to a series regular, joining newly cast Travis Van Winkle, Shalita Grant, Tati Gabrielle, and Dylan Arnold. In October 2021, ahead of the third-season premiere, the series was renewed for a fourth season, which was released over two parts on February 9 and March 9, 2023. The season also stars Charlotte Ritchie, Tilly Keeper, Amy-Leigh Hickman, Ed Speleers and Lukas Gage. In March 2023, the series was renewed for a fifth and final season. Premise The first season follows the story of Joe Goldberg, a bookstore manager in New York, who upon meeting Guinevere Beck, an aspiring writer, becomes infatuated with her. He feeds his obsession using social media and other technology to track her presence and watch her in her house and remove obstacles to their romance including her friends and ex-boyfriend. In the second season, Joe Goldberg moves from New York to Los Angeles to escape his past and starts over with a new identity to avoid his ex-girlfriend Candace who seeks revenge for burying her alive prior to season 1. When he meets avid chef Love Quinn, Joe begins falling into his old patterns of obsession and violence. As Joe attempts to forge a new love, he strives to make his relationship with Love succeed at all costs to avoid the fate of his past romantic endeavors. Unbeknownst to him, Love has dark secrets herself. In the third season, Joe and Love are married and raising their newborn son, Henry, in the Californian suburb of Madre Linda. As their relationship dynamic takes a new turn, Joe continues to repeat the cycle of obsession with a burgeoning interest in Natalie, the next door neighbor, and local librarian Marienne. This time, Love ensures that her dream of having the perfect family will not be torn away so easily by Joe's compulsive actions. In the fourth season, Joe Goldberg, posing as Jonathan Moore, is now residing in London, working as an English professor at a respected university, and leading a sedate existence. He has also been following Marienne around Europe in an attempt to locate her. His new life of solitude, however, is disrupted when he begins to bond with a circle of wealthy socialites, who begin to die off one by one as a serial murderer begins to target their elite group. Joe reverts to his old habits when he is pinned with evidence and blackmailed by the killer, who plays mind games with his subconscious. While trying to keep his true identity hidden from the group and working to catch the killer, Joe develops feelings for another woman named Kate. Cast and characters Penn Badgley as Joe Goldberg / Will Bettelheim / Jonathan Moore, a charming bookstore manager at Mooney's who stalks and dates Beck in the first season. In the second season, he goes by the name Will Bettelheim and works as a bookstore clerk at Anavrin, and stalks and dates Love. In the third season, he is going by Joe once more, married to Love Quinn with their child. In the fourth season, Joe is in London and is masquerading as a university professor going by the name Jonathan Moore. Joe is portrayed as a teenager by Gianni Ciardiello in the first season, and as a child by Aidan Wallace and Jack Fisher in the second and third seasons, respectively. Elizabeth Lail as Guinevere Beck (season 1; special guest season 2, 4), a broke NYU graduate student and an aspiring writer who enters into a relationship with Joe Luca Padovan as Paco (season 1), Joe's young neighbor who sees Joe as a source of support and a role model Zach Cherry as Ethan Russell (season 1), a bookstore clerk who works with Joe and dates Beck's friend Blythe Shay Mitchell as Peach Salinger (season 1), a wealthy and influential socialite and Beck's best friend whom she met at Brown University, who harbors a secret passion for her Victoria Pedretti as Love Quinn (seasons 2–3, special guest season 4), an aspiring chef and health guru in Los Angeles who gets involved with Joe and has dark secrets herself Carmela Zumbado as Delilah Alves (season 2), Ellie's older sister, an investigative reporter who leases Joe's flat to him and they have a brief romantic encounter Jenna Ortega as Ellie Alves (season 2), Delilah's fifteen-year-old sister who lives in the same block of apartments as Joe/Will James Scully as Forty Quinn (season 2; special guest season 3), Love's beloved and troubled twin brother who relies on Love for support in most matters due to his addictions and mental health issues Ambyr Childers as Candace Stone (season 2; recurring season 1), Joe's ex-girlfriend who follows him to Los Angeles seeking revenge Saffron Burrows as Dottie Quinn (season 3; recurring season 2), Love and Forty's mother Tati Gabrielle as Marienne Bellamy (season 3–present), a librarian and keen observer of the neighborhood's denizens. Beneath her practical exterior, Marienne is hiding personal struggles that set her back, as she tries to create a better life for herself and her daughter. She moves with her daughter to Paris after the events of the third season. Shalita Grant as Sherry Conrad (season 3), a locally famous "momfluencer", admired by her social media followers for her well crafted persona, she often insults people through veiled insults and sees herself as superior to everyone in Madre Linda. She is very fake and only seeks things that support her personal interests. Travis Van Winkle as Cary Conrad (season 3), a wealthy, charismatic, and self-proclaimed founder who runs his own supplement company and is married to Sherry with whom they share twin girls Dylan Arnold as Theodore "Theo" Engler (season 3), a troubled college student who has a strained relationship with his stepfather, Matthew Engler, and who has a crush on Love Charlotte Ritchie as Katherine "Kate" Galvin-Lockwood (season 4), a fearsomely intelligent art gallery director. Her partying boyfriend Malcolm will bring Joe into their lives. Tilly Keeper as Lady Phoebe Borehall-Blaxworth (season 4), a wealthy social media influencer who is part of the royal family. She is romantically involved with Adam and has a dramatic yet bubbly personality. Amy-Leigh Hickman as Nadia Farran (season 4), one of Joe's students. She is outspoken and competitive, and a lover of genre fiction. Ed Speleers as Rhys Montrose (season 4), an author and mayoral hopeful whose memoir about his experiences in prison lifted him out of poverty. He appears to quickly form a connection with Joe over their similar personal backgrounds. Lukas Gage as Adam Pratt (season 4), an American playboy who hails from a wealthy family and owns Sundry House, an elite London social club. He is dating Lady Phoebe and has a strained relationship with his father, who he typically consults to bail him out of debt from his failed business ventures. Episodes Season 1 (2018) Season 2 (2019) Season 3 (2021) Season 4 (2023) Season 5 Production Development In February 2015, it was announced that Greg Berlanti and Sera Gamble would develop a series based on Caroline Kepnes' book You with Berlanti and Gamble as the scriptwriters, and Berlanti as the pilot director. Initially, Berlanti and Gamble pitched the show to Showtime but were unsuccessful in their attempts. In addition, both creators had also originally pitched the series to Netflix but were declined twice, prior to Netflix's head of international non-English originals, Bela Bajaria joining the company in late 2016. Berlanti recounted his experience of pitching the show to Netflix in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, stating that You "felt like more of a binge show". He further added that his team "tried initially to sell it to Netflix at the very beginning and [Netflix's chief content officer] Ted Sarandos has said as much that they wish they'd gotten it the first time". In January 2017, it was announced that the series had been purchased by Lifetime and put into fast-track development. In April 2017, Lifetime gave You a 10-episode straight-to-series order. On July 26, 2018, ahead of the series premiere, Lifetime announced that the series had been renewed for a second season. In November 2018, Gamble confirmed that like Hidden Bodies, the sequel novel to You, the setting of the series would move to Los Angeles for the second season. On December 3, 2018, it was confirmed that Lifetime had rescinded its renewal of the series and that Netflix had picked up You ahead of the release of the second season. On January 14, 2020, Netflix renewed the series for a 10-episode third season. On October 13, 2021, ahead of the third-season premiere, Netflix renewed the series for a fourth season. On March 24, 2023, the series was renewed for a fifth and final season, initially set to release in 2024. However, journalists predicted delays, as the 2023 Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes delayed the season's scripting and production schedules. In March 2019, Berlanti discussed the challenges of finding the right platform for the series in a panel interview. Speaking at the INTV conference, he stated that "we pitched [You] and sold it to Showtime of all places, but…once they read the script, they were really cool about saying, 'You can take it somewhere else'...". After being turned down by the network, he later pitched the show to Lifetime, who "wanted to make it, and we shot it, and because of their launch cycle it sat in the can for a while for two-and-a-half years. Then they finally started to release it, and it didn't do very well." Although, Lifetime reneged on their initial renewal offer for a second season in late 2018, Berlanti recalled that he went to the offices of the network executives to plead them to change their mind, asking "I still think it's going to work, I still think it's going to work – maybe one more episode, maybe if people have a chance to see five more episodes." Later, he was relieved by the news of Netflix's guarantee of committing to a second season after Lifetime canceled the series. Following Netflix's reportings on the considerable success that You obtained after it was made available to stream on their platform service, Penn Badgley wrote in an email response to The Washington Post that "We're grateful to Lifetime for being the gateway to getting the show made. We wouldn't have been able to make the show without them, as far as I can tell. There is no sense of bewilderment that the show had one reaction while it was on Lifetime and another when it went to Netflix. The difference in viewership is obvious, and it's indicative of so many different things, not the least of which is the way young people consume media." Casting Penn Badgley was cast as lead character Joe Goldberg in June 2017. Elizabeth Lail's casting as Guinevere Beck was announced in July 2017, as well as Luca Padovan as Joe's neighbor Paco, and Zach Cherry as Ethan, a bookstore clerk who works with Joe. Shay Mitchell was cast as Peach Salinger, Beck's wealthy best friend, in August 2017. In September 2017, Hari Nef was cast in the recurring role as Blythe, a talented and competitive peer in Beck's MFA program. A few days later it was announced that Daniel Cosgrove had been cast in the recurring role of Ron, a correctional officer. In October 2017, Michael Maize and Ambyr Childers were cast in the recurring roles of Officer Nico and Candace, respectively. It was announced in November 2017 that John Stamos would recur as Dr. Nicky, Beck's therapist. On January 30, 2019, it was announced that Victoria Pedretti had been cast in the main role of Love Quinn for the second season. Pedretti had originally auditioned for the role of Guinevere Beck prior to the filming of the first season in 2017. Though the part later went to Lail, Pedretti was cast in the following season after the showrunners saw the actress's performance in Netflix's The Haunting of Hill House and the casting directors liked her chemistry with Badgley. On January 31, 2019, James Scully was cast in a main role as Forty Quinn, Love's brother, and Jenna Ortega was also cast in a main role as Ellie Alves. On February 1, 2019, Deadline Hollywood reported that Ambyr Childers had been promoted to a series regular role, ahead of the premiere of the second season. On February 6, 2019, Adwin Brown was cast in the recurring role of Calvin on the second season. On February 15, 2019, Robin Lord Taylor was cast in the recurring role of Will on the second season. On February 21, 2019, Carmela Zumbado was cast in the series regular role of Delilah Alves on the second season. On March 4, 2019, it was reported that Marielle Scott has been cast in the recurring role of Lucy on the second season. On March 5, 2019, Chris D'Elia was cast in the recurring role of Henderson on the second season. On March 26, 2019, Charlie Barnett was cast in the recurring role of Gabe on the second season. On April 4, 2019, Melanie Field and Magda Apanowicz were cast in recurring roles as Sunrise and Sandy, respectively. On June 4, 2019, Danny Vasquez had been cast in a recurring role. On June 24, 2019, it was confirmed that John Stamos would reprise his role as Dr. Nicky in the second season. On October 17, 2019, Elizabeth Lail confirmed in a Build Series interview that she would reprise her role as Guinevere Beck in a guest appearance on the second season. In October 2020, Travis Van Winkle and Shalita Grant were cast as series regulars while Scott Speedman was cast in a recurring role for the third season. In November 2020, it was announced that Saffron Burrows was upped to regular status after recurring in the second season. Additionally, Tati Gabrielle and Dylan Arnold were also cast as series regulars for the third season, with Michaela McManus, Shannon Chan-Kent, Ben Mehl, Christopher O'Shea, Christopher Sean, Bryan Safi, Mackenzie Astin, Ayelet Zurer, Jack Fisher, and Mauricio Lara added as recurring cast members. On January 25, 2021, Scott Michael Foster joined the cast in a recurring role for the third season. On April 15, 2021, it was confirmed that John Stamos would not be returning in the third season. In February 2022, Lukas Gage was cast as a series regular for the fourth season. In March 2022, Charlotte Ritchie was cast as a series regular for the fourth season. In April 2022, Tilly Keeper, Amy Leigh Hickman, and Ed Speleers were cast as new series regulars while Niccy Lin, Aidan Cheng, Stephen Hagan, Ben Wiggins, Eve Austin, Ozioma Whenu, Dario Coates, Sean Pertwee, Brad Alexander, Alison Pargeter, and Adam James joined the cast in recurring roles for the fourth season. In March 2024, Madeline Brewer, Anna Camp and Griffin Matthews were cast as series regulars for the fifth season. Filming The first season of You was filmed in New York City and filming concluded on December 19, 2017. For the second season, the series relocated its production to California to take advantage of tax incentives provided by the California Film Commission under its "Program 2.0" initiative. Filming for the second season took place on location in Los Angeles, California, from February 2019 to June 2019. For the third season, the series was awarded $7.2 million in tax credits by the state of California. Filming for the third season began on November 2, 2020, and was originally scheduled to conclude in April 2021. On December 31, 2020, production of the third season was paused for two weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Filming resumed in February 2021 and ended in April 2021. Filming on the fourth season officially began on March 21, 2022, in London, and ended on August 27, 2022. The London filming locations included Royal Holloway, South Kensington, Grant's Quay Wharf in Old Billingsgate, Lincoln's Inn Library, Knebworth House and St. Pancras Station. Badgley made his directorial debut with the ninth episode of the season. Filming for the fifth season began in late March 2024, and ended in August 2024. Technical aspects Lee Toland Krieger and David Lanzenberg were both credited as the director and cinematographer for the first two episodes, respectively. Since then, the series has had a number of cinematographers and directors. Krieger and Lanzenberg were inspired by the works of cinematographer Darius Khondji in films such as David Fincher's Seven (1995) and Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris (2011). As part of creating the striking look for the series, they executed various dolly shots and used anamorphic lenses to evoke a level of surrealistic voyeurism, demanding from the viewer their participation in the romantic manifestations of Joe's worldview. Krieger asserted that in order to sell Joe's character to the audience, he needed to craft You with a certain visual look and mood, slightly different, unconventional and accented than the standard color palette and tone for contemporary thrillers. He stated that "I wanted something that felt like a great New York love story, just with a very disturbed protagonist", adding that "The show opens with these luscious slow-motion shots. There's that amber glow. It doesn't feel like a thriller." For the second season, the setting change from New York to Los Angeles, entailed a distinctive use of saturated hues and colorful warm lighting, in part to contrast and depict an alteration of Joe's perspective of a new city which he had never visited previously. It would also signal a period in which Joe could find an avenue for encountering newer opportunities for a fresh start. In a Variety interview with the lead showrunner, Gamble noted the change, stating that "If you went straight from Season 1 to Season 2, you'll notice the sun-drenched color palette. There's something creamier about the light in L.A. than Season 1." Release The official trailer for You was released on April 10, 2018, by Lifetime. You premiered on Lifetime in the United States on September 9, 2018. In May 2018, it was announced that Netflix acquired the exclusive international broadcast rights to You, making it available as an original series on the platform. On December 3, 2018, it was announced that Lifetime had passed on the second season, and that the series would move to Netflix as a global Netflix Original series. The first season became available to stream instantly on Netflix worldwide on December 26, 2018. The first season was released on DVD as a manufacture-on-demand title by Warner Archive Collection on January 14, 2020. On December 5, 2019, a teaser trailer for the second season was released by Netflix. On December 16, 2019, the official trailer for the second season was released. The second season was released on December 26, 2019. The second season was released on DVD on January 26, 2021. As part of a video and letter to its shareholders in April 2021, Netflix's co-chief executive officer and chief content officer, Ted Sarandos confirmed that the third season of You is expected to premiere sometime in the fourth quarter of 2021. On August 30, 2021, Netflix announced that the third season will premiere on October 15, 2021. On September 17, 2021, the official trailer for the third season was released. The fourth season was slated to be split into two parts. The first part of the fourth season premiered on February 9, 2023, and the second part premiered on March 9. Marketing Teasing the original premiere on Lifetime on September 9, 2018, the main cast, Penn Badgley, Elizabeth Lail and Shay Mitchell, as well as the show creator, Sera Gamble, and author of the original book, Caroline Kepnes, sat down with Build Series, a YouTube talk show meant to promote new buzzworthy shows and movies. Before the show's premiere, Badgley mentioned his disinterest in playing the character of Joe Goldberg in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, saying that "I didn't want to do it — it was too much. I was conflicted with the nature of the role. If this is a love story, what is it saying? It's not an average show; it's a social experiment." However, he was strongly convinced by the script and the social commentary around the series, adding that "what was key in me wanting to jump on board were my conversations with Greg Berlanti and Sera Gamble, the creators, and understanding Joe's humanity. I knew that I would be conflicted about the role from day one till the last day, and that is why they thought I would be good for it, is that I'm not psyched to play somebody of this nature." Relaying similar thoughts in an interview with GQ, Badgley again raised his concerns of portraying Joe, noting that he was first apprehensive at the role but later, changed his mind, expressing that "no one in any position of authority could ever try to act as though we don't know that sex and murder sells, but how can it work in a different way we've not seen? That's where I think this show does something that none of us could have said for certain that we would nail. It could have been really irresponsible. It could have fallen flat and been like, whoa." In another interview at The Contenders Emmys 2019 panel, Badgley mentioned that his character was "the hero of his own story...every serial killer is" but added that Joe is "ultimately, the word that's coming to mind is un-saveable". The actor highlighted that though, there is an apparent affinity to Joe's character, it is somewhat of a "Rorschach test of a kind for us," adding that "we're failing. . ." In an interview with TheWrap, Badgley was asked about whether his approach to portraying Joe over the course of the second season had shifted from the previous season. Badgley stated in response that playing Joe was still an "isolating" experience, but admitted that he was surprised by "how deep of a metaphor we're working with this guy". Nonetheless, he stressed that the incredible range of responses from audiences that followed from portraying "such a damaged, traumatized person", who is "awful and blind and abusive", allowed for "more meaningful conversations about the themes that the show is working" to be discussed in the public sphere. Various critics gave praise to the series, by complimenting its eerie tone and terrifying approach to the themes of violence and stalking, reminiscent of contemporary thriller films and series like Dexter, Gone Girl and American Psycho. Certain reviewers highlighted that You provides an alluring but disturbing insight into the mind and profile of a psychopath, who charmingly manipulates – through his anti-hero charisma, motives and warped sense of morality – the audience into "[sympathizing] with a stalker" and "serial killer". The marketing for the series used the buzz around the #MeToo Movement to gain attention to the start of the show. You has been said to have been "tailor-made for the #MeToo Era." One of the show creators, Sera Gamble, commented on this era by highlighting that in contemporary culture, attention is almost unanimously given to the perspective of the male and his story, so naturally he is positioned through the lens of a hero. She states "We're focused on their story, their triumph, their downfall, their redemption arc ... So I doubt the show will single-handedly change the way we think about dudes and our culture, but I'm happy to be part of the conversation." Themes You explores the psychodynamic view of erotomania and obsessive love between Joe and his romantic interests. In addition, the series further raises questions on the ethics and potential implications of manipulating circumstances and how the psychology of stalking, murder and violence is best exemplified by Joe's intrusive and insidious actions, to manufacture the constructs of an idealized love relationship. The theme of obsession and violence is significantly expanded upon in the second season with the introduction of the character of Love Quinn. The examination and deconstruction of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl and Cool Girl tropes enabled the writers to express the idea that certain women such as Love harbor internalized misogyny through actions that either minimize or question the lived experiences of female victims in favor of men that they are romantically inclined to. The balance of such an approach in emotional conflict poses an interesting dilemma for the viewer, where sympathy is later garnered for Love's perspective due to her complicated history, underlying motives in manifesting the goal of attaining her idealized soulmate, and the tension between her perceived image against Joe's mental projection of a conceptualized fantasy girl. As the first season of You is situated in modern-day New York City, it explores the dangers of stalking and social media culture with an emphasis on a lack of digital privacy. The author of the novel, Caroline Kepnes, explained the darkness of You, which deconstructs the romantic-comedy tropes highlighted in many films and shows, by making the protagonist a violent stalker and serial killer, saying it was written in a dark period of her life, the year her father died of cancer, and in which she experienced several other personal challenges. She further stated that her inspiration for the novel grew out of her moving back to LA. She expressed that when she moved, she noticed that "suddenly everyone was following each other and being followed, and I always thought of that as such a negative thing," soon creating Joe in her mind as a very real possibility of what can happen with that type of access into people's lives. After the series premiered, Kepnes mentioned in an interview with Emily Baker from iNews, that she was initially hesitant on labeling Joe, as a few readers argued that his actions, classified him as a serial killer. The author then, clarified her position on the matter, citing that "I remember when I wrote You and someone first referred to Joe as a serial killer. I argued 'he's not a serial killer, he meets these terrible people and has these awful thoughts, but he's very sensitive. It's very strange to realize you have written a serial killer." Sera Gamble, the showrunner and co-creator of the series, stated in an interview with Collider, that when envisioning Joe, the main protagonist of the series, she wanted to delve deeply into the root cause of the pathology of his behavior that shaped his amoral position to justify and rationalize stalking, kidnapping and killing his victims. When she was writing the character, she stated that "I want to understand what coaxes behavior of this nature out of that very tiny percentage of men. I like to think it's a very tiny percentage of men who would cross a line like the line that Joe Goldberg crosses". In an interview at The Contenders Emmys 2019 panel, Gamble highlighted the importance of casting the right person to play the role of Joe Goldberg. She stated that "it had to be a love story and a horror movie in every single scene", further adding that if they "cast someone who was sort of creepy, then the story wouldn't work; the idea is that it's a lead in a romantic comedy who works in a bookstore and a woman walks in, they have a cute meet and fall in love and live happily ever after. That's the show." Expanding on her commentary on the show's themes and origin, Gamble stated at The Hollywood Reporter's roundtable interview, that she was not surprised to hear an overwhelming reception to Joe's character amongst online fans and viewers, citing that "There's a very vocal contingent of fans of Caroline Kepnes' book [on which You is based] who were like, "I heart Joe." Essentially what she's done is taken the classic romantic hero and just peeled back the gloss and sheen and John Cusack with the boombox and she followed it to its logical conclusion. I mean, if you turn off the sappy music and turn on a David Fincher score, romantic comedies are stalker movies. The plot of pretty much every one I can think of — and we have watched all of them many times in the writers room — is contingent on the guy ... well, first of all, he has to do a certain amount of fucking up so she can forgive him. And he has to get over some of her shortcomings. I mean, that's love, right? But also, he's chasing her through a fucking airport, chasing her on a freeway, watching her sleep because he feels protective. Romantic comedy behavior in real life is criminal! And that was basically the starting place for the show." After the series was acquired by Netflix, Gamble noted in several interviews on the changes that would occur in the following season. In an interview with New Musical Express, Gamble highlighted that an exploration of Joe's descent in future storylines will further necessitate a focus on underlying issues that inform his skewed worldview. She later added that "We're interested in exploring the character and we're well aware that what the character is doing is not ok – it's deeply, deeply problematic. So what's interesting to us is: what does he think he's done wrong, what does he think he has to do differently, and to really explore that while still keeping that clinical cold eye on the whole show. And that eye is on a show that's about a guy who kills people." Given the hands off approach that Netflix is known for, Gamble added in an interview with The New York Times that the second season will be different, explaining that "Certain things are changing in the way we are thinking about Season 2 of You. We have a little more flexibility around timing, since we don't have commercial ads, and also we can say the word [expletive] a lot more. As someone who swears a lot, that's a great thing. Netflix lets you give as many [expletive] as you want." In an interview with LadBible, Gamble declared that the team's approach to writing the second season would necessitate a change in the formula, noting that "We knew that it wouldn't be possible to repeat it as the audience is very much onto Joe now and will see through him". Furthermore, she highlighted that the second season will be "gorier and scarier than anything we had in season one." Due to narrative changes, the second season would necessitate a shift in setting to Los Angeles from the prior season. As a result, Gamble noted in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that the season will have a different feeling, citing that "Los Angeles is full of people who are really trying to live their best life and self-actualize," and that "When you put somebody who needs a lot of healing into a city that advertises itself basically as this Mecca full of cutting-edge healers, the alchemy is a little unexpected for him." She further added, that there will be more deviations in the ongoing story compared to Kepnes' sequel novel Hidden Bodies but stressed that some plot elements will still be adapted in the second season. Speaking in an interview with Vogue, the showrunner explained that the second season, offered an opportunity for the writers to satirize and dig beneath the Hollywood scene, influencer lifestyle and wellness culture that permeates the surface of Los Angeles. Though, Gamble mentioned that it was imperative to balance the pokes at L.A. culture by representing a different side to the city, citing that "I think when you squint at it from far away, it seems like a city that's sprung up around the entertainment business which is technically true to a certain extent, but a lot of the portrayal of LA that people have seen in stuff like Entourage... and what you see in tabloids, where you think it's all famous people running around to their plastic surgeon and in BMWs, and that's actually a very small slice of a city that's this vast patchwork of neighbourhoods. We're all very lucky that Hollywood is here because it's paying our bills... the reach of Hollywood is vast... but people have much fuller, deeper more expansive lives than that, once you're here." In an interview with Boston Herald, Gamble stated that "Joe will always have biting thoughts about other people," further highlighting that "so it's fun to drop him into an environment that gives him a lot of fodder. He had judgments about the crowd in New York, and he also does about the crowd around him in L.A. And since we [the show's creative team] all live in Los Angeles, that's a lot of fun for us. We're really excited to do the other side of the coin." Reception and impact Audience viewership On January 17, 2019, Netflix announced that the series was on track to be streamed by over 40 million viewers within its first month of release on the streaming platform. On December 13, 2019, Netflix announced over 43 million viewers had completed watching the whole season since its release on the service. On December 30, 2019, Netflix issued a number of official lists, including the Most Popular TV Shows of 2019. The series was among the most viewed in the U.S. market, where You was ranked fifth among series. On January 21, 2020, Netflix announced that the second season had been viewed by over 54 million viewers on its service within its first month of release, referring to viewers who had watched at least 2 minutes of one episode. According to the year-end summary from Nielsen, You was in the group of top ten most-watched original series in the U.S. market between December 30, 2019, through December 27, 2020, where it ranked tenth based on minutes watched, with a 10.96 billion total minutes of streaming. Critical response On the review aggregator website, Rotten Tomatoes, the first season has a 93% approval rating with 60 reviews, with an average rating of 7.10/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "You pairs thrilling drama with trashy fun to create an addictive social media horror story that works its way under the skin – and stays there." Review aggregator Metacritic gave the first season a score of 74 out of 100 based on 29 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". On Rotten Tomatoes, the second season has an 87% approval rating with an average rating of 8.01/10, based on 45 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Penn Badgley's perversely endearing serial stalker keeps looking for love in all the wrong places during a second season that maintains the subversive tension while adding some welcome variations on the series' formula." On Metacritic, the second season has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". On Rotten Tomatoes, the third season holds a 96% approval rating with an average rating of 8.00/10 based on 53 reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "You takes its thrilling saga to the suburbs with superb results, made all the more delicious by Penn Badgley and Victoria Pedretti's committed performances." On Metacritic, the third season has a weighted average score of 77 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". The fourth season has an approval rating of 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 53 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The website's critics consensus states, "The hunter becomes prey in You's London-set fourth season, which shows some wear as this premise begins to outlive its believability—but Penn Badgley's sardonic performance continues to paper over most lapses in logic." On Metacritic, the first part of the fourth season received a score of 73 based on reviews from 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". For the second part of season 4, Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 82 out of 100 based on 8 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Cultural influence You gained a dedicated following soon after its release on Netflix. Once the first season became available to stream worldwide on Netflix, the series' popularity increased dramatically with an estimated 40 million people having viewed it, in its first month on the streaming platform, dwarfing its viewership from Lifetime. The series later became the subject of numerous online discussions and debates surrounding the romanticization of the serial killer and stalker protagonist in question. According to many reporters and critics, concerns were expressed regarding the viewers who have positively identified and connected with Penn Badgley's character on multiple social media platforms, despite the transgressive acts that the protagonist displayed and committed over the course of the season. Among the viewers who took an affinity to Joe was Stranger Things actress Millie Bobby Brown. Brown took to social media, sharing her initial thoughts in a video by downplaying Joe's questionable acts, but subsequently, changed her position on the matter after watching the entirety of the first season. After Badgley received tweets from various fans and viewers of the series about how the series seemingly glorified Joe's violent behaviors, the actor responded with tongue-in-cheek replies on Twitter and Instagram and noted the importance of not romanticizing the actions of a psychopathic murderer. In response to the growing concerns of viewers romanticizing Joe's vicious behaviors, Elizabeth Lail conveyed her thoughts surrounding the conversation in an interview with Image. Lail expressed she initially had concerns about the audience's reactions but explained that "I think we are programmed that way. Myself included. With all the rom-coms and fairy tales we've read, we're programmed to root for the hero at any cost, unfortunately. And so, my hope is that these women notice that inside themselves; and ask themselves, 'oh gosh, why do I love this terrible man?' I hope they recognize it as an unconscious bias (that's inside most of us), and actively work against it." Victoria Pedretti, the lead actress of the second season, responded in a commentary to the audience's strong alignment to Joe's perspective. In an interview with Variety, Pedretti stated that, though she is aware of the phenomenon behind the reactions and concerns after the series gained a remarkable following, it is fueling the conversation, citing that it "talks about the kind of horrors of being a young person on the internet today. [. . .] I think it's a really smart way to discuss this trope that we've romanticized so much — this idea of this man that Penn plays. We know these people, and they're really hard to pluck out because they see themselves, and we see them, as the nice guys." Accolades Notes References External links You on Netflix You at IMDb

What is the birthday of the man who produced the pop song named after one of the largest bird in the Procellariiformes species, off the 2024 album The Tortured Poets Department?

Aaron Dessner was born April 23, 1976.

Tabular reasoning | Multiple constraints | Post processing

Procellariiformes is an order of seabirds that comprises four families: the albatrosses, the petrels and shearwaters, and two families of storm petrels. Formerly called Tubinares and still called tubenoses in English, procellariiforms are often referred to collectively as the petrels, a term that has been applied to all members of the order, or more commonly all the families except the albatrosses. They are almost exclusively pelagic (feeding in the open ocean), and have a cosmopolitan distribution across the world's oceans, with the highest diversity being around New Zealand. Procellariiforms are colonial, mostly nesting on remote, predator-free islands. The larger species nest on the surface, while most smaller species nest in natural cavities and burrows. They exhibit strong philopatry, returning to their natal colony to breed and returning to the same nesting site over many years. Procellariiforms are monogamous and form long-term pair bonds that are formed over several years and may last for the life of the pair. A single egg is laid per nesting attempt, and usually a single nesting attempt is made per year, although the larger albatrosses may only nest once every two years. Both parents participate in incubation and chick rearing. Incubation times are long compared to other birds, as are fledging periods. Once a chick has fledged there is no further parental care. Procellariiforms have had a long relationship with humans. They have been important food sources for many people, and continue to be hunted as such in some parts of the world. The albatrosses in particular have been the subject of numerous cultural depictions. Procellariiforms include some of the most endangered bird taxa, with many species threatened with extinction due to introduced predators in their breeding colonies, marine pollution and the danger of fisheries by-catch. Scientists, conservationists, fishermen, and governments around the world are working to reduce the threats posed to them, and these efforts have led to the signing of the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, a legally binding international treaty signed in 2001. Taxonomy The order was named Procellariiformes by German anatomist Max Fürbringer in 1888. The word comes from the Latin word procella, which means a violent wind or a storm, and -iformes for order. Until the beginning of the 20th century, the family Hydrobatidae was named Procellariidae, and the family now called Procellariidae was rendered "Puffinidae." The order itself was called Tubinares. A major early work on this group is Frederick DuCane Godman's Monograph of the Petrels, five fascicles, 1907–1910, with figures by John Gerrard Keulemans. In the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy, the tubenoses were included in a greatly enlarged order "Ciconiiformes". This taxonomic treatment was almost certainly erroneous, but its assumption of a close evolutionary relationship with other "higher waterbirds" – such as loons (Gaviiformes) and penguins (Sphenisciformes) – appears to be correct. The procellariiforms are most closely related to penguins, having diverged from them about 60 million years ago. The diving petrels in the genus Pelecanoides were formerly placed in their own family Pelecanoididae. When genetic studies found that they were embedded within the family Procellariidae, the two families were merged. All the storm petrels were once placed in the family Hydrobatidae but genetic data indicated that Hydrobatidae consisted of two deeply divergent clades that were not sister taxa. In 2018 the austral storm petrels were moved to the new family Oceanitidae. The northern storm petrels in the family Hydrobatidae are more closely related to the family Procellariidae than they are to the austral storm petrels in the family Oceanitidae. Earlier molecular phylogenetic studies found the family Oceantidae containing the austral storm petrels as the most basal with differing branching topologies for other three families. More recent large-scale studies have found a consistent pattern with the albatross family Diomedeidae as the most basal and Hydrobatidae sister to Procellariidae. There are 147 living species of procellariiform worldwide, and the order is divided into four extant families, with a fifth prehistorically extinct: Family Diomedeidae (albatrosses) are very large seabirds with a large strong hooked bill. They have strong legs, enabling them to walk well on land. Family Oceanitidae (Austral storm petrels) are among the smallest seabirds, with fluttering flight and long but weak legs. Most have dark upperparts and a white underside. Family Hydrobatidae (northern storm petrels) are similar to the austral storm petrels but have longer more pointed wings and most species have forked tails. Family Procellariidae (shearwaters, fulmarine petrels, gadfly petrels, and prions) are a varied group of small or medium-sized seabirds, the largest being the giant petrels. They are heavy for their size, with a high wing loading, so they need to fly fast. Most, except the giant petrels, have weak legs and are nearly helpless on land. Family †Diomedeoididae (Early Oligocene – Early Miocene) is an extinct group that had narrow beaks and feet with wide, flat phalanges, especially on the fourth toe. Fossils of a bird similar to a petrel from the Eocene have been found in the London Clay and in Louisiana. Diving petrels occurred in the Miocene, with a species from that family (Pelecanoides miokuaka) being described in 2007. The most numerous fossils from the Paleogene are those from the extinct family Diomedeoididae, fossils of which have been found in Central Europe and Iran. Biology Distribution and movements The procellariiforms have a cosmopolitan distribution across the world's oceans and seas, although at the levels of family and genus there are some clear patterns. Antarctic petrels, Thalassoica antarctica, have to fly over 100 mi (160 km) to get to the ocean from their breeding colonies in Antarctica, and northern fulmars breed on the northeastern tip of Greenland, the northernmost piece of land. The most cosmopolitan family is the Procellariidae, which are found in tropical, temperate and polar zones of both the Northern and the Southern Hemispheres, though the majority do not breed in the tropics, and half the species are restricted to southern temperate and polar regions. The gadfly petrels, Pterodroma, have a generally tropical and temperate distribution, whereas the fulmarine petrels are mostly polar with some temperate species. The majority of the fulmarine petrels, along with the prions, are confined to the Southern Hemisphere. The storm petrels are almost as widespread as the procellariids, and fall into two distinct families; the Oceanitidae have a mostly Southern Hemisphere distribution and the Hydrobatidae are found mostly in the Northern Hemisphere. Amongst the albatrosses the majority of the family is restricted to the Southern Hemisphere, feeding and nesting in cool temperate areas, although one genus, Phoebastria, ranges across the north Pacific. The family is absent from the north Atlantic, although fossil records indicate they bred there once. Finally the diving petrels are restricted to the Southern Hemisphere. Migration The various species within the order have a variety of migration strategies. Some species undertake regular trans-equatorial migrations, such as the sooty shearwater which annually migrates from its breeding grounds in New Zealand and Chile to the North Pacific off Japan, Alaska and California, an annual round trip of 64,000 km (40,000 mi), the second longest measured annual migration of any bird. A number of other petrel species undertake trans-equatorial migrations, including the Wilson's storm petrel and the Providence petrel, but no albatrosses cross the equator, as they rely on wind assisted flight. There are other long-distance migrants within the order; Swinhoe's storm petrels breed in the western Pacific and migrates to the western Indian Ocean, and Bonin petrels nesting in Hawaii migrate to the coast of Japan during the non-breeding season. Navigation Many species in the order travel long distances over open water but return to the same nest site each year, raising the question of how they navigate so accurately. The Welsh naturalist Ronald Lockley carried out early research into animal navigation with the Manx shearwaters that nested on the island of Skokholm. In release experiments, a Manx shearwater flew from Boston to Skokholm, a distance of 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometres) in 121⁄2 days. Lockley showed that when released "under a clear sky" with sun or stars visible, the shearwaters oriented themselves and then "flew off in a direct line for Skokholm", making the journey so rapidly that they must have flown almost in a straight line. But if the sky was overcast at the time of release, the shearwaters flew around in circles "as if lost" and returned slowly or not at all, implying that they navigated using astronomical cues. Researchers have also begun investigating olfaction's role in procellariiform navigation. In a study where Cory's shearwaters were rendered anosmic with zinc sulphate, a compound which kills the surface layer of the olfactory epithelium, and released hundreds of kilometers away from their home colony at night, control birds found their way to their home nests before night was over, whereas anosmic birds did not home until the next day. A similar study that released Cory's shearwaters 800 km from their home nests, testing both magnetic and olfactory disturbances’ effects on navigation, found that anosmic birds took longer to home than magnetically disturbed or control birds. Morphology and flight Procellariiforms range in size from the very large wandering albatross, at 11 kg (24 lb) and a 3.6-metre (12-foot) wingspan, to tiny birds like the least storm petrel, at 20 g (0.71 oz) with a 32-centimetre (13-inch) wingspan, and the smallest of the prions, the fairy prion, with a wingspan of 23 to 28 cm (9.1 to 11.0 in). Their nostrils are enclosed in one or two tubes on their straight deeply-grooved bills with hooked tips. The beaks are made up of several plates. Their wings are long and narrow; the feet are webbed, and the hind toe is undeveloped or non-existent; their adult plumage is predominantly black, white, and grey. The order has a few unifying characteristics, starting with their tubular nasal passage which is used for olfaction. Procellariiformes that nest in burrows have a strong sense of smell, being able to detect dimethyl sulfide released from plankton in the ocean. This ability to smell helps to locate patchily distributed prey at sea and may also help locate their nests within nesting colonies. In contrast, surface nesting Procellariiformes have increased vision, having six times better spatial resolution than those that nest in burrows. The structure of the bill, which contains seven to nine distinct horny plates, is another unifying feature, although there are differences within the order. Petrels have a plate called the maxillary unguis that forms a hook on the maxilla. The smaller members of the order have a comb-like mandible, made by the tomial plate, for plankton feeding. Most members of the order are unable to walk well on land, and many species visit their remote breeding islands only at night. The exceptions are the huge albatrosses, several of the gadfly petrels and shearwaters and the fulmar-petrels. The latter can disable even large predatory birds with their obnoxious stomach oil, which they can project some distance. This stomach oil, stored in the proventriculus, is a digestive residue created in the foregut of all tubenoses except the diving petrels, and is used mainly for storage of energy-rich food during their long flights. The oil is also fed to their young, as well as being used for defense. Procellariiforms drink seawater, so they have to excrete excess salt. All birds have an enlarged nasal gland at the base of the bill, above the eyes, and in the Procellariiformes the gland is active. In general terms, the salt gland removes salt from the system and forms a 5 percent saline solution that drips out of the nostrils, or is forcibly ejected in some petrels. The processes behind this involve high levels of sodium ion reabsorption into the blood plasma within the kidneys, and secretion of sodium chloride via the salt glands using less water than was absorbed, which essentially generates salt-free water for other physiological uses. This high efficiency of sodium ion absorption is attributed to mammalian-type nephrons. Most albatrosses and procellariids use two techniques to minimise exertion while flying, namely, dynamic soaring and slope soaring. The albatrosses and giant petrels share a morphological adaptation to aid in flight, a sheet of tendon which locks the wing when fully extended, allowing the wing to be kept up and out without any muscle effort. Amongst the Oceanitinae storm-petrels there are two unique flight patterns, one being surface pattering. In this they move across the water surface holding and moving their feet on the water's surface while holding steady above the water, and remaining stationary by hovering with rapid fluttering or by using the wind to anchor themselves in place. A similar flight method is thought to have been used by the extinct petrel family Diomedeoididae. The white-faced storm petrel possesses a unique variation on pattering: holding its wings motionless and at an angle into the wind, it pushes itself off the water's surface in a succession of bounding jumps. Diet and feeding The procellariiforms are for the most part exclusively marine foragers; the only exception to this rule are the two species of giant petrel, which regularly feed on carrion or other seabirds while on land. While some other species of fulmarine and Procellaria petrels also take carrion, the diet of most species of albatrosses and petrels is dominated by fish, squid, krill and other marine zooplankton. The importance of these food sources varies from species to species and family to family. For example, of the two albatross species found in Hawaii, the black-footed albatross takes mostly fish, while the Laysan feeds mainly on squid. The albatrosses in general feed on fish, squid and krill. Among the procellariids, the prions concentrate on small crustacea, the fulmarine petrels take fish and krill but little squid, while the Procellaria petrels consume mainly squid. The storm petrels take small droplets of oil from the surface of the water, as well as small crustaceans and fish. Petrels obtain food by snatching prey while swimming on the surface, snatching prey from the wing or diving down under the water to pursue prey. Dipping down from flight is most commonly used by the gadfly petrels and the storm petrels. There have been records of wedge-tailed shearwaters snatching flying fish from the air, but as a rule this technique is rare. Some diving birds may aid diving by beginning with a plunge from the air, but for the most part petrels are active divers and use their wings to move around under the water. The depths achieved by various species were determined in the 1990s and came as a surprise to scientists; short-tailed shearwaters have been recorded diving to 70 m (230 ft) and the Light-mantled sooty albatross to 12 m (39 ft). Breeding behaviour Breeding colonies All procellariiforms are colonial, predominantly breeding on offshore or oceanic islands. The few species that nest on continents do so in inhospitable environments such as dry deserts or on Antarctica. These colonies can vary from the widely spaced colonies of the giant petrels to the dense 3.6 million-strong colonies of Leach's storm petrels. For almost all species the need to breed is the only reason that procellariiforms return to land at all. Some of the larger petrels have to nest on windswept locations as they require wind to take off and forage for food. Within the colonies, pairs defend usually small territories (the giant petrels and some albatrosses can have very large territories) which is the small area around either the nest or a burrow. Competition between pairs can be intense, as is competition between species, particularly for burrows. Larger species of petrels will even kill the chicks and even adults of smaller species in disputes over burrows. Burrows and natural crevices are most commonly used by the smaller species; all the storm petrels and diving petrels are cavity nesters, as are many of the procellariids. The fulmarine petrels and some tropical gadfly petrels and shearwaters are surface nesters, as are all the albatrosses. Procellariiforms show high levels of philopatry, both site fidelity and natal philopatry. Natal philopatry is the tendency of an individual bird to return to its natal colony to breed, often many years after leaving the colony as a chick. This tendency has been shown through ringing studies and mitochondrial DNA studies. Birds ringed as chicks have been recaptured close to their original nests, sometimes extremely close; in the Laysan albatross the average distance between hatching site and the site where a bird established its own territory was 22 m (72 ft), and a study of Cory's shearwaters nesting near Corsica found that nine out of 61 male chicks that returned to breed at their natal colony actually bred in the burrow they were raised in. Mitochondrial DNA provides evidence of restricted gene flow between different colonies, strongly suggesting philopatry. The other type of philopatry exhibited is site fidelity, where pairs of birds return to the same nesting site for a number of years. Among the most extreme examples known of this tendency was the fidelity of a ringed northern fulmar that returned to the same nest site for 25 years. The average number of birds returning to the same nest sites is high in all species studied, with around 91 percent for Bulwer's petrels, and 85 percent of males and 76 percent of females for Cory's shearwaters (after a successful breeding attempt). Pair bonds and life history Procellariiforms are monogamous breeders and form long-term pair bonds. These pair bonds take several years to develop in some species, particularly with the albatrosses. Once formed, they last for many breeding seasons, in some cases for the life of the pair. Petrel courtship can be elaborate. It reaches its extreme with the albatrosses, where pairs spend many years perfecting and elaborating mating dances. These dances are composed of synchronised performances of various actions such as preening, pointing, calling, bill clacking, staring, and combinations of such behaviours (like the sky-call). Each particular pair will develop their own individual version of the dance. The breeding behaviour of other procellariiforms is less elaborate, although similar bonding behaviours are involved, particularly for surface-nesting species. These can involve synchronised flights, mutual preening and calling. Calls are important for helping birds locate potential mates and distinguishing between species, and may also help individuals assess the quality of potential mates. After pairs have been formed, calls serve to help them reunite; the ability of individuals to recognise their own mate has been demonstrated in several species. Procellariiforms are K-selected, being long-lived and caring extensively for their few offspring. Breeding is delayed for several years after fledging, sometimes for as long as ten years in the largest species. Once they begin breeding, they make only a single breeding attempt per nesting season; even if the egg is lost early in the season, they seldom re-lay. Much effort is placed into laying a single (proportionally) large egg and raising a single chick. Procellariiforms are long-lived: the longest living albatross known survived for 51 years, but was probably older, and even the tiny storm-petrels are known to have survived for 30 years. Additionally, the oldest living bird is Wisdom, a female Laysan albatross. Nesting and chick rearing The majority of procellariiforms nest once a year and do so seasonally. Some tropical shearwaters, like the Christmas shearwater, are able to nest on cycles slightly shorter than a year, and the large great albatrosses (genus Diomedea) nest in alternate years (if successful). Most temperate and polar species nest over the spring-summer, although some albatrosses and procellariids nest over the winter. In the tropics, some species can be found breeding throughout the year, but most nest in discreet periods. Procellariiforms return to nesting colonies as much as several months before laying, and attend their nest sites regularly before copulation. Prior to laying, females embark on a lengthy pre-laying exodus to build up energy reserves in order to lay the exceptionally large egg. In the stormy petrel, a very small procellariiform, the egg can be 29 percent of the body weight of the female, while in the grey-faced petrel, the female may spend as much as 80 days feeding out at sea after courtship before laying the egg. When the female returns and lays, incubation is shared between the sexes, with the male taking the first incubation stint and the female returning to sea. The duration of individual stints varies from just a few days to as much as several weeks, during which the incubating bird can lose a considerable amount of weight. The incubation period varies from species to species, around 40 days for the smallest storm-petrels but longer for the largest species; for albatrosses it can span 70 to 80 days, which is the longest incubation period of any bird. Upon hatching, the chicks are semi-precocial, having open eyes, a dense covering of white or grey down feathers, and the ability to move around the nesting site. After hatching, the incubating adult remains with the chick for a number of days, a period known as the guard phase. In the case of most burrow-nesting species, this is only until the chick is able to thermoregulate, usually two or three days. Diving-petrel chicks take longer to thermoregulate and have a longer guard phase than other burrow nesters. However, surface-nesting species, which have to deal with a greater range of weather and to contend with predators like skuas and frigatebirds, consequently have a longer guard phase (as long as two weeks in procellariids and three weeks in albatrosses). The chick is fed by both parents. Chicks are fed on fish, squid, krill, and stomach oil. Stomach oil is oil composed of neutral dietary lipids that are the residue created by digestion of the prey items. As an energy source for chicks it has several advantages over undigested prey, its calorific value is around 9.6 kcal per gram, which is only slightly lower than the value for diesel oil. This can be a real advantage for species that range over huge distances to provide food for hungry chicks. The oil is also used in defence. All procellariiforms create stomach oil except the diving-petrels. The chick fledges between two and nine months after hatching, almost twice as long as a gull of the same body mass. The reasons behind the length of time are associated with the distance from the breeding site to food. First, there are few predators at the nesting colonies, therefore there is no pressure to fledge quickly. Second, the time between feedings is long due to the distance from the nest site that adults forage, thus a chick that had a higher growth rate would stand a better chance of starving to death. The duration between feedings vary among species and during the stages of development. Small feeds are frequent during the guard phase, but afterward become less frequent. However, each feed can deliver a large amount of energy; both sooty shearwater and mottled petrel chicks have been recorded to double their weight in a single night, probably when fed by both parents. Relationship with humans Role in culture The most important family culturally is the albatrosses, which have been described by one author as "the most legendary of birds". Albatrosses have featured in poetry in the form of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's famous 1798 poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which in turn gave rise to the usage of albatross as metaphor for a burden. More generally, albatrosses were believed to be good omens, and to kill one would bring bad luck. There are few instances of petrels in culture, although there are sailors' legends regarding the storm petrels, which are considered to warn of oncoming storms. In general, petrels were considered to be "soul birds", representing the souls of drowned sailors, and it was considered unlucky to touch them. In the Russian language, many petrel species from the Hydrobatidae and Procellariidae families of the order Procellariiformes are known as burevestnik, which literally means 'the announcer of the storm'. When in 1901, the Russian writer Maxim Gorky turned to the imagery of subantarctic avifauna to describe Russian society's attitudes to the coming revolution, he used a storm-announcing petrel as the lead character of a poem that soon became popular in the revolutionary circles as "the battle anthem of the revolution". Although the species called "stormy petrel" in English is not one of those to which the burevestnik name is applied in Russian (it, in fact, is known in Russian as an entirely un-romantic kachurka), the English translators uniformly used the "stormy petrel" image in their translations of the poem, usually known in English as The Song of the Stormy Petrel. Various tubenose birds are relevant to the mythologies and oral traditions of Polynesia. The Māori used the wing bones of the albatross to carve flutes. In Hawaiian mythology, Laysan albatrosses are considered aumakua, being a sacred manifestation of the ancestors, and quite possibly also the sacred bird of Kāne. The storm petrel features prominently in the "Origin of Birds" myth. Exploitation Albatrosses and petrels have been important food sources for humans for as long as people have been able to reach their remote breeding colonies. Amongst the earliest-known examples of this is the remains of shearwaters and albatrosses along with those of other seabirds in 5,000-year-old middens in Chile, although it is likely that they were exploited prior to this. Since then, many other marine cultures, both subsistence and industrial, have exploited procellariiforms, in some cases almost to extinction. Some cultures continue to harvest shearwaters (a practice known as muttonbirding); for example, the Māori of New Zealand use a sustainable traditional method known as kaitiakitanga. In Alaska, residents of Kodiak Island harpoon short-tailed albatrosses, Diomedea albatrus, and until the late 1980s residents of Tristan Island in the Indian Ocean harvested the eggs of the Yellow-nosed Mollymawks, Diomedea chlororhynchos, and sooty albatrosses, Phoebetria fusca. Albatrosses and petrels are also now tourist draws in some locations, such as Taiaroa Head. While such exploitation is non-consumptive, it can have deleterious effects that need careful management to protect both the birds and the tourism. The English naturalist William Yarrell wrote in 1843 that "ten or twelve years ago, Mr. Gould exhibited twenty-four [storm petrels], in a large dish, at one of the evening meetings of the Zoological Society". The engraver Thomas Bewick wrote in 1804 that "Pennant, speaking of those [birds] which breed on, or inhabit, the Isle of St Kilda, says—'No bird is of so much use to the islanders as this: the Fulmar supplies them with oil for their lamps, down for their beds, a delicacy for their tables, a balm for their wounds, and a medicine for their distempers.'" A photograph by George Washington Wilson taken about 1886 shows a "view of the men and women of St Kilda on the beach dividing up the catch of Fulmar". James Fisher, author of The Fulmar (1952) calculated that every person on St Kilda consumed over 100 fulmars each year; the meat was their staple food, and they caught around 12,000 birds annually. However, when the human population left St Kilda in 1930, the population did not suddenly grow. Threats and conservation The albatrosses and petrels are "amongst the most severely threatened taxa worldwide". They face a variety of threats, the severity of which varies greatly from species to species. Several species are among the most common of seabirds, including Wilson's storm petrel (an estimated 12 to 30 million individuals) and the short-tailed shearwater (23 million individuals); while the total population of some other species is a few hundred. There are less than 200 Magenta petrels breeding on the Chatham Islands, only 130 to 160 Zino's petrels and only 170 Amsterdam albatrosses. Only one species is thought to have become extinct since 1600, the Guadalupe storm petrel of Mexico, although a number of species had died out before this. Numerous species are very poorly known; for example, the Fiji petrel has rarely been seen since its discovery. The breeding colony of the New Zealand storm petrel was not located until February 2013; it had been thought extinct for 150 years until its rediscovery in 2003, while the Bermuda petrel had been considered extinct for nearly 300 years. The principal threat to the albatrosses and larger species of procellariids is long-line fishing. Bait set on hooks is attractive to foraging birds and many are hooked by the lines as they are set. As many as 100,000 albatrosses are hooked and drown each year on tuna lines set out by long-line fisheries. Before 1991 and the ban on drift-net fisheries, it was estimated that 500,000 seabirds a year died as a result. This has caused steep declines in some species, as procellariiforms are extremely slow breeders and cannot replace their numbers fast enough. Losses of albatrosses and petrels in the Southern Ocean were estimated at between 1 percent and 16 percent per year, which these species cannot sustain for long. Exotic species introduced to the remote breeding colonies threaten all types of procellariiform. These principally take the form of predators; most albatross and petrel species are clumsy on land and unable to defend themselves from mammals such as rats, feral cats and pigs. This phenomenon, ecological naivete, has resulted in declines in many species and was implicated in the extinction of the Guadalupe storm petrel. Already in 1910 Godman wrote: Owing to the introduction of the mongoose and other small carnivorous mammals into their breeding haunts, some species, such as Oestrelata jamaicensis and newelli, have already been completely exterminated, and others appear to be in danger of extinction. Introduced herbivores may unbalance the ecology of islands; introduced rabbits destroyed the forest understory on Cabbage Tree Island off New South Wales, which increased the vulnerability of the Gould's petrels nesting on the island to natural predators, and left them vulnerable to the sticky fruits of the native birdlime tree (Pisonia umbellifera). In the natural state these fruits lodge in the understory of the forest, but with the understory removed the fruits fall to the ground where the petrels move about, sticking to their feathers and making flight impossible. Exploitation has decreased in importance as a threat. Other threats include the ingestion of plastic flotsam. Once swallowed, plastic can cause a general decline in the fitness of the bird, or in some cases lodge in the gut and cause a blockage, leading to death by starvation. It can also be picked up by foraging adults and fed to chicks, stunting their development and reducing the chances of successfully fledging. Procellariids are also vulnerable to marine pollution, as well as oil spills. Some species, such as Barau's petrel, Newell's shearwater and Cory's shearwater, which nest high up on large developed islands, are victims of light pollution. Fledging chicks are attracted to streetlights and may then be unable to reach the sea. An estimated 20 to 40 percent of fledging Barau's petrels and 45 to 60 percent of fledging Cory's shearwater are attracted to the streetlights on Réunion and Tenerife, respectively. References Bibliography Brooke, M. (2004). Albatrosses And Petrels Across The World. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. ISBN 0-19-850125-0 Cocker, M.; Mabey, R. (2005). Birds Britannica. Chatto and Windus. ISBN 978-0-701-16907-7. Onley, D.; Scofield P. (2007). Albatrosses, Petrels and Shearwaters of the World. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey. ISBN 978-0-691-13132-0 External links The Agreement for the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP)

Aaron Brooking Dessner (born April 23, 1976) is an American musician. He is best known as a founding member of the rock band The National, with whom he has recorded nine studio albums; a co-founder of the indie rock duo Big Red Machine, teaming with Bon Iver's Justin Vernon; and a collaborator on Taylor Swift's critically acclaimed studio albums Folklore and Evermore, both of which contended for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2021 and 2022, respectively, with the former winning the accolade; as well as The Tortured Poets Department (2024). Dessner has co-written, produced or co-produced songs by Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Michael Stipe, Gracie Abrams, Frightened Rabbit, Ben Howard, Sharon Van Etten, Local Natives, This Is the Kit, Adia Victoria, Lisa Hannigan, Fred Again, Girl in Red, Mustafa the Poet, Brian Eno and Lone Bellow, among others. Dessner co-founded and curates three music festivals: Eaux Claires in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, alongside his Big Red Machine partner Vernon; HAVEN in Copenhagen with his brother Bryce, and Boston Calling Music Festival. On May 19, 2022, alongside Questlove, Dessner was awarded a Doctor of Fine Arts honoris causa from The University of the Arts, for "his eagerness to seek out opportunities, to really be a thoughtful collaborator, and someone who would encourage every single student at UArts to explore with their peers across disciplines, new opportunities, and new ideas." Dessner, along with his twin brother Bryce, was named the 243rd greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone in 2023. Early life Dessner grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio with his twin brother, Bryce Dessner. Dessner was raised as Jewish and has Polish Jewish and Russian Jewish ancestry. Dessner has said that his Jewish background influences his music: "My brother and I have always been fascinated by liturgical religious melodies in Judaism ... I don't like major chords. I like the meditative patterns in certain prayers, and I like music that repeats itself." Dessner attended high school at Cincinnati Country Day School and graduated in 1994. Dessner went on to study Modern European History at Columbia University. Career The National Aaron Dessner and his twin brother Bryce were childhood friends with Bryan Devendorf. In 1998, after Dessner's earlier band, Project Nim, broke up, Devendorf invited the brothers to join his band the National. With Devendorf and the Dessner brothers were Scott Devendorf, Bryan's older brother, and Matt Berninger. The band's self-titled first album was released in 2001 on Brassland Records, a label Dessner co-founded along with his brother Bryce and Alec Hanley Bemis. The band's second album, Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers, was released in 2003, also on Brassland. After some critical success with Sad Songs, the band signed with Beggars Banquet Records. With the new label, they released their third studio album, Alligator, in 2005. The album received a positive response from critics, which exposed the band to a larger audience. In 2007, the band released their fourth album, Boxer, also through Beggars Banquet. Upon release, the album received widespread critical acclaim, and was named to "album of the year" lists. Several songs from the album appeared in TV shows and movies. In 2008, then-Senator Barack Obama used an instrumental version of the song "Fake Empire" in a presidential campaign video. Following the success of Boxer, the band began collaborating with other artists on various songs and compilation albums. In 2009, the band participated in Dark Was the Night, a charity album to benefit the Red Hot Organization. That same year, they recorded a song for the album Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy, to help support Polaris frontman Mark Mulcahy who had recently lost his wife. In 2010, the band released High Violet, their fifth full-length album. The album saw both critical and commercial success, debuting at No. 3 on US charts, and going on to sell over 850,000 copies worldwide. The band followed up High Violet by releasing their sixth album, Trouble Will Find Me, on May 21, 2013, via 4AD. Like their previous two efforts, Trouble was named to several year-end best-of lists. The album was nominated for Best Alternative Album at the 56th Grammy Awards. Later that year, Dessner and the rest of the band were featured in the documentary Mistaken for Strangers, which followed the band's tour for High Violet and early recording of Trouble. In 2017, the band released Sleep Well Beast, their seventh full-length album. The lead single from the album, "The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness", became the band's first song to reach No. 1 on a Billboards chart after topping the Adult Alternative Songs list in August that same year. The band released their eighth studio album I Am Easy to Find in 2019 alongside a short film by Mike Mills. In 2023, the band released two studio albums, First Two Pages of Frankenstein and Laugh Track, with the latter being a surprise album. Dessner has production credits on all of the band's albums since Alligator. The majority of both High Violet and Trouble Will Find Me were recorded in his garage studio behind his house in Brooklyn, and Alligator and Boxer were partially recorded in his attic and in his sister's attic, which is on the same street in Brooklyn. Big Red Machine In 2008, Dessner sent Justin Vernon an instrumental sketch of a song called "Big Red Machine" for the compilation album Dark Was the Night. Vernon wrote a song to it, interpreting the Big Red Machine title as a heart. After 10 years, the pair formed a band called Big Red Machine, and on August 31, 2018, released a self-titled album. The record was produced by Vernon and Dessner with longtime collaborator Brad Cook and engineered by Jonathan Low primarily at Dessner's studio Long Pond in Upper Hudson Valley, New York. The duo released a second studio album How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last? on August 27, 2021. The album was produced by Dessner and featured many guests and many of his previous collaborators, including Ben Howard, Sharon Van Etten, and Taylor Swift. Other production work Dessner worked with singer Sharon Van Etten on her album, Tramp (2012). Van Etten and Dessner spent over fourteen months working in his studio, finally releasing the album to widespread critical success. Dessner produced Local Natives' second full-length album Hummingbird, in 2013. Dessner was first introduced to the band while on tour with the National. Hummingbird received positive reviews, and Pitchfork praised Dessner's production work especially, saying that he "knows how to make things sound good, and there's plenty of richness and depth to these songs." Dessner produced the Lone Bellow's Then Came the Morning, which was recorded in Dessner's garage as well as in a 19th-century church in upstate New York. The album was released in January 2015 on Descendent Records. That same year, he worked with This Is the Kit for their album Bashed Out, which was released through Dessner's Brassland Records. In 2016, Dessner produced Lisa Hannigan's album At Swim. The album reached No. 1 in Ireland, No. 7 on the US Top Heatseekers Albums chart and No. 24 in the UK, and received widespread critical acclaim. The Guardian, which awarded it four out of five stars, commented on the album's "stunningly pretty songs with quietly powerful undertones" and the Evening Standard, which also awarded it four out of five stars, praised the "new-found accessibility" of the album. Frightened Rabbit's fifth album Painting of a Panic Attack, released in 2016 via Atlantic Records, was also produced by Dessner. Dessner produced the Lone Bellow's 2020 album Half Moon Light and co-wrote several tracks on it. He also co-wrote and produced the acclaimed debut of UK songwriter Eve Owen, Don't Let the Ink Dry, released in 2020. In April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dessner was approached by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift to collaborate on music, and he subsequently produced and co-wrote her eighth studio album, Folklore. It was a surprise release that debuted to critical acclaim on July 24, 2020, and won Album of the Year at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards in 2021. Dessner continued his collaboration with Swift on her subsequent albums Evermore (2020), Midnights (2022), and The Tortured Poets Department (2024), as well as her re-recorded albums Fearless (Taylor's Version) (2021), Red (Taylor's Version) (2021), and Speak Now (Taylor's Version) (2023). After the release of Folklore, the documentary film Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions and Evermore, artists such as Maya Hawke, Gracie Abrams, Ed Sheeran, King Princess, and Girl in Red expressed interest in collaborating with Dessner and recording songs at his Long Pond Studio. Dessner stated, "After Taylor, it was a bit crazy how many people reached out. And getting to meet and write songs with people you wouldn't have had access to… I'm so grateful for it." Dessner also co-produced British singer-songwriter Ben Howard's fourth studio album, Collections from the Whiteout, alongside Howard himself, which was released on March 26, 2021. Additionally, Dessner produced Day of the Dead, which was released in 2016, and Dark Was the Night, both of which are AIDS charity compilations for the Red Hot Organization; and Doveman's 2009 release The Conformist. Film scores Dessner and his brother Bryce co-composed the score for Transpecos, which won the Audience Award at the 2016 South by Southwest. They also worked together on the score for 2013 film Big Sur, an adaptation of the 1962 novel of the same name by Jack Kerouac. The film debuted on January 23, 2013, at the Sundance Film Festival, where it received positive reviews. In 2021, together with his brother, Dessner scored two films – Mike Mills' C'mon C'mon and Cyrano. Collaborations Day of the Dead On March 17, 2016, Aaron and Bryce Dessner announced Day of the Dead, a charity tribute album to the Grateful Dead released by 4AD on May 20, 2016. Day of the Dead was created, curated and produced by both Dessner brothers. The compilation is a wide-ranging tribute to the songwriting and experimentalism of the Dead which took four years to record, features over 60 artists from varied musical backgrounds, 59 tracks and is almost 6 hours long. All profits will help fight for AIDS/ HIV and related health issues around the world through the Red Hot Organization. Day of the Dead is the follow-up to 2009's Dark Was the Night (4AD), a 32-track, multi-artist compilation also produced by the Dessner brothers for Red Hot. Of the 59 tracks on the compilation, many feature a house band made up of Aaron, Bryce, fellow the National bandmates and brothers Scott and Bryan Devendorf, Josh Kaufman (who co-produced the project), and Conrad Doucette along with Sam Cohen and Walter Martin. The National have a couple of tracks on the album, including "Peggy-O," "Morning Dew" and "I Know You Rider". A Day of the Dead live performance took place in August 2016 at the second annual Eaux Claires Festival (August 12–13) featuring Jenny Lewis, Matthew Houck, Lucius, Will Oldham, Sam Amidon, Richard Reed Parry, Justin Vernon, Bruce Hornsby, Ruban Nielson and The National. Forever Love Forever Love is a collaboration between Aaron and Bryce Dessner, renowned Icelandic performance artist Ragnar Kjartansson and Gyða and Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir, formerly of the Icelandic band múm. The project is a blending of visual and performance art with live music, all centered around a song cycle written and performed by Aaron and Bryce alongside Gyða and Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir. It was commissioned by Eaux Claires Festival and made its world premiere in 2015 where it served as the official starting point of the festival on both Friday and Saturday. Forever Love marked a live performance reunion for the Dessner twins and Kjartansson, as both artists had previously collaborated on a six-hour video work, A Lot of Sorrow, which documents the National performing their three-song "Sorrow" for six hours in front of a live audience at MoMA PS1. The Long Count The Long Count was a large commission for the BAM Next Wave Festival in 2009. Dessner and his brother, Bryce, worked alongside visual artist Matthew Ritchie, creating a work loosely based on the Mayan creation story Popol Vuh. The work included a 12-piece orchestra and a number of guest singers, including Kim and Kelley Deal (the Breeders, the Pixies), Matt Berninger (the National), Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond), and Tunde Adebimpe (TV on the Radio). The work had its world premiere at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts in September 2009 as part of the Ellnora Festival. Dark Was the Night In 2009, Aaron and Bryce Dessner produced an extensive AIDS charity compilation, Dark Was the Night, for the Red Hot Organization. Dark Was the Night has raised over 2 million dollars for AIDS charities as of January 2012. In 2009, Dessner contributed a track to the Dark Was the Night compilation. On May 3, 2009, 4AD and Red Hot produced Dark Was the Night – Live, a concert celebrating the newest Red Hot album. The show took place at Radio City Music Hall and featured several of the artists that contributed to the compilation. Other collaborations and contributions Dessner is a frequent collaborator with a wide range of musicians, including his brother and bandmate Bryce Dessner. In August 2008, Aaron and Bryce performed a collaborative concert with David Cossin, and Luca Tarantino as a part of Soundres, an international residency program for contemporary music and art in Salento, Italy and at the Guitare Au Palais Festival Perpignan France. They also performed at Matthew Ritchie's Ghost Operator opening at the White Cube Gallery in London. Aaron and Bryce have also collaborated with many world-renowned orchestras. Most recently the brothers played with the Copenhagen Philharmonic in a concert billed as "Sixty Minutes of the Dessners." The program included "St. Carolyn by the Sea," "Lachrimae" and "Raphael," all of which were composed by Bryce Dessner. Bryce and Aaron have also performed "St. Carolyn by the Sea" and "Raphael" with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta during the Holland Festival. These performances took place at Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ in Amsterdam and Muziekgebouw Frits Philips in Eindhoven. In October 2011, Dessner joined his brother to perform "St. Carolyn by the Sea" with the American Composers Orchestra at The World Financial Center in New York City. Marshall Curry's award-winning documentary Racing Dreams includes music contributed by both Dessner and the National. "Win Win" directed by Thomas McCarthy closes with "Think You Can Wait," a track written by Dessner and Matt Berninger, recorded by the National with additional vocals from Sharon Van Etten. Dessner also played an important role in the National's contribution to the HBO show Game of Thrones. In March 2012, Dessner, Scott Devendorf and Bryan Devendorf teamed up with Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir for a live webcast, which featured two musical sets and a political discussion. The event was produced by Head Count, a non-partisan organization that uses live music events to promote voter registration and awareness. In May 2012, the National's performance of "Rains of Castamere" played during the closing credits of season two episode nine. In December 2012, Dessner curated a day of Other Voices, an Irish music festival that aired live on RTÉ Two in Ireland. The performances took place in the Church of St James in Dingle, County Kerry. Curator Eaux Claires Music & Arts Festival Eaux Claires is a music festival founded and curated by Dessner and Justin Vernon. The inaugural festival took place in July 2015 in Vernon's hometown of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Speaking about the festival, Dessner and Vernon said they were driven by the idea that this festival would "encourage music-genre-walls to melt away." PEOPLE Festival PEOPLE Festival is a not-for-profit gathering of artists in Berlin for a weekend-long festival of music curated and produced by Aaron Dessner along with his brother Bryce Dessner, Bon Iver, Berlin's Michelberger Hotel and others. The first festival took place October 1–2, 2016, under the name "Michelberger Music" in the Funkhaus, the historical radio recording studios of the former GDR. Boston Calling Music Festival Boston Calling is a music festival co-curated by Dessner. Debuting in May 2013, Boston Calling previously took place twice a year, May and September, at City Hall Plaza. Boston Calling moved to the Harvard Athletic Complex in Allston in May 2017 and transitioned to one festival per year. Record labels Dessner co-founded the record label 37d03d (read: PEOPLE upside down) with Justin Vernon and Bryce Dessner. Alongside Alec Hanley Bemis and Bryce Dessner, Dessner founded Brassland Records, a label that has released albums from the National, This Is the Kit, Clogs, Doveman and Nico Muhly. Musical equipment Dessner often plays a 1965 Gibson Firebird purchased on eBay and refurbished. During the Sleep Well Beast recording sessions, he used the Firebird as well as a 1972 Fender Telecaster. During live shows, Dessner usually plays the Firebird and a 1963 Fender Jazzmaster. For the Sleep Well Beast sessions, amplifiers used include a 1959 Fender Champ, a 1960s Fender Princeton, a 1970s Music Man, an Ampeg Gemini, and a Fender Bassman. Personal life Dessner married Stine Wengler around 2016. They have three children, one of whom is named Robin. Taylor Swift's song of the same name is speculated to be about him. Dessner is a keen soccer fan and an avid supporter of Liverpool F.C. Awards and nominations Grammy Awards Discography With The National The National (2001) Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers (2003) Alligator (2005) Boxer (2007) High Violet (2010) Trouble Will Find Me (2013) Sleep Well Beast (2017) I Am Easy to Find (2019) First Two Pages of Frankenstein (2023) Laugh Track (2023) With Project Nim A Tower of Babel (1995) Where the Nothings Live (1997) Evenings Pop and Curve (1998) With Equinox Equinox (1993) With Big Red Machine Big Red Machine (August 31, 2018) How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last? (August 27, 2021) With Complete Mountain Almanac Complete Mountain Almanac (January 27, 2023) Film scores Big Sur (2013) with Bryce Dessner Transpecos (2016) with Bryce Dessner C'mon, C'mon (2021) with Bryce Dessner Stage musicals Cyrano (2018) with Matt Berninger, Carin Besser, Bryce Dessner, and Erica Schmidt Production and songwriting credits for other artists References External links Interview with Aquarium Drunkard Interview with Pitchfork the National and production projects

The Tortured Poets Department is the eleventh studio album by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released on April 19, 2024, through Republic Records. It was expanded into a double album two hours after its release, subtitled The Anthology, containing a second volume of songs. Swift began writing The Tortured Poets Department shortly after finishing her tenth studio album, Midnights (2022), and continued developing it during the Eras Tour in 2023. She conceived The Tortured Poets Department as a "lifeline" songwriting project amidst the heightened fame and media scrutiny ensuing from the tour. The songs introspect on her public and private lives, detailing tumult and sorrow via motifs of self-awareness, mourning, anger, humor, and delusion. Produced with Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, the album is a minimalist synth-pop, folk-pop, and chamber pop effort with rock and country stylings. The composition is largely mid-tempo, driven by a mix of synthesizers and drum machines with piano and guitar, whereas the visual aesthetic draws mainly from dark academia. The album broke various sales and streaming records, regionally and globally. It achieved the highest single-day and single-week streams for an album on Spotify, and topped the charts across Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Americas. In the United States, The Tortured Poets Department opened with first-week 2.6 million album-equivalent units, including 1.9 million pure sales—Swift's biggest sales week and record-extending seventh release to open with over a million units. It topped the Billboard 200 chart for a career-best 15 weeks, whereas its tracks made Swift the only artist to monopolize the first 14 positions of the Billboard Hot 100, with the single "Fortnight" leading. Upon the album's release, critical reception was polarized. The majority of reviews were positive, praising Swift's cathartic songwriting for its emotional resonance and wit, but some found the album lengthy and lacking profundity. Subsequent assessments appreciated the album's musical and lyrical nuances that emerged upon further listens, and disputed the credibility of the initial critique for allegedly focusing on Swift's public image rather than the album's artistic merit. Swift performed songs from the album in the revamped set list of the Eras Tour, starting in May 2024, and released the live versions. Background and conception Swift released her tenth studio album, Midnights, on October 21, 2022, to critical praise and commercial success. In 2023, she released two re-recorded albums, Speak Now (Taylor's Version) and 1989 (Taylor's Version), as part of her "Taylor's Version" re-recording project after a dispute over the ownership of her first six studio albums. Both re-recordings were released amidst Swift's sixth headlining concert tour, the Eras Tour. At the 66th Annual Grammy Awards on February 4, 2024, Swift won Best Pop Vocal Album and Album of the Year for Midnights. During her acceptance speech for the former category, she announced The Tortured Poets Department as a new original studio album that she had worked on since 2022. This announcement was met with surprise from her fans, who had anticipated her to announce the re-recording of her 2017 album, Reputation, based on her social media clues. Swift began conceiving the album immediately after submitting Midnights to her record label, Republic Records, and continued working on it in secret throughout the U.S. leg of the Eras Tour in 2023. While she was creating the album, her dating life continued to be a widely covered topic in the press, who reported on Swift's relationships with Joe Alwyn, Matty Healy, and Travis Kelce. At the Eras Tour concerts in Melbourne in February 2024, Swift said that The Tortured Poets Department was a "lifeline" for her and an album that she "really needed" to make, reflecting on how it made her confirm that songwriting was an integral part of her life. In an Instagram post, Swift described the album as "an anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time—one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure". Themes and lyrics The standard edition consists of 16 songs; Swift wrote three of them herself and co-wrote the rest mostly with Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner. Post Malone featured on and co-wrote "Fortnight", and Florence and the Machine featured on "Florida!!!", which was co-written by the band's frontwoman Florence Welch. Swift produced all tracks with Antonoff and Dessner. The album is rooted in personal songwriting, exploring Swift's introspections on the events in her private and public lives. She was inspired by her tumultuous relationships and the public perception of her celebrity to create lyrical narratives that were messy, unbridled, and unguarded, containing meta-references to her personal life through allusions and name-dropping. Heartbreak is the primary topic, expressed via themes such as delusion, anger, mourning, and death. While the lyrics evoke vulnerable and devastating sentiments, they also incorporate humor and hyperbole. Critics found them either self-aware or self-conscious. Swift considered the album a cathartic exercise and described the content as "fatalistic" with overarching themes of "longing, pining, lost dreams". Critics characterized The Tortured Poets Department as a post-breakup album. Ann Powers wrote in NPR that throughout the record, "Swift is trying to work out how emotional violence occurs." In The Conversation, the music professor Samuel Murray opined that the album uses melodrama as a narrative device to "celebrate emotional vulnerability as she shares her innermost thoughts". Business Insider's Callie Ahlgrim described the album's content as Swift's "messiest, horniest, and funniest". In The Independent, Helen Brown suggested that Swift's songwriting draws on her country music roots to explore detail-heavy narratives. While the album is rooted in autobiographical songwriting with confessional narratives and first-person perspectives, some songs are not strictly self-referential and employ fictional elements. Production and music Mainly produced by Swift and Antonoff, the album's standard portion is primarily synth-pop, with a mid-tempo production incorporating subdued synths and sparse drum machines. Critics found the production minimalist and compared this synth-based sonic approach to the sound of Midnights. PopMatters's Igor Bannikov described it as "simplistic, indie-ish, and almost muted", The Guardian's Alexis Petridis wrote that it additionally features "the glossy 80s-influenced pop-rock" of Swift's 2014 album 1989, and The Times' Will Hodgkinson described the album as an amalgam of synth-pop and 1980s power ballads. Swift mostly sings in her lower vocal register to deliver rap-like, conversational verses. As per Murray's analysis, the album uses some of Swift's familiar devices such as one-note melodies and recitative delivery with a conversational rhythm. The music is "downcast", departing from danceable pop, as per The Economist. Several tracks feature a more stripped-down instrumentation, driven by piano or guitar, with stylings of varied genres; "But Daddy I Love Him" and "Guilty as Sin?" incorporate live drums and influences of country and rock, "Down Bad" evokes R&B in its dynamic shifts and cadences, "Fresh Out the Slammer" features Western-rock electric guitars, and "I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)", "Florida!!!", and "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?" experiment with Southern gothic. Tyler Foggart of The New Yorker dubbed The Tortured Poets Department a mix of dream pop and Southern gothic infused with some "country-ish vibes", while Josh Kurp of Uproxx thought that the album was genre-less. The second part of the double album, subtitled The Anthology, mostly consists of chamber pop and folk-pop piano ballads. Swift and Dessner produced the majority of the second volume, which has an acoustic, folk-oriented sound instrumented by picked acoustic guitar, soft piano, and subtle synths, which critics likened to the sound of Swift's 2020 albums Folklore and Evermore. Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph argued that this mellower sound allows for more subtlety in the lyrics, which explore Swift's character studies ("Cassandra", "Peter", "Robin") and self-reflection ("The Albatross", "The Bolter", "I Look in People's Windows", "I Hate It Here"). Marketing Aesthetic The lack of an apostrophe in the official title, as in The Tortured Poets' Department, was the subject of a debate over grammatical correctness. Scholars stated that Swift employed Tortured Poets as an attributive noun, as in the case with the 1989 drama film Dead Poets Society, and not as a possessive noun that warrants an apostrophe. The cover artwork, photographed by Beth Garrabrant, is a black-and-white glamor photo shot of Swift lying on a bed wearing black lingerie: a see-through top and high waist shorts, from the Row and Yves Saint Laurent. Both the artwork and title were parodied by numerous brands, organizations, sports teams, and franchises, and inspired numerous memes. Media outlets described the album's visual aesthetic as gothic, especially dark academia. Promotion and release After the Grammy announcement, Swift revealed the standard track listing via social media on February 6, 2024. Swift announced four physical editions that were each titled after a corresponding bonus track: "The Manuscript", "The Bolter", "The Albatross", and "The Black Dog"; she announced the latter three editions during the Australian and Singaporean shows of the Eras Tour. She partnered with Target for an exclusive "Phantom Clear" collector's vinyl edition. The album was promoted on digital platforms like Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, Instagram, and Threads, prompting Swifties to search for Easter eggs. It included five Swift-curated Apple Music playlists containing her old songs inspired by the five stages of grief; a pop-up library of curated articles at The Grove, Los Angeles, hosted by Spotify; QR code murals in various cities worldwide that led to unlisted YouTube shorts on Swift's channel; a countdown to the album's release revealed upon refreshing Swift's Instagram profile; and special shimmer effects on Threads posts tagged with hashtags related to Swift and the album. iHeartRadio and Sirius XM announced special programs with exclusive content from Swift to celebrate the album's release; the former temporarily rebranded as "iHeartTaylor". The Tortured Poets Department was released on April 19, 2024. A double album edition, subtitled The Anthology and containing 15 bonus tracks, was surprise-released digitally two hours later. Two days earlier, the standard edition of the album was leaked, which resulted in the phrase "Taylor Swift leak" being temporarily banned from searches on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). The Tortured Poets Department was available in 19 physical variants—nine CD, six vinyl, and four cassette variants, with deluxe CDs and cassettes being exclusive to Swift's official website. Physical copies of the album included an original poem by the American singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks. "Fortnight" was released as the lead single in conjunction with the album, accompanied by a music video. Universal Music released "I Can Do It with a Broken Heart" to Italian radio on July 2. From May 2024, starting with the Paris shows, Swift revamped the set list of the Eras Tour to include songs from The Tortured Poets Department in a new act, which she informally described as "Female Rage the Musical". She released the live versions as bonus tracks on the physical album via her website exclusively to US customers. Other limited editions of the physical album included acoustic versions of five tracks. Limited digital variants contained first draft phone demo recordings of four tracks, and the Eras Tour live recordings of some tracks from the Paris, Stockholm, Lyon and London shows. The release of bonus-track versions was a way for Swift and her fans to maintain the album's number-one position on the charts, a method Swift and other artists have previously utilized to boost album sales and chart positions. Critical reception Reviews Upon release, publications described the critical consensus over the album as either positive or mixed. According to the review aggregator Metacritic, The Tortured Poets Department received "generally favorable reviews" based on a weighted average score of 76 out of 100 from 24 critic scores. Its second part, The Anthology, scored 69 from six critic scores. A number of critics regarded the album a landmark in Swift's discography. Reviews from The Independent's Helen Brown, The Arts Desk's Ellie Roberts, The Times' Dan Cairns, PopMatters's Jeffrey Davies, and Will Harris of Q praised the album as one of Swift's most solid outputs, considering the musical composition, vocal stylings and lyrical tonality as ambitious and tastefully experimental. Others, including Variety's Chris Willman, the i's Ed Power, and The Observer's Kitty Empire, called it a quintessential Swift album containing some of the best songs of her career. Swift's songwriting was a source of compliment. The Line of Best Fit's Paul Bridgewater dubbed it her most cohesive body of work to-date, finding the music sophisticated and the lyricism symbolic. To Ludovic Hunter-Tilney of the Financial Times, the album is a stylistic evolution for Swift, with writing that marks a "characteristically appealing turn" into moody melodrama. Alexis Petridis of The Guardian and Alex Hopper of American Songwriter thought that the album has Swift's wittiest lyrics, featuring nuanced musical choices that show Swift is "willing to take risks in a risk-averse era for pop" and "constantly evolving and pushing her limits", respectively. In a more measured review, Olivia Horn of Pitchfork felt the lyrics did not "distill an overarching emotional truth, tending to smother rather than sting." Others, such as The New York Times' Lindsay Zoladz, Slant Magazine's Jonathan Keefe, and Exclaim!'s Alex Hudson, described some lyrics as weak and overwritten; Hudson claimed that many of its tracks "mistake verbosity for poetry". The tumultuous mood and unconstrained emotion of the lyrics were also highlighted. Multiple reviews complimented the album's heavy, unfiltered emotion; Clash's Lauren Webb described it as "a spell-binding, toxic, chaotic illustration" of deteriorating mental sanity. Powers opined that The Tortured Poets Department shows Swift's newfound freedom, with a "lack of concern about whether these songs speak to and for anyone but herself". In a similar perspective, rave reviews from Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield and Variety's Chris Willman described the album as Swift's "gloriously chaotic" and "audacious, transfixing" project, respectively. To Willman, the album combines "cleverness with catharsis". Consequence's Mary Siroky, on the other hand, found this style of lyricism jarring and "outright bizarre" at times, and felt the album was an attempt at self-parody rather than a showcase of Swift's songwriting acumen. Many critics, including Zoladz, NME's Laura Molloy, and Stereogum's Tom Breihan, argued that Swift and Antonoff's collaboration on The Tortured Poets Department was uninventive due to a sonic similarity to their past collaborations. The New Yorker's Amanda Petrusich rather favored Dessner's input to the album as "gentler, more tender, and more surprising". Horn and the BBC's Mark Savage felt the melodies were sonically monotonous and "staid", but others argued that the minimalistic approach complemented Swift's hyper-personal lyrics; Hopper opined that "Swift's confidence as an artist is at a peak" with The Tortured Poets Department. According to Mary Kate Carr of The A.V. Club, the album is "perfectly good" but arrived at a time when Swift has "nothing to prove" anymore, resulting in a stagnant point in her artistry; this idea was shared by an anonymous, negative Paste review that criticized the album as rushed, hollow, and unrelatable. Post-review commentary Various peer journalists and columnists cross-examined the album's critical reception. Publications considered The Tortured Poets Department a polarizing album; The Ringer's Nathan Hubbard deemed it Swift's most controversial release since Reputation (2017). Journalists from The New York Times and Vox attributed this phenomenon to Swift's heightened fame and associated media "overexposure" between 2020 and 2024, including eight album releases, the influential Eras Tour, and her relationship with Travis Kelce. Paste's anonymous review was singled out by other publications as "scathing"; Sumnima Kandangwa of the South China Morning Post opined that they hid their reviewer's identity because Swifties "can become quite spirited when it comes to protecting their favourite singer". The album's Pitchfork score is Swift's lowest from the website. Sputnikmusic published reviews with three different ratings in a short period of time, each lower than the one before; Minh Anh of L'Officiel found this to be a confusing way to rate music. Swift shared the album's positive reviews on her social media, tagging the respective authors, which some considered as a response to Paste and other unfavorable reviews. A number of commentators opined that the initial reviews demonstrated a flawed approach of mainstream music criticism. Bloomberg News' Jessica Karl wrote that the "lengthy" duration of the album made the reviewers "[stay] up until dawn to finish listening to an album" to publish, contributing to some reviews that were hasty, criticizing both the "exclamation-pointed digs" at Swift in Paste and the "instant classic" review by Rolling Stone. In The Ringer, Nora Princiotti attributed the polarizing reviews to the unexpected double album release, and Nathan Hubbard argued that some "cooler-than-thou" critics from sites like The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Paste used Swift's billionaire status to downplay the personal issues she detailed in the album. Karl opined that some "reputable publications" catered gossip instead of a serious artistic analysis, while Anh highlighted that reviews mentioned aspects of Swift's public image instead of focusing on the music. The New Yorker's Sinéad O'Sullivan asserted that Swift's albums contain multiple layers of self-referential "lore", writing that the unfavorable reviews were due to critics not taking that into account or not allotting enough listening time. Some early critics of the album recanted and declared they were "hasty" in reviewing it, as per Slate's Chris Molanphy, who opined it has become a "widely agreed point" in later critical commentary that The Tortured Poets Department "grows on you" after more listens; Molanphy stated he liked the album better than he did a week before. CNN's Oliver Darcy said he had judged The Tortured Poets Department quickly, stating that he reviewed it keeping in the mind its mixed critical reception, and found the album overlong and unimpressive in agreement with other critics, but a week later, "after spending more time with the two-hour sonic feast, more methodically touring through its subtleties and nuances, I am ready to declare that it is one of Swift's best works yet." Darcy opined that the album cannot be fully digested at "the speed of TikTok", and criticized reviewers who do not let music albums "marinate" and instead expect "instant satisfaction". Commercial performance The Tortured Poets Department broke numerous consumption records, leading The Guardian to comment that it "cemented Swift as the biggest pop star this century by many metrics". On Spotify, it became the most pre-saved album of all time; the most streamed album in a single day, surpassing 200 million and then 300 million streams and breaking the all-time record previously held by Swift's Midnights; and the first album to accumulate one billion streams in a single week, doing so in five days. The album also became the most streamed album in a single day on Amazon Music and the most streamed pop album in a single day on Apple Music. It amassed 1.76 billion streams globally within its first week of availability, an all-time record. Republic Records reported global first-week consumption of four million units. In the United States, the album accumulated 1.6 million album-equivalent units in four days, selling 700,000 vinyl LPs to break the record for the highest single-week vinyl sales previously held by Swift's 1989 (Taylor's Version) (2023). It broke the single-week streaming record previously held by Drake's Scorpion (2018), amassing 799 million on-demand streams in six days. After a full week of availability, The Tortured Poets Department debuted atop the Billboard 200 with 2.61 million units, including 1.914 million pure copies and 891.34 million on-demand streams. It became Swift's 14th number-one album, tying her with Jay-Z for the most chart toppers among soloists. The album also registered the second-largest week by overall units and the third-largest week by pure sales in Billboard history. The album continued to chart at number one on the Billboard 200 for 15 total non-consecutive weeks, becoming the longest-leading chart topper in Swift's career, and contributed to the number-two peaks of albums such as Billie Eilish's Hit Me Hard and Soft, ¥$'s Vultures 2, and Chappell Roan's The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. It is also the third album in history and first by a female artist to spend its first 12 weeks atop the chart. All 31 songs from The Anthology debuted on the Billboard Hot 100, occupying the entire top 14 simultaneously for the first time in chart history. Swift set the record for most simultaneous entries by a female artist (32) and became the first woman to surpass 50 career top-10 songs. By July 2024, The Tortured Poets Department has sold 2.47 million pure sales and accumulated 5.30 million units in the United States. Sales were boosted by multiple variants of the album, with double-digit variants in digital and CD mediums. The Tortured Poets Department broke chart records in other countries. In Germany, it recorded the largest streaming day for an album and debuted atop the chart with the highest sales week for an international solo artist in seven years. In the United Kingdom, it became the fastest-selling album by any artist in seven years and by a non-British artist in 18 years, and it tied Swift with Madonna for the most female number-one albums on the UK Albums Chart (12). It became the fastest-selling vinyl album since 1994 and Swift's album with the most weeks at number one (8). On the Australian ARIA Charts, The Tortured Poets Department became Swift's 13th number-one album, a record among female artists; its songs set records for the most simultaneous entries by a single artist in the top 10 (10), top 50 (29), and top 100 (31) of the singles chart. Debuting atop the Canadian Albums Chart as Swift's 14th consecutive chart topper, the album registered the highest single-week vinyl sales and streaming figures in chart history. Ten tracks from the album debuted on the Billboard Brasil Hot 100. Accolades Track listing Notes ^[a] signifies a vocal producer "Loml" and "Imgonnagetyouback" are stylized in all lowercase. "Thank You Aimee" is stylized as "thanK you aIMee" or "thank You aimEe". Physical editions of the standard album include either "The Black Dog", "The Albatross", "The Bolter" or "The Manuscript" as a bonus track. Personnel Musicians Technical Charts Certifications Release history Notes References Source Zaleski, Annie (2024). "The Tortured Poets Department Era". Taylor Swift: The Stories Behind the Songs. Thunder Bay Press. pp. 232–238. ISBN 978-1-6672-0845-9.

What Jeep model shares its name with the Secret Service codename for a 21st-century US president?

Renegade

Multiple constraints

The United States Secret Service uses code names for U.S. presidents, first ladies, and other prominent persons and locations. The use of such names was originally for security purposes and dates to a time when sensitive electronic communications were not routinely encrypted; today, the names simply serve for purposes of brevity, clarity, and tradition. The Secret Service does not choose these names, however. The White House Communications Agency maintains a list that candidates choose from, often choosing ones that resonate with them personally. According to an established protocol, good codewords are unambiguous words that can be easily pronounced and readily understood by those who transmit and receive voice messages by radio or telephone regardless of their native language. Traditionally, all family members' code names start with the same letter. The codenames change over time for security purposes, but are often publicly known. For security, codenames are generally picked from a list of such 'good' words, but avoiding the use of common words which could likely be intended to mean their normal definitions. Presidents and their families Vice presidents and their families Spiro Agnew – Pathfinder Judy Agnew – Photograph Nelson Rockefeller – Sandstorm Happy Rockefeller – Shooting Star or Stardust Walter Mondale – Cavalier Joan Mondale – Cameo Ted Mondale – Centurion Eleanor Mondale – Calico William Mondale – Chessman Dan Quayle – Scorecard or Supervisor Marilyn Quayle – Sunshine Al Gore – Sundance or Sawhorse Tipper Gore – Skylark Karenna Gore – Smurfette Kristin Gore – Silhouette Sarah Gore – Screwdriver Albert Gore III – Shortstop Dick Cheney – Angler Lynne Cheney – Author Elizabeth Cheney – Apollo Mary Cheney – Alpine Mike Pence – Hoosier Karen Pence – Hummingbird Kamala Harris – Pioneer Political candidates and their spouses U.S. Secret Service codenames are often given to high-profile political candidates (such as presidential and vice presidential candidates), and their respective families and spouses who are assigned U.S. Secret Service protection. These codenames often differ from those held if they are elected or those from prior periods if they held positions needing codenames. Government officials Kennedy Administration Cabinet Secretary of State Dean Rusk – Freedom Staff Rear Adm. George Burkley (Physician to the president) – Market Senior military aide General Chester Clifton – Watchman Associate Press Secretary Andrew Hatcher – Winner Assistant Press Secretary Malcolm Kilduff – Warrior Personal secretary Evelyn Lincoln – Willow Air Force aide Godfrey McHugh – Wing Special assistant and appointments secretary Kenneth O'Donnell – Wand Naval aide Captain Tazewell Shepard – Witness White House secretary Priscilla Wear – Fiddle White House secretary Jill Cowen – Faddle Lyndon Johnson Administration Staff Walter Jenkins – Vigilant Pierre Salinger – Wayside Nixon Administration Cabinet Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger – Woodcutter His wife, Nancy Kissinger – Woodlark Staff White House photographer Ollie Atkins – Hawkeye Gulf Coast Regional Chairman James Baker – Fencing Master or Foxtail Deputy Assistant to the President Dwight Chapin – Watchdog Domestic Affairs Advisor Kenneth Reese Cole Jr. – Spectator John Ehrlichman – Wisdom White House aide Tim Elbourne – Snapshot Secretary of State Alexander Haig – Claw Hammer White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman – Welcome Assistant to Haldeman Lawrence Higby – Semaphore Air Force aide James D. Hughes – Red Barron Communications Director Herbert G. Klein – Witness Dr. William Lukash (Physician to the president) – Sawhorse Senior assistant Clark MacGregor – Whipcrack Assistant for Legislative Affairs William Timmons – Windowpane Dr. Walter Tkach (Physician to the president) – Signature Director of the White House Office of Presidential Advance, later Director of the National Park Service, Ronald H. Walker – Roadrunner Personal secretary Rose Mary Woods – Strawberry Press Secretary and Assistant to the President Ron Ziegler – Whale Boat Presidential spokesman Ken W. Clawson – Thunderstorm Ford Administration Staff Press Secretary Ron Nessen – Clam Chowder Deputy Chief of Staff, later Chief of Staff, Dick Cheney – Backseat Carter Administration Cabinet Secretary of State Cyrus Vance – Fade Away Secretary of Defense Harold Brown – Finley Staff National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzeziński – Hawkeye Director of the Office of Management and Budget Bert Lance – Dumbo Reagan Administration Attorney General William French Smith – Flivver Secretary of Education Terrel Bell – Foxcraft George W. Bush Administration Scott McClellan – Matrix (generic name for White House press secretary) Chief of Staff Andy Card – Potomac, later Patriot Chief of Staff Josh Bolten – Fatboy Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao – Firebird Obama Administration Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel – Black Hawk Tim Geithner – Fencing Master (generic codename for Secretary of the Treasury) Trump Administration Senior Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway – Blueberry Other individuals Israel Prime Minister Menachem Begin – Cedar Hasia Begin Milo – Crystal Commonwealth realms Queen Elizabeth II – Kittyhawk, Redfern King Charles III – Principal or Unicorn United States Senator Howard Baker (R-Tennessee) – Snapshot Actor Antonio Banderas – Zorro Congressman and Speaker of the House Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill – Flag Day Florida banker and businessman, confidant of President Nixon, Bebe Rebozo – Christopher Social secretary to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and mistress to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd – Mrs. Johnson Singer and actor Frank Sinatra – Napoleon Senator Strom Thurmond (R-South Carolina) – Footprint Vatican Pope John Paul II – Halo Locations, objects, places and parts of Secret Service U.S. Secret Service codenames are not only given to people; they are often given to places, locations and even objects, such as aircraft like Air Force One, and vehicles such as the Presidential State Car. Joint Base Andrews, in Prince George's County, Maryland – Acrobat or Andy The Presidential Motorcade – Bamboo The Harry S Truman Building (Department of State headquarters) – Birds-eye Camp David, presidential retreat in Catoctin Mountain Park, in Frederick County, Maryland – Cactus or Buckeye The Vice President's office – Cobweb The Vice President's staff – Pacemaker The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York City – Roadhouse Air Force One – Angel or Cowpuncher The U.S. Presidential State Car – Stagecoach Follow-up car – Halfback The White House – Castle (Crown referring to the Executive Mansion, the central representative and office spaces of the White House) The Capitol – Punch bowl The White House Situation Room – Cement Mixer Eisenhower Executive Office Building (part of the White House Complex) – Central Reagan National Airport – Curbside The temporary residence of the President – Charcoal or Base The Pentagon – Calico White House garage – Carpet J. Edgar Hoover Building (FBI Headquarters) – Cork Lyndon Baines Johnson's ranch – Volcano Secret Service Counterassault Team – Hawkeye Secret Service Counter-sniper Team – Hercules In fiction In popular culture, the practice of assigning codenames is often used to provide additional verisimilitude in fictional works about the executive branch, or high-ranking governmental figures. 1600 Penn First Son Standrich "Skip" Gilchrist Jr. – Meatball Air Force One President James Marshall – Boy Scout The American President President Andrew Shepherd – Liberty Chasing Liberty First Daughter Anna Foster – Liberty Designated Survivor President Tom Kirkman – Phoenix (formerly Glasses during his time as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development) First Daughter First Daughter Samantha Mackenzie – Lucky Charm First Kid President Paul Davenport – Eagle First Son Luke Davenport – Prince House of Cards President Claire Underwood – Lone Star In the Line of Fire The President – Traveler Jericho President Jon Tomarchio – Condor The Night Agent Maddie Redfield (VP Daughter) – Badger Omar Zadar (PIF leader) – Osprey The Prodigal Daughter President Florentyna Kane – Baroness Red, White & Royal Blue First Son Alexander Claremont-Diaz – Barracuda First Daughter June Claremont-Diaz – Bluebonnet Scandal President Fitzgerald Thomas "Fitz" Grant III – Falcon First Lady Melody Margaret "Mellie" Grant – Foxtail White House Chief of Staff Abigail "Abby" Whelan – Firebrand The Sentinel President John Ballentine – Classic First Lady Sara Ballentine – Cincinnati Squeeze Me The President – Mastodon The First Lady – Mockingbird Tom Clancy's novels Unnamed President in Clear and Present Danger – Wrangler President Jack Ryan in Debt of Honor and Executive Orders – Swordsman Dr. Caroline "Cathy" Ryan in Executive Orders – Surgeon Olivia "Sally" Ryan in Executive Orders – Shadow Jack Ryan, Jr in Executive Orders – Shortstop Katie Ryan in Executive Orders – Sandbox Kyle Daniel Ryan in The Bear and the Dragon – Sprite George Winston (Secretary of the Treasury) in Executive Orders – Trader Benjamin Goodley (National Security Advisor) in Executive Orders – Cardsharp Arnold Van Damm (White House Chief of Staff) in Executive Orders and The Bear and the Dragon – Carpenter Callie Weston (Chief Speechwriter) in Executive Orders and The Bear and the Dragon – Calliope Scott Adler (Secretary of State) in Executive Orders and The Bear and the Dragon – Eagle The West Wing President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet – Eagle or Liberty Zoey Bartlet – Bookbag C. J. Cregg – Flamingo Sam Seaborn – Princeton Gus Westin (grandson of Jed Bartlet) – Tonka Arnold Vinick – Big Sur See also 00 Agent § Origin of nomenclature CIA cryptonym List of nicknames of United States Presidents == References ==

Jeep, a former American automobile marque, now owned by multi-national corporation Stellantis, has produced numerous vehicles since its inception in 1943. Current models CJ CJ-2A (1945–1949) The first Civilian Jeep put into production by Willys, marketed as the "Universal Jeep". 212,402 units were produced. CJ-3A (1949–1953) A refined CJ-2A, the CJ-3A featured a redesigned one-piece windshield with air vents below the glass. 131,843 units were produced. Derived from it was the first post-war military jeep: the M38. CJ-3B (1953–1968) Essentially a CJ-3A fitted with a taller hood (the CJ-3B is also known as the "high-hood" Jeep) to accommodate the Willys Hurricane engine. 155,494 were built over its 15-year lifespan. Most later ones were M606 military jeeps shipped to South America. CJ-5 (1955–1983) Introduced in late 1954 as a 1955 model, the CJ-5 was a civilian version of the M38A1 military Jeep used in the Korean War. The most noticeable addition was the new rounded hood, designed specifically to accommodate the Hurricane engine. 603,303 were built over nearly 30 years, making it the longest-lived and most popular "Universal". CJ-5A "Tuxedo Park" (1964–1967) The Tuxedo Park had been an option package on the CJ-5 from 1961 to 1963, and by 1964 it was given its own model designation code. It featured more standard equipment (from 1965 onward standard equipment included the Dauntless V6 engine and bucket seats), but the Tuxedo Park never garnered a large customer base due to the higher base price. Only 7,394 CJ-5As were produced. CJ-6 (1955–1975) Mechanically, the CJ-6 was nothing more than a CJ-5 with a 20 in. longer wheelbase. This addressed the most common customer complaint: lack of rear seat room. Despite ceding to consumer demand sales were modest, with only 50,172 units manufactured over 20 years. CJ-6A "Tuxedo Park" (1964–1967) Similar to the CJ-5A, the CJ-6A was a "Tuxedo Park" version of the CJ-6. Like the CJ-5A it was not popular, with only 459 units produced, making it the rarest CJ. CJ-7 (1976–1986) The CJ-7 was introduced in 1976 as a longer alternative to the CJ-5, as a compromise between the CJ-5 and CJ-6's wheelbase length. 379,299 were built. This was the first model to lack the "Universal Jeep" designation. CJ-8 "Scrambler" (1981–1985) Once again consumers complained of too little room in the CJ-7. Like the CJ-6 before it, the Scrambler was an extended version of a smaller CJ, in this case the more modern CJ-7. CJ-10 (1981–1985) The Jeep CJ-10 was a CJ-bodied pickup truck based on a heavily modified Jeep J10 pickup truck. Produced from 1981 to 1985, it was sold and designed for export markets; Australia in particular. CJ-10A (1984–1986) The Jeep CJ-10A was a CJ-10-based flightline aircraft tug. Produced in Mexico from 1984 to 1986. Willys Wagon and Willys Pickup The Willys Wagon (1946–1965) and Willys Pickup (1947–1965) were full-size trucks featuring a wagon and pickup bodystyle respectively. VJ Willys Jeepster (1948–1950) The Willys Jeepster was a roadster designed to appeal to consumers who would not otherwise purchase a utilitarian CJ. Most of its parts were shared with the Jeep Wagon and Jeep Pickup. Unfortunately it proved to be unpopular, with its production life cut to only three years. DJ DJ-3A (1955–1964) The first of the Dispatcher Jeeps, the DJ-3A was essentially a two wheel drive version of the CJ-3A, designed for lighter-duty work not requiring four wheel drive. DJ-5 "Dispatcher 100" (1965–1967) Like the DJ-3A, the DJ-5 was a two wheel drive version of the CJ-5. DJ-5A (1968–1970) The DJ-5A was an offshoot of the DJ-5 featuring a specialized hardtop body and right hand drive steering, designed for use as a mail truck. It was also powered by a 153 in³ Chevrolet four-cylinder engine. DJ-5B (1970–1972) Nearly identical to the DJ-5A, the DJ-5B was differentiated by its powertrain: a 232 in³ AMC six-cylinder engine. DJ-5C (1973–1974) Nearly identical to the DJ-5B. DJ-5D (1975–1976) Nearly identical to the DJ-5B. DJ-5E "Electruck" (1976) A special electric version of the Dispatcher featuring an electric motor and battery pack in place of the original internal combustion engine. DJ-5F (1977–1978) Nearly identical to the DJ-5B. The DJ-5F was also available with the AMC 258 engine. DJ-5G (1979) Nearly identical to the DJ-5B. The DJ-5G was powered by a 2.0 L Volkswagen/Audi four-cylinder engine. DJ-5L (1982) Nearly identical to the DJ-5B. The DJ-5L was powered by the Pontiac 2.5 L "Iron Duke" engine. FC FC-150 (1956–1965) The Forward Control trucks were essentially CJ-5s with a pickup bed and a flat-faced cab mounted on top of the engine. The FC-150 was mechanically nearly identical to the CJ-5. FC-170 (1957–1965) The FC-150 was joined by a longer FC-170 model, equipped with the Willys Super Hurricane engine. FJ The FJ (1961–1965) was a DJ-3A fitted with a van body with a redesigned steering and seating arrangement similar to the Forward Control trucks. The Fleetvan Jeeps were designed specifically for moving cargo. The FJ-3 (easily distinguishable by horizontal grille slots) was offered specifically as a postal truck, while a longer FJ-3A was offered for other fleet purposes. SJ Wagoneer (1963–1983) The Wagoneer was designed to replace the Jeep Wagon, which had been produced relatively unchanged since 1946. It was leaps and bounds more sophisticated than its predecessor and competitors, offering modern amenities and car-like attributes such as an independent front suspension and a SOHC engine. J-series (1963–1988) The Wagoneer's SJ chassis was also designed for a pickup truck bed, replacing the Willys Jeep Pickup. Originally named Gladiator, the truck underwent several name changes. Originally the Gladiator models were distinguished by a three-digit model code signifying wheelbase and gross vehicle weight rating. For 1965 the model codes were changed to four digits. The Gladiator name was dropped for 1972. In 1974, the model codes were changed for the final time to a two-digit code signifying GVWR. The sporty Honcho package was a popular option on half-ton J-10s. Super Wagoneer (1966–1969) The Super Wagoneer was a special luxury version of the Wagoneer, featuring amenities such as air conditioning, an automatic transmission and a V8 engine as standard equipment. All of this was years prior to the existence of the Range Rover, considered by many to be the "original luxury SUV". Cherokee (1974–1983) The Cherokee was added to the Jeep lineup as a sporty two-door model in 1974. A four-door body was later added in 1977. Grand Wagoneer (1984–1991) The Wagoneer and Cherokee were replaced for 1984 by the smaller XJ Cherokee and Wagoneer. The SJ continued on as the Grand Wagoneer, the most opulent Jeep in the range. C101 Jeepster Commando (1966–1971) The Jeepster Commando was introduced in 1966 to appeal to consumers seeking a less utilitarian vehicle than the CJ. Based heavily upon the CJ-5, the Jeepster Commando was available in many body styles, including a convertible and pickup. C104 Commando (1972–1973) The C101 Jeepster Commando was redesigned in 1972 by AMC in order to accommodate AMC engines under its hood. The result was the new C104 Commando (Jeepster having been dropped from the name). The new front fascia, reminiscent of the Ford Bronco, was very unpopular, and Commando was dropped after its second year. XJ Cherokee (1984–2001) The most ambitious Jeep ever undertaken, the XJ (said to mean eXperimental Jeep, although the veracity of this is not well substantiated) was revolutionary in design: it was the first SUV to use a bespoke unibody chassis for more car-like performance and design attributes. The "UniFrame" chassis made the XJ light and maneuverable, while the QuadraLink front suspension gave it excellent off-road ability. The XJ Cherokee increased Jeep sales to levels never seen before, and proved to be the single most popular Jeep of all time, with over 2.8 million units sold. Wagoneer Limited (1984–1990) The Wagoneer was offered alongside the Cherokee as a more luxurious model. Exterior changes were the only discernible differences, with a different grille and optional (plastic) wood panelling. Not to be confused with Grand Wagoneer SJ model. MJ Comanche (1986–1992) The Comanche was offered as a pickup version of the Cherokee. It is unique in that it is one of few unibody pickup trucks ever produced. YJ Wrangler (1987–1995) (No Wrangler produced in 1996 as they revamped the design for the new TJ's in 1997) The Wrangler, distinguished by its square headlamps, replaced the long-lived CJ. This model carried wider track axles and a stronger frame. It had more creature comforts and later on, had the benefit of the more efficient, fuel injected engines. The last model year of the YJ included galvanized bodies and larger U-joints. ZJ Grand Cherokee (1993–1998) Originally designed as the XJ's replacement, the ZJ was instead moved upmarket as the Grand Cherokee. Grand Wagoneer (1993) A top-of-the-line Grand Cherokee featuring more standard equipment, such as a 5.2L Magnum V8. It was dropped after one year. TJ Wrangler (1997–2006) The YJ's replacement, the TJ, has been the most bold evolution of the "Universal" yet, with coil springs at all four wheels (it also returned to the circular headlights of the CJ). Halfway through the 2004 model year a long-wheelbase version of the TJ was released as the Wrangler Unlimited. The Wrangler Unlimited is unofficially referred to as the LJ to differentiate between the standard- and long-wheelbase models. LJ Wrangler (2004-2006) Unlimited Sport Edition: Came standard with 4.0 L and the Dana 44 rear limited slip axle with 3.73 gear ratio and the command-Trac NV231 transfer case. The LJ has all the sport options but with a 10 inch (250 mm) longer wheelbase aka the LWB or LJ model. The LJ Unlimited has 2 more inches of rear seat legroom and 13 inches more cargo storage. The LJ also came with 3500 lbs towing capacity compared to the 2000 lbs towing capacity of the TJ. WJ Grand Cherokee (1999–2004) An evolution of the ZJ, available in a straight 6 or V8. The 4.7 L Powertech V8 signalled a return to SOHC engines: it was the first in a new Jeep since the Kaiser Tornado engine was dropped from the lineup in 1965. KJ Liberty (2002–2007) The first new Jeep to feature an independent suspension since the 1963 Wagoneer, the Liberty (as it is known in North America; it goes by the name Cherokee in all other markets) replaced the XJ Cherokee in 2002. The Liberty comes with a 3.7 liter V6 engine, but was also available in the US in 2005–2006 with a 2.8L 4cylinder common rail diesel (CRD) engine. WK Grand Cherokee (2005–2010) Using the WJ and KJ as a springboard, the most recent WK Grand Cherokee has a greater blend of car-like ride and handling with traditional offroad capability. Grand Cherokee has been completely redone for 2011. XK Commander (2006–2010) With an exterior design reminiscent of the XJ, the Commander was the first seven-passenger Jeep, pushing the brand into market waters never before trodden. The Commander was discontinued due to the fact that the 2011 Dodge Durango is going to be Chrysler's 7 passenger SUV offering. It is rumored that the Commander may still be built overseas for certain markets. JK Wrangler (2007–early 2018) The new JK Wrangler includes a 3-piece hardtop roof. 2007–2011 used Chrysler's 3.8 L V6 engine. For 2012+, the Wrangler uses Chrysler's 3.6L Pentastar V6. JKU 4 Door Wrangler (2007–2018) Designation of the 4 door body style JK Wrangler. MK Compass/Patriot (2007–2017) The product of a Chrysler to bring 4x4 and fuel economy into the crossover market. MP Compass (2017–present) A completely redesigned compact crossover developed by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. KK Liberty (2008–2012) 3.7 liters V6 210hp, some engines can run on E-85 fuel. Replaced the KJ. WK2 Grand Cherokee (2011–2022) 3.6 Liter Pentastar V6, 5.7 Liter Hemi V8, 3.0 Liter EcoDiesel V6. 4x2 or 4x4 options. RWD platform. Replaced the WK. KL Cherokee (2014–2023) The new KL is the return of the Cherokee designation in a compact-wide body featuring a distinctive new front end and sporting a 2.4L Tigershark Inline 4, a 2.0L Hurricane turbo 4, or a 3.2L Pentastar V-6 mated with a 9-speed 948TE automatic transmission. The trailrated edition of the KL is referred to as the Cherokee Trailhawk. BU Renegade (2015–present) The BU is Jeeps new 4x4 capable compact SUV based on the Fiat small-wide platform. Sporting a 2.4L Tigershark Inline 4-cylinder engine mated with a 9-speed automatic transmission or a 1.4L Turbo mated with a 6 speed manual. The TrailRated edition of the BU is referred to as the Renegade Trailhawk. JL Wrangler (2018–present) The JL utilized many of the same features as the JK, however modifications were done to incorporate an All Wheel Drive feature (full-time 4WD) and front axle disconnects for improved fuel mileage. K8 Grand Commander (2018–2022) JT Gladiator (2019–present) Based on the Jeep Wrangler (JL) Unlimited H1/H6 Commander (2021–present) Meridian (2021–present) WL Grand Cherokee L (2021–present) Grand Cherokee (2022–present) WS Wagoneer (2021–present) Grand Wagoneer (2021–present) Wagoneer L (2023–present) Grand Wagoneer L (2023–present) JJ Avenger (2023–present)

Who was the Prime Minister of Canada in the year that the 1965 winner of the Best New Artist Grammy Award made their first appearance on US television?

Lester Pearson

Multiple constraints

The Grammy Award for Best New Artist has been awarded since the 2nd Annual Grammy Awards in 1960, but was not presented in 1967. Years reflect the year in which the Grammy Awards were handed out, for records released in the previous year. The official guidelines are as follows: "For a new artist who releases, during the Eligibility Year, the first recording which establishes the public identity of that artist." Note that this is not necessarily the first album released by an artist; for example, Shelby Lynne won the award in 2001 after having already released six albums over 13 years. The Best New Artist award has a reputation for being given to artists whose music industry success ends up being short-lived; it is sometimes asserted, with varying degrees of sincerity, that the award itself brings a curse. This viewpoint was expressed by former Starland Vocal Band member Taffy Danoff in a 2002 interview for VH1's 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders: "We got two of the five Grammys – one was Best New Artist. So that was basically the kiss of death and I feel sorry for everyone who's gotten it since." The category is also notable for being the only category in which a Grammy Award was vacated; this occurred in 1990 after it was revealed that winners Milli Vanilli did not contribute their own vocals on their album Girl You Know It's True. The award was not then given to another artist. Further information Of the 62 acts who have won the award since its inception, 31 are solo female artists, 19 are duos or groups, and 12 are solo male artists. Of the solo male artists, half were given the award in its first decade; since 1970, only six solo male artists have won the award, the most recent being Chance the Rapper in 2017. From 1997 to 2003, and again from 2018 to 2024, all the winners were solo female artists. Only five artists have won both Best New Artist and Album of the Year in the same year: Bob Newhart in 1961, Christopher Cross in 1981, Lauryn Hill in 1999, Norah Jones in 2003, and Billie Eilish in 2020. Of these, Cross, Jones, and Eilish had songs winning Record of the Year and Song of the Year for the same year, with Cross as the sole songwriter, Eilish as co-writer, and Jones lacking songwriting credit, which therefore made her miss out on completing the single year big four Grammy achievement, a feat that only Cross and Eilish attained; while Adele was the only artist to win all General field Grammys from separate occasions. Only two artists have lost Best New Artist yet won Album of the Year in the same year: Vaughn Meader in 1963 and Alanis Morissette in 1996. Of all the winners, only three have been country artists. In 1997, LeAnn Rimes became the first country artist and (at age 14) the youngest artist to win the award. She was followed by Carrie Underwood in 2007 and Zac Brown Band in 2010. Additionally, 2017 marked the first time that two country artists were nominated in this category in the same year, in which Maren Morris and Kelsea Ballerini were both nominated. In 2018, Alessia Cara became the first Canadian artist to ever win the award, and the only woman to win a major category that year. In 2020, Rosalía became the first all Spanish-language artist to be nominated. 2021 marked the first time that multiple female rappers were nominated in the same year, when Chika, Doja Cat and Megan Thee Stallion were all nominated, with the latter winning the award. For the award's first several years of existence, comedians and comic acts were regularly nominated, and one, Bob Newhart, won the award. However, this ended abruptly after 1963, and since then, only one comedian has been nominated for the award: Robin Williams in 1980. (That same year, the semi-comic act The Blues Brothers was also nominated.) David Crosby and Carl Palmer hold the distinction of being the only artists to be nominated twice for this award. Palmer was nominated both times as a member of a supergroup: Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Asia, while Crosby was nominated as a member of The Byrds and won as a member of the supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash. 1984 marked the first time that all of the nominees were from outside the United States (winner Culture Club, Eurythmics, Musical Youth, and Big Country were from the United Kingdom, and Men Without Hats were from Canada). Eight artists who have been nominated for Best New Artist and have been later awarded with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award: The Beatles (1965, 2014), Chicago (1970, 2020), Cream (1969, 2006), Jefferson Airplane (1968, 2016), Antônio Carlos Jobim (1965, 2012), Led Zeppelin, (1970, 2005), Leontyne Price (1961, 1989), and John Prine (1972, 2020). Process From 1995 to 2021, members of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences nominated their choices for the best new artist. A list of the top twenty artists was given to the Nominations Review Committee, a specially selected group of anonymous members, who initially selected the top five artists to gain a nomination in the category in a special ballot; the number of nominated artists was increased to eight in 2018. The rest of the members then vote on a winner from the final nominees. In 2021, it was announced that the Nomination Review Committees would be disbanded, and the final nominees for best new artist would be decided by votes from members. Starting in 2022, the number of nominees in the category increased to 10. However, the decision to expand the number of nominees in this category was made 24 hours before the nominees were announced after an early version of the nominations list had already been circulated. This allowed Baby Keem and Arooj Aftab to be nominated as they were the artists that received the most votes besides the other eight nominees. As of the 2024 ceremony, the number of nominees has been reduced to eight. Rules changes Over the years, the eligibility rules for this category have changed several times. In 2010, Lady Gaga's exclusion from the Best New Artist category caused the Recording Academy to change eligibility requirements for the next ceremony. She was ineligible for the nomination because her hit "Just Dance" had been nominated in 2008. The new rule stated that an artist may be nominated as long as that artist has not previously released an entire album and has subsequently not won a Grammy. In June 2016, the Grammy organization amended the Best New Artist rules once again, to remove the album barrier "given current trends in how new music and developing artists are released and promoted". To be eligible in the category of Best New Artist, the artist, duo, or group: Must have released a minimum of five singles/tracks or one album (until 2020 there was a maximum of 30 singles/tracks or three albums, but this maximum limit was removed for the 2021 awards season) May not have entered into this category more than three times, including as a performing member of an established group. Must have achieved a breakthrough into the public consciousness and impacted the musical landscape during the eligibility period. These new rules were put in effect with the 59th Annual Grammy Awards. The category was then expanded to include eight nominees in 2019. Starting in 2021, screening committees were charged with determining whether the artist had attained a breakthrough or prominence prior to the eligibility year. Such a determination would result in disqualification. Recipients 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Notes ^[I] Each year is linked to the article about the Grammy Awards held that year. ^[II] The Grammy Award for Best New Artist wasn't presented during the 9th Grammy Awards. ^[III] Milli Vanilli were originally presented with the award on February 21, 1990, but were later stripped of it after admitting that they were not the actual singers on their album. The category was left vacant for the year. See also List of Grammy Award categories References External links Official website

The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the development of 1960s counterculture and the recognition of popular music as an art form. Rooted in skiffle, beat and 1950s rock 'n' roll, their sound incorporated elements of classical music and traditional pop in innovative ways. The band also explored music styles ranging from folk and Indian music to psychedelia and hard rock. As pioneers in recording, songwriting and artistic presentation, the Beatles revolutionized many aspects of the music industry and were often publicized as leaders of the era's youth and sociocultural movements. Led by primary songwriters Lennon and McCartney, the Beatles evolved from Lennon's previous group, the Quarrymen, and built their reputation by playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg, Germany, over three years from 1960, initially with Stuart Sutcliffe playing bass. The core trio of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, together since 1958, went through a succession of drummers, including Pete Best, before inviting Starr to join them in 1962. Manager Brian Epstein moulded them into a professional act, and producer George Martin guided and developed their recordings, greatly expanding their domestic success after they signed with EMI Records and achieved their first hit, "Love Me Do", in late 1962. As their popularity grew into the intense fan frenzy dubbed "Beatlemania", the band acquired the nickname "the Fab Four". Epstein, Martin or other members of the band's entourage were sometimes informally referred to as a "fifth Beatle". By early 1964, the Beatles were international stars and had achieved unprecedented levels of critical and commercial success. They became a leading force in Britain's cultural resurgence, ushering in the British Invasion of the United States pop market. They soon made their film debut with A Hard Day's Night (1964). A growing desire to refine their studio efforts, coupled with the challenging nature of their concert tours, led to the band's retirement from live performances in 1966. During this time, they produced albums of greater sophistication, including Rubber Soul (1965), Revolver (1966) and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967). They enjoyed further commercial success with The Beatles (also known as "the White Album", 1968) and Abbey Road (1969). The success of these records heralded the album era, as albums became the dominant form of record use over singles. These records also increased public interest in psychedelic drugs and Eastern spirituality and furthered advancements in electronic music, album art and music videos. In 1968, they founded Apple Corps, a multi-armed multimedia corporation that continues to oversee projects related to the band's legacy. After the group's break-up in 1970, all principal former members enjoyed success as solo artists, and some partial reunions occurred. Lennon was murdered in 1980, and Harrison died of lung cancer in 2001. McCartney and Starr remain musically active. The Beatles are the best-selling music act of all time, with estimated sales of 600 million units worldwide. They are the most successful act in the history of the US Billboard charts, holding the record for most number-one albums on the UK Albums Chart (15), most number-one hits on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart (20), and most singles sold in the UK (21.9 million). The band received many accolades, including seven Grammy Awards, four Brit Awards, an Academy Award (for Best Original Song Score for the 1970 documentary film Let It Be) and fifteen Ivor Novello Awards. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility, 1988, and each principal member was individually inducted between 1994 and 2015. In 2004 and 2011, the group topped Rolling Stone's lists of the greatest artists in history. Time magazine named them among the 20th century's 100 most important people. History 1956–1963: Formation The Quarrymen and name changes In November 1956, sixteen-year-old John Lennon formed a skiffle group with several friends from Quarry Bank High School in Liverpool. They were called the Quarrymen, a reference to their school song "Quarry men old before our birth." Fifteen-year-old Paul McCartney met Lennon on 6 July 1957, and joined as a rhythm guitarist shortly after. In February 1958, McCartney invited his friend George Harrison, then aged fifteen, to watch the band. Harrison auditioned for Lennon, impressing him with his playing, but Lennon initially thought Harrison was too young. After a month's persistence, during a second meeting (arranged by McCartney), Harrison performed the lead guitar part of the instrumental song "Raunchy" on the upper deck of a Liverpool bus, and they enlisted him as lead guitarist. By January 1959, Lennon's Quarry Bank friends had left the group, and he began his studies at the Liverpool College of Art. The three guitarists, billing themselves as Johnny and the Moondogs, were playing rock and roll whenever they could find a drummer. They also performed as the Rainbows. Paul McCartney later told New Musical Express that they called themselves that "because we all had different coloured shirts and we couldn't afford any others!" Lennon's art school friend Stuart Sutcliffe, who had just sold one of his paintings and was persuaded to purchase a bass guitar with the proceeds, joined in January 1960. He suggested changing the band's name to Beatals, as a tribute to Buddy Holly and the Crickets. They used this name until May, when they became the Silver Beetles, before undertaking a brief tour of Scotland as the backing group for pop singer and fellow Liverpudlian Johnny Gentle. By early July, they had refashioned themselves as the Silver Beatles, and by the middle of August simply the Beatles. Early residencies and UK popularity Allan Williams, the Beatles' unofficial manager, arranged a residency for them in Hamburg. They auditioned and hired drummer Pete Best in mid-August 1960. The band, now a five-piece, departed Liverpool for Hamburg four days later, contracted to club owner Bruno Koschmider for what would be a 3+1⁄2-month residency. Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn writes: "They pulled into Hamburg at dusk on 17 August, the time when the red-light area comes to life ... flashing neon lights screamed out the various entertainment on offer, while scantily clad women sat unabashed in shop windows waiting for business opportunities." Koschmider had converted a couple of strip clubs in the district into music venues, and he initially placed the Beatles at the Indra Club. After closing Indra due to noise complaints, he moved them to the Kaiserkeller in October. When he learned they had been performing at the rival Top Ten Club in breach of their contract, he gave them one month's termination notice, and reported the underage Harrison, who had obtained permission to stay in Hamburg by lying to the German authorities about his age. The authorities arranged for Harrison's deportation in late November. One week later, Koschmider had McCartney and Best arrested for arson after they set fire to a condom in a concrete corridor; the authorities deported them. Lennon returned to Liverpool in early December, while Sutcliffe remained in Hamburg until late February with his German fiancée Astrid Kirchherr, who took the first semi-professional photos of the Beatles. During the next two years, the Beatles were resident for periods in Hamburg, where they used Preludin both recreationally and to maintain their energy through all-night performances. In 1961, during their second Hamburg engagement, Kirchherr cut Sutcliffe's hair in the "exi" (existentialist) style, later adopted by the other Beatles. Later on, Sutcliffe decided to leave the band early that year and resume his art studies in Germany. McCartney took over bass. Producer Bert Kaempfert contracted what was now a four-piece group until June 1962, and he used them as Tony Sheridan's backing band on a series of recordings for Polydor Records. As part of the sessions, the Beatles were signed to Polydor for one year. Credited to "Tony Sheridan & the Beat Brothers", the single "My Bonnie", recorded in June 1961 and released four months later, reached number 32 on the Musikmarkt chart. After the Beatles completed their second Hamburg residency, they enjoyed increasing popularity in Liverpool with the growing Merseybeat movement. However, they were growing tired of the monotony of numerous appearances at the same clubs night after night. In November 1961, during one of the group's frequent performances at the Cavern Club, they encountered Brian Epstein, a local record-store owner and music columnist. He later recalled: "I immediately liked what I heard. They were fresh, and they were honest, and they had what I thought was a sort of presence ... [a] star quality." First EMI recordings Epstein courted the band over the next couple of months, and they appointed him as their manager in January 1962. Throughout early and mid-1962, Epstein sought to free the Beatles from their contractual obligations to Bert Kaempfert Productions. He eventually negotiated a one-month early release in exchange for one last recording session in Hamburg. On their return to Germany in April, a distraught Kirchherr met them at the airport with news of Sutcliffe's death the previous day from a brain haemorrhage. Epstein began negotiations with record labels for a recording contract. To secure a UK record contract, Epstein negotiated an early end to the band's contract with Polydor, in exchange for more recordings backing Tony Sheridan. After a New Year's Day audition, Decca Records rejected the band, saying, "Guitar groups are on the way out, Mr. Epstein." However, three months later, producer George Martin signed the Beatles to EMI's Parlophone label. Martin's first recording session with the Beatles took place at EMI Recording Studios (later Abbey Road Studios) in London on 6 June 1962. He immediately complained to Epstein about Best's drumming and suggested they use a session drummer in his place. Already contemplating Best's dismissal, the Beatles replaced him in mid-August with Ringo Starr, who left Rory Storm and the Hurricanes to join them. A 4 September session at EMI yielded a recording of "Love Me Do" featuring Starr on drums, but a dissatisfied Martin hired drummer Andy White for the band's third session a week later, which produced recordings of "Love Me Do", "Please Please Me" and "P.S. I Love You". Martin initially selected the Starr version of "Love Me Do" for the band's first single, though subsequent re-pressings featured the White version, with Starr on tambourine. Released in early October, "Love Me Do" peaked at number seventeen on the Record Retailer chart. Their television debut came later that month with a live performance on the regional news programme People and Places. After Martin suggested rerecording "Please Please Me" at a faster tempo, a studio session in late November yielded that recording, of which Martin accurately predicted, "You've just made your first No. 1." In December 1962, the Beatles concluded their fifth and final Hamburg residency. By 1963, they had agreed that all four band members would contribute vocals to their albums – including Starr, despite his restricted vocal range, to validate his standing in the group. Lennon and McCartney had established a songwriting partnership, and as the band's success grew, their dominant collaboration limited Harrison's opportunities as a lead vocalist. Epstein, to maximise the Beatles' commercial potential, encouraged them to adopt a professional approach to performing. Lennon recalled him saying, "Look, if you really want to get in these bigger places, you're going to have to change – stop eating on stage, stop swearing, stop smoking ...." 1963–1966: Beatlemania and touring years Please Please Me and With the Beatles On 11 February 1963, the Beatles recorded ten songs during a single studio session for their debut LP, Please Please Me. It was supplemented by the four tracks already released on their first two singles. Martin considered recording the LP live at The Cavern Club, but after deciding that the building's acoustics were inadequate, he elected to simulate a "live" album with minimal production in "a single marathon session at Abbey Road". After the moderate success of "Love Me Do", the single "Please Please Me" was released in January 1963, two months ahead of the album. It reached number one on every UK chart except Record Retailer, where it peaked at number two. Recalling how the Beatles "rushed to deliver a debut album, bashing out Please Please Me in a day", AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote: "Decades after its release, the album still sounds fresh, precisely because of its intense origins." Lennon said little thought went into composition at the time; he and McCartney were "just writing songs à la Everly Brothers, à la Buddy Holly, pop songs with no more thought of them than that – to create a sound. And the words were almost irrelevant." Released in March 1963, Please Please Me was the first of eleven consecutive Beatles albums released in the United Kingdom to reach number one. The band's third single, "From Me to You", came out in April and began an almost unbroken string of seventeen British number-one singles, including all but one of the eighteen they released over the next six years. Issued in August, their fourth single, "She Loves You", achieved the fastest sales of any record in the UK up to that time, selling three-quarters of a million copies in under four weeks. It became their first single to sell a million copies, and remained the biggest-selling record in the UK until 1978. The success brought increased media exposure, to which the Beatles responded with an irreverent and comical attitude that defied the expectations of pop musicians at the time, inspiring even more interest. The band toured the UK three times in the first half of the year: a four-week tour that began in February, the Beatles' first nationwide, preceded three-week tours in March and May–June. As their popularity spread, a frenzied adulation of the group took hold. On 13 October, the Beatles starred on Sunday Night at the London Palladium, the UK's top variety show. Their performance was televised live and watched by 15 million viewers. One national paper's headlines in the following days coined the term "Beatlemania" to describe the riotous enthusiasm by screaming fans who greeted the band – and it stuck. Although not billed as tour leaders, the Beatles overshadowed American acts Tommy Roe and Chris Montez during the February engagements and assumed top billing "by audience demand", something no British act had previously accomplished while touring with artists from the US. A similar situation arose during their May–June tour with Roy Orbison. In late October, the Beatles began a five-day tour of Sweden, their first time abroad since the final Hamburg engagement of December 1962. On their return to the UK on 31 October, several hundred screaming fans greeted them in heavy rain at Heathrow Airport. Around 50 to 100 journalists and photographers, as well as representatives from the BBC, also joined the airport reception, the first of more than 100 such events. The next day, the band began its fourth tour of Britain within nine months, this one scheduled for six weeks. In mid-November, as Beatlemania intensified, police resorted to using high-pressure water hoses to control the crowd before a concert in Plymouth. On 4 November, they played in front of The Queen Mother and Princess Margaret during the Royal Variety Performance at the Prince of Wales Theatre. Please Please Me maintained the top position on the Record Retailer chart for 30 weeks, only to be displaced by its follow-up, With the Beatles, which EMI released on 22 November to record advance orders of 270,000 copies. The LP topped a half-million albums sold in one week. Recorded between July and October, With the Beatles made better use of studio production techniques than its predecessor. It held the top spot for 21 weeks with a chart life of 40 weeks. Erlewine described the LP as "a sequel of the highest order – one that betters the original". In a reversal of then standard practice, EMI released the album ahead of the impending single "I Want to Hold Your Hand", with the song excluded to maximise the single's sales. The album caught the attention of music critic William Mann of The Times, who suggested that Lennon and McCartney were "the outstanding English composers of 1963". The newspaper published a series of articles in which Mann offered detailed analyses of the music, lending it respectability. With the Beatles became the second album in UK chart history to sell a million copies, a figure previously reached only by the 1958 South Pacific soundtrack. When writing the sleeve notes for the album, the band's press officer, Tony Barrow, used the superlative the "fabulous foursome", which the media widely adopted as "the Fab Four". First visit to the United States and the British Invasion EMI's American subsidiary, Capitol Records, hindered the Beatles' releases in the United States for more than a year by initially declining to issue their music, including their first three singles. Concurrent negotiations with the independent US label Vee-Jay led to the release of some, but not all, of the songs in 1963. Vee-Jay finished preparation for the album Introducing... The Beatles, comprising most of the songs of Parlophone's Please Please Me, but a management shake-up led to the album not being released. After it emerged that the label did not report royalties on their sales, the licence that Vee-Jay had signed with EMI was voided. A new licence was granted to the Swan label for the single "She Loves You". The record received some airplay in the Tidewater area of Virginia from Gene Loving of radio station WGH and was featured on the "Rate-a-Record" segment of American Bandstand, but it failed to catch on nationally. Epstein brought a demo copy of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" to Capitol's Brown Meggs, who signed the band and arranged for a $40,000 US marketing campaign. American chart success began after disc jockey Carroll James of AM radio station WWDC, in Washington, DC, obtained a copy of the British single "I Want to Hold Your Hand" in mid-December 1963 and began playing it on-air. Taped copies of the song soon circulated among other radio stations throughout the US. This caused an increase in demand, leading Capitol to bring forward the release of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" by three weeks. Issued on 26 December, with the band's previously scheduled debut there just weeks away, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" sold a million copies, becoming a number-one hit in the US by mid-January. In its wake Vee-Jay released Introducing... The Beatles along with Capitol's debut album, Meet the Beatles!, while Swan reactivated production of "She Loves You". On 7 February 1964, the Beatles departed from Heathrow with an estimated 4,000 fans waving and screaming as the aircraft took off. Upon landing at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, an uproarious crowd estimated at 3,000 greeted them. They gave their first live US television performance two days later on The Ed Sullivan Show, watched by approximately 73 million viewers in over 23 million households, or 34 per cent of the American population. Biographer Jonathan Gould writes that, according to the Nielsen rating service, it was "the largest audience that had ever been recorded for an American television program". The next morning, the Beatles awoke to a largely negative critical consensus in the US, but a day later at their first US concert, Beatlemania erupted at the Washington Coliseum. Back in New York the following day, the Beatles met with another strong reception during two shows at Carnegie Hall. The band flew to Florida, where they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show a second time, again before 70 million viewers, before returning to the UK on 22 February. The Beatles' first visit to the US took place when the nation was still mourning the assassination of President John F. Kennedy the previous November. Commentators often suggest that for many, particularly the young, the Beatles' performances reignited the sense of excitement and possibility that momentarily faded in the wake of the assassination, and helped pave the way for the revolutionary social changes to come later in the decade. Their hairstyle, unusually long for the era and mocked by many adults, became an emblem of rebellion to the burgeoning youth culture. The group's popularity generated unprecedented interest in British music, and many other UK acts subsequently made their American debuts, successfully touring over the next three years in what was termed the British Invasion. The Beatles' success in the US opened the door for a successive string of British beat groups and pop acts such as the Dave Clark Five, the Animals, Petula Clark, the Kinks, and the Rolling Stones to achieve success in America. During the week of 4 April 1964, the Beatles held twelve positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, including the top five. A Hard Day's Night Capitol Records' lack of interest throughout 1963 did not go unnoticed, and a competitor, United Artists Records, encouraged its film division to offer the Beatles a three-motion-picture deal, primarily for the commercial potential of the soundtracks in the US. Directed by Richard Lester, A Hard Day's Night involved the band for six weeks in March–April 1964 as they played themselves in a musical comedy. The film premiered in London and New York in July and August, respectively, and was an international success, with some critics drawing a comparison with the Marx Brothers. United Artists released a full soundtrack album for the North American market, combining Beatles songs and Martin's orchestral score; elsewhere, the group's third studio LP, A Hard Day's Night, contained songs from the film on side one and other new recordings on side two. According to Erlewine, the album saw them "truly coming into their own as a band. All of the disparate influences on their first two albums coalesced into a bright, joyous, original sound, filled with ringing guitars and irresistible melodies." That "ringing guitar" sound was primarily the product of Harrison's 12-string electric Rickenbacker, a prototype given to him by the manufacturer, which made its debut on the record. 1964 world tour, meeting Bob Dylan, and stand on civil rights Touring internationally in June and July, the Beatles staged 37 shows over 27 days in Denmark, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand. In August and September, they returned to the US, with a 30-concert tour of 23 cities. Generating intense interest once again, the month-long tour attracted between 10,000 and 20,000 fans to each 30-minute performance in cities from San Francisco to New York. In August, journalist Al Aronowitz arranged for the Beatles to meet Bob Dylan. Visiting the band in their New York hotel suite, Dylan introduced them to cannabis. Gould points out the musical and cultural significance of this meeting, before which the musicians' respective fanbases were "perceived as inhabiting two separate subcultural worlds": Dylan's audience of "college kids with artistic or intellectual leanings, a dawning political and social idealism, and a mildly bohemian style" contrasted with their fans, "veritable 'teenyboppers' – kids in high school or grade school whose lives were totally wrapped up in the commercialised popular culture of television, radio, pop records, fan magazines, and teen fashion. To many of Dylan's followers in the folk music scene, the Beatles were seen as idolaters, not idealists." Within six months of the meeting, according to Gould, "Lennon would be making records on which he openly imitated Dylan's nasal drone, brittle strum, and introspective vocal persona"; and six months after that, Dylan began performing with a backing band and electric instrumentation, and "dressed in the height of Mod fashion". As a result, Gould continues, the traditional division between folk and rock enthusiasts "nearly evaporated", as the Beatles' fans began to mature in their outlook and Dylan's audience embraced the new, youth-driven pop culture. During the 1964 US tour, the group were confronted with racial segregation in the country at the time. When informed that the venue for their 11 September concert, the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida, was segregated, the Beatles said they would refuse to perform unless the audience was integrated. Lennon stated: "We never play to segregated audiences and we aren't going to start now ... I'd sooner lose our appearance money." City officials relented and agreed to allow an integrated show. The group also cancelled their reservations at the whites-only Hotel George Washington in Jacksonville. For their subsequent US tours in 1965 and 1966, the Beatles included clauses in contracts stipulating that shows be integrated. Beatles for Sale, Help! and Rubber Soul According to Gould, the Beatles' fourth studio LP, Beatles for Sale, evidenced a growing conflict between the commercial pressures of their global success and their creative ambitions. They had intended the album, recorded between August and October 1964, to continue the format established by A Hard Day's Night which, unlike their first two LPs, contained only original songs. They had nearly exhausted their backlog of songs on the previous album, however, and given the challenges constant international touring posed to their songwriting efforts, Lennon admitted, "Material's becoming a hell of a problem". As a result, six covers from their extensive repertoire were chosen to complete the album. Released in early December, its eight original compositions stood out, demonstrating the growing maturity of the Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership. In early 1965, following a dinner with Lennon, Harrison and their wives, Harrison's dentist, John Riley, secretly added LSD to their coffee. Lennon described the experience: "It was just terrifying, but it was fantastic. I was pretty stunned for a month or two." He and Harrison subsequently became regular users of the drug, joined by Starr on at least one occasion. Harrison's use of psychedelic drugs encouraged his path to meditation and Hinduism. He commented: "For me, it was like a flash. The first time I had acid, it just opened up something in my head that was inside of me, and I realised a lot of things. I didn't learn them because I already knew them, but that happened to be the key that opened the door to reveal them. From the moment I had that, I wanted to have it all the time – these thoughts about the yogis and the Himalayas, and Ravi's music." McCartney was initially reluctant to try it, but eventually did so in late 1966. He became the first Beatle to discuss LSD publicly, declaring in a magazine interview that "it opened my eyes" and "made me a better, more honest, more tolerant member of society". Controversy erupted in June 1965 when Queen Elizabeth II appointed all four Beatles Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) after Prime Minister Harold Wilson nominated them for the award. In protest – the honour was at that time primarily bestowed upon military veterans and civic leaders – some conservative MBE recipients returned their insignia. In July, the Beatles' second film, Help!, was released, again directed by Lester. Described as "mainly a relentless spoof of Bond", it inspired a mixed response among both reviewers and the band. McCartney said: "Help! was great but it wasn't our film – we were sort of guest stars. It was fun, but basically, as an idea for a film, it was a bit wrong." The soundtrack was dominated by Lennon, who wrote and sang lead on most of its songs, including the two singles: "Help!" and "Ticket to Ride". The Help! album, the group's fifth studio LP, mirrored A Hard Day's Night by featuring soundtrack songs on side one and additional songs from the same sessions on side two. The LP contained all original material save for two covers, "Act Naturally" and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy"; they were the last covers the band would include on an album until Let It Be's brief rendition of the traditional Liverpool folk song "Maggie Mae". The band expanded their use of vocal overdubs on Help! and incorporated classical instruments into some arrangements, including a string quartet on the pop ballad "Yesterday". Composed and sung by McCartney – none of the other Beatles perform on the recording – "Yesterday" has inspired the most cover versions of any song ever written. With Help!, the Beatles became the first rock group to be nominated for a Grammy Award for Album of the Year. The group's third US tour opened with a performance before a world-record crowd of 55,600 at New York's Shea Stadium on 15 August – "perhaps the most famous of all Beatles' concerts", in Lewisohn's description. A further nine successful concerts followed in other American cities. At a show in Atlanta, the Beatles gave one of the first live performances ever to make use of a foldback system of on-stage monitor speakers. Towards the end of the tour, they met with Elvis Presley, a foundational musical influence on the band, who invited them to his home in Beverly Hills. Presley later said the band was an example of a trend of anti-Americanism and drug abuse. September 1965 saw the launch of an American Saturday-morning cartoon series, The Beatles, that echoed A Hard Day's Night's slapstick antics over its two-year original run. The series was the first weekly television series to feature animated versions of real, living people. In mid-October, the Beatles entered the recording studio; for the first time when making an album, they had an extended period without other major commitments. Until this time, according to George Martin, "we had been making albums rather like a collection of singles. Now we were really beginning to think about albums as a bit of art on their own." Released in December, Rubber Soul was hailed by critics as a major step forward in the maturity and complexity of the band's music. Their thematic reach was beginning to expand as they embraced deeper aspects of romance and philosophy, a development that NEMS executive Peter Brown attributed to the band members' "now habitual use of marijuana". Lennon referred to Rubber Soul as "the pot album" and Starr said: "Grass was really influential in a lot of our changes, especially with the writers. And because they were writing different material, we were playing differently." After Help!'s foray into classical music with flutes and strings, Harrison's introduction of a sitar on "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" marked a further progression outside the traditional boundaries of popular music. As the lyrics grew more artful, fans began to study them for deeper meaning. While some of Rubber Soul's songs were the product of Lennon and McCartney's collaborative songwriting, the album also included distinct compositions from each, though they continued to share official credit. "In My Life", of which each later claimed lead authorship, is considered a highlight of the entire Lennon–McCartney catalogue. Harrison called Rubber Soul his "favourite album", and Starr referred to it as "the departure record". McCartney has said, "We'd had our cute period, and now it was time to expand." However, recording engineer Norman Smith later stated that the studio sessions revealed signs of growing conflict within the group – "the clash between John and Paul was becoming obvious", he wrote, and "as far as Paul was concerned, George could do no right". Controversies, Revolver and final tour Capitol Records, from December 1963 when it began issuing Beatles recordings for the US market, exercised complete control over format, compiling distinct US albums from the band's recordings and issuing songs of their choosing as singles. In June 1966, the Capitol LP Yesterday and Today caused an uproar with its cover, which portrayed the grinning Beatles dressed in butcher's overalls, accompanied by raw meat and mutilated plastic baby dolls. According to Beatles biographer Bill Harry, it has been incorrectly suggested that this was meant as a satirical response to the way Capitol had "butchered" the US versions of the band's albums. Thousands of copies of the LP had a new cover pasted over the original; an unpeeled "first-state" copy fetched $10,500 at a December 2005 auction. In England, meanwhile, Harrison met sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, who agreed to train him on the instrument. During a tour of the Philippines the month after the Yesterday and Today furore, the Beatles unintentionally snubbed the nation's first lady, Imelda Marcos, who had expected them to attend a breakfast reception at the Presidential Palace. When presented with the invitation, Epstein politely declined on the band members' behalf, as it had never been his policy to accept such official invitations. They soon found that the Marcos regime was unaccustomed to taking no for an answer. The resulting riots endangered the group and they escaped the country with difficulty. Immediately afterwards, the band members visited India for the first time. Almost as soon as they returned home, the Beatles faced a fierce backlash from US religious and social conservatives (as well as the Ku Klux Klan) over a comment Lennon had made in a March interview with British reporter Maureen Cleave. "Christianity will go", Lennon had said. "It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right and I will be proved right ... Jesus was alright but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me." His comments went virtually unnoticed in England, but when US teenage fan magazine Datebook printed them five months later, it sparked a controversy with Christians in America's conservative Bible Belt region. The Vatican issued a protest, and bans on Beatles records were imposed by Spanish and Dutch stations and South Africa's national broadcasting service. Epstein accused Datebook of having taken Lennon's words out of context. At a press conference, Lennon pointed out, "If I'd said television was more popular than Jesus, I might have got away with it." He claimed that he was referring to how other people viewed their success, but at the prompting of reporters, he concluded: "If you want me to apologise, if that will make you happy, then okay, I'm sorry." Released in August 1966, a week before the Beatles' final tour, Revolver marked another artistic step forward for the group. The album featured sophisticated songwriting, studio experimentation, and a greatly expanded repertoire of musical styles, ranging from innovative classical string arrangements to psychedelia. Abandoning the customary group photograph, its Aubrey Beardsley-inspired cover – designed by Klaus Voormann, a friend of the band since their Hamburg days – was a monochrome collage and line drawing caricature of the group. The album was preceded by the single "Paperback Writer", backed by "Rain". Short promotional films were made for both songs; described by cultural historian Saul Austerlitz as "among the first true music videos", they aired on The Ed Sullivan Show and Top of the Pops in June. Among the experimental songs on Revolver was "Tomorrow Never Knows", the lyrics for which Lennon drew from Timothy Leary's The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Its creation involved eight tape decks distributed about the EMI building, each staffed by an engineer or band member, who randomly varied the movement of a tape loop while Martin created a composite recording by sampling the incoming data. McCartney's "Eleanor Rigby" made prominent use of a string octet; Gould describes it as "a true hybrid, conforming to no recognisable style or genre of song". Harrison's emergence as a songwriter was reflected in three of his compositions appearing on the record. Among these, "Taxman", which opened the album, marked the first example of the Beatles making a political statement through their music. As preparations were made for a tour of the US, the Beatles knew that their music would hardly be heard. Having originally used Vox AC30 amplifiers, they later acquired more powerful 100-watt amplifiers, specially designed for them by Vox, as they moved into larger venues in 1964; however, these were still inadequate. Struggling to compete with the volume of sound generated by screaming fans, the band had grown increasingly bored with the routine of performing live. Recognising that their shows were no longer about the music, they decided to make the August tour their last. The band performed none of their new songs on the tour. In Chris Ingham's description, they were very much "studio creations ... and there was no way a four-piece rock 'n' roll group could do them justice, particularly through the desensitising wall of the fans' screams. 'Live Beatles' and 'Studio Beatles' had become entirely different beasts." The band's concert at San Francisco's Candlestick Park on 29 August was their last commercial concert. It marked the end of four years dominated by almost non-stop touring that included over 1,400 concert appearances internationally. 1966–1970: Studio years Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Freed from the burden of touring, the Beatles embraced an increasingly experimental approach as they recorded Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, beginning in late November 1966. According to engineer Geoff Emerick, the album's recording took over 700 hours. He recalled the band's insistence "that everything on Sgt. Pepper had to be different. We had microphones right down in the bells of brass instruments and headphones turned into microphones attached to violins. We used giant primitive oscillators to vary the speed of instruments and vocals and we had tapes chopped to pieces and stuck together upside down and the wrong way around." Parts of "A Day in the Life" featured a 40-piece orchestra. The sessions initially yielded the non-album double A-side single "Strawberry Fields Forever"/"Penny Lane" in February 1967; the Sgt. Pepper LP followed with a rush-release in May. The musical complexity of the records, created using relatively primitive four-track recording technology, astounded contemporary artists. Among music critics, acclaim for the album was virtually universal. Gould writes: The overwhelming consensus is that the Beatles had created a popular masterpiece: a rich, sustained, and overflowing work of collaborative genius whose bold ambition and startling originality dramatically enlarged the possibilities and raised the expectations of what the experience of listening to popular music on record could be. On the basis of this perception, Sgt. Pepper became the catalyst for an explosion of mass enthusiasm for album-formatted rock that would revolutionise both the aesthetics and the economics of the record business in ways that far outstripped the earlier pop explosions triggered by the Elvis phenomenon of 1956 and the Beatlemania phenomenon of 1963. In the wake of Sgt. Pepper, the underground and mainstream press widely publicised the Beatles as leaders of youth culture, as well as "lifestyle revolutionaries". The album was the first major pop/rock LP to include its complete lyrics, which appeared on the back cover. Those lyrics were the subject of critical analysis; for instance, in late 1967 the album was the subject of a scholarly inquiry by American literary critic and professor of English Richard Poirier, who observed that his students were "listening to the group's music with a degree of engagement that he, as a teacher of literature, could only envy". The elaborate cover also attracted considerable interest and study. A collage designed by pop artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth, it depicted the group as the fictional band referred to in the album's title track standing in front of a crowd of famous people. The heavy moustaches worn by the group reflected the growing influence of the hippie movement, while cultural historian Jonathan Harris describes their "brightly coloured parodies of military uniforms" as a knowingly "anti-authoritarian and anti-establishment" display. Sgt. Pepper topped the UK charts for 23 consecutive weeks, with a further four weeks at number one in the period through to February 1968. With 2.5 million copies sold within three months of its release, Sgt. Pepper's initial commercial success exceeded that of all previous Beatles albums. It was the first rock album to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. It sustained its immense popularity into the 21st century while breaking numerous sales records. Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine Two Beatles film projects were conceived within weeks of completing Sgt. Pepper: Magical Mystery Tour, a one-hour television film, and Yellow Submarine, an animated feature-length film produced by United Artists. The group began recording music for the former in late April 1967, but the project then lay dormant as they focused on recording songs for the latter. On 25 June, the Beatles performed their forthcoming single "All You Need Is Love" to an estimated 350 million viewers on Our World, the first live global television link. Released a week later, during the Summer of Love, the song was adopted as a flower power anthem. The Beatles' use of psychedelic drugs was at its height during that summer. In July and August, the group pursued interests related to similar utopian-based ideology, including a week-long investigation into the possibility of starting an island-based commune off the coast of Greece. On 24 August, the group were introduced to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in London. The next day, they travelled to Bangor for his Transcendental Meditation retreat. On 27 August, their manager's assistant, Peter Brown, phoned to inform them that Epstein had died. The coroner ruled the death an accidental carbitol overdose, although it was widely rumoured to be a suicide. His death left the group disoriented and fearful about the future. Lennon recalled: "We collapsed. I knew that we were in trouble then. I didn't really have any misconceptions about our ability to do anything other than play music, and I was scared. I thought, 'We've fuckin' had it now.'" Harrison's then-wife Pattie Boyd remembered that "Paul and George were in complete shock. I don't think it could have been worse if they had heard that their own fathers had dropped dead." During a band meeting in September, McCartney recommended that the band proceed with Magical Mystery Tour. The Magical Mystery Tour soundtrack was released in the UK as a six-track double extended play (EP) in early December 1967. It was the first example of a double EP in the UK. The record carried on the psychedelic vein of Sgt. Pepper, though in line with the band's wishes, the packaging reinforced the idea that the release was a film soundtrack rather than a follow-up to Sgt. Pepper. In the US, the soundtrack appeared as an identically titled LP that also included five tracks from the band's recent singles. In its first three weeks, the album set a record for the highest initial sales of any Capitol LP, and it is the only Capitol compilation later to be adopted in the band's official canon of studio albums. Magical Mystery Tour first aired on Boxing Day to an audience of approximately 15 million. Largely directed by McCartney, the film was the band's first critical failure in the UK. It was dismissed as "blatant rubbish" by the Daily Express; the Daily Mail called it "a colossal conceit"; and The Guardian labelled the film "a kind of fantasy morality play about the grossness and warmth and stupidity of the audience". Gould describes it as "a great deal of raw footage showing a group of people getting on, getting off, and riding on a bus". Although the viewership figures were respectable, its slating in the press led US television networks to lose interest in broadcasting the film. The group were less involved with Yellow Submarine, which featured the band appearing as themselves for only a short live-action segment. Premiering in July 1968, the film featured cartoon versions of the band members and a soundtrack with eleven of their songs, including four unreleased studio recordings that made their debut in the film. Critics praised the film for its music, humour and innovative visual style. A soundtrack LP was issued seven months later; it contained those four new songs, the title track (already issued on Revolver), "All You Need Is Love" (already issued as a single and on the US Magical Mystery Tour LP) and seven instrumental pieces composed by Martin. India retreat, Apple Corps and the White Album In February 1968, the Beatles travelled to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram in Rishikesh, India, to take part in a three-month meditation "Guide Course". Their time in India marked one of the band's most prolific periods, yielding numerous songs, including a majority of those on their next album. However, Starr left after only ten days, unable to stomach the food, and McCartney eventually grew bored and departed a month later. For Lennon and Harrison, creativity turned to question when an electronics technician known as Magic Alex suggested that the Maharishi was attempting to manipulate them. When he alleged that the Maharishi had made sexual advances to women attendees, a persuaded Lennon left abruptly just two months into the course, bringing an unconvinced Harrison and the remainder of the group's entourage with him. In anger, Lennon wrote a scathing song titled "Maharishi", renamed "Sexy Sadie" to avoid potential legal issues. McCartney said, "We made a mistake. We thought there was more to him than there was." In May, Lennon and McCartney travelled to New York for the public unveiling of the Beatles' new business venture, Apple Corps. It was initially formed several months earlier as part of a plan to create a tax-effective business structure, but the band then desired to extend the corporation to other pursuits, including record distribution, peace activism, and education. McCartney described Apple as "rather like a Western communism". The enterprise drained the group financially with a series of unsuccessful projects handled largely by members of the Beatles' entourage, who were given their jobs regardless of talent and experience. Among its numerous subsidiaries were Apple Electronics, established to foster technological innovations with Magic Alex at the head, and Apple Retailing, which opened the short-lived Apple Boutique in London. Harrison later said, "Basically, it was chaos ... John and Paul got carried away with the idea and blew millions, and Ringo and I just had to go along with it." From late May to mid-October 1968, the group recorded what became The Beatles, a double LP commonly known as "the White Album" for its virtually featureless cover. During this time, relations between the members grew openly divisive. Starr quit for two weeks, leaving his bandmates to record "Back in the U.S.S.R." and "Dear Prudence" as a trio, with McCartney filling in on drums. Lennon had lost interest in collaborating with McCartney, whose contribution "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" he scorned as "granny music shit". Tensions were further aggravated by Lennon's romantic preoccupation with avant-garde artist Yoko Ono, whom he insisted on bringing to the sessions despite the group's well-established understanding that girlfriends were not allowed in the studio. McCartney has recalled that the album "wasn't a pleasant one to make". He and Lennon identified the sessions as the start of the band's break-up. With the record, the band executed a wider range of musical styles and broke with their recent tradition of incorporating several musical styles in one song by keeping each piece of music consistently faithful to a select genre. During the sessions, the group upgraded to an eight-track tape console, which made it easier for them to layer tracks piecemeal, while the members often recorded independently of each other, affording the album a reputation as a collection of solo recordings rather than a unified group effort. Describing the double album, Lennon later said: "Every track is an individual track; there isn't any Beatle music on it. [It's] John and the band, Paul and the band, George and the band." The sessions also produced the Beatles' longest song yet, "Hey Jude", released in August as a non-album single with "Revolution". Issued in November, the White Album was the band's first Apple Records album release, although EMI continued to own their recordings. The record attracted more than 2 million advance orders, selling nearly 4 million copies in the US in little over a month, and its tracks dominated the playlists of American radio stations. Its lyrical content was the focus of much analysis by the counterculture. Despite its popularity, reviewers were largely confused by the album's content, and it failed to inspire the level of critical writing that Sgt. Pepper had. Abbey Road, Let It Be and separation Although Let It Be was the Beatles' final album release, it was largely recorded before Abbey Road. The project's impetus came from an idea Martin attributes to McCartney, who suggested they "record an album of new material and rehearse it, then perform it before a live audience for the very first time – on record and on film". Originally intended for a one-hour television programme to be called Beatles at Work, in the event much of the album's content came from studio work beginning in January 1969, many hours of which were captured on film by director Michael Lindsay-Hogg. Martin said that the project was "not at all a happy recording experience. It was a time when relations between the Beatles were at their lowest ebb." Lennon described the largely impromptu sessions as "hell ... the most miserable ... on Earth", and Harrison, "the low of all-time". Irritated by McCartney and Lennon, Harrison walked out for five days. Upon returning, he threatened to leave the band unless they "abandon[ed] all talk of live performance" and instead focused on finishing a new album, initially titled Get Back, using songs recorded for the TV special. He also demanded they cease work at Twickenham Film Studios, where the sessions had begun, and relocate to the newly finished Apple Studio. His bandmates agreed, and it was decided to salvage the footage shot for the TV production for use in a feature film. To alleviate tensions within the band and improve the quality of their live sound, Harrison invited keyboardist Billy Preston to participate in the last nine days of sessions. Preston received label billing on the "Get Back" single – the only musician ever to receive that acknowledgment on an official Beatles release. After the rehearsals, the band could not agree on a location to film a concert, rejecting several ideas, including a boat at sea, a lunatic asylum, the Libyan desert, and the Colosseum. Ultimately, what would be their final live performance was filmed on the rooftop of the Apple Corps building at 3 Savile Row, London, on 30 January 1969. Five weeks later, engineer Glyn Johns, whom Lewisohn describes as Get Back's "uncredited producer", began work assembling an album, given "free rein" as the band "all but washed their hands of the entire project". New strains developed between the band members regarding the appointment of a financial adviser, the need for which had become evident without Epstein to manage business affairs. Lennon, Harrison and Starr favoured Allen Klein, who had managed the Rolling Stones and Sam Cooke; McCartney wanted Lee and John Eastman – father and brother, respectively, of Linda Eastman, whom McCartney married on 12 March. Agreement could not be reached, so both Klein and the Eastmans were temporarily appointed: Klein as the Beatles' business manager and the Eastmans as their lawyers. Further conflict ensued, however, and financial opportunities were lost. On 8 May, Klein was named sole manager of the band, the Eastmans having previously been dismissed as the Beatles' lawyers. McCartney refused to sign the management contract with Klein, but he was out-voted by the other Beatles. Martin stated that he was surprised when McCartney asked him to produce another album, as the Get Back sessions had been "a miserable experience" and he had "thought it was the end of the road for all of us". The primary recording sessions for Abbey Road began on 2 July. Lennon, who rejected Martin's proposed format of a "continuously moving piece of music", wanted his and McCartney's songs to occupy separate sides of the album. The eventual format, with individually composed songs on the first side and the second consisting largely of a medley, was McCartney's suggested compromise. Emerick noted that the replacement of the studio's valve-based mixing console with a transistorised one yielded a less punchy sound, leaving the group frustrated at the thinner tone and lack of impact and contributing to its "kinder, gentler" feel relative to their previous albums. On 4 July, the first solo single by a Beatle was released: Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance", credited to the Plastic Ono Band. The completion and mixing of "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" on 20 August was the last occasion on which all four Beatles were together in the same studio. On 8 September, while Starr was in hospital, the other band members met to discuss recording a new album. They considered a different approach to songwriting by ending the Lennon–McCartney pretence and having four compositions apiece from Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, with two from Starr and a lead single around Christmas. On 20 September, Lennon announced his departure to the rest of the group but agreed to withhold a public announcement to avoid undermining sales of the forthcoming album. Released on 26 September, Abbey Road sold four million copies within three months and topped the UK charts for a total of seventeen weeks. Its second track, the ballad "Something", was issued as a single – the only Harrison composition that appeared as a Beatles A-side. Abbey Road received mixed reviews, although the medley met with general acclaim. Unterberger considers it "a fitting swan song for the group", containing "some of the greatest harmonies to be heard on any rock record". Musicologist and author Ian MacDonald calls the album "erratic and often hollow", despite the "semblance of unity and coherence" offered by the medley. Martin singled it out as his favourite Beatles album; Lennon said it was "competent" but had "no life in it". For the still unfinished Get Back album, one last song, Harrison's "I Me Mine", was recorded on 3 January 1970. Lennon, in Denmark at the time, did not participate. In March, rejecting the work Johns had done on the project, now retitled Let It Be, Klein gave the session tapes to American producer Phil Spector, who had recently produced Lennon's solo single "Instant Karma!" In addition to remixing the material, Spector edited, spliced and overdubbed several of the recordings that had been intended as "live". McCartney was unhappy with the producer's approach and particularly dissatisfied with the lavish orchestration on "The Long and Winding Road", which involved a fourteen-voice choir and 36-piece instrumental ensemble. McCartney's demands that the alterations to the song be reverted were ignored, and he publicly announced his departure from the band on 10 April, a week before the release of his first self-titled solo album. On 8 May 1970, Let It Be was released. Its accompanying single, "The Long and Winding Road", was expected to be the Beatles' last; it was released in the US, but not in the UK. The Let It Be documentary film followed later that month, and would win the 1970 Academy Award for Best Original Song Score. Sunday Telegraph critic Penelope Gilliatt called it "a very bad film and a touching one ... about the breaking apart of this reassuring, geometrically perfect, once apparently ageless family of siblings". Several reviewers stated that some of the performances in the film sounded better than their analogous album tracks. Describing Let It Be as the "only Beatles album to occasion negative, even hostile reviews", Unterberger calls it "on the whole underrated"; he singles out "some good moments of straight hard rock in 'I've Got a Feeling' and 'Dig a Pony'" and praises "Let It Be", "Get Back", and "the folky 'Two of Us', with John and Paul harmonising together". McCartney filed suit for the dissolution of the Beatles' contractual partnership on 31 December 1970. Legal disputes continued long after their break-up, and the dissolution was not formalised until 29 December 1974, when Lennon signed the paperwork terminating the partnership while on vacation with his family at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. After the breakup 1970s Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr all released solo albums in 1970. Their solo records sometimes involved one or more of the other members; Starr's Ringo (1973) was the only album to include compositions and performances by all four ex-Beatles, albeit on separate songs. With Starr's participation, Harrison staged the Concert for Bangladesh in New York City in August 1971. Other than an unreleased jam session in 1974, later bootlegged as A Toot and a Snore in '74, Lennon and McCartney never recorded together again. Two double-LP sets of the Beatles' greatest hits, compiled by Klein, 1962–1966 and 1967–1970, were released in 1973, at first under the Apple Records imprint. Commonly known as the "Red Album" and "Blue Album", respectively, each has earned a Multi-Platinum certification in the US and a Platinum certification in the UK. Between 1976 and 1982, EMI/Capitol released a wave of compilation albums without input from the ex-Beatles, starting with the double-disc compilation Rock 'n' Roll Music. The only one to feature previously unreleased material was The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl (1977); the first officially issued concert recordings by the group, it contained selections from two shows they played during their 1964 and 1965 US tours. The music and enduring fame of the Beatles were commercially exploited in various other ways, again often outside their creative control. In April 1974, the musical John, Paul, George, Ringo ... and Bert, written by Willy Russell and featuring singer Barbara Dickson, opened in London. It included, with permission from Northern Songs, eleven Lennon–McCartney compositions and one by Harrison, "Here Comes the Sun". Displeased with the production's use of his song, Harrison withdrew his permission to use it. Later that year, the off-Broadway musical Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road opened. All This and World War II (1976) was an unorthodox nonfiction film that combined newsreel footage with covers of Beatles songs by performers ranging from Elton John and Keith Moon to the London Symphony Orchestra. The Broadway musical Beatlemania, an unauthorised nostalgia revue, opened in early 1977 and proved popular, spinning off five separate touring productions. In 1979, the band sued the producers, settling for several million dollars in damages. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978), a musical film starring the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton, was a commercial failure and an "artistic fiasco", according to Ingham. Accompanying the wave of Beatles nostalgia and persistent reunion rumours in the US during the 1970s, several entrepreneurs made public offers to the Beatles for a reunion concert. Promoter Bill Sargent first offered the Beatles $10 million for a reunion concert in 1974. He raised his offer to $30 million in January 1976 and then to $50 million the following month. On 24 April 1976, during a broadcast of Saturday Night Live, producer Lorne Michaels jokingly offered the Beatles $3,000 to reunite on the show. Lennon and McCartney were watching the live broadcast at Lennon's apartment at the Dakota in New York, which was within driving distance of the NBC studio where the show was being broadcast. The former bandmates briefly entertained the idea of going to the studio and surprising Michaels by accepting his offer, but decided not to. 1980s In December 1980, Lennon was shot and killed outside his New York City apartment. Harrison rewrote the lyrics of his song "All Those Years Ago" in Lennon's honour. With Starr on drums and McCartney and his wife, Linda, contributing backing vocals, the song was released as a single in May 1981. McCartney's own tribute, "Here Today", appeared on his Tug of War album in April 1982. In 1984, Starr co-starred in McCartney's film Give My Regards to Broad Street, and played with McCartney on several of the songs on the soundtrack. In 1987, Harrison's Cloud Nine album included "When We Was Fab", a song about the Beatlemania era. When the Beatles' studio albums were released on CD by EMI and Apple Corps in 1987, their catalogue was standardised throughout the world, establishing a canon of the twelve original studio LPs as issued in the UK plus the US LP version of Magical Mystery Tour. All the remaining material from the singles and EPs that had not appeared on these thirteen studio albums was gathered on the two-volume compilation Past Masters (1988). Except for the Red and Blue albums, EMI deleted all its other Beatles compilations – including the Hollywood Bowl record – from its catalogue. In 1988, the Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, their first year of eligibility. Harrison and Starr attended the ceremony with Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, and his two sons, Julian and Sean. McCartney declined to attend, citing unresolved "business differences" that would make him "feel like a complete hypocrite waving and smiling with them at a fake reunion". The following year, EMI/Capitol settled a decade-long lawsuit filed by the band over royalties, clearing the way to commercially package previously unreleased material. 1990s Live at the BBC, the first official release of unissued Beatles performances in seventeen years, appeared in 1994. That same year McCartney, Harrison and Starr collaborated on the Anthology project. Anthology was the culmination of work begun in 1970, when Apple Corps director Neil Aspinall, their former road manager and personal assistant, had started to gather material for a documentary with the working title The Long and Winding Road. During 1995–96, the project yielded a television miniseries, an eight-volume video set, and three two-CD/three-LP box sets featuring artwork by Klaus Voormann. Documenting their history in the band's own words, the Anthology project included the release of several unissued Beatles recordings. Alongside producer Jeff Lynne, McCartney, Harrison and Starr also added new instrumental and vocal parts to songs recorded as demos by Lennon in the late 1970s, resulting in the release of two "new" Beatles singles, "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love". A third Lennon demo, "Now and Then", was also attempted, but abandoned due to the low quality of the recording. The Anthology releases were commercially successful and the television series was viewed by an estimated 400 million people. A book, The Beatles Anthology, followed in October 2000. In 1999, to coincide with the re-release of the 1968 film Yellow Submarine, an expanded soundtrack album, Yellow Submarine Songtrack, was issued. 2000s The Beatles' 1, a compilation album of the band's British and American number-one hits, was released on 13 November 2000. It became the fastest-selling album of all time, with 3.6 million sold in its first week and 13 million within a month. It topped albums charts in at least 28 countries. The compilation had sold 31 million copies globally by April 2009. Harrison died from metastatic lung cancer in November 2001. McCartney and Starr were among the musicians who performed at the Concert for George, organised by Eric Clapton and Harrison's widow, Olivia. The tribute event took place at the Royal Albert Hall on the first anniversary of Harrison's death. In 2003, Let It Be... Naked, a reconceived version of the Let It Be album, with McCartney supervising production, was released. One of the main differences from the Spector-produced version was the omission of the original string arrangements. It was a top-ten hit in both Britain and America. The US album configurations from 1964 to 1965 were released as box sets in 2004 and 2006; The Capitol Albums, Volume 1 and Volume 2 included both stereo and mono versions based on the mixes that were prepared for vinyl at the time of the music's original American release. As a soundtrack for Cirque du Soleil's Las Vegas Beatles stage revue, Love, George Martin and his son Giles remixed and blended 130 of the band's recordings to create what Martin called "a way of re-living the whole Beatles musical lifespan in a very condensed period". The show premiered in June 2006, and the Love album was released that November. In April 2009, Starr performed three songs with McCartney at a benefit concert held at New York's Radio City Music Hall and organised by McCartney. On 9 September 2009, the Beatles' entire back catalogue was reissued following an extensive digital remastering process that lasted four years. Stereo editions of all twelve original UK studio albums, along with Magical Mystery Tour and the Past Masters compilation, were released on compact disc both individually and as a box set. A second collection, The Beatles in Mono, included remastered versions of every Beatles album released in true mono along with the original 1965 stereo mixes of Help! and Rubber Soul (both of which Martin had remixed for the 1987 editions). The Beatles: Rock Band, a music video game in the Rock Band series, was issued on the same day. In December 2009, the band's catalogue was officially released in FLAC and MP3 format in a limited edition of 30,000 USB flash drives. 2010s Owing to a long-running royalty disagreement, the Beatles were among the last major artists to sign deals with online music services. Residual disagreement emanating from Apple Corps' dispute with Apple, Inc., iTunes' owners, over the use of the name "Apple" was also partly responsible for the delay, although in 2008, McCartney stated that the main obstacle to making the Beatles' catalogue available online was that EMI "want[s] something we're not prepared to give them". In 2010, the official canon of thirteen Beatles studio albums, Past Masters, and the "Red" and "Blue" greatest-hits albums were made available on iTunes. In 2012, EMI's recorded music operations were sold to Universal Music Group. In order for Universal Music to acquire EMI, the European Union, for antitrust reasons, forced EMI to spin off assets including Parlophone. Universal was allowed to keep the Beatles' recorded music catalogue, managed by Capitol Records under its Capitol Music Group division. The entire original Beatles album catalogue was also reissued on vinyl in 2012; available either individually or as a box set. In 2013, a second volume of BBC recordings, On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2, was released. That December saw the release of another 59 Beatles recordings on iTunes. The set, titled The Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1963, had the opportunity to gain a 70-year copyright extension conditional on the songs being published at least once before the end of 2013. Apple Records released the recordings on 17 December to prevent them from going into the public domain and had them taken down from iTunes later that same day. Fan reactions to the release were mixed, with one blogger saying "the hardcore Beatles collectors who are trying to obtain everything will already have these." On 26 January 2014, McCartney and Starr performed together at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The following day, The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to the Beatles television special was taped in the Los Angeles Convention Center's West Hall. It aired on 9 February, the exact date of – and at the same time, and on the same network as – the original broadcast of the Beatles' first US television appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, 50 years earlier. The special included performances of Beatles songs by current artists as well as by McCartney and Starr, archival footage, and interviews with the two surviving ex-Beatles carried out by David Letterman at the Ed Sullivan Theater. In December 2015, the Beatles released their catalogue for streaming on various streaming music services including Spotify and Apple Music. In September 2016, the documentary film The Beatles: Eight Days a Week was released. Directed by Ron Howard, it chronicled the Beatles' career during their touring years from 1961 to 1966, from their performances in Liverpool's the Cavern Club in 1961 to their final concert in San Francisco in 1966. The film was released theatrically on 15 September in the UK and the US, and started streaming on Hulu on 17 September. It received several awards and nominations, including for Best Documentary at the 70th British Academy Film Awards and the Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special at the 69th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards. An expanded, remixed and remastered version of The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl was released on 9 September, to coincide with the release of the film. On 18 May 2017, Sirius XM Radio launched a 24/7 radio channel, The Beatles Channel. A week later, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was reissued with new stereo mixes and unreleased material for the album's 50th anniversary. Similar box sets were released for The Beatles in November 2018, and Abbey Road in September 2019. On the first week of October 2019, Abbey Road returned to number one on the UK Albums Chart. The Beatles broke their own record for the album with the longest gap between topping the charts as Abbey Road hit the top spot 50 years after its original release. 2020s In November 2021, The Beatles: Get Back, a documentary directed by Peter Jackson using footage captured for the Let It Be film, was released on Disney+ as a three-part miniseries. A book also titled The Beatles: Get Back was released on 12 October, ahead of the documentary. A super deluxe version of the Let It Be album was released on 15 October. In January 2022, the album Get Back (Rooftop Performance), consisting of newly mixed audio of the Beatles' rooftop performance, was released on streaming services. In 2022, McCartney and Starr collaborated on a new recording of "Let It Be" with Dolly Parton, Peter Frampton and Mick Fleetwood, which was released on Parton's album Rockstar in November 2023. In October, a special edition of Revolver was released, featuring unreleased demos, studio outtakes, the original mono mix and a new stereo remix using AI de-mixing technology developed by Peter Jackson's WingNut Films, which had previously been used to restore audio for the documentary Get Back. New music videos were produced for "Here, There and Everywhere" and "I'm Only Sleeping", the latter of which won the Grammy Award for Best Music Video at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards. In June 2023, McCartney announced plans to release "the final Beatles record" later in the year, using Jackson's de-mixing technology to extract Lennon's voice from an old demo of a song that he had written as a solo artist. In October 2023, the song was revealed to be "Now and Then", with a physical and digital release date of 2 November 2023. The official music video for "Now and Then" was released the following day, garnering upwards of 8 million views in its first 12 hours, as the song arrived on Spotify's rankings as one of the most-streamed current songs. "Now and Then" debuted simultaneously across music, alternative, news/talk and sports stations. The song's premiere achieved the record for the most radio stations to simulcast a music track. The song became their first UK number one single since 1969. On 8 May 2024 the 1970 film Let It Be, digitally restored by Peter Jackson's Park Road Post, was released on Disney+, marking the first time it has been publicly screened since its original theatrical release. Artistry Development In Icons of Rock: An Encyclopedia of the Legends Who Changed Music Forever, Scott Schinder and Andy Schwartz describe the Beatles' musical evolution: In their initial incarnation as cheerful, wisecracking moptops, the Fab Four revolutionised the sound, style, and attitude of popular music and opened rock and roll's doors to a tidal wave of British rock acts. Their initial impact would have been enough to establish the Beatles as one of their era's most influential cultural forces, but they didn't stop there. Although their initial style was a highly original, irresistibly catchy synthesis of early American rock and roll and R&B, the Beatles spent the rest of the 1960s expanding rock's stylistic frontiers, consistently staking out new musical territory on each release. The band's increasingly sophisticated experimentation encompassed a variety of genres, including folk-rock, country, psychedelia, and baroque pop, without sacrificing the effortless mass appeal of their early work. In The Beatles as Musicians, Walter Everett describes Lennon and McCartney's contrasting motivations and approaches to composition: "McCartney may be said to have constantly developed – as a means to entertain – a focused musical talent with an ear for counterpoint and other aspects of craft in the demonstration of a universally agreed-upon common language that he did much to enrich. Conversely, Lennon's mature music is best appreciated as the daring product of a largely unconscious, searching but undisciplined artistic sensibility." Ian MacDonald describes McCartney as "a natural melodist – a creator of tunes capable of existing apart from their harmony". His melody lines are characterised as primarily "vertical", employing wide, consonant intervals which express his "extrovert energy and optimism". Conversely, Lennon's "sedentary, ironic personality" is reflected in a "horizontal" approach featuring minimal, dissonant intervals and repetitive melodies which rely on their harmonic accompaniment for interest: "Basically a realist, he instinctively kept his melodies close to the rhythms and cadences of speech, colouring his lyrics with bluesy tone and harmony rather than creating tunes that made striking shapes of their own." MacDonald praises Harrison's lead guitar work for the role his "characterful lines and textural colourings" play in supporting Lennon and McCartney's parts and describes Starr as "the father of modern pop/rock drumming". Influences The Beatles' earliest influences include Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Gene Vincent. During the Beatles' co-residency with Little Richard at the Star-Club in Hamburg, from April to May 1962, he advised them on the proper technique for performing his songs. Of Presley, Lennon said, "Nothing really affected me until I heard Elvis. If there hadn't been Elvis, there would not have been the Beatles." Chuck Berry was particularly influential in terms of songwriting and lyrics. Lennon noted, "He was well advanced of his time lyric-wise. We all owe a lot to him." Other early influences include Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, Roy Orbison, the Everly Brothers and Jerry Lee Lewis. The Beatles continued to absorb influences long after their initial success, often finding new musical and lyrical avenues by listening to their contemporaries, including Bob Dylan, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Who, Frank Zappa, the Lovin' Spoonful, the Byrds and the Beach Boys, whose 1966 album Pet Sounds amazed and inspired McCartney. Referring to the Beach Boys' creative leader, Martin later stated: "No one made a greater impact on the Beatles than Brian [Wilson]." Ravi Shankar, with whom Harrison studied for six weeks in India in late 1966, had a significant effect on his musical development during the band's later years. Genres Originating as a skiffle group, the Beatles quickly embraced 1950s rock and roll and helped pioneer the Merseybeat genre, and their repertoire ultimately expanded to include a broad variety of pop music. Reflecting the range of styles they explored, Lennon said of Beatles for Sale, "You could call our new one a Beatles country-and-western LP", while Gould credits Rubber Soul as "the instrument by which legions of folk-music enthusiasts were coaxed into the camp of pop". Although the 1965 song "Yesterday" was not the first pop record to employ orchestral strings, it marked the group's first recorded use of classical music elements. Gould observes, "The more traditional sound of strings allowed for a fresh appreciation of their talent as composers by listeners who were otherwise allergic to the din of drums and electric guitars." They continued to experiment with string arrangements to various effect; Sgt. Pepper's "She's Leaving Home", for instance, is "cast in the mold of a sentimental Victorian ballad", Gould writes, "its words and music filled with the clichés of musical melodrama". The band's stylistic range expanded in another direction with their 1966 B-side "Rain", described by Martin Strong as "the first overtly psychedelic Beatles record". Other psychedelic numbers followed, such as "Tomorrow Never Knows" (recorded before "Rain"), "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", and "I Am the Walrus". The influence of Indian classical music was evident in Harrison's "The Inner Light", "Love You To", and "Within You Without You" – Gould describes the latter two as attempts "to replicate the raga form in miniature". Innovation was the most striking feature of their creative evolution, according to music historian and pianist Michael Campbell: "'A Day in the Life' encapsulates the art and achievement of the Beatles as well as any single track can. It highlights key features of their music: the sound imagination, the persistence of tuneful melody, and the close coordination between words and music. It represents a new category of song – more sophisticated than pop ... and uniquely innovative. There literally had never before been a song – classical or vernacular – that had blended so many disparate elements so imaginatively." Philosophy professor Bruce Ellis Benson agrees: "The Beatles ... give us a wonderful example of how such far-ranging influences as Celtic music, rhythm and blues, and country and western could be put together in a new way." Author Dominic Pedler describes the way they crossed musical styles: "Far from moving sequentially from one genre to another (as is sometimes conveniently suggested) the group maintained in parallel their mastery of the traditional, catchy chart hit while simultaneously forging rock and dabbling with a wide range of peripheral influences from country to vaudeville. One of these threads was their take on folk music, which would form such essential groundwork for their later collisions with Indian music and philosophy." As the personal relationships between the band members grew increasingly strained, their individual tastes became more apparent. The minimalistic cover artwork for the White Album contrasted with the complexity and diversity of its music, which encompassed Lennon's "Revolution 9" (whose musique concrète approach was influenced by Yoko Ono), Starr's country song "Don't Pass Me By", Harrison's rock ballad "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", and the "proto-metal roar" of McCartney's "Helter Skelter". Contribution of George Martin George Martin's close involvement in his role as producer made him one of the leading candidates for the informal title of the "fifth Beatle". He applied his classical musical training in various ways, and functioned as "an informal music teacher" to the progressing songwriters, according to Gould. Martin suggested to a sceptical McCartney that the arrangement of "Yesterday" should feature a string quartet accompaniment, thereby introducing the Beatles to a "hitherto unsuspected world of classical instrumental colour", in MacDonald's description. Their creative development was also facilitated by Martin's willingness to experiment in response to their suggestions, such as adding "something baroque" to a particular recording. In addition to scoring orchestral arrangements for recordings, Martin often performed on them, playing instruments including piano, organ and brass. Collaborating with Lennon and McCartney required Martin to adapt to their different approaches to songwriting and recording. MacDonald comments, "while [he] worked more naturally with the conventionally articulate McCartney, the challenge of catering to Lennon's intuitive approach generally spurred him to his more original arrangements, of which "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" is an outstanding example." Martin said of the two composers' distinct songwriting styles and his stabilising influence: Compared with Paul's songs, all of which seemed to keep in some sort of touch with reality, John's had a psychedelic, almost mystical quality ... John's imagery is one of the best things about his work – 'tangerine trees', 'marmalade skies', 'cellophane flowers' ... I always saw him as an aural Salvador Dalí, rather than some drug-ridden record artist. On the other hand, I would be stupid to pretend that drugs didn't figure quite heavily in the Beatles' lives at that time ... they knew that I, in my schoolmasterly role, didn't approve ... Not only was I not into it myself, I couldn't see the need for it; and there's no doubt that, if I too had been on dope, Pepper would never have been the album it was. Perhaps it was the combination of dope and no dope that worked, who knows? Harrison echoed Martin's description of his stabilising role: "I think we just grew through those years together, him as the straight man and us as the loonies; but he was always there for us to interpret our madness – we used to be slightly avant-garde on certain days of the week, and he would be there as the anchor person, to communicate that through the engineers and on to the tape." In the studio Making innovative use of technology while expanding the possibilities of recorded music, the Beatles urged experimentation by Martin and his recording engineers. Seeking ways to put chance occurrences to creative use, accidental guitar feedback, a resonating glass bottle, a tape loaded the wrong way round so that it played backwards – any of these might be incorporated into their music. Their desire to create new sounds on every new recording, combined with Martin's arranging abilities and the studio expertise of EMI staff engineers Norman Smith, Ken Townsend and Geoff Emerick, all contributed significantly to their records from Rubber Soul and, especially, Revolver onwards. Along with innovative studio techniques such as sound effects, unconventional microphone placements, tape loops, double tracking, and vari-speed recording, the Beatles augmented their songs with instruments that were unconventional in rock music at the time. These included string and brass ensembles as well as Indian instruments such as the sitar in "Norwegian Wood" and the swarmandal in "Strawberry Fields Forever". They also used novel electronic instruments such as the Mellotron, with which McCartney supplied the flute voices on the "Strawberry Fields Forever" intro, and the clavioline, an electronic keyboard that created the unusual oboe-like sound on "Baby, You're a Rich Man". Legacy Former Rolling Stone magazine associate editor Robert Greenfield compared the Beatles to Picasso, as "artists who broke through the constraints of their time period to come up with something that was unique and original ... [I]n the form of popular music, no one will ever be more revolutionary, more creative and more distinctive ..." The British poet Philip Larkin described their work as "an enchanting and intoxicating hybrid of Negro rock-and-roll with their own adolescent romanticism" and "the first advance in popular music since the War". In 1964, the Beatles' arrival in the U.S. is credited with initiating the album era; the music historian Joel Whitburn says that LP sales soon "exploded and eventually outpaced the sales and releases of singles" in the music industry. They not only sparked the British Invasion of the US, they became a globally influential phenomenon as well. From the 1920s, the US had dominated popular entertainment culture throughout much of the world, via Hollywood films, jazz, the music of Broadway and Tin Pan Alley, and later, the rock and roll that first emerged in Memphis, Tennessee. The Beatles are regarded as British cultural icons, with young adults from abroad naming the band among a group of people whom they most associated with UK culture. Their musical innovations and commercial success inspired musicians worldwide. Many artists have acknowledged the Beatles' influence and enjoyed chart success with covers of their songs. On radio, their arrival marked the beginning of a new era; in 1968 the programme director of New York's WABC radio station forbade his DJs from playing any "pre-Beatles" music, marking the defining line of what would be considered oldies on American radio. They helped to redefine the album as something more than just a few hits padded out with "filler", and they were primary innovators of the modern music video. The Shea Stadium show with which they opened their 1965 North American tour attracted an estimated 55,600 people, then the largest audience in concert history; Spitz describes the event as a "major breakthrough ... a giant step toward reshaping the concert business". Emulation of their clothing and especially their hairstyles, which became a mark of rebellion, had a global impact on fashion. According to Gould, the Beatles changed the way people listened to popular music and experienced its role in their lives. From what began as the Beatlemania fad, the group's popularity grew into what was seen as an embodiment of sociocultural movements of the decade. As icons of the 1960s counterculture, Gould continues, they became a catalyst for bohemianism and activism in various social and political arenas, fuelling movements such as women's liberation, gay liberation and environmentalism. According to Peter Lavezzoli, after the "more popular than Jesus" controversy in 1966, the Beatles felt considerable pressure to say the right things and "began a concerted effort to spread a message of wisdom and higher consciousness". Other commentators such as Mikal Gilmore and Todd Leopold have traced the inception of their socio-cultural impact earlier, interpreting even the Beatlemania period, particularly on their first visit to the US, as a key moment in the development of generational awareness. Referring to their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show Leopold states: "In many ways, the Sullivan appearance marked the beginning of a cultural revolution ... The Beatles were like aliens dropped into the United States of 1964." According to Gilmore: Elvis Presley had shown us how rebellion could be fashioned into eye-opening style; the Beatles were showing us how style could have the impact of cultural revelation – or at least how a pop vision might be forged into an unimpeachable consensus. Established in 2009, Global Beatles Day is an annual holiday on 25 June each year that honours and celebrates the ideals of the Beatles. The date was chosen to commemorate the date the group participated in the BBC programme Our World in 1967, performing "All You Need Is Love" broadcast to an international audience. Awards and achievements In 1965, Queen Elizabeth II appointed Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). The Beatles won the 1971 Academy Award for Best Original Song Score for the film Let It Be (1970). The recipients of seven Grammy Awards and fifteen Ivor Novello Awards, the Beatles have six Diamond albums, as well as 20 Multi-Platinum albums, 16 Platinum albums and six Gold albums in the US. In the UK, the Beatles have four Multi-Platinum albums, four Platinum albums, eight Gold albums and one Silver album. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. The best-selling band in history, the Beatles have sold more than 600 million units as of 2012. From 1991 to 2009 the Beatles sold 57 million albums in United States, according to Nielsen Soundscan. They have had more number-one albums on the UK charts, fifteen, and sold more singles in the UK, 21.9 million, than any other act. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the Beatles as the most significant and influential rock music artists of the last 50 years. They ranked number one on Billboard magazine's list of the all-time most successful Hot 100 artists, released in 2008 to celebrate the US singles chart's 50th anniversary. As of 2017, they hold the record for most number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100, with twenty. The Recording Industry Association of America certifies that the Beatles have sold 183 million units in the US, more than any other artist. They were collectively included in Time magazine's compilation of the 20th century's 100 most influential people. In 2014, they received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. On 16 January each year, beginning in 2001, people celebrate World Beatles Day under UNESCO. This date has direct relation to the opening of the Cavern Club in 1957. In 2007, the Beatles became the first band to feature on a series of UK postage stamps issued by the Royal Mail. Earlier in 1999, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp dedicated to the Beatles and Yellow Submarine. In 2004 and 2011, Rolling Stone named them the greatest artist of all time. Personnel Timeline Discography The Beatles' core catalogue consists of thirteen studio albums and one compilation album which collects all the UK non-album singles and EP tracks: Song catalogue Until 1969, the Beatles' catalogue was published almost exclusively by Northern Songs Ltd, a company formed in February 1963 by music publisher Dick James specifically for Lennon and McCartney, though it later acquired songs by other artists. The company was organised with James and his partner, Emmanuel Silver, owning a controlling interest, variously described as 51% or 50% plus one share. McCartney had 20%. Reports again vary concerning Lennon's portion – 19 or 20% – and Brian Epstein's – 9 or 10% – which he received in lieu of a 25% band management fee. In 1965, the company went public. Five million shares were created, of which the original principals retained 3.75 million. James and Silver each received 937,500 shares (18.75% of 5 million); Lennon and McCartney each received 750,000 shares (15%); and Epstein's management company, NEMS Enterprises, received 375,000 shares (7.5%). Of the 1.25 million shares put up for sale, Harrison and Starr each acquired 40,000. At the time of the stock offering, Lennon and McCartney renewed their three-year publishing contracts, binding them to Northern Songs until 1973. Harrison created Harrisongs to represent his Beatles compositions, but signed a three-year contract with Northern Songs that gave it the copyright to his work through March 1968, which included "Taxman" and "Within You Without You". The songs on which Starr received co-writing credit before 1968, such as "What Goes On" and "Flying", were also Northern Songs copyrights. Harrison did not renew his contract with Northern Songs when it ended, signing instead with Apple Publishing while retaining the copyright to his work from that point on. Harrison thus owned the rights to his later Beatles songs such as "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Something". That year, as well, Starr created Startling Music, which holds the rights to his Beatles compositions, "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden". In March 1969, James arranged to sell his and his partner's shares of Northern Songs to the British broadcasting company Associated Television (ATV), founded by impresario Lew Grade, without first informing the Beatles. The band then made a bid to gain a controlling interest by attempting to work out a deal with a consortium of London brokerage firms that had accumulated a 14% holding. The deal collapsed over the objections of Lennon, who declared, "I'm sick of being fucked about by men in suits sitting on their fat arses in the City." By the end of May, ATV had acquired a majority stake in Northern Songs, controlling nearly the entire Lennon–McCartney catalogue, as well as any future material until 1973. In frustration, Lennon and McCartney sold their shares to ATV in late October 1969. In 1981, financial losses by ATV's parent company, Associated Communications Corporation (ACC), led it to attempt to sell its music division. According to authors Brian Southall and Rupert Perry, Grade contacted McCartney, offering ATV Music and Northern Songs for $30 million. According to an account McCartney gave in 1995, he met with Grade and explained he was interested solely in the Northern Songs catalogue if Grade were ever willing to "separate off" that portion of ATV Music. Soon afterwards, Grade offered to sell him Northern Songs for £20 million, giving the ex-Beatle "a week or so" to decide. By McCartney's account, he and Ono countered with a £5 million bid that was rejected. According to reports at the time, Grade refused to separate Northern Songs and turned down an offer of £21–25 million from McCartney and Ono for Northern Songs. In 1982, ACC was acquired in a takeover by Australian business magnate Robert Holmes à Court for £60 million. In 1985, Michael Jackson purchased ATV for a reported $47.5 million. The acquisition gave him control over the publishing rights to more than 200 Beatles songs, as well as 40,000 other copyrights. In 1995, in a deal that earned him a reported $110 million, Jackson merged his music publishing business with Sony, creating a new company, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, in which he held a 50% stake. The merger made the new company, then valued at over half a billion dollars, the third-largest music publisher in the world. In 2016, Sony acquired Jackson's share of Sony/ATV from the Jackson estate for $750 million. Despite the lack of publishing rights to most of their songs, Lennon's estate and McCartney continue to receive their respective shares of the writers' royalties, which together are 331⁄3% of total commercial proceeds in the US and which vary elsewhere around the world between 50 and 55%. Two of Lennon and McCartney's earliest songs – "Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You" – were published by an EMI subsidiary, Ardmore & Beechwood, before they signed with James. McCartney acquired their publishing rights from Ardmore in 1978, and they are the only two Beatles songs owned by McCartney's company MPL Communications. On 18 January 2017, McCartney filed a suit in the United States district court against Sony/ATV Music Publishing seeking to reclaim ownership of his share of the Lennon–McCartney song catalogue beginning in 2018. Under US copyright law, for works published before 1978 the author can reclaim copyrights assigned to a publisher after 56 years. McCartney and Sony agreed to a confidential settlement in June 2017. Selected filmography Fictionalised A Hard Day's Night (1964) Help! (1965) Magical Mystery Tour (1967) Yellow Submarine (1968) (brief cameo) Documentaries and filmed performances The Beatles at Shea Stadium (1966) Let It Be (1970) The Compleat Beatles (1982) It Was Twenty Years Ago Today (1987) (about Sgt. Pepper) The Beatles Anthology (1995) The Beatles: 1+ (2015) (collection of digitally restored music videos) The Beatles: Eight Days a Week (2016) (about Beatlemania and touring years) The Beatles: Get Back (2021) Now and Then: The Last Beatles Song (2023) (short film about the creation of "Now and Then") Concert tours See also Outline of the Beatles The Beatles timeline Grammy Award records – most Grammys won by a group List of songs recorded by the Beatles Notes References Citations Sources Further reading External links Official website The Beatles at Amazon Music The Beatles on the Internet Archive The Beatles on Twitter The Beatles at Curlie The Beatles – FBI file The Hugo Keesing Collection on the Beatles, University of Maryland, hdl:1903.1/4593

The prime minister of Canada is an official who serves as the primary minister of the Crown, chair of the Cabinet, and thus head of government of Canada. Twenty-three people (twenty-two men and one woman) have served as prime ministers. Officially, the prime minister is appointed by the governor general of Canada, but by constitutional convention, the prime minister must have the confidence of the elected House of Commons. Normally, this is the leader of the party caucus with the greatest number of seats in the house. But if that leader lacks the support of the majority, the governor general can appoint another leader who has that support or may dissolve parliament and call a new election. By constitutional convention, a prime minister holds a seat in parliament and, since the early 20th century, this has more specifically meant the House of Commons. The 23rd and current prime minister is Justin Trudeau, who assumed office on 4 November 2015. There are currently five living former prime ministers. The most recent former prime minister to die was Brian Mulroney, on 29 February 2024. Model The office is not outlined in any of the documents that constitute the written portion of the Constitution of Canada; executive authority is formally vested in the sovereign and exercised on the sovereign's behalf by the governor general. The prime ministership is part of Canada's constitutional convention tradition. The office was modelled after that which existed in the United Kingdom at the time. John A. Macdonald was commissioned by the Viscount Monck on 24 May 1867, to form the first government of the Canadian Confederation. On 1 July 1867, the first ministry assumed office. Term The prime minister begins their term has been determined by the date sworn into their portfolio, as an oath of office as prime minister is not required. However, since 1957, the incoming prime minister has sworn an oath as prime minister. Before 1920, prime ministers' resignations were accepted immediately by the governor general and the last day of the ministries were the date he died or the date of resignation. Since 1920, the outgoing prime minister has only formally resigned when the new government is ready to be formed. The Interpretation Act of 1967 states that "where an appointment is made effective or terminates on a specified day, that appointment is considered to be effective or to terminate after the end of the previous day". Thus, although the outgoing prime minister formally resigns only hours before the incoming ministry swears their oaths, both during the day, the ministries are effectively changed at midnight the night before. Some sources, including the Parliament of Canada, apply this convention as far back as 1917. Two prime ministers have died in office: John A. Macdonald (1867–1873, 1878–1891), and John Thompson (1892–1894), both of natural causes. All others have resigned, either after losing an election or upon retirement. Prime ministers Canadian custom is to count by the individuals who were prime minister, not by terms. Since Confederation, 23 prime ministers have been "called upon" by the governor general to form 29 Canadian ministries. Timeline See also Fathers of Confederation Historical rankings of prime ministers of Canada Leader of the Official Opposition (Canada) List of Canadian federal parliaments List of Canadian monarchs List of prime ministers of Canada by time in office List of prime ministers of Canada by religious affiliation List of prime ministers of Queen Victoria List of prime ministers of Edward VII List of prime ministers of George V List of prime ministers of Edward VIII List of prime ministers of George VI List of prime ministers of Elizabeth II List of prime ministers of Charles III List of joint premiers of the Province of Canada Spouse of the prime minister of Canada References Further reading External links Prime Minister's Official Site – Government of Canada The Prime Ministers of Canada – The Historica Dominion Institute Prime Ministers of Canada – Library of Parliament Prime Ministers – Canada History

Part of the dynamic duo who broke a record set by Mickey Lolich and Bill Freehan in 1975 for most starts together, this MLB pitcher's battery mate ranked first all-time among catchers in putouts as of 2022. In what year did he (the pitcher) make his Grand Ole Opry debut?

2024

Multiple constraints | Temporal reasoning

The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central Division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals have played their home games at Busch Stadium in downtown St. Louis. One of the nation's oldest and most successful professional baseball clubs, the Cardinals have won 11 World Series championships, the most of any NL team and second in MLB only to the New York Yankees. The team has won 19 National League pennants, third-most of any team behind the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants. St. Louis has also won 15 division titles in the East and Central divisions. In 1881, entrepreneur Chris von der Ahe purchased the Brown Stockings barnstorming club, renamed it the St. Louis Browns, and made it a charter member of the American Association baseball league. The team won four league championships, qualifying them to play in the era's professional baseball championship series, a forerunner of the modern World Series. In two of these championships, the Browns met the Chicago White Stockings, now the Chicago Cubs, launching the enduring Cardinals–Cubs rivalry. In 1892, the Browns – also called the Perfectos – joined the National League. In 1900, the team was renamed the Cardinals. (Two years later, an unrelated St. Louis Browns team joined the American League.) Notable Cardinals achievements include manager/owner Branch Rickey's invention of the farm system, Rogers Hornsby's two batting Triple Crowns, Dizzy Dean's 30-win season in 1934, Stan Musial's 17 MLB and 29 NL records, Bob Gibson's 1.12 earned run average (ERA) in 1968, Whitey Herzog's Whiteyball, Mark McGwire's single-season home run record in 1998, the 2011 championship team's unprecedented comebacks, and Albert Pujols’ 700th home run. The Cardinals have won 105 or more games in four seasons and won 100 or more nine times. Cardinals players have won 21 league MVPs, four batting Triple Crowns, and three Cy Young Awards. Baseball Hall of Fame inductees include Lou Brock, Dizzy Dean, Bob Gibson, Whitey Herzog, Rogers Hornsby, Tony LaRussa, Joe Medwick, Stan Musial, Enos Slaughter, Branch Rickey, Red Schoendienst, Ozzie Smith, Ted Simmons, Bruce Sutter, and Scott Rolen. In 2018, Forbes valued the Cardinals at $1.9 billion, the 7th-highest among MLB clubs and far more than the $147 million paid in 1995 by owner William DeWitt Jr.'s investment group. In 2017, the team took in revenue of $319 million on an operating income of $40.0 million. John Mozeliak is the President of Baseball Operations, Mike Girsch is the general manager, and Oliver Marmol is the manager. The Cardinals are renowned for their strong fan support: despite being in one of the sport's mid-level markets, they routinely see attendances among the league's highest, and are consistently among the top three in MLB in local television ratings. Through 2024, the Cardinals' all-time win-loss record is 11,285–10,402–152 (.520). History Before the Cardinals (1875–1881) Professional baseball began in St. Louis with the inception of the Brown Stockings in the National Association (NA) in 1875. The NA folded following that season, and the next season, St. Louis joined the National League as a charter member, finishing in third place at 45–19. George Bradley hurled the first no-hitter in Major League history. The NL expelled St. Louis from the league after 1877 due to a game-fixing scandal and the team went bankrupt. Without a league, they continued play as a semi-professional barnstorming team through 1881. The magnitudes of the reorganizations, following the 1877 and 1881 seasons, are such that the 1875–1877 and 1878–1881 Brown Stockings teams are not generally considered to share continuity as a franchise with the current St. Louis Cardinals. American Association and early National League eras (1882–1919) For the 1882 season, Chris von der Ahe purchased the team, reorganized it, and made it a founding member of the American Association (AA), a league to rival the NL. 1882 is generally considered to be the first year of existence for the franchise which would later become known as the St. Louis Cardinals. The next season, St. Louis shortened their name to the Browns. Soon thereafter they became the dominant team in the AA, as manager Charlie Comiskey guided St. Louis to four pennants in a row from 1885 to 1888. Pitcher and outfielder Bob Caruthers led the league in ERA (2.07) and wins (40) in 1885 and finished in the top six in both in each of the following two seasons. He also led the AA in OBP (.448) and OPS (.974) in 1886 and finished fourth in batting average in 1886 (.334) and fifth in 1887 (.357). Outfielder Tip O'Neill won the first batting triple crown in franchise history in 1887 and the only one in AA history. By winning the pennant, the Browns played the NL pennant winner in a predecessor of the World Series. The Browns twice met the Chicago White Stockings—the predecessor to the Chicago Cubs—tying one in a heated dispute and winning the other, thus spurring the vigorous St. Louis-Chicago rivalry that ensues to this day. During the franchise's ten seasons in the AA, they compiled an all-time league-high of 780 wins and .639 winning percentage. They lost just 432 contests while tying 21 others. The AA went bankrupt after the 1891 season and the Browns transferred to the National League. This time, the club entered an era of stark futility. Between 1892 and 1919, St. Louis managed just five winning seasons, finished in last or next-to-last place sixteen times, and ended four seasons with 100 losses or more. The nadir was the 1897 season: a 29–102 record for a franchise-worst .221 winning percentage. St. Louis' 84–67 finish as the Perfectos in 1899 would be the team's best finish between the AA era and Sam Breadon's purchase of the team. As the "Perfectos", the team wore their jersey with a cardinal red trim and sock striping. Later that season, St. Louis Republic sportswriter Willie McHale included an account in a column of a female fan he heard remarking about the uniforms, "What a lovely shade of cardinal." Fans liked the moniker "Cardinals" and, the next year in 1900, popularity for the nickname induced an official change to Cardinals. In 1902, an American League team moved from Milwaukee into St. Louis, renamed themselves the St. Louis Browns and built a new park on the site of the Cardinals' old stadium, striking a rivalry that lasted five decades. Breadon bought a minority interest in the Cardinals in 1917 and in 1919 Browns manager Branch Rickey joined the Cardinals. The Cardinals' first 28 seasons in the NL were a complete reversal of their stay in the AA – with a .406 winning percentage, they compiled 1,632 wins, 2,425 losses and 74 ties. Breadon era (1920–1952) St. Louis baseball commenced a renaissance: since 1926 the Cardinals have won eleven World Series and nineteen NL pennants. Breadon spurred this revival when he bought out the majority stake in 1920 and appointed Rickey as business manager, who expanded scouting, player development, and pioneered the minor league farm system, filling the role of today's general manager. With Rogers Hornsby at second base, he claimed Triple Crowns in 1922 and 1925, and the Cardinals won the 1926 World Series, their first. St. Louis then won the league in 1928, 1930, and 1931 and the 1931 World Series. The Gashouse Gang edition claimed the 1934 World Series and the Cardinals amassed new thresholds of popularity far outside St. Louis via radio, which led to the coining of the term "Cardinal Nation". Dizzy Dean led the Gang, winning the 1934 MVP, and leading the NL multiple times in wins, strikeouts, innings, complete games and shutouts. Johnny Mize and Joe Medwick emerged as two power threats, with Medwick claiming the last Triple Crown for a Cardinal in 1937. In the 1940s, a golden era emerged as Rickey's farm system became laden with such talent as Marty Marion, Enos Slaughter, Mort Cooper, Walker Cooper, Stan Musial, Max Lanier, Whitey Kurowski, Red Schoendienst and Johnny Beazley. It was one of the most successful decades in franchise history with 960 wins and 580 losses for a winning percentage higher than any other Major League team at .623. With Billy Southworth managing, they won the World Series in 1942 and 1944 (in the only all-St. Louis series against the Browns), and won 105 or more games each in 1942, 1943, and 1944. Southworth's managerial winning percentage (.642) is St. Louis' highest since the franchise joined the National League. Musial was considered the most consistent hitter of his era and most accomplished in team history, winning three MVPs and seven batting titles. St. Louis then won the 1946 World Series on Slaughter's Mad Dash in Game 7. Breadon was forced to sell the team in 1947 but won six World Series and nine NL pennants as Cardinals owner. They remained competitive, finishing .500 or better in thirteen of the next seventeen seasons, but fell short of winning the league or World Series until 1964. Gussie Busch era (1953–1989) In 1953 the Anheuser-Busch brewery bought the Cardinals and August "Gussie" Busch became team president, spurring the Browns' departure in 1953 to Baltimore to become the Orioles, and making the Cardinals the only major league club in town. More success followed in the 1960s, starting with what is considered one of the most lopsided trades in Major League history, as St. Louis received outfielder Lou Brock from the Cubs for pitcher Ernie Broglio. MVP third baseman Ken Boyer and pitcher Bob Gibson led the club to a World Series win the same year and Curt Flood, Bill White, Curt Simmons, and Steve Carlton also made key contributions in this decade. In 1967, new arrival Orlando Cepeda won the MVP, helping to propel St. Louis to the World Series. The Cardinals won the league the following year behind their Major League-leading 2.49 staff ERA in what was an all-round record-breaking season of pitching dominance. Posting a modern-day record low ERA of 1.12 and striking out a one-game World Series-record of 17, Gibson won both the MVP and Cy Young awards that year. However, the Cardinals failed to repeat as World Series champions, blowing a 3–1 lead to the underdog Detroit Tigers. In the 1970s, catcher/third baseman Joe Torre and first baseman Keith Hernandez each won MVPs, but the team's best finishes were second place and 90 wins. The team found their way back to the World Series three times in the 1980s, starting with manager Whitey Herzog and his Whiteyball style of play and another trade that altered course of the franchise: in 1982, shortstop Garry Templeton was shipped to the Padres for fellow shortstop Ozzie Smith. Widely regarded as one of the best defensive players in history, Smith ranks first all-time among shortstops in Gold Glove Awards (13), All-Star games (15), assists (8,375), and double plays (1,590). St. Louis won the 1982 World Series from the Milwaukee Brewers that fall. The Cardinals again won the league in 1985 and 1987. In the 1985 Series, they faced-off with cross-state rivals Kansas City Royals for the first time in a non-exhibition game, but they lost the series after a controversial call in Game 6; the 1987 series saw them face off against the Minnesota Twins, but could only win all three of their games played at home in the seven-game series. Bill DeWitt era (1996–present) After Gussie Busch died in 1989, the brewery took control and hired Joe Torre to manage late in 1990, then sold the team to an investment group led by William DeWitt Jr. in 1996. Tony La Russa replaced Torre in the spring of 1996. In 1998, Mark McGwire competed with the Cubs' Sammy Sosa for a barrage of home runs in their pursuit of the single-season home run record. From 2000 to 2013, the Cardinals reestablished their way to the top with ten playoff appearances, four NL pennants, two World Series titles and 1,274 regular season wins against 993 losses for a .560 winning percentage, leading the National League and second in MLB only to the New York Yankees. With the addition of Jim Edmonds, Albert Pujols, and Scott Rolen, the Cardinals featured three prominent sluggers and defenders nicknamed "MV3;" Pujols won three MVPs and hit .328 with 445 home runs in his Cardinals career. In 2004, playoff stalwart Chris Carpenter's 3.09 ERA and 15 wins helped power the team to a major-league best 105 wins and take the NL pennant. In 2006, beset with injuries and inconsistency, they won the World Series, beating Detroit in five games to set an all-time record-low of 83 wins for a World Series winner. In 2009, the Cardinals reached 10,000 wins, dating to when they first played in the American Association (AA). St. Louis returned to the playoffs in 2011, first surmounting the largest games-won deficit after 130 games (at 10.5) to upstage the Atlanta Braves on the final day for the wild card playoff berth. In Game 3 of the World Series, Pujols became just the third player to hit three home runs in a World Series game. In Game 6, third baseman David Freese and outfielder Lance Berkman each tied the score on the Cardinals' final strike—the first such occurrence in any game in MLB history—and St. Louis defeated the Texas Rangers later that game with a walk-off home run from Freese. After winning that Series, La Russa retired and became the only manager to do so after winning a title. He also finished with the most wins for managers in franchise history with 1,408. La Russa's successor, Mike Matheny, helped extend St. Louis' playoff run as he became the first manager in the division play era to guide the Cardinals to the NLCS and playoffs in his first two seasons. In 2014, the Cardinals extended their NLCS streak to 4, with their 3–1 series victory over the Dodgers, in the NLDS. Ten days after being eliminated from the postseason by the San Francisco Giants, rookie outfielder Oscar Taveras was killed in a car accident while traveling to his hometown Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic. On November 17, they acquired Atlanta Braves right-fielder Jason Heyward (who had just come off a Gold Glove-winning season) to replace Taveras. On June 16, 2015, the FBI and the Justice Department started an investigation on the Cardinals for possibly hacking the Houston Astros. The hacking incident was perpetrated by Scouting Director Chris Correa. For the first time since the 2007–2008 seasons, the Cardinals missed the playoffs in consecutive years, 2016–2017. On July 14, 2018, following an 8–2 loss to the Cincinnati Reds, the St. Louis Cardinals announced they had dismissed manager Mike Matheny after 6+1⁄2 seasons. The team then named Mike Shildt interim manager, and he was made the permanent manager a month later. On November 19, 2018, the team announced that the "Victory Blue" uniforms, worn by the Cardinals during the late 1970s and 1980s, would be returning for the 2019 season. The uniforms, integrating the powder blue color with the team's current "Saturday alternate" jersey design, were to be worn 13 times on the road during the 2019 season. The Cardinals acquired Paul Goldschmidt in a trade from the Arizona Diamondbacks on December 5, 2018. On September 14, 2022, long-time starting pitcher Adam Wainwright and catcher Yadier Molina set the NL/AL record for most starts as pitcher and catcher duo, also referred to as a battery, at 325 starts together going back to 2007. The previous record holding duo, Mickey Lolich and Bill Freehan, had held the record since 1975. Ballpark The Cardinals play their home games at Busch Stadium (also referred to as New Busch Stadium or Busch III) in downtown St. Louis, straddling 7th and Clark near the intersection of Interstates 64, 55, and 44. The stadium opened for the 2006 season at a cost of $411 million and holds a normal capacity of 46,861. The Cardinals finished their inaugural season in the new Busch Stadium by winning the 2006 World Series, the first team to do so since the New York Yankees in 1923. This open-air stadium emulates the HOK Sport (now Populous)-designed "retro-style" baseball-only parks built since the 1990s. The open panoramic perspective over the outfield wall offers a remarkable view of St. Louis' downtown skyline featuring the distinctive Gateway Arch. A replica of the Eads Bridge spans the entrance to the park on the third base side, while the statue of Stan Musial stands in front of that entrance. Other statues at the corner of 8th and Clark include Hall of Famers Rogers Hornsby, Ozzie Smith, George Sisler, Cool Papa Bell, Bob Gibson, Jack Buck, and others. Due to increased demand, Game 7 of the 2011 World Series accommodated a baseball record of 47,399 by increasing the number of standing room only tickets. The attendance record for any sporting event is 48,263, in a 2013 association football (soccer) friendly match between Chelsea F.C. and Manchester City F.C., made possible by on-field seating. The largest attendance (53,000) of any event at Busch belongs to U2 during a concert from their 360° Tour in 2011. Ballpark Village is a mixed-use development located across Clark Street from Busch Stadium. Phase 1 of the development, completed for the start of the 2014 season, includes entertainment venues, restaurants, and retail. Anchored by Cardinals Nation (which includes the Cardinals Hall of Fame, a two-story Cardinals-themed restaurant and rooftop seating for 300+ fans with views of the field across the street), a 20,000 sq ft (1,900 m2) Budweiser Brew House, FOX Sports Midwest Live! and PBR, the $100 million phase 1 development of Ballpark Village is intended to be a gathering space throughout the year, not just during the baseball season. Previous ballparks Busch Stadium is the Cardinals' fourth home ballpark and the third to bear that name. The Cardinals' original home ballpark was Sportsman's Park from 1882 to 1892 when they played in the American Association and were known as the Browns. In 1893, the Browns moved to a new ballpark five blocks northwest of Sportsman's Park which would serve as their home from 1893 to 1920. The new park was originally called New Sportsman's Park but became more commonly referred to as Robison Field. Midway through the 1920 season, the Cardinals abandoned Robison Field and returned to the original Sportsman's Park and became tenants of their American League rivals, the St. Louis Browns. In 1953, the Anheuser-Busch Brewery purchased the Cardinals and the new owner subsequently also purchased Sportsman's Park from the Browns and renamed it Busch Stadium, later becoming Busch I. The Browns then left St. Louis for Baltimore after the season, becoming the Orioles. The Cardinals built Busch Memorial Stadium, or Busch II, in downtown St. Louis, opened it during the 1966 season and played there until 2005. It was built as the multi-purpose stadium home of both the baseball Cardinals and the NFL football Cardinals, who are now the Arizona Cardinals; the NFL's Rams also played the first four games of their home schedule upon their arrival in St. Louis in 1995. The current Busch Stadium was constructed partly atop the site of Busch Memorial Stadium. Spring training The Cardinals home field in spring training is Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Florida. They share the complex, which opened in 1998, with the Miami Marlins. Before moving to Jupiter, the Cardinals hosted spring training at Al Lang Field in St. Petersburg, Florida from 1937 to 1997. Regular season home attendance The Cardinals have exceeded the attendance total of 3 million every season from 2004 to 2019. Every season from 2013 to 2019, the Cardinals finished second among MLB franchises in home game attendance, surpassed only by the Los Angeles Dodgers each season. The Cardinals since 1987, have surpassed 3 million in 25 years, with the 25th season on September 18, 2023. Logos and uniforms The Cardinals have had few logos throughout their history, although those logos have evolved over time. The first logo associated with the Cardinals was an interlocking "SL" that appeared on the team's caps and or sleeves as early as 1899 or 1900 (depending on the source). Those early uniforms usually featured the name "St. Louis" on white home and gray road uniforms which both had cardinal red accents. During an 1899 road trip to Chicago, a girl in the stands remarked, "Oh, isn't that a lovely shade of cardinal." The team, known as the Perfectos at the time, changed its name to Cardinals the following season. In 1920, the "SL" largely disappeared from the team's uniforms, and for the next 20 years the team wore caps that were white with red striping and a red bill. In 1922, the Cardinals wore uniforms for the first time that featured two cardinal birds perched on a baseball bat over the name "Cardinals" with the letter "C" of the word hooked over the bat. The concept of the birds originated after general manager Branch Rickey noticed a colorful cardboard arrangement featuring cardinal birds on a table in a Presbyterian church in Ferguson, Missouri, at which he was speaking. The arrangement's production was by a woman named Allie May Schmidt. Schmidt's father, a graphic designer, helped Rickey make the logo a familiar staple on Cardinals uniforms. While the team had been known as the Cardinals for over 20 years by then, this logo changed the perception from the color to the bird. The now-famous "birds on the bat" design initially appeared with the birds perched on a black bat and "Cardinals" in printed letters. An alternate version of this logo with "St. Louis" replacing "Cardinals" appeared in 1930 and was the primary logo in 1931 and 1932 before "Cardinals" returned. In 1940, the now-familiar "StL" logo was introduced on the team's caps. The interlocking "StL" has undergone several slight modifications over the years but has appeared on the team's caps every year since. The first appearance of the "STL" in 1940 coincided with the introduction of navy blue as a uniform color. From 1940 until 1955, the team wore navy blue caps with red bills and a red interlocking "StL" while the jerseys featured both cardinal red and navy blue accents. In 1951, the "birds on the bat" logo was changed to feature a yellow baseball bat. In 1956, the Cardinals changed their caps to solid blue with a red "StL", removing the red bill. Also, for that season only, the Cardinals wore a script "Cardinals" wordmark on their uniforms excluding the "birds on the bat". An updated version of the "birds on the bat" logo returned in 1957 with the word "Cardinals" written in cursive beneath the bat; this logo, with some incremental changes along the way, has been the team's logo since. In 1962, the Cardinals became the first National League team (and the second in all of Major League Baseball after the Chicago White Sox in 1960) to display players' names on the back of their jerseys. In 1964, while retaining their blue caps for road games, the Cardinals changed their home caps to all red with first a blue, than a white, interlocking "StL". The next year, the red caps were the only cap worn by the team full-time. In 1967, the birds on the bat emblem on the jersey was again tweaked, making the birds more realistic and changing the position of their tails relative to the bat and this version remained on all Cardinals game jerseys through 1997. In 1971, following the trend in baseball at the time, the Cardinals replaced the traditional flannel front-button shirts and pants with belts with new pullover knit jerseys and beltless elastic waist pants. In 1973, the crew-neck collar became a V-neck. Another trend in baseball led the Cardinals to change their road uniforms from gray to light blue from 1976 to 1984; the player numbers were worn on the sleeves in 1979 and 1980. In 1992, the Cardinals returned to wearing traditional button-down shirts and pants with belts. That same year, they also brought back the all-navy cap with a red "StL", which were last worn in 1964, for use on the road only while wearing the same red and white cap for home games. In 1998, the "birds on the bat" was updated for the first time in 30 years with more detailed birds and bolder letters. That year, St. Louis introduced a cap featuring a single cardinal bird perched on a bat worn for Sunday home games only. Up until 2020, the alternate "bird" caps were paired with their primary "StL" red batting helmets, but in the 2021 season, the Cardinals added a new helmet to match their home Sunday alternate caps. The new birds on the bat design was modified again the next year, with yellow beaks and white eyes replacing the red beaks and yellow eyes of the 1998 version. Uniform numbers also returned to the front of the jerseys in 1999 after a two-year absence. On November 16, 2012, the Cardinals unveiled a new alternate uniform to be worn at home games on Saturdays beginning with the 2013 season. The modified jersey, cream-colored with red trim on the sleeves and down the front, retains the "birds on the bat" but is the first since 1932 in which "St. Louis" is used instead of "Cardinals". 2013 also saw the team adopt their red caps as their main cap for both home and away games for the first time since 1991; the navy cap was retained as an alternate, used when visiting other teams with red home caps. Starting with the 2019 season, the Cardinals have worn updated powder blue alternate uniforms during Saturday road games. Like the Saturday home cream alternates, it features red piping and "St. Louis" below the "birds on the bat" logo. In 2020, the Cardinals introduced a slightly updated version of their "StL" cap logo, which was "soft launched" in 2019 via their social media accounts and game broadcasts. In 2023, the Cardinals introduced Stifel as its first uniform sponsor. The Stifel patch, which has red letters with the background color corresponding to the team's uniform, is placed on either sleeve depending on a player's handedness. In 2024, the Cardinals unveiled their City Connect uniform. The red-based uniform with white pants maintained the trademark "birds on the bat" logo in front, but with the script "The Lou" in white trimmed in navy blue instead of either the city or team name. "The Lou" paid homage to rapper Nelly, a St. Louis native who once coined the city's nickname on his 2000 single Country Grammar. Darker red wavy pinstripes were an allusion to the Mississippi River where St. Louis is situated. A red circular patch containing a yellow fleur-de-lis, a navy blue illustration of the Gateway Arch, and a red "STL" wordmark, is placed on either sleeve. Caps are red and featured the aforementioned "STL" wordmark in white with navy blue trim. Support Fans Mascots The team mascot is an anthropomorphic cardinal wearing the team's uniform named Fredbird. He is assisted by Team Fredbird, a group of eleven women who entertain fans from the field and on top of the dugouts. While unofficial, the Rally Squirrel became an unexpected phenomenon during the 2011 postseason. Making its "debut" in Game 3 of the NLDS on October 4, a squirrel ran across home plate in the middle of a pitch from Roy Oswalt of the Phillies to the Cardinals' Skip Schumaker. The Cardinals would win Game 4 and subsequently Game 5 (October 7) in Philadelphia to advance to the NLCS, symbolizing the squirrel's "role" in the victory. The squirrel was popularized as "Buschie the Rally Squirrel". As a tribute to the popularity of the squirrel, a small depiction of the Rally Squirrel is also included on the official World Series rings the team received. It shows up under the "STL" logo on the side of the ring. Fredbird sparked controversy in May 2015, when he was asked by a fan for a photograph and handed him a sign that said "Police Lives Matter". The team later claimed that Fredbird should not be involved in any political activity or social commentary. Rivalries Chicago Cubs The Cardinals–Cubs rivalry refers to games between the Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs. The rivalry is also known as the Downstate Illinois rivalry or the I-55 Series (in earlier years as the Route 66 Series) as both cities are located along Interstate 55 (which itself succeeded the famous U.S. Route 66). The Cubs lead the series 1,253–1,196, through October 2021, while the Cardinals lead in National League pennants with 19 against the Cubs' 17. The Cubs have won 11 of those pennants in Major League Baseball's Modern Era (1901–present), while all 19 of the Cardinals' pennants have been won since 1926. The Cardinals also have an edge when it comes to World Series successes, having won 11 championships to the Cubs' 3. Games featuring the Cardinals and Cubs see numerous visiting fans in either Busch Stadium in St. Louis or Wrigley Field in Chicago. When the National League split into two and then three divisions, the Cardinals and Cubs remained together. This has added excitement to several pennant races over the years. The Cardinals and Cubs have played each other once in the postseason, 2015 National League Division Series, which the Cubs won 3–1. Kansas City Royals The Cardinals have an interleague and intrastate rivalry with the Kansas City Royals, dubbed the "Show-Me Series" after the nickname of the team's home state, Missouri; or the "I–70 Series" after the interstate highway that connects the cities. The teams first met in the 1985 World Series, which the Royals won 4–3, and which remains their only post-season meeting. Since interleague play began in 1997, the Cardinals and Royals have met in four to six games each season, evenly split between the two cities. As of 2021, the Cardinals lead the overall series 71–50. The rivalry heated up in 2015, when both teams held the best records in their respective leagues when they opened each of their two series. The Royals advanced to the World Series, where they faced and ultimately defeated the New York Mets, while the Cardinals lost in the NLDS. Had the Cardinals made it to the World Series, they would have faced the Royals in a rematch of 1985. Los Angeles Dodgers Primarily a playoff rivalry; since 1892, The Cardinals and Dodgers have met 6 times in the postseason with 2 meetings in the NLCS won by the Cardinals. Both teams have recently grown a history of animosity towards one another since the late 2000s as both teams often met frequently in the postseason. The Dodgers have not fared as well against the Cardinals in the postseason. In five prior postseason series matchups, the Cardinals have won four with the Dodgers winning only the 2009 NLDS and the 2021 National League Wild Card Game. New York Mets The rivalry between the Cardinals and the New York Mets peaked during the 1980s when both teams contended for National League East supremacy. The rivalry began with the 1983 trade that brought Keith Hernandez from the Cardinals to the Mets, essentially turning the latter into contenders. Between 1985 and 1988, the division was dominated by either of the two teams, and in three of those years, the NL East winner went on to the World Series. In 1994, the Cardinals were moved to the National League Central, and the rivalry faded soon after. The two teams would meet in the 2000 and 2006 National League Championship Series, briefly rekindling the rivalry. Executives and club officials Ownership and valuation An investment group led by William DeWitt Jr. owns the St. Louis Cardinals, having bought the team from Anheuser-Busch (AB) in 1996. As with other periods of the Cardinals' transaction history, doubt loomed as to whether the purchaser would keep the team in St. Louis, due to the city's status as a "small market", which appears to handicap a club's competitiveness. Such was the case when Sam Breadon put the Cardinals up for sale in 1947: then-NL President Ford Frick proposed moving the Cardinals to Chicago. When AB placed the Cardinals for sale in 1995, they publicly expressed intention to find a buyer who would keep the club in St. Louis. In March 1996, AB sold the team for $147 million to a partnership headed by Southwest Bank's Drew Baur, Hanser and DeWitt Jr. Civic Center Redevelopment, a subsidiary of AB, held the parking garages and adjacent property and also transferred them to the Baur ownership group. Baur's group then sold the garages to another investment group, lowering the net franchise purchase price to about $100 million, about $10 million less than Financial World's value of the team at the time $110 million. Current Cincinnati Reds owners Bob Castellini and brothers Thomas Williams and W. Joseph Williams Jr. each once owned a stake in the Cardinals dating back to the Baur-DeWitt group's purchase of the team. To allow their purchase of the Reds in 2005, the rest of the group bought out Castellini's and the Williams brothers' shares, totaling an estimated 13 percent. At that time, the Forbes valued the Cardinals at about $370 million. However, after reabsorbing that stake into the remainder of the group, they decided to make it available to new investors in 2010. Amid later allegations that the Cardinals owed the city profit shares, DeWitt revealed that their profitability had not reached the threshold to trigger that obligation. Recent annual financial records As of 2024, Forbes valued the Cardinals tenth among the 30 MLB franchises. Their estimated value of $2.55 billion was the same from the season before, when they ranked tenth. St. Louis' revenue in 2024 was $372 million, up $14 million from 2023. Their Operating income was $57 million. The Cardinals' deal with Fox Sports Midwest (now Bally Sports Midwest), signed in 2015, began in 2018, and is worth $1 billion through 2032. In 2014, Forbes valued the Cardinals at $820 million and opined previously that they play "in the best single-team baseball market in the country and are among the league's leaders in television ratings and attendance every season." Concurrent with the growth of Major League Baseball, the Cardinals value has increased significantly since the Baur-DeWitt purchase. In 2000, the franchise was valued at $219 million, a growth rate of 374% through 2014. The franchise's value grew 12.7% from 2013 to 2014. The Forbes methodology of team values are enterprise values (equity plus net debt) that include the economics of the ballpark but exclude the value of real estate itself. Forbes does not include the value of team-owned regional sports networks. The league's ownership in Major League Baseball Advanced Media (100%) and the MLB Network (67%) and league's investment portfolio are included in our values. In total, these three assets constitute about $425 million in value for each team. Revenue and operating income (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) measure cash in versus cash out (not accrual accounting) for the 2017 season. Their figures include the post-season and are net of revenue sharing and stadium debt payments. Revenues include the pro-rated upfront bonuses networks pay teams as well as proceeds from non-MLB events at the ballpark. The non-recurring $18 million each team received in 2017 from the sale of a stake in BamTech to Walt Disney was excluded, as were profits or losses from team-owned RSNs. All valuations per Forbes. 1 Based on current stadium deal (unless new stadium is pending) without deduction for debt, other than stadium debt. (2024: market $1,070 mil., stadium $540 mil., sport $590 mil., brand management $350 mil.) (2018: market $715 mil., stadium $447 mil., sport $493 mil., brand management $245 mil.) (2017: market $666 mil., stadium $411 mil., sport $488 mil., brand management $235 mil.) (2016: market $613 mil., stadium $378 mil., sport $406 mil., brand management $219 mil.) (2015: market $548 mil., stadium $338 mil., sport $331 mil., brand management $197 mil.) (2014: market $339 mil., stadium $211 mil., sport $156 mil., brand management $124 mil.) (2013: market $291 mil., stadium $182 mil., sport $151 mil., brand management $91 mil.) (2012: market $240 mil., stadium $157 mil., sport $119 mil., brand management $78 mil.) (2011: market $206 mil., stadium $136 mil., sport $111 mil., brand management $65 mil.) 2 Net of stadium revenues used for debt payments. 3 Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. 4 Includes benefits and bonuses. 5 Compares the number of wins per player payroll relative to the rest of MLB. Playoff wins count twice as much as regular season wins. A score of 120 means that the team achieved 20% more victories per dollar of payroll compared with the league average in 2010. Other interests The Cardinals own three of their six Minor League Baseball affiliates: Palm Beach Cardinals, Florida State League FCL Cardinals, Florida Complex League DSL Cardinals, Dominican Summer League Executives Franchise Principals Chairman & CEO: William DeWitt Jr. President: Bill DeWitt III Sr. Vice President & General Counsel: Mike Whittle Vice President, Business Development: Dan Good Baseball Operations President of Baseball Operations: John Mozeliak Vice President & General Manager: Mike Girsch Assistant General Manager: Moisés Rodríguez Assistant General Manager & Director of Scouting: Randy Flores Assistant General Manager & Director of Player Development: Gary LaRocque Advisor to President, Baseball Operations: Chaim Bloom Special Assistant to GM / Player Procurement: Matt Slater Special Assistant to President, Baseball Operations: Joe McEwing Special Assistant to President, Baseball Operations: Yadier Molina Director, Baseball Administration: John Vuch Baseball Analytics Sr. Director of Baseball Development: Jeremy Cohen Baseball Systems Senior Lead Application Developer: Brian Seyfert Travel & Clubhouse Director, Team Travel: Ernie Moore Performance & Medical Director of Medical Operations / Head Athletic Trainer: Adam Olsen Communications Sr. Director, Communications: Brian Bartow Cardinals Care & Community Relations Vice President, Community Relations & Exec. Director, Cardinals Care: Michael Hall Event Services and Merchandising Vice President, Event Services & Merchandising: Vicki Bryant Finance and Administration Sr. Vice President & CFO: Brad Wood Stadium Operations Vice President, Stadium Operations: Matt Gifford Ticket Sales, Marketing & Corporate Sales Sr. Vice President, Business Operations: Anuk Karunaratne Business Analytics & Information Technology Vice President, Business Strategy & Analytics: Mark Murray Corporate Sales & Broadcasting Vice President, Corporate Sales & Broadcasting: Thane vanBreusegen Content & Production Sr. Director, Content & Production: Tony Simokaitis Marketing & Brand Execution Sr. Director, Marketing & Brand Management: Martin Coco Publications Sr. Director, Publications: Steve Zesch Ticket Sales Vice President, Ticket Sales: Joe Strohm Managers Field managers with one or more years managing, and the current manager are included here. Table key *All-time franchise leader. ** Franchise leader since 1900. Players Current roster Coaching staff Selected individual achievements and awards Darryl Kile Award: Two awards are presented each year, one to a St. Louis Cardinal and one to a Houston Astro, each of whom exemplifies Kile's virtues of being "a good teammate, a great friend, a fine father and a humble man." The winner is selected by each local chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America. See: St. Louis Cardinals award winners and league leaders § Darryl Kile Good Guy Award. No-hitters: Cardinal pitchers have thrown 10 no-hitters: Ted Breitenstein (1891), Jesse Haines (1924), Paul Dean (1934), Lon Warneke (1941), Ray Washburn (1968), Bob Gibson (1971), Bob Forsch (1978 and 1983), José Jiménez (1999), and Bud Smith (2001). The Cardinals have never been involved in a perfect game, win or lose. Cy Young Awards: Two Cardinal pitchers have won Cy Young Awards: Bob Gibson in 1968 and 1970, and Chris Carpenter in 2005. MVP Awards: 17 different Cardinal players have won a total of 21 Most Valuable Player awards, the most recent being Paul Goldschmidt in 2022. Albert Pujols and Stan Musial have collected the most MVPs with three apiece. Bob Gibson won both the Cy Young Award and the MVP award in 1968. The Cardinals are second only to the New York Yankees' 22 MVP awards. Rookie of the Year: Six Cardinals have won the Rookie of the Year award: Wally Moon in 1954, Bill Virdon in 1955, Bake McBride in 1974, Vince Coleman in 1985, Todd Worrell in 1986, and Albert Pujols in 2001. Hitting for the cycle: 19 different Cardinal players have hit for the cycle for a total of 21 times, the most recent being Nolan Arenado in 2022. Triple Crown: Four of the 16 batting Triple Crowns in the major leagues (including three of only six in the National League) were by Cardinals. Tip O'Neill won the only American Association Triple Crown and the first in franchise history in 1887. Rogers Hornsby became the only two-time winner in NL history when he did it in 1922 and 1925 (Ted Williams won two AL Triple Crowns). Joe Medwick's Triple Crown in 1937 is the last in the history of the National League. Hornsby's 1925 numbers led the entire major leagues, making him one of only five players to have won this expanded Triple Crown. Home runs and RBI in a game: Jim Bottomley drove in 12 runs against the Brooklyn Robins on September 16, 1924, an all-time MLB single-game record that still stands. On September 7, 1993, Mark Whiten tied that record and another MLB single-game record with four home runs. Four home runs in a row by consecutive batters: Nolan Arenado, Nolan Gorman, Juan Yepez, and Dylan Carlson hit consecutive home runs on July 2, 2022, off starting pitcher Kyle Gibson of the Phillies. This feat has only occurred eleven times in the history of Major League Baseball. Two grand slams in a single inning: Fernando Tatís is the only player in Major League history to hit two grand slam home runs in the same inning, on April 23, 1999. Both were against Chan Ho Park of the Dodgers. Team captains Leo Durocher 1934–1937 Terry Moore 1942–1948 Ken Boyer 1959–1965 Ted Simmons and Reggie Smith 1976 Hall of Famers Inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum In 2014, the Cardinals announced the reopening of the franchise Hall of Fame after a 6-year hiatus. A formal selection process recognizes former players as Cardinals Hall of Famers each year. To be eligible for election, a player must have been a member of the Cardinals for at least three seasons. The team initially released the names of 22 former players and personnel included in the inaugural class of 2014. There are now 52 members of the Cardinals Hall of Fame. Positions that are listed were played the equivalent of a full season for the Cardinals. Players who have been nominated, but not inducted, include Joaquín Andújar, Steve Carlton, George Hendrick, Édgar Rentería, and Lee Smith. After receiving the most fan votes on the 2023 ballot, David Freese later declined his induction into the Cardinals Hall of Fame. Inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame Retired numbers The Cardinals have retired 13 total jersey numbers––second in MLB only to the New York Yankees' 22––in honoring 15 total former players and club personnel on the left field wall at Busch Stadium. A 16th, Jackie Robinson, is honored by all MLB teams. For the majority of Rogers Hornsby's career, the Cardinals did not have any numbers on their uniforms. When the Cardinals experimented with numbers on uniforms in 1923, Hornsby briefly donned the number 4. He switched to 6 the following season before the team abandoned the practice. Upon his return to the team in 1933, Hornsby again wore number 4 before being traded later that year. The club opted to simply honor his name with no number attached to him in 1997. Notes: Hornsby: When honored in 1997, '"SL"' was used in place of a number as he played mostly in an era without numbers. 42: Jackie Robinson's number 42 was retired throughout baseball in 1997. The Cardinals again retired 42 in September 2006 in honor of Sutter, who was elected to the Hall of Fame earlier in the year. 85: Cardinal stockholders honored Busch with the number 85 on his 85th birthday in 1984. Out of circulation, but not officially retired 4: Yadier Molina's (C, 2004–2022) number has not been reissued since he retired after the 2022 season. 5: Albert Pujols's (1B, 2001–2011, 2022) number has not been reissued since he retired after the 2022 season. 50: Adam Wainwright's (SP, 2005–2010, 2012–2023) number has not been reissued since he retired after the 2023 season. 51: Willie McGee's (OF, 1982–1990, 1996–1999; Coach, 2018–present) number has not been reissued since late in the 2001 season. McGee became a coach on the Cardinals' staff in the 2018 season and was reissued the number. Cardinals records Minor league affiliations The St. Louis Cardinals farm system consists of six minor league affiliates. Radio and television coverage Radio In St. Louis, Audacy-owned KMOX (1120 AM) airs Cardinals games over radio and feeds the rest of the Cardinals network. Capable of reaching 21 million listeners in nine states including Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Tennessee, the Cardinals radio network is the second-largest in MLB with 117 affiliate stations. Ricky Horton and John Rooney alternate as play-by-play announcers, with Matt Pauley serving as pre-game and post-game host. KMOX's 50,000-watt clear-channel signal covers much of the continental United States at night. At one time, owing to the Cardinals' status as a "regional" franchise, the Cardinals radio network reached almost half of the country. The 2011 season marked the Cardinals' return to KMOX following five seasons on KTRS (550 AM), a station which is 50 percent owned by the Cardinals. With a partnership spanning seven decades, and continuously since 1954, its conclusion was realized after the 2005 season when the then owners of KMOX, CBS Radio, and the Cardinals failed to reach terms on a new rights agreement. However, frustrated by the underpowered coverage of 5,000-watt KTRS, the Cardinals reached a new deal with KMOX in 2011. Starting in 2013 (at age 74), Mike Shannon started reducing his workload. As of the 2016 season, he only called home games for the Cardinals. As of the 2019 season, his 47th in the broadcast booth, he surpassed Jack Buck, his long-time broadcast companion, as the longest-tenured Cardinal broadcaster. On January 14, 2021, Shannon announced that the upcoming season, his 50th season in the broadcast booth, would be his last. Television Since 2000, Cardinals telecasts have generated the top three in ratings in MLB every season. Bally Sports Midwest airs all games in high-definition and is the team's exclusive television broadcaster, with the exception of selected Saturday afternoon games on Fox (via its St. Louis affiliate, KTVI) or Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN. Bally Sports Indiana, Bally Sports South, Bally Sports Oklahoma, Bally Sports Southwest, and Bally Sports Southeast air Cardinals games for fans living within the Cardinals broadcast territory who do not receive the Bally Sports Midwest channel. During the 2016 season, the Cardinals averaged an 8.54 rating and 104,000 viewers on primetime TV broadcasts in St Louis. The television commentators lineup includes Chip Caray, Brad Thompson, and Jim Edmonds. Jimmy "The Cat" Hayes serves as dugout reporter during the game as well as on Cardinals Live, a pre- and post-game show. Cardinals Live is hosted in-studio by Alexa Datt along with game analysts and former Cardinals players Al Hrabosky and Rick Ankiel. Cardinals Kids, a program aimed at the team's younger fans, airs weekly in-season on Fox Sports Midwest. It is hosted by former Cardinals pitcher Brad Thompson, team mascot Fredbird, and Busch Stadium Public Address announcer John "The U-Man" Ulett. The 30-minute show began airing in 2003 and presents team news, player profiles, and Cardinals team history in a kid-friendly manner along with games and trivia. A weekly magazine program, This Week in Cardinal Nation, airs on St. Louis' NBC affiliate KSDK. Cardinals games had been seen on KSDK (and its predecessor, KSD-TV) from 1947 through 1958, 1963 through 1987, and 2007 until 2010. KPLR-TV was the Cardinals' other over-the-air broadcaster, carrying games from 1959 through 1962 and from 1988 until 2006. Former Cardinals broadcasters include Jack Buck, Harry Caray, Bob Carpenter, Dizzy Dean, Joe Garagiola, Dan McLaughlin, and Jay Randolph. Joe Buck, the son of Jack Buck, was an official member of the Cardinals' broadcast team from 1991 until 2007. The younger Buck once served as the lead play-by-play caller for Fox Sports' national Major League Baseball and National Football League broadcasts before joining ESPN as the voice of Monday Night Football in 2022. Opening Day lineups Opening Day salaries Opening Day payrolls for 25-man roster (since 2000): 2018–23 payroll obligations 2020 season shortened to 60 games. Payroll adjusted from $168,930,500 to $69,461,295. Notes References Further reading Cash, Jon (2002). Before They Were Cardinals: Major-League Baseball in Nineteenth-Century St. Louis. University of Missouri Press. ISBN 0-826-21935-7. Eisenbath, Mike (1999). The Cardinals Encyclopedia. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. ISBN 1-56639-703-0. OCLC 40193767. Judd, Dennis (2002). The Infrastructure of Play: Building the Tourist City. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 978-0-7656-0956-4. Taylor, Phil (October 31, 2011). "Where's The Boo In Booster?". Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on October 29, 2011. Retrieved October 28, 2011. Redbird Nation's reputation as the most knowledgeable, loyal and, above all, friendly fans in the majors ... 'Our fans are the best because they're just as passionate as anywhere else, ..., but they're probably a little more fair-minded,' says St. Louis manager Tony La Russa. Weintraub, Robert (2013). The Victory Season: The End of World War II and the Birth of Baseball's Golden Age. New York: Little, Brown & Company. ISBN 978-0-316-20591-7. External links St. Louis Cardinals official website St. Louis Cardinals news Archived August 11, 2023, at the Wayback Machine (from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch) St. Louis Cardinals Team Index (at Baseball Reference) St. Louis Cardinals Team Page (at Scout.com)

Yadier Benjamín Molina (Spanish pronunciation: [ɟʝaˈðjeɾ moˈlina]; born July 13, 1982), nicknamed "Yadi", is a Puerto Rican former professional baseball catcher who played his entire 19-year career with the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball (MLB) and who is currently the team's Special Assistant to the President of Baseball Operations. Widely considered one of the greatest defensive catchers of all time for his blocking ability and his caught-stealing percentage, Molina won nine Rawlings Gold Gloves and six Fielding Bible Awards. A two-time World Series champion, he played for Cardinals teams that made 12 playoff appearances and won four National League pennants. Molina also played for the Puerto Rican national team in four World Baseball Classic (WBC) tournaments, winning two silver medals. When he retired after the 2022 season, Molina ranked first all-time among catchers in putouts and second all-time among catchers with 130 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS); among active players, he ranked first with 845 assists, 40.21% of runners caught stealing, and 55 pickoffs. Along with pitcher Adam Wainwright, Molina holds the records for most games started and won as a battery. As a hitter, Molina accrued more than 2,100 hits, 150 home runs, and 1,000 runs batted in (RBIs); he batted over .300 in five seasons. Other distinctions include selection to ten MLB All-Star Games, four Platinum Glove Awards, and one Silver Slugger Award. He was a two-time selection to the All-WBC Tournament Team and was a member of the 2018 MLB Japan All-Star Series. The product of a baseball family, Molina was born in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. His father was an amateur second baseman and the all-time hits leader in Puerto Rican baseball, and his two older brothers, Bengie and José, also developed into standout defensive catchers with lengthy MLB careers. The Cardinals' fourth-round selection in the 2000 MLB draft, Molina entered the major leagues in the 2004 season and quickly showed one of the strongest and most accurate arms in the game. Over his career, he earned a reputation as a team leader, eventually formulating pregame plans to handle opposing hitters, including pitching strategies and fielder positioning. Molina appeared on five NL Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) ballots, including finishing fourth in 2012 and third in 2013. When Hurricane Maria ravaged the island of Puerto Rico in September 2017, Molina began relief efforts for victims of the catastrophe, consequently receiving the Roberto Clemente Award in 2018. Early life Yadier Benjamín Molina was born on July 13, 1982, in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, the youngest of three boys to Gladys Matta and Benjamín Molina, Sr. He attended Maestro Ladislao Martínez High School in Vega Alta. Baseball in Puerto Rico is a significant part of the island's culture. Molina's father played second base as an amateur and worked as a tools technician 10 hours per day in a Westinghouse factory. The all-time hits leader in Liga de Béisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente (or Doble-A Beísbol) history, the elder Molina delivered a .320 career batting average and gained election to the Puerto Rican baseball hall of fame in 2002. Molina's two older brothers, Bengie and José, also developed into distinguished defensive catchers with lengthy careers in Major League Baseball (MLB), and each of the three won at least one World Series championship. Each day when he completed work, Molina's father went directly home, ate dinner with his family, and crossed the street from his family's home with his sons and his son’s friend Carlos Diaz to Jesús Mambe Kuilan Park, spending countless evening hours teaching them the fundamentals of the sport. He remained hopeful that his sons would become professional baseball players. Molina's catching aptitude showed as early as age five and developed quickly. Nonetheless, he developed great competence in playing all over the baseball field and, as older brother Bengie recalled, always seemed to "be the first player taken in the youth league draft". Molina concentrated on infield positions until about age 16, when he began to develop the familiar Molina physique: as of 2013, he stood 5'11" and weighed 220 pounds. Molina's father also sought to accelerate him on the diamond. Following Yadier's suspension from a youth league about age 15, he anticipated the desistance would stagnate his development, so he searched for an alternative. Against the wishes of coaches, family members and friends, he scheduled Yadier for a workout with the Hatillo Tigres, an amateur league team. Molina made the team after a single workout and immediately became the starting catcher. The Tigres' first baseman, Luís Rosario, was the one who recommended him to the organization. The Tigres played in a league composed mainly of players 10 or more years older than Molina, well before he was eligible for the MLB draft. Professional career Draft and minor leagues Minnesota Twins scout Edwin Rodríguez followed and scrutinized Molina starting in high school. He observed that Molina's skills closely resembled that of both his older brothers—both accomplished major league catchers—and decided that his defense was "polished" enough to be considered more advanced than most high schoolers in the United States. However, Molina's hitting lagged behind his defense. The initial report on his skill set was "defensive catcher, great arm, weak bat"; the closest comparable hitter as catcher was one whom the Cardinals eventually placed at the top of their organizational ladder, his future manager Mike Matheny. Before he was drafted, Molina worked out for the Cincinnati Reds. He put on a spectacle at Riverfront Stadium with his arm and bat that grabbed the attention of executives, scouts, and prominent former Reds players, including Johnny Bench and Bob Boone. As Molina recalled, he left the session with the impression that Cincinnati intended to draft him. Undeterred by the universal reservations about his offensive ceiling, the St. Louis Cardinals instead took Molina in the fourth round of the 2000 MLB draft and signed him for $325,000. The Cardinals then invited Molina to major league spring training camp. Described as "raw", the young catcher worked to emulate Matheny. At one point in that extended spring training, instructor Dave Ricketts observed Molina from a golf cart during a game. Molina allowed a passed ball through his legs with a runner on third base, and raced to the backstop to retrieve the ball. Still hoping to prevent the runner from scoring, he instead found Ricketts in the golf cart parked on top of home plate. Ricketts, who had a reputation for becoming upset when minor league catchers allowed balls to bounce between their legs, removed Molina from the game and drove him to the batting cage. There, Molina later recalled, Ricketts batted 150 to 200 ground balls to improve the young catcher's ability to block pitches. Molina began his professional career with the Johnson City Cardinals of the Rookie-level Appalachian League in 2001, playing 44 total games and batting .259. He advanced one level in each of four seasons in the minor leagues. Even without highly developed offensive skills, Molina proved difficult to strike out. Mainly a singles hitter who favored hitting the ball the other way, he batted .278 with 14 home runs and 133 runs batted in (RBIs) with 118 strikeouts in 1,044 at-bats in four minor league seasons. In his first three seasons, he threw out 111 base runners attempting to steal while allowing 133 stolen bases, for a caught-stealing percentage of 45%. St. Louis Cardinals (2004–2022) 2004–06 Molina's first chance in the Major Leagues came when the incumbent catcher, Matheny, went on the disabled list (DL) with a strained rib in the Cardinals' pennant-winning season of 2004. Molina made his Major League debut on June 3. One of his first game-winning hits occurred on August 7. He stroked a broken-bat single to shallow center field in the bottom of the ninth inning against the New York Mets. On the play, the center fielder, Mike Cameron started towards the outfield wall based on Molina's full swing, not immediately realizing that he had made only partial contact because of the broken bat. By the time Cameron charged the ball, it was too late; it fell in for a hit, scoring Jim Edmonds. Three weeks later, on August 29, the Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 6–4, thanks in part to two plays in which Molina tagged out the runner at home plate, including a collision with Ty Wigginton. Molina appeared in 51 regular-season games and batted .267 with two home runs and 15 RBIs in 151 plate appearances. He threw out more than half of would-be base-stealers (nine of 17). In the World Series against the Boston Red Sox, manager Tony La Russa elected to start Molina over Matheny in Game 4. The Red Sox swept the Cardinals and claimed the title that game, their first in 86 years. The following offseason, Matheny signed a three-year, $10.5-million contract with the San Francisco Giants, clearing the way for Molina to become the Cardinals' starting catcher. In 2005, Molina struggled with injuries and saw a drop off in the offensive performance in his rookie season. He doubled and scored on David Eckstein's go-ahead single on his way to three hits in a June 12 defeat of the New York Yankees, 5–3. Molina returned from a 33-game absence on August 19 induced by a hairline fracture of his left fifth metacarpal bone from being hit by a pitch on July 7. Starting pitcher Chris Carpenter, attempting to extend a winning streak to ten games on an August 19 game versus the San Francisco Giants, found himself in a 4–0 deficit in the ninth inning. Capped by Molina's three-run home run, the Cardinals rallied and won 5–4 in the ninth. The next day, Molina's suicide squeeze bunt scored Mark Grudzielanek, tying the game and allowing the Cardinals to win 4–2. Those were just two wins of 100 as St. Louis made their way to another division title following 105 wins the season before. In 114 games, Molina posted a .252 batting average with eight home runs and 49 RBIs with just 30 strikeouts in 421 plate appearances. Defensively, he registered career-highs of nine pickoffs and a caught-stealing percentage of 64 from throwing out 25 of 39 would-be base-stealers. According to Baseball-Reference.com, as of 2013, that percentage ranked as the 26th highest all-time season-single caught stealing percentage. Since 1957, only Mike LaValliere's 1993 figure of 72.7% was higher. Before the 2006 season commenced, Molina participated in the inaugural World Baseball Classic (WBC) for Puerto Rico. After returning to the Cardinals, he changed his jersey number from 41 to 4. However, the regular season presented some of his greatest offensive challenges as he struggled through a career-worst .216 batting average in 461 regular-season plate appearances. It was a culmination of a decline over his first three seasons; Molina's on-base plus slugging percentages (OPS) registered at .684 in 2004, .654 in 2005 and .595 in 2006. The low batting average was due in part to a deflated batting average on balls in play (BABIP) of .226 (normal is around .300), a career low. In a May 27 game against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park in San Diego with the Cardinals holding a 4–3 lead in the bottom of the ninth, Molina picked Brian Giles off first to end the game, the first pickoff to end a major league game in nearly four years. The Cardinals faced the Padres again in the National League Division Series (NLDS) playoff game in the playoffs, he again picked a Padre off at first, this time Mike Piazza, while bailing pitcher Jeff Suppan out of a jam. For the season, he caught 41% of all base-stealing attempts and picked off seven runners. Even as his bat languished, Molina's defense was instrumental in propelling the Cardinals to the National League Central division crown in a season heavily marred by injuries for the team. However, the following playoffs marked a turning point in his career offensive output. He posted a .358 composite batting average, .424 on-base percentage (OBP), two home runs and eight RBIs in 16 games as the Cardinals reached the World Series. He batted .308 in the National League Division Series (NLDS), .348 in the National League Championship Series (NLCS) and .412 in the World Series. One of Molina's landmark playoff performances came in Game 7 of the NLCS against the New York Mets, the final game of the series tied at three games each. Starting in the top of the ninth, he batted with a 1–1 score. In the sixth inning, Mets left fielder Endy Chávez had prevented the Cardinals from taking the lead when he leapt to catch Scott Rolen's near-miss home run over the left field fence. This time, however, Molina hit a two-run home run off Aaron Heilman over left field that was too high for Chávez to catch and gave the Cardinals a 3–1 edge. In the bottom of the ninth, rookie pitcher Adam Wainwright – filling in as emergency closer – found himself in a two-out, bases-loaded situation against center fielder Carlos Beltrán, who had already homered three times in the NLCS. Molina called for a mound conference. Initially, he wanted a sinker from Wainwright but changed his mind because he suspected Wainwright would overthrow it and give Beltrán an easy pitch to hit. Molina made an unconventional choice by calling for a changeup to start the sequence against Beltrán. It was called for a strike. Had Beltrán successfully got a base hit, the scheme may have caused tension for the third-year catcher with La Russa and pitching coach Dave Duncan because throwing a first-pitch changeup ran contrary to Duncan's teaching. Molina then called for two curveballs. Beltrán fouled off the first, but Wainwright struck him out looking at a "bender that started up and away and bit hard to the low inside corner" for the final out of the game. The Cardinals' conquest of the NLCS gave them a return trip to the World Series after two years. They proceeded to defeat the Detroit Tigers in five games, giving Molina his first championship ring. His mask was turned in for display at the Baseball Hall of Fame. 2007–09 Batting out of the number-five spot in the batting order for the first time in his career on Opening Day, 2007, Molina collected two hits. In a game against the Milwaukee Brewers on April 15, Molina picked Prince Fielder off first base as he leaned far off the bag, tipping off Molina and first baseman Albert Pujols to a hit and run the Brewers were planning. Four days later, Molina faced his brother Bengie for the first time in a game against the San Francisco Giants. It was also the first time they had seen each other in about three and one-half years. From May 1 to 24, Molina strung together a then-career high 15-game hitting streak, during which he batted .373. It was the longest streak for a Cardinals catcher since Erik Pappas' 16-game streak in 1993. Molina was absent for most of June due to a fractured left wrist. In the third inning of the May 29 game against Colorado, he took a foul tip off his wrist from Rockies right fielder Brad Hawpe's bat. After missing 26 games, the Cardinals activated him from the disabled list on June 28. The first multi-error game of Molina's career occurred July 13 against the Philadelphia Phillies on a catch and throw. In a span of 11 starts from August 2–16, he racked up four three-hit games. On August 16, he hit two home runs against the Brewers for his first career multi-homer game. Molina homered and stroked the go-ahead double in an August 22 defeat of Florida. One week later, he homered in back-to-back games against the Cincinnati Reds; he, Edmonds, and Rick Ankiel each drove in three runs in an 11–3 victory on September 2. On Yadier Molina Bobblehead Night September 19 versus Philadelphia, he stroked three hits including the game-winning single in the tenth inning. Molina suffered a concussion in September and underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair torn cartilage in his right knee. The knee surgery ended his season early on September 24. In Molina's final 50 games, he successfully collected 49 hits in 158 AB for a .310 AVG. Of his final 35 starts, 12 were multi-hit games. His .281 batting average after the All-Star break ranked fifth among NL catchers. He finished the season with a new career-best .275 batting average, six home runs, and 40 RBIs in 111 games. He threw out 50% (23 of 46) baserunners attempting to steal, the highest percentage in the majors. From 2005 to 2007, he led all MLB with a 47% caught-stealing rate and 18 pick-offs. On January 14, 2008, Molina and the Cardinals agreed to a four-year, $15.5 million deal with a club option for a fifth, cementing his position as their starting catcher. He reported to spring training having lost 15 pounds and in improved physical shape from rehabilitating following knee surgery. He started the season with an Opening Day home run and seven-game hitting streak. After a home plate collision with Eric Bruntlett on June 15 against the Philadelphia Phillies in the ninth inning, Molina sustained head and neck injuries and was removed from the field on a stretcher. There were no indications of a concussion. He held on to the ball to help the Cardinals win. He missed the next four games. To that point, Molina was batting .295 with three home runs and 24 RBIs. He also had thrown out 10 of 32 baserunners (31.3%) – well below his career average of 45% – but an Associated Press reporter attributed the decline to an inexperienced pitching staff. Molina returned to the field against Boston at Fenway Park as the designated hitter. In that game, his solo home run provided the difference in a 5–4 Cardinals victory. It was also the first game of the first of two 13-game hitting streaks for the season. His first career start at first base, also against Boston, occurred two days later. During that streak, he collected 17 hits in 47 at-bats for a .362 batting average. The second hitting streak spanned from August 16 to September 2, where he successfully hit 19 times in 50 at bats for a .380 average. On September 2, he and Felipe López hit consecutive home runs against the Arizona Diamondbacks en route to an 8–2 victory. Overall, Molina enjoyed a breakout offensive season, finishing with new career highs with a .304 batting average – his first over .300 – and in hits (135), OBP (.349), SLG (.392), runs (37) and RBIs (56). Of all catchers in franchise history with at least 450 PA in a season, he became just the second ever, after Simmons, to bat over .300; it was then the fourth-best season batting average; and, his 29 strikeouts were the fewest since Simmons fanned 20 times in 1976. Molina led the team and was sixth in the NL with a .340 batting average with runners in scoring position. For the season, he successfully caught 35% of opposing baserunners, still higher than the league average of 27%. He led all MLB with seven pickoffs. That November, Molina received his first Gold Glove Award, becoming the third Cardinal catcher ever to win the honor, after Tom Pagnozzi and Matheny. Before the 2009 season commenced, Molina participated with Puerto Rico in his second WBC. When the event concluded, he returned to the Cardinals. In an April 16 game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, he reached base in all five of his plate appearances in a 12–7 victory. Starting pitcher Joel Piñeiro – struggling with his fastball command in previous starts – experimented with a sinker and shut out the New York Mets on June 24 with just two hits. Molina erased a Mets runner by throwing out Luis Castillo attempting to steal second base. Molina was batting .278 with five home runs and 25 RBIs through July 5, 2009. He was selected through fan vote to represent the Cardinals in the All-Star Game in St. Louis' Busch Stadium – his first All-Star Game. As the top vote-getter among NL catchers with 2,641,467 votes, Molina was named the NL's starting catcher. He caught eight innings and drove home a run. Following the All-Star break on July 18, Molina's four hits and Albert Pujols' two home runs helped cap Chris Carpenter's 6–1 victory over the Diamondbacks, who pitched around nine runners on base in eight innings. On August 15, Molina picked off San Diego's Kevin Kouzmanoff at first on the way to a 7–4 victory, the 33rd of his career. At that point, Bill James Online rated that Molina saved his team fifteen total runs from pickoffs alone in his career. A sore left knee sustained after taking a foul ball of his kneecap temporarily disabled Molina on September 26. He was back in action on October 1 against Cincinnati, although he was removed from that game due to a "tweaked" knee. He finished the season with a .293 batting average, six home runs, 54 RBIs, and a major league-leading 136 games caught, the highest franchise total since Ted Simmons' total in 1977. His strikeout rate of once every 13.9 PA was the second-lowest in the NL. While accumulating 39 mult-hit games, the Cardinals won 27 of them. He led the major leagues with eight pickoffs and was second in the NL in innings caught. He also won his second Gold Glove award after the season. The Sporting News announced that major league managers and coaches had selected Molina for the magazine's end-of-season All-Star award. For the first time in his career, Molina earned Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) consideration. He finished tied for 23rd with Miguel Tejada with one percent of the vote share. 2010–11 On Opening Day, April 5, 2010, Molina connected for a grand slam, becoming just the third Cardinals player to hit an Opening Day grand slam, following Mark McGwire and Scott Rolen. On April 17, he caught all 20 innings of a game against the Mets. Molina turned in a productive April, driving in 15 runners, the most for a Cardinals catcher in the month of April since Ted Simmons drove in 20 in 1977. He also continued his productivity with the bases loaded that month, collecting four hits and 11 RBIs in five at bats. Before the All-Star break, Molina batted just .223. However, he was voted to start his second consecutive game, and second overall, and played four innings. After the All-Star break, his hitting improved, as he stroked 63 hits in 200 at bats for .315 batting average. During a game against the Cincinnati Reds on August 10, as second baseman Brandon Phillips came to bat, he exchanged words with Molina that escalated to a bench-clearing confrontation, although no one was ejected. On September 17, he amassed a career-high five RBIs and career-tying four hits against San Diego, including two doubles. After an examination on his sore right knee on September 23, Molina was shut down for the rest of the season, missing 12 games. The final batting results for Molina's 2010 season consisted of a .262 batting average, six home runs, and 62 RBIs. He ranked as the fourth toughest in the NL to strike out with 10.2 at bats per strikeout. He led all NL catchers in at-bats (465) and stolen bases (eight), and his 122 hits ranked second, just behind Brian McCann's 123. He was tops in the NL with 24 bases-loaded RBIs, collecting eight hits in 15 AB for a .533 batting average in those situations. He also was first in the Majors with a .455 batting average (10–22) on 0–2 counts. He led all MLB catchers in innings (1138.0), games started (130) and assists (79), and led the NL for the third time in caught-stealing percentage at 49%. On November 1, he won his fourth consecutive Fielding Bible Award as the sole catcher. In addition, Molina became the first player at any position to win the award unanimously with a perfect score of 100. Nine days later, he was awarded his third consecutive Gold Glove Award. With increased offensive productivity in 2011, Molina continued to help anchor the middle of Cardinals lineup in addition to the pitching staff and defense. From May 15 to 18, he put together four consecutive multi-hit games. Selected to his third consecutive All-Star Game, he substituted for the starter, McCann, played four innings and doubled in his only at-bat. Molina hit safety in 14 consecutive games from July 21 to August 11, one fewer than his career high. From July 22–25, he homered in three consecutive games, the second time in his career he had done so. On August 2, Molina was ejected from a game against the Milwaukee Brewers for arguing a called strike. He bumped umpire Rob Drake in the chest multiple times and appeared to spit upon him. Molina later apologized, stating that he did not intend to spit on the umpire and that he "was caught up in the moment. That's what happens when you're caught up in the race and trying to win. I didn't handle it the right way." He served a five-game suspension handed down by MLB for "making contact with umpire Rob Drake multiple times and spraying him with spit twice while arguing." Although the Cardinals stayed competitive, they were, at best, on the fringes of making the playoffs through August. As of August 28, with a 70–64 record, they faced a 10+1⁄2-game deficit to the Braves for the wild card playoff berth with 28 left to play. Molina provided a spark to the offense in the close of the season, batting .342 in August and .341 in September. With his 30th double on September 21, he became the fourth catcher in Cardinals history to reach that milestone, following Simmons, Bob O'Farrell and Walker Cooper. St. Louis won 20 of 28 games to finish the season, allowing them to tie the Braves for the wild card lead going into the final day. Molina caught Carpenter's 8–0 shutout of the Astros, the final game of the regular season. Meanwhile, the Philles defeated the Braves 4–3 in 13 innings, giving the Cardinals the wild card title and eliminating the Braves from the playoffs. The 10+1⁄2 games-won deficit marked the largest lead surrendered with 28 left to play in MLB history, consummating what St. Louis Post-Dispatch sportswriter Bernie Miklasz termed an "improbable comeback," and one of the greatest sports history. It was just the first in a series of improbable comebacks for the Cardinals in 2011. Molina compiled a .305 batting average, 32 doubles, 14 home runs and 65 RBIs during the 2011 regular season. His batting average led the Cardinals and was eighth in the NL. However, his posted a career-low 29% caught-stealing percentage. His OPS+ (126), batting average, and hit totals led NL catchers, doubles placed second and RBIs third. His .337 batting average following the All-Star Break tied for seventh in the NL. He also led all NL catchers with 12 three-hit games, and collated 39 multi-hit games and 13 multi-RBI games. By making the playoffs, Molina became the first catcher in franchise history to appear in five postseasons for the Cardinals. He batted .333 in the NLCS against Milwaukee, including five hits in eight AB in the final two games. In Game 1 of the World Series against the Texas Rangers, Molina threw out Ian Kinsler attempting to steal in the first inning on the way to a 3–2 win. It was the Rangers' only attempted steal of the game. That caught stealing gave Molina five in seven total chances in the 2011 postseason to that point; the Rangers had been tied with the Cardinals for most steals in that postseason. For the series, the Rangers attempted to steal four bases and were successful just once. In Game 3, Molina accumulated four RBI, and two more each in Games 6 and 7. The Cardinals won the Series in seven games, giving Molina his second championship ring. He batted .333 and set a team World Series record with nine RBIs. It was the highest World Series RBI total among catchers since Sandy Alomar Jr., drove in 10 in 1997. Molina started all 18 games and played every inning in that 2011 playoff run, including one at first. Overall, he batted .299 with five doubles and 12 RBIs. His 20 hits were the most by a catcher in the postseason since Iván Rodríguez stroked 21 in 2003. On November 1, Molina won his fourth consecutive Gold Glove Award, becoming just the fifth catcher on a pennant-winning club to lead his position in OPS+ in his league while winning a Gold Glove. He also won the first-ever National League Rawlings Platinum Glove Award, bestowed upon one player in each league. For the second time in his career, he won MVP consideration; he finished tied for 21st for the NL MVP balloting. 2012 On March 1, 2012, Molina signed a five-year extension with the Cardinals worth $75 million through 2017. The contract included a $1 million signing bonus, no-trade clause, and a mutual option for 2018 worth another $15 million. The deal made him the second-highest-paid catcher in the majors. He collected his tenth career four-hit game against the Brewers on April 29 with a two-run home run that led the Cardinals to a 7–3 win. On May 1, Molina mounted the first of two two-stolen base games of the season; the other occurred August 3. On May 27 against the Phillies, Molina blasted his third career grand slam against Roy Halladay. His made his 1,000th career appearance in an MLB game against the Chicago White Sox on June 12. From July 25 to August 7, he maintained a season-best 11-game hitting streak in which he batted .413. In a game against Pittsburgh at PNC Park on August 28, he sustained head, neck and back injuries – although no concussion – in a second-inning home plate collision with second baseman Josh Harrison. In August, he batted .403 with a .453 OBP, both tied for third in the NL. As the season progressed, he garnered widespread consideration for the National League MVP award. On September 4, Molina collected his 1,000th career hit, an infield single against the Mets at home in the second inning. The 2012 season was one of Molina's crowning achievements as a hitter, especially considering early professional scouting reports did not forecast his bat being much of a factor in the major leagues. He set new career highs in multiple offensive categories, including a .315 batting average, 22 home runs, 76 RBI, 65 runs scored, .373 OBP, .501 slugging percentage and 12 stolen bases. He led the team in batting average for the second straight season, thus becoming the first catcher in franchise history to do so. Panning Molina's performance National League-wide, he ranked fourth in batting average, tenth in on-base percentage, 14th in slugging percentage and tied for 18th with 46 multihit games. He led NL catchers in stolen bases and set a Cardinals single-season record for catchers, and ranked second among NL catchers in HR and third in RBIs and batting average. An aggressive hitter, he batted .380 with seven home runs on the first pitch; his home run total on first pitches ranked seventh in the NL. His 32 baserunners caught stealing topped MLB, 47.9 caught stealing percentage ranked second, and three pickoffs tied for first in the NL and were second in MLB. From a historic perspective, Fangraphs' Dave Cameron noted that Molina's combination of offensive productivity and interception of base runners in 2012 was one of the rarest performances in history. He became just the ninth MLB catcher to post a season with a weighted runs created (WRC+) factor of 140 and 45 percent of runners caught stealing. At 143, his WRC+ was tied for eighth all-time among catchers with at 45% of base runners caught stealing. Further, those figures aligned with peak seasons of other catchers such as Johnny Bench, Elston Howard, Carlton Fisk, and Rick Wilkins. After being the subject of much speculation for the MVP award throughout the season, Molina ultimately finished fourth. However, he did win the prestigious and oldest award given to Latino players: the LatinoMVP award given by Latino Sports and the Latino Sports Writers & Broadcasters Association (LSWBA). He and winner Buster Posey became the first pair of catchers to finish in the top four in the award's 88-year history. However, like in years past, other awards were on their way. In November, he won his fifth straight Gold Glove award, making him the first Cardinal since Jim Edmonds to win that many consecutively, which Edmonds did in 2004. On December 4, he won his first GIBBY Award for Defensive Player of the Year. The St. Louis chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) named him the St. Louis Baseball Man of the Year for 2012. In a Los Angeles Times report that published the top MLB jersey sales from the All-Star break until October 1, his jersey ranked 18th. 2013 With increased profile coming in conjunction with his offensive breakout from the year before, Molina's popularity with fans around the game also increased. Following his 2012 fourth-place MVP finish, his 2013 in-season jersey sales rose to third place, just after Posey and retiring New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, according to a July 11 report. On June 2 he was ejected by 1st base umpire Clint Fagan for throwing his helmet. Molina collected two doubles in a three-hit game on June 12, giving him 21 doubles for the season, a pre-All-Star break career high. It was also the second-highest pre-All-Star break total in franchise history following Ted Simmons' 29 thirty-five years earlier. That three-hit game also gave Molina 78 for his career, tied for 43 on the all-time list for catchers. Through July 15, Molina led the NL with a .341 (110 hits in 323 at-bats) batting average. In the final All-Star Game balloting, Molina (6,883,258 votes) edged out Posey (6,474,088) for the role of the NL's starting catcher in the game held at Citi Field in Queens, New York City. The Cardinals placed Molina on the 15-day disabled list on July 31 due to a right knee sprain. At the time he went on the DL, Molina was batting .330 with eight homers, thirty doubles, and 54 RBIs. A magnetic resonance image (MRI) indicated inflammation but no structural damage, so the knee was drained of excess fluid buildup and Molina was given a cortisone injection. The knee injury impacted his batting average, contributing to a late-season slump. On September 16, Molina collected four hits with three runs scored to help the Cardinals to a 12–2 win over the Seattle Mariners and break an 0–15 slump, raising his batting average to .317. Eight days later, Molina was behind the plate to call rookie Michael Wacha's one-hit, 8 2⁄3 innings of shutout work in a 2–0 victory over the Washington Nationals. It was actually a no-hitter through that point until Ryan Zimmerman broke it up with a high-bouncing ground ball that glanced off Wacha's glove for the Nationals' only hit of the game. For the year, Molina set new career highs in batting average (.319), doubles (44), runs scored (68), and RBIs (80). He also hit .373 with runners in scoring position (RISP) in a season in which the Cardinals set the all-team team record for batting average with RISP at .330. He finished fourth in the NL in batting average, second in doubles and sixth in batting average with RISP. His 44 doubles were the most in the Major Leagues among catchers since Iván Rodríguez' 47 in 1996. Molina was also noted for his handling of the pitching staff. The Cardinals overcame losing key pitchers Chris Carpenter, Jason Motte, and Jaime García – among others – early in the season by substituting twelve rookie pitchers en route to winning a competitive NL Central division title over the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds (each team finished with at least 90 wins). A continuously evolving core exceeded expectations by filling in for 52 games started, 36 wins, and five saves and Molina was credited with their success in a large part due to his pitch-calling skills and aptness to guide. The rookies' 36 wins were the most in franchise history since 1941. The Cardinals squared off against the Pirates in the NLDS. Two weeks removed from just missing a no-hitter, Wacha again nearly repeated the feat with Molina behind the plate in an elimination game, Game 4. Molina threw out pinch runner Josh Harrison attempting to steal second base in the eighth inning to help the Cardinals preserve a 2–1 lead. In the World Series against the Boston Red Sox, Molina became just the ninth player – and the first in the expansion era – in franchise history to appear in four World Series with the club, and the first since Stan Musial in the 1946 World Series, also against the Red Sox. Molina collected more awards following the season, including his first Silver Slugger Award, sixth Gold Glove, and a third-place finish in MVP voting. Molina was a co-winner, along with Wainwright and Matt Carpenter, for the BBWAA St. Louis Baseball Man of the Year. 2014 Along with three other players each separately displayed, Sports Illustrated featured Molina on the cover of their March 31 issue complementing the 2014 MLB season preview article. On the 2014 Opening Day – the same day Sports Illustrated published the Molina cover edition – he stroked his second season-entry home run and the 90th of his career, accounting for the difference in a 1–0 defeat of the Reds in Cincinnati. It also secured the 100th win for batterymate Adam Wainwright. Molina added a single for two of the Cardinals' five hits. With a one ball, two strike pitch from relief pitcher Randy Choate incoming to Cubs outfielder Nate Schierholtz in a May 4 game, the batter foul tipped the pitch. Instead of Molina being in a position to catch it cleanly with his glove, the ball hit the thigh. Molina instantly hunched over the ball, trapping it between the thigh and rib cage. He held on, qualifying it as a third strike. With the All-Star Game nearing, Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy aired Archived July 15, 2014, at the Wayback Machine a satirical television commercial in the style of a political advertising campaign on June 17 to outgain Molina in the All-Star voting totals. The voice-over narrator posed the question, "Do you want another St. Louis Cardinals catcher to star in an All Star game? Isn’t there a better way? Cast a ballot for change. Cardinals fans need to know that enough is enough." At that point, Molina led the vote total for NL catchers with more than two million, while Posey was second at 1.4 million and Lucroy third with 1.1 million. Some, including Matheny, took the message literally. However, Brad Weimer, the advertisement's creator, confirmed the humor was meant to be tongue-in-cheek. Molina stayed in the lead and won the vote as the starting catcher in the All-Star Game at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota, his sixth consecutive appearance. His season was interrupted on July 9 against the Pirates. While sliding past third base, he attempted to grab the bag to stay on. However, during the play, he injured his right thumb. An MRI revealed torn ligaments, requiring surgery and forcing him to miss the next eight to 12 weeks. Regarding the injury as having a significance impact on the Cardinals' season, St. Louis Post-Dispatch sportswriter Bernie Miklasz commented, "Losing the best catcher in the world for the next 8 to 12 weeks with a torn thumb ligament is a horrendous, demoralizing setback for the Cardinals. This could be a season-ending injury." At that point, he was batting .287 with a .341 OBP, .409 SLG, 16 doubles, seven homers, and 30 RBIs through 83 games. He also led MLB with a 49 caught-stealing percentage. He returned from the DL ahead of schedule, about seven weeks and 40 games missed after the injury, and was activated August 29 before a series against the Cubs. However, he still had not fully recovered, as he batted .250 in September with a pronounced drop in power production. His 110 appearances were his fewest since his rookie season in 2004. He finished the season with a .282 batting average, seven HR, 38 RBIs, 21 doubles, a .333 OBP and .386 SLG, all lower totals than 2013, and many since 2010. Among players with at least 90 games played, Molina's 48% caught stealing and 3.20 catcher's ERA were both first in the major leagues. During Game 1 of the NLDS against the Dodgers, Wainwright hit Adrián González with a pitch, and both benches cleared. Umpire Jerry Meals attempted to get between González and Molina, but Molina briefly shoved Meals. MLB fined Molina $5,000 without suspending him. In Game 2 of the NLCS against the Giants, Molina collected his 89th career hit in the postseason, passing Pujols for the franchise record. However, he sustained his second significant injury of the season in that same game, straining his left abdominal oblique muscle during another at bat, due in part to compensation in his swing for lost power following his thumb injury earlier in the season. After missing the next game, his string of 83 consecutive playoff games started was stopped, which was a major league record. The last playoff game he had not started was Game 3 of the 2004 World Series. On November 4, Molina was announced as winning his seventh consecutive Gold Glove, tying Boone as having won the third-most Gold Gloves among catchers. Further, only Bench and Rodríguez had won more consecutive (10 each) as catchers in major league history. He won the National League Platinum Glove award on November 8, his third time in the award's first four years. 2015 With his 11th consecutive Opening Day start on April 5, 2015, against the Cubs, Molina became the first catcher in club history to achieve this feat. On May 10 against the Pirates, he was on the dubious end of a piece of MLB history: lining out into the first "4–5–4" triple play in MLB history. Second baseman Neil Walker caught his line drive with two runners on, then threw to third baseman Jung-ho Kang to double up Jhonny Peralta for the second out. Kang briefly pirouetted the ball in his hand, albeit confused, but threw back to Walker to tag Jason Heyward for the third out. Molina's first home run of the season and first in 95 games occurred against the Minnesota Twins on June 15; his previous home run dated back to June 27, 2014. On July 7, he was selected to his seventh consecutive All-Star Game, played at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. In the Reds' clubhouse for the All-Star Game, Molina shared a locker with Reds' second baseman Brandon Phillips. Since the brawl between the Cardinals and Reds in 2010, the two mended their schism, and Molina has a photograph of their families together. When informed whose locker he was using, Molina replied, "This is Phillips' locker? How about that? I'll have to write something to him." While the pregame roster introductions were made, Reds fans booed all six Cardinals players who were selected, and even former Cardinal Albert Pujols. When Molina was introduced, he smiled and turned and pointed his thumbs toward the back of his jersey. Pujols provided levity when he then joined in the booing. After the game, Molina remarked to reporters, "when you spend 12 years coming to Cincinnati and you beat them so many times, they’re going to boo you." In his career to that point, he hit .319 with a .352 on-base percentage and .500 slugging percentage in 270 career at-bats at Great American Ball Park. Hitting his first triple in more than four years and 2,000 at bats, with the bases loaded, Molina provided the decisive run in a 3–2 outcome against the Chicago White Sox on July 22. In the annual Baseball America Toolbox Awards, managers and coaches around the National League rated Molina as both the "Best hit and run artist" and "Best defensive catcher" in the NL. His 100th career home run was well-timed, becoming the game-winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning at Busch Stadium on August 19 in a 4–3 win over San Francisco. After sustaining an injury to his left thumb during a September 20 game against the Cubs, an MRI revealed a partial ligament tear, preventing him from playing. Molina won his eighth consecutive Gold Glove Award and fourth Platinum Glove Award in 2015. In December, it was revealed that Molina had a second surgery on his left thumb, pushing his return to late in 2016 spring training. He was winner of the Darryl Kile Good Guy Award. 2016 At age 33, Molina broke the Cardinals' all-time games caught record on April 8, 2016, in his 1,440th game, passing Ted Simmons (1968–80). His 1,343 games started since the beginning of the 2005 season was the highest total in the major leagues. He made his 1,500th career major league appearance on May 14 in a 5–3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. While playing the Washington Nationals in the seventh inning of a 2–1 loss at Nationals Park on May 26, Stephen Drew hit a high infield fly that stayed over the pitcher's mound. With both Aledmys Díaz and Mike Leake attempting to catch the ball, Molina posited himself and waited. As the ball deflected off Díaz' glove, he almost collided with Leake, but Molina instinctively moved his glove and caught the ball before it hit the ground. He recorded his 1,500th career hit on July 2 against Milwaukee, becoming the 34th catcher in MLB history, and second for the Cardinals, after Simmons. Molina's ninth-inning, RBI double, tied the July 27 game against the New York Mets at 4−4, ending Jeurys Familia’s consecutive-saves streak of 52, the third-longest in major league history. His tenth-inning double against Milwaukee on August 30, his 30th of the season and 300th of his career, helped lead the Cardinals to a 2–1 victory. He caught a career-high 146 games. After starting with a .256 average through 85 games, Molina batted .365 from July 8 to the end of the season, and overall hit .307, eight home runs, 58 RBIs, and led all major league catchers with 164 hits and 38 doubles. His hit total was also a career-high, leading the club, and he was eighth in the league in batting and ninth in doubles. 2017 During Spring Training before the 2017 season, and the final guaranteed year on Molina's contract, the Cardinals began to negotiate an extension to keep Molina in St. Louis for the remainder of his career. He agreed to a three-year contract extension for a reported $60 million, making him the highest-paid catcher in baseball. He was not interested in exercising his 2018 mutual option, which would have been worth $15 million. The extension assured Molina of remaining in St. Louis through 2020, and increases the chances that he will finish his career having played for just one organization, the one that drafted him. This distinction of having Molina retire as a Cardinal is something that carried weight for both parties throughout the negotiations. On June 26, Molina became the ninth catcher all-time to record 11,000 career putouts at the position. For the eighth time in his career, he was an All-Star selection, as resulted in a vote by fellow players. He homered, making him the oldest catcher to hit a homer in an All-Star Game, in his age-34 season, and the first Cardinal to homer in an All-Star Game since Reggie Smith in 1974. On August 9 against the Kansas City Royals, Molina came in with two outs and the bases loaded. After drawing a 1–0 count against Peter Moylan, a brief delay occurred when a stray kitten had made its way onto the outfield. On the very next pitch to Molina, he hit it 387 feet into the left field seats for a go-ahead grand slam. This was the fifth grand slam of his career, tying him with Tim McCarver for second-most career grand slams by a Cardinals catcher. This also proved to be the deciding hit in this game, as the Cardinals held up to win, 8–5. On September 19, Molina tied Jim Bottomley (1922–1932) for 10th place in Cardinals history with 1,727 hits. Molina led the team in 2017 with 134 hits and 78 RBIs, and all NL catchers in both categories, entering play on that date. He broke the tie with Bottomley on September 20, with his 1,728th hit, and tied his own career-high RBI total for a season with 80, reached in 2013. He passed 80 on September 21, with his 81st and 82nd RBI. He was the 2017 recipient of the Missouri Athletic Club's Sports Personality of the Year Award. 2018 In January 2018, Molina expressed his plan to retire following the 2020 season when his contract would expire. As batterymates, Wainwright and Molina had accumulated more starts together than any other in franchise history. He passed Bench for two milestones early in the season: for 13th place in major league history in innings caught with 14,494+1⁄3 on April 14 while playing the Cincinnati Reds, and 16th in games caught versus with 1,743 on May 2 versus the Chicago White Sox. Molina doubled versus Cincinnati on April 22 to give him 338 for his career and tie Ozzie Smith for tenth place in Cardinals' history. On May 5, Molina exited the game after a foul tip struck him in the groin. The next day, on May 6, Molina underwent emergency surgery for a pelvic injury with traumatic hematoma. The Cardinals activated Molina from the DL on June 5. On June 19, he set the major league record for most games caught with one team with 1,757, passing Gabby Hartnett who had previously held the record as a member of the Cubs. Molina homered twice in a loss to Philadelphia on June 20 for his fifth career multihomer game. He homered twice again on June 23 versus Milwaukee to fuel a 3–2 win, giving him five home runs over his previous six games. Batting .279 with 13 home runs, Molina was named to the 2018 MLB All-Star Game to replace the injured Buster Posey. He finished his 2018 campaign batting .261 with twenty home runs and 74 RBIs in 123 games. He had the highest fielding percentage among major league catchers, at .998. He won his ninth Gold Glove. 2019 On Opening Day 2019, versus the Brewers, Molina extended his team-record for Opening Day starts with 15. He made his first career appearance at third base in extra innings of a 6−5 win on April 1 versus the Pirates. The Cardinals were in need of infield depth with an injury to regular utility infielder Jedd Gyorko. He was placed on the injured list on May 31 with a thumb tendon strain. For the 2019 season, Molina batted .270/.312/.399 with ten home runs and 57 RBIs over 113 games. He batted .143 in the NLCS and .167 in the NLDS. He had the slowest sprint speed of all National League players, at 22.8 feet/second. On October 9, Molina set the record for the most appearances by a National League player in post-season MLB play, at ninety-four games. He was nominated for a Gold Glove. 2020 In 2020, Molina made his 16th consecutive Opening Day start. On August 4, it was announced that Molina had tested positive for COVID-19, and he was subsequently placed on the injured list. Molina would eventually recover from the disease. On September 24, against the Milwaukee Brewers, he singled to right-center field for his 2,000th career hit. For the season, he batted a slash line of .262/.303/.359, with four home runs and 16 RBIs. He was the second-oldest player in the NL, and had the slowest sprint speed of all major league catchers, at 23.0 feet per second. On defense, he led all NL catchers in errors, with five. At the end of the 2020 season, Molina entered into free agency for the first time in his career. 2021 In 2021, Molina returned temporarily to Puerto Rico to play in the Liga de Béisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente to play as a reinforcement with the Atenienses de Manatí in the semifinals. However, his participation was shadowed by the poor performance of the team, resulting in a sweeping 4-0 series with the Indios de Mayagüez. On February 8, 2021, the Cardinals announced that they had signed Molina to a one-year deal for a reported $9 million. In regards to the signing, Molina stated "this is my home" and "I'm happy to be back." On April 14, Molina caught his 2,000th game with the Cardinals, the most by a catcher on one team. On August 24, Molina signed a one-year extension worth $10 million and announced that 2022 would be his final season. Molina finished the 2021 season batting .252/.297/.370 with 11 home runs and 66 RBIs over 121 games and again had the slowest sprint speed of all major league catchers, at 22.6 feet/second. He was nominated for a Gold Glove, making him one of six Cardinals to be nominated which led the major leagues. 2022 On May 15, 2022, Molina and Adam Wainwright won their 203rd game as a starting battery, setting the MLB record. On May 22, Molina made his first career pitching performance as he closed an 18–4 win against the Pittsburgh Pirates. He gave up all four of the Pirates' runs on four hits and two home runs. His pitching debut came one week after that of teammate Albert Pujols, who also gave up four hits and two home runs in the ninth inning. On June 8, Molina came in to pitch again in the eighth inning of an 11-3 loss against the Tampa Bay Rays. In the mound appearance, Molina collected his first career pitching strikeout, punching out Rays infielder Isaac Paredes. On September 14, Wainwright and Molina set another MLB record by starting alongside one another for the 325th time, surpassing Mickey Lolich and Bill Freehan of the Detroit Tigers for the most starts by a battery in MLB history. His last game was played on October 8, 2022 as the Cardinals were beaten 2–0 in the 2022 Wild Card Series by the Philadelphia Phillies. He went one for four and left two runners on base. In 2022 he batted .214/.233/.302 in 262 at bats, and was the slowest player in major league baseball, with a sprint speed of 21.8 feet per second. International career Molina participated in the first four World Baseball Classic (WBC) tournaments – 2006, 2009, 2013, and 2017 – for the Puerto Rican team. He was fellow defensive standout Iván Rodríguez’s backup in 2006 and 2009 and the primary catcher for the 2013 and 2017 squads. In his first classic in 2006, Molina played four games and collected three hits in five at-bats. In a 2009 tournament game against the Netherlands on March 9, Molina's eighth-inning double keyed a rally in which Puerto Rico won 3–1. Speaking the next day, Molina stated that the previous night's double had been a bigger thrill than his two-run homer to beat the Mets in Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS. With Molina as the starting catcher in 2013, Puerto Rico earned the silver medal. Edwin Rodríguez, who had scouted Molina in Puerto Rico before the Cardinals signed him, became the manager for the 2013 squad. Shortly after learning he would be the 2013 manager, Rodríguez contacted Molina for input on constructing the roster. Molina prepared for the Classic by playing 14 games for the winter league team in Puerto Rico Rodríguez managed. Molina was voted on the All-World Baseball Classic team for the first time. In a 2013 semifinal game against Japan, Molina alertly took advantage of a baserunning mistake to record an unusual putout. With Shinnosuke Abe batting for Japan in the top of the eighth inning, and Hirokazu Ibata on second and Seiichi Uchikawa on first, J. C. Romero was pitching for Puerto Rico. Abe took a pitch from Romero inside for a ball as the runners went in motion. However, Ibata retreated to second as Uchikawa charged toward him. Instead of throwing and risking an error, Molina held on to the ball. He then chased Uchikawa, cornered him by positioning himself between first and second and tagged out Uchikawa – an unassisted caught stealing. The Japanese later stated they were attempting to exploit Romero's slow delivery. Puerto Rico advanced the finals again in 2017, falling to the United States 8−0 in earning their second consecutive silver medal, and only loss of the tournament. Molina made a strong case to be named Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the entire tournament, batting .333 with two home runs and a .583 slugging percentage in six games. After collecting three hits and a home run in eight at bats over two games in Pool F competition, he was named that group's MVP. In the semifinal game against the Netherlands, he picked two runners off base in one inning. He was named the catcher of 2017 All-World Baseball Classic team, his second All-WBC honor. Also, the coaching staff often allowed him to conduct the preparation meetings, took his advice on construction of the starting rotation, and when to remove tiring pitchers. On September 10, 2018, he was selected to be part of the 2018 MLB Japan All-Star Series as a member of the MLB All-Stars team. Managerial career Molina's first experience managing was with Puerto Rico's U-23 baseball team, in both the qualifiers for and actual tournament of the 2018 U-23 Baseball World Cup. Puerto Rico dropped its first three games to the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and South Korea, preventing it from moving on in the tournament. However, Molina managed the team to four more victories in the group stage and consolation round. In 2022, Molina announced that he would be managing the Navegantes del Magallanes in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League, having been recruited by former major leaguer Pablo Sandoval. Molina said the opportunity could open the door to managing a team in MLB, saying that Navegantes was "something different, and I’d like to try it early and see how it goes. And then after, I can decide if I want to do it [in the United States]." He managed Magallanes to a 29–27 regular season finish, though they were eliminated in the playoff round-robin. Also in 2022, Molina was announced as manager of the Puerto Rico national team in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. The appointment created some controversy in Puerto Rico after the resignation of team general manager Eduardo Pérez, who had reportedly sought to name Astros bench coach Joe Espada to the position. Puerto Rico was placed in Pool D, the so-called "group of death," along with Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. At the tournament, Molina managed Puerto Rico to eight perfect innings against Israel, as well as a 5-2 upset victory over the Dominican Republic to decide which team moved on to the knockout stage. However, Puerto Rico was eliminated by Mexico in the quarterfinals. Molina managed the Criollos de Caguas to the 2023–24 Roberto Clemente Professional Baseball League title in Puerto Rico, as well as at the 2024 Caribbean Series. Skills profile Defense, pitch calling, throwing and hands The winner of eight consecutive Gold Gloves, Molina was widely praised for his preparation, defense and leadership, not just of the pitching staff, but also of the entire team, even from Johnny Bench. Fellow catchers Jorge Posada and Brian McCann stated in 2009 that Molina was "the best defensive catcher in baseball"; Víctor Martínez also called him "the best behind the plate." In 2013, a scout pronounced Molina the "one piece the St. Louis Cardinals cannot lose" while another commented that he was "irreplaceable." When the club did lose Molina midway through the 2014 season to a thumb injury, ESPN's Keith Law tweeted, "Yadier Molina missing two-plus months would be bad for the Cardinals, but also just bad for baseball, period." In his time in the major leagues, Molina was widely viewed as evolving into a competitive influence and an unofficial on-field coach. As a part of his pre-game preparation, Molina would meticulously study and prepare for the upcoming game's opposing hitters by creating a complete pitching and defensive plan. Other preparation included handling ground balls at shortstop and third base, extending his agility for blocking pitches thrown in the dirt. Former Cardinals starter Jake Westbrook said he was "a part of every aspect of the game: starters, relievers, offense, defense." Advanced defensive metrics — known as sabermetrics — show Molina to be a top defender among catchers in MLB history. Molina ranked second all-time among catchers at the end of the 2014 season on Baseball-Reference.com's career defensive runs saved (DRS) with 120, behind only Iván Rodríguez (167), and ahead of Jim Sundberg (114), Bob Boone (107) and Gary Carter (106), the only catchers with over 100 on the list. He was the season leader in the NL every year from 2005 to 2014, except 2008 and 2011–12. Fangraphs tallied his career DRS at 106, with a career-high of 20 in 2010. The sabermetric stat defensive wins above replacement (dWAR) has also ranked Molina's defense highly; he never had a full season with a negative dWAR, and he had a career-high 2.9 dWAR in 2010. Fangraphs has also ranked Molina as the most valuable defensive player at any position in baseball history. Molina was known for his in-game pitch-calling skills, and pitchers rarely rejected signs that he showed for the next pitch. In 2013, Matheny said, "We tell all our young pitchers when they come up to pitch their game. Yadi needs to find out how they work. He's a quick study. But at the same time, they tend to just follow him. We do put them in Yadi's hands." Molina read opposing hitters and would move fielders with subtle signs and gestures to align them with his pitch calling. La Russa said that "it's not just instinct. It's sense, based on how a hitter's standing, how he responds to the pitch or two before, and he's very creative in how he makes his adjustment based on what he sees with the hitter and knowing what his pitcher can do." Baseball Prospectus estimated in 2013 that Molina saved 35 defensive runs per season through his pitch framing and had moved 301 out-of-zone pitches that were called strikes between April 1 and June 30, 2013. Molina was among the best in the game at throwing out baserunners with pickoffs and during steal attempts. As of July 2013, Molina had thrown out 45% of would-be basestealers. He studied baserunners to learn how they decide when and whether to attempt a steal and when they were less guarded against a pickoff. He practiced pickoff moves and coordinates signals with the first basemen to indicate when he was primed to move for a pickoff throw. Molina threw from behind left-handed batters to obfuscate the runner's view of his motion to first base. In 2012, a Sports Illustrated poll of 306 players found that Molina was the "toughest catcher to run on." An Arizona Diamondbacks official said team policy was not to run on Molina. Batting As the publication Viva El Birdos wrote, "Yadier Molina broke into the majors as a light-hitting defensive specialist", who hit mostly singles. Molina pushed to shed the light-hitter label he had in common with his brothers. A fidgeter with his batting stance early in his career, Molina mimicked and vacillated between more accomplished hitters such as Andrés Galarraga and Albert Pujols. However, it was a dip in his swing and an inability to get around on fastballs that sapped his efforts. Over time, with assistance of teammates such as Pujols, Molina found his comfortable stance, sounder mechanics and adopted a line-drive style of swing that eliminated the dip and helped him hit fastballs with more authority. Thus, he became a more consistent hitter as his career progressed, defying the scouting reports that he would have a weak bat. In combination with an improved ability to pull the ball and hit it up the middle, he improved his batting average, batting .293 or higher in five of his last six seasons. His line-drive pull percentage of 2009–11 increased by about 6% in 2012–13; his batting average on balls in play increased from .280 in 2005–10 to .327 in 2011–13; and his weighted on-base average (wOBA) increased from .290 in 2009 to over .520 in 2013. To keep his bat in the lineup but allow respite from the rigors of his in-game catching duties, Molina has occasionally started at first base. Aside from swinging with increased line-drive contact and hitting fastballs with more authority, very little has actually changed in the catcher's approach. One trait that always persisted throughout his career was Molina's aggressive and free-swinging — but high-contact — batting style. Through 2012, he swung at more than 51% percent of the pitches he saw — he has a reputation for swinging at pitches in and out of the strike zone, low and away and even in toward his hands. Because of his free-swinging tendency, he naturally had a walk rate (7.1%) below the Major League average (8.4%). Combined with his ability to put the bat on the ball quite frequently (87%) and his improved approach at the plate, he increased his career-high single-season batting average five times between 2006 and 2013. Despite batting just .238 in his first three seasons and .240 after 1,000 at-bats, Molina increased his average to .284 average after 3,983 at-bats (1,132 hits) as of 2013 due in part to having only one season lower than .293 from 2009 to 2013. He hit into 27 double plays in 2009, but in 2012 reduced that figure to 10. Molina's home run and doubles rates also increased; from 2011 to 2013, he hit 104 of his 226 career doubles. Awards and accomplishments Records MLB records Consecutive playoff games started, 83 All Time Leader in Putouts by a Catcher 14,866 St. Louis Cardinals records Consecutive Opening Day starts at catcher, 15 (2005–19) Consecutive seasons leading the team in batting average as catcher, 2 Gold Gloves won as catcher, 9 Defensive runs saved as catcher, 120 Playoff appearances as catcher, 8 Playoff hits for career, 89 Statistical achievements Personal life Molina resides in Vega Alta and stayed in Caseyville, Illinois, during the baseball season until 2015. He then purchased a home in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Molina also owned a home in Jupiter, Florida, the home of the Cardinals spring training facilities, but sold it in 2020. Molina married his wife Wanda Torres in 2007 and the couple have three children. On September 4, 2008, they had a son; on July 4, 2010, a daughter; and on February 6, 2016, another son. After signing his $75 million contract in 2012, Molina purchased a home on a four-acre property in Jupiter, Florida, for $7.15 million. His agent is Melvin Roman of MDR Sports Management, who has represented him since he signed his first professional contract with the Cardinals shortly after being drafted in 2000. Molina's charitable organization, named Foundation 4, has helped to raise donations for childhood cancer patients in Puerto Rico. Molina is an avid fan of the St. Louis Blues, and attends games frequently. He is close friends with Vladimir Tarasenko. Molina's two older brothers, Bengie and José Molina, played a combined 28 seasons in the major leagues. Each of the three brothers has won at least one World Series ring, making them the only trio of brothers with such a distinction (Bengie and José both won their first while with the Anaheim Angels in 2002). They are also the only trio of brothers to play as catchers in the major leagues. Of a total of nineteen trios of brothers who have played in the Major Leagues – including the DiMaggios and the Cruzes – only one other trio of brothers has all appeared in a World Series: Matty, Félipe and Jesús Alou. Even while the Molina brothers still lived in the United States playing professional baseball, their parents stayed in the same home near the park where the brothers grew up playing ball, Jesús Rivera Park. Benjamín Molina organized youth teams. On October 11, 2008, Molina's father died from a heart attack. At the moment it occurred, he was tending to a baseball field that he had built for the youth in Bayamón. Spurred by absences from autograph shows for which he was paid to appear, Steiner Sports Marketing filed a lawsuit for $175,000 against Molina in the New York state supreme court in Manhattan on October 2, 2009. Steiner Sports allegedly paid him $90,640 in advance when they renewed their contract with him in July 2008. The firm stated that he ignored their agreement to make public and private appearances to sign autographs and did not return the money. After Hurricane Maria devastated the island of Puerto Rico in September 2017, Molina and Wanda started a GoFundMe page Archived September 22, 2017, at the Wayback Machine for the victims on September 21 with a goal of $1 million. It raised $20,000 in the first seven hours. More than three million Puerto Ricans were left without power, and The New York Times had reported that over 95% of cell service was unavailable. Drone video coverage on The Weather Channel described Bayamon as looking "like a war zone." Continuing with relief efforts, Molina was consequently named the recipient of the annual Roberto Clemente Award on October 24, 2018. See also References Footnotes Source notes External links Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet Yadier Molina on Twitter Yadier Molina on Instagram

Adam Parrish Wainwright (born August 30, 1981), nicknamed "Waino" and "Uncle Charlie", is an American former professional baseball pitcher who spent his entire 18-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the St. Louis Cardinals. The Atlanta Braves selected him 29th overall in the first round of the 2000 amateur draft from Glynn Academy in Brunswick, Georgia. His performance in the minor leagues made him one of the Braves' top pitching prospects. After the 2003 season, the Braves traded him to the Cardinals for outfielder J. D. Drew. Wainwright made his MLB debut on September 11, 2005, and spent the rest of the season as a relief pitcher. The next year, he briefly assumed closer duties, saving the series-clinching games of the 2006 National League Championship Series and the 2006 World Series over the Detroit Tigers. In 2007, he returned to starting pitching, a role in which he would remain for the rest of his career. He missed the 2011 season due to Tommy John surgery, but emerged as an ace, leading the National League multiple times in wins, innings pitched, and games started. He also has multiple top-ten finishes in earned run average, strikeouts, walks plus hits per inning pitched, and complete games. In 2014, Wainwright became the first pitcher in Major League history to post nine of his first 18 starts with seven innings pitched and no runs allowed. In his career, Wainwright won 200 games, received three All-Star selections and two Gold Glove Awards, and finished in the top three in the Cy Young Award balloting four times. With 2,202 career strikeouts, Wainwright is second to Bob Gibson (3,117) in Cardinals franchise history. Wainwright and longtime teammate Yadier Molina are the most successful battery in Major League history, having both the most wins and starts together. On September 18, 2023, he became the third Cardinals' pitcher to win 200 games, joining Bob Gibson (251), and Jesse Haines (210), and the 122nd in baseball history. With three strikeouts, he also became the 66th pitcher in baseball history with at least 2,200 strikeouts. Early life Wainwright was born in Brunswick, Georgia, to Bill, an attorney, and Nancy Wainwright, a real estate agent. His parents divorced when he was seven years old and his father moved to Florida, leaving only Wainwright's mother to raise him and his older brother Trey, now an attorney in Atlanta. Wainwright credits Trey, seven years his senior, with teaching him everything he knows about sports after their father left, including building a pitcher's mound in their back yard to teach him how to pitch. Wainwright also participated in the Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and numerous church activities, and grew up an Atlanta Braves fan. High school Wainwright attended high school at Glynn Academy in his native Brunswick, where he was an athletic and academic standout. With a fastball over 90 mph and batting average at times over .500, Wainwright was named Gatorade Georgia Player of the Year in 2000. He also played football, in which he was named to the All-State team as a wide receiver his junior and senior years as well as All-Region honors as a placekicker. Various colleges and universities, including Georgia Tech, offered him academic and baseball scholarships. Professional career Draft and minor leagues (2000–05) Atlanta Braves organization (2000–03) The Atlanta Braves selected Wainwright 29th overall in the first round of the 2000 MLB draft, using a compensatory pick from the Arizona Diamondbacks for signing Russ Springer in the offseason. Wainwright chose to forgo college to go straight to the pros, signing a contract that included a $1.25 million bonus. The Braves had been his favorite team growing up. Less than two weeks after high school graduation, Wainwright reported to the Braves rookie team and soon advanced to Atlanta's Class A Danville Braves in the Appalachian League. He pitched for the Macon Braves in the South Atlantic League in 2001, where he broke the team record for strikeouts, previously held by Bruce Chen, with 184. Wainwright spent the 2002 season in the Carolina League and also participated in that season's All-Star Futures Game. In 2003, Wainwright advanced to the Braves' Double-A club, Greenville. He was Baseball America's top Braves prospect in 2003. In December of that year, the St. Louis Cardinals acquired Wainwright and pitchers Jason Marquis and Ray King in a trade that sent outfielder J. D. Drew and utility player Eli Marrero to the Braves. St. Louis Cardinals (2005–2023) Wainwright pitched just 12 games for the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds in 2004 before he was shut down for nearly the entire rest of the season with an elbow strain. There, he had a 4–4 win–loss record (W–L) with a 5.37 earned run average (ERA) in 63+2⁄3 innings pitched (IP). He struck out 64 batters and allowed 68 hits and 28 walks (BB). In the Arizona Fall League, he returned to pitch 10 innings. He spent the next season with Memphis, starting 29 games, completing 182 IP, allowing 204 hits and 51 BB while striking out 147. His win–loss record was 10–10. After two somewhat uneven seasons in the Cardinals' minor league system, Wainwright made his MLB debut for St. Louis on September 11, 2005. 2006 Wainwright made the Cardinals' Opening Day roster as a relief pitcher after having been a starter for his entire minor league career. On May 24, 2006, he hit a home run on the first pitch he saw as batter in the major leagues against the San Francisco Giants' Noah Lowry; he became the 22nd batter, and only the seventh pitcher, in Major League history and 11th National Leaguer to hit a home run off the first pitch thrown in his first at-bat. Wainwright pitched capably as a middle reliever, but when incumbent closer Jason Isringhausen underwent season-ending hip surgery in September, Wainwright was pressed into service as the closer. He saved two crucial games on September 27 and 30 as St. Louis held off the Houston Astros' late charge and won the NL Central Division championship. Despite their unexceptional 83–78 regular-season record, the Cardinals rolled through October to win the 10th world championship in franchise history. As the closer, Wainwright closed out the final game of the Cardinals' National League Division Series, ending the New York Mets' season and propelling the Cardinals to the 2006 National League Championship Series, where he famously struck out Carlos Beltrán in Game 7 to send the Cardinals to the World Series. In Game 5 of the 2006 World Series, Wainwright struck out Detroit Tigers third baseman Brandon Inge to win the championship. 2007 Wainwright moved from the bullpen to the starting rotation for 2007. Shortly after losing ace Chris Carpenter for the year due to elbow surgery, Wainwright emerged as the Cardinals' most reliable starter. On August 10, he threw the first complete game of his career, a 2–1 loss to Los Angeles, and the only nine-inning complete game for the Cardinals that season. By September, Wainwright had established himself as the staff ace in Carpenter's absence, going 9–6 with a 2.94 ERA from mid-May to the end of the season. He finished his first year by leading the club in almost every pitching category—games started, innings pitched, strikeouts, and wins—while compiling a 3.70 ERA and a 14–12 record. His 14 wins were the most in franchise history for a first-year starter. His 2.71 ERA after the All-Star break was third-best in the NL. 2008 In March 2008, Wainwright signed a four-year deal with the Cardinals worth $21 million, with two club options for 2012 and 2013 that made the potential aggregate value $36 million. He gave up four runs or less in each of his first seven starts. However, the Cardinals lost to the Brewers 8–3 in Wainwright's eighth start, on May 13, as Ryan Braun hit two home runs off him. He suffered a strain on the middle finger of his pitching hand in June, causing him to miss 2+1⁄2 months of the season. In 20 starts, he finished 11–3 with a 3.20 ERA. 2009 On August 19, 2009, at Dodger Stadium, Wainwright had a no-hitter going against the Los Angeles Dodgers for 5+1⁄3 innings before Orlando Hudson broke it up with a clean single to left field. In his next start against the Astros, he pitched eight shutout innings to pick up his then-league-leading 15th win in a 1–0 victory. It was Wainwright's 25th straight start with at least six innings pitched. In five August starts that season, he completed 35+2⁄3 IP with just one walk and 22 SO. On September 26, Wainwright pitched eight innings and struck out eleven for a 6–3, NL Central division-clinching victory against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field for his 19th win. Wainwright finished with a 19–8 record and a 2.63 ERA, leading the National League in wins, games started (34), and innings pitched (233). He also struck out a major-league high 140 batters on third-strike curveballs. On October 28, Wainwright won the Players Choice Award as the NL Most Outstanding Pitcher. He won his first Gold Glove Award on November 11, 2009. Wainwright was a top contender for the Cy Young Award along with teammate Chris Carpenter and eventual winner Tim Lincecum. He became only the second pitcher ever—Trevor Hoffman was the first—to get the most first-place votes and not win the award. 2010 Pitching in his first All-Star Game, Wainwright completed one inning. He faced five batters, throwing 17 pitches for ten strikes and seven balls, and allowed no runs with just one hit—a double off the glove of fellow Cardinal All-Star Matt Holliday—one walk, and two strikeouts. In one 11-game stretch preceding August 16, he compiled 66+1⁄3 IP in nine of those starts and allowed two earned runs for a 0.27 ERA. Wainwright finished the 2010 season 20–11 with a 2.42 ERA, five complete games, 213 strikeouts, 56 walks, 15 home runs allowed, and a WHIP of 1.05, in 230+1⁄3 IP. His win, strikeout, complete game, and shutout totals were all career-bests. His win total and ERA were both good for second place in the National League (behind only Josh Johnson's 2.30 ERA and Roy Halladay's 21 wins). He also pitched the first two shutouts of his career in 2010—one against the Milwaukee Brewers on June 4 and a two-hitter against the Florida Marlins on August 6. Wainwright was the runner-up for the 2010 NL Cy Young Award, finishing second in voting behind unanimous winner Halladay. Wainwright picked up 28 of 32 second-place votes. Near the end of the season, he had experienced elbow discomfort and nerve swelling. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan cleared him after the season. 2011 Shortly after reporting to spring training, Wainwright experienced discomfort in his right elbow while pitching batting practice on February 21. Three days later, the Cardinals announced that Wainwright would miss the entire 2011 season—and possibly the first three months of the next season—after finding that ulnar collateral ligament damage necessitated Tommy John surgery (TJS). George Paletta, the team physician, performed the surgery on February 28 in St. Louis and it was deemed "a success". Former clients for the same surgery included teammates Chris Carpenter, Jaime García, and Kyle McClellan. Wainwright's contract featured options for 2012 and 2013 totaling $21 million with a provision that they would not automatically vest if he ended the 2011 season on the disabled list. The Cardinals made the playoffs as a wild card entry, overtaking the Braves on the final day of the season. They eventually won the World Series, defeating the Texas Rangers four games to three. The Cardinals awarded Wainwright his second World Series ring, despite not pitching the entire season. 2012 Fully recovered after TJS and rehabilitation, Wainwright was ready ahead of schedule for spring training. Statistically, the 2012 season proved to be an overall disappointment by Wainwright's standards, as he wound up 14–13 with a 3.94 ERA. However, it was encouraging in regards to the health of his right arm, as he completed the entire season without any issues. In addition, pitchers recovering from TJS often find it challenging at first to throw with the same command as before the surgery, and thus to achieve post-surgery results equal to pre-surgery results. This was the case at first with Wainwright. On May 22, he threw his first complete-game shutout since August 6, 2010, and the third of his career in his ninth complete game. It was a four-hit, 4–0 win at home against the San Diego Padres, striking out nine and walking only one. Wainwright reached his 1,000th career inning on July 29. The May 22 start marked a turning point in the season. During a 13-start stretch through August 3, he pitched 85+2⁄3 innings, striking out 83 while allowing just four home runs and 17 BB. Wainwright attributed the improvement to be able to sustain the usual finishing movement on his pitches through late innings, which earlier in the season, had eluded him, thus making his pitches easier to hit. He also corrected a subtle flaw that had developed on the grip of his curveball during a bullpen session prior to the start against San Diego. The flaw made it increasingly difficult to throw the curveball for consistent strikes. 2013 On March 28, 2013, the Cardinals announced they and Wainwright had agreed to a five-year contract extension. At the time, he was under the last year of his previous contract, so the new deal extended him through 2018. With a total value of $97.5 million, it was the largest contract ever for a Cardinals pitcher. On April 18, he became the first pitcher in baseball since 1900 to achieve 28 strikeouts and zero walks in his first four starts of a season. Slim Sallee established the franchise record exactly 100 years earlier by not issuing a walk in his first 40 innings. Wainwright's streak ended in a start at Washington on April 23 after 34+2⁄3 innings and 133 batters faced. The first MLB pitcher to post 10 wins on June 13, Wainwright put up seven scoreless innings in a 2–1 defeat of the Mets at Citi Field. Moreover, his strikeout of David Wright was his first of the game and the 1,000th of his career. He allowed six hits and struck out a total of four. Wainwright became the NL Pitcher of the Month for June with a 4–2 record and 1.77 ERA. With 40 strikeouts for the month, Wainwright issued just six walks while holding opposing batters to a .220 average. Through that point in the season, he was 11–5 with a 2.22 ERA, and was the MLB leader with four complete games and a 9.5 strikeout-to-walk ratio. In successive starts against the Reds in late August, Wainwright allowed 15 runs, both losses. He struck out eight in seven shutout innings on September 7 at home in a 5–0 win over the first-place Pirates in earning his 16th victory of the season. The Pirates, Reds, and Cardinals were all close contenders for the Central division title in September. The win gave the Cardinals first place over the Pirates by a half-game, and 1+1⁄2 games over the Reds. Wainwright's seven strikeouts increased his career total to 1,103, passing Dizzy Dean (1,095) for second place among Cardinals' pitchers. Only Bob Gibson (3,117 in 528 games) had more. In a 60-inning stretch following the All-Star break Wainwright had walked 14, compared with 15 in 146+2⁄3 IP before the break. When fellow starter Shelby Miller defeated Nationals' starter Jordan Zimmermann on September 26, he denied Zimmermann his 20th victory. Two days later, Wainwright, who was second in the league with 18 entering the game, defeated the Chicago Cubs in his final start of the season to tie Zimmerman for the lead in wins at 19. Wainwright also became just the third pitcher in franchise history to twice lead the league in wins, joining Dizzy Dean (1934–35) and Mort Cooper (1942–43). He also led the NL in games started (34), innings pitched (241+2⁄3), hits allowed (223), and batters faced (956), and was third in strikeouts. The Cardinals faced the Boston Red Sox in the World Series, and called upon Wainwright to start Game 1 against Jon Lester. It was Wainwright's first World Series appearance since 2006 and first start. He allowed five runs and St. Louis lost, 8–1. In Game 5, a rematch against Lester, the Cardinals again lost, this time 3–1. Wainwright struck out 10 in seven innings, becoming the first Cardinal to reach double digits in strikeouts in a World Series game since Gibson against the Detroit Tigers in 1968. After the Cardinals took a 2–1 Series lead, the Red Sox won the final three games to take the title. Wainwright won his second Gold Glove award in 2013. In the Cy Young balloting, Wainwright placed second, his second such ranking, and finished 23rd in the NL MVP voting. 2014 Starting for the Cardinals against the Reds on Opening Day, March 31, 2014, Wainwright won his 100th career decision. In seven innings, he struck out nine and gave up just three singles in a 1–0 win. At Nationals Park against Washington on April 17, he pitched a two-hit shutout, winning 8–0. Wainwright gave up the first hit in the second inning on a high infield chopper, but none after until two outs into the ninth. He walked three and struck out eight. It was his seventh career shutout. In an April 27 start against the Pirates, Wainwright tallied eight scoreless innings to extend a streak to 25 innings as the Cardinals won, 7–0, but was pulled before he could get a complete game due to concerns over his April 22 hyperextended right knee injury. His streak of 25 scoreless innings ended in the first inning on May 2 in a loss against the Cubs, to whom he allowed six runs. On May 20, Wainwright pitched a one-hitter against the Diamondbacks. He retired the first 11 batters before giving up a double to Paul Goldschmidt in the fourth inning. After the hit, Wainwright retired the final 16 batters, facing only 28, one over the minimum for a perfect game. He walked none and struck out nine, throwing 115 pitches, 86 for strikes. It was Wainwright's seventh win of the year, tying for the National League lead, and his 106th career victory against 59 losses. It also tied him for eighth place with Sallee on the all-time Cardinals' pitching win list and was his eighth career shutout. Wainwright followed that effort with eight more scoreless innings on May 25. Between those two starts, he gave up just one walk and struck out a major-league-leading 21 batters in 17 scoreless innings. He was named NL Co-Player of the Week with Dodgers starter Josh Beckett, who threw a no-hitter on May 25. However, he missed his June 16 against the Mets due to elbow tendinitis, but an MRI showed no structural damage to the Tommy John surgically repaired ligament. After leading the NL with a 1.79 ERA and 11 wins through July 6, Wainwright was selected to his third All-Star Game at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was selected as the NL's starting pitcher for the first time in his career. Besides two starts in which he gave up seven runs to the Giants and six to the Cubs, Wainwright had allowed 13 runs in 16 of his first 18 starts. Nine of those starts included totals with seven or more innings pitched and zero earned runs allowed. Per the Elias Sports Bureau (ESB), it was the first time in Major League history that any pitcher achieved that feat in his first 18 starts of the season. When the Cardinals defeated the Brewers 10–2 on July 12, Wainwright finished his pre-All Star break total with a 12–4 record and a 1.83 ERA. Further, he joined Hall of Fame member Steve Carlton as the only Cardinals to post an ERA less than 2.00 and at least 12 wins before the All-Star break (1969). In that game, Wainwright posted his Major League-leading 15th start of the season with at least seven innings pitched and two or fewer runs allowed. At the plate, his RBI-single scored rookie Oscar Taveras for his 100th career hit. In the All-Star Game, Wainwright incurred controversy over his remarks about facing leadoff hitter Derek Jeter. Jeter, who was retiring after the season, doubled on Wainwright's second pitch of the game. During interviews, he admitted that he gave Jeter an easy pitch to hit. "I was gonna give him a couple of pipe shots. He deserved it," Wainwright said. "I didn’t know he was gonna hit a double or I might have changed my mind." Wainwright later recanted, stating that it was in humor and that he was "not intentionally giving up hits out there". Conversely, Jeter was appreciative. "He grooved them? The first one was a little cutter that he threw down and away. He probably assumed I was swinging. So he didn't groove the first one. The second was about 90, a two-seamer that stayed on a really good ... No, I don't know, man," he paused and smiled, drawing laughs from reporters. "I have no idea. If he grooved it, thank you. You still got to hit it." Following the All-Star break, Wainwright temporarily struggled to keep the consistency of the first half of the season due to frequent elbow irritation. In June, he gave up just four earned runs in 31 IP for a 1.16 ERA, and followed that up with a 1.62 ERA in July. His results reversed in August when he allowed 22 ER in 38+1⁄3 IP for a 5.17 ERA. However, in September, he posted a 1.38 ERA in 39 IP with 29 SO and a 5–0 W–L. He was subsequently named the NL Pitcher of the Month for September. After the season, Wainwright had a procedure to remove part of the cartilage of the right elbow on October 24. At times—commencing in June—he had altered his mechanics to mitigate the discomfort. In his third-to-last and second-to-last starts of the season—which were in the NLDS against the Dodgers and NLCS against the Giants—Wainwright was unable to complete five innings in both starts. This led to speculation Wainwright was pitching with pain, which he denied. Through the 2014 season he had a career 132 ERA+, third-highest for an active pitcher who has a minimum of 1,000 innings, and a .643 winning percentage, fourth-highest for active pitchers. Wainwright finished third in the Cy Young voting for 2014, his third such placing, and fourth time he was positioned in the top three. 2015 The Cardinals selected Wainwright to make his fourth career Opening Day start, and the season-opening game for MLB in 2015, in what was also the first-ever MLB Opening Night game. He was credited with the win as the Cardinals defeated the Cubs at Wrigley Field, 3–0. On April 25, Wainwright left the game against the Brewers in the top of the fifth after suffering an ankle injury while batting. The next day, the Cardinals placed him on the 15-day disabled list, and announced the following day that he had an Achilles tendon rupture and would likely miss the remainder of the season. He underwent successful surgery to repair the tendon on April 30. With a recovery initially expected to take nine to twelve months, Wainwright had made four appearances through that point in the season, going 2–1 with a 1.44 ERA. As the season progressed, he consistently stated his goal was to return to pitching before the end of the season. After working diligently to accelerate his recovery, the Cardinals announced on September 21 that he was cleared to resume baseball activities, two weeks prior to the conclusion of the regular season. His actual recovery took five months. Making his first appearance of the season since April, Wainwright pitched a scoreless inning of relief in the first game of a doubleheader against Pittsburgh on September 30, an 8–2 loss. It was his first relief appearance since the 2006 World Series. Wainwright was named the Hutch Award winner for 2015. 2016 The Cardinals announced before spring training that Wainwright would be the Opening Day starter in 2016, his fifth time. For the three previous seasons, he had gone 41–19 with a 2.61 ERA. For the second consecutive season, the Cardinals opened the MLB season, this time at PNC Park against the Pittsburgh Pirates on April 3. The Cardinals lost the game, 4–1, with Wainwright taking the first loss of the season. He hit his first home run of season in a 10–3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on May 2, also being credited with his second win. In each of four consecutive plate appearances spanning April 27 to May 7, he became the first Cardinal pitcher since 1900 to garner an extra base hit while batting, per Elias Sports Bureau. On the mound, he struggled early, yielding a 5.04 ERA in his first 16 starts of the season. Wainwright pitched a three-hit, complete-game shutout and 5−0 win against Miami on July 15, 2016; the first hit he allowed was a double to Adeiny Hechavarria in the sixth inning. With four RBI against Colorado on September 20, Wainwright increased his season total to 18, the highest total for all pitchers in the designated hitter era – since 1973 – and the most since Ferguson Jenkins drove in 20 for the Cubs in 1971. 2017 On April 21, 2017, Wainwright struck out nine and hit a home run with four RBI as the Cardinals defeated the Milwaukee Brewers, 6−3. His May 27 appearance was the 330th of his career, tying him with Larry Jackson (1955−1962) for tenth place in games pitched for the Cardinals. while passing Al Hrabosky. Wainwright pitched six scoreless innings versus Los Angeles on June 1, while hitting a two-run home run facing Brandon McCarthy, for a 2−0 win. On July 17, he passed Bill Doak for fifth place in wins (145) for the Cardinals. On the same day, Wainwright became the only active major league pitcher with multiple seasons of 10+ RBI (2016–17). The Cardinals placed Wainwright on the 10-day DL on July 25 due to mid-back tightness, retroactive to July 23. It was the fourth time in his career that he had been placed on the DL. Wainwright was activated from the DL on August 6, and totaled 11 innings in three starts. On August 18, the Cardinals placed him back on the DL for right elbow impingement. Wainwright reported pain in his right elbow for the second consecutive season and displayed a precipitous decline in velocity in his most recent starts. Treatments on the right elbow that Wainwright received during the season included trimming cartilage and an injection of platelet-rich plasma into the joint. In 23 games he had started, he allowed a 5.12 ERA with a 12−5 W−L record. Wainwright returned to pitch on September 18 from the bullpen for the remainder of the season. In 2017, Wainwright won his first career Silver Slugger Award, the first Cardinal pitcher to win the award since Bob Forsch (1980 and 1987) and Jason Marquis (2005). He batted .262/.279/.452, a career-high .731 OPS, and two home runs. Wainwright led all pitchers with seven runs scored and 11 RBI, and, among all with at least 40 plate appearances, in slugging percentage and OPS. He also hit .462 with runners in scoring position. After the season, Wainwright underwent right elbow surgery to remove a cartilage flap, the first surgery on the elbow since having Tommy John surgery in 2011. The cartilage flap was believed to have caused a bone bruise which led to reduced velocity and efficacy of his breaking pitches. Recovery time was expected to take six weeks with full readiness in time for the 2018 season. 2018 Wainwright began the 2018 season on the 10-day disabled list with a left hamstring sprain. He was reactivated on April 5 but placed on the disabled list again with right elbow inflammation on April 22. Wainwright was activated once again on May 13 and started that same day against the San Diego Padres. He gave up two runs and walked six batters in 2+1⁄3 innings as San Diego beat St. Louis 5–3. Two days later, Wainwright was placed back on the 10-day DL before being transferred to the 60-day DL on May 17. 2019 Wainwright signed a one-year, $2 million contract extension with the Cardinals prior to the 2019 offseason. On April 24, 2019, Wainwright picked up his 150th win in a 5–2 victory against the Brewers. Over 31 starts during the regular season, he went 14–10 with a 4.19 ERA, striking out 153 over 171+2⁄3 innings. In the 2019 MLB postseason, Wainwright struck out 19 over 16+2⁄3 innings and had a 1.62 ERA. 2020 On November 12, 2019, Wainwright and the Cardinals agreed to a one-year contract for the 2020 season. On his 39th birthday, Wainwright pitched his first complete game since 2016 against the Cleveland Indians in a 7–2 win. He pitched a second, albeit 7-inning complete game against the Milwaukee Brewers on September 16. Over 10 starts for the 2020 season, Wainwright went 5–3 with a 3.15 ERA and 54 strikeouts over 65+2⁄3 innings. 2021 On January 28, 2021, Wainwright signed a one-year, $8 million contract to stay with the Cardinals. On April 26, Wainwright pitched a complete game against the Philadelphia Phillies in a 2–1 loss as Rhys Hoskins hit two solo home runs off him. It was the second such occurrence in his career to pitch a 9-inning complete game and lose since a 2–1 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2007. Wainwright picked up his first win of the season in a 6–5 win over the New York Mets on May 3, while also picking up his 1,000th career strikeout at Busch Stadium; joining Bob Gibson as the only Cardinals pitchers with 1,000 strikeouts at their home ballparks. On June 14, Wainwright picked up his 1,900th strikeout against the Miami Marlins. On Father's Day, June 20, he pitched his second complete game of the year, albeit 7 innings in the first game of a doubleheader against the Atlanta Braves; striking out 11 while allowing just one run. On August 10, Wainwright pitched his first shutout since 2016, and his first ever Maddux against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park in a 4–0 Cardinals win, throwing 88 pitches. At 39, he became the oldest pitcher to record a shutout since Bartolo Colón in 2015. He was subsequently named National League Pitcher of the Month for August after going 5–1 with a 1.45 ERA, striking out 36 while walking just six over 44 innings. On September 3, Wainwright started against the Brewers with battery mate Yadier Molina, marking their 300th start as a battery. They are the fourth battery in MLB history to make 300 starts. The Cardinals won the game 15–4, with Wainwright picking up the win. While facing the Milwaukee Brewers on September 23, Wainwright recorded his 2,000th career strikeout against Luis Urías. Wainwright became the second pitcher in franchise history alongside Bob Gibson to reach the milestone. On October 1, the Cardinals and Wainwright agreed on a one-year deal for the 2022 season. Statistically for 2021, Wainwright had his best season since 2014, going 17–7 with a 3.05 ERA and 174 strikeouts in 206+1⁄3 innings. Wainwright was second in MLB in wins (17), third in innings pitched (206+1⁄3), tied for first in complete games (3) and tenth in walks and hits per inning pitched (1.057). He led the major leagues in sacrifice hits, with 14. Wainwright finished seventh in the 2021 NL Cy Young Award voting. 2022 On October 4, 2021, Wainwright and the Cardinals agreed to a one-year, $17.5 million deal for the 2022 season On April 7, 2022, Wainwright won his 100th game at Busch Stadium on Opening Day in a 9–0 win against the Pittsburgh Pirates, pitching six shutout innings with six strikeouts. On May 15, 2022, Wainwright and Molina made history claiming their 203rd win together, becoming the most successful battery in MLB history. Later that season on September 14, Wainwright and Molina set another MLB record by starting alongside one another for the 325th time, surpassing Mickey Lolich and Bill Freehan of the Detroit Tigers for the most starts by a battery. In November 2022, it was announced that Wainwright intended to represent Team USA in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. 2023 Wainwright announced that the 2023 season would be his last. On March 30, Wainwright sang the national anthem before the opening day game. In 21 starts for the Cardinals, Wainwright struggled to a 5–11 record and 7.40 ERA with 55 strikeouts in 101.0 innings of work. On September 18, pitching at home against the division-leading Milwaukee Brewers, he won his 200th game, 1-0, pitching seven scoreless innings, giving up only four hits, walking two, striking out three. His 2,202 career strikeouts make him the 66th pitcher to have at least 2,200 strikeouts. His 200 wins make him the 122nd pitcher in baseball history to reach that milestone. His 200 wins, all with the Cardinals, rank him third in the team's history, joining Bob Gibson (251) and Jesse Haines (210). At home on September 29, he batted for the first time since October 6, 2021. In the sixth inning with the team trailing 14-2, he pinch-hit for designated hitter Luken Baker. On the second pitch, he grounded out sharply to second base. It was his only at-bat that night. Over his career, he had 10 home runs, 75 RBIs, and a .192 batting average. He has five seasons batting over .200. Defensively, he recorded a .982 fielding percentage, with only 10 errors in 569 total chances, which was 26 points higher than the league average at his position. Annual statistical achievements Notes: Through 2019 season. Per Baseball-Reference.com. Pitching style Wainwright has a sinkerball, throwing it in the 90–92 miles per hour (145–148 km/h) range. He also throws a good deal of cutters 84–88 miles per hour (135–142 km/h) and curveballs 73–77 miles per hour (117–124 km/h) that have dropped more than 8 inches before from top to bottom of the pitch. Less commonly, he also throws a four-seam fastball 90–95 miles per hour (145–153 km/h) and an 84–86 miles per hour (135–138 km/h) changeup. He uses all of his pitches against left-handed hitters, but he does not use the changeup against right-handers. Wainwright's most-used pitch in two-strike counts is his curveball. In spring training of 2013, he started incorporating an elevated four-seam fastball, making his curveball more effective. Discography Studio Albums Singles "—" denotes a release that did not chart. Outside baseball Big League Impact A fantasy football enthusiast, Wainwright created and hosts a fantasy football network in eight cities called Big League Impact, designed to raise money for various charities. In 2015, the organization raised more than $1 million total. Other major leaguers, including David Wright, Hunter Pence, and John Smoltz host in their respective cities. The concept officially opened in July 2013 with the launch of a website called WainosWorld.com. In an interview with Fox Sports Midwest, Wainwright remarked that the program combined his love of fantasy football with his passion for helping the less fortunate. For a registration fee, all of which goes to charity, fans can assemble their own fantasy team and compete throughout the season against not only Wainwright but his current and former Cardinals teammates Allen Craig, David Freese, and Matt Holliday. Those with the best team records at season's end will receive prizes. The league raised $100,000 in 2013 and supported Operation Food Search and Water Missions International. Wainwright was the recipient of the 2020 Roberto Clemente Award due to his work with Big League Impact alongside his contributions in helping build Haiti's Ferrier Village Secondary School. As an actor With longtime aspirations to host an episode of Saturday Night Live, Wainwright made his film debut in the 2016 comedy-drama Proximity, directed by Dan Steadman and filmed in the St. Louis area. The majority of the work done was completed in 2015, after the opportunity presented to Wainwright due in part to the Achilles tendon injury he had suffered early in the season. Broadcasting Adam Wainwright made his national TV broadcasting debut on October 6, 2020, calling the 2020 NLDS between the Miami Marlins and Atlanta Braves on Fox Sports 1 along with Adam Amin and former teammate A. J. Pierzynski. The trio worked together for the 2021 ALDS between the Astros and the Chicago White Sox and again in the 2023 ALDS between the Houston Astros and Minnesota Twins. Prior to the 2024 MLB season, Wainwright was hired as a full time color commentator for Fox Sports. Musician On March 30, 2023, Wainwright surprised his teammates by performing the national anthem prior to the Cardinals' home opener against the Toronto Blue Jays. After he accomplished his musical goal, he nervously admitted, "I didn't mess the words up." Wainwright aspires to be a country music singer after his baseball career concludes; he held a concert in Springfield, Illinois, in January 2023 for approximately 500 fans. Wainwright has released three singles and one full-length album, Hey Y'all. It which was originally scheduled to be released on March 9, 2024 when he made his Grand Ole Opry debut, but was officially released on April 5, 2024. Personal life Wainwright married his high school sweetheart, Jenny Curry, in 2004. In a quirk of fate, he was in the midst of proposing to Curry in December 2003, when a telephone call interrupted him to inform him he'd been traded from the Braves to the Cardinals. Jenny holds a degree in interior design from Georgia Southern University. In the off-season, the Wainwrights reside on St. Simons Island, Georgia, with their four daughters and a son, whom they adopted in 2019. Wainwright has openly expressed his Christian faith, and is active in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. See also References Footnotes Source notes External links Media related to Adam Wainwright at Wikimedia Commons Quotations related to Adam Wainwright at Wikiquote Career statistics and player information from MLB, or Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet

How much time passed between the release of the blockchain platform founded by the individual who resides in the town of the same name as the James Buchanan House and the release of the prior blockchain platform co-founded by the same individual?

Wheatland, also known as the James Buchanan House, is the same name as the town in Wyoming where Charles Hoskinson resides. Charles Hoskinson cofounded Ethereum and founded Cardano. Cardano was released in 2017; Ethereum was released in 2015. Two years elapsed between the two platforms' releases.

Numerical reasoning | Multiple constraints | Temporal reasoning

Wheatland, or the James Buchanan House, is a brick Federal style house which is located in Lancaster Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, outside of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It was formerly owned by the 15th president of the United States, James Buchanan. The house was constructed in 1828 by William Jenkins, a local lawyer. The second owner was Thomas Fuller Potter. He sold it to William M. Meredith in 1845. Wheatland changed hands again in 1848, when it was purchased by Buchanan. Buchanan occupied the house for the next two decades, except for several years during his ambassadorship in Great Britain and during his presidency. After his death in 1868, Wheatland was inherited by Buchanan's niece, Harriet Lane, who sold it in 1884 to George Willson. It was inherited by a relative of Willson's in 1929. Wheatland was put up for sale again after the relative died in 1934 and was acquired by a group of people who set up a foundation for the purpose of preserving the house. Wheatland was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. It was designated a contributing property to the Northeast Lancaster Township Historic District in 1980. The foundation and the adjacent historical society merged in 2009. Location Wheatland is located off Pennsylvania Route 23 (Marietta Avenue) in Lancaster Township, about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the center of the city of Lancaster. It is situated on 10 acres (40,470 m2) of land, which it shares with Lancaster County's historical society, at the intersection of Marietta Avenue and President Avenue. The region was originally inhabited by the Susquehannocks, who were first encountered in what is now Lancaster County by John Smith in 1608. They were also known to early settlers of the area as the "Conestogas", after the creek they resided near. In 1680, William Penn received a charter from Charles II for land to found the Province of Pennsylvania; Penn divided the land into the three counties: Bucks, Chester and Philadelphia. Lancaster County was formed from parts of Chester County on May 10, 1729. Lancaster Township was settled between 1717 and 1720, and was incorporated out of portions of Conestoga Township in 1729. The city of Lancaster was laid out in March 1730 and was incorporated as a borough in August 1742, before being incorporated as a city on March 20, 1818. History On November 20, 1824, over 403 acres (1,630,883 m2) of land was turned over to a bank in Lancaster by a farmer. The bank sold 165 acres (1 km2) and 68 square perches (18,513 ft2; 1,720 m2) of that land, on January 29, 1828, for $11,731.871⁄2, (equal to $325,506 today), through the use of a straw man, to William Jenkins, a lawyer and, then, president of said bank. Jenkins had a house constructed on the property and named it "The Wheatlands", either after the surrounding wheatfields or because the site of the house used to be a wheatfield. Jenkins sold 17 acres (68,797 m2) and 253⁄4 square perches (7,010 ft2; 651 m2) of land, including the house, to his son-in-law Thomas Fuller Potter in 1836. William M. Meredith bought the same plot on May 8, 1845, plus an additional 5 acres (20,234 m2), for $6,750, equal to $220,725 today. Meredith used it as primarily a summer house and as a home for his wife and children; Meredith's duties as head of the bar in Philadelphia prevented him from living at Wheatland on a permanent basis. Wheatland was put up for sale by Meredith and was contacted in June 1848 by Secretary of State James Buchanan, who was interested in the house. The sale of Wheatland was delayed by Meredith, who was not sure whether he really wanted to sell the estate, and by Buchanan, who did not want to force Meredith into making a decision that he might regret. Wheatland was sold in December 1848 at the same price that Meredith had purchased it at; Buchanan moved into the mansion several months later, accompanied by his niece, Harriet Lane, and nephew, James Buchanan "Buck" Henry, and his housekeeper, Esther "Miss Hetty" Parker. Buchanan ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic Party's nomination for President in the 1852 election, however he was appointed the Minister to Great Britain by the newly elected Franklin Pierce. Buchanan did not return to the United States, and to Wheatland, until 1856. Not long after arriving back at Wheatland, Buchanan was nominated by the Democratic Party to be its candidate for President on June 9, 1856. Buchanan did not tour the country as part of the campaign. Instead, he conducted it from Wheatland as a "front porch campaign". Buchanan won the election and carried all of the Southern states, with most of the votes in the Northern states going to the Republican nominee John C. Frémont. Part of Buchanan's success in the South was his, and the party platform's, support of the Kansas–Nebraska Act. One of the tactics used in the campaign involved lithographs of Wheatland being printed and circulated, primarily in the South, "as a polite way of informing the Southerners that the Democratic candidate, though from the North, had a 'plantation estate' and held a course of life similar to their own." Post-presidency If my successor should be as happy in entering the White House as I shall feel on returning to Wheatland he will indeed be a happy man. During his presidency, Buchanan returned to Wheatland sporadically and never for very long. He retired to Wheatland in 1861, after the election of Abraham Lincoln and the end of his term as President. Buchanan died in a room on the second floor in Wheatland on June 1, 1868. Thousands of people attended Buchanan's funeral and the procession from Wheatland to the Woodward Hill Cemetery on June 4. The estate was inherited by Harriet Lane, who used it as a summer house. After both of Lane's sons died—one in 1881 and the other a year later—and a few weeks after her husband died, Lane sold Wheatland in 1884 to George Willson. Wheatland was inherited by Mary Willson Rettew, a cousin of George Willson, after he died of a heart attack in 1929. Rettew died in 1934 and, left a will stipulating "the establishment of 'The Willson Memorial Building'" to preserve the family's heirlooms. Her will also requested that the building be occupied by the Lancaster County Historical Society, which had been founded in 1880. Wheatland, along with 4.25 acres (17,199.14 m2) of land, were put up for sale by the executors of the will. The Junior League of Lancaster founded the "James Buchanan Foundation for the Preservation of Wheatland" in 1935 with the purpose of raising funds to buy Wheatland. Wheatland was sold to the Foundation for $40,000 (equal to $878,273 today) on February 27, 1936. It was opened to the public on May 5, 1936 and was dedicated "as a new presidential shrine, taking its place with Mount Vernon, Monticello and The Hermitage," in October 1937. Wheatland was designated a National Historic Landmark on July 4, 1961 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. Wheatland became a contributing property to the Northeast Lancaster Township Historic District on March 20, 1986. The James Buchanan Foundation and the neighboring Lancaster County Historical Society were merged in 2009 to form LancasterHistory.org. Architecture and decor Wheatland is a Federal style house made of brick. As no documents on the actual construction are known to exist, the person or persons responsible for the design of Wheatland have remained anonymous. However, the architecture of Wheatland, as well as its location on the property, indicates someone who was skilled in classical architecture. Design elements, like various lunette windows, also show the influence of various architectural guidebooks that were prevalent in the early 19th century. The interior of Wheatland is furnished as it would have been in the mid-19th Century, with most of the furniture being original to the house. As Wheatland has never been significantly altered or remodeled, other than the installation of modern lighting and heating, it provides an accurate view of the lifestyle in the Victorian era. The house is made up of a 2+1⁄2-story, "bilaterally symmetrical", central section, flanked by two, three-story wings set back from the main facade. The roofs of both wings are flat and sloping towards the rear of the house; the northern wing also a "pent roof", a sloped, shingled roof between the first floor and second floor windows, on the rear. The front entrance to Wheatland is sheltered by a portico supported by Tuscan order columns, while the rear entrance is on a veranda. Interior Both of the main entrances into Wheatland open onto a T-shaped hallway. The main portion of the hall is 42 feet (13 m) long and 8 feet (2 m) wide, while the cross-hall is 34 by 8 feet (10 m × 2 m). It is covered with an oilcloth flooring that was decorated with "geometric squares to imitate tile"—painting one material to resemble another, more expensive one that was popular in the Victorian era. The original cloth was covered with a modern, red carpet up until 1990; it has since been overlaid with an identical, reproduction covering. On the first floor are located the parlor, the library, two dining rooms, and the kitchen. One of the dining rooms is located in the western wing, off of the hallway, and was used primarily used by the family for smaller meals like breakfast or tea. The kitchen is also in the wing, directly adjacent to the dining room. The other dining room, located in the front western side of the main house, was used only for formal dinners and as the sitting room where the men would converse after dinner. The fireplace in the room was enclosed in marble when Buchanan bought Wheatland and had a furnace installed. Across the hall, on the other side of the main house is the parlor, where the women guests would congregate after dinner. The library is located off the hallway in the east wing. The woodwork, doors, a bookcase, and a bookshelf built into the wall were grained to resemble oak. The shelves in the bookshelf no longer exist; but, the backboard of the bookshelf is visible, as is the plaster wall made to resemble wood. Two mahogany bookcases, flanking the fireplace in the library, were furnished by Jenkins and having been sold to each successive owner by the previous one. The library was primarily used by Buchanan as the place to meet with guests. The second floor is reached by means of an elliptical stairway in the cross-hall. Embedded into the newel post at the base of the stairs is glass "peace stone", symbolizing the owners' "peace of mind" after having paid off the mortgage. The living quarters for the inhabitants of Wheatland were located on the second floor. A bathroom, complete with bathtub, shower and a bidet, was installed in the west wing when the Willsons bought Wheatland in 1884. The third floor was primarily used as servants' quarters and has been left unrestored. Grounds Originally constituting 22 acres (89,031 m2), the grounds surrounding Wheatland were incrementally sold until only 4.25 acres (17,199.14 m2) remained when it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The merger in 2009, however, included the 5.75 acres (23,269.42 m2) given to the historical society in 1934; the total of the two parcels is almost half of Wheatland's original property. On the grounds, behind Wheatland, stand a privy, a smokehouse, and a carriage house. A stable used to stand on the property but was replaced by the carriage house in the late 1880s; an icehouse also no longer exists. The carriage house, today, houses meeting and reception space. Wheatland is open to the public Monday-Saturday from mid-January through mid-November, with tours available hourly. See also Buchanan's Birthplace State Park List of National Historic Landmarks in Pennsylvania List of residences of presidents of the United States National Register of Historic Places listings in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Presidential memorials in the United States References Sources External links President James Buchanan's Wheatland (LancasterHistory.org) President James Buchanan's Wheatland (NPS.gov) "Life Portrait of James Buchanan", from C-SPAN's American Presidents: Life Portraits, broadcast from Wheatland, June 21, 1999 Wheatland, 1120 Marietta Avenue, Lancaster, Lancaster County, PA: 19 measured drawings at Historic American Buildings Survey

Wheatland is a town in and the county seat of Platte County in southeastern Wyoming, United States. The population was 3,588 at the 2020 census. History Before the late 19th century, the area around the future site of Wheatland was a flat, arid landscape with desert-like vegetation. In 1883 local rancher and judge Joseph M. Carey, along with Horace Plunkett, John Hoyt, Morton Post, Francis E. Warren, William Irvine, and Andrew Gilchrist, established the Wyoming Development Company. The company hoped to irrigate in the Wheatland Flats and profit from new development. By the fall of 1883 an irrigation system was constructed on the Wheatland flats including a 2,380 foot long tunnel to divert water for irrigation into Bluegrass Creek and the first two of the system's canals. The Cheyenne and Northern Railway line reached the Wheatland flats in July 1887, eventually extending to the Wyoming Central Railway at Wendover. The line was eventually sold to the Colorado and Southern Railway, controlled by the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad, and operated at Wheatland station. Lots in the town of Wheatland were auctioned in 1894. By 1915 many farms were established in the irrigation district and the population of the flats was 5,277. In 1911 Platte County was created from a portion of Albany County, and Wheatland was selected as the county seat. The Platte County Courthouse was built in Wheatland in 1917. The Wheatland Irrigation District is still the largest privately owned irrigation system in the country. Geography Wheatland is located at 42°3′14″N 104°57′34″W (42.053917, –104.959460). According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 4.10 square miles (10.62 km2), all land. Demographics 2010 census As of the census of 2010, there were 3,627 people, 1,657 households, and 974 families living in the town. The population density was 884.6 inhabitants per square mile (341.5/km2). There were 1,879 housing units at an average density of 458.3 per square mile (177.0/km2). The racial makeup of the town was 95.1% White, 0.1% African American, 0.4% Native American, 0.7% Asian, 2.1% from other races, and 1.6% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 7.4% of the population. There were 1,657 households, of which 25.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.0% were married couples living together, 8.8% had a female householder with no husband present, 3.9% had a male householder with no wife present, and 41.2% were non-families. 37.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 19.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.13 and the average family size was 2.78. The median age in the town was 45.4 years. 20.7% of residents were under the age of 18; 7.1% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 21.6% were from 25 to 44; 28.3% were from 45 to 64; and 22.3% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the town was 48.7% male and 51.3% female. 2000 census As of the census of 2000, there were 3,548 people, 1,539 households, and 980 families living in the town. The population density was 837.6 people per square mile (323.1/km2). There were 1,764 housing units at an average density of 416.4 per square mile (160.6/km2). The racial makeup of the town was 96.00% White, 0.31% African American, 0.68% Native American, 0.34% Asian, 1.89% from other races, and 0.79% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.54% of the population. There were 1,539 households, out of which 27.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.7% were married couples living together, 7.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.3% were non-families. 32.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 16.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.24 and the average family size was 2.83. In the town, the population was spread out, with 22.8% under the age of 18, 7.2% from 18 to 24, 22.7% from 25 to 44, 26.5% from 45 to 64, and 20.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43 years. For every 100 females, there were 89.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.8 males. The median income for a household in the town was $35,208, and the median income for a family was $42,623. Males had a median income of $34,940 versus $20,185 for females. The per capita income for the town was $19,069. About 6.9% of families and 8.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 9.9% of those under age 18 and 8.6% of those age 65 or over. Climate Wheatland experiences a semi-arid climate (Köppen BSk) with cold, dry winters and hot, wetter summers. Education Public education in the town of Wheatland is provided by Platte County School District #1. Campuses serving the town include Libbey Elementary School (grades K–2), West Elementary School (grades 3–5), Wheatland Middle School (grades 6–8), and Wheatland High School (grades 9–12). Wheatland has a public library, a branch of the Platte County Public Library System. Transport Highways I-25 - bypasses on the west. US 87 - north-south route through Wheatland. WYO 310 (Hightower Rd.) WYO 312 (Ferguson Rd.) WYO 316 (Antelope Gap Rd.) WYO 320 (No. Wheatland Hwy.) Transit Intercity bus service to the city is provided by Express Arrow. Air Transport Wheatland is served by Phifer Airfield just east of town on State Route 316 (Gilchrist St./Antelope Gap Rd.). However, the field has no direct commercial service, residents can choose between Western Nebraska Regional Airport, Casper–Natrona County International Airport, and Cheyenne Regional Airport. Railroads Wheatland is the home of the historical Wheatland station, then operated by Union Pacific, Denver and Gulf Railway. The station is not open today for revenue service, though the tracks through Wheatland are currently owned and used by Berkshire Hathaway's BNSF Railway after a series of acquisitions which gave BNSF the Wheatland assets formerly operated by Union Pacific, Denver and Gulf. BNSF currently has small offices located in Wheatland. Arts and culture Wheatland hosts the annual Platte County Fair & Rodeo, usually held the second full week of August, at the fairgrounds on the east edge of town at Front Street and Antelope Gap Road. The horse Steamboat, the model for the bucking horse and rider motif on the Wyoming license, was stabled near Wheatland in a barn owned and maintained as a historical structure by Mike and Linda Holst. Steamboat is also the logo for the University of Wyoming. Notable people Benjamin N. Bellis (1924–2019), United States Air Force Lieutenant General Freckles Brown (1921–1987), Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association world champion bull rider Edward Bryant (1945–2017), science fiction writer, fantasy author Jim Geringer (born 1944), former governor of Wyoming Robert Mills Grant (1926–2012), rancher and Republican member of the Wyoming House of Representatives from 1983 to 1992 Jeremy Haroldson, pastor, member of the Wyoming House of Representatives Floyd Shaman (1935–2005), sculptor Dennis Utter (1939–2011), Nebraska state legislator Charles Hoskinson (born 1987), founder of Cardano (blockchain platform), co-founder of Ethereum References External links Platte County Record Times Wheaterville News

Cardano is a public blockchain platform. It is open-source and decentralized, with consensus achieved using proof of stake. It can facilitate peer-to-peer transactions with its internal cryptocurrency, ADA. Cardano's development began in 2015, led by Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson. The project is overseen and supervised by the Cardano Foundation based in Zug, Switzerland. When launched in 2017, it was the largest cryptocurrency to use a proof-of-stake blockchain, which is seen as a greener alternative to proof-of-work protocols. History After leaving Ethereum in 2014 Charles Hoskinson and Jeremy Wood set out their plans for Cardano in 2015. Hoskinson had left Ethereum after a dispute with another co-founder, Vitalik Buterin. Hoskinson wanted to accept venture capital and create a company, while Buterin wanted to keep it as a nonprofit organization. Woods and Hoskinson co-founded the business IOHK to develop blockchains for use by corporations, governments, and education institutions. Cardano was initially released to the public in 2017. That year, IOHK partnered with the University of Edinburgh to launch the Blockchain Technology Laboratory. The lab had six post-doctoral and professorial positions with up to 35 jobs created in total, and was led by Aggelos Kiayias, developer of the Ouroboros protocol. Cardano reached a market cap of $77 billion in May 2021, which was the fourth highest for a cryptocurrency at that time. Advertising agency MBLM ranked Cardano 26th for brand intimacy out of 600 brands in August 2022, in between Ford and Nestlé and the highest rank for a cryptocurrency. Citing an MBLM partner, advertising industry magazine Ad Age said Cardano's high ranking "can likely be chalked up to the gambling element of crypto". Design Governance Cardano is controlled by three entities: Cardano foundation aims to standardize and promote the ecosystem (based in Switzerland). IOHK: an engineering company responsible for building the Cardano blockchain. Emurgo: responsible for commercial applications. As of 2021, Frederik Gregaard is known to be the CEO of the Cardano Foundation. The platform is named after Italian mathematician Gerolamo Cardano, while the cryptocurrency itself is named after the English mathematician Ada Lovelace. The Ada sub-unit is the Lovelace; one Ada = 1,000,000 Lovelaces. Cardano is focused on scientific research with universities. Technical design Atypically, Cardano does not have a white paper. Instead, it uses design principles intended to overcome issues – such as scalability, interoperability, and a lack of regulatory compliance – faced by earlier cryptocurrencies. Cardano claims that it overcomes problems found in other cryptocurrencies, mainly that Bitcoin is too slow and inflexible and that Ethereum is not safe or scalable. Like Bitcoin, Cardano uses a UTXO ledger model, though it is an extended version (EUTXO) to facilitate smart contracts and scripting languages. Cardano uses a proof-of-stake (PoS) protocol named Ouroboros; this was in contrast to Bitcoin and Ethereum, which used proof-of-work protocols (though the latter switched over in 2022). Proof-of-stake blockchains use far less energy than proof-of-work chains. This is achieved by eliminating the computing resources that a proof-of-work algorithm requires. In February 2021, Hoskinson estimated the Cardano network used 6 GWh annually, less than 0.01% of the 110.53 TWh used by the Bitcoin network as calculated by the University of Cambridge. Within the Cardano platform, Ada exists on the settlement layer. This layer keeps track of transactions. The second layer is the computation layer and is designed to be similar to Ethereum, enabling smart contracts and applications to run on the platform. Like other cryptocurrencies, Ada (ADA) can be stored on a digital wallet. Cardano's native digital wallet is named "Daedalus". The Daedalus wallet downloads a full copy of the entire transaction history of the Cardano blockchain. Wallet users face the risk of losing access to funds if the wallet's seed phrase is lost or stolen. Development phases of Cardano, or "eras", are named after notable figures in poetry and computer science: Byron, Shelley, Goguen, Basho, and Voltaire. The first three stages implemented a basic blockchain, and then implemented decentralisation and smart contracts. The Basho era focuses on scaling the blockchain. Voltaire, the final era, adds voting and treasury management functionality to the blockchain. Once Voltaire is complete IOHK has said it plans to release the development of the network entirely to the community. The "Cardano improvement proposal" CIP-1694 is the first step towards "on-chain" governance. It intends to allow ADA token holders to create proposals that may be voted upon by the community and, if successful, implemented. As with other proof-of-stake cryptocurrencies, Cardano offers "staking", which allows token holders to set-aside (delegate) tokens to potentially "validate" transactions on the same blockchain (Figure 1). The quantity of tokens staked corresponds with the likelihood of being chosen to validate a transaction, and thus be rewarded by the algorithm with more of the same token. Cardano's Daedalus wallet allows for staking. For Cardano, users participate in "staking pools" with other token-holders. Applications Applications of the Cardano blockchain include: In 2018, IOHK signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of Ethiopia to consider the use of Cardano in its coffee supply chain. The partnership with the Ethiopian government also investigate other ways to deploy Cardano in the country. In 2019, the Ministry of Education in the country of Georgia signed a memorandum of understanding with the Free University of Tbilisi to use Cardano and Atala, IOHK's decentralized identity software, to build a credential verification system for Georgia. In 2019, New Balance announced a pilot program on the Cardano blockchain so buyers could track the authenticity of OMN1S Kawhi Leonard basketball shoes. In April 2021, IOHK and the Ethiopia Ministry of Education announced plans for an identity and record-keeping system on Cardano and Atala for the country's five million school pupils. In 2021, Hoskinson began working with electronic dance music DJ Paul Oakenfold to release an album, Zombie Lobster, on the Cardano blockchain. In 2021, IOHK and Dish Network announced a collaboration to investigate the use of distributed ledger technology. The Cardano blockchain was cited in Quartz as having the potential to help citizens in Zanzibar, Ethiopia, and Burundi get digital IDs. World Mobile Token (WMT), a project built on Cardano, offers remote mobile network access in Africa with approximately 150 nodes in East Africa (2022). Mark Cuban is cited as being skeptical about the project and Cardano adoption. In 2023, a Ghanaian startup named "Mazzuma" received funding from the Adaverse, a Cardano ecosystem accelerator. MassumaGPT aims to use AI in its contract creation platform. Decentralized finance Cardano implemented decentralized finance (DeFi) services on September 12, 2021, including an upgrade to enable smart contracts and the ability to build decentralized applications (DApps). Also included is Plutus, a smart contract language written in Haskell, and Marlowe, a domain-specific language designed by Simon Thompson for non-programmers in the financial sector. Partner chains In November 2023 Cardano began introducing sidechains, referred to by the project as "partner chains". Sidechains are intended to perform off-chain computations, known as smart contracts, while using the Cardano network for settlement. The first example of such a chain, named "Midnight", will make use of the Polkadot framework in combination with Cardano. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) Cardano also enables creating non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Snoop Dogg released several thousand NFTs in a project named "Baked Nation" for the Cardano chain in April 2022. In 2023 a digital artist from the UK sold 7,200 individual works of humanoid deer for almost £500,000 on Cardano. Legal status and regulation In 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a US regulator, issued a complaint against the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken for offering unregistered securities (in violation of the Securities Act) and promising returns on investment for staking in multiple proof-of-stake cryptocurrencies, including Cardano. Without any admission of wrongdoing, Kraken agreed to pay a fine of $30 million and halt its staking program in response. In June 2023, the SEC sued Binance. Among the allegations was that Cardano was a security and so the cryptocurrency exchange was trading illegally in the US. IOG responded that the filing was inaccurate and that Ada was not a security. Robinhood Markets said it would remove Cardano and two other proof of stake coins from its platform. The Ada price fell from $0.38 to $0.26 in a day on the FT Wilshire index. Both the Wall Street Journal and The Times linked a fall in the price of Cardano – 19 per cent in June – and a slide for other major coins to the SEC's actions. References External links Official website

Ethereum is a decentralized blockchain with smart contract functionality. Ether (abbreviation: ETH) is the native cryptocurrency of the platform. Among cryptocurrencies, ether is second only to bitcoin in market capitalization. It is open-source software. Ethereum was conceived in 2013 by programmer Vitalik Buterin. Other founders include Gavin Wood, Charles Hoskinson, Anthony Di Iorio, and Joseph Lubin. In 2014, development work began and was crowdfunded, and the network went live on 30 July 2015. Ethereum allows anyone to deploy permanent and immutable decentralized applications onto it, with which users can interact. Decentralized finance (DeFi) applications provide financial instruments that do not directly rely on financial intermediaries like brokerages, exchanges, or banks. This facilitates borrowing against cryptocurrency holdings or lending them out for interest. Ethereum also allows users to create and exchange non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which are tokens that can be tied to unique digital assets, such as images. Additionally, many other cryptocurrencies utilize the ERC-20 token standard on top of the Ethereum blockchain and have utilized the platform for initial coin offerings. On 15 September 2022, Ethereum transitioned its consensus mechanism from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS) in an upgrade process known as "the Merge". This has cut Ethereum's energy usage by 99%. History Founding (2013–2014) Ethereum was initially described in late 2013 in a white paper by Vitalik Buterin, a programmer and co-founder of Bitcoin Magazine, that described a way to build decentralized applications. Buterin argued to the Bitcoin Core developers that blockchain technology could benefit from other applications besides money and that it needed a more robust language for application development: 88  that could lead to attaching real-world assets, such as stocks and property, to the blockchain. In 2013, Buterin briefly worked with eToro CEO Yoni Assia on the Colored Coins project and drafted its white paper outlining additional use cases for blockchain technology. However, after failing to gain agreement on how the project should proceed, he proposed the development of a new platform with a more robust scripting language—a Turing-complete programming language—that would eventually become Ethereum. Ethereum was announced at the North American Bitcoin Conference in Miami, in January 2014. During the conference, Gavin Wood, Charles Hoskinson, and Anthony Di Iorio (who financed the project) rented a house in Miami with Buterin at which they could develop a fuller sense of what Ethereum might become. Di Iorio invited friend Joseph Lubin, who invited reporter Morgen Peck, to bear witness. Peck subsequently wrote about the experience in Wired. Six months later the founders met again in Zug, Switzerland, where Buterin told the founders that the project would proceed as a non-profit. Hoskinson left the project at that time and soon after founded IOHK, a blockchain company responsible for Cardano. Ethereum has an unusually long list of founders. Anthony Di Iorio wrote: "Ethereum was founded by Vitalik Buterin, Myself, Charles Hoskinson, Mihai Alisie & Amir Chetrit (the initial 5) in December 2013. Joseph Lubin, Gavin Wood, & Jeffrey Wilcke were added in early 2014 as founders." Buterin chose the name Ethereum after browsing a list of elements from science fiction on Wikipedia. He stated, "I immediately realized that I liked it better than all of the other alternatives that I had seen; I suppose it was that [it] sounded nice and it had the word 'ether', referring to the hypothetical invisible medium that permeates the universe and allows light to travel." Buterin wanted his platform to be the underlying and imperceptible medium for the applications running on top of it. Development (2014) Formal development of the software underlying Ethereum began in early 2014 through a Swiss company, Ethereum Switzerland GmbH (EthSuisse). The idea of putting executable smart contracts in the blockchain needed to be specified before it could be implemented in software. This work was done by Gavin Wood, then the chief technology officer, in the Ethereum Yellow Paper that specified the Ethereum Virtual Machine. Subsequently, a Swiss non-profit foundation, the Ethereum Foundation (Stiftung Ethereum), was founded. Development was funded by an online public crowd sale from July to August 2014, in which participants bought the Ethereum value token (ether) with another digital currency, bitcoin. While there was early praise for the technical innovations of Ethereum, questions were also raised about its security and scalability. Launch and the DAO event (2014–2016) Several codenamed prototypes of Ethereum were developed over 18 months in 2014 and 2015 by the Ethereum Foundation as part of their proof-of-concept series. "Olympic" was the last prototype and public beta pre-release. The Olympic network gave users a bug bounty of 25,000 ether for stress-testing the Ethereum blockchain. On 30 July 2015, "Frontier" marked the official launch of the Ethereum platform, and Ethereum created its "genesis block". The genesis block contained 8,893 transactions allocating various amounts of ether to different addresses, and a block reward of 5 ETH. Since the initial launch, Ethereum has undergone a number of planned protocol upgrades, which are important changes affecting the underlying functionality and/or incentive structures of the platform. Protocol upgrades are accomplished by means of a hard fork. In 2016, a decentralized autonomous organization called The DAO—a set of smart contracts developed on the platform—raised a record US$150 million in a crowd sale to fund the project. The DAO was exploited in June 2016 when US$50 million of DAO tokens were stolen by an unknown hacker. The event sparked a debate in the crypto-community about whether Ethereum should perform a contentious "hard fork" to reappropriate the affected funds. The fork resulted in the network splitting into two blockchains: Ethereum with the theft reversed, and Ethereum Classic which continued on the original chain. Continued development and milestones (2017–present) In March 2017, various blockchain startups, research groups, and Fortune 500 companies announced the creation of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) with 30 founding members. By May 2017, the nonprofit organization had 116 enterprise members, including ConsenSys, CME Group, Cornell University's research group, Toyota Research Institute, Samsung SDS, Microsoft, Intel, J. P. Morgan, Cooley LLP, Merck KGaA, DTCC, Deloitte, Accenture, Banco Santander, BNY Mellon, ING, and National Bank of Canada. By July 2017, there were over 150 members in the alliance, including MasterCard, Cisco Systems, Sberbank, and Scotiabank. In 2024, Paul Brody, EEA board member for EY, was announced as the new chairperson, and Karen Scarbrough, board member for Microsoft, as the new executive director. Vanessa Grellet from Arche Capital also joined as a new board member. CryptoKitties and the ERC-721 NFT standard In 2017, CryptoKitties, the blockchain game and decentralized application (dApp) featuring digital cat artwork as NFTs, was launched on the Ethereum network. In cultivating popularity with users and collectors, it gained notable mainstream media attention providing significant exposure to Ethereum in the process. It was considered the most popular smart contract in use on the network but it also highlighted concerns over Ethereum's scalability due to the game's substantial consumption of network capacity at the time. In January 2018, a community-driven paper (an EIP, "Ethereum Improvement Proposal") under the leadership of civic hacker and lead author William Entriken was published, called ERC-721: Non-Fungible Token Standard. It introduced ERC-721, the first official NFT standard on Ethereum. This standardization allowed Ethereum to become central to a multi-billion dollar digital collectibles market. Continued developments By January 2018, ether was the second-largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization, behind bitcoin. As of 2021, it maintained that relative position. In 2019, Ethereum Foundation employee Virgil Griffith was arrested by the US government for presenting at a blockchain conference in North Korea. He would later plead guilty to one count of conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in 2021. In March 2021, Visa Inc. announced that it began settling stablecoin transactions using Ethereum. In April 2021, JP Morgan Chase, UBS, and MasterCard announced that they were investing US$65 million into ConsenSys, a software development firm that builds Ethereum-related infrastructure. There were two network upgrades in 2021. The first was "Berlin", implemented on 14 April 2021. The second was "London", which took effect on 5 August. The London upgrade included Ethereum Improvement Proposal ("EIP") 1559, a mechanism for reducing transaction fee volatility. The mechanism causes a portion of the ether paid in transaction fees for each block to be destroyed rather than given to the block proposer, reducing the inflation rate of ether and potentially resulting in periods of deflation. On 27 August 2021, the blockchain experienced a brief fork that was the result of clients running different incompatible software versions. Ethereum 2.0 Ethereum 2.0 (Eth2) was a set of three or more upgrades, also known as "phases", meant to transition the network's consensus mechanism to proof-of-stake, and to scale the network's transaction throughput with execution sharding and an improved EVM architecture. The switch from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake on 15 September 2022 has cut Ethereum's energy usage by 99%. This upgrade, known as "The Merge", was the first phase in the series of upgrades. However, the impact this has on global energy consumption and climate change may be limited since the computers previously used for mining ether may be used to mine other cryptocurrencies that are energy-intensive. On March 13, 2024 the second phase known as "Dencun" or also "Deneb-Cancun" upgrade went live. This upgrade lowered the transaction fees on the many Layer 2 networks built on top of the base Ethereum blockchain. Design Overview Ethereum is a peer-to-peer network that maintains a database containing the storage values of all Ethereum accounts and processes state-altering transactions. Approximately every 12 seconds, a batch of new transactions, known as a "block", is processed by the network. Each block contains a cryptographic hash identifying the series of blocks that must precede it if the block is to be considered valid. This series of blocks is known as the blockchain. Each "node" (network participant) connects with a relatively small subset of the network to offer blocks and unvalidated transactions (i.e. transactions not yet in the blockchain) to its peers for download, and it downloads any of these from its peers that it doesn't already have. Each node usually has a unique set of peers, so that offering an item to its peers results in the propagation of that item throughout the entire network within seconds. A node's collection of unvalidated transactions is known as its "mempool". A node may choose to create a copy of the state for itself. It does this by starting with the genesis state and executing every transaction in the blockchain, in the proper order of blocks and in the order they are listed within each block. Any Ethereum account may "stake" (deposit) 32 ETH to become a validator. At the end of each "epoch" (32 block slots, each slot lasting 12 seconds), each validator is pseudorandomly assigned to one of the slots of the epoch after the next, either as the block proposer or as an attester. During a slot, the block proposer uses their mempool to create a block that is intended to become the new "head" (latest block) of the blockchain, and the attesters attest to which block is at the head of the chain. If a validator makes self-contradicting proposals or attestations, or if it is inactive, it loses a portion of its stake. It may add to its stake at any time. A validator's attestation is given a weight equal to its stake or 32, whichever is less. According to the Ethereum protocol, the blockchain with the highest accumulated weight of attestations at any given time is to be regarded as the canonical chain. Validators are rewarded for making valid proposals and attestations. A validator's rewards are paid via transactions within the same chain that contains their proposal or attestation, and therefore would have little or no market value unless that chain becomes the canonical chain. This incentivizes validators to support the chain that they think other validators view as the canonical chain, which results in a high degree of consensus. Ether Ether (ETH) is the cryptocurrency generated in accordance with the Ethereum protocol as a reward to validators in a proof-of-stake system for adding blocks to the blockchain. Ether is represented in the state as an unsigned integer associated with each account, this being the account's ETH balance denominated in wei (1018 wei = 1 ether). At the end of each epoch, new ETH is generated by the addition of protocol-specified amounts to the balances of all validators for that epoch, with the block proposers receiving the largest portion. Additionally, ether is the only currency accepted by the protocol as payment for the transaction fee. The transaction fee is composed of two parts: the base fee and the tip. The base fee is "burned" (deleted from existence) and the tip goes to the block proposer. The validator reward together with the tips provide the incentive to validators to keep the blockchain growing (i.e. to keep processing new transactions). Therefore, ETH is fundamental to the operation of the network. Ether may be "sent" from one account to another via a transaction, the execution of which simply entails subtracting the amount to be sent from the sender's balance and adding the same amount to the recipient's balance. Ether is often erroneously referred to as "Ethereum". The uppercase Greek letter Xi, Ξ, is sometimes used as a currency symbol for ether. Accounts There are two types of accounts on Ethereum: user accounts (also known as externally-owned accounts), and contract accounts. Both types have an ETH balance, may transfer ETH to any account, may execute the code of another contract, or create a new contract, and are identified on the blockchain and in the state by an account address. Contracts are the only type of account that has associated bytecode and storage (to store contract-specific state). The code of a contract is evaluated when a transaction is sent to it. The code of the contract may read user-specified data from the transaction, and may have a return value. In addition to control flow statements, the bytecode may include instructions to send ETH, read from and write to the contract's storage, create temporary storage (memory) that vanishes at the end of code evaluation, perform arithmetic and hashing operations, send transactions to other contracts (thus executing their code), create new contracts, and query information about the current transaction or the blockchain. Addresses Ethereum addresses are composed of the prefix "0x" (a common identifier for hexadecimal) concatenated with the rightmost 20 bytes of the Keccak-256 hash of the ECDSA public key (the curve used is the so-called secp256k1). In hexadecimal, two digits represent a byte, and so addresses contain 40 hexadecimal digits after the "0x", e.g. 0xb794f5ea0ba39494ce839613fffba74279579268. Contract addresses are in the same format, however, they are determined by sender and creation transaction nonce. Virtual machine The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is the runtime environment for transaction execution in Ethereum. The EVM is a stack based virtual machine with an instruction set specifically designed for Ethereum. The instruction set includes, among other things, stack operations, memory operations, and operations to inspect the current execution context, such as remaining gas, information about the current block, and the current transaction. The EVM is designed to be deterministic on a wide variety of hardware and operating systems, so that given a pre-transaction state and a transaction, each node produces the same post-transaction state, thereby enabling network consensus. The formal definition of the EVM is specified in the Ethereum Yellow Paper. EVMs have been implemented in C++, C#, Go, Haskell, Java, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, Rust, Elixir, Erlang, and soon WebAssembly. Gas Gas is a unit of account within the EVM used in the calculation of the transaction fee, which is the amount of ETH a transaction's sender must pay to the network to have the transaction included in the blockchain. Each type of operation which may be performed by the EVM is hardcoded with a certain gas cost, which is intended to be roughly proportional to the monetary value of the resources (e.g. computation and storage) a node must expend or dedicate to perform that operation. When a sender is creating a transaction, the sender must specify a gas limit and gas price. The gas limit is the maximum amount of gas the sender is willing to use in the transaction, and the gas price is the amount of ETH the sender wishes to pay to the network per unit of gas used. A transaction may only be included in the blockchain at a block slot that has a base gas price less than or equal to the transaction's gas price. The portion of the gas price that is in excess of the base gas price is known as the tip and goes to the block proposer; the higher the tip, the more incentive a block proposer has to include the transaction in their block, and thus the quicker the transaction will be included in the blockchain. The sender buys the full amount of gas (i.e. their ETH balance is debited gas limit × gas price and their gas balance is set to gas limit) up-front, at the start of the execution of the transaction, and is refunded at the end for any unused gas. If at any point the transaction does not have enough gas to perform the next operation, the transaction is reverted but the sender is still only refunded for the unused gas. In user interfaces, gas prices are typically denominated in gigawei (Gwei), a subunit of ETH equal to 10−9 ETH. Applications The EVM's instruction set is Turing-complete. Popular uses of Ethereum have included the creation of fungible (ERC-20) and non-fungible (ERC-721) tokens with a variety of properties, crowdfunding (e.g. initial coin offerings), decentralized finance, decentralized exchanges, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), games, prediction markets, and gambling. Contract source code Ethereum's smart contracts are written in high-level programming languages and then compiled down to EVM bytecode and deployed to the Ethereum blockchain. They can be written in Solidity (a language library with similarities to C and JavaScript), Serpent (similar to Python, but deprecated), Yul (an intermediate language that can compile to various different backends—EVM 1.0, EVM 1.5, and eWASM are planned), LLL (a low-level Lisp-like language), and Mutan (Go-based, but deprecated). Source code and compiler information are usually published along with the launch of the contract so that users can see the code and verify that it compiles to the bytecode that is on-chain. One issue related to using smart contracts on a public blockchain is that bugs, including security holes, are visible to all but cannot be fixed quickly. One example of this is the 2016 attack on The DAO, which could not be quickly stopped or reversed. ERC-20 tokens The ERC-20 (Ethereum Request-for-Comments #20) Token Standard allows for fungible tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. The standard, proposed by Fabian Vogelsteller in November 2015, implements an API for tokens within smart contracts. The standard provides functions that include the transfer of tokens from one account to another, getting the current token balance of an account, and getting the total supply of the token available on the network. Smart contracts that correctly implement ERC-20 processes are called ERC-20 Token Contracts, and they keep track of created tokens on Ethereum. Numerous cryptocurrencies have launched as ERC-20 tokens and have been distributed through initial coin offerings. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) Ethereum also allows for the creation of unique and indivisible tokens, called non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Since tokens of this type are unique, they have been used to represent such things as collectibles, digital art, sports memorabilia, virtual real estate, and items within games. ERC-721 is the first official NFT standard for Ethereum and was followed up by ERC-1155 which introduced semi-fungibility, both are widely used, though some fully fungible tokens using ERC-20 have been used for NFTs such as CryptoPunks. The first NFT project, Etheria, a 3D map of tradable and customizable hexagonal tiles, was deployed to the network in October 2015 and demonstrated live at DEVCON1 in November of that year. In 2021, Christie's sold a digital image with an NFT by Beeple for US$69.3 million, making him the third-most-valuable living artist in terms of auction prices at the time, although observers have noted that both the buyer and seller had a vested interest in driving demand for the artist's work. Decentralized finance Decentralized finance (DeFi) offers financial instruments in a decentralized architecture, outside of companies' and governments' control, such as money market funds which let users earn interest. DeFi applications are typically accessed through a Web3-enabled browser extension or application, such as MetaMask, which allows users to directly interact with the Ethereum blockchain through a website. Many of these DApps can connect and work together to create complex financial services. Examples of DeFi platforms include MakerDAO. Uniswap, a decentralized exchange for tokens on Ethereum grew from US$20 million in liquidity to US$2.9 billion in 2020. As of October 2020, over US$11 billion was invested in various DeFi protocols. Additionally, through a process called "wrapping", certain DeFi protocols allow synthetic versions of various assets (such as bitcoin, gold, and oil) to be tradeable on Ethereum and also compatible with all of Ethereum's major wallets and applications. Enterprise software Ethereum-based software and networks, independent from the public Ethereum chain, have been tested by enterprise software companies. Interested parties have included Microsoft, IBM, JPMorgan Chase, Deloitte, R3, and Innovate UK (cross-border payments prototype). Barclays, UBS, Credit Suisse, Amazon, Visa, and other companies have also experimented with Ethereum. Permissioned ledgers Ethereum-based permissioned blockchain variants are used and being investigated for various projects: In 2017, JPMorgan Chase proposed developing JPM Coin on a permissioned-variant of Ethereum blockchain dubbed "Quorum". It is "designed to toe the line between private and public in the realm of shuffling derivatives and payments. The idea is to satisfy regulators who need seamless access to financial goings-on while protecting the privacy of parties that don't wish to reveal their identities nor the details of their transactions to the general public." Performance As of January 2016, the Ethereum protocol could process about 25 transactions per second; this did not change after the move to proof-of-stake. In comparison, the Visa payment platform processes 45,000 payments per second. This has led some to question the scalability of Ethereum. A proposal to partition global state and computation into shard chains was presented at Ethereum's Devcon 3 in November 2017. If implemented, each node in the network would only have to store and validate a subset of the network. Ethereum's blockchain uses a Merkle-Patricia Tree to store account state in each block. The trie allows for storage savings, set membership proofs (called "Merkle proofs"), and light client synchronization. The network has faced congestion problems, such as in 2017 in relation to CryptoKitties. Regulation In the United States, the proposed Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act would treat Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies as commodities, which could then be regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Notes References External links Official website

Who was the character in the roster of the Marvel vs. Capcom entry that was ported to the PlayStation 4 in 2016 that represented a video game franchise that has zombies as main antagonists and is the player character of a game released in 1999?

Jill Valentine

Multiple constraints

Marvel vs. Capcom is a series of crossover fighting games developed and published by Capcom, featuring characters from their own video game franchises and comic book series published by Marvel Comics. The series originated as coin-operated arcade games, though later releases would be specifically developed for home consoles, handhelds, and personal computers. Its gameplay borrows heavily from Capcom's previous Marvel-licensed fighting games X-Men: Children of the Atom and Marvel Super Heroes; however, instead of focusing on single combat, the games incorporated tag team battles. Players form teams of two or three characters and, controlling one fighter at a time, attempt to damage and knock out their opponents. Players can switch out their characters during the match, allowing team members to replenish their health and prolong their ability to fight. The series' gameplay is also distinguished from other fighting game franchises due to its character assist mechanics and emphasis on aerial combat. The Marvel vs. Capcom series has received generally positive reviews from critics, who have praised its fast-paced gameplay, vibrant visuals, and wealth of playable characters. The series has enjoyed broad appeal, especially in markets outside of Japan, selling approximately 11 million units as of 2023. Games Main Games X-Men vs. Street Fighter was initially released as an arcade game in 1996. The game was later ported to the Sega Saturn in 1997 and PlayStation in 1998. It established the series' basic gameplay conventions by combining Street Fighter-style combat with tag team features. X-Men vs. Street Fighter also borrowed gameplay concepts from Capcom's previous Marvel Comics-licensed fighting games, X-Men: Children of the Atom and Marvel Super Heroes. Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter was released in arcades in 1997. It was then ported to the Sega Saturn in 1998 and PlayStation in 1999. The game expanded the playable roster to the larger Marvel Universe, introducing characters such as Captain America, Hulk, and Spider-Man. It was also responsible for introducing character assist moves to the franchise, a gameplay element which would influence future Marvel vs. Capcom installments. Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes debuted in arcades in 1998. Ports to the Dreamcast and PlayStation soon followed in 1999. Rather than strictly using Street Fighter characters, the game included characters from other Capcom video game franchises, such as Mega Man, Morrigan, and Strider Hiryu. It removed the character assist feature used in Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter and implemented its own system, which randomly allocated guest characters to each player. Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes was released in arcades in 2000 and ported to the Dreamcast within the same year. The game received ports to the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2002. It was then re-released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 through the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network, respectively, in 2009. Lastly, a version for iOS devices was released in 2012. Featuring a large playable roster, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 reused the assist features from Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter and changed the series' two-on-two battle system to three-on-three fights. Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds was released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2011. The series' traditional sprites transitioned into 3D character models while retaining the 2D-style combat. The game includes various gameplay features designed to make it more accessible to newer players, such as the additions of a comeback mechanic and a more simplified control scheme. Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, a standalone updated edition of the original Marvel vs. Capcom 3, was released for PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, and Xbox 360 in 2011. The game was also released for the PlayStation 4 via the PlayStation Network in 2016; releases for the Xbox One via the Xbox Live Arcade and Microsoft Windows via Steam followed in 2017. It features new characters, stages, modes, and other enhancements to improve game balance and online functionality. Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite was released in 2017 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows. It features two-on-two battles, similar to earlier Marvel vs. Capcom games, and removes traditional assist moves in favor of its own dual-character combo system. The game also implements a gameplay mechanic involving the Infinity Stones, which grants players unique abilities and upgrades depending on the type of stone selected. It is the first game to feature a cinematic story mode. Compilations Marvel vs. Capcom Origins, a compilation game which includes Marvel Super Heroes and Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 through the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade, respectively, in 2012. It features high-definition visuals, online multiplayer, dynamic challenges, and unlockables. Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics is a compilation comprising all seven Capcom-developed Marvel games originally released for arcades: The Punisher, X-Men: Children of the Atom, Marvel Super Heroes, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, and Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes. It released in 2024 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Microsoft Windows. An Xbox One version will launch in 2025. Related media In 2011, a series of Minimates based on the playable characters from Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds were released by Art Asylum. Udon Entertainment published Marvel vs. Capcom: Official Complete Works art book consisting of promotional artwork, sketches and bonus material from the video game collaborations between Marvel and Capcom, beginning with the 1993 arcade game The Punisher to Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. It contains contributions from a variety of artists and illustrators, including Akiman, Bengus, Shinkiro, Joe Madureira, Adi Granov, Joe Ng, Long Vo, Chamba, Adam Warren and Takeshi Miyazawa. Official Complete Works made its international debut at San Diego Comic-Con on July 11, 2012, in an exclusive hardcover edition. The hardcover also featured a wrap-around cover designed by Udon Entertainment and Capcom artist Alvin Lee, and digitally-painted by Udon's Genzoman. A standard-format softcover was released in November 2012 by Diamond Comics. Within the Marvel Comics multiverse, the Marvel vs. Capcom universe is designated as "Earth-30847". The iteration of Spider-Man from the series made a cameo appearance in the second issue of the comics crossover event Spider-Verse (2014-15), where he is defeated by Morlun as he hunts all Spider-Totems across the multiverse. Gameplay The basic gameplay of the Marvel vs. Capcom series was originally derived from X-Men: Children of the Atom and Marvel Super Heroes. Players compete in battle using characters with unique moves and special attacks. Using a combination of joystick movements and button presses, players must execute various moves to damage their opponent and deplete their life gauge, or alternatively, have the most cumulative health when the timer runs out. However, unlike the two aforementioned games, which focus on single combat, the Marvel vs. Capcom series revolve around tag team-based combat. Instead of choosing a single character, players select multiple characters to form teams of two or three. Each character on the team is given their own life gauge. Players control one character at a time, while the others await off-screen. Players are also free to swap between their characters at any point during the match. As characters take damage, portions of their life gauge will turn red, known as "red health", which represents the amount of health that a character can recover if the player tags them out. The off-screen, dormant characters will slowly replenish their red health, allowing players to cycle through their team members and prolong their ability to fight. Furthermore, as characters deal and receive damage, a colored meter at the bottom of the screen known as the "Hyper Combo Gauge" will gradually fill. By expending meter from their Hyper Combo Gauge, players can perform "Hyper Combos" – powerful, cinematic attacks that deal heavy damage to the opponent – in addition to several other special techniques. If one character loses all of their health, they are knocked out and the next available fighter will automatically come into play. Each successive Marvel vs. Capcom installment has added, removed, or altered gameplay elements over the course of the series' history. X-Men vs. Street Fighter added two-on-two tag team features. Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter introduced the concept of the "assist" by allowing the player to summon their off-screen partner to perform a special move without switching characters. This feature was replaced in Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, which instead randomly allocated an unplayable guest character with a preset assist move before each match; in addition, assists were limited to only a few uses per round. The assist features from Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter were re-incorporated into the following sequel, Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, once again granting players the ability to call in their off-screen characters at any time during the match without constraint. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 also increased the number of characters per team by one, providing a three-on-three battle format. Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds introduced "X-Factor", a comeback mechanic which offers increased damage, speed, and red health regeneration for a limited time upon activation. Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite reverts to two-on-two partner battles and removes traditional character assists, in favour of a free-form tag system where the second character switches in at any point, irrespective of whether the player is mid-combo or in air. Infinite also implements the Infinity Stones as a gameplay mechanic, where each of the six stones grants unique abilities and enhancements to the player. Another gameplay element that helps to distinguish the Marvel vs. Capcom series from other fighting game franchises is its emphasis on aerial combat. Every character in the Marvel vs. Capcom series is given a "Launcher" move, which sends the opponent flying up into the air. The player can then choose to follow up immediately by using a "Super Jump", which allows a character to jump much higher than normal, in order to continue their combo; these airborne combos are called "Air Combos" or "Aerial Raves". Marvel vs. Capcom 3 introduced a gameplay feature known as the "Team Aerial Combo" or "Aerial Exchange", giving players the opportunity to extend their Air Combos further by quickly tagging in their other characters while mid-air. As Capcom's design philosophy for the series has changed to appeal to a wider audience, the control scheme has been repeatedly modified to accommodate people less familiar with the fighting game genre. The first three installments utilized the same layout of six attack buttons, separated as three pairs of light, medium, and hard punches and kicks. In Marvel vs. Capcom 2, in order to make the game more accessible, the layout was tweaked to four attack buttons, consisting of two pairs of light and heavy punches and kicks, and two dedicated assist buttons. The control scheme was further simplified with the release of Marvel vs. Capcom 3, which included three attack buttons designated to undefined light, medium, and hard attacks, two assist buttons, and an "exchange button" used to perform Launchers and switch between characters during Air Combos. In addition, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 included two different control scheme options: Normal Mode and Simple Mode. Simple Mode, designed for casual players, allows players to perform special moves and Hyper Combos with single button presses at the expense of limiting a character's available moveset. Though Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite returned to a control scheme similar to Marvel vs. Capcom 2 ― with four attack buttons, one dedicated button for character tagging, and another for activating Infinity Stone abilities ― it introduced a new "auto-combo" system to improve accessibility that allows players to repeatedly mash the light punch input to automatically execute ground and air combos without any damage penalty. Characters Marvel vs. Capcom has featured over 100 playable fighters, primarily drawn from comic book series published by Marvel Comics and video games franchises developed and produced by Capcom. The games have introduced a few original characters, which include Norimaro from Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, and Amingo, Ruby Heart, and SonSon from Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes. In addition to the playable cast, other characters from the Marvel and Capcom universes make appearances in the games in varying capacities. Both Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes include secret characters which can be played by inputting specific sequences of joystick movements on the character select screen. These secret characters consist of palette swaps of existing fighters with different moveset properties. Clash of Super Heroes also has unplayable summon characters as part of its "Guest Character/Special Partner" assist system. Many Marvel vs. Capcom installments also allow players to fight as the games' boss characters in special game modes, with the exception of Abyss from Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Characters that have not been playable frequently make cameo appearances in the games' cutscenes and stage backgrounds. Lastly, numerous non-playable Marvel and Capcom characters are featured as "Ability Cards" in the Heroes and Heralds game mode in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Out of all the playable characters, Ryu and Chun-Li are the only ones to have appeared in every game released thus far. Notes History Capcom's partnership with Marvel Comics began in 1993 with the release of The Punisher, an arcade beat 'em up based on the comic book series of the same name. Capcom then created their first Marvel-licensed fighting game, X-Men: Children of the Atom, in 1994. Marvel Super Heroes soon followed in 1995. Many of the gameplay mechanics used in the Marvel vs. Capcom series were first developed and refined in these two fighting games, serving as precursors to the series. In 2011, then-current Capcom USA Strategic Marketing Director of Online and Community Seth Killian stated that many fighting game aficionados, including himself, consider them to have laid the foundation for the series. The idea for implementing tag teams was allegedly inspired by an easter egg from Capcom's own 1995 fighting game Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams. In a secret "Dramatic Battle" mode, two players, controlling Ryu and Ken, were able to fight against an AI-controlled M. Bison at the same time. The easter egg itself had drawn inspiration from the final battle sequence of Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, which featured a similar fight scene. Recognizing the uniqueness of a team-up concept, Capcom began to work on their next project. After their earlier licensing ventures with Children of the Atom and Marvel Super Heroes, the company decided to combine Marvel's X-Men franchise, their own Street Fighter franchise, and their team-up concept, leading to the creation of X-Men vs. Street Fighter. The game debuted in Japanese arcades in 1996, establishing the series' fast-paced, tag team-based gameplay style. Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter was then released in 1997, which replaced most of the X-Men cast with other heroes from the Marvel Universe and introduced the character assist mechanic. Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes later followed in 1998, exchanging the majority of the Street Fighter cast with characters from other Capcom video games series, such as Mega Man and Darkstalkers. In 1999, Capcom announced the development of yet another sequel, called Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 heavily re-used assets from previous Capcom-developed games, including Street Fighter Alpha, Darkstalkers, and the earlier Marvel vs. Capcom titles, resulting in a large roster of 56 playable characters. Shortly after the release of the PlayStation 2 and Xbox ports for Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Capcom lost the use of the Marvel license, putting the series on an indefinite hiatus. However, with the resurgence of 2D fighting games in 2008, owing to the success of Street Fighter IV, Marvel requested Capcom to collaborate with them once again. Capcom would announce the development of the next installment in the Marvel vs. Capcom series, Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, in 2010. The game was eventually released in 2011. An updated version of Marvel vs. Capcom 3, titled Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, was released later in the same year. The high-definition compilation game Marvel vs. Capcom Origins was then released in 2012. Following the release of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 for the PlayStation Vita in 2012, Marvel's new parent company, The Walt Disney Company, which acquired Marvel in 2009, chose not to renew Capcom's license with the Marvel characters, instead opting to put them in its own self-published Disney Infinity series. As a result, Capcom had to pull both Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 off their online platforms in 2013. However, in 2016, Disney announced its decision to cancel the Disney Infinity series, discontinue self-publishing efforts, and switch to a licensing-only model, allowing them to license their characters to third-party game developers, including Capcom. Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite was revealed in 2016, and then released in 2017. In June 2024, Capcom announced Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Windows. The compilation features the seven Marvel titles developed and published by Capcom for arcades from The Punisher through Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes. It notably marks the series' debut on Nintendo platforms, the first time the classic entries have been made available on PC, as well as the first general re-releases for Marvel Super Heroes, Clash of Super Heroes and New Age of Heroes since the original Origins compilation and the remaster of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 were digitally delisted from seventh generation console storefronts. Future Following the announcement of Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics, the reveal led to some speculation from fans about a potential revival of the series. The term Marvel vs. Capcom 4 was referenced in Cody Ziglar’s Deadpool (2024) issue #4. In July 2024, Capcom producer Shuhei Matsumoto stated in an interview that the development team has "big dreams" to make more Marvel crossover games and that there might be an opportunity for a potential installment in the series. In September 2024, Matsumoto later expressed interest in making a new entry for the series to happen. Reception The Marvel vs. Capcom series has received reviews ranging from average to positive from critics. According to Capcom President and COO Haruhiro Tsujimoto, the games have enjoyed broad appeal, especially in markets outside of Japan. As of December 2023, 11 million units of the series have been sold. The series' first three titles, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, and Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, received praise for their frantic gameplay style, visual flair, playable character rosters, and the quality of their sprite animations. The games' Dreamcast and Sega Saturn ports were also lauded for their technical performance, matching the capabilities of the arcade versions. Conversely, the PlayStation ports were criticized for their removal of tag team battles and noticeable decline in frame rate and animation quality – changes which stemmed from the console's RAM limitations. Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes received similar praise, with particular attention given towards the large cast and the addition of three-on-three combat. The Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, and Xbox versions were criticized for their lack of online multiplayer support outside Japan. These concerns were addressed with the release of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 ports, which reviewers commended for their smooth online experience. A common source of complaints was the game's jazz-inspired soundtrack, which critics deemed as out of place. In addition to its character variety and visual presentation, Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds garnered praise for simplifying the series' combat mechanics and control scheme, thus making it more accessible for players new to fighting games. Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom was applauded for its additions to the character roster, gameplay tweaks, and improved online functionality. Both games, however, were criticized for their lack of game modes and single-player content. Marvel vs. Capcom Origins was praised for preserving the original arcade releases' integrity and its addition of online multiplayer, dynamic challenges, and unlockable content; however, in remaining faithful to the arcade versions, some reviewers criticized the games for their outdated gameplay and unbalanced fighters. Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite received mixed to positive reviews, with critics praising its implementation of new gameplay mechanics, such as the "Active Switch" combo system and the addition of the six Infinity Stones. On the other hand, the game was criticized for its presentation, particularly its art direction, and its character roster. In 2012, Complex ranked Marvel vs. Capcom at number 37 on the list of the best video game franchises, commenting that "a frenetic pace and over the top effects work together to make this franchise stand the test of time". Notes References External links Marvel vs. Capcom at the Killer List of Videogames - Arcade version

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is a crossover fighting game developed by Capcom in collaboration with Eighting. It is an updated version of Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds. The game features characters from both Capcom's video game franchises and comic book series published by Marvel Comics. The game was released in November 2011 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and was featured as a launch title for the PlayStation Vita in 2012. The game was later ported to PlayStation 4 in December 2016, and Windows and Xbox One in March 2017. In Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, players select a team of three characters to engage in combat and attempt to knock out their opponents. As an update, the game utilizes largely identical gameplay mechanics to the original. However, both the aerial combat and X-Factor systems, introduced in Fate of Two Worlds, have received adjustments. In addition to gameplay modifications and new playable characters, the game features several aesthetic changes. After the events of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami disrupted the development schedule for downloadable content for Fate of Two Worlds, the additional content was created into a standalone title, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, for a discounted retail price. The game received generally positive reviews upon release; critics praised the expanded character roster and improved online experience, but criticized the lack of new features and game modes. A sequel, titled Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, was released in September 2017. Gameplay Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is an updated version of Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, an arcade-style fighting game, and changes little from the basic gameplay of the original. Players select teams of three different characters to engage in one-on-one combat. The game utilizes the same tag team-based fighting mechanics as its predecessors; players may choose to swap between their characters at any point during a match. Players must use the various attacks in their arsenal, such as character assists, special moves, and hyper combos, to exhaust their opponent's life gauge and defeat the entire enemy team, or have the most cumulative health when time runs out. While the core mechanics remain the same, a number of aesthetic changes have been made in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, with a stronger emphasis on the comic book motif. The HUD, character selection, and stage selection screens have been redesigned. In addition, many returning characters receive balancing changes, which include new moves and animation tweaks. Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 uses the same simplified, three-button control scheme of undefined light, medium, and heavy attacks introduced in Fate of Two Worlds. The "exchange button", used to launch opponents into the air and switch between characters while performing air combos, returns. The aerial exchange feature has been altered in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3; players can either remove meter from their opponent's Hyper Combo gauge, add meter to their own gauge, or simply deal more damage. The "X-Factor" mechanic, which grants increased damage output, speed, and health regeneration for a limited time, also reappears from Fate of Two Worlds. In Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, the attack and speed boosts for each character while using X-Factor have been adjusted. X-Factor can now be used while in the air, as opposed to the previous game, in which activation was restricted to characters on the ground. Modes Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 includes several game modes from the original, including Arcade Mode, where the player fights against AI-controlled opponents to reach the final boss character, Galactus; Versus Mode, where two players engage in combat; Mission Mode, which includes a series of trials for each playable character; and Training Mode. "Heroes and Heralds" is a free downloadable single-player and multiplayer team-based mode where players earn new abilities with upgrade cards, customize their characters with new powers, and compete in factions as either the heroes defending Earth or as one of Galactus' Heralds. The "ability cards", which feature various characters from the Marvel and Capcom universes, unlock special power-ups, such as invisibility and projectile invincibility, for use during mode-specific combat. Up to three different cards may be equipped at once, with more than 100 cards available to collect. A new offline mode, called "Galactus Mode", allows players to fight as Galactus against AI-controlled opponents. An optimized netcode is present in the game, providing smoother online play compared to Fate of Two Worlds. A new spectator mode allows up to six players to watch online matches between other players. Rematch features and leaderboard functionality have also been improved to enhance the game's online experience. Playable characters Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 features the original 36 characters from Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds and introduces 12 new playable fighters. Jill Valentine and Shuma-Gorath, the two characters released as downloadable content (DLC) for the previous game, remained available for download, up until all DLC for the game was removed from online stores in December 2013; they are included in the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC re-releases. Characters added to Ultimate are marked in bold. Marvel characters Capcom characters Development On July 20, 2011, at San Diego Comic-Con, Capcom announced that an updated version of Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds was under development. The update, titled Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, would add new characters, stages, modes, and other enhancements to improve the game's balance and online functionality. According to Capcom, many new features and refinements, such as the addition of a spectator mode and tweaks to X-Factor, were the results of fan feedback. At the 2011 Tokyo Game Show, Capcom video game producer, Yoshinori Ono, would later announce that the game would also be released as a launch title for the PlayStation Vita. The handheld edition promised to contain the same content as the console versions, in addition to touchscreen control support. After the release of Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, the game's development team had plans to release more downloadable content. However, after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, in addition to staff health issues, delayed the development schedule, producer Ryota Niitsuma and his team decided to release the proposed DLC, along with rebalanced gameplay and other additions, as a separate installment. As a result, the makeup of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is split "about half and half" between DLC meant for Fate of Two Worlds and brand new content. Character selection was a collaborative process between Capcom and Marvel. According to Seth Killian, a former community manager for Capcom, Marvel presented a list of their own characters that they were interested in seeing in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Capcom then provided input regarding moveset possibilities in order to reach a consensus. Each company also had their own set of interests and priorities. Marvel characters, such as Rocket Raccoon and Nova, were chosen to cross-promote upcoming products. On the other hand, Capcom sought to bring more diversity into the cast. For example, Capcom wanted a monster-like character that could fight while in the air, leading to the inclusion of Firebrand. Release Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on November 15, 2011, in North America, November 17 in Japan, and November 18 in Europe. The PlayStation Vita version was released on December 17, 2011, in Japan, and February 22, 2012, in North America and Europe. People who ordered the PlayStation Vita "First Edition" bundle in North America were able to receive an early copy of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 on February 15, 2012, one week ahead of the console's official launch date. To promote Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, special retailer-exclusive costume packs were available as pre-order bonuses. If the game was pre-ordered from GameStop, the players received the Femme Fatale Pack (Chun-Li, Morrigan, Storm, X-23). Amazon offered the New Age of Heroes Costume Pack (Akuma, Doctor Doom, Sentinel, Strider Hiryu), while Best Buy gave access to the Villains Costume Pack (C. Viper, M.O.D.O.K., Super-Skrull, Wesker). After the game's launch, several other costume packs became available for purchase on specific dates through the Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network. The Ancient Warriors Costume Pack, consisting of Arthur, Firebrand, Hulk, and Magneto, was originally planned to be released on December 20, 2011, but, on December 19, Capcom announced that the pack would be delayed until March 6 following year, due to existing controversy with Magneto's alternate costume. The costume in question, which was based on Magneto's appearance in Marvel's House of M series, bore similarities to the attire of the King of Spain, Juan Carlos I, and was later removed from the pack. Prior to the release of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, both Capcom and Marvel announced that the game would include reversible packaging. The front cover art featured the work of Capcom illustrator Shinkiro, while the reverse side featured the art of Marvel Comics' Mark Brooks. Brook's alternate cover featured all twelve of the game's new characters in his own comic book style. Both pieces of art were printed on a single reversible cover for the entire first run of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 in North America. On December 13, 2013, Capcom announced that digital versions of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and its DLC would be removed from online platforms towards the end of the month, following the apparent expiration of Capcom's licensing contracts with Marvel Comics. The game was pulled from the PlayStation Network on December 17 and 19 in North America and Europe, respectively, and from the Xbox Live Arcade on December 26. Later, on December 3, 2016, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was re-released digitally for the PlayStation 4, coinciding with the announcement of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite; digital re-releases for Windows and Xbox One were released on March 7, 2017. These versions included all previously released downloadable content, including Jill Valentine and Shuma-Gorath, a new gallery mode containing artwork from Marvel vs. Capcom: Official Complete Works, and an improved 1080p resolution at 60 frames per second. Physical copies of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions were made available for a limited time through GameStop and EB Games. The physical editions included updated cover art and a 10-page comic book featuring the artwork of Marvel Comics' Sean Chen and Gerardo Sandoval. Reception Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was released to generally favorable reviews, garnering scores of 80/100 and 79/100 from Metacritic for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions, respectively. The PlayStation Vita version received a score of 80/100 from Metacritic. The game received praise for addressing several gameplay issues prevalent in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds and refining the online experience. Daniel Maniago of G4 praised the game for its "simple, yet deep gameplay", character roster, and improved online features. 1UP.com's Neidel Crisan cited the game as a major improvement over the original. GameSpot's Maxwell McGee stated that Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was unquestionably the superior version, highlighting the series' "unique blend of structured insanity". A common criticism amongst reviewers for Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was the lack of additional on-disc content beyond the expanded character roster and gameplay tweaks. While IGN's Steven Hopper praised the inclusion of new characters, he criticized the lack of new features and modes. As a result, he stated that the game's US$40 price tag was "a little hard to swallow". Tim Turi of Game Informer stated that while hardcore fans would appreciate Capcom's balancing tweaks, casual fans who already played Fate of Two Worlds and were only interested in new characters would "likely be left wanting". Reviewers praised the PlayStation Vita version for its technical performance, despite hardware constraints, and for providing the full console version experience on a portable system. Hopper complimented the graphics, stating that the Vita port matched the visual fidelity of the console versions. Martin Robinson of Eurogamer claimed Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was one of the Vita's "finer-looking launch games", praising its detail and faithfulness to the original. However, he criticized the addition of touchscreen controls, stating its implementation fell short of the mark laid down by Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition. During the 15th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 for "Fighting Game of the Year", but lost to Mortal Kombat. Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 reached number 19 in the United Kingdom PlayStation 3 sales chart and number 24 for the Xbox 360. The game sold approximately 600,000 units worldwide for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 during the first two months of its release. By March 2015, the game had sold 1.20 million units for the PS3 and Xbox 360. As of March 2024, it has sold 3 million units across the PS3, Xbox 360, PS4, PC, and Xbox One. Sequel Following the release of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 for the PlayStation Vita in 2012, Marvel's new parent company, The Walt Disney Company, which acquired Marvel in 2009, chose not to renew Capcom's license with the Marvel characters, instead opting to put them in its own self-published Disney Infinity series. As a result, Capcom had to pull both Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes off Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network in 2013. However, in 2016, Disney decided to cancel its Disney Infinity series, discontinue self-publishing efforts, and switch to a licensing-only model, allowing them to license their characters to third-party game developers, including Capcom. On December 3 that year Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite was officially unveiled during Sony's PlayStation Experience event. The game was released on September 19, 2017, for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. Notes References External links Official Japanese Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 website Archived 2012-02-29 at the Wayback Machine (in Japanese) Official US Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 website Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 at MobyGames

Jill Valentine is a character in Resident Evil (Biohazard in Japan), a survival horror video game series created by the Japanese company Capcom. She was introduced as one of the two player characters in the original Resident Evil (1996), alongside her partner Chris Redfield, as a member of the Raccoon City Police Department's Special Tactics And Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) unit. Jill and Chris fight against the Umbrella Corporation, a pharmaceutical company whose bioterrorism creates zombies and other bio-organic weapons, and later become founding members of the United Nations' Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA). Jill is the protagonist of several Resident Evil games, novelizations, films, and has also appeared in other game franchises including Marvel vs. Capcom, Project X Zone, Teppen, and Dead by Daylight. In later games, such as the 2002 Resident Evil remake, The Umbrella Chronicles (2007), Resident Evil 5 (2009), and The Mercenaries 3D (2011), her features were based on Canadian model and actress Julia Voth. Several actresses have portrayed Jill, including Sienna Guillory and Hannah John-Kamen in the live-action Resident Evil films. Video game publications described Jill as among the most popular and iconic video game characters, and praised her as the most likable and consistent Resident Evil character. She has received both acclaim and criticism with regard to gender representation in video games. Several publications praised the series for its portrayal of women and considered Jill significantly less sexualized than other female game characters; she was also cited as an example of a female character who was as competent and skilled as her male counterparts. Others argued she was weakened as a protagonist by attributes that undermined her role as a heroine, specifically an unrealistic body shape that did not reflect her military background; some of her overtly sexualized costumes have also been criticized. Concept and design Jill was introduced as one of two playable protagonists, alongside her partner Chris Redfield, in Capcom's 1996 survival horror video game Resident Evil. She was created by director Shinji Mikami and designer Isao Ohishi. To avoid the sexual objectification of women in video games, Mikami refused to eroticize or portray women as submissive in Resident Evil; instead, Jill was characterized as independent. Of Japanese and French descent, Jill excelled at bomb disposal during her training with Delta Force, and later joined the Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) special operations unit. Experienced with weapons, explosives material, and lock picking, she was intelligent, brave, and loyal. Although their storylines progress toward "the same general direction", the gameplay differs for Jill and Chris; her inventory is larger, and she has a lock pick, giving her early access to more health and ammunition. Based on these differences, Jill was recommended to first-time players of Resident Evil. Resident Evil game designer Jun Takeuchi gave each character a unique clothing style to make them instantly recognisable, with Jill's character being given a distinct blue beret. According to digital media scholar Esther MacCallum-Stewart, Mikami's female characters possess unique qualities making them viable choices for players to select over their male counterparts, and said their combat attire helped them avoid criticism of adhering to the male gaze. Mikami explained: "I don't know if I've put more emphasis on women characters, but when I do introduce them, it is never as objects. In [other] games, they will be peripheral characters with ridiculous breast physics. I avoid that sort of obvious eroticism." Despite this, subsequent games in the series not directed by Mikami depicted her wearing revealing costumes. Media scholars said players have been intentionally encouraged to both objectify and identify with the character. Several commentators suggested that Mikami's initial portrayal of Jill as a military professional tempered the ability of subsequent game directors to overtly sexualize the character. Jill continued to be redesigned over the course of the series. In the 2002 remake of the original game, her appearance was based on Canadian model and actress Julia Voth. Capcom producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi said they made her more kawaii in the remake, but also kept her tough and muscular. Voth's likeness was reused for Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (2007) and Resident Evil 5 (2009). Resident Evil 5 features Chris as a protagonist; designers opted to focus on how both characters had aged since the original game. Jill underwent another redesign for Resident Evil 5 to reflect her status as a test subject in biological research experiments. Depicted with blonde hair, pale skin, and tight-fitting outfit – described as a battle suit – these changes represent the effects of the experimentation. Fans criticized the new appearance as an example of whitewashing. MacCallum-Stewart suggested the popularity of the series was damaged by the unexplained reappearance of Jill as a "mind-controlled BDSM assassin". In the 2020 remake of Resident Evil 3, Jill is modeled after Russian model Sasha Zotova. Jill's redesign reflects the developers' creative vision behind the character's reimagination as a genuine action hero; because the art direction for the remake is based on photorealism, Capcom wanted to ensure that Jill fits into the game world environment. Alternate costumes as rewards for players have been a staple of the Resident Evil series. Completing the 2002 remake unlocked the ability to dress Jill in her Resident Evil 3: Nemesis miniskirt costume and as Sarah Connor from the 1991 film Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The miniskirt was added during development upon the staff's request. Following its addition, developers changed camera angles to reduce the amount of upskirting and matched the color of the skirt and underwear to make it less obvious. The outfit reappears in Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D (2011). A prequel to the events of Resident Evil 5, the downloadable content (DLC) episode Lost in Nightmares includes an alternative outfit for Jill, based on military clothing and sportswear. Since Resident Evil: Revelations (2012) was set at sea, her costume was made to resemble a wetsuit. The initial design featured more tactical gear attached to her buoyancy control device, but it was removed to highlight her body's contours. Her alternate outfit in the game, a revealing pirate costume, was deliberately made to be colorful to contrast with the storyline's dark themes. Voice-over and live-action actresses The actresses who appeared in the original game's live-action cutscenes and recorded the voice work were credited only by their first names; Jill was portrayed by a high school student credited as "Inezh". Over the course of the franchise, voice actresses who played Jill included Catherine Disher in Resident Evil 3, Heidi Anderson in the 2002 remake, Kathleen Barr in Capcom's 2004 action-adventure game Under the Skin, and Tara Platt in Pachislot Biohazard, a recreational arcade game released solely in Japan. Patricia Ja Lee provided the voice and motion capture for both The Umbrella Chronicles and Resident Evil 5. Kari Wahlgren voiced the character in the 2011 game Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. In Revelations, Jill was voiced by Michelle Ruff, who returned for the non-canon game Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City. Nicole Tompkins voiced and provided motion capture performance for Jill in the 2020 Resident Evil 3 remake and reprised her role in CG animated film Resident Evil: Death Island. Atsuko Yuya voiced Jill in the Japanese versions of the games. The character appeared in three entries of the original Resident Evil film series, where she was portrayed by English actress Sienna Guillory. Hannah John-Kamen played the role in the 2021 film Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. Appearances In Resident Evil series Every game in the series is set in the fictional American metropolitan area of Raccoon City until its destruction at the end of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. Subsequent games featuring Jill take place on an international scale, namely in Russia, Africa, and the Mediterranean Sea. The original game is set in July 1998 in a mansion on the outskirts of Raccoon City, which Jill and her team enter while searching for colleagues. Working with partner Barry Burton, she discovers the property is a façade for a biological warfare laboratory operated by the Umbrella Corporation and its undead occupants are the scientists who developed the T-virus mutagen. Her commander Albert Wesker is revealed to be a double agent for Umbrella. Jill and Chris are among the five survivors of the incident, who form a strong friendship and become passionate opponents of bioterrorism. Jill did not appear in Resident Evil 2 (1998), as the production team used new protagonists (Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield) to preserve the original game's horror elements: Mikami believed Jill and Chris would be too experienced to be scared by the events in the sequel. She returned as the sole protagonist in Resident Evil 3 (1999). Mikami – the lead producer of both Nemesis and the concurrently-produced Resident Evil – Code: Veronica (2000) – wanted each game to highlight a female character who had previously appeared in the series; Jill is the protagonist in Nemesis, while Claire is the lead character in Code: Veronica. Commentators suggested these decisions were made as a result of the success of the Tomb Raider series, which featured Lara Croft as the protagonist. Nemesis is set two months after the first game, during which time Jill joined the Raccoon City Police Department (RCPD) to protect as many civilians as possible from the T-virus. The reason given by Capcom for her informal clothing in this entry was her resignation from the police immediately before the city's population was infected with the virus. She quit in protest over the failure of law enforcement to take action against Umbrella but remained in the city to investigate the corporation. The police uniform she wore in the original game was replaced with a less formal blue tube top, black miniskirt and knee-high boots. In Nemesis, she escapes Raccoon City before its destruction from a nuclear strike as part of a U.S. government cover-up. She is pursued by Nemesis, a supersoldier whose task is to kill all remaining members of the S.T.A.R.S. team. Instead of killing Jill, Nemesis infects her with the T-virus; her new partner Carlos Oliveira – a former Umbrella mercenary – cures her of the infection with an Umbrella-produced vaccine. The Umbrella Chronicles occurs in 2003, when Jill and Chris join a private organization with the goal of exposing Umbrella's biological warfare activities, leading a group to destroy their only remaining research facility. After the fall of the corporation, the pair become founding members of the United Nations' Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA). In Revelations – set two years later – Jill and new partner Parker Luciani are sent on a mission to rescue Chris, who is allegedly being held hostage on a ghost ship in the Mediterranean. Once aboard, she discovers the ship is infested with a new type of mutagen capable of infecting the aquatic ecosystem. Jill and Chris then unravel a political conspiracy involving an earlier mutagenic outbreak and a botched investigation by a rival agency. Resident Evil 5 takes place in 2009 in the fictional African town of Kijuju, where terrorists are turning local residents into zombies. One of these terrorists is revealed to be Jill, who was missing in action for the previous two and a half years. Set in 2006, the Lost in Nightmares DLC showed Jill and Chris searching inside a mansion for Umbrella's founder; to save Chris from Wesker, Jill tackled the latter through a window. Neither of their bodies were recovered, and Jill is declared dead. In fact, she was injured by the fall and taken hostage by Wesker, who then used her as a test subject in his biological experiments. The antibodies produced by Jill's system as a result of her Nemesis-era T-virus infection were used as the basis for the Uroboros Virus, the catalyst for the events of Resident Evil 5. During Resident Evil 5, Chris discovers that Jill is alive; Wesker attached a mind-control device on Jill which forced her to commit the terrorist acts and fight Chris and his new partner, local BSAA agent Sheva Alomar. Jill finds enough self-control to open her outfit so the device can be seen and removed. After its removal, she explains that she knew what she was doing but was unable to control her actions and urges Chris and Sheva to continue their mission. Another DLC episode, Desperate Escape, describes how Jill was able to escape safety with the help of local BSAA agent Josh Stone before they aid both Chris and Sheva to kill Wesker. Other appearances Jill features in several of the Resident Evil films. She was originally scheduled to be the protagonist for the first Resident Evil movie (2002), while it was under the direction of George A. Romero. When Paul W. S. Anderson took over from Romero, he created a new character for the film series, Alice, portrayed by Milla Jovovich. Jill appears in the 2004 sequel Resident Evil: Apocalypse, where she is a disgraced police officer who escapes the ruins of Raccoon City with the help of Alice and other survivors. Her outfit in the movie is based on her clothing from Resident Evil 3. Anderson considered explanations to justify the usage of the costume, such as having it described as an undercover outfit, while Jovovich suggested using a heat wave as the reason. Anderson eventually decided to ignore the issue altogether, arguing that people who would criticize her attire "probably shouldn't be watching a Resident Evil movie [at all]." Jill appears in a post-credits scene in Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010), wearing the mind-controlling device from Resident Evil 5 and leading an attack against Alice, Chris, Claire, and the survivors they rescued after a virus outbreak in Los Angeles. In Resident Evil: Retribution (2012), Jill is an antagonist programmed to capture Alice, but regains control of herself after Alice removes Wesker's mind-control device. The film includes a fight between Jill and Alice containing around 200 moves. She did not appear in the final film, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016), apparently dying offscreen. According to Jovovich, Jill was excluded because there were too many Resident Evil characters to include in the film. The Resident Evil film series consistently received negative reviews. Cinefantastique praised Guillory's performance in Apocalypse as the film's only highlight. In the reboot film Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021), Jill is played by Hannah John-Kamen. She has also appeared in the 2023 animated film, Resident Evil: Death Island. Jill's youthful appearance in the film, despite being aged 40, was said to be a result of the T-virus slowing her aging. Jill is a playable character in several non-canon Resident Evil games. She features in numerous Resident Evil mobile games, and is the protagonist of Resident Evil: Genesis (2008), an alternative-story version of the original game. She is a playable character in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (2000), Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (2011), Project X Zone (2012), Project X Zone 2 (2015), Dead by Daylight (2016), Puzzle Fighter (2017), and the digital collectible card game Teppen (2019). She appears as an alternate skin for Chun-Li in Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix (1998), Cammy in Street Fighter V (2016), and Zofia in Tom Clancy's The Division 2 (2019), and can also be selected as a playable skin in We Love Golf! (2007), Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege (2015), and Fortnite Battle Royale (2017). Jill appears as a non-playable cameo in 2004's Under the Skin, is one of the 'Spirit' power-ups in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018), and a robot dressed as Jill makes a cameo reference in Astro's Playroom (2020) and Astro Bot (2024). Jill features in novelizations of the films and games and plays a supporting role in the first novel, Resident Evil: Caliban Cove (1998), in a series by S. D. Perry. In Resident Evil: The Umbrella Conspiracy (1998), Perry's novelization of the original game, Jill's Delta Force background is not mentioned; before her career in law enforcement, she is said to have acted as an accomplice for her father Dick Valentine, a professional thief. Several comic books based on the games were released, and she is a character in Bandai's Resident Evil Deck Building Card Game (2011). Merchandise featuring Jill include action figures, figurines and a gun replica. The character was featured in Resident Evil-themed attractions at Universal Studios Japan and Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights. Capcom's themed restaurant Biohazard Cafe & Grill S.T.A.R.S., which opened in Shibuya, Tokyo, in 2012, sold a noodle dish named after her. Reception and legacy Game publications, including the 2011 version of the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition, described Jill Valentine among the most popular and iconic video game characters. At the 2013 Penny Arcade Expo, journalists and game developers nominated her as one of the top-three lead characters of Western and Japanese role-playing video games. Magazines praised her as the most likable Resident Evil character, with the most believable and consistent story arc in the series. She was also identified as one of the all-time greatest mascots of the video game industry, as a tough, strong and attractive female character who could appeal to a broad demographic. Critics commented that Jill was not oversexualized in her initial appearances. She was highlighted as an example of the series' female characters who were not judged solely on gender, and for having "the most sensible design" for a female character of the mid-to-late 1990s. Her professional relationship with Chris was celebrated for its basis in loyalty rather than romance and its balance in their personalities: Jill's intellect and Chris's brawn. Female digital critics felt that several of Jill's features undermine her role as a heroine and weaken her as a protagonist – specifically that her body shape is unrealistic and not reflective of her military background or physical training, noting that she was the only member of her team in the original game not to wear a bulletproof vest. The extent to which her appearance changed over the course of the game series has been criticized as excessive, with the Resident Evil 3 outfit derided for deviating too much from Mikami's initial militaristic iteration of the character. In Tropes vs. Women in Video Games, feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian criticized Jill's alternate costumes as too revealing, particularly the pirate costume in Resident Evil: Revelations. She also cited Jill's movement in Revelations as an example of female characters who walk in an overtly sexualized manner. MacCallum-Stewart said the first Resident Evil game became famous for its "extremely clunky dialogue and voice acting, an element which lent the otherwise suspenseful game an element of charm that endeared it to players". Although she explains that the weak dialogue might be attributed to poor translation of the original Japanese text, she said this inadvertently helped differentiate the series from its rivals. Several lines from the game achieved enduring popularity: "You were almost a Jill sandwich", a quip delivered in awkward voiceover by Barry Burton after a falling ceiling trap almost crushes Jill, was revived as an Internet meme a decade after the game's release; it became the subject of fan art depicting Jill in or as a sandwich. Capcom referenced the line in several of their later games, including Dead Rising (2006), Resident Evil: Uprising (2009), Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (2015), and Resident Evil: Resistance (2020). Another piece of dialogue spoken by Burton – "And, Jill, here's a lock pick. It might be handy if you, the master of unlocking, take it with you" – also gained notoriety. The quote has been parodied for containing an excessive amount of silence between words. It was removed from later editions. Notes References Bibliography External links Jill Valentine at the Internet Movie Database (archived)

The Nemesis, also called the Nemesis-T Type, or the Pursuer (Japanese: 追跡者, Hepburn: Tsuisekisha) in Japan, is a character in the Resident Evil survival horror video game series created by Capcom. Although smaller than other Tyrant models, the creature dwarfs a typical human, and possesses vastly superior intelligence and physical dexterity to its undead peers. It is featured in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (1999) as a titular main villain before later emerging in other titles and cameo roles. It is also featured on various merchandise and was portrayed by Matthew G. Taylor in the 2004 film Resident Evil: Apocalypse. The character is voiced by Tony Rosato in the original game and Gregg Berger in Operation Raccoon City (2012). In the 2020 remake of Resident Evil 3, the character is voiced by David Cockman, with Neil Newbon providing the motion capture performance. Nemesis has also been featured in several other game franchises, including as a playable character in Marvel vs. Capcom and Dead by Daylight. Taking inspiration from the T-1000 from Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Nemesis was conceived by Shinji Mikami and Kazuhiro Aoyama as an enemy that stalk the player throughout the game and invoke a persistent feeling of paranoia. Written by Yashuhisa Kawamura to be a weapon of revenge by the Umbrella Corporation, Nemesis's design was drawn by artist Yoshinori Matsushita, who was instructed to create "a rough guy who attacks with weapons and has an intimidating build" in order to heighten the fear of being pursued. Since the Nemesis' introduction, the character has received a positive reception and has come to be regarded as one of the series' most popular characters, though his design and role in the Resident Evil 3 remake has been criticized. Some publications have praised its role as an intimidating villain, while others have noted it as one of their favorite and most terrifying monsters in video games. Conception and creation Introduced in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, producer Shinji Mikami and director Kazuhiro Aoyama wanted to implement a stalker-enemy into the game early on that would chase the player, according to Mikami intended to "introduce a new kind of fear into the game, a persistent feeling of paranoia." Taking inspiration from the T-1000 villain from the film Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the character was initially meant to be a slime creature that could bypass obstacles such as doors by liquifying past them or melting through them. However due to the nondescript nature of the creature, he felt the stalker aspect was lost on the player as there was no recognizable sense of cohesion. So they started over, focusing on the early "Tyrant" enemy introduced in the original Resident Evil as a base. The character was designed under the concept of a "huge, overpowering monster that could use weapons and intelligently track you anywhere," partly inspired by the movie Day of the Dead, where scientists attempt to train zombies, only to be shot by them at the end of the film. The character's backstory and biology was created by writer Yashuhisa Kawamura, who felt the horror aspect of Resident Evil was "stuck in a rut" at that time and wanted to explore new ways to bring horror through Nemesis. Kawamura conceived the character as the result of infecting a T-103 model Tyrant—a humanoid bio organic weapon (BOW) created to be the ultimate lifeform by the Umbrella Corporation—with the Nemesis Alpha parasite (or "NE-α") designed to increase its intelligence. Upon infection, the parasite takes control of the Tyrant's nervous system, forming its own brain and enabling it to follow precise instructions and make decisions without needing constant direction. Upon spotting its target, it says the target's name out loud and attacks. In this backstory, the European branch of Umbrella intended to not only demonstrate their superiority within the company with their new creation, but also seek revenge against the "S.T.A.R.S." police group that had destroyed their original Tyrant creation, codenaming their new creature "Nemesis" after the Greek mythology Goddess of Vengeance. Design Nemesis' appearance was designed by Yoshinori Matsushita, with Aoyama instructing him to create "a rough guy who attacks with weapons and has an intimidating build" in order to heighten the fear of being pursued. who drafted several early takes on the character. Although some elements remained consistent among them, the early designs featured several different degrees of surface damage as well as different options for clothing, such as a protective vest instead of a coat, or a nude design similar to the original Tyrant. Clothed in black trousers, an overcoat, boots, and gloves, the Nemesis is armed with a rocket launcher mounted on its left arm. A parasite was added to help further characterize it. To emphasize its design as a prototype, the game developers left exposed muscles on its body and added stitches to cover its right eye. It lacks lips and a nose whatsoever, with the underneath facial muscles and teeth completely exposed. As Nemesis is damaged its appearance does not change as drastically as previous Tyrants, due to Matsushita wanting to keep him visually different from Resident Evil 2's William Birkin in this regard. The secretions from the parasite give the Nemesis massively heightened regenerative abilities, which result in the creature being almost impervious to damage; although it can be put down with enough fire from small arms, eventually it will repair itself and resume the pursuit of its targets. However, this resulted in unexpected side effects, including damage to the skin and the emergence of additional tentacles, as well as unpredictable mutations caused by further attacks. In Resident Evil 3, the creature's survival instincts eventually override Nemesis' programming, causing the host's body to reject the parasite and transform into a giant digestive organ. Featuring large central bone protrusions and elongated tentacles, it crawls looking for prey, yet continues trying to complete its mission despite its now diminished intelligence. This design proved to be the most difficult for Matsushita, as he worked to try to make it appear as unique as possible. To this end he designed it to be a quadrupedal creature facing upwards, with the fang-like protrustions from the body being Nemesis's exposed ribs. In the 2020 remake of Resident Evil 3, the producer indicated that the reinvention of Nemesis was influenced by Mr. X from Resident Evil 2. According to producer Peter Fabiano, "During development, our director saw what the team did with Tyrant in last year's RE2 and was determined to surpass that with Nemesis." He also goes on to say that the team intends to transform Nemesis into its own brand of terror, "a relentless pursuer with its own arsenal of weapons." The parasite's origins are partially retconned in the 2020 remake to be a genetically engineered copy of the Las Plagas parasite, introduced in Resident Evil 4. Because Nemesis is a prototype and not a completed model, its body is covered in haphazard restrictive gear from head to toe consisting of thick black plastic and various warning labels over the body. A large metal device on its chest regulates the parasite, and also keeps it from going out of control. It now retains both eyes and the Tyrant's original nose, but with the skin stretched drastically on the face resulting in a broken crooked nose. The aim was to contrast between Nemesis and Mr. X, with the latter having the more completed look. As with the original, the remake Nemesis also mutates after suffering heavy damage. However the development team chose to give it a more animalistic, quadrupedal body with diminished intelligence, the in-universe reasoning being that the parasite could no longer maintain a humanoid form. Dubbed "Type 2", it was designed so the player could not evade it as easily as the original, but that its movements could be better anticipated. Appearances In video games Nemesis first appears in the 1999 PlayStation game Resident Evil 3: Nemesis as the game's title character and primary antagonist. The product of years of research, the prototype is deployed by the Umbrella Corporation as a field test to hunt and kill the STARS police team before they can expose Umbrella's activity in the Arklay mountains. The game's protagonist, Jill Valentine, first encounters the Nemesis outside Raccoon City's police station where it kills Brad Vickers and then pursues her, uttering "STARS..." on sight. The Nemesis continues to stalk Valentine throughout the game, attacking with physical blows and grabs, and later, armed with a rocket launcher. After losing its overcoat as a result of heavy damage, the Nemesis mutates, and gains the ability to attack with long, extendable tentacles. Despite later being doused in acid, the Nemesis continues its pursuit, and mutates into a much larger, tentacled monster after absorbing a dead Tyrant, gaining the ability to spew poison. Jill finally defeats the Nemesis using a rail cannon, and then depending on the choice of the player, she either kills it once and for all by unloading her weapons into it, or leaves it to die in the nuclear explosion that destroys Raccoon City. After its initial appearance, it appeared in other Resident Evil titles such as Resident Evil Survivor 2 – Code: Veronica, in which it will chase the player if they fail to complete a level before the time limit expires and kill them instantly if it hits them. In this game it can also be fought as a secret boss armed with a rocket launcher if the player has met the proper conditions upon completing the game. The Nemesis returns for the Resident Evil 3 chapter of Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, in which it pursues Jill in the same manner as the original game and mutates into its secondary form as a boss. The Nemesis also appears in Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, in which its programming is damaged and Umbrella dispatches a task force to find a NE-Alpha parasite to repair it. Once the parasite is found, they defeat Nemesis and inject it with the parasite. In the game it uses a gatling gun for the fight and is mainly based on its film counterpart; however once the task force completes their mission, the Nemesis awakens to find its rocket launcher and proceeds to hunt after the STARS police team. In the 2020 remake of Resident Evil 3, Nemesis returns as the game's first boss fight, wielding a flamethrower. Nemesis also appeared as a playable character in Resident Evil: Resistance and in Resident Evil Re:Verse, a companion game to Resident Evil Village. The character has been featured in other games outside of the Resident Evil franchise as well, such as in the Capcom title Under the Skin alongside Jill, and serves as a boss the player must steal coins from in a Raccoon City-inspired level. In an interview, Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds producer Ryouta Niitsuma stated a desire to use the Nemesis in the title as a "monster-type" character from the Resident Evil series, but was dropped after considering it too "grotesque and disgusting" and in consideration of ESRB ratings. The character would instead appear briefly in the game's ending sequence for the Hulk. However, despite the initial concerns about its inclusion, the Nemesis appears as a playable character in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, an updated version of Marvel vs. Capcom 3. The Nemesis returns as a playable character in Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. In the game's story, following the Convergence, it is captured by A.I.M.brella leader M.O.D.O.K. and reprogrammed as his enforcer; it later battles and is defeated by Chris Redfield and Mike Haggar. In the tactical role-playing game Project X Zone, Nemesis appears as a rival unit. Nemesis appeared in an online multiplayer battle royale game Knives Out as a costume at July 29 to August 12, 2021. Nemesis, along with Leon S. Kennedy and Jill Valentine, appeared in Dead by Daylight as playable characters. In card based games, Nemesis appears in SVC: Card Fighters' Clash 2 Expand Edition and its Nintendo DS counterpart, He was also included in the 2012 mobile games Minna to BIOHAZARD Clan Master in both its regular and damaged states from Resident Evil 3. In the 2019 game TEPPEN a card for the character was added in its "Day of Nightmares" expansion, and later another in its "A Dark Agenda" expansion, this one modeled after its appearance in the Resident Evil 3 remake. His outfit also appears in Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster (2024) for Frank West. In printed trading card media, he appears in the Bandai produced game Resident Evil: The Deck Building Game. In film The Nemesis is featured in the 2004 film, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, portrayed by Matthew G. Taylor. The character's design was left relatively unchanged, brandishing a rocket launcher and similar attire, but with the addition of a forearm-mounted rail gun, modeled after a heavily modified minigun. Writer and producer Paul W. S. Anderson noted that the gun's addition was inspired by the idea of the Nemesis "walking around with a gigantic, powerful weapon in each hand and almost indecisive as to which one to use". The costume for Nemesis was created by Kropserkel Inc. and PJFX Studios, and stands roughly 7 feet 3 inches (2.21 m) tall, weighing nearly 100 pounds (45 kg). After production of Apocalypse was completed, the costume was restored and put on display at Kropserkel's offices. While The Nemesis' design remained similar, the character itself was expanded upon, now portrayed as a tragic villain. Formerly Matt Addison (portrayed by Eric Mabius), a survivor of the events of the first film, he was infected with the T-virus after being scratched by a Licker and later captured and experimented upon by the Umbrella Corporation. Transformed into the Nemesis, he is sent to kill the surviving members of STARS, but remembers his humanity after fighting Alice, and fights alongside the protagonists towards the film's conclusion. The Nemesis is eventually crushed beneath a crashing helicopter, and is later killed by the nuclear explosion that destroys Raccoon City. In printed adaptations The Nemesis appears in a 1999 Hong Kong manhua adaptation of Resident Evil 3 by Lee Chung Hing, Biohazard 3: Last Escape, which is named after the game's Japanese title. The 27-issue series adds to the Nemesis' backstory, detailing its origin by showing the infection and transformation of the original Tyrant by the Nemesis parasite. Some elements are changed for its design, such as the Nemesis retaining both eyes initially, and then losing the right eye and gaining cranial staples only after an encounter with Jill. The comic also introduces characters from Resident Evil 2 into the storyline, which results in several face-offs between the Nemesis and the mutated William Birkin throughout the series. During these fights Nemesis remembers before being experimented on his life as a boxer whose family had been infected and killed by a sadistic Umbrella executive. Encountering the man after defeating Birkin, Nemesis bites his head clean off in a fit of rage. In 2000, Simon & Schuster published a novelization of Resident Evil 3, written by S. D. Perry. Though left unchanged for the most part, the Nemesis is immediately recognized as a modified Tyrant in the novel, which Jill Valentine dubs the "Nemesis" after thinking about why it hunts her. Instead of mutating due to having taken damage, the Nemesis transforms voluntarily towards the conclusion of the story in its pursuit of Jill, with its second form from the game being its actual appearance beneath the coat. A novelization of Apocalypse was released in 2004, written by Keith R. A. DeCandido. In the book, Matt and the Nemesis act as separate personalities in the same body, both aware, but with the Nemesis dominant. Matt eventually regains control after his body is impaled on a metal shard while fighting Alice, by showing the Nemesis his memories of Umbrella's experimentation upon "them". The Nemesis is later mentioned in the 2007 novelization of Resident Evil: Extinction, in which antagonist Doctor Isaacs considers the Nemesis both his greatest success and his greatest failure, hating mention of it and blaming its defection and destruction upon Umbrella's desire to immediately field test it. Promotion and reception Nemesis appears on the cover of every version of Resident Evil 3, and is mentioned prominently on flyers for Resident Evil: Survivor 2. Capcom has also released commercial products modeled on the character, such as a silver ring modeled after Nemesis's head available for purchase through their Japanese online store. Palisades Toys used its likeness to create a posable action figure (packaged with a base and equipable rocket launcher) and a mini bust, which were released alongside several other Resident Evil-based merchandise. Moby Dick released its own line of Resident Evil action figures bundled in pairs of a playable character and enemy. Included in the series were Nemesis's first and second form, with the first form featuring an alternate head and equipable rocket launcher. Each set additionally includes a part of an action figure of Nemesis's third form, which measures 24 inches (60 cm) long when completed. In 2019, a minted icon 9-inch plush depicting Nemesis was also made. In 2022, Numskull made a 10.9" collectible figurine of Nemesis, based on his appearance in the remake. In 2024, the character was featured in Resident Evil-themed attractions at Universal Studios Japan. Following the game's debut in 1999, the Nemesis became one of the most recognizable and popular characters in the Resident Evil series. G4's Filter named the Nemesis one of the top ten videogame villains of all time as selected by viewers, placing fifth on the list. 1UP.com named the battle against the Nemesis one of the "25 of the Most Badass Boss Fights of All Time", saying "There are plenty of bosses worth mentioning from the Resident Evil series... but the one that to this day most people point to as the biggest badass of the bunch is Nemesis [sic]". GameSpot featured Nemesis in a "Reader's Choice" edition of their "Top 10 Video Game Villains" article and noting the character's high popularity among fans when compared to the Tyrant. Dave Meikleham of GamesRadar described Nemesis as the "deadliest villain in the history of survival horror", comparing him to another fictional character the terminator and adding "Resident Evil 3 is undoubtedly defined by its iconic villain". Patrick Gill of Polygon said Nemesis moves in a menacing manner, but the worst part is to watch his "nasty trash face". He also stated he's frightening and defended how you lose him while catching up to you. Aaron Potter of Den of Geek named Nemesis as second of their "Best Resident Evil Bosses and Monsters", stating that "He becomes more deformed the longer Resident Evil 3’s campaign progresses, too, making each fight feel scarier than the last." In 2021, Alex Aniel in the book Itchy, Tasty: An Unofficial History of Resident Evil described Nemesis as an icon fondly remembered for his aggressiveness and terrifying personality, and further noted him as a popular subject for fandom convention cosplay. While IGN described Nemesis as one of the best Resident Evil bosses and one of their favorite video game monsters of all time, they noted disdain for his film counterpart, stating "little of what made us love Nemesis made it through to his film incarnation. As it runs out, a man in a rubber suit isn't half as scary as a well-crafted collection of polygons." Michael Kennedy of Screen Rant shared similar sentiments, describing him as the "coolest of the bunch" in terms of game series adversaries, but added that the film ruined the character and "Making Nemesis a good guy was an absolutely terrible decision, and understandably elicited a collective groan from fans of the Resident Evil games." While Trace Thurman of Bloody Disgusting noted Nemesis "looks awesome and is a total badass" in the film, he shared similar disdain for the character's heroic turn in the finale, exclaiming "Why would you take the biggest and baddest Resident Evil villain and neuter him?" On the other hand, Nemesis's appearance in the Resident Evil 3 remake has received mixed reception from critics. Hirun Cryer of Eurogamer criticized and described Nemesis's "large fangs and smooshed nose" as "cartoonish". Ben Tyrer of GamesRadar downplayed Nemesis's appearance and stated that "Resident Evil 3's main villain has lost his fear factor," while Andy Kelly of PC Gamer described Nemesis as "giant and terrifying stalker in town". Kirk McKeand of VG247 explained that Nemesis is only active in a small portion of the game, and that he is primarily featured in scripted sequences or boss fights. This led some critics to believe that he was underused and that a lot of his potential was wasted, with Electronic Gaming Monthly's Mollie Patterson stating "[if] you were hoping for him to dial up the danger, you may feel some disappointment." Red Bull called Nemesis in the remake one of the scariest video game villains of all time, stating "You cannot kill him, you cannot stop him. At best you can run away and even that isn't always effective", and noting his increased mobility options in the remake provided him enhanced this aspect. References External links Details behind the Nemesis costume used in Apocalypse

Albert Wesker (Japanese: アルバート・ウェスカー, Hepburn: Arubāto Wesukā) is a character in the Resident Evil survival horror video game series created by the Japanese company Capcom. He was first introduced in the original Resident Evil (1996) as the captain of the Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) unit of the Raccoon Police Department. Wesker has been one of the series' main antagonists as a member of the pharmaceutical conglomerate Umbrella Corporation, the primary antagonistic faction, manipulating story events behind the scenes. To further his own plans, Wesker betrays his allies, fakes his death, gains superhuman abilities, and works with both Umbrella's mysterious rival company and their successors in the field of biological weapons development until his ultimate defeat by Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar in Resident Evil 5 (2009). Wesker appears in several Resident Evil games, novelizations, and films and has also appeared in other game franchises, including Marvel vs. Capcom, Teppen, and Dead by Daylight. In his first appearance, Wesker was voiced by Pablo Kuntz, while D. C. Douglas voiced the character across most of his other appearances; in Japanese dubbings, Jouji Nakata has consistently voiced the character across all of his video game appearances. Several actors have portrayed Wesker, including Jason O'Mara, Shawn Roberts, Tom Hopper, and Lance Reddick, in the live-action Resident Evil films and television series. Wesker was conceptualized by writer Kenichi Iwao, who envisioned Wesker as an arrogant, intelligent, and unsympathetic character. Wesker is presented as a virologist focused on advancing human evolution and later becomes a bio-terrorist obsessed with eradicating humanity. He possesses superhuman strength, speed, stamina, and regeneration, and he mutates into a more powerful form in Resident Evil 5. Wesker has received mostly positive reviews from video game publications, with critics praising him for being one of the most memorable video game villains, particularly his death, but critiquing him for appearing as a one-dimensional and stereotypical villain. Concept and design Albert Wesker is an American of Caucasian descent. He was created by director Shinji Mikami and designer Isao Ohishi. The main characters were originally intended to be cyborg police officers, until writer Kenichi Iwao discarded the idea and completely redesigned the characters and the game's backstory. He envisioned Wesker as a former special forces member who possessed exceptional intelligence and physical prowess, with a cold demeanor that matched his egotistical mindset. His co-workers suggested making the character a traitor who betrays the protagonist. The game's designers ultimately developed Wesker into the commander of the protagonists' elite police task force, who is secretly employed as a virologist for the Umbrella Corporation. His drive to develop viral agents and engineer the ultimate lifeform is a central plotline in the Resident Evil series. Wesker is depicted as a white male with blonde hair in the video games and movies. Designer Jun Takeuchi helped create Wesker's in-game character model in the first Resident Evil. He suggested giving Wesker a pair of black sunglasses to help differentiate him from the other characters, which became a staple of his appearance throughout the series. During the finale of Resident Evil 5, Wesker fully sheds his human appearance when he infects himself with the Uroboros virus, a volatile and mutagenic viral agent. The Uroboros virus grants him more strength while also transforming his arms into tentacles that allow him to absorb and wield metallic objects as weapons. The early concept sketches of his Uroboros mutation differed significantly from the final version. In the initial design, his combat style would have relied solely on his mental powers to manipulate Uroboros. This concept was shaped by the one-on-one battle between Wesker and Chris Redfield, without a co-op partner. However, with the addition of Sheva Alomar as a co-op partner, adjustments were made to bolster Wesker's abilities and provide him with additional makeshift weaponry for the final boss battle. Following Wesker's demise, producer Masachika Kawata stated that there was no possibility of the character returning. Voice-over and live-action actors Wesker was originally voiced by Pablo Kuntz, who said that Capcom's staff gave him limited direction and that he did not fully understand the game's plot at the time of recording. He later reflected on his performance, stating: "I know the acting was slightly over-the-top, but you know, the more we played RE1, the more the voices seemed to harmonize with everything the gameplay offered". He was also surprised at the character's popularity among fans, commenting that it was "a wonderful experience" to voice him. Peter Jessop voiced the character in the 2002 remake of Resident Evil and a recreational arcade game released solely in Japan. Wesker was next voiced by Richard Waugh in Resident Evil – Code: Veronica. His performance of Wesker was influenced by George Sanders, particularly his role as Shere Khan in The Jungle Book. He wanted to give the character a "precise and inhuman" speech pattern by speaking with a "military-type" tone and never using contractions. He reprised his role in Wesker's Report, a fictional documentary detailing Wesker's backstory, as well as Resident Evil Zero and Resident Evil 4. He also provided voice recordings in Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, but they were replaced by D. C. Douglas's recordings before launch. Douglas then voiced Wesker in Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, Resident Evil 5, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, Resident Evil Zero HD Remaster, Resident Evil: Revelations 2, Umbrella Corps, Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Ken Lally provided a motion capture for Wesker in Resident Evil 5. In the 2023 remake of Resident Evil 4, he was voiced and motion captured by Craig Burnatowski. Eric Pirius portrayed Wesker in the Resident Evil live-action cutscenes. In Resident Evil: Extinction, Jason O'Mara portrayed Wesker, and Shawn Roberts portrayed him in Resident Evil: Afterlife, Resident Evil: Retribution, and Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. Tom Hopper portrayed Wesker in Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. He explained that the filmmakers did not want Wesker "to be a stereotypical villain, we wanted him to be likable. We're seeing who he really is underneath the sunglasses." In the 2022 Resident Evil Netflix series, Lance Reddick portrayed the character; he was the first person of color to do so. The series' showrunners did not want to limit themselves to actors who resembled Wesker's in-game appearance; showrunner Andrew Dabb stated that "you're making the show weaker by going with someone that may be more aesthetically a match to the game." Reddick did not know that the character was from a video game series, stating: "When I was doing it, I didn't think of having to play an already established iconic character, I just kept trying to bring what was on the page to life". He further said, "This Wesker, although very very much based on the Wesker in the games, isn't exactly him". Appearances In the Resident Evil series Every game in the series is set in the fictional American metropolitan area of Raccoon City until its destruction at the end of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. Wesker's presence was initially limited to cutscenes in the main Resident Evil games, where he manipulates the series' events from the background. He leverages his genius-level intellect to engineer mutagenic viruses to forcefully advance human evolution. Wesker's backstory was largely left undeveloped until the release of The Wesker Report, a fictional documentary that details his virology research and role within the Umbrella Corporation. Resident Evil 5 reveals the Umbrella Corporation raised Wesker as part of a eugenics program, which offers him the best education but also indoctrinates him into developing misanthropic views and a superiority complex. Wesker debuted in the original Resident Evil (1996), where he is the captain of the Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.), a special forces police unit in Raccoon City. He initially helps the player by providing supplies and useful information. However, the protagonists learn Wesker is secretly working with the Umbrella Corporation to develop mutagenic viruses and bio-organic weapons (BOWs). Wesker is seemingly killed after releasing his latest BOW, the Tyrant, which unexpectedly impales him during the game's finale. He returned to the franchise after a two-game hiatus in Resident Evil – Code: Veronica (2000) as the game's secondary antagonist. He survives his apparent death due to an experimental virus that not only resurrected him after suffering grievous injuries but also endowed him with enhanced strength, speed, and agility. Wesker, now working for an unnamed rival to the Umbrella Corporation, conducts a raid on a secret research facility in Antarctica. He is defeated by Chris Redfield, who arrives at the facility while searching for his missing sister, Claire. Wesker makes a cameo appearance in Resident Evil 4 (2005), where he is revealed to be working with Ada Wong to obtain a specimen sample for further BOW research. He is the central antagonist in Resident Evil 5 (2009), where he conspires to release the Uroboros virus across the world and trigger an extinction event. He appears in-game as a nigh-invincible boss during the game's penultimate battle, in which he effortlessly dodges and parries most of the player's attacks. Chris and his partner Sheva ultimately halt his plans and kill Wesker in an active volcano at the end of the game. Despite his demise, his plans continue to drive the plot of the series, as his viral and BOW research causes many of the disasters and outbreaks in the subsequent games. The producer of the series has acknowledged that Wesker is indeed dead in the mainline video games. Other appearances Wesker appears in several of the Resident Evil live-action film series. His character was adapted for the 2007 live-action film Resident Evil: Extinction. This version of Wesker is the head of the Umbrella Corporation, unlike Wesker's role in the games as a renegade high-ranking Umbrella researcher. He runs Umbrella's operations from behind the scenes, holding meetings via hologram with his underground board of directors in Tokyo. Originally, Wesker's character was not intended to be in the film, with his role and lines in the script being given to Commander Okamoto. He reappears in 2010's Resident Evil: Afterlife as the main antagonist of the film. He later appears in Resident Evil: Retribution (2012) as a defector from Umbrella, who sends Ada to rescue Alice from an underground Russian Umbrella outpost run by the Red Queen, who has taken over the rest of Umbrella. Wesker returns in the sixth film, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016), where he betrays Alice. She then tracks him down to the Hive and kills him. His death triggers a dead man's switch, which destroys the Hive and everyone within, including Alicia Marcus, the Umbrella High Command, and thousands of others held in stasis. In the reboot film Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021), he is portrayed as a more sympathetic police officer for the Raccoon Police Department and serves as a secondary antagonist. Notwithstanding his appearance in the Resident Evil Netflix series (2022), which delves into his backstory and personal experiments with human cloning. Wesker is a playable character in several non-canonical Resident Evil games. He features in numerous Resident Evil mobile games. He appears in two games in the Marvel vs. Capcom franchise and in the asymmetrical survival horror game Dead by Daylight (2016). He also makes a cameo appearance as an unlockable alternate skin in Lost Planet 2 (2010), Street Fighter V (2016) for Urien as an alternate skin, as a spirit in the Nintendo crossover video game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018), and in the digital collectible card game Teppen (2019). Wesker features in novelizations of the first game and Code: Veronica. In the former, titled The Umbrella Conspiracy, Wesker is attacked by multiple Chimeras and fatally wounded; he manages to awaken the Tyrant, which kills him. Several comic books based on the games were released, and he is a character in Bandai's Resident Evil Deck Building Card Game (2011). Merchandise featuring Wesker includes action figures and gun replicas. Reception Game publications have described Wesker as one of the best and most memorable villains in video game history. In 2013, Guinness World Records named Wesker among the 50 greatest video game villains of all time. Kazuma Hashimoto of Polygon noted that the character's light skin and blonde hair design evoke the aesthetic of the Nazi ideal of Übermensch, reflecting the series' "core" theme of eugenics. He noted that Wesker's monologue in Resident Evil 5 fully illustrated the visual metaphor and stand-in Wesker embodies, drawing on standard social Darwinist talking points from Friedrich Nietzsche's Übermensch theory. Together with other themes from the series, Wesker's monologue creates a sense of terror that transcends the visual into something genuinely unsettling and intensely political. Kat Bailey of VG247 stated that Wesker is the perfect horror game villain. She said, "With his trenchcoat and omnipresent sunglasses hiding red, reptilian eyes, Wesker is the overarching antagonist through much of the series". Ryan Davis of GameSpot said that the voice acting of Wesker "is a better fit", and he is entertaining while serving as the narrator of Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles. Jesse Schedeen of IGN discussed his appearances across the franchise and also said that "even if the games start over from square one, we highly doubt Wesker will be left out of the party. After all, the best bad guys are the ones that wear shades." Rich Stanton of Eurogamer said that "Chris and Wesker's final showdown is both a terrible boss fight and unforgettable, because despite the faults it showcases a certain mindset about what an ultimate action climax should be." GamesRadar+ staff described him among the "best characters in the three decades of Capcom's history" and wrote, "Even after his death in Resident Evil 5, Albert Wesker shows no signs of stopping, which is just the way we like it." Matt Cundy of GamesRadar+ praised Wesker's death scene in Resident Evil 5, as it showed the character's strength. Brandon Trush of Bloody Disgusting and Luke McKinney of Den of Geek both echoed a similar sentiment and regarded Weskers' death scene as one of the most outstanding and over-the-top moments of the Resident Evil series. Conversely, Shubhankar Parijat of GamingBolt stated that "Resident Evil hasn't had an overbearing villainous presence since Wesker died", but noted that "his arc was wrapped up very well, and bringing him back might not be the best idea." The character has also received negative critical reviews. Ron Whitaker of The Escapist described Wesker as one of the terrible video game villains; he said that he always finds Wesker "kind of a joke of a villain." He further said that it became worse in Resident Evil 5 when he shows up "looking like he just failed a casting call for a character from The Matrix." Obi Anyanwu of Complex described him as the "second-douchiest" video game character, stating that "Wesker has a following, yes, but there's something very Agent Smith, a villain in The Matrix, about him that makes us shake our heads." Marshall Lemon of The Escapist also compared Wesker to Agent Smith, noting both villains' creators illogically enhanced their characters' power in subsequent installments, which diminished the narrative's coherence. Lemon stated that the amount of varied roles Wesker played in association with his constant reappearances was cited by Lemon as devaluing his influence and effectiveness overall. Andy Kelly of PC Gamer commented that Wesker lacked the depth of a complex villain and instead embodied the over-the-top antagonist trope, surmising the character as "a comically evil asshole who can do cool Matrix moves and transform into a monster." Ben Yahtzee Croshaw of The Escapist said that he cannot stand with Wesker and described him as "emotionless shithead", "grating", and "boring cunt." Andy Kelly of PlayStation Official Magazine described the battle with Wesker in Resident Evil 5 as one of the worst boss fights in a PlayStation 3 game. John Friscia of The Escapist said that the final boss fight against Wesker was a "pisstake for the ages." He felt that the boss fight was not difficult but basic, though he said that he "couldn't crack it." Bob Mackey of 1UP.com has called him one of the least scary things in Resident Evil, suggesting that "[t]o accentuate his alleged nefariousness, we suggest that Wesker grow a zombie mustache — that twirls itself." There was also commentary on Wesker's film persona. Lance Reddick's portrayal of Wesker in the 2022 Resident Evil Netflix series was lauded by critics. Zosha Millman of Polygon described his performance as the "perfect balance of menacing and mannered." Charles Pulliam-Moore of The Verge offered a mixed review of the series but cited Wesker as the show's best character, which they attributed to Reddick's "steely, menacing energy". Taylor Lyes of IGN noted that the Netflix series' portrayal and characterization of Wesker diverged from his video game counterpart, but commended the character's revised backstory and story arc. However, Shawn Roberts' performance as Wesker in Resident Evil: Afterlife was criticized by Jim Vejvoda of IGN, who wrote that his portrayal of the character is "one-dimensionally evil and over-the-top", which he attributed to poorly developed writing. Cory Wells of Hardcore Gamer criticized Tom Hopper's portrayal as Wesker in Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City and said "Wesker lacks his monotone, conniving demeanor that's matched in the games" and "doesn't exude cocky confidence in the game series, but does [in the film]." Notes References Bibliography Perry, S. D. (2000). Resident Evil: The Umbrella Conspiracy. Pocket Books. ISBN 0671024396. External links Albert Wesker at the Internet Movie Database

Chris Redfield (Japanese: クリス・レッドフィールド, Hepburn: Kurisu Reddofīrudo) is a character in the Resident Evil survival horror video game series created by the Japanese company Capcom. He was introduced as one of the two playable characters of the original Resident Evil (1996), alongside his partner Jill Valentine, as a member of the Raccoon Police Department's Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) unit. Vowing to never let any tragedies like Raccoon City happen again, Chris becomes a founding member of the United Nations' Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA). Chris is the protagonist of several Resident Evil games, novelizations, and films and has also appeared in other game franchises, including Marvel vs. Capcom, Project X Zone, and Dead by Daylight. In later games, such as Resident Evil 7 (2017) and Resident Evil: Village (2021), his features were based on New Zealand model Geordie Dandy. Several actors have portrayed Chris, including Wentworth Miller and Robbie Amell, in the live-action Resident Evil films. Video game magazines have mainly given Chris unfavorable reviews; in particular, they have taken issue with the frequent modifications to his design and inconsistent use of appearance. However, he has been recognized for his sex appeal and is considered one of the sexiest video game characters by several publications. Some critics have referred to a scene of Chris punching a boulder in Resident Evil 5 as one of the most memorable within the Resident Evil series, which was also subjected to Internet memes. Concept and design Chris was introduced as one of the two playable protagonists, alongside his partner Jill Valentine, in Capcom's 1996 survival horror video game Resident Evil. He was created by director Shinji Mikami and designer Isao Ohishi. Designer Hideki Kamiya described Chris as a "blunt, tough-guy type", admitting that he was a fan of this archetype. Chris is a white American, Chris joined the Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) special operations unit. Although their storylines progress in "the same general direction," the gameplay differs for Jill and Chris; Chris can't carry as many goods in his inventory, but he can run quicker, aim more precisely, and withstand more damage. Resident Evil 5 features Chris as a protagonist; designers opted to focus on how the character had aged since the original game. Chris' increased muscle mass was to show that he had trained heavily in order to fight the series' powerful villain, Albert Wesker, bare-handed. Modeler Yosuke Yamagata added that they "made a new design that retained their signature color—green for Chris, blue for Jill—to carry over the same look from the past. The facial structures are mainly based on the visuals of the GameCube version, and we added various details to these in order to develop a realistic structure." Resident Evil 5's producer Jun Takeuchi said that the series' fans "would really love" a video game featuring both Leon S. Kennedy and Chris as the protagonists due to their popularity, and at the same time, it would be "pretty dramatic" if the two characters never met before the series would end; this eventually occurred in Resident Evil 6. In Resident Evil 6, Chris has a slightly disheveled look due to his alcoholism and post-traumatic amnesia. In Resident Evil 7, Chris was given an entirely new design as the producers wanted to give him a more realistic look. The character's new design made him completely "unrecognizable", as stated by commentators and players. Director Kōshi Nakanishi stated that Resident Evil 6's Chris model "was just not suitable for Resident Evil 7's game engine or aesthetic". He further said that "[a]lthough it is a fairly realistic impression, even if it mixes with the character of "7", it seems that a sense of incongruity will come out." Takeuchi, the executive producer, added that they had been thinking about Chris as the primary character at the time and that, as it was the first time we had seen him in a long time, he needed to be shown as a hero. In retrospect, he also understood that creating Chris into a hero was not the same as creating a Resident Evil game. In Resident Evil Village, Chris is once again redesigned, but his look closer resembles that in Resident Evil 6, due to fan backlash against his look in Resident Evil 7. According to the director of Resident Evil Village DLC, Kento Kinoshita, the production team behind the DLC for the horror sequel initially had a completely different plan in mind. "At the time of the project," he says, referencing the DLC's early days of planning, "there were some ideas that focused on Chris. But we wanted to focus on Rose Winters," disclosing that the crew had a preference for a DLC that starred Rose as the main character rather than having Chris rejoin the action. Voice-over and live-action actors In the original Resident Evil, which uses live-action cinematics, Chris is played by Charlie Kraslavsky. He is the first actor to have portrayed the character. In English, Scott McCulloch voiced Chris in the original Resident Evil; Michael Filipowich voiced him in Resident Evil – Code: Veronica; Joe Whyte voiced him in Resident Evil (2002); Kevin Dorman voiced him in Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, Resident Evil: Vendetta, and Resident Evil: Death Island; Roger Craig Smith voiced him in Resident Evil 5, Resident Evil 6, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Marvel vs Capcom Infinite, Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, and Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D; and a recreational arcade game released solely in Japan. David Vaughn voiced him in Resident Evil 7, Jeff Schine voiced him in Resident Evil: Village, and Gerard Vachon voiced him in Dead by Daylight. In Japanese, Hiroki Tōchi voiced him in Resident Evil: Afterlife, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Resident Evil: Revelations, Project X Zone, Project X Zone 2, Resident Evil 6, Resident Evil 7, 2002 Resident Evil, Resident Evil: Vendetta, Resident Evil: Village, and Resident Evil: Death Island, while Subaru Kimura voiced him in Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. Reuben Langdon did Chris' motion capture for several Resident Evil games, while Geordie Dandy did it in Resident Evil 7 and Village. Wentworth Miller portrayed him in Resident Evil: Afterlife. Miller said that he had seen the series and recalled in particular the third film's trailer, which included a shot above Vegas buried in the sand, described it as "iconic and arresting". He requested that the filmmakers put together a montage of noteworthy video game scenes that related to or clarified the mythology or history of his character as part of [his] research." Miller also conducted research to learn what the character meant to the audience. He claimed that in order to prepare for the part, he felt compelled to honor the existing mythology around video games. To that end, he conducted online research by visiting fan sites and blogs to learn about the discussions surrounding this character and what kinds of expectations people could have. However, he had to strike a balance between it and his acting identity, his natural talents, and the Chris Redfield that Paul W.S. Anderson creates for this film. Rather than the games, he was quite particular about the Resident Evil feature film adaptation. Robbie Amell portrayed him in Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. Amell described playing Chris as a "dream come true". Amell revealed that they tried to incorporate a scene of Chris punching a boulder, as in Resident Evil 5, but it did not fit the movie's tone. According to Amell, Johannes had discussed Resident Evil 4 or Code Veronica as possible games that could be adapted as the film's sequel and that he would be open to reprising his role. Appearances In Resident Evil series Every game in the series is set in the fictional American metropolitan area of Raccoon City until its destruction at the end of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. Subsequent games featuring Chris take place on an international scale, namely in Russia, Antarctica, China, Louisiana, Romania, Africa, and the Mediterranean Sea. The original game is set in July 1998 in a mansion on the outskirts of Raccoon City, which Chris and his team enter while searching for colleagues. Working with fellow survivor Rebecca Chambers, he discovers the property is a façade for a biological warfare laboratory operated by the Umbrella Corporation, and its undead occupants are the scientists who developed the T-virus mutagen. His commander, Albert Wesker, is revealed to be a double agent for Umbrella. Chris and Jill are among the five survivors of the incident who form a strong friendship and become passionate opponents of bioterrorism. Chris did not appear in Resident Evil 2 (1998), as the production team used new protagonists (Leon and Claire Redfield) to preserve the original game's horror elements. Mikami believed Chris and Jill would be too experienced to be scared by the events in the sequel. Set five months later, Resident Evil - Code: Veronica (2000) sees Chris return as the protagonist of the second half of the game. He attempts to rescue his younger sister, Claire, from the Umbrella Corporation's research facilities on the fictional Rockfort Island, in the Pacific Ocean, and in Antarctica. Upon discovering she is in Antarctica, Chris is briefly confronted by Wesker, who is revealed to have survived the events of the "Mansion Incident" and now has enhanced strength and speed and is seeking revenge on Chris for having destroyed his plans. Eventually, he confronts Alexia Ashford, the creator of the T-Veronica virus. At the end of the game, he fights with Wesker shortly after killing Alexia. He is no match for him, and their fight is cut short because of the imminent destruction of the base. They vow to finish things another time. The Umbrella Chronicles occurs in 2003, when Jill and Chris join a private organization with the goal of exposing Umbrella's biological warfare activities, leading a group to destroy their only remaining research facility. After the fall of the corporation, the pair become founding members of the United Nations' Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA). In Revelations – set two years later – Jill and her new partner Parker Luciani are sent on a mission to rescue Chris, who is allegedly being held hostage on a ghost ship in the Mediterranean. Jill and Chris then unravel a political conspiracy involving an earlier mutagenic outbreak and a botched investigation by a rival agency. Resident Evil 5 takes place in 2009 in the fictional African town of Kijuju, where terrorists are turning local residents into zombies. Chris is the protagonist of the game and one of the founding members of the UN paramilitary group Bio-terrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA). In the game, he investigates in Africa, while looking for Jill, who is missing and declared dead. In fact, she was injured by the fall and taken hostage by Wesker, who then used her as a test subject in his biological experiments. Accompanying him is his new partner, Sheva Alomar. Eventually, Chris and Sheva manage to find and free Jill and ultimately defeat and destroy Wesker, who was planning to spread the Uroboros virus across the world. Resident Evil 6 (2012) sees Chris return as one of the four protagonists alongside Leon, Ada Wong, and Jake Muller, the illegitimate son of Albert Wesker. In the game, Chris leads a squad of BSAA soldiers to investigate a bio-terror attack in Europe. Ambushed by Carla Radames, posing as Ada, they suffer severe casualties. Only Chris and Piers Nivans survive the assault, with the rest of his team being turned into monsters by Carla. Chris is overwhelmed with guilt and resigns from the BSAA., but Piers later convinces Chris to return to avenge their fallen comrades. They travel to China to investigate bio-terror activity and find themselves in another C-virus outbreak. While attempting to rescue Jake, who possesses the antibodies needed to stop the outbreak, Chris and Piers encounter Haos, a powerful BOW. Piers is grievously injured during the battle and injects himself with the C-virus to gain superhuman powers. He saves Chris, but sacrifices himself to ensure Haos is destroyed. Chris continues to serve the BSAA in Piers' memory. At the end of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017), a man identifying himself as "Redfield" arrives to rescue Ethan Winters. While the credits refer to the character as Chris Redfield, the helicopter he arrives in is branded with the Umbrella Corporation logo, which is now blue instead of red, initially causing people to question the person's identity. Capcom later confirmed this character to be Chris, in spite of the noticeable change in his appearance due to a different actor portraying him. Additionally, this new iteration of Umbrella opposes its predecessor's B.O.W. research and instead works closely with the BSAA. Chris appeared in the downloadable content campaign Not a Hero, which was released on December 12, 2017. This subchapter focuses on Chris attempting to apprehend Lucas Baker, and although he fails to save his men, he confronts and kills Lucas. He also appears at the conclusion of the End of Zoe downloadable content. Chris returned for the eighth main installment in the series, titled Resident Evil Village (2021). During the three-year gap between Resident Evil 7 and Village, Chris has been running an off-the-books covert operation investigating an unidentified village suspected to have biohazards in Transylvania, Romania, managed by Mother Miranda. During the events of Village, Chris and his Hound Wolf squad learn that Miranda was capable of shape-shifting and posed as Mia, and they promptly shoot her in order to protect Ethan and Mia, only for his efforts to be foiled in the process. After revealing the nature of his mission to Ethan, Chris saves the real Mia, learns Miranda's connection to the late Oswell E. Spencer (who was killed by Wesker in Resident Evil 5: Lost in Nightmares), and helps plant a bomb on a megamycete in order to destroy the village. During extraction, a dying Ethan gives a recently rescued Rosemary to Chris before sacrificing himself to ensure the village's destruction. With Mia and Rosemary rescued, Chris and his team head to BSAA's European headquarters to demand explanations over their use of BOWs as frontline soldiers. Other appearances Chris features in the non-canonical Resident Evil live-action film series. In the rejected Resident Evil film script written by George A. Romero in 1998, Chris is a Native American civilian and ultimately one of the few survivors. In 2000, Capcom fired Romero and replaced him with Paul W. S. Anderson, who wrote a new script. Chris appears in the 2010 live-action film Resident Evil: Afterlife, portrayed by Wentworth Miller. In the film, Chris is found trapped in a maximum security cell after his unit's attempt to control the T-virus in Los Angeles goes haywire; the survivors who find him believe him to be a prisoner. He is reunited with his sister Claire, who cannot remember him because of memory damage caused by an Umbrella mind control device. He, Alice, and Claire eventually defeat Wesker and rescue imprisoned survivors being used for Umbrella's experiments. Miller said he prepared for the role by searching for images and videos of Chris on the Internet, as well as doing cardio for endurance. He appears in the reboot film Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021). Chris also appears in the adult animated Resident Evil films. He was one of the main characters in Resident Evil: Vendetta (2017), alongside Leon and Rebecca. Unlike the live-action films, the animated films are in the same continuity as the games. He returned in the sequel, Resident Evil: Death Island (2023). Chris is a playable character in several non-canonical Resident Evil games. He features in the Resident Evil mobile game Resident Evil: Mercenaries Vs. (2011). He appears in three games in the Marvel vs. Capcom franchise and the crossover tactical role-playing games Project X Zone and Project X Zone 2. He also made a cameo appearance in the Nintendo crossover video game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018), Dead by Daylight (2016) as an alternate skin, Fortnite Battle Royale (2017), Tom Clancy's The Division 2 (2019), State of Survival (2019), digital collectible card game Teppen (2019), Astro's Playroom (2020), Astro Bot (2024), and in Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster (2024) as an outfit for Frank West. Chris features in novelizations of the films and games. Additionally, he makes an appearance in the prequel manga for Resident Evil 6, which describes Chris' activities prior to the events. Several comic books based on the games were released, and he is a character in Bandai's Resident Evil Deck Building Card Game (2011). The character was featured in a Resident Evil-themed attraction at Universal Studios Japan's Halloween Horror Nights. Merchandise featuring Chris includes outfits, perfumes, gun replicas, watches, and figurines. Reception Chris Redfield has received mostly negative reviews from critics. Several game publications have noted the character's lack of consistent visual design for his appearances throughout the Resident Evil franchise. Polygon's Cass Marshall noted his variations in body mass throughout the games by repeatedly changing from lean to muscular and back again, while Ian Walker from Kotaku compared his appearances in Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil Village as "transition[ing] from global bio-terrorism agent to [...] someone's henchman in a British crime comedy written and directed by Guy Ritchie." According to PC Gamer's Andy Kelly, Chris is "finally a person". He claimed that in Village, it has "a very different Chris than we've ever seen before. For the first time, he feels like a human." Several Kotaku employees have also referred to Chris as the worst of the Resident Evil heroes, calling him "bland" and "boring" and critiquing the majority of his redesigns. Ravi Sinha of GamingBolt considered the character's design in Resident Evil 7 among the worst in video games, noting that "the overly buff, borderline steroid-abusing macho man" was replaced by a "normal looking guy". On the other hand, while Matt Cundy of GamesRadar+ compared his Code Veronica and Resident Evil 5 designs while trying to evaluate which would fit better for a zombie apocalypse, they found the latter provided a better chance to survive a zombie attack. It also judged Chris from the original game as "horribly ill-prepared". GameSpy called his new design in Resident Evil 5 "a cross between Colin Farrell and Hugh Jackman" in particular, and it became a source of controversy and was often ridiculed. Jesse Schedeen of IGN described him as one of the most overrated video game characters, with the suggestion that he should "ditch the 'roids and concentrate on getting the job done", while Alexander Sliwinski of Engadget commented that during The Umbrella Chronicles, Chris possibly started his "steroid abuse". Conversely, Chris has been named by IGN and fans as one of the popular Resident Evil characters. His professional relationship with Jill was celebrated for its basis in loyalty rather than romance and its balance in their personalities: Chris's brawn and Jill's intellect. Near the climax of Resident Evil 5, Chris and Sheva engage in a final confrontation against a heavily mutated Wesker inside a volcano, but the duo become separated. In order for them to reunite, the player controlling Chris must engage in a button-mashing sequence where Chris pushes and punches a large boulder until it falls into the lava. The scene became recognized as one of the most memorable within the Resident Evil series, largely due to its ridiculousness. It became the subject of Internet memes, with fans using it to demonstrate Chris' masculinity. Wes Fenlon of PC Gamer said that Chris punching a boulder inside an active volcano "gave us what is truly one of the greatest moments in the history of videogames" and "as a quicktime event. It is perfect." In Resident Evil Village, during the boss fight with Karl Heisenberg, Karl calls Chris a "boulder-punching asshole," a reference to the aforementioned scene in Resident Evil 5. Chris has often been recognized for his sex appeal, particularly since his more muscular appearance in Resident Evil 5. Some critics have described him as one of the sexiest video game characters. Sikh media and video game critic Veerender Singh Jubbal stated in a Kotaku interview that Chris, as he appears in Resident Evil 5, "allowed [him] to understand [his] bisexuality" better; noted that his design was "different than previous iterations", Jubbal described Chris as a "large muscle-bound hunk [and] something [he] was attracted to". Natalie Romano of GameZone included Chris in their top "gaming gods" for his new look, describing him as "one gorgeous hunk" with "a killer body and dreamy good-looks". Ed Nightingale of PinkNews, an online newspaper marketed to the LGBT community, described Chris as "burly" and having arms "to thirst over". Eurogamer's Matt Wales, in reviewing Resident Evil Revelations, described Chris as the "supreme beefcake". Trace Thurman of Bloody Disgusting found Chris' sailor outfit to be one of the "silliest" in the franchise, while recognizing that "never before has Chris looked sexier", further highlighting his shirtless warrior outfit from Resident Evil 5. Conversely, Matt Liebl of GameZone said that seeing Chris' "skimpy" sailor outfit in Resident Evil: Revelations is "weird to see". Notes References External links Media related to Chris Redfield at Wikimedia Commons

Frank West (Japanese: フランク・ウェスト, Hepburn: Furanku Wesuto) is a character in Dead Rising, an action-adventure video game series created and published by Japanese company Capcom. He first appeared as the protagonist in the 2006 video game Dead Rising. In the series, West is a freelance journalist. The character has been well received by video game publications as well as by the fans, mainly in the West, leading Frank to appear in several more games in and outside the Dead Rising series. Concept and design Keiji Inafune, producer of Dead Rising, wanted the main character Frank West to be different from the usual Japanese main character, a young and beautiful protagonist. In the beginning, the staff considered making the character ugly and fat. However, the American branch of Capcom said he was too ugly; Inafune then wanted to create an everyman that looked average rather than beautiful or ugly. His conception as "rough, tough, gritty character" was aimed primarily to attract the Western audience. Appearances In Dead Rising series Introduced in the first Dead Rising game, Frank West is the player character, a famed freelancer photographer and photojournalist who has covered many world events, wars, and other big stories. Lately, however, his career has begun to fizzle out. Looking for the next big scoop, he stumbles on to some strange events happening in the small town of Willamette, Colorado. There, he winds up in a barricaded shopping mall and attempts to rescue a host of human survivors from the zombie hordes and violent psychopaths laying siege to the mall, while also covering the story. Frank makes a return as the secondary protagonist of Dead Rising 2: Case West and fights alongside Chuck Greene after rescuing him from Fortune City as they tackle Phenotrans at one of their facilities. In the end, Frank escapes the facility with Chuck, though Isabela Keyes was kidnapped by Dr. Mallon, he has successfully retrieved evidence to help clear Chuck's name in the Fortune City disaster. Frank reappears in Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, which is an alternate version of the Dead Rising 2 storyline in which Frank is the protagonist. In this version of the story, Frank became an overnight celebrity for his actions in exposing the Willamette incident. Cashing in on his success, Frank released a memoir, hosted a talk-show, and used his fame and money to treat his zombie wounds from Willamette with Zombrex (among other perks). Unfortunately, between his squandered money and a series of scathing scandals, Frank's show was cancelled and his stardom quickly plummeted. In desperation, Frank goes to Fortune City to appear on "Terror is Reality" as a competitor and make some quick money, but is trapped in the city when the zombie outbreak begins. Though at first Frank sees the outbreak as his big comeback, he gradually learns of the terrifying conspiracy behind it and becomes more determined to uncover the truth. In Dead Rising 3, Frank does not appear in the main story, but is playable in the Dead Rising 3 DLC and can also be found as a statue players can find spread across Los Perdidos. Frank returns as the protagonist of Dead Rising 4, in which he now works as a college photography teacher and returns to Willamette 16 years after the events of the first game, only to be caught in the middle of another zombie outbreak. Other appearances West is a playable character in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars fighting game, with his special moves revolving around the use of zombies, a helmet featuring the Servbot character from Mega Man Legends, and a variety of makeshift weapons from Dead Rising. He is one of six Capcom characters added to the fighting game Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, a standalone updated version of Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds. His fighting style makes use of the Dead Rising "Level Up" mechanic that gives him access to more moves, stronger attacks, and increased damage resistance the more exp he gains from taking pictures. He is also playable in the game's sequel, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. He also appears as one of the characters at player's disposal in the tactical role-playing game Project X Zone, where he is paired with Hsien-Ko from the Darkstalkers series. West also appears as a multiplayer character in Capcom's Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, and in the sequel, Lost Planet 2. In Valve's add-on content "The Passing" for Left 4 Dead 2, a message from Frank directed to Otis appears among other pop culture messages graffitied on the wall of a bar. Film West appeared in the live-action film Dead Rising: Watchtower, portrayed by Rob Riggle. Frank can also be seen as several statues hidden in frame. Reception In 2008, The Age ranked West as the 22nd greatest Xbox character of all time, while GameDaily ranked him as the 17th best Capcom character of all time in 2008. In 2012, GamesRadar ranked him as the 76th "most memorable, influential, and badass" protagonist in games. UGO Networks included West among the "Top Heroes in Entertainment", placing him as 68th. In 2013, GamesRadar staff included him among the 30 best characters in the three decades of Capcom's history, noting that "Frank has been a fast-rising star within Capcom, appearing in multiple fighting games and cameo roles in the handful of years since his debut." GamesRadar's staff also placed him at number 48 in a list of the 50 best game characters of the generation. He was listed on Game Informer's "Ten Faces We Won't Soon Forget", with Meagan Marie emphasizing the fact that he is an everyman, saying "Frank West represents that little part in all of us that hopes to survive a zombie apocalypse some day." In 2009, IGN's Jesse Schedeen included Frank West in an "Ultimate Zombie Strike Team". IGN also listed Frank as one of characters they wished to see appear in a future Marvel vs. Capcom title, adding that he "should definitely come equipped with some of the more eclectic toys he picked up in the mall, including his Mega Man gear and lightsaber." He was also featured in a 2010s "Gaming's Most Inappropriate Outfits Ever" by NowGamer. UGO Networks ranked him as fifth "awesomest hidden character" for his appearance in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, noting the difficulty to unlock the character while West's guest appearance in Left 4 Dead 2 was ranked as first in GamesRadar's 2010 list of best character cameos. == References ==

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis is a 1999 survival horror video game developed and published by Capcom originally for the PlayStation. It is the third game in the Resident Evil series and takes place almost concurrently with the events of Resident Evil 2. The player must control former elite agent Jill Valentine as she escapes from Raccoon City, which has been overrun by zombies. The game uses the same engine as its predecessors and features 3D models over pre-rendered backgrounds with fixed camera angles. Choices through the game affect how the story unfolds and which ending is achieved. Resident Evil 3 was developed concurrently with Resident Evil – Code: Veronica and was conceived as a spin-off featuring a different protagonist. It was designed to have a more action-oriented gameplay than its predecessors and features a larger number of enemies for the player to defeat. It also introduces Nemesis, a creature that periodically pursues the player throughout the game and that was inspired by the T-1000 Terminator from the 1991 film Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Resident Evil 3 received positive reviews and sold more than three million copies worldwide. Critics praised the detailed graphics and Nemesis as an intimidating villain, but some criticized its short length and story. In the years following its release on the PlayStation, Resident Evil 3 was ported to Windows, Dreamcast, and GameCube with varying degrees of critical success. In particular, the GameCube version was criticized for its relatively high retail price and outdated graphics. A remake, entitled Resident Evil 3, was released in 2020. Gameplay Resident Evil 3: Nemesis is a survival horror game where the player controls the protagonist, Jill Valentine, from a third-person perspective to interact with the environment and enemies. The player takes control of another character for a brief portion of the game. To advance, the player explores a city while avoiding, outsmarting and defeating enemies. The player can interact with the environment in several ways, such as opening doors, pushing objects or climbing obstacles. Scattered throughout the city are weapons, ammunition and other items, which can be collected and put in the player's inventory. Items can be examined, used, or combined with others. The inventory is limited to a certain number of slots, and the player must often move items from the inventory to a storage box located in special rooms to manage space. The player can use a variety of firearms to defeat enemies, ranging from pistols to a rocket launcher. Aside from enemies, parts of the environment, such as explosive barrels, can be shot at, causing them to explode and damage nearby enemies. The game also introduces the ability for players to dodge attacks or perform a quick 180-degree turn to evade enemies. The player has a certain amount of health which decreases when attacked by enemies. Health is regained with first aid sprays, as well as herbs, which can be used separately or mixed together to increase their healing effect. The game also features an ammunition creation system that allows players to create new ammunition from different varieties of gunpowder. In addition to engaging in combat, the player must often solve puzzles that focus on logical and conceptual challenges. During certain situations, the player will be put in a perilous situation, where they will be prompted to choose between two possible actions or suffer a certain penalty, if not instant death. These choices affect how the story unfolds and which ending is achieved. Additionally, a creature called Nemesis is encountered multiple times throughout the game as a recurring boss. Nemesis is considerably more powerful than the player and has the ability to use a rocket launcher as a weapon, dodge incoming fire, and pursue the player from one area to the next. During one of these encounters, the player can choose to either fight Nemesis or run until he is evaded. A variety of encounters are possible, with some being mandatory, and some varying in nature and location based on certain choices made by the player. Even if evaded or defeated during one of these encounters, Nemesis will inevitably continue to pursue the player until the end of the game. Once the player completes the game, a mode called The Mercenaries - Operation: Mad Jackal is unlocked. In this mode, the player must control mercenaries that Jill encounters during the main game and run from one side of the city to the other within a limited amount of time and resources. However, the starting time limit given is insufficient to actually perform this task directly, and the player must continuously receive time extensions by performing certain actions such as defeating enemies, rescuing civilians and exploring hidden areas. Depending on the rank received and difficulty chosen, completing the main game may unlock alternate costumes for Jill and epilogue files that detail the activities of different characters following the events of the game. The Mercenaries mode and alternate costumes for Jill do not need to be unlocked in the Windows and Dreamcast versions of the game. Plot On September 28, 1998, 24 hours prior to the events of Resident Evil 2, former Special Tactics And Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) member Jill Valentine attempts to escape from Raccoon City. Most of the population has been transformed into zombies by an outbreak of the T-virus, the gruesome biological weapon secretly developed by the pharmaceutical company Umbrella Corporation. After fighting through zombies and mutants on her way to the Raccoon City Police Department, Jill runs into fellow team member Brad Vickers, who is later killed by a new enemy. This creature, Nemesis-T Type, is a bio-organic weapon programmed to target the remaining surviving S.T.A.R.S. members, who had knowledge of Umbrella's experiments. After she evades Nemesis, Jill encounters three surviving members of the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service (U.B.C.S.): Carlos Oliveira, Mikhail Victor, and Nikolai Zinoviev. Nikolai explains to Jill that a rescue helicopter can be contacted if they manage to reach the city's Clock Tower to ring the bell. When they are finished repairing a cable car, Nikolai goes missing and is presumed dead. Nemesis then corners the remaining members of the group onto the car as they head to the tower. Mikhail sacrifices himself with a grenade, causing the car to crash into the tower's central courtyard and separating Jill and Carlos briefly. At the Clock Tower, Jill summons the helicopter by ringing the Clock Tower's bell before being confronted by Nemesis, which destroys the helicopter and infects Jill with the T-virus. Jill manages to temporarily defeat Nemesis but she falls unconscious due to the T-virus infection given by Nemesis. Carlos finds Jill and takes her to safety within the Clock Tower. Three days later, he finds a vaccine for Jill's T-virus infection in a nearby Umbrella owned hospital. He then returns and administers it to Jill, saving her. After she regains consciousness, Jill proceeds towards the Raccoon Park to search for an escape route and enters the park caretaker's cabin. There, she runs into Nikolai, who reveals that he is a "supervisor" sent into Raccoon City to gather combat data on Umbrella's bioweapons. Nikolai retreats, and Jill later is confronted by the Gravedigger which is a massive worm-like creature. Jill defeats the monster and escapes to an abandoned Umbrella factory at the edge of town through the worms tunnels. Inside the factory, Jill meets up with Carlos, who tells her that the U.S. government is planning to launch a nuclear missile into Raccoon City to eradicate the T-virus infestation. After confronting Nemesis and grabbing a keycard needed to escape, Jill learns from the factory's control tower that the missile attack on Raccoon City has begun, with only a short time left before the city is destroyed. Depending on the path taken by the player, Jill's final encounter with Nikolai will differ. In one version of the events, Nikolai will attempt to start a gunfight with Jill, only to be ambushed and killed by Nemesis. In another event, Nikolai will hijack Jill's intended escape chopper, and the player must either reason with Nikolai or destroy the helicopter. If Jill negotiates with Nikolai, he reveals that he has killed the other supervisors and boasts about collecting the bounty placed on Jill by Umbrella before escaping. Regardless of Nikolai's fate, Jill makes her way to the rear yard and confronts Nemesis one last time. After an intense battle, Jill defeats Nemesis with the help of a large prototype railgun before meeting up with Carlos and escaping the city via a helicopter. If the previous escape chopper was stolen by Nikolai, Jill, and Carlos will instead meet up with S.T.A.R.S. Alpha Team's weapons specialist Barry Burton, who helps them escape in his helicopter. The nuclear missile vaporizes Raccoon City, and Jill swears revenge on Umbrella. A newscast then briefly details the destruction and offers condolences for the lost lives. Development Resident Evil 3 was developed by Capcom and produced by Shinji Mikami, who had directed the original Resident Evil and produced Resident Evil 2. After Resident Evil 2 was released, Capcom was working on multiple Resident Evil projects, with Hideki Kamiya directing what was planned to be the next main installment. This game would take place on a cruise ship and would involve HUNK attempting to bring back a sample of the G-Virus. However, Capcom cancelled the project after Sony announced the PlayStation 2, claiming that its development would not be completed before the PlayStation 2's launch. Because Capcom did not want fans to wait years for a new Resident Evil on PlayStation, it promoted one of its side projects as the third main game while Kamiya's team moved onto Resident Evil 4. The selected project was a spin-off developed by an inexperienced team led by director Kazuhiro Aoyama. It was intended to introduce a new character who would escape from an infected Raccoon City. However, after the promotion, Capcom made Resident Evil protagonist Jill Valentine the main character and decided that Raccoon City would be destroyed. Unlike the majority of the early scripts in the series, the story was not created by Capcom's Flagship studio but by internal Capcom writer Yasuhisa Kawamura, who had little experience with Resident Evil. Kawamura played the original game to familiarize himself with its fictional universe. The story was proofread and sanctioned by Flagship to avoid continuity errors with other games, an issue that was also given attention in monthly meetings between all directors and producers. Resident Evil 3 uses the same game engine as its predecessors. The environments consist of 2D pre-rendered backgrounds while moving objects, such as enemies and some interactive elements, consist of 3D polygon graphics. The developers chose this technique because having full 3D graphics would not allow them to create graphically rich and detailed environments. According to project supervisor Yoshiki Okamoto, "the number of polygons allocated for the enemies would not be sufficient. We did not want to have blocky, pixelated zombies." Interaction with the environment was improved so that the player could shoot objects such as explosive barrels to damage enemies. The developers also added more zombie varieties, which can take the form of policemen, doctors, and ordinary citizens, among others. Unlike previous Resident Evil games, which mostly took place inside buildings, Resident Evil 3 takes place largely in the streets of Raccoon City. This allowed the developers to create more varied environments. Capcom introduced more action mechanics, which resulted in the addition of the 180-degree turn and a dodge feature to avoid attacks. Additionally, the developers designed the game so that up to nine enemies can appear at the same time, and improved their artificial intelligence to hunt the player up and down stairs. The Nemesis creature was inspired by the liquid-metal T-1000 from the 1991 film Terminator 2: Judgment Day. According to Mikami, "I wanted to introduce a new kind of fear into the game, a persistent feeling of paranoia. The Nemesis brings that on in spades. When it disappears after the first confrontation, you live in constant dread of the next attack. The idea is to make you feel like you're being stalked." The game was developed concurrently with the Dreamcast version of Resident Evil – Code: Veronica. It was originally referred to as Biohazard 1.9 or Biohazard 1.5 because it takes place between the first two Resident Evil games. Although Code: Veronica is set after Resident Evil 2, Capcom wanted Nemesis to be the third numbered game to keep the PlayStation games consistent. Development began with a team of 20 people, but the size gradually increased to between 40 and 50 staff members. Unlike Resident Evil 2, which features two discs with two different protagonists, Resident Evil 3 is a single-CD game that centers on Jill Valentine. Capcom chose her as the only protagonist because she was "the only suitable character remaining", noting that Claire Redfield and Chris Redfield had already been chosen for Code: Veronica. Marketing and release Resident Evil 3 was featured at the Tokyo Game Show in March 1999. A playable version was available at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 1999. At the time, the dodging feature had not been completed and was absent from the demo. To promote the game, Capcom included a brief demo of Resident Evil 3 in the US shipments of their earlier game, Dino Crisis, which had a successful launch in Japan. Prior to the release of the game, Capcom spent US$20 million on advertisement campaigns for Resident Evil 3 and Dino Crisis, as well as the Nintendo 64 version of Resident Evil 2. The marketing campaign included dedicated television advertising, print advertising, and incentives to the consumer. A double soundtrack album, composed by Masami Ueda, Saori Maeda and Shusaku Uchiyama, was released on September 22, 1999. A novelization, Nemesis, written by S. D. Perry, was published in 2000. Resident Evil 3 was released for the PlayStation video game console on September 22, 1999 in Japan and November 11, 1999 in North America. The first 500,000 units of the game included additional demo discs of Dino Crisis. The game was a commercial hit, selling more than 1 million units worldwide by early October. According to NPD, Resident Evil 3 was the top-selling game for the PlayStation in the US during the first two weeks of November 1999. In Europe, the game was released on February 21, 2000 and became a bestseller in the UK, where it received a "Gold" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association, indicating sales of at least 200,000 copies. As of June 2012, a total of 3.5 million copies of the PlayStation version had been sold. Reception Upon its release on the PlayStation console, Resident Evil 3 received "universal acclaim", according to Metacritic. GameSpot editor James Mielke considered it the most sophisticated and accomplished Resident Evil game in terms of graphics and gameplay. Official UK PlayStation Magazine called Resident Evil 3 "a modern-day classic", concluding that the game "creates a believable environment, populates it with a host of evil adversaries and uses Raccoon City's urban sprawl to enhance the fiendish puzzles." Computer and Video Games (CVG) remarked that the game preserves the best features of its predecessors and adds "some exciting new elements". Similarly, Edge described it as "engrossing", despite its similarity to its predecessors, and found the Mercenaries mode a valuable addition. The pre-rendered backgrounds were credited for their rich details and dark art style. According to IGN editor Doug Perry, "Crashed cars, rubbish and rubble, totally destroyed city streets, and scattered broken glass and debris, all are housed in a suburban area that truly looks devastated in the worst possible way." GameSpot felt that the 3D modeling of Jill Valentine was greatly improved compared to the "blocky" models in the original game. The music and sound effects received similar praise, with GamePro remarking that the game "keeps the action hot by hiding what you shouldn't see, but telling you about it through the audio". The introduction of the Nemesis creature was praised. Official UK PlayStation Magazine described the first encounter as shocking, while CVG said that the creature increases the tension level "to an insane degree" because the player never knows when he will appear. GameSpot praised the prompted choices during certain points in the game as they encourage replay value, but felt the game was too short compared to Resident Evil 2, with only one disc and one protagonist. Perry praised the live-action-choice feature, stating that it "speeds up the pace, increases the tension, and forces a decision that varies the following scene". He found the 180-degree turn and dodge moves as welcome and necessary additions. In contrast, Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine criticized the dodge feature as impractical and for relying too much on timing, resulting in doing more harm to the player. GameRevolution and Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine criticized the simple premise and voice acting, while Next Generation said that the game might be a bit tiresome for players familiar with its predecessors. Resident Evil 3 was nominated for GameSpot's 1999 Adventure Game of the Year. Legacy Ports and re-releases Resident Evil 3 was ported to the Microsoft Windows and Dreamcast platforms in 2000, featuring enhanced 3D character models and higher resolution graphics. The Dreamcast version includes more alternate costumes than in the PlayStation version. Critical reception for these ports was not as positive. The Microsoft Windows version was criticized for not being optimized for keyboard and mouse and for not letting players save their progress at any time. Critics noted that some of the pre-rendered backgrounds in the Dreamcast version of the game were not improved, resulting in them looking not as good as the PlayStation version's due to the Dreamcast's higher graphic fidelity. CVG generally praised the Dreamcast version, but admitted that the difference in graphical quality between Resident Evil 3 and Code: Veronica was very large. A GameCube version of the game was released in 2003 as part of an exclusivity agreement between Capcom and Nintendo. It received mixed reviews from critics and was mainly criticized for its relatively high retail price and outdated graphics. AllGame noted that the fact that the game was not priced as a budget title could mislead buyers into thinking that it was an enhanced update similar to the 2002 Resident Evil on the GameCube. GamePro remarked that, while the game's graphics on the GameCube were not like those of the 2002 Resident Evil or Resident Evil Zero, they were better-looking than previous versions of the game. As of November 2003, 41,395 copies of the GameCube version had been sold in the U.S. Resident Evil 3 was digitally released on the PlayStation Network in Japan in 2008 and North America in 2009, allowing PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable users to play the PlayStation version of the game via emulation. In July 2024, Resident Evil was released on GOG.com, with ports of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis expected to come later. The game will get enhanced 3D character models and higher-resolution graphics on its release. Remake A remake, entitled Resident Evil 3, was released in 2020. The game is played from an over-the-shoulder, third-person perspective and runs on Capcom's proprietary RE Engine. Although it features the same premise as the original game, many parts were rearranged in favor of a more focused story. Some features such as the original game's multiple endings, several locations and The Mercenaries - Operation: Mad Jackal mode were removed. The game received generally positive reviews from critics. Notes References External links "Official website". Archived from the original on February 22, 2012. (in Japanese)

The screenwriter of the film, which received nominations for Best Screenplay and Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama at the 1995 Golden Globes, attended which Michigan university?

Grand Valley State University

Tabular reasoning | Multiple constraints

The Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay – Motion Picture is a Golden Globe Award given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Winners and nominees 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Multiple wins and nominations See also Academy Award for Best Story BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay AACTA International Award for Best Screenplay Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Screenplay Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay References External links Nominees/Winners of Best Screenplay Award

Timothy Francis Robbins (born October 16, 1958) is an American actor. He is best known for portraying Andy Dufresne in the film The Shawshank Redemption (1994), and Jacob Singer in Jacob's Ladder (1990), as well as winning an Academy Award and Golden Globe award for his role in Mystic River (2003) and another Golden Globe for The Player (1992). Robbins's other roles include starring as Lt. Samuel "Merlin" Wells in Top Gun (1986), Nuke LaLoosh in Bull Durham (1988), Erik in Erik the Viking (1989), Ed Walters in I.Q. (1994), Nick Beam in Nothing to Lose (1997) and Senator Robert Hammond in Green Lantern (2011). He also directed the films Bob Roberts (1992) and Dead Man Walking (1995), both of which were well received. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Director for Dead Man Walking. On television, Robbins played Secretary of State Walter Larson in the HBO comedy The Brink (2015), and in Here and Now (2018) portrayed Greg Boatwright. In 2023, he starred as Bernard Holland in the Apple TV+ series Silo. Early life Robbins was born in West Covina, California, and raised in New York City. His parents were Mary Cecelia (née Bledsoe), a musician, and Gilbert Lee Robbins, a singer, actor, and manager of The Gaslight Cafe. Robbins has two sisters, Adele and Gabrielle, and a brother, composer David Robbins. He was raised Catholic. Robbins moved to Greenwich Village with his family at a young age while his father pursued a career as a member of a folk music group called The Highwaymen. Robbins started performing in theater at age twelve and joined the drama club at Stuyvesant High School (Class of 1976). He spent two years at SUNY Plattsburgh and then returned to California to study at the UCLA Film School, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Drama in 1981. Career Robbins's acting career began at Theater for the New City, where he spent his teenage years in their Annual Summer Street Theater and also played the title role in a musical adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince. After graduation from college in 1981, Robbins founded the Actors' Gang, an experimental theater group, in Los Angeles with actor friends from his college softball team, as well as John Cusack. In 1982, he appeared as domestic terrorist Andrew Reinhardt in three episodes of the television program St. Elsewhere. He had a small role in the film No Small Affair (1984), starring Demi Moore. In 1985, he guest-starred in the second episode of the television series Moonlighting, "Gunfight at the So-So Corral". He also took parts in films, such as the role of frat animal "Mother" in Fraternity Vacation (1985) and Lt Sam "Merlin" Wells in the fighter pilot film Top Gun (1986). He appeared on The Love Boat, as a young version of one of the characters in retrospection about the Second World War. His breakthrough role was as pitcher Ebby Calvin "Nuke" LaLoosh in the baseball film Bull Durham (1988), in which he co-starred with Susan Sarandon and Kevin Costner. Robbins's amoral film executive in Robert Altman's film The Player (1992) was described by Peter Travers in Rolling Stone as "a classic performance, mining every comic and lethal nuance in the role of his career". He won the Best Actor Award at Cannes. He made his directorial and screenwriting debut with Bob Roberts (also 1992), a mockumentary about a right-wing senatorial candidate. Todd McCarthy in Variety commented that the film is "both a stimulating social satire and, for thinking people, a depressing commentary on the devolution of the American political system". Robbins then starred alongside Morgan Freeman in The Shawshank Redemption (1994), which was based on Stephen King's novella. Robbins has written, produced, and directed several films with strong social content, such as the capital punishment saga Dead Man Walking (1995), starring Sarandon and Sean Penn. The film earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Director. According to Roger Ebert in early 1996: "With this film he leaps far beyond" Bob Roberts "and has made that rare thing, a film that is an exercise of philosophy. This is the kind of movie that spoils us for other films, because it reveals so starkly how most movies fall into conventional routine, and lull us with the reassurance that they will not look too hard, or probe too deeply, or make us think beyond the boundaries of what is comfortable". His next directorial effort was Depression-era musical Cradle Will Rock (1999). Robbins has also appeared in mainstream Hollywood thrillers, such as Arlington Road (also 1999) as a suspected terrorist and Antitrust (2001) as a malicious computer tycoon, and in comical films such as The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), Nothing to Lose (1997), and High Fidelity (2000). Robbins has also acted in and directed several Actors' Gang theater productions. Robbins won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar and the SAG Award for his work in Mystic River (2003), as a man traumatized from having been molested as a child. He followed his Oscar-win with roles as a temporarily blind man who is nursed to health by a psychologically wounded young woman in The Secret Life of Words (2005) and an apartheid torturer in Catch a Fire (2006). As of 2006, he was the tallest Academy Award-winning actor at 6 feet 5 inches (1.96 m). In early 2006, Robbins directed an adaptation of George Orwell's novel 1984, written by Michael Gene Sullivan of the Tony Award-winning San Francisco Mime Troupe. The production opened at Actors' Gang, at their new location at The Ivy Substation in Culver City, California. In addition to venues around the United States, it has played in Athens, Greece, the Melbourne International Festival in Australia and the Hong Kong Arts Festival. Robbins was soon considering a film adaptation. Robbins appeared in The Lucky Ones, with co-star Rachel McAdams as well as City of Ember (both 2008). Robbins next film role was as Senator Hammond, the disapproving father of the film's villain Hector Hammond, in the superhero film Green Lantern (2011). Robbins released the album Tim Robbins & The Rogues Gallery Band (2010), a collection of songs written over the course of 25 years that he ultimately took on a world tour. He was originally offered the chance to record an album in 1992 after the success of his film Bob Roberts, but he declined because he had "too much respect for the process", having seen his father work so hard as a musician, and because he felt he had nothing to say at the time. Robbins directed two episodes of the HBO series Treme. The series follows the interconnected lives of a group of New Orleanians in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. He helmed the episodes "Everything I Do Gonh Be Funky" in Season 2 (2011) and "Promised Land" in Season 3 (2012). Robbins became interested in the show while staying in New Orleans during the filming of Green Lantern. "I had the unique experience of watching Treme with locals. It resonated for me immediately, and it resonated for them as well, because they have seen their town get misinterpreted and represented in ridiculous ways," he told The Times-Picayune in 2011. "Something about this show was different for them. I appreciated that. I loved the writing and the actors. I loved the environment it's set in. I watched the whole first season in New Orleans, and got in touch with David Simon and said, 'If you guys need a director next year, I'd be happy to do an episode.'" In 2013, he was a member of the jury at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival. In fall of 2024, Robbins and the Actors' Gang presented a production of his play 'Topsy Turvy - Ramazuri' at the Csokonai National Theatre in Debrecen. Personal life In 1988, Robbins began a relationship with actress Susan Sarandon, whom he met on the set of Bull Durham. They have two sons: John "Jack" Henry (b. May 15, 1989) and Miles Robbins (b. May 4, 1992). Sarandon, like Robbins, is a lapsed Catholic, and they share leftist political views. Robbins' relationship with Sarandon ended in December 2009. Robbins married Gratiela Brancusi on February 1, 2017. They split on July 1, 2020. News of the marriage was kept private until Robbins filed for divorce in January 2021. The divorce was finalized in 2022. Political views Robbins supported Ralph Nader's 2000 presidential campaign and appeared on stage in character as Bob Roberts during the "Nader Rocks the Garden" rally at Madison Square Garden. In December 2007, Robbins campaigned for Senator John Edwards in the 2008 U.S. presidential election. He made critical statements against Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Leadership Council while introducing Bernie Sanders at a 2016 campaign stop. Robbins opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In 2003, a 15th anniversary celebration of Bull Durham at the National Baseball Hall of Fame was canceled by Hall of Fame President Dale Petroskey. Petroskey told Robbins that his stance helped to "undermine the U.S. position, which could put our troops in even more danger." Durham co-star Kevin Costner defended Robbins and Sarandon: "I think Tim and Susan's courage is the type of courage that makes our democracy work. Pulling back this invite is against the whole principle about what we fight for and profess to be about." In 2023, Robbins criticized COVID-19 lockdowns, arguing they undermined freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. Robbins added that his villainous character in the television series Silo, a "leader who crushes any dissent or protest with swift violence", was inspired by pro-lockdown politicians. Filmography Awards and nominations References External links Official website Tim Robbins at IMDb Robbins's blog at HuffPost Embedded Live, the play and Embedded /Live, the DVD TheAge.com Article: "Tim Robbins: Hall of Fame Violates Freedom"

Patrick Sheane Duncan (born 1947) is an American writer, film producer and director. A graduate of Grand Valley State University in Allendale Charter Township, Michigan, Duncan's career has been influenced by his Vietnam War experiences, which inspired the television miniseries Vietnam War Story (1987) and its sequel Vietnam War Story: The Last Days (1989) and the films 84C MoPic (1989) and Courage Under Fire (1996). Additional writing credits include A Home of Our Own (1993), The Pornographer (1994), Nick of Time (1995), Mr. Holland's Opus (1995), and the television movies A Painted House (2003), Elvis (2005), and the Little Red Wagon (2012). Duncan is a winner of the CableACE Award for Writing for a Dramatic Series for Vietnam War Story: The Last Days and a Christopher Award for Mr. Holland's Opus, which also garnered him a Golden Globe nomination. He was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival for 84C MoPic and The Pornographer and the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature and Best Screenplay for 84C MoPic. He received the Vietnam Veterans of America Excellence in the Arts Award at the organization's 1989 National Convention in Chicago. Duncan's play, Souls on Fire, was produced by Danny Glover's theatre company, Robey Theatre Company in Los Angeles. In 2016, Duncan published the historical horror novel Dracula vs. Hitler. References External links Patrick Sheane Duncan at IMDb

NASA launched an Apollo mission a year after the Stonewall Riots. How many collective children did the astronauts onboard that mission have?

8

Numerical reasoning | Tabular reasoning | Multiple constraints | Post processing | Temporal reasoning

The Stonewall riots, also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, Stonewall revolution, or simply Stonewall, were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Although the demonstrations were not the first time American homosexuals fought back against government-sponsored persecution of sexual minorities, the Stonewall riots marked a new beginning for the gay rights movement in the United States and around the world. American gays and lesbians in the 1950s and 1960s faced a legal system more anti-homosexual than those of some Warsaw Pact countries. Early homophile groups in the U.S. sought to prove that gay people could be assimilated into society, and they favored non-confrontational education for homosexuals and heterosexuals alike. The last years of the 1960s, however, were very contentious, as many social movements were active, including the African American Civil Rights Movement, the Counterculture of the 1960s, and antiwar demonstrations. These influences, along with the liberal environment of Greenwich Village, served as catalysts for the Stonewall riots. Very few establishments welcomed openly gay people in the 1950s and 1960s. Those that did were often bars, although bar owners and managers were rarely gay. The Stonewall Inn was owned by the Mafia and catered to an assortment of patrons, popular among the poorest and most marginalized people in the gay community: drag queens, representatives of a newly self-aware transgender community, effeminate young men, hustlers, and homeless youth. Police raids on gay bars were routine in the 1960s, but officers quickly lost control of the situation at the Stonewall Inn and attracted a crowd that was incited to riot. Tensions between New York City police and gay residents of Greenwich Village erupted into more protests the next evening and again several nights later. Within weeks, Village residents quickly organized into activist groups to concentrate efforts on establishing places for gays and lesbians to be open about their sexual orientation without fear of being arrested. Following the Stonewall riots, sexual minorities in New York City faced gender, class, and generational obstacles to becoming a cohesive community. In the weeks and months after, they initiated politically active social organizations and launched publications that spoke openly about rights for gay people. The first anniversary of the riots was marked by peaceful demonstrations in several American cities that have since grown to become pride parades. The Stonewall National Monument was established at the site in 2016. Today, pride events are held annually throughout the world toward the end of June to mark the Stonewall riots. Background Homosexuality in 20th-century United States Following the social upheaval of World War II, many people in the United States felt a fervent desire to "restore the prewar social order and hold off the forces of change", according to historian Barry Adam. Spurred by the national emphasis on anti-communism, Senator Joseph McCarthy conducted hearings searching for communists in the U.S. government, the U.S. Army, and other government-funded agencies and institutions, leading to a national paranoia. Anarchists, communists, and other people deemed un-American and subversive were considered security risks. Gay men and lesbians were included in this list by the U.S. State Department on the theory that they were susceptible to blackmail. In 1950, a Senate investigation chaired by Clyde R. Hoey noted in a report, "It is generally believed that those who engage in overt acts of perversion lack the emotional stability of normal persons", and said all of the government's intelligence agencies "are in complete agreement that sex perverts in Government constitute security risks". Between 1947 and 1950, 1,700 federal job applications were denied, 4,380 people were discharged from the military, and 420 were fired from their government jobs for being suspected homosexuals. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and police departments kept lists of known homosexuals and their favored establishments and friends; the U.S. Post Office kept track of addresses where material pertaining to homosexuality was mailed. State and local governments followed suit: bars catering to gay men and lesbians were shut down and their customers were arrested and exposed in newspapers. Cities performed "sweeps" to rid neighborhoods, parks, bars, and beaches of gay people. They outlawed the wearing of opposite-gender clothes and universities expelled instructors suspected of being homosexual. In 1952, the American Psychiatric Association listed homosexuality in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) as a mental disorder. A large-scale study of homosexuality in 1962 was used to justify the inclusion of the "disorder" as a supposed pathological hidden fear of the opposite sex caused by traumatic parent–child relationships. This view was widely influential in the medical profession. In 1956, the psychologist Evelyn Hooker performed a study that compared the happiness and well-adjusted nature of self-identified homosexual men with heterosexual men and found no difference. Her study stunned the medical community and made her a hero to many gay men and lesbians, but homosexuality remained in the DSM until 1974. Homophile activism In response to this trend, two organizations formed independently of each other to advance the cause of gay men and lesbians and provide opportunities where they could socialize without fear of being arrested. Los Angeles area homosexuals created the Mattachine Society in 1950, in the home of communist activist Harry Hay. Their objectives were to unify homosexuals, educate them, provide leadership, and assist "sexual deviants" with legal troubles. Facing enormous opposition to their radical approach, in 1953 the Mattachine shifted their focus to assimilation and respectability. They reasoned that they would change more minds about homosexuality by proving that gay men and lesbians were normal people, no different from heterosexuals. Soon after, several women in San Francisco met in their living rooms to form the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) for lesbians. Although the eight women who created the DOB initially came together to be able to have a safe place to dance, as the DOB grew they developed similar goals to the Mattachine and urged their members to assimilate into general society. One of the first challenges to government repression came in 1953. An organization named ONE, Inc. published a magazine called ONE. The U.S. Postal Service refused to mail its August issue, which concerned homosexual people in heterosexual marriages, on the grounds that the material was obscene despite it being covered in brown paper wrapping. The case eventually went to the Supreme Court, which in 1958 ruled that ONE, Inc. could mail its materials through the Postal Service. Homophile organizations—as homosexual groups self-identified in this era—grew in number and spread to the East Coast. Gradually, members of these organizations grew bolder. Frank Kameny founded the Mattachine of Washington, D.C. He had been fired from the U.S. Army Map Service for being a homosexual and sued unsuccessfully to be reinstated. Kameny wrote that homosexuals were no different from heterosexuals, often aiming his efforts at mental health professionals, some of whom attended Mattachine and DOB meetings telling members they were abnormal. In 1965, news on Cuban prison work camps for homosexuals inspired Mattachine New York and D.C. to organize protests at the United Nations and the White House. Similar demonstrations were then held also at other government buildings. The purpose was to protest the treatment of gay people in Cuba and U.S. employment discrimination. These pickets shocked many gay people and upset some of the leadership of Mattachine and the DOB. At the same time, demonstrations in the civil rights movement and opposition to the Vietnam War all grew in prominence, frequency, and severity throughout the 1960s, as did their confrontations with police forces. Earlier resistance and riots On the outer fringes of the few small gay communities were people who challenged gender expectations. They were effeminate men and masculine women, or people who dressed and lived in contrast to their sex assigned at birth, either part or full-time. Contemporaneous nomenclature classified them as transvestites and they were the most visible representatives of sexual minorities. They belied the carefully crafted image portrayed by the Mattachine Society and DOB asserted homosexuals were respectable, normal people. The Mattachine and DOB considered the trials of being arrested for wearing clothing of the opposite gender as a parallel to the struggles of homophile organizations: similar but distinctly separate. Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people staged a small riot at the Cooper Do-nuts café in Los Angeles in 1959 in response to police harassment. In a larger 1966 event in San Francisco, drag queens, hustlers, and trans women were sitting in Compton's Cafeteria when the police arrived to arrest people appearing to be physically male who were presenting as women. A riot ensued, with the cafeteria patrons slinging cups, plates, and saucers and breaking the plexiglass windows in the front of the restaurant and returning several days later to smash the windows again after they were replaced. Professor Susan Stryker classifies the Compton's Cafeteria riot as an "act of anti-transgender discrimination, rather than an act of discrimination against sexual orientation" and connects the uprising to the issues of gender, race, and class that were being downplayed by homophile organizations. It marked the beginning of transgender activism in San Francisco. Greenwich Village The Manhattan neighborhoods of Greenwich Village and Harlem were home to sizable gay and lesbian populations after World War I, when people who had served in the military took advantage of the opportunity to settle in larger cities. The enclaves of gay men and lesbians, described by a newspaper story as "short-haired women and long-haired men", developed a distinct subculture through the following two decades. Prohibition inadvertently benefited gay establishments, as drinking alcohol was pushed underground along with other behaviors considered immoral. New York City passed laws against homosexuality in public and private businesses, but because alcohol was in high demand, speakeasies and impromptu drinking establishments were so numerous and temporary that authorities were unable to police them all. However, police raids continued, resulting in the closure of iconic establishments such as Eve's Hangout in 1926. The social repression of the 1950s resulted in a cultural revolution in Greenwich Village. A cohort of poets, later named the Beat poets, wrote about the evils of the social organization at the time, glorifying anarchy, drugs, and hedonistic pleasures over unquestioning social compliance, consumerism, and closed-mindedness. Of them, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs—both Greenwich Village residents—also wrote bluntly and honestly about homosexuality. Their writings attracted sympathetic liberal-minded people, as well as homosexuals looking for a community. By the early 1960s, a campaign to rid New York City of gay bars was in full effect by order of Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr., who was concerned about the image of the city in preparation for the 1964 World's Fair. The city revoked the liquor licenses of the bars and undercover police officers worked to entrap as many homosexual men as possible. Entrapment usually consisted of an undercover officer who found a man in a bar or public park, engaged him in conversation; if the conversation headed toward the possibility that they might leave together—or the officer bought the man a drink—he was arrested for solicitation. One story in the New York Post described an arrest in a gym locker room, where the officer grabbed his crotch, moaning, and a man who asked him if he was all right was arrested. Few lawyers would defend cases as undesirable as these and some of those lawyers kicked back their fees to the arresting officer. The Mattachine Society succeeded in getting newly elected mayor John Lindsay to end the campaign of police entrapment in New York City. They had a more difficult time with the New York State Liquor Authority (SLA). While no laws prohibited serving homosexuals, courts allowed the SLA discretion in approving and revoking liquor licenses for businesses that might become "disorderly". Despite the high population of gay men and lesbians who called Greenwich Village home, very few places existed, other than bars, where they were able to congregate openly without being harassed or arrested. In 1966 the New York Mattachine held a "sip-in" at a Greenwich Village bar named Julius, which was frequented by gay men, to illustrate the discrimination homosexuals faced. None of the bars frequented by gay men and lesbians were owned by gay people. Almost all of them were owned and controlled by organized crime, who treated the regulars poorly, watered down the liquor, and overcharged for drinks. However, they also paid off police to prevent frequent raids. Stonewall Inn The Stonewall Inn, located at 51 and 53 Christopher Street, along with several other establishments in the city, was owned by the Genovese crime family. In 1966, three members of the Mafia invested $3,500 to turn the Stonewall Inn into a gay bar, after it had been a restaurant and a nightclub for heterosexuals. Once a week a police officer would collect envelopes of cash as a payoff known as a gayola, as the Stonewall Inn had no liquor license. It had no running water behind the bar—dirty glasses were run through tubs of water and immediately reused. There were no fire exits, and the toilets overran consistently. Though the bar was not used for prostitution, drug sales and other black market activities took place. It was the only bar for gay men in New York City where dancing was allowed; dancing was its main draw since its re-opening as a gay club. Visitors to the Stonewall Inn in 1969 were greeted by a bouncer who inspected them through a peephole in the door. The legal drinking age was 18 and to avoid unwittingly letting in undercover police (who were called "Lily Law", "Alice Blue Gown", or "Betty Badge"), visitors would have to be known by the doorman or 'look gay'. Patrons were required to sign their names in a book to prove that the bar was a private "bottle club", but they rarely signed their real names. There were two dance floors in the Stonewall. The interior was painted black, making it very dark inside, with pulsing gel lights or black lights. If police were spotted, regular white lights were turned on, signaling that everyone should stop dancing or touching. In the rear of the bar was a smaller room frequented by "queens"; it was one of two bars where effeminate men who wore makeup and teased their hair (though dressed in men's clothing) could go. Only a few people in full drag were allowed in by the bouncers. The customers were "98 percent male" but a few lesbians sometimes came to the bar. Younger homeless adolescent males, who slept in nearby Christopher Park, would often try to get in so customers would buy them drinks. The age of the clientele ranged between the upper teens and early thirties and the racial mix was distributed among mainly white, with Black, and Hispanic patrons. Because of its mix of people, its location, and the attraction of dancing, the Stonewall Inn was known by many as "the gay bar in the city". Police raids on gay bars were frequent, occurring on average once a month for each bar. Many bars kept extra liquor in a secret panel behind the bar, or in a car down the block, to facilitate resuming business as quickly as possible if alcohol was seized. Bar management usually knew about raids beforehand due to police tip-offs, and raids occurred early enough in the evening that business could commence after the police had finished. During a typical raid, the lights were turned on and customers were lined up and their identification cards checked. Those without identification or dressed in full drag were arrested; others were allowed to leave. Some of the men, including those in drag, used their draft cards as identification. Women were required to wear three pieces of feminine clothing and would be arrested if found not wearing them. Typically, employees and management of the bars were also arrested. The period immediately before June 28, 1969, was marked by frequent raids of local bars—including a raid at the Stonewall Inn on the Tuesday before the riots—and the closing of the Checkerboard, the Tele-Star, and two other clubs in Greenwich Village. Riots Police raid At 1:20 a.m. on Saturday, June 28, 1969, four plainclothes policemen in dark suits, two patrol officers in uniform, Detective Charles Smythe, and Deputy Inspector Seymour Pine arrived at the Stonewall Inn's double doors and announced "Police! We're taking the place!" Two undercover policewomen and two undercover policemen entered the bar early that evening to gather visual evidence, as the Public Morals Squad waited outside for the signal. Once ready, the undercover officers called for backup from the Sixth Precinct using the bar's pay telephone. Stonewall employees do not recall being tipped off that a raid was to occur that night, as was the custom. The music was turned off and the main lights were turned on. Approximately 200 people were in the bar that night. Patrons who had never experienced a police raid were confused. A few who realized what was happening began to run for doors and windows in the bathrooms, but police barred the doors. Michael Fader remembered, "Things happened so fast you kind of got caught not knowing. All of a sudden there were police there and we were told to all get in lines and to have our identification ready to be led out of the bar." The raid did not go as planned. Standard procedure was to line up the patrons, check their identification and have female police officers take customers dressed as women to the bathroom to verify their sex, upon which any people appearing to be physically male and dressed as women would be arrested. Those dressed as women that night refused to go with the officers. Men in line began to refuse to produce their identification. The police decided to take everyone present to the police station, after separating those suspected of cross-dressing in a room in the back of the bar. All parties involved recall that a sense of discomfort spread very quickly, started by police who assaulted some of the lesbians by "feeling some of them up inappropriately" while frisking them. The police were to transport the bar's alcohol in patrol wagons. Twenty-eight cases of beer and nineteen bottles of hard liquor were seized, but the patrol wagons had not yet arrived, so patrons were required to wait in line for about 15 minutes. Those who were not arrested were released from the front door, but they did not leave quickly as usual. Instead, they stopped outside and a crowd began to grow and watch. Within minutes, between 100 and 150 people had congregated outside, some after they were released from inside the Stonewall and some after noticing the police cars and the crowd. Although the police forcefully pushed or kicked some patrons out of the bar, some customers released by the police performed for the crowd by posing and saluting the police in an exaggerated fashion. The crowd's applause encouraged them further. When the first patrol wagon arrived, Inspector Pine recalled that the crowd—most of whom were homosexual—had grown to at least ten times the number of people who were arrested and they all became very quiet. Confusion over radio communication delayed the arrival of a second wagon. The police began escorting Mafia members into the first wagon, to the cheers of the bystanders. Next, regular employees were loaded into the wagon. A bystander shouted, "Gay power!", someone began singing "We Shall Overcome" and the crowd reacted with amusement and general good humor mixed with "growing and intensive hostility". An officer shoved a person in drag, who responded by hitting him on the head with her purse. The cop clubbed her over the head, as the crowd began to boo. Author Edmund White, who had been passing by, recalled, "Everyone's restless, angry, and high-spirited. No one has a slogan, no one even has an attitude, but something's brewing." Pennies, then beer bottles, were thrown at the wagon as a rumor spread through the crowd that patrons still inside the bar were being beaten. A scuffle broke out when a woman in handcuffs was escorted from the door of the bar to the waiting police wagon several times. She escaped repeatedly and fought with four of the police, swearing and shouting, for about ten minutes. Described as "a typical New York butch" and "a dyke–stone butch", she had been hit on the head by an officer with a baton for, as one witness claimed, complaining that her handcuffs were too tight. Bystanders recalled that the woman, whose identity remains unknown (Stormé DeLarverie has been identified by some, including herself, as the woman, but accounts vary), sparked the crowd to fight when she looked at bystanders and shouted, "Why don't you guys do something?" After an officer picked her up and heaved her into the back of the wagon, the crowd became a mob and became violent. Violence breaks out The police tried to restrain some of the crowd, knocking a few people down, which incited bystanders even more. Some of those handcuffed in the wagon escaped when police left them unattended (deliberately, according to some witnesses). As the crowd tried to overturn the police wagon, two police cars and the wagon—with a few slashed tires—left immediately, with Inspector Pine urging them to return as soon as possible. The commotion attracted more people who learned what was happening. Someone in the crowd declared that the bar had been raided because "they didn't pay off the cops", to which someone else yelled, "Let's pay them off!" Coins sailed through the air towards the police as the crowd shouted "Pigs!" and "Faggot cops!" Beer cans were thrown and the police lashed out, dispersing some of the crowd who found a construction site nearby with stacks of bricks. The police, outnumbered by between 500 and 600 people, grabbed several people, including activist folk singer (and mentor of Bob Dylan) Dave Van Ronk—who had been attracted to the revolt from a bar two doors away from the Stonewall. Though Van Ronk was not gay, he had experienced police violence when he participated in antiwar demonstrations: "As far as I was concerned, anybody who'd stand against the cops was all right with me and that's why I stayed in ... Every time you turned around the cops were pulling some outrage or another." Van Ronk was the first of thirteen arrested that night. Ten police officers—including two policewomen—barricaded themselves, Van Ronk, Howard Smith (a column writer for The Village Voice), and several handcuffed detainees inside the Stonewall Inn for their own safety. Multiple accounts of the riot assert that there was no pre-existing organization or apparent cause for the demonstration; what ensued was spontaneous. Michael Fader explained: We all had a collective feeling like we'd had enough of this kind of shit. It wasn't anything tangible anybody said to anyone else, it was just kind of like everything over the years had come to a head on that one particular night in the one particular place and it was not an organized demonstration... The only known photograph from the first night of the riots, taken by freelance photographer Joseph Ambrosini, shows the homeless gay youth who slept in nearby Christopher Park, scuffling with police. Jackie Hormona and Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt are on the far left. The Mattachine Society newsletter a month later offered its explanation of why the riots occurred: "It catered largely to a group of people who are not welcome in, or cannot afford, other places of homosexual social gathering ... The Stonewall became home to these kids. When it was raided, they fought for it. That and the fact that they had nothing to lose other than the most tolerant and broadminded gay place in town, explains why." Garbage cans, garbage, bottles, rocks, and bricks were hurled at the building, breaking the windows. Witnesses attest that "flame queens", hustlers, and gay "street kids"—the most outcast people in the gay community—were responsible for the first volley of projectiles, as well as the uprooting of a parking meter used as a battering ram on the doors of the Stonewall Inn. The mob lit garbage on fire and stuffed it through the broken windows as the police grabbed a fire hose. Because it had no water pressure, the hose was ineffective in dispersing the crowd and seemed only to encourage them. Marsha P. Johnson later said that it was the police that had started the fire in the bar. When demonstrators broke through the windows—which had been covered by plywood by the bar owners to deter the police from raiding the bar—the police inside unholstered their pistols. The doors flew open and officers pointed their weapons at the angry crowd, threatening to shoot. Howard Smith, in the bar with the police, took a wrench from the bar and stuffed it in his pants, unsure if he might have to use it against the mob or the police. He watched someone squirt lighter fluid into the bar; as it was lit and the police took aim, sirens were heard and fire trucks arrived. The onslaught had lasted 45 minutes. When the violence broke out, the women and transmasculine people being held down the street at The Women's House of Detention joined in by chanting, setting fire to their belongings and tossing them into the street below. The historian Hugh Ryan says, "When I would talk to people about Stonewall, they would tell me, that night on Stonewall, we looked to the prison because we saw the women rioting and chanting, 'Gay rights, gay rights, gay rights.'" Escalation The Tactical Patrol Force (TPF) of the New York City Police Department arrived to free the police trapped inside the Stonewall. One officer's eye was cut and a few others were bruised from being struck by flying debris. Bob Kohler, who was walking his dog by the Stonewall that night, saw the TPF arrive: I had been in enough riots to know the fun was over ... The cops were totally humiliated. This never, ever happened. They were angrier than I guess they had ever been because everybody else had rioted ... but the fairies were not supposed to riot ... no group had ever forced cops to retreat before, so the anger was just enormous. I mean, they wanted to kill. With larger numbers, police detained anyone they could and put them in patrol wagons to go to jail, though Inspector Pine recalled, "Fights erupted with the transvestites, who wouldn't go into the patrol wagon." His recollection was corroborated by another witness across the street who said, "All I could see about who was fighting was that it was transvestites and they were fighting furiously." The TPF formed a phalanx and attempted to clear the streets by marching slowly and pushing the crowd back. The mob openly mocked the police. The crowd cheered, started impromptu kick lines and sang to the tune of "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay": "We are the Stonewall girls/ We wear our hair in curls/ We don't wear underwear/ We show our pubic hair." Lucian Truscott reported in The Village Voice: "A stagnant situation there brought on some gay tomfoolery in the form of a chorus line facing the line of helmeted and club-carrying cops. Just as the line got into a full kick routine, the TPF advanced again and cleared the crowd of screaming gay power[-]ites down Christopher to Seventh Avenue." One participant who had been in the Stonewall during the raid recalled, "The police rushed us and that's when I realized this is not a good thing to do, because they got me in the back with a nightstick." Another account stated, "I just can't ever get that one sight out of my mind. The cops with the [nightsticks] and the kick line on the other side. It was the most amazing thing ... And all the sudden that kick line, which I guess was a spoof on the machismo ... I think that's when I felt rage. Because people were getting smashed with bats. And for what? A kick line." Marsha P. Johnson, an African-American street queen, recalled arriving at the bar around "2:00 [am]", and that at that point the riots were well underway, with the building in flames. As the riots went on into the early hours of the morning, Johnson, along with Zazu Nova and Jackie Hormona, were noted as "three individuals known to have been in the vanguard" of the pushback against the police. Craig Rodwell, owner of the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop, reported watching police chase participants through the crooked streets, only to see them appear around the next corner behind the police. Members of the mob stopped cars, overturning one of them to block Christopher Street. Jack Nichols and Lige Clarke, in their column printed in Screw, declared that "massive crowds of angry protesters chased [the police] for blocks screaming, 'Catch them!'" By 4:00 am, the streets had nearly been cleared. Many people sat on stoops or gathered nearby in Christopher Park throughout the morning, dazed in disbelief at what had transpired. Many witnesses remembered the surreal and eerie quiet that descended upon Christopher Street, though there continued to be "electricity in the air". One commented: "There was a certain beauty in the aftermath of the riot ... It was obvious, at least to me, that a lot of people really were gay and, you know, this was our street." Thirteen people had been arrested. Some in the crowd were hospitalized, and four police officers were injured. Almost everything in the Stonewall Inn was broken. Inspector Pine had intended to close and dismantle the Stonewall Inn that night. Pay phones, toilets, mirrors, jukeboxes, and cigarette machines were all smashed, possibly in the riot and possibly by the police. Second night of rioting During the siege of the Stonewall, Craig Rodwell called The New York Times, the New York Post, and the Daily News to tell them what was happening. All three papers covered the riots; the Daily News placed coverage on the front page. News of the riot spread quickly throughout Greenwich Village, fueled by rumors that it had been organized by the Students for a Democratic Society, the Black Panthers, or triggered by "a homosexual police officer whose roommate went dancing at the Stonewall against the officer's wishes". All day Saturday, June 28, people came to stare at the burned and blackened Stonewall Inn. Graffiti appeared on the walls of the bar, declaring "Drag power", "They invaded our rights", "Support gay power" and "Legalize gay bars", along with accusations of police looting and—regarding the status of the bar—"We are open." The next night, rioting again surrounded Christopher Street; participants remember differently which night was more frantic or violent. Many of the same people returned from the previous evening—hustlers, street youths, and "queens"—but they were joined by "police provocateurs", curious bystanders, and even tourists. Remarkable to many was the sudden exhibition of homosexual affection in public, as described by one witness: "From going to places where you had to knock on a door and speak to someone through a peephole in order to get in. We were just out. We were in the streets." Thousands of people had gathered in front of the Stonewall, which had opened again, choking Christopher Street until the crowd spilled into adjoining blocks. The throng surrounded buses and cars, harassing the occupants unless they either admitted they were gay or indicated their support for the demonstrators. Marsha P. Johnson was seen climbing a lamppost and dropping a heavy bag onto the hood of a police car, shattering the windshield. As on the previous evening, fires were started in garbage cans throughout the neighborhood. More than a hundred police were present from the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Ninth Precincts, but after 2:00 a.m. the TPF arrived again. Kick lines and police chases waxed and waned; when police captured demonstrators, whom the majority of witnesses described as "sissies" or "swishes", the crowd surged to recapture them. Again, street battling ensued until 4:00 am. Beat poet and longtime Greenwich Village resident Allen Ginsberg lived on Christopher Street and happened upon the jubilant chaos. After he learned of the riot that had occurred the previous evening, he stated, "Gay power! Isn't that great! ... It's about time we did something to assert ourselves" and visited the open Stonewall Inn for the first time. While walking home, he declared to Lucian Truscott, "You know, the guys there were so beautiful—they've lost that wounded look that fags all had 10 years ago." Activist Mark Segal recounts that Martha Shelley and Marty Robinson stood and made speeches from the front door of the Stonewall on June 29, 1969, the second night of the riot. Leaflets, press coverage, and more violence Activity in Greenwich Village was sporadic on Monday, June 30, and Tuesday, July 1, partly due to rain. Police and Village residents had a few altercations, as both groups antagonized each other. Craig Rodwell and his partner Fred Sargeant took the opportunity the morning after the first riot to print and distribute 5,000 leaflets, one of them reading: "Get the Mafia and the Cops out of Gay Bars." The leaflets called for gay people to own their own establishments, for a boycott of the Stonewall and other Mafia-owned bars, and for public pressure on the mayor's office to investigate the "intolerable situation". Not everyone in the gay community considered the revolt a positive development. To many older homosexuals and many members of the Mattachine Society who had worked throughout the 1960s to promote homosexuals as no different from heterosexuals, the display of violence and effeminate behavior was embarrassing. Randy Wicker, who had marched in the first gay picket lines before the White House in 1965, said the "screaming queens forming chorus lines and kicking went against everything that I wanted people to think about homosexuals ... that we were a bunch of drag queens in the Village acting disorderly and tacky and cheap." Others found the closing of the Stonewall Inn, termed a "sleaze joint", as advantageous to the Village. On Wednesday, however, The Village Voice ran reports of the riots, written by Howard Smith and Lucian Truscott, that included unflattering descriptions of the events and its participants: "forces of faggotry", "limp wrists" and "Sunday fag follies". A mob descended upon Christopher Street once again and threatened to burn down the offices of The Village Voice, which at the time was headquartered several buildings west of the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street; that proximity gave Truscott and other writers for the newspaper first hand observations of the uprising. Also in the mob of between 500 and 1,000 were other groups that had had unsuccessful confrontations with the police and were curious how the police were defeated in this situation. Another explosive street battle took place, with injuries to demonstrators and police alike, local shops getting looted, and arrests of five people. The incidents on Wednesday night lasted about an hour and were summarized by one witness: "The word is out. Christopher Street shall be liberated. The fags have had it with oppression." Aftermath The feeling of urgency spread throughout Greenwich Village, even to people who had not witnessed the riots. Many who were moved by the rebellion attended organizational meetings, sensing an opportunity to take action. On July 4, 1969, the Mattachine Society performed its annual picket in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, called the Annual Reminder. Organizers Craig Rodwell, Frank Kameny, Randy Wicker, Barbara Gittings, and Kay Lahusen, who had all participated for several years, took a bus along with other picketers from New York City to Philadelphia. Since 1965, the pickets had been very controlled: women wore skirts and men wore suits and ties and all marched quietly in organized lines. This year Rodwell remembered feeling restricted by the rules Kameny had set. When two women spontaneously held hands, Kameny broke them apart, saying, "None of that! None of that!" Rodwell, however, convinced about ten couples to hold hands. The hand-holding couples made Kameny furious, but they earned more press attention than all of the previous marches. Participant Lilli Vincenz remembered, "It was clear that things were changing. People who had felt oppressed now felt empowered." Rodwell returned to New York City determined to change the established quiet, meek ways of trying to get attention. One of his first priorities was planning Christopher Street Liberation Day. Gay Liberation Front Although the Mattachine Society had existed since the 1950s, many of their methods now seemed too mild for people who had witnessed or been inspired by the riots. Mattachine recognized the shift in attitudes in a story from their newsletter entitled, "The Hairpin Drop Heard Around the World." When a Mattachine officer suggested an "amicable and sweet" candlelight vigil demonstration, a man in the audience fumed and shouted, "Sweet! Bullshit! That's the role society has been forcing these queens to play." With a flyer announcing: "Do You Think Homosexuals Are Revolting? You Bet Your Sweet Ass We Are!", the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was soon formed, the first gay organization to use gay in its name. Previous organizations such as the Mattachine Society, the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), and various homophile groups had masked their purpose by deliberately choosing obscure names. The rise of militancy became apparent to Frank Kameny and Barbara Gittings—who had worked in homophile organizations for years and were both very public about their roles—when they attended a GLF meeting to see the new group. A young GLF member demanded to know who they were and what their credentials were. Gittings, nonplussed, stammered, "I'm gay. That's why I'm here." The GLF borrowed tactics from and aligned themselves with black and antiwar demonstrators with the ideal that they "could work to restructure American society". They took on causes of the Black Panthers, marching to the Women's House of Detention in support of Afeni Shakur and other radical New Left causes. Four months after the group formed, however, it disbanded when members were unable to agree on operating procedure. Gay Activists Alliance Within six months of the Stonewall riots, activists started a citywide newspaper called Gay; they considered it necessary because the most liberal publication in the city—The Village Voice—refused to print the word gay in GLF advertisements seeking new members and volunteers. Two other newspapers were initiated within a six-week period: Come Out! and Gay Power; the readership of these three periodicals quickly climbed to between 20,000 and 25,000. GLF members organized several same-sex dances, but GLF meetings were chaotic. When Bob Kohler asked for clothes and money to help the homeless youth who had participated in the riots, many of whom slept in Christopher Park or Sheridan Square, the response was a discussion on the downfall of capitalism. In late December 1969, several people who had visited GLF meetings and left out of frustration formed the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA). The GAA was to be more orderly and entirely focused on gay issues. Their constitution began, "We as liberated homosexual activists demand the freedom for expression of our dignity and value as human beings." The GAA developed and perfected a confrontational tactic called a zap: they would catch a politician off guard during a public relations opportunity and force him or her to acknowledge gay and lesbian rights. City councilmen were zapped and mayor John Lindsay was zapped several times—once on television when GAA members made up the majority of the audience. Police raids on gay bars did not stop after the Stonewall riots. In March 1970, deputy inspector Seymour Pine raided the Zodiac and 17 Barrow Street. An after-hours gay club with no liquor or occupancy licenses called The Snake Pit was soon raided and 167 people were arrested. One of them was Diego Viñales, an Argentinian national so frightened that he might be deported as a homosexual that he tried to escape the police precinct by jumping out of a two-story window, impaling himself on a 14-inch (36 cm) spike fence. The New York Daily News printed a graphic photo of the young man's impalement on the front page. GAA members organized a march from Christopher Park to the Sixth Precinct in which hundreds of gay men, lesbians, and liberal sympathizers peacefully confronted the TPF. They also sponsored a letter-writing campaign to Mayor Lindsay in which the Greenwich Village Democratic Party and congressman Ed Koch sent pleas to end raids on gay bars in the city. The Stonewall Inn lasted only a few weeks after the riot. By October 1969 it was up for rent. Village residents surmised it was too notorious a location and Rodwell's boycott discouraged business. Gay Pride Christopher Street Liberation Day, on June 28, 1970, marked the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots with an assembly on Christopher Street; with simultaneous Gay Pride marches in Los Angeles and Chicago, these were the first Gay Pride marches in US history. The next year, Gay Pride marches took place in Boston, Dallas, Milwaukee, London, Paris, West Berlin and Stockholm. The march in New York covered 51 blocks, from Christopher Street to Central Park. The march took less than half the scheduled time due to excitement, but also due to wariness about walking through the city with gay banners and signs. Although the parade permit was delivered only two hours before the start of the march, the marchers encountered little resistance from onlookers. The New York Times reported (on the front page) that the marchers took up the entire street for about 15 city blocks. Reporting by The Village Voice was positive, describing "the out-front resistance that grew out of the police raid on the Stonewall Inn one year ago". By 1972, the participating cities included Atlanta, Buffalo, Detroit, Washington, D.C., Miami, Minneapolis, and Philadelphia, as well as San Francisco. Frank Kameny soon realized the pivotal change brought by the Stonewall riots. An organizer of gay activism in the 1950s, he was used to persuasion, trying to convince heterosexuals that gay people were no different from them. When he and other people marched in front of the White House, the State Department, and Independence Hall only five years earlier, their objective was to look as if they could work for the US government. Ten people marched with Kameny then and they alerted no press to their intentions. Although he was stunned by the upheaval by participants in the Annual Reminder in 1969, he later observed, "By the time of Stonewall, we had fifty to sixty gay groups in the country. A year later there were at least fifteen hundred. By two years later, to the extent that a count could be made, it was twenty-five hundred." Similar to Kameny's regret at his own reaction to the shift in attitudes after the riots, Randy Wicker came to describe his embarrassment as "one of the greatest mistakes of his life". The image of gay people retaliating against police, after so many years of allowing such treatment to go unchallenged, "stirred an unexpected spirit among many homosexuals". Kay Lahusen, who photographed the marches in 1965, stated, "Up to 1969, this movement was generally called the homosexual or homophile movement ... Many new activists consider the Stonewall uprising the birth of the gay liberation movement. Certainly, it was the birth of gay pride on a massive scale." David Carter explained that even though there were several uprisings before Stonewall, the reason Stonewall was so significant was that thousands of people were involved, the riot lasted a long time (six days), it was the first to get major media coverage, and it sparked the formation of many gay rights groups. Trans organizations According to Susan Stryker's book, Transgender History, the Stonewall riots had significant effects on trans rights activism. Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson established the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) organization, as they believed that trans people weren't being adequately represented in the Gay Activists Alliance and Gay Liberation Front. They established politicized versions of "houses", which came from Black and Latino queer communities, and were places that marginalized trans youth could seek shelter. Besides STAR, organizations such as Transvestites and Transsexuals (TAT) and Queens' Liberation Front (QLF) were also established. QLF, which was established by drag queen Lee Brewster and heterosexual transvestite Bunny Eisenhower, marched on Christopher Street Liberation Day and fought against drag erasure and for trans visibility. Legacy The Stonewall riots are often considered to be the origin or impetus of the gay liberation movement, and many studies of LGBT history in the U.S. are divided into pre- and post-Stonewall analyses. This has been criticized by historians of sexuality. Calls for the rights of gender and sexual minorities predate the Stonewall riots. The first homosexual movement began one hundred years earlier, in Germany. West Germany had abolished criminal liability for homosexual acts among adults over 21 years of age through a change of Section 175 of the German Criminal Code on June 25, 1969 − just three days before the Stonewall riots began. There was already the emergence of a gay liberation movement in New York at the time of the riots. The Stonewall riots were not the only time LGBT people organized politically amid attacks on LGBT establishments. The event has been said to occupy a unique place in the collective memory of many LGBT people, including those outside of the United States, as it "is marked by an international commemorative ritual – an annual gay pride parade", according to sociologist Elizabeth A. Armstrong. Community Within two years of the Stonewall riots, there were gay rights groups in every major American city, as well as in Canada, Australia, and Western Europe. People who joined activist organizations after the riots had very little in common other than their same-sex attraction. Many who arrived at GLF or GAA meetings were taken aback by the number of gay people in one place. Race, class, ideology, and gender became frequent obstacles in the years after the riots. This was illustrated during the 1973 Stonewall rally when, moments after Barbara Gittings exuberantly praised the diversity of the crowd, feminist activist Jean O'Leary protested what she perceived as the mocking of women by cross-dressers and drag queens in attendance. During a speech by O'Leary, in which she claimed that drag queens made fun of women for entertainment value and profit, Sylvia Rivera and Lee Brewster jumped on the stage and shouted "You go to bars because of what drag queens did for you and these bitches tell us to quit being ourselves!" Both the drag queens and lesbian feminists in attendance left in disgust. O'Leary also worked in the early 1970s to exclude transgender people from gay rights issues because she felt that rights for transgender people would be too difficult to attain. Sylvia Rivera left New York City in the mid-1970s, relocating to upstate New York. She later returned to the city in the mid-1990s, after the 1992 death of friend Marsha P. Johnson. Rivera lived on the "gay pier" at the end of Christopher street and advocated for homeless members of the gay community. The initial disagreements among participants in the movements often evolved after further reflection. O'Leary later regretted her stance against the drag queens attending in 1973: "Looking back, I find this so embarrassing because my views have changed so much since then. I would never pick on a transvestite now." "It was horrible. How could I work to exclude transvestites and at the same time criticize the feminists who were doing their best back in those days to exclude lesbians?" O'Leary was referring to the Lavender Menace, an appellation by second-wave feminist Betty Friedan based on attempts by members of the National Organization for Women (NOW) to distance themselves from the perception of NOW as a haven for lesbians. As part of this process, Rita Mae Brown and other lesbians who had been active in NOW were forced out. They staged a protest in 1970 at the Second Congress to Unite Women and earned the support of many NOW members, finally gaining full acceptance in 1971. The growth of lesbian feminism in the 1970s at times so conflicted with the gay liberation movement that some lesbians refused to work with gay men. Many lesbians found men's attitudes patriarchal and chauvinistic and saw in gay men the same misguided notions about women that they saw in heterosexual men. The issues most important to gay men—entrapment and public solicitation—were not shared by lesbians. In 1977, a Lesbian Pride Rally was organized as an alternative to sharing gay men's issues, especially what Adrienne Rich termed "the violent, self-destructive world of the gay bars". Veteran gay activist Barbara Gittings chose to work in the gay rights movement, explaining, "It's a matter of where does it hurt the most? For me it hurts the most not in the female arena, but the gay arena." Throughout the 1970s, gay activism had significant successes. One of the first and most important was the "zap" in May 1970 by the Los Angeles GLF at a convention of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). At a conference on behavior modification, during a film demonstrating the use of electroshock therapy to decrease same-sex attraction, Morris Kight and GLF members in the audience interrupted the film with shouts of "Torture!" and "Barbarism!" They took over the microphone to announce that medical professionals who prescribed such therapy for their homosexual patients were complicit in torturing them. Although 20 psychiatrists in attendance left, the GLF spent the hour following the zap with those remaining, trying to convince them that homosexual people were not mentally ill. When the APA invited gay activists to speak to the group in 1972, activists brought John E. Fryer, a gay psychiatrist who wore a mask, because he felt his practice was in danger. In December 1973—in large part due to the efforts of gay activists—the APA voted unanimously to remove homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. Gay men and lesbians came together to work in grassroots political organizations responding to organized resistance in 1977. A coalition of conservatives named Save Our Children staged a campaign to repeal a civil rights ordinance in Miami-Dade County. Save Our Children was successful enough to influence similar repeals in several American cities in 1978. However, that same year, a campaign in California called the Briggs Initiative, designed to force the dismissal of homosexual public school employees, was defeated. Reaction to the influence of Save Our Children and the Briggs Initiative in the gay community was so significant that it has been called the second Stonewall for many activists, marking their initiation into political participation. The subsequent 1979 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights was timed to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the Stonewall riots. Rejection of prior gay subculture The Stonewall riots marked such a significant turning point that many aspects of prior gay and lesbian culture, such as bar culture formed from decades of shame and secrecy, were forcefully ignored and denied. Historian Martin Duberman writes, "The decades preceding Stonewall ... continue to be regarded by most gay men and lesbians as some vast neolithic wasteland." Sociologist Barry Adam notes, "Every social movement must choose at some point what to retain and what to reject out of its past. What traits are the results of oppression and what are healthy and authentic?" In conjunction with the growing feminist movement of the early 1970s, roles of butch and femme that developed in lesbian bars in the 1950s and 1960s were rejected, because as one writer put it: "all role playing is sick." Lesbian feminists considered the butch roles as archaic imitations of masculine behavior. Some women, according to Lillian Faderman, were eager to shed the roles they felt forced into playing. The roles returned for some women in the 1980s, although they allowed for more flexibility than before Stonewall. Author Michael Bronski highlights the "attack on pre-Stonewall culture", particularly gay pulp fiction for men, where the themes often reflected self-hatred or ambivalence about being gay. Many books ended unsatisfactorily and drastically, often with suicide, and writers portrayed their gay characters as alcoholics or deeply unhappy. These books, which he describes as "an enormous and cohesive literature by and for gay men", have not been reissued and are lost to later generations. Dismissing the notion that the rejection was motivated by political correctness, Bronski writes, "gay liberation was a youth movement whose sense of history was defined to a large degree by rejection of the past." Impact and recognition The riots spawned from a bar raid became a literal example of gay men and lesbians fighting back and a symbolic call to arms for many people. Historian David Carter remarks in his book about the Stonewall riots that the bar itself was a complex business that represented a community center, an opportunity for the Mafia to blackmail its own customers, a home, and a place of "exploitation and degradation". The true legacy of the Stonewall riots, Carter insists, is the "ongoing struggle for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender equality". Historian Nicholas Edsall writes: Stonewall has been compared to any number of acts of radical protest and defiance in American history from the Boston Tea Party on. But the best and certainly a more nearly contemporary analogy is Rosa Parks' refusal to move to the back of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in December 1955, which sparked the modern civil rights movement. Within months after Stonewall, radical gay liberation groups and newsletters sprang up in cities and on college campuses across America and then across all of northern Europe as well. Before the rebellion at the Stonewall Inn, homosexuals were, as historians Dudley Clendinen and Adam Nagourney write: a secret legion of people, known of but discounted, ignored, laughed at or despised. And like the holders of a secret, they had an advantage which was a disadvantage too, and which was true of no other minority group in the United States. They were invisible. Unlike African Americans, women, Native Americans, Jews, the Irish, Italians, Asians, Hispanics, or any other cultural group which struggled for respect and equal rights, homosexuals had no physical or cultural markings, no language or dialect which could identify them to each other, or to anyone else ... But that night, for the first time, the usual acquiescence turned into violent resistance ... From that night the lives of millions of gay men and lesbians and the attitude toward them of the larger culture in which they lived, began to change rapidly. People began to appear in public as homosexuals, demanding respect. Historian Lillian Faderman calls the riots the "shot heard round the world", explaining, "The Stonewall Rebellion was crucial because it sounded the rally for that movement. It became an emblem of gay and lesbian power. By calling on the dramatic tactic of violent protest that was being used by other oppressed groups, the events at the Stonewall implied that homosexuals had as much reason to be disaffected as they." Joan Nestle co-founded the Lesbian Herstory Archives in 1974 and credits "its creation to that night and the courage that found its voice in the streets." Cautious, however, not to attribute the start of gay activism to the Stonewall riots, Nestle writes: I certainly don't see gay and lesbian history starting with Stonewall ... and I don't see resistance starting with Stonewall. What I do see is a historical coming together of forces, and the sixties changed how human beings endured things in this society and what they refused to endure ... Certainly, something special happened on that night in 1969 and we've made it more special in our need to have what I call a point of origin ... it's more complex than saying that it all started with Stonewall. The events of the early morning of June 28, 1969, were not the first instances of gay men and lesbians fighting back against police in New York City and elsewhere. Not only had the Mattachine Society been active in major cities such as Los Angeles and Chicago, but similarly marginalized people started the riot at Compton's Cafeteria in 1966 and another riot responded to a raid on Los Angeles' Black Cat Tavern in 1967. However, several circumstances were in play that made the Stonewall riots memorable. The location of the Lower Manhattan raid was a factor: it was across the street from The Village Voice offices, and the narrow crooked streets gave the rioters an advantage over the police. Many of the participants and residents of Greenwich Village were involved in political organizations that were effectively able to mobilize a large and cohesive gay community in the weeks and months after the rebellion. The most significant facet of the Stonewall riots, however, was the commemoration of them in Christopher Street Liberation Day, which grew into the annual Gay Pride events around the world. Stonewall (officially Stonewall Equality Limited) is an LGBT rights charity in the United Kingdom, founded in 1989 and named after the Stonewall Inn because of the Stonewall riots. The Stonewall Awards is an annual event the charity has held since 2006 to recognize people who have affected the lives of British lesbian, gay, and bisexual people. The middle of the 1990s was marked by the inclusion of bisexuals as a represented group within the gay community, when they successfully sought to be included on the platform of the 1993 March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation. Transgender people also asked to be included but were not, though trans-inclusive language was added to the march's list of demands. The transgender community continued to find itself simultaneously welcome and at odds with the gay community as attitudes about non-binary gender discrimination and pansexual orientation developed and came increasingly into conflict. In 1994, New York City celebrated "Stonewall 25" with a march that went past the United Nations Headquarters and into Central Park. Estimates put the attendance at 1.1 million people. Sylvia Rivera led an alternate march in New York City in 1994 to protest the exclusion of transgender people from the events. Attendance at LGBT Pride events has grown substantially over the decades. Most large cities around the world now have some kind of Pride demonstration; Pride events in some cities mark the largest annual celebration of any kind. The growing trend towards commercializing marches into parades—with events receiving corporate sponsorship—has caused concern about taking away the autonomy of the original grassroots demonstrations. President Barack Obama declared June 2009 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month, citing the riots as a reason to "commit to achieving equal justice under law for LGBT Americans". The year marked the 40th anniversary of the riots. An editorial in the Washington Blade compared the scruffy, violent activism during and following the Stonewall riots to the lackluster response to failed promises given by President Obama; for being ignored, wealthy LGBT activists reacted by promising to give less money to Democratic causes. Two years later, the Stonewall Inn served as a rallying point for celebrations after the New York State Senate voted to pass same-sex marriage. The act was signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo on June 24, 2011. Obama also referenced the Stonewall riots in a call for full equality during his second inaugural address on January 21, 2013: We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths—that all of us are created equal—is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls and Selma and Stonewall ... Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law—for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well. This was a historic moment: the first time that a president mentioned gay rights or the word "gay" in an inaugural address. Throughout June 2019, Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019, produced by Heritage of Pride in partnership with the I Love New York program's LGBT division, took place in New York to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. The final official estimate included 5 million visitors attending in Manhattan alone, making it the largest LGBTQ celebration in history. June is traditionally Pride month in New York City and worldwide, and the events were held under the auspices of the annual NYC Pride March. On June 6, 2019, coinciding with WorldPride being celebrated in New York City, Police Commissioner James P. O'Neill apologized on behalf of the NYPD for the actions of its officers at the Stonewall uprising. The official 50th-anniversary commemoration of the Stonewall Uprising occurred on June 28 on Christopher Street in front of Stonewall Inn. The official commemoration was themed as a rally, in reference to the original rallies in front of Stonewall Inn in 1969. Speakers at this event included mayor Bill De Blasio, senator Kirsten Gillibrand, congressman Jerry Nadler, American activist X González, and global activist Rémy Bonny. In 2019, Paris, France, officially named a square in the Marais district as Place des Émeutes-de-Stonewall (Stonewall Riots Place). Stonewall Day In 2018, 49 years after the uprising, Stonewall Day was announced as a commemoration day by Pride Live, a social advocacy and community engagement organization. The second Stonewall Day was held on Friday, June 28, 2019, outside the Stonewall Inn. During this event, Pride Live introduced their Stonewall Ambassadors program, to raise awareness for the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. Historic landmark and monument In June 1999, the US Department of the Interior included 51 and 53 Christopher Street and the surrounding area in Greenwich Village into the National Register of Historic Places, the first of significance to the LGBT community. In a dedication ceremony, Assistant Secretary of the Department of the Interior John Berry stated, "Let it forever be remembered that here—on this spot—men and women stood proud, they stood fast, so that we may be who we are, we may work where we will, live where we choose, and love whom our hearts desire." The Stonewall Inn was also named a National Historic Landmark in February 2000. On June 23, 2015, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated Stonewall as a city landmark, the first to be designated based on its LGBT cultural significance alone. On June 24, 2016, President Barack Obama announced the establishment of the Stonewall National Monument, administered by the National Park Service. The designation protects Christopher Park and adjacent areas totaling more than seven acres; the Stonewall Inn is within the boundaries of the monument but remains privately owned. The National Park Foundation formed a new nonprofit organization to raise funds for a ranger station and interpretive exhibits for the monument, including the first official national visitor center dedicated to the LGBTQIA+ experience, which was inaugurated on June 28, 2024. The New York City Subway's Christopher Street–Sheridan Square station was renamed the Christopher Street–Stonewall station on the same day. Media representations No newsreel or TV footage was taken of the riots and few home movies and photographs exist, but those that do have been used in documentaries. Film Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community (1984), a documentary on the decades leading up to the Stonewall Rebellion Stonewall (1995), a dramatic presentation of the events leading up to the riots After Stonewall (1999), a documentary of the years from Stonewall to the century's end Stonewall uprising (2010), a documentary using archival footage, photographs, documents, and witness statements Stonewall (2015), a drama about a fictional protagonist who interacts with fictionalized versions of some of the people in and around the riots Happy Birthday, Marsha! (2016), a short, experimental drama, inspired by some of the legends surrounding gay and transgender rights activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, set on the night of the riots Music Activist Madeline Davis wrote the folk song "Stonewall Nation" in 1971 after attending her first gay civil rights march. Released on Mark Custom Recording Service, it is widely regarded as the first gay liberation record, with lyrics that "celebrate the resiliency and potential power of radical gay activism." The song "'69: Judy Garland", written by Stephin Merritt and appearing on 50 Song Memoir by The Magnetic Fields, centers on the Stonewall Riots and the idea that they were caused by the death of Judy Garland six days earlier, on June 22, 1969. New York City Opera commissioned the English composer Iain Bell and American librettist Mark Campbell in 2018 to write the opera Stonewall to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the riots, to be premiered on June 19, 2019 and directed by Leonard Foglia. The Stonewall Celebration Concert is the debut studio album by Renato Russo, released in 1994. The album was a tribute to twenty-five years of the Stonewall riots in New York. Part of the royalties was donated to Ação da Cidadania Contra a Fome, a Miséria e Pela Vida (Citizen Action Against Hunger and Poverty and for Life) campaign. Theatre Street Theatre (1982) by Doric Wilson See also Christopher Street Day LGBT culture in New York City LGBT history in New York LGBT rights in New York Queer Liberation March Analogous events Dance of the Forty-One (1901), Mexico Ariston Bathhouse raid (1903), the first anti-gay police raid in New York City Huanchaca street scandal (15 June 1969), Chile Operation Soap (1981), Toronto, Canada Sex Garage raid (1990), Montreal, Canada Tasty nightclub raid (1994), dubbed "Australia's Stonewall" Bar Abanicos police raid (1997), Ecuador Rainbow Night (2020), dubbed "Polish Stonewall" Notes Citations Sources External links "Police Records Document Start of Stonewall Uprising", The New York Times, June 22, 2009 Village Voice Articles that Sparked a Final Night of Rioting: "Full Moon Over the Stonewall" by Howard Smith and "Gay Power Comes to Sheridan Square" by Lucian Truscott "The Night They Raided Stonewall" by Martin Duberman, Grand Street (1993, No. 44) Newspaper reports of the event "Media Could Use a Stonewall Uprising of Their Own" by Karl Frisch, The Huffington Post "A Look Back at the Uprising that Launched the Modern Gay Rights Movement" – video report by Democracy Now!, begins at 12:40 in the archived June 26 2009 episode at the Internet Archive; incorporates portions of Remembering Stonewall, a 1989 radio retrospective narrated and produced by David Isay (subsequent founder of StoryCorps) and an interview with historian David Carter, author of the Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution Stonewall Uprising on PBS' American Experience National Park Service: Stonewall National Monument "Who Threw the First Brick at Stonewall?" – 2019 New York Times video featuring interviews with participants in the Stonewall uprising, historians and early members of the Gay Liberation movement Stonewall Uprising Interview Collection from the American Archive of Public Broadcasting Stonewall Forever a Monument to 50 Years of Pride Stonewall National Monument Stonewall Veterans' Association Official site of the Stonewall Rebellion Veterans' Association

The Apollo program was a United States human spaceflight program carried out from 1961 to 1972 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which landed the first astronauts on the Moon. The program used the Saturn IB and Saturn V launch vehicles to lift the Command/Service Module (CSM) and Lunar Module (LM) spacecraft into space, and the Little Joe II rocket to test a launch escape system which was expected to carry the astronauts to safety in the event of a Saturn failure. Uncrewed test flights beginning in 1966 demonstrated the safety of the launch vehicles and spacecraft to carry astronauts, and four crewed flights beginning in October 1968 demonstrated the ability of the spacecraft to carry out a lunar landing mission. Apollo achieved the first crewed lunar landing on the Apollo 11 mission, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed their LM Eagle in the Sea of Tranquility and walked on the lunar surface, while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit in the CSM Columbia, and all three landed safely on Earth on July 24, 1969. Five subsequent missions landed astronauts on various lunar sites, ending in December 1972 with twelve men having walked on the Moon and 842 pounds (382 kg) of lunar rocks and soil samples returned to Earth, greatly contributing to the understanding of the Moon's composition and geological history. Two Apollo missions were failures: a 1967 cabin fire killed the entire Apollo 1 crew during a ground test in preparation for what was to be the first crewed flight; and the third landing attempt on Apollo 13 was aborted by an oxygen tank explosion en route to the Moon, which disabled the CSM Odyssey's electrical power and life support systems, and made the propulsion system unsafe to use. The crew circled the Moon and were returned safely to Earth using the LM Aquarius as a "lifeboat" for these functions. Uncrewed test flights From 1961 through 1967, Saturn launch vehicles and Apollo spacecraft components were tested in uncrewed flights. Saturn I The Saturn I launch vehicle was originally planned to carry crewed Command Module flights into low Earth orbit, but its 20,000-pound (9,100 kg) payload capacity limit could not lift even a partially fueled Service Module, which would have required building a lightweight retrorocket module for deorbit. These plans were eventually scrapped, in favor of using the uprated Saturn IB to launch the Command Module with a half-fueled Service Module for crewed Earth orbit tests. This limited Saturn I flights to Saturn launch vehicle development, CSM boilerplate testing, and three micrometeoroid satellite launches in support of Apollo. There was some incongruity in the numbering and naming of the first three uncrewed Apollo-Saturn (AS), or Apollo flights. This is due to AS-204 being renamed to Apollo 1 posthumously. This crewed flight was to have followed the first three uncrewed flights. After the fire which killed the AS-204 crew on the pad during a test and training exercise, uncrewed Apollo flights resumed to test the Saturn V launch vehicle and the Lunar Module; these were designated Apollo 4, 5 and 6. The first crewed Apollo mission was thus Apollo 7. Simple "Apollo" numbers were never assigned to the first three uncrewed flights, although renaming AS-201, AS-202, and AS-203 as Apollo 1-A, Apollo 2 and Apollo 3, had been briefly considered. Saturn IB The Saturn I was converted to the Uprated Saturn I, eventually designated Saturn IB, by replacing the S-IV second stage with the S-IVB, which would also be used as the third stage of the Saturn V with the addition of on-orbit restart capability. This increased the payload capacity to 46,000 pounds (21,000 kg), enough to orbit a Command Module with a half-fueled Service Module, and more than enough to orbit a fully fueled Lunar Module. Two suborbital tests of the Apollo Block I Command and Service Module, one S-IVB development test, and one Lunar Module test were conducted. Success of the LM test led to cancellation of a planned second uncrewed flight. Launch escape system tests From August 1963 to January 1966, a number of tests were conducted at the White Sands Missile Range for development of the launch escape system (LES). These included simulated "pad aborts", which might occur while the Apollo-Saturn space vehicle was still on the launch pad, and flights on the Little Joe II rocket to simulate Mode I aborts which might occur while the vehicle was in the air. Saturn V Prior to George Mueller's tenure as NASA's Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight starting in 1963, it was assumed that 20 Saturn Vs, with at least 10 unpiloted test flights, would be required to achieve a crewed Moon landing, using the conservative one-stage-at-a-time testing philosophy used for the Saturn I. But Mueller introduced the "all-up" testing philosophy of using three live stages plus the Apollo spacecraft on every test flight. This achieved development of the Saturn V with far fewer uncrewed tests, and facilitated achieving the Moon landing by the 1969 goal. The size of the Saturn V production lot was reduced from 20 to 15 units. Three uncrewed test flights were planned to human-rate the super heavy-lift Saturn V which would take crewed Apollo flights to the Moon. Success of the first flight and qualified success of the second led to the decision to cancel the third uncrewed test. Alphabetical mission types The Apollo program required sequential testing of several major mission elements in the runup to a crewed lunar landing. An alphabetical list of major mission types was proposed by Owen Maynard in September 1967. Two "A-type" missions performed uncrewed tests of the CSM and the Saturn V, and one B-type mission performed an uncrewed test of the LM. The C-type mission, the first crewed flight of the CSM in Earth orbit, was performed by Apollo 7. The list was revised upon George Low's proposal to commit a mission to lunar orbit ahead of schedule, an idea influenced by the status of the CSM as a proven craft and production delays of the LM. Apollo 8 was reclassified from its original assignment as a D-type mission, a test of the complete CSM/LM spacecraft in Earth orbit, to a "C-prime" mission which would fly humans to the Moon. Once complete, it obviated the need for the E-type objective of a medium Earth orbital test. The D-type mission was instead performed by Apollo 9; the F-type mission, Apollo 10, flew the CSM/LM spacecraft to the Moon for final testing, without landing. The G-type mission, Apollo 11, performed the first lunar landing, the central goal of the program. The initial A–G list was expanded to include later mission types:: 466  H-type missions—Apollo 12, 13 (planned) and 14—would perform precision landings, and J-type missions—Apollo 15, 16 and 17—would perform thorough scientific investigation. The I-type objective, which called for extended lunar orbital surveillance of the Moon, was incorporated into the J-type missions.: 466 Crewed missions The Block I CSM spacecraft did not have capability to fly with the LM, and the three crew positions were designated Command Pilot, Senior Pilot, and Pilot, based on U.S. Air Force pilot ratings. The Block II spacecraft was designed to fly with the Lunar Module, so the corresponding crew positions were designated Commander, Command Module Pilot, and Lunar Module Pilot regardless of whether a Lunar Module was present or not on any mission. Seven of the missions involved extravehicular activity (EVA), spacewalks or moonwalks outside of the spacecraft. These were of three types: testing the lunar EVA suit in Earth orbit (Apollo 9), exploring the lunar surface, and retrieving film canisters from the Scientific Instrument Module stored in the Service Module. Canceled missions Several planned missions of the Apollo program were canceled for a variety of reasons, including changes in technical direction, the Apollo 1 fire, hardware delays, and budget limitations. Before the Apollo 1 fire, two crewed Block I spacecraft missions were planned, but then it was decided that the second one would give no more information about the spacecraft performance not obtained from the first, and could not carry out extra activities such as EVA, and was canceled. The Saturn V's all-up testing strategy and relatively good success rate accomplished the first Moon landing on the sixth flight, leaving ten available for Moon landings through Apollo 20, but waning public interest in the program led to decreased Congressional funding, forcing NASA to economize. First, Apollo 20 was cut to make a Saturn V available to launch the Skylab space station whole instead of building it on-orbit using multiple Saturn IB launches. Eight months later, Apollo 18 and 19 were also cut to further economize, and because of fears of increased chance of failure with a large number of lunar flights. See also There were two NASA post-Apollo crewed spaceflight programs that used Apollo hardware: Skylab § Mission designations – space laboratory missions lasting up to 83 days Apollo–Soyuz – first joint US / Soviet crewed spaceflight Notes References This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Bibliography Hallion, Richard P.; Crouch, Tom D. (1979). Apollo: Ten Years Since Tranquility Base. Smithsonian Institution. Bibcode:1979atys.book.....H. ISBN 978-0-87474-505-4. External links NASA page on Apollo Missions Archived June 19, 2016, at the Wayback Machine National Space Science Data Center (Goddard Space Flight Center): Apollo Program with links to books on Program Space.com List of Apollo Missions. AstronomyToday List of Missions Project Apollo Flickr Photo Archive

James Arthur Lovell Jr. ( LUV-əl; born March 25, 1928) is an American retired astronaut, naval aviator, test pilot and mechanical engineer. In 1968, as command module pilot of Apollo 8, he became, with Frank Borman and William Anders, one of the first three astronauts to fly to and orbit the Moon. He then commanded the Apollo 13 lunar mission in 1970 which, after a critical failure en route, looped around the Moon and returned safely to Earth. A graduate of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, in the class of 1952, Lovell flew F2H Banshee night fighters. This included a Western Pacific deployment aboard the aircraft carrier USS Shangri-La. In January 1958, he entered a six-month test pilot training course at the Naval Air Test Center at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, with Class 20 and graduated at the top of the class. He was then assigned to Electronics Test, working with radar, and in 1960 he became the Navy's McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II program manager. The following year he became a flight instructor and safety engineering officer at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and completed Aviation Safety School at the University of Southern California. Lovell was not selected by NASA as one of the Mercury Seven astronauts due to a temporarily high bilirubin count. He was accepted in September 1962 as one of the second group of astronauts needed for the Gemini and Apollo programs. Prior to Apollo, Lovell flew in space on two Gemini missions, Gemini 7 (with Borman) in 1965 and Gemini 12 in 1966. He was the first person to fly into space four times. One of 24 people to have flown to the Moon, Lovell was the first to fly to it twice. He is a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He co-authored the 1994 book Lost Moon, on which the 1995 film Apollo 13 was based. Lovell was featured in a cameo appearance in the film. Early life James Arthur Lovell Jr. was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on March 25, 1928, the only child of James Lovell Sr., a Toronto, Ontario, Canada-born coal furnace salesman who died in a car accident in 1933 and Blanche née Masek, who was of Czech descent. For the first two years after the death of his father, Lovell and his mother lived with a relative in Terre Haute, Indiana. They then relocated to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he went to Juneau High School. He was a member of the Boy Scouts during his childhood and eventually achieved Eagle Scout, the organization's highest rank. He became interested in rocketry and built flying models as a teenager. After graduating from high school, Lovell attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison for two years, where he studied engineering under the United States Navy's "Flying Midshipman" program from 1946 to 1948. He would later credit the program for his ability to attend college, citing that he didn't otherwise have the money to attend. At Wisconsin, he played college football and pledged to the Alpha Phi Omega fraternity. He supplemented his meager Navy stipend by working at a local restaurant washing dishes and busing tables, and caring for the university's lab rats and mice on weekends. While Lovell was attending pre-flight training in the summer of 1948, the Navy was beginning to make cutbacks in the program, and cadets were under a great deal of pressure to transfer out. There were concerns that some or most of the students who graduated as naval aviators would not have pilot billets to fill. To avoid this prospect, Lovell decided to apply to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. He secured a nomination from his local U.S. Representative, John C. Brophy, and entered Annapolis in July 1948. During his first year, Lovell wrote a treatise on the liquid-propellant rocket engine. He graduated in the spring of 1952 with a Bachelor of Science degree and was commissioned as an ensign in the Navy. On June 6, he married Marilyn Lillie Gerlach in a ceremony at St. Anne's Church in Annapolis. The two had begun dating while they were in high school. As a college student, Gerlach had transferred from Wisconsin State Teachers College to George Washington University in Washington, D.C., so she could be near him while he was at Annapolis. They had four children: Barbara, James, Susan, and Jeffrey. Navy career Lovell was one of 50 members of his graduating class of 783 initially selected for naval aviation training. He went to flight training at Naval Air Station Pensacola from October 1952 to February 1954. He was designated a naval aviator on February 1, 1954, upon completion of pilot training, and was assigned to VC-3 at Moffett Field near San Francisco, California. From 1954 to 1956 he flew McDonnell F2H Banshee night fighters. This included a Western Pacific deployment aboard the aircraft carrier USS Shangri-La. Lovell eventually completed 107 carrier deck landings. Upon his return to shore duty, he was reassigned to provide pilot transition training for the North American FJ-4 Fury, McDonnell F3H Demon and Vought F8U Crusader. In January 1958, Lovell entered a six-month test pilot training course at what was then the Naval Air Test Center (now the United States Naval Test Pilot School) at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, with Class 20, which also included future astronauts Wally Schirra and Pete Conrad, who gave Lovell the nickname "Shaky". Lovell graduated at the top of the class. Usually the top graduate was assigned to flight test on graduation, but the head of electronics test had complained about never getting the top graduate, so Lovell was assigned to electronics test, where he worked with radar sets. Later that year, Lovell, Conrad, and Schirra were among 110 military test pilots selected as potential astronaut candidates for Project Mercury. Schirra went on to become one of the Mercury Seven, but Lovell was not selected because of a temporarily high bilirubin count. In 1960, electronics test was merged with armaments test to become weapons test, and Lovell became the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II program manager. During this time future astronaut John Young served under him. In 1961 Lovell received orders for VF-101 "Detachment Alpha" at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Virginia, as a flight instructor and safety engineering officer, and he completed Aviation Safety School at the University of Southern California. NASA career Astronaut selection In 1962, NASA began recruiting its second group of astronauts, intended to fly during the Gemini and Apollo programs. This time the process was a public one. Lovell found out about the selection from an advertisement that had been placed in Aviation Week & Space Technology, and decided to apply a second time. A three-person selection panel consisting of Mercury Seven astronauts Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton, and NASA test pilot Warren J. North, reduced the candidates to 32 finalists, who were sent to Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio for medical examinations. The tests there were much the same as those employed to select the Mercury Seven, but this time Lovell passed. The remaining 27 then went to Ellington Air Force Base near Houston, where they were individually interviewed by the selection panel. On September 14, Slayton informed Lovell that he had been accepted. To avoid tipping off the media, all checked into the Rice Hotel in Houston under the name of Max Peck, its general manager. On September 17, the media crowded into the 1800-seat Cullen Auditorium at the University of Houston for the official announcement, but it was a low-key event compared to the unveiling of the Mercury Seven three years before. The group became known as the "Next Nine" or the "New Nine". The new astronauts moved to the Houston area in October 1962. Conrad and Lovell built houses in Timber Cove, south of the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC). Developers in Timber Cove offered astronauts mortgages with small down payments and low interest rates. The MSC complex was not yet complete, so NASA temporarily leased office space in Houston. The task of supervising the Next Nine's training fell to Mercury Seven astronaut Gus Grissom. Initially, each of the astronauts was given four months of classroom instruction on subjects such as spacecraft propulsion, orbital mechanics, astronomy, computing, and space medicine. Classes were for six hours a day, two days a week, and all sixteen astronauts had to attend. There was also familiarization with the Gemini spacecraft, Titan II and Atlas boosters, and the Agena target vehicle. Jungle survival training was conducted at the United States Air Force (USAF) Tropic Survival School at Albrook Air Force Station in the Panama Canal Zone, desert survival training at Stead Air Force Base in Nevada, and water survival training on the Dilbert Dunker at the USN school at the Naval Air Station Pensacola and on Galveston Bay. Following the precedent set by the Mercury Seven, each of the Next Nine was assigned a special area in which to develop expertise that could be shared with the others, and to provide astronaut input to designers and engineers. Lovell became responsible for recovery systems. Gemini program Gemini 7 Lovell was selected as backup pilot for Gemini 4, which was officially announced on July 29, 1964. It put him in position for his first space flight three missions later, as pilot of Gemini 7 with command pilot Frank Borman, under a rotation system devised by Slayton. Borman was a USAF officer, and Lovell had first met him during the evaluation process for astronaut selection. Their selection for the Gemini 7 mission was officially announced on July 1, 1965, along with that of Edward White and Michael Collins as their backup crew. Like all Gemini missions, it was part of the preparations for Apollo. The flight's objective was to evaluate the effects on the crew and spacecraft from fourteen days in orbit, this being sufficiently long for any possible Moon mission, and would therefore enable doctors to evaluate the medical aspects of such a flight. Whereas the Gemini 6 mission preceding it was to demonstrate techniques for space rendezvous, likewise critical requirement of Apollo. These techniques had been worked out by Dean F. Grimm and Buzz Aldrin, who had written his doctoral thesis on the subject. The Gemini 6 mission, which was commanded by Schirra with Tom Stafford as pilot, had a serious setback on October 15, 1965, when the Agena target vehicle that Gemini 6 was supposed to rendezvous with exploded soon after takeoff. Lovell was present at the Launch Control Center at Cape Kennedy when this occurred. Officials from McDonnell, the manufacturer of the Gemini spacecraft, then raised the possibility of a rendezvous between Gemini 6 and Gemini 7 during the two weeks while Gemini 7 was in orbit. The only change to the latter's flight plan this required was to circularize its orbit to match that intended for the Agena target vehicle. Borman rejected a proposal by Schirra that Lovell and Stafford exchange places, on the grounds that it was hazardous and likely to jeopardize the fourteen-day mission objective through loss of oxygen. In planning the mission, it was decided that both astronauts would sleep at the same time and observe the same work periods, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Experiments were not scheduled, but fitted in when time allowed. Of the twenty experiments, eight were medical, aimed at gathering data about the effects of long-duration space flight. Of the rest, four were tests of spacecraft systems, five involved radiometry or navigation, and three involved photography and observation, To save space, the G5C space suit was designed that incorporated a soft hood instead of a helmet and zippers instead of a neck ring. It weighed a third less than the standard Gemini space suit and could be stowed more easily. Gemini 7 lifted off on December 4, 1965, and reached its intended 300-kilometer (160 nmi) near-circular orbit. Lovell was taller than Borman and had more difficulty donning and removing his space suit. Initially one astronaut had to be suited, but this made him uncomfortably warm, and eventually mission control relented and allowed both to leave their space suits off. Gemini 6, now called Gemini 6A, attempted to launch on December 12; the engines ignited, but shut down less than two seconds later due to an electrical problem and a fuel cap accidentally having been left in place. After repairs, Gemini 6A successfully lifted off on December 15, and rendezvoused with Gemini 7 on Gemini 6A's fourth orbit. The two spacecraft then flew in tandem for three orbits, the distance between them varying between 0.30 and 90 meters (1 and 300 ft). Gemini 6A returned to Earth on December 16. In the final two days of the mission, Lovell had time to read part of Drums Along the Mohawk by Walter D. Edmonds. As in earlier long-duration flights, malfunctions accumulated as the flight wore on. Two of the thrusters stopped working. After the flight, this was traced to the fact that they had an old type of laminate in the thrust chamber instead of the new type that had been developed to solve this problem. This proved to be only an annoyance, but there was more concern over a loss of power in the fuel cells. By day thirteen, a warning light was illuminated continuously and it was feared that the cells, which were only giving partial output, might fail completely, and the mission might have to be cut short; tests were carried out in St. Louis that demonstrated that the batteries could sustain them for the remainder of the flight. Gemini 7 made a successful return from orbit on December 18. The fourteen-day flight set an endurance record, making 206 orbits. Gemini 12 On January 24, 1966, Lovell was named as the backup command pilot of Gemini 10, with Aldrin as the pilot. On March 21, this was changed as a result of the deaths of the Gemini 9 prime crew, Elliot See and Charles Bassett, in an air crash. The Gemini 9 backup crew of Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan became the prime crew of Gemini 9A, and Lovell and Aldrin became their backups. This positioned Lovell for his second flight and first command, of Gemini 12. Lovell and Aldrin's selection for this mission was officially announced on June 17, along with that of Gordon Cooper and Gene Cernan as their backups. The goals of Gemini 12, the final Gemini mission, were ill-defined at first. "Essentially Gemini 12 didn't have a mission", Lovell later recalled. "It was, I guess, by default ... supposed to wind up the Gemini program and catch all those items that were not caught on previous flights." By July, its mission had become to master extravehicular activity (EVA), something that had proven problematic on earlier Gemini missions, as they had been more strenuous than expected and performing simple tasks had been more complicated. A series of innovations had been developed in response to the problems that had been encountered. It had been found that moving in space was similar to being underwater, and Aldrin made use of this new training technique. A waist restraint was provided on the space suit, and the Gemini spacecraft and the Agena target vehicle had additional handrails, handholds, and rings for tethering the waist restraint. Procedures were modified to minimize fatigue. Gemini 12 lifted off on November 11, and quickly achieved orbit. Its first task was to rendezvous with its Agena target vehicle. This was complicated when the rendezvous radar set failed. Instead, Aldrin, who had written his PhD on the rendezvous, used a sextant to measure the angle between the spacecraft and the Agena, and then calculated the required actions using the onboard computer. Lovell then flew the spacecraft accordingly. Rendezvous was achieved, and Gemini successfully docked with the Agena, achieving the fifth space rendezvous and fourth space docking with an Agena target vehicle. Lovell then successfully undocked and docked again. Aldrin performed three EVAs. The first was a standup EVA on November 12, in which the spacecraft door was opened and he stood up, but did not leave the spacecraft. The standup EVA mimicked some of the actions he would do during his free-flight EVA, so he could compare the effort expended between the two. It set an EVA record of two hours and twenty minutes. The next day Aldrin performed his free-flight EVA. He climbed across the newly installed hand-holds to the Agena and installed the cable needed for the gravity-gradient stabilization experiment. He performed several tasks, including installing electrical connectors and testing tools that would be needed for Apollo. The EVA concluded after two hours and six minutes. Before returning to the spacecraft, Aldrin cleaned the pilot's window with a cloth, and Lovell jokingly asked him if he could change the oil too. A third, 55-minute standup EVA was conducted on November 14, during which Aldrin took photographs, conducted experiments, and discarded some unneeded items. Gemini 12 returned to Earth on November 15, after 59 orbits. During re-entry a pouch containing books and small pieces of equipment broke free and landed in Lovell's lap. He did not want to grab it, as he feared he might pull on the D-ring that activated the ejector seat. It did not move any further, and the landing went well. The spacecraft landed just 5.5 kilometers (3.0 nmi) from the recovery ship, the aircraft carrier USS Wasp. Twelve experiments had been carried out. This mission proved that people could work effectively outside the spacecraft, which was required for the Apollo missions with the goal of getting man on the Moon by the end of the decade. Apollo program Apollo 1 On January 27, 1967, Grissom, White and Roger Chaffee were killed in the Apollo 1 fire. At the time, Lovell was in Washington, D.C., where, along with fellow astronauts Neil Armstrong, Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper and Richard Gordon, he had attended the signing of the Outer Space Treaty and the reception afterwards in the Green Room of the White House hosted by President Lyndon Johnson. Four days later, Lovell flew to West Point, New York, with Borman in a NASA T-38 for the funeral service for White at the Old Cadet Chapel. After the service, White was laid to rest in the West Point Cemetery; Lovell served as a pallbearer along with Armstrong, Borman, Conrad, Stafford and Aldrin. The Apollo command module was redesigned after the fire, and afterwards it underwent a series of qualification tests. In April 1968, Lovell, along with fellow astronauts Stuart Roosa and Charles Duke, spent 48 hours in command module CM-007A, bobbing in the Gulf of Mexico to test the seaworthiness of the Apollo spacecraft. The NASA research vessel MV Retriever stood by with technicians and divers, while the astronauts assessed how quickly the spacecraft's flotation devices could right it from the "stable II" (upside down) position. The urine collection hose was used to vacuum up water that entered the cabin. Although this did not seem to bother Lovell, Duke regarded it as his worst experience as an astronaut, and Roosa became quite seasick. The NASA Roundup newspaper wrote the event up under the headline, "Yo, Ho, Ho and a Bottle of Marezine", referencing the brand name of a motion sickness drug. Apollo 8 Lovell was originally chosen as command module pilot (CMP) on the backup crew for Apollo 9 along with Armstrong as commander (CDR) and Aldrin as lunar module pilot (LMP). Apollo 9 was planned as a high-apogee Earth orbital test of the Lunar Module (LM). Lovell later replaced Michael Collins as CMP on the Apollo 9 prime crew in July 1968 when Collins needed to have surgery for a bone spur on his spine. This reunited Lovell with his Gemini 7 commander Frank Borman, along with LMP William Anders. Aldrin became Lovell's backup CMP, and Fred Haise joined Armstrong's crew as LMP. Construction delays of the first crewed LM prevented it from being ready in time to fly on Apollo 8, planned as a low Earth orbit test. It was decided to swap the Apollo 8 and Apollo 9 prime and backup crews in the flight schedule so that the crew trained for the low-orbit test could fly it as Apollo 9, when the LM would be ready. A lunar orbital flight, now Apollo 8, replaced the original Apollo 9 medium Earth orbit test mission. The crew was informed of this decision on August 10, 1968, and the training schedule was adjusted accordingly. Starting in September, the crew spent ten hours a day in the simulator rehearsing the mission. Apollo 8 was launched on December 21, 1968, and Borman, Lovell and Anders became the first crew to ride the Saturn V rocket, as well as the first to travel to the Moon. Their Apollo craft entered lunar orbit on December 24 (Christmas Eve) and reduced speed to go into a 11-by-312-kilometer (5.9 by 168.5 nmi) orbit. The engine was then fired again to enter a 112-kilometer (60 nmi) circular orbit around the Moon. On Christmas Eve, the crew broadcast black-and-white television pictures of the lunar surface back to Earth. Lovell took his turn with Borman and Anders in reading a passage from the Biblical creation story in the Book of Genesis. They made a total of ten orbits of the Moon in 20 hours and ten minutes, and began their return to Earth on December 25 (Christmas Day) with a rocket burn made on the Moon's far side, out of radio contact with Earth. When contact was re-established, Lovell broadcast, "Please be informed, there is a Santa Claus." As CMP, Lovell served as the navigator, using the spacecraft's built-in sextant to determine its position by measuring star positions. This information was then used to calculate required mid-course corrections. Lovell used some otherwise idle time to do navigational sightings, maneuvering the module to view stars by using the Apollo guidance computer keyboard. Lovell accidentally erased some of the computer's memory by entering the wrong codes, which caused the inertial measurement unit (IMU) to contain data indicating that the module was in the same relative orientation it had been in before lift-off; the IMU then fired the thrusters to "correct" the module's attitude. Once the crew realized why the computer had changed the module's attitude, they knew that they would have to reenter the correct data to tell the computer the module's actual orientation. It took Lovell ten minutes to figure out the correct values, using the thrusters to get the stars Rigel and Sirius aligned, and another 15 minutes to enter the corrected data into the computer. Sixteen months later, during the Apollo 13 mission, Lovell would have to perform a similar manual realignment under even more critical conditions after the module's IMU had been turned off to conserve energy. A feature on the Moon's surface (Mount Marilyn) was named by Lovell in honor of his wife. The spacecraft splashed down safely before dawn on December 27 after 147 hours of flight, 4.8 kilometers (2.6 nmi) from the recovery ship, the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown. It was estimated that the crew had traveled 933,419 kilometers (504,006 nmi). Apollo 13 Lovell was backup CDR of Apollo 11, with Anders as CMP, and Haise as LMP. In early 1969, Anders accepted a job with the National Aeronautics and Space Council effective August 1969, and announced he would retire as an astronaut at that time. Ken Mattingly was moved from the support crew into parallel training with Anders as backup CMP in case Apollo 11 was delayed past its intended July launch date, at which point Anders would be unavailable. Under the normal crew rotation in place during Apollo, Lovell, Mattingly, and Haise were scheduled to fly as the prime crew of Apollo 14, but George Mueller, the director of NASA's Office of Manned Space Flight, rejected Slayton's choice of fellow Mercury Seven astronaut Alan Shepard to command Apollo 13. Shepard had only recently returned to flight status after being grounded for several years, and Mueller thought that he needed more training time to prepare for a mission to the Moon. Slayton then asked Lovell if he was willing to switch places with Shepard's crew to give them more training time. "Sure, why not?" Lovell replied, "What could possibly be the difference between Apollo 13 and Apollo 14?" There was one more change. Seven days before launch, a member of the Apollo 13 backup crew, Duke, contracted rubella from a friend of his son. This exposed both the prime and backup crews, who trained together. Of the five, only Mattingly was not immune through prior exposure. Normally, if any member of the prime crew had to be grounded, the remaining crew would be replaced as well, and the backup crew substituted, but Duke's illness ruled this out, so two days before launch, Mattingly was replaced by Jack Swigert from the backup crew. Mattingly never developed rubella and later flew to the Moon on Apollo 16. Lovell lifted off aboard Apollo 13 on April 11, 1970. He and Haise were to land near the Fra Mauro crater. The Fra Mauro formation was believed to contain much material spattered by the impact that had filled the Imbrium basin early in the Moon's history, and dating it would provide information about the early history of the Earth and the Moon. During a routine liquid oxygen tank stir in transit to the Moon, a fire started inside an oxygen tank. The most probable cause determined by NASA was damaged electrical insulation on wiring that created a spark that started the fire. A problem with draining the tank had been reported before the mission, and Lovell had approved the action taken to turn on the heaters to purge the oxygen rather than to replace the faulty tank, which would have delayed the mission by a month. Neither he nor the launch pad crew were aware that the tank contained the wrong thermostat switch. The heaters were left on for eight hours, and while this successfully purged the oxygen, it also removed teflon insulation from the copper electrical wiring. Liquid oxygen rapidly turned into a high-pressure gas, which burst the tank and caused the leak of a second oxygen tank. In just over two hours, all onboard oxygen was lost, disabling the hydrogen fuel cells that provided electrical power to the Command/Service Module Odyssey. Apollo 13 was the second mission not to use a free-return trajectory, so that they could explore the western lunar regions. Using the Apollo Lunar Module as a "life boat" providing battery power, oxygen, and propulsion, Lovell and his crew re-established the free return trajectory that they had left, and swung around the Moon to return home. Based on the flight controllers' calculations made on Earth, Lovell had to adjust the course twice by manually controlling the Lunar Module's thrusters and engine. Apollo 13 returned safely to Earth on April 17. "I'm afraid", Lovell said, "this is going to be the last lunar mission for a long time." His comment was rebutted by NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine, who hastened to reassure the public that NASA would be mounting more missions to the Moon. Nine months later, Apollo 14 would make the voyage to Fra Mauro, with modified oxygen tanks and an extra battery for emergencies. Apollo 13's flight trajectory gave Lovell, Haise, and Swigert the record for the farthest distance that humans have ever traveled from Earth. Lovell is one of only three men to travel to the Moon twice, but unlike the other two, John Young and Gene Cernan, he never walked on it. He accrued 715 hours and 5 minutes in space flights on his Gemini and Apollo flights, a personal record that stood until the Skylab 3 mission in 1973. Later life Lovell retired from the Navy and the space program on March 1, 1973, and went to work at the Bay-Houston Towing Company in Houston, Texas, taking on the role of CEO in 1975. He became president of Fisk Telephone Systems in 1977, and later worked for Centel Corporation in Chicago, retiring as an executive vice president on January 1, 1991. Lovell was a recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award. He was also recognized by the Boy Scouts of America with their Silver Buffalo Award. Lovell served on the board of directors for several organizations, including Federal Signal Corporation in Chicago from 1984 to 2003, the Astronautics Corporation of America in his hometown of Milwaukee from 1990 to 1999, and Centel from 1987 to 1991. In 1999, the Lovell family opened a restaurant in Lake Forest, Illinois, "Lovell's of Lake Forest". The restaurant displayed memorabilia from Lovell's time with NASA and the filming of Apollo 13. The restaurant was sold to son and executive chef James ("Jay") in 2006. The restaurant was put on the market for sale in February 2014, and it closed in April 2015, the property being auctioned the same month. Marilyn Lovell (born on July 11, 1930) died of natural causes at the age of 93, at her home in the Lake Forest Place retirement community in Lake Forest, Illinois on August 27, 2023. Upon the death of Frank Borman on November 7, 2023, Lovell became the oldest living former astronaut. Awards and decorations Lovell's awards and decorations include: Military, federal service, and foreign awards Navy Distinguished Service Medal with gold star Distinguished Flying Cross with gold star Presidential Medal of Freedom Congressional Space Medal of Honor NASA Distinguished Service Medal NASA Exceptional Service Medal with star Légion d'honneur (Chevalier) Other awards and accomplishments Alpha Phi Omega Fall Pledge Class Namesake (1967) American Academy of Achievement Golden Plate Award (1968) Henry H. Arnold Trophy (1969) Institute of Navigation Award (1969) National Geographic Society's Hubbard Medal (1969) Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) De Laval Medal & Gold Space Medals (1971) Distinguished Eagle Scout Award (1990) Silver Buffalo (Boy Scouts of America) (1992) Space Foundation's General James E. Hill Lifetime Space Achievement Award (2003) NASA Ambassadors of Exploration Award (2009) Laureate of the Order of Lincoln—the highest honor awarded by the state of Illinois (2012) The Honourable Company of Air Pilots Award of Honour, presented by the Duke of York in October 2013 The Gemini 6 and 7 crews were awarded the Harmon International Trophy for 1966 in a ceremony at the White House. Lovell received a second Harmon International Trophy in 1967 when he and Aldrin were selected for their Gemini 12 flight. The Apollo 8 crew won the Robert J. Collier Trophy for 1968, and President Richard Nixon awarded them the Dr. Robert H. Goddard Memorial Trophy in 1969, which Lovell accepted on behalf of the crew. The General Thomas D. White USAF Space Trophy is normally awarded to Air Force personnel, but an exception was made to include Lovell, and the Apollo 8 crew were awarded the 1968 trophy. Lovell was awarded a third Harmon International Trophy in 1969 for his role in the Apollo 8 mission. The Apollo 8 crew was also awarded the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Haley Astronautics Award for 1970, and were named Time Magazine Men of the Year in 1968. The Apollo 7, 8, 9, and 10 crews were awarded the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Special Trustees Award for 1969. Lovell was one of ten Gemini astronauts inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1982, and, along with the other 12 Gemini astronauts, Lovell was inducted into the second U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame class in 1993. At a parade attended by 500,000 people, Lovell was conferred Chicago's medal of merit. The Apollo 13 crew was awarded the City of New York Gold Medal, but Lovell had already received it for the Apollo 8 mission. In lieu of a second medal, the mayor gifted him a crystal paperweight that he "invented for the occasion". He was also awarded the 1970 City of Houston Medal for Valor for the mission. He was awarded his second Haley Astronautics Award for his role on Apollo 13. Lovell was featured on the cover of Time magazine on January 3, 1969, and April 27, 1970, and on the cover of Life magazine on April 24, 1970. Lovell was a recipient of the University of Wisconsin's Distinguished Alumni Service Award in 1970. In his acceptance speech he emphasized the use of words over "rock throwing" to help attain political goals. He was awarded an honorary doctor of science degree at Western Michigan University's summer commencement exercises in 1970. He was also awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree at William Paterson College's commencement exercises in 1974. Lovell was also granted an honorary doctor of science degree from University of Wisconsin–Madison, his original alma mater, speaking at the December 2016 commencement. Tributes A small crater on the far side of the Moon was named Lovell in his honor in 1970. Discovery World in Milwaukee was renamed The James Lovell Museum of Science, Economics and Technology. It was at the time located on James Lovell St., also named for Lovell. The Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center was completed in October 2010, merging the Naval Health Clinic Great Lakes and the North Chicago Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Organizations Trustee of the National Space Institute Chairman of the National Eagle Scouts Association Fellow in the Society of Experimental Test Pilots In popular culture About a month after the return to Earth of Apollo 13, Lovell and his crewmates, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert, appeared on The Tonight Show with host Johnny Carson. In 1976, Lovell made a cameo appearance in the Nicolas Roeg movie The Man Who Fell to Earth. Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger wrote a 1994 book about the Apollo 13 mission, Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13, on which the 1995 Ron Howard film Apollo 13 was based. Lovell's first impression on being approached about the film was that Kevin Costner would be a good choice to portray him, given the physical resemblance, but Tom Hanks was cast in the role. To prepare, Hanks visited James and Marilyn Lovell at their home in Texas and flew with Lovell in his private airplane. Kathleen Quinlan was nominated for a supporting actress Oscar for her performance as Marilyn. In the film, Lovell has a cameo as the captain of the USS Iwo Jima. He can be seen as the naval officer shaking Hanks' hand, as Hanks speaks in voice-over, in the scene where the astronauts come aboard the Iwo Jima. The filmmakers offered to make Lovell's character an admiral aboard the ship, but Lovell said: "I retired as a captain and a captain I will be." He was cast as the ship's skipper, Captain Leland Kirkemo. Along with his wife Marilyn, who also has a cameo in the film, Lovell provided a commentary track on both the single disc and the two-disc special edition DVD. Tim Daly portrayed Lovell in the 1998 HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, and Pablo Schreiber in the 2018 film about Armstrong, First Man. Notes References External links Interview with Jim Lovell for NOVA series: To the Moon WGBH Educational Foundation, raw footage, 1998 Appearances on C-SPAN Jim Lovell at IMDb

John Leonard Swigert Jr. (August 30, 1931 – December 27, 1982) was an American NASA astronaut, test pilot, mechanical engineer, aerospace engineer, United States Air Force pilot, and politician. In April 1970, as command module pilot of Apollo 13, he became one of 24 astronauts who flew to the Moon. Ironically, due to the "slingshot" route around the Moon they chose to safely return to Earth, the Apollo 13 astronauts flew farther away from Earth than any other astronauts before or since, though they had to abort the Moon landing. Before joining NASA in 1966, Swigert was a civilian test pilot and fighter pilot in the Air National Guard. After leaving NASA, he ran for Senate but lost in a primary election against Bill Armstrong. Later he ran for Congress, but while running was diagnosed with cancer. He won the election for Colorado's new 6th district in 1982, but died before being sworn in. Early life John Leonard Swigert Jr. was born on August 30, 1931, in Denver, Colorado, to parents John Leonard Swigert Sr. (1903–1973) and Virginia Swigert (1906–1993). Swigert's father was an ophthalmologist. At the age of 14, he became fascinated by aviation. While he would have been content just watching planes take off from nearby Combs Field, young Jack became determined to do more than be a spectator. He took on a newspaper route to earn money for flying lessons, and by age 16 he was a licensed private pilot. He was a member of the Boy Scouts of America and attained the rank of Second Class Scout. He attended Blessed Sacrament School, Regis Jesuit High School, and East High School, from which he graduated in 1949. Swigert received a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from University of Colorado in 1953, where he also played football for the Buffaloes. He later earned a Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Hartford campus) in 1965, and a Master of Business Administration degree from University of Hartford in 1967. His recreational interests included golf, handball, bowling, skiing, swimming, and basketball. His hobbies included photography. Flight experience Following his graduation from Colorado in 1953, Swigert joined the United States Air Force (USAF). Upon graduation from the Pilot Training Program and Gunnery School at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, he was assigned as a fighter pilot in Japan and South Korea. In 1953, he survived his plane crashing into a radar unit on a Korean airstrip. After completing his tour of active duty in the USAF, he served as a jet fighter pilot with the Massachusetts (1957–1960) and Connecticut Air National Guard (1960–1965). Swigert held a position as engineering test pilot for North American Aviation before joining NASA. He was previously an engineering test pilot for Pratt & Whitney, from February 1957 to June 1964. He logged over 7,200 hours in flight, including more than 5,725 hours in jet aircraft. NASA career After unsuccessfully applying for NASA's second and third astronaut selections, Swigert was accepted into the NASA Astronaut Corps as part of NASA Astronaut Group 5 in April 1966. Swigert became a specialist on the Apollo command module: he was one of the few astronauts who requested to be command module pilots. Swigert was a member of Apollo 7's astronaut support crew, the first support crew for an Apollo mission; he served as Capsule communicator (CAPCOM) during the ascent phase of the flight. Apollo 13 Swigert was one of three astronauts aboard the Apollo 13 Moon mission launched April 11, 1970. Originally part of the backup crew for the mission, he was assigned to the mission three days before launch, replacing astronaut Ken Mattingly. The prime crew had been exposed to German Measles (the rubella virus) from Charles Duke and, because Mattingly had no immunity to the disease, NASA did not want to risk him falling ill during critical phases of the flight. Apollo 13 was the third crewed lunar-landing attempt, but was aborted after the rupture of an oxygen tank in the spacecraft's service module. Swigert was the astronaut who first announced, "Houston, we've had a problem here". The statement was then repeated by commander of the flight Jim Lovell. Swigert, along with fellow astronauts Lovell and Fred Haise, traveled around the Moon and returned safely to Earth on April 17 after about 5 days and 23 hours, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom the next day. Apollo–Soyuz Test Project NASA Director of Flight Crew Operations Deke Slayton, who selected the astronauts, recommended Swigert as command module pilot for the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project, the first joint mission with the Soviet Union. Slayton felt Swigert deserved another chance to fly after having been selected for Apollo 13 two days before launch, and performing well. During 1972, the Apollo 15 postal covers incident caused NASA investigators to inquire into other astronauts. A number of Apollo astronauts, including Swigert, had made agreements with West German stamp dealer Hermann Sieger, who originated the idea for the Apollo 15 covers, to autograph philatelic items in exchange for a payment of about $2,500. Swigert originally denied involvement when interviewed by NASA investigators. According to Christopher C. Kraft, the investigators subpoenaed his bank records, finding more funds than expected, and records of a predated charitable donation. Swigert's subsequent admission caused NASA Deputy Administrator George M. Low to remove him from Apollo–Soyuz. Post-NASA career Aware that his spaceflight career was most likely over, Swigert took a leave of absence from NASA in April 1973 and went to Washington, D.C. to become executive director of the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives. Swigert eventually left NASA and the committee in August 1977 to enter politics. He ran for the U.S. Senate in 1978, but was soundly defeated in the Republican primary in September by Congressman Bill Armstrong, who was far better known. In 1979, Swigert became vice president of B.D.M. Corporation in Golden. He left in 1981 to join International Gold and Minerals Limited as vice president for financial and corporate affairs. In February 1982, Swigert left International Gold and Minerals Limited to run for U.S. Congress in the newly created 6th district as a Republican. When a malignant tumor in his right nasal passage was found, the astronaut-politician disclosed this to the voters. Doctors told him he would finish radiation treatments on June 15 and make a complete recovery. However, in August, Swigert developed back pain and was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer. On November 2, 1982, he won the seat with 64% of the popular vote. Death On December 19, 1982, seven weeks after his election, he was airlifted from his home in Littleton to Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C. He died of respiratory failure at its Lombardi Cancer Center on December 27, seven days before the beginning of his congressional term, aged 51. He was the last member-elect of the House to die before taking office until Luke Letlow's death from COVID-19 in December 2020. Fifteen astronauts, including fellow Apollo 13 crewmates Jim Lovell and Fred Haise, were among the thousand mourners at his full military honors funeral in Denver, presided over by Archbishop James Casey, which included a missing man flyover by A-7 Corsairs of the Colorado Air National Guard. He is buried alongside his parents in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Wheat Ridge. Awards, honors, and organizations Swigert received the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Octave Chanute Award for 1966 for his participation in demonstrating the Rogallo wing as a feasible land landing system for returning space vehicles and astronauts. President Richard Nixon awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the Apollo 13 crew shortly after the conclusion of their mission. Following a sparse parade, Swigert received the City of New York Gold Medal on June 3. He received the City of Houston Medal for Valor, 1970. Swigert received the American Astronautical Society Flight Achievement Award for 1970. He was given University of Colorado-Boulder's Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award in 1970. Vice President Spiro Agnew presented the crews of Apollo 11, 12, and 13 with the NASA Distinguished Service Medal in 1970. The Apollo 13 crew also received the AIAA Haley Astronautics Award in 1971, which included a small monetary award and a medal. Swigert was awarded the 1972 Antonian Gold Medal. He was presented an Honorary Doctorate of Science degree from American International College in 1970, an Honorary Doctorate of Laws degree from Western State University in 1970, and an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Western Michigan University in 1970. In 1983, Swigert was among 14 Apollo astronauts inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame. In 1988, Swigert was inducted into the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame. In 1995, Swigert was portrayed by Kevin Bacon in Ron Howard's film Apollo 13. In 1997, Swigert, along with 23 other Apollo astronauts, was posthumously inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame which is located at the Kennedy Space Center. He was elected in September 2003 to the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Alumni Hall of Fame. In 1997, a statue of Swigert made by George and Mark Lundeen was placed on display in the U.S. Capitol Building as one of two statues given by the state of Colorado to the National Statuary Hall Collection. As of December 2008 the statue is on display in Emancipation Hall in the United States Capitol Visitor Center. A duplicate statue is currently on display at Denver International Airport Terminal B, where passengers exit the airport's train system. The Space Foundation was founded in 1983 in part to honor the memory and accomplishments of Swigert. In 2004, the Space Foundation launched the John L. "Jack" Swigert Jr. Award for Space Exploration, which is presented annually to an individual, group, or organization that has made a significant contribution to space exploration. On August 18, 2009, the Space Foundation and Colorado Springs District 11 partnered to open the Jack Swigert Aerospace Academy. Swigert was a member of numerous organizations. He was a fellow of the American Astronautical Society; associate fellow of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; and member of the Quiet Birdmen, Phi Gamma Delta, Pi Tau Sigma, and Sigma Tau. See also Astronaut-politician List of members-elect of the United States House of Representatives who never took their seats List of spaceflight records The Astronaut Monument References Works cited Chaikin, Andrew (1998). A Man on the Moon. Penguin Books Ltd. ISBN 978-0-14-024146-4. Lovell, James A. (1975). "Chapter 13: "Houston, We've Had a Problem"" (PDF). In Cortright, Edgar M. (ed.). Apollo Expeditions to the Moon (PDF). Washington, D.C.: NASA. SP-350. Kraft, Christopher (2001). Flight: My Life in Mission Control. New York: Dutton. ISBN 978-0-525-94571-0. Slayton, Donald K. "Deke"; Cassutt, Michael (1994). Deke! U.S. Manned Space: From Mercury to the Shuttle (1st ed.). New York: Forge. ISBN 978-0-312-85503-1. External links Jack Swigert at the Internet Movie Database

Fred Wallace Haise Jr. ( HAYZ; born November 14, 1933) is an American former NASA astronaut, engineer, fighter pilot with the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Air Force, and a test pilot. He is one of 24 people to have flown to the Moon, having flown as Lunar Module pilot on Apollo 13. He was slated to become the 6th person to walk on the Moon, but the Apollo 13 landing mission was aborted en route. Haise went on to fly five Space Shuttle Approach and Landing Tests in 1977, before retiring from NASA in 1979. Early life Fred Wallace Haise, Jr. was born on November 14, 1933, and raised in Biloxi, Mississippi, to Fred Wallace Haise (1903–1960) and Lucille (née Blacksher) Haise (1913–2005).: 1  He has a younger sister who was born in 1941.: 6  After the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, his father enlisted in the U.S. Navy at the age of 38, and the Haise family moved to Chicago.: 8  The family then moved to Key West, Florida, until his father's ship, YMS-84, deployed to the South Pacific, when the family moved back to Biloxi.: 9–10  He graduated from Biloxi High School in 1950.: 13  He attended Perkinston Junior College with a scholarship for journalism,: 13  and played on the baseball team.: 14  He graduated in 1952, and joined the Naval Aviation Cadet Program.: 16  He went to ground school at NAS Pensacola,: 16  and then moved to NAS Whiting Field in 1952.: 18  He trained in the SNJ and F6F Hellcat, and completed his flight training in 1954.: 22–26  He served as a U.S. Marine Corps fighter pilot, with VMF-533, then VMF-114 on the F2H-4 Banshee and F9F-8 Cougar at MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina, from March 1954 to September 1956. Haise also served as a tactics and all-weather flight instructor in the U.S. Navy Advanced Training Command at NAS Kingsville, Texas. Haise has accumulated 9,300 hours flying time, including 6,200 hours in jets. After his military service, Haise returned to school and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in aeronautical engineering from the University of Oklahoma in 1959, concurrently serving for two years in the Oklahoma Air National Guard, as a fighter interceptor pilot with the 185th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, flying the F-86D. He then worked for the newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), first as a research pilot at the Lewis Research Center near Cleveland. His Air National Guard unit was called up during the Berlin Crisis of 1961 and he served ten months as a fighter pilot in the United States Air Force. He was a tactical fighter pilot and chief of the 164th Standardization-Evaluation Flight of the 164th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Mansfield Lahm Air National Guard Base, Ohio, flying the F-84F. Haise completed post-graduate courses at the U.S. Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School (Class 64A) at Edwards Air Force Base, California in 1964, and attended the six-week Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Program in 1972. NASA career In 1966, Haise was one of 19 astronauts selected for NASA Astronaut Group 5. He had already worked with NASA for several years as a civilian research pilot. He was the first astronaut in his group to be assigned to a mission, serving as backup Lunar Module Pilot for both Apollo 8 and Apollo 11. Apollo 13 According to the rotation of crews during Apollo, Haise was originally assigned as Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 14, but his crew was switched to Apollo 13 so that Alan Shepard could have more training time. He flew as Lunar Module Pilot on the aborted Apollo 13 lunar mission in 1970. Due to the distance between the Earth and Moon during the mission, Haise, Jim Lovell, and Jack Swigert hold the record for the farthest distance from the Earth ever traveled by human beings. Haise and Jack Swigert were the first people from Group 5 to fly in space. During this flight Haise developed a urinary tract infection and later kidney infections. These caused him to be in pain for most of the trip. Haise was slated to become the 6th human to walk on the Moon during Apollo 13 behind Lovell, who was to be 5th. Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell eventually became the fifth and sixth, respectively, on Apollo 14, which completed Apollo 13's mission to the Fra Mauro formation. Haise later served as backup commander for Apollo 16. Though there was no formal selection, Haise was prospectively slated to command Apollo 19 with William R. Pogue as Command Module Pilot and Gerald P. Carr as Lunar Module Pilot. However, the mission was canceled in 1970 due to budget cuts. Space Shuttle approach and landing tests After completing his backup assignment on Apollo 16, Haise moved to the Space Shuttle program. In 1977, he participated in the program's Approach and Landing Tests (ALT) at Edwards Air Force Base. Along with C. Gordon Fullerton as pilot, Haise as commander piloted the Space Shuttle Enterprise in free flight to three landings after being released from the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. The tests verified the shuttle's flight characteristics, an important step toward the success of the program. Haise was assigned to command STS-2A, with Jack R. Lousma as pilot, the second Space Shuttle mission, which would have delivered the Teleoperator Retrieval System that would have boosted Skylab to a higher orbit, preserving it for future use. Delays in the Shuttle program development as well as an unexpected increase in Skylab's orbital decay led to the mission being canceled. Skylab was destroyed upon entering the Earth's atmosphere in July 1979, while the Space Shuttle did not launch until April 1981. In June 1979, Haise left NASA to become a test pilot and executive with Grumman Aerospace Corporation, where he remained until retiring in 1996. He was the only one of the four astronauts who conducted the Enterprise landing tests not to fly in space on the Shuttle. Personal life Haise has four children with his first wife Mary Griffin Grant, whom he married on June 4, 1954, and divorced on July 21, 1978. He married Frances Patt Price, on January 9, 1979. On February 7, 2022, Frances died. On August 22, 1973, Haise was piloting a Convair BT-13 belonging to the Commemorative Air Force that had been converted to look like an Aichi D3A "Val" torpedo bomber for the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora!. While attempting a landing go around at Scholes Field in Galveston, Texas, an undetermined power plant failure led to a crash landing. Haise suffered second‐degree burns over 50 percent of his body in the post crash fire. Haise published his autobiography, Never Panic Early, about his life and experiences in the Apollo program in 2022. Organizations Haise is a fellow of the American Astronautical Society (AAS) and the Society of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP); member, Tau Beta Pi, Sigma Gamma Tau, and Phi Theta Kappa; and honorary member, National WWII Glider Pilots Association. Awards and honors Haise's other awards include the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Haley Astronautics Award for 1971; the American Astronautical Society Flight Achievement Awards for 1970 and 1977; the City of New York Gold Medal in 1970; the City of Houston Medal for Valor in 1970; the Jeff Davis Award (1970); the Mississippi Distinguished Civilian Service Medal (1970); the American Defense Ribbon; the SETP's Ray E. Tenhoff Award for 1966; the A. B. Honts Trophy as the outstanding graduate of Class 64A from the Aerospace Research Pilot School in 1964; an honorary doctor of science degree from Western Michigan University (1970); the JSC Special Achievement Award (1978); the Soaring Society of America's Certificate of Achievement Award (1978); the General Thomas D. White USAF Space Trophy for 1977; the SETP's Iven C. Kincheloe Award (1978); and the Air Force Association's David C. Schilling Award (1978). He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, NASA Distinguished Service Medal, and NASA Exceptional Service Medal. He was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1983 and the Aerospace Walk of Honor in 1995. He was also one of 24 Apollo astronauts inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame on October 4, 1997. On February 13, 2022, the City of Biloxi unveiled a statue of Haise in the parking lot of the historic Biloxi Lighthouse. Haise was present at the ceremony and had his handprints set in concrete at the statue's base prior to its unveiling. The statue was created by Mississippi artist Mary Ott Tremel Davidson. In September 2023, Haise was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio. In popular culture In the 1995 motion picture Apollo 13, Haise was played by Bill Paxton. See also List of spaceflight records The Astronaut Monument Jack Swigert Jim Lovell References Sources Adamo, Daniel (2009). "The Elusive Human Maximum Altitude Record". Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly. Vol. 16, no. 4. ISSN 1065-7738. Glenday, Craig, ed. (2010). Guinness World Records 2010. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 978-0-553-59337-2. Slayton, Donald K. "Deke"; Cassutt, Michael (1994). Deke! U.S. Manned Space: From Mercury to the Shuttle (1st ed.). New York: Forge. ISBN 978-0-312-85503-1. External links Fred Haise's Personal Archives Space and Things Podcast - STP47 - So Much More Than Apollo 13 - An Interview With Fred Haise Interview with Fred Haise for NOVA series: To the Moon WGBH Educational Foundation, raw footage, 1998 Spacefacts biography of Fred Haise Haise at Encyclopedia of Science Fred Haise at IMDb Short audio interview on Astrotalkuk.org during his visit to UK in 2009 Archived March 6, 2012, at the Wayback Machine

A United States women's national soccer team player scored her first career international goal during the semi-final match of the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup. This same player scored her second goal the next year. Tell me the difference in attendance between these two games.

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Numerical reasoning | Tabular reasoning | Multiple constraints | Post processing | Temporal reasoning

Carli Anne Hollins (née Lloyd; born July 16, 1982) is an American former professional soccer player. She is a two-time Olympic gold medalist (2008 and 2012), two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion (2015 and 2019), two-time FIFA Player of the Year (2015 and 2016), and a four-time Olympian (2008, 2012, 2016 and 2021). Lloyd scored the gold medal-winning goals in the finals of the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2012 Summer Olympics. Lloyd also helped the United States win their titles at the 2015 and 2019 FIFA Women's World Cups, the bronze medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics, and she played for the team at the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup where the U.S. finished in second place. After the 2020 Summer Olympics, Lloyd announced she would be retiring from the national team following four final friendly matches in 2021. Lloyd has made 316 appearances for the U.S. national team, placing her second in caps, and has the third-most goals and fifth-most assists for the team. In March 2021, she was named as the highest paid female soccer player in the world. She played her last international match with the USWNT on October 26, 2021, shortly before retiring from professional soccer at the completion of the 2021 NJ/NY Gotham FC season. During the United States' 5–2 win over Japan in the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup Final, Lloyd became the first player ever to score three goals in a FIFA Women's World Cup final and the second soccer player ever to score a hat-trick in any senior FIFA World Cup Final, after Geoff Hurst. Lloyd scored three goals in the first 16 minutes of the final, with the first two occurring in the first five minutes of the game and within three minutes of each other. She received the Golden Ball Trophy as the best player of the tournament and earned the Silver Boot for her six goals and one assist during the tournament. She previously played for the Chicago Red Stars, Sky Blue FC (now known as NJ/NY Gotham FC), and Atlanta Beat in Women's Professional Soccer (WPS). In 2013, she was allocated to the Western New York Flash for the inaugural season of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) and helped her team win the regular season championship. After two seasons with the Flash, she was traded to Houston Dash prior to the 2015 season and then to Sky Blue before the 2018 season. Her memoir, When Nobody Was Watching, was published in September 2016. Early life Born to Stephen and Pamela Lloyd, Carli was raised in Delran Township, a suburban community located in South Jersey about 20 minutes northeast of Philadelphia. Lloyd began playing soccer at age five. Of her exposure to soccer at a young age, Lloyd's mother, Pamela said, "At that age, it was coed, and Carli was hanging with the boys. She always loved it and showed a lot of ability from an early age, but she also has always worked hard." Lloyd has a brother, Stephen, and a sister, Ashley. Lloyd attended the opening U.S. match of the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup, which inspired her to play for the national team. Lloyd attended Delran High School from 1997 to 2000 where she played soccer under the tutelage of the late Rudy "The Red Baron" Klobach. As a high school athlete, she was known for her exceptional ball control and skill at distributing the ball from the midfield. During her senior year, she scored 26 goals and served eight assists while captaining her team to an 18–3 record. The Philadelphia Inquirer twice-named her Girls' High School Player of the Year in 1999 and 2000. She was named to the Star-Ledger All-State First Team twice and received 1999 and 2000 Parade All-American honors. In 2000, she was named the Courier-Post Player of the Year and the South Jersey Soccer Coaches Association (SJSCA) Midfielder of the Year. Rutgers Scarlet Knights, 2001–2004 Lloyd attended Rutgers University from 2001 to 2004 and played for the Scarlet Knights women's soccer team under head coach Glenn Crooks. She was named First-Team All-Big East for four straight years – the first athlete at Rutgers to do so. She ended her collegiate career as the school's all-time leader in points (117), goals (50), and shots. During her freshman season, Lloyd started every match and was the team's leading scorer with 15 goals for a total of 37 points. She was named to Soccer America's All-Freshman Team and was the first Rutgers player to earn Big East Rookie of the Year honors. As a sophomore, she was the team's leading scorer for the second consecutive season with 12 goals and seven assists for 31 points. The same year Lloyd was a finalist for the Hermann Trophy, widely considered the highest accolade for collegiate soccer players. During her third season with the Scarlet Knights, she scored 13 goals and served 2 assists for a total of 28 points and was named a Big East Academic All-Star. As a senior, she was a starter for 18 of the 20 games she played, scored 10 goals and served one assist. Lloyd was named the 2004 Big East Midfielder of the Year. She earned a bachelor's degree from Rutgers University in Exercise Science and Sport Studies. In 2013, Lloyd was inducted into the Rutgers Hall of Distinguished Alumni. Her presence is still widely felt in the Rutgers community. Her posters hang high all throughout the Rodkin facility. Club career W-League Experience (1999–2004) While still in high school, Lloyd played for W-League teams Central Jersey Splash in 1999, New Brunswick Power in 2000, and South Jersey Banshees in 2001. In the summer prior to her senior year at Rutgers, Lloyd played for the New Jersey Wildcats in 2004 with teammates Kelly Smith, Manya Makoski, Tobin Heath, and Heather O'Reilly. She made only one appearance for the club. The WPS Years (2009–2011) With the return of a top-flight women's professional soccer league to the United States via Women's Professional Soccer, Lloyd's playing rights were allocated to the Chicago Red Stars in 2008. During the league's inaugural season, she started in 14 of her 16 appearances for Chicago playing a total of 1,313 minutes on the pitch. She scored two goals: one in the 23rd minute of her team's 4–0 win over the Boston Breakers on April 25; and the other during the 24th minute of a 3–1 defeat of the Los Angeles Sol on August 2. The Red Stars finished sixth on the season with a 5–10–5 record. Following the conclusion of the season, Lloyd was declared a free agent and subsequently signed with her home state club and 2009 WPS champions, Sky Blue FC, for the 2010 season. In April 2010, during a match against her former team, Chicago Red Stars, Lloyd slipped and broke her ankle. The injury kept her off the pitch for most of the season although she did return for two games in September. In December 2010, Lloyd signed with expansion team Atlanta Beat for the 2011 season. Of her signing, Beat head coach James Galanis said, "She is a fantastic midfielder and someone who is fully focused on the game. I have known her from her college days, and I have had the opportunity to train her and improve her game individually. She has made a lot of sacrifices off the field to reach her dreams, and she is going to bring a lot of professionalism to the team." Lloyd scored two goals in her ten appearances for the Beat. She scored the team's lone goal in a 4–1 defeat by the Boston Breakers on April 9. Her second goal on the season was an equalizer during the 70th minute of a 2–2 draw against the Western New York Flash. The Beat finished their first season in last place with a 1–13–4 record. Western New York Flash (2013–2014) On January 11, 2013, Lloyd joined the Western New York Flash in the new National Women's Soccer League as part of the NWSL Player Allocation. After recovering from a shoulder injury suffered earlier in the year, Lloyd made her debut for the Flash on May 12, 2013, during the team's 2–1 defeat of FC Kansas City. She scored her first goal in a match against her former club, Sky Blue FC, helping the Flash win 3–0. During a match against the Washington Spirit on June 28, Lloyd scored a hat trick leading the Flash to a 4–0 win. She was subsequently named NWSL Player of the Week for her performance. Lloyd finished the 2013 season with 10 goals, the third most goals scored on the season. The Flash finished first during the regular season with a 10–4–8 record and advanced to the playoffs. During the Flash's semi-final match against Sky Blue FC, Lloyd scored both of the Flash's game-winning goals: one in the 33rd minute and the second coming during stoppage time. Her two goals resulted in a 2–0 win that advanced the Flash to the championship final against the Portland Thorns FC. The Flash were defeated 2–0 during the final. Houston Dash (2015–2017) On October 16, 2014, Lloyd was traded to the Houston Dash in exchange for Becky Edwards, Whitney Engen and a third-round pick in the 2016 NWSL College Draft. Manchester City (2017 loan) In February 2017, Lloyd joined Manchester City on loan, for the FA WSL Spring Series. While Lloyd was at Manchester City, they finished second in the WSL Spring Series, and won the 2016–17 FA Women's Cup, with her scoring in the final. Lloyd's final appearance for City came on May 21, when she was sent off for elbowing Yeovil Town's Annie Heatherson in the face. The three match ban she received for violent conduct ran for the remainder of her loan stay. Sky Blue / NJ/NY Gotham (2018–2021) On January 18, 2018, Lloyd was traded to Sky Blue FC (later known as NJ/NY Gotham FC) along with Janine Beckie by the Dash in a three-team trade with the Chicago Red Stars and Sky Blue FC. Lloyd scored 4 goals in 18 appearances for Sky Blue in 2018. She scored the only goal in a 1–0 win over the Orlando Pride on the last day of the 2018 NWSL season. It was Sky Blue's first and only win of the season. She was named to the 2018 NWSL Second XI. International career Youth national team Lloyd represented the United States at the under-21 level before making the jump to the senior team at the age of 23. As a member of the under-21 team, she played at the Nordic Cup four times winning consecutive titles from 2002 to 2005 in Finland, Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden respectively. During the first round of the 2003 Nordic Cup, she served the assist in the U.S.' 1–0 win against Denmark. At the 2004 Nordic Cup, she scored two goals and served one assist while starting in every match. The following year at the 2005 Nordic Cup, she scored three times including one goal during the championship match against Norway. Senior national team Lloyd made her first appearance for the United States women's national soccer team on July 10, 2005, against Ukraine. She scored her first international goal on October 1, 2006, against Taiwan. At the 2006 Four Nations Tournament, Lloyd won a third cap. Her first two starts of her international career came at the 2006 Algarve Cup, starting the group game against Denmark and in the final against Germany. She played in 19 games, starting 13, and scored one goal. 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup After scoring once in her first 24 matches with the national team, Lloyd scored four goals at the 2007 Algarve Cup. As the tournament's top scorer, she was awarded Most Valuable Player tournament honors. Lloyd logged her first brace for the national team during a 6–1 win against New Zealand. The same year, Lloyd played in her first FIFA Women's World Cup tournament. Heading into the tournament, the national team had not lost a game in regulation time in nearly three years and was considered a favorite to win the tournament in China. During their first match of the tournament, the U.S. tied North Korea 2–2. The team faced Sweden in their next match on September 14 and won 2–0 with two goals from Abby Wambach. The U.S. finished group play with a 1–0 win over Nigeria women's national football team on September 18. During the quarterfinal match against England on September 22, the U.S. won 3–0. All three goals were scored within 12 minutes. The U.S. faced Brazil in the semi-final in what would become a controversial and game-changing match for the team. Coach Greg Ryan decided to bench starting goalkeeper, Hope Solo, and instead started Brianna Scurry, a veteran goalkeeper who had started in three World Cups and two Olympics, but who had started very few matches since the 2004 Olympics. The U.S. was defeated 4–0 by Brazil. The loss relegated them to a final match against Norway, which they won 4–1, to secure third place standing at the tournament. Lloyd started three of the five games in which she played at the tournament. Throughout 2007, Lloyd started 13 of the 23 matches in which she played. She ranked third on the team in scoring with nine goals and three assists. 2008 Beijing Olympics During the championship match of the CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament, Lloyd scored the U.S.' only goal during stoppage time on a free-kick. The U.S. eventually defeated Canada 6–5 in penalty kicks. She scored two goals during the 2008 Olympics: the game-winning goal in the team's 1–0 defeat of Japan during the tournament's group stage and another game-winning goal in extra time against Brazil during the final helping the U.S. win gold. Lloyd was named the 2008 U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year along with Tim Howard. She was on the starting lineup in all 35 games in which she played in 2008, tying for the team lead in matches started during the year. Her 2,781 minutes on the pitch for the U.S. ranked third on the team in minutes played. Her nine goals and nine assists resulted in her best scoring year yet on the national team. Injury recovery, 100th cap and World Cup qualifying, 2009–2010 In 2009, the U.S. national team competed in eight games, of which Lloyd was on the starting lineup in five. At the 2010 Algarve Cup, Lloyd scored the game-opening goal in the final helping the U.S. clinch the championship title after defeating Germany 3–2. Although she suffered a broken ankle in the fourth game of the 2010 WPS Season while playing for Sky Blue FC, she played in 15 matches for the United States in 2010, starting 14. Lloyd started all five games at the 2010 CONCACAF Women's World Cup Qualifying Tournament, scoring two goals, including the United States' lone goal during the championship match. She ended the tournament with five assists and was named the Player of the Match three times during the tournament. After the U.S. finished third at the tournament, they traveled to Italy to vie for a place at the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup in the UEFA-CONCACAF play-off against Italy. Playing every minute of the series, Lloyd scored three goals with five assists during the series. She earned her 100th career cap during the second leg of the series. 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup 2011 saw the U.S. team making preparations for the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup and training starting with the Four Nations Tournament. Lloyd scored the lone goal for the U.S. in the opening match loss to Sweden. In the championship match, the U.S. defeated Canada 2–0 with Lloyd scoring the first goal and being named Player of the Match. At the 2011 Algarve Cup, Lloyd scored three goals including the first goal in the championship match; subsequently named best goal for the tournament. She was named player of the match for the 2nd time in the tournament. The team won the cup, making it their eighth title win. At the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup, Lloyd scored the final goal in a 3–0 win against Colombia for her first World Cup goal. Throughout the tournament, she tallied an assist, a goal, and one successful penalty kick in the shootout against Brazil to send the U.S. to the semi-finals vs. France. In the World Cup final, after finishing the game tied 2–2 the U.S. went on to penalty kicks with Japan. Along with two teammates who failed to convert their penalty kicks, Lloyd mishit the ball over the crossbar. The U.S. won the silver medal at the tournament. 2012 London Olympics The national team opened 2012 with the Olympic Qualifiers in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The U.S. was placed in Group B with the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and Mexico. In the first match, the United States routed the Dominican Republic by a score of 14–0 with Lloyd tallying one goal and one assist. In the second match, the U.S. again defeated Guatemala 13–0 with Lloyd again finding the back of the net and providing an assist. The game to win the group and thus play the second place team from Group A occurred between the U.S. and Mexico. The U.S. was previously defeated 2–1 by Mexico during the 2010 CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup. This time, the U.S. beat Mexico 4–0 with Lloyd netting her first career hat trick. She was subsequently named player of the match. In the semi-final, the U.S. faced Costa Rica. During the second half, the U.S. scored two goals, the second coming from Lloyd. The U.S. beat Costa Rica 3–0 with Lloyd named player of the match for the second game in a row. During the final match against Canada, the U.S. defeated Canada at home 4–0 to move on to the Olympics as the CONCACAF champions. Lloyd finished the tournament with six goals and three assists and tied for the team lead in goals scored. At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Lloyd scored the go-ahead goal in the 56th minute of the team's opening match against France, to boost the U.S. to a 3–2 lead; the match ended with a final score of 4–2. She scored her second goal of the tournament against Colombia during the group stage. During the Olympic gold medal match against Japan, played at London's Wembley Stadium, Lloyd scored both American goals in the team's 2–1 victory. Her four goals in the tournament tied for the second highest on the U.S. squad. She is the only player (of either gender) in history to score the game-winning goal in two separate Olympic gold medal matches; her first occurred during the Beijing 2008 final against Brazil. After scoring her 46th international goal in the 13th minute of a friendly against New Zealand in October 2013, Lloyd became the highest-scoring midfielder in the team's history, passing Julie Foudy, who finished her career with 45 goals. 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup In April 2015, Lloyd was named by head coach Jill Ellis to the 23-player roster for the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup in Canada. Lloyd captained the team during four of the team's matches, including the quarterfinal against China, in which she scored the winning goal on her 200th cap, semi-final against Germany and final against Japan, and scored six goals during the tournament, finishing the tournament on a four-game goalscoring streak that spanned the knockout stage and that culminated in a hat-trick in the game's opening 16 minutes during the final against Japan. The last goal was hailed by Reuters as "one of the most remarkable goals ever witnessed in a Women's World Cup", and featured Lloyd catching Japanese goalkeeper Ayumi Kaihori off her line and chipping her virtually from the halfway line. For her efforts in leading the United States to a record third World Cup title, and first since 1999, she won the Golden Ball as the best player of the tournament. While Lloyd's six goals were enough to match Célia Šašić as the tournament's top scorer, Šašić won the Golden Boot for playing fewer minutes and Lloyd was awarded the Silver Boot. Lloyd also became the first woman to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final and the first player, male or female, to do so since Geoff Hurst did so for England against West Germany at Wembley in 1966. Only one player has since replicated the feat – Kylian Mbappé for France against Argentina in Lusail, Qatar in 2022. Furthermore, her third goal earned her a nomination for the FIFA Puskás Award, FIFA's annual award for Goal of the Year. Finally, Lloyd is the only player to have scored a hat-trick in normal time of a World Cup final; Hurst scored two goals in extra time and Mbappé one. 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup Lloyd scored in her first two games of the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup; one against Thailand and two against Chile. Hence, she became the first player to score in six straight Women's World Cup matches. Reaching her 300th cap, 2019–2021 On April 10, 2021, Lloyd earned her 300th cap in a friendly match against Sweden to become the third player to achieve that feat after Kristine Lilly and Christie Pearce. On June 14, 2021, she became the oldest player at 38 years and 332 days to score for the United States in a 4–0 win over Jamaica at the BBVA Stadium, and thereby beating the record previously held by Kristine Lilly (38 years, 264 days). 2020 Tokyo Olympics and retirement On August 5, 2021, she scored twice in a 4–3 win over Australia in the bronze medal match of the 2020 Summer Olympics, to set the U.S. women's record for most Olympic goals, 10 goals in total, surpassing Abby Wambach. Following the Olympics, Lloyd announced she would be retiring from the national team in 2021. In early 2022, she partnered with Teqball USA and one of her retirement plans is to make Teqball an Olympic sport by 2028. She also developed CL10 Soccer Clinic, a program to help people improve their soccer skills. In October 2022, she co-conducted the draw for the 2023 Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand held at the Aotea Centre in Auckland. She also co-conducted the draw for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, held at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center, in April 2022. Criticism of USWNT post-retirement Since retiring, Lloyd has made numerous critical comments regarding the national team, saying she "hated" playing for the team in the final years of her career. Lloyd has said that the culture became "toxic" after the 2015 World Cup victory, alleging that players became more focused on building their brands than winning as a team. During the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, Lloyd criticized the team for celebrating after finishing runners-up in their group, avoiding elimination after being close to losing to Portugal in their last group match, saying, "Players are smiling. They're laughing. It's not good enough." Lloyd's comments created controversy and drew pushback from both current players and former teammates. Later in 2023, she said U.S. Soccer never wanted her to be the star of the team. “That’s just the way the world works as far as showcasing players," Lloyd said. "They’re not always highlighting the best players. They’re oftentimes highlighting the most marketable players.” Style of play Although she was criticised for being inconsistent at the beginning of career, and for losing possession too easily, Lloyd later developed into one of the best players in the world, and is highly regarded for her outstanding determination, mental strength, and work-ethic. A tenacious, energetic, and hard-working player, she also is known for her control, technique, and passing accuracy, and is capable of aiding her team both defensively and offensively, due to her stamina, strength, and tackling, as well as her ability to get into good attacking positions, and either score goals or create chances for teammates. These abilities, coupled with her tactical versatility, enabled her to be deployed in several midfield positions; although she began her career in the centre, as a defensive midfielder, she was most comfortable when moved to a more advanced role, as an attacking midfielder behind the forwards. Lloyd earned a reputation as a "clutch player", due to her tendency to score decisive goals. A powerful striker of the ball, she was capable of scoring from any position on the pitch, and could finish well both with her head and with her feet inside the area. Personal life Lloyd lives with her husband, golfer Brian Hollins, in Medford, New Jersey. They married on November 4, 2016, in Puerto Morelos, Mexico. On May 1, 2024, the couple announced that they are expecting their first child in October 2024. In popular culture Endorsements Lloyd has had an endorsement deal with Nike for several years. In 2011, she was the focus of a promotional feature for the sports company entitled, Pressure Makes Us: Carli Lloyd. Following the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, Lloyd starred in a commercial for Xfinity and signed an endorsement deal with Visa. In August 2015, she co-starred in a Nike commercial called Snow Day also featuring Rob Gronkowski and teammate Sydney Leroux. In April 2016, she was named brand ambassador for Lifeway Foods and appeared in a television commercial for Heineken the same year. She has a partnership with Whole Foods Market and appeared in a television commercial for United Airlines. In June 2016, she joined Michael Phelps in partnership deals with Krave Jerky. She also has endorsement deals with Beats by Dre, Kind, and NJM Insurance. Magazines, television, and video games Lloyd has been featured in Glamour, Shape, and Sports Illustrated magazines. She was on the covers of Howler Magazine and Sports Illustrated. In 2012, Lloyd appeared in an ESPN feature called Title IX is Mine: USWNT. She has been interviewed on numerous television shows including: Good Morning America, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Live with Kelly and Michael, The Today Show, Late Night with Seth Meyers, Fox & Friends, Late Late Show with James Corden. Lloyd also participated in the 2023 reality show Special Forces: World's Toughest Test. She joined Soccer on Fox Sports as a studio analyst in 2022. Lloyd was featured along with her national teammates in the EA Sports' FIFA video game series in FIFA 16, the first time women players were included in the game. In September 2015, she was ranked by EA Sports as the No. 1 women's player in the game. Ticker tape parade and White House honor Following the United States' win at the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, Lloyd and her teammates became the first women's sports team to be honored with a ticker tape parade in New York City. Each player received a key to the city from Mayor Bill de Blasio. In October of the same year, the team was honored by President Barack Obama at the White House. Career statistics International goals Goals by opponent Honors Western New York Flash NWSL Shield: 2013 Manchester City FA Women's Cup: 2016–17 United States Algarve Cup: 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015 CONCACAF Women's Championship: 2014, 2018 CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament: 2008, 2012, 2016; 2020 Olympic Gold Medal: 2008, 2012 Olympic Bronze Medal: 2021 FIFA Women's World Cup: 2015, 2019Runner-up: 2011 SheBelieves Cup: 2016; 2018; 2020; 2021 Tournament of Nations: 2018 Individual Algarve Cup Most Valuable Player: 2007 U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year: 2008 FIFA World Player of the Year Shortlist: 2012, 2015, 2016 FIFA Puskás Award Nominee: 2015 NWSL Player of the Week: July 2013, July 2014 NWSL Player of the Month: July 2015 NWSL Second XI: 2014, 2015, 2018 CONCACAF Women's Player of the Year: 2015 CONCACAF Goal of the Year: 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup Golden Ball: 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup Silver Boot: 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup All-Star Team: 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup Dream Team: 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup Goal of the Tournament: 2015 Women's Sports Foundation Sportswoman of the Year Team Sport Award: 2015 IFFHS World's Best Woman Playmaker: 2015 FIFA World Player of the Year: 2015 FIFPro: FIFA FIFPro World XI 2015, 2016, 2021 The Best FIFA Women's Player: 2016 Inductee into New Jersey Hall of Fame: 2017 IFFHS CONCACAF Best Woman Player of the Decade 2011–2020 IFFHS World's Woman Team of the Decade 2011–2020 IFFHS CONCACAF Woman Team of the Decade 2011–2020 See also List of multiple Olympic gold medalists in one event List of Olympic medalists in football List of women's footballers with 100 or more caps List of FIFA Women's World Cup hat-tricks List of Rutgers University alumni References Match reports Further reading Grainey, Timothy (2012), Beyond Bend It Like Beckham: The Global Phenomenon of Women's Soccer, University of Nebraska Press, ISBN 0803240368 Lisi, Clemente A. (2010), The U.S. Women's Soccer Team: An American Success Story, Scarecrow Press, ISBN 0810874164 Lloyd, Carli (2017). When Nobody Was Watching: My Hard-fought Journey to the Top of the Soccer World. Mariner Books. ISBN 978-1328745620. Solo, Hope (2012), Solo: A Memoir of Hope, Harper & Collins, ISBN 0062136755 Stevens, Dakota (2011), A Look at the Women's Professional Soccer Including the Soccer Associations, Teams, Players, Awards, and More, BiblioBazaar, ISBN 1241047464 External links Official website Carli Lloyd at Soccerway.com Carli Lloyd at FBref.com Carli Lloyd at Olympics.com Carli Lloyd at Olympedia Carli Lloyd at the National Women's Soccer League Carli Lloyd at Sky Blue FC (archived) Carli Lloyd at Houston Dash Carli Lloyd at Western New York Flash (archived) Carli Lloyd at Atlanta Beat (archived) Carli Lloyd at New Jersey Wildcats (archived) Carli Lloyd at U.S. Soccer (archive) Carli Lloyd at Team USA (archive April 18, 2023) Carli Lloyd at IMDb

Who is the Formula One driver who won their first Driver's Championship in the 46th season, what team did they race for that year, and how many years after that team's first race was it?

Nigel Mansell, Williams Grand Prix Engineering, 15 years

Numerical reasoning | Multiple constraints | Temporal reasoning

Formula One automobile racing has its roots in the European Grand Prix championships of the 1920s and 1930s, though the foundation of the modern Formula One began in 1946 with the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile's (FIA) standardisation of rules, which was followed by a World Championship of Drivers in 1950. The sport's history parallels the evolution of its technical regulations. In addition to the world championship series, non-championship Formula One races were held for many years, the last held in 1983 due to the rising cost of competition. National championships existed in South Africa and the United Kingdom in the 1960s and 1970s. History Early years and continuation of pre-World War II supercharged engines (1946–1950) Formula One was first defined in 1946 by the Commission Sportive Internationale (CSI) of the FIA, forerunner of FISA, as the premier single-seater racing category in worldwide motorsport to become effective in 1947. This new "International Formula" was initially known variously as Formula A, Formula I, or Formula 1 with the corresponding "Voiturette" formula being titled Formula B, Formula II, or Formula 2. When the 500cc formula was internationally recognised as Formula 3 in 1950 it was never titled as "Formula C" so the three International Formulae were then "officially" titled Formula 1, Formula 2 and Formula 3. In the beginning, the formula was largely based on pre-World War II regulations defined by engine capacity. The regulation expected to bring a new balance between supercharged and normally aspirated cars. Non-supercharged 4.5-litre pre-war Grand Prix cars were allowed to race against the pre-war 1.5-litre supercharged 'voiturettes', while pre-war supercharged 3-litre Grand Prix cars were banned. There is some debate as to what can be considered to be the first Formula 1 race. The first race under the new regulations was the 1946 Turin Grand Prix held on 1 September, the race being won by Achille Varzi in an Alfa Romeo 158 Alfetta - but this was before the Formula was officially in place. The next contender is the 1947 Swedish Winter Grand Prix which was won by Reg Parnell driving an ERA - but this race was run on ice and some consider that it therefore was not a "proper" race (there is also some doubt whether it was a Formula 1 race or a Formule Libre race). The third claimant is the 1947 Pau Grand Prix which was won by Nello Pagani driving a Maserati 4CL, which is irrefutable. Championships for drivers or constructors were not introduced immediately. In the early years there were around 20 races held from late Spring to early Autumn (Fall) in Europe, although not all of these were considered significant. Most competitive cars came from Italy, particularly Maserati. Races saw pre-war heroes like Rudolf Caracciola, Manfred Von Brauchitsch and Tazio Nuvolari end their careers, while drivers like Alberto Ascari and Juan Manuel Fangio rose to the front. Era of factory Italian and Mercedes front-engine cars (1950–1957) The Motorcycle World Championships was introduced in 1949. In 1950, the FIA responded with the first ever official World Championship for Drivers. The championship series, to be held across six of the 'major' Grands Prix of Europe plus the Indianapolis 500, was in effect a formalization of what had already been developing in Grand Prix racing during the previous years. Italian teams of Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, and Maserati were best positioned to dominate the early years. Other national manufacturers – such as the French manufacturer Talbot or the British BRM – competed, although less successfully. A number of private cars also took part in local races. The Italian and German factory teams in those days often employed 2 to 3 drivers whose nationality was the same as the team's and at least 1 foreign driver; for example the Alfa Romeo team in 1950 consisted of Italian drivers Giuseppe Farina, Luigi Fagioli and Piero Taruffi; and Argentine driver Juan Manuel Fangio. Alfa Romeo dominated all before them in the 1950 season, winning every race but one in the championship with the pre-war "Alfetta" 158s. The sole exception was the Indianapolis 500, which was part of the championship (1950 to 1960), although not run to Formula One regulations and never contested by the teams that participated on the regular Formula One circuit (Alberto Ascari in 1952 and Juan Manuel Fangio in 1958 being the only regular Formula One drivers to bother with the Indianapolis 500 during this period). The Indianapolis 500 would never be important for Formula One and was no longer part of the championship after 1960. Nino Farina won the inaugural championship, Juan Manuel Fangio taking it in 1951 with the Alfa-Romeo 159, an evolution of the 158. The Alfetta's engines were extremely powerful for their capacity: in 1951 the 159 engine was producing around 420 bhp (310 kW) but this was at the price of a fuel consumption of 125 to 175 litres per 100 km (2.26 to 1.61 mpg imp/1.88 mpg to 1.34 mpg US). Enzo Ferrari, who had raced the Alfettas before the war, and his engine designer Aurelio Lampredi, were the first to understand that the 1.5-litre supercharged engine was a dead end: any increase in power meant more fuel to carry or more time lost in the pits for refuelling, so for the last races of 1950 Ferrari sent his 1.5-litre supercharged 125s to the museum, and fielded the new V12 4.5-litre normally aspirated 375s. With a fuel consumption of around 35 litres per 100 kilometres (8.1 mpg‑imp; 6.7 mpg‑US) the 375s offered fierce opposition to the Alfettas towards the end of the 1951 season. Alfa Romeo, at the time a state-owned company, decided to withdraw after a refusal of the Italian government to fund the expensive design of a new car. Surprisingly, Alfa Romeo involvement in racing was made with a very thin budget, using mostly pre-war technology and material during the two seasons. For instance, the team won two championships using only nine pre-war built engine blocks. No Alfa Romeo, a supporting cast of privateer Lago-Talbot entries and an almost undriveable, unreliable BRM would make Ferrari effectively invincible. The FIA was in an embarrassing position as it had already announced that current Formula One regulations would last until 1954 before switching to 2.5-litre atmospheric engines. Major manufacturers were already working to develop cars for the future regulation and it was obvious that nobody would develop a new car for only two years. The promoters of the World Championship Grands Prix, mindful of the lack of serious competition for the Alfettas, eventually all adopted Formula Two regulations for two years. However, Ferrari's dominance went on with the light 4-cylinder powered 500s, bringing Italian Alberto Ascari his two championships in the 1952 and 1953 seasons. Ferrari's Formula One cars continued to race very successfully in non-championship Formula One and Formula Libre races through this period. Ironically, during this period the only World Championship race for which Formula One cars were eligible was the Indianapolis 500. In 1952 Ferrari entered four Formula One 375s with Alberto Ascari as lead driver, but with little success. Discounting the Indianapolis 500, the World Championship was entirely based in Europe until 1953 when the season opened in Argentina. Since then, there has always been at least one race outside Europe each year. As planned, the World Championship races returned to Formula One regulations for the 1954 season, now based on a new 2.5-litre atmospheric engine regulation. This successfully brought more entrants to the field. Lancia and Mercedes-Benz came to the formula, hiring the best drivers of the era: Ascari for Lancia, Fangio for Mercedes. Featuring desmodromic valves, fuel injection, magnesium and exotic alloys parts, "streamlined" bodywork and other advanced features, the brand new Mercedes began the 1954 season with Fangio taking pole position at the "Grand Prix de l'ACF" at Reims-Gueux with the first lap over 200 km/h (124 mph) in Formula One before winning the race after a duel with other Mercedes driver Karl Kling, who finished second. The Mercedes cars swept the next two seasons with Fangio and Moss winning all but three of the races. However, at the end of the 1955 season Mercedes vanished as swiftly as they had come. They had proven the superiority of their technology, but the crash of one of their sportscars that year at Le Mans, killing 83 people, was also a significant factor. The company would not return to Formula One for forty years. After Le Mans, four of the year's remaining Grands Prix were cancelled. The Monaco Grand Prix saw a spectacular incident when Ascari and his Lancia crashed into the harbour after missing a chicane. Ascari was pulled out of the water alive and apparently well. However, there was speculation over an undetected internal injury when four days later Ascari was killed at Monza while testing a sportscar. After Ascari's death, Lancia followed Mercedes out of the category, passing their engines, cars, information and technology to Ferrari. The 1956 season saw Fangio make good use of the Lancia-born Ferrari to win his fourth championship. Driving for Maserati, he took his fifth championship in the 1957 season, a record which would not be beaten for 46 years. Ferrari developed a new engine for 1957, the V6 "Dino" engine, it was competitive by 1958 and Mike Hawthorn became the first British F1 World Champion, though his victory was short-lived: he died the following winter. British independent specialist teams and the rear-mid engine revolution (1958–1961) See 1958 season, 1959 season, 1960 season and 1961 season. Although the basic formula remained unchanged in 1958, races were shortened from around 500 km/300miles to 300 km/200 miles and cars had to use avgas instead of various fuel mixtures using methanol as the primary component. 1958 saw the introduction of an International Cup for F1 Manufacturers, with points allocated on an 8, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1 basis to the first six cars in the race (i.e. unlike in the Drivers' Championship, there was no point for fastest lap). Furthermore, points were only awarded to the highest placed car of each make, i.e. if a make finished 1st and 2nd they would receive only eight points and the 3rd placed car would receive 4 points. Indianapolis, which was included in the World Championship of Drivers (though no Formula One drivers competed), did not count towards the International Cup for F1 Manufacturers. With Fangio retired, Mike Hawthorn in a Ferrari took the 1958 Drivers' Championship – becoming the first English driver to earn a title. The British Vanwall team took the maiden Constructors' Championship that season, but ruined their Drivers' Championship aspirations by taking points off one another. Stirling Moss, despite having many more wins than Hawthorn, lost the championship by one point. It was high sportsmanship that cost Moss the 1958 title. When Hawthorn was threatened with disqualification at the finish of the Portuguese Grand Prix for going in the wrong direction (to restart his car following a spin), Moss argued to stewards on Hawthorn's behalf. The points granted Hawthorn were the difference in the championship. This season also saw a woman driving in Formula One for the first time with Maria Teresa de Filippis racing a private Maserati at the Belgian Grand Prix. 1958 was a watershed in another crucial way for Formula One. Against a small field of Ferraris and Maseratis, Stirling Moss won the Argentine Grand Prix driving a mid-engined Cooper entered by the private team of Rob Walker, and powered by a 2-litre Coventry-Climax Straight-4. This was the first victory for a car with the engine mounted behind the driver in Formula One. It was also the first World Championship GP win for a private entrant (excepting the Indianapolis 500 where all the entries were technically private entrants using bought-in chassis) as well as the first win for a car powered by an engine built by another manufacturer. The next Grand Prix in Monaco was also won by the same Cooper car, this time driven by Maurice Trintignant and facing more substantial opposition. Powered by undersized engines, the Coopers remained outsiders in 1958 but as soon as the new 2.5-litre Coventry-Climax engine was available, the little British cars went on to dominate Formula One. The 1959 season was effectively the start of the mid-engined revolution, and this season saw fierce competition between the works Cooper of Australian Jack Brabham and Moss in the Walker team's Cooper. The Getrag-modified Citroën Traction Avant transaxle proved to be the Achilles heel of the Coopers, so Walker switched to a transaxle manufactured by ex-Maserati engineer Valerio Colotti. The special transmission turned out to be more unreliable than the standard part, and Brabham took the title with Moss second. For 1960 while Enzo Ferrari adopted a conservative attitude, claiming "the horses pull the car rather than push it." It was probably disinformation: at the same time Ferrari was preparing for 1961 by designing mid-engined F2 and F1 cars. The Italian front-engined red cars were not only being effectively beaten by the British teams but thoroughly outclassed- the British rear mid-engined cars had considerably better road holding than the front-engined cars. Although down on power, the British cars' superior handling and lesser demands on tyres more than made up the power deficit. It was obvious to everyone that rear-mid engined cars were the way to go at that point in time. Lotus and BRM introduced mid-engined machines. Walker's team switched to a Lotus 18 chassis. Moss gave Lotus its first Formula One victory at Monaco but his season was ruined by a serious crash at Spa, Belgium. Brabham took a second title with his Cooper, but Moss returned in time to win the final race of the season, the U.S. Grand Prix at Riverside, California. The mid-engined revolution rendered another potentially revolutionary car obsolete. The front-engined four-wheel drive Ferguson P99 raced in British Formula One races in 1961, winning the non-Championship Oulton Park International Gold Cup under heavy rain. The car was too heavy and complex compared to the new breed of mid-engined machines. By 1961, British specialist teams such as Lotus, Cooper and BRM, and later McLaren, Tyrrell and Williams- organizations created purely for producing, developing and competing purpose-built open-wheel racing cars had overtaken the industrial manufacturing powers such as Ferrari, Mercedes, Maserati and Alfa Romeo. The only major automotive manufacturer with a full works effort was Ferrari- which was really a manufacturer that made road cars to fund its racing in F1 and endurance racing. Whereas the big continental manufacturers, with much money to spend, built the whole car including the drivetrain systems themselves, (excluding BRM), the British teams, with only limited amounts of money only built their chassis; they bought their engines and gearboxes from independent manufacturers such as Coventry-Climax and later Ford/Cosworth engines, and Hewland gearboxes. The only British team that was also a manufacturer of road cars like Ferrari was Lotus; but even so, that company grew considerably but never to the size of Mercedes or Alfa Romeo. From 1957 to 1961, Formula One had transformed from a scattershot industrial manufacturer sideshow of technology to a seriously competitive business for team owners and engineers wanting to come up with new technologies to out-do the opposition and also to sell their technology to big manufacturers or other interested parties. People like Cooper and Lotus founders John Cooper and Colin Chapman proved that competitiveness and developing new automotive technology was about fresh thinking, not industrial might. These British teams were regularly beating manufacturer teams like Ferrari, whom company founder Enzo Ferrari referring to these new British teams as garagistes – Italian for garage teams, which is effectively how all these British teams operated – their cars were built in small sheds or garages. In 1961, in an attempt to curb speeds, Formula One was downgraded to 1.5-litre, non-supercharged engines (essentially the then-current Formula Two rules), a formula which would remain for the next five years. Forced induction was still an option, but limited to 750 cc, and no one seriously considered the option, as supercharging had proven limiting to fuel consumption. Ferrari could have used its already proven V6 powered mid-engined Formula 2 cars, but preferred to go one step forward by designing a very sophisticated car powered by a 120° V6, which was their first ever rear-mid engined car, the 156. The considerably more powerful and efficient engine Ferrari had led to the Maranello outfit dominating the 1961 season as the British teams scrambled to come up with a suitable engine. American Phil Hill won the 1961 title in a works Ferrari. His teammate, Wolfgang von Trips of Germany, died along with 14 spectators in a horrific crash on the first lap of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the Formula One World Championship was merely the tip of the iceberg when it came to races run to Formula One regulations. The total number of races run to Formula One regulations remained about the same as it had been before the introduction of the World Championship. Many famous races, such as the Pau and Syracuse Grands Prix, the BRDC International Trophy, the Race of Champions and the Oulton Park Gold Cup, were not part of the World Championship, but nonetheless continued to draw the top drivers and teams to compete. Anglophone drivers and 1.5-litre engines (1962–1967) See 1962 season, 1963 season, 1964 season, 1965 season, 1966 season and 1967 season. In 1962, the Lotus team ran the Lotus 25 powered by the new Coventry-Climax FWMV V8 engine. The car had an aluminium sheet monocoque chassis instead of the traditional spaceframe design. This proved to be the greatest technological breakthrough since the introduction of mid-engined cars, but the Lotus was unreliable at first. Jim Clark finished second that year leaving the title to Graham Hill and his new V8 powered BRM. As soon as the car and the engine became reliable, the era of the Lotus and of Jim Clark began. Clark won the title twice in three years, 1963 and 1965, the latter being the only occasion to date of a driver winning both the Championship and the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race in the same year. For 1964 Lotus introduced the new Lotus 33 and Ferrari made considerable technological and financial effort to win the title. Ferrari used no less than three different engines in the season – the existing V6, a V8 and a flat-12, while Lotus was struggling with the teething troubles of a new car. The title went to John Surtees and Ferrari. Surtees' title was especially notable, as he became the only driver ever to win the World Championship for both cars and motorcycles. The 1965 Mexican Grand Prix, the last race of the 1.5 litres Formula One, saw Richie Ginther give Honda its first victory at the end of the second season for the Japanese newcomer. This was the first victory by a Japanese car and, as of today, the only one by a car powered by a transverse engine. 1966 saw a 'Return to Power' as Formula One changed the engine rules once again, allowing engines of 3.0-litre normally aspirated, or 1.5-litre supercharged or forced induction. 1966 was a transitional year for most teams, however, the year did see the first use of composite materials, a technology which would later revolutionise the sport. The McLaren M2B, designed by Robin Herd, used an aluminium-wood laminate known as Mallite for much of its monocoque, although the car's design did not make best use of the new material. Given the shift to 1500 cc forced induction, it is surprising that any teams did not seriously consider fielding turbocharged versions of their 1500 cc naturally aspirated engines right from that point, Coventry Climax had considered it for their FWMW flat 16, but the company had decided to end its Formula 1 racing activities and the idea stopped there. It would be eleven years before a team exploited the 1500 cc forced induction option again. Ferrari was the great favorite with a 3-litre version of his well tested powerful sports car V12 design, but the new cars were very heavy, probably in an excess of self-confidence. An enlarged V6 held some promise but Surtees left mid-season after a dispute with team manager Eugenio Dragoni at the 24 Hours of Le Mans sportscar race. Coventry-Climax, formerly supplier to much of the field, pulled out of the sport leaving teams like Lotus to struggle with enlarged versions of obsolete Climax engines. Cooper turned to a development of an otherwise obsolete Maserati V12 that was originally designed for the Maserati 250 F in the late 1950s, while BRM made the choice to design an incredibly heavy and complex H-16. The big winner was Jack Brabham, whose eponymous racing team took victory two years running with a light and compact spaceframe chassis powered by the aluminium-block stock-derived Repco V8 unit. With SOHC heads and no more than 330 bhp, the Repco was one of the least powerful of the new 3-litre engines but unlike the others it was light, reliable and available right from the start of the new rules. 1966 was Jack's year, while 1967 went to his teammate, New Zealander Denny Hulme, as Jack tried new parts on his car. In 1967, Lotus introduced the Lotus 49, powered by the Ford-Cosworth DFV V-8 engine that was to dominate Formula One for the next decade. Like the Repco the Cosworth was light and compact but it was a real racing engine using 4-valve DOHC heads and delivered much more power. Cosworth had aimed for 400 bhp (300 kW) and exceeded this when the engine first ran. The DFV was designed to be fully stressed (an idea pioneered by the Lancia D50). This allowed Chapman to design a monocoque that ended just after the driver's seat while the Brabham were still using a very classic tubular frame that supported the engine, the gearbox, and the rear suspension wishbones. The newborn DFV suffered from frequent failures due to excessive vibration from the flat-plane crank, forcing Keith Duckworth to redesign several parts and allowing Hulme to win the World Drivers' Crown on reliability. 1967 also saw a remarkable result by Rhodesian driver John Love with a 2.7-litre four-cylinder Cooper-Climax. Love, who was in his forties and although seen as one of the finest drivers in Southern Africa was not a major star, led and finished second in that year's South African Grand Prix. Love's obsolete Cooper was originally designed for the short races of the Tasman Series; to run a full Grand Prix, Love added two auxiliary fuel tanks. Unfortunately, the auxiliary tank's fuel pump failed and forced him to refuel after having led most of the race. By the late 1960s, overseas races outside Europe formed about a third of the championship in any year. The core of the season remained the European season run over the Northern Hemisphere summer, with overseas races usually falling at the start or end of the season, a pattern which has continued to this day. There were also a number of non-championship races run outside Europe; the South African Grand Prix was occasionally one of these. British and English-native speaking drivers dominated the racing scene in the 1960s. Britons Graham Hill, Jim Clark, John Surtees and Jackie Stewart won 7 championships combined in that decade- Australian Jack Brabham won 2 championships, New Zealander Denny Hulme won a championship in 1967 and American Phil Hill won a championship in 1961. DFV engine, 12-cylinder engines, and the arrival of sponsorship, safety, and aerodynamics (1968–1976) See 1968 season, 1969 season, 1970 season, 1971 season, 1972 season, 1973 season, 1974 season, 1975 season and 1976 season. In 1968, Lotus lost its exclusive right to use the DFV. McLaren built a DFV-powered car and a new force appeared on the scene when Ken Tyrrell entered his team using Cosworth-powered French Matra chassis driven by ex-BRM Jackie Stewart as lead driver. Clark took his last win at the 1968 season opening South African Grand Prix. On 7 April 1968, the double champion was killed at Hockenheim in a Formula Two event. The season saw three significant innovations. The first was the arrival of unrestricted sponsorship, which the FIA decided to permit that year after the withdrawal of support from automobile related firms like BP, Shell and Firestone. Team Gunston, a South African privateer team, was the first Formula One team to paint their cars in the livery of their sponsors when they entered a private Brabham for John Love, painted in the colours of Gunston cigarettes, in the 1968 South African Grand Prix. In the next round at the 1968 Spanish Grand Prix, Team Lotus, initially using the British racing green, became the first works team to follow this example, with Graham Hill's Lotus 49B entered in the Red, Gold and White colors of the Imperial Tobacco's Gold Leaf brand. The second innovation was the introduction of wings as seen previously on various cars including the Chaparral 2F sports car. Colin Chapman introduced modest front wings and a spoiler on Graham Hill's Lotus 49B at the 1968 Monaco Grand Prix. Brabham and Ferrari went one better at the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix with full width wings mounted on struts high above the driver. Lotus replied with a full width wing directly connected to the rear suspension that required a redesign of suspension wishbones and transmission shafts. Matra then produced a high mounted front wing connected to the front suspension. This last innovation was mostly used during practice as it required a lot of effort from the driver. By the end of the season, most teams were using sophisticated wings. There were several cases of wings, struts, or even suspension collapsing. Lastly, the third innovation was the introduction of a full face helmet for drivers, with Dan Gurney becoming the first driver to wear such helmet at the 1968 German Grand Prix. Lotus won both titles in 1968 with Graham Hill with Stewart second. 1968 was the year that former double World Champion Jim Clark died in a Formula 2 race in Germany. This was a tragedy for the sport and many of its fans and within the next few years, many of the drivers campaigned for more safety at races to stop more deaths from happening. The 1968 Matra's most innovative feature was the use of aviation-inspired structural fuel tanks but the FIA decided to ban the technology for 1970. For 1969 Matra made the radical decision to withdraw its works team and build a new car using structural tanks for the Tyrrell team, even though it would be eligible for only a single season. The 1969 season started with cars using larger and more sophisticated wings than the previous year. When both Lotus cars broke their wings' struts and crashed at the Spanish Grand Prix, the FIA banned wings for the next race at Monaco. They were reintroduced later in the season but were to be restricted in size and height and attached directly to the chassis in a fixed position. Safety became a major issue in Formula One and the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa did not take place as the drivers boycotted the circuit after safety upgrades were not installed as demanded. Stewart won the 1969 title easily with the new Matra MS80, a spectacular achievement from a constructor and a team that had only entered Formula One the previous year. It remains the only title won by a chassis built in France. 1969 also saw a brief resurgence of interest in four-wheel drive with a record of four such cars on the field at the British Grand Prix. Johnny Servoz-Gavin became the one and the only driver to score a point with a 4WD, finishing sixth with the Matra MS84 at the Canadian Grand Prix, although the front wheel transmission was actually disconnected. Wide tyres and downforce had proved to be better means of increasing grip, and the technology was largely abandoned. Jacky Ickx finished second in the championship for Brabham, competitive again after dropping its Repco engines in favour of the DFV. For 1970 Tyrrell was asked by Matra to use their V12, but decided to retain the Cosworth instead. As Matra was now a Chrysler affiliate and Tyrrell derived much of its income from Ford and Elf (associated with Renault) the partnership ended. Ken Tyrrell bought March 701 chassis as an interim solution while developing his own car for the next season. The new wedge-shaped Lotus 72 was a very innovative car featuring variable flexibility torsion bar suspension, hip-mounted radiators, inboard front brakes, and an overhanging rear wing. The 72 originally had suspension problems, but once resolved the car quickly showed its superiority, and Lotus's new leader, the Austrian Jochen Rindt, dominated the championship until he was killed at Monza when a brake shaft broke. He took the 1970 title posthumously for Lotus. 1970 saw the introduction of slick tyres by Goodyear. Ferrari's new flat-12 engine proved to be more powerful than the Ford-Cosworth DFV; but slightly heavier. Their performance started to improve at the end of that season, and Belgian Jacky Ickx won 3 races- but this proved to not be enough to overhaul Rindt's points total; Ickx later said he was happy to not have won the championship that year. After Rindt's death, the Lotus team had a desultory 1971 season with its two new and inexperienced drivers – Emerson Fittipaldi and Reine Wisell. The team spent a lot of time experimenting with a gas turbine powered car, and with four-wheel drive again. After Jack Brabham's retirement, his old team went into a steep decline. Using their own chassis heavily inspired by the Matra MS80 but with conventional tanks, Tyrrell and Stewart easily took success in 1971. Focusing again on the type 72 chassis, now fielded in John Player Special's black and gold livery, Lotus took the 1972 championship by surprise with 25-year-old Brazilian driver Emerson Fittipaldi becoming the then youngest world champion. Stewart came second, his performance compromised by a stomach ulcer. In 1973, Lotus teammates Fittipaldi and Ronnie Peterson raced each other while Stewart was supported by François Cevert at Tyrrell. Stewart took the Drivers' title, but then at the final race of the season, the United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, Cevert crashed during Saturday practice in the notorious esses and was killed instantly. Stewart, temporary hire Chris Amon, and Tyrrell withdrew from the race effectively handing the Constructors' title to Lotus. At the end of the season, Stewart made public his decision to retire, a decision that was already made before the U.S. Grand Prix. McLaren, having fully recovered from the death of its founder, ended the 1973 season with three wins and several poles. The new M23, an updated interpretation of the Lotus 72 concept, appeared to many as the best design on the field. Fittipaldi made the choice to leave Lotus for McLaren that offered him true lead driver status that Chapman refused to him. The 1974 season went to pre-season favourites McLaren and Fittipaldi but was a far closer result than expected. Ferrari bounced back from a dismal 1973 season with its first true monocoque cars, the flat-12 powered 312 B3s driven by young Austrian Niki Lauda and the experienced Clay Regazzoni. Despite the failure of the new Lotus 76, Peterson managed to win Grands Prix with the four-year-old 72. Brabham driver Carlos Reutemann was also able to win with the new BT44 and young talent Jody Scheckter ended most of the races in the points, including winning the Swedish Grand Prix with the M23-lookalike Tyrrell 007. Lauda's season fizzled out after a crash on the first lap of the German Grand Prix. Only the last race of the season decided the Drivers' title between Fittipaldi, Regazzoni, and Scheckter. By this time the innovations introduced by the Lotus 49 and 72 had changed car design. Fully stressed engine and variable flexibility suspension was now the norm, most cars had wedge shaped bodywork and airboxes towered over driver's heads. The main innovation of this era came in 1975, when the Ferrari 312T appeared, its transverse gearbox allowing better weight distribution. Ferrari won the Constructors titles in 1975, 1976, and 1977. Lauda took a relatively straightforward first Drivers' title in 1975. The main surprise of the season came when the tiny Hesketh team won the Dutch Grand Prix with James Hunt. Despite entering only one car and refusing sponsorship the team finished 4th in the Constructors' Championship. That year also saw Lella Lombardi score the first points by a woman in Formula One for 6th place at the Spanish Grand Prix. For 1976, Fittipaldi made the surprising decision to drive for the Brazilian Fittipaldi Automotive team of his brother Wilson, sponsored by Copersucar. James Hunt, who knew that Hesketh's future was doomed by its lack of sponsorship (Lord Hesketh had tried to obtain major backing once he realised Hunt was a likely title contender and that he could no longer afford to run the team out of his own pocket), signed for McLaren. In 1976 Lauda's second successive title seemed inevitable until he crashed on the second lap at the Nürburgring, suffering severe burns as well as lung and blood damage. He was given the last rites but unbelievably was back in his Ferrari six weeks later. He lost the championship by a single point to James Hunt in heavy rain at the final round at Fuji in Japan when he pitted his car and refused to continue, declaring that the risk was too great and that from now on he would refuse to race under extreme conditions. The most radical innovation of 1976 was the 6-wheeled Tyrrell P34. The P34 was a good car, often finishing third or fourth and winning the Swedish Grand Prix, but it was not superior to the best 4-wheeled cars. 1976 also saw the Lotus team fitting brushes or plastic skirts under its rather uncompetitive 77; McLaren and Brabham also experimented with air-dams and splitters in an attempt to cause low-pressure areas under the car but found no significant effect on performance, in fact, nobody knew what was in Chapman's mind. The incident at Fuji damaged Lauda's relationship with Enzo Ferrari and Lauda officially became the second driver of the Scuderia with Carlos Reutemann as the leader. Lauda signed for Brabham before the end of the 1977 championship, having taken the title easily before Enzo Ferrari refused him a car for the end of the season. His second title was mostly built on regularity and reliability. Despite his conflict with the "Commendatore" and his second driver status Lauda enjoyed immense respect from the Ferrari team, which did its best to give him a good car. There was in fact a very competitive field that year but no single challenger to the Austrian emerged and points taken away from Ferrari were shared between many teams and drivers. Surprisingly, the new Wolf team, born from the ashes of Frank Williams Racing Cars and Hesketh, made excellent use of its legacy with Jody Scheckter finishing second to Niki Lauda. Ground-effect era (1977–1982) See 1977 season, 1978 season, 1979 season, 1980 season, 1981 season and 1982 season. 1977 also saw two radical technical innovations that would change the future of Formula One. The purpose of Lotus's experimentation in 1976 was revealed with the Lotus 78, which brought ground effect to Formula One for the first time, using wing-profiled sidepods sealed to the ground by sliding lexan skirts. Generating radically increased downforce with significantly less drag, the Lotus 78s driven by Mario Andretti and Gunnar Nilsson won five Grands Prix in 1977. Renault unveiled the second when their RS01 made its first appearance powered by a 1.5-litre turbocharged engine, derived from their sportscar unit. Although supercharged engines were successful in the 1950s and the regulations allowing for turbocharged engines had existed for 11 years, no Formula One team had built one, feeling that the fuel consumption and turbo lag (boost lag) would negate its superior power. Motor engineer Bernard Dudot, who had observed the turbocharged Offenhauser engines used in Indy car racing in the US, pushed for this choice. The entry of Renault also brought Michelin's radial tyres to Formula One. Goodyear, who enjoyed a monopoly before the entry of Michelin, was still using the cross ply design for racing. Goodyear saw the entry of Michelin as a serious threat and made a notable effort in research and development to develop its own radial tyres. Tyrrell's 1977 season was disastrous because Goodyear was too busy to continue to develop the unique small tyres required by the P34. Without continuing development, the tyres became less competitive and the six-wheeled concept had to be dropped. Michelin eventually left F1 after the 1984 season. For 1978 the new Lotus 79 made more radical and mature use of the ground effect concept. Many other teams began experimenting with the technology, but Lotus had a head start and Mario Andretti won the Championship in the "Black Beauty", becoming the first driver to win both the American IndyCar championship and the Formula One title. Brabham outbid Lotus in generating downforce with BT46B "fan car", a revival of the "sucker car" concept used by Jim Hall's Chaparral 2J in the Can-Am series in the early 1970s. The car exploited a loophole in the regulations, but the team, led by Bernie Ecclestone who had recently become president of the Formula One Constructors Association, withdrew the car before it had a chance to be banned after winning its only race with Niki Lauda at the wheel at the Swedish Grand Prix. Late in the season, Ronnie Peterson crashed into the barriers in the first lap at Monza and his Lotus burst into flames. James Hunt heroically pulled him out of the car and the medical prognosis was initially good but the Swede died the next day because of an embolism. Hunt would retire after the following season's Monaco Grand Prix. For 1979 Ligier, the up-and-coming Williams team and surprisingly Ferrari, despite the handicap of the Flat-12 that obstructed wind tunnels, produced wing-cars designs that were more effective than the Lotus 79. This forced Lotus to hastily introduce the new 80 that overplayed the ground effect concept (it was originally intended to run with no drag-inducing wings, merely ground-effect sidepods) and never proved competitive. Renault persisted with the turbo engine, despite frequent breakdowns that resulted in the nickname of the 'Little Yellow Teapot', and finally won for the first time at Dijon in 1979 with the RS10 that featured both ground effect and turbo engine. The new technologies introduced by Renault and Lotus became entangled in the FISA–FOCA war of the early 1980s. Turbo engines were complex machines whose layout limited the ground effect 'tunnels' under the car. They were an emerging technology and so they were difficult and expensive to develop and build and make reliable. It was mostly manufacturer-supported teams, such as Renault, Ferrari, and Alfa Romeo which took that route. In contrast, the cheap, reliable, and narrow Ford-Cosworth DFV engine, still used by most teams more than a decade after its introduction, lent itself well to highly efficient ground effect aerodynamics. These two groups were represented by two political bodies – the sport's governing body FISA, headed by Jean-Marie Balestre; and FOCA, headed up by Bernie Ecclestone. The first group supported a strict limitation of ground effect to gain full advantage from their powerful turbos while the other relied on unrestricted ground effect to balance their horsepower deficit. There were also financial considerations. Faced with large constructors with unrestricted budgets, the smaller constructors wanted a larger share of Formula One's income to remain competitive. The battles between FISA and FOCA during the first years of the 1980s overshadowed the events on track. Jody Scheckter took Ferrari's last title for 21 years in 1979, but attention there was already being focused on young Canadian Gilles Villeneuve. Alan Jones and Keke Rosberg brought success to Frank Williams at last in 1980 and 1982, while young Brazilian Nelson Piquet won titles for Brabham team owner Ecclestone in 1981 and 1983. Patrick Depailler was killed in 1980, probably due to high lateral acceleration causing a black out in Hockenheim's fast Ostkurve. The double blow struck to Ferrari in 1982, of the death of Gilles Villeneuve and the crippling injury to teammate Didier Pironi only a few weeks later, helped bring this crisis into the spotlight, and helped both sides settle the dispute for the good of the sport. The old fashioned DFV helped make the UK domestic Aurora Formula One series possible between 1978 and 1980. As in South Africa a generation before, second hand cars from manufacturers like Lotus and Fittipaldi Automotive were the order of the day, although some, such as the March 781, were built specifically for the series. In 1980 the series saw South African Desiré Wilson become the only woman to win a Formula One race when she triumphed at Brands Hatch in a Williams in a non-championship event. After several years in darkness McLaren merged with Ron Dennis's Formula Two Project-4 team. The McLaren MP4/1 (McLaren Project-4) introduced the first carbon fiber composite chassis in 1981, an innovation which, despite initial doubts over its likely performance in a crash, had been taken up by all the teams by the middle of the decade. The use of carbon fibre composite in place of aluminium honeycomb produced cars that were significantly lighter, yet also far stiffer which improved grip and therefore cornering speed. Significant skepticism regarding the use of carbon fiber chassis remained, but John Watson's 1981 crash in the MP4/1 showed that the new technology was sufficiently safe, with the violent accident leaving Watson unscathed, where similar previous incidents had resulted in death or serious injury. 1.5-litre turbo-charged engines (1983–1988) See 1983 season, 1984 season, 1985 season, 1986 season, 1987 season and 1988 season. The 1983 drivers' title, won by Piquet for the BMW-powered Brabham team of Bernie Ecclestone, was the first-ever won by a turbocharged engine. By 1983, the dispute between FISA and FOCA had been resolved and although FOCA emerged with the stronger hand, the teams had seen the writing on the wall. Renault had proven in 1979 and 1980 that turbo-charged engines were a more efficient means of getting more performance from the powertrain with the FIA regulations. The turbo cars were faster on almost all of the high speed (Hockenheim, Österreichring, Monza, Silverstone) and high-altitude tracks (Interlagos, Kyalami), but by 1982, the turbo cars were fastest just about everywhere. The 1982 season made it obvious to all the competing Formula One teams that turbocharged engines were the way to go if anyone wanted to be competitive in Formula 1. By 1983, the reliability of the turbo-charged engines had been ironed out and made more reliable, and in 1984, only Tyrrell still struggled on with the old DFV engines. 1983 also saw the last non-championship Formula One race: The 1983 Race of Champions at Brands Hatch, won by reigning World Champion Keke Rosberg in a Williams-Ford/Cosworth in a close fight with American Danny Sullivan. After nearly 50 years the power achieved by the turbocharged cars could finally match the 640 hp (477 kW) produced by the supercharged 1937 Mercedes-Benz W125, without a huge consumption of special fuel. By 1986, some engines were producing over 1,350 bhp (1,010 kW) in short bursts in qualifying. BMW's 1,000 bhp (750 kW) dynamometer was incapable of measuring the output of their qualifying engines – Paul Rosche estimated that it might be as much as 1,400 bhp (1,000 kW). First fuel consumption and then turbocharger boost were restricted to 4-bar in 1987 and 1.5-bar in 1988. By 1988, the turbos were only slightly more powerful than the lighter 3.5-litre naturally aspirated cars that had been introduced the previous year. The thirsty turbo engines briefly saw refuelling introduced into the sport, but this was banned for 1984. With controversy at last left behind, the Formula One teams flourished through the remainder of the 1980s and into the 1990s. Despite the overwhelming dominance of some teams during some seasons, this period is regarded (perhaps ironically) as one of the brightest spots in F1's 50-year history. Niki Lauda, coming out of retirement for a hefty sum in 1982, pipped his teammate Alain Prost to the title in 1984 by a mere half-point, the closest ever finish in Formula One history. That half-point in itself was controversial in that it came at the rain-shortened Grand Prix of Monaco, which resulted in half points, Prost won the race, but Ayrton Senna made the stronger impression in his Toleman car by finishing 2nd and rapidly closing on Prost, It was the start of a rivalry between the two men that would continue for nearly a decade. But in the early years, Prost held the advantage, driving for the McLaren team with the Porsche-built TAG turbo engine which took three world titles in a row. 1986 provided another close finish. The Honda-powered Williams cars of Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell looked untouchable, but too often they took points from each other, allowing McLaren's Prost to stay in touch. Although Williams easily won the Constructors' Championship that year, it was not until the season-ending Grand Prix of Australia that the Drivers' title was decided, Prost making the most of both Williams drivers tyre problems. 1987 saw the Williams grow only stronger, with Piquet driving more consistent races to take his 3rd title ahead of Mansell who crashed in Japan in practice forcing him to sit out for the final 2 races. 1987 also saw the return of atmospheric engines to Formula One, after the turbo-only year of 1986. Capacity was increased to 3.5 litres, and the turbo engines were restricted in boost pressure and fuel capacity to limit their effect, with a total ban to be introduced in 1989. Nevertheless, while turbo engines lasted, they dominated, with Williams-Honda winning easily in 1987, and then Honda teaming up with McLaren in 1988 that resulted in the super-team of Prost and Senna winning 15 of 16 races, a record unmatched today. It was Senna who emerged the victor, claiming the first of his three World Titles. 3.5-litre naturally-aspirated engines, active suspension, and electronic driver aids (1989–1993) See 1989 season, 1990 season, 1991 season, 1992 season and 1993 season. In 1989, turbos were banned and new regulations allowing only naturally aspirated engines up to 3.5 litres were put in their place. The dominance of McLaren-Honda continued for the next 3 seasons, Prost winning the title in 1989, Senna in 1990 and 1991. The V10 and V12 engines produced by the Japanese manufacturer proved to be just as good as the turbo V6s before them, and the V10 was the best engine over the two seasons it was used and developed by Honda. The championship was marred however by the fierce rivalry between the two men, culminating in a pair of clashes at the Japanese Grands Prix of 1989 and 1990. They both dominated Formula One from 1988 to 1990, winning 37 of the 48 Grand Prix staged and each scoring almost twice as many points as the third-place driver in those championships. In 1989 Prost 'closed the door' on his overtaking teammate while Senna later freely admitted to deliberately driving into Prost in the 1990 race, drawing stiff condemnation from all quarters of Formula One. Senna, however, was more concerned with the threat (and opportunity) afforded by the resurgent Williams, now powered by Renault (the French giant's innovative engine technology resulted in major progress) and designed by aerodynamics genius Adrian Newey which were to dominate Formula One for the next 7 years. In the early 1990s, teams started introducing electronic driver aids, whose use spread rapidly. Active suspension, (pioneered by Lotus in 1987), semi-automatic gearboxes (Ferrari in 1989), and traction control (Ferrari in 1990) All enabled cars to reach higher and higher speeds provided the teams were willing to spend the money. The FIA, due to complaints that technology was determining the outcome of races more than driver skill, banned many such aids in 1994. However, many observers felt that the ban on driver aids was a ban in name only as the FIA did not have the technology or the methods to eliminate these features from the competition. Even this controversy did not diminish the pleasure British fans of the sport felt in 1992, when Nigel Mansell finally won the title, after a decade of trying, nor French fans in 1993 when Alain Prost took his 4th Championship, both drivers piloting Williams-Renault cars. Lightweight television cameras attached to the cars became common in the early 1990s (following an American network TV practise actually pioneered in Australia). As well as boosting audience figures this also made the sport more attractive to sponsors beyond the traditional cigarette companies. Safety improvements also meant that the major car manufacturers were more inclined to attach themselves to teams on a rolling basis. 1994 then seemed ripe to produce a stunning season. Ayrton Senna had moved to Williams to replace Prost, who retired from the sport. Young German driver Michael Schumacher had Ford power for his Benetton. McLaren had high hopes for its new Peugeot engine (which had been developed through the French marque's Le Mans sportscar racing program) which ultimately did not happen and Ferrari were looking to put the tumultuous seasons of 1991–93 behind them with Gerhard Berger and Jean Alesi. The season was stunning but for all the wrong reasons. Safety, rules, and regulations (1994) See 1994 season. By 1994, the previous death in Formula One was nearly a decade past, that of Elio de Angelis during testing at the Circuit Paul Ricard in 1986. There had been several horrifying accidents (for example Nelson Piquet and Gerhard Berger at Imola, or Martin Donnelly at Jerez), but no fatalities. The speed of Formula One cars had continuously risen over 8 years, despite turbocharged engines being made illegal, the width of tyres being reduced and driver aids eventually being removed. There was an "air of invincibility" in Formula One, a belief that the cars were inherently safe and no more drivers would die. At the San Marino Grand Prix weekend this belief was crushed completely with the serious injuries sustained by Rubens Barrichello in practice and the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger during qualifying and Ayrton Senna in the race on 1 May 1994. Furthermore, Karl Wendlinger was left comatose after a crash two weeks later at the Monaco Grand Prix. The shock from the sudden injuries and deaths was stunning. Not only had two drivers been killed, but one of them was a triple world champion and arguably the best F1 driver at the time. The FIA reacted swiftly and harshly with major changes to be enforced from that year onwards, and it was the beginning of the FIA's push to increase safety in Formula One. While significant changes could not be made to cars in 1994, the FIA required all Formula One cars' airboxes to be perforated to reduce their "ram-air" effect, to reduce power. For the same reason special racing fuels, previously an exotic mixture of benzenes and toluenes, were banned and only those with similar characteristics to everyday unleaded petrol would be permitted. To reduce downforce, and therefore the cornering speed of the cars, a wooden "plank" was to be fitted beneath the central portion of the chassis, forcing a large section of the floor further away from the track. If the plank was worn over a certain tolerance (approximately 10 mm), the car would be deemed illegal. This wooden plank remains under F1 cars today. Further, from 1995 designs were required to be drawn from a reference plane (template), and strict limitations were enforced as to the minimum and maximum tolerances for aspects of the vehicle such as the size of the cockpit opening (an idea well known in Champ Car for a decade) and of aerodynamic devices, commonly called wings. Further, maximum engine displacement was reduced from 3.5 to 3 litres. Further changes were mandated as the FIA continued to try to curb the increase in speeds of Formula One cars as the years progressed. These changes included the increase in the size of the cockpit opening (to ensure driver egress was easy and to minimise possible side head impacts), introducing grooved tyres (to reduce cornering speeds by reducing grip) and narrower bodywork (this would complicate cooling and also reduce cornering speed), raising and reducing wing sizes and elements (cutting aerodynamic downforce, thus reducing cornering speed), and introducing comprehensive checks on stiffness tolerances and measurements to ensure cars conformed completely with the regulations (for example, weight tests on wings and bodywork to ensure that they maintained integrity and did not flex to give an aerodynamic advantage in a straight line). The rapid introduction of all of these new rules and regulations, particularly those introduced in 1994, made the atmosphere even more chaotic for Formula One. Michael Schumacher had to fight desperately for his first World Drivers' Championship, as his Benetton team found itself in frequent violations of FIA regulations and Schumacher was suspended for two races as a result. Even his championship-clinching race in Australia was controversial, as he collided with rival Damon Hill (son of Graham) and ensured himself of the title. 3-litre engines (1995–1999) See 1995 season, 1996 season, 1997 season, 1998 season and 1999 season. By 1995, things had settled down somewhat. The downgraded 3-litre formula had no effect of the domination of the Renault V10, and Schumacher took his second Drivers' title, and Benetton their first Constructors' title, with relative ease, defeating the Williams team of Hill and David Coulthard. The Renault engine which powered both teams was virtually unbeatable, with only Ferrari claiming a single win at the Canadian Grand Prix for Alesi, his only career win. For 1996, the FIA mandated a much larger minimum size cockpit area, along with driver's head protection, to ensure the driver's head was less exposed (ironically, this limited driver visibility and contributed to accidents). As part of his plan to rebuild Ferrari, Jean Todt brought Michael Schumacher to the team from Benetton that year, essentially in exchange for his 1995 drivers Alesi and Berger. There was an immediate effect, in his first year with the Scuderia Schumacher won three races, more than the team had managed in the previous five years. Ferrari were not championship contenders though and Damon Hill made a strong run to the title, finally claiming the crown after 3 years of almost but not quite. In 1997, another son of an F1 racing legend took the titles for Williams once again, as Jacques Villeneuve became the 4th driver to take both the Formula One and CART championship (the others being Mario Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi, and Nigel Mansell). Villeneuve also became the only Canadian to have won a Formula 1 Drivers' title. The 1997 season was much closer than 1996, and Villeneuve only clinched the Drivers' Championship at the final race. Once again, Michael Schumacher collided with his championship rival at the final race, but unlike 1994 events turned against him. Schumacher not only found himself knocked out of the race, but was found to have deliberately tried to run Villeneuve off of the road. Schumacher was stripped of second place in the Championship and was disgraced. At the end of 1997 Renault withdrew from Formula One. McLaren-Mercedes took the Drivers' Crown for the next two years, both being claimed by Mika Häkkinen. The Finn was nearly untouchable as he took his first title while Schumacher and Villeneuve could only watch. 1999 provided a stiffer contest for the title. Villeneuve was out of the picture at the brand-new BAR but Schumacher was in contention when he crashed and broke his leg at Silverstone. His teammate Eddie Irvine eventually lost by only two points to Mika Häkkinen, but his efforts contributed to Ferrari's first Constructors' Championship since 1983. Behind the title races, however, there were signs of trouble brewing in Formula One. The long-established, highly-respected Lotus name vanished from the starting grids, following Brabham's demise in mid-1992. French manufacturer Ligier found themselves in desperate straits, and were sold to Alain Prost. Ken Tyrrell's team floundered on, despite dismal results, until 1998, when BAR bought the team. And the colourful era of the small, private teams finally came to an end. Names like Larrousse, Dallara, Simtek, Pacific, MasterCard Lola, Life Racing Engines, March Engineering, Onyx Grand Prix, Coloni, Andrea Moda, Fondmetal, Osella, Footwork, AGS, Lambo, Leyton House Racing, EuroBrun and Forti would no longer be seen on the starting grids, with only Jordan, Sauber, Arrows and Minardi managing to survive somehow. The flourishing of Jordan in 1998 and 1999, under the leadership of Damon Hill, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Ralf Schumacher (Michael's younger brother) proved to be a last hurrah of the privateer, not a sign of health in the sport. Even once-mighty Benetton champions only a few years before were barely surviving. Jackie Stewart fronted his own team from 1997 to 1999 with backing from Ford but even then sold out as the team transformed into Jaguar. V10 engines and rise of road car manufacturer participation (2000–2005) See 2000 season, 2001 season, 2002 season, 2003 season, 2004 season and 2005 season. After the banning of turbocharged engines in 1989, V10 became the most popular engine configuration in Formula One, because it offered the best compromise between power and fuel consumption. From the 1998 season onwards, all competing teams had V10 engines in their cars. V12s were powerful but thirsty, while V8s were more fuel-efficient but lacked power. 2000 saw the grids of Formula One start to revert to normal, as Jordan rapidly faded out of sight, and Williams, looking forward to a new partnership with BMW started to reassert itself. The fight at the front, however, was very much between Häkkinen and Schumacher, each two-time champion, driving cars closely matched in performance. Ferrari had been steadily improving since their low point in the early 1990s and in 2000 Schumacher prevailed, becoming the first three-time Champion since Senna, and bringing the World Drivers' title to Ferrari for the first time since Jody Scheckter in 1979. The 2001 season saw Ferrari start to leave the rest of the grid behind, and Schumacher won the championship by the Hungarian Grand Prix, which tied him as second quickest championship winner with Nigel Mansell. 2001 also saw the reintroduction of electronic driver aids after a seven-year absence, starting at the Spanish Grand Prix, which included fully-automatic gearboxes, launch control, and traction control, marking the first time since the 1993 season that these systems were allowed to be used. For 2002, the season was a red-wash. Ferrari finished every race and won 15 of 17. Michael Schumacher scored more points than the second and third-placed drivers combined, after gaining a podium in all of the races (Schumacher had only a single third place, in Malaysia). In this season, he wrapped up the championship at the French Grand Prix (Round 11 of 17), becoming the earliest ever championship winner. While Ferrari celebrated their dominance, the sport itself was seen by many to be in trouble. Two more privateers, Prost and Arrows, had closed their doors for good, while Benetton was bought out by Renault. Even more troubling was the one team in seemingly no danger of disappearing: Ferrari. While Formula One was no stranger to teams monopolizing the winner's stand, Ferrari's actions throughout the 2002 season annoyed many; in particular, the staged finishes of the Austrian Grand Prix and the US Grand Prix. It seemed to many that it was possible to take the dictum of 'win at all costs' too far. Ratings and attendance noticeably declined in the latter half of 2002, a serious problem for a sport which was by far the most expensive (and, more importantly, most lucrative) in the world by this time. A number of major car manufacturers had joined Formula One since 2000 – there were as many as eight manufacturers participating in Formula One at most. BMW and Honda had returned as works engine manufacturers in 2000, while Ford had rebranded the Stewart team as Jaguar and developed engines through its Cosworth subsidiary. In 2001, Renault also returned as a works engine maker and bought the Enstone-based Benetton team, which it rebranded as Renault in 2002. Toyota joined the series in 2002, developing both chassis and engine at its facility in Cologne. Mercedes continued its participation as engine manufacturer in association with Ilmor, and part-owned McLaren. In 2003, despite heavy rule changes (such as a new points system) in order to prevent another year of Ferrari dominance, Schumacher won the championship once more. He was run close by both Kimi Räikkönen and Juan Pablo Montoya, but Schumacher prevailed, taking the championship by two points at Suzuka. It seemed that 2003 was the perfect balm to ease the memories of the previous season, with 8 different race winners (including first-time victories for Fernando Alonso, Kimi Räikkönen and Giancarlo Fisichella) and 5 different teams, including both Renault (for the first time in twenty years) and Jordan, who grabbed a lucky win in a wild Brazilian Grand Prix. In 2004, Ferrari and Schumacher returned to almost total dominance of the championships, winning both with ease – in the first thirteen races of the season, Schumacher managed to win twelve. A new race in Bahrain made its debut in April and another new race in China debuted in September. It was initially thought that in introducing these new races, older Grands Prix in Europe, like the British Grand Prix, might be removed from the championship, but instead, the number of races was increased to eighteen. According to Ecclestone, the move was to increase Formula One's global reach, though the steady tightening of restrictions on tobacco advertising in Europe and elsewhere may also have been a factor. This move saw the percentage of races held outside Formula One's traditional European home climb to around fifty percent – meaning the World Championship, which visits four of the six continents, truly deserves its name. 2004 was Michael Schumacher's most recent of his record seven World Championships. Schumacher also held the record for the most races won – with ninety-one, and now remains the driver with the second most wins ever. The 2004 season also saw a big change in technical regulations, including the banning of two electronic driver aid systems; namely fully-automatic gearboxes and launch control, both of which had been used for the last three seasons, marking the first time since 1994 that cars competed without using these systems. This was done to ensure that costs were kept down for a competitive F1 team, as well as keeping the skill of driving a Formula 1 car relevant to the driver. However, the use of traction control was still permitted by the FIA, and was used for the next three seasons, until an effort to ban the system led to the FIA finally outlawing it for the 2008 season. Despite Ferrari's dominance (taking 15 wins from the 18 races), the battle back in the pack was much more open than 2002, as powerhouses McLaren and Williams got off to horrendous starts with radical new cars. As could have been expected, Renault was quick to capitalize on the misfortunes of the two older British teams, but the real shock came from British American Racing, led by Jenson Button. Although failing to win a race, Button was a regular sight on the 2nd or 3rd step of the podium, and with teammate Takuma Sato who had finished 3rd at the US Grand Prix behind the Ferraris managed to clinch 2nd in the Constructors' Championship, leaving Renault 3rd, Jarno Trulli's win in Monaco some consolation. Montoya and Räikkönen each managed a solitary win for their teams, which finished 4th and 5th in the results. The Ford Motor Company's decision to pull out of Formula One at the end of 2004 exposed the vulnerabilities of some small teams. Not only was their works Jaguar team sold to Austrian drinks company Red Bull, but the few remaining small independent teams, who traditionally had used Ford engines, found their engine supply in a precarious state. In 2005, Formula One saw Ferrari and BAR rapidly fade out of sight, as the works Renault team dominated the early part of the season, and Fernando Alonso forged a clear championship lead. In the latter part of the season, McLaren was significantly the stronger team, with consistently better results and a win tally of 6 from 7 races. However, their early record of poor reliability had meant that catching Renault in either Drivers' or Constructors' Championships was a tall order. For a while, it looked close between Räikkönen and Alonso, but by Brazil Alonso had become Formula One's youngest ever champion. The Constructors' Championship looked even more likely for McLaren, widely regarded as the faster car and with reliability much improved. However, a retirement for Juan Pablo Montoya in the season finale at Shanghai secured the Constructors' title for Renault. One statistic proved the two teams' dominance: they together won all but one of the races, the controversial U.S. Grand Prix, in which neither of the two teams participated, which was Schumacher and Ferrari's only win of the year. Arguably, the final small specialist racing team disappeared with the September 2005 purchase of Minardi by Red Bull to be renamed as Scuderia Toro Rosso and run as a separate entity alongside Red Bull Racing. Jordan had been bought by Russo-Canadian steel company Midland early in 2005 and was renamed Midland F1 for the 2006 season. In June 2005, BMW bought a majority stake in Sauber, which became their factory entry. The Williams team ceased their partnership with BMW as a result, entering a commercial arrangement with Cosworth instead. From 2006 manufacturer teams had an unprecedented level of involvement in the sport. Honda also bought BAR. 2005 marked the end of the V10-era in Formula One. To keep costs down, the configuration had been made mandatory in 2000 (although only V10s had been in use since 1998, Toyota were planning on entering Formula One with a V12 and had to delay their entry by a year to redesign) so that engine builders would not develop and experiment with other configurations. Over this period, the statistics show the supremacy of the Renault and Ferrari engines, with Renault clinching six Constructors and five Drivers' Championships as engine suppliers for Williams and Benetton from 1992 to 1997, and their first-ever Drivers' and Constructors' Championships in a 100% Renault car in 2005. Ferrari also enjoyed great success in the V10 era, winning six Constructors' Championships and five Drivers' Championships from 1999 to 2004. 2.4-litre V8 engines (2006–2008) See 2006 season, 2007 season and 2008 season. 2006 was the last season with two tyre manufacturers: Japanese manufacturer Bridgestone and French company Michelin. In December 2005, the FIA announced that from the 2008 season, there would be only one tyre-supplier. Five days later, Michelin announced it would quit Formula One at the end of the 2006 season, leaving Bridgestone as the sole supplier from 2007. Renault and Fernando Alonso established early leads in both the Constructors' and Drivers' Championships. By mid-season, Ferrari appeared to be making a comeback. The Italian Grand Prix saw Schumacher reduce Alonso's lead to only two points as Alonso suffered an engine failure. The race also saw Ferrari pull ahead of Renault for the first time in 2006. The race results were largely overshadowed by Schumacher announcing, during the post-race press conference, that he would retire at the end of the season. An engine failure for Schumacher at the Japanese Grand Prix, along with costly puncture in the final round in Brazil allowed Alonso to secure the Drivers' Championship for the second year running, with Renault also securing the Constructors' Championship. The 2007 Formula One season saw a much more competitive McLaren, with current world champion Alonso alongside rookie Lewis Hamilton. However, Hamilton surprised everyone with a run of nine consecutive podiums in his first nine races seeing him take a significant lead in the Drivers' Championship. Alonso's relationship with McLaren deteriorated as the season progressed, as he believed it was his right as world champion to be favoured above his teammate. A mistake by Hamilton in China and a mechanical problem in Brazil ruined his championship. Alonso, however, was not able to fully capitalise on the situation, and Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen took the championship after a strong second half to the season. Räikkönen turned around a 17-point deficit with two races to go to win by a single point. Both McLarens finished the Championship on 109 points. Fernando Alonso was placed third, behind Lewis Hamilton through countback. Renault had a much less successful season in 2007 than in previous years and struggled to match the pace of McLaren and Ferrari. Ferrari also clinched the Constructors' Championship after McLaren's disqualification over the controversy over the suspicion that McLaren had Ferrari information. 2007 marked the seventh and final season, since its reintroduction in 2001, that the use of traction control was permitted in F1. Standardised ECUs were mandated by the FIA from the 2008 season onwards, which prevented teams from using this kind of technology. The 2008 season also marked the first time since the 2001 San Marino Grand Prix that all cars competed without using traction control. For the 2008 and 2009 seasons Fernando Alonso returned to Renault, but having little success he joined Ferrari in 2010. 2008 again saw McLaren and Ferrari have the most competitive cars. However, the season was much more open, with winners from three other teams. After agonising defeat in 2007, Hamilton clinched the Drivers' Championship in dramatic fashion, overtaking Timo Glock in the Toyota to secure the fifth place he needed in the last corner of the last lap of the final Grand Prix. Felipe Massa had won the race, and would also have won the Drivers' Championship if it had not been for Hamilton's crucial overtake. Despite this, Ferrari secured the Constructors' Championship for the eighth time in ten years. Cost-cutting measures and departure of car manufacturers (2009–2013) See 2009 season, 2010 season, 2011 season, 2012 season and 2013 season. During the 2000s, Formula One cars had become extremely complex, efficient, and reliable, so much so that actual racing between drivers began to become less and less common. 2009 saw the introduction of many new rules and regulations (including engine RPM limits, an adjustable front wing, and disproportionate wing sizes) to encourage overtaking. Engine RPM reached 20,000 rpm (and over for Renault and Cosworth) in 2006, and was initially limited to 19,000 rpm for 2007; this was lowered to 18,000 from 2009 to 2013. The most significant system introduced in F1 was the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS), a system that stores energy, created by braking, through a flywheel; this energy is then channeled to the car's drivetrain to increase acceleration. A few well-funded teams had tested this technology the previous year but it remained too experimental; all of the teams' KERS systems needed more development, so none of them would be ready for 2009. Due to the global economic recession, many more rule changes were brought in to reduce the cost of participating in Formula One. Initially a standardised engine was proposed, but this idea was rejected by the teams, who came up with their own cost-cutting measures. These included a huge reduction in testing times and an increase in the required engine and gearbox mileage. Many teams voiced concerns over the cost of KERS and have suggested a standardised unit, but so far no such opportunity exists. The new rules and regulations saw a new order in 2009, with new teams Brawn GP and Red Bull Racing and their drivers leading the way, with Ferrari and McLaren having a poor season. However, Ferrari started by the British Grand Prix to make the most of their car with a string of podium finishes and a race victory in Belgium, while a redesign of the McLaren challenger helped Lewis Hamilton to win two races and gain more points than any other driver after it was upgraded at the German Grand Prix. After dominating the beginning of the season with six out of seven race wins, Jenson Button eventually clinched the Drivers' Championship in Brazil, with Brawn GP winning the Constructors' Championship in its only season, before being taken over by Mercedes. Rubens Barrichello, Jenson Button's teammate, was second in the Drivers' Championship for the whole season until he had a problem at the Brazilian Grand Prix and was overtaken (in points) by Sebastian Vettel, a Red Bull driver, who won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to finish eleven points behind Button. Also, the major manufacturer teams were starting to disappear rapidly due to the worldwide economy crisis. In addition to Ford/Jaguar which had left in 2004, Honda had departed in 2008 also due to uncompetitiveness, Toyota and BMW both departed entirely in 2009 (BMW sold Sauber, a team it had bought in 2005 after its split with Williams even though in 2010 the team was still called BMW Sauber), Renault changed their involvement as a full works effort to engine supplier in 2011 and Cosworth departed entirely as an engine supplier in 2013. 2010 saw more changes in the way of rules and regulations. KERS and double diffusers were banned for the 2010 season, but new innovative features on the cars such as F-ducts were introduced. An allocated eight engines, per driver, for the whole season was also introduced as part of more cost-cutting methods. The biggest change in the points scoring system in F1 history happened between 2009 & 2010. The 10–8–6–5–4–3–2–1 point system for the top eight finishers (which had been running since 2003), was replaced with the drastically different 25–18–15–12–10–8–6–4–2–1 for the top-10 finishers. Red Bull Racing returned to have a great season in 2010, thanks to their hiring of designer Adrian Newey in 2007. They won the Constructors' Championship in the penultimate round in Brazil, and Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel won the championship in the final round of the 2010 season at Abu Dhabi. Mercedes GP (formerly Brawn GP) had a much less successful and winless season than 2009 with their two new drivers – seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher had returned to Formula One, but was regularly beaten by fellow German, Nico Rosberg. McLaren and Ferrari had better seasons in 2010, finishing respectively second and third among the constructors. The Drivers' Championship was very closely fought, with six drivers leading the championship at various points, in the joint longest ever (nineteen-race) season. For most of the season, the title looked like it could have gone to either Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel or Mark Webber, or either McLaren's Lewis Hamilton or reigning World Champion Jenson Button (also at McLaren). But, the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso clawed back 47 points after the British Grand Prix, to be leading the Drivers' Championship with two races left. A record four drivers were still in contention for the title going into the final round in Abu Dhabi. They were Alonso, Webber, Vettel and Hamilton (placing in that order in number of points before the race). They did not finish that way though, with Vettel winning the race and the title when the others finished too far down the field. Vettel became the youngest ever World Champion in the history of the sport. After a controversial race in Hockenheim, 2010 led to the ban on team orders being dropped. When Ferrari asked Felipe Massa to move over to allow their No.1 driver Fernando Alonso into the lead of the race and take the win, they were fined $100,000. The FIA decided that the rule was too vague, and there was nothing they could do to enforce it. This led to an end to the ban on team orders for the 2011 Formula One season. Other changes included a re-introduction KERS, the introduction of the Drag reduction system (DRS) (a driver activated moveable flap on the cars rear wing), and a change in tyre supplier from Bridgestone to Pirelli. Vettel and Red Bull lead their respective championship from the start until the end of the season, dominating and taking their second successive titles. Vettel also became the youngest double world champion when he clinched the title at the 2011 Japanese Grand Prix, Red Bull took the Constructors' Championship at the following race in South Korea. McLaren and Ferrari finished second and third in the standings once again, albeit much further behind. Button eventually took second place in the standings, with Webber in third once again. Vettel took 11 victories throughout the course of the year, broke the record for the most pole positions in a season (15) and the most championship points (392). After a slow start to the 2012 season, Vettel won 4 races in a row and challenged Fernando Alonso and Ferrari all the way through. Eventually, the German Vettel took the lead from the Spanish Alonso and Vettel opened up a 13-point gap come the last round in Brazil. Vettel won his third consecutive Drivers' title after finishing 6th at Interlagos, while Alonso finished 2nd. 2013 also went Vettel's way: the superiority of the Red Bull in race trim allowed the German to open up a small lead early in the season, and starting with the Belgian Grand Prix (after F1's 4-week summer break), the superiority of the Red Bull car began to show. The British-based Austrian team had developed an engine-mapping system that gave their car a type of traction control (actual traction control systems are illegal), and Vettel used this to his considerable advantage. He won in Belgium and after that, the rest of the remaining races in the season (9 races total). The German and the Red Bull team simply ran away with the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships, both of which they won in India – Vettel won his 4th consecutive Drivers' Championship there. Come the Korean round, 2 rounds before the Indian one, Red Bull had developed a special aerodynamic diffuser that gave the cars a considerable cornering advantage. Vettel and his Australian teammate Mark Webber were leading 1–2 for most of those 9 races, and the cars often qualified in the top 3 grid spots; and when they qualified 1–2, it was often by considerable amounts of time. Introduction of 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 hybrid power units and cost cap (2014–2021) See 2014 season, 2015 season, 2016 season, 2017 season, 2018 season, 2019 season, 2020 season, 2021 season and Formula One engines. Formula One entered its second turbocharged era in 2014. Australia was the location of the end of the first era (Adelaide 1988) and start of the second (Melbourne 2014). The series is being run under the most radical engine regulation changes since 1995. All cars entering any Formula One championship race must run with 1.6-litre single turbocharged 6-cylinder engines with a rev limit of 15,000 rpm and maximum fuel flow of 100 kg/hr. New car regulations will also be enforced, and the minimum weight regulations will be raised from 642 kg (1,415 lb) to 690 kg (1,521 lb). Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault produced engines from 2014 with Honda producing engines from 2015; Cosworth did not participate from 2014 and beyond. In-season engine development returned; the previous V8's development was frozen. The new turbo engines produce 600 bhp (the previous V8s produce approximately 750 hp); but the new energy recovery system (ERS) would be twice as powerful as the previous KERS system; this new ERS system would give the drivers up to the equivalent of 160 hp when activated, whereas the previous KERS gave cars an extra 80 hp when activated. Since 2017 new rules about aerodynamics and the consistent improvement of the engines, that now reach around 1000 hp, have made the cars finally faster than the 2004 ones, breaking numerous track records. The Mercedes team and their drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg dominated the start of the hybrid era, winning 51 of the 59 races (31 for Hamilton and 20 for Rosberg) between 2014 and 2016 as well as all titles during that period (Hamilton was champion in 2014 and 2015 while Rosberg won in 2016). This success was the result of Mercedes' development of the "split turbocharger", a system in which the compressor and turbine components of the turbo charger are placed at separate sides of the engine and connected by a rod running through the V of the engine. This new technology gave Mercedes and their customer teams many advantages over their competitors due to the need for less cooling and a more compact power unit. Ferrari and their driver Sebastian Vettel emerged as strong title contenders in 2017 and 2018 after rule changes in aerodynamic design were implemented for 2017, but despite mid-season championship leads for Vettel in both seasons, Hamilton and Mercedes ultimately won the titles with multiple races to spare. Mercedes subsequently won both championships comfortably in 2019 and 2020 along with an additional constructors' title in 2021, with Hamilton managing to equal Michael Schumacher's record of seven World Championships. In 2021, Mercedes faced stiff competition from the Honda-powered Red Bull team, whose driver Max Verstappen won the Drivers' Championship after a season-long battle with Hamilton to end the run of Mercedes only winning titles in the hybrid era. Ground effect cars and aerodynamic changes for closer racing (2022–2025) See 2022 season, 2023 season In 2022, the FIA designed a new set of rules designed to promote "closer racing." This mostly included aerodynamic changes. Citing a loss of downforce in a trailing car caused by dirty air, the FIA introduced a new type of car designed around using ground effect to create downforce. This was the first time ground effect was used since venturi tunnels under cars were banned in 1983. In the previous cars, air led off the car in a chaotic pattern, creating "dirty air" that decreased the downforce of the car right behind it. The new 2022 car uses ground effect to create downforce, meaning there is less drag and dirty air behind the car. This promotes closer racing as it allows attacking cars to get up closer to the leading car, increasing the number of risky overtakes per race. This is done by simplifying the exterior of the car and instead using the floor to generate downforce, instead of sending air outwards or under the car into the diffuser. A newer front wing is designed to prevent outwash. Ground effect features in the car also allow the car to follow leading cars better by decreasing the effect of dirty air on its downforce. Bargeboards were eliminated and a newer front wing with simpler endplates to decrease the complexity of aerodynamic components. The front wings were also required to directly attach to the nosecone, which has an increased height. The wider rear wings are mounted higher, and regulations limit the teams' ability to use exhaust gases to increase downforce. The number of aerodynamic upgrades a team can make to the car was decreased, to cut the costs of competing. Although the cars used the same 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 hybrid engines from the previous era, the engines also included new sensors and standard components. This increases the FIA's ability to monitor the power units. However, there were changes made to the type of fuel in the engines. In 2022, the percentage of bio-components in fuel increased from 5.75% in previous years to 10%, moving to E10 (ethanol) fuels. This is designed to make Formula 1 more sustainable, as well as align better with road car fuel regulations. After a slow season beginning dominated by Scuderia Ferrari, Red Bull Racing dominated the season. Their drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez dominated most races. The season ended with Verstappen winning the World Drivers' Championship and Red Bull winning the Constructors' Championship. Verstappen ended the season with 454 points, the highest number of points in one season ever recorded. He was 146 points ahead of Charles Leclerc in second place and his teammate Pérez in third. In 2023, Verstappem cruised to his third consecutive Drivers' Championship title clinching it at the Qatar Grand Prix, winning a record 19 out of 22 Grands Prix held and finishing on the podium 21 times (also a record number for most podiums in a season) by the end of the championship. His team, Red Bull Racing achieved their sixth Constructors' Championship title, the second consecutively, at the preceding Japanese Grand Prix. Red Bull Racing won 21 out of 22 Grands Prix, breaking the team record for highest percentage of Grand Prix wins in a season at 95.45%, beating McLaren's 1988 season, the only 2023 Grand Prix to elude them being the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix won by Carlos Sainz in a Ferrari. Verstappen also broke the record for the highest Grand Prix win percentage for drivers, with a win rate percentage of 86.36%, beating the previous record set by Alberto Ascari in 1952. Relative importance of car quality to driver skill (1950–2020) In 2020, the British magazine The Economist ranked champion drivers by the relative importance of car quality to driver skill, based on a study by Andrew Bell of the University of Sheffield, UK. This ranking considers the relative statistical significance of the car maker's contributions: Juan Manuel Fangio (2.9) Jim Clark (2.6) Alain Prost (2.1) Jackie Stewart (1.95) Michael Schumacher (1.9) Lewis Hamilton (1.8) Alberto Ascari (1.75) Ayrton Senna (1.7) The ranking illustrates that over time car quality has become more important. For example, Michael Schumacher won 5 of his 7 titles (1994–2004) with a single car maker (Ferrari). Lewis Hamilton won all of his 7 titles (2008–2020) with a Mercedes-Benz engine (one of them in conjunction with McLaren). In the 1950s, Juan Manuel Fangio won his 5 titles (1951–1957) with four different teams: Alfa Romeo, Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari, Maserati. Notes References General references The Official Formula One Website – Results Archive (2006). FerrariWorld – see F1 racing cars 1940s–1990s (2006). [1]. Retrieved 9 February 2006. Hillier, V.A.W (1993). Fundamentals of Motor Vehicle Technology. Nelson Thornes Ltd. ISBN 0-7487-0531-7. Autosport 50th Anniversary Edition, 13 July 2000 Roderick Eime: The "Little Alfa" That Grew Too Big. Pierre Ménard: Automobile Historique N°45 Février 2005 – Lotus 72 (1973–1975) – Prolongations exceptionnelles p. 60–71 (in French) Histoire d’un sport: La formule 1 (in French)

The 1992 Formula One World Championship was the 46th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1992 Formula One World Championship for Drivers and the 1992 Formula One World Championship for Constructors, which were contested concurrently over a sixteen-race series that commenced on 1 March and ended on 8 November. Nigel Mansell won the Drivers' Championship and Williams-Renault won the Constructors' Championship. Mansell won the first five races of the season and went on to become the first driver in Formula One history to win nine World Championship races in a single season. He sealed the championship at the Hungarian Grand Prix in mid-August, with five races still to run, becoming the first Briton to win the championship since James Hunt in 1976. Reigning champion Ayrton Senna won three races for McLaren-Honda but could only manage fourth in the championship, with Mansell's Williams teammate Riccardo Patrese finishing second and young Michael Schumacher third for Benetton-Ford. Drivers and constructors The following teams and drivers competed in the 1992 FIA Formula One World Championship. All teams competed with tyres supplied by Goodyear. This was the first season in which all teams ran two cars. Team changes March completed a take-over of Leyton House Racing. Modena designed a car for 1992, but had to cease operations before the season started, due to insurmountable financial challenges. After a one-year spell with Lamborghini, Ligier signed a three-year full-works engine deal with Renault. They received the same treatment as Williams, by utilizing the same engine specifications. Lamborghini moved on to supply Minardi and Larrousse, who collaborated with Venturi Automobiles. Judd supplied Team Lotus and BMS Scuderia Italia in 1991, but moved on to Brabham and Andrea Moda in 1992. Lotus was supplied by Ford, BMS received a 1991-spec Ferrari engine. Brabham's former supplier, Yamaha, moved to Jordan. After preparing the Honda engines for Tyrrell in 1991, Mugen Motorsports made their public debut as supplier to Footwork. Tyrrell moved on to engine supplier Ilmor. Mid-season changes After being in Formula 1 since 1962, Brabham went into administration 11 races into the 1992 season. Andrea Moda was expelled from the championship after 12 races, on the regulatory grounds of "[failure to operate a] team in a manner compatible with the standards of the championship or in any way brings the championship into disrepute." The Fondmetal team ran out of money after 13 races. Post-season March left the sport after more than twenty years in F1. Driver changes After Alain Prost was released from his contract with Ferrari before the 1991 season ended, the team attracted Ivan Capelli. Three-time world champion Nelson Piquet retired and Benetton attracted Martin Brundle, coming from Brabham. Brabham signed Eric van de Poele and Giovanna Amati, the first female F1 driver since Desiré Wilson in 1980. Ex-driver Mark Blundell could not find a seat for 1992. Stefano Modena and Andrea de Cesaris switched employers, Modena going to Jordan and De Cesaris to Tyrrell. Jordan also signed Maurício Gugelmin from Leyton House, while Tyrrell replaced the retired Satoru Nakajima with Olivier Grouillard. Pierluigi Martini moved from Minardi to Scuderia Italia, replacing Emanuele Pirro making place at Minardi for debutant Christian Fittipaldi. Aguri Suzuki moved from Larrousse to Footwork, freeing a seat for newcomer and fellow Japanese Ukyo Katayama. Ex-Footwork driver Alex Caffi moved to Andrea Moda, besides Enrico Bertaggia. Andrea Chiesa debuted with Fondmetal, the team fielding a second car for the first time. Mid-season changes After three races, Giovanna Amati was replaced by Williams test driver Damon Hill, while he was still competing in the F3000. Before the Hungarian Grand Prix, Andrea Chiesa was replaced at Fondmetal by Eric van de Poele, coming from the defunct Brabham team. Unfortunately, Fondmetal folded just three races later. At March, Emanuele Naspetti left the F3000 championship while he was leading, to replace Paul Belmondo, and Jan Lammers made a surprise comeback when he replaced Karl Wendlinger for the final two races of the season. Lammers set a record by returning a full ten years after his initial final race. Christian Fittipaldi was replaced at Minardi by Alessandro Zanardi when he crashed during qualifying of the French Grand Prix. After three races, the Brazilian returned. Ferrari promoted their test driver and ITCC champion Nicola Larini to the racing seat. He had helped develop their active suspension system and when it was time to launch the car with that upgrade, Larini was awarded the drive. After just two races, Andrea Moda separated with both drivers and hired Roberto Moreno and Perry McCarthy. Calendar Calendar changes The United States Grand Prix was originally scheduled for 15 March at the Phoenix street circuit, which was to be the second round as a result of the return of South Africa but was cancelled due to the inability to install more seats in order to attract spectators. This made way for the return of the South African Grand Prix. After a seven-year absence, the FIA lifted its ban on events in South Africa due to the end of Apartheid. The race was held again at Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit, but there was a new layout compared to the last time they raced in 1985. The Mexican Grand Prix was moved from its mid-June date to March and the Spanish Grand Prix was moved from September to May. The Austrian Grand Prix, originally scheduled for 16 August, was cancelled due to financial problems. The Hungarian Grand Prix moved up from 23 August to take its slot. The European Grand Prix, originally scheduled for 4 October at the Jerez circuit, was cancelled. Regulation changes Technical regulations Unleaded gasoline fuel became mandatory for all Formula One cars from the 1992 season onwards, as leaded gasoline fuel was deemed too hazardous for health. Previously, unleaded gasoline fuel was optional for top teams only. Stricter crash tests were introduced. Sporting and event regulations The use of the Safety Car was formalised. Circuits were demanded to lower the kerbs, to widen the pit lane to at least 12 meters and to add a chicane in the pit lane entry. Race-by-race Race 1: South Africa The season started off in South Africa at the newly rebuilt Kyalami circuit near the high altitude city of Johannesburg where Mansell took pole ahead of Senna, Berger, Patrese, Alesi and Schumacher. At the start, Patrese overtook both McLarens and Berger lost out to both Alesi and Schumacher as well. The order was: Mansell, Patrese, Senna, Alesi, Schumacher and Berger. Mansell quickly pulled away from Patrese who was under no pressure at all from Senna. Brundle spun off on the first lap in the Benetton and then retired with a broken clutch. Alesi was well behind Senna and had a comfortable gap to Schumacher, whom Berger could do nothing about. The pit stops left the order unchanged, and it held until Alesi's engine failed on lap 41. Andrea de Cesaris was sixth and in the points for one lap until his engine failed as well. Mansell won the race easily with Patrese making it a Williams 1–2 ahead of Senna, Schumacher, Berger and Johnny Herbert. Mansell had also won the previous South African Grand Prix, held in 1985, in a Williams-Honda. Race 2: Mexico The cancellation of the United States Grand Prix on a street circuit in Phoenix, Arizona, originally scheduled for 15 March left a 3-week gap between the first two races, and there was some controversy surrounding the next race in Mexico: the venue for this race, the Hermanos Rodríguez Autodrome in Mexico City (an even higher altitude city) had an appallingly bumpy track surface, thanks to the circuit being located on a geologically active area. It also had a dauntingly fast final corner called the Peraltada which was 180 degrees and banked. Although the banking had been eased from the previous year, making the corner slightly slower, the bumps were still disastrous as Ayrton Senna hit a nasty bump in the Esses and crashed into a concrete wall, receiving severe bruising. He was cleared fit enough to race. The Williams cars were 1–2 in qualifying in Mexico ahead of the Benettons and the McLarens with Mansell on pole ahead of Patrese, Schumacher, Brundle, Berger and Senna. At the start, Senna blasted past his teammate and the Benettons with Brundle getting ahead of Schumacher. The order was: Mansell, Patrese, Senna, Brundle, Schumacher and Berger. Schumacher quickly passed Brundle on lap 2 and soon afterwards there was a big queue behind Senna, who was apparently having some sort of trouble. Schumacher got past on lap 7 and the rest were relieved of being stuck up when Senna retired with transmission troubles on lap 11. After the stops, Berger got ahead of Brundle only to be passed two laps later. Berger repassed Brundle on lap 36. Brundle got back ahead on lap 39 only for Berger to repass him two laps later. Brundle was back in fourth on lap 44 but retired with engine trouble three laps later, ending the battle for fourth. At the front, Mansell won with Patrese making it a Williams 1–2 again ahead of Schumacher, Berger, de Cesaris and Mika Häkkinen. Race 3: Brazil For the Brazilian Grand Prix at the Interlagos circuit in São Paulo, the Williamses were ahead of the McLarens with Mansell on pole ahead of Patrese with Senna third in front of his home crowd ahead of Berger, Schumacher and Alesi. On the parade lap, Berger stalled and had to start at the back. At the start, Mansell was poor and Patrese blasted ahead of him with Brundle getting ahead of Alesi. The order was: Patrese, Mansell, Senna, Schumacher, Brundle and Alesi. Berger had to retire after only 4 laps in the pits with electrical failure. The Williamses pulled away while Senna was holding the rest at bay; Schumacher was 30 seconds behind by the time he had passed Senna for third on lap 13. Brundle and Alesi passed him soon afterwards and Senna retired with engine troubles on lap 17. The stops brought Alesi closer to Brundle and Alesi made his move on lap 31. The two collided, with Brundle spinning out. This promoted Karl Wendlinger to fifth and he was there until his clutch failed on lap 56. As Thierry Boutsen collided with Érik Comas and forced Johnny Herbert off into the gravel at the Senna S as it forced both drivers to retire but Comas managed to continue, just 6 laps after Brundle's retirement. Meanwhile, Mansell pitted while passing back markers and took advantage of subsequent clear laps, taking over first place when Patrese pitted after slower laps passing more of the back markers. Mansell then built a lead and won with a 29-second lead over Patrese in second, making it yet another Williams 1–2 ahead of Schumacher, Alesi, Capelli and Michele Alboreto. Race 4: Spain Mansell was on pole once again in Spain at the Catalunya circuit in Montmeló ahead of Schumacher, Senna, Patrese, Capelli and Brundle. At the start, in torrential wet conditions, Patrese got by Senna and Schumacher while Alesi sensationally climbed up from eighth to third. The order was: Mansell, Patrese, Alesi, Schumacher, Senna and Capelli. Brundle retired yet again after spinning off on the main straight with a clutch problem by lap 5, meaning it was his fourth consecutive retirement. Schumacher attacked and passed Alesi on lap 7. Senna tried to do the same but tipped Alesi into a spin, putting the Frenchman behind Berger and Capelli as well. By now the rain intensified, and Patrese spun off on lap 20 while trying to lap a backmarker. This put Mansell ahead of Schumacher, Senna, Berger, Capelli and Alesi. Maurício Gugelmin as the only Jordan in the race, and lapped by the McLarens, had spun into the pit wall at lap 25. During the pit-stops, Alesi got past Capelli and began to charge up through the field. He cruised past Berger for fourth and began to attack Senna for third. He wanted to attack Schumacher as well and was in a hurry. The pressure was so intense that Senna spun off with two laps to go. At the same time, Capelli spun off as well. Mansell won again from Schumacher, Alesi, Berger, Alboreto and Pierluigi Martini. Race 5: San Marino At the San Marino Grand Prix at the Imola circuit in Italy, the Williamses were still well ahead of the McLarens and the Benettons, Mansell taking another pole ahead of Patrese, Senna, Berger, Schumacher and Brundle. At the start, Patrese attacked Mansell but Mansell kept the lead and Schumacher got ahead of Berger to take fourth. The order at the end of the first lap was: Mansell, Patrese, Senna, Schumacher, Berger and Brundle. As usual, Mansell was pulling away from Patrese as the two of them began to pull away from the field. Capelli in the second Ferrari spun off into the gravel trap on lap 12. Schumacher was pressurizing Senna but it was he who made the mistake first, spinning out into retirement on lap 21 with the result of rear suspension damage after clipping the tyre wall. Alesi was planning to go without a stop and so after the others stopped, he had climbed up to third. However, he was soon under pressure from the McLarens of Senna and Berger. Senna went ahead at Tosa on lap 40, but Berger tried to follow him through and Alesi lost momentum and spun towards Berger, taking both out. Mansell made it five wins out of five with Patrese making it one more Williams 1–2 ahead of Senna, Brundle, Alboreto and Martini. Race 6: Monaco In Monaco, the Williamses were again dominant, with Mansell taking six poles in six with Patrese beside him, Senna third, Alesi fourth, Berger fifth and Schumacher sixth. At the start, Senna got ahead of Patrese while Schumacher took Alesi and Berger into the first corner. However, Alesi took fourth back at Mirabeau and then the race settled down. The order was: Mansell, Senna, Patrese, Alesi, Schumacher and Berger. Patrese began to attack Senna but then began to drop back with gearbox troubles. On lap 12, Schumacher tried to pass Alesi and the two collided, and an electronic box was damaged in Alesi's car, with Schumacher getting ahead. Alesi continued to stay fifth for another 16 laps before the damage forced him to retire on lap 28. This promoted Berger to fifth, a place which he held for just under 5 laps before he had to retire from gearbox troubles. On lap 60, Alboreto, just about to be lapped by Senna, spun in front of him and Senna lost another 10 seconds. Then, there was a loose wheelnut in Mansell's car and Mansell had to pit and rejoined behind Senna. He closed the gap quickly but with overtaking being extremely hard, Senna was able to legally block every move that Mansell made. Senna won from Mansell, Patrese, Schumacher, Brundle and Bertrand Gachot. Race 7: Canada There was a change in Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Canada with Senna taking his 61st career pole position ahead of Patrese, Mansell, Berger, Schumacher and Herbert. At the start, Mansell got ahead of Patrese and behind them Brundle was able to get by Herbert. The order was: Senna, Mansell, Patrese, Berger, Schumacher and Brundle. The race settled down for the first 14 laps but then on lap 15, Mansell attacked Senna at the final chicane and hit a kerb, pushing his car into the air. It landed nose-first into the gravel and spun back onto the track. Mansell claimed that Senna had pushed him off the track. He was out and this forced Patrese to slow down and suddenly Berger went through to second. Senna then began to pull away from the field and the stops changed nothing. Senna still led Berger, Patrese, Schumacher, Brundle and Herbert. Herbert went out on lap 34 with clutch troubles. Senna lost a certain victory when electrical failure put him out on lap 38. Behind them, Brundle passed Schumacher for third and this became second when Patrese's gearbox failed on lap 44. However, Brundle only lasted for two more laps before he retired with transmission trouble. Berger won from Schumacher, Alesi, Wendlinger, de Cesaris and Érik Comas. Race 8: France The Williamses took the front row at the Magny-Cours circuit in France ahead of the McLarens, with Mansell on pole ahead of Patrese, Senna, Berger, Schumacher and Alesi. At the start, Patrese got by Mansell while Berger got ahead of Senna and Brundle was able to pass Alesi. At the Adelaide hairpin, Schumacher tried to pass Senna but instead hit him, taking Senna out and forcing himself to pit. Meanwhile, Patrese and Mansell were side by side but Patrese kept the lead. Patrese led Mansell, Berger, Brundle, Alesi and Häkkinen and then Patrese waved Mansell through. Nothing changed until lap 11 when Berger's engine failed. Soon afterwards it began to rain so heavily that the race was stopped. After some time the rain decreased and the grid formed up again. Patrese took the lead again with Alesi getting ahead of Häkkinen as well. Mansell tried to get past but Patrese defended and once again kept the lead. Patrese led Mansell, Brundle, Alesi, Häkkinen and Comas on aggregate. Patrese then waved Mansell through on track and soon Mansell got ahead on aggregate. It began to rain again and everyone pitted for wets with Alesi going too late and dropping down to sixth. His engine failed on lap 61. Mansell won with Patrese making it a Williams 1–2 ahead of Brundle, Häkkinen, Comas and Herbert. Thus, at the halfway stage of the season, Mansell was comfortably leading the championship with 66 points compared to Patrese's 34. Schumacher was third with 26, Senna was fourth with 18, Berger was fifth with 18, Alesi was sixth with 11, Brundle was seventh with 9 and Alboreto was eighth with 5. The 66 points that Mansell had after the French Grand Prix would have been enough for him to have been crowned world champion even if he had scored no further points in the season; Patrese was the eventual runner-up with 56 points. In the Constructors' Championship, Williams were dominant, with 100 points and well ahead of the field. McLaren were second with 36, Benetton were third with 35, and Ferrari were fourth with 13. This Grand Prix saw, for the first time in the sport, the trialing of a safety car, in this case a Ford Escort RS Cosworth. Race 9: Great Britain Mansell took pole position at Silverstone in Britain with Patrese making another Williams 1–2 ahead of Senna, Schumacher, Berger and Brundle. At the start, Patrese got ahead of Mansell while Brundle had a superb start, blasting by the three in front of him, and Schumacher also got ahead of Senna. Patrese waved Mansell through on the Hangar straight with action behind as both Senna and Berger got ahead of Schumacher. Schumacher quickly recovered and passed Berger at Priory before the first lap was over. Mansell led Patrese, Brundle, Senna, Schumacher and Berger. Herbert became the first of the leaders to retire from sixth position in the leading Lotus with transmission problems on lap 32. Alesi in the leading Ferrari eventually went off the track with mechanical problems by lap 44. Senna put Brundle under pressure but Brundle kept the place. The round of stops changed nothing, with Mansell leading from Patrese, Brundle, Senna, Schumacher and Berger. Schumacher then went wide at a corner giving fifth to Berger. Senna only lasted until lap 53 when his transmission failed. On the next lap, Schumacher passed Berger who was suffering from engine trouble, but still managed to cross the line just before it let go and finished fifth. Mansell took the win with Patrese making it one more Williams 1–2 ahead of Brundle, Schumacher, Berger and Häkkinen. Spectators began to invade the track to celebrate his win even before the final lap had finished, and thousands entered the track following the chequered flag. The win saw Mansell overtake Jackie Stewart as the most successful British driver, with 28 wins to Stewart's 27. Mansell's record was subsequently overtaken by Lewis Hamilton. This Grand Prix also saw repeated trials for a safety car, first run at the preceding French Grand Prix. Race 10: Germany At Hockenheim in Germany, the Williamses were again ahead of the McLarens, with Mansell on pole ahead of Patrese, Senna, Berger, Alesi and home hero Schumacher. At the start, Mansell defended from Patrese while Alesi lost out to both Schumacher and a fast-starting Brundle. Mansell was leading Patrese, Senna, Berger, Schumacher and Brundle at the end of the first lap. Mansell then pulled away from Patrese who was doing the same to the McLarens. Soon the stops came and everyone in the top pitted except Senna and the Benettons were planning to go without a stop. Berger had a slow stop and retired with a misfire soon after. The order after the stops was: Senna, Mansell, Schumacher, Patrese, Brundle and Alesi. Mansell did not want to stay second and passed Senna to lead with Patrese taking third from Schumacher soon after. Patrese was on a charge and smashed the lap record in his chase of Senna. He was right with Senna on the penultimate lap and tried to attack on the last lap. But Patrese in his attempt spun off into the gravel trap and was out. Mansell took his eighth win of the season ahead of Senna, Schumacher, Brundle, Alesi and Comas. Race 11: Hungary By the time the Hungarian Grand Prix in Mogyoród came around, Mansell was 46 points ahead of Patrese and the Williams team were 77 points ahead of Benetton with 6 races to go. This was the chance for Williams to seal both titles and they were dominant, but it was Patrese who took pole ahead of Mansell, Senna, Schumacher, Berger and Brundle. At the start, Berger got by Schumacher and then Mansell lost momentum and Senna passed him with Berger following his teammate through. The order was: Patrese, Senna, Berger, Mansell, Schumacher and Brundle. There was a collision on the first lap between Comas, Herbert, Boutsen and Tarquini who all retired on the first lap (meaning both Ligiers of Comas and Boutsen retired on the first lap), before Van de Poole spun into retirement at the first corner on lap 3 as both Fondmetals retired after only 2 laps. Mansell passed Berger on lap 8 and set off after Senna. However, as hard as he tried, the combination of the small circuit and Senna's skills in defending meant that he could not pass. Alesi in the leading Ferrari behind the leading pack spun out with the rear wheels in the gravel trap by lap 15. On lap 31, Patrese made a mistake and went wide and rejoined behind Berger. Two laps later, Mansell passed Berger to get back third. Then, a pivotal movement came on lap 39 when Patrese spun off. He rejoined in seventh, outside the points which meant that Mansell would be the world champion if results stayed the same. However, on lap 51, Mansell had to go to the pits with tyre troubles and rejoined in sixth, just ahead of Patrese. Mansell quickly passed Häkkinen but before Patrese, who was right behind, could take sixth, Patrese's engine blew. He was out and would get no points. Mansell quickly caught and passed Brundle on lap 60 and four laps later, he was up to third when Schumacher's rear wing broke, spinning him out and retired on lap 64. Senna, a minute ahead, made a precautionary stop just as Häkkinen passed Brundle for fourth. Mansell passed Berger for second and now had a toehold on the championship. Soon afterwards, Häkkinen tried to pass Berger and spun into Brundle's path. Brundle was forced to spin to avoid a collision and both rejoined without losing places, with Häkkinen staying ahead. Senna won ahead of new world champion Mansell, Berger, Häkkinen, Brundle and Capelli. Race 12: Belgium Now to Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium and champion-elect Mansell took pole ahead of Senna, Schumacher, Patrese, Alesi and Berger. At the start, it was damp and Senna outdragged Mansell with Patrese getting ahead of Schumacher while Berger did not move. Senna was leading Mansell, Patrese, Schumacher, Alesi and Thierry Boutsen. At the start before La Source, Berger failed to get away and retired after an immediate transmission problem & put him out straight away. Mansell attacked and passed Senna at the end of the second lap with Patrese following suit. Then it began to rain and almost everybody pitted for wets. Senna stayed out in the hope that the rain would stop but it did not. He pitted late and rejoined down in 12th as Alesi went out with a puncture after colliding with Mansell at La Source. The order was: Mansell, Patrese, Schumacher, Brundle, Häkkinen and Boutsen. Capelli suffered a dramatic engine failure on lap 26 as he went straight off into the gravel trap at Blanchimont whilst battling Herbert for sixth position. The track was beginning to dry and Boutsen spun off on lap 28. Schumacher lost two seconds after going off the track and stopped for dries at the end of the lap. However, Mansell and Patrese stayed out far too long and when both pitted late, they rejoined behind Schumacher. Herbert eventually retired yet again with engine problems on lap 43, the Englishman would be classified 13th. Mansell tried to close in but cracked an exhaust and dropped back. Patrese suffered the same fate and had to hold back Brundle. Behind, the recovering Senna took fifth from Häkkinen. Schumacher took his maiden win ahead of Mansell, Patrese, Brundle, Senna and Häkkinen. The Constructors' Championship went to Williams after their 2–3 finish. This was also the only race to have 18 classified finishers, the highest number of finishers that year. Thus, with three-quarters of the season over, Mansell was the World Champion with 98 points, with Patrese second with 44, Schumacher third with 43, Senna fourth with 36, Berger fifth with 24, Brundle sixth with 21, Alesi seventh with 13, and Häkkinen eighth with 9. Williams were the World Champion in the Constructors' Championship with 142 points, with Benetton second with 64, McLaren third with 60, and Ferrari fourth with 16. Race 13: Italy At Monza in Italy, Mansell was on pole ahead of Senna, Alesi, Berger, Patrese and Schumacher. At the start, Mansell took off while Patrese got ahead of Alesi and Berger lost out to Schumacher, Capelli and Brundle. Mansell led Senna, Patrese, Alesi, Schumacher and Capelli. Mansell pulled away fast with Senna holding up Patrese. On lap 13, both Ferraris went out: Alesi with trouble in his fuel system and Capelli with electrical problems. Patrese then passed Senna but Mansell was already 10 seconds up the road. Then, everybody stopped during which Brundle got ahead of Schumacher. The order was: Mansell, Patrese, Senna, Brundle, Schumacher and Berger. Then Mansell suddenly slowed down and allowed Patrese to pass him. Then, on lap 36, he began to drop back with hydraulic troubles. Senna, Brundle, Schumacher and Berger all passed him. He trolled round and retired in the pits on lap 41. Patrese led but then Senna began to close in. Patrese also began to suffer from hydraulic troubles and Senna passed him on lap 49. On the next lap, both Brundle and Schumacher found a way through. Patrese held fourth until the last lap when Berger passed him. Senna won from Brundle, Schumacher, Berger, the hobbling Patrese and de Cesaris. Race 14: Portugal The Williamses were again ahead of the McLarens and the Benettons in Estoril just outside Lisbon with Mansell on pole ahead of Patrese, Senna, Berger, Schumacher and Brundle. At the start, Schumacher was late firing up and started at the back of the grid. At the start, Berger got ahead of Senna. Mansell led from Patrese, Berger, Senna, Brundle and Häkkinen. Herbert in the second Lotus collided with Alesi on the first lap, Herbert eventually crashed out on lap 3 as Alesi in the leading Ferrari had spun off by lap 13, making it his 4th retirement in a row. Then it was the usual sight of Mansell pulling away from Patrese and the two getting away from the rest. The Williamses pitted early unlike the McLarens. Mansell had a quick stop and rejoined in the lead but Patrese had a problem with his right rear jack and joined behind the McLarens. He passed Senna quickly and set off after Berger. On lap 35, the recovering Schumacher took sixth from Alboreto. Soon after, Patrese was right with Berger, looking for a way through. Berger realised that he had blistered his tyres and slowed down as he was about to go to the pits. Patrese was caught unawares, hit the back of Berger and had a massive crash. Luckily, Patrese was unhurt. Schumacher hit the debris and had to pit again, dropping back to eighth. Mansell took his 30th career win ahead of Berger, Senna, Brundle, Häkkinen and Alboreto. With two more races to go, Mansell was already World Champion with 108 points but there was a big battle for second. Senna was second with 50, Schumacher was third with 47, Patrese was fourth with 46, Berger was fifth with 33, Brundle was sixth with 30, Alesi was seventh with 13, and Häkkinen was eighth with 11. In the Constructors' Championship, Williams was the World Champion with 154 points. McLaren was second with 83, Benetton was third with 77, and Ferrari was fourth with 16. Race 15: Japan Before the race at Suzuka in Japan, Ferrari had dropped Capelli who had a poor season and replaced him with Nicola Larini. In qualifying, the Williamses showed their class with Mansell taking pole ahead of Patrese, Senna, Berger, Schumacher and Herbert. At the start, there were no changes at the front and Mansell still led Patrese, Senna, Berger, Schumacher and Herbert. Senna did not last long, going out with engine troubles on lap 3. Gouillard had crashed out in the second Tyrrell by lap 6. Berger decided to make an early stop and dropped back down to sixth. Schumacher had gearbox troubles and retired at the end of lap 13. Herbert now inherited third only to go out with the same problems two laps later. Berger and Brundle who stopped earlier did not stop when the others did and so the order after the stops was: Mansell, Patrese, Berger, Häkkinen, Brundle and Comas. On lap 36, Mansell slowed down and let Patrese through before again speeding up and hanging on Patrese's tail. However, on lap 45, an engine failure ended Mansell's race. At the same time, Häkkinen went out with the same problem. Patrese won from Berger, Brundle, de Cesaris, Alesi and Christian Fittipaldi. Race 16: Australia For the season's final race on the streets of Adelaide, Australia, Mansell took pole ahead of Senna, Patrese, Berger, Schumacher and Alesi. At the start, Alesi had to hold off Brundle and there were no changes ahead of him. The order was: Mansell, Senna, Patrese, Berger, Schumacher and Alesi. There was a collision at the start behind the leaders as Grouillard's Tyrrell collided with the Dallara of Martini on the first lap (eliminating both drivers on the same lap). However, Mansell did not pull away as usual. Senna was right with him and tried to pass him on lap 8. Gugelmin had once again spun out and crashed in the second Jordan by lap 9. He went wide and Mansell retained the lead. The top two were pulling away from Patrese and the rest but Senna could not attack Mansell. The gap stayed at less than a second. Then, on lap 19, entering the final corner, Senna crashed into the back of Mansell resulting in both drivers retiring. Some claimed that Mansell 'brake tested' Senna. Patrese was now leading under immense pressure from Berger. Berger tried to pass around the outside but he too went wide. While Patrese did not pit, Berger pitted, followed 5 laps later by Schumacher. Berger rejoined 4 seconds ahead. Behind them, Brundle had got ahead of Alesi in the stops. On lap 51, Patrese, nearly 20 seconds ahead, coasted to a halt with an engine failure. So, Berger won with Schumacher close behind ahead of Brundle, Alesi, Boutsen (the last time the Belgian would score points) and Stefano Modena, this race was remembered for being Modena's last Grand Prix and the only point for the Jordan team that season. Season result At the end of the season, Mansell was named world champion with 108 points with Patrese edging out the battle for second with 56, Schumacher third with 53, Senna fourth with 50, Berger fifth with 49, Brundle sixth with 38, Alesi seventh with 18 and Häkkinen eighth with 11. In the Constructors' Championship, Williams was dominant champion with 164 points, McLaren just edging out second with 99, Benetton a close third with 91, and Ferrari fourth with 21. Results and standings Grands Prix Scoring system Points were awarded to the top six classified finishers in the following system: World Drivers' Championship standings Notes: † – Driver did not finish the Grand Prix but was classified, as they completed more than 90% of the race distance. World Constructors' Championship standings Notes: † – Driver did not finish the Grand Prix but was classified, as they completed more than 90% of the race distance. Non-championship event results The 1992 season also included a single event which did not count towards the World Championship, the Formula One Indoor Trophy at the Bologna Motor Show. References External links formula1.com – 1992 official driver standings (archived) formula1.com – 1992 official team standings (archived) 1992 Formula One results and images at f1-facts.com

Williams Grand Prix Engineering Limited, currently racing in Formula One as Williams Racing, is a British Formula One team and constructor. It was founded by Sir Frank Williams (1942–2021) and Sir Patrick Head. The team was formed in 1977 after Frank Williams's earlier unsuccessful F1 operation: Frank Williams Racing Cars (which later became Wolf–Williams Racing in 1976). The team is based in Grove, Oxfordshire, on a 60-acre (24 ha) site. The team's first race was the 1977 Spanish Grand Prix, where the new team ran a March chassis for Patrick Nève. Williams started manufacturing its own cars the following year, and Clay Regazzoni won Williams's first race at the 1979 British Grand Prix. At the 1997 British Grand Prix, Jacques Villeneuve scored the team's 100th race victory, making Williams one of only five teams in Formula One, alongside Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes, and Red Bull Racing to win 100 races. Williams won nine Constructors' Championships between 1980 and 1997. This was a record until Ferrari won its tenth championship in 2000. Notable drivers for Williams include: Alan Jones, Keke Rosberg, Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill, David Coulthard, Jenson Button, Juan Pablo Montoya, Alain Prost, Nelson Piquet, Ayrton Senna, Riccardo Patrese, Valtteri Bottas, Carlos Reutemann, Felipe Massa and Jacques Villeneuve. Of these drivers, Jones, Rosberg, Mansell, Hill, Piquet, Prost, and Villeneuve won the Drivers' title with the team. Of those who have won the championship with Williams, only Jones, Rosberg and Villeneuve defended their title while still with the team; as Piquet moved to Lotus after winning the 1987 championship; Mansell left F1 to compete in the CART series after winning the 1992 championship, Prost retired after winning the 1993 championship, and Hill moved to Arrows after winning the 1996 championship. None of Williams's Drivers' Champions went on to win another championship after their success with Williams. Williams have worked with many engine manufacturers, most successfully with Renault, winning five of their nine Constructors' titles with the company. Along with Ferrari, McLaren, Benetton and Renault, Williams is one of a group of five teams that won every Constructors' Championship between 1979 and 2008 and every Drivers' Championship from 1984 to 2008. Williams also has business interests beyond Formula One. They have established Williams Advanced Engineering and Williams Hybrid Power, who take technology originally developed for Formula One and adapt it for commercial applications. In April 2014, Williams Hybrid Power was sold to GKN. In May 2020, Williams announced they were seeking buyers for a portion of the team due to poor financial performance in 2019 and that they had terminated the contract of title sponsor ROKiT. On 21 August 2020, Williams was acquired by Dorilton Capital. Frank and Claire Williams stepped down from being Manager and Deputy Manager of the team on 6 September 2020, with the 2020 Italian Grand Prix being their last time in their respective positions. Origins Frank Williams founded Williams in 1977 after his previous team, Frank Williams Racing Cars, failed to achieve the success he desired. Despite the promise of a new owner, Canadian millionaire Walter Wolf, and the team's rebranding as Wolf–Williams Racing in 1976, the cars still were not competitive. Eventually, Williams left the rechristened Walter Wolf Racing and moved to Didcot to rebuild his team as Williams Grand Prix Engineering. Frank recruited Patrick Head to work for the team, creating the Williams–Head partnership. Racing history – Formula One Ford-Cosworth engines (1977–1983) 1977 season Williams entered a March 761 for the 1977 season. Lone driver Patrick Nève competed in 11 races that year, starting with the Spanish Grand Prix. The new team failed to score a point, achieving a best finish of 7th at the Italian Grand Prix. 1978 season For the 1978 season, Patrick Head designed the first Williams car: the FW06. Williams signed Alan Jones, who had won the Austrian Grand Prix the previous season for a devastated Shadow team following the death of their lead driver, Tom Pryce. Jones's first race for the team was the Argentine Grand Prix where he qualified in 14th position but retired after 36 laps due to a fuel system failure. The team scored its first championship points two races later at the South African Grand Prix when Jones finished in fourth. Williams earnt their first podium at the United States Grand Prix, where Jones came second, 20 seconds behind the Ferrari of Carlos Reutemann. Williams finished the season in ninth place in the Constructors' Championship, with a respectable 11 points, while Alan Jones finished 11th in the Drivers' Championship. Towards the end of 1978, Frank Williams recruited Frank Dernie to join Patrick Head in the design office. 1979 season Head designed the FW07 chassis and gearbox for the 1979 season with Frank Dernie picking up the suspension, aerodynamic development and skirt design. This was the team's first ground effect car, a technology that was first introduced by Colin Chapman and Team Lotus. Williams also obtained membership of the Formula One Constructors' Association (FOCA) which expressed a preference for teams to run two cars, so Jones was joined at the team by Clay Regazzoni. It was not until the seventh round of the championship, the Monaco Grand Prix, that they finished in the points. Regazzoni came close to taking the team's first win but finished second, less than a second behind race winner Jody Scheckter. The next race, the French Grand Prix, is remembered for the final lap battle between René Arnoux and Gilles Villeneuve, but also saw both cars finish in the points for the first time; as Jones was fourth with Regazzoni in sixth. The team's first win came at the British Grand Prix (their home Grand Prix) when Regazzoni finished 25 seconds ahead of second place. Greater success followed when Williams got a 1-2 finish at the next round in Germany, Jones in first with Regazzoni two seconds behind in second. Jones then made it three wins in a row at the Austrian Grand Prix, finishing half a minute ahead of Gilles Villeneuve's Ferrari. Three wins in a row became four two weeks later at the Dutch Grand Prix, with Alan Jones winning yet again by a comfortable margin over Jody Scheckter's Ferrari. Scheckter ended Williams's winning streak when he won the Italian Grand Prix; with Regazzoni finishing third behind Scheckter and Villeneuve. Alan Jones managed another win at the penultimate race in Canada to cap off a great season. Williams had greatly improved their Constructors' Championship position, finishing eight places higher than the previous year and scoring 59 more points. Alan Jones was the closest driver to the Ferrari duo of Villeneuve and 1979 champion Jody Scheckter. Jones scored 43 points, 17 points behind Scheckter, while Regazzoni was two places behind him with 32 points. 1980 season Before the start of the 1980 season, Regazzoni left the team. So, Carlos Reutemann joined the team. Williams started strong in the championship, with Jones winning the first race of the season in Argentina. Jones won four more races: the French Grand Prix, the British Grand Prix, the Canadian Grand Prix and, the last race of the season, the United States Grand Prix. Jones became the first of seven Williams drivers to win the Drivers' Championship, 17 points ahead of Nelson Piquet's Brabham. Williams also won its first Constructors' Championship, scoring 120 points, almost twice as many as second-placed Ligier. 1981 season Williams won four races in 1981. Alan Jones won the first race of the season, the United States West Grand Prix, and the final race of the season, the Caesars Palace Grand Prix. Meanwhile, Carlos Reutemann won the Brazilian Grand Prix and the Belgian Grand Prix. Williams won the Constructors' title for the second year in a row, scoring 95 points, 34 points more than second-placed Brabham. 1982 season This season, Alan Jones retired from Formula One (though he would come back a year later for a single race with the Arrows team). The Australian was replaced by Keke Rosberg, the father of 2016 World Champion Nico Rosberg. Rosberg had not scored a single point the previous year. He won the Drivers' title that year despite winning only one race, the Swiss Grand Prix. Rosberg's teammate, Reutemann, finished in 15th place having quit Formula One after just two races of the new season. His seat was filled by Mario Andretti for the United States Grand Prix West; before Derek Daly took over for the rest of the year. Williams finished fourth in the Constructors' Championship that year, 16 points behind first-place Ferrari. Honda engines (1983–1987) 1983 season Frank Williams looked towards Honda, who was developing a turbocharged V6 engine with Spirit. A deal between Honda and Williams was settled early in 1983 and the team used the engines for the 1984 season. For the 1983 season however, Williams continued to use the Ford engine except for the last race of the year in South Africa; where Keke Rosberg finished in an impressive fifth place. The team finished fourth in the Constructors' Championship, scoring 36 points. Also, Rosberg won that year's Monaco Grand Prix. 1984 season For the 1984 season, the team ran an FW09. Keke Rosberg won the Dallas Grand Prix and finished in second at the opening race in Brazil. Rosberg's new teammate, Jacques Laffite, came 14th in the Drivers' Championship with five points. The team finished sixth in the Constructors' with 25.5 points, with Rosberg finishing in eighth in the Drivers' Championship. 1985 season In 1985, Head designed the FW10, the team's first chassis to employ the carbon-fibre composite technology pioneered by McLaren. Nigel Mansell replaced Laffite to partner with Rosberg. Dernie produced another competitive aerodynamic package. The team scored four wins with Rosberg winning the Detroit and Australian Grands Prix, and Mansell won the European Grand Prix and the South African Grand Prix. Williams finished in third in the Constructors' Championship, scoring 71 points. During qualifying for the British Grand Prix, Rosberg completed a lap of the circuit in 1:05.591. The lap's average speed was 160.938 mph (259.005 km/h). This was the fastest recorded lap in Formula One history to that point. From 1985 until 1993, Williams ran their famous yellow, blue and white Canon livery. 1986 season In March 1986, Frank Williams faced the most serious challenge of his life. While returning to the airport at Nice, France, after pre-season testing, he was involved in a road accident that left him paralysed. He did not return to the pit lane for almost a year. Despite the lack of his trackside presence, the Williams team won nine Grands Prix and the Constructors' Championship and came close to winning the Drivers' Championship with Nigel Mansell, but the British driver's left-rear tyre blew at the Australian Grand Prix, the final race of the season, while his fellow championship rival and new teammate, Nelson Piquet made a pitstop shortly after Mansell's retirement as a precaution. This left Alain Prost to defend his title successfully, despite being in a slower car. 1987 season The 1987 season brought the Williams-Honda partnership its first and only Drivers' Championship title in the hands of Nelson Piquet. Piquet won three races and scored 73 points in the Drivers' Championship. His teammate Mansell came in second place with six victories and 61 points. Williams won the Constructors' Championship for the second year in a row, scoring 137 points, 61 points ahead of their nearest rivals, McLaren. Despite this success, Honda ended their partnership with Williams at the end of the year in favour of McLaren. Judd engines (1988) 1988 season Unable to make a deal with another major engine manufacturer, Williams used naturally aspirated Judd engines for the 1988 season. This left them with a significant performance deficit compared with their turbo-powered rivals. Piquet left Williams to join Lotus who had retained their Honda engines for the 1988 season, helped by having Satoru Nakajima as number 2 driver to Piquet. Nelson Piquet called Frank Dernie every week to persuade him to join Lotus. Eventually Dernie moved to Lotus to become their new Technical Director. Williams brought in Riccardo Patrese to replace Piquet. The team did not win a race that season and finished seventh in the Constructors' Championship, scoring 20 points. The highlights of the season for the team were two second-place finishes by Mansell. When Mansell was forced to miss two races due to illness, he was replaced by Martin Brundle for Belgium and Jean-Louis Schlesser for Italy. Schlesser's collision with Ayrton Senna in that race would deny McLaren a clean sweep of race wins that season. Renault engines (1989–1997) The team secured Renault as their engine supplier in 1989. Renault engines subsequently powered Williams's drivers to another four Drivers' and five Constructors' Championships up until Renault's departure from Formula One at the end of 1997. The team brought in Adrian Newey to replace Frank Dernie. The combination of Renault's powerful engine and Adrian Newey's designing expertise led to the team dominating the sport in the mid-1990s alongside McLaren. Mansell had a record-breaking 1992 season, winning the title in record time and leading numerous races from pole to finish. 1989 season The Renault era started in 1989, with Riccardo Patrese and Thierry Boutsen at the helm of the two Williams cars. Boutsen replaced Mansell, who had signed a contract with Ferrari. The engine's first Grand Prix in Brazil was one that the team would prefer to forget: Boutsen retired with an engine failure and Patrese with an alternator failure. Williams managed to get back on track with Boutsen finishing in fourth at the next race in Italy; winning the team three points. Two races later at the Mexican Grand Prix, the team managed to achieve their first podium with the Renault engine, as Patrese finished second, 15 seconds behind Ayrton Senna in first. The next race saw Patrese finish second again, having started from 14th on the grid, with Boutsen finishing in 6th. At the sixth round in Canada, Williams not only scored their first win with the Renault engine but also their first one-two: with Boutsen finishing in first followed by Patrese in second. This won the team 15 points. Williams came second in the Constructors' Championship, scoring 77 points, 64 points behind McLaren. Patrese finished 3rd in the Drivers' Championship with 40 points, 41 points behind second-placed Alain Prost. Boutsen finished 5th in the championship with 37 points after also winning in Australia. Boutsen's win gave Williams the distinction of having won both the first and last Grand Prix of the 1980s. 1990 season In the 1990 season, Williams kept Patrese and Boutsen as the team's drivers. The team scored 20 fewer points than the previous year and finished fourth in the Constructors' Championship two positions lower than in 1989. In the Drivers' Championship, Boutsen finished sixth with 34 points and Patrese in seventh with 23 points. 1991 season Boutsen left Williams and joined Ligier at the start of the 1991 season. Replacing him was a returning Nigel Mansell, who had spent the previous two seasons driving for Ferrari. Williams also recruited future 1996 world champion, Damon Hill, as their reserve driver. Williams failed to finish the first Grand Prix of the season, the US Grand Prix, with both drivers retiring due to gearbox problems. Patrese got back on track for the team in the next Grand Prix at Interlagos, coming second behind McLaren's Ayrton Senna. The 1991 San Marino Grand Prix saw both cars retiring yet again: with Mansell crashing and Patrese suffering from an electrical failure. The Monaco Grand Prix saw Mansell finish in the points, coming in second. At the next race, the Canadian Grand Prix, Williams locked out the front row only for Patrese to drop back with gearbox problems and Mansell to retire from the lead on the final lap due to an electrical fault. At the following race in Mexico, Williams achieved a 1–2 finish, with Patrese finishing in first and Mansell finishing in second. Williams then ran a streak of victories, with Mansell winning the French Grand Prix, five seconds ahead of Alain Prost's Ferrari. Mansell then won again at the British Grand Prix; it had been four years since a Briton had won the Grand Prix, Mansell having won it in 1987. Three consecutive victories became four when Mansell won again in Germany, with Patrese about 10 seconds behind him in second place. Senna ended Williams's run of victories by winning in Hungary, finishing five seconds ahead of Mansell. Mansell later won the Italian Grand Prix and the Spanish Grand Prix, while Patrese won the Portuguese Grand Prix after Mansell's race was ruined by a botched pitstop in which only three wheel nuts were fitted. Williams finished second in the Constructors' Championship, scoring 125 points in total, 14 points behind McLaren. Mansell finished second in the Drivers' Championship with 72 points, 24 points behind Senna. 1992 season Williams took a step up for the 1992 season, keeping their 1991 driver line-up of Patrese and Mansell. Mansell dominated the first round in South Africa, qualifying in pole position and winning the race by 24 seconds from his teammate, Patrese. Nigel Mansell won the next four rounds for Williams, at Mexico City, Interlagos, Catalunya and Imola, Patrese coming second in all but one (the Spanish Grand Prix at Catalunya, where he retired after spinning off). Mansell's five victories in the opening five races was a new record in Formula One. Senna won the next race in Monaco, ahead of both Williams cars, which finished second and third. In the next race, in Canada, both Williams cars retired: Mansell spun off on entering the final corner (he claimed that Senna pushed him off) and Patrese had a gearbox failure. Mansell went on to record four more Grand Prix wins, including at the British Grand Prix. (In the final round, in Adelaide, the two Williams cars again retired, Mansell after Senna violently crashed into the back of him, and Patrese with electrical problems.) Williams won the Constructors' Championship with 164 points, 65 points more than second-place McLaren. Mansell became World Champion, scoring 108 points, with Patrese finishing second with 56 points. Placing first in nine races, Mansell had set a new record for the most wins by a single driver in one year. Despite this, there looked to be significant upheaval at Williams for 1993; what followed led to a domino effect that had not only effects on the World Championship, but also the CART-sanctioned PPG IndyCar Series. 1992 off-season Williams was interested in signing Alain Prost to drive one of its two cars for 1993 as he was returning from his year long sabbatical after being sacked by Scuderia Ferrari during the 1991 World Championship. Patrese, perhaps figuring that he would be the driver being sacked in order for Prost to take one of the two available rides, decided to leave after driving for Williams since 1987. He would join up with Benetton, where he would replace Martin Brundle alongside Michael Schumacher in the team's Camel-backed Fords. Mansell, meanwhile, was not pleased that Williams was looking to bring Prost aboard. Prost and Gerhard Berger had essentially swapped rides after the 1989 season with Prost becoming Mansell's teammate at Ferrari. The acrimonious relationship between the two that ensued nearly resulted in Mansell retiring from the sport altogether and he had not forgotten this; as such, Mansell began looking for other options to continue his racing career. He eventually decided to move over to CART, where he paired with Mario Andretti at Newman/Haas Racing. That seat, meanwhile, had opened up because Andretti's son, Michael, was leaving CART to replace Berger at McLaren. McLaren also was potentially dealing with losing a driver, as Ayrton Senna's contract had expired following the 1992 season. In addition to this, McLaren's arrangement with Honda to provide engines had also expired, and the team had signed to run Ford engines for 1993. With McLaren having fallen behind Williams on the grid, combined with his uncertainty regarding the new engine supplier, Senna approached Williams and offered to take over the second car. His interest was such that he was willing to drive for Williams while collecting no salary. However, like with Mansell, Prost had a rather testy relationship with Senna from when the two were teammates and rivals at McLaren in the 1980s. As such, he negotiated a two-year contract with Williams that gave him the power to approve or disapprove any driver Williams would seek to have him team with for 1993. Once the contract was signed, Prost used that power to freeze Senna out of driving for Williams; he would return to McLaren for one more season with the team running Ford engines. Needing a replacement, Williams decided not to pursue any of the available drivers such as Berger and Brundle. Instead, they chose to promote former Brabham driver Damon Hill, who had been their test driver since Brabham collapsed and folded during the 1992 season, to join Prost in the other Renault. 1993 season The Williams FW15C was an extremely dominant car, with active suspension and traction control systems beyond anything available to the other teams. Prost won on his debut for the team in South Africa and, like Mansell, dominated the weekend, taking pole position and finishing a minute ahead of Senna, who was second. The next Grand Prix in Brazil saw Prost collide with Christian Fittipaldi's Minardi in the rain on lap 29, while Hill went on to his first podium finish: second, 16 seconds behind Senna. Prost won three of the next four Grands Prix for Williams, Senna winning the other race. Prost and Hill later scored a 1–2 in France: the only 1–2 of the season for Williams. Prost won the next two Grands Prix at Silverstone and Hockenheim. Hill proved competitive especially in the second half of the season. Mechanical problems cost Hill leads in Britain and Germany, but he went on to win the next three Grands Prix at Hungary, Belgium and Italy which moved him to second in the standings, as well as giving him a chance of taking the Drivers' title. After Italy, Williams would not win a Grand Prix for the rest of the season, as a young Michael Schumacher won the following race in Portugal, and Senna took Japan and Australia to overtake Hill in the points. Williams retained their Constructors' title, 84 points ahead of second-placed McLaren. Prost clinched the Drivers' Championship in Portugal and finished the season 26 points ahead of second-placed Senna. Based on his victory in the 1992 World Championship, Mansell would have been issued car number 1 for the 1993 season, and his teammate issued number 2. However, Mansell's move to the IndyCar series meant that number 1 was not issued; instead, the team was issued the number 0, which was placed on Hill's car, while Prost was issued number 2. 1993 marked the final season that Williams ran with Canon as its primary backer. 1994 season During the 1994 season, Williams used FW16 (developed during the pre-season) and FW16B (with shorter sidepods and optimised for the revised floor regulations which were introduced during the season). After Canon left the team Williams signed a contract with tobacco company Rothmans International for 1994, and their namesake brand became its primary sponsor from 1994 to 1997. Despite Prost's continued unwillingness to have his former McLaren teammate run with him, pressure from various sources including the team's new sponsor led Williams to agree to terms with Ayrton Senna for 1994. The veto power in Prost's contract was only in effect for the 1993 season, and since Williams was now free to do as it desired and that Senna was again a free agent, the team decided it would bring in the multi-time former champion. To appease Prost, who decided to retire from racing permanently after Senna's signing, Williams agreed to pay him his full salary for the second half of the contract. Given this was the same team that had won the previous two World Championships with vastly superior cars, Senna was a natural and presumptive pre-season title favourite, with second-year driver Damon Hill intended to play the supporting role. Between them, Prost, Senna, and Hill had won every race in 1993 but one, which was taken by Benetton's Michael Schumacher. As with 1993, Williams's cars were issued numbers 0 and 2, following Prost's victory in the 1993 championship and subsequent retirement. Hill retained the number 0, while Senna's car was issued number 2. Pre-season testing showed the FW16 had speed but was difficult to drive. The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) had banned electronic driver's aids, such as active suspension, traction control and ABS, to make the sport more "human". It was these technological advancements that the Williams chassis of the previous years had been built around. With their removal in 1994, Williams had not been a good-handling car, as observed by other F1 drivers, having been seen to be very loose at the rear. Senna himself had made numerous comments that the Williams FW16 had quirks that needed to be ironed out. It was obvious that the FW16, after the regulation changes banning active suspension and traction control, exhibited none of the superiority of the FW15C and Williams FW14B cars that had preceded it. The surprise of testing was Benetton-Ford which was less powerful but more nimble than the Williams. The first four rounds were won by Michael Schumacher in the Benetton-Ford. Senna took pole in the first two races but failed to finish either of them. In the third race, the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix in Imola, Senna again took pole position, but was involved in a fatal crash at the second corner after completing six laps. The repercussions of Senna's fatal accident were severe for the team itself, as the Italian prosecutors tried to charge the team and Frank Williams with manslaughter, an episode which was not over until 2005. At the next race in Monaco, Damon Hill was the only Williams on the grid, as a mark of respect to Senna, and retired on the first lap. Since Senna's death, every Williams F1 car has carried a Senna 's' on its livery in his honour and to symbolise the team's ongoing support of the Instituto Ayrton Senna, but cars from 2022 onwards will not have the Senna S, with CEO Capito stating it was time to "move on". At the next race in Spain, Williams brought in test driver David Coulthard as Hill's new teammate. Hill took the team's first victory of the season, by almost half a minute over Schumacher's Benetton, while Coulthard would retire due to an electrical problem. In Montreal, both Williams cars finished in the points for the first time that season, with Hill finishing second and Coulthard finishing fifth. In France, Nigel Mansell replaced Coulthard (in the first of four appearances), at the behest of Renault. At Silverstone, Damon Hill accomplished what had eluded his father, twice Formula One World Champion Graham Hill, by winning the British Grand Prix. Hill closed the points gap with Schumacher, who was disqualified from first at Spa after the Stewards found floorboard irregularities on his Benetton. He was banned for the next two races, and Hill capitalised on this with wins in Italy and a Williams 1–2 in Portugal. With three races left, 1992 champion Nigel Mansell returned from CART (where the season had concluded) to replace Coulthard for the remainder of the season. Mansell would get approximately £900,000 per race, while Hill was paid £300,000 for the entire season, though Hill remained as lead driver. Schumacher came back after his suspension for the European Grand Prix, which he won by about 25 seconds, to take a lead of 5 points into the penultimate round in Japan. The race in Japan was held in torrential rain, with Hill managing to win the restarted race, by three seconds on aggregate over Schumacher who finished second. Going into the final round at Adelaide, Schumacher led Hill by a single point. Mansell took pole for Williams but had a poor start which let Hill and Schumacher through to fight for the lead and the 1994 title. Midway through the race, Schumacher's perceived need for a low downforce setup cost him, as he lost control and clipped the outside wall at the 5th corner (out of sight of Hill). As Schumacher recovered, Hill came around the corner and attempted to overtake into the next corner. Schumacher turned in and the resulting contact (Schumacher in the wall and Hill retiring with bent suspension), meant Schumacher was the champion. This collision has been controversial. Some, such as Williams's Patrick Head, have suggested that this was a deliberate attempt by Schumacher to take Hill out of the race. Others, such as then BBC commentator Murray Walker, defended Schumacher, calling the accident a "racing incident". Meanwhile, Nigel Mansell won the last Grand Prix of his career here, driving the second Williams car. Williams would end the season as Constructors' Champion for the third consecutive year, scoring 118 points, while Hill finished second in the Drivers' Championship with 91 points. 1995 season In 1995, Nigel Mansell was not retained, Williams favouring Coulthard over him to partner Hill. Schumacher, whose Benetton team had switched engine suppliers from Ford to Renault in the off-season, won the first round in Brazil, with Coulthard taking second. However, both were disqualified from the race after it was found that Elf supplied their teams with a type of fuel for which samples had not been provided to the FIA. Thus, Gerhard Berger and Ferrari were declared winners. Schumacher and Coulthard had their positions reinstated after appeal, though Benetton and Williams were not awarded their Constructors' points. Hill won the next two races in Argentina and San Marino and would later win races at The Hungaroring and in Adelaide. Hill won two laps ahead of the field at Adelaide in one of F1's most dominating victories. Coulthard recorded his only 1995 win for the Williams team at Estoril, before moving to McLaren. Williams's champion streak was ended by Benetton, who elected to switch engine suppliers from Ford to Renault, the same as Williams. As such, Benetton outscored Williams by 29 points in the Constructors' Championship. Damon Hill placed second in the Drivers' Championship, 33 points behind Benetton's Michael Schumacher. 1996 season For 1996, Williams had the quickest and most reliable car, the FW18. Coulthard had left Williams to join Mika Häkkinen at McLaren, and Williams replaced him with Canadian Jacques Villeneuve, who had won the CART series title in 1995, while Hill remained with the team. Schumacher left Benetton to join Ferrari. Williams won the first five Grands Prix, Hill winning all but one of them. Olivier Panis would take victory at the sixth round in Monaco after both Williams cars retired. Hill would retire for the second time in a row after he spun-off in Spain, while his teammate, Villeneuve, took third place. Hill and Villeneuve dominated the next Grand Prix in Canada, with a 1–2 in qualifying and a 1–2 finish. Williams made it a second 1–2 after Hill won the French Grand Prix. Villeneuve won his second race in F1 at Silverstone after Hill retired with a wheel bearing failure on lap 26. Hill was victorious in the next Grand Prix in Germany while Villeneuve won the race after that in Hungary. Schumacher's Ferrari would then take the next two Grands Prix at Spa-Francorchamps and Monza. Villeneuve mounted a title challenge going into the final race of the season at Japan, but Hill reasserted his dominance to take the race and the 1996 title, while Villeneuve lost a wheel and retired. Williams's dominance was such that they had clinched the Constructors' Championship and only their drivers had a mathematical chance of taking the title, several races before the season concluded. Around that time, Frank Williams announced that Hill would not be re-signed after his contract expired, despite Hill's successes and eventual Drivers' Championship, so he joined Arrows for 1997. Adrian Newey had ambitions as a technical director (rather than just chief designer), but this was not possible at Williams, as Patrick Head was a founder and shareholder of the team. McLaren lured Newey away, though he was forced to take garden leave for the majority of 1997. 1997 season For what would be the final season of Williams-Renault and a car designed with Newey's input, Frank Williams brought in German Heinz-Harald Frentzen, who had created a good impression on Williams during his first few seasons in Formula One. Frentzen proved to be a disappointment though, and won only one race in two years with Williams, the 1997 San Marino Grand Prix. Jacques Villeneuve won seven races during 1997, compared to five wins by his main rival, Michael Schumacher of a resurgent Ferrari. Williams also achieved the 100-race-win milestone at the British Grand Prix. Coming to the final round of the season at Jerez, Schumacher led Villeneuve by 1 point; however, on lap 48, Schumacher and Villeneuve collided. Schumacher was disqualified from second place in the championship as the accident was deemed by the FIA as "avoidable". Williams won the Constructors' title for the second time in a row, scoring 123 points. Jacques Villeneuve won the Drivers' Championship by three points to Michael Schumacher, who kept his points total despite being removed from second place; thus, runner-up went to Frentzen with 42 points. Mecachrome engines (1998) 1998 season After 1997, the team was unable to maintain their dominance in Formula 1 as Renault ended their full-time involvement in Formula 1, and Adrian Newey moved to the rival team, McLaren. Williams then had to pay for Mecachrome engines, which were old, rebadged Renault F1 engines. This meant that the FW20 not only featured a very similar aerodynamic package to their 1997 car but also virtually the same engine, leading some to comment that they ran what was virtually the same car, adjusted for the 1998 regulations. There were changes on the sponsorship front, as Rothmans opted to promote their Winfield brand, replacing the popular blue and white livery with a red one. For 1998, Williams kept both drivers from the previous season, the first time since 1983 that a reigning world champion remained driving for the team. While Ferrari and McLaren battled for the Constructors' and Drivers' titles, Williams fell to the middle of the field. The team won no races and took only 3 podiums during the season, with Frentzen finishing in third at the first round in Australia and Villeneuve finishing third in Germany and Hungary. Williams finished third in the Constructors' Championship, scoring 38 points, while Villeneuve finished fifth in the Drivers' Championship with 21 points, and his German teammate, Frentzen, finished 4 points behind him in seventh. Supertec engines (1999) 1999 season In 1999, Williams employed the Supertec engine, which was a rebadged Mecachrome-Renault unit, and a new driver line-up. Villeneuve moved to the new British American Racing (BAR) team, while Frentzen moved to Jordan trading places with fellow German Ralf Schumacher who joined Williams. To replace Villeneuve, Williams signed Italian Alex Zanardi, who after an unsuccessful F1 career in the early 1990s had been racing in the CART series for Chip Ganassi Racing, winning two series championships and a total of fifteen races in his three years. As with Schumacher, a driver trade was made with Ganassi, where Zanardi would join Williams and the team's test driver at the time, Juan Pablo Montoya, would join CART in Zanardi's car for 1999 and 2000. The team managed three podiums, all scored by Ralf Schumacher, with third place in Australia and Britain and a second place in Italy. Zanardi, meanwhile, struggled through the entire season and failed to finish in the points at any race. Due in large part to this, the team finished fifth in the Constructors' Championship, the lowest finish for Williams in the 1990s; the team finished behind Stewart and Jordan, with Schumacher scoring all of the team's 35 points. After the season, deciding the relationship was not working, Zanardi's contract with the team was terminated by mutual agreement. He would eventually return to CART in 2001. BMW engines (2000–2005) In 1998, the team signed a long-term agreement with German manufacturer BMW to supply engines and expertise for a period of 6 years. As part of the deal, BMW expected at least one driver to be German, which led to the team's signing of Ralf Schumacher for the subsequent season. In 1999, the team had a Williams car with a BMW engine testing at circuits, in preparation for a debut in the 2000 season. There were major sponsorship changes for 2000–2005, as Rothmans International had been purchased in 1999 by British American Tobacco (BAT), which owned British American Racing and chose not to renew Rothmans's contract with Williams. BMW paid for Williams cars to be entirely in blue and white – unlike the standard motorsport livery scheme, dominated by the colours of the team or major sponsors with the logos of minor sponsors in their own colour schemes. Williams's second major sponsor became Compaq, and following Compaq's acquisition the team debuted Hewlett-Packard (HP) sponsorship at the 2002 British Grand Prix. In a cross-promotion of this technological partnership, a worldwide television commercial featured drivers Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya seemingly driving their BMW Williams cars around a track by radio control from a grandstand. The new "clean" image allowed Williams to sign a cigarette anti-craving brand, Niquitin, and Anheuser-Busch, alternating with the Budweiser beer brand and SeaWorld Adventure Parks, in compliance with trademark disputes or alcohol bans. 2000 season To replace Zanardi, Britain's Jenson Button made his series debut. The first season of Williams's partnership with BMW did not yield a single victory, but they managed to get on the podium three times, with Ralf Schumacher responsible for all three. Williams finished third in the Constructors' Championship, with 36 points, one more than the prior year. Ralf Schumacher finished fifth in the Drivers' Championship, while Button, in his debut season, finished in eighth. Button made scrappy mistakes in early races (Monaco, Europe), but overall made an impressive debut in Melbourne, and continued to impress, notably at Silverstone, Spa, and Suzuka. 2001 season In 2001, the arrangement between Williams and Ganassi came to an end, and thus Williams was able to bring Juan Pablo Montoya back to drive full-time for the team. He was returning after two successful years in CART, where he succeeded Zanardi as champion for 1999 and won ten races total; he also had become the first CART driver since the infamous 1996 split of American open-wheel racing to win the Indianapolis 500, doing so in 2000. Since Montoya was returning to Williams, this left Jenson Button as the odd man out. He would move over to Benetton, which was still running rebadged Renault engines, for what was the team's final season under that name. The FW23 won four races, three by Ralf Schumacher at Imola, Montreal, and his home Grand Prix in Germany. His teammate, Montoya, was victorious at Monza, and would have won a few more races if not for the FW23's unreliability and pit crew blunders. The car proved to be quicker than the Ferrari and McLaren counterparts in several races, but Williams's 2001 campaign only yielded third place in the Constructors' Championship. 2002 season Williams maintained their driver line-up for the 2002 season. The team only won one race, which was at Malaysia, one of only 2 races not won by Ferrari in a year dominated by the Ferraris of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello. Despite Montoya qualifying on pole for 7 races, he ended up having a winless season. Williams did improve on their Constructors' Championship position, finishing in second. Montoya finished third in the Drivers' Championship, eight points ahead of Ralf Schumacher, who finished fourth. In qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix at the 5.793 km (3.600 mi) Monza circuit, Montoya lapped his Williams FW24 in 1:20.264 for an average speed of 161.449 mph (259.827 km/h), breaking the speed record of 160.938 mph (259.005 km/h) set by Keke Rosberg in a Honda turbo-powered Williams FW10 at Silverstone for the 1985 British Grand Prix. 2003 season 2003 would see Williams come closest to winning its first title since 1997. During pre-season, Frank Williams was very confident that the FW25 would challenge for the title. The team won four races, with Montoya winning at Monaco and Germany, while Ralf Schumacher won at the Nürburgring and the following race at Magny-Cours. Montoya stayed in contention for the Drivers' Championship during the season, and finished third, 11 points behind Michael Schumacher, while Ralf Schumacher finished fifth, 24 points behind Montoya. Williams finished second in the Constructors' Championship, two points ahead of McLaren. 2004 season At the start of the 2004 season, it was announced that Montoya would be moving to McLaren in 2005. The team began the season with a radical nose-cone design, known as the "Walrus-Nose", that proved uncompetitive and was replaced by a more conventional assembly in Hungary. Ferrari dominated for a third consecutive season, winning 15 of the 18 races. Williams picked up a win at the final race in Brazil, with Juan Pablo Montoya finishing one second ahead of Kimi Räikkönen's McLaren; this remained Williams's last F1 win until the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix. Another low part of the season was when both Williams and Toyota were disqualified from the Canadian Grand Prix after it was discovered that both cars had brake irregularities, the brake ducts seemingly not conforming to regulations. Williams finished the season in fourth, scoring 88 points and finishing on the podium six times, while Montoya was the highest-placed Williams driver that year, scoring 58 points to finish in fifth position. 2005 season For the 2005 season, Schumacher moved to Toyota, while Montoya moved to McLaren. Taking their places were Australian Mark Webber and German Nick Heidfeld. Jenson Button was to have driven for Williams in 2005, but an FIA ruling forced Button to remain with his current team, BAR. Antônio Pizzonia served as the test driver for the team during the 2005 season. Meanwhile, Button signed a contract to drive for Williams in 2006. Although there was some positive moments, such as a double podium finish in Monaco and Heidfeld qualifying on pole position at the Nürburgring, Williams slipped further back down the field in 2005, due in part to the return to form of rivals McLaren and the emergence of Toyota as a front-running team. Williams failed to win a race for the first time since 2000, and only registered four podium finishes over the course of the season, finishing fifth in the constructors' championship with 66 points. Heidfeld was replaced by Pizzonia for the last five races of the season after the former suffered firstly a testing accident, and then was hit by a motorbike when out cycling prior to the race in Brazil. Pizzonia could only contribute two points towards the team's tally. During the course of the 2004 and 2005 F1 seasons, BMW Motorsport and director Mario Theissen increasingly became publicly critical of the Williams F1 team's inability to create a package capable of winning the Constructors' Championship, or even multiple victories within a single season. Williams, on the other hand, blamed BMW for not producing a good enough engine. Williams's failed attempt to prise Jenson Button out of his BAR contract may also have been an issue with Theissen. Despite Frank Williams's rare decision to capitulate to commercial demands by employing German driver Nick Heidfeld when he allegedly preferred Antônio Pizzonia, the fallout between Williams and BMW continued through the 2005 Formula One season. Despite BMW's contract with Williams to supply engines until 2009, this public deterioration of the relationship between Williams and BMW was a factor in the decision by BMW Motorsport to buy Sauber and rebrand that team to feature the BMW name. Cosworth engines (2006) 2006 season Williams opted for Cosworth V8 engines for the 2006 which saw Nico Rosberg replace German Nick Heidfeld, who departed for BMW Sauber, while Mark Webber stayed on with the team. Despite having signed a contract to race for Williams, Jenson Button decided to stay with BAR for 2006 as it was to become a Honda works team. In September 2005 a deal was reached to allow Button to remain with BAR, with Williams receiving around £24m, some of it paid by Button himself, to cancel this contract. Williams and Cosworth entered a partnership agreement where Cosworth would supply engines, transmissions and associated electronics and software for the team. Major sponsors Hewlett-Packard concluded sponsorship agreements one year before their official end of contract. The Williams team also switched to Bridgestone tyres. The season started well, with both drivers scoring points in the opening race of the season, and Nico Rosberg setting the fastest lap at the Bahrain Grand Prix. The rest of the season was disappointing for Williams, with 20 retirements out of 36 starts for the two cars. The team failed to finish on the podium all season, the first time this had happened since Williams's debut season in 1977. The team eventually finished eighth in the Constructors' Championship, with only 11 points. Customer Toyota engines (2007–2009) 2007–2009 seasons Following Williams's worst points tally since 1978, the team announced that Japanese manufacturer Toyota would be supplying the leased customer engines for the 2007 season. In addition, the Toyota engine customer deal also included Magneti Marelli Step 11 engine control unit (ECU) systems and Panasonic battery package as it was used by works Toyota team. A number of other changes were announced for 2007: Alexander Wurz, who had been a test driver at Williams since 2006, became the team's second driver to replace the outgoing Mark Webber; Japanese driver Kazuki Nakajima, son of Satoru, replaced Wurz as a test driver alongside Karthikeyan. Sponsorship saw a change in 2007, as it was announced that AT&T would become the title sponsors for the team from the upcoming season. AT&T was previously involved as minor sponsors with the Jaguar and McLaren teams but moved to Williams following McLaren's announcement of a title sponsorship deal with Vodafone, a competitor of AT&T. On 2 February, the new FW29 was presented to the media in the UK. Soon afterwards, the team secured a sponsorship deal with Lenovo who built the team's new supercomputer. Rosberg and Wurz gave Williams a more productive season in terms of points and, in Montreal, Wurz scored the team's first podium finish since Nick Heidfeld's second-place at the 2005 European Grand Prix. Over the course of the year, Rosberg was consistently in the points, scoring 20 during the season; in comparison, teammate Wurz finished in the points three times. Following the announcement that Wurz would be retiring from the sport, Williams brought in their young test driver Nakajima to drive the second car for them in the final race in Brazil. The Japanese driver finished in tenth despite starting from near the back of the grid, while Rosberg enjoyed his best race of the season, finishing in fourth. Williams finished fourth in the Constructors' Championship that year. For the 2008 season, Williams confirmed Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima as their race drivers. Rosberg was confirmed as staying with Williams until the end of 2009 on 9 December 2007, ending speculation that he could take Fernando Alonso's vacated seat at McLaren. During the Winter testing sessions, the team ran six different liveries to celebrate their 30th year in the sport and their 500th Grand Prix. The 2008 season was a mixture of success and disappointment for Williams. While Rosberg managed to obtain 2 podiums in Australia and Singapore, the team struggled at circuits with high-speed corners. The fact that the team was one of the first to switch development to their 2009 car (when new regulations came in) also hindered their season and Williams finished a disappointing 8th in the Constructors' Championship. Rosberg stated that unless the team was more competitive in the near future, he would look to drive elsewhere. Williams retained Rosberg and Nakajima for the 2009 season. Frank Williams had admitted that he had regretted parting with BMW but stated that Toyota had a tremendous ability to become a top engine supplier. Speculation had been surrounding Toyota's future on the Formula 1 grid. This was due to the fact that for a big-budget team, Toyota had only managed second place as their best result. In December 2008, Williams confirmed their commitment to F1 following the Honda withdrawal announcement. Ahead of the 2009 Brazilian Grand Prix, Williams announced that it would be ending its three-year partnership with Toyota and finding a new engine supplier for 2010. Return to Cosworth engines (2010–2011) 2010–2011 seasons After the termination of their Toyota contract, Williams announced that from the 2010 season they were to enter into a "long-term partnership" with Cosworth, and would be using an updated version of the CA V8 engine which powered their cars in 2006. Williams also announced a complete driver change for the 2010 season. Rubens Barrichello joined from 2009 Constructors' Champion Brawn GP, whilst GP2 champion Nico Hülkenberg graduated from the test driver seat. Replacing Hülkenberg in the test seat was Finland's Valtteri Bottas, who finished third in the 2009 Formula Three Euroseries as well as winning the non-championship Masters of Formula 3 event at Zandvoort. Their new 2010 car, the Williams FW32, was unveiled for the first time at a shakedown test at Silverstone. Its first official test was on 1 February at Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia. Hülkenberg took the team's first pole position in over five years, in variable conditions at the Brazilian Grand Prix. Hülkenberg was dropped from the team ahead of the 2011 season, and replaced by Venezuelan newcomer and reigning GP2 Series champion Pastor Maldonado. The combination of Barrichello and Maldonado meant that 2011 would be the first time since 1981 that Williams would start a season without a European driver in their line-up. At the second pre-season test in Jerez, Barrichello posted the fastest time of the week on the last day. That was to no avail as Williams endured one of their worst seasons to date: two ninth places for Barrichello and one tenth place for Maldonado were their best results during the entire year. After Brazil, the team ended with a ninth place in the Constructors' Championship. Return to Renault engines (2012–2013) 2012–2013 seasons On 4 July 2011, Williams announced they would be reuniting with engine-supplier Renault who were to supply the team's engines from 2012 onwards. On 1 December 2011, it was confirmed that Maldonado would be retained for the 2012 season, along with reserve driver Valtteri Bottas, who took part in 15 Friday practice sessions. In January 2012, it was confirmed that Bruno Senna would be the driver to partner Maldonado, effectively ending Rubens Barrichello's F1 career. Prior to the 2012 season, Patrick Head moved from the Williams F1 team to Williams Hybrid Power Limited, another subsidiary of Williams Grand Prix Holdings. The team also announced that its relationship with AT&T ended by mutual agreement, and there were negotiations with another telecommunications company for team's title sponsorship. At the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix, Pastor Maldonado took his only Grand Prix victory, which was also Williams's first race victory since 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix. Around 90 minutes after celebrating this win, a fire broke out in the garage of the Williams team, damaging the FW34 of Bruno Senna and leaving several injured. The team eventually achieved eighth position in the Formula One World Constructors' Championship. Claire Williams, the daughter of team principal Frank Williams, was appointed deputy principal in March 2013. Maldonado was retained by the team for 2013 and was joined by Bottas, promoted from his role as test driver. The team struggled throughout the season, despite a good qualifying session at the Canadian Grand Prix and a place in the top 10 at the United States Grand Prix, scoring only five points in the World Constructors' Championship. While Williams enjoyed a victory in the 2012 season and occasional points finishes, they did not reach the same heights as was achieved during their domination of Formula One during the 1990s. This, combined with an absolutely dismal 2013 season, prompted Williams to look for a new engine supplier from the 2014 season onwards. Mercedes power units (2014–present) 2014–2017 seasons In May 2013, Williams signed a long-term contract with Mercedes to supply engines for the team, the German manufacturer providing 1.6-litre V6 turbo engines from the start of the 2014 season. Bottas was retained as driver for 2014, and Felipe Massa was signed from Ferrari to replace Maldonado. The team also unveiled a new, multi-year title sponsorship deal with drinks brand Martini. As part of the deal, the team became Williams Martini Racing, except in Bahrain, Russia and Abu Dhabi, where the team is known as Williams Racing because of alcohol advertising restrictions. The team won its first pole position since 2012, courtesy of Massa at the Austrian Grand Prix; it was the only time that Mercedes would be beaten to pole position over the course of the 2014 season. With Bottas qualifying alongside Massa, it was also the first time the team had locked out the front row since the 2003 German Grand Prix. The team enjoyed an upturn in performance, including a double podium in Abu Dhabi, resulting in them taking third place in the Constructors' Championship. They repeated this feat in the 2015 season, despite a low-key season owing to the resurgence of Ferrari. The team went into the 2016 season with Bottas and Massa retained. Former Ferrari Driver Academy member Lance Stroll joined the team as a development driver; Alex Lynn became a reserve driver with Paul di Resta who was announced on 13 March, following Susie Wolff's retirement from motorsport. In September 2016, Massa announced his intentions to retire from Formula One, with Stroll later announced as his replacement for 2017. Following Nico Rosberg's decision to retire, the team released Bottas from his contract to allow him to take his place at Mercedes, with Massa returning to the team on a one-year deal. Massa was forced to withdraw from the 2017 Hungarian Grand Prix due to illness; the team then announced that Paul di Resta would be racing alongside Stroll instead. 2018–2019: Continued decline On 4 November 2017, Felipe Massa announced his decision to retire from F1. Renault reserve driver and 2016 GP2 Series 3rd-place finisher Sergey Sirotkin was signed as his replacement for 2018, with Robert Kubica joining the team as a reserve and development driver. Williams struggled over the course of the 2018 season, scoring only 7 points and finishing last in the Constructors' Championship standings. Although the FW41 rarely suffered from reliability issues, it was significantly off the pace; the team's highest finish was Stroll's 8th-place finish in Azerbaijan. The team's only other points finish was at the Italian Grand Prix, with Stroll finishing 9th and Sirotkin scoring his first championship point in 10th. This was also the only Grand Prix of the season in which the team reached the third qualifying session, with Stroll starting 10th on the grid. On 27 February 2018 Martini announced that they would leave Williams and Formula One at the end of the 2018 season. On 12 October 2018, the team announced that reigning Formula 2 champion George Russell would be joining the team for the 2019 season. On 22 November 2018 it was announced that reserve driver Robert Kubica would be promoted to the other seat, marking his return to Formula One after eight years away from the sport due to injury. For the 2019 season, the team entered into a partnership with Polish petroleum company PKN Orlen and a multi-year title sponsorship arrangement with telecommunications company ROKiT. Williams missed the first two-and-a-half days of pre-season testing in Barcelona due to the FW42 not yet being ready, the only team to suffer such a setback. Williams began the season out of reach from being competitive. During qualifying at the season-opener in Australia, their fastest time was almost 1.3 seconds slower than the nearest competitor. In the race, Russell and Kubica finished two and three laps behind the leader respectively. The team's best result of the season came in Germany, where Kubica was classified 10th, the team's only points finish that season. However, this result only came after post-race penalties for other drivers. Upgrades came during the season with which the FW42 began to catch up to its competitors; Russell came within 0.1 seconds of reaching Q2 in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix and finished close to the points with 12th in Brazil. However, both cars would be eliminated in Q1 at every race of the season. Despite the team's lack of performance in comparison to 2014–2017, it was confirmed that Williams have extended their engine supplier partnership with Mercedes until 2025. On 19 September 2019, Williams announced that Kubica had decided to leave the team at the end of the 2019 season; he would go on to join Alfa Romeo as a reserve driver. 2019 Formula 2 Championship runner-up Nicholas Latifi was promoted from his role of reserve driver to replace Kubica for the 2020 season. Jack Aitken replaced Latifi as reserve driver. In May 2020, following publication of significant losses in 2019, Williams announced the immediate termination of its title sponsorship deal with ROKiT. 2020–present: Buyout and new management In the opening race of 2020, the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix, Latifi reached 11th place, just outside the points, whereas in qualifying Russell was only 0.15 seconds away from reaching Q2 (Russell retired in the race with a fuel pressure issue). In the wet qualifying for the next race, the Styrian Grand Prix, Russell succeeded in making it out of Q1, the first time a Williams driver had done so since the 2018 Brazilian Grand Prix, and, in the slippery conditions, qualified in 12th. Russell started the race in 11th, following the application of penalties for other drivers. At the 2020 Hungarian Grand Prix, both drivers made it out of Q1 for the first time since the 2018 Italian Grand Prix. It was Russell's second time getting out of Q1, and Latifi's first time getting out of Q1. On 21 August 2020, Williams was acquired by US investment group Dorilton Capital for €152 million. The amount includes settling the debt of the company and it will continue to run under the Williams name and keep its UK base. Despite being offered the chance to stay on as Team Principal, Claire Williams announced her departure from the team effective after the weekend of the 2020 Italian Grand Prix. Following this announcement, it will be the first time Williams F1 Team has not been under the leadership of the Williams family since its inception 43 years prior. Simon Roberts, who joined Williams from McLaren in May 2020, became the acting team principal of the team. In December 2020, Williams announced Jost Capito will be joining Williams as the new CEO, with Roberts becoming team principal and reporting to Capito. Williams failed to score a point in the 2020 season that had been disrupted and shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic, making it their first pointless season in 44 years. During the 2021 Monaco Grand Prix, Williams celebrated their 750th Grand Prix start. To celebrate the occasion, Williams launched a competition where the names of 100 Williams supporters were featured on their car, the Williams FW43B, together with the number of races since they started supporting Williams. In June 2021, Roberts left the team. Most of his responsibilities were taken over by Capito, with François-Xavier Demaison taking his trackside leadership duties. The 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix saw Williams score their first points since the 2019 German Grand Prix with Robert Kubica, and their first double points finish since the 2018 Italian Grand Prix. At the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix, Russell qualified in 2nd place and scored Williams's first podium since the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, as the race was stopped after only two laps under safety car conditions were completed, allowing most drivers to retain their qualifying position. The team also achieved a second consecutive double points finish, as Latifi finished 9th. Russell scored back-to-back points at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix and at the 2021 Russian Grand Prix (9th and 10th respectively; in the latter he qualified 3rd, behind Carlos Sainz Jr. and pole-sitter Lando Norris). Williams finished in 8th place in the Constructors' Championship with 23 points, 10 points ahead of Alfa Romeo, which finished in 9th place. For the 2022 season, Russell left Williams to join the Mercedes works team, whose junior team he had been a part of. Ex-Red Bull driver, Alex Albon, was signed to replace Russell. Latifi retained his spot in the team. Prior to the season, Williams announced a partnership deal with the battery manufacturer Duracell. Albon scored the team's first points of the season in the Australian Grand Prix, where he pitted only once on the last lap and finished tenth. Albon also finished ninth in the Miami Grand Prix. Latifi achieved his first ever Q3 appearance at the British Grand Prix, though he dropped out of the points and finished in twelfth. Following a number of penalties for other drivers at the Belgian Grand Prix, Albon qualified ninth and started sixth. Albon went on to score Williams's third point position finish by ending the race in tenth. Prior to the third practice session at the Italian Grand Prix, Albon withdrew after feeling ill and suffering from appendicitis. Williams announced Nyck de Vries as the replacement. In his first ever qualifying session, de Vries qualified thirteenth, but started eighth after penalties. de Vries went on to finish ninth, scoring points on his debut. Preceding the start of the 2023 race year, Mercedes ex-chief strategist James Vowles was announced to take over as the Team's new Principal, following the resignation of former Team Principal Jost Capito in 2022. For the 2023 season, Williams announced a long-term partnership with Gulf Oil. Albon's contract had been extended, partnering rookie Logan Sargeant; Sargeant, who replaces the departing Nicholas Latifi, is the first American driver to race in Formula One since Alexander Rossi drove for the former Marussia F1 team for five races in 2015. The season-opener of the Bahrain Grand Prix saw Albon score one point in tenth ahead of Sargeant, who finished twelfth. Albon retired at the following race at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix due to a brake failure with Sargeant placing sixteenth after he failed to set a time within the 107% rule in qualification due to mechanical issues. In the Australian Grand Prix, Albon retired again after losing control of his car and crashing heavily early into the race, causing a red flag. Sargeant, meanwhile, crashed with AlphaTauri driver Nyck de Vries during lap 56 of 58 after a restart. However, Sargeant was classified as having finished 16th, given that he had completed more than 90% of the race distance. Albon and Sargeant were retained for the 2024 season. The latter will be replaced by Carlos Sainz Jr. in the 2025 season. However, Sargeant was released after the 2024 Dutch Grand Prix due to his underperformances and his crash in the third practice section. His replacement, from the 2024 Italian Grand Prix to the end of the season, was current Formula 2 driver and Williams Driver Academy member Franco Colapinto, who would become the first Argentine driver to compete in F1 since Gastón Mazzacane in 2001. Williams Group Williams Grand Prix Holdings is the public company of Williams Group, which includes the Formula One Team and others like Williams Heritage, Williams Grand Prix Technologies (WGPT), and collaborations with other brands. It was also the former parent company of Williams Hybrid Power & Williams Advanced Engineering. Both of these businesses took technology developed for F1 and adapted it for multiple commercial applications. Williams Hybrid Power was sold to GKN in March 2014 and Williams Advanced Engineering was sold to Fortescue in February 2022. Williams Grand Prix Holdings is currently owned by Dorilton Capital who purchased the team on 21 August 2020. With the acquisition, Claire Williams was offered the chance to stay on as a team principal but that offer was declined. The 2020 Italian Grand Prix in Monza was the last race where the Williams family led the team. The sale happened after years of financial difficulties. Reuters reported on 20 November 2009 that founders Sir Frank Williams and Patrick Head had sold a minority stake in the team to an investment company led by Toto Wolff. In February 2011, Williams F1 announced plans to raise capital through an initial public offering (IPO) on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (FWB) in March 2011, with Sir Frank Williams remaining the majority shareholder and team principal after the IPO. In December 2017 Sir Frank Williams owned 51.3% of the company, with 24.1% on the public marketplace, Brad Hollinger owning 11.7%, Patrick Head 9.3%, and 3.6% is held by an employee trust fund. However in May 2020, Williams was put up for sale after posting a £13 million loss in the previous year. Williams Heritage Williams Heritage (WH) is the retired chassis and restoration division of Williams F1 (similar to Ferrari F1 Clienti and Classic Team Lotus) that keeps and maintains old retired Williams Formula One chassis that are no longer in racing use. The division's headquarters are located at the Formula One team's site in Grove, Oxfordshire. Williams Heritage manage the restorations, maintenance and on-track activities of the entire Williams collection, as well as privately owned Williams cars. The division was created by Jonathan Williams and the current Heritage Director is Jonathan Kennard. Williams Grand Prix Technologies Williams Grand Prix Technologies (WGPT) was launched in April 2024, and the company applies the innovation and technologies of F1 to tackling clients’ engineering challenges in other sectors. Services, capabilities and assets originally developed for and used by the Williams race team are offered by WGPT to a range of sectors that include the wider motorsport sector, premium automotive, aerospace, defence, marine, energy, sport and lifestyle. Services offered by WGPT include F1 standard platform dynamics, advanced materials, simulation and modelling, and instrument and data analytics. These core engineering services are supported by a range of in-house prototype testing and evaluation resources that include a wind tunnel, a driver-in-the-loop simulator, single-axis testing machines, an 8-post rig, chassis rig, and bedplate testing. Williams Driver Academy Like most F1 teams, Williams operates its own driver academy. As of 2023, the Williams Driver Academy's roster is Jamie Chadwick, Roy Nissany, Zak O'Sullivan, Oliver Gray, Franco Colapinto, and Luke Browning. Former drivers include Logan Sargeant, Lance Stroll, Oliver Rowland, Nicholas Latifi, Dan Ticktum, and Jack Aitken. Both Colapinto and Stroll are driving in Formula One as of the 2024 season, while Sargeant, Latifi and Aitken are the other three members to drive in the sport. Williams Experience Centre The Williams Experience Centre is located at the home of the Williams Formula 1 team in Grove, Oxfordshire. Originally the base of BMW's Le Mans project, the building was converted in 2002. Other motorsports activities Formula Two Williams developed the car for the revived Formula Two championship, beginning in 2009. The design was originally created for a new, more-powerful offshoot of the Formula Palmer Audi series, however the car was re-purposed when Jonathan Palmer's MotorSport Vision successfully bid for the rights to run the new Formula Two series. Group B rallying (1985–1986) The MG Metro 6R4 rally car was developed by Williams in 1984 on commission from Rover. The rally car was a MG Metro with a completely new V6 engine (mid-engined) and four-wheel drive, developed to the international Group B rallying regulations. Williams developed the car in just six months. British Touring Car Championship (1995–1999) Williams entered the British Touring Car Championship in 1995, taking over the works Renault programme. Alain Menu transferred from Renault Dealer Racing, with Will Hoy signed to partner him. Williams employed Ian Harrison, future director of Triple Eight Racing as team manager. While Menu was a championship contender, Hoy had constant failures and bad luck during the first half of the season. However, Hoy's luck changed and he won three races and scored several podium finishes in the second half of the year, eventually taking fourth in the championship while Menu finished second in the championship with seven wins. Renault won the manufacturers championship. 1996 was a more difficult year with the front-wheel-drive cars outclassed by the 4WD Audi A4s of Frank Biela and John Bintcliffe. Menu was second in the championship again, while Hoy finished a lowly ninth. 1997 was a breakthrough year for Williams, winning the drivers' championship with Menu, the manufacturers' trophy and teams' award. Other changes for the team saw Jason Plato replacing Hoy, taking third in the championship. The team won 15 races out of 24 in 1997. It also competed in the 1997 Bathurst 1000 with Menu and Plato leading for much of the early part of the race. Alan Jones drove the second car, his first appearance for Williams since 1981. 1998 saw few changes to the Williams team: the driver line-up was unchanged with Menu to defend his title alongside Plato, but the main sponsor for 1998 was Nescafé, with Renault still putting sponsorship in for the team. While the Renaults had a new look for 1998, the opposition had caught up after 1997, and both Menu and Plato had a more difficult season, finishing fourth and fifth in the championship. In the final round of 1998 at Silverstone, a third car was entered for Independents Champion Tommy Rustad. Renault ultimately finished third in the manufacturers trophy and second in the teams championship. 1999 was the most difficult season for Williams, as Menu left Renault after racing with them since 1993. Plato was joined by Jean-Christophe Boullion. Nescafé were again the main sponsor for the Williams team in 1999. Renault did not have much luck in 1999 with engine failures haunting the team during the mid-part of the season. One win for Plato was the only success for the season, and Renault pulled out of the BTCC at the end of the season. Le Mans 24 Hours and Sportscars (1998–2000) Prior to their F1 partnership, Williams Motorsport built Le Mans Prototypes for BMW, known as the V12 LM and V12 LMR. The V12 LMR won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1999. The car was driven by Pierluigi Martini, Yannick Dalmas and Joachim Winkelhock, and operated by Schnitzer Motorsport under the name of BMW Motorsport. Formula E Williams's Advanced Engineering division collaborated with Jaguar Racing in its debut season. Williams have a contract to supply the battery system for the Gen 3 Car from the 2021–22 Formula E World Championship. Automobile activities Jaguar C-X75 In May 2011 Jaguar announced a limited production of the C-X75 from 2013 to 2015, with a compact, forced induction petrol engine combined with electric motors instead of the micro gas turbines in the concept car. A maximum of 250 cars were planned to be built in partnership with Williams Advanced Engineering. The Jaguar C-X75 is a hybrid-electric, 2-seat, concept car produced by British automobile manufacturer Jaguar Cars in partnership with the derivative of the Formula One team, Williams Advanced Engineering which debuted at the 2010 Paris Motor Show. Renault Clio Williams The Williams name and logo were used on the Renault Clio Williams, a limited sports model of the production supermini, which was Formula One's safety car at the 1996 Argentine Grand Prix. However, no input was provided by Williams into the development of the car. Porsche 911 GT3R Hybrid Through subsidiary Williams Hybrid Power, the company developed and supplied a flywheel-based kinetic-energy storage system which was in use on a Porsche 911 GT3 R car in various GT racing series. The car achieved its first victory on 28 May 2011 at the 4th round of the VLN Endurance Racing Championship held at the Nürburgring. Former subsidiaries WAE Technologies WAE Technologies, formerly known as Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE), was the technology and engineering services business of the Williams Group. Based in the United Kingdom, it is located in a dedicated facility of 3,800 square metres (41,000 sq ft), adjacent to Williams Formula One facilities. The company provides the battery technology used in Formula E and Extreme E, and has assisted the development of the electric Vanda Dendrobium car from Singapore. It has worked with Jaguar to create the C-X75 hybrid supercar. WAE partnered once again with Jaguar to build new stunt C-X75s for the 24th James Bond film, Spectre. WAE announced in June 2013 a new collaboration with Nismo, the performance-orientated brand of Nissan, to partner in the development of high-performance road cars. WAE generated revenues of £10.9m in fiscal year 2014–15, with profits of £1m. The company announced in August 2017 a collaboration with Singer Vehicle Design. The initial work is a modified, naturally aspirated, air-cooled, flat-six Porsche 911 engine with a 4.0L capacity, four valves per cylinder and four camshafts, rated at 500HP. On 1 May 2019, Williams Advanced Engineering announced their partnership with the FIA sanctioned electric off-road racing series, Extreme E. Williams Advanced Engineering will supply the batteries for the first two seasons of Extreme E, which began in 2021. On 2 May 2019, it was announced that Williams Advanced Engineering will supply the batteries for the multi-make ETCR series that is due to launch in 2020. On 24 January 2022, the Australian mining firm Fortescue announced it had purchased Williams Advanced Engineering for £164m in an effort to meet its carbon neutral targets for 2030. In January 2023, the company was renamed WAE Technologies. Williams Hybrid Power Williams Hybrid Power (WHP) was the division of Williams F1 that developed electromechanical flywheels for mobile applications such as buses, trams and high-performance endurance-racing cars. A hybrid system that uses a spinning composite rotor to store energy, these flywheels help a vehicle save fuel and ultimately reduce its CO2 emissions. WHP was first established in 2008 and immediately set about developing a new flywheel energy-recovery system for the Williams F1 Team after the introduction of Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) into Formula One for the 2009 season. While other teams were pouring their efforts into electric battery systems, Williams F1 opted to go down the flywheel route because of a strong belief in the technology's wider applications. While it was never raced in Formula One due to technical changes, WHP has since seen its technology adapted for a range of applications. For example, the Audi R18 hybrid car that won the 2012 Le Mans 24 Hours used a WHP flywheel. WHP has also seen its flywheel technology introduced into a series of buses as part of a deal with the Go-Ahead Group, one of the UK's biggest transport operators. In April 2014, Williams Hybrid Power was sold to GKN. Racecars Formula One results Constructors' Championships winning percentage: 19.6% Drivers' Championships winning percentage: 15.2% Winning percentage: 13.9% Drivers' Champions The following drivers won the Formula One Drivers' Championship for Williams: Alan Jones (1980) Keke Rosberg (1982) Nelson Piquet (1987) Nigel Mansell (1992) Alain Prost (1993) Damon Hill (1996) Jacques Villeneuve (1997) Notes References Sources External links Official website

There is only one existing lighthouse with attached living quarters in the ninth-largest US state by area, as of August 1, 2024. This lighthouse is located on the north side of a bay named for which tribe?

The Yaquina Tribe

Multiple constraints

The Yaquina Bay Light is a lighthouse that was built in 1871, soon after the founding of the city of Newport, Oregon, in the United States. It is located on the north side of Yaquina Bay. In 1871–1874, it was the busiest and most populated of the many coastal ports between Washington and California. History The Yaquina Bay Light was built by Ben Simpson and first lit on November 3, 1871. It was active for only three years due to the establishment of the larger Yaquina Head Light in 1873 that was located just 3 miles (4.8 km) north of the Yaquina Bay Light. So the lighthouse was decommissioned on October 1, 1874, because the newer Yaquina Head Light made it obsolete. The fifth-order Fresnel lens was then installed in the Yerba Buena Light in California for its opening in 1875. The United States Army Corps of Engineers used the lighthouse from 1888 to 1896 as their living quarters while they built the North and South Jetties at the mouth of Yaquina Bay. The United States Coast Guard later used the lighthouse as lookout and living quarters from 1906 to 1915, before moving to their more central quarters which overlooked the busy Newport bayfront. During this period, the Coast Guard also built the eight-story steel observation tower that still stands next to the original lighthouse. In 1934, the Oregon State Highway Division bought the property around the lighthouse to build a new state park. The park site included the lighthouse, the Coast Guard observation tower, and many acres of forested bluff, ocean dunes and surrounding beaches. It is now the Yaquina Bay State Recreation Area and consists of 32 acres of several day-use areas including hiking trails, picnic areas, fishing, and beach access, and has approximately 1,700,000 visitors per year. Sometime later in 1946, the lighthouse was scheduled for demolition, which led to the formation of the Lincoln County Historical Society to save it. They raised money for three years to save the dilapidated structure, and got a delay. But by 1951, demolition was again scheduled. Then, Mr. L. E. Warford, who had recently moved to Newport from Ohio, arranged for the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse to be recognized as a historical site supervised by the Historical Society. It served as a county museum for 18 years until 1970. The lighthouse was then listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, and restored under the Historic Preservation Act in 1974. At that time, its ownership was transferred to the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. The light was re-lit on December 7, 1996, with "a 9.8-inch (250 mm) modern optic, on loan from lighthouse historian James A. Gibbs." The lighthouse is now a privately maintained navigational aid belonging to the U.S. Coast Guard that displays "a fixed white light visible for six miles," and is open for public viewing and tours daily. The Yaquina Bay structure is the only existing lighthouse in the state in which the living quarters are housed in the same building as the light. Only a few with this arrangement were built on the entire Pacific coast. The building is reputed to be haunted. The haunting is the subject of a fictional work by a local author called The Lighthouse Ghost Of Yaquina Bay. See also Yaquina Bay State Recreation Site List of lighthouses in Oregon References External links Yaquina Bay Light entry in National Park Service inventory of historic lighthouses (web archive) Friends of Yaquina Lighthouses Yaquina Bay Lighthouse from Splintercat

Oregon ( ORR-ih-ghən, -⁠gon) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. The 42° north parallel delineates the southern boundary with California and Nevada. The western boundary is formed by the Pacific Ocean. Oregon has been home to many indigenous nations for thousands of years. The first European traders, explorers, and settlers began exploring what is now Oregon's Pacific coast in the early to mid-16th century. As early as 1564, the Spanish began sending vessels northeast from the Philippines, riding the Kuroshio Current in a sweeping circular route across the northern part of the Pacific. In 1592, Juan de Fuca undertook detailed mapping and studies of ocean currents in the Pacific Northwest, including the Oregon coast as well as the strait now bearing his name. The Lewis and Clark Expedition traversed Oregon in the early 1800s, and the first permanent European settlements in Oregon were established by fur trappers and traders. In 1843, an autonomous government was formed in the Oregon Country, and the Oregon Territory was created in 1848. Oregon became the 33rd state of the U.S. on February 14, 1859. Today, with 4.2 million people over 98,000 square miles (250,000 km2), Oregon is the ninth largest and 27th most populous U.S. state. The capital, Salem, is the third-most populous city in Oregon, with 175,535 residents. Portland, with 652,503, ranks as the 26th among U.S. cities. The Portland metropolitan area, which includes neighboring counties in Washington, is the 25th largest metro area in the nation, with a population of 2,512,859. Oregon is also one of the most geographically diverse states in the U.S., marked by volcanoes, abundant bodies of water, dense evergreen and mixed forests, as well as high deserts and semi-arid shrublands. At 11,249 feet (3,429 m), Mount Hood is the state's highest point. Oregon's only national park, Crater Lake National Park, comprises the caldera surrounding Crater Lake, the deepest lake in the U.S. The state is also home to the single largest organism in the world, Armillaria ostoyae, a fungus that runs beneath 2,200 acres (8.9 km2) of the Malheur National Forest. Oregon's economy has historically been powered by various forms of agriculture, fishing, logging, and hydroelectric power. Oregon is the top lumber producer of the contiguous U.S., with the lumber industry dominating the state's economy during the 20th century. Technology is another one of Oregon's major economic forces, beginning in the 1970s with the establishment of the Silicon Forest and the expansion of Tektronix and Intel. Sportswear company Nike, Inc., headquartered in Beaverton, is the state's largest public corporation with an annual revenue of $46.7 billion. Etymology The origin of the state's name is uncertain. The earliest geographical designation "orejón" (meaning "big ear") comes from the Spanish historical chronicle Relación de la Alta y Baja California (1598), written by Rodrigo Montezuma of New Spain; here it refers to the region of the Columbia River as it was encountered by the first Spanish scouts. The "j" in the Spanish phrase "El Orejón" was eventually corrupted into a "g". Another possible source is the Spanish word oregano, which refers to a plant that grows in the southern part of the region. It is also possible that the area around the Columbia River was named after a stream in Spain called "Arroyo del Oregón", located in the province of Ciudad Real. Another early use of the name, spelled Ouragon, was by Major Robert Rogers in a 1765 petition to the Kingdom of Great Britain. The term referred to the then-mythical River of the West (the Columbia River). By 1778, the spelling had shifted to Oregon. Rogers wrote: ... from the Great Lakes towards the Head of the Mississippi, and from thence to the River called by the Indians Ouragon ... One suggestion is that this name comes from the French word ouragan ("windstorm" or "hurricane"), which was applied to the River of the West based on Native American tales of powerful Chinook winds on the lower Columbia River, or perhaps from first-hand French experience with the Chinook winds of the Great Plains. At the time, the River of the West was thought to rise in western Minnesota and flow west through the Great Plains. Another suggestion comes from Joaquin Miller, who wrote in Sunset magazine in 1904: The name, Oregon, is rounded down phonetically, from Ouve água—Oragua, Or-a-gon, Oregon—given probably by the same Portuguese navigator that named the Farallones after his first officer, and it literally, in a large way, means cascades: "Hear the waters." You should steam up the Columbia and hear and feel the waters falling out of the clouds of Mount Hood to understand entirely the full meaning of the name Ouve a água, Oregon. Yet another account, endorsed as the "most plausible explanation" in the book Oregon Geographic Names, was advanced by George R. Stewart in a 1944 article in American Speech. According to Stewart, the name came from an engraver's error in a French map published in the early 18th century, on which the Ouisiconsink (Wisconsin) River was spelled "Ouaricon-sint", broken on two lines with the -sint below, so there appeared to be a river flowing to the west named "Ouaricon". According to the Oregon Tourism Commission, present-day Oregonians pronounce the state's name as "or-uh-gun, never or-ee-gone". After being drafted by the Detroit Lions in 2002, former Oregon Ducks quarterback Joey Harrington distributed "Orygun" stickers to members of the media as a reminder of how to pronounce the name of his home state. The stickers are sold by the University of Oregon Bookstore. History Earliest inhabitants While there is considerable evidence that Paleo-Indians inhabited the region, the oldest evidence of habitation in Oregon was found at Fort Rock Cave and the Paisley Caves in Lake County. Archaeologist Luther Cressman dated material from Fort Rock to 13,200 years ago, and there is evidence supporting inhabitants in the region at least 15,000 years ago. By 8000 BC, there were settlements throughout the state, with populations concentrated along the lower Columbia River, in the western valleys, and around coastal estuaries. During the prehistoric period, the Willamette Valley region was flooded after the collapse of glacial dams from then Lake Missoula, located in what would later become Montana. These massive floods occurred during the last glacial period and filled the valley with 300 to 400 feet (91 to 122 m) of water. By the 16th century, Oregon was home to many Native American groups, including the Chinook, Coquille (Ko-Kwell), Bannock, Kalapuya, Klamath, Klickitat, Molala, Nez Perce, Shasta, Takelma, Umatilla, and Umpqua. European and pioneer settlement The first Europeans to visit Oregon were Spanish explorers led by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, who sighted southern Oregon off the Pacific coast in 1543. Sailing from Central America on the Golden Hind in 1579 in search of the Strait of Anian during his circumnavigation of the Earth, the English explorer and privateer Sir Francis Drake briefly anchored at South Cove, Cape Arago, just south of Coos Bay, before sailing for what is now California. Martín de Aguilar, continuing separately from Sebastián Vizcaíno's scouting of California, reached as far north as Cape Blanco and possibly to Coos Bay in 1603. Exploration continued routinely in 1774, starting with the expedition of the frigate Santiago by Juan José Pérez Hernández, and the coast of Oregon became a valuable trade route to Asia. In 1778, British captain James Cook also explored the coast. French Canadians, Scots, Métis, and other continental natives (e.g. Iroquois) trappers arrived in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, soon to be followed by Catholic clergy. Some traveled as members of the Lewis and Clark and Astor Expeditions. Few stayed permanently such as Étienne Lussier, often referred to as the first "European" farmer in the state of Oregon. Evidence of the French Canadian presence can be found in numerous names of French origin such as Malheur Lake, the Malheur, Grande Ronde, and Deschutes Rivers, and the city of La Grande. Furthermore, many of the early pioneers first came out West with the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company before heading South of the Columbia for better farmland as the fur trade declined. French Prairie by the Willamette River and French Settlement by the Umpqua River are known as early mixed ancestry settlements. The Lewis and Clark Expedition traveled through northern Oregon also in search of the Northwest Passage. They built their winter fort in 1805–1806 at Fort Clatsop, near the mouth of the Columbia River, staying at the encampment from December until March. British explorer David Thompson also conducted overland exploration. In 1811, while working for the North West Company, Thompson became the first European to navigate the entire Columbia River. Stopping on the way, at the junction of the Snake River, he posted a claim to the region for Great Britain and the North West Company. Upon returning to Montreal, he publicized the abundance of fur-bearing animals in the area. Also in 1811, New Yorker John Jacob Astor financed the establishment of Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River as a western outpost to his Pacific Fur Company; this was the first permanent European settlement in Oregon. In the War of 1812, the British gained control of all Pacific Fur Company posts. The Treaty of 1818 established joint British and American occupancy of the region west of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. By the 1820s and 1830s, the Hudson's Bay Company dominated the Pacific Northwest from its Columbia District headquarters at Fort Vancouver (built in 1825 by the district's chief factor, John McLoughlin, across the Columbia from present-day Portland). In 1841, the expert trapper and entrepreneur Ewing Young died leaving considerable wealth and no apparent heir, and no system to probate his estate. A meeting followed Young's funeral, at which a probate government was proposed. Doctor Ira Babcock of Jason Lee's Methodist Mission was elected supreme judge. Babcock chaired two meetings in 1842 at Champoeg, (halfway between Lee's mission and Oregon City), to discuss wolves and other animals of contemporary concern. These meetings were precursors to an all-citizen meeting in 1843, which instituted a provisional government headed by an executive committee made up of David Hill, Alanson Beers, and Joseph Gale. This government was the first acting public government of the Oregon Country before annexation by the government of the United States. It was succeeded by a Second Executive Committee, made up of Peter G. Stewart, Osborne Russell, and William J. Bailey, and this committee was itself succeeded by George Abernethy, who was the first and only Governor of Oregon under the provisional government. Also in 1841, Sir George Simpson, governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, reversed the Hudson's Bay Company's long-standing policy of discouraging settlement because it interfered with the lucrative fur trade. He directed that some 200 Red River Colony settlers be relocated to HBC farms near Fort Vancouver, (the James Sinclair expedition), in an attempt to hold Columbia District. Starting in 1842–1843, the Oregon Trail brought many new American settlers to the Oregon Country. Oregon's boundaries were disputed for a time, contributing to tensions between the U.K. and the U.S., but the border was defined peacefully in the 1846 Oregon Treaty. The border between the U.S. and British North America was set at the 49th parallel. The Oregon Territory was officially organized on August 13, 1848. Settlement increased with the Donation Land Claim Act of 1850 and the forced relocation of the native population to Indian reservations in Oregon. The first Oregon proposition for a railroad in Oregon was made in 1850 by H. M. Knighton, the original owner of the townsite of St. Helens. Knighton asserted that this would fulfill his township's belief that it should be the supreme metropolitan seaport in that area upon the Columbia River, as opposed to Portland. He suggested building a railroad in 1851 from St. Helens, through the Cornelius pass and across Washington County to the city of Lafayette, which was at the time the big town of the Willamette Valley. Black exclusion laws In December 1844, Oregon passed its first black exclusion law, which prohibited African Americans from entering the territory while simultaneously prohibiting slavery. Slave owners who brought their slaves with them were given three years before they were forced to free them. Any African Americans in the region after the law was passed were forced to leave, and those who did not comply were arrested and beaten. They received no less than twenty and no more than thirty-nine stripes across the back if they still did not leave. This process could be repeated every six months. Statehood Slavery played a major part in Oregon's history and even influenced its path to statehood. The territory's request for statehood was delayed several times, as members of Congress argued among themselves whether the territory should be admitted as a "free" or "slave" state. Eventually politicians from the South agreed to allow Oregon to enter as a "free" state, in exchange for opening slavery to the Southwestern U.S. Oregon was admitted to the Union on February 14, 1859, though no one in Oregon knew it until March 15. Founded as a refuge from disputes over slavery, Oregon had a "whites only" clause in its original state Constitution. At the outbreak of the American Civil War, regular U.S. troops were withdrawn and sent east to aid the Union. Volunteer cavalry recruited in California were sent north to Oregon to keep peace and protect the populace. The First Oregon Cavalry served until June 1865. Post-Reconstruction Beginning in the 1880s, the growth of railroads expanded the state's lumber, wheat, and other agricultural markets, and the rapid growth of its cities. Due to the abundance of timber and waterway access via the Willamette River, Portland became a major force in the lumber industry of the Pacific Northwest, and quickly became the state's largest city. It would earn the nickname "Stumptown", and would later become recognized as one of the most dangerous port cities in the United States due to racketeering and illegal activities at the turn of the 20th century. In 1902, Oregon introduced direct legislation by the state's citizens through initiatives and referendums, known as the Oregon System. On May 5, 1945, six civilians were killed by a Japanese balloon bomb that exploded on Gearhart Mountain near Bly. They remained the only people on American soil whose deaths were attributed to an enemy balloon bomb explosion during World War II. The bombing site is now located in the Mitchell Recreation Area. Industrial expansion began in earnest following the 1933–1937 construction of the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River. Hydroelectric power, food, and lumber provided by Oregon helped fuel the development of the West, although the periodic fluctuations in the U.S. building industry have hurt the state's economy on multiple occasions. Portland, in particular, experienced a population boom between 1900 and 1930, tripling in size; the arrival of World War II also provided the northwest region of the state with an industrial boom, where Liberty ships and aircraft carriers were constructed. During the 1970s, the Pacific Northwest was particularly affected by the 1973 oil crisis, with Oregon suffering a substantial shortage. In 1972, the Oregon Beverage Container Act of 1971, popularly called the Bottle Bill, became the first law of its kind in the United States. The Bottle Bill system in Oregon was created to control litter. In practice, the system promotes recycling, not reusing, and the collected containers are generally destroyed and made into new containers. Ten states currently have similar laws. In 1994, Oregon became the first U.S. state to legalize physician-assisted suicide through the Oregon Death with Dignity Act. A measure to legalize recreational use of marijuana in Oregon was approved on November 4, 2014, making Oregon only the second state at the time to have legalized gay marriage, physician-assisted suicide, and recreational marijuana. Gasoline pump law Self service gasoline was banned in Oregon from 1951 until August 2023. Although self-serve is now allowed in Oregon, gas stations are not required to offer it and many currently do not. New Jersey is the only state remaining where self serve gas stations are not allowed. Geography Oregon is 295 miles (475 km) north to south at longest distance, and 395 miles (636 km) east to west. With an area of 98,381 square miles (254,810 km2), Oregon is slightly larger than the United Kingdom. It is the ninth largest state in the U.S. Oregon's highest point is the summit of Mount Hood, at 11,249 feet (3,429 m), and its lowest point is the sea level of the Pacific Ocean along the Oregon Coast. Oregon's mean elevation is 3,300 feet (1,006 m). Crater Lake National Park, the state's only national park, is the site of the deepest lake in the U.S. at 1,943 feet (592 m). Oregon claims the D River as the shortest river in the world, though the state of Montana makes the same claim of its Roe River. Oregon is also home to Mill Ends Park (in Portland), the smallest park in the world at 452 square inches (0.29 m2). Oregon is split into eight geographical regions. In Western Oregon: Oregon Coast (west of the Coast Range), the Willamette Valley, Rogue Valley, Cascade Range and Klamath Mountains; and in Central and Eastern Oregon: the Columbia Plateau, the High Desert, and the Blue Mountains. Oregon lies in two time zones. Most of Malheur County is in the Mountain Time Zone, while the rest of the state lies in the Pacific Time Zone. Geology and terrain Western Oregon's mountainous regions, home to three of the most prominent mountain peaks of the U.S. including Mount Hood, were formed by the volcanic activity of the Juan de Fuca Plate, a tectonic plate that poses a continued threat of volcanic activity and earthquakes in the region. The most recent major activity was the 1700 Cascadia earthquake. Washington's Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, an event visible from northern Oregon and affecting some areas there. The Columbia River, which forms much of Oregon's northern border, also played a major role in the region's geological evolution, as well as its economic and cultural development. The Columbia is one of North America's largest rivers, and one of two rivers to cut through the Cascades (the Klamath River in southern Oregon is the other). About 15,000 years ago, the Columbia repeatedly flooded much of Oregon during the Missoula Floods; the modern fertility of the Willamette Valley is largely the result. Plentiful salmon made parts of the river, such as Celilo Falls, hubs of economic activity for thousands of years. Today, Oregon's landscape varies from rain forest in the Coast Range to barren desert in the southeast, which still meets the technical definition of a frontier. Oregon's geographical center is further west than any of the other 48 contiguous states (although the westernmost point of the lower 48 states is in Washington). Central Oregon's geographical features range from high desert and volcanic rock formations resulting from lava beds. The Oregon Badlands Wilderness is in this region of the state. Flora and fauna Typical of a western state, Oregon is home to a unique and diverse array of wildlife. Roughly 60 percent of the state is covered in forest, while the areas west of the Cascades are more densely populated by forest, making up around 80 percent of the landscape. Some 60 percent of Oregon's forests are within federal land. Oregon is the top timber producer of the lower 48 states. Typical tree species include the Douglas fir (the state tree), as well as redwood, ponderosa pine, western red cedar, and hemlock. Ponderosa pine are more common in the Blue Mountains in the eastern part of the state and firs are more common in the west. Many species of mammals live in the state, which include opossums, shrews, moles, little pocket mice, great basin pocket mice, dark kangaroo mouse, California kangaroo rat, chisel-toothed kangaroo rat, ord's kangaroo rat, bats, rabbits, pikas, mountain beavers, chipmunks, squirrels, yellow-bellied marmots, beavers (the state mammal), porcupines, coyotes, wolves, foxes black bears, raccoons, badgers, skunks, antelopes, cougars, bobcats, lynxes, deer, elk, and moose. Marine mammals include seals, sea lions, humpback whales, killer whales, gray whales, blue whales, sperm whales, pacific white-sided dolphins, and bottlenose dolphins. Notable birds include American widgeons, mallard ducks, great blue herons, bald eagles, golden eagles, western meadowlarks (the state bird), barn owls, great horned owls, rufous hummingbirds, pileated woodpeckers, wrens, towhees, sparrows, and buntings. Moose have not always inhabited the state but came to Oregon in the 1960s; the Wallowa Valley herd numbered about 60 as of 2013. Gray wolves were extirpated from Oregon around 1930 but have since found their way back; most reside in northeast Oregon, with two packs living in the south-central part. Although their existence in Oregon is unconfirmed, reports of grizzly bears still turn up, and it is probable some still move into eastern Oregon from Idaho. Oregon is home to what is considered the largest single organism in the world, an Armillaria solidipes fungus beneath the Malheur National Forest of eastern Oregon. Oregon has several National Park System sites, including Crater Lake National Park in the southern part of the Cascades, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument east of the Cascades, Lewis and Clark National Historical Park on the north coast, and Oregon Caves National Monument near the south coast. Other areas that were considered for potential national park status in the 20th century include the southern Oregon Coast, Mount Hood, and Hells Canyon to the east. Climate Most of Oregon has a generally mild climate, though there is significant variation given the variety of landscapes across the state. The state's western region (west of the Cascade Range) has an oceanic climate, populated by dense evergreen mixed forests. Western Oregon's climate is heavily influenced by the Pacific Ocean; the western third of Oregon is very wet in the winter, moderately to very wet during the spring and fall, and dry during the summer. The relative humidity of Western Oregon is high except during summer days, which are semi-dry to semi-humid; Eastern Oregon typically sees low humidity year-round. The state's southwestern portion, particularly the Rogue Valley, has a Mediterranean climate with drier and sunnier winters and hotter summers, similar to Northern California. Oregon's northeastern portion has a steppe climate, and its high terrain regions have a subarctic climate. Like Western Europe, Oregon, and the Pacific Northwest in general, is considered warm for its latitude, and the state has far milder winters at a given elevation than comparable latitudes elsewhere in North America, such as the Upper Midwest, Ontario, Quebec and New England. However, the state ranks fifth for coolest summer temperatures of any state in the country, after Maine, Idaho, Wyoming, and Alaska. The eastern two thirds of Oregon, which largely comprise high desert, have cold, snowy winters and very dry summers. Much of the east is semiarid to arid like the rest of the Great Basin, though the Blue Mountains are wet enough to support extensive forests. Most of Oregon receives significant snowfall, but the Willamette Valley, where 60 percent of the population lives, has considerably milder winters for its latitude and typically sees only light snowfall. Oregon's highest recorded temperature is 119 °F (48 °C), which was set at Prineville on July 29, 1898, and tied at Pendleton on August 10, 1898, and Pelton Dam on June 29, 2021. The lowest recorded temperature is −54 °F (−48 °C) at Seneca on February 10, 1933. Cities and towns Oregon's population is largely concentrated in the Willamette Valley, which stretches from Eugene in the south (home of the University of Oregon) through Corvallis (home of Oregon State University) and Salem (the capital) to Portland (Oregon's largest city). Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia River, was the first permanent English-speaking settlement west of the Rockies in what is now the U.S. Oregon City, at the end of the Oregon Trail, was the Oregon Territory's first incorporated city, and was its first capital from 1848 until 1852, when the capital was moved to Salem. Bend, near the geographic center of the state, is one of the ten fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the U.S. In southern Oregon, Medford is a rapidly growing metro area and is home to the Rogue Valley International–Medford Airport, the state's third-busiest airport. To the south, near the California border, is the city of Ashland. Eastern Oregon is sparsely populated, but is home to Hermiston, which with a population of 18,000 is the largest and fastest-growing city in the region. Demographics Population The 2020 U.S. census determined that the population of Oregon was 4,237,256 in 2020, a 10.60% increase over the 2010 census. Oregon was the nation's "Top Moving Destination" in 2014, with two families moving into the state for every one moving out (66.4% to 33.6%). Oregon was also the top moving destination in 2013, and the second-most popular destination in 2010 through 2012. As of the 2020 census, the population of Oregon was 4,237,256. The gender makeup of the state was 49.5% male and 50.5% female. 20.5% of the population were under the age of 18; 60.8% were between the ages of 18 and 64; and 18.8% were 65 years of age or older. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's 2022 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, there were an estimated 17,959 homeless people in Oregon. According to the 2020 census, 13.9% of Oregon's population was of Hispanic or Latino origin (of any race) and 71.7% non-Hispanic White, 2.0% African American, 1.5% Native American, 4.6% Asian, 1.5% Pacific Islander, and 10.5% two or more races. According to the 2016 American Community Survey, 12.4% of Oregon's population were of Hispanic or Latino origin (of any race): Mexican (10.4%), Puerto Rican (0.3%), Cuban (0.1%), and other Hispanic or Latino origin (1.5%). The five largest ancestry groups for White Oregonians were: German (19.1%), Irish (11.7%), English (11.3%), American (5.3%), and Norwegian (3.8%). The state's most populous ethnic group, non-Hispanic Whites, decreased from 95.8% of the total population in 1970 to 71.7% in 2020, though it increased in absolute numbers. As of 2011, 38.7% of Oregon's children under one year of age belonged to minority groups, meaning they had at least one parent who was not a non-Hispanic White. Of the state's total population, 22.6% was under the age 18, and 77.4% were 18 or older. The center of population of Oregon is located in Linn County, in the city of Lyons. Around 60% of Oregon's population resides within the Portland metropolitan area. As of 2009, Oregon's population comprised 361,393 foreign-born residents. Of the foreign-born residents, the three largest groups are originally from countries in: Latin America (47.8%), Asia (27.4%), and Europe (16.5%). Mexico, Vietnam, China, India, and the Philippines were the top countries of origin for Oregon's immigrants in 2018. The Roma first reached Oregon in the 1890s. There is a substantial Roma population in Willamette Valley and around Portland. The majority of Oregon's population is predominantly of white (European) ancestry and is American-born. Around one-tenth of Oregon's population is made up of Hispanics. There are also small populations of Asians, Native Americans, and African Americans in state. Languages Religious and secular communities Oregon has frequently been cited by statistical agencies for having a smaller percentage of religious communities than other U.S. states. According to a 2009 Gallup poll, Oregon was paired with Vermont as the two "least religious" states in the U.S. In the same 2009 Gallup poll, 69% of Oregonians identified themselves as being Christian. The largest Christian denominations in Oregon by number of adherents in 2010 were the Roman Catholic Church with 398,738; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with 147,965; and the Assemblies of God with 45,492. Oregon also contains the largest community of Russian Old Believers to be found in the U.S. Judaism is the largest non-Christian religion in Oregon with more than 50,000 adherents, 47,000 of whom live in the Portland area. Recently, new kosher food and Jewish educational offerings have led to a rapid increase in Portland's Orthodox Jewish population. The Northwest Tibetan Cultural Association is headquartered in Portland. There are an estimated 6,000 to 10,000 Muslims in Oregon, most of whom live in and around Portland. Most of the remainder of the population had no religious affiliation; the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey placed Oregon as tied with Nevada in fifth place of U.S. states having the highest percentage of residents identifying themselves as "non-religious", at 24 percent. Secular organizations include the Center for Inquiry, the Humanists of Greater Portland, and the United States Atheists. During much of the 1990s, a group of conservative Christians formed the Oregon Citizens Alliance, and unsuccessfully tried to pass legislation to prevent "gay sensitivity training" in public schools and legal benefits for homosexual couples. Since 2016, data for births of White Hispanic origin are not collected, but included in one Hispanic group; persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race. Births in table do not sum to 100% because Hispanics are counted both by their ethnicity and by their race. Future projections Projections from the U.S. Census Bureau show Oregon's population increasing to 4,833,918 by 2030, an increase of 41.3% compared to the state's population of 3,421,399 in 2000. The state's own projections forecast a total population of 5,425,408 in 2040. Economy As of 2015, Oregon ranks as the 17th highest in median household income at $60,834. The gross domestic product (GDP) of Oregon in 2013 was $219.6 billion, a 2.7% increase from 2012; Oregon is the 25th wealthiest state by GDP. In 2003, Oregon was 28th in the U.S. by GDP. The state's per capita personal income (PCPI) in 2013 was $39,848, a 1.5% increase from 2012. Oregon ranks 33rd in the U.S. by PCPI, compared to 31st in 2003. The national PCPI in 2013 was $44,765. Oregon's unemployment rate was 5.5% in September 2016, while the U.S. unemployment rate was 5.0% that month. Oregon has the third largest amount of food stamp users in the nation (21% of the population). Agriculture Oregon's diverse landscapes provide ideal environments for various types of farming. Land in the Willamette Valley owes its fertility to the Missoula Floods, which deposited lake sediment from Glacial Lake Missoula in western Montana onto the valley floor. In 2016, the Willamette Valley region produced over 100 million pounds (45 kt) of blueberries. The industry is governed and represented by the Oregon Department of Agriculture. Oregon is also one of four major world hazelnut (Corylus avellana) growing regions, and produces 95% of the domestic hazelnuts in the United States. While the history of wine production in Oregon can be traced to before Prohibition, it became a significant industry beginning in the 1970s. In 2005, Oregon ranked third among U.S. states with 303 wineries. Due to regional similarities in climate and soil, the grapes planted in Oregon are often the same varieties found in the French regions of Alsace and Burgundy. In 2014, 71 wineries opened in the state. The total is currently 676, which represents a growth of 12% over 2013. In the southern Oregon coast, commercially cultivated cranberries account for about 7 percent of U.S. production, and the cranberry ranks 23rd among Oregon's top 50 agricultural commodities. Cranberry cultivation in Oregon uses about 27,000 acres (110 square kilometers) in southern Coos and northern Curry counties, centered around the coastal city of Bandon. In the northeastern region of the state, particularly around Pendleton, both irrigated and dry land wheat is grown. Oregon farmers and ranchers also produce cattle, sheep, dairy products, eggs and poultry. Caneberries (Rubus) are farmed here.: 25  Stamen blight (Hapalosphaeria deformans) is significant here and throughout the PNW.: 25  Here it especially hinders commercial dewberries.: 25  Phytophthora ramorum was first discovered in the 1990s on the California Central Coast and was quickly found here as well. P. ramorum is of economic concern due to its infestation of Rubus and Vaccinium spp. (including cranberry and blueberry). Peaches grown in the Willamette Valley are mostly sold directly and do not enter the more distant markets. OSU Extension recommended several peach and nectarine cultivars for Willamette. Forestry and fisheries Vast forests have historically made Oregon one of the nation's major timber-producing and logging states, but forest fires (such as the Tillamook Burn), over-harvesting, and lawsuits over the proper management of the extensive federal forest holdings have reduced the timber produced. Between 1989 and 2011, the amount of timber harvested from federal lands in Oregon dropped about 90%, although harvest levels on private land have remained relatively constant. Even the shift in recent years towards finished goods such as paper and building materials has not slowed the decline of the timber industry in the state. The effects of this decline have included Weyerhaeuser's acquisition of Portland-based Willamette Industries in January 2002, the relocation of Louisiana-Pacific's corporate headquarters from Portland to Nashville, and the decline of former lumber company towns such as Gilchrist. Despite these changes, Oregon still leads the U.S. in softwood lumber production; in 2011, 4,134 million board feet (9,760,000 m3) was produced in Oregon, compared with 3,685 million board feet (8,700,000 m3) in Washington, 1,914 million board feet (4,520,000 m3) in Georgia, and 1,708 million board feet (4,030,000 m3) in Mississippi. The slowing of the timber and lumber industry has caused high unemployment rates in rural areas. Oregon has one of the largest salmon-fishing industries in the world, although ocean fisheries have reduced the river fisheries in recent years. Because of the abundance of waterways in the state, it is also a major producer of hydroelectric energy. On June 30, 2022, an emerald ash borer infestation was found in Forest Grove in 2022, the first for Western North America. Tourism and entertainment Tourism is also a strong industry in the state. Tourism is centered on the state's natural features – mountains, forests, waterfalls, rivers, beaches and lakes, including Crater Lake National Park, Multnomah Falls, the Painted Hills, the Deschutes River, and the Oregon Caves. Mount Hood and Mount Bachelor also draw visitors year-round for skiing and other snow activities. Portland is home to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, the Portland Art Museum, and the Oregon Zoo, which is the oldest zoo west of the Mississippi River. The International Rose Test Garden is another prominent attraction in the city. Portland has also been named the best city in the world for street food by several publications, including the U.S. News & World Report and CNN. Oregon is home to many breweries, and Portland has the largest number of breweries of any city in the world. The state's coastal region produces significant tourism as well. The Oregon Coast Aquarium comprises 23 acres (9.3 ha) along Yaquina Bay in Newport, and was also home to Keiko the orca whale. It has been noted as one of the top ten aquariums in North America. Fort Clatsop in Warrenton features a replica of Lewis and Clark's encampment at the mouth of the Columbia River in 1805. The Sea Lion Caves in Florence are the largest system of sea caverns in the U.S., and also attract many visitors. In Southern Oregon, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, held in Ashland, is also a tourist draw, as is the Oregon Vortex and the Wolf Creek Inn State Heritage Site, a historic inn where Jack London wrote his 1913 novel Valley of the Moon. Oregon has also historically been a popular region for film shoots due to its diverse landscapes, as well as its proximity to Hollywood. Movies filmed in Oregon include: Animal House, Free Willy, The General, The Goonies, Kindergarten Cop, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Stand By Me. Oregon native Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, has incorporated many references from his hometown of Portland into the TV series. Additionally, several television shows have been filmed throughout the state including Portlandia, Grimm, Bates Motel, and Leverage. The Oregon Film Museum is located in the old Clatsop County Jail in Astoria. Additionally, the last remaining Blockbuster store is located in Bend. Technology High technology industries located in Silicon Forest have been a major employer since the 1970s. Tektronix was the largest private employer in Oregon until the late 1980s. Intel's creation and expansion of several facilities in eastern Washington County continued the growth that Tektronix had started. Intel, the state's largest for-profit private employer, operates four large facilities, with Ronler Acres, Jones Farm and Hawthorn Farm all located in Hillsboro. The spinoffs and startups that were produced by these two companies led to the establishment of the so-called Silicon Forest. The recession and dot-com bust of 2001 hit the region hard; many high technology employers reduced the number of their employees or went out of business. Open Source Development Labs made news in 2004 when they hired Linus Torvalds, developer of the Linux kernel. In 2010, biotechnology giant Genentech opened a $400 million facility in Hillsboro to expand its production capabilities. Oregon is home to several large datacenters that take advantage of cheap power and a climate conducive to reducing cooling costs. Google operates a large datacenter in The Dalles, and Facebook built a large datacenter near Prineville in 2010. Amazon opened a datacenter near Boardman in 2011, and a fulfillment center in Troutdale in 2018. Corporate headquarters Oregon is also the home of large corporations in other industries. The world headquarters of Nike is located near Beaverton. Medford is home to Harry and David, which sells gift items under several brands. Medford is also home to the national headquarters of Lithia Motors. Portland is home to one of the West's largest trade book publishing houses, Graphic Arts Center Publishing. Oregon is also home to Mentor Graphics Corporation, a world leader in electronic design automation located in Wilsonville and employs roughly 4,500 people worldwide. Adidas Corporations American Headquarters is located in Portland and employs roughly 900 full-time workers at its Portland campus. Nike, located in Beaverton, employs roughly 5,000 full-time employees at its 200-acre (81 ha) campus. Nike's Beaverton campus is continuously ranked as a top employer in the Portland area-along with competitor Adidas. Intel Corporation employs 22,000 in Oregon with the majority of these employees located at the company's Hillsboro campus located about 30 minutes west of Portland. Intel has been a top employer in Oregon since 1974. The U.S. Federal Government and Providence Health systems are respective contenders for top employers in Oregon with roughly 12,000 federal workers and 14,000 Providence Health workers. In 2015, a total of seven companies headquartered in Oregon landed in the Fortune 1000: Nike, at 106; Precision Castparts Corp. at 302; Lithia Motors at 482; StanCorp Financial Group at 804; Schnitzer Steel Industries at 853; The Greenbrier Companies at 948; and Columbia Sportswear at 982. Taxes and budgets Oregon's biennial state budget, $2.6 billion in 2017, comprises General Funds, Federal Funds, Lottery Funds, and Other Funds. Oregon is one of only five states that have no sales tax. Oregon voters have been resolute in their opposition to a sales tax, voting proposals down each of the nine times they have been presented. The last vote, for 1993's Measure 1, was defeated by a 75–25% margin. The state also has a minimum corporate tax of only $150 a year, amounting to 5.6% of the General Fund in the 2005–07 biennium; data about which businesses pay the minimum is not available to the public. As a result, the state relies on property and income taxes for its revenue. Oregon has the fifth highest personal income tax in the nation. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Oregon ranked 41st out of the 50 states in taxes per capita in 2005 with an average amount paid of 1,791.45. A few local governments levy sales taxes on services: the city of Ashland, for example, collects a 5% sales tax on prepared food. The City of Portland imposes an Arts Education and Access Income Tax on residents over 18—a flat tax of $35 collected from individuals earning $1,000 or more per year and residing in a household with an annual income exceeding the federal poverty level. The tax funds Portland school teachers, and art focused non-profit organizations in Portland. The State of Oregon also allows transit districts to levy an income tax on employers and the self-employed. The State currently collects the tax for TriMet and the Lane Transit District. Oregon is one of six states with a revenue limit. The "kicker law" stipulates that when income tax collections exceed state economists' estimates by two percent or more, any excess must be returned to taxpayers. Since the enactment of the law in 1979, refunds have been issued for seven of the eleven biennia. In 2000, Ballot Measure 86 converted the "kicker" law from statute to the Oregon Constitution, and changed some of its provisions. Federal payments to county governments that were granted to replace timber revenue when logging in National Forests was restricted in the 1990s, have been under threat of suspension for several years. This issue dominates the future revenue of rural counties, which have come to rely on the payments in providing essential services. 55% of state revenues are spent on public education, 23% on human services (child protective services, Medicaid, and senior services), 17% on public safety, and 5% on other services. Oregon has had a $15 bicycle tax for each new bicycles over $200 since 2018. Oregon is the only state in the nation with a bicycle excise tax. Healthcare For health insurance, as of 2018 Cambia Health Solutions has the highest market share at 21%, followed by Providence Health. In the Portland region, Kaiser Permanente leads. Providence and Kaiser are vertically integrated delivery systems which operate hospitals and offer insurance plans. Aside from Providence and Kaiser, hospital systems which are primarily Oregon-based include Legacy Health mostly covering Portland, Samaritan Health Services with five hospitals in various areas across the state, and Tuality Healthcare in the western Portland metropolitan area. In Southern Oregon, Asante runs several hospitals, including Rogue Regional Medical Center. Some hospitals are operated by multi-state organizations such as PeaceHealth and CommonSpirit Health. Some hospitals such Salem Hospital operate independently of larger systems. Oregon Health & Science University is a Portland-based medical school that operates two hospitals and clinics. The Oregon Health Plan is the state's Medicaid managed care plan, and it is known for innovations. The Portland area is a mature managed care and two-thirds of Medicare enrollees are in Medicare Advantage plans. Education Elementary, middle, and high school In the 2013–2014 school year, the state had 567,000 students in public schools. There were 197 public school districts, served by 19 education service districts. In 2016, the largest school districts in the state were: Portland Public Schools, comprising 47,323 students; Salem-Keizer School District, comprising 40,565 students; Beaverton School District, comprising 39,625 students; Hillsboro School District, comprising 21,118 students; and North Clackamas School District, comprising 17,053 students. Approximately 90.5% of Oregon high school students graduate, improving on the national average of 88.3% as measured from the 2010 U.S. census. On May 8, 2019, educators across the state protested to demand smaller class sizes, hiring more support staff, such as school counselors, librarians, and nurses, and the restoration of art, music, and physical education classes. The protests caused two dozen school districts to close, which equals to about 600 schools across the state. Colleges and universities Especially since the 1990 passage of Measure 5, which set limits on property tax levels, Oregon has struggled to fund higher education. Since then, Oregon has cut its higher education budget and now ranks 46th in the country in state spending per student. However, 2007 legislation funded the university system far beyond the governor's requested budget though still capping tuition increases at 3% per year. Oregon supports a total of seven public universities and one affiliate. It is home to three public research universities: The University of Oregon (UO) in Eugene and Oregon State University (OSU) in Corvallis, both classified as research universities with very high research activity, and Portland State University which is classified as a research university with high research activity. UO is the state's highest nationally ranked and most selective public university by U.S. News & World Report and Forbes. OSU is the state's only land-grant university, has the state's largest enrollment for fall 2014, and is the state's highest ranking university according to Academic Ranking of World Universities, Washington Monthly, and QS World University Rankings. OSU receives more annual funding for research than all other public higher education institutions in Oregon combined. The state's urban Portland State University has Oregon's second largest enrollment. The state has three regional universities: Western Oregon University in Monmouth, Southern Oregon University in Ashland, and Eastern Oregon University in La Grande. The Oregon Institute of Technology has its campus in Klamath Falls. The quasi-public Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) includes medical, dental, and nursing schools, and graduate programs in biomedical sciences in Portland and a science and engineering school in Hillsboro. The state also supports 17 community colleges. Oregon is home to a wide variety of private colleges, the majority of which are located in the Portland area. The University of Portland, a Catholic university, is affiliated with the Congregation of Holy Cross. Reed College, a rigorous liberal arts college in Portland, was ranked by Forbes as the 52nd best college in the country in 2015. Other private institutions in Portland include Lewis & Clark College; Multnomah University; Portland Bible College; Warner Pacific College; Cascade College; the National University of Natural Medicine; and Western Seminary, a theological graduate school. Pacific University is in the Portland suburb of Forest Grove. There are also private colleges further south in the Willamette Valley. McMinnville is home to Linfield College, while nearby Newberg is home to George Fox University. Salem is home to two private schools: Willamette University (the state's oldest, established during the provisional period) and Corban University. Also located near Salem is Mount Angel Seminary, one of America's largest Roman Catholic seminaries. The state's second medical school, the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific, Northwest, is located in Lebanon. Eugene is home to three private colleges: Bushnell University, New Hope Christian College, and Gutenberg College. Law and government A writer in the Oregon Country book A Pacific Republic, written in 1839, predicted the territory was to become an independent republic. Four years later, in 1843, settlers of the Willamette Valley voted in majority for a republican form of government. The Oregon Country functioned in this way until August 13, 1848, when Oregon was annexed by the U.S. and a territorial government was established. Oregon maintained a territorial government until February 14, 1859, when it was granted statehood. Structure Oregon state government has a separation of powers similar to the federal government, with three branches: a legislative branch (the bicameral Oregon Legislative Assembly), an executive branch which includes an "administrative department" and Oregon's governor as chief executive, and a judicial branch, headed by the Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court. Governors in Oregon serve four-year terms and are limited to two consecutive terms, but an unlimited number of total terms. Oregon has no lieutenant governor; in case the office of governor is vacated, Article V, Section 8a of the Oregon Constitution specifies that the Secretary of State is first in line for succession. The other statewide officers are Treasurer, Attorney General, and Labor Commissioner. The biennial Oregon Legislative Assembly consists of a thirty-member Senate and a sixty-member House. A debate over whether to move to annual sessions is a long-standing battle in Oregon politics, but the voters have resisted the move from citizen legislators to professional lawmakers. Because Oregon's state budget is written in two-year increments and, there being no sales tax, state revenue is based largely on income taxes, it is often significantly over or under budget. Recent legislatures have had to be called into special sessions repeatedly to address revenue shortfalls resulting from economic downturns, bringing to a head the need for more frequent legislative sessions. Oregon Initiative 71, passed in 2010, mandates the legislature to begin meeting every year, for 160 days in odd-numbered years, and 35 days in even-numbered years. The state supreme court has seven elected justices, currently including the only two openly gay state supreme court justices in the nation. They choose one of their own to serve a six-year term as Chief Justice. Ballot measures Oregon's constitution provides for ballot initiatives voted upon by the electorate in general. In the 2002 general election, Oregon voters approved a ballot measure to increase the state minimum wage automatically each year according to inflationary changes, which are measured by the consumer price index (CPI). In the 2004 general election, Oregon voters passed ballot measures banning same-sex marriage and restricting land use regulation. In the 2006 general election, voters restricted the use of eminent domain and extended the state's discount prescription drug coverage. In the 2020 general election, Oregon voters approved a ballot measure decriminalizing the possession of small quantities of street drugs such as cocaine and heroin, becoming the first state in the country to do so after the drugs were originally made illegal. The initiative has been described as a mixed success after three years of implementation, and calls for change arose. Drug overdose deaths continued to rise, in line with other states. Funds allocated to treatment and other services have apparently not increased the success of these alternate outcomes. In 2024, Governor Kotek signed a bill reversing the decriminalization component of the ballot measure while also expanding funding for drug treatment. In 2020 the state also approved a ballot measure to create a legal means of administering psilocybin for medicinal use, making it the first state in the country to legalize the drug. Federal representation Like all U.S. states, Oregon is represented by two senators. Following the 1980 census, Oregon had five congressional districts. After Oregon was admitted to the Union, it began with a single member in the House of Representatives (La Fayette Grover, who served in the 35th U.S. Congress for less than a month). Congressional apportionment increased the size of the delegation following the censuses of 1890, 1910, 1940, and 1980. Following the 2020 census, Oregon gained a sixth congressional seat. It was filled in the 2022 Congressional Elections. A detailed list of the past and present Congressional delegations from Oregon is available. The U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon hears federal cases in the state. The court has courthouses in Portland, Eugene, Medford, and Pendleton. Also in Portland is the federal bankruptcy court, with a second branch in Eugene. Oregon (among other western states and territories) is in the 9th Court of Appeals. One of the court's meeting places is at the Pioneer Courthouse in downtown Portland, a National Historic Landmark built in 1869. Politics Political opinions in Oregon are geographically split by the Cascade Range, with Western Oregon being more liberal and Eastern Oregon being conservative. In a 2008 analysis of the 2004 presidential election, a political analyst found that according to the application of a Likert scale, Oregon boasted both the most liberal Kerry voters and the most conservative Bush voters, making it the most politically polarized state in the country. The base of Democratic support is largely concentrated in the urban centers of the Willamette Valley. The eastern two-thirds of the state beyond the Cascade Mountains typically votes Republican; in 2000 and 2004, George W. Bush carried every county east of the Cascades. However, the region's sparse population means the more populous counties in the Willamette Valley usually outweigh the eastern counties in statewide elections. In 2008, for instance, Republican Senate incumbent Gordon H. Smith lost his bid for a third term, even though he carried all but eight counties. His Democratic challenger, Jeff Merkley, won Multnomah County by 142,000 votes, more than double the overall margin of victory. Oregonians have voted for the Democratic presidential candidate in every election since 1988. In 2004 and 2006, Democrats won control of the State Senate, and then the House. Since 2023, Oregon has been represented by four Democrats and two Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives. Since 2009, the state has had two Democratic U.S. senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley. Oregon voters have elected Democratic governors in every election since 1986, most recently electing Tina Kotek over Republican Christine Drazan and Independent Betsy Johnson in the 2022 gubernatorial election. During Oregon's history, it has adopted many electoral reforms proposed during the Progressive Era, through the efforts of William S. U'Ren and his Direct Legislation League. Under his leadership, the state overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure in 1902 that created the initiative and referendum for citizens to introduce or approve proposed laws or amendments to the state constitution directly, making Oregon the first state to adopt such a system. Today, roughly half of U.S. states do so. In following years, the primary election to select party candidates was adopted in 1904, and in 1908 the Oregon Constitution was amended to include recall of public officials. More recent amendments include the nation's first doctor-assisted suicide law, called the Death with Dignity Act (which was challenged, unsuccessfully, in 2005 by the Bush administration in a case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court), legalization of medical cannabis, and among the nation's strongest anti-urban sprawl and pro-environment laws. More recently, 2004's Measure 37 reflects a backlash against such land-use laws. However, a further ballot measure in 2007, Measure 49, curtailed many of the provisions of 37. Of the measures placed on the ballot since 1902, the people have passed 99 of the 288 initiatives and 25 of the 61 referendums on the ballot, though not all of them survived challenges in courts (see Pierce v. Society of Sisters, for an example). During the same period, the legislature has referred 363 measures to the people, of which 206 have passed. Oregon pioneered the American use of postal voting, beginning with experimentation approved by the Oregon Legislative Assembly in 1981 and culminating with a 1998 ballot measure mandating that all counties conduct elections by mail. It remains one of just two states, the other being Washington, where voting by mail is the only method of voting. In 1994, Oregon adopted the Oregon Health Plan, which made health care available to most of its citizens without private health insurance. Oregon is the only state that does not have a mechanism to impeach executive officeholders, including the governor. Removing an executive office holder would require a recall election. It is one of four states that requires two-thirds of members of the House and Senate be present to establish a quorum. It is one of a minority of states that does not have a lieutenant governor. The Secretary of State is the first in line of succession to replace the governor in event of a vacancy. This last occurred in 2015, when Gov. John Kitzhaber resigned amid allegation of influence peddling and Secretary of State Kate Brown became governor. Brown won a special election in 2016 to retain the position, and won a full four-year term in 2018. In the U.S. Electoral College, Oregon cast seven votes through the 2020 presidential election. Under apportionment of Congress under the 2020 U.S. census, Oregon added a sixth congressional seat. Under the Electoral College formula of votes equaling the number of U.S. House seats plus the two U.S. Senators, Oregon will cast eight votes in the 2024 election. Oregon has supported Democratic candidates in the last nine elections. Democratic incumbent Barack Obama won the state by a margin of twelve percentage points, with over 54% of the popular vote in 2012. In the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton won Oregon by 11 percentage points. In the 2020 election, Joe Biden won Oregon by 16 percentage points over his opponent, Donald Trump. In a 2020 study, Oregon was ranked as the easiest state for citizens to vote in. Oregon retains the death penalty. There is currently a gubernatorial hold on executions. Sports Oregon is home to three major professional sports teams: the Portland Trail Blazers of the NBA, the Portland Thorns FC of the NWSL and the Portland Timbers of MLS. Until 2011, the only major professional sports team in Oregon was the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association. From the 1970s to the 1990s, the Blazers were one of the most successful teams in the NBA in terms of both win–loss record and attendance. In the early 21st century, the team's popularity declined due to personnel and financial issues, but revived after the departure of controversial players and the acquisition of new players such as Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge, and still later Damian Lillard. The Blazers play in the Moda Center in Portland's Lloyd District, which also is home to the Portland Winterhawks of the junior Western Hockey League. The Portland Timbers play at Providence Park, just west of downtown Portland. The Timbers have a strong following, with the team regularly selling out its games. The Timbers repurposed the formerly multi-use stadium into a soccer-specific stadium in fall 2010, increasing the seating in the process. The Timbers operate Portland Thorns FC, a women's soccer team that has played in the National Women's Soccer League since the league's first season in 2013. The Thorns, who also play at Providence Park, have won two league championships, in the inaugural 2013 season and also in 2017, and have been by far the NWSL's attendance leader in each of the league's seasons. Eugene and Hillsboro have minor-league baseball teams: the Eugene Emeralds and the Hillsboro Hops both play in the High-A High-A West. Portland has had minor-league baseball teams in the past, including the Portland Beavers and Portland Rockies, who played most recently at Providence Park when it was known as PGE Park. Salem also previously had a Class A Short Season Northwest League team, the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes that was not included in the 2021 Minor League Baseball reorganization. The Volcanoes ownership later formed the amateur Mavericks Independent Baseball League, which is fully based in Salem. The Oregon State Beavers and the University of Oregon Ducks football teams of the Pac-12 Conference meet annually in the Oregon–Oregon State football rivalry. Both schools have had recent success in other sports as well: Oregon State won back-to-back college baseball championships in 2006 and 2007, winning a third in 2018; and the University of Oregon won back-to-back NCAA men's cross country championships in 2007 and 2008. Sister regions Fujian Province, People's Republic of China Taiwan Province, Republic of China (Taiwan) Toyama Prefecture, Japan Jeollanam-do Province, Republic of Korea (South Korea) Iraqi Kurdistan, Iraq See also Outline of Oregon (organized list of topics about Oregon) Index of Oregon-related articles Bibliography of Oregon history Notes Citations References External links Oregon at Curlie Oregon Encyclopedia Oregon State Databases at the American Library Association Government State of Oregon Oregon State Legislature Oregon Constitution Tourism and recreation TravelOregon.com an official website of the Oregon Tourism Commission Oregon State Parks Oregon State Facts from the United States Department of Agriculture History and culture Oregon Historical Society Oregon Blue Book, the online version of the state's official directory and fact book Maps and geology Real-time, geographic, and other scientific resources of Oregon Archived December 9, 2016, at the Wayback Machine from the United States Geological Survey Geographic data related to Oregon at OpenStreetMap

Yaquina Bay ( yə-KWIN-ə) is a coastal estuarine community found in Newport, Oregon. Yaquina Bay is a semi-enclosed body of water, approximately 8 km2 (3.2 mi2) in area, with free connection to the Pacific Ocean, but also diluted with freshwater from the Yaquina River land drainage. The Bay is traversed by the Yaquina Bay Bridge. There are three small communities that border the Yaquina River and Bay: Newport (population approx. 9,989), Toledo (population approx. 3,459) and Elk City (population approx. 25). The Yaquina Bay in Newport is a popular tourist destination along the Pacific Coast Highway. It is also an important estuary for the area's ecology and economy. History Yaquina Bay is named after the Yaquina Tribe that occupied the territory along the Yaquina River. With the railroad addition in the late 1880s, many thought Yaquina Bay would be the commerce center for the Pacific Northwest. Wheat, lumber, and other goods were transported to Yaquina Bay as the area began to develop. Oyster companies and other merchandise organizations began to take residence in the Bay. Exploration and settlement Indigenous peoples of the region had called Yaquina Bay home for years until the westward expansion. In 1856, the first vessel entered Yaquina Bay carrying supplies for Siletz Block-houses up the Yaquina River. The newfound Bay access promised a great deal of advantages, particularly open transportation and shipping to and from San Francisco Bay. Also in 1856, a doctor from the Willamette Valley was appointed surgeon to an Indian agency in Yaquina Bay. Following Indian trails through the Coast Range, the doctor, along with three other explorers, set out for the coast in quest for his new appointment. In 1861, Captain Spencer, from the state of Washington, first settled in Yaquina Bay. Spencer, with the assistance of a local Indian guide, discovered valuable oyster beds within the Bay, which would attract future businesses, particularly firms from San Francisco. In 1866, news spread the promises and new life Yaquina Bay had to offer, and it quickly brought a surge of settlers to the area. Newport was quickly formed and oyster companies and other industries began to take residence. The growing oyster business initiated the construction of a wagon road from Corvallis to Yaquina Bay, costing approximately $20,000 and spanning 45 miles. The road was completed in 1873 and promised continued connections between Corvallis and the coast, and even helped settlers reach their new coastal home. With the influx of residents, seasonal visitors to the area, and booming businesses, Yaquina Bay's oyster trade quickly began to decline. In 1869, a group of oystermen formed a task force with the interest of preserving oyster beds. To better the public's interest and their own, they worked diligently to restore and protect the oyster communities. Shortly after the establishment of Newport, the Yaquina Bay lighthouse began construction in 1871. However, with the establishment of the Yaquina Head lighthouse to the north, it was decommissioned in 1874. For a long time, Yaquina Bay was the midpoint between San Francisco and Seattle. With increased ship and navigation traffic into the area, the number of shipwrecks increased rapidly. Past uses Historical uses of Yaquina Bay include commercial oyster farming and fishing, recreational clamming, and shipping and navigation. Logging practices also occurred in the Yaquina Bay estuary from the 1920s to the 1980s. Economy Yaquina Bay and its watershed have multiple uses, including fishing, tourism, recreation, and research. As of 2014, the highest percentage of the Newport workforce is employed in management, business, science, and arts (36.7%), while only 8.9% are employed in natural resources, construction, and maintenance. Agriculture is a small percentage of the economy in Lincoln County, but has increased in the past ten years. While timber harvesting has been a historic contributor to the economy, this industry has since decreased. Employment had declined by 82% between about 1980 and 2000. Fisheries and aquaculture In 2015, Pacific Whiting, or North Pacific Hake, was the largest source of fish caught by commercial fisheries from Newport, OR, while Pink Shrimp brought in the greatest dollar amount. As of 2015, the value of commercial fisheries out of Newport totals approximately $33,221,009. Recreational fishing also occurs in Yaquina Bay, with perch, rockfish, herring, chinook salmon, clams, and crabs being the popular catch. Aquaculture of oysters also occurs in Yaquina Bay, totaling 1,172 pounds in 2012. Recreation and tourism Yaquina Bay Harbor houses commercial and recreational fishing vessels, other recreational boats, government vessels, and research vessels. Tourism represents a substantial contributor to the county economy, accounting for $133.8 million in industry income in 2012. Some tourist destinations include South Beach State Park, Yaquina Bay State Recreation Site, the Oregon Coast Aquarium, restaurants, shops, and attractions on the Bayfront, and Hatfield Marine Science Center. Physical geography Physical characteristics Yaquina Bay is a characteristic estuary, with freshwater input from the Yaquina River as well as an open access to the Pacific Ocean introducing ocean saltwater. Yaquina Bay is maintained at 6.7 m (22 ft) in depth with the help of dredging, but depth decreases upstream with the occurrence of shoals, tidal flats, and other shallow zones. The estuary is about 11.6 km2 at mean tide and can decrease to 9.1 km2 at mean low tide. The North and South Yaquina Jetties, at the junction between the Pacific Ocean and Yaquina Bay, were constructed in 1888. Predictions of tidal height and times are based on National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data with respect to Hatfield Marine Science Center's Center Dock. Yaquina Bay's high and low tidal range is approximately 2.4 m (7.9 ft). Tidal flux is typically vigorous and allows intense mixing near the mouth of the Bay. However, there is seasonal variation on mixing within the estuary. During the summer and early months, June to October, the estuary is well-mixed contrasted to the winter months, November to May, when the estuary is more stratified. Due to the variation in tides and mixing, the salinity changes drastically depending on location within the Bay. Average salinity at the mouth of the Bay is 34 psu, whereas the salinity upriver is 0. The Yaquina River is 95 km (59 mi) long, beginning at the Central Oregon Coast Range, rounding past multiple bordered cities, and eventually opening up into Yaquina Bay. The river provides nutrients for the Bay and supports a variety of biology. Sediments and deposition Sediments that are found within Yaquina Bay are derived from tertiary rocks from the Central Oregon Coast Range, Pleistocene marine sediments and estuarine deposits. These sediments have three realms of deposition; marine deposition, fluviatile, and an intermediate transition state called marine-fluviatile. Marine deposition is found within the initial 2.4 km (1.5 mi) of the estuary and is associated with average ocean salinity and turbulent mixing. The sediment is similar in texture to sand and other fine grains. Fluviatile deposition extends from the point of freshwater input up to 9.7 km (6 mi) into the Bay, with its sediments more coarse. The transition stage between these two realms contains sediment mixes from the marine and fluviatile areas. The last recorded rate of sediment deposition was in 1936, with a recorded estimate of 23 cm (9.1 in) annually. However, deposition is subject to seasonal variations. Maximum deposition takes place in the winter and early spring when river runoff is highest due to increased rain, when the longshore drift is coming from the south, and when winds are from the southwest. In the summer, deposition is low because of lower runoff, southward longshore drift and northwest winds. Turbulent mixing within the estuary increases the amount of suspended sediment and therefore increases the turbidity within Yaquina Bay. Turbidity has been found to be most prominent when river runoff is low, typically during the summer. Chlorophyll concentrations and other measurements of water chemistry (see Chemistry section below) verify these observations. Geology Yaquina Bay was formed roughly 2.2 million years ago in the Oligocene Epoch of the Cenozoic Era. Increased sedimentation and subsidence contributed to formation of Yaquina Bay. Sedimentary rocks in this area are mainly "sandstone, siltstone and clay-containing mudstone", as indicated in geological samples from the sediments. The oldest rocks found in the Coast Range and in Yaquina Bay date back to Paleocene and Eocene Epochs, about 40-60 million years ago. The seafloor to the west of Oregon is continually spreading and there is evidence of subduction taking place along the coast of Oregon and Washington. Biology Yaquina Bay comprises several different habitats that provide resources for many species. These habitats include intertidal eelgrass beds, mudflats, and sandflats, and subtidal areas. Mudflats and sandflats are typically covered by water during high tide and exposed to air during low tide, while subtidal areas are covered by water almost all of the time. Life in Yaquina Bay Beds of native eelgrass (Zostera marina) and beds of invasive eelgrass (Zostera japonica) grow separately and provide a distinct habitat for certain organisms. Birds, including gulls, ducks, shorebirds, crows, geese, egrets, rails, pelicans and cormorants are present in Yaquina Bay using the eelgrass and mudflats as habitats. Mud shrimp also live in mudflats, and they play an important role in nutrient cycling within the estuary. Burrows in the mud made by mud shrimp pump oxygen deeper into the sediment, which makes it available for microbes to use. Mud shrimp activity has also been shown to increase the movement of carbon and dissolved inorganic nitrogen in and out of the mud. Some species of diatoms, a type of phytoplankton, can be found on the sediments of Yaquina Bay wetlands. These diatoms are also important in nutrient cycling within the estuary. Another type of estuary habitat is formed by native Olympia oysters (Ostrea lurida). These are historically abundant in Yaquina Bay, and in addition to creating hard surfaces in the estuary, oysters also filter the bay water and provide food for local people. In fact, settlement on the mouth of Yaquina Bay is attributed in part to the oyster fishery. In subtidal areas, marine mammals such as harbor seals and California sea lions are sometimes present in Yaquina Bay. Sea lions in the estuary are mostly male. They move through the estuary, but spend a lot of time near the Bayfront or hauled out on docks, perhaps due to the additional food or safety. Some fish species present in Yaquina Bay include English sole and sculpin, in addition to river lamprey, lingcod, anchovies, Pacific herring, sturgeon, flounder, and salmon. Clams and Dungeness crabs are also present within the bay and make up a resource for recreational fishers. The estuary as a nursery Yaquina Bay has been shown to be a site for spawning and development of many species. Pacific Herring and bay goby larvae are abundant, but other larval fishes such as sculpin, anchovy, smelt, clingfishes, cod, stickleback, pipefish, prickleback, gunnels, sandlance, rockfish, greenlings, lumpfish, and flounder are present in the estuary. Although there are larval fish present in the estuary, the Pacific herring was found to be the only commercial species that relies on the estuary for spawning and development. Yaquina Bay also provides a nursery environment for English sole. Multiple species of juvenile salmon, including chum, coho, and chinook, also pass through Yaquina Bay during their life cycle, often transitioning from shallower to deeper waters as they grow. Chemistry of Yaquina Bay The Yaquina Bay estuarine chemistry is influenced by daily tides, river sediment input, summer upwelling along the coast, and biological processes. Tides Yaquina Bay experiences mixed semidiurnal tides, ranging from 1.9 to 2.5 m (6.2-8.2 ft) daily. The influx of water from the ocean changes the salinity of the estuary, creating a salt intrusion that has been estimated to reach as far as 21.8 km (13.5 mi) upriver. Daily tidal changes affect estuary mixing and stratification. Flood tides coming from the ocean bring coastal nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus into the estuary. During mixing events, the Yaquina Bay estuary experiences changes in gradients for salinity, concentration of chemical species, and suspended sediment, which in turn influences biological productivity. The Yaquina Bay estuary has high primary productivity throughout the year due to high dissolved oxygen concentrations and cool water temperature from tidal flushing. Nutrients Silicon Sediment input from the Yaquina River contributes to the Yaquina Bay estuary chemistry, varying with seasonal rainfall. In the winter, when there is higher rainfall and therefore more input from the river, siliceous diatoms are more abundant and have higher species diversity. This is contrasted with fewer diatom species in seasons when there is less rainfall. Rocks are mostly made of silica and when land weathering takes place, rocks are broken down into their smaller silica components. With increased rainfall and sediment transport, this weathering provides a source of silica for diatoms in Yaquina Bay. The upstream Yaquina River source material is more quartz dominated (more silica) than downstream source material. Some of the heavy minerals upstream include micas (biotite and muscovite made of potassium, aluminum, and silica), hematite (iron), and limonite (iron oxides). Near the coastal shoreline and mouth of the Yaquina Bay estuary, the sand grains are mostly feldspars and chert (silica), and volcanic fragments (most likely high in silica, potassium, aluminum, sodium, and calcium). In nearshore marine deposit sediment, the source material is less quartz (less silica) compared to upriver sources; heavy minerals include pyroxene (a group of silicate minerals), hypersthene (magnesium iron silica), and diopside (magnesium calcium silica). Carbon Organic carbon concentrations of the Yaquina Bay estuary vary depending on depth. Concentrations are lowest in the channel (<0.2%) and highest in shallower sediments, particularly from samples collected at tidal flats (2.7%). About 1-7% of sand in the Yaquina Bay estuary is made of carbonates like mollusk shell fragments and foraminifera. Carbonate concentrations are higher in the bay channel (5%) and decrease towards the bay margin (3%). Nitrogen Major nitrogen sources for the Yaquina Bay estuary change with season. During drier seasons, the ocean is the major nitrogen source while the river is the major source in wetter seasons, where river discharge can be up to five times higher than drier seasons. Samples taken at the surface with varying salinities showed dissolved inorganic nitrogen is found mostly at the two salinity extremes; the mouth of the estuary and up the Yaquina River. The input at the mouth of Yaquina Bay indicates input from upwelled waters during the summer season. The nutrient flux into the estuary is enough to sustain primary productivity during the summer months. Phosphorus Phosphorus is generally a limiting nutrient in the ocean. In Pacific Northwest estuaries, an important source of phosphorus comes from ocean upwelling in the summer (see below). Samples taken at the surface with varying salinities showed dissolved inorganic phosphorus more prevalent in areas with higher salinities compared to lower, thus indicating the ocean as the source for this system. Oxygen Dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration is an important water quality parameter because of its close relationship with biological activity. In the Yaquina Bay estuary, DO levels may be lower and almost hypoxic due to low DO levels with coastal upwelled water imported into the estuary. DO levels of imported ocean water are dependent on physical factors (wind stress and cool water temperature) and biological factors (association with chlorophyll a and respiration). Ocean influence of DO levels in the estuary extends to about 10 km (6.2 mi) upriver. In the upper estuary beyond ocean influence, DO levels decrease with increasing temperature. Chlorophyll a Chlorophyll a (Chl a) concentrations vary seasonally with ocean water import, particularly during summer upwelling. Variation of Chl a also depends on the timing of summer upwelling each year, where upwelling could occur earlier or be delayed. Oregon estuaries typically have low median Chl a levels, about less than 5 micrograms per liter of water. When high concentrations of Chl a are advected into the estuary, there is also an increase in flood tide DO levels. Upwelling Summer upwelling along the Oregon coast brings nutrients from deep waters up into the Yaquina Bay estuary. This event, along with decreased rain and river input, and increased light, all contribute to the seasonal chemistry variability in the Bay. Environment Coastal hazards As with any coastal zone, there are inherent hazards present. Especially in the Pacific Northwest, coastlines are impacted by large waves, storm surge, strong currents, wind, and rain. Yaquina Bay is seasonally affected by these impacts, with winter typically the most intense period. Storms and rain increase, which leads to more land runoff and also causes waves and currents to reshape the coastline. Erosion is a challenge for Yaquina Bay and the entire Oregon Coast. Yaquina Bay's sediments are made up of sandstone, siltstone and clay-containing mudstone and these soft sediments contribute to annual erosion. Waves, however, are the main proponent of erosion. Waves are parallel to the beach and as wind increases, energy is enhanced and height grows, causing a devastating effect on beaches. Also, as currents run along the coast, they move sand causing either addition or depletion of sand in some areas. This has been evident around the Yaquina Jetty. With longshore drift increased during the winter, sand is deposited and dramatically built up in this area. In 2002, researchers, stakeholders, and policy makers organized a vulnerability assessment to assess the current state of the coast in respect to future hazards occurring. They included Yaquina Bay in their case study, as this area is heavily influenced by tourism, businesses, industries, vessels, to name a few. The assessment was able to address areas of concern and helped businesses and industries by highlighting ways to adapt to the changing conditions to prevent future damage. See also Hatfield Marine Science Center Steamboats of Yaquina Bay and Yaquina River Yaquina Bay Bridge Yaquina Bay State Recreation Site References External links Yaquina Bay State Recreation Site at Oregon.gov

Consider the following three people: 1. Edmund, who turned 10 on the day of the Battle of Hastings 2. Edward, who turned 12 on the day that Guy Fawkes was executed 3. Eddie, who turned 14 on the day of the London 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony Who would be oldest: Edmund on the day King Henry I of England died, Edward on the day of the Battle of Naseby, or Eddie on the day Liz Truss announced her resignation as Conservative Party leader?

Edmund

Numerical reasoning | Temporal reasoning

The Battle of Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066 between the Norman-French army of William, Duke of Normandy, and an English army under the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson, beginning the Norman Conquest of England. It took place approximately 7 mi (11 km) northwest of Hastings, close to the present-day town of Battle, East Sussex, and was a decisive Norman victory. The background to the battle was the death of the childless King Edward the Confessor in January 1066, which set up a succession struggle between several claimants to his throne. Harold was crowned king shortly after Edward's death, but faced invasions by William, his own brother Tostig, and the Norwegian King Harald Hardrada (Harold III of Norway). Hardrada and Tostig defeated a hastily gathered army of Englishmen at the Battle of Fulford on 20 September 1066, and were in turn defeated by Harold at the Battle of Stamford Bridge five days later. The deaths of Tostig and Hardrada at Stamford Bridge left William as Harold's only serious opponent. While Harold and his forces were recovering, William landed his invasion forces in the south of England at Pevensey on 28 September 1066 and established a beachhead for his conquest of the kingdom. Harold was forced to march south swiftly, gathering forces as he went. The exact numbers present at the battle are unknown as even modern estimates vary considerably. The composition of the forces is clearer: the English army was composed almost entirely of infantry and had few archers, whereas only about half of the invading force was infantry, the rest split equally between cavalry and archers. Harold appears to have tried to surprise William, but scouts found his army and reported its arrival to William, who marched from Hastings to the battlefield to confront Harold. The battle lasted from about 9 am to dusk. Early efforts of the invaders to break the English battle lines had little effect. Therefore, the Normans adopted the tactic of pretending to flee in panic and then turning on their pursuers. Harold's death, probably near the end of the battle, led to the retreat and defeat of most of his army. After further marching and some skirmishes, William was crowned as king on Christmas Day 1066. There continued to be rebellions and resistance to William's rule, but Hastings effectively marked the culmination of William's conquest of England. Casualty figures are hard to come by, but some historians estimate that 2,000 invaders died along with about twice that number of Englishmen. William founded a monastery at the site of the battle, the high altar of the abbey church supposedly placed at the spot where Harold died. Background In 911, the Carolingian ruler Charles the Simple allowed a group of Vikings to settle in Normandy under their leader Rollo. Their settlement proved successful, and they quickly adapted to the indigenous culture, renouncing paganism, converting to Christianity, and intermarrying with the local population. Over time, the frontiers of the duchy expanded to the west. In 1002, King Æthelred II married Emma, the sister of Richard II, Duke of Normandy. Their son Edward the Confessor spent many years in exile in Normandy, and succeeded to the English throne in 1042. This led to the establishment of a powerful Norman interest in English politics, as Edward drew heavily on his former hosts for support, bringing in Norman courtiers, soldiers, and clerics and appointing them to positions of power, particularly in the Church. Edward was childless and embroiled in conflict with the formidable Godwin, Earl of Wessex, and his sons, and he may also have encouraged Duke William of Normandy's ambitions for the English throne. Succession crisis in England King Edward's death on 5 January 1066 left no clear heir, and several contenders laid claim to the throne of England. Edward's immediate successor was the Earl of Wessex, Harold Godwinson, the richest and most powerful of the English aristocrats and son of Godwin, Edward's earlier opponent. Harold was elected king by the Witenagemot of England and crowned by Ealdred, the Archbishop of York, although Norman propaganda claimed that the ceremony was performed by Stigand, the uncanonically elected Archbishop of Canterbury. Harold was at once challenged by two powerful neighbouring rulers. Duke William claimed that he had been promised the throne by King Edward and that Harold had sworn agreement to this. Harald Hardrada of Norway also contested the succession. His claim to the throne was based on an agreement between his predecessor Magnus the Good and the earlier King of England Harthacnut, whereby, if either died without heir, the other would inherit both England and Norway. William and Harald Hardrada immediately set about assembling troops and ships for separate invasions. Tostig and Hardrada's invasions In early 1066, Harold's exiled brother Tostig Godwinson raided southeastern England with a fleet he had recruited in Flanders, later joined by other ships from Orkney. Threatened by Harold's fleet, Tostig moved north and raided in East Anglia and Lincolnshire. He was driven back to his ships by the brothers Edwin, Earl of Mercia and Morcar, Earl of Northumbria. Deserted by most of his followers, he withdrew to Scotland, where he spent the middle of the year recruiting fresh forces. Hardrada invaded northern England in early September, leading a fleet of more than 300 ships carrying perhaps 15,000 men. Hardrada's army was further augmented by the forces of Tostig, who supported the Norwegian king's bid for the throne. Advancing on York, the Norwegians occupied the city after defeating a northern English army under Edwin and Morcar on 20 September at the Battle of Fulford. English army and Harold's preparations The English army was organised along regional lines, with the fyrd, or local levy, serving under a local magnate – whether an earl, bishop, or sheriff. The fyrd was composed of men who owned their own land, and were equipped by their community to fulfil the king's demands for military forces. For every five hides, or units of land nominally capable of supporting one household, one man was supposed to serve. It appears that the hundred was the main organising unit for the fyrd. As a whole, England could furnish about 14,000 men for the fyrd, when it was called out. The fyrd usually served for two months, except in emergencies. It was rare for the whole national fyrd to be called out; between 1046 and 1065 it was only done three times, in 1051, 1052, and 1065. The king also had a group of personal armsmen, known as housecarls, who formed the backbone of the royal forces. Some earls also had their own forces of housecarls. Thegns, the local landowning elites, either fought with the royal housecarls or attached themselves to the forces of an earl or other magnate. The fyrd and the housecarls both fought on foot, with the major difference between them being the housecarls' superior armour. The English army does not appear to have had a significant number of archers. Harold had spent mid-1066 on the south coast with a large army and fleet waiting for William to invade. The bulk of his forces were militia who needed to harvest their crops, so on 8 September Harold dismissed the militia and the fleet. Learning of the Norwegian invasion he rushed north, gathering forces as he went, and took the Norwegians by surprise, defeating them at the Battle of Stamford Bridge on 25 September. Harald Hardrada and Tostig were killed, and the Norwegians suffered such great losses that only 24 of the original 300 ships were required to carry away the survivors. The English victory came at great cost, as Harold's army was left in a battered and weakened state, and far from the south. William's preparations and landing William assembled a large invasion fleet and an army gathered from Normandy and the rest of France, including large contingents from Brittany and Flanders. He spent almost nine months on his preparations, as he had to construct a fleet from nothing. According to some Norman chronicles, he also secured diplomatic support, although the accuracy of the reports has been a matter of historical debate. The most famous claim is that Pope Alexander II gave a papal banner as a token of support, which only appears in William of Poitiers's account, and not in more contemporary narratives. In April 1066 Halley's Comet appeared in the sky, and was widely reported throughout Europe. Contemporary accounts connected the comet's appearance with the succession crisis in England. William mustered his forces at Saint-Valery-sur-Somme, and was ready to cross the English Channel by about 12 August. But the crossing was delayed, either because of unfavourable weather or to avoid being intercepted by the powerful English fleet. The Normans crossed to England a few days after Harold's victory over the Norwegians, following the dispersal of Harold's naval force, and landed at Pevensey in Sussex on 28 September. A few ships were blown off course and landed at Romney, where the Normans fought the local fyrd. After landing, William's forces built a wooden castle at Hastings, from which they raided the surrounding area. More fortifications were erected at Pevensey. Norman forces at Hastings The exact numbers and composition of William's force are unknown. A contemporary document claims that William had 776 ships, but this may be an inflated figure. Figures given by contemporary writers for the size of the army are highly exaggerated, varying from 14,000 to 150,000. Modern historians have offered a range of estimates for the size of William's forces: 7,000–8,000 men including 1,000–2,000 cavalry; 10,000–12,000 men; 10,000 men including 3,000 cavalry; or 7,500 men. The army consisted of about one half infantry, one quarter cavalry, and one quarter archers or crossbowmen. Later lists of companions of William the Conqueror are extant, but most are padded with extra names; only about 35 named individuals can be reliably identified as having been with William at Hastings. The main armour was chainmail hauberks, usually knee-length, with slits to allow riding, some with sleeves to the elbows. Some hauberks may have been made of scales attached to a tunic, with the scales made of metal, horn or hardened leather. Headgear was usually a conical metal helmet with a vertical band guarding the bridge of the nose. Horsemen and infantry carried shields. The infantryman's shield was usually round and made of wood with metal reinforcement. Horsemen changed to a kite-shaped shield and were usually armed with a lance. The couched lance, carried tucked against the body under the right arm, was relatively new and probably not used at Hastings, as the terrain was unfavourable for long cavalry charges. Both infantry and cavalry usually fought with a straight sword, long and double-edged. The infantry could also use javelins and long spears. Some of the cavalry may have used a mace instead of a sword. Archers would have used a self bow or a crossbow, and most would not have had armour. Harold moves south After defeating his brother Tostig and Harald Hardrada in the north, Harold left much of his forces in the north, including Morcar and Edwin, and marched the rest of his army south to deal with the threatened Norman invasion. It is unclear when Harold learned of William's landing, but it was probably during the march. Harold stopped in London for about a week before Hastings, so it is likely that he spent about a week on his march south, averaging about 27 mi (43 km) per day, for the approximately 200 mi (320 km). Harold camped at Caldbec Hill on the night of 13 October, near a "hoar-apple tree", about 8 mi (13 km) from William's castle at Hastings. Some of the early contemporary French accounts mention an emissary or emissaries sent by Harold to William, which is likely, though nothing came of it. Although Harold attempted to surprise the Normans, William's scouts reported the English arrival to the duke. The exact events preceding the battle are obscure, with contradictory accounts in the sources, but all agree that William's army advanced from his castle towards the enemy. Harold had taken a defensive position at the top of Senlac Hill (present-day Battle, East Sussex), about 6 mi (9.7 km) from William's castle at Hastings. English forces at Hastings The exact number of soldiers in Harold's army at Hastings is unknown, as contemporary records do not give reliable figures. Some Norman sources give 400,000 to 1,200,000 on Harold's side, while English sources seem to underestimate Harold's army, perhaps to make the English defeat seem less devastating. Recent historians have suggested figures of between 5,000 and 13,000, while most argue for a figure of 7,000–8,000 English troops. These men would have been a mix of the fyrd and housecarls. Few individual Englishmen are known to have been present; about 20 named individuals can reasonably be assumed to have fought with Harold at Hastings, including Harold's brothers Gyrth and Leofwine and two other relatives. The English army consisted entirely of infantry. It is possible that some of the higher-class members of the army rode to battle, but then dismounted when battle was joined to fight on foot. The core of the army was made up of housecarls, full-time professional soldiers. Their armour consisted of a conical helmet, a mail hauberk, and a shield, which might be either kite-shaped or round. Most housecarls fought with the two-handed Danish battleaxe, but they could also carry a sword. The rest of the army was made up of levies from the fyrd, also infantry but more lightly armoured and not professionals. Most of the infantry would have formed part of the shield wall, in which the front ranks locked their shields together. Behind them would have been axemen and javelins as well as archers. Battle Background and location Because many of the primary accounts contradict each other at times, it is impossible to provide an authoritative description of the battle. The only undisputed facts are that fighting began at 9 am Saturday 14 October 1066 and that the battle lasted until dusk. Sunset on the day of the battle was at 4:54 pm, with the battlefield mostly dark by 5:54 pm and in full darkness by 6:24 pm. Moonrise that night was not until 11:12 pm, so once the sun set, there was little light on the battlefield. William of Jumièges reports that Duke William kept his army armed and ready against a surprise attack for the entire night before. The battle took place 7 mi (11 km) north of Hastings at the present-day town of Battle, between two hills – Caldbec Hill to the north and Telham Hill to the south. The area was heavily wooded, with a marsh nearby. The name traditionally given to the battle is unusual – there were several settlements much closer to the battlefield than Hastings. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle called it the battle "at the hoary apple tree". Within 40 years, the battle was described by the Anglo-Norman chronicler Orderic Vitalis as "Senlac", a Norman-French adaptation of the Old English word "Sandlacu", which means "sandy water". This may have been the name of the stream that crosses the battlefield. The battle was already being referred to as "bellum Haestingas" or "Battle of Hastings" by 1086, in the Domesday Book. The sun rose at 6:48 am that morning, with the day unusually bright. The weather conditions are not recorded. The precise route of the English army southward to the battlefield is not known. Several roads are possible: one, an old Roman road that ran from Rochester to Hastings has long been favoured because of a large coin hoard found nearby in 1876. Another possibility is the Roman road between London and Lewes and then over local tracks to the battlefield. Some accounts of the battle indicate that the Normans advanced from Hastings to the battlefield, but the contemporary account of William of Jumièges places the Normans at the site of the battle the night before. Most historians incline towards the former view, but M. K. Lawson argues that William of Jumièges's account is correct. Dispositions of forces and tactics Harold's forces deployed in a small, dense formation at the top of a steep slope, with their flanks protected by woods and marshy ground in front of them. The line may have extended far enough to be anchored on a nearby stream. The English formed a shield wall, with the front ranks holding their shields close together or even overlapping to provide protection from attack. Sources differ on the exact site that the English fought on: some sources state the site of the abbey, but some newer sources suggest it was Caldbec Hill. More is known about the Norman deployment. Duke William appears to have arranged his forces in three groups, or "battles", which roughly corresponded to their origins. The left units were the Bretons, along with those from Anjou, Poitou and Maine. This division was led by Alan the Red, a relative of the Breton count. The centre was held by the Normans, under the direct command of the duke and with many of his relatives and kinsmen grouped around the ducal party. The final division, on the right, consisted of the Frenchmen, along with some men from Picardy, Boulogne, and Flanders. The right was commanded by William fitzOsbern and Count Eustace II of Boulogne. The front lines were made up of archers, with a line of foot soldiers armed with spears behind. There were probably a few crossbowmen and slingers in with the archers. The cavalry was held in reserve, and a small group of clergymen and servants situated at the base of Telham Hill was not expected to take part in the fighting. William's disposition of his forces implies that he planned to open the battle with archers in the front rank weakening the enemy with arrows, followed by infantry who would engage in close combat. The infantry would create openings in the English lines that could be exploited by a cavalry charge to break through the English forces and pursue the fleeing soldiers. Beginning of the battle The battle opened with the Norman archers shooting uphill at the English shield wall, to little effect. The uphill angle meant that the arrows either bounced off the shields of the English or overshot their targets and flew over the top of the hill. The lack of English archers hampered the Norman archers, as there were few English arrows to be gathered up and reused. After the attack from the archers, William sent the spearmen forward to attack the English. They were met with a barrage of missiles, not arrows but spears, axes and stones. The infantry was unable to force openings in the shield wall, and the cavalry advanced in support. The cavalry also failed to make headway, and a general retreat began, blamed on the Breton division on William's left. A rumour started that the duke had been killed, which added to the confusion. The English forces began to pursue the fleeing invaders, but William rode through his forces, showing his face and yelling that he was still alive. The duke then led a counter-attack against the pursuing English forces; some of the English rallied on a hillock before being overwhelmed. It is not known whether the English pursuit was ordered by Harold or if it was spontaneous. Wace relates that Harold ordered his men to stay in their formations but no other account gives this detail. The Bayeux Tapestry depicts the death of Harold's brothers Gyrth and Leofwine occurring just before the fight around the hillock. This may mean that the two brothers led the pursuit. The Carmen de Hastingae Proelio relates a different story for the death of Gyrth, stating that the duke slew Harold's brother in combat, perhaps thinking that Gyrth was Harold. William of Poitiers states that the bodies of Gyrth and Leofwine were found near Harold's, implying that they died late in the battle. It is possible that if the two brothers died early in the fighting their bodies were taken to Harold, thus accounting for their being found near his body after the battle. The military historian Peter Marren speculates that if Gyrth and Leofwine died early in the battle, that may have influenced Harold to stand and fight to the end. Feigned flights A lull probably occurred early in the afternoon, and a break for rest and food would probably have been needed. William may have also needed time to implement a new strategy, which may have been inspired by the English pursuit and subsequent rout by the Normans. If the Normans could send their cavalry against the shield wall and then draw the English into more pursuits, breaks in the English line might form. William of Poitiers says the tactic was used twice. Although arguments have been made that the chroniclers' accounts of this tactic were meant to excuse the flight of the Norman troops from battle, this is unlikely as the earlier flight was not glossed over. It was a tactic used by other Norman armies during the period. Some historians have argued that the story of the use of feigned flight as a deliberate tactic was invented after the battle; however most historians agree that it was used by the Normans at Hastings. Although the feigned flights did not break the lines, they probably thinned out the housecarls in the English shield wall. The housecarls were replaced with members of the fyrd, and the shield wall held. Archers appear to have been used again before and during an assault by the cavalry and infantry led by the duke. Although 12th-century sources state that the archers were ordered to shoot at a high angle to shoot over the front of the shield wall, there is no trace of such an action in the more contemporary accounts. It is not known how many assaults were launched against the English lines, but some sources record various actions by both Normans and Englishmen that took place during the afternoon's fighting. The Carmen claims that Duke William had two horses killed under him during the fighting, but William of Poitiers's account states that it was three. Death of Harold Harold appears to have died late in the battle, although accounts in the various sources are contradictory. William of Poitiers only mentions his death, without giving any details on how it occurred. The Tapestry is not helpful, as it shows a figure holding an arrow sticking out of his eye next to a falling fighter being hit with a sword. Over both figures is a statement "Here King Harold has been killed". It is not clear which figure is meant to be Harold, or if both are meant. The earliest written mention of the traditional account of Harold dying from an arrow to the eye dates to the 1080s from a history of the Normans written by an Italian monk, Amatus of Montecassino. William of Malmesbury stated that Harold died from an arrow to the eye that went into the brain, and that a knight wounded Harold at the same time. Wace repeats the arrow-to-the-eye account. The Carmen states that Duke William killed Harold, but this is unlikely, as such a feat would have been recorded elsewhere. The account of William of Jumièges is even more unlikely, as it has Harold dying in the morning, during the first fighting. The Chronicle of Battle Abbey states that no one knew who killed Harold, as it happened in the press of battle. A modern biographer of Harold, Ian Walker, states that Harold probably died from an arrow in the eye, although he also says it is possible that Harold was struck down by a Norman knight while mortally wounded in the eye. Another biographer of Harold, Peter Rex, after discussing the various accounts, concludes that it is not possible to declare how Harold died. Harold's death left the English forces leaderless, and they began to collapse. Many of them fled, but the soldiers of the royal household gathered around Harold's body and fought to the end. The Normans began to pursue the fleeing troops, and except for a rearguard action at a site known as the "Malfosse", the battle was over. Exactly what happened at the Malfosse, or "Evil Ditch", and where it took place, is unclear. It occurred at a small fortification or set of trenches where some Englishmen rallied and seriously wounded Eustace of Boulogne before being defeated by the Normans. Reasons for the outcome Harold's defeat was probably due to several circumstances. One was the need to defend against two almost simultaneous invasions. The fact that Harold had dismissed his forces in southern England on 8 September also contributed to the defeat. Many historians fault Harold for hurrying south and not gathering more forces before confronting William at Hastings, although it is not clear that the English forces were insufficient to deal with William's forces. Against these arguments for an exhausted English army, the length of the battle, which lasted an entire day, shows that the English forces were not tired by their long march. Tied in with the speed of Harold's advance to Hastings is the possibility Harold may not have trusted Earls Edwin of Mercia and Morcar of Northumbria once their enemy Tostig had been defeated, and declined to bring them and their forces south. Modern historians have pointed out that one reason for Harold's rush to battle was to contain William's depredations and keep him from breaking free of his beachhead. Most of the blame for the defeat probably lies in the events of the battle. William was the more experienced military leader, and in addition the lack of cavalry on the English side allowed Harold fewer tactical options. Some writers have criticised Harold for not exploiting the opportunity offered by the rumoured death of William early in the battle. The English appear to have erred in not staying strictly on the defensive, for when they pursued the retreating Normans they exposed their flanks to attack. Whether this was due to the inexperience of the English commanders or the indiscipline of the English soldiers is unclear. In the end, Harold's death appears to have been decisive, as it signalled the break-up of the English forces in disarray. The historian David Nicolle said of the battle that William's army "demonstrated – not without difficulty – the superiority of Norman-French mixed cavalry and infantry tactics over the Germanic-Scandinavian infantry traditions of the Anglo-Saxons." Aftermath The day after the battle, Harold's body was identified, either by his armour or by marks on his body. His personal standard was presented to William, and later sent to the papacy. The bodies of the English dead, including some of Harold's brothers and housecarls, were left on the battlefield, although some were removed by relatives later. The Norman dead were buried in a large communal grave, which has not been found. Exact casualty figures are unknown. Of the Englishmen known to be at the battle, the number of dead implies that the death rate was about 50 per cent of those engaged, although this may be too high. Of the named Normans who fought at Hastings, one in seven is stated to have died, but these were all noblemen, and it is probable that the death rate among the common soldiers was higher. Although Orderic Vitalis's figures are highly exaggerated, his ratio of one in four casualties may be accurate. Marren speculates that perhaps 2,000 Normans and 4,000 Englishmen were killed at Hastings. Reports stated that some of the English dead were still being found on the hillside years later. Although scholars thought for a long time that remains would not be recoverable, due to the acidic soil, recent finds have changed this view. One skeleton that was found in a medieval cemetery, and originally was thought to be associated with the 13th century Battle of Lewes, now is thought to be associated with Hastings instead. One story relates that Gytha, Harold's mother, offered the victorious duke the weight of her son's body in gold for its custody, but was refused. William ordered that Harold's body be thrown into the sea, but whether that took place is unclear. Another story relates that Harold was buried at the top of a cliff. Waltham Abbey, which had been founded by Harold, later claimed that his body had been secretly buried there. Other legends claimed that Harold did not die at Hastings, but escaped and became a hermit at Chester. William expected to receive the submission of the surviving English leaders after his victory, but instead Edgar the Ætheling was proclaimed king by the Witenagemot, with the support of Earls Edwin and Morcar, Stigand, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Ealdred, the Archbishop of York. William therefore advanced on London, marching around the coast of Kent. He defeated an English force that attacked him at Southwark but was unable to storm London Bridge, forcing him to reach the capital by a more circuitous route. William moved up the Thames valley to cross the river at Wallingford, where he received the submission of Stigand. He then travelled north-east along the Chilterns, before advancing towards London from the north-west, fighting further engagements against forces from the city. The English leaders surrendered to William at Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. William was acclaimed King of England and crowned by Ealdred on 25 December 1066, in Westminster Abbey. Despite the submission of the English nobles, resistance continued for several years. There were rebellions in Exeter in late 1067, an invasion by Harold's sons in mid-1068, and an uprising in Northumbria in 1068. In 1069 William faced more troubles from Northumbrian rebels, an invading Danish fleet, and rebellions in the south and west of England. He ruthlessly put down the various risings, culminating in the Harrying of the North in late 1069 and early 1070 that devastated parts of northern England. A further rebellion in 1070 by Hereward the Wake was also defeated by the king, at Ely. Battle Abbey was founded by William at the site of the battle. According to 12th-century sources, William made a vow to found the abbey, and the high altar of the church was placed at the site where Harold had died. More likely, the foundation was imposed on William by papal legates in 1070. The topography of the battlefield has been altered by subsequent construction work for the abbey, and the slope defended by the English is now much less steep than it was at the time of the battle; the top of the ridge has also been built up and levelled. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the abbey's lands passed to secular landowners, who used it as a residence or country house. In 1976 the estate was put up for sale and purchased by the government with the aid of some American donors who wished to honour the 200th anniversary of American independence. The battlefield and abbey grounds are currently owned and administered by English Heritage and are open to the public. The Bayeux Tapestry is an embroidered narrative of the events leading up to Hastings probably commissioned by Odo of Bayeux soon after the battle, perhaps to hang at the bishop's palace at Bayeux. In modern times annual reenactments of the Battle of Hastings have drawn thousands of participants and spectators to the site of the original battle. Some English veterans of the battle left England and joined the Varangian Guard in Constantinople. They fought the Normans again at the Battle of Dyrrhachium in 1081, and were defeated again in similar circumstances. See also Ermenfrid Penitential Notes Citations References External links Official English Heritage site Origins of the conflict, the battle itself and its aftermath, BBC History website

Guy Fawkes (; 13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes while fighting for the Spanish, was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics involved in the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. He was born and educated in York; his father died when Fawkes was eight years old, after which his mother married a recusant Catholic. Fawkes converted to Catholicism and left for mainland Europe, where he fought for Catholic Spain in the Eighty Years' War against Protestant Dutch reformers in the Low Countries. He travelled to Spain to seek support for a Catholic rebellion in England without success. He later met Thomas Wintour, with whom he returned to England. Wintour introduced him to Robert Catesby, who planned to assassinate King James I and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne. The plotters leased an undercroft beneath the House of Lords; Fawkes was placed in charge of the gunpowder that they stockpiled there. The authorities were prompted by an anonymous letter to search Westminster Palace during the early hours of 5 November, and they found Fawkes guarding the explosives. He was questioned and tortured over the next few days and confessed to wanting to blow up the House of Lords. Fawkes was sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered. However, at his execution on 31 January, he died when his neck was broken as he was hanged, with some sources claiming that he deliberately jumped to make this happen; he thus avoided the agony of his sentence. He became synonymous with the Gunpowder Plot, the failure of which has been commemorated in the UK as Guy Fawkes Night since 5 November 1605, when his effigy is traditionally burned on a bonfire, commonly accompanied by fireworks. Early life Childhood Guy Fawkes was born in 1570 in Stonegate, York. He was the second of four children born to Edward Fawkes, a proctor and an advocate of the consistory court at York, and his wife, Edith. Guy's parents were regular communicants of the Church of England, as were his paternal grandparents; his grandmother, born Ellen Harrington, was the daughter of a prominent merchant, who served as Lord Mayor of York in 1536. Guy's mother's family were recusant Catholics, and his cousin, Richard Cowling, became a Jesuit priest. Guy was an uncommon name in England, but may have been popular in York on account of a local notable, Sir Guy Fairfax of Steeton. The date of Fawkes's birth is unknown, but he was baptised in the church of St Michael le Belfrey, York on 16 April. As the customary gap between birth and baptism was three days, he was probably born about 13 April. In 1568, Edith had given birth to a daughter named Anne, but the child died aged about seven weeks, in November that year. She bore two more children after Guy: Anne (b. 1572), and Elizabeth (b. 1575). Both were married, in 1599 and 1594 respectively. In 1579, when Guy was eight years old, his father died. His mother remarried several years later, to the Catholic Dionis Baynbrigge (or Denis Bainbridge) of Scotton, Harrogate. Fawkes may have become a Catholic through the Baynbrigge family's recusant tendencies, and also the Catholic branches of the Pulleyn and Percy families of Scotton, but also from his time at St. Peter's School in York. A governor of the school had spent about 20 years in prison for recusancy, and its headmaster, John Pulleyn, came from a family of noted Yorkshire recusants, the Pulleyns of Blubberhouses. In her 1915 work The Pulleynes of Yorkshire, author Catharine Pullein suggested that Fawkes's Catholic education came from his Harrington relatives, who were known for harbouring priests, one of whom later accompanied Fawkes to Flanders in 1592–1593. Fawkes's fellow students included John Wright and his brother Christopher (both later involved with Fawkes in the Gunpowder Plot) and Oswald Tesimond, Edward Oldcorne and Robert Middleton, who became priests (the latter executed in 1601). After leaving school Fawkes entered the service of Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu. The Viscount took a dislike to Fawkes and after a short time dismissed him; he was subsequently employed by Anthony-Maria Browne, 2nd Viscount Montagu, who succeeded his grandfather at the age of 18. At least one source claims that Fawkes married and had a son, but no known contemporary accounts confirm this. Military career In October 1591 Fawkes sold the estate in Clifton in York that he had inherited from his father. He travelled to the continent to fight in the Eighty Years War for Catholic Spain against the new Dutch Republic and, from 1595 until the Peace of Vervins in 1598, France. Although England was not by then engaged in land operations against Spain, the two countries were still at war, and the attempted invasion of England, led by the Spanish Armada in 1588, was only five years in the past. He joined Sir William Stanley, an English Catholic and veteran commander in his mid-forties who had raised an army in Ireland to fight in Leicester's expedition to the Netherlands. Stanley had been held in high regard by Elizabeth I, but following his surrender of Deventer to the Spanish in 1587 he, and most of his troops, had switched sides to serve Spain. Fawkes became an alférez or junior officer, fought well at the siege of Calais in 1596, and by 1603 had been recommended for a captaincy. That year, he travelled to Spain to seek support for a Catholic rebellion in England. He used the occasion to adopt the Italian version of his name, Guido, and in his memorandum described James I (who became king of England that year) as "a heretic", who intended "to have all of the Papist sect driven out of England." He denounced Scotland, and the King's favourites among the Scottish nobles, writing "it will not be possible to reconcile these two nations, as they are, for very long". Although he was received politely, the court of Philip III was unwilling to offer him any support. Gunpowder Plot In 1604 Fawkes became involved with a small group of English Catholics, led by Robert Catesby, who planned to assassinate the Protestant King James and replace him with his daughter, third in the line of succession, Princess Elizabeth. Fawkes was described by the Jesuit priest and former school friend Oswald Tesimond as "pleasant of approach and cheerful of manner, opposed to quarrels and strife ... loyal to his friends". Tesimond also claimed Fawkes was "a man highly skilled in matters of war", and that it was this mixture of piety and professionalism that endeared him to his fellow conspirators. The author Antonia Fraser describes Fawkes as "a tall, powerfully built man, with thick reddish-brown hair, a flowing moustache in the tradition of the time, and a bushy reddish-brown beard", and that he was "a man of action ... capable of intelligent argument as well as physical endurance, somewhat to the surprise of his enemies." The first meeting of the five central conspirators took place on Sunday 20 May 1604, at an inn called the Duck and Drake, in the fashionable Strand district of London. Catesby had already proposed at an earlier meeting with Thomas Wintour and John Wright to kill the King and his government by blowing up "the Parliament House with gunpowder". Wintour, who at first objected to the plan, was convinced by Catesby to travel to the continent to seek help. Wintour met with the Constable of Castile, the exiled Welsh spy Hugh Owen, and Sir William Stanley, who said that Catesby would receive no support from Spain. Owen did, however, introduce Wintour to Fawkes, who had by then been away from England for many years, and thus was largely unknown in the country. Wintour and Fawkes were contemporaries; each was militant, and had first-hand experience of the unwillingness of the Spaniards to help. Wintour told Fawkes of their plan to "doe some whatt in Ingland if the pece with Spaine healped us nott", and thus in April 1604 the two men returned to England. Wintour's news did not surprise Catesby; despite positive noises from the Spanish authorities, he feared that "the deeds would nott answere". One of the conspirators, Thomas Percy, was appointed a Gentleman Pensioner in June 1604, gaining access to a house in London that belonged to John Whynniard, Keeper of the King's Wardrobe. Fawkes was installed as a caretaker and began using the pseudonym John Johnson, servant to Percy. The contemporaneous account of the prosecution (taken from Thomas Wintour's confession) claimed that the conspirators attempted to dig a tunnel from beneath Whynniard's house to Parliament, although this story may have been a government fabrication; no evidence for the existence of a tunnel was presented by the prosecution, and no trace of one has ever been found; Fawkes himself did not admit the existence of such a scheme until his fifth interrogation, but even then he could not locate the tunnel. If the story is true, however, by December 1604 the conspirators were busy tunnelling from their rented house to the House of Lords. They ceased their efforts when, during tunnelling, they heard a noise from above. Fawkes was sent out to investigate, and returned with the news that the tenant's widow was clearing out a nearby undercroft, directly beneath the House of Lords. The plotters purchased the lease to the room, which also belonged to John Whynniard. Unused and filthy, it was considered an ideal hiding place for the gunpowder the plotters planned to store. According to Fawkes, 20 barrels of gunpowder were brought in at first, followed by 16 more on 20 July. On 28 July however, the ever-present threat of the plague delayed the opening of Parliament until Tuesday, 5 November. Overseas In an attempt to gain foreign support, in May 1605 Fawkes travelled overseas and informed Hugh Owen of the plotters' plan. At some point during this trip his name made its way into the files of Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, who employed a network of spies across Europe. One of these spies, Captain William Turner, may have been responsible. Although the information he provided to Salisbury usually amounted to no more than a vague pattern of invasion reports, and included nothing which regarded the Gunpowder Plot, on 21 April he told how Fawkes was to be brought by Tesimond to England. Fawkes was a well-known Flemish mercenary, and would be introduced to "Mr Catesby" and "honourable friends of the nobility and others who would have arms and horses in readiness". Turner's report did not, however, mention Fawkes's pseudonym in England, John Johnson, and did not reach Cecil until late in November, well after the plot had been discovered. It is uncertain when Fawkes returned to England, but he was back in London by late August 1605, when he and Wintour discovered that the gunpowder stored in the undercroft had decayed. More gunpowder was brought into the room, along with firewood to conceal it. Fawkes's final role in the plot was settled during a series of meetings in October. He was to light the fuse and then escape across the Thames. Simultaneously, a revolt in the Midlands would help to ensure the capture of Princess Elizabeth. Acts of regicide were frowned upon, and Fawkes would therefore head to the continent, where he would explain to the Catholic powers his holy duty to kill the King and his retinue. Discovery A few of the conspirators were concerned about fellow Catholics who would be present at Parliament during the opening. On the evening of 26 October, Lord Monteagle received an anonymous letter warning him to stay away, and to "retyre youre self into yowre contee whence yow maye expect the event in safti for ... they shall receyve a terrible blowe this parleament". Despite quickly becoming aware of the letter – informed by one of Monteagle's servants – the conspirators resolved to continue with their plans, as it appeared that it "was clearly thought to be a hoax". Fawkes checked the undercroft on 30 October, and reported that nothing had been disturbed. Monteagle's suspicions had been aroused, however, and the letter was shown to King James. The King ordered Sir Thomas Knyvet to conduct a search of the cellars underneath Parliament, which he did in the early hours of 5 November. Fawkes had taken up his station late on the previous night, armed with a slow match and a watch given to him by Percy "becaus he should knowe howe the time went away". He was found leaving the cellar, shortly after midnight, and arrested. Inside, the barrels of gunpowder were discovered hidden under piles of firewood and coal. Torture Fawkes gave his name as John Johnson and was first interrogated by members of the King's Privy chamber, where he remained defiant. When asked by one of the lords what he was doing in possession of so much gunpowder, Fawkes answered that his intention was "to blow you Scotch beggars back to your native mountains." He identified himself as a 36-year-old Catholic from Netherdale in Yorkshire, and gave his father's name as Thomas and his mother's as Edith Jackson. Wounds on his body noted by his questioners he explained as the effects of pleurisy. Fawkes admitted his intention to blow up the House of Lords, and expressed regret at his failure to do so. His steadfast manner earned him the admiration of King James, who described Fawkes as possessing "a Roman resolution". James's admiration did not, however, prevent him from ordering on 6 November that "John Johnson" be tortured, to reveal the names of his co-conspirators. He directed that the torture be light at first, referring to the use of manacles, but more severe if necessary, authorising the use of the rack: "the gentler Tortures are to be first used unto him et sic per gradus ad ima tenditur [and so by degrees proceeding to the worst]". Fawkes was transferred to the Tower of London. The King composed a list of questions to be put to "Johnson", such as "as to what he is, For I can never yet hear of any man that knows him", "When and where he learned to speak French?", and "If he was a Papist, who brought him up in it?" The room in which Fawkes was interrogated subsequently became known as the Guy Fawkes Room. Sir William Waad, Lieutenant of the Tower, supervised the torture and obtained Fawkes's confession. He searched his prisoner, and found a letter addressed to Guy Fawkes. To Waad's surprise, "Johnson" remained silent, revealing nothing about the plot or its authors. On the night of 6 November he spoke with Waad, who reported to Salisbury "He [Johnson] told us that since he undertook this action he did every day pray to God he might perform that which might be for the advancement of the Catholic Faith and saving his own soul". According to Waad, Fawkes managed to rest through the night, despite his being warned that he would be interrogated until "I had gotton the inwards secret of his thoughts and all his complices". His composure was broken at some point during the following day. The observer Sir Edward Hoby remarked "Since Johnson's being in the Tower, he beginneth to speak English". Fawkes revealed his true identity on 7 November, and told his interrogators that there were five people involved in the plot to kill the King. He began to reveal their names on 8 November, and told how they intended to place Princess Elizabeth on the throne. His third confession, on 9 November, implicated Francis Tresham. Following the Ridolfi plot of 1571, prisoners were made to dictate their confessions, before copying and signing them, if they still could. Although it is uncertain if he was tortured on the rack, Fawkes's scrawled signature suggests the suffering he endured at the hands of his interrogators. Trial and execution The trial of eight of the plotters began on Monday 27 January 1606. Fawkes shared the barge from the Tower to Westminster Hall with seven of his co-conspirators. They were kept in the Star Chamber before being taken to Westminster Hall, where they were displayed on a purpose-built scaffold. The King and his close family, watching in secret, were among the spectators as the Lords Commissioners read out the list of charges. Fawkes was identified as Guido Fawkes, "otherwise called Guido Johnson". He pleaded not guilty, despite his apparent acceptance of guilt from the moment he was captured. The jury found all the defendants guilty, and the Lord Chief Justice Sir John Popham pronounced them guilty of high treason. The Attorney General Sir Edward Coke told the court that each of the condemned would be drawn backwards to his death, by a horse, his head near the ground. They were to be "put to death halfway between heaven and earth as unworthy of both". Their genitals would be cut off and burnt before their eyes, and their bowels and hearts removed. They would then be decapitated, and the dismembered parts of their bodies displayed so that they might become "prey for the fowls of the air". Fawkes's and Tresham's testimony regarding the Spanish treason was read aloud, as well as confessions related specifically to the Gunpowder Plot. The last piece of evidence offered was a conversation between Fawkes and Wintour, who had been kept in adjacent cells. The two men apparently thought they had been speaking in private, but their conversation was intercepted by a government spy. When the prisoners were allowed to speak, Fawkes explained his not guilty plea as ignorance of certain aspects of the indictment. On 31 January 1606, Fawkes and three others – Thomas Wintour, Ambrose Rookwood, and Robert Keyes – were dragged from the Tower on wattled hurdles to the Old Palace Yard at Westminster, opposite the building they had attempted to destroy. His fellow plotters were then hanged and quartered. Fawkes was the last to stand on the scaffold. He asked for forgiveness of the King and state, while keeping up his "crosses and idle ceremonies" (Catholic practices). Weakened by torture and aided by the hangman, Fawkes began to climb the ladder to the noose, but either through jumping to his death or climbing too high so the rope was incorrectly set, he managed to avoid the agony of the latter part of his execution by breaking his neck. His lifeless body was nevertheless quartered and, as was the custom, his body parts were then distributed to "the four corners of the kingdom", to be displayed as a warning to other would-be traitors. Legacy On 5 November 1605, Londoners were encouraged to celebrate the King's escape from assassination by lighting bonfires, provided that "this testemonye of joy be carefull done without any danger or disorder". An Act of Parliament designated each 5 November as a day of thanksgiving for "the joyful day of deliverance", and remained in force until 1859. Fawkes was one of 13 conspirators, but he is the individual most associated with the plot. In Britain, 5 November has variously been called Guy Fawkes Night, Guy Fawkes Day, Plot Night, and Bonfire Night (which can be traced directly back to the original celebration of 5 November 1605). Bonfires were accompanied by fireworks from the 1650s onwards, and it became the custom after 1673 to burn an effigy (usually of the pope) when heir presumptive James, Duke of York, converted to Catholicism. Effigies of other notable figures have found their way onto the bonfires, such as Paul Kruger, Margaret Thatcher, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and Vladimir Putin. The "guy" is normally created by children from old clothes, newspapers, and a mask. During the 19th century, "guy" came to mean an oddly dressed person, while in many places it has lost any pejorative connotation and instead refers to any male person and the plural form can refer to people of any gender (as in "you guys"). James Sharpe, professor of history at the University of York, has described how Guy Fawkes came to be toasted as "the last man to enter Parliament with honest intentions". William Harrison Ainsworth's 1841 historical romance Guy Fawkes; or, The Gunpowder Treason portrays Fawkes in a generally sympathetic light and his novel transformed Fawkes in the public perception into an "acceptable fictional character". Fawkes subsequently appeared as "essentially an action hero" in children's books and penny dreadfuls such as The Boyhood Days of Guy Fawkes; or, The Conspirators of Old London, published around 1905. According to the historian Lewis Call, Fawkes is now "a major icon in modern political culture", whose face has become "a potentially powerful instrument for the articulation of postmodern anarchism" in the late 20th century. Fawkes is regarded by some as a martyr, political rebel or freedom-fighter, especially amongst a minority of Catholics in the United Kingdom. References Footnotes Citations Bibliography External links Guy Fawkes story from the BBC, including archive video clips The Trials of Robert Winter, Thomas Winter, Guy Fawkes, John Grant, Ambrose Rookwood, Robert Keyes, Thomas Bates, and Sir Everard Digby Guy Fawkes Attainder from the Parliamentary Archives

The opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on the evening of Friday 27 July 2012 in the Olympic Stadium, London, during which the Games were formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II. As mandated by the Olympic Charter, the proceedings combined the ceremonial opening of this international sporting event (including welcoming speeches, hoisting of the flags and the parade of athletes) with an artistic spectacle to showcase the host nation's culture. The spectacle was entitled Isles of Wonder and directed by Academy Award-winning British film director Danny Boyle. Prior to London 2012 there had been considerable apprehension about Britain's ability to stage an opening ceremony that could reach the standard set at the Beijing Summer Games of 2008. The 2008 ceremony had been noted for its scale, extravagance and expense, hailed as the "greatest ever", and had cost £65m. In contrast, London spent an estimated £27m (out of £80m budgeted for its four ceremonies), which was nevertheless about twice the original budget. Nonetheless, the London opening ceremony was immediately seen as a tremendous success, widely praised as a "masterpiece" and "a love letter to Britain". The ceremony began at 21:00 BST and lasted almost four hours. It was watched by an estimated worldwide television audience of 900 million, falling short of the IOC's 1.5 billion viewership estimate for the 2008 ceremony, but becoming the most-viewed in the UK and US. The content had largely been kept secret before the performance, despite involving thousands of volunteers and two public rehearsals. The principal sections of the artistic display represented Britain's Industrial Revolution, National Health Service, literary heritage, popular music and culture, and were noted for their vibrant storytelling and use of music. Two shorter sections drew particular comment, involving a filmed cameo appearance of the Queen with James Bond as her escort, and a live performance by the London Symphony Orchestra joined by comedian Rowan Atkinson. These were widely ascribed to Britain's sense of humour. The ceremony featured children and young people in most of its segments, reflecting the 'inspire a generation' aspiration of London's original bid for the Games. The BBC released footage of the entire opening ceremony on 29 October 2012, edited by Danny Boyle and with background extras, along with more than seven hours of sporting highlights and the complete closing ceremony. Preparations The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) approached Danny Boyle to be the director of the ceremony in June 2010, and he immediately accepted. Boyle explained that there had been four things that made him take the job: he was a big Olympics fan, he lived a mile from the Stadium and so felt invested in the area, his late father's birthday was on the ceremony's date, and he felt his 'Oscar clout' would enable him to push through what he wanted to do. He said it "felt weirdly more like a ... civic or national responsibility" to take the job. Boyle acknowledged that the extravagance of the 2008 opening ceremony was an impossible act to follow — "you can't get bigger than Beijing" — and that this realisation had in fact liberated his team creatively. He said "..obviously I'm not going to try and build on Beijing, because how could you? We can't, and you wouldn't want to, so we're going back to the beginning. We're going to try and give the impression that we're rethinking and restarting, because they've (opening ceremonies) escalated since Los Angeles in 1984. They've tried to top themselves each time and you can't do that after Beijing." Beijing's budget had been £65m, whereas London's final budget was £27m, which was twice the original provision. The London stadium had the same number of seats as Beijing's, but was half the size; this intimacy of scale meant that Boyle felt he could achieve something personal and connecting. The different sections of the ceremony were designed to reflect aspects of British history and culture, with the title Isles of Wonder partly inspired by Shakespeare's play The Tempest (particularly Caliban's 'Be not afeard' speech), and partly by the G. K. Chesterton aphorism: "The world shall perish not for lack of wonders, but for lack of wonder." In July 2010, Boyle started brainstorming ideas with designer Mark Tildesley, writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce and costume designer Suttirat Anne Larlarb. They considered "what was essentially British", with the non-British Larlarb able to offer a view of what the world thought Britain meant. Cottrell-Boyce had given Boyle a copy of Pandaemonium, (named after the capital of Hell in Paradise Lost) by Humphrey Jennings, which collated contemporary reports from the Industrial Revolution. It had become traditional during the opening ceremony to 'produce' the Olympic rings in a spectacular manner. Cottrell-Boyce commented "Danny had a very clear idea that in the first 15 minutes you had to have a great, startling image that could go around the world; it had to climax with something that made people go 'Oh my God!'". Boyle decided that "the journey from the pastoral to the industrial, ending with the forging of the Olympic rings" would be that image. The ten distinct chapters on which the team started work were gradually compressed into three principal movements: the violent transition from 'Green and Pleasant Land' to the 'Pandemonium' of industrial revolution, a salute to the NHS and children's literature, and a celebration of pop culture, technology and the digital revolution. When Boyle returned to work on the ceremony in the spring of 2011 he asked Rick Smith of Underworld, with whom he had worked on several film projects as well as his theatrical production of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, to be the musical director. At the same time the team moved to the Three Mills studio complex in east London, where a 4x4 metre scale model of the stadium was built. For security reasons, a single CGI-assisted version of the ceremony was kept on editor Sascha Dhillon's laptop; anyone needing it had to come to the studio. The cast included professional performers and 7,500 volunteers. Boyle considered the volunteers to be "the most valuable commodity of all". In November 2011 they auditioned at Three Mills, and rehearsals began in earnest in spring 2012 at an open-air site at Dagenham (the abandoned Ford plant), often in foul weather. Although key contributors had to sign non-disclosure agreements and some elements were codenamed, Boyle placed immense trust in the volunteers by asking them simply to "save the surprise" and not leak any information. Further volunteers were recruited to help with security and marshalling, and to support the technical crew. Three weeks before the ceremony, Mark Rylance, who was to have taken a leading part, pulled out after a family bereavement and was replaced by Kenneth Branagh. The Olympic Bell, the largest harmonically tuned bell in the world, weighing 23 tonnes, had been cast in brass under the direction of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry by Royal Eijsbouts of the Netherlands, and hung in the Stadium. It was inscribed with a line from Caliban's speech in The Tempest: "Be not afeard, the isle is full of noises". Boyle gave significant emphasis to the London 2012 theme 'inspire a generation' and devised a programme relying heavily on children and young people, and built around themes that would relate to the young. 25 schools in the six original East London host boroughs were used to recruit child volunteers for the performance, and 170 sixth formers (16–18-year-olds), between them speaking more than 50 languages, were recruited from their colleges. On 12 June 2012 at a press conference, Boyle had promised a huge set of rural Britain, which was to include a village cricket team, farm animals, a model of Glastonbury Tor, as well as a maypole and a rain-producing cloud. His intention was to represent the rural and urban landscape of Britain. The design was to include a mosh pit at each end of the set, one with people celebrating a rock festival and the other the Last Night of the Proms. Boyle promised a ceremony with which everyone would feel involved; he said, "I hope it will reveal how peculiar and contrary we are – and how there's also, I hope, a warmth about us." Some of the set was designed with real grass turf and soil. The use of animals (40 sheep, 12 horses, 3 cows, 2 goats, 10 chickens, 10 ducks, 9 geese and 3 sheep dogs, looked after by 34 animal handlers) drew some criticism from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Boyle, who was being advised by the RSPCA, assured PETA that the animals would be well cared for. After the press conference, much commentary in the UK Press was negative and attracted "hundreds of comments online completely supporting...the view that the opening ceremony would be a disaster." The overwhelming majority of the music used was British. The team worked next door to the office of the musical director for the closing ceremony, David Arnold, and so hearing each other's music there was a scramble to claim a particular song first. A.R. Rahman, who worked with Boyle on Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours, composed a Punjabi song 'Nimma Nimma' to showcase Indian influence in the UK, according to Boyle's wishes. More Indian music was also scheduled for inclusion in the medley. Paul McCartney was to be the ceremony's closing act. Sebastian Coe was instrumental in asking the Queen to take part, responding positively when Boyle first pitched the Happy and Glorious film sequence featuring the Queen. Boyle suggested that the Queen be played either a lookalike, or by a world-class actress such as Helen Mirren, in a location to double as Buckingham Palace. Coe asked Princess Anne, a British member of the IOC and LOCOG, what she thought, and she told him to ask the Queen. Coe presented the idea to the Queen's Deputy Private Secretary. Boyle was surprised to hear that the Queen would be happy to play herself, and wanted a speaking part. Filming took place in late March 2012, and Happy and Glorious was produced by the BBC, as was the opening film sequence Journey along the Thames. Changes were still being made to the programme in the final days before the ceremony: a BMX bike section was dropped due to time constraints, and the 'Pandemonium' and 'Thanks..Tim' sections were edited down. In 2016 Boyle recounted how he had come under pressure from Jeremy Hunt, then the Olympics and Culture Secretary, to cut back the NHS section, which he had saved only by threatening to resign and take the volunteers with him. Two full dress and technical rehearsals took place in the Olympic stadium, on 23 and 25 July, in front of an audience of 60,000 comprising volunteers, cast members' families, competition winners, and others connected to the Games. Boyle asked them not to 'spoil the surprise' by using the hashtag #savethesurprise on social media, keeping the performance a secret for the hundreds of millions who would watch on the Friday night. Officials and guests Royal Box Seated in the Royal Box were the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, and other members of the British royal family. They were accompanied by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Prime Minister David Cameron, Spouse of the Prime Minister Samantha Cameron, former Prime Ministers John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and Mayor of London Boris Johnson. Officials of the Olympic movement included President of the IOC Jacques Rogge, LOCOG Chairman Sebastian Coe and members of the IOC. International dignitaries The ceremony was the largest gathering of world leaders for an Olympic and sporting event in history, surpassing that of 2008. Three multilateral leaders, more than ninety five heads of state and government and representatives from five organisations and one hundred and twenty countries attended. Proceedings Schedule Prologue At exactly 20:12 BST, the Red Arrows performed a flypast over the Olympic Stadium and then over the concert in Hyde Park. This concert featured artists selected to represent the four nations of the United Kingdom: Duran Duran, Stereophonics, Snow Patrol and Paolo Nutini. At the beginning the stadium contained a rural scene including the model of Glastonbury Tor, a model village and a water wheel, replete with live animals (removed shortly before the ceremony began), and actors portraying working villagers, football and cricket players. Frank Turner performed three songs ("Sailor's Boots", "Wessex Boy" and "I Still Believe") on the model of Glastonbury Tor, joined by Emily Barker, Ben Marwood and Jim Lockey, as well as his regular backing band the Sleeping Souls. LSO On Track (an orchestra of 80 young musicians from ten East London boroughs together with 20 LSO members) then performed Edward Elgar's "Nimrod" from the Enigma Variations, accompanied by extracts from the BBC Radio Shipping Forecast, and maritime images on the big screens, while the audience held up blue sheeting to simulate the sight of the ocean. This performance celebrated Britain's maritime heritage and geographical insularity. Countdown (21:00–21:04 BST) The ceremony began at 21:00 after a one-minute '60 to 1' countdown film made up of shots of numbers, such as those on house doors, street nameplates, London buses, station platforms and market labels. The number 39 is seen at the foot of a flight of steps, a reference to John Buchan's novel The Thirty-Nine Steps, while the 10 is the door number from 10 Downing Street. A two-minute film, Journey along the Thames, directed by Boyle and produced by the BBC, opened the ceremony. To the sound of "Surf Solar" by Fuck Buttons, it followed the River Thames from its source to the heart of London, juxtaposing images of contemporary British life with pastoral shots and flashes of scenes from the stadium. The characters Ratty, Mole and Toad from The Wind in the Willows were briefly seen, as was a 'Monty Python hand' pointing towards London on umbrellas, and an InterCity 125 train passing the Olympic rings as crop circles in a field. At Battersea Power Station a Pink Floyd pig was flying between the towers; the clock sound from another Pink Floyd song "Time" was heard passing Big Ben. The soundtrack included clips from the theme tune of The South Bank Show, "London Calling" by The Clash, and the Sex Pistols' "God Save the Queen" as the film followed the route of the band's infamous cruise down the River Thames during the Silver Jubilee. After lifting to an aerial view of East London mirroring the title sequence of the BBC soap opera EastEnders, to the sound of the drum beats from the closing theme, the film flashed down through the Thames Barrier, into Bow Creek, and then below surface through a London Underground train and station, historic footage of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Thames Tunnel, and through the Rotherhithe Tunnel. It then switched to a sequence filmed outside the stadium shortly before the ceremony, superimposed with posters from previous Summer Olympics (all of them except 1900 Paris, 1936 Berlin, 1984 Los Angeles, and 1996 Atlanta), to a recording of "Map of the Problematique" by Muse. This ended with a live shot of three cast members holding the posters for the 2012 competition. There was then a ten-second countdown in the stadium, with children holding clusters of balloons that burst simultaneously, with the audience shouting out the numbers. Bradley Wiggins, who had won the Tour de France five days earlier, opened the ceremony by ringing the Olympic Bell that hung at one end of the stadium. Four upper-atmosphere balloons were released, each expected to carry a set of Olympic rings and a camera up to the mid-stratosphere. Green and Pleasant Land (21:04–21:09) The depiction of rural life already in the arena was billed as "a reminder and a promise of a once and future better life". Youth choirs began a cappella performances of the informal anthems of the four nations of the UK: "Jerusalem" (for England, sung by a live choir in the stadium), "Danny Boy" (from the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland), "Flower of Scotland" (from Edinburgh Castle in Scotland), and "Bread of Heaven" (from Rhossili Beach in Wales). These were inter-cut with footage of notable Rugby Union Home Nations' tries, England's winning drop goal from the 2003 Rugby World Cup Final, and live shots from the stadium. As the last choir performance concluded, vintage London General Omnibus Company stagecoaches entered, carrying businessmen and early industrialists in Victorian dress and top hats, led by Kenneth Branagh as Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The 50 men stepped down from the carriages and surveyed the land approvingly. After walking onto the Glastonbury Tor, Brunel delivered Caliban's "Be not afeard" speech, reflecting Boyle's introduction to the ceremony in the programme and signifying an aspiration of new industry or a new era in Britain. This anticipated the next section of the ceremony. Pandemonium (21:09–21:25) This section encapsulated British economic and social development from rural economy through the Industrial Revolution to the 1960s. Proceedings were suddenly interrupted by a loud shout, recorded by volunteers during the rehearsals, followed by drumming (the pre-recorded drumming amplified by 965 cast members drumming on inverted household buckets and bins), led by Evelyn Glennie. The three-tonne oak tree on top of the Glastonbury Tor lifted, and industrial workers emerged from both the Tor's brightly lit interior and the entrances to the stadium, to swell the cast to a total of 2,500 volunteers. So began what Boyle had called the "biggest scene change in theatre history" and something he had been advised against attempting. Underworld's "And I Will Kiss" began to play, as the cast rolled away the grass and other rural props. Seven smoking chimney stacks with accompanying steeplejacks rose from the ground, along with other industrial machinery: five beam engines, six looms, a crucible and a water wheel (one of the few items left from the rural scene). Boyle said that this section celebrated the "tremendous potential" afforded by the advancements of the Victorian era. It also included a minute's silence in remembrance of the loss of life of both world wars, featuring British 'Tommies' and shots of poppies, during which the names of the Accrington Pals were shown on the stadium screens. Unprompted, members of the audience stood in respect during this segment. Volunteers paraded around the stadium representing some of the groups that had changed the face of Britain: the woman's suffrage movement, the Jarrow Crusade, the first Caribbean immigrants arriving in 1948 on board the Empire Windrush, a 1970s DJ float, the Nostalgia Steel Band, and the Beatles as they appeared on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Also included were real-life Chelsea Pensioners, the Grimethorpe Colliery Band, and a group of Pearly Kings and Queens. Workers began casting an iron ring. As the noise level and tension built, driven by the relentless rhythm of the music and the drumming, participants mimed repetitive mechanical movements associated with industrial processes such as weaving. Four glowing orange rings gradually began to be carried high above the stadium toward its centre on overhead wires, and then the ring seemingly being cast and forged in the arena began to rise. The five rings converged, still glowing and accompanied by steam and firework effects to give the impression that they were of hot metal. When the five rings formed the Olympic symbol above the stadium, they ignited and rained fire in silver and gold. The image of the Olympic rings in flame became the iconic image of the ceremony, reproduced in newspapers and web stories around the world. Happy and Glorious (21:25–21:35) A short film directed by Boyle and produced by the BBC, called Happy and Glorious (after a line in the national anthem), featured the character James Bond, played by then-Bond actor Daniel Craig, entering the front gate of Buckingham Palace in a London black cab. His entrance (accompanied by an arrangement of Handel's "Arrival of the Queen of Sheba") is noticed by Brazilian children (a nod to Rio de Janeiro, which was to be the next summer Games host city) in the throne room. Bond escorted Elizabeth II (who played herself, acknowledging Bond with the words, "Good evening, Mr Bond") out of the building and into a waiting AgustaWestland AW139 helicopter. The film followed the helicopter across London, with shots of a cheering crowd on The Mall, Nelson's Column, the Palace of Westminster with an animated Winston Churchill statue in Parliament Square, and of the Thames past the London Eye, St Paul's Cathedral, the financial district City of London. The helicopter then passed through Tower Bridge, accompanied by the Dambusters March. The film finished with Bond and the Queen apparently jumping from a real helicopter live above the stadium, accompanied by the "James Bond Theme". The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, along with Rogge, were then introduced to the audience. The Queen was wearing the same dress as in the film, as if she had just arrived with Bond. The idea of the royal helicopter jump was first pitched by director Danny Boyle to Sebastian Coe, who loved it so much he took it to Edward Young, Private Secretary to the Queen, at Buckingham Palace in the summer of 2011. Young 'listened sagely, laughed, and promised to ask the boss'. Word came back to Coe that the Queen would love to take part. Young, Boyle and Coe agreed to keep the plan secret so as not to spoil the surprise. On 19 September 2022, the morning of the Queen's funeral, Coe told BBC News he originally took the concept to Princess Anne whose only question was "What kind of helicopter?" Back in 2014, during a State visit by Irish President Michael Higgins, the Queen herself had credited the humour in some degree to Boyle's Irish heritage, saying, “It took someone of Irish descent, Danny Boyle, to get me to jump from a helicopter." For the scenes with the helicopter, the Queen was doubled by actress Julia McKenzie, and for the parachute jump by BASE jumper and stuntman Gary Connery wearing a dress, hat, jewellery and with a handbag. Bond was played by Mark Sutton. The helicopter had flown to the stadium from Stapleford Aerodrome in Essex, piloted by Marc Wolff. The Union Flag was then raised by members of the British Armed Forces, while the first and third verses of the national anthem were performed a cappella by the Kaos Signing Choir for Deaf and Hearing Children. Second to the right, and straight on till morning (21:35–21:47) The first part of this sequence celebrated the National Health Service ("the institution which more than any other unites our nation", according to the programme), which had been founded in the year of the previous London Games in 1948. Music was by Mike Oldfield. 600 dancers, all of whom were NHS staff, along with 1,200 volunteers recruited from British hospitals, entered along with children on 320 hospital beds, some of which functioned as trampolines. They started a short jive routine. Watching from the tor were specially invited hospital staff and nine child patients from Great Ormond Street Hospital. The blankets on the beds illuminated and the beds were arranged to depict a child's face with a smile and a tear (the Hospital Children's Charity's logo). The acronym 'GOSH' then changed into the initials 'NHS', turning into the shape of a crescent moon as the children were hushed to sleep and read books by the nurses. The sequence then moved on to celebrate British children's literature. J. K. Rowling began by reading from J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan (whose copyright was given to Great Ormond Street Hospital). The Child Catcher appeared amongst the children, followed by giant puppet representations of villains from British children's literature: the Queen of Hearts, Captain Hook, Cruella de Vil, and Lord Voldemort. Minutes later, 32 women playing Mary Poppins descended with their umbrellas, as the villains deflated and the actors resumed dancing. The music for this sequence included partially rearranged sections from Tubular Bells (with a giant set of tubular bells at the rear of the stage), Tubular Bells III and, after the villains had been driven away by the Mary Poppins characters, In Dulci Jubilo. During this performance the children in pyjamas jumped up and down on their brightly lit beds, creating a memorable image amid the darkness of the stadium. The sequence concluded with a pale, gigantic baby's head, with a rippling sheet for its body, in the centre of the arena. This celebrated the Scottish pioneers of obstetric ultrasound imaging. Interlude (21:47–21:52) Simon Rattle was then introduced to conduct the London Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Vangelis's "Chariots of Fire", as a tribute to the British film industry with Rowan Atkinson reprising his role as Mr. Bean, comically playing a repeated note on a synthesiser. He then lapsed into a filmed dream sequence in which he joined the runners from the film Chariots of Fire, beating them in their iconic run along West Sands at St Andrews by riding in a car, rejoining the race and tripping the front runner. Danny Boyle later explained: "It wasn't actually Mr. Bean. Strictly speaking, the name of his character was Derek". In 2021's "Happy Birthday Mr Bean" documentary, Atkinson also stated that the performance was not actually intended to be the character Mr. Bean. Frankie and June say...thanks Tim (21:52–22:09) This sequence celebrated British popular music and culture, paying homage to each decade since the 1960s. To the accompaniment of the BBC newsreel theme 'Girls in Grey' and the theme tune from The Archers, a young mother and son arrive in a Mini Cooper at a full-size replica of a modern British house. The 1987 "don't worry about a hurricane" weather forecast by Michael Fish was shown on the big screens as rain suddenly poured on the house, followed by "Push the Button", by Sugababes. In the centre of the arena the sides of another house, three times larger, were used as screens to show clips from various TV programmes, music videos and films, including A Matter of Life and Death (June is named for its protagonist), as well as Gregory's Girl, Kes, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Snowman, The Wicker Man, Four Weddings and a Funeral, British soap operas Coronation Street and EastEnders, Spanish TV show Cuéntame cómo pasó, and Boyle's own Trainspotting on the top and the inside of the house on the bottom. A large group of dancers, centred around Frankie and June (19-year-old Henrique Costa and 18-year-old Jasmine Breinburg) on a night out, performed to an assortment of British popular songs arranged broadly chronologically, beginning with "Going Underground" by The Jam, suggesting a ride on the London Underground. During this track images of the Underground were projected onto the house and former London Mayor Ken Livingstone was briefly seen in the driver's seat. Throughout the sequence cast members were texting each other or placing social networking status updates on the Internet. Frankie and June first notice each other as a snippet from "Wonderful Tonight" by Eric Clapton plays, but when Frankie saw that June had dropped her phone on the Tube, he set off to return it (communicating using last number redial to her sister's phone). An extended dance sequence followed, with songs including "My Generation" by The Who, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones, "My Boy Lollipop" sung by Millie Small, "All Day and All of the Night" by the Kinks, "She Loves You" by the Beatles (with footage of the band performing the song), "Trampled Under Foot" by Led Zeppelin, "Starman" by David Bowie, "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen (during which the sound of the TARDIS from Doctor Who could be heard), "Pretty Vacant" by the Sex Pistols (during which dancers on power jumpers wearing large heads with Mohawk hairstyles performed a pogo dance, and the lyrics to the song were spelled out in LED lights around the stadium), "Blue Monday" by New Order, "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood (during which Frankie, asked by June for his name, replied by revealing one of the band's "Frankie say..." T-shirts), "Back to Life (However Do You Want Me)" by Soul II Soul, "Step On" by Happy Mondays, "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" by Eurythmics, "Firestarter" by The Prodigy, and "Born Slippy .NUXX" by Underworld, ending with the cast singing "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" as Frankie and June walked towards each other. A sequence from the film Four Weddings and a Funeral was projected behind them; when they kissed, a montage of memorable kisses from film, TV and real life was shown (including one of the first interracial kisses on British television in Emergency Ward 10 and the first lesbian kiss from Brookside, which in some countries, including Saudi Arabia, then became the first lesbian kiss ever shown on pre-watershed television), while "Song 2" by Blur was played. A live performance of "Bonkers" by Dizzee Rascal (who grew up in the host borough of Tower Hamlets) followed, along with a further sequence in which all the cast (and Britain's Got Talent dancing duo Signature) attend a party at June's house whilst Amy Winehouse's "Valerie", Muse's "Uprising", and Tinie Tempah's "Pass Out" played. At the close, while "Heaven" by Emeli Sandé was played, the larger house was raised to reveal Tim Berners-Lee working at a NeXT Computer, like the one on which he invented the World Wide Web. He tweeted 'This is for everyone', instantly spelled out in LED lights around the stadium. The programme explained "Music connects us with each other and with the most important moments in our lives. One of the things that makes those connections possible is the World Wide Web". Boyle wanted to honour Berners-Lee for having made the World Wide Web free and available to everyone (hence the tweet), rather than seeking a commercial profit from it. Abide with Me (22:09–22:20) A filmed sequence showed extracts from the torch relay around the UK, to the music "I Heard Wonders" by David Holmes. This then cut live to show David Beckham driving a dramatically illuminated motor boat down the River Thames and under Tower Bridge, to fireworks, while footballer Jade Bailey held on to the torch in the boat. This section had been rehearsed on 24 July 2012 when the close-up shots were pre-recorded, and was directed by Stephen Daldry. There was then a tribute to "..friends and family of those in the stadium who cannot be here tonight", including the victims of the '7/7' 2005 London bombings (on the day after London had been awarded the Games). Photos of people who had died were displayed on screens as a memorial, accompanied by an excerpt from Brian Eno's ambient work "An Ending (Ascent)". The hymn "Abide with Me" was then sung by Emeli Sandé while a group of dancers choreographed by and including Akram Khan performed a contemporary dance on the theme of mortality. Welcome (22:20–00:00) The Parade of Nations of athletes (drawn from the 10,490 competing) and officials from 204 nations (and also the "Independent Olympic Athletes") was led, according to custom, by the Greek team, followed by other competing countries in alphabetical order, and finally the host nation Great Britain. Each of the 205 teams entered the stadium led by their flagbearer, accompanied by a child volunteer carrying a copper petal (later revealed to be part of the cauldron) and a young woman carrying a sign with the country's name in English (and wearing a dress made from fabric printed with photos of people who had applied to be Olympic volunteers). The parade was accompanied by mainly British dance tracks and popular songs, including "Galvanize" by Chemical Brothers, "West End Girls" by Pet Shop Boys, "Rolling in the Deep" by Adele, "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees and both "Where the Streets Have No Name" and "Beautiful Day" by Irish band U2, with Great Britain entering to David Bowie's song "Heroes". Welsh drum and bass DJ High Contrast mixed and sequenced the music for the athletes' parade. Music with a fast rhythm of 120 bpm was used in an attempt to keep the teams walking quickly around the stadium, and this was reinforced by the drummers in the stadium; nevertheless the parade part of the programme took 1 hour 40 minutes to complete, compared to the 1 hour 29 minutes estimated in the official media guide. Once all of the athletes were inside the stadium, seven billion small pieces of paper were dropped from a Westland helicopter, each piece representing one person on Earth. Each nation's flag was planted on the Glastonbury Tor. Bike a.m. (00:00–00:07 BST 28 July) Once the athletes had gathered in the centre of the stadium, Arctic Monkeys performed "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" and The Beatles' "Come Together", the latter whilst 75 cyclists circled the stadium with wings lit by LEDs representing Doves of Peace. Doves were traditionally released at Olympic opening ceremonies, although real birds have not been used since 1992. A single dove cyclist, his beak painted yellow in honour of Bradley Wiggins, appeared to fly out of the stadium. Let the Games Begin (00:07–00:24) The formal part of the ceremony was introduced by Sebastian Coe, speaking from the Tor and surrounded by flags of the participating nations. He welcomed the watching world to London. He expressed pride in being British and part of the Olympic movement, and said that the Olympics "brings together the people of the world...to celebrate what is best about mankind". He continued to speak of the "truth and drama" of sport, and then thanked Britain for "making all this possible". Rogge responded by thanking London, stating that it was the third time that London had held the Games, following 1908, held at short notice when Rome was unable to do so (after a volcanic eruption), and 1948 three years after the end of World War II. Rogge thanked the thousands of volunteers, to huge cheers. He announced that for the first time in Olympic history, every team had female participants. Rogge acknowledged the important role the UK had played as "the birthplace of modern sport", codifying its "fair play" ethos and building sport into the school curriculum. He appealed to athletes to play fairly and be drug-free, according to the values of Baron de Courbertin, reminding them that they were role models who would "inspire a generation". After expressing these sentiments again briefly in French, he invited the Queen to open the Games. The Queen declared the competition officially open, immediately followed by a trumpet fanfare based on a theme from Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield and then a fireworks display. The 2012 ceremony was the second time the Queen had opened an Olympic Games, the first being the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal in her capacity as Queen of Canada. It was also the first time any individual had opened a Summer Olympics twice (two more Olympiads had been opened on her behalf, with a further two Winter Games opened on her behalf). The Olympic Flag was carried by eight people chosen from around the world to embody the Olympic values: Doreen Lawrence (chosen for her "tireless thirst for justice"), Haile Gebrselassie (for his "fight against poverty"), Sally Becker (for her "courage"), Ban Ki-moon (as UN secretary-general), Leymah Gbowee (as "a great peacemaker"), Shami Chakrabarti (for "her integrity"), Daniel Barenboim (for bringing "harmony in place of discord"), and Marina Silva (as UN Champion of the Earth). The flag paused in front of Muhammad Ali (invited to represent 'respect, confidence, conviction, dedication, generosity and spiritual strength'), who held it for a few moments. The flag was received by a colour guard of Her Majesty's Armed Forces and hoisted to the Olympic Anthem, performed by the LSO and the Grimethorpe Colliery Band. A brief reprise of "And I will Kiss" commenced the Olympic Oaths, taken by taekwondo athlete Sarah Stevenson on behalf of the athletes, by British AIBA Referee Mik Basi on behalf of the officials, and by Eric Farrell on behalf of the coaches. There Is a Light That Never Goes Out (00:24–00:38) This section was named after the song of the same name by The Smiths. The motorboat driven by David Beckham arrived with the Olympic Flame via the Limehouse Cut and the Lee Navigation. Steve Redgrave lit his torch from that on the boat, and carried it into the stadium through an honour guard of 500 of the construction workers who had built the Olympic Park. He passed the flame on to a team of seven young people, each nominated by a famous British Olympian to convey the Games' aim to 'inspire a generation'. Six of the team were athletes, and the seventh was a volunteer young ambassador. The teenagers made a lap of the stadium, each carrying the torch in turn, while Alex Trimble, lead singer of Two Door Cinema Club, performed "Caliban's Dream" with the Dockhead Choir, Only Men Aloud, Elizabeth Roberts, and Esme Smith. This had been written especially for the ceremony by Rick Smith of Underworld. Each young athlete was greeted by their nominating Olympian (watched by 260 British medallists from previous summer and winter Games since London 1948) and presented with their own torch, which was then lit from the flame. They jogged through a corridor between assembled athletes to the centre of the stadium, where the 204 copper petals (each inscribed with the name of the team it accompanied during the parade) were now seen in a circular formation attached to long pipes (the petals were to accompany each team home after the competition, as a souvenir). The young athletes lit some of the petals, and when the flame had spread to all of them, the pipes rose slowly from the floor of the stadium and converged to form the cauldron. The cauldron lighters were (nominator in brackets): Callum Airlie (Shirley Robertson) Jordan Duckitt (Duncan Goodhew) Desiree Henry (Daley Thompson) Katie Kirk (Mary Peters) Cameron MacRitchie (Steve Redgrave) Aidan Reynolds (Lynn Davies) Adelle Tracey (Kelly Holmes) The cauldron designed by Thomas Heatherwick was described as "one of the best-kept secrets of the opening ceremony": until this point, its design, location, and who would light it had not been revealed. And in the end (00:38–00:46) A flurry of spectacular fireworks accompanied by Pink Floyd's song "Eclipse" was supported by images of memorable Olympic victories shown on the big screens, with the stadium pixels showing Jesse Owens running. The climax of this section was a live view of the Olympic rings 34 kilometres (21 miles) above the Earth, transmitted from one of the balloons launched three and a half hours earlier. The sky was then lit by searchlights piercing the smoke (another iconic London image) from the fireworks, the Orbit tower was illuminated. Paul McCartney and his band performed the closing section of "The End", and then "Hey Jude", with its chorus sung by the audience to close the ceremony at 00:46 BST. Music The eclectic programme of music was chosen to showcase almost exclusively British music with pieces representing the UK's four nations. It included classical works by British composers such as Hubert Parry, and performances by UK choirs and orchestras. The focus was mainly on music of the 1960s onwards, causing one Chinese journalist to ask: "Will this be the most rock and roll opening ceremony ever?". Rick Smith and Underworld composed pieces for the ceremony, including "And I Will Kiss" used during the 'Pandemonium' section, and "Caliban's Dream" heard during the lighting of the cauldron. These were favourably reviewed; in The Guardian, Michael Hann wrote "Underworld ... had a bit of a triumph: the builds and fades they learned in the world of dance music lent the sometimes overwhelming visual spectacle a sense of structure". Musical motifs were used to bind the ceremony programme together: for example, the 'whistling' theme first heard during the minute's silence embedded within "And I Will Kiss" returned frequently – behind the fury as the ring was being forged, emerging triumphant as the five rings came together, and again later as the main theme of 'Caliban's Dream' whilst the flame was paraded around the stadium. Bells were a theme of the opening day of the Olympics, starting at 8:12 am with artist Martin Creed's Work No. 1197: All the Bells, when bells were rung across the UK including forty strikes of Big Ben. "The sound of bells is the sound of England", Boyle had told volunteers during rehearsal. Much of the music for the ceremony contained 'bell' references, linking to the large bell forged for the ceremony and evoking bells as "the sound of freedom and peace". Modified sequences based on the traditional British eight-bell peal underlaid "And I Will Kiss" and carried through into the "Tubular Bells"/NHS section, with handbells and a tolling large bell featured on 'Caliban's Dream' and at key points in the ceremony. A handbell chime also played after the close, as the stadium emptied. Boyle approached many of the artists personally, to see if they would be interested in performing, and he also flew to Barbados for an hour-long meeting with Mike Oldfield. A few turned him down, including Elvis Costello and David Bowie. The performing artists were paid a nominal £1 fee to make their contracts legally binding. The pre-recorded soundtrack Isles of Wonder was released on iTunes at midnight of 28 July 2012, with a two-disc CD set released on 2 August. Within two days the download album had topped the iTunes album charts in Britain, France, Belgium and Spain, and reached No. 5 in the United States, as well as being No. 5 in the British album charts. Rick Smith's concluding comment in the CD cover notes was: "The isle is full of noises. The soundtrack writes itself." Anthems National Anthem of the United Kingdom – Kaos Signing Choir for Deaf and Hearing Children Olympic Anthem – London Symphony Orchestra Technical aspects The main loading of the stadium started on 10 May and took ten weeks of what was the wettest summer for a hundred years, posing considerable challenges. Dismantling the staging took just sixty hours. The infield staging area was 2.5 metres high, and had to accommodate the elements revealed during the ceremony, such as the chimneys and beam engines from 'Pandemonium', and the cauldron. To ensure that it remained secret, the cauldron was code-named 'Betty', and installed and tested at night. The stadium was rigged with a one million watt sound system and more than 500 speakers. Some 15,000 square metres (3.7 acres) of staging and 12,956 props were used, as well as 7,346 square metres (1.815 acres) of turf including crops. 70,799 25 centimetre (10 inch) pixel panels were placed around the stadium, including between every seat. Each panel connected to a central computer and was fitted with nine full-colour LED pixels by Tait Technology. These enabled images to be broadcast during the performance, such as of a 1960s go-go dancer, a London Underground train, and a representation of the birth of the internet. The audience was also able to participate by waving the paddles to create a twinkling effect. These animations were designed by 59 Productions and the video animations were produced by Chinese company Crystal CG. The 2D to 3D transformation and mapping of video content onto the panels were done by Avolites Media media server consoles. Technical director Piers Shepperd masterminded the complex change from rural to industrial during 'Pandemonium'. The seven inflatable chimneys were made by Airworks, and varied in height (three were 22-metre (72 ft), two were 23-metre (75 ft) and two were 30-metre (98 ft) high). They were made of soft fabric, with an outer layer of printed brick pattern. Each contained four industrial fans at the base to inflate them, and a smoke machine near the top, and were hoisted into the air from the overhead rigs. Life-size beam engines were constructed onstage by teams of stage hands and members of the Volunteer Staging Team. At the climax of 'Pandemonium', in the Olympic ring forging scene, amber lights lit in sequence created the illusion of a 30-metre (98 ft) molten steel river, with pyrotechnic smoke and dry ice as steam. The original grass floor surface had been removed to reveal a giant stylised map of London. Working alongside the professional crew were over 800 volunteers; some were production arts students from British drama schools. Many had been working on the Olympic and Paralympic ceremonies since early 2012 at the Three Mills Studios and Dagenham rehearsal sites, before moving to the Stadium on 16 June. The thousands of cast were cued and co-ordinated by directions received through earphones ('in-ear monitors'), and adjustments were made during the performance: for example during Pandemonium extra volunteers were sent to make sure all the turf was cleared on time. The earphones also carried a continuous electronic metronomic four-beat to keep everyone walking and moving in time with the music. In July 2013 it was revealed that on the morning of the ceremony, Britain's surveillance headquarters GCHQ had detected a credible cyber attack threat that could have killed the lighting system in the stadium. Counter-measures were taken, and in the afternoon contingency plans were discussed with government ministers at a meeting in the Cabinet Office briefing room. However, this attack never materialised. Ceremony key team TV coverage The BBC's coverage started at 19:00 and continued uninterrupted until 00:50. The BBC audience averaged about 24.46 million viewers and peaked at approximately 26.9 million. This was the largest average audience for any broadcast since 1996 and one of the top 20 most-watched UK television broadcasts of all time. David Stringer of Associated Press described the coverage as "a success...so far, the BBC's ambitious – and technically tricky – Olympic plan has worked almost without a flaw." Euan Ferguson of The Observer commented that "Coverage of the Olympics so far ... has been near perfect." However, Clive James was critical of the build-up programme, presented by Gary Lineker and Sue Barker. Commentators for the BBC were Huw Edwards, Hazel Irvine and Trevor Nelson, the latter criticised by Andy Dawson of the Daily Mirror as floundering "like a ventriloquist's dummy pumped full of low-grade ketamine". Private talks were held between Boyle and BBC commentators in the run-up to the ceremony. Boyle was unhappy with a voiceover being imposed on the ceremony, which he wanted viewers to be able to enjoy without commentary. The BBC offered several options including 'no commentary' coverage for both its TV and online transmissions. Audio description was also provided with commentary by Nick Mullins. Nearly 41 million US viewers watched NBC's coverage of the event. Criticism was levelled at its decision to tape-delay this broadcast, and not make a live version available even to cable and web users. There were frequent interruptions by commercial breaks. Many US viewers looked for other ways to watch (such as the live BBC feed), despite both NBC and the IOC vowing to crack down on unauthorised streams. More significant criticism was levelled at NBC for cutting to a Ryan Seacrest interview with Michael Phelps during the 'memorial wall' tribute including commemoration of the victims of the 7/7 London bombings, which was seen as disrespectful and insensitive. An NBC spokesman said the network had left out that segment because its programming was "tailored for the US audience". There was also criticism of commentators Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira for suggesting that the Queen had actually jumped out of a helicopter. Vieira and Lauer admitted to not knowing that Tim Berners-Lee was the inventor of the World Wide Web, as she commented "If you haven't heard of him, we haven't either", before Lauer told the audience to Google him. These failings were picked up on Twitter during the broadcast with the hashtag #nbcfail. The ceremony was recorded by three separate broadcasters: the BBC, the Olympic Broadcasting Services (directed by the Finnish state broadcaster YLE on behalf of the OBS), and by independent production company Done and Dusted, hired by LOCOG and working under Boyle's direction. This was the first time that an independent production company had been used for an Olympic ceremony. This situation led to some tension, as Boyle wanted more artistic control and felt he was getting no co-operation from the OBS. He criticised the OBS coverage during his commentary for the BBC DVD. In addition, the BBC filmed some of the pre-recorded parts of the ceremony. The filming was directed for television by Hamish Hamilton, who described it as "easily the most difficult job of my life". The BBC released footage of the entire ceremony on 29 October 2012, edited by Danny Boyle and with background extras, filling more than one disc of a five DVD or Blu-ray disc set, which also contained more than seven hours of sporting highlights as well as the complete closing ceremony. A 'BBC commentary-free' option for the opening ceremony is available on the DVD, as well as a commentary track by Danny Boyle and Frank Cottrell-Boyce. Reception The Times described the ceremony as "a masterpiece", with The Daily Telegraph saying it was "brilliant, breathtaking, bonkers and utterly British". The BBC's chief sports writer Tom Fordyce called it "eccentric" and "tongue-in-cheek", saying "no-one expected ... it would be quite so gloriously daft, so cynicism-squashingly charming and, well, so much pinch-yourself fun." Two weeks after the ceremony Jonathan Freedland of The Guardian wrote that "Boyle's spectacular, so beautifully executed and ingeniously conceived it lingers in the mind even as the closing draws near, stood apart from its predecessors thanks not only to its humour and eccentricity, but also because it had something to say." Writing in The Observer, Jackie Kay commented that "it seemed that Boyle had invented a new kind of opening ceremony, a concept ceremony, one that embraces big ideas as passionately as it does technical flamboyancy". The Stage said that "Danny Boyle's spectacular and moving Olympics Opening Ceremony was undoubtedly the theatrical highlight of 2012". Although praise came from across the political spectrum, a few on the British political right were unhappy. Aidan Burley, a Conservative MP, denounced the ceremony on Twitter as "leftie multicultural crap". Burley's comments were dismissed by many fellow Conservatives, including David Cameron and Boris Johnson. Foreign reaction was overwhelmingly positive. The New York Times said the ceremony was "hilariously quirky ... a wild jumble of the celebratory and the fanciful; the conventional and the eccentric; and the frankly off-the-wall." Forbes called it Boyle's "love song to Britain", while Sports Illustrated noted its political aspects, calling it "a celebration of protest and dissent". The Sydney Morning Herald said it was "an unforgettable start ... at once subversive and sublime" and The Times of India said "London presented a vibrant picture of Great Britain's rich heritage and culture." The Chinese news agency Xinhua described the ceremony as "dazzling" and an "eccentric and exuberant celebration of British history, art and culture". Chinese artist Ai Weiwei praised the ceremony for its "human touch", saying "In London, they really turned the ceremony into a party ... such a density of information about events and stories and literature and music; about folktales and movies." Russian President Putin said the ceremony was "wonderful and unforgettable". Dmitry Medvedev said "It was an exceptional spectacle, very well prepared and quite rich ... it succeeded in creating a very British atmosphere ... they managed to find the right language ... to communicate." Panos Samaras of Greece's NET said "it was more like a big musical, a rock opera ... than an Olympics ceremony". French sports newspaper L'Équipe wrote that it "took the classic from such events and had fun with them" whilst Le Parisien said it "was magnificent, inventive and offbeat drawing heavily on the roots of British identity". Germany's Die Welt hailed it as "spectacular, glitzy but also provoking and moving". Chinese news CCTV-4 said the ceremony was a "stunning feast for the eyes". South Korea's Yonhap said it was "by turns dramatic, imaginative, humorous and solemn" and "weaved the story of the country's past, present and future". Singapore's Straits Times said it was a "grand show" noteworthy for both "scale" and "authenticity". The Australian praised a "glorious pandemonium devoted to London's thriving, chaotic energy ... deliberately revelling in the chaos of Britain's free society and popular culture". France's Le Figaro said it reflected "the best contributions that Britain has given to the world ... its sense of humour, its music, and of course sport". The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said it was a "rocking, rollicking, sometimes quiet and brooding ceremony." Qatar's The Peninsula said London did a "spectacular job" making the ceremony a "memorable event". In an end of the year review, British magazine Q said "It could all have been so different. As the London 2012 Summer Olympics approached, the tide of scepticism seemed almost irreversible. There was the heavy-handed sponsorship, the draconian security, the ticketing problems, the ballooning budget, and the lurking fear that the Opening Ceremony might be, in director Danny Boyle's pungent description, 'shite'. It took less than four hours on the night of Friday 27 July to turn the whole country around. Not only was the ceremony demonstrably not shite, it was the most surprising, moving, spectacular cultural event this country had ever seen...modern Britain, in all its berserk, multi-faceted glory." The writer of the ceremony, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, said: "People around us thought it might need defending, so I was told to do press the next morning. I was completely surprised [by the positive response]. A lot of people were surprised. But I don't think Danny was surprised. Danny never blinked. At no point did he show any feeling that it was going to be anything but amazing. And he was right." In December 2012 the culture critic of The Guardian picked the ceremony as "best art event of the year". A British public survey by Samsung voted it the second most inspiring television moment of all time, second only to the 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing. A Digital Spy survey of more than 25,000 overwhelmingly voted the ceremony as the entertainment highlight of 2012. The ceremony was the second most-mentioned entertainment event on the internet in 2012, with just over six million mentions, coming second to the Grammy Awards. The BBC reported that it was the most requested item from 2012 on its iPlayer on-demand service, with 3.3 million requests. Boyle was offered a knighthood in late 2012, but turned it down, saying "I'm very proud to be an equal citizen and I think that's what the Opening Ceremony was actually about." Awards and accolades Legacy The ceremony was identified by some commentators as precipitating a new mood in the United Kingdom: it "had barely finished before it had become a byword for a new approach, not only to British culture but to Britishness itself. Politicians would soon be referring to it, using it as shorthand for a new kind of patriotism that does not lament a vanished Britain but loves the country that has changed. Boyle's ceremony was hailed from (almost) all sides...for providing a nation that had grown used to mocking its myriad flaws with a new, unfamiliarly positive view of itself ... It was, perhaps, this lack of cynicism that people responded to ... So used to British irony and detachment, it felt refreshing to witness an unembarrassed, positive case for this country. Boyle himself says this was the most important thing he took away from the Olympic experience: "How important it is to believe in something. You might make a fool of yourself and people will go, 'How can you believe in that, you stupid idiot?' But if you believe in something, you carry people with you." Business leaders also took inspiration from the event, admiring its risk-taking and creative freedom, as well as the trust placed in and loyalty inspired from the workers and volunteers. In February 2013 the BBC's Head of Drama Ben Stephenson told an audience of writers, commissioners and producers that he "wanted them to seek inspiration from the opening ceremony of the London Olympics" which, he said, "had scale and brilliance and, above all, had succeeded not in spite of its Britishness but because of its Britishness, delighting viewers here and around the world by rooting itself in the authentic stories and spirit of these islands." Steve Coogan told Frank Cottrell-Boyce that he felt it was "like the emperor's new clothes in reverse ... it made irony and postmodernism feel tired and past its sell-by date", and Russell T Davies told Boyce: "It changed my idea of the possible." Reviewing the 2014 Winter Olympics opening ceremony at Sochi, Russia, Owen Gibson of The Guardian observed that with his 'complex, intimate snapshot of "who we were, who we are and who we wish to be"', Boyle “rewrote the rule book for opening ceremonies”. See also 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony 2012 Summer Paralympics opening ceremony, which was also themed on The Tempest 2012 Summer Paralympics closing ceremony Further reading Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Humphrey Jennings and Marie-Louise Jennings, Pandaemonium 1660-1886: The Coming of the Machine as Seen by Contemporary Observers. Icon Books, 2012. ISBN 9781848315853. Russell Moon Days of Wonders: Inside the 2012 Opening Ceremony. The Oak House Partnership, 2012. ISBN 978-095747310-2. Amy Raphael Danny Boyle: Creating Wonder London: Faber & Faber, published 21 March 2013, ISBN 9780571301867. References External links Media related to 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony at Wikimedia Commons Official website "London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony Media Guide" (PDF) (Press release). London 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 July 2012. Retrieved 21 December 2018. Media guide on Olympic World Library Video of Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee speech Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee's speech London Olympics Opening Ceremony Explorer Opening Ceremony Music List and Credits, Official Explorer website

Henry I (c. 1068 – 1 December 1135), also known as Henry Beauclerc, was King of England from 1100 to his death in 1135. He was the fourth son of William the Conqueror and was educated in Latin and the liberal arts. On William's death in 1087, Henry's elder brothers Robert Curthose and William Rufus inherited Normandy and England, respectively, but Henry was left landless. He purchased the County of Cotentin in western Normandy from Robert, but his brothers deposed him in 1091. He gradually rebuilt his power base in the Cotentin and allied himself with William Rufus against Robert. Present in England with his brother William when William died in a hunting accident, Henry seized the English throne, promising at his coronation to correct many of William's less popular policies. He married Matilda of Scotland and they had two surviving children, Empress Matilda and William Adelin; he also had many illegitimate children by his numerous mistresses. Robert, who invaded from Normandy in 1101, disputed Henry's control of England; this military campaign ended in a negotiated settlement that confirmed Henry as king. The peace was short-lived, and Henry invaded the Duchy of Normandy in 1105 and 1106, finally defeating Robert at the Battle of Tinchebray. Henry kept Robert imprisoned for the rest of his life. Henry's control of Normandy was challenged by Louis VI of France, Baldwin VII of Flanders and Fulk V of Anjou, who promoted the rival claims of Robert's son, William Clito, and supported a major rebellion in the Duchy between 1116 and 1119. Following Henry's victory at the Battle of Brémule, a favourable peace settlement was agreed with Louis in 1120. Considered by contemporaries to be a harsh but effective ruler, Henry skilfully manipulated the barons in England and Normandy. In England, he drew on the existing Anglo-Saxon system of justice, local government and taxation, but also strengthened it with more institutions, including the royal exchequer and itinerant justices. Normandy was also governed through a growing system of justices and an exchequer. Many of the officials who ran Henry's system were "new men" of obscure backgrounds, rather than from families of high status, who rose through the ranks as administrators. Henry encouraged ecclesiastical reform, but became embroiled in a serious dispute in 1101 with Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury, which was resolved through a compromise solution in 1105. He supported the Cluniac order and played a major role in the selection of the senior clergy in England and Normandy. Henry's son William drowned in the White Ship disaster of 1120, throwing the royal succession into doubt. Henry took a second wife, Adeliza of Louvain, in the hope of having another son, but their marriage was childless. In response to this, he declared his daughter Matilda his heir and married her to Geoffrey of Anjou. The relationship between Henry and the couple became strained, and fighting broke out along the border with Anjou. Henry died on 1 December 1135 after a week of illness. Despite his plans for Matilda, the King was succeeded by his nephew Stephen of Blois, resulting in a period of civil war known as the Anarchy. Early life, 1068–1099 Childhood and appearance, 1068–1086 Henry was probably born in England in 1068, in either the summer or the last weeks of the year, possibly in the town of Selby in Yorkshire. His father was William the Conqueror, the duke of Normandy who had invaded England in 1066 to become the king of England, establishing lands stretching into Wales. The invasion had created an Anglo-Norman ruling class, many with estates on both sides of the English Channel. These Anglo-Norman barons typically had close links to the Kingdom of France, which was then a loose collection of counties and smaller polities, only nominally under control of the king. Henry's mother, Matilda of Flanders, was the granddaughter of King Robert II of France, and she probably named Henry after her uncle Henry I of France. Henry was the youngest of William and Matilda's four sons. Physically he resembled his older brothers Robert Curthose, Richard and William Rufus, being, as historian David Carpenter describes, "short, stocky and barrel-chested," with black hair. As a result of their age differences and Richard's early death, Henry would have probably seen relatively little of his older brothers. He probably knew his sister Adela well, as the two were close in age. There is little documentary evidence for his early years; historians Warren Hollister and Kathleen Thompson suggest he was brought up predominantly in England, while Judith Green argues he was initially brought up in the Duchy. He was probably educated by the Church, possibly by Bishop Osmund, the King's chancellor, at Salisbury Cathedral; it is uncertain if this indicated an intent by his parents for Henry to become a member of the clergy. It is also uncertain how far Henry's education extended, but he was probably able to read Latin and had some background in the liberal arts. He was given military training by an instructor called Robert Achard, and Henry was knighted by his father on 24 May 1086. Inheritance, 1087–1088 In 1087, William was fatally injured during a campaign in the Vexin. Henry joined his dying father near Rouen in September, where the King partitioned his possessions among his sons. The rules of succession in western Europe at the time were uncertain; in some parts of France, primogeniture, in which the eldest son would inherit a title, was growing in popularity. In other parts of Europe, including Normandy and England, the tradition was for lands to be divided, with the eldest son taking patrimonial lands – usually considered to be the most valuable – and younger sons given smaller, or more recently acquired, partitions or estates. In dividing his lands, William appears to have followed the Norman tradition, distinguishing between Normandy, which he had inherited, and England, which he had acquired through war. William's second son, Richard, had died in a hunting accident, leaving Henry and his two brothers to inherit William's estate. Robert, the eldest, despite being in armed rebellion against his father at the time of his death, received Normandy. England was given to William Rufus, who was in favour with the dying king. Henry was given a large sum of money, usually reported as £5,000, with the expectation that he would also be given his mother's modest set of lands in Buckinghamshire and Gloucestershire. William's funeral at Caen was marred by angry complaints from a local man, and Henry may have been responsible for resolving the dispute by buying off the protester with silver. Robert returned to Normandy, expecting to have been given both the Duchy and England, to find that William Rufus had crossed the Channel and been crowned king. The two brothers disagreed fundamentally over the inheritance, and Robert soon began to plan an invasion of England to seize the kingdom, helped by a rebellion by some of the leading nobles against William Rufus. Henry remained in Normandy and took up a role within Robert's court, possibly either because he was unwilling to side openly with William Rufus, or because Robert might have taken the opportunity to confiscate Henry's inherited money if he had tried to leave. William Rufus sequestered Henry's new estates in England, leaving Henry landless. In 1088, Robert's plans for the invasion of England began to falter, and he turned to Henry, proposing that his brother lend him some of his inheritance, which Henry refused. Henry and Robert then came to an alternative arrangement, in which Robert would make Henry the count of western Normandy, in exchange for £3,000. Henry's lands were a new countship created by a delegation of the ducal authority in the Cotentin, but it extended across the Avranchin, with control over the bishoprics of both. This also gave Henry influence over two major Norman leaders, Hugh d'Avranches and Richard de Redvers, and the abbey of Mont Saint-Michel, whose lands spread out further across the Duchy. Robert's invasion force failed to leave Normandy, leaving William Rufus secure in England. Count of the Cotentin, 1088–90 Henry quickly established himself as count, building up a network of followers from western Normandy and eastern Brittany, whom the historian John Le Patourel has characterised as "Henry's gang". His early supporters included Roger of Mandeville, Richard of Redvers, Richard d'Avranches and Robert Fitzhamon, along with the churchman Roger of Salisbury. Robert attempted to go back on his deal with Henry and re-appropriate the county, but Henry's grip was already sufficiently firm to prevent this. Robert's rule of the duchy was chaotic, and parts of Henry's lands became almost independent of central control from Rouen. During this period, neither William nor Robert seems to have trusted Henry. Waiting until the rebellion against William Rufus was safely over, Henry returned to England in July 1088. He met with the King but was unable to persuade him to grant him their mother's estates, and travelled back to Normandy in the autumn. While he had been away, however, Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, who regarded Henry as a potential competitor, had convinced Robert that Henry was conspiring against the duke with William Rufus. On landing, Odo seized Henry and imprisoned him in Neuilly-la-Forêt, and Robert took back the county of the Cotentin. Henry was held there over the winter, but in the spring of 1089 the senior elements of the Normandy nobility prevailed upon Robert to release him. Although no longer formally the Count of Cotentin, Henry continued to control the west of Normandy. The struggle between his brothers continued. William Rufus continued to put down resistance to his rule in England, but began to build a series of alliances against Robert with barons in Normandy and neighbouring Ponthieu. Robert allied himself with Philip I of France. In late 1090 William Rufus encouraged Conan Pilatus, a powerful burgher in Rouen, to rebel against Robert; Conan was supported by most of Rouen and made appeals to the neighbouring ducal garrisons to switch allegiance as well. Robert issued an appeal for help to his barons, and Henry was the first to arrive in Rouen in November. Violence broke out, leading to savage, confused street fighting as both sides attempted to take control of the city. Robert and Henry left the castle to join the battle, but Robert then retreated, leaving Henry to continue the fighting. The battle turned in favour of the ducal forces and Henry took Conan prisoner. Henry was angry that Conan had turned against his feudal lord. He had him taken to the top of Rouen Castle and then, despite Conan's offers to pay a huge ransom, threw him off the top of the castle to his death. Contemporaries considered Henry to have acted appropriately in making an example of Conan, and Henry became famous for his exploits in the battle. Fall and rise, 1091–1099 In the aftermath, Robert forced Henry to leave Rouen, probably because Henry's role in the fighting had been more prominent than his own, and possibly because Henry had asked to be formally reinstated as the count of the Cotentin. In early 1091, William Rufus invaded Normandy with a sufficiently large army to bring Robert to the negotiating table. The two brothers signed a treaty at Rouen, granting William Rufus a range of lands and castles in Normandy. In return, William Rufus promised to support Robert's attempts to regain control of the neighbouring county of Maine, once under Norman control, and help in regaining control over the duchy, including Henry's lands. They nominated each other as heirs to England and Normandy, excluding Henry from any succession while either one of them lived. War now broke out between Henry and his brothers. Henry mobilised a mercenary army in the west of Normandy, but as William Rufus and Robert's forces advanced, his network of baronial support melted away. Henry focused his remaining forces at Mont Saint-Michel, where he was besieged, probably in March 1091. The site was easy to defend, but lacked fresh water. The chronicler William of Malmesbury suggested that when Henry's water ran short, Robert allowed his brother fresh supplies, leading to remonstrations between Robert and William Rufus. The events of the final days of the siege are unclear: the besiegers had begun to argue about the future strategy for the campaign, but Henry then abandoned Mont Saint-Michel, probably as part of a negotiated surrender. He left for Brittany and crossed over into France. Henry's next steps are not well documented; one chronicler, Orderic Vitalis, suggests that he travelled in the French Vexin, along the Normandy border, for over a year with a small band of followers. By the end of the year, Robert and William Rufus had fallen out once again, and the Treaty of Rouen had been abandoned. In 1092, Henry and his followers seized the Normandy town of Domfront. Domfront had previously been controlled by Robert of Bellême, but the inhabitants disliked his rule and invited Henry to take over the town, which he did in a bloodless coup. Over the next two years, Henry re-established his network of supporters across western Normandy, forming what Judith Green terms a "court in waiting". By 1094, he was allocating lands and castles to his followers as if he were the Duke of Normandy. William Rufus began to support Henry with money, encouraging his campaign against Robert, and Henry used some of this to construct a substantial castle at Domfront. William Rufus crossed into Normandy to take the war to Robert in 1094, and when progress stalled, called upon Henry for assistance. Henry responded, but travelled to London instead of joining the main campaign further east in Normandy, possibly at the request of the King, who in any event abandoned the campaign and returned to England. Over the next few years, Henry appears to have strengthened his power base in western Normandy, visiting England occasionally to attend at William Rufus's court. In 1095 Pope Urban II called the First Crusade, encouraging knights from across Europe to join. Robert joined the Crusade, borrowing money from William Rufus to do so, and granting the King temporary custody of his part of the Duchy in exchange. The King appeared confident of regaining the remainder of Normandy from Robert, and Henry appeared ever closer to William Rufus. They campaigned together in the Norman Vexin between 1097 and 1098. Early reign, 1100–1106 Taking the throne, 1100 On the afternoon of 2 August 1100, King William Rufus went hunting in the New Forest, accompanied by a team of huntsmen and Norman nobility, including Henry. An arrow, possibly shot by the baron Walter Tirel, hit and killed William Rufus. Many conspiracy theories have been put forward suggesting that the King was killed deliberately; most modern historians reject these, as hunting was a risky activity and such accidents were common. Chaos broke out, and Tirel fled the scene for France, either because he had shot the fatal arrow, or because he had been incorrectly accused and feared that he would be made a scapegoat for the King's death. Henry rode to Winchester, where an argument ensued as to who now had the best claim to the throne. William of Breteuil championed the rights of Robert, who was still abroad, returning from the Crusade, and to whom Henry and the barons had given homage in previous years. Henry argued that, unlike Robert, he had been born to a reigning king and queen, thereby giving him a claim under the right of porphyrogeniture. Tempers flared, but Henry, supported by Henry de Beaumont and Robert of Meulan, held sway and persuaded the barons to follow him. He occupied Winchester Castle and seized the royal treasury. Henry was hastily crowned king in Westminster Abbey on 5 August by Maurice, the bishop of London, as Anselm, the archbishop of Canterbury, had been exiled by William Rufus, and Thomas, the archbishop of York, was in the north of England at Ripon. In accordance with English tradition and in a bid to legitimise his rule, Henry issued a coronation charter laying out various commitments. The new king presented himself as having restored order to a trouble-torn country. He announced that he would abandon William Rufus's policies towards the Church, which had been seen as oppressive by the clergy; he promised to prevent royal abuses of the barons' property rights, and assured a return to the gentler customs of Edward the Confessor; he asserted that he would "establish a firm peace" across England and ordered "that this peace shall henceforth be kept". As well as his existing circle of supporters, many of whom were richly rewarded with new lands, Henry quickly co-opted many of the existing administration into his new royal household. William Giffard, William Rufus's chancellor, was made the bishop of Winchester, and the prominent sheriffs Urse d'Abetot, Haimo Dapifer and Robert Fitzhamon continued to play a senior role in government. By contrast, the unpopular Ranulf Flambard, the bishop of Durham and a key member of the previous regime, was imprisoned in the Tower of London and charged with corruption. The late king had left many Church positions unfilled, and Henry set about nominating candidates to these, in an effort to build further support for his new government. The appointments needed to be consecrated, and Henry wrote to Anselm, apologising for having been crowned while the archbishop was still in France and asking him to return at once. Marriage to Matilda, 1100 On 11 November 1100 Henry married Matilda, the daughter of Malcolm III of Scotland, in Westminster Abbey. Henry was now around 31 years old, but late marriages for noblemen were not unusual in the 11th century. The pair had probably first met earlier the previous decade, possibly being introduced through Bishop Osmund of Salisbury. Historian Warren Hollister argues that Henry and Matilda were emotionally close, but their union was also certainly politically motivated. Matilda had originally been named Edith, an Anglo-Saxon name, and was a member of the West Saxon royal family, being the niece of Edgar the Ætheling, the great-granddaughter of Edmund Ironside and a descendant of Alfred the Great. For Henry, marrying Matilda gave his reign increased legitimacy, and for Matilda, an ambitious woman, it was an opportunity for high status and power in England. Matilda had been educated in a sequence of convents and may well have taken the vows to formally become a nun, which formed an obstacle to the marriage progressing. She did not wish to be a nun and appealed to Anselm for permission to marry Henry, and the Archbishop established a council at Lambeth Palace to judge the issue. Despite some dissenting voices, the council concluded that although Matilda had lived in a convent, she had not actually become a nun and was therefore free to marry, a judgement that Anselm then affirmed, allowing the marriage to proceed. Matilda proved an effective queen for Henry, acting as a regent in England on occasion, addressing and presiding over councils, and extensively supporting the arts. The couple soon had two children, Matilda, born in 1102, and William Adelin, born in 1103; it is possible that they also had a second son, Richard, who died young. Following the birth of these children, Matilda preferred to remain based in Westminster while Henry travelled across England and Normandy, either for religious reasons or because she enjoyed being involved in the machinery of royal governance. Henry had a considerable sexual appetite and enjoyed a substantial number of sexual partners, resulting in many illegitimate children, at least nine sons and 13 daughters, many of whom he appears to have recognised and supported. It was normal for unmarried Anglo-Norman noblemen to have sexual relations with prostitutes and local women, and kings were also expected to have mistresses. Some of these relationships occurred before Henry was married, but many others took place after his marriage to Matilda. Henry had a wide range of mistresses from a range of backgrounds, and the relationships appear to have been conducted relatively openly. He may have chosen some of his noble mistresses for political purposes, but the evidence to support this theory is limited. Treaty of Alton, 1101–1102 By early 1101, Henry's new regime was established and functioning, but many of the Anglo-Norman elite still supported his brother Robert, or would be prepared to switch sides if Robert appeared likely to gain power in England. In February, Flambard escaped from the Tower of London and crossed the Channel to Normandy, where he injected fresh direction and energy to Robert's attempts to mobilise an invasion force. By July, Robert had formed an army and a fleet, ready to move against Henry in England. Raising the stakes in the conflict, Henry seized Flambard's lands and, with the support of Anselm, Flambard was removed from his position as bishop. The King held court in April and June, where the nobility renewed their oaths of allegiance to him, but their support still appeared partial and shaky. With the invasion imminent, Henry mobilised his forces and fleet outside Pevensey, close to Robert's anticipated landing site, training some of them personally in how to counter cavalry charges. Despite English levies and knights owing military service to the Church arriving in considerable numbers, many of his barons did not appear. Anselm intervened with some of the doubters, emphasising the religious importance of their loyalty to Henry. Robert unexpectedly landed further up the coast at Portsmouth on 20 July with a modest force of a few hundred men, but these were quickly joined by many of the barons in England. Instead of marching into nearby Winchester and seizing Henry's treasury, Robert paused, giving Henry time to march west and intercept the invasion force. The two armies met at Alton, Hampshire, where peace negotiations began, possibly initiated by either Henry or Robert, and probably supported by Flambard. The brothers then agreed to the Treaty of Alton, under which Robert released Henry from his oath of homage and recognised him as king; Henry renounced his claims on western Normandy, except for Domfront, and agreed to pay Robert £2,000 a year for life; if either brother died without a male heir, the other would inherit his lands; the barons whose lands had been seized by either the King or the Duke for supporting his rival would have them returned, and Flambard would be reinstated as bishop; the two brothers would campaign together to defend their territories in Normandy. Robert remained in England for a few months more with Henry before returning to Normandy. Despite the treaty, Henry set about inflicting severe penalties on the barons who had stood against him during the invasion. William de Warenne, the Earl of Surrey, was accused of fresh crimes, which were not covered by the Alton amnesty, and was banished from England. In 1102 Henry then turned against Robert of Bellême and his brothers, the most powerful of the barons, accusing him of 45 different offences. Robert escaped and took up arms against Henry. Henry besieged Robert's castles at Arundel, Tickhill and Shrewsbury, pushing down into the south-west to attack Bridgnorth. His power base in England broken, Robert accepted Henry's offer of banishment and left the country for Normandy. Conquest of Normandy, 1103–1106 Henry's network of allies in Normandy became stronger during 1103. He arranged the marriages of his illegitimate daughters, Juliane and Matilda, to Eustace of Breteuil and Rotrou III, Count of Perche, respectively, the latter union securing the Norman border. Henry attempted to win over other members of the Norman nobility and gave other English estates and lucrative offers to key Norman lords. Duke Robert continued to fight Robert of Bellême, but the Duke's position worsened, until by 1104, he had to ally himself formally with Bellême to survive. Arguing that the Duke had broken the terms of their treaty, the King crossed over the Channel to Domfront, where he met with senior barons from across Normandy, eager to ally themselves with him. He confronted the Duke and accused him of siding with his enemies, before returning to England. Normandy continued to disintegrate into chaos. In 1105, Henry sent his friend Robert Fitzhamon and a force of knights into the Duchy, apparently to provoke a confrontation with Duke Robert. Fitzhamon was captured, and Henry used this as an excuse to invade, promising to restore peace and order. Henry had the support of most of the neighbouring counts around Normandy's borders, and King Philip of France was persuaded to remain neutral. Henry occupied western Normandy, and advanced east on Bayeux, where Fitzhamon was held. The city refused to surrender, and Henry besieged it, burning it to the ground. Terrified of meeting the same fate, the town of Caen switched sides and surrendered, allowing Henry to advance on Falaise, Calvados, which he took with some casualties. His campaign stalled, and the King instead began peace discussions with Robert. The negotiations were inconclusive and the fighting dragged on until Christmas, when Henry returned to England. Henry invaded again in July 1106, hoping to provoke a decisive battle. After some initial tactical successes, he turned south-west towards the castle of Tinchebray. He besieged the castle and Duke Robert, supported by Robert of Bellême, advanced from Falaise to relieve it. After attempts at negotiation failed, the Battle of Tinchebray took place, probably on 28 September. The battle lasted around an hour, and began with a charge by Duke Robert's cavalry; the infantry and dismounted knights of both sides then joined the battle. Henry's reserves, led by Elias I, Count of Maine, and Alan IV, Duke of Brittany, attacked the enemy's flanks, routing first Bellême's troops and then the bulk of the ducal forces. Duke Robert was taken prisoner, but Bellême escaped. Henry mopped up the remaining resistance in Normandy, and Duke Robert ordered his last garrisons to surrender. Reaching Rouen, Henry reaffirmed the laws and customs of Normandy and took homage from the leading barons and citizens. The lesser prisoners taken at Tinchebray were released, but the Duke and several other leading nobles were imprisoned indefinitely. The Duke's son, William Clito, was only three years old and was released to the care of Helias of Saint-Saens, a Norman baron. Henry reconciled himself with Robert of Bellême, who gave up the ducal lands he had seized and rejoined the royal court. Henry had no way of legally removing the Duchy from his brother, and initially Henry avoided using the title "duke" at all, emphasising that, as the king of England, he was only acting as the guardian of the troubled Duchy. Government, family and household Government, law and court Henry inherited the kingdom of England from William Rufus, giving him a claim of suzerainty over Wales and Scotland, and acquired the Duchy of Normandy, a complex entity with troubled borders. The borders between England and Scotland were still uncertain during Henry's reign, with Anglo-Norman influence pushing northwards through Cumbria, but his relationship with King David I of Scotland was generally good, partially due to Henry's marriage to his sister. In Wales, Henry used his power to coerce and charm the indigenous Welsh princes, while Norman Marcher Lords pushed across the valleys of South Wales. Normandy was controlled via interlocking networks of ducal, ecclesiastical and family contacts, backed by a growing string of important ducal castles along the borders. Alliances and relationships with neighbouring counties along the Norman border were particularly important to maintaining the stability of the Duchy. Henry ruled through the barons and lords in England and Normandy, whom he manipulated skilfully for political effect. Political friendships, termed amicitia in Latin, were important during the 12th century, and Henry maintained a wide range of these, mediating between his friends in factions across his realm when necessary, and rewarding those who were loyal to him. He also had a reputation for punishing those barons who stood against him, and he maintained an effective network of informers and spies who reported to him on events. Henry was a harsh, firm ruler, but not excessively so by the standards of the day. Over time, he increased the degree of his control over the barons, removing his enemies and bolstering his friends until the "reconstructed baronage", as historian Warren Hollister describes it, was predominantly loyal and dependent on the King. Henry's itinerant royal court comprised several parts. At the heart was his domestic household, called the domus; a wider grouping was termed the familia regis, and formal gatherings of the court were termed curia. The domus was divided into several parts. The chapel, headed by the chancellor, looked after the royal documents, the chamber dealt with financial affairs and the master-marshal was responsible for travel and accommodation. The familia regis included Henry's mounted household troops, up to several hundred strong, who came from a wider range of social backgrounds, and could be deployed across England and Normandy as required. Initially Henry continued his father's practice of regular crown-wearing ceremonies at his curia, but they became less frequent as the years passed. Henry's court was grand and ostentatious, financing the construction of large new buildings and castles with a range of precious gifts on display, including his private menagerie of exotic animals, which he kept at Woodstock Palace. Despite being a lively community, Henry's court was more tightly controlled than those of previous kings. Strict rules controlled personal behaviour and prohibited members of the court from pillaging neighbouring villages, as had been the norm under William Rufus. Henry was responsible for a substantial expansion of the royal justice system. In England, Henry drew on the existing Anglo-Saxon system of justice, local government and taxes, but strengthened it with more central governmental institutions. Roger of Salisbury began to develop the royal exchequer after 1110, using it to collect and audit revenues from the King's sheriffs in the shires. Itinerant justices began to emerge under Henry, travelling around the country managing eyre courts, and many more laws were formally recorded. Henry gathered increasing revenue from the expansion of royal justice, both from fines and from fees. The first Pipe Roll that is known to have survived dates from 1130, recording royal expenditures. Henry reformed the coinage in 1107, 1108 and in 1125, inflicting harsh corporal punishments to English coiners who had been found guilty of debasing the currency. In Normandy, he restored law and order after 1106, operating through a body of Norman justices and an exchequer system similar to that in England. Norman institutions grew in scale and scope under Henry, although less quickly than in England. Many of the officials that ran Henry's system were termed "new men", relatively low-born individuals who rose through the ranks as administrators, managing justice or the royal revenues. Relations with the Church Church and the King Henry's ability to govern was intimately bound up with the Church, which formed the key to the administration of both England and Normandy, and this relationship changed considerably over the course of his reign. William the Conqueror had reformed the English Church with the support of his Archbishop of Canterbury, Lanfranc, who became a close colleague and advisor to the King. Under William Rufus this arrangement had collapsed, the King and Archbishop Anselm had become estranged and Anselm had gone into exile. Henry also believed in Church reform, but on taking power in England he became embroiled in the investiture controversy. The argument concerned who should invest a new bishop with his staff and ring: traditionally, this had been carried out by the King in a symbolic demonstration of royal power, but Pope Urban II had condemned this practice in 1099, arguing that only the papacy could carry out this task, and declaring that the clergy should not give homage to their local temporal rulers. Anselm returned to England from exile in 1100 having heard Urban's pronouncement, and informed Henry that he would be complying with the Pope's wishes. Henry was in a difficult position. On one hand, the symbolism and homage was important to him; on the other hand, he needed Anselm's support in his struggle with his brother Duke Robert. Anselm stuck firmly to the letter of the papal decree, despite Henry's attempts to persuade him to give way in return for a vague assurance of a future royal compromise. Matters escalated, with Anselm going back into exile and Henry confiscating the revenues of his estates. Anselm threatened excommunication, and in July 1105 the two men finally negotiated a solution. A distinction was drawn between the secular and ecclesiastical powers of the prelates, under which Henry gave up his right to invest his clergy, but retained the custom of requiring them to come and do homage for the temporalities, the landed properties they held in England. Despite this argument, the pair worked closely together, combining to deal with Duke Robert's invasion of 1101, for example, and holding major reforming councils in 1102 and 1108. A long-running dispute between the Archbishops of Canterbury and York flared up under Anselm's successor, Ralph d'Escures. Canterbury, traditionally the senior of the two establishments, had long argued that the Archbishop of York should formally promise to obey their Archbishop, but York argued that the two episcopates were independent within the English Church and that no such promise was necessary. Henry supported the primacy of Canterbury, to ensure that England remained under a single ecclesiastical administration, but the Pope preferred the case of York. The matter was complicated by Henry's personal friendship with Thurstan, the Archbishop of York, and the King's desire that the case should not end up in a papal court, beyond royal control. Henry needed the support of the Papacy in his struggle with Louis of France, however, and therefore allowed Thurstan to attend the Council of Rheims in 1119, where Thurstan was then consecrated by the Pope with no mention of any duty towards Canterbury. Henry believed that this went against assurances Thurstan had previously made and exiled him from England until the King and Archbishop came to a negotiated solution the following year. Even after the investiture dispute, Henry continued to play a major role in the selection of new English and Norman bishops and archbishops. He appointed many of his officials to bishoprics and, as historian Martin Brett suggests, "some of his officers could look forward to a mitre with all but absolute confidence". Henry's chancellors, and those of his queens, became bishops of Durham, Hereford, London, Lincoln, Winchester and Salisbury. Henry increasingly drew on a wider range of these bishops as advisors – particularly Roger of Salisbury – breaking with the earlier tradition of relying primarily on the Archbishop of Canterbury. The result was a cohesive body of administrators through which Henry could exercise careful influence, holding general councils to discuss key matters of policy. This stability shifted slightly after 1125, when he began to inject a wider range of candidates into the senior positions of the Church, often with more reformist views, and the impact of this generation would be felt in the years after Henry's death. Personal beliefs and piety Like other rulers of the period, Henry donated to the Church and patronised several religious communities, but contemporary chroniclers did not consider him an unusually pious king. His personal beliefs and piety may have developed during the course of his life; Henry had always taken an interest in religion, but in his later years he may have become much more concerned about spiritual affairs. If so, the major shifts in his thinking would appear to have occurred after 1120, when his son William Adelin died, and 1129, when his daughter's marriage teetered on the verge of collapse. As a proponent of religious reform, Henry gave extensively to reformist groups within the Church. He was a keen supporter of the Cluniac order, probably for intellectual reasons. He donated money to the abbey at Cluny itself, and after 1120 gave generously to Reading Abbey, a Cluniac establishment. Construction on Reading began in 1121, and Henry endowed it with rich lands and extensive privileges, making it a symbol of his dynastic lines. He also focused effort on promoting the conversion of communities of clerks into Augustinian canons, the foundation of leper hospitals, expanding the provision of nunneries, and the charismatic orders of the Savigniacs and Tironensians. He was an avid collector of relics, sending an embassy to Constantinople in 1118 to collect Byzantine items, some of which were donated to Reading Abbey. Later reign, 1107–1135 Continental and Welsh politics, 1108–1114 Normandy faced an increased threat from France, Anjou and Flanders after 1108. Louis VI of France succeeded to the French throne in 1108 and began to reassert central royal power. Louis demanded Henry give homage to him and that two disputed castles along the Normandy border be placed into the control of neutral castellans. Henry refused, and Louis responded by mobilising an army. After some arguments, the two kings negotiated a truce and retreated without fighting, leaving the underlying issues unresolved. Fulk V assumed power in Anjou in 1109 and began to rebuild Angevin authority. He inherited the county of Maine, but refused to recognise Henry as his feudal lord and instead allied himself with Louis. Robert II of Flanders also briefly joined the alliance, before his death in 1111. In 1108, Henry betrothed his six-year-old daughter, Matilda, to Henry V, the future Holy Roman Emperor. For King Henry, this was a prestigious match; for Henry V, it was an opportunity to restore his financial situation and fund an expedition to Italy, as he received a dowry of £6,666 from England and Normandy. Raising this money proved challenging, and required the implementation of a special "aid", or tax, in England. Matilda was crowned German queen in 1110. Henry responded to the French and Angevin threat by expanding his own network of supporters beyond the Norman borders. Some Norman barons deemed unreliable were arrested or dispossessed, and Henry used their forfeited estates to bribe his potential allies in the neighbouring territories, in particular Maine. Around 1110, Henry attempted to arrest the young William Clito, but William's mentors moved him to the safety of Flanders before he could be taken. At about this time, Henry probably began to style himself as the duke of Normandy. Robert of Bellême turned against Henry once again, and when he appeared at Henry's court in 1112 in a new role as a French ambassador, he was arrested and imprisoned. Rebellions broke out in France and Anjou between 1111 and 1113, and Henry crossed into Normandy to support his nephew, Count Theobald II, Count of Champagne, who had sided against Louis in the uprising. In a bid to isolate Louis diplomatically, Henry betrothed his young son, William Adelin, to Fulk's daughter Matilda, and married his illegitimate daughter Matilda to Duke Conan III of Brittany, creating alliances with Anjou and Brittany respectively. Louis backed down and in March 1113 met with Henry near Gisors to agree a peace settlement, giving Henry the disputed fortresses and confirming Henry's overlordship of Maine, Bellême and Brittany. Meanwhile, the situation in Wales was deteriorating. Henry had conducted a campaign in South Wales in 1108, pushing out royal power in the region and colonising the area around Pembroke with Flemings. By 1114, some of the resident Norman lords were under attack, while in Mid-Wales, Owain ap Cadwgan blinded one of the political hostages he was holding, and in North Wales Gruffudd ap Cynan threatened the power of the Earl of Chester. Henry sent three armies into Wales that year, with Gilbert Fitz Richard leading a force from the south, Alexander, King of Scotland, pressing from the north and Henry himself advancing into Mid-Wales. Owain and Gruffudd sued for peace, and Henry accepted a political compromise. He reinforced the Welsh Marches with his own appointees, strengthening the border territories. Rebellion, 1115–1120 Concerned about the succession, Henry sought to persuade Louis VI to accept his son, William Adelin, as the legitimate future Duke of Normandy, in exchange for his son's homage. Henry crossed into Normandy in 1115 and assembled the Norman barons to swear loyalty; he also almost successfully negotiated a settlement with Louis, affirming William's right to the Duchy in exchange for a large sum of money. Louis, backed by his ally Baldwin of Flanders, instead declared that he considered William Clito the legitimate heir to the Duchy. War broke out after Henry returned to Normandy with an army to support Theobald of Blois, who was under attack from Louis. Henry and Louis raided each other's towns along the border, and a wider conflict then broke out, probably in 1116. Henry was pushed onto the defensive as French, Flemish and Angevin forces began to pillage the Normandy countryside. Amaury III of Montfort and many other barons rose up against Henry, and there was an assassination plot from within his own household. Henry's wife, Matilda, died in early 1118, but the situation in Normandy was sufficiently pressing that Henry was unable to return to England for her funeral. Henry responded by mounting campaigns against the rebel barons and deepening his alliance with Theobald. Baldwin of Flanders was wounded in battle and died in September 1118, easing the pressure on Normandy from the north-east. Henry attempted to crush a revolt in the city of Alençon, but was defeated by Fulk and the Angevin army. Forced to retreat from Alençon, Henry's position deteriorated alarmingly, as his resources became overstretched and more barons abandoned his cause. Early in 1119, Eustace of Breteuil and Henry's daughter, Juliana, threatened to join the baronial revolt. Hostages were exchanged in a bid to avoid conflict, but relations broke down and both sides mutilated their captives. Henry attacked and took the town of Breteuil, Eure, despite Juliana's attempt to kill her father with a crossbow. In the aftermath, Henry dispossessed the couple of almost all of their lands in Normandy. Henry's situation improved in May 1119 when he enticed Fulk to switch sides by finally agreeing to marry William Adelin to Fulk's daughter, Matilda, and paying Fulk a large sum of money. Fulk left for the Levant, leaving the County of Maine in Henry's care, and the King was free to focus on crushing his remaining enemies. During the summer Henry advanced into the Norman Vexin, where he encountered Louis's army, resulting in the Battle of Brémule. Henry appears to have deployed scouts and then organised his troops into several carefully formed lines of dismounted knights. Unlike Henry's forces, the French knights remained mounted; they hastily charged the Anglo-Norman positions, breaking through the first rank of the defences but then becoming entangled in Henry's second line of knights. Surrounded, the French army began to collapse. In the melee, Henry was hit by a sword blow, but his armour protected him. Louis and William Clito escaped from the battle, leaving Henry to return to Rouen in triumph. The war slowly petered out after this battle, and Louis took the dispute over Normandy to Pope Callixtus II's council in Reims that October. Henry faced French complaints concerning his acquisition and subsequent management of Normandy, and despite being defended by Geoffrey, the Archbishop of Rouen, Henry's case was shouted down by the pro-French elements of the council. Callixtus declined to support Louis, and merely advised the two rulers to seek peace. Amaury de Montfort came to terms with Henry, but Henry and William Clito failed to find a mutually satisfactory compromise. In June 1120, Henry and Louis formally made peace on terms advantageous to the King of England: William Adelin gave homage to Louis, and in return Louis confirmed William's rights to the Duchy. Succession crisis, 1120–1124 Henry's succession plans were thrown into chaos by the sinking of the White Ship on 25 November 1120. Henry had left the port of Barfleur for England in the early evening, leaving William Adelin and many of the younger members of the court to follow on that night in a separate vessel, the White Ship. Both the crew and passengers were drunk and, just outside the harbour, the ship hit a submerged rock. The ship sank, killing as many as 300 people, with only one survivor, a butcher from Rouen. Henry's court was initially too scared to report William's death to the King. When he was finally told, he collapsed with grief. The disaster left Henry with no legitimate son, his nephews now the closest possible male heirs. Henry announced he would take a new wife, Adeliza of Louvain, opening up the prospect of a new royal son, and the two were married at Windsor Castle in January 1121. Henry appears to have chosen her because she was attractive and came from a prestigious noble line. Adeliza seems to have been fond of Henry and joined him in his travels, probably to maximise the chances of her conceiving a child. The White Ship disaster initiated fresh conflict in Wales, where the drowning of Richard, Earl of Chester, encouraged a rebellion led by Maredudd ap Bleddyn. Henry intervened in North Wales that summer with an army and, although he was hit by a Welsh arrow, the campaign reaffirmed royal power across the region. Henry's alliance with Anjou – which had been based on his son William marrying Fulk's daughter Matilda – began to disintegrate. Fulk returned from the Levant and demanded that Henry return Matilda and her dowry, a range of estates and fortifications in Maine. Matilda left for Anjou, but Henry argued that the dowry had in fact originally belonged to him before it came into the possession of Fulk, and so declined to hand the estates back to Anjou. Fulk married his daughter Sibylla to William Clito, and granted them Maine. Once again, conflict broke out, as Amaury de Montfort allied himself with Fulk and led a revolt along the Norman-Anjou border in 1123. Amaury was joined by several other Norman barons, headed by Waleran de Beaumont, one of the sons of Henry's old ally, Robert of Meulan. Henry dispatched Robert of Gloucester and Ranulf le Meschin to Normandy and then intervened himself in late 1123. He began the process of besieging the rebel castles, before wintering in the Duchy. In the spring of 1124, campaigning began again. In the battle of Bourgthéroulde, Odo Borleng, castellan of Bernay, Eure, led the King's army and received intelligence that the rebels were departing from the rebel base in Beaumont-le-Roger allowing him to ambush them as they traversed through the Brotonne forest. Waleran charged the royal forces, but his knights were cut down by Odo's archers and the rebels were quickly overwhelmed. Waleran was captured, but Amaury escaped. Henry mopped up the remainder of the rebellion, blinding some of the rebel leaders – considered, at the time, a more merciful punishment than execution – and recovering the last rebel castles. He paid Pope Callixtus a large amount of money, in exchange for the Papacy annulling the marriage of William Clito and Sibylla on the grounds of consanguinity. Planning the succession, 1125–1134 Henry and Adeliza did not conceive any children, generating prurient speculation as to the possible explanation, and the future of the dynasty appeared at risk. Henry may have begun to look among his nephews for a possible heir. He may have considered Stephen of Blois as a possible option and, perhaps in preparation for this, he arranged a beneficial marriage for Stephen to a wealthy heiress, Matilda. Theobald of Blois, his close ally, may have also felt that he was in favour with Henry. William Clito, who was King Louis's preferred choice, remained opposed to Henry and was therefore unsuitable. Henry may have also considered his own illegitimate son, Robert of Gloucester, as a possible candidate, but English tradition and custom would have looked unfavourably on this. Henry's plans shifted when the Empress Matilda's husband, the Emperor Henry, died in 1125. The King recalled his daughter to England the next year and declared that, should he die without a male heir, she was to be his rightful successor. The Anglo-Norman barons were gathered together at Westminster at Christmas 1126, where they swore to recognise Matilda and any future legitimate heir she might have. Putting forward a woman as a potential heir in this way was unusual: opposition to Matilda continued to exist within the English court, and Louis was vehemently opposed to her candidacy. Fresh conflict broke out in 1127, when the childless Charles I, Count of Flanders, was murdered, creating a local succession crisis. Backed by King Louis, William Clito was chosen by the Flemings to become their new ruler. This development potentially threatened Normandy, and Henry began to finance a proxy war in Flanders, promoting the claims of William's Flemish rivals. In an effort to disrupt the French alliance with William, Henry mounted an attack into France in 1128, forcing Louis to cut his aid to William. William died unexpectedly in July, removing the last major challenger to Henry's rule and bringing the war in Flanders to a halt. Without William, the baronial opposition in Normandy lacked a leader. A fresh peace was made with France, and Henry was finally able to release the remaining prisoners from the revolt of 1123, including Waleran of Meulan, who was rehabilitated into the royal court. Meanwhile, Henry rebuilt his alliance with Fulk of Anjou, this time by marrying Matilda to Fulk's eldest son, Geoffrey. The pair were betrothed in 1127 and married the following year. It is unknown whether Henry intended Geoffrey to have any future claim on England or Normandy, and he was probably keeping his son-in-law's status deliberately uncertain. Similarly, although Matilda was granted several castles in Normandy as part of her dowry, it was not specified when the couple would actually take possession of them. Fulk left Anjou for Jerusalem in 1129, declaring Geoffrey the Count of Anjou and Maine. The marriage proved difficult, as the couple did not particularly like each other and the disputed castles proved a point of contention, resulting in Matilda returning to Normandy later that year. Henry appears to have blamed Geoffrey for the separation, but in 1131 the couple were reconciled. Much to the pleasure and relief of Henry, Matilda then gave birth to two sons, Henry and Geoffrey, in 1133 and 1134. Death and legacy Death Relations among Henry, Matilda, and Geoffrey became increasingly strained during the King's final years. Matilda and Geoffrey suspected that they lacked genuine support in England. In 1135 they urged Henry to hand over the royal castles in Normandy to Matilda while he was still alive, and insisted that the Norman nobility swear immediate allegiance to her, thereby giving the couple a more powerful position after Henry's death. Henry angrily declined to do so, probably out of concern that Geoffrey would try to seize power in Normandy. A fresh rebellion broke out among the barons in southern Normandy, led by William III, Count of Ponthieu, whereupon Geoffrey and Matilda intervened in support of the rebels. Henry campaigned throughout the autumn, strengthening the southern frontier, and then travelled to Lyons-la-Forêt in November to enjoy some hunting, still apparently healthy. There he fell ill – according to the chronicler Henry of Huntingdon, he ate too many ("a surfeit of") lampreys against his physician's advice – and his condition worsened over the course of a week. Once the condition appeared terminal, Henry gave confession and summoned Archbishop Hugh of Amiens, who was joined by Robert of Gloucester and other members of the court. In accordance with custom, preparations were made to settle Henry's outstanding debts and to revoke outstanding sentences of forfeiture. The King died on 1 December 1135, and his corpse was taken to Rouen accompanied by the barons, where it was embalmed; his entrails were buried locally at the priory of Notre-Dame du Pré, and the preserved body was taken on to England, where it was interred at Reading Abbey. Despite Henry's efforts, the succession was disputed. When news began to spread of the King's death, Geoffrey and Matilda were in Anjou supporting the rebels in their campaign against the royal army, which included a number of Matilda's supporters such as Robert of Gloucester. Many of these barons had taken an oath to stay in Normandy until the late king was properly buried, which prevented them from returning to England. The Norman nobility discussed declaring Theobald of Blois king. Theobald's younger brother, Stephen of Blois, quickly crossed from Boulogne to England, accompanied by his military household. Hugh Bigod dubiously testified that Henry, on his deathbed, had released the barons from their oath to Matilda, and with the help of his brother, Henry of Blois, Stephen seized power in England and was crowned king on 22 December. Matilda did not give up her claim to England and Normandy, appealing at first to the Pope against the decision to allow the coronation of Stephen, and then invading England to start a prolonged civil war, known as the Anarchy, between 1135 and 1153. Historiography Historians have drawn on a range of sources on Henry, including the accounts of chroniclers; other documentary evidence, including early pipe rolls; and surviving buildings and architecture. The three main chroniclers to describe the events of Henry's life were William of Malmesbury, Orderic Vitalis, and Henry of Huntingdon, but each incorporated extensive social and moral commentary into their accounts and borrowed a range of literary devices and stereotypical events from other popular works. Other chroniclers include Eadmer, Hugh the Chanter, Abbot Suger, and the authors of the Welsh Brut. Not all royal documents from the period have survived, but there are several royal acts, charters, writs, and letters, along with some early financial records. Some of these have since been discovered to be forgeries, and others had been subsequently amended or tampered with. Late medieval historians seized on the accounts of selected chroniclers regarding Henry's education and gave him the title of Henry "Beauclerc", a theme echoed in the analysis of Victorian and Edwardian historians such as Francis Palgrave and Henry Davis. The historian Charles David dismissed this argument in 1929, showing the more extreme claims for Henry's education to be without foundation. Modern histories of Henry commenced with Richard Southern's work in the early 1960s, followed by extensive research during the rest of the 20th century into a wide variety of themes from his reign in England, and a much more limited number of studies of his rule in Normandy. Only two major, modern biographies of Henry have been produced, C. Warren Hollister's posthumous volume in 2001, and Judith Green's 2006 work. Interpretation of Henry's personality by historians has altered over time. Earlier historians such as Austin Poole and Richard Southern considered Henry as a cruel, draconian ruler. More recent historians, such as Hollister and Green, view his implementation of justice much more sympathetically, particularly when set against the standards of the day, but even Green has noted that Henry was "in many respects highly unpleasant", and Alan Cooper has observed that many contemporary chroniclers were probably too scared of the King to voice much criticism. Historians have also debated the extent to which Henry's administrative reforms genuinely constituted an introduction of what Hollister and John Baldwin have termed systematic, "administrative kingship", or whether his outlook remained fundamentally traditional. Henry's burial at Reading Abbey is marked by a local cross and a plaque, but Reading Abbey was slowly demolished during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century. The exact location is uncertain, but the most likely location of the tomb itself is now in a built-up area of central Reading, on the site of the former abbey choir. A plan to locate his remains was announced in March 2015, with support from English Heritage and Philippa Langley, who aided with the successful discovery and exhumation of Richard III. Family and children Legitimate In addition to Matilda and William, Henry possibly had a short-lived son, Richard, with his first wife, Matilda of Scotland. Henry and his second wife, Adeliza of Louvain, had no children. Illegitimate Henry had several illegitimate children by various mistresses. Sons Robert FitzRoy, Earl of Gloucester, born in the 1090s to a woman of Gay family of north Oxfordshire; Richard, born to Ansfride, brought up by Robert Bloet, the Bishop of Lincoln; Reginald de Dunstanville, Earl of Cornwall, born in the 1110s or early 1120s, possibly to Sibyl Corbet; Robert FitzEdith, born to Edith Forne; Gilbert FitzRoy, possibly born to an unnamed sister or daughter of Walter of Gand; William de Tracy, possibly born in the 1090s; Henry FitzRoy, possibly born to Nest ferch Rhys; Fulk FitzRoy, possibly born to Ansfride; William, the full brother of Sybilla of Normandy, probably also of Reginald de Dunstanville. Daughters Matilda FitzRoy, Countess of Perche; Matilda FitzRoy; Duchess of Brittany. Juliane, wife of Eustace of Breteuil, possibly born to Ansfrida; Mabel, wife of William Gouet; Constance, Viscountess of Beaumont-sur-Sarthe; Aline, wife of Matthew de Montmorency; Isabel, daughter of Isabel de Beaumont, Countess of Pembroke; Sybilla de Normandy, Queen of Scotland, probably born before 1100; Matilda Fitzroy, Abbess of Montivilliers; Gundrada de Dunstanville; Possibly Rohese, wife of Henry de la Pomerai; Emma, wife of Guy of Laval; Adeliza; Elizabeth Fitzroy, the wife of Fergus of Galloway; Possibly Sibyl of Falaise. Family tree See also List of earls in the reign of Henry I of England Notes References Bibliography External links Henry I at the official website of the British monarchy Henry I at BBC History Portraits of King Henry I at the National Portrait Gallery, London

The Battle of Naseby took place on 14 June 1645 during the First English Civil War, near the village of Naseby in Northamptonshire. The Parliamentarian New Model Army, commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell, destroyed the main Royalist army under Charles I and Prince Rupert. The defeat ended any real hope of royalist victory, although Charles did not finally surrender until May 1646. The 1645 campaign began in April when the newly formed New Model Army marched west to relieve Taunton, before being ordered back to lay siege to Oxford, the Royalist wartime capital. On 31 May, the Royalists stormed Leicester and Fairfax was instructed to abandon the siege and engage them. Although heavily outnumbered, Charles decided to stand and fight and after several hours of combat, his force was effectively destroyed. The Royalists suffered over 1,000 casualties, with over 4,500 of their infantry captured and paraded through the streets of London; they would never again field an army of comparable quality. They also lost all their artillery and stores, along with Charles' personal baggage and private papers, which revealed his attempts to bring the Irish Catholic Confederation and foreign mercenaries into the war. These were published in a pamphlet titled The King's Cabinet Opened, whose appearance was a great boost to the cause of Parliament. Background In July 1644, a Parliamentarian force under Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell secured control of Northern England by victory at Marston Moor. However, this was offset first by defeat at Lostwithiel in September, then lack of decisiveness at the Second Battle of Newbury in October. The two commanders involved, Essex and Manchester, were accused by many in Parliament of lacking commitment, a group that included moderates like Sir William Waller as well as radicals like Cromwell. In December, Sir Henry Vane introduced the Self-denying Ordinance, requiring any military officers to resign from Parliament. As members of the House of Lords, Manchester and Essex were automatically removed since unlike MPs they could not resign their titles, although they could be re-appointed, 'if Parliament approved.' It also led to the creation of the New Model Army, a centralised, professional force. Moderates Fairfax and Philip Skippon were appointed Commander-in-Chief and head of the infantry, respectively; Cromwell remained an MP but was given command of the cavalry on a 'temporary' three-month commission, constantly renewed. At the outset of 1645, the Royalist high command was divided on strategy. Prince Rupert of the Rhine, recently appointed senior commander, wanted to link up with his brother Prince Maurice at Chester and retake the north, a key source of recruits and supplies. A faction headed by Lord Digby considered the New Model a threat to their capital at Oxford, while a third group preferred to consolidate control of the West Country. On 30 April, Fairfax marched west to relieve the Parliamentarian stronghold of Taunton; Lord Goring was despatched with 3,000 cavalry to support the Siege of Taunton, while the main Royalist field army of 8,600 men under Charles I and Prince Rupert moved north. Concerned by this threat, Parliament's Committee of Both Kingdoms ordered Fairfax to change his plans and besiege Oxford. Although he made little progress, by the end of May the town was running short of provisions and to relieve the pressure, the Royalists stormed the Parliamentarian-held town of Leicester on 31 May, allegedly killing over 700 soldiers and civilians. Alarmed by this, Parliament instructed Fairfax to abandon the siege and on 5 June he marched north to engage the Royalist army. Unlike Prince Rupert who had been beaten by Fairfax and Cromwell the previous summer, Digby and Charles dismissed the fighting capabilities of the New Model. Despite being seriously outnumbered, they were eager for battle; messages were sent ordering Goring to rejoin them, but he refused to leave the West Country. On 12 June, the Royalists were alerted to the presence of the New Model when Parliamentarian patrols clashed with their outposts near Daventry. The next day, Fairfax was reinforced by Cromwell's cavalry and troops from the Eastern Association under Edward Rossiter, bringing his numbers up to 14,000. Although Prince Rupert favoured withdrawing, Digby convinced Charles that retreat would be bad for morale and they decided to stand and fight. Battle The morning of 14 June was foggy, preventing the opposing armies from sighting each other across the battlefield. The Royalists occupied a strong position on a ridge between the villages of Little Oxendon and East Farndon about 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Market Harborough. The Royalist scoutmaster, Sir Francis Ruce, was sent out to find the Parliamentarian army and rode south for 2 or 3 miles (3.2 or 4.8 km) but saw no sign of it, perhaps through negligence. Rupert himself moved forward and saw some Parliamentarian cavalry, apparently retiring. He was determined to secure the commanding Naseby ridge and ordered the Royalist army to advance. Fairfax initially considered occupying the northern slopes of Naseby ridge. Cromwell believed that this position was too strong, and that the Royalists would refuse battle rather than attack it. He is said to have sent a message to Fairfax, saying, "I beseech you, withdraw to yonder hill, which may provoke the enemy to charge us". Fairfax agreed, and moved his army back slightly. The Royalists did not see Fairfax's position until they reached the village of Clipston, just over a mile north of Naseby ridge. It was clearly impossible for the Royalists to withdraw to their original position without being attacked by the Parliamentarian cavalry while on the line of march and therefore at a disadvantage. Rupert deployed the army to its right, where the ground appeared to be more favourable for his own cavalry and prepared for battle. Deployments Royalists The Royalists occupied a front of about a mile and a half, between the Clipston-Naseby track on the left and the Sulby Hedges on the right. Their right wing consisted of between 2,000 and 3,000 cavalry under Prince Rupert and his brother Prince Maurice. The centre was commanded by Lord Astley and organised as three infantry brigades or tertias under Sir George Lisle, Henry Bard and Astley's son, Sir Bernard Astley, with a regiment of horse under Colonel Howard in support. On the left under Sir Marmaduke Langdale were 1,500 "Northern Horse", the remnants of cavalry regiments which had escaped from Marston Moor. Charles commanded a small reserve, consisting of his own and Rupert's regiments of foot (800 in total) and his lifeguard of horse. Parliamentarians Fairfax had drawn up his army on the ridge a mile north of Naseby, although some of it was behind the crest on the reverse slope. Ireton's wing of five and a half regiments of cavalry was on the left. The infantry under Sergeant-Major General Sir Philip Skippon was in the centre with five regiments on the front line and three in support. A forlorn hope of 300 musketeers was deployed to the front, with a reserve provided by two companies of Colonel Edward Harley's regiment, commanded by its Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Pride. A Parliamentarian engraving of the battle shows 11 pieces of artillery, in the intervals between the infantry regiments. They played little part in the battle; their first salvoes went high, and the Royalist and Parliamentarian infantry were subsequently too closely engaged for the guns to be used. Cromwell's wing, with six and a half regiments of cavalry, was on the right. The Parliamentarian army occupied a front about 2 miles (3.2 km) long. They outflanked the Royalist left, but their own left flank rested, like the Royalists' right flank, on the Sulby Hedges. At the last minute, as the Royalists began to advance, Cromwell sent a regiment of dragoons under Colonel John Okey into the Sulby Hedges, where they could fire into the flank of Rupert's cavalry. The number of dragoons has generally been reported as their official strength of 1,000 but an analysis of pay warrants shows it was no more than 676 in total. Action The Royalist centre attacked first, with Rupert keeping his own wing of cavalry in hand so that the horse and foot could hit the enemy simultaneously. Skippon's infantry moved forward over the crest of the ridge to meet the Royalist foot. There was time for only one volley of musketry before both sides were fighting hand-to-hand, the veteran Royalist infantry using their swords and the butt ends of their muskets. Sir Edward Walker, Charles's secretary of war, stated "The Foot on either side hardly saw each other until they were within Carabine Shot, and so made only one Volley; our falling in with Sword and butt end of the Musquet did notable Execution, so much as I saw their Colours fall and their Foot in great Disorder." [sic] Skippon was wounded by a bullet which splintered his armour and struck him under the ribs, although he stayed on the field to prevent panic from spreading. Even so, the Parliamentarians were hard-pressed and forced back. On the Parliamentarian left, the opposing wings of horse paused briefly to dress ranks before charging into each other. Henry Ireton's own regiment repulsed their Royalist opposite numbers, but Ireton then led at least part of them to the aid of the beleaguered Parliamentarian infantry. His troopers were driven off by Royalist pikemen, and Ireton himself was unhorsed, wounded in the leg and face and taken prisoner. At the same time, the second line of Royalist cavalry broke most of the Parliamentarian horsemen. Some of Ireton's regiments, on the far left, were saved from destruction by the fire from Okey's dragoons, but the others broke and fled, some of them not stopping until they reached Northampton, 15 miles (24 km) away. The entire Royalist right wing had been committed to defeating Ireton, and none were left in reserve. Rupert either neglected or was unable to rally the cavalier horsemen, who galloped off the battlefield in pursuit of the fleeing Parliamentarians. Meanwhile, the Parliamentarian right wing of horse under Cromwell and the Royalist Northern Horse faced each other, neither willing to charge to the aid of their infantry while the other could threaten their flank. Eventually, after half an hour, the Royalist cavalry began to charge and Cromwell's troops moved to meet them. Langdale's men were not only outflanked and outnumbered two to one, but forced to charge up a slope broken up by bushes and a rabbit warren. After a brief contest, they were routed. Unlike Rupert, Cromwell had roughly half of his wing uncommitted, as only the front line of Cromwell's wing had taken part in the defeat of Langdale. He sent only four divisions (roughly two regiments) after Langdale, and turned his reserves against the left flank and rear of the Royalist centre. At about the same time, Okey's dragoons mounted their horses and charged from the Sulby Hedges against the right wing of the Royalist infantry, as did some of Ireton's regiments which had partly rallied. Some of the trapped Royalist infantry began to throw down their arms and call for quarter; others tried to conduct a fighting retreat. One regiment, apparently Rupert's "Bluecoats", stood their ground and repulsed all attacks. One eyewitness said "The Blue regiment of the Kings stood to it very stoutly, and stirred not, like a wall of brasse...". [sic] Eventually, Fairfax led his own regiment of foot and horse against them, breaking their resistance, with Fairfax reportedly capturing their standard himself. Archaeological evidence, chiefly recovered musket balls, suggests this episode took place in the vicinity of Long Hold Spinney, about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) behind the original Royalist positions. At some stage, the King attempted to lead his lifeguard of horse to the rescue of his centre or in a counter-attack against Cromwell's troopers, but was prevented from doing so by a Scottish nobleman, the Earl of Carnwath, who seized his bridle and said, "Would you go upon your death, Sire?" Seeing the King swerve away from the enemy, his lifeguard also retreated in disorder for several hundred yards. Meanwhile, Rupert's cavalry had reached Naseby and the Parliamentarian baggage, whose escort refused to surrender and drove them off. Although Rupert rallied his men and returned to the battlefield, it was now too late to save the remnants of their infantry, and he could not induce his cavalry to make another charge. Fairfax halted and reorganised his lines, and when he resumed his advance, the Royalist cavalry withdrew. Fairfax's forces pursued survivors fleeing north towards Leicester. Archaeological evidence suggests fugitives and Royalist baggage guards tried to rally on the slopes of Castle Yard (also known as Wadborough Hill), a wooded hill with the ruins of a motte and bailey castle, about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) behind the original battle line. Many Royalists were slaughtered when they mistakenly followed what they thought was the main road to Leicester into the churchyard in the village of Marston Trussell, and were unable to escape their pursuers. In the aftermath of the battle, Parliamentarian troops reportedly killed at least 100 female camp followers and mutilated many others. This was supposedly done in the belief they were Irish, though the women were probably Welsh whose language was mistaken for Irish. Aftermath Fairfax recovered Leicester on 18 June. He immediately led his army southwest to relieve Taunton and capture the Royalist-held West Country. The Royalist forces surrendered at Truro in Cornwall, while leading Royalist commanders, including Lord Hopton, the Prince of Wales, Sir Edward Hyde, and Lord Capell, fled to Jersey from Falmouth. The main Royalist military force had been shattered at Naseby. The King had lost his veteran infantry (including 500 officers), all his artillery, and many arms. He lacked the resources to create an army of such quality again, and after Naseby, it simply remained for the Parliamentarian armies to wipe out the last pockets of Royalist resistance. Charles hoped to rebuild his army with new recruits from Wales and the border counties and headed in that direction. He also had expectations that reinforcements might arrive from Ireland. The Committee of Both Kingdoms responded on 28 June by ordering Leven's Scottish Covenanters to move to strike at the Royalist stronghold of Hereford. The ensuing Siege of Hereford by Covenanter forces ended in failure, but in December of the same year, Hereford was seized by John Birch in a surprise attack. The Parliamentarians had also captured the King's personal baggage, with correspondence which showed he intended to seek support from the Irish Catholic Confederation through the Cessation Treaty, and Catholic nations in Europe. By publishing this correspondence, entitled The King's Cabinet Opened, Parliament gained much support in favour of fighting the war to a finish. Within a year, the first civil war ended in a Parliamentarian military victory. See also A Commonwealth of England Navy ship, Naseby, was named after the battle. Wars of the Three Kingdoms References Citations Sources Further reading External links The Naseby Battlefield Project Battlefields Trust Resource Centre British Civil Wars site

Mary Elizabeth Truss (born 26 July 1975) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from September to October 2022. On her fiftieth day in office, she stepped down amid a government crisis, making her the shortest-serving prime minister in British history. The member of Parliament (MP) for South West Norfolk from 2010 to 2024, Truss held various Cabinet positions under three prime ministers—David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson—lastly as foreign secretary from 2021 to 2022. Truss studied philosophy, politics and economics at Merton College, Oxford, and was the president of the Oxford University Liberal Democrats. In 1996 she joined the Conservative Party. She worked at Royal Dutch Shell and Cable & Wireless and was the deputy director of the think tank Reform. After two unsuccessful attempts to be elected to the House of Commons, she became the MP for South West Norfolk at the 2010 general election. As a backbencher she called for reform in several policy areas including the economy, childcare and mathematics in education. Truss co-founded the Free Enterprise Group of Conservative MPs and wrote or co-wrote a number of papers and books, including After the Coalition and Britannia Unchained. Truss was the parliamentary under-secretary of state for childcare and education from 2012 to 2014 before Cameron appointed her secretary of state for the environment, food and rural affairs in a cabinet reshuffle. Although she campaigned for the UK to remain in the European Union, Truss supported Brexit following the outcome of the 2016 referendum. Following Cameron's resignation in 2016 his successor, Theresa May, appointed her secretary of state for justice and lord chancellor, making Truss the first woman to serve as lord chancellor in the office's thousand-year history; in the aftermath of the 2017 general election she was demoted to chief secretary to the Treasury. After May announced her resignation in May 2019 Truss supported Johnson's successful bid to become Conservative leader and prime minister. He appointed Truss secretary of state for international trade and president of the Board of Trade in July and subsequently to the additional role of minister for women and equalities in September. Johnson promoted Truss to foreign secretary in the 2021 cabinet reshuffle; during her time in the position she led negotiations on the Northern Ireland Protocol and the UK's response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In September 2022 Truss defeated Rishi Sunak in a leadership election to succeed Johnson, who had resigned because of an earlier government crisis, and was appointed as prime minister by Elizabeth II two days before the monarch's death; her government's business was subsequently suspended during a national mourning period of ten days. In response to the rising cost of living and increased energy prices, her ministry announced the Energy Price Guarantee. The government then announced large-scale tax cuts and borrowing, which led to financial instability and were largely reversed. Facing mounting criticism and loss of confidence in her leadership, Truss announced her resignation as leader of the Conservative Party on 20 October. Sunak was elected unopposed as her successor, and appointed prime minister on 25 October. After spending the duration of Sunak's premiership on the backbenches, Truss lost her seat at the 2024 general election. Early life and education (1975–1996) Mary Elizabeth Truss was born on 26 July 1975 at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, England. She was the second child of John and Priscilla Truss (née Grasby); the year before Truss's birth, their first son, Matthew, had died. Truss was known by her middle name, Elizabeth, from early childhood, with her father—a professor of pure mathematics at the University of Leeds—using it regularly, which she preferred; after being given a badge with "Mary" on it on her first day of school, Truss asked her teacher that it be changed. She later described her parents' politics as being "to the left of Labour"; her mother, a teacher and nurse, was a member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. When Truss stood for election as a Conservative, her mother agreed to campaign with her but her father declined to do so. Her parents divorced in 2003. In 1977 Truss and her parents moved to Warsaw, but returned to Britain after John and Priscilla found it "quite grim". After living briefly in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, the family moved to Paisley in Scotland when Truss was four years old, where she attended West Primary School. In 1985 they moved south to Leeds, where Truss attended Roundhay School; she later said in 2022 that at the school she "saw kids ... being let down", a claim which was criticised as inaccurate by several former Roundhay pupils. When Truss was 12 she and her family spent a year in Burnaby, British Columbia, where she attended Parkcrest Elementary School whilst her father taught at Simon Fraser University. Truss praised the Canadian curriculum and the attitude that it was "really good to be top of the class", which she contrasted with her education at Roundhay. Truss's parents had initially wanted her to study at the University of Cambridge, but Truss instead elected to go to Oxford in what her biographers, Cole and Heale, call a "bout of teenage rebellion". She applied to Merton College but was instead pooled to the all-women's St Hilda's College; annoyed, she then complained to both colleges, after which she was accepted by Merton and began her studies there in September 1993. Truss read philosophy, politics and economics and graduated in 1996. During her time at university, Truss was active in the Liberal Democrats and was a member of the Oxford Reform Club. She became the president of the Oxford University Liberal Democrats in her first year and a member of the national executive committee of Liberal Democrat Youth and Students (LDYS) in 1995. During Truss's previous, unsuccessful bid for the LDYS executive, the party's leader, Paddy Ashdown, said she was "a good debater and is utterly fearless". As a Liberal Democrat, Truss supported the abolition of the monarchy and the legalisation of cannabis, and campaigned against the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. However, by November 1995 Truss had become critical of the Liberal Democrats, as she "realised the Tory Party was saying quite sane things"; in her last year at the university, she resigned from the LDYS. By 1996 Truss had joined the Conservative Party. Career Employment and candidatures (1996–2010) From 1996 to 2000 Truss worked for Royal Dutch Shell, living in Lewisham and Greenwich and qualifying as a chartered management accountant. In 2000 she was employed by Cable & Wireless and rose to the position of economic director before leaving in 2005; one of her colleagues there, the Labour peer George Robertson, said that Truss "had a passion for politics ... she [was] fresh minded, enthusiastic and the Tory Party needed people like that". In January 2008, after losing her first two elections, Truss became the deputy director of Reform, a centre-right think tank, where she advocated for more focus on countering serious and organised crime and higher standards in schools and action to tackle what Reform perceived as Britain's "falling competitiveness". She co-authored The Value of Mathematics, Fit for Purpose, A New Level, Back To Black and other reports. Whilst working at Shell, Truss served as the chair of the Lewisham Deptford Conservative Association from 1998 to 2000, having been introduced to the branch by her friend and later Conservative MP Jackie Doyle-Price. During this time, at a reception at the Greenwich Conservative Association, Truss met her future husband, Hugh O'Leary, whom she married in 2000 and with whom she has two daughters: Frances (born 2006) and Liberty (born 2008). Truss unsuccessfully stood for election twice in Greenwich London Borough Council: for Vanbrugh ward in 1998 and Blackheath Westcombe in 2002. The deputy leader of Greenwich Conservatives, Graeme Coombes, recalled in 2022 that Truss "said [in 1998] she was hoping to stand for Parliament ... she was destined for bigger and better things". However, Alex Grant, the candidate who had defeated Truss in 2002, called her "largely invisible during the campaign". In the 2006 council election, Truss was elected for Eltham South, but did not seek re-election to the council in 2010, standing down the day she became an MP. At the 2001 general election Truss was selected for the safe Labour seat of Hemsworth, West Yorkshire, coming a distant second but achieving a 3.2 per cent swing to the Conservatives, thought impressive by her party colleagues. The election saw the Conservatives make a net gain of one seat, which was considered a disappointment; the party leader William Hague subsequently resigned, with Truss supporting the former defence secretary Michael Portillo's unsuccessful leadership campaign. In January 2005 Sue Catling, the parliamentary candidate for the Calder Valley constituency, was forced to resign by the local Conservative Association because of an affair with the association's chairman. Catling claimed that the members of the party that had opposed her were sexist and said that she was "accused of everything except murder and paedophilia". Truss, who was selected as the candidate for the seat, narrowly lost to the Labour incumbent after an active Conservative campaign which The Yorkshire Post described as "Blitzkrieg". Beginning in 2004, Truss embarked on an 18-month affair with the Conservative MP Mark Field, which ended shortly after the following year's election. Following the 2005 general election David Cameron replaced Michael Howard as leader, and Truss was added to the party's A-List, a list of potential Conservative candidates; in October 2009 she was selected for the constituency of South West Norfolk by members of the local Conservative Association, winning over 50 per cent of the vote in the first round of the final against 5 other candidates, including the future deputy prime minister Thérèse Coffey. Shortly after her selection, some members of the constituency association objected to Truss's selection because of her failure to declare her affair with Field. The Mail on Sunday was the first to report on the affair, and party members claimed to have been misled over Truss's "skeleton in the cupboard". A motion was proposed to terminate Truss's candidature; the proponents of Truss's deselection were branded the "Turnip Taliban" by Conservative Party officials and the press, including by the Mail, a reference to stereotypes about Norfolk being a county of farmers. There was also controversy over the fact that Truss was not from Norfolk, with some in the association asking for a local candidate and saying that she had been "parachuted in". On 16 November, the motion was put to the association: following both sides making their arguments, including what Cole and Heale call an "impassioned" speech from Truss, it was defeated by 132 votes to 37. Backbencher (2010–2012) Truss was elected as an MP in the 2010 general election, which saw 148 other Conservatives become MPs for the first time; many of what The Independent described as the "golden generation" would later reach high ranks in government. The Conservatives did not reach an overall majority in the House of Commons and entered into a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats, with Cameron becoming prime minister. Following her election to Parliament, Truss campaigned for issues relating to her constituency, including the retention of the Tornado GR4 airbase at RAF Marham in her constituency; the replacement of the old aircraft with around 150 new F-35 strike fighters; the conversion of the A11 west of Thetford into a dual carriageway, which was completed in 2014; and preventing a waste incinerator being built in King's Lynn. Truss co-founded the Free Enterprise Group (FEG)—a grouping of over 30 Thatcherite Conservative MPs—in October 2011; the month prior, she had co-authored After the Coalition with some of the people that would later join the FEG: Priti Patel, Kwasi Kwarteng, Dominic Raab and Chris Skidmore. The book advocated for a number of policies, including a reduction in the top rate of tax to 40 pence per pound and the introduction of a carbon tax to reduce pollution. On the publication, Truss wrote: Our message must be that the state cannot do everything: while the government can help, it can never fully solve any individual's problems. The NHS can't keep you healthy if you don't eat or exercise properly. A teacher can't get you the grades if you aren't prepared to work. The job centre can't find you work if you aren't prepared to write a CV. Another book by the same authors, Britannia Unchained, was published in September 2012. The book attracted controversy for claiming that "the British are among the worst idlers in the world. We work among the lowest hours, we retire early and our productivity is poor". In 2022 Truss stated that the authors had each written a different chapter of the book; Raab had written the chapter which contained that claim. Truss soon became well known amongst members of Parliament in Norfolk for her frequent photo ops but was well respected amongst Conservative MPs, who recognised her as dedicated and hard-working, and by staff as attentive to local issues. Some of Truss's earliest contributions to parliamentary discourse were on the subject of education: she advocated for more rigorous teaching in school subjects, especially mathematics, calling for mathematics lessons to be compulsory for all students until the age of 18 and expressing concern about a perceived overreliance on calculators from primary school pupils. Truss criticised "[giving] media studies the same value as further maths" and suggested in 2011 that students should have to sit GCSEs for "5 traditional academic subjects". Education under-secretary (2012–2014) In September 2012 Truss was appointed as parliamentary under-secretary of state for education and stepped back from the leadership of the FEG, with Kwarteng taking her place. Truss was pleased with her appointment, and praised Michael Gove, the secretary of state for the department; she also formed a friendly rivalry with the future health secretary Matt Hancock. In January 2013, Truss wrote a white paper—More Great Childcare—in which she proposed increasing the maximum number of children childminders could look after at a time from three to four, as a means of reducing childcare costs. The press, including Conservative-leaning papers like The Daily Telegraph and The Times, were largely hostile to the plan. The former claimed that prices would not fall; the latter claimed that "her appointment signal[led] a rapid deregulation of the sector"; and the Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee challenged Truss to demonstrate how to care for so many children on her own. Following a negative response from trade unions and childminders, Truss met with the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, who told her that "some of this is fine" but the maximum childminder increase went "much too far", and advised her to revise the proposal; Truss ignored Clegg and pushed ahead with the plan, angering Clegg, who then blocked the proposals. Truss also announced proposals to reform A-levels by concentrating exams at the end of two-year courses and said that the UK should attempt to "out-educate" countries in Asia. Environment secretary (2014–2016) In July 2014 during a cabinet reshuffle, Truss was appointed secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs; the changes made the Cabinet one third women. Truss was originally to be made a minister of state, but Cameron changed his mind on the morning of the reshuffle. Truss's predecessor Owen Paterson "stormed out" of Cameron's Commons study when told he was to be dismissed; nevertheless, he gave her his phone number and offered his support. Paterson was dismissed partly because of his culling plans for badgers with tuberculosis, which Truss later supported. Truss's early actions at the department included setting up a "food crime unit" to prevent incidents similar to the 2013 horse meat scandal, approving planning for the Thames Tideway Tunnel and development of Flood Re, a scheme designed to insure homes at a high risk of flooding. During her two years in the department Truss launched a ten-year strategy to counter falling bee populations, approved the limited temporary lifting of a European Union ban on the use of two neonicotinoid pesticides and cut subsidies for solar panels on agricultural land. In March 2015 Truss was one of two cabinet ministers to vote against the government's proposal to mandate plain packaging for cigarettes. When she had been asked previously about the issue during a constituency meeting, Truss said "when it comes to things like this, I take a more libertarian approach ... I don't know if it's the government's role to regulate this". At the Conservative Party conference in September 2014 Truss made a speech in which she said "we import two thirds of our cheese. That is a disgrace" and "in December, I'll be in Beijing, opening up new pork markets". Four days after Truss delivered the speech, parts of the video were featured on the satirical panel show Have I Got News For You; the awkward, stilted delivery led her to be mocked and clips of the speech went viral online. During the 2016 referendum on leaving the European Union, Truss endorsed Remain, saying that the Conservatives had "a golden chance to reform Britain over the next few years" and to avoid "[spending] that time negotiating Britain's exit from the European Union". The referendum resulted in the defeat of Remain and Cameron's resignation; the home secretary Theresa May won the ensuing leadership election and subsequently became leader of the Conservative Party and prime minister. Justice secretary and lord chancellor (2016–2017) In July 2016 Truss was appointed as secretary of state for justice and lord chancellor in the first May ministry, becoming the first female lord chancellor in the office's thousand-year history. May's decision to appoint her was criticised by the minister of state for justice, Edward Faulks, who resigned from the government, questioning whether Truss would "have the clout to be able to stand up to the Prime Minister when necessary, on behalf of the judges". Other Conservative members of Parliament criticised Truss's appointment owing to her lack of legal experience; in response, Truss's supporters accused one of the MPs, Bob Neill, of "thinly veiled misogyny". Before Truss's arrival, the budget of the Ministry of Justice—which is responsible for the administration of British prisons—had been subjected to successive cuts under the coalition government. The cuts were blamed for the prisons' rising rates of violence owing to the consequential drop in prison officer numbers. Truss lobbied the chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, for £104 million in order to hire an additional 2,500 officers, which Hammond reluctantly delivered. In November 2016, Truss was accused of failing to support the judiciary after three judges of the High Court were criticised by politicians and by the Daily Mail—which ran with the headline "Enemies of the People"—for ruling against the government on whether Article 50—which would begin the process of leaving the EU—could be triggered without Parliament's approval. A former lord chancellor, Charlie Falconer, suggested that, like her immediate predecessors, Truss lacked legal expertise and called for her to be dismissed as justice secretary as her perceived inadequate response "[signalled] to the judges that they have lost their constitutional protector". She denied that she had failed to defend them, writing:An independent judiciary is the cornerstone of the rule of law, vital to our constitution and freedoms. It is my duty as lord chancellor to defend that independence. I swore to do so under my oath of office. I take that very seriously, and I will always do so. Chief secretary to the Treasury (2017–2019) In June, following the 2017 general election, May demoted Truss from justice secretary to chief secretary to the Treasury, meaning she could attend cabinet meetings but was not a full member; Truss was enraged and called the demotion "incredibly unfair" and was, according to one of her friends, "seething for a good couple of days". Despite what Cole and Heale describe as her "knocked" confidence from the demotion, Truss soon began to contribute to the department, using it, according to a Treasury worker, "like her own personal think tank" by asking for research and advice on monetary policy. In her first few months there, she was largely left out of decision-making processes by Hammond, who was described by Kwarteng as "quite a closed, centrally controlling chancellor"; nevertheless, Truss and the Chancellor were reported to have a good relationship. Beginning in December 2017 she developed an enthusiasm for cultivating her presence on Twitter and Instagram; Truss began to plan ministerial visits around photo ops for her social media. Some of her civil servants were reported as finding her tenure as chief secretary "exhausting", owing to her work schedule and asking them multiplication questions, a tactic she had first employed as an MP. Despite her governmental role, Truss remained relatively unknown by the public, with only seven per cent recognising her in March 2019. In June 2018 Truss gave a speech criticising rules and regulations which she said "just g[ot] in the way of consumers' choices and lifestyles", including the government's efforts to reduce alcohol consumption and unhealthy eating habits, and warned that raising taxes could see the Conservatives being "crushed" at the polls. She also attacked colleagues who she said should realise "it's not macho just to demand more money", a jibe at the defence secretary Gavin Williamson, who had mounted a largely unsuccessful campaign for an extra £20 billion for his department, including threatening to write "Liz Truss blocked your pay" to everybody in the British Armed Forces. Truss's speech, which also mocked Michael Gove, was criticised by Hammond; Ed Vaizey, an ally of Gove's; and Gove himself; a speech she gave in November similarly joked about Matt Hancock, the newly appointed home secretary, Sajid Javid, and the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt. Before May's resignation announcement on 24 May 2019 Truss had sought the opinion of her colleagues on whether she could credibly stand and courted media attention. As it became apparent she could not win, she ruled herself out the day after May announced her resignation and subsequently endorsed the former foreign secretary Boris Johnson, the first minister to do so. International trade secretary (2019–2021) After Johnson became prime minister Truss was widely expected to be promoted because of her endorsement of his leadership campaign; it was thought she might have been appointed chancellor or business secretary, but she was instead promoted to the position of secretary of state for international trade and president of the Board of Trade. Following the resignation of Amber Rudd, Truss was additionally appointed minister for women and equalities in September that year. Shortly after becoming international trade secretary, Truss embarked on international trips to the US, New Zealand, Australia and Japan. Truss met with her American counterpart Robert Lighthizer on her first trip to the US, where she gave what Cole and Heale describe as an "incendiary" speech on a potential US–UK trade deal. In Australia she made unscripted comments on their free-trade negotiations with the UK; both events were to the dismay of Downing Street officials. Sebastian Payne described Truss's tenure as international trade secretary as "enthusiastic yet disruptive". She continued to document her trips through social media. In February 2020 a reshuffle took place following the general election which had been held in December. Truss feared that she would be dismissed after the comments she had made on her previous international trips, but Johnson decided to keep her in post following Javid's resignation as chancellor. During her time at the department Truss became notorious for leaking information. Dominic Cummings, Johnson's chief adviser, later wrote that Truss was "the only minister I shouted at in Number 10" because of her "compulsive pathological leaking". Truss's pursuit of a trade deal with the US concerned some in the National Farmers' Union (NFU), which worried about an influx of lower-quality food products if passed; the NFU, along with The Mail on Sunday, campaigned against such a deal in May. The COVID-19 lockdowns eliminated international travel, and Truss instead attended virtual meetings. By early 2021 Truss's attempted US trade deal was deemed futile. Instead, she focused on joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, which necessitated free trade agreements with Australia, Japan and New Zealand. The Australia deal, finalised in December, was described by one of Truss's aides as "the hardest thing she's ever got through"; the New Zealand deal was agreed to shortly thereafter. By mid-2021 she had started to ingratiate herself with the parliamentary party in anticipation of a leadership election. In September plans for a National Insurance increase were opposed by Truss; Downing Street expected her resignation, but Truss later decided against it. Foreign secretary (2021–2022) In September 2021, during a cabinet reshuffle, Johnson promoted Truss from international trade secretary to secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, replacing Dominic Raab, who had been criticised for holidaying in Crete during the Fall of Kabul; the move was despite Johnson finding Truss "flaky", according to the historian Anthony Seldon. Truss became the second woman to occupy the office and kept the post of equalities minister. Her early actions as foreign secretary included negotiating at the United Nations General Assembly for the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe; meeting with her Japanese, Canadian and German counterparts; mounting an unsuccessful attempt to join the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement; and a visit to Estonia where—like Margaret Thatcher in West Germany—she was photographed in a tank, with the pictures generating both praise and mockery. In early 2022 Truss's attention was directed towards a build-up of Russian troops near the Russia–Ukraine border. Truss supported a plan which declassified a large amount of intelligence on Russia, releasing it to the public for the first time in order to weaken the Russian government in the event of an invasion. On 10 February 2022 she met the Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow, becoming the first British minister to go on a diplomatic trip there since the 2018 Salisbury poisonings. The meeting was, according to Payne, a "disaster": Lavrov described it as being "between the dumb and the deaf", and the two ministers spoke over each other and found it difficult to communicate. Five days later, Truss stated that the world was on the "brink of war in Europe", which transpired in the early hours of 24 February as Russia invaded Ukraine. Before the invasion and during its immediate aftermath, Truss advocated for sanctions on Russia and encouraged other G7 leaders to impose them; in March 2022 she stated that the sanctions would end only in the event of a "full ceasefire and withdrawal". Johnson praised Truss's actions, saying that "she was always terrific on Ukraine ... other governments faffed around ... she was very clear and focused". Throughout the first half of 2022 Johnson's position as prime minister became increasingly unstable owing to successive scandals damaging his government and his personal reputation, including Partygate, which resulted in him and the chancellor Rishi Sunak receiving fixed penalty notices. During this time, Truss announced the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which was intended to overhaul the Northern Ireland Protocol, including measures to free goods produced in Great Britain from what she described as "unnecessary bureaucracy" entering Northern Ireland. The plan was criticised by the European Commission but was received well by the European Research Group—a Eurosceptic faction within the parliamentary Conservative party—and the right-wing Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party. Amid mounting pressure on Johnson following the Chris Pincher scandal, on 5 July Sunak and Javid resigned within minutes of each other. Johnson again considered giving Truss the chancellorship, but decided against it owing to what Payne calls the "fragile geopolitical situation" and instead selected Nadhim Zahawi as Sunak's replacement. However, Johnson's premiership proved untenable and on 7 July he announced his resignation as leader of the Conservative Party, a move which Truss called "the right decision". Leadership election (July–September 2022) On 10 July Truss announced her intention to run in the leadership election to replace Johnson. She pledged to cut taxes, said she would "fight the election as a Conservative and govern as a Conservative" and would take "immediate action to help people deal with the cost of living". She said she would cancel a planned rise in corporation tax and reverse the increase in National Insurance rates, funded by delaying the date by which the national debt was planned to fall, as part of a "long-term plan to bring down the size of the state and the tax burden". The political scientist Vernon Bogdanor said in a 2022 article that "[Truss] appreciated that winning over the membership required not detailed policy proposals but the creation of a mood". Truss received 50 votes on the first of Conservative MPs' 5 ballots, with the number of votes cast for her increasing in each; on 20 July Truss and Sunak were chosen by the parliamentary party to be put forward to the membership for the final leadership vote, with Truss receiving 113 votes to Sunak's 137. In the membership vote, the leader of the 1922 Committee, Graham Brady, announced on 5 September that 43 per cent of ballots were for Sunak and 57 per cent for Truss, making her the new leader. In Truss's victory speech, she said that she would deliver on her campaign promises and pledged to win a "great victory" for the Conservatives at the next general election. Premiership (2022) Cabinet and death of Elizabeth II As the leader of the Conservative Party, the majority party in the House of Commons, Truss was appointed as prime minister by Elizabeth II at Balmoral Castle on 6 September 2022 and began to select her cabinet ministers. With the appointment of Kwarteng as chancellor of the Exchequer, James Cleverly as foreign secretary and Suella Braverman as home secretary, for the first time in British history, no white men held any of the Great Offices of State. Other appointments included Thérèse Coffey as deputy prime minister and health secretary, Jacob Rees-Mogg as business secretary, Kemi Badenoch as international trade secretary, Kit Malthouse as education secretary, Penny Mordaunt as leader of the House of Commons and Michelle Donelan as culture secretary. Truss retained Ben Wallace as defence secretary, Alok Sharma as president for COP26, Alister Jack as Scotland secretary, Robert Buckland as Wales secretary and James Heappey as minister of state for the armed forces and veterans. Her cabinet was composed almost entirely of those who had supported her during the leadership contest. Truss was the fifteenth and final British prime minister to serve under Elizabeth II, who died on 8 September, two days after appointing Truss. She was told in the early morning that the Queen was unwell and likely to survive a "matter of hours, not days"; Truss ordered black clothes from her Greenwich home in anticipation of the Queen's death, as she had not yet had time to move her belongings to Westminster. Upon Elizabeth's death, Truss delivered a statement outside 10 Downing Street paying tribute to her: Queen Elizabeth II was the rock on which modern Britain was built. Our country has grown and flourished under her reign. Britain is the great country it is today because of her. ... Through thick and thin, Queen Elizabeth II provided us with the stability and the strength that we needed. She was the very spirit of Great Britain, and that spirit will endure. On 10 September Truss attended Charles III's accession ceremony and took an oath of allegiance to the King with fellow senior MPs. On 19 September she attended the Queen's funeral service in Westminster Abbey, reading the second lesson. Domestic policies and mini-budget On 8 September, in response to the ongoing cost of living crisis, Truss announced the Energy Price Guarantee, which was planned to cap average household energy bills at £2,500 per year, costing between 31 and £140 billion for the two years it covered. Truss, who announced the measure in the House of Commons, made an effort to keep the energy cap and the tax plan announcements—which the Chancellor was planned to unveil—separate. On 23 September Kwarteng announced a controversial mini-budget which proposed cutting taxation significantly, including abolishing the 45 per cent rate of income tax and the proposed Health and Social Care Levy, cutting stamp duty and the basic rate of income tax and cancelling rises in National Insurance contributions and corporation tax; the package, which had been constructed by Truss and Kwarteng together, was to be funded by borrowing and was intended to stimulate growth. The mini-budget was received badly by financial markets because it included temporary spending measures whilst permanently cutting tax rates. It was blamed for the pound falling to its lowest ever rate against the US dollar (US$1.033) and prompted a response from the Bank of England which, amongst other measures, bought up government bonds; the public reaction was also broadly negative. The mini-budget was criticised by the International Monetary Fund, the US president Joe Biden, the Labour Party and many within Truss's party, including the senior politicians Michael Gove and Grant Shapps. Government crisis and resignation After initially defending the mini-budget, on 3 October Truss instructed Kwarteng to reverse the abolition of the 45 per cent income tax additional rate. She later reversed the cut in corporation tax and dismissed Kwarteng, replacing him with Jeremy Hunt on 14 October. Hunt reversed many of the remaining policies announced in the mini-budget, leading to further instability; because of Truss's perceived weakness, he was described by some Conservative MPs and newspapers as the de facto prime minister. During this time, Truss became increasingly unpopular with the public, and contributed to a large fall in support for the Conservatives; in October, she became the most unpopular prime minister in British history, with her personal approval rating recorded in one survey as nine per cent. She was pilloried in national and international press as a u-turner, and a chaotic vote on fracking along with the resignation of Braverman as home secretary compounded a rapid deterioration of confidence in her leadership. On 19 October, in response to a question by the leader of the opposition, Keir Starmer, Truss said that she was a "fighter and not a quitter", quoting a 2001 phrase by Peter Mandelson. Shortly before noon on 20 October, Truss's forty-fifth day in office, Brady held a meeting with Truss where she asked if she would be able to remain in office; his response was "I don't think so, Prime Minister". At 1:35 pm, Truss announced her resignation as the leader of the Conservative Party and as prime minister. She gave the following 89-second-long statement: I came into office at a time of great economic and international instability. Families and businesses were worried about how to pay their bills. Putin's illegal war in Ukraine threatens the security of our whole continent. And our country has been held back by for too long by low economic growth. I was elected by the Conservative Party with a mandate to change this. We delivered on energy bills and on cutting National Insurance. And we set out a vision for a low-tax, high-growth economy that would take advantage of the freedoms of Brexit. I recognise though, given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party. I have therefore spoken to His Majesty the King to notify him that I am resigning as leader of the Conservative Party. This morning I met the chairman of the 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady. We've agreed there will be a leadership election to be completed within the next week. This will ensure that we remain on a path to deliver our fiscal plans and maintain our country's economic stability and national security. I will remain as prime minister until a successor has been chosen. Thank you. Heale describes a "funereal atmosphere" within the government in the days following her resignation statement. She was succeeded by Sunak as leader of the Conservative Party on 24 October and the next day advised the King to appoint him as the new prime minister; Sunak went on to further reverse many of the economic measures she had made as prime minister but retained Hunt as chancellor. Resigning on her fiftieth day, Truss became the shortest-serving prime minister in British history, surpassing George Canning, who was prime minister for 119 days in 1827. The short length of her premiership was the subject of much ridicule, including a livestream of a head of lettuce, started the week prior, which invited viewers to speculate whether Truss would resign before the lettuce wilted. Post-premiership (2022–present) Truss was reselected as the Conservative candidate for South West Norfolk in February 2023 and in August that year, she submitted the list of her resignation honours, which were released in December to coincide with the 2024 New Year Honours. In early September 2023 she announced her memoirs about her time as prime minister, Ten Years to Save the West, which was published in April 2024. That same month, Truss gave a speech to the Institute for Government think tank in which she blamed "groupthink" amongst officials and the media for the collapse of her premiership. Similarly, in October at the Conservative Party Conference, she held an event dubbed the "Great British Growth Rally" which was attended by hundreds of Conservative Party members, in contrast to government ministers who gave speeches to a hall which was, according to the Telegraph, "at times almost empty". In February 2024 she co-launched the Popular Conservatism group with others including Jacob Rees-Mogg, Lee Anderson and Priti Patel and spoke at its inaugural event. The 2024 general election, held on 4 July, resulted in Truss losing her seat, in which she was defending a majority of over 26,000, to the Labour challenger, Terry Jermy; the result was described as a Portillo moment by The Spectator, a right-leaning magazine. Political positions Domestic issues Truss has economically liberal views and supports free trade and deregulation. She supports the neoliberal philosophy of supply-side economics, often referred to as "trickle-down economics". After Truss's dismissal of Kwarteng and Hunt's reversal of many of the mini-budget's economic measures, the BBC's political editor Faisal Islam wrote that "Trussonomics is dead". During her time as a Liberal Democrat, Truss supported the abolition of the monarchy. In 2022 a video of a 19-year-old Truss at the 1994 Liberal Democrat conference criticising the notion of people being "born to rule" resurfaced; in an interview with LBC during her leadership campaign, Truss stated that "almost as soon as I made the speech, I regretted it". In 2021 Truss stated that the Conservatives should "reject the zero-sum game of identity politics, [reject] the illiberalism of cancel culture, and [reject] the soft bigotry of low expectations that holds so many people back". She voted to legalise same-sex marriage but has opposed the expansion of transgender rights. Truss spoke against gender self-identification, stating that "medical checks are important" and that "only women have a cervix". Despite initially supporting single-sex toilets being restricted on the basis of biological sex, she later said in February 2022 that the government was not interested in enacting such a measure. Foreign policy Truss was described as a hawkish foreign secretary. She called for Britain to reduce its economic dependency on China and Russia and supported certain diplomatic and economic sanctions imposed by the British government against the former. Truss has supported Taiwan in the context of deteriorating cross-strait relations but, citing precedent, refused to visit the island as prime minister and condemned the Chinese government's treatment of the Uyghur people as "genocide". In 2022 she called Saudi Arabia an ally of Britain but said she was not "condoning" the country's policies, including its handling of human rights and its treatment of women. Truss supported the United Kingdom remaining in the European Union during the 2016 referendum. Since the referendum, Truss has supported Brexit, and publicly stated in 2017 that she had changed her mind. During the July 2022 leadership election Truss said that "I was wrong and I am prepared to admit I was wrong". Notes and references Notes References Sources Books and journals News Websites and others Further reading External links Official website Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom Contributions in Parliament at Hansard Voting record at Public Whip Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou Appearances on C-SPAN

What was the final league position of the football team found in the city where José Loiola won his first World Championship gold medal for the season which began in that same year when he won gold?

15th

Temporal reasoning

Which is bigger based on their maximum average lengths multiplied by their number of legs: an elephant beetle, a brown rhinoceros beetle, or a bee hummingbird?

Elephant beetle

Numerical reasoning | Multiple constraints

The elephant beetle (Megasoma elephas) is a member of the family Scarabaeidae and the subfamily Dynastinae. Elephant beetles are Neotropical rhinoceros beetles. Appearance Elephant beetles are black in color and covered with a coat of fine microscopic hairs. The hairs grow particularly thick on the beetle's elytra. The hairs give the beetle's body a yellowish color. Males have two horns protruding from the head and another from the prothorax. The longest head horn gives the beetle its common name, since it resembles an elephant’s trunk. Females have no horns. The horns are used for defense, and in competition among males for food and mates. Size In size, elephant beetles typically range between 7 and 12 cm (2.75–4.75 in), with the largest male specimen known measuring 13.7 cm, including the horn. Location Elephant beetles are located in southern Mexico, Central America, and in South American rainforests. List of subspecies Megasoma elephas elephas (Fabricius, 1775) Megasoma elephas iijimai Nagai, 2003 Breeding Elephant beetle larvae develop in large decaying logs and take up to three years to develop into adult beetles, depending upon the subspecies. The female elephant beetle lays her eggs inside the decaying log or in the ground. Some weeks after that (usually three) the eggs hatch into C-shaped larvae, white grubs with brown heads and six legs. The larval stage lasts around 29 months, during which time the grubs consume organic matter. The third and last stage, the pupal stage, lasts around five weeks at a temperature of 26 degrees Celsius. The life span of an adult elephant beetle is around one to three months. Food For their diet, elephant beetles eat the sap of particular trees and ripened fallen fruits. In captivity, they also eat exotic fruits such as pineapples, longan, lychee fruit, and bark from certain trees like the poinciana. Behavior and habitat Elephant beetles live in rainforests and are mainly active during the night. They are able to maintain a high internal body heat when foraging despite reduced ambient temperature. Elephant beetle population has been depleted by the destruction of the rainforests, which has reduced their grounds for mating. In some countries such as Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and others in Central America the male's head is used as a charm necklace, decorated with gold. This has affected the population severely. Potential military use As part of a Pentagon-sponsored project, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have implanted electrodes into elephant beetle pupae. This allows some remote control of the adults’ flying behaviour. See also List of largest insects References External links Video article on the BBC News Website Photos and size of Megasoma elephas elephas Megasoma elephas elephas pics Megasoma elephas occidentalis pics Elephants at the Insectarium? Family Scarabaeidae - Megasoma elephas God of Insects History of Insects Viva Natura TV

Xylotrupes gideon, the brown rhinoceros beetle, is a species of large scarab beetle belonging to the subfamily Dynastinae. Subspecies Seven subspecies have been identified. Xylotrupes gideon australicus Xylotrupes gideon borneensis Minck, 1920 Xylotrupes gideon gideon (Linnaeus, 1767) Xylotrupes gideon kaszabi Xylotrupes gideon lakorensis Silvestre, 2002 Xylotrupes gideon sawuensis Silvestre, 2002 Xylotrupes gideon sondaicus Silvestre, 2002 Xylotrupes gideon tonkinensis Minck, 1920 Distribution This species is widespread in India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia: Java (nominotypical form), Borneo (borneensis), Sunda Islands and Moluccas. Description Xylotrupes gideon can reach a length of 3.5–7 centimetres (1.4–2.8 in). As usual with rhinoceros beetles there is a great difference between the genders. Males are larger than females. They have two chitinous bifurcated horns, a thick thoracic horn and a smaller cephalic horn, which they use to eliminate their rivals during the mating period. These beetles are shiny dark red, dark brown, or black in coloration. The eyes are located on each side of the head. When disturbed these beetles make a hissing noise, produced by rubbing the tip of the abdomen against the edge the elytra. Males with transverse, scantily punctured head; clypeus elongate, scantily and minutely punctured. Antenna with 10 segments. Pronotum and scutellum scantily and minutely punctured. Elytra and pygidium coriaceous, finely and scantily punctured. Dorsum of female is rugose, with coarsely and densely punctured pronotum. Pygidium finely rugose. Biology One source gives the average duration of the different developmental stages; females lay about 55 eggs at one time in decaying logs; eggs mature in 21 days, where the larvae hatch from decaying coconut logs; the total larval period is 188 days, followed by 14 days of prepupal and 32 days of pupal periods; adult females are live about 102 days, whereas adult males survive 90 days. Other sources indicate that the larvae develop in decaying vegetable matter and usually take two years in development, the adult beetles live 2–4 months. A female can lay about 20-30 eggs but it depends on the place where they live. This species is considered as a serious pest on coconut and also a minor pest on plum, okra, oil palm, sugarcane, Persea bombycina, rubber, banana, bamboo, Delonix regia, Cacao tree, poinciana, cassia, litchi, potato, apple and pear. See also Xylotrupes ulysses Elephant beetle Rhinoceros beetle References Rowland, J.M. (2011) Notes on nomenclature in Xylotrupes Hope (Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae: Dynastini) External links Media related to Xylotrupes gideon at Wikimedia Commons

The bee hummingbird, zunzuncito or Helena hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae) is a species of hummingbird, native to the island of Cuba in the Caribbean. It is the smallest known bird. The bee hummingbird feeds on nectar of flowers and bugs found in Cuba. Description The bee hummingbird is the smallest living bird. Females weigh 2.6 g (0.092 oz) and are 6.1 cm (2+3⁄8 in) long, and are slightly larger than males, which have an average weight of 1.95 g (0.069 oz) and length of 5.5 cm (2+1⁄8 in). Like all hummingbirds, it is a swift, strong flier. The male has a green pileum and bright red throat, iridescent gorget with elongated lateral plumes, bluish upper parts, and the rest of the underparts mostly greyish white. Compared to other small hummingbirds, which often have a slender appearance, the bee hummingbird looks rounded and plump. Female bee hummingbirds are bluish green with a pale gray underside. The tips of their tail feathers have white spots. During the mating season, males have a reddish to pink head, chin, and throat. The female lays only two eggs at a time, each about the size of a coffee bean. The bee hummingbird's feathers have iridescent colors, which is not always noticeable, but depends on the viewing angle. The bird's slender, pointed bill is adapted for probing deep into flowers. The bee hummingbird feeds mainly on nectar, by moving its tongue rapidly in and out of its mouth. In the process of feeding, the bird picks up pollen on its bill and head. When it flies from flower to flower, it transfers the pollen. In this way, it plays an important role in plant reproduction. In one day, the bee hummingbird may visit 1,500 flowers. It is a diurnal bird that can fly at 40–48 km/h (22–26 kn; 11–13 m/s), and it beats its wings 80–200 times per second, which allows it to remain stationary in the air to feed on flowers. The bee hummingbird lives up to seven years in the wild, and 10 years in captivity. The bee hummingbird has also been described as "the smallest dinosaur". This characterization is based upon the recognition that birds are, in fact, a living form of theropod dinosaurs (or, strictly speaking, avian dinosaurs), and no smaller bird or non-avian dinosaur has been found in the fossil record. The call is described as "high pitched, jumbled twitter". Within their territory a male will often sing atop the highest tree. Diet The bee hummingbird has been reported to visit ten plant species, nine of them native to Cuba. They occasionally eat insects and spiders. In a typical day, bee hummingbirds will consume up to half their body weight in food. Taxonomy The closest evolutionary relative of the bee hummingbird is the vervain hummingbird (Mellisuga minima), the only other member of its genus. The habitats of the vervain hummingbird are in Cuba's neighboring islands, Hispaniola and Jamaica. Habitat and distribution The bee hummingbird is endemic to the entire Cuban archipelago, including the main island of Cuba and the Isla de la Juventud in the West Indies. In these regions bee hummingbirds generally live in areas of thick growth that contain lianas and epiphytes. Its population is fragmented; it is found in Cuba's mogote areas in Pinar del Río Province and more commonly in Zapata Swamp (Matanzas Province) and in eastern Cuba, with reference localities in Alexander Humboldt National Park and Baitiquirí Ecological Reserve (Guantánamo Province) and Gibara and Sierra Cristal (Holguín Province). Breeding Bee hummingbirds reach sexual maturity at one year of age. Male bee hummingbirds court females with sound from tail-feathers, which flutter during display dives. The bee hummingbird's breeding season is March–June, with the female laying one or two eggs. Using strands of cobwebs, bark, and lichen, female bee hummingbirds build a cup-shaped nest about 2.5 cm (1 in) in diameter and 3–5 m off the ground. The nest is lined with a layer of soft plant wool. Branches in mature, leafy jucaro (Terminalia buceras) and juvenile ocuje (Calophyllum antillanum) trees are commonly used for nest building. After completion of the nest, the eggs are incubated for 21 days by only the female, followed by 2 days of hatching, and 18 days of care by the mother. During days of care the mother will hunt for small insects while chicks are left alone in the nest. Over the final 4–5 days of care, juvenile bee hummingbirds practice their flight capabilities. The nests are used only once. Coevolution with flowers The bee hummingbird's interaction with the flowers that supply nectar is a notable example of bird–plant coevolution with its primary food source (flowers for nectar). Flowers that bee hummingbirds often feed from are odorless, have long narrow tubular corolla that are brightly colored, and has dilute nectar. See also Hummingbird moth Dinosaur size Smallest organisms References External links Bee hummingbird videos, photos, and sounds, Internet Bird Collection Bee hummingbird photo gallery, Vireo

Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight skeleton. Birds live worldwide and range in size from the 5.5 cm (2.2 in) bee hummingbird to the 2.8 m (9 ft 2 in) common ostrich. There are over 11,000 living species, more than half of which are passerine, or "perching" birds. Birds have wings whose development varies according to species; the only known groups without wings are the extinct moa and elephant birds. Wings, which are modified forelimbs, gave birds the ability to fly, although further evolution has led to the loss of flight in some birds, including ratites, penguins, and diverse endemic island species. The digestive and respiratory systems of birds are also uniquely adapted for flight. Some bird species of aquatic environments, particularly seabirds and some waterbirds, have further evolved for swimming. The study of birds is called ornithology. Birds are feathered theropod dinosaurs and constitute the only known living dinosaurs. Likewise, birds are considered reptiles in the modern cladistic sense of the term, and their closest living relatives are the crocodilians. Birds are descendants of the primitive avialans (whose members include Archaeopteryx) which first appeared during the Late Jurassic. According to recent estimates, modern birds (Neornithes) evolved in the Late Cretaceous and diversified dramatically around the time of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago, which killed off the pterosaurs and all non-avian dinosaurs. Many social species preserve knowledge across generations (culture). Birds are social, communicating with visual signals, calls, and songs, and participating in such behaviours as cooperative breeding and hunting, flocking, and mobbing of predators. The vast majority of bird species are socially (but not necessarily sexually) monogamous, usually for one breeding season at a time, sometimes for years, and rarely for life. Other species have breeding systems that are polygynous (one male with many females) or, rarely, polyandrous (one female with many males). Birds produce offspring by laying eggs which are fertilised through sexual reproduction. They are usually laid in a nest and incubated by the parents. Most birds have an extended period of parental care after hatching. Many species of birds are economically important as food for human consumption and raw material in manufacturing, with domesticated and undomesticated birds being important sources of eggs, meat, and feathers. Songbirds, parrots, and other species are popular as pets. Guano (bird excrement) is harvested for use as a fertiliser. Birds figure throughout human culture. About 120 to 130 species have become extinct due to human activity since the 17th century, and hundreds more before then. Human activity threatens about 1,200 bird species with extinction, though efforts are underway to protect them. Recreational birdwatching is an important part of the ecotourism industry. Evolution and classification The first classification of birds was developed by Francis Willughby and John Ray in their 1676 volume Ornithologiae. Carl Linnaeus modified that work in 1758 to devise the taxonomic classification system currently in use. Birds are categorised as the biological class Aves in Linnaean taxonomy. Phylogenetic taxonomy places Aves in the clade Theropoda. Definition Aves and a sister group, the order Crocodilia, contain the only living representatives of the reptile clade Archosauria. During the late 1990s, Aves was most commonly defined phylogenetically as all descendants of the most recent common ancestor of modern birds and Archaeopteryx lithographica. However, an earlier definition proposed by Jacques Gauthier gained wide currency in the 21st century, and is used by many scientists including adherents to the PhyloCode. Gauthier defined Aves to include only the crown group of the set of modern birds. This was done by excluding most groups known only from fossils, and assigning them, instead, to the broader group Avialae, on the principle that a clade based on extant species should be limited to those extant species and their closest extinct relatives. Gauthier and de Queiroz identified four different definitions for the same biological name "Aves", which is a problem. The authors proposed to reserve the term Aves only for the crown group consisting of the last common ancestor of all living birds and all of its descendants, which corresponds to meaning number 4 below. They assigned other names to the other groups. Aves can mean all archosaurs closer to birds than to crocodiles (alternately Avemetatarsalia) Aves can mean those advanced archosaurs with feathers (alternately Avifilopluma) Aves can mean those feathered dinosaurs that fly (alternately Avialae) Aves can mean the last common ancestor of all the currently living birds and all of its descendants (a "crown group", in this sense synonymous with Neornithes) Under the fourth definition Archaeopteryx, traditionally considered one of the earliest members of Aves, is removed from this group, becoming a non-avian dinosaur instead. These proposals have been adopted by many researchers in the field of palaeontology and bird evolution, though the exact definitions applied have been inconsistent. Avialae, initially proposed to replace the traditional fossil content of Aves, is often used synonymously with the vernacular term "bird" by these researchers. Most researchers define Avialae as branch-based clade, though definitions vary. Many authors have used a definition similar to "all theropods closer to birds than to Deinonychus", with Troodon being sometimes added as a second external specifier in case it is closer to birds than to Deinonychus. Avialae is also occasionally defined as an apomorphy-based clade (that is, one based on physical characteristics). Jacques Gauthier, who named Avialae in 1986, re-defined it in 2001 as all dinosaurs that possessed feathered wings used in flapping flight, and the birds that descended from them. Despite being currently one of the most widely used, the crown-group definition of Aves has been criticised by some researchers. Lee and Spencer (1997) argued that, contrary to what Gauthier defended, this definition would not increase the stability of the clade and the exact content of Aves will always be uncertain because any defined clade (either crown or not) will have few synapomorphies distinguishing it from its closest relatives. Their alternative definition is synonymous to Avifilopluma. Dinosaurs and the origin of birds Based on fossil and biological evidence, most scientists accept that birds are a specialised subgroup of theropod dinosaurs and, more specifically, members of Maniraptora, a group of theropods which includes dromaeosaurids and oviraptorosaurs, among others. As scientists have discovered more theropods closely related to birds, the previously clear distinction between non-birds and birds has become blurred. By the 2000s, discoveries in the Liaoning Province of northeast China, which demonstrated many small theropod feathered dinosaurs, contributed to this ambiguity. The consensus view in contemporary palaeontology is that the flying theropods, or avialans, are the closest relatives of the deinonychosaurs, which include dromaeosaurids and troodontids. Together, these form a group called Paraves. Some basal members of Deinonychosauria, such as Microraptor, have features which may have enabled them to glide or fly. The most basal deinonychosaurs were very small. This evidence raises the possibility that the ancestor of all paravians may have been arboreal, have been able to glide, or both. Unlike Archaeopteryx and the non-avialan feathered dinosaurs, who primarily ate meat, studies suggest that the first avialans were omnivores. The Late Jurassic Archaeopteryx is well known as one of the first transitional fossils to be found, and it provided support for the theory of evolution in the late 19th century. Archaeopteryx was the first fossil to display both clearly traditional reptilian characteristics—teeth, clawed fingers, and a long, lizard-like tail—as well as wings with flight feathers similar to those of modern birds. It is not considered a direct ancestor of birds, though it is possibly closely related to the true ancestor. Early evolution Over 40% of key traits found in modern birds evolved during the 60 million year transition from the earliest bird-line archosaurs to the first maniraptoromorphs, i.e. the first dinosaurs closer to living birds than to Tyrannosaurus rex. The loss of osteoderms otherwise common in archosaurs and acquisition of primitive feathers might have occurred early during this phase. After the appearance of Maniraptoromorpha, the next 40 million years marked a continuous reduction of body size and the accumulation of neotenic (juvenile-like) characteristics. Hypercarnivory became increasingly less common while braincases enlarged and forelimbs became longer. The integument evolved into complex, pennaceous feathers. The oldest known paravian (and probably the earliest avialan) fossils come from the Tiaojishan Formation of China, which has been dated to the late Jurassic period (Oxfordian stage), about 160 million years ago. The avialan species from this time period include Anchiornis huxleyi, Xiaotingia zhengi, and Aurornis xui. The well-known probable early avialan, Archaeopteryx, dates from slightly later Jurassic rocks (about 155 million years old) from Germany. Many of these early avialans shared unusual anatomical features that may be ancestral to modern birds but were later lost during bird evolution. These features include enlarged claws on the second toe which may have been held clear of the ground in life, and long feathers or "hind wings" covering the hind limbs and feet, which may have been used in aerial maneuvering. Avialans diversified into a wide variety of forms during the Cretaceous period. Many groups retained primitive characteristics, such as clawed wings and teeth, though the latter were lost independently in a number of avialan groups, including modern birds (Aves). Increasingly stiff tails (especially the outermost half) can be seen in the evolution of maniraptoromorphs, and this process culminated in the appearance of the pygostyle, an ossification of fused tail vertebrae. In the late Cretaceous, about 100 million years ago, the ancestors of all modern birds evolved a more open pelvis, allowing them to lay larger eggs compared to body size. Around 95 million years ago, they evolved a better sense of smell. A third stage of bird evolution starting with Ornithothoraces (the "bird-chested" avialans) can be associated with the refining of aerodynamics and flight capabilities, and the loss or co-ossification of several skeletal features. Particularly significant are the development of an enlarged, keeled sternum and the alula, and the loss of grasping hands. Early diversity of bird ancestors The first large, diverse lineage of short-tailed avialans to evolve were the Enantiornithes, or "opposite birds", so named because the construction of their shoulder bones was in reverse to that of modern birds. Enantiornithes occupied a wide array of ecological niches, from sand-probing shorebirds and fish-eaters to tree-dwelling forms and seed-eaters. While they were the dominant group of avialans during the Cretaceous period, enantiornithes became extinct along with many other dinosaur groups at the end of the Mesozoic era. Many species of the second major avialan lineage to diversify, the Euornithes (meaning "true birds", because they include the ancestors of modern birds), were semi-aquatic and specialised in eating fish and other small aquatic organisms. Unlike the Enantiornithes, which dominated land-based and arboreal habitats, most early euornithes lacked perching adaptations and likely included shorebird-like species, waders, and swimming and diving species. The latter included the superficially gull-like Ichthyornis and the Hesperornithiformes, which became so well adapted to hunting fish in marine environments that they lost the ability to fly and became primarily aquatic. The early euornithes also saw the development of many traits associated with modern birds, like strongly keeled breastbones, toothless, beaked portions of their jaws (though most non-avian euornithes retained teeth in other parts of the jaws). Euornithes also included the first avialans to develop true pygostyle and a fully mobile fan of tail feathers, which may have replaced the "hind wing" as the primary mode of aerial maneuverability and braking in flight. A study on mosaic evolution in the avian skull found that the last common ancestor of all Neornithes might have had a beak similar to that of the modern hook-billed vanga and a skull similar to that of the Eurasian golden oriole. As both species are small aerial and canopy foraging omnivores, a similar ecological niche was inferred for this hypothetical ancestor. Diversification of modern birds Most studies agree on a Cretaceous age for the most recent common ancestor of modern birds but estimates range from the Early Cretaceous to the latest Cretaceous. Similarly, there is no agreement on whether most of the early diversification of modern birds occurred in the Cretaceous and associated with breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana or occurred later and potentially as a consequence of the Cretaceous–Palaeogene extinction event. This disagreement is in part caused by a divergence in the evidence; most molecular dating studies suggests a Cretaceous evolutionary radiation, while fossil evidence points to a Cenozoic radiation (the so-called 'rocks' versus 'clocks' controversy). The discovery of Vegavis from the Maastrichtian, the last stage of the Late Cretaceous proved that the diversification of modern birds started before the Cenozoic era. The affinities of an earlier fossil, the possible galliform Austinornis lentus, dated to about 85 million years ago, are still too controversial to provide a fossil evidence of modern bird diversification. In 2020, Asteriornis from the Maastrichtian was described, it appears to be a close relative of Galloanserae, the earliest diverging lineage within Neognathae. Attempts to reconcile molecular and fossil evidence using genomic-scale DNA data and comprehensive fossil information have not resolved the controversy. However, a 2015 estimate that used a new method for calibrating molecular clocks confirmed that while modern birds originated early in the Late Cretaceous, likely in Western Gondwana, a pulse of diversification in all major groups occurred around the Cretaceous–Palaeogene extinction event. Modern birds would have expanded from West Gondwana through two routes. One route was an Antarctic interchange in the Paleogene. The other route was probably via Paleocene land bridges between South America and North America, which allowed for the rapid expansion and diversification of Neornithes into the Holarctic and Paleotropics. On the other hand, the occurrence of Asteriornis in the Northern Hemisphere suggest that Neornithes dispersed out of East Gondwana before the Paleocene. Classification of bird orders All modern birds lie within the crown group Aves (alternately Neornithes), which has two subdivisions: the Palaeognathae, which includes the flightless ratites (such as the ostriches) and the weak-flying tinamous, and the extremely diverse Neognathae, containing all other birds. These two subdivisions have variously been given the rank of superorder, cohort, or infraclass. The number of known living bird species is around 11,000 although sources may differ in their precise numbers. Cladogram of modern bird relationships based on Stiller et al. (2024). The classification of birds is a contentious issue. Sibley and Ahlquist's Phylogeny and Classification of Birds (1990) is a landmark work on the subject. Most evidence seems to suggest the assignment of orders is accurate, but scientists disagree about the relationships among the orders themselves; evidence from modern bird anatomy, fossils and DNA have all been brought to bear on the problem, but no strong consensus has emerged. Fossil and molecular evidence from the 2010s is providing an increasingly clear picture of the evolution of modern bird orders. Genomics As of 2010, the genome had been sequenced for only two birds, the chicken and the zebra finch. As of 2022 the genomes of 542 species of birds had been completed. At least one genome has been sequenced from every order. These include at least one species in about 90% of extant avian families (218 out of 236 families recognised by the Howard and Moore Checklist). Being able to sequence and compare whole genomes gives researchers many types of information, about genes, the DNA that regulates the genes, and their evolutionary history. This has led to reconsideration of some of the classifications that were based solely on the identification of protein-coding genes. Waterbirds such as pelicans and flamingos, for example, may have in common specific adaptations suited to their environment that were developed independently. Distribution Birds live and breed in most terrestrial habitats and on all seven continents, reaching their southern extreme in the snow petrel's breeding colonies up to 440 kilometres (270 mi) inland in Antarctica. The highest bird diversity occurs in tropical regions. It was earlier thought that this high diversity was the result of higher speciation rates in the tropics; however studies from the 2000s found higher speciation rates in the high latitudes that were offset by greater extinction rates than in the tropics. Many species migrate annually over great distances and across oceans; several families of birds have adapted to life both on the world's oceans and in them, and some seabird species come ashore only to breed, while some penguins have been recorded diving up to 300 metres (980 ft) deep. Many bird species have established breeding populations in areas to which they have been introduced by humans. Some of these introductions have been deliberate; the ring-necked pheasant, for example, has been introduced around the world as a game bird. Others have been accidental, such as the establishment of wild monk parakeets in several North American cities after their escape from captivity. Some species, including cattle egret, yellow-headed caracara and galah, have spread naturally far beyond their original ranges as agricultural expansion created alternative habitats although modern practices of intensive agriculture have negatively impacted farmland bird populations. Anatomy and physiology Compared with other vertebrates, birds have a body plan that shows many unusual adaptations, mostly to facilitate flight. Skeletal system The skeleton consists of very lightweight bones. They have large air-filled cavities (called pneumatic cavities) which connect with the respiratory system. The skull bones in adults are fused and do not show cranial sutures. The orbital cavities that house the eyeballs are large and separated from each other by a bony septum (partition). The spine has cervical, thoracic, lumbar and caudal regions with the number of cervical (neck) vertebrae highly variable and especially flexible, but movement is reduced in the anterior thoracic vertebrae and absent in the later vertebrae. The last few are fused with the pelvis to form the synsacrum. The ribs are flattened and the sternum is keeled for the attachment of flight muscles except in the flightless bird orders. The forelimbs are modified into wings. The wings are more or less developed depending on the species; the only known groups that lost their wings are the extinct moa and elephant birds. Excretory system Like the reptiles, birds are primarily uricotelic, that is, their kidneys extract nitrogenous waste from their bloodstream and excrete it as uric acid, instead of urea or ammonia, through the ureters into the intestine. Birds do not have a urinary bladder or external urethral opening and (with exception of the ostrich) uric acid is excreted along with faeces as a semisolid waste. However, birds such as hummingbirds can be facultatively ammonotelic, excreting most of the nitrogenous wastes as ammonia. They also excrete creatine, rather than creatinine like mammals. This material, as well as the output of the intestines, emerges from the bird's cloaca. The cloaca is a multi-purpose opening: waste is expelled through it, most birds mate by joining cloaca, and females lay eggs from it. In addition, many species of birds regurgitate pellets. It is a common but not universal feature of altricial passerine nestlings (born helpless, under constant parental care) that instead of excreting directly into the nest, they produce a fecal sac. This is a mucus-covered pouch that allows parents to either dispose of the waste outside the nest or to recycle the waste through their own digestive system. Reproductive system Most male birds do not have intromittent penises. Males within Palaeognathae (with the exception of the kiwis), the Anseriformes (with the exception of screamers), and in rudimentary forms in Galliformes (but fully developed in Cracidae) possess a penis, which is never present in Neoaves. Its length is thought to be related to sperm competition and it fills with lymphatic fluid instead of blood when erect. When not copulating, it is hidden within the proctodeum compartment within the cloaca, just inside the vent. Female birds have sperm storage tubules that allow sperm to remain viable long after copulation, a hundred days in some species. Sperm from multiple males may compete through this mechanism. Most female birds have a single ovary and a single oviduct, both on the left side, but there are exceptions: species in at least 16 different orders of birds have two ovaries. Even these species, however, tend to have a single oviduct. It has been speculated that this might be an adaptation to flight, but males have two testes, and it is also observed that the gonads in both sexes decrease dramatically in size outside the breeding season. Also terrestrial birds generally have a single ovary, as does the platypus, an egg-laying mammal. A more likely explanation is that the egg develops a shell while passing through the oviduct over a period of about a day, so that if two eggs were to develop at the same time, there would be a risk to survival. While rare, mostly abortive, parthenogenesis is not unknown in birds and eggs can be diploid, automictic and results in male offspring. Birds are solely gonochoric. Meaning they have two sexes: either female or male. The sex of birds is determined by the Z and W sex chromosomes, rather than by the X and Y chromosomes present in mammals. Male birds have two Z chromosomes (ZZ), and female birds have a W chromosome and a Z chromosome (WZ). A complex system of disassortative mating with two morphs is involved in the white-throated sparrow Zonotrichia albicollis, where white- and tan-browed morphs of opposite sex pair, making it appear as if four sexes were involved since any individual is compatible with only a fourth of the population. In nearly all species of birds, an individual's sex is determined at fertilisation. However, one 2007 study claimed to demonstrate temperature-dependent sex determination among the Australian brushturkey, for which higher temperatures during incubation resulted in a higher female-to-male sex ratio. This, however, was later proven to not be the case. These birds do not exhibit temperature-dependent sex determination, but temperature-dependent sex mortality. Respiratory and circulatory systems Birds have one of the most complex respiratory systems of all animal groups. Upon inhalation, 75% of the fresh air bypasses the lungs and flows directly into a posterior air sac which extends from the lungs and connects with air spaces in the bones and fills them with air. The other 25% of the air goes directly into the lungs. When the bird exhales, the used air flows out of the lungs and the stored fresh air from the posterior air sac is simultaneously forced into the lungs. Thus, a bird's lungs receive a constant supply of fresh air during both inhalation and exhalation. Sound production is achieved using the syrinx, a muscular chamber incorporating multiple tympanic membranes which diverges from the lower end of the trachea; the trachea being elongated in some species, increasing the volume of vocalisations and the perception of the bird's size. In birds, the main arteries taking blood away from the heart originate from the right aortic arch (or pharyngeal arch), unlike in the mammals where the left aortic arch forms this part of the aorta. The postcava receives blood from the limbs via the renal portal system. Unlike in mammals, the circulating red blood cells in birds retain their nucleus. Heart type and features The avian circulatory system is driven by a four-chambered, myogenic heart contained in a fibrous pericardial sac. This pericardial sac is filled with a serous fluid for lubrication. The heart itself is divided into a right and left half, each with an atrium and ventricle. The atrium and ventricles of each side are separated by atrioventricular valves which prevent back flow from one chamber to the next during contraction. Being myogenic, the heart's pace is maintained by pacemaker cells found in the sinoatrial node, located on the right atrium. The sinoatrial node uses calcium to cause a depolarising signal transduction pathway from the atrium through right and left atrioventricular bundle which communicates contraction to the ventricles. The avian heart also consists of muscular arches that are made up of thick bundles of muscular layers. Much like a mammalian heart, the avian heart is composed of endocardial, myocardial and epicardial layers. The atrium walls tend to be thinner than the ventricle walls, due to the intense ventricular contraction used to pump oxygenated blood throughout the body. Avian hearts are generally larger than mammalian hearts when compared to body mass. This adaptation allows more blood to be pumped to meet the high metabolic need associated with flight. Organisation Birds have a very efficient system for diffusing oxygen into the blood; birds have a ten times greater surface area to gas exchange volume than mammals. As a result, birds have more blood in their capillaries per unit of volume of lung than a mammal. The arteries are composed of thick elastic muscles to withstand the pressure of the ventricular contractions, and become more rigid as they move away from the heart. Blood moves through the arteries, which undergo vasoconstriction, and into arterioles which act as a transportation system to distribute primarily oxygen as well as nutrients to all tissues of the body. As the arterioles move away from the heart and into individual organs and tissues they are further divided to increase surface area and slow blood flow. Blood travels through the arterioles and moves into the capillaries where gas exchange can occur. Capillaries are organised into capillary beds in tissues; it is here that blood exchanges oxygen for carbon dioxide waste. In the capillary beds, blood flow is slowed to allow maximum diffusion of oxygen into the tissues. Once the blood has become deoxygenated, it travels through venules then veins and back to the heart. Veins, unlike arteries, are thin and rigid as they do not need to withstand extreme pressure. As blood travels through the venules to the veins a funneling occurs called vasodilation bringing blood back to the heart. Once the blood reaches the heart, it moves first into the right atrium, then the right ventricle to be pumped through the lungs for further gas exchange of carbon dioxide waste for oxygen. Oxygenated blood then flows from the lungs through the left atrium to the left ventricle where it is pumped out to the body. Nervous system The nervous system is large relative to the bird's size. The most developed part of the brain of birds is the one that controls the flight-related functions, while the cerebellum coordinates movement and the cerebrum controls behaviour patterns, navigation, mating and nest building. Most birds have a poor sense of smell with notable exceptions including kiwis, New World vultures and tubenoses. The avian visual system is usually highly developed. Water birds have special flexible lenses, allowing accommodation for vision in air and water. Some species also have dual fovea. Birds are tetrachromatic, possessing ultraviolet (UV) sensitive cone cells in the eye as well as green, red and blue ones. They also have double cones, likely to mediate achromatic vision. Many birds show plumage patterns in ultraviolet that are invisible to the human eye; some birds whose sexes appear similar to the naked eye are distinguished by the presence of ultraviolet reflective patches on their feathers. Male blue tits have an ultraviolet reflective crown patch which is displayed in courtship by posturing and raising of their nape feathers. Ultraviolet light is also used in foraging—kestrels have been shown to search for prey by detecting the UV reflective urine trail marks left on the ground by rodents. With the exception of pigeons and a few other species, the eyelids of birds are not used in blinking. Instead the eye is lubricated by the nictitating membrane, a third eyelid that moves horizontally. The nictitating membrane also covers the eye and acts as a contact lens in many aquatic birds. The bird retina has a fan shaped blood supply system called the pecten. Eyes of most birds are large, not very round and capable of only limited movement in the orbits, typically 10–20°. Birds with eyes on the sides of their heads have a wide visual field, while birds with eyes on the front of their heads, such as owls, have binocular vision and can estimate the depth of field. The avian ear lacks external pinnae but is covered by feathers, although in some birds, such as the Asio, Bubo and Otus owls, these feathers form tufts which resemble ears. The inner ear has a cochlea, but it is not spiral as in mammals. Defence and intraspecific combat A few species are able to use chemical defences against predators; some Procellariiformes can eject an unpleasant stomach oil against an aggressor, and some species of pitohuis from New Guinea have a powerful neurotoxin in their skin and feathers. A lack of field observations limit our knowledge, but intraspecific conflicts are known to sometimes result in injury or death. The screamers (Anhimidae), some jacanas (Jacana, Hydrophasianus), the spur-winged goose (Plectropterus), the torrent duck (Merganetta) and nine species of lapwing (Vanellus) use a sharp spur on the wing as a weapon. The steamer ducks (Tachyeres), geese and swans (Anserinae), the solitaire (Pezophaps), sheathbills (Chionis), some guans (Crax) and stone curlews (Burhinus) use a bony knob on the alular metacarpal to punch and hammer opponents. The jacanas Actophilornis and Irediparra have an expanded, blade-like radius. The extinct Xenicibis was unique in having an elongate forelimb and massive hand which likely functioned in combat or defence as a jointed club or flail. Swans, for instance, may strike with the bony spurs and bite when defending eggs or young. Feathers, plumage, and scales Feathers are a feature characteristic of birds (though also present in some dinosaurs not currently considered to be true birds). They facilitate flight, provide insulation that aids in thermoregulation, and are used in display, camouflage, and signalling. There are several types of feathers, each serving its own set of purposes. Feathers are epidermal growths attached to the skin and arise only in specific tracts of skin called pterylae. The distribution pattern of these feather tracts (pterylosis) is used in taxonomy and systematics. The arrangement and appearance of feathers on the body, called plumage, may vary within species by age, social status, and sex. Plumage is regularly moulted; the standard plumage of a bird that has moulted after breeding is known as the "non-breeding" plumage, or—in the Humphrey–Parkes terminology—"basic" plumage; breeding plumages or variations of the basic plumage are known under the Humphrey–Parkes system as "alternate" plumages. Moulting is annual in most species, although some may have two moults a year, and large birds of prey may moult only once every few years. Moulting patterns vary across species. In passerines, flight feathers are replaced one at a time with the innermost primary being the first. When the fifth of sixth primary is replaced, the outermost tertiaries begin to drop. After the innermost tertiaries are moulted, the secondaries starting from the innermost begin to drop and this proceeds to the outer feathers (centrifugal moult). The greater primary coverts are moulted in synchrony with the primary that they overlap. A small number of species, such as ducks and geese, lose all of their flight feathers at once, temporarily becoming flightless. As a general rule, the tail feathers are moulted and replaced starting with the innermost pair. Centripetal moults of tail feathers are however seen in the Phasianidae. The centrifugal moult is modified in the tail feathers of woodpeckers and treecreepers, in that it begins with the second innermost pair of feathers and finishes with the central pair of feathers so that the bird maintains a functional climbing tail. The general pattern seen in passerines is that the primaries are replaced outward, secondaries inward, and the tail from centre outward. Before nesting, the females of most bird species gain a bare brood patch by losing feathers close to the belly. The skin there is well supplied with blood vessels and helps the bird in incubation. Feathers require maintenance and birds preen or groom them daily, spending an average of around 9% of their daily time on this. The bill is used to brush away foreign particles and to apply waxy secretions from the uropygial gland; these secretions protect the feathers' flexibility and act as an antimicrobial agent, inhibiting the growth of feather-degrading bacteria. This may be supplemented with the secretions of formic acid from ants, which birds receive through a behaviour known as anting, to remove feather parasites. The scales of birds are composed of the same keratin as beaks, claws, and spurs. They are found mainly on the toes and metatarsus, but may be found further up on the ankle in some birds. Most bird scales do not overlap significantly, except in the cases of kingfishers and woodpeckers. The scales of birds are thought to be homologous to those of reptiles and mammals. Flight Most birds can fly, which distinguishes them from almost all other vertebrate classes. Flight is the primary means of locomotion for most bird species and is used for searching for food and for escaping from predators. Birds have various adaptations for flight, including a lightweight skeleton, two large flight muscles, the pectoralis (which accounts for 15% of the total mass of the bird) and the supracoracoideus, as well as a modified forelimb (wing) that serves as an aerofoil. Wing shape and size generally determine a bird's flight style and performance; many birds combine powered, flapping flight with less energy-intensive soaring flight. About 60 extant bird species are flightless, as were many extinct birds. Flightlessness often arises in birds on isolated islands, most likely due to limited resources and the absence of mammalian land predators. Flightlessness is almost exclusively correlated with gigantism due to an island's inherent condition of isolation. Although flightless, penguins use similar musculature and movements to "fly" through the water, as do some flight-capable birds such as auks, shearwaters and dippers. Behaviour Most birds are diurnal, but some birds, such as many species of owls and nightjars, are nocturnal or crepuscular (active during twilight hours), and many coastal waders feed when the tides are appropriate, by day or night. Diet and feeding Birds' diets are varied and often include nectar, fruit, plants, seeds, carrion, and various small animals, including other birds. The digestive system of birds is unique, with a crop for storage and a gizzard that contains swallowed stones for grinding food to compensate for the lack of teeth. Some species such as pigeons and some psittacine species do not have a gallbladder. Most birds are highly adapted for rapid digestion to aid with flight. Some migratory birds have adapted to use protein stored in many parts of their bodies, including protein from the intestines, as additional energy during migration. Birds that employ many strategies to obtain food or feed on a variety of food items are called generalists, while others that concentrate time and effort on specific food items or have a single strategy to obtain food are considered specialists. Avian foraging strategies can vary widely by species. Many birds glean for insects, invertebrates, fruit, or seeds. Some hunt insects by suddenly attacking from a branch. Those species that seek pest insects are considered beneficial 'biological control agents' and their presence encouraged in biological pest control programmes. Combined, insectivorous birds eat 400–500 million metric tons of arthropods annually. Nectar feeders such as hummingbirds, sunbirds, lories, and lorikeets amongst others have specially adapted brushy tongues and in many cases bills designed to fit co-adapted flowers. Kiwis and shorebirds with long bills probe for invertebrates; shorebirds' varied bill lengths and feeding methods result in the separation of ecological niches. Loons, diving ducks, penguins and auks pursue their prey underwater, using their wings or feet for propulsion, while aerial predators such as sulids, kingfishers and terns plunge dive after their prey. Flamingos, three species of prion, and some ducks are filter feeders. Geese and dabbling ducks are primarily grazers. Some species, including frigatebirds, gulls, and skuas, engage in kleptoparasitism, stealing food items from other birds. Kleptoparasitism is thought to be a supplement to food obtained by hunting, rather than a significant part of any species' diet; a study of great frigatebirds stealing from masked boobies estimated that the frigatebirds stole at most 40% of their food and on average stole only 5%. Other birds are scavengers; some of these, like vultures, are specialised carrion eaters, while others, like gulls, corvids, or other birds of prey, are opportunists. Water and drinking Water is needed by many birds although their mode of excretion and lack of sweat glands reduces the physiological demands. Some desert birds can obtain their water needs entirely from moisture in their food. Some have other adaptations such as allowing their body temperature to rise, saving on moisture loss from evaporative cooling or panting. Seabirds can drink seawater and have salt glands inside the head that eliminate excess salt out of the nostrils. Most birds scoop water in their beaks and raise their head to let water run down the throat. Some species, especially of arid zones, belonging to the pigeon, finch, mousebird, button-quail and bustard families are capable of sucking up water without the need to tilt back their heads. Some desert birds depend on water sources and sandgrouse are particularly well known for congregating daily at waterholes. Nesting sandgrouse and many plovers carry water to their young by wetting their belly feathers. Some birds carry water for chicks at the nest in their crop or regurgitate it along with food. The pigeon family, flamingos and penguins have adaptations to produce a nutritive fluid called crop milk that they provide to their chicks. Feather care Feathers, being critical to the survival of a bird, require maintenance. Apart from physical wear and tear, feathers face the onslaught of fungi, ectoparasitic feather mites and bird lice. The physical condition of feathers are maintained by preening often with the application of secretions from the preen gland. Birds also bathe in water or dust themselves. While some birds dip into shallow water, more aerial species may make aerial dips into water and arboreal species often make use of dew or rain that collect on leaves. Birds of arid regions make use of loose soil to dust-bathe. A behaviour termed as anting in which the bird encourages ants to run through their plumage is also thought to help them reduce the ectoparasite load in feathers. Many species will spread out their wings and expose them to direct sunlight and this too is thought to help in reducing fungal and ectoparasitic activity that may lead to feather damage. Migration Many bird species migrate to take advantage of global differences of seasonal temperatures, therefore optimising availability of food sources and breeding habitat. These migrations vary among the different groups. Many landbirds, shorebirds, and waterbirds undertake annual long-distance migrations, usually triggered by the length of daylight as well as weather conditions. These birds are characterised by a breeding season spent in the temperate or polar regions and a non-breeding season in the tropical regions or opposite hemisphere. Before migration, birds substantially increase body fats and reserves and reduce the size of some of their organs. Migration is highly demanding energetically, particularly as birds need to cross deserts and oceans without refuelling. Landbirds have a flight range of around 2,500 km (1,600 mi) and shorebirds can fly up to 4,000 km (2,500 mi), although the bar-tailed godwit is capable of non-stop flights of up to 10,200 km (6,300 mi). Some Seabirds undertake long migrations, with the longest annual migrations including those of Arctic terns, which were recorded travelling an average of 70,900 km (44,100 mi) between their Arctic breeding grounds in Greenland and Iceland and their wintering grounds in Antarctica, with one bird covering 81,600 km (50,700 mi), and sooty shearwaters, which nest in New Zealand and Chile and make annual round trips of 64,000 km (39,800 mi) to their summer feeding grounds in the North Pacific off Japan, Alaska and California. Other seabirds disperse after breeding, travelling widely but having no set migration route. Albatrosses nesting in the Southern Ocean often undertake circumpolar trips between breeding seasons. Some bird species undertake shorter migrations, travelling only as far as is required to avoid bad weather or obtain food. Irruptive species such as the boreal finches are one such group and can commonly be found at a location in one year and absent the next. This type of migration is normally associated with food availability. Species may also travel shorter distances over part of their range, with individuals from higher latitudes travelling into the existing range of conspecifics; others undertake partial migrations, where only a fraction of the population, usually females and subdominant males, migrates. Partial migration can form a large percentage of the migration behaviour of birds in some regions; in Australia, surveys found that 44% of non-passerine birds and 32% of passerines were partially migratory. Altitudinal migration is a form of short-distance migration in which birds spend the breeding season at higher altitudes and move to lower ones during suboptimal conditions. It is most often triggered by temperature changes and usually occurs when the normal territories also become inhospitable due to lack of food. Some species may also be nomadic, holding no fixed territory and moving according to weather and food availability. Parrots as a family are overwhelmingly neither migratory nor sedentary but considered to either be dispersive, irruptive, nomadic or undertake small and irregular migrations. The ability of birds to return to precise locations across vast distances has been known for some time; in an experiment conducted in the 1950s, a Manx shearwater released in Boston in the United States returned to its colony in Skomer, in Wales within 13 days, a distance of 5,150 km (3,200 mi). Birds navigate during migration using a variety of methods. For diurnal migrants, the sun is used to navigate by day, and a stellar compass is used at night. Birds that use the sun compensate for the changing position of the sun during the day by the use of an internal clock. Orientation with the stellar compass depends on the position of the constellations surrounding Polaris. These are backed up in some species by their ability to sense the Earth's geomagnetism through specialised photoreceptors. Communication Birds communicate primarily using visual and auditory signals. Signals can be interspecific (between species) and intraspecific (within species). Birds sometimes use plumage to assess and assert social dominance, to display breeding condition in sexually selected species, or to make threatening displays, as in the sunbittern's mimicry of a large predator to ward off hawks and protect young chicks. Visual communication among birds may also involve ritualised displays, which have developed from non-signalling actions such as preening, the adjustments of feather position, pecking, or other behaviour. These displays may signal aggression or submission or may contribute to the formation of pair-bonds. The most elaborate displays occur during courtship, where "dances" are often formed from complex combinations of many possible component movements; males' breeding success may depend on the quality of such displays. Bird calls and songs, which are produced in the syrinx, are the major means by which birds communicate with sound. This communication can be very complex; some species can operate the two sides of the syrinx independently, allowing the simultaneous production of two different songs. Calls are used for a variety of purposes, including mate attraction, evaluation of potential mates, bond formation, the claiming and maintenance of territories, the identification of other individuals (such as when parents look for chicks in colonies or when mates reunite at the start of breeding season), and the warning of other birds of potential predators, sometimes with specific information about the nature of the threat. Some birds also use mechanical sounds for auditory communication. The Coenocorypha snipes of New Zealand drive air through their feathers, woodpeckers drum for long-distance communication, and palm cockatoos use tools to drum. Flocking and other associations While some birds are essentially territorial or live in small family groups, other birds may form large flocks. The principal benefits of flocking are safety in numbers and increased foraging efficiency. Defence against predators is particularly important in closed habitats like forests, where ambush predation is common and multiple eyes can provide a valuable early warning system. This has led to the development of many mixed-species feeding flocks, which are usually composed of small numbers of many species; these flocks provide safety in numbers but increase potential competition for resources. Costs of flocking include bullying of socially subordinate birds by more dominant birds and the reduction of feeding efficiency in certain cases. Some species have a mixed system with breeding pairs maintaining territories, while unmated or young birds live in flocks where they secure mates prior to finding territories. Birds sometimes also form associations with non-avian species. Plunge-diving seabirds associate with dolphins and tuna, which push shoaling fish towards the surface. Some species of hornbills have a mutualistic relationship with dwarf mongooses, in which they forage together and warn each other of nearby birds of prey and other predators. Resting and roosting The high metabolic rates of birds during the active part of the day is supplemented by rest at other times. Sleeping birds often use a type of sleep known as vigilant sleep, where periods of rest are interspersed with quick eye-opening "peeks", allowing them to be sensitive to disturbances and enable rapid escape from threats. Swifts are believed to be able to sleep in flight and radar observations suggest that they orient themselves to face the wind in their roosting flight. It has been suggested that there may be certain kinds of sleep which are possible even when in flight. Some birds have also demonstrated the capacity to fall into slow-wave sleep one hemisphere of the brain at a time. The birds tend to exercise this ability depending upon its position relative to the outside of the flock. This may allow the eye opposite the sleeping hemisphere to remain vigilant for predators by viewing the outer margins of the flock. This adaptation is also known from marine mammals. Communal roosting is common because it lowers the loss of body heat and decreases the risks associated with predators. Roosting sites are often chosen with regard to thermoregulation and safety. Unusual mobile roost sites include large herbivores on the African savanna that are used by oxpeckers. Many sleeping birds bend their heads over their backs and tuck their bills in their back feathers, although others place their beaks among their breast feathers. Many birds rest on one leg, while some may pull up their legs into their feathers, especially in cold weather. Perching birds have a tendon-locking mechanism that helps them hold on to the perch when they are asleep. Many ground birds, such as quails and pheasants, roost in trees. A few parrots of the genus Loriculus roost hanging upside down. Some hummingbirds go into a nightly state of torpor accompanied with a reduction of their metabolic rates. This physiological adaptation shows in nearly a hundred other species, including owlet-nightjars, nightjars, and woodswallows. One species, the common poorwill, even enters a state of hibernation. Birds do not have sweat glands, but can lose water directly through the skin, and they may cool themselves by moving to shade, standing in water, panting, increasing their surface area, fluttering their throat or using special behaviours like urohidrosis to cool themselves. Breeding Social systems Ninety-five per cent of bird species are socially monogamous. These species pair for at least the length of the breeding season or—in some cases—for several years or until the death of one mate. Monogamy allows for both paternal care and biparental care, which is especially important for species in which care from both the female and the male parent is required in order to successfully rear a brood. Among many socially monogamous species, extra-pair copulation (infidelity) is common. Such behaviour typically occurs between dominant males and females paired with subordinate males, but may also be the result of forced copulation in ducks and other anatids. For females, possible benefits of extra-pair copulation include getting better genes for her offspring and insuring against the possibility of infertility in her mate. Males of species that engage in extra-pair copulations will closely guard their mates to ensure the parentage of the offspring that they raise. Other mating systems, including polygyny, polyandry, polygamy, polygynandry, and promiscuity, also occur. Polygamous breeding systems arise when females are able to raise broods without the help of males. Mating systems vary across bird families but variations within species are thought to be driven by environmental conditions. A unique system is the formation of trios where a third individual is allowed by a breeding pair temporarily into the territory to assist with brood raising thereby leading to higher fitness. Breeding usually involves some form of courtship display, typically performed by the male. Most displays are rather simple and involve some type of song. Some displays, however, are quite elaborate. Depending on the species, these may include wing or tail drumming, dancing, aerial flights, or communal lekking. Females are generally the ones that drive partner selection, although in the polyandrous phalaropes, this is reversed: plainer males choose brightly coloured females. Courtship feeding, billing and allopreening are commonly performed between partners, generally after the birds have paired and mated. Homosexual behaviour has been observed in males or females in numerous species of birds, including copulation, pair-bonding, and joint parenting of chicks. Over 130 avian species around the world engage in sexual interactions between the same sex or homosexual behaviours. "Same-sex courtship activities may involve elaborate displays, synchronised dances, gift-giving ceremonies, or behaviours at specific display areas including bowers, arenas, or leks." Territories, nesting and incubation Many birds actively defend a territory from others of the same species during the breeding season; maintenance of territories protects the food source for their chicks. Species that are unable to defend feeding territories, such as seabirds and swifts, often breed in colonies instead; this is thought to offer protection from predators. Colonial breeders defend small nesting sites, and competition between and within species for nesting sites can be intense. All birds lay amniotic eggs with hard shells made mostly of calcium carbonate. Hole and burrow nesting species tend to lay white or pale eggs, while open nesters lay camouflaged eggs. There are many exceptions to this pattern, however; the ground-nesting nightjars have pale eggs, and camouflage is instead provided by their plumage. Species that are victims of brood parasites have varying egg colours to improve the chances of spotting a parasite's egg, which forces female parasites to match their eggs to those of their hosts. Bird eggs are usually laid in a nest. Most species create somewhat elaborate nests, which can be cups, domes, plates, mounds, or burrows. Some bird nests can be a simple scrape, with minimal or no lining; most seabird and wader nests are no more than a scrape on the ground. Most birds build nests in sheltered, hidden areas to avoid predation, but large or colonial birds—which are more capable of defence—may build more open nests. During nest construction, some species seek out plant matter from plants with parasite-reducing toxins to improve chick survival, and feathers are often used for nest insulation. Some bird species have no nests; the cliff-nesting common guillemot lays its eggs on bare rock, and male emperor penguins keep eggs between their body and feet. The absence of nests is especially prevalent in open habitat ground-nesting species where any addition of nest material would make the nest more conspicuous. Many ground nesting birds lay a clutch of eggs that hatch synchronously, with precocial chicks led away from the nests (nidifugous) by their parents soon after hatching. Incubation, which regulates temperature for chick development, usually begins after the last egg has been laid. In monogamous species incubation duties are often shared, whereas in polygamous species one parent is wholly responsible for incubation. Warmth from parents passes to the eggs through brood patches, areas of bare skin on the abdomen or breast of the incubating birds. Incubation can be an energetically demanding process; adult albatrosses, for instance, lose as much as 83 grams (2.9 oz) of body weight per day of incubation. The warmth for the incubation of the eggs of megapodes comes from the sun, decaying vegetation or volcanic sources. Incubation periods range from 10 days (in woodpeckers, cuckoos and passerine birds) to over 80 days (in albatrosses and kiwis). The diversity of characteristics of birds is great, sometimes even in closely related species. Several avian characteristics are compared in the table below. Parental care and fledging At the time of their hatching, chicks range in development from helpless to independent, depending on their species. Helpless chicks are termed altricial, and tend to be born small, blind, immobile and naked; chicks that are mobile and feathered upon hatching are termed precocial. Altricial chicks need help thermoregulating and must be brooded for longer than precocial chicks. The young of many bird species do not precisely fit into either the precocial or altricial category, having some aspects of each and thus fall somewhere on an "altricial-precocial spectrum". Chicks at neither extreme but favouring one or the other may be termed semi-precocial or semi-altricial. The length and nature of parental care varies widely amongst different orders and species. At one extreme, parental care in megapodes ends at hatching; the newly hatched chick digs itself out of the nest mound without parental assistance and can fend for itself immediately. At the other extreme, many seabirds have extended periods of parental care, the longest being that of the great frigatebird, whose chicks take up to six months to fledge and are fed by the parents for up to an additional 14 months. The chick guard stage describes the period of breeding during which one of the adult birds is permanently present at the nest after chicks have hatched. The main purpose of the guard stage is to aid offspring to thermoregulate and protect them from predation. In some species, both parents care for nestlings and fledglings; in others, such care is the responsibility of only one sex. In some species, other members of the same species—usually close relatives of the breeding pair, such as offspring from previous broods—will help with the raising of the young. Such alloparenting is particularly common among the Corvida, which includes such birds as the true crows, Australian magpie and fairy-wrens, but has been observed in species as different as the rifleman and red kite. Among most groups of animals, male parental care is rare. In birds, however, it is quite common—more so than in any other vertebrate class. Although territory and nest site defence, incubation, and chick feeding are often shared tasks, there is sometimes a division of labour in which one mate undertakes all or most of a particular duty. The point at which chicks fledge varies dramatically. The chicks of the Synthliboramphus murrelets, like the ancient murrelet, leave the nest the night after they hatch, following their parents out to sea, where they are raised away from terrestrial predators. Some other species, such as ducks, move their chicks away from the nest at an early age. In most species, chicks leave the nest just before, or soon after, they are able to fly. The amount of parental care after fledging varies; albatross chicks leave the nest on their own and receive no further help, while other species continue some supplementary feeding after fledging. Chicks may also follow their parents during their first migration. Brood parasites Brood parasitism, in which an egg-layer leaves her eggs with another individual's brood, is more common among birds than any other type of organism. After a parasitic bird lays her eggs in another bird's nest, they are often accepted and raised by the host at the expense of the host's own brood. Brood parasites may be either obligate brood parasites, which must lay their eggs in the nests of other species because they are incapable of raising their own young, or non-obligate brood parasites, which sometimes lay eggs in the nests of conspecifics to increase their reproductive output even though they could have raised their own young. One hundred bird species, including honeyguides, icterids, and ducks, are obligate parasites, though the most famous are the cuckoos. Some brood parasites are adapted to hatch before their host's young, which allows them to destroy the host's eggs by pushing them out of the nest or to kill the host's chicks; this ensures that all food brought to the nest will be fed to the parasitic chicks. Sexual selection Birds have evolved a variety of mating behaviours, with the peacock tail being perhaps the most famous example of sexual selection and the Fisherian runaway. Commonly occurring sexual dimorphisms such as size and colour differences are energetically costly attributes that signal competitive breeding situations. Many types of avian sexual selection have been identified; intersexual selection, also known as female choice; and intrasexual competition, where individuals of the more abundant sex compete with each other for the privilege to mate. Sexually selected traits often evolve to become more pronounced in competitive breeding situations until the trait begins to limit the individual's fitness. Conflicts between an individual fitness and signalling adaptations ensure that sexually selected ornaments such as plumage colouration and courtship behaviour are "honest" traits. Signals must be costly to ensure that only good-quality individuals can present these exaggerated sexual ornaments and behaviours. Inbreeding depression Inbreeding causes early death (inbreeding depression) in the zebra finch Taeniopygia guttata. Embryo survival (that is, hatching success of fertile eggs) was significantly lower for sib-sib mating pairs than for unrelated pairs. Darwin's finch Geospiza scandens experiences inbreeding depression (reduced survival of offspring) and the magnitude of this effect is influenced by environmental conditions such as low food availability. Inbreeding avoidance Incestuous matings by the purple-crowned fairy wren Malurus coronatus result in severe fitness costs due to inbreeding depression (greater than 30% reduction in hatchability of eggs). Females paired with related males may undertake extra pair matings (see Promiscuity#Other animals for 90% frequency in avian species) that can reduce the negative effects of inbreeding. However, there are ecological and demographic constraints on extra pair matings. Nevertheless, 43% of broods produced by incestuously paired females contained extra pair young. Inbreeding depression occurs in the great tit (Parus major) when the offspring produced as a result of a mating between close relatives show reduced fitness. In natural populations of Parus major, inbreeding is avoided by dispersal of individuals from their birthplace, which reduces the chance of mating with a close relative. Southern pied babblers Turdoides bicolor appear to avoid inbreeding in two ways. The first is through dispersal, and the second is by avoiding familiar group members as mates. Cooperative breeding in birds typically occurs when offspring, usually males, delay dispersal from their natal group in order to remain with the family to help rear younger kin. Female offspring rarely stay at home, dispersing over distances that allow them to breed independently, or to join unrelated groups. In general, inbreeding is avoided because it leads to a reduction in progeny fitness (inbreeding depression) due largely to the homozygous expression of deleterious recessive alleles. Cross-fertilisation between unrelated individuals ordinarily leads to the masking of deleterious recessive alleles in progeny. Ecology Birds occupy a wide range of ecological positions. While some birds are generalists, others are highly specialised in their habitat or food requirements. Even within a single habitat, such as a forest, the niches occupied by different species of birds vary, with some species feeding in the forest canopy, others beneath the canopy, and still others on the forest floor. Forest birds may be insectivores, frugivores, or nectarivores. Aquatic birds generally feed by fishing, plant eating, and piracy or kleptoparasitism. Many grassland birds are granivores. Birds of prey specialise in hunting mammals or other birds, while vultures are specialised scavengers. Birds are also preyed upon by a range of mammals including a few avivorous bats. A wide range of endo- and ectoparasites depend on birds and some parasites that are transmitted from parent to young have co-evolved and show host-specificity. Some nectar-feeding birds are important pollinators, and many frugivores play a key role in seed dispersal. Plants and pollinating birds often coevolve, and in some cases a flower's primary pollinator is the only species capable of reaching its nectar. Birds are often important to island ecology. Birds have frequently reached islands that mammals have not; on those islands, birds may fulfil ecological roles typically played by larger animals. For example, in New Zealand nine species of moa were important browsers, as are the kererū and kokako today. Today the plants of New Zealand retain the defensive adaptations evolved to protect them from the extinct moa. Many birds act as ecosystem engineers through the construction of nests, which provide important microhabitats and food for hundreds of species of invertebrates. Nesting seabirds may affect the ecology of islands and surrounding seas, principally through the concentration of large quantities of guano, which may enrich the local soil and the surrounding seas. A wide variety of avian ecology field methods, including counts, nest monitoring, and capturing and marking, are used for researching avian ecology. Relationship with humans Since birds are highly visible and common animals, humans have had a relationship with them since the dawn of man. Sometimes, these relationships are mutualistic, like the cooperative honey-gathering among honeyguides and African peoples such as the Borana. Other times, they may be commensal, as when species such as the house sparrow have benefited from human activities. Several species have reconciled to habits of farmers who practice traditional farming. Examples include the Sarus Crane that begins nesting in India when farmers flood the fields in anticipation of rains, and the Woolly-necked Storks that have taken to nesting on a short tree grown for agroforestry beside fields and canals. Several bird species have become commercially significant agricultural pests, and some pose an aviation hazard. Human activities can also be detrimental, and have threatened numerous bird species with extinction (hunting, avian lead poisoning, pesticides, roadkill, wind turbine kills and predation by pet cats and dogs are common causes of death for birds). Birds can act as vectors for spreading diseases such as psittacosis, salmonellosis, campylobacteriosis, mycobacteriosis (avian tuberculosis), avian influenza (bird flu), giardiasis, and cryptosporidiosis over long distances. Some of these are zoonotic diseases that can also be transmitted to humans. Economic importance Domesticated birds raised for meat and eggs, called poultry, are the largest source of animal protein eaten by humans; in 2003, 76 million tons of poultry and 61 million tons of eggs were produced worldwide. Chickens account for much of human poultry consumption, though domesticated turkeys, ducks, and geese are also relatively common. Many species of birds are also hunted for meat. Bird hunting is primarily a recreational activity except in extremely undeveloped areas. The most important birds hunted in North and South America are waterfowl; other widely hunted birds include pheasants, wild turkeys, quail, doves, partridge, grouse, snipe, and woodcock. Muttonbirding is also popular in Australia and New Zealand. Although some hunting, such as that of muttonbirds, may be sustainable, hunting has led to the extinction or endangerment of dozens of species. Other commercially valuable products from birds include feathers (especially the down of geese and ducks), which are used as insulation in clothing and bedding, and seabird faeces (guano), which is a valuable source of phosphorus and nitrogen. The War of the Pacific, sometimes called the Guano War, was fought in part over the control of guano deposits. Birds have been domesticated by humans both as pets and for practical purposes. Colourful birds, such as parrots and mynas, are bred in captivity or kept as pets, a practice that has led to the illegal trafficking of some endangered species. Falcons and cormorants have long been used for hunting and fishing, respectively. Messenger pigeons, used since at least 1 AD, remained important as recently as World War II. Today, such activities are more common either as hobbies, for entertainment and tourism, Amateur bird enthusiasts (called birdwatchers, twitchers or, more commonly, birders) number in the millions. Many homeowners erect bird feeders near their homes to attract various species. Bird feeding has grown into a multimillion-dollar industry; for example, an estimated 75% of households in Britain provide food for birds at some point during the winter. In religion and mythology Birds play prominent and diverse roles in religion and mythology. In religion, birds may serve as either messengers or priests and leaders for a deity, such as in the Cult of Makemake, in which the Tangata manu of Easter Island served as chiefs or as attendants, as in the case of Hugin and Munin, the two common ravens who whispered news into the ears of the Norse god Odin. In several civilisations of ancient Italy, particularly Etruscan and Roman religion, priests were involved in augury, or interpreting the words of birds while the "auspex" (from which the word "auspicious" is derived) watched their activities to foretell events. They may also serve as religious symbols, as when Jonah (Hebrew: יונה, dove) embodied the fright, passivity, mourning, and beauty traditionally associated with doves. Birds have themselves been deified, as in the case of the common peacock, which is perceived as Mother Earth by the people of southern India. In the ancient world, doves were used as symbols of the Mesopotamian goddess Inanna (later known as Ishtar), the Canaanite mother goddess Asherah, and the Greek goddess Aphrodite. In ancient Greece, Athena, the goddess of wisdom and patron deity of the city of Athens, had a little owl as her symbol. In religious images preserved from the Inca and Tiwanaku empires, birds are depicted in the process of transgressing boundaries between earthly and underground spiritual realms. Indigenous peoples of the central Andes maintain legends of birds passing to and from metaphysical worlds. In culture and folklore Birds have featured in culture and art since prehistoric times, when they were represented in early cave painting and carvings. Some birds have been perceived as monsters, including the mythological Roc and the Māori's legendary Pouākai, a giant bird capable of snatching humans. Birds were later used as symbols of power, as in the magnificent Peacock Throne of the Mughal and Persian emperors. With the advent of scientific interest in birds, many paintings of birds were commissioned for books. Among the most famous of these bird artists was John James Audubon, whose paintings of North American birds were a great commercial success in Europe and who later lent his name to the National Audubon Society. Birds are also important figures in poetry; for example, Homer incorporated nightingales into his Odyssey, and Catullus used a sparrow as an erotic symbol in his Catullus 2. The relationship between an albatross and a sailor is the central theme of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which led to the use of the term as a metaphor for a 'burden'. Other English metaphors derive from birds; vulture funds and vulture investors, for instance, take their name from the scavenging vulture. Aircraft, particularly military aircraft, are frequently named after birds. The predatory nature of raptors make them popular choices for fighter aircraft such as the F-16 Fighting Falcon and the Harrier Jump Jet, while the names of seabirds may be chosen for aircraft primarily used by naval forces such as the HU-16 Albatross and the V-22 Osprey. Perceptions of bird species vary across cultures. Owls are associated with bad luck, witchcraft, and death in parts of Africa, but are regarded as wise across much of Europe. Hoopoes were considered sacred in Ancient Egypt and symbols of virtue in Persia, but were thought of as thieves across much of Europe and harbingers of war in Scandinavia. In heraldry, birds, especially eagles, often appear in coats of arms In vexillology, birds are a popular choice on flags. Birds feature in the flag designs of 17 countries and numerous subnational entities and territories. Birds are used by nations to symbolise a country's identity and heritage, with 91 countries officially recognising a national bird. Birds of prey are highly represented, though some nations have chosen other species of birds with parrots being popular among smaller, tropical nations. In music In music, birdsong has influenced composers and musicians in several ways: they can be inspired by birdsong; they can intentionally imitate bird song in a composition, as Vivaldi, Messiaen, and Beethoven did, along with many later composers; they can incorporate recordings of birds into their works, as Ottorino Respighi first did; or like Beatrice Harrison and David Rothenberg, they can duet with birds. A 2023 archaeological excavation of a 10000-year-old site in Israel yielded hollow wing bones of coots and ducks with perforations made on the side that are thought to have allowed them to be used as flutes or whistles possibly used by Natufian people to lure birds of prey. Threats and conservation Human activities have caused population decreases or extinction in many bird species. Over a hundred bird species have gone extinct in historical times, although the most dramatic human-caused avian extinctions, eradicating an estimated 750–1800 species, occurred during the human colonisation of Melanesian, Polynesian, and Micronesian islands. Many bird populations are declining worldwide, with 1,227 species listed as threatened by BirdLife International and the IUCN in 2009. There have been long-term declines in North American bird populations, with an estimated loss of 2.9 billion breeding adults, about 30% of the total, since 1970. The most commonly cited human threat to birds is habitat loss. Other threats include overhunting, accidental mortality due to collisions with buildings or vehicles, long-line fishing bycatch, pollution (including oil spills and pesticide use), competition and predation from nonnative invasive species, and climate change. Governments and conservation groups work to protect birds, either by passing laws that preserve and restore bird habitat or by establishing captive populations for reintroductions. Such projects have produced some successes; one study estimated that conservation efforts saved 16 species of bird that would otherwise have gone extinct between 1994 and 2004, including the California condor and Norfolk parakeet. Human activities have allowed the expansion of a few temperate area species, such as the barn swallow and European starling. In the tropics and sub-tropics, relatively more species are expanding due to human activities, particularly due to the spread of crops such as rice whose expansion in south Asia has benefitted at least 64 bird species, though may have harmed many more species. See also Avian sleep Biodiversity loss Climate change and birds Glossary of bird terms List of individual birds Ornithology List of bird genera References Further reading All the Birds of the World, Lynx Edicions, 2020. Del Hoyo, Josep; Elliott, Andrew; Sargatal, Jordi (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World (17-volume encyclopaedia), Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, 1992–2010. (Vol. 1: Ostrich to Ducks: ISBN 978-84-87334-10-8, etc.). Lederer, Roger; Carol Burr (2014). Latein für Vogelbeobachter: über 3000 ornithologische Begriffe erklärt und erforscht, aus dem Englischen übersetzt von Susanne Kuhlmannn-Krieg, Verlag DuMont, Köln, ISBN 978-3-8321-9491-8. National Geographic Field Guide to Birds of North America, National Geographic, 7th edition, 2017. ISBN 9781426218354 National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds: Eastern Region, National Audubon Society, Knopf. National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds: Western Region, National Audubon Society, Knopf. Svensson, Lars (2010). Birds of Europe, Princeton University Press, second edition. ISBN 9780691143927 Svensson, Lars (2010). Collins Bird Guide: The Most Complete Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe, Collins, 2nd edition. ISBN 978-0007268146 External links Birdlife International – Dedicated to bird conservation worldwide; has a database with about 250,000 records on endangered bird species. Bird biogeography Birds and Science from the National Audubon Society Cornell Lab of Ornithology "Bird" at the Encyclopedia of Life Essays on bird biology North American Birds for Kids Archived 9 August 2010 at the Wayback Machine Ornithology Sora – Searchable online research archive; Archives of the following ornithological journals The Auk, Condor, Journal of Field Ornithology', North American Bird Bander, Studies in Avian Biology, Pacific Coast Avifauna, and the Wilson Bulletin. The Internet Bird Collection – A free library of videos of the world's birds The Institute for Bird Populations, California List of field guides to birds, from the International Field Guides database RSPB bird identifier Archived 5 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine – Interactive identification of all UK birds Are Birds Really Dinosaurs? — University of California Museum of Paleontology.

Insects (from Latin insectum) are hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and a pair of antennae. Insects are the most diverse group of animals, with more than a million described species; they represent more than half of all animal species. The insect nervous system consists of a brain and a ventral nerve cord. Most insects reproduce by laying eggs. Insects breathe air through a system of paired openings along their sides, connected to small tubes that take air directly to the tissues. The blood therefore does not carry oxygen; it is only partly contained in vessels, and some circulates in an open hemocoel. Insect vision is mainly through their compound eyes, with additional small ocelli. Many insects can hear, using tympanal organs, which may be on the legs or other parts of the body. Their sense of smell is via receptors, usually on the antennae and the mouthparts. Nearly all insects hatch from eggs. Insect growth is constrained by the inelastic exoskeleton, so development involves a series of molts. The immature stages often differ from the adults in structure, habit and habitat. Groups that undergo four-stage metamorphosis often have a nearly immobile pupa. Insects that undergo three-stage metamorphosis lack a pupa, developing through a series of increasingly adult-like nymphal stages. The higher level relationship of the insects is unclear. Fossilized insects of enormous size have been found from the Paleozoic Era, including giant dragonfly-like insects with wingspans of 55 to 70 cm (22 to 28 in). The most diverse insect groups appear to have coevolved with flowering plants. Adult insects typically move about by walking and flying; some can swim. Insects are the only invertebrates that can achieve sustained powered flight; insect flight evolved just once. Many insects are at least partly aquatic, and have larvae with gills; in some species, the adults too are aquatic. Some species, such as water striders, can walk on the surface of water. Insects are mostly solitary, but some, such as bees, ants and termites, are social and live in large, well-organized colonies. Others, such as earwigs, provide maternal care, guarding their eggs and young. Insects can communicate with each other in a variety of ways. Male moths can sense the pheromones of female moths over great distances. Other species communicate with sounds: crickets stridulate, or rub their wings together, to attract a mate and repel other males. Lampyrid beetles communicate with light. Humans regard many insects as pests, especially those that damage crops, and attempt to control them using insecticides and other techniques. Others are parasitic, and may act as vectors of diseases. Insect pollinators are essential to the reproduction of many flowering plants and so to their ecosystems. Many insects are ecologically beneficial as predators of pest insects, while a few provide direct economic benefit. Two species in particular are economically important and were domesticated many centuries ago: silkworms for silk and honey bees for honey. Insects are consumed as food in 80% of the world's nations, by people in roughly 3000 ethnic groups. Human activities are having serious effects on insect biodiversity. Etymology The word insect comes from the Latin word insectum from in, "cut up", as insects appear to be cut into three parts. The Latin word was introduced by Pliny the Elder who calqued the Ancient Greek word ἔντομον éntomon "insect" (as in entomology) from ἔντομος éntomos "cut in pieces"; this was Aristotle's term for this class of life in his biology, also in reference to their notched bodies. The English word insect first appears in 1601 in Philemon Holland's translation of Pliny. Insects and other bugs Distinguishing features In common speech, insects and other terrestrial arthropods are often called bugs. Entomologists to some extent reserve the name "bugs" for a narrow category of "true bugs", insects of the order Hemiptera, such as cicadas and shield bugs. Other terrestrial arthropods, such as centipedes, millipedes, woodlice, spiders, mites and scorpions, are sometimes confused with insects, since they have a jointed exoskeleton. Adult insects are the only arthropods that ever have wings, with up to two pairs on the thorax. Whether winged or not, adult insects can be distinguished by their three-part body plan, with head, thorax, and abdomen; they have three pairs of legs on the thorax. Insects and other bugs that could be confused with them Diversity Estimates of the total number of insect species vary considerably, suggesting that there are perhaps some 5.5 million insect species in existence, of which about one million have been described and named. These constitute around half of all eukaryote species, including animals, plants, and fungi. The most diverse insect orders are the Hemiptera (true bugs), Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), Diptera (true flies), Hymenoptera (wasps, ants, and bees), and Coleoptera (beetles), each with more than 100,000 described species. Insects are extremely diverse. Five groups each have over 100,000 described species. Distribution and habitats Insects occur in habitats as varied as snow, freshwater, the tropics, desert, and even the sea. Insects are distributed over every continent and almost every terrestrial habitat. There are many more species in the tropics, especially in rainforests, than in temperate zones. The world's regions have received widely differing amounts of attention from entomologists. The British Isles have been thoroughly surveyed, so that Gullan and Cranston 2014 state that the total of around 22,500 species is probably within 5% of the actual number there; they comment that Canada's list of 30,000 described species is surely over half of the actual total. They add that the 3000 species of the American Arctic must be broadly accurate. In contrast, a large majority of the insect species of the tropics and the southern hemisphere are probably undescribed. Some 30–40,000 species inhabit freshwater; very few insects, perhaps a hundred species, are marine. Insects such as snow scorpionflies flourish in cold habitats including the Arctic and at high altitude. Insects such as desert locusts, ants, beetles, and termites are adapted to some of the hottest and driest environments on earth, such as the Sonoran Desert. Phylogeny and evolution External phylogeny Insects form a clade, a natural group with a common ancestor, among the arthropods. A phylogenetic analysis by Kjer et al. (2016) places the insects among the Hexapoda, six-legged animals with segmented bodies; their closest relatives are the Diplura (bristletails). Internal phylogeny The internal phylogeny is based on the works of Wipfler et al. 2019 for the Polyneoptera, Johnson et al. 2018 for the Paraneoptera, and Kjer et al. 2016 for the Holometabola. The numbers of described extant species (boldface for groups with over 100,000 species) are from Stork 2018. Taxonomy Early Aristotle was the first to describe the insects as a distinct group. He placed them as the second-lowest level of animals on his scala naturae, above the spontaneously generating sponges and worms, but below the hard-shelled marine snails. His classification remained in use for many centuries. In 1758, in his Systema Naturae, Carl Linnaeus divided the animal kingdom into six classes including Insecta. He created seven orders of insect according to the structure of their wings. These were the wingless Aptera, the 2-winged Diptera, and five 4-winged orders: the Coleoptera with fully-hardened forewings; the Hemiptera with partly-hardened forewings; the Lepidoptera with scaly wings; the Neuroptera with membranous wings but no sting; and the Hymenoptera, with membranous wings and a sting. Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck, in his 1809 Philosophie Zoologique, treated the insects as one of nine invertebrate phyla. In his 1817 Le Règne Animal, Georges Cuvier grouped all animals into four embranchements ("branches" with different body plans), one of which was the articulated animals, containing arthropods and annelids. This arrangement was followed by the embryologist Karl Ernst von Baer in 1828, the zoologist Louis Agassiz in 1857, and the comparative anatomist Richard Owen in 1860. In 1874, Ernst Haeckel divided the animal kingdom into two subkingdoms, one of which was Metazoa for the multicellular animals. It had five phyla, including the articulates. Modern Traditional morphology-based systematics have usually given the Hexapoda the rank of superclass, and identified four groups within it: insects (Ectognatha), Collembola, Protura, and Diplura, the latter three being grouped together as the Entognatha on the basis of internalized mouth parts. The use of phylogenetic data has brought about numerous changes in relationships above the level of orders. Insects can be divided into two groups historically treated as subclasses: wingless insects or Apterygota, and winged insects or Pterygota. The Apterygota traditionally consisted of the primitively wingless orders Archaeognatha (jumping bristletails) and Zygentoma (silverfish). However, Apterygota is not monophyletic, as Archaeognatha are sister to all other insects, based on the arrangement of their mandibles, while the Pterygota, the winged insects, emerged from within the Dicondylia, alongside the Zygentoma. The Pterygota (Palaeoptera and Neoptera) are winged and have hardened plates on the outside of their body segments; the Neoptera have muscles that allow their wings to fold flat over the abdomen. Neoptera can be divided into groups with incomplete metamorphosis (Polyneoptera and Paraneoptera) and those with complete metamorphosis (Holometabola). The molecular finding that the traditional louse orders Mallophaga and Anoplura are within Psocoptera has led to the new taxon Psocodea. Phasmatodea and Embiidina have been suggested to form the Eukinolabia. Mantodea, Blattodea, and Isoptera form a monophyletic group, Dictyoptera. Fleas are now thought to be closely related to boreid mecopterans. Evolutionary history The oldest fossil that may be a primitive wingless insect is Leverhulmia from the Early Devonian Windyfield chert. The oldest known flying insects are from the mid-Carboniferous, around 328–324 million years ago. The group subsequently underwent a rapid explosive diversification. Claims that they originated substantially earlier, during the Silurian or Devonian (some 400 million years ago) based on molecular clock estimates, are unlikely to be correct, given the fossil record. Four large-scale radiations of insects have occurred: beetles (from about 300 million years ago), flies (from about 250 million years ago), moths and wasps (both from about 150 million years ago). The remarkably successful Hymenoptera (wasps, bees, and ants) appeared some 200 million years ago in the Triassic period, but achieved their wide diversity more recently in the Cenozoic era, which began 66 million years ago. Some highly successful insect groups evolved in conjunction with flowering plants, a powerful illustration of coevolution. Insects were among the earliest terrestrial herbivores and acted as major selection agents on plants. Plants evolved chemical defenses against this herbivory and the insects, in turn, evolved mechanisms to deal with plant toxins. Many insects make use of these toxins to protect themselves from their predators. Such insects often advertise their toxicity using warning colors. Morphology and physiology External Three-part body Insects have a segmented body supported by an exoskeleton, the hard outer covering made mostly of chitin. The body is organized into three interconnected units: the head, thorax and abdomen. The head supports a pair of sensory antennae, a pair of compound eyes, zero to three simple eyes (or ocelli) and three sets of variously modified appendages that form the mouthparts. The thorax carries the three pairs of legs and up to two pairs of wings. The abdomen contains most of the digestive, respiratory, excretory and reproductive structures. Segmentation The head is enclosed in a hard, heavily sclerotized, unsegmented head capsule, which contains most of the sensing organs, including the antennae, compound eyes, ocelli, and mouthparts. The thorax is composed of three sections named (from front to back) the prothorax, mesothorax and metathorax. The prothorax carries the first pair of legs. The mesothorax carries the second pair of legs and the front wings. The metathorax carries the third pair of legs and the hind wings. The abdomen is the largest part of the insect, typically with 11–12 segments, and is less strongly sclerotized than the head or thorax. Each segment of the abdomen has sclerotized upper and lower plates (the tergum and sternum), connected to adjacent sclerotized parts by membranes. Each segment carries a pair of spiracles. Exoskeleton The outer skeleton, the cuticle, is made up of two layers: the epicuticle, a thin and waxy water-resistant outer layer without chitin, and a lower layer, the thick chitinous procuticle. The procuticle has two layers: an outer exocuticle and an inner endocuticle. The tough and flexible endocuticle is built from numerous layers of fibrous chitin and proteins, criss-crossing each other in a sandwich pattern, while the exocuticle is rigid and sclerotized. As an adaptation to life on land, insects have an enzyme that uses atmospheric oxygen to harden their cuticle, unlike crustaceans which use heavy calcium compounds for the same purpose. This makes the insect exoskeleton a lightweight material. Internal systems Nervous The nervous system of an insect consists of a brain and a ventral nerve cord. The head capsule is made up of six fused segments, each with either a pair of ganglia, or a cluster of nerve cells outside of the brain. The first three pairs of ganglia are fused into the brain, while the three following pairs are fused into a structure of three pairs of ganglia under the insect's esophagus, called the subesophageal ganglion. The thoracic segments have one ganglion on each side, connected into a pair per segment. This arrangement is also seen in the first eight segments of the abdomen. Many insects have fewer ganglia than this. Insects are capable of learning. Digestive An insect uses its digestive system to extract nutrients and other substances from the food it consumes. There is extensive variation among different orders, life stages, and even castes in the digestive system of insects. The gut runs lengthwise through the body. It has three sections, with paired salivary glands and salivary reservoirs. By moving its mouthparts the insect mixes its food with saliva. Some insects, like flies, expel digestive enzymes onto their food to break it down, but most insects digest their food in the gut. The foregut is lined with cuticule as protection from tough food. It includes the mouth, pharynx, and crop which stores food. Digestion starts in the mouth with enzymes in the saliva. Strong muscles in the pharynx pump fluid into the mouth, lubricating the food, and enabling certain insects to feed on blood or from the xylem and phloem transport vessels of plants. Once food leaves the crop, it passes to the midgut, where the majority of digestion takes place. Microscopic projections, microvilli, increase the surface area of the wall to absorb nutrients. In the hindgut, undigested food particles are joined by uric acid to form fecal pellets; most of the water is absorbed, leaving a dry pellet to be eliminated. Insects may have one to hundreds of Malpighian tubules. These remove nitrogenous wastes from the hemolymph of the insect and regulate osmotic balance. Wastes and solutes are emptied directly into the alimentary canal, at the junction between the midgut and hindgut. Reproductive The reproductive system of female insects consist of a pair of ovaries, accessory glands, one or more spermathecae to store sperm, and ducts connecting these parts. The ovaries are made up of a variable number of egg tubes, ovarioles. Female insects make eggs, receive and store sperm, manipulate sperm from different males, and lay eggs. Accessory glands produce substances to maintain sperm and to protect the eggs. They can produce glue and protective substances for coating eggs, or tough coverings for a batch of eggs called oothecae. For males, the reproductive system consists of one or two testes, suspended in the body cavity by tracheae. The testes contain sperm tubes or follicles in a membranous sac. These connect to a duct that leads to the outside. The terminal portion of the duct may be sclerotized to form the intromittent organ, the aedeagus. Respiratory Insect respiration is accomplished without lungs. Instead, insects have a system of internal tubes and sacs through which gases either diffuse or are actively pumped, delivering oxygen directly to tissues that need it via their tracheae and tracheoles. In most insects, air is taken in through paired spiracles, openings on the sides of the abdomen and thorax. The respiratory system limits the size of insects. As insects get larger, gas exchange via spiracles becomes less efficient, and thus the heaviest insect currently weighs less than 100 g. However, with increased atmospheric oxygen levels, as were present in the late Paleozoic, larger insects were possible, such as dragonflies with wingspans of more than two feet (60 cm). Gas exchange patterns in insects range from continuous and diffusive ventilation, to discontinuous. Circulatory Because oxygen is delivered directly to tissues via tracheoles, the circulatory system is not used to carry oxygen, and is therefore greatly reduced. The insect circulatory system is open; it has no veins or arteries, and instead consists of little more than a single, perforated dorsal tube that pulses peristaltically. This dorsal blood vessel is divided into two sections: the heart and aorta. The dorsal blood vessel circulates the hemolymph, arthropods' fluid analog of blood, from the rear of the body cavity forward. Hemolymph is composed of plasma in which hemocytes are suspended. Nutrients, hormones, wastes, and other substances are transported throughout the insect body in the hemolymph. Hemocytes include many types of cells that are important for immune responses, wound healing, and other functions. Hemolymph pressure may be increased by muscle contractions or by swallowing air into the digestive system to aid in molting. Sensory Many insects possess numerous specialized sensory organs able to detect stimuli including limb position (proprioception) by campaniform sensilla, light, water, chemicals (senses of taste and smell), sound, and heat. Some insects such as bees can perceive ultraviolet wavelengths, or detect polarized light, while the antennae of male moths can detect the pheromones of female moths over distances of over a kilometer. There is a trade-off between visual acuity and chemical or tactile acuity, such that most insects with well-developed eyes have reduced or simple antennae, and vice versa. Insects perceive sound by different mechanisms, such as thin vibrating membranes (tympana). Insects were the earliest organisms to produce and sense sounds. Hearing has evolved independently at least 19 times in different insect groups. Most insects, except some cave crickets, are able to perceive light and dark. Many have acute vision capable of detecting small and rapid movements. The eyes may include simple eyes or ocelli as well as larger compound eyes. Many species can detect light in the infrared, ultraviolet and visible light wavelengths, with color vision. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that UV-green-blue trichromacy existed from at least the Devonian period, some 400 million years ago. The individual lenses in compound eyes are immobile, but fruit flies have photoreceptor cells underneath each lens which move rapidly in and out of focus, in a series of movements called photoreceptor microsaccades. This gives them, and possibly many other insects, a much clearer image of the world than previously assumed. An insect's sense of smell is via chemical receptors, usually on the antennae and the mouthparts. These detect both airborne volatile compounds and odorants on surfaces, including pheromones from other insects and compounds released by food plants. Insects use olfaction to locate mating partners, food, and places to lay eggs, and to avoid predators. It is thus an extremely important sense, enabling insects to discriminate between thousands of volatile compounds. Some insects are capable of magnetoreception; ants and bees navigate using it both locally (near their nests) and when migrating. The Brazilian stingless bee detects magnetic fields using the hair-like sensilla on its antennae. Reproduction and development Life-cycles The majority of insects hatch from eggs. The fertilization and development takes place inside the egg, enclosed by a shell (chorion) that consists of maternal tissue. In contrast to eggs of other arthropods, most insect eggs are drought resistant. This is because inside the chorion two additional membranes develop from embryonic tissue, the amnion and the serosa. This serosa secretes a cuticle rich in chitin that protects the embryo against desiccation. Some species of insects, like aphids and tsetse flies, are ovoviviparous: their eggs develop entirely inside the female, and then hatch immediately upon being laid. Some other species, such as in the cockroach genus Diploptera, are viviparous, gestating inside the mother and born alive. Some insects, like parasitoid wasps, are polyembryonic, meaning that a single fertilized egg divides into many separate embryos. Insects may be univoltine, bivoltine or multivoltine, having one, two or many broods in a year. Other developmental and reproductive variations include haplodiploidy, polymorphism, paedomorphosis or peramorphosis, sexual dimorphism, parthenogenesis, and more rarely hermaphroditism. In haplodiploidy, which is a type of sex-determination system, the offspring's sex is determined by the number of sets of chromosomes an individual receives. This system is typical in bees and wasps. Some insects are parthenogenetic, meaning that the female can reproduce and give birth without having the eggs fertilized by a male. Many aphids undergo a cyclical form of parthenogenesis in which they alternate between one or many generations of asexual and sexual reproduction. In summer, aphids are generally female and parthenogenetic; in the autumn, males may be produced for sexual reproduction. Other insects produced by parthenogenesis are bees, wasps and ants; in their haplodiploid system, diploid females spawn many females and a few haploid males. Metamorphosis Metamorphosis in insects is the process of development that converts young to adults. There are two forms of metamorphosis: incomplete and complete. Incomplete Hemimetabolous insects, those with incomplete metamorphosis, change gradually after hatching from the egg by undergoing a series of molts through stages called instars, until the final, adult, stage is reached. An insect molts when it outgrows its exoskeleton, which does not stretch and would otherwise restrict the insect's growth. The molting process begins as the insect's epidermis secretes a new epicuticle inside the old one. After this new epicuticle is secreted, the epidermis releases a mixture of enzymes that digests the endocuticle and thus detaches the old cuticle. When this stage is complete, the insect makes its body swell by taking in a large quantity of water or air; this makes the old cuticle split along predefined weaknesses where it was thinnest. Complete Holometabolism, or complete metamorphosis, is where the insect changes in four stages, an egg or embryo, a larva, a pupa and the adult or imago. In these species, an egg hatches to produce a larva, which is generally worm-like in form. This can be eruciform (caterpillar-like), scarabaeiform (grub-like), campodeiform (elongated, flattened and active), elateriform (wireworm-like) or vermiform (maggot-like). The larva grows and eventually becomes a pupa, a stage marked by reduced movement. There are three types of pupae: obtect, exarate or coarctate. Obtect pupae are compact, with the legs and other appendages enclosed. Exarate pupae have their legs and other appendages free and extended. Coarctate pupae develop inside the larval skin. Insects undergo considerable change in form during the pupal stage, and emerge as adults. Butterflies are well-known for undergoing complete metamorphosis; most insects use this life cycle. Some insects have evolved this system to hypermetamorphosis. Complete metamorphosis is a trait of the most diverse insect group, the Endopterygota. Communication Insects that produce sound can generally hear it. Most insects can hear only a narrow range of frequencies related to the frequency of the sounds they can produce. Mosquitoes can hear up to 2 kilohertz. Certain predatory and parasitic insects can detect the characteristic sounds made by their prey or hosts, respectively. Likewise, some nocturnal moths can perceive the ultrasonic emissions of bats, which helps them avoid predation. Light production A few insects, such as Mycetophilidae (Diptera) and the beetle families Lampyridae, Phengodidae, Elateridae and Staphylinidae are bioluminescent. The most familiar group are the fireflies, beetles of the family Lampyridae. Some species are able to control this light generation to produce flashes. The function varies with some species using them to attract mates, while others use them to lure prey. Cave dwelling larvae of Arachnocampa (Mycetophilidae, fungus gnats) glow to lure small flying insects into sticky strands of silk. Some fireflies of the genus Photuris mimic the flashing of female Photinus species to attract males of that species, which are then captured and devoured. The colors of emitted light vary from dull blue (Orfelia fultoni, Mycetophilidae) to the familiar greens and the rare reds (Phrixothrix tiemanni, Phengodidae). Sound production Insects make sounds mostly by mechanical action of appendages. In grasshoppers and crickets, this is achieved by stridulation. Cicadas make the loudest sounds among the insects by producing and amplifying sounds with special modifications to their body to form tymbals and associated musculature. The African cicada Brevisana brevis has been measured at 106.7 decibels at a distance of 50 cm (20 in). Some insects, such as the Helicoverpa zea moths, hawk moths and Hedylid butterflies, can hear ultrasound and take evasive action when they sense that they have been detected by bats. Some moths produce ultrasonic clicks that warn predatory bats of their unpalatability (acoustic aposematism), while some palatable moths have evolved to mimic these calls (acoustic Batesian mimicry). The claim that some moths can jam bat sonar has been revisited. Ultrasonic recording and high-speed infrared videography of bat-moth interactions suggest the palatable tiger moth really does defend against attacking big brown bats using ultrasonic clicks that jam bat sonar. Very low sounds are produced in various species of Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, Mantodea and Neuroptera. These low sounds are produced by the insect's movement, amplified by stridulatory structures on the insect's muscles and joints; these sounds can be used to warn or communicate with other insects. Most sound-making insects also have tympanal organs that can perceive airborne sounds. Some hemipterans, such as the water boatmen, communicate via underwater sounds. Communication using surface-borne vibrational signals is more widespread among insects because of size constraints in producing air-borne sounds. Insects cannot effectively produce low-frequency sounds, and high-frequency sounds tend to disperse more in a dense environment (such as foliage), so insects living in such environments communicate primarily using substrate-borne vibrations. Some species use vibrations for communicating, such as to attract mates as in the songs of the shield bug Nezara viridula. Vibrations can also be used to communicate between species; lycaenid caterpillars, which form a mutualistic association with ants communicate with ants in this way. The Madagascar hissing cockroach has the ability to press air through its spiracles to make a hissing noise as a sign of aggression; the death's-head hawkmoth makes a squeaking noise by forcing air out of their pharynx when agitated, which may also reduce aggressive worker honey bee behavior when the two are close. Chemical communication Many insects have evolved chemical means for communication. These semiochemicals are often derived from plant metabolites including those meant to attract, repel and provide other kinds of information. Pheromones are used for attracting mates of the opposite sex, for aggregating conspecific individuals of both sexes, for deterring other individuals from approaching, to mark a trail, and to trigger aggression in nearby individuals. Allomones benefit their producer by the effect they have upon the receiver. Kairomones benefit their receiver instead of their producer. Synomones benefit the producer and the receiver. While some chemicals are targeted at individuals of the same species, others are used for communication across species. The use of scents is especially well-developed in social insects. Cuticular hydrocarbons are nonstructural materials produced and secreted to the cuticle surface to fight desiccation and pathogens. They are important, too, as pheromones, especially in social insects. Social behavior Social insects, such as termites, ants and many bees and wasps, are eusocial. They live together in such large well-organized colonies of genetically similar individuals that they are sometimes considered superorganisms. In particular, reproduction is largely limited to a queen caste; other females are workers, prevented from reproducing by worker policing. Honey bees have evolved a system of abstract symbolic communication where a behavior is used to represent and convey specific information about the environment. In this communication system, called dance language, the angle at which a bee dances represents a direction relative to the sun, and the length of the dance represents the distance to be flown. Bumblebees too have some social communication behaviors. Bombus terrestris, for example, more rapidly learns about visiting unfamiliar, yet rewarding flowers, when they can see a conspecific foraging on the same species. Only insects that live in nests or colonies possess fine-scale spatial orientation. Some can navigate unerringly to a single hole a few millimeters in diameter among thousands of similar holes, after a trip of several kilometers. In philopatry, insects that hibernate are able to recall a specific location up to a year after last viewing the area of interest. A few insects seasonally migrate large distances between different geographic regions, as in the continent-wide monarch butterfly migration. Care of young Eusocial insects build nests, guard eggs, and provide food for offspring full-time. Most insects, however, lead short lives as adults, and rarely interact with one another except to mate or compete for mates. A small number provide parental care, where they at least guard their eggs, and sometimes guard their offspring until adulthood, possibly even feeding them. Many wasps and bees construct a nest or burrow, store provisions in it, and lay an egg upon those provisions, providing no further care. Locomotion Flight Insects are the only group of invertebrates to have developed flight. The ancient groups of insects in the Palaeoptera, the dragonflies, damselflies and mayflies, operate their wings directly by paired muscles attached to points on each wing base that raise and lower them. This can only be done at a relatively slow rate. All other insects, the Neoptera, have indirect flight, in which the flight muscles cause rapid oscillation of the thorax: there can be more wingbeats than nerve impulses commanding the muscles. One pair of flight muscles is aligned vertically, contracting to pull the top of the thorax down, and the wings up. The other pair runs longitudinally, contracting to force the top of the thorax up and the wings down. Most insects gain aerodynamic lift by creating a spiralling vortex at the leading edge of the wings. Small insects like thrips with tiny feathery wings gain lift using the clap and fling mechanism; the wings are clapped together and pulled apart, flinging vortices into the air at the leading edges and at the wingtips. The evolution of insect wings has been a subject of debate; it has been suggested they came from modified gills, flaps on the spiracles, or an appendage, the epicoxa, at the base of the legs. More recently, entomologists have favored evolution of wings from lobes of the notum, of the pleuron, or more likely both. In the Carboniferous age, the dragonfly-like Meganeura had as much as a 50 cm (20 in) wide wingspan. The appearance of gigantic insects is consistent with high atmospheric oxygen at that time, as the respiratory system of insects constrains their size. The largest flying insects today are much smaller, with the largest wingspan belonging to the white witch moth (Thysania agrippina), at approximately 28 cm (11 in). Unlike birds, small insects are swept along by the prevailing winds although many larger insects migrate. Aphids are transported long distances by low-level jet streams. Walking Many adult insects use six legs for walking, with an alternating tripod gait. This allows for rapid walking with a stable stance; it has been studied extensively in cockroaches and ants. For the first step, the middle right leg and the front and rear left legs are in contact with the ground and move the insect forward, while the front and rear right leg and the middle left leg are lifted and moved forward to a new position. When they touch the ground to form a new stable triangle, the other legs can be lifted and brought forward in turn. The purest form of the tripedal gait is seen in insects moving at high speeds. However, this type of locomotion is not rigid and insects can adapt a variety of gaits. For example, when moving slowly, turning, avoiding obstacles, climbing or slippery surfaces, four (tetrapodal) or more feet (wave-gait) may be touching the ground. Cockroaches are among the fastest insect runners and, at full speed, adopt a bipedal run. More sedate locomotion is seen in the well-camouflaged stick insects (Phasmatodea). A small number of species such as Water striders can move on the surface of water; their claws are recessed in a special groove, preventing the claws from piercing the water's surface film. The ocean-skaters in the genus Halobates even live on the surface of open oceans, a habitat that has few insect species. Swimming A large number of insects live either part or the whole of their lives underwater. In many of the more primitive orders of insect, the immature stages are aquatic. In some groups, such as water beetles, the adults too are aquatic. Many of these species are adapted for under-water locomotion. Water beetles and water bugs have legs adapted into paddle-like structures. Dragonfly naiads use jet propulsion, forcibly expelling water out of their rectal chamber. Other insects such as the rove beetle Stenus emit pygidial gland surfactant secretions that reduce surface tension; this enables them to move on the surface of water by Marangoni propulsion. Ecology Insects play many critical roles in ecosystems, including soil turning and aeration, dung burial, pest control, pollination and wildlife nutrition. For instance, termites modify the environment around their nests, encouraging grass growth; many beetles are scavengers; dung beetles recycle biological materials into forms useful to other organisms. Insects are responsible for much of the process by which topsoil is created. Defense Insects are mostly small, soft bodied, and fragile compared to larger lifeforms. The immature stages are small, move slowly or are immobile, and so all stages are exposed to predation and parasitism. Insects accordingly employ multiple defensive strategies, including camouflage, mimicry, toxicity and active defense. Many insects rely on camouflage to avoid being noticed by their predators or prey. It is common among leaf beetles and weevils that feed on wood or vegetation. Stick insects mimic the forms of sticks and leaves. Many insects use mimicry to deceive predators into avoiding them. In Batesian mimicry, edible species, such as of hoverflies (the mimics), gain a survival advantage by resembling inedible species (the models). In Müllerian mimicry, inedible species, such as of wasps and bees, resemble each other so as to reduce the sampling rate by predators who need to learn that those insects are inedible. Heliconius butterflies, many of which are toxic, form Müllerian complexes, advertising their inedibility. Chemical defense is common among Coleoptera and Lepidoptera, usually being advertised by bright warning colors (aposematism), as in the monarch butterfly. As larvae, they obtain their toxicity by sequestering chemicals from the plants they eat into their own tissues. Some manufacture their own toxins. Predators that eat poisonous butterflies and moths may vomit violently, learning not to eat insects with similar markings; this is the basis of Müllerian mimicry. Some ground beetles of the family Carabidae actively defend themselves, spraying chemicals from their abdomen with great accuracy, to repel predators. Pollination Pollination is the process by which pollen is transferred in the reproduction of plants, thereby enabling fertilisation and sexual reproduction. Most flowering plants require an animal to do the transportation. The majority of pollination is by insects. Because insects usually receive benefit for the pollination in the form of energy rich nectar it is a mutualism. The various flower traits, such as bright colors and pheromones that coevolved with their pollinators, have been called pollination syndromes, though around one third of flowers cannot be assigned to a single syndrome. Parasitism Many insects are parasitic. The largest group, with over 100,000 species and perhaps over a million, consists of a single clade of parasitoid wasps among the Hymenoptera. These are parasites of other insects, eventually killing their hosts. Some are hyper-parasites, as their hosts are other parasitoid wasps. Several groups of insects can be considered as either micropredators or external parasites; for example, many hemipteran bugs have piercing and sucking mouthparts, adapted for feeding on plant sap, while species in groups such as fleas, lice, and mosquitoes are hematophagous, feeding on the blood of animals. Relationship to humans As pests Many insects are considered pests by humans. These include parasites of people and livestock, such as lice and bed bugs; mosquitoes act as vectors of several diseases. Other pests include insects like termites that damage wooden structures; herbivorous insects such as locusts, aphids, and thrips that destroy agricultural crops, or like wheat weevils damage stored agricultural produce. Farmers have often attempted to control insects with chemical insecticides, but increasingly rely on biological pest control. This uses one organism to reduce the population density of a pest organism; it is a key element of integrated pest management. Biological control is favored because insecticides can cause harm to ecosystems far beyond the intended pest targets. In beneficial roles Pollination of flowering plants by insects including bees, butterflies, flies, and beetles, is economically important. The value of insect pollination of crops and fruit trees was estimated in 2021 to be about $34 billion in the US alone. Insects produce useful substances such as honey, wax, lacquer and silk. Honey bees have been cultured by humans for thousands of years for honey. Beekeeping in pottery vessels began about 9,000 years ago in North Africa. The silkworm has greatly affected human history, as silk-driven trade established relationships between China and the rest of the world. Insects that feed on or parasitise other insects are beneficial to humans if they thereby reduce damage to agriculture and human structures. For example, aphids feed on crops, causing economic loss, but ladybugs feed on aphids, and can be used to control them. Insects account for the vast majority of insect consumption. Fly larvae (maggots) were formerly used to treat wounds to prevent or stop gangrene, as they would only consume dead flesh. This treatment is finding modern usage in some hospitals. Insects have gained attention as potential sources of drugs and other medicinal substances. Adult insects, such as crickets and insect larvae of various kinds, are commonly used as fishing bait. Population declines At least 66 insect species extinctions have been recorded since 1500, many of them on oceanic islands. Declines in insect abundance have been attributed to human activity in the form of artificial lighting, land use changes such as urbanization or farming, pesticide use, and invasive species. A 2019 research review suggested that a large proportion of insect species is threatened with extinction in the 21st century, though the details have been disputed. A larger 2020 meta-study, analyzing data from 166 long-term surveys, suggested that populations of terrestrial insects are indeed decreasing rapidly, by about 9% per decade. In research Insects play important roles in biological research. For example, because of its small size, short generation time and high fecundity, the common fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is a model organism for studies in the genetics of eukaryotes, including genetic linkage, interactions between genes, chromosomal genetics, development, behavior and evolution. Because genetic systems are well conserved among eukaryotes, understanding basic cellular processes like DNA replication or transcription in fruit flies can help to understand those processes in other eukaryotes, including humans. The genome of D. melanogaster was sequenced in 2000, reflecting the organism's important role in biological research. It was found that 70% of the fly genome is similar to the human genome, supporting the theory of evolution. As food Insects are consumed as food in 80% of the world's nations, by people in roughly 3000 ethnic groups. In Africa, locally abundant species of locusts and termites are a common traditional human food source. Some, especially deep-fried cicadas, are considered to be delicacies. Insects have a high protein content for their mass, and some authors suggest their potential as a major source of protein in human nutrition. In most first-world countries, however, entomophagy (the eating of insects), is taboo. They are also recommended by armed forces as a survival food for troops in adversity. Because of the abundance of insects and a worldwide concern of food shortages, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations considers that people throughout the world may have to eat insects as a food staple. Insects are noted for their nutrients, having a high content of protein, minerals and fats and are already regularly eaten by one-third of the world's population. In other products Black soldier fly larvae can provide protein and fats for use in cosmetics. Insect cooking oil, insect butter and fatty alcohols can be made from such insects as the superworm (Zophobas morio). Insect species including the black soldier fly or the housefly in their maggot forms, and beetle larvae such as mealworms, can be processed and used as feed for farmed animals including chicken, fish and pigs. Many species of insects are sold and kept as pets. In religion and folklore Scarab beetles held religious and cultural symbolism in ancient Egypt, Greece and some shamanistic Old World cultures. The ancient Chinese regarded cicadas as symbols of rebirth or immortality. In Mesopotamian literature, the epic poem of Gilgamesh has allusions to Odonata that signify the impossibility of immortality. Among the Aborigines of Australia of the Arrernte language groups, honey ants and witchetty grubs served as personal clan totems. In the case of the 'San' bush-men of the Kalahari, it is the praying mantis that holds much cultural significance including creation and zen-like patience in waiting. See also Entomology Ethnoentomology Flying and gliding animals Insect-borne diseases Notes References Sources Gullan, P. J.; Cranston, P. S. (2005). The Insects: An Outline of Entomology (3rd ed.). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4051-1113-3. Gullan, P. J.; Cranston, P. S. (2014). The Insects: An Outline of Entomology (5th ed.). Oxford: Wiley Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-118-84616-2. Nation, James L. (2001). Insect Physiology and Biochemistry (1st ed.). CRC Press. ISBN 978-0-8493-1181-9. Resh, Vincent H.; Carde, Ring T. (2009). Encyclopedia of Insects (2 ed.). Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-12-374144-8. Schowalter, Timothy Duane (2006). Insect Ecology: An Ecosystem Epproach (2nd (illustrated) ed.). Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-12-088772-9. Archived from the original on 3 June 2016. Retrieved 27 October 2015. External links Insect species and observations on iNaturalist Overview of Orders of Insects "Insect" at the Encyclopedia of Life A Safrinet Manual for Entomology and Arachnology SPC Tree of Life Project – Insecta, Insecta Movies Fossil Insect Database: Holotypes at the International Palaeoentological Society UF Book of Insect Records InsectImages.org 24,000 high resolution insect photographs

What is the name of the Japanese man who protested the U.S.'s involvement in the Iraq War, and who has also been awarded multiple times the same award that "Shrek" won in 2002, beating "Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius"?

Hayao Miyazaki

Multiple constraints

Shrek is a 2001 American animated fantasy comedy film loosely based on the 1990 children's picture book of the same name by William Steig. Directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson (in their feature directorial debuts) and written by Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Joe Stillman, and Roger S. H. Schulman, it is the first installment in the Shrek film series. The film stars Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, and John Lithgow. In the film, an embittered ogre named Shrek (Myers) finds his home in the swamp overrun by fairy tale creatures banished by the obsessive ruler Lord Farquaad (Lithgow). With the help of Donkey (Murphy), Shrek makes a pact with Farquaad to rescue Princess Fiona (Diaz) in exchange for regaining control of his swamp. After purchasing rights to Steig's book in 1991, Steven Spielberg sought to produce a traditionally-animated film adaptation, but John H. Williams convinced him to bring the project to the newly founded DreamWorks in 1994. Jeffrey Katzenberg, along with Williams and Aron Warner, began development on Shrek in 1995, immediately following the studio's purchase of the rights from Spielberg. Chris Farley was cast as the voice for the title character, recording most of the required dialogue, but died in 1997 before his work on the film was finished; Myers was hired to replace him, and gave Shrek his Scottish accent. The film was initially intended to be created using motion capture, but after poor test results, the studio hired Pacific Data Images to complete the final computer animation. Shrek parodies other fairy tale adaptations, primarily animated Disney films. Shrek premiered at the Mann Village Theatre In Westwood, and was later shown at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or, making it the first animated film since Disney's Peter Pan (1953) to be chosen to do so. The film was theatrically released by DreamWorks Pictures in the United States on May 18, 2001, and grossed over $492 million worldwide, becoming the fourth highest-grossing film of 2001. It was widely praised by critics for its animation, voice performances, soundtrack, writing and humor, which they noted catered to both adults and children. Shrek was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and won the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The film's major success helped establish DreamWorks Animation as a competitor to Pixar in feature film computer animation. Three sequels have been released—Shrek 2 (2004), Shrek the Third (2007), and Shrek Forever After (2010)—along with two spin-off films—Puss in Boots (2011) and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)—with other productions, notably Shrek 5, in development. It is also regarded as one of the most influential animated films of the 2000s and one of the greatest animated films ever made. The United States Library of Congress selected Shrek for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2020, becoming the first animated film of the 21st century to be preserved. Plot Shrek is an anti-social and highly territorial ogre who loves the solitude of his swamp and enjoys fending off mobs and intruders. His life is interrupted after the dwarfish Lord Farquaad of Duloc exiles a vast number of fairy-tale creatures, who inadvertently end up in the swamp. Angered by the intrusion, Shrek decides to visit Farquaad and demand him to move the creatures elsewhere. Shrek reluctantly allows a talkative Donkey, whom he saved from Farquaad's guards before, to tag along and guide him to Duloc. Meanwhile, Farquaad is presented with the Magic Mirror, who tells him that he must marry a princess in order to become king. Farquaad chooses Princess Fiona, who is imprisoned in a castle guarded by a Dragon. Unwilling to rescue Fiona himself, he organizes a tournament in which the winner will receive the "privilege" of performing the task on his behalf. When Shrek and Donkey arrive at Duloc, Farquaad announces that whoever kills Shrek will win the tournament; however, Shrek and Donkey defeat Farquaad's knights with relative ease. Amused, Farquaad proclaims them champions, and agrees to relocate the fairy-tale creatures if Shrek rescues Fiona. Shrek and Donkey travel to the castle and are attacked by the Dragon. Shrek locates Fiona, who is appalled by his lack of romanticism; they flee the castle after rescuing Donkey from the dragon, who's revaled to be female and has fallen in love with him. When Shrek removes his helmet and reveals he is an ogre, Fiona stubbornly refuses to go to Duloc, demanding Farquaad arrive in person to save her. Shrek carries Fiona against her will. That night, after setting up camp, and with Fiona alone in a cave, Shrek admits to Donkey that he is antisocial because he grew frustrated after being constantly judged for his appearance. Fiona overhears this, and decides to be more kind to Shrek. The next day, the three are harassed by Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men, but Fiona easily defeats them in physical combat. Shrek becomes impressed with Fiona, and they begin to fall in love. When the trio nears Duloc, Fiona takes shelter in a windmill for the evening. Donkey later enters alone and discovers that Fiona has transformed into an ogre. She explains that during her childhood, she was cursed to transform into an ogre at night, but retain her human form during the day. She tells Donkey that only "true love's kiss" will break the spell and change her to "love's true form". Meanwhile, Shrek is about to confess his feelings to Fiona, when he overhears Fiona referring to herself as an "ugly beast". Believing that she is talking about him, Shrek angrily leaves and returns the next morning with Farquaad. Confused and hurt by Shrek's abrupt hostility, Fiona accepts Farquaad's marriage proposal and requests that they be married before nightfall. Shrek abandons Donkey and returns to his now-vacated swamp, but quickly realizes that he feels miserable without Fiona. Donkey appears, scolded Shrek for his bad behavior and for jumping to conclusions. He even tells Shrek that Fiona was not talking about him as an "ugly beast" and encourages him to express his love to Fiona. The two reconcile, and quickly travel to Duloc by riding the Dragon, whom Donkey has befriended. Shrek interrupts the wedding just before the ceremony ends, and tells Fiona that Farquaad is only marrying her to become king. The sun sets as Fiona transforms into an ogre in front of everyone, causing Shrek to understand Fiona's previous remarks. Outraged and disgusted, Farquaad orders Shrek killed and Fiona re-imprisoned, so that he will still be king by technicality. The two are saved when the Dragon, ridden by Donkey, breaks in and devours Farquaad. Shrek and Fiona profess their love and share a kiss. Fiona's curse is broken; she is surprised to find she has remained an ogre, though Shrek reassures her that he still finds her beautiful. They marry in the swamp with the fairy-tale creatures in attendance, then leave for their honeymoon. Voice cast Mike Myers as: Shrek One of the Three Blind Mice Eddie Murphy as Donkey Cameron Diaz as Princess Fiona John Lithgow as Lord Farquaad Vincent Cassel as "Monsieur" Robin Hood Conrad Vernon as Gingerbread Man Chris Miller as: Magic Mirror Geppetto Cody Cameron as: Pinocchio The Three Little Pigs Simon J. Smith as Blind Mouse Christopher Knights as: Thelonius One of the Three Blind Mice Aron Warner as Big Bad Wolf Jim Cummings as Captain of the Guards Kathleen Freeman as Old Woman Andrew Adamson as Duloc Mascot Bobby Block as Baby Bear from the Three Bears Michael Galasso as Peter Pan Production Development At the time DreamWorks Pictures was founded, producer John H. Williams got hold of the book from his children and when he brought it to DreamWorks, it caught CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg's attention and the studio decided to make it into a film. Recounting the inspiration of making the film, Williams said: Every development deal starts with a pitch and my pitch came from my then kindergartner, in collaboration with his pre-school brother. Upon our second reading of Shrek, the kindergartner started quoting large segments of the book pretending he could read them. Even as an adult, I thought Shrek was outrageous, irreverent, iconoclastic, gross, and just a lot of fun. He was a great movie character in search of a movie. After buying the rights to the film, Katzenberg quickly put it in active development in November 1995. Steven Spielberg had thought about making a traditionally animated film adaptation of the book before, when he bought the rights to the book in 1991 before the founding of DreamWorks, where Bill Murray would play Shrek and Steve Martin would play Donkey. In the beginning of production, co-director Andrew Adamson refused to be intimidated by Katzenberg and had an argument with him about how much the film should appeal to adults. Katzenberg wanted both audiences, but he deemed some of Adamson's ideas, such as adding sexual jokes and Guns N' Roses music to the soundtrack, to be too outrageous. Adamson and Kelly Asbury joined in 1997 to co-direct the film. However, Asbury left a year later for work on the 2002 film Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, and was replaced with story artist Vicky Jenson, although Asbury would later co-direct the sequel. Both Adamson and Jenson decided to work on the film in half, so the crew could at least know whom to go to with specific detail questions about the film's sequences; "We both ended up doing a lot of everything," Adamson said. "We're both kinda control freaks, and we both wanted to do everything." Some early sketches of Shrek's house were done between 1996 and 1997 using Photoshop, with the sketches showing Shrek first living in a garbage dump near a human village called Wart Creek. It was also thought at one time that he would live with his parents and keep rotting fish in his bedroom. Donkey was modeled after Pericles (born 1994; also known as Perry), a real miniature donkey from Barron Park in Palo Alto, California. Raman Hui, supervising animator of Shrek, stated that Fiona "wasn't based on any real person" and he did many different sketches for her. He had done over 100 sculptures of Fiona before the directors chose the final design. In early development, the art directors visited Hearst Castle, Stratford upon Avon, and Dordogne for inspiration. Art Director Douglas Rogers visited a magnolia plantation in Charleston, South Carolina, for inspiration of Shrek's swamp. Planned characters not used in the film include Goldilocks and Sleeping Beauty. Writing The screenplay was written by Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Joe Stillman, and Roger S. H. Schulman, loosely based on the picture book by William Steig. The way Steig upended fairy tale conventions in the original book by making an ogre the protagonist formed the basis for the movie being a parody of fairy tales. Elliott and Rossio began writing for the film in 1997 and worked on the project for two years. They centered the four main characters’ personalities on maladaptive responses to self-esteem issues; as the DreamWorks story crew developed the plot, their personalities remained the same, ensuring the “thematic unity” of the story was preserved. When the studio leaned towards Shrek being a kind person shunned for being an ogre, they pushed for Shrek to remain a “misanthropic anti-hero.” Casting Nicolas Cage was initially offered the role of Shrek but he turned it down because he did not want to look like an ogre. In 2013, Cage explained: "When you're drawn, in a way it says more about how children are going to see you than anything else, and I so care about that." Chris Farley was initially hired to voice Shrek, and he had recorded nearly all of the dialogue for the character, but died before completing the project. According to David Spade, Farley only had 5 days left of voice work and Farley's brother John was asked if he would come in and finish his lines but John refused. A story reel featuring a sample of Farley's recorded dialogue was leaked to the public in August 2015. DreamWorks then re-cast the voice role to Mike Myers, who insisted on a complete script rewrite, to leave no traces of Farley's version of Shrek. According to Myers, he wanted to voice the character "for two reasons: I wanted the opportunity to work with Jeffrey Katzenberg; and [the book is] a great story about accepting yourself for who you are." After Myers had completed providing the voice for the character over the course of 1999 and the film was well into production, a rough cut of the movie was shown to him in February 2000. Myers asked to re-record all of his lines with a Scottish accent, similar to that his mother used when she told him bedtime stories and also used for his roles in other films, such as So I Married an Axe Murderer and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. According to the DVD commentary, he had also tried using a Lothar of the Hill People accent and a Canadian accent. After hearing the alternative, Katzenberg agreed to redo scenes in the film, saying, "It was so good we took $4M worth of animation out and did it again." Myers disputed the cost, saying "it didn't cost the studio 'millions of dollars'," as rumored. "What it meant is instead of me going in for ten sessions, I went in for twenty sessions. I got paid the same." Because of Myers voicing the character, more ideas began to come. There were clearer story points, fresher gags and comedy bits. "I got a letter from Spielberg thanking me so much for caring about the character," Myers said. "And he said the Scottish accent had improved the movie." Another person planned to voice a character in the film was Janeane Garofalo, who was set to star alongside Farley as Princess Fiona. However, she was fired from the project for unexplained reasons. Years later, Garofalo stated "I was never told why [I was fired]. I assume because I sound like a man sometimes? I don't know why. Nobody told me ... But, you know, the movie didn't do anything, so who cares?" Animation Shrek was originally set up to be a live-action/CG animation hybrid with background plate miniature sets and the main characters composited into the scene as motion-captured computer graphics, using an ExpertVision Hires Falcon 10 camera system to capture and apply realistic human movement to the characters. A sizable crew was hired to run a test, and after a year and a half of R & D, the test was finally screened in May 1997. The results were not satisfactory, with Katzenberg stating "It looked terrible, it didn't work, it wasn't funny, and we didn't like it." The animation wasn't released publicly until 2023 when it was posted by production designer Barry E. Jackson on his YouTube channel. The studio then turned to its production partners at Pacific Data Images (PDI), who began production with the studio in 1998 and helped Shrek get to its final, computer-animated look. At this time, Antz was still in production at the studio and effects supervisor Ken Bielenberg was asked by Aron Warner "to start development for Shrek". Similar to previous PDI films, PDI used its own proprietary software (like the Fluid Animation System) for its animated movies. For some elements, however, it also took advantage of some of the powerhouse animation software on the market. This is particularly true with Maya, which PDI used for most of its dynamic cloth animation and for the hair of Fiona and Farquaad. "We did a lot of work on character and set-up, and then kept changing the set up while we were doing the animation," Hui noted. "In Antz, we had a facial system that gave us all the facial muscles under the skin. In Shrek, we applied that to whole body. So, if you pay attention to Shrek when he talks, you see that when he opens his jaw, he forms a double chin, because we have the fat and the muscles underneath. That kind of detail took us a long time to get right." One of the most difficult parts of creating the film was making Donkey's fur flow smoothly so that it did not look like that of a Chia Pet. This fell into the hands of the surfacing animators, who used flow controls within a complex shader to provide the fur with many attributes (ability to change directions, lie flat, swirl, etc.). It was then the job of the visual effects group, led by Ken Bielenberg, to make the fur react to environment conditions. Once the technology was mastered, it could be applied to many aspects of the movie, including grass, moss, beards, eyebrows, and even threads on Shrek's tunic. Making human hair realistic was different from Donkey's fur, requiring a separate rendering system and much attention from the lighting and visual effects teams. Shrek has 31 sequences, with 1,288 total shots. Aron Warner said that the creators "envisioned a magical environment that you could immerse yourself into". Shrek includes 36 separate in-film locations to make the world of the film, which DreamWorks claimed was more than any previous computer-animated feature. In-film locations were finalized and, as demonstrated by past DreamWorks animated movies, color and mood was of the utmost importance. The animation was completed in 2000. Music Shrek is the third DreamWorks animated film (and the only film in the Shrek series) to have Harry Gregson-Williams team up with John Powell to compose the score following Antz (1998) and Chicken Run (2000). Powell was left out to compose scores for later Shrek films with Gregson-Williams due to a conflict. The score was recorded at Abbey Road Studios by Nick Wollage and Slamm Andrews, with the latter mixing it at Media Ventures and Patricia Sullivan-Fourstar handling mastering. Shrek introduced a new element to give the film a unique feel. The film used pop music and other oldies to make the story more forward. Covers of songs like "On the Road Again" and "Try a Little Tenderness" were integrated in the film's score. The band Smash Mouth's song "All Star" gained massive popularity after its original release two years earlier, due to its usage in the film's opening credits. As the film was about to be completed, Katzenberg suggested to the filmmakers to redo the film's ending to "go out with a big laugh"; instead of ending the film with just a storybook closing over Shrek and Fiona as they ride off into the sunset, they decided to add a song "I'm a Believer" covered by Smash Mouth and show all the fairytale creatures in the film. Although Rufus Wainwright's version of the song "Hallelujah" appeared in the soundtrack album, it was John Cale's version that appeared in the film; in a radio interview, Rufus Wainwright suggested that his version of "Hallelujah" did not appear in the film due to the "glass ceiling" he was hitting because of his sexuality. An alternative explanation is that, although the filmmakers wanted Cale's version for the film, licensing issues prevented its use in the soundtrack album, because Wainwright was an artist for DreamWorks but Cale was not. The film's 1996 animation test used the song "I Got You (I Feel Good)". The clip was considered lost until 2023. Cultural references In many places, the film references classic movies, predominantly those by Disney. When Tinker Bell falls on Donkey and he says "I can fly" and people around including the Three Little Pigs say "He can fly, he can fly"; this is a reference to Disney's Peter Pan. Donkey then says, while still flying, "You might have seen a house fly, maybe even a super fly, but I bet you ain't never seen a Donkey fly!". This scene is a reference to the Disney film Dumbo. The scene where Fiona is singing to the blue bird is a reference to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The transformation scene at the end of the film references Disney's Beauty and the Beast. When Shrek crosses the bridge to the Castle and says, "That'll do, Donkey, that'll do", this is a reference to the movie Babe. The scene where Princess Fiona is fighting the Merry Men is a lengthy reference to the film The Matrix. At the end of the film, the Gingerbread Man at the end with a crutch (and one leg) says "God bless us, everyone" which is a reference to Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol. In the scene where the Magic Mirror gives Lord Farquaad the option to marry three princesses, it parodies popular American television show The Dating Game featuring: Cinderella and Snow White. In addition, Lord Farquaad's theme park style kingdom Duloc heavily mimics Disneyland, even in so far as parodying the famous "It's a Small World" musical ride in the scene with the singing puppets. It has been suggested that Lord Farquaad himself is an unflattering parody of then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner, whom producer Katzenberg reportedly dislikes. Release Marketing In 2000, IMAX released CyberWorld onto its branded large-screen theaters. It was a compilation film that featured stereoscopic conversions of various animated shorts and sequences, including the bar sequence in Antz. DreamWorks was so impressed by the technology used for the sequence's "stereoscopic translation", that the studio and IMAX decided to plan a big-screen 3D version of Shrek. The film would have been re-released during the Christmas season of 2001, or the following summer, after its conventional 2D release. The re-release would have also included new sequences and an alternate ending. Plans for this was dropped due to "creative changes" instituted by DreamWorks and resulted in a loss of $1.18 million, down from IMAX's profit of $3.24 million. Radio Disney was told not to allow any ads for the film to air on the station, stating, "Due to recent initiatives with The Walt Disney Company, we are being asked not to align ourselves promotionally with this new release Shrek. Stations may accept spot dollars only in individual markets." The restriction was later relaxed to allow ads for the film's soundtrack album onto the network. On May 7, 2001, Burger King began promotions for the film, giving out a selection of nine exclusive Candy Caddies based on the Shrek characters, in Big Kids Meal and Kids Meal orders. Ice cream chain Baskin-Robbins also ran an 8-week promotion of the film, selling products such as Shrek's Hot Sludge Sundae, a combination of Oreo Cookies 'n Cream ice cream, hot fudge, crushed chocolate cookies, whipped cream and squiggly gummy worms, and Shrek Freeze Frame Cake, featuring an image of Shrek and Donkey framed by sunflowers. This was to support the film's DVD/VHS release. Home media Shrek was released by DreamWorks Home Entertainment on VHS and DVD on November 2, 2001. It surpassed Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace's record for becoming the fastest-selling DVD ever, selling 2.5 million copies within the first three days of release. Another 4.5 million copies were sold on VHS in the same timespan, making it the biggest opening weekend in retail video since The Lion King in 1995. Both releases included Shrek in the Swamp Karaoke Dance Party, a 3-minute musical short film, that takes up right after Shrek's ending, with film's characters performing a medley of modern pop songs. Coincidentally, the film was released on video the same day that Pixar's Monsters, Inc. hit theaters. Since videos were traditionally released on Tuesdays, Disney's executives did not receive this well, saying that the move "seemed like an underhanded attempt to siphon off some of their film's steam". DreamWorks responded that it "simply shifted the release to a Friday to make it more of an event and predicted that it and other studios would do so more frequently with important films." Monsters, Inc. earned that weekend more than $62 million, breaking the record for an animated film, while Shrek's video release made more than $100 million, and eventually became the biggest selling DVD at the time with over 5.5 million sales. This broke the record previously held by Gladiator, another DreamWorks film. Shrek generated more than $420 million in revenue for DreamWorks on DVD and VHS, and has sold more than 21 million copies of the 23 million shipped by January 2002. Worldwide, more than 10 million Shrek DVDs have been sold by that point. A 3D version of the film was released on Blu-ray 3D by Paramount Home Entertainment on December 1, 2010, along with its sequels, and a regular 2D Blu-ray boxset of the series was released six days later. In commemoration of the film's 20th anniversary, an Ultra HD Blu-ray edition was released on May 11, 2021, by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. Reception Box office Shrek opened on around 6,000 screens across 3,587 theaters; eleven of them showed the film digitally. This was the first time that DreamWorks had shown one of its films digitally. The film earned $11.6 million on its first day and $42.3 million on its opening weekend, topping the box office for the weekend and averaging $11,805 from 3,587 theaters. In its second weekend, due to the Memorial Day Weekend holiday, the film gained 0.3 percent to $42.5 million and $55.2 million over the four-day weekend, resulting in an overall 30 percent gain. Despite this, the film finished in second place behind Pearl Harbor and had an average of $15,240 from expanding to 3,623 sites. In its third weekend, the film retreated 34 percent to $28.2 million for a $7,695 average from expanding to 3,661 theaters. By mid-June 2001, Shrek became the top-grossing movie of the year domestically, defeating The Mummy Returns. The film closed on December 6, 2001, after grossing $267.7 million domestically, along with $216.7 million overseas, for a worldwide total of $484.4 million. Produced on a $60 million budget, the film was a huge box office smash and is the fourth highest-grossing film of 2001. Shrek became the highest-grossing animated film ever to be released in Australia, passing the mark set by The Lion King in 1994. In the United Kingdom, Shrek regained the top spot at the British box office after being beaten out the previous week by Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, earning a $20.3 million since its opening in the UK. Critical response In addition to being an instant box office success, Shrek received wide critical acclaim. 88% of 213 professional reviews of the film on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes are positive, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "While simultaneously embracing and subverting fairy tales, the irreverent Shrek also manages to tweak Disney's nose, provide a moral message to children, and offer viewers a funny, fast-paced ride." Metacritic assigned Shrek a weighted average score of 84 out of 100 based on 34 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. Roger Ebert praised the film, giving it four stars out of a possible four and describing it as "jolly and wicked, filled with sly in-jokes and yet somehow possessing a heart". USA Today's Susan Wloszczyna praised Eddie Murphy's performance, stating it "gives the comic performance of his career, aided by sensational digital artistry, as he brays for the slightly neurotic motormouth". Richard Schickel of Time also enjoyed Murphy's role, stating "No one has ever made a funnier jackass of himself than Murphy." Peter Rainer of New York magazine liked the script, also stating "The animation, directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, is often on the same wriggly, giggly level as the script, although the more "human" characters, such as Princess Fiona and Lord Farquaad, are less interesting than the animals and creatures—a common pitfall in animated films of all types." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote "Shrek is a world-class charmer that could even seduce the academy when it hands out the first official animation Oscar next year." James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave the film three and a half stars out of four, saying "Shrek is not a guilty pleasure for sophisticated movie-goers; it is, purely and simply, a pleasure." Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote "The witty, fractured fairy tale Shrek has a solid base of clever writing." Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the film an A−, saying "A kind of palace coup, a shout of defiance, and a coming of age for DreamWorks." Jay Boyar of the Orlando Sentinel wrote "It's a pleasure to be able to report that the movie both captures and expands upon the book's playful spirit of deconstruction." Steven Rosen of The Denver Post wrote "DreamWorks Pictures again proves a name to trust for imaginative, funny animated movies that delight kids and adults equally." Susan Stark of The Detroit News gave the film four out of four stars, saying "Swift, sweet, irreverent, rangy and as spirited in the writing and voice work as it is splendid in design." Jami Bernard of the New York Daily News gave the film four out of four stars, saying "The brilliance of the voice work, script, direction and animation all serve to make Shrek an adorable, infectious work of true sophistication." Rene Rodriguez gave the film three out of four stars, calling it "a gleefully fractured fairy tale that never becomes cynical or crass". Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times gave the film four out of five stars, saying "Beating up on the irritatingly dainty Disney trademarks is nothing new; it's just that it has rarely been done with the demolition-derby zest of Shrek." William Steig, the author of the original book, and his wife Jeanne Steig also enjoyed the film, stating "We all went sort of expecting to hate it, thinking, 'What has Hollywood done to it?' But we loved it. We were afraid it would be too sickeningly cute and, instead, Bill just thought they did a wonderful, witty job of it." John Anderson of Newsday wrote "The kind of movie that will entertain everyone of every age and probably for ages to come." Jay Carr of The Boston Globe wrote "In an era when much on film seems old, Shrek seems new and fresh and clever." Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post gave the film five out of five stars, saying "Despite all its high-tech weirdness, it is really that most perdurable of human constructions, a tale told well and true." Joe Baltake of The Sacramento Bee wrote that it "isn't so much a fractured spoof of everything Disney, but actually a Monty Python flick for kids – kids of all ages". Andrew Sarris of The New York Observer wrote "What gives Shrek its special artistic distinction is its witty and knowingly sassy dialogue, delivered by vocally charismatic performers whose voices remind us of their stellar screen personae in live-action movies." Lisa Alspector of the Chicago Reader wrote "This romantic fantasy complicates the roles of beauty and beast, making it hard to guess what form a sensitive resolution will take." Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal wrote "The charms of Shrek, which is based on the children's book by William Steig, go far beyond in-jokes for adults." John Zebrowski of The Seattle Times gave the film three out of four stars, saying "The movie is helped immensely by its cast, who carry it through some of the early, sluggish scenes. But this is Murphy's movie. Donkey gets most of the good lines, and Murphy hits every one." A mixed review came from Mark Caro of the Chicago Tribune, who gave the film two and a half stars out of four and compared it to Toy Story 2, which he said "had a higher in-jokes/laughs ratio without straining to demonstrate its hipness or to evoke heartfelt emotions". On the more negative side, Michael Atkinson of The Village Voice said he was "desperately avoiding the risk of even a half-second of boredom", and said "the movie is wall-to-window-to-door noise, babbling, and jokes (the first minute sees the first fart gag), and demographically it's a hard-sell shotgun spray." Christy Lemire of the Associated Press described Shrek as a "90-minute onslaught of in-jokes", and said while it "strives to have a heart" with "a message about beauty coming from within", "somehow [the message] rings hollow". Anthony Lane of The New Yorker said, despite the film "cunning the rendering of surfaces, there's still something flat and charmless in the digital look, and most of the pleasure rises not from the main romance but from the quick, incidental gags." Accolades Legacy Rank Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "Prince Charming? So last millennium. This decade, fairy-tale fans – and Princess Fiona – fell for a fat and flatulent Ogre. Now, that's progress." In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten top Ten"; the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community Shrek was acknowledged as the eighth best film in the animated genre, and the only non-Disney·Pixar film in the Top 10. Shrek was also ranked second in a Channel 4 poll of the "100 Greatest Family Films", losing out on the top spot to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. In 2005, Shrek came sixth in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Cartoons poll behind The Simpsons, Tom and Jerry, South Park, Toy Story and Family Guy. In November 2009, the character, Lord Farquaad, was listed No. 14 in IGN UK's "Top 15 Fantasy Villains". In 2006, it was ranked third on Bravo's 100 funniest films list. The film's title character was awarded his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in May 2010. American Film Institute recognition: AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains: Shrek – Nominated Hero AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs: "I'm a Believer" – Nominated AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – Nominated AFI's 10 Top 10 – No. 8 Animated film Cultural impact The New York Times retrospectively described the film as "a beloved, offbeat fairy tale whose characters and jokes continue to permeate pop culture, reaching another generation of fans." Previous films and TV shows, such as Fractured Fairy Tales and The Princess Bride, have parodied the traditional fairy tale. Shrek had a significant impact that influenced a later generation of mainstream animated films, receiving recognition for being one of the most influential from the 2000s. Particularly after Shrek 2, animated films began to incorporate more pop culture references and end-film musical numbers. Such elements can be seen in films like Robots, Chicken Little, Doogal, Ron's Gone Wrong and more recently with Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken and The Tiger’s Apprentice. It also inspired a number of computer animated films which also spoofed fairy tales, or other related story genres, often including adult-oriented humor, most of which were not nearly as successful as Shrek, such as Chicken Little, Happily N'Ever After, Igor, Hoodwinked!, Enchanted and its sequel Disenchanted. In 2020, the United States Library of Congress selected Shrek to be preserved in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Other media Several video game adaptations of the film have been published on various game console platforms, including Shrek (2001), Shrek: Hassle at the Castle (2002), Shrek: Extra Large (2002), Shrek: Super Party (2002) and Shrek SuperSlam (2005). Shrek was also included as a bonus unlockable character in the video game Tony Hawk's Underground 2 (2004). In 2003, Dark Horse Comics released a three-issue mini-series comic book adaptation of Shrek which was written by Mark Evanier, and the issues were later compiled into a trade paperback. A musical version, based on the film, with music by Jeanine Tesori and a book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire, opened on Broadway on December 14, 2008, and closed January 3, 2010, running for a total of 441 performances. It starred Brian d'Arcy James in the title role, Sutton Foster as Princess Fiona, Christopher Sieber as Lord Farquaad, Daniel Breaker as Donkey, and John Tartaglia as Pinocchio. The Broadway production was recorded and released on DVD, Blu-ray and digital media. A North American Tour opened July 25, 2010, in Chicago. A London production opened in the West End on June 7, 2011. The musical received many Tony Award nominations and won the 2009 Tony Award for Best Costume Design. It received five Laurence Olivier Award nominations including Best New Musical. A shot-for-shot fan remake titled Shrek Retold was released through 3GI Industries on November 29, 2018. The project was a collaboration of 200 filmmakers and mixes live action, hand drawn animation, Flash animation, CGI and various other art forms to recreate the film. The film is available on YouTube for free. Future Three sequels were released over the years – the Oscar-nominated Shrek 2 in 2004, Shrek the Third in 2007, and Shrek Forever After in 2010. Shrek 2 was the only one to receive similar acclaim from critics, though all three sequels were commercially successful. Shrek the Halls (2007) and Scared Shrekless (2010) were released as holiday-themed short films. A spin-off prequel film entitled Puss in Boots, centered on the titular character's life before his debut in Shrek 2, was released in 2011, while a sequel, titled Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and set after the events of Shrek Forever After, was released in 2022. A fifth feature film was originally planned during the development of Shrek Forever After, but the idea was later abandoned by DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg. Leading up to NBCUniversal's planned acquisition of DreamWorks Animation in 2016, it was announced that a fifth Shrek film would be released in 2019. On November 6, 2018, Variety reported that Chris Meledandri had been tasked to reboot both Shrek and Puss in Boots, with the original cast potentially returning to reprise their roles. While cast members reported that a script was completed for a fifth Shrek film, development stalled and future plans have yet to be officially announced. After it was reported in April 2023 that a fifth Shrek film with the original cast and a spinoff featuring Donkey was planned, Murphy said in June 2024 that he had begun voice recording sessions for Shrek 5 months ago and would begin working for the Donkey spinoff once it was finished. See also Shrek fandom Fairy tale parody Notes References Bibliography External links Official website at the Wayback Machine (archived March 30, 2004) Official website at DreamWorks Shrek at IMDb Tom Hester – Shrek Character Designer at the Wayback Machine (archived July 30, 2019)

The 74th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 24, 2002, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 24 categories honoring films released in 2001. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Laura Ziskin and directed by Louis J. Horvitz. Actress Whoopi Goldberg hosted the show for the fourth time. She first hosted the 66th ceremony held in 1994 and had last hosted the 71st ceremony in 1999. Three weeks earlier, in a ceremony held at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on March 2, the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented by host Charlize Theron. A Beautiful Mind won four awards, including Best Picture. Other winners included The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring with four awards, Black Hawk Down and Moulin Rouge! with two, and The Accountant, For the Birds, Gosford Park, Iris, Monster's Ball, Monsters, Inc., Murder on a Sunday Morning, No Man's Land, Pearl Harbor, Shrek, Thoth, and Training Day with one. Despite a record length of four hours and twenty-three minutes, the telecast garnered nearly 42 million viewers in the United States. Winners and nominees The nominees for the 74th Academy Awards were announced on February 12, 2002, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California, by Frank Pierson, president of the academy, and the actress Marcia Gay Harden. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring earned the most nominations with thirteen. It was the seventh film to earn that many nominations. A Beautiful Mind and Moulin Rouge! tied for second place with eight apiece. The winners were announced during the awards ceremony on March 24, 2002. By virtue of its latest Best Picture victory for A Beautiful Mind, DreamWorks became the second film studio to release three consecutive Best Picture winners; the studio had previously released American Beauty and Gladiator. Denzel Washington was the second African-American to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, following Sidney Poitier for 1963's Lilies of the Field. Halle Berry became the first, and as of 2023, only, African-American to win the Academy Award for Best Actress. Nominated for their performances as the title character in Iris, Best Actress nominee Judi Dench and Best Supporting Actress nominee Kate Winslet became the second pair of actresses nominated for portraying the same character in the same film, following Best Actress nominee Winslet and Best Supporting Actress nominee Gloria Stuart as Rose in 1997's Titanic. Awards Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, and indicated with a double dagger (‡). Academy Honorary Award Sidney Poitier Robert Redford Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award Arthur Hiller Films with multiple nominations and awards Presenters and performers The following individuals (in order of appearance) presented awards or performed musical numbers. Presenters Performers Ceremony information The academy wanted to find a new venue for the festivities amid limited seating and rehearsal time concerns with the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. In addition, problems arose regarding staging the Oscars at the Shrine Auditorium because there was difficulty of directing guests from the auditorium where the main event took place to the adjacent Exhibition Hall for the Governor's Ball. In August 1997, AMPAS and Canadian development firm TrizecHahn went into negotiations over the development of an entertainment complex located on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue adjacent to the Mann's Chinese Theatre. Seven months later, both the academy and TrizecHahn agreed on a twenty-year lease that allowed for the ceremony to be staged at a new venue, which would later be called the Kodak Theatre, located within the property which was also situated near the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel site of the inaugural awards ceremony in 1929. This was the first time the ceremony was held in Hollywood since the 32nd ceremony took place at the Pantages Theatre in 1960. In view of the return of the Oscars to Hollywood, the academy hired film producer and Sony Pictures Entertainment chairman Laura Ziskin in September 2001 to oversee production of the telecast. Pierson explained the decision to hire Ziskin saying, "This show is one of the most difficult—if not the most difficult—producing jobs in show business. Laura Ziskin brings intelligence, experience and wit expressed in everything she has done." This marked the first occurrence that a woman produced the Oscars solo. Four months later, Whoopi Goldberg was selected as host of the 2002 ceremony. In an article in the Los Angeles Times, Ziskin justified her choice of Goldberg commenting that she has "great warmth, with humor, humanity and social conscience, all qualities that I feel are essential for this year's show. I look forward to collaborating with Whoopi to put on a meaningful and entertaining evening." Furthermore, the September 11 attacks affected the telecast and its surrounding events. Despite speculation and suggestions that the festivities be postponed or canceled, AMPAS President Pierson wrote in a Variety column refusing to take such action stating that it would send the message that "the terrorists have won". However, due to security concerns the academy announced that red carpet bleacher seats would now be limited on a reservation basis based on a random selection and a background check. On Oscar night, Tom Cruise opened the show and stated that it was the job of filmmakers to make films during troubling times. In addition, later in the evening Goldberg introduced a "New York icon" to the stage and filmmaker and director Woody Allen, who had previously refused to attend a ceremony, made a surprise appearance. He was greeted with a hearty standing ovation from audience members including Baz Luhrmann, Ron Howard, Jennifer Connelly, Washington, and Ethan Hawke. He explained after the events that happened that September he was there to represent the city he so loved and to plead filmmakers to continue to film in New York City. Woody then presented a film montage created by fellow New Yorker and screenwriter Nora Ephron saluting New York City in film. Several other people participated in the production of the ceremony. Actors Glenn Close and Donald Sutherland served as announcers during the show. The orchestra led by film composer and telecast musical supervisor John Williams, performed selections of film scores during a montage saluting film composers produced by Kyle Cooper. Filmmaker Errol Morris filmed a vignette featuring several famous people discuss movie memories. Director Penelope Spheeris produced a montage saluting 60 years of Oscar-winning documentary feature films. Cirque du Soleil performed a dance number inspired by movies and visual effects. Introduction of Best Animated Feature award Beginning with this ceremony, AMPAS introduced a new competitive award that would honor animated feature films. According to Academy communications director John Pavlik, the film must be at least 70 minutes in length, have a significant amount of animated characters, and be at least 75 percent animated in order to be qualified for consideration. A minimum of eight qualifying films must be released within the calendar year to permit a slate of three nominees. If the number of films exceeds twelve, the nominee roster increases to five. Prior to the introduction of this category, three Disney films (1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and 1995's Toy Story) were all given Special Achievement Academy Awards. Box office performance of nominated films At the time of the nominations announcement on February 12, the combined gross of the five Best Picture nominees at the US box office was $484 million, with an average of $96.9 million per film. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was the highest earner among the Best Picture nominees with $271 million in domestic box office receipts. The film was followed by A Beautiful Mind ($113 million), Moulin Rouge! ($57.1 million), Gosford Park ($22.2 million), and finally In the Bedroom ($19.5 million). Of the top 50 grossing movies of the year, 46 nominations went to 14 films on the list. Only The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2nd), Shrek (3rd), Monsters, Inc. (4th), A Beautiful Mind (15th), Black Hawk Down (25th), Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (27th), Training Day (29th), Bridget Jones's Diary (31st), Ali (41st), and Moulin Rouge! (44th) were nominated for Best Picture, Best Animated Feature, or any of the directing, acting, or screenwriting awards. The other top-50 box office hits that earned nominations were Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (1st), Pearl Harbor (7th), Vanilla Sky (19th), and AI: Artificial Intelligence (28th). Critical reviews The show received a mixed reception from media publications. Some media outlets were more critical of the show. Television critic Robert Bianco of USA Today complained that the awards ceremony was "intensely narcissistic and characteristically, almost unrelievedly, dull." Columnist Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe bemoaned that "TV's most-watched slug crawled back into town last night." He also sniped, "As usual, the technical awards formed a Bermuda triangle in the middle of the show, and the film-clip fests and production numbers numbed our brains." The Sacramento Bee's Rick Kishman lamented that "It was the first time both best-acting Oscars went to African Americans...yet viewers had to fight hours and hours of boredom to care." He also quipped that the excessive amount of montage and tributes dragged down the proceedings. Other media outlets received the broadcast more positively. Orange County Register film critic Henry Sheehan praised Goldberg's performance as hosting writing that her "ensuing entrance a la Moulin Rouge was a comparative triumph and her boom-boom-boom succession of jokes put the show right on track." Television columnist Joanne Ostrow of The Denver Post raved, "The nearly five-hour telecast was stunning, historic, slick, efficient, and helped along by some knockout clothes." She also commented that Washington and Berry's acceptance speeches and the Sidney Poitier tribute added to the historic and emotional mood of the festivities. John Levesque of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer commended producer Ziskin for producing "the best Oscar telecast this TV watcher can remember." In addition, he wrote that "It was clear the 74th Academy Awards ceremony was something special: fresh, crisp, different from its predecessors." Ratings and reception At four hours and 23 minutes, the ceremony was as of 2022 the longest in history. The American telecast on ABC drew in an average of 41.82 million people over its length, which was a 3% decrease from the previous year's ceremony. The show also earned lower Nielsen ratings compared to the previous ceremony with 25.54% of households watching over a 40.34 share. In addition, it garnered a lower 18–49 demo rating with a 16.13 rating over a 36.46 share among viewers in that demographic. In July 2002, the ceremony presentation received seven nominations at the 54th Primetime Emmys. Two months later, the ceremony won one of those nominations for Debra Brown's choreography during the telecast. "In Memoriam" The annual "In Memoriam" tribute, presented by actor Kevin Spacey, honored the following people. Before the In Memoriam montage was shown, Spacey requested a moment of silence in memory of the victims of the September 11 attacks. See also 8th Screen Actors Guild Awards 22nd Golden Raspberry Awards 44th Grammy Awards 54th Primetime Emmy Awards 55th British Academy Film Awards 56th Tony Awards 59th Golden Globe Awards List of submissions to the 74th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film List of Academy Award records References Bibliography Levy, Emanuel (2003). All About Oscar: The History and Politics of the Academy Awards. New York, United States: Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 0-8264-1452-4. Osborne, Robert (2013). 85 Years of the Oscar: The Complete History of the Academy Awards. New York, United States: Abbeville Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-7892-1142-2. Pond, Steve (2005), The Big Show: High Times and Dirty Dealings Backstage at the Academy Awards, New York, United States: Faber and Faber, ISBN 0-571-21193-3 External links Official websites Academy Awards Official website Archived March 4, 2009, at the Wayback Machine The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Official website Archived January 22, 2009, at the Wayback Machine Oscar's Channel Archived October 2, 2018, at the Wayback Machine at YouTube (run by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) News resources Oscars 2002 Archived January 26, 2014, at the Wayback Machine BBC News Academy Awards coverage Archived November 5, 2013, at the Wayback Machine CNN Analysis 2001 Academy Awards Winners and History Archived March 31, 2014, at the Wayback Machine Filmsite Academy Awards, USA: 2002 Archived December 9, 2010, at the Wayback Machine Internet Movie Database Other resources The 74th Annual Academy Awards at IMDb

The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature is given each year for the best animated film. An animated feature is defined by the academy as a film with a running time of more than 40 minutes in which characters' performances are created using a frame-by-frame technique, a significant number of the major characters are animated, and animation figures in no less than 75 percent of the running time. The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature was first awarded in 2002 for films released in 2001. The entire AMPAS membership has been eligible to choose the winner since the award's inception. If there are sixteen or more films submitted for the category, the winner is voted from a shortlist of five films, otherwise there will only be three films on the shortlist. History For much of the Academy Awards' history, AMPAS was resistant to the idea of a regular award for animated features, considering there were simply too few produced to justify such consideration. Instead, the Academy occasionally bestowed special Oscars for exceptional productions, usually for Walt Disney Pictures, such as for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1938, and the Special Achievement Academy Award for the live action/animated hybrid Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 1989 and Toy Story in 1996. In fact, prior to the award's creation, only one animated film was nominated for Best Picture: 1991's Beauty and the Beast, also by Disney. By 2001, the rise of sustained competitors to Disney in the feature animated film market, such as DreamWorks Animation (founded by former Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg), created an increase of film releases of significant annual number enough for AMPAS to reconsider. The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature was first given out at the 74th Academy Awards, held on March 24, 2002. The academy included a rule that stated that the award would not be presented in a year in which fewer than eight eligible films opened in theaters. It dropped the rule on April 23, 2019, to make voting for animated films more acceptable. People in the animation industry, as well as fans, expressed hope that the prestige from this award and the resulting boost to the box office would encourage the increased production of animated features. In 2009, when the nominee slots for Best Picture were doubled to ten, Up was nominated for both Animated Feature and Picture at the 82nd Academy Awards, the first to do so since the inception of the Animated Feature category. This feat was repeated the following year by Toy Story 3. In 2010, the academy enacted a new rule regarding the motion capture technique employed in films such as A Christmas Carol (2009) and The Adventures of Tintin (2011), directed by Academy Award for Best Director winners Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg respectively, and how they might not be eligible in this category in the future. This rule was possibly made to prevent nominations of live-action films that rely heavily on motion capture, such as Avatar (2009). In 2022, it was unclear whether Marcel the Shell with Shoes On would be eligible for the award at the 95th Academy Awards due to being a live-action/stop-motion animated hybrid. Director Dean Fleischer Camp said that he and A24 had to submit documentation in order to prove the film had enough animation to meet the award's minimum requirements. The AMPAS officially deemed the film eligible for consideration in the Animated Feature category and was eventually nominated for said category. Best Picture criticism As of 2008, some members and fans have criticized the category; however, saying it is only intended to prevent animated films from having a chance of winning and nominating Best Picture. The most notable example is Shrek, became an immediate favorite for the nomination, similar the way of nominating animated films like the animation rivalry's 1991 film Beauty and the Beast; DreamWorks had advertised heavily during the holiday 2001 season for the film like the studio's previous years, but it didn’t materialize the category due to its inauguration of the Best Animated Film category, which sparked criticism from the industry, though it ultimately won the inaugural Best Animated Feature award. Nonetheless, it was successfully nominated for Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, and was also the first animated film to be nominated for PGA Award for Best Theatrical Motion Picture, BAFTA Award for Best Film, and Critics' Choice Awards for Best Picture, respectively. Another criticism surrounding the category was particularly prominent at the 81st Academy Awards, in which WALL-E won the award but was not nominated for Best Picture, despite receiving multiple accolades. This sparked controversy over whether the film was deliberately snubbed of such nomination by the Academy. Film critic Peter Travers commented that "if there was ever a time where an animated feature deserved to be nominated for Best Picture, it's WALL-E." However, official Academy Award regulations state that any film nominated for this category can still be nominated for Best Picture. This, as well as more backlash that The Dark Knight was also not another Best Picture nominee meant that next year, the Academy expanded the Best Picture category. After the expansion, two animated films—Up (2009) and Toy Story 3 (2010)—were nominated for Best Picture. From 2010 onward, with the increasing competitiveness of the Animated Feature category, Pixar (a perennial nominee) did not receive nominations for several recent films due to the more mixed critical response and comparatively low box-office receipts, while Pixar's sister studio Disney Animation won their first three awards but in similar response. Other studios have also come close to a Best Picture nomination with critical and commercial success, including Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (Netflix Animation), The Boy and the Heron (Studio Ghibli), and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Sony Pictures Animation); the latter grew strong positive reactions and received several Best Picture nominations from critics' groups. Milestones and records Films and production companies Pixar broke records of any studios in the same category: the most wins with 11, the most nominations of any studio with 18, and the most consecutive wins took four years in a row with their films released (between 2007 and 2010). Pixar, with 11 wins, and Walt Disney Animation Studios, with 4, are both owned by The Walt Disney Company, which has 15 wins for the category, in total. Laika has the most nominations without a win, with 6 films. Almost all the winners have been computer-animated films. The exceptions are Spirited Away and The Boy and the Heron, which are the only hand-drawn animated films, and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, the only stop motion animated films to win. Toy Story is the only franchise with multiple wins, for its third and fourth films. Additionally, the third film marks the first sequel to win this category. Another franchise Shrek (with one win) is the most-nominated with four. Other franchises with three include How to Train Your Dragon and Cartoon Saloon's "Irish Folklore Trilogy" (consisting of The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, and Wolfwalkers); both hold the record as the most-nominated franchises without a win. Of the several adult animated films (judging from their MPAA ratings), The Triplets of Belleville was the first PG-13 rated nominee and Anomalisa was the first, and so far only, R-rated animated film to be nominated; The Boy and The Heron became the first animated film for adults (in this case, PG-13-rated) winner. Studio Ghibli (Japan) has the most wins (two) and nominations (seven) for a non-US studio; Spirited Away and The Boy and the Heron are the only non-English language films to win, despite the fact their use of English dubbing as necessary. Flee is the first animated documentary film to be nominated. Shaun the Sheep Movie (and its sequel), The Red Turtle, and Robot Dreams are the only non-dialogue films to be nominated, although the former two speak gibberish. Since 2019, each year has had at least one nominee that was mainly released via streaming, with two winners (denoted in bold): Klaus (Netflix) in 2019, Soul (Disney+) in 2020, Luca (Disney+) and The Mitchells vs. the Machines (Netflix) in 2021, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (Netflix), The Sea Beast (Netflix) and Turning Red (Disney+) in 2022, and Nimona (Netflix) in 2023. People Pete Docter has the most wins and nominations of any individual, the latter being tied with Hayao Miyazaki. Additionally, Miyazaki has the most wins and nominations for a non-US individual. Hayao Miyazaki is the oldest winner established in 2003 at the age of 62 (it held the record for two decades until Mark Gustafson in 2023), and again in 2024, making him the oldest two-time winner at the age of 83. Similarly, Aron Warner is the sole winner established in 2002 at the age of 41 until Miyazaki and Andrew Stanton took over the separate record; Stanton established his youngest recipient in 2004 at the age of 38, and again in 2009, making Stanton the youngest two-time winner at the age of 43. Ron Clements, Dean DeBlois, Travis Knight, Tomm Moore, and Chris Sanders are tied for receiving the most nominations without winning, with three each. Mark Gustafson is the only directing credit to win the award before his death. In diversity, Brenda Chapman was the first woman to win for Brave, Peter Ramsey was the first black director to win for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and Yvett Merino was the first woman in color to win for Encanto. Byron Howard is the first queer (openly gay) to win for Zootopia, established in 2017 and again in 2022 for Encanto, making him the only two-time queer winner. Winners and nominees 2000s 2010s 2020s Multiple wins and nominations Studios and franchises with multiple nominations Studios Franchises Notes Age superlatives See also Lists of animated films List of animation awards List of animated feature films nominated for Academy Awards List of submissions for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature List of Academy Award–nominated films References Bibliography External links Oscars.org (official Academy site) The Academy Awards Database (official site) Oscar.com (official ceremony promotional site)

Hayao Miyazaki (宮崎 駿 or 宮﨑 駿, Miyazaki Hayao, [mijaꜜzaki hajao]; born January 5, 1941) is a Japanese animator, filmmaker, and manga artist. A founder of Studio Ghibli, he has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Japanese animated feature films, and is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished filmmakers in the history of animation. Born in Tokyo City, Miyazaki expressed interest in manga and animation from an early age. He joined Toei Animation in 1963, working as an inbetween artist and key animator on films like Gulliver's Travels Beyond the Moon (1965), Puss in Boots (1969), and Animal Treasure Island (1971), before moving to A-Pro in 1971, where he co-directed Lupin the Third Part I (1971–1972) alongside Isao Takahata. After moving to Zuiyō Eizō (later Nippon Animation) in 1973, Miyazaki worked as an animator on World Masterpiece Theater and directed the television series Future Boy Conan (1978). He joined Tokyo Movie Shinsha in 1979 to direct his first feature film The Castle of Cagliostro (1979) and the television series Sherlock Hound (1984–1985). He wrote and illustrated the manga Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1982–1994) and directed the 1984 film adaptation produced by Topcraft. Miyazaki co-founded Studio Ghibli in 1985, writing and directing films such as Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986), My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), and Porco Rosso (1992), which were met with critical and commercial success in Japan. Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke (1997) was the first animated film to win the Japan Academy Film Prize for Picture of the Year and briefly became the highest-grossing film in Japan; its Western distribution increased Ghibli's worldwide popularity and influence. Spirited Away (2001) became Japan's highest-grossing film and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature; it is frequently ranked among the greatest films of the 21st century. Miyazaki's later films—Howl's Moving Castle (2004), Ponyo (2008), and The Wind Rises (2013)—also enjoyed critical and commercial success. He retired from feature films in 2013 but later returned to make The Boy and the Heron (2023), which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Miyazaki's works are frequently subject to scholarly analysis and have been characterized by the recurrence of themes such as humanity's relationship with nature and technology, the importance of art and craftsmanship, and the difficulty of maintaining a pacifist ethic in a violent world. His protagonists are often strong girls or young women, and several of his films present morally ambiguous antagonists with redeeming qualities. Miyazaki's works have been highly praised and awarded; he was named a Person of Cultural Merit for outstanding cultural contributions in 2012, and received the Academy Honorary Award for his impact on animation and cinema in 2014. Miyazaki has frequently been cited as an inspiration for numerous animators, directors, and writers. Early life Hayao Miyazaki was born on January 5, 1941, in the town Akebono-cho in Hongō, Tokyo City, Empire of Japan, the second of four sons. His father, Katsuji Miyazaki (born 1915), was the director of Miyazaki Airplane, his brother's company, which manufactured rudders for fighter planes during World War II. The business allowed his family to remain affluent during Miyazaki's early life. Miyazaki's father enjoyed purchasing paintings and demonstrating them to guests, but otherwise had little known artistic understanding. He was in the Imperial Japanese Army around 1940, discharged and lectured about disloyalty after declaring to his commanding officer that he wished not to fight because of his wife and young child. According to Miyazaki, his father often told him about his exploits, claiming he continued to attend nightclubs after turning 70. Katsuji Miyazaki died on March 18, 1993. After his death, Miyazaki felt he had often looked at his father negatively and that he had never said anything "lofty or inspiring". He regretted not having a serious discussion with his father, and felt he had inherited his "anarchistic feelings and his lack of concern about embracing contradictions". Some of Miyazaki's earliest memories are of "bombed-out cities". In 1944, when he was three years old, Miyazaki's family evacuated to Utsunomiya. After the bombing of Utsunomiya in July 1945, he and his family evacuated to Kanuma. The bombing left a lasting impression on Miyazaki, then aged four. As a child, Miyazaki suffered from digestive problems, and was told he would not live beyond 20, making him feel like an outcast; he considered himself "clumsy and weak", protected at school by his older brother. From 1947 to 1955, Miyazaki's mother Yoshiko suffered from spinal tuberculosis; she spent the first few years in hospital before being nursed from home, forcing Miyazaki and his siblings to take over domestic duties. Yoshiko was frugal, and described as a strict, intellectual woman who regularly questioned "socially accepted norms". She was closest with Miyazaki, and had a strong influence on him and his later work. Yoshiko Miyazaki died in July 1983 at the age of 72. Miyazaki began school as an evacuee in 1947, at an elementary school in Utsunomiya, completing the first through third grades. After his family moved back to Suginami-ku in 1950, Miyazaki completed the fourth grade at Ōmiya Elementary School, and fifth grade at Eifuku Elementary School, which was newly established after splitting off from Ōmiya Elementary. After graduating from Eifuku as part of the first graduating class, he attended Ōmiya Junior High School. He aspired to become a manga artist, but discovered he could not draw people; instead, he drew planes, tanks, and battleships for several years. Miyazaki was influenced by several manga artists, such as Tetsuji Fukushima, Soji Yamakawa and Osamu Tezuka. Miyazaki destroyed much of his early work, believing it was "bad form" to copy Tezuka's style as it was hindering his own development as an artist. He preferred to see artists like Tezuka as fellow artists rather than idols to worship. Around this time, Miyazaki often saw movies with his father, who was an avid moviegoer; memorable films for Miyazaki include Meshi (1951) and Tasogare Sakaba (1955). After graduating from Ōmiya Junior High, Miyazaki attended Toyotama High School. During his third and final year, Miyazaki's interest in animation was sparked by Panda and the Magic Serpent (1958), Japan's first feature-length animated film in color; he had sneaked out to watch the film instead of studying for his entrance exams. Miyazaki later recounted that, falling in love with its heroine, the film moved him to tears and left a profound impression, prompting him to create work true to his own feelings instead of imitating popular trends; he wrote the film's "pure, earnest world" promoted a side of him that "yearned desperately to affirm the world rather than negate it". After graduating from Toyotama, Miyazaki attended Gakushuin University in the department of political economy, majoring in Japanese Industrial Theory; he considered himself a poor student as he instead focused on art. He joined the "Children's Literature Research Club", the "closest thing back then to a comics club"; he was sometimes the sole member of the club. In his free time, Miyazaki would visit his art teacher from middle school and sketch in his studio, where the two would drink and "talk about politics, life, all sorts of things". Around this time, he also drew manga; he never completed any stories, but accumulated thousands of pages of the beginnings of stories. He also frequently approached manga publishers to rent their stories. In 1960, Miyazaki was a bystander during the Anpo protests, having developed an interest after seeing photographs in Asahi Graph; by that point, he was too late to participate in the demonstrations. Miyazaki graduated from Gakushuin in 1963 with degrees in political science and economics. Career Early career In 1963, Miyazaki was employed at Toei Doga; this was the last year the company hired regularly. He began renting a four-and-a-half tatami (7.4 m2; 80 sq ft) apartment in Nerima, Tokyo, near Toei's studio; the rent was ¥6,000, while his salary at Toei was ¥19,500. Miyazaki worked as an inbetween artist on the theatrical feature films Doggie March (1963) and Gulliver's Travels Beyond the Moon (1965) and the television anime Wolf Boy Ken (1963). His proposed changes to the ending of Gulliver's Travels Beyond the Moon were accepted by its director; he was uncredited but his work was praised. Miyazaki found inbetween art unsatisfying and wanted to work on more expressive designs. He was a leader in a labor dispute soon after his arrival at Toei, and became chief secretary of its labor union in 1964; its vice-chairman was Isao Takahata, with whom Miyazaki would form a lifelong collaboration and friendship. Around this time, Miyazaki questioned his career choice and considered leaving the industry; a screening of The Snow Queen in 1964 moved him, prompting him to continue working "with renewed determination". During production of the anime series Shōnen Ninja Kaze no Fujimaru (1964–1965), Miyazaki moved from inbetween art to key animation, and worked in the latter role on two episodes of Sally the Witch (1966–1968) and several of Hustle Punch (1965–1966) and Rainbow Sentai Robin (1966–1967). Concerned that opportunities to work on creative projects and feature films would become scarce following an increase in animated television, Miyazaki volunteered in 1964 to work on the film The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun (1968); he was chief animator, concept artist, and scene designer, and was credited as "scene designer" to reflect his role. On the film, he worked closely with his mentor, Yasuo Ōtsuka, whose approach to animation profoundly influenced Miyazaki's work. Directed by Takahata, the film was highly praised, and deemed a pivotal work in the evolution of animation, though its limited release and minimal promotion led to a disappointing box office result, among Toei Animation's worst, which threatened the studio financially. Miyazaki moved to a residence in Higashimurayama after his wedding in October 1965, to Ōizumigakuenchō after the birth of his second son in April 1969, and to Tokorozawa in 1970. Miyazaki provided key animation for The Wonderful World of Puss 'n Boots (1969), directed by Kimio Yabuki. He created a 12-chapter manga series as a promotional tie-in for the film; the series ran in the Sunday edition of Tokyo Shimbun from January to March 1969. Miyazaki later proposed scenes in the screenplay for Flying Phantom Ship (1969) in which military tanks would cause mass hysteria in downtown Tokyo, and was hired to storyboard and animate the scenes. Beginning a shift towards slow-paced productions featuring mostly female protagonists, he provided key animation for Moomin (1969), two episodes of Himitsu no Akko-chan (1969–1970), and one episode of Sarutobi Ecchan (1971), and was organizer and key animator for Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1971). Under the pseudonym Akitsu Saburō (秋津 三朗), Miyazaki wrote and illustrated the manga People of the Desert, published in 26 installments between September 1969 and March 1970 in Boys and Girls Newspaper (少年少女新聞, Shōnen shōjo shinbun). He was influenced by illustrated stories such as Fukushima's Evil Lord of the Desert (沙漠の魔王, Sabaku no maō). In 1971, Miyazaki developed structure, characters, and designs for Hiroshi Ikeda's adaptation of Animal Treasure Island, providing key animation and script development. He created the 13-part manga adaptation, printed in Tokyo Shimbun from January to March 1971. Miyazaki left Toei Animation in August 1971, having become dissatisfied by the lack of creative prospects and autonomy, and by confrontations with management regarding The Great Adventure of Horus. He followed Takahata and Yōichi Kotabe to A-Pro, where he directed, or co-directed with Takahata, 17 of the 23 episodes of Lupin the Third Part I, originally intended as a movie project. This was Miyazaki's directorial debut. He and Takahata were engaged to emphasize the series' humor over its violence. The two also began pre-production on a series based on Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking books, designing extensive storyboards; Miyazaki and Tokyo Movie Shinsha president Yutaka Fujioka traveled to Sweden to secure the rights—Miyazaki's first trip outside Japan and possibly the first overseas trip for any Japanese animator for a production—but the series was canceled after they were unable to meet Lindgren, and permission was refused to complete the project. Foreign travel left an impression on Miyazaki; using concepts, scripts, design, and animation from the project, he wrote, designed and animated two Panda! Go, Panda! shorts in 1972 and 1973, with Takahata as director and Ōtsuka as animation director. Their choice of pandas was inspired by the panda craze in Japan at the time. Miyazaki drew storyboards for the first episode of The Gutsy Frog in 1971 (though they went unused), provided key animation and storyboards for two episodes of Akado Suzunosuke in 1972, and delivered key animation for one episode each of Kōya no Shōnen Isamu (directed by Takahata) and Samurai Giants in 1973. In 1972, he directed a five-minute pilot film for the television series Yuki's Sun; the series was never produced, and the pilot fell into obscurity before resurfacing as part of a Blu-ray release of Miyazaki's works in 2014. In June 1973, Miyazaki and Takahata moved from A-Pro to Zuiyō Eizō, where they worked on World Masterpiece Theater, which featured their animation series Heidi, Girl of the Alps, an adaptation of Johanna Spyri's Heidi. The production team wanted the series to set new heights for television animation, and Miyazaki traveled to Switzerland to research and sketch in preparation. Zuiyō Eizō split into two companies in July 1975; Miyazaki and Takahata's branch became Nippon Animation. They briefly worked on Dog of Flanders in 1975 before moving on to the larger-scale 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother (1976), directed by Takahata, for which Miyazaki traveled to Argentina and Italy as research. In 1977, Miyazaki was chosen to direct his first animated television series, Future Boy Conan; he directed 24 of the 26 episodes, which were broadcast in 1978. Only eight episodes were completed when the series began airing; each episode was completed within ten to fourteen days. An adaptation of Alexander Key's The Incredible Tide, the series features several elements that later reappeared in Miyazaki's work, such as warplanes, airplanes, and environmentalism. Also working on the series was Takahata, Ōtsuka, and Yoshifumi Kondō, whom Miyazaki and Takahata had met at A-Pro. Visually, Miyazaki was inspired by Paul Grimault's The Adventures of Mr. Wonderbird. Miyazaki did key animation for thirty episodes of the World Masterpiece Theater series Rascal the Raccoon (1977) and provided scene design and organization on the first fifteen episodes of Takahata's Anne of Green Gables before leaving Nippon Animation in 1979. Breakthrough films Miyazaki moved to Tokyo Movie Shinsha to direct his first feature anime film, The Castle of Cagliostro (1979), an installment of the Lupin III franchise. Ōtsuka had approached him to direct the film following the release of Lupin the 3rd: The Mystery of Mamo (1978), and Miyazaki wrote the story with Haruya Yamazaki. Wishing to insert his own creativity into the franchise, Miyazaki inserted several elements and references, inspired by several of Maurice Leblanc's Arsène Lupin novels, on which Lupin III is based, as well as The Adventures of Mr. Wonderbird. Visually, he was inspired by Kagoshima Publishing's Italian Mountain Cities and the Tiber Estuary, reflecting his love for Europe. Production ran for four months and the film was released on December 15, 1979; Miyazaki wished he could have had another month of production. It was well received; Animage readers voted it the best animation of all time—it remained in the top ten for more than fifteen years—and Clarisse the best heroine. In 2005, former princess Sayako Kuroda's wedding dress was reportedly inspired by Clarisse's, having been a fan of Miyazaki and his work. Several Japanese and American filmmakers were inspired by the film, prompting homages in other works. Miyazaki became a chief animation instructor for new employees at Telecom Animation Film, a subsidiary of Tokyo Movie Shinsha. and subsequently directed two episodes of Lupin the Third Part II under the pseudonym Teruki Tsutomu (照樹 務), which can read as "employee of Telecom". In his role at Telecom, Miyazaki helped train the second wave of employees. Miyazaki provided key animation for one episode of The New Adventures of Gigantor (1980–1981), and directed six episodes of Sherlock Hound in 1981, until legal issues with Arthur Conan Doyle's estate led to a suspension in production; Miyazaki was busy with other projects by the time the issues were resolved, and the remaining episodes were directed by Kyôsuke Mikuriya and broadcast from November 1984 to May 1985. It was Miyazaki's final television work. In 1982, Miyazaki, Takahata, and Kondō started work on a film adaptation of Little Nemo, but Miyazaki and Takahata left after a few months due to creative clashes with Fujioka (Kondō remained until 1985); the film was completed six years later as Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1989). Miyazaki spent some time in the United States during the film's production. After the release of The Castle of Cagliostro, Miyazaki began working on his ideas for an animated film adaptation of Richard Corben's comic book Rowlf and pitched the idea to Yutaka Fujioka at Tokyo Movie Shinsha. In November 1980, a proposal was drawn up to acquire the film rights. Around that time, Miyazaki was also approached for a series of magazine articles by Animage's editorial staff. Editors Toshio Suzuki and Osamu Kameyama took some of his ideas to Animage's parent company, Tokuma Shoten, which had been considering funding animated films. Two projects were proposed: Warring States Demon Castle (戦国魔城, Sengoku ma-jō), to be set in the Sengoku period; and the adaptation of Corben's Rowlf. Both were rejected, as the company was unwilling to fund anime not based on existing manga and the rights for Rowlf could not be secured. Elements of Miyazaki's proposal for Rowlf were recycled in his later works. With no films in production, Miyazaki agreed to develop a manga for the magazine, titled Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind; he had intended to stop making the manga when he received animation work; while he took some breaks in releases, the manga ultimately ran from February 1982 to March 1994. Miyazaki's busy schedule and perfectionist mindset led to several delays in publications, and on one occasion he withdrew some chapters before publication; he considered its continued publication a burden on his other work. The story, as re-printed in the tankōbon volumes, spans seven volumes for a combined total of 1,060 pages. It sold more than ten million copies in its first two years. Miyazaki drew the episodes primarily in pencil, and it was printed monochrome in sepia-toned ink. The main character, Nausicaä, was partly inspired by the character from Homer's Odyssey (whom Miyazaki had discovered while reading Bernard Evslin's Dictionary of Grecian Myths) and the Japanese folk tale The Lady who Loved Insects, while the world and ecosystem was based on Miyazaki's readings of scientific, historical, and political writings, such as Sasuke Nakao's Origins of Plant Cultivation and Agriculture, Eiichi Fujimori's The World of Jomon, Paul Carell's Hitler Moves East. He was also inspired by the comic series Arzach by Jean Giraud, whom he met while working on the manga. In 1982, Miyazaki assisted with key animation for an unreleased Zorro series, and for the feature film Space Adventure Cobra: The Movie. He resigned from Telecom Animation Film in November. Around this time, he wrote the graphic novel The Journey of Shuna, inspired by the Tibetan folk tale "Prince who became a dog". The novel was published by Tokuma Shoten in June 1983, dramatized for radio broadcast in 1987, and published in English as Shuna's Journey in 2022. Hayao Miyazaki's Daydream Data Notes was also irregularly published from November 1984 to October 1994 in Model Graphix; selections of the stories received radio broadcast in 1995. Following the completion of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind's first two volumes, Animage editors suggested a 15-minute short film adaptation. Miyazaki, initially reluctant, countered that an hour-long animation would be more suitable, and Tokuma Shoten agreed on a feature-length film. Production began on May 31, 1983, with animation beginning in August; funding was provided through a joint venture between Tokuma Shoten and the advertising agency Hakuhodo, for whom Miyazaki's youngest brother worked. Animation studio Topcraft was chosen as the production house. Miyazaki found some of Topcraft's staff unreliable, and brought on several of his previous collaborators, including Takahata, who served as producer, though he was reluctant to do so. Pre-production began on May 31, 1983; Miyazaki encountered difficulties in creating the screenplay, with only sixteen chapters of the manga to work with. Takahata enlisted experimental and minimalist musician Joe Hisaishi to compose the film's score; he subsequently worked on all of Miyazaki's feature films. For the film, Miyazaki's imagination was sparked by the mercury poisoning of Minamata Bay and how nature responded and thrived in a poisoned environment, using it to create the film's polluted world. For the lead role of Nausicaä, Miyazaki cast Sumi Shimamoto, who had impressed him as Clarisse in The Castle of Cagliostro and Maki in Lupin the Third Part II. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was created in ten months, and released on March 11, 1984. It grossed ¥1.48 billion at the box office, and made an additional ¥742 million in distribution income. It is often seen as Miyazaki's pivotal work, cementing his reputation as an animator. It was lauded for its positive portrayal of women, particularly Nausicaä. Several critics have labeled Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind as possessing anti-war and feminist themes; Miyazaki argues otherwise, stating he only wishes to entertain. He felt Nausicaä's ability to understand her opponent rather than simply defeat them meant she had to be female. The successful cooperation on the creation of the manga and the film laid the foundation for other collaborative projects. In April 1984, Miyazaki and Takahata created a studio to handle copyright of their work, naming it Nibariki (meaning "Two-Horse Power", the nickname for the Citroën 2CV, which Miyazaki drove), for which an office was secured in Suginami Ward, with Miyazaki serving as the senior partner. Studio Ghibli Early films (1985–1995) Following the success of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Miyazaki and Takahata founded the animation production company Studio Ghibli on June 15, 1985, as a subsidiary of Tokuma Shoten, with offices in Kichijōji designed by Miyazaki. Miyazaki named the studio after the Caproni Ca.309 and the Italian word meaning "a hot wind that blows in the desert"; the name had been registered a year earlier. Suzuki worked for Studio Ghibli as producer, joining full-time in 1989, while Topcraft's Tōru Hara became production manager; Suzuki's role in the creation of the studio and its films has led him to being occasionally named a co-founder, and Hara is often viewed as influential to the company's success. Yasuyoshi Tokuma, the founder of Tokuma Shoten, was also closely related to the company's creation, having provided financial backing. Topcraft had been considered as a partner to produce Miyazaki's next film, but the company went bankrupt in 1985. Several staff members subsequently hired at Studio Ghibli—up to 70 full-time and 200 part-time employees in 1985—had previously worked with Miyazaki at different studios, such as Telecom, Topcraft, and Toei Doga, and others like Madhouse, Inc. and Oh! Production. In 1984, Miyazaki traveled to Wales, drawing the mining villages and communities of Rhondda; he witnessed the miners' strike and admired the miners' dedication to their work and community. He was angered by the "military superpowers" of the Roman Empire who conquered the Celts and felt this anguish, alongside the miners' strike, was perceptible in Welsh communities. He returned in May 1985 to research his next film, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, the first by Studio Ghibli. Its tight production schedule forced Miyazaki to work all day, including before and after normal working hours, and he wrote lyrics for its end theme. Miyazaki used the floating island of Laputa from Gulliver's Travels in the film. Laputa was released on August 2, 1986, by the Toei Company. It sold around 775,000 tickets, making a modest financial return, though Miyazaki and Suzuki expressed their disappointment with its box office figures of approximately US$2.5 million. After the success of Nausicaä, Miyazaki visited Yanagawa and considered imitating it in an animated film, fascinated by its canal system; instead, Takahata directed a live-action documentary about the region, The Story of Yanagawa's Canals (1987). Miyazaki produced and financed the film, and provided several animated sequences. Its creation spanned four years, and Miyazaki considered it his social responsibility—to both Japanese society and filmmaking—in seeing it produced. Laputa was created partly to fund production of the documentary, for which Takahata had depleted his funds. In June 1985, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was released in the United States as Warriors of the Wind, with significant cuts; almost 30 minutes of dialogue and character development were removed, erasing parts of its plot and themes. Miyazaki and Takahata subsequently refused to consider Western releases of their films for the following decade. Miyazaki's next film, My Neighbor Totoro, originated in ideas he had as a child; he felt "Totoro is where my consciousness began". An attempt to pitch My Neighbor Totoro to Tokuma Shoten in the early 1980s had been unsuccessful, and Miyazaki faced difficulty in attempting to pitch it again in 1987. Suzuki proposed that Totoro be released as a double bill alongside Takahata's Grave of the Fireflies; as the latter, based on the 1967 short story by Akiyuki Nosaka, had historical value, Suzuki predicted school students would be taken to watch both. Totoro features the theme of the relationship between the environment and humanity, showing that harmony is the result of respecting the environment. The film also references Miyazaki's mother; the child protagonists' mother is bedridden. As with Laputa, Miyazaki wrote lyrics for Totoro's end theme. Miyazaki struggled with the film's script until he read a Mainichi Graph story about Japan forty years prior, opting to set the film in the country before Tokyo's expansion and the advent of television. Miyazaki has subsequently donated money and artwork to fund preservation of the forested land in Saitama Prefecture, in which the film is set. Production of My Neighbor Totoro began in April 1987 and took exactly a year; it was released on April 16, 1988. While the film received critical acclaim, it was only moderately successful at the box office. Studio Ghibli approved merchandising rights in 1990, which led to major commercial success; merchandise profits alone were able to sustain the studio for years. The film was labeled a cult classic, eventually gaining success in the United States after its release in 1993, where its home video release sold almost 500,000 copies. Akira Kurosawa said the film moved him, naming it among his hundred favorite films—one of few Japanese films to be named. An asteroid discovered by Takao Kobayashi in December 1994 was named after the film: 10160 Totoro. In 1987, Studio Ghibli acquired the rights to create a film adaptation of Eiko Kadono's novel Kiki's Delivery Service. Miyazaki's work on My Neighbor Totoro prevented him from directing the adaptation; he acted as producer, while Sunao Katabuchi was chosen as director and Nobuyuki Isshiki as script writer. Miyazaki's dissatisfaction of Isshiki's first draft led him to make changes to the project, ultimately taking the role of director. Kadono expressed her dissatisfaction with the differences between the book and screenplay, but Miyazaki and Takahata convinced her to let production continue. The film was originally intended to be a 60-minute special, but expanded into a feature film after Miyazaki completed the storyboards and screenplay. Miyazaki felt the struggles of the protagonist, Kiki, reflected the feelings of young girls in Japan yearning to live independently in cities, while her talents reflected those of real girls, despite her magical powers. In preparation for production, Miyazaki and other senior staff members traveled to Sweden, where they captured eighty rolls of film in Stockholm and Visby, the former being the primary inspiration behind the film's city. Kiki's Delivery Service premiered on July 29, 1989; it was critically successful, winning the Anime Grand Prix. With more than 2.6 million tickets sold, it earned ¥2.15 billion at the box office and was the highest-grossing film in Japan in 1989. Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli personally approved the subsequent English translations. From March to May 1989, Miyazaki's manga Hikōtei Jidai was published in the magazine Model Graphix, based on an earlier film idea he had assigned to a younger director in 1988 that fell through due to creative differences. Miyazaki began production on a 45-minute in-flight film for Japan Airlines based on the manga; Suzuki extended it into a feature-length film, titled Porco Rosso, as expectations and budget grew. Miyazaki began work on the film with little assistance, as its production overlapped with Takahata's Only Yesterday (1991), which Miyazaki co-produced. The outbreak of the Yugoslav Wars in 1991 affected Miyazaki, prompting a more sombre tone for Porco Rosso; the Croatian War of Independence moved the film's setting from Dubrovnik to the Adriatic Sea. Miyazaki later referred to the film as "foolish", as its mature tones were unsuitable for children, noting he had made it for his "own pleasure" due to his love of planes. Except for the Curtiss R3C-2, all planes in Porco Rosso are original creations from Miyazaki's imagination, based on his childhood memories. The film also pays homage to the work of Fleischer Studios and Winsor McCay, which were influential to Japanese animation in the 1940s. The film featured anti-war themes, which Miyazaki would later revisit. The protagonist's name, Marco Pagot, is the same as an Italian animator with whom Miyazaki had worked on Sherlock Hound. Some female staff at Studio Ghibli considered the film's Piccolo factory—led by a man and staffed by women—an intentional mirroring of Studio Ghibli's staff, of whom many are women; some viewed it as Miyazaki's respect for their work ethic, though others felt it implied women were easier to exploit. Japan Airlines remained a major investor in the film, resulting in its initial premiere as an in-flight film, prior to its theatrical release on July 18, 1992. It was Miyazaki's first film not to top Animage's yearly reader poll, which has been attributed to its mature focus. The film was commercially successful, becoming the highest-grossing film of the year in Japan; it remained one of the highest-grossing films for several years. During production of Porco Rosso, Miyazaki spearheaded work on Studio Ghibli's new studio in Koganei, Tokyo, designing the blueprints, selecting materials, and working with builders. The studio opened in August 1992, and the staff moved in shortly after Porco Rosso's release. Around this time, Miyazaki started work on the final volumes of the manga Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, which he created in-house at Studio Ghibli. In November, two television spots directed by Miyazaki were broadcast by Nippon Television Network (NTV): Sora Iro no Tane, a 90-second spot adapted from the illustrated story Sora Iro no Tane by Rieko Nakagawa and Yuriko Omura; and Nandarou, a series of four five-second advertisements featuring an undefinable creature. Miyazaki assisted with the concept of Takahata's Pom Poko (1994), and designed the storyboards and wrote the screenplay for Kondō's Whisper of the Heart (1995), being particularly involved in the latter's fantasy sequences. Critics and fans began to see Kondō as "the heir-apparent" to Studio Ghibli. Global emergence (1995–2001) Miyazaki's next film, Princess Mononoke, originated in sketches he had made in the late 1970s, based on Japanese folklore and the French fairytale Beauty and the Beast; his original ideas were rejected, and he published his sketches and initial story idea in a book in 1982. He revisited the project after the success of Porco Rosso allowed him more creative freedom. He chose the Muromachi period for the setting as he felt Japanese people stopped worshiping nature and began attempting to control it. Miyazaki began writing the film's treatment in August 1994. While experiencing writer's block in December, Miyazaki accepted a request to create On Your Mark, a music video for the song by Chage and Aska. He experimented with computer animation to supplement traditional animation. On Your Mark premiered as a short before Whisper of the Heart. The video's story was partly inspired by the Chernobyl disaster. Miyazaki intentionally made it cryptic, wanting viewers to interpret it themselves. Despite the video's popularity, Suzuki said it was not given "100 percent" focus. Miyazaki completed Princess Mononoke's formal proposal in April 1995 and began working on storyboards in May. He had intended it to be his final directorial work at Studio Ghibli, citing his poorer eyesight and physical pains. In July 1996, the Walt Disney Company offered Tokuma Shoten a deal to distribute Studio Ghibli's films worldwide (except for Southeast Asia) through its Buena Vista and Miramax Films brands. Miyazaki approved the deal, not personally interested in the money and wanting to support Tokuma Shoten, who had earlier supported him. In May 1995, Miyazaki took four art directors to Yakushima—which had previously provided inspiration for Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind—to research the forests as inspiration; another art director, Kazuo Oga, traveled to Shirakami-Sanchi. The landscapes in the film were inspired by Yakushima. In Princess Mononoke, Miyazaki revisited the ecological and political themes of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. His historical research, including that of Eiichi Fujimori, led him to the conclusion that women had more freedom during the prehistoric Jomon period, and he opted to focus on ordinary people in society. Miyazaki felt the melancholy of the protagonist, Ashitaka, reflected his own attitude, while he compared Ashitaka's scar to modern physical conditions that children endure, like AIDS. Animation work began in July 1995, before the storyboards were completed—a first for Miyazaki. He supervised the 144,000 cels in the film, about 80,000 of which were key animation. Princess Mononoke was produced with an estimated budget of ¥2.35 billion (approximately US$23.5 million), making it the most expensive Japanese animated film at the time. Approximately fifteen minutes of the film uses computer animation: about five minutes uses techniques such as 3D rendering, digital composition, and texture mapping; the remaining ten minutes uses digital ink and paint. While the original intention was to digitally paint 5,000 of the film's frames, time constraints doubled this, though it remained below ten percent of the final film. Animation was completed in mid-June 1997. Miyazaki collaborated directly with Hisaishi on the soundtrack from early in production; Hisaishi wrote an "image album" of pieces inspired by the story, which were reworked as production continued. Upon its premiere on July 12, 1997, Princess Mononoke was critically acclaimed, becoming the first animated film nominated for the Japan Academy Film Prize for Picture of the Year, which it won. The film was also commercially successful; it was watched by twelve million people by November, grossing US$160 million, and became the highest-grossing film in Japan for several months. Its home video release sold over two million copies within three weeks, and over four million by December 1998. For the North American release, Miramax sought to make some cuts to obtain a lower rating than PG-13, but Studio Ghibli refused. Neil Gaiman wrote the English-language script; he met Miyazaki in September 1999, when he traveled to the United States for the film's release and expressed his pleasure at Gaiman's work. While it was largely unsuccessful at the American box office, grossing about US$2.3 million, it was seen as the introduction of Studio Ghibli to global markets. In 1997, Miyazaki contributed to Visionaire, an arthouse magazine. Tokuma Shoten merged with Studio Ghibli in June 1997. Within walking distance of Studio Ghibli, Miyazaki designed his private office, which he named Buta-ya (meaning "pig house"). It was intended as his retirement office for personal projects; he held his farewell party there in January 1998, having left Studio Ghibli on January 14 to be succeeded by Kondō. However, Kondō's death on January 21 impacted Miyazaki, and within days it was announced he would return to Studio Ghibli to direct a new film. A manga by Miyazaki, Doromamire no Tora, was published in Model Graphix in December 1998, based on a book by German tank commander Otto Carius. Miyazaki officially returned to Studio Ghibli as its leader on January 16, 1999, taking an active role in employee organization. From 1998, Miyazaki worked on designs for the Ghibli Museum, dedicated to showcasing the studio's works, including several exclusive short films, for which production began in July 1999. Construction for the museum began in March 2000, and it officially opened on October 1, 2001, featuring the short film Kujiratori. Miyazaki served as its executive director. In 1999, a Japanese theme park engaged Studio Ghibli to create a 20-minute short film about cats; Miyazaki agreed on the condition that it featured returning characters from Whisper of the Heart. Aoi Hiiragi wrote a manga based on the concept, titled Baron: The Cat Returns. When the theme park withdrew, Miyazaki expanded the idea into a 45-minute film and, wanting to foster new talent at the studio, assigned it to first-time director Hiroyuki Morita. The film was released as The Cat Returns in 2002. Miyazaki's next film was conceived while on vacation at a mountain cabin with his family and five young girls who were family friends. Miyazaki realized he had not created a film for 10-year-old girls and set out to do so. He read shōjō manga magazines like Nakayoshi and Ribon for inspiration but felt they only offered subjects on "crushes and romance", which is not what the girls "held dear in their hearts"; he decided to produce the film about a female heroine whom they could look up to, based on two of the girls he had met. Production of the film, titled Spirited Away, commenced in 2000 on a budget of ¥1.9 billion (US$15 million). As with Princess Mononoke, the staff experimented with computer animation, but kept the technology at a level to enhance the story, not to "steal the show". Spirited Away deals with symbols of human greed, symbolizing the 1980s Japanese asset price bubble, and a liminal journey through the realm of spirits. The film was released on July 20, 2001; it received critical acclaim, winning the Japan Academy Film Prize for Picture of the Year. The film was commercially successful, selling a record-breaking 21.4 million tickets and earning ¥30.4 billion (US$289.1 million) at the box office. It became the highest-grossing film in Japan, a record it maintained for almost 20 years, and was the first Japanese film to earn US$200 million internationally, prior to its American release. Kirk Wise directed the English-language version; Disney Animation's John Lasseter wanted Miyazaki to travel to the United States to work on the translated version, but Miyazaki trusted Lasseter to handle it. Spirited Away's hopping lamp character is seen as an homage to Lasseter's character Luxo Jr. The film's successful American release through Buena Vista cemented Studio Ghibli's reputation in Western regions and established Miyazaki's popularity in North America; it was the first animated film to win the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival (tied with Blood Sunday) and the first Japanese film to win Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards, alongside several other accolades. It has been frequently ranked among the greatest films of the 21st century. Upon completing the film, like with Princess Mononoke, Miyazaki declared it his last. He traveled to France in December 2001 and the United States in September 2002 to promote the film. Following the death of Tokuma in September 2000, Miyazaki served as the head of his funeral committee. Miyazaki wrote and directed more short films for the Ghibli Museum: Koro no Daisanpo, which screened from January 2002, and Mei and the Kittenbus, which screened from October. One of the short films, Imaginary Flying Machines, was later screened as in-flight entertainment by Japan Airlines alongside Porco Rosso. Later films (2001–2011) Studio Ghibli announced the production of Howl's Moving Castle in September 2001, based on the novel by Diana Wynne Jones, which Miyazaki had read in 1999. Toei Animation's Mamoru Hosoda was originally selected to direct the film, but disagreements between Hosoda and Studio Ghibli executives led to the project's abandonment in 2002. After six months, Studio Ghibli resurrected the project. Miyazaki was inspired to direct the film, struck by the image of a castle moving around the countryside; the novel does not explain how the castle moved, which led to Miyazaki's designs. Some computer animation was used to animate the castle's movements, though Miyazaki dictated it consist of no more than 10 percent of the film. Miyazaki traveled to Colmar and Riquewihr in Alsace, France, to study the architecture and the surroundings for the film's setting, while additional inspiration came from the concepts of future technology in Albert Robida's work. The war featured in the film was thematically influenced by the 2003 invasion and subsequent war in Iraq, the events of which enraged Miyazaki. Howl's Moving Castle was released on November 20, 2004, and received widespread critical acclaim. The film received the Golden Osella for Technical Excellence at the 61st Venice International Film Festival, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. In Japan, the film sold more than 1.1 million tickets within two days and grossed a record US$14.5 million in its first week. It became Japan's third-highest-grossing film, and remains among the top rankings with a worldwide gross of over ¥19.3 billion. Miyazaki received the honorary Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement award at the 62nd Venice International Film Festival in 2005. He visited the United States in June 2005 to promote the film. In March 2005, Studio Ghibli split from Tokuma Shoten, and Miyazaki became corporate director. After Howl's Moving Castle, Miyazaki created some short films for the Ghibli Museum, for which he returned solely to traditional animation techniques; all three began screening in January 2006. Studio Ghibli obtained the rights to produce an adaptation of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea novels in 2003; Miyazaki had contacted her in the 1980s expressing interest but she declined, unaware of his work. Upon watching My Neighbor Totoro several years later, she expressed approval to the concept and met with Suzuki in August 2005, who wanted Miyazaki's son Goro to direct the film, as Miyazaki had wished to retire. Disappointed that Miyazaki was not directing but under the impression he would supervise his son's work, Le Guin approved of the film's production. Miyazaki later publicly opposed and criticized Goro's appointment as director. The film's designs were partly inspired by Miyazaki's manga The Journey of Shuna. Upon Miyazaki's viewing of the film, he wrote a message for his son: "It was made honestly, so it was good". In February 2006, Miyazaki traveled to the United Kingdom to research A Trip to Tynemouth (based on Robert Westall's "Blackham's Wimpy"), for which he designed the cover, created a short manga, and worked as editor; it was released in October. Miyazaki's next film, Ponyo, began production in May 2006. It was initially inspired by "The Little Mermaid" by Hans Christian Andersen, though began to take its own form as production continued. Miyazaki aimed for the film to celebrate the innocence and cheerfulness of a child's universe. He was intimately involved with the artwork, preferring to draw the sea and waves himself, as he enjoyed experimenting. Two short films—Looking for a Home and Water Spider Monmon—were made for the Ghibli Museum shortly before Ponyo entered production as animation experiments for sea life. Ponyo features 170,000 frames—a record for Miyazaki. Its seaside village was inspired by Tomonoura, a town in Setonaikai National Park, where Miyazaki stayed in 2004. The main character, Sōsuke, is based on Gorō. Following its release on July 19, 2008, Ponyo was critically acclaimed, receiving Animation of the Year at the 32nd Japan Academy Film Prize. The film was also a commercial success, earning ¥10 billion (US$93.2 million) in its first month and ¥15.5 billion by the end of 2008, placing it among the highest-grossing films in Japan; its box office earnings outpaced its ¥3.4 billion budget fivefold. In April 2008, Miyazaki founded Home of the Three Bears, a preschool for the children of Studio Ghibli employees for which he had worked on early architectural plans. In early 2009, Miyazaki began writing a manga called Kaze Tachinu (風立ちぬ, The Wind Rises), telling the story of Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter designer Jiro Horikoshi. The manga was first published in two issues of the Model Graphix magazine, published on February 25 and March 25, 2009. For the Ghibli Museum, Miyazaki wrote the short film A Sumo Wrestler's Tail, directed by Akihiko Yamashita, and wrote and directed Mr. Dough and the Egg Princess; both started screening in 2010. From July 2008, Miyazaki planned and produced the film Arrietty (2010), for which he co-wrote the screenplay with Keiko Niwa, based on the 1952 novel The Borrowers; it was the directorial debut of Hiromasa Yonebayashi, who had started as an inbetween artist on Princess Mononoke. Miyazaki and Niwa wrote the screenplay for From Up on Poppy Hill (2011), based the 1979–1980 manga Coquelicot-zaka kara; the film, directed by Goro Miyazaki, was the highest-grossing Japanese film in the country in 2011 and won Animation of the Year at the Japan Academy Awards. Retirement and return (2012–present) Miyazaki wanted his next film to be a sequel to Ponyo, but Suzuki convinced him to instead adapt Kaze Tachinu to film. In November 2012, Studio Ghibli announced the production of The Wind Rises, based on Kaze Tachinu, to be released as a double bill alongside Takahata's The Tale of the Princess Kaguya; the latter was ultimately delayed. Miyazaki was inspired to create The Wind Rises after reading a quote from Horikoshi: "All I wanted to do was to make something beautiful". Several scenes in The Wind Rises were inspired by Tatsuo Hori's novel The Wind Has Risen (風立ちぬ), in which Hori wrote about his life experiences with his fiancée before she died from tuberculosis. The female lead character's name, Naoko Satomi, was borrowed from Hori's novel Naoko (菜穂子), while the name of a German man, Hans Castorp, taken from Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain. Naoko's struggles with tuberculosis echo the illness of Miyazaki's mother, and Horikoshi's story of growing from a young boy dreaming of airplanes to an inspirational artist is reflective of Miyazaki's own life. The Wind Rises reflects Miyazaki's pacifist stance, continuing the themes of his earlier works, despite stating that condemning war was not the intention of the film; he felt that, despite his occupation, Horikoshi was not militant. Miyazaki was moved by the film, the first of his own works to make him cry. As Horikoshi, he cast Hideaki Anno, who had worked on Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and later became known for creating Neon Genesis Evangelion. The film premiered on July 20, 2013, It received critical acclaim for its animation, narrative, and characters, though some viewers were critical of the film's focus on Horikoshi due to the impacts of his inventions and others were disappointed by its lack of fantastical elements. It was named Animation of the Year at the 37th Japan Academy Film Prize and was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 86th Academy Awards. It was commercially successful, grossing ¥11.6 billion (US$110 million) at the Japanese box office, becoming the highest-grossing film in Japan in 2013. The film's production was documented in Mami Sunada's The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness. In September 2013, Miyazaki announced he was retiring from the production of feature films due to his age, but wished to continue working on the displays at the Ghibli Museum. Miyazaki was awarded the Academy Honorary Award at the Governors Awards in November 2014. He developed Boro the Caterpillar, an animated short film which was first discussed during pre-production for Princess Mononoke. It was screened exclusively at the Ghibli Museum in July 2017. Around this time, Miyazaki was working on a manga titled Teppo Samurai. In February 2019, a four-part documentary was broadcast on the NHK network titled 10 Years with Hayao Miyazaki, documenting production of his films in his private studio. In 2019, Miyazaki approved a musical adaptation of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, as it was performed by a kabuki troupe. In August 2016, Miyazaki proposed a new feature-length film, Kimi-tachi wa Dō Ikiru ka (titled The Boy and the Heron in English), on which he began animation work without receiving official approval. The film opened in Japanese theaters on July 14, 2023. It was preceded by a minimal marketing campaign, forgoing trailers, commercials, and advertisements, a response from Suzuki to his perceived oversaturation of marketing materials in mainstream films. Despite claims that The Boy and the Heron would be Miyazaki's final film, Studio Ghibli vice president Junichi Nishioka said in September 2023 that Miyazaki continued to attend the office daily to plan his next film. Suzuki said he could no longer convince Miyazaki to retire. The Boy and the Heron won Miyazaki his second Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 96th Academy Awards, becoming the oldest director to do so; Miyazaki did not attend the show due to his advanced age. Views Miyazaki has often criticized the state of the animation industry, stating that some animators lack a foundational understanding of their subjects and do not prioritize realism. He is particularly critical of Japanese animation, saying that anime is "produced by humans who can't stand looking at other humans ... that's why the industry is full of otaku !". He has frequently criticized otaku, including "fanatics" of guns and fighter aircraft, declaring it a "fetish" and refusing to identify himself as such. He bemoaned the state of Disney animated films in 1988, saying "they show nothing but contempt for the audience". In 2013, Miyazaki criticized Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's policies and the proposed Constitutional amendment that would allow Abe to revise the clause outlawing war as a means to settle international disputes. Miyazaki felt Abe wished to "leave his name in history as a great man who revised the Constitution and its interpretation", describing it as "despicable" and stating "People who don't think enough shouldn't meddle with the constitution". In 2015, Miyazaki disapproved Abe's denial of Japan's military aggression, stating Japan "should clearly say that [they] inflicted enormous damage on China and express deep remorse over it". He felt the government should give a "proper apology" to Korean comfort women who were forced to service the Japanese army during World War II and suggested the Senkaku Islands be "split in half" or controlled by both Japan and China. After the release of The Wind Rises in 2013, some online critics labeled Miyazaki a "traitor" and "anti-Japanese", describing the film as overly "left-wing"; Miyazaki recognized leftist values in his movies, citing his influence by and appreciation of communism as defined by Karl Marx, but criticized the Soviet Union's political system. When Spirited Away was nominated at the 75th Academy Awards in 2003, Miyazaki refused to attend in protest of the United States's involvement in the Iraq War, and later said he "didn't want to visit a country that was bombing Iraq". He did not publicly express this opinion at the request of his producer until 2009 when he lifted his boycott and attended San Diego Comic-Con as a favor to his friend John Lasseter. Miyazaki also expressed his opinion about the terrorist attack at the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, criticizing the magazine's decision to publish the content cited as the catalyst for the incident; he felt caricatures should be made of politicians, not cultures. In November 2016, Miyazaki believed "many of the people who voted for Brexit and Trump" were affected by the increase in unemployment due to companies "building cars in Mexico because of low wages and [selling] them in the US". He did not think Donald Trump would be elected president, calling it "a terrible thing", but said Trump's political opponent Hillary Clinton was "terrible as well". Themes Miyazaki's works are characterized by the recurrence of themes such as feminism, environmentalism, pacifism, love, and family. His narratives are also notable for not pitting a hero against an unsympathetic antagonist; Miyazaki felt Spirited Away's Chihiro "manages not because she has destroyed the 'evil', but because she has acquired the ability to survive". Miyazaki's films often emphasize environmentalism and the Earth's fragility. Margaret Talbot stated Miyazaki dislikes modern technology, and believes much of modern culture is "thin and shallow and fake"; he anticipates a time with "no more high-rises". Miyazaki felt frustrated growing up in the Shōwa period from 1955 to 1965 because "nature—the mountains and rivers—was being destroyed in the name of economic progress". Peter Schellhase of The Imaginative Conservative identified that several antagonists of Miyazaki's films "attempt to dominate nature in pursuit of political domination, and are ultimately destructive to both nature and human civilization". Miyazaki is critical of exploitation under both communism and capitalism, as well as globalization and its effects on modern life, believing "a company is common property of the people that work there". Ram Prakash Dwivedi identified values of Mahatma Gandhi in the films of Miyazaki. Several of Miyazaki's films feature anti-war themes. Daisuke Akimoto of Animation Studies categorized Porco Rosso as "anti-war propaganda" and felt the protagonist, Porco, transforms into a pig partly due to his extreme distaste of militarism. Akimoto also argues that The Wind Rises reflects Miyazaki's "antiwar pacifism", despite Miyazaki stating that the film does not attempt to "denounce" war. Schellhase also identifies Princess Mononoke as a pacifist film due to the protagonist, Ashitaka; instead of joining the campaign of revenge against humankind, as his ethnic history would lead him to do, Ashitaka strives for peace. David Loy and Linda Goodhew argue both Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Princess Mononoke do not depict traditional evil, but the Buddhist roots of evil: greed, ill will, and delusion; according to Buddhism, the roots of evil must transform into "generosity, loving-kindness and wisdom" in order to overcome suffering, and both Nausicaä and Ashitaka accomplish this. When characters in Miyazaki's films are forced to engage in violence, it is shown as being a difficult task; in Howl's Moving Castle, Howl is forced to fight an inescapable battle in defense of those he loves, and it almost destroys him, though he is ultimately saved by Sophie's love and bravery. Suzuki described Miyazaki as a feminist in reference to his attitude to female workers. Miyazaki has described his female characters as "brave, self-sufficient girls that don't think twice about fighting for what they believe in with all their heart", stating they may "need a friend, or a supporter, but never a saviour" and "any woman is just as capable of being a hero as any man". Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was lauded for its positive portrayal of women, particularly protagonist Nausicaä. Schellhase noted the female characters in Miyazaki's films are not objectified or sexualized, and possess complex and individual characteristics absent from Hollywood productions. Schellhase also identified a "coming of age" element for the heroines in Miyazaki's films, as they each discover "individual personality and strengths". Gabrielle Bellot of The Atlantic wrote that, in his films, Miyazaki "shows a keen understanding of the complexities of what it might mean to be a woman". In particular, Bellot cites Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, praising the film's challenging of gender expectations, and the strong and independent nature of Nausicaä. Bellot also noted Princess Mononoke's San represents the "conflict between selfhood and expression". Miyazaki is concerned with the sense of wonder in young people, seeking to maintain themes of love and family in his films. Michael Toscano of Curator found Miyazaki "fears Japanese children are dimmed by a culture of overconsumption, overprotection, utilitarian education, careerism, techno-industrialism, and a secularism that is swallowing Japan's native animism". Schellhase wrote that several of Miyazaki's works feature themes of love and romance, but felt emphasis is placed on "the way lonely and vulnerable individuals are integrated into relationships of mutual reliance and responsibility, which generally benefit everyone around them". He also found many of the protagonists in Miyazaki's films present an idealized image of families, whereas others are dysfunctional. Creation process and influences Miyazaki forgoes traditional screenplays in his productions, instead developing the narrative as he designs the storyboards, stating "We never know where the story will go but we just keep working on the film as it develops". Miyazaki has employed traditional animation methods in all of his films, drawing each frame by hand; computer-generated imagery has been employed in several of his later films, beginning with Princess Mononoke, to "enrich the visual look", though he ensures each film can "retain the right ratio between working by hand and computer ... and still be able to call my films 2D". He oversees every frame of his films. For character designs, Miyazaki draws original drafts used by animation directors to create reference sheets, which are then corrected by Miyazaki in his style. Miyazaki has cited several Japanese artists as his influences, including Sanpei Shirato, Osamu Tezuka, Soji Yamakawa, and Isao Takahata, and Western artists and animators like Frédéric Back, Jean Giraud, Paul Grimault, Yuri Norstein, and animation studio Aardman Animations (specifically the works of Nick Park). A number of authors have also influenced his works, including Lewis Carroll, Roald Dahl, Ursula K. Le Guin, Philippa Pearce, Rosemary Sutcliff, and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Specific works that have influenced Miyazaki include Animal Farm (1945), The Snow Queen (1957), and The King and the Mockingbird (1980); The Snow Queen is said to be the true catalyst for Miyazaki's filmography, influencing his training and work. When animating young children, Miyazaki often takes inspiration from his friends' children and memories of his own childhood. Personal life Miyazaki's wife, Akemi Ōta (大田朱美), was born in 1938 and hired as an inbetween artist at Toei Animation in 1958, working on Panda and the Magic Serpent and Alakazam the Great (1960). She and Miyazaki met at Toei in 1964, and they married in October 1965. At Toei, they worked together on The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun and The Wonderful World of Puss 'n Boots. They have two sons: Goro, born in January 1967, and Keisuke, born in April 1969. Becoming a father changed Miyazaki and he tried to produce work to please his children. Miyazaki initially fulfilled a promise to his wife that they would both continue to work after Goro's birth, dropping him off at preschool for the day; however, upon seeing Goro's exhaustion walking home one day, Miyazaki decided they could not continue, and his wife quit in 1972 to stay at home and raise their children. She was reluctant to do so but considered it necessary to allow Miyazaki to focus on his work. Miyazaki's dedication to his work harmed his relationship with his children as he was often absent. Goro watched his father's works to "understand" him since the two rarely talked. Miyazaki said he "tried to be a good father, but in the end [he] wasn't a very good parent". During production of Tales from Earthsea in 2006, Goro said his father "gets zero marks as a father but full marks as a director of animated films". Goro worked at a landscape design firm before beginning to work at the Ghibli Museum; he designed the garden on its rooftop and eventually became its curator. Keisuke studied forestry at Shinshu University and works as a wood artist; he designed a woodcut print that appears in Whisper of the Heart. Miyazaki's niece, Mei Okuyama, who was the inspiration behind the character Mei in My Neighbor Totoro, is married to animation artist Daisuke Tsutsumi. Legacy Miyazaki was described as the "godfather of animation in Japan" by BBC's Tessa Wong in 2016, citing his craftsmanship and humanity, the themes of his films, and his inspiration to younger artists. Courtney Lanning of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette named him one of the world's greatest animators, comparing him to Osamu Tezuka and Walt Disney; Miyazaki has been called "the Disney of Japan", though Helen McCarthy considered comparison to Akira Kurosawa more appropriate due to the combination of grandeur and sensitivity in his work, dubbing him "the Kurosawa of animation". Swapnil Dhruv Bose of Far Out Magazine wrote that Miyazaki's work "has shaped not only the future of animation but also filmmaking in general", and that it helped "generation after generation of young viewers to observe the magic that exists in the mundane". Richard James Havis of South China Morning Post called him a "genius ... who sets exacting standards for himself, his peers and studio staff". Paste's Toussaint Egan described Miyazaki as "one of anime's great auteurs", whose "stories of such singular thematic vision and unmistakable aesthetic" captured viewers otherwise unfamiliar with anime. Miyazaki became the subject of an exhibit at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles in 2021, featuring over 400 objects from his films. Miyazaki has frequently been cited as an inspiration to numerous animators, directors and writers around the world, including Wes Anderson, Tony Bancroft, James Cameron, Barry Cook, Dean DeBlois, Guillermo del Toro, Pete Docter, Mamoru Hosoda, Bong Joon-ho, Travis Knight, John Lasseter, Nick Park, Henry Selick, Makoto Shinkai, and Steven Spielberg. Glen Keane said Miyazaki is a "huge influence" on Walt Disney Animation Studios and has been "part of our heritage" ever since The Rescuers Down Under (1990). The Disney Renaissance era was also prompted by competition with the development of Miyazaki's films. Artists from Pixar and Aardman Studios signed a tribute stating, "You're our inspiration, Miyazaki-san!" He has also been cited as inspiration for video game designers including Shigeru Miyamoto on The Legend of Zelda and Hironobu Sakaguchi on Final Fantasy, as well as the television series Avatar: The Last Airbender, and the video game Ori and the Blind Forest (2015). Several books have been written about Miyazaki by scholars such as Raz Greenberg, Helen McCarthy, and Susan J. Napier; according to Jeff Lenburg, more papers have been written about Miyazaki than any other Japanese artist. Studio Ghibli has searched for some time for Miyazaki and Suzuki's successor to lead the studio; Kondō, the director of Whisper of the Heart, was initially considered, but died from a sudden heart attack in 1998. Some candidates were considered by 2023—including Miyazaki's son Goro, who declined—but the studio was not able to find a successor. Selected filmography The Castle of Cagliostro (1979) Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986) My Neighbor Totoro (1988) Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) Porco Rosso (1992) Princess Mononoke (1997) Spirited Away (2001) Howl's Moving Castle (2004) Ponyo (2008) The Wind Rises (2013) The Boy and the Heron (2023) Awards and nominations Miyazaki won the Ōfuji Noburō Award at the Mainichi Film Awards for The Castle of Cagliostro (1979), Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986), and My Neighbor Totoro (1988), and the Mainichi Film Award for Best Animation Film for Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), Porco Rosso (1992), Princess Mononoke (1997), Spirited Away (2001), and Whale Hunt (2001). Spirited Away and The Boy and the Heron were awarded the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, while Howl's Moving Castle (2004) and The Wind Rises (2013) received nominations. He was named a Person of Cultural Merit by the Japanese government in November 2012, for outstanding cultural contributions. Time named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2005 and 2024, and Gold House honored him on its Most Impactful Asians A100 list in 2024. He was an honoree of the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2024 for his usage of art to "illuminate the human condition". Miyazaki's other accolades include several Annie Awards, Japan Academy Film Prizes, Kinema Junpo Awards, and Tokyo Anime Awards. Notes References Sources Print sources Journal articles Web sources Video sources External links Studio Ghibli (in Japanese) Hayao Miyazaki at Anime News Network's encyclopedia Hayao Miyazaki at IMDb Hayao Miyazaki at Library of Congress, with 14 library catalogue records

The Sikh empire's capital at the time of the Battle of Sobraon came under the rule of the British Crown in what year?

1858

Temporal reasoning

The Battle of Sobraon was fought on 10 February 1846, between the forces of the East India Company and the Sikh Khalsa Army, the army of the declining Sikh Empire of the Punjab. The Sikhs were completely defeated, making this the decisive battle of the First Anglo-Sikh War. Background The First Anglo-Sikh war began in late 1845, after a combination of increasing disorder in the Sikh empire following the death of Ranjit Singh in 1839 and provocations by the British East India Company led to the Sikh Khalsa Army invading British territory. The British had won the first two major battles of the war through a combination of luck, the steadfastness of British and Bengal units and treachery by Tej Singh and Lal Singh, the commanders of the Sikh Army. On the British side, the Governor General, Sir Henry Hardinge, had been dismayed by the head-on tactics of the Bengal Army's commander-in-chief, Sir Hugh Gough, and was seeking to have him removed from command. However, no commander senior enough to supersede Gough could arrive from England for several months. Then the army's spirits were revived by the victory gained by Sir Harry Smith at the Battle of Aliwal, in which he eliminated a threat to the army's lines of communication, and the arrival of reinforcements including much-needed heavy artillery and two battalions of Gurkhas. The Sikhs had been temporarily dismayed by their defeat at the Battle of Ferozeshah, and had withdrawn most of their forces across the Sutlej River. The Regent Jind Kaur who was ruling in the name of her son, the infant Maharaja Duleep Singh, had accused 500 of her officers of cowardice, even flinging one of her garments in their faces. The Khalsa had been reinforced from districts west of Lahore, and now moved in strength into a bridgehead across the Sutlej at Sobraon, entrenching and fortifying their encampment. Any wavering after their earlier defeats was dispelled by the presence of the respected veteran leader, Sham Singh Attariwala. Unfortunately for the Khalsa, Tej Singh and Lal Singh retained the overall direction of the Sikh armies. Also, their position at Sobraon was linked to the west, Punjabi, bank of the river by a single vulnerable pontoon bridge. Three days' continuous rain before the battle had swollen the river and threatened to carry away this bridge. The battle Gough had intended to attack the Sikh army as soon as Smith's division rejoined from Ludhiana, but Hardinge forced him to wait until a heavy artillery train had arrived. At last, he moved forward early on 10 February. The start of the battle was delayed by heavy fog, but as it lifted, 35 British heavy guns and howitzers opened fire. The Sikh cannon replied. The bombardment went on for two hours without much effect on the Sikh defences. Gough was told that his heavy guns were running short of ammunition and is alleged to have replied, "Thank God! Then I'll be at them with the bayonet." Two British divisions under Harry Smith and Major General Sir Walter Gilbert made feint attacks on the Sikh left, while another division under Major General Robert Henry Dick made the main attack on the Sikh right, where the defences were of soft sand and were lower and weaker than the rest of the line. (It is believed that Lal Singh had supplied this information to Major Henry Lawrence, the Political Agent at Gough's headquarters.) Nevertheless, Dick's division was driven back by Sikh counter-attacks after initially gaining footholds within the Sikh lines. Dick himself was killed. As the British fell back, some frenzied Sikh soldiers attacked British wounded left in the ditch in front of the entrenchments, enraging the British soldiers. The British, Gurkhas and Bengal regiments renewed their attacks along the entire front of the entrenchment, and broke through at several points. On the vulnerable Sikh right, engineers blew a breach in the fortifications and British cavalry and horse artillery pushed through it to engage the Sikhs in the centre of their position. Tej Singh had left the battlefield early. It is alleged in many Sikh accounts that he deliberately weakened the pontoon bridge, casting loose the boat at its centre, or that he ordered his own artillery on the west bank to fire on the bridge on the pretext of preventing British pursuit. British accounts claim that the bridge, having been weakened by the swollen river, simply broke under the weight of the numbers of soldiers trying to retreat across it. Whichever account is correct, the bridge broke, trapping nearly 20,000 of the Sikh Khalsa Army on the east bank. None of the trapped Sikh soldiers attempted to surrender. Many detachments, including one led by Sham Singh Attariwala, fought to the death. Some Sikhs rushed forward to attack the British regiments sword in hand; others tried to ford or swim the river. British horse artillery lined the bank of the river and continued to fire into the crowds in the water. By the time the firing ceased, the Sikhs had lost between 8,000 and 10,000 men. The British had also captured 67 guns. Aftermath The destruction of the bridge did not delay Gough at all, if this had indeed been Tej Singh's intention. The first British units began to cross the river on the evening of the day of battle, and on 13 February, Gough's army was only 30 miles (48 km) from Lahore, the Sikh empire's capital. Although detachments of the Khalsa remained intact in outlying frontier districts of the Punjab, they could not be concentrated quickly enough to defend Lahore. The central durbar of the Punjab nominated Gulab Singh, the effective ruler of Jammu, to negotiate terms for surrender. By the Treaty of Lahore, the Sikhs ceded the valuable agricultural lands of the Bist Doab (Jullundur Doab) (between the Beas and Sutlej Rivers) to the East India Company, and allowed a British Resident at Lahore with subordinates in other principal cities. These Residents and Agents would indirectly govern the Punjab, through Sikh Sardars. In addition, the Sikhs were to pay an indemnity of 1.2 million pounds. Since they could not readily find this sum, Gulab Singh was allowed to acquire Kashmir from the Punjab by paying 750,000 pounds to the East India Company. Order of battle British regiments 3rd King’s Own Light Dragoons 9th Queen’s Royal Light Dragoons (Lancers) 16th The Queen's Lancers 9th Foot 10th Foot 29th Foot 31st Foot 50th Foot 53rd Foot 80th Foot British Indian Army regiments Governor General’s Bodyguard 3rd Bengal Native Cavalry 4th Bengal Native Cavalry 5th Bengal Native Cavalry 2nd Bengal Irregular Cavalry 4th Bengal Irregular Cavalry 8th Bengal Irregular Cavalry 9th Bengal Irregular Cavalry 1st Bengal European Regiment 4th Bengal Native Infantry 5th Bengal Native Infantry 16th Bengal Native Infantry 26th Bengal Native Infantry 31st Bengal Native Infantry 33rd Bengal Native Infantry 41st Bengal Native Infantry 42nd Bengal Native Infantry 43rd Bengal Native Infantry 47th Bengal Native Infantry 59th Bengal Native Infantry 62nd Bengal Native Infantry 63rd Bengal Native Infantry 68th Bengal Native Infantry 73rd Bengal Native Infantry Nasiri Battalion (1st Gurkha Rifles) Sirmoor Battalion (2nd Gurkha Rifles) Monument A monument was erected on the battle site at Rhodawala in 1868. Photographs of the monument Folklore and personal accounts Several years after the battle, Gough wrote, "The awful slaughter, confusion and dismay were such as would have excited compassion in the hearts of their generous conquerors, if the Khalsa troops had not, in the early part of the action, sullied their gallantry by slaughtering and barbarously mangling every wounded soldier whom, in the vicissitudes of attack, the fortune of war left at their mercy." After hearing of the battle, the wife of Sham Singh Attariwala immolated herself on a funeral pyre without waiting for news of her husband, convinced (correctly) that he would never return alive from such a defeat. Some accounts state that Lal Singh was present on the battlefield, and accompanied Tej Singh on his retreat. Other sources maintain that he commanded a large body of gorchurras (irregular cavalry) which was some miles away, and took no action against Gough's army although he might have attacked Gough's communications. A long-standing friendship between the 10th (Lincolnshire) Regiment and 29th (Worcestershire) Regiment was cemented at the battle when their two battalions met in the captured trenches that had cost so many lives to take. For many years afterwards, it was the custom that sergeants and officers were honorary members of each other's messes and the adjutants of the two regiments addressed each other as 'My Dear Cousin' in official correspondence Popular culture The battle provides the climax for George MacDonald Fraser's novel, Flashman and the Mountain of Light. It is mentioned in Rudyard Kipling's Stalky & Co See also 9th Regiment of Foot 53rd Regiment of Foot 1st King George V's Own Gurkha Rifles (The Malaun Regiment) 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles (The Sirmoor Rifles) 101st Grenadiers Jat Regiment References Bibliography Hernon, Ian (2003). Britain's forgotten wars. Sutton. ISBN 0-7509-3162-0. External links allaboutsikhs.com BritishBattles.com

Lahore ( lə-HOR; Punjabi: لہور [lɔː˩˥ɾ]; Urdu: لاہور [laːˈɦɔːɾ] ) is the capital and largest city of the Pakistani province of Punjab. It is the second largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and 26th largest in the world, with a population of over 13 million. Located in central-eastern Punjab, along the River Ravi, it is the largest Punjabi-speaking city in the world. Lahore is one of Pakistan's major industrial, educational and economic hubs. It has been the historic capital and cultural centre of the wider Punjab region, and is one of Pakistan's most socially liberal, progressive, and cosmopolitan cities. Lahore's origin dates back to antiquity. The city has been inhabited for around two millennia, although it rose to prominence in the late 10th century with the establishment of the fortified Walled City. Lahore served as the capital of several empires during the medieval era, including the Hindu Shahis, Ghaznavids and Delhi Sultanate. It succeeded Multan as the cultural centre of Punjab in the late-medieval era, reaching the height of its splendor under the Mughal Empire between the late 16th and early 18th centuries and also serving as its capital city between 1586 and 1598. During this period, it was one of the largest cities in the world. The city was captured and looted by the forces of the Persian Afsharid ruler Nader Shah in 1739. Although Mughal authority was briefly re-established, it fell into a period of decline and nominal control with frequent raids and invasions by Afghans and Marathas. After the official end of Mughal rule and Afghan–Maratha War in Punjab, the city became heavily contested among the Afghans and the local Punjabi states between 1748 and 1798. The Afghans were eventually driven out of Punjab as the city was captured by the Sukerchakia Misl, based in Gujranwala, under Ranjit Singh in July 1799 where he was crowned the Maharaja of Punjab, thus Lahore became the capital of the Sikh Empire in the early 19th century, regaining some of its lost grandeur. In the aftermath of the Second Anglo-Sikh War, Punjab was annexed by the East India Company in 1849 and Lahore became the capital of British Punjab. Lahore was central to the independence movements of both India and Pakistan, with the city being the site of both the Declaration of Indian Independence and the resolution calling for the establishment of Pakistan. It experienced some of the worst rioting during the partition period, preceding Pakistan's independence. Following the establishment of Pakistan in 1947, Lahore served as the capital of West Punjab from 1947 to 1955, and of West Pakistan from 1955 to 1970. Primarily inhabited by ethnic Punjabis, Lahore exerts a strong cultural and political influence over Pakistan. A UNESCO City of Literature and major centre for Pakistan's publishing industry, Lahore remains the foremost center of Pakistan's literary scene. The city is also a major centre of education sector, with some of Pakistan's leading universities based in the city. Lahore is home to Pakistan's Punjabi film industry, and is a major centre of Qawwali music. The city also hosts much of Pakistan's tourist industry, with major attractions including the Walled City, the famous Badshahi and Wazir Khan mosques, as well as several Sikh and Sufi shrines. Lahore is also home to the Lahore Fort and Shalimar Gardens, both of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Etymology The origin of Lahore's name is unclear. The city's name has been variously recorded by early Muslim historians as Luhawar, Lūhār, and Rahwar. The Iranian polymath and geographer, Abu Rayhan Al-Biruni, referred to the city as Luhāwar in his 11th century work, Qanun, while the poet Amir Khusrow, who lived during the Delhi Sultanate period, recorded the city's name as Lāhanūr. Yaqut al-Hamawi records the city's name as Lawhūr, mentioning that it was famously known as Lahāwar. Persian historian Firishta mentions the city as Alahwar in his work, with al-Ahwar being another variation. One theory suggests that Lahore's name is a corruption of the word Ravāwar, as R to L shifts are common in languages derived from Sanskrit. Ravāwar is the simplified pronunciation of the name Iravatyāwar, a name possibly derived from the Ravi River, known as the Iravati River in the Vedas. Another theory suggests the city's name may derive from the word Lohar, meaning "blacksmith". According to a legend, Lahore's name derives from Lavpur or Lavapuri (City of Lava), and is said to have been founded by Prince Lava, the son of Sita and Rama. The same account attributes the founding of nearby Kasur to his twin brother Kusha, though it was actually established in the 16th century. History Origins No definitive record of Lahore's early history exists, and its ambiguous historical background has given rise to various theories about its establishment and history. Hindu legend states that Keneksen, the founder of the Solar dynasty, migrated out from the city. Alexander the Great's historians make no mention of any city near Lahore's location during his invasion in 326 BCE, suggesting the city had not been founded by that point or was not noteworthy. Ptolemy mentions in his Geography a city called Labokla situated near the Chenab and Ravi rivers which may have been in reference to ancient Lahore, or an abandoned predecessor of the city. Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang gave a vivid description of a large and prosperous unnamed city that may have been Lahore when he visited the region in 630 CE during his tour of India. Xuanzang described the city, then under Taank rule, as a great Brahmin city. The first document that mentions Lahore by name is the Hudud al-'Alam ("The Regions of the World"), written in 982 CE, in which Lahore is mentioned as a town which had "impressive temples, large markets and huge orchards". Lahore, previously a town, first emerged as a notable city in 11th century during the era of Sufi saint Ali al-Hajvery. Few other references to Lahore remain from before its capture by the Ghaznavid Sultan Mahmud in the 11th century. During this time, Lahore appears to have served as the capital of Punjab under Raja Anandapala of the Üdi Shahi empire, who moved his capital there from Waihind. Medieval era Ghaznavid Sultan Mahmud conquered Lahore between 1020 and 1027, making it part of Ghaznavid Empire. He appointed Malik Ayaz as its governor in 1021. In 1034, the city was captured by Nialtigin, the rebellious governor of Multan. However, his forces were expelled by Malik Ayaz in 1036. With the support of Sultan Ibrahim, Malik Ayaz rebuilt and repopulated the city, which had been devastated after the Ghaznavid invasion. He also erected city walls and a masonry fort was built in 1037–1040 on the ruins of a previous one. A confederation of Hindu princes unsuccessfully laid siege to Lahore in 1043–44 during Ayaz's rule. The city became a cultural and academic centre, renowned for poetry. Lahore was formally made the eastern capital of Ghaznavid Empire during the reign of Khusrau Shah in 1152. After the fall of Ghazni in 1163, It became the sole capital. Under their patronage, poets and scholars from other cities of Ghaznavid Empire congregated in Lahore. The entire city of Lahore during the medieval Ghaznavid era was probably located west of the modern Shah Alami Bazaar and north of the Bhatti Gate. Mamluk Following the Siege of Lahore in 1186, the Ghurid ruler Muhammad captured the city and imprisoned the last Ghaznavid ruler Khusrau Malik, thus ending Ghaznavid rule over Lahore. Lahore was made an important establishment of the Mamluk dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate following the assassination of Muhammad of Ghor in 1206. Under the reign of Mamluk sultan Qutb ud-Din Aibak, Lahore attracted poets and scholars from medieval Muslim World. Lahore at this time had more poets writing in Persian than any other city. Following the death of Aibak, Lahore first came under the control of the Governor of Multan, Nasir ad-Din Qabacha, and then was briefly captured in 1217 by the sultan in Delhi, Iltutmish. In an alliance with local Khokhars in 1223, Khwarazmian sultan Jalal al-Din Mangburni captured Lahore after fleeing from Genghis Khan's invasion of his realm. Mangburni then fled from Lahore to the city of Uch Sharif after Iltutmish's army re-captured Lahore in 1228. The threat of Mongol invasions and political instability in Lahore caused future sultans to regard Delhi as a safer capital for the sultanate, even though Delhi was considered a forward base whereas Lahore was widely considered as the centre of Islamic culture in northeastern Punjab. Lahore came under progressively weaker central rule under Iltutmish's descendants in Delhi, to the point that governors in the city acted with great autonomy. Under the rule of Kabir Khan Ayaz, Lahore was virtually independent from the Delhi Sultanate. Actual Sultanate rule on Lahore lasted only a few decades until the locals reclaimed their autonomy. Lahore was sacked and ruined by the Mongol army in 1241. Lahore governor Malik Ikhtyaruddin Qaraqash fled the Mongols, while the Mongols held the city for a few years under the rule of the Mongol chief Toghrul. In 1266, sultan Balban reconquered Lahore, but in 1287 under the Mongol ruler Temür Khan, the Mongols again overran northern Punjab. Because of Mongol invasions, Lahore region became a city on a frontier, with the region's administrative centre shifted south to Dipalpur. The Mongols again invaded northern Punjab in 1298, though their advance was eventually stopped by Ulugh Khan, brother of Sultan Alauddin Khalji of Delhi. The Mongols again attacked Lahore in 1305. Tughluq Lahore briefly flourished again under the reign of Ghiyath al-Din Tughlaq (Ghazi Malik) of the Tughluq dynasty between 1320 and 1325, though the city was again sacked in 1329 by Tarmashirin of the Central Asian Chagatai Khanate, and then again by the Mongol chief Hülechü. Khokhars seized Lahore in 1342, but the city was retaken by Ghazi Malik's son, Muhammad bin Tughluq. The weakened city then fell into obscurity and was captured once more by the Khokhar chief, Shaikha in 1394. By the time the Mongol conqueror Timur captured the city in 1398 from Shaikha, he did not loot it because it was no longer wealthy. Late Sultanates Timur gave control of the Lahore region to Khizr Khan, governor of Multan, who later established the Sayyid dynasty in 1414 – the fourth dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate. The city was twice besieged by Jasrat, ruler of Sialkot, during the reign of Mubarak Shah, the longest of which being in 1431–32. To combat Jasrat, the city was granted by the Sayyid dynasty to Bahlul Lodi in 1441, though Lodi would then displace the Sayyids in 1451 by establishing himself upon the throne of Delhi. Bahlul Lodi installed his cousin, Tatar Khan, to be governor of the city, though Tatar Khan died in battle with Sikandar Lodi in 1485. Governorship of Lahore was transferred by Sikandar Lodi to Umar Khan Sarwani, who quickly left the management of this city to his son Said Khan Sarwani. Said Khan was removed from power in 1500 by Sikandar Lodi, and Lahore came under the governorship of Daulat Khan Lodi, son of Tatar Khan and former employer of Guru Nanak (the founder of Sikhism). Mughals Early Mughal Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire, captured and sacked Lahore and Dipalpur, although he retreated after the Lodi nobles backed away from assisting him. The city became a refuge to Humayun and his cousin Kamran Mirza when Sher Shah Suri rose in power in the Gangetic plains, displacing Mughals. Sher Shah Suri seized Lahore in 1540, though Humayun reconquered Lahore in February 1555. The establishment of Mughal rule eventually led to the most prosperous era of Lahore's history. Lahore's prosperity and central position has yielded more Mughal-era monuments in Lahore than either Delhi or Agra. By the time of the rule of the Mughal empire's greatest emperors, a majority of Lahore's residents did not live within the walled city itself but instead lived in suburbs that had spread outside the city's walls. Only 9 of the 36 urban quarters around Lahore, known as guzars, were located within the city walls during the Akbar period. During this period, Lahore was closely tied to smaller market towns known as qasbahs, such as Kasur and Eminabad, as well as Amritsar, and Batala in modern-day India, which in turn, linked to supply chains in villages surrounding each qasbah. Akbar Beginning in 1584, Lahore became the Mughal capital when Akbar began re-fortifying the city's ruined citadel, laying the foundations for the revival of the Lahore Fort. Akbar made Lahore one of his original twelve subah provinces, and in 1585–86, relegated governorship of the city and subah to Bhagwant Das, brother of Mariam-uz-Zamani, who was commonly known as "Jodhabhai". Akbar also rebuilt the city's walls and extended their perimeter east of the Shah Alami bazaar to encompass the sparsely populated area of Rarra Maidan. The Akbari Mandi grain market was set up during this era, which continues to function to the present-day. Akbar also established the Dharampura neighbourhood in the early 1580s, which survives today. The earliest of Lahore's many havelis date from the Akbari era. Lahore's Mughal monuments were built under the reign of Akbar and several subsequent emperors. Lahore reached its cultural zenith during this period, with dozens of mosques, tombs, shrines, and urban infrastructure developed in the city. Jahangir During the reign of Emperor Jahangir in the early 17th century, Lahore's bazaars were noted to be vibrant, frequented by foreigners, and stocked with a wide array of goods. In 1606, Jehangir's rebel son Khusrau Mirza laid siege to Lahore after obtaining the blessings of the Sikh Guru Arjan Dev. Jehangir quickly defeated his son at Bhairowal, and the roots of Mughal–Sikh animosity grew. Sikh Guru Arjan Dev was executed in Lahore in 1606 for his involvement in the rebellion. Emperor Jahangir chose to be buried in Lahore, and his tomb was built in Lahore's Shahdara Bagh suburb in 1637 by his wife Nur Jahan, whose tomb is also nearby. Shah Jahan Jahangir's son, Shah Jahan (reigned 1628–1658), was born in Lahore in 1592. He renovated large portions of the Lahore Fort with luxurious white marble and erected the iconic Naulakha Pavilion in 1633. Shah Jahan lavished Lahore with some of its most celebrated and iconic monuments, such as the Shahi Hammam in 1635, and both the Shalimar Gardens and the extravagantly decorated Wazir Khan Mosque in 1641. The population of pre-modern Lahore probably reached its zenith during his reign, with suburban districts home to perhaps 6 times as many compared to within the Walled City. Aurangzeb Shah Jahan's son, Aurangzeb, last of the great Mughal Emperors, further contributed to the development of Lahore. Aurangzeb built the Alamgiri Bund embankment along the Ravi river in 1662 in order to prevent its shifting course from threatening the city's walls. The area near the embankment grew into a fashionable locality, with several nearby pleasure gardens laid by Lahore's gentry. The largest of Lahore's Mughal monuments, the Badshahi Mosque, was raised during Aurangzeb's reign in 1673, as well as the iconic Alamgiri Gate of the Lahore fort in 1674. Late Mughal Civil wars regarding succession to the Mughal throne following Aurangzeb's death in 1707 led to weakening control over Lahore from Delhi, and a prolonged period of decline in Lahore. Mughal preoccupation with the Marathas in the Deccan Plateau eventually resulted in Lahore being governed by a series of governors who pledged nominal allegiance to the ever-weaker Mughal emperors in Delhi. Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah I died en route to Lahore as part of a campaign in 1711 to subdue Sikh rebels under the leadership of Banda Singh Bahadur. His sons fought a battle outside Lahore in 1712 for succession to the Mughal crown, with Jahandar winning the throne. Sikh rebels were defeated during the reign of Farrukhsiyar when Abd as-Samad and Zakariyya Khan suppressed them. Nader Shah's brief invasion of the Mughal Empire in early 1739 wrested control away from Zakariya Khan Bahadur. Though Khan was able to win back control after the Persian armies had left, the trade routes had shifted away from Lahore, and south towards Kandahar instead. Indus ports near the Arabian Sea that served Lahore also silted up during this time, reducing the city's importance even further. Struggles between Zakariyya Khan's sons following his death in 1745 further weakened Muslim control over Lahore, thus leaving the city in a power vacuum, and vulnerable to foreign marauders. Durrani invasions The Durrani ruler Ahmad Shah occupied Lahore in 1748. Following Ahmed Shah Durrani's quick retreat, the Mughals entrusted Lahore to Mu’īn al-Mulk Mir Mannu. Ahmad Shah again invaded in 1751, forcing Mir Mannu into signing a treaty that nominally subjected Lahore to Durrani rule. Lahore was third time conquered by Ahmad Shah in 1752. The Mughal Grand Vizier Ghazi-Din Imad al-Mulk seized Lahore in 1756, provoking Ahmad Shah to invade for fourth time in 1757, after which he placed the city under the rule of his son, Timur Shah. Durrani rule was interrupted when Lahore was conquered by Adina Beg Arain with the assistance of Marathas in 1758 during their campaigns against Afghans. After Adina Beg's untimely death in 1758, however, Marathas occupied the city. The following year, Durranis again marched and conquered it. After the Durranis withdrew from the city in 1765, Sikh forces quickly occupied it. By this time, the city had been ravaged several time and had lost all of its former grandeur. The Durranis invaded two more times—in 1797 and 1798—under Shah Zaman, but the Sikhs re-occupied the city after both invasions. Sikh Early Expanding Sikh Misls secured control over Lahore in 1767, when the Bhangi Misl state captured the city. In 1780, the city was divided among three rulers: Gujjar Singh, Lahna Singh, and Sobha Singh. Instability resulting from this arrangement allowed nearby Amritsar to establish itself as the area's primary commercial centre in place of Lahore. Ahmad Shah Durrani's grandson, Zaman Shah, invaded Lahore in 1796, and again in 1798–99. Ranjit Singh negotiated with the Afghans for the post of subahdar to control Lahore following the second invasion. By the end of the 18th century, the city's population drastically declined, with its remaining residents living within the city walls, while the extramural suburbs lay abandoned, forcing travellers to pass through abandoned and ruined suburbs for a few miles before reaching the city's gates. Sikh Empire In the aftermath of Zaman Shah's 1799 invasion of Punjab, Ranjit Singh, of nearby Gujranwala, began to consolidate his position. Singh was able to seize control of the region after a series of battles with the Bhangi chiefs who had seized Lahore in 1780. His army marched to Anarkali, where according to legend, the gatekeeper of the Lohari Gate, Mukham Din Chaudhry, opened the gates allowing Ranjit Singh's army to enter Lahore. After capturing Lahore, Sikh soldiers immediately began plundering Muslim areas of the city until their actions were reined in by Ranjit Singh. Ranjit Singh's rule restored some of Lahore's lost grandeur, but at the expense of destroying the remaining Mughal architecture for building materials. He established a mint in the city in 1800, and moved into the Mughal palace at the Lahore fort after repurposing it for his own use in governing the Sikh Empire. In 1801, he established a Gurdwara Ram Das to mark the site where Guru Ram Das was born in 1534. Lahore became the empire's administrative capital, though the nearby economic centre of Amritsar had also been established as the empire's spiritual capital by 1802. By 1812, Singh had mostly refurbished the city's defences by adding a second circuit of outer walls surrounding Akbar's original walls, with the two separated by a moat. Singh also partially restored Shah Jahan's decaying Shalimar Gardens and built the Hazuri Bagh Baradari in 1818 to celebrate his capture of the Koh-i-Noor diamond from Shuja Shah Durrani in 1813. He erected the Gurdwara Dera Sahib to mark the site of Guru Arjan Dev's death (1606). The Sikh royal court also endowed religious architecture in the city, including a number of Sikh gurdwaras, Hindu temples, and havelis. While much of Lahore's Mughal-era fabric lay in ruins by the time of his arrival, Ranjit Singh's rule saw the re-establishment of Lahore's glory, though the Mughal monuments suffered during the Sikh period. Singh's armies plundered most of Lahore's most precious Mughal monuments, and stripped the white marble from several monuments to send to different parts of the Sikh Empire during his reign. Monuments plundered for decorative materials include the Tomb of Asif Khan, the Tomb of Nur Jahan, and the Shalimar Gardens. Ranjit Singh's army also desecrated the Badshahi Mosque by converting it into an ammunition depot and a stable for horses. The Sunehri Mosque in the Walled City was also converted to a gurdwara, while the Mariyam Zamani Mosque was repurposed into a gunpowder factory. Late The Sikh royal court (Lahore Durbar) underwent a quick succession of rulers after the death of Ranjit Singh. His son Kharak Singh died on 6 November 1840, soon after taking the throne. On that same day, the next appointed successor to the throne, Nau Nihal Singh, died in an accident at the gardens of Hazuri Bagh. Maharaja Sher Singh was then selected as Maharajah, though his claim to the throne was quickly challenged by Chand Kaur, widow of Kharak Singh and mother of Nau Nihal Singh, who quickly seized the throne. Sher Singh raised an army that attacked Chand Kaur's forces in Lahore on 14 January 1841. His soldiers mounted weaponry on the minarets of the Badshahi Mosque in order to target Chand Kaur's forces in the Lahore fort, destroying the fort's historic Diwan-e-Aam. Kaur quickly ceded the throne, but Sher Sing was then assassinated in 1843 in Lahore's Chah Miran neighbourhood along with his wazir Dhiyan Singh. Dhyan Singh's son, Hira Singh, sought to avenge his father's death by laying siege to Lahore in order to capture his father's assassins. The siege resulted in the capture of his father's murderer, Ajit Singh. Duleep Singh was then crowned Maharajah, with Hira Singh as his wazir, but his power would be weakened by the continued infighting among Sikh nobles, as well as confrontations against the British during the two Anglo-Sikh wars. After the conclusion of the two Anglo-Sikh wars, the Sikh Empire fell into disarray, resulting in the fall of the Lahore Durbar, and commencement of British rule after they captured Lahore and the wider Punjab region. British colonial period The British East India Company seized control of Lahore in February 1846 from the collapsing Sikh state and occupied the rest of Punjab in 1848. Following the defeat of the Sikhs at the Battle of Gujrat, British troops formally deposed Maharaja Duleep Singh in Lahore that same year. Punjab was then annexed to the British Indian Empire in 1849. At the commencement of British rule, Lahore was estimated to have a population of 120,000. Prior to annexation by the British, Lahore's environs consisted mostly of the Walled City surrounded by plains interrupted by settlements to the south and east, such as Mozang and Qila Gujar Singh, which have since been engulfed by modern Lahore. The plains between the settlements also contained the remains of Mughal gardens, tombs, and Sikh-era military structures. The British viewed Lahore's Walled City as a bed of potential social discontent and disease epidemics, and so largely left the inner city alone, while focusing development efforts in Lahore's suburban areas and Punjab's fertile countryside. The British instead laid out their capital city in an area south of the Walled City that would first come to be known as "Donald's Town" before being renamed "Civil Station". Under early British rule, formerly prominent Mughal-era monuments that were scattered throughout Civil Station were also re-purposed and sometimes desecrated – including the Tomb of Anarkali, which the British had initially converted to clerical offices before re-purposing it as an Anglican church in 1851. The 17th-century Dai Anga Mosque was converted into railway administration offices during this time, the tomb of Nawab Bahadur Khan was converted into a storehouse, and the tomb of Mir Mannu was used as a wine shop. The British also used older structures to house municipal offices, such as the Civil Secretariat, Public Works Department, and Accountant General's Office. The British built the Lahore Railway Station just outside the Walled City shortly after the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857; the station was therefore styled as a medieval castle to ward off any potential future uprisings, with thick walls, turrets, and holes to direct gun and cannon fire for the defence of the structure. Lahore's most prominent government institutions and commercial enterprises came to be concentrated in Civil Station in a half-mile wide area flanking The Mall, where unlike in Lahore's military zone, the British and locals were allowed to mix. The Mall continues to serve as the epicentre of Lahore's civil administration, as well as one of its most fashionable commercial areas. The British also laid the spacious Lahore Cantonment to the southeast of the Walled City at the former village of Mian Mir, where unlike around The Mall, laws did exist against the mixing of different races. Lahore was visited on 9 February 1870 by Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh – a visit in which he received delegations from the Dogras of Jammu, Maharajas of Patiala, the Nawab of Bahawalpur, and other rulers from various Punjabi states. During the visit, he visited several of Lahore's major sights. British authorities built several important structures around the time of the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria (1887) in the distinctive Indo-Saracenic style, including the Lahore Museum and Mayo School of Industrial Arts. The British carried out a census of Lahore in 1901, and counted 20,691 houses in the Walled City. An estimated 200,000 people lived in Lahore at this time. Lahore's posh Model Town was established as a "garden town" suburb in 1921, while Krishan Nagar locality was laid in the 1930s near The Mall and Walled City. Lahore played an important role in the independence movements of both India and Pakistan. The Declaration of the Independence of India was moved by Jawaharlal Nehru and passed unanimously at midnight on 31 December 1929 at Lahore's Bradlaugh Hall. The Indian Swaraj flag was adopted this time as well. Lahore's jail was used by the British to imprison independence activists such as Jatin Das, and was also where Bhagat Singh was hanged in 1931. Under the leadership of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the All India Muslim League passed the Lahore Resolution in 1940, demanding the creation of Pakistan as a separate homeland for the Muslims of India. Partition The 1941 census showed that city of Lahore had a population of 671,659, of which was 64.5% Muslim, with the remainder 35% being Hindu and Sikh, alongside a small Christian community. The population figure was disputed by Hindus and Sikhs before the Boundary Commission that would draw the Radcliffe Line to demarcate the border of the two new states based on religious demography. In a bid to have Lahore awarded to India, they argued that the city was only 54% Muslim, and that Hindu and Sikh domination of the city's economy and educational institutions should trump Muslim demography. Two-thirds of shops, and 80% of Lahore's factories belonged to the Hindu and Sikh community. Kuldip Nayyar claimed that Cyril Radcliffe had told him in 1971 that he originally had planned to give Lahore to the new Dominion of India, but decided to place it within the Dominion of Pakistan, which he saw as lacking a major city as he had already awarded Calcutta to India. As tensions grew over the city's uncertain fate, Lahore experienced Partition's worst riots. Carnage ensued in which all three religious groups were both victims and perpetrators. Early riots in March and April 1947 destroyed 6,000 of Lahore's 82,000 homes. Violence continued to rise throughout the summer, despite the presence of armoured British personnel. Hindus and Sikhs began to leave the city en masse as their hopes that the Boundary Commission would award the city to India came to be regarded as increasingly unlikely. By late August 1947, 66% of Hindus and Sikhs had left the city. The Shah Alami Bazaar, once a largely Hindu quarter of the Walled City, was entirely burnt down during subsequent rioting. When Pakistan's independence was declared on 14 August 1947, the Radcliffe Line had not yet been announced, and so cries of "Long live Pakistan" and "God is greatest" were heard intermittently with "Long live Hindustan" throughout the night. On 17 August 1947, Lahore was awarded to Pakistan on the basis of its Muslim majority in the 1941 census and was made capital of the Punjab province in the new state of Pakistan. The city's location near the Indian border meant that it received large numbers of refugees fleeing eastern Punjab and northern India, though it was able to accommodate them given the large stock of abandoned Hindu and Sikh properties that could be re-distributed to newly arrived refugees. Modern Partition left Lahore with a much-weakened economy, and a stymied social and cultural scene that had previously been invigorated by the city's Hindus and Sikhs. Industrial production dropped to one-third of pre-Partition level by the end of the 1940s, and only 27% of its manufacturing units were operating by 1950, and usually well-below capacity. Capital flight further weakened the city's economy while Karachi industrialized and became more prosperous. The city's weakened economy, and proximity to the Indian border, meant that the city was deemed unsuitable to be the Pakistani capital after independence. Karachi was therefore chosen to be the capital on account of its relative tranquility during the Partition period, stronger economy, and better infrastructure. After independence, Lahore slowly regained its significance as an economic and cultural centre of western Punjab. Reconstruction began in 1949 of the Shah Alami Bazaar, the former commercial heart of the Walled City until it was destroyed in the 1947 riots. The Tomb of Allama Iqbal was built in 1951 to honour the philosopher-poet who provided the spiritual inspiration for the Pakistan movement. In 1955, Lahore was selected to be the capital of all West Pakistan during the single-unit period that lasted until 1970. Shortly afterwards, Lahore's iconic Minar-e-Pakistan was completed in 1968 to mark the spot where the Pakistan Resolution was passed. With support from the United Nations, the government was able to rebuild Lahore, and most scars from the communal violence of Partition were ameliorated. The second Islamic Summit Conference was held in the city in 1974. In retaliation for the destruction of the Babri Masjid in India, riots erupted in 1992 in which several non-Muslim monuments were targeted, including the tomb of Maharaja Sher Singh, and the former Jain temple near The Mall. In 1996, the International Cricket Council Cricket World Cup final match was held at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. The Walled City of Lahore restoration project began in 2009, when the Punjab government restored the Royal Trail from Akbari Gate to the Lahore Fort with money from the World Bank. Geography Lahore is in northeastern portion of Pakistan, lying between 31°15′—31°45′ N and 74°01′—74°39′ E. The city is bounded on the north and west by the Sheikhupura District, on the east by Wagah, and on the south by Kasur District. The Ravi River flows on the northern side of Lahore. Lahore city covers a total land area of 404 square kilometres (156 sq mi). Climate Lahore has a Humid Subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification BSh), bordering with Semi Arid Climate. The hottest month is June, where temperatures routinely exceed 45 °C (113 °F). The monsoon season starts in late June, and the wettest months are July, August and September. with heavy rainfalls and evening thunderstorms with the possibility of cloudbursts and flash floods. The coolest month is January, with dense fog. The city's record high temperature was 50.4 °C (122.7 °F), recorded on 5 June 2003. On 10 June 2007, a temperature of 48 °C (118 °F) was recorded; this was in the shade, and the meteorological office recording the figure reported a heat index in direct sunlight of 55 °C (131 °F). The highest rainfall in a 24-hour period is 337 millimetres (13.3 in), recorded on 01 August 2024. Demographics Population The results of the 2017 Census determined the population of Lahore to be 11,126,285, with an annual growth rate of 4.07% since 1998. Gender-wise, 52.35% of the population are male, 47.64% are female, and 0.01% are transgender. Lahore is a demographically young city, with over 40% of its inhabitants below the age of 15. Tribes and background At the time of the 2017 Pakistani census, the largest tribal group were Arain Punjabis, constituting 40%, followed by Punjabi Kashmiris at 30% with other groups such as Rajput Punjabis and Kamboh Punjabis at 5% each. Controversy about the city's Pashtun population Some Pashtun nationalist parties argue that the Pashtun population of Lahore in the 2017 census has been underestimated, with Ameer Bahadur Khan, provincial general secretary of Awami National Party, putting their numbers at 1.5 million, while Gul Muhammad Regwal, a member of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, claiming more than 1 million including 300,000 in the Walled City alone, most of these having moved over the last 20 years, including due to military operations, but remaining uncounted as they're not considered permanent residents of Lahore. Religion According to the 2023 Census, the vast majority of Lahore's population are Muslims (95.26%), up from 94.7% in 2017. Other religions include Christians (4.64%, slightly less than 5.14% in 2017) and small numbers of Ahmadis, Baháʼís, Hindus, Parsis, and Sikhs. There is also a small but longstanding Zoroastrian community. Since Lahore contains some of Sikhism's holiest sites, it is a major pilgrimage destination for Sikhs. Lahore's first church was built during the reign of Emperor Akbar in the late 16th century, but was then leveled by Shah Jahan in 1632. Due to the few numbers of Hindus living in Lahore, the only two functional Hindu temples in the city are the Shri Krishna Mandir and the Valmiki Mandir. Languages The Punjabi language is the most-widely spoken native language in Lahore, with 73.58% of Lahore counting it as their first language according to the 2023 Census. Lahore is the largest Punjabi-speaking city in the world. According to the 2023 Pakistani census 21.1% speak Urdu, 2.06% Pashto, 2.01% Mewati and 2.78% other mother tongues. Urdu and English are used as official languages and as mediums of instruction and media administration. However, Punjabi is also taught at graduation level and used in theatres, films, and newspapers from Lahore. Several Lahore-based prominent educational leaders, researchers, and social commentators have demanded that the Punjabi language should be declared as the medium of instruction at the primary level and be used officially in the Punjab Assembly, Lahore. Cityscape Old City Lahore's modern cityscape consists of the historic Walled City of Lahore in the northern part of the city, which contains several World Heritage Sites and national heritage sites. Lahore's urban planning was not based on geometric design but was instead built piecemeal, with small cul-de-sacs, as katrahs and galis developed in the context of neighbouring buildings. Though certain neighbourhoods were named for particular religious or ethnic communities, the neighbourhoods themselves typically were diverse and were not dominated by the namesake group. Lahore's urban typology is similar to other ancient cities in South Asia, such as Peshawar, Multan and Delhi – all of which were founded near a major river, and included an old walled city and royal citadel. By the end of the Sikh rule, most of Lahore's massive haveli compounds had been occupied by settlers. New neighbourhoods occasionally grew up entirely within the confines of an old Mughal haveli, such as the Mohallah Pathan Wali, which grew within the ruins of a haveli of the same name, built by Mian Khan. By 1831, all Mughal Havelis in the Walled City had been encroached upon by the surrounding neighbourhood, leading to the modern-day absence of any Mughal Havelis in Lahore. A total of thirteen gates once surrounded the historic walled city. Some of the remaining gates include the Raushnai Gate, Masti Gate, Yakki Gate, Kashmiri Gate, Khizri Gate, Shah Burj Gate, Akbari Gate, and Lahori Gate. Southeast of the walled city is the spacious British-era Lahore Cantonment. Architecture Lahore is home to numerous monuments from the Mughal Dynasty, Sikh Empire, and the British Indian Raj. The architectural style of the Walled City of Lahore has traditionally been influenced by Mughal and Sikh styles. Sikh period By the arrival of the Sikh Empire at the end of the 18th century, Lahore had decayed from its former glory as the Mughal capital. Rebuilding efforts under Ranjit Singh and his successors were influenced by Mughal practices, and Lahore was known as the 'City of Gardens' during the Ranjit Singh period. Later, British maps of the area surrounding Lahore dating from the mid-19th century show many walled private gardens which were confiscated from the Muslim noble families bearing the names of prominent Sikh nobles – a pattern of patronage which was inherited from the Mughals. While much of Lahore's Mughal-era fabric lay in ruins by the time of his arrival, Ranjit Singh's army's plundered most of Lahore's most precious Mughal monuments, and stripped the white marble from several monuments to send to different parts of the Sikh Empire. Monuments plundered of their marble include the Tomb of Asif Khan and the Tomb of Nur Jahan; the Shalimar Gardens was plundered of much of its marble, and its costly agate gate was stripped. The Sikh state also demolished a number of shrines and monuments laying outside the city's walls. Still, Sikh rule left Lahore with several monuments, and a heavily altered Lahore Fort. Ranjit Singh's rule restored some of Lahore's previous grandeur, and the city was left with a large number of religious monuments from this period. Several havelis were built during this era, though only a few still remain. British period As the capital of British Punjab, the city derived much of its architecture from British colonialists. Structures were built predominantly in the Indo-Gothic style – a syncretic architectural style that blends elements of Victorian and Islamic architecture o r in the distinct Indo-Saracenic style. The British also built neoclassical Montgomery Hall, which today serves as the Quaid-e-Azam Library. Lawrence Gardens were also laid near Civil Station, and were paid for by donations solicited from both Lahore's European community, as well as from wealthy locals. The gardens featured over 600 species of plants, and were tended to by a horticulturist sent from London's Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. The leafy suburbs to the south of the Old City, as well as the Cantonment southwest of the Old City, were largely developed under British colonial rule, and feature colonial-era buildings built alongside leafy avenues. The British authorities built several important structures around the time of the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887 in the distinctive Indo-Saracenic style, such as the Lahore Museum and Mayo School of Industrial Arts. Other prominent examples of the Indo-Saracenic style in Lahore include Lahore's prestigious Aitchison College, the Punjab Chief Court (today the Lahore High Court), Lahore Museum, and the University of the Punjab. Many of Lahore's most important buildings were designed by civil engineer and architect Sir Ganga Ram, who is considered "the father of modern Lahore". Parks and gardens Lahore is also known as "the city of gardens" due to its large number of gardens. The Shahdara Bagh was one of the earliest Mughal gardens, laid out in 15th century, and contains the Tomb of Jahangir. The Shalimar Gardens were laid out during the reign of Shah Jahan and were designed to mimic the Islamic paradise of the afterlife described in the Qur'an. The gardens follow the familiar charbagh layout of four squares, with three descending terraces. In 1818, Hazuri Bagh was built during reign of Ranjit Singh to celebrate his capture of the Koh-i-Noor diamond from Shuja Shah Durrani. The Lawrence Garden was established in 1862 and was originally named after Sir John Lawrence, late 19th-century British Viceroy to India. The Circular Garden, which surrounds the Walled City on three sides, was established by 1892. The former parade ground adjacent to Badshahi Mosque was also renamed during the British era as Minto Park, which after restoration was re-established as Iqbal Park. The many other gardens and parks in the city include Hazuri Bagh, Iqbal Park, Mochi Bagh, Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, Model Town Park, Jilani Park, Nasir Bagh Lahore, Jallo Park, Lahore Zoo Safari Park, and Changa Manga, a human-made forest near Lahore in the Kasur district. Another example is the Bagh-e-Jinnah, a 141-acre (57 ha) botanical garden that houses entertainment and sports facilities as well as a library. Economy As of 2008, the city's gross domestic product (GDP) by purchasing power parity (PPP) was estimated at $40 billion with a projected average growth rate of 5.6 percent. This is on par with Karachi, Pakistan's economic hub, with Lahore (having half the population) fostering an economy that is 51% of the size of Karachi's ($78 billion in 2008). It is estimated that Lahore contributes 11.5% to the national economy, and 19% to the provincial economy of Punjab. As a whole, Punjab has a $115 billion economy, making it the first (and to date, only) Pakistani Subdivision with an economy of more than $100 billion, at the rank 144. Lahore's GDP is projected to be $102 billion by 2025, with a slightly higher growth rate of 5.6% per annum, as compared to Karachi's 5.5%. A major industrial agglomeration with about 9,000 industrial units, Lahore has shifted in recent decades from manufacturing to service industries. Some 42% of its workforce is employed in finance, banking, real estate, community, cultural, and social services. The city is Pakistan's largest software and hardware producing centre, and hosts a growing computer-assembly industry. The city has always been a centre for publications; 80% of Pakistan's books are published in Lahore, and it remains the foremost centre of literary, educational, and cultural activity in Pakistan. The Lahore Expo Centre is one of the biggest projects in the history of the city and was inaugurated on 22 May 2010. Defense Raya Golf Resort, also under construction, will be Pakistan's and Asia's largest golf course. The project is the result of a partnership between DHA Lahore and BRDB Malaysia. The rapid development of large projects such as these in the city is expected to boost the economy of the country. Ferozepur Road of the Central business districts of Lahore contains high-rises and skyscrapers including Kayre International Hotel and Arfa Software Technology Park. Transport Public transportation Lahore's main public transportation system is operated by the Lahore Transport Company (LTC) and Punjab Mass Transit Authority (PMTA). The backbone of its public transport network is the PMTA's Lahore Metrobus and the Orange Line of the Lahore Metro train. LTC and PMTA also operates an extensive network of buses, providing bus service to many parts of the city and acting as a feeder system for the Metrobus. The Orange Line metro spans 27.1 km (16.8 mi) around the city and operates at a speed of 80 km/h (50 mph). Metrobus The Lahore Metrobus is a bus rapid transit service operating in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Lahore Metrobus service is integrated with Lahore Transport Company's local bus service to operate as one urban transport system, providing a connected transit service across Lahore District with connections to neighboring suburban communities. Low occupancy vehicles Low occupancy vehicle (LOVs)—functionally a medium-sized van or wagon—run on routes throughout the city. They function like buses and operate on many routes throughout the city. Metro Train Orange Line The Orange Line Metro Train is an automated rapid transit system in Lahore. The Orange line is the first of the three proposed rail lines proposed for the Lahore Metro. As of 2020, it is the primary metro rail line in the city. The line spans 27.1 km (16.8 mi), with 25.4 km (15.8 mi) elevated and 1.72 km (1.1 mi) underground, and had a cost of 251.06 billion rupees ($1.6 billion). The line consists of 26 subway stations (Ali Town Station to Dera Gujran Station) and is designed to carry over 250,000 passengers daily. CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive rolled out the first of 27 trains for the metro on 16 May 2017. The train has speed up to 80 km/h (50 mph). For improved durability, its bogies are heat-resistant, can manage unstable voltage, and feature energy-saving air-conditioning. Successful initial test trials were run in mid-2018, and commercial operations began on 25 October 2020. Blue Line The Blue Line is a proposed 24 kilometres (15 mi) line from Chauburji to College Road Township. Along the way, it will connect places like Mozang Chungi, Shadman Chowk, Jail Road, Mian Boulevard Gulberg, Mian Boulevard Garden Town, and Faisal Town. Purple Line The Purple Line is a proposed 19 kilometres (12 mi) line from Bhaati Chowk to the Allama Iqbal International Airport. Along the way, it will connect places like Brandreth Road, Railway Station, Allama Iqbal Road, Dharampura, and Ghazi Road. Taxi and rickshaw Ride-sharing services such as Uber and Careem are available in the city. Motorcycle rides are also available in the city, which have been introduced by private companies. Auto rickshaws play an important role of public transport in Lahore. As of 2019, there were approximately 82,000 auto rickshaws and 65,000 motorcycle rickshaws in the city. Motorcycle rickshaws, usually called chingchi (after the Chinese company Jinan Qingqi Motorcycle Co. Ltd, who first introduced these to the market) or chand gari ('moon car') are cheaper than auto rickshaws and provide a shared ride experience for multiple passengers and fares, whereas auto rickshaws cater to only one passenger or group for a fare. Since 2002, all auto rickshaws have been required to use compressed natural gas as fuel, and all-electric rickshaws were introduced in 2023. Intercity transportation Railways Lahore Junction Station serves as the main railway station for Lahore, and serves as a major hub for all Pakistan Railways services in Northern Pakistan. It includes services to Peshawar and the national capital metropolitan area of Islamabad–Rawalpindi, and long-distance services to Karachi and Quetta. Lahore Cantonment Station also operates a few trains. Buses Lahore Badami Bagh Bus Terminal (known colloquially as "Lari Adda") serves as a hub for intercity bus services in Lahore, served by multiple bus companies providing a comprehensive network of services in Punjab and neighbouring provinces. Lahore Jinnah Bus Terminal is also a major bus stand in southern Lahore. Apart from these stations, multiple privately owned bus transportation companies operate from Band Road (referred to colloquially as Chowk Yateem Khana), offering intercity transport at varying fares and comfort levels. Airports Pakistan's third busiest airport, Allama Iqbal International Airport (IATA: LHE), straddles the city's eastern boundary. The new passenger terminal was opened in 2003, replacing the old terminal which now serves as a VIP and Hajj lounge. The airport was named after the national poet-philosopher, Muhammad Iqbal, and is a secondary hub for the national carrier, Pakistan International Airlines. Walton Airport in Askari neighbourhood provides general aviation facilities. Sialkot International Airport (IATA: SKT) and Faisalabad International Airport (IATA: LYP) also serve as alternate airports for the Lahore area, in addition to serving their respective cities. Allama Iqbal International Airport connects Lahore with many cities worldwide (including domestic destinations) by both passenger and cargo flight including Ras al Khaimah, Guangzhou (begins 28 August 2018), Ürümqi, Abu Dhabi, Barcelona, Beijing–Capital, Copenhagen, Dammam, Dera Ghazi Khan, Doha, Dubai–International, Islamabad, Jeddah, Karachi, Kuala Lumpur–International, London–Heathrow, Manchester, Medina, Milan–Malpensa, Multan, Muscat, Oslo–Gardermoen, Paris–Charles de Gaulle, Peshawar, Quetta, Rahim Yar Khan, Riyadh, Salalah, Tokyo–Narita, Toronto–Pearson, Mashhad, Bangkok–Suvarnabhumi, and Tashkent. Roads There are a number of municipal, provincial and federal roads that serve Lahore. Municipal roads Canal Road – serves as the major north–south artery Provincial highways Lahore Ring Road Lahore–Kasur Road (Ferozepur Road) Lahore–Raiwind Road (Raiwind Road) Lahore–Sharaqpur Road (Sagianwala Bypass Road) Lahore–Wagah Road Grand Trunk Road (G.T Road ) Federal highways M-2 motorway M-3 motorway M-11 motorway N-5 National Highway (Multan Road) N-60 National Highway (Sargodha–Lahore road) Government Metropolitan Corporation Under Punjab Local Government Act 2013, Lahore is a metropolitan area under the authority of the Metropolitan Corporation Lahore. The Metropolitan Corporation Lahore is a body consisting of nine deputy mayors (one from each zone in the district) and the city's mayor – all of whom are elected in popular elections. The Metropolitan Corporation approves zoning and land use, coordinates urban design and planning, sets environmental protection laws, and provides municipal services. Mayor As per the Punjab Local Government Act 2013, the Mayor of Lahore is the elected head of the Metropolitan Corporation of Lahore. The mayor is directly elected in municipal elections every four years alongside 9 deputy town mayors. Mubashir Javed of the Pakistan Muslim League (N) was elected mayor of Lahore in 2016. The mayor is responsible for the administration of government services, the composition of councils and committees overseeing Lahore City District departments and serves as the chairperson for the meeting of the Lahore Council. The mayor also functions to help devise long-term development plans in consultation with other stakeholders and bodies to improve the condition, livability, and sustainability of urban areas. Neighbourhoods Lahore District is a subdivision of the Punjab, and is further divided into 9 administrative zones. Each town in turn consists of a group of union councils, of which there are 274 total. Politics The 2015 local government elections for Union Councils in Lahore yielded the following results: Festivals The people of Lahore celebrate many festivals and events throughout the year, including Islamic, traditional Punjabi, Christian, and national holidays and festivals. Many people decorate their houses and light candles to illuminate the streets and houses during public holidays; roads and businesses may be lit for days. Many of Lahore's dozens of Sufi shrines hold annual festivals called urs to honour their respective saints. For example, the mausoleum of Ali Hujwiri at the Data Darbar shrine has an annual urs that attracts up to one million visitors per year. The popular Mela Chiraghan festival in Lahore takes place at the shrine of Madho Lal Hussain, while other large urs take place at the shrines of Bibi Pak Daman, and at the Shrine of Mian Mir. Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha are celebrated in the city with public buildings and shopping centers decorated in lights. The people of Lahore also commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Husain at Karbala with massive processions that take place during the first ten days of the month of Muharram. Basant is a traditional Punjabi festival that marks the coming of spring. Basant celebrations in Pakistan are centred in Lahore, and people from all over the country and abroad come to the city for the annual festivities. Kite-flying competitions traditionally take place on city rooftops during Basant, while the Lahore Canal is decorated with floating lanterns. Courts have banned kite-flying because of casualties and power installation losses. The ban was lifted for two days in 2007, then immediately reimposed when 11 people were killed by celebratory gunfire, sharp kite-strings, electrocution, and falls related to the competition. Lahore's churches are elaborately decorated for Christmas and Easter celebrations. Shopping centers and public buildings also feature Christmas installations to celebrate the holiday, even though Christians only constitute 3% of the total population of Lahore in 2016. Tourism Lahore remains a major tourist destination in Pakistan. The Walled City of Lahore was renovated in 2014 and is popular due to the presence of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Among the most popular sights are the Lahore Fort, adjacent to the Walled City, and home to the Sheesh Mahal, the Alamgiri Gate, the Naulakha pavilion, and the Moti Masjid. The fort and adjoining Shalimar Gardens have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1981. The city is home to several ancient religious sites, including prominent Hindu temples: the Krishna Temple and Valmiki Mandir. The Samadhi of Ranjit Singh, also located near the Walled City, houses the funerary urns of the Sikh ruler Maharaja Ranjit Singh. The most prominent religious building is the Badshahi Mosque, constructed in 1673; it was the largest mosque in the world upon construction. Another popular sight is the Wazir Khan Mosque, constructed in 1635 and known for its extensive faience tile work. Cuisine Religious sites Well-known religious sites in the city include: Museums Tombs Shrines Samadhis Bhai Vasti Ram Ranjit Singh Samadhi of Bhai Mani Singh Sir Ganga Ram Bhai Taru Singh Havelis There are many havelis inside the Walled City of Lahore, some in good condition while others need urgent attention. Many of these havelis are fine examples of Mughal and Sikh architecture. Some of the havelis inside the Walled City include: Other landmarks Shahi Hammam Alhamra Art Council Lahore Royal Fort Greater Iqbal Park Historic neighbourhoods Anarkali Badami Bagh Baghbanpura Begampura Heera Mandi Mughalpura Shahdara Bagh Walled City of Lahore Education Lahore is known as Pakistan's educational capital, with more colleges and universities than any other city in Pakistan. The literacy rate of Lahore is 74%. The city is Pakistan's largest producer of professionals in the fields of science, technology, IT, law, engineering, medicine, nuclear sciences, pharmacology, telecommunication, biotechnology, microelectronics, and nanotechnology, and has the only future hyper high-tech center in Pakistan. Most of the reputable universities are public, but in recent years there has also been an upsurge in the number of private universities. Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) is the only AACSB accredited business school in Pakistan. Lahore hosts some of Pakistan's oldest and best educational institutes, including: Aitchison College, established in 1886 Beaconhouse National University, established in 2003 Central Model School, established in 1883 Crescent Model Higher Secondary School, established in 1968 College of Home Economics, established in 1955 College of Statistical and Actuarial Sciences, established in 1950 Convent of Jesus and Mary, established in 1867 Dayal Singh College, established in 1910 De'Montmorency College of Dentistry, established in 1929 Fatima Jinnah Medical University, established in 1948 Forman Christian College, established in 1864 Government College University, Lahore, established in 1864 Hailey College of Commerce, established in 1927 Islamia College, established in 1892 Jamia Ashrafia, established in 1947 King Edward Medical University, established in 1860 Kinnaird College for Women University, established in 1913 Lady Maclagan Training College, established in 1933 Lady Willingdon Nursing School, established in 1933 Lahore College for Women University, established in 1922 Lahore Garrison University Lahore Grammar School, established in 1979 Lahore Medical and Dental College, established in 1997 Lahore School of Economics, established in 1993 Lahore University of Management Sciences, established in 1986 M.A.O College, established in 1933 Muslim Model High School, established in 1890 National College of Arts, established in 1875 Oriental College, established in 1876 Pakistan Institute of Fashion and Design, established in 1994 PakTurk International Schools and Colleges, established in 2006 Queen Mary College, established in 1908 Sacred Heart High School, established in 1906 Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan Medical and Dental College, established in 2009 St. Anthony's High School, established in 1892 St. Francis High School, established in 1842 University College of Pharmacy, established in 1944 University Law College, established in 1868 University of Central Punjab, established in 2002 University of Education, established in 2002 University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, established in 1921 University of Health Sciences, Lahore, established in 2002 University of Lahore, established in 1999 University of Management and Technology (Lahore), established in 2002 University of the Punjab, established in 1882 University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, established in 1882 Notable people Sports Sports venues Lahore has successfully hosted many international sports events, including the finals of the 1990 Men's Hockey World Cup and the 1996 Cricket World Cup. The headquarters of all major sports governing bodies in Pakistan are located in Lahore, including cricket, hockey, rugby, and football. Lahore is also home to the head office of the Pakistan Olympic Association. Gaddafi Stadium is a Test cricket ground in Lahore. It was completed in 1959, and renovations were carried out by Pakistani architect Nayyar Ali Dada in the 1990s. The multi purpose Punjab Stadium located near the headquarters of the Pakistan Football Federation, is mainly used for football matches and has hosted several events including AFC President's Cup and FIFA World Cup qualifiers. Lahore is home to several golf courses, including the Lahore Gymkhana Golf Course, the Lahore Garrison Golf and Country Club, the Royal Palm Golf Club, and newly built Defence Raya Golf & Country Club. Lake City, a 9-hole course, opened in nearby Raiwind Road in 2011. The newly opened Oasis Golf and Aqua Resort is a state-of-the-art resort, featuring golf, water parks, and leisure activities like horse riding and archery. The Lahore Marathon is part of an annual package of six international marathons sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. More than 20,000 athletes from Pakistan and all over the world participate in this event. It was first held on 30 January 2005, and again on 29 January 2006. More than 22,000 people participated in the 2006 race. The third marathon was held on 14 January 2007. Plans exist to build Pakistan's first sports city in Lahore, on the bank of the Ravi River. Professional sports teams from Lahore Twin towns and sister cities The following international cities have been declared twin towns and sister cities of Lahore. Awards In 1966, the Government of Pakistan awarded a special flag, the Hilal-i-istaqlal, to the cities of Lahore, Sargodha, and Sialkot for showing severe resistance to the enemy during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, as these cities were targets of the Indian aggression. Every year on Defence Day (6 September), this flag is hoisted in these cities in recognition of the will, courage, and perseverance of their people. See also Notes References Bibliography Glover, William (2008). Making Lahore Modern, Constructing and Imagining a Colonial City. Univ. of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-0-8166-5022-4. Kudaisya, Gyanesh; Yong, Tan Tai (2004). The Aftermath of Partition in South Asia. Routledge. ISBN 978-1134440481. Latif, Syad Muhammad (1892). Lahore: Its History, Architectural Remains and Antiquities. New Imperial Press. Internet Archive Neville, Pran (2006). Lahore: A Sentimental Journey. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-306197-7. Sidhwa, Bapsi (2005). City of Sin and Splendour: Writings on Lahore. Penguin Books India. ISBN 978-0-14-303166-6. Wink, André (2002a). Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World. Vol. I, early medieval India and the expansion of Islam, 7th-11th centuries. Boston and Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 0-391-04173-8. Wink, André (2002b). Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World. Vol. II, the Slave Kings and the Islamic Conquest, 11th–13th centuries. Boston and Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 0-391-04174-6. External links Official website

The Punjab Province was a province of British India. Most of the Punjab region was annexed by the British East India Company on 29 March 1849; it was one of the last areas of the Indian subcontinent to fall under British control. In 1858, the Punjab, along with the rest of British India, came under the rule of the British Crown. It had a land area of 358,355 square kilometers. The province comprised four natural geographic regions – Indo-Gangetic Plain West, Himalayan, Sub-Himalayan, and the North-West Dry Area – along with five administrative divisions – Delhi, Jullundur, Lahore, Multan, and Rawalpindi – and a number of princely states. In 1947, the Partition of India led to the province's division into East Punjab and West Punjab, in the newly independent dominions of the Indian Union and Pakistan respectively. Etymology The region was originally called Sapta Sindhu Rivers, the Vedic land of the seven rivers originally: Saraswati, Indus, Sutlej, Jehlum, Chenab, Ravi, and Beas. The Sanskrit name for the region, as mentioned in the Ramayana and Mahabharata for example, was Pañcanada which means literally "Five Waters", and was translated from Sanskrit to Farsi as Panj-Âb after the Islamic conquests. The later name Punjab is thus a compound of two Farsi words Panj (five) and āb (water) and was introduced to the region by the Turko-Persian conquerors of India and more formally popularised during the Mughal Empire. Punjab literally means "(The Land of) Five Waters" referring to the rivers: Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Sutlej, and Beas. All are tributaries of the Indus River, the Chenab being the largest. Geography Geographically, the province was a triangular tract of country of which the Indus River and its tributary the Sutlej formed the two sides up to their confluence, the base of the triangle in the north being the Lower Himalayan Range between those two rivers. Moreover, the province as constituted under British rule also included a large tract outside these boundaries. Along the northern border, Himalayan ranges divided it from Kashmir and Tibet. On the west it was separated from the North-West Frontier Province by the Indus, until it reached the border of Dera Ghazi Khan District, which was divided from Baluchistan by the Sulaiman Range. To the south lay Sindh and Rajputana, while on the east the rivers Jumna and Tons separated it from the United Provinces. In total Punjab had an area of approximately 357 000 km square about the same size as modern day Germany, being one of the largest provinces of the British Raj. It encompassed the present day Indian states of Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, and some parts of Himachal Pradesh which were merged with Punjab by the British for administrative purposes (but excluding the former princely states which were later combined into the Patiala and East Punjab States Union) and the Pakistani regions of the Punjab, Islamabad Capital Territory and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In 1901 the frontier districts beyond the Indus were separated from Punjab and made into a new province: the North-West Frontier Province. Subsequently, Punjab was divided into four natural geographical divisions by colonial officials on the decadal census data:: 2 : 4  Indo-Gangetic Plain West geographical division (including Hisar district, Loharu State, Rohtak district, Dujana State, Gurgaon district, Pataudi State, Delhi, Karnal district, Jalandhar district, Kapurthala State, Ludhiana district, Malerkotla State, Firozpur district, Faridkot State, Patiala State, Jind State, Nabha State, Lahore District, Amritsar district, Gujranwala District, and Sheikhupura District); Himalayan geographical division (including Sirmoor State, Simla District, Simla Hill States, Bilaspur State, Kangra district, Mandi State, Suket State, and Chamba State); Sub-Himalayan geographical division (including Ambala district, Kalsia State, Hoshiarpur district, Gurdaspur district, Sialkot District, Gujrat District, Jhelum District, Rawalpindi District, and Attock District; North-West Dry Area geographical division (including Montgomery District, Shahpur District, Mianwali District, Lyallpur District, Jhang District, Multan District, Bahawalpur State, Muzaffargarh District, Dera Ghazi Khan District, and the Biloch Trans–Frontier Tract). History Company rule On 21 February 1849, the East India Company decisively defeated the Sikh Empire at the Battle of Gujrat bringing to an end the Second Anglo-Sikh War. Following the victory, the East India Company annexed the Punjab on 2 April 1849 and incorporated it within British India. The province whilst nominally under the control of the Bengal Presidency was administratively independent. Lord Dalhousie constituted the Board of Administration by inducting into it the most experienced and seasoned British officers. The Board was led by Sir Henry Lawrence, who had previously worked as British Resident at the Lahore Durbar and also consisted of his younger brother John Lawrence and Charles Grenville Mansel. Below the Board, a group of acclaimed officers collectively known as Henry Lawrence's "Young Men" assisted in the administration of the newly acquired province. The Board was abolished by Lord Dalhousie in 1853; Sir Henry was assigned to the Rajputana Agency, and his brother John succeeded as the first Chief Commissioner. Recognising the cultural diversity of the Punjab, the Board maintained a strict policy of non-interference in regard to religious and cultural matters. Sikh aristocrats were given patronage and pensions and groups in control of historical places of worship were allowed to remain in control. During the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Punjab remained relatively peaceful, apart from rebellion led by Ahmad Khan Kharral. In May, John Lawrence took swift action to disarm potentially mutinous sepoys and redeploy most European troops to the Delhi ridge. Finally he recruited new regiments of Punjabis to replace the depleted force, and was provided with manpower and support from surrounding princely states such as Jind, Patiala, Nabha and Kapurthala and tribal chiefs on the borderlands with Afghanistan. By 1858, an estimated 70,000 extra men had been recruited for the army and militarised police from within the Punjab. British Raj In 1858, under the terms of the Queen's Proclamation issued by Queen Victoria, the Punjab, along with the rest of British India, came under the direct rule of the British Crown. Delhi Territory was transferred from the North-Western Provinces to the Punjab in 1858, partly to punish the city for the important role the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah II, and the city as a whole, played in the 1857 Rebellion. Sir John Lawrence, then Chief Commissioner, was appointed the first Lieutenant-Governor on 1 January 1859. In 1866, the Judicial Commissioner was replaced by a Chief Court. The direct administrative functions of the Government were carried by the Lieutenant-Governor through the Secretariat, comprising a Chief Secretary, a Secretary and two Under-Secretaries. They were usually members of the Indian Civil Service. The territory under the Lieutenant consisted of 29 Districts, grouped under 5 Divisions, and 43 Princely States. Each District was under a Deputy-Commissioner, who reported to the Commissioner of the Division. Each District was subdivided into between three and seven tehsils, each under a tahsildar, assisted by a naib (deputy) tahsildar. In 1885 the Punjab administration began an ambitious plan to transform over six million acres of barren waste land in central and western Punjab into irrigable agricultural land. The creation of canal colonies was designed to relieve demographic pressures in the central parts of the province, increase productivity and revenues, and create a loyal support amongst peasant landholders. The colonisation resulted in an agricultural revolution in the province, rapid industrial growth, and the resettlement of over one million Punjabis in the new areas. A number of towns were created or saw significant development in the colonies, such as Lyallpur, Sargodha and Montgomery. Colonisation led to the canal irrigated area of the Punjab increasing from three to fourteen million acres in the period from 1885 to 1947. The beginning of the twentieth century saw increasing unrest in the Punjab. Conditions in the Chenab colony, together with land reforms such as the Punjab Land Alienation Act, 1900 and the Colonisation Bill, 1906 contributed to the 1907 Punjab unrest. The unrest was unlike any previous agitation in the province as the government had for the first time aggrieved a large portion of the rural population. Mass demonstrations were organised, headed by Lala Lajpat Rai, a leader of the Hindu revivalist sect Arya Samaj. The unrest resulted in the repeal of the Colonisation Bill and the end of paternalist policies in the colonies. During the First World War, Punjabi manpower contributed heavily to the Indian Army. Out of a total of 683,149 combat troops, 349,688 hailed from the province. In 1918, an influenza epidemic broke out in the province, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 962,937 people or 4.77 percent of the total estimated population. In March 1919 the Rowlatt Act was passed extending emergency measures of detention and incarceration in response to the perceived threat of terrorism from revolutionary nationalist organisations. This led to the infamous Jallianwala Bagh massacre in April 1919, where Colonel Reginald Edward Harry Dyer ordered detachments of the 9th Gorkha Rifles and the 59th Scinde Rifles under his command to fire into a group of some 10,000 unarmed protesters and Baisakhi pilgrims, killing 379. Administrative reforms The Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms enacted through the Government of India Act 1919 expanded the Punjab Legislative Council and introduced the principle of dyarchy, whereby certain responsibilities such as agriculture, health, education, and local government, were transferred to elected ministers. The first Punjab Legislative Council under the 1919 Act was constituted in 1921, comprising 93 members, seventy per cent to be elected and rest to be nominated. Some of the British Indian ministers under the dyarchy scheme were Sir Sheikh Abdul Qadir, Sir Shahab-ud-Din Virk and Lala Hari Kishen Lal. The Government of India Act 1935 introduced provincial autonomy to Punjab replacing the system of dyarchy. It provided for the constitution of Punjab Legislative Assembly of 175 members presided by a Speaker and an executive government responsible to the Assembly. The Unionist Party under Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan formed the government in 1937. Sir Sikandar was succeeded by Malik Khizar Hayat Tiwana in 1942 who remained the Premier till partition in 1947. Although the term of the Assembly was five years, the Assembly continued for about eight years and its last sitting was held on 19 March 1945. Partition The struggle for Indian independence witnessed competing and conflicting interests in the Punjab. The landed elites of the Muslim, Hindu and Sikh communities had loyally collaborated with the British since annexation, supported the Unionist Party and were hostile to the Congress party led independence movement. Amongst the peasantry and urban middle classes, the Hindus were the most active National Congress supporters, the Sikhs flocked to the Akali movement whilst the Muslims eventually supported the All-India Muslim League. Since the partition of the sub-continent had been decided, special meetings of the Western and Eastern Section of the Legislative Assembly were held on 23 June 1947 to decide whether or not the Province of the Punjab be partitioned. After voting on both sides, partition was decided and the existing Punjab Legislative Assembly was also divided into West Punjab Legislative Assembly and the East Punjab Legislative Assembly. This last Assembly before independence, held its last sitting on 4 July 1947. Demographics The first British census of the Punjab was carried out in 1855. This covered only British territory to the exclusion of local princely states, and placed the population at 17.6 million. The first regular census of British India carried out in 1881 recorded a population of 20.8 million people. The final British census in 1941 recorded 34.3 million people in the Punjab, which comprised 29 districts within British territory, 43 princely states, 52,047 villages and 283 towns. In 1881, only Amritsar and Lahore had populations over 100,000. The commercial and industrial city of Amritsar (152,000) was slightly larger than the cultural capital of Lahore (149,000). Over the following sixty years, Lahore increased in population fourfold, whilst Amritsar grew two-fold. By 1941, the province had seven cities with populations over 100,000 with emergence and growth of Rawalpindi, Multan, Sialkot, Jullundur and Ludhiana. The colonial period saw large scale migration within the Punjab due to the creation of canal colonies in western Punjab. The majority of colonists hailed from the seven most densely populated districts of Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Jullundur, Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana, Ambala and Sialkot, and consisted primarily of Khatris, Brahmins, Jats, Arains, Sainis, Kambohs and Rajputs. The movement of many highly skilled farmers from eastern and central Punjab to the new colonies, led to western Punjab becoming the most progressive and advanced agricultural region of the province. The period also saw significant numbers of Punjabis emigrate to other regions of the British Empire. The main destinations were East Africa - Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, Southeast Asia - Malaya and Burma, Hong Kong and Canada. Religion The Punjab was a religiously eclectic province, comprising three major groups: Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs. By 1941, the religious Muslims constituting an absolute majority at 53.2%, whilst the Hindu population was at 30.1%. The period between 1881 and 1941 saw a significant increase in the Sikh and Christian populations, growing from 8.2% and 0.1% to 14.9% and 1.9% respectively. The decrease in the Hindu population has been attributed to the conversion of Hindus mainly to Sikhism and Islam, and also to Christianity. In 1941, the Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs made 30.1, 53.2 and 14.9 per cent of the total population of Punjab but made 37.9, 51.4 and 8.4 per cent of its urban population respectively. Indo−Gangetic Plain West geographical division Including Hisar district, Loharu State, Rohtak district, Dujana State, Gurgaon district, Pataudi State, Delhi, Karnal district, Jalandhar district, Kapurthala State, Ludhiana district, Malerkotla State, Firozpur district, Faridkot State, Patiala State, Jind State, Nabha State, Lahore District, Amritsar district, Gujranwala District, and Sheikhupura District.: 48 : 2 Himalayan geographical division Including Sirmoor State, Simla District, Simla Hill States, Bilaspur State, Kangra district, Mandi State, Suket State, and Chamba State.: 48 : 2 Sub−Himalayan geographical division Including Ambala district, Kalsia State, Hoshiarpur district, Gurdaspur district, Sialkot District, Gujrat District, Jhelum District, Rawalpindi District, and Attock District.: 48 : 2 North−West Dry Area geographical division Including Montgomery District, Shahpur District, Mianwali District, Lyallpur District, Jhang District, Multan District, Bahawalpur State, Muzaffargarh District, Dera Ghazi Khan District, and the Biloch Trans–Frontier Tract.: 48 : 2 Language As with religion, Punjab was a linguistically eclectically diverse province and region. In 1837, Persian had been abolished as the official language of Company administration and replaced by local Indian vernacular languages. In the Sikh Empire, Persian continued to be the official state language. Shortly after annexing the Punjab in 1849, the Board of Administration canvassed local officials in each of the provinces's six divisions to decide which language was "best suited for the Courts and Public Business". Officials in the western divisions recommended Persian whilst eastern officials suggested a shift to Urdu. In September 1849 a two-language policy was instituted throughout the province. The language policy in the Punjab differed from other Indian provinces in that Urdu was not a widespread local vernacular. In 1849 John Lawrence noted "that Urdu is not the language of these districts and neither is Persian". In 1854, the Board of Administration abruptly ended the two-language policy and Urdu was designated as the official language of government across the province. The decision was motivated by new civil service rules requiring all officials pass a test in the official language of their local court. In fear of potentially losing their jobs, officials in Persian districts petitioned the board to replace Persian with Urdu, believing Urdu the easier language to master. Urdu remained the official administrative language until 1947. Officials, although aware that Punjabi was the colloquial language of the majority, instead favoured the use of Urdu for a number of reasons. Criticism of Punjabi included the belief that it was simply a form of patois, lacking any form of standardisation, and that "would be inflexible and barren, and incapable of expressing nice shades of meaning and exact logical ideas with the precision so essential in local proceedings." Similar arguments had earlier been made about Bengali, Oriya and Hindustani; however, those languages were later adopted for local administration. Instead it is believed the advantages of Urdu served the administration greater. Urdu, and initially Persian, allowed the Company to recruit experienced administrators from elsewhere in India who did not speak Punjabi, to facilitate greater integration with other Indian territories which were administered with Urdu, and to help foster ties with local elites who spoke Persian and Urdu and could act as intermediaries with the wider populace. As per the 1911 census, speakers of the Punjabi dialects and languages, including standard Punjabi along with Lahnda formed just over three-quarters (75.93 per cent) of the total provincial population. Indo−Gangetic Plain West geographical division Including Hisar district, Loharu State, Rohtak district, Dujana State, Gurgaon district, Pataudi State, Delhi, Karnal district, Jalandhar district, Kapurthala State, Ludhiana district, Malerkotla State, Firozpur district, Faridkot State, Patiala State, Jind State, Nabha State, Lahore District, Amritsar district, and Gujranwala District. Himalayan geographical division Including Nahan State, Simla district, Simla Hill States, Kangra district, Mandi State, Suket State, and Chamba State. Sub−Himalayan geographical division Including Ambala district, Kalsia State, Hoshiarpur district, Gurdaspur district, Sialkot District, Gujrat District, Jhelum District, Rawalpindi District, and Attock District. North–West Dry Area geographical division Including Montgomery District, Shahpur District, Mianwali District, Lyallpur District, Jhang District, Multan District, Bahawalpur State, Muzaffargarh District, and Dera Ghazi Khan District. Tribes Punjab Province was diverse, with the main castes represented alongside numerous subcastes and tribes (also known as Jāti or Barādarī), forming parts of the various ethnic groups in the province, contemporarily known as Punjabis, Saraikis, Haryanvis, Hindkowans, Dogras, Paharis, and others. Literacy Administrative divisions Agriculture Within a few years of its annexation, the Punjab was regarded as British India's model agricultural province. From the 1860s onwards, agricultural prices and land values soared in the Punjab. This stemmed from increasing political security and improvements in infrastructure and communications. New cash crops such as wheat, tobacco, sugar cane and cotton were introduced. By the 1920s the Punjab produced a tenth of India's total cotton crop and a third of its wheat crop. Per capita output of all the crops in the province increased by approximately 45 percent between 1891 and 1921, a growth contrasting to agricultural crises in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa during the period. The Punjab Agricultural College and Research Institute became the first higher educational agricultural institution in the Punjab when established in 1906. Rapid agricultural growth, combined with access to easy credit for landowners, led to a growing crisis of indebtedness. When landowners were unable to pay down their loans, urban based moneylenders took advantage of the law to foreclose debts of mortgaged land. This led to a situation where land increasingly passed to absentee moneylenders who had little connection to the villages were the land was located. The colonial government recognised this as a potential threat to the stability of the province, and a split emerged in the government between paternalists who favoured intervention to ensure order, and those who opposed state intervention in private property relations. The paternalists emerged victorious and the Punjab Land Alienation Act, 1900 prevented urban commercial castes, who were overwhelmingly Hindu, from permanently acquiring land from statutory agriculturalist tribes, who were mainly Muslim and Sikh. Accompanied by the increasing franchise of the rural population, this interventionist approach led to a long lasting impact on the political landscape of the province. The agricultural lobby remained loyal to the government, and rejected communalism in common defence of its privileges against urban moneylenders. This position was entrenched by the Unionist Party. The Congress Party's opposition to the Act led to it being marginalised in the Punjab, reducing its influence more so than in any other province, and inhibiting its ability to challenge colonial rule locally. The political dominance of the Unionist Party would remain until partition, and significantly it was only on the collapse of its power on the eve of independence from Britain, that communal violence began to spread in rural Punjab. Army In the immediate aftermath of annexation, the Sikh Khalsa Army was disbanded, and soldiers were required to surrender their weapons and return to agricultural or other pursuits. The Bengal Army, keen to utilise the highly trained ex-Khalsa army troops began to recruit from the Punjab for Bengal infantry units stationed in the province. However opposition to the recruitment of these soldiers spread and resentment emerged from sepoys of the Bengal Army towards the incursion of Punjabis into their ranks. In 1851, the Punjab Irregular Force also known as the 'Piffars' was raised. Initially they consisted of one garrison and four mule batteries, four regiments of cavalry, eleven of infantry and the Corps of Guides, totalling approximately 13,000 men. The gunners and infantry were mostly Punjabi, many from the Khalsa Army, whilst the cavalry had a considerable Hindustani presence. During the Indian Rebellion of 1857, eighteen new regiments were raised from the Punjab which remained loyal to the East India Company throughout the crisis in the Punjab and United Provinces. By June 1858, of the 80,000 native troops in the Bengal Army, 75,000 were Punjabi of which 23,000 were Sikh. In the aftermath of the rebellion, a thorough re-organisation of the army took place. Henceforth recruitment into the British Indian Army was restricted to loyal peoples and provinces. Punjabi Sikhs emerged as a particularly favoured martial race to serve the army. In the midst of The Great Game, and fearful of a Russian invasion of British India, the Punjab was regarded of significant strategic importance as a frontier province. In addition to their loyalty and a belief in their suitability to serve in harsh conditions, Punjabi recruits were favoured as they could be paid at the local service rate, whereas soldiers serving on the frontier from more distant lands had to be paid extra foreign service allowances. By 1875, of the entire Indian army, a third of recruits hailed from the Punjab. In 1914, three fifths of the Indian army came from the Punjab, despite the region constituting approximately one tenth of the total population of British India. During the First World War, Punjabi Sikhs alone accounted for one quarter of all armed personnel in India. Military service provided access to the wider world, and personnel were deployed across the British Empire from Malaya, the Mediterranean and Africa. Upon completion of their terms of service, these personnel were often amongst the first to seek their fortunes abroad. At the outbreak of the Second World War, 48 percent of the Indian army came from the province. In Jhelum, Rawalpindi and Attock, the percentage of the total male population who enlisted reached fifteen percent. The Punjab continued to be the main supplier of troops throughout the war, contributing 36 percent of the total Indian troops who served in the conflict. The huge proportion of Punjabis in the army meant that a significant amount of military expenditure went to Punjabis and in turn resulted in an abnormally high level of resource input in the Punjab. It has been suggested that by 1935 if remittances of serving officers were combined with income from military pensions, more than two thirds of Punjab's land revenue could have been paid out of military incomes. Military service further helped reduce the extent of indebtedness across the Province. In Hoshiarpur, a notable source of military personnel, in 1920 thirty percent of proprietors were debt free compared to the region's average of eleven percent. In addition, the benefits of military service and the perception that the government was benevolent towards soldiers, affected the latter's attitudes towards the British. The loyalty of recruited peasantry and the influence of military groups in rural areas across the province limited the reach of the nationalist movement in the province. Communications and transport In 1853, the Viceroy Lord Dalhousie issued a minute stressing the military importance of railways across India. In the Punjab, however, it was initially strategic commercial interests which drove investment in railways and communications from 1860. Independent railway companies emerged, such as the Scinde, Punjab and Delhi railways to build and operate new lines. In 1862, the first section of railway in the Punjab was constructed between Lahore and Amritsar, and Lahore Junction railway station opened. Lines were opened between Lahore and Multan in 1864, and Amritsar and Delhi in 1870. The Scinde, Punjab and Delhi railways merged to form the Scinde, Punjab & Delhi Railway in 1870, creating a link between Karachi and Lahore via Multan. The Punjab Northern State Railway linked Lahore and Peshawar in 1883. By 1886, the independent railways had amalgamated into North Western State Railway. The construction of railway lines and the network of railway workshops generated employment opportunities, which in turn led to increased immigration into cantonment towns. As connectivity increased across the province, it facilitated the movement of goods, and increased human interaction. It has been observed that the Ferozpur, Lahore and Amritsar began to develop into one composite cultural triangle due to the ease of connectivity between them. Similarly barriers of spoken dialects eroded over time, and cultural affinities were increasingly fostered. Education In 1854, the Punjab education department was instituted with a policy to provide secular education in all government managed institutions. Privately run institutions would only receive grants-in-aid in return for providing secular instruction. By 1864 this had resulted in a situation whereby all grants-in-aid to higher education schools and colleges were received by institutions under European management, and no indigenous owned schools received government help. In the early 1860s, a number of educational colleges were established, including Lawrence College, Murree, King Edward Medical University, Government College, Lahore, Glancy Medical College and Forman Christian College. In 1882, Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner published a damning report on the state of education in the Punjab. He lamented the failure to reconcile government run schools with traditional indigenous schools, and noted a steady decline in the number of schools across the province since annexation. He noted in particular how Punjabi Muslim's avoided government run schools due to the lack of religious subjects taught in them, observing how at least 120,000 Punjabis attended schools unsupported by the state and describing it as 'a protest by the people against our system of education.' Leitner had long advocated the benefits of oriental scholarship, and the fusion of government education with religious instruction. In January 1865 he had established the Anjuman-i-Punjab, a subscription based association aimed at using a European style of learning to promote useful knowledge, whilst also reviving traditional scholarship in Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit. In 1884, a reorganisation of the Punjab education system occurred, introducing measures tending towards decentralisation of control over education and the promotion of an indigenous education agency. As a consequence several new institutions were encouraged in the province. The Arya Samaj opened a college in Lahore in 1886, the Sikhs opened the Khalsa College whilst the Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam stepped in to organise Muslim education. In 1886, the Punjab Chiefs' College, later renamed Aitchison College, was opened to further the education of the elite classes. Government Early administration In 1849, a Board of Administration was put in place to govern the newly annexed province. The Board was led by a President and two assistants. Beneath them Commissioners acted as Superintendents of revenue and police and exercised the civil appellate and the original criminal powers of Sessions Judges, whilst Deputy Commissioners were given subordinate civil, criminal and fiscal powers. In 1853, the Board of Administration was abolished, and authority was invested in a single Chief Commissioner. The Government of India Act 1858 led to further restructuring and the office of Lieutenant-Governor replaced that of Chief Commissioner. Although The Indian Councils Act, 1861 laid the foundation for the establishment of a local legislature in the Punjab, the first legislature was constituted in 1897. It consisted of a body of nominated officials and non-officials and was presided over by the Lieutenant-Governor. The first council lasted for eleven years until 1909. The Morley-Minto Reforms led to an elected members complementing the nominated officials in subsequent councils. Punjab Legislative Council and Assembly The Government of India Act 1919 introduced the system of dyarchy across British India and led to the implementation of the first Punjab Legislative Council in 1921. At the same time the office of lieutenant governor was replaced with that of governor. The initial Council had ninety three members, seventy per cent of which were elected and the rest nominated. A president was elected by the Council to preside over the meetings. Between 1921 and 1936, there were four terms of the Council. In 1935, the Government of India Act 1935 replaced dyarchy with increased provincial autonomy. It introduced direct elections, and enabled elected Indian representatives to form governments in the provincial assemblies. The Punjab Legislative Council was replaced by a Punjab Legislative Assembly, and the role of President with that of a Speaker. Membership of the Assembly was fixed at 175 members, and it was intended to sit for five years. First Assembly Election The first election was held in 1937 and was won outright by the Unionist Party. Its leader, Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan was asked by the Governor, Sir Herbert Emerson to form a Ministry and he chose a cabinet consisting of three Muslims, two Hindus and a Sikh. Sir Sikandar died in 1942 and was succeeded as Premier by Khizar Hayat Khan Tiwana. Second Assembly Election The next election was held in 1946. The Muslim League won the most seats, winning 73 out of a total of 175. However a coalition led by the Unionist Party and consisting of the Congress Party and Akali Party were able to secure an overall majority. A campaign of civil disobedience by the Muslim League followed, lasting six weeks, and led to the resignation of Sir Khizar Tiwana and the collapse of the coalition government on 2 March 1947. The Muslim League however were unable to attract the support of other minorities to form a coalition government themselves. Amid this stalemate the Governor Sir Evan Jenkins assumed control of the government and remained in charge until the independence of India and Pakistan. Coat of arms Crescat e Fluviis meaning, Let it grow from the rivers was the Latin motto used in the coat of arms for Punjab Province. As per the book History of the Sikhs written by Khushwant Singh, it means Strength from the Rivers. See also Notable people from Punjab Province, British India History of Punjab British Raj List of misls of the Sikh Confederacy Punjab (region) Sikh Empire Notes == References ==

I remember reading a book in elementary school that I LOVED and I want to read it to my daughter. The problem is I can't remember the title. I know that when I first read it, it had recently won a Caldecott Medal. I have another memory from around the same time period of watching the Sydney Summer Olympics. All I remember about the plot is that it was based on a true story and set in the winter time. Can you help me remember the title?

Snowflake Bentley

Tabular reasoning | Multiple constraints

The Randolph Caldecott Medal, frequently shortened to just the Caldecott, annually recognizes the preceding year's "most distinguished American picture book for children". It is awarded to the illustrator by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). The Caldecott and Newbery Medals are considered the most prestigious American children's book awards. Besides the Caldecott Medal, the committee awards a variable number of citations to runners-up they deem worthy, called the Caldecott Honor or Caldecott Honor Books. The Caldecott Medal was first proposed by Frederic G. Melcher in 1937. The award was named after English illustrator Randolph Caldecott. Unchanged since its founding, the medal, which is given to every winner, features two of Caldecott's illustrations. The awarding process has changed several times over the years, including the use of the term "Honor" for the runner-ups beginning in 1971. There have been between one and five honor books named each year. To be eligible for a Caldecott, the book must be published in English, in the United States first, and be drawn by an American illustrator. An award committee decides on a winner in January or February, voting using a multi-round point system. The committee judges books on several criteria to meet the Caldecott's goal of recognizing "distinguished illustrations in a picture book and for excellence of pictorial presentation for children." Winning the award can lead to a substantial rise in books sold. It can also increase the prominence of illustrators. Illustrator and author Marcia Brown is the most recognized Caldecott illustrator, having won three medals and having six honor books. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of minority characters and illustrators recognized. However, this is something which has fluctuated over the history of the award. History The Caldecott was suggested in 1937 by Frederic G. Melcher, former editor of Publishers Weekly, following the establishment of the Newbery Medal in 1921.: 1  The American Library Association adopted Melcher's suggestion of awarding a medal to the illustrator "who had created the most distinguished picture book of the year." According to children's literature expert Leonard S. Marcus, the award helped draw American artists into the field of children's books. The award has been tweaked over the years, with the most recent changes in 2009. When the award was founded, books could be considered either for the Newbery or the Caldecott, with the same committee judging both awards. The committee noted other books of merit, which were frequently referred to as runner-ups. In 1971, these books were formally named Caldecott Honor books, with this name applied retroactively. In 1977, books became eligible for both awards and, beginning with the 1980 award, separate committees for each award were formed. Until 1958, a previous winner could win again only by unanimous vote of the committee, and it was only in 1963 when joint winners were first permitted.: 2 Medal The award is named for Randolph Caldecott, a nineteenth-century English illustrator. Rene Paul Chambellan designed the Medal in 1937. The obverse scene is derived from Randolph Caldecott's front cover illustration for The Diverting History of John Gilpin (Routledge, 1878, an edition of the 1782 poem by William Cowper), which depicts John Gilpin astride a runaway horse. The reverse is based on "Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie", one of Caldecott's illustrations for the nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence". Each illustrator receives a bronze copy of the medal, which, despite being awarded by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), lists Children's Librarian's Section, the original awarding group, for historical reasons.: 3 : 8 Eligibility and criteria A picture book, according to the award criteria, provides "a visual experience. A picture book has a collective unity of storyline, theme, or concept, developed through the series of pictures" that constitute the book. The Medal is "for distinguished illustrations in a picture book and for excellence of pictorial presentation for children". Specifically, the illustrations are judged on their artistic technique, interpretation of the book's story and theme, the fit between the illustrations and the story and themes, the precision of depiction of elements of the book, like characters and mood, and how well the illustrations serve their targeted audience. Honor books need to fulfill the same criteria. The book must be self-contained, independent of other media for its enjoyment. Components other than illustration, including the book's text or overall design, may be considered as they affect the overall effectiveness of the book's illustrations. To be eligible for the Caldecott, the artist must be a US citizen or resident, the book must have been published in English, in the United States first, or simultaneously in other countries. Picture books for any audience up to the age of 14 may be considered. In December 2019, children's literature expert Leonard S. Marcus suggested that the Caldecott had achieved its mission in the US and the award should be expanded so children's book illustrations from anywhere in the world be considered. Selection process The committee that decides on the Caldecott Award winner comprises fifteen members of ALSC. Seven members are elected by the entire ALSC membership and eight, including the chairperson, are appointed by the ALSC President. Members are chosen based on their experience. Consideration is also done to ensure a diversity of libraries (e.g. public and school, small and large), and geographical areas are represented as well.: 7  Publishers send copies of books to the committee; in 2009, each member received more than 700. However, a book does not need to be sent to the committee to be considered.: 27  Instead, to help identify possible contenders, committee members formally nominate seven books in three rounds over the year, and less formally recommend others. At ALSC's annual midwinter meeting, held in late January or early February, the committee will discuss the nominations and hold a vote on the winner.: 8  When voting, committee members list their first place, second place, and third place selections. Each vote is assigned a point value, with first place votes receiving four points, second place three points, and third place two points. The winner must receive at least eight first place votes and be at least eight points ahead of the second-place finisher.: 38  After a winner is selected, the committee can decide whether to award any honor books. They may be chosen from runner-ups to the winner, or be selected in a separate ballot.: 39  The winner and honor books are kept secret until they are publicly announced, with the committee calling the winning illustrators the morning of the announcement.: 40  In 2015, K. T. Horning of the University of Wisconsin–Madison's Cooperative Children's Book Center proposed to ALSC that old discussions of the Newbery and Caldecott be made public in the service of researchers and historians. This proposal was met with both support and criticism by former committee members and recognized authors. As of 2020, no change has been made. Impact and analysis The Caldecott and Newbery awards have historically been considered the most important children's book awards. Anita Silvey, children's book author, editor, and critic, suggests they might even be the most important book awards, saying that "no other award has the economic significance of the Newbery and Caldecott". According to Silvey, a Caldecott winner can have sales increased from 2,000 to 100,000–200,000. Silvey also credits the Caldecott for helping to establish Bradbury Press and Roaring Brook Press as important publishers. It can also be an important recognition for authors. According to Leonard Marcus, Where the Wild Things Are's recognition brought its author and illustrator, Maurice Sendak, to national prominence. A 1999 study on the reading levels of Caldecott recipients suggested that most winners were written at the elementary age level, with the average reading level having decreased over time. A 2007 study of Caldecott recipients found that the prevalence and importance of female characters had risen and fallen several times over the history of the Caldecott. It also found that, unlike recipients of the Pura Belpré Award and Coretta Scott King Award, the behaviors of male and female characters remained distinct and adhered to traditional gender norms. A different 2007 study, by one of the same authors, also found an increase in the number of minority characters following a 1965 critique by Nancy Larrick, however the number of minorities had fallen by the 2000s. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of minority characters and illustrators recognized. The Horn Book Magazine editor Martha Parravano has noted how rarely non-fiction books, especially non-fiction books about science, are recognized by the Caldecott. Recipients Multiple award winners Listed below are all illustrators who have won at least two Caldecott Medals or who have won a Medal and multiple honors. See also Kate Greenaway Medal, for illustration of a British children's book Theodor Seuss Geisel Award, for an American book for beginning readers References Citations "Randolph Caldecott Medal Committee Manual (formatted August 2012)" (PDF). Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC). American Library Association (ALA). June 2009. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 10, 2013. Retrieved May 3, 2013. Further reading Kolbe, Richard; Joseph C.Lavoie (1981). "Sex-Role Stereotyping in Preschool Children's Picture Books". Social Psychology Quarterly. 44 (4): 369–74. doi:10.2307/3033906. JSTOR 3033906. Marcus, Leonard S. (August 11, 2013). "Seal Of Approval". The New York Times Book Review. Archived from the original on August 11, 2013. Retrieved August 10, 2013. Smith, Irene (1957). A History of the Newbery and Caldecott Medals. New York: Viking Press. Ebook Central Academic Complete. In the Words of the Winners: The Newbery and Caldecott Medals, 2001–2010. Chicago: American Library Association, 2011. External links Official website

The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It marked the second time the Summer Olympics were held in Australia, and in the Southern Hemisphere, the first being in Melbourne, in 1956. Sydney was selected as the host city for the 2000 Games in 1993. Teams from 199 countries participated in the 2000 Games, which were the first to feature at least 300 events in its official sports program. The Games were estimated to have cost A$6.6 billion. These were the final Olympic Games under the IOC presidency of Juan Antonio Samaranch before the arrival of his successor Jacques Rogge. The final medal tally at the 2000 Summer Olympics was led by the United States, followed by Russia and China with host Australia in fourth place overall. Cameroon, Colombia, Latvia, Mozambique, and Slovenia won a gold medal for the first time in their Olympic histories, while Barbados, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Saudi Arabia, and Vietnam won their first-ever Olympic medals. The 2000 Games received universal acclaim, with the organisation, volunteers, sportsmanship, and Australian public being lauded in the international media. Bill Bryson of The Times called the Sydney Games "one of the most successful events on the world stage", saying that they "couldn't be better". James Mossop of the Electronic Telegraph called the Games "such a success that any city considering bidding for future Olympics must be wondering how it can reach the standards set by Sydney", while Jack Todd of the Montreal Gazette suggested that the "IOC should quit while it's ahead. Admit there can never be a better Olympic Games, and be done with it," as "Sydney was both exceptional and the best". These games would provide the inspiration for London's winning bid for the 2012 Olympic Games in 2005; in preparing for the 2012 Games, Lord Coe declared the 2000 Games the "benchmark for the spirit of the Games, unquestionably", admitting that the London organizing committee "attempted in several ways to emulate what the Sydney Organising Committee did." Australia will host the Summer Olympics in Brisbane in 2032, making it the first Asia-Pacific country to host the Summer Olympics three times. Host city selection Sydney won the right to host the Games on 24 September 1993, after being selected over Beijing, Berlin, Istanbul, and Manchester in four rounds of voting, at the 101st IOC Session in Monte Carlo, Monaco. Brasília, Milan, and Tashkent made bids before deciding to withdraw during the bidding process. The Australian city of Melbourne which also hosted the 1956 Summer Olympics had lost out to Atlanta for the 1996 Summer Olympics three years earlier. Beijing would later be selected to host the 2008 Summer Olympics eight years later on 13 July 2001 and the 2022 Winter Olympics twenty-two years later on 31 July 2015. Beijing's loss to Sydney was seen as a "significant blow" to an "urgent political priority" of the Chinese Communist Party leadership having mounted the most intense and expensive candidacy campaign at the date so far (this includes the Summer and Winter Games). Although it is unknown as two members of the International Olympic Committee voted for Sydney over Beijing in 1993, it appears that an important role was played by Human Rights Watch's campaign to "stop Beijing" because of China's human rights record and international isolation following the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Many in China were angry at what they saw as U.S.-led interference in the vote, and the outcome contributed to rising anti-Western sentiment in China and a new phase in the tensions in Sino-American relations. The Games Costs The Oxford Olympics Study 2016 estimates the outturn cost of the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics at US$5 billion in 2015 dollars and cost overrun at 90% in real terms. This includes sports-related costs only, that is, (i) operational costs incurred by the organizing committee to stage the Games, e.g., expenditures for technology, transportation, workforce, administration, security, catering, ceremonies, and medical services, and (ii) direct capital costs incurred by the host city and country or private investors to build, e.g., the competition venues, the Olympic village, international broadcast centre, and media and press centre, which are required to host the Games. Indirect capital costs are not included, such as for road, rail, airport infrastructure, hotel upgrades, or other business investments incurred in preparation for the Games but not directly related to staging the Games. The cost for Sydney 2000 compares with a cost of US$4.6 billion for Rio 2016, US$40–44 billion for Beijing 2008, and US$51 billion for Sochi 2014, the most expensive Olympics in history. The average cost for the Summer Games since 1960 is US$5.2 billion, average cost overrun is 176%. In 2000, the Auditor-General of New South Wales reported that the Sydney Games cost A$6.6 billion, with a net cost to the public between A$1.7 and A$2.4 billion. In the years leading up to the games, funds were shifted from education and health programs to cover Olympic expenses. It has been estimated that the economic impact of the 2000 Olympics was that A$2.1 billion has been shaved from public consumption. Economic growth was not stimulated to a net benefit and in the years after 2000, foreign tourism to NSW grew by less than tourism to Australia as a whole. A "multiplier" effect on broader economic development was not realised, as a simple "multiplier" analysis fails to capture that resources have to be redirected from elsewhere: the building of a stadium is at the expense of other public works such as extensions to hospitals. Building sporting venues does not add to the aggregate stock of productive capital in the years following the Games: "Equestrian centers, softball compounds, and man-made rapids are not particularly useful beyond their immediate function." Many venues that were constructed in Sydney Olympic Park failed financially in the years immediately following the Olympics to meet the expected bookings to meet upkeep expenses. It was only the 2003 Rugby World Cup that reconnected the park back to citizens. In recent years, infrastructure costs for some facilities have been of growing concern to the NSW Government, especially facilities in Western Sydney. Proposed metro and light rail links from Olympic Park to Parramatta have been estimated to cost in the same order of magnitude as the public expenditure on the games. Stadium Australia had been considered for demolition in 2017 by then NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, citing that the stadium was "built for an Olympics" but not for modern spectators. The plan was scrapped in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Dunc Gray Velodrome has also struggled to keep up its $500,000-per-year maintenance costs, although it is still used for track cycling events. Chronological Summary of the 2000 Summer Olympics Although the Opening Ceremony was not scheduled until 15 September, the football competitions began with preliminary matches on 13 September. Among the pre-ceremony fixtures, host nation Australia lost 1–0 to Italy at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which was the main stadium for the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. Day 1: 15 September Cultural display highlights The opening ceremony began with a tribute to the Australian pastoral heritage of the Australian stockmen and the importance of the stock horse in Australia's heritage. It was produced and filmed by the Sydney Olympic Broadcasting Organisation and the home nation broadcaster Channel 7. This was introduced by lone rider Steve Jefferys and his rearing Australian Stock Horse Ammo. At the cracking of Jefferys' stockwhip, a further 120 riders entered the stadium, their stock horses performing intricate steps, including forming the five Olympic Rings, to a Special Olympics version of the theme, which Bruce Rowland had previously composed for the 1982 film The Man from Snowy River. The Australian National Anthem was sung in the first verse by Human Nature and the second by Julie Anthony. The ceremony continued, showing many aspects of the land and its people: the affinity of the mainly coastal-dwelling Australians with the sea that surrounds the Island Continent. The Indigenous inhabitation of the land, the coming of the First Fleet, the continued immigration from many nations, and the rural industry on which the economy of the nation was built, including a display representing the harshness of rural life based on the paintings of Sir Sidney Nolan. Two memorable scenes were the representation of the heart of the country by 200 Aboriginal women from Central Australia who danced up "the mighty spirit of God to protect the Games" and the overwhelmingly noisy representation of the construction industry by hundreds of tap-dancing teenagers. Because Bibi Salisachs (the wife of IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch) was seriously ill and unable to accompany her husband to the Olympics, Dawn Fraser, former Australian Olympic Champion swimmer and member of the Parliament of New South Wales, accompanied Samaranch during the Australian cultural display, explaining to him some of the cultural references that are unfamiliar to non-Australians. Formal presentation A record 199 nations entered the stadium, with a record 80 of them winning at least one medal. The only missing IOC member was Afghanistan, who was banned due to the extremist rule of the Taliban's oppression of women and its prohibition of sports. The ceremony featured a unified entrance by the athletes of North and South Korea, using a specially designed unification flag: a white background flag with a blue map of the Korean Peninsula. Four athletes from East Timor also marched in the parade of nations as individual Olympic athletes and marched directly before the host country. Although the country-to-be had no National Olympic Committee then, they were allowed to compete under the Olympic Flag with country code IOA. The Governor-General, Sir William Deane, opened the games. The Olympic Flag was carried around the arena by eight former Australian Olympic champions: Bill Roycroft, Murray Rose, Liane Tooth, Gillian Rolton, Marjorie Jackson, Lorraine Crapp, Michael Wenden and Nick Green. During the raising of the Olympics Flag, the Olympic Hymn was sung by the Millennium Choir of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia in Greek. Following this, Tina Arena sang a purpose-written pop song, The Flame. The opening ceremony concluded with the lighting of the Olympic Flame, which was brought into the stadium by former Australian Olympic champion Herb Elliott. Then, celebrating 100 years of women's participation in the Olympic Games, former Australian women Olympic medalists Betty Cuthbert and Raelene Boyle, Dawn Fraser, Shirley Strickland (later Shirley Strickland de la Hunty), Shane Gould and Debbie Flintoff-King brought the torch through the stadium, handing it over to Cathy Freeman, who lit the flame in the cauldron within a circle of fire. The choice of Freeman, an Aboriginal woman, to light the flame was notable given the history of human rights abuses against Aboriginal people in Australia. Following her lighting, Freeman was the subject of racial abuse from some Australians. The planned spectacular climax to the ceremony was delayed by the technical glitch of a computer switch which malfunctioned, causing the sequence to shut down by giving a false reading. This meant that the Olympic flame was suspended in mid-air for about four minutes rather than immediately rising up a water-covered ramp to the top of the stadium. When the cause of the problem was discovered, the program was overridden and the cauldron continued its course, and the ceremony concluded with a fireworks display. Day 2: 16 September The first medals of the Games were awarded in the women's 10 metre air rifle competition, which was won by Nancy Johnson of the United States. The Triathlon made its Olympic debut with the women's race. Set in the surroundings of the Sydney Opera House, Brigitte McMahon representing Switzerland swam, cycled and ran to the first gold medal in the sport, beating the favoured home athletes such as Michelie Jones who won silver. McMahon only passed Jones in sight of the finish line. The first star of the Games was 17-year-old Australian Ian Thorpe, who first set a new world record in the 400-metre freestyle final before competing in an exciting 4 × 100 m freestyle final. Swimming the last leg, Thorpe passed the leading American team and arrived in a new world record time, two-tenths of a second ahead of the Americans. In the same event for women, the Americans also broke the world record, finishing ahead of the Netherlands and Sweden. Samaranch had to leave for home, as his wife was severely ill. Upon arrival, his wife had already died. Samaranch returned to Sydney four days later. The Olympic flag was flown at half-staff during the period as a sign of respect to Samaranch's wife. Day 3: 17 September Canadian Simon Whitfield sprinted away in the last 100 metres of the men's triathlon, becoming the inaugural winner in the event. On the cycling track, Robert Bartko beat fellow German Jens Lehmann in the individual pursuit, setting a new Olympic Record. Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel set a world record in the semi-finals the same event for women. In the swimming pool, American Tom Dolan beat the world record in the 400-metre medley, successfully defending the title he won in Atlanta four years prior. Dutchwoman Inge de Bruijn also clocked a new world record, beating her own time in the 100 m butterfly final to win by more than a second. Day 4: 18 September The main event for the Australians on the fourth day of the Games was the 200 m freestyle. Dutchman Pieter van den Hoogenband had broken the world record in the semi-finals, taking it from the new Australian hero Ian Thorpe, who came close to the world record in his semi-final heat. As the final race finished, Van den Hoogenband's time was exactly the same as in the semi-finals, finishing ahead of Thorpe by half a second. China won the gold medal in the men's team all-around gymnastics competition after being the runner-up in the previous two Olympics. The other medals were taken by Ukraine and Russia, respectively. Zijlaard-van Moorsel lived up to the expectations set by her world record in cycling in the semis by winning the gold medal. Day 7: 21 September During the Women's Gymnastics All-Around, female athletes suffered damning scores and injuries due to improperly installed gymnastics equipment. Gymnasts performing on the vault gave uncharacteristically poor performances and fell. Officials blamed the series of falls and low scores on performance anxiety. It was not until Australian gymnast Allana Slater and her coach, Peggy Liddick, voiced concerns about the equipment that officials discovered the apparatus was five centimetres, or almost two inches, lower than it should have been. While athletes were given the opportunity to perform again, for some of them, the damage to their mental or physical health caused by the vault was irreparable. Chinese gymnast Kui Yuanyuan and American gymnast Kristen Maloney both injured their legs while attempting to stick their landings, with Kui needing to be carried to an examination area and Maloney damaging a titanium rod that had recently been implanted in her shin. Romanian gymnast Andreea Răducan ultimately took gold while her teammates, Simona Amânar and Maria Olaru took silver and bronze, respectively. Day 9: 23 September By rowing in the winning coxless four, Steve Redgrave of Great Britain became a member of a select group who had won gold medals at five consecutive Olympics. The swimming 4 x 100-metre medley relay of B.J. Bedford, Megan Quann (Jendrick), Jenny Thompson and Dara Torres became the first women's relay under 4-minutes, swimming 3:58 and setting a world record, claiming the gold medal for the United States. Day 10: 24 September Rulon Gardner, never an NCAA champion or a world medalist, beat Alexander Karelin of Russia to win gold in the super heavyweight class, Greco-Roman wrestling. Karelin had won gold in Seoul, Barcelona and Atlanta. Before this fight, he had never lost in international competition, had been unbeaten in all competitions in 13 years, and had not surrendered a point in a decade. Day 11: 25 September Australian Cathy Freeman won the 400-metre final in front of a jubilant Sydney crowd at the Olympic Stadium, ahead of Lorraine Graham of Jamaica and Katharine Merry of Great Britain. Freeman's win made her the first competitor in Olympic Games history to light the Olympic Flame and then go on to win a Gold Medal. The attendance at the stadium was 112,524 – the largest attendance for any sport in Olympic Games history. In a men's basketball pool match between the United States and France, the USA's Vince Carter made one of the most famous dunks in basketball history. After getting the ball off a steal, the 6'6"/1.98 m Carter drove to the basket, with 7'2"/2.18 m centre Frédéric Weis in his way. Carter jumped, spread his legs in midair, scraped Weis' head on the way up, and dunked. The French media dubbed the feat le dunk de la mort ("the dunk of death"). Day 14: 28 September The Canadian flag at the athletes' village was lowered to half-mast as Canadian athletes paid tribute to the former prime minister Pierre Trudeau after hearing of his death in Montreal (because of the time zone difference, it was 29 September in Sydney when Trudeau died). The Canadian flag was flown at half-mast for the remainder of the Olympics, on orders from both IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy, and as the state funeral did not take place until 3 October, two days after the closing ceremony, so they have enough time to head back to Canada after the Games and attending his funeral. Day 16: 30 September Cameroon won a historic gold medal over Spain in the Men's Olympic Football Final at the Olympic Stadium. The game went to a penalty shootout, which was won by Cameroon 5–3. Day 17: 1 October The last event of the games was the Men's Marathon, contested on a course that started in North Sydney. The event was won by Ethiopian Gezahegne Abera, with Kenyan Erick Wainaina second, and Tesfaye Tola, also of Ethiopia, third. It was the first time since the 1968 Olympics that an Ethiopian won the gold medal in this event. The closing ceremony commenced with Christine Anu performing her version of the Warumpi Band's song "My Island Home", with several Aboriginal dancers atop the Geodome Stage in the middle of the stadium, around which several hundred umbrella and lamp box kids created an image of Aboriginal Dreamtime. The Geodome Stage was used throughout the ceremony, which was a flat stage mechanically raised into the shape of a Geode. IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch declared at the Closing Ceremony, "I am proud and happy to proclaim that you have presented to the world the best Olympic Games ever." Subsequent Summer Olympics held in Athens, Beijing and London have been described by Samaranch's successor Jacques Rogge as "unforgettable, dream Games", "truly exceptional" and "happy and glorious games" respectively – the practice of declaring games the "best ever" having been retired after the 2000 Games. Sports The 2000 Summer Olympic program featured 300 events in the following 28 sports: Although demonstration sports were abolished following the 1992 Summer Olympics, the Sydney Olympics featured wheelchair racing as exhibition events on the athletics schedule. Special quarantine conditions were introduced to allow entry of horses into Australia to participate in equestrian events, avoiding the need for such events to take place elsewhere as had happened at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. Calendar All dates are in AEDST (UTC+11); the other two cities, Adelaide uses ACST (UTC+9:30) and Brisbane uses AEST (UTC+10) Participating National Olympic Committees 199 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participated in the Sydney Games, two more than in the 1996 Summer Olympics; in addition, there were four Timorese Individual Olympic Athletes at the 2000 Summer Olympics. Eritrea, the Federated States of Micronesia and Palau made their Olympic debut this year. Democratic Republic of the Congo was once again designated under that name, after it participated as Zaire from 1984 to 1996. Afghanistan was the only 1996 participant (and the only existing NOC) that did not participate in the 2000 Olympics, having been banned due to the Taliban's totalitarian rule in Afghanistan, their oppression of women, and its prohibition of sports. Number of athletes by National Olympic Committee 10,647 athletes from 199 NOCs participated in the 2000 Summer Olympics. Medal table These are the top ten nations that won medals in the 2000 Games. The ranking in this table is based on information provided by the International Olympic Committee. Some other sources may be inconsistent due to not taking into account all later doping cases. * Host nation (Australia) Organisation Organisations responsible for the Olympics A number of quasi-government bodies were responsible for the construction, organisation and execution of the Sydney Games. These included: the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) and the Sydney Paralympic Organizing Committee (SPOC), primarily responsibles for the staging of the Games Olympic Coordination Authority (OCA), primarily responsible for construction and oversight Olympic Roads & Transport Authority (ORTA) Olympic Security Command Centre (OSCC) Olympic Intelligence Centre (OIC) JTF Gold the Australian Defence Force Joint Taskforce Gold Sydney Olympic Broadcasting Organisation (nominally part of SOCOG) IBM, provider of technology and the Technical Command Centre Telstra, provider of telecommunications Great Big Events, event management and marketing These organisations worked closely together and with other bodies such as: the International Olympic Committee (IOC) the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) the Australian Paralympic Committee (APC) the other 197 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) the other 125 National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) the 33 International Sports Federations (IFs) all three levels of Australian government (federal, state and local) dozens of official sponsor and hundreds of official supplier companies These bodies are often collectively referred to as the "Olympic Family". Organisation of the Paralympics The organisation of the 2000 Summer Paralympics was the responsibility of the Sydney Paralympic Organising Committee (SPOC). However, much of the planning and operation of the Paralympic Games was outsourced to SOCOG such that most operational programmes planned both the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Other Olympic events The organisation of the Games included not only the actual sporting events, but also the management (and sometimes construction) of the sporting venues and surrounding precincts, the organisation of the Sydney Olympic Arts Festival, and the Olympic torch relay, which began in Greece and travelled to Australia via numerous Oceania island nations. Phases of the Olympic project The staging of the Olympics were treated as a project on a vast scale, broken into several broad phases: 1993 to 1996 – positioning 1997 – going operational 1998 – procurement/venuisation 1999 – testing/refinement 2000 – implementation 2001 – post-implementation and wind-down SOCOG organisational design The internal organisation of SOCOG evolved over the phases of the project and changed, sometimes radically, several times. In late 1998, the design was principally functional. The top two tiers below the CEO Sandy Hollway consisted of five groups (managed by Group General Managers and the Deputy CEO) and twenty divisions (managed by divisional General Managers), which in turn were further broken up into programmes and sub-programmes or projects. In 1999, functional areas (FAs) broke up into geographic precinct and venue teams (managed by Precinct Managers and Venue Managers) with functional area staff reporting to both the FA manager and the venue manager. SOCOG moved to a matrix structure. The Interstate Football division extant in 1998 was the first of these geographically based venue teams. Volunteer program The origins of the volunteer program for Sydney 2000 dates back to the bid, as early as 1992. On 17 December 1992, a group of Sydney citizens interested in the prospect of hosting the 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games gathered for a meeting at Sports House at Wentworth Park in Sydney. In the period leading up to 1999, after Sydney had won the bid, the small group of volunteers grew from approximately 42 to around 500. These volunteers became known as Pioneer Volunteers. The Pioneer Volunteer program was managed internally by SOCOG's Volunteer Services Department in consultation with prominent peak groups like The Centre for Volunteering (Volunteering and TAFE. Some of the Pioneer Volunteers still meet every four months, an unseen legacy of the games which brought together a community spirit not seen before. During the Olympic games, tens of thousands of volunteers (the official figure placed at 46,967) helped everywhere at the Olympic venues and elsewhere in the city. They were honoured with a parade like the athletes had a few days before. Venues Sydney Olympic Park Stadium Australia: Ceremonies (opening/closing), Athletics, Football (final) Sydney International Aquatic Centre: Diving, Modern Pentathlon (swimming) Swimming, Synchronised Swimming, Water Polo (medal events) State Sports Centre: Table Tennis, Taekwondo NSW Tennis Centre: Tennis State Hockey Centre: Field Hockey The Dome and Exhibition Complex: Badminton, Basketball, Gymnastics (rhythmic), Handball (final), Modern Pentathlon (fencing, shooting), Volleyball (indoor) Sydney SuperDome: Gymnastics (artistic, trampoline), Basketball (final) Sydney Baseball Stadium: Baseball, Modern Pentathlon (riding, running) Sydney International Archery Park: Archery Sydney Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre: Boxing, Fencing, Judo, Weightlifting, Wrestling Sydney Entertainment Centre: Volleyball (indoor final) Dunc Gray Velodrome: Cycling (track) Sydney International Shooting Centre: Shooting Sydney International Equestrian Centre: Equestrian Sydney International Regatta Centre: Rowing, Canoeing (sprint) Blacktown Olympic Centre: Baseball, Softball Western Sydney Parklands: Cycling (mountain biking) Ryde Aquatic Leisure Centre: Water Polo Penrith Whitewater Stadium: Canoeing (slalom) Bondi Beach: Volleyball (beach) Sydney Football Stadium: Football Olympic Sailing Shore Base: Sailing Centennial Parklands: Cycling (road) Marathon course: Athletics (marathon) North Sydney: Athletics (marathon start) Sydney Opera House: Triathlon. Outside Sydney Canberra Stadium, Canberra: Football Hindmarsh Stadium, Adelaide: Football Melbourne Cricket Ground: Football The Gabba (Brisbane Cricket Ground), Brisbane: Football Marketing Official logo The bid logo was introduced in 1992 and created by architect and designer Michael Bryce. It featured a colourful, stylised image of the Sydney Opera House which is a possible reference to the motif of the rainbow serpent. The official logo was revealed in 1996, and is also referred to as the "Millennium Man". It incorporated similar curves to the bid logo and combined them with a stylised image of a runner to form a torchbearer in motion. The image of the runners composed of two small yellow boomerangs for arms and a larger red boomerang for legs. Over the runner's head is a trail of smoke that represents the arches of the Sydney Opera House. The design process of the official logo, as well as all other aspects of the Olympic Games' visual design identity, was awarded to Melbourne design studio FHA Image Design. The Sydney Olympics brand identity project officially started in 1993, and lasted 7 years. It was also up to FHA Design to prepare the visual identity of the Paralympic Games and this also absorbed some elements as the identification signals and the pictograms. Logo Evolution Mascots The official mascots chosen for the 2000 Summer Olympics were Syd the platypus, Millie the echidna, and Olly the kookaburra, designed by Matthew Hattan and Jozef Szekeres and named by Philip Sheldon of agency Weekes Morris Osborn in response to the original SOCOG recommendation of Murray, Margery, and Dawn after famous Australian athletes. There was also Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat, an unofficial mascot popularised by comedy team Roy Slaven and HG Nelson on the TV series The Dream with Roy and HG. Roy and HG also frequently disparaged the official mascots on their television program. Sponsors Medals and bouquets A total of 750 gold, 750 silver and 780 bronze medals were minted for the Games. The gold and silver medals contained 99.99 percent of pure silver. The bronze medals were 99 percent bronze with one percent silver, they were made by melting down Australian one-cent and two-cent coins, which had been removed from circulation from 1992 onward. The bouquets handed to medal recipients incorporated foliage from the Grevillea baileyana, also known as the white oak. Awards and commendations The International Olympic Committee awarded Sydney and its inhabitants with the "Pierre de Coubertin Trophy" in recognition of the collaboration and happiness shown by the people of Sydney during the event to all the athletes and visitors around the world. After the games' end, the New South Wales Police Force was granted use of the Olympic Rings in a new commendation and citation as the IOC consideration after having staged the "safest" games ever. Mo Awards The Australian Entertainment Mo Awards (commonly known informally as the Mo Awards), were annual Australian entertainment industry awards. They recognise achievements in live entertainment in Australia from 1975 to 2016. In popular culture In Tom Clancy's thriller Rainbow Six and its video game adaptation, the 2000 Olympic Games are the setting of a plot by eco-terrorists who plan to spread a deadly biological agent through Stadium Australia's cooling system. In Morris Gleitzman's children's book Toad Rage, a cane toad travels to Sydney in a bid to become the Olympic mascot. The Games was an ABC mockumentary television series that ran in 1998 and 2000. The series satirized corruption and cronyism in the Olympic movement, bureaucratic ineptness in the New South Wales public service, and unethical behaviour within politics and the media. An unusual feature of the show was that the characters shared the same name as the actors who played them. In the universe of the Cyberpunk tabletop role-playing game, the 2000 Olympics were never held due to bankruptcy and a boycott by nations supporting Aboriginal land claims. See also 2000 Summer Paralympics Olympic Games held in Australia 1956 Summer Olympics – Melbourne 2000 Summer Olympics – Sydney 2032 Summer Olympics – Brisbane List of IOC country codes The Games of the XXVII Olympiad 2000: Music from the Opening Ceremony Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi John Coates Use of performance-enhancing drugs in the Olympic Games – Sydney 2000 Notes References External links "Sydney 2000". Olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. 2000 Summer Olympics Official site Official Report Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3 "2000 Summer Olympics Official Site". Archived from the original on 9 November 2000. Retrieved 13 September 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) 2000 Summer Olympics – collection of archived websites Sydney Olympic Games Information Sydney Olympic Park Sydney Olympic Games, 2000 – Australian Government Sydney 2000 Games Collection at the Powerhouse Museum Archived 9 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine – information and audio files "Satellite view of 2000 Sydney Olympics sites". Archived from the original on 18 April 2004. Spirit of Sydney Volunteers Website – Website maintained by and for Sydney 2000 Volunteer Alumni Official 10th Anniversary Volunteers Website – Official 10th Anniversary Volunteers Website

Snowflake Bentley is a children's picture book written by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and illustrated by Mary Azarian. Published in 1998, the book is about Wilson Bentley, the first known photographer of snowflakes. Azarian won the 1999 Caldecott Medal for her illustrations. In 2003, the company Weston Woods Studios, Inc. adapted the book to a film, narrated by Sean Astin. It was released on DVD in 2004. Description Snowflake Bentley is a medium-size book, measuring 10 ½ by 10 ¼ inches, and having 16 pages of illustrations. The majority of the pictures are large colorful prints, the typical art style of artist Mary Azarian, and each picture summarizes the wording for that page. Many of the pages have a vertical side bar in each layout, with a light blue background, and white snowflakes that contains factual information about Wilson Bentley. Azarian also uses a black bold frame around her illustrations, intended to represent a photo that has been taken. Synopsis The book is based on a true story. Martin has written about the first known snowflake photographer, Wilson Bentley, and his interest in capturing snowflakes. Wilson lived on a farm with his family in Jericho, Vermont, between Lake Champlain and Mount Mansfield, where the annual snowfall can reach up to about 120 inches. Wilson was very fond of snowflakes and wanted to capture them one day to share with others. With a microscope, Wilson tried to depict the snowflakes through drawings but was never able to finish, as the snow would melt too quickly. As Wilson grew older, he asked his parents if they could get him a camera, so that he could photograph snowflakes. Wilson’s parents decided to spend their savings to buy Wilson his camera because they wanted to support his dream of capturing snowflake photos. With his new-found camera, Wilson went out to take hundreds of pictures. In the beginning, Wilson’s photos were a bunch of failures, but that did not stop him from pursuing his dream. Wilson furthered himself by experimenting more with lighting, lenses and camera exposures. Not many people were interested in what Wilson was up to, nor did they care for his pictures. When it wasn't winter, Wilson loved taking pictures of nature, but taking snow pictures would always be his favorite. Wilson would even hold evening slideshows on his lawn to show his friends. Later down the road, Wilson wrote a book about snow and published his photos in magazines. When Wilson went to publish his first book to share to the world, he got caught in a blizzard on his trip, a misfortune which caused him to catch pneumonia and become ill. Two weeks later, Wilson died of the illness. In memory of him, Wilson’s friends and neighbors built a museum of his work so all would know of “Snowflake” Bentley. Critical reception Snowflake Bentley received critical acclaim. Kirkus reviews says “This is a lyrical biographical tribute to a farmer…whose love of snow and careful camera work expanded both natural science and photography”, and Horn book review says “The book exhibits a beautiful blend of Azarian’s splendid woodcuts, a lyrical text, and factual sidebars.” == References ==

What is the name of the town or city of birth of the player who won the men's singles at the US Open on the year after Venus & Serena Williams played each other for the 8th time as pros?

Omaha, Nebraska

Multiple constraints | Temporal reasoning

The Williams sisters rivalry was a tennis rivalry between sisters Venus Williams and Serena Williams (born June 17, 1980, and September 26, 1981, respectively), regarded as two of the best woman tennis players for over two decades. They met 31 times in professional tournaments between 1998 and 2020, with Serena leading their head-to-head 19–12. Both sisters have been ranked world No. 1 in singles: Venus for a total of 11 weeks, beginning in February 2002; Serena for a total of 316 weeks, beginning in July 2002. Venus has won 49 singles titles over the course of her career, and Serena won 73. The Williams sisters are the only two women during the Open Era to contest four consecutive major finals: from the 2002 French Open to the 2003 Australian Open. Serena won all four of these finals. The sisters are nonetheless personally very close. They won 22 titles when playing doubles together, including 14 majors and 3 Olympic gold medals. History 1998–2000 Serena and Venus Williams played their first professional match against each other in the second round of the 1998 Australian Open. Venus won 7–6(4), 6–1. The match was described as "subpar". They played again in the quarterfinals of the Italian Open, the first clay court tournament of Serena's career, which Venus won 6–4, 6–2. Together they won two doubles titles. Their next match was almost a year later in the final of the 1999 Lipton International Players Championships in Key Biscayne, Florida. Serena was coming off her first two tournament titles, but Venus won the match 6–1, 4–6, 6–4. The match was the first singles final between sisters on the WTA tour and was described by their father as a "bullfight". Serena won her first professional singles match against Venus later that year in the final of the Grand Slam Cup. Serena was coming off her first Grand Slam championship at the US Open and defeated her elder sister, and defending champion, 6–1, 3–6, 6–3. Venus was the only top player up to this point that Serena had not yet defeated. Together, they won three doubles titles, two of them being majors: the French Open and the U.S. Open. Entering their next match in the semifinals of Wimbledon in 2000 (their first match against each other on grass), Serena was the favorite. However, the victory went to Venus 6–2, 7–6(3), who would go on to win the Wimbledon trophy for her first Grand Slam singles title. They teamed up to win the Wimbledon doubles title and later the Olympic gold medal. Venus's career advantage now stood at 4–1. 2001 They started out the year by winning the Australian Open doubles title. In the spring at the Tennis Masters Series in Indian Wells, California, amid controversy Venus withdrew before her scheduled semifinal match against Serena. The Williams family was accused of match-fixing, but the accusation was dismissed by most, including Andre Agassi who called it "ridiculous". Serena won the final against Kim Clijsters amid boos, during both the match and the subsequent trophy presentation. The only match between the Williams sisters during 2001 occurred in the final of the US Open, where they had never met but where both had previously won singles titles. This was the first final involving sisters at a Grand Slam tournament during the open era and the first since the Watson sisters played in the 1884 Wimbledon final. This match has been described as arguably "the most-anticipated tennis final in years". However, nerves seem to have played a factor in the match, which was won easily by Venus 6–2, 6–4. With the victory, Venus now led their rivalry 5–1 and in Grand Slam singles titles 4–1. 2002 Venus and Serena would play each other four times in 2002. In addition to being the most times they had met in a single year, this would also mark the first time that Serena would end the season with a leading head-to-head, 4–0. Their first meeting of the year occurred in the semifinals at the NASDAQ-100 Open. Serena won the match 6–2, 6–2, only the second victory over her sister in her career and the first since 1999. Venus's loss was described as "listless" and it ended her streak of 22 consecutive matches and three consecutive titles at the event. Their next meeting was their second in a Grand Slam final, and their second on clay courts. At Roland Garros Serena beat Venus in a "tight" match 7–5, 6–3. The Grand Slam was the first for Serena in three years, and it was the first final at the French Open ever played by sisters. By reaching the final, Venus and Serena assured themselves of moving up to first and second in the world rankings, respectively. One month later, the Williams sisters again met in a Grand Slam final, at Wimbledon. Again, Serena was the victor 7–6(4), 6–3 and the win moved Serena past her sister to the top of the rankings. Venus still led 5–4 in their head-to-head and 4–3 in Grand Slams, but it was now Serena who was seen as the player "now setting the agenda for women's tennis". They won the doubles title together. Their fourth and last match of the year occurred in the final at the US Open, in a match where the victor would take not only the trophy but the No.1 ranking as well. Serena won the match 6–4, 6–3 with a "blistering" display of tennis. 2003 2003 would be a year of injuries and loss for Venus and Serena Williams, with the two highlights being the Australian Open and Wimbledon finals. The first match of 2003 contested between the Williams sisters was the first final between the two players at the Australian Open but the fourth consecutive at the majors. Serena won the match 7–6(4), 3–6, 6–4, the closest contested match between them since 1999. The win completed what has become popularly known as the "Serena Slam"; Serena Williams became the first player since Steffi Graf to hold all four Grand Slams at the same time. In addition Venus Williams became the first player since Martina Hingis in 1997 to make four consecutive Grand Slam finals, and the sisters together became the first players in the open era to contest four consecutive finals at the majors. Together they won the doubles title. This consistent play at recent Grand Slams led some to remark that the Williams sisters had a stranglehold on women's tennis. The Williams sisters next met in the 2003 Wimbledon final, a repeat of the 2002 final in the same tournament. Again the match was close but Serena, aided by an abdominal injury that negatively impacted Venus's speed, won 4–6, 6–4, 6–2. The win was the second consecutive at Wimbledon for Serena and her fifth out the last six. Additionally, the Williams sisters collectively had now won the last four Wimbledon titles and seven of the last nine Grand Slams. Serena Williams had now won their last six consecutive meetings, and led the head-to-head 7–5. The Wimbledon final was the last Grand Slam final contested between the two for five years. Both sisters would be knocked off the tour by injuries, and then have to contend with the death of Yetunde Price, their half sister. 2004–2005 Venus and Serena Williams did not meet in a professional tennis match during 2004, a year which saw neither sister win a Grand Slam for the first time since 1998. 2005 would be a return to Grand Slam victory for both of the Williams sisters, but in perhaps a sign of the increased competition neither of their championships were decided against each other. Their first match of 2005 was due in the quarterfinals of the NASDAQ-100 Open, their third career meeting at the tournament. The match was won by Venus Williams 6–1, 7–6(8); it was the first meeting outside of a final between the two in three years and was the first win by the elder Williams sister in four years. The Williams sisters next met on one of the largest stages in tennis, the US Open, though much earlier in the tournament than they were accustomed to. Venus, as the recent Wimbledon champion and after three "magnificent efforts" to reach this round was perhaps favored in a Williams head-to-head for the first time in a few years. In the fourth round (their earliest meeting in a Grand Slam since their very first at the 1998 Australian Open) Venus Williams won 7–6(5), 6–2. Venus would lose in the quarterfinals 4–6, 7–5, 6–1 to eventual champion Kim Clijsters, the first time since the 1998 Rome meeting that the winner of a Williams sisters match-up did not win the title. At the close of the year, after the first year since 2000 in which Serena was unable to win a match against her older sister, Venus Williams had now tied the head-to-head 7–7. 2008–2009 The first meeting in 2008 between the sisters occurred at the Canara Bank Bangalore Open, their first meeting in a Tier II event. The only match between the sisters to end in a third-set tiebreak, both Venus and Serena were, according to commentator and former player Tracy Austin "busting a gut to win". The match end in a 6–3, 3–6, 7–6(4) victory for Serena. Venus and Serena next met on a familiar stage, Wimbledon; the match was their fourth meeting on the grass courts and their third final. The match featured "big hitting and big serving" as well as "some wonderful defense and court coverage". Testament to the fact that this was arguably the best Williams sisters match to date, former player and commentator John McEnroe has called the match "borderline classic". Venus won the match 7–5, 6–4. They teamed up to win the doubles title and later a second Olympic Gold Medal together. At the US Open, fourth seeded Serena defeated seventh seeded Venus in the quarterfinals 7–6(6), 7–6(7) and eventually won the tournament. Tennis Magazine proclaimed the match the best women's singles match of 2008. The final match-up of the year between the Williams sisters was during the round robin phase of the year-ending Sony Ericsson Championships, with Venus winning 5–7, 6–1, 6–0. This was the first 6–0 set in their matchups. At the end of 2008, their career head-to-head record was tied 9–9. The Williams' first match of year 2009 was at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, where they met in the semifinals. In a match that was described as a "thriller" by CNN, Venus prevailed 6–1, 2–6, 7–6(3). Serena was dogged by a knee injury in the third set, but did not excuse herself because of this, and Venus said that the match had been worthy of a final. Simon Reed, writing for Eurosport, said that the rivalry had become "greater now than it ever has been" in the previous three or four matches, due to the increased emotional intensity that the matches appeared to stir up in the players, which he believed had been lacking in the earlier part of their careers. Venus and Serena next played in the semifinals of the Sony Ericsson Open in April. Serena won the match 6–4, 3–6, 6–3, temporarily secured her World No. 1 ranking, and tied their head-to-head record at ten wins apiece. The two reached the final of the 2009 Wimbledon Championships for both singles and doubles. Serena won the singles title for the first time in six years, beating Venus 7–6(3), 6–2. They met for the fourth time in the year during the round robin phase of the year-ending 2009 Sony Ericsson Championships, with Serena winning 5–7, 6–4, 7–6(4) saving match point. They met again in the final of the tournament with Serena winning again by a score of 6–2, 7–6(4). The head-to-head now stood at 13–10 in favor of Serena, who has also won the last four meetings. 2013–2015 Due to a mixture of injury and illness the pair did not face each other again until the 2013 Family Circle Cup. It was their first matchup on clay since the 2002 French Open final. Serena won her fifth consecutive match against Venus. Venus and Serena's 25th encounter came in the semi-finals of the 2014 Rogers Cup. Serena went into the match with a five consecutive match winning streak against her older sister. However, Venus won the match 6(2)–7, 6–2, 6–3, making the sisters' head-to-head record at 14–11 in favor of Serena. Venus increased her Premier Mandatory/Premier 5 record against Serena to 5–2 and her semi-final record against her sister to 3–4. After a period of six years, the pair met in the fourth round of Wimbledon in 2015 – their first meeting in a grand slam event since Wimbledon 2009. It was the pair's sixth meeting at Wimbledon. Serena won the match by a score of 6–4, 6–3, making the sisters' head-to-head record 15–11 in Serena's favor and 4–2 in Wimbledon again in favor of Serena. They met again in the quarterfinals of the US Open, where Serena won, taking the head-to-head to 16–11 in her favor. 2017 The sisters renewed their grand slam rivalry in the Australian Open final. Serena won her seventh Australian Open title, and 23rd Grand Slam title overall, defeating Venus 6–4, 6–4. The win also allowed Serena to pass Steffi Graf's 22 grand slam singles titles. 2018 Venus and Serena met twice during 2018. They met in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open (Indian Wells). Venus won the encounter 6–3, 6–4. They met for the second time in the year in the 3rd round of the US Open, with Serena winning 6–1, 6–2. 2020 Venus and Serena met in the second round of the 2020 Top Seed Open in Lexington, Kentucky. In their first tournament since the resumption of the WTA Tour during the COVID-19 pandemic, the sisters faced one another for the 31st and final time in their careers. The clash came more than 22 years after their first professional meeting. Serena entered the tournament as the top seed and defeated Venus 3–6, 6–3, 6–4. Analysis Relationship and competitive dynamic The professional relationship and dynamic between Venus and Serena Williams is deeply affected by their close personal relationship. The notion of two top professionals emerging from the same family to compete against one another is unprecedented, and is a scenario which has been described as being "as improbable as one set of parents raising Picasso and Monet." After Serena's big wins over Venus' only finals at the 2003 Australian Open and the 2002 French Open, journalists said "Clearly Venus has a 'big sister complex' towards Serena". Peter Bodo, further speaking to the unlikeliness of siblings contesting Grand Slam finals, states "It's a common occurrence that will cease to be possible, perhaps ever again, the moment they set the sticks aside." Legacy The all-Williams final at the 2001 US Open drew a larger television audience than the Notre Dame-Nebraska college football game being broadcast at the same time. In fact, part of the reason that the women's final at the US Open was moved to its "prime time" spot was because of the positive effect that the Williams sisters had on television ratings. CBS's four highest-rated US Open women's finals of the last decade all involved the Williams sisters. The Williams legacy can also arguably be seen in the increased representation of African Americans among tennis professionals and new players, though their representation among professionals still remains small. A third of all new players at the grass-roots level are either African American or Hispanic, a fact to which the USTA's president Jane Brown Grimes says, "I can't help but think that Venus and Serena are drivers behind that". List of all matches WTA, Grand Slam, and Grand Slam Cup main draw results included. Singles Serena Williams–Venus Williams (19–12) Breakdown of the rivalry Hard courts: Serena 12–9 Clay courts: Serena, 2–1 Grass courts: Serena, 4–2 Carpet: Serena, 1–0 Grand Slam matches: Serena, 11–5 Grand Slam finals: Serena, 7–2 Year-End Championships matches: Serena, 2–1 Year-End Championships finals: Serena, 1–0 All finals: Serena, 9–3 Mixed doubles Serena Williams—Venus Williams (0–1) Exhibitions Singles Serena Williams–Venus Williams (5–12) Doubles Serena Williams–Venus Williams (2–2) Grand Slam performance timeline Head-to-head Final matches indicated in bold. Combined singles performance timeline (best result) Year-end WTA ranking timeline See also List of tennis rivalries Williams sisters Henin–S. Williams rivalry References External links Sports Illustrated Scrapbook: Venus & Serena Williams

The 2003 US Open was held between August 25 – September 7, 2003. Both Pete Sampras and Serena Williams did not defend their titles from 2002; Sampras unofficially retired after winning his final Grand Slam title the previous year, and Serena Williams was forced to miss the tournament after withdrawing through injury. This was the first time since 1971 in which neither champion was able to defend their title. Andy Roddick, who previously won the 2000 US Open as a junior, won his only Grand Slam title, defeating Juan Carlos Ferrero (who inherited the World No.1 ranking after the tournament) in the final. Justine Henin-Hardenne won her first US Open title and second Grand Slam title, defeating her compatriot, rival and future three-times US Open champion Kim Clijsters in the final, dropping only one set through her run. Seniors Men's singles Andy Roddick defeated Juan Carlos Ferrero, 6–3, 7–6(7–2), 6–3 • It was Roddick's 1st and only career Grand Slam singles title. It was Roddick's 6th title of the year, and his 11th overall. Women's singles Justine Henin-Hardenne defeated Kim Clijsters, 7–5, 6–1 • It was Henin-Hardenne's 2nd career Grand Slam singles title and her 1st title at the US Open. It was Henin-Hardenne's 7th title of the year, and her 13th overall. She became the first Belgian tennis player to win the US Open singles crown. Men's doubles Jonas Björkman / Todd Woodbridge defeated Mike Bryan / Bob Bryan, 5–7, 6–0, 7–5 • It was Björkman's 6th career Grand Slam doubles title and his 1st and only title at the US Open. • It was Woodbridge's 15th career Grand Slam doubles title and his 3rd and last title at the US Open. Women's doubles Virginia Ruano Pascual / Paola Suárez defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova / Martina Navratilova, 6–2, 6–3 • It was Ruano Pascual's 4th career Grand Slam doubles title and her 2nd title at the US Open. • It was Suárez' 4th career Grand Slam doubles title and her 2nd title at the US Open. Mixed doubles Katarina Srebotnik / Bob Bryan defeated Lina Krasnoroutskaya / Daniel Nestor, 5–7, 7–5, 7–6(7–5) • It was Srebotnik's 2nd career Grand Slam mixed doubles title and her 1st and only title at the US Open. • It was Bryan's 1st career Grand Slam mixed doubles title. Juniors Boys' singles Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeated Marcos Baghdatis, 7–6, 6–3 Girls' singles Kirsten Flipkens defeated Michaëlla Krajicek, 6–3, 7–5 Boys' doubles Not played due to inclement weather. Girls' doubles Not played due to inclement weather. References External links Official US Open website

Andrew Stephen Roddick (born August 30, 1982) is an American former professional tennis player. He is a major champion, having won the 2003 US Open. Roddick reached four other major finals (Wimbledon in 2004, 2005, and 2009, and the US Open in 2006), losing to rival Roger Federer each time. Roddick was ranked in the year-end top 10 for nine consecutive years (2002–2010), first reaching the world No. 1 spot in 2003, while also winning five Masters titles in that period. He was also a crucial player in the U.S. Davis Cup team's successful run to the title in 2007. Roddick retired from professional tennis following the 2012 US Open to focus on his work at the Andy Roddick Foundation. In retirement, Roddick played for the Austin Aces in World Team Tennis in 2015. He was also the 2015 and 2017 champion of the QQQ Champions Series. In 2017, Roddick was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. He is married to Brooklyn Decker, a swimwear model and actress. Early life Roddick was born on August 30, 1982, in Omaha, Nebraska, the youngest son of Blanche (née Corell), a school teacher, and Jerry Roddick, a businessman. Roddick has two older brothers, Lawrence and John, who were both promising tennis players at a young age. Roddick lived in Austin, Texas, from ages 4 to 11, and then moved to Boca Raton, Florida, in the interest of his brother's tennis career, attending SEK Boca Prep International School, and graduating in 2000. Roddick also took high school classes online through the University of Nebraska High School. Career 1997–2000: Juniors Roddick considered quitting competitive tennis at age 17 when he had a losing streak in the juniors. His coach Tarik Benhabiles talked him into giving tennis four more months of undivided attention. Roddick finished as the No. 6 junior in the U.S. in 1999, and as the No. 1 junior in the world in 2000. He won six world junior singles titles and seven world junior doubles titles, and won the US Open and Australian Open junior singles titles in 2000. 2000–2002: Breakthrough In March in Miami, in the first round, Roddick had his first ATP level victory as he beat No. 41 Fernando Vicente of Spain. In August in Washington, D.C., he beat No. 30 Fabrice Santoro of France. Roddick played the Banana Bowl in the city of São Paulo and won, beating Joachim Johansson in the final. Roddick also won the Australian Junior Open, defeating Mario Ančić in the final. Entering the pros in 2001 at the age of 18, Roddick quickly showed his promise when he defeated 7-time Wimbledon champion and world No. 4 Pete Sampras in the third round of the Miami Masters. Later that year, he dispatched then World No. 1 Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil in August. Earlier, at the 2001 French Open, Roddick defeated a French Open champion, Michael Chang, in a five set battle in the second round. During the ensuing Wimbledon, he further showed potential by taking a set from eventual winner Goran Ivanišević. 2003: US Open title and world No. 1 Roddick's breakthrough year was 2003, in which he defeated Younes El Aynaoui in the quarterfinals of the 2003 Australian Open. Roddick and the Moroccan battled for five hours, with the fifth set (21–19 in favor of Roddick) at the time the longest fifth set in a Grand Slam tournament during the open era, at 2 hours and 23 minutes. Despite a lackluster French Open, Roddick enjoyed success in the United Kingdom by winning Queen's Club, beating No. 2 Andre Agassi on a final set tie break along the way, and reaching the Wimbledon semifinals, where he lost to eventual champion Roger Federer in straight sets. He avenged that loss in August, beating then No. 3 Federer in Montreal on a final set tie break. It is one of three times that Roddick defeated Federer in an official ATP tournament. Roddick's hard-court record in 2003 included his first Masters Series titles—coming at Canada and Cincinnati—and his only Grand Slam title. At the 2003 US Open, Roddick rallied from two sets down and a match point in the semifinals to beat David Nalbandian of Argentina in five sets. He then defeated No. 3 Juan Carlos Ferrero in the final in straight sets. At the Tennis Masters Cup in Houston, he defeated No. 7 Carlos Moyá of Spain, and No. 4 Guillermo Coria of Argentina, before losing to Roger Federer in the semifinals. By the end of the year, at age 21, he was ranked No. 1, the first American to finish a year at No. 1 since Andre Agassi in 1999. He also became the youngest American to hold this rank since computer rankings were started in 1973. 2004: First Wimbledon final Roddick's reign at No. 1 ended the following February, when Roger Federer ascended to the top position, after winning his first Australian Open; the 2004 Australian Open would be the only time in Roddick's career that he was the No. 1 seed in a Grand Slam. In April, Roddick again beat No. 6 Moyá. In June, Roddick advanced to his first Wimbledon final after taking the first set from defending champion Federer, losing in four sets. Roddick was knocked out during the 2004 US Open in a five-set quarterfinal against another big server, Joachim Johansson. In September, he beat No. 9 Marat Safin of Russia in Bangkok. At the 2004 Summer Olympics, Roddick lost to Chilean Fernando González, the eventual bronze medal winner, in the third round. In November he beat No. 7 Tim Henman of Great Britain, No. 4 Safin, and No. 6 Guillermo Coria. Later that year, Roddick teamed up with Mardy Fish and Bob and Mike Bryan on the U.S. Davis Cup team that lost to Spain in the final in Seville. Roddick lost his singles match against Rafael Nadal, who would in the following year win the French Open. Towards the end of 2004, Roddick fired his coach of 18 months, Brad Gilbert, and hired assistant Davis Cup coach Dean Goldfine. Roddick finished 2004 ranked as the world No. 2, U.S. No. 1, and player with the most aces (2,017). In 2004, Roddick saved fellow tennis player Sjeng Schalken and other guests (including close friends Ben Campezi and Dean Monroe) from a hotel fire. 2005: Second Wimbledon final Roddick's first 2005 tournament victory was the SAP Open in San Jose, California, where he became the first to win the event in consecutive years since Mark Philippoussis in 1999 and 2000. The top-seeded Roddick defeated Cyril Saulnier in 50 minutes, the event's first championship shutout set since Arthur Ashe beat Guillermo Vilas in 1975. In March, he defeated No. 7 Carlos Moyá. In April, Roddick won the U.S. Men's Claycourt Championships, reclaiming the title he won in 2001 and 2002. (He lost in 2003 to Agassi, and in 2004 to Tommy Haas.) At the Rome Masters in May, Roddick had match point in the round of 16 against Spain's Fernando Verdasco. Verdasco was attempting to save the match point on his second serve, when the linesman erroneously called the serve out. If this call had held, Roddick would have won the match. Roddick motioned to the umpire, pointing to the clear ball mark on the clay indicating that the ball was in, and the call was consequently changed. Verdasco went on to win the match. At the 2005 French Open, Roddick lost to unseeded Argentine José Acasuso in the second round, and at Wimbledon, Roddick lost to Federer in the final for the second consecutive year. In August, he defeated No. 3 Lleyton Hewitt at the Masters Series tournament in Cincinnati. At the US Open, Roddick was defeated by No. 70 Gilles Müller in the first round. Roddick's most recent US Open first-round loss had been in 2000. At the Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon, Roddick defeated Gaël Monfils to wrap up a tournament without losing a set or getting his serve broken. 2006: US Open final Roddick's first ATP event of the year was the Australian Open. There, he reached the fourth round, before being upset by unseeded and eventual finalist, Marcos Baghdatis. At the French Open, Roddick retired in the first round, after sustaining a foot injury during the match. Two weeks later at Wimbledon, Roddick was upset in the third round by British hopeful Andy Murray. This loss caused Roddick to fall below the top 10 for the first time since 2002. After Wimbledon, Roddick began working with a new coach, tennis legend Jimmy Connors. In his first event with his new coach, Roddick reached the final of Indianapolis, before losing to good friend and fellow American, James Blake. His resurgence finally came at the Cincinnati Masters, where he won the event by defeating Juan Carlos Ferrero in the final, making this the first masters event he won since 2004. At the US Open, Roddick easily won his first two matches against Florent Serra and Kristian Pless. He then won a five-set match against Fernando Verdasco. Next, he beat Benjamin Becker, who was coming off a huge win against recently retired Andre Agassi. In the quarterfinals, Roddick beat Lleyton Hewitt, avenging his loss in 2001, in straight sets. Now in the semifinals for the first time since he won in 2003, Roddick beat Mikhail Youzhny in four sets. In the finals of a Grand Slam for the first time since Wimbledon a year prior, Roddick lost to No. 1 Federer in four sets. He then qualified for the year-ending Tennis Masters Cup, where he defeated No. 4 Ivan Ljubičić of Croatia, but lost in the round robin to No. 1 Federer in a tough three-set battle, despite holding three match points in the second-set tiebreaker. 2007: Davis Cup victory Roddick entered the 2007 Australian Open as the sixth seed. In his first-round match, he lost a marathon first-set tiebreak 20–18, but eventually won the match in four sets against wild card Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Roddick defeated 26th-seeded Marat Safin in the third round, ninth-seeded Mario Ančić in a five-set fourth-round match and Mardy Fish in the quarterfinals. His run was ended in the semifinals by No. 1 Federer, who defeated him in straight sets, making his head-to-head record against Federer 1–13. In first-round Davis Cup action, Roddick helped the US defeat the Czech Republic, winning his singles matches against Ivo Minář and Tomáš Berdych. Roddick bowed out to Andy Murray in the semifinals of the SAP Open in San Jose, California and then defeated Murray in the semifinals of the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships and the Cellular South Cup in Memphis, Tennessee, before losing in the final to defending champion Tommy Haas. Reaching the final, however, enabled Roddick to overtake Nikolay Davydenko for the No. 3 position, his first week inside the top three since March 6, 2006. At Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California Roddick beat No. 8 Ivan Ljubičić, but lost to No. 2 Rafael Nadal in the semifinals. Roddick then retired in the quarters of Miami Masters against Andy Murray due to a left hamstring injury. Roddick then helped the U.S. defeat Spain and advance to the Davis Cup semifinals, winning his lone singles match against Fernando Verdasco. However, Roddick re-aggravated his hamstring injury during the Davis Cup tie, and was subsequently forced to pull out of the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships in Houston, Texas. Roddick also announced that he would withdraw from the Monte Carlo Masters, citing the injury. His next tournament was the Internazionali d'Italia, where he beat Gastón Gaudio before losing to Juan Ignacio Chela in the third round. Roddick then withdrew from the Masters Series Hamburg because, according to his website, he needed time to physically prepare himself for the upcoming French Open. Roddick was seeded third at the French Open, but was eliminated in the first round by Russian Igor Andreev in four sets. Roddick was victorious at the Stella Artois Championships for the fourth time, when he defeated Nicolas Mahut in the final. At Wimbledon, Roddick was seeded third and considered one of the pre-tournament favorites behind Federer and Nadal. He reached the quarterfinals after wins against Justin Gimelstob of the U.S., Danai Udomchoke of Thailand, Fernando Verdasco of Spain, and Paul-Henri Mathieu of France. In the quarterfinals, Roddick lost in five close sets to Richard Gasquet of France. During the summer hard-court season, Roddick played four tournaments in four weeks. Roddick lost in the semifinals of the Indianapolis Tennis Championships to Frank Dancevic. Roddick claimed his second ATP title of the year by winning the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, D.C. for the third time, when he beat John Isner. He then lost in the quarterfinals of the Rogers Cup in Montreal to Novak Djokovic, and in the third round of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters tournament in Cincinnati to David Ferrer. At the US Open, Roddick defeated Gimelstob in the first round. He won his next three matches, one in straight sets and the other two when his opponent retired. In the quarterfinals, Roddick once again lost to Federer, bringing his head-to-head record with Federer 1–14. Roddick then withdrew from Madrid Masters, citing a knee injury. At his next tournament two weeks later in Lyon, France, Roddick lost in the first round to Frenchman Fabrice Santoro. Roddick then withdrew from the Paris Masters, incurring a $22,600 fine for not fulfilling his media obligations at the tournament. At the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, Roddick defeated No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko in his first round-robin match, and then defeated No. 7 Fernando González in his next match to become the first player to qualify for the semifinals of the tournament. In his third and final round-robin match, Roddick lost once again to Federer for the 15th time in 16 career matches. In the semifinals, Roddick lost to sixth seed David Ferrer. This was Roddick's third semifinal finish in five years at the Tennis Masters Cup (he reached the semifinals in 2003 and 2004, withdrew in 2005, and failed to advance to the semifinals in 2006 after a 1–2 round-robin record). Roddick finished the year by helping the U.S. defeat Russia and win the 2007 Davis Cup, its 32nd Davis Cup victory, but first since 1995. Roddick won his rubber against Dmitry Tursunov. 2008: Series of injuries Roddick started 2008 strongly, defeating Ivan Ljubičić, Safin and Marcos Baghdatis to win the AAMI Kooyong Classic for the third consecutive year. Roddick was seeded sixth in the 2008 Australian Open. He defeated Lukáš Dlouhý and Michael Berrer and lost to the 29th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber in the third round in a five-set match. Despite losing, Roddick served a career-high of 42 aces in the match. Roddick won his 24th career title and his third title of the year at the SAP Open in San Jose, California, defeating Radek Štěpánek in straight sets. Roddick's next tournament was the Dubai Tennis Championships. He made it to the semifinals by defeating No. 2 Rafael Nadal, his first victory over Nadal since the second round of the 2004 US Open. The win also marked Roddick's first victory over a player ranked in the top two since June 2003. He beat No. 3 and 2008 Australian Open singles champion Novak Djokovic in the semifinal. In the final he defeated Feliciano López to win his 25th career title. He never lost his serve during the entire tournament. Following Roddick's quarterfinal match in Dubai, he announced that he had split with his coach of two years, Jimmy Connors. Connors had resigned a week earlier, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family. Roddick would continue to be coached by his brother, John Roddick. He then fell to No. 2 Tommy Haas at the Pacific Life Open in the second round. At the 2008 Sony Ericsson Open, Roddick advanced to the semifinals after defeating No. 1 Roger Federer an hour after proposing to Brooklyn Decker, bringing his head-to-head record against Federer to 2–15. Roddick improved to 3–0 against top-3 players in 2008. Roddick lost in the semifinals to Nikolay Davydenko. Roddick reached the semifinals at Rome, where he retired against Stanislas Wawrinka in the pair's first encounter, due to a back injury. Roddick was forced to pull out of the French Open due to a shoulder injury (later diagnosed as an inflammation of the rotator cuff). His first tournament after the shoulder injury was the Artois Championship, where he was the defending champion. Roddick defeated Mardy Fish and Andy Murray, before losing to eventual champion Rafael Nadal in the semifinals. At Wimbledon, Roddick was beaten by Serbia's Janko Tipsarević in the second round. This was his earliest exit at Wimbledon. Roddick was beaten at the Rogers Cup in the third round by Marin Čilić. He was then forced to pull out of the Cincinnati Masters following a neck injury, which he said may have been caused by a poor sleeping posture. He stated in an interview that the neck injury had nothing to do with his shoulder injury. Roddick did not participate in the 2008 Summer Olympics, but chose to concentrate on the US Open. Roddick then played in the smaller hard-court tournaments in the US Open Series, including those at Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. At the Countrywide Classic in Los Angeles, Roddick lost to Juan Martín del Potro in the final. At the US Open, Roddick defeated Fabrice Santoro, Ernests Gulbis, Andreas Seppi, and Fernando González. In the quarterfinals, Roddick lost to No. 3 Novak Djokovic, bringing his head-to-head record with Djokovic to 1–2. Roddick captured his 26th ATP title in Beijing at the China Open in September, beating Dudi Sela in the final. In the third round of the Madrid Masters, he lost to Gaël Monfils in three sets. Two weeks later, Roddick reached the quarterfinals of the Paris Masters by defeating Gilles Simon, before losing to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Due to his performance in the tournament, Roddick qualified for the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup. At the Masters Cup in Shanghai, he played Andy Murray in his first round-robin match and lost. He was then scheduled to play Roger Federer, but retired due to an ankle injury and was replaced by Radek Štěpánek. 2009: Longest Wimbledon final Roddick hired Larry Stefanki as his new coach and started working with him on December 1, 2008. Stefanki had previously trained John McEnroe, Marcelo Ríos, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Fernando González, and Tim Henman. Roddick began official tournament competition at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open. He defeated Gaël Monfils in the semifinals, before losing to Andy Murray in the final. At the 2009 Australian Open, Roddick defeated Xavier Malisse, Fabrice Santoro and 21st-seeded Tommy Robredo, before Djokovic retired in the fourth set in the quarters while trailing, which allowed Roddick to reach the fourth Australian Open semifinal of his career. Roddick was defeated there by eventual runner-up Roger Federer in straight sets. At SAP Open, he beat Tommy Haas in the quarterfinals, before losing in the semifinals to Radek Štěpánek. At the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships, Roddick defeated Lleyton Hewitt in the semifinals and Štěpánek in the final. Roddick chose not to defend his Dubai title, with prize money of $2 million, to protest the refusal of the United Arab Emirates to grant Israeli Shahar Pe'er a visa for the Women's Tennis Association event. "I really didn't agree with what went on over there", Roddick said. At BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells he defeated defending champion Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals before losing to world No. 1 Rafael Nadal in the semifinals. However, he won the doubles title with partner Mardy Fish. It was his fourth doubles title overall and his second partnering Fish. At the Miami Masters, Roddick beat Gaël Monfils in the fourth round but lost to Roger Federer in the quarterfinals. After a break from tournament tennis to get married, Roddick returned to action at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 clay-court event in Madrid. In his first match, Roddick survived two match points in the second-set tiebreaker to defeat Tommy Haas. In the quarterfinals, Roddick again lost to Federer. Roddick had his career-best result at the French Open, when he defeated Marc Gicquel in the third round. He lost in the fourth round to Monfils. A twisted ankle forced Roddick to retire from his semifinal match against James Blake at 4–4 during the Aegon Championships. Seeded sixth at Wimbledon, Roddick defeated Lleyton Hewitt in the quarterfinals, serving a career-high of 43 aces, and third-seeded Andy Murray in the semifinals. He then lost to Federer for the third time in a Wimbledon final with a fifth set reaching 14–16, and he was praised for his performance. Even though Roddick lost this match, he set a record for number of games won in a Wimbledon final at 39. This was his fourth meeting with Federer in a Grand Slam final, all won by Federer. The match set records for the longest men's Grand Slam final in history at 77 games and fifth set in a men's Grand Slam final. Following the match, when asked to elaborate on his marathon performance, Roddick replied, "I lost." On the strength of his Wimbledon performance, Roddick returned to the top five on July 13, 2009. At the Legg Mason Tennis Classic he defeated Benjamin Becker, Sam Querrey, Ivo Karlović and John Isner in the semifinals. In the final, he lost to defending champion Juan Martín del Potro, despite saving three match points. At Rogers Cup, he defeated Igor Andreev, Fernando Verdasco, and in the quarterfinal No. 4 Novak Djokovic, improving his career record against Djokovic to 4–2 (3–0 in 2009). He then lost to Juan Martín del Potro in the semifinals, despite having a match point. The loss dropped his career record against del Potro to 0–3. At Cincinnati, he lost to Sam Querrey in his first match. Roddick entered the US Open as the fifth seed. He defeated Björn Phau and Marc Gicquel before losing to John Isner in the third round. He lost his serve only once during the match, as was the case in the Wimbledon final. Roddick's next tournament was the 2009 China Open in Beijing, where he was the defending champion. In a shocking upset, he was defeated in the first round by Polish qualifier and No. 143 Łukasz Kubot. He and Mark Knowles reached the doubles final, losing to Bob and Mike Bryan. Roddick retired from his first-round match at the 2009 Shanghai Masters against Stanislas Wawrinka while leading 4–3. It was later announced that Roddick would return to the United States to seek medical advice on a left-knee injury. Once again, he qualified for the Year-End Masters in London, securing the sixth spot. However, Roddick withdrew from the 2009 Valencia Open 500, the 2009 BNP Paribas Masters, and the 2009 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals due to the injury he suffered at the Shanghai Masters. He finished 2009 as the No. 7 in the world. 2010: Fifth Masters title Roddick started his 2010 campaign at the Brisbane International, where he defeated defending champion Radek Štěpánek for his first ATP Tour title since February 2009, and making 2010 his tenth consecutive season with at least one ATP singles title. Roddick teamed with James Blake in the men's doubles and made it to the semifinals, before losing to eventual champions Jérémy Chardy and Marc Gicquel. Roddick did not represent the United States in Davis Cup competition for the 2010 season. Roddick entered the Australian Open as the seventh seed. He lost in the quarterfinals to Marin Čilić, despite coming back from two sets down while battling an apparent shoulder injury. In SAP Open, he beat Sam Querrey in the semifinals before losing the final to Fernando Verdasco. At Regions Morgan Keegan Championships, he lost in the quarterfinals in a rematch of the San Jose semifinals to Sam Querrey. Playing in the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, Roddick beat Robin Söderling, before losing to Ivan Ljubičić in the final. This was Roddick's first Masters Series final since the 2006 Cincinnati Masters. In the Sony Ericsson Open, Roddick defeated Igor Andreev, Sergiy Stakhovsky, Benjamin Becker, Nicolás Almagro and Rafael Nadal to reach his fourth final of the year. In the final, Roddick won his second Sony Ericsson Open title, after defeating Tomáš Berdych in straight sets. This was Roddick's 29th title in 49 finals, fifth ATP Masters 1000 title, and first Masters 1000 title since 2006. Roddick did not fare well during the clay-court season, withdrawing from Rome due for personal reasons and from Madrid due to a stomach virus. He then lost in the third round of the French Open to Teymuraz Gabashvili in straight sets. Roddick suffered his earliest ever exit in the 2010 Aegon Championships, a grass-court Wimbledon tune-up event. He was beaten by Dudi Sela in the third round. At Wimbledon, Roddick was seeded fifth, two spots higher than his ATP ranking of seven. He was defeated in the fourth round by No. 82 Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan in five sets. Like his final match with Roger Federer the previous year, his serve was broken only once during the match, in the fifth set. At Atlanta Tennis Championships, he was eliminated in the semifinals by eventual champion Mardy Fish. At Legg Mason Tennis Classic, he lost in the round of 16 to Gilles Simon. The only American man in the ATP top 10 prior to the tournament, the loss dropped him from the list. For the first time since the inception of the ATP world rankings, there was no American man in the top 10. Following the Washington tournament, Roddick withdrew from the Canada Masters due to illness, leading to a drop in ranking to No. 13, his lowest ranking since 2002. On August 14, 2010, Roddick revealed that he had been diagnosed with mononucleosis, although he said his doctor believed it was in its later stages and he would make a complete recovery soon. At the Cincinnati Masters, he defeated No. 5 Robin Söderling to reach the quarterfinals, where he defeated second seed Novak Djokovic. The win was Roddick's fourth consecutive over Djokovic, raising his career head-to-head record against Djokovic to 5–2 and ensuring Roddick's return to the top 10. In the semifinals, Roddick lost to Mardy Fish, failing to serve out the match at 5–3 in the second set. In the second round of the US Open, Roddick was beaten by Janko Tipsarević in four sets. He then played at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships, but lost in the semifinals to Gaël Monfils. At Shanghai Rolex Masters, Roddick defeated Philipp Kohlschreiber after Kohlschreiber retired in the second set and then Roddick himself retired in the second set against Guillermo García-López, after suffering a groin injury. At the Davidoff Swiss Indoors in Basel, he beat Sam Querrey, Andrey Golubev, and David Nalbandian, before losing to Roger Federer in straight sets. At the BNP Paribas Masters, Roddick beat Jarkko Nieminen and Ernests Gulbis before losing to Robin Söderling in the quarterfinals. With Fernando Verdasco failing to reach the final, Roddick automatically qualified for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals for the eighth consecutive year. Though he had dropped out of the top 10 in the ATP rankings after his early exit from the US Open, his victory over Gulbis in Paris assured his return to the top 10 at year end, making him and Federer the only players to maintain year-end top-10 ATP rankings from 2002 through 2010. Roddick played his final tournament of the year at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. Roddick lost all his round-robin matches to Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Tomáš Berdych. Roddick ended the year No. 8, his ninth consecutive season finishing in the top 10. 2011: Drop out of top 10 Roddick began his 2011 campaign in the Brisbane International, where he was defeated by Robin Söderling in the final. At the Australian Open, Roddick was the eighth seed. In the fourth round, Roddick lost to Stanislas Wawrinka in straight sets. He then won the 2011 Regions Morgan Keegan Championships, defeating Ričardas Berankis, Janko Tipsarević, Lleyton Hewitt, Juan Martín del Potro and Milos Raonic. Roddick began his Davis Cup campaign for the United States against Chile. He faced Nicolás Massú in the opener and defeated him in four sets. He then beat Paul Capdeville in four sets to clinch the victory for the U.S. Roddick improved his record to 12–0 in Davis Cup clinchers. At the BNP Paribas Open, he was beaten by Richard Gasquet in the fourth round. In the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open, as the defending champion, Roddick was upset by Pablo Cuevas in the second round. This loss dropped Roddick to No. 12 in the rankings and the second-ranked American behind compatriot Mardy Fish. Roddick then began his clay-court season at the Mutua Madrid Open, but he was upset in the first round by Italian qualifier Flavio Cipolla in three sets. At Internazionali BNL d'Italia he lost in the first round for the second straight tournament to Gilles Simon. He teamed with Mardy Fish to play doubles in Rome, and they went to the final before Roddick had to withdraw because of a shoulder injury. Roddick also withdrew from the Nice Open in France and pulled out of the 2011 French Open, after failing to recover. Roddick returned to action at the Aegon Championships, where he was a four-time champion. In the semifinals, he played Andy Murray, their first meeting since the Wimbledon 2009 semifinals, but Roddick was defeated in straight sets. Roddick was seeded eighth for Wimbledon, and beat Andreas Beck and Victor Hănescu, both in straight sets. In the third round, Roddick was beaten in straight sets by Feliciano López. Roddick had failed to reach the quarterfinals of any Grand Slam since the 2010 Australian open. This was the longest Roddick had ever gone in his career without reaching the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam. In the Davis Cup quarterfinals match against Spain, Roddick drew David Ferrer first, but lost in three tight sets (Spain won the tie). Roddick withdrew from the Legg Masson Tennis Classic, and Rogers Cup, after partially tearing his oblique muscle while practicing. He returned to action after a couple of weeks' rest from his injury and played at the Western & Southern Open. He lost in the first round to Philipp Kohlschreiber. This loss made him drop out of the top 20 for the first time since August 2001. After suffering an early exit at Cincinnati, Roddick played at the Winston-Salem Open in North Carolina, where he lost in the semifinals to John Isner. Roddick was seeded 21st at the U.S. Open. He beat Michael Russell, Jack Sock, Julien Benneteau and David Ferrer to advance to his first Grand Slam quarterfinal since the 2010 Australian Open, where he lost to No. 2 Rafael Nadal. After this, he played at the China Open, where he lost to Kevin Anderson. At Shanghai Rolex Masters, he lost to David Ferrer in the quarterfinals. After this, he played at the Swiss Indoors Basel, where he lost to Roger Federer in the quarterfinals. Going straight to Paris for the BNP Paribas Masters, he had a third-round loss to Andy Murray. This loss ended Roddick's 2011 season, which left him out of the top 10, after being there for nine consecutive years. 2012: Retirement Roddick began his 2012 season at the 2012 Australian Open, where he beat Robin Haase in straight sets, but he retired against Lleyton Hewitt while trailing, due to a hamstring injury. Following the injury, Roddick entered the SAP Open in San Jose, California. He beat Denis Kudla in the round of 16, but lost in the quarterfinals to Denis Istomin. At Regions Morgan Keegan Championships in Memphis, his title defense was short-lived, as he lost his first-round match to Xavier Malisse. At Delray Beach International Tennis Championships, he defeated Philipp Petzschner and Istomin in the first and second rounds, respectively, before falling to Kevin Anderson. In March, at Indian Wells, Roddick beat Łukasz Kubot in the second round, but then lost in the next round to Tomáš Berdych. Later in the month, Roddick had better results at the Sony Ericsson Open, where he beat Gilles Müller in the second round. That win set up a third-round match with No. 3 Federer, this being the first time they played each other before the quarterfinals of any tournament. Roddick defeated Federer for only the third time in his career to reach the fourth round, but then lost to Juan Mónaco. Roddick then elected not to play in the final three clay-court Masters events leading up to the French Open. At French Open, he fell to Nicolas Mahut in the first round in four sets. After this, Roddick played at Aegon Championships, where he lost in the second round to Édouard Roger-Vasselin, despite having a match point in the third set. Roddick's next tournament was the Aegon International, where he received a wild card into the main draw as the sixth seed. He beat Sam Querrey, Jérémy Chardy, Fabio Fognini, Steve Darcis and defending champion Andreas Seppi in the final for his 31st career title and first of 2012. He thus became the only male tennis player besides Roger Federer to have won at least one title every year in the past 12 years. At Wimbledon he beat Jamie Baker and Björn Phau, but lost to David Ferrer in the third round in four sets. Roddick started the US Open Series at the BB&T Atlanta Open. He beat Nicolas Mahut, Michael Russell in the quarterfinals, John Isner in the semifinals and Gilles Müller in the final. Roddick's London Olympics campaign began with a victory over Martin Kližan. In the second round, Roddick lost to No. 2 Novak Djokovic. After the Olympics, Roddick decided not to play in Toronto and went straight to Cincinnati, where he lost in the first round to Frenchman Jérémy Chardy. In the US Open, Roddick began his campaign with a victory over his countryman Rhyne Williams. On August 30, 2012, which was his thirtieth birthday, Roddick announced that he would retire after the tournament. After announcing his retirement, Roddick defeated Bernard Tomic and Fabio Fognini before his final match on September 5, 2012, where he lost to Juan Martín del Potro in four sets in the fourth round. Four days after his loss, Roddick was honored in a special ceremony in Arthur Ashe Stadium on his retirement, in which Andre Agassi participated. Due to his retirement, he ended the year at No. 39, the lowest he had been since 2000, the year he turned professional, when he only played five events. 2015 Roddick played one tournament on tour, the 2015 BB&T Atlanta Open, where he competed in the men's doubles event with Mardy Fish. They lost in the quarterfinals. 2017: Hall of Fame induction Roddick was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame on July 22, 2017, alongside Kim Clijsters of Belgium. Nicknames and on-court behavior Roddick is often called "A-Rod", a play on the nickname of New York Yankees baseball star Alex Rodriguez, referring to his first initial and the first syllable of his last name. Roddick made frequent outbursts against umpires and linesmen on the court. At the 2001 US Open, Roddick angrily disputed a ball that landed wide at a crucial point in the fifth set of his quarter-final match against Lleyton Hewitt (he was serving at *4–5), calling umpire Jorge Dias "a moron" and copping a code violation for audible obscenity. During his third-round match at the Australian Open in 2008, he abused umpire Emmanuel Joseph saying, "You're an idiot! Stay in school, kids or you'll end up being an umpire." Roddick lost his temper again at the 2010 Australian Open after a ball that he did not play was called out on match point, but ruled to be in after a video review. He continued arguing with the umpire after the conclusion of the match but later said that he was wrong. Later again that year, he launched into a tirade at an official over a foot-fault call at the 2010 US Open, a match he eventually lost to Serbia's Janko Tipsarević. In 2011, Roddick snapped at the chair umpire at Indian Wells on his way to lose to France's Richard Gasquet. In a second-round match against Philipp Kohlschreiber at the 2011 Cincinnati Masters, Roddick was given a penalty point, which resulted in a critical break of serve in favor of his opponent. The penalty point was given due to ball-abuse, when Roddick smashed a ball into the stands in frustration after he had already been warned earlier in the match by umpire Carlos Bernardes for an episode of racquet abuse. This triggered another series of altercations with the umpire, with Roddick expressing his displeasure at the umpire's call. Roddick lost the match. Endorsements From 2000 to 2005, Roddick wore Reebok apparel. After Reebok announced it would not renew its contract with Roddick, Roddick signed a five-year, $25 million endorsement deal with Lacoste in April 2005. In November, he signed an agreement to endorse Lacoste eyewear for four years worth between $750,000 and $1 million. In 2011, Lacoste introduced the Andy Roddick collection which included polos, jackets, tennis shorts and track pants. In June 2013, Roddick became an investor and brand ambassador to TravisMathew Apparel. In 2005, Roddick signed a multiyear worldwide endorsement deal with carmaker Lexus. His other endorsement deals include American Express, Rolex, Powerade in 2002, Parlux Fragrances, Arizona Beverage Company in 2009, Microsoft Xbox and Sega. Playing style Roddick's serve was known for its power, usually travelling at 130–150 mph (209~242 km/h) and often unreturnable. He once held the record for fastest serve at 155 mph (249 km/h). Roddick's favorite shot is his off-forehand, which he used in combination with his kicker out wide. Roddick used to play his off-forehand frequently but later adjusted and used it to create points. He usually targeted the two corners to win aces. As for his second serve, he usually employed a heavy kick serve, then used a variety of spins, slices, and angles in the rally to throw off his opponent. He was noted for using heavy topspin on both his serves and his twist serve was particularly high kicking. Roddick also occasionally used the serve-and-volley tactic on both first and second services to surprise his opponent, though he generally remained near the baseline after a serve. He later developed a more all-court playing style compared to the aggressive baseline style he played with for most of his early career. Although Roddick's backhand was a weakness throughout his career, it improved somewhat in 2009 under Stefanki's guidance. Media appearances On April 5, 2002, Roddick guest-starred on the television show Sabrina the Teenage Witch as himself. In the episode, Sabrina summoned him so he could give her tennis lessons. Roddick appeared on The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn in 2002 and 2003, Late Show with David Letterman in 2003 and 2009, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and Live with Regis and Kelly in 2003, Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2004 and 2005, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 2005 and 2007, and The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2006. Roddick also appeared on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross in 2007 and 2010. Roddick hosted Saturday Night Live on November 8, 2003, becoming the second professional tennis player to host (Chris Evert being the first during the show's 15th season) and the first (and, as of September 2023, only) male tennis player to host. Pre-Wimbledon, Roddick appeared on an episode of the British version of The Weakest Link, which was broadcast on 18 June 2004. Roddick was in an advertisement for This is SportsCenter, with Stuart Scott, in which he confronts the Sports Center anchor about the anchors not calling him "A-Rod", and asks him "Did Alex Rodriguez put you up to this?" Scott replies "Who?" Roddick says "A-Rod!" Scott gets a sneaky look on his face, and Roddick leaves disgusted. The June/July issue of Men's Fitness magazine carried an article on Roddick. The cover shot featured the tennis ace in a T-shirt, straining to contain massive, pumped-up biceps and hulking shoulder and chest muscles. The image set off widespread online speculation that the magazine had altered Roddick's likeness, a suspicion echoed by Roddick himself. Roddick has quipped that he saw the photo, and that "Nadal wanted his arms back." In March 2009, Roddick appeared in the "Speed Feels Better" music video for singer-songwriter Michael Tolcher. Other athletes in the video included Amanda Beard, Barry Sanders, Kimmie Meissner, and Rick Ankiel. Roddick played tennis using a frying pan instead of a racquet for the book Andy Roddick Beat Me With a Frying Pan by Todd Gallagher. In 2011, Roddick made a cameo at the end of the film Just Go With It, as the new lover of the film's jilted bride, played by Decker. In 2011 Roddick co-hosted a radio show for one day on Fox Sports Radio with his friend Bobby Bones on the latter's eponymous program. Due to the success of that one-time show, Fox Sports Radio offered Roddick and Bones a nationally syndicated sports radio show. The show debuted on January 7, 2012, and could be heard nationally on Saturdays from 12 to 3 PM CST. It was a mix of sports, pop culture and entertainment. On February 16, 2012, Roddick interviewed his wife, Brooklyn, on the radio show and during that interview he first revealed his plans on retiring and turning the radio show into a daily show and into his new career. At the 2013 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Roddick played his first professional golf tournament (as an amateur) where he teamed up with professional golfer, John Mallinger. Although Roddick's team missed the cut to get the final round, he and Mallinger ended with a combined score of 16 under par (with Roddick individually hitting at a 6 handicap). In 2013, Roddick was hired by Fox Sports 1 as co-host for the network's flagship program Fox Sports Live. In 2015, Roddick joined the BBC as pundit and commentator for the 2015 Wimbledon Championships. In 2017, Roddick's wife revealed that he discarded most of his tennis trophies except the US Open trophy. In 2019, Roddick appeared on Celebrity Family Feud with his wife and the rest of the Decker family, competing against Bobby Bones and his family. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Roddick tweeted Tennis Channel requesting a "job." This led him to become a temporary contributor to the channel. On April 2, 2023 Roddick participated with Michael Chang, Andre Agassi and John McEnroe in the first live airing of Pickleball on ESPN in the Million dollar Pickleball Slam at the Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Fla. In 2024, Roddick began a weekly podcast series for Tennis Channel named "Served with Andy Roddick". Personal life From 2003 to 2004, Roddick dated actress and singer Mandy Moore. It was while Roddick was watching a show on the CNN/Sports Illustrated website called She Says Z Says that he first noticed Brooklyn Decker, to whom he is now married. According to Decker in an interview with David Letterman, Roddick had his agent contact her agent to arrange an initial meeting. The two began dating in 2007, and on March 31, 2008, Roddick announced on his website that they had become engaged. The couple were married on April 17, 2009, in Austin, Texas. Brooklyn Decker gave birth to the couple's first child on September 30, 2015. She gave birth to their second child, a daughter, on November 27, 2017. Awards and records In 2004, Roddick produced what was then the fastest serve in professional tennis: 249.4 km/h (155.0 mph) during a Davis Cup semifinal match with Vladimir Voltchkov on hard court in Charleston, South Carolina. Roddick's record serve has since been superseded by Ivo Karlović, who served at 251 km/h (156 mph) playing at the Davis Cup in March 2011. Roddick also had the fastest serve in U.S. Open history: 244 km/h (152 mph) against American Scoville Jenkins, and against future No. 1 Rafael Nadal. Roddick also won the 2004 ESPY Award for Best Male Tennis Player. That same year he won the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award of the Year because of his charity efforts, which included: raising money for the survivors of the tsunami following 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake through Serving for Tsunami Relief and other efforts; auctioning off several rackets and autographs to raise money for UNICEF; and creating the Andy Roddick Foundation to help at-risk youth. In 2007, Roddick and the Andy Roddick Foundation were awarded by the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health. Roddick was the first male tennis player ever to receive the award. Serve records since 1991: Fastest serve in Australian Open: 148 mph. Fastest serve in Dubai: 150 mph. Fastest average in first serve: 134 mph. Fastest serve in Beijing: 148 mph. Fastest serve in San Jose: 150 mph. Fastest serve in Madrid: 151 mph. Fastest serve in Washington: 151 mph. Fastest serve in Queens: 153 mph. Fastest serve in Lyon: 142 mph. Fastest serve in US Open: 152 mph. Fastest serve at Roland Garros: 144 mph (2006–2010). Fastest serve at Queens: 151 mph. Fastest serve at Wimbledon: 143 mph (2011). Fastest serve on record (Davis Cup): 155 mph (2004–2011). Career statistics Grand Slam tournaments Performance timeline Finals: 5 (1 title, 4 runner-ups) Masters Series Finals: 9 (5 titles, 4 runner-ups) Records These records were attained in the Open Era of tennis. Filmography In 2011, Roddick made a cameo appearance in the Adam Sandler comedy film Just Go with It with his real-life wife Brooklyn Decker. See also World TeamTennis, played for the Philadelphia Freedoms in 2010. Federer–Roddick rivalry References Further reading Beth Donelson; Tom Donelson (2004). Coming Of Age: Andy Roddick's Breakthrough Year. New York: iUniverse. ISBN 0-595-30785-X.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) External links Official website Andy Roddick at the Association of Tennis Professionals Andy Roddick at the International Tennis Federation Andy Roddick at the Davis Cup Andy Roddick Foundation Andy's U.S. Olympic Team bio ... with links to photo gallery In losing a match, Roddick became a true sportsman, a May 2005 article written by Frank Deford Roddick reverses form on the lawns Andy Roddick at IMDb Tennis Academy – Roddick Total Tennis Academy

Which fast food chain did the sponsor of the Women's 2018 Volleyball Thailand League acquire rights to in 1987?

Kentucky Fried Chicken

Temporal reasoning

The Charoen Pokphand Group Company, Ltd. (CP) (Thai: เจริญโภคภัณฑ์; RTGS: Charoen Phokkhaphan) is a Thai conglomerate based in Bangkok. It is Thailand's largest private company and the largest privately held Royal Warrant holder of the Thai Royal Family. The company describes itself as having eight business lines covering 13 business groups. As of 2020, the group has investments in 21 countries. It owns controlling stakes in Charoen Pokphand Foods (CPF), the world's largest producer of feed, shrimp, and a global top three producer of poultry, pork, among other agricultural produces. It also operates Southeast Asia's largest retail business by revenue, with over 12,000 7-Eleven stores the second largest in the world after the 20,000 stores in Japan and a leading cash and carry business through CP Axtra, formerly known as Siam Makro. In the telecommunications sector, CP Group subsidiary, True Group, is one of the largest telecom firms in Southeast Asia with over 25 million mobile customers. With some 200 business subsidiaries in mainland China, CP Group is known in China as "Zhèng Dà" (正大 - "positive" or "upright"). When China opened up its economy in 1978, the CP Group was the first foreign investor in the country and became the first foreign company registered in the special economic zone of Shenzhen, Guangdong. The company is the single largest investor in Mainland China today commanding over a fifth of China's entire feed meal market. The corporate registration number was "0001." Through its extensive investments, CP Group has been credited with changing the country's dietary habits and leading China's green revolution. History Charoen Pokphand traces its beginnings back to 1921, when immigrant brothers Chia Ek Chor (謝易初) and Chia Jin Hyang (謝進賢), hailing from Swatow, China, started a seed store named Chia Tai Chung on Songsawat Road in Bangkok's Chinatown during the reign of King Rama VI. They imported seeds and vegetables from China and exported pigs and eggs to Hong Kong, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore. The two brothers, who were virtually penniless, managed to scrape together enough capital to start their tiny seed shop. For the first few years of the businesses existence, the two brothers experimented to find their own market niche. By the 1950s, the shop began to specialize in exporting animal feed, particularly for chickens but the business struggled until the 1970s when the Bangkok Bank asked it to assume control of a bankrupt chicken farm. The shop later specialized in purchasing grown chickens for distribution to grocers and restaurants with vertically integrated strategy of feed-milling operations with chicken breeding. In 1969, the company had an annual turnover of US$1–2 million. When the Thai economy was liberalized in the 1970s, the CP Group entered various business negotiations with several major Thai banks, the Thai government, and foreign firms. The CP Group would supply Thai farmers with chicks and feed and teach breeders how to raise chickens while the farmers would sell the grown chickens back to the CP Group which processed the chickens and sold them to high volume grocery stores, restaurants, and fast food franchises across Thailand. The CP Group expanded internationally exporting their contract farming formula across Southeast Asia and around the world to Mexico, Taiwan, Portugal, Mainland China, Indonesia, Turkey, and the United States. By the 1980s, with Thailand becoming a full blown capitalist economy, the CP Group entered the aquaculture business, turning their formula to raising and marketing shrimp. The company increased its scope from selling vegetable seeds under the trademark of Rua Bin ("Aeroplane") to production of animal feed under Ek Chor's two elder sons, Jaran Chiaravanont and Montri Jiaravanont. The company further integrated its business to include livestock farming, marketing, and distribution, under Dhanin Chearavanont. By the 1970s, the company had a virtual monopoly on the supply of chicken and eggs in Thailand. The company was known for vertical integration, expanding into several business lines, adding breeding farms, slaughterhouses, processed foods production, and, later, its own chain of restaurants. CP had also gone international, launching feed mill operations in Indonesia in 1972, exporting chickens to Japan in 1973, then moving into Singapore in 1976. In the 1980s, as mainland China opened up to foreign direct investment, the firm became the preferred partner for international brands such as Honda, Walmart, and Tesco. CP's family ties with the mainland enabled it to become the first foreign company to establish itself in the newly created Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, where the company set up its Chia Tai Co. (Chinese: 正大集团; pinyin: Zhèngdà Jítuán) subsidiary. In 1987, the company acquired the rights to the 7-Eleven convenience store chain and the KFC fast food restaurant chain. The company would also expand into Shanghai by manufacturing motorcycles under license from Honda and brewing beer with a license from Heineken. In 1989, CP entered the petrochemical business with Solvay of Belgium to launch Vinythai Co., a manufacturer of polyvinylchloride. In 1990, the CP Group acquired a stake in TelecomAsia, a joint venture with US telecommunications firm NYNEX to build and operate two million telephone lines in Bangkok worth some $3 billion. The CP Group also acquired interests in satellite launch, cable television, and mobile telephone services. By the early-1990s, CP presided over some 200 subsidiaries in China. CP's investment in poultry production on the mainland was credited with changing the country's dietary habits, as per capita consumption more than doubled by the end of the decade. Starting in 1993, many subsidiaries went public. TA, Charoen Pokphand Feedmill, Siam Makro, and Vinythai were listed publicly on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET); its Hong Kong subsidiary, CP Pokphand, on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange; a Shanghai-based animal feed and poultry group on the Shanghai exchange; a real estate development arm, Hong Kong Fortune, on the Hong Kong Exchange; and Ek Chor China Motorcycle on the New York Stock Exchange. Having been listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange since 1981, CP Lotus, a retail arm of CP Group in China, opened its first store in Shanghai in 1997. After the Asian financial crisis in 1997, CP consolidated into three business lines under its main brands: foods (CP Foods), retail (7-Eleven), and telecommunications (True). By the early-2000s, the CP Group claimed $9 billion in business assets. The company sold its stakes in the Tesco Lotus venture with Tesco in 2003 due to its crisis policy in order to focus on 7-Eleven, in which, unlike Tesco, CP owns a majority, as its flagship retail arm. In 2013, Charoen Pokphand has got clearance to buy HSBC's stake of Chinese Ping An Insurance. On 10 May 2013, in spite of a lack of loan from the China Development Bank, HSBC said "it was selling the 15.6 percent stake at HK$59 a share" to Charoen Pokphand Group. In 2014, CP announced a tie-up with the Japanese general trading company Itochu under which CP acquired 4.9 percent of Itochu's listed stock for about US$1 billion, and Itochu in turn acquired a 25 percent stake in a Hong Kong-listed CP group company, CP Pokphand Co., for about $854 million. This transaction made CP the third-largest shareholder in Itochu, and was marketed as an alliance between the two conglomerates with a focus on developing international food trading opportunities. In 2015, CP and Itochu announced that they would jointly take a $10.4 billion stake in China's CITIC Limited, forming a trilateral alliance with Itochu and CP each holding 10 percent of CITIC's stock, one of the largest foreign investments in a Chinese state-owned company. On 9 March 2020, CP Group submitted the winning bid to purchase Thai retailer, Tesco Lotus, for about $10.6 billion. The purchase needed the approval of the Office of Trade Competition Commission (OTCC) as it could constitute a monopoly, given that CP already owns 7-Eleven convenience stores and the Makro cash-and-carry business. The sale became approved in Malaysia in November 2020 and in Thailand in December 2020, with rebranding of the acquired stores beginning in February 2021, replacing the Tesco corporate branding with that of Lotus's. In February 2021, CP Group was recognized as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies 2021" award from Ethisphere Institute, a global institution for evaluating ethical business standards. In September 2021, CP Group raised $150 million from existing investors, raising the valuation of its Ascend Money subsidiary to $1.5 billion. Subsidiaries Charoen Pokphand Foods Known as Charoen Pokphand Foods Plc., (CPF). It was established in 1978 with operations in animal feed production, livestock breeding, further processing and trade. Currently, CPF invests overseas in nine countries, has subsidiaries in 17 countries and exports to over 40 countries. Furthermore, CPF is today the leading producer of feed and one of the largest producers of poultry in the world. Charoen Pokphand Foods is listed in the Stock Exchange of Thailand under the code: CPF. CP Foods had a revenue of approximately US$14 billion in 2012, with a market capitalization of over $8 billion that same year. CP ALL CP ALL Public Company Limited is the flagship company of the Charoen Pokphand Group's marketing and distribution business. It has been the Thai licensee of 7-Eleven since 1989 and operates 12,000 convenience stores under that trademark in Thailand. This is the third largest number of stores after the United States and Japan. 7-Eleven CP All Plc. is the sole operator of 7-Eleven convenience stores in Thailand. The CP Group acquired the rights to distribute the convenience store in 1987. The first 7-Eleven outlet was opened in 1989 on Patpong Road in Bangkok. As of 2020, the company had a total of 11,700 stores nationwide employing 170,000 workers. Of the total, 4,245 stores are in Bangkok and vicinity (44 percent) and 5,297 stores are in provincial areas (56 percent). There are 4,205 corporate-owned stores (44 percent), 4,645 franchise stores (49 percent), and 692 sub-area license stores (seven percent). An average of 11.7 million customers visit 7-Eleven stores each day. In 2016, the company expanded another 710 new stores both as stand-alone stores and stores at PTT gas stations. At the end of 2014, the company had 8,210 stand-alone stores (86 percent) and 1,332 stores in PTT gas stations (14 percent). The company planned to open approximately 700 new stores annually, with the goal of 10,000 stores in 2017. True Corporation The Telecommunications Business Group was established during the late 1980s. Known as True Corporation Plc, True offers a "convergence" of voice, video and data services across its integrated communications platform. Based in Bangkok, True currently services more than 23 million subscribers to its various services, which includes Thailand's third-largest mobile operator (TrueMove), the country's largest broadband and dial-up internet provider, largest fixed-line phone operator in Bangkok Metropolitan Area, electronic cash and payment services, personal communication telephone, data services, VoIP services, online portals, online games and is the only nationwide cable-TV provider (TrueVisions). True Corporation is listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand under the code TRUE. True Corporation generated approximately US$3.1 billion in revenue in 2012, it had a market capitalization of about $4.3 billion in 2013. It is spinning off its infrastructure operations into a new telecommunications fund set to IPO at about $1.8 billion, putting the group's total value at about $5 billion. On November 22, 2021, Telenor and Charoen Pokphand Group, officially announced they have agreed to explore a USD 8.6 billion merger plan between Thailand’s second and third largest telecom operators (by subscribers), True Corporation (TRUE) and Total Access Communication (DTAC) – The proposed merger is subject to regulatory approvals. The merger was "acknowledged" by the regulator NBTC at a meeting on October 20, 2022. The newly merged company still retain the True Corporation name, which was founded on March 1, 2023 and it was listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand under the stock ticker symbol TRUE on March 3, 2023. Ascend Group Founded in 2014 as a spin-off of True Corporation, Ascend Group handles the e-commerce, online retail, logistics and fulfillment component of CP Group. It marked its $150-million expansion by launching their affiliates in the Philippines and Indonesia, Vietnam, and also hard to reach economies like Myanmar and Cambodia. Ventures are classified under major subsidiaries: Ascend Commerce, Ascend Money and Ascend Capital, along with smaller independent ventures like TrueIDC and Egg Digital. Lotus Supercenter CP Lotus Corporation is a retail operation in China. C.P. Pokphand Co., Ltd. Listed in Hong Kong, CPP is one of the world's largest producers of feed and one of China's leading agricultural companies with factories nationwide. CP Fresh Mart A Thai-based chain selling frozen foods and finished products, now with over 700 branches. Dayang Motors One of China's leading motorcycle producers Dayang Motors, recently signed a joint venture to begin production of cars in Thailand. Its motorcycles are exported to Southeast Asia, Europe, and Africa. Solvay In 1989, CP entered the petrochemical business through a joint venture with Solvay, one of Belgium's largest chemical firms. But later sold its stakes. Wal-Mart In 1994, CP signed a joint venture agreement with American retail giant, Wal-Mart to establish super-retail stores throughout Asia and later dissolved it. CP Beverages & Food CP B&F is the Beverages arm of CP and was established in 2016 in Bangkok, Thailand. It operates Cafes, QSR, Logistics Brands namely Arabitia Cafe, Jungle Cafe, Farmee, Daily Runner and also is into Export - Import Business. The company now operates in 5 countries - China, Thailand, India, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar and has 5 subsidiaries - CP B&F India Pvt Ltd, CP B&F (Thailand) Co. Ltd, CP B&F (Cambodia) Co., Ltd. In September 2020, CP B&F (Vietnam) Private Company Limited has been established in Vietnam. SAIC Motor-CP SAIC Motor-CP Co., Ltd. is a 50-50 joint venture between CP and Chinese automotive manufacturer SAIC Motor. It produces MG vehicles in a manufacturing plant in Chonburi. MG vehicles are distributed in Thailand by MG Sales (Thailand) Co., Ltd. CP Future City Development Corporation Limited (CPFC) CP Future City Development Corporation Limited (CPFC) is a fully-integrated real estate company, a subsidiary of C.P. Group, established in 2021, CPFC core businesses focus on property development, investment and management. Slavery revelations After a several-month-long investigation, in 2014 the British newspaper The Guardian reported that Charoen Pokphand (CP) Foods purchases fishmeal, which it then feeds to its farmed prawns, from suppliers that own, operate or buy from fishing boats manned with slaves. The Guardian reported that after the slaves are bought for roughly US$250, the working conditions on those boats include forced labour with 20-hour work days, forced drug use, starvation and executions. CP Foods readily admitted to the use of slave labour in its supply chain. Shrimp feed supply chain traceability and audit CP Foods produces and sells farmed shrimp. It does not own or operate any fishing vessels. The company has worked to improve the traceability of the fishmeal element of its supply chain since 2012, and broadened this effort to encompass a full traceability system for its farmed shrimp supply chain in 2014. As part of that process, CP Foods has reduced the number of suppliers who provide fishmeal for the production of shrimp feed. CP Foods has undertaken a full independent, third-party audit of its shrimp feed supply chain (all the way back to the individual fishing boats catching fish for fishmeal production), conducted by a leading international supply chain audit company. Approved by-product fishmeal in shrimp feed is certified "IFFO RS CoC", the highest international benchmark for sustainable fishmeal. Shrimp Sustainable Supply Chain Task Force CP Foods is a founding member of the Shrimp Sustainable Supply Chain Task Force (SSSC), established in July 2014, which has convened food producers, international retailers, and NGOs to map out a holistic improvement and audit plan for the Thai shrimp industry, and to identify and agree the steps and timetable to increase the sustainability and transparency of the supply chain. The key aim of CP Foods and the SSSC is to ensure that abuse of workers and damage to the maritime ecosystem in the Gulf of Thailand and Andaman Sea is a thing of the past, and to restore trust in the industry. References External links Corporate website International Directory of Company Histories, Vol.62: Charoen Pokphand Group, St. James Press, 2004

How many calories are in 7 oz. of the fruit given as a present in the musical that won Best Revival of a Musical at the 52nd Annual Tony Awards?

100 calories

Numerical reasoning | Tabular reasoning

The 52nd Annual Tony Awards ceremony was held on June 7, 1998, at Radio City Music Hall and was broadcast by CBS television. A documentaries segment was telecast on PBS television. The ceremony was hosted by Rosie O'Donnell, who hosted a total of three times (1997, 1998, and 2000). This ceremony is notable for its Best Direction of a Play and Best Direction of a Musical winners both being female, the first time a female has won either award. The writer of the Best Play winner was also female, the second female winner of the award. Ragtime had 13 nominations, the most of the night, and Ragtime, The Beauty Queen of Leenane and Cabaret each won four Tonys. Eligibility Shows that opened on Broadway during the 1997–1998 season before April 30, 1998 are eligible. The ceremony The opening number was "Broadway Divas", with Rosie O'Donnell and the Chicago dancers introducing: Patti LuPone ("Don't Cry for Me Argentina" from Evita); Jennifer Holliday ("And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" from Dreamgirls); and Betty Buckley ("Memory" from Cats). Musicals represented: Ragtime ("Ragtime" – Marin Mazzie, Audra McDonald and Company) The Sound of Music ("Wedding"/"Do-Re-Mi"/"The Sound of Music" Finale – Rebecca Luker and Company) 1776 ("Sit Down, John" – Richard Poe and Company) The Lion King ("Circle of Life" – Tsidii Le Loka and Company) Cabaret ("Willkommen" – Alan Cumming and Company) Side Show ("I Will Never Leave You" – Alice Ripley and Emily Skinner) The Scarlet Pimpernel ("Into the Fire" – Douglas Sills and Company) Winners and nominees Winners are in bold Special awards Regional Theater Tony Award Denver Center Theatre Company Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre Ben Edwards Edward E. Colton Tony Honor Winner The International Theatre Institute of the United States Multiple nominations and awards See also Drama Desk Awards 1998 Laurence Olivier Awards – equivalent awards for West End theatre productions Obie Award New York Drama Critics' Circle Theatre World Award Lucille Lortel Awards References "Year by Year – 1998". TonyAwards.com. Archived from the original on 13 August 2017. Retrieved 13 August 2017. External links Tony Awards Official website

Cabaret is an American musical with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and a book by Joe Masteroff. It is based on the 1951 play I Am a Camera by John Van Druten, which in turn was based on the 1939 novel Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood. Set in 1929–1930 Berlin during the twilight of the Jazz Age as the Nazis rise to power, the musical focuses on the hedonistic nightlife at the seedy Kit Kat Klub and revolves around American writer Clifford Bradshaw's relations with English cabaret performer Sally Bowles. A subplot involves the doomed romance between German boarding house owner Fräulein Schneider and her elderly suitor Herr Schultz, a Jewish fruit vendor. Overseeing the action is the Master of Ceremonies at the Kit Kat Klub, and the club itself serves as a metaphor for ominous political developments in late Weimar Germany. The original Broadway production opened on November 20, 1966, at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York City and became a box office hit that ran for 1,166 performances. The production won eight Tony Awards and inspired numerous subsequent productions around the world as well as the 1972 film of the same name. Background Historical basis The events depicted in the 1966 musical are derived from Anglo-American writer Christopher Isherwood's autobiographical tales of his colorful escapades in the Weimar Republic. In 1929, Isherwood visited Weimar-era Berlin during the final months of the Golden Twenties. He relocated to Berlin to avail himself of boy prostitutes and to enjoy the city's orgiastic Jazz Age cabarets. He socialized with a coterie of gay writers that included Stephen Spender, Paul Bowles, and W.H. Auden. At the time, Isherwood viewed the rise of Nazism in Germany with political indifference and instead focused on writing his first novel. In Berlin, Isherwood shared modest lodgings with 19-year-old British flapper Jean Ross, an aspiring film actress who earned her living as a chanteuse in lesbian bars and second-rate cabarets. While room-mates at Nollendorfstrasse 17 in Schöneberg, a 27-year-old Isherwood settled into a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old German boy, and Ross became pregnant after engaging in a series of sexual liaisons. She believed the father of the child to be jazz pianist and later film actor Peter van Eyck. As a favor to Ross, Isherwood pretended to be her heterosexual impregnator in order to facilitate an abortion of which Ross nearly died due to the doctor's incompetence. Visiting the ailing Ross in a Berlin hospital, Isherwood felt resentment by the hospital staff for, as they assumed, forcing Ross to undergo the abortion. This event inspired Isherwood to write his 1937 novella Sally Bowles and is dramatized as its narrative climax. While Ross recovered from the botched abortion, the political situation rapidly deteriorated in Weimar Germany as the incipient Nazi Party grew stronger day by day. "There was a sensation of doom to be felt in the Berlin streets", Spender recalled. As Berlin's daily scenes increasingly featured "poverty, unemployment, political demonstrations and street fighting between the forces of the extreme left and the extreme right", Isherwood, Ross, Spender, and other British nationals realized that they must leave the politically volatile country as soon as possible. Two weeks after the Enabling Act cemented Adolf Hitler's dictatorship, Isherwood fled Germany and returned to England on April 5, 1933. Afterwards, the Nazis shuttered most of Berlin's seedy cabarets, and many of Isherwood's cabaret acquaintances fled abroad or perished in concentration camps. These events served as the genesis for Isherwood's Berlin stories. In 1951, playwright John Van Druten adapted Isherwood's 1939 novel Goodbye to Berlin into the Broadway play I Am a Camera which in turn became a 1955 film starring Laurence Harvey and Julie Harris. Musical development In early 1963, producer David Black commissioned English composer and lyricist Sandy Wilson to undertake a musical adaptation of Van Druten's 1951 play I Am a Camera. Black hoped that singer Julie Andrews would agree to star in the adaptation, but Andrews' manager refused to allow her to accept the role of Sally Bowles due to the character's immorality. By the time Wilson completed his work, however, Black's option on both the 1951 Van Druten play and its source material by Isherwood had lapsed and been acquired by rival Broadway producer Harold Prince. Prince wished to create a gritty adaptation of Isherwood's stories that drew parallels between the spiritual bankruptcy of Germany in the 1920s and contemporary social problems in the United States at a time "when the struggle for civil rights for black Americans was heating up as a result of nonviolent but bold demonstrations being held in the Deep South." Prince hired playwright Joe Masteroff to work on the adaptation. Both men believed that Wilson's score failed to capture the carefree hedonism of the Jazz Age in late 1920s Berlin. They wanted a score that "evoked the Berlin of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya." Consequently, Prince invited the songwriting team of John Kander and Fred Ebb to join the project. Kander and Ebb envisioned the work as a dramatic play preceded by a prologue of songs describing the Berlin atmosphere from various points of view. As the composers distributed the songs between scenes, they realized the story could be told in the structure of a more traditional book musical, and they replaced several songs with tunes more relevant to the plot. For the musical adaptation, playwright Joe Masteroff significantly altered Isherwood's original characters. He transformed the English protagonist into an American writer named Clifford Bradshaw; the antisemitic landlady became a tolerant woman with a Jewish beau who owned a fruit store; they cut various supporting characters and added new characters such as the Nazi smuggler Ernst Ludwig for dramatic purposes. The musical ultimately expressed two stories in one: the first, a revue centered on the decadence of the Kit Kat Klub, for which Hal Prince created the Master of Ceremonies (Emcee) character played by Joel Grey; the second, a story set in the society outside the club, thus juxtaposing the lives of the characters based on Isherwood's real-life associates and acquaintances with the seedy club. In fall 1966, the musical entered rehearsals. After viewing one of the last rehearsals before the company headed to Boston for the pre-Broadway run, Prince's friend Jerome Robbins suggested cutting the songs outside the cabaret, but Prince ignored his advice. In Boston, lead actress Jill Haworth struggled with her characterization of Sally Bowles. Critics thought Sally's blonde hair and white dress suggested a debutante at a senior prom instead of a cabaret singer, so Sally became a brunette before the show opened on Broadway. Prince staged the show in an unusual way for the time. As the audience entered the theater, they saw the curtain raised, exposing a stage with only a large mirror that reflected the auditorium. Instead of an overture, a drum roll and cymbal crash introduced the opening number. The show mixed dialogue scenes with expository songs and standalone cabaret numbers that provided social commentary. This innovative concept initially surprised audiences. Over time, they discerned the distinction between the two and appreciated the rationale behind them. Synopsis Act I At the twilight of the Jazz Age in Berlin, the incipient Nazi Party is growing stronger. The Kit Kat Klub is a seedy cabaret – a place of decadent celebration. The club's Master of Ceremonies (Emcee) together with the cabaret girls and waiters, warm up the audience ("Willkommen"). Meanwhile, a young American writer named Clifford Bradshaw arrives via a railway train in Berlin. He has journeyed to the city to work on a new novel. Cliff encounters Ernst Ludwig, a German smuggler who offers him black market work and recommends a boarding house. At the boarding house, the proprietress Fräulein Schneider offers Cliff a room for one hundred reichsmarks, but he can only pay fifty. After a brief debate, she relents and allows Cliff to live there for fifty marks. Fräulein Schneider observes that she has learned to take whatever life offers ("So What?"). When Cliff visits the Kit Kat Klub, the Emcee introduces an English chanteuse, Sally Bowles, who performs a flirtatious number ("Don't Tell Mama"). Afterward, she asks Cliff to recite poetry for her, and he recites Ernest Thayer's mock-heroic poem "Casey at the Bat". Cliff offers to escort Sally home, but she says that her boyfriend Max, the club's owner, is too jealous. Sally performs her final number at the Kit Kat Klub aided by a female ensemble of jazz babies ("Mein Herr"). The cabaret ensemble performs a song and dance, calling each other on inter-table phones and inviting each other for dances and drinks ("The Telephone Song"). The next day at the boarding house, Cliff has just finished giving an English lesson to Ernst when Sally arrives. Max has fired her and thrown her out, and now she has no place to live. Sally asks Cliff if she can live in his room. At first he resists, but she convinces him to take her in ("Perfectly Marvelous"). The Emcee and two female companions sing a song ("Two Ladies") that comments on Cliff and Sally's new living arrangement. Herr Schultz, an elderly Jewish fruit-shop owner who lives in the boarding house, gives a pineapple to Fräulein Schneider as a romantic gesture ("It Couldn't Please Me More"). In the Kit Kat Klub, a young waiter starts to sing a song – a patriotic anthem to the Fatherland that slowly descends into a darker, Nazi-inspired marching song ("Tomorrow Belongs to Me"). He initially sings a cappella, before the customers and the band join in. Months later, Cliff and Sally are still living together and have grown intimate. Cliff knows that he is in a "dream", but he enjoys living with Sally too much to come to his senses ("Why Should I Wake Up?"). Sally reveals that she is pregnant, but she does not know who is the father and decides to obtain an abortion. Cliff reminds her that it could be his child and tries to convince her to have the baby ("Maybe This Time"). Ernst enters and offers Cliff a chance to earn easy money – picking up a suitcase in Paris and delivering it to a client in Berlin. The Emcee comments on this with the song "Sitting Pretty" (or, in later versions, "Money"). Meanwhile, Fräulein Schneider has caught one of her boarders, the prostitute Fräulein Kost, bringing sailors into her room. Fräulein Schneider forbids her from doing so again, but Kost threatens to leave. Kost reveals that she has seen Fräulein Schneider with Herr Schultz in her room. Herr Schultz saves Fräulein Schneider's reputation by telling Fräulein Kost that he and Fräulein Schneider are to be married in three weeks. After Fräulein Kost departs, Fräulein Schneider thanks Herr Schultz for lying to Fräulein Kost. Herr Schultz says that he still wishes to marry Fräulein Schneider ("Married"). At Fräulein Schneider and Herr Schultz's engagement party, Cliff arrives and delivers the suitcase of contraband to Ernst. Sally and Cliff gift the couple a crystal fruit bowl. A tipsy Schultz sings "Meeskite" ("meeskite", he explains, is Yiddish for ugly or funny-looking), a song with a moral ("Anyone responsible for loveliness, large or small/Is not a meeskite at all"). Afterward, seeking revenge on Fräulein Schneider, Kost tells Ernst, who now sports a Nazi armband, that Schultz is a Jew. Ernst warns Schneider that marrying a Jew is unwise. Kost and company reprise "Tomorrow Belongs to Me", with more overtly Nazi overtones, as Cliff, Sally, Schneider, Schultz, and the Emcee look on. Act II The cabaret girls – along with the Emcee in drag – perform a kickline routine which eventually becomes a goose-step. Fräulein Schneider expresses her concerns about her impending nuptials to Herr Schultz, who assures her that everything will be all right ("Married" (reprise)). They are interrupted by the crash of a brick being thrown through the glass window of Herr Schultz's fruit shop. Schultz tries to reassure her that it is merely rowdy children making trouble, but Fräulein Schneider is now afraid. Back at the Kit Kat Klub, the Emcee performs a song-and-dance routine with a woman in a gorilla suit, singing that their love has been met with universal disapproval ("If You Could See Her"). Encouraging the audience to be more open-minded, he defends his ape-woman, concluding with, "if you could see her through my eyes... she wouldn't look Jewish at all." Fräulein Schneider goes to Cliff and Sally's room and returns their engagement present, explaining that her marriage has been called off. When Cliff protests and states that she can't just give up this way, she asks him what other choice she has ("What Would You Do?"). Cliff begs Sally to leave Germany with him so that they can raise their child together in America. Sally protests and claims that their life in Berlin is wonderful. Cliff urges her to "wake up" and to notice the growing social upheaval around them. Sally retorts that politics have nothing to do with them and returns to the Kit Kat Klub ("I Don't Care Much"). At the club, after another heated argument with Sally, Cliff is accosted by Ernst, who has another delivery job for him. Cliff tries to brush him off. When Ernst inquires if Cliff's attitude towards him is because of "that Jew at the party", Cliff attacks him – only to be beaten by Ernst's bodyguards and ejected from the club. On stage, the Emcee introduces Sally, who enters to perform again, singing that "life is a cabaret, old chum," cementing her decision to live in carefree ignorance ("Cabaret"). The next morning, a bruised Cliff is packing his clothes in his room when Herr Schultz visits. He informs Cliff that he is moving to another boarding house, but he is confident that these difficult times will soon pass. He understands the German people, he declares, because he is a German too. When Sally returns, she announces that she has had an abortion, and Cliff slaps her. She chides him for his previous insistence on keeping the baby, pointing out it would be a "terrible burden" for a child knowing it was the only reason the parents were together. Cliff still hopes that she will join him in France, but Sally retorts that she has "always hated Paris." She hopes that, when Cliff finally writes his novel, he will dedicate the work to her. Cliff leaves, heartbroken. On the railway train to Paris, Cliff begins to compose his novel, reflecting on his experiences: "There was a cabaret, and there was a master of ceremonies ... and there was a city called Berlin, in a country called Germany – and it was the end of the world and I was dancing with Sally Bowles – and we were both fast asleep" ("Willkommen" (reprise)). In the Kit Kat Klub, the Emcee welcomes the audience once again as the ensemble reprises "Willkommen" but the song is now harsh and discordant. The Emcee sings, "Auf Wiedersehen... à bientôt..." followed by a drum roll crescendo and a cymbal crash. Musical numbers Every production of Cabaret has modified the original score, with songs being changed, cut, or added from the film version. This is a collective list featuring all songs from every major production. Song modifications Many songs planned for the 1966 production were cut. Three excised songs – "Good Time Charlie", "It'll All Blow Over", and "Roommates" – were recorded by Kander and Ebb, and the sheet music published in a collector's book. Sally sang "Good Time Charlie" to Cliff as they walked to Fräulein Schneider and Herr Schultz's engagement party, mocking Cliff for his gloominess. At the end of the first act, Fräulein Schneider sang "It'll All Blow Over," expressing her concerns about marrying a Jew, while Cliff voiced his worries about Germany's emerging Nazism. In the song, Sally declares that all will turn out well in the end. "Perfectly Marvelous" replaced "Roommates" and serves the same plot function of Sally convincing Cliff to let her move in with him. The 1972 film added several songs, notably "Mein Herr" and "Maybe This Time" which were included in later productions. The latter song had been written by Kander and Ebb for the unproduced musical Golden Gate. The later 1987 and 1998 Broadway revivals also added new songs such as "I Don't Care Much". In the 1987 revival, Kander and Ebb wrote a new song for Cliff titled "Don't Go". In the 1998 revival, "Mein Herr" replaced "The Telephone Song", and "Maybe This Time" replaced "Why Should I Wake Up?". Originally, the Emcee sang "Sitting Pretty" accompanied by the cabaret girls in international costumes with their units of currency representing Russian rubles, Japanese yen, French francs, American dollars, and German reichsmarks. In the 1972 film, the Emcee and Sally Bowles sang "Money, Money" instead of "Sitting Pretty." The film soundtrack briefly played "Sitting Pretty" as orchestral background music. In the 1987 revival, they presented a special version that combined a medley of both money songs, and they incorporated motifs from the later song into the "international" dance that featured "Sitting Pretty." In the 1998 revival, they used only the later song written for the film. This version included the cabaret girls and carried a darker undertone. Productions Original Broadway production The musical opened on Broadway on November 20, 1966, at the Broadhurst Theatre, transferred to the Imperial Theatre and then the Broadway Theatre before closing on September 6, 1969, after 1,166 performances and 21 previews. Directed by Harold Prince and choreographed by Ron Field, the cast featured Jill Haworth as Sally, Bert Convy as Cliff, Lotte Lenya as Fräulein Schneider, Jack Gilford as Herr Schultz, Joel Grey as the Emcee, Edward Winter as Ernst, and Peg Murray as Fräulein Kost. Replacements later in the run included Anita Gillette and Melissa Hart as Sally, Ken Kercheval and Larry Kert as Cliff, and Martin Ross as the Emcee. In addition, John Serry Sr. performed as the orchestral accordionist. The original Broadway production was not an instant success according to playwright Joe Masteroff due to its perceived immoral content. "When the show opened in Boston," Masteroff recalled, "there were a lot of walkouts. Once the reviews came out, the public came back." At the time, actor Joel Grey was merely fifth-billed in the show. Nevertheless, audiences were hypnotized by Grey's sinister performance as the Emcee. In contrast, Jill Haworth's performance as Sally was less well-received and was criticized for its blandness. Emory Lewis, the reviewer for The Morning Call, wrote that "Jill Haworth, the lovely English actress who played Sally Bowles on opening night, was personable, but she was not sufficiently trained for so pivotal a role. And her voice was small and undramatic. Her performance threw 'Cabaret' out of kilter." The 1967–68 US national tour featured Melissa Hart as Sally, Signe Hasso as Fräulein Schneider, and Leo Fuchs as Herr Schultz. The tour included the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut in December 1967, the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles in May 1968, the Curran Theatre in San Francisco in September 1968, and many others. Original West End production The musical premiered in the West End on February 28, 1968, at the Palace Theatre with Judi Dench as Sally, Kevin Colson as Cliff, Barry Dennen as the Emcee, Lila Kedrova as Fräulein Schneider and Peter Sallis as Herr Schultz. It ran for 336 performances. Critics such as Ken Mandelbaum have asserted that "Judi Dench was the finest of all the Sallys that appeared in Hal Prince's original staging, and if she's obviously not much of a singer, her Sally is a perfect example of how one can give a thrilling musical theatre performance without a great singing voice." 1986 West End revival In 1986, the show was revived in London at the Strand Theatre starring Kelly Hunter as Sally, Peter Land as Cliff and Wayne Sleep as the Emcee, directed and choreographed by Gillian Lynne. 1987 Broadway revival The first Broadway revival opened on October 22, 1987, with direction and choreography by Prince and Field. The revival opened at the Imperial Theatre, and then transferred to the Minskoff Theatre to complete its 261-performance run. Joel Grey received star billing as the Emcee, with Alyson Reed as Sally, Gregg Edelman as Cliff, Regina Resnik as Fräulein Schneider, Werner Klemperer as Herr Schultz, and David Staller as Ernst Ludwig. The song "Don't Go" was added for Cliff's character. 1993 London revival In 1993, Sam Mendes directed a new production for the Donmar Warehouse in London. The revival starred Jane Horrocks as Sally, Adam Godley as Cliff, Alan Cumming as the Emcee and Sara Kestelman as Fräulein Schneider. Kestelman won the Olivier for Best Supporting Performance in a Musical, and Cumming was nominated for an Olivier Award. Mendes' concept was different from either the original production or the conventional first revival, particularly with respect to the character of the Emcee. The role, as played by Joel Grey in both prior productions, was a sexually aloof, edgy character with rouged cheeks dressed in a tuxedo. Alan Cumming's portrayal was highly sexualized, as he wore suspenders around his crotch and red paint on his nipples. Staging details differed as well. Instead of "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" being performed by a male choir of waiting staff, the Emcee plays a recording of a boy soprano singing it. In the final scene, the Emcee removes his outer clothes to reveal a striped uniform of the type worn by the internees in concentration camps; on it are pinned a yellow badge (identifying Jews), a red star (marking Communists and socialists), and a pink triangle (denoting homosexuals). Other changes included added references to Cliff's bisexuality, including a brief scene where he kisses one of the Cabaret boys. "I Don't Care Much," which was added for the 1987 Broadway revival, was maintained for this production, and "Mein Herr" was added from the film. This production was filmed by Channel Four Film for airing on UK television. 1998 Broadway revival The second Broadway revival, by the Roundabout Theatre Company, was based on the 1993 Mendes-Donmar Warehouse production. For the Broadway transfer, Rob Marshall was co-director and choreographer. The production opened after 37 previews on March 19, 1998, at the Kit Kat Klub, housed in what previously had been known as Henry Miller's Theatre. Later that year it transferred to Studio 54, where it remained for the rest of its 2,377-performance run, becoming the third longest-running revival in Broadway musical history, third only to Oh! Calcutta! and Chicago. Cumming reprised his role as the Emcee, opposite newcomers Natasha Richardson as Sally, John Benjamin Hickey as Cliff, Ron Rifkin as Herr Schultz, Denis O'Hare as Ernst Ludwig, Michele Pawk as Fräulein Kost, and Mary Louise Wilson as Fräulein Schneider. The Broadway production was nominated for ten Tony Awards, winning four for Cumming, Richardson and Rifkin, as well as the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical. This production featured a number of notable replacements later in the run: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Susan Egan, Joely Fisher, Gina Gershon, Debbie Gibson, Melina Kanakaredes, Jane Leeves, Molly Ringwald, Brooke Shields, and Lea Thompson as Sally; Michael C. Hall, Raúl Esparza, Neil Patrick Harris, Adam Pascal, Jon Secada, and John Stamos as the Emcee; Boyd Gaines, Michael Hayden, and Rick Holmes as Cliff; Tom Bosley, Dick Latessa, Hal Linden, Laurence Luckinbill, and Tony Roberts as Herr Schultz; and Blair Brown, Carole Shelley, Polly Bergen, Alma Cuervo, and Mariette Hartley as Fräulein Schneider. There were a number of changes made between the 1993 and 1998 revivals, despite the similarities in creative team. The cabaret number "Two Ladies" was staged with the Emcee, a cabaret girl, and a cabaret boy in drag and included a shadow play simulating various sexual positions. The score was re-orchestrated using synthesizer effects and expanding the stage band, with all the instruments now being played by the cabaret girls and boys. The satiric "Sitting Pretty", with its mocking references to deprivation, despair and hunger, was eliminated, as it had been in the film version, and where in the 1993 revival it had been combined with "Money" (as it had been in 1987 London production), "Money" was now performed on its own. "Maybe This Time", from the film adaptation, was added to the score. 2006 West End revival In September 2006, a new production presented by Bill Kenwright opened at the Lyric Theatre, directed by Rufus Norris, and starring Anna Maxwell Martin as Sally, James Dreyfus as the Emcee, Harriet Thorpe as Fräulein Kost, Michael Hayden as Cliff, and Sheila Hancock as Fräulein Schneider. Hancock won the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Performance in a Musical. Replacements later in the run included Kim Medcalf and Amy Nuttall as Sally, Honor Blackman and Angela Richards as Fräulein Schneider, and Julian Clary and Alistair McGowan as the Emcee. This production closed in June 2008 and toured the UK for two years opening at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre with a cast that included Wayne Sleep as the Emcee and Samantha Barks as Sally, before Siobhan Dillon took over the role. 2012 West End revival A revival opened in the West End at the Savoy Theatre on October 3, 2012, following a four-week tour of the UK, including Bromley, Southampton, Nottingham, Norwich and Salford. Will Young played the Emcee and Michelle Ryan portrayed Sally Bowles. Siân Phillips, Harriet Thorpe and Matt Rawle also joined the cast. The production was made by the creative team behind the 2006 London revival, but with new sets, lighting, costumes, choreography and direction. In August 2013 the show went on tour in the UK, again with Young as the Emcee, Siobhan Dillon reprising her role of Sally and Lyn Paul joining the cast as Fräulein Schneider. The same production toured the UK again in autumn 2017 with Young as the Emcee and Louise Redknapp as Sally. Another UK tour began in autumn 2019 starring John Partridge as the Emcee, Kara Lily Hayworth as Sally Bowles and Anita Harris as Fräulein Schneider. 2014 Broadway revival In September 2013 Roundabout Theatre Company announced plans to return the company's acclaimed 1998 production to Studio 54 in New York. For this, the show's third Broadway revival, Sam Mendes and Rob Marshall reprised their respective roles as director and co-director/choreographer to recreate their work from the earlier production. Alan Cumming starred again as the Emcee while Academy Award-nominee Michelle Williams made her Broadway debut as Sally Bowles. On October 7, 2013, Tony Award nominees Danny Burstein and Linda Emond joined the cast as Herr Schultz and Fräulein Schneider. The production began a 24-week limited engagement with previews from March 21, 2014, with opening night on April 24, 2014, but the engagement was extended. Emma Stone replaced Michelle Williams as Sally from November 2014 to February 2015, Critics praised Stone's performance for her interpretation of the hard-drinking sybarite Sally Bowles "as a flaming flapper, the kind hymned by F. Scott Fitzgerald and embodied by the young Joan Crawford in silent movies." Sienna Miller took over the role on March 29, 2015, remaining through to the show's closing. Alan Cumming continued in the role of the Emcee until the show's final curtain. The production later toured the US from January 2016 with Randy Harrison as the Emcee and Andrea Goss (following her appearance as Frenchie in the Broadway production). They were later replaced by Jon Peterson and Leigh Ann Larkin. 2021 West End revival Eddie Redmayne and Jessie Buckley starred as the Emcee and Sally Bowles in a West End production directed by Rebecca Frecknall, designed by Tom Scutt, choreographed by Julia Cheng, with lighting design by Isabella Byrd and sound design by Nick Lidster. The production also featured Omari Douglas as Cliff, Liza Sadovy as Fraulein Schneider, Elliot Levey as Herr Schultz, Stewart Clarke as Ernst and Anna-Jane Casey as Fraulein Kost. Produced by Underbelly and Ambassador Theatre Group, the production, entitled Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, began previews at the Playhouse Theatre on November 15, 2021, which has been refurbished as the "Kit Kat Club", including an intimate in-the-round stage reduced to a 550-seat capacity with tables that audience members can dine at as well as a refurbished foyer, in effect transforming the entire theater into a Weimar-era nightclub. The run was extended to October 2022. The production led the 2022 Olivier Award nominations with 11 nods, including Best Musical Revival, Best Actor in a Musical for Redmayne and Best Actress in a Musical for Buckley. The production won 7 awards and set a record for being the most award-winning revival in Olivier history, as well for being the first production to obtain awards in all 4 eligible acting categories. Following the departure of Redmayne and Buckley, notable players as the Emcee and Sally Bowles have been Fra Fee and Amy Lennox; Callum Scott Howells and Madeline Brewer; Aimee Lou Wood and John McCrea; Maude Apatow and Mason Alexander Park; Jake Shears and Rebecca Lucy Taylor (aka Self Esteem); Luke Treadaway and Cara Delevingne; and Layton Williams and Rhea Norwood. 2024 Broadway revival The 2021 West End production transferred to the August Wilson Theatre on Broadway, with previews from April 1, 2024, ahead of a gala night on April 20 and press night on April 21. As in the West End production, the August Wilson Theatre was refurbished as the "Kit Kat Club" with an intimate in-the-round staging. Redmayne reprised his role as the Emcee with Gayle Rankin and Ato Blankson-Wood co-starring as Sally and Cliff. Bebe Neuwirth, Steven Skybell, Natascia Diaz, and Henry Gottfried play Fraulein Schneider, Herr Schultz, Fraulein Kost, and Ernst Ludwig, respectively. The production was nominated for 9 Tony Awards, winning one for Best Scenic Design. From September 16, 2024, Adam Lambert and Auli'i Cravalho are set to play the Emcee and Sally. Other productions A BBC Radio 2 radio broadcast in 1996 from the Golders Green Hippodrome starred Clare Burt as Sally Bowles, Steven Berkoff as the Emcee, Alexander Hanson as Clifford Bradshaw, Keith Michell as Herr Schultz, and Rosemary Leach as Fräulein Schneider. Since 2003, international stagings of the show, many influenced by Mendes' concept, have included productions in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, France, Portugal, Greece, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Serbia, South Africa, Spain and Venezuela. A 2008 production at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's Avon Theatre in Canada, designed by Douglas Paraschuk and directed by Amanda Dehnert, featured Bruce Dow as the Emcee, Trish Lindström as Sally, Sean Arbuckle as Cliff, Nora McClellan as Fräulein Schneider and Frank Moore as Herr Schultz. The Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, included Cabaret in its 2014 season. The production, which ran from April 10 – October 26, 2014 at the Festival Theatre, was directed by Peter Hinton with choreography by Denise Clarke. It featured Juan Chioran as the Emcee, Deborah Hay as Sally, Gray Powell as Cliff, Benedict Campbell as Herr Schultz, and Corrine Koslo as Fräulein Schneider; it was influenced by Mendes' 1993 revival. A 2017 revival played in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, starred Paul Capsis as the Emcee and Chelsea Gibb as Sally. The production mixed elements of the Mendes production, such as its version of "Two Ladies" and its portrayal of a gay Cliff, with the colorful art design of the original (the Emcee is in full makeup and clothed) and most of the additional songs from the 1972 film (with the exception of "Mein Herr"). Cast and characters Recordings The first recording of Cabaret was the original Broadway cast album with a number of the songs either truncated (e.g., "Sitting Pretty"/"The Money Song") or outright cut to conserve disk space. When this album was released on compact disc, Kander and Ebb's voice-and-piano recordings of songs cut from the musical were added as bonus material. According to Mandelbaum, the 1968 London cast recording features "a more accurate rendering of the score" and includes the Act One finale "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" reprise, the second-act finale as performed in the theatre, and a number of other previously unrecorded bits and pieces." It was released in the UK and reissued on the CBS Embassy label in 1973. The 1972 movie soundtrack with Liza Minnelli is much re-written and eliminates all but six of the original songs from the stage production. Both the 1986 London and 1998 Broadway revival casts were recorded. A 1993 two-CD studio recording contains nearly the entire score, including songs written for the movie and for later productions and much of the incidental music. This recording features Jonathan Pryce as the Emcee, Maria Friedman as Sally, Gregg Edelman as Cliff, Judi Dench as Fräulein Schneider, and Fred Ebb as Herr Schultz. The cast recording of the 2006 London revival at the Lyric Theatre includes James Dreyfus as the Emcee and Anna Maxwell Martin as Sally. The 2021 London cast recording featuring Eddie Redmayne and Jessie Buckley was recorded live at the Playhouse Theatre, London) and released in January 2023. Cabaret: The Maida Vale Session is an EP that was released in March 2024 with four songs from the revival at the Playhouse Theatre, including "Willkommen", "Don't Tell Mama", "I Don't Care Much" and the title song. It was recorded for a BBC Radio 2 show with Jo Whiley at the BBC's Maida Vale Studios with Jake Shears as Emcee, Rebecca Lucy Taylor as Sally and the 2023 London cast and orchestra. In addition to these recordings, cast albums for French, Spanish, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Austrian, Dutch, Mexican, and German productions have been released. Awards and nominations Original Broadway production 1987 Broadway revival 1993 London revival 1998 Broadway revival 2006 West End revival 2012 West End revival 2014 Broadway revival 2021 West End revival 2024 Broadway revival References Notes Citations Works cited Print sources Online sources External links ​Cabaret​ at the Internet Broadway Database Cabaret (1993 UK TV production starring Alan Cumming) at IMDb Plot and production information at the Guide to Musical Theatre The Making of Cabaret by Keith Garebian. OUP 2011 2nd edition.

The pineapple (Ananas comosus) is a tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been cultivated for many centuries. The introduction of the pineapple plant to Europe in the 17th century made it a significant cultural icon of luxury. Since the 1820s, pineapple has been commercially grown in greenhouses and many tropical plantations. Pineapples grow as a small shrub; the individual flowers of the unpollinated plant fuse to form a multiple fruit. The plant normally propagates from the offset produced at the top of the fruit or from a side shoot, and typically matures within a year. Description The pineapple is a herbaceous perennial, which grows to 1.0 to 1.5 m (3 ft 3 in to 4 ft 11 in) tall on average, although sometimes it can be taller. The plant has a short, stocky stem with tough, waxy leaves. When creating its fruit, it usually produces up to 200 flowers, although some large-fruited cultivars can exceed this. Once it flowers, the individual fruits of the flowers join together to create a multiple fruit. After the first fruit is produced, side shoots (called 'suckers' by commercial growers) are produced in the leaf axils of the main stem. These suckers may be removed for propagation, or left to produce additional fruits on the original plant. Commercially, suckers that appear around the base are cultivated. It has 30 or more narrow, fleshy, trough-shaped leaves that are 30 to 100 cm (1 to 3+1⁄2 ft) long, surrounding a thick stem; the leaves have sharp spines along the margins. In the first year of growth, the axis lengthens and thickens, bearing numerous leaves in close spirals. After 12 to 20 months, the stem grows into a spike-like inflorescence up to 15 cm (6 in) long with over 100 spirally arranged, trimerous flowers, each subtended by a bract. In the wild, pineapples are pollinated primarily by hummingbirds. Certain wild pineapples are foraged and pollinated at night by bats. Under cultivation, because seed development diminishes fruit quality, pollination is performed by hand, and seeds are retained only for breeding. In Hawaii, where pineapples were cultivated and canned industrially throughout the 20th century, importation of hummingbirds was prohibited. The ovaries develop into berries, which coalesce into a large, compact, multiple fruit. The fruit of a pineapple is usually arranged in two interlocking helices, often with 8 in one direction and 13 in the other, each being a Fibonacci number. The pineapple carries out CAM photosynthesis, fixing carbon dioxide at night and storing it as the acid malate, then releasing it during the day aiding photosynthesis. Taxonomy The pineapple comprises five botanical varieties, formerly regarded as separate species. The genomes of three varieties, including the wild progenitor variety bracteatus, have been sequenced. History Etymology The first reference in English to the pineapple fruit was the 1568 translation from the French of André Thevet's The New Found World, or Antarctike where he refers to a Hoyriri, a fruit cultivated and eaten by the Tupinambá people, living near modern Rio de Janeiro, and now believed to be a pineapple. Later in the same English translation, he describes the same fruit as a "Nana made in the manner of a Pine apple", where he used another Tupi word nanas, meaning 'excellent fruit'. This usage was adopted by many European languages and led to the plant's scientific binomial Ananas comosus, where comosus 'tufted' refers to the stem of the plant. Purchas, writing in English in 1613, referred to the fruit as Ananas, but the Oxford English Dictionary's first record of the word pineapple itself by an English writer is by Mandeville in 1714. Precolonial cultivation The wild plant originates from the Paraná–Paraguay River drainages between southern Brazil and Paraguay. Little is known about its domestication, but it spread as a crop throughout South America. Archaeological evidence of use is found as far back as 1200–800 BC (3200–2800 BP) in Peru and 200 BC – 700 AD (2200–1300 BP) in Mexico, where it was cultivated by the Mayas and the Aztecs. By the late 1400s, cropped pineapple was widely distributed and a staple food of Native Americans. The first European to encounter the pineapple was Christopher Columbus, in Guadeloupe on 4 November 1493. The Portuguese took the fruit from Brazil and introduced it into India by 1550. The 'Red Spanish' cultivar was also introduced by the Spanish from Latin America to the Philippines, and it was grown for textile use from at least the 17th century. Columbus brought the plant back to Spain and called it piña de Indes, meaning "pine of the Indians". The pineapple was documented in Peter Martyr's Decades of the New World (1516) and Antonio Pigafetta's Relazione del primo viaggio intorno al mondo (1524–1525), and the first known illustration was in Oviedo's Historia General de Las Indias (1535). Old World introduction While the pineapple fascinated Europeans as a fruit of colonialism, it was not successfully cultivated in Europe until Pieter de la Court (1664–1739) developed greenhouse horticulture near Leiden. Pineapple plants were distributed from the Netherlands to English gardeners in 1719 and French ones in 1730. In England, the first pineapple was grown at Dorney Court, Dorney in Buckinghamshire, and a huge "pineapple stove" to heat the plants was built at the Chelsea Physic Garden in 1723. In France, King Louis XV was presented with a pineapple that had been grown at Versailles in 1733. In Russia, Peter the Great imported de la Court's method into St. Petersburg in the 1720s; in 1730, twenty pineapple saplings were transported from there to a greenhouse at Empress Anna's new Moscow palace. Because of the expense of direct import and the enormous cost in equipment and labour required to grow them in a temperate climate, in greenhouses called "pineries", pineapple became a symbol of wealth. They were initially used mainly for display at dinner parties, rather than being eaten, and were used again and again until they began to rot. In the second half of the 18th century, the production of the fruit on British estates became the subject of great rivalry between wealthy aristocrats. John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, built a hothouse on his estate surmounted by a huge stone cupola 14 metres tall in the shape of the fruit; it is known as the Dunmore Pineapple. In architecture, pineapple figures became decorative elements symbolizing hospitality. Since the 19th century: mass commercialization Many different varieties, mostly from the Antilles, were tried for European glasshouse cultivation. The most significant was "Smooth Cayenne", imported to France in 1820, subsequently re-exported to the United Kingdom in 1835, and then from the UK via Hawaii to Australia and Africa. "Smooth Cayenne" is now the dominant cultivar in world production. Jams and sweets based on pineapple were imported to Europe from the West Indies, Brazil, and Mexico from an early date. By the early 19th century, fresh pineapples were transported direct from the West Indies in large enough quantities to reduce European prices. Later pineapple production was dominated by the Azores for Europe, and Florida and the Caribbean for North America, because of the short trade routes. The Spanish had introduced the pineapple into Hawaii in the 18th century where it is known as the hala kahiki ("foreign hala"), but the first commercial plantation was established in 1886. The most famous investor was James Dole, who moved to Hawaii in 1899 and started a 24-hectare (60-acre) pineapple plantation in 1900 which would grow into the Dole Food Company. Dole and Del Monte began growing pineapples on the island of Oahu in 1901 and 1917, respectively, and the Maui Pineapple Company began cultivation on Maui in 1909. James Dole began the commercial processing of pineapple, and Dole employee Henry Ginaca invented an automatic peeling and coring machine in 1911. Hawaiian production started to decline from the 1970s because of competition and the shift to refrigerated sea transport. Dole ceased its cannery operations in Honolulu in 1991, and in 2008, Del Monte terminated its pineapple-growing operations in Hawaii. In 2009, the Maui Pineapple Company reduced its operations to supply pineapples only locally on Maui, and by 2013, only the Dole Plantation on Oahu grew pineapples in a volume of about 0.1 percent of the world's production. Despite this decline, the pineapple is sometimes used as a symbol of Hawaii. Further, foods with pineapple in them are sometimes known as "Hawaiian" for this reason alone. In the Philippines, "Smooth Cayenne" was introduced in the early 1900s by the US Bureau of Agriculture during the American colonial period. Dole and Del Monte established plantations in the island of Mindanao in the 1920s; in the provinces of Cotabato and Bukidnon, respectively. Large scale canning had started in Southeast Asia, including in the Philippines, from 1920. This trade was severely damaged by World War II, and Hawaii dominated the international trade until the 1960s. The Philippines remain one of the top exporters of pineapples in the world. The Del Monte plantations are now locally managed, after Del Monte Pacific Ltd., a Filipino company, completed the purchase of Del Monte Foods in 2014. Composition Nutrition Raw pineapple pulp is 86% water, 13% carbohydrates, 0.5% protein, and contains negligible fat (table). In a 100-gram reference amount, raw pineapple supplies 209 kilojoules (50 kilocalories) of food energy, and is a rich source of manganese (40% Daily Value, DV) and vitamin C (53% DV), but otherwise contains no micronutrients in significant amounts. Phytochemistry Pineapple fruits and peels contain diverse phytochemicals, among which are polyphenols, including gallic acid, syringic acid, vanillin, ferulic acid, sinapic acid, coumaric acid, chlorogenic acid, epicatechin, and arbutin. Present in all parts of the pineapple plant, bromelain is a mixture of proteolytic enzymes. It is present in stem, fruit, crown, core, leaves of pineapple itself. Bromelain is under preliminary research for treatment of a variety of clinical disorders, but has not been adequately defined for its effects in the human body. Bromelain may be unsafe for some users, such as in pregnancy, allergies, or anticoagulation therapy. Having sufficient bromelain content, raw pineapple juice may be useful as a meat marinade and tenderizer. Although pineapple enzymes can interfere with the preparation of some foods or manufactured products, such as gelatin-based desserts or gel capsules, their proteolytic activity responsible for such properties may be degraded during cooking and canning. The quantity of bromelain in a typical serving of pineapple fruit is probably not significant, but specific extraction can yield sufficient quantities for domestic and industrial processing. Varieties Cultivars Many cultivars are known. The leaves of the commonly grown "smooth cayenne" are smooth, and it is the most commonly grown worldwide. Many cultivars have become distributed from its origins in Paraguay and the southern part of Brazil, and later improved stocks were introduced into the Americas, the Azores, Africa, India, Malaysia and Australia. Varieties include: "Hilo" is a compact, 1.0- to 1.5-kg (2– to 3-lb) Hawaiian variant of smooth cayenne; the fruit is more cylindrical and produces many suckers, but no slips. "Kona sugarloaf", at 2.5 to 3.0 kg (5–6 lb), has white flesh with no woodiness in the center, is cylindrical in shape, and has a high sugar content but no acid; it has an unusually sweet fruit. "Natal queen", at 1.0 to 1.5 kg (2 to 3 lb), has golden yellow flesh, crisp texture, and delicate mild flavor; well-adapted to fresh consumption, it keeps well after ripening. It has spiny leaves and is grown in Australia, Malaysia, and South Africa. "Pernambuco" ("eleuthera") weighs 1–2 kg (2–4 lb), and has pale yellow to white flesh. It is sweet, melting in texture, and excellent for eating fresh; it is poorly adapted for shipping, has spiny leaves, and is grown in Latin America. "Red Spanish", at 1–2 kg (2–4 lb), has pale yellow flesh with a pleasant aroma, is squarish in shape, and well-adapted for shipping as fresh fruit to distant markets; it has spiny leaves and is grown in Latin America and the Philippines. It was the original pineapple cultivar in the Philippines grown for their leaf fibers (piña) in the traditional Philippine textile industry. "Smooth cayenne", a 2.5- to 3.0-kg (5- to 6-lb), pale yellow– to yellow-fleshed, cylindrical fruit with high sugar and acid content, is well-adapted to canning and processing; its leaves are without spines. It is an ancient cultivar developed by Amerind peoples. In some parts of Asia, this cultivar is known as Sarawak, after an area of Malaysia in which it is grown. It is one of the ancestors of cultivars "73-50" (also called "MD-1" and "CO-2") and "73–114" (also called "MD-2"). Smooth cayenne was previously the variety produced in Hawaii, and the most easily obtainable in U.S. grocery stores, but was replaced over the course of the mid-1990s and 2000s by MD-2. The success of Del Monte's MD-2 caused Dole to obtain & grow its own MD-2 pineapples, leading to Del Monte Fresh Produce Co. v. Dole Food Co.. Some Ananas species are grown as ornamentals for color, novel fruit size, and other aesthetic qualities. In the US, in 1986, the Pineapple Research Institute was dissolved and its assets divided between Del Monte and Maui Land and Pineapple. Del Monte took cultivar '73–114', dubbed 'MD-2', to its plantations in Costa Rica, found it to be well-suited to growing there, and launched it publicly in 1996 as 'Gold Extra Sweet', while Del Monte also began marketing '73–50', dubbed 'CO-2', as 'Del Monte Gold'. The Maui Pineapple Company began growing variety 73-50 in 1988 and named it Maui Gold. The successor company to MPC, the Hali'imaile Pineapple Company continues to grow Maui Gold on the slopes of Haleakala. Production In 2022, world production of pineapples was 29 million tonnes, led by Indonesia, the Philippines, and Costa Rica, each producing about 3 million tonnes. Uses Culinary The flesh and juice of the pineapple are used in cuisines around the world. In many tropical countries, pineapple is prepared and sold on roadsides as a snack. It is sold whole or in halves with a stick inserted. Whole, cored slices with a cherry in the middle are a common garnish on hams in the West. Chunks of pineapple are used in desserts such as fruit salad, as well as in some savory dishes, including the Hawaiian pizza, or as a grilled ring on a hamburger. Traditional dishes that use pineapple include hamonado, afritada, kaeng som pla, and Hawaiian haystack. Crushed pineapple is used in yogurt, jam, sweets, and ice cream. The juice of the pineapple is served as a beverage, and it is also the main ingredient in cocktails such as the piña colada and in the drink tepache. In the Philippines, a traditional jelly-like dessert called nata de piña has also been produced since the 18th century. It is made by fermenting pineapple juice with the bacteria Komagataeibacter xylinus. Pineapple vinegar is an ingredient found in both Honduran and Filipino cuisine, where it is produced locally. In Mexico, it is usually made with peels from the whole fruit, rather than the juice; however, in Taiwanese cuisine, it is often produced by blending pineapple juice with grain vinegar. The European Union consumed 50% of the global total for pineapple juice in 2012–2016. The Netherlands was the largest importer of pineapple juice in Europe. Thailand, Costa Rica and the Netherlands are the major suppliers to the European Union market in 2012–2016. Countries consuming the most pineapple juice in 2017 were Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, having combined consumption of 47% of the world total. The consumption of pineapple juice in China and India is low compared to their populations. Textiles The 'Red Spanish' cultivar of pineapples were once extensively cultivated in the Philippines. The long leaves of the cultivar were the source of traditional piña fibers, an adaptation of the native weaving traditions with fibers extracted from abacá. These were woven into lustrous lace-like nipis fabrics usually decorated with intricate floral embroidery known as calado and sombrado. The fabric was a luxury export from the Philippines during the Spanish colonial period and gained favor among European aristocracy in the 18th and 19th centuries. Domestically, they were used to make the traditional barong tagalog, baro't saya, and traje de mestiza clothing of the Filipino upper class, as well as women's kerchiefs (pañuelo). They were favored for their light and breezy quality, which was ideal in the hot tropical climate of the islands. The industry was destroyed in the Second World War and is only starting to be revived. Houseplant The variety A. comosus 'Variegatus' is occasionally grown as a houseplant. It needs direct sunlight and thrives at temperatures of 18 to 24 °C (64 to 75 °F), with a minimum winter temperature of 16 °C (61 °F). It should be kept humid, but the soil should be allowed to dry out between waterings. It has almost no resting period but should be repotted each spring until the container reaches 20 centimeters (8 in). Cultivation In commercial farming, flowering can be induced artificially, and the early harvesting of the main fruit can encourage the development of a second crop of smaller fruits. Once removed during cleaning, the top of the pineapple can be planted in soil and a new plant will grow. Slips and suckers are planted commercially. Storage and transport Some buyers prefer green fruit, others ripened or off-green. A plant growth regulator, Ethephon, is typically sprayed onto the fruit one week before harvest, developing ethylene, which turns the fruit golden yellow. After cleaning and slicing, a pineapple is typically canned in sugar syrup with added preservative. A pineapple never becomes any riper than it was when harvested since it is a non-climacteric fruit. Ethical and environmental concerns Like most modern fruit production, pineapple plantations are highly industrialized operations. In Costa Rica particularly, the pineapple industry uses large amounts of insecticides to protect the crop, which have caused health problems in many workers. These workers often receive little compensation, and are mostly poor migrants, often Nicaraguan. Workers' wages also decrease every time prices are lowered overseas. In 2016, the government declared that it would be trying to improve the situation, with the help of various other groups. Historically, tropical fruit agriculture, such as for pineapples, has been concentrated in so-called "banana republics". Illegal drug trade Export pineapples from Costa Rica to Europe are often used as a cover for narcotrafficking, and containers are impounded routinely in both locations. Expansion into protected areas In Costa Rica, pineapple cultivation has expanded into the Maquenque, Corredor Fronterizo, Barra del Colorado and Caño Negro wildlife refuges, all located in the north of the country. As those are protected areas and not national parks, limited and restricted sustainable activities are allowed, however pineapple plantations are industrial operations and many of these do not have the proper license to operate in the protected areas, or were started before either the designation of the area, recent regulations or the creation of the environmental regulatory agency (Setena) in 1996. The agency has registers for around 358.5 ha (1.384 sq mi) of pineapple plantations operating within protected areas, but satellite imagery from 2018 reports around 1,659 ha (6.41 sq mi). Pests and diseases Pineapples are subject to a variety of diseases, the most serious of which is wilt disease vectored by mealybugs typically found on the surface of pineapples, but possibly in the closed blossom cups. Other diseases include citrus pink disease, bacterial heart rot, anthracnose, fungal heart rot, root rot, black rot, butt rot, fruitlet core rot, and yellow spot virus. Pineapple pink disease (not citrus pink disease) is characterized by the fruit developing a brownish to black discoloration when heated during the canning process. The causal agents of pink disease are the bacteria Acetobacter aceti, Gluconobacter oxydans, Pantoea citrea and Tatumella ptyseos. Some pests that commonly affect pineapple plants are scales, thrips, mites, mealybugs, ants, and symphylids. Heart-rot is the most serious disease affecting pineapple plants. The disease is caused by Phytophthora cinnamomi and P. parasitica, fungi that often affect pineapples grown in wet conditions. Since it is difficult to treat, it is advisable to guard against infection by planting resistant cultivars where these are available; all suckers that are required for propagation should be dipped in a fungicide, since the fungus enters through the wounds. See also References Bibliography External links Pineapple Fruit Facts Archived 16 May 2005 at the Wayback Machine—information on pineapples from California Rare Fruit Growers "The Strange History of the 'King-Pine'" from The Paris Review

In the second album of a synthpop-rock band from the county seat city of Utah County, which song has a length of under 3 minutes, not counting any bonus tracks?

Everybody Talks

Numerical reasoning | Tabular reasoning | Multiple constraints

Utah County is the second-most populous county in the U.S. state of Utah. The county seat and largest city is Provo, which is the state's fourth-largest city, and the largest outside of Salt Lake County. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 665,665. Utah County is one of two counties forming the Provo–Orem metropolitan statistical area, and is part of the larger Salt Lake City–Provo–Orem, UT Combined Statistical Area. In 2020, the center of population of Utah was in Utah County, in the city of Saratoga Springs. Utah County is one of the fastest-growing counties in the United States, ranking among the top ten counties in numerical growth. Correspondingly, Provo–Orem is among the top eight metropolitan areas by percentage growth in the country. Utah County is one of seven counties in the United States to have the same name as its state. The other six counties are Arkansas County, Hawaii County, Idaho County, Iowa County, Oklahoma County and New York County (commonly known as Manhattan). History The legislature of the State of Deseret created a county on January 31, 1850, to govern the civic affairs of Utah Valley, which by the 1850s was bustling with newly arrived settlers. The county name is derived from the valley name, which is derived from the Spanish name (Yuta) for the Ute Indians. The State of Deseret dissolved soon after (April 5, 1851), but the counties it had set in place continued. There is little record of any official activity conducted by the fledgling county until April 18, 1852, when a full slate of county officials was published, and recordkeeping began. The first courthouse was built in central Provo in 1866–67. It was soon outgrown and was replaced by a second courthouse (1872–73). By the 1920s, this building was also cramped, and the decision was made to erect a combined city-county building, which was completed in 1926. The county's boundaries were adjusted in 1852, 1854, 1856, 1862, 1880, and 1884. It has retained its present boundary since 1884. Geography Utah County terrain ranges from stiff mountain ranges in the east (the Wasatch Range), dropping steeply to a large lake-filled valley. Most of the comparatively level ground is dedicated to agriculture or developed uses, while most of the steep terrain is covered with arid-climate forestation. The county generally slopes to the west and north, with its highest point (the northern peak of the twin-peaked Mt. Nebo in the southern part of the county), at 11,928 ft (3,636 m) ASL. The county has an area of 2,144 square miles (5,550 km2), of which 2,003 square miles (5,190 km2) is land and 141 square miles (370 km2) (6.6%) is water. Utah Valley lies at the center of the county, lined by the mountains of the Wasatch Range on the east. Utah Lake occupies a large part of the valley. The elevation ranges from 4,487 feet (1,368 m) above sea level at the lake to 11,928 feet (3,636 m) at the peak of Mount Nebo. Major highways Source: Protected areas Source: Lakes Source: Utah Lake Provo Bay (an extension of Utah Lake) Scofield Reservoir (part) Demographics 1 The 2000 census was the first to allow residents to select multiple race categories. Prior to 2000, the census used the category 'Other Race' as a catch-all identifier. For county-level census data in 1950 and 1900, Utah counted all non-White and non-Black residents using this category. 'Other races' formed 1.4% of Utah County's population in 1990, 0.43% in 1950, and 0.07% in 1900. 2020 census As of the 2020 United States Census, there were 659,399 people and 171,899 households in the county. The population density was 329.12 people per square mile (127.07 people/km2). There were 192,570 housing units, at an average density of 96.12 units per square mile (37.11 units/km2). The county's racial makeup was 89.4% White, 0.5% Black or African American, 0.6% American Indian or Alaska Native, 1.4% Asian, 0.8% Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, 4.6% some other race, and 2.7% from two or more races. 10.8% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. There were 140,602 households, out of which 47.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 69.9% were headed by married couples living together, 8.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 18.7% were non-families. Of all households, 11.6% were made up of individuals, and 4.4% were someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.57, and the average family size was 3.88. The county's population was spread out, with 35.2% under the age of 18, 15.8% from 18 to 24, 28% from 25 to 44, 14.5% from 45 to 64, and 6.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 24.6 years. For every 100 females, there were 100.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.7 males. At the 2000 census, the median income for a household in the county was $45,833, and the median income for a family was $50,196. Males had a median income of $37,878 versus $22,656 for females. The per capita income for the county was $15,557. About 6.80% of families and 12.00% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.40% of those under age 18 and 4.80% of those age 65 or over. 1 Due to respondents reporting multiple ethnicities, percentages may add up to greater than 100%. Religion 2000 census As of the 2000 United States Census, there were 516,564 people, 140,602 households, and 114,350 families in the county. The population density was 258 people per square mile (100 people/km2). There were 148,350 housing units, at an average density of 74.1 units per square mile (28.6 units/km2). The county's racial makeup was 89.4% White, 0.5% Black or African American, 0.6% American Indian or Alaska Native, 1.4% Asian, 0.8% Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, 4.6% some other race, and 2.7% from two or more races. 10.8% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. There were 140,602 households, out of which 47.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 69.9% were headed by married couples living together, 8.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 18.7% were non-families. Of all households, 11.6% were made up of individuals, and 4.4% were someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.57, and the average family size was 3.88. The county's population was spread out, with 35.2% under the age of 18, 15.8% from 18 to 24, 28% from 25 to 44, 14.5% from 45 to 64, and 6.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 24.6 years. For every 100 females, there were 100.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.7 males. At the 2000 census, the median income for a household in the county was $45,833, and the median income for a family was $50,196. Males had a median income of $37,878 versus $22,656 for females. The per capita income for the county was $15,557. About 6.80% of families and 12.00% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.40% of those under age 18 and 4.80% of those age 65 or over. In 2005, the five most reported ancestries in Utah County were: English: 30% German: 10% Danish: 7% Mexican: 5% Scottish: 4% Government The government is a three-member elected county commission elected at-large. Other elected officials include the county sheriff, the county clerk, county recorder, county assessor, county surveyor, county treasurer, and the county attorney. The current county attorney is Jeff Gray. In 2020, Utah County voters rejected Proposition 9, which would have changed the county's government to a five-member elected county council with an elected county mayor. The first sheriff of the county was John T. Willis, who was succeeded by William Madison Wall. Alexander Williams served during John Cradlebaugh's court in 1859. He was succeeded by Eli Whipple, who resigned in 1861 and was replaced by Russell Kelly. In 2020, Sheriff Mike Smith publicly stated he would not enforce COVID-19 face mask mandates. The Utah County Fire Department provides emergency response to all unincorporated areas within Utah County and works with all the incorporated cities within the county plus all Utah state and federal lands. The department is primarily a wildland fires response and urban interspace service with some structure fire and HAZMAT abatement capability. Politics As the center of Mormon culture, Utah County has been referred to as "the most Republican county in the most Republican state in the United States". It has only voted for a Democratic president nine times since statehood, and has not supported a Democrat for president since 1964. In the 1992 presidential election, George H. W. Bush received the most votes and Bill Clinton was third in votes received. In the 2004 presidential election, 85.99% voted for George W. Bush. In the 2008 U.S. presidential election, the county voted for John McCain by a 58.9% margin over Barack Obama, compared to McCain winning by 28.1% statewide. Eight other Utah counties voted more strongly in favor of McCain. In the 2012 election, Mitt Romney received 88.32% of the vote. In the 2016 election, it gave a slim majority of the vote to Donald Trump, and nearly 30% of the vote to independent candidate Evan McMullin, who outperformed Hillary Clinton in the county. This was McMullin's largest share of the vote in any county in Utah and his second best nationwide after Madison County, Idaho. In 2020, Joe Biden received over 75,000 votes - the Democrats had never previously received more than 30,000 votes in the county. Until 2013, Utah County was represented entirely by one congressional district. Currently, the county is split between two congressional districts. Most of the county's population is in the 3rd District, represented by Republican John Curtis, former Provo Mayor. Much of the county's area however, including Utah Lake, resides in the 4th District currently represented by Republican Burgess Owens. The county's Republican bent runs right through state and local politics. All five state senators representing the county, as well as all 14 state representatives, are Republicans. Social issues Utah County saw high rates of opioid and other prescription drug addiction from the mid-2000s onwards, foreshadowing the national opioid crisis. The 2008 documentary Happy Valley examined the problem. Giving USA, which reports on charitable giving in the US, named Utah County as one of the three most generous counties in philanthropic donations, alongside San Juan County, Utah and Madison County, Idaho. In 2019, one in eight people and one in six children in the county did not have sufficient food. Infrastructure Much of Utah's transportation infrastructure was built to support automobiles. Prior to the 1950s, Utah County relied on the U.S. Highway System for local transportation. When I-15 was built in 1956 (parallel to Highway 89), it became the dominant transportation vein in the state. The I-15 CORE project added multiple lanes on I-15 through most of Utah County. This expanded 24 miles (39 km) of freeway and was completed in 2012. Other construction projects by UDOT have been done on I-15 since then, including the Technology Corridor project and the Point of the Mountain project. However, the highway system retains its significance in Utah County due to the mountainous terrain. Highway 6 is the closest major road connecting Colorado to the Wasatch Front, running through Spanish Fork Canyon before converging with I-15 in the city of Spanish Fork. Portions of Highway 89 have become prominent local roads known collectively as 'State Street'. Highway 189 is known as 'University Avenue' in the city of Provo, and runs through Provo Canyon into Heber in neighboring Wasatch County. Utah County has seen significant growth in public transportation over the past 15 years, owing in part to the county's large student population of more than 70,000 commuting to-and-from Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo and Utah Valley University (UVU) in Orem. The two cities jointly operate UVX, a bus rapid transit system, as part of their city bus routes. Provo also serves as the southernmost terminus of the FrontRunner, Utah's intrastate commuter rail service. The Provo FrontRunner station is located on South University Avenue, directly southwest of Amtrak's Provo Station—which is Utah's third westbound stop, after Green River and Helper, for the California Zephyr Amtrak route. In addition to Provo, The FrontRunner currently has three stops in the county. The Orem FrontRunner station is located on the west side of I-15, served by a pedestrian bridge over the freeway that connects the UVU campus directly to the station. An additional stop in Vineyard, Utah was completed in August 2022. Utah County also operates the American Fork FrontRunner Station and the Lehi FrontRunner Station located near Thanksgiving Point. From Lehi, the FrontRunner leaves Utah County and enters Salt Lake County. Education School districts School dstricts include: Alpine School District Provo School District Nebo School District Colleges and universities Four-year institutions Brigham Young University (private) Utah Valley University (public) Provo College (private for-profit) Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions (private for-profit) Two-year institutions Mountainland Technical College (public) Communities Cities Towns Census-designated places Unincorporated communities Former communities See also National Register of Historic Places listings in Utah County, Utah References Further reading (1994) "Utah County" article in the Utah History Encyclopedia. The article was written by Roger Roper and the Encyclopedia was published by the University of Utah Press. ISBN 9780874804256. Archived from the original on March 21, 2024, and retrieved on March 27, 2024. External links Utah County official website Utah County municipal election results 2021 Utah County Sheriff's Office "Utah, a central county of Utah" . The American Cyclopædia. 1879.

Provo ( PROH-voh) is a city in and the county seat of Utah County, Utah, United States. It is 43 miles (69 km) south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front, and lies between the cities of Orem to the north and Springville to the south. With a population at the 2020 census of 115,162, Provo is the fourth-largest city in Utah and the principal city in the Provo-Orem metropolitan area, which had a population of 526,810 at the 2010 census. It is Utah's second-largest metropolitan area after Salt Lake City. Provo is the home to Brigham Young University (BYU), a private higher education institution operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Provo also has the LDS Church's largest Missionary Training Center (MTC). The city is a focus area for technology development in Utah, with several billion-dollar startups. The city's Peaks Ice Arena was a venue for the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002. History The Provo area was originally called Timpanogas, a Numic (Ute people) word perhaps meaning "rock river". The area was inhabited by the Timpanogos. It was the largest and most settled area in modern-day Utah. The ample food from the Provo River made the Timpanogos a peaceful people. The area also served as the traditional meeting place for the Ute and Shoshone tribes and was used as a common location for worship of their creator deity. Father Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, a Spanish Franciscan missionary-explorer, is considered the first European explorer to have visited the area in 1776. He was guided by two Timpanogos Utes, whom he called Silvestre and Joaquín. Escalante chronicled this first European exploration across the Great Basin Desert. The Europeans did not build a permanent settlement but traded with the Timpanogos, whom they called Lagunas (lake people) or Come Pescado (fish eaters). In 1847, the Mormon pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, which was just north of Timpanogos Mountain. At first, the Natives were friendly with the Mormons. But, as relations deteriorated with the Shoshoni and Utes because of disputes over land and cattle, tensions rose. Because of the reported stolen goods of settlers by the Utes, Brigham Young gave small militia orders "to take such measures as would put a final end to their [Indian] depredations in future." This ended in what is known as the Battle Creek massacre, in modern-day Pleasant Grove, Utah. The Mormons continued pushing into Timpanog lands. In 1849, 33 Mormon families from Salt Lake City established Fort Utah. In 1850, Brigham Young sent an army from Salt Lake to drive out the Timpanogos in what is called the Provo War. Escalating tensions with the Timpanog contributed to the Walker War. Fort Utah was renamed Provo in 1850 for Étienne Provost, an early French-Canadian trapper who arrived in the region in 1825. In 1850, the first schoolhouse was constructed in Provo, built within Utah Fort. As more Latter-day Saints arrived, Provo quickly grew as a city. It soon was nicknamed The Garden City with a large number of fruit orchards and gardens there. In 1872, a railroad reached Provo. It was also this year that the Provo Woolen Mills opened. They were the first large factory in Provo and employed about 150 people, initially mainly skilled textile laborers who had emigrated from Britain. Geography Provo lies on the eastern bank of Utah Lake in Utah Valley at an elevation of 4,549 feet (1,387 m). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 44.2 square miles (114.4 km2), of which 41.7 square miles (107.9 km2) is land and 2.5 square miles (6.5 km2), or 5.66%, is water. The Wasatch Range contains many peaks within Utah County along the east side of the Wasatch Front. One of them, known as Y Mountain, towers over the city. There is a large hillside letter Y made of whitewashed concrete halfway up the steep mountain, built in the early part of the 20th century to commemorate BYU (original plans included construction use of all three letters). Wild deer (and less frequently, cougars, and moose) still roam the mountains (and occasionally the city streets). The geography allows for hiking, skiing, fishing and other outdoor activities. Climate Provo's climate can be classified as either a hot-summer Mediterranean climate classification (Köppen: Csa) or as a cool semi-arid climate (Köppen: BSk). Overall, annual rainfall at the location of BYU is around 17.23 inches (440 mm); however, the western part of the metropolitan area near Orem is substantially drier, receiving only around 13.5 inches (340 mm) of precipitation and consequently has a cool semi-arid climate (Köppen: BSk). The wettest calendar year in Provo has been 1983 with 37.54 inches (953.5 mm) and the driest 2020 with 7.28 inches (184.9 mm). Winters are cold with substantial snowfall averaging 57.2 inches (145 cm) and a record monthly total of 66.0 inches (168 cm) in January 1918, during which the record snow cover of 34 inches (86 cm) was recorded on the 17th. Seasonal snowfall has ranged from 127.5 inches (324 cm) in 1983–84 to 10.1 inches (26 cm) in 2014–15. Very cold weather may occur when cold air from over the Continental Divide invades the region: although only four mornings fall to or below 0 °F or −17.8 °C during an average winter and this temperature was not reached at all between 1999 and 2006, during the very cold January 1917 (average temperature 14.9 °F; −9.5 °C), seventeen mornings fell this cold. By contrast, in several recent winters like 1994–95, 1995–96, 1999–2000, 2004–05, and 2005–06, averages have been above freezing every month. Temperatures warm rapidly during the spring, with the first afternoon over 70 °F (21.1 °C) on March 21, the last freeze expected on April 29, and the first temperature equal to or hotter than 90 °F (32.2 °C) on May 30. Rainfall is not infrequent during the spring: over 5.10 inches (130 mm) was recorded in the Mays of 1995 and 2011, and a total of 12.29 inches (312.2 mm) fell during the four-month span of March to June 2005 – in contrast as little as 2.04 inches (51.8 mm) fell in the same months of 2012. Being too far north to gain any influence from the monsoon except in rare cases like the 4.38 inches (111.3 mm) of rainfall of August 1983, Provo's summers are hot and dry, though relatively short – no maxima above 100 °F (37.8 °C) have been recorded outside the range of June 7 to August 27. Monthly maxima average over 91 °F (32.8 °C) in July and August, and precipitation averages under one inch per month with a two-month total in 2016 as low as 0.06 inches (1.5 mm). The hottest month on record is July 2003 with a mean of 81.8 °F (27.7 °C), and a mean maximum of 99.0 °F (37.2 °C). The hottest temperature on record is 108 °F (42.2 °C) on July 13, 2002. The fall season sees steady cooling and a transition to winter weather, with rare influences of rain systems from further south, as in the record wet month of September 1982, which saw 6.53 inches (165.9 mm) of total precipitation, including 4.15 inches (105.4 mm) over the last six days from a storm moving in from Arizona. The last maximum of 90 °F (32.2 °C) can be expected around September 10, and the first morning below freezing on October 14. Demographics 2020 census 2010 census At the 2010 census, 112,488 people, 31,524 households and 21,166 families resided in the city. The population density was 2,697.6 inhabitants per square mile (1,041.5/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 84.8% White, 0.7% Black or African American, 0.8% American Indian, 2.5% Asian, 1.1% Pacific Islander, 6.6% from other races, and 3.4% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race were 15.2% of the population. There were 31,524 households, of which 34.8% had children under 18 living with them, 55.4% were married couples living together, 8.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.9% were non-families. 12.8% of all households were made up of a single individual, and 4.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.24, and the average family size was 3.41. In the city, 22.3% of residents were under 18, 36.4% were from 18 to 24, 24.8% from 25 to 44, 10.5% from 45 to 64, and 5.8% were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 23.3 years. For every 100 females, there were 98.2 males. For every 100 females aged 18 and over, there were 96.4 males. 2000 census At the 2000 census, 105,166 people, 29,192 households and 19,938 families resided in the city. The population density was 2,653.2 inhabitants per square mile (1,024.4/km2). There were 30,374 housing units at an average density of 766.3/sq mi (295.9/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 88.52% White, 0.46% Black or African American, 0.80% American Indian, 1.83% Asian, 0.84% Pacific Islander, 5.10% from other races, and 2.44% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race were 10.47% of the population. There were 29,192 households, of which 33.8% had children under 18 living with them, 57.0% were married couples living together, 7.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.7% were non-families. 11.8% of all households were made up of a single individual, and 4.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.34, and the average family size was 3.40. In the city, 22.3% of residents were under 18, 40.2% from 18 to 24, 23.2% from 25 to 44, 8.6% from 45 to 64, and 5.7% were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 23 years. For every 100 females, there were 92.6 males. For every 100 females aged 18 and over, there were 89.3 males. The median household income was $34,313, and the median family income was $36,393. Males had a median income of $32,010 and females $20,928. The per capita income was $13,207. About 12.5% of families and 26.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 14.4% of those under age 18 and 4.3% of those aged 65 or over. The residents of Provo are predominantly members of the LDS Church. According to data taken in 2000 by the ARDA, 88% of the overall population, and 98% of religious adherents in the Provo-Orem area are Latter-day Saints. According to a study in 2015, the Provo-Orem metro area is about as dissimilar to the rest of America as possible. Weighing factors such as race, housing, income, and education, the study ranked Provo-Orem 376th of 381 of the United States' largest cities in terms of resemblance to the country. Religion According to the breakdown for Utah County in 2010, most people (90.6%) were Christian, with Latter-day Saints constituting 88.7% of the population. Catholics constituted 1.3% and Protestants constituted 0.6%. Other religions constituted 0.3% of the population. 9.1% of the population did not adhere to any religion. Economy Local companies Provo has more than 100 restaurants (with over 60 in the downtown area) and a couple of shopping centers. The Shops At Riverwoods and Provo Towne Centre, both shopping malls, operate in Provo. Several small shops, music venues, and boutiques have popped up downtown, along Center Street and University Avenue. Downtown has also begun to host "gallery strolls" every first Friday of the month that features local artists. There are many dining establishments in and around downtown Provo. Five Provo companies are listed on Inc.com's Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the United States. The largest, DieCuts With a View, is ranked number 1403 and has revenues of $26.2 million. Other companies on the list are VitalSmarts (ranked 4109, with $41.4 million in revenue), and Connect Public Relations (ranked 3694, with $6.1 million in revenue). The global recreation and entertainment company Ryze Trampoline Parks, with locations throughout Asia, Europe and the U.S., is headquartered in Provo. Novell, the dominant personal computer networking company from the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s, was headquartered in Provo and occupied several buildings at the height of its success. It was eventually acquired by The Attachmate Group and then by Micro Focus, which still maintains facilities there. The Food & Care Coalition is a local organization providing services to the homeless and low-income citizens of Provo and Utah Counties. They also provide volunteer opportunities. International companies Action Target, a shooting range manufacturer. Morinda Bioactives (formerly Tahitian Noni International) is a multi-level marketing health and skin care manufacturer whose products are based on the Tahitian fruit called noni. North American Arms, a firearms manufacturer. Nu Skin Enterprises, a multi-level marketing firm for skin care products, was founded in 1984. Qualtrics, a private research software company. Vivint (formerly APX Alarm Security Solutions) is a residential security company with customers. Top employers According to Provo's 2019 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city were: Arts and culture Annual cultural events Every July, Provo hosts America's Freedom Festival at Provo which includes the Stadium of Fire at BYU. It is held in LaVell Edwards Stadium, home to BYU's NCAA football team. The Independence Day festivities are popular among residents and have featured such notable figures as Bob Hope, David Hasselhoff, Reba McEntire, Mandy Moore, Huey Lewis and the News, Toby Keith, Sean Hannity, Fred Willard, and Taylor Hicks. In 2015, the event included performances by Journey and Olivia Holt, and was hosted by television personality Montel Williams. Provo has two other large festivals each fall. Festival Latinoamericano is an annual family-oriented Labor Day weekend event in downtown Provo that offers the community a taste of the region's Hispanic culture through ethnic food, vendors, and performances. The city has hosted an annual LGBT Provo Pride Festival since 2013. Points of interest Covey Center for the Arts The Covey Center for the Arts, a performing arts center, is at 425 West Center Street. It features plays, ballets, art showcases, and musical performances throughout the year. The size of the building is a total of 42,000 square feet (3,902 m2). The main performance hall seats 670 people. Three dance studios are furnished with a piano, ballet bars, and mirrors. Another theater, the Brinton Black Box Theater, seats 60 for smaller, more intimate events. There are also two art galleries: the 1,620-square-foot (151 m2) Secured Gallery and the Eccles Gallery in the lower lobby. LDS Church MTC Provo is the location of the church's largest MTC. Each week approximately 475 missionaries enter for 3–9 weeks of training before they depart for the mission field, becoming part of more than 58,000 in more than 120 countries. About 1,100 instructors (many of them returned missionaries) teach 62 languages. The MTC in Provo began construction in July 1974 and was completed in July 1976. The MTC was expanded in the early 1990s to become the largest of the 17 such centers than in the world. Additional construction was completed in 2017. Provo City Library at Academy Square The Provo City Library is a public library that occupies the building of the former Brigham Young Academy, built-in 1892. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. Its collection contains over 277,000 media. The library is on University Avenue and 550 North. Provo Recreation Center With construction finished in 2013, the center provides a location for aquatic recreation next to the Provo Power plant. Provo Utah Temple The Provo Utah Temple is at the base of Rock Canyon in Provo. This temple is among the busiest in the LDS Church due to its proximity to BYU and the MTC. Provo City Center Temple Located at the corner of University Avenue and Center Street, the Provo City Center Temple serves as another temple for the Provo area's Latter-day Saint population. After a fire in 2010 destroyed the Provo Tabernacle, Thomas S. Monson, then LDS Church president, announced the site would become the city's second temple. Renovations were finished and the temple was dedicated in March 2016. Utah Valley Convention Center The Utah Valley Convention Center opened in 2012. It has 83,578 square feet (7,764.7 m2) of combined meeting, pre-function and garden space. Other points of interest Brigham Young University Arboretum BYU Museum of Paleontology LaVell Edwards Stadium - home of the NCAA college football BYU Cougars as well as Stadium of Fire, an annual 4th of July fireworks show and concert The Marriott Center - home of the NCAA college basketball BYU Cougars. The Marriott Center is also used for large university gatherings, such as devotionals, guest lectures, and graduation ceremonies Peaks Ice Arena, hockey venue for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games The Provo River, a river known for fishing and the Provo River Parkway, a paved bicycle and walking trail adjacent to the river Reed O. Smoot House, a National Historic Landmark, at 183 East 100 South Seven Peaks Water Park, the largest water park in Utah. The Shops At Riverwoods, a center of residences, retail, and entertainment at the mouth of Provo Canyon Timpanogos Cave National Monument Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, a national forest on the Wasatch Front bordering the east edge of Provo and Utah Valley Utah Lake, a fresh-water lake popular for fishing, boating, and other recreational activities Government Federally, Provo is part of Utah's 3rd congressional district, represented by Republican John Curtis, elected in 2017. City administration Provo is administered by a seven-member city council and a mayor. Five of the council seats are elected by individual city districts, and two of the seats are elected by the city as a whole. These elected officials serve four-year terms, with elections alternating every two years. Provo has a Mayor–council government, which creates two separate but equal branches of government. The mayor is chief executive of the city and the council is the legislative and policy-making body of the city. The mayor is Michelle Kaufusi, who has been in office since December 5, 2017. Education Higher education BYU is a private university operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. BYU is the third-largest private university in the United States, with more than 34,000 students. It is the flagship of the Church Educational System of higher education. On the campus is the Spencer W. Kimball Tower, the tallest building in Provo. Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions is a private, for-profit university emphasizing graduate healthcare education. The Northwest Commission accredits the university of Colleges and Universities (NWCCU). RMUoHP offers programs in nursing practice, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and health science. RMUoHP will be building Utah County's first new medical school. Provo College is a private, for-profit educational institution specializing in career education. The school is accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS). Provo College offers associate degrees and diplomas in fields such as nursing, medical assisting, criminal justice, graphic design, and office administration. Primary and secondary education Almost all of Provo is within the Provo School District. The school board has seven members, each representing a different district of the city. There are thirteen elementary schools, two middle schools, and three high schools. Provo High School was the first school in Utah County to be an IB World school. The school has a record of 4A state basketball championships, more state champions than any other school in the state. Timpview High School has a record of 4A state football championships. A small section of the city lies within Alpine School District. Infrastructure Transportation Interstate 15 runs through western Provo, connecting it with the rest of the Wasatch Front and much of Utah. US-89 runs northwest to southeast through the city as State Street, while US-189 connects US-89 with I-15, BYU, and Orem to the north. At the north edge of the city, US-189 heads northeast into Provo Canyon, where it connects with Heber. Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, provides service to Provo station, operating its California Zephyr daily in both directions between Chicago, Illinois, and Emeryville, California (in the San Francisco Bay Area). Provo also can be accessed by Salt Lake Express intercity buses and the extensive Utah Transit Authority (UTA) bus system. UTA's commuter rail service, the FrontRunner, opened an extension to Provo from Salt Lake City on December 10, 2012. The Provo Intermodal Center, adjacent to the Amtrak station, connects the FrontRunner with local bus routes, as well as Greyhound service. The Provo Municipal Airport is Utah's second busiest airport regarding the number of aircraft take-offs and landings. Allegiant Airlines has been based out of the airport since 2022. Notable people Provo is home to (or the hometown of) many well-known people, including The Osmonds (including Donny, Marie, and the Osmond Brothers), LDS Church apostle Dallin H. Oaks, and NFL and BYU quarterback Steve Young. Goodwin Knight, who served as the 35th Governor of California (1947–1953), was born in Provo. The global economist Dambisa Moyo moved to Provo following her marriage to Qualtrics co-founder Jared Smith. Sister cities Provo has three sister cities designated by Sister Cities International: Nanning, China Chengdu, China Meissen, Germany See also List of cities and towns in Utah References External links Official website Provo historical images at the Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University Aerial view of Provo, Utah, MSS SC 2962 at L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University "Provo, Utah". C-SPAN Cities Tour. July 2016.

This is a list of notable people from Provo, Utah. This list includes notable individuals born and raised in Provo, those who currently live in Provo, and those who lived for a significant period in Provo. Notable people The Aces (indie pop band), indie pop/alternative pop band Tyson Apostol (b. 1979), contestant on reality TV show Survivor: Tocantins, Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, and winner of Survivor: Blood vs. Water Lindsay Arnold (b. 1994), ballroom dancer on Dancing With the Stars Earl W. Bascom (1906–1995), rodeo champion, inventor, sculptor, actor, inductee of 11 halls of fame, "father of modern rodeo" Clyde Bawden, composer and performer of contemporary Christian music. Robbie Bosco (b. 1963), former BYU football player Paul D. Boyer (1918–2018), 1997 Nobel Prize in Chemistry D. J. Butler, science fiction and fantasy writer Stephen Covey, educator Richard Davies, actor LaVell Edwards, BYU football Hall of Fame coach Paul Engemann, pop musician best known for his 1983 song "Scarface (Push It to the Limit)" Avard Fairbanks, sculptor Tom Holmoe, former BYU football and San Francisco 49er player; current BYU Athletic Director Julianne Hough, professional ballroom dancer on Dancing with the Stars, actress, singer Imagine Dragons, an indie rock band whose debut album Night Visions peaked at #2 on the Billboard 200 Joshua James, critically acclaimed folk singer and founder of Northplatte Records Merrill Jenson, composer Jenna Johnson, dancer on Dancing with the Stars Brian Kershisnik, artist Goodwin Knight, governor of California 1953-59 Vance Law, Major League Baseball player Vern Law, Major League Baseball player Rocky Long, defensive coordinator for the Syracuse Orange Bert McCracken, born in Provo, lead singer of Utah-based band The Used Kurt Mortensen, author Neon Trees, new wave, synthpop-rock band Dallin H. Oaks, member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Osmonds raised all nine children in Provo, some of whom continue to live there. Donny Osmond, singer, musician, actor Marie Osmond, singer, author, actress The Osmond Brothers, vocal group, band Trevor Packer, head of the Advanced Placement program at the College Board Jack Paepke, baseball player, coach, manager and scout Janice Kapp Perry, composer, LDS musician Fred Roberts, NBA player for seven teams including Utah Jazz Clarence Robison, Olympian and BYU track coach Ryan Shupe & the RubberBand, musicians, "Dream Big" Roland N. Smoot, U.S. Vice admiral Beatrice Sparks, psychologist and author Lindsey Stirling, hip-hop violinist Suzanne Storrs, 1955 Miss Utah and television actress Will Swenson, Tony Award-nominated actor Edgar A. Wedgwood, adjutant general of the Utah National Guard Brian Wimmer, actor Steve Young, quarterback; MVP of Super Bowl XXIX; inductee of Pro Football Hall of Fame and College Football Hall of Fame; record-breaking quarterback for BYU and San Francisco 49ers; television commentator See also Robert Redford, Academy Award-winning actor, film director, and producer, founder of the Sundance Film Festival, and longtime resident and owner of Sundance Ski Resort, located just outside Provo == References ==

Neon Trees are an American rock band from Provo, Utah. The band received nationwide exposure in late 2008 when they opened several North American tour dates for the band the Killers. Not long after, the band was signed by Mercury Records. Their first single, "Animal", climbed to No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the Alternative Songs chart. Since their formation, Neon Trees has released five studio albums: Habits (2010), Picture Show (2012), Pop Psychology (2014), I Can Feel You Forgetting Me (2020), and Sink Your Teeth (2024). The band has also released eight EPs (two exclusive to iTunes) and fourteen singles. History Formed initially by childhood friends Tyler Glenn (vocals, keyboards) and Chris Allen (guitar, vocals) who both grew up in Murrieta, California, the band made its first home in Provo after Glenn and Allen moved there from Southern California, eventually adding Branden Campbell (bass guitar, vocals) and Elaine Bradley (drums, percussion, vocals) to the lineup. David Charles also plays with the band as touring guitarist. They first started playing under the name Neon Trees in late 2005 with five original members, Tyler Glenn and Chris Allen from California, and three veterans of the Utah music scene, bass player Mike Liechty, drummer Jason Gibbons and keyboardist Nathan Evans. The band's name originates from the lighted trees on the In-N-Out Burger signs, which inspired Tyler Glenn. In a strange coincidence, it was later learned that Branden Campbell's father, Steve Campbell, installed the exact Neon Trees in the In-N-Out that inspired Glenn while working for a sign company out of Las Vegas. They released an EP, Becoming Different People, in 2006 during the time of their first tour through California. The EP featured promising songs like "Phones", "Sister Stereo", "Up Against the Glass". They also recorded other unreleased tracks during the "Treehouse Sessions" in 2006. The band's lineup soon narrowed down to four members with Branden Campbell and Elaine Bradley joining the group on bass and drums, respectively. Touring musician Bruce Rubenson on keyboards and drums joined in. Shortly thereafter, The Killers' drummer, Ronnie Vannucci Jr., went to watch the band play at a small club in Las Vegas as he had been in a Ska band called "Attaboy Skip" with Neon Trees bassist Branden Campbell prior to joining The Killers. Ronnie was impressed, and as a result they were chosen to open for The Killers for a string of dates on their 2008 North American tour. Vannucci later helped the band sign to major label Mercury Records, which was announced in late 2008. Additionally, the group was voted Band of the Year in 2009 by City Weekly, a popular Salt Lake City publication. 2010–11: Habits and commercial breakthrough Although they had several prior independent releases, the band released its debut album on Mercury/Island Def Jam, Habits, on March 16, 2010. "Animal" was chosen as the lead single and was shortly thereafter featured as the Free Single of the Week on iTunes in March 2010. They performed the song on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on March 23, 2010, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on May 14, 2010, Lopez Tonight on October 18, 2010, Live! with Regis & Kelly on November 4, 2010, and TBS' Conan on November 24, 2010. They performed a second single 1983 on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on January 13, 2011 and another stint on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Jan 18, 2011. They performed third single "Your Surrender" on Late Show with David Letterman on May 5, 2011 and a third appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Jun 10, 2011. Mark Hoppus of Blink-182 selected "Animal" as his Spin magazine Pick of the Week. The song has also been featured on a commercial for Las Vegas. The group has also released a digital EP of four remixes of the song, one of which by Tyler Glenn. In 2010, the band covered Justin Bieber's song "Baby" as well as Ben E. King's "Stand By Me". Throughout early 2010 the band, along with Mutemath and Street Drum Corps, opened for the Thirty Seconds to Mars tour Into the Wild. Subsequently, they headlined the Bang the Gong Tour with Paper Tongues, MeTalkPretty, and Civil Twilight in mid-2010, performed a set to 7,000 at Lollapalooza, and went on tour with Thirty Seconds to Mars in the last half of the year. In November 2010, the band released a Christmas single called "Wish List". It was available for free on iTunes the first week it was released. In November 2010, Tyler and Elaine appeared as Neon Trees on Daryl Hall's monthly Internet concert series Live from Daryl's House. They performed four songs from Habits, including "Animal" and "1983", as well as the Fleetwood Mac hit "Dreams" and Hall & Oates songs "Head Above Water" and "Adult Education." Neon Trees released a live album, iTunes Live from SoHo, in November 2010 featuring eight live tracks: "Calling My Name", "Animal", "Your Surrender", "Never Tear Us Apart", "In the Next Room", "1983", "Love and Affection", and "Sins of My Youth". From March 31, 2011, to April 23, 2011, they also opened for My Chemical Romance during the North American leg of their World Contamination Tour. They opened a show for Panic! at the Disco in Central Park in September 2011. In September and October 2011, they opened for Duran Duran on the North American leg of the All You Need Is Now tour. The band's song "Animal" was also performed by the cast of Glee in the 15th episode of Season 2 entitled "Sexy". 2011–13: Picture Show On December 7, 2011, an article published by Rolling Stone's website streamed the band's new song "Everybody Talks". On February 10, 2012, a video was posted on their official YouTube page, titled Neon Trees – Picture Show Teaser One / The New Album April 17, advertising their new album is to be released on April 17, 2012. In March 2012, Neon Trees and their single "Everybody Talks" were featured in a commercial for the 2012 Buick Verano. The single was covered in episode five of season four of Glee. Neon Trees' second studio album Picture Show was released on April 17, 2012. On June 28, 2012, Neon Trees was the opening act for the Flaming Lips concert poolside at the Hard Rock Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi as a part of their Guinness World Record for the most concerts in different cities (eight) in a 24-hour period. On August 29, 2012, Neon Trees performed "Everybody Talks" on the America's Got Talent live results show. In early fall 2012, the band toured with The Offspring and Dead Sara. In 2013 they joined Maroon 5 in their world tour alongside Owl City. In November/December 2013 they were a support act for Taylor Swift's three concerts in New Zealand and four concerts in Australia. The band was featured on NBC's coverage of the 2012 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. They performed an abbreviated version of their single "Everybody Talks". The second single from the album is the track "Lessons in Love (All Day, All Night)" with the collaboration of American record producer and D.J. Kaskade. 2014–2017: Pop Psychology Neon Trees' third studio album, Pop Psychology, was released on April 22, 2014. The first single from Pop Psychology, titled "Sleeping with a Friend", was released for digital download. The band performed the single on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on January 22, 2014. "Sleeping with a Friend" was solicited to U.S. Contemporary hit radio by both Mercury and Island Records on February 25, 2014. Neon Trees later released four more singles following "Sleeping with a Friend". The singles are titled "I Love You (But I Hate Your Friends)", "Voices In the Halls", and "First Things First". "First Things First" is the end credit song for the 2016 Netflix Original series Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. In 2015, the group announced the "An Intimate Night With Neon Trees" Tour. The tour ran from June 6, 2015, to July 26, 2015, finishing in Boston, Massachusetts, at the House Of Blues Boston. Opening acts included Alex Winston, Yes You Are, Coin, and Fictionist. On May 5, 2015, the band released a non-album single entitled "Songs I Can't Listen To" and an accompanying music video on June 3, 2015, featuring Dustin Lance Black. On August 4, 2017, the band premiered a new single "Feel Good". 2019–2023: I Can Feel You Forgetting Me Neon Trees released "Used to Like", the lead single from their fourth album, on November 13, 2019. The second single, "New Best Friend" was released on May 20, 2020. On July 10, 2020, the band released the third single called "Mess Me Up". The fourth and final single, "Nights", was released on July 22, 2020. The album, I Can Feel You Forgetting Me, was released on July 24, 2020. In December 2021, they released a new single and video, "Holiday Rock". 2023-present: Sink Your Teeth Sink Your Teeth is the fifth studio album by Neon Trees and is expected to be released on September 20, 2024. There are 12 songs on the album. On June 30, 2023, the first and lead single of the album Favorite Daze was released. The second single, Losing My Head, was released on September 15, 2023. Three more singles were released in early 2024 before the album; Bad Dreams (May 31st), El Diablo (July 19th), and Cruel Intentions (August 28th) The 7 other tracks are coming out September 20, these include "Secret", "Recover", "Heaven", "Past Life", "Paper Cuts", "Acting", and "Leave". Musical style Neon Trees' musical style has been described as pop rock, new wave, synth-pop, indie rock, alternative rock, pop, and electropop. When describing the band's sound, Heather Phares of AllMusic wrote "Neon Trees blend new wave, dance, and indie into smart, catchy pop." Sputnikmusic described the band's debut studio album Habits as a "refreshing blast of timeless rock energy and spirit that wouldn’t sound out of place at any point from ‘60s garage-rock to 2010 dance rock." Band members Current members Chris Allen – lead and rhythm guitar, backing vocals (2005–present) Tyler Glenn – lead vocals (2005–present); keyboards, piano, synthesizer, occasional rhythm guitar (2006–present) Elaine Bradley – drums, percussion, backing vocals, occasional lead vocals and rhythm guitar (2007–present) Branden Campbell – bass guitar, backing vocals (2007–present) Former members Mike Liechty – bass guitar (2005–2006) Jason Gibbons – drums, percussion (2005–2006) Nathan Evans – keyboards, piano, synthesizer (2005–2006) Touring musicians David Charles – rhythm guitar (2005–present) Bruce Rubenson – drums, percussion, keyboards, piano, synthesizer (2006–present) Timeline Discography Habits (2010) Picture Show (2012) Pop Psychology (2014) I Can Feel You Forgetting Me (2020) Sink Your Teeth (2024) Awards and nominations APRA Music Awards BMI Pop Awards Billboard Music Awards International Dance Music Awards MTV Europe Music Awards World Music Awards References External links Official website Neon Trees at Island/Def Jam

Picture Show is the second studio album by American rock band Neon Trees. The lead single, "Everybody Talks", was released on December 20, 2011, and the album was released on April 17, 2012. The music video for "Everybody Talks" was released on March 8, 2012. On March 15, 2012 an interview with Neon Trees stated that Picture Show would have 11 tracks and 4 bonus tracks. On March 19, the cover art for Picture Show was released, and on March 27, the cover art for the deluxe edition was revealed on their livestream appearance, along with confirmation of a vinyl version that will available for the deluxe edition. The album was produced by Justin Meldal-Johnsen, mixed by Billy Bush and engineered by Carlos de la Garza, Billy Bush and Greg Collins. It was mastered by Joe LaPorta. "Everybody Talks" was used in the Homeland episode "Q&A". The episode aired on October 28, 2012. "Moving in the Dark" was used in the NCIS episode "Namesake". The episode aired on October 30, 2012. Promotion The band released their lead single, "Everybody Talks" in December 2011 and a video followed in early March 2012. The single has currently peaked at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the top 20 of 7 other major charts on Billboard. The band also went on tour with AWOLNATION across the country, and has toured college campuses/festivals alone. Reception The album debuted at number 77 in Canada, and number 17 on the United States Billboard 200. Picture Show received generally mixed to positive reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 63, based on 7 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Billboard gave the album a mixed review, saying that Neon Trees were successful in keeping their new album similar to its predecessor, Habits, but their experimenting did not pay off (with songs like, "Trust" that last over 6 minutes). Similarly, Rolling Stone gave the album 3 stars out of 5, also saying that, "Four of its last five tracks exceed five minutes. Neon Trees clearly hope there's life beyond bubblegum". Entertainment Weekly similarly gave the album a C+ grade. Track listing Personnel Neon Trees Tyler Glenn – lead vocals, background vocals, keyboards, synthesizers, programming Branden Campbell – bass, background vocals Christopher Allen – guitars, background vocals Elaine Bradley – drums, percussion, background vocals, lead vocals on "Mad Love" Additional Musicians Justin Meldal Johnsen – guitars, keyboards, background vocals, programming, percussion Carlos de la Garza – percussion Kaskade – additional vocals & production on "Lessons In Love (All Day, All Night)" Horn Section David Ralicke – tenor saxophone, alto saxophone Jordan Katz – trumpet Steve Baxter – trombone Release history == References ==

The name of which supernova remnant nebula spelled backwards (not including the word "nubula") is a homonym for a large sailing ship?

Crab Nebula ("barc" is a homonym for "barque")

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This is a list of observed supernova remnants (SNRs) in the Milky Way, as well as galaxies nearby enough to resolve individual nebulae, such as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds and the Andromeda Galaxy. Supernova remnants typically only survive for a few tens of thousands of years, making all known SNRs fairly young compared to many other astronomical objects. See also List of supernovae Supernova Lists of astronomical objects References External links List of all known (extra)galactic supernova remnants at The Open Supernova Catalog. Chandra Galactic SNR gallery SNRcat, the online high-energy catalogue of supernova remnants

A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts of which the fore mast, mainmast, and any additional masts are rigged square, and only the aftmost mast (mizzen in three-masted barques) is rigged fore and aft. Sometimes, the mizzen is only partly fore-and-aft rigged, bearing a square-rigged sail above. Etymology The word "barque" entered English via the French term, which in turn came from the Latin barca by way of Occitan, Catalan, Spanish, or Italian. The Latin barca may stem from Celtic barc (per Thurneysen) or Greek baris (per Diez), a term for an Egyptian boat. The Oxford English Dictionary, however, considers the latter improbable. The word barc appears to have come from Celtic languages. The form adopted by English, perhaps from Irish, was "bark", while that adopted by Latin as barca very early, which gave rise to the French barge and barque. In Latin, Spanish, and Italian, the term barca refers to a small boat, not a full-sized ship. French influence in England led to the use in English of both words, although their meanings now are not the same. Well before the 19th century, a barge had become interpreted as a small vessel of coastal or inland waters, or a fast rowing boat carried by warships and normally reserved for the commanding officer. Somewhat later, a bark became a sailing vessel of a distinctive rig as detailed below. In Britain, by the mid-19th century, the spelling had taken on the French form of barque. Although Francis Bacon used the spelling with a "q" as early as 1592, Shakespeare still used the spelling "barke" in Sonnet 116 in 1609. Throughout the period of sail, the word was used also as a shortening of the barca-longa of the Mediterranean Sea. The usual modern spelling convention is that, to distinguish between homophones, when spelled as barque it refers to a ship, and when spelled as bark it refers to either a sound or to a tree hide. "Barcarole" in music shares the same etymology, being originally a folk song sung by Venetian gondoliers and derived from barca—"boat" in Italian, or in Late Latin. Bark In the 18th century, the Royal Navy used the term bark for a nondescript vessel that did not fit any of its usual categories. Thus, when the British admiralty purchased a collier for use by James Cook in his journey of exploration, she was registered as HM Bark Endeavour to distinguish her from another Endeavour, a sloop already in service at the time. Endeavour happened to be a full-rigged ship with a plain bluff bow and a full stern with windows. William Falconer's Dictionary of the Marine defined "bark", as "a general name given to small ships: it is however peculiarly appropriated by seamen to those which carry three masts without a mizzen topsail. Our Northern Mariners, who are trained in the coal-trade, apply this distinction to a broad-sterned ship, which carries no ornamental figure on the stem or prow." The UK's National Archives state that a paper document, surviving from the 16th century in the Cheshire and Chester Archives and Local Studies Service, notes the names of Robert Ratclyfe, owner of the bark Sunday and 10 mariners appointed to serve under Rt. Hon. the Earl of Sussex, Lord Deputy of Ireland. Barque rig By the end of the 18th century, the term barque (sometimes, particularly in the US, spelled bark) came to refer to any vessel with a particular type of sail plan. This comprises three (or more) masts, fore-and-aft sails on the aftermost mast and square sails on all other masts. Barques were the workhorse of the golden age of sail in the mid-19th century as they attained passages that nearly matched full-rigged ships, but could operate with smaller crews. The advantage of these rigs was that they needed smaller (therefore cheaper) crews than a comparable full-rigged ship or brig-rigged vessel, as fewer of the labour-intensive square sails were used, and the rig itself is cheaper. Conversely, the ship rig tended to be retained for training vessels where the larger the crew, the more seamen were trained. Another advantage is that, downwind, a barque can outperform a schooner or barkentine, and is both easier to handle and better at going to windward than a full-rigged ship. While a full-rigged ship is the best runner available, and while fore-and-aft rigged vessels are the best at going to windward, the barque and the barquentine, are compromises, which combine, in different proportions, the best elements of these two. Whether square-rig, barque, barquentine or schooner is optimal depends on the degree to which the sailing-route and season can be chosen to achieve following-wind. Square-riggers predominated for intercontinental sailing on routes chosen for following-winds. Most ocean-going windjammers were four-masted barques, due to the above-described considerations and compromises. Usually the main mast was the tallest; that of Moshulu extends to 58 m off the deck. The four-masted barque can be handled with a surprisingly small crew—at minimum, 10—and while the usual crew was around 30, almost half of them could be apprentices. Today many sailing-school ships are barques. A well-preserved example of a commercial barque is the Pommern, the only windjammer in original condition. Its home is in Mariehamn outside the Åland maritime museum. The wooden barque Sigyn, built in Gothenburg 1887, is now a museum ship in Turku. The wooden whaling barque Charles W. Morgan, launched 1841, taken out of service 1921, is now a museum ship at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. The Charles W. Morgan has recently been refit and is (as of summer, 2014) sailing the New England coast. The United States Coast Guard still has an operational barque, built in Germany in 1936 and captured as a war prize, the USCGC Eagle, which the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London uses as a training vessel. The Sydney Heritage Fleet restored an iron-hulled three-masted barque, the James Craig, originally constructed as Clan Macleod in 1874 and sailing at sea fortnightly. The oldest active sailing vessel in the world, the Star of India, was built in 1863 as a full-rigged ship, then converted into a barque in 1901. This type of ship inspired the French composer Maurice Ravel to write his famous piece, Une Barque sur l'ocean, originally composed for piano, in 1905, then orchestrated in 1906. Statsraad Lehmkuhl is in active operation in its barque form, stripped down without most of its winches and later improvements more aligned to the upbringing of future sailors both as a schoolship, training operations for the Norwegian Navy and generally available for interested volunteers. During the summer of 2021, it hosted "NRK Sommarskuta" with live TV everyday sailing all of the Norwegian coast from north to south and crossing the North Sea to Shetland. After this it will perform its first full sailing trip around world, estimated to take 19 months with many promotional events along the way. Scientific equipment has been installed in support of ongoing university studies to monitor and log environmental data. Barques and barque shrines in Ancient Egypt In Ancient Egypt, barques, referred to using the French word as Egyptian hieroglyphs were first translated by the Frenchman Jean-François Champollion, were a type of boat used from Egypt's earliest recorded times and are depicted in many drawings, paintings, and reliefs that document the culture. Transportation to the afterlife was believed to be accomplished by way of barques, as well, and the image is used in many of the religious murals and carvings in temples and tombs. The most important Egyptian barque carried the dead pharaoh to become a deity. Great care was taken to provide a beautiful barque to the pharaoh for this journey, and models of the boats were placed in their tombs. Many models of these boats, that range from tiny to huge in size, have been found. Wealthy and royal members of the culture also provided barques for their final journey. The type of vessel depicted in Egyptian images remains quite similar throughout the thousands of years the culture persisted. Barques were important religious artifacts, and since the deities were thought to travel in this fashion in the sky, the Milky Way was seen as a great waterway that was as important as the Nile on Earth; cult statues of the deities traveled by boats on water and ritual boats were carried about by the priests during festival ceremonies. Temples included barque shrines, sometimes more than one in a temple, in which the sacred barques rested when a procession was not in progress. In these stations, the boats would be watched over and cared for by the priests. Barque of St. Peter The Barque of St. Peter, or the Barque of Peter, is a reference to the Roman Catholic Church. The term refers to Peter, the first Pope, who was a fisherman before becoming an apostle of Jesus. The Pope is often said to be steering the Barque of St. Peter. See also Barquentine or barkentine (three masts, fore mast square-rigged) Brigantine (two masts, fore mast square-rigged) Jackass-barque (three masts, fore mast and upper part of mizzen mast square-rigged) Schooner Windjammer List of large sailing vessels References Further reading Wilhelmsen, Frederick D. (1956). Omega: Last of the barques. Westminster, Maryland: Newman Press. LCCN 56011411. OCLC 3439968. External links Description of the four-masted barque Kaiwo Maru

What award did the arachnologist who discovered several species of pseudoscorpions endemic to Australia receive in 2013? The species he discovered in 1987 belong to the Garypidae family and the Synsphyronus genus.

The Bonnet Award by the International Society of Arachnology

Multiple constraints

Pseudoscorpions, also known as false scorpions or book scorpions, are small, scorpion-like arachnids belonging to the order Pseudoscorpiones, also known as Pseudoscorpionida or Chelonethida. Pseudoscorpions are generally beneficial to humans because they prey on clothes moth larvae, carpet beetle larvae, booklice, ants, mites, and small flies. They are common in many environments, but they are rarely noticed due to their small size. When people see pseudoscorpions, especially indoors, they often mistake them for ticks or small spiders. Pseudoscorpions often carry out phoresis, a form of commensalism in which one organism uses another for the purpose of transport. Characteristics Pseudoscorpions belong to the class Arachnida. They are small arachnids with a flat, pear-shaped body, and pincer-like pedipalps that resemble those of scorpions. They usually range from 2 to 8 mm (0.08 to 0.31 in) in length. The largest known species is Garypus titanius of Ascension Island at up to 12 mm (0.5 in). Range is generally smaller at an average of 3 mm (0.1 in). A pseudoscorpion has eight legs with five to seven segments each; the number of fused segments is used to distinguish families and genera. They have two very long pedipalps with palpal chelae (pincers), which strongly resemble the pincers found on a scorpion. The pedipalps generally consist of an immobile "hand" and mobile "finger", the latter controlled by an adductor muscle. Members of the clade Iocheirata, which contains the majority of pseudoscorpions, are venomous, with a venom gland and duct usually located in the mobile finger; the venom is used to immobilize the pseudoscorpion's prey. During digestion, pseudoscorpions exude a mildly corrosive fluid over the prey, then ingest the liquefied remains. The abdomen, referred to as the opisthosoma, is made up of twelve segments, each protected by sclerotized plates (called tergites above and sternites below). The abdomen is short and rounded at the rear, rather than extending into a segmented tail and stinger like true scorpions. The color of the body can be yellowish-tan to dark-brown, with the paired claws often a contrasting color. They may have two, four or no eyes. Pseudoscorpions spin silk from a gland in their jaws to make disk-shaped cocoons for mating, molting, or waiting out cold weather, but they do not have book lungs like true scorpions and the Tetrapulmonata. Instead, they breathe exclusively through tracheae, which open laterally through two pairs of spiracles on the posterior margins of the sternites of abdominal segments 3 and 4. Behavior The male produces a spermatophore which is attached to the substrate and is picked up by the female. Members of the Cheliferoidea (Atemnidae, Cheliferidae, Chernetidae and Withiidae) have an elaborate mating dance, which ends with the male navigating the female over his spermatophore. In Cheliferidae, the male also uses his forelegs to open the female genital operculum, and after she has mounted the packet of sperm, assisting the spermatophore's entry by pushing it into her genital opening. Females in species that possess a spermatheca (sperm storing organ) can store the sperm for a longer period of time before fertilizing the eggs, but species without the organ fertilize the eggs shortly after mating. The female carries the fertilized eggs in a brood pouch attached to her abdomen. Between 2 and 50 young are hatched in a single brood, with more than one brood per year possible. The young go through three molts called the protonymph, deutonymph and tritonymph. The developing embryo and the protonymph, which remain attached to the mother, is nourished by a ‘milk’ produced by her ovary. Many species molt in a small, silken igloo that protects them from enemies during this vulnerable period. After reaching adulthood they no longer molt, and will live for 2–3 years. They are active in the warm months of the year, overwintering in silken cocoons when the weather grows cold. Smaller species live in debris and humus. Some species are arboreal, while others are phagophiles, eating parasites in an example of cleaning symbiosis. Some species are phoretic, others may sometimes be found feeding on mites under the wing covers of certain beetles. Distribution More than 3,300 species of pseudoscorpions are recorded in more than 430 genera, with more being discovered on a regular basis. They range worldwide, even in temperate to cold regions such as Northern Ontario and above the timberline in Wyoming's Rocky Mountains in the United States and the Jenolan Caves of Australia, but have their most dense and diverse populations in the tropics and subtropics, where they spread even to island territories such as the Canary Islands, where around 25 endemic species have been found. There are also two endemic species on the Maltese Islands. Species have been found under tree bark, in leaf and pine litter, in soil, in tree hollows, under stones, in caves such as the Movile Cave, at the seashore in the intertidal zone, and within fractured rocks. Chelifer cancroides is the species most commonly found in homes, where it is often observed in rooms with dusty books. There, the tiny animals (2.5–4.5 mm or 0.10–0.18 in) can find their food such as booklice and house dust mites. They enter homes by riding insects (phoresy) larger than themselves, or are brought in with firewood. Evolution The oldest known fossil pseudoscorpion, Dracochela deprehendor is known from cuticle fragments of nymphs found in the Panther Mountain Formation near Gilboa in New York, dating to the mid-Devonian, around 383 million years ago. It has all of the traits of a modern pseudoscorpion, indicating that the order evolved very early in the history of land animals. Its morphology suggests that it is more primitive than any living pseudoscorpion. As with most other arachnid orders, the pseudoscorpions have changed very little since they first appeared, retaining almost all the features of their original form. After the Devonian fossils, almost no other fossils of pseudoscorpions are known for over 250 million years until Cretaceous fossils in amber, all belonging to modern families, suggesting that the major diversification of pseudoscorpions had already taken place by this time. The only fossil from this time gap is Archaeofeaella from the Triassic of Ukraine, approximately 227 million years ago, which is suggested to be an early relative of the family Feaellidae. Historical references Pseudoscorpions were first described by Aristotle, who probably found them among scrolls in a library where they would have been feeding on booklice. Robert Hooke referred to a "Land-Crab" in his 1665 work Micrographia. Another reference in the 1780s, when George Adams wrote of "a lobster-insect, spied by some labouring men who were drinking their porter, and borne away by an ingenious gentleman, who brought it to my lodging." Classification The following taxon numbers are calculated as of the end of 2023. Atemnidae Kishida, 1929 (21 genera, 194 species) Bochicidae Chamberlin, 1930 (12 genera, 44 species) Cheiridiidae Hansen, 1894 (9 genera, 81 species) Cheliferidae Risso, 1827 (64 genera, 312 species) Chernetidae Menge, 1855 (120 genera, 728 species) Chthoniidae Daday, 1888 (54 genera, 909 species) Feaellidae Ellingsen, 1906 (8 genus, 37 species) Garypidae Simon, 1879 (11 genera, 110 species) Garypinidae Daday, 1888 (21 genera, 94 species) Geogarypidae Chamberlin, 1930 (2 genera, 81 species) Gymnobisiidae Beier, 1947 (4 genera, 17 species) Hyidae Chamberlin, 1930 (2 genera, 41 species) Ideoroncidae Chamberlin, 1930 (15 genera, 86 species) Larcidae Harvey, 1992 (1 genus, 15 species) Menthidae Chamberlin, 1930 (5 genera, 12 species) Neobisiidae Chamberlin, 1930 (34 genera, 748 species) Olpiidae Banks, 1895 (24 genera, 211 species) Parahyidae Harvey, 1992 (1 genus, 1 species) Pseudochiridiidae Chamberlin, 1923 (2 genera, 13 species) Pseudogarypidae Chamberlin, 1923 (2 genera, 12 species) Pseudotyrannochthoniidae Beier, 1932 (6 genera, 80 species) Sternophoridae Chamberlin, 1923 (3 genera, 21 species) Syarinidae Chamberlin, 1930 (18 genera, 125 species) Withiidae Chamberlin, 1931 (37 genera, 170 species) †Dracochelidae Schawaller, Shear & Bonamo, 1991 (1 genus, 1 species) Cladogram After Benavides et al., 2019, with historic taxonomic groups from Harvey (1992). References Further reading Mark Harvey (2011). Pseudoscorpions of the World Joseph C. Chamberlin (1931): The Arachnid Order Chelonethida. Stanford University Publications in Biological Science. 7(1): 1–284. Clarence Clayton Hoff (1958): List of the Pseudoscorpions of North America North of Mexico. American Museum Novitates. 1875. PDF Max Beier (1967): Pseudoscorpione vom kontinentalen Südost-Asien. Pacific Insects 9(2): 341–369. PDF Peter Weygoldt (1969). The biology of pseudoscorpions. Harvard University Press, Cambridge. ISBN 9780674074255. P. D. Gabbutt (1970): Validity of Life History Analyses of Pseudoscorpions. Journal of Natural History 4: 1–15. W. B. Muchmore (1982): Pseudoscorpionida. In "Synopsis and Classification of Living Organisms." Vol. 2. Parker, S.P. J. A. Coddington, S. F. Larcher & J. C. Cokendolpher (1990): The Systematic Status of Arachnida, Exclusive of Acari, in North America North of Mexico. In "Systematics of the North American Insects and Arachnids: Status and Needs." National Biological Survey 3. Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Mark S. Harvey (1991): Catalogue of the Pseudoscorpionida. (edited by V . Mahnert). Manchester University Press, Manchester. External links Media related to Pseudoscorpiones at Wikimedia Commons Data related to Pseudoscorpiones at Wikispecies Video of Pseudoscorpions in Ireland

Garypidae is a family of pseudoscorpions, first described by Eugène Simon in 1879. Genera As of October 2023, the World Pseudoscorpiones Catalog accepts the following eleven genera: Ammogarypus Beier, 1962 Anagarypus Chamberlin, 1930 Anchigarypus Harvey, 2020 Elattogarypus Beier, 1964 Eremogarypus Beier, 1955 Garypus L. Koch, 1873 Meiogarypus Beier, 1955 Neogarypus Vachon, 1937 Paragarypus Vachon, 1937 Synsphyronus Chamberlin, 1930 Thaumastogarypus Beier, 1947 == References ==

Synsphyronus is a genus of pseudoscorpions in the Garypidae family. It was described in 1930 by American arachnologist Joseph Conrad Chamberlin. Its distribution is mainly in Australia, but also extends to New Zealand and New Caledonia. Species The genus contains the following species: == References ==

Mark Stephen Harvey (born 17 September 1958) is a museum scientist and biologist. Since 1989 he has been based at the Western Australian Museum. Career Harvey graduated from Monash University in 1983 with a PhD titled "Contributions to the systematics of the pseudoscorpionida (arachnida) : the genus synsphyronus chamberlin (garypidae) and the family sternophoridae". His research interests include the systematics and evolution of arachnids and other terrestrial invertebrates. As of November 2019, he is a member and Vice-President of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. Achievements, awards and recognition Harvey was presented with the 1991 Edgeworth David Medal by the Royal Society of New South Wales, and the Bonnet Award by the International Society of Arachnology in 2013. In 2017, he was awarded the Distinguished Career Award by the Society of Australian Systematic Biologists. == References ==

As of August 2, 2024, what is the title of the most viewed episode in the second most viewed season of the TV show that Zooey Deschanel stars in as a character named "Jess Day"?

The most viewed episode of the second season (second most viewed) is its first episode, "Re-Launch".

Numerical reasoning | Multiple constraints

Zooey Claire Deschanel ( ZO-ee day-shə-NEL; born January 17, 1980) is an American actress and musician. She made her film debut in Mumford (1999) and had a supporting role in Cameron Crowe's film Almost Famous (2000). Deschanel is known for her deadpan roles in comedy films such as The Good Girl (2002), The New Guy (2002), Elf (2003), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), Failure to Launch (2006), Yes Man (2008), 500 Days of Summer (2009), and Our Idiot Brother (2011). She has also ventured into dramatic film territory with Manic (2001), All the Real Girls (2003), Winter Passing (2005), Bridge to Terabithia (2007), The Happening (2008), and The Driftless Area (2015). From 2011 to 2018, she starred as Jess Day on the Fox sitcom New Girl, for which she received nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and three Golden Globe Awards. For a few years starting in 2001, Deschanel performed in the jazz cabaret act If All the Stars Were Pretty Babies with actress Samantha Shelton. In 2006, Deschanel teamed up with M. Ward to form She & Him, and subsequently released their debut album, Volume One, in 2008. They have since released six albums: Volume Two (2010), A Very She & Him Christmas (2011), Volume 3 (2013), Classics (2014), Christmas Party (2016), and Melt Away: A Tribute to Brian Wilson (2022). She received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Song Written for Visual Media for "So Long", which was featured on the soundtrack of the 2011 film Winnie the Pooh. Besides singing, she plays keyboards, percussion, banjo, and ukulele. Deschanel is also a co-founder of the female-focused website HelloGiggles, which was acquired by Time Inc. in 2015. Early life Zooey Claire Deschanel was born in Los Angeles, California on January 17, 1980, the younger daughter of cinematographer and director Caleb Deschanel and actress Mary Jo Deschanel (née Weir). Her paternal grandfather was French, from Oullins, Rhône, and her paternal grandmother came from a Quaker family; she also has Swiss, Dutch, English, Irish, and other French ancestry. She was named after Zooey Glass, the protagonist of J. D. Salinger's 1961 novella Franny and Zooey. Her older sister is actress Emily Deschanel, who starred in the Fox crime comedy-drama series Bones. Deschanel lived in Los Angeles, but spent much of her childhood traveling because her father shot films on location. She later said that she: ... hated all the traveling... I'm really happy now that I had the experience, but at the time I was just so miserable to have to leave my friends in Los Angeles and go to places where they didn't have any food I liked or things I was used to. She attended Crossroads, a private preparatory school in Santa Monica, where she befriended future co-stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Kate Hudson. She sang throughout high school, planning to pursue a career in musical theatre and attending French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts. She attended Northwestern University for nine months before dropping out to pursue acting. Acting career 1997–2002: Early acting credits Deschanel had a guest appearance on the television series Veronica's Closet in 1998. She made her film debut in Lawrence Kasdan's comedy Mumford (1999), revolving around the neurotic residents in a small town and co-starring Hope Davis, Jason Lee, Alfre Woodard and Mary McDonnell. That same year, she appeared in a non-singing role in the music video for The Offspring's single "She's Got Issues", which premiered on September 27, 1999. Deschanel was a judge for the ninth Independent Music Awards. In 2005, she modeled for Chanel and Clements Ribeiro, and in 2010, she signed to represent Rimmel. Deschanel co-starred in Cameron Crowe's semi-autobiographical Almost Famous (2000), where she played Anita Miller, the rebellious older sister of a teenage journalist. Despite a modest box office response, the film received critical praise, winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Film – Musical or Comedy. Deschanel appeared in the independent drama Manic (2001), as the love interest of a troubled teen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). The film was screened at the Sundance Film Festival and received a limited theatrical release. The New York Times found Deschanel to be "particularly spontaneous, unaffected and emotionally direct" in her role. Following early notice, Deschanel took on supporting parts in four feature films released throughout 2002: Big Trouble, The New Guy, The Good Girl, and Abandon. In the comedy Big Trouble, with Tim Allen and Rene Russo, she played the daughter of a devoted and reluctant woman, and in the teen comedy The New Guy, starred as a guitar player in a band. Deschanel portrayed a cynical, plain-spoken young woman working in a big-box store in the black dramedy The Good Girl, opposite Jennifer Aniston and Jake Gyllenhaal. The psychological thriller Abandon saw her play the roommate of a woman involved in her boyfriend's disappearance. Deschanel also made a one-episode appearance in Frasier, as Roz's out-of-control Cousin, Jen. The New York Times reported that Deschanel was "one of Hollywood's most sought-after young stars", in 2002, and the Los Angeles Times wrote in early 2003 that Deschanel had become a recognizable type, due to "her deadpan, sardonic and scene-stealing [film] performances" as the protagonist's best friend. Deschanel objected to her typecasting, arguing, "A lot of these roles are just a formula idea of somebody's best friend, and it's like, I don't even have that many friends. In high school, I stayed home all the time, so I don't know how I'm everybody's best friend now." 2003–2010: Breakthrough Deschanel obtained her first leading film role debut in the independent drama All the Real Girls (2003) as Noel, a sexually curious 18-year-old virgin who has a life-changing romance with an aimless 22-year-old. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was an arthouse success. Her performance received wide critical acclaim, and Variety remarked: "Performances are all credible and naturalistic, but standing out from the rest is Deschanel's work, which evinces an impressively direct connection to her character's emotions. The actress does a wonderful job presenting a young woman who is trying, with varying degrees of success, to give voice to all sorts of things she has never felt or expressed before". She received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Actress. Also in 2003, Deschanel starred opposite Will Ferrell in the Christmas comedy Elf as a deadpan department store worker and the love interest of a man raised by Santa's elves. Reviewers found the film to be a "spirited, good-natured family comedy" as part of an overall positive critical response; and, budgeted at US$33 million, Elf made US$220.4 million worldwide. In 2004, Deschanel starred in Eulogy, and in 2005 played Trillian in the film adaptation of Douglas Adams's science fiction novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. She acted in Winter Passing (2005), co-starring Will Ferrell. Deschanel next appeared in Failure to Launch (2006), as the neurotic roommate of Sarah Jessica Parker's character. She also had a recurring role in four episodes of the Showtime television series Weeds from 2006 to 2007 where she played Kat, Andy Botwin's ex-girlfriend. In September 2006, it was announced that Deschanel had signed on to play 1960s singer Janis Joplin in the film The Gospel According to Janis, to be co-written and directed by Penelope Spheeris. The film was scheduled to begin shooting in 2006, but was then postponed indefinitely; it was then resurrected again, with a planned release date of 2012, before being cancelled altogether in 2011. Deschanel expressed frustration with the cancellation, saying she had spent three years working on imitating Joplin's scratchy singing voice. In 2007, Deschanel played a music teacher in Bridge to Terabithia, and the voice of a penguin in the animated film Surf's Up. She had a small role as Dorothy Evans in the revisionist Western The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and starred in the B comedy Flakes, which was released in only one theater. Deschanel starred as DG in the Syfy miniseries Tin Man, a re-imagined science fiction version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It aired in December 2007. Deschanel also narrated the children's book Players in Pigtails. She voiced Mary, Cletus's daughter in three episodes of The Simpsons since debuting on the April 27, 2008, episode, "Apocalypse Cow". In M. Night Shyamalan's thriller The Happening (2008), she starred opposite Mark Wahlberg as a couple trying to escape from an inexplicable natural disaster. Despite largely negative reviews, critic Roger Ebert felt that Wahlberg and Deschanel's performances "bring a quiet dignity to their characters", and globally, the film made US$163 million. She starred in the independent comedy Gigantic (2008), which screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and was distributed for a limited release in certain parts of the United States only. In the comedy Yes Man (also 2008), she played an unorthodox singer and the girlfriend of Jim Carrey's character. The film grossed US$223.1 million around the world. Deschanel reunited with Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the independent romantic drama about the development and demise of a relationship (500) Days of Summer (2009). The film garnered critical acclaim and became a "sleeper hit", earning over $60 million in worldwide returns, far exceeding its $7.5 million budget. Mark Adams of the Daily Mirror found the film to be a "modern romance for grown-ups" and a "sweet-natured, funny, deeply-romantic tale" blessed with "top-notch performances by Deschanel and Gordon-Levitt, who are both charming and have real chemistry". In December 2009, Deschanel guest-starred in a Christmas episode of the Fox crime procedural comedy-drama Bones, which was the first-ever on-screen pairing of the Deschanel sisters. Since 2010: New Girl and other projects Deschanel was originally the top choice for Janet van Dyne / The Wasp in an early draft of Joss Whedon's The Avengers in which she would have played a prominent role. However, once Scarlett Johansson was cast as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow, Deschanel was no longer in consideration to portray the Wasp with Janet's daughter Hope van Dyne taking up the mantle in the Infinity Saga, played by Evangeline Lilly. Deschanel starred in the comedy Our Idiot Brother (2011) as the independent and bisexual sister of a dimwitted but idealistic man (Paul Rudd). The production was screened at the Sundance Film Festival, to a generally positive critical reception. She played Belladonna in the stoner fantasy-comedy Your Highness (2011), with Danny McBride and James Franco. The film received negative reviews and bombed at the box office. Describing her role, Roger Ebert noted in its review for the film: "[Deschanel is] brought onstage, quickly kidnapped by an evil sorcerer, spends a good deal of time as a captive in his lair, is rescued and lives happily ever after. She might as well be a mannequin, for all she's given to say and do. This intelligent, nuanced actress, standing there baffled. Used as a placeholder". Deschanel signed on to star as a bubbly and offbeat teacher Jessica "Jess" Day on the Fox sitcom New Girl, created by Elizabeth Meriwether. She became a producer on the show and helped build the character, which she has described as a part of her, especially in regards to "the sort of enthusiasm and optimism" of her youth. The series premiered in September 2011, and USA Today described her performance as "a role tailored to launch her from respected indie actor to certified [television] star, Deschanel soars, combining well-honed skills with a natural charm". She has received an Emmy Award nomination and three Golden Globe nominations for her role. The series finale ran on May 15, 2018. Deschanel hosted Saturday Night Live on February 11, 2012. That same year, she was featured in a commercial for the iPhone 4S (Siri). In Rock the Kasbah (2015), she played a Los Angeles singer taken to Afghanistan by her former manager (Bill Murray). Despite a US$15 million budget, the comedy only made US$3 million at the North American box office. She obtained the role of a mysterious woman in the neo-noir drama The Driftless Area (2015), screened at the Tribeca Film Festival and released on video on demand and home media. She voiced a kind-hearted Bergen, Bridget, in the animated family comedy Trolls (2016), which grossed US$344 million worldwide. In December 2020, Deschanel appeared in the music video for Katy Perry's song "Not the End of the World". In 2021, she co-hosted the ABC television series The Celebrity Dating Game with Michael Bolton. In January 2022, she began cohosting Welcome to Our Show, a New Girl rewatch podcast with co-stars Hannah Simone and Lamorne Morris, distributed by IHeartRadio. Deschanel appears as Kelly in season 3 of Physical released on August 2, 2023 and Nancy in Dreamin' Wild, released on August 4, 2023. She would also appear as Terry in Harold and the Purple Crayon, which was released on August 2, 2024. Music career Singing and performing In 2001, Deschanel formed If All the Stars Were Pretty Babies, a jazz cabaret act with fellow actress Samantha Shelton. The pair performed around Los Angeles. In March 2007, Deschanel contributed vocals to two songs "Slowly" and "Ask Her to Dance" on the album Nighttiming by Jason Schwartzman's band Coconut Records. It was reported that Deschanel and M. Ward, who had previously performed with Deschanel on-stage, were recording music under the moniker She & Him. Their first album, titled Volume One, was released by Merge Records on March 18, 2008. It received a strong response from critics, with Paste magazine voting it the No. 1 Album of 2008. Patrick Caldwell of the Austin American Statesman wrote: "The album gently rambled through 13 tracks of sun-dappled pop, with a gentle Orbisonian charm and sweet, wistful vocals from Deschanel." Deschanel recorded "The Fabric of My Life" for a 2009 advertising campaign for Cotton Incorporated. On March 23, 2010, the second She & Him album, Volume Two, was released. Deschanel and M. Ward both featured on The Place We Ran From (2010), the album by Snow Patrol member Gary Lightbody's side project, Tired Pony. Deschanel contributed vocals to the tracks "Get on the Road" and "Point Me at Lost Islands", while M. Ward contributed vocals and guitar to the track "Held in the Arms of Your Words" and guitar to the track "That Silver Necklace". Deschanel performed "God Bless America" during the seventh-inning stretch in game three of the National League Championship Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and San Francisco Giants on October 19, 2010, at AT&T Park in San Francisco. On October 23, 2011, Deschanel performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" before game four of the World Series between the Texas Rangers and the St. Louis Cardinals at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Texas. Deschanel contributed a cover of Buddy Holly's "It's So Easy" for the tribute album Listen to Me: Buddy Holly, released on September 6, 2011. She had previously appeared on Rave On Buddy Holly, with She & Him performing "Oh, Boy!", released in June 2011. A Very She & Him Christmas was announced on Pitchfork.com in September 2011. The 12-track Christmas album was released October 25, 2011, under Merge Records. On December 28, 2011, she and Joseph Gordon-Levitt recorded an informal version of "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" for her HelloGiggles YouTube channel. It was immensely popular and within four days had over 6 million views. Deschanel was featured on bandmate M. Ward's sixth solo album, A Wasteland Companion (2012). During a May 2012 performance at the Ryman Auditorium, country music singer Loretta Lynn announced that she was in the development stages of creating a Broadway musical from her autobiography and Deschanel would play the title role., saying, "There's a little girl back stage that's going to do the play of 'Coal Miner's Daughter' on Broadway". She then brought Deschanel onstage and the two sang a duet of the title song. On September 21, 2012, it was announced that Deschanel was producing the comedy Must Be Nice, written by New Girl consulting producer J. J. Philbin. She and Him's next album, Volume 3 was released by Merge Records in May 2013. In the 15-track album, Deschanel wrote eleven songs, while three others are cover songs. It debuted at number 15 on the Billboard 200. The band's fifth studio album, Classics, received a December 2014 release by Columbia Records, and it features 13 covers of classic songs, recorded live and accompanied by a 20-piece orchestra. Response towards the album was positive, with Robert Hamm for Alternative Press writing that Deschanel "is a delight, at times coy and romantic, and in other moments, moody and pensive". She also appeared as a guest vocalist on Brian Wilson's album No Pier Pressure (2015). She & Him's second Christmas album and sixth album overall, Christmas Party, was released in 2016. Film-related music Deschanel made her on-screen singing debut in The New Guy (2002). In Elf (2003), she sings "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with Will Ferrell in the bathroom shower scene, "Auld Lang Syne" with James Caan on piano and with Leon Redbone on the soundtrack. Her piano composition "Bittersuite" was used thematically in the dark dramedy Winter Passing (2006), in which she co starred with Ferrell and Ed Harris, and also sings "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean" in the film. In 2007, other singing credits followed: the television musical Once Upon a Mattress ("An Opening for a Princess", "In a Little While", "Normandy", and "Yesterday I Loved You"); an old cabaret song in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford ("A Bird in a Gilded Cage"); and the short film Raving ("Hello, Dolly!"). Deschanel and a cast of school children sing the Steve Earle song "Someday" and War's "Why Can't We Be Friends?" in Bridge to Terabithia. In Yes Man (2008), Deschanel sings several songs featured in the film and on the film soundtrack, and is shown singing "Uh-Huh" and "Sweet Ballad" with San Franciscan all-girl electro soul-punk group Von Iva in a fictional band called "Munchausen by Proxy". In 500 Days of Summer (2009), Deschanel sings a cover of The Smiths's "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want" and it appears on the soundtrack of the film, as performed by She & Him. She also sings a cover of "Sugar Town" by Nancy Sinatra. Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt did a music video, called Bank Dance, directed by 500 Days of Summer director Marc Webb, to accompany the film. It uses the She & Him song "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?", and some complicated choreography, choreographed by Michael Rooney. Mason Novick, the film's producer said, "We made the short because Zooey came in and said, 'I have this idea ... because I didn't get to dance in the movie'" (as Gordon-Levitt did). Deschanel sings "The Greatest Most Beautiful Love Song in All the Land" with James Franco in the comedy Your Highness (2011). She also appears with M. Ward in a number of songs on the soundtrack album for Disney's animated version of Winnie the Pooh (2011), earning a Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media nomination for "So Long". Deschanel wrote and performed the theme song to New Girl. Also, in season three's episode "Prince", the song "Fallinlove2nite" is sung by Deschanel and Prince. In Rock the Kasbah (2015), she sang a cover of Meredith Brooks's "Bitch", which is featured in the soundtrack for the film. In 2016, Deschanel voiced Bridget, the scullery maid in the animated film Trolls. Other work In May 2011, after the success of her HelloGiggles YouTube channel, Deschanel, along with producer Sophia Rossi and writer Molly McAleer, founded the website HelloGiggles.com, an entertainment website geared towards women. HelloGiggles.com was acquired by Time, Inc. in 2015. In 2023, Deschanel hosted the Max informational show What Am I Eating?. It was based on a previous series Deschanel did for ATTN:, Your Food's Roots. Personal life Deschanel is allergic to eggs, dairy products, and soy. She had a gluten allergy, but stated in a 2022 interview on Armchair Expert that she no longer suffers from it. She used to be a vegan, which she gave up because she found it difficult to eat enough calories on a vegan diet due to her sensitivities to wheat and soy. A year prior to giving up her vegan diet, she was featured on episode eight of season one of Bravo's Top Chef Masters, in which the chefs participating in the competition were challenged to cater a vegan lunch party for her family and friends using no soy or gluten. Deschanel is currently a pescetarian. In December 2008, Deschanel became engaged to musician Ben Gibbard, lead vocalist for Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service. They married on September 19, 2009, near Seattle, Washington. On November 1, 2011, they announced their separation. Deschanel filed for divorce on December 27, 2011, citing "irreconcilable differences". The divorce was finalized on December 12, 2012. Deschanel confirmed her engagement to film producer Jacob Pechenik in January 2015, and they married in June 2015. They have two children: a daughter born in July 2015, and a son born in May 2017. Deschanel reportedly converted to Judaism before marrying Pechenik, who is Jewish. In August 2019, Deschanel met Property Brothers star Jonathan Scott while filming an episode of Carpool Karaoke: The Series. On September 6, 2019, Deschanel and Pechenik announced their separation. Deschanel and Pechenik divorced on June 1, 2020. On August 13, 2023, Deschanel and Scott announced their engagement at Edinburgh Castle in Scotland. Filmography Discography Awards and nominations References External links Zooey Deschanel at IMDb Zooey Deschanel on Instagram Zooey Deschanel Archived October 14, 2013, at the Wayback Machine Video produced by Makers: Women Who Make America

New Girl is an American television sitcom created by Elizabeth Meriwether and produced by 20th Century Fox Television for Fox that aired from September 20, 2011, to May 15, 2018. The series revolves around quirky teacher, Jessica Day (Zooey Deschanel), after she moves into a Los Angeles loft with three men, Nick Miller (Jake Johnson), Schmidt (Max Greenfield), and Coach (Damon Wayans Jr.). Former roommate Winston Bishop (Lamorne Morris) and Jess's best friend Cece Parekh (Hannah Simone) later join the characters. The show combines comedy and drama elements as the characters, who are in their late 20s and early 30s, deal with relationship issues and career choices. New Girl is a joint production between Elizabeth Meriwether Pictures and 20th Century Fox Television and is syndicated by 20th Television. Produced in Los Angeles as a single-camera comedy, New Girl is an ensemble show aimed at a general audience. New Girl received acclaim from critics and was named one of the best new comedies of the 2011 fall season. The pilot episode drew 10.28 million U.S. viewers and a 4.8 adults 18–49 demo rating, making it the highest-rated fall debut for a Fox scripted show since 2001. Particular praise has been given to the performances of Deschanel, Greenfield, Simone, Johnson and Morris. The show has garnered increased mainstream viewership following its inclusion on Netflix, becoming one of the most popular shows on the platform. The series concluded its seven season run in May 2018. Plot Jessica "Jess" Day (Zooey Deschanel), a bubbly and quirky teacher in her late 20s, comes home from vacation to find her boyfriend, Spencer (Ian Wolterstorff), with another woman and leaves him immediately to look for somewhere else to live. After Jess answers an ad for a new roommate on Craigslist, she moves into a loft in Los Angeles with three men around her own age: Nick, Schmidt, and Coach. After the pilot episode, Winston, a former roommate and Nick's childhood friend, replaces Coach, who leaves the apartment to live with his girlfriend. Jess' childhood best friend, Cece, a fashion model frequently visits Jess and the guys. The series follows the group's interactions with each other as they become closer friends and develop romantic relationships. Midway through season 1, Schmidt and Cece become involved in a mostly sexual relationship but break up at the end of the season. In Season 2, Jess is laid off from her teaching job; she and the others get involved in mostly temporary relationships however, Cece enters an arranged marriage engagement with Shivrang (Satya Bhabha) that is broken up at their wedding in the season 2 finale when Cece realizes she loves Schmidt. Schmidt had recently started dating his old college girlfriend Elizabeth had to choose between Elizabeth and Cece. Meanwhile, Nick and Jess develop feelings and start dating at Cece's wedding, making their relationship official at the end of season 2,and it lasts through most of season 3 until they realize that ultimately, they want different things in life. Coach returns to the loft in season 3, revealing that he had broken up with his girlfriend and rejoins the gang, and even has a short fling with Cece after ending the short relationship with Schmidt. He stays through season 4 until he moves out to be with another girl, May (Meaghan Rath) to New York. At the end of season 4, Schmidt proposes to Cece, and they marry at the end of season 5. Meanwhile, after bouncing around several random jobs and several dating choices throughout the series, Winston works to become a police officer with the LAPD, and falls in love with his partner Aly (Nasim Pedrad). In the beginning of season 5, Jess is called away to jury duty resulting in the group bringing in temporary roommate Reagan Lucas (Megan Fox), who becomes Nick's love interest for the rest of the season. Shortly after returning from jury duty, Jess realizes that she loves Nick and wants to be with him. At the end of season 6, Nick and Reagan break up and shortly after, Nick and Jess get together, Cece and Schmidt are pregnant, and Winston is engaged to Aly and is trying to meet his father. Season 7 advances the storyline three years later where Schmidt and Cece have a three-year-old daughter named Ruth, Winston and Aly are expecting their first baby, and Nick proposes to Jess. Cast and characters The principal cast of New Girl includes: Zooey Deschanel as Jessica "Jess" Day: a bubbly, offbeat teacher in her early thirties who is originally from Portland, Oregon. In the premiere episode, she moves into the guys' apartment where Nick, Schmidt, and Coach help her move on from a painful break-up with her boyfriend, Spencer. She later dates Nick on-and-off eventually becoming engaged in the final season. Jake Johnson as Nick Miller: Jess' roommate who works as a bartender at a nearby bar. At the start of the series, he struggles with a break-up with his long-term girlfriend Caroline. He and Jess have an on-and-off relationship but ultimately end up together. Max Greenfield as Schmidt: Jess' roommate, a seemingly confident ladies' man. He is a successful marketing associate in a female-dominated office. He dates Cece in the earlier seasons but this ends after he cheats on her. However, they later marry and have a child, Ruth. Lamorne Morris as Winston Bishop: a former basketball player and Nick's childhood friend from Chicago. Returns to the loft after playing for the Latvian Basketball League, in the second episode. He later becomes a cop and meets his wife on the force. He is very close to his cat, Ferguson, and sometimes is mocked for this. Hannah Simone as Cece: a fashion model and Jess' best friend since childhood. In spite of their differences, Cece is a very loyal and protective friend to Jess. Initially skeptical of Jess' new roommates, Cece becomes interested in Schmidt and integrates herself more and more socially with the others as time progresses. Damon Wayans Jr. as Coach (pilot, season 4; special guest seasons 3 & 5–7): a cocky and driven former athlete who works as a personal trainer. He appears briefly in the "Pilot" episode as a roommate but leaves in the second episode. After a break-up with his girlfriend, Coach returns to the loft two years later and reintegrates himself back into the lives of his former roommates, becoming a coach at the middle school Jess teaches at. Megan Fox as Reagan Lucas (starring season 5; recurring season 6): is an attractive, no-nonsense bisexual pharmaceutical sales rep, first appearing in season 5 when she comes to town on business and rents out Jess' room while the latter is sequestered on jury duty (during Zooey Deschanel's parental leave). She knows Cece from a previous gig they did together. Danielle and Rhiannon Rockoff as Ruth (season 7): Schmidt and Cece's three-year-old daughter. Special guest stars Taylor Swift as Elaine (season 2 finale): Shivrang's love interest who Shivrang leaves Cece for during their wedding. Prince as Prince (season 3 episode "Prince"): hosts a party the characters attend and provides relationship advice for Nick and Jess. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (season 1 episode "Normal"): works with Winston and shares a cubicle wall with him. Production Conception 20th Century Fox Television first approached playwright Elizabeth Meriwether in 2008 to develop a pilot that was eventually shelved. After Meriwether's success with the 2011 romantic comedy film No Strings Attached, 20th Century Fox approached her once more, and she pitched an idea for a TV sitcom about an "offbeat girl moving in with three single guys", inspired by her experience of "bouncing from Craigslist sublet to Craigslist sublet, for four years in L.A." when she was in her twenties. This show was initially called Chicks and Dicks with two of the characters similar to the final characters of Jess and Schmidt. The initial idea was a Will & Grace-style comedy inspired by Meriwether's close friendship with a guy after their exes started dating each other. The Fox network liked the script and pursued Zooey Deschanel for the role of Jess, to whose story Meriwether felt most connected. As the script developed, the plot moved on from being about the sexual endeavors of the roommates and became more socially oriented, so the title was changed to New Girl. The show attempts to combine "comedy and drama as the five characters explore the difficulties of the decade between 30 and 40, which is when many people take their biggest steps toward maturity" with regard to relationships and careers, which, unlike Friends, is giving the show a "built-in biological clock". Producer Jake Kasdan said that "Their lives are moving forward, [but] they're still trying to hang on to some kind of crazy youth" although he does not "want them ever to seem pathetic." Casting Movie actress and singer-songwriter Zooey Deschanel was in the process of developing an HBO show when she read the New Girl pilot script and responded to the material. The character of Jess was not specifically written for Deschanel, but the producers found it a great match and adjusted it to better fit the actress. With the support from Fox, Meriwether wanted to make Jess a unique, interesting and funny female character that would have been the side character on other shows. Deschanel became a producer on the show and helped build the character, requesting to not play the classic wife character who would be ignored by the guys she tries to keep out of trouble. Meriwether's goal was to write about herself from an honest perspective, with Jess mirroring her at the start and later Deschanel until Jess turned into a "hybrid of me and Zooey, the writers, and the editor". Deschanel described Jess as a part of her, especially with regard to "the sort of enthusiasm and optimism" of her youth. She does not shy away from playing embarrassing scenes or being unattractive. As Kasdan said, "This show advocates for the attractive dork." Although Meriwether had always imagined the show as an ensemble show, Fox would later focus its first marketing push on Zooey Deschanel and gave the show the promotional tagline "Simply Adorkable." Basing Nick Miller on a friend also surnamed Miller, she originally imagined Nick as the smartest one of the group who doesn't need to say that and thought of him as "the everyman one, who's stepping away and commenting on what all the crazy people are doing around him." She sent the New Girl pilot script to movie actor Jake Johnson, with whom she had enjoyed working on No Strings Attached and guided him through the audition process. Johnson auditioned with Max Greenfield, who impressed the producers in his first audition as Schmidt. The actors auditioning for Schmidt were more varied in appearance than those auditioning for Nick, and Johnson and Greenfield were initially worried that they looked too much alike. however, both men were cast the same day. Meriwether originally envisioned Coach as "a fat Jewish guy, like a manchild" and later as "this dumb jock [with] crazy rage problems". David Neher (who would play Schmidt's so-called "fremesis," Benjamin, in four episodes) was among the 400 actors auditioning for Coach before the producers settled on Damon Wayans Jr. who was expecting his show, the ABC sitcom Happy Endings, to be cancelled. When that show was renewed for a second season, Wayans' spot was replaced with Lamorne Morris, who had also read for Coach but had been unavailable for filming the pilot. Meriwether estimated that about 80 percent of the pilot would have needed to be re-shot in order to remove Wayans from the episode, since he was in one of the leading roles of the show. As the producers also liked reflecting the frequent apartment changes in young people's lives, Meriwether, 20th Century Fox and the studio decided to keep the characters and the plot of the pilot episode as they were. Morris joined the show in the second episode of the series when the producers had already broken seven episodes without knowing what the actor was going to be able to do. Wayans returned to New Girl in season 3 for a season-long arc after Happy Endings had been cancelled, and was officially added as a regular for season 4. Writing New Girl had 11 writers during its first season and 15 during the second season—including Elizabeth Meriwether, Brett Baer, and Dave Finkel. Stories were developed in a collaborative effort and aimed at viewers of any gender. Writers intended to keep actors and audiences on their toes by planning very few story arcs and focusing on setting up characters in the first couple seasons . The writers challenged themselves to create new stories and change the show's dynamics to keep things fresh, while aiming to be "as emotionally real as possible." As the show's jokes rely on the actors' performance instead of perfectly constructed punch lines, Meriwether looked for the actors' strengths before writing. The A story generally revolved around Jess and had an emotional core. Still, Meriwether saw the show as an ensemble about friendship with "everybody having their own stories and people being interested in all of the characters." Each New Girl episode started out as a pitch page, went through stages of an outline and a final draft before being filmed and edited, a process which could take weeks. The writers were broken up to rework drafts until they found the funniest and most emotionally resonant version. All characters were aimed to be tied into the story, and determining their motivation was the major goal so that people would laugh. During the first season, Meriwether usually made a final pass at the draft alone because of her film and theater background. The actors' performance influenced new story ideas with the actors also handing in story ideas. Filming and editing The main set built for the pilot was to represent a factory-turned-loft in downtown Los Angeles. It was reused once the show was given a full season. The apartment building exterior is the Binford Building, located at 837 Traction Avenue in the city's Arts District, with interior shots done in a studio set. The exterior shots for the bar where Nick works is of The Griffin (now The High Low), located in Atwater Village. The interior shots of the bar are originally from a restaurant called The Prince in Koreatown, and were recreated in a studio set after the first season. As a single-camera comedy, New Girl is neither performed in front of a studio audience nor has a laugh track. Some scenes are cross-covered (i.e. are filmed with a shooting camera on each person at the same time), to allow for better improvisations. Handheld cameras are avoided for a more filmic look. The actors first perform scenes as written, then act out the alternatives or improvise, to later allow the producers and editors to choose the gags that ultimately work best. Morris estimated that 20 percent of each episode is improvised. True American True American is a fictional, convoluted drinking game that the New Girl characters first played in the season 1 episode 20, "Normal". After "Normal" aired, internet sources began to summarize the rules for True American, which the characters described as a mix of a drinking game and Candy Land where the floor is lava; it also involves shouting the names of American presidents. The idea of True American came from a New Girl writer who played a similar game in college. As she could not remember the game's exact rules, the writers focused on making the game as funny on the page as possible, but only established chanting "JFK! FDR!" and walking on chairs. Throughout the series, the writers created new rules on the spot in order to keep the actors improvising and encouraged them to "have fun, dig in, jump in". The game's second appearance in season 2's "Cooler" was played with the strip-poker version called "Clinton Rules", but the exact rules remain unclear even to the actors. True American with updated rules and the resulting hangover were featured in season 3's "Mars Landing". The writers started to do new True American episodes once each year without ever giving explicit rules for the game. Liz Meriwether said the game would not be easier to comprehend in later appearances, as the writers' goal is to actually make it harder to understand. Relationships Creator Elizabeth Meriwether sees Nick, Schmidt and Winston "on the weirder side of things". The producers started learning more about the characters by seeing the actors' work and that "We probably rely on them more than we should" to define the characters. Each of the actors improvisations allowed for the characters to switch traits around in the first season before solidifying their characters. Producers found more variety in Nick's character in season 1 and enjoyed Johnson's improvisations, so they relayed Coach's previous attributed rage issues to Nick. Nick's character connects the most with the other roommates, childhood friends with Winston and college roommates with Schmidt, allowing him to be more involved in their stories. Writers developed the Nick–Winston dynamic in season 1 and sought to figure out Winston's relationship with the other loft mates in season 2. The writers noticed late during the first season that Morris seemed better suited to play a smart character and act as the loft's voice of reason, although Meriwether found that when Winston "finally does blow up, he's crazier than all of them" and that he works better "in these kind of crazy, comedic runners, small pieces of the episode" that contrast the relationship dramas of the other main characters. The Winston–Schmidt friendship was developed significantly in the second half of season 2 when the story focus moved to Nick and Jess. The Nick–Jess relationship affects the three guys' friendship as Nick starts being more considerate of Jess' feelings regarding shenanigans. Damon Wayans Jr. was planned to reprise his role as Coach in at least four episodes in the third season, according to Meriwether "at a time when the roommates are at odds with each other". With Meriwether's openness regarding straight and gay communities, New Girl also plays with the guys' sexual orientation for humor. One of Winston's recurring alternate persona is Nick's gay lover "Theodore K. Mullins", which started out as an improv of Morris. Johnson thought that Nick and Schmidt had "a pretty funny bromance" with "their own little weird will-they-won't-they". Greenfield improvised kissing Nick a lot in season 1 until the writers started putting Schmidt–Nick kisses into the script, so that they shared more kisses than Nick and Jess did in the first two seasons. Episodes Broadcast and ratings The New Girl pilot was released via on-demand, iTunes, and TiVo on September 6, 2011 before its September 20 premiere on Fox in the United States and on City in Canada. Other international broadcasters include Channel 4 and E4 in the United Kingdom, RTÉ2 in the Republic of Ireland, Network Ten and Eleven in Australia, and Four in New Zealand. The pilot episode drew 10.28 million U.S. viewers and a 4.8 adults 18–49 demo rating, making it the highest-rated fall debut for a Fox scripted show since The Bernie Mac Show in 2001. The second episode made New Girl the top-rated show on television in the marketing-important 18–49 demographic, improved the rating of its lead-in hit series Glee and beat the long-running hit series NCIS and Dancing with the Stars. At this time, Fox ordered 11 additional episodes to the initial 13-episode order, bringing the first season to 24 episodes. The ratings dropped when the show took a break for baseball, falling almost 20 percent to a 2.1 rating in the 18–49 audience group. During the 2011–12 television season, New Girl averaged 8.22 million viewers and a 4.2 adults 18–49 demo rating. In 18–49 demo, it ranked as the fifth highest rated show on Fox and 13th overall. On April 9, 2012, New Girl was officially renewed for a second season of 24 episodes; Fox ordered one more episode during the second half of the season. Awards and nominations Main article: List of awards and nominations received by New Girl The show has been nominated for several awards, including five Golden Globe Awards and five Primetime Emmy Awards. Syndication and streaming New Girl was added to TBS in 2015 and was removed in 2022. Additionally, the sitcom was added to MTV in 2015 and was removed in 2016. After 10 years on Netflix, the show became exclusively available on Hulu and Peacock since April 17, 2023. Home media Tie-ins A 2012 book, The Douche Journals: The Definitive Account of One Man's Genius, compiled the many Schmidtisms from The Douchebag Jar, before Jess moved into the apartment. ISBN 9780062238672 in January 2022, iHeartRadio launched the New Girl rewatch podcast Welcome to Our Show, hosted by Deschanel, Simone, and Morris, who reminisce on their experience filming the show and provide behind the scenes details on its production. Reception Critical reviews On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, season one holds an approval rating of 84% based on 32 reviews, with an average rating of 6.83/10. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the season a score of 66 out of 100 based on 25 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". In June 2011, New Girl was one of eight honorees in the "most exciting new series" category at the 1st Critics' Choice Television Awards, voted by journalists who had seen the pilots. Robert Bianco of USA Today considered New Girl "fall's most promising new series" and praised how Deschanel and Meriwether "have shaped Jess into something we haven't quite seen before – a woman who is sweet yet crass, innocent yet sexy, beautiful yet clumsy, and brash yet irresistibly adorable." However, he noted how "Some people will be resistant to Deschanel's doe-eyed charm; others have a congenital need to insult anyone who most everyone else is praising, particularly if doing so gets them attention." The Hollywood Reporter's Tim Goodman saw the show as a "mostly romantic comedy", and although Jess' adorability "might seem like a thin premise, [...] Meriwether manages to make the situations funny and lets Deschanel channel her charm – a winning combination." David Wiegand of the San Francisco Chronicle would rather see the show tone down. He felt "the show's fundamental setup isn't all that inspired, but it could work with smarter writing and better direction, especially with regard to Deschanel", who, in his opinion, overplayed Jess' weird habits "to the point of overkill within the first 10 minutes of the show". Alan Sepinwall of HitFix considered New Girl "the best new comedy of the fall season, and the only new show I genuinely enjoyed from start to finish" because it was so well developed from the start. He praised Deschanel's "wonderful comic performance" and said that while the supporting actors "all bounce nicely off of Deschanel", the scenes without Deschanel around them fell flat for him. Writing for the Daily News, David Hinckley lauded how none of the characters "settle in as the stereotypes they could easily become", and presumed that all of them would evolve and get smarter as the show progresses. Lori Rack of the Chicago Sun-Times praised the actors' comedic timing and playing off each other. Despite the guys sounding "like nightmares" on paper, "they have endearing, vulnerable cores that make them likable, and occasionally, lovable. [...] New Girl didn't give me as many laugh-out-loud moments as some comedies", but instead made her "feel warm and fuzzy". Rob Owen of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said the show's pilot was "more charming than hilarious" and "cuter than it is funny, but when it does conjure laughs, its style of humor is reminiscent of ABC's Happy Endings". Many critics considered Max Greenfield the show's breakout star in season 1; The A.V. Club even named Greenfield's Schmidt "the year's breakout TV character" as a "douchebag with a heart of gold". Salon described Schmidt as "a sort of self-created alpha male and a collection of beta male qualities [... which] are performed with such conviction they congeal into a sort of deranged machismo, one slathered in sandalwood-scented lotion. As part of this transition, Schmidt has gone from being a douchebag in the classic model—a guy who, in the pilot, constantly wanted to show off his pecs and scam girls, and seemed capable of doing so—to a douche of a more unique variety." The Huffington Post's Maureen Ryan said how "Schmidt could have easily been 'the dumb guy', or the show could have exploited his status as an eminently mockable douche. But thanks to Max Greenfield's endearing depiction of the would-be lady-killer, there's a lot more the writers have been able to do with the character." On Rotten Tomatoes, season two holds an approval rating of 88% based on 16 reviews, with an average rating of 6.56/10. After the teasing of the Nick–Jess relationship in the first season, critics named Jake Johnson the breakout star of season 2 as the characters' romance unfolded. Saying that "Not since Ross and Rachel's tango on Friends has watching a comedy romance been so satisfying", The Hollywood Reporter said the producers "did the impossible by engaging their leads in a love story, which only strengthened the artistry of the single-cam comedy". The New York Times said season 2 "erupted in fantastic and bizarre fits and starts" because of the characters' unmatched personalities, and lauded the writers for not playing up the will-they-or-won't-they dynamic. By emphasizing how the characters got together, the show "made for hilarious setups [that occasionally led] to high-level Abbott and Costello slapstick. The continued Nick–Jess relationship was criticized in season 3 for dropping the characters' personalities, lack of tension, and for neglecting the show's female friendship between Jess and Cece. On Rotten Tomatoes, season three holds an approval rating of 88% based on 14 reviews, with an average rating of 6.46/10. Season four holds an approval rating of 100% based on 10 reviews, with an average rating of 6.67/10. The series' seventh and final season has an approval rating of 100% based on 10 reviews, with an average rating of 6.78, and a critical consensus of, "After seven years of friendship, New Girl signs off with a thoughtful, funny final season that bids a proper adieu to its colorful cast of characters." References External links Official website New Girl at IMDb

New Girl is an American television sitcom that premiered on Fox on September 20, 2011. Developed by Elizabeth Meriwether under the working title Chicks & Dicks, the show stars Zooey Deschanel as Jessica "Jess" Day, a well-liked and bubbly woman who is trying to get over her surprise breakup with her boyfriend. With the help of her best friend Cece (Hannah Simone), she finds a new place to stay when she moves in with three single guys: Nick Miller (Jake Johnson), an underachieving bartender; Schmidt (Max Greenfield), who thinks of himself as a modern-day Casanova; and Coach (Damon Wayans, Jr.), who leaves the series in the next episode and is replaced by Winston Bishop (Lamorne Morris), a former professional athlete who achieved modest success abroad and is adjusting to life back in the United States. Coach reappears in the series during seasons three, four, five, six, and seven. On May 14, 2017, the series was renewed for a seventh and final season, which featured eight episodes. On January 4, 2018, it was announced that the seventh and final season would premiere on April 10, 2018, and also it would end with a one-hour series finale, which was aired on May 15, 2018. During the course of the series, 146 episodes of New Girl aired over seven seasons. Series overview Episodes Season 1 (2011–12) Season 2 (2012–13) Season 3 (2013–14) Season 4 (2014–15) Season 5 (2016) Season 6 (2016–17) Season 7 (2018) Ratings Notes References External links Official website New Girl at IMDb

American author Joan Didion's second fiction novel has a film adaptation. The director of this film is the uncle of a famous pop singer This pop singer once famously sang a song with lyrics describing a combustible-containing device. This song received nominations for Best Pop Solo Performance and Record of the Year at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. This song was inspired by another book. What is the name of the song and the book that inspired it?

Firework by Katy Perry was inspired by "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac

Multiple constraints | Post processing | Temporal reasoning

Joan Didion (; December 5, 1934 – December 23, 2021) was an American writer and journalist. She is considered one of the pioneers of New Journalism, along with Gay Talese, Hunter S. Thompson, and Tom Wolfe. Didion's career began in the 1950s after she won an essay contest sponsored by Vogue magazine. She would go on to publish essays in The Saturday Evening Post, Life, Esquire, The New York Review of Books, and The New Yorker. Her writing during the 1960s through the late 1970s engaged audiences in the realities of the counterculture of the 1960s, the Hollywood lifestyle, and the history and culture of California. Didion's political writing in the 1980s and 1990s concentrated on the subtext of political rhetoric and the United States's foreign policy in Latin America. In 1991, she wrote the earliest mainstream media article to suggest that the Central Park Five had been wrongfully convicted. With her husband John Gregory Dunne, Didion wrote multiple screenplays, including The Panic in Needle Park (1971), A Star Is Born (1976), and Up Close & Personal (1996). In 2005, she won the National Book Award for Nonfiction and was a finalist for both the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for The Year of Magical Thinking, a memoir of the year following the sudden death of her husband. She later adapted the book into a play that premiered on Broadway in 2007. In 2013, she was awarded the National Humanities Medal by president Barack Obama. Didion was profiled in the 2017 Netflix documentary The Center Will Not Hold, directed by her nephew Griffin Dunne. Early life and education Didion was born on December 5, 1934, in Sacramento, California, to Eduene (née Jerrett) and Frank Reese Didion. She had one brother, five years her junior, James Jerrett Didion, who became a real estate executive. Didion recalled writing things down as early as age five, although she said she never saw herself as a writer until after her work had been published. She identified as a "shy, bookish child," an avid reader, who pushed herself to overcome social anxiety through acting and public speaking. During her adolescence, she would type out Ernest Hemingway's works to learn how his sentence structures worked. Didion's early education was nontraditional. She attended kindergarten and first grade, but, because her father was a finance officer in the Army Air Corps and the family constantly relocated, she did not attend school regularly. In 1943 or early 1944, her family returned to Sacramento, and her father went to Detroit to negotiate defense contracts for World War II. Didion wrote in her 2003 memoir Where I Was From that moving so often made her feel as if she were a perpetual outsider. Didion received a B.A. in English from University of California, Berkeley, in 1956. During her senior year, she won first place in the "Prix de Paris" essay contest, sponsored by Vogue, and was awarded a job as a research assistant at the magazine. The topic of her winning essay was the San Francisco architect William Wurster. Career Vogue During her seven years at Vogue, from 1956 to 1964, Didion worked her way up from promotional copywriter to associate feature editor. Mademoiselle published Didion's article "Berkeley’s Giant: The University of California" in January 1960. While at Vogue, and homesick for California, she wrote her first novel, Run, River (1963), about a Sacramento family as it comes apart. Writer and friend John Gregory Dunne helped her edit the book. John—the younger brother of author, businessman, and television mystery show host Dominick Dunne—was writing for Time magazine at the time. He and Didion married in 1964. The couple moved to Los Angeles in 1964, intending to stay only temporarily, but California remained their home for the next 20 years. In 1966, they adopted a daughter, whom they named Quintana Roo Dunne. The couple wrote many newsstand-magazine assignments. "She and Dunne started doing that work with an eye to covering the bills, and then a little more," Nathan Heller reported in The New Yorker. "Their [Saturday Evening] Post rates allowed them to rent a tumbledown Hollywood mansion, buy a banana-colored Corvette Stingray, raise a child, and dine well." In Los Angeles, they settled in Los Feliz from 1963 to 1971, and then, after living in Malibu for eight years, she and Dunne moved to Brentwood Park, a quiet, affluent, residential neighborhood. Slouching Towards Bethlehem In 1968, Didion published her first nonfiction book, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, a collection of magazine pieces about her experiences in California. Cited as an example of New Journalism, it used novel-like writing to cover the non-fiction realities of hippie counterculture. She wrote from a personal perspective, adding her own feelings and memories to situations, inventing details and quotes to make the stories more vivid, and using metaphors to give the reader a better understanding of the disordered subjects of her essays: politicians, artists, or just people living an American life. The New York Times characterized the "grace, sophistication, nuance, [and] irony" of her writing. 1970s Didion's novel Play It as It Lays, set in Hollywood, was published in 1970, and A Book of Common Prayer appeared in 1977. In 1979, she published The White Album, another collection of her magazine pieces from Life, Esquire, The Saturday Evening Post, The New York Times, and The New York Review of Books. In The White Album's title essay, Didion documented an episode she experienced in the summer of 1968. After undergoing psychiatric evaluation, she was diagnosed as having had an attack of vertigo and nausea. After periods of partial blindness in 1972, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, but remained in remission throughout her life. In her essay entitled "In Bed," Didion explained that she experienced chronic migraines. Dunne and Didion worked closely for most of their careers. Much of their writing is therefore intertwined. They co-wrote a number of screenplays, including a 1972 film adaptation of her novel Play It as It Lays that starred Anthony Perkins and Tuesday Weld and the screenplay for the 1976 film of A Star is Born. They also spent several years adapting the biography of journalist Jessica Savitch into the 1996 Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer film, Up Close & Personal. 1980s and 1990s Didion's book-length essay Salvador (1983) was written after a two-week trip to El Salvador with her husband. The next year, she published the novel Democracy, the story of a long, but unrequited love affair between a wealthy heiress and an older man, a CIA officer, against the background of the Cold War and the Vietnam War. Her 1987 nonfiction book Miami looked at the different communities in that city. In 1988, the couple moved from California to New York City. In a prescient New York Review of Books piece of 1991, a year after the various trials of the Central Park Five, Didion dissected serious flaws in the prosecution's case, making her the earliest mainstream writer to view the guilty verdicts as miscarriages of justice. She suggested the defendants were found guilty because of a sociopolitical narrative with racial overtones that clouded the judgment of the court. In 1992, Didion published After Henry, a collection of twelve geographical essays and a personal memorial for Henry Robbins, who was Didion's friend and editor until his death in 1979. She published The Last Thing He Wanted, a romantic thriller, in 1996. The Year of Magical Thinking In 2003, Didion's daughter Quintana Roo Dunne developed pneumonia that progressed to septic shock and she was comatose in an intensive-care unit when Didion's husband suddenly died of a heart attack on December 30. Didion delayed his funeral arrangements for approximately three months until Quintana was well enough to attend. On October 4, 2004, Didion began writing The Year of Magical Thinking, a narrative of her response to the death of her husband and the severe illness of their daughter. She finished the manuscript 88 days later on New Year's Eve. Written at the age of 70, this was her first nonfiction book that was not a collection of magazine assignments. She said that she found the subsequent book-tour process very therapeutic during her period of mourning. Documenting the grief she experienced after the sudden death of her husband, the book was called a "masterpiece of two genres: memoir and investigative journalism" and won several awards. Visiting Los Angeles after her father's funeral, Quintana fell at the airport, hit her head on the pavement and required brain surgery for hematoma. After progressing toward recovery in 2004, Quintana died of acute pancreatitis on August 26, 2005, aged 39, during Didion's New York promotion for The Year of Magical Thinking. Didion wrote about Quintana's death in the 2011 book Blue Nights. 2000s Didion was living in an apartment on East 71st Street in Manhattan in 2005. Everyman's Library published We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live, a 2006 compendium of much of Didion's writing, including the full content of her first seven published nonfiction books (Slouching Towards Bethlehem, The White Album, Salvador, Miami, After Henry, Political Fictions, and Where I Was From), with an introduction by her contemporary, the critic John Leonard. Didion began working with English playwright and director David Hare on a one-woman stage adaptation of The Year of Magical Thinking in 2007. Produced by Scott Rudin, the Broadway play featured Vanessa Redgrave. Although Didion was hesitant to write for the theater, she eventually found the genre, which was new to her, exciting. Didion wrote early drafts of the screenplay for an untitled HBO biopic directed by Robert Benton on Katharine Graham. Sources say it may trace the paper's reporting on the Watergate scandal. Later works In 2011, Knopf published Blue Nights, a memoir about aging that also focused on Didion's relationship with her late daughter. More generally, the book deals with the anxieties Didion experienced about adopting and raising a child, as well as the aging process. A photograph of Didion shot by Juergen Teller was used as part of the 2015 spring-summer campaign of the luxury French fashion brand Céline, while previously the clothing company Gap had featured her in a 1989 campaign. Didion's nephew Griffin Dunne directed a 2017 Netflix documentary about her, Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold. In it, Didion discusses her writing and personal life, including the deaths of her husband and daughter, adding context to her books The Year of Magical Thinking and Blue Nights. In 2021, Didion published Let Me Tell You What I Mean, a collection of 12 essays she wrote between 1968 and 2000. Death Didion died from complications of Parkinson's disease at her home in Manhattan on December 23, 2021, at the age of 87. Writing style and themes Didion viewed the structure of the sentence as essential to her work. In the New York Times article "Why I Write" (1976), Didion remarked, "To shift the structure of a sentence alters the meaning of that sentence, as definitely and inflexibly as the position of a camera alters the meaning of the object photographed... The arrangement of the words matters, and the arrangement you want can be found in the picture in your mind... The picture tells you how to arrange the words and the arrangement of the words tells you, or tells me, what's going on in the picture." Didion was heavily influenced by Ernest Hemingway, whose writing taught her the importance of how sentences work in a text. Her other influences included George Eliot and Henry James, who wrote "perfect, indirect, complicated sentences". Didion was also an observer of journalists, believing the difference between the process of fiction and nonfiction is the element of discovery that takes place in nonfiction, which happens not during the writing, but during the research. Rituals were a part of Didion's creative process. At the end of the day, she would take a break from writing to remove herself from the "pages", saying that without the distance, she could not make proper edits. She would end her day by cutting out and editing prose, not reviewing the work until the following day. She would sleep in the same room as her work, saying: "That's one reason I go home to Sacramento to finish things. Somehow the book doesn't leave you when you're right next to it." In a notorious 1980 essay, "Joan Didion: Only Disconnect," Barbara Grizzuti Harrison called Didion a "neurasthenic Cher" whose style was "a bag of tricks" and whose "subject is always herself". In 2011, New York magazine reported that the Harrison criticism "still gets her (Didion's) hackles up, decades later". Critic Hilton Als suggested that Didion is reread often "because of the honesty of the voice." Personal life For several years in her 20s, Didion was in a relationship with Noel E. Parmentel Jr., a political pundit and figure on the New York literary and cultural scene. According to Didion's husband, John Gregory Dunne, he actually met her through Parmentel, and Didion and Dunne remained friends for six years before embarking on a romantic relationship. As he later recalled, when they shared a celebratory lunch after Dunne finished reading the galleys for her first novel, Run, River, "while [h]er [significant] other was out of town, it happened." Didion and Dunne subsequently married in January 1964 and remained together until his death from a heart attack in 2003. Breaking a long-held silence on Didion, whose work he had championed and for which he found publishers, Parmentel was interviewed for a 1996 article in New York magazine. He had been angered in the 1970s by what he felt was a thinly veiled portrait of him in Didion's novel A Book of Common Prayer. In 1966, while living in Los Angeles, she and John adopted a daughter, whom they named Quintana Roo Dunne. A Republican in her early years, Didion later drifted toward the Democratic Party, "without ever quite endorsing [its] core beliefs." As late as 2011, she smoked precisely five cigarettes per day. Awards and honors 1981: Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters 1996: Edward MacDowell Medal 2002: The St. Louis Literary Award from the Saint Louis University Library Associates 2005: National Book Award for Nonfiction for The Year of Magical Thinking 2006: American Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award 2006: Elected to the American Philosophical Society 2007: Prix Medicis Essais for The Year of Magical Thinking 2007: National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters 2007: Writers Guild of America Evelyn F. Burkey Award 2009: Honorary Doctor of Letters, Harvard University 2011: Honorary Doctor of Letters, Yale University 2013: National Humanities Medal presented by president Barack Obama 2013: Lifetime Achievement Award, PEN Center USA The Joan Didion: What She Means Exhibition The Hammer Museum at University of California, Los Angeles, organized the exhibition Joan Didion: What She Means. Curated by The New Yorker contributor and writer Hilton Als, the group show was on view from 2022 and is scheduled to travel to the Pérez Art Museum Miami in 2023. Joan Didion: What She Means pays homage to the writer and thinker through the lens of nearly 50 modern and contemporary international artists such as Félix González-Torres to Betye Saar, Vija Celmins, Maren Hassinger, Silke Otto-Knapp, John Koch, Ed Ruscha, Pat Steir, among others. Published works Fiction Run, River (1963) Play It as It Lays (1970) A Book of Common Prayer (1977) Democracy (1984) The Last Thing He Wanted (1996) Nonfiction Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968) The White Album (1979) Salvador (1983) Miami (1987) After Henry (1992) Political Fictions (2001) Where I Was From (2003) Fixed Ideas: America Since 9.11 (2003; essay first published in the January 16, 2003 issue of The New York Review of Books) The Year of Magical Thinking (2005) Blue Nights (2011) South and West: From a Notebook (2017) Let Me Tell You What I Mean (2021) Screenplays and plays The Panic in Needle Park (1971) (with husband John Gregory Dunne and based on the novel by James Mills) Play It as It Lays (1972) (with John Gregory Dunne and based on her novel of the same name) A Star Is Born (1976) (with John Gregory Dunne) True Confessions (1981) (with John Gregory Dunne and based on his novel of the same name) Up Close & Personal (1996) (with John Gregory Dunne) The Year of Magical Thinking (2007) (a stage play based on her book) References Further reading Daugherty, Tracy. The Last Love Song: A Biography of Joan Didion. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2015. Davidson, Sara. Joan: Forty Years of Life, Loss, and Friendship with Joan Didion, 2012. ISBN 978-1-61452-016-0. External links Official website Joan Didion on The California Museum's California Legacy Trails The New York Review of Books: Joan Didion Appearances on C-SPAN Joan Didion at IMDb Joan Didion, on Enciclopedia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc Joan Didion, on Open Library, Internet Archive Joan Didion, on Goodreads Joan Didion, on AllMovie, All Media Network Joan Didion, on Internet Broadway Database, The Broadway League

Play It as It Lays is a 1970 novel by American writer Joan Didion. Time magazine included the novel in its list of the "100 Best English-Language Novels from 1923 to 2005". The novel has been credited for helping define modern American Fiction and has been described as an "instant classic". It is known for depicting the nihilism and the illusory glamor of life in Hollywood, as well as capturing the landscape and culture of 1960s Los Angeles. The book was adapted into a 1972 film starring Tuesday Weld as Maria and Anthony Perkins as BZ. Didion co-wrote the screenplay with her husband, John Gregory Dunne. Plot 31-year-old Maria Wyeth's story begins as she is recovering from an implied mental breakdown in a psychiatric hospital in the Los Angeles area. Her journey oscillates between dizzying and domestic, as her acting career slows and her personal life collapses. Her story is revealed though flashbacks and flash forwards. Maria contrasts her life in Los Angeles with her childhood in Silver Wells, Nevada, a small town so inconsequential that it no longer exists. The daughter of a neurotic mother and a gambling father, who bet on a mine and lost, Maria moves to New York to become an actress. In New York, Maria works temporarily as a model and meets Ivan Costello, a psychopathic blackmailer who has no hesitation exploiting Maria. In New York, Maria receives news of her mother's death in a car wreck, possibly a suicide. Her father dies soon after, leaving useless mineral rights to his business partner and friend Benny Austin. Maria withdraws from acting and modeling, splits up with Ivan, and eventually meets Carter and moves to Hollywood. Later, we find that she and Carter have a four-year-old daughter Kate. Kate is in a treatment facility for an unspecified "aberrant chemical in her brain". Maria loves Kate, as indicated by her tender descriptions, her frequent hospital visits, and her determination "to get her out". When Maria discovers she is pregnant, she is unsure if her husband, Carter or her lover, Les Goodwin, is the father and she tells Carter the truth. Carter urges Maria to have an abortion, and suggests that if she chooses to have the child, he will take full custody of their daughter. Set in a time before the legalization of abortion, Maria must find a doctor who will perform an illegal abortion. Maria follows steps to covertly contact and visit the only doctor who does "clean work" in Los Angeles. Maria has an illegal abortion, performed with local anesthetic, in a house where there are newspapers on the floor. Feeling distress after her abortion, Maria begins to have vivid nightmares about dying infants and rattlesnakes. An inevitable divorce, and the ensuing social chaos bring Maria to indulge in self-destructive behavior. Maria disengages from her social world as she plunges into long days of compulsive driving, wandering Southern California's freeways, through motels and casinos, drinking and chancing sexual encounters with actors and ex-lovers. After a series of disasters for Maria, infidelity among her friends adds further chaos to her life. The plot reaches a climax when Maria's friend BZ commits suicide in her presence, choosing to overdose on sleeping pills (Seconal) and Maria does not stop him, despite fully understanding what he is doing. Before overdosing, he offers to share his pills with Maria, implying that he could help her die by suicide as well. Maria chooses not to take the pills, and does not stop BZ as he proceeds to swallow them. His final words are "hold onto me", after which they fall asleep on the bed together. Maria awakens to the sound of BZ's wife, Helene screaming as she discovers his dead body next to Maria. Maria ignores the screaming and holds tighter onto BZ's lifeless hand. In not preventing his suicide, Maria is blamed for his death by her friends. Maria is institutionalized for her inaction in stopping BZ's suicide, under doctors' and friends' assumption that she must have been disconnected from reality at the time the suicide occurred. It is implied that Maria doesn't try to escape her position, but accepts it apathetically. Her institutionalization can be seen as her choice to withdraw from the outside world, rather than a consequence of an actual mental illness or breakdown. From her hospital, Maria turns her visitors away, and plans for a day she might see her daughter again. Background and publication Play It as It Lays was author Joan Didion's second novel, after her debut Run, River was published in 1963. Didion gained public attention for her non-fiction collection Slouching Towards Bethlehem in 1968. Published on July 13, 1970, by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Didion said about the novel, "I didn't think it was going to make it [...] And suddenly it did make it, in a minor way. And from that time on I had more confidence." The book bears some resemblance to Didion's life, as Didion also had a daughter with a psychological disorder and drove the same car as Maria, a yellow Corvette Stingray. Like the protagonist, Didion lived in New York before moving to California. However, Didion asserted that the book was not autobiographical. Themes Life as a game This theme occurs frequently throughout the novel, especially in reference to gambling and casino games. Having grown up around casinos with her gambling father, Maria sees life as a game in which every player chooses a strategy, or chooses to stop playing. Describing her upbringing she says, "My father advised me that life itself was a crap game: it was one of the two lessons I learned as a child. The other was that overturning a rock was apt to reveal a rattlesnake. As lessons go those two seem to hold up, but not to apply." The title of the book, Play it as it Lays is a reference to advice from Maria's father on playing craps: "it goes as it lays, don't do it the hard way", an idiom with meaning similar to "playing with the cards you are dealt". At the exposition of the novel, Maria describes the recent events of life as such, "I was holding all the aces, but what was the game?". Furthermore, social interactions can be seen as a kind of game. Maria tries to be a good "player" when she speaks to her doctors: "There are only certain facts, I say, trying again to be an agreeable player of the game." Death can be seen as the choice to stop playing the game of life. As he is about to commit suicide, BZ says to Maria, "you're still playing [...] Some day you'll wake up and you just won't feel like playing". By choosing to die, BZ decides to stop playing. Meanwhile Maria references her choice to keep living, and continuing to "play" the game of life despite its meaninglessness, in the famous quote: "I know what 'nothing' means, and keep on playing." Nihilism Throughout the novel Maria and other characters reveal a belief in the meaninglessness of life. This theme may be ascribed to depression which the characters experience, to the emptiness of working in Hollywood or as an overarching philosophical theme on life. Many scenes in the book can be seen as an encounter with absurdity and nothingness, as Maria has odd encounters with strangers whom she never sees again. Maria's dark view of life is revealed in quotes such as, "Maria did not particularly believe in rewards, only in punishments, swift and personal." The concept of nothing occurs in many contexts, such as Maria marking "nothing applies" on her hospital documents, and repeating this thought when revisiting memories of her past. When speaking to Benny about their now-destroyed hometown, Maria says, "there is no Silver Wells", suggesting that finding meaning in past memories is futile. The line "Maria said nothing" occurs repeatedly in several dialogues, suggesting that Maria considers it pointless to explain herself to others. Maria does not try to find greater meaning in suffering, nor does she ask questions about why suffering occurs and if there is a purpose to it. This view is presented in her opening monologue, "Carter and Helene still ask questions. I used to ask questions, and I got the answer: nothing. The answer is 'nothing.'" Depiction of Los Angeles Play It As It Lays is considered a classic Los Angeles novel, containing many literary motifs associated with Los Angeles and California. Driving, Cars and the Freeway The interstate freeway plays an important part in both the setting and the plot of the novel, as the protagonist spends her days driving on the freeway as a form of escapism, a motif that is popular in Los Angeles novels. Los Angeles, known as "a city on wheels", has a unique identity as a city designed for cars, due to its flat terrain and relatively late urbanization. The philosophical themes of the novel have been described as "freeway existentialism" as Maria goes on drives without a destination in mind. Maria fulfills the literary trope of a drifter, a common trope in Los Angeles novels, where protagonists are often depicted driving, either as a way to chase their dreams or to escape their problems. Driving a fast car on the open road is often considered a literary symbol of the illusion of freedom, which is easily achieved in Southern California, where there is a well developed, multi-lane freeway. Some of the plot developments occur while driving. For instance Maria informs Carter that she is pregnant when they are driving on the freeway. When driving to the house where her illegal abortion is to occur, Maria and the man in the "duck pants" discuss their cars, which brings a sense of normalcy and relief to Maria, "In the past few minutes he had significantly altered her perception of reality: she saw now that she was not a woman on her way to have an abortion. She was a woman parking a Corvette [...] while a man in white pants talked about buying a Camaro. There was no more to it than that." An ongoing theme is that Maria avoids her problems by driving away from them, and as she sinks deeper into a nihilistic depression, she drives further distances, driving between California and Nevada. Disillusionment in Hollywood Didion is often credited for capturing the atmosphere of Hollywood in the 1960s. Play It As it Lays depicts Hollywood as a "broken paradise" as seen from the point of view of a disenchanted actress, in contrast to the more common, utopian view of Hollywood. The novel depicts the scheming, exploitation, and elitism common in the film industry at that time. In the same way that movie makers manufacture stories, the characters in the film industry manufacture their own image to attain status and fame. Though themes of narcissism and self-destruction among the wealthy are old themes, seen in novels such as The Great Gatsby, the focus on the inner workings of movie production at the end of Golden Era Hollywood, establish Play It As It Lays as a classic Los Angeles novel. Maria's acting career is on the decline because she walked away from a movie set, damaging her reputation in an industry where reputation is highly important. This leads her to become more detached and apathetic to the social culture around her, and she begins to disregard social conventions and isolate herself from her acquaintances, rejecting invitations to parties and choosing to be alone instead. Many dialogues between Maria and other characters portray the superficiality and strategy associated with the film industry, as characters choose words carefully to achieve an aim or to avoid direct communication. The few dialogues which depict genuine, heartfelt interactions stand out, such as BZ telling Maria, "hold onto me" before overdosing. Criticism Reception Considered a classic work of American fiction, the novel has received largely positive reviews from literary critics, but often draws mixed reviews from the public due to its bleak content and unlikable protagonist. The plot has been described by critics as having "cinematic nihilism", and being a "ruthless dissection of American life in the 1960s." It has been positively described as a "terrifying book." In a review of the novel, Joseph Epstein described Joan Didion as a novelist: "her vision is dark, her views are bleak, but she is richly talented." J. Frakes, reviewing the novel in the Book World column of The Washington Post, described the novel as a "scathing novel, distilling venom in tiny drops, revealing devastation in a sneer and fear in a handful of atomic dust." Library Journal described it as, "intelligent, well-structured, witty, irresistibly relentless." Didion's writing style in this novel has been applauded for breaking from literary tradition and making use of a precise, minimalist style, composed of short chapters, some of which are only a few sentences long, leaving the page mostly blank. The style has been described as "short, laser-focused chapters that come in hot and burn out just as quickly like a firework." In popular culture The novel continues to be a prominent work in popular culture. The book has been referenced in the Netflix television series, You. In a 2023 survey among writers by the LA Times, Play It As It Lays was voted the third most popular LA book. Literary Hub listed the novel in its list of 10 Essential Books That Capture Los Angeles in All Its Sublime, Beautiful Darkness. The independent editorial website Book Riot, included the novel in its list, 10 of the Best Books About Los Angeles, describing Didion, "when people think of Los Angeles authors, Joan Didion is almost always the first name that pops into their minds." The novel is frequently listed as a popular Los Angeles novel by popular culture websites. Adaptation The book was adapted into a 1972 film directed by Frank Perry, starring Tuesday Weld as Maria and Anthony Perkins as BZ. Didion co-wrote the screenplay with her husband, John Gregory Dunne. Notes References External links Book page on the official website

Play It as It Lays is a 1972 American drama film directed by Frank Perry from a screenplay by Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne, based on the 1970 novel of the same name by Didion. The film stars Tuesday Weld and Anthony Perkins, who previously starred together in the 1968 film Pretty Poison. Plot Former model Maria Wyeth, who comes from a Nevada town with a population of 28, is now a successful actress. Unhappily married to, and separated from, temperamental producer Carter Lang, she is also chronically depressed and institutionalized. Reflecting back on what brought her to the asylum, Maria recalls driving around Los Angeles in her yellow Chevrolet Corvette and spending time with her closest friend, B.Z. Mendenhall, an unhappy man who is gay. Maria has a brain-damaged daughter, Kate, who is being kept in a sanitarium at the insistence of Carter, who resents Maria’s visiting the girl so frequently. Maria's secret desire is to live somewhere with Kate and find some kind of joy in life together. Maria has been having an affair with Les Goodwin, a screenwriter. When she tells Carter that she’s pregnant with Goodwin’s child, he demands that she get an abortion. Maria goes to Las Vegas and has a fling with a mob-connected lawyer, Larry Kulik. She later returns to L.A. and has a one-night stand with Johnny Waters, a television star who needs to watch his own show on TV in order to get in the mood for sex. Bored and depressed, Maria steals Johnny's car and speeds off. When she is stopped by police, drugs are found in the car and she is placed under arrest. With her spirits at an all-time low, Maria returns to Las Vegas and finds that B.Z. is equally unhappy. When B.Z. swallows a handful of pills and washes them down with vodka, Maria, rather than calling for help, cradles him and watches him die. Back at the asylum, a psychiatrist asks Maria why she keeps on playing when she knows what “nothing” (nihilism) really means. She replies, "Why not?" Cast Reception Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four stars and praised the two leads' performances: "What makes the movie work so well on this difficult ground is, happily, easy to say: It has been well-written and directed, and Tuesday Weld and Anthony Perkins are perfectly cast as Maria and her friend B.Z. The material is so thin (and has to be) that the actors have to bring the human texture along with them. They do, and they make us care about characters who have given up caring for themselves." Molly Haskell of The Village Voice was less enthusiastic, stating that she had "a hard time remembering [the film]." Vincent Canby of The New York Times found the screenplay and direction "banal", but effused praise for the performances of Weld and Perkins. "The film is beautifully performed by Tuesday Weld as Maria and Anthony Perkins as B.Z., but the whole thing has turned soft," Canby writes. Critic John Simon described Play it as it Lays as "a very bad movie." Tuesday Weld was nominated for a 1972 Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Drama. References External links Play It as It Lays at IMDb Play It as It Lays at AllMovie Play It as It Lays at Rotten Tomatoes Play It as It Lays at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films Play It as It Lays at the TCM Movie Database

Frank Joseph Perry Jr. (August 21, 1930 – August 29, 1995) was an American stage director and filmmaker. His 1962 independent film David and Lisa earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay (written by his then-wife Eleanor Perry). The couple collaborated on five more films, including The Swimmer, Diary of a Mad Housewife, and the Emmy Award–nominated A Christmas Memory, based on a short story by Truman Capote. Perry went on to form Corsair Pictures, privately financed by United Artists Theatres, which produced Miss Firecracker and A Shock to the System, then folded. His later films include Mommie Dearest and the documentary On the Bridge, about his battle with prostate cancer. Early life Frank Joseph Perry Jr. was born in New York City to stockbroker Frank Joseph Perry Sr. (1905–1969) and Pauline E. Schwab (1908–1965), who worked at Alcoholics Anonymous. As a teenager, Frank Jr. began pursuing his interest in the theater with a job as a parking lot attendant for the Westport Country Playhouse in nearby Westport, Connecticut. He attended the University of Miami. Frank also studied under Lee Strasberg in New York. He produced several plays at Westport Country Playhouse and then turned for a time to producing television documentaries. Career A veteran of the Korean War, he returned to the entertainment industry after being discharged and made his directorial debut in 1962 with the low-budget drama film David and Lisa. Based on the novel by Theodore Isaac Rubin, the screenplay was written by his wife, Eleanor Rosenfeld, who received a nomination for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay. A character study of two emotionally disturbed teenagers, the film was successful at the box office and met with much critical acclaim, earning him a nomination for an Academy Award for Directing. Both Perrys would eventually join the select group of non-actors awarded membership in Actors Studio. Perry went on to direct and produce a number of films, many based on literary sources or with strong literary associations, including The Swimmer, (1968) based on a John Cheever story, Last Summer (1969), and Trilogy (1969), written by Truman Capote. Perry is known for his character studies, such as Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970). That film earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination for Carrie Snodgress, and Play It as It Lays (1972), starring Tuesday Weld, brought her a Golden Globe Best Actress nomination. Both of these films Perry produced and directed, but he is probably best remembered for directing the biographical drama Mommie Dearest, an adaptation of a biography by actress Joan Crawford's adoptive daughter. The film became a cult classic despite mixed reviews from critics; it also won the Razzie Award for worst picture, and Frank Perry was nominated for worst director, while actress Faye Dunaway received the Razzie for her performance. Some of Perry's film-related material and personal papers are held at the Wesleyan University Cinema Archives, a collection to which scholars and media experts from around the world today have full access. Personal life and death In 1958, Frank married his first wife Eleanor, who was 15 years his senior and had two children, William and Ann, from a previous marriage. Frank and Eleanor collaborated on many screen projects, including screenwriting the Academy Award-nominated 1962 David and Lisa (an adaptation of the novella of the same name) which came about due to Eleanor's daughter Ann bringing the novella to her mother's attention. They divorced in 1971 on grounds of incompatibility. In 1979, Eleanor Perry wrote the novel Blue Pages, based on their relationship. She died of cancer two years later, at age 66. In 1977, Perry married Barbara Goldsmith, founding editor of New York magazine and book author (Little Gloria...Happy at Last), whom he divorced in 1992. Soon after, he married his Aspen ski instructor, 22-years-younger Virginia Brush Ford, on June 15, 1992. His sister is pastor Mary Christine Perry, the wife of pastor Maurice Keith Hudson and mother of singers Katy Perry and David Hudson. Perry died of prostate cancer on August 29, 1995, eight days after his 65th birthday, at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan. His final film, On the Bridge (1992), is an autobiographical documentary about his illness. His ashes were scattered on the mountains of Aspen, Colorado, where he lived the last three years of his life. Filmography Film Television References Further reading Beaver, Jim (November 1981). "Frank Perry". Films in Review. Ebiri, Bilge (August 25, 2008). "Domestic Disturbances. The unsung cinema of Frank and Eleanor Perry". Moving Image Source. Mandarano, Matthew (March 11, 2011). "Along the Bridge: The Films of Frank Perry". Notes on a Film. External links Frank Perry at IMDb Frank Perry at Find a Grave Official Frank Perry Biography Facebook page

Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. Perry is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold over 143 million units worldwide. She is known for her influence on pop music and her camp style, being dubbed the "Queen of Camp" by Vogue and Rolling Stone. Billboard ranked her fourth on its "Greatest of All Time Pop Songs Artists" list and twenty-fifth on their "Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century" list. At 16, Perry released a gospel record titled Katy Hudson (2001) under Red Hill Records, which was commercially unsuccessful. She moved to Los Angeles at 17 to venture into secular music, and later adopted the stage name "Katy Perry" from her mother's maiden name. She recorded an album while signed to Columbia Records, but was dropped before signing to Capitol Records. Perry rose to fame with One of the Boys (2008), a pop rock record containing her debut single "I Kissed a Girl" and follow-up single "Hot n Cold", which reached number one and three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 respectively. The disco-influenced pop album Teenage Dream (2010) spawned five U.S. number one singles—"California Gurls", "Teenage Dream", "Firework", "E.T.", and "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)"— the only album by a female singer to do so. The album's reissue titled Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection (2012) produced the U.S. number one single "Part of Me". Her empowerment-themed album Prism (2013) had two U.S. number one singles, "Roar" and "Dark Horse". Both their respective music videos made her the first artist to have multiple videos reach one billion views on Vevo and YouTube. Afterwards, Perry released the albums Witness (2017) and Smile (2020) and embarked on her Las Vegas concert residency titled Play (2021–2023). She released her seventh studio album, titled 143, in 2024. Perry has the second-most U.S. diamond certified singles for any female artist (6). She has received various accolades, including a Billboard Spotlight Award, four Guinness World Records, five Billboard Music Awards, five American Music Awards, a Brit Award, a Juno Award, and the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award. Outside of music, she released an autobiographical documentary titled Katy Perry: Part of Me in 2012, voiced Smurfette in The Smurfs film series, and launched her own shoe line Katy Perry Collections in 2017. Perry served as a judge on American Idol from the sixteenth season in 2018 to the twenty-second season in 2024. Forbes ranked her as the world's highest-paid female musician in 2015 and 2018. With an estimated net worth of $350 million, she is one of the world's wealthiest musicians. Life and career 1984–1999: Early life and family Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson was born on October 25, 1984, in Santa Barbara, California, to Pentecostal pastors Mary Christine (née Perry) and Maurice Keith Hudson. Both of her parents turned to religion after a "wild youth". Perry has English, German, Irish, and Portuguese ancestry. Through her mother, she is a niece of film director Frank Perry. She has a younger brother named David, who is also a singer, and an older sister, Angela. From ages three to 11, Perry frequently moved across the country as her very strict parents set up churches before settling again in Santa Barbara. Growing up, she attended religious schools and camps, including Paradise Valley Christian School in Arizona and Santa Barbara Christian School in California during her elementary years. The family struggled financially, sometimes using food stamps and eating food from the food bank which also fed the congregation at her parents' church. Growing up, Perry and her siblings were not allowed to eat the cereal Lucky Charms as the word "luck" reminded their mother of Lucifer, and were also required to call deviled eggs "angeled eggs". Perry primarily listened to gospel music, as secular music was generally discouraged in the family's home. She discovered popular music through CDs she sneaked from her friends. Perry later recalled a story about how a friend of hers played "You Oughta Know" by Alanis Morissette, which impacted her songwriting and singing. While not strictly identifying as religious, she has stated, "I pray all the time – for self-control, for humility." Wanting to be like her sister Angela, Perry began singing by practicing with her sister's cassette tapes. She performed the tracks in front of her parents, who let her take vocal lessons like Angela was doing at the time. She began training at age nine and was incorporated into her parents' ministry, singing in church from ages nine to 17. At 13, Perry was given her first guitar for her birthday, and publicly performed songs she wrote. She tried to "be a bit like the typical Californian girl" while growing up, and started rollerskating, skateboarding, and surfing as a teenager. Her brother David described her as a "tomboy" during her adolescence, which Perry talks about on her song "One of the Boys". She took dancing lessons and learned how to swing, Lindy Hop, and jitterbug. Perry completed her General Educational Development (GED) requirements early at age 15, during her first year of high school, and left Dos Pueblos High School to pursue a music career. 2000–2006: Career beginnings, Katy Hudson, and Fingerprints Perry briefly had vocal lessons with a woman named Agatha Danoff in facilities rented from the Music Academy of the West. Her singing caught the attention of rock artists Steve Thomas and Jennifer Knapp from Nashville, Tennessee, who brought her there to improve her writing skills. In Nashville, she started recording demos and learned how to write songs and play guitar. Perry signed with Red Hill Records and recorded her debut album, a contemporary Christian record titled Katy Hudson, which was released on March 6, 2001. She also went on tour that year as part of Phil Joel's Strangely Normal Tour and embarked on other performances of her own in the United States. Katy Hudson received mixed reviews from critics and was commercially unsuccessful, selling an estimated 200 copies before the label ceased operations in December. Transitioning from gospel music to secular music, Perry started working with producer Glen Ballard, and moved to Los Angeles at age 17. She opted to work with Ballard due to his past work with Alanis Morissette, one of her major inspirations. In 2003, she briefly performed as Katheryn Perry, to avoid confusion with actress Kate Hudson, and later adopted the stage name "Katy Perry", using her mother's maiden name. In 2010, she recalled that "Thinking of You" was one of the first songs she wrote after moving to Los Angeles. Perry would also perform at the Hotel Café, performing new music while she was between record labels. In 2004, she signed to Ballard's label, Java Records, which was then affiliated with The Island Def Jam Music Group. Perry began work on a solo record due for release in March 2005, but the record was shelved after Java was dropped. Ballard then introduced her to Tim Devine, an A&R executive at Columbia Records, and she was signed as a solo artist. By November 2006, Perry had finished writing and recording material for her Columbia debut titled Fingerprints (with some of the material from this time appearing on One of the Boys) which was planned for release in 2007. Some of the material from Fingerprints that did not make it on One of the Boys was given to other artists, such as "I Do Not Hook Up" and "Long Shot" to Kelly Clarkson and "Rock God" to Selena Gomez & the Scene. Perry worked with songwriters including Desmond Child, Greg Wells, Butch Walker, Scott Cutler, Anne Preven, the Matrix, Kara DioGuardi, Max Martin, and Dr. Luke. In addition, after Devine suggested that songwriting team the Matrix become a "real group", she recorded an album, The Matrix, with them. The Matrix was planned for release in 2004 but was cancelled due to creative differences. It was released in 2009 after the release of One of the Boys. Perry was dropped from Columbia in 2006 as Fingerprints neared completion. After the label dropped her, she worked at an independent A&R company, Taxi Music. Perry had minor success prior to her breakthrough. One of the songs she had recorded for her album with Ballard, "Simple", was featured on the soundtrack to the 2005 film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Perry provided backing vocals on Mick Jagger's song "Old Habits Die Hard", which was included on the soundtrack to the 2004 film Alfie. In September 2004, Blender named her "The Next Big Thing". She recorded background vocals on P.O.D.'s single "Goodbye for Now", was featured at the end of its music video in 2006, and performed it with them on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. That year, Perry also appeared in the music video for "Learn to Fly" by Carbon Leaf, and played the love interest of her then-boyfriend, Gym Class Heroes lead singer Travie McCoy, in the band's music video for "Cupid's Chokehold". 2007–2009: Breakthrough with One of the Boys After Columbia dropped Perry, Angelica Cob-Baehler, then a publicity executive at the label, brought Perry's demos to Virgin Records chairman Jason Flom. Flom was convinced that she could be a breakthrough star and she was signed to Capitol Records in April 2007. The label arranged for her to work with Dr. Luke to add an "undeniable smash" to her existing material. Perry and Dr. Luke co-wrote the songs "I Kissed a Girl" and "Hot n Cold" for her second album One of the Boys. A campaign was started with the November 2007 release of the video to "Ur So Gay", a song aimed at introducing her to the music market. A digital EP of the same name was also released that month. Madonna helped publicize the song by praising it on the JohnJay & Rich radio show in April 2008, stating "Ur So Gay" was her "favorite song" at the time. In March 2008, Perry made a cameo appearance as a club singer in the Wildfire episode "Life's Too Short" and appeared as herself during a photo shoot that June on The Young and the Restless for the show's magazine Restless Style. Perry released her first single with Capitol, "I Kissed a Girl", on April 28, 2008, as the lead single from One of the Boys. The first station to pick up the song was WRVW in Nashville, who were inundated with enthusiastic calls the first three days they played it. The track reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100. "I Kissed a Girl" created controversy among both religious and LGBT groups. The former criticized its homosexual theme, while the latter accused her of using bi-curiosity to sell records. In response to speculation that her parents opposed her music and career, Perry told MTV that they had no problems with her success. One of the Boys, released on June 17, 2008, garnered mixed critical reviews and reached number nine on the US Billboard 200. The album went on to sell 7 million copies worldwide. "Hot n Cold" was released the following September and became the album's second successful single, reaching number three on the Billboard Hot 100 while topping charts in Germany, Canada, the Netherlands and Austria. Later singles "Thinking of You" and "Waking Up in Vegas" were released in 2009 and reached the top 30 of the Hot 100. The Matrix's self-titled debut album, which Perry had recorded with the band in 2004, was released onto iTunes on January 27, 2009, as a result of her solo success. After finishing the 2008 Warped Tour, Perry hosted the 2008 MTV Europe Music Awards in November 2008, where she won the award for Best New Act. At the 2009 Brit Awards, she also won the award for International Female Solo Artist. Perry embarked on her first headlining world tour, the Hello Katy Tour, from January to November 2009 to support One of the Boys. On August 4, 2009, she performed as opening act for one date of No Doubt's 2009 Summer Tour. Perry also hosted the 2009 MTV Europe Music Awards in November 2009, becoming the first person to host two consecutive ceremonies of the European awards. On July 22, 2009, Perry recorded a live album titled MTV Unplugged, which featured acoustic performances of five tracks from One of the Boys as well as one new song, "Brick by Brick", and a cover of Fountains of Wayne's "Hackensack". It was released on November 17, 2009. Perry also appeared on two singles with other artists; she was featured on a remix of Colorado-based band 3OH!3's song "Starstrukk" in September 2009, and on a duet with Timbaland entitled "If We Ever Meet Again", from his album Shock Value II, three months later. The Guinness World Records recognized her in its 2010 edition as the "Best Start on the U.S. Digital Chart by a Female Artist", for digital single sales of over two million copies. After Perry and Travie McCoy split up in December 2008, they briefly reconciled before she ended their relationship in 2009. Perry met her future husband Russell Brand in the summer of 2009 while filming a cameo appearance for his film Get Him to the Greek. Her scene, in which the two kiss, does not appear in the film. She began dating Brand after meeting him again that September at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. The couple became engaged on December 31, 2009, while vacationing in Rajasthan, India. 2010–2012: Teenage Dream and marriage After serving as a guest judge on American Idol, Perry released "California Gurls" featuring Snoop Dogg on May 7, 2010. The song was the lead single from her third studio album, Teenage Dream, and reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in June. She also served as a guest judge on British The X Factor later that month before releasing the album's second single, "Teenage Dream", in July. "Teenage Dream" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in September. Released on August 24, 2010, Teenage Dream debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, and received mixed reviews from music critics. It has since sold 6 million copies worldwide. Teenage Dream would go on to win the 2011 Juno Award for International Album of the Year. In October, "Firework" was released as the album's third single. It became the album's third consecutive number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on December 8, 2010. "E.T." featuring Kanye West was released as the fourth single from Teenage Dream on February 16, 2011. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 for five non-consecutive weeks, making Teenage Dream the ninth album in history to produce four number one singles on the chart. "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" followed as the fifth single in June, and Perry became the first female artist to achieve five number-one Billboard Hot 100 songs from one album when the single topped that chart on August 17, and the second artist after Michael Jackson with his album Bad. For this record, she received an honorary American Music Award in November 2011 and a 2013 Guinness World Record. On September 7, she set a new record by becoming the first artist to spend 69 consecutive weeks in the top ten of the Hot 100. After "The One That Got Away" was released as the album's sixth single in October, Teenage Dream became the third album to spawn six top-five songs on the Billboard Hot 100 after Rhythm Nation 1814 by Janet Jackson and Faith by George Michael. The song peaked at number three in the US and number two in Canada. On January 5, 2012, Perry was named the sixth best-selling digital artist in the United States, with sales of 37.6 million units according to Nielsen SoundScan. That month, she became the first artist to have four songs sell over 5 million digital units when "E.T." reached that mark along with "Firework", "California Gurls", and "Hot N Cold". On February 13, Capitol released the lead single from Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection, "Part of Me", which debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and became Perry's seventh single overall to top the chart. Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection was released on March 23, and serves as a reissue of Teenage Dream. "Wide Awake" was released on May 22 as the re-release's second single, peaking at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one in Canada and New Zealand. Perry embarked on her second tour, the California Dreams Tour, in support of Teenage Dream from February 2011 to January 2012. The tour grossed $59.5 million globally and won her the award for Best Live Act at the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards. On September 23, 2011, she performed on the opening day of the 2011 Rock in Rio festival along with Elton John and Rihanna. In September 2010, Perry was scheduled to appear on the 41st-season premiere of Sesame Street. After her scene was uploaded to YouTube, viewers criticized Perry's exposed cleavage. Four days before the scheduled airing, Sesame Workshop announced that the segment would not air on television, but would still be available to watch online. Perry subsequently mocked the controversy on Saturday Night Live, where she was a musical guest and wore an Elmo-themed shirt showing large amounts of cleavage during one skit. In December 2010, Perry played Moe Szyslak's girlfriend in the live-action segment from a Christmas episode of The Simpsons titled "The Fight Before Christmas". In February 2011, she made a guest appearance on the How I Met Your Mother episode "Oh Honey", playing a woman known as Honey. The role won her the People's Choice Award for Favorite TV Guest Star in January 2012. She made her film debut in the 3D family motion picture The Smurfs as Smurfette on July 29, 2011. The film was a financial success worldwide, while critics gave mostly negative reviews. She hosted Saturday Night Live on December 10, 2011, with Robyn as the episode's musical guest. Perry's work on the episode received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised her performance in the episode's digital short featuring her and Andy Samberg. In March 2012, she guest starred as a prison security guard named Rikki on the Raising Hope episode "Single White Female Role Model". On July 5, 2012, Perry's autobiographical documentary Katy Perry: Part of Me was released to theaters through Paramount Pictures. The film received positive reviews and grossed $32.7 million worldwide at the box office. Perry began to venture into business when she endorsed her first fragrance, Purr, in November 2010. Her second fragrance, Meow!, was released in December 2011. Both perfumes were released through Nordstrom department stores. Electronic Arts recruited her to promote their new expansion pack for The Sims 3: Showtime, before releasing a separate stuff pack featuring Perry-inspired furniture, outfits, and hairstyles, titled The Sims 3: Katy Perry's Sweet Treats, in June 2012. The following month, she became the spokesperson and ambassador for Popchips and made an investment in the company. Billboard dubbed her as their "Woman of the Year" for 2012. She married Russell Brand on October 23, 2010, in a traditional Hindu ceremony near the Ranthambhore tiger sanctuary in Rajasthan, India. On December 30, 2011, Brand announced that they were divorcing after 14 months of marriage. Perry later stated that conflicting career schedules and his desire to have children before she was ready led to the end of their marriage and that he never spoke to her again after sending a text message that he was divorcing her, while Brand asserted that he divorced her due to her commercial success and reluctance to engage in activism. She was initially distraught over their divorce and said that she contemplated suicide. Since they married without a prenuptial agreement, he was eligible to claim half of the estimated $44 million she earned during their marriage, but declined. Perry began a relationship with singer John Mayer in August 2012, the year her marriage with Brand had ended. 2013–2015: Prism and Super Bowl XLIX halftime show In November 2012, Perry began work on her fourth album, Prism. She told Billboard, "I know exactly the record I want to make next. I know the artwork, the coloring and the tone" and "I even know what type of tour I'm doing next. I'll be very pleased if the vision I have in my head becomes a reality." After initially telling L'Uomo Vogue in June 2012 that she planned to have "darker elements" in Prism following the end of her marriage, the singer revealed to MTV during the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards that she changed the album's direction after periods of self-reflection. Perry commented "I felt very prismatic", which inspired the album's name. "Roar" was released as the lead single from Prism on August 10, 2013. It was promoted at the MTV Video Music Awards and reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. "Unconditionally" followed as the second single from Prism on October 16, 2013, and peaked at number 14 in the United States. Prism was released on October 18, 2013, and has sold 4 million copies as of August 2015. It received favorable reviews from critics and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. Four days later, Perry performed the songs from the album at the iHeartRadio Theater in Los Angeles. "Dark Horse" with Juicy J was released as the album's third single in December, and became her ninth U.S. number-one single the following month. In 2014, "Birthday" and "This Is How We Do" respectively followed as the album's fourth and fifth singles, and reached the top 25 on the Hot 100. Prior to ending her relationship with Mayer in February 2014, she recorded and co-wrote a duet with him titled "Who You Love" for his album Paradise Valley. The song was released on August 12, 2013. Perry's third headlining tour, the Prismatic World Tour, began in May 2014 and concluded in October 2015. It sold almost 2 million tickets and grossed $204.3 million worldwide and won Perry the award for "Top Package" at the 2014 Billboard Touring Awards. She also performed at the 2015 Rock in Rio festival on September 27, 2015. On November 23, 2014, the NFL announced that Perry would perform at the Super Bowl XLIX halftime show on February 1, 2015. Lenny Kravitz and Missy Elliott served as special guests for the show. Her performance was critically acclaimed, and the Guinness World Records announced two days after the singer's halftime show that it garnered 118.5 million viewers in the United States, becoming the most watched and highest rated show in Super Bowl history. The viewership was higher than the game itself, which was viewed by an audience of 114.4 million. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) ranked her fifth on the list of Top Global Recording Artists of 2013. On June 26, 2014, she was declared the Top Certified Digital Artist Ever by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for certified sales of 72 million digital singles in the United States. In May 2014, a portrait of Perry by painter Mark Ryden was featured in his exhibition "The Gay 90s", and shown at the Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles. Along with several other artists, she also recorded a cover version of the song "Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two)" on a limited-edition concept album titled The Gay Nineties Old Tyme Music: Daisy Bell to accompany the exhibition. That month, a portrait of Perry by artist Will Cotton was included in the United States National Portrait Gallery. On November 23, 2015, Perry starred in H&M's holiday advertising campaign, for which she wrote and recorded a song titled "Every Day Is a Holiday". On June 17, 2014, Perry announced that she had founded her own record label under Capitol Records, titled Metamorphosis Music. Ferras was the first artist to get signed to her label, and Perry served as an executive producer on his self-titled EP. She also recorded a duet with him on the EP, titled "Legends Never Die". The label was later renamed Unsub Records. Outside of her music career, Perry reprised her role as Smurfette in The Smurfs 2, which was released in theaters on July 31, 2013. Like its predecessor, The Smurfs 2 was a financial success but was panned by critics. In March 2014, she made a guest appearance playing herself in the episode "Blisteritos Presents Dad Academy Graduation Congraduritos Red Carpet Viewing Party" of the Kroll Show. Killer Queen was released as her third fragrance in August 2013 through Coty In January 2014, she became a guest curator of Madonna's Art for Freedom initiative. In March 2015, she appeared in Brand: A Second Coming, a documentary following her ex-husband Russell Brand's transition from comedy work to activism, and released a concert film titled Katy Perry: The Prismatic World Tour through Epix, which took place during her tour of the same name. Perry also made a cameo appearance in the music video for Madonna's song "Bitch I'm Madonna" in June 2015. The following month, she released another fragrance with Coty, entitled Mad Potion. In September 2015, she appeared in the documentaries Katy Perry: Making of the Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show, which followed Perry's preparation for her Super Bowl performance, and Jeremy Scott: The People's Designer, which followed the life and career of designer Jeremy Scott. Perry released a mobile app titled Katy Perry Pop in December 2015 through Glu Mobile where her character helps players become famous musicians. She described it as "the most fun, colorful world that helps guide your musical dreams". 2016–2018: Witness and American Idol Perry started writing songs for her new album in June 2016, and recorded an anthem for NBC Sports's coverage of the 2016 Summer Olympics titled "Rise", which was released the following month. Perry chose to release it as a standalone track rather than save it for her album "because now more than ever, there is a need for our world to unite". NBC also felt its message spoke "directly to the spirit of the Olympics and its athletes" for its inspirational themes. The song reached number one in Australia and number eleven in the United States. In August 2016, Perry stated that she aspired to create material "that connects and relates and inspires" and told Ryan Seacrest that she was "not rushing" her fifth album, adding "I'm just having a lot of fun, but experimenting and trying different producers, and different collaborators, and different styles". On February 10, 2017, Perry released the album's lead single "Chained to the Rhythm" featuring Skip Marley. It reached number one in Hungary and number four in the United States. The track was also streamed over three million times on Spotify within 24 hours, breaking the music streaming service's record at the time for the highest first-day streaming for a single track by a female artist. The album's second single, "Bon Appétit" with Migos, was released that April. Its third single, "Swish Swish", featured Nicki Minaj and followed the next month. They respectively peaked at numbers 59 and 46 in the United States, and made the top 15 in Canada. The album, titled Witness, was released on June 9, 2017, to mixed reviews, and debuted at number one in the United States. To accompany the album's release, Perry broadcast herself on YouTube for four days with a live-stream titled Katy Perry Live: Witness World Wide, concluding with a live concert on June 12. The live-stream generated over 49 million views from 190 countries. She also embarked on Witness: The Tour, which began in September 2017 and ended in August 2018. On June 15, 2017, Calvin Harris released a song titled "Feels" from his album Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1, which featured Perry, Big Sean, and Pharrell Williams. The song went on to reach number one in the United Kingdom. Perry subsequently recorded a cover of the Dear Evan Hansen song "Waving Through a Window" for the deluxe edition of the cast recording, which was released on November 2, 2018. The show's creators Benj Pasek and Justin Paul had requested Perry to cover the song to promote the musical's national tour and bring awareness to mental health. Later that month, Perry released "Cozy Little Christmas". She also recorded the song "Immortal Flame" for the game Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, and had a playable character modeled after her. Outside of recording music, Perry appeared as herself in the film Zoolander 2, which was released in February 2016. In February 2017, the singer launched a shoe line titled "Katy Perry Collections". Her shoes are available on her website, Katy Perry Collections, and at retailers such as Dillard's and Walmart. The following August, she hosted the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards. Perry was signed for a $25-million salary to serve as a judge on the sixteenth season of American Idol, which premiered in March 2018. Perry began a relationship with Orlando Bloom in early 2016, and the couple got engaged on February 14, 2019. 2019–2020: Smile and motherhood At the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, Perry performed "Here You Come Again", alongside Dolly Parton and Kacey Musgraves, as part of a tribute to Parton. Four days later, she released a song called "365", with DJ Zedd. In April, Perry was included on a remix of Daddy Yankee's song "Con Calma", featuring Snow. She followed this with the singles "Never Really Over" on May 31, "Small Talk" on August 9, and "Harleys in Hawaii" on October 16. "Never Really Over" in particular received critical acclaim. In June 2019, Perry appeared in the music video of Taylor Swift's "You Need to Calm Down". In July, a jury in California returned a verdict following a week-long trial that Perry's song "Dark Horse" had copied Flame's 2008 song "Joyful Noise" after he filed a copyright lawsuit alleging that it used his track's beat without permission; the verdict was later overturned. After the initial verdict, the jury ordered her to pay him $550,000. The next month, Josh Kloss, Perry's co-star in the "Teenage Dream" music video, accused her of sexual misconduct. In an Instagram post, Kloss alleged that, during a party at a skating rink, Perry pulled on his sweatpants and underwear, exposing his penis to her male friends. He also said her management prevented him from speaking about his time with the singer. Johnny Wujek, the creative director of said party defended Perry, saying that she "would never do something like that" and accused Kloss of having an "ongoing obsession" with her. After initially refraining from responding to this, believing it would have detracted from the Me Too movement, Perry has also denied Kloss's claims. Following the release of her single "Never Worn White" in March 2020, Perry revealed in the accompanying music video that she was expecting her first child with Bloom. "Daisies", the lead single from her sixth album, was released on May 15, 2020. Its second single "Smile" followed two months later. The album, also titled Smile, was released on August 28, 2020. Two days before its distribution, she gave birth to a daughter named Daisy Dove Bloom. The album received mixed reviews, and debuted at number five in the United States. Perry further promoted the album with four compilation EPs: Camp Katy, Empowered, Scorpio SZN, and Cosmic Energy. These EPs were followed by the single "Not the End of the World" in December 2020, which had a music video in which Zooey Deschanel impersonates Perry. Additionally she collaborated with various artists to create two remixes of Smile album tracks. Tiësto remix of "Resilient" featuring Aitana was released in November 2020, while Bruno Martini remix of "Cry About It Later" featuring Luísa Sonza was released in April 2021. 2021–2023: Play residency On January 20, 2021, Perry performed "Firework" at the Celebrating America concert during the inauguration of Joe Biden. Four months later, she released a new single, "Electric", a collaboration with Pokémon as part of its 25th anniversary. That December, Perry followed this with "When I'm Gone", a collaboration with Swedish DJ Alesso that made her the third person to reach number one on Croatia's ARC 100 list across three different decades following Lady Gaga and Coldplay. Perry began hosting a concert residency named Play at Resorts World Las Vegas on December 29, 2021. The show's inception happened during the COVID-19 lockdowns with Perry being inspired by Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Pee-wee's Playhouse, and Pee-wee's Big Adventure. She described it as "larger than life" and "the kookiest, most camp show I've ever put together." The show has received critical acclaim with Melinda Sheckells of Billboard saying that Play's "sold-out opening night is part fantasy, part hallucination and thoroughly camp. In addition to a sold out opening night, the Santa Barbara Independent reported that Perry's contract deal for the residency was worth $168 million. It concluded on November 4, 2023, and grossed $46.4 million. In September 2021, Variety paid tribute to and honored Perry in their "Power of Women" issue, where she discussed her career, motherhood, and philanthropy. As a nominee, she attended the Variety 2021 "Power of Women" dinner. On her 37th birthday the next month, Perry guest hosted The Ellen DeGeneres Show and starred in a holiday advertisement for Gap Inc. which featured her singing "All You Need Is Love" by the Beatles. A full version of her cover was released on streaming platforms the same day. In January 2022, she and Morgan McLachlan established De Soi, a company which produces and sells non-alcoholic apéritifs. Both wanted a beverage that "would mellow the mind, minus the buzz" when creating it. Along with Thomas Rhett, Perry recorded a country pop duet titled "Where We Started" for his album of the same name that was released on April 1, 2022. The next month, it was announced Perry would create music for the soundtrack to Jeremy Zag's animated musical film Melody and voice its title character. She also became the new face for Just Eat's, SkipTheDishes', Lieferando's, and Menulog's advertisements and created a new remix of their jingle. On June 8, 2022, Perry was awarded with the Key to Las Vegas, the same day it was marked as Katy Perry day. Perry collaborated with the tech company Apple Inc. starring in advertisements for their GarageBand music software where users could have "Remix Sessions" featuring her song, "Harleys in Hawaii". On the collab, she stated in August 2022: "'Harleys in Hawaii' has lived so many different lives" as well as that there was "so much opportunity to remix this song, and I can't wait to hear all the GarageBand evolutions with this Apple collab." Perry performed at the May 2023 Coronation Concert of Charles III at Windsor Castle. Four months later, she sold her music rights to Litmus Music for an estimated $225 million. 2024: 143 During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in February 2024, Perry announced her exit from American Idol following the conclusion of the twenty-second season, wanting to "go out and feel that pulse to my own beat" and release new music after being "in the studio for a while". The season premiered later that month, and concluded the following May. She released "Woman's World", the first single from her seventh album, on July 11, 2024. One day before the track's premiere, Perry revealed the album is be titled 143 and that would be released on September 20 of the same year. She described the album as "super high energy, it's super summer, it's very high BPM" and "just full of so much joy, so much love, so much light". On September 11, Perry received the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards. She performed during the 2024 Rock in Rio festival on the day of 143's release. Eight days later, she will headline the pre-game entertainment at Australia's 2024 AFL Grand Final. Artistry Influences Perry cites her sister Angela as the woman who has had the most influence on her. During the early stages of her career, Perry's musical style gravitated towards gospel and she aspired to be as successful as Amy Grant. At age 15, she heard "Killer Queen" by Queen, which inspired her to pursue a music career. She cites the band's frontman, Freddie Mercury, as her biggest influence and expressed how the "combination of his sarcastic approach to writing lyrics and his 'I don't give a fuck' attitude" inspired her music. She paid homage to the band by naming her third fragrance Killer Queen. Perry described the Beach Boys and their album Pet Sounds as having a considerable influence on her music: "Pet Sounds is one of my favorite records and it influenced pretty much all of my songwriting. All of the melody choices that I make are because of Pet Sounds." The singer also holds the Beatles' album The Beatles in high esteem, and described these two albums as "the only things I listened to for probably two years straight." She cites Alanis Morissette and her 1995 album Jagged Little Pill as a significant musical inspiration, stating in 2012: "Jagged Little Pill was the most perfect female record ever made. There's a song for anyone on that record; I relate to all those songs. They're still so timeless." Additionally, Perry borrows influence from Flaming Red by Patty Griffin and 10 Cent Wings by Jonatha Brooke. Perry's autobiographical documentary Katy Perry: Part of Me was largely influenced by Madonna: Truth or Dare. She admires Madonna's ability to reinvent herself, saying "I want to evolve like Madonna". Perry names Björk as an influence, particularly admiring her "willingness to always be taking chances". Other artists who Perry has cited as influences include Stevie Nicks, ABBA, the Cardigans, Whitney Houston, Cyndi Lauper, Ace of Base, 3OH!3, CeCe Peniston, C+C Music Factory, Black Box, Crystal Waters, Mariah Carey, Heart, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Imogen Heap, Rufus Wainwright, Pink, and Gwen Stefani. "Firework" was inspired by a passage in the book On the Road by Jack Kerouac in which the author compares people who are full of life to fireworks that shoot across the sky and make people watch in awe. Her second concert tour, the California Dreams Tour, was reminiscent of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. She also credits the 1996 film The Craft for inspiring her song "Dark Horse", and Eckhart Tolle's book The Power of Now for influencing Prism. Musical style and themes Although Perry's music incorporates elements of pop, rock, and disco, Katy Hudson contains gospel. Her subsequent releases, One of the Boys and Teenage Dream, involve themes of sex and love. One of the Boys is a pop rock record, while Teenage Dream features disco influences. Perry's fourth album, Prism, is significantly influenced by dance and pop music. Lyrically, the album addresses relationships, self-reflection, and everyday life. Her fifth studio effort Witness is an electropop album that she described as a "360-degree liberation" record, with themes including political liberation, sexual liberation, and liberation from negativity. Many of her songs, particularly on Teenage Dream, reflect on love between teenagers; W magazine described the album's sexual innuendos as "irresistible hook-laden melodies". Self-empowerment is a common theme in Perry's music. Perry has described herself as a "singer-songwriter masquerading as a pop star" and maintains that honest songwriting is very important to her. She told Marie Claire: "I feel like my secret magic trick that separates me from a lot of my peers is the bravery to be vulnerable and truthful and honest. I think you become more relatable when you're vulnerable." Actress and comedian Kristen Wiig commented that "as easy, breezy, and infectious as Perry's songs can be, beneath the surface lurks a sea of mixed emotions, jumbled motives, and contradictory impulses complicated enough to fill a Carole King record." According to Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune, "being taken seriously may be Perry's greatest challenge yet." In 2013, The New York Times labeled her "the most potent pop star of the day – her hits are relatable with just a hint of experimentation". Randall Roberts of the Los Angeles Times criticized her use of idioms and metaphors in her lyrics and for frequent "clichés". Throughout her career, Perry has also co-written songs recorded by other artists, including Lesley Roy, Kelly Clarkson, Jessie James Decker, Selena Gomez & the Scene, Britney Spears, Iggy Azalea, Rita Ora, Nicki Minaj, and Ariana Grande. Voice Perry possesses a contralto vocal range. Her singing has received both praise and criticism. Betty Clarke of The Guardian commented that her "powerful voice is hard-edged" while Rob Sheffield from Rolling Stone described Perry's vocals on Teenage Dream as "processed staccato blips". Darren Harvey of musicOMH compared Perry's vocals on One of the Boys to Alanis Morissette's, both possessing a "perky voice shifting octaves mid-syllable". Alex Miller from NME felt that "Perry's problem is often her voice" on One of the Boys, stating that "somewhere along the line someone convinced her she was like, well, a ballsy rock chick". Conversely, Bernadette McNulty from The Daily Telegraph praised her "rock chick voice" in a review of a concert promoting Prism. Public image On social media, Perry surpassed Justin Bieber as the most followed person on Twitter in November 2013. She won the 2015 Guinness World Record for most Twitter followers, and became the first person to gain 100 million followers on the site in June 2017. Keith Caulfield of Billboard stated that Perry is "the rare celebrity who seems to have enormous popularity but genuine ground-level interaction with her adoring KatyCats." With over 106 million Twitter followers, she is the second-most followed woman on the site, and the sixth most followed musician across social media with a combined total of over 385 million followers across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. In June 2017, Time magazine listed Perry among its "25 Most Influential People on the Internet" of the year, writing that her live-stream for Witness was "blazing a trail" for being "the closest any major entertainer has come to giving fans the kind of 'real' intimacy that social media purports to provide". Perry has been described as a sex symbol; GQ labeled her a "full-on male fantasy", while Elle wrote her body looked "as though sketched by a teenage boy". Vice called her a "'serious' popstar/woman/sex symbol". She was placed at number one on the Maxim Hot 100 in 2010 as the "most beautiful woman in the world", with editor Joe Levy describing her as a "triple – no quadruple – kind of hot". Men's Health readers voted her the "sexiest woman of 2013". In November 2010, Perry told Harper's Bazaar that she was proud of and satisfied with her figure. Perry's fashion often incorporates humor, bright colors, and food-related themes such as her characteristic spinning peppermint swirl dress. Vogue described her as "never exactly one to shy away from the outrageous or the extreme in any realm", and called her the "Queen of Camp", while Glamour named her the "queen of quirk". In February 2009, Perry told Seventeen that her fashion style was "a bit of a concoction of different things" and stated she enjoyed humor in her clothing. She has also described herself as having "multipersonality disorder" for fashion. Perry lists Gwen Stefani, Shirley Manson, Chloë Sevigny, Daphne Guinness, Natalie Portman, and the fictional character Lolita as her style icons. In 2022, Elle dubbed her as "the kitsch-loving pop star renowned for her uniquely experimental style", while Vogue described her style as "synonymous with outrageous, eye-catching ensembles that lean towards the theatrical". During the 2017 launch of her shoe collection, Katy Perry Collections, she said about shoes: "When I first got to L.A., I cultivated my style on a budget, always shopping at thrift stores or vintage stores. ... Once, I found these flats that looked like Dalmatian dogs. They had ears that moved and a tongue that stuck out. They were such a conversation piece. That's what is so great about fashion. ... It's a form of communication. You don't have to start a smoking habit to start talking to someone. You can just wear cool shoes. It's an icebreaker." Legacy Several media outlets such as Billboard and Glamour have referred to her as the "Queen of Pop", while others like Vogue, Rolling Stone, and InStyle have dubbed Perry the "Queen of Camp". Andrew Unterberger of Billboard described Teenage Dream "one of the defining LPs from a new golden age in mega-pop" while Christopher Rosa of Glamour named her as an influence to the pop sound and style of the 2010s, adding that her singles are "some of the most recognizable, iconic, and impactful hits in pop history." Perry was named "one of the last decade's most reliable and successful hitmakers" by the Official Charts Company in 2022. Additionally, Perry was included in Glamour's "104 Women Who Defined the Decade in Pop Culture" list of the 2010s. It stated Perry "did more than just break chart records. She was one of the driving forces behind the sound of pop radio in the 2010s" for her tracks that were "glossy, booming, sugary-sweet, and undeniably catchy." Variety included Perry in their Variety 500 list of the most influential business leaders, calling her a "global phenomenon" and a "dedicated artist and tireless self-promoter who has leveraged chart-topping hits, sold-out stadium shows, and staggering endorsement deals to become one of the richest and most influential pop stars alive." A 2017 journal published by Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts studying structural patterns in the melodies of earworm songs compiled lists of catchiest tracks from 3,000 participants, in which Perry's "California Gurls" ranked number six. She has been called a "gay icon" by Taylor Henderson of Out, noting how "I Kissed a Girl" helped fans explore their sexuality and how Perry openly embraced the LGBTQ+ community. Perry's music has been described by Out as having a "lasting legacy", with American singers Fletcher sampling "I Kissed a Girl" and Olivia Rodrigo referencing Teenage Dream on "Brutal". Additionally, other artists such as Halsey and Ariana Grande have praised Perry's work, with Halsey calling Teenage Dream the "perfect pop album" and Grande saying "The One That Got Away" is "one of the biggest and most perfectly written pop songs ever from one of the best pop albums of all time." Other ventures Philanthropy Perry has supported various charitable organizations and causes throughout her career. She has contributed to organizations aimed at improving the lives and welfare of children in particular. In April 2013, she joined UNICEF to assist children in Madagascar with education and nutrition. On December 3, 2013, she was officially named a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, "with a special focus on engaging young people in the agency's work to improve the lives of the world's most vulnerable children and adolescents." She arranged for a portion of the money generated from tickets to her Prismatic World Tour to go to UNICEF. In September 2010, she helped build and design the Boys Hope/Girls Hope foundation shelter for youth in Baltimore, Maryland along with Raven-Symoné, Shaquille O'Neal, and the cast of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. In 2010, Perry and Nicki Minaj performed a cover of "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" for service members during the 2010 VH1 Divas Salute the Troops concert. She has also supported children's education and well-being. All profits from sales of the album The Gay Nineties Old Tyme Music: Daisy Bell, which includes her rendition of "Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two)", were donated to the charity Little Kids Rock, which supports musical education in underprivileged elementary schools. In June 2014, she teamed up with Staples Inc. for a project entitled "Make Roar Happen" which donated $1 million to DonorsChoose, an organization that supports teachers and funds classroom resources in public schools. In May 2016, she worked with UNICEF to improve child care quality in Vietnam, hoping to "break the cycle of poverty and drastically improve children's health, education and well-being". The following month, UNICEF announced that Perry would receive the Audrey Hepburn Humanitarian Award "for her work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in support of the world's most vulnerable children" at their annual Snowflake Ball in November. All Spotify streams of her 2021 cover of "All You Need Is Love" will generate $1 in donations for the charity Baby2Baby. Perry has supported organizations aimed at aiding people suffering with diseases including cancer and HIV/AIDS. During the 2008 Warped Tour, she had a cast made of her breasts to raise money for the Keep A Breast Foundation. She hosted and performed at the We Can Survive concert along with Bonnie McKee, Kacey Musgraves, Sara Bareilles, Ellie Goulding, and duo Tegan and Sara at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California, on October 23, 2013. The concert's profits were donated to Young Survival Coalition, an organization aiding breast cancer in young women. In June 2009, she designed an item of clothing for H&M's "Fashion Against AIDS" campaign, which raises money for HIV/AIDS awareness projects. On February 26, 2017, she served as a co-chair alongside various celebrities such as Beyoncé, Lea Michele, Jim Carrey, Jared Leto, and Kevin Spacey for the 25th Annual Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Award Party, a fundraiser for HIV/AIDS healthcare. The proceeds from Perry's single "Part of Me" were donated to the charity MusiCares, which helps musicians in times of need. During her California Dreams Tour, she raised over $175,000 for the Tickets-For-Charity fundraiser. The money was divided between three charities: the Children's Health Fund (CHF), Generosity Water, and The Humane Society of the United States. On her 27th birthday, Perry set up a donations page for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Auckland, and set up a similar page benefiting the David Lynch Foundation for her 28th birthday. On March 29, 2014, she helped raise $2.4 million for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles along with other celebrities such as Ryan Seacrest, Pharrell Williams, Tim Allen, Lisa Edelstein, and Riley Keough. Perry performed at the One Love Manchester benefit concert for the victims of the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing, among various performers including its organizer Ariana Grande, which was broadcast live on June 4, 2017, on radio and television stations around the world. In March 2018, Perry announced Witness: Coming Home, a benefit concert that was held in her hometown of Santa Barbara on May 19, 2018. The concert benefited those recovering from the aftermath of the 2017 California wildfires and 2018 Southern California mudflows. Perry partnered with the Santa Barbara Foundation, the 93108 Fund and The 805 UndocuFund, organizations which help in assisting members of the community in the Santa Barbara area through grants and various philanthropic efforts. Activism and political views Perry has publicly advocated for LGBT rights and admitted that she wrote "I Kissed a Girl" about her own bisexual experiences with other women. In 2017, she received a Nation Equality Award from Human Rights Campaign for "using her powerful voice and international platform to speak out for LGBTQ equality". During her acceptance speech, she discussed having bisexual experiences, her fluid sexuality, and thanked the LGBTQ+ community. In an Out interview in 2021, she was heralded as a "gay icon" with "I Kissed a Girl" being called a "bonafide queer anthem". Perry continued to thank the LGBTQ+ community in the same interview, saying: "I came from a very sheltered upbringing where it wasn't okay to be friends with anyone from that community. And now that is my community." She also mentioned "I wouldn't have survived without the community and it's amazing how full circle it's come and how much growth has happened since I started." Tomás Mier of Rolling Stone remarked Perry "championed queer folks, especially drag queens, throughout her career." She dedicated the music video to her song "Firework" to the It Gets Better Project. In June 2012, Perry expressed her hopes for LGBT equality, commenting "hopefully, we will look back at this moment and think like we do now concerning [other] civil rights issues. We'll just shake our heads in disbelief, saying, 'Thank God we've evolved.' That would be my prayer for the future." In December 2012, Perry was awarded the Trevor Hero Award by The Trevor Project for her work and activism on behalf of LGBT youth. Perry identifies as a feminist, and appeared in April 2013 in a video clip for the "Chime for Change" campaign that aimed to spread female empowerment. She has also said that America's lack of free health care drove her "absolutely crazy". Following the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando in June 2016, Perry and nearly 200 other artists and executives in music signed an open letter organized by Billboard addressed to United States Congress demanding increased gun control in the United States. Through Twitter and by performing at rallies, Perry supported President Barack Obama in his run for re-election and praised his support for same-sex marriage and LGBT equality. She performed at three rallies for Obama, in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Wisconsin, singing a rendition of "Let's Stay Together" as well as a number of her songs. During her Las Vegas performance she wore a dress made to replicate a voting ballot, with Obama's box filled in. On Twitter, she encouraged her followers to vote for Obama. In August 2013, Perry voiced criticism of Tony Abbott, then-leader of conservative Liberal Party of Australia and candidate for Prime Minister of Australia, due to his opposition to gay marriage and told Abbott, "I love you as a human being but I can't give you my vote."; the statement came after Abbott expressed pride at learning of Perry's then-upcoming performance in Australia. In April 2014, she publicly supported Marianne Williamson in her campaign for California's 33rd congressional district by attending a political press event. She endorsed Kamala Harris in the United States Senate election in California, and organized a fundraiser for Harris at her home in Los Angeles in November 2016. Perry also publicly endorsed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for president in 2016. She performed alongside Elton John at a fundraising concert for Clinton in New York City in March 2016. Perry also spoke and performed at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in support of Clinton. Four years later, she supported Joe Biden and Kamala Harris during the 2020 United States presidential election, praising the latter as a leader who had "experience we desperately need right now" and believed that the former "choosing her as his running mate is already a testament to his decision making". In 2022, Perry posted a picture of herself voting for conservative candidate Rick Caruso in the 2022 Los Angeles mayoral election, for which she was heavily criticized by Democrats. Achievements Throughout her career, Perry has won five American Music Awards, fourteen People's Choice Awards, four Guinness World Records, a Brit Award, and a Juno Award. In September 2012, Billboard dubbed her the "Woman of the Year". From May 2010 to September 2011, the singer spent a record-breaking 69 consecutive weeks in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100. Teenage Dream became the first album by a female artist to produce five number-one Billboard Hot 100 singles, and the second album overall after Michael Jackson's Bad. In the United States, she has accumulated nine number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100, her most recent being "Dark Horse", and holds the record for having 18 consecutive number-one songs on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart. Billboard also named her the 15th most successful dance club artist of all time. The magazine additionally ranked her fourth on its "Greatest of All Time Pop Songs Artists" list and twenty-fifth on the "Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century" list, included Teenage Dream and Prism among its "Greatest of All Time Billboard 200 Albums by Women" list, and ranked "Dark Horse" at number 100 on its "Greatest of All Time Hot 100 Songs" as well as one of its "Greatest of All Time Hot 100 Songs by Women" along with "E.T.", "Firework", and "California Gurls". In June 2015, her music video for "Dark Horse" became the first video by a female artist to reach 1 billion views on Vevo. The following month, her music video for "Roar" reached 1 billion views on Vevo, making her the first artist to have multiple videos with 1 billion views. With 143 million records sold globally, Perry is one of the best-selling music artists of all time. She was declared the Top Global Female Recording Artist of 2013 by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). According to RIAA, Perry is the ninth top digital singles artist in the United States, with 121.5 million certified song units in the country including on-demand streams and also has 19 million certified album units, totaling 129.5 million certified units in the United States. She also became the first artist to have three songs receive Diamond certifications from the RIAA in 2017 with "Dark Horse", "Firework", and "Roar". All three of them and "E.T.", "California Gurls", and "Hot n Cold" have each sold over 5 million digital copies. Six years later, the RIAA certified "California Gurls" as her fourth diamond-certified single in the U.S., breaking her tie with Lady Gaga as the female artist with the most diamond singles there. Perry's albums One of the Boys, Teenage Dream, Prism, Witness, and Smile have individually surpassed one billion streams on Spotify. In 2011, Forbes ranked her third on their "Top-Earning Women In Music" list with earnings of $44 million and fifth on their 2012 list with $45 million. She subsequently ranked seventh on the 2013 Forbes list for "Top-Earning Women In Music" with $39 million earned, and fifth on their 2014 list with $40 million. With earnings of $135 million, Forbes also ranked Perry number one on their 2015 "Top-Earning Women In Music" list as well as the "World's Highest-Paid Musicians" and declared her the highest earning female celebrity in 2015, placing her at number 3 on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list. In 2016, the magazine estimated her net worth was $125 million, and ranked her number six on their list of "Highest-Paid Women in Music" with earnings of $41 million. The following year, she was ranked number nine on the list with $33 million. In 2018, she topped its "Highest-Paid Women in Music" listing and ranked at number four on the "Highest-Paid Female Celebrities" list, with earnings of $83 million. Perry subsequently was placed at number four on the 2019 "Highest-Paid Women in Music" listings, with $57.5 million. Later that year, with earnings of $530 million throughout the 2010s, the magazine also ranked her as the ninth-highest-earning musician of the decade. Perry is one of the wealthiest musical artists; during September 2023, Forbes surmised she had a net worth of $340 million. This increased to $350 million the following May, where Perry was included on the magazine's 2024 list of "America's Richest Self-Made Women". Discography Katy Hudson (2001) One of the Boys (2008) Teenage Dream (2010) Prism (2013) Witness (2017) Smile (2020) 143 (2024) Filmography The Smurfs (2011) Katy Perry: Part of Me (2012) The Smurfs 2 (2013) Brand: A Second Coming (2015) Katy Perry: The Prismatic World Tour (2015) Katy Perry: Making of the Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show (2015) Jeremy Scott: The People's Designer (2015) Zoolander 2 (2016) Tours and residency Headlining tours Hello Katy Tour (2009) California Dreams Tour (2011–2012) Prismatic World Tour (2014–2015) Witness: The Tour (2017–2018) The Lifetimes Tour (2025) Co-headlining tours Strangely Normal Tour (with Phil Joel) (2001) Residency Play (2021–2023) See also List of best-selling music artists List of most-followed Twitter accounts List of Billboard Social 50 number-one artists List of highest-certified music artists in the United States Forbes list of highest-earning musicians Notes References Citations Sources External links Official website Katy Perry at AllMusic Katy Perry at IMDb Katy Perry discography at MusicBrainz Katy Perry at Rotten Tomatoes

American singer Katy Perry has received various awards and nominations throughout her career. She is the recipient of five American Music Awards, 16 ASCAP Pop Music Awards, five Billboard Music Awards, four Guinness World Records, seven MTV Video Music Awards (including the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award), 14 People's Choice Awards, a Juno Award, a Brit Award, two Myx Music Awards, three NRJ Music Awards, and five Teen Choice Awards. She has also been nominated for two ARIA Music Awards, 13 Grammy Awards, two Q Awards, and five Radio Disney Music Awards. Perry's second studio album One of the Boys was released in 2008 and received the 2009 NRJ Music Award for International Album of the Year. Two singles from the album—"I Kissed a Girl" and "Hot n Cold"—were nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 2009 and 2010 respectively; the former's music video received five MTV Video Music Award nominations and the MTV Video Music Award Japan for Best Pop Video. She received several Best New Artist nominations, including one at the Los Premios MTV Latinoamérica 2008, and won the 2008 MTV Europe Music Award for Best New Act and also won the 2009 Brit Award for International Female Solo Artist. Her third album, Teenage Dream, became the first by a female artist to produce five number-one Billboard Hot 100 songs—"California Gurls", "Teenage Dream", "Firework", "E.T.", and "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)". For the feat, she received a 2011 honorary American Music Award and an entry in the 2013 edition of Guinness World Record. The album was nominated for six Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and Record of the Year for "Firework", and won the Juno Award for International Album of the Year. Perry received the most nominations at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards with ten, winning Video of the Year for "Firework" and Best Collaboration and Best Special Effects for "E.T.". She became the first artist to be nominated for four different videos at a single ceremony. Her single "Wide Awake" from Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection—a reissue of her third album Teenage Dream—was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Solo Performance. In 2012, Billboard magazine declared her the "Woman of the Year" for her contributions to music. Perry's fourth album, Prism, released in 2013, produced two Canadian number-one singles "Roar" and "Dark Horse". The former was nominated for Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards. At the following ceremony, the album received a Best Pop Vocal Album nomination while "Dark Horse" was nominated for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. "Dark Horse" won Single of the Year at the 2014 American Music Awards. Perry was declared the Top Global Female Recording Artist of 2013 by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. She has been included in the Forbes list of "Top-Earning Women In Music" from 2011 to 2015, ranking among the top ten each year. Perry was also honored in November 2016 at UNICEF by Hillary Clinton, through the Audrey Hepburn Humanitarian Award. Awards and nominations Other accolades Notes == References ==

Canadian politician Keir Clark attended a now defunct university college, which shut its doors in 1969. Who served as the first President of its successor institution?

Ronald James Baker

Multiple constraints

William Keir Clark (May 30, 1910 – November 28, 2010) was a Canadian merchant and political figure in Prince Edward Island. After serving as mayor of Montague in 1941 and 1942, he represented 3rd Kings in the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island from 1947 to 1959 and 4th Kings from 1966 to 1970 as a Liberal. In 1970, he sat as an Independent Liberal. He was born in Mount Stewart, Prince Edward Island, the son of Russell Charles Clark and Marion J. McKay, and was educated at Prince of Wales College and Dalhousie University. In 1940, Clark married Anna I. McLaren. He served as mayor of Montague. Clark served in the province's Executive Council as Minister of Education from 1953 to 1959, as Provincial Treasurer from 1954 to 1955 and as Minister of Health and Municipal Affairs from 1966 to 1969. He resigned from cabinet in 1969, saying that he did not support all aspects of his government's development plan. He was defeated when he ran for reelection in 1959. In 2008 he became P.E.I.'s oldest living former politician, and he turned 100 in 2010. Clark died in Eldon, Prince Edward Island on November 28, 2010. References Notes Sources Weeks, Blair (2002). Minding the House: A Biographical Guide to Prince Edward Island MLAs. Acorn Press. ISBN 1-894838-01-7.

Prince of Wales College (PWC) is a former university college, which was located in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. PWC merged with St. Dunstan's University in 1969 to form the University of Prince Edward Island. PWC traces its history to 1804 when land was set aside by Lieutenant-Governor Edmund Fanning for a college - the colony's first. In 1821 a district school called the National School opened on the site located on Kent Street in the east end of Charlottetown. In 1835 Central Academy opened on a site along Grafton Street, immediately south of the National School. The National School closed in the early 1850s and the provincial Normal School for training teachers opened on the site in 1856. In 1860 the Central Academy was upgraded and renamed Prince of Wales College (PWC) in honour of a visit to the colony that year by the Prince of Wales, later to become King Edward VII. In 1879, PWC became co-educational and the Normal School was merged into the institution. A significant expansion took place in the late 1920s and early 1930s when a new brick and stone campus was constructed on the site of the original PWC campus. Ferdinand Herbert Marani, an architect with Marani & Paisley designed the new PWC campus which opened in 1932. PWC remained a non-denominational or inter-denominational college which served to provide an education comparable to the present-day colleges in Quebec, namely senior matriculation and one or several years of university. It was the non-denominational character of PWC which led many of Island Roman Catholics to label the school as being "Protestant". Many Catholic women attended PWC despite this label because they were barred from attending St. Dunstan's University which was male-only. It was not until 1965 that the provincial government granted PWC a degree-granting charter and the only Bachelor's degrees from PWC were awarded in the spring 1969 convocation. PWC had several administrators who proved their importance to Prince Edward Island's education profession: Dr. Alexander Anderson served as professor 1862–1868 and principal of PWC from 1868–1901, having influenced many islanders, including Lucy Maud Montgomery. Dr. Samuel Napier Robertson served as professor and took over as principal of PWC following Anderson's move into the provincial civil service, serving in that role from 1901 to 1937. G. Douglas Steel, a Harvard graduate would be on faculty for 40 years and served from 1937 to 1949 as principal. Dr. Frank MacKinnon being invited back to the Island in 1949 at the age of 30, he took on the role of principal until he resigned in 1968, amid an effort by government to amalgamate the college with St. Dunstan's University. Sixteen other PWC faculty resigned soon after. Thomas M. Lothian a biology professor became interim principal from 1968 until its dissolution in 1969. PWC held high academic standards for its students and as early as the 1910s, McGill University entered into talks related to integrating PWC as its Atlantic coast counterpart to the University of Victoria, which McGill had also helped to establish and nurture. Master plans had called for quadrupling the size of the PWC Grafton Street campus to encompass most of what is now the eastern end of downtown Charlottetown with the proposed PWC-McGill campus being built along the area bounded by Grafton, Prince, Kent, and Edward Streets in a massive redevelopment of the community. The plans did not come to fruition and by the 1960s, the provincial government began a critical study of its post-secondary education institutions (PWC and SDU), concluding that a merger to form a provincial university was the desired funding and service model for future students. The merger was not without controversy as emotions ran their course on the part of supporters of both institutions, however, in May 1969 the last classes graduated from PWC and SDU and the institutions were merged into the University of Prince Edward Island which opened for the first time in September 1969 on the now-former SDU campus. The PWC campus on Grafton Street was taken over by the provincial government and became part of UPEI during the early period of amalgamation. By the early 1970s it was the Charlottetown campus of a new provincial community college named Holland College. See also Royal eponyms in Canada References External links Prince of Wales College history - provided by UPEI

The University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) is a public university in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, and the only university in the province. Founded in 1969, the enabling legislation is the University Act, R.S.P.E.I 2000. History The university traces its roots back to 1804, when Lt. Governor Edmund Fanning and the Legislative Council of Prince Edward Island called for the establishment of Kent College. By 1820, the first Kent College building, known as "the National School", or James Breading's School was erected. Later succeeded by Central Academy, which received a Royal Charter in 1834. The Colleges were renamed for the Prince of Wales in honour of the future King Edward VII in 1860. The University of Prince Edward Island also traces its roots back to its two earlier predecessor organizations, St. Dunstan's University and Prince of Wales College, founded in 1855 and 1860 respectively. The two institutions were merged in 1969 by the government of Alex Campbell as part of a campaign to integrate the Island's Roman Catholic and Protestant communities, which had previously maintained the two separate institutions of higher learning. Holland College was later created to fill the void left by the merger of Prince of Wales College into the university. The University of Prince Edward Island is a non-denominational university established in 1969 by the amalgamation of Prince of Wales College (PWC) founded in 1834, and St. Dunstan's University (SDU) founded in 1855. The first student to enrol was Elizabeth Rollins Epperly, who would later become president. Its predecessor institutions ceased to operate although St. Dunstan's still retains its charter and the lands that were home to Prince of Wales became the campus for Holland College. UPEI is located on the former St. Dunstan's campus. During the COVID-19 pandemic, UPEI received a $500,000 grant from the Public Health Agency of Canada's Immunization Partnership Fund to develop and implement the Island Vaccine Education Program, intended to increase uptake of COVID-19 vaccines among vulnerable families. Legacy On 8 May 2004 Canada Post issued 'University of Prince Edward Island, 1804-2004' as part of the Canadian Universities series. The stamp was based on a design by Denis L'Allier and on a photograph by Guy Lavigueur. The 49¢ stamps are perforated 13.5 and were printed by Canadian Bank Note Company, Limited. Campus UPEI's campus, located at the corner of Belvedere and University Avenues in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island's capital city, is built on 134 acres (54 hectares) of land. The Confederation Trail runs alongside its eastern boundary. Original SDU buildings in the central quadrangle have been renovated to retain integrity of their exterior aesthetic design while meeting modern standards. Main Building, built in 1854, and Dalton Hall, built between 1917 and 1919, are on the registry of Historic Places of Canada. The War Memorial Hall (more generally known as Memorial Hall) is a landmark building on the campus of UPEI. Built as a men's residence building in 1946, Memorial Hall honours alumni who had enlisted and died in the First World War, and in the Second World War. Over the past three decades, UPEI has experienced significant growth with many new buildings integrated into the campus, including Central Utility Building (1973), Duffy Science Centre (1967), Blanchard Hall (1973), Bernardine Hall (1968), Robertson Library (1975), Atlantic Veterinary College (1986), Chi-Wan Young Sports Centre (1990), Wanda Wyatt Dining Hall (1990), Food Technology Centre, K.C. Irving Chemistry Centre (1997), W.A. Murphy Student Centre (2002), MacLauchlan Arena (2004), Bill and Denise Andrew Hall residence facility (2006), expansions to the Atlantic Veterinary College (2007 and 2009), Regis and Joan Duffy Research Centre (2007), a research and development laboratory which is home to the National Research Council of Canada, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and other partners, and Don and Marion McDougall Hall (2008). The most recent addition is the Health Sciences Building, home to the School of Nursing and Applied Human Sciences programs. In October 2004, the UPEI administration undertook an official campus plan to improve the aesthetics of modern buildings constructed since the amalgamation which do not enhance the original SDU design, and to take overall campus aesthetics into account for future developments on and adjacent to the campus. Organization The current president and vice-chancellor is Dr. Wendy Rodgers, who began her appointment on June 1, 2024. The current chancellor is the Honourable Diane Griffin, who was installed on April 5, 2024. Academics UPEI's seven faculties (arts, business, education, nursing, science, sustainable design engineering and veterinary medicine) and two schools (Mathematical & Computational Sciences and Climate Change & Adaptation) offer a wide range of programs and degrees to undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students. Co-op programs have been established in Business Administration, Computer Science, Physics, and Dietetics. The University is presently developing a Faculty of Medicine, in association with the Memorial University of Newfoundland. Master's and Doctoral degree programs were first introduced through the Atlantic Veterinary College and, beginning in 1999, a Master of Science degree was offered through the Faculty of Science. In that same year the first students were admitted to the university's new Master of Education program. As of 2010, in addition to the MEd graduate program, the Faculty of Education offered a PhD in Educational Studies. The university also now offers a Master of Arts in Island Studies. Recently the Faculty of Business Administration began offering an Executive Master of Business Administration degree. Since 1998, The Centre for Conflict Resolution Studies has been offering courses leading to a Certificate in Conflict Resolution Studies. The Master of Applied Health Services Research (MAHSR) program is coordinated by the Atlantic Research Training Centre (ARTC). The Faculty of Education offers one-year (12 months) post-degree bachelor's degrees with specializations in international, adult, and indigenous education, French immersion and human resources development, a Master of Education (MEd) in leadership in learning, and a PhD in Educational Studies. The Department of Applied Human Sciences has an accredited dietitian program. The university is accredited by a professional organization such as the Dietitians of Canada and the university's graduates may subsequently become registered dieticians. The Faculty Development Office provides professional development courses applicable to many sectors and industries, including development programs for administrative assistants and new managers; collaboration, conflict, and communication training; and, financial management courses. Rankings In Maclean's 2023 Guide to Canadian Universities, UPEI was ranked eighth in the publication's category for "primarily undergraduate" Canadian universities. Research UPEI manages over $17 million in annual research expenditures. The on-campus biosciences and health research facility is used by researchers from UPEI, National Research Council (Canada), and Agriculture and Agri-Foods Canada. UPEI houses the L.M. Montgomery Institute, founded in 1993, which promotes scholarly inquiry into the life, works, culture, and influence of the Canadian writer, L.M. Montgomery. The collection consists of novels, manuscripts, texts, letters, photographs, sound recordings and other Montgomery artifacts and ephemera. UPEI joined with Dalhousie University and Memorial University of Newfoundland to form the Ocean Frontier Institute, a collaborative research initiative aimed at harnessing the vast potential of the world's oceans. Student life Athletics The UPEI Panthers have nine teams playing in the Atlantic University Sport (AUS) and the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS), including men's and women's ice hockey, soccer, basketball, as well as women's field hockey and rugby union and co-ed swimming. The UPEI campus provides its students with many athletics amenities typically found on university campuses. The CARI Complex is a public recreation facility located on the campus and includes two hockey rinks (the MacLauchlan Arena as well as a practice rink) as well as two 25-metre swimming pools (a shallow recreational wading pool, and an eight-lane competitive pool with diving boards). In 2009 UPEI inaugurated the UPEI Alumni Canada Games Place which was built in part to host the 2009 Canada Games. It consists of a "class 2" eight-lane 400-metre running track and rugby field that has spectator seating for 1,335. Residence The University of Prince Edward Island provides student accommodations in four different residence buildings on campus: Bill and Denise Andrew Hall, Blanchard Hall, Bernardine Hall, and a mixed-use Performing Arts Centre and Residence. Bill and Denise Andrew Hall has two-room suites with single bedrooms. In Blanchard Hall, each suite has two single bedrooms with a kitchenette and a living room. Bernardine Hall (known as "Bernie" to the students) offers suites with two double bedrooms and a shared bathroom. Although the hall is co-ed, one floor is female-only. Opened in 2023, the Performing Arts Centre and Residence features two towers of residence apartments and lounges with classroom space and a 400-seat auditorium on the main floor. UPEI/SDU/PWC notable people List of presidents Ronald James Baker (1969-1978) Peter P.M. Meincke (1978-1985) Charles William John Eliot (1985-1995) Elizabeth Rollins Epperly (1995-1998) Wade MacLauchlan (1999-2011) Alaa Abd-El-Aziz (2011–2021) Gregory Keefe (2021–2004) Wendy Rodgers (2024-present) In 2015 each of the first five presidents were recognized as Founders of the University. Being a long-standing university and college in the Maritime province of Prince Edward Island (called the Cradle of Confederation) UPEI/SDU/PWC have been in a position to provide education to a long list of people who have gone to notable achievements. The most well known graduate (of Prince of Wales College) is Lucy Maude Montgomery, author of "Anne of Green Gables" and other books. The most distinguished Saint Dunstan's graduate may be James Charles McGuigan, Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. Religion James Charles McGuigan - Cardinal; Archbishop of Toronto; Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. Joseph Anthony O'Sullivan - Grad of Grand Séminaire de Montréal; Archbishop of Kingston, Ontario; Titular Archbishop of Maraguia James Morrison - Archbishop, Bishop of Antigonish, Nova Scotia; studied at the Urban College of the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide in Rome. James Charles McDonald - 4th Bishop of Charlottetown; Studied at Grand Séminaire de Montréal John T. McNeill - Theological Historian; Graduate of McGill University, University of Edinburgh, and University of Chicago Medical Heather G. Morrison - Rhodes Scholar, Oxford University, Medical Doctor, Chief Public Health Officer of PEI. Sir Andrew Macphail - Physician; Writer for Chicago Times; Enlisted in Canadian Army in WW I at age 50 as ambulance driver. Knighted in 1918 for literary and military work. John Joseph Alban Gillis - Surgeon, Senior House Doctor at Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal; MLA in British Columbia Legislative Assembly; Mayor of Merritt, British Columbia William Henry Sutherland - Physician at Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal, for the Canadian Pacific Railway, and the Hotel Vancouver; Mayor of Revelstoke, British Columbia James Walter MacNeill - Physician; First superintendent of Saskatchewan Hospital; Early developer for advanced treatments of the mentally ill Owen Trainor - Physician; Member of Parliament for Winnipeg Manitoba South; Died during first term in House of Commons Augustine A. MacDonald - Physician & Member of Legislative Assembly; Awarded Order of Canada in 1968 for providing medical care to the people of rural Prince Edward Island for more than sixty years Business Frank Zakem - LLD, B.A., B.Ed., B.Com., OPEI. businessman, politician, educator, author Brenton St. John - Businessman, fish factory director, farm commodity exporter; Speaker of PEI Legislative Assembly Henry Callbeck - Ship Builder, Businessman, Sheriff of Queens County, Governor of Prince of Wales College Don McDougall (baseball) - President of Labatt Brewing Company; principal in establishment of Toronto Blue Jays Prince Edward Island Lieutenant Governor (Viceregal) Willibald Joseph MacDonald - 19th Lieutenant Governor (Viceregal) of PEI; Soldier in WW I and WW II Marion Reid - C.M.Order of Canada, OPEI Order of Prince Edward Island, 24th Lieutenant Governor (Viceregal) of PEI (and first woman Lt. Gov); Dame of Grace of The Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem (Order of Saint John (chartered 1888)) George William Howlan - 6th Lieutenant Governor (Viceregal) of PEI; Irish-born merchant and ship owner Augustine Colin Macdonald - 10th Lieutenant Governor (Viceregal) of PEI; also long time Member of Parliament Murdock MacKinnon - 11th Lieutenant Governor (Viceregal) of PEI; Farmer; PEI Commissioner of Agriculture Donald Alexander MacKinnon - 8th Lieutenant Governor (Viceregal) of PEI; Attorney, also grad Dalhousie School of Law Thomas William Lemuel Prowse - 17th Lieutenant Governor (Vicregal) of PEI; 26th Mayor of Charlottetown; President of Prowse Brother, Ltd Frederick Walter Hyndman - 18th Lieutenant Governor (Viceregal) of PEI; Canadian Army Major in WW II Frank Richard Heartz - 12th Lieutenant Governor (Viceregal) of PEI; also businessman and farmer Gordon Lockhart Bennett - 21st Lieutenant Governor (Viceregal) of PEI; Chemistry Professor at Prince of Wales College; Canadian Curling Hall of Fame Prince Edward Island Premier Lemuel Owen - 2nd Premier of PEI; Shipbuilder, Banker; Merchant Sir William Wilfred Sullivan - 4th Premier of PEI; Knighted by King George V. Louis Henry Davies - 3rd Premier of PEI, Member of Parliament, 12th Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, 6th Chief Justice of Canada Frederick Peters - 6th Premier of PEI; mother was Mary Cunard (eldest daughter of Sir Samuel Cunard) Donald Farquharson - 8th Premier of PEI; Member of Parliament; MLA Herbert James Palmer - 11th Premier of PEI; son of former colonial Premier Edward Palmer (Canadian politician). Aubin-Edmond Arsenault - 13th Premier of Prince Edward Island, PEI Supreme Court Judge Albert Charles Saunders - 16th Premier of Prince Edward Island; PEI Supreme Court Judge; elected four times as mayor of Summerside PEI Thane Campbell - 19th Premier of PEI, Rhodes Scholar, also grad Oxford University Bennett Campbell - 24th Premier of PEI Alexander Warburton - Also grad University of Edinburgh. PEI Member of Parliament, 7th Premier of Prince Edward Island James Lee - 26th Premier of PEI; Sworn to Privy Council of Canada by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Keith Milligan - 29th Premier of PEI William J.P. MacMillan - 18th Premier of PEI; also M.D. and graduate of McGill University School of Medicine James David Stewart - 15th Premier of PEI Walter Russell Shaw - 22nd Premier of PEI; Officer of the Order of Canada; Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1980. John Howatt Bell - 14th Premier of PEI; PEI Member of Parliament John Alexander Mathieson - 12th Premier of PEI Prince Edward Island Members Legislative Assembly Prosper Arsenault - Educator; Politician, Speaker of the PEI Legislative Assembly Cletus Dunn - MLA, Civil Servant Cynthia Dunsford - MLA, Squash Coach, Writer/Performer of CBC Radio comedy show "Parkdale Doris." Paul Connolly - Educator, Politician; Member National Parole Board in 2002, serving for seven years. Jamie Ballem - MLA, Businessman; founded Island Green Power Company to promote the development of wind power on the island Herb Dickieson - MLA, Physician, also grad Dalhousie University School of Medicine; Chief of Medical Staff at Charlottetown Community Hospital Doug Currie - MLA; Head Coach and Director of Hockey Operations for the University of Prince Edward Island. Valerie Docherty - MLA Paula Biggar - MLA Alan Buchanan - MLA, Educational Administrator; Communication Officer with Island Telecom and later Aliant, Kevin MacAdam - MLA, Political Advisor James Warburton - MLA, Mayor of Charlottetown, Physician Jim Larkin - MLA; Executive with Tourism Industry Association of Canada George Dewar - MLA; Physician in private practice and earlier with Royal Canadian Medical Corps in WW II; member Order of Canada Betty Jean Brown - MLA, Nurse Practitioner; Owner of family fur farm David McKenna - Optometrist, businessman and politician, MLA in Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island Canada national government Mark MacGuigan - Attorney General of Canada; Secretary of State for External Affairs in the cabinet of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau Jacques Hebert - Quebec Senator to Parliament; Author Deux innocents en Chine rouge (with Pierre Trudeau) Mike Duffy - PEI Senator to Parliament of Canada; TV news show host; covered fall of Saigon, Vietnam Percy Downe - PEI Senator to Parliament of Canada; Chief of Staff for Prime Minister Jean Chrétien Lorne Bonnell - PEI Senator to Parliament of Canada; Physician John McLean - PEI Senator to Parliament of Canada; earlier Member of Parliament; MLA; Director of several businesses, i.e., Maritime Life Insurance Co. and The Guardian newspaper Melvin McQuaid - PEI Member of Parliament of Canada; PEI Supreme Court Judge Alfred Lefurgey - PEI Member of Parliament of Canada; also grad Harvard Law Thomas Joseph Kickham - PEI Senator to Parliament of Canada James McIsaac - PEI Member of Parliament of Canada; also grad Université Laval Angus Alexander McLean - PEI Member of Parliament of Canada; also grad Harvard Law Peter Adolphus McIntyre - PEI Member of Parliament; 7th Lieutenant Governor (Viceregal) of PEI Joe McGuire - PEI Member of Parliament of Canada Shawn Murphy - PEI Member of Parliament; Attorney, Queen's Counsel George Henderson; PEI Member of Parliament; Shellfish Technician; Farmer, Electrical Engineer and Businessman Chester McLure - PEI Member of Parliament; Fox Farmer; Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel in 1930 for the 2nd Medium Light Artillery Montague Aldous - Dominion Topographical Surveyor of the Northwest Territories 1877; also grad of Bowdoin College, Maine Thomas McMillan - political scientist and former politician, Member of Parliament; Minister of the Environment Provincial/local governments of Canada David Laird - 1st Lieutenant Governor of Northwest Territories, Canada; Indian Commissioner of the Northwest Territories, Manitoba, and Keewatin Bob MacQuarrie - Ontario MLA George Washington McPhee - Saskatchewan Member of Parliament of Canada; Attorney, King's Counsel Robert Deschamps - Member National Assembly of Quebec; Parti Québécois member and supporter of sovereignty of Quebec F.H. Auld - Agricultural Scientist, Saskatchewan Deputy Minister of Agriculture, 1916–46 Harold Lloyd Henderson - Presbyterian minister, Mayor Portage la Prairie, Manitoba; also grad McGill University John Salmon Lamont - PWC and Princeton University, Reeve of Assinibola, Manitoba John K. McInnis - Mayor of Regina, Saskatchewan Maurice DeLory - MLA in Nova Scotia House of Assembly; Surgeon Alexander Campbell - represented St. John's in the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly, 1928–32; also grad Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and the University of Vienna. Arts and letters Lucy Maud Montgomery - Author: Anne of Green Gables, Avonlea Irene Gammel - Literary Historian: Baroness Elsa, Looking for Anne of Green Gables Sandra M. Macdonald - Chairperson National Film Board of Canada John Smith - Poet Laureate of PEI Rachna Gilmore - Children's Book Writer; 1999 Governor General's Award for Children's Literature Anne Compton - Poet; 2005 Governor General's Award for Poetry; 2012 awarded Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal Tyler Shaw - Singer; 2012 Billboard Canada Adult Contemporary # 5 song "Kiss Goodnight." Song was certified Gold by Music Canada in 2013. James Jeffrey Roche - Writer, American Consul in Switzerland; Editor of Boston Pilot newspaper Education John Angus Weir - 4th President of Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario; also grad University of Notre Dame William Christopher Macdonald - 4th Chancellor of McGill University; founder MacDonald & Brothers tobacco company Elizabeth Rollins Epperly - Victorian Scholar; grad UPEI and University of London; President of UPEI, 1995–98 Eddie Gardner - Elder-in-Residence University of the Fraser Valley; founder Open-Net Salmon Boycott Marin Gallant - Educator, MLA, Inspector for PEI French Schools William Edwin Cameron - first Saint Dunstan's Rhodes Scholar, SDU Class of 1904 Scott MacEachern - Professor of Archaeology and Anthropology at Duke Kunshan University, China, an expert in African archaeology. Kathy Martin - Professor in the Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia and a senior research scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada Tim Carroll - Assistant Professor of History at Saint Francis Xavier University & UPEI; MLA in Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island Philanthropist Jean-Louis Lévesque - Philanthropist, entrepreneur, racehorse owner Prince Edward Island law/legal Wayne Cheverie - PEI Supreme Court Judge Gerard Mitchell - Chief Justice PEI Supreme Court Charles St. Clair Trainor - Chief Justice PEI Supreme Court, King's Counsel Gavan Duffy - Judge of the Prince Edward Island County Court, sitting in Queens County; King's Counsel; Grand Master Knights of Columbus Reginald Bell - PEI Supreme Court Judge George McMahon - PEI Supreme Court Judge Other Canada law/legal Sir James Hyndman - Alberta Supreme Court Judge; Inducted as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1948. J. Greg Peters - Superintendent of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Usher of the Black Rod of the Senate of Canada. U.S. government Jacob Gould Schurman - US Ambassador to Germany; President Cornell University Cyrus S. Ching - U.S. federal administrator, US Department of Labor Hall of Honor James U. Campbell - 25th Chief Justice Oregon Supreme Court, USA; U.S. Lieutenant in Philippines during Spanish–American War Burpee L. Steeves - 9th Lieutenant Governor of Idaho; also grad Willamette University, Oregon Prince Edward Island local government Ian MacDonald - 43rd Mayor of Charlottetown; Known as "Tex" William S. Stewart - Mayor of Charlottetown, 1932–34; MLA; Admiralty Court Judge Philip Brown - Mayor of Charlottetown, as of January 2019; teacher and businessman Military Ralph McInerney - World War I Pilot in Royal Flying Corps; Represented the city of Saint John, New Brunswick in the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick from 1939 to 1948. Roger Soloman - Lieutenant Royal Canadian Navy; Tourist cottages business owner on Brudenell River, PEI; High School Principal Keith Brown - Scottish politician; Deputy Leader of the Scottish National Party; Royal Marines in Falklands War Athletics Scott Morrison - Assistant Coach of Boston Celtics, 2017+; 2014-15 NBA Developmental League (D-League) Coach of the Year with Maine Red Claws Doug MacLean - NHL General Manager and Coach for the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Head Coach for Florida Panthers; Coach for two NHL All Star games, 1995–97; earlier after playing varsity hockey for the UPEI Panthers became hockey coach for the University of New Brunswick. Known as "Prince Eddy" because of his affinity for Prince Edward Island Al MacAdam - NHL Hockey Player, Stanley Cup Champion 1974, NHL All-Star 1976 & 1977 Bill MacMillan - NHL Hockey Player, Bronze Medal 1976 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France Joel Ward - NHL Hockey Player, Team Canada 2014 IIHF World Championship in Minsk, Belarus Dave Cameron - NHL Coach (2016 Ass't Coach Calgary Flames) and Player (Colorado Rockies and New Jersey Devils) Darwin McCutcheon - Hockey player; five years professional in American Hockey League and Int'l Hockey League. Played one game in NHL for Toronto Maple Leafs Gerry Fleming - NHL hockey player for the Montreal Canadiens and American Hockey League for the Fredericton Canadiens Jim Foley - CFL Football Player, Grey Cup Champion 1973 & 1976, CFL's Rookie of the Year Award in 1971 and later won 1975 Most Outstanding Canadian Award Vernon Pahl - CFL Football Player, Grey Cup Champion 1984 & 1988 Erin Carmody - Curler, MVP 2010 Scotties Tournament of Hearts Paul Craig - NASL Soccer Player, FC Edmonton Kara Grant - Modern Pentathlon: Athens Olympics 2004 and Beijing Olympics 2008; Bronze Medalist at Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 2002 Anja Weisser - German Women's Ice Hockey Team, 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia Park Ye-eun - Korean Women's Ice Hockey Team, 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, Korea. Katie Baker - Captain Canada National Field Hockey Team; Pan American Games 2007 in Brazil; Commonwealth Games 2010 in Delhi, India. Cory Vitarelli - Lacrosse player for Rochester Knighthawks in National Lacrosse League. Three time Champion's Cup now known as (National Lacrosse League Cup) winner. Ryan Anstey - soccer player Toronto Lynx USL First Division, Crown Attorney in Alberta Jared Gomes - hockey player; Bridgeport Sound Tigers, American Hockey League Justin Donati - hockey player; Brampton Beast, ECHL; Toronto St. Michael's Majors, Ontario Hockey League Calvin Tyler Scott - professional basketball player in the National Basketball League of Canada for the Island Storm Mitch Murphy - Standardbred Canada Board of Directors (horse racing); MLA Mathew Maione - professional hockey player for Dinamo Riga in the Kontinental Hockey League, Russia Mark Guggenberger - professional ice hockey goaltender with the Perth Thunder of the Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL) Honorary degrees Following is a partial list of Past Honorary Degree Recipients from UPEI: Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh - Honorary Doctor of Laws, 2007; third son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Ted Kennedy - Honorary Doctor of Laws from Saint Dunstan's University and SDU Class of 1964 Commencement Speaker Angèle Arsenault - Honorary Doctor of Laws from UPEI; actress and singer; Ordre de la Pléiade de l'Association des parlementaires de langue française Hisako, Princess Takamado - Member of Imperial House of Japan Anne Murray - Singer: four time Grammy Award winner most famously for the 1970 song Snowbird (song), former H.S. teacher on PEI Adrienne Clarkson - 26th Governor-General of Canada David Suzuki - Climate change activist; Ph.D. from University of Chicago in zoology Colonel George Stanley - Professor Emeritus Royal Military College; Knight of Justice of the Order of St. John; Lt. Governor of New Brunswick Edward D. Ives - Folklorist of Maine and Canada's Maritime Provinces; Professor of Folklore at University of Maine; Ph.D. from Indiana University Philip Oland - of the founding family of and CEO of Moosehead Breweries, Saint John, New Brunswick; Retired Brigadier Canadian Forces; Philanthropist Alan Lund - Dancer and choreographer of television, movies, and theatre; Officer of the Order of Canada Gordon Pinsent - Screenwriter, Actor: Wind at My Back, Red Green Show, Old Man and the Sea {1999} voice Lester B. Pearson - Prime Minister of Canada; Awarded in 1967 at Prince of Wales College Pierre Burton - Journalist, historian and author; Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal honoree Beverley McLachlin - 17th Chief Justice of Canada; Judge on the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal Doug Hall - Lecturer, author, TV and radio host and chemical engineer by education. Master Marketing Inventor at Procter & Gamble Stompin' Tom Connors - Canadian country and folksinger/writer. Ranked 13th on The Greatest Canadian list, the highest of any artist Art Linkletter - Canadian-born American radio & television personality, "Kids Say the Darndest Things" Notable UPEI faculty and administration Angus Bernard MacEachern - Founded St. Andrew's College; 1st Bishop of Charlottetown (incl Magdalen Islands); studied theology in Spain. Bernard Donald Macdonald - 2nd Bishop of Charlottetown; Supervisor of construction of Saint Dunstan's College Wade MacLauchlan - 32nd Premier of PEI, President UPEI; grad University of New Brunswick and Yale University with Masters of Law William E. Andrew - Chancellor UPEI Ronald James Baker - 1st president of UPEI; British Air Force WW II; Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal; grad University of British Columbia and School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London Lou Hooper - Professor of Music from 1975; jazz pianist in Harlem, Yew York, Michigan, and Canada. Played with Billie Holiday and Paul Robeson; Taught piano to Oscar Peterson, 1936–39 Dave Nutbrown - Varsity basketball coach; conference all-star player at University of New Brunswick; recruit of New York Knicks Gustave Gingras - Chancellor of UPEI, 1974–82. Physician; Consultant to United Nations, World Health Organization, and Canadian Red Cross George Wastie Deblois - Merchant; MLA; Trustee of Prince of Wales College; Land agent for Samuel Cunard, founder of the Cunard Line of ships Richard Raiswell - Historian and Professor of Medieval and Renaissance History; commentator on Smithsonian Network's "Treasures Decoded;" Cricket enthusiast and writer about the sport Kenneth Ozmon - Professor and Dean of Arts; Officer of the Order of Canada; later 13th President of Mount Allison University Godfrey Baldacchino - UNESCO Co-chair in Island Studies and Sustainability at UPEI (in partnership with the University of Malta) Doris Anderson - Chancellor of UPEI, 1992-96: editor Chatelaine magazine; Member of Trilateral Commission; Companion of the Order of Canada; President of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women Paul Boutilier - Instructor of International Marketing; Member of the 1983 Stanley Cup champion New York Islanders and seven year NHL player David Bourque - Associate Professor of Music (Spring 2008 term); teacher of clarinet and bass clarinet; member of Toronto Symphony Orchestra; accompanist in several US films, e.g., Academy Award-winning Norman Jewison's film "Moonstruck" Reginald C. Stuart - History Professor at UPEI, 1968–88. Distinguished Chair in North American Studies at the Woodrow Wilson Institute Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, Jun-Jan, 2005 Jamie Muir - Instructor of Education; Ph.D. in education from University of Virginia; also an MLA in Nova Scotia David Staines - Professor of English; Scholar in Medieval, Victorian, and Canadian literature; grad of Harvard University (M.A. and Ph.D.) Louis Groarke - Professor of Philosophy; Writings in Ethics, Logic, Political Philosophy, and Aesthetics Anne Simpson - Author and poet; author of seven books, four of which are in the Toronto Globe & Mails Top 100 Books of the Year, i.e., "Falling" (2008) and "Canterbury Beach" (2001) (Short term Writer-in-Residence) Vianne Timmons - Professor at UPEI; President of the University of Regina (Alberta) Edward MacDonald - Associate Professor of History, teaching about Canadian political history, Atlantic Canada and Prince Edward Island Colm Magner - Canadian actor, director and writer Richard Covey - Canadian composer and Assistant Professor of Theory/Composition Ian Dowbiggin - Professor in the Department of History and writer on the history of medicine. Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Paul Boutilier - Instructor of International Marketing; Retired professional ice hockey defenceman who was a member of the 1983 Stanley Cup champion New York Islanders. Silver Donald Cameron - Writer-in-Residence; writing focuses on social justice, nature and the environment Sam Gindin - Intellectual and activist known for his expertise on the labour movement and the economics of the automobile industry Hilda Woolnough - Artist who exhibited in Europe, Asia, the Caribbean and North America; member of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Robyn MacPhee - Virology technologist at the Atlantic Veterinary College, UPEI; Gold Medalist 2001 World Junior Curling Championships Marcia Anastasia Christoforides - Established the Sir James Dunn Animal Welfare Centre at UPEI with gift of 2.2 million dollars. Wife of Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook with honorific as Dowager Lady Beaverbrook. Sir Charles Dalton – Silver fox breeder; Owner of the Charlottetown Guardian newspaper; Donated and built Dalton Hall at SDU; Knight Commander in the Order of St. Gregory the Great See also Higher education in Prince Edward Island References Histories of the University Bruce, Marian. A Century of Excellence: Prince of Wales College, 1860–1969. Charlottetown: Prince of Wales Alumni Association/Island Studies Press, 2005. Bruce, Marian. Pets, Professors, and Politicians: The Founding and Early Years of the Atlantic Veterinary College. Charlottetown: Atlantic Veterinary College/Island Studies Press, 2004. MacEachern, Alan. Utopian U: The Founding of the University of Prince Edward Island, 1968–1970. Charlottetown: University of Prince Edward Island, 2005. Moase, Lorne Robert. "The Development of the University of Prince Edward Island, 1964-1972." M.Ed., University of New Brunswick, 1972. External links University of Prince Edward Island University Island UPEI Student Union

As of August 2024, who was president of the United States the last time The Beach Boys topped the chart on the Billboard Hot 100?

Ronald Reagan

Multiple constraints | Temporal reasoning

The Beach Boys are an American rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by its vocal harmonies, adolescent-oriented lyrics, and musical ingenuity, the band is one of the most influential acts of the rock era. The group drew on the music of older pop vocal groups, 1950s rock and roll, and black R&B to create its unique sound. Under Brian's direction, it often incorporated classical or jazz elements and unconventional recording techniques in innovative ways. The Beach Boys formed as a garage band centered on Brian's songwriting and managed by the Wilsons' father, Murry. In 1963, the band enjoyed its first national hit with "Surfin' U.S.A.", beginning a string of top-ten singles that reflected a southern California youth culture of surfing, cars, and romance, dubbed the "California sound". It was one of the few American rock bands to sustain its commercial standing during the British Invasion. Starting with 1965's The Beach Boys Today!, the band abandoned beachgoing themes for more personal lyrics and ambitious orchestrations. In 1966, the Pet Sounds album and "Good Vibrations" single raised the group's prestige as rock innovators; both are now widely considered to be among the greatest and most influential works in popular music history. After scrapping the Smile album in 1967, Brian gradually ceded control of the group to his bandmates. In the late 1960s, the group's commercial momentum faltered in the U.S., and it was widely dismissed by the early rock music press before undergoing a rebranding in the early 1970s. Carl took over as de facto leader until the mid-1970s, when the band responded to the growing success of its live shows and greatest hits compilations by transitioning into an oldies act. Dennis drowned in 1983, and Brian soon became estranged from the group. Following Carl's death from lung cancer in 1998, the band granted Love legal rights to tour under the group's name. In the early 2010s, the original members briefly reunited for the band's 50th anniversary tour. As of 2024, Brian and Jardine do not perform with Love's edition of the Beach Boys, but remain official members of the band. The Beach Boys are one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful bands of all time, selling over 100 million records worldwide. It helped legitimize popular music as a recognized art form, and influenced the development of music genres and movements such as psychedelia, power pop, progressive rock, punk, alternative, and lo-fi. Between the 1960s and 2020s, the group had 37 songs reach the US Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 (the most by an American band), with four topping the chart. In 2004, the group was ranked number 12 on Rolling Stone's list of the greatest artists of all time. Many critics' polls have ranked Today!, Pet Sounds, Smiley Smile (1967), Sunflower (1970), and Surf's Up (1971) among the finest albums in history. The founding members were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. Other members during the band's history have been David Marks, Bruce Johnston, Blondie Chaplin, and Ricky Fataar. History 1958–1961: Formation At the time of his 16th birthday on June 20, 1958, Brian Wilson shared a bedroom with his brothers, Dennis and Carl—aged 13 and 11, respectively—in their family home in Hawthorne. He had watched his father Murry Wilson play piano, and had listened intently to the harmonies of vocal groups such as the Four Freshmen. After dissecting songs such as "Ivory Tower" and "Good News", Brian would teach family members how to sing the background harmonies. For his birthday that year, Brian received a reel-to-reel tape recorder. He learned how to overdub, using his vocals and those of Carl and their mother. Brian played piano, while Carl and David Marks, an eleven-year-old longtime neighbor, played guitars that each had received as Christmas presents. Soon Brian and Carl were avidly listening to Johnny Otis' KFOX radio show. Inspired by the simple structure and vocals of the rhythm and blues songs he heard, Brian changed his piano-playing style and started writing songs. Family gatherings brought the Wilsons in contact with cousin Mike Love. Brian taught Love's sister Maureen and a friend harmonies. Later, Brian, Love and two friends performed at Hawthorne High School. Brian also knew Al Jardine, a high school classmate. Brian suggested to Jardine that they team up with his cousin and brother Carl. Love gave the fledgling band its name: "The Pendletones", a pun on "Pendleton", a brand of woollen shirt popular at the time. Dennis was the only avid surfer in the group, and he suggested that the group write songs that celebrated the sport and the lifestyle that it had inspired in Southern California. Brian finished the song, titled "Surfin'", and with Mike Love, wrote "Surfin' Safari". Murry Wilson, who was an occasional songwriter, arranged for the Pendletones to meet his publisher Hite Morgan. He said: "Finally, [Hite] agreed to hear it, and Mrs. Morgan said 'Drop everything, we're going to record your song. I think it's good.' And she's the one responsible." On September 15, 1961, the band recorded a demo of "Surfin'" with the Morgans. A more professional recording was made on October 3, at World Pacific Studio in Hollywood. David Marks was not present at the session as he was in school that day. Murry brought the demos to Herb Newman, owner of Candix Records and Era Records, and he signed the group on December 8. When the single was released a few weeks later, the band found that they had been renamed "the Beach Boys". Candix wanted to name the group the Surfers until Russ Regan, a young promoter with Era Records, noted that there already existed a group by that name. He suggested calling them the Beach Boys. "Surfin'" was a regional success for the West Coast, and reached number 75 on the national Billboard Hot 100 chart. 1962–1967: Peak years Surfin' Safari, Surfin' U.S.A., Surfer Girl, and Little Deuce Coupe By this time the de facto manager of the Beach Boys, Murry landed the group's first paying gig (for which they earned $300) on New Year's Eve, 1961, at the Ritchie Valens Memorial Dance in Long Beach. In their early public appearances, the band wore heavy wool jacket-like shirts that local surfers favored before switching to their trademark striped shirts and white pants (a look that was taken directly from the Kingston Trio). All five members sang, with Brian playing bass, Dennis playing drums, Carl playing lead guitar and Al Jardine playing rhythm guitar, while Mike Love was the main singer and occasionally played saxophone. In early 1962, Morgan requested that some of the members add vocals to a couple of instrumental tracks that he had recorded with other musicians. This led to the creation of the short-lived group Kenny & the Cadets, which Brian led under the pseudonym "Kenny". The other members were Carl, Jardine, and the Wilsons' mother Audree. In February, Jardine left the Beach Boys and was replaced by David Marks on rhythm guitar. A common misconception is that Jardine left to focus on dental school. In reality, Jardine did not even apply to dental school until 1964, and the reason he left in February 1962 was due to creative differences and his belief that the newly-formed group would not be a commercial success. After being turned down by Dot and Liberty, the Beach Boys signed a seven-year contract with Capitol Records. This was at the urging of Capitol executive and staff producer Nick Venet who signed the group, seeing them as the "teenage gold" he had been scouting for. On June 4, 1962, the Beach Boys debuted on Capitol with their second single, "Surfin' Safari" backed with "409". The release prompted national coverage in the June 9 issue of Billboard, which praised Love's lead vocal and said the song had potential. "Surfin' Safari" rose to number 14 and found airplay in New York and Phoenix, a surprise for the label. The Beach Boys' first album, Surfin' Safari, was released in October 1962. It was different from other rock albums of the time in that it consisted almost entirely of original songs, primarily written by Brian with Mike Love and friend Gary Usher. Another unusual feature of the Beach Boys was that, although they were marketed as "surf music", their repertoire bore little resemblance to the music of other surf bands, which was mainly instrumental and incorporated heavy use of spring reverb. For this reason, some of the Beach Boys' early local performances had young audience members throwing vegetables at the band, believing that the group were poseurs. In January 1963, the Beach Boys recorded their first top-ten single, "Surfin' U.S.A.", which began their long run of highly successful recording efforts. It was during the sessions for this single that Brian made the production decision from that point on to use double tracking on the group's vocals, resulting in a deeper and more resonant sound. The album of the same name followed in March and reached number 2 on the Billboard charts. Its success propelled the group into a nationwide spotlight, and was vital to launching surf music as a national craze, albeit the Beach Boys' vocal approach to the genre, not the original instrumental style pioneered by Dick Dale. Biographer Luis Sanchez highlights the "Surfin' U.S.A." single as a turning point for the band, "creat[ing] a direct passage to California life for a wide teenage audience ... [and] a distinct Southern California sensibility that exceeded its conception as such to advance right to the front of American consciousness." Throughout 1963, and for the next few years, Brian produced a variety of singles for outside artists. Among these were the Honeys, a surfer trio that comprised sisters Diane and Marilyn Rovell with cousin Ginger Blake. Brian was convinced that they could be a successful female counterpart to the Beach Boys, and he produced a number of singles for them, although they could not replicate the Beach Boys' popularity. He also attended some of Phil Spector's sessions at Gold Star Studios. His creative and songwriting interests were revamped upon hearing the Ronettes' 1963 song "Be My Baby", which was produced by Spector. The first time he heard the song was while driving, and was so overwhelmed that he had to pull over to the side of the road and analyze the chorus. Later, he reflected: "I was unable to really think as a producer up until the time where I really got familiar with Phil Spector's work. That was when I started to design the experience to be a record rather than just a song." Surfer Girl marked the first time the group used outside musicians on a substantial portion of an LP. Many of them were the musicians Spector used for his Wall of Sound productions. Only a month after Surfer Girl's release the group's fourth album Little Deuce Coupe was issued. To close 1963, the band released a standalone Christmas-themed single, "Little Saint Nick", backed with an a cappella rendition of the scriptural song "The Lord's Prayer". The A-side peaked at number 3 on the US Billboard Christmas chart. By the end of the year David Marks had left the group and Al Jardine had returned. British Invasion, Shut Down Volume 2, All Summer Long, and Christmas Album The surf music craze, along with the careers of nearly all surf acts, was slowly replaced by the British Invasion. Following a successful Australasian tour in January and February 1964, the Beach Boys returned home to face their new competition, the Beatles. Both groups shared the same record label in the US, and Capitol's support for the Beach Boys immediately began waning. Although it generated a top-five single in "Fun Fun Fun", the group's fifth album, Shut Down Volume 2, became their first since Surfin' Safari not to reach the US top-ten. This caused Murry to fight for the band at the label more than before, often visiting their offices without warning to "twist executive arms". Carl said that Phil Spector "was Brian's favorite kind of rock; he liked [him] better than the early Beatles stuff. He loved the Beatles' later music when they evolved and started making intelligent, masterful music, but before that Phil was it." According to Mike Love, Carl followed the Beatles closer than anyone else in the band, while Brian was the most "rattled" by the Beatles and felt tremendous pressure to "keep pace" with them. For Brian, the Beatles ultimately "eclipsed a lot [of what] we'd worked for ... [they] eclipsed the whole music world." Brian wrote his last surf song for nearly four years, "Don't Back Down", in April 1964. That month, during recording of the single "I Get Around", Murry was relieved of his duties as manager. He remained in close contact with the group and attempted to continue advising on their career decisions. When "I Get Around" was released in May, it would climb to number 1 in the US and Canada, their first single to do so (also reaching the top-ten in Sweden and the UK), proving that the Beach Boys could compete with contemporary British pop groups. "I Get Around" and "Don't Back Down" both appeared on the band's sixth album All Summer Long, released in July 1964 and reaching number 4 in the US. All Summer Long introduced exotic textures to the Beach Boys' sound exemplified by the piccolos and xylophones of its title track. The album was a swan-song to the surf and car music the Beach Boys built their commercial standing upon. Later albums took a different stylistic and lyrical path. Before this, a live album, Beach Boys Concert, was released in October to a four-week chart stay at number 1, containing a set list of previously recorded songs and covers that they had not yet recorded. In June 1964, Brian recorded the bulk of The Beach Boys' Christmas Album with a forty-one-piece studio orchestra in collaboration with Four Freshmen arranger Dick Reynolds. The album was a response to Phil Spector's A Christmas Gift for You (1963). Released in December, the Beach Boys' album was divided between five new, original Christmas-themed songs, and seven reinterpretations of traditional Christmas songs. It would be regarded as one of the finest holiday albums of the rock era. One single from the album, "The Man with All the Toys", was released, peaking at number 6 on the US Billboard Christmas chart. On October 29, the Beach Boys performed for The T.A.M.I. Show, a concert film intended to bring together a wide range of musicians for a one-off performance. The result was released to movie theaters one month later. Today!, Summer Days, and Party! By the end of 1964, the stress of road travel, writing, and producing became too much for Brian. On December 23, while on a flight from Los Angeles to Houston, he suffered a panic attack. In January 1965, he announced his withdrawal from touring to concentrate entirely on songwriting and record production. For the last few days of 1964 and into early 1965, session musician and up-and-coming solo artist Glen Campbell agreed to temporarily serve as Brian's replacement in concert. Carl took over as the band's musical director onstage. Now a full-time studio artist, Brian wanted to move the Beach Boys beyond their surf aesthetic, believing that their image was antiquated and distracting the public from his talents as a producer and songwriter. Musically, he said he began to "take the things I learned from Phil Spector and use more instruments whenever I could. I doubled up on basses and tripled up on keyboards, which made everything sound bigger and deeper." Released in March 1965, The Beach Boys Today! marked the first time the group experimented with the "album-as-art" form. The tracks on side one feature an uptempo sound that contrasts side two, which consists mostly of emotional ballads. Music writer Scott Schinder referenced its "suite-like structure" as an early example of the rock album format being used to make a cohesive artistic statement. Brian also established his new lyrical approach toward the autobiographical; journalist Nick Kent wrote that the subjects of Brian's songs "were suddenly no longer simple happy souls harmonizing their sun-kissed innocence and dying devotion to each other over a honey-coated backdrop of surf and sand. Instead, they'd become highly vulnerable, slightly neurotic and riddled with telling insecurities." In the book Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop, Bob Stanley remarked that "Brian was aiming for Johnny Mercer but coming up proto-indie." In 2012, the album was voted 271 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In April 1965, Campbell's own career success pulled him from touring with the group. Columbia Records staff producer Bruce Johnston was asked to locate a replacement for Campbell; having failed to find one, Johnston himself became a full-time member of the band on May 19, 1965. With Johnston's arrival, Brian now had a sixth voice he could work with in the band's vocal arrangements, with the June 4 vocal sessions for "California Girls" being Johnston's first recording session with the Beach Boys. "California Girls" was included on the band's next album Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) and eventually charted at number 3 in the US as the second single from the album, while the album itself went to number 2. The first single from Summer Days had been a reworked arrangement of "Help Me, Rhonda", which became the band's second number 1 US single in the spring of 1965. For contractual reasons, owing to his previous deal with Columbia Records, Johnston was not able to be credited or pictured on Beach Boys records until 1967. To appease Capitol's demands for a Beach Boys LP for the 1965 Christmas season, Brian conceived Beach Boys' Party!, a live-in-the-studio album consisting mostly of acoustic covers of 1950s rock and R&B songs, in addition to covers of three Beatles songs, Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are a-Changin'", and idiosyncratic rerecordings of the group's earlier songs. The album was an early precursor of the "unplugged" trend. It also included a cover of the Regents' song "Barbara Ann", which unexpectedly reached number 2 when released as a single several weeks later. In November, the group released another top-twenty single, "The Little Girl I Once Knew". It was considered the band's most experimental statement thus far. The single continued Brian's ambitions for daring arrangements, featuring unexpected tempo changes and numerous false endings. With the exception of their 1963 and 1964 Christmas singles ("Little Saint Nick" and "The Man with All the Toys") it was the group's lowest charting single on the Billboard Hot 100 since "Ten Little Indians" in 1962, peaking at number 20. According to Luis Sanchez, in 1965, Bob Dylan was "rewriting the rules for pop success" with his music and image, and it was at this juncture that Wilson "led The Beach Boys into a transitional phase in an effort to win the pop terrain that had been thrown up for grabs." Pet Sounds Wilson collaborated with jingle writer Tony Asher for several of the songs on the album Pet Sounds, a refinement of the themes and ideas that were introduced in Today!. In some ways, the music was a jarring departure from their earlier style. Jardine explained that "it took us quite a while to adjust to [the new material] because it wasn't music you could necessarily dance to—it was more like music you could make love to." In The Journal on the Art of Record Production, Marshall Heiser writes that Pet Sounds "diverges from previous Beach Boys' efforts in several ways: its sound field has a greater sense of depth and 'warmth;' the songs employ even more inventive use of harmony and chord voicings; the prominent use of percussion is a key feature (as opposed to driving drum backbeats); whilst the orchestrations, at times, echo the quirkiness of 'exotica' bandleader Les Baxter, or the 'cool' of Burt Bacharach, more so than Spector's teen fanfares." For Pet Sounds, Brian desired to make "a complete statement", similar to what he believed the Beatles had done with their newest album Rubber Soul, released in December 1965. Brian was immediately enamored with the album, given the impression that it had no filler tracks, a feature that was mostly unheard of at a time when 45 rpm singles were considered more noteworthy than full-length LPs. He later said: "It didn't make me want to copy them but to be as good as them. I didn't want to do the same kind of music, but on the same level." Thanks to mutual connections, Brian was introduced to the Beatles' former press officer Derek Taylor, who was subsequently employed as the Beach Boys' publicist. Responding to Brian's request to reinvent the band's image, Taylor devised a promotion campaign with the tagline "Brian Wilson is a genius", a belief Taylor sincerely held. Taylor's prestige was crucial in offering a credible perspective to those on the outside, and his efforts are widely recognized as instrumental in the album's success in Britain. Released on May 16, 1966, Pet Sounds was widely influential and raised the band's prestige as an innovative rock group. Early reviews for the album in the US ranged from negative to tentatively positive, and its sales numbered approximately 500,000 units, a drop-off from the run of albums that immediately preceded it. It was assumed that Capitol considered Pet Sounds a risk, appealing more to an older demographic than the younger, female audience upon which the Beach Boys had built their commercial standing. Within two months, the label capitulated by releasing the group's first greatest hits compilation album, Best of the Beach Boys, which was quickly certified gold by the RIAA. By contrast, Pet Sounds met a highly favorable critical response in Britain, where it reached number 2 and remained among the top-ten positions for six months. Responding to the hype, Melody Maker ran a feature in which many pop musicians were asked whether they believed that the album was truly revolutionary and progressive, or "as sickly as peanut butter". The author concluded that "the record's impact on artists and the men behind the artists has been considerable." "Good Vibrations" and Smile Throughout the summer of 1966, Brian concentrated on finishing the group's next single, "Good Vibrations". Instead of working on whole songs with clear large-scale syntactical structures, he limited himself to recording short interchangeable fragments (or "modules"). Through the method of tape splicing, each fragment could then be assembled into a linear sequence, allowing any number of larger structures and divergent moods to be produced at a later time. Coming at a time when pop singles were usually recorded in under two hours, it was one of the most complex pop productions ever undertaken, with sessions for the song stretching over several months in four major Hollywood studios. It was also the most expensive single ever recorded to that point, with production costs estimated to be in the tens of thousands. In the midst of "Good Vibrations" sessions, Wilson invited session musician and songwriter Van Dyke Parks to collaborate as lyricist for the Beach Boys' next album project, soon titled Smile. Parks agreed. Wilson and Parks intended Smile to be a continuous suite of songs linked both thematically and musically, with the main songs linked together by small vocal pieces and instrumental segments that elaborated on the major songs' musical themes. It was explicitly American in style and subject, a conscious reaction to the overwhelming British dominance of popular music at the time. Some of the music incorporated chanting, cowboy songs, explorations in Indian and Hawaiian music, jazz, classical tone poems, cartoon sound effects, musique concrète, and yodeling. Saturday Evening Post writer Jules Siegel recalled that, on one October evening, Brian announced to his wife and friends that he was "writing a teenage symphony to God". Recording for Smile lasted about a year, from mid-1966 to mid-1967, and followed the same modular production approach as "Good Vibrations". Concurrently, Wilson planned many different multimedia side projects, such as a sound effects collage, a comedy album, and a "health food" album. Capitol did not support all these ideas, which led to the Beach Boys' desire to form their own label, Brother Records. According to biographer Steven Gaines, Wilson employed his newfound "best friend" David Anderle as head of the label. Throughout 1966, EMI flooded the UK market with Beach Boys albums not yet released there, including Beach Boys' Party!, The Beach Boys Today! and Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!), while Best of the Beach Boys was number 2 there for several weeks at the end of the year. Over the final quarter of 1966, the Beach Boys were the highest-selling album act in the UK, where for the first time in three years American artists broke the chart dominance of British acts. In 1971, Cue magazine wrote that, from mid-1966 to late-1967, the Beach Boys "were among the vanguard in practically every aspect of the counter culture". Released on October 10, 1966, "Good Vibrations" was the Beach Boys' third US number 1 single, reaching the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in December, and became their first number 1 in Britain. That month, the record was their first single certified gold by the RIAA. It came to be widely acclaimed as one of the greatest masterpieces of rock music. In December 1966, the Beach Boys were voted the top band in the world in the NME's annual readers' poll, ahead of the Beatles, the Walker Brothers, the Rolling Stones, and the Four Tops. Throughout the first half of 1967, the album's release date was repeatedly postponed as Brian tinkered with the recordings, experimenting with different takes and mixes, unable or unwilling to supply a final version. Meanwhile, he suffered from delusions and paranoia, believing on one occasion that the would-be album track "Fire" caused a building to burn down. On January 3, 1967, Carl Wilson refused to be drafted for military service, leading to indictment and criminal prosecution, which he challenged as a conscientious objector. The FBI arrested him in April, and it took several years for courts to resolve the matter. After months of recording and media hype, Smile was shelved for personal, technical, and legal reasons. A February 1967 lawsuit seeking $255,000 (equivalent to $2.33 million in 2023) was launched against Capitol Records over neglected royalty payments. Within the lawsuit was an attempt to terminate the band's contract with Capitol before its November 1969 expiry. Many of Wilson's associates, including Parks and Anderle, disassociated themselves from the group by April 1967. Brian later said: "Time can be spent in the studio to the point where you get so next to it, you don't know where you are with it—you decide to just chuck it for a while." In the decades following Smile's non-release, it became the subject of intense speculation and mystique and the most legendary unreleased album in pop music history. Many of the album's advocates believe that had it been released, it would have altered the group's direction and cemented them at the vanguard of rock innovators. In 2011, Uncut magazine staff voted Smile the "greatest bootleg recording of all time". 1967–1969: Faltered popularity and Brian's reduced involvement Smiley Smile and Wild Honey From 1965 to 1967, the Beach Boys had developed a musical and lyrical sophistication that contrasted their work from before and after. This divide was further solidified by the difference in sound between their albums and their stage performances. This resulted in a split fanbase corresponding to two distinct musical markets. One group enjoys the band's early work as a wholesome representation of American popular culture from before the political and social movements brought on in the mid-1960s. The other group also appreciates the early songs for their energy and complexity, but not as much as the band's ambitious work that was created during the formative psychedelic era. At the time, rock music journalists typically valued the Beach Boys' early records over their experimental work. In May 1967, the Beach Boys attempted to tour Europe with four extra musicians brought from the US, but were stopped by the British musicians' union. The tour went on without the extra support, and critics described their performances as "amateurish" and "floundering". At the last minute, the Beach Boys declined to headline the Monterey Pop Festival, an event held in June. According to David Leaf, "Monterey was a gathering place for the 'far out' sounds of the 'new' rock ... and it is thought that [their] non-appearance was what really turned the 'underground' tide against them." Fan magazines speculated that the group was on the verge of breaking up. Detractors called the band the "Bleach Boys" and "the California Hypes" as media focus shifted from Los Angeles to the happenings in San Francisco. As authenticity became a higher concern among critics, the group's legitimacy in rock music became an oft-repeated criticism, especially since their early songs appeared to celebrate a politically unconscious youth culture. Although Smile had been cancelled, the Beach Boys were still under pressure and a contractual obligation to record and present an album to Capitol. Carl remembered: "Brian just said, 'I can't do this. We're going to make a homespun version of [Smile] instead. We're just going to take it easy. I'll get in the pool and sing. Or let's go in the gym and do our parts.' That was Smiley Smile." Sessions for the new album lasted from June to July 1967 at Brian's new makeshift home studio. Most of the album featured the Beach Boys playing their own instruments, rather than the session musicians employed in much of their previous work. It was the first album for which production was credited to the entire group instead of Brian alone. In July 1967, lead single "Heroes and Villains" was issued, arriving after months of public anticipation, and reached number 12 in US. It was met with general confusion and underwhelming reviews, and in the NME, Jimi Hendrix famously dismissed it as a "psychedelic barbershop quartet". By then, the group's lawsuit with Capitol was resolved, and it was agreed that Smile would not be the band's next album. In August, the group embarked on a two-date tour of Hawaii. The shows saw Brian make a brief return to live performance, as Bruce Johnston chose to take a temporary break from the band during the summer of 1967, feeling that the atmosphere within the band "had all got too weird". The performances were filmed and recorded with the intention of releasing a live album, Lei'd in Hawaii, which was also left unfinished and unreleased. The general record-buying public came to view the music made after this time as the point marking the band's artistic decline. Smiley Smile was released on September 18, 1967, and peaked at number 41 in the US, making it their worst-selling album to that date. Critics and fans were generally underwhelmed by the album. According to Scott Schinder, the album was released to "general incomprehension. While Smile may have divided the Beach Boys' fans had it been released, Smiley Smile merely baffled them." The group was virtually blacklisted by the music press, to the extent that reviews of the group's records were either withheld from publication or published long after the release dates. When released in the UK in November, it performed better, reaching number 9. Over the years, the album gathered a reputation as one of the best "chill-out" albums to listen to during an LSD comedown. In 1974, NME voted it the 64th-greatest album of all time. The Beach Boys immediately recorded a new album, Wild Honey, an excursion into soul music, and a self-conscious attempt to "regroup" themselves as a rock band in opposition to their more orchestral affairs of the past. Its music differs in many ways from previous Beach Boys records: it contains very little group singing compared to previous albums, and mainly features Brian singing at his piano. Again, the Beach Boys recorded mostly at his home studio. Love reflected that Wild Honey was "completely out of the mainstream for what was going on at that time ... and that was the idea." Wild Honey was released on December 18, 1967, in competition with the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour and the Rolling Stones' Their Satanic Majesties Request. It had a higher chart placing than Smiley Smile, but still failed to make the top-twenty and remained on the charts for only 15 weeks. As with Smiley Smile, contemporary critics viewed it as inconsequential, and it alienated fans whose expectations had been raised by Smile. That month, Mike Love told a British journalist: "Brian has been rethinking our recording program and in any case we all have a much greater say nowadays in what we turn out in the studio." Friends, 20/20, and Manson affair The Beach Boys were at their lowest popularity in the late 1960s, and their cultural standing was especially worsened by their public image, which remained incongruous with their peers' "heavier" music. At the end of 1967, Rolling Stone co-founder and editor Jann Wenner printed an influential article that denounced the Beach Boys as "just one prominent example of a group that has gotten hung up on trying to catch The Beatles. It's a pointless pursuit." The article had the effect of excluding the group among serious rock fans and such controversy followed them into the next year. Capitol continued to bill them as "America's Top Surfin' Group!" and expected Brian to write more beachgoing songs for the yearly summer markets. From 1968 onward, his songwriting output declined substantially, but the public narrative of "Brian as leader" continued. The group also stopped wearing their longtime striped-shirt stage uniforms in favor of matching white, polyester suits that resembled a Las Vegas show band's. After meeting Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at a UNICEF Variety Gala in Paris, Love and other high-profile celebrities such as the Beatles and Donovan traveled to Rishikesh, India, in February–March 1968. The following Beach Boys album, Friends, had songs influenced by the Transcendental Meditation the Maharishi taught. In support of Friends, Love arranged for the Beach Boys to tour with the Maharishi in the US. Starting on May 3, 1968, the tour lasted five shows and was canceled when the Maharishi withdrew to fulfill film contracts. Because of disappointing audience numbers and the Maharishi's withdrawal, 24 tour dates were canceled at a cost estimated at $250,000. Friends, released on June 24, peaked at number 126 in the US. In August, Capitol issued an album of Beach Boys backing tracks, Stack-o-Tracks. It was the first Beach Boys LP that failed to chart in the US and UK. In June 1968, Dennis befriended Charles Manson, an aspiring singer-songwriter, and their relationship lasted for several months. Dennis bought him time at Brian's home studio, where recording sessions were attempted while Brian stayed in his room. Dennis then proposed that Manson be signed to Brother Records. Brian reportedly disliked Manson, and a deal was never made. In July 1968, the group released the single "Do It Again", which lyrically harkened back to their earlier surf songs. Around this time, Brian admitted himself to a psychiatric hospital; his bandmates wrote and produced material in his absence. Released in January 1969, the album 20/20 mixed new material with outtakes and leftovers from recent albums; Brian produced virtually none of the newer recordings. The Beach Boys recorded one song by Manson without his involvement: "Cease to Exist", rewritten as "Never Learn Not to Love", which was included on 20/20. As his cult of followers took over Dennis's home, Dennis gradually distanced himself from Manson. According to Leaf, "The entire Wilson family reportedly feared for their lives." In August, the Manson Family committed the Tate–LaBianca murders. According to Jon Parks, the band's tour manager, it was widely suspected in the Hollywood community that Manson was responsible for the murders, and it had been known that Manson had been involved with the Beach Boys, causing the band to be viewed as pariahs for a time. In November, police apprehended Manson, and his connection with the Beach Boys received media attention. He was later convicted for several counts of murder and conspiracy to murder. Selling of the band's publishing In April 1969, the band revisited its 1967 lawsuit against Capitol after it alleged an audit revealed the band was owed over $2 million for unpaid royalties and production duties. In May, Brian told the music press that the group's funds were depleted to the point that it was considering filing for bankruptcy at the end of the year, which Disc & Music Echo called "stunning news" and a "tremendous shock on the American pop scene". Brian hoped that the success of a forthcoming single, "Break Away", would mend the financial issues. The song, written and produced by Brian and Murry, reached number 63 in the US and number 6 in the UK, and Brian's remarks to the press ultimately thwarted long-simmering contract negotiations with Deutsche Grammophon. The group's Capitol contract expired two weeks later with one more album still due. Live in London, a live album recorded in December 1968, was released in several countries in 1970 to fulfil the contract, although it would not see US release until 1976. After the contract was completed Capitol deleted the Beach Boys' catalog from print, effectively cutting off their royalty flow. The lawsuit was later settled in their favor and they acquired the rights to their post-1965 catalog. In August, Sea of Tunes, the Beach Boys' catalog, was sold to Irving Almo Music for $700,000 (equivalent to $5.82 million in 2023). According to his wife, Marilyn Wilson, Brian was devastated by the sale. Over the years, the catalog generated more than $100 million in publishing royalties, none of which Murry or the band members ever received. That same month, Carl, Dennis, Love, and Jardine sought a permanent replacement for Johnston, with Johnston unaware of this search. They approached Carl's brother-in-law Billy Hinsche, who declined the offer to focus on his college studies. 1970–1978: Reprise era Sunflower, Surf's Up, Carl and the Passions, and Holland The group was signed to Reprise Records in 1970. Scott Schinder described the label as "probably the hippest and most artist-friendly major label of the time." The deal was brokered by Van Dyke Parks, who was then employed as a multimedia executive at Warner Music Group. Reprise's contract stipulated Brian's proactive involvement with the band in all albums. By the time the Beach Boys' tenure ended with Capitol in 1969, they had sold 65 million records worldwide, closing the decade as the most commercially successful American group in popular music. After recording over 30 different songs and going through several album titles, their first LP for Reprise, Sunflower, was released on August 31, 1970. Sunflower featured a strong group presence with significant writing contributions from all six band members. Brian was active during this period, writing or co-writing seven of Sunflower's 12 songs and performing at half of the band's domestic concerts in 1970. The album received critical acclaim in both the US and the UK. This was offset by the album reaching only number 151 on US record charts during a four-week stay, becoming one of the worst-selling of the Beach Boys' albums at that point. Fans generally regard the LP as the Beach Boys' finest post-Pet Sounds album. In 2003, it placed at number 380 on Rolling Stone's "Greatest Albums of All Time" list. In mid-1970, the Beach Boys hired radio presenter Jack Rieley as their manager. One of his initiatives was to encourage the band to record songs featuring more socially conscious lyrics. He also requested the completion of Smile track "Surf's Up" and arranged a guest appearance at a Grateful Dead concert at Bill Graham's Fillmore East in April 1971 to foreground the Beach Boys' transition into the counterculture. During this time, the group ceased wearing matching uniforms on stage, while Dennis took time to star alongside James Taylor, Laurie Bird, and Warren Oates in the cult film Two-Lane Blacktop, released in 1971. Later in 1971, Dennis injured his hand, leaving him temporarily unable to play the drums. He continued in the band, singing and occasionally playing keyboards, while Ricky Fataar, formally of the Flames, took over on drums. In July, the American music press rated the Beach Boys "the hottest grossing act" in the country, alongside Grand Funk Railroad. The band filmed a concert for ABC-TV in Central Park, which aired as Good Vibrations from Central Park on August 19. On August 30, the band released Surf's Up, which was moderately successful, reaching the US top-thirty, a marked improvement over their recent releases. While the record charted, the Beach Boys added to their renewed fame by performing a near-sellout set at Carnegie Hall; their live shows during this era included reworked arrangements of many of their previous songs, with their set lists culling from Pet Sounds and Smile. On October 28, the Beach Boys were the featured cover story on that date's issue of Rolling Stone. It included the first part of a lengthy two-part interview, titled "The Beach Boys: A California Saga", conducted by Tom Nolan and David Felton. Bruce Johnston left the Beach Boys in early 1972, with Fataar and another ex-Flames member, singer and guitarist Blondie Chaplin, becoming official members of the band. The new line-up released the comparatively unsuccessful Carl and the Passions – "So Tough" in May 1972, followed by Holland in January 1973. Reprise felt Holland needed a strong single. Following the intervention of Van Dyke Parks, this resulted in the inclusion of "Sail On, Sailor". Reprise approved, and the resulting album peaked at number 37. Brian's musical children's story, Mount Vernon and Fairway, was included as a bonus EP. Greatest hits LPs, touring resurgence, and Caribou sessions After Holland, the group maintained a touring regimen, captured on the double live album The Beach Boys in Concert released in November 1973, but recorded very little in the studio through 1975. Several months earlier, they had announced that they would complete Smile, but this never came to fruition, and plans for its release were once again abandoned. Following Murry's death in June 1973, Brian retreated into his bedroom and withdrew further into drug abuse, alcoholism, chain smoking, and overeating. In October, the band fired Rieley. Rieley's position was succeeded by Mike Love's brother, Stephen, and Chicago manager James William Guercio. Chaplin and Fataar left the band in December 1973 and November 1974, respectively, with Dennis returning to drums following Fataar's departure. The Beach Boys' greatest hits compilation album Endless Summer was released in June 1974 to unexpected success, becoming the band's second number 1 US album in October. The LP had a 155-week chart run, selling over 3 million copies. The Beach Boys became the number-one act in the US, propelling themselves from opening for Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young in the summer of 1974 to headliners selling out basketball arenas in a matter of weeks. Guercio prevailed upon the group to swap out newer songs with older material in their concert setlists, partly to accommodate their growing audience and the demand for their early hits. Later in the year, members of the band appeared as guests on Chicago's hit "Wishing You Were Here". At the end of 1974, Rolling Stone proclaimed the Beach Boys "Band of the Year" based on the strength of their live performances. To capitalize on their sudden resurgence in popularity, the Beach Boys accepted Guercio's invitation to record their next Reprise album at his Caribou Ranch studio, located around the mountains of Nederland, Colorado. These October 1974 sessions marked the group's return to the studio after a 21-month period of virtual inactivity, but the proceedings were cut short after Brian had insisted on returning to his home in Los Angeles. With the project put on hold, the Beach Boys spent most of the next year on the road playing college football stadiums and basketball arenas. The only Beach Boys recording of 1974 to see release at the time was the Christmas single "Child of Winter", recorded upon the group's return to Los Angeles in November and released the following month. Over the summer of 1975, the touring group played a co-headlining series of concert dates with Chicago, a pairing that was nicknamed "Beachago". The tour was massively successful and restored the Beach Boys' profitability to what it had been in the mid-1960s. Although another joint tour with Chicago had been planned for the summer of 1976, the Beach Boys' association with Guercio and his Caribou Management company ended in early 1976. Stephen Love subsequently took over as the band's de facto business manager. 15 Big Ones, Love You, and Adult/Child Early in 1975, Brian signed a production deal with California Music, a Los Angeles collective that included Bruce Johnston and Gary Usher, but was drawn away by the Beach Boys' pressing demands for a new album. In October, Marilyn persuaded Brian to admit himself to the care of psychologist Eugene Landy, who kept him from indulging in substance abuse with constant supervision. Brian was kept in the program until December 1976. At the end of January 1976, the Beach Boys returned to the studio with Brian producing once again. Brian decided the band should do an album of rock and roll and doo wop standards. Carl and Dennis disagreed, feeling that an album of originals was far more ideal, while Love and Jardine wanted the album out as quickly as possible. To highlight Brian's recovery and his return to writing and producing, Stephen devised a promotional campaign with the tagline "Brian Is Back!", and paid the Rogers & Cowan publicity agency $3,500 per month to implement it. The band also commissioned an NBC-TV special, later known as The Beach Boys: It's OK!, that was produced by Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels. Released on July 5, 1976, 15 Big Ones was generally disliked by fans and critics, as well as Carl and Dennis, who disparaged the album to the press. The album peaked at number 8 in the US, becoming their first top-ten album of new material since Pet Sounds, and their highest-charting studio album since Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!). Lead single "Rock and Roll Music" peaked at number 5 – their highest chart ranking since "Good Vibrations". From late-1976 to early-1977, Brian made sporadic public appearances and produced the band's next album, The Beach Boys Love You. He regarded it as a spiritual successor to Pet Sounds, namely because of the autobiographical lyrics. Released on April 11, 1977, Love You peaked at number 53 in the US and number 28 in the UK. Critically, it was met with polarized reactions from the public. Numerous esteemed critics penned favorable reviews, but casual listeners generally found the album's idiosyncratic sound to be a detriment. Adult/Child, the intended follow-up to Love You, was completed, but the release was vetoed by Love and Jardine. According to Stan Love, when his brother Mike heard the album, Mike turned to Brian and asked: "What the fuck are you doing?" Some of the unreleased songs on Adult/Child later saw individual release on subsequent Beach Boys albums and compilations. Following this period, his concert appearances with the band gradually diminished and their performances were occasionally erratic. CBS signing and M.I.U. Album At the beginning of 1977, the Beach Boys had enjoyed their most lucrative concert tours ever, with the band playing in packed stadiums and earning up to $150,000 per show. Concurrently, the band was the subject of a record company bidding war, as their contract with Warner Bros. had been set to expire soon. Stephen Love arranged for the Beach Boys to sign an $8 million deal with CBS Records on March 1. Numerous stipulations were given in the CBS contract, including that Brian was required to write at least four songs per album, co-write at least 70% of all the tracks, and produce or co-produce alongside his brothers. Another part of the deal required the group to play thirty concerts a year in the U.S., in addition to one tour in Australia and Japan, and two tours in Europe. Within weeks of the CBS contract, Stephen was effectively fired by the band, with one of the alleged reasons being that Mike had not permitted Stephen to sign on his behalf while at a TM retreat in Switzerland. For Stephen's replacement, the group hired Carl's friend Henry Lazarus, an entertainment business owner that had no prior experience in the music industry. Lazarus arranged a major European tour for the Beach Boys, starting in late July, with stops in Germany, Switzerland, and France. Due to poor planning, the tour was cancelled shortly before it began, as Lazarus had failed to complete the necessary paperwork. The group subsequently fired Lazarus and were sued by many of the concert promoters, with losses of $200,000 in preliminary expenses and $550,000 in potential revenue. In July, the Beach Boys played a concert at Wembley Stadium that was notable for the fact that, during the show, Mike attacked Brian with a piano bench onstage in front of over 15,000 attendees. In August, Mike and Jardine persuaded Stephen to return as the group's manager, a decision that Carl and Dennis had strongly opposed. By this point, the band had effectively split into two camps; Dennis and Carl on one side, Mike and Jardine on the other, with Brian remaining neutral. These two opposing contingents within the group – known among their associates as the "free-livers" and the "meditators" – were traveling in different planes, using different hotels, and rarely speaking to each other. According to Love, "[T]he terms 'smokers' and 'nonsmokers' were also used." On September 3, after completing the final date of a northeastern US tour, the internal wrangling came to a head. Following a confrontation on an airport apron – a spectacle that a bystanding Rolling Stone journalist compared to the ending of Casablanca – Dennis declared that he had left the band. The group was broken up until a meeting at Brian's house on September 17. In light of the lucrative CBS contract, the parties negotiated a settlement resulting in Love gaining control of Brian's vote in the group, allowing Love and Jardine to outvote Carl and Dennis on any matter. The group had still owed one more album for Reprise. Released in September 1978, M.I.U. Album was recorded at Maharishi International University in Iowa at the suggestion of Love. The band originally attempted to record a Christmas album, to be titled Merry Christmas from the Beach Boys, but this idea was rejected by Reprise. These Christmas recordings would eventually be released in 1998 as part of the Ultimate Christmas compilation album. Dennis and Carl made limited contributions to M.I.U. Album; the album was produced by Jardine and Ron Altbach, with Brian credited as "executive producer". Dennis started to withdraw from the group to focus on his second solo album, Bambu, which was shelved just as alcoholism and marital problems overcame all three Wilson brothers. Carl appeared intoxicated during concerts (especially at appearances for their 1978 Australia tour) and Brian gradually slid back into addiction and an unhealthy lifestyle. Stephen was fired shortly after the Australia tour partly due to an incident in which Brian's bodyguards, Rocky Pamplin and Stan Love, physically assaulted Dennis. 1978–1998: Continued recording and Brian's estrangement L.A. (Light Album) and Keepin' the Summer Alive The group's first two albums for CBS, 1979's L.A. (Light Album) and 1980's Keepin' the Summer Alive, struggled in the US, charting at 100 and 75 respectively, though the band did manage a top-forty single from L.A. with "Good Timin'". The recording of these albums saw Bruce Johnston return to the band, initially solely as a producer and eventually as a full-time band member. In-between the two albums the group contributed the song "It's a Beautiful Day" to the soundtrack of the film Americathon. In an April 1980 interview, Carl reflected that "the last two years have been the most important and difficult time of our career. We were at the ultimate crossroads. We had to decide whether what we had been involved in since we were teenagers had lost its meaning. We asked ourselves and each other the difficult questions we'd often avoided in the past." By the next year, he left the touring group because of unhappiness with the band's nostalgia format and lackluster live performances, subsequently pursuing a solo career. He stated: "I haven't quit the Beach Boys but I do not plan on touring with them until they decide that 1981 means as much to them as 1961." Carl returned in May 1982, after approximately 14 months of being away, on the condition that the group reconsider their rehearsal and touring policies and refrain from "Las Vegas-type" engagements. On June 21, 1980, the Beach Boys performed a concert at Knebworth, England, which featured a slightly intoxicated Dennis. The concert would later be released as a live album titled Good Timin': Live at Knebworth England 1980 in 2002. In 1981, the band scored a surprise US top-twenty hit when their cover of the Del-Vikings' "Come Go with Me" from the three year old M.I.U. Album was released as a single. In late 1982, Eugene Landy was once more employed as Brian's therapist, and a more radical program was undertaken to try to restore Brian to health. This involved removing him from the group on November 5, 1982, at the behest of Carl, Love, and Jardine, in addition to putting him on a rigorous diet and health regimen. Coupled with long, extreme counseling sessions, this therapy was successful in bringing Brian back to physical health, slimming down from 311 pounds (141 kg) to 185 pounds (84 kg). Death of Dennis, The Beach Boys, and Still Cruisin' By the late 1970s and early 1980s, Dennis had been embroiled in successive failed romantic relationships, including a tense and short-lived relationship with Fleetwood Mac's Christine McVie, and found himself in severe economic trouble resulting in the sale of Brother Studios, established by the Wilson brothers in 1974 and where Pacific Ocean Blue was produced, and the forfeiture of his beloved yacht. To cope with the combination of devastating losses, Dennis heavily abused alcohol, cocaine, and heroin and was, by 1983, homeless and lived a nomadic lifestyle. He was often seen spending much of his time wandering the Los Angeles coast and often missed Beach Boys performances. By this point, he had lost his voice and much of his ability to play drums. In 1983, tensions between Dennis and Love escalated to the point that each obtained a restraining order against the other. Following Brian's readmission for Landy's treatment, Dennis was given an ultimatum after his last performance in November 1983 to check into rehab for his alcohol problems or be banned from performing live with the band again. Dennis checked into rehab for his chance to get sober, but on December 28, he drowned at the age of 39 in Marina del Rey while diving from a friend's boat trying to recover items that he had previously thrown overboard in a fit of rage. The Beach Boys spent the next several years touring, often playing in front of large audiences, and recording songs for film soundtracks and various artists compilations. One new studio album, the self-titled The Beach Boys, appeared in 1985 and proved a modest success, becoming their highest-charting album in the US since 15 Big Ones. The Beach Boys was the group's final album for CBS. The following year they returned to Capitol with a 25th anniversary greatest hits album Made in U.S.A, which featured two new tracks, "Rock 'n' Roll to the Rescue" and a cover of the Mamas and the Papas' "California Dreamin'", with the latter featuring Roger McGuinn of the Byrds on lead guitar. Made in U.S.A eventually went double platinum. Commenting on his relationship to the band in 1988, Brian said that he avoided his family at Landy's suggestion, adding that "Although we stay together as a group, as people we're a far cry from friends." Mike denied the accusation that he and the band were keeping Brian from participating with the group. In 1987 the band scored a top-twenty single in collaboration with rap group the Fat Boys, on their cover of the Surfaris' "Wipeout!". The following year, the Beach Boys unexpectedly claimed their first US number 1 single in 22 years with "Kokomo", which topped the chart for one week. The track was featured in the film Cocktail. Both "Wipeout!" and "Kokomo" were included on the band's next album, 1989's Still Cruisin', which went platinum in the US. In 1991 the band contributed a cover of "Crocodile Rock" to the Elton John and Bernie Taupin tribute album Two Rooms. Lawsuits, Summer in Paradise, and Stars and Stripes, Vol. 1 Carlin summarized, "Once surfin' pin-ups, they remade themselves as avant-garde pop artists, then psychedelic oracles. After that they were down-home hippies, then retro-hip icons. Eventually they devolved into none of the above: a kind of perpetual-motion nostalgia machine." Music journalist Erik Davis wrote in 1990, "the Beach Boys are either dead, deranged, or dinosaurs; their records are Eurocentric, square, unsampled; they've made too much money to merit hip revisionism." In 1992, critic Jim Miller wrote, "They have become a figment of their own past, prisoners of their unflagging popularity—incongruous emblems of a sunny myth of eternal youth belied by much of their own best music. … The group is still largely identified with its hits from the early Sixties." Love filed a defamation lawsuit against Brian due to how he was presented in Brian's 1992 memoir Wouldn't It Be Nice: My Own Story. Its publisher HarperCollins settled the suit for $1.5 million. He said that the suit allowed his lawyer "to gain access to the transcripts of Brian's interviews with his [book] collaborator, Todd Gold. Those interviews affirmed—according to Brian—that I had been the inspiration of the group and that I had written many of the songs that [would soon be] in dispute." Other defamation lawsuits were filed by Carl, Brother Records, and the Wilsons' mother Audree. With Love and Brian unable to determine exactly what Love was properly owed in royalties, Love sued Brian in 1992, winning $13 million in 1994 for lost royalties. 35 of the group's songs were then amended to credit Love. He later called it "almost certainly the largest case of fraud in music history". The day after California courts issued a restraining order between Brian and Landy, Brian phoned Sire Records staff producer Andy Paley to collaborate on new material tentatively for the Beach Boys. After losing the songwriting credits lawsuit with Love, Brian told MOJO in February 1995: "Mike and I are just cool. There's a lot of shit Andy and I got written for him. I just had to get through that goddamn trial!" In April, it was unclear whether the project would turn into a Wilson solo album, a Beach Boys album, or a combination of the two. The project ultimately disintegrated. Instead, Brian and his bandmates recorded Stars and Stripes Vol. 1, an album of country music stars covering Beach Boys songs, with co-production helmed by River North Records owner Joe Thomas. Afterward, the group discussed finishing the album Smile, but Carl rejected the idea, fearing that it would cause Brian another nervous breakdown. 1998–present: Love-led tours Death of Carl and band name litigation Early in 1997, Carl was diagnosed with lung and brain cancer after years of heavy smoking. Despite his terminal condition, Carl continued to perform with the band on its 1997 summer tour (a double-bill with the band Chicago) while undergoing chemotherapy. During performances, he sat on a stool and needed oxygen after every song. Carl died on February 6, 1998, at the age of 51, two months after the death of the Wilsons' mother, Audree. After Carl's death, Jardine left the touring line-up and began to perform regularly with his band "Beach Boys: Family & Friends" until he ran into legal issues for using the name without license. Meanwhile, Jardine sued Love, claiming that he had been excluded from their concerts, BRI, through its longtime attorney, Ed McPherson, sued Jardine in Federal Court. Jardine, in turn, counter-claimed against BRI for wrongful termination. Courts ruled in Love's favor, denying Jardine the use of the Beach Boys name in any fashion. However, Jardine proceeded to appeal this decision in addition to seeking $4 million in damages. The California Court of Appeal proceeded to rule that, "Love acted wrongfully in freezing Jardine out of touring under the Beach Boys name", allowing Jardine to continue with his lawsuit. The case ended up being settled outside of court with the terms not disclosed. BRI ultimately prevailed. Jardine's final appearance with the band for more than a decade occurred on May 9, 1998, which was the final official Beach Boys show performed before the license dispute. During the license dispute, Love (with Marks) toured as "The California Beach Band"; it was previously believed he did so "America's Band", but this has since been disproven. Love then continued touring with Johnston (and David Marks, until he left the band again in 1999, due to health issues when he was diagnosed with hepatitis C), after securing a license from BRI, with the first performance of the 'reorganized' Love and Johnston-led touring band on July 4, 1998. In 2000, ABC-TV premiered a two-part television miniseries, The Beach Boys: An American Family, that dramatized the Beach Boys' story. It was produced by Full House actor John Stamos, and was criticized by numerous parties, including Brian Wilson, for historical inaccuracies. In 2004, Wilson recorded and released his solo album Brian Wilson Presents Smile, a reinterpretation of the unfinished Smile project. That September, Wilson issued a free CD through the Mail On Sunday that included Beach Boys songs he had recently rerecorded, five of which he co-authored with Love. The 10 track compilation had 2.6 million copies distributed and prompted Love to file a lawsuit in November 2005; he claimed the promotion hurt the sales of the original recordings and that his image was used for the CD. Wilson's wife Melinda alleged that, during the deposition, Love turned to Wilson and remarked, "you better start writing a real big hit because you're going to have to write me a real big check." Love's suit was dismissed in 2007 when a judge determined that there were no triable issues and that the case was without merit. In 2006, Brian Wilson, Love, Jardine, Marks, and Johnston participated in a non-performing reunion on the rooftop of the Capitol Records building in Los Angeles to celebrate that the compilation album Sounds of Summer: The Very Best of The Beach Boys had been certified double-platinum. Later that year, Jardine joined Brian Wilson and his band for a short tour celebrating the 40th anniversary of Pet Sounds. In 2008, Marks briefly reunited with Love and Johnston's touring band for a tour of Europe. In 2010, Jardine released A Postcard from California, his solo debut, in June 2010 (re-released with two extra tracks on April 3, 2012). The album features contributions from Beach Boys Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson (posthumously), Bruce Johnston, David Marks, and Mike Love. Other guests with Beach Boys connections included Glen Campbell, Scott Mathews, Stephen Kalinich, and Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell of America. Also in 2010, Brian Wilson and Jardine sang on "We Are the World 25: for Haiti", a new recording of "We Are the World" (with partially revised lyrics), which was released as a charity single to benefit the population of Haiti. Jardine made his first appearance with the Beach Boys touring band in more than 10 years in 2011 at a tribute concert for Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday; at this concert, he sang lead on "Help Me, Rhonda" and "Sloop John B". He made a handful of other appearances with Love and Johnston's touring band in preparation for a reunion. The Smile Sessions, That's Why God Made the Radio, and 50th anniversary reunion tour On October 31, 2011, Capitol released a double album and box set dedicated to the Smile recordings in the form of The Smile Sessions. The album garnered universal critical acclaim and charted in both the US Billboard and UK top-thirty. It went on to win Best Historical Album at the 2013 Grammy Awards. On December 16, 2011, it was announced that Wilson, Love, Jardine, Johnston, and David Marks would reunite for a new album and 50th anniversary tour. On February 12, 2012, the Beach Boys performed at the 2012 Grammy Awards, in what was billed as a "special performance" by organizers. It marked the group's first live performance to include Wilson since 1996, Jardine since 1998, and Marks since 1999. Released on June 5, That's Why God Made the Radio debuted at number 3 on the US charts, expanding the group's span of Billboard 200 top-ten albums across 49 years and one week, passing the Beatles with 47 years of top-ten albums. Critics generally regarded the album as an "uneven" collection, with most of the praise centered on its closing musical suite. During the tour, in May 2012, when asked about the future held for the band and its reunion after the scheduled end of the tour in September, Love stated that "We're looking at our present and future. I think we're going to be doing this again with Brian for a long time." Wilson said that he had begun planning for another Beach Boys album for the band would record after the tour. On June 1, 2012, Love received an e-mail from Ledbetter stating "no more shows for Wilson". Love then began accepting invitations for when the reunion was over. Johnston told reporter Mark Dillon in mid-June that the current tour was "a one-time event. You're not going to see this next year. I'm busy next year doing my thing with Mike." On June 25, Ledbetter sent another e-mail asking to disregard her last message, but by then, Love claimed that "it was too late. We had booked other concerts, and promoters had begun selling tickets." Despite this, in July, Love stated, "There's talk of us going and doing a return to the Grammys next year, and there's talk about doing another album together. There's nothing in stone, but there's a lot of ideas being floated around. So after this year, after completing the 50th anniversary reunion, we'll entertain doing some more studio work and see what we can come up with and can do in the future." Love said that Wilson and producer Joe Thomas had over 80 hours of material recorded, much of it culled from material they were working on around the time of Wilson's 1998 Imagination album that "were always songs he had earmarked for the Beach Boys" and that their label Capitol Records was excited by the band's reunion and was encouraging the band for more new music and more tour dates. Ultimately, the reunion tour ended in September 2012 as planned, after a final show on September 28, but amid erroneous rumors that Love had dismissed Wilson from the Beach Boys. At this time, Love and Johnston had announced via a press release that following the end of the reunion tour the Beach Boys would revert to the pre-reunion tour Love/Johnston lineup, without Brian, Jardine, or Marks, all of whom expressed surprise. Although such dates were noted in a late June issue of Rolling Stone, it was widely reported that the three had been "fired". Love later wrote that the end of the reunion came partly as a result of 'interference' from Brian's wife and manager Melinda Ledbetter-Wilson and that he (Love) "had wanted to send out a joint press release, between Brian and me, formally announcing the end of the reunion tour on September 28. But I couldn't get Brian's management team on board..." On October 5, Love responded in a self-written press release to the Los Angeles Times stating he "did not fire Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys. I cannot fire Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys ... I do not have such authority. And even if I did, I would never fire Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys." He claimed that nobody in the band "wanted to do a 50th anniversary tour that lasted 10 years" and that its limited run "was long agreed upon". On October 9, Wilson and Jardine submitted a written response to the rumors stating: "I was completely blindsided by his press release ... We hadn't even discussed as a band what we were going to do with all the offers that were coming in for more 50th shows." From late September, Love and Johnston continued to perform under the Beach Boys name, while Wilson, Jardine, and Marks toured as a trio in 2013, and a subsequent tour with guitarist Jeff Beck also included Blondie Chaplin at select dates. Wilson and Jardine continued to tour together in 2014 and following years, often joined by Chaplin; Marks declined to join them after 2013. Copyright extension releases and occasional partial reunions Responding to a new European Union copyright law that extended copyright to 70 years for recordings that were published within 50 years after they were made, Capitol began issuing annual 50-year anniversary "copyright extension" releases of Beach Boys recordings, starting with The Big Beat 1963 (2013). In June 2013, Wilson's website announced that he was recording and self-producing new material with Jardine, Marks, Chaplin, Don Was, and Jeff Beck. It stated that the material might be split into three albums: one of new pop songs, another of mostly instrumental tracks with Beck, and another of interwoven tracks dubbed "the suite" which initially began form as the closing four tracks of That's Why God Made the Radio. In January 2014, Wilson declared in an interview that the Beck collaborations would not be released. Released in April 2015, No Pier Pressure marked another collaboration between Wilson and Joe Thomas, featuring guest appearances from Jardine, Marks, Chaplin, and others. Jardine, Marks, Johnston and Love appeared together at the 2014 Ella Awards Ceremony, where Love was honored for his work as a singer. In 2015, Soundstage aired an episode featuring Wilson performing with Jardine, Chaplin, and Ricky Fataar at The Venetian in Las Vegas. In April, when asked if he was interested in making music with Love again, Wilson replied: "I don't think so, no," adding in July that he "doesn't talk to the Beach Boys [or] Mike Love." In 2016, Wilson and Jardine embarked on the Pet Sounds 50th Anniversary World Tour, promoted as Wilson's final performances of the album, with Chaplin appearing as a special guest at all dates on select songs. That same year, Love and Wilson each published memoirs, Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy and I Am Brian Wilson, respectively. Asked about negative comments that Wilson made about him in the book, Love challenged the legitimacy of statements attributed to Wilson in the book and in the press. In an interview with Rolling Stone conducted in June 2016, Wilson said he would like to try to repair his relationship with Love and collaborate with him again. In January 2017, Love said, "If it were possible to make it just Brian and I, and have it under control and done better than what happened in 2012, then yeah, I'd be open to something." In July 2018, Wilson, Jardine, Love, Johnston, and Marks reunited for a one-off Q&A session moderated by director Rob Reiner at the Capitol Records Tower in Los Angeles. It was the first time the band had appeared together in public since their 2012 tour. That December, Love described his new holiday album, Reason for the Season, as a "message to Brian" and said that he "would love nothing more than to get together with Brian and do some music." In 2019, Wilson and Jardine (with Chaplin) embarked on a co-headlining tour with the Zombies, performing selections from Friends and Surf's Up. In February 2020, Wilson and Jardine's official social media pages encouraged fans to boycott the band's music after it was announced that Love's Beach Boys would perform at the Safari Club International Convention in Reno, Nevada on animal rights grounds. The concert proceeded despite online protests, as Love issued a statement that said his group has always supported "freedom of thought and expression as a fundamental tenet of our rights as Americans." In October, Love and Johnston's Beach Boys performed at a fundraiser for Donald Trump's presidential re-election campaign; Wilson and Jardine again issued a statement that they had not been informed about this performance and did not support it. Selling of the band's intellectual property and 60th anniversary In March 2020, Jardine was asked about a possible reunion and responded that the band would reunite for a string of live performances in 2021, although he believed a new album was unlikely. In response to reunion rumors, Love said in May that he was open to a 60th anniversary tour, although Wilson has "some serious health issues", while Wilson's manager Jean Sievers commented that no one had spoken to Wilson about such a tour. In February 2021, it was announced that Brian Wilson, Love, Jardine, and the estate of Carl Wilson had sold a majority stake in the band's intellectual property to Irving Azoff and his new company Iconic Artists Group; rumors of a 60th anniversary reunion were again discussed. In April 2021, Omnivore Recordings released California Music Presents Add Some Music, an album featuring Love, Jardine, Marks, Johnston, and several children of the original Beach Boys (most notably on a re-recording of The Beach Boys' "Add Some Music to Your Day" from 1970's Sunflower). In August, Capitol released the box set Feel Flows: The Sunflower & Surf's Up Sessions 1969–1971. In 2022, the group was expected to participate in a "60th anniversary celebration". Azoff stated in an interview from May 2021, "We're going to announce a major deal with a streamer for the definitive documentary on The Beach Boys and a 60th anniversary celebration. We're planning a tribute concert affiliated with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and SiriusXM, with amazing acts. That's adding value, and that's why I invested in The Beach Boys." On Mike Love's 81st birthday, Jardine once again hinted at a possible reunion on his Facebook page by stating that he was "looking forward" to seeing Love at the "reunion". However, while a reunion ultimately did not occur in 2022, Capitol released the Sail On Sailor – 1972 box set in December; following on from the Feel Flows box set, which focused on Sunflower and Surf's Up, Sail On Sailor focused on Carl and the Passions and Holland. In January 2023, the tribute concert mentioned by Azoff in 2021 was announced as being part of the "Grammys Salute" series of televised tribute concerts. On February 8—three days after the 2023 Grammy award ceremonies, A Grammy Salute to the Beach Boys was recorded at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California and subsequently aired as a two-hour special on CBS on April 9. Present for the taping were Wilson, Jardine, Marks, Johnston, and Love—this time not as performers but as featured guests, seated in a luxury box at the theatre, overlooking tribute performances covering the gamut of their catalog by mostly contemporary artists. According to Billboard, the program had 5.18 million viewers. In July 2023, the Beach Boys announced a limited edition to their book, The Beach Boys by The Beach Boys, set to be released in 2024. It will feature exclusive interviews, archived photos, live shots, as well as archived texts from late members Carl and Dennis Wilson. In March 2024, the band announced the release of a self-titled documentary which would be released by streaming service Disney+, which includes new and archived interviews from various members of the band and their inner circle, including Brian Wilson, Love, Jardine, Marks, Johnston, Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson, Chaplin, Fataar, Brian Wilson's ex-wife Marilyn, and Don Was, among others. The documentary was directed by Frank Marshall and Thom Zimny and was released on May 24, 2024. The documentary included some footage from a private reunion of Brian Wilson, Love, Jardine, Marks, and Johnston at Paradise Cove, where the Surfin' Safari album cover photo was taken in 1962. Brian Wilson, Love, Jardine, Marks, Johnston, and Blondie Chaplin also participated in a non-performing reunion at the documentary's premiere on May 24, 2024. Musical style and development In Understanding Rock: Essays in Musical Analysis, musicologist Daniel Harrison writes: Even from their inception, the Beach Boys were an experimental group. They combined, as Jim Miller has put it, "the instrumental sleekness of the Ventures, the lyric sophistication of Chuck Berry, and the vocal expertise of some weird cross between the Lettermen and Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers" with lyrics whose images, idioms, and concerns were drawn from the rarefied world of the middle-class white male southern California teenager. ... [But] it was the profound vocal virtuosity of the group, coupled with the obsessional drive and compositional ambitions of their leader, Brian Wilson, that promised their survival after the eventual breaking of fad fever. ... Comparison to other vocally oriented rock groups, such as the Association, shows the Beach Boys' technique to be far superior, almost embarrassingly so. They were so confident of their ability, and of Brian's skill as a producer to enhance it, that they were unafraid of doing sophisticated, a cappella glee-club arrangements containing multiple suspensions, passing formations, complex chords, and both chromatic and enharmonic modulations. The Beach Boys began as a garage band playing 1950s style rock and roll, reassembling styles of music such as surf to include vocal jazz harmony, which created their unique sound. In addition, they introduced their signature approach to common genres such as the pop ballad by applying harmonic or formal twists not native to rock and roll. Among the distinct elements of the Beach Boys' style were the nasal quality of their singing voices, their use of a falsetto harmony over a driving, locomotive-like melody, and the sudden chiming in of the whole group on a key line. Brian Wilson handled most stages of the group's recording process from the beginning, even though he was not properly credited on most of the early recordings. Early on, Mike Love sang lead vocals in the rock-oriented songs, while Carl contributed guitar lines on the group's ballads. Jim Miller commented: "On straight rockers they sang tight harmonies behind Love's lead ... on ballads, Brian played his falsetto off against lush, jazz-tinged voicings, often using (for rock) unorthodox harmonic structures." Harrison adds that "even the least distinguished of the Beach Boys' early uptempo rock 'n' roll songs show traces of structural complexity at some level; Brian was simply too curious and experimental to leave convention alone." Although Brian was often dubbed a perfectionist, he was an inexperienced musician, and his understanding of music was mostly self-taught. At the lyric stage, he usually worked with Love, whose assertive persona provided youthful swagger that contrasted Brian's explorations in romanticism and sensitivity. Luis Sanchez noted a pattern where Brian would spare surfing imagery when working with collaborators outside of his band's circle, in the examples "Lonely Sea" and "In My Room". Brian's bandmates resented the notion that he was the sole creative force in the group. In a 1966 article that asked if "the Beach Boys rely too much on sound genius Brian", Carl said that although Brian was the most responsible for their music, every member of the group contributed ideas. Mike Love wrote, "As far as I was concerned, Brian was a genius, deserving of that recognition. But the rest of us were seen as nameless components in Brian's music machine ... It didn't feel to us as if we were just riding on Brian's coattails." Conversely, Dennis defended Brian's stature in the band, stating: "Brian Wilson is the Beach Boys. He is the band. We're his fucking messengers. He is all of it. Period. We're nothing. He's everything." Influences The band's earliest influences came primarily from the work of Chuck Berry and the Four Freshmen. Performed by the Four Freshmen, "Their Hearts Were Full of Spring" (1961) was a particular favorite of the group. By analyzing their arrangements of pop standards, Brian educated himself on jazz harmony. Bearing this in mind, Philip Lambert noted, "If Bob Flanigan helped teach Brian how to sing, then Gershwin, Kern, Porter, and the other members of this pantheon helped him learn how to craft a song." Other general influences on the group included the Hi-Los, the Penguins, the Robins, Bill Haley & His Comets, Otis Williams, the Cadets, the Everly Brothers, the Shirelles, the Regents, and the Crystals. The eclectic mix of white and black vocal group influences – ranging from the rock and roll of Berry, the jazz harmonies of the Four Freshmen, the pop of the Four Preps, the folk of the Kingston Trio, the R&B of groups like the Coasters and the Five Satins, and the doo wop of Dion and the Belmonts – helped contribute to the Beach Boys' uniqueness in American popular music. Carl remembered that Love was "really immersed in doo-wop" and likely "influenced Brian to listen to it", adding that the "black artists were so much better in terms of rock records in those days that the white records almost sounded like put-ons." Another significant influence on Brian's work was Burt Bacharach. He said in the 1960s: "Burt Bacharach and Hal David are more like me. They're also the best pop team – per se – today. As a producer, Bacharach has a very fresh, new approach." Regarding surf rock pioneer Dick Dale, Brian said that his influence on the group was limited to Carl and his style of guitar playing. Carl credited Chuck Berry, the Ventures, and John Walker with shaping his guitar style, and that the Beach Boys had learned to play all of the Ventures' songs by ear early in their career. In 1967, Lou Reed wrote in Aspen that the Beach Boys created a "hybrid sound" out of old rock and the Four Freshmen, explaining that such songs as "Let Him Run Wild", "Don't Worry Baby", "I Get Around", and "Fun, Fun, Fun" were not unlike "Peppermint Stick" by the Elchords. Similarly, John Sebastian of the Lovin' Spoonful noted, "Brian had control of this vocal palette of which we had no idea. We had never paid attention to the Four Freshmen or doo-wop combos like the Crew Cuts. Look what gold he mined out of that." Vocals Brian identified each member individually for their vocal range, once detailing the ranges for Carl, Dennis, Jardine ("[they] progress upwards through G, A, and B"), Love ("can go from bass to the E above middle C"), and himself ("I can take the second D in the treble clef"). He declared in 1966 that his greatest interest was to expand modern vocal harmony, owing to his fascination with a voice to the Four Freshmen, which he considered a "groovy sectional sound." He added, "The harmonies that we are able to produce give us a uniqueness which is really the only important thing you can put into records – some quality that no one else has got. I love peaks in a song – and enhancing them on the control panel. Most of all, I love the human voice for its own sake." For a period, Brian avoided singing falsetto for the group, saying, "I thought people thought I was a fairy...the band told me, 'If that's the way you sing, don't worry about it.'" In the group's early recordings, from lowest intervals to highest, the group's vocal harmony stack usually began with Love or Dennis, followed by Jardine or Carl, and finally Brian on top, according to Jardine, while Carl said that the blend was Love on bottom, Carl above, followed by Dennis or Jardine, and then Brian on top. Jardine explains, "We always sang the same vocal intervals. ... As soon as we heard the chords on the piano we'd figure it out pretty easily. If there was a vocal move [Brian] envisioned, he'd show that particular singer that move. We had somewhat photographic memory as far as the vocal parts were concerned so that [was] never a problem for us." Striving for perfection, Brian insured that his intricate vocal arrangements exercised the group's calculated blend of intonation, attack, phrasing, and expression. Sometimes, he would sing each vocal harmony part alone through multi-track tape. On the group's blend, Carl said: "[Love] has a beautifully rich, very full-sounding bass voice. Yet his lead singing is real nasal, real punk. [Jardine]'s voice has a bright timbre to it; it really cuts. My voice has a kind of calm sound. We're big oooh-ers; we love to oooh. It's a big, full sound, that's very pleasing to us; it opens up the heart." Rock critic Erik Davis wrote, "The 'purity' of tone and genetic proximity that smoothed their voices was almost creepy, pseudo-castrato, [and] a 'barbershop' sound." Jimmy Webb said, "They used very little vibrato and sing in very straight tones. The voices all lie down beside each other very easily – there's no bumping between them because the pitch is very precise." According to Brian: "Jack Good once told us, 'You sing like eunuchs in a Sistine Chapel,' which was a pretty good quote." Writer Richard Goldstein reported that, according to a fellow journalist who asked Brian about the black roots of his music, Brian's response was: "We're white and we sing white." Goldstein added that when he asked where his approach to vocal harmonies had derived from, Wilson answered: 'Barbershop'." Use of studio musicians Biographer James Murphy said, "By most contemporary accounts, they were not a very good live band when they started. ... The Beach Boys learned to play as a band in front of live audiences", eventually to become "one of the best and enduring live bands". With only a few exceptions, the Beach Boys played every instrument heard on their first four albums and first five singles. It is the belief of Richie Unterberger that, "Before session musicians took over most of the parts, the Beach Boys could play respectably gutsy surf rock as a self-contained unit." As Wilson's arrangements increased in complexity, he began employing a group of professional studio musicians, later known as "the Wrecking Crew", to assist with recording the instrumentation on select tracks. According to some reports, these musicians then completely replaced the Beach Boys on the backing tracks to their records. Much of the relevant documentation, while accounting for the attendance of unionized session players, had failed to record the presence of the Beach Boys themselves. These documents, along with the full unedited studio session tapes, were not available for public scrutiny until the 1990s. Wilson started occasionally employing members of the Wrecking Crew for certain Beach Boys tracks during the 1963 Surfer Girl sessions – specifically, on two songs, "Hawaii" and "Our Car Club". The 1964 albums Shut Down Volume 2 and All Summer Long featured the Beach Boys themselves playing the vast majority of the instruments while occasionally being augmented by outside musicians. It is commonly misreported that Dennis in particular was replaced by Hal Blaine on drums. Dennis's drumming is documented on a number of the group's singles, including 1964's "I Get Around", "Fun, Fun, Fun", and "Don't Worry Baby". Starting with the 1965 albums Today! and Summer Days, Brian used the Wrecking Crew with greater frequency, "but still", Stebbins writes, "the Beach Boys continued to play the instruments on many of the key tracks and single releases." Overall, the Beach Boys played the instruments on the majority of their recordings from the decade, with 1966 and 1967 being the only years when Wilson used the Wrecking Crew almost exclusively. Pet Sounds and Smile are their only albums in which the backing tracks were largely played by studio musicians. After 1967, the band's use of studio musicians was considerably reduced. Wrecking Crew biographer Kent Hartman supported in his 2012 book about the musicians, "Though [Brian Wilson] had for several months brought in various session players on a sporadic, potluck basis to supplement things, the other Beach Boys generally played on the earliest songs, too." The source of the longstanding controversy regarding the Beach Boys' use of studio musicians largely derives from a misinterpreted statement in David Leaf's 1978 biography The Beach Boys and the California Myth, later bolstered by erroneous recollections from participants of the recording sessions. Starting in the 1990s, unedited studio session tapes, along with American Federation of Musicians (AFM) sheets and tape logs, were leaked to the public. Music historian Craig Slowinski, who contributes musician credits to the liner notes of the band's reissues and compilations, wrote in 2006: "[O]nce the vaults were opened up and the tapes were studied, the true situation became clear: the Boys themselves played most of the instruments on their records until the Beach Boys Today! album in early 1965." Slowinski goes on to note, "when painting a picture of a Beach Boys recording session, it's important to examine both the AFM contracts and the session tapes, either of which may be incomplete on their own." During the period when Brian relied heavily on studio musicians, Carl was an exception among the Beach Boys in that he played alongside the studio musicians whenever he was available to attend sessions. In Slowinski's view, "One should not sell short Carl's own contributions; the youngest Wilson had developed as a musician sufficiently to play alongside the horde of high-dollar session pros that big brother was now bringing into the studio. Carl's guitar playing [was] a key ingredient." Spirituality The band members often reflected on the spiritual nature of their music (and music in general), particularly for the recording of Pet Sounds and Smile. Even though the Wilsons did not grow up in a particularly religious household, Carl was described as "the most truly religious person I know" by Brian, and Carl was forthcoming about the group's spiritual beliefs stating: "We believe in God as a kind of universal consciousness. God is love. God is you. God is me. God is everything right here in this room. It's a spiritual concept which inspires a great deal of our music." Carl told Rave magazine in 1967 that the group's influences are of a "religious nature", but not any religion in specific, only "an idea based upon that of Universal Consciousness. ... The spiritual concept of happiness and doing good to others is extremely important to the lyric of our songs, and the religious element of some of the better church music is also contained within some of our new work." Brian is quoted during the Smile era: "I'm very religious. Not in the sense of churches, going to church; but like the essence of all religion." During the recording of Pet Sounds, Brian held prayer meetings, later reflecting that "God was with us the whole time we were doing this record ... I could feel that feeling in my brain." In 1966, he explained that he wanted to move into a white spiritual sound, and predicted that the rest of the music industry would follow suit. In 2011, Brian maintained the spirituality was important to his music, and that he did not follow any particular religion. Carl said that Smile was chosen as an album title because of its connection to the group's spiritual beliefs. Brian referred to Smile as his "teenage symphony to God", composing a hymn, "Our Prayer", as the album's opening spiritual invocation. Experimentation with psychotropic substances also proved pivotal to the group's development as artists. He spoke of his LSD trips as a "religious experience", and during a session for "Our Prayer", Brian can be heard asking the other Beach Boys: "Do you guys feel any acid yet?". In 1968, the group's interest in transcendental meditation led them to record the original song, "Transcendental Meditation". Legacy Achievements The Beach Boys are one of the most critically acclaimed, commercially successful, and influential bands of all time. They have sold over 100 million records worldwide. The group's early songs made them major pop stars in the US, the UK, Australia and other countries, having seven top 10 singles between April 1963 and November 1964. They were one of the first American groups to exhibit the definitive traits of a self-contained rock band, playing their own instruments and writing their own songs, and they were one of the few American bands formed prior to the 1964 British Invasion to continue their success. Among artists of the 1960s, they are one of the central figures in the histories of rock. Between the 1960s and 2020s, they had 37 songs reach the US Top 40 (the most by an American group) with four topping the Billboard Hot 100; they also hold Nielsen SoundScan's record as the top-selling American band for albums and singles. Brian Wilson's artistic control over the Beach Boys' records was unprecedented for the time. Carl Wilson elaborated: "Record companies were used to having absolute control over their artists. It was especially nervy, because Brian was a 21-year-old kid with just two albums. It was unheard of. But what could they say? Brian made good records." This made the Beach Boys one of the first rock groups to exert studio control. Music producers after the mid-1960s would draw on Brian's influence, setting a precedent that allowed bands and artists to enter a recording studio and act as producers, either autonomously, or in conjunction with other like minds. In 1988, the original five members (the Wilson brothers, Love, and Jardine) were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Ten years later, they were selected for the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. In 2004, Pet Sounds was preserved in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." Their recordings of "In My Room", "Good Vibrations", "California Girls" and the entire Pet Sounds album have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The Beach Boys are one of the most influential acts of the rock era. In 2017, a study of AllMusic's catalog indicated the Beach Boys as the 6th most frequently cited artist influence in its database. In 2021, the staff of Ultimate Classic Rock ranked the Beach Boys as the top American band of all time; the publication's editor wrote in the group's entry that "few bands ... have had a greater impact on popular music." California sound Professor of cultural studies James M. Curtis wrote in 1987, "We can say that the Beach Boys represent the outlook and values of white Protestant Anglo-Saxon teenagers in the early sixties. Having said that, we immediately realize that they must mean much more than this. Their stability, their staying power, and their ability to attract new fans prove as much." Cultural historian Kevin Starr explains that the group first connected with young Americans specifically for their lyrical interpretation of a mythologized landscape: "Cars and the beach, surfing, the California Girl, all this fused in the alembic of youth: Here was a way of life, an iconography, already half-released into the chords and multiple tracks of a new sound." In music critic Robert Christgau's opinion, "the Beach Boys were a touchstone for real rock and rollers, all of whom understood that the music had its most essential roots in an innocently hedonistic materialism." The group's "California sound" grew to national prominence through the success of their 1963 album Surfin' U.S.A., which helped turn the surfing subculture into a mainstream youth-targeted advertising image widely exploited by the film, television, and food industry. The group's surf music was not entirely of their own invention, being preceded by artists such as Dick Dale. However, previous surf musicians did not project a world view as the Beach Boys did. The band's earlier surf music helped raise the profile of the state of California, creating its first major regional style with national significance, and establishing a musical identity for Southern California, as opposed to Hollywood. California ultimately supplanted New York as the center of popular music thanks to the success of Brian's productions. A 1966 article discussing new trends in rock music writes that the Beach Boys popularized a type of drum beat heard in Jan and Dean's "Surf City", which sounds like "a locomotive getting up speed", in addition to the method of "suddenly stopping in between the chorus and verse". Pete Townshend of the Who is credited with coining the term "power pop", which he defined as "what we play—what the Small Faces used to play, and the kind of pop the Beach Boys played in the days of 'Fun, Fun, Fun' which I preferred." The California sound gradually evolved to reflect a more musically ambitious and mature worldview, becoming less to do with surfing and cars and more about social consciousness and political awareness. Between 1964 and 1969, it fueled innovation and transition, inspiring artists to tackle largely unmentioned themes such as sexual freedom, black pride, drugs, oppositional politics, other countercultural motifs, and war. Soft pop (later known as "sunshine pop") derived in part from this movement. Sunshine pop producers widely imitated the orchestral style of Pet Sounds; however, the Beach Boys themselves were rarely representative of the genre, which was rooted in easy-listening and advertising jingles. By the end of the 1960s, the California sound declined due to a combination of the West Coast's cultural shifts, Wilson's professional and psychological downturn, and the Manson murders, with David Howard calling it the "sunset of the original California Sunshine Sound ... [the] sweetness advocated by the California Myth had led to chilling darkness and unsightly rot". Drawing from the Beach Boys' associations with Manson and former California governor Ronald Reagan, Erik Davis remarked, "The Beach Boys may be the only bridge between those deranged poles. There is a wider range of political and aesthetic sentiments in their records than in any other band in those heady times—like the state [of California], they expand and bloat and contradict themselves." During the 1970s, advertising jingles and imagery were predominately based on the Beach Boys' early music and image. The group also inspired the development of the West Coast style later dubbed "yacht rock". According to Jacobin's Dan O'Sullivan, the band's aesthetic was the first to be "scavenged" by yacht rock acts like Rupert Holmes. O'Sullivan also cites the Beach Boys' recording of "Sloop John B" as the origin of yacht rock's preoccupation with the "sailors and beachgoers" aesthetic that was "lifted by everyone, from Christopher Cross to Eric Carmen, from 'Buffalo Springfield' folksters like Jim Messina to 'Philly Sound' rockers like Hall & Oates." Innovations Pet Sounds came to inform the developments of genres such as pop, rock, jazz, electronic, experimental, punk, and hip hop. Similar to subsequent experimental rock LPs by Frank Zappa, the Beatles, and the Who, Pet Sounds featured countertextural aspects that called attention to the very recordedness of the album. Professor of American history John Robert Greene stated that the album broke new ground and took rock music away from its casual lyrics and melodic structures into what was then uncharted territory. He furthermore called it one factor which spawned the majority of trends in post-1965 rock music, the only others being Rubber Soul, the Beatles' Revolver, and the contemporary folk movement. The album was the first piece in popular music to incorporate the Electro-Theremin, an easier-to-play version of the theremin, as well as the first in rock music to feature a theremin-like instrument. With Pet Sounds, they were also the first group to make an entire album that departed from the usual small-ensemble electric rock band format. According to David Leaf in 1978, Pet Sounds and "Good Vibrations" "established the group as the leaders of a new type of pop music, Art Rock." Academic Bill Martin states that the band opened a path in rock music "that went from Sgt. Pepper's to Close to the Edge and beyond". He argues that the advancing technology of multitrack recording and mixing boards were more influential to experimental rock than electronic instruments such as the synthesizer, allowing the Beatles and the Beach Boys to become the first crop of non-classically trained musicians to create extended and complex compositions. In Strange Sounds: Offbeat Instruments and Sonic Experiments in Pop, Mark Brend writes: Other artists and producers, notably the Beatles and Phil Spector, had used varied instrumentation and multi-tracking to create complex studio productions before. And others, like Roy Orbison, had written complicated pop songs before. But "Good Vibrations" eclipsed all that came before it, in both its complexity as a production and the liberties it took with conventional notions of how to structure a pop song. The making of "Good Vibrations", according to Domenic Priore, was "unlike anything previous in the realms of classical, jazz, international, soundtrack, or any other kind of recording", while biographer Peter Ames Carlin wrote that it "sounded like nothing that had ever been played on the radio before." It contained previously untried mixes of instruments, and was the first successful pop song to have cellos in a juddering rhythm. Musicologist Charlie Gillett called it "one of the first records to flaunt studio production as a quality in its own right, rather than as a means of presenting a performance". Again, Brian employed the use of Electro-Theremin for the track. Upon release, the single prompted an unexpected revival in theremins while increasing awareness of analog synthesizers, leading Moog Music to produce their own brand of ribbon-controlled instruments. In a 1968 editorial for Jazz & Pop, Gene Sculatti predicted that the song "may yet prove to be the most significantly revolutionary piece of the current rock renaissance ... In no minor way, 'Good Vibrations' is a primary influential piece for all producing rock artists; everyone has felt its import to some degree". Discussing Smiley Smile, Daniel Harrison argues that the album could "almost" be considered art music in the Western classical tradition, and that the group's innovations in the musical language of rock can be compared to those that introduced atonal and other nontraditional techniques into that classical tradition. He explains, "The spirit of experimentation is just as palpable ... as it is in, say, Schoenberg's op. 11 piano pieces." However, such notions were not widely acknowledged by rock audiences nor by the classically minded at the time. Harrison concludes: "What influences could these innovations then have? The short answer is, not much. Smiley Smile, Wild Honey, Friends, and 20/20 sound like few other rock albums; they are sui generis. ... It must be remembered that the commercial failure of the Beach Boys' experiments was hardly motivation for imitation." Musicologist David Toop, who included the Smiley Smile track "Fall Breaks and Back to Winter" on a companion CD for his book Ocean of Sound, placed the Beach Boys' effect on sound pioneering in league with Les Baxter, Aphex Twin, Herbie Hancock, King Tubby, and My Bloody Valentine. Sunflower marked an end to the experimental songwriting and production phase initiated by Smiley Smile. After Surf's Up, Harrison wrote, their albums "contain a mixture of middle-of-the-road music entirely consonant with pop style during the early 1970s with a few oddities that proved that the desire to push beyond conventional boundaries was not dead," until 1974, "the year in which the Beach Boys ceased to be a rock 'n' roll act and became an oldies act." Punk, alternative, and indie In the 1970s, the Beach Boys served a "totemic influence" on punk rock that later gave way to indie rock. Brad Shoup of Stereogum surmised that, thanks to the Ramones' praise for the group, many punk, pop punk, or "punk-adjacent" artists showed influence from the Beach Boys, noting cover versions of the band's songs recorded by Slickee Boys, Agent Orange, Bad Religion, Shonen Knife, the Queers, Hi-Standard, the Descendents, the Donnas, M.O.D., and the Vandals. The Beach Boys Love You is sometimes considered the group's "punk album", and Pet Sounds is sometimes advanced as the first emo album. In the 1990s, the Beach Boys experienced a resurgence of popularity with the alternative rock generation. According to Sean O'Hagan, leader of the High Llamas and former member of Stereolab, a younger generation of record-buyers "stopped listening to indie records" in favor of the Beach Boys. Bands who advocated for the Beach Boys included founding members of the Elephant 6 Collective (Neutral Milk Hotel, the Olivia Tremor Control, the Apples in Stereo, and of Montreal). United by a shared love of the group's music, they named Pet Sounds Studio in honor of the band. Rolling Stone writer Barry Walters wrote in 2000 that albums such as Surf's Up and Love You "are becoming sonic blueprints, akin to what early Velvet Underground LPs meant to the previous indie peer group." The High Llamas, Eric Matthews and Saint Etienne are among the "alt heroes" who contributed cover versions of "unreleased, overlooked or underappreciated Wilson/Beach Boys obscurities" on the tribute album Caroline Now! (2000). The Beach Boys remained among the most significant influences on indie rock into the late 2000s. Smile became a touchstone for many bands who were labelled "chamber pop", a term used for artists influenced by the lush orchestrations of Brian Wilson, Lee Hazlewood, and Burt Bacharach. Pitchfork writer Mark Richardson cited Smiley Smile as the origin point of "the kind of lo-fi bedroom pop that would later propel Sebadoh, Animal Collective, and other characters." The Sunflower track "All I Wanna Do" is also cited as one of the earliest precursors to chillwave, a microgenre that emerged in 2009. Landmarks The Wilsons' California house, where the Wilson brothers grew up and the group began, was demolished in 1986 to make way for Interstate 105, the Century Freeway. A Beach Boys Historic Landmark (California Landmark No. 1041 at 3701 West 119th Street), dedicated on May 20, 2005, marks the location. On December 30, 1980, the Beach Boys were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located at 1500 Vine Street. On September 2, 1977, The Beach Boys performed before an audience of 40,000 at Narragansett Park in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, which remains the largest concert audience in Rhode Island history. On August 9, 2017, a commemoration ceremony produced by Big Noise took place in Rhode Island with The Beach Boys, and the street where the concert stage formerly stood (at 510 Narragansett Park Drive) was officially renamed to "Beach Boys Way". On September 21, 2017, The Beach Boys were honored by Roger Williams University, along with Al Gomes and Connie Watrous of Big Noise, and plaques were unveiled to commemorate the band's concert on September 22, 1971, at the Baypoint Inn & Conference Center in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. The concert was the first-ever appearance of South African Ricky Fataar as an official member of the band and Filipino Billy Hinsche as a touring member, essentially changing the Beach Boys' live and recording act's line-up into a multi-cultural group. Diversity is a credo of Roger Williams University, which is why they chose to celebrate this moment in the band's history. Members Timeline Notable supporting musicians for both the Beach Boys' live performances and studio recordings included guitarist and session musician Glen Campbell, keyboardists Daryl Dragon and Toni Tennille (Captain & Tennille), keyboardist Billy Hinsche, bass guitarist Carol Kaye, guitarist Jeffrey Foskett, drummers John Cowsill and Hal Blaine, drummer and guitarist (and actor) John Stamos, and saxophonist Charles Lloyd. Discography Studio albums Selected archival releases Filmography 1962: One Man's Challenge 1964: T.A.M.I. Show 1965: The Girls on the Beach 1965: The Monkey's Uncle 1971: Good Vibrations from Central Park 1976: The Beach Boys: Good Vibrations Tour 1979: The Midnight Special 1980: Beach Boys 4th of July Celebration: Live from Queen Mary 1980: The Beach Boys: A Celebration Concert 1981: The Beach Boys: 20th Anniversary Special 1985: The Beach Boys: An American Band 1987: The Beach Boys: 25 Years Together 1991: The Beach Boys Live in Japan '91 1993: The Beach Boys Today 1996: The Beach Boys: Nashville Sounds 1998: Endless Harmony: The Beach Boys Story 1998: The Beach Boys: The Lost Concert 1964 2002: Good Timin': Live at Knebworth England 1980 2004: Sights + Sounds of Summer: The Very Best of The Beach Boys 2006: The Beach Boys: In London 1966 2012: The Beach Boys 50: Doin' It Again 2012: The 50th Reunion Tour 2014: The Beach Boys: Live at the Hollywood Bowl 2016: Classic Albums: Pet Sounds 2023: A Grammy Salute to The Beach Boys 2024: The Beach Boys documentary on Disney+ Notes References Citations Print sources Further reading Articles Ratliff, Ben (October 26, 2016). "Looking for the Beach Boys". New York Review of Books. Rogers, Jude (June 12, 2008). "The lure of the beach". New Statesman. Books External links Official website The Beach Boys at AllMusic

These are the Billboard magazine Hot 100 number one hits of 1988. The Billboard Hot 100 is a chart that ranks the best-performing singles of the United States. Published by Billboard magazine, the data are based collectively on each single's weekly physical sales, and airplay. R&B/pop megastar Whitney Houston's two singles released from her second studio album Whitney, "So Emotional" and "Where Do Broken Hearts Go", both peaked at number one, which gave her a total of seven consecutive number one hits, breaking the record of six previously shared by The Beatles and The Bee Gees. The longest running number-one single of 1988 was "Roll With It" by Steve Winwood, which obtained four weeks at the top of the chart. When "Dirty Diana" reached number-one on the chart, it became Michael Jackson's fifth single from the album Bad to reach number-one. Jackson became the first artist to have five singles from one album reach number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 and is the only male to do so. George Michael's "Faith" was the best selling single of 1988 in the United States, despite most of its weeks at number one occurring in December 1987. (It carried over into 1988 at number one as the result of a frozen chart.) 1988 is tied with 1989 for the second most #1 hits with 32 songs going to number one. That year, 17 acts earned their first number one song, such as INXS, Exposé, Rick Astley, Terence Trent D'Arby, Gloria Estefan, Miami Sound Machine, Debbie Gibson, Cheap Trick, Richard Marx, Guns N' Roses, Bobby McFerrin, Def Leppard, UB40, The Escape Club, Will to Power and Poison. George Michael, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, and Rick Astley were the only acts to hit number one more than once, with George Michael having the most with four, Michael Jackson with three, and Whitney Houston and Rick Astley with two. Chart history An asterisk (*) by a date indicates an unpublished, "frozen" week, due to the special double issues that Billboard published in print at the end of the year for their year-end charts. Number-one artists See also 1988 in music List of Billboard number-one singles List of Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles of the 1980s References Additional sources Fred Bronson's Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits, 5th Edition (ISBN 0-8230-7677-6) Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-2008, 12 Edition (ISBN 0-89820-180-2) Joel Whitburn Presents the Billboard Hot 100 Charts: The Eighties (ISBN 0-89820-079-2) Additional information obtained can be verified within Billboard's online archive services and print editions of the magazine.

The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces. The power of the presidency has grown substantially since the first president, George Washington, took office in 1789. While presidential power has ebbed and flowed over time, the presidency has played an increasingly significant role in American political life since the beginning of the 20th century, carrying over into the 21st century with notable expansions during the presidencies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and George W. Bush. In modern times, the president is one of the world's most powerful political figures and the leader of the world's only remaining superpower. As the leader of the nation with the largest economy by nominal GDP, the president possesses significant domestic and international hard and soft power. For much of the 20th century, especially during the Cold War, the U.S. president was often called "the leader of the free world". Article II of the Constitution establishes the executive branch of the federal government and vests executive power in the president. The power includes the execution and enforcement of federal law and the responsibility to appoint federal executive, diplomatic, regulatory, and judicial officers. Based on constitutional provisions empowering the president to appoint and receive ambassadors and conclude treaties with foreign powers, and on subsequent laws enacted by Congress, the modern presidency has primary responsibility for conducting U.S. foreign policy. The role includes responsibility for directing the world's most expensive military, which has the second-largest nuclear arsenal. The president also plays a leading role in federal legislation and domestic policymaking. As part of the system of separation of powers, Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution gives the president the power to sign or veto federal legislation. Since modern presidents are typically viewed as leaders of their political parties, major policymaking is significantly shaped by the outcome of presidential elections, with presidents taking an active role in promoting their policy priorities to members of Congress who are often electorally dependent on the president. In recent decades, presidents have also made increasing use of executive orders, agency regulations, and judicial appointments to shape domestic policy. The president is elected indirectly through the Electoral College to a four-year term, along with the vice president. Under the Twenty-second Amendment, ratified in 1951, no person who has been elected to two presidential terms may be elected to a third. In addition, nine vice presidents have become president by virtue of a president's intra-term death or resignation. In all, 45 individuals have served 46 presidencies spanning 58 four-year terms. Joe Biden is the 46th and current president, having assumed office on January 20, 2021. History and development Origins During the American Revolutionary War, the Thirteen Colonies, represented by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, declared themselves to be independent sovereign states and no longer under British rule. The affirmation was made in the Declaration of Independence, which was written predominantly by Thomas Jefferson and adopted unanimously on July 4, 1776, by the Second Continental Congress. Recognizing the necessity of closely coordinating their efforts against the British, the Continental Congress simultaneously began the process of drafting a constitution that would bind the states together. There were long debates on a number of issues, including representation and voting, and the exact powers to be given the central government. Congress finished work on the Articles of Confederation to establish a perpetual union between the states in November 1777 and sent it to the states for ratification. Under the Articles, which took effect on March 1, 1781, the Congress of the Confederation was a central political authority without any legislative power. It could make its own resolutions, determinations, and regulations, but not any laws, and could not impose any taxes or enforce local commercial regulations upon its citizens. This institutional design reflected how Americans believed the deposed British system of Crown and Parliament ought to have functioned with respect to the royal dominion: a superintending body for matters that concerned the entire empire. The states were out from under any monarchy and assigned some formerly royal prerogatives (e.g., making war, receiving ambassadors, etc.) to Congress; the remaining prerogatives were lodged within their own respective state governments. The members of Congress elected a president of the United States in Congress Assembled to preside over its deliberation as a neutral discussion moderator. Unrelated to and quite dissimilar from the later office of president of the United States, it was a largely ceremonial position without much influence. In 1783, the Treaty of Paris secured independence for each of the former colonies. With peace at hand, the states each turned toward their own internal affairs. By 1786, Americans found their continental borders besieged and weak and their respective economies in crises as neighboring states agitated trade rivalries with one another. They witnessed their hard currency pouring into foreign markets to pay for imports, their Mediterranean commerce preyed upon by North African pirates, and their foreign-financed Revolutionary War debts unpaid and accruing interest. Civil and political unrest loomed. Events such as the Newburgh Conspiracy and Shays' Rebellion demonstrated that the Articles of Confederation were not working. Following the successful resolution of commercial and fishing disputes between Virginia and Maryland at the Mount Vernon Conference in 1785, Virginia called for a trade conference between all the states, set for September 1786 in Annapolis, Maryland, with an aim toward resolving further-reaching interstate commercial antagonisms. When the convention failed for lack of attendance due to suspicions among most of the other states, Alexander Hamilton of New York led the Annapolis delegates in a call for a convention to offer revisions to the Articles, to be held the next spring in Philadelphia. Prospects for the next convention appeared bleak until James Madison and Edmund Randolph succeeded in securing George Washington's attendance to Philadelphia as a delegate for Virginia. When the Constitutional Convention convened in May 1787, the 12 state delegations in attendance (Rhode Island did not send delegates) brought with them an accumulated experience over a diverse set of institutional arrangements between legislative and executive branches from within their respective state governments. Most states maintained a weak executive without veto or appointment powers, elected annually by the legislature to a single term only, sharing power with an executive council, and countered by a strong legislature. New York offered the greatest exception, having a strong, unitary governor with veto and appointment power elected to a three-year term, and eligible for reelection to an indefinite number of terms thereafter. It was through the closed-door negotiations at Philadelphia that the presidency framed in the U.S. Constitution emerged. 1789–1933 As the nation's first president, George Washington established many norms that would come to define the office. His decision to retire after two terms helped address fears that the nation would devolve into monarchy, and established a precedent that would not be broken until 1940 and would eventually be made permanent by the Twenty-Second Amendment. By the end of his presidency, political parties had developed, with John Adams defeating Thomas Jefferson in 1796, the first truly contested presidential election. After Jefferson defeated Adams in 1800, he and his fellow Virginians James Madison and James Monroe would each serve two terms, eventually dominating the nation's politics during the Era of Good Feelings until Adams' son John Quincy Adams won election in 1824 after the Democratic-Republican Party split. The election of Andrew Jackson in 1828 was a significant milestone, as Jackson was not part of the Virginia and Massachusetts elite that had held the presidency for its first 40 years. Jacksonian democracy sought to strengthen the presidency at the expense of Congress, while broadening public participation as the nation rapidly expanded westward. However, his successor, Martin Van Buren, became unpopular after the Panic of 1837, and the death of William Henry Harrison and subsequent poor relations between John Tyler and Congress led to further weakening of the office. Including Van Buren, in the 24 years between 1837 and 1861, six presidential terms would be filled by eight different men, with none serving two terms. The Senate played an important role during this period, with the Great Triumvirate of Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John C. Calhoun playing key roles in shaping national policy in the 1830s and 1840s until debates over slavery began pulling the nation apart in the 1850s. Abraham Lincoln's leadership during the Civil War has led historians to regard him as one of the nation's greatest presidents. The circumstances of the war and Republican domination of Congress made the office very powerful, and Lincoln's re-election in 1864 was the first time a president had been re-elected since Jackson in 1832. After Lincoln's assassination, his successor Andrew Johnson lost all political support and was nearly removed from office, with Congress remaining powerful during the two-term presidency of Civil War general Ulysses S. Grant. After the end of Reconstruction, Grover Cleveland would eventually become the first Democratic president elected since before the war, running in three consecutive elections (1884, 1888, 1892) and winning twice. In 1900, William McKinley became the first incumbent to win re-election since Grant in 1872. After McKinley's assassination by Leon Czolgosz in 1901, Theodore Roosevelt became a dominant figure in American politics. Historians believe Roosevelt permanently changed the political system by strengthening the presidency, with some key accomplishments including breaking up trusts, conservationism, labor reforms, making personal character as important as the issues, and hand-picking his successor, William Howard Taft. The following decade, Woodrow Wilson led the nation to victory during World War I, although Wilson's proposal for the League of Nations was rejected by the Senate. Warren Harding, while popular in office, would see his legacy tarnished by scandals, especially Teapot Dome, and Herbert Hoover quickly became very unpopular after failing to alleviate the Great Depression. Imperial presidency The ascendancy of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 led further toward what historians now describe as the Imperial presidency. Backed by enormous Democratic majorities in Congress and public support for major change, Roosevelt's New Deal dramatically increased the size and scope of the federal government, including more executive agencies.: 211–12  The traditionally small presidential staff was greatly expanded, with the Executive Office of the President being created in 1939, none of whom require Senate confirmation.: 229–231  Roosevelt's unprecedented re-election to a third and fourth term, the victory of the United States in World War II, and the nation's growing economy all helped established the office as a position of global leadership.: 269  His successors, Harry Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower, each served two terms as the Cold War led the presidency to be viewed as the "leader of the free world", while John F. Kennedy was a youthful and popular leader who benefited from the rise of television in the 1960s. After Lyndon B. Johnson lost popular support due to the Vietnam War and Richard Nixon's presidency collapsed in the Watergate scandal, Congress enacted a series of reforms intended to reassert itself. These included the War Powers Resolution, enacted over Nixon's veto in 1973, and the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 that sought to strengthen congressional fiscal powers. By 1976, Gerald Ford conceded that "the historic pendulum" had swung toward Congress, raising the possibility of a "disruptive" erosion of his ability to govern. Ford failed to win election to a full term and his successor, Jimmy Carter, failed to win re-election. Ronald Reagan, who had been an actor before beginning his political career, used his talent as a communicator to help reshape the American agenda away from New Deal policies toward more conservative ideology. With the Cold War ending and the United States becoming the world's undisputed leading power, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama each served two terms as president. Meanwhile, Congress and the nation gradually became more politically polarized, especially following the 1994 mid-term elections that saw Republicans control the House for the first time in 40 years, and the rise of routine filibusters in the Senate in recent decades. Recent presidents have thus increasingly focused on executive orders, agency regulations, and judicial appointments to implement major policies, at the expense of legislation and congressional power. Presidential elections in the 21st century have reflected this continuing polarization, with no candidate except Obama in 2008 winning by more than five percent of the popular vote and two, George W. Bush and Donald Trump, winning in the Electoral College while losing the popular vote. Critics of presidency's evolution The nation's Founding Fathers expected the Congress, which was the first branch of government described in the Constitution, to be the dominant branch of government; however, they did not expect a strong executive department. However, presidential power has shifted over time, which has resulted in claims that the modern presidency has become too powerful, unchecked, unbalanced, and "monarchist" in nature. In 2008 professor Dana D. Nelson expressed belief that presidents over the previous thirty years worked towards "undivided presidential control of the executive branch and its agencies". She criticized proponents of the unitary executive theory for expanding "the many existing uncheckable executive powers—such as executive orders, decrees, memorandums, proclamations, national security directives and legislative signing statements—that already allow presidents to enact a good deal of foreign and domestic policy without aid, interference or consent from Congress". Bill Wilson, board member of Americans for Limited Government, opined that the expanded presidency was "the greatest threat ever to individual freedom and democratic rule". Legislative powers Article I, Section 1 of the Constitution vests all lawmaking power in Congress's hands, and Article 1, Section 6, Clause 2 prevents the president (and all other executive branch officers) from simultaneously being a member of Congress. Nevertheless, the modern presidency exerts significant power over legislation, both due to constitutional provisions and historical developments over time. Signing and vetoing bills The president's most significant legislative power derives from the Presentment Clause, which gives the president the power to veto any bill passed by Congress. While Congress can override a presidential veto, it requires a two-thirds vote of both houses, which is usually very difficult to achieve except for widely supported bipartisan legislation. The framers of the Constitution feared that Congress would seek to increase its power and enable a "tyranny of the majority", so giving the indirectly elected president a veto was viewed as an important check on the legislative power. While George Washington believed the veto should only be used in cases where a bill was unconstitutional, it is now routinely used in cases where presidents have policy disagreements with a bill. The veto – or threat of a veto – has thus evolved to make the modern presidency a central part of the American legislative process. Specifically, under the Presentment Clause, once a bill has been presented by Congress, the president has three options: Sign the legislation within ten days, excluding Sundays, the bill becomes law. Veto the legislation within the above timeframe and return it to the house of Congress from which it originated, expressing any objections, the bill does not become law, unless both houses of Congress vote to override the veto by a two-thirds vote. Take no action on the legislation within the above timeframe—the bill becomes law, as if the president had signed it, unless Congress is adjourned at the time, in which case it does not become law, which is known as a pocket veto. In 1996, Congress attempted to enhance the president's veto power with the Line Item Veto Act. The legislation empowered the president to sign any spending bill into law while simultaneously striking certain spending items within the bill, particularly any new spending, any amount of discretionary spending, or any new limited tax benefit. Congress could then repass that particular item. If the president then vetoed the new legislation, Congress could override the veto by its ordinary means, a two-thirds vote in both houses. In Clinton v. City of New York, 524 U.S. 417 (1998), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled such a legislative alteration of the veto power to be unconstitutional. Setting the agenda For most of American history, candidates for president have sought election on the basis of a promised legislative agenda. Article II, Section 3, Clause 2 requires the president to recommend such measures to Congress which the president deems "necessary and expedient". This is done through the constitutionally-based State of the Union address, which usually outlines the president's legislative proposals for the coming year, and through other formal and informal communications with Congress. The president can be involved in crafting legislation by suggesting, requesting, or even insisting that Congress enact laws that the president believes are needed. Additionally, the president can attempt to shape legislation during the legislative process by exerting influence on individual members of Congress. Presidents possess this power because the Constitution is silent about who can write legislation, but the power is limited because only members of Congress can introduce legislation. The president or other officials of the executive branch may draft legislation and then ask senators or representatives to introduce these drafts into Congress. Additionally, the president may attempt to have Congress alter proposed legislation by threatening to veto that legislation unless requested changes are made. Promulgating regulations Many laws enacted by Congress do not address every possible detail, and either explicitly or implicitly delegate powers of implementation to an appropriate federal agency. As the head of the executive branch, presidents control a vast array of agencies that can issue regulations with little oversight from Congress. In the 20th century, critics charged that too many legislative and budgetary powers that should have belonged to Congress had slid into the hands of presidents. One critic charged that presidents could appoint a "virtual army of 'czars'—each wholly unaccountable to Congress yet tasked with spearheading major policy efforts for the White House". Presidents have been criticized for making signing statements when signing congressional legislation about how they understand a bill or plan to execute it. This practice has been criticized by the American Bar Association as unconstitutional. Conservative commentator George Will wrote of an "increasingly swollen executive branch" and "the eclipse of Congress". Convening and adjourning Congress To allow the government to act quickly in case of a major domestic or international crisis arising when Congress is not in session, the president is empowered by Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution to call a special session of one or both houses of Congress. Since John Adams first did so in 1797, the president has called the full Congress to convene for a special session on 27 occasions. Harry S. Truman was the most recent to do so in July 1948, known as the Turnip Day Session. In addition, prior to ratification of the Twentieth Amendment in 1933, which brought forward the date on which Congress convenes from December to January, newly inaugurated presidents would routinely call the Senate to meet to confirm nominations or ratify treaties. In practice, the power has fallen into disuse in the modern era as Congress now formally remains in session year-round, convening pro forma sessions every three days even when ostensibly in recess. Correspondingly, the president is authorized to adjourn Congress if the House and Senate cannot agree on the time of adjournment; no president has ever had to exercise this power. Executive powers The president is head of the executive branch of the federal government and is constitutionally obligated to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed". The executive branch has over four million employees, including the military. Administrative powers Presidents make political appointments. An incoming president may make up to 4,000 upon taking office, 1200 of which must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Ambassadors, members of the Cabinet, and various officers, are among the positions filled by presidential appointment with Senate confirmation. The power of a president to fire executive officials has long been a contentious political issue. Generally, a president may remove executive officials at will. However, Congress can curtail and constrain a president's authority to fire commissioners of independent regulatory agencies and certain inferior executive officers by statute. To manage the growing federal bureaucracy, presidents have gradually surrounded themselves with many layers of staff, who were eventually organized into the Executive Office of the President of the United States. Within the Executive Office, the president's innermost layer of aides, and their assistants, are located in the White House Office. The president also possesses the power to manage operations of the federal government by issuing various types of directives, such as presidential proclamation and executive orders. When the president is lawfully exercising one of the constitutionally conferred presidential responsibilities, the scope of this power is broad. Even so, these directives are subject to judicial review by U.S. federal courts, which can find them to be unconstitutional. Congress can overturn an executive order through legislation. Foreign affairs Article II, Section 3, Clause 4 requires the president to "receive Ambassadors." This clause, known as the Reception Clause, has been interpreted to imply that the president possesses broad power over matters of foreign policy, and to provide support for the president's exclusive authority to grant recognition to a foreign government. The Constitution also empowers the president to appoint United States ambassadors, and to propose and chiefly negotiate agreements between the United States and other countries. Such agreements, upon receiving the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate (by a two-thirds majority vote), become binding with the force of federal law. While foreign affairs has always been a significant element of presidential responsibilities, advances in technology since the Constitution's adoption have increased presidential power. Where formerly ambassadors were vested with significant power to independently negotiate on behalf of the United States, presidents now routinely meet directly with leaders of foreign countries. Commander-in-chief One of the most important of executive powers is the president's role as commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces. The power to declare war is constitutionally vested in Congress, but the president has ultimate responsibility for the direction and disposition of the military. The exact degree of authority that the Constitution grants to the president as commander-in-chief has been the subject of much debate throughout history, with Congress at various times granting the president wide authority and at others attempting to restrict that authority. The framers of the Constitution took care to limit the president's powers regarding the military; Alexander Hamilton explained this in Federalist No. 69:The President is to be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States. ... It would amount to nothing more than the supreme command and direction of the military and naval forces ... while that [the power] of the British king extends to the DECLARING of war and to the RAISING and REGULATING of fleets and armies, all [of] which ... would appertain to the legislature. [Emphasis in the original.] In the modern era, pursuant to the War Powers Resolution, Congress must authorize any troop deployments longer than 60 days, although that process relies on triggering mechanisms that have never been employed, rendering it ineffectual. Additionally, Congress provides a check to presidential military power through its control over military spending and regulation. Presidents have historically initiated the process for going to war, but critics have charged that there have been several conflicts in which presidents did not get official declarations, including Theodore Roosevelt's military move into Panama in 1903, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the invasions of Grenada in 1983 and Panama in 1989. The amount of military detail handled personally by the president in wartime has varied greatly. George Washington, the first U.S. president, firmly established military subordination under civilian authority. In 1794, Washington used his constitutional powers to assemble 12,000 militia to quell the Whiskey Rebellion, a conflict in Western Pennsylvania involving armed farmers and distillers who refused to pay an excise tax on spirits. According to historian Joseph Ellis, this was the "first and only time a sitting American president led troops in the field", though James Madison briefly took control of artillery units in defense of Washington, D.C., during the War of 1812. Abraham Lincoln was deeply involved in overall strategy and in day-to-day operations during the American Civil War, 1861–1865; historians have given Lincoln high praise for his strategic sense and his ability to select and encourage commanders such as Ulysses S. Grant. The present-day operational command of the Armed Forces is delegated to the Department of Defense and is normally exercised through the secretary of defense. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Combatant Commands assist with the operation as outlined in the presidentially approved Unified Command Plan (UCP). Juridical powers and privileges The president has the power to nominate federal judges, including members of the United States courts of appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States. However, these nominations require Senate confirmation before they may take office. Securing Senate approval can provide a major obstacle for presidents who wish to orient the federal judiciary toward a particular ideological stance. When nominating judges to U.S. district courts, presidents often respect the long-standing tradition of senatorial courtesy. Presidents may also grant pardons and reprieves. Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon a month after taking office. Presidents often grant pardons shortly before leaving office, like when Bill Clinton pardoned Patty Hearst on his last day in office; this is often controversial. Two doctrines concerning executive power have developed that enable the president to exercise executive power with a degree of autonomy. The first is executive privilege, which allows the president to withhold from disclosure any communications made directly to the president in the performance of executive duties. George Washington first claimed the privilege when Congress requested to see Chief Justice John Jay's notes from an unpopular treaty negotiation with Great Britain. While not enshrined in the Constitution or any other law, Washington's action created the precedent for the privilege. When Nixon tried to use executive privilege as a reason for not turning over subpoenaed evidence to Congress during the Watergate scandal, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683 (1974), that executive privilege did not apply in cases where a president was attempting to avoid criminal prosecution. When Bill Clinton attempted to use executive privilege regarding the Lewinsky scandal, the Supreme Court ruled in Clinton v. Jones, 520 U.S. 681 (1997), that the privilege also could not be used in civil suits. These cases established the legal precedent that executive privilege is valid, although the exact extent of the privilege has yet to be clearly defined. Additionally, federal courts have allowed this privilege to radiate outward and protect other executive branch employees but have weakened that protection for those executive branch communications that do not involve the president. The state secrets privilege allows the president and the executive branch to withhold information or documents from discovery in legal proceedings if such release would harm national security. Precedent for the privilege arose early in the 19th century when Thomas Jefferson refused to release military documents in the treason trial of Aaron Burr and again in Totten v. United States 92 U.S. 105 (1876), when the Supreme Court dismissed a case brought by a former Union spy. However, the privilege was not formally recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court until United States v. Reynolds 345 U.S. 1 (1953), where it was held to be a common law evidentiary privilege. Before the September 11 attacks, use of the privilege had been rare, but increasing in frequency. Since 2001, the government has asserted the privilege in more cases and at earlier stages of the litigation, thus in some instances causing dismissal of the suits before reaching the merits of the claims, as in the Ninth Circuit's ruling in Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc. Critics of the privilege claim its use has become a tool for the government to cover up illegal or embarrassing government actions. The degree to which the president personally has absolute immunity from court cases is contested and has been the subject of several Supreme Court decisions. Nixon v. Fitzgerald (1982) dismissed a civil lawsuit against by-then former president Richard Nixon based on his official actions. Clinton v. Jones (1997) decided that a president has no immunity against civil suits for actions taken before becoming president and ruled that a sexual harassment suit could proceed without delay, even against a sitting president. The 2019 Mueller report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election detailed evidence of possible obstruction of justice, but investigators declined to refer Donald Trump for prosecution based on a United States Department of Justice policy against indicting an incumbent president. The report noted that impeachment by Congress was available as a remedy. As of October 2019, a case was pending in the federal courts regarding access to personal tax returns in a criminal case brought against Donald Trump by the New York County District Attorney alleging violations of New York state law. Leadership roles Head of state As head of state, the president represents the United States government to its own people and represents the nation to the rest of the world. For example, during a state visit by a foreign head of state, the president typically hosts a State Arrival Ceremony held on the South Lawn, a custom begun by John F. Kennedy in 1961. This is followed by a state dinner given by the president which is held in the State Dining Room later in the evening. As a national leader, the president also fulfills many less formal ceremonial duties. For example, William Howard Taft started the tradition of throwing out the ceremonial first pitch in 1910 at Griffith Stadium, Washington, D.C., on the Washington Senators's Opening Day. Every president since Taft, except for Jimmy Carter, threw out at least one ceremonial first ball or pitch for Opening Day, the All-Star Game, or the World Series, usually with much fanfare. Every president since Theodore Roosevelt has served as honorary president of the Boy Scouts of America. Other presidential traditions are associated with American holidays. Rutherford B. Hayes began in 1878 the first White House egg rolling for local children. Beginning in 1947, during the Harry S. Truman administration, every Thanksgiving the president is presented with a live domestic turkey during the annual National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation held at the White House. Since 1989, when the custom of "pardoning" the turkey was formalized by George H. W. Bush, the turkey has been taken to a farm where it will live out the rest of its natural life. Presidential traditions also involve the president's role as head of government. Many outgoing presidents since James Buchanan traditionally give advice to their successor during the presidential transition. Ronald Reagan and his successors have also left a private message on the desk of the Oval Office on Inauguration Day for the incoming president. The modern presidency holds the president as one of the nation's premier celebrities. Some argue that images of the presidency have a tendency to be manipulated by administration public relations officials as well as by presidents themselves. One critic described the presidency as "propagandized leadership" which has a "mesmerizing power surrounding the office". Administration public relations managers staged carefully crafted photo-ops of smiling presidents with smiling crowds for television cameras. One critic wrote the image of John F. Kennedy was described as carefully framed "in rich detail" which "drew on the power of myth" regarding the incident of PT 109 and wrote that Kennedy understood how to use images to further his presidential ambitions. As a result, some political commentators have opined that American voters have unrealistic expectations of presidents: voters expect a president to "drive the economy, vanquish enemies, lead the free world, comfort tornado victims, heal the national soul and protect borrowers from hidden credit-card fees". Head of party The president is typically considered to be the head of their political party. Since the entire House of Representatives and at least one-third of the Senate is elected simultaneously with the president, candidates from a political party inevitably have their electoral success intertwined with the performance of the party's presidential candidate. The coattail effect, or lack thereof, will also often impact a party's candidates at state and local levels of government as well. However, there are often tensions between a president and others in the party, with presidents who lose significant support from their party's caucus in Congress generally viewed to be weaker and less effective. Global leader With the rise of the United States as a superpower in the 20th century, and the United States having the world's largest economy into the 21st century, the president is typically viewed as a global leader, and at times the world's most powerful political figure. The position of the United States as the leading member of NATO, and the country's strong relationships with other wealthy or democratic nations like those comprising the European Union, have led to the moniker that the president is the "leader of the free world". Selection process Eligibility Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the Constitution sets three qualifications for holding the presidency. To serve as president, one must: be a natural-born citizen of the United States; be at least 35 years old; be a resident in the United States for at least 14 years. A person who meets the above qualifications would, however, still be disqualified from holding the office of president under any of the following conditions: Under Article I, Section 3, Clause 7, having been impeached, convicted and disqualified from holding further public office, although there is some legal debate as to whether the disqualification clause also includes the presidential office: the only previous persons disqualified under this clause were three federal judges. Under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, no person who swore an oath to support the Constitution, and later rebelled against the United States, is eligible to hold any office. However, this disqualification can be lifted by a two-thirds vote of each house of Congress. There is, again, some debate as to whether the clause as written allows disqualification from the presidential position, or whether it would first require litigation outside of Congress, although there is precedent for use of this amendment outside of the original intended purpose of excluding Confederates from public office after the Civil War. Under the Twenty-second Amendment, no person can be elected president more than twice. The amendment also specifies that if any eligible person serves as president or acting president for more than two years of a term for which some other eligible person was elected president, the former can only be elected president once. Campaigns and nomination The modern presidential campaign begins before the primary elections, which the two major political parties use to clear the field of candidates before their national nominating conventions, where the most successful candidate is made the party's presidential nominee. Typically, the party's presidential candidate chooses a vice presidential nominee, and this choice is rubber-stamped by the convention. The most common previous profession of presidents is lawyer. Nominees participate in nationally televised debates, and while the debates are usually restricted to the Democratic and Republican nominees, third party candidates may be invited, such as Ross Perot in the 1992 debates. Nominees campaign across the country to explain their views, convince voters and solicit contributions. Much of the modern electoral process is concerned with winning swing states through frequent visits and mass media advertising drives. Election The president is elected indirectly by the voters of each state and the District of Columbia through the Electoral College, a body of electors formed every four years for the sole purpose of electing the president and vice president to concurrent four-year terms. As prescribed by Article II, Section 1, Clause 2, each state is entitled to a number of electors equal to the size of its total delegation in both houses of Congress. Additionally, the Twenty-third Amendment provides that the District of Columbia is entitled to the number it would have if it were a state, but in no case more than that of the least populous state. Currently, all states and the District of Columbia select their electors based on a popular election. In all but two states, the party whose presidential–vice presidential ticket receives a plurality of popular votes in the state has its entire slate of elector nominees chosen as the state's electors. Maine and Nebraska deviate from this winner-take-all practice, awarding two electors to the statewide winner and one to the winner in each congressional district. On the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, about six weeks after the election, the electors convene in their respective state capitals (and in Washington, D.C.) to vote for president and, on a separate ballot, for vice president. They typically vote for the candidates of the party that nominated them. While there is no constitutional mandate or federal law requiring them to do so, the District of Columbia and 32 states have laws requiring that their electors vote for the candidates to whom they are pledged. The constitutionality of these laws was upheld in Chiafalo v. Washington (2020). Following the vote, each state then sends a certified record of their electoral votes to Congress. The votes of the electors are opened and counted during a joint session of Congress, held in the first week of January. If a candidate has received an absolute majority of electoral votes for president (currently 270 of 538), that person is declared the winner. Otherwise, the House of Representatives must meet to elect a president using a contingent election procedure in which representatives, voting by state delegation, with each state casting a single vote, choose between the top three electoral vote-getters for president. To win the presidency, a candidate must receive the votes of an absolute majority of states (currently 26 of 50). There have been two contingent presidential elections in the nation's history. A 73–73 electoral vote tie between Thomas Jefferson and fellow Democratic-Republican Aaron Burr in the election of 1800 necessitated the first. Conducted under the original procedure established by Article II, Section 1, Clause 3 of the Constitution, which stipulates that if two or three persons received a majority vote and an equal vote, the House of Representatives would choose one of them for president; the runner-up would become vice president. On February 17, 1801, Jefferson was elected president on the 36th ballot, and Burr elected vice president. Afterward, the system was overhauled through the Twelfth Amendment in time to be used in the 1804 election. A quarter-century later, the choice for president again devolved to the House when no candidate won an absolute majority of electoral votes (131 of 261) in the election of 1824. Under the Twelfth Amendment, the House was required to choose a president from among the top three electoral vote recipients: Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and William H. Crawford. Held February 9, 1825, this second and most recent contingent election resulted in John Quincy Adams being elected president on the first ballot. Inauguration Pursuant to the Twentieth Amendment, the four-year term of office for both the president and the vice president begins at noon on January 20, in the year following the preceding presidential election. The first presidential and vice presidential terms to begin on this date, known as Inauguration Day, were the second terms of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Vice President John Nance Garner in 1937. Previously, Inauguration Day was on March 4. As a result of the date change, the first term (1933–37) of both men had been shortened by 43 days. Before executing the powers of the office, a president is required to recite the presidential Oath of Office, found in Article II, Section 1, Clause 8 of the Constitution. This is the only component in the inauguration ceremony mandated by the Constitution: I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. Presidents have traditionally placed one hand upon a Bible while taking the oath, and have added "So help me God" to the end of the oath. Although the oath may be administered by any person authorized by law to administer oaths, presidents are traditionally sworn in by the chief justice of the United States. Incumbency Term limit When the first president, George Washington, announced in his Farewell Address that he was not running for a third term, he established a "two terms then out" precedent. Precedent became tradition after Thomas Jefferson publicly embraced the principle a decade later during his second term, as did his two immediate successors, James Madison and James Monroe. In spite of the strong two-term tradition, Ulysses S. Grant sought nomination at the 1880 Republican National Convention for a non-consecutive third term, but was unsuccessful. In 1940, after leading the nation through the Great Depression and focused on supporting U.S. allied nations at war with the Axis powers, Franklin Roosevelt was elected to a third term, breaking the long-standing precedent. Four years later, with the U.S. engaged in World War II, he was re-elected again despite his declining physical health; he died 82 days into his fourth term on April 12, 1945. In response to the unprecedented length of Roosevelt's presidency, the Twenty-second Amendment was adopted in 1951. The amendment bars anyone from being elected president more than twice, or once if that person served more than two years (24 months) of another president's four-year term. Harry S. Truman, the president at the time it was submitted to the states by the Congress, was exempted from its limitations. Without the exemption, he would not have been eligible to run for a second full term in 1952 (which he briefly sought), as he had served nearly all of Franklin Roosevelt's unexpired 1945–1949 term and had been elected to a full four-year term beginning in 1949. Since becoming operative in 1951, the amendment has been applicable to six twice-elected presidents: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. Vacancies and succession Under Section 1 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, ratified in 1967, the vice president becomes president upon the removal from office, death, or resignation of the president. Deaths have occurred a number of times, resignation has occurred only once, and removal from office has never occurred. Before the ratification of the Twenty-fifth amendment (which clarified the matter of succession), Article II, Section 1, Clause 6, stated only that the vice president assumes the "powers and duties" of the presidency in the event of a president's removal, death, resignation, or inability. Under this clause, there was ambiguity about whether the vice president would actually become president in the event of a vacancy, or simply act as president, potentially resulting in a special election. Upon the death of President William Henry Harrison in 1841, Vice President John Tyler declared that he had succeeded to the office itself, refusing to accept any papers addressed to the "Acting President", and Congress ultimately accepted it. In the event of a double vacancy, Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 also authorizes Congress to declare who shall become acting president in the "Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the president and vice president". The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 (codified as 3 U.S.C. § 19) provides that if both the president and vice president have left office or are both otherwise unavailable to serve during their terms of office, the presidential line of succession follows the order of: speaker of the House, then, if necessary, the president pro tempore of the Senate, and then if necessary, the eligible heads of federal executive departments who form the president's cabinet. The cabinet currently has 15 members, of which the secretary of state is first in line; the other Cabinet secretaries follow in the order in which their department (or the department of which their department is the successor) was created. Those individuals who are constitutionally ineligible to be elected to the presidency are also disqualified from assuming the powers and duties of the presidency through succession. No statutory successor has yet been called upon to act as president. Declarations of inability Under the Twenty-fifth Amendment, the president may temporarily transfer the presidential powers and duties to the vice president, who then becomes acting president, by transmitting to the speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate a statement that he is unable to discharge his duties. The president resumes his or her powers upon transmitting a second declaration stating that he is again able. The mechanism has been used by Ronald Reagan (once), George W. Bush (twice), and Joe Biden (once), each in anticipation of surgery. The Twenty-fifth Amendment also provides that the vice president, together with a majority of certain members of the Cabinet, may transfer the presidential powers and duties to the vice president by transmitting a written declaration, to the speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate, to the effect that the president is unable to discharge his or her powers and duties. If the president then declares that no such inability exist, he or she resumes the presidential powers unless the vice president and Cabinet make a second declaration of presidential inability, in which case Congress decides the question. Removal Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution allows for the removal of high federal officials, including the president, from office for "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors". Article I, Section 2, Clause 5 authorizes the House of Representatives to serve as a "grand jury" with the power to impeach said officials by a majority vote. Article I, Section 3, Clause 6 authorizes the Senate to serve as a court with the power to remove impeached officials from office, by a two-thirds vote to convict. Three presidents have been impeached by the House of Representatives: Andrew Johnson in 1868, Bill Clinton in 1998, and Donald Trump in 2019 and 2021; none have been convicted by the Senate. Additionally, the House Judiciary Committee conducted an impeachment inquiry against Richard Nixon in 1973–74 and reported three articles of impeachment to the House of Representatives for final action; however, he resigned from office before the House voted on them. Circumvention of authority Controversial measures have sometimes been taken short of removal to deal with perceived recklessness on the part of the president, or with a long-term disability. In some cases, staff have intentionally failed to deliver messages to or from the president, typically to avoid executing or promoting the president to write certain orders. This has ranged from Richard Nixon's Chief of Staff not transmitting orders to the Cabinet due to the president's heavy drinking, to staff removing memos from Donald Trump's desk. Decades before the Twenty-fifth Amendment, in 1919, President Woodrow Wilson had a stroke that left him partly incapacitated. First lady Edith Wilson kept this condition a secret from the public for a while, and controversially became the sole gatekeeper for access to the president (aside from his doctor), assisting him with paperwork and deciding which information was "important" enough to share with him. Compensation Since 2001, the president's annual salary has been $400,000, along with a: $50,000 expense allowance; $100,000 nontaxable travel account, and $19,000 entertainment account. The president's salary is set by Congress, and under Article II, Section 1, Clause 7 of the Constitution, any increase or reduction in presidential salary cannot take effect before the next presidential term of office. Residence The Executive Residence of the White House in Washington, D.C. is the official residence of the president. The site was selected by George Washington, and the cornerstone was laid in 1792. Every president since John Adams (in 1800) has lived there. At various times in U.S. history, it has been known as the "President's Palace", the "President's House", and the "Executive Mansion". Theodore Roosevelt officially gave the White House its current name in 1901. The federal government pays for state dinners and other official functions, but the president pays for personal, family, and guest dry cleaning and food. Camp David, officially titled Naval Support Facility Thurmont, a mountain-based military camp in Frederick County, Maryland, is the president's country residence. A place of solitude and tranquility, the site has been used extensively to host foreign dignitaries since the 1940s. President's Guest House, located next to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House Complex and Lafayette Park, serves as the president's official guest house and as a secondary residence for the president if needed. Four interconnected, 19th-century houses—Blair House, Lee House, and 700 and 704 Jackson Place—with a combined floor space exceeding 70,000 square feet (6,500 m2) comprise the property. Presidential residences Travel The primary means of long-distance air travel for the president is one of two identical Boeing VC-25 aircraft, which are extensively modified Boeing 747 airliners and are referred to as Air Force One while the president is on board (although any U.S. Air Force aircraft the president is aboard is designated as "Air Force One" for the duration of the flight). In-country trips are typically handled with just one of the two planes, while overseas trips are handled with both, one primary and one backup. The president also has access to smaller Air Force aircraft, most notably the Boeing C-32, which are used when the president must travel to airports that cannot support a jumbo jet. Any civilian aircraft the president is aboard is designated Executive One for the flight. For short-distance air travel, the president has access to a fleet of U.S. Marine Corps helicopters of varying models, designated Marine One when the president is aboard any particular one in the fleet. Flights are typically handled with as many as five helicopters all flying together and frequently swapping positions as to disguise which helicopter the president is actually aboard to any would-be threats. For ground travel, the president uses the presidential state car, which is an armored limousine designed to look like a Cadillac sedan, but built on a truck chassis. The U.S. Secret Service operates and maintains the fleet of several limousines. The president also has access to two armored motorcoaches, which are primarily used for touring trips. Presidential transportation Protection The U.S. Secret Service is charged with protecting the president and the first family. As part of their protection, presidents, first ladies, their children and other immediate family members, and other prominent persons and locations are assigned Secret Service codenames. The use of such names was originally for security purposes and dates to a time when sensitive electronic communications were not routinely encrypted; today, the names simply serve for purposes of brevity, clarity, and tradition. Post-presidency Activities Some former presidents have had significant careers after leaving office. Prominent examples include William Howard Taft's tenure as chief justice of the United States and Herbert Hoover's work on government reorganization after World War II. Grover Cleveland, whose bid for reelection failed in 1888, was elected president again four years later in 1892. Two former presidents served in Congress after leaving the White House: John Quincy Adams was elected to the House of Representatives, serving there for 17 years, and Andrew Johnson returned to the Senate in 1875, though he died soon after. Some ex-presidents were very active, especially in international affairs, most notably Theodore Roosevelt; Herbert Hoover; Richard Nixon; and Jimmy Carter. Presidents may use their predecessors as emissaries to deliver private messages to other nations or as official representatives of the United States to state funerals and other important foreign events. Richard Nixon made multiple foreign trips to countries including China and Russia and was lauded as an elder statesman. Jimmy Carter has become a global human rights campaigner, international arbiter, and election monitor, as well as a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Bill Clinton has also worked as an informal ambassador, most recently in the negotiations that led to the release of two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, from North Korea. During his presidency, George W. Bush called on former Presidents Bush and Clinton to assist with humanitarian efforts after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. President Obama followed suit by asking Presidents Clinton and Bush to lead efforts to aid Haiti after an earthquake devastated that country in 2010. Clinton was active politically since his presidential term ended, working with his wife Hillary on her 2008 and 2016 presidential bids and President Obama on his 2012 reelection campaign. Obama was also active politically since his presidential term ended, having worked with his former vice president Joe Biden on his 2020 election campaign. Trump has continued to make appearances in the media and at conferences and rallies since leaving office in 2021. He is currently running for a non-consecutive second term in the upcoming 2024 presidential election. Pension and other benefits The Former Presidents Act (FPA), enacted in 1958, grants lifetime benefits to former presidents and their widows, including a monthly pension, medical care in military facilities, health insurance, and Secret Service protection; also provided is funding for a certain number of staff and for office expenses. The act has been amended several times to provide increases in presidential pensions and in the allowances for office staff. The FPA excludes any president who was removed from office by impeachment. According to a 2008 report by the Congressional Research Service: Chief executives leaving office prior to 1958 often entered retirement pursuing various occupations and received no federal assistance. When industrialist Andrew Carnegie announced a plan in 1912 to offer $25,000 annual pensions to former Presidents, many Members of Congress deemed it inappropriate that such a pension would be provided by a private corporation executive. That same year, legislation was first introduced to create presidential pensions, but it was not enacted. In 1955, such legislation was considered by Congress because of former President Harry S. Truman's financial limitations in hiring an office staff The pension has increased numerous times with congressional approval. Retired presidents receive a pension based on the salary of the current administration's cabinet secretaries, which was $199,700 per year in 2012. Former presidents who served in Congress may also collect congressional pensions. The act also provides former presidents with travel funds and franking privileges. Prior to 1997, all former presidents, their spouses, and their children until age 16 were protected by the Secret Service until the president's death. In 1997, Congress passed legislation limiting Secret Service protection to no more than 10 years from the date a president leaves office. On January 10, 2013, President Obama signed legislation reinstating lifetime Secret Service protection for him, George W. Bush, and all subsequent presidents. A first spouse who remarries is no longer eligible for Secret Service protection. Presidential libraries Every president since Herbert Hoover has created a repository known as a presidential library for preserving and making available his papers, records, and other documents and materials. Completed libraries are deeded to and maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); the initial funding for building and equipping each library must come from private, non-federal sources. There are currently thirteen presidential libraries in the NARA system. There are also presidential libraries maintained by state governments and private foundations and Universities of Higher Education, including: The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by the State of Illinois; The George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by Southern Methodist University; The George H. W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by Texas A&M University; and The Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by the University of Texas at Austin. Several former presidents have overseen the building and opening of their own presidential libraries. Some even made arrangements for their own burial at the site. Several presidential libraries contain the graves of the president they document: The Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri; The Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home in Abilene, Kansas; The Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California; and The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California. These gravesites are open to the general public. Political affiliation Political parties have dominated American politics for most of the nation's history. Though the Founding Fathers generally spurned political parties as divisive and disruptive, and their rise had not been anticipated when the U.S. Constitution was drafted in 1787, organized political parties developed in the U.S. in the mid-1790s nonetheless. They evolved from political factions, which began to appear almost immediately after the Federal government came into existence. Those who supported the Washington administration were referred to as "pro-administration" and would eventually form the Federalist Party, while those in opposition largely joined the emerging Democratic-Republican Party. Greatly concerned about the very real capacity of political parties to destroy the fragile unity holding the nation together, Washington remained unaffiliated with any political faction or party throughout his eight-year presidency. He was, and remains, the only U.S. president never to be affiliated with a political party. Since Washington, every U.S. president has been affiliated with a political party at the time of assuming office. The number of presidents per political party by their affiliation at the time they were first sworn into office (alphabetical, by last name) are: Timeline of presidents The following timeline depicts the progression of the presidents and their political affiliation at the time of assuming office. See also Outline of American politics Notes References Further reading External links White House homepage United States Presidents Collection. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University

Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. A member of the Republican Party, his presidency constituted the Reagan era, and he is considered one of the most prominent American conservative figures. Born and raised in northern Illinois, Reagan graduated from Eureka College in 1932 and worked as a sports broadcaster for several regional radio stations. In 1937, he moved to California and became a well-known film actor. During his acting career, Reagan twice served as the president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1947 to 1952 and from 1959 to 1960. In the 1950s, he began working on television and became a spokesman for General Electric. Later in 1964, Reagan delivered his "A Time for Choosing" speech which launched his rise as a prominent conservative figure. After being elected governor of California in 1966, he raised taxes, turned the state budget deficit into a surplus, and implemented harsh crackdowns on university protests. Despite losing to Gerald Ford in the 1976 Republican Party presidential primaries, Reagan won the 1980 Republican nomination then proceeded to a landslide victory over President Jimmy Carter in the 1980 U.S. presidential election. During his presidency, Reagan implemented "Reaganomics", which involved economic deregulation and cuts in both taxes and government spending during a period of stagflation. He escalated an arms race and transitioned Cold War policy away from the policies of détente with the Soviet Union. Reagan also ordered the U.S. invasion of Grenada in 1983. Additionally, he survived an assassination attempt, fought public-sector labor unions, expanded the war on drugs, and was slow to respond to the U.S. AIDS epidemic, which began early in his presidency. In the 1984 presidential election, he defeated Carter's vice president Walter Mondale in another landslide victory. Foreign affairs dominated Reagan's second term, including the 1986 bombing of Libya, the secret and illegal sale of arms to Iran to fund the Contras, and a more conciliatory approach in talks with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that culminated in the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Reagan left the presidency in 1989 with the American economy having seen a significant reduction of inflation, the unemployment rate having fallen, and the U.S. having entered its then-longest peacetime expansion. At the same time, the national debt had nearly tripled since 1981 as a result of his cuts in taxes and increased military spending, despite cuts to domestic discretionary spending. Reagan's policies also contributed to the end of the Cold War and the end of Soviet communism. Alzheimer's disease hindered Reagan post-presidency, and his physical and mental capacities gradually deteriorated, ultimately leading to his death in 2004. Historians and scholars have typically ranked him among the upper tier among American presidents, and his post-presidential approval ratings by the general public are usually high. Early life Ronald Wilson Reagan was born on February 6, 1911, in a commercial building in Tampico, Illinois, as the younger son of Nelle Clyde Wilson and Jack Reagan. Nelle was committed to the Disciples of Christ, which believed in the Social Gospel. She led prayer meetings and ran mid-week prayers at her church when the pastor was out of town. Reagan credited her spiritual influence and he became a Christian. According to American political figure Stephen Vaughn, Reagan's values came from his pastor, and the First Christian Church's religious, economic and social positions "coincided with the words, if not the beliefs of the latter-day Reagan". Jack focused on making money to take care of the family, but this was complicated by his alcoholism. Reagan had an older brother, Neil. The family lived in Chicago, Galesburg, and Monmouth before returning to Tampico. In 1920, they settled in Dixon, Illinois, living in a house near the H. C. Pitney Variety Store Building. Reagan attended Dixon High School, where he developed interests in drama and football. His first job involved working as a lifeguard at the Rock River in Lowell Park. In 1928, Reagan began attending Eureka College at Nelle's approval on religious grounds. He was a mediocre student who participated in sports, drama, and campus politics. He became student body president and joined a student strike that resulted in the college president's resignation. Reagan was initiated as a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity and served as president of the local chapter. Reagan played at the guard position for the 1930 and 1931 Eureka Red Devils football teams and recalled a time when two black football teammates were refused service at a segregated hotel; he invited them to his parents' home nearby in Dixon and his parents welcomed them. At the time, his parents' stance on racial questions was unusually progressive in Dixon. Reagan himself had grown up with very few black Americans there and was oblivious to racial discrimination. Entertainment career Radio and film After obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and sociology from Eureka College in 1932, Reagan took a job in Davenport, Iowa, as a sports broadcaster for four football games in the Big Ten Conference. He then worked for WHO radio in Des Moines as a broadcaster for the Chicago Cubs. His specialty was creating play-by-play accounts of games using only basic descriptions that the station received by wire as the games were in progress. Simultaneously, he often expressed his opposition to racism. In 1936, while traveling with the Cubs to their spring training in California, Reagan took a screen test that led to a seven-year contract with Warner Bros. Reagan arrived at Hollywood in 1937, debuting in Love Is on the Air (1937). Using a simple and direct approach to acting and following his directors' instructions, Reagan made thirty films, mostly B films, before beginning military service in April 1942. He broke out of these types of films by portraying George Gipp in Knute Rockne, All American (1940), which would be rejuvenated when reporters called Reagan "the Gipper" while he campaigned for president of the United States. Afterward, Reagan starred in Kings Row (1942) as a leg amputee, asking, "Where's the rest of me?" His performance was considered his best by many critics. Reagan became a star, with Gallup polls placing him "in the top 100 stars" from 1941 to 1942. World War II interrupted the movie stardom that Reagan would never be able to achieve again as Warner Bros. became uncertain about his ability to generate ticket sales. Reagan, who had a limited acting range, was dissatisfied with the roles he received. As a result, Lew Wasserman renegotiated his contract with his studio, allowing him to also make films with Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, and RKO Pictures as a freelancer. With this, Reagan appeared in multiple western films, something that had been denied to him while working at Warner Bros. In 1952, he ended his relationship with Warner Bros., but went on to appear in a total of 53 films, his last being The Killers (1964). Military service In April 1937, Reagan enlisted in the United States Army Reserve. He was assigned as a private in Des Moines' 322nd Cavalry Regiment and reassigned to second lieutenant in the Officers Reserve Corps. He later became a part of the 323rd Cavalry Regiment in California. As relations between the United States and Japan worsened, Reagan was ordered for active duty while he was filming Kings Row. Wasserman and Warner Bros. lawyers successfully sent draft deferments to complete the film in October 1941. However, to avoid accusations of Reagan being a draft dodger, the studio let him go in April 1942. Reagan reported for duty with severe near-sightedness. His first assignment was at Fort Mason as a liaison officer, a role that allowed him to transfer to the United States Army Air Forces (AAF). Reagan became an AAF public relations officer and was subsequently assigned to the 18th AAF Base Unit in Culver City where he felt that it was "impossible to remove an incompetent or lazy worker" due to what he felt was "the incompetence, the delays, and inefficiencies" of the federal bureaucracy. Despite this, Reagan participated in the Provisional Task Force Show Unit in Burbank and continued to make theatrical films. He was also ordered to temporary duty in New York City to participate in the sixth War Loan Drive before being reassigned to Fort MacArthur until his discharge on December 9, 1945, as a captain. Throughout his military service, Reagan produced over 400 training films. Screen Actors Guild presidency When Robert Montgomery resigned as president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) on March 10, 1947, Reagan was elected to that position in a special election. Reagan's first tenure saw various labor–management disputes, the Hollywood blacklist, and the Taft–Hartley Act's implementation. On April 10, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) interviewed Reagan and he provided them with the names of actors whom he believed to be communist sympathizers. During a House Un-American Activities Committee hearing, Reagan testified that some guild members were associated with the Communist Party and that he was well-informed about a "jurisdictional strike". When asked if he was aware of communist efforts within the Screen Writers Guild, he called information about the efforts "hearsay". Reagan resigned as SAG president November 10, 1952, but remained on the board; Walter Pidgeon succeeded him as president. The SAG fought with film producers for the right to receive residual payments, and on November 16, 1959, the board elected Reagan SAG president for the second time; he replaced Howard Keel, who had resigned. During this second stint, Reagan managed to secure payments for actors whose theatrical films had been released between 1948 and 1959 and subsequently televised. The producers were initially required to pay the actors fees, but they ultimately settled instead for providing pensions and paying residuals for films made after 1959. Reagan resigned from the SAG presidency on June 7, 1960, and also left the board; George Chandler succeeded him as SAG president. Marriages and children In January 1940, Reagan married Jane Wyman, his co-star in the 1938 film Brother Rat. Together, they had two biological daughters: Maureen in 1941, and Christine in 1947 (born prematurely and died the following day). They adopted one son, Michael, in 1945. Wyman filed to divorce Reagan in June 1948. She was uninterested in politics, and occasionally recriminated, reconciled and separated with him. Although Reagan was unprepared, the divorce was finalized in July 1949. Reagan would also remain close to his children. Later that year, Reagan met Nancy Davis after she contacted him in his capacity as the SAG president about her name appearing on a communist blacklist in Hollywood; she had been mistaken for another Nancy Davis. They married in March 1952, and had two children, Patti in October 1952, and Ron in May 1958. Reagan has three grandchildren. Television Reagan became the host of MCA Inc. television production General Electric Theater at Wasserman's recommendation. It featured multiple guest stars, and Ronald and Nancy Reagan, continuing to use her stage name Nancy Davis, acted together in three episodes. When asked how Reagan was able to recruit such stars to appear on the show during television's infancy, he replied, "Good stories, top direction, production quality". However, the viewership declined in the 1960s and the show was canceled in 1962. In 1965, Reagan became the host of another MCA production, Death Valley Days. Early political activities Reagan began as a Democrat, viewing Franklin D. Roosevelt as "a true hero". He joined the American Veterans Committee and Hollywood Independent Citizens Committee of the Arts, Sciences and Professions (HICCASP), worked with the AFL–CIO to fight right-to-work laws, and continued to speak out against racism when he was in Hollywood. In 1945, Reagan planned to lead an HICCASP anti-nuclear rally, but Warner Bros. prevented him from going. In 1946, he appeared in a radio program called Operation Terror to speak out against rising Ku Klux Klan activity in the country, citing the attacks as a "capably organized systematic campaign of fascist violence and intimidation and horror". Reagan also supported Harry S. Truman in the 1948 presidential election, and Helen Gahagan Douglas for the U.S. Senate in 1950. It was Reagan's belief that communism was a powerful backstage influence in Hollywood that led him to rally his friends against them. Reagan began shifting to the right when he supported the presidential campaigns of Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and Richard Nixon in 1960. When Reagan was contracted by General Electric (GE), he gave speeches to their employees. His speeches had a positive take on free markets. Under GE vice president Lemuel Boulware, a staunch anti-communist, employees were encouraged to vote for business-friendly politicians. In 1961, Reagan adapted his speeches into another speech to criticize Medicare. In his view, its legislation would have meant "the end of individual freedom in the United States". In 1962, Reagan was dropped by GE, and he formally registered as a Republican. In 1964, Reagan gave a speech for presidential contender Barry Goldwater that was eventually referred to as "A Time for Choosing". Reagan argued that the Founding Fathers "knew that governments don't control things. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose" and that "We've been told increasingly that we must choose between left or right". Even though the speech was not enough to turn around the faltering Goldwater campaign, it increased Reagan's profile among conservatives. David S. Broder and Stephen H. Hess called it "the most successful national political debut since William Jennings Bryan electrified the 1896 Democratic convention with his famous 'Cross of Gold' address". 1966 California gubernatorial election In January 1966, Reagan announced his candidacy for the California governorship, repeating his stances on individual freedom and big government. When he met with black Republicans in March, he was criticized for opposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Reagan responded that bigotry was not in his nature and later argued that certain provisions of the act infringed upon the rights of property owners. After the Supreme Court of California ruled that the initiative that repealed the Rumford Act was unconstitutional in May, he voiced his support for the act's repeal, but later preferred amending it. In the Republican primary, Reagan defeated George Christopher, a moderate Republican who William F. Buckley Jr. thought had painted Reagan as extreme. Reagan's general election opponent, incumbent governor Pat Brown, attempted to label Reagan as an extremist and tout his own accomplishments. Reagan portrayed himself as a political outsider, and charged Brown as responsible for the Watts riots and lenient on crime. In numerous speeches, Reagan "hit the Brown administration about high taxes, uncontrolled spending, the radicals at the University of California, Berkeley, and the need for accountability in government". Meanwhile, many in the press perceived Reagan as "monumentally ignorant of state issues", though Lou Cannon said that Reagan benefited from an appearance he and Brown made on Meet the Press in September. Ultimately, Reagan won the governorship with 57 percent of the vote compared to Brown's 42 percent. California governorship (1967–1975) Brown had spent much of California's funds on new programs, prompting them to use accrual accounting to avoid raising taxes. Consequently, it generated a larger deficit, and Reagan would call for reduced government spending and tax hikes to balance the budget. He worked with Jesse M. Unruh on securing tax increases and promising future property tax cuts. This caused some conservatives to accuse Reagan of betraying his principles. As a result, taxes on sales, banks, corporate profits, inheritances, liquor, and cigarettes jumped. Kevin Starr states, Reagan "gave Californians the biggest tax hike in their history—and got away with it". In the 1970 gubernatorial election, Unruh used Reagan's tax policy against him, saying it disproportionally favored the wealthy. Reagan countered that he was still committed to reducing property taxes. By 1973, the budget had a surplus, which Reagan preferred "to give back to the people". In 1967, Reagan reacted to the Black Panther Party's strategy of copwatching by signing the Mulford Act to prohibit the public carrying of firearms. The act was California's most restrictive piece of gun control legislation, with critics saying that it was "overreacting to the political activism of organizations such as the Black Panthers". The act marked the beginning of both modern legislation and public attitude studies on gun control. Reagan also signed the 1967 Therapeutic Abortion Act that allowed abortions in the cases of rape and incest when a doctor determined the birth would impair the physical or mental health of the mother. He later expressed regret over signing it, saying that he was unaware of the mental health provision. He believed that doctors were interpreting the provision loosely and more abortions were resulting. After Reagan won the 1966 election, he and his advisors planned a run in the 1968 Republican presidential primaries. He ran as an unofficial candidate to cut into Nixon's southern support and be a compromise candidate if there were to be a brokered convention. He won California's delegates, but Nixon secured enough delegates for the nomination. Reagan had previously been critical of former governor Brown and university administrators for tolerating student demonstrations in the city of Berkeley, making it a major theme in his campaigning. On February 5, 1969, Reagan declared a state of emergency in response to ongoing protests and acts of violence at the University of California, Berkeley, and sent in the California Highway Patrol. In May 1969, these officers, along with local officers from Berkeley and Alameda county, clashed with protestors over a site known as the People's Park. One student was shot and killed while many police officers and two reporters were injured. Reagan then commanded the state National Guard troops to occupy Berkeley for seventeen days to subdue the protesters, allowing other students to attend class safely. In February 1970, violent protests broke out near the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he once again deployed the National Guard. On April 7, Reagan defended his policies regarding campus protests, saying, "If it takes a bloodbath, let's get it over with. No more appeasement". During his victorious reelection campaign in 1970, Reagan, remaining critical of government, promised to prioritize welfare reform. He was concerned that the programs were disincentivizing work and that the growing welfare rolls would lead to both an unbalanced budget and another big tax hike in 1972. At the same time, the Federal Reserve increased interest rates to combat inflation, putting the American economy in a mild recession. Reagan worked with Bob Moretti to tighten up the eligibility requirements so that the financially needy could continue receiving payments. This was only accomplished after Reagan softened his criticism of Nixon's Family Assistance Plan. Nixon then lifted regulations to shepherd California's experiment. In 1976, the Employment Development Department published a report suggesting that the experiment that ran from 1971 to 1974 was unsuccessful. Reagan declined to run for the governorship in 1974 and it was won by Pat Brown's son, Jerry. Reagan's governorship, as professor Gary K. Clabaugh writes, saw public schools deteriorate due to his opposition to additional basic education funding. As for higher education, journalist William Trombley believed that the budget cuts Reagan enacted damaged Berkeley's student-faculty ratio and research. Additionally, the homicide rate doubled and armed robbery rates rose by even more during Reagan's eight years, even with the many laws Reagan signed to try toughening criminal sentencing and reforming the criminal justice system. Reagan strongly supported capital punishment, but his efforts to enforce it were thwarted by People v. Anderson in 1972. According to his son, Michael, Reagan said that he regretted signing the Family Law Act that granted no-fault divorces. Seeking the presidency (1975–1981) 1976 Republican primaries Insufficiently conservative to Reagan and many other Republicans, President Gerald Ford suffered from multiple political and economic woes. Ford, running for president, was disappointed to hear him also run. Reagan was strongly critical of détente and Ford's policy of détente with the Soviet Union. He repeated "A Time for Choosing" around the country before announcing his campaign on November 20, 1975, when he discussed economic and social problems, and to a lesser extent, foreign affairs. Both candidates were determined to knock each other out early in the primaries, but Reagan would devastatingly lose the first five primaries beginning with New Hampshire, where he popularized the welfare queen narrative about Linda Taylor, exaggerating her misuse of welfare benefits and igniting voter resentment for welfare reform, but never overtly mentioning her name or race. In Florida, Reagan referred to a "strapping young buck", which became an example of dog whistle politics, and accused Ford for handing the Panama Canal to Panama's government while Ford implied that he would end Social Security. Then, in Illinois, he again criticized Ford's policy and his secretary of state, Henry Kissinger. Losing the first five primaries prompted Reagan to desperately win North Carolina's by running a grassroots campaign and uniting with the Jesse Helms political machine that viciously attacked Ford. Reagan won an upset victory, convincing party delegates that Ford's nomination was no longer guaranteed. Reagan won subsequent victories in Texas, Alabama, Georgia, and Indiana with his attacks on social programs, opposition to forced busing, increased support from inclined voters of a declining George Wallace campaign for the Democratic nomination, and repeated criticisms of Ford and Kissinger's policies, including détente. The result was a seesaw battle for the 1,130 delegates required for their party's nomination that neither would reach before the Kansas City convention in August and Ford replacing mentions of détente with Reagan's preferred phrase, "peace through strength". Reagan took John Sears' advice of choosing liberal Richard Schweiker as his running mate, hoping to pry loose of delegates from Pennsylvania and other states, and distract Ford. Instead, conservatives were left alienated, and Ford picked up the remaining uncommitted delegates and prevailed, earning 1,187 to Reagan's 1,070. Before giving his acceptance speech, Ford invited Reagan to address the convention; Reagan emphasized individual freedom and the dangers of nuclear weapons. In 1977, Ford told Cannon that Reagan's primary challenge contributed to his own narrow loss to Democrat Jimmy Carter in the 1976 United States presidential election. 1980 election Reagan emerged as a vocal critic of President Carter in 1977. The Panama Canal Treaty's signing, the 1979 oil crisis, and rise in the interest, inflation and unemployment rates helped set up his 1980 presidential campaign, which he announced on November 13, 1979 with an indictment of the federal government. His announcement stressed his fundamental principles of tax cuts to stimulate the economy and having both a small government and a strong national defense, since he believed the United States was behind the Soviet Union militarily. Heading into 1980, his age became an issue among the press, and the United States was in a severe recession. In the primaries, Reagan unexpectedly lost the Iowa caucus to George H. W. Bush. Three days before the New Hampshire primary, the Reagan and Bush campaigns agreed to a one-on-one debate sponsored by The Telegraph at Nashua, New Hampshire, but hours before the debate, the Reagan campaign invited other candidates including Bob Dole, John B. Anderson, Howard Baker and Phil Crane. Debate moderator Jon Breen denied seats to the other candidates, asserting that The Telegraph would violate federal campaign contribution laws if it sponsored the debate and changed the ground rules hours before the debate. As a result, the Reagan campaign agreed to pay for the debate. Reagan said that as he was funding the debate, he could decide who would debate. During the debate, when Breen was laying out the ground rules and attempting to ask the first question, Reagan interrupted in protest to make an introductory statement and wanted other candidates to be included before the debate began. The moderator asked Bob Malloy, the volume operator, to mute Reagan's microphone. After Breen repeated his demand to Malloy, Reagan furiously replied, "I am paying for this microphone, Mr. Green! [sic]". This turned out to be the turning point of the debate and the primary race. Ultimately, the four additional candidates left, and the debate continued between Reagan and Bush. Reagan's polling numbers improved, and he won the New Hampshire primary by more than 39,000 votes. Soon thereafter, Reagan's opponents began dropping out of the primaries, including Anderson, who left the party to become an independent candidate. Reagan easily captured the presidential nomination and chose Bush as his running mate at the Detroit convention in July. The general election pitted Reagan against Carter amid the multitude of domestic concerns and ongoing Iran hostage crisis that began on November 4, 1979. Reagan's campaign worried that Carter would be able to secure the release of the American hostages in Iran as part of the October surprise, Carter "suggested that Reagan would wreck Social Security" and portrayed him as a warmonger, and Anderson carried support from liberal Republicans dissatisfied with Reagan's conservatism. One of Reagan's key strengths was his appeal to the rising conservative movement. Though most conservative leaders espoused cutting taxes and budget deficits, many conservatives focused more closely on social issues like abortion and gay rights. Evangelical Protestants became an increasingly important voting bloc, and they generally supported Reagan. Reagan also won the backing of Reagan Democrats. Though he advocated socially conservative view points, Reagan focused much of his campaign on attacks against Carter's foreign policy. In August, Reagan gave a speech at the Neshoba County Fair, stating his belief in states' rights. Joseph Crespino argues that the visit was designed to reach out to Wallace-inclined voters, and some also saw these actions as an extension of the Southern strategy to garner white support for Republican candidates. Reagan's supporters have said that this was his typical anti-big government rhetoric, without racial context or intent. In the October 28 debate, Carter chided Reagan for being against national health insurance. Reagan replied, "There you go again", though the audience laughed and viewers found him more appealing. Reagan later asked the audience if they were better off than they were four years ago, slightly paraphrasing Roosevelt's words in 1934. In 1983, Reagan's campaign managers were revealed to having obtained Carter's debate briefing book before the debates. On November 4, 1980, Reagan won in a decisive victory in the Electoral College over Carter, carrying 44 states and receiving 489 electoral votes to Carter's 49 in six states and the District of Columbia. He won the popular vote by a narrower margin, receiving nearly 51 percent to Carter's 41 percent and Anderson's 7 percent. In the United States Congress, Republicans won a majority of seats in the Senate for the first time since 1952 while Democrats retained the House of Representatives. Presidency (1981–1989) First inauguration Reagan was inaugurated as the 40th president of the United States on Tuesday, January 20, 1981. Chief Justice Warren E. Burger administered the presidential oath of office. In his inaugural address, Reagan commented on the country's economic malaise, arguing, "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem". As a final insult to President Carter, Iran waited until Reagan had been sworn in before announcing the release of their American hostages. "Reaganomics" and the economy Reagan advocated a laissez-faire philosophy, and promoted a set of neoliberal reforms dubbed "Reaganomics", which included monetarism and supply-side economics. Taxation Reagan worked with the boll weevil Democrats to pass tax and budget legislation in a Congress led by Tip O'Neill, a liberal who strongly criticized Reaganomics. He lifted federal oil and gasoline price controls on January 28, 1981, and in August, he signed the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 to dramatically lower federal income tax rates and require exemptions and brackets to be indexed for inflation starting in 1985. Amid growing concerns about the mounting federal debt, Reagan signed the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982, one of the eleven times Reagan raised taxes. The bill doubled the federal cigarette tax, rescinded a portion of the corporate tax cuts from the 1981 tax bill, and according to Paul Krugman, "a third of the 1981 cut" overall. Many of his supporters condemned the bill, but Reagan defended his preservation of cuts on individual income tax rates. By 1983, the amount of federal tax had fallen for all or most taxpayers, but most strongly affected the wealthy. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 reduced the number of tax brackets and top tax rate, and almost doubled personal exemptions. To Reagan, the tax cuts would not have increased the deficit as long as there was enough economic growth and spending cuts. His policies proposed that economic growth would occur when the tax cuts spur investments, which would result in more spending, consumption, and ergo tax revenue. This theoretical relationship has been illustrated by some with the controversial Laffer curve. Critics labeled this "trickle-down economics", the belief that tax policies that benefit the wealthy will spread to the poor. Milton Friedman and Robert Mundell argued that these policies invigorated America's economy and contributed to the economic boom of the 1990s. Inflation and unemployment Reagan took office in the midst of stagflation. The economy briefly experienced growth before plunging into a recession in July 1981. As Federal Reserve chairman, Paul Volcker fought inflation by pursuing a tight money policy of high interest rates, which restricted lending and investment, raised unemployment, and temporarily reduced economic growth. In December 1982, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) measured the unemployment rate at 10.8 percent. Around the same time, economic activity began to rise until its end in 1990, setting the record for the longest peacetime expansion. In 1983, the recession ended and Reagan nominated Volcker to a second term in fear of damaging confidence in the economic recovery. Reagan appointed Alan Greenspan to succeed Volcker in 1987. Greenspan raised interest rates in another attempt to curb inflation, setting off the Black Monday stock market crash, although the markets eventually recovered. By 1989, the BLS measured the unemployment rate at 5.3 percent. The inflation rate dropped from 12 percent during the 1980 election to under 5 percent in 1989. Likewise, the interest rate dropped from 15 percent to under 10 percent. Yet, not all shared equally in the economic recovery, and both economic inequality and the number of homeless individuals increased during the 1980s. Critics have contended that a majority of the jobs created during this decade paid the minimum wage. Government spending In 1981, in an effort to keep it solvent, Reagan approved a plan for cuts to Social Security. He later backed off of these plans due to public backlash. He then created the Greenspan Commission to keep Social Security financially secure, and in 1983 he signed amendments to raise both the program's payroll taxes and retirement age for benefits. He had signed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981 to cut funding for federal assistance such as food stamps, unemployment benefits, subsidized housing and the Aid to Families with Dependent Children, and would discontinue the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act. On the other side, defense spending doubled between 1981 and 1985. During Reagan's presidency, Project Socrates operated within the Defense Intelligence Agency to discover why the United States was unable to maintain its economic competitiveness. According to program director Michael Sekora, their findings helped the country surpass the Soviets in terms of missile defense technology. Deregulation Reagan sought to loosen federal regulation of economic activities, and he appointed key officials who shared this agenda. William Leuchtenburg writes that by 1986, the Reagan administration eliminated almost half of the federal regulations that had existed in 1981. The 1982 Garn–St. Germain Depository Institutions Act deregulated savings and loan associations by letting them make a variety of loans and investments outside of real estate. After the bill's passage, savings and loans associations engaged in riskier activities, and the leaders of some institutions embezzled funds. The administration's inattentiveness toward the industry contributed to the savings and loan crisis and costly bailouts. Deficits The deficits were exacerbated by the early 1980s recession, which cut into federal revenue. The national debt tripled between the fiscal years of 1980 and 1989, and the national debt as a percentage of the gross domestic product rose from 33 percent in 1981 to 53 percent by 1989. During his time in office, Reagan never fulfilled his 1980 campaign promise of submitting a balanced budget. The United States borrowed heavily to cover newly spawned federal budget deficits. Reagan described the tripled debt the "greatest disappointment of his presidency". Jeffrey Frankel opined that the deficits were a major reason why Reagan's successor, Bush, reneged on his campaign promise by raising taxes through the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990. Assassination attempt On March 30, 1981, Reagan was shot by John Hinckley Jr. outside the Washington Hilton. Also struck were: James Brady, Thomas Delahanty, and Tim McCarthy. Although "right on the margin of death" upon arrival at George Washington University Hospital, Reagan underwent surgery and recovered quickly from a broken rib, a punctured lung, and internal bleeding. Professor J. David Woodard says that the assassination attempt "created a bond between him and the American people that was never really broken". Later, Reagan came to believe that God had spared his life "for a chosen mission". Supreme Court appointments Reagan appointed three Associate Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States: Sandra Day O'Connor in 1981, which fulfilled a campaign promise to name the first female justice to the Court, Antonin Scalia in 1986, and Anthony Kennedy in 1988. He also elevated William Rehnquist from Associate Justice to Chief Justice in 1986. The direction of the Supreme Court's reshaping has been described as conservative. Public sector labor union fights Early in August 1981, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) went on strike, violating a federal law prohibiting government unions from striking. On August 3, Reagan said that he would fire air traffic controllers if they did not return to work within 48 hours; according to him, 38 percent did not return. On August 13, Reagan fired roughly 12,000 striking air traffic controllers who ignored his order. He used military controllers and supervisors to handle the nation's commercial air traffic until new controllers could be hired and trained. The breaking of the PATCO strike demoralized organized labor, and the number of strikes fell greatly in the 1980s. With the assent of Reagan's sympathetic National Labor Relations Board appointees, many companies also won wage and benefit cutbacks from unions, especially in the manufacturing sector. During Reagan's presidency, the share of employees who were part of a labor union dropped from approximately one-fourth of the total workforce to approximately one-sixth of the total workforce. Civil rights Despite Reagan having opposed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the bill was extended for 25 years in 1982. He initially opposed the establishment of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and alluded to claims that King was associated with communists during his career, but signed a bill to create the holiday in 1983 after it passed both houses of Congress with veto-proof margins. In 1984, he signed legislation intended to impose fines for fair housing discrimination offenses. In March 1988, Reagan vetoed the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987, but Congress overrode his veto. He had argued that the bill unreasonably increased the federal government's power and undermined the rights of churches and business owners. Later in September, legislation was passed to correct loopholes in the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Early in his presidency, Reagan appointed Clarence M. Pendleton Jr., known for his opposition to affirmative action and equal pay for men and women, as chair of the United States Commission on Civil Rights despite Pendleton's hostility toward long-established civil rights views. Pendleton and Reagan's subsequent appointees greatly eroded the enforcement of civil rights law, arousing the ire of civil rights advocates. In 1987, Reagan unsuccessfully nominated Robert Bork to the Supreme Court as a way to achieve his civil rights policy that could not be fulfilled during his presidency; his administration had opposed affirmative action, particularly in education, federal assistance programs, housing and employment, but Reagan reluctantly continued these policies. In housing, Reagan's administration saw considerably fewer fair housing cases filed than the three previous administrations. War on drugs In response to concerns about the increasing crack epidemic, Reagan intensified the war on drugs in 1982. While the American public did not see drugs as an important issue then, the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and the United States Department of Defense all increased their anti-drug funding immensely. Reagan's administration publicized the campaign to gain support after crack became widespread in 1985. Reagan signed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 and 1988 to specify penalties for drug offenses. Both bills have been criticized in the years since for promoting racial disparities. Additionally, Nancy Reagan founded the "Just Say No" campaign to discourage others from engaging in recreational drug use and raise awareness about the dangers of drugs. A 1988 study showed 39 percent of high school seniors using illegal drugs compared to 53 percent in 1980, but Scott Lilienfeld and Hal Arkowitz say that the success of these types of campaigns have not been found to be affirmatively proven. Escalation of the Cold War Reagan ordered a massive defense buildup; he revived the B-1 Lancer program that had been rejected by the Carter administration, and deployed the MX missile. In response to Soviet deployment of the SS-20, he oversaw NATO's deployment of the Pershing missile in Western Europe. In 1982, Reagan tried to cut off the Soviet Union's access to hard currency by impeding its proposed gas line to Western Europe. It hurt the Soviet economy, but it also caused much ill will among American allies in Europe who counted on that revenue; he later retreated on this issue. In March 1983, Reagan introduced the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) to protect the United States from space intercontinental ballistic missiles. He believed that this defense shield could protect the country from nuclear destruction in a hypothetical nuclear war with the Soviet Union. There was much disbelief among the scientific community surrounding the program's scientific feasibility, leading opponents to dub the SDI "Star Wars", though Soviet leader Yuri Andropov said it would lead to "an extremely dangerous path". In a 1982 address to the British Parliament, Reagan said, "the march of freedom and democracy... will leave Marxism–Leninism on the ash heap of history". Dismissed by the American press as "wishful thinking", Margaret Thatcher called the address a "triumph". David Cannadine says of Thatcher that "Reagan had been grateful for her interest in him at a time when the British establishment refused to take him seriously" with the two agreeing on "building up stronger defenses against Soviet Russia" and both believing in outfacing "what Reagan would later call 'the evil empire'" in reference to the Soviet Union during a speech to the National Association of Evangelicals in March 1983. After Soviet fighters downed Korean Air Lines Flight 007 in September, which included Congressman Larry McDonald and 61 other Americans, Reagan expressed outrage towards the Soviet Union. The next day, reports suggested that the Soviets had fired on the plane by mistake. In spite of the harsh, discordant rhetoric, Reagan's administration continued discussions with the Soviet Union on START I. Although the Reagan administration agreed with the communist government in China to reduce the sale of arms to Taiwan in 1982, Reagan himself was the first president to reject containment and détente, and to put into practice the concept that the Soviet Union could be defeated rather than simply negotiated with. His covert aid to Afghan mujahideen forces through Pakistan against the Soviets has been given credit for assisting in ending the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. However, the United States was subjected to blowback in the form of the Taliban that opposed them in the war in Afghanistan. In his 1985 State of the Union Address, Reagan proclaimed, "Support for freedom fighters is self-defense". Through the Reagan Doctrine, his administration supported anti-communist movements that fought against groups backed by the Soviet Union in an effort to rollback Soviet-backed communist governments and reduce Soviet influence across the world. Critics have felt that the administration ignored the human rights violations in the countries they backed, including genocide in Guatemala and mass killings in Chad. Invasion of Grenada On October 19, 1983, Maurice Bishop was overthrown and murdered by one of his colleagues. Several days later, Reagan ordered American forces to invade Grenada. Reagan cited a regional threat posed by a Soviet-Cuban military build-up in the Caribbean nation and concern for the safety of hundreds of American medical students at St. George's University as adequate reasons to invade. Two days of fighting commenced, resulting in an American victory. While the invasion enjoyed public support in the United States, it was criticized internationally, with the United Nations General Assembly voting to censure the American government. Cannon later noted that throughout Reagan's 1984 presidential campaign, the invasion overshadowed the 1983 Beirut barracks bombings, which killed 241 Americans taking part in an international peacekeeping operation during the Lebanese Civil War. 1984 election Reagan announced his reelection campaign on January 29, 1984, declaring, "America is back and standing tall". In February, his administration reversed the unpopular decision to send the United States Marine Corps to Lebanon, thus eliminating a political liability for him. Reagan faced minimal opposition in the Republican primaries, and he and Bush accepted the nomination at the Dallas convention in August. In the general election, his campaign ran the commercial, "Morning in America". At a time when the American economy was already recovering, former vice president Walter Mondale was attacked by Reagan's campaign as a "tax-and-spend Democrat", while Mondale criticized the deficit, the SDI, and Reagan's civil rights policy. However, Reagan's age induced his campaign managers to minimize his public appearances. Mondale's campaign believed that Reagan's age and mental health were issues before the October presidential debates. Following Reagan's performance in the first debate where he struggled to recall statistics, his age was brought up by the media in negative fashion. Reagan's campaign changed his tactics for the second debate where he quipped, "I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience". This remark generated applause and laughter, even from Mondale. At that point, Broder suggested that age was no longer a liability for Reagan, and Mondale's campaign felt that "the election was over". In November, Reagan won a landslide reelection victory with 59 percent of the popular vote and 525 electoral votes from 49 states. Mondale won 41 percent of the popular vote and 13 electoral votes from the District of Columbia and his home state of Minnesota. Response to the AIDS epidemic The AIDS epidemic began to unfold in 1981, and AIDS was initially difficult to understand for physicians and the public. As the epidemic advanced, according to White House physician and later physician to the president, brigadier general John Hutton, Reagan thought of AIDS as though "it was the measles and would go away". The October 1985 death of the President's friend Rock Hudson affected Reagan's view; Reagan approached Hutton for more information on the disease. Still, between September 18, 1985, and February 4, 1986, Reagan did not mention AIDS in public. In 1986, Reagan asked C. Everett Koop to draw up a report on the AIDS issue. Koop angered many evangelical conservatives, both in and out of the Reagan administration, by stressing the importance of sex education including condom usage in schools. A year later, Reagan, who reportedly had not read the report, gave his first speech on the epidemic when 36,058 Americans had been diagnosed with AIDS, and 20,849 had died of it. Reagan called for increased testing (including routine testing for marriage applicants) and mandatory testing of select groups (including federal prisoners). Even after this speech, however, Reagan remained reluctant to publicly address AIDS. Scholars and AIDS activists have argued that the Reagan administration largely ignored the AIDS crisis. Randy Shilts and Michael Bronski said that AIDS research was chronically underfunded during Reagan's administration, and Bronski added that requests for more funding by doctors at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were routinely denied. In a September 1985 press conference (soon after Hollywood celebrity Rock Hudson had announced his AIDS diagnosis) Reagan called a government AIDS research program a "top priority", but also cited budgetary constraints. Between the fiscal years of 1984 and 1989, federal spending on AIDS totaled $5.6 billion. The Reagan administration proposed $2.8 billion during this time period, but pressure from congressional Democrats resulted in the larger amount. Addressing apartheid Popular opposition to apartheid increased during Reagan's first term in office and the Disinvestment from South Africa movement achieved critical mass after decades of growing momentum. Criticism of apartheid was particularly strong on college campuses and among mainline Protestant denominations. President Reagan was opposed to divestiture because he personally thought, as he wrote in a letter to Sammy Davis Jr., it "would hurt the very people we are trying to help and would leave us no contact within South Africa to try and bring influence to bear on the government". He also noted the fact that the "American-owned industries there employ more than 80,000 blacks" and that their employment practices were "very different from the normal South African customs". The Reagan administration developed constructive engagement with the South African government as a means of encouraging it to gradually move away from apartheid and to give up its nuclear weapons program. It was part of a larger initiative designed to foster peaceful economic development and political change throughout southern Africa. This policy, however, engendered much public criticism, and renewed calls for the imposition of stringent sanctions. In response, Reagan announced the imposition of new sanctions on the South African government, including an arms embargo in late 1985. These sanctions were seen as weak by anti-apartheid activists and as insufficient by the president's opponents in Congress. In 1986, Congress approved the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, which included tougher sanctions; Reagan's veto was overridden by Congress. Afterward, he remained opposed to apartheid and unsure of "how best to oppose it". Several European countries, as well as Japan, also imposed their sanctions on South Africa soon after. Libya bombing Contentious relations between Libya and the United States under President Reagan were revived in the West Berlin discotheque bombing that killed an American soldier and injured dozens of others on April 5, 1986. Stating that there was irrefutable evidence that Libya had a direct role in the bombing, Reagan authorized the use of force against the country. On April 14, the United States launched a series of airstrikes on ground targets in Libya. Thatcher allowed the United States Air Force to use Britain's air bases to launch the attack, on the justification that the United Kingdom was supporting America's right to self-defense under Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations. The attack was, according to Reagan, designed to halt Muammar Gaddafi's "ability to export terrorism", offering him "incentives and reasons to alter his criminal behavior". The attack was condemned by many countries; by an overwhelming vote, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution to condemn the attack and deem it a violation of the Charter and international law. Iran–Contra affair Reagan authorized William J. Casey to arm the Contras, fearing that Communists would take over Nicaragua if it remained under the leadership of the Sandinistas. Congress passed the 1982 Boland Amendment, prohibiting the CIA and United States Department of Defense from using their budgets to provide aid to the Contras. Still, the Reagan administration raised funds for the Contras from private donors and foreign governments. When Congress learned that the CIA had secretly placed naval mines in Nicaraguan harbors, Congress passed a second Boland Amendment that barred granting any assistance to the Contras. By mid-1985, Hezbollah began to take American hostages in Lebanon, holding seven of them in reaction to the United States' support of Israel. Reagan procured the release of seven American hostages held by Hezbollah by selling American arms to Iran, then engaged in the Iran–Iraq War, in hopes that Iran would pressure Hezbollah to release the hostages. The Reagan administration sold over 2,000 missiles to Iran without informing Congress; Hezbollah released four hostages but captured an additional six Americans. On Oliver North's initiative, the administration redirected the proceeds from the missile sales to the Contras. The transactions were exposed by Ash-Shiraa in early November 1986. Reagan initially denied any wrongdoing, but on November 25, he announced that John Poindexter and North had left the administration and that he would form the Tower Commission to investigate the transactions. A few weeks later, Reagan asked a panel of federal judges to appoint a special prosecutor who would conduct a separate investigation. The Tower Commission released a report in February 1987 confirming that the administration had traded arms for hostages and sent the proceeds of the weapons sales to the Contras. The report laid most of the blame on North, Poindexter, and Robert McFarlane, but it was also critical of Donald Regan and other White House staffers. Investigators did not find conclusive proof that Reagan had known about the aid provided to the Contras, but the report noted that Reagan had "created the conditions which made possible the crimes committed by others" and had "knowingly participated or acquiesced in covering up the scandal". The affair damaged the administration and raised questions about Reagan's competency and the wisdom of conservative policies. The administration's credibility was also badly damaged on the international stage as it had violated its own arms embargo on Iran. The USS Stark incident In the context of the Tanker War on May 17, 1987, an Iraqi fighter jet hit the USS Stark with two Exocet missiles, killing 37 sailors. Three days later, President Reagan declared a "policy of self-defence" would now be ordered, as he accepted Iraq's official apology: "Our ships are deployed in the Persian Gulf in order to protect U.S. interests and maintain free access and maintain freedom of navigation and access to the area's oil supplies. It is a vital mission, but our ships need to protect themselves and they will. [From now on] if aircraft approach any of our ships in a way that appears hostile, there is one order of battle. Defend yourselves. Defend American lives.. We're going to do what has to be done to keep the Persian Gulf open. It's international waters. No country there has a right to try and close it off and take it for itself. And the villain in the piece really is Iran. And so they're delighted with what has just happened." Soviet decline and thaw in relations Although the Soviets did not accelerate military spending in response to Reagan's military buildup, their enormous military expenses, in combination with collectivized agriculture and inefficient planned manufacturing, were a heavy burden for the Soviet economy. At the same time, the prices of oil, the primary source of Soviet export revenues, fell to one third of the previous level in 1985. These factors contributed to a stagnant economy during the tenure of Mikhail Gorbachev as Soviet leader. Reagan's foreign policy towards the Soviets wavered between brinkmanship and cooperation. Reagan appreciated Gorbachev's revolutionary change in the direction of the Soviet policy and shifted to diplomacy, intending to encourage him to pursue substantial arms agreements. They held four summit conferences between 1985 and 1988. Reagan believed that if he could persuade the Soviets to allow for more democracy and free speech, this would lead to reform and the end of communism. The critical summit was in Reykjavík in 1986, where they agreed to abolish all nuclear weapons. However, Gorbachev added the condition that SDI research must be confined to laboratories during the ten-year period when disarmament would take place. Reagan refused, stating that it was defensive only and that he would share the secrets with the Soviets, thus failing to reach a deal. In June 1987, Reagan addressed Gorbachev during a speech at the Berlin Wall, demanding that he "tear down this wall". The remark was ignored at the time, but after the wall fell in November 1989, it was retroactively recast as a soaring achievement. In December, Reagan and Gorbachev met again at the Washington Summit to sign the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, committing to the total abolition of their respective short-range and medium-range missile stockpiles. The treaty established an inspections regime designed to ensure that both parties honored the agreement. In May 1988, the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly voted in favor of ratifying the treaty, providing a major boost to Reagan's popularity in the aftermath of the Iran–Contra affair. A new era of trade and openness between the two powers commenced, and the United States and Soviet Union cooperated on international issues such as the Iran–Iraq War. Post-presidency (1989–2004) Upon leaving the presidency on January 20, 1989, at the age of 77, Reagan became the oldest president at the end of his tenure, surpassing Dwight D. Eisenhower who left office on January 20, 1961, at the age of 70. This distinction will eventually pass to incumbent president Joe Biden who is currently 81 years old. In retirement, Ronald and Nancy Reagan lived at 668 St. Cloud Road in Bel Air, in addition to Rancho del Cielo in Santa Barbara. He received multiple awards and honors in addition to generous payments for speaking engagements. In 1989 he supported repealing the Twenty-second Amendment's presidential term limits. In 1991, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library opened. Reagan also addressed the 1992 Republican National Convention "to inspire allegiance to the party regulars"; and favored a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget. Support for Brady Bill Reagan publicly favored the Brady Bill, drawing criticism from gun control opponents. In 1989, in his first public appearance after leaving office and shortly after a mass shooting at Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton, California, he stated: "I do not believe in taking away the right of the citizen to own guns for sporting, for hunting, and so forth, or for home defense. But I do believe that an AK-47, a machine gun, is not a sporting weapon or needed for the defense of the home". In March 1991, Reagan wrote an op-ed in the New York Times, titled: "Why I'm for the Brady Bill". In May 1994, Reagan, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter sent a letter to House members, urging them to support the controversial Federal Assault Weapons Ban. Alzheimer's disease His final public speech occurred on February 3, 1994, during a tribute to him in Washington, D.C.; his last major public appearance was at the funeral of Richard Nixon on April 27, 1994. In August 1994, Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, which he announced through a handwritten letter in November. There was speculation over how long he had demonstrated symptoms of mental degeneration, but lay observations that he suffered from Alzheimer's while still in office have been disputed by medical experts; his doctors said that he first began exhibiting overt symptoms of the illness in late 1992 or 1993. Over time, the disease destroyed Reagan's mental capacity. By 1997, he was reported to recognize few people other than his wife, though he continued to walk through parks and on beaches, play golf, and visit his office in nearby Century City. Eventually, his family decided that he would live in quiet semi-isolation with his wife. By the end of 2003, Reagan had lost his ability to speak and was mostly confined to his bed, no longer able to recognize any family members. Death and funeral Reagan died of pneumonia, complicated by Alzheimer's, at his home in Los Angeles, on June 5, 2004. President George W. Bush called Reagan's death "a sad hour in the life of America". His public funeral was held in the Washington National Cathedral, where eulogies were given by Margaret Thatcher, Brian Mulroney, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush. Other world leaders attended including Mikhail Gorbachev and Lech Wałęsa. Reagan was interred at his presidential library. Legacy Historical reputation In 2008, British historian M. J. Heale summarized that scholars had reached a broad consensus in which "Reagan rehabilitated conservatism, turned the country to the right, practiced a 'pragmatic conservatism' that balanced ideology with the constraints of government, revived faith in the presidency and American self-respect, and contributed to critically ending the Cold War", which ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Many conservative and liberal scholars have agreed that Reagan has been the most influential president since Roosevelt, leaving his imprint on American politics, diplomacy, culture, and economics through his effective communication of his conservative agenda and pragmatic compromising. During the initial years of Reagan's post-presidency, historical rankings placed his presidency in the twenties. Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, his presidency was often placed in the top ten. Many proponents, including his Cold War contemporaries, believe that his defense policies, economic policies, military policies, and hard-line rhetoric against the Soviet Union and communism, together with his summits with Gorbachev, played a significant part in ending the Cold War. Professor Jeffrey Knopf argues that while Reagan's practice of referring to the Soviet Union as "evil" probably made no difference to the Soviet leaders, it possibly gave encouragement to Eastern European citizens who opposed their communist regimes. President Truman's policy of containment is also regarded as a force behind the fall of the Soviet Union, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan undermined the Soviet system itself. Nevertheless, Melvyn P. Leffler called Reagan "Gorbachev's minor, yet indispensable partner, setting the framework for the dramatic changes that neither anticipated happening anytime soon". Critics, for example Paul Krugman, note Reagan's tenure as having begun a period of increased income inequality, sometimes called the "Great Divergence". Krugman also views Reagan as having initiated the ideology of the current-day Republican Party, which he feels is led by "radicals" who seek to "undo the twentieth century" gains in income equality and unionization. Others, such as Nixon's Secretary of Commerce Peter G. Peterson, also criticize what they feel was not just Reagan's fiscal irresponsibility, but also the ushering in of an era where tax cutting "became the GOP's core platform", with resulting deficits and GOP leaders (speciously in Peterson's opinion) arguing supply-side gains would enable the country to "grow" its way out of deficits. Reagan was known for storytelling and humor, which involved puns and self-deprecation. Reagan also often emphasized family values, despite being the first president to have been divorced. He showed the ability to comfort Americans during the aftermath of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. Reagan's ability to talk about substantive issues with understandable terms and to focus on mainstream American concerns earned him the laudatory moniker the "Great Communicator". He also earned the nickname "Teflon President" in that public perceptions of him were not substantially tarnished by the multitude of controversies that arose during his administration. Political influence Reagan led a new conservative movement, altering the political dynamic of the United States. Conservatism became the dominant ideology for Republicans, displacing the party's faction of liberals and moderates. In his time, men began voting more Republican, and women began voting more Democrat – a gender distinction that has persisted. He was supported by young voters, an allegiance that shifted many of them to the party. He attempted to appeal to black voters in 1980, but would receive the lowest black vote for a Republican presidential candidate at the time. Throughout Reagan's presidency, Republicans were unable to gain complete control of Congress. The period of American history most dominated by Reagan and his policies (particularly on taxes, welfare, defense, the federal judiciary, and the Cold War) is known as the Reagan era, which suggests that the "Reagan Revolution" had a lasting impact on the United States in domestic and foreign policy. The George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations are often treated as an extension of the era, as is the George W. Bush administration. Since 1988, Republican presidential candidates have invoked Reagan's policies and beliefs. Notes References Citations Works cited Books Chapters Journal articles External links Official sites Ronald Reagan Foundation and Presidential Library Ronald Reagan on whitehouse.gov Ronald Reagan in the Governors' Gallery of the California State Library The Ronald W. Reagan Society of Eureka College Archived February 19, 2020, at the Wayback Machine Media Appearances on C-SPAN "Life Portrait of Ronald Reagan", from American Presidents: Life Portraits, December 6, 1999 Ronald Reagan Oral Histories at Miller Center Ronald Reagan's timeline at PBS Reagan Library's channel on YouTube News coverage Ronald Reagan collected news and commentary at The New York Times Ronald Reagan from The Washington Post Ronald Reagan at CNN Ronald Reagan collected news and commentary at The Guardian Other Ronald Reagan at IMDb Ronald Reagan at the TCM Movie Database Works by or about Ronald Reagan at the Internet Archive Ronald Reagan at Miller Center

As of August 1, 2024, which NFL players were both league MVP and Super Bowl MVP in the same season?

Bart Starr (66), Terry Bradshaw (78), Joe Montana (89), Emmit Smith (93), Steve Young (94), Kurt Warner (99), and Patrick Mahomes (22).

Tabular reasoning

The Associated Press NFL Most Valuable Player Award is presented annually by the Associated Press (AP) to a player in the National Football League (NFL) deemed to have been the "most valuable" in that year's regular season. While there have been many selectors of NFL MVPs in the past, today the MVP award presented by the AP is considered the de facto official NFL MVP award and the most prestigious. Since 2011, the NFL has held the annual NFL Honors ceremony to recognize the winner of each year's AP MVP award, along with other AP awards, such as the AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year and AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year. The most recent AP NFL MVP is quarterback Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens. The AP has presented an award recognizing the NFL's top player since 1957. The award is voted upon by a panel of 50 sportswriters at the end of the regular season, before the playoffs, though the results are not announced to the public until the day before the Super Bowl. The sportswriters chosen regularly follow the NFL, and remain mostly consistent from year to year. They are chosen based on expertise and are independent of the league itself. Voters for the award have included Troy Aikman of Fox Sports; Cris Collinsworth and Tony Dungy of NBC Sports; and Herm Edwards of ESPN. Only two players in the history of the award have won it unanimously: New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in 2010 and Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson in 2019. Due to voters' tendency to favor offensive positions (mostly the quarterback and sometimes the running back), the award has been overwhelmingly dominated by offensive players; of the 57 undisputed winners, 54 played an offensive position: 38 quarterbacks and 16 running backs. Two defensive players have won the award: Alan Page in 1971 as a defensive tackle, and Lawrence Taylor as a linebacker in 1986. The sole special teams player to be named AP NFL MVP was Mark Moseley, who won as a placekicker in 1982. Thirteen awardees also won the Super Bowl (or NFL Championship Game prior to 1966) in the same season. However, this did not occur from 2000 to 2022. During that span, nine AP NFL MVPs have led their team to the Super Bowl and were defeated each time. This has led to tongue-in-cheek claims in recent years that there is a "curse" preventing the awardee's team from winning the Super Bowl. Six NFL franchises have not produced an MVP, the New York Jets (not counting Joe Namath's two AFL MVPs), Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars, Chicago/St. Louis/Phoenix/Arizona Cardinals, New Orleans Saints, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Green Bay Packers have the most overall winners with ten; if including disputed awards (see below), the Colts would be tied with ten. The Green Bay Packers also have the most unique winners with five players winning the award. Discrepancies The AP has presented an award recognizing the NFL's top player since the 1957 season, although the pre-1961 awardees are recognized in the Official NFL Record and Fact Book as winning the AP's "NFL Most Outstanding Player Award", and the 1962 winner was recognized as the AP's "Player of the Year". The AP considers 1961 to be the first year in which it presented a "Most Valuable Player" award. Thus there are numerous inconsistencies among sources regarding each of the first four awards, and whether or not the winners are included in the overall list of AP MVP winners at all. The discrepancies include 1958's winner being either Jim Brown or Gino Marchetti; the 1959 winner as Johnny Unitas or Charlie Conerly; and whether or not Norm Van Brocklin shared the award in 1960 with Joe Schmidt. MVP Super Bowl curse In recent years, if a player that won the MVP makes it to the Super Bowl, the MVP often loses the Super Bowl in the year they won the MVP. That includes, Kurt Warner in 2001, Rich Gannon in 2002, Shaun Alexander in 2005, Tom Brady in 2007, Peyton Manning in 2009 and 2013, Cam Newton in 2015, Matt Ryan in 2016, and Tom Brady in 2017. Eleven players have won the Super Bowl and MVP in the same season: Bart Starr in 1966, Terry Bradshaw in 1978, Mark Moseley in 1982, Lawrence Taylor in 1986, Joe Montana in 1989, Emmitt Smith in 1993, Steve Young in 1994, Brett Favre in 1996, Terrell Davis in 1998, Kurt Warner in 1999, and Patrick Mahomes in 2022. In these eleven cases, all but four regular season MVP winners were also the Super Bowl MVP for their respective games - with Moseley, Taylor, Favre, and Davis not completing the duplicate MVP year. 23 years later, Patrick Mahomes broke the MVP Super Bowl curse at Super Bowl LVII. Winners Multiple-time winners See also National Football League Most Valuable Player Award for an overview of similar awards from other organizations Associated Press NFL Offensive Player of the Year Award Associated Press NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award Associated Press NFL Coach of the Year Award Super Bowl Most Valuable Player Award Notes References General "AP NFL Most Valuable Player Winners". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Sports Reference. Archived from the original on January 3, 2024. Retrieved February 5, 2018. "Full list of NFL MVP winners". Sports Illustrated. February 2, 2016. Archived from the original on January 9, 2017. Retrieved February 1, 2017. Gellerman, Jacob; Drexler, Sam; Marini, Matt; Cocchiaro, Nicolas; Zerkel, Alex, eds. (2016). 2018 Official NFL Record and Fact Book (PDF). National Football League. pp. 522–523. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 15, 2021. Retrieved August 14, 2018. Citations

The Super Bowl Most Valuable Player Award, or Super Bowl MVP, is presented annually to the most valuable player of the Super Bowl, the National Football League's (NFL) championship game. The winner is chosen by a panel of 16 football writers and broadcasters, and, since Super Bowl XXXV in 2001, fans voting electronically. The media panel's ballots count for 80 percent of the vote tally, while the viewers' ballots make up the other 20 percent. The game's viewing audience can vote on the Internet or by using cellular phones; Media voters are asked to vote with about five minutes remaining in the game, but are allowed to change their mind when the game ends. They can nominate one player from each team, with instructions to count their vote for the player on the winning team. Voters cannot select an entire unit. The Super Bowl MVP has been awarded annually since the game's inception in 1967. Through 1989, the award was presented by SPORT magazine. Bart Starr was the MVP of the first two Super Bowls. Since 1990, the award has been presented by the NFL. At Super Bowl XXV, the league first awarded the Pete Rozelle Trophy, named after former NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, to the Super Bowl MVP. Ottis Anderson was the first to win the trophy. The most recent Super Bowl MVP, from Super Bowl LVIII, is Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Tom Brady is the only player to have won five Super Bowl MVP awards (four with the New England Patriots and one with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers); Joe Montana and Mahomes won three times and three other players—Bart Starr, Terry Bradshaw and Eli Manning—have won the award twice. Starr, Bradshaw, and Mahomes are the only ones to have won it in back-to-back years. The MVP has come from the winning team every year except 1971, when Dallas Cowboys linebacker Chuck Howley won the award despite the Cowboys' loss in Super Bowl V to the Baltimore Colts. Harvey Martin and Randy White were named co-MVPs of Super Bowl XII, the only time co-MVPs have been chosen. Including the Super Bowl XII co-MVPs, seven Cowboys players have won Super Bowl MVP awards, the most of any NFL team. Quarterbacks have earned the honor 33 times in 58 games (and 59 awards). From Super Bowl I to Super Bowl XLIX the Super Bowl MVP won a new car from General Motors as a part of their MVP award. However, since Hyundai became the official vehicle partner of the NFL from the 2015 NFL season onward no new car has been awarded to the Super Bowl MVP since Super Bowl 50. Winners By team By position Multiple winners See also List of Super Bowl starting quarterbacks List of Super Bowl champions List of Super Bowl head coaches List of Super Bowl officials List of NFL awards Notes References General 2009 ESPN Sports Almanac. New York City: ESPN Books. 2008. ISBN 978-0-345-51172-0. "Super Bowl History". NFL.com. Retrieved January 6, 2009. === Specific ===

Who was the wife of the founder of the city where the 2023 Tour De France started?

Violant of Castile

Multiple constraints

The 2023 Tour de France was the 110th edition of the Tour de France. It started in Bilbao, Spain, on 1 July and ended with the final stage at Champs-Élysées, Paris, on 23 July. Defending champion Jonas Vingegaard (Team Jumbo–Visma) won the general classification for the second year in a row. Two-time champion Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) finished in second place, with Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) finishing third. The race began in Bilbao in the Basque Country before returning to France. The first two weeks of the race was closely fought between Vingegaard and Pogačar, with just 10 seconds between the riders by the end of the second week. The decisive stages were the individual time trial on stage 16 where Vingegaard won by 1 minute 38 seconds ahead of Pogačar, and the subsequent stage in the Alps where Vingegaard extended his lead to over seven minutes. Vingegaard won the Tour for the second year running, putting him equal on Tour wins with his rival Pogačar. His winning margin of 7 minutes 29 seconds was the largest since 2014. The points classification was won by Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin–Deceuninck) for the first time. The mountains classification was won by Giulio Ciccone (Trek–Segafredo), the first Italian to achieve this feat since 1992. The young rider classification was won by Pogačar for the fourth year in a row, and the team of Team Jumbo–Visma won the team classification. Victor Campenaerts (Lotto–Dstny) was chosen as the most combative rider. The race was followed by the second edition of the Tour de France Femmes, which held its first stage on the final day of the men's Tour. Teams 22 teams took part in the race. All 18 UCI WorldTeams were automatically invited. They were joined by 4 UCI ProTeams: the two highest placed UCI ProTeams in 2022 (Lotto–Dstny and Team TotalEnergies), along with Uno-X Pro Cycling Team and Israel–Premier Tech who were selected by Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), the organisers of the Tour. The teams were announced on 4 January 2023. UCI WorldTeams UCI ProTeams Route and stages In January 2022, Amaury Sport Organisation announced that the Basque Country in Spain would host the Grand Départ, with the first stage in Bilbao. It was the second time that the Basque Country hosted the Tour's start, following the 1992 edition. In October 2022, the full route was announced by Christian Prudhomme. The race began in Bilbao, next to the Guggenheim Museum, before crossing into France on stage 3. After two stages in the Pyrenees, the Tour returned to the Puy de Dôme for the first time since 1988 at the end of the first week. After the first rest day, the race crossed over the Massif Central into the Alps, with stage 13 on Bastille Day ending with a summit finish on the Col du Grand Colombier. Another summit finish followed two stages later, this time at Saint-Gervais-les-Bains. Following the second rest day, stage 16 was the only individual time trial of the race, at 22.4 km (13.9 mi) in length. Stage 17 in the Alps featured the most amount of climbing, with over 5,000 m (16,000 ft) on the way to Courchevel. Two transitional stages led to the penultimate day, ending at Le Markstein in the Vosges, before a 500 km (310 mi) transfer for the ceremonial final stage in Paris. The first week of the Tour was described by French rider Romain Bardet (Team dsm–firmenich) as "most difficult [...] that ever existed", featuring a large number of high-mountain climbs and offering up the possibility of significant time differences between the general classification contenders. The route was considered to favour climbers, with one short, uphill time trial on stage 16. Pre-race favourites The 2023 Tour de France was generally expected to be a two-way fight between defending champion Jonas Vingegaard (Team Jumbo–Visma) and two-time winner Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates). Both had finished in first and second place respectively the year before, with the positions reversed in 2021. The pair had raced against one another early in the season at Paris–Nice, a race won by Pogačar, while Vingegaard finished third. Vingegaard's form then picked up as the season progressed. He won three stages and the overall classification at the Tour of the Basque Country in April. At the Critérium du Dauphiné, the most important preparation event for the Tour, he won two stages and won the general classification by the biggest margin since 1993. Pogačar meanwhile enjoyed a very successful spring campaign, winning the Tour of Flanders, the Amstel Gold Race, and La Flèche Wallonne. He also came fourth at Milan–San Remo and third at the E3 Saxo Classic. A crash and subsequent injury at Liège–Bastogne–Liège then interrupted his season. Behind Vingegaard and Pogačar, the best chances at overall victory were given to 2022 Giro d'Italia winner Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe). His best result in the run-up to the Tour was fourth overall at the Critérium du Dauphiné. Other riders named as possible favourites were Mikel Landa (Team Bahrain Victorious), Enric Mas (Movistar Team), David Gaudu (Groupama–FDJ), former Giro d'Italia winner Richard Carapaz (EF Education–EasyPost), Ben O'Connor (AG2R Citroën Team), and Romain Bardet (Team dsm–firmenich). Following his victory at the Tour de Suisse, the name of Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl–Trek) was also added to the list of potential favourites. Also named, albeit with even lower chances of victory, were Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates), his brother Simon Yates (Team Jayco–AlUla), Daniel Martínez, Tom Pidcock (both Ineos Grenadiers), and Giulio Ciccone (Trek–Segafredo). Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers), the winner of the 2019 Tour de France, was not given big chances to win overall, since he was still recovering from a life-threatening crash the year before, even though he performed well at the Critérium du Dauphiné. Four-time winner Chris Froome (Israel–Premier Tech), who had so far not managed to reach his previous form after a serious accident in 2019, was left off his team's Tour roster. The most notable absentees from the race were a quartet of general classification favourites and former Grand Tour winners who chose to prioritise the 2023 Giro d'Italia, which featured more time trial kilometres than the Tour in 2023, which suited some of these riders. Those four were eventual Giro winner Primož Roglič (Team Jumbo–Visma), 2018 Tour winner Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) and two who left the Giro through illness and injury when highly placed, 2020 Giro winner Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) and incumbent World Champion and Vuelta a España winner Remco Evenepoel (Soudal–Quick-Step). Several riders were seen as possible favourites for victories on stages ending in bunch sprints and therefore for the points classification, which is won based on points collected by high placings on individual stages and awards a green jersey. Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan Team) returned for his last Tour de France and was chasing the record for most stage wins by any rider, starting the Tour on an equal number of 34 with Eddy Merckx. A stage win at the Giro d'Italia proved that Cavendish was still a strong sprinter, even at the age of 38. Due to strong performances so far in the season, the best chances at multiple sprint stage wins were given to Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin–Deceuninck). Other favourites in this category included Dylan Groenewegen (Team Jayco–AlUla), and Fabio Jakobsen (Soudal–Quick-Step). Riders who could excel both in sprints and on more hilly terrain, and therefore would be candidates for the points classification as well, were defending green jersey winner Wout van Aert (Team Jumbo–Visma), former world champion Mads Pedersen (Lidl–Trek), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin–Deceuninck), and Biniam Girmay (Intermarché–Circus–Wanty). Race overview Grand Départ and Week One The first stage around Bilbao in the Basque Country saw a crash of several riders, which ultimately forced two pre-race favourites, Carapaz and Mas, to abandon. The race broke into several groups over the two final climbs of the day, with identical twins Simon and Adam Yates breaking away from a select group on the final ascent. The pair held their advantage to the finish, with Adam Yates taking the stage win and the first leader's yellow jersey ahead of his brother. Pogačar won the sprint in the group behind to finish third, and Neilson Powless (EF Education–EasyPost) took the lead in the mountains classification. Stage 2 featured the climb of the Jaizkibel, prominently used in the race Clásica de San Sebastián later in the season. On the climb, a select group of favourites emerged ahead of the peloton, with Pogačar taking eight bonus seconds available at the summit ahead of Vingegaard. Victor Lafay (Cofidis) broke clear of the leading group within the final kilometre of the stage and managed to keep his advantage to win the stage ahead of van Aert, while Yates retained the yellow jersey. Jasper Philipsen won the following two, relatively flat, stages from bunch sprints. On stage 3 into Bayonne, he came in ahead of Phil Bauhaus (Team Bahrain Victorious), following a strong lead-out by teammate Mathieu van der Poel. Yates remained in the leader's jersey while Powless collected more points for the mountains classification as part of the breakaway. Philipsen then won ahead of Caleb Ewan (Lotto–Dstny) and Bauhaus at the finish of stage 4, which ended at the Circuit Paul Armagnac in Nogaro. The final part of the stage was marred by several crashes, including Fabio Jakobsen, while Yates retained the yellow jersey for another day. Following two hard opening days and with the high mountains of the Pyrenees to come the day after, the field was taking a slow tempo during stage 4, with no breakaway forming until 100 km (62 mi) into the race. This led to criticism, with some, such as stage winner Philipsen, describing it as "the most boring Tour de France stage for a long time". On stage 5, the first mountain stage in the Pyrenees, a 36-man breakaway containing multiple pre-race favourites including Jai Hindley escaped from the bunch and established a stable advantage. The maximum lead of the group over the field was four minutes and was still at 2:30 minutes as it began the ascent of the final climb of the day, the Col de Marie-Blanque. Hindley dropped the remaining breakaway riders and rode alone over the top of the climb and into the finish in Laruns to win the stage, taking the lead in the general classification. Felix Gall (AG2R Citroën Team) had gained enough points during the stage to go into the lead of the mountains classification. Behind in the group of favourites, Vingegaard attacked 1.5 km (0.93 mi) from the summit of the Marie-Blanque and managed to distance Pogačar. Catching up to several breakaway riders, Vingegaard finished fifth on the day, 34 seconds behind Hindley. Pogačar opted to wait for distanced teammate Adam Yates to try to limit his losses, but eventually arrived at the finish 1:04 minutes behind Vingegaard, dropping to sixth place overall. With him came in other favourites such as Gaudu, Martinez, Rodriguez, and the Yates brothers. Meanwhile, Ben O'Connor and Romain Bardet lost 1:57 minutes to Hindley. On stage 6, Vingegaard employed similar tactics to stage 5, outdistancing Hindley, but was unable to answer Pogačar's attack 3 km (1.9 mi) from the finish line; Pogačar won the stage and narrowed Vingegaard's general-classification lead over him to 25 seconds, while Vingegaard took the yellow jersey and second place on the stage. The seventh stage, another flat stage ending in a bunch sprint, was won by Philipsen again, narrowly beating Mark Cavendish, whose bicycle gears slipped within metres of the finish line, slowing his momentum. Stage 8 put an end to Cavendish's attempt to break the record for most stage wins, as an injury sustained in a crash forced him to abandon the Tour; the stage was won in a sprint by Mads Pedersen. In stage 9, a 14-man breakaway emerged early; late in the stage, Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar Team) broke away from the breakaway and led the race alone for most of the last 47 km (29 mi) before being overtaken in the last 500 m (550 yd) by Michael Woods (Israel–Premier Tech), who won the stage at the top of the Puy de Dôme. Vingegaard retained the yellow jersey, but lost time to Pogačar, who crossed the finish line eight seconds ahead of him. Week Two After the first rest day, stage 10 had a chaotic beginning, with many groups of riders—at one point including Vingegaard and Pogačar—attempting to break away before being caught by the peloton; a stable breakaway emerged around the halfway point of the stage. Krists Neilands attacked the breakaway group and was solo leader for much of the last section of the stage, but was eventually caught by other breakaway riders including Pello Bilbao, who went on to win the stage. Bilbao dedicated his victory to his late teammate Gino Mäder, who had died after a crash in the Tour de Suisse the previous month. Jasper Philipsen took his fourth stage-win of the Tour in a sprint on the eleventh stage to Moulins. In the twelfth stage, Ion Izagirre of the Cofidis team came in first after he escaped solo in the last 30 km (19 mi) towards Belleville en Beaujolais. Michał Kwiatkowski won stage 13 after breaking away on his own 11 km (6.8 mi) from the finish at the top of the Grand Colombier. Pogačar cut Vingegaard's lead to nine seconds. In the fourteenth stage, an early 13-rider crash led race officials to suspend the stage for 30 minutes and caused several riders to abandon the Tour. On the climb to the Col de Joux Plane, Pogačar and Vingegaard led the stage. Pogačar attacked about 2 km (1.2 mi) from the top of the climb, but Vingegaard recovered and caught up with him; Pogačar's next attack was obstructed by media motorcycles crowding the road. Carlos Rodríguez caught Vingegaard and Pogačar during the final descent and went on to win the stage, moving one second ahead of Jai Hindley into third place overall. Wout Poels soloed to victory in stage 15 after he broke away 11 km (6.8 mi) from the finish line on the penultimate climb of the Côtes des Amerands. It was his first Tour de France stage win after years as a super-domestique. Week Three The third week began with a time trial of 22.4 km between Passy and Combloux in which Pogačar aimed to reverse the 10 second lead of Vingegaard, but the latter won stage 16 decisively and widened his lead to 1 minute and 48 seconds. Pogačar came in second, over a minute ahead of Vingegaard's teammate van Aert, while Adam Yates moved into third place in the general classification, ahead of Rodriguez. On stage 17, which was a mountainous one, a fierce counter-attack from Pogačar was expected. However, Pogačar needed assistance from his teammate Marc Soler in the climb towards the Col de la Loze and lost further time to Vingegaard, who widened the lead to more than seven minutes in a stage won by Gall. Kasper Asgreen held off the competition to win the eighteenth stage, which entered the Rhone valley. Meanwhile, van Aert left the race to be with his wife, who was about to give birth. On stage 19, Matej Mohorič won by the width of a rim to beat Asgreen in a photo finish in Poligny. After winning the stage, Mohorič, during an emotional interview on the difficulty of professional cycling, paid tribute to his late teammate Gino Mäder, who died in a crash at in the Tour de Suisse in June. In the twentieth stage, Thibaut Pinot, in his last Tour before retirement, attacked the breakaway and was solo leader at the top of the Petit Ballon, which was lined by thousands of fans cheering him on. He was overtaken and dropped by the race leaders on the ascent to the Col du Platzerwasel, and Pogačar won the stage ahead of Gall and his tour rival Vingegaard. In the same stage, the Italian Giulio Ciccone sealed the victory for the mountain classification. He is the first Italian to achieve this feat since Claudio Chiappucci in 1992. The final stage was traditionally calm and the Belgian Jordi Meeus won just ahead of his compatriot Philipsen, Groenewegen, and Pedersen. Philipsen won the green jersey of the points classification for the first time in his career. Vingegaard crossed the finish line at the Champs-Élysées arm in arm with his teammates, finishing 7:29 minutes ahead of Pogačar and 10:56 minutes ahead of Adam Yates to win the Tour de France for the second straight year. His winning margin of 7 minutes 29 seconds was the largest since 2014. Vingegaard's Team Jumbo–Visma won the teams classification. Victor Campenaerts was chosen as the most combative rider. Runner up Pogačar won the white jersey of the young rider classification for the fourth year in a row. Classification leadership Classification standings General classification References External links Official website

Bilbao is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the province of Biscay and in the Basque Country as a whole. It is also the largest city proper in northern Spain. Bilbao is the tenth largest city in Spain, with a population of more than 347,000 as of 2023. The Bilbao metropolitan area has 1,037,847 inhabitants, making it the most populous metropolitan area in northern Spain; with a population of 875,552, the comarca of Greater Bilbao is the fifth-largest urban area in Spain. Bilbao is also the main urban area in what is defined as the Greater Basque region. Bilbao is located in the north-central part of Spain, some 16 kilometres (10 mi) south of the Bay of Biscay, where the economic social development is located, where the estuary of Bilbao is formed. Its main urban core is surrounded by two small mountain ranges with an average elevation of 400 metres (1,300 ft). Its climate is shaped by the Bay of Biscay low-pressure systems and mild air, moderating summer temperatures by Iberian standards, with low sunshine and high rainfall. The annual temperature range is low for its latitude. After its foundation in the late 13th century by Diego López V de Haro, head of the powerful Haro family, Bilbao was one of the commercial hubs of the Basque Country that enjoyed significant importance in the Crown of Castile. This was due to its thriving port activity based on the export of wool and iron commodities extracted from the Biscayan quarries to all over Europe. Throughout the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, Bilbao experienced heavy industrialisation, making it the centre of the second-most industrialised region of Spain, behind Barcelona. At the same time an extraordinary population explosion prompted the annexation of several adjacent municipalities. Nowadays, Bilbao is a vigorous service city that is experiencing an ongoing social, economic, and aesthetic revitalisation process, started by the iconic Bilbao Guggenheim Museum, and continued by infrastructure investments, such as the airport terminal, the rapid transit system, the tram line, the Azkuna Zentroa, and the currently under development Abandoibarra and Zorrozaurre renewal projects. Bilbao is also home to football team Athletic Club, a significant symbol for Basque nationalism due to its promotion of only Basque players and being one of the most successful clubs in Spanish football history. On 19 May 2010, the city of Bilbao was recognised with the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize, awarded by the city state of Singapore. Considered the Nobel Prize for urbanism, it was handed out on 29 June 2010. On 7 January 2013, its mayor, Iñaki Azkuna, received the 2012 World Mayor Prize awarded every two years by the British foundation The City Mayors Foundation, in recognition of the urban transformation experienced by the Biscayan capital since the 1990s. On 8 November 2017, Bilbao was chosen the Best European City 2018 at The Urbanism Awards 2018, awarded by the international organisation The Academy of Urbanism. Toponymy and symbols The official name of the town is Bilbao, as known in most languages of the world. Euskaltzaindia, the official regulatory institution of the Basque language, has agreed that between the two possible names existing in Basque, Bilbao and Bilbo, the historical name is Bilbo, while Bilbao is the official name. Although the term Bilbo does not appear in old documents, in the play The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare, there is a reference to swords presumably made of Biscayan iron which he calls "bilboes", suggesting that it is a word used since at least the sixteenth century. There is no consensus among historians about the origin of the name. Generally accepted accounts state that prior to the 12th century, the independent rulers of the territory, named Lords of Zubialdea, were also known as Lords of Bilbao la Vieja ("Old Bilbao"). The symbols of their patrimony are the tower and church used in the shield of Bilbao to this day. One possible origin was suggested by the engineer Evaristo de Churruca. He said that it was a Basque custom to name a place after its location. For Bilbao this would be the result of the union of the Basque words for river and cove: Bil-Ibaia-Bao. The historian José Tussel Gómez argues that it is just a natural evolution of the Spanish words bello vado, beautiful ford. On the other hand, according to the writer Esteban Calle Iturrino, the name derives from the two settlements that existed on both banks of the estuary, rather than from the estuary itself. The first, where the present Casco Viejo is located, would be called billa, which means stacking in Basque, after the configuration of the buildings. The second, on the left bank, where now Bilbao La Vieja is located, would be called vaho, Spanish for mist or steam. From the union of these two derives the name Bilbao, which was also written as Bilvao and Biluao, as documented in its municipal charter. An -ao ending is also present in nearby Sestao and Ugao, that could be explained from Basque aho, "mouth". Demonym The demonym is bilbaíno, -a", although the popular pronunciation bilbaino/a (sic) is also frequent. In Basque, it is bilbotar, which is sometimes also used in Spanish, generally within the Basque Country. The village is affectionately known by its inhabitants as the botxo meaning "hole", since it is surrounded by mountains. The nickname botxero is derived from this nickname. Another nickname that Bilbao receives is that of chimbos, which comes from birds that were hunted in large numbers in these places during the 19th century. The titles, the flag and the coat of arms are Bilbao's traditional symbols and belong to its historic patrimony, being used in formal acts, for the identification and decoration of specific places or for the validation of documents. Titles Bilbao holds the historic category of township (villa), with the titles of "Very noble and very loyal and unbeaten" (Muy Noble y Muy Leal e Invicta). It was the Catholic Monarchs who awarded the title "Noble Town" (Noble Villa) on 20 September 1475. Philip III of Spain, via a letter in 1603 awarded the town the titles of "Very noble and very loyal". After the siege of Bilbao, during the First Carlist War, on 25 December 1836, the title of "Unbeaten" was added. Coat of arms The coat of arms is emblazoned as follows: In a silver field a bridge with two eyes, added to the church of San Antón of its colour and to its sinister two sable wolves walking and in stick, on waves of azure and silver.It has its origins in the 14th century and has remained with the same symbols since then, although its presentation has been adapted according to the destiny of the coat of arms. The durability of this shield is due to the representativeness of the symbols that appear. The navigable estuary and the stone bridge, prior to the founding of the town. The wolves, typical of the coat of arms of the founder of the town in 1300, Diego López de Haro, son of Diego Lope Díaz de Haro (Lope comes from the Latin Lupus (wolf)) were added by the town council to represent the founder. Later, the fortress or castle that guarded the bridge was added and, when it was demolished in 1366, it was replaced by the temple of San Antón that was built in its place and inaugurated in 1433. Flag The flag that represents the city is white with a red block, in a ratio of three parts long by two wide. The colours red and white are the historical ones of the villa. The Royal Order of 30 July 1845 determined the maritime password for the population. This was defined as a white flag with an upper red die next to the pod. The die should be square and the length of its side should equal half of the pod. Previously, at least since 1511, the banner that the Bilbao Consulate was wearing was white with a red Cross of Burgundy. The relationship of the town with the mercantile and marine activities was always very strong coming to share headquarters. In 1603 the new consistorial house is inaugurated and in it the headquarters of the city council and of the referred one Bilbao Consulate are located. The intimate relationship made the flag of the Consulate was related as a flag of the town by citizenship. The definition of the maritime flag in 1845 was assumed by the population, who accepted it as their own, and so did the city council. At the inauguration of the Bilbao-Miranda de Ebro railway line, it was already used as a symbol of the town's representation, being permanently adopted in 1895 although no resolution has been adopted for this purpose. Although it has always been assumed by the municipal institution and citizenship, at the beginning of the 20th century it was discussed in a municipal plenary session about the determination of a flag for the town. There was talk about "the use of the crimson colour of the Lordship of Biscay, or of the cross of Saint Andrew" but without reaching any resolution to the effect. History Prehistory Remains of an ancient settlement were found on the top of Mount Malmasín, dating from around the 3rd or 2nd century BC. Burial sites were also found on mounts Avril and Artxanda, dated 6,000 years old. Some authors identify the old settlement of Bilbao as Amanun Portus, cited by Pliny the Elder, or with Flaviobriga, by Ptolemy. Medieval Bilbao Ancient walls, which date from around the 11th century, have been discovered below the Church of San Antón. Bilbao was one of the first towns founded in the fourteenth century, during a period in which approximately three-quarters of the Biscayan cities were developed, among them Portugalete in 1323, Ondarroa in 1327, Lekeitio in 1335, and Mungia and Larrabetzu in 1376. Diego López V de Haro, then third Lord of Biscay, founded Bilbao through a municipal charter dated in Valladolid on 15 June 1300 and confirmed by King Ferdinand IV of Castile in Burgos, on 4 January 1301. Diego López established the new town on the right bank of the Nervión river, on the grounds of the elizate of Begoña and granted it the fuero of Logroño, a compilation of rights and privileges that would prove fundamental to its later development. In 1310 María Díaz I de Haro, niece of Diego López V and Lady of Biscay, grants a new municipal charter to the city, which extends its commercial privileges even further, transforming the city in a mandatory stop for all the trade coming from Castile towards the sea. This second charter established that the road from Orduña to Bermeo, at the time the most important trade route in the lordship, had to traverse the San Antón Bridge in Bilbao instead of the pass in Etxebarri, as it did until then. This strengthened the position of Bilbao as a trading post, in detriment of Bermeo, city which until then had acted as the main port of the territory. In addition, Bilbao was granted exclusive rights to all trade between the city and Las Arenas. In 1372, John I of Castile strengthened even more the city's position by naming Bilbao a free port and granting it special privileges concerning the trade of iron. This caused Bilbao to become an important port, particularly due to its trade with Flanders and Great Britain. In 1443 the Church of Saint Anthony the Great was enshrined, having been built in the place of an old alcázar. Still today the church is one of the oldest extant buildings of the city. On 5 September 1483, the Queen Isabella I of Castile traveled to Bilbao to swear fealty to the fueros of Biscay. Her husband, Ferdinand II of Aragon had already done so in 1476 in Gernika. Modern age On 21 June 1511, Queen Joanna of Castile ordered the creation of the Consulate of the Sea of Bilbao. This would become the most influential institution of the borough for centuries, and would claim jurisdiction over the estuary, improving its infrastructure. Under the Consulate's control, the port of Bilbao became one of the most important of the kingdom. The first printing-press was brought to the town in 1577. Here in 1596, the first book in the Basque language was edited, entitled Doctrina Christiana en Romance y Bascuence by Dr. Betolaza. In 1602 Bilbao was made the capital of Biscay, a title previously held by Bermeo. Around 1631, the city was the scenario of a series of revolts against the increased taxation on salt, which had been ordered by the Crown, an event locally known as the "Machinada of the salt". The revolt ended with the execution of several of its leaders. The city had seen a continuous increase of its wealth, especially after the discovery of extensive iron deposits in the surrounding mountains, and by the end of the century it managed to overcome the economic crises that affected the rest of the kingdom, thanks in part to the increased trading of wool (which now used the port of Bilbao instead of the one in Santander), and to the iron ore and its commerce with England and the Netherlands. Contemporary Bilbao Napoleonic invasion and Carlist wars The French invasion of Spain saw the occupation of several Basque cities, but Bilbao was not among them. The first open uprising against Napoleonic rule took place on 6 August 1808, a month after the Battle of Bailén. French troops sieged and sacked the city, alongside the neighbouring towns of Deusto and Begoña on 16 August. Beginning in February 1810, the city was under the command of Pierre Thouvenot, general of the French army and Baron of the Empire, who had become the head of the Military Government of Vizcaya, which included the three Basque provinces. Thouvenot intended to move forward with the plan of total annexation of the Basque provinces into France, but the Peninsular War and ultimately the Battle of Vitoria made those plans impossible. The Basque Country was one of the main sites of battles during the First Carlist War, a civil war between supporters of the Spanish regent Maria Christina, known as liberals, and those of the late king's brother Carlos of Borbón, known as Carlists. The Carlists were particularly focused on capturing Bilbao, a liberal and economic bastion in northern Spain. The Carlist general Tomás de Zumalacárregui tried to take the city during the siege of Bilbao of 1835, but he was wounded during a battle near Begoña and died some time after in the town of Zegama. The next year, the city resisted a second siege during which the liberal general Baldomero Espartero defeated the Carlists in the Battle of Luchana. The city was untouched by the Second Carlist War, which took place mostly in Catalonia, but was again an important scenario during the Third Carlist War; in April 1874 the city suffered a third siege which lasted two months. Despite the warfare, Bilbao prospered during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when it rose as the economic centre of the Basque Country. It was during this time that the railway first arrived to the city and the Bank of Bilbao (which later would go on to become the BBVA) was founded, as well as the Bilbao Stock Exchange. Steelmaking industries flourished with the creation of many new factories, including the Santa Ana de Bolueta and the Altos Hornos de Vizcaya in 1902. The city was modernised with new avenues and walkways, as well as with new modern buildings such as the City Hall building, the Basurto Hospital and the Arriaga Theatre. The population increased dramatically, from 11,000 in 1880 to 80,000 in 1900. Social movements also arose, notably Basque nationalism under Sabino Arana, which in the subsequent decades would grow to become the Basque Nationalist Party. Civil war and Francoist dictatorship The Spanish Civil War in Bilbao started with a number of small uprisings suppressed by the Republican forces. On 31 August 1936, the city suffered its first bombing, with a series of air bombs dropped by Nationalist airplanes. In September, the Nationalists distributed pamphlets threatening further bombing if the city did not give up, which finally took place on 25 September when German planes, in coordination with Francoist forces, dropped at least a hundred bombs on the city. In May 1937, the Nationalist army besieged the town. The battle lasted until 19 June of that year, when Lieutenant Colonel Putz was ordered to destroy all bridges over the estuary, and the troops of the 5th Brigade took the borough from the mountains Malmasin, Pagasarri, and Arnotegi. With the war over, Bilbao returned to its industrial development, accompanied by steady population growth. In the 1940s, the city was rebuilt, starting with the bridges and by 1948, the first commercial flight took off from the local airport. Over the next decade, there was a revival of the iron industry, which became a strategic industrial sector in Spain, as a consequence of the economic model promoted by Francoism. The city received migrants from other Spanish regions looking to work in the iron industry. The demand for housing outstripped supply, and workers built slums on the hillsides. It was in this context that the first social movements arose and the strike of the Euskalduna shipyard in 1947 was the first one to take place during the Francoist dictatorship. In this environment of social repression, on 31 July 1959 the separatist organisation ETA was created from Basque nationalist movements. During the 1960s the city was the scenario of several urban projects, with the creation of new neighbourhoods like Otxarkoaga and the motorway to the French border. In June 1968 the University of Bilbao, the first public university, was established. It would later be integrated into the University of the Basque Country. Democracy and urban renewal After the end of Francoist Spain and the establishment of a constitutional monarchy, in a process known in Spain as the transition, Bilbao was able to hold democratic elections again. This time Basque nationalists rose to power. With the approval of the Statute of Autonomy of the Basque Country in 1979, Vitoria-Gasteiz was elected the seat of the government and therefore the de facto capital of the Basque Autonomous Community, although Bilbao was larger and more powerful economically. In the 1980s, several factors such as labour demands and the arrival of cheap labour from abroad led to a devastating industrial crisis. On 26 August 1983 during the celebration of the local festivities known as Aste Nagusia, the estuary overflowed up to five metres in some areas due to the continuous raining, killing two people and causing important destructions in the city's infrastructure, with a total economic cost that reached 60,000 million pesetas (around €360 million) Since the mid-1990s, Bilbao has been in a process of deindustrialization and transition to a service economy, supported by investment in infrastructure and urban renewal, starting with the opening of the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum (the so-called Guggenheim effect), and continuing with the Euskalduna Conference Centre and Concert Hall, Santiago Calatrava's Zubizuri, the metro network by Norman Foster, the tram, the Iberdrola Tower and the Zorrozaurre development plan, among others. Many officially supported associations such as Bilbao Metrópoli-30 and Bilbao Ría 2000 were created to monitor these projects. Geography Location Bilbao is located near the northern edge of the Iberian Peninsula, about 16 kilometres (10 mi) from the Bay of Biscay. It covers an area of 40.65 square kilometres (15.70 sq mi), of which 17.35 square kilometres (6.70 sq mi) are urban and the remaining 23.30 square kilometres (9.00 sq mi) consist of the surrounding mountains. The official average altitude is 19 metres (62 ft), although there are measurements between 6 metres (20 ft) and 32 metres (105 ft). It is also the core of the comarca of Greater Bilbao. It is surrounded by the municipalities of Derio, Etxebarri, Galdakao, Loiu, Sondika, and Zamudio to the north; Arrigorriaga and Basauri to the west; Alonsotegi to the south; and Barakaldo and Erandio to the east. Bilbao is located on the Basque threshold, the range between the larger Cantabrian Mountains and the Pyrenees. The soil is predominantly composed of mesozoic materials (limestone, sandstone, and marl) sedimented over a primitive paleozoic base. The relief of the province is dominated by NW-SE and WNW-ESE oriented folds. The main fold is the anticline of Bilbao which runs from the municipality of Elorrio to Galdames. Inside Bilbao there are two secondary folds, one in the northeast, composed of Mounts Artxanda, Avril, Banderas, Pikota, San Bernabé, and Cabras; and other in the south, composed of Mounts Kobetas, Restaleku, Pagasarri and Arraiz. The highest point in the municipality is Mount Ganeta, of 689 metres (2,260 ft), followed by Mount Pagasarri, of 673 metres (2,208 ft), both on the border with Alonsotegi. Hydrology The main river system of Bilbao is also the hydrological artery of Biscay. The rivers Nervión and Ibaizabal converge in Basauri and form an estuary named variously "estuary of Bilbao", "of the Nervión", "of the Ibaizabal", or "of the Nervión-Ibaizabal". The estuary runs for 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) and with a low flow (with an average of 25 m3 (883 cu ft) per second). Its main tributary is the river Cadagua, which rises in the Mena valley and has a basin of 642 square kilometres (248 sq mi), mostly lying in the neighbouring province of Burgos. This river is also the natural border between Bilbao and Barakaldo. The river has frequently suffered from human intervention, as seen in the dredging of its bottom, the building of docks on both banks and especially in the Deusto canal, an artificial waterway dug between 1950 and 1968 in the district of Deusto as a lateral canal, with the aim of facilitating navigation, sparing ships from the natural curves of the estuary. The project was stopped with 400 metres (1,300 ft) left to complete, and it was decided to leave it as a dock. However, in 2007, a plan was approved to continue the canal and form the island of Zorrozaurre. This human intervention has also brought negative results in the quality of the water, after decades of toxic waste dumping causing a situation of anoxia (lack of oxygen), which almost eliminated the entire fauna and flora. However, in recent years this situation is being reversed, thanks to a dumping ban and natural regeneration. now it is possible to observe algae, tonguefishes, crabs, and seabirds, as well as occasional bathers in the summer months. The estuary is also a natural border for several neighbourhoods and districts within the borough. Entering the municipality from the west it separates the districts of Begoña and Ibaiondo, then Abando and Uribarri and lastly Deusto and Basurto-Zorroza. Climate Its proximity to the Bay of Biscay gives Bilbao an oceanic climate (Cfb), with precipitation occurring throughout the year and without a well-defined dry summer. Precipitation is abundant, and given the latitude and atmospheric dynamics, rainy days represent 45% and cloudy days 40% of the annual total. The rainiest season is between October and April, November being the wettest. Snow is not frequent in Bilbao, although it is possible to see snow on the top of the surrounding mountains. Sleet is more frequent, about 10 days per year, mainly in the winter months. Bilbao is nearest to the subtropical boundary of all the Atlantic coastal cities in the country with an August daily mean of 20.9 °C (69.6 °F). There is also a drying trend in summer with only around 50 millimetres (2.0 in) of rainfall in July – but not dry enough to be considered Mediterranean. The proximity of the ocean also means that the two best defined seasons (summer and winter) remain mild, with low intensity thermal oscillations. Average maximum temperatures vary between 25 and 26 °C (77.0 and 78.8 °F) in the summer months, while the average minimum in winter is between 6 and 7 °C (42.8 and 44.6 °F). Extreme record observations in Bilbao are 42.9 °C (109.2 °F) maximum (on 11 August 2024) and −8.6 °C (16.5 °F) minimum (on 3 February 1963). The maximum precipitation in a day was 225.6 mm (9 in) on 26 August 1983 when severe flooding was caused by the Nervión river. Demographics According to the Basque Statistics Office, the population of Bilbao is 342,397 people as of 2017, distributed on a land area of 40.59 km2 (16 sq mi), making Bilbao the largest city by population of the Basque Autonomous Community and of the Basque Country as a whole. Bilbao makes the main component of the Bilbao metropolitan area, with a population of 1,037,847 people. The first credible data on the population of Bilbao are post-1550. It is known that in 1530 Biscay had approximately 65,000 inhabitants, a number that could have been reduced by plagues that struck the city in 1517, 1530, 1564–68, and 1597–1601, the last being especially devastating. This trend for periodic reverses in population growth was maintained until the nineteenth century. Since then, Bilbao has experienced an exponential growth in population thanks to industrialisation. After a peak of 433,115 inhabitants in 1982, the municipalities of the Txorierri valley were removed from Bilbao, with the corresponding loss of their population. Spanish is the most spoken language in the city, followed by the vernacular Basque language. According to the city government of Bilbao, at least 51% of the population can speak "some Basque", while 29% consider themselves to be fluent. Migration Out of the 355,731 people residing in Bilbao in 2009, only 114,220 (32.1%) were born inside the municipality. Of the remainder, 114,908 were born in other Biscayan towns, while 9,545 were born in the other two Basque provinces; 85,789 came from the rest of Spain (mainly Castile-León and Galicia), and 33,537 were foreigners. There are 127 different nationalities registered in Bilbao, although 60 of them represent fewer than 10 people each. The largest foreign communities are Bolivians and Colombians, with 4,879 and 3,730 respectively. Other nationalities with more than 1,000 inhabitants are Romanians (2,248), Moroccans (2,058), Ecuadorians (1,832), Chinese (1,390), Brazilians (1,273) and Paraguayans, with 1,204. Government The city of Bilbao is the capital of the province of Biscay and as such it is home of the administrative entities that pertain to the provincial administration, both from the autonomous and central governments. Settled in the city are the provincial delegations of the different departments of the Basque autonomous government, each coordinated by a representative. In addition, the Government of Spain has the official Government Subdelegation in the city. Municipal government Bilbao is a municipality and has a mayor-council government system. The municipal government is elected for four-year terms by universal suffrage and it is divided into two branches, executive and legislative. The legislative side consists of a municipal plenum composed of 29 councillors. These councillors represent the different political parties elected in the local elections, for which can vote all residents registered in the city who are citizens of Spain or of any member state of the European Union. The executive branch is composed of the mayor and a board of governors. The number of members of the board cannot be more than a third the number of members of the legislative plenum and the mayor can appoint them at his or her own discretion. Since 1892 the seat of the government has been the Bilbao City Hall, located on the centric Ernesto Erkoreka Plaza and by the Estuary of Bilbao. It is the fourth city hall building to have been used since the year 1300. The first three city halls were located by the San Antón Church but were destroyed due to floodings. The current building was designed by the Spanish architect Joaquín Rucoba in Baroque style and was built in the former site of the San Agustín Monastery, which was destroyed during the First Carlist War. Since the Spanish transition to democracy, the city has been governed by the Basque Nationalist Party, often with support of the Socialist Party of the Basque Country. Iñaki Azkuna served as mayor from 1999 until his passing in 2014, when he was replaced by Ibon Areso. Azkuna was awarded the World Mayor prize in 2012. Since the 2019 municipal election, the councillors of the plenum have the following political distribution: 14 seats for the Basque Nationalist Party, 5 seats for the Socialist Party of the Basque Country, 4 seats for the EH Bildu coalition, 3 seats for Udalberri and 3 seats for the People's Party. The mayor is Juan Mari Aburto, chosen with 19 votes from the Basque Nationalist Party and the Socialist party. In 2008 and 2010, Bilbao won the Municipal Transparency Prize, awarded by the Spanish division of Transparency International. In 2009 it came second, after Sant Cugat del Vallés. Districts The municipality is divided into eight districts (Basque: barrutia) which are further subdivided into 34 neighbourhoods (Basque: auzoa). Most of the districts and neighbourhoods were former independent municipalities and elizates that were eventually annexed into the city. Originally, the city of Bilbao comprised the Old Town and some houses on the left side of the estuary, today known as Bilbao la Vieja. The first expansion included the annexation of the elizate of Begoña and the river side of Uribarri. In the 19th century the merge of Abando into the city brought along small neighbourhoods of farm houses and hamlets that were clustered close to the former municipality's town hall and the Mount Cobetas, such as Errekalde and Basurto. Starting in the 20th century it started annexing the elizates on the right bank of the river, including Begoña and Deusto. In the decade of 1960 as an effort to stop the increasing problem of slums, new neighbourhoods were created from the ground up, among them Otxarkoaga and Txurdinaga, which were joined together as a new district, Otxarkoaga-Txurdinaga in the decade of 1990. Economy The Bilbao metropolitan area comprises about 47% of the total population of the Basque autonomous community, out of which a 15% is registered in the municipality of Bilbao. The comarca of Greater Bilbao, in which the city occupies a central position, has a GDP per capita of €30,860, higher than the Spanish and European Union averages. The Bilbao metropolitan area has a nominal GDP amounting to $36,9 billion. Bilbao has been the economic centre of the Basque autonomous community since the original establishment of the Consulate of the Sea in the city in the 16th century, mostly thanks to the commerce in Castilian products on the town's port. It was in the 19th century when the city experimented its biggest economic development, mainly based on the exploitation of the nearby iron mines and siderurgy, both of which promoted maritime traffic and port activity and eventually the development of a very important shipbuilding industry. Banking Banking became an important sector with the establishment of the Bank of Bilbao (Spanish: Banco de Bilbao) in 1857 and the Bank of Biscay (Spanish: Banco de Vizcaya) in 1901. These two entities merged in 1988 creating the BBV, which finally merged with Argentaria bank in 1999, creating the current multinational corporation, the BBVA. The savings banks that were established locally, the Municipal Savings Bank of Bilbao (Spanish: Caja de Ahorros Municipal de Bilbao) in 1907 and the Provincial Savings Bank of Biscay (Spanish: Caja de Ahorros Provincial de Vizcaya) in 1921, would merge in 1990 to form the Bilbao Bizkaia Kutxa (BBK), which would merge again in 2012 with other Basque financial entities (Kutxa and Caja Vital Kutxa) to form Kutxabank. There is also the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Navigation of Bilbao and the Stock Exchange Market of Bilbao, founded in 1890. Port The historical port was located in what is today an area called the Arenal, a few steps from the old city, until the late 19th century. In 1902, an exterior port was built at the mouth of the estuary, in the coastal municipality of Santurtzi. Further extensions to the outer port, which became called "the super-port", led to the final move of the city portuary facilities in the 1970s, finally replacing the docks in the centre of the city, with the exception of those located in the neighbourhood of Zorrotza, still active. The port of Bilbao is a first-class commercial port and is among the top five of Spain. Over 200 regular maritime services link Bilbao with 500 ports worldwide. At the close of 2009 cargo movements amounted to 31.6 million tonnes, Russia, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and the Nordic countries being the main markets. In the first semester of 2008, it received over 67,000 passengers and 2,770 ships. This activity contributed €419 million to the Basque GDP and maintains almost 10,000 jobs. Mining and ironworks Iron is the main and most abundant raw material found in Biscay, and its extraction has been legally regulated since 1526. Mining was the main primary activity in Bilbao and the minerals, of great quality, were exported to all over Europe. It was not until the second half of the nineteenth century that an ironworks industry was developed, benefiting from the resources and the city's good communication links. In the 20th century, both Spanish and European capitals imported around 90% of the iron from Biscay. Although World War I made Bilbao one of the main ironworks powers, a subsequent crisis prompted a decline in the activity. Tourism The first notion of Bilbao as a tourist destination came with the inauguration of the railway between Bilbao and the coastal neighbourhood of Las Arenas, in the municipality of Getxo in 1872. The connection made Bilbao a minor beach destination. The real tourist surge though would come much later with the inauguration of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in 1997. Thereafter tourist arrivals registered a continued upward trend, reaching over 932,000 visitors in 2018. The trend was exponential considering that in 1995, Bilbao only counted 25,000 tourists. Bilbao also hosts 31% of the total Basque Country visitors, being the top destination of this autonomous community, outranking San Sebastián. The majority of tourists are domestic visitors, coming from Madrid and Catalonia. International travellers are predominantly French, crossing the border just to the east. The others arrive from the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy. Tourism generates about €300 million yearly for the Biscayan GDP. Bilbao also draws business tourism, having been equipped with facilities like the Euskalduna Conference Centre and Concert Hall, and the Bilbao Exhibition Centre, in nearby Barakaldo. Stock exchange Plans to create a stock exchange market in Bilbao began in the early 19th century, even though it would not be realized until 21 July 1890. Bilbao's institution is one of the country's four regional stock exchanges, joining Barcelona, Madrid, and Valencia as Spain's commercial centres. It is owned by Bolsas y Mercados Españoles. Cityscape Urban planning In its beginnings, Bilbao only had three streets (Somera, Artecalle, and Tendería) surrounded by walls located where Ronda street now stands. Inside this enclosure, there was a small hermitage dedicated to the Apostle Saint James (the current St. James' Cathedral), which pilgrims visited on their way to Santiago de Compostela. In the fifteenth century, four more streets were built, forming the original Zazpikaleak or "Seven Streets". In 1571, after several floods and a major fire in 1569, the walls were demolished in order to allow the expansion of the town. In 1861, engineer Amado Lázaro projected an ensanche inside the then-municipality of Abando with wide avenues and regular buildings, that included the hygienists ideas of the time. The project was mostly based on Barcelona's Eixample, designed by Ildefons Cerdà. However, the project was dropped by the Bilbao City Council after considering it "utopian and excessive" because of its high cost, though of great quality. Furthermore, Lázaro had calculated the demographic growth of the town was based on the previous three centuries, a provision that eventually would not conform to reality. The next large urban change in Bilbao would come in 1876, when the capital annexed (in several stages) the neighbouring municipality of Abando. The new ensanche project was planned by a team made of architect Severino de Achúcarro and engineers Pablo de Alzola (elected Mayor that same year), and Ernesto de Hoffmeyer. Unlike Lázaro's, this project was significantly smaller, compassing 1.58 km2 (0.61 sq mi) against the original 2.54 km2 (0.98 sq mi). It also featured a not so strict grid pattern, a park to separate the industrial and residential areas and the Gran Vía de Don Diego López de Haro, the main thoroughfare, where many relevant buildings were located, such as the Biscay provincial government hall or the BBVA Tower. By the end of the 1890s, this widening was half completed and already filled, so a new extension was planned by Federico Ugalde. By 1925, the municipalities of Deusto and Begoña, as well as part of Erandio were annexed, and in 1940, the remaining part of Erandio became part of Bilbao. The last annexation took place in 1966, with the municipalities of Loiu, Sondika, Derio, and Zamudio. This made Bilbao larger than ever, with 107 km2 (41 sq mi). However, all these municipalities, with the exception of Deusto and Begoña regained their independence on 1 January 1983. On 18 May 2010, the government of Singapore awarded Bilbao the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize, at the World Cities Summit 2010. It is considered the Pritzker of urbanism. Architecture Bilbao's buildings display a variety of architectural styles, ranging from gothic, Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Neo-Gothic, and contemporary architecture. The Old Town features many of the oldest buildings in the city, as the St. James' Cathedral or the Church of San Antón, included in the borough's coat of arms. Most of the Old Town is a pedestrian zone during the day. Nearby is one of the most important religious temples of Biscay, the Basilica of Begoña, dedicated to the patron saint of the province, Our Lady of Begoña. Seventeen bridges span the banks of the estuary inside the town's boundaries. Among the most interesting ones are the Zubizuri (Basque for "white bridge"), a pedestrian footbridge designed by Santiago Calatrava opened in 1997, and the Princes of Spain Bridge, also known as "La Salve", a suspension bridge opened in 1972 and redesigned by French conceptual artist Daniel Buren in 2007. The Deusto Bridge is a bascule bridge opened in 1936 and modelled after the Michigan Avenue Bridge, in Chicago. Between 1890 and 1893 the first transporter bridge ("Puente Colgante") in the world on the Nervion river, between Portugalete and Getxo, was built by Alberto Palacio (architect and engineer) together with his brother Silvestre. Since the deindustrialization process started in the 1990s, many of the former industrial areas are being transformed into modern public and private spaces designed by several of the world's most renowned architects and artists. The main example is the Guggenheim Museum, located in what was an old dock and wood warehouse. The building, designed by Frank Gehry and inaugurated in October 1997, is considered among architecture experts as one of the most important structures of the last 30 years, and a masterpiece by itself. The museum houses part of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation modern art collection. Another example is the Azkuna Zentroa, a wine warehouse built in 1909 and completely redesigned in 2010 by French designer Philippe Starck into a multi-purpose venue that consists of a cinema multiplex, a fitness centre, a library, and a restaurant, among other spaces. The Abandoibarra area is also being renovated, and it features not only the Guggenheim Museum, but also Arata Isozaki's tower complex, the Euskalduna Conference Centre and Concert Hall and the Iberdrola Tower, designed by Argentine architect César Pelli which is, since its completion in 2011, the Basque Country's tallest skyscraper, 165 metres (541 ft) high. Zorrozaurre is the next area to be redeveloped, following a 2007 master plan designed by Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid. This peninsula was transformed into a 500,000 m2 (5,400,000 sq ft) island and will feature residential and commercial buildings, as well as the new BBK seat. Parks and gardens As of 2010, Bilbao has 18 public parks inside its limits, totalling 200 ha (490 acres) of green spaces. Furthermore its green belt has a total area of 1,025 ha (2,530 acres), of which 119 ha (290 acres) are urbanized. The largest parks are Mount Cobetas, of 18.5 ha (46 acres), and Larreagaburu, of 12 ha (30 acres), both located on the outskirts. The Doña Casilda Iturrizar Park is located in the district of Abando, near the town centre and covers an area of 8.5 ha (21 acres). It is named after a local benefactress who donated the grounds to the borough. It is an English-style garden designed by Ricardo Bastida and opened to the public in 1907. It features a dancing water fountain surrounded by a pergola, and a pond with many species of ducks, geese and swans, which gives the park the alternate name of "Ducks' Park", as known locally. In recent years, it was expanded to be connected with the Abandoibarra area. In Ibaiondo, the Etxeberria Park was built in the 1980s in the place where a steel mill previously stood. The original chimney was maintained as a homage of its industrial past. It covers an area of 18.9 ha (47 acres), on a sloped terrain that overlooks the Old Town. Other relevant public spaces inside the city include the Europa Park, the Miribilla Park, or the Memorial Walkway, a 3 km (1.9 mi) long walkway, with 12 m (39 ft) high lamps, located in the left bank of the estuary and that connects the main sights. Mount Artxanda is easily accessible from the town centre by a funicular. There is a recreational area at the summit, with restaurants, a sports complex and a balcony with panoramic views. In the south, Mount Pagasarri receives hundreds of hikers every weekend since the 1870s, who seek its natural wonders. Its environment is officially protected since 2007. Culture Bilbao was appointed a "City of Design" by UNESCO in 2014 and has been part of the Creative Cities Network since then. Theatres The main hall of the city is the Arriaga Theatre, reopened in 1985 as a municipal venue with a varied repertoire that includes dancing, opera, live music and theatre. Also very active are the Campos Elíseos Theatre and the Euskalduna Concert Hall. Other important venues include La Fundición, dedicated to contemporary dances and theatre; the Pabellón 6, the Sala BBK and the Azkuna Zentroa. Museums Bilbao has more than a dozen museums covering a range of fields including art, science, and sport, which have played a central role in Bilbao being named one of the most creative cities in the world. The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, part of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, was inaugurated on 19 October 1997 and is work of the Canadian architect Frank Gehry. The museum's permanent collection is centred in the visual arts of the second half of the 20th century and the present, with relevant artworks from Richard Serra and Jeff Koons, although including as well temporary exhibitions with a more varied nature, like Russian art or engravings from Albrecht Dürer. Another important museum is the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, first established in 1908 and housing a notable collection of Spanish and European work from the 12th century to present times. The collection from before the 20th century is centred mainly around Spanish and Flemish artists such as El Greco, Francisco de Zurbarán, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Francisco Goya and Anthony van Dyck. The museum also holds one of the best collections of Basque art, with works from the 19th century to present times. It has an eye-catching collection of Avant-garde art, from the Post-Impressionism of Paul Gauguin to Pop art and the expressionism of Francis Bacon. The Basque Museum showcases Basque archaeology and ethnography, and holds frequent exhibitions in the area of Basque history. The museum building itself is part of the heritage listing Conjunto histórico. The city also has several specialised museums, like the Maritime Museum Estuary of Bilbao (Bilboko Itsasadarra Itsas Museoa), located next to the Estuary of Bilbao, which holds ships and other collection related to the region's fishing and shipbuilding culture, being particularly relevant the Carola crane, last remaining element of the Euskalduna shipyard that existed where the museum now stands. Other relevant museums are the Biscayan Archeological Museum (Arkeologi Museoa) which holds important collections related to the region's prehistory, and the Diocesan Museum of Religious Art (Eleiz Museoa), both located in the Casco Viejo quarter. Music The Euskalduna Concert Hall is home to frequent musical performances and it is home of the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra (Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa) and the opera season programmed by the ABAO (Bilbao Association of Friends of the Opera). The Arriaga Theatre is frequently the host of numerous musical events, other notable stages include the Philharmonic Society of Bilbao (chamber music) and Bilborock (pop and rock music). The city hosts many different musical festivities, often funded by the city hall. Due to its scope, it is especially relevant the Bilbao BBK Live festival, which has been celebrated every year since 2006 and focuses on Basque, Spanish and international pop and rock music. Since the opening of the new San Mamés Stadium in 2013, it has been often used as an open-air concert venue, the first ever concert being one from the American band Guns N' Roses in 2017. Other relevant music festivals include the Bilbao Distrito Jazz and the Bilbao Ars Sacrum, the latter dedicated to religious music. Bilbao is the birthplace of famous composer Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga, who lived his formative years in the city before moving to Paris at age 15. Also native from Bilbao were the soprano singer Josefa Cruz de Gassier and Natividad Álvarez, nicknamed Nati, la bilbainita (Spanish for "Nati, the little one from Bilbao") a dancer and castanets player who achieved national fame in the early 20th century. Also relevant is the Bilbao Choir Society (Bilboko Koral Elkartea), established in 1866. Important musical bands coming from the city include rock band Fito & Fitipaldis, Basque folk band Oskorri and folk-pop band Mocedades. Bilbao hosted the 2018 MTV Europe Music Awards. Festivals and events Bilbao hosts several regular festivals and events. The most relevant is the Big Week of the city (Aste Nagusia), celebrated annually since 1978 and lasting nine days. It is the city's main festival, attracting over 1,500,000 people every year. The festivities begin on the first Saturday before 22 August, and during those nine days the city hall organises a series of cultural events of diverse kind, including concerts, stage plays, Basque rural sports and bullfighting, as well as nightly firework displays. The festivities begin with the chupinazo or txupinazo, which is the launch of a small rocket, and the reading of a proclamation by the festivities' herald. The central point of the festivities is the place around the txosnas, where the different konpartsak are reunited, organised by neighbourhood associations as well as cultural, social and political groups. The symbol of the festivities is Marijaia, a large doll which is burned during the last day of celebrations. Beyond the main festivities of the Aste Nagusia, the city also celebrates some minor festivities, many of them religious in nature, such as Saint Agatha on 5 February, the celebrations of Our Lady of Begoña on 11 October, the Day of Thomas the Apostle on 21 December and the Christmas festivities, centred around the figure of Olentzero. There are also festivities in the different neighbourhoods and districts which are celebrated locally, such as the Fiestas del Carmen in Santutxu and Indautxu, Fiestas Santiago in Bilbao la Vieja, Fiestas San Ignacio in San Inazio and Fiestas San Roque in Arxtanda and Larraskitu. The city also hosts the International Festival of Documentary and Short Film under the commercial name of Zinebi. It was first held in 1959 under the name International Festival of Ibero-American and Filipino Documentary Film of Bilbao, with the goal of being complementary to the San Sebastián International Film Festival. Since 1981 it is organised by the city hall and takes place in the Arriaga Theatre. Bilbao is also the host of the SAIL in Festival, a yearly event centred exclusively around sailing, which brings together international representatives of this sport. Cuisine Traditional Bilbao dishes are centred around products from the sea and the estuary, such as eels and cod. For the most part Bilbao shares its original gastronomy with that of the province of Biscay, including dishes such as bacalao al pil pil (cod fish cooked with olive oil, garlic and guindilla peppers), bacalao a la vizcaína (salted cod with Biscayan sauce, mostly made of choricero peppers and onions), merluza en salsa verde (hake fish with green sauce), chipirones en su tinta (squid served with its own ink), morros a la vizcaína (beef snouts with Biscayan sauce), revuelto de perretxikos (scrambled eggs with mushrooms) and desserts such as canutillos de Bilbao (puff pastries filled with custard or chocolate), Pantxineta (puff pastries filled with custard and almonds), rice cakes and bollos de mantequilla (butter buns). Bilbao, as other Basque cities, is known for a variety of appetizers and snacks, being prominent among them the pintxos, which are typically eaten in bars and that consist of small slices of bread on top of which is placed an ingredient or mixture of ingredients, generally of many different types and usually including elements typical of Basque cuisine. Other snacks include rabas (fried or battered calamari rings, usually served with lemon slices), Spanish omelette (omelette made with eggs and potatoes, sometimes including onions and peppers), txampis (stuffed mushrooms), triángulos (Bilbao-style sandwiches), gildas (one or more olives, a guindilla pepper and an anchovy joined together with a toothpick). As for beverages, typical from the region is the txakoli, a white wine usually drunk as an apéritif. Biscayan txakoli (Bizkaiko Txakolina) is a protected Denominación de origen for the white wine produced in the province of Biscay and it is usually served in Bilbao. Also typical are cider, patxaran (sloe-flavoured liqueur) and Rioja wine. There are many restaurants and bars who serve these dishes and beverages, especially around the Casco Viejo quarter. Txokos are also a very popular institution in Bilbao, as in other Basque cities and towns. Bilbao, and the province of Biscay as a whole, is one of the spanish cities with a greater number of recognized restaurants by the gastronomic guides, among them several Michelin-starred restaurants. Language The Spanish language is the most used language of the city, followed by the Basque language, which is vernacular to the region. The presence of Basque in the city is less prominent than in other municipalities of the region, such as Bermeo or Lekeitio. In 1986, the bilingual Basque-speaking population represented about 28% of the total. However, the number of Basque speakers has experienced a continuous increase since, reaching a figure of 37% in 2001. More than half of the Basque speakers were younger than 30 and lived in the districts of Deusto, Begoña and Abando. According to the data from the 2016 census, the population older than 2 years old registered in the municipality of Bilbao who speaks Basque fluently represents 29% of the total population, while those who can speak it with difficulty represent around 19.95% of the total. Finally, those who cannot speak or understand the language represent the remaining 51.06% of the census. Transport Roads and highways Bilbao is a relevant transport hub for northern Spain. Bilbao is connected to three major motorways and a series of minor roads of national and provincial level. The city lies on two international roads, the European route E70 that follows the coast of the Bay of Biscay and the cities of Santander and Gijón to the west and with Eibar, San Sebastián and Bordeaux to the east. The European route E80 connects the city with inner Spain to the south, including Burgos and Salamanca and continuing to Lisbon, and Toulouse to the north. The AP-68 motorway (European road E-804) starts in the city, joining with Vitoria-Gasteiz, Logroño and ending in Zaragoza. The city is connected with the regions of Cantabria, Asturias and Galicia via the A-8 motorway and with Durango, Eibar, San Sebastián and the French border via the AP-8 motorway, which is a toll road. The AP-68 toll motorway to the south is the main road connecting Bilbao with southern Spain and the Mediterranean coast, connecting in Miranda de Ebro with the A-1 to Madrid and in Zaragoza with the AP-2 to Barcelona. Minor roads passing through Bilbao or starting in the city itself include the national road N-634 which connects San Sebastián with Santiago de Compostela and runs parallel to the A-8 and AP-8 motorways. The regional road BI-631 connects Bilbao with Bermeo, while the BI-626 joins the city with Balmaseda. The city is circled by the BI-625 and N-637 roads, which form a half-ring to the east, and the N-634 and A-8 to the west. The city's main arteries the Gran Vía de Don Diego López de Haro, which crosses the financial and business district of Abando and connecting it with the Casco Viejo to the east and the San Mamés area to the west. The Sabino Arana Avenue and Juan Antonio Zunzunegui Avenue provide a direct route between the central districts and the motorways while Autonomía Street joins the southern districts on an east-west direction. The city has 14 bridges connecting opposite sides of the Estuary of Bilbao and the Kadagua river, including the La Salve and Euskalduna bridges, as well a series of tunnels under the Mount Artxanda. Airports Bilbao is served by the Bilbao Airport (BIO), the busiest terminal in the Basque Country and in the entire Northern coast, with more than 5.4 million passengers in 2018. It is located 12 km (7.46 mi) north of the borough, between the municipalities of Loiu and Sondika. 20 airlines operate in the terminal, including Iberia, Lufthansa, and TAP Portugal. Top destinations include London, Frankfurt, Munich, Madrid, Barcelona, Málaga, Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam. It opened to the public in September 1948, with a regular flight to Madrid. On 19 November 2000, a new terminal building was opened, designed by Valencian architect Santiago Calatrava. In February 2009, a project was approved to expand the current building to double its capacity. Although originally expected to be completed by 2014, the financial crisis and the decrease of passenger traffic delayed it to at least 2019. No work has begun as of 2018. Some low-cost airlines, such as Ryanair, also use the Vitoria Airport (VIT) located in Foronda located 59 km (37 mi) south of the city. Railways Long-distance rail lines connect Bilbao with Madrid, Barcelona and other destinations in northern Spain. The city has four railway stations: the Bilbao-Abando and Bilbao-Concordia railway stations are owned by Adif and operated by the Spanish railways Renfe, whereas the Bilbao-Atxuri and Zazpikaleak/Casco Viejo stations are owned by the Basque railway network ETS and operated by Euskotren, serving short-distance local destinations. The Bilbao-Abando station is the main railway station of the city, with Renfe running Iberian-gauge long-distance Alvia trains to Madrid and Barcelona, as well as Intercity services to Vigo with connections possible to A Coruña and Hendaye. During the summer there are special trains to Málaga. The city will be connected to the Basque Y high-speed train network around 2023, allowing for high speed AVE trains to operate between the Basque capitals and also to Madrid and other Spanish cities in the future. The arrival of the new high speed services will involve the creation of a completely new underground station that will replace the current infrastructure. The construction is expected to begin in 2020. Bilbao-Concordia station is located in close vicinity to Bilbao-Abando, and hosts the narrow-gauge railway services ran by Renfe under the Renfe Feve brand. Renfe runs frequent regional trains to the cities of Santander and León. Euskotren Trena runs regular services to Bermeo from the Bilbao-Atxuri station, while in the Zazpikaleak/Casco Viejo station there are regional services to Durango, Eibar and San Sebastián. Public transport Public transport by rail and bus is organised by the Bizkaiko Garraio Partzuergoa (Consortium of the Biscayan Transport). The consortium manages the Barik card, a form of electronic ticket valid across almost all public transport systems of the Bilbao metropolitan area and Biscay province, as well as some other selected services in other provinces of the Basque autonomous community. The mass transit rail system is divided into different networks managed by separate operators. Bilbao metro, established in 1995, operates two underground lines with some overground sections (Line 1 and Line 2). These two lines connect the metropolitan area following the estuary on both sides, starting in Etxebarri in the south all the way to Plentzia and Santurtzi by the coast. Line 1 was built following largely the same route as the Bilbao-Las Arenas railway, which was still active by the time the Metro system opened in 1995 and since has been replaced by it. The metro system stations were designed by Norman Foster. Line 3 of metro is operated by Euskotren Trena, which also operates the regional services to Durango and Eibar as well as a commuter rail line that connects the centre of Bilbao with Lezama and the Txorierri valley. This third line of metro was inaugurated on 8 April 2017 and is expected to be extended to the airport in the near future. Projects for a fourth and fifth line exist and are currently being studied. Euskotren also operates a tramway line under the brand Euskotren Tranbia. The line follows the estuary of Bilbao across the central districts of the city, starting in the Bilbao-Atxuri Station and connecting important areas like the Guggenheim museum and the San Mamés football stadium. The original tram network started operations in 1876 and gradually expanded across the city to finally shut down in the 1960s due to being largely replaced by urban buses. The new tram system was opened on 18 December 2002, almost forty years after the closing of the original system. Renfe operates four commuter-rail lines in a system separate from the metro. Three of them operate under the Cercanías brand and are collectively known as Cercanías Bilbao, while a fourth line is operated by Renfe Feve. The three lines operated under the Cercanías name operate largely overground and travel larger distances than the metro system, reaching municipalities outside of the metropolitan area such as Muskiz or even outside of the Biscay province, like Amurrio. The three lines all start in the Bilbao-Abando railway station, whereas the line operated by Renfe Feve starts in the Bilbao-Concordia station. The gaps in the railway service are covered by an extensive bus network. The urban bus system is operated under the brand Bilbobus and has 28 regular bus lines, 8 microbus lines and 8 night buses collectively known as Gautxori (night owl). The Bilbaobus network is limited to the city limits, and only a few lines extend beyond it. The BizkaiBus network fills this gap, with more than 100 lines, connecting the city with all other municipalities in the metropolitan area, as well as with most towns in Biscay and some in Álava. A Brittany Ferries ferry service links Santurtzi, near Bilbao, to Portsmouth (UK). MV Cap Finistère ferry departs from the port of Bilbao, 15 km (9 mi) north west of the town centre. A service operated by Acciona Trasmediterranea served the same route from 16 May 2006 until April 2007. P&O Ferries operated this route until its withdrawal on 28 September 2010 with a ship called the Pride of Bilbao. Public transportation statistics The average amount of time people spend commuting with public transit in Bilbao, for example to and from work, on a weekday is 35 minutes. Three percent of public transit passengers ride for more than 2 hours every day. The average amount of time people wait at a stop or station for public transit is 7 minutes, while 4% of riders wait for over 20 minutes on average every day. The average distance people usually ride in a single trip with public transit is 6.9 km (4.3 mi), while 10% travel more than 12 km (7.5 mi) in a single direction. Infrastructure Healthcare The public healthcare system is served and managed by the Basque healthcare system (Osakidetza), which has a network of medical centres established across the city. The most relevant hospital of the city is the Basurto Hospital, located in the Basurto-Zorroza district. It was opened in 1908 after ten years of construction, and it was built due to the fast increase of population in the late 19th century. Its design was based on the Eppendorf Hospital of Hamburg, in (Germany), one of the most modern at the time. In 2008 the hospital was named the best hospital in customer support in Spain. However, the two largest hospitals that provide healthcare services to the inhabitants of the city are located outside of the city limits: the University Hospital of Gurutzeta/Cruces in neighbouring Barakaldo and the Galdakao-Usansolo Hospital in Galdakao. Other minor public hospitals located in the city include the Santa Marina Hospital and the Hospital of Urduliz, located in the metropolitan area. Utilities The headquarters of Iberdrola, a multinational electric utility company are located in Bilbao. The company was created in 1992 after the merging of Iberduero and Hidroeléctrica Española and it is in charge of production and distribution of electricity. There are two thermal power stations located in the city's surroundings, one in Santurtzi and the other in Zierbena. The electricity produced in both these stations is then transferred to the electrical substation of Güeñes by the company Red Eléctrica de España, which is the company responsible of moving electricity from the production stations to the final consumers. There is a combined cycle power station in the municipality of Amorebieta called Bizkaia Energia, whose energy is transferred to the substation of Gatika. The supply of all oil-based fuels distributed in the whole metropolitan area (gasoline, diesel fuel and butane) are produced in the oil refinery owned by Petronor in the municipalities of Muskiz and Abanto Zierbena. Petronor is a large oil company founded in Bilbao in 1968 and it currently comprises two partners, Repsol (85.98%) and Kutxabank (14.02%). Supply of drinking water is managed by the Consorcio de Aguas Bilbao Bizkaia (Bilbao Bizkaia Water Consortium), a public entity with the responsibility of managing the water infrastructure and distribution to many Biscayan municipalities, Bilbao and its metropolitan area included. The supply of drinking water for the city comes from the Uribarri-Ganboa and Urrunaga reservoirs, which are fed by the river Zadorra. Education The Basque Country has a bilingual education system, with students able to choose between four linguistic models: A, B, D, and X, which differ in the prevalence of Basque or Spanish as the spoken and written language used in classes. In Bilbao, there is a prevalence of model D (where Basque is the vehicle language and Spanish is taught as a subject) in Primary School, while Compulsory Secondary Education students favour model B (where some subjects are in Basque and other in Spanish). Finally, 67% of Baccalaureate students choose model A (in which Spanish is the vehicle language and Basque is a subject). English is the most widespread foreign language taught, being the option for 97% of pre-university students. Higher education Two universities are seated in Bilbao. The older is the University of Deusto, founded by the Society of Jesus in 1886. It took its name from the then independent municipality of Deusto, annexed to Bilbao in 1925. It was the only higher education institute in the borough until the establishment in 1968 of the University of Bilbao, later to become the University of the Basque Country in 1980. This public university, which has a presence in the three provinces of the autonomous community, has its main Biscayan campus in the municipality of Leioa, although the Technical and Business faculties are based in Bilbao. Since 2014, Mondragon University has also a presence in the city through the innovation and entrepreneurial centre Bilbao Innovation Factory. In 2015, the offer of higher education in the city was expanded with the foundation of Dantzerti, the Higher School of Dramatic Arts and Dance of the Basque Country. Sport As in the rest of Spain, football is the most popular competitive sport, followed by basketball. Some people are interested in basque sports, one of the oldest sports in Spain. One could enjoy a Basque pelota match in Bizkaia Frontoia, Bilbao. In addition, Bilbao offers many outdoor activities owing to its location by the sea amid the hilly countryside. Hiking and rock climbing in the nearby mountains are very popular. Watersports, especially surfing, are practised on the beaches of nearby Sopelana and Mundaka. Clubs Football The main football club is Athletic Club, commonly known as Athletic Bilbao in English. It plays at the new San Mamés stadium, which opened in 2013 and seats 53,332 spectators. Athletic Bilbao was one of the founding members of the Spanish football league, La Liga, and has played in the Primera División (First Division) ever since – winning it on eight occasions. Its red and white striped flag can be seen throughout the city. Athletic is noted for its Basque policy, in place since 1911, with only players born in or having a clear connection to the Basque region being allowed to represent the club. Basketball The main basketball club is Bilbao Basket, which plays in the Spanish top division Liga ACB and their home venue is the Bilbao Arena. The main achievements of the clubs were being the runner-up of the Liga ACB during the 2010–2011 season, losing the final series 3–0 against FC Barcelona Bàsquet; as well as the runner-up of the EuroCup Basketball in the 2012–2013 edition, where they lost to the Russian team Lokomotiv Kuban. Main sights Notable people Joaquín Achúcarro (1932), pianist José Antonio Aguirre (1904–1960), football player, nationalist politician and first lehendakari of Basque Government Joaquín Almunia (1948), parliamentarian and minister of Spain and commissioner of the European Union Sabino Arana (1865–1903), politician and writer, Fundator of PNV Gabriel Aresti (1933–1975), promoter of poetry in euskara Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga (1806–1826), composer, violinist and orchestra conductor Pedro Arrupe (1907–1991), Jesuit priest, Superior General of the Jesuits between 1965 and 1983 Ramón Baglietto (1936–1980), politician Mariví Bilbao (1930–2013), actress Fito Cabrales (1966), singer, guitarist and composer Asier Etxeandia (1975), actor and singer Borja Fernández (born 1984), skater Diego de Gardoqui (1735–1798), politician and diplomat, first Spanish ambassador to the United States Ander Herrera (born 1989), professional footballer Álex de la Iglesia (1965), film director and scriptwriter Antonio Fernandez Saenz (1947), lawyer and human rights defender Asier Polo (1971), cellist Jon Kortajarena (1985), actor and international model Iñigo Lekue (born 1993), professional footballer Juan Martínez de Recalde (c. 1526–1588), admiral Rafael (Pichichi) Moreno (1892–1922), football player Anabel Ochoa (1955–2008), psychiatrist, communicologist, writer and actress of Los monólogos de la vagina Pedro Olea (1938), director, producer and film scriptwriter José Luis de Oriol (1877–1972), businessman, architect and Carlist politician Txus di Fellatio, Jesús María Hernández Gil (1970), lyricist, poet and Mägo de Oz folk metal drummer Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936), writer and philosopher Iñaki Williams (born 1994), professional footballer Secundino Zuazo (1887–1970), architect and urbanist Gorka Márquez (born 1990), Strictly Come Dancing professional dancer International relations Bilbao is twinned with: See also Abandoibarra Bilbao metropolitan area Greater Bilbao Lan Ekintza Bilbao Zorrotzaurre Notes References Bibliography External links Official website (in Basque and Spanish)

What was the military rank of the employer of the astronomer who discovered the globular cluster of stars called NGC 6441?

Major General was the rank of Thomas Brisbane.

Multiple constraints

NGC 6441, sometimes also known as the Silver Nugget Cluster, is a globular cluster in the southern constellation of Scorpius. It was discovered by the Scottish astronomer James Dunlop on May 13, 1826, who described it as "a small, well-defined rather bright nebula, about 20″ in diameter". The cluster is located 5 arc minutes east-northeast of the star G Scorpii, and is some 43,000 light-years from the Sun. This is one of the most massive and luminous globular clusters in the Milky Way, with an estimated 1.6 million solar masses of stars. It is located in the bulge of the galaxy at a distance of 13 kilolight-years (3.9 kpc) from the core, and is considered metal "rich". That is, it has a relatively high abundance of elements with higher mass than helium. The core region of the cluster subtends an angle of 0.11 arc minutes, compared to the half-mass radius of 0.64 arc minutes. The density of stars in the core region is indicated by the luminosity density: 5.25 L⊙ pc−3. The cluster has a half-light radius of 7.1 ly (2.18 pc). This cluster has an abnormally large number of RR Lyrae variables—68 candidates as of 2006, and their periods are longer than is typical for their respective metallicities. (The mean period for the cluster's RRab stars is 0.759 day.) There are also several type II Cepheid stars, which is unusual given the high metallicity of this cluster. Examination of the red giant branch section of the color-magnitude diagram suggests that there are at least two and possibly three distinct populations in the cluster. The brightest and higher temperature members of the red clump stars are more concentrated toward the center of the cluster. This group may be a helium-enriched second generation of stars. The cluster contains at least four millisecond pulsars, of which two are in binary systems. One of these binaries, PSR J1750−37A, is in a highly eccentric orbit with an eccentricity of 0.71. The cluster has an X-ray burster, X1746-370, which has the longest period known in any globular cluster and is consistent with the galaxy as a whole. Finally, there is a planetary nebula, JaFu 2, one of only four planetary nebulas known to inhabit globular clusters in the Milky Way. References External links Media related to NGC 6441 at Wikimedia Commons

James Dunlop FRSE (31 October 1793 – 22 September 1848) was a Scottish astronomer, noted for his work in Australia. He was employed by Sir Thomas Brisbane to work as astronomer's assistant at his private observatory, once located at Paramatta (now named Parramatta), New South Wales, about 23 kilometres (14 mi) west of Sydney during the 1820s and 1830s. Dunlop was mostly a visual observer, doing stellar astrometry work for Brisbane, and after its completion, then independently discovered and catalogued many new telescopic southern double stars and deep-sky objects. He later became the Superintendent of Paramatta Observatory when it was finally sold to the New South Wales Government. Early life James Dunlop was born in Dalry, Ayrshire, Scotland, the son of John Dunlop, a weaver, and his wife Janet, née Boyle. Dunlop was educated at a primary school in Dalry and went to work at a thread factory in Beith when he was 14. He also attended a night-school in Beith kept by a man named Gardiner. He became interested in astronomy at an early age and was constructing telescopes in 1810. By fortune in 1820, he made the acquaintance of the astronomically inclined Sir Thomas Brisbane. In the same year, Brisbane was appointed as the new Governor of New South Wales, who then decided to set up an astronomical observatory in the new Colony. Prior to leaving Britain, Dunlop was then appointed as his second scientific assistant, and both travelled to Sydney in 1821. Career in Australia Soon after arriving, Brisbane almost immediately started building his observatory at Paramatta (original spelling), now named Parramatta, and it was Dunlop who was employed to do the astrometric observations for a new accurate southern star catalogue. Also employed was the German born Carl Ludwig Christian Rümker (or sometimes as Charles Karl Ludwig Rümker) (28 May 1788 – 21 December 1862), or simply Karl Rümker, who had been recruited by Brisbane as first astronomical assistant. Rümker soon left the observatory in protest of his treatment during 1823, leaving Dunlop in charge of the astrometric measures and general maintenance of the astronomical instruments and the Observatory. Dunlop was not a professionally trained astronomer, so he importantly lacked the necessary mathematical skills to do astrometric reductions. He had soon learned the necessary observational skills from the more able Rümker and his employer. Between June 1823 and February 1826 Dunlop then made 40,000 observations and catalogued some 7,385 stars, of which included 166 double stars and references to several bright deep-sky objects near the bright stars he catalogued. By the beginning of March 1826, he left the Paramatta Observatory and continued working at his own home in Hunter Street, Paramatta. For there he began organising his own observations of double stars and deep-sky objects for the next 18 months, in which he constructed telescopes and other equipment for his dedicated southern sky survey. Sir Thomas Brisbane, before finally departing Sydney for the last time in December 1825, arranged to sell all of his instruments to the Government so the observatory could continue to function. Some of the equipment he gave to Dunlop, which he used at his home, especially the useful small equatorial mounted 8.0 centimetres (3.1 in) refracting telescope that Rümker, and later Dunlop, both used for doing the important double stars measures as their own personal projects. By May 1826, Rümker returned to the observatory, and seven months later he was appointed as the first New South Wales Government Astronomer, though this officially did not happen until a few years later, much to Rümker's disgust, due to delays from his employers in Britain. Back to Scotland Dunlop left Sydney for Scotland in February 1827 and was employed for four years at the observatory of Sir Thomas Brisbane. He had done very good work as an observer in New South Wales, and was associated with Rümker in the recovery of Comet Encke at Parramatta in June 1822. He was later to be the first in Great Britain to rediscover this comet on 26 October 1829. He had been awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society of London on 8 February 1828. Sir John Herschel, when making the presentation, spoke in the highest terms of the value of the work done by Dunlop in New South Wales. On arrival, he also reduced his southern double stars and deep-sky observations for publication, which was believed to have taken about one month, and these were published also in the first half of 1828. These two detailed astronomical papers were received with many accolades from his peers, which lasted until about 1834, when his observations were able to be scrutinised by John Herschel and Thomas Maclear in South Africa. Only then were the various flaws of his observations revealed, and the time spent in the zenith of popularly, then dwindled to fierce criticism and personal rejection especially from the British astronomical community. Return to Australia In April 1831, Dunlop was appointed superintendent of the Government observatory at Parramatta. He was selected mainly from his good knowledge of Colony and the observatory site, but the real reason for his selection was more because even though such an astronomical position was formally advertised, nobody applied for the astronomical tenure. Here he was to succeed Rümker with the reasonably good salary of £300 a year. He arrived at Sydney on 6 November 1831 and found the observatory in a deplorable condition; rain had entered the building, roofing plaster had fallen down, and many important records were destroyed. Dunlop succeeded in getting the building repaired and started on his work with energy, but around 1835 his health began to fail; he had no assistant, and the building, having been attacked by white ants, fell gradually into decay. In August 1847, he resigned his position, and went to live on his farm on Brisbane Waters, an arm of Broken Bay. He died on 22 September 1848. In 1816 Dunlop married his cousin Jean Service, who survived him. Dunlop was awarded medals for his work by the King of Denmark in 1833, and the Institut Royal de France in 1835. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1832, his proposer being Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane. Dunlop published scientific papers on his observations in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the Edinburgh Journal of Science, and the Transactions of the Royal Society between the years 1823 and 1839. Observations and discoveries in Australia Dunlop made several noteworthy discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere sky and in 1828 published A Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars in the Southern Hemisphere observed in New South Wales, which contains 629 objects. A little more than half the objects he discovered proved to be real, most being small nebulous objects being probably artificially created from the handmade reflecting telescope he had constructed himself. He found many new open star clusters, globular clusters, bright nebulae and planetary nebulae, most previously unknown to visual observers. His most famous discovery is likely the radio galaxy NGC 5128 or Centaurus A, a well-known starburst galaxy in the constellation of Centaurus. Dunlop's other major observational work was of 256 southern double stars or "pairs" below the declination of about 30° South. These were listed in Approximate Places of Double Stars in the Southern Hemisphere, observed at Paramatta in New South Wales, published in 1829. Many of these pairs were actual new discoveries, though the most northerly of them had been earlier discoveries made by other observers. These double star observations were all made roughly between December 1827 and December 1828, being observed through his homemade 9-foot 23 cm (9-inch) speculum Newtonian reflector, or by measuring the separated distances and position angles of selected double stars using the small 8.0 centimetres (3.1 in) equatorial mounted refracting telescope. Most of these pairs have proved to be uninteresting to astronomers, and many of the double stars selected were too wide for the indication of orbital motion as binary stars. It seems these observations were made when the atmospheric conditions were quite unsuitable for looking at deep sky objects, either being made under unsteady astronomical seeing or when the sky was illuminated by the bright moon. John Herschel immediately on arrival in South Africa in 1834 and 1835 re-observed all of the James Dunlop's double stars, but had troubles identifying them or finding significant differences in the measured positions of the stars. He first began with Alpha Crucis / Acrux, the brightest star in the constellation of Crux, also commonly known as the Southern Cross, then systematically searched for all the others. Herschel also was first to designate all the Dunlop double stars to begin with the Greek letter "Δ", which persists in many amateur observational references. Hence, bright southern doubles like p Eridani is known as Δ5, Gamma Crucis / Gacrux is Δ124, etc. Modern double star observers have since discarded this designation and prefer the observer abbreviation "DUN", as first adopted in the Washington Double Star Catalog (WDS) as maintained by the US Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. Hence, p Eridani is DUN 5, Gamma Crucis / Gacrux is DUN 124, etc. Death Dunlop died on 22 September 1848 at Boora Boora near Gosford in New South Wales. He is buried within the grounds of St. Paul's Anglican Church in Kincumber, New South Wales. Publications A catalogue of nebulae and clusters of stars in the southern hemisphere, observed at Parramatta in New South Wales. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Vol. 118, pp. 113–151, 1828. This catalogue with descriptions contains 629 southern deep-sky objects. He also discovered and catalogued 256 southern double stars in "Approximate Places of Double Stars in the Southern Hemisphere, observed at Paramatta in New South Wales.", which was published in the Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society Mem.Ast.Soc.London, Vol. 3, 257, 1829. Only five other astronomical papers were published by James Dunlop between 1829 and 1839, the most significant being on comets; "Places of Encke's comet, from 30 observations. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS)., Vol. 1, 120 (1829) and "Observation of a small comet at Paramatta. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS)., Vol. 1, 130 (1829) References Harley Wood, 'Dunlop, James (1793–1848)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1, Melbourne University Press, 1966, p. 338. Retrieved on 5 October 2008 Serle, Percival (1949). "Dunlop, James". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus & Robertson. Retrieved 5 October 2008. Service, John (1890). Thir Notandums, being the literary recreations of the Laird Canticarl of Mongrynen. A Biographical Sketch of James Dunlop, Esq. pp. 127–222. Edinburgh : Y. J. Pentland. External links Bright Sparcs Bio at University of Melbourne University of Arizona SEDS SPACETEC (Dunlop pictures)

Major General Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, 1st Baronet, (23 July 1773 – 27 January 1860), was a British Army officer, administrator, and astronomer. Upon the recommendation of the Duke of Wellington, with whom he had served, he was appointed governor of New South Wales from 1821 to 1825. A keen astronomer, he built the colony's second observatory and encouraged scientific and agricultural training. Rivals besmirched his reputation and the British Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Bathurst, recalled Brisbane and his colonial secretary Frederick Goulburn. Brisbane, a new convict settlement, was named in his honour and is now the 3rd largest city in Australia. Early life Brisbane was born at Brisbane House in Noddsdale, near Largs in Ayrshire, Scotland, the son of Sir Thomas Brisbane and his wife Eleanora (née Bruce). He was educated in astronomy and mathematics at the University of Edinburgh. He joined the British Army's 38th (1st Staffordshire) Regiment of Foot in 1789 and had a distinguished career in Flanders, the West Indies, Spain and North America. He served under the Duke of Wellington, and in 1813 he was promoted to major general. He saw much action during the Peninsular War, including leading a brigade in the 3rd Division that broke through at the Battle of Vitoria. He continued as a brigade commander in the War of 1812, where in 1814 he led a brigade at the Battle of Plattsburgh, which Brisbane claimed they could have won if they had been allowed to launch a full infantry attack. During the battle, he used the Charles C. Platt Homestead as his headquarters. For his services in the Peninsula, Brisbane received the Army Gold Cross with one clasp for the battles of Vitoria, the Pyrenees, Nivelle, Orthez, and Toulouse; and the silver war medal with one clasp for the Nive. In November 1819 he married Anna Maria Hay Makdougall of Makerstoun, Roxburghshire, Scotland. On his father-in-law's death, Brisbane assumed the additional surname, becoming Makdougall Brisbane. Governor In 1821, on the recommendation of Wellington, Brisbane was appointed Governor of New South Wales, a post he held until 1825. Brisbane took over the government on 1 December 1821, and at once proceeded to carry out some of the reforms recommended in the report of John Bigge. While Governor he tackled the many problems of a rapidly growing and expanding colony. He worked to improve the land grants system and to reform the currency. Brisbane's keen interest in science led him to accept the invitation to become the first President of the Philosophical Society of Australasia that later became the Royal Society of New South Wales. He also set up the first agricultural training college in New South Wales and was the first patron of the New South Wales Agricultural Society. He conducted experiments in growing tobacco, cotton, coffee and New Zealand flax in the colony. However, Brisbane did not always receive loyal support from his administrative officers, and in particular from Frederick Goulburn, the colonial secretary. A reference to Brisbane's dispatch to Earl Bathurst dated 14 May 1825 shows that Bigge's recommendations had been carefully considered, and that many improvements had been made. Brisbane did not limit his attention to Bigge's report. Early in April 1822, he discovered with some surprise the ease with which grants of land had hitherto been obtained. He immediately introduced a new system under which every grant had the stipulation that for every 100 acres (400,000 m2) granted the grantee would maintain free of expense to the crown one convict labourer. He also encouraged agriculture on government land, streamlined granting of tickets of leave and pardons and introduced, in 1823, a system of calling for supplies by tender. When Dr. Robert Wardell and William Wentworth brought out their paper the Australian in 1824, Brisbane tried the experiment of allowing full latitude of the freedom of the press. In 1823, Brisbane sent Lieutenant John Oxley to find a new site for convicts who were repeat offenders. Oxley discovered a large river flowing into Moreton Bay. A year later, the first convicts arrived at Moreton Bay. Brisbane visited the settlement in December 1824. Oxley suggested that both the river and the settlement be named after Brisbane. The convict settlement was declared a town in 1834 and opened to free settlement in 1839. Brisbane was doing useful work, but he could not escape the effects of the constant faction fights which also plagued previous governors. Henry G. Douglass, the assistant-surgeon, was the centre of one of the bitter conflicts. Consequently, charges of various kinds against Brisbane were sent to England. The worst of these, that he had connived at sending female convicts to Emu Plains for immoral purposes, was investigated by William Stewart, the lieutenant-governor, John Stephen, assistant judge, and the Rev. William Cowper, senior assistant-chaplain, and found to be without the slightest foundation. Brisbane discovered that Goulburn, the colonial secretary, had been withholding documents from him and answering some without reference to the governor, and in 1824 reported his conduct to Lord Bathurst. In reply, Bathurst recalled both the governor and the colonial secretary in dispatches dated 29 December 1824. Astronomer Brisbane was a keen astronomer throughout his career. He had an observatory built at his ancestral home in 1808. From this observatory he was able to contribute to the advances in navigation which took place over the next hundred years. He took telescopes, books and two astronomical assistants, Carl Ludwig Christian Rümker and James Dunlop to New South Wales with him. On arrival he had the first properly-equipped Australian observatory built at Parramatta while waiting for his predecessor, Governor Macquarie to complete his final arrangements. The Parramatta observatory recorded stars of the southern hemisphere, the first detailed observations from the continent. Its major contribution was Rümker's rediscovery of Encke's comet in 1822. Brisbane left his equipment and books in the colony when he returned to Scotland. Remnants of this collection survive in the Sydney Observatory. Later years Brisbane left Sydney in December 1825 and returned to Scotland. In 1826 he was made colonel of the 34th (Cumberland) Regiment of Foot. He added the name of Makdougall before Brisbane, and settled down to the life of a country gentleman and took interest in science, his estate, and his regiment. He was elected president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1832) following the death of Sir Walter Scott, and in 1836 he was created a baronet. In the same year he was offered the command of the troops stationed in Canada and two years later the chief command in India, but declined both. He continued his astronomical researches, and did valuable work. He was the first patron of science in Australia, and as such was eulogised by Sir John Herschel when he presented Brisbane with the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1828. Oxford and Cambridge universities gave him the honorary degree of DCL, and he was elected a fellow of the Royal Societies of both London and Edinburgh. He was created Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1814 and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in 1837. In 1828, he won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. He published The Brisbane Catalogue of 7,385 stars of the Southern Hemisphere in 1835. The Observatory was used until 1855. When Brisbane returned to Scotland he continued his studies and built a further observatory on his wife's estate, Makerstoun, near Kelso in the Borders. He was a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and received its Keith Medal in 1848. In 1833 he acted as president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He founded a gold medal for the encouragement of scientific research to be awarded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Brisbane died on 27 January 1860 in Largs. His four children predeceased him. He is buried in the Brisbane Aisle Vault, which is in the small kirkyard next to the remains of Largs Old Kirk (known as Skelmorlie Aisle). Legacy The following features are named after Thomas Brisbane: Brisbane, the Australian state of Queensland's largest city and capital. Brisbane River in Queensland, Australia. Brisbane, a crater on the Moon. Brisbane Street, Greenock Brisbane Street, Hobart, Tasmania Brisbane Street, Perth, Western Australia Brisbane Water, an estuary on the Central Coast of New South Wales. Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium, located in Brisbane, Queensland. Noddsdale, the glen near Largs where his birthplace Brisbane House was situated, was renamed Brisbane Glen in his honour. Isabella Plains, a suburb in Canberra, named in honour of Isabella Brisbane, a daughter of Sir Thomas. Brisbane House Hotel in Largs, a town located by the sea in North Ayrshire, Scotland. Thomas Makdougall Brisbane bridge in Largs Makdougall Brisbane prize of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Many other uses of Brisbane derive from the Australian city and hence are indirectly named after Thomas Brisbane. See also Historical Records of Australia Notes References Citations Sources Baynes, T. S., ed. (1878), "Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane" , Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 4 (9th ed.), New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, p. 347 Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911), "Brisbane, Sir Thomas Makdougall" , Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 4 (11th ed.), Cambridge University Press, p. 573 Heydon, J.D. (1966), "Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane (1773–1860)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. I, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, pp. 151–155 Mennell, Philip (1892), "General Sir Thos. Makdougall Brisbane", The Dictionary of Australasian Biography, London: Hutchinson & Co Serle, Percival (1949), "Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane", Dictionary of Australian Biography, Sydney: Angus & Robertson External links Thomas M. Brisbane papers, William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan. Colonial Secretary's papers 1822-1877, State Library of Queensland- includes digitised letters written by Brisbane to the Colonial Secretary of New South Wales

What is the average height of Mount Everest, Mount Thor, Mount Denali and The Matterhorn?

17382 ft.

Numerical reasoning

Denali (; also known as Mount McKinley, its former official name) is the highest mountain peak in North America, with a summit elevation of 20,310 feet (6,190 m) above sea level. It is the tallest mountain in the world from base-to-peak on land, measuring 18,000 ft (5,500 m), With a topographic prominence of 20,194 feet (6,155 m) and a topographic isolation (the distance to the nearest peak of equal or greater height) of 4,621.1 miles (7,436.9 km), Denali is the third most prominent and third-most isolated peak on Earth, after Mount Everest and Aconcagua. Located in the Alaska Range in the interior of the U.S. state of Alaska, Denali is the centerpiece of Denali National Park and Preserve. The Koyukon people who inhabit the area around the mountain have referred to the peak as "Denali" for centuries. In 1896, a gold prospector named it "Mount McKinley" in support of then-presidential candidate William McKinley, who later became the 25th president; McKinley's name was the official name recognized by the federal government of the United States from 1917 until 2015. In August 2015, 40 years after Alaska had done so, the United States Department of the Interior announced the change of the official name of the mountain to Denali. In 1903, James Wickersham recorded the first attempt at climbing Denali, which was unsuccessful. In 1906, Frederick Cook claimed the first ascent, but this ascent is unverified and its legitimacy questioned. The first verifiable ascent to Denali's summit was achieved on June 7, 1913, by climbers Hudson Stuck, Harry Karstens, Walter Harper, and Robert Tatum, who went by the South Summit. In 1951, Bradford Washburn pioneered the West Buttress route, considered to be the safest and easiest route, and therefore the most popular currently in use. On September 2, 2015, the U.S. Geological Survey measured the mountain at 20,310 feet (6,190 m) high, 10 ft lower than the 20,320 feet (6,194 m) measured in 1952 using photogrammetry. Geology and features Denali is a granitic pluton, mostly pink quartz monzonite, lifted by tectonic pressure from the subduction of the Pacific Plate beneath the North American Plate; at the same time, the sedimentary material above and around the mountain was stripped away by erosion. The forces that lifted Denali also caused many deep earthquakes in Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. The Pacific Plate is seismically active beneath Denali, a tectonic region that is known as the "McKinley cluster". Structural geology The high topography of Denali is related to the complex structural relationships created by the right-lateral Denali Fault and Denali Fault Bend. The Denali Fault is caused by stresses created by the low-angle subduction of the Yakutat microplate underneath Alaska. The Denali Fault Bend is characterized as a gentle restraining bend. The Denali Fault Bend represents a curvature in the Denali Fault that is approximately 75 km long. This curvature creates what is known as a "space problem." As the right-lateral movement along the Denali Fault continues, high compressional forces created at the fault bend essentially push the crust up in a vertical fashion. The longer the crust stays within the restraining bend, the higher the topography will be. Several active normal faults north of the restraining bend have recently been mapped with slip rates of approximately 2–6 mm/year. These normal faults help to accommodate the unusual curvature of the restraining bend. Elevation Denali has a summit elevation of 20,310 feet (6,190 m) above sea level, making it the highest peak in North America and the northernmost mountain above 19,685 feet (6,000 m) elevation in the world. Measured from base to peak at some 18,000 ft (5,500 m), it is among the largest mountains situated entirely above sea level. Denali rises from a sloping plain with elevations from 1,000 to 3,000 ft (300 to 910 m), for a base-to-peak height of 17,000 to 19,000 ft (5,000 to 6,000 m). By comparison, Mount Everest rises from the Tibetan Plateau at a much higher base elevation. Base elevations for Everest range from 13,800 ft (4,200 m) on the south side to 17,100 ft (5,200 m) on the Tibetan Plateau, for a base-to-peak height in the range of 12,000 to 15,300 ft (3,700 to 4,700 m). Denali's base-to-peak height is little more than half the 33,500 ft (10,200 m) of the volcano Mauna Kea, which lies mostly under water. Geography of the mountain Denali has two significant summits: the South Summit is the higher one, while the North Summit has an elevation of 19,470 ft (5,934 m) and a prominence of approximately 1,270 ft (387 m). The North Summit is sometimes counted as a separate peak (see e.g., fourteener) and sometimes not; it is rarely climbed, except by those doing routes on the north side of the massif. Five large glaciers flow off the slopes of the mountain. The Peters Glacier lies on the northwest side of the massif, while the Muldrow Glacier falls from its northeast slopes. Just to the east of the Muldrow, and abutting the eastern side of the massif, is the Traleika Glacier. The Ruth Glacier lies to the southeast of the mountain, and the Kahiltna Glacier leads up to the southwest side of the mountain. With a length of 44 mi (71 km), the Kahiltna Glacier is the longest glacier in the Alaska Range. Naming The Koyukon Athabaskans who inhabit the area around the mountain have for centuries referred to the peak as Dinale or Denali. The name is based on a Koyukon word for 'high' or 'tall'. During the Russian ownership of Alaska, the common name for the mountain was Bolshaya Gora (Russian: Большая Гора; bolshaya 'big'; gora 'mountain'), which is the Russian translation of Denali. It was briefly called Densmore's Mountain in the late 1880s and early 1890s after Frank Densmore, a gold prospector who was the first non-native Alaskan to reach the base of the mountain. In 1896, a gold prospector named it McKinley as political support for then-presidential candidate William McKinley, who became president the following year. The United States formally recognized the name Mount McKinley after President Wilson signed the Mount McKinley National Park Act of February 26, 1917. In 1965, Lyndon B. Johnson declared the north and south peaks of the mountain the "Churchill Peaks", in honor of British statesman Winston Churchill. The Alaska Board of Geographic Names changed the name of the mountain to Denali in 1975, which was how it is called locally. However, a request in 1975 from the Alaska state legislature to the United States Board on Geographic Names to do the same at the federal level was blocked by Ohio congressman Ralph Regula, whose district included McKinley's home town of Canton. On August 30, 2015, just ahead of a presidential visit to Alaska, the Barack Obama administration announced the name Denali would be restored in line with the Alaska Geographic Board's designation. U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell issued the order changing the name to Denali on August 28, 2015, effective immediately. Jewell said the change had been "a long time coming". The renaming of the mountain received praise from Alaska's senior U.S. senator, Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who had previously introduced legislation to accomplish the name change, but it drew criticism from several politicians from President McKinley's home state of Ohio, such as Governor John Kasich, U.S. Senator Rob Portman, U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, and Representative Bob Gibbs, who described Obama's action as "constitutional overreach" because he said an act of Congress was required to rename the mountain. The Alaska Dispatch News reported that the Secretary of the Interior has authority under federal law to change geographic names when the Board of Geographic Names does not act on a naming request within a "reasonable" period of time. Jewell told the Alaska Dispatch News that "I think any of us would think that 40 years is an unreasonable amount of time." Indigenous names for Denali can be found in seven different Alaskan languages. The names fall into two categories. To the south of the Alaska Range in the Dena'ina and Ahtna languages the mountain is known by names that are translated as "big mountain". To the north of the Alaska Range in the Lower Tanana, Koyukon, Upper Kuskokwim, Holikachuk, and Deg Xinag languages the mountain is known by names that are translated as "the high one", "the tall one" (Koyukon, Lower and Middle Tanana, Upper Kuskokwim, Deg Xinag, and Holikachuk). Asked about the importance of the mountain and its name, Will Mayo, former president of the Tanana Chiefs Conference, an organization that represents 42 Athabaskan tribes in the Alaskan interior, said "It's not one homogeneous belief structure around the mountain, but we all agree that we're all deeply gratified by the acknowledgment of the importance of Denali to Alaska's people." The following table lists the Alaskan Athabascan names for Denali. History The Koyukon Athabaskans, living in the Yukon, Tanana and Kuskokwim basins, were the first Native Americans with access to the flanks of the mountain. A British naval captain and explorer, George Vancouver, is the first European on record to have sighted Denali, when he noted "distant stupendous mountains" while surveying the Knik Arm of the Cook Inlet on May 6, 1794. The Russian explorer Lavrenty Zagoskin explored the Tanana and Kuskokwim rivers in 1843 and 1844, and was likely the first European to sight the mountain from the other side. William Dickey, a New Hampshire-born resident of Seattle, Washington who had been digging for gold in the sands of the Susitna River, wrote, after his returning from Alaska, an account in the New York Sun that appeared on January 24, 1897. His report drew attention with the sentence "We have no doubt that this peak is the highest in North America, and estimate that it is over 20,000 feet (6,100 m) high." Until then, Mount Logan in Canada's Yukon Territory was believed to be the continent's highest point. Though later praised for his estimate, Dickey admitted that other prospector parties had also guessed the mountain to be over 20,000 feet (6,100 m). These estimates were confirmed in 1898 by the surveyor Robert Muldrow, who measured its elevation as 20,300 feet (6,200 m). On November 5, 2012, the United States Mint released a twenty-five cent piece depicting Denali National Park. It is the fifteenth of the America the Beautiful Quarters series. The reverse features a Dall sheep with the peak of Denali in the background. Climbing history During the summer of 1902 scientist Alfred Brooks explored the flanks of the mountain as a part of an exploratory surveying party conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey. The party landed at Cook Inlet in late May, then traveled east, paralleling the Alaska Range, before reaching the slopes of Denali in early August. Camped on the flank of the mountain on August 3, Brooks noted later that while "the ascent of Mount McKinley had never been part of our plans", the party decided to delay one day so "that we might actually set foot on the slopes of the mountain". Setting off alone, with good weather, on August 4, Brooks aimed to reach a 10,000 feet (3,048 m) shoulder. At 7,500 feet (2,286 m), Brooks found his way blocked by sheer ice and, after leaving a small cairn as a marker, descended. After the party's return, Brooks co-authored a "Plan For Climbing Mt McKinley", published in National Geographic magazine in January 1903, with fellow party-member and topographer D. L. Raeburn, in which they suggested that future attempts at the summit should approach from the north, not the south. The report received substantial attention, and within a year, two climbing parties declared their intent to summit. During the early summer of 1903, Judge James Wickersham, then of Eagle, Alaska, made the first recorded attempt to climb Denali, along with a party of four others. The group attempted to get as close to the mountain as possible via the Kantishna river by steamer, before offloading and following Chitsia Creek with a poling boat, mules and backpacks, a route suggested to them by Tanana Athabaskan people they met along the way. The party received further navigational assistance at Anotoktilon, an Athabaskan hunting camp, where residents gave the group detailed directions to reach the glaciers at the foot of Denali. On reaching the mountain, the mountaineers set up base camp on the lower portion of Peters Glacier. Aiming for the northwest buttress of Denali's north peak, they attempted to ascend directly; however, crevasses, ice fall and the lack of a clear passage caused them to turn and attempt to follow a spur via Jeffery Glacier where they believed they could see a way to the summit. After a dangerous ascent, at around 10,000 feet (3,048 m), Wickersham found that the route did not connect as it had appeared from below, instead discovering "a tremendous precipice beyond which we cannot go. Our only line of further ascent would be to climb the vertical wall of the mountain at our left, and that is impossible." This wall, now known as the Wickersham Wall, juts 15,000 feet (4,572 m) upwards from the glacier to the north peak of Denali. Because of the route's history of avalanche danger, it was not successfully climbed until 1963. Later in the summer of 1903, Dr. Frederick Cook directed a team of five men on another attempt at the summit. Cook was already an experienced explorer and had been a party-member on successful arctic expeditions commanded both by Robert Peary and Roald Amundsen. Yet he struggled to obtain funding for his own expedition, eventually organizing it "on a shoestring budget" without any other experienced climbers. The party navigated up the Cook inlet and followed the path of the 1902 Brooks party towards Denali. Cook approached the mountain via the Peters Glacier, as Wickersham had done; however, he was able to overcome the ice fall that had caused the previous group to turn up the spur towards the Wickersham Wall. Despite avoiding this obstacle, on August 31, having reached an elevation of about 10,900 feet (3,322 m) on the northwest buttress of the north peak, the party found they had reached a dead end and could make no further progress. On the descent, the group completely circumnavigated the mountain, the first climbing party to do so. Although Cook's 1903 expedition did not reach the summit, he received acclaim for the accomplishment, a 1,000 miles (1,609 km) trek in which he not only circled the entire mountain but also found, on the descent, an accessible pass northeast of the Muldrow Glacier following the headwaters of the Toklat and Chulitna rivers. In 1906, Cook initiated another expedition to Denali with co-leader Herschel Parker, a Columbia University professor of electrical engineering with extensive mountaineering experience. Belmore Browne, an experienced climber and five other men comprised the rest of the group. Cook and Parker's group spent most of the summer season exploring the southern and southeastern approaches to the mountain, eventually reaching a high point on Tokositna glacier, 25 miles (40 km) from the summit. During their explorations the party mapped out many of the tributaries and glaciers of the Susitna river along the mountain's south flank. As the summer ended, the team retreated to the coast and began to disperse. In September 1906, Cook and a single party-member, horseman Robert Barrill, journeyed towards the summit again, in what Cook later described as "a last desperate attempt" in a telegram to his financial backers. Cook and Barrill spent 12 days in total on the attempt, and claimed to have reached the summit via the Ruth Glacier. Upon hearing Cook's claims, Parker and Browne were immediately suspicious. Browne later wrote that he knew Cook's claims were lies, just as "any New Yorker would know that no man could walk from the Brooklyn Bridge to Grant's Tomb [a distance of eight miles] in ten minutes." In May 1907, Harper's Magazine published Cook's account of the climb along with a photograph of what appeared to be Barrill standing on the summit. By 1909, Barrill had recanted at least part of his story about the climb, and others publicly questioned the account; however, Cook continued to assert his claim The controversy continued for decades. In 1956, mountaineers Bradford Washburn and Walter Gonnason tried to settle the matter, with Gonnason attempting to follow Cook's purported route to the summit. Washburn noted inconsistencies between Cook's account of locations of glaciers and found a spot, at 5,400 feet (1,646 m) and 19 miles (31 km) southeast of the summit that appeared identical to the supposed summit image. Gonnason was not able to complete the climb, but because he was turned back by poor weather, felt that this did not definitely disprove Cook's story. In 1998, historian Robert Bryce discovered an original and un-cropped version of the "fake peak" photograph of Barrill standing on the promontory. It showed a wider view of surrounding features, appearing to definitively discount Cook's claim. Given the skepticism concerning Cook's story, interest in claiming the first ascent remained. Miners and other Alaskans living in Kantishna and Fairbanks wanted the honors to go to local men. In 1909, four Alaska residents – Tom Lloyd, Peter Anderson, Billy Taylor, and Charles McGonagall – set out from Fairbanks, Alaska during late December with supplies and dogs that were in part paid for by bettors in a Fairbanks tavern. By March 1910, the men had established a base camp near one of the sites where the Brooks party had been and pressed on from the north via the Muldrow glacier. Unlike some previous expeditions, they discovered a pass, since named McGonagall Pass, which allowed them to bypass the Wickersham Wall and access the higher reaches of the mountain. At roughly 11,000 feet (3,353 m), Tom Lloyd, old and less physically fit than the others, stayed behind. According to their account, the remaining three men pioneered a route following Karstens Ridge around the Harper Icefall, then reached the upper basin before ascending to Pioneer Ridge. The three men carried a 14-foot-long (4.3 m) spruce pole. Around 19,000 feet (5,791 m), Charles McGonagall, older and having exhausted himself carrying the spruce pole, remained behind. On April 3, 1910, Billy Taylor and Peter Anderson scrambled the final few hundred feet to reach the north peak of Denali, at 19,470 feet (5,934 m) high, the shorter of the two peaks. The pair erected the pole near the top, with the hope that it would be visible from lower reaches to prove they had made it. After the expedition, Tom Lloyd returned to Fairbanks, while the three others remained in Kantishna to mine. In Lloyd's recounting, all four men made it to the top of not only the north peak, but the higher south peak as well. When the remaining three men returned to town with conflicting accounts, the entire expedition's legitimacy was questioned. Several years later, another climbing group would claim to have seen the spruce pole in the distance, supporting their north peak claim. However, some continue to doubt they reached the summit. Outside of the single later climbing group, who were friendly with some of the Sourdough expedition men, no other group would ever see it. Jon Waterman, author of the book Chasing Denali, which explored the controversy, outlined several reasons to doubt the claim: There was never any photographic evidence. The four men climbed during the winter season, known for much more difficult conditions, along a route that has never been fully replicated. They were inexperienced climbers, ascending without any of the usual safety gear or any care for altitude sickness. They claimed to have ascended from 11,000 feet (3,353 m) to the top in less than 18 hours, unheard of at a time when siege-style alpinism was the norm. Yet Waterman says "these guys were men of the trail. They didn't care what anybody thought. They were just tough SOBs." He noted that the men were largely unlettered and that some of the ensuing doubt was related to their lack of sophistication in dealing with the press and the contemporary climbing establishment. In 1912, the Parker-Browne expedition nearly reached the summit, turning back within just a few hundred yards/meters of it due to harsh weather. On July 7, the day after their descent, a 7.4-magnitude earthquake shattered the glacier they had ascended. The first ascent of the main summit of Denali came on June 7, 1913, by a party directed by Hudson Stuck and Harry Karstens, along with Walter Harper and Robert Tatum. Karstens relocated to Alaska in the gold rush of 1897, and in subsequent years became involved in a variety of endeavors beyond mining, including helping establish dog mushing routes to deliver mail across vast swathes of territory and supporting expeditions led by naturalist Charles Sheldon near the base of Denali. Stuck was an English-born Episcopal priest who came to Alaska by chance. He became acclimated to the often harsh Alaskan environment because of his many travels between far-flung outposts within his district, climbing mountains as a hobby. At 21 years old, Harper was already known as a skilled and strong outdoorsman, the Alaska-born son of a Koyukon-Athabascan mother and Irish gold prospector father. Tatum, also 21 years old, was a theology student working at a Tanana mission, and the least experienced of the team. His primary responsibility on the trip was as a cook. The team approached the peak from the north via the Muldrow glacier and McGonagall pass. While ferrying loads up to a camp at around 10,800 feet (3,292 m), they suffered a setback when a stray match accidentally set fire to some supplies, including several tents. The prior year's earthquake had left what had previously been described by the Parker-Browne expedition as a gentle slope ascended in no more than three days as a dangerous, ice-strewn morass on a knife-edged ridge (later named Karstens ridge). It would take the team three weeks to cover the same ground, as Karstens and Harper laboriously cut steps into the ice. On May 30, the team, with the help of some good weather, ascended to a new high camp, situated at 17,500 feet (5,334 m) in the Grand Basin between the north and south peaks. On June 7, the team made the summit attempt. Temperatures were below −20 °F (−29 °C) at times. Every man, and particularly Stuck, suffered from altitude sickness. By midday, Harper became the first climber to reach the summit, followed seconds later by Tatum and Karstens. Stuck arrived last, falling unconscious on the summit. Using the mountain's contemporary name, Tatum later commented, "The view from the top of Mount McKinley is like looking out the windows of Heaven!" During the climb, Stuck spotted, via binoculars, the presence of a large pole near the North Summit; this report confirmed the Sourdough ascent, and it is widely believed presently that the Sourdoughs did succeed on the North Summit. However, the pole was never seen before or since, so there is still some doubt. Stuck also discovered that the Parker-Browne party were only about 200 feet (61 m) of elevation short of the true summit when they turned back. Stuck and Karstens' team achieved the uncontroversial first ascent of Denali's south peak; however, the news was met with muted interest by the wider climbing community. Appalachia Journal, then the official journal of the American Alpine Club, published a small notice of the accomplishment a year later. The mountain is climbed regularly nowadays. In 2003, around 58% of climbers reached the top. But by that time, the mountain had claimed the lives of nearly 100 mountaineers. The vast majority of climbers use the West Buttress Route, pioneered in 1951 by Bradford Washburn, after an extensive aerial photographic analysis of the mountain. Climbers typically take two to four weeks to ascend Denali. It is one of the Seven Summits; summiting all of them is a challenge for mountaineers. On August 4, 2018, five people died in the K2 Aviation de Havilland Beaver (DHC-2) crash near Denali. Accidents From 1947 to 2018 in the United States "2,799 people were reported to be involved in mountaineering accidents" and 11% of these accidents occurred on Denali. Of these 2,799 accidents, 43% resulted in death and 8% of these deaths occurred on Denali. Timeline 1896–1902: Surveys by Robert Muldrow, George Eldridge, Alfred Brooks. 1913: First ascent, by Hudson Stuck, Harry Karstens, Walter Harper, and Robert Tatum via the Muldrow Glacier route. 1932: Second ascent, by Alfred Lindley, Harry Liek, Grant Pearson, Erling Strom. (Both peaks were climbed.) 1947: Barbara Washburn becomes the first woman to reach the summit while her husband Bradford Washburn becomes the first person to summit twice. 1951: First ascent of the West Buttress Route, led by Bradford Washburn. 1954: First ascent of the very long South Buttress Route by George Argus, Elton Thayer (died on descent), Morton Wood, and Les Viereck. Deteriorating conditions behind the team pushed them to make the first traverse of Denali. The Great Traleika Cirque, where they camped just below the summit, was renamed Thayer Basin, in honor of the fallen climber. 1954 (May 27) First ascent via Northwest Buttress to North Peak by Fred Beckey, Donald McLean, Charles Wilson, Henry Meybohm, and Bill Hackett 1959: First ascent of the West Rib, now a popular, mildly technical route to the summit. 1961: First ascent of the Cassin Ridge, named for Riccardo Cassin and the best-known technical route on the mountain. The first ascent team members are: Riccardo Cassin, Luigi Airoldi, Luigi Alippi, Giancarlo Canali, Romano Perego, and Annibale Zucchi. 1962: First ascent of the southeast spur, team of six climbers (C. Hollister, H. Abrons, B. Everett, Jr., S. Silverstein, S. Cochrane, and C. Wren) 1963: A team of six climbers (W. Blesser, P. Lev, R. Newcomb, A. Read, J. Williamson, F. Wright) made the first ascent of the East Buttress. The summit was attained via Thayer Basin and Karstens Ridge. See AAJ 1964. 1963: Two teams make first ascents of two different routes on the Wickersham Wall. 1967: First winter ascent, via the West Buttress, by Gregg Blomberg, Dave Johnston, Art Davidson and Ray Genet. 1967: The 1967 Mount McKinley disaster; Seven members of Joe Wilcox's twelve-man expedition perish, while stranded for ten days near the summit, in what has been described as the worst storm on record. Up to that time, this was the third worst disaster in mountaineering history in terms of lives lost. Before July 1967 only four men had ever perished on Denali. 1970: First solo ascent by Naomi Uemura. 1970: First ascent by an all-female team (the "Denali Damsels"), led by Grace Hoeman and the later famous American high altitude mountaineer Arlene Blum together with Margaret Clark, Margaret Young, Faye Kerr and Dana Smith Isherwood. 1972: First descent on skis down the sheer southwest face, by Sylvain Saudan, "Skier of the Impossible". 1976: First solo ascent of the Cassin Ridge by Charlie Porter, a climb "ahead of its time". 1979: First ascent by dog team achieved by Susan Butcher, Ray Genet, Brian Okonek, Joe Redington, Sr., and Robert Stapleton. 1984: Uemura returns to make the first winter solo ascent, but dies after summitting. Tono Križo, František Korl and Blažej Adam from the Slovak Mountaineering Association climb a very direct route to the summit, now known as the Slovak Route, on the south face of the mountain, to the right of the Cassin Ridge. 1988: First successful winter solo ascent. Vern Tejas climbed the West Buttress alone in February and March, summitted successfully, and descended. 1990: Anatoli Boukreev climbed the West Rib in 10 hours and 30 mins from the base to the summit, at the time a record for the fastest ascent. 1995: French skiers Jean-Noel Urban and Nicolas Bonhomme, made the first ski descent down the Wickersham Wall, most of the face was 50°. 1997: First successful ascent up the West Fork of Traleika Glacier up to Karstens Ridge beneath Browne Tower. This path was named the "Butte Direct" by the two climbers Jim Wilson and Jim Blow. 2015: On June 24, a survey team led by Blaine Horner placed two global positioning receivers on the summit to determine the precise position and elevation of the summit. The summit snow depth was measured at 15 ft (4.6 m). The United States National Geodetic Survey later determined the summit elevation to be 20,310 ft (6,190 metres). 2019: On June 20, Karl Egloff (Swiss-Ecuadorian) set new speed records for the ascent (7h 40m) and round-trip (11h 44m), starting and returning to a base camp at 7,200 ft (2,200 m) on the Kahiltna Glacier. Weather station The Japanese Alpine Club installed a meteorological station on a ridge near the summit of Denali at an elevation of 18,733 feet (5,710 m) in 1990. In 1998, this weather station was donated to the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. In June 2002, a weather station was placed at the 19,000-foot (5,800 m) level. This weather station was designed to transmit data in real-time for use by the climbing public and the science community. Since its establishment, annual upgrades to the equipment have been performed with instrumentation custom built for the extreme weather and altitude conditions. This weather station is the third-highest weather station in the world. The weather station recorded a temperature of −75.5 °F (−59.7 °C) on December 1, 2003. On the previous day of November 30, 2003, a temperature of −74.4 °F (−59.1 °C) combined with a wind speed of 18.4 miles per hour (29.6 km/h) to produce a North American record windchill of −118.1 °F (−83.4 °C). Even in July, this weather station has recorded temperatures as low as −22.9 °F (−30.5 °C) and windchills as low as −59.2 °F (−50.7 °C). Historical record According to the National Park Service, in 1932 the Liek-Lindley expedition recovered a self-recording minimum thermometer left near Browne's Tower, at about 15,000 feet (4,600 m), on Denali by the Stuck-Karstens party in 1913. The spirit thermometer was calibrated down to −95 °F (−71 °C), and the lowest recorded temperature was below that point. Harry J. Liek took the thermometer back to Washington, D.C. where it was tested by the United States Weather Bureau and found to be accurate. The lowest temperature that it had recorded was found to be approximately −100 °F (−73 °C). Another thermometer was placed at the 15,000-foot (4,600 m) level by the U.S. Army Natick Laboratory, and was there from 1950 to 1969. The lowest temperature recorded during that period was also −100 °F (−73 °C). Subpeaks and nearby mountains Besides the North Summit mentioned above, other features on the massif which are sometimes included as separate peaks are: South Buttress, 15,885 feet (4,842 m); mean prominence: 335 feet (102 m) East Buttress high point, 14,730 feet (4,490 m); mean prominence: 380 feet (120 m) East Buttress, most topographically prominent point, 14,650 feet (4,470 m); mean prominence: 600 feet (180 m) Browne Tower, 14,530 feet (4,430 m); mean prominence: 75 feet (23 m) Nearby peaks include: Mount Crosson Mount Foraker Mount Silverthrone Mount Hunter Mount Huntington Mount Dickey The Moose's Tooth Taxonomic honors denaliensis Ceratozetella denaliensis (formerly Cyrtozetes denaliensis Behan-Pelletier, 1985) is a species of moss mite in the family Mycobatidae sv:Ceratozetella denaliensis Magnoavipes denaliensis Fiorillo et al., 2011 (literally "bird with large feet found in Denali") is a Magnoavipes ichnospecies of bird footprint from the Upper Cretaceous of Alaska and was a large heron-like bird (as larger than a sandhill crane) with three toes and toe pads. pt:Magnoavipes denaliensis denali Cosberella denali (Fjellberg, 1985) is a springtail. Proclossiana aphirape denali Klots, 1940 is a Boloria butterfly species of the subfamily Heliconiinae of family Nymphalidae. Symplecta denali (Alexander, 1955) is a species of crane fly in the family Limoniidae. Tipula denali Alexander, 1969 is a species of crane fly in the family Tipulidae. denalii Erigeron denalii A. Nelson, 1945 or Denali fleabane is an Erigeron fleabane species. Papaver denalii Gjaerevoll 1963 is an Papaver species and synonym of Papaver mcconnellii. mckinleyensis or mackinleyensis Erebia mackinleyensis (Gunder, 1932) or Mt. McKinley alpine is a butterfly species of the subfamily Satyrinae of family Nymphalidae. Oeneis mackinleyensis Dos Passos 1965 or Oeneis mckinleyensis Dos Passos 1949 is a butterfly species of the subfamily Satyrinae of family Nymphalidae (synonym of Oeneis bore) Uredo mckinleyensis Cummins 1952 or Uredo mackinleyensis Cummins 1952 is a rust fungus species. In popular culture In 2019, American educational animated series Molly of Denali, named for the region, premiered on PBS and CBC Kids. The show depicts the daily life and culture of Molly, a young Alaskan Native girl and vlogger. The animated series has received acclaim for its representation of indigenous Alaskan culture. See also List of mountain peaks of North America List of mountain peaks of the United States List of mountain peaks of Alaska List of U.S. states by elevation List of the highest major summits of the United States List of the most prominent summits of the United States List of the most isolated major summits of the United States Extremes on Earth References Bibliography Further reading Drury, Bob (2001). The Rescue Season: A True Story of Heroism on the Edge of the World. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-86479-7. OCLC 44969545. Also titled The Rescue Season: The Heroic Story of Parajumpers on the Edge of the World. About the US Air Force's 210th Rescue Squadron during the 1999 climbing season on Denali. External links Mt. McKinley Weather Station Denali at SummitPost Timeline of Denali climbing history, National Park Service Archived July 5, 2007, at the Wayback Machine The Ascent of Denali (Mount McKinley) at Project Gutenberg Mount Mckinley Quadrangle Publications, Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys

The Matterhorn (German: [ˈmatɐˌhɔʁn] , Swiss Standard German: [ˈmatərˌhɔrn]; Italian: Cervino [tʃerˈviːno]; French: Cervin [sɛʁvɛ̃]; Romansh: Mont(e) Cervin(u)) is a mountain of the Alps, straddling the main watershed and border between Italy and Switzerland. It is a large, near-symmetric pyramidal peak in the extended Monte Rosa area of the Pennine Alps, whose summit is 4,478 metres (14,692 ft) above sea level, making it one of the highest summits in the Alps and Europe. The four steep faces, rising above the surrounding glaciers, face the four compass points and are split by the Hörnli, Furggen, Leone/Lion, and Zmutt ridges. The mountain overlooks the Swiss town of Zermatt, in the canton of Valais, to the northeast; and the Italian town of Breuil-Cervinia in the Aosta Valley to the south. Just east of the Matterhorn is Theodul Pass, the main passage between the two valleys on its north and south sides, which has been a trade route since the Roman Era. The Matterhorn was studied by Horace-Bénédict de Saussure in the late eighteenth century, and was followed by other renowned naturalists and artists, such as John Ruskin, in the 19th century. It remained unclimbed after most of the other great Alpine peaks had been attained and became the subject of an international competition for the summit. The first ascent of the Matterhorn was in 1865 from Zermatt by a party led by Edward Whymper, but during the descent, a sudden fall claimed the lives of four of the seven climbers. This disaster, later portrayed in several films, marked the end of the golden age of alpinism. The north face was not climbed until 1931 and is among the three biggest north faces of the Alps, known as "The Trilogy". The west face, the highest of the Matterhorn's four faces, was completely climbed only in 1962. It is estimated that over 500 alpinists have died on the Matterhorn, making it one of the deadliest peaks in the world. The Matterhorn is mainly composed of gneisses (originally fragments of the African Plate before the Alpine orogeny) from the Dent Blanche nappe, lying over ophiolites and sedimentary rocks of the Penninic nappes. The mountain's current shape is the result of cirque erosion due to multiple glaciers diverging from the peak, such as the Matterhorn Glacier at the base of the north face. Sometimes referred to as the Mountain of Mountains (‹See Tfd›German: Berg der Berge), it has become an indelible emblem of the Alps in general. Since the end of the 19th century, when railways were built in the area, the mountain has attracted increasing numbers of visitors and climbers. Each year, numerous mountaineers try to climb the Matterhorn from the Hörnli Hut via the northeast Hörnli ridge, the most popular route to the summit. Many trekkers also undertake the 10-day-long circuit around the mountain. The Matterhorn has been part of the Swiss Federal Inventory of Natural Monuments since 1983. Names The name Matterhorn derives from the German words Matte ("meadow") and Horn ("horn"), and is often translated as "the peak of the meadows". In the Schalbetter map, printed by Sebastian Münster in 1545, the valley is labelled Mattertal, but the mountain has the Latin name Mons Silvius as well as the German name Augstalberg, in concord with the Aosta Valley (German Augstal). The 1548 map by Johannes Stumpf gives only Mons Silvius. The French name Cervin, from which the Italian term Cervino derives, stems from the Latin Mons Silvanus (or Mons Sylvanus), where silva means "forest"; this was corrupted to Selvin and then Servin. The change of the first letter "s" to "c" is attributed to Horace Bénédict de Saussure, who thought the word was related to "deer" (French: cerf and Italian: cervo). Josias Simler hypothesized in De Alpibus Commentarius (1574) that the name Mons Silvius was readopted by T. G. Farinetti: "Silvius was probably a Roman leader who sojourned with his legions in the land of the Salassi and the Seduni, and perhaps crossed the Theodul Pass between these two places. This Silvius may have been that same Servius Galba whom Caesar charged with the opening up of the Alpine passes, which from that time onward traders have been wanting to cross with great danger and grave difficulty. Servius Galba, in order to carry out Caesar's orders, came with his legions from Allobroges (Savoy) to Octodurum (Martigny) in the Valais, and pitched his camp there. The passes which he had orders to open from there could be no other than the St. Bernard, the Simplon, the Theodul, and the Moro; it therefore seems likely that the name of Servius, whence Silvius and later Servin, or Cervin, was given in his honour to the famous pyramid." It is unknown when the new name of Servin, or Cervin, replaced the old, from which it seems to be derived.: 289  The Matterhorn is also named Gran Bècca ("big mountain") by the Valdôtains and Horu by the local Walliser German speaking people. Because of its recognizable shape, many other similar mountains around the world were named or nicknamed 'the Matterhorn of' their respective countries or mountain ranges. Height The Matterhorn has two distinct summits, situated at either end of a 100-metre-long (330 ft) exposed rocky crest which forms the Italian/Swiss border. In August 1792, the Genevan geologist and explorer Horace Bénédict de Saussure made the first measurement of the Matterhorn's height, using a sextant and a 50-foot-long (15 m) chain spread out on the Theodul glacier. He calculated its height as 4,501.7 m (14,769 ft). In 1868 the Italian engineer Felice Giordano measured a height of 4,505 m (14,780 ft) by means of a mercury barometer, which he had taken to the summit. The Dufour map, which was afterwards followed by the Italian surveyors, gave 4,482 m (14,705 ft) as the height of the Swiss summit.: 317  In 1999, the summit height was precisely determined to be at 4,477.54 m (14,690 ft) above sea level by using Global Positioning System technology as part of the TOWER Project (Top of the World Elevations Remeasurement) and to an accuracy of less than one centimetre, which allows future changes to be tracked. The topographic prominence of the Matterhorn is 1,042 metres (3,419 ft) as the ridge connecting it with a higher summit (in this case the Weisshorn, which is the culminating point of the range west of the Mattertal valley) sinks to a height of 3,436 m (11,273 ft) at the Col Durand, a saddle between the Pointe de Zinal and the Mont Durand. The topographic isolation is 13.9 km (8.6 mi), as the nearest point of higher elevation is the one-metre (3 ft 3 in) higher Western Liskamm. Considering mountains with a topographic prominence of at least 300 m (980 ft), the Matterhorn is the sixth-highest summit in the Alps and Europe outside the Caucasus Mountains. It is the fifth-highest summit of Valais and Switzerland and the third highest summit of the Aosta Valley and Italy. Locally, it is the third-highest summit in the municipality of Zermatt and the highest summit in the municipality of Valtournenche. On the official International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation list of Alpine four-thousanders, which also includes subsidiary summits of higher mountains such as the nearby Monte Rosa, the Matterhorn is the 12th highest summit in the Alps. Geography The Matterhorn has a pyramidal shape with four faces nearly facing the four compass points. Three of them (north, east and west) are on the Swiss side of the border and watershed (Mattertal valley) and one of them (south) is on the Italian side of the border (Valtournenche valley). The north face overlooks the Ober Gabelhorn (7 km away) across the Zmutt Glacier and valley (above Zermatt), the east face overlooks the Gorner Glacier system between the Gornergrat and Monte Rosa (respectively 10 and 17 km away) across the Theodul Pass, the west face overlooks the upper basin of the Zmutt Glacier between the Dent Blanche and the Dent d'Hérens (respectively 7 and 4 km away) and the south face fronts the resort town of Breuil-Cervinia and overlooks a good portion of the Valtournenche. The Matterhorn does not form a perfect square pyramid, as the north and south faces are wider than the west and east faces. Moreover, the latter faces do not actually meet on the summit but are connected by a 100-metre-long horizontal west–east ridge between the north and south faces. The Matterhorn's faces are steep, and only small patches of snow and ice cling to them; regular avalanches send the snow down to accumulate on the glaciers at the base of each face, the largest of which are the Tiefmattengletscher to the west, part of the Zmutt Glacier, and the Matterhorn Glacier to the north. Smaller glaciers lie at the base of the south face (the Lower Matterhorn Glacier) and the east face (unnamed). In this area, the border between Switzerland and Italy coincides with the main Alpine watershed, separating the drainage basin of the Rhone on the north (Mediterranean Sea) and that of the Po on the south (Adriatic Sea). The north side is drained by the Zmuttbach (west and north faces) and the Gornera through the Furggbach (east face), tributaries of the Rhone through the (Matter) Vispa. The south side and face is drained by the Marmore torrent, a tributary of the Po through the Dora Baltea (or Doire baltée). The Theodul Pass, located on the watershed between the Matterhorn and the Breithorn, at 3,295 metres, is the easiest passage between the two valleys and countries (the slightly lower Furggjoch not being used as a pass). The pass was used as a crossover and trade route for the Romans and the Romanised Celtic population Salassi between 100 BCE and 400 CE. The area is now heavily glaciated and covered on the north side by the Theodul Glacier. Well-known faces are the east and north, visible from the area of Zermatt, although mostly hidden from the Mattertal by the chain of the Weisshorn. The east face is 1,000 metres high and, because it is "a long, monotonous slope of rotten rocks", presents a high risk of rockfall, making its ascent dangerous. The north face is 1,200 metres high and is one of the most dangerous north faces in the Alps, in particular for its risk of rockfall and storms. The south face, well visible from the Valtournenche, is 1,350 metres high and offers many different routes. The west face, the highest at 1,400 metres, has the fewest ascent routes and lies in a more remote area than the other faces. The four main ridges separating the four faces are the main climbing routes. The least difficult technical climb and the usual climbing route, the Hörnli ridge (Hörnligrat), lies between the east and north faces and is aligned towards the Oberrothorn above Zermatt. To its west lies the Zmutt ridge (Zmuttgrat), between the north and west faces and aligned towards the Wandfluehorn; this is, according to Collomb, "the classic route up the mountain, its longest ridge, also the most disjointed." The Lion ridge (Cresta del Leone / Arête du lion), lying between the south and west faces and aligned towards the Dent d'Hérens is the Italian normal route and goes across Pic Tyndall; Collomb comments, "A superb rock ridge, the shortest on the mountain, now draped with many fixed ropes, but a far superior climb compared with the Hörnli." Finally the south side is separated from the east side by the Furggen ridge (Furggengrat), which is aligned towards the Klein Matterhorn. It is, according to Collomb, "the hardest of the ridges [...] the ridge still has an awesome reputation but is not too difficult in good conditions by the indirect finish". While the Matterhorn is the culminating point of the Valtournenche on the south, it is only one of the many 4000 metres summits of the Mattertal valley on the north. Its height is exceeded by four major summits: the Weisshorn (4,505 m), the Dom (4,545 m), the Liskamm (4,527 m) and the second-highest in the Alps, Monte Rosa (4,634 m). This section of the Pennine Alps, including the Matterhorn, the Zinalrothorn, the Dent Blanche, the Dent d'Hérens, the Breithorn, the Strahlhorn, the Rimpfischhorn and the Alphubel, concentrates most of western Europe's highest mountains and forms a crown of peaks around Zermatt. The deeply glaciated region between the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa (named Dent Blanche-Matterhorn-Monte Rosa) is listed in the Federal Inventory of Landscapes and Natural Monuments since 1983. Weather The Matterhorn is an isolated mountain. Because of its position on the main Alpine watershed and its great height, the Matterhorn is exposed to rapid weather changes. In addition, the steep faces of the mountain and its isolated location make it prone to banner clouds formation, with the air flowing around the mountain producing condensation of the air on the lee side and also creating vortices. Geology The Matterhorn's pyramid is composed of Paleozoic rocks, which were thrusted over the Matterhorn's Mesozoic base during the Cenozoic. Quaternary glaciation and weathering give the mountain its current shape. Apart from the base of the mountain, the Matterhorn is composed of gneiss belonging to the Dent Blanche klippe, an isolated part of the Austroalpine nappes, lying over the Penninic nappes. The Austroalpine nappes are part of the Apulian plate, a small continent that broke up from Africa before the Alpine orogeny. For this reason, the Matterhorn has been popularized as an African mountain. The Austroalpine nappes are mostly common in the Eastern Alps. The Swiss explorer and geologist Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, inspired by the view of the Matterhorn, anticipated modern theories of geology: What power must have been required to shatter and to sweep away the missing parts of this pyramid; for we do not see it surrounded by heaps of fragments; one only sees other peaks - themselves rooted to the ground - whose sides, equally rent, indicate an immense mass of débris, of which we do not see any trace in the neighbourhood. Doubtless, this is that débris which, in the form of pebbles, boulders, and sand, fills our valleys and our plains. Formation The formation of the Matterhorn (and the whole Alpine range) started with the break-up of the Pangaea continent 200 million years ago into Laurasia (containing Europe) and Gondwana (containing Africa). While the rocks constituting the nearby Monte Rosa remained in Laurasia, the rocks constituting the Matterhorn found themselves in Gondwana, separated by the newly formed Tethys Ocean. 100 million years ago the extension of the Tethys Ocean stopped and the Apulian plate broke from Gondwana and moved toward the European continent. This resulted in the closure of the western Tethys by subduction under the Apulian plate (with the Piemont-Liguria Ocean first and Valais Ocean later). The subduction of the oceanic crust left traces still visible today at the base of the Matterhorn (accretionary prism). The orogeny itself began after the end of the oceanic subduction when the European continental crust collided with the Apulian continent, resulting in the formation of nappes. The Matterhorn acquired its characteristic pyramidal shape in much more recent times as it was caused by natural erosion over the past million years. At the beginning of alpine orogeny, the Matterhorn was only a rounded mountain like a hill. Because its height is above the snowline, its flanks are covered by ice, resulting from the accumulation and compaction of snow. During the warmer period of summer, part of the ice melts and seeps into the bedrock. When it freezes again, it fractures pieces of rock because of its dilatation (freeze-thaw), forming a cirque. Four cirques led to the shape of the mountain. Rocks Most of the base of the mountain lies in the Tsaté nappe, a remnant of the Piedmont-Liguria oceanic crust (ophiolites) and its sedimentary rocks. Up to 3,400 metres the mountain is composed of successive layers of ophiolites and sedimentary rocks. From 3,400 metres to the top, the rocks are gneisses from the Dent Blanche nappe (Austroalpine nappes). They are divided into the Arolla series (below 4,200 m) and the Valpelline zone (the summit). Other mountains in the region (Weisshorn, Zinalrothorn, Dent Blanche, Mont Collon) also belong to the Dent Blanche nappe. Tourism and trekking Since the eighteenth century, the Alps have attracted more and more people and fascinated generations of explorers and climbers. The Matterhorn remained relatively little known until 1865, but the successful ascent followed by the tragic accident of the expedition led by Edward Whymper caused a rush on the mountains surrounding Zermatt. The construction of the railway linking the village of Zermatt from the town of Visp started in 1888. The first train reached Zermatt on 18 July 1891 and the entire line was electrified in 1930. Since 1930 the village is directly connected to St. Moritz by the Glacier Express panoramic train. However, there is no connection with the village of Breuil-Cervinia on the Italian side. Travellers have to hire mountain guides to cross the 3,300-metre-high glaciated Theodul Pass, separating the two resorts. The town of Zermatt remains almost completely free of internal combustion vehicles and can be reached by train only. (Apart from the local police service which uses a Volkswagen car, and the refuse collection lorry, only electric vehicles are used locally). Rail and cable-car facilities have been built to make some of the summits in the area more accessible. The Gornergrat railway, reaching a record altitude of 3,100 metres, was inaugurated in 1898. Areas served by cable car are the Unterrothorn and the Klein Matterhorn (Little Matterhorn) (3,883 m, highest transportation system in Europe). The Hörnli Hut (3,260 m), which is the start of the normal route via the Hörnli ridge, is easily accessible from Schwarzsee (2,600 m) and is also frequented by hikers. The Zermatt and Breuil-Cervinia resorts function as separate ski resort all year round and are connected by skilifts over the Theodul Pass. In 2023, a cable car link between Testa Grigia (or Tête grise) and the Klein Matterhorn opened. It finally provided a direct link between the Swiss and Italian side of the Matterhorn. The Matterhorn Museum (Zermatt) relates the general history of the region from alpinism to tourism. In the museum, which is in the form of a reconstituted mountain village, the visitors can relive the first and tragic ascent of the Matterhorn and see the objects that belonged to the protagonists. The Tour of the Matterhorn can be effected by trekkers in about 10 days. Considered by some as one of the most beautiful treks in the Alps, it follows many ancient trails that have linked the Swiss and Italian valleys for centuries. The circuit includes alpine meadows, balcony trails, larch forests and glacial crossings. It connects six valleys embracing three different cultures: the German-speaking high Valais, the French-speaking central Valais and the bilingual French/Italian-speaking Aosta Valley. Good conditions are necessary to circumnavigate the peak. After reaching Zinal from Zermatt by the Augstbord and Meiden passes, the trekker crosses the Col de Sorebois and the Col de Torrent before arriving at Arolla. Then the Arolla Glacier and the Col Collon must be crossed on the way to Prarayer, followed by the Col de Valcournera to Breuil-Cervinia. In the last and highest section, the Theodul Pass must be crossed before returning to Zermatt. In total, seven passes between 2,800 and 3,300 metres must be crossed on relatively difficult terrain. As of 2015, almost two million visitors arrive at Zermatt annually. An average of around twelve people per year have died on Matterhorn in the ten years from 2005 to 2015. Climbing history The Matterhorn was one of the last of the main Alpine mountains to be ascended, not because of its technical difficulty, but because of the fear it inspired in early mountaineers. The first serious attempts were all from the Italian side, although, despite appearances, the southern routes are technically more difficult. The main figures were Jean-Antoine Carrel and his uncle Jean-Jacques Carrel, from the Valtournenche area, who made the first attempts in 1857 and 1858, reaching 3,800 m (12,500 ft) on the latter occasion. In July 1860, three brothers from Liverpool attempted the mountain, Alfred, Charles and Sandbach Parker, but they turned back at about 3,500 m (11,500 ft). In August of the same year, Jean-Jacques Carrel returned to guide, with Johann Joseph Bennen, Vaughan Hawkins and John Tyndall to about 3,960 m (12,990 ft) before turning back. In 1861 the Carrels managed to reach the Crête du Coq at 4,032 m (13,228 ft). In July 1862, Jean-Antoine, together with César Carrel, accompanied as porters (sic) John Tyndall, Anton Walters and J.J. Bennen to Matterhorn's Shoulder at 4,248 m (13,937 ft), which was subsequently named Pic Tyndall in honor of the client. Edward Whymper joined the efforts in August 1861, but in his first 7 attempts with a variety of companions could only reach a maximum height of 4,100 m (13,500 ft). However, on 14 July 1865, in what is considered the last ascent of the golden age of alpinism, he was able to reach the summit by an ascent of the Hörnli ridge in Switzerland, guided by the famed French mountaineer Michel Croz and the Swiss father and son Peter Taugwalder Sr. and Jr., and accompanied by the British gentlemen Charles Hudson, Lord Francis Douglas, Douglas Robert Hadow. Upon descent, Hadow, Croz, Hudson and Douglas fell to their deaths on the Matterhorn Glacier, and all but Douglas (whose body was never found) are buried in the Zermatt churchyard. Just three days later, on 17 July 1865, Jean-Antoine Carrel and Jean-Baptiste Bich reached the summit from the Italian side. Before the first ascent In the summer of 1860, Edward Whymper came across the Matterhorn for the first time. He was an English artist and engraver who had been hired by a London publisher to make sketches of the mountains in the region of Zermatt. Although the unclimbed Matterhorn had a mixed reputation among British mountaineers, it fascinated Whymper. Whymper's first attempt was in August 1861, from the village of Breuil on the south side. In Châtillon he hired a Swiss guide, who remained anonymous in his accounts, and in Valtournanche he almost hired Jean-Antoine Carrel as well, but, disliking the looks of Carrel's uncle, he changed his mind. The Carrels decided to give Matterhorn a try by themselves again, and caught up with Whymper at nightfall. Whymper now had "a strong inclination to engage the pair; but, finally, decided against it" and the Carrels went alone to reach a new high on Matterhorn of 4,032 m (13,228 ft) the next day. Whymper and his guide camped one more night on the Col du lion (= Col Tournanche) 3,479 m (11,414 ft) and were forced to turn around only an hour above this pass the day after. In 1862 Whymper made further attempts, still from the south side, on the Lion ridge (or Italian ridge), where the route seemed easier than the Hörnli ridge (the normal route today). On his own, he reached above 4,000 metres, but was injured on his way down to Breuil. In July John Tyndall with Johann Joseph Bennen and another guide overcame most of the difficulties of the ridge that seemed so formidable from below and successfully reached the main shoulder; but at a point not very far below the summit they were stopped by a deep cleft that defied their utmost efforts. The Matterhorn remained unclimbed. Whymper returned to Breuil in 1863, persuading Carrel to join forces with him and try the mountain once more via the Italian ridge. On this attempt, however, a storm soon developed and they were stuck halfway to the summit. They remained there for 26 hours in their tent before giving up. Whymper did not make another attempt for two years. In the decisive year 1865, Whymper returned with new plans, deciding to attack the Matterhorn via its south face instead of the Italian ridge. On 21 June, Whymper began his ascent with Swiss guides, but halfway up they experienced severe rockfall; although nobody was injured, they decided to give up the ascent. This was Whymper's seventh attempt. During the following weeks, Whymper spent his time climbing other mountains in the area with his guides, before going back to Breuil on 7 July. Meanwhile, the Italian Alpine Club was founded and its leaders, Felice Giordano and Quintino Sella, established plans to conquer the Matterhorn before any non-Italian could succeed. Felice Giordano hired Carrel as a guide. He feared the arrival of Whymper, now a rival, and wrote to Quintino Sella: I have tried to keep everything secret, but that fellow whose life seems to depend on the Matterhorn is here, suspiciously prying into everything. I have taken all the best men away from him; and yet he is so enamored of the mountain that he may go with others...He is here in the hotel and I try to avoid speaking to him. Just as he did two years before, Whymper asked Carrel to be his guide, but Carrel declined; Whymper was also unsuccessful in hiring other local guides from Breuil. When Whymper discovered Giordano and Carrel's plan, he left Breuil and crossed the Theodul Pass to Zermatt to hire local guides. He encountered Lord Francis Douglas, a Scottish mountaineer, who also wanted to climb the Matterhorn. They arrived later in Zermatt in the Monte Rosa Hotel, where they met two other British climbers — the Reverend Charles Hudson and his young and inexperienced companion, Douglas Robert Hadow — who had hired the French guide Michel Croz to try to make the first ascent. These two groups decided to join forces and try the ascent of the Hörnli ridge. They hired another two local guides, a father and son, both named Peter Taugwalder. First ascent Whymper and party left Zermatt early in the morning of 13 July 1865, heading to the foot of the Hörnli ridge, which they reached 6 hours later (approximately where the Hörnli Hut is situated today). Meanwhile, Carrel and six other Italian guides also began their ascent of the Italian ridge. Despite its appearance, Whymper wrote that the Hörnli ridge was much easier to climb than the Italian ridge: We were now fairly upon the mountain, and were astonished to find that places which from the Riffel, or even from the Furggen Glacier, looked entirely impracticable, were so easy that we could run about. After camping for the night, Whymper and party started on the ridge. According to Whymper: The whole of this great slope was now revealed, rising for 3,000 feet like a huge natural staircase. Some parts were more, and others were less, easy; but we were not once brought to a halt by any serious impediment, for when an obstruction was met in front it could always be turned to the right or left. For the greater part of the way there was, indeed, no occasion for the rope, and sometimes Hudson led, sometimes myself. At 6.20 we had attained a height of 12,800 feet and halted for half an hour; we then continued the ascent without a break until 9.55, when we stopped for fifty minutes, at a height of 14,000 feet. When the party came close to the summit, they had to leave the ridge for the north face because "[the ridge] was usually more rotten and steep, and always more difficult than the face". At this point of the ascent Whymper wrote that the less experienced Hadow "required continual assistance". Having overcome these difficulties the group finally arrived in the summit area, with Croz and Whymper reaching the top first. The slope eased off, and Croz and I, dashing away, ran a neck-and-neck race, which ended in a dead heat. At 1.40 p.m. the world was at our feet, and the Matterhorn was conquered. Hurrah! Not a footstep could be seen. Precisely at this moment, Carrel and party were approximatively 400 metres below, still dealing with the most difficult parts of the Italian ridge. When seeing his rival on the summit, Carrel and party gave up on their attempt and went back to Breuil. After building a cairn, Whymper and party stayed an hour on the summit. Then they began their descent of the Hörnli ridge. Croz descended first, then Hadow, Hudson and Douglas, the elder Taugwalder, Whymper, with the younger Taugwalder coming last. They climbed down with great care, only one man moving at a time. Whymper wrote: As far as I know, at the moment of the accident no one was actually moving. I cannot speak with certainty, neither can the Taugwalders, because the two leading men were partially hidden from our sight by an intervening mass of rock. Poor Croz had laid aside his axe, and in order to give Mr. Hadow greater security was absolutely taking hold of his legs and putting his feet, one by one, into their proper positions. From the movements of their shoulders it is my belief that Croz, having done as I have said, was in the act of turning round to go down a step or two himself; at this moment Mr. Hadow slipped, fell on him, and knocked him over. The weight of the falling men pulled Hudson and Douglas from their holds and dragged them down the north face. The Taugwalders and Whymper were left alive when the rope linking Douglas to the elder Taugwalder broke. They were stunned by the accident and for a time could not move until the younger Taugwalder descended to enable them to advance. When they were together Whymper asked to see the broken rope and saw that it had been employed by mistake as it was the weakest and oldest of the three ropes they had brought. They frantically looked, but in vain, for traces of their fallen companions. They continued their descent, including an hour in the dark, until 9.30 p.m. when a resting place was found. The descent was resumed at daybreak and the group finally reached Zermatt, where a search of the victims was quickly organized. The bodies of Croz, Hadow and Hudson were found on the Matterhorn Glacier, but the body of Douglas was never found. Although the elder Taugwalder was accused of cutting the rope to save himself and his son, the official inquest found no proof of this. Second ascent On 16 July, two days after the first ascent and the catastrophe, Jean-Antoine Carrel set out to crown Whymper's victory by proving that the Italian side was not unconquerable. He was accompanied by Amé Gorret, a priest who had shared with him the first attempt on the mountain back in 1857. Jean-Baptiste Bich and Jean-Augustin Meynet completed the party. Giordano would have joined them, but Carrel refused absolutely to take him with them; he said he would not have the strength to guide a traveller, and could neither answer for the result nor for any one's life. After hearing Sunday mass at the chapel of Breuil, the party started. Amé Gorret has described this ascent with enthusiasm: "At last we crossed the Col du Lion and set foot upon the pyramid of the Matterhorn!" On the following day, the 17th, they continued the ascent and reached Tyndall's flagstaff. "We were about to enter unknown country," wrote Gorret, "for no man had gone beyond this point." Here opinions were divided; Gorret suggested ascending by the ridge and scaling the last tower straight up. Carrel was inclined to traverse to the west of the peak, and thence go up on the Zmutt side. Naturally the wish of Carrel prevailed, for he was the leader and had not lost the habit of command, notwithstanding his recent defeat. They made the passage of the enjambée, and traversed the west face to reach the Zmutt ridge. A false step made by one of the party and a fall of icicles from above warned them to return to the direct line of ascent, and the traverse back to the Lion ridge was one of the greatest difficulty. A falling stone injured Gorret in the arm. At last they reached the base of the final tower. "We stood," wrote Gorret, "in a place that was almost comfortable. Although it was not more than two yards wide, and the slope was one of 75 percent, we gave it all kinds of pleasant names : the corridor, the gallery, the railroad, &c., &c." They imagined all difficulties were at an end; but a rock couloir, which they had hitherto not observed, lay between them and the final bit of ridge, where progress would be perfectly easy. It would have been unwise for all four to descend into the couloir, because they did not know where to fix the rope that would be needed on their return. Time pressed: it was necessary to reduce the numbers of the party; Gorret sacrificed himself, and Meynet stopped with him. Very soon afterwards Carrel and Bich were finally on the top. Meanwhile, Giordano at Breuil was writing in his diary as follows: "Splendid weather; at 9.30 saw Carrel and his men on the Shoulder, after that saw nothing more of them. Then much mist about the summit. Lifted a bit about 3.30, and we saw our flag on the western summit of the Matterhorn." Other ascents Ridges The first direct ascent of the Italian (south-west) ridge as it is climbed today was by J. J. and J. P. Maquignaz on 13 September 1867. Julius Elliott made the second ascent via the Hörnli (north-east) ridge in 1868, and later that year the party of John Tyndall, J. J. and J. P. Maquignaz was the first to traverse the summit by way of the Hörnli and Italian ridges. On 22 August 1871, while wearing a white print dress, Lucy Walker became the first woman to reach the summit of the Matterhorn, followed a few weeks later by her rival Meta Brevoort. The first winter ascent of the Hörnli ridge was by Vittorio Sella with guides J. A. Carrel, J. B. Carrel and L. Carrel on 17 March 1882, and its first solo ascent was made by W. Paulcke in 1898. The first winter solo ascent of the Hörnli ridge was by G. Gervasutti in 1936. The Zmutt (north-west) ridge was first climbed by Albert F. Mummery, Alexander Burgener, J. Petrus and A. Gentinetta on 3 September 1879. Its first solo ascent was made by Hans Pfann in 1906, and the first winter ascent was made by H. Masson and E. Petrig on 25 March 1948. The last of the Matterhorn's four ridges to be ascended was the Furggen (south-east) ridge. M. Piacenza with guides J. J. Carrel and J. Gaspard on 9 September 1911, climbed most of the ridge but bypassed the overhangs near the top to the south. Not until 23 September 1942, during the Second World War, did Alfredo Perino, along with guides Louis Carrel (nicknamed "The Little Carrel") and Giacomo Chiara, climb the complete ridge and the overhangs directly. In 1966, René Arnold and Joseph Graven made the first solo enchainement of the four Matterhorn ridges in 19.5 hours. Beginning at the 3,300m Bossi Bivouac hut, the pair followed the normal route up the Furggen Ridge and then descended the Hornli Ridge. After crossing the Matterhorn Glacier at the base of the north face, they ascended the Zmutt Ridge and then descended the Italian (Lion) Ridge to the village of Breuil. In 1985, Marco Barmasse repeated their achievement, but this time his route included the first solo ascent of the Furggen overhangs. He completed the enchainement, reaching the Abruzzi Hut after 15 hours. On 20 August 1992, Italian alpinist Hans Kammerlander and Swiss alpine guide Diego Wellig climbed the Matterhorn four times in just 23 hours and 26 minutes. The route they followed was: Zmutt ridge–summit–Hörnli ridge (descent)–Furggen ridge–summit–Lion ridge (descent)–Lion ridge–summit–Hörnli ridge (descent)–Hörnli ridge–summit–Hörnli Hut (descent). However the Italian route (Lion Ridge), was not climbed from Duca degli Abruzzi Refuge at 2802 m, but from Carrel Hut, at 3830 m, both uphill and downhill. In 1995, Bruno Brunod climbed Matterhorn from the village Breuil-Cervinia in 2 h 10 min. and from Breuil-Cervinia to Matterhorn and back, in 3:14:44 On 21 August 2013, the Spanish mountain runner Kilian Jornet broke Brunod's record as it took him 1 hour, 56 min to the top from Breuil-Cervinia - a round-trip time of 2 hours 52 minutes to return to his starting point. Faces William Penhall and guides made the first (partial) ascent of the west face, the Matterhorn's most hidden and unknown, one hour after Mummery and party's first ascent of the Zmutt ridge on 3 September 1879. It was not until 1962 that the west face was completely climbed. The ascent was made on 13 August by Renato Daguin and Giovanni Ottin. In January 1978 seven Italian alpine guides made a successful winter climb of Daguin and Ottin's highly direct, and previously unrepeated, 1962 route. But a storm came during their ascent, bringing two metres of snow to Breuil-Cervinia and Zermatt, and their accomplishment turned bitter when one of the climbers died during the descent. The north face, before it was climbed in 1931, was one of the last great big wall problems in the Alps. To succeed on the north face, good climbing and ice-climbing technique and route-finding ability were required. Unexpectedly it was first climbed by the brothers Franz and Toni Schmid on 31 July – 1 August 1931. They reached the summit at the end of the second day, after a night of bivouac. Because they had kept their plans secret, their ascent was a complete surprise. In addition, the two brothers had travelled by bicycle from Munich and after their successful ascent they cycled back home again. The first winter ascent of the north face was made by Hilti von Allmen and Paul Etter on 3-4 February 1962. Its first solo ascent was made in five hours by Dieter Marchart on 22 July 1959. Walter Bonatti climbed the "North Face Direct" solo on 18-22 February 1965. The same year, Yvette Vaucher became the first woman to climb the north face. Bonatti's direct route was not repeated solo until 29 years later, in winter 1994 by Catherine Destivelle. Ueli Steck set the record time in climbing the north face (Schmid route) of Matterhorn in 2009 with a time of 1 hour 56 minutes. After Bonatti's climb, the best alpinists were still preoccupied with one last great problem: the "Zmutt Nose", an overhang lying on the right-hand side of the north face. In July 1969 two Italians, Alessandro Gogna and Leo Cerruti, attempted to solve the problem. It took them four days to figure out the unusual overhangs, avoiding however its steepest part. In July 1981 the Swiss Michel Piola and Pierre-Alain Steiner surmounted the Zmutt Nose by following a direct route, the Piola-Steiner. The first ascent of the south face was made by Enzo Benedetti with guides Louis Carrel and Maurice Bich on 15 October 1931, and the first complete ascent of the east face was made by Enzo Benedetti and G. Mazzotti with guides Louis and Lucien Carrel, Maurice Bich and Antoine Gaspard on 18-19 September 1932. Casualties on the Matterhorn The four men lost in 1865 have not been the only fatalities on the Matterhorn. In fact, several climbers die each year due to a number of factors including the scale of the climb and its inherent dangers, inexperience, falling rocks, and overcrowded routes. The Matterhorn is thus amongst the deadliest mountains in the world. By the late 1980s, it was estimated that over 500 people have died whilst attempting its summit since the 1865 ascent, with an average of about 12 deaths each year. In the 2000s, there was a trend of fewer people dying each year on the mountain. This has been attributed partly to a greater awareness of the risks, and also due to the fact that a majority of climbers now use local guides. However, in the summer of 2018, at least ten people died on the mountain. Here is a list of people who died on the mountain whose bodies were not recovered until later: 1954 French skier Henri le Masne went missing on the Matterhorn. In 2005 remains were found, identified as le Masne in 2018 1970 Two Japanese climbers missing; remains found after 45 years in 2015 1979 British climber missing; remains found after 34 years in 2014 2014 Japanese hiker missing; remains found 2018 2016 Two British climbers missing; remains found 2016 Legacy: beginning of mountain culture The first ascent of the Matterhorn changed mountain culture. Whymper’s book about his first ascent, Scrambles Amongst the Alps, published in 1871, was a worldwide bestseller. Tourists began to visit Switzerland in the summer to see the Alps and often hired locals as guides. With the beginning of alpine skiing in the early 20th century, tourists began traveling to Switzerland in winter also. Mountaineering, in part, helped transform Switzerland’s mountain regions from poor rural areas to tourist destinations. This combination of mountain climbing, skiing and tourism, was used in the western United States, creating Sun Valley, Vail, Jackson Hole, and other mountain towns around the world. Climbing routes Today, all ridges and faces of the Matterhorn have been ascended in all seasons, and mountain guides take a large number of people up the northeast Hörnli route each summer. In total, up to 150 climbers attempt the Matterhorn each day during summer. By modern standards, the climb is fairly difficult (AD Difficulty rating), but not hard for skilled mountaineers according to French climbing grades. There are fixed ropes on parts of the route to help. Still, it should be remembered that several climbers may die on the mountain each year. The usual pattern of ascent is to take the Schwarzsee cable car up from Zermatt, hike up to the Hörnli Hut elev. 3,260 m (10,700 ft), a large stone building at the base of the main ridge, and spend the night. The next day, climbers rise at 3:30 am so as to reach the summit and descend before the regular afternoon clouds and storms come in. The Solvay Hut located on the ridge at 4,003 m (13,133 ft) can be used only in a case of emergency. Other popular routes on the mountain include the Italian (Lion) ridge (AD+ Difficulty rating) and the Zmutt ridge (D Difficulty rating). The four faces, as well as the Furggen ridge, constitute the most challenging routes to the summit. The north face is amongst the six most difficult faces of the Alps, as well as ‘The Trilogy’, the three hardest of the six, along with the north faces of the Eiger and the Grandes Jorasses (TD+ Difficulty rating). Overcrowding on the several routes have become an issue and guides and local authorities have struggled with how to regulate the numbers. In 2015 the Hörnli hut became the first mountain shelter in Europe to limit beds. History Aegidius Tschudi, one of the earliest Alpine topographers and historians, was the first to mention the region around the Matterhorn in his work, De Prisca ac Vera Alpina Raethi, published in Basel in 1538. He approached the Matterhorn as a student when in his Alpine travels he reached the summit of the Theodul Pass but he does not seem to have paid any particular attention to the mountain itself. The Matterhorn remained unstudied for more than two centuries, until a geologist from Geneva, Horace Benedict de Saussure, travelled to the mountain, which filled him with admiration. However, de Saussure was not moved to climb the mountain, and had no hope of measuring its altitude by taking a barometer to its summit. "Its precipitous sides," he wrote, "which give no hold to the very snows, are such as to afford no means of access." Yet his scientific interest was kindled by "the proud peak which rises to so vast an altitude, like a triangular obelisk, that seems to be carved by a chisel." His mind intuitively grasped the causes which gave the peak its present precipitous form: the Matterhorn was not like a perfected crystal; the centuries had laboured to destroy a great part of an ancient and much larger mountain. On his first journey de Saussure had come from Ayas to the Col des Cimes Blanches, from where the Matterhorn first comes into view; descending to Breuil, he ascended to the Theodul Pass. On his second journey, in 1792, he came to the Valtournanche, studying and describing it; he ascended to the Theodul Pass, where he spent three days, analysing the structure of the Matterhorn, whose height he was the first to measure, and collecting stones, plants and insects. He made careful observations, from the sparse lichen that clung to the rocks to the tiny but vigorous glacier fly that fluttered over the snows and whose existence at such heights was mysterious. At night he took refuge under the tent erected near the ruins of an old fort at the top of the pass. During these days he climbed the Klein Matterhorn (3,883 metres), which he named the Cime Brune du Breithorn. The first inquirers began to come to the Matterhorn. There is a record of a party of Englishmen who in the summer of 1800 crossed the Great St. Bernard Pass, a few months after the passage of Bonaparte; they came to Aosta and thence to Valtournenche, slept at the chalets of Breuil, and traversed the Theodul Pass, which they called Monte Rosa. The Matterhorn was to them an object of the most intense and continuous admiration. The Matterhorn is mentioned in a guide-book to Switzerland by Johann Gottfried Ebel, which was published in Zürich towards the end of the eighteenth century, and translated into English in 1818. The mountain appeared in it under the three names of Silvius, Matterhorn, and Mont Cervin, and was briefly described as one of the most splendid and wonderful obelisks in the Alps. On Zermatt there was a note: "A place which may, perhaps, interest the tourist is the valley of Praborgne (Zermatt); it is bounded by huge glaciers which come right down into the valley; the village of Praborgne is fairly high, and stands at a great height above the glaciers; its climate is almost as warm as that of Italy, and plants belonging to hot countries are to be found there at considerable altitudes, above the ice." William Brockedon, who came to the region in 1825, considered the crossing of the Theodul Pass from Breuil to Zermatt a difficult undertaking. He gave, however, expression to his enthusiasm on the summit. When he arrived exhausted on the top of the pass, he gazed "on the beautiful pyramid of the Cervin, more wonderful than aught else in sight, rising from its bed of ice to a height of 5,000 feet, a spectacle of indescribable grandeur." In this "immense natural amphitheatre, enclosed from time immemorial by snow-clad mountains and glaciers ever white, in the presence of these grand walls the mind is overwhelmed, not indeed that it is unable to contemplate the scene, but it staggers under the immensity of those objects which it contemplates." Those who made their way up through the Valtournanche to the foot of the mountain were few in number. W. A. B. Coolidge, a diligent collector of old and new stories of the Alps, mentions that during those years, besides Brockedon, only Hirzel-Escher of Zürich, who crossed the Theodul Pass in 1822, starting from Breuil, accompanied by a local guide. The greater number came from the Valais up the Visp valley to Zermatt. In 1813, a Frenchman, Henri Maynard, climbed to the Theodul Pass and made the first ascent of the Breithorn; he was accompanied by numerous guides, among them J. M. Couttet of Chamonix, the same man who had gone with de Saussure to the top of the Klein Matterhorn in 1792. The writings of these pioneers make much mention of the Matterhorn; the bare and inert rock is gradually quickened into life by men's enthusiasm. "Stronger minds," remarked Edward Whymper, "felt the influence of the wonderful form, and men who ordinarily spoke or wrote like rational beings, when they came under its power seemed to quit their senses, and ranted and rhapsodised, losing for a time all common forms of speech." Among the poets of the Matterhorn during these years (1834 to 1840) were Elie de Beaumont, a famous French geologist; Pierre Jean Édouard Desor, a naturalist of Neuchâtel, who went up there with a party of friends, two of whom were Louis Agassiz and Bernhard Studer. Christian Moritz Engelhardt, who was so filled with admiration for Zermatt and its neighbourhood that he returned there at least ten times (from 1835 to 1855), described these places in two valuable volumes, drew panoramas and maps, and collected the most minute notes on the mineralogy and botany of the region. Zermatt was at that time a quiet little village, and travellers found hospitality at the parish priest's, or at the village doctor's. In 1841 James David Forbes, professor of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, came to see the Matterhorn. A philosopher and geologist, and an observant traveller, he continued the work of De Saussure in his journeys and his writings. He was full of admiration for the Matterhorn, calling it the most wonderful peak in the Alps, unsealed and unscalable. These words, pronounced by a man noted among all his contemporaries for his thorough knowledge of mountains, show what men's feelings then were towards the Matterhorn, and how at a time when the idea of Alpine exploration was gaining ground in their minds, the Matterhorn stood by itself as a mountain apart, of whose conquest it was vain even to dream. And such it remained till long after this; as such it was described by John Ball twenty years later in his celebrated guide-book. Forbes ascended the Theodul Pass in 1842, climbed the Breithorn, and came down to Breuil; as he descended from the savage scenery of the Matterhorn, the Italian landscapes of the Valtournanche seemed to him like paradise. Meanwhile, Gottlieb Samuel Studer, the geographer, together with Melchior Ulrich, was describing and mapping the topographical features of the Zermatt peaks. Rodolphe Töpffer, who first accompanied and guided youth to the Alps for purposes of education and amusement, began his journeys in 1832, but it is only in 1840 that he mentions the Matterhorn. Two years later Töpffer and his pupils came to Zermatt. He has described this journey of his in a chapter entitled Voyage autour du Mont Blanc jusqu'à Zermatt, here he sings a hymn of praise to the Matterhorn, comparing its form with a "huge crystal of a hundred facets, flashing varied hues, that softly reflects the light, unshaded, from the uttermost depths of the heavens". Töpffer's book was illustrated by Alexandre Calame, his master and friend, with drawings of the Matterhorn, executed in the romantic style of the period. It is an artificial mountain, a picture corresponding rather with the exaggerated effect it produces on the astonished mind of the artist, than with the real form of the mountain. About this time there came a man who studied the Matterhorn in its structure and form, and who sketched it and described it in all its parts with the curiosity of the artist and the insight of the scientist. This was John Ruskin, a new and original type of philosopher and geologist, painter and poet, whom England was enabled to create during that period of radical intellectual reforms, which led the way for the highest development of her civilisation. Ruskin was the Matterhorn's poet par excellence. He went to Zermatt in 1844, and it is to be noticed as a curious fact, that the first time he saw the Matterhorn it did not please him. The mountain on its lofty pedestal in the very heart of the Alps was, perhaps, too far removed from the ideal he had formed of the mountains; but he returned, studied and dreamt for long at its feet, and at length he pronounced it "the most noble cliff in Europe." Ruskin was no mountaineer, nor a great friend to mountaineering; he drew sketches of the mountains merely as an illustration of his teaching of the beauty of natural forms, which was the object of his whole life. In his work on Modern Painters he makes continual use of the mountains as an example of beauty and an incentive to morality. The publication of Ruskin's work certainly produced a great impression at the time on educated people in England, and a widespread desire to see the mountains. It is a fragment of some size; a group of broken walls, one of them overhanging; crowned with a cornice, nodding some hundred and fifty feet over its massive flank, three thousand above its glacier base, and fourteen thousand above the sea, — a wall truly of some majesty, at once the most precipitous and the strongest mass in the whole chain of the Alps, the Mont Cervin. Other men of high attainments followed, but in the years 1850 scientists and artists were about to be succeeded by real climbers and the passes and peaks around Zermatt were explored little by little. In the preface to the first volume of the Alpine Journal, which appeared in 1863, the editor Hereford Brooke George wrote that: "While even if all other objects of interest in Switzerland should be exhausted, the Matterhorn remains (who shall say for how long?) unconquered and apparently invincible." Whymper successfully reached the summit in 1865, but four men perished on the descent. The English papers discussed it with bitter words of blame; a German newspaper published an article in which Whymper was accused of cutting the rope between Douglas and Taugwalder, at the critical moment, to save his own life. In 1890 the Federal Government was asked simultaneously by the same contractor for a concession for the Zermatt-Gornergrat railway, and for a Zermatt-Matterhorn one. The Gornergrat railway was constructed in 1896-1898 and has been working since August 1898, but there has been no more talk of the other. The project essentially consisted of a line which went up to the Hörnli, and continued thence in a rectilinear tunnel about two kilometres long, built under the ridge, and issuing near the summit on the Zmutt side. Sixty years later in 1950, Italian engineer Count Dino Lora Totino planned a cable car on the Italian side from Breuil-Cervinia to the summit. But the Alpine Museum of Zermatt sent a protest letter with 90,000 signatures to the Italian government. The latter declared the Matterhorn a natural wonder worthy of protection and refused the concession to the engineer. 2015 marked the 150th anniversary of the first ascent. Events and festivities were held throughout the year. A completely renewed Hörnli Hut opened the same year in the month of July. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, light artist Gerry Hofstetter started projecting country flags and messages of endurance onto the mountain peak as part of a nightly series designed to show support and spread hope for everyone suffering and those fighting the pandemic. Other mountains Hundreds of other mountains have been compared to the Matterhorn, either for their resemblance to it or because of their apparent inaccessibility. Mountains named after the Matterhorn Little Matterhorn (1,480 m), Australia Matterhorn (1,600 m), in Antarctica Matterhorn (3,305 m), in Nevada Matterhorn Peak (3,744 m), in California Matterhorn Peak (4,144 m), in Colorado Matterhorn Peak (2,636 m), in British Columbia Neny Matterhorn (1,125 m), Antarctica In culture During the 20th century, the Matterhorn and the story of the first ascent in particular, inspired various artists and film producers such as Luis Trenker and Walt Disney. Large-scale replicas can be found at Disneyland and Window of the World. In 2021, a Matterhorn-related attraction opened in the Swiss Museum of Transport, enabling visitors to climb it virtually from the Solvay Hut to the summit. Designed in 1908 by Emil Cardinaux, a leading poster artist of the time, the Matterhorn poster for the Zermatt tourist office is often considered the first modern poster. It has been described as a striking example of a marriage of tourism, patriotism and popular art. It served as decoration in many Swiss military hospices during the war in addition to be found in countless middle-class living rooms. Another affiche depicting the Matterhorn was created by Cardinaux for the chocolate brand Toblerone in the 1920s. The image of the Matterhorn first appeared on Toblerone chocolate bars in 1960. Since then, the Matterhorn has become a reference that still inspires graphic artists today and has been used extensively for all sort of publicity and advertising. Paintings The Matterhorn (1849), John Ruskin The Matterhorn (1867), Albert Bierstadt Matterhorn (1879), Edward Theodore Compton Le Cervin (1892), Félix Vallotton Coins Filmography Struggle for the Matterhorn (1928) The Mountain Calls (1938) The Challenge (1938) Climbing the Matterhorn (1947) Third Man on the Mountain (1959) Im Banne des Berges (2015) Soarin' Around the World/Soaring Over the Horizon (2016) The Horn (2016) - Documentary series following the mountain rescue teams in the Swiss Alps. Bibliography Guido Rey The Matterhorn (translated J. E. C. Eaton), London, 1907 Beat P. Truffer: Matterhorn-DVD, 1:18 Film, 1'001 Photos, 17 E-Books, 1 Audiobook, Aroleit-Verlag, Zermatt 2015, ISBN 978-3-905097-24-5, www.matterhornworld.ch Charles Gos, Le Cervin (Attinger, 1948) Yvan Hostettler, Matterhorn: Alpine Top Model (Olizane Edition, Geneva, 2006). The use of the Matterhorn in advertisement, publicity, movies, painting and arts R. L. G. Irving, Ten Great Mountains (London, J. M. Dent & Sons, 1940) Beat P. Truffler, The History of the Matterhorn: First Ascents, Projects and Adventures, 7th ed., (Aroleit-Verlag, Zermatt, 2015). ISBN 978-3-905097-22-1. Translation of Die Geschichte des Matterhorns from the German by Mirjam Steinmann Edward Whymper, Scrambles Amongst the Alps (1871) The book, Banner in the Sky, by James Ramsey Ullman is based on Edward Whympers ascent. Notes and references Notes References La conquête du Cervin, Pierre Staelen External links Matterhorn from the Zermatt Tourism official website 150th anniversary from the Zermatt Tourism official website Matterhorn Webcams from the Breuil-Cervinia Tourism official website Virtual ascent of the Hörnli Ridge with 360 degree panoramas Landscape Artist Attempts to Climb Matterhorn (detailed story of the first ascent) Chronology of climbs (in German) Climbing and trekking Matterhorn on Summitpost Matterhorn on Peakware Matterhorn on Hikr Matterhorn on GeoFinder.ch Matterhorn on 4000er.de (in German) Matterhorn Tour guidebook 2018 BBC story of skier lost near Matterhorn 1954; found 2005; identified 2018 BBC July 29, 2018 Videos Der Berg ruft! is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive (film based on the first ascent story, subtitled in French) The Challenge on YouTube - remake of Der Berg ruft! The Matterhorn on YouTube - documentary featuring the climb on the Hörnli ridge The Matterhorn Summit (150y) on YouTube - traverse of the very sharp summit ridge by two Polish climbers (A.Wójcik, Y.Trokhymenko)

Mount Thor, officially gazetted as Thor Peak (Inuktitut: ᙯᕐᓱᐊᓗᒃ Qaisualuk "huge bedrock" or Kigutinnguaq "tooth-like"), is a mountain with an elevation of 1,675 m (5,495 ft) located in Auyuittuq National Park, on Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada. The mountain is located 46 km (29 mi) northeast of Pangnirtung and features Earth's greatest vertical drop of 1,200 m (4,100 ft), with the cliff overhanging at an average angle of 105 degrees (15 degrees from vertical). Despite its remoteness, this feature makes the mountain a popular rock climbing site. Camping is allowed, with several designated campsites located throughout the length of Akshayuk Pass. For climbers looking to scale Mount Thor, there is an established campsite a few kilometres north of its base, complete with windbreaks and emergency shelters. The English naming of the mountain originates from Thor, the Norse thunder god. Geography Mount Thor is part of the Baffin Mountains which in turn form part of the Arctic Cordillera mountain range. Geology This mountain consists of solid granite. The rock making up this formation have been metamorphosed multiple times through earth's history, causing this granitic layer to be pushed through other layers. The age of the rock ranges from 570 million years to 3.5 billion years (Precambrian), making it some of the oldest rock on earth. The peak and vertical drop itself are a product of glacial erosion, carved over millennia by seasonal glacial activity through the Akshayuk Pass, on the rim of which this mountain sits. Like other glacial channels, this pass has the characteristic U-shape which gives the mountain its vertical drop Ascents Donald Morton and Lyman Spitzer made the first recorded ascent of Mount Thor in 1965 during the Alpine Club of Canada expedition led by Pat Baird.: 347  Pat Baird also led the 1953 geophysical expedition during which Hans Weber, J. Rothlisberger and F. Schwarzenbach climbed the North Tower of Mount Asgard for the first time. The first ascent of the west face was achieved by Earl Redfern, John Bagley, Eric Brand and Tom Bepler in 1985. The first solo ascent of the West Face was completed by Jason 'Singer' Smith in 1998. The first free climb of the Southwest Buttress was made in 2012 by Bill Borger and John Furneaux. See also Trango Towers – the tallest near-vertical drop on Earth Cerro Torre Half Dome References External links Above the Arctic Circle: Trekking across Canada's Baffin Island at the Wayback Machine (archived 2009-01-30) about Mt. Thor and other Akshayuk Pass features by writer Dave Levinthal

Mount Everest (also Mount Sagarmatha or Mount Qomolangma) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow height) of 8,848.86 m (29,031 ft 8+1⁄2 in) was most recently established in 2020 by the Chinese and Nepali authorities. Mount Everest attracts many climbers, including highly experienced mountaineers. There are two main climbing routes, one approaching the summit from the southeast in Nepal (known as the "standard route") and the other from the north in Tibet. While not posing substantial technical climbing challenges on the standard route, Everest presents dangers such as altitude sickness, weather, and wind, as well as hazards from avalanches and the Khumbu Icefall. As of May 2024, 340 people have died on Everest. Over 200 bodies remain on the mountain and have not been removed due to the dangerous conditions. Climbers typically ascend only part of Mount Everest's elevation, as the mountain's full elevation is measured from the geoid, which approximates sea level. The closest sea to Mount Everest's summit is the Bay of Bengal, almost 700 km (430 mi) away. So to approximate a climb of the entire height of Mount Everest, one would need to start from this coastline, a feat accomplished by Tim Macartney-Snape's team in 1990. Climbers usually begin their ascent from base camps above 5,000 m (16,404 ft). The amount of elevation climbed from below these camps varies. On the Tibetan side, most climbers drive directly to the North Base Camp. On the Nepalese side, climbers generally fly into Kathmandu, then Lukla, and trek to the South Base Camp, making the climb from Lukla to the summit about 6,000 m (19,685 ft) in elevation gain. The first recorded efforts to reach Everest's summit were made by British mountaineers. As Nepal did not allow foreigners to enter the country at the time, the British made several attempts on the north ridge route from the Tibetan side. After the first reconnaissance expedition by the British in 1921 reached 7,000 m (22,970 ft) on the North Col, the 1922 expedition pushed the north ridge route up to 8,320 m (27,300 ft), marking the first time a human had climbed above 8,000 m (26,247 ft). The 1924 expedition resulted in one of the greatest mysteries on Everest to this day: George Mallory and Andrew Irvine made a final summit attempt on 8 June but never returned, sparking debate as to whether they were the first to reach the top. Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary made the first documented ascent of Everest in 1953, using the southeast ridge route. Norgay had reached 8,595 m (28,199 ft) the previous year as a member of the 1952 Swiss expedition. The Chinese mountaineering team of Wang Fuzhou, Gonpo, and Qu Yinhua made the first reported ascent of the peak from the north ridge on 25 May 1960. Name Mount Everest's Nepali/Sanskrit name is Sagarmāthā (IAST transcription) or Sagar-Matha (सगर-माथा, [sʌɡʌrmatʰa], lit. "goddess of the sky"), which means "the head in the great blue sky", being derived from सगर (sagar), meaning "sky", and माथा (māthā), meaning "head". The Tibetan name for Everest is Qomolangma (ཇོ་མོ་གླང་མ, lit. "holy mother"). The name was first recorded (in a Chinese transcription) in the 1721 Kangxi Atlas, issued during the reign of Qing Emperor Kangxi; it first appeared in the West in 1733 as Tchoumour Lancma, on a map prepared by the French geographer D'Anville and based on Kangxi Atlas. The Tibetan name is also popularly romanised as Chomolungma and (in Wylie) as Jo-mo-glang-ma. The official Chinese transcription is 珠穆朗玛峰 (t 珠穆朗瑪峰), or Zhūmùlǎngmǎ Fēng in pinyin. While other Chinese names have been used historically, including Shèngmǔ Fēng (t 聖母峰, s 圣母峰, lit. "holy mother peak"), these names were largely phased out after the Chinese Ministry of Internal Affairs issued a decree to adopt a sole name in May 1952. The British geographic survey of 1849 attempted to preserve local names when possible (e.g., Kangchenjunga and Dhaulagiri.) However, Andrew Waugh, the British Surveyor General of India, claimed that he could not find a commonly used local name, and that his search for one had been hampered by the Nepalese and Tibetan policy of exclusion of foreigners. Waugh argued that - because there were many local names - it would be difficult to favour one name over all others; he therefore decided that Peak XV should be named after British surveyor Sir George Everest, his predecessor as Surveyor General of India. Everest himself opposed the honor, and told the Royal Geographical Society in 1857 that "Everest" could neither be written in Hindi nor pronounced by "the native of India". Despite Everest's objections, Waugh's proposed name prevailed, and the Royal Geographical Society officially adopted the name "Mount Everest" in 1865. The modern pronunciation of Everest () is different from Sir George's pronunciation of his surname ( EEV-rist). In the late 19th century, many European cartographers incorrectly believed that a native name for the mountain was Gaurishankar, a mountain between Kathmandu and Everest. Other names "Peak XV" (temporary, assigned by British Imperial Survey) "Deodungha" (Old Darjeeling) "Gauri Shankar, " "Gaurishankar," or "Gaurisankar" (misattribution; used occasionally until about 1900. In modern times the name is used for a different peak about 30 miles (48 kilometres) away.) Surveys 19th century In 1802, the British began the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India to fix the locations, heights, and names of the world's highest mountains. Starting in southern India, the survey teams moved northward using giant theodolites, each weighing 500 kg (1,100 lb) and requiring 12 men to carry, to measure heights as accurately as possible. They reached the Himalayan foothills by the 1830s, but Nepal was unwilling to allow the British to enter the country due to suspicions of their intentions. Several requests by the surveyors to enter Nepal were denied. The British were forced to continue their observations from Terai, a region south of Nepal which is parallel to the Himalayas. Conditions in Terai were difficult because of torrential rains and malaria. Three survey officers died from malaria while two others had to retire because of failing health. Nonetheless, in 1847, the British continued the survey and began detailed observations of the Himalayan peaks from observation stations up to 240 km (150 mi) distant. Weather restricted work to the last three months of the year. In November 1847, Andrew Scott Waugh, the British Surveyor General of India, made several observations from the Sawajpore station at the east end of the Himalayas. Kangchenjunga was then considered the highest peak in the world, and with interest, he noted a peak beyond it, about 230 km (140 mi) away. John Armstrong, one of Waugh's subordinates, also saw the peak from a site farther west and called it peak "b". Waugh would later write that the observations indicated that peak "b" was higher than Kangchenjunga, but closer observations were required for verification. The following year, Waugh sent a survey official back to Terai to make closer observations of peak "b", but clouds thwarted his attempts. In 1849, Waugh dispatched James Nicolson to the area, who made two observations from Jirol, 190 km (120 mi) away. Nicolson then took the largest theodolite and headed east, obtaining over 30 observations from five different locations, with the closest being 174 km (108 mi) from the peak. Nicolson retreated to Patna on the Ganges to perform the necessary calculations based on his observations. His raw data gave an average height of 9,200 m (30,200 ft) for peak "b", but this did not consider light refraction, which distorts heights. However, the number clearly indicated that peak "b" was higher than Kangchenjunga. Nicolson contracted malaria and was forced to return home without finishing his calculations. Michael Hennessy, one of Waugh's assistants, had begun designating peaks based on Roman numerals, with Kangchenjunga named Peak IX. Peak "b" now became known as Peak XV. In 1852, stationed at the survey headquarters in Dehradun, Radhanath Sikdar, an Indian mathematician and surveyor from Bengal was the first to identify Everest as the world's highest peak, using trigonometric calculations based on Nicolson's measurements. An official announcement that Peak XV was the highest was delayed for several years as the calculations were repeatedly verified. Waugh began work on Nicolson's data in 1854, and along with his staff spent almost two years working on the numbers, having to deal with the problems of light refraction, barometric pressure, and temperature over the vast distances of the observations. Finally, in March 1856 he announced his findings in a letter to his deputy in Calcutta. Kangchenjunga was declared to be 8,582 m (28,156 ft), while Peak XV was given the height of 8,840 m (29,002 ft). Waugh concluded that Peak XV was "most probably the highest in the world". Peak XV (measured in feet) was calculated to be exactly 29,000 ft (8,839.2 m) high, but was publicly declared to be 29,002 ft (8,839.8 m) in order to avoid the impression that an exact height of 29,000 feet (8,839.2 m) was nothing more than a rounded estimate. Waugh is sometimes playfully credited with being "the first person to put two feet on top of Mount Everest". 20th century In 1856, Andrew Waugh announced Everest (then known as Peak XV) as 8,840 m (29,002 ft) high, after several years of calculations based on observations made by the Great Trigonometrical Survey. From 1952 to 1954, the Survey of India, using triangulation methods, determined that the height of Everest was 8,847.73 m (29,028 ft). In 1975 it was subsequently reaffirmed by a Chinese measurement of 8,848.13 m (29,029.30 ft). In both cases the snow cap, not the rock head, was measured. The 8,848 m (29,029 ft) height given was officially recognised by Nepal and China. Nepal planned a new survey in 2019 to determine if the April 2015 Nepal earthquake affected the height of the mountain. In May 1999, an American Everest expedition directed by Bradford Washburn anchored a GPS unit into the highest bedrock. A rock head elevation of 8,850 m (29,035 ft), and a snow/ice elevation 1 m (3 ft) higher, were obtained via this device. Although as of 2001, it has not been officially recognised by Nepal, this figure is widely quoted. Geoid uncertainty casts doubt upon the accuracy claimed by both the 1999 and 2005 (see § 21st-century surveys) surveys. In 1955, a detailed photogrammetric map (at a scale of 1:50,000) of the Khumbu region, including the south side of Mount Everest, was made by Erwin Schneider as part of the 1955 International Himalayan Expedition, which also attempted Lhotse. In the late 1980s, an even more detailed topographic map of the Everest area was made under the direction of Bradford Washburn, using extensive aerial photography. 21st century On 9 October 2005, after several months of measurement and calculation, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping announced the height of Everest as 8,844.43 m (29,017.16 ft) with accuracy of ±0.21 m (8.3 in), claiming it was the most accurate and precise measurement to date. This height is based on the highest point of rock and not the snow and ice covering it. The Chinese team measured a snow-ice depth of 3.5 m (11 ft), which is in agreement with a net elevation of 8,848 m (29,029 ft). An argument arose between China and Nepal as to whether the official height should be the rock height (8,844 m, China) or the snow height (8,848 m, Nepal). In 2010, both sides agreed that the height of Everest is 8,848 m, and Nepal recognises China's claim that the rock height of Everest is 8,844 m. On 8 December 2020, it was jointly announced by the two countries that the new official height is 8,848.86 metres (29,031.7 ft). It is thought that the plate tectonics of the Main Himalayan Thrust and related faults, which form the convergent boundary between the Eurasian Plate and Indian Plate, are adding to the height and moving the summit northeastwards. Two accounts suggest the rates of change are 4 mm (0.16 in) per year vertically and 3 to 6 mm (0.12 to 0.24 in) per year horizontally, but another account mentions more lateral movement (27 mm or 1.1 in), and even shrinkage has been suggested. Comparisons The summit of Everest is the point at which Earth's surface reaches the greatest distance above sea level. Several other mountains are sometimes claimed to be the "tallest mountains on Earth". Mauna Kea in Hawaii is tallest when measured from its base; it rises over 10,200 m (33,464.6 ft) from its base on the mid-ocean floor, but only attains 4,205 m (13,796 ft) above sea level. By the same measure of base to summit, Denali, in Alaska, formerly known as Mount McKinley, is taller than Everest as well. Despite its height above sea level of only 6,190 m (20,308 ft), Denali sits atop a sloping plain with elevations from 300 to 900 m (980 to 2,950 ft), yielding a height above base in the range of 5,300 to 5,900 m (17,400 to 19,400 ft); a commonly quoted figure is 5,600 m (18,400 ft). By comparison, reasonable base elevations for Everest range from 4,200 m (13,800 ft) on the south side to 5,200 m (17,100 ft) on the Tibetan Plateau, yielding a height above base in the range of 3,650 to 4,650 m (11,980 to 15,260 ft). The summit of Chimborazo in Ecuador is 2,168 m (7,113 ft) farther from Earth's centre (6,384.4 km, 3,967.1 mi) than that of Everest (6,382.3 km, 3,965.8 mi), because the Earth bulges at the equator. This is despite Chimborazo having a peak of 6,268 m (20,564.3 ft) above sea level versus Mount Everest's 8,848 m (29,028.9 ft). Context and maps Nearby peaks include Lhotse, 8,516 m (27,940 ft); Nuptse, 7,855 m (25,771 ft), and Changtse, 7,580 m (24,870 ft) among others. Another nearby peak is Khumbutse, and many of the highest mountains in the world are near Mount Everest. On the southwest side, a major feature in the lower areas is the Khumbu icefall and glacier, an obstacle to climbers on those routes but also to the base camps. Geology Geologists have subdivided the rocks comprising Mount Everest into three units called formations. Each formation is separated from the other by low-angle faults, called detachments, along which they have been thrust southward over each other. From the summit of Mount Everest to its base these rock units are the Qomolangma Formation, the North Col Formation, and the Rongbuk Formation. The Qomolangma Formation, also known as the Jolmo Lungama Formation, runs from the summit to the top of the Yellow Band, about 8,600 m (28,200 ft) above sea level. It consists of greyish to dark grey or white, parallel laminated and bedded, Ordovician limestone interlayered with subordinate beds of recrystallised dolomite with argillaceous laminae and siltstone. Gansser first reported finding microscopic fragments of crinoids in this limestone. Later petrographic analysis of samples of the limestone from near the summit revealed them to be composed of carbonate pellets and finely fragmented remains of trilobites, crinoids, and ostracods. Other samples were so badly sheared and recrystallised that their original constituents could not be determined. A thick, white-weathering thrombolite bed that is 60 m (200 ft) thick comprises the foot of the "Third Step", and base of the summit pyramid of Everest. This bed, which crops out starting about 70 m (230 ft) below the summit of Mount Everest, consists of sediments trapped, bound, and cemented by the biofilms of micro-organisms, especially cyanobacteria, in shallow marine waters. The Qomolangma Formation is broken up by several high-angle faults that terminate at the low angle normal fault, the Qomolangma Detachment. This detachment separates it from the underlying Yellow Band. The lower five metres of the Qomolangma Formation overlying this detachment are very highly deformed. The bulk of Mount Everest, between 7,000 and 8,600 m (23,000 and 28,200 ft), consists of the North Col Formation, of which the Yellow Band forms the upper part between 8,200 to 8,600 m (26,900 to 28,200 ft). The Yellow Band consists of intercalated beds of Middle Cambrian diopside-epidote-bearing marble, which weathers a distinctive yellowish brown, and muscovite-biotite phyllite and semischist. Petrographic analysis of marble collected from about 8,300 m (27,200 ft) found it to consist as much as five per cent of the ghosts of recrystallised crinoid ossicles. The upper five metres of the Yellow Band lying adjacent to the Qomolangma Detachment is badly deformed. A 5–40 cm (2.0–15.7 in) thick fault breccia separates it from the overlying Qomolangma Formation. The remainder of the North Col Formation, exposed between 7,000 to 8,200 m (23,000 to 26,900 ft) on Mount Everest, consists of interlayered and deformed schist, phyllite, and minor marble. Between 7,600 and 8,200 m (24,900 and 26,900 ft), the North Col Formation consists chiefly of biotite-quartz phyllite and chlorite-biotite phyllite intercalated with minor amounts of biotite-sericite-quartz schist. Between 7,000 and 7,600 m (23,000 and 24,900 ft), the lower part of the North Col Formation consists of biotite-quartz schist intercalated with epidote-quartz schist, biotite-calcite-quartz schist, and thin layers of quartzose marble. These metamorphic rocks appear to be the result of the metamorphism of Middle to Early Cambrian deep sea flysch composed of interbedded, mudstone, shale, clayey sandstone, calcareous sandstone, graywacke, and sandy limestone. The base of the North Col Formation is a regional low-angle normal fault called the "Lhotse detachment". Below 7,000 m (23,000 ft), the Rongbuk Formation underlies the North Col Formation and forms the base of Mount Everest. It consists of sillimanite-K-feldspar grade schist and gneiss intruded by numerous sills and dikes of leucogranite ranging in thickness from 1 cm to 1,500 m (0.4 in to 4,900 ft). These leucogranites are part of a belt of Late Oligocene–Miocene intrusive rocks known as the Higher Himalayan leucogranite. They formed as the result of partial melting of Paleoproterozoic to Ordovician high-grade metasedimentary rocks of the Higher Himalayan Sequence about 20 to 24 million years ago during the subduction of the Indian Plate. Mount Everest consists of sedimentary and metamorphic rocks that have been faulted southward over continental crust composed of Archean granulites of the Indian Plate during the Cenozoic collision of India with Asia. Current interpretations argue that the Qomolangma and North Col formations consist of marine sediments that accumulated within the continental shelf of the northern passive continental margin of India before it collided with Asia. The Cenozoic collision of India with Asia subsequently deformed and metamorphosed these strata as it thrust them southward and upward. The Rongbuk Formation consists of a sequence of high-grade metamorphic and granitic rocks that were derived from the alteration of high-grade metasedimentary rocks. During the collision of India with Asia, these rocks were thrust downward and to the north as they were overridden by other strata; heated, metamorphosed, and partially melted at depths of over 15 to 20 kilometres (9.3 to 12.4 mi) below sea level; and then forced upward to surface by thrusting towards the south between two major detachments. The Himalayas are rising by about 5 mm per year. IUGS geological heritage site In respect of the recognition of the "highest rocks on the planet" as fossiliferous, marine limestone, the Ordovician Rocks of Mount Everest were included by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) in its assemblage of 100 geological heritage sites around the world in a listing published in October 2022. The organisation defines an IUGS Geological Heritage Site as "a key place with geological elements and/or processes of international scientific relevance, used as a reference, and/or with a substantial contribution to the development of geological sciences through history." Flora and fauna There is very little native flora or fauna on Everest. A type of moss grows at 6,480 metres (21,260 ft) on Mount Everest and it may be the highest altitude plant species. An alpine cushion plant called Arenaria is known to grow below 5,500 metres (18,000 ft) in the region. According to the study based on satellite data from 1993 to 2018, vegetation is expanding in the Everest region. Researchers have found plants in areas that were previously deemed bare. A minute black jumping spider of the genus Euophrys has been found at elevations as high as 6,700 metres (22,000 ft), possibly making it the highest confirmed non-microscopic permanent resident on Earth. Another Euophrys species, E. everestensis, has been found at 5,030 metres (16,500 ft), and may feed on insects that have been blown there by the wind. There is a high likelihood of microscopic life at even higher altitudes. The bar-headed goose migrates over the Himalayas and have been seen flying at the higher altitudes of the mountain. In 1953, George Lowe (part of the expedition of Tenzing and Hillary) said that he saw bar-headed geese flying over Everest's summit. Another bird species, the chough, have been spotted as high as the South Col at 7,920 metres (25,980 ft) and yellow-billed choughs have been seen as high as 7,900 metres (26,000 ft). Yaks are often used to haul gear for Mount Everest climbs. They can haul around 100 kg (220 pounds), have thick fur and large lungs. Other animals in the region include the Himalayan tahr, which is sometimes the prey of the snow leopard. The Himalayan black bear can be found up to about 4,300 metres (14,000 ft) and the red panda is also present in the region. One expedition found a surprising range of species in the region including a pika and ten new species of ants. Climate Mount Everest has an ice cap climate (Köppen EF) with all months averaging well below freezing. Climate change The base camp for Everest expeditions based out of Nepal is located by Khumbu Glacier, which is rapidly thinning and destabilizing due to climate change, making it unsafe for climbers. As recommended by the committee formed by Nepal's government to facilitate and monitor mountaineering in the Everest region, Taranath Adhikari—the director general of Nepal's tourism department—said they have plans to move the base camp to a lower altitude. This would mean a longer distance for climbers between the base camp and Camp 1. However, the present base camp is still useful and could still serve its purpose for three to four years. The move may happen by 2024, per officials. Meteorology In 2008, a new weather station at about 8,000 m (26,000 ft) elevation went online. The project was orchestrated by Stations at High Altitude for Research on the Environment (SHARE), which also placed the Mount Everest webcam in 2011. The solar-powered weather station is on the South Col. Mount Everest extends into the upper troposphere and penetrates the stratosphere. The air pressure at the summit is generally about one-third what it is at sea level. The altitude can expose the summit to the fast and freezing winds of the jet stream. Winds commonly attain 160 km/h (100 mph); in February 2004, a wind speed of 280 km/h (175 mph) was recorded at the summit. These winds can hamper or endanger climbers, by blowing them into chasms or (by Bernoulli's principle) by lowering the air pressure further, reducing available oxygen by up to 14 percent. To avoid the harshest winds, climbers typically aim for a 7- to 10-day window in the spring and fall when the Asian monsoon season is starting up or ending. Mount Everest hosts several weather stations that collect important data on high-altitude weather conditions. Among them is the Balcony Station, the highest weather station on the planet, located at about 8,430 meters (27,657 feet) above sea level. Set up by climate scientists Tom Matthews and Baker Perry in 2019, this station is positioned just below the summit of Everest, which is the highest point on Earth. As of January 20, 2020, the Balcony Station ceased transmitting data. Expeditions Because Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world, it has attracted considerable attention and climbing attempts. Whether the mountain was climbed in ancient times is unknown. It may have been climbed in 1924, although this has never been confirmed, as neither of the men making the attempt returned. Several climbing routes have been established over several decades of climbing expeditions to the mountain. Everest's summit is first known to have been reached by a human in 1953, and interest from climbers increased thereafter. Despite the effort and attention poured into expeditions, only about 200 people had summited by 1987. Everest remained a difficult climb for decades, even for serious attempts by professional climbers and large national expeditions, which were the norm until the commercial era began in the 1990s. By March 2012, Everest had been climbed 5,656 times with 223 deaths. By 2013, The Himalayan Database recorded 6,871 summits by 4,042 different people. Although lower mountains have longer or steeper climbs, Everest is so high the jet stream can hit it. Climbers can be faced with winds beyond 320 km/h (200 mph) when the weather shifts. At certain times of the year the jet stream shifts north, providing periods of relative calm at the mountain. Other dangers include blizzards and avalanches. Early attempts In 1885, Clinton Thomas Dent, president of the Alpine Club, suggested that climbing Mount Everest was possible in his book Above the Snow Line. The northern approach to the mountain was discovered by George Mallory and Guy Bullock on the initial 1921 British Reconnaissance Expedition. It was an exploratory expedition not equipped for a serious attempt to climb the mountain. With Mallory leading (and thus becoming the first European to set foot on Everest's flanks) they climbed the North Col to an altitude of 7,005 metres (22,982 ft). From there, Mallory espied a route to the top, but the party was unprepared to climb any further and descended. The British returned for a 1922 expedition. George Finch climbed using oxygen for the first time. He ascended at a remarkable speed—290 metres (951 ft) per hour—and reached an altitude of 8,320 m (27,300 ft), the first time a human reported to climb higher than 8,000 m. Mallory and Col. Felix Norton made a second unsuccessful attempt. The next expedition was in 1924. The initial attempt by Mallory and Geoffrey Bruce was aborted when weather conditions prevented the establishment of Camp VI. The next attempt was that of Norton and Somervell, who climbed without oxygen and in perfect weather, traversing the North Face into the Great Couloir. Norton managed to reach 8,550 m (28,050 ft), though he ascended only 30 m (98 ft) or so in the last hour. Mallory rustled up oxygen equipment for a last-ditch effort. He chose young Andrew Irvine as his partner. On 8 June 1924, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine made an attempt on the summit via the North Col-North Ridge-Northeast Ridge route from which they never returned. On 1 May 1999, the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition found Mallory's body on the North Face in a snow basin below and to the west of the traditional site of Camp VI. Controversy has raged in the mountaineering community whether one or both of them reached the summit 29 years before the confirmed ascent and safe descent of Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953. In 1933, Lady Houston, a British millionairess, funded the Houston Everest Flight of 1933, which saw a formation of two aeroplanes led by the Marquess of Clydesdale fly over the Everest summit. Early expeditions—such as Charles Bruce's in the 1920s and Hugh Ruttledge's two unsuccessful attempts in 1933 and 1936—tried to ascend the mountain from Tibet, via the North Face. Access was closed from the north to Western expeditions in 1950 after China took control of Tibet. In 1950, Bill Tilman and a small party which included Charles Houston, Oscar Houston, and Betsy Cowles undertook an exploratory expedition to Everest through Nepal along the route which has now become the standard approach to Everest from the south. The 1952 Swiss Mount Everest Expedition, led by Edouard Wyss-Dunant, was granted permission to attempt a climb from Nepal. It established a route through the Khumbu icefall and ascended to the South Col at an elevation of 7,986 m (26,201 ft). Raymond Lambert and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay were able to reach an elevation of about 8,595 m (28,199 ft) on the southeast ridge, setting a new climbing altitude record. Tenzing's experience was useful when he was hired to be part of the British expedition in 1953. The Swiss decided to make another post-monsoon attempt in the autumn; they made it to the South Col but were driven back by winter winds and severe cold. First successful ascent by Tenzing and Hillary, 1953 In 1953, a ninth British expedition, led by John Hunt, returned to Nepal. Hunt selected two climbing pairs to attempt to reach the summit. The first pair, Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans, came within 100 m (330 ft) of the summit on 26 May 1953, but turned back after running into oxygen problems. As planned, their work in route finding and breaking trail and their oxygen caches were of great aid to the following pair. Two days later, the expedition made its second assault on the summit with the second climbing pair: the New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, a Nepali Sherpa climber. They reached the summit at 11:30 am local time on 29 May 1953 via the South Col route. At the time, both acknowledged it as a team effort by the whole expedition, but Tenzing revealed a few years later that Hillary had put his foot on the summit first. They paused at the summit to take photographs and buried a few sweets and a small cross in the snow before descending. 1950s–1960s On 23 May 1956, Ernst Schmied and Juerg Marmet ascended. This was followed by Dölf Reist and Hans-Rudolf von Gunten on 24 May 1957. Wang Fuzhou, Gonpo and Qu Yinhua of China made the first reported ascent of the peak from the North Ridge on 25 May 1960. The first American to climb Everest, Jim Whittaker, joined by Nawang Gombu, reached the summit on 1 May 1963 on the American Mount Everest expedition and on 22 May on the same expedition Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld were the first the traverse the mountain by climbing via the North Face and descending via the South Col. 1970s In 1970, Japanese mountaineers conducted a major expedition. The centrepiece was a large "siege"-style expedition led by Saburo Matsukata, working on finding a new route up the southwest face. Another element of the expedition was an attempt to ski Mount Everest. Despite a staff of over one hundred people and a decade of planning work, the expedition suffered eight deaths and failed to summit via the planned routes. However, Japanese expeditions did enjoy some successes. For example, Yuichiro Miura became the first man to ski down Everest from the South Col—he descended nearly 1,300 vertical metres (4,200 ft) from the South Col before falling with extreme injuries. Another success was an expedition that put four on the summit via the South Col route. Miura's exploits became the subject of film, and he went on to become the oldest person to summit Mount Everest in 2003 at age 70 and again in 2013 at the age of 80. In 1975, Junko Tabei became the first woman to summit Mount Everest. The 1975 British Mount Everest Southwest Face expedition led and organised by Chris Bonington made the first ascent of the south west face of Everest from the Western Cwm. The 1976 British and Nepalese Army Expedition to Everest led by Tony Streather put Bronco Lane and Brummy Stokes on the summit by the normal route. In 1978, Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler made the first ascent of Everest without supplemental oxygen. 1979/1980: Winter Himalaism The Polish climber Andrzej Zawada headed the first winter ascent of Mount Everest, the first winter ascent of an eight-thousander. The team of 20 Polish climbers and 4 Sherpas established a base camp on Khumbu Glacier in early January 1980. On 15 January, the team managed to set up Camp III at 7150 metres above sea level, but further action was stopped by hurricane-force winds. The weather improved after 11 February, when Leszek Cichy, Walenty Fiut and Krzysztof Wielicki set up camp IV on South Col (7906 m). Cichy and Wielicki started the final ascent at 6:50 am on 17 February. At 2:40 pm Andrzej Zawada at base camp heard the climbers' voices over the radio – "We are on the summit! The strong wind blows all the time. It is unimaginably cold." The successful winter ascent of Mount Everest started a new decade of Winter Himalaism, which became a Polish specialisation. After 1980 Poles did ten first winter ascents on 8000 metre peaks, which earned Polish climbers a reputation of "Ice Warriors". Lho La tragedy, 1989 In May 1989, Polish climbers under the leadership of Eugeniusz Chrobak organised an international expedition to Mount Everest on a difficult western ridge. Ten Poles and nine foreigners participated, but ultimately only the Poles remained in the attempt for the summit. On 24 May, Chrobak and Andrzej Marciniak, starting from camp V at 8,200 m, overcame the ridge and reached the summit. But on 27 May, during an avalanche from the side of Khumbutse near the Lho La pass, four Polish climbers were killed: Mirosław Dąsal, Mirosław Gardzielewski, Zygmunt Andrzej Heinrich and Wacław Otręba. The following day, due to his injuries, Chrobak also died. Marciniak, who was also injured, was saved by a rescue expedition in which Artur Hajzer and New Zealanders Gary Ball and Rob Hall took part. In the organisation of the rescue expedition they took part, inter alia Reinhold Messner, Elizabeth Hawley, Carlos Carsolio and the US consul. 1996 disaster On 10 and 11 May 1996, eight climbers died after several guided expeditions were caught in a blizzard high up on the mountain during a summit attempt on 10 May. During the 1996 season, 15 people died while climbing on Mount Everest. These were the highest death tolls for a single weather event, and for a single season, until the sixteen deaths in the 2014 Mount Everest avalanche. The guiding disaster gained wide publicity and raised questions about the commercialisation of climbing and the safety of guiding clients on Mount Everest. Journalist Jon Krakauer, on assignment from Outside magazine, was in one of the affected guided parties, and afterward published the bestseller Into Thin Air, which related his experience. Krakauer was critical of guide Anatoli Boukreev in his recollection of the expedition. A year later, Boukreev co-authored The Climb, in part as a rebuttal of Krakauer's portrayal. The dispute sparked a debate within the climbing community. Boukreev was later awarded The American Alpine Club's David Sowles Award for his rescue efforts on the expedition. In May 2004, physicist Kent Moore and surgeon John L. Semple, both researchers from the University of Toronto, told New Scientist magazine that an analysis of weather conditions on 11 May suggested that weather caused oxygen levels to plunge about 14 per cent. One of the survivors was Beck Weathers, left for dead about 275 metres (900 feet) from Camp 4 at 7,950 metres (26,085 feet). After spending a night on the mountain, Weathers managed to make it back to Camp 4 with massive frostbite and vision impaired due to snow blindness. When he arrived at Camp 4, fellow climbers considered his condition terminal and left him in a tent to die overnight. Weathers was lowered to Camp 2 and eventually a helicopter rescue was organised thanks to the Nepali Army. The storm's impact on climbers on the North Ridge of Everest, where several climbers also died, was detailed in a first-hand account by British filmmaker and writer Matt Dickinson in his book The Other Side of Everest. Sixteen-year-old Mark Pfetzer was on the climb and wrote about it in his account, Within Reach: My Everest Story. The 2015 feature film Everest, directed by Baltasar Kormákur, is based on the events of this guiding disaster. 2006 mountaineering season In 2006, 12 people died. One death in particular (see below) triggered an international debate and years of discussion about climbing ethics. The season was also remembered for the rescue of Lincoln Hall who had been left by his climbing team and declared dead, but was later discovered alive and survived being helped off the mountain. David Sharp ethics controversy, 2006 There was an international controversy about the death of a solo British climber David Sharp, who attempted to climb Mount Everest in 2006 but died in his attempt. The story broke out of the mountaineering community into popular media, with a series of interviews, allegations, and critiques. The question was whether climbers that season had left a man to die and whether he could have been saved. He was said to have attempted to summit Mount Everest by himself with no Sherpa or guide and fewer oxygen bottles than considered normal. He went with a low-budget Nepali guide firm that only provides support up to Base Camp, after which climbers go as a "loose group", offering a high degree of independence. The manager at Sharp's guide support said Sharp did not take enough oxygen for his summit attempt and did not have a Sherpa guide. It is less clear who knew Sharp was in trouble, and if they did know, whether they were qualified or capable of helping him. Double-amputee climber Mark Inglis said in an interview that his climbing party, and many others, had passed Sharp, on 15 May, sheltering under a rock overhang 450 metres (1,480 ft) below the summit, without attempting a rescue. Inglis said 40 people had passed by Sharp, but he might have been overlooked as climbers assumed Sharp was the corpse nicknamed "Green Boots", but Inglis was not aware that Turkish climbers had tried to help Sharp despite being in the process of helping an injured woman down (a Turkish woman, Burçak Poçan). There has also been some discussion about Himex in the commentary on Inglis and Sharp. In regards to Inglis's initial comments, he later revised certain details because he had been interviewed while he was "physically and mentally exhausted, and in a lot of pain. He had suffered severe frostbite – he later had five fingertips amputated." It was estimated on 14 May that Sharp summited Mount Everest and began his descent down, but 15 May he was in trouble but being passed by climbers on their way up and down. On 15 May 2006 it is believed he was suffering from hypoxia and was about 300 m (1,000 ft) from the summit on the North Side route. Dawa from Arun Treks also gave oxygen to David and tried to help him move, repeatedly, for perhaps an hour. But he could not get David to stand alone or even stand to rest on his shoulders, and crying, Dawa had to leave him too. Even with two Sherpas, it was not going to be possible to get David down the tricky sections below. The Tribune of Chandigarh, India quoted someone who described what happened to Sharp as "the most shameful act in the history of mountaineering". In addition to Sharp's death, at least nine other climbers perished that year, including multiple Sherpas working for various guiding companies. Much of this controversy was captured by the Discovery Channel while filming the television program Everest: Beyond the Limit. A crucial decision affecting the fate of Sharp is shown in the program, where an early returning climber, Lebanese adventurer Maxim Chaya, is descending from the summit and radios to his base camp manager (Russell Brice) that he has found a frostbitten and unconscious climber in distress. Chaya is unable to identify Sharp, who had chosen to climb solo without any support and so did not identify himself to other climbers. The base camp manager assumes that Sharp is part of a group that has already calculated that they must abandon him, and informs his lone climber that there is no chance of him being able to help Sharp by himself. As Sharp's condition deteriorates through the day and other descending climbers pass him, his opportunities for rescue diminish: his legs and feet curl from frostbite, preventing him from walking; the later descending climbers are lower on oxygen and lack the strength to offer aid; time runs out for any Sherpas to return and rescue him. David Sharp's body remained just below the summit on the Chinese side next to "Green Boots"; they shared a space in a small rock cave that was an ad hoc tomb for them. Sharp's body was removed from the cave in 2007, according to the BBC, and since 2014, Green Boots has been missing, presumably removed or buried. Lincoln Hall rescue, 2006 As the Sharp debate kicked off on 26 May 2006, Australian climber Lincoln Hall was found alive after being left for dead the day before. He was found by a party of four climbers (Dan Mazur, Andrew Brash, Myles Osborne and Jangbu Sherpa) who, giving up their own summit attempt, stayed with Hall and descended with him and a party of 11 Sherpas sent up to carry him down. Hall later fully recovered. His team assumed he had died from cerebral edema, and they were instructed to cover him with rocks. There were no rocks around to do this and he was abandoned. The erroneous information of his death was passed on to his family. The next day he was discovered alive by another party. 2007 On 21 May 2007, Canadian climber Meagan McGrath initiated the successful high-altitude rescue of Nepali Usha Bista. Major McGrath was selected as a 2011 recipient of the Sir Edmund Hillary Foundation of Canada Humanitarian Award, which recognises a Canadian who has personally or administratively contributed a significant service or act in the Himalayan Region of Nepal. Ascent statistics up to 2010 season By the end of the 2010 climbing season, there had been 5,104 ascents to the summit by about 3,142 individuals, with 77 per cent of these ascents being accomplished since 2000. The summit was achieved in 7 of the 22 years from 1953 to 1974 and was not missed between 1975 and 2014. In 2007, the record number of 633 ascents was recorded, by 350 climbers and 253 sherpas. An illustration of the explosion of popularity of Everest is provided by the numbers of daily ascents. Analysis of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster shows that part of the blame was on the bottleneck caused by a large number of climbers (33 to 36) attempting to summit on the same day; this was considered unusually high at the time. By comparison, on 23 May 2010, the summit of Mount Everest was reached by 169 climbers – more summits in a single day than in the cumulative 31 years from the first successful summit in 1953 through 1983. There have been 219 fatalities recorded on Mount Everest from the 1922 British Mount Everest Expedition through the end of 2010, a rate of 4.3 fatalities for every 100 summits (this is a general rate, and includes fatalities amongst support climbers, those who turned back before the peak, those who died en route to the peak and those who died while descending from the peak). Of the 219 fatalities, 58 (26.5 per cent) were climbers who had summited but did not complete their descent. Though the rate of fatalities has decreased since the year 2000 (1.4 fatalities for every 100 summits, with 3938 summits since 2000), the significant increase in the total number of climbers still means 54 fatalities since 2000: 33 on the northeast ridge, 17 on the southeast ridge, 2 on the southwest face, and 2 on the north face. Nearly all attempts at the summit are done using one of the two main routes. The traffic seen by each route varies from year to year. In 2005–07, more than half of all climbers elected to use the more challenging, but cheaper northeast route. In 2008, the northeast route was closed by the Chinese government for the entire climbing season, and the only people able to reach the summit from the north that year were athletes responsible for carrying the Olympic torch for the 2008 Summer Olympics. The route was closed to foreigners once again in 2009 in the run-up to the 50th anniversary of the Dalai Lama's exile. These closures led to declining interest in the north route, and, in 2010, two-thirds of the climbers reached the summit from the south. 2010s The 2010s were a time of new highs and lows for the mountain, with back-to-back disasters in 2013 and 2014 causing record deaths. In 2015 there were no summits for the first time in decades. However, other years set records for numbers of summits – 2013's record number of summiters, around 667, was surpassed in 2018 with around 800 summiting the peak, and a subsequent record was set in 2019 with over 890 summiters. 2014 avalanche and season On 18 April 2014, an avalanche hit the area just below Base Camp 2. Sixteen people were killed (all Nepali guides) and nine more were injured. In response to the tragedy, numerous Sherpa climbing guides walked off the job and most climbing companies pulled out in respect for the Sherpa people mourning the loss. During the season, 13-year-old Malavath Purna reached the summit, becoming the youngest female climber to do so. One team used a helicopter to fly from South base camp to Camp 2 to avoid the Khumbu Icefall, then reached the Everest summit. This team had to use the south side because the Chinese had denied them a permit to climb. A team member (Jing Wang) donated US$30,000 to a local hospital. She was named the Nepali "International Mountaineer of the Year". Over 100 people summited Everest from China (Tibet region), and six from Nepal in the 2014 season. This included 72-year-old Bill Burke, the Indian teenage girl, and a Chinese woman Jing Wang. Another teen girl summiter was Ming Kipa Sherpa who summited with her elder sister Lhakpa Sherpa in 2003, and who had achieved the most times for woman to the summit of Mount Everest at that time. (see also Santosh Yadav) 2015 avalanche, earthquake, season 2015 was set to be a record-breaking season of climbs, with hundreds of permits issued in Nepal and many additional permits in Tibet (China). However, on 25 April 2015, an earthquake measuring 7.8 Mw triggered an avalanche that hit Everest Base Camp, effectively shutting down the Everest climbing season. 18 bodies were recovered from Mount Everest by the Indian Army mountaineering team. The avalanche began on Pumori, moved through the Khumbu Icefall on the southwest side of Mount Everest, and slammed into the South Base Camp. 2015 was the first time since 1974 with no spring summits, as all climbing teams pulled out after the quakes and avalanche. One of the reasons for this was the high probability of aftershocks (over 50 per cent according to the United States Geological Survey). Just weeks after the first quake, the region was rattled again by a 7.3 magnitude quake and there were also many considerable aftershocks. The quakes trapped hundreds of climbers above the Khumbu icefall, and they had to be evacuated by helicopter as they ran low on supplies. The quake shifted the route through the ice fall, making it essentially impassable to climbers. Bad weather also made helicopter evacuation difficult. The Everest tragedy was small compared to the impact overall on Nepal, with almost nine thousand dead and about 22,000 injured. In Tibet, by 28 April at least 25 had died, and 117 were injured. By 29 April 2015, the Tibet Mountaineering Association (North/Chinese side) closed Everest and other peaks to climbing, stranding 25 teams and about 300 people on the north side of Everest. On the south side, helicopters evacuated 180 people trapped at Camps 1 and 2. On 24 August 2015, Nepal re-opened Everest to tourism including mountain climbers. The only climber permit for the autumn season was awarded to Japanese climber Nobukazu Kuriki, who had tried four times previously to summit Everest without success. He made his fifth attempt in October, but had to give up just 700 m (2,300 ft) from the summit due to "strong winds and deep snow". Some sections of the trail from Lukla to Everest Base Camp (Nepal) were damaged in the earthquakes earlier in the year and needed repairs to handle trekkers. 2016 season Hawley's database records 641 made it to the summit in early 2016. 2017 season 2017 was the biggest season yet, permit-wise, yielding hundreds of summiters and a handful of deaths. On 27 May 2017, Kami Rita made his 21st climb to the summit with the Alpine Ascents Everest Expedition, one of three people in the World along with Apa Sherpa and Phurba Tashi Sherpa to make it to the summit of Mount Everest 21 times. The season had a tragic start with the death of Ueli Steck of Switzerland, who died from a fall during a warm-up climb. There was a continued discussion about the nature of possible changes to the Hillary Step. Total summiters for 2017 was tallied up to be 648. 449 summited via Nepal (from the South) and 120 from Chinese Tibet (North side). 2018 807 climbers summited Mount Everest in 2018, including 563 on the Nepal side and 240 from the Chinese Tibet side. This broke the previous record for total summits in year from which was 667 in 2013, and one factor that aided in this was an especially long and clear weather window of 11 days during the critical spring climbing season. Various records were broken, including a summit by double-amputee Xia Boyu, who undertook his climb after winning a court case in the Nepali Supreme Court. There were no major disasters, but seven climbers including sherpas as well as international climbers, died in various situations. Although record numbers of climbers reached the summit, old-time summiters that made expeditions in the 1980s lamented the crowding, feces, and cost. Figures for the number of permits issued by Nepal range from 347 to 375. 2019 The spring or pre-monsoon window for 2019 witnessed the deaths of a number of climbers. Worldwide publication of images of hundreds of mountaineers queuing to reach the summit and sensational media reports of climbers stepping over dead bodies dismayed people around the world. There were reports of various winter expeditions in the Himalayas, including K2, Nanga Parbat, and Meru with the buzz for the Everest 2019 beginning just 14 weeks to the weather window. Noted climber Cory Richards announced on Twitter that he was hoping to establish a new climbing route to the summit in 2019. Also announced was an expedition to re-measure the height of Everest, particularly in light of the 2015 earthquakes. China closed the base-camp to those without climbing permits in February 2019 on the northern side of Mount Everest. By early April, climbing teams from around the world were arriving for the 2019 spring climbing season. Among the teams was a scientific expedition with a planned study of pollution, and how things like snow and vegetation influence the availability of food and water in the region. In the 2019 spring mountaineering season, there were roughly 40 teams with almost 400 climbers and several hundred guides attempting to summit on the Nepali side. Nepal issued 381 climbing permits for 2019. For the northern routes in Chinese Tibet, several hundred more permits were issued for climbing by authorities there. In May 2019, Nepali mountaineering guide Kami Rita summited Mount Everest twice within a week, his 23rd and 24th ascents, making international news headlines. He first summited Everest in 1994, and has summited several other extremely high mountains, such as K2 and Lhotse. By 23 May 2019, about seven people had died, possibly due to crowding leading to delays high on the mountain, and shorter weather windows. One 19-year-old who summited previously noted that when the weather window opens, long lines form as everyone rushes to get the top and back down. In Chinese Tibet, one Austrian climber died from a fall, and by 26 May 2019 the overall number of deaths for the spring climbing season rose to 10. By 28 May, the death toll increased to 11 when a climber died at about 7,900 m (26,000 ft) during the descent, and a 12th climber missing and presumed dead. Despite the number of deaths, reports indicated that a record 891 climbers summited in the spring 2019 climbing season. Although China has had various permit restrictions, and Nepal requires a doctor to sign off on climbing permits, the natural dangers of climbing such as falls and avalanches combined with medical issues aggravated by Everest's extreme altitude led to 2019 being a year with a comparatively high death toll. 2020s Both Nepal and China prohibited foreign climbing groups during the 2020 season, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 2020 was the third year in this decade after 2014 and 2015 which saw no summits from the Nepal (South) Side. A team of Chinese surveyors climbed Mt. Everest from the North side during April–May 2020, becoming the only climbers to summit the world's highest peak during the pandemic, at least through May. The team was there to re-measure the height of Mount Everest. On 12 May 2022, the first all-Black team summited Mt. Everest. Seven men and two women climbers from the U.S. and Kenya, guided by eight sherpas, comprised the expedition. Climbing Permits In 2014, Nepal issued 334 climbing permits, which were extended until 2019 due to the closure. In 2015, Nepal issued 357 permits, but the mountain was closed again because of the avalanche and earthquake, and these permits were given a two-year extension to 2017. In 2017, a person who tried to climb Everest without the $11,000 permit was caught after he made it past the Khumbu icefall. He faced, among other penalties, a $22,000 fine and a possible four years in jail. In the end, he was allowed to return home but banned from mountaineering in Nepal for 10 years. The number of permits issued each year by Nepal is: 2008: 160 2009: 220 2010: 209 2011: 225 2012: 208 2013: 316 2014: 326 (extended for use through 2019) 2015: 356 (extended for use through 2017) 2016: 289 2017: 366 to 373 2018: 346 2019: 381 2020: 0 (no permits issued during the pandemic) 2021: 408 (current record) The Chinese side in Tibet is also managed with permits for summiting Everest. They did not issue permits in 2008, due to the Olympic torch relay being taken to the summit of Mount Everest. In March 2020, the governments of China and Nepal cancelled all climbing permits for Mount Everest due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In April 2020, a group of Chinese mountaineers began an expedition from the Chinese side. The mountain remained closed on the Chinese side to all foreign climbers. On 10 May 2021, a separation line was announced by Chinese authorities to prevent the spread of coronavirus from climbers ascending Nepal's side. Commercial climbing According to Jon Krakauer, the era of commercialisation of Everest started in 1985, when the summit was reached by a guided expedition led by David Breashears that included Richard Bass, a wealthy 55-year-old businessman and an amateur mountain climber with four years of climbing experience. By the early-1990s, several companies were offering guided tours to the mountain. Rob Hall, one of the mountaineers who died in the 1996 disaster, had successfully guided 39 clients to the summit before that incident.: 24, 42  By 2016, most guiding services cost between US$35,000 and US$200,000. Going with a "celebrity guide", usually a well-known mountaineer typically with decades of climbing experience and perhaps several Everest summits, can cost over £100,000 as of 2015. However, the services offered vary widely and it is "buyer beware" when doing deals in Nepal, one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world. Tourism contributed 7.9 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019 in a country with high unemployment, but an Everest porter can make nearly double the nation's average wage in a region in which other sources of income are lacking. Costs beyond the guiding service can vary widely. It is technically possible to reach the summit with minimal additional expenses, and there are "budget" travel agencies that offer logistical support for such trips. A limited support service, offering only some meals at base camp and bureaucratic overhead like a permit, can cost as little as US$7,000 as of 2007. However, this is considered difficult and dangerous (as illustrated by the case of David Sharp). Climbing gear required to reach the summit may cost in excess of US$8,000, and most climbers also use bottled oxygen, which adds around US$3,000. The permit to enter the Everest area from the south via Nepal costs US$10,000 to US$30,000 per person, depending on the size of the team. The ascent typically starts at one of the two base camps near the mountain, both of which are approximately 100 kilometres (60 mi) from Kathmandu and 300 kilometres (190 mi) from Lhasa (the two nearest cities with major airports). Transferring one's equipment from the airport to the base camp may add as much as US$2,000. Many climbers hire "full service" guide companies, which provide a wide spectrum of services, including the acquisition of permits, transportation to/from base camp, food, tents, fixed ropes, medical assistance while on the mountain, an experienced mountaineer guide, and even personal porters to carry one's backpack and cook one's meals. The cost of such a guide service may range from US$40,000 to $80,000 per person. Since most equipment is moved by Sherpas, clients of full-service guide companies can often keep their backpack weights under 10 kilograms (22 lb), or hire a Sherpa to carry their backpack for them. By contrast, climbers attempting less commercialised peaks, like Denali, are often expected to carry backpacks over 30 kilograms (66 lb) and, occasionally, to tow a sled with 35 kilograms (77 lb) of gear and food. The degree of commercialisation of Mount Everest is a frequent subject of criticism. Jamling Tenzing Norgay, the son of Tenzing Norgay, said in a 2003 interview that his late father would have been shocked to discover that rich thrill-seekers with no climbing experience were now routinely reaching the summit, "You still have to climb this mountain yourself with your feet. But the spirit of adventure is not there any more. It is lost. There are people going up there who have no idea how to put on crampons. They are climbing because they have paid someone $65,000. It is very selfish. It endangers the lives of others." One example of this is Shriya Shah-Klorfine, who had to be taught how to put on crampons during her summit attempt in 2012. She paid at least US$40,000 to a new guiding company for the trip, and died when she ran out of oxygen during the descent after climbing for 27 hours straight. Reinhold Messner concurred in 2004: You could die in each climb and that meant you were responsible for yourself. We were real mountaineers: careful, aware and even afraid. By climbing mountains we were not learning how big we were. We were finding out how breakable, how weak and how full of fear we are. You can only get this if you expose yourself to high danger. I have always said that a mountain without danger is not a mountain....High altitude alpinism has become tourism and show. These commercial trips to Everest, they are still dangerous. But the guides and organisers tell clients, 'Don't worry, it's all organised.' The route is prepared by hundreds of Sherpas. Extra oxygen is available in all camps, right up to the summit. People will cook for you and lay out your beds. Clients feel safe and don't care about the risks. By 2015, Nepal was considering requiring that climbers have some experience, hoping this would both make the mountain safer and increase revenue. One barrier to this is that low-budget firms make money not taking inexperienced climbers to the summit. Those turned away by Western firms can often find another firm willing to take them for a price—that they return home soon after arriving after base camp, or part way up the mountain. However, not all opinions on the subject among prominent mountaineers have been strictly negative. For example, Edmund Hillary stated in 2003 that while "Having people pay $65,000 and then be led up the mountain by a couple of experienced guides...isn't really mountaineering at all", he was pleased by the changes brought to Everest area by Westerners: I don't have any regrets because I worked very hard indeed to improve the condition for the local people. When we first went in there they didn't have any schools, they didn't have any medical facilities, all over the years we have established 27 schools, we have two hospitals and a dozen medical clinics and then we've built bridges over wild mountain rivers and put in fresh water pipelines so in cooperation with the Sherpas we've done a lot to benefit them. One of the early guided summiters, Richard Bass (of Seven Summits fame) stated in 2003 that "Climbers should have high altitude experience before they attempt the really big mountains. People don't realise the difference between a 20,000-foot [6,100 m] mountain and 29,000-foot [8,800 m]. It's not just arithmetic. The reduction of oxygen in the air is proportionate to the altitude alright, but the effect on the human body is disproportionate—an exponential curve. People climb Denali [6,190 m or 20,320 ft] or Aconcagua [6,960 m or 22,834 ft] and think, 'Heck, I feel great up here, I'm going to try Everest.' But it's not like that." Routes Mount Everest has two main climbing routes, the southeast ridge from Nepal and the north ridge from Tibet, as well as many other less frequently climbed routes. Of the two main routes, the southeast ridge is technically easier and more frequently used. It was the route used by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953 and the first recognised of 15 routes to the top by 1996. This was, however, a route decision dictated more by politics than by design, as the Chinese border was closed to the western world in the 1950s, after the People's Republic of China invaded Tibet. Most attempts are made during May, before the summer monsoon season. As the monsoon season approaches, the jet stream shifts northward, thereby reducing the average wind speeds high on the mountain. While attempts are sometimes made in September and October, after the monsoons, when the jet stream is again temporarily pushed northward, the additional snow deposited by the monsoons and the less stable weather patterns at the monsoons' tail end makes climbing extremely difficult. Southeast ridge The ascent via the southeast ridge begins with a trek to Base Camp at 5,380 m (17,700 ft) on the south side of Everest, in Nepal. Expeditions usually fly into Lukla (2,860 m) from Kathmandu and pass through Namche Bazaar. Climbers then hike to Base Camp, which usually takes six to eight days, allowing for proper altitude acclimatisation in order to prevent altitude sickness. Climbing equipment and supplies are carried by yaks, dzopkyos (yak-cow hybrids), and human porters to Base Camp on the Khumbu Glacier. When Hillary and Tenzing climbed Everest in 1953, the British expedition they were part of (comprising over 400 climbers, porters, and Sherpas at that point) started from the Kathmandu Valley, as there were no roads further east at that time. Climbers spend a couple of weeks in Base Camp, acclimatising to the altitude. During that time, Sherpas and some expedition climbers set up ropes and ladders in the treacherous Khumbu Icefall. Seracs, crevasses, and shifting blocks of ice make the icefall one of the most dangerous sections of the route. Many climbers and Sherpas have been killed in this section. To reduce the hazard, climbers usually begin their ascent well before dawn, when the freezing temperatures glue ice blocks in place. Above the icefall is Camp I at 6,065 metres (19,900 ft). From Camp I, climbers make their way up the Western Cwm to the base of the Lhotse face, where Camp II or Advanced Base Camp (ABC) is established at 6,500 m (21,300 ft). The Western Cwm is a flat, gently rising glacial valley, marked by huge lateral crevasses in the centre, which prevent direct access to the upper reaches of the Cwm. Climbers are forced to cross on the far right, near the base of Nuptse, to a small passageway known as the "Nuptse corner". The Western Cwm is also called the "Valley of Silence" as the topography of the area generally cuts off wind from the climbing route. The high altitude and a clear, windless day can make the Western Cwm unbearably hot for climbers. From Camp II, climbers ascend the Lhotse face on fixed ropes, up to Camp III, located on a small ledge at 7,470 m (24,500 ft). From there, it is another 500 metres to Camp IV on the South Col at 7,920 m (26,000 ft). From Camp III to Camp IV, climbers are faced with two additional challenges: the Geneva Spur and the Yellow Band. The Geneva Spur is an anvil-shaped rib of black rock named by the 1952 Swiss expedition. Fixed ropes assist climbers in scrambling over this snow-covered rock band. The Yellow Band is a section of interlayered marble, phyllite, and semischist, which also requires about 100 metres of rope for traversing it. On the South Col, climbers enter the death zone. Climbers making summit bids typically can endure no more than two or three days at this altitude. If the weather is not clear with low winds during these short few days, climbers are forced to descend, many all the way back down to Base Camp. From Camp IV, climbers begin their summit push around midnight, with hopes of reaching the summit (still another 1,000 metres above) within 10 to 12 hours. Climbers first reach "The Balcony" at 8,400 m (27,600 ft), a small platform where they can rest and gaze at peaks to the south and east in the early light of dawn. Continuing up the ridge, climbers are then faced with a series of imposing rock steps which usually forces them to the east into the waist-deep snow, a serious avalanche hazard. At 8,750 m (28,700 ft), a small table-sized dome of ice and snow marks the South Summit. From the South Summit, climbers follow the knife-edge southeast ridge along what is known as the "Cornice traverse", where snow clings to intermittent rock. This is the most exposed section of the climb, and a misstep to the left would send one 2,400 m (7,900 ft) down the southwest face, while to the immediate right is the 3,050 m (10,010 ft) Kangshung Face. At the end of this traverse is an imposing 12 m (39 ft) rock wall, the Hillary Step, at 8,790 m (28,840 ft). Hillary and Tenzing were the first climbers to ascend this step, and they did so using primitive ice climbing equipment and ropes. Nowadays, climbers ascend this step using fixed ropes previously set up by Sherpas. Once above the step, it is a comparatively easy climb to the top on moderately angled snow slopes—though the exposure on the ridge is extreme, especially while traversing large cornices of snow. With increasing numbers of people climbing the mountain in recent years, the Step has frequently become a bottleneck, with climbers forced to wait significant amounts of time for their turn on the ropes, leading to problems in getting climbers efficiently up and down the mountain. After the Hillary Step, climbers also must traverse a loose and rocky section that has a large entanglement of fixed ropes that can be troublesome in bad weather. Climbers typically spend less than half an hour at the summit to allow time to descend to Camp IV before darkness sets in, to avoid serious problems with afternoon weather, or because supplemental oxygen tanks run out. North ridge route The north ridge route begins from the north side of Everest, in Tibet. Expeditions trek to the Rongbuk Glacier, setting up base camp at 5,180 m (16,990 ft) on a gravel plain just below the glacier. To reach Camp II, climbers ascend the medial moraine of the east Rongbuk Glacier up to the base of Changtse, at around 6,100 m (20,000 ft). Camp III (ABC – Advanced Base Camp) is situated below the North Col at 6,500 m (21,300 ft). To reach Camp IV on the North Col, climbers ascend the glacier to the foot of the col where fixed ropes are used to reach the North Col at 7,010 m (23,000 ft). From the North Col, climbers ascend the rocky north ridge to set up Camp V at around 7,775 m (25,500 ft). The route crosses the North Face in a diagonal climb to the base of the Yellow Band, reaching the site of Camp VI at 8,230 m (27,000 ft). From Camp VI, climbers make their final summit push. Climbers face a treacherous traverse from the base of the First Step: ascending from 8,501 to 8,534 m (27,890 to 28,000 ft), to the crux of the climb, the Second Step, ascending from 8,577 to 8,626 m (28,140 to 28,300 ft). (The Second Step includes a climbing aid called the "Chinese ladder", a metal ladder placed semi-permanently in 1975 by a party of Chinese climbers. It has been almost continuously in place since, and ladders have been used by virtually all climbers on the route.) Once above the Second Step the inconsequential Third Step is clambered over, ascending from 8,690 to 8,800 m (28,510 to 28,870 ft). Once above these steps, the summit pyramid is climbed by a snow slope of 50 degrees, to the final summit ridge along which the top is reached. Summit The summit of Everest has been described as "the size of a dining room table". The summit is capped with snow over ice over rock, and the layer of snow varies from year to year. The rock summit is made of Ordovician limestone and is a low-grade metamorphic rock. (See the Surveys section for more on its height and about the Everest rock summit.) Below the summit, there is an area known as "rainbow valley", filled with dead bodies still wearing brightly coloured winter gear. Down to about 8,000 m (26,000 ft) is an area commonly called the "death zone", due to the high danger and low oxygen because of the low pressure. Below the summit the mountain slopes downward to the three main sides, or faces, of Mount Everest: the North Face, the South-West Face, and the East/Kangshung Face. Death zone At the higher regions of Mount Everest, climbers seeking the summit typically spend substantial time within the death zone (altitudes higher than 8,000 metres (26,000 ft)), and face significant challenges to survival. Temperatures can dip to very low levels, resulting in frostbite of any body part exposed to the air. Since temperatures are so low, snow is well-frozen in certain areas and death or injury by slipping and falling can occur. High winds at these altitudes on Everest are also a potential threat to climbers. Another significant threat to climbers is low atmospheric pressure. The atmospheric pressure at the top of Everest is about a third of sea level pressure or 0.333 standard atmospheres (337 mbar), resulting in the availability of only about a third as much oxygen to breathe. Debilitating effects of the death zone are so great that it takes most climbers up to 12 hours to walk the distance of 1.72 kilometres (1.07 mi) from South Col to the summit. Achieving even this level of performance requires prolonged altitude acclimatisation, which takes 40–60 days for a typical expedition. A sea-level dweller exposed to the atmospheric conditions at the altitude above 8,500 m (27,900 ft) without acclimatisation would likely lose consciousness within two to three minutes. In May 2007, the Caudwell Xtreme Everest undertook a medical study of oxygen levels in human blood at extreme altitude. Over 200 volunteers climbed to Everest Base Camp where various medical tests were performed to examine blood oxygen levels. A small team also performed tests on the way to the summit. Even at base camp, the low partial pressure of oxygen had direct effect on blood oxygen saturation levels. At sea level, blood oxygen saturation is generally 98 to 99 per cent. At base camp, blood saturation fell to between 85 and 87 per cent. Blood samples taken at the summit indicated very low oxygen levels in the blood. A side effect of low blood oxygen is a greatly increased breathing rate, often 80–90 breaths per minute as opposed to a more typical 20–30. Exhaustion can occur merely by attempting to breathe. Lack of oxygen, exhaustion, extreme cold, and climbing hazards all contribute to the death toll. An injured person who cannot walk is in serious trouble, since rescue by helicopter is generally impractical and carrying the person off the mountain is very risky. People who die during the climb are typically left behind. As of 2015, over 200 bodies remain on the mountain. Debilitating symptoms consistent with high altitude cerebral oedema commonly present during descent from the summit of Mount Everest. Profound fatigue and late times in reaching the summit are early features associated with subsequent death. A 2008 study noted that the "death zone" is indeed where most Everest deaths occur, but also noted that most deaths occur during descent from the summit. A 2014 article in The Atlantic about deaths on Everest noted that while falling is one of the greatest dangers the death zone presents for all 8000ers, avalanches are a more common cause of death at lower altitudes. Despite this, Everest is safer for climbers than a number of peaks by some measurements, but it depends on the period. Some examples are Kangchenjunga, K2, Annapurna, Nanga Parbat, and the Eiger (especially the nordwand). Some factors that affect total mountain lethality include the level of popularity of the mountain, the skill of those climbing, and the difficulty of the climb. Another health hazard is retinal haemorrhages, which can damage eyesight and cause blindness. Up to a quarter of Everest climbers can experience retinal haemorrhages, and although they usually heal within weeks of returning to lower altitudes, in 2010 a climber went blind and died in the death zone. At one o'clock in the afternoon, the British climber Peter Kinloch was on the roof of the world, in bright sunlight, taking photographs of the Himalayas below, "elated, cheery and bubbly". But Mount Everest is now his grave, because only minutes later, he suddenly went blind and had to be abandoned to die from the cold. The team made a huge effort for the next 12 hours to try to get him down the mountain, but to no avail, as they were unsuccessful in getting him through the difficult sections. Even for the able, the Everest North-East ridge is recognised as a challenge. It is hard to rescue someone who has become incapacitated and it can be beyond the ability of rescuers to save anyone in such a difficult spot. One way around this situation was pioneered by two Nepali men in 2011, who had intended to paraglide off the summit. They had no choice and were forced to go through with their plan anyway, because they had run out of bottled oxygen and supplies. They successfully launched off the summit and para-glided down to Namche Bazaar in just 42 minutes, without having to climb down the mountain. Supplemental oxygen Most expeditions use oxygen masks and tanks above 8,000 m (26,000 ft). Everest can be climbed without supplementary oxygen, but only by the most accomplished mountaineers and at increased risk. Humans' ability to think clearly is hindered with low oxygen, and the combination of extreme weather, low temperatures, and steep slopes often requires quick, accurate decisions. While about 95 per cent of climbers who reach the summit use bottled oxygen in order to reach the top, about five per cent of climbers have summited Everest without supplemental oxygen. The death rate is double for those who attempt to reach the summit without supplemental oxygen. Travelling above 2,400 m (8,000 ft) altitude is a factor in cerebral hypoxia. One study found that Mount Everest may be the highest an acclimatised human could go, but also found that climbers may suffer permanent neurological damage despite returning to lower altitudes. The use of bottled oxygen to ascend Mount Everest has been controversial. It was first used on the 1922 British Mount Everest Expedition by George Finch and Geoffrey Bruce who climbed up to 7,800 m (25,600 ft) at a spectacular speed of 300 vertical metres (1,000 ft) per hour. Pinned down by a fierce storm, they escaped death by breathing oxygen from a jury-rigged set-up during the night. The next day they climbed to 8,100 m (26,600 ft) at 270 m/h (900 ft/h) – nearly three times as fast as non-oxygen users. Yet the use of oxygen was considered so unsportsmanlike that none of the rest of the Alpine world recognised this high ascent rate. George Mallory described the use of such oxygen as unsportsmanlike, but he later concluded that it would be impossible for him to summit without it and consequently used it on his final attempt in 1924. When Tenzing and Hillary made the first successful summit in 1953, they also used open-circuit bottled oxygen sets, with the expedition's physiologist Griffith Pugh referring to the oxygen debate as a "futile controversy", noting that oxygen "greatly increases subjective appreciation of the surroundings, which after all is one of the chief reasons for climbing." For the next twenty-five years, bottled oxygen was considered standard for any successful summit. ...although an acclimatised lowlander can survive for a time on the summit of Everest without supplemental oxygen, one is so close to the limit that even a modicum of excess exertion may impair brain function. Reinhold Messner was the first climber to break the bottled oxygen tradition and in 1978, with Peter Habeler, made the first successful climb without it. In 1980, Messner summited the mountain solo, without supplemental oxygen or any porters or climbing partners, on the more difficult northwest route. Once the climbing community was satisfied that the mountain could be climbed without supplemental oxygen, many purists then took the next logical step of insisting that is how it should be climbed.: 154  The aftermath of the 1996 disaster further intensified the debate. Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air (1997) expressed the author's personal criticisms of the use of bottled oxygen. Krakauer wrote that the use of bottled oxygen allowed otherwise unqualified climbers to attempt to summit, leading to dangerous situations and more deaths. The disaster was partially caused by the sheer number of climbers (34 on that day) attempting to ascend, causing bottlenecks at the Hillary Step and delaying many climbers, most of whom summited after the usual 14:00 turnaround time. He proposed banning bottled oxygen except for emergency cases, arguing that this would both decrease the growing pollution on Everest—many bottles have accumulated on its slopes—and keep marginally qualified climbers off the mountain. The 1996 disaster also introduced the issue of the guide's role in using bottled oxygen. Guide Anatoli Boukreev's decision not to use bottled oxygen was sharply criticised by Jon Krakauer. Boukreev's supporters (who include G. Weston DeWalt, who co-wrote The Climb) state that using bottled oxygen gives a false sense of security. Krakauer and his supporters point out that, without bottled oxygen, Boukreev could not directly help his clients descend. The low oxygen can cause a mental fog-like impairment of cognitive abilities described as "delayed and lethargic thought process, clinically defined as bradypsychia" even after returning to lower altitudes. In severe cases, climbers can experience hallucinations. Some studies have found that high-altitude climbers, including Everest climbers, experience altered brain structure. The effects of high altitude on the brain, particularly if it can cause permanent brain damage, continue to be studied. Autumn climbing Although generally less popular than spring, Mount Everest has also been climbed in the autumn (also called the "post-monsoon season"). For example, in 2010 Eric Larsen and five Nepali guides summited Everest in the autumn for the first time in ten years. The autumn season, when the monsoon ends, is regarded as more dangerous because there is typically a lot of new snow which can be unstable. However, this increased snow can make it more popular with certain winter sports like skiing and snowboarding. Two Japanese climbers also summited in October 1973. Chris Chandler and Bob Cormack summited Everest in October 1976 as part of the American Bicentennial Everest Expedition that year, the first Americans to make an autumn ascent of Mount Everest according to the Los Angeles Times. By the 21st century, summer and autumn can be more popular with skiing and snowboard attempts on Mount Everest. During the 1980s, climbing in autumn was actually more popular than in spring. U.S. astronaut Karl Gordon Henize died in October 1993 on an autumn expedition, conducting an experiment on radiation. The amount of background radiation increases with higher altitudes. The mountain has also been climbed in the winter, but that is not popular because of the combination of cold high winds and shorter days. By January the peak is typically battered by 170 mph (270 km/h) winds and the average temperature of the summit is around −33 °F (−36 °C). Thefts and crime Some climbers have reported life-threatening thefts from supply caches. In May 2006, Vitor Negrete, the first Brazilian to climb Everest without oxygen and part of David Sharp's party, died during his descent, and theft of gear and food from his high-altitude camp may have contributed. In addition to theft, Michael Kodas describes in his book, High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed (2008): unethical guides and Sherpas, prostitution and gambling at the Tibet Base Camp, fraud related to the sale of oxygen bottles, and climbers collecting donations under the pretense of removing trash from the mountain. The Chinese side of Everest in Tibet was described as "out of control" in 2007 after one Canadian had all his gear stolen and was abandoned by his Sherpa. Another Sherpa helped the victim get off the mountain safely and gave him some spare gear. Other climbers have also reported missing oxygen bottles, which can be worth hundreds of dollars each. Hundreds of climbers pass by people's tents, making it hard to safeguard against theft. In the late 2010s, the reports of theft of oxygen bottles from camps became more common. Selected climbing records By the end of the 2010 climbing season, there had been 5,104 ascents to the summit by about 3,142 individuals. Some notable "firsts" by climbers include: 1922: First climb to 8,000 metres (26,247 ft), by George Finch and Captain Geoffrey Bruce 1952: First climb to South Col by 1952 Swiss Mount Everest expedition 1953: First ascent, by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary on 1953 British Mount Everest expedition 1960: First reported ascent from the North Ridge by Wang Fuzhou, Gonpo and Qu Yinhua of China. 1975: First female ascent, by Junko Tabei (16 May). 1975: First female ascent from the North Ridge, by Phanthog, deputy head of the second Chinese Everest expedition that sent nine climbers to the summit (27 May). 1978: First ascent without supplemental oxygen by Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler 1978: First solo ascent, by Franz Oppurg 1980: First winter ascent, by Polish National Expedition Winter 1979/1980 (Leszek Cichy and Krzysztof Wielicki) 1980: Second solo ascent, and the first without supplemental oxygen, by Reinhold Messner 1981: Third solo ascent, by Peter Hackett 1988: First "cross-over" climb by Chinese, Japanese and Nepali teams which ascended the peak simultaneously from both the North and South sides of the mountain and descended down the other side. The cross-over climb was also the first to be recorded on live broadcast television. 1988: First descent by paraglider, by Jean-Marc Boivin 1988: First female ascent without supplemental oxygen by Lydia Bradey 1998: Fastest to reach the summit via the southeast ridge (South Col), without supplemental oxygen, by Kazi Sherpa, in 20 hours and 24 minutes. 2000: First descent by ski by Davo Karničar 2001: First ascent by a blind climber, Erik Weihenmayer 2001: Lhakpa Sherpa becomes first Nepali woman to summit Everest and survive. 2004: Fastest to reach the summit via the southeast ridge (South Col), with supplemental oxygen, by Pemba Dorje, in 8 hours and 10 minutes. 2006: Lhakpa Sherpa summits for the 6th time, breaking her own record for most successful female Everest climber. 2007: Fastest to reach the summit via the northeast ridge, without supplemental oxygen, by Christian Stangl, in 16 hours, 42 minutes. 2010: Youngest male to reach the summit, by Jordan Romero (13 years and 10 months old) 2011: Most times to reach the summit, Apa Sherpa (21 times; 10 May 1990 – 11 May 2011) 2013: Apa Sherpa tied for most times to reach the summit by Phurba Tashi (21 times; 1999–2013) 2013: Melissa Arnot, American, summits for the fifth time, breaking her own record for most successful summits by any non-Sherpa woman. 2014: Youngest female to reach the summit, by Malavath Purna (13 years and 11 months old) 2017: Kami Rita Sherpa of Alpine Ascents reaches 21 ascents to the summit. 2019: Kami Rita Sherpa reaches 24 ascents to the summit. 2021: Kami Rita Sherpa reaches 25 ascents to the summit. 2022: Kami Rita Sherpa reaches 26 ascents to the summit, and Pasang Dawa Sherpa reaches 25 ascents to the summit. 2023: Kami Rita Sherpa reaches 28 ascents to the summit. 2024: Kami Rita Sherpa reaches 29 ascents to the summit. Summiting with disabilities Summiting Everest with disabilities such as amputations and diseases has become popular in the 21st century, with stories like that of Sudarshan Gautam, a man with no arms who made it to the top in 2013. A teenager with Down syndrome made it to Base camp, which has become a substitute for more extreme record-breaking because it carries many of the same thrills including the trip to the Himalayas and rustic scenery. Danger lurks even at base camp though, which was the site where dozens were killed in the 2015 Mount Everest avalanches. Others that have climbed Everest with amputations include Mark Inglis (no legs), Hari Budha Magar (no legs), Paul Hockey (one arm only), and Arunima Sinha (one leg only). In 2001, Erik Weihenmayer became the first person to reach the summit of Mount Everest while blind. Aviation 1933: Flight over Everest Lucy, Lady Houston, a British millionaire former showgirl, funded the Houston Everest Flight of 1933. A formation of airplanes led by the Marquess of Clydesdale flew over the summit in an effort to photograph the unknown terrain. 1988: First climb and glide On 26 September 1988, having climbed the mountain via the south-east ridge, Jean-Marc Boivin made the first paraglider descent of Everest, in the process creating the record for the fastest descent of the mountain and the highest paraglider flight. Boivin said: "I was tired when I reached the top because I had broken much of the trail, and to run at this altitude was quite hard." Boivin ran 18 m (60 ft) from below the summit on 40-degree slopes to launch his paraglider, reaching Camp II at 5,900 m (19,400 ft) in 12 minutes (some sources say 11 minutes). Boivin would not repeat this feat, as he was killed two years later in 1990, BASE jumping off Venezuela's Angel Falls. 1991: Hot air balloon flyover In 1991, four men in two balloons achieved the first hot-air balloon flight over Mount Everest. In one balloon were Andy Elson and Eric Jones (cameraman), and in the other balloon Chris Dewhirst and Leo Dickinson (cameraman). Dickinson went on to write a book about the adventure called Ballooning Over Everest. The hot-air balloons were modified to function at up to 12,000 m (40,000 ft) altitude. Reinhold Messner called one of Dickinson's panoramic views of Everest, captured on the now discontinued Kodak Kodachrome film, the "best snap on Earth", according to UK newspaper The Telegraph. Dewhirst has offered to take passengers on a repeat of this feat for US$2.6 million per passenger. 2005: Pilot summits with helicopter In May 2005, pilot Didier Delsalle of France landed a Eurocopter AS350 B3 helicopter on the summit of Mount Everest. He needed to land for two minutes to set the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) official record, but he stayed for about four minutes, twice. In this type of landing the rotors stay engaged, which avoids relying on the snow to fully support the aircraft. The flight set rotorcraft world records, for highest of both landing and take-off. Some press reports suggested that the report of the summit landing was a misunderstanding of a South Col landing, but he had also landed on South Col two days earlier, with this landing and the Everest records confirmed by the FAI. Delsalle also rescued two Japanese climbers at 4,880 m (16,000 ft) while he was there. One climber noted that the new record meant a better chance of rescue. 2011: Paraglide off summit On 21 May 2011, Nepalis Lakpa Tsheri Sherpa and Sano Bapu Sunuwar paraglided from Everest's summit to Namche Bazaar in 42 minutes. After the flight they hiked, biked, and kayaked to the Indian Ocean, reaching the Bay of Bengal by 27 June 2011, thereby becoming the first persons to complete a continuous summit-to-sea descent from Everest. They accomplished the ground-breaking feat despite Bapu having never previously climbed, and Lakpa having never kayaked and not even knowing how to swim. The duo subsequently won National Geographic Adventurers of the Year for 2012 for their exploits. In 2013 footage of the flight was shown on the television news program Nightline. 2014: Helicopter-assisted ascent In 2014, a team financed and led by mountaineer Wang Jing used a helicopter to fly from South base camp to Camp II to avoid the Khumbu Icefall, and thence climbed to the Everest summit. This climb immediately sparked outrage and controversy in much of the mountaineering world over the legitimacy and propriety of her climb. Nepal ended up investigating Wang, who initially denied the claim that she had flown to Camp II, admitting only that some support crew were flown to that higher camp, over the Khumbu Icefall. In August 2014, however, she stated that she had flown to Camp II because the icefall was impassable. "If you don't fly to Camp II, you just go home", she said in an interview. In that same interview, she also insisted that she had never tried to hide this fact. Her team had had to use the south side because the Chinese had denied them a permit to climb. Ultimately, the Chinese refusal may have been beneficial to Nepal's interests, allowing the government to showcase improved local hospitals and providing the opportunity for a new hybrid aviation/mountaineering style, triggering discussions about helicopter use in the mountaineering world. National Geographic noted that a village festooned Wang with honours after she donated US$30,000 to the town's hospital. Wang won the International Mountaineer of the Year Award from the Nepal government in June 2014. 2016: Helicopter business increases In 2016 the increased use of helicopters was noted for increased efficiency and for hauling material over the deadly Khumbu icefall. In particular it was noted that flights saved icefall porters 80 trips but still increased commercial activity at Everest. After many Nepalis died in the icefall in 2014, the government had wanted helicopters to handle more transportation to Camp 1 but this was not possible because of the 2015 earthquake closing the mountain, so this was then implemented in 2016 (helicopters did prove instrumental in rescuing many people in 2015 though). That summer Bell tested the 412EPI, which conducted a series of tests including hovering at 5,500 m (18,000 ft) and flying as high as 6,100 m (20,000 ft) altitude near Mount Everest. Extreme sports Mount Everest has been host to other winter sports and adventuring besides mountaineering, including snowboarding, skiing, paragliding, and BASE jumping. Yuichiro Miura became the first man to ski down Everest in the 1970s. He descended nearly 1,300 vertical metres (4,200 ft) from the South Col before falling with extreme injuries. Stefan Gatt and Marco Siffredi snowboarded Mount Everest in 2001. Other Everest skiers include Davo Karničar of Slovenia, who completed a top to south base camp descent in 2000, Hans Kammerlander of Italy in 1996 on the north side, and Kit DesLauriers of the United States in 2006. In 2006 Swede Tomas Olsson and Norwegian Tormod Granheim skied together down the north face. Olsson's anchor broke while they were rappelling down a cliff in the Norton couloir at about 8,500 metres, resulting in his death from a two and a half-kilometre fall. Granheim skied down to camp III. Also, Marco Siffredi died in 2002 on his second snow-boarding expedition. Various types of gliding descents have slowly become more popular, and are noted for their rapid descents to lower camps. In 1986 Steve McKinney led an expedition to Mount Everest, during which he became the first person to fly a hang-glider off the mountain. Frenchman Jean-Marc Boivin made the first paraglider descent of Everest in September 1988, descending in minutes from the south-east ridge to a lower camp. In 2011, two Nepalis made a gliding descent from the Everest summit down 5,000 metres (16,400 ft) in 45 minutes. On 5 May 2013, the beverage company Red Bull sponsored Valery Rozov, who successfully BASE jumped off of the mountain while wearing a wingsuit, setting a record for world's highest BASE jump in the process. Religious significance The southern part of Mount Everest is regarded as one of several "hidden valleys" of refuge designated by Padmasambhava, a ninth-century "lotus-born" Buddhist saint. Near the base of the north side of Everest lies Rongbuk Monastery, which has been called the "sacred threshold to Mount Everest, with the most dramatic views of the world." For Sherpas living on the slopes of Everest in the Khumbu region of Nepal, Rongbuk Monastery is an important pilgrimage site, accessed in a few days of travel across the Himalayas through Nangpa La. Miyolangsangma, a Tibetan Buddhist "Goddess of Inexhaustible Giving", is believed to have lived at the top of Mount Everest. According to Sherpa Buddhist monks, Mount Everest is Miyolangsangma's palace and playground, and all climbers are only partially welcome guests, having arrived without invitation. The Sherpa people also believe that Mount Everest and its flanks are blessed with spiritual energy, and one should show reverence when passing through this sacred landscape. Here, the karmic effects of one's actions are magnified, and impure thoughts are best avoided. Waste management In 2015, the president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association warned that pollution, especially human waste, has reached critical levels. As much as 12,000 kg (26,500 lb) of human excrement each season is left behind on the mountain. Human waste is strewn across the verges of the route to the summit, making the four sleeping areas on the route up Everest's south side minefields of human excrement. Climbers above Base Camp—for the 62-year history of climbing on the mountain—have most commonly either buried their excrement in holes they dug by hand in the snow, or slung it into crevasses, or simply defecated wherever convenient, often within metres of their tents. The only place where climbers can defecate without worrying about contaminating the mountain is Base Camp. At approximately 5,500 m (18,000 ft), Base Camp sees the most activity of all camps on Everest because climbers acclimate and rest there. In the late-1990s, expeditions began using toilets that they fashioned from blue plastic 190-litre (50-US-gallon) barrels fitted with a toilet seat and enclosed. The problem of human waste is compounded by the presence of more anodyne waste: spent oxygen tanks, abandoned tents, empty cans and bottles. The Nepali government now requires each climber to pack out eight kilograms of waste when descending the mountain. In February 2019, due to the mounting waste problem, China closed the base camp on its side of Everest to visitors without climbing permits. Tourists are allowed to go as far as the Rongbuk Monastery. In April 2019, the Solukhumbu district's Khumbu Pasanglhamu Rural Municipality launched a campaign to collect nearly 10,000 kg of garbage from Everest. Five years later, 2024, waste removal is receiving continuing attention. See also Notes References Further reading Astill, Tony (2005). Mount Everest: The Reconnaissance 1935. Boukreev, Anatoli; DeWalt, G. Weston (1997). The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest. Saint Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-16814-8. Hillary, Edmund (1953). High Adventure. London: Hodder & Stoughton. Holdich, Thomas (1911). "Everest, Mount" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). p. 7. Messner, Reinhold (1989). The Crystal Horizon: Everest – the first solo ascent. Seattle: The Mountaineers. ISBN 978-0-89886-207-2. Murray, W.H. (1953). The Story of Everest, 1921–1952. London: J.M. Dent & Sons. Norgay, Tenzing; Ullman, Ramsey James (1955). Tiger of the Snows. New York: Putnam. Tilman, H.W. (1952). Nepal Himalaya. Cambridge University Press. Washburn, Bradford (November 1988). "Mount Everest: Surveying the Third Pole". National Geographic. Vol. 174, no. 5. pp. 652–659. ISSN 0027-9358. OCLC 643483454. Fleetwood, Lachlan (May 2022). Science on the Roof of the World: Empire and the Remaking of the Himalaya. Science in History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-009-12311-2. External links Mount Everest on Himalaya-Info.org (German) 360 panorama view from top of Mount Everest – large dimension drawing National Geographic site on Mount Everest NOVA site on Mount Everest Imaging Everest, a collection of photographs Archived 14 November 2016 at the Wayback Machine Panoramas: North, South Mount Everest on Summitpost Full list of all ascents of Everest up to and including 2008 (in PDF format) Deaths by year (Summits and deaths per year) Mount Everest panorama, Mount Everest interactive panorama (QuickTime format), Virtual panoramas National Geographic, 2015 article with info-graphic on climbing routes Himalayan Database: Data Visualization of Mount Everest Summit, Attempt, and Death

How old was the famous composer who taught at the Ospedale della Pietà and was known as "The Red Priest" when his first opera premiered?

Antonio Vivaldi was 35 when his first opera, Ottone in villa, premiered.

Numerical reasoning | Multiple constraints | Temporal reasoning

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist and impresario of Baroque music. Along with Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel, Vivaldi ranks amongst the greatest Baroque composers and his influence during his lifetime was widespread across Europe, giving origin to many imitators and admirers. He pioneered many developments in orchestration, violin technique and programmatic music. He consolidated the emerging concerto form into a widely accepted and followed idiom. Vivaldi composed many instrumental concertos, for the violin and a variety of other musical instruments, as well as sacred choral works and more than fifty operas. His best-known work is a series of violin concertos known as The Four Seasons. Many of his compositions were written for the all-female music ensemble of the Ospedale della Pietà, a home for abandoned children. Vivaldi began studying for the priesthood at the age of 15 and was ordained at 25, but was given dispensation to no longer say public Masses due to a health problem. Vivaldi also had some success with expensive stagings of his operas in Venice, Mantua and Vienna. After meeting the Emperor Charles VI, Vivaldi moved to Vienna, hoping for royal support. However, the Emperor died soon after Vivaldi's arrival, and Vivaldi himself died in poverty less than a year later. After almost two centuries of decline, Vivaldi's musical reputation underwent a revival in the early 20th century, with much scholarly research devoted to his work. Many of Vivaldi's compositions, once thought lost, have been rediscovered – some as recently as 2015. His music remains widely popular in the present day and is regularly played all over the world. Early life Birth and background Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was born on 4 March 1678 in Venice, then the capital of the Republic of Venice. He was son of Giovanni Battista Vivaldi and Camilla Calicchio, as recorded in the register of San Giovanni in Bragora. He was baptized immediately after his birth at his home by the midwife, the reason for which has led to speculation. It was most likely done due to his poor health. There is a false rumor that an earthquake struck the city that day. This rumor may have originated from an earthquake that struck Venice on 17 April 1688. The baptismal ceremonies which had been omitted were supplied two months later. Vivaldi had five known siblings: Bonaventura Tomaso, Margarita Gabriela, Cecilia Maria, Francesco Gaetano, and Zanetta Anna. Vivaldi's health was problematic. One of his symptoms, strettezza di petto ("tightness of the chest"), has been interpreted as a form of asthma. This did not prevent him from learning to play the violin, composing, or taking part in musical activities, although it prevented him from playing wind instruments. Youth His father, Giovanni Battista, was a barber before becoming a professional violinist and was one of the founders of the Sovvegno dei musicisti di Santa Cecilia, an association of musicians. He taught Antonio to play the violin and then toured Venice, playing the violin with his young son. Antonio was probably taught at an early age, judging by the extensive musical knowledge he had acquired by the age of 24, when he started working at the Ospedale della Pietà. The president of the sovvegno was Giovanni Legrenzi, an early Baroque composer and the maestro di cappella at St Mark's Basilica. It is possible that Legrenzi gave the young Antonio his first lessons in composition. Vivaldi's father may have been a composer himself: in 1689, an opera titled La Fedeltà sfortunata was composed by a Giovanni Battista Rossi—the name under which Vivaldi's father had joined the Sovvegno di Santa Cecilia.In 1691, at the age of thirteen, Vivaldi wrote an early liturgical work – Laetatus sum (RV Anh 31). In 1693, at the age of fifteen, he began studying to become a priest. He was ordained in 1703, aged 25, and was soon nicknamed il Prete Rosso, "The Red Priest"; Rosso is Italian for "red" and would have referred to the color of his hair, a family trait. Career Ospedale della Pietà Although Vivaldi is most famous as a composer, he was regarded as an exceptional technical violinist as well. The German architect Johann Friedrich Armand von Uffenbach referred to Vivaldi as "the famous composer and violinist" and noted in his diary that "Vivaldi played a solo accompaniment excellently, and at the conclusion he added a free fantasy [an improvised cadenza] which absolutely astounded me, for it is hardly possible that anyone has ever played, or ever will play, in such a fashion." In September 1703, Vivaldi (24) became maestro di violino (master of violin) at an orphanage called the Pio Ospedale della Pietà (Devout Hospital of Mercy) in Venice; although his talents as a violinist probably secured him the job, he soon became a successful teacher of music there. Over the next thirty years he composed most of his major works while working at the Ospedale. There were four similar institutions in Venice; their purpose was to give shelter and education to children who were abandoned or orphaned, or whose families could not support them. They were financed by funds provided by the Republic. The boys learned a trade and had to leave when they reached the age of fifteen. The girls received a musical education, and the most talented among them stayed and became members of the Ospedale's renowned orchestra and choir. Shortly after Vivaldi's appointment, the orphans began to gain appreciation and esteem abroad, too. Vivaldi wrote concertos, cantatas and sacred vocal music for them. These sacred works, which number over 60, are varied: they included solo motets and large-scale choral works for soloists, double chorus, and orchestra. In 1704, the position of teacher of viola all'inglese was added to his duties as violin instructor. The position of maestro di coro, which was at one time filled by Vivaldi, required a lot of time and work. He had to compose an oratorio or concerto for every feast and teach the orphans both music theory and how to play certain instruments. His relationship with the board of directors of the Ospedale was often strained. The board had to vote every year on whether to keep a teacher. The vote on Vivaldi was seldom unanimous and went 7 to 6 against him in 1709. In 1711, after a year as a freelance musician, he was recalled by the Ospedale with a unanimous vote; clearly during his year's absence the board had realized the importance of his role. He became responsible for all of the musical activity of the institution when he was promoted to maestro de' concerti (music director) in 1716 and responsible for composing two new concertos every month. In 1705, the first collection (Connor Cassara) of his works was published by Giuseppe Sala. His Opus 1 is a collection of 12 sonatas for two violins and basso continuo, in a conventional style. In 1709, a second collection of 12 sonatas for violin and basso continuo appeared (Opus 2). A real breakthrough as a composer came with his first collection of 12 concerti for one, two, and four violins with strings, L'estro armonico (Opus 3), which was published in Amsterdam in 1711 by Estienne Roger, and dedicated to Grand Prince Ferdinand of Tuscany. The prince sponsored many musicians, including Alessandro Scarlatti and George Frideric Handel. He was a musician himself, and Vivaldi probably met him in Venice. L'estro armonico was a resounding success all over Europe. It was followed in 1714 by La stravaganza (Opus 4), a collection of concerti for solo violin and strings, and dedicated to an old violin student of Vivaldi's, the Venetian noble Vettor Dolfin. In February 1711, Vivaldi and his father traveled to Brescia, where his setting of the Stabat Mater (RV 621) was played as part of a religious festival. The work seems to have been written in haste: the string parts are simple, the music of the first three movements is repeated in the next three, and not all the text is set. Nevertheless, perhaps in part because of the forced essentiality of the music, the work is considered to be one of his early masterpieces. Despite his frequent travels from 1718, the Ospedale paid him 2 sequins to write two concerti a month for the orchestra and to rehearse with them at least five times when in Venice. The orphanage's records show that he was paid for 140 concerti between 1723 and 1733. Opera impresario In early 18th-century Venice, opera was the most popular musical entertainment. It proved most profitable for Vivaldi. There were several theaters competing for the public's attention. Vivaldi started his career as an opera composer as a sideline: his first opera, Ottone in villa (RV 729) was performed not in Venice, but at the Garzerie Theater in Vicenza in 1713. The following year, Vivaldi became the impresario of the Teatro San Angelo in Venice, where his opera Orlando finto pazzo (RV 727) was performed. The work was not to the public's taste, and it closed after a couple of weeks, being replaced with a repeat of a different work already given the previous year. In 1715, he presented Nerone fatto Cesare (RV 724, now lost), with music by seven different composers, of which he was the leader. The opera contained eleven arias and was a success. In the late season, Vivaldi planned to put on an opera entirely of his own creation, Arsilda, regina di Ponto (RV 700), but the state censor blocked the performance. The main character, Arsilda, falls in love with another woman, Lisea, who is pretending to be a man. Vivaldi got the censor to accept the opera the following year, and it was a resounding success. During this period, the Pietà commissioned several liturgical works. The most important were two oratorios. Moyses Deus Pharaonis, (RV 643) is now lost. The second, Juditha triumphans (RV 644), celebrates the victory of the Republic of Venice against the Turks and the recapture of the island of Corfu. Composed in 1716, it is one of his sacred masterpieces. All eleven singing parts were performed by girls of the orphanage, both the female and male roles. Many of the arias include parts for solo instruments—recorders, oboes, violas d'amore, and mandolins—that showcased the range of talents of the girls. Also in 1716, Vivaldi wrote and produced two more operas, L'incoronazione di Dario (RV 719) and La costanza trionfante degli amori e degli odi (RV 706). The latter was so popular that it was performed two years later, re-edited and retitled Artabano re dei Parti (RV 701, now lost). It was also performed in Prague in 1732. In the years that followed, Vivaldi wrote several operas that were performed all over Italy. His progressive operatic style caused him some trouble with more conservative musicians such as Benedetto Marcello, a magistrate and amateur musician who wrote a pamphlet denouncing Vivaldi and his operas. The pamphlet, Il teatro alla moda, attacks the composer even though it does not mention him directly. The cover drawing shows a boat (the San Angelo), on the left end of which stands a little angel wearing a priest's hat and playing the violin. The Marcello family claimed ownership of the Teatro San Angelo, and a long legal battle had been fought with the management for its restitution, without success. The obscure text under the engraving mentions non-existent places and names: for example, ALDIVIVA is an anagram of "A. Vivaldi". In a letter written by Vivaldi to his patron Marchese Bentivoglio, in 1737, he makes reference to his "94 operas". Only about 50 operas by Vivaldi have been discovered, and no other documentation of the remaining operas exists. Although Vivaldi could have been exaggerating, it is plausible that, in his dual role of composer and impresario, he might have either written or been responsible for the production of as many as 94 operas—given that his career had by then spanned almost 25 years. Although Vivaldi certainly composed many operas in his time, he never attained the prominence of other great composers such as Alessandro Scarlatti, Johann Adolph Hasse, Leonardo Leo, and Baldassare Galuppi, as evidenced by his inability to keep a production running for an extended period of time in any major opera house. Mantua and the Four Seasons In 1717 or 1718, Vivaldi was offered a prestigious new position as Maestro di Cappella of the court of Prince Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt, governor of Mantua, in the northwest of Italy He moved there for three years and produced several operas, among them Tito Manlio (RV 738). In 1721, he was in Milan, where he presented the pastoral drama La Silvia (RV 734); nine arias from it survive. He visited Milan again the following year with the oratorio L'adorazione delli tre re magi al bambino Gesù (RV 645, now lost). In 1722 he moved to Rome, where he introduced his operas' new style. The new Pope Benedict XIII invited Vivaldi to play for him. In 1725, Vivaldi returned to Venice, where he produced four operas in the same year. During this period, Vivaldi wrote the Four Seasons, four violin concertos that give musical expression to the seasons of the year. The composition is probably one of his most famous. Although three of the concerti are wholly original, the first, "Spring", borrows motifs from a Sinfonia in the first act of Vivaldi's contemporaneous opera Il Giustino. The inspiration for the concertos was probably the countryside around Mantua. They were a revolution in musical conception: in them, Vivaldi represented flowing streams, singing birds (of different species, each specifically characterized), barking dogs, buzzing mosquitoes, crying shepherds, storms, drunken dancers, silent nights, hunting parties from both the hunters' and the prey's point of view, frozen landscapes, ice-skating children, and warming winter fires. Each concerto is associated with a sonnet, possibly by Vivaldi, describing the scenes depicted in the music. They were published as the first four concertos in a collection of twelve, Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione, Opus 8, published in Amsterdam by Michel-Charles Le Cène in 1725. During his time in Mantua, Vivaldi became acquainted with an aspiring young singer Anna Tessieri Girò, who would become his student, protégée, and favorite prima donna. Anna, along with her older half-sister Paolina, moved in with Vivaldi and regularly accompanied him on his many travels. There was speculation as to the nature of Vivaldi's and Girò's relationship, but no evidence exists to indicate anything beyond friendship and professional collaboration. Vivaldi, in fact, adamantly denied any romantic relationship with Girò in a letter to his patron Bentivoglio, dated 16 November 1737. Late period Vivaldi collaborated with choreographer Giovanni Gallo on several of his later operas stage in Venice with Gallo choreographing the ballets found within those works. At the height of his career, he received commissions from European nobility and royalty, some of which were: The serenata (cantata) Gloria e Imeneo (RV 687), which was commissioned in 1725 by the French ambassador to Venice in celebration of the marriage of Louis XV, when Vivaldi was 48 years old. The serenata, La Sena festeggiante (RV 694), written in 1726 and also premiered at the French embassy, to celebrate the birth of the French royal princesses, Henriette and Louise Élisabeth. Vivaldi's Opus 9, La cetra, which was dedicated to Emperor Charles VI. In 1728, Vivaldi met the emperor while the emperor was visiting Trieste to oversee the construction of a new port. Charles VI admired the music of the Red Priest so much that he is said to have spoken more with the composer during their one meeting than he spoke to his ministers in more than two years. He gave Vivaldi the title of knight, a gold medal and an invitation to Vienna. Vivaldi gave Charles a manuscript copy of La cetra, a set of concerti almost completely different from the set of the same title published as Opus 9. The printing was probably delayed, forcing Vivaldi to gather an improvised collection for the emperor. His opera Farnace (RV 711) was presented in 1730; it garnered six revivals. Some of his later operas were created in collaboration with two of Italy's major writers of the time. Accompanied by his father, Vivaldi traveled to Vienna and Prague in 1730. L'Olimpiade and Catone in Utica were written by Pietro Metastasio, the major representative of the Arcadian movement and court poet in Vienna. La Griselda was rewritten by the young Carlo Goldoni from an earlier libretto by Apostolo Zeno. Like many composers of the time, Vivaldi faced financial difficulties in his later years. His compositions were no longer held in such high esteem as they had once been in Venice; changing musical tastes quickly made them outmoded. In response, Vivaldi chose to sell off sizeable numbers of his manuscripts at paltry prices to finance his migration to Vienna. The reasons for Vivaldi's departure from Venice are unclear, but it seems likely that, after the success of his meeting with Emperor Charles VI, he wished to take up the position of a composer in the imperial court. On his way to Vienna, Vivaldi might have stopped in Graz to see Anna Girò. Death Vivaldi probably moved to Vienna to stage operas, especially as he took up residence near the Kärntnertortheater. Shortly after his arrival in Vienna, Charles VI died, which left the composer without any imperial patronage or a steady source of income. Soon afterwards, Vivaldi became impoverished and, during the night of 27/28 July 1741, aged 63, he died of "internal infection", in a house owned by the widow of a Viennese saddlemaker. On 28 July, Vivald's funeral took place at St. Stephen's Cathedral. Contrary to popular legend, the young Joseph Haydn who was in the cathedral choir at the time had nothing to do with his burial, since no music was performed on that occasion. The funeral was attended by six pall-bearers and six choir boys (Kuttenbuben), at a "mean" cost of 19 florins and 45 kreuzer. Only a Kleingeläut (small peal of bells), the lowest class, was provided, at a cost of 2 florins and 36 kreuzer. Vivaldi was buried in a simple grave in a burial ground that was owned by the public hospital fund – the Bürgerspital-Gottesacker cemetery, next to St Charles Church, a baroque church in an area that is now part of the site of the TU Wien university. The cemetery existed until 1807. The house where he lived in Vienna has since been destroyed; the Hotel Sacher is built on part of the site. Memorial plaques have been placed at both locations, as well as a Vivaldi "star" in the Viennese Musikmeile and a monument at the Rooseveltplatz. Only two, possibly three, original portraits of Vivaldi are known to survive: an engraving, an ink sketch and an oil painting. The engraving, which was the basis of several copies produced later by other artists, was made in 1725 by François Morellon de La Cave for the first edition of Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione, and shows Vivaldi holding a sheet of music. The ink sketch, a caricature, was done by Ghezzi in 1723 and shows Vivaldi's head and shoulders in profile. It exists in two versions: a first jotting kept at the Vatican Library, and a much lesser-known, slightly more detailed copy recently discovered in Moscow. The oil painting, which can be seen in the International Museum and Library of Music of Bologna, is by an anonymous artist and is thought to depict Vivaldi due to its strong resemblance to the La Cave engraving. During his lifetime, Vivaldi was popular in many countries throughout Europe, including France, but after his death his popularity dwindled. After the end of the Baroque period, Vivaldi's published concerti became relatively unknown, and were largely ignored. Even his most famous work, The Four Seasons, was unknown in its original edition during the Classical and Romantic periods. Vivaldi's work was rediscovered in the 20th century. Works A composition by Vivaldi is identified by RV number, which refers to its place in the "Ryom-Verzeichnis" or "Répertoire des oeuvres d'Antonio Vivaldi", a catalog created in the 20th century by the musicologist Peter Ryom. Le quattro stagioni (The Four Seasons) of 1723 is his most famous work. The first four of the 12 concertos, titled Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione ("The Contest between Harmony and Invention"), they depict moods and scenes from each of the four seasons. This work has been described as an outstanding example of pre-19th-century program music. Vivaldi's other notable sets of 12 violin concertos include La stravaganza (The Eccentricity), L'estro armonico (The Harmonic Inspiration) and La cetra (The Lyre). Vivaldi wrote more than 500 concertos. About 350 of these are for solo instrument and strings, of which 230 are for violin; the others are for bassoon, cello, oboe, flute, viola d'amore, recorder, lute, or mandolin. About forty concertos are for two instruments and strings, and about thirty are for three or more instruments and strings. As well as about 46 operas, Vivaldi composed a large body of sacred choral music, such as the Gloria, RV 589; Nisi Dominus, RV 608; Magnificat, RV 610 and Stabat Mater, RV 621. Gloria, RV 589 remains one of Vivaldi's more popular sacred works. Other works include sinfonias, about 90 sonatas and chamber music. Some sonatas for flute, published as Il Pastor Fido, have been erroneously attributed to Vivaldi, but were composed by Nicolas Chédeville. Catalogues of Vivaldi works Vivaldi's works attracted cataloging efforts befitting a major composer. Scholarly work intended to increase the accuracy and variety of Vivaldi performances also supported new discoveries that made old catalogs incomplete. Works still in circulation today might be numbered under several different systems (some earlier catalogs are mentioned here). Because the simply consecutive Complete Edition (CE) numbers did not reflect the individual works (Opus numbers) into which compositions were grouped, numbers assigned by Antonio Fanna were often used in conjunction with CE numbers. Combined Complete Edition (CE)/Fanna numbering was especially common in the work of Italian groups driving the mid-20th-century revival of Vivaldi, such as Gli Accademici di Milano under Piero Santi. For example, the Bassoon Concerto in B♭ major, "La Notte", RV 501, became CE 12, F. VIII,1 Despite the awkwardness of having to overlay Fanna numbers onto the Complete Edition number for meaningful grouping of Vivaldi's oeuvre, these numbers displaced the older Pincherle numbers as the (re-) discovery of more manuscripts had rendered older catalogs obsolete. This cataloging work was led by the Istituto Italiano Antonio Vivaldi, where Gian Francesco Malipiero was both the director and the editor of the published scores (Edizioni G. Ricordi). His work built on that of Antonio Fanna, a Venetian businessman and the institute's founder, and thus formed a bridge to the scholarly catalog dominant today. Compositions by Vivaldi are identified today by RV number, the number assigned by Danish musicologist Peter Ryom in works published mostly in the 1970s, such as the "Ryom-Verzeichnis" or "Répertoire des oeuvres d'Antonio Vivaldi". Like the Complete Edition before it, the RV does not typically assign its single, consecutive numbers to "adjacent" works that occupy one of the composer's single opus numbers. Its goal as a modern catalog is to index the manuscripts and sources that establish the existence and nature of all known works. Style and influence The German scholar Walter Kolneder has discerned the influence of Legrenzi's style in Vivaldi's early liturgical work Laetatus sum (RV Anh 31), written in 1691 at the age of thirteen. Vivaldi was also influenced by the Composer Arcangelo Corelli. Johann Sebastian Bach was deeply influenced by Vivaldi's concertos and arias (recalled in his St John Passion, St Matthew Passion, and cantatas). Bach transcribed six of Vivaldi's concerti for solo keyboard, a further three for organ, and one for four harpsichords, strings, and basso continuo (BWV 1065) based upon the concerto for four violins, two violas, cello, and basso continuo (RV 580). Legacy In the early 20th century, Fritz Kreisler's Concerto in C, in the Style of Vivaldi (which he passed off as an original Vivaldi work) helped revive Vivaldi's reputation. Kreisler's concerto in C spurred the French scholar Marc Pincherle to begin an academic study of Vivaldi's oeuvre. Many Vivaldi manuscripts were rediscovered, and were acquired by the Turin National University Library as a result of the generous sponsorship of Turinese businessmen Roberto Foa and Filippo Giordano, in memory of their sons. This led to a renewed interest in Vivaldi by, among others, Mario Rinaldi, Alfredo Casella, Ezra Pound, Olga Rudge, Desmond Chute, Arturo Toscanini, Arnold Schering and Louis Kaufman, all of whom were instrumental in the revival of Vivaldi throughout the 20th century. In 1926, in a monastery in Piedmont, researchers discovered fourteen bound volumes of Vivaldi's work (later discovered to be fifteen) that were previously thought to have been lost during the Napoleonic Wars. Some missing tomes in the numbered set were discovered in the collections of the descendants of the Grand Duke Durazzo, who had acquired the monastery complex in the 18th century. The volumes contained 300 concertos, 19 operas and over 100 vocal-instrumental works. The resurrection of Vivaldi's unpublished works in the 20th century greatly benefited from the noted efforts of Alfredo Casella, who in 1939 organized the historic Vivaldi Week, in which the rediscovered Gloria (RV 589) and l'Olimpiade were revived. Since World War II, Vivaldi's compositions have enjoyed wide success. Historically informed performances, often on "original instruments", have increased Vivaldi's fame still further. Recent rediscoveries of works by Vivaldi include two psalm settings: Psalm 127, Nisi Dominus RV 803 (in eight movements); and Psalm 110, Dixit Dominus RV 807 (in eleven movements). These were identified in 2003 and 2005, respectively, by the Australian scholar Janice Stockigt. The Vivaldi scholar Michael Talbot described RV 807 as "arguably the best nonoperatic work from Vivaldi's pen to come to light since ... the 1920s". In February 2002, musicologist Steffen Voss discovered 70% of the music for the opera Motezuma (RV 723) in the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin archives. Long thought lost, it was described by Dutch musicologist Kees Vlaardingerbroek as "the most important Vivaldi discovery in 75 years." One of the earliest operas to have been set in the Americas, versions of it were staged in Düsseldorf in 2005 and Long Beach in 2009. Vivaldi's 1730 opera, Argippo (RV 697), which had also been considered lost, was rediscovered in 2006 by the harpsichordist and conductor Ondřej Macek, whose Hofmusici orchestra performed the work at Prague Castle on 3 May 2008—its first performance since 1730. Modern depictions of Vivaldi's life include a 2005 radio play, commissioned by ABC Radio National and written by Sean Riley. Entitled The Angel and the Red Priest, the play was later adapted for the stage and performed at the Adelaide Festival of the Arts. Films about Vivaldi include: Red Venice (1989), an Italian-French co-production under the direction of Étienne Périer; Antonio Vivaldi, a Prince in Venice (2006), an Italian-French co-production under the direction of Jean-Louis Guillermou; and Vivaldi, the Red Priest (2009), an Italian film created and directed by Liana Marabini, and loosely based on Vivaldi's life as both priest and composer. References Notes Citations Sources Further reading Lane Poole, Reginald (1900). "Vivaldi, Antonio" . In Grove, George (ed.). A Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Vol. 4.5. London: Macmillan and Company. pp. 317–318. Romijn, André. Hidden Harmonies: The Secret Life of Antonio Vivaldi, 2007 ISBN 978-0-9554100-1-7 Selfridge-Field, Eleanor (1994). Venetian Instrumental Music, from Gabrieli to Vivaldi. New York, Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-28151-5. External links Free scores by Antonio Vivaldi at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP) Free scores by Antonio Vivaldi in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki) The Mutopia Project has compositions by Antonio Vivaldi "Discovering Vivaldi". BBC Radio 3. Antonio Vivaldi at IMDb

This is a complete list of operas by Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741). He claimed to have composed 94 operas, but fewer than 50 titles have been identified, of which the scores of only 20 or so survive, wholly or in part. Moreover, the practice of reviving works under a different title and of creating pasticci has confused musicologists. All of Vivaldi's operatic works are described as dramma per musica, roughly equivalent to opera seria. Key: music completely lost; music preserved (at least in part) 51 items are listed. List of operas References Further reading Cross, Eric (1992), "Vivaldi, Antonio", in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ed. Stanley Sadie (London) ISBN 0-333-73432-7 External links Media related to Operas by Antonio Vivaldi at Wikimedia Commons Free scores by Antonio Vivaldi at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)

Ottone in villa (Otho at his villa, RV 729) is an opera in three acts by Antonio Vivaldi to an Italian libretto by Domenico Lalli (the pseudonym of Sebastiano Biancardi). It was Vivaldi's first opera and premiered on 17 May 1713 at the Teatro delle Garzerie in Vicenza. Lalli's pastoral drama is set in ancient Rome and was a condensed adaptation of Francesco Maria Piccioli's satirical libretto for Carlo Pallavicino's opera Messalina (1679). However, Lalli changed several of the characters in Piccioli's libretto. Messalina became an invented character, Cleonilla. The Roman Emperor Claudius became another emperor, Otho (Ottone), who had already appeared as a protagonist in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea (1642) and in Handel's Agrippina (1709). Roles Synopsis The Roman Emperor Ottone is in love with Cleonilla, who can't resist flirting with two young Romans, Ostilio and Caio. Ostilio is in reality a woman, Tullia, who disguised herself because she's in love with Caio. She plans to kill Cleonilla out of jealousy, but she first tries to dissuade her from her relation with Caio. Caio sees the meeting and misinterprets it as a romantic encounter. He warns Ottone, who commands him to kill Ostilio. Before he can execute the order, Ostilio reveals himself to be Tullia. Cleonilla claims to have always known it, to conciliate Ottone. He believes her and the opera closes with the marriage of Tullia and Caio. Recordings Vivaldi: Ottone in Villa – Patrizia Pace (Cleonilla, soprano), Anna Maria Ferrante (Tullia, soprano), Aris Christofellis (Caio, male soprano), Jean Nirouët (Ottone, countertenor), Luigi Petroni (Decio, tenor); Ensemble Seicentonovecento; Flavio Colusso (conductor). Recorded September 1993. Label: Bongiovanni 10016/18. Vivaldi: Ottone in Villa – Susan Gritton (Cleonilla, soprano), Monica Groop (Ottone, mezzo-soprano), Nancy Argenta (Caio Silio, soprano), Mark Padmore (Decio, tenor), Sophie Daneman (Tullia, soprano); Collegium Musicum 90; Richard Hickox (conductor). Performing Edition (1997) by Eric Cross. Label: Chandos Chaconne 0614. Vivaldi: Ottone in Villa – Maria Laura Martorana (Cleonilla, soprano), Tuva Semmingsen (Ottone, mezzo-soprano), Florin Cezar Ouatu (Caio Silio, countertenor), Luca Dordolo (Decio, tenor), Marina Bartoli (Tullia, soprano); L'Arte dell'Arco; Federico Guglielmo (conductor). Performing edition by Federico Guglielmo (2008 revision) from the manuscript by Vittorio Bolcato. Label: Brilliant Classics 94105. Vivaldi: Ottone in Villa – Veronica Cangemi (Cleonilla, soprano), Roberta Invernizzi (Tullia, soprano), Julia Lezhneva (Caio, soprano), Sonia Prina (Ottone, contralto), Topi Lehtipuu (Decio, tenor); Il Giardino Armonico; Giovanni Antonini (conductor). Performing edition by Eric Cross. Label: Naïve B004215TO0. (2010) References Sources Casaglia, Gherardo (2005). "Ottone in Villa, 17 May 1713". L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia (in Italian). Folena, Gianfranco; Arnaldi, Girolamo (1985). Storia della cultura veneta. Vol. 5. N. Pozza. Ketterer, Robert C. (2008). Ancient Rome in Early Opera. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-03378-0. Strohm, Reinhard (1985). Essays on Handel and Italian opera. Cambridge University Press Archive. ISBN 0-521-26428-6. Vasta, Stephen Francis (November 1998). "Records: Vivaldi: Ottone in Villa". Opera News. Retrieved 7 May 2009. External links Ottone in villa (Vivaldi): Scores at the International Music Score Library Project

Twenty-three years after the deadliest battle in the US Civil War, who served as governor in the state in which this battle was fought?

Robert E Pattison

Numerical reasoning | Tabular reasoning | Multiple constraints | Temporal reasoning

This is a list of the costliest land battles of the American Civil War, measured by casualties (killed, wounded, captured, and missing) on both sides. Highest casualty battles See also List of American Civil War battles Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War Bibliography of the American Civil War Bibliography of Ulysses S. Grant == Notes ==

The Battle of Gettysburg (locally ) was a three-day battle in the American Civil War fought between Union and Confederate forces between July 1 and July 3, 1863, in and around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle, which was won by the Union, is widely considered the Civil War's turning point, ending the Confederacy's aspirations to establish an independent nation. It was the Civil War's bloodiest battle, claiming over 50,000 combined casualties over three days. In the Battle of Gettysburg, Union Major General George Meade's Army of the Potomac defeated attacks by Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, halting Lee's invasion of the North and forcing his retreat. After his success at Chancellorsville in Virginia in May 1863, Lee led his Confederate forces through Shenandoah Valley to begin the Gettysburg Campaign, his second attempted invasion of the North. With Lee's army in high spirits, he intended to shift the focus of the summer campaign from war-ravaged Northern Virginia in the hopes of penetrating as far as Harrisburg, Pennsylvania or Philadelphia, which he hoped would convince northern politicians to abandon their prosecution of the war. President Abraham Lincoln initially prodded Major General Joseph Hooker to move his Union forces in pursuit of Lee, but relieved Hooker of his command just three days before the battle, replacing him with Meade. On July 1, 1863, as Lee's forces moved on Gettysburg in the hopes of destroying the Union Army, the two armies initially collided, and the battle commenced. Low ridges to the northwest of Gettysburg were initially defended by a Union cavalry division under Brigadier General John Buford, and soon reinforced with two corps of Union infantry. Two large Confederate corps assaulted them from the northwest and north, however, collapsing the hastily developed Union lines, leading them to retreat through the streets of Gettysburg to the hills just south of the city. On the second day of battle, on July 2, the Union line was laid out in a defensive formation resembling a fishhook. In the late afternoon, Lee launched a heavy assault on the Union's left flank, leading to fierce fighting at Little Round Top, the Wheatfield, Devil's Den, and the Peach Orchard. On the Union's right flank, Confederate demonstrations escalated into full-scale assaults on Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill. Despite incurring significant losses, Union forces held their lines. On the third day of battle, July 3, fighting resumed on Culp's Hill, and cavalry battles raged to the east and south of Gettysburg, but the main military engagement was a dramatic Confederate infantry assault of approximately 12,000 Confederates troops, who attacked the center of the Union line at Cemetery Ridge in what is known as Pickett's Charge. The Confederate charge was repelled by Union rifle and artillery fire, leading to great Confederate losses. The following day, on the Fourth of July, Lee led his Confederate troops on the torturous retreat from the North. Between 46,000 and 51,000 soldiers from both armies were casualties in the three-day battle, representing the most deadly battle in U.S. history. On November 19, President Lincoln traveled to Gettysburg, where he spoke at a ceremony dedicating Gettysburg National Cemetery that honored the fallen Union soldiers and redefined the purpose of the Civil War in his famed Gettysburg Address, a 271-word address considered one of the famous speeches in American history. Background Military situation Shortly after the Army of Northern Virginia won a major victory over the Army of the Potomac at the Battle of Chancellorsville (April 30 – May 6, 1863), General Robert E. Lee decided upon a second invasion of the North (the first was the unsuccessful Maryland campaign of September 1862, which ended in the bloody Battle of Antietam). Such a move would upset the Union's plans for the summer campaigning season and possibly reduce the pressure on the besieged Confederate garrison at Vicksburg. The invasion would allow the Confederates to live off the bounty of the rich Northern farms while giving war-ravaged Virginia a much-needed rest. In addition, Lee's 72,000-man army could threaten Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, and possibly strengthen the growing peace movement in the North. Initial movements to battle Thus, on June 3, Lee's army began to shift northward from Fredericksburg, Virginia. Following the death of Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, Lee reorganized his two large corps into three new corps, commanded by Lieutenant General James Longstreet (First Corps), Lieutenant General Richard S. Ewell (Second), and Lieutenant General A.P. Hill (Third); both Ewell and Hill, who had formerly reported to Jackson as division commanders, were new to this level of responsibility. The cavalry division remained under the command of Major General J.E.B. Stuart. The Union Army of the Potomac under Major General Joseph Hooker consisted of seven infantry corps, a cavalry corps, and an artillery reserve, for a combined strength of more than 100,000 men. The first major action of the campaign took place on June 9 between cavalry forces at Brandy Station, near Culpeper, Virginia. The 9,500 Confederate cavalrymen under Stuart were surprised by Major General Alfred Pleasonton's combined arms force of two cavalry divisions (8,000 troopers) and 3,000 infantry, but Stuart eventually repelled the Union attack. The inconclusive battle, the largest predominantly cavalry engagement of the war, proved for the first time that the Union horse soldier was equal to his Southern counterpart. By mid-June, the Army of Northern Virginia was poised to cross the Potomac River and enter Maryland. After defeating the Union garrisons at Winchester and Martinsburg, Ewell's Second Corps began crossing the river on June 15. Hill's and Longstreet's corps followed on June 24 and 25. Hooker's army pursued, keeping between Washington, D.C., and Lee's army. The Union army crossed the Potomac from June 25 to 27. Lee gave strict orders for his army to minimize any negative effects on the civilian population. Food, horses, and other supplies were generally not seized outright unless a citizen concealed property, although quartermasters reimbursing Northern farmers and merchants with Confederate money which was virtually worthless or with equally worthless promissory notes were not well received. Various towns, most notably York, Pennsylvania, were required to pay indemnities in lieu of supplies, under threat of destruction. During the invasion, the Confederates seized between 40 and nearly 60 northern African Americans. A few of them were escaped fugitive slaves, but many were freemen; all were sent south into slavery under guard. On June 26, elements of Major General Jubal Early's division of Ewell's corps occupied the town of Gettysburg after chasing off newly raised 26th Pennsylvania emergency militia in a series of minor skirmishes. Early laid the borough under tribute, but did not collect any significant supplies. Soldiers burned several railroad cars and a covered bridge, and destroyed nearby rails and telegraph lines. The following morning, Early departed for adjacent York County. Meanwhile, in a controversial move, Lee allowed Stuart to take a portion of the army's cavalry and ride around the east flank of the Union army. Lee's orders gave Stuart much latitude, and both generals share the blame for the long absence of Stuart's cavalry, as well as for the failure to assign a more active role to the cavalry left with the army. Stuart and his three best brigades were absent from the army during the crucial phase of the approach to Gettysburg and the first two days of battle. By June 29, Lee's army was strung out in an arc from Chambersburg (28 mi (45 km) northwest of Gettysburg) to Carlisle (30 mi (48 km) north of Gettysburg) to near Harrisburg and Wrightsville on the Susquehanna River. In a dispute over the use of the forces defending the Harpers Ferry garrison, Hooker offered his resignation, and Abraham Lincoln and General-in-Chief Henry W. Halleck, who were looking for an excuse to rid themselves of him, immediately accepted. They replaced Hooker early on the morning of June 28 with Major General George Gordon Meade, then commander of the V Corps. On June 29, when Lee learned that the Army of the Potomac had crossed the Potomac River, he ordered a concentration of his forces around Cashtown, located at the eastern base of South Mountain and eight mi (13 km) west of Gettysburg. On June 30, while part of Hill's corps was in Cashtown, one of Hill's brigades (North Carolinians under Brigadier General J. Johnston Pettigrew) ventured toward Gettysburg. In his memoirs, Major General Henry Heth, Pettigrew's division commander, claimed that he sent Pettigrew to search for supplies in town—especially shoes. When Pettigrew's troops approached Gettysburg on June 30, they noticed Union cavalry under Major General John Buford arriving south of town, and Pettigrew returned to Cashtown without engaging them. When Pettigrew told Hill and Heth what he had seen, neither general believed that there was a substantial Union force in or near the town, suspecting that it had been only Pennsylvania militia. Despite Lee's order to avoid a general engagement until his entire army was concentrated, Hill decided to mount a significant reconnaissance in force the following morning to determine the size and strength of the enemy force in his front. Around 5 a.m. on Wednesday, July 1, two brigades of Heth's division advanced to Gettysburg. Opposing forces Union The Army of the Potomac, initially under Hooker (Meade replaced Hooker in command on June 28), consisted of more than 100,000 men in the following organization: I Corps, commanded by Maj. Gen. John F. Reynolds, with divisions commanded by Brig. Gen. James S. Wadsworth, Brig. Gen. John C. Robinson, and Maj. Gen. Abner Doubleday. II Corps, commanded by Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock, with divisions commanded by Brig. Gens. John C. Caldwell, John Gibbon, and Alexander Hays. III Corps, commanded by Maj. Gen. Daniel Sickles, with divisions commanded by Maj. Gen. David B. Birney and Maj. Gen. Andrew A. Humphreys. V Corps, commanded by Maj. Gen. George Sykes (George G. Meade until June 28), with divisions commanded by Brig. Gens. James Barnes, Romeyn B. Ayres, and Samuel W. Crawford. VI Corps, commanded by Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick, with divisions commanded by Brig. Gen. Horatio G. Wright, Brig. Gen. Albion P. Howe, and Maj. Gen. John Newton. XI Corps, commanded by Maj. Gen. Oliver Otis Howard, with divisions commanded by Brig. Gen. Francis C. Barlow, Brig. Gen. Adolph von Steinwehr, and Maj. Gen. Carl Schurz. XII Corps, commanded by Maj. Gen. Henry W. Slocum, with divisions commanded by Brig. Gens. Alpheus S. Williams and John W. Geary. Cavalry Corps, commanded by Maj. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton, with divisions commanded by Brig. Gens. John Buford, David McM. Gregg, and H. Judson Kilpatrick. Artillery Reserve, commanded by Brig. Gen. Robert O. Tyler. (The preeminent artillery officer at Gettysburg was Brig. Gen. Henry Jackson Hunt, chief of artillery on Meade's staff.) During the advance on Gettysburg, Reynolds was in operational command of the left, or advanced, wing of the Army, consisting of the I, III, and XI corps. Many other Union units (not part of the Army of the Potomac) were actively involved in the Gettysburg Campaign, but not directly involved in the Battle of Gettysburg. These included portions of the Union IV Corps, the militia and state troops of the Department of the Susquehanna, and various garrisons, including that at Harpers Ferry. Confederate In reaction to the death of Jackson after Chancellorsville, Lee reorganized his Army of Northern Virginia (75,000 men) from two infantry corps into three. First Corps, commanded by Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, with divisions commanded by Maj. Gens. Lafayette McLaws, George Pickett, and John Bell Hood. Second Corps, commanded by Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell, with divisions commanded by Maj. Gens. Jubal A. Early, Edward "Allegheny" Johnson, and Robert E. Rodes. Third Corps, commanded by Lt. Gen. A. P. Hill, with divisions commanded by Maj. Gens. Richard H. Anderson, Henry Heth, and W. Dorsey Pender. Cavalry division, commanded by Maj. Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, with brigades commanded by Brig. Gens. Wade Hampton, Fitzhugh Lee, Beverly H. Robertson, Albert G. Jenkins, William E. "Grumble" Jones, and John D. Imboden, and Col. John R. Chambliss. First day of battle Herr Ridge, McPherson Ridge and Seminary Ridge Anticipating that the Confederates would march on Gettysburg from the west on the morning of July 1, Buford laid out his defenses on three ridges west of the town: Herr Ridge, McPherson Ridge and Seminary Ridge. These were appropriate terrain for a delaying action by his small cavalry division against superior Confederate infantry forces, meant to buy time awaiting the arrival of Union infantrymen who could occupy the strong defensive positions south of town at Cemetery Hill, Cemetery Ridge, and Culp's Hill. Buford understood that if the Confederates could gain control of these heights, Meade's army would have difficulty dislodging them. Heth's division advanced with two brigades forward, commanded by brigadier generals James J. Archer and Joseph R. Davis. They proceeded easterly in columns along the Chambersburg Pike. Three mi (5 km) west of town, about 7:30 a.m. on July 1, the two brigades met light resistance from vedettes of Union cavalry, and deployed into line. According to lore, the Union soldier to fire the first shot of the battle was Lieutenant Marcellus Jones. Eventually Heth's men encountered dismounted troopers of Colonel William Gamble's cavalry brigade. The dismounted troopers resisted stoutly, delaying the Confederate advance with most firing their breech-loading Sharp's carbines from behind fences and trees. (A small number of troopers had other carbine models. A small minority of historians have written that some troopers had Spencer repeating carbines or Spencer repeating rifles but most sources disagree.) Still, by 10:20 am, the Confederates had pushed the Union cavalrymen east to McPherson Ridge, when the vanguard of the I Corps (Major General John F. Reynolds) finally arrived. North of the pike, Davis gained a temporary success against Brigadier General Lysander Cutler's brigade but was repelled with heavy losses in an action around an unfinished railroad bed cut in the ridge. South of the pike, Archer's brigade assaulted through Herbst (also known as McPherson's) Woods. The Union Iron Brigade under Brigadier General Solomon Meredith enjoyed initial success against Archer, capturing several hundred men, including Archer himself. General Reynolds was shot and killed early in the fighting while directing troop and artillery placements just to the east of the woods. Shelby Foote wrote that the Union cause lost a man considered by many to be "the best general in the army". Major General Abner Doubleday assumed command. Fighting in the Chambersburg Pike area lasted until about 12:30 pm. It resumed around 2:30 pm, when Heth's entire division engaged, adding the brigades of Pettigrew and Colonel John M. Brockenbrough. As Pettigrew's North Carolina Brigade came on line, they flanked the 19th Indiana and drove the Iron Brigade back. The 26th North Carolina (the largest regiment in the army, with 839 men) lost heavily, leaving the first day's fight with around 212 men. By the end of the three-day battle, they had about 152 men standing, the highest casualty percentage for one battle of any regiment, North or South. Slowly the Iron Brigade was pushed out of the woods toward Seminary Ridge. Hill added Major General William Dorsey Pender's division to the assault, and the I Corps was driven back through the grounds of the Lutheran Seminary and Gettysburg streets. As the fighting to the west proceeded, two divisions of Ewell's Second Corps, marching west toward Cashtown in accordance with Lee's order for the army to concentrate in that vicinity, turned south on the Carlisle and Harrisburg roads toward Gettysburg, while the Union XI Corps (Major General Oliver O. Howard) raced north on the Baltimore Pike and Taneytown Road. By early afternoon, the Union line ran in a semicircle west, north, and northeast of Gettysburg. However, the Union did not have enough troops; Cutler, whose brigade was deployed north of the Chambersburg Pike, had his right flank in the air. The leftmost division of the XI Corps was unable to deploy in time to strengthen the line, so Doubleday was forced to throw in reserve brigades to salvage his line. Around 2:00 p.m., the Confederate Second Corps divisions of major generals Robert E. Rodes and Jubal Early assaulted and out-flanked the Union I and XI corps' positions north and northwest of town. The Confederate brigades of Colonel Edward A. O'Neal and Brigadier General Alfred Iverson suffered severe losses assaulting the I Corps division of Brigadier General John C. Robinson south of Oak Hill. Early's division profited from a blunder by Brigadier General Francis C. Barlow, when he advanced his XI Corps division to Blocher's Knoll (directly north of town and now known as Barlow's Knoll); this represented a salient in the corps line, susceptible to attack from multiple sides, and Early's troops overran Barlow's division, which constituted the right flank of the Union Army's position. Barlow was wounded and captured in the attack. As Union positions collapsed both north and west of town, Howard ordered a retreat to the high ground south of town at Cemetery Hill, where he had left the division of Brigadier General Adolph von Steinwehr in reserve. Major General Winfield S. Hancock assumed command of the battlefield, sent by Meade when he heard that Reynolds had been killed. Hancock, commander of the II Corps and Meade's most trusted subordinate, was ordered to take command of the field and to determine whether Gettysburg was an appropriate place for a major battle. Hancock told Howard, "I think this the strongest position by nature upon which to fight a battle that I ever saw." When Howard agreed, Hancock concluded the discussion: "Very well, sir, I select this as the battle-field." Hancock's determination had a morale-boosting effect on the retreating Union soldiers, but he played no direct tactical role on the first day. General Lee understood the defensive potential to the Union if they held this high ground. He sent orders to Ewell that Cemetery Hill be taken "if practicable". Ewell, who had previously served under Stonewall Jackson, a general well known for issuing peremptory orders, determined such an assault was not practicable and, thus, did not attempt it; this decision is considered by historians to be a great missed opportunity. The first day at Gettysburg, more significant than simply a prelude to the bloody second and third days, ranks as the 23rd biggest battle of the war by number of troops engaged. About one quarter of Meade's army (22,000 men) and one third of Lee's army (27,000) were engaged. Second day of battle Plans and movement to battle Throughout the evening of July 1 and morning of July 2, most of the remaining infantry of both armies arrived on the field, including the Union II, III, V, VI, and XII Corps. Two of Longstreet's divisions were on the road: Brigadier General George Pickett, had begun the 22-mile (35 km) march from Chambersburg, while Brigadier General Evander M. Law had begun the march from Guilford. Both arrived late in the morning. Law completed his 28-mile (45 km) march in eleven hours. The Union line ran from Culp's Hill southeast of the town, northwest to Cemetery Hill just south of town, then south for nearly two miles (3 km) along Cemetery Ridge, terminating just north of Little Round Top. Most of the XII Corps was on Culp's Hill; the remnants of I and XI Corps defended Cemetery Hill; II Corps covered most of the northern half of Cemetery Ridge; and III Corps was ordered to take up a position to its flank. The shape of the Union line is popularly described as a "fishhook" formation. The Confederate line paralleled the Union line about one mile (1,600 m) to the west on Seminary Ridge, ran east through the town, then curved southeast to a point opposite Culp's Hill. Thus, the Union army had interior lines, while the Confederate line was nearly five miles (8 km) long. Lee's battle plan for July 2 called for a general assault of Meade's positions. On the right, Longstreet's First Corps was to position itself to attack the Union left flank, facing northeast astraddle the Emmitsburg Road, and to roll up the Union line. The attack sequence was to begin with Maj. Gens. John Bell Hood's and Lafayette McLaws's divisions, followed by Major General Richard H. Anderson's division of Hill's Third Corps. On the left, Lee instructed Ewell to position his Second Corps to attack Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill when he heard the gunfire from Longstreet's assault, preventing Meade from shifting troops to bolster his left. Though it does not appear in either his or Lee's Official Report, Ewell claimed years later that Lee had changed the order to simultaneously attack, calling for only a "diversion", to be turned into a full-scale attack if a favorable opportunity presented itself. Lee's plan, however, was based on faulty intelligence, exacerbated by Stuart's continued absence from the battlefield. Though Lee personally reconnoitered his left during the morning, he did not visit Longstreet's position on the Confederate right. Even so, Lee rejected suggestions that Longstreet move beyond Meade's left and attack the Union flank, capturing the supply trains and effectively blocking Meade's escape route. Lee did not issue orders for the attack until 11:00 a.m. About noon, General Anderson's advancing troops were discovered by General Sickles's outpost guard and the Third Corps—upon which Longstreet's First Corps was to form—did not get into position until 1:00 pm. Hood and McLaws, after their long march, were not yet in position and did not launch their attacks until just after 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m., respectively. Attacks on the Union left flank As Longstreet's left division, under Major General Lafayette McLaws, advanced, they unexpectedly found Major General Daniel Sickles's III Corps directly in their path. Sickles had been dissatisfied with the position assigned him on the southern end of Cemetery Ridge. Seeing ground better suited for artillery positions one-half mile (800 m) to the west—centered at the Sherfy farm's Peach Orchard—he violated orders and advanced his corps to the slightly higher ground along the Emmitsburg Road, moving away from Cemetery Ridge. The new line ran from Devil's Den, northwest to the Peach Orchard, then northeast along the Emmitsburg Road to south of the Codori farm. This created an untenable salient at the Peach Orchard; Brigadier General Andrew A. Humphreys's division (in position along the Emmitsburg Road) and Major General David B. Birney's division (to the south) were subject to attacks from two sides and were spread out over a longer front than their small corps could defend effectively. The Confederate artillery was ordered to open fire at 3:00 pm. After failing to attend a meeting at this time of Meade's corps commanders, Meade rode to Sickles's position and demanded an explanation of the situation. Knowing a Confederate attack was imminent and a retreat would be endangered, Meade refused Sickles' offer to withdraw. Meade was forced to send 20,000 reinforcements: the entire V Corps, Brigadier General John C. Caldwell's division of the II Corps, most of the XII Corps, and portions of the newly arrived VI Corps. Hood's division moved more to the east than intended, losing its alignment with the Emmitsburg Road, attacking Devil's Den and Little Round Top. McLaws, coming in on Hood's left, drove multiple attacks into the thinly stretched III Corps in the Wheatfield and overwhelmed them in Sherfy's Peach Orchard. McLaws's attack eventually reached Plum Run Valley (the "Valley of Death") before being beaten back by the Pennsylvania Reserves division of the V Corps, moving down from Little Round Top. The III Corps was virtually destroyed as a combat unit in this battle, and Sickles's leg was amputated after it was shattered by a cannonball. Caldwell's division was destroyed piecemeal in the Wheatfield. Anderson's division, coming from McLaws's left and starting forward around 6 p.m., reached the crest of Cemetery Ridge, but could not hold the position in the face of counterattacks from the II Corps, including an almost suicidal bayonet charge by the 1st Minnesota regiment against a Confederate brigade, ordered in desperation by Hancock to buy time for reinforcements to arrive. As fighting raged in the Wheatfield and Devil's Den, Colonel Strong Vincent of V Corps had a precarious hold on Little Round Top, an important hill at the extreme left of the Union line. His brigade of four relatively small regiments was able to resist repeated assaults by Law's brigade of Hood's division. Meade's chief engineer, Brigadier General Gouverneur K. Warren, had realized the importance of this position, and dispatched Vincent's brigade, an artillery battery, and the 140th New York to occupy Little Round Top mere minutes before Hood's troops arrived. The defense of Little Round Top with a bayonet charge by the 20th Maine, ordered by Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain and possibly led down the slope by Lieutenant Holman S. Melcher, was one of the most fabled episodes in the Civil War and propelled Chamberlain into prominence after the war. Attacks on the Union right flank Ewell interpreted his orders as calling only for a cannonade. His 32 guns, along with A. P. Hill's 55 guns, engaged in a two-hour artillery barrage at extreme range that had little effect. Finally, about six o'clock, Ewell sent orders to each of his division commanders to attack the Union lines in his front. Major General Edward "Allegheny" Johnson's division had contemplated an assault on Culp's Hill, but they were still a mile away and had Rock Creek to cross. The few possible crossings would make significant delays. Because of this, only three of Johnson's four brigades moved to the attack. Most of the hill's defenders, the Union XII Corps, had been sent to the left to defend against Longstreet's attacks, leaving only a brigade of New Yorkers under Brigadier General George S. Greene behind strong, newly constructed defensive works. With reinforcements from the I and XI corps, Greene's men held off the Confederate attackers, though giving up some of the lower earthworks on the lower part of Culp's Hill. Early was similarly unprepared when he ordered Harry T. Hays's and Isaac E. Avery's brigades to attack the Union XI Corps positions on East Cemetery Hill. Once started, fighting was fierce: Colonel Andrew L. Harris of the Union 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, XI Corps came under a withering attack, losing half his men. Avery was wounded early on, but the Confederates reached the crest of the hill and entered the Union breastworks, capturing one or two batteries. Seeing he was not supported on his right, Hays withdrew. His right was to be supported by Robert E. Rodes's division, but Rodes—like Early and Johnson—had not been ordered up in preparation for the attack. He had twice as far to travel as Early; by the time he came in contact with the Union skirmish line, Early's troops had already begun to withdraw. Jeb Stuart and his three cavalry brigades arrived in Gettysburg around noon but had no role in the second day's battle. Brigadier General Wade Hampton's brigade fought a minor engagement with newly promoted 23-year-old Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer's Michigan cavalry near Hunterstown to the northeast of Gettysburg. Third day of battle Lee's plan Lee wished to renew the attack on Friday, July 3, using the same basic plan as the previous day: Longstreet would attack the Union left, while Ewell attacked Culp's Hill. However, before Longstreet was ready, Union XII Corps troops started a dawn artillery bombardment against the Confederates on Culp's Hill in an effort to regain a portion of their lost works. The Confederates attacked, and the second fight for Culp's Hill ended around 11 a.m. Harry Pfanz judged that, after some seven hours of bitter combat, "the Union line was intact and held more strongly than before". Lee was forced to change his plans. Longstreet would command Pickett's Virginia division of his own First Corps, plus six brigades from Hill's Corps, in an attack on the Union II Corps position at the right center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. Prior to the attack, all the artillery the Confederacy could bring to bear on the Union positions would bombard and weaken the enemy's line. Much has been made over the years of General Longstreet's objections to General Lee's plan. In his memoirs, Longstreet states that he told Lee that there were not enough men to assault the strong left center of the Union line by McLaws's and Hood's divisions reinforced by Pickett's brigades. Longstreet thought the attack would be repulsed and a counterattack would put Union forces between the Confederates and the Potomac River. Longstreet wrote that he said it would take a minimum of thirty thousand men to attack successfully as well as close coordination with other Confederate forces. He noted that only about thirteen thousand men were left in the selected divisions after the first two days of fighting. They would have to walk a mile under heavy artillery and long-range musketry fire. Longstreet states that he further asked Lee: "the strength of the column. He [Lee] stated fifteen thousand. Opinion was then expressed [by Longstreet] that the fifteen thousand men who could make successful assault over that field had never been arrayed for battle; but he was impatient of listening, and tired of talking, and nothing was left but to proceed." Largest artillery bombardment of the war Around 1 p.m., from 150 to 170 Confederate guns began an artillery bombardment that was probably the largest of the war. To save valuable ammunition for the infantry attack that they knew would follow, the Army of the Potomac's artillery, under the command of Brigadier General Henry Jackson Hunt, at first did not return the enemy's fire. After waiting about 15 minutes, about 80 Union cannons opened fire. The Army of Northern Virginia was critically low on artillery ammunition, and the cannonade did not significantly affect the Union position. Pickett's Charge Around 3 p.m., the cannon fire subsided, and between 10,500 and 12,500 Southern soldiers stepped from the ridgeline and advanced the three-quarters of a mile (1,200 m) to Cemetery Ridge. A more accurate name for the charge would be the "Pickett–Pettigrew–Trimble Charge" after the commanders of the three divisions taking part in the charge, but the role of Pickett's division has led to the attack generally being known as "Pickett's Charge". As the Confederates approached, there was fierce flanking artillery fire from Union positions on Cemetery Hill and the Little Round Top area, and musket and canister fire from Hancock's II Corps. In the Union center, the commander of artillery had held fire during the Confederate bombardment (to save it for the infantry assault, which Meade had correctly predicted the day before), leading Southern commanders to believe the Northern cannon batteries had been knocked out. However, they opened fire on the Confederate infantry during their approach with devastating results. Although the Union line wavered and broke temporarily at a jog called the "Angle" in a low stone fence, just north of a patch of vegetation called the Copse of Trees, reinforcements rushed into the breach, and the Confederate attack was repelled. The farthest advance, by Brigadier General Lewis A. Armistead's brigade of Pickett's division at the Angle, is referred to as the "high-water mark of the Confederacy". Union and Confederate soldiers locked in hand-to-hand combat, attacking with their rifles, bayonets, rocks and even their bare hands. Armistead ordered his Confederates to turn two captured cannons against Union troops, but discovered that there was no ammunition left, the last double canister shots having been used against the charging Confederates. Armistead was mortally wounded shortly afterward. Nearly one half of the Confederate attackers did not return to their own lines. Pickett's division lost about two-thirds of its men, and all three brigadiers were killed or wounded. Cavalry battles There were two significant cavalry engagements on July 3. The first one was coordinated with Pickett's Charge, and the standoff may have prevented a disaster for Union infantry. The site of this engagement is now known as the East Cavalry Field. The second engagement was a loss for Union cavalry attacking Confederate infantry. It has been labeled as a "fiasco", and featured faulty cavalry tactics. The site of this engagement is now known as the South Cavalry Field. Northeast of Gettysburg Stuart's cavalry division (three brigades), with the assistance of Jenkins' brigade, was sent to guard the Confederate left flank. Stuart was also in position to exploit any success the Confederate infantry (Pickett's Charge) might achieve on Cemetery Hill by flanking the Union right and getting behind Union infantry facing the Confederate attack. The cavalry fight took place about three miles (4.8 km) northeast of Gettysburg at about 3:00 pm—around the end of the Confederate artillery barrage that preceded Pickett's charge. Stuart's forces collided with Union cavalry: Brigadier General David McMurtrie Gregg's division and Custer's brigade from Kilpatrick's division. The fight evolved into "a wild melee of swinging sabers and blazing pistols and carbines". One of Custer's regiments, the 5th Michigan Cavalry Regiment, was armed with Spencer repeating rifles, and at least two companies from an additional regiment were also armed with repeaters. The fight ended in a standoff, as neither side changed positions. However, Gregg and Custer prevented Stuart from gaining the rear of Union infantry facing Pickett. Southwest of Gettysburg After hearing news of the Union's success against Pickett's charge, Brigadier General Judson Kilpatrick launched a cavalry attack against the infantry positions of Longstreet's Corps southwest of Big Round Top. The terrain was difficult for a mounted attack because it was rough, heavily wooded, and contained huge boulders—and Longstreet's men were entrenched with artillery support. Brigadier General Elon J. Farnsworth protested against the futility of such a move, but obeyed orders. Farnsworth was killed in the fourth of five unsuccessful attacks, and his brigade suffered significant losses. Although Kilpatrick was described by at least one Union leader as "brave, enterprising, and energetic", incidents such as Farnsworth's charge earned him the nickname of "Kill Cavalry". Aftermath Casualties The two armies suffered between 46,000 and 51,000 casualties. Union casualties were 23,055 (3,155 killed, 14,531 wounded, 5,369 captured or missing), while Confederate casualties are more difficult to estimate. Many authors have referred to as many as 28,000 Confederate casualties, and Busey and Martin's more recent 2005 work, Regimental Strengths and Losses at Gettysburg, documents 23,231 (4,708 killed, 12,693 wounded, 5,830 captured or missing). Nearly a third of Lee's general officers were killed, wounded, or captured. The casualties for both sides for the 6-week campaign, according to Sears, were 57,225. In addition to being the deadliest battle of the war, Gettysburg also had the most generals killed in action. Several generals also were wounded. The Confederacy lost generals Paul Jones Semmes, William Barksdale, William Dorsey Pender, Richard Garnett, and Lewis Armistead, as well as J. Johnston Pettigrew during the retreat after the battle. Confederate generals who were wounded included Maj. Gen. John Bell Hood who lost the use of his left arm and Maj. Gen. Henry Heth who received a shot to the head on the first day of battle (though incapacitated for the rest of the battle, he remarkably survived without long-term injuries, credited in part due to his hat stuffed full of paper dispatches). Confederate generals James L. Kemper and Isaac R. Trimble were severely wounded during Pickett's charge and captured during the Confederate retreat. Confederate Brig. Gen. James J. Archer, in command of a brigade that most likely was responsible for killing Reynolds, was taken prisoner shortly after Reynolds' death. In the Confederate 1st Corps, eight of Longstreet's fourteen division and brigade commanders were killed or wounded, including Brig. Gen. George T. Anderson and Brig. Gen. Jerome B. Robertson, who were wounded. In Ewell's 2nd Corps, Brig. Gen. Isaac E. Avery was mortally wounded and Brig. Gen. John M. Jones was wounded. In Hill's 3rd Corps, in addition to Pender and Pettigrew being killed, Maj. Gen. Henry Heth and Col. Birkett D. Fry (later brigadier general), in temporary brigade command were wounded. In Hill's 3rd Corp, Brig. Gen. Alfred M. Scales and Col. William L. J. Lowrance, in temporary brigade command, were wounded. In the Confederate Cavalry Division, Brig. Gen. Wade Hampton and Brig. Gen. Albert G. Jenkins were wounded. Union generals killed were John Reynolds, Samuel K. Zook, and Stephen H. Weed, as well as Elon J. Farnsworth, assigned as brigadier general by Maj. Gen. Pleasanton based on his nomination although his promotion was confirmed posthumously, and Strong Vincent, who after being mortally wounded was given a deathbed promotion to brigadier general. Additional senior officer casualties included the wounding of Union Generals Dan Sickles (lost a leg), Francis C. Barlow, Daniel Butterfield, and Winfield Scott Hancock. Five of seven brigade commanders in Reynolds's First Corps were wounded. In addition to Hancock and Brig. Gen. John Gibbon being wounded in the Second Corps, three of ten brigade commanders were killed and three were wounded. The following tables summarize casualties by corps for the Union and Confederate forces during the three-day battle, according to Busey and Martin. Bruce Catton wrote, "The town of Gettysburg looked as if some universal moving day had been interrupted by catastrophe." But there was only one documented civilian death during the battle: Ginnie Wade (also widely known as Jennie), 20 years old, was hit by a stray bullet that passed through her kitchen in town while she was making bread. Another notable civilian casualty was John L. Burns, a 69-year-old veteran of the War of 1812 who walked to the front lines on the first day of battle and participated in heavy combat as a volunteer, receiving numerous wounds in the process. Though aged and injured, Burns survived the battle and lived until 1872. Nearly 8,000 had been killed outright; these bodies, lying in the hot summer sun, needed to be buried quickly. More than 3,000 horse carcasses were burned in a series of piles south of town; townsfolk became violently ill from the stench. Meanwhile, the town of Gettysburg, with its population of just 2,400, found itself tasked with taking care of 14,000 wounded Union troops and an additional 8,000 Confederate prisoners. Confederates lost over 31–55 battle flags, with the Union possibly having lost slightly fewer than 40. The Confederate battle flags were sent to Washington. 3,000–5,000 horses were killed. Confederate retreat On the morning of July 4, with Lee's army still present, Meade ordered his cavalry to get to the rear of Lee's army. In a heavy rain, the armies stared at one another across the bloody fields, on the same day that, some 920 miles (1,480 km) away, the Vicksburg garrison surrendered to Major General Ulysses S. Grant. Lee had reformed his lines into a defensive position on Seminary Ridge the night of July 3, evacuating the town of Gettysburg. The Confederates remained on the battlefield's west side, hoping that Meade would attack, but the cautious Union commander decided against the risk, a decision for which he would later be criticized. Both armies began to collect their remaining wounded and bury some of the dead. A proposal by Lee for a prisoner exchange was rejected by Meade. Late in the rainy afternoon, Lee started moving the non-fighting portion of his army back to Virginia. Cavalry under Brigadier General John D. Imboden was entrusted to escort the seventeen-mile long wagon train of supplies and wounded men, using a long route through Cashtown and Greencastle to Williamsport, Maryland. After sunset, the fighting portion of Lee's army began its retreat to Virginia using a more direct (but more mountainous) route that began on the road to Fairfield. Although Lee knew exactly what he needed to do, Meade's situation was different. Meade needed to remain at Gettysburg until he was certain Lee was gone. If Meade left first, he could possibly leave an opening for Lee to get to Washington or Baltimore. In addition, the army that left the battlefield first was often considered the defeated army. Union cavalry had some minor successes pursuing Lee's army. The first major encounter took place in the mountains at Monterey Pass on July 4, where Kilpatrick's cavalry division captured 150 to 300 wagons and took 1,300 to 1,500 prisoners. Beginning July 6, additional cavalry fighting took place closer to the Potomac River in Maryland's Williamsport-Hagerstown area. Lee's army was trapped and delayed from crossing the Potomac River because rainy weather had caused the river to swell, and the pontoon bridge at Falling Waters had been destroyed. Meade's infantry did not fully pursue Lee until July 7, and despite repeated pleas from Lincoln and Halleck, was not aggressive enough to destroy Lee's army. A new pontoon bridge was constructed at Falling Waters, and lower water levels allowed the Confederates to begin crossing after dark on July 13. Although Meade's infantry had reached the area on July 12, it was his cavalry that attacked the Confederate rear guard on the morning of July 14. Union cavalry took 500 prisoners, and Confederate Brigadier General Pettigrew was mortally wounded, but Lee's army completed its Potomac crossing. The campaign continued south of the Potomac until the Battle of Manassas Gap on July 23, when Lee escaped and Meade abandoned the pursuit. Union reaction to the news of the victory The news of the Union victory electrified the North. A headline in The Philadelphia Inquirer proclaimed "Victory! Waterloo Eclipsed!" New York diarist George Templeton Strong wrote: The results of this victory are priceless. ... The charm of Robert E. Lee's invincibility is broken. The Army of the Potomac has at last found a general that can handle it, and has stood nobly up to its terrible work in spite of its long disheartening list of hard-fought failures. ... Copperheads are palsied and dumb for the moment at least. ... Government is strengthened four-fold at home and abroad. However, the Union enthusiasm soon dissipated as the public realized that Lee's army had escaped destruction and the war would continue. Lincoln complained to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles that "Our army held the war in the hollow of their hand and they would not close it!" Brigadier General Alexander S. Webb wrote to his father on July 17, stating that such Washington politicians as "Chase, Seward and others", disgusted with Meade, "write to me that Lee really won that Battle!" Effect on the Confederacy In fact, the Confederates had lost militarily and also politically. During the final hours of the battle, Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens was approaching the Union lines at Norfolk, Virginia, under a flag of truce. Although his formal instructions from Confederate President Jefferson Davis had limited his powers to negotiate on prisoner exchanges and other procedural matters, historian James M. McPherson speculates that he had informal goals of presenting peace overtures. Davis had hoped that Stephens would reach Washington from the south while Lee's victorious army was marching toward it from the north. President Lincoln, upon hearing of the Gettysburg results, refused Stephens's request to pass through the lines. Furthermore, when the news reached London, any lingering hopes of European recognition of the Confederacy were finally abandoned. Henry Adams, whose father was serving as the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom at the time, wrote, "The disasters of the rebels are unredeemed by even any hope of success. It is now conceded that all idea of intervention is at an end." Compounding the effects of the defeat was the end of the Siege of Vicksburg, which surrendered to Grant's Federal armies in the West on July 4, the day after the Gettysburg battle, costing the Confederacy an additional 30,000 men, along with all their arms and stores. The immediate reaction of the Southern military and public sectors was that Gettysburg was a setback, not a disaster. The sentiment was that Lee had been successful on July 1 and had fought a valiant battle on July 2–3, but could not dislodge the Union Army from the strong defensive position to which it fled. The Confederates successfully stood their ground on July 4 and withdrew only after they realized Meade would not attack them. The withdrawal to the Potomac that could have been a disaster was handled masterfully. Furthermore, the Army of the Potomac had been kept away from Virginia farmlands for the summer and all predicted that Meade would be too timid to threaten them for the rest of the year. Lee himself had a positive view of the campaign, writing to his wife that the army had returned "rather sooner than I had originally contemplated, but having accomplished what I proposed on leaving the Rappahannock, viz., relieving the Valley of the presence of the enemy and drawing his Army north of the Potomac". He was quoted as saying to Maj. John Seddon, brother of the Confederate secretary of war, "Sir, we did whip them at Gettysburg, and it will be seen for the next six months that that army will be as quiet as a sucking dove." Some Southern publications, such as the Charleston Mercury, were critical of Lee's actions. On August 8, Lee offered his resignation to President Davis, who quickly rejected it. Gettysburg Address The ravages of war were still evident in Gettysburg more than four months later when, on November 19, the Soldiers' National Cemetery was dedicated. During this ceremony, President Lincoln honored the fallen and redefined the purpose of the war in his historic Gettysburg Address. Medal of Honor There were 72 Medals of Honor awarded for the Gettysburg Campaign, 64 of which were for actions taken during the battle itself. The first recipient was awarded in December 1864, while the most recent was posthumously awarded to Lieutenant Alonzo Cushing in 2014. Historical assessment Decisive victory controversies The nature of the result of the Battle of Gettysburg has been the subject of controversy. Although not seen as overwhelmingly significant at the time, particularly since the war continued for almost two years, in retrospect it has often been cited as the "turning point", usually in combination with the fall of Vicksburg the following day. This is based on the observation that, after Gettysburg, Lee's army conducted no more strategic offensives—his army merely reacted to the initiative of Ulysses S. Grant in 1864 and 1865—and by the speculative viewpoint of the Lost Cause writers that a Confederate victory at Gettysburg might have resulted in the end of the war. It is currently a widely held view that Gettysburg was a decisive victory for the Union, but the term is considered imprecise. It is inarguable that Lee's offensive on July 3 was turned back decisively and his campaign in Pennsylvania was terminated prematurely (although the Confederates at the time argued that this was a temporary setback and that the goals of the campaign were largely met). However, when the more common definition of "decisive victory" is intended—an indisputable military victory of a battle that determines or significantly influences the ultimate result of a conflict—historians are divided. For example, David J. Eicher called Gettysburg a "strategic loss for the Confederacy" and James M. McPherson wrote that "Lee and his men would go on to earn further laurels. But they never again possessed the power and reputation they carried into Pennsylvania those palmy summer days of 1863." However, Herman Hattaway and Archer Jones wrote that the "strategic impact of the Battle of Gettysburg was ... fairly limited." Steven E. Woodworth wrote that "Gettysburg proved only the near impossibility of decisive action in the Eastern theater." Edwin Coddington pointed out the heavy toll on the Army of the Potomac and that "after the battle Meade no longer possessed a truly effective instrument for the accomplishments of his task. The army needed a thorough reorganization with new commanders and fresh troops, but these changes were not made until Grant appeared on the scene in March 1864." Joseph T. Glatthaar wrote that "Lost opportunities and near successes plagued the Army of Northern Virginia during its Northern invasion," yet after Gettysburg, "without the distractions of duty as an invading force, without the breakdown of discipline, the Army of Northern Virginia [remained] an extremely formidable force." Ed Bearss wrote, "Lee's invasion of the North had been a costly failure. Nevertheless, at best the Army of the Potomac had simply preserved the strategic stalemate in the Eastern Theater ..." Historian Alan Guelzo notes that Gettysburg and Vicksburg did not end the war and that the war would go on for two more years. He also noted that a little more than a year later Federal armies appeared hopelessly mired in sieges at Petersburg and Atlanta. Peter Carmichael refers to the military context for the armies, the "horrendous losses at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, which effectively destroyed Lee's offensive capacity," implying that these cumulative losses were not the result of a single battle. Thomas Goss, writing in the U.S. Army's Military Review journal on the definition of "decisive" and the application of that description to Gettysburg, concludes: "For all that was decided and accomplished, the Battle of Gettysburg fails to earn the label 'decisive battle'." The military historian John Keegan agrees. Gettysburg was a landmark battle, the largest of the war and it would not be surpassed. The Union had restored to it the belief in certain victory, and the loss dispirited the Confederacy. If "not exactly a decisive battle", Gettysburg was the end of Confederate use of Northern Virginia as a military buffer zone, the setting for Grant's Overland Campaign. Lee vs. Meade Prior to Gettysburg, Robert E. Lee had established a reputation as an almost invincible general, achieving stunning victories against superior numbers—although usually at the cost of high casualties to his army—during the Seven Days, the Northern Virginia Campaign (including the Second Battle of Bull Run), Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. Only the Maryland Campaign, with its tactically inconclusive Battle of Antietam, had been less than successful. Therefore, historians such as Fuller, Glatthaar, and Sears have attempted to explain how Lee's winning streak was interrupted so dramatically at Gettysburg. Although the issue is tainted by attempts to portray history and Lee's reputation in a manner supporting different partisan goals, the major factors in Lee's loss arguably can be attributed to: his overconfidence in the invincibility of his men; the performance of his subordinates, and his management thereof; his failing health; and, the performance of his opponent, George G. Meade, and the Army of the Potomac. Throughout the campaign, Lee was influenced by the belief that his men were invincible; most of Lee's experiences with the Army of Northern Virginia had convinced him of this, including the great victory at Chancellorsville in early May and the rout of the Union troops at Gettysburg on July 1. Since morale plays an important role in military victory when other factors are equal, Lee did not want to dampen his army's desire to fight and resisted suggestions, principally by Longstreet, to withdraw from the recently captured Gettysburg to select a ground more favorable to his army. War correspondent Peter W. Alexander wrote that Lee "acted, probably, under the impression that his troops were able to carry any position however formidable. If such was the case, he committed an error, such however as the ablest commanders will sometimes fall into." Lee himself concurred with this judgment, writing to President Davis, "No blame can be attached to the army for its failure to accomplish what was projected by me, nor should it be censured for the unreasonable expectations of the public—I am alone to blame, in perhaps expecting too much of its prowess and valor." The most controversial assessments of the battle involve the performance of Lee's subordinates. The dominant theme of the Lost Cause writers and many other historians is that Lee's senior generals failed him in crucial ways, directly causing the loss of the battle; the alternative viewpoint is that Lee did not manage his subordinates adequately, and did not thereby compensate for their shortcomings. Two of his corps commanders—Richard S. Ewell and A.P. Hill—had only recently been promoted and were not fully accustomed to Lee's style of command, in which he provided only general objectives and guidance to their former commander, Stonewall Jackson; Jackson translated these into detailed, specific orders to his division commanders. All four of Lee's principal commanders received criticism during the campaign and battle: James Longstreet suffered most severely from the wrath of the Lost Cause authors, not the least because he directly criticized Lee in postbellum writings and became a Republican after the war. His critics accuse him of attacking much later than Lee intended on July 2, squandering a chance to hit the Union Army before its defensive positions had firmed up. They also question his lack of motivation to attack strongly on July 2 and 3 because he had argued that the army should have maneuvered to a place where it would force Meade to attack them. The alternative view is that Lee was in close contact with Longstreet during the battle, agreed to delays on the morning of July 2, and never criticized Longstreet's performance. (There is also considerable speculation about what an attack might have looked like before Dan Sickles moved the III Corps toward the Peach Orchard.) J.E.B. Stuart deprived Lee of cavalry intelligence during a good part of the campaign by taking his three best brigades on a path away from the army's. This arguably led to Lee's surprise at Hooker's vigorous pursuit; the engagement on July 1 that escalated into the full battle prematurely; and it also prevented Lee from understanding the full disposition of the enemy on July 2. The disagreements regarding Stuart's culpability for the situation originate in the relatively vague orders issued by Lee, but most modern historians agree that both generals were responsible to some extent for the failure of the cavalry's mission early in the campaign. Richard S. Ewell has been universally criticized for failing to seize the high ground on the afternoon of July 1. Once again the disagreement centers on Lee's orders, which provided general guidance for Ewell to act "if practicable". Many historians speculate that Stonewall Jackson, if he had survived Chancellorsville, would have aggressively seized Culp's Hill, rendering Cemetery Hill indefensible, and changing the entire complexion of the battle. A differently worded order from Lee might have made the difference with this subordinate. A.P. Hill has received some criticism for his ineffective performance. His actions caused the battle to begin and then escalate on July 1, despite Lee's orders not to bring on a general engagement (although historians point out that Hill kept Lee well informed of his actions during the day). However, Hill's illness minimized his personal involvement in the remainder of the battle, and Lee took the explicit step of temporarily removing troops from Hill's corps and giving them to Longstreet for Pickett's Charge. In addition to Hill's illness, Lee's performance was affected by heart troubles, which would eventually lead to his death in 1870; he had been diagnosed with pericarditis by his staff physicians in March 1863, though modern doctors believe he had in fact suffered a heart attack. As a final factor, Lee faced a new and formidable opponent in George G. Meade, and the Army of the Potomac fought well on its home territory. Although new to his army command, Meade deployed his forces relatively effectively; relied on strong subordinates such as Winfield S. Hancock to make decisions where and when they were needed; took great advantage of defensive positions; nimbly shifted defensive resources on interior lines to parry strong threats; and, unlike some of his predecessors, stood his ground throughout the battle in the face of fierce Confederate attacks. Lee was quoted before the battle as saying Meade "would commit no blunders on my front and if I make one ... will make haste to take advantage of it." That prediction proved to be correct at Gettysburg. Stephen Sears wrote, "The fact of the matter is that George G. Meade, unexpectedly and against all odds, thoroughly outgeneraled Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg." Edwin B. Coddington wrote that the soldiers of the Army of the Potomac received a "sense of triumph which grew into an imperishable faith in [themselves]. The men knew what they could do under an extremely competent general; one of lesser ability and courage could well have lost the battle." Meade had his own detractors as well. Similar to the situation with Lee, Meade suffered partisan attacks about his performance at Gettysburg, but he had the misfortune of experiencing them in person. Supporters of his predecessor, Hooker, lambasted Meade before the U.S. Congress's Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, where Radical Republicans suspected that Meade was a Copperhead and tried in vain to relieve him from command. Daniel E. Sickles and Daniel Butterfield accused Meade of planning to retreat from Gettysburg during the battle. Most politicians, including Lincoln, criticized Meade for what they considered to be his half-hearted pursuit of Lee after the battle. A number of Meade's most competent subordinates—Winfield S. Hancock, John Gibbon, Gouverneur K. Warren, and Henry J. Hunt, all heroes of the battle—defended Meade in print, but Meade was embittered by the overall experience. Battlefield preservation Gettysburg National Cemetery and Gettysburg National Military Park are maintained by the U.S. National Park Service as two of the nation's most revered historical landmarks. Although Gettysburg is one of the best known of all Civil War battlefields, it too faces threats to its preservation and interpretation. Many historically significant locations on the battlefield lie outside the boundaries of Gettysburg National Military Park and are vulnerable to residential or commercial development. Some preservation successes have emerged in recent years. Two proposals to open a casino at Gettysburg were defeated in 2006 and most recently in 2011, when public pressure forced the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board to reject the proposed gambling hub at the intersection of Routes 15 and 30, near East Cavalry Field. The American Battlefield Trust, formerly the Civil War Trust, also successfully purchased and transferred 95 acres (38 ha) at the former site of the Gettysburg Country Club to the control of the U.S. Department of the Interior in 2011. Less than half of the over 11,500 acres on the old Gettysburg Battlefield have been preserved for posterity thus far. The American Battlefield Trust and its partners have acquired and preserved 1,242 acres (5.03 km2) of the battlefield in more than 40 separate transactions from 1997 to mid-2023. Some of these acres are now among the 4,998 acres (2,023 ha) of the Gettysburg National Military Park. In 2015, the Trust made one of its most important and expensive acquisitions, paying $6 million for a four-acre (1.6 ha) parcel that included the stone house that Confederate General Robert E. Lee used as his headquarters during the battle. The Trust razed a motel, restaurant and other buildings within the parcel to restore Lee's headquarters and the site to their wartime appearance, adding interpretive signs. It opened the site to the public in October 2016. In popular culture At the 50th anniversary Gettysburg reunion (1913), 50,000 veterans attended according to a 1938 Army Medical report. Historian Carol Reardon writes that attendance included at least 35,000 Union veterans and though estimates of attendees ran as high as 56,000, only a few more than 7,000 Confederate veterans, most from Virginia and North Carolina, attended. Some veterans re-enacted Pickett's Charge in a spirit of reconciliation, a meeting that carried great emotional force for both sides. There was a ceremonial mass hand-shake across a stone wall on Cemetery Ridge. At the 75th anniversary Gettysburg reunion (1938), 1,333 Union veterans and 479 Confederate veterans attended. Film records survive of two Gettysburg reunions, held on the battlefield, in 1913. and 1938. The American Civil War Centennial was the official United States commemoration of the American Civil War. Commemoration activities began in 1957, four years before the 100th anniversary of the war's first battle, and ended in 1965 with the 100th anniversary of the surrender at Appomattox. The United States Civil War Centennial Commission and state commissions were established to organize the commemorations. The National Park Service, and other federal agencies that controlled key Civil War battlefields, used the Centennial to successfully lobby Congress for increased funding to re-landscape and interpret these battlefields for the general public. The Post Office issued a series of noncontroversial commemorative stamps to mark the centennial. The children's novel Window of Time (1991), by Karen Weinberg, tells the story of a boy transported by time travel from the 1980s to the Battle of Gettysburg. The Battle of Gettysburg was depicted in the 1993 film Gettysburg, based on Michael Shaara's 1974 novel The Killer Angels. The film and novel focused primarily on the actions of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, John Buford, Robert E. Lee, and James Longstreet during the battle. The first day focused on Buford's cavalry defense, the second day on Chamberlain's defense at Little Round Top, and the third day on Pickett's Charge. See also Gettysburg Cyclorama, a painting by the French artist Paul Philippoteaux depicting Pickett's Charge List of costliest American Civil War land battles Troop engagements of the American Civil War, 1863 Notes Citations References Memoirs and primary sources Further reading Adkin, Mark. The Gettysburg Companion: The Complete Guide to America's Most Famous Battle. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8117-0439-7. Bachelder, John B. The Bachelder Papers: Gettysburg in Their Own Words. Edited by David L. Ladd and Audrey J. Ladd. 3 vols. Dayton, OH: Morningside Press, 1994. ISBN 0-89029-320-1. Bachelder, John B. Gettysburg: What to See, and How to See It: Embodying Full Information for Visiting the Field. Boston: Bachelder, 1873. OCLC 4637523. Ballard, Ted, and Billy Arthur. Gettysburg Staff Ride Briefing Book Archived April 30, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Carlisle, PA: United States Army Center of Military History, 1999. OCLC 42908450. Boritt, Gabor S., ed. The Gettysburg Nobody Knows. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-19-510223-1. Desjardin, Thomas A. These Honored Dead: How the Story of Gettysburg Shaped American Memory. New York: Da Capo Press, 2003. ISBN 0-306-81267-3. Frassanito, William A. Early Photography at Gettysburg. Gettysburg, PA: Thomas Publications, 1995. ISBN 1-57747-032-X. Lyon Fremantle, Arthur J. The Fremantle Diary: A Journal of the Confederacy. Edited by Walter Lord. Short Hills, NJ: Burford Books, 2002. ISBN 1-58080-085-8. First published 1954 by Capricorn Books. Gottfried, Bradley M. The Maps of Gettysburg: An Atlas of the Gettysburg Campaign, June 3–13, 1863. New York: Savas Beatie, 2007. ISBN 978-1-932714-30-2. Grimsley, Mark, and Brooks D. Simpson. Gettysburg: A Battlefield Guide. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8032-7077-1. Hall, Jeffrey C. The Stand of the U.S. Army at Gettysburg. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-253-34258-9. Haskell, Frank Aretas. The Battle of Gettysburg. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2006. ISBN 978-1-4286-6012-0. Hawthorne, Frederick W. Gettysburg: Stories of Men and Monuments. Gettysburg, PA: Association of Licensed Battlefield Guides, 1988. ISBN 0-9657444-0-X. Huntington, Tom. Pennsylvania Civil War Trails: The Guide to Battle Sites, Monuments, Museums and Towns. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2007. ISBN 978-0-8117-3379-3. Laino, Philip, Gettysburg Campaign Atlas, 2nd ed. Dayton, OH: Gatehouse Press 2009. ISBN 978-1-934900-45-1. McMurry, Richard M. "The Pennsylvania Gambit and the Gettysburg Splash". In The Gettysburg Nobody Knows, edited by Gabor Boritt. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-19-510223-1. McPherson, James M. Hallowed Ground: A Walk at Gettysburg. New York: Crown Publishers, 2003. ISBN 0-609-61023-6. Petruzzi, J. David, and Steven Stanley. The Complete Gettysburg Guide. New York: Savas Beatie, 2009. ISBN 978-1-932714-63-0. Rhodes, James Ford. "The Battle of Gettysburg." American Historical Review 4#4 1899, pp. 665–677. online Stackpole, General Edward J. They Met at Gettysburg. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1956, OCLC 22643644. External links Battle of Gettysburg: Battle Maps, histories, photos, and preservation news (American Battlefield Trust) Animated map of the Battle of Gettysburg (American Battlefield Trust) Gettysburg National Military Park (National Park Service) Papers of the Gettysburg National Military Park seminars U.S. Army's Interactive Battle of Gettysburg with Narratives Military History Online: The Battle of Gettysburg Official Records: The Battle of Gettysburg The Brothers War: The Battle of Gettysburg Gettysburg Discussion Group archives Archived February 1, 2009, at the Wayback Machine List of 53 Confederate generals at Gettysburg Archived December 26, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Encyclopædia Britannica: Battle of Gettysburg National Park Service battle description A film clip "Blue and Gray At 75th Anniversary of Great Battle, 1938/07/04 (1938)" is available for viewing at the Internet Archive

The governor of Pennsylvania is the head of government of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, as well as commander-in-chief of the state's national guard. The governor has a duty to enforce state laws and the power to approve or veto bills passed by the Pennsylvania General Assembly, as well as to convene the legislature. The governor may grant pardons except in cases of impeachment, but only when recommended by the Board of Pardons. There have been seven presidents and 48 governors of Pennsylvania, with two governors (Robert E. Pattison and Gifford Pinchot) serving non-consecutive terms, totaling 55 terms in both offices. The longest term was that of the first governor, Thomas Mifflin, who served three full terms as governor in addition to two years as President of the Continental Congress. The shortest term belonged to John C. Bell Jr., who served only 19 days as acting governor after his predecessor, Edward Martin, resigned. The current governor is Josh Shapiro, who took office on January 17, 2023. Governors Pennsylvania was one of the original Thirteen Colonies and was admitted as a state on December 12, 1787. Before it declared its independence, Pennsylvania was a colony of the Kingdom of Great Britain. Presidents of the Supreme Executive Council The Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 created the Supreme Executive Council as the state's executive branch, with a president as its head. The president was chosen annually by the council, though with no specific term dates. The constitution created the position of "vice-president", though no provision was made if the office of the president became vacant, which occurred four times later. Contemporary sources continue to label the chief executive in such times as the vice-president, without any notion of succeeding in the presidency. One acting president, George Bryan, was subsequently recognized later as a full-fledged governor, due to his acting as president for over six months. Governors of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania The 1790 constitution abolished the council and replaced the president with a governor, and established a three-year term for governor commencing on the third Tuesday of the December following the election, with governors not allowed to serve more than nine out of any twelve years. The 1838 constitution moved the start of the term to the third Tuesday of the January following the election, and allowed governors to only serve six out of any nine years. The 1874 constitution lengthened the term to four years, and prohibited governors from succeeding themselves. The current constitution of 1968 changed this to allow governors to serve two consecutive terms, with no lifetime limit. Under the 1968 constitution, Milton Shapp was the first governor to serve two terms, and Tom Corbett was the first incumbent governor to lose a re-election bid. If the office of governor becomes vacant through death, resignation, or conviction on impeachment, the lieutenant governor becomes governor for the remainder of the term; if the office is only temporarily vacant due to disability of the governor, the lieutenant governor only acts out the duties of governor. Should both offices be vacant, the president pro tempore of the state senate becomes governor. The position of a lieutenant governor was created in the 1874 constitution; prior to then, the speaker of the senate would act as governor in cases of vacancy. Originally, the lieutenant governor could only act as governor; it was not until the 1968 constitution that the lieutenant governor could actually become the sitting governor in that fashion. The office of governor has been vacant for an extended period once before, a 17-day gap in 1848 between the resignation of the previous governor and the swearing in of his acting successor. Governors and lieutenant governors are elected on the same political party ticket. See also Gubernatorial lines of succession in the United States#Pennsylvania List of Pennsylvania gubernatorial elections List of Pennsylvania state legislatures List of colonial governors of Pennsylvania Notes References General Specific External links Office of the Governor of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Politicals

Which president featured on a U.S. coin in 1972 served the longest as President of the United States of America?

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (12 years).

Numerical reasoning | Tabular reasoning | Multiple constraints

The cent, the United States of America one-cent coin (symbol: ¢), often called the "penny", is a unit of currency equaling one-hundredth of a United States of America dollar. It has been the lowest face-value physical unit of U.S. currency since the abolition of the half-cent in 1857 (the abstract mill, which has never been minted, equal to a tenth of a cent, continues to see limited use in the fields of taxation and finance). The first U.S. cent was produced in 1787, and the cent has been issued primarily as a copper or copper-plated coin throughout its history. Due to inflation, pennies have lost virtually all their purchasing power and are often viewed as an expensive burden to businesses, banks, government (especially mints) and the public in general. The penny is issued in its current form as the Lincoln cent, with its obverse featuring the profile of President Abraham Lincoln since 1909, the centennial of his birth. From 1959 (the sesquicentennial of Lincoln's birth) to 2008, the reverse featured the Lincoln Memorial. Four different reverse designs in 2009 honored Lincoln's 200th birthday and a new, "permanent" reverse – the Union Shield – was introduced in 2010. The coin is 0.75 inches (19.05 mm) in diameter and 0.0598 inches (1.52 mm) in thickness. The current copper-plated zinc cent issued since 1982 weighs 2.5 grams, while the previous 95% copper cent still found in circulation weighed 3.11 g (see further below). The U.S. Mint's official name for the coin is "cent" and the U.S. Treasury's official name is "one cent piece". The colloquial term penny derives from the British coin of the same name, which occupies a similar place in the British system. Pennies is the plural form (not to be confused with pence, which refers to the unit of currency). In the early 2010s, the price of metal used to make pennies rose to a noticeable cost to the mint which peaked at more than 2¢, a negative seigniorage, for the $0.01 face-value coin. This pushed the mint to look for alternative metals again for the coin, and also brought the debate about eliminating the coin into more focus. As of 2022 there are no firm plans to do so. History of composition The composition of the penny has varied over time: The isotope composition of early coins spanning the period 1828 to 1843 reflects the copper from Cornish ores from England, while coins after 1850 reflect the Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan ores, a finding consistent with historical records. In 1943, at the peak of World War II, zinc-coated steel cents were made for a short time because of war demands for copper. A few copper cents from 1943 were produced from 1942 planchets remaining in the bins. Similarly, some 1944 steel cents have been confirmed. From 1944 to 1946, salvaged ammunition shells made their way into the minting process, and it was not uncommon to see coins featuring streaks of brass or having a considerably darker finish than other issues. During the early 1970s, the price of copper rose to the point where the cent contained almost one cent's worth of copper. This led the Mint to test alternative metals, including aluminum and bronze-clad steel. Aluminum was chosen, and over 1.5 million samples of the 1974 aluminum cent were struck before ultimately being rejected. The cent's composition was changed in 1982 because the value of the copper in the coin started to rise above one cent. Some 1982 cents used the 97.5% zinc composition, while others used the 95% copper composition. With the exception of 2009 bicentennial cents minted specifically for collectors, United States cents minted after 1982 have been zinc with copper plating. The bronze and copper cents can be distinguished from the newer zinc cents by dropping the coins on a solid surface, or by flipping them in the air with your thumb. The predominantly zinc coins make a lower-pitched "clunk" when hitting the surface, and make no sound when flipped in the air; while the copper coins produce a higher-pitched ringing sound. In addition, a full 50-cent roll of pre-1982/3 coins weighs 5.4 oz (150 g) compared to a post-1982–83 roll which weighs 4.4 oz (120 g). Designs The coin has gone through several designs over its two-hundred-year time frame. Until 1857 it was about the size of the current U.S. dollar coins (Susan B. Anthony through present dollars). Shown below are the different cent designs that have been produced; mintage figures can be found at United States cent mintage figures. Large cents: Flowing Hair Chain 1793 Flowing Hair Wreath 1793 Liberty Cap 1793–1796 Draped Bust 1796–1807 Classic Head 1808–1814 Coronet 1816–1839 Braided Hair 1839–1857, 1868 (not a regular issue) Small cents: Flying Eagle cent (1856–1858) Indian Head cent (1859–1909) Lincoln cent (1909–present) Lincoln Wheat (1909–1958) Lincoln Memorial (1959–2008) Lincoln Bicentennial 4 reverse designs (2009) Lincoln Union Shield (2010–present) Throughout its history, the Lincoln cent has featured several typefaces for the date, but most of the digits have been old-style numerals, except with the 4 and 8 neither ascending nor descending. The only significant divergence is that the small 3 was non-descending (the same size as a 0, 1, or 2) in the early history, before switching to a descending, large 3 for the year 1934 and then permanently (as of 2014) in 1943. Similarly, the digit 5 was small and non-descending up to 1945. Lincoln cent The Lincoln cent is the current one-cent coin of the U.S. It was adopted in 1909 (which would have been Lincoln's 100th birthday), replacing the Indian Head cent. Its reverse was changed in 1959 from a wheat-stalks design to a design which includes the Lincoln Memorial (to commemorate Lincoln's sesquicentennial) and was replaced again in 2009 with four new designs to commemorate Lincoln's bicentennial. There are more one-cent coins produced than any other denomination, which makes the Lincoln cent a familiar item. In its lifespan, this coin has weathered both world wars, one of which temporarily changed its composition as part of the war effort. The obverse design is the longest produced for any circulating American coin. History When the Lincoln one-cent coin made its initial appearance in 1909, it marked a radical departure from the accepted styling of United States coinage, as it was the first regular coin to bear a portrait other than the mythical Liberty which appeared on most pre-1909 regular coins. Previously, a strong feeling had prevailed against using portraits on coins in the United States, but public sentiment stemming from the 100th anniversary celebration of Abraham Lincoln's birth proved stronger than the long-standing tradition. A variety of privately minted tokens bearing Lincoln's image circulated as one-cent pieces during Lincoln's presidency; legitimate coinage had become scarce during the Civil War. These early tokens undoubtedly influenced the denomination, appearance, size, and composition of Lincoln cents. Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th U.S. president, thought American coins were so common and uninspiring that he attempted to get the motto "In God We Trust" removed as offending religion. Roosevelt had the opportunity to pose for a young Lithuanian-born Jew, Victor David Brenner, who, since arriving nineteen years earlier in the United States had become one of the nation's premier medalists. Roosevelt had learned of Brenner's talents in a settlement house on New York City's Lower East Side and was immediately impressed with a bas-relief that Brenner had made of Lincoln, based on a Mathew Brady photograph. Roosevelt, who considered Lincoln the savior of the Union and the greatest Republican president, and who also considered himself Lincoln's political heir, ordered the new Lincoln cent to be based on Brenner's work and to be released just in time to commemorate Lincoln's 100th birthday in 1909. The likeness of President Lincoln on the obverse of the coin is an adaptation of a plaque Brenner created several years earlier which had come to the attention of President Roosevelt in New York. In addition to the prescribed elements on U.S. coins—LIBERTY and the date—the motto In God We Trust appeared for the first time on a coin of this denomination. The United States Congress passed the Act of March 3, 1865, authorizing the use of this motto on U.S. coins, during Lincoln's tenure in office. Even though no legislation was required for the new design, approval of the Secretary of the Treasury was necessary to make the change. Franklin MacVeagh gave his approval on July 14, 1909, and not quite three weeks later, on August 2, the new coin was released to the public. In 1918, after the controversy over Brenner's name and initials on the reverse had died down, his initials were placed on the obverse with no further controversy. They are to be found in minute form on the rim of the bust, just under the shoulder of Lincoln. Wheat cent (1909–1958) A study of three potential reverses resulted in the approval of a very simple design bearing two wheatheads in memorial style. Between these, in the center of the coin, are the denomination and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, while curving around the upper border is the national motto, E Pluribus Unum, Latin for "Out of Many, One". The original model bore Brenner's name on the reverse, curving along the rim below UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Before the coins were issued, however, the initials "VDB" were substituted because officials at the United States Mint felt the name was too prominent. After the coin was released, many protested that even the initials were conspicuous and detracted from the design. Because the coin was in great demand, and because to make a change would have required halting production, the decision was made to eliminate the initials entirely. Thus in 1909 the U.S. had six different cents: the 1909 and 1909-S Indian Head cents, and four Lincoln coins: 1909 VDB, 1909-S VDB, 1909 and 1909-S. In all cases the Philadelphia mintages far exceeded the San Francisco issues. While the smallest mintage is the '09-S Indian, the '09-S VDB is the key Lincoln date, and hence is most valuable. Its mintage of 484,000 is only 1.7% of the plain V.D.B. Lincoln Memorial cent (1959–2008) On February 12, 1959, a revised reverse design was introduced as part of the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's birth. No formal competition was held. Frank Gasparro, then Assistant Engraver at the Philadelphia Mint, prepared the winning entry, selected from a group of 23 models that the engraving staff at the Mint had been asked to present for consideration. Again, only the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury was necessary to make the change because the design had been in use for more than the required 25 years. The imposing marble Lincoln Memorial provides the central motif, with the legends E Pluribus Unum and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA completing the design, together with the denomination. The initials "FG" appear on the right, near the shrubbery. This series is noteworthy for having the image of Abraham Lincoln both on the obverse and reverse, as his likeness can be discerned at the center of the memorial on the reverse. Lincoln Bicentennial cents (2009) The Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005 required that the cent's reverse be redesigned in 2009. This resulted in the mintage of four different coins showing scenes from Abraham Lincoln's life in honor of the bicentennial of his birth. These four designs, unveiled September 22, 2008, at a ceremony held at the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., are: Birth and early childhood in Kentucky: this design features a log cabin and Lincoln's birth year 1809. It was designed by Richard Masters and sculpted by Jim Licaretz. This cent was released into circulation on Lincoln's 200th birthday, February 12, 2009, at a special ceremony at LaRue County High School in Hodgenville, Kentucky, Lincoln's birthplace. The mintage was extremely low compared to prior years (see Lincoln cent mintage figures). It has been nicknamed the "Log Cabin Penny". Formative years in Indiana: this design features a young Lincoln reading while taking a break from rail splitting. It was designed and sculpted by Charles Vickers. Nicknamed the "Indiana Penny", it was released on May 14, 2009. Professional life in Illinois: this design features a young professional Lincoln standing before the Illinois State Capitol, in Springfield. It was designed by Joel Iskowitz and sculpted by Don Everhart. Nicknamed the "Illinois Penny", it was released on August 13, 2009. Presidency in Washington, D.C.: this design features the half-completed Capitol dome. It was designed by Susan Gamble and sculpted by Joseph Menna. This fourth cent was released to the public on November 12, 2009. U.S. Mint released collector's sets containing this design in copper prior to the public launch of this design in zinc. Special 2009 cents struck for sale in sets to collectors had the metallic copper content of cents minted in 1909 (95% copper, 5% tin and zinc). Those struck for circulation retained the normal composition of a zinc core coated with copper. Union shield cent (2010–present) The 2005 act that authorized the redesign for the Bicentennial stated that another redesigned reverse for the Lincoln cent will be minted which "shall bear an image emblematic of President Lincoln's preservation of the United States of America as a single and united country". Eighteen designs were proposed for the reverse of the 2010 cent. On April 16, 2009, the Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) met and selected a design that showed 13 wheat sheaves bound together with a ring symbolizing American unity as one nation. Later this design was withdrawn because it was similar to coinage issued in Germany in the 1920s. The Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee later met and chose a design showing a Union shield with ONE CENT superimposed in a scroll; E Pluribus Unum was also depicted in the upper portion of the shield. In June 2009 the CFA met again and chose a design featuring a modern rendition of the American flag. As a part of the release ceremony for the last of the 2009 cents on November 12, the design for the 2010 cent was announced. The design chosen was the one that was chosen earlier by the CCAC. According to the Mint, the 13 stripes on the shield "represent the states joined in one compact union to support the Federal government, represented by the horizontal bar above". The Mint also noted that a shield was commonly used in paintings in the Capitol hallways painted by Constantino Brumidi, an artist in the Capitol active during the Lincoln Presidency. The obverse of the cent was also changed to a modern rendition of Brenner's design. The new Union Shield design replaces the Lincoln memorial in use since 1959. The coin was designed by artist Lyndall Bass and sculpted by U.S. Mint sculptor-engraver Joseph Menna. In January 2010, the coins were released early in Puerto Rico; this was caused by a shortage of 2009-dated pennies on the island. The new design was released at a ceremony at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois on February 11, 2010. In 2017, cents minted in Philadelphia were struck with a "P" mintmark to celebrate the 225th anniversary of the U.S. Mint. 2017 is the only year that Philadelphia cents have had a mintmark. In 2019, the United States Mint, the West Point Mint minted pennies marked with a "W" mintmark which was only available with proof sets, wrapped separately from the proof set in its own United States Mint plastic wrap. Criticism of continued use Proposals to eliminate It has been suggested that the penny should be eliminated as a unit of currency for several reasons. As of 2024, about a quarter trillion pennies are estimated to be in circulation, or more than 700 pennies for each person the United States. Many Americans do not actually spend pennies, but rather only receive them in change at stores and proceed to store them at home, or perhaps return them to a bank for higher denomination currencies, or cash them in at coin counting kiosks. Most modern vending machines do not accept pennies, further diminishing their utility. In addition, the production cost now exceeds the face value of the coin, caused by increasing inflation. In 2001 and 2006, for example, United States Representative Jim Kolbe (R) of Arizona introduced bills which would have stopped production of pennies (in 2001, the Legal Tender Modernization Act, and in 2006, the Currency Overhaul for an Industrious Nation [COIN] Act). In anticipation of the business of melting down U.S. pennies and U.S. nickels for profit, the U.S. Mint, which is a part of the US Department of the Treasury, implemented new regulations on December 14, 2006, which criminalize the melting of pennies and nickels and place limits on export of the coins. Violators can be punished with a fine of up to $10,000 USD, imprisoned for a maximum of five years, or both. Metal content and manufacturing costs The price of metal drives the cost to manufacture a cent. The Secretary of the Treasury has authority to alter the percentage of copper and zinc in the one-cent coin if needed due to cost fluctuations. For years, the Mint's production and shipping costs for cents have exceeded the face value of the coin (the Mint's fixed costs and overhead, however, are absorbed by other circulating coins). As a result, the U.S. Treasury loses tens of millions of dollars every year producing cents. For example, the loss in 2013 was $55 million. When copper reached a record high in February 2011, the melt value of a 95% copper cent was more than three times its face value. As of January 21, 2014, a pre-1982 cent contained 2.203 cents' worth of copper and zinc, making it an attractive target for melting by people wanting to sell the metals for profit. In comparison, post-1982 copper-plated zinc cents have a metallurgical value of only 0.552 cent. Prior to 1982, the fluctuating price of copper periodically caused penny shortages, as people hoarded them for their perceived metallic value. Toxicity Zinc, a major component of U.S. cents minted after mid-1982, is toxic in large quantities. Swallowing such a coin, which is 97.5% zinc, can cause damage to the stomach lining because of the high solubility of the zinc ion in the acidic stomach. Coins are the most commonly ingested foreign body in children but generally are allowed to pass spontaneously unless the patient is symptomatic. Zinc toxicity, mostly in the form of the ingestion of U.S. pennies minted after 1982, is commonly fatal in dogs where it causes a severe hemolytic anemia. It is also highly toxic in pet parrots and can often be fatal. See also 1909-S VDB Lincoln Cent 1943 steel cent 1943 copper cent 1955 doubled-die cent 1974 aluminum cent Large cent (United States coin) Legal Tender Modernization Act Mill (currency) Penny (Canadian coin) Penny debate in the United States Ring cent Take a penny, leave a penny United States Mint coin production Lincoln cent mintage figures References Further reading Weaver, Caity (September 1, 2024). "America Must Free Itself from the Tyranny of the Penny". The New York Times Magazine. Archived from the original on September 1, 2024. Retrieved September 2, 2024. External links Penny | United States Mint Examination of claim that "A U.S. penny costs more than a cent to manufacture" on Snopes (2007). PennyFreeBiz Grass Roots effort by retailers and merchants to stop using the penny. (June 2007).

A nickel is a five-cent coin struck by the United States Mint. Composed of cupronickel (75% copper and 25% nickel), the piece has been issued since 1866. Its diameter is 0.835 inches (21.21 mm) and its thickness is 0.077 inches (1.95 mm). The silver half dime, equal to five cents, was issued from 1792 to 1873 before today's cupronickel version. The American Civil War caused economic hardship, driving gold and silver from circulation; in response, in place of low-value coins, the government at first issued paper currency. In 1865, Congress abolished the five-cent fractional currency note after Spencer M. Clark, head of the Currency Bureau (today the Bureau of Engraving and Printing), placed his own portrait on the denomination. After the successful introduction of two-cent and three-cent pieces without precious metal, Congress also authorized a five-cent piece consisting of base metal; the Mint began striking this version in 1866. The initial design of the Shield nickel was struck from 1866 until 1883, then was replaced by the Liberty Head nickel. The Buffalo nickel was introduced in 1913 as part of a drive to increase the beauty of American coinage. The nickel is minted in its modern form as the Jefferson nickel, which was first introduced in 1938. In 2004 and 2005, special Jefferson nickel designs in honor of the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition were issued. In 2006, the Mint reverted to using Jefferson nickel designer Felix Schlag's original reverse (or "tails" side), although a new obverse, by Jamie Franki, was substituted. During fiscal year 2020, it cost more than 7 cents to produce a nickel; the Mint is exploring the possibility of reducing cost by using less expensive metals. In 2018, over 1.26 billion nickels were produced at the Philadelphia and Denver mints. Silver half dime The silver half disme (as the half dime, pronounced the same, was first called) was one of the denominations prescribed by the Mint Act of 1792; its weight and fineness were set by law. The first pieces under federal authority were half dimes, struck in 1792 in the cellar of John Harper, a saw maker; as the first federal mint was still under construction in Philadelphia, this took place locally at Sixth and Cherry Streets. The dies were engraved by Adam Eckfeldt, who a half-century later recalled that the silver for the half dimes was supplied by President George Washington, and that the 1,500 coins struck from the bullion were given to Washington's Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, for distribution to important people, both in the US and overseas. By legend, President Washington supplied silverware from his home, Mount Vernon, to provide bullion for the coins. In his annual message to Congress in late 1792, Washington noted the ongoing construction of a mint building and stated: "There has also been a small beginning in the coinage of half dimes, the want of small coins in circulation calling the first attention to them." In 1793, the newly established Philadelphia Mint began striking cents and half cents. Coinage of precious metal was delayed; Congress required the assayer and chief coiner to each post a security bond of $10,000, a huge sum in 1793. In 1794, Congress lowered the chief coiner's bond to $5,000, and the assayer's to $1,000; President Washington's appointees to those positions were thus able to qualify and take office. Subsequently, silver coinage began that year. The half dime was originally struck from 1794 until 1805, though none were dated 1798, 1799, or 1804. By 1804, silver US coins were heavily exported, as they could be exchanged at par in the West Indies with heavier Spanish coins, which were then imported as bullion and deposited at the Mint for melting and restriking. In response, in 1804 the US stopped striking silver dollars; issuance of the half dime was discontinued from 1805 until 1829. In 1807, mint Director Robert Patterson in a letter explained to Jefferson (by then president) "nearly the whole of our Silver Bullion (chiefly Spanish dollars) come through the Banks, and it is very seldom that they will consent to take any coin less than half dollars." Beginning in 1829, the silver five-cent piece was again struck; beginning in 1837, its fineness was increased from .8924 to .900. Also in 1837, the half dime's obverse design changed from one by William Kneass, depicting a bust of Liberty, to one that featured a seated Liberty by Christian Gobrecht; until its abolition in 1873, the half dime would bear modifications of this design. In 1851, it ceased to be the smallest US silver coin as a three cent piece was issued by the Mint. Birth of the nickel The Civil War caused most American coins to vanish from circulation, with the gap filled by such means as merchant tokens, encased postage stamps, and United States fractional currency, issued in denominations as low as three cents. Although specie (gold or silver coins) was hoarded or exported, the copper-nickel cent, then the only base metal denomination being struck, also vanished. In 1864, Congress began the process of restoring coins to circulation by abolishing the three-cent note and authorizing bronze cents and two-cent pieces, with low intrinsic values, to be struck. These new coins initially proved popular, though the two-cent piece soon faded from circulation. On March 3, 1865, Congress passed legislation authorizing the Mint to strike three-cent pieces of 75% copper and 25% nickel. In 1864, Congress authorized a third series of fractional currency notes. The five-cent note was to bear a depiction of "Clark", but Congress was appalled when the issue came out not with a portrait of William Clark, the explorer, but Spencer M. Clark, head of the Currency Bureau. According to numismatic historian Walter Breen, Congress's "immediate infuriated response was to pass a law retiring the five-cent denomination, and another to forbid portrayal of any living person on federal coins or currency." Clark kept his job only because of the personal intervention of Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase. Mint Director James Pollock had been opposed to striking coins containing nickel, but in view of the initial success of the copper-nickel three-cent piece, he became an advocate of striking five-cent pieces in the same metals. In his 1865 report, Pollock wrote, "From this nickel alloy, a coin for the denomination of five cents, and which would be a popular substitute for the five cent note, could easily be made ... [The five-cent coin should be struck in base metal] only until the resumption of specie payments ... in time of peace ... coins of inferior alloy should not be permitted to take the place permanently of silver in the coinage of pieces above the denomination of three cents." Industrialist Joseph Wharton had a near-monopoly on the mining of nickel in the United States, and sought to promote its use in coinage. He was also highly influential in Congress. His friends there, though they had failed to obtain the metal's use for the two-cent piece, had been more successful with the base-metal three-cent coin. Pollock prepared a bill authorizing a five-cent coin of the same alloy as the three-cent piece, with a total weight not to exceed 60 grains (3.9 g). At the committee stage in the House of Representatives, the weight was amended to 77.19 grains (5.00 g), ostensibly to make the weight equal to five grams in the metric system but more likely so that Wharton could sell more nickel. This made the new coin heavy, in terms of weight per $.01 of face value, compared to the three-cent copper-nickel coin. The bill passed without debate on May 16, 1866. The new copper-nickel coin was legal tender for up to one dollar and would be paid out by the Treasury in exchange for coin of the United States, excluding the half cent, cent and two-cent. It was redeemable in lots of $100 for banknotes. Fractional currency in denominations of less than ten cents was withdrawn. Shield nickel (1866–1883) In anticipation of the approval of the new five-cent coin, the Mint's chief engraver, James B. Longacre, had begun preparing designs and pattern coins in 1865. After rejecting pieces showing deceased presidents George Washington (see Washington nickel) and Abraham Lincoln, Treasury Secretary Hugh McCulloch decided on a design similar to Longacre's two-cent piece, with a shield on the obverse and a numeral 5 surrounded by stars and rays on the reverse. This has come to be known as the Shield nickel. The new coins proved difficult to produce; owing to the hardness of the planchet, the coins were not of high quality and the life of the striking dies was brief. The design was widely criticized; Wharton described the obverse as suggesting "a tombstone surmounted by a cross and overhung by weeping willows." The American Journal of Numismatics described the Shield nickel as "the ugliest of all known coins". The rays were eliminated from the reverse design in 1867, in the hope of eliminating some of the production problems. The design change created confusion among the population—many people assumed that one design or the other was a counterfeit—and the Mint briefly considered abandoning the shield design entirely. After heavy production in its first years, by late 1869, enough nickels had been struck to meet the needs of commerce; fewer were coined in the following years. The new coins tended to accumulate in the hands of merchants beyond the legal tender limit, but banks refused to accept them beyond the one-dollar maximum. Storeowners were forced to discount the coins to brokers. Postmasters, compelled by law to accept the coins, found that the Treasury would not accept them as deposits except in lots of $100, in accordance with the authorizing statute. In 1871, Congress alleviated the problem by passing legislation allowing the Treasury to redeem unlimited quantities of nickels and other low-denomination coins when presented in lots of not less than $20. It was not until 1933, long after the shield design passed from the scene, that the nickel was made legal tender without limit. Half dimes continued to be struck, at both the Philadelphia and the San Francisco Mint, until the series was ended by the Coinage Act of 1873. Despite the abolition, the silver pieces continued to circulate in the West, where silver or gold coins were preferred, throughout the remainder of the 19th century. Improved economic conditions, combined with low silver prices, brought large quantities of hoarded silver coinage, including half dimes, into circulation beginning in April 1876. In late 1876, production of the Shield nickel was halted. No Shield nickels were struck in 1877 or 1878, excepting proof specimens for collectors. As the Treasury had a large stock of nickels in storage, only small numbers were struck over the next few years; full-scale production did not resume until December 1881. Liberty Head or "V" nickel (1883–1913) With production of nickels lagging in the late 1870s, and with minimal strikings of the copper-nickel three-cent piece, Wharton sought to increase the use of nickel at the Mint. The bronze cent represented a major portion of the Mint's production, and Wharton began to lobby for the piece to be struck in copper-nickel, as it had been from 1857 until 1864. In 1881, this lobbying led Philadelphia Mint Superintendent Archibald Loudon Snowden to order Mint Engraver Charles Barber to produce uniform designs for a new cent, three-cent piece, and five-cent piece. Snowden required that the new coins depict the head of Liberty with the legend LIBERTY and the date, with the nickel's reverse to have a wreath of wheat, cotton, and corn around a Roman numeral "V" for "5", to denote the denomination. Under the proposal, the nickel would retain its weight of 5 grams (0.18 oz), but its diameter would be increased to 22 millimetres (0.87 in). Barber duly produced the required designs. Snowden eventually decided against a new cent or three-cent piece, but Barber continued work on the nickel, with the size adjusted to 21.21 millimetres (0.835 in). When specimens were sent to Washington for routine approval by Treasury Secretary Charles J. Folger, to Snowden's surprise, they were rejected. The secretary, on review of the coinage statutes, had realized that the laws required "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" to appear on the reverse, not the obverse where Barber had placed it. Barber modified his design accordingly, and the coin was ready for striking in early 1883. However, by then, Shield nickels dated 1883 had already been coined. To ensure proof Shield pieces would not be hoarded for their rarity, Mint officials allowed their continued production for several months. Criminals soon realized that the new nickel, which lacked the word "CENTS", was close in size to the five-dollar gold piece, and if they were to plate the nickel with gold, it might be passed for five dollars. Some coins were even given a reeded edge by fraudsters, making them appear more like the gold coins. The Mint halted production of the new coins; production of Shield nickels continued. Barber was told to modify his work, which he did, moving other design elements to accommodate the word "CENTS" at the bottom of the reverse. The revised nickel was issued on June 26, 1883, the date on which production of the Shield nickel was finally stopped. The public promptly hoarded the "centless" nickels, believing the Treasury Department intended to recall them, and that they would become rare. The Liberty Head nickel was heavily struck during its 30-year run, except during economic downturns in 1885–1886 and in 1894, when only small numbers were struck. In 1890, Congress ended production of the three-cent piece, leaving the five-cent coin as the only one in copper nickel. That year, Congress also allowed the Secretary of the Treasury to authorize the redesign of United States coins, if the former design had been struck for at least 25 years. Although the nickel and silver dollar had been redesigned within the previous quarter-century, a provision in the latter act made them eligible for immediate redesign. In 1896, pattern nickels were struck for the first time since 1885, when experimental, holed coins had been tested; however, no redesign took place. Growth of the nickel in commerce Coin-operated machines to vend food, for amusement, and for gambling became popular in the 1890s. Such machines could be placed on otherwise unused floor space in businesses, required little maintenance, and brought in money for owners. Beginning about 1898, coin-operated mechanical pianos also became popular. The Mills Novelty Company was a leading producer of such devices; by 1906 it was producing machines ranging from a mechanically played violin to fortune-telling devices. While some machines took cents or other denominations, the nickel was the coin of choice for these machines. Among the innovations in business caused by the use of the nickel in coin-operated machines was the automat, in which patrons would serve themselves by inserting a coin (initially a nickel, though by the 1950s a higher denomination was needed) into a mechanism, turning a handle, and removing a sandwich or dessert. These restaurants were first established in Germany, but were popularized in the United States by, among other firms, Horn & Hardart. A type of business which took its name from the coin was the nickelodeon cinema, where a nickel bought admission to view a series of one-reel short films, generally about 12 minutes in length, which ran continuously from early afternoon until late at night, with the patron free to remain as long as he liked. Although another denomination gave the penny arcade its name, the nickel was commonly used there as well. Few nickels had circulated in the western states before the 1880s (people there preferred silver and gold coins); interest in the new Liberty Head design had led to increasing use of nickels there. Good economic conditions and high demand for nickels for use in coin-operated devices caused the piece to circulate throughout the nation by 1900. That year, Mint Director George E. Roberts called on Congress to quintuple the Mint's appropriation to purchase base metals for striking into nickels and cents. At the time, statutory restrictions permitted production of cents and nickels only at Philadelphia; Roberts' request that Congress allow striking at the other mints was granted in 1906. The Denver and San Francisco Mints began striking nickels in 1912. 1913 Liberty Head nickel rarity The Liberty Head nickel was replaced after 1912, and initially there was no indication that 1913-dated pieces with that design existed. In December 1919, a coin dealer, Samuel W. Brown, placed advertisements in coin publications, offering to buy 1913 Liberty Head nickels. The following August, Brown appeared at the annual American Numismatic Association (ANA) convention bearing such a piece. Brown claimed that a master die had been prepared for 1913 and that these pieces had been run off to test it. As it turned out, Brown possessed five coins, which he eventually sold. After spending fifteen years in the hands of the eccentric Col. E.H.R. Green, the famous Fort Worth, Texas, area collector, the coins were finally dispersed in 1943. Since then, they have had several owners each. Today, two are on public display—at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington and the ANA's Money Museum in Colorado Springs, while three are owned privately. The most recent sale of a 1913 Liberty Head nickel was in January 2010, when one sold for $3,737,500 in an auction. It is uncertain how the 1913 nickels came to be made. The Mint's records show no production of 1913 Liberty head nickels, and none were authorized to be made. Dies were prepared in advance and sent to California for a 1913-S Liberty Head nickel coinage, but upon orders from Mint Director Roberts in December 1912 to end the old design, they were returned to Philadelphia. They were received by December 23, and were almost certainly destroyed routinely by early January. Brown had been an employee at the Philadelphia Mint (although this was not known until 1963) and many theories focus suspicion on him. Buffalo or Indian Head (1913–1938) President Theodore Roosevelt in 1904 expressed his dissatisfaction with the artistic state of American coins, and hoped to hire sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens to beautify them. Saint-Gaudens, before his death in 1907, designed a new eagle and double eagle, which entered circulation that year; the cent, quarter eagle, and half eagle were redesigned by other artists and were released into circulation by 1909. That year, Mint Director Frank Leach instructed Barber to make pattern coins for new nickels. Most of these coins featured the first president, George Washington. However, the project was discontinued when Leach left office on November 1, 1909, to be replaced by Abram Andrew. On May 4, 1911, Eames MacVeagh, son of Treasury Secretary Franklin MacVeagh wrote to his father: A little matter that seems to have been overlooked by all of you is the opportunity to beautify the design of the nickel or five cent piece during your administration, and it seems to me that it would be a permanent souvenir of a most attractive sort. As possibly you are aware, it is the only coin the design of which you can change during your administration, as I believe there is a law to the effect that the designs must not be changed oftener than every twenty-five years. I should think also it might be the coin of which the greatest numbers are in circulation. Soon after the MacVeagh letter, Andrew announced that the Mint would solicit new designs for the nickel. Sculptor James Earle Fraser, who had been an assistant to Saint-Gaudens, approached the Mint, and rapidly produced concepts and designs. Mint Director George Roberts, who had returned to office in place of Andrew, initially favored a design featuring Lincoln, but Fraser soon developed a design featuring a Native American on one side and a bison on the other. Secretary MacVeagh wrote, "Tell him that of the three sketches which he submitted we would like to use the sketch of the head of the Indian and the sketch of the buffalo." In July 1912, news of the new nickel became public, and coin-operated machine manufacturers sought information. Clarence Hobbs of the Hobbs Manufacturing Company, maker of counterfeit detectors, feared the new nickel would not be passed by his devices. Hobbs demanded various changes to the design, to which the artist was reluctant to agree. The Hobbs Company continued to interpose objections in 1913. On February 3, Hobbs sent Roberts a lengthy list of changes that he wanted in the coin, and the sculptor was required to attend a conference with Hobbs representatives. On the fifth, following the conference, which ended with no agreement, Fraser sent MacVeagh a ten-page letter, complaining that his time was being wasted by the Hobbs Company, and appealing to the Secretary to bring the situation to a close. Secretary MacVeagh agreed to hold a meeting at his office in Washington on February 14. Barber prepared patterns showing what the nickel would look like if the changes demanded by Hobbs were made. MacVeagh conducted the meeting much like a legal hearing, and issued a letter the following day. The secretary noted that no other firm had complained, that the Hobbs mechanism had not been widely sold, and that the changes demanded—a clear space around the rim and the flattening of the Native American's cheekbone—would affect the artistic merit of the piece. MacVeagh concluded, "You will please, therefore, proceed with the coinage of the new nickel." The coins were officially released to circulation on March 4, 1913, and quickly gained positive comments for depicting truly American themes. However, The New York Times stated in an editorial that "The new 'nickel' is a striking example of what a coin intended for wide circulation should not be ...[it] is not pleasing to look at when new and shiny, and will be an abomination when old and dull." The Numismatist, in March and May 1913 editorials, gave the new coin a lukewarm review, suggesting that the Native American's head be reduced in size and the bison be eliminated from the reverse. Dies for the new design proved to break quickly. Barber made proposed revisions, which Fraser approved after being sent samples. These changes enlarged the legend "FIVE CENTS" and changed the ground on which the bison stands from a hill to flat ground. According to data compiled by numismatic historian David Lange from the National Archives, the changes to what are known as Type II nickels (with the originals Type I) actually decreased the die life. A problem not addressed was the exposure of the date to wear; many Buffalo nickels today have the date worn away. In January 1938, the Mint announced an open competition for a new nickel design, to feature early president Thomas Jefferson on the obverse, and Jefferson's home, Monticello on the reverse. The last Buffalo nickels were struck in April 1938 at the Denver Mint, the only mint to strike them that year. Design and name The identities of the models for the Native American on the obverse and for the bison on the reverse are not known with certainty. Fraser stressed that the Native American was a type, rather than based on a specific individual, and identified various Native Americans as models, not always consistently, including Iron Tail, (Oglala Lakota) Two Moons, (Northern Cheyenne) and Big Tree (of the Kiowa people). There have been other claimants, the most prominent being John Big Tree, a Seneca, who made many public appearances as the "nickel Indian" until his death in 1967. Fraser recounted that the animal on the reverse was an American bison, Black Diamond, whom he stated lived at the Bronx Zoo, and also described the model simply as a bison at the Bronx Zoo. However, Black Diamond was never at the Bronx Zoo, but instead lived at the Central Park Zoo (both facilities are in New York City) until the animal was sold and slaughtered in 1915. The placement of the horns on the still-extant mounted head of Black Diamond differs from that of the bison on the nickel. From its inception, the coin was referred to as the "Buffalo nickel", reflecting the common name for the bison. The numismatic publication with the greatest circulation, Coin World, calls it an Indian head nickel, while R.S. Yeoman's Red Book refers to it as "Indian Head or Buffalo". Jefferson nickel (1938–present) When the Buffalo nickel had been struck for 25 years and could be replaced without an act of Congress, the Mint moved quickly to replace it. Although the Fraser design is popular today among numismatists, it did not enjoy that status in 1938, and there was no public outcry at the decision. In January 1938, the Mint announced an open competition for the new nickel design, with the winner to receive a prize of $1,000. Anticipating the 1943 bicentennial of Jefferson's birth, competitors were to place his portrait on the obverse, and a depiction of his house Monticello on the reverse. On April 24, Felix Schlag was announced as the winner. His design featured the portrayal of Jefferson which would be used on the nickel until 2004, closely conforming to the former president's bust by sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon, which is to be found in Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. However, the model differs from the nickel that was struck for circulation because it featured a view of Monticello from an angle, and a style of lettering officials did not like; Schlag was required to change both. Either through a misunderstanding or an oversight, Schlag did not include his initials in the design; they would not be added until 1966. Production began on October 3, 1938; they were released into circulation on November 15. According to contemporary accounts, the Jefferson nickel was initially hoarded, and it was not until 1940 that it was commonly seen in circulation. With the entry of the United States into World War II, nickel became a critical war material, and the Mint sought to reduce its use of the metal. On March 27, 1942, Congress authorized a nickel made of 50% copper and 50% silver, but gave the Mint the authority to vary the proportions, or add other metals, in the public interest. The Mint's greatest concern was in finding an alloy that would use no nickel, but still satisfy counterfeit detectors in vending machines. An alloy of 56% copper, 35% silver and 9% manganese proved suitable, and this alloy began to be coined into nickels from October 1942. In the hope of making them easy to sort out and withdraw after the war, the Mint struck all "war nickels" with a large mint mark appearing above Monticello. The mint mark P for Philadelphia was the first time that mint's mark had appeared on a U.S. coin. The pre-war composition returned in 1946; all nickels struck since then have been in 75% copper and 25% nickel. In 1966, a small change was made to the design to add the initials of the designer (FS) to the obverse, underneath Jefferson's portrait. In commemoration of that change, two specimen 1966 nickels with the initials were struck and presented to him. Coins struck at any mint between 1965 and 1967 lack mint marks, which were omitted as the Mint replaced the silver circulating coins with copper-nickel. Beginning in 1968, mint marks were again used, and on the nickel were moved to the lower part of the obverse, to the right of Jefferson's bust. From 1971, no nickels were struck for circulation in San Francisco—the 1971-S was the first nickel struck in proof only since 1878. Westward Journey commemoratives (2004–2005) The Mint had struck circulating commemorative coins for the United States Bicentennial, giving quarters, half dollars, and dollars struck in 1975 and 1976 a dual date, "1776–1976". After Canada issued a successful series of quarters in 1992 honoring its provinces and territories, the Mint obtained congressional permission to issue a series of US quarters honoring American states; they began to be issued in 1999. In 2002, the Mint began to consider redesigning the nickel in honor of the upcoming bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Representative Eric Cantor (R-VA) did not wish to see Monticello (located in his home state) moved permanently off the nickel. The resultant "American 5-Cent Coin Design Continuity Act of 2003", was signed into law by President George W. Bush on April 23, 2003. Under its terms, the Treasury Secretary could vary the nickel's designs in honor of the 200th anniversary of the Expedition and of the Louisiana Purchase, but the nickel would again feature Jefferson and Monticello beginning in 2006. Unless Congress acts again, every future five-cent coin will feature Jefferson and Monticello. The Mint used Schlag's obverse in 2004, with two new reverse designs. Mint sculptor-engraver Norman E. Nemeth's adaptation of an Indian Peace Medal struck for Jefferson was the first new design, followed by a depiction by Mint sculptor-engraver Al Maletsky of a keelboat like that used by the Expedition. The 2005 obverse was struck during that year only, with a design by sculptor Joe Fitzgerald based on Houdon's bust of Jefferson. The legend "LIBERTY" on the obverse was traced from Jefferson's handwriting in drafting the Declaration of Independence; as the word is never capitalized in that document, Fitzgerald borrowed a capital L from Jefferson's other writings. The reverse for the first half of the year depicted an American bison, recalling the Buffalo nickel and designed by Jamie Franki. The reverse for the second half showed a coastline and the words "Ocean in view! O! The Joy!", from a journal entry by William Clark, co-leader of the Expedition. Clark had actually written the word as "ocian", but the Mint modernized the spelling. Another Franki design has, since 2006, been used for the obverse, depicting a view of Jefferson from the front (rather than in profile) based on an 1800 study by Rembrandt Peale, and includes "Liberty" in Jefferson's script. According to Acting Mint Director David Lebryk, "The image of a forward-facing Jefferson is a fitting tribute to [his] vision." The reverse beginning in 2006 was again Schlag's Monticello design, but newly sharpened by Mint engravers. As Schlag's obverse design, on which his initials were placed in 1966, is no longer used, his initials were placed on the reverse to the right of Monticello. Increase in metal values In the first decade of the 21st century, commodity prices for copper and nickel, which make up the five-cent coin, rose dramatically, pushing the cost of manufacturing a nickel from 3.46 cents in fiscal year 2003 to 10.09 cents in fiscal year 2012. By comparison, a Canadian nickel (which is primarily made of steel) still costs less than its face value to produce as of 2019. In response, Mint Director Henrietta Fore in 2004 asked Congress to fund research into lower-cost alternatives to present coinage metals. Although the initiative lapsed when she left office in 2005, in 2010, Congress passed the Coin Modernization, Oversight, and Continuity Act (CMOCA), directing the Mint to explore alternatives to the present compositions of the six denominations, from cent to dollar. In 2011, the Mint awarded a contract to study the issue to Concurrent Technologies Corporation of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The report in response to the legislation declared that there is no material that would reduce the one-cent coin's manufacturing cost to below one cent, so it was removed from consideration. The report requested additional time to study the issue, ensuring the continuation, for the present, of the existing coinage metals. The Mint expected demand for nickels in commerce to increase from 840 million needed in Fiscal Year 2011 to 1.08 billion in 2015. Meanwhile, in an attempt to avoid losing large quantities of circulating nickels to melting, the United States Mint introduced new interim rules on December 14, 2006, that criminalized the melting and export of pennies (which as of 2013 cost 1.83 cents to produce) and nickels. Violators of these rules can be punished with a fine of up to $10,000, five years imprisonment, or both. The rules were finalized on April 17, 2007. The melt value of a nickel for some time was more than five cents, including nearing over one-and-a-half times its face value in May 2007. Since then, the supply and demand of the coin's composition metals have stabilized. A nickel's melt value fell below its face value from late 2008 through mid-2010, and more recently again from late mid-2012. In February 2014, it was reported that the Mint was conducting experiments to use copper-plated zinc (the same composition used for the United States 1 cent coin) for the nickel. In December 2014, the Mint released its next Biennial report in response to the CMOCA. In it, the Mint declared that plated zinc products did not hold up to steam/wear tests and were rejected for U.S. coins other than the penny. Materials considered "feasible" for the 5-cent coin were nickel-plated steel, multi-ply-plated steel, and potentially another copper/nickel alloy, this time with ~77% copper, ~20% nickel, and ~3% manganese. Further testing was recommended to explore even less expensive alloys that would not require changes to vending machines (as the steel-based materials would require). In February 2023, the melt value of a nickel coin exceeded 135% of its face value. Proposals for abolition Due to its low value, the inconvenience of carrying and counting, and the fact that it costs more to make than it is worth, various commentators have proposed eliminating the nickel along with the penny. See also Canadian nickel Hobo nickel North Carolina 1861 5 cents banknote Ring nickel United States Mint coin production United States nickel mintage figures Notes Bibliography Bowers, Q. David (2006). A Guide Book of Shield and Liberty Head Nickels. Atlanta, Ga.: Whitman Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7948-1921-7. Bowers, Q. David (2007). A Guide Book of Buffalo and Jefferson Nickels. Atlanta, Ga.: Whitman Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7948-2008-4. Breen, Walter (1988). Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins. New York, N.Y.: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-14207-6. Burdette, Roger W. (2007). Renaissance of American Coinage, 1909–1915. Great Falls, Va.: Seneca Mill Press. ISBN 978-0-9768986-2-7. Coin World Almanac (3rd ed.). Sidney, Ohio: Amos Press. 1977. ASIN B004AB7C9M. Hobson, Walter (1971). Historic Gold Coins of the World. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday and Co. ISBN 978-0-385-08137-5. Lange, David W. (2006). History of the United States Mint and its Coinage. Atlanta, Ga.: Whitman Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7948-1972-9. Montgomery, Paul; Borckardt, Mark; Knight, Ray (2005). Million Dollar Nickel. Irvine, Ca.: Zyrus Press. ISBN 978-0-9742371-8-3. Peters, Gloria; Mohon, Cynthia (1995). The Complete Guide to Shield & Liberty Head Nickels. Virginia Beach, Va.: DLRC Press. ISBN 978-1-880731-52-9. Richardson, William Allen, ed. (1891). Supplement to the revised statutes of the United States. Vol. 1. Washington, D.C.: US Government Printing Office. Taxay, Don (1983). The U.S. Mint and Coinage (reprint of 1966 ed.). New York, N.Y.: Sanford J. Durst Numismatic Publications. ISBN 978-0-915262-68-7. Yeoman, R.S. (2017). A Guide Book of United States Coins (The Official Red Book) (71st ed.). Atlanta, Ga.: Whitman Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7948-4506-3. Other sources Anderson, Gordon T. (November 6, 2003). "U.S. to get two new nickels". CNN Money. Retrieved June 24, 2012. Bardes, Herbert C. (July 24, 1966). "Nickel designer gains his place". The New York Times. p. 85. Retrieved April 7, 2011. (subscription required) Deisher, Beth (April 16, 2012). "U.S. must summon the courage to retire 1-cent denomination". Coin World. p. 15. Frazier, Joseph (August 5, 2005). "New nickel recalls historic moment". The Register-Guard. Eugene, Ore. AP. p. C7. Retrieved April 7, 2011. Gilkes, Paul (January 4, 2012). "Cent, 5¢ demand on rebound during FY2011". Coin World. p. 4. Gilkes, Paul (December 31, 2012). "Mint wants more time to study compositions". Coin World. p. 1. Orosz, Joel J. (June 2012). "The five founding fathers of the United States Mint". The Numismatist. American Numismatic Association. Porterfield, Walden R. (March 3, 1970). "The Billion Dollar Profile". The Milwaukee Journal. p. 16. Retrieved November 21, 2010. "US unveils forward-looking nickel". BBC. October 6, 2005. Retrieved April 8, 2011. "Rare U.S. coin fetches over US$3.7 million at auction". The China Post. January 1, 2010. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved January 27, 2012. "Jefferson nickels". Collectors Weekly. Retrieved April 12, 2011. "U.S. Code, Title 31, Section 5112". Cornell University Law School. Archived from the original on November 23, 2011. Retrieved April 20, 2011. United States Mint (c. 2009). "50 States Quarters Report" (PDF). United States Mint Financial Department. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 10, 2016. Retrieved October 18, 2011. "Nation to get newly designed nickels" (Press release). United States Mint. April 24, 2003. Retrieved April 7, 2011. "The 2004 Westward Journey nickel series designs". United States Mint. Archived from the original on April 11, 2016. Retrieved April 7, 2011. "The 2005 Westward Journey nickel series designs". United States Mint. Archived from the original on August 21, 2011. Retrieved April 7, 2011. "The 2006 Westward Journey nickel series designs". United States Mint. Retrieved April 8, 2011. "United States Mint Moves Limits Exportation & Melting of Coins" (Press release). United States Mint. April 17, 2007. Retrieved November 10, 2018. "Va. legislators want to keep their nickel back". USA Today. AP. July 23, 2002. Retrieved April 7, 2011. External links US Mint Unveils Dramatic New Nickel Designs for 2005 Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, from the Mint's website

The dime, in United States usage, is a ten-cent coin, one tenth of a United States dollar, labeled formally as "one dime". The denomination was first authorized by the Coinage Act of 1792. The dime is the smallest in diameter and is the thinnest of all U.S. coins currently minted for circulation, being 0.705 inches (17.91 millimeters) in diameter and 0.053 in (1.35 mm) in thickness. The obverse of the current dime depicts the profile of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the reverse has an olive branch, a torch, and an oak branch, from left to right respectively. The word dime comes from the Old French disme (Modern French dîme), meaning "tithe" or "tenth part", from the Latin decima [pars]. The dime is currently the only United States coin in general circulation that is not denominated in terms of dollars or cents. As of 2011, the dime cost 5.65 cents to produce. History The Coinage Act of 1792 established the dime (spelled "disme" in the legislation), cent, and mill as subdivisions of the dollar equal to 1⁄10, 1⁄100 and 1⁄1000 dollar respectively. The first known proposal for a decimal-based coinage system in the United States was made in 1783 by Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and David Rittenhouse. Hamilton, the nation's first Secretary of the Treasury, recommended the issuance of six such coins in 1791, in a report to Congress. Among the six was a silver coin, "which shall be, in weight and value, one-tenth part of a silver unit or dollar". From 1796 to 1837, dimes were composed of 89.24% silver and 10.76% copper, the value of which required the coins to be physically very small to prevent their commodity value from being worth more than face value. Thus dimes are made small and thin. The silver percentage was increased to 90.0% with the introduction of the Seated Liberty dime; the use of a richer alloy was offset by reducing the diameter from 18.8 millimeters (0.740 inches) to its current figure of 17.9 millimeters (0.705 inches). With the passage of the Coinage Act of 1965, the dime's silver content was removed. Dimes from 1965 to the present are struck from a clad metal composed of outer layers of 75% copper and 25% nickel alloy, bonded to a pure copper core. Pre-1965 dimes followed Gresham's law and vanished from ordinary currency circulation at face value. Most now trade as informal bullion coins known as junk silver, priced at some multiple of face value, which price follows the spot price of silver on commodity markets. Starting in 1992, the U.S. Mint began issuing Silver Proof Sets annually, which contain dimes composed of the pre-1965 standard of 90% silver and 10% copper, then switched to .999 fine silver from 2019 onward. These sets are intended solely for collectors and are not meant for general circulation. Design history Since its introduction in 1796, the dime has been issued in six different major types, excluding the 1792 "disme". The name for each type (except for the Barber dime) indicates the design on the coin's obverse. Draped Bust 1796–1807 Capped Bust 1809–1837 Seated Liberty 1837–1891 Barber 1892–1916 Winged Liberty Head (Mercury) 1916–1945 Roosevelt 1946–present "Disme" (1792) The Coinage Act of 1792, passed on April 2, 1792, authorized the mintage of a "disme", one-tenth the silver weight and value of a dollar. The composition of the disme was set at 89.24% silver and 10.76% copper. In 1792, a limited number of dismes were minted but never circulated. Some of these were struck in copper, indicating that the 1792 dismes were in fact pattern coins. The first dimes minted for circulation did not appear until 1796, due to a lack of demand for the coin and production problems at the United States Mint. Draped Bust (1796–1807) The first dime to be circulated was the Draped Bust dime, in 1796. It featured the same obverse and reverse as all other circulating coins of the time, the so-called Draped Bust/Small Eagle design. This design was the work of then-Chief Engraver Robert Scot. The portrait of Liberty on the obverse was based on a Gilbert Stuart drawing of prominent Philadelphia socialite Ann Willing Bingham, wife of noted American statesman William Bingham. The reverse design is of a small bald eagle surrounded by palm and olive branches, and perched on a cloud. Since the Coinage Act of 1792 required only that the cent and half cent display their denomination, Draped Bust dimes were minted with no indication of their value. All 1796 dimes have 15 stars on the obverse, representing the number of U.S. states then in the Union. The first 1797 dimes were minted with 16 stars, reflecting Tennessee's admission as the 16th state. Realizing that the practice of adding one star per state could quickly clutter the coin's design, U.S. Mint Director Elias Boudinot ordered a design alteration, to feature just 13 stars (for the original Thirteen Colonies). Therefore, 1797 dimes can be found with either 13 or 16 stars. Also designed by Robert Scot, the Heraldic Eagle reverse design made its debut in 1798. The obverse continued from the previous series, but the eagle on the reverse was changed from the widely criticized "scrawny" hatchling to a scaled-down version of the Great Seal of the United States. The Draped Bust/Heraldic Eagles series continued through 1807 (although no dimes dated 1799 or 1806 were minted). Both Draped Bust designs were composed of 89.24% silver and 10.76% copper. Capped Bust (1809–1837) The Draped Bust design was succeeded by the Capped Bust, designed by Mint Assistant Engraver John Reich. Both the obverse and reverse were changed extensively. The new reverse featured a bald eagle grasping three arrows (symbolizing strength) and an olive branch (symbolizing peace). Covering the eagle's breast is a U.S. shield with six horizontal lines and 13 vertical stripes. Also on the reverse is the lettering "10C," making it the only dime minted with the value given in cents (subsequent issues are inscribed with the words "ONE DIME"). The lack of numeric value markings on subsequent dime coins causes some confusion amongst foreign visitors, who may be unaware of the value of the coin. Also, the Capped Bust dime was the first dime to have its value written on the coin. Previous designs of the dime had no indication of its value, the way people determined its value was by its size Capped Bust dimes minted through 1828 are known as the Large type. This is partially because they were struck without a restraining collar, which gave them a broader appearance. In 1828, Chief Engraver William Kneass introduced the close collar method of coining (which automated the process of placing reeds on a coin's edge). In addition to standardizing the diameter of coins, the new method allowed the Mint to produce thicker coins. To maintain a standard weight and alloy, the diameter of most coins was reduced. In particular, the dime was reduced in diameter from 18.8 to 18.5 millimeters. This new Capped Bust dime, which began production in 1828, is known as the Small type. There are 123 varieties known of Capped Bust Dimes. Seated Liberty (1837–1891) Christian Gobrecht completed the design of the Seated Liberty dime, whose obverse was used with every circulating silver U.S. coin of the period. Mint Director Robert Maskell Patterson requested a new coin design, to be reminiscent of the Britannia image found on coinage of the United Kingdom. Chief Engraver William Kneass drew the original sketches, but suffered a stroke and was too ill to finish them or to oversee preparation of the dies. The task then fell to Gobrecht, who was promoted to Second Engraver. The obverse features an image of Liberty sitting on a rock, wearing a dress and holding a staff with a liberty cap on top. Her right hand is balancing a shield with the inscription "LIBERTY." The reverse featured the inscription "ONE DIME," surrounded by a wreath. All Seated Liberty dimes contain 90% silver and 10% copper, and are 17.9 millimeters (0.705 inch) in diameter. This size and metal composition would continue until 1965, when silver was permanently removed from circulating dimes. There were several minor varieties during the Seated Liberty's run. The initial design (1837) had no stars on the obverse and, further, the dates were minted in a Large Date and Small Date variety. These two types can be distinguished by noting the "3" and the "7" in the date. In the Large Date variety, the "3" has a pointed serif at top, and the horizontal element of the "7" is straight. In the Small Date variety, the "3" has a rounded serif, and there is small a knob, or bulge, in the "7" horizontal element. Only the Philadelphia Mint made both varieties. The Small Date is slightly rarer. The New Orleans Mint also made the Seated Liberty Dime in this year, but only in the Small Date variety. Thirteen stars (symbolizing the 13 original colonies) were added to the perimeter of the obverse in 1838. These were replaced with the legend "United States of America," which was moved from the reverse in mid-1860. At the same time, the laurel wreath on the reverse was changed to a wreath of corn, wheat, maple, and oak leaves and expanded nearly to the rim of the coin. This reverse design continued through the end of the series in 1891 and was changed only slightly in 1892, when the Barber dime debuted. Another variety is the 1838–40 dime minted with no drapery underneath the left elbow of Liberty. Arrows at the date in 1853 and 1873 indicated changes made in the coin's mass (from 2.67 grams to 2.49 grams in 1853, then to 2.50 grams in 1873). The first change was made in response to rising silver prices, while the latter alteration was brought about by the Mint Act of 1873 which, in an attempt to make U.S. coinage the currency of the world, added a small amount of mass to the dime, quarter, and half-dollar to bring their weights in line with fractions of the French 5-franc piece. The change also ensured the quarter dollar (which is valued 2.5 times the dime) weighed 2.5 times the dime (6.25g), and the half dollar (twice the value of the quarter dollar) weighed twice what the quarter dollar weighed (12.5g). In this way, a specific weight of these coins, no matter the mixture of denominations, would always be worth the same. This relation in weight and value continued in the cupronickel coins from 1965 on. This produced the greatest rarities in the Seated Dime Series, the 1873 and 1874 Carson City Dimes, with arrows and the unique 1873 Carson City Dime without arrows. Barber (1892–1916) The Barber dime is named for its designer, Charles E. Barber, who was Chief Engraver of the U.S. Mint from 1879 to 1917. The design was shared with the quarter and half-dollar of the same period. Extensive internal politics surrounded the awarding of the design job, which had initially been opened to the public. A four-member committee (which included Barber), appointed by then-Mint Director James Kimball, accorded only two of more than 300 submissions an honorable mention. Kimball's successor, Edward O. Leech, decided to dispense with the committees and public design competitions and simply instructed Barber to develop a new design. It has been speculated that this is what Barber had wanted all along. The Barber dime, as with all previous dimes, featured an image of Liberty on the obverse. She is wearing a Phrygian cap, a laurel wreath with a ribbon, and a headband with the inscription "LIBERTY". This inscription is one of the key elements used in determining the condition of Barber dimes. Liberty's portrait was inspired by two sources—French coins and medals of the period, as well as ancient Greek and Roman sculpture. The obverse also contains the long-used 13 stars (for the 13 colonies) design element. The reverse contained a wreath and inscription almost identical to the one used on the final design of the Seated Liberty dime. Dimes were produced at all four of the mints that operated during the period. While circulated coins of the entire series are readily available to collectors there is one outstanding rarity, the 1894-S Barber Dime. Twenty-four were minted, with 9 currently known. Winged Liberty Head ("Mercury") (1916–1945) Although most commonly referred to as the "Mercury" dime, the Winged Liberty Head does not depict the Roman messenger god. The obverse figure is a depiction of the mythological goddess Liberty wearing a Phrygian cap, a classic Western symbol of liberty and freedom, with its wings intended to symbolize freedom of thought. Designed by noted sculptor Adolph A. Weinman, the Winged Liberty Head dime is considered by many to be one of the most beautiful U.S. coin designs ever produced. The composition (90% silver, 10% copper) and diameter (17.9 millimeters) of the "Mercury" dime was unchanged from the Barber dime. Weinman (who had studied under Augustus Saint-Gaudens) won a 1915 competition against two other artists for the design job, and is thought to have modeled his version of Liberty on Elsie Kachel Stevens, wife of noted poet Wallace Stevens. The reverse design, a fasces juxtaposed with an olive branch, was intended to symbolize America's readiness for war, combined with its desire for peace. Although the fasces was later officially adopted by Benito Mussolini and his National Fascist Party, the symbol was also common in American iconography and has generally avoided any stigma associated with its usage in wartime Italy. Franklin D. Roosevelt (1946–present) Soon after the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in April 1945, legislation was introduced by Virginia Congressman Ralph H. Daughton that called for the replacement of the Mercury dime with one bearing Roosevelt's image. The dime was chosen to honor Roosevelt partly due to his efforts in the founding of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (later renamed the March of Dimes), which originally raised money for polio research and to aid victims of the disease and their families. Due to the limited amount of time available to design the new coin, the Roosevelt dime was the first regular-issue U.S. coin designed by a Mint employee in more than 40 years. Chief Engraver John R. Sinnock was chosen, as he had already designed a Mint presidential medal of Roosevelt. Sinnock's first design, submitted on October 12, 1945, was rejected, but a subsequent one was accepted on January 6, 1946. The dime was released to the public on January 30, 1946, which would have been Roosevelt's 64th birthday. Sinnock's design placed his initials ("JS") at the base of Roosevelt's neck, on the coin's obverse. His reverse design elements of a torch, olive branch, and oak branch symbolized, respectively, liberty, peace, and strength. Controversy immediately ensued, as strong anti-Communist sentiment in the United States led to the circulation of rumors that the "JS" engraved on the coin was the initials of Joseph Stalin, placed there by a Soviet agent in the mint. The Mint quickly issued a statement denying this, confirming that the initials were indeed Sinnock's. The same rumor arose after the release of the Sinnock designed Franklin half dollar in 1948. Another controversy surrounding Sinnock's design involves his image of Roosevelt. Soon after the coin's release, it was claimed that Sinnock borrowed his design of Roosevelt from a bas relief created by African American sculptor Selma Burke, unveiled at the Recorder of Deeds Building in Washington, D.C. in September 1945. Sinnock denied this and stated that he simply utilized his earlier design on the Roosevelt medal. With the passage of the Coinage Act of 1965, the composition of the dime changed from 90% silver and 10% copper to a clad "sandwich" of pure copper inner layer between two outer layers of cupronickel (75% copper, 25% nickel) alloy giving a total composition of 91.67% Cu and 8.33% Ni. This composition was selected because it gave similar mass (now 2.268 grams instead of 2.5 grams) and electrical properties (important in vending machines)—and most importantly, because it contained no precious metal. The Roosevelt dime has been minted every year, beginning in 1946. Through 1955, all three mints, Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco produced circulating coinage; production at San Francisco ended in 1955, resuming in 1968 with proof coinage only. Through 1964 "D" and "S" mintmarks can be found to the left of the torch. From 1968, the mintmarks have appeared above the date. None were used in 1965–67, and Philadelphia did not show a mintmark until 1980 (in 1982, an error left the "P" off a small number of dimes, which are now valuable). To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the design, the 1996 mint sets included a "W" mintmarked dime made at the West Point Mint. A total of 1,457,000 dimes were issued in the sets, making it the lowest mintage Roosevelt dime up to that time. Since then, the "P" mint mark 2015 reverse proof dime and "W" mint mark 2015 proof dime, minted at Philadelphia and West Point for inclusion in the March of Dimes collector set, have the lowest mintages with 75,000 pieces struck for each. See also 1792 half disme Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?, a popular song of the Great Depression Dime store, also known as a "five and dime" Dime novel, later known as dime store novel March of Dimes "Stop on a dime" United States Mint coin production References External links Official specifications for all U.S. legal tender coins Archived 2009-11-11 at the Wayback Machine

The quarter, formally known as the quarter dollar, is a denomination of currency in the United States valued at 25 cents, representing one-quarter of a dollar. Adorning its obverse is the profile of George Washington, while its reverse design has undergone frequent changes since 1998. Since its initial production in 1796, the quarter dollar has held a significant place in American numismatics, with consistent production since 1831. It has a diameter of 0.955 inch (24.26 mm) and a thickness of 0.069 inch (1.75 mm). Its current version is composed of two layers of cupronickel (75% copper, 25% nickel) clad on a core of pure copper. With the cupronickel layers comprising 1/3 of total weight, the coin's overall composition is therefore 8.33% nickel, 91.67% copper. Its weight is 0.1823 troy oz. or 0.2000 avoirdupois oz. (5.670 grams). Designs before 1932 The choice of a quarter-dollar as a denomination, as opposed to the 1⁄5 or the 20-cent piece that is more common elsewhere, originated with the practice of dividing Spanish milled dollars into eight wedge-shaped segments, which gave rise to the name "piece of eight" for that coin. "Two bits" (that is, two eighths of a piece of eight) is a common nickname for a quarter. From 1796 the quarter was minted with 0.2377 oz. (6.739 g) of 89.24% fine silver (.2121 oz. [6.014 g] fine silver), revised to 90% fine silver from 1838 to 1964. It weighed 0.2357 oz. (6.682 g) from 1838, 0.2194 oz. (6.22 g) from 1853, and 0.2204 oz. (6.25 g) from 1873 to 1964. Six designs, five regular and one commemorative, have been issued until 1930: Draped Bust 1796–1807 Draped Bust, Small Eagle 1796 Draped Bust, Heraldic Eagle 1804–1807 Capped Bust 1815–1838 Capped Bust (Large Size), With Motto 1815–1828 Capped Bust (Small Size), No Motto 1831–1838 Seated Liberty 1838–1891 Seated Liberty, No Motto 1838–1865 Seated Liberty, With Motto 1866–1891 Barber 1892–1916 Isabella quarter commemorative 1893 Standing Liberty 1916–1930 Standing Liberty (Type 1) 1916–1917 (featured an image of Liberty with one of her breasts exposed) Standing Liberty (Type 2 or Type 2a) 1917–1924 Standing Liberty (Type 3 or Type 2b) 1925–1930 Washington quarter The original version of the Washington quarter issued from 1932 to 1998 was designed by sculptor John Flanagan. The obverse depicted George Washington facing left, with "Liberty" above the head, the date below, and "In God We Trust" in the left field. The reverse depicted an eagle with wings outspread perches on a bundle of arrows framed below by two olive branches. It was minted in 0.2204 oz. (6.25 g) of 90% fine silver until 1964, when rising silver prices forced the change into the present-day cupronickel-clad-copper composition, which was also called the "Johnson Sandwich" after then-president Lyndon B. Johnson. As of 2011, it cost 11.14 cents to produce each coin. Regular issue Washington quarters: Silver quarters, 1932–1964 Clad composition quarter, 1965–1998 50 State quarters, 1999–2008 District of Columbia and United States Territories quarters, 2009 America the Beautiful quarters, 2010–2021 Washington Crossing the Delaware, 2021 American Women quarters, 2022–2025 Semiquincentennial quarters, 2026 Youth Sports quarters, 2027–2030 Commemorative and bullion issue Washington quarters: United States Bicentennial coinage quarter in clad & 40% silver, 1975–1976 (all were dated 1776–1976) Silver proof set quarter, 1992–1998 America the Beautiful silver bullion coins in 5-ounce silver, 2010–2021 US states and territories quarters, 1999–2009 In 1999, the 50 State quarters program of circulating commemorative quarters began. These have a modified Washington obverse and a different reverse for each state, ending the former Washington quarter's production completely. On January 23, 2007, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 392 extending the state quarter program one year to 2009, to include the District of Columbia and the five inhabited U.S. territories: Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the United States Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The bill passed through the Senate, and was signed into legislation by President George W. Bush as part of Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 110–161: the Consolidated Appropriations Act (text) (PDF), on December 27, 2007. The typeface used in the state quarter series varies a bit from one state to another, but is generally derived from Albertus. America the Beautiful quarters, 2010–2021 On June 4, 2008, the America's Beautiful National Parks Quarter Dollar Coin Act of 2008, H.R. 6184, was introduced to the House of Representatives. On December 23, 2008, President Bush signed the bill into law as Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 110–456 (text) (PDF). The America the Beautiful quarters program began in 2010 and ended in 2021, lasting 12 years and depicting a natural or historic site for each state and territory. 2021: Return of the original obverse, new legislation Following the conclusion of the America the Beautiful quarter series in 2021, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had the option of ordering a second round of 56 quarters, but did not do so by the end of 2018 as required in the 2008 legislation. The quarter's design for 2021 therefore reverted to Flanagan's original obverse design, paired with a new reverse rendition of Washington crossing the Delaware River on the night of December 25, 1776. In October 2019, the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC) met to consider designs, with the final choice made by Mnuchin. On December 25, 2020, the Mint announced the successful design, by Benjamin Sowards as sculpted by Michael Gaudioso. This quarter was released into circulation on April 5, 2021, and was minted until the end of 2021. The Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020 (Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 116–330 (text) (PDF)) established three new series of quarters for the next decade. From 2022 to 2025, the Mint may produce up to five coins each year featuring prominent American women, with a new obverse design of Washington. In 2026, there will be up to five designs representing the United States Semiquincentennial. From 2027 to 2030, the Mint may produce up to five coins each year featuring youth sports. The obverse will also be redesigned in 2027, and even after 2030 is still to depict Washington. American Women Quarters The American Women Quarters Program will issue up to five new reverse designs each year from 2022 to 2025 featuring the accomplishments and contributions made in various fields by women to American history and development. The obverse features Laura Gardin Fraser's portrait of George Washington originally intended for the first Washington quarter in 1932. Collecting silver Washington quarters The "silver series" of Washington quarters spans from 1932 to 1964; during many years in the series it will appear that certain mints did not mint Washington quarters for that year. No known examples of quarters were made in 1933, San Francisco abstained in 1934 and 1949, and stopped after 1955, until it resumed in 1968 by way of making proofs. Denver did not make quarters in 1938. Proof examples from 1936 to 1942 and 1950 to 1967 were struck at the Philadelphia Mint; in 1968, proof production was shifted to the San Francisco Mint. The current rarities for the Washington quarter "silver series" are: Branch mintmarks are D = Denver, S = San Francisco. Coins without mintmarks were all made at the main Mint in Philadelphia. This listing is for business strikes, not proofs: 1932-D 1932-S 1934 – with Doubled Die Obverse (DDO) 1935-D 1936-D 1937 – with Doubled Die Obverse (DDO) 1937-S 1938-S 1939-S 1940-D 1942-D – with Doubled Die Obverse (DDO) 1943 – with Doubled Die Obverse (DDO) 1943-S – with Doubled Die Obverse (DDO) 1950-D/S Over mintmark (coin is a 1950-D, with underlying S mintmark) 1950-S/D Over mintmark (coin is a 1950-S, with underlying D mintmark) The 1940-D, 1936-D and the 1935-D coins, as well as many others in the series, are considerably more valuable than other quarters. This is not due to their mintages, but rather because they are harder to find in high grades (a situation referred to as "condition rarity"). Many of these coins are worth only melt value in low grades. Other coins in the above list are expensive because of their extremely low mintages, such as the 1932 Denver and San Francisco issues. The overstruck mintmark issues are also scarce and expensive, especially in the higher grades; even so they may not have the same popularity as overdates found in pre-Washington quarter series. The 1934 Philadelphia strike appears in two versions: one with a light motto [for "In God We Trust"], which is the same as that used on the 1932 strikings, and the other a heavy motto seen after the dies were reworked. Except in the highest grades, the difference in value between the two is minor. The mint mark on the coin is located on the reverse beneath the wreath on which the eagle is perched, and will either carry the mint mark "D" for the Denver Mint, "S" for the San Francisco Mint, or be blank if minted at the Philadelphia Mint. Collecting clad Washington quarters The copper-nickel clad Washington quarter was first issued in 1965 and as part of the switch, the Denver mintmark was added in 1968, which did not reappear on any US coin denomination until 1968. For the first three years of clad production, in lieu of proof sets, specimen sets were specially sold as "Special Mint Sets" minted at the San Francisco mint in 1965, 1966, and 1967 (Deep Cameo versions of these coins are highly valued because of their rarity). Currently, there are few examples in the clad series that are valued as highly as the silver series but there are certain extraordinary dates or variations. The deep cameo versions of proofs from 1965 to 1971 and 1981 Type 2 are highly valued because of their scarcity, high grade examples of quarters from certain years of the 1980s (such as 1981–1987) because of scarcity in high grades due to high circulation and in 1982 and 1983 no mint sets were produced making it harder to find mint state examples, and any coin from 1981 to 1994 graded in MS67 is worth upwards of $1000. The mint mark on the coin is currently located on the obverse at the bottom right hemisphere under the supposed date. In 1965–1967 cupro-nickel coins bore no mint mark; quarters minted in 1968–1979 were stamped with a "D" for the Denver mint, an "S" for the San Francisco mint (proof coins only), or blank for Philadelphia. Starting in 1980, the Philadelphia mint was allowed to add its mint mark to all coins except the one-cent piece. Twenty-five-cent pieces minted from 1980 onwards are stamped with "P" for the Philadelphia mint, "D" for the Denver mint, or "S" for San Francisco mint. Until 2012 the "S" mint mark was used only on proof coins, but beginning with the El Yunque (Puerto Rico) design in the America the Beautiful quarters program, the US Mint began selling (at a premium) uncirculated 40-coin rolls and 100-coin bags of quarters with the San Francisco mint mark. These coins were not included in the 2012 or later uncirculated sets or the three-coin ATB quarter sets (which consisted of an uncirculated "P" and "D" and proof "S" specimen) and no "S" mint-marked quarters are being released into circulation, so that mintages will be determined solely by direct demand for the "S" mint-marked coins. In 2019, the West Point Mint released two million of each of the five designs that year with a "W" mint mark for general circulation, in a move intended to spur coin collecting. This was continued in 2020, which turned out to be the final year of the "W" mint marked quarters as no quarters with the mint mark have been produced since. See also 50 State quarters (1999–2008) America the Beautiful quarters (2010–2021) America the Beautiful silver bullion coins, 5 troy ounce silver bullion coins based on America the Beautiful quarters DC and US Territories quarters (2009) Quarter (Canadian coin) United States Mint coin production United States Bicentennial coinage (1975–1976) United States quarter mintage figures Washington quarter References External links Official specifications Archived November 11, 2009, at the Wayback Machine http://www.usmint.gov/faqs/circulating_coins/index.cfm?action=faq_circulating_coin Archived May 30, 2014, at the Wayback Machine https://web.archive.org/web/20040813033020/http://acoin.com/regularissue/regular25c.htm US Quarters by year and type. Histories, photos, and more. Extensive quarter coin knowledge Coin specifications for all quarter coins

The half dollar, sometimes referred to as the half for short or 50-cent piece, is a United States coin worth 50 cents, or one half of a dollar. In both size and weight, it is the largest circulating coin currently minted in the United States, being 1.205 inches (30.61 millimeters) in diameter and 0.085 in (2.16 mm) in thickness, and is twice the weight of the quarter. The coin's design has undergone a number of changes throughout its history. Since 1964, the half dollar depicts the profile of President John F. Kennedy on the obverse and the seal of the president of the United States on the reverse. Although seldom used today, half-dollar coins were once common in circulation and saw regular use alongside other denominations of US coinage, but have become uncommon in general circulation for several reasons. Half-dollars were produced in fairly large quantities until the year 2002, when the U.S. Mint reduced production of the coin and ceased minting them for regular circulation. As a result of its decreasing usage, many pre-2002 half dollars remain in Federal Reserve vaults, prompting the change in production. Presently, collector half dollars can be ordered directly from the U.S. Mint, and circulated half dollars minted from 1971-2001 are generally available at most American banks and credit unions. Beginning In 2021, half dollars were again produced for general circulation. Circulation Half-dollar coins saw heavy circulation until the mid 1960s. For many years, they were (and in many areas still are) commonly used by gamblers at casinos and other venues with slot machines. Rolls of half dollars may still be kept on hand in cardrooms for games requiring 50-cent antes or bring-in bets, for dealers to pay winning naturals in blackjack, or where the house collects a rake in increments. Additionally, some concession vendors at sporting events distribute half-dollar coins as change for convenience. By the early 1960s, the rising price of silver neared the point where the bullion value of U.S. silver coins would exceed face value. In 1965, the U.S. introduced layered-composition coins made of a pure copper core sandwiched between two cupronickel outer faces. The silver content of dimes and quarters was eliminated, but the Kennedy half-dollar, introduced in 1964, contained silver (reduced from 90% in 1964 to 40% from 1965 to 1970). Even with its reduced silver content, the half dollar attracted widespread interest from speculators and coin collectors, which led to extensive hoarding of half dollars dated 1970 and earlier. In 1971, the composition of the half was changed to match that of the clad dimes and quarters, and with an increase in production, the coin saw a moderate increase in usage; however, by this time many businesses and the public had begun to lose interest in the half dollar and gradually, its usage began to wane. By the end of the 1970s, the half dollar had become uncommon in circulation. Merchants stopped ordering half dollars from their banks, and many banks stopped ordering half dollars from the Federal Reserve, and the U.S. mints sharply reduced production of the coins. From 2001-2020, half dollars were minted only for collectors, due to large Federal Reserve and government inventories of pre-2001 coins; this was primarily due to a lack of demand and large quantity returns of halves from casinos that switched to using "coin-less" slot machines. Eventually, the reserve supply of halves began to run low and in 2021, the mint resumed production of half dollars for general circulation. Modern-date half dollars can be purchased in proof sets, mint sets, rolls, and bags from the U.S. Mint, and existing inventory circulation pieces can be obtained or ordered through most U.S. banks and credit unions. All collector issues since 2001 have had much lower mintages than in previous years. Although intended only for collectors, 2001-2020 half dollars can often be found in circulation. Aspects of early history On December 1, 1794, the first half dollars, approximately 5,300 pieces, were delivered. Another 18,000 were produced in January 1795 using dies of 1794, to save the expense of making new ones. Another 30,000 pieces were struck by the end of 1801. The coin had the Heraldic Eagle, based on the Great Seal of the United States on the reverse. 150,000 were minted in 1804 but struck with dies from 1803, so no 1804 specimens exist, though there were some pieces dated 1805 that carried a "5 over 4" overdate. In 1838, half-dollar dies were produced in the Philadelphia Mint for the newly established New Orleans Mint, and ten test samples of the 1838 half dollars were made at the main Philadelphia mint. These samples were put into the mint safe along with other rarities like the 1804 silver dollar. The dies were then shipped to New Orleans for the regular production of 1838 half dollars. However, New Orleans production of the half dollars was delayed due to the priority of producing half dimes and dimes. The large press for half-dollar production was not used in New Orleans until January 1839 to produce 1838 half dollars, but the reverse die could not be properly secured, and only ten samples were produced before the dies failed. Rufus Tyler, chief coiner of the New Orleans mint, wrote to Mint Director Patterson of the problem on February 25, 1839. The Orleans mint samples all had a double stamped reverse as a result of this production problem and they also showed dramatic signs of die rust, neither of which are present on the Philadelphia produced test samples. While eight Philadelphia minted samples survive to this day, there is only one known New Orleans minted specimen with the tell-tale double stamped reverse and die rust. This is the famous coin that Rufus Tyler presented to Alexander Dallas Bache (great grandson of Benjamin Franklin) in the summer of 1839 and was later purchased in June 1894 by A. G. Heaton, the father of mint mark coin collecting. The 1838 Philadelphia-produced half dollars are extremely rare, with two separate specimens having sold for $632,500 in Heritage auctions in 2005 and 2008 respectively. The sole surviving Orleans minted 1838 is one of the rarest of all American coins. In 1840, this mint produced nearly 180,000 half dollars. In 1861, the New Orleans mint produced coins for three different governments. A total of 330,000 were struck under the United States government, 1,240,000 for the State of Louisiana after it seceded from the Union, and 962,633 after it joined the Confederacy. Since the same die was used for all strikings, the output looks identical. However the Confederate States of America actually minted four half dollars with a CSA (rather than USA) reverse and the obverse die they used had a small die crack. Thus "regular" 1861 half dollars with this crack probably were used by the Confederates for some of the mass striking. There are two varieties of Kennedy half dollars in the proof set issues of 1964. Initially, the die was used with accented hair, showing deeper lines than the president's widow, Jacqueline Kennedy, preferred. New dies were prepared to smooth out some of the details. It is estimated that about 1 to 3% (40,000 to 100,000) of the proof halves are of the earlier type, making them somewhat more expensive for collectors. List of designs List of early commemorative issues See also United States Mint coin production 1814 platinum half dollar == References ==

The dollar coin is a United States coin with a face value of one United States dollar. Dollar coins have been minted in the United States in gold, silver, and base metal versions. Dollar coins were first minted in the United States in 1794. While true gold dollars are no longer minted, the Sacagawea, Presidential, and American Innovation dollars are sometimes referred to as golden dollars because of their color. As with several other denominations of U.S. coinage, golden dollars are similar in diameter and color to their Canadian counterpart (known as the "loonie", which predates the Sacagawea dollar by thirteen years). However, unlike the 11-sided Canadian dollar coins, U.S. "golden dollar" coins are round. Dollar coins have never been popular in circulation since their inception. Despite efforts by the U.S. government to promote their use to save the cost of printing one dollar bills, the Anthony Dollar, the Sacagawea Dollar and the Presidential Dollar Series are all seldom seen in circulation, since most Americans prefer to use the dollar bill. For this reason, since December 11, 2011, the Mint has not produced dollar coins for general circulation, and all dollar coins produced after that date have been specifically for collectors. These collector coins can be ordered directly from the Mint, while pre-2012 circulation dollars can be obtained from most U.S. banks. Popularity One-dollar coins, both in silver and base-metal forms, have never been popular in circulation from the 19th century to the present, despite several attempts to increase their usage since the 1970s, for various reasons: From 1792 to 1803 the $1 coin compared favorably with the Spanish dollar and was accepted at par for overseas purchases. Its coinage was suspended in 1803 since it did not remain long in domestic circulation. During the 1850s California gold rush the silver dollar of 371.25 grains (24.057 g) was internationally worth more than the gold dollar of 23.22 grains (1.505 g) and was therefore exported (see Gresham's law). Likewise, the gold dollar of 1849–1889 was a tiny coin measuring only 13–15 millimetres (0.51–0.59 in) in diameter, making it difficult to grasp and easy to lose, a serious problem when one dollar was about a day's wage. While substantial numbers of silver Morgan dollars were minted from 1878 pursuant to the Bland-Allison Act, there also existed an option to hold silver certificates fully backed by silver dollars kept in reserves. The majority of citizens, therefore, opted to use silver certificates while most silver dollars languished inside treasury and bank vaults. Succeeding base-metal $1 coins minted from 1971 onwards did not circulate widely as well, the most important reason being the continued circulation of the $1 bill. The copper-nickel clad Eisenhower dollar minted from 1971 to 1978 was not popular due to its large size relative to its gradually diminishing value; The smaller-sized Susan B. Anthony dollar coin minted from 1979 to 1981 and again in 1999, was highly unpopular because they were often mistaken for quarters, due to their nearly equal size, color and reeded edge; Sacagawea dollars and Presidential dollar coins have been issued since 2000. These coins have a distinct weight, gold color, and smooth edge. Despite these remedies, golden dollars continue to circulate poorly since the $1 bill continues to be produced. The non-acceptance of $1 coins in the United States contrasts with the practice in most other developed countries where denominations of similar value exist only in coins; for example, the lowest-value pound sterling, euro and Japanese yen notes are the £5 note, €5 note and 1000 yen note respectively; each is worth more than US$5. These high-value coins (such as the €2 coin, Canadian "toonie" or 5 Swiss francs) have largely succeeded because of the removal (or lack) of their corresponding paper issues, whereas the U.S. government has taken no action to remove the $1 bill. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has stated that discontinuing the dollar bill in favor of the dollar coin would save the U.S. government approximately $5.5 billion over thirty years primarily through seigniorage. The Federal Reserve has refused to order the coin from the mint for distribution citing a lack of demand, according to ex-Mint director Philip Diehl in November 2012. Whatever the reason, a U.S. Mint official claimed in a November 2012 meeting that most of the 2.4 billion dollar coins minted in the previous five years were not in circulation. In 2019, the GAO re-estimated the cost of replacing the $1 bill and found for the first time that it would cause the government to lose between $611 million and $2.6 billion because physical money was being used less, resulting in dollar bills remaining in circulation longer compared to the 2011 analysis. Mint marks The list below is of all mint marks used on the dollar coin: C: Charlotte, North Carolina (gold coins only; 1838–1861). CC: Carson City, Nevada (1870–1893). D: Dahlonega, Georgia (gold coins only; 1838–1861). D: Denver, Colorado (1906 to date). O: New Orleans, Louisiana (1838–1861; 1879–1909). P: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (produced from 1793 to date, mint mark introduced in 1979). S: San Francisco, California (1854 to date). W: West Point, New York (1984 to date). History Early dollar coins Before the American Revolutionary War, coins from many European nations circulated freely in the American colonies, as did coinage issued by the various colonies. Chief among these were the Spanish silver dollar coins (also called pieces of eight or eight reales) minted in Mexico and other colonies with silver mined from North, Central and South American mines. These coins, along with others of similar size and value, were in use throughout the colonies, and later the United States, and were legal tender until 1857. In 1776, several thousand pewter Continental Currency coins were minted. Although unconfirmed, many numismatists believe these to have been pattern coins of a proposed silver dollar coin authorized by the Continental Congress to prop up the rapidly failing Continental Currency—the first attempt by the fledgling U.S. at paper currency. Several examples were also struck in brass and silver, but a circulating coin was not produced, in large part because of the financial difficulties of running the Revolutionary War. The Continental Currency dollar coin bears the date 1776, and while its true denomination is not known, it is generally the size of later dollars, and the name has stuck. The failure of the Continental Currency exacerbated a distrust of paper money among both politicians and the population at large. The letters of Thomas Jefferson indicate that he wished the United States to eschew paper money and instead mint coins of similar perceived value and worth to those foreign coins circulating at the time. The Coinage Act of 1792 authorized the production of dollar coins from silver. The United States Mint produced silver dollar coins from 1794 to 1803, then ceased regular production of silver dollars until 1836. The first silver dollars, precisely 1,758 of them, were coined on October 15, 1794, and were immediately delivered to Mint Director David Rittenhouse for distribution to dignitaries as souvenirs. Thereafter, until 1804, they were struck in varying quantities. There are two obverse designs: Flowing Hair (1794–1795) and Draped Bust (1795–1804). There are also two reverse designs used for the Draped Bust variety: small eagle (1795–1798) and heraldic eagle (1798–1804). Original silver dollars from this period are highly prized by coin collectors and are exceptionally valuable, and range from fairly common to incredibly rare. Because of the early practice of hand engraving each die, there are dozens of varieties known for all dates between 1795 and 1803. It is also one of only two denominations (the other being the cent) minted every year from its inception during the first decade of mint operation. Though a new Spanish dollar or 8-real minted after 1772 theoretically contained 417.7 grains of silver of fineness 130/144 (or 377.1 grains fine silver), reliable assays of the period confirmed a fine silver content of 370.95 grains (24.037 g) for the average Spanish dollar in circulation. The new US silver dollar of 371.25 grains (24.057 g) therefore compared favorably and was received at par with the Spanish dollar for foreign payments, and in 1803 President Thomas Jefferson halted new silver dollars made out of the US Mint's limited resources since it failed to stay in domestic circulation. The less-exportable half dollar therefore became the largest US-made silver coin in domestic use for the next several decades. It was only after Mexican independence in 1821 when their peso's fine silver content of 377.1 grains was firmly upheld, which the US later had to compete with using a heavier Trade dollar coin of 378.0 grains (24.49 g) fine silver. The 1804 dollar The 1804 dollar is one of the rarest and most famous coins in the world. Its creation was the result of a simple bookkeeping error, but its status as a highly prized rarity has been established for nearly a century and a half. The silver dollars reported by the mint as being struck in 1804 were dated 1803. (With die steel being very expensive in the early 19th century, dies were used until they were no longer in working condition. This is why many early U.S. coins exhibit various kinds of die cracks, occlusions, cuds, clash marks, and other late-state die wear. Nearly every coin the U.S. struck from 1793 to 1825 has an example that was struck in a year other than that which it bears.) No dollars bearing the date 1804 were ever struck in 1804, though this was unknown to mint officials at the time the 1804 dollar came to be. The 1804 silver dollar was actually produced in 1834, when the U.S. Department of State decided to produce a set of U.S. coins to be used as gifts to rulers in Asia in exchange for trade advantages. Since 1804 was the last recorded year of mintage for both the dollar and $10 Eagle, it was decided that the set would contain examples of those coins dated 1804, as well as the other denominations currently being produced. Mint officials, not realizing that the 19,000+ dollars recorded as being produced in 1804 were all dated 1803, proceeded to make new dies bearing the date 1804. Only 15 silver dollars with the date of 1804 are known to exist; in 1999, one of them sold at auction for more than $4 million. There are 8 Class I dollars, struck in 1834 for the aforementioned sets, 1 Class II dollar, struck over an 1857 Swiss Shooting Thaler (and now residing in the U.S. Coin Collection at the Smithsonian Institution), and 6 Class III dollars, struck surreptitiously sometime between 1858 and 1860 to meet collector demand for the coin. Seated Liberty dollar (1836–1873) Seated Liberty dollars were introduced in 1836 and were minted in lesser quantities than the sparsely minted Gobrecht dollar that preceded it. The dollars were used in general circulation until 1873. The production of large numbers of U.S. gold coins (The first $1 and $20 gold coins were minted in 1849) from the new California mines lowered the price of gold, thereby increasing the value of silver. By 1853, the value of a U.S. silver dollar contained in gold terms, $1.04 of silver, equal to $38.09 today. With the Mint Act of 1853, all U.S. silver coins, except for the U.S. silver dollar and new 3-cent coin, were reduced by 6.9% as of weight with arrows on the date to denote reduction. The U.S. silver dollar continued to be minted in very small numbers mainly as a foreign trade coin with the Orient. The international trading partners did not like the fact that U.S. coins were reduced in weight. The use of much more common half dollars became problematic since merchants would have to separate higher value pre-1853 coins from the newer reduced ones. From 1853 onward, trade with Asia was typically done with Mexican coins that kept their weight and purity in the 19th century. This ended in 1874 when the price of silver dropped so that a silver dollar had less than $1.00 worth of silver in it (because of huge amounts of silver coming from the Nevada Comstock Lode mines). By 1876, all silver coins were being used as money and by 1878, gold was at par with all U.S. paper dollars. Beginning in 1878, huge amounts of the Morgan silver dollars were produced but few were used as money. The size was too large to carry on business so Silver Certificates were used instead. The mint made the coins, placed them in their vaults, and issued the Silver Certificates instead. This is the reason so many Morgan and Peace dollars can be purchased in AU or UNC condition (near perfect) since they sat in bank or U.S. Treasury vaults most of the time. Each Seated Liberty dollar is composed of 0.77344 troy oz of silver. They were minted at Philadelphia, New Orleans, Carson City, and San Francisco. A silver dollar would be worth $1 in silver if the price of silver is $1.29 per troy ounce. The current silver price (January 29, 2021) is $27.03 per troy ounce so a silver dollar is worth, in melt value of about US$20.90. Gold dollar coins (1849–1889) The gold dollar was produced from 1849 to 1889. 1849 to 1853 gold dollar coins were 13 mm across and are called Type I. Type II gold dollars were thinner but larger at 15 mm diameter and were produced from 1854 to 1855. The most common gold dollar is the Type III, struck from 1856 until 1889. Production of US$1 gold dollars was high until the Civil War and by 1863, only the larger value gold coins were produced in large quantities. Most gold coins produced from 1863 and onward were produced for imports to pay for enormous amounts of war material and interest on some U.S. Government bonds. Many of these coins from the Civil War and after (silver coins included) are in excellent condition since they saw very limited circulation with greenbacks and postage currency taking their place. Composed of 90% pure gold, it was the smallest denomination of gold currency ever produced by the United States federal government. When the U.S. system of coinage was originally designed there had been no plans for a gold dollar coin, but in the late 1840s, two gold rushes later, Congress was looking to expand the use of gold in the country's currency. The gold dollar was authorized by the Act of March 3, 1849, and the Liberty Head type began circulating soon afterward. Because of the high value of gold, the gold dollar is the smallest coin in the history of U.S. coinage. Trade dollar (1873–1885) The trade dollar was produced in response to other Western powers, such as Great Britain, Spain, France, and particularly Mexico, to compete with these trade coins for use in trade in Asia. While the previous Spanish dollar of 370.95 grains (24.037 g) contained less fine silver than the standard dollar coin of 371.25 grains (24.057 g), Mexican pesos minted after Mexican independence contained a full 377.1 grains (24.44 g) of fine silver. The American trade dollar therefore had to contain more silver, at 420 grains of 90% fine silver, fine content 378.0 grains (24.49 g), or 0.44 g more fine silver than the regular circulation Seated Liberty Dollars and Morgan Dollars. Most trade dollars ended up in China during their first two years of production, where they were very successful. Many of them exhibit holes or chopmarks which are counterstamps from Asian merchants to verify the authenticity of the coins. Many trade coins of the western powers and large silver coins from China, Korea, and Japan also bear these chopmarks. While most chopmarked coins are generally worth less than those without, some of the more fascinating chopmarks can give the coin a modest premium. Trade dollars did not circulate in the United States initially, but were legal tender for up to $5. Things changed, however, in 1876, when the price of silver spiraled downward as western producers dumped silver on the market, making the trade dollar worth more at face value than its silver content. That resulted in trade dollars pouring back into the United States, as they were bought for as little as the equivalent of 80 US cents in Asia, and were then spent at $1 in the United States. This prompted Congress to revoke their legal tender status, and restrict their coinage to exportation demand only. However, this did not stop unscrupulous persons from buying trade dollars at bullion value, and using them for payment as $1 to unsuspecting workers and merchants. Production of the trade dollar was officially discontinued for business strikes in 1878, and thereafter from 1879 to 1885, produced only as proof examples of the coin. The issues of 1884 and 1885 were produced surreptitiously and were unknown to the collecting public until 1908. In February 1887, all non-mutilated, non-chopmarked outstanding trade dollars were made redeemable to the United States Treasury for $1, and approximately 8 million of them were turned in. Morgan dollar (1878–1904, 1921, 2021-present) Morgan silver dollars, all composed of 90% silver and 10% copper (slightly less silver than sterling silver, 92.5%) containing 26.73 g (0.859 ozt) of pure silver, were struck between 1878 and 1904, with a minting in 1921 and a commemorative minting in 2021. The 1921-dated coins are the most common, and there exists a substantial collector market for pristine, uncirculated specimens of the rarer dates and mint marks. Morgan dollars are second only to Lincoln Cents in collector popularity. The coin is named after George T. Morgan, its designer. Morgan dollars were minted at Philadelphia (no mint mark), New Orleans ("O" mint mark), San Francisco ("S" mint mark), Carson City ("CC" mint mark), and (in 1921 only) Denver ("D" mint mark). The mint mark is found on the reverse below the wreath, above the "O" in "DOLLAR". Production of the Morgan Dollar began again in 2021 and US Mint officials announced an intention to continue producing them in 2023 and beyond. Peace dollar (1921–1928, 1934–1935, 2021-present) Introduced in December 1921 and having the same ratio of silver-to-copper as the Morgan dollar, the Peace dollar, designed by medalist Anthony de Francisci, was promulgated to commemorate the signing of formal peace treaties between the Allied forces and Germany and Austria. These treaties officially ended the Allies' World War I hostilities with these two countries. In 1922 the Mint made silver dollar production its top priority, causing other denominations to be produced sparingly if at all that year. Production ceased temporarily after 1928; original plans called for only a one-year suspension, but this was extended by the Great Depression. Mintage resumed in 1934, but for only two years. In May 1965, 316,000+ Peace dollars were minted, all at the Denver Mint and dated 1964-D; however, plans for completing this coinage were abandoned, and most of those already minted were melted, with two known trial strike specimens being preserved (for assay purposes) until 1970, when they too were melted, and none released either for circulation or collection purposes. It is rumored that one or more pieces still exist, most notably any examples obtained by key members of Congress, the president, or mint officials. However, this coin, much like the 1933 $20 gold double eagle (aside from the "exception", sold in 2002 for over $7 million and the 10 found later), is illegal to own and would be subject to confiscation. Minting of the Peace Dollar began again in 2021. US Mint officials have announced an intention to continue minting Peace Dollars in 2023 and beyond. Release of dollars by the U.S. Treasury: the GSA sale Because of the size and weight of the dollar coins, they circulated minimally throughout their history, except in the West (especially at casinos in the early-to-mid-20th century, where they were commonly used both at the tables and at slot machines.) As a result, the coins were generally shipped to Washington and stored in the vaults of the U.S. Treasury; at times these stores numbered into the hundreds of millions. They were very popular as Christmas gifts, however, and from the 1930s to the early 1960s, many bags were annually released to banks nationwide to be distributed as presents. In November 1962, during this annual distribution, it was discovered that there were some rare and valuable dates, still sealed in their original mint bags, all in uncirculated condition, among the millions of dollar coins still in the Treasury vaults. Collectors/investors/dealers lined up to purchase them in $1,000 bags, trading silver certificates for the coins. Before this event, the great rarity of the Morgan series was 1903-O, which was by far the most expensive of the entire set. It was discovered that there were millions of this specific date and mint in the Treasury vaults; an estimated 84% of the entire mintage sat in these bags, untouched for 60 years, all in uncirculated condition. While still relatively expensive in circulated grades, uncirculated examples can be had for a modest amount over common dates. On March 25, 1964, Secretary of the Treasury C. Douglas Dillon announced that Silver Certificates would no longer be redeemable for silver dollars. Subsequently, another act of Congress dated June 24, 1967, provided that Silver Certificates could be exchanged for silver bullion for a period of one year, until June 24, 1968. Following this, the Treasury inventoried its remaining stock of dollar coins and found approximately 3,000 bags containing 3 million coins. Many of the remaining coins were Carson City mint dollars, which even then carried a premium. The coins were placed in special hard plastic holders and the General Services Administration (GSA) was given authorization to sell them to the public in a series of mail-bid sales. Five sales were conducted in 1973 and 1974, but sales were poor, and the results unspectacular. There was much complaining among the coin-buying public, many stating that the United States government should not be in the "coin business", especially considering that the government had spent little more than a dollar to mint and store each coin. After these sales, more than a million coins were still left unsold. These sat again until 1979–1980, where, amidst an extraordinarily volatile precious metals market (the attempt by the 3 Hunt brothers to corner the silver market), the remaining coins were sold under chaotic conditions. The GSA, having published minimum bids in November 1979, announced on January 2, 1980, that those minimum bids were no longer valid, and that prospective bidders would have to "call in" to a toll-free number to get current minimum bids. Then, on February 21, 13 days after the bidding process officially began, the maximum number of coins per bidder was changed from 500 to 35. Many bidders, under these confusing conditions, ended up with no coins at all. Complaints again flooded into Congress, but the damage had already been done, and the last silver dollars held by the United States Treasury were gone. Over the years, many of these GSA dollars have been broken out of their special holders for purposes of grading or otherwise, and now GSA dollars still in the unbroken original holders carry a small premium. Some third-party grading companies have begun to grade coins still in their GSA holders, as a means of preservation, though this is not without controversy. Eisenhower dollar (1971–1978) From 1971 to 1978, the U.S. Mint issued dollar coins with the obverse depicting President Dwight David Eisenhower and the reverse the insignia of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, both designed by Chief Engraver Frank Gasparro. The 1976 Bicentennial commemorative design, produced in 1975 and 1976, featured the Liberty Bell and the Moon on the reverse (designed by Dennis R. Williams) while retaining the Eisenhower obverse, and the dual dates 1776–1976. The Eisenhower dollars minted for general circulation contained no silver or gold but were instead composed of the same copper-nickel clad composition used for the dime, quarter, and half dollar. This made the circulation coins extremely resistant to wear and, like the smaller denominations, they still retain a good deal of shine even when subject to mass usage. From 1971 through 1976, the Mint also produced dollars composed of 40% silver aimed at the collector market. The 1971–1974 issues appeared in brown boxes or blue packages, depending on whether they were proof or uncirculated. Somewhat different Bicentennial sets were produced in the following two years. All issues remain very common. The coins were never very popular, primarily because of their large size and weight which made them inconvenient to carry, and the fact that very few vending machines were designed to accept them. They saw the greatest use in casinos, and one-dollar tokens in many United States casinos still approximate the size and weight of the coins. Prior to the withdrawal of the coins, which remain legal tender (and are sometimes available at banks by request), many casinos did not strike their own tokens, but instead used the Eisenhower dollar. Susan B. Anthony dollar (1979–1981; 1999) From 1979 to 1981, and again in 1999, the Mint produced Anthony Dollars depicting women's suffrage activist Susan B. Anthony (also designed by Frank Gasparro). Anthony thus became the first historical female person portrayed on circulating U.S. coinage. Many earlier circulating coins had featured images of women via allegorical figures such as Peace or Liberty; Spain's Queen Isabella appeared on the 1893 Columbian Exposition quarter dollar but the coin was not intended for general circulation. The Anthony dollars, like the Eisenhower dollars, were made from a copper-nickel clad. The 1981 coins were issued for collectors only but occasionally show up in circulation. The Anthony dollar, because of its color, size, and design, was often confused with the quarter. It was never popular and production was suspended after 1981. In 1999, it was struck again when Treasury reserves of the coin were low and the Sacagawea dollar was still a year away from production. While reserves of the coins were high, the coins were most often seen in vending machines, transit systems, and post offices. American Silver Eagle (1986–present) The American Silver Eagle is the official silver bullion coin of the United States. It was designed by Adolph A. Weinman and John Mercanti and it was first released by the United States Mint on November 24, 1986. It is struck only in the one troy ounce size, which has a nominal face value of one dollar and is guaranteed to contain one troy ounce of 99.9% pure silver. It is authorized by Title II of Public Law 99-61 (Liberty Coin Act, approved July 9, 1985) and codified as 31 U.S.C. § 5112(e)-(h). Its content, weight, and purity are certified by the United States Mint. In addition to the bullion version, the United States Mint has produced a proof version and an uncirculated version for coin collectors. The Silver Eagle has been produced at three mints: the Philadelphia Mint, the San Francisco Mint, and the West Point Mint. The American Silver Eagle bullion coin may be used to fund Individual Retirement Account investments. Sacagawea dollar (2000–present) The Sacagawea dollar was authorized by Congress in 1997 because the supply of Anthony dollars in inventory since their last mintage in 1981 was soon expected to be depleted. These coins have a copper core clad in manganese brass. Delays in increasing Sacagawea dollar production led to a final 1999-dated mintage of Susan B. Anthony dollars. Dollar coins are used infrequently in general commerce. They used to be given as change by United States Postal Service (USPS) stamp vending machines, which created a relatively small but significant demand, but the USPS eliminated all those machines by 2011. They were also used in certain subway and public transit systems, such as the Boston subway and New York City Subway ticketing machines. In 1998, the U.S. Mint conducted a limited design competition for the new dollar, inviting 23 artists to submit designs portraying Sacagawea on the obverse ("heads") side and an American bald eagle on the reverse ("tails") side. In November 1998, an exhibit of 123 submitted designs was held at the Casa Italiana Hall in Washington, D.C., to solicit public and private comment. Design concepts were submitted in the form of drawings, renderings, sculpture, and die-struck prototypes. The obverse was designed by artist Glenna Goodacre. Since no verifiable image of Sacagawea exists, Goodacre used Randy'L He-dow Teton, a University of New Mexico college student and a Shoshone Indian, as a model for the coin. There are approximately 1 billion Sacagawea coins in circulation and about 250 million in reserve. The U.S. Mint greatly reduced production of Sacagawea dollars after the 2001 minting, citing sufficient inventory. From 2002 to 2008, the Sacagawea dollar was still minted for collectors and was available in uncirculated rolls, mint sets, and proof sets, but it was not released for general circulation again until the introduction of the Native American series in 2009. The Mint took great care to create the coin with the same size, weight, and electromagnetic properties as the Anthony dollar, but with a golden color. Unlike most other coins in circulation, the selected alloy has a tendency to tarnish quite severely in circulation, as is the case with most brasses, resulting in a loss of the golden shine, except on raised areas where the "patina" is more frequently rubbed off. While some consider the blackening an undesirable quality, the Mint suggests the uneven tarnishing effect gives the coins an "antique finish" that "accentuate[s] the profile and add[s] a dimension of depth to the depiction of Sacagawea and her child". The coin featured a plain edge through 2008, but starting in 2009, incused lettering was applied. The year and mint mark moved from the coin's obverse (front) to its edge. As of 2022, dollar coins are not widely encountered in U.S. commerce, except in vending machines for rides on mass transit, some pay and display machines, some laundromats, and old-fashioned slot machines. On the other hand, the Sacagawea dollar has achieved popularity in El Salvador, Ecuador, and Panama, where the U.S. dollar is also the official currency. Native American series With the passage of the Native American $1 Coin Act on September 20, 2007, the U.S. Mint began designing a series of Sacagawea dollars with modified reverses to further commemorate "Native Americans and the important contributions made by Indian tribes and individual Native Americans to the development of the United States and the history of the United States". Four designs were to be minted, each for one year from 2009 to 2012. The first Native American series coin was released in January 2009 and had a reverse that depicted a Native American woman sowing seeds of the Three Sisters, symbolizing the Indian tribes' contributions to agriculture. Like the Presidential Dollar, the year of issue, mint mark, and motto E Pluribus Unum are found on the edge of the coin instead of on the obverse or reverse, which allows for more room for the design. Unlike the Presidential $1 coins from before 2009, "In God We Trust" remains on the obverse and the vacant space on the edge lettering has been taken up by thirteen stars, symbolizing the Thirteen Colonies. Also, unlike any other denomination of circulating U.S. coinage (but in common with the Presidential $1 coins), the value is inscribed in numerals on the reverse. The act passed by Congress requires that 20% of the total dollar coins minted in any year during the Presidential $1 Coin Program be Sacagawea dollars bearing the new design. In January 2010, the second reverse design in the series was released which has the theme of "Government" and the "Great Tree of Peace". The 2010 Sacagawea reverse depicts the Hiawatha Belt and five arrows bound together representing unity with the inscription "Haudenosaunee", a synonym for the Iroquois Confederacy meaning "People of the Longhouse". Another inscription is found along the lower edge of the reverse spelling "Great Law of Peace" (an English translation of Gayanashagowa, the Iroquois Confederacy constitution). The Great Law of Peace was used as a model for the Constitution of the United States. The four links on the belt are meant to symbolize four of the five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, namely the Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga and Seneca Nations. The Eastern White Pine tree in the middle of the belt represents the fifth Nation, the Onondaga, and is a depiction of the Tree of Peace. Presidential Dollar Coins (2007–2016; 2020) In December 2005, Congress decided to create a new series of $1 coins that would honor the former U.S. presidents. In 2007, Presidential coins of four different designs were produced. Another four designs will be produced each year, honoring the presidents in order of service. (Grover Cleveland is on two coins since he served two non-consecutive terms.) The Presidential $1 Coin Act is intended to create renewed interest in dollar coins, like that seen during the 50 State Quarters program. At least one-third of all dollar coins produced are still Sacagawea coins, with the remaining coins making up the four presidential coins produced annually. Under federal law (31 U.S.C. § 5112), no coins may be issued featuring a living president, or a president who died less than two years earlier. The presidential dollar coin is the same size and composition as the Sacagawea dollar. "In God We Trust", the issue year, and the mint mark appear on the edge. The first dollar, honoring George Washington, was released into circulation on February 15, 2007. However, H.R. 2764 became law on December 26, 2007, which moved "In God We Trust" from the edge to the obverse. A common minting error on this coin, estimated at 80,000, from a mintage of 300,000,000 coins, is the omission of the edge lettering causing a plain outside edge. Because the omission includes the words "In God We Trust", some in the popular media have dubbed it the "godless" coin. A false (although at one time widely reported) error is the report that the edge lettering is upside down. The edge lettering does not occur at the same time as the minting of the coins, allowing for the natural occurrence of the lettering in either orientation, except Proof Coins where the date and lettering are all "right-side-up". Because of budget constraints and increasing stockpiles of these relatively unpopular coins, the production of new presidential dollar coins for circulation was suspended on December 11, 2011, by U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner. Further minting of these coins was reserved solely for collectors. American Innovation Dollar Coins (2018–2032) On July 20, 2018, then-President Donald Trump signed the American Innovation $1 Coin Act into law. The program calls for the release of four new coins each year from 2019 through 2032 "to honor innovation and innovators by issuing $1 coins for each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the five U.S. territories – Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands". An introductory coin, commemorating George Washington signing the country's first patent into law, was released in December 2018. The coins are currently only being minted for collectors. Designs See also Modern United States commemorative coins United States $1 Coin Act of 1997 United States Mint coin production References Further reading The Comprehensive U. S. Silver Dollar Encyclopedia by John W. Highfill, ISBN 0-9629900-0-0 Comprehensive Catalog and Encyclopedia of Morgan and Peace Dollars, ISBN 978-0-9660168-2-6 Financial Impact of Issuing the New $1 Coin Archived June 9, 2019, at the Wayback Machine, GAO/GGD-00-111R, April 7, 2000. New coin unlikely change?, Steve Cranford, Charlotte Business Journal, July 21, 2000. Elizabeth White (December 14, 2005). "New coins will depict dead former presidents". The Boston Globe. Retrieved March 13, 2009. Barbara Hagenbaugh (December 15, 2005). "Dollar coin series will feature presidents". USA Today. Retrieved March 13, 2009. External links Exhibition: Legendary Coins & Currency (National Museum of American History) Archived June 10, 2007, at the Wayback Machine United States Mint

The president of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States, indirectly elected to a four-year term via the Electoral College. The officeholder leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces. Since the office was established in 1789, 45 men have served in 46 presidencies. The first president, George Washington, won a unanimous vote of the Electoral College. Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms and is therefore counted as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, giving rise to the discrepancy between the number of presidencies and the number of individuals who have served as president. The presidency of William Henry Harrison, who died 31 days after taking office in 1841, was the shortest in American history. Franklin D. Roosevelt served the longest, over twelve years, before dying early in his fourth term in 1945. He is the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms. Since the ratification of the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1951, no person may be elected president more than twice, and no one who has served more than two years of a term to which someone else was elected may be elected more than once. Four presidents died in office of natural causes (William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Warren G. Harding, and Franklin D. Roosevelt), four were assassinated (Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy), and one resigned (Richard Nixon, facing impeachment and removal from office). John Tyler was the first vice president to assume the presidency during a presidential term, and set the precedent that a vice president who does so becomes the fully functioning president with their own administration. Throughout most of its history, American politics has been dominated by political parties. The Constitution is silent on the issue of political parties, and at the time it came into force in 1789, no organized parties existed. Soon after the 1st Congress convened, political factions began rallying around dominant Washington administration officials, such as Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. Concerned about the capacity of political parties to destroy the fragile unity holding the nation together, Washington remained unaffiliated with any political faction or party throughout his eight-year presidency. He was, and remains, the only U.S. president never affiliated with a political party. The incumbent president is Joe Biden, who assumed office on January 20, 2021. Presidents See also Acting President of the United States Founding Fathers of the United States List of vice presidents of the United States President of the Continental Congress Notes References Works cited External links Media related to President of the United States at Wikimedia Commons Quotations related to List of presidents of the United States at Wikiquote

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands' developer released a game 10 years prior to Tiny Tina's Wonderlands' release, this game was released on PC and Consoles. What is the name of the central antagonist of that game?

Handsome Jack.

Numerical reasoning | Tabular reasoning | Multiple constraints | Temporal reasoning

Gearbox Software, L.L.C is an American video game development company based in Frisco, Texas. It was established as a limited liability company in February 1999 by five developers formerly of Rebel Boat Rocker. Randy Pitchford, one of the founders, serves as president and chief executive officer. Gearbox initially created expansions for the Valve game Half-Life, then ported that game and others to console platforms. In 2005, Gearbox launched its first independent set of games, Brothers in Arms, on console and mobile devices. It became their flagship franchise and spun off a comic book series, television documentary, books, and action figures. Their second original game series, Borderlands, commenced in 2009, and by 2015 had sold over 26 million copies. The company also owns the intellectual property of Duke Nukem and Homeworld. Gearbox expanded into publishing with the creation of Gearbox Publishing in 2015. A parent company, The Gearbox Entertainment Company, was established for Gearbox Software and Gearbox Publishing in 2019. Gearbox Entertainment was acquired by the Embracer Group in April 2021, becoming its seventh major label. A third division, Gearbox Studios, to focus on television and film productions, was established in October 2021. Due to major restructuring following a failed investment, Embracer announced plans to divest Gearbox to Take-Two Interactive, who had previously published several of Gearbox's games under its 2K label, in March 2024. Take-Two Interactive closed the Gearbox Software acquisition on June 12, 2024. History Formation and initial growth (1999–2008) Gearbox Software was founded on February 16, 1999, by Randy Pitchford, Brian Martel, Stephen Bahl, Landon Montgomery and Rob Heironimus, five developers formerly of Rebel Boat Rocker. Before Rebel Boat Rocker, Pitchford and Martel previously worked together at 3D Realms, and Montgomery previously worked at Bethesda Softworks. By 2000, the company employed 15 people. They started with developing expansions to Valve's Half-Life. Porting Half-Life to console platforms (each with new game content) followed, building the company's experience in console game-making, in addition to enhancing and building upon the successful Counter-Strike branch of the Half-Life franchise. Prior to Half-Life 2, they had developed or helped develop every Half-Life expansion game or port, including Opposing Force, Blue Shift, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, Half-Life for the Sony PlayStation 2 (including Half-Life: Decay), and Half-Life for the Sega Dreamcast (including Blue Shift). Branching out to other publishers, they pursued additional port work, each game being released with additional content, but this time from console to PC. These projects included their first non-first-person shooter, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, and Halo: Combat Evolved, forging new publisher relationships with Activision and Microsoft Game Studios respectively. Additional new development, in the form of a PC game in the James Bond franchise (James Bond 007: Nightfire) for Electronic Arts, also occurred during the company's initial 5-year period. In 2005, they launched an original property of their creation, Brothers in Arms, with the release of Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 on the Xbox, PC and PlayStation 2. Later that year a sequel, Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood, was launched. In 2008, Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway was released. 2007 brought announcements of new projects based on licensed film intellectual properties, including the crime drama Heat and the science-fiction classic Aliens. In the September 2007 issue of Game Informer, Pitchford stated that development on the Heat game had not yet begun, as the planned development partner for the project had gone under. This was followed by an announcement by Sega that they would be helming a new version of rhythm game Samba de Amigo for the Wii, a departure from their signature first-person shooter titles. Borderlands and studio expansion (2009–2015) Work on a new intellectual property, Borderlands, began around 2005 and was first announced in 2007. Pitchford likened the game as a combination of computer role-playing games such as Diablo and NetHack, and first-person shooters like Duke Nukem. Defining features of Borderlands was its outlined graphical style and its procedurally-generated loot system that was capable of generating millions of different guns and other gear items. Borderlands was released in October 2009, published by 2K, a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive. By August 2011, had sold over 4.5 million copies, making it a critical success for Gearbox and allowing them to expand the studio and budgets for subsequent games. Subsequently, Gearbox developed two additional games in the video game series, Borderlands 2 (2012) and Borderlands 3 (2019), as well as the spin-off title Tiny Tina's Wonderlands (2022), and the series has spawn additional games from other studios under 2K/Take-Two or through license, including Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel by 2K Australia, and Tales from the Borderlands from Telltale Games. Gearbox and Take-Two have also partnered with Lionsgate to develop a live-action Borderlands film, which was released on August 9, 2024. In July 2013, Gearbox announced plans to rerelease Homeworld and Homeworld 2 in high definition for modern PC platforms, in addition to making it available through digital distributors. In July 2014, Randy Pitchford formally contested the Aliens: Colonial Marines class action lawsuit stating the game had cost them millions of their own money and the advertising was solely the fault of the publisher. In December 2015, Gearbox opened a second development studio in Quebec City, Canada. The studio is run by Sebastien Caisse and former Activision art director Pierre-Andre Dery. The team consists of over 100 members and is contributing to the development of original AAA titles. Restructuring and acquisition by Embracer Group (2015–2024) Gearbox established Gearbox Publishing in 2015, first announced to the public in December 2016, as to publish third-party games, starting with the remastered version of Bulletstorm from People Can Fly. Pitchford said that they wanted to start expanding into other areas of capital growth beyond games that Gearbox was traditionally known for, and planned to use Gearbox Publishing as a starting point. Later, in May 2019, Gearbox established The Gearbox Entertainment Company, Inc. (Gearbox Entertainment) as a parent company for both Gearbox Software and Gearbox Publishing. Co-founder Landon Montgomery, who had left the company around 2007, died on March 25, 2020. In April 2021, Gearbox Entertainment was wholly acquired by the Embracer Group for precisely $363 million rising to $1,378 million should they reach specific operational targets. This addition would be the company's seventh major publishing group. Pitchford stated that while they were looking to raise capital from 2016, they came to meet with Embracer, and saw that their decentralized studio model would work well for Gearbox. 2K remained on Gearbox's board and continued to publish the Borderlands series. Gearbox Entertainment opened a second Canadian studio, Gearbox Studio Montreal, in August 2021, to support 250 new staff, bringing the total size of Gearbox to around 850 employees. Gearbox announced the formation of Gearbox Studios as a third company under the Gearbox Entertainment Company on October 6, 2021, to oversee television and film productions, with Pitchford serving as Gearbox Studios president alongside as president and CEO of the parent company. Former CTO Steve Jones was named as president of Gearbox Software in Pitchford's place. Embracer announced it intent to acquire Perfect World Entertainment in December 2021 and placing the group, including its publishing arm and Cryptic Studios, under the Gearbox Entertainment operating group. Following its acquisition in April 2022, Perfect World Entertainment was rebranded as Gearbox Publishing San Francisco, with the naming to be applied retroactively to past games published under Perfect World. In April 2022, Gearbox Entertainment announced it will acquire Lost Boys Interactive, which had supported Gearbox in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. Later that November, Gearbox acquired the Risk of Rain IP from Hopoo Games, while Embracer transferred ownership of Volition to Gearbox Entertainment from Deep Silver following poor reception to its Saint's Row reboot. The studio would later shut down the following year due to the restructuring of Embracer Group. That same month, Eidos Shanghai, another studio under the Embracer Group, was transferred to Gearbox Publishing San Francisco and rebranded as Gearbox Studio Shanghai. Gearbox Entertainment acquired Captured Dimensions, a 3D modeling company from Texas, in January 2023. Later in the month, Gearbox laid off a sizeable portion of the staff at Lost Boys Interactive. According to a Washington state WARN notice, 125 employees lost their jobs. Acquisition by Take-Two Interactive (2024–present) Take-Two Interactive announced its plans to acquire Gearbox Entertainment and its intellectual properties from Embracer Group for $460 million on March 28, 2024, to be added under the 2K label. The acquisition also includes Gearbox Software with its satellite studios and Gearbox Publishing. Embracer will retain Gearbox San Francisco, Gearbox Shanghai, Lost Boys Interactive, Captured Dimensions, and Cryptic Studios, along with publishing rights to Remnant, Hyper Light Breaker, and other unannounced titles. Less than a day after the announcement, it was reported that an unknown number of employees were laid off from Gearbox. On June 12, 2024, Take-Two Interactive closed the Gearbox Software transaction. Company structure As of August 2023, The Gearbox Entertainment Company, as an operating division of Embracer Group, manages four primary divisions of Gearbox: Gearbox Software which develops video games, Gearbox Studios which oversees other media productions based on Gearbox's properties, Gearbox Publishing which handles publishing of Gearbox and other third-party software and Gearbox Properties which manages the intellectual properties of the company. The Gearbox Entertainment Company formerly oversaw Perfect World Entertainment (rebranded as Gearbox Publishing San Francisco) and its subsidiaries, including Cryptic Studios, following approval of Embracer's acquisition of the company completed by February 2022. Cryptic Studios was later moved to DECA Games following a management restructuring. Gearbox San Francisco was retained by Embracer Group following its sale of Gearbox to Take-Two, where it subsequently became Arc Games. Gearbox Software has three additional studios in addition to their main studios in Frisco, Texas; Gearbox Studio Montreal, Gearbox Studio Québec, and Gearbox Studio Shanghai. The latter one is managed by Gearbox Publishing San Francisco. After the company was bought by Take-Two, many assets were retained by Embracer such as Lost Boys, Captured Dimensions and the San Francisco publishing division which was rebranded as Arc Games alongside several titles. The Gearbox Publishing division handled by Gearbox Software was later absorbed into 2K following Take-Two's buyout of Gearbox. The Gearbox Entertainment Company Gearbox Properties Gearbox Software Gearbox Studio Montréal Gearbox Studio Québec Gearbox Studios Games Half-Life Gearbox has developed a total of six games in the Half-Life series: the expansion packs Opposing Force and Blue Shift; ports of Half-Life for Dreamcast (which included Blue Shift) and Half-Life for PlayStation 2 (which included Half-Life: Decay); they also did a large amount of work on both the retail release of Counter-Strike and the main portion of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero. Brothers in Arms During their fourth year, Gearbox began working on their first independently owned game: Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30. Developed for PC and Microsoft's Xbox console, and built with the Unreal Engine 2, it was released in March 2005. The sequel, Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood, followed seven months later. The series was published by Ubisoft, who supported both games with PlayStation 2 versions, and later worked with them to develop Brothers in Arms games for portable systems (mobile phones, PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS) and the Wii home console. In 2005, Gearbox licensed the Unreal Engine 3 from Epic Games, to replace the Unreal Engine 2 technology used in previous games, and grew its internal development teams to handle the demands of next-generation technology and content. Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway was the first new title to be announced, continuing the company's flagship franchise. Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway was launched in September 2008. By 2008, the franchise also spun off a comic book series, a two-part television documentary, a line of action figures, and a novelization and non-fiction history book. Borderlands series After the completion of Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood, Gearbox began working on their second original game, Borderlands. Revealed in the September 2007 issue of Game Informer, Borderlands was described as "Mad Max meets Diablo", and its first-person shooter-meets-role-playing gameplay was revealed, along with screenshots of the early art style and the first three playable characters. The gaming press saw the game next at the European GamesCon in 2007, and again at GamesCon and E3 in 2008. In early 2009, it was revealed in PC Gamer magazine that they had changed the graphical style and added the fourth player character. Borderlands was released in 2009. Following the unexpected success of the first Borderlands, which sold between three and four-and-a-half million copies since release, creative director Mike Neumann stated that there was a chance of a Borderlands 2 being created, adding that the decision "seems like a no-brainer." On August 2, 2011, the game was confirmed and titled as Borderlands 2. The first look at the game was shown at Gamescom 2011, and an extensive preview was included in the September edition of Game Informer magazine, with Borderlands 2 being the cover story. Like the first game, Borderlands 2 was developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K Games, running on a heavily modified version of Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3. The game was released on September 18, 2012, in North America and was released on September 21, 2012, internationally. Duke Nukem series Duke Nukem Forever had been a project with a troubled development history at 3D Realms, who had created the Duke Nukem series, since sometime prior to 2000. Due to financial difficulties in 2009, 3D Realms was forced to downsize and ultimately lay off most of the development staff. Take-Two Interactive sued 3D Realms for failing to deliver Duke Nukem Forever. Pitchford, who had prior industry relations with many 3D Realms staff including George Broussard, learned that many of the 3D Realms team were still eager to develop Duke Nukem Forever, working out of their homes on what they could. Pitchford negotiated with Take-Two to bring many of the former 3D Realms staff into a new studio called Triptych Games, housed at Gearbox's headquarters, to continue working on Duke Nukem Forever following 3D Realms' closure in 2009. As a result, 3D Realms sold the rights to Duke Nukem and the existing work on Duke Nukem Forever to Gearbox around February 2010. Take-Two and Gearbox subsequently announced in September 2010 that Gearbox would finish production of Duke Nukem Forever. Duke Nukem Forever was released in June 2011, and received negative critical reception on release, with most of the criticism directed towards the unfinished, rushed state of the game. Despite the criticism, the game topped the charts on release and made a profit. 3D Realms had initially sued Gearbox in June 2013 for unpaid royalties over Duke Nukem Forever, but dropped the suit by September 2013, with 3D Realms' founder Scott Miller stating that it was a misunderstanding on their part. 3D Realms was eventually acquired in part by Interceptor Entertainment, and in 2014, Interceptor announced plans to make a new Duke Nukem game, Duke Nukem: Mass Destruction. Gearbox filed suit against 3D Realms and Interceptor based on the fact that Gearbox now owned the rights to the Duke Nukem franchise. The case was settled out of court in August 2015, with 3D Realms and Interceptor acknowledging that Gearbox has full rights to the Duke Nukem series. Following the settlement, Gearbox released Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary Edition World Tour in September 2016. The game included new levels developed in conjunction with some of the original developers, re-recorded lines by original Duke voice actor Jon St. John, and new music from original composer Lee Jackson. It was released on October 11, 2016. Aliens: Colonial Marines Aliens: Colonial Marines was a result of Gearbox's exploration into working on licensed film properties in 2007, and was developed under license from 20th Century Fox, who held the film rights, and Sega, who held the game publishing rights to the franchise. Aliens: Colonial Marines was planned as a first-person shooter, both single-player and multiplayer, with players as members of human squads facing the franchises titular xenomorphs in settings based on the films. Gearbox did initial development on the game, but as the studio started working on Borderlands and Duke Nukem Forever, they drew developers off Aliens though still collected full payments from Sega. Sega and 2K discovered the discrepancy on Gearbox's allocation of its staff on its projects, which lead to a round of layoffs in 2008. After Gearbox released Borderlands to critical acclaim in 2009, it began work on its sequel rather than re-allocating developers to Aliens. Instead, the studio outsourced the work to third parties, including Demiurge Studios, Nerve Software, and TimeGate Studios. By 2012, Gearbox took over full development of the game as it neared its planned release in February 2013, but due to the heavily outsourced process, the game's state was haphazard, forcing Gearbox to cancel a planned beta period and rush the game through the final stages of production, certification, and distribution. On release, the game suffered from performance issues even on target hardware specifications, and shipped with a software bug that hampered the artificial intelligence of the xenomorphs in the game, making the game far less challenging than promised; it was discovered in 2019 that this bug was result of a typographic error in a configuration file shipped with the game. The game's poor performance led Sega to cancel planned releases for the Wii U. A class action lawsuit filed in April 2013 by Roger Damion Perrine and John Locke alleged that Gearbox and Sega falsely advertised Aliens: Colonial Marines by showing demos at trade shows that did not accurately represent the final product. Sega and the plaintiffs reached a settlement in late 2014, wherein Sega agreed to pay $1.25 million to the class. The plaintiffs dropped Gearbox from the suit in May 2015. Battleborn Released in May 2016, Battleborn was a cooperative first-person shooter video game with multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) elements. Battleborn takes place in a space fantasy setting where multiple races contest possession of the universe's last star. Players select one of multiple pre-defined heroes, customized with passive abilities gained through end-of-mission loot, to complete both player-vs-player and player-vs-environment events. During such events, characters are leveled up through their "Helix tree", granting one of two abilities at each level. While Battleborn was well received by critics, it was released within a month of Blizzard Entertainment's Overwatch, a hero shooter with similar concepts, and which quickly overshadowed Battleborn. The title went free-to-play in June 2017 and was shut down in January 2021. Homeworld series After 10 years without any new releases to the series, Gearbox acquired the rights to the Homeworld series from THQ in 2013. Shortly after that the Homeworld Remastered Collection was released in 2015, containing updated High-Definition versions of Homeworld and Homeworld 2 compatible with modern Windows and Mac OS X systems. In September 2013, Gearbox announced a partnership with Blackbird Interactive and licensing the Homeworld-IP for their then-named Hardware: Shipbreakers game. This game later became Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak and was released on January 20, 2016 as a prequel to the original Homeworld game of 1999. On August 30, 2019, Gearbox announced Homeworld 3 which was developed by Blackbird Interactive. The game's development was at least partially funded through a crowdfunding campaign on the Fig platform, and was released May 13, 2024. Other media A Borderlands film was released by Gearbox and Lionsgate in 2024, with Eli Roth as director. In April 2020, Gearbox announced it was developing a television series based on its Brothers in Arms series. Technology In 2006, they partnered with Dell and Intel to provide development computer systems and technology for their studio. In June 2007, they purchased a Moven motion capture system that uses non-optical inertia technology, to augment their existing Vicon optical motion capture system becoming one of the few independent developers with two in-house motion capture capabilities. In February 2008, it was announced that they had licensed NaturalMotion's Morpheme software. List of video games Games developed Games published Gearbox Publishing Gearbox Publishing San Francisco References External links Official website

Borderlands 2 is a 2012 action role-playing first-person shooter video game developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K. Taking place five years following the events of Borderlands (2009), the game is again set on the planet of Pandora. The story follows a new group of Vault Hunters who must ally with the Crimson Raiders, a resistance group made up of civilian survivors and guerrilla fighters, to defeat the tyrannical Handsome Jack before he can unlock the power of a new Vault. The game features the ability to explore the in-game world and complete main missions and optional side quests, either in offline splitscreen, single-player or online cooperative gameplay. Like its predecessor, the game features a procedurally generated loot system which is capable of generating numerous combinations of weapons and other gear. With the unexpected success of the first game, Gearbox was able to secure a budget of $30–35 million to develop the sequel. Like its predecessor, the game adopted the "concept art style", which features graphics inspired by both photorealistic imagery and comic-book-inspired visuals. The team attempted to address players' feedback from the first game, and recruited Anthony Burch who wrote the game's script which is seven times longer than that of the original game. Among the game's diverse cast of characters, Handsome Jack, the central antagonist, was created to be a charismatic "douche" that mirrors Burch's own personality. Borderlands 2 was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in September 2012, and an updated port was released for Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One as part of Borderlands: The Handsome Collection in March 2015. A virtual reality version titled Borderlands 2 VR was released for PlayStation VR in December 2018 and Windows in October 2020. The game received universal acclaim upon release. Critics generally praised the game's visuals, writing, gameplay, and online multiplayer, as well as its variety of guns, while criticizing its mission design and content fillers. The handheld and the virtual reality versions of the game were regarded to be inferior to the console and PC versions. More than 20 million units were shipped upon release and the game became 2K's most successful release. It was nominated for multiple year-end awards by several gaming publications. Gearbox supported the game with four add-on campaigns, new characters and five content packs. The game was followed by Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel in October 2014, and Borderlands 3 in September 2019. Since its release, it has been cited as one of the greatest video games ever made. Gameplay Similar to its predecessor, Borderlands 2 is a first-person shooter with elements drawn from role-playing video games. Four playable character classes are available in the base game, each with their own unique Action Skill: Axton, "the Commando", can summon a turret to provide offensive support. Maya, "the Siren", can "phaselock" enemies by trapping them in a sphere of energy for a few seconds. Zer0, "the Assassin", can temporarily become invisible and spawn a hologram decoy to distract enemies. Salvador, "the Gunzerker", can use his titular ability to temporarily dual-wield weapons. Action Skills have a cooldown time during which the player must wait before they can use the skill again. Similarly to the original, completing the main story campaign unlocks "True Vault Hunter Mode", a New Game Plus which increases the difficulty of the game by making enemies stronger, improves the probability of finding rare and higher-quality items, and allows the player's character to reach level 50. Weapons can be bought from vendors, picked up from fallen enemies, and found inside containers. The game features six weapon types—pistols, submachine guns, assault rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, and rocket launchers—with a procedurally generated loot system capable of generating numerous variations of these and other gear. The in-game manufacturers of the weapons provide them with distinct characteristics. Each weapon also has different stats and properties, such as producing different damage and having varying accuracy, fire rate, reload speed, and magazine size. A color-coded scale is used to indicate the rarity of the weapon or item. Some weapons are infused with additional elemental effects that deal extra damage to enemies. In addition, players can collect mods which would alter the stats of grenades and Action Skill, and Relics, which are rare items that can change any gameplay aspect. Players need to manage their inventory regularly as they cannot equip all the weapons they have collected. The player is protected by a shield, which can automatically regenerate from damage. If the shield is destroyed, the player's health would start to deplete. Insta-Health vials can be picked up to restore health. If they lose all their health, they enter a downed state and must either wait to be revived by another player or attempt to kill an enemy to achieve a "second wind". Otherwise, they will be regenerated back at the last "New-U" station that they passed. As the player completes missions and kills enemies, they gain corresponding rewards such as experience points (XP) and new weapons. Once they gain enough XPs, they level up, which unlocks new skill points to upgrade abilities. Each Vault Hunter can progress in three different skill trees after unlocking the basic class-specific Action Skill. In addition, levelling up increases the maximum health capacity and unlocks new weapons, some of which cannot be used until the player reaches a certain level. As the player explores and completes missions, new areas of the game world are unlocked. The game has a semi open world structure, as the world is divided into several sections which can be freely explored. In each area, different non-playable characters are encountered who provide side missions for the players. Players can spawn vehicles in order to quickly traverse some areas. The in-game currency can be collected from loot drops, loot containers, completing missions, and selling unwanted equipment, and can be used to purchase items from vending machines. Players can also gather Eridium bars, a new currency for purchasing storage upgrades and other premium items. A major addition to the game is the "Badass Rank" system; completing various in-game challenges award points, which convert into tokens that can be redeemed to increase the base stats of the player's characters. When exploring the world, players can access certain New-U stations in order to fast travel, and Quick-Change machines allow players to customize their avatar's look, clothing and name. The game supports four-player cooperative multiplayer, though the PlayStation Vita version only supports two players. As more players join a session, the game's difficulty increases along with the loot rewards. Players can trade items and cash, or can duel for the agreed-upon stakes. The game also features split-screen multiplayer. Synopsis Setting and characters Five years have passed since the events of Borderlands, when four Vault Hunters—Roland, Mordecai, Lilith, and Brick—were guided by a mysterious entity known as "The Guardian Angel" to the Vault, an ancient alien structure that was rumored to hold exotic technology and riches. On entering the Vault, they were instead confronted by an alien abomination known as "The Destroyer". After defeating The Destroyer, a valuable mineral called "Eridium" started flourishing through Pandora's crust. Handsome Jack (voiced by Dameon Clarke), president of the Hyperion Corporation, secures this new resource and makes use of it to attempt to "bring peace" to the planet. Now, Handsome Jack rules over the inhabitants of Pandora with an iron fist from his massive space station, Helios. Meanwhile, rumors spread of an even larger Vault, drawing a new group of Vault Hunters who search for it. Like its predecessor, Borderlands 2 features four playable characters: Axton the Commando (Robert McCollum), Maya the Siren (Martha Harms), Salvador the Gunzerker (John Swasey), and Zer0 the Assassin (Michael Turner). Two additional characters are available as downloadable content (DLC): Gaige the Mechromancer (Cherami Leigh) and Krieg the Psycho (Jason Douglas). The four player characters from the first game, Roland (Markus Lloyd), Lilith (Colleen Clinkenbeard), Brick (Marcus Mauldin), and Mordecai (Ernesto Jason Liebrecht), return in the form of non-player characters (NPCs). Other NPCs originating from the first game and its DLCs include the Guardian Angel (Jennifer Green), Claptrap (David Eddings), Scooter the mechanic (Michael Neumann), Dr. Zed (Ric Spiegel), Marcus the arms merchant (Bruce DuBose), Mad Moxxi (Brina Palencia), Crazy Earl (Randy Pitchford), and the insane archaeologist Patricia Tannis (Clinkenbeard); new NPCs include the cyborg hunter Sir Hammerlock (J. Michael Tatum), Scooter's sister Ellie (Jamie Marchi), and explosives-obsessed girl Tiny Tina (Ashly Burch). Plot The game opens with the Vault Hunters aboard a Hyperion train on Pandora. Their employer, Handsome Jack, suddenly sabotages the train and leaves the Vault Hunters for dead in a frozen wasteland. The Vault Hunters are found by the last remaining CL4P-TP ("Claptrap") unit. The Guardian Angel contacts the Vault Hunters and instructs them to accompany Claptrap to the city of Sanctuary, and to join the Crimson Raiders, an anti-Hyperion resistance movement, in order to defeat Handsome Jack. Upon arriving at Sanctuary, the Vault Hunters are asked to rescue Roland, leader of the Crimson Raiders, who has been captured by a bounty hunter called the Firehawk. The Vault Hunters meet the Firehawk, who turns out to be Lilith, whose Siren powers have been enhanced by the new supply of Eridium. Lilith informs the Vault Hunters that Roland was actually captured by a group of bandits. After fighting through the bandits' territory, the Vault Hunters rescue Roland and return to Sanctuary. Roland and Lilith learn that the Vault Key stolen from Tannis is being transported aboard a Hyperion train, and ask the Vault Hunters to retrieve it. The Vault Hunters derail the train, but instead of finding the Vault Key they encounter Wilhelm, a Hyperion cyborg and one of Handsome Jack's enforcers. The Vault Hunters kill Wilhelm and recover his power core, which Roland recommends be used as the power source for Sanctuary's shields. The power core turns out to be a trap; it allows the Guardian Angel, who is revealed to be working for Jack, to lower the city's shields, leaving it vulnerable to an orbital bombardment. Lilith saves Sanctuary, which was originally a large spacecraft, by activating its engines and teleporting it away. Handsome Jack's plan is to open Pandora's second Vault and unleash the "Warrior", a powerful Eridian monster controlled by whoever releases it; as the Vault Key only charges itself every 200 years, he is using Eridium to forcefully charge it. Angel communicates with the group in Sanctuary, and divulges that the Vault Key is kept with her in a heavily guarded Hyperion facility. The Vault Hunters prepare an attack on the facility, enlisting former Vault Hunters Brick and Mordecai. Roland and the Vault Hunters assault the Hyperion compound and meet Angel, who is a Siren and Jack's daughter. She reveals Jack is using her to charge the Vault Key, and requests to be killed in order to stop her father. Against Jack's efforts to defend her, Roland, Lilith, and the Vault Hunters destroy Angel's life support, killing her. An enraged Jack kills Roland and captures Lilith, forcing her to obey him, as he had done to Angel. Before Jack can make Lilith kill the Vault Hunters, she teleports them back to Sanctuary. Jack then uses her to continue charging the Vault Key in Angel's place. While Mordecai and Brick prepare an attack on the Vault, the Vault Hunters travel to the Hyperion Information Annex and obtain the Vault's location. After mounting an attack, the Vault Hunters find and defeat Jack, but fail to prevent him from opening the Vault and unleashing the Warrior. The Vault Hunters manage to kill it, and, depending on player choice, either execute Jack or let Lilith do it. As Lilith then attempts to destroy the Vault Key, she accidentally activates an information bank which contains a map of the galaxy, indicating the locations of several Vaults. Lilith remarks that "there ain't no rest for the wicked" before the screen cuts to black. During the credits, various scenes are shown of the Pandorans celebrating Handsome Jack's defeat and taking back their planet from the remaining Hyperion forces. Development Following the release of the first Borderlands, developer Gearbox Software was simultaneously working on three distinct projects: finishing Duke Nukem Forever, creating Aliens: Colonial Marines, and working on a sequel to the original Borderlands. The initial goal was to create a sequel similar in scale to the first game, but Borderlands' unexpected success enabled the team to expand their budget during the development of Borderlands 2, allowing them to expand their scope and create more content. The development budget ultimately grew to $30–$35 million. Paul Hellquist served as the game's creative director, Jeramy Cooke as its art director, and Anthony Burch as its writer. Sascha Dikiciyan, Cris Velasco, and Jesper Kyd worked together to craft the game's original soundtracks, while Gearbox's Raison Varner provided additional music. The game's development was completed on August 20, 2012, with Gearbox confirming that it was being prepared for duplication and release. Art and design Similar to the first game, Borderlands 2 adopted the "concept art style", which features graphics inspired by both photorealistic imagery and comic-book-inspired visuals. This was difficult to replicate, because the first game was "artfully unfinished"—its artstyle had been switched at the last stage of development with some older visual designs present in the final product. To recreate the sense of "imperfection" and allow for innovation, the art team were given creative freedom while management avoided frequent requests for design revisions. Cooke was responsible for creating a loose "style guide" for the game, and the team accepted work which deviated from these standards. Team members were also encouraged to submit creations that "break boundaries". The design for Zer0, a faceless assassin, faced scrutiny from upper management for deviating too much from what was expected from Borderlands, but Cooke refused to have the character redesigned as he felt that his design would be something new for the franchise. To add more color to the game, a diverse set of environments were modeled, from glaciers to grasslands, as opposed to the first game which is set entirely in a desert. With a more colorful world, the team believed that it would encourage players to explore each area. Through having more vibrant colors and creating various landmarks, the team also thought that it helped to make each area distinct. One of the early objectives for Hellquist was to improve the original game's shortcomings while creating an experience that felt new. A September 2011 survey asked players what they wanted in the new game, and DLCs for the first game were used to experiment and test what players might enjoy in the sequel. One of the early goals was to create a new set of characters, as the team felt that the original cast was too "limiting". The team also made various quality-of-life improvements, such as improving the user interface to make navigating the game's menus easier. Menu layout was refined and the team introduced additional environmental clues to better inform players how different areas are connected. Effort was also placed on making each area more "dense" and "alive". They also wanted to improve the game's cooperative multiplayer, from incorporating private trading of weapons between players to introducing a four-passenger vehicle so that a cooperative team could stick together. A "shared loot" system was incorporated in order to facilitate a collaborative relationship between players. Gearbox also wanted to make unique weapons. The first game utilizes procedural generation to generate different guns but the differences were not always distinguishable. To solve this problem, the team ensured that each gun manufacturer would have its own distinct gameplay and visual characteristics. To achieve this, each weapon manufacturer has a "trademark style" that would appeal to different players. For instance, the Maliwan brand features weapons inspired by sci-fi technology, while the Dahl brand was for players who preferred weapons that were more grounded in reality. The differences in the weapon manufacturers mean that players can easily identify the weapons they want to use. The Bandit brand was inspired by Mad Max and Death Race and featured a "very home-built look". The Torgue brand was influenced by engine blocks and aircraft designs from the 1940s and the 1950s. In contrast, Tediore was the "throwaway brand", and the team took inspirations from disposable razors and lighters, and "cheap Go phone". Story and characters As many players complained about the forgettable story for the first game, Burch strived to make the narrative compelling and unique by subverting players' expectations and including a plotline so ridiculous that it cannot be found in any other triple-A games. Despite the script being seven times longer than the original's, the story was not too overbearing on players as the team believed that the essence of the game was about "finding progressively more ridiculous guns to blow up psychotic midgets" instead of the story. To achieve this, the team minimised the use of cutscenes and focused on environmental storytelling. While the game features a humorous tone, the story retains dark moments to keep players invested. One of the darker moments was Angel's death, which went through multiple revisions as the team tried to refine the tone. Roland's death in the later part of the game was also a deliberate decision as it makes the story more relevant and impactful. According to Hellquist, a diverse cast of characters played a huge role in defining Borderlands' identity. The story is delivered via interactions between these characters rather than text, unlike the first game. Burch's script introduced a large number of new characters, with Burch singling out Tiny Tina and Ellie as the best additions. The team crafted three to five side missions for these characters so that players could better understand their backstories and personalities. Returning characters, especially the playable Vault Hunters from the first game, became major characters in the game's main narrative, so that players get to learn more about them and see how they interact with each other. Series mainstay Claptrap returned in Borderlands 2. He was initially envisioned to be "arrogant, insulting, profane", similar to his depiction in its web series. However, he was later rewritten so that "fans who hadn't seen the shorts wouldn't be shocked at Claptrap's sudden doucheitude in BL2". Burch, in hindsight, stated that one of his biggest regrets was the inclusion of silenced protagonists, since they felt "out-of-place" in a game that features a large cast of eccentric characters and an over-the-top world. However, when playtesters complained about this, it was already too late for Burch to introduce dialogue for the playable characters because mission scripting had already been finished. To remedy the problem, he added character-specific audio logs to the game, allowing the Vault Hunters to narrate their backstory to the players. Burch initially wrote banter dialogue between the Vault Hunters which would be triggered when the player left their controllers idle for a while, though this idea was scrapped. To create players' agency and motivation, the team attempted to incorporate a concrete goal and a central villain into the story. Handsome Jack served the purpose and helped remind players that he is a constant threat, "the point of the game" and that one of the ultimate goals is to kill him. Jack was envisioned to be a charismatic "douche", mirroring Burch's own personality. He was a funny, likable antagonist who is "hard to outright hate but nonetheless deserves everything he has coming to him". Burch was inspired by classic villains including GLaDOS from Portal and SHODAN from System Shock, and stated that he would have been the protagonist if the story was told from a different perspective. While Jack has a dismissive attitude in the early section, he becomes more aggressive after the death of his daughter Angel. This was to create a revenge arc to make him more memorable. The game is set five years after the first game, in order to show how Jack, who rose to power following the events of the first game, influenced Pandora during this period. Marketing and release Following the unexpected success of the first Borderlands, creative director Mikey Neumann stated that there was a chance of a follow-up being created. In August 2011, the game was confirmed and titled Borderlands 2. The game was released on September 18, 2012, in North America and on September 21, 2012, internationally. Players who pre-ordered the game gained access to the "Premier Club", which granted the players additional in-game items, weapons and access to the fifth character. Publisher 2K Games and Gearbox Software marketed the game heavily prior to its official release. They released a 16-bit demake of the original game on web browser in August 2012. Another browser-based spin-off game, named Mount Jackmore, was released for European players in September 2012. Players who completed the spin-off, which involves shooting at a mountain carved with Handsome Jack's face, would have a chance to win prizes such as pin badges, figurines and copies of the game. Gearbox also launched a scheme for players of the original game, who could unlock exclusive cosmetic items when they purchased Borderlands 2. Gearbox revealed that they would be honoring a late fan of the game, cancer victim Michael John Mamaril, with the addition of an NPC named after him. The game was ported to various platforms. Aspyr Media published the game on November 20, 2012, for OS X systems. Gearbox partnered with Iron Galaxy Studios to release a PlayStation Vita version in May 2014. Vita's cross-save allows PlayStation 3 players to transfer their progress to the Vita. On January 20, 2015, Gearbox announced that it would release Borderlands: The Handsome Collection—a port of Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, on March 24, 2015. Both games in The Handsome Collection feature remastered graphics, and are capable of running at 1080p resolution at 60 frames per second when playing with one or two local players. The games are also capable of local split-screen multiplayer with up to four players. On March 26, 2020, Gearbox announced that it would release The Handsome Collection, plus the original Borderlands, for Nintendo Switch as Borderlands Legendary Collection on May 29, 2020. The team, however, did not port Borderlands 2 to the Wii U because the team "couldn't come up with an 'OMG' feature that makes use of the Wii U's uniqueness". On August 20, 2012, it was announced that a four-issue Borderlands comic would be released in November 2012 to tie in with Borderlands 2. The miniseries was written by Mikey Neumann and published by IDW. It tells the story of how the original four Vault Hunters came to be together at the beginning of Borderlands, filling in their backstory and setting up the events of both games. Claptrap appears as an opponent in the crossover title Poker Night 2, with players able to unlock new Borderlands 2 content upon the completion of certain objectives. A new season of the web series, also featuring Claptrap, was released in November 2012. In 2013, 2K partnered with merchandise maker National Entertainment Collectibles Association to create real-life masks based on Handsome Jack and Psycho Bandit. Gearbox hoped to continue engagement with the community following the game's release. It introduced the SHiFT rewards program. Codes are released on various social media sites and forums that can be redeemed in the Borderlands 2 main menu for Golden Keys, which can be used to open the special Golden Chest that is located in the travel station in Sanctuary. When opened, the chest randomly produces rare equipment of the redeeming player's level. SHiFT codes can also be used to redeem special skins. A loot-hunt community event was launched in October 2013, in which players completed daily community goals to unlock special guns for a chance to win a $50,000 grand prize. Gearbox also released two companion apps. The Official Map App displays the map layout and reveals the locations of various hidden chests, while the LootTheWorld app gives players a QR code which can be scanned to unlock in-game loot. Retail editions A "Deluxe Hunter's Collector's Edition" was released and includes an artbook, stickers, map of Pandora, digital comic download code, a Marcus Kincaid bobblehead plus in-game DLC. In addition, the "Ultimate Loot Chest Limited Edition" was also available. It contains all of the Deluxe Hunter items plus a collectible scale replica of the red loot chests found within Borderlands 2. A steel case, Creatures of Pandora ID chart, postcard set, field notes from Sir Hammerlock and a cloth map are also included. Each comes individually numbered. A "Game of the Year Edition" was released in October 2013. It contains all the content from the season pass, two additional playable characters — Mechromancer and Psycho — and other downloadable extras. On January 11, 2014, 2K partnered with Bethesda Softworks to bundle Borderlands 2 with Dishonored on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 with the bundle arriving on February 11, 2014. Downloadable content Gearbox supported the game with downloadable content (DLC). The fifth character, Gaige the Mechromancer, was available for purchase on October 16, 2012. The character was designed for people who are unfamiliar with the shooter genre. On March 23, 2013, Gearbox announced two new downloadable content packs. The first pack, Ultimate Vault Hunter Upgrade Pack, raised the level cap from 50 to 61 and added new playthrough called the Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode. The second pack, the Psycho Pack, contains a sixth playable character — a Psycho named Krieg. Psychos are psychotic bandit enemies fought during the main campaign. He is a primarily melee focused character with an action skill called "Buzz Axe Rampage", which boosts his melee damage and causes him to regain health whenever he kills an enemy. It was released on May 14, 2013, and is not included in the Season Pass. Ultimate Vault Hunter Upgrade Pack 2: Digistruct Peak Challenge was released on September 3, 2013. The DLC increases the level cap from 61 to 72 and introduces the Digistruct Peak Challenge, a new map where Patricia Tannis will let players fight high-level enemies to earn new loot. The game's "Game of the Year Edition" and the season pass also bundle the base game with 4 add-on campaigns, which include the following: Following the release of the four add-on campaigns, Gearbox announced plans to release the Headhunter series of DLCs. These packs generally cost less than the add-on campaigns and feature less content. Gearbox originally intended to make three Headhunter packs but ultimately created five. The game's last DLC, Commander Lilith and the Fight for Sanctuary was announced and released on June 9, 2019. The DLC was released for PC, and for The Handsome Collection version of the game on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch. It was available as a free download for the first month after release. The story of the DLC picks up after the events of Borderlands 2 and acts as a bridge to the story of Borderlands 3, setting up the transition to the new Sanctuary 3 base ship and bringing characters from 2014's Tales from the Borderlands into the bigger story. In the DLC, after Helios station has crashed on the surface of Pandora, Lilith and the other Vault Hunters struggle with what they have learned from the Vault map, of potentially many more Vaults on other planets. As they try to figure out some way to make a space-worthy ship, Sanctuary is attacked by Dahl's Colonel Hector, who has created a powerful mutant army using a strange floral spore. The group abandons Sanctuary and takes shelter at a former bandit camp, now empty except for its leader, Vaughn, as Hector mutated his followers. The Vault Hunters work with Vaughn and other allies to take back Sanctuary and the Vault map from Hector. VR version A virtual reality version titled Borderlands 2 VR was released for the PlayStation VR on December 14, 2018. This version does not have any multiplayer, but instead features the "BAMF" (Bad Ass Mega Fun) system which allows players to temporarily slow game time in order to plan their attack, and new voice lines from the current voice of Claptrap, Jim Foronda. The Windows version of the VR port was released on October 24, 2020. Reception Critical reception The game received generally positive reviews upon release, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Many reviewers agreed that the game is a notable improvement over the original. Allistair Pinsof, writing for Destructoid, praised the gunplay and the variety of guns, which can change the gameplay experience as different weapons force players to approach combat differently. However, he was disappointed by the conservative mission design, especially for a game that features over-the-top characters. Christian Donlan from Eurogamer liked how distinct the gun manufacturers are, and felt that they have successfully modified the pace of play. He also lauded the extensive customisation options, and the enemy variety. PC Gamer's Tom Francis agreed, adding that the enemy designs keep the combat interesting and engaging. Chris Watters from GameSpot praised the gunplay, describing it as "solid" and "satisfying", though he was disappointed that combat seemed largely similar across the four classes. He also praised the world of Pandora for being a "vibrant, living place", as opposed to Borderlands' desolate desert. Both Donland and Dan Ryckert from Game Informer appreciated the quality-of-life adjustments Gearbox implemented, with Ryckert saying that they made the game a "noticeably superior experience" when compared with the first game. Mike Minotti from VentureBeat described Borderlands 2 as an excellent blend of FPS and RPG, and praised Gearbox for perfecting the looter-shooter genre. However, he criticised the game for reusing dungeons and the presence of some overpowered enemies. The game's driving component was considered to be a missed opportunity. Bob Mackey of 1Up.com appreciated the improvements to the sequel but felt Gearbox could have done more, stating: "Sure, the changes here are enough to merit a "2," but I don't see the basic experience being elevated in any way outside of some minor improvements." Pinsof praised the game's story and writing, calling it "the funniest, cleverest script to grace a game since Portal 2". He applauded Gearbox for expanding the lore and the characters, and added that every character has their own "golden line of comedic dialogue". He also liked how the humor in the game elevated the main campaign and the side missions. Ryckert also liked the humorous goals of the side missions, and stated that they have a lot of "entertainment value". He added that the sense of humor displayed in the game was one of the best in the industry. Anthony Gallegos from IGN called the story "predictable", but still regarded it as an improvement over the original. However, he enjoyed completing the side-quests due to their presentation, writing and action, despite their conventional design. Minotti, however, felt that the game's heavy focus on humor undermined the game's more serious moments. Minotti praised the colorful cast of characters, singling out the humorous writing for Claptrap, Tiny Tina, and Ellie. Handsome Jack also received a lot of praise. Ryckert called him "entertaining", while Pinsof added that he was "lovable". Sterling McGarvey, writing for GamesRadar, noted that the campaign is bloated with filler content, but the narrative remains compelling due to the presence of Jack as a strong central villain. Polygon's Arthur Gies also added that the game had "MMORPG quest design of the worst kind", and felt that Gearbox intentionally lengthened the game by adding unnecessary fillers and content. Both Francis and Arthur Gies from Polygon noted their disappointment with the game's opening segment, with Francis saying that it "strips the game of everything that makes it good". The game's multiplayer received praise. Donlan and Ryckert liked how the abilities of the four classes complement each other. Ryckert added that the cooperative multiplayer further elevated the experience. Minotti felt that the multiplayer was as fun as the original, and praised Gearbox for streamlining the process for other players to join a session. Watters believed playing with friends contributes to a more rewarding experience due to the presence of item trading, difficulty scaling and better loots. Pinsof critisied the multiplayer for being imbalanced because the shared loot system means veteran players would get low-tier loots when they played with new players. McGarvey also noted that respawn stations are few and far between and that players need to backtrack a lot in order to reunite with their teammates after their player avatar dies. The PlayStation Vita port received mixed reviews. While complimented for offering the entire game and additional content on a handheld console, the port was generally panned for its decreased graphics and sound quality, lag issues and inconsistent frame rates, and that it only offered two-player multiplayer rather than four. IGN gave the port a 5.4 out of 10, concluding that "its compromised visuals rob it of much of its bombastic charm, while its erratic performance and unreliable touch controls keep the gameplay from shining like it has in the past." Steven Petite from IGN, reviewing the PlayStation VR version, called it a "decent adaptation" and one of the "deepest shooter experiences" available on VR platforms. However, he lamented at the lack of multiplayer and expressed his dislike for the game's adoption of motion control. The PC release for the VR version was plagued with technical problems, and only 45% of the players gave the game positive reviews on Steam. Sales Borderlands 2 is a major commercial success. It was the most pre-ordered game in 2K's history. It was the best-selling retail game in the UK in its week of release, outselling competitors including F1 2012 and Pro Evolution Soccer 2013. It secured the biggest launch for a game in the UK in 2012, surpassing the record previously held by Mass Effect 3 and quadrupled the first game's sales in the same period of time. More than 70% of the sales were generated from the Xbox 360 version. In the US, it was the second best-selling retail game of the month, selling more than 1.82 million units. It was the seventh best-selling game in the UK and the tenth best-selling game in the US in 2012. On November 1, 2012, Take-Two Interactive announced that they had shipped 5 million copies. The revenue and earnings for Take-Two in the second quarter surpassed the company's expectation, with the success of Borderlands 2 being cited as one of the contributing factors. In February 2014, 2K Games announced that the game had sold more than 8.5 million copies, making it the most successful commercial release for the publisher. It sold more than 12 million as of March 2015. In 2019, Take-Two announced that the game had shipped more than 20 million units, and added that the game managed to maintain 1 million monthly users nearly eight years following its release. Controversies Controversy regarding sexism hit a month before the game's scheduled release after Gearbox designer John Hemingway told Eurogamer that the Mechromancer mode would feature "the girlfriend skill tree" for people who "suck at first-person shooters". CEO Randy Pitchford later clarified by saying that the name for the skill tree is "Best Friends Forever" and that Hemingway's description was only a "personal anecdote". Upon release, some fans criticized the character of Tiny Tina for "conveying racism" since she is a white girl who uses African-American Vernacular English. Burch responded by saying that he may change her character in subsequent DLCs. Gearbox's other project, Aliens: Colonial Marines, developed in partnership with Sega, was in development troubles during the production of Borderlands 2. Insider sources claimed that following the success of the first Borderlands, Gearbox allocated nearly all of its resources and manpower into developing the sequel and Duke Nukem Forever and neglected the development of Colonial Marines, outsourcing its development to external developers. Colonial Marines was released in 2013 and received negative reviews. Wade Callender, who worked at Gearbox as a lawyer from 2010 to 2018, sued Pitchford in January 2019 and alleged that he had taken $12 million royalties from Take-Two intending to fund the game's development for himself through his personal company, Pitchford Entertainment. The lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice by the court on October 2 of the same year. Awards Prequel and sequel In April 2014, Gearbox announced that 2K Australia was developing a game set in between the events of the first two Borderlands games, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!. Released on October 14, 2014, the game focuses on the rise of Handsome Jack, and features four of his henchmen—Athena (from The Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC), Claptrap, Nisha (Lynchwood's sheriff from Borderlands 2), and Wilhelm (a Hyperion cyborg who was a boss in Borderlands 2)—as playable characters. At a panel during PAX South in January 2015, Pitchford announced that the studio was preparing to begin work on a new Borderlands game—which he described as "the big one", and began to offer a number of new staff openings related to the game. The game would be developed specifically for the eighth-generation consoles Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Borderlands 3 was released on September 13, 2019. Notes References External links Official website

In 2023, Beavers are known to be the second-largest living rodents. The largest extant rodent species are natively most prevalent in a single continent. What is the largest country in this continent?

Brazil.

Numerical reasoning | Tabular reasoning | Multiple constraints | Temporal reasoning

Beavers (genus Castor) are large, semiaquatic rodents of the Northern Hemisphere. There are two existing species: the North American beaver (Castor canadensis) and the Eurasian beaver (C. fiber). Beavers are the second-largest living rodents, after capybaras, weighing up to 50 kg (110 lb). They have stout bodies with large heads, long chisel-like incisors, brown or gray fur, hand-like front feet, webbed back feet, and tails that are flat and scaly. The two species differ in skull and tail shape and fur color. Beavers can be found in a number of freshwater habitats, such as rivers, streams, lakes and ponds. They are herbivorous, consuming tree bark, aquatic plants, grasses and sedges. Beavers build dams and lodges using tree branches, vegetation, rocks and mud; they chew down trees for building material. Dams restrict water flow, and lodges serve as shelters. Their infrastructure creates wetlands used by many other species, and because of their effect on other organisms in the ecosystem, beavers are considered a keystone species. Adult males and females live in monogamous pairs with their offspring. After their first year, the young help their parents repair dams and lodges; older siblings may also help raise newly born offspring. Beavers hold territories and mark them using scent mounds made of mud, debris, and castoreum—a liquid substance excreted through the beaver's urethra-based castor sacs. Beavers can also recognize their kin by their anal gland secretions and are more likely to tolerate them as neighbors. Historically, beavers have been hunted for their fur, meat, and castoreum. Castoreum has been used in medicine, perfume, and food flavoring; beaver pelts have been a major driver of the fur trade. Before protections began in the 19th and early 20th centuries, overhunting had nearly exterminated both species. Their populations have since rebounded, and they are listed as species of least concern by the IUCN Red List of mammals. In human culture, the beaver symbolizes industriousness, especially in connection with construction; it is the national animal of Canada. Etymology The English word beaver comes from the Old English word beofor or befor and is connected to the German word biber and the Dutch word bever. The ultimate origin of the word is an Indo-European root for 'brown'. Cognates of beaver is the source for several European placenames, including those of Beverley, Bièvres, Biberbach, Biebrich, Bibra, Bibern, Bibrka, Bobr, Bober, Bóbrka, Bjurholm, Bjurälven, and Bjurum. The genus name Castor has its origin in the Greek word κάστωρ kastōr and translates as 'beaver'. Taxonomy Carl Linnaeus coined the genus name Castor in 1758 as well as the specific (species) epithet fiber for the Eurasian species. German zoologist Heinrich Kuhl coined C. canadensis in 1820, many scientists considered both names synonymous for one same species until the 1970s, when chromosomal evidence became available confirming both as separate where the Eurasian has 48 chromosomes, while the North American has 40.) The difference in chromosome numbers prevents them from interbreeding. Twenty-five subspecies have been classified for C. canadensis, and nine have been classified for C. fiber. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (Castor canadensis) and the Eurasian beaver (C. fiber). The Eurasian beaver is slightly longer and has a more lengthened skull, triangular nasal cavities (as opposed to the square ones of the North American species), a lighter fur color, and a narrower tail. Evolution Beavers belong to the rodent suborder Castorimorpha, along with Heteromyidae (kangaroo rats and kangaroo mice), and the gophers. Modern beavers are the only extant members of the family Castoridae. They originated in North America in the late Eocene and colonized Eurasia via the Bering Land Bridge in the early Oligocene, coinciding with the Grande Coupure, a time of significant changes in animal species around 33 million years ago (myr). The more basal castorids had several unique features: more complex occlusion between cheek teeth, parallel rows of upper teeth, premolars that were only slightly smaller than molars, the presence of a third set of premolars (P3), a hole in the stapes of the inner ear, a smooth palatine bone (with the palatine opening closer to the rear end of the bone), and a longer snout. More derived castorids have less complex occlusion, upper tooth rows that create a V-shape towards the back, larger second premolars compared to molars, absence of a third premolar set and stapes hole, a more grooved palatine (with the opening shifted towards the front), and reduced incisive foramen. Members of the subfamily Palaeocastorinae appeared in late-Oligocene North America. This group consisted primarily of smaller animals with relatively large front legs, a flattened skull, and a reduced tail—all features of a fossorial (burrowing) lifestyle. In the early Miocene (about 24 mya), castorids evolved a semiaquatic lifestyle. Members of the subfamily Castoroidinae are considered to be a sister group to modern beavers, and included giants like Castoroides of North America and Trogontherium of Eurasia. Castoroides is estimated to have had a length of 1.9–2.2 m (6.2–7.2 ft) and a weight of 90–125 kg (198–276 lb). Fossils of one genus in Castoroidinae, Dipoides, have been found near piles of chewed wood, though Dipoides appears to have been an inferior woodcutter compared to Castor. Researchers suggest that modern beavers and Castoroidinae shared a bark-eating common ancestor. Dam and lodge-building likely developed from bark-eating, and allowed beavers to survive in the harsh winters of the subarctic. There is no conclusive evidence for this behavior occurring in non-Castor species. The genus Castor likely originated in Eurasia. The earliest fossil remains appear to be C. neglectus, found in Germany and dated 12–10 mya. Mitochondrial DNA studies place the common ancestor of the two living species at around 8 mya. The ancestors of the North American beaver would have crossed the Bering Land Bridge around 7.5 mya. Castor may have competed with members of Castoroidinae, which led to niche differentiation. The fossil species C. praefiber was likely an ancestor of the Eurasian beaver. C. californicus from the Early Pleistocene of North America was similar to but larger than the extant North American beaver.' Characteristics Beavers are the second-largest living rodents, after capybaras. They have a head–body length of 80–120 cm (31–47 in), with a 25–50 cm (9.8–19.7 in) tail, a shoulder height of 30–60 cm (12–24 in), and generally weigh 11–30 kg (24–66 lb), but can be as heavy as 50 kg (110 lb). Males and females are almost identical externally. Their bodies are streamlined like marine mammals and their robust build allows them to pull heavy loads. A beaver coat has 12,000–23,000 hairs/cm2 (77,000–148,000 hairs/in2) and functions to keep the animal warm, to help it float in water, and to protect it against predators. Guard hairs are 5–6 cm (2.0–2.4 in) long and typically reddish brown, but can range from yellowish brown to nearly black. The underfur is 2–3 cm (0.79–1.18 in) long and dark gray. Beavers molt every summer. Beavers have large skulls with powerful chewing muscles. They have four chisel-shaped incisors that continue to grow throughout their lives. The incisors are covered in a thick enamel that is colored orange or reddish-brown by iron compounds. The lower incisors have roots that are almost as long as the entire lower jaw. Beavers have one premolar and three molars on all four sides of the jaws, adding up to 20 teeth. The molars have meandering ridges for grinding woody material. The eyes, ears and nostrils are arranged so that they can remain above water while the rest of the body is submerged. The nostrils and ears have valves that close underwater, while nictitating membranes cover the eyes. To protect the larynx and trachea from water flow, the epiglottis is contained within the nasal cavity instead of the throat. In addition, the back of the tongue can rise and create a waterproof seal. A beaver's lips can close behind the incisors, preventing water from entering their mouths as they cut and bite onto things while submerged. The beaver's front feet are dexterous, allowing them to grasp and manipulate objects and food, as well as dig. The hind feet are larger and have webbing between the toes, and the second innermost toe has a "double nail" used for grooming. Beavers can swim at 8 km/h (5.0 mph); only their webbed hind feet are used to swim, while the front feet fold under the chest. On the surface, the hind limbs thrust one after the other; while underwater, they move at the same time. Beavers are awkward on land but can move quickly when they feel threatened. They can carry objects while walking on their hind legs. The beaver's distinctive tail has a conical, muscular, hairy base; the remaining two-thirds of the appendage is flat and scaly. The tail has multiple functions: it provides support for the animal when it is upright (such as when chewing down a tree), acts as a rudder when it is swimming, and stores fat for winter. It also has a countercurrent blood vessel system which allows the animal to lose heat in warm temperatures and retain heat in cold temperatures. The beaver's sex organs are inside the body, and the male's penis has a cartilaginous baculum. They have only one opening, a cloaca, which is used for reproduction, scent-marking, defecation, and urination. The cloaca evolved secondarily, as most mammals have lost this feature, and may reduce the area vulnerable to infection in dirty water. The beaver's intestine is six times longer than its body, and the caecum is double the volume of its stomach. Microorganisms in the caecum allow them to process around 30 percent of the cellulose they eat. A beaver defecates in the water, leaving behind balls of sawdust. Female beavers have four mammary glands; these produce milk with 19 percent fat, a higher fat content than other rodents. Beavers have two pairs of glands: castor sacs, which are part of the urethra, and anal glands. The castor sacs secrete castoreum, a liquid substance used mainly for marking territory. Anal glands produce an oily substance which the beaver uses as a waterproof ointment for its coat. The substance plays a role in individual and family recognition. Anal secretions are darker in females than males among Eurasian beavers, while the reverse is true for the North American species. Compared to many other rodents, a beaver's brain has a hypothalamus that is much smaller than the cerebrum; this indicates a relatively advanced brain with higher intelligence. The cerebellum is large, allowing the animal to move within a three-dimensional space (such as underwater) similar to tree-climbing squirrels. The neocortex is devoted mainly to touch and hearing. Touch is more advanced in the lips and hands than the whiskers and tail. Vision in the beaver is relatively poor; the beaver eye cannot see as well underwater as an otter. Beavers have a good sense of smell, which they use for detecting land predators and for inspecting scent marks, food, and other individuals. Beavers can hold their breath for as long as 15 minutes but typically remain underwater for no more than five or six minutes. Dives typically last less than 30 seconds and are usually no more than 1 m (3 ft 3 in) deep. When diving, their heart rate decreases to 60 beats per minute, half its normal pace, and blood flow is directed more towards the brain. A beaver's body also has a high tolerance for carbon dioxide. When surfacing, the animal can replace 75 percent of the air in its lungs in one breath, compared to 15 percent for a human. Distribution and status The IUCN Red List of mammals lists both beaver species as least concern. The North American beaver is widespread throughout most of the United States and Canada and can be found in northern Mexico. The species was introduced to Finland in 1937 (and then spread to northwestern Russia) and to Tierra del Fuego, Patagonia, in 1946. As of 2019, the introduced population of North American beavers in Finland has been moving closer to the habitat of the Eurasian beaver. Historically, the North American beaver was trapped and nearly extirpated because its fur was highly sought after. Protections have allowed the beaver population on the continent to rebound to an estimated 6–12 million by the late 20th century; still far lower than the originally estimated 60–400 million North American beavers before the fur trade. The introduced population in Tierra del Fuego is estimated at 35,000–50,000 individuals as of 2016. The Eurasian beaver's range historically included much of Eurasia, but was decimated by hunting by the early 20th century. In Europe, beavers were reduced to fragmented populations, with combined population numbers being estimated at 1,200 individuals for the Rhône of France, the Elbe in Germany, southern Norway, the Neman river and Dnieper Basin in Belarus, and the Voronezh river in Russia. The beaver has since recolonized parts of its former range, aided by conservation policies and reintroductions. Beaver populations now range across western, central, and eastern Europe, and western Russia and the Scandinavian Peninsula. Beginning in 2009, beavers have been successfully reintroduced to parts of Great Britain. In 2020, the total Eurasian beaver population in Europe was estimated at over one million. Small native populations are also present in Mongolia and northwestern China; their numbers were estimated at 150 and 700, respectively, as of 2016. Under New Zealand's Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996, beavers are classed as a "prohibited new organism" preventing them from being introduced into the country. Ecology Beavers live in freshwater ecosystems such as rivers, streams, lakes and ponds. Water is the most important component of beaver habitat; they swim and dive in it, and it provides them refuge from land predators. It also restricts access to their homes and allows them to move building objects more easily. Beavers prefer slower moving streams, typically with a gradient (steepness) of one percent, though they have been recorded using streams with gradients as high as 15 percent. Beavers are found in wider streams more often than in narrower ones. They also prefer areas with no regular flooding and may abandon a location for years after a significant flood. Beavers typically select flat landscapes with diverse vegetation close to the water. North American beavers prefer trees being 60 m (200 ft) or less from the water, but will roam several hundred meters to find more. Beavers have also been recorded in mountainous areas. Dispersing beavers will use certain habitats temporarily before finding their ideal home. These include small streams, temporary swamps, ditches, and backyards. These sites lack important resources, so the animals do not stay there permanently. Beavers have increasingly settled at or near human-made environments, including agricultural areas, suburbs, golf courses, and shopping malls. Beavers have an herbivorous and a generalist diet. During the spring and summer, they mainly feed on herbaceous plant material such as leaves, roots, herbs, ferns, grasses, sedges, water lilies, water shields, rushes, and cattails. During the fall and winter, they eat more bark and cambium of woody plants; tree and shrub species consumed include aspen, birch, oak, dogwood, willow and alder. There is some disagreement about why beavers select specific woody plants; some research has shown that beavers more frequently select species which are more easily digested, while others suggest beavers principally forage based on stem size. Beavers may cache their food for the winter, piling wood in the deepest part of their pond where it cannot be reached by other browsers. This cache is known as a "raft"; when the top becomes frozen, it creates a "cap". The beaver accesses the raft by swimming under the ice. Many populations of Eurasian beaver do not make rafts, but forage on land during winter. Beavers usually live up to 10 years. Felids, canids, and bears may prey upon them. Beavers are protected from predators when in their lodges, and prefer to stay near water. Parasites of the beaver include the bacteria Francisella tularensis, which causes tularemia; the protozoan Giardia duodenalis, which causes giardiasis (beaver fever); and the beaver beetle and mites of the genus Schizocarpus. They have also been recorded to be infected with the rabies virus. Infrastructure Beavers need trees and shrubs to use as building material for dams, which restrict flowing water to create a pond for them to live in, and for lodges, which act as shelters and refuges from predators and the elements. Without such material, beavers dig burrows into a bank to live. Dam construction begins in late summer or early fall, and they repair them whenever needed. Beavers can cut down trees up to 15 cm (5.9 in) wide in less than 50 minutes. Thicker trees, at 25 cm (9.8 in) wide or more, may not fall for hours. When chewing down a tree, beavers switch between biting with the left and right side of the mouth. Tree branches are then cut and carried to their destination with the powerful jaw and neck muscles. Other building materials, like mud and rocks, are held by the forelimbs and tucked between the chin and chest. Beavers start building dams when they hear running water, and the sound of a leak in a dam triggers them to repair it. To build a dam, beavers stack up relatively long and thick logs between banks and in opposite directions. Heavy rocks keep them stable, and grass is packed between them. Beavers continue to pile on more material until the dam slopes in a direction facing upstream. Dams can range in height from 20 cm (7.9 in) to 3 m (9.8 ft) and can stretch from 0.3 m (1 ft 0 in) to several hundred meters long. Beaver dams are more effective in trapping and slowly leaking water than man-made concrete dams. Lake-dwelling beavers do not need to build dams. Beavers make two types of lodges: bank lodges and open-water lodges. Bank lodges are burrows dug along the shore and covered in sticks. The more complex freestanding, open-water lodges are built over a platform of piled-up sticks. The lodge is mostly sealed with mud, except for a hole at the top which acts as an air vent. Both types are accessed by underwater entrances. The above-water space inside the lodge is known as the "living chamber", and a "dining area" may exist close to the water entrance. Families routinely clean out old plant material and bring in new material. North American beavers build more open-water lodges than Eurasian beavers. Beaver lodges built by new settlers are typically small and sloppy. More experienced families can build structures with a height of 2 m (6 ft 7 in) and an above-water diameter of 6 m (20 ft). A lodge sturdy enough to withstand the coming winter can be finished in just two nights. Both lodge types can be present at a beaver site. During the summer, beavers tend to use bank lodges to keep cool. They use open-water lodges during the winter. The air vent provides ventilation, and newly added carbon dioxide can be cleared in an hour. The lodge remains consistent in oxygen and carbon dioxide levels from season to season. Beavers in some areas will dig canals connected to their ponds. The canals fill with groundwater and give beavers access and easier transport of resources, as well as allow them to escape predators. These canals can stretch up to 1 m (3 ft 3 in) wide, 0.5 m (1 ft 8 in) deep, and over 0.5 km (0.31 mi) long. It has been hypothesized that beavers' canals are not only transportation routes but an extension of their "central place" around the lodge and/or food cache. As they drag wood across the land, beavers leave behind trails or "slides", which they reuse when moving new material. Environmental effects The beaver works as an ecosystem engineer and keystone species, as its activities can have a great impact on the landscape and biodiversity of an area. Aside from humans, few other extant animals appear to do more to shape their environment. When building dams, beavers alter the paths of streams and rivers, allowing for the creation of extensive wetland habitats. In one study, beavers were associated with large increases in open-water areas. When beavers returned to an area, 160% more open water was available during droughts than in previous years, when they were absent. Beaver dams also lead to higher water tables in mineral soil environments and in wetlands such as peatlands. In peatlands particularly, their dams stabilize the constantly changing water levels, leading to greater carbon storage. Beaver ponds, and the wetlands that succeed them, remove sediments and pollutants from waterways, and can stop the loss of important soils. These ponds can increase the productivity of freshwater ecosystems by accumulating nitrogen in sediments. Beaver activity can affect the temperature of the water; in northern latitudes, ice thaws earlier in the warmer beaver-dammed waters. Beavers may contribute to climate change. In Arctic areas, the floods they create can cause permafrost to thaw, releasing methane into the atmosphere. As wetlands are formed and riparian habitats are enlarged, aquatic plants colonize the newly available watery habitat. One study in the Adirondacks found that beaver engineering lead to an increase of more than 33 percent in herbaceous plant diversity along the water's edge. Another study in semiarid eastern Oregon found that the width of riparian vegetation on stream banks increased several-fold as beaver dams watered previously dry terraces adjacent to the stream. Riparian ecosystems in arid areas appear to sustain more plant life when beaver dams are present. Beaver ponds act as a refuge for riverbank plants during wildfires, and provide them with enough moisture to resist such fires. Introduced beavers at Tierra del Fuego have been responsible for destroying the indigenous forest. Unlike trees in North America, many trees in South America cannot grow back after being cut down. Beaver activity impacts communities of aquatic invertebrates. Damming typically leads to an increase of slow or motionless water species, like dragonflies, oligochaetes, snails, and mussels. This is to the detriment of rapid water species like black flies, stoneflies, and net-spinning caddisflies. Beaver floodings create more dead trees, providing more habitat for terrestrial invertebrates like Drosophila flies and bark beetles, which live and breed in dead wood. The presence of beavers can increase wild salmon and trout populations, and the average size of these fishes. These species use beaver habitats for spawning, overwintering, feeding, and as havens from changes in water flow. The positive effects of beaver dams on fish appear to outweigh the negative effects, such as blocking of migration. Beaver ponds have been shown to be beneficial to frog populations by protecting areas for larvae to mature in warm water. The stable waters of beaver ponds also provide ideal habitat for freshwater turtles. Beavers help waterfowl by creating increased areas of water. The widening of the riparian zone associated with beaver dams has been shown to increase the abundance and diversity of birds favoring the water's edge, an impact that may be especially important in semi-arid climates. Fish-eating birds use beaver ponds for foraging, and in some areas, certain species appear more frequently at sites where beavers were active than at sites with no beaver activity. In a study of Wyoming streams and rivers, watercourses with beavers had 75 times as many ducks as those without. As trees are drowned by rising beaver impoundments, they become an ideal habitat for woodpeckers, which carve cavities that may be later used by other bird species. Beaver-caused ice thawing in northern latitudes allows Canada geese to nest earlier. Other semi-aquatic mammals, such as water voles, muskrats, minks, and otters, will shelter in beaver lodges. Beaver modifications to streams in Poland create habitats favorable to bat species that forage at the water surface and "prefer moderate vegetation clutter". Large herbivores, such as some deer species, benefit from beaver activity as they can access vegetation from fallen trees and ponds. Behavior Beavers are mainly nocturnal and crepuscular, and spend the daytime in their shelters. In northern latitudes, beaver activity is decoupled from the 24-hour cycle during the winter, and may last as long as 29 hours. They do not hibernate during winter, and spend much of their time in their lodges. Family life The core of beaver social organization is the family, which is composed of an adult male and an adult female in a monogamous pair and their offspring. Beaver families can have as many as ten members; groups about this size require multiple lodges. Mutual grooming and play fighting maintain bonds between family members, and aggression between them is uncommon. Adult beavers mate with their partners, though partner replacement appears to be common. A beaver that loses its partner will wait for another one to come by. Estrus cycles begin in late December and peak in mid-January. Females may have two to four estrus cycles per season, each lasting 12–24 hours. The pair typically mate in the water and to a lesser extent in the lodge, for half a minute to three minutes. Up to four young, or kits, are born in spring and summer, after a three or four-month gestation. Newborn beavers are precocial with a full fur coat, and can open their eyes within days of birth. Their mother is the primary caretaker, while their father maintains the territory. Older siblings from a previous litter also play a role. After they are born, the kits spend their first one to two months in the lodge. Kits suckle for as long as three months, but can eat solid food within their second week and rely on their parents and older siblings to bring it to them. Eventually, beaver kits explore outside the lodge and forage on their own, but may follow an older relative and hold onto their backs. After their first year, young beavers help their families with construction. Beavers sexually mature around 1.5–3 years. They become independent at two years old, but remain with their parents for an extra year or more during times of food shortage, high population density, or drought. Territories and spacing Beavers typically disperse from their parental colonies during the spring or when the winter snow melts. They often travel less than 5 km (3.1 mi), but long-distance dispersals are not uncommon when previous colonizers have already exploited local resources. Beavers are able to travel greater distances when free-flowing water is available. Individuals may meet their mates during the dispersal stage, and the pair travel together. It may take them weeks or months to reach their final destination; longer distances may require several years. Beavers establish and defend territories along the banks of their ponds, which may be 1–7 km (0.62–4.35 mi) in length. Beavers mark their territories by constructing scent mounds made of mud and vegetation, scented with castoreum. Those with many territorial neighbors create more scent mounds. Scent marking increases in spring, during the dispersal of yearlings, to deter interlopers. Beavers are generally intolerant of intruders and fights may result in deep bites to the sides, rump, and tail. They exhibit a behavior known as the "dear enemy effect"; a territory-holder will investigate and become familiar with the scents of its neighbors and react more aggressively to the scents of strangers passing by. Beavers are also more tolerant of individuals that are their kin. They recognize them by using their keen sense of smell to detect differences in the composition of anal gland secretions. Anal gland secretion profiles are more similar among relatives than unrelated individuals. Communication Beavers within a family greet each other with whines. Kits will attract the attention of adults with mews, squeaks, and cries. Defensive beavers produce a hissing growl and gnash their teeth. Tail slaps, which involve an animal hitting the water surface with its tail, serve as alarm signals warning other beavers of a potential threat. An adult's tail slap is more successful in alerting others, who will escape into the lodge or deeper water. Juveniles have not yet learned the proper use of a tail slap, and hence are normally ignored. Eurasian beavers have been recorded using a territorial "stick display", which involves individuals holding up a stick and bouncing in shallow water. Interactions with humans Beavers sometimes come into conflict with humans over land use; individual beavers may be labeled as "nuisance beavers". Beavers can damage crops, timber stocks, roads, ditches, gardens, and pastures via gnawing, eating, digging, and flooding. They occasionally attack humans and domestic pets, particularly when infected with rabies, in defense of their territory, or when they feel threatened. Some of these attacks have been fatal, including at least one human death. Beavers can spread giardiasis ('beaver fever') by infecting surface waters, though outbreaks are more commonly caused by human activity. Flow devices, like beaver pipes, are used to manage beaver flooding, while fencing and hardware cloth protect trees and shrubs from beaver damage. If necessary, hand tools, heavy equipment, or explosives are used to remove dams. Hunting, trapping, and relocation may be permitted as forms of population control and for removal of individuals. The governments of Argentina and Chile have authorized the trapping of invasive beavers in hopes of eliminating them. The ecological importance of beavers has led to cities like Seattle designing their parks and green spaces to accommodate the animals. The Martinez beavers became famous in the mid-2000s for their role in improving the ecosystem of Alhambra Creek in Martinez, California. Zoos have displayed beavers since at least the 19th century, though not commonly. In captivity, beavers have been used for entertainment, fur harvesting, and for reintroduction into the wild. Captive beavers require access to water, substrate for digging, and artificial shelters. Archibald Stansfeld "Grey Owl" Belaney pioneered beaver conservation in the early 20th century. Belaney wrote several books, and was first to professionally film beavers in their environment. In 1931, he moved to a log cabin in Prince Albert National Park, where he was the "caretaker of park animals" and raised a beaver pair and their four offspring. Commercial use Beavers have been hunted, trapped, and exploited for their fur, meat, and castoreum. Since the animals typically stayed in one place, trappers could easily find them and could kill entire families in a lodge. Many pre-modern people mistakenly thought that castoreum was produced by the testicles or that the castor sacs of the beaver were its testicles, and females were hermaphrodites. Aesop's Fables describes beavers chewing off their testicles to preserve themselves from hunters, which is impossible because a beaver's testicles are internal. This myth persisted for centuries, and was corrected by French physician Guillaume Rondelet in the 1500s. Beavers have historically been hunted and captured using deadfalls, snares, nets, bows and arrows, spears, clubs, firearms, and leg-hold traps. Castoreum was used to lure the animals. Castoreum was used for a variety of medical purposes; Pliny the Elder promoted it as a treatment for stomach problems, flatulence, seizures, sciatica, vertigo, and epilepsy. He stated it could stop hiccups when mixed with vinegar, toothaches if mixed with oil (by administering into the ear opening on the same side as the tooth), and could be used as an antivenom. The substance has traditionally been prescribed to treat hysteria in women, which was believed to have been caused by a "toxic" womb. Castoreum's properties have been credited to the accumulation of salicylic acid from willow and aspen trees in the beaver's diet, and has a physiological effect comparable to aspirin. Today, the medical use of castoreum has declined and is limited mainly to homeopathy. The substance is also used as an ingredient in perfumes and tinctures, and as a flavouring in food and drinks. Various Native American groups have historically hunted beavers for food, they preferred its meat more than other red meats because of its higher calorie and fat content, and the animals remained plump in winter when they were most hunted. The bones were used to make tools. In medieval Europe, the Catholic Church considered the beaver to be part mammal and part fish, and allowed followers to eat the scaly, fishlike tail on meatless Fridays during Lent. Beaver tails were thus highly prized in Europe; they were described by French naturalist Pierre Belon as tasting like a "nicely dressed eel". Beaver pelts were used to make hats; felters would remove the guard hairs. The number of pelts needed depended on the type of hat, with Cavalier and Puritan hats requiring more fur than top hats. In the late 16th century, Europeans began to deal in North American furs due to the lack of taxes or tariffs on the continent and the decline of fur-bearers at home. Beaver pelts caused or contributed to the Beaver Wars, King William's War, and the French and Indian War; the trade made John Jacob Astor and the owners of the North West Company very wealthy. For Europeans in North America, the fur trade was a driver of the exploration and westward exploration on the continent and contact with native peoples, who traded with them. The fur trade peaked between 1860 and 1870, when over 150,000 beaver pelts were purchased annually by the Hudson's Bay Company and fur companies in the United States. The contemporary global fur trade is not as profitable due to conservation, anti-fur and animal rights campaigns. In culture The beaver has been used to represent productivity, trade, tradition, masculinity, and respectability. References to the beaver's skills are reflected in everyday language. The English verb "to beaver" means working with great effort and being "as busy as a beaver"; a "beaver intellect" refers to a way of thinking that is slow and honest. Though it typically has a wholesome image, the beaver's name has been used as a sexual term for the human vulva. Native American myths emphasize the beaver's skill and industriousness. In the mythology of the Haida, beavers are descended from the Beaver-Woman, who built a dam on a stream next to their cabin while her husband was out hunting and gave birth to the first beavers. In a Cree story, the Great Beaver and its dam caused a world flood. Other tales involve beavers using their tree chewing skills against an enemy. Beavers have been featured as companions in some stories, including a Lakota tale where a young woman flees from her evil husband with the aid of her pet beaver. Europeans have traditionally thought of beavers as fantastical animals due to their amphibious nature. They depicted them with exaggerated tusk-like teeth, dog- or pig-like bodies, fish tails, and visible testicles. French cartographer Nicolas de Fer illustrated beavers building a dam at Niagara Falls, fantastically depicting them like human builders. Beavers have also appeared in literature such as Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy and the writings of Athanasius Kircher, who wrote that on Noah's Ark the beavers were housed near a water-filled tub that was also used by mermaids and otters. The beaver has long been associated with Canada, appearing on the first pictorial postage stamp issued in the Canadian colonies in 1851 as the so-called "Three-Penny Beaver". It was declared the national animal in 1975. The five-cent coin, the coat of arms of the Hudson's Bay Company, and the logos for Parks Canada and Roots Canada use its image. Frank and Gordon are two fictional beavers that appeared in Bell Canada's advertisements between 2005 and 2008. However, the beaver's status as a rodent has made it controversial, and it was not chosen to be on the Arms of Canada in 1921. The beaver has commonly been used to represent Canada in political cartoons, typically to signify it as a friendly but relatively weak nation. In the United States, the beaver is the state animal of New York and Oregon. It is also featured on the coat of arms of the London School of Economics. See also Beaver drop References Sources Further reading Goldfarb, Ben (2018). Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter. Chelsea Green Publishing. ISBN 978-1603589086. External links Beaver Institute Charity that supports beavers Beaver Tracks: How to identify beaver tracks in the wild

The genus Hydrochoerus contains two living and three extinct species of rodents from South America, the Caribbean island of Grenada, California and Panama. Capybaras are the largest living rodents in the world. The genus name is derived from the Greek ὕδωρ (hýdor) 'water' plus χοίρος (choíros) 'pig'. Characteristics Capybaras are semiaquatic, found in and near lakes, rivers, swamps, and flooded savanna. Their diets are dominated by grasses. Adults weigh up to 65 kg (143 lb). The gestation period is 130–150 days, with two to eight (most commonly four) young born to females. Behavior Capybaras are highly social, living in groups of up to 100 and communicating through a variety of vocalizations. Breeding is polygynous, with males forming harems. Phylogeny and taxonomy Molecular results have consistently suggested Hydrochoerus is most closely related to Kerodon (the rock cavies), and the two evolved from within the Caviidae. This led Woods and Kilpatrick to unite the two into the subfamily Hydrochoerinae within the Caviidae. Based on use of a molecular clock approach, Hydrochoerus appears to have diverged from Kerodon in the late Middle Miocene (about 12 million years ago). The extinct North American species formerly recognized as Hydrochoerus holmesi is now assigned to Neochoerus. Species Extant Species Fossils † Hydrochoerus ballesterensis – Pliocene capybara endemic to Argentina † Hydrochoerus gaylordi – Plio-Pleistocene capybara endemic to the Caribbean island of Grenada † Hydrochoerus hesperotiganites – Late Pleistocene capybara endemic to North America (San Diego County, California) Distribution Presently, capybaras live in northern South America and adjacent southern Central America (lesser capybara) and in the tropical to subtropical regions of South America (capybara). The fossil species inhabited Buenos Aires Province in Argentina (H. ballesterensis) and the Caribbean island of Grenada (H. gaylordi). One species, H. hesperotiganites even ranged as far north as California. Fossils of unspecified Hydrochoerus have been found in Late Pleistocene to Holocene sediments of Curití, Santander, at an altitude of 1,500 m (4,900 ft) in the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes. Fauna found at the same site included the South American tapir (Tapirus terrestris), Cryptotis sp., collared peccary (Tayassu tajacu), white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari), and Mazama sp. References Bibliography Hoffstetter, Robert (1971). "Los vertebrados cenozóicos de Colombia: yacimientos, faunas, problemas planteados" (PDF). Universidad Nacional de Colombia: 37–62. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-04-06. Retrieved 2017-04-05. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help) Rowe, D.L.; Honeycutt, R.L. (2002). "Phylogenetic relationships, ecological correlates, and molecular evolution within the Cavioidea (Mammalia, Rodentia)". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 19 (3): 263–277. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a004080. ISSN 0737-4038. PMID 11861886. Further reading Nowak, Ronald M. (1999). Walker's Mammals of the World, 6th edition. Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 1–1936. ISBN 978-0-8018-5789-8.

The capybara or greater capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) is the largest living rodent, native to South America. It is a member of the genus Hydrochoerus. The only other extant member is the lesser capybara (Hydrochoerus isthmius). Its close relatives include guinea pigs and rock cavies, and it is more distantly related to the agouti, the chinchilla, and the nutria. The capybara inhabits savannas and dense forests, and lives near bodies of water. It is a highly social species and can be found in groups as large as 100 individuals, but usually live in groups of 10–20 individuals. The capybara is hunted for its meat and hide and also for grease from its thick fatty skin. Etymology Its common name is derived from Tupi ka'apiûara, a complex agglutination of kaá (leaf) + píi (slender) + ú (eat) + ara (a suffix for agent nouns), meaning "one who eats slender leaves", or "grass-eater". The genus name, hydrochoerus, comes from Greek ὕδωρ (hydor "water") and χοῖρος (choiros "pig, hog") and the species name, hydrochaeris, comes from Greek ὕδωρ (hydor "water") and χαίρω (chairo "feel happy, enjoy"). Classification and phylogeny The capybara and the lesser capybara both belong to the subfamily Hydrochoerinae along with the rock cavies. The living capybaras and their extinct relatives were previously classified in their own family Hydrochoeridae. Since 2002, molecular phylogenetic studies have recognized a close relationship between Hydrochoerus and Kerodon, the rock cavies, supporting placement of both genera in a subfamily of Caviidae. Paleontological classifications previously used Hydrochoeridae for all capybaras, while using Hydrochoerinae for the living genus and its closest fossil relatives, such as Neochoerus, but more recently have adopted the classification of Hydrochoerinae within Caviidae. The taxonomy of fossil hydrochoerines is also in a state of flux. In recent years, the diversity of fossil hydrochoerines has been substantially reduced. This is largely due to the recognition that capybara molar teeth show strong variation in shape over the life of an individual. In one instance, material once referred to four genera and seven species on the basis of differences in molar shape is now thought to represent differently aged individuals of a single species, Cardiatherium paranense. Among fossil species, the name "capybara" can refer to the many species of Hydrochoerinae that are more closely related to the modern Hydrochoerus than to the "cardiomyine" rodents like Cardiomys. The fossil genera Cardiatherium, Phugatherium, Hydrochoeropsis, and Neochoerus are all capybaras under that concept. Description The capybara has a heavy, barrel-shaped body and short head, with reddish-brown fur on the upper part of its body that turns yellowish-brown underneath. Its sweat glands can be found in the surface of the hairy portions of its skin, an unusual trait among rodents. The animal lacks down hair, and its guard hair differs little from over hair. Adult capybaras grow to 106 to 134 cm (3.48 to 4.40 ft) in length, stand 50 to 62 cm (20 to 24 in) tall at the withers, and typically weigh 35 to 66 kg (77 to 146 lb), with an average in the Venezuelan llanos of 48.9 kg (108 lb). Females are slightly heavier than males. The top recorded weights are 91 kg (201 lb) for a wild female from Brazil and 73.5 kg (162 lb) for a wild male from Uruguay. Also, an 81 kg individual was reported in São Paulo in 2001 or 2002. The dental formula is 1.0.1.31.0.1.3. Capybaras have slightly webbed feet and vestigial tails. Their hind legs are slightly longer than their forelegs; they have three toes on their rear feet and four toes on their front feet. Their muzzles are blunt, with nostrils, and the eyes and ears are near the top of their heads. Its karyotype has 2n = 66 and FN = 102, meaning it has 66 chromosomes with a total of 102 arms. Ecology Capybaras are semiaquatic mammals found throughout all countries of South America except Chile. They live in densely forested areas near bodies of water, such as lakes, rivers, swamps, ponds, and marshes, as well as flooded savannah and along rivers in the tropical rainforest. They are superb swimmers and can hold their breath underwater for up to five minutes at a time. Capybara have flourished in cattle ranches. They roam in home ranges averaging 10 hectares (25 acres) in high-density populations. Many escapees from captivity can also be found in similar watery habitats around the world. Sightings are fairly common in Florida, although a breeding population has not yet been confirmed. In 2011, one specimen was spotted on the Central Coast of California. These escaped populations occur in areas where prehistoric capybaras inhabited; late Pleistocene capybaras inhabited Florida and Hydrochoerus hesperotiganites in California and Hydrochoerus gaylordi in Grenada, and feral capybaras in North America may actually fill the ecological niche of the Pleistocene species. Diet and predation Capybaras are herbivores, grazing mainly on grasses and aquatic plants, as well as fruit and tree bark. They are very selective feeders and feed on the leaves of one species and disregard other species surrounding it. They eat a greater variety of plants during the dry season, as fewer plants are available. While they eat grass during the wet season, they have to switch to more abundant reeds during the dry season. Plants that capybaras eat during the summer lose their nutritional value in the winter, so they are not consumed at that time. The capybara's jaw hinge is not perpendicular, so they chew food by grinding back-and-forth rather than side-to-side. Capybaras are autocoprophagous, meaning they eat their own feces as a source of bacterial gut flora, to help digest the cellulose in the grass that forms their normal diet, and to extract the maximum protein and vitamins from their food. They also regurgitate food to masticate again, similar to cud-chewing by cattle. Like other rodents, a capybara's front teeth grow continually to compensate for the constant wear from eating grasses; their cheek teeth also grow continuously. Like its relative the guinea pig, the capybara does not have the capacity to synthesize vitamin C, and capybaras not supplemented with vitamin C in captivity have been reported to develop gum disease as a sign of scurvy. The maximum lifespan of the capybara is 8 to 10 years, but in the wild capybaras usually do not live longer than four years because of predation from South American big cats such as jaguars and cougars and from non-mammalian predators such as harpy eagles, caimans, green anacondas and piranhas . Social organization Capybaras are known to be gregarious. While they sometimes live solitarily, they are more commonly found in groups of around 10–20 individuals, with two to four adult males, four to seven adult females, and the remainder juveniles. Capybara groups can consist of as many as 50 or 100 individuals during the dry season when the animals gather around available water sources. Males establish social bonds, dominance, or general group consensus. They can make dog-like barks when threatened or when females are herding young. Capybaras have two types of scent glands: a morrillo, located on the snout, and anal glands. Both sexes have these glands, but males have much larger morrillos and use their anal glands more frequently. The anal glands of males are also lined with detachable hairs. A crystalline form of scent secretion is coated on these hairs and is released when in contact with objects such as plants. These hairs have a longer-lasting scent mark and are tasted by other capybaras. Capybaras scent-mark by rubbing their morrillos on objects, or by walking over scrub and marking it with their anal glands. Capybaras can spread their scent further by urinating; however, females usually mark without urinating and scent-mark less frequently than males overall. Females mark more often during the wet season when they are in estrus. In addition to objects, males also scent-mark females. Reproduction When in estrus, the female's scent changes subtly and nearby males begin pursuit. In addition, a female alerts males she is in estrus by whistling through her nose. During mating, the female has the advantage and mating choice. Capybaras mate only in water, and if a female does not want to mate with a certain male, she either submerges or leaves the water. Dominant males are highly protective of the females, but they usually cannot prevent some of the subordinates from copulating. The larger the group, the harder it is for the male to watch all the females. Dominant males secure significantly more matings than each subordinate, but subordinate males, as a class, are responsible for more matings than each dominant male. The lifespan of the capybara's sperm is longer than that of other rodents. Capybara gestation is 130–150 days, and produces a litter of four young on average, but may produce between one and eight in a single litter. Birth is on land and the female rejoins the group within a few hours of delivering the newborn capybaras, which join the group as soon as they are mobile. Within a week, the young can eat grass, but continue to suckle—from any female in the group—until weaned around 16 weeks. The young form a group within the main group. Alloparenting has been observed in this species. Breeding peaks between April and May in Venezuela and between October and November in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Activities Though quite agile on land, capybaras are equally at home in the water. They are excellent swimmers, and can remain completely submerged for up to five minutes, an ability they use to evade predators. Capybaras can sleep in water, keeping only their noses out. As temperatures increase during the day, they wallow in water and then graze during the late afternoon and early evening. They also spend time wallowing in mud. They rest around midnight and then continue to graze before dawn. Communication Capybaras communicate using barks, chirps, whistles, huffs, and purrs. Conservation and human interaction Capybaras are not considered a threatened species; their population is stable throughout most of their South American range, though in some areas hunting has reduced their numbers. Capybaras are hunted for their meat and pelts in some areas, and otherwise killed by humans who see their grazing as competition for livestock. In some areas, they are farmed, which has the effect of ensuring the wetland habitats are protected. Their survival is aided by their ability to breed rapidly. Capybaras have adapted well to urbanization in South America. They can be found in many areas in zoos and parks, and may live for 12 years in captivity, more than double their wild lifespan. Capybaras are docile and usually allow humans to pet and hand-feed them, but physical contact is normally discouraged, as their ticks can be vectors to Rocky Mountain spotted fever. The European Association of Zoos and Aquaria asked Drusillas Park in Alfriston, Sussex, England, to keep the studbook for capybaras, to monitor captive populations in Europe. The studbook includes information about all births, deaths and movements of capybaras, as well as how they are related. Capybaras are farmed for meat and skins in South America. The meat is considered unsuitable to eat in some areas, while in other areas it is considered an important source of protein. In parts of South America, especially in Venezuela, capybara meat is popular during Lent and Holy Week as the Catholic Church previously issued special dispensation to allow it to be eaten while other meats are generally forbidden. After several attempts a 1784 Papal bull was obtained that allowed the consumption of capybara during Lent. There is widespread perception in Venezuela that consumption of capybaras is exclusive to rural people. In August 2021, Argentine and international media reported that capybaras had been disturbing residents of Nordelta, an affluent gated community north of Buenos Aires built atop the local capybara's preexisting wetland habitat. This inspired social media users to jokingly adopt the capybara as a symbol of class struggle and communism. Brazilian Lyme-like borreliosis likely involves capybaras as reservoirs and Amblyomma and Rhipicephalus ticks as vectors. Popularity and meme culture In the early 2020s, capybaras became a growing figure of meme culture due to many factors, including the disturbances in Nordelta which led to them being comically postulated as figures of class struggle. Also, a common meme format includes capybaras in various situations with the song "After Party" by Don Toliver. At the same time there was a growth in popularity of internet hits for 'capybara'. Capybaras are also associated with the phrase "Ok I pull up", the opening lyric in Toliver's song. See also Josephoartigasia monesi, an extinct species identified as the largest known rodent ever Kurloff cell, a type of cell found in capybaras and guinea pigs Capybara Walking, a historical animal locomotion film by Eadweard Muybridge Notes References External links Alan Taylor (29 November 2018). "Companionable Capybaras (18 Photos)". The Atlantic. Animal Diversity Web Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris Capybara information

South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern subregion of the Americas. South America is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean; North America and the Caribbean Sea lie to the northwest. The continent includes twelve sovereign states: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela; two dependent territories: the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; and one internal territory: French Guiana. The territories of the ABC islands of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (located north of Venezuela in the Western Caribbean), the British Overseas Territory of Ascension, Saint Helena, & Tristan da Cunha (located in the Southern Atlantic), Bouvet Island (a dependency of Norway), Panama, and the island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago may also be considered parts of South America. South America has an area of 17,840,000 square kilometers (6,890,000 sq mi). Its population as of 2021 has been estimated at more than 434 million. South America ranks fourth in area (after Asia, Africa, and North America) and fifth in population (after Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America). Brazil is by far the most populous South American country, with almost half of the continent's population, followed by Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela and Peru. In recent decades, Brazil has also generated half of the continent's GDP and has become the continent's first regional power. Most of the population lives near the continent's western or eastern coasts while the interior and the far south are sparsely populated. The geography of western South America is dominated by the Andes mountains; in contrast, the eastern part contains both highland regions and vast lowlands where rivers such as the Amazon, Orinoco and Paraná flow. Most of the continent lies in the tropics, except for a large part of the Southern Cone located in the middle latitudes. The continent's cultural and ethnic outlook has its origin with the interaction of Indigenous peoples with European conquerors and immigrants and, more locally, with African slaves. Given a long history of colonialism, the overwhelming majority of South Americans speak Spanish or Portuguese, and societies and states are rich in Western traditions. Relative to Europe, Asia and Africa, post-1900 South America has been a peaceful continent with few wars, although high rates of violent crime remain a concern in some countries. Geography South America occupies the southern portion of the Americas. The continent is generally delimited on the northwest by the Darién watershed along the Colombia–Panama border, although some may consider the border instead to be the Panama Canal. Geopolitically and geographically, all of Panama – including the segment east of the Panama Canal in the isthmus – is typically included in North America alone and among the countries of Central America. Almost all of mainland South America sits on the South American Plate. South America is home to several superlatives, including, the world's highest uninterrupted waterfall, Angel Falls in Venezuela; the highest single-drop waterfall Kaieteur Falls in Guyana; the largest river by volume, the Amazon River; the longest mountain range, the Andes (whose highest mountain is Aconcagua at 6,962 m or 22,841 ft); the driest non-polar place on earth, the Atacama Desert; the wettest place on earth, López de Micay in Colombia; the largest rainforest, the Amazon rainforest; the highest capital city, La Paz, Bolivia; the highest commercially navigable lake in the world, Lake Titicaca; and, excluding research stations in Antarctica, the world's southernmost permanently inhabited community, Puerto Toro, Chile. South America's major mineral resources are gold, silver, copper, iron ore, tin, and petroleum. These resources have brought high income to its countries, especially in times of war or of rapid economic growth by industrialized countries elsewhere. However, the concentration in producing one, or few major export commodities has often hindered the development and diversification of its economies. The fluctuation in the price of commodities in international markets has led historically to major highs and lows, booms and busts, in the economies of South American states, often causing political instability. This has lead for calls to diversify production and increase trade within South America itself. Brazil is the largest country in South America, covering a little less than half of the continent's land area and encompassing around half of the continent's population. The remaining countries and territories are divided among four subregions: the Andean states, Caribbean South America, The Guianas, and the Southern Cone. Outlying islands Physiographically, South America also includes some of the nearby islands. The Dutch ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao), the islands of Trinidad and Tobago (Trinidad Island and Tobago Island etc.), the State of Nueva Esparta, and the Federal Dependencies of Venezuela sit on the northern portion of the South American continental shelf and are sometimes considered parts of the continent. Geopolitically, all the island countries and territories in the Caribbean have generally been grouped as a subregion of North America instead. By contrast, Aves Island (administered by Venezuela) and the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina (San Andrés Island, Providencia Island, and Santa Catalina Island etc., which are administered by Colombia) are politically parts of South American countries but physiographically parts of North America. Other islands often associated with geopolitical South America are the Chiloé Archipelago and Robinson Crusoe Island (both administered by Chile), Easter Island (culturally a part of Oceania, also administered by Chile), the Galápagos Islands (administered by Ecuador, sometimes considered part of Oceania), and Tierra del Fuego (split between Argentina and Chile). In the Atlantic Ocean, Brazil administers Fernando de Noronha, Trindade and Martim Vaz, and the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago, while the Falkland Islands (Spanish: Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (biogeographically and hydrologically associated with Antarctica) have been administered as two British Overseas Territories under the Crown, whose sovereignty over the islands is disputed by Argentina. Special cases An isolated volcanic island on the South American Plate, Ascension Island is geologically a part of South America. Administered as a dependency of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, the island is geopolitically a part of Africa. Climate All of the world's major climate zones are present in South America. The distribution of the average temperatures in the region presents a constant regularity from the 30° of latitude south, when the isotherms tend, more and more, to be confused with the degrees of latitude. In temperate latitudes, winters and summers are milder than in North America. This is because the most extensive part of the continent is in the equatorial zone (the region has more areas of equatorial plains than any other region), therefore giving the Southern Cone more oceanic influence, which moderates year round temperatures. The average annual temperatures in the Amazon basin oscillate around 27 °C (81 °F), with low thermal amplitudes and high rainfall indices. Between the Maracaibo Lake and the mouth of the Orinoco, predominates an equatorial climate of the type Congolese, that also includes parts of the Brazilian territory. The east-central Brazilian plateau has a humid and warm tropical climate. The northern and eastern parts of the Argentine pampas have a humid subtropical climate with dry winters and humid summers of the Chinese type, while the western and eastern ranges have a subtropical climate of the dinaric type. At the highest points of the Andean region, climates are colder than the ones occurring at the highest point of the Norwegian fjords. In the Andean plateaus, the warm climate prevails, although it is tempered by the altitude, while in the coastal strip, there is an equatorial climate of the Guinean type. From this point until the north of the Chilean coast appear, successively, Mediterranean oceanic climate, temperate of the Breton type and, already in Tierra del Fuego, cold climate of the Siberian type. The distribution of rainfall is related to the regime of winds and air masses. In most of the tropical region east of the Andes, winds blowing from the northeast, east and southeast carry moisture from the Atlantic, causing abundant rainfall. However, due to a consistently strong wind shear and a weak Intertropical Convergence Zone, South Atlantic tropical cyclones are rare. In the Orinoco Llanos and in the Guianas Plateau, the precipitation levels go from moderate to high. The Pacific coast of Colombia and northern Ecuador are rainy regions, with Chocó in Colombia being the rainiest place in the world along with the northern slopes of Indian Himalayas. The Atacama Desert, along this stretch of coast, is one of the driest regions in the world. The central and southern parts of Chile are subject to extratropical cyclones, and most of the Argentine Patagonia is desert. In the Pampas of Argentina, Uruguay and South of Brazil the rainfall is moderate, with rains well distributed during the year. The moderately dry conditions of the Chaco oppose the intense rainfall of the eastern region of Paraguay. In the semiarid coast of the Brazilian Northeast the rains are linked to a monsoon regime. Important factors in the determination of climates are sea currents, such as the current Humboldt and Falklands. The equatorial current of the South Atlantic strikes the coast of the Northeast and there is divided into two others: the current of Brazil and a coastal current that flows to the northwest towards the Antilles, where there it moves towards northeast course thus forming the most Important and famous ocean current in the world, the Gulf Stream. Fauna South America is one of the most biodiverse continents on Earth. It is home to many unique species of animals including the llama, anaconda, piranha, jaguar, vicuña, and tapir, and to one of the largest known insects in the world, the Titan beetle. The Amazon rainforests possess high biodiversity, with Brazil estimated to contain 10% of Earth's species. 83% of South America's large mammals (megafauna) became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene around 11,000 years ago as part of the Quaternary extinction event, among the highest of any continent, with the casualties including saber-toothed cats, ground sloths, glyptodonts, gomphotheres, the equines Hippidion and Equus neogeus, and all remaining South American native ungulates. History Prehistory South America is thought to have been first inhabited by humans when people were crossing the Bering Land Bridge (now the Bering Strait) at least 15,000 years ago from the territory that is present-day Russia. They migrated south through North America, and eventually reached South America through the Isthmus of Panama. Amongst the oldest evidence for human presence in South America is the Monte Verde II site in Chile, suggested to date to around 14,500 years ago. From around 13,000 years ago, the Fishtail projectile point style became widespread across South America, with its disppearance around 11,000 years ago coincident with the disappearance of South America's megafauna. Maize was present in northern South America by around 6,000 years ago. By 2000 BC, many agrarian communities had been settled throughout the Andes and the surrounding regions. Fishing became a widespread practice along the coast, helping establish fish as a primary source of food. Irrigation systems were also developed at this time, which aided in the rise of an agrarian society. South American cultures began domesticating llamas, vicuñas, guanacos, and alpacas in the highlands of the Andes circa 3500 BC. Besides their use as sources of meat and wool, these animals were used for transportation of goods. Pre-Columbian civilizations The rise of plant growing and the subsequent appearance of permanent human settlements allowed for the multiple and overlapping beginnings of civilizations in South America. One of the earliest known South American civilizations was at Caral-Supe, on the central Peruvian coast. Though a pre-ceramic culture, the monumental architecture of Caral-Supe created one of the first cities of the world, generally dated to around 3500 BC, at Huaricanga in the Fortaleza area, contemporaneous with the pyramids of Ancient Egypt, one of the oldest-known civilizations in the Americas and one of the six sites where civilization separately originated in the ancient world. Caral-Supe governing class established a trade network and developed agriculture then followed by Chavín by 900 BC, according to some estimates and archaeological finds. Artifacts were found at a site called Chavín de Huantar in modern Peru at an elevation of 3,177 meters (10,423 ft). Chavín civilization spanned 900 BC to 300 BC. In the central coast of Peru, around the beginning of the 1st millennium AD, Moche (100 BC – 700 AD, at the northern coast of Peru), Paracas and Nazca (400 BC – 800 AD, Peru) cultures flourished with centralized states with permanent militia improving agriculture through irrigation and new styles of ceramic art. At the Altiplano, Tiahuanaco or Tiwanaku (100 BC – 1200 AD, Bolivia) managed a large commercial network based on religion. Around the 7th century, both Tiahuanaco and Wari or Huari Empire (600–1200, Central and northern Peru) expanded its influence to all the Andean region, imposing the Huari urbanism and Tiahuanaco religious iconography. The Muisca were the main indigenous civilization in what is now Colombia. They established the Muisca Confederation of many clans, or cacicazgos, that had a free trade network among themselves. Many were goldsmiths and farmers. Other important Pre-Columbian cultures include: the Cañaris (in south central Ecuador), Chimú Empire (1300–1470, Peruvian northern coast), Chachapoyas, and the Aymaran kingdoms (1000–1450, Western Bolivia and southern Peru). Holding their capital at the great city of Cusco, the Inca civilization dominated the Andes region from 1438 to 1533. Known as Tawantin suyu, and "the land of the four regions", in Quechua, the Inca Empire was highly distinct and developed. Inca rule extended to nearly a hundred linguistic or ethnic communities, some nine to fourteen million people connected by a 25,000 kilometer road system. Cities were built with precise, unmatched stonework, constructed over many levels of mountain terrain. Terrace farming was a useful form of agriculture. The Mapuche in Central and Southern Chile resisted the European and Chilean settlers, waging the Arauco War for more than 300 years. European colonization In 1494, Portugal and Spain, the two great maritime European powers of that time, on the expectation of new lands being discovered in the west, signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, by which they agreed, with the support of the Pope, that all the land outside Europe should be an exclusive duopoly between the two countries. The treaty established an imaginary line along a north–south meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands, roughly 46° 37' W. In terms of the treaty, all land to the west of the line (known to comprise most of the South American soil) would belong to Spain, and all land to the east, to Portugal. As accurate measurements of longitude were impossible at that time, the line was not strictly enforced, resulting in a Portuguese expansion of Brazil across the meridian. Beginning in the 1530s, the people and natural resources of South America were repeatedly exploited by foreign conquistadors, first from Spain and later from Portugal. These competing colonial nations claimed the land and resources as their own and divided it into colonies. European infectious diseases (smallpox, influenza, measles, and typhus) – to which the native populations had no immune resistance – caused large-scale depopulation of the native population under Spanish control. Systems of forced labor, such as the haciendas and mining industry's mit'a also contributed to the depopulation. After this, enslaved Africans, who had developed immunities to these diseases, were quickly brought in to replace them. The Spaniards were committed to converting their native subjects to Christianity and were quick to purge any native cultural practices that hindered this end; however, many initial attempts at this were only partially successful, as native groups simply blended Catholicism with their established beliefs and practices. Furthermore, the Spaniards brought their language to the degree they did with their religion, although the Roman Catholic Church's evangelization in Quechua, Aymara, and Guaraní actually contributed to the continuous use of these native languages albeit only in the oral form. Eventually, the natives and the Spaniards interbred, forming a mestizo class. At the beginning, many mestizos of the Andean region were offspring of Amerindian mothers and Spanish fathers. After independence, most mestizos had native fathers and European or mestizo mothers. Many native artworks were considered pagan idols and destroyed by Spanish explorers; this included many gold and silver sculptures and other artifacts found in South America, which were melted down before their transport to Spain or Portugal. Spaniards and Portuguese brought the western European architectural style to the continent, and helped to improve infrastructures like bridges, roads, and the sewer system of the cities they discovered or conquered. They also significantly increased economic and trade relations, not just between the old and new world but between the different South American regions and peoples. Finally, with the expansion of the Portuguese and Spanish languages, many cultures that were previously separated became united through that of Latin American. Guyana was initially colonized by the Dutch before coming under British control, though there was a brief period during the Napoleonic Wars when it was occupied by the French. The region was initially partitioned between the Dutch, French and British before fully coming under the control of Britain. Suriname was first explored by the Spanish in the 16th century and then settled by the English in the mid-17th century. It became a Dutch colony in 1667. Slavery in South America The indigenous peoples of the Americas in various European colonies were forced to work in European plantations and mines; along with enslaved Africans who were also introduced in the proceeding centuries via the slave trade. European colonists were heavily dependent on indigenous labor during the initial phases of settlement to maintain the subsistence economy, and natives were often captured by expeditions. The importation of African slaves began midway through the 16th century, but the enslavement of indigenous peoples continued well into the 17th and 18th centuries. The Atlantic slave trade brought enslaved Africans primarily to South American colonies, beginning with the Portuguese since 1502. The main destinations of this phase were the Caribbean colonies and Brazil, as European nations built up economically slave-dependent colonies in the New World. Nearly 40% of all African slaves trafficked to the Americas went to Brazil. An estimated 4.9 million slaves from Africa came to Brazil during the period from 1501 to 1866. In contrast to other European colonies in the Americas which mainly used the labor of African slaves, Spanish colonists mainly enslaved indigenous Americans. In 1750, the Portuguese Crown abolished the enslavement of indigenous peoples in colonial Brazil, under the belief that they were unfit for labor and less effective than enslaved Africans. Enslaved Africans were brought to the Americas on slave ships, under inhuman conditions and ill-treatment, and those who survived were sold in slave markets. After independence, all South American countries maintained slavery for some time. The first South American country to abolish slavery was Chile in 1823, Uruguay in 1830, Bolivia in 1831, Guyana in 1833, Colombia and Ecuador in 1851, Argentina in 1853, Peru and Venezuela in 1854, Suriname in 1863, Paraguay in 1869, and in 1888 Brazil was the last South American nation and the last country in western world to abolish slavery. Independence from Spain and Portugal The European Peninsular War (1807–14), a theater of the Napoleonic Wars, changed the political situation of the Spanish and Portuguese colonies. First, Napoleon invaded Portugal, but the House of Braganza avoided capture by escaping to Brazil. Napoleon captured King Ferdinand VII of Spain, and appointed his own brother instead. This appointment provoked popular resistance, which created Juntas to rule in the name of the captured king. Many cities in the Spanish colonies, however, considered themselves equally authorized to appoint local Juntas like those of Spain. This began the Spanish American wars of independence between the patriots, who promoted such autonomy, and the royalists, who supported Spanish authority over the Americas. The Juntas, in both Spain and the Americas, promoted the ideas of the Enlightenment. Five years after the beginning of the war, Ferdinand VII returned to the throne and began the Absolutist Restoration, as the royalists got the upper hand in the conflict. The independence of South America was secured by Simón Bolívar (Venezuela) and José de San Martín (Argentina), the two most important Libertadores. Bolívar led a great uprising in the north, then led his army south towards Lima, the capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru. Meanwhile, San Martín led an army across the Andes Mountains, along with Chilean expatriates, and liberated Chile. He organized a fleet to reach Peru by sea, and sought the military support of various rebels from the Viceroyalty of Peru. In 1822 the two men met at the Guayaquil Conference in Ecuador, where they failed to agree on governance strategies for the liberated nations. Two years later Bolívar's forces beat the Spanish at the Battle of Ayacucho, securing the independence of Peru and the rest of South America. In the Portuguese Kingdom of Brazil, Dom Pedro I (also Pedro IV of Portugal), son of the Portuguese King Dom João VI, proclaimed the independent Kingdom of Brazil in 1822, which later became the Empire of Brazil. Despite the Portuguese loyalties of garrisons in Bahia, Cisplatina and Pará, independence was diplomatically accepted by Portugal in 1825, on condition of a high compensation paid by Brazil mediated by the United Kingdom. Nation-building and fragmentation The newly independent nations began a process of fragmentation, with several civil and international wars. However, it was not as strong as in Central America. Some countries created from provinces of larger countries stayed as such up to modern times (such as Paraguay or Uruguay), while others were reconquered and reincorporated into their former countries (such as the Republic of Entre Ríos and the Riograndense Republic). The first separatist attempt was in 1820 by the Argentine province of Entre Ríos, led by a caudillo. In spite of the "Republic" in its title, General Ramírez, its caudillo, never really intended to declare an independent Entre Rios. Rather, he was making a political statement in opposition to the monarchist and centralist ideas that back then permeated Buenos Aires politics. The "country" was reincorporated at the United Provinces in 1821. In 1825, the Cisplatine Province declared its independence from the Empire of Brazil, which led to the Cisplatine War between the imperials and the Argentine from the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata to control the region. Three years later, the United Kingdom intervened in the question by proclaiming a tie and creating in the former Cisplatina a new independent country: The Oriental Republic of Uruguay. Later in 1836, while Brazil was experiencing the chaos of the regency, Rio Grande do Sul proclaimed its independence motivated by a tax crisis. With the anticipation of the coronation of Pedro II to the throne of Brazil, the country could stabilize and fight the separatists, which the province of Santa Catarina had joined in 1839. The Conflict came to an end by a process of compromise by which both Riograndense Republic and Juliana Republic were reincorporated as provinces in 1845. The Peru–Bolivian Confederation, a short-lived union of Peru and Bolivia, was blocked by Chile in the War of the Confederation (1836–39) and again during the War of the Pacific (1879–83). Paraguay was virtually destroyed by Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay in the Paraguayan War. Wars and conflicts Despite the Spanish American wars of independence and the Brazilian War of Independence, the new nations quickly began to suffer with internal conflicts and wars among themselves. Most of the 1810 borders countries had initially accepted on the uti possidetis iuris principle had by 1848 either been altered by war or were contested. In 1825, the proclamation of independence of Cisplatina led to the Cisplatine War between historical rivals the Empire of Brazil and the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, Argentina's predecessor. The result was a stalemate, ending with the British government arranging for the independence of Uruguay. Soon after, another Brazilian province proclaimed its independence leading to the Ragamuffin War which Brazil won. Between 1836 and 1839, the War of the Confederation broke out between the short-lived Peru-Bolivian Confederation and Chile, with the support of the Argentine Confederation. The war was fought mostly in the actual territory of Peru and ended with a Confederate defeat and the dissolution of the Confederacy and annexation of many territories by Argentina. Meanwhile, the Argentine Civil Wars plagued Argentina since its independence. The conflict was mainly between those who defended the centralization of power in Buenos Aires and those who defended a confederation. During this period it can be said that "there were two Argentines": the Argentine Confederation and the Argentine Republic. At the same time, the political instability in Uruguay led to the Uruguayan Civil War among the main political factions of the country. All this instability in the platine region interfered with the goals of other countries such as Brazil, which was soon forced to take sides. In 1851, the Brazilian Empire, supporting the centralizing unitarians, and the Uruguayan government invaded Argentina and deposed the caudillo, Juan Manuel Rosas, who ruled the confederation with an iron hand. Although the Platine War did not put an end to the political chaos and civil war in Argentina, it brought temporary peace to Uruguay where the Colorados faction won, supported by Brazil, Britain, France and the Unitarian Party of Argentina. Peace lasted only a short time: in 1864, the Uruguayan factions faced each other again in the Uruguayan War. The Blancos supported by Paraguay started to attack Brazilian and Argentine farmers near the borders. The Empire made an initial attempt to settle the dispute between Blancos and Colorados without success. In 1864, after a Brazilian ultimatum was refused, the imperial government declared that Brazil's military would begin reprisals. Brazil declined to acknowledge a formal state of war, and, for most of its duration, the Uruguayan–Brazilian armed conflict was an undeclared war which led to the deposition of the Blancos and the rise of the pro-Brazilian Colorados to power again. This angered the Paraguayan government, which even before the end of the war invaded Brazil, beginning the longest and bloodiest inter-state war in Latin American history: the Paraguayan War. The Paraguayan War began when the Paraguayan dictator Francisco Solano López ordered the invasion of the Brazilian provinces of Mato Grosso and Rio Grande do Sul. His attempt to cross Argentinian territory without Argentinian approval led the pro-Brazilian Argentine government into the war. The pro-Brazilian Uruguayan government showed its support by sending troops. In 1865 the three countries signed the Treaty of the Triple Alliance against Paraguay. At the beginning of the war, the Paraguayans took the lead with several victories, until the Triple Alliance organized to repel the invaders and fight effectively. This was the second total war experience in the world after the American Civil War. It was deemed the greatest war effort in the history of all participating countries, taking almost 6 years and ending with the complete devastation of Paraguay. The country lost 40% of its territory to Brazil and Argentina and lost 60% of its population, including 90% of the men. The dictator Lopez was killed in battle and a new government was instituted in alliance with Brazil, which maintained occupation forces in the country until 1876. The last South American war in the 19th century was the War of the Pacific with Bolivia and Peru on one side and Chile on the other. In 1879 the war began with Chilean troops occupying Bolivian ports, followed by Bolivia declaring war on Chile which activated an alliance treaty with Peru. The Bolivians were completely defeated in 1880 and Lima was occupied in 1881. Peace was signed with Peru in 1883 while a truce was signed with Bolivia in 1884. Chile annexed territories of both countries leaving Bolivia landlocked. In the new century, as wars became less violent and less frequent, Brazil entered into a small conflict with Bolivia for the possession of the Acre, which was acquired by Brazil in 1902. In 1917 Brazil declared war on the Central Powers, joined the allied side in the First World War and sent a small fleet to the Mediterranean Sea and some troops to be integrated with the British and French forces in the region. Brazil was the only South American country that participated in the First World War. Later in 1932 Colombia and Peru entered a short armed conflict for territory in the Amazon. In the same year Paraguay declared war on Bolivia for possession of the Chaco, in a conflict that ended three years later with Paraguay's victory. Between 1941 and 1942 Peru and Ecuador fought for territories claimed by both that were annexed by Peru, usurping Ecuador's frontier with Brazil. Also in this period, the first major naval battle of World War II took place in the South Atlantic close to the continental mainland: the Battle of the River Plate, between a British cruiser squadron and a German pocket battleship. The Germans still made numerous attacks on Brazilian ships on the coast, causing Brazil to declare war on the Axis powers in 1942, being the only South American country to fight in this war (and in both World Wars). Brazil sent naval and air forces to combat German and Italian submarines off the continent and throughout the South Atlantic, in addition to sending an expeditionary force to fight in the Italian Campaign. A brief war was fought between Argentina and the UK in 1982, following an Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands, which ended with an Argentine defeat. The last international war to be fought on South American soil was the 1995 Cenepa War between Ecuador and the Peru along their mutual border. Rise and fall of military dictatorships Wars became less frequent in the 20th century, with Bolivia-Paraguay and Peru-Ecuador fighting the last inter-state wars. Early in the 20th century, the three wealthiest South American countries engaged in a vastly expensive naval arms race which began after the introduction of a new warship type, the "dreadnought". At one point, the Argentine government was spending a fifth of its entire yearly budget for just two dreadnoughts, a price that did not include later in-service costs, which for the Brazilian dreadnoughts was sixty percent of the initial purchase. The continent became a battlefield of the Cold War in the late 20th century. Some democratically elected governments of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay were overthrown or displaced by military dictatorships in the 1960s and 1970s. To curtail opposition, their governments detained tens of thousands of political prisoners, many of whom were tortured or killed on inter-state collaboration. Economically, they began a transition to neoliberal economic policies. They placed their own actions within the US Cold War doctrine of "National Security" against internal subversion. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Peru suffered from an internal conflict. In 1982, Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, a British dependent territory. The Falklands War began and 74 days later Argentine forces surrendered. Colombia has had an ongoing, though diminished internal conflict, which started in 1964 with the creation of Marxist guerrillas (FARC-EP) and then involved several illegal armed groups of leftist-leaning ideology as well as the private armies of powerful drug lords. Many of these are now defunct, and only a small portion of the ELN remains, along with the stronger, though also greatly reduced, FARC. Revolutionary movements and right-wing military dictatorships became common after World War II, but since the 1980s, a wave of democratization passed through the continent, and democratic rule is widespread now. Nonetheless, allegations of corruption are still very common, and several countries have developed crises which have forced the resignation of their governments, although, on most occasions, regular civilian succession has continued. International indebtedness became a significant problem in the late 1980s, and some countries, despite having strong democracies, have not developed political institutions capable of handling such crises without resorting to unorthodox economic policies. This was illustrated by Argentina's default in the early 21st century. There has been an increased push towards regional integration, with the creation of uniquely South American institutions such as the Andean Community, Mercosur and Unasur. Starting with the election of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela in 1998, the region experienced a pink tide – the election of several leftist and center-left administrations in most countries, except the Guianas and Colombia. Contemporary issues South America's political geography since the 1990s has been characterized by a desire to reduce foreign influence. The nationalization of industries, by which the state controls entire economic sectors (as opposed of private companies doing it), has become a prominent political issue in the region. Some South American nations have nationalized their electricity industries. Countries and territories Government and politics Historically, the Hispanic countries were founded as Republican dictatorships led by caudillos. Brazil was the only exception, being a constitutional monarchy for its first 67 years of independence, until a coup d'état proclaimed a republic. In the late 19th century, the most democratic countries were Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay. All South American countries are presidential republics with the exception of Suriname, a parliamentary republic. French Guiana is a French overseas department, while the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands are British overseas territories. It is currently the only inhabited continent in the world without monarchies; the Empire of Brazil existed during the 19th century and there was an unsuccessful attempt to establish a Kingdom of Araucanía and Patagonia in southern Argentina and Chile. Also in the twentieth century, Suriname was established as a constituent kingdom of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Guyana retained the British monarch as head of state for 4 years after its independence. Recently, an intergovernmental entity has been formed which aims to merge the two existing customs unions: Mercosur and the Andean Community, thus forming the third-largest trade bloc in the world. This new political organization, known as Union of South American Nations, seeks to establish free movement of people, economic development, a common defense policy and the elimination of tariffs. Demographics South America has a population of over 428 million people. They are distributed as to form a "hollow continent" with most of the population concentrated around the margins of the continent. On one hand, there are several sparsely populated areas such as tropical forests, the Atacama Desert and the icy portions of Patagonia. On the other hand, the continent presents regions of high population density, such as the great urban centers. The population is formed by descendants of Europeans (mainly Spaniards, Portuguese and Italians), Africans and Amerindians. There is a high percentage of Mestizos that vary greatly in composition by place. There is a population of about 5 million Asians, mostly East Asians, especially in Brazil, Peru, and Argentina. The two main languages are by far Spanish and Portuguese, followed by English, French and Dutch in smaller numbers. Language Spanish and Portuguese are the most spoken languages in South America, with approximately 200 million speakers each. Spanish is the official language of most countries, along with other native languages in some countries. Portuguese is the official language of Brazil. Dutch is the official language of Suriname; English is the official language of Guyana, although there are at least twelve other languages spoken in the country, including Portuguese, Chinese, Hindustani and several native languages. English is also spoken in the Falkland Islands. French is the official language of French Guiana and the second language in Amapá, Brazil. Indigenous languages of South America include Quechua in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, Argentina and Colombia; Wayuunaiki in northern Colombia (La Guajira) and northwestern Venezuela (Zulia); Guaraní in Paraguay and, to a much lesser extent, in Bolivia; Aymara in Bolivia, Peru, and less often in Chile; and Mapudungun is spoken in certain pockets of southern Chile. At least three South American indigenous languages (Quechua, Aymara, and Guarani) are recognized along with Spanish as national languages. Other languages found in South America include Sranan Tongo, Hindustani and Javanese in Suriname; Italian in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Venezuela; and German in certain pockets of Argentina, Chile and Brazil. German is also spoken in many regions of the southern states of Brazil, Riograndenser Hunsrückisch being the most widely spoken German dialect in the country; among other Germanic dialects, a Brazilian form of East Pomeranian is also well represented and is experiencing a revival. Welsh remains spoken and written in the historic towns of Trelew and Rawson in the Argentine Patagonia, Croatian is spoken in southern Chile, Arabic speakers, often of Lebanese, Syrian, or Palestinian descent, can be found in Arab communities in Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela and in Paraguay. Religion An estimated 90% of South Americans are Christians (82% Roman Catholic, 8% other Christian denominations mainly traditional Protestants and Evangelicals but also Orthodox), accounting for 19% of Christians worldwide. African descendent and Indigenous religions are common throughout South America; some examples are Santo Daime, Candomblé, and Umbanda. Crypto-Jews or Marranos, conversos, and Anusim were an important part of colonial life in Latin America. Buenos Aires and São Paulo figure among the largest Jewish populations by urban area. East Asian religions such as Japanese Buddhism, Shintoism, and Shinto-derived Japanese New Religions are common in Brazil and Peru. Korean Confucianism is especially found in Brazil, while Chinese Buddhism and Chinese Confucianism have spread throughout the continent. Kardecist Spiritism can be found in several countries. Hindus form 25% of the Guyanese population and 22% of Suriname's. Muslims account for 7% of the Guyanese population and 14% of the Surinamese population. Almost all Muslims in Suriname are either Indonesian or Indians and in Guyana, most are Indian. Part of Religions in South America (2013): Ethnic demographics Genetic admixture occurs at high levels in South America. In Argentina, European influence accounts for 65–80% of the genetic background, Amerindian (indigenous people) 17–31% and sub-Saharan African 2–4%. In Colombia, the sub-Saharan African genetic background varied 1% to 89%, while the European genetic background varied from 20 to 79%, depending on the region. In Peru, European ancestries ranged from 1% to 31%, while the African contribution was only 1-3%. The Genographic Project determined the average Peruvian from Lima had about 25% European ancestry, 68% Native American, 3% Southwest Asian ancestry and 2% sub-Saharan African. Descendants of indigenous peoples, such as the Quechua and Aymara, or the Urarina of Amazonia, make up the majority of the population in Bolivia (56%) and Peru (44%). In Ecuador, Amerindians comprise two-fifths of the population. The indigenous population is also a significant element in most other countries in South America. People who identify as of primarily or totally European descent, or identify their phenotype as corresponding to such group, are a majority in Uruguay, Argentina and Chile (64.7%), and are 43.5% of the population in Brazil. In Venezuela, according to the census, 42% of the population is of primarily Spanish, Italian or Portuguese descendence. In Colombia, people who identify as from European descendants are about 37%. In Peru, European descendants are the third group in number (15%). Mestizos (mixed European and Amerindian) are the largest ethnic group in Bolivia, Paraguay, Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador and the second group in Peru, Chile and Argentina. South America is home to one of the largest populations of Africans. This group is significantly present in Brazil, Colombia, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Venezuela and Ecuador. Brazil, followed by Peru, has the largest Japanese, Korean and Chinese communities in South America. Lima has the largest ethnic Chinese community in Latin America. Guyana and Suriname have the largest ethnic East Indian community. Indigenous people In some places indigenous people still practice a traditional lifestyle, based on subsistence agriculture or as hunter-gatherers. There are still uncontacted tribes residing in the Amazon Rainforest. Populace While Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia maintain the largest populations, large city populations are not restricted to those nations. The top ten largest South American metropolitan areas by population as of 2015, based on national censuses: Five of the top ten metropolitan areas are in Brazil. These metropolitan areas all have a population of above 4 million and include the São Paulo metropolitan area, Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area, and Belo Horizonte metropolitan area. Whilst the majority of the largest metropolitan areas are within Brazil, Argentina is host to the second largest metropolitan area by population in South America: the Buenos Aires metropolitan region, above 13 million. South America has been witness to the growth of megapolitan areas. In Brazil four megaregions exist including the Expanded Metropolitan Complex of São Paulo with more than 32 million inhabitants. The others are the Greater Rio, Greater Belo Horizonte and Greater Porto Alegre. Colombia also has four megaregions which comprise 72% of its population, followed by Venezuela, Argentina and Peru which are also homes of megaregions. Economy Since 1930, the continent has experienced growth and diversification in most economic sectors. Most agricultural and livestock products are destined for the domestic market and local consumption. However, the export of agricultural products is essential for the balance of trade in most countries. The main agrarian crops are export crops, such as soy and wheat. The production of staple foods such as vegetables, corn or beans is large, but focused on domestic consumption. Livestock raising for meat exports is significant in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Colombia. In tropical regions the most important crops are coffee, cocoa and bananas, mainly in Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador. Traditionally, the countries producing sugar for export are Peru, Guyana and Suriname, and in Brazil, sugar cane is also used to make ethanol. On the coast of Peru, northeast and south of Brazil, cotton is grown. 51% of South America's land surface is covered by forest. Transnational companies have settled in the Amazon rainforest to exploit timber destined for export. The Pacific coastal waters are the most important for commercial fishing. The anchovy catch reaches thousands of tonnes, and tuna is abundant, Peru is a major exporter. The capture of crustaceans is large, particularly in northeastern Brazil and Chile. Brazil and Argentina are part of the G20 industrial countries, while only Brazil is part of the G8+5 (the most powerful and influential nations in the world). In the tourism sector, negotiations began in 2005 to promote tourism and increase air connections within the region. Punta del Este, Florianópolis and Mar del Plata are among the largest resorts in South America. The most industrialized countries in South America are Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Chile respectively. These countries alone account for more than 80% of the region's economy. Industries in South America significantly developed from the 1930s, when the Great Depression in the United States and elsewhere, boosted industrial production on the continent. The region partially moved away from agriculture and began to achieve high rates of economic growth that remained until the early 1990s, when they slowed due to political instabilities and economic crises. Since the end of the economic crisis in Brazil and Argentina between 1998 and 2002, which led to economic recession, rising unemployment and falling income, the industrial and service sectors have recovered. South America has shown good signs of economic stability, with controlled inflation and exchange rates, continuous growth, a decrease in social inequality and unemployment – factors that favor industry. The main industries are: electronics, textiles, food, automotive, metallurgy, aviation, naval, clothing, beverage, steel, tobacco, timber, chemical, among others. The economic gap between rich and poor in most South American nations is larger than most other continents. The richest 10% receive over 40% of the nation's income in Bolivia, Brazil and Colombia, while the poorest 20% receive 4% or less. This wide gap can be seen in large South American cities where makeshift shacks and slums lie in the vicinity of skyscrapers and luxury apartments; many South Americans live on less than $2 per day. Agriculture The four countries with the strongest agriculture are Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Colombia. Currently: Brazil is the world's largest producer of sugarcane, soy, coffee, orange, guaraná, açaí and Brazil nut; is one of the top 5 producers of maize, papaya, tobacco, pineapple, banana, cotton, beans, coconut, watermelon, lemon and yerba mate; is one of the top 10 world producers of cocoa, cashew, avocado, tangerine, persimmon, mango, guava, rice, oat, sorghum and tomato; and is one of the top 15 world producers of grape, apple, melon, peanut, fig, peach, onion, palm oil and natural rubber; Argentina is the world's largest producer of yerba mate; is one of the five largest producers in the world of soy, maize, sunflower seed, lemon and pear, one of the 10 largest producers in the world of barley, grape, artichoke, tobacco and cotton, and one of the 15 largest producers in the world of wheat, oat, chickpea, sugarcane, sorghum and grapefruit; Chile is one of the five largest world producers of cherry and cranberry, and one of the 10 largest world producers of grape, apple, kiwi, peach, plum and hazelnut, focusing on exporting high-value fruits; Colombia is one of the five largest producers in the world of coffee, avocado and palm oil, and one of the 10 largest producers in the world of sugarcane, banana, pineapple and cocoa; Peru is the world's largest producer of quinoa; is one of the five largest producers of avocado, blueberry, artichoke and asparagus; one of the 10 largest producers in the world of coffee and cocoa; one of the 15 largest producers in the world of potato and pineapple, and also has a considerable production of grape, sugarcane, rice, banana, maize and cassava; its agriculture is considerably diversified; Paraguay's agriculture is currently developing, being currently the sixth largest producer of soy in the world and entering the list of the 20 largest producers of maize and sugarcane. Brazil is the world's largest exporter of chicken meat: 3.8 million tonnes in 2019. The country is the holder of the second largest herd of cattle in the world, 22% of the world herd. The country was the second largest producer of beef in 2019, responsible for 15% of global production. It was also the third largest world producer of milk in 2018, 35 billion liters. In 2019, Brazil was the 4th largest pork producer in the world, with almost 4 million tonnes. In 2018, Argentina was the fourth largest producer of beef in the world, with a production of 3 million tonnes (behind only the United States, Brazil and China). In chicken meat production, Argentina ranks among the 15 largest producers in the world, and Peru and Colombia among the 20 biggest producers. In beef production, Colombia is one of the 20 largest producers in the world. In honey production, Argentina ranks among the five largest. In cow's milk, Argentina ranks among the 20 largest producers. Manufacturing The World Bank annually lists the top manufacturing countries by total manufacturing value. According to the 2019 list, Brazil has the thirteenth most valuable industry in the world (US$174 billion), Venezuela the thirtieth largest (US$58.2 billion, however, it depends on oil to obtain this value), Argentina the 31st largest (US$57.7 billion), Colombia the 46th largest (US$35.4 billion), Peru the 50th largest (US$28.7 billion) and Chile the 51st largest (US$28.3 billion). Brazil has the third-largest manufacturing sector in the Americas. Accounting for 29 percent of GDP, Brazil's industries range from automobiles, steel, and petrochemicals to computers, aircraft (Embraer), food, pharmaceutical, footwear, metallurgy and consumer durables. In the food industry, in 2019, Brazil was the second largest exporter of processed foods in the world. In 2016, the country was the 2nd largest producer of pulp and the 8th producer of paper. In the footwear industry, in 2019, Brazil ranked 4th among world producers. In 2019, the country was the 8th producer of vehicles and the 9th producer of steel in the world. In 2018, the chemical industry of Brazil was the 8th in the world. In textile industry, Brazil, although it was among the five largest world producers in 2013, is very little integrated in world trade. Mining Mining is one of the most important economic sectors in South America, especially for Chile, Peru and Bolivia, whose economies are highly dependent on this sector. The continent is a large producer of gold (mainly in Peru, Brazil and Argentina); silver (mainly in Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina); copper (mainly in Chile, Peru and Brazil); iron ore (Brazil, Peru and Chile); zinc (Peru, Bolivia and Brazil); molybdenum (Chile and Peru); lithium (Chile, Argentina and Brazil); lead (Peru and Bolivia); bauxite (Brazil); tin (Peru, Bolivia and Brazil); manganese (Brazil); antimony (Bolivia and Ecuador); nickel (Brazil); niobium (Brazil); rhenium (Chile); iodine (Chile), among others. Brazil stands out in the extraction of iron ore (where it is the second largest producer and exporter in the world – iron ore is usually one of the three export products that generate the greatest value in the country's trade balance), copper, gold, bauxite (one of the five largest producers in the world), manganese (one of the five largest producers in the world), tin (one of the largest producers in the world), niobium (concentrates 98% of reserves known to the world) and nickel. In terms of gemstones, Brazil is the world's largest producer of amethyst, topaz, agate and one of the main producers of tourmaline, emerald, aquamarine, garnet and opal. Chile contributes about a third of the world copper production. In addition to copper, Chile was, in 2019, the world's largest producer of iodine and rhenium, the second largest producer of lithium and molybdenum, the sixth largest producer of silver, the seventh largest producer of salt, the eighth largest producer of potash, the thirteenth producer of sulfur and the thirteenth producer of iron ore in the world. In 2019, Peru was the 2nd largest world producer of copper and silver, 8th largest world producer of gold, 3rd largest world producer of lead, 2nd largest world producer of zinc, 4th largest world producer of tin, 5th largest world producer of boron and 4th largest world producer of molybdenum. In 2019, Bolivia was the 8th largest world producer of silver; 4th largest world producer of boron; 5th largest world producer of antimony; 5th largest world producer of tin; 6th largest world producer of tungsten; 7th largest producer of zinc, and the 8th largest producer of lead. In 2019, Argentina was the 4th largest world producer of lithium, the 9th largest world producer of silver, the 17th largest world producer of gold and the 7th largest world producer of boron. Colombia is the world's largest producer of emeralds. In the production of gold, among 2006 and 2017, the country produced 15 tons per year until 2007, when its production increased significantly, breaking a record of 66.1 tons extracted in 2012. In 2017, it extracted 52.2 tons. The country is among the 25 largest gold producers in the world. In the production of silver, in 2017 the country extracted 15,5 tons. In the production of oil, Brazil was the 10th largest oil producer in the world in 2019, with 2.8 million barrels / day. Venezuela was the 21st largest, with 877 thousand barrels / day and Colombia in 22nd with 886 thousand. As Venezuela and Ecuador consume little oil and export most of their production, they are part of OPEC. Venezuela had a big drop in production after 2015 (where it produced 2.5 million barrels / day), falling in 2018 to 1.4 million and in 2019 to 877 thousand, due to lack of investment. For natural gas, in 2018, Argentina produced 1524 bcf (billion cubic feet), Venezuela 946, Brazil 877, Bolivia 617, Peru 451, Colombia 379. In the beginning of 2020, in the production of oil and natural gas, Brazil exceeded 4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, for the first time. In January 2021, 3.168 million barrels of oil per day and 139 million cubic meters of natural gas were extracted. The continent had 2 of the 30 largest world producers of coal in 2018: Colombia (12th) and Brazil (27th). Tourism Tourism has increasingly become a significant source of income for South American countries. Historic relics, architectural and natural wonders, a diverse range of foods and culture, colorful cities, and pretty landscapes attract millions of tourists every year to South America. Some of the most visited places in the region are Rio de Janeiro, Florianópolis, Iguazu Falls, São Paulo, Armação dos Búzios, Salvador, Bombinhas, Angra dos Reis, Balneário Camboriú, Paraty, Ipojuca, Natal, Cairu, Fortaleza and Itapema in Brazil; Buenos Aires, Bariloche, Salta, Jujuy, Perito Moreno Glacier, Valdes Peninsula, Guarani Jesuit Missions in the cities of Misiones and Corrientes, Ischigualasto Provincial Park, Ushuaia and Patagonia in Argentina; Isla Margarita, Angel Falls, Los Roques archipelago, Gran Sabana in Venezuela; Machu Picchu, Lima, Nazca Lines, Cuzco in Peru; Lake Titicaca, Salar de Uyuni, La Paz, Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos in Bolivia; Tayrona National Natural Park, Santa Marta, Bogotá, Cali, Medellín, Cartagena in Colombia, and the Galápagos Islands in Ecuador. In 2016 Brazil hosted the 2016 Summer Olympics. Culture South Americans are culturally influenced by their indigenous peoples, the historic connection with the Iberian Peninsula and Africa, and waves of immigrants from around the globe. South American nations have a rich variety of music. Some of the most famous genres include vallenato and cumbia from Colombia, pasillo from Colombia and Ecuador, samba, bossa nova and música sertaneja from Brazil, joropo from Venezuela and tango from Argentina and Uruguay. Also well known is the non-commercial folk genre Nueva Canción movement which was founded in Argentina and Chile and quickly spread to the rest of the Latin America. People on the Peruvian coast created the fine guitar and cajon duos or trios in the most mestizo (mixed) of South American rhythms such as the Marinera (from Lima), the Tondero (from Piura), the 19th-century popular Creole Valse or Peruvian Valse, the soulful Arequipan Yaravi, and the early-20th-century Paraguayan Guarania. In the late 20th century, Spanish rock emerged by young hipsters influenced by British pop and American rock. Brazil has a Portuguese-language pop rock industry as well a great variety of other music genres. In the central and western regions of Bolivia, Andean and folklore music like Diablada, Caporales and Morenada are the most representative of the country, which were originated by European, Aymara and Quechua influences. The literature of South America has attracted considerable critical and popular acclaim, especially with the Latin American Boom of the 1960s and 1970s, and the rise of authors such as Mario Vargas Llosa, Gabriel García Márquez in novels and Jorge Luis Borges and Pablo Neruda in other genres. The Brazilians Machado de Assis and João Guimarães Rosa are widely regarded as the greatest Brazilian writers. Food and drink Because of South America's broad ethnic mix, South American cuisine has African, Mestizo, South Asian, East Asian, and European influences. Bahia, Brazil, is especially well known for its West African–influenced cuisine. Argentines, Chileans, Uruguayans, Brazilians, Bolivians, and Venezuelans regularly consume wine. People in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, southern Chile, Bolivia and Southern Brazil drink mate, an herb which is brewed. The Paraguayan version, terere, differs from other forms of mate in that it is served cold. Pisco is a liquor distilled from grapes in Peru and Chile. Peruvian cuisine mixes elements from Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Italian, African, Arab, Andean, and Amazonic food. Plastic arts The artist Oswaldo Guayasamín (1919–1999) from Ecuador, represented with his painting style the feeling of the peoples of Latin America highlighting social injustices in various parts of the world. The Colombian Fernando Botero (1932–2023) was one of the greatest exponents of painting and sculpture was able to develop a recognizable style of his own. For his part, the Venezuelan Carlos Cruz-Diez has contributed significantly to contemporary art, with the presence of works around the world. Currently several emerging South American artists are recognized by international art critics: Guillermo Lorca – Chilean painter, Teddy Cobeña – Ecuadorian sculptor and recipient of international sculpture award in France) and Argentine artist Adrián Villar Rojas – winner of the Zurich Museum Art Award among many others. Sport A wide range of sports are played in the continent of South America, with football being the most popular overall, while baseball is the most popular in Venezuela. Other sports include basketball, cycling, polo, volleyball, futsal, motorsports, rugby (mostly in Argentina and Uruguay), handball, tennis, golf, field hockey, boxing, and cricket. South America hosted its first Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2016, and has hosted the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2018. A multi-sport event, the South American Games, are held every four years. The first edition was held in La Paz in 1978 and the most recent took place in Santiago in 2014. South America shares, with Europe, supremacy over football: all winners in the FIFA World Cup and FIFA Club World Cup have come from these two continents. Brazil has won the FIFA World Cup a record five times; Argentina three times, Uruguay twice. Five South American nations have hosted the tournament including the first edition in Uruguay (1930). Two were in Brazil (1950, 2014), Chile (1962), and Argentina (1978). South America is home to the longest-running international football tournament, the Copa América, which has been contested since 1916. Argentina has won the Copa América 16 times, the most among all countries. South American Cricket Championship is an international one-day cricket tournament played since 1995 featuring national teams from South America and certain other invited sides including teams from North America, currently played annually but until 2013 was usually played every two seasons. Infrastructure Energy Due to the diversity of topography and pluviometric precipitation conditions, the region's water resources vary enormously in different areas. In the Andes, navigation possibilities are limited, except for the Magdalena River, Lake Titicaca and the lakes of the southern regions of Chile and Argentina. Irrigation is an important factor for agriculture from northwestern Peru to Patagonia. Less than 10% of the known electrical potential of the Andes had been used until the mid-1960s. The Brazilian Highlands have a much higher hydroelectric potential than the Andean region and its possibilities of exploitation are greater due to the existence of several large rivers with high margins and the occurrence of great differences forming huge cataracts, such as those of Paulo Afonso, Iguaçu and others. The Amazon River system has about 13,000 km of waterways, but its possibilities for hydroelectric use are still unknown. Most of the continent's energy is generated through hydroelectric power plants, but there is also an important share of thermoelectric and wind energy. Brazil and Argentina are the only South American countries that generate nuclear power, each with two nuclear power plants. In 1991 these countries signed a peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement. The Brazilian government has undertaken an ambitious program to reduce dependence on imported petroleum. Imports previously accounted for more than 70% of the country's oil needs but Brazil became self-sufficient in oil in 2006–2007. Brazil was the 10th largest oil producer in the world in 2019, with 2.8 million barrels / day. Production manages to supply the country's demand. In the beginning of 2020, in the production of oil and natural gas, the country exceeded 4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, for the first time. In January this year, 3.168 million barrels of oil per day and 138.753 million cubic meters of natural gas were extracted. Brazil is one of the main world producers of hydroelectric power. In 2019, Brazil had 217 hydroelectric plants in operation, with an installed capacity of 98,581 MW, 60.16% of the country's energy generation. In the total generation of electricity, in 2019 Brazil reached 170,000 megawatts of installed capacity, more than 75% from renewable sources (the majority, hydroelectric). In 2013, the Southeast Region used about 50% of the load of the National Integrated System (SIN), being the main energy consuming region in the country. The region's installed electricity generation capacity totaled almost 42,500 MW, which represented about a third of Brazil's generation capacity. Hydroelectric generation represented 58% of the region's installed capacity, with the remaining 42% coming mostly from thermoelectric generation. São Paulo accounted for 40% of this capacity; Minas Gerais for about 25%; Rio de Janeiro for 13.3%; and Espírito Santo accounted for the rest. The South Region owns the Itaipu Dam, which was the largest hydroelectric plant in the world for several years, until the inauguration of Three Gorges Dam in China. It remains the second largest operating hydroelectric in the world. Brazil is the co-owner of the Itaipu Plant with Paraguay: the dam is located on the Paraná River, located on the border between countries. It has an installed generation capacity of 14 GW for 20 generating units of 700 MW each. North Region has large hydroelectric plants, such as Belo Monte Dam and Tucuruí Dam, which produce much of the national energy. Brazil's hydroelectric potential has not yet been fully exploited, so the country still has the capacity to build several renewable energy plants in its territory. As of July 2022, according to ONS, total installed capacity of wind power was 22 GW, with average capacity factor of 58%. While the world average wind production capacity factors is 24.7%, there are areas in Northern Brazil, specially in Bahia State, where some wind farms record with average capacity factors over 60%; the average capacity factor in the Northeast Region is 45% in the coast and 49% in the interior. In 2019, wind energy represented 9% of the energy generated in the country. In 2019, it was estimated that the country had an estimated wind power generation potential of around 522 GW (this, only onshore), enough energy to meet three times the country's current demand. In 2021 Brazil was the 7th country in the world in terms of installed wind power (21 GW), and the 4th largest producer of wind energy in the world (72 TWh), behind only China, United States and Germany. Nuclear energy accounts for about 4% of Brazil's electricity. The nuclear power generation monopoly is owned by Eletronuclear (Eletrobrás Eletronuclear S/A), a wholly owned subsidiary of Eletrobrás. Nuclear energy is produced by two reactors at Angra. It is located at the Central Nuclear Almirante Álvaro Alberto (CNAAA) on the Praia de Itaorna in Angra dos Reis, Rio de Janeiro. It consists of two pressurized water reactors, Angra I, with capacity of 657 MW, connected to the power grid in 1982, and Angra II, with capacity of 1,350 MW, connected in 2000. A third reactor, Angra III, with a projected output of 1,350 MW, is planned to be finished. As of October 2022, according to ONS, total installed capacity of photovoltaic solar was 21 GW, with average capacity factor of 23%. Some of the most irradiated Brazilian States are MG ("Minas Gerais"), BA ("Bahia") and GO (Goiás), which have indeed world irradiation level records. In 2019, solar power represented 1.27% of the energy generated in the country. In 2021, Brazil was the 14th country in the world in terms of installed solar power (13 GW), and the 11th largest producer of solar energy in the world (16.8 TWh). In 2020, Brazil was the 2nd largest country in the world in the production of energy through biomass (energy production from solid biofuels and renewable waste), with 15,2 GW installed. After Brazil, Colombia is the country in South America that most stands out in energy production. In 2020, the country was the 20th largest petroleum producer in the world, and in 2015 it was the 19th largest exporter. In natural gas, the country was, in 2015, the 40th largest producer in the world. Colombia's biggest highlight is in coal, where the country was, in 2018, the world's 12th largest producer and the 5th largest exporter. In renewable energies, in 2020, the country ranked 45th in the world in terms of installed wind energy (0.5 GW), 76th in the world in terms of installed solar energy (0.1 GW) and 20th in the world in terms of installed hydroelectric power (12.6 GW). Venezuela, which was one of the world's largest oil producers (about 2.5 million barrels/day in 2015) and one of the largest exporters, due to its political problems, has had its production drastically reduced in recent years: in 2016, it dropped to 2.2 million, in 2017 to 2 million, in 2018 to 1.4 million and in 2019 to 877 thousand, reaching only 300,000 barrels/day at a given point. The country also stands out in hydroelectricity, where it was the 14th country in the world in terms of installed capacity in 2020 (16,5 GW). Argentina was, in 2017, the 18th largest producer in the world, and the largest producer in Latin America, of natural gas, in addition to being the 28th largest oil producer; although the country has the Vaca Muerta field, which holds close to 16 billion barrels of technically recoverable shale oil, and is the second largest shale natural gas deposit in the world, the country lacks the capacity to exploit the deposit: it is necessary capital, technology and knowledge that can only come from offshore energy companies, who view Argentina and its erratic economic policies with considerable suspicion, not wanting to invest in the country. In renewable energies, in 2020, the country ranked 27th in the world in terms of installed wind energy (2.6 GW), 42nd in the world in terms of installed solar energy (0.7 GW) and 21st in the world in terms of installed hydroelectric power (11.3 GW). The country has great future potential for the production of wind energy in the Patagonia region. Chile, although currently not a major energy producer, has great future potential for solar energy production in the Atacama Desert region. Paraguay stands out today in hydroelectric production thanks to the Itaipu Power Plant. Bolivia stand out in the production of natural gas, where it was the 31st largest in the world in 2015. Ecuador, because it consumes little energy, is part of OPEC and was the 27th largest oil producer in the world in 2020, being the 22nd largest exporter in 2014. Transport Transport in South America is basically carried out using various modes including: roads, seaports and airports. The railway and fluvial sector, although having more robust contemporary potential, are still somewhat treated in a secondary way. Roads Due to the Andes Mountains, Amazon River and Amazon Forest, there have always been difficulties in implementing larger scale transcontinental or bioceanic highways. Practically the only route that existed was the one that connected Brazil to Buenos Aires, (in Argentina) and later to Santiago, (in Chile). However, in recent years, with the combined effort of countries, new routes have started to emerge, such as Brazil-Peru (Interoceanic Highway), and a new highway between Brazil, Paraguay, northern Argentina and northern Chile (Bioceanic Corridor). Some of the most modern roads extend through northern and south-east Argentina; and south of Brazil, a vast road complex aims to link Brasília, the federal capital, to the South, Southeast, Northeast and Northern regions of Brazil. Brazil has more than 1.7 million km of roads, of which 215,000 km are paved, and about 14,000 km are divided highways. The two most important highways in the country are BR-101 and BR-116. Argentina has more than 600,000 km of roads, of which about 70,000 km are paved, and about 2,500 km are divided highways. The three most important highways in the country are Route 9, Route 7 and Route 14. Colombia has about 210,000 km of roads, and about 2,300 km are divided highways. Chile has about 82,000 km of roads, 20,000 km of which are paved, and about 2,000 km are divided highways. The most important highway in the country is the Route 5 (Pan-American Highway) These 4 countries are the ones with the best road infrastructure and with the largest number of double-lane highways. In addition, there is a reputed Pan-American Highway, which crosses Argentina and the Andean countries from north to south, although various stretches are unfinished. Aviation In South America, commercial aviation has a magnificent expansion field, which has one of the largest traffic density lines in the world, Rio de Janeiro–São Paulo, and large airports, such as Congonhas, São Paulo–Guarulhos International and Viracopos (São Paulo), Rio de Janeiro International and Santos Dumont (Rio de Janeiro), El Dorado (Bogotá), Ezeiza (Buenos Aires), Tancredo Neves International Airport (Belo Horizonte), Curitiba International Airport (Curitiba), Brasilia, Caracas, Montevideo, Lima, Viru Viru International Airport (Santa Cruz de la Sierra), Recife, Salvador, Salgado Filho International Airport (Porto Alegre), Fortaleza, Manaus and Belém. There are more than 2,000 airports in Brazil. The country has the second largest number of airports in the world, behind only the United States. São Paulo International Airport, located in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo, is the largest and busiest in the country – the airport connects São Paulo to practically all major cities around the world. Brazil has 44 international airports, such as those in Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Florianópolis, Cuiabá, Salvador, Recife, Fortaleza, Belém and Manaus, among others. Argentina has important international airports such as Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Bariloche, Mendoza, Salta, Puerto Iguazú, Neuquén and Usuhaia, among others. Chile has important international airports such as Santiago, Antofagasta, Puerto Montt, Punta Arenas and Iquique, among others. Colombia has important international airports such as Bogotá, Medellín, Cartagena, Cali and Barranquilla, among others. Other important airports are those in the capitals of Uruguay (Montevideo), Paraguay (Asunción), Peru (Lima), Bolivia (La Paz) and Ecuador (Quito). The 10 busiest airports in South America in 2017 were: São Paulo-Guarulhos (Brazil), Bogotá (Colombia), São Paulo-Congonhas (Brazil), Santiago (Chile), Lima (Peru), Brasília (Brazil), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Buenos Aires-Aeroparque (Argentina), Buenos Aires-Ezeiza (Argentina), and Minas Gerais (Brazil). Seaports and harbors The two main merchant fleets also belong to Brazil and Argentina. The following are those of Chile, Venezuela, Peru and Colombia. The largest ports in commercial movement are those of Buenos Aires, Santos, Rio de Janeiro, Bahía Blanca, Rosario, Valparaíso, Recife, Salvador, Montevideo, Paranaguá, Rio Grande, Fortaleza, Belém and Maracaibo. About ports, Brazil has some of the busiest seaports in South America, such as Port of Santos, Port of Rio de Janeiro, Port of Paranaguá, Port of Itajaí, Port of Rio Grande, Port of São Francisco do Sul and Suape Port. Argentina has ports such as Port of Buenos Aires and Port of Rosario. Chile has important ports in Valparaíso, Caldera, Mejillones, Antofagasta, Iquique, Arica and Puerto Montt. Colombia has important ports such as Buenaventura, Cartagena Container Terminal and Puerto Bolivar. Peru has important ports in Callao, Ilo and Matarani. The 15 busiest ports in South America are: Port of Santos (Brazil), Port of Bahia de Cartagena (Colombia), Callao (Peru), Guayaquil (Ecuador), Buenos Aires (Argentina), San Antonio (Chile), Buenaventura (Colombia), Itajaí (Brazil), Valparaíso (Chile), Montevideo (Uruguay), Paranaguá (Brazil), Rio Grande (Brazil), São Francisco do Sul (Brazil), Manaus (Brazil) and Coronel (Chile). Rail Two primary railroads are continental: the Transandina, which connects Buenos Aires, in Argentina to Valparaíso, in Chile, and the Brazil–Bolivia Railroad, which makes it the connection between the port of Santos in Brazil and the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, in Bolivia. Two areas of greater density occur in the railway sector: the platinum network, which develops around the Platine region, largely belonging to Argentina, with more than 45,000 km in length; And the Southeast Brazil network, which mainly serves the state of São Paulo, state of Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais. The Argentine rail network, with 47,000 km of tracks, and at one stage was one of the largest in the world and continues to be the most extensive in Latin America. It came to have about 100,000 km of rails, but the lifting of tracks and the emphasis placed on motor transport gradually reduced it. It has four different trails and international connections with Paraguay, Bolivia, Chile, Brazil and Uruguay. The Brazilian railway network has an extension of about 30,000 kilometers. It is basically used for transporting ores. Chile has almost 7,000 km of railways, with connections to Argentina, Bolivia and Peru. Colombia has about 3,500 km of railways. Waterways South America has one of the largest bays of navigable inland waterways in the world, represented mainly by the Amazon basin, the Platine basin, the São Francisco and the Orinoco basins, Brazil having about 54,000 km navigable, while Argentina has 6,500 km and Venezuela, 1,200 km. Among the main Brazilian waterways, two stand out: Hidrovia Tietê-Paraná (which has a length of 2,400 km, 1,600 on the Paraná River and 800 km on the Tietê River, draining agricultural production from the states of Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Goiás and part of Rondônia, Tocantins and Minas Gerais) and Hidrovia do Solimões-Amazonas (it has two sections: Solimões, which extends from Tabatinga to Manaus, with approximately 1600 km, and Amazonas, which extends from Manaus to Belém, with 1650 km. Almost entirely passenger transport from the Amazon plain is done by this waterway, in addition to practically all cargo transportation that is directed to the major regional centers of Belém and Manaus). In Brazil, this transport is still underused: the most important waterway stretches, from an economic point of view, are found in the Southeast and South of the country. Its full use still depends on the construction of locks, major dredging works and, mainly, of ports that allow intermodal integration. In Argentina, the waterway network is made up of the La Plata, Paraná, Paraguay and Uruguay rivers. The main river ports are Zárate and Campana. The port of Buenos Aires is historically the first in individual importance, but the area known as Up-River, which stretches along 67 km of the Santa Fé portion of the Paraná River, brings together 17 ports that concentrate 50% of the total exports of the country. Public transport The main public transport in major cities is the bus. Many cities have a diverse system of metro and subway trains, the first of which was the Buenos Aires subte, opened 1913. The Santiago subway is the largest network in South America, with 103 km, while the São Paulo subway is the most heavily used, with more than 4.6 million passengers per day. Rio de Janeiro installed the continent's first railroad in 1854. Today the city has a diversified system of metropolitan trains, integrated with buses and subway. It has a Light Rail System called VLT, with small electrical trams at low speed, while São Paulo has inaugurated a monorail. In Brazil, an express bus system called Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), which operates in several cities, has been developed. Mi Teleférico, also known as Teleférico La Paz–El Alto (La Paz–El Alto Cable Car), is an aerial cable car urban transit system serving the La Paz–El Alto metropolitan area in Bolivia. See also Flags of South America South American Games List of World Heritage Sites in South America Notes References Citations General and cited references External links South America web resources provided by GovPubs at the University of Colorado Boulder Libraries South America at the Encyclopædia Britannica South America's Ancient Civilisations at the National Geographic Society South America at Curlie The Columbia Gazetteer of the World Online Columbia University Press "South America" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). 1911. pp. 485–489.

Which family duo both made an appearance at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards and starred together on a Disney Channel Original Series?

Miley Cyrus and Billy Ray Cyrus

Tabular reasoning | Multiple constraints

The 2017 Billboard Music Awards ceremony was held at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 21, 2017. The list of nominees was announced on April 10, 2017. Non-televised awards were announced on Billboard website the same day as the main ceremony. Performances Notes ^[a] Sheeran's performance was pre-recorded at Movistar Arena in Santiago, Chile ^[b] Drake's performance was pre-recorded at The Fountains of Bellagio ^[c] Mars' performance was pre-recorded at Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam, Netherlands Presenters Winners and nominees Winners are listed first. Artists with multiple wins and nominations == References ==

This article lists past, present and future television programming on American basic cable channel and former premium channel, Disney Channel, since its launch on April 18, 1983. Current programming Original Live-action Animated Shorts Acquired Animated Repeats of ended programming Live-action Shorts Disney Jr. A list of programs currently broadcast on the Disney Jr. programming block of Disney Channel. Upcoming programming Original Live-action Animated In development Live-action Disney Jr. Former programming Original Animated 1 Indicates program premiered episodes on Disney XD. 2 Indicates program only airs reruns on the Disney XD cable channel. 3 Indicates program is a Disney Jr. original series. Comedy Drama Reality Game shows Variety Miniseries and specials Shorts Syndicated (Originals/Walt Disney Television/ABC) Acquired Animated Comedy Drama Reality Variety Disney Jr. Programming blocks Current Mickey Mornings (formerly Playhouse Disney and Disney Jr.; April 6, 1997 – present) (rebranded on February 14, 2011, and launched as a channel on March 23, 2012, rebranded as Mickey Mornings in 2020) Former Movies See also List of Disney Channel original films ABC Kids DisneyNow List of Canadian programs broadcast by Disney Channel List of programs broadcast by Disney Jr. List of programs broadcast by Disney XD Notes == References ==

Hannah Montana is an American teen sitcom created by Michael Poryes, Rich Correll, and Barry O'Brien that aired on Disney Channel for four seasons between March 2006 and January 2011. The series centers on Miley Stewart (played by Miley Cyrus), a teenage girl living a double life as famous pop singer Hannah Montana, an alter ego she adopted so she could maintain her anonymity and live a normal life as a typical teenager. Episodes deal with Miley's everyday struggles to cope with the social and personal issues of adolescence while maintaining the added complexities of her secret identity, which she sustains by wearing a blonde wig. Miley has strong relationships with her brother Jackson (Jason Earles) and father Robby Ray (Billy Ray Cyrus), as well as her best friends Lilly Truscott (Emily Osment) and Oliver Oken (Mitchel Musso), who become aware of her secret. Overarching themes include a focus on family and friendships as well as the importance of music and discovering one's identity. The Walt Disney Company commissioned the series after the success of Disney Channel's previous music-based franchises, such as the made-for-television film High School Musical (2006). Hannah Montana was produced by It's a Laugh Productions in association with Poryes's production company, and premiered on Disney Channel on March 24, 2006. A concert film, Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert, in which Miley Cyrus performs as Hannah Montana and herself, was released in 2008. The following year, the feature film Hannah Montana: The Movie was released. The series concluded on January 16, 2011, as a result of Cyrus's growing popularity and music career, and her desire to move into more mature acting roles. Hannah Montana is one of Disney Channel's most commercially successful franchises. It received consistently high viewership in the United States on cable television and influenced the development of merchandise, soundtrack albums, and concert tours; however, television critics disliked the writing and depiction of gender roles and stereotypes. Hannah Montana helped launch Cyrus's musical career and established her as a teen idol; after Cyrus began developing an increasingly provocative public image, commentators criticized Hannah Montana as having a negative influence on its audience. The series was nominated for four Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Children's Program between 2007 and 2010; Cyrus won a Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a TV Series, Leading Young Actress in 2008. Premise Story and characters Miley Stewart is a fourteen-year-old middle school student who appears to live a normal life but has a secret identity, pop singer Hannah Montana, an alias she chose so she could have a private life away from the public spotlight. To conceal her true identity, she wears a blonde wig when she appears as Hannah. Miley's father, Robby Ray Stewart, was a famous country music singer before retiring after his wife's death to focus on raising his two children: Miley and her older brother Jackson. At the start of the series, the family have moved from Tennessee to Malibu, California, to allow Miley to develop her musical career; Robby Ray works as her manager. As her schoolmates idolize Hannah Montana, Miley is often tempted to reveal her secret and assume a celebrity status at school. In the pilot episode, Miley's best friend Lilly Truscott uncovers the truth about her alter ego and throughout the first season, Lilly adopts the alias Lola Luftnagle to help protect Miley's secret. Miley later reveals her secret to close friend Oliver Oken, leaving him and Lilly as the only schoolmates she trusts with the secret; he adopts the alias Mike Stanley III. Jackson works for Rico Suave at a local beach food stand; he and Rico often feature in the show's subplots. Miley and her friends begin attending high school at the start of the second season, and in the following season, Lilly and Oliver develop a romantic relationship. In the third season finale, Miley relocates her horse Blue Jeans to California after she feels homesick for Tennessee. The horse is uncomfortable after being moved, and Miley contemplates permanently returning to her hometown. The Stewart family compromise and move out of their house in Malibu to a nearby ranch. In the final season, Miley is faced with extra difficulties in maintaining her double life, which affect her capacity to attend college with Lilly. She must decide between continuing being Hannah Montana and divulging her secret. Ultimately, she reveals her true identity to the world and before leaving for college has to deal with the effects of this decision. She merges her celebrity persona with her former private identity, and Miley Stewart enters adulthood with a newfound celebrity status. Themes The central conflict of the series is the disconnect between the public and private lives of Miley Stewart, and the lengths to which she must go to secure her life as a normal teenager and protect her relationships with her friends. She values her core identity as "just Miley" and endeavors to protect her sense of self. This is made evident in the pilot when she fears her friends might not treat her the same way if they become aware of her celebrity status; Miley's friendships and social opportunities at school are important to her. Jacques Steinberg of The New York Times said the series suggests celebrity status should not be confused with real life and that happiness comes as a result of staying true to one's self. In the Celebrity Studies journal, Melanie Kennedy states Miley must learn to remain as her "authentic self" while still being a celebrity; Tyler Bickford of Women's Studies Quarterly observes that lyrics in the theme song "celebrate authenticity" while also accentuating the benefits of a celebrity lifestyle. Morgan Genevieve Blue of Feminist Media Studies distinguished Hannah Montana from other programs about secret identities because of the public nature of Miley's alter ego. Series creator Michael Poryes said his goal was not to focus on the gimmick but to write about characters and relationships, exploring the real issues Miley faces and how they would be affected by her celebrity lifestyle. While Miley discloses her secret to her close friends, she largely continues to hide her identity because the loss of the anonymity would, to her, represent a loss of her youth. When she reveals her true identity to the world, it is a symbolic representation of the end of her childhood. The final episodes reflect Miley's struggle to say goodbye to her alter ego. According to Kennedy, Hannah Montana parallels the idea of "becoming a celebrity" with "growing up female" and teaches young women the perceived importance of investing in celebrity culture. This intensifies and normalizes the desire of young people to become famous. Bickford said the series discusses themes of publicness and consumerism. Friendship is an important theme of the series, which is evident between Miley and her best friend Lilly. When Miley tells Lilly about her hidden persona in the pilot episode, Lilly promises not to divulge the secret to anyone. Bickford described these relationships as the "emotionally fraught", "intensely valued" core of the series, reflecting the way best-friendship is an important element of childhood. Production Development In the early 2000s, The Walt Disney Company found success with its pay television network Disney Channel, which had a pattern of original programming for a preadolescent audience that featured music. The girl group The Cheetah Girls was made popular by the eponymous television film and found commercial success outside the movie, and Hilary Duff's music was used to cross-promote the series Lizzie McGuire. Disney sponsored concerts featuring music from the network and used their talent to build on the brands; Gary Marsh, the president of Disney Channels Worldwide, cited Lizzie McGuire as its "first success". The network believed the new series Hannah Montana could be marketed in a similar manner. Disney Channel had also found success with musical episodes of its earlier comedy series Even Stevens and That's So Raven. Hollywood.com said the show could build on the success of Disney's television film High School Musical (2006), which also includes music. The sitcom premiered two months after High School Musical. The concept of Hannah Montana was originally labeled "cast contingent", meaning the series would not progress until the central roles were appropriately cast. The project was publicly announced in 2004; casting advertisements for the filming of a pilot were published in January 2005. Disney Channel officially greenlit Hannah Montana as a new, half-hour sitcom in August 2005. Twenty episodes were initially ordered for the first season and six extra episodes were later added to the commission. The series was developed by Michael Poryes, who had previously co-created and produced That's So Raven for Disney Channel. Poryes created the show with director Rich Correll and Barry O'Brien, and Steven Peterman joined Poryes as an executive producer. Disney selected the pilot for Hannah Montana to progress to a series against a potential spin-off of Lizzie McGuire, which the network also considered during the 2004–05 pilot season. The full main cast were attached to the project in August and filming for the remainder of the first season was scheduled to begin in November 2005. It's a Laugh Productions produced the program in association with the network. Former president of Disney Channels Worldwide Rich Ross stated the concept of the series conforms to the typical Disney Channel formula; "an ordinary person in an extraordinary situation". The series is primarily aimed at a preadolescent female audience, however, its framework as a family sitcom allows it to have a wider appeal. Casting The program and its primary cast were announced in August 2005; Miley Cyrus would be portraying the central character of Miley Stewart. After receiving the script from her agents, Miley Cyrus, aged eleven at the time, auditioned against over 1,000 applicants for the lead role, originally named Chloe Stewart. She was rejected for being too young to play the character; Marsh cited her lack of professional experience. Cyrus persistently sent the producers more audition tapes. After six months of further casting searches, Marsh asked Cyrus, aged twelve, to audition again, and she received the role. Poryes later stated Marsh was responsible for selecting Cyrus over other "safe" choices who were more in-line with the producers' original vision. After Cyrus was cast, the character's name was changed to Miley Stewart in an attempt to limit confusion about the show's characters and premise. Network executives cited her confidence, comic timing, and "husky" singing voice as reasons for her casting on the series. In 2006, Time commented that Disney typically selected actors who had the potential to become popular celebrity figures and that Cyrus would likely experience the same process. Cyrus's father, Billy Ray Cyrus, joined the cast as Miley's father Robby Ray Stewart; he was only asked to audition after his daughter had received the role. Peterman praised the pair's "natural chemistry". Billy Ray Cyrus was initially apprehensive about being cast in the series—he did not want to "screw up Miley's show" and suggested a "real actor" be cast instead—but later accepted the role. The series also stars Emily Osment as Lilly Truscott, Mitchel Musso as Oliver Oken, and Jason Earles as Miley's older brother Jackson Stewart. Moisés Arias appears as Rico Suave in a supporting role throughout the first season; he was promoted to the main cast for the show's second season. The network dropped Musso's character Oliver to a recurring role in the fourth season because he had been cast in Pair of Kings, which was developed for the sister channel Disney XD. Guest stars including Vicki Lawrence, Jesse McCartney, and the Jonas Brothers appear throughout the series. Brooke Shields portrays Miley's deceased mother in dream sequences, through which she typically offers advice. Singer Dolly Parton, Cyrus's real life godmother, had a recurring role as Miley's godmother, Aunt Dolly. Parton stated Cyrus persuaded executives to write her into the series and credited her role for gaining her a following among young people. The final season includes guest roles from musicians Sheryl Crow and Iyaz; actors Christine Taylor, Ray Liotta, and Angus T. Jones; and television personalities Phil McGraw, Jay Leno, and Kelly Ripa. Music Hannah Montana includes original music; Disney released albums of songs from the series. Miley Cyrus performs as Hannah Montana and sings the show's theme song, "The Best of Both Worlds". By April 2006, a soundtrack was scheduled for release in the latter half of the year; this would be followed by a studio album by Cyrus the following year. The soundtrack album Hannah Montana was released in October 2006; many of the songs' lyrics allude to the show's premise and Miley Stewart's secret identity. Songwriter Matthew Gerrard intended to encompass the show's premise in the lyrics of the songs. Jeannie Lurie, another key songwriter, explained that it was important for their team to capture the character's voice and feelings within each song's lyrics. The soundtrack albums Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus (2007), Hannah Montana 3 (2009), and Hannah Montana Forever (2010) were released to coincide with their respective seasons. The lyrical themes later became more mature, and reflected storylines from the series such as romantic relationships. The show's music includes elements of teen pop, pop rock, and country pop genres. Steve Vincent, an executive of Disney Channel music, had previously worked on The Cheetah Girls and High School Musical, and helped to develop the sound of the projects. Vincent drew inspiration from country pop artists Shania Twain and Carrie Underwood, as well as pop artists such as Kelly Clarkson, to establish Hannah Montana's musical style. The music makes prominent use of acoustic guitars, synthesizers, and backing vocals. "Ready, Set, Don't Go", a song Billy Ray Cyrus wrote when Miley was cast, was used in the program. Guest stars, such as singer-songwriter David Archuleta, also contributed to songs on the series. Filming Hannah Montana was recorded in front of a live studio audience at Sunset Bronson Studios on Thursdays and Fridays. Cyrus was required to attend school on set, while Osment attended an external prep school. While filming the pilot, Cyrus performed a concert as Hannah Montana at Glendale Centre Theatre to acquire footage for the show. Production of the second season began in Los Angeles, California, in November 2006, and concluded in September 2007. In April 2008, the program was renewed for a third season, which had commenced production by August. By this time, Disney had optioned the program for a fourth season. That December, the network ordered another six episodes, extending the third season to 30 episodes. Filming for the third season concluded in mid-2009. The series also filmed episodes which aired as part of network crossover specials. The first special, That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana, aired on July 28, 2006, as a crossover featuring That's So Raven and The Suite Life of Zack & Cody. The second special, Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana, aired on July 17, 2009, and contained episodes of Wizards of Waverly Place and The Suite Life on Deck. Conclusion and impact on Cyrus Hannah Montana was renewed for a fourth season on June 1, 2009. The new set of episodes has a new setting; the Stewart family move out of their Malibu home to a nearby ranch. Billy Ray Cyrus stated this would be the final season and that Miley Cyrus hoped there would be a conclusion to the show's story. Production for the season began in January 2010, when Disney confirmed the program would be officially concluding. The series finale was scheduled to air in early 2011. As the final season was filmed, Cyrus said she wanted to move on from the series, stating, "I can't base my career off of the six-year-olds". She became increasingly uncomfortable wearing the extravagant, colorful costumes associated with Hannah and stated she had "grown out of it". In 2019, Cyrus said at the time she felt she had matured beyond working on the series and dressing up as Hannah Montana. The final season premiered on July 11, 2010. Episodes Reception Critical reception Bickford said Hannah Montana helped Disney return to a level of commercial success that had been absent since its musical films of the 1990s, and built on the success of the network's programs Lizzie McGuire and That's So Raven. He explained that Hannah Montana adopted a business model of combining celebrity acts with film, television, and popular music for a pre-adolescent audience and compared this model to 1990s teen pop artists such as Britney Spears and NSYNC, who were also marketed to children. Heather Phares of AllMusic described the melodies of the featured songs as strong and Cyrus's vocals as charismatic. Ruthann Mayes-Elma said in a journal article Hannah Montana is a wholesome, "bubble-gum" television show, and that the use of Miley's catchphrase "sweet nibblets" in the place of profanity in the scripts helped solidify the show's family-friendly appeal. The A.V. Club's Marah Eakin found fault with the writing of Hannah Montana, criticizing its "oppressive" laugh track, and its use of stereotypes. The series has been examined for its depiction of gender roles and stereotypes. Blue said the series establishes stereotypical femininity as part of girlhood. She explained that the primary female characters, Miley and her alter ego—Hannah, are positioned as post-feminist subjects in a way their representation is confined to notions of celebrity and consumerism. Bickford interpreted the theme song "The Best of Both Worlds" as an expression of Miley's choice between her contradictory identities, saying the choice is "as simple as choosing a pair of shoes" and that the character is privileged because she has multiple shoes and identities. Blue noted the contradiction of Miley's "normal life" being directly influenced by her celebrity status in ways such as financial security and a spacious home; she suggested Miley supports the family financially. Mayes-Elma criticized the portrayal of Miley as an "airhead" rather than as a "strong, agentic girl", and Blue said Lilly is depicted as a tomboy who does not uphold the femininity Miley represents. In the book The Queer Fantasies of the American Family Sitcom, Tison Pugh analyzed the subtle sexualization present within the characters of Hannah Montana, such as Jackson's girlfriend Siena, who works as a bikini model. In a journal article, Shirley Steinberg cites Miley as a character who maintains chastity but wears objectifying clothing. Mayes-Elma said guest stars such as the Jonas Brothers were incorporated by Disney to encourage the viewership of young teenage girls. Pugh stated that the program obscures the divergence between fiction and reality, due to the character of Miley Stewart sharing similarities to Miley Cyrus, Robby Ray Stewart being difficult to distinguish from Billy Ray Cyrus, and guest actors such as Parton and the Jonas Brothers playing fictional versions of themselves. Kennedy added that featuring celebrity guests, such as Leno and his real talk-show The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, contributed to Miley being placed in the "real world" and thus becoming easily confusable with Cyrus. Pugh explained that displaying Miley as an authentic and likable character was a key marketing strategy, which led to Cyrus becoming closely associated with the Hannah Montana branding; Mayes-Elma explicated that Disney was selling Cyrus—a then-sixteen-year-old girl—to consumers as a "form of pop cultural prostitution". Blue also took note of the intersection between the world of the fictional characters and that of Cyrus. U.S. television ratings The series premiere of Hannah Montana was aired on March 24, 2006, as a lead-in to a rerun of High School Musical, and received 5.4 million viewers. This was the highest-rating premiere episode in the history of Disney Channel as of 2006. By April 2006, Hannah Montana had an average of more than 3.5 million viewers for each episode, many whom were aged between six and fourteen. The show's most-viewed episode, "Me and Mr. Jonas and Mr. Jonas and Mr. Jonas", was aired on August 17, 2007, as a lead-out to the premiere of High School Musical 2 and was viewed by 10.7 million people. Awards and nominations Controversies Cyrus's public image In 2008, Marsh commented on the importance of Cyrus maintaining a wholesome public image while starring on the network. He said, "for Miley Cyrus to be a 'good girl' is now a business decision for her". Cyrus, however, continued to develop an increasingly provocative image as Hannah Montana progressed and the series received criticism for appearing to be a negative influence on its younger audience. Pugh writes that the series acted as a natural appendage to Cyrus's "controversial transition into a sexual provocateur". Cyrus performed a pole dance the following year during her act at the Teen Choice Awards, later defending it as "right for the song and that performance", while Disney representatives did not comment. Her suggestive persona continued with the music video for "Can't Be Tamed" in 2010. The following year, Cyrus was listed as the worst celebrity influence in a JSYK poll voted on by children, following the leakage of a video showing her smoking the psychoactive plant Salvia divinorum at the age of eighteen. In the journal Tobacco Control, Cyrus's high-risk actions were described as a "turning point" for how fans perceived her behavior. Cyrus's public image continued to become more provocative and sexualized following the conclusion of the series. After a controversial performance at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, Melissa Henson of the Parents Television Council said parents would no longer feel comfortable allowing their children to watch Hannah Montana due to Cyrus's sexualized stage persona. Billy Ray Cyrus blamed the program for damaging his family and causing Miley's unpredictable behavior. Miley Cyrus expressed her annoyance at her history with the program in 2013, stating she wanted to suppress her previous music and re-establish her career as a mature artist. By 2019, while Cyrus believed many had viewed her as a "Disney mascot" rather than as a person during her time working for the company, she said she was proud of her work on the series. She said she would like to play the character of Hannah Montana again. Cyrus explained in 2021 that she found it difficult to separate herself from the persona of Hannah Montana. Revised episode A second-season episode titled "No Sugar, Sugar" was planned to air in the United States on November 2, 2008, but was removed from the schedule after complaints about its subject matter. The episode, in which Oliver is diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, was previewed online; viewers said it presented inaccurate information about the disorder. Some viewers said there was a risk of uninformed children following the episode's health information, while others commended the episode's themes of acceptance and support for diabetics. The network revised the episode after consulting diabetes research-funding organization JDRF and filming new scenes; an updated version of the episode titled "Uptight (Oliver's Alright)" was aired during the program's third season on September 20, 2009. Lawsuits Television writer Buddy Sheffield alleged he pitched the concept for a television series titled Rock and Roland to Disney Channel in 2001; it would have focused on a junior-high school student who leads a secret double life as a rock star. The initial proposal was unsuccessful, and in August 2007, Sheffield filed a lawsuit against the network based on the similarities between his pitch and Hannah Montana. The lawsuit said Sheffield was owed millions of dollars in damages. A trial was scheduled to begin in August 2008, but the case was resolved privately beforehand. In April 2010, Correll and O'Brien filed a lawsuit against Disney Channel for $5 million over profits from the program. The pair alleged they were denied their share of profits based on requirements for creators from the Writers Guild of America West. Correll, who also directed a number of episodes, further alleged he was unfairly terminated by Disney in response to giving testimony within the arbitration. By 2016, it was reported the arbitrator found $18 million in under-reported amounts, but the franchise was still operating at a $24 million deficit so no compensation was owed. The pair took their case to open court and claimed they were prejudiced by their arbitrator; in 2018, however, the request to overturn the ruling was refused. Poryes had filed a similar lawsuit in October 2008, but this was ultimately settled. Other media Films In 2008, Walt Disney Pictures released a concert film, Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert, as a three-dimensional film for a limited theatrical run. The film consists of footage of Cyrus performing as herself and as Hannah Montana at a concert during the 2007–2008 Best of Both Worlds Tour. It earned a gross of $70.6 million worldwide. A soundtrack album of the live performances, Best of Both Worlds Concert, was released in April 2008. In 2007, Cyrus reported plans to adapt the television series into a theatrical feature film had commenced, and that she would like to film it in her hometown, Nashville, Tennessee; production began in Los Angeles and Nashville in April 2008. Hannah Montana: The Movie, was originally scheduled for release on May 1, 2009, but its release was preponed to April 10 that year. The film, directed by Peter Chelsom, follows Miley as the popularity of Hannah Montana begins to take control of her life. It grossed $169.2 million worldwide. A soundtrack album, Hannah Montana: The Movie, was released in March 2009. Merchandising In December 2006, Disney released its first line of merchandise linked to Hannah Montana, which included clothing, jewelry, toys, and dolls; the line of clothing duplicated outfits Hannah wears in the series. A line of video games was also developed; the first, Hannah Montana, was released on the Nintendo DS on October 5, 2006. By February 2008, the Hannah Montana franchise had become so profitable Disney convened an "80-person, all-platform international meeting" to discuss its future. Disney's 2008 annual report to shareholders listed the brand as one of the leading contributors to growth across the company. MSNBC estimated the Hannah Montana franchise was worth $1 billion by the end of 2008. The program was a commercially successful franchise for Disney Channel. Potential spin-off In 2011, Billy Ray Cyrus had said he wanted to produce a prequel series. Hollywood Life reported in 2020 that a potential prequel about Miley Stewart's rise to fame as a pop singer, with another child actor playing the character, was being discussed for Disney+. Billy Ray Cyrus again expressed his interest in being involved, while reports said Miley Cyrus would not be. References Notes Citations Bibliography Bickford, Tyler (2015). "Tween Intimacy and the Problem of Public Life in Children's Media: "Having It All" on the Disney Channel's Hannah Montana". Women's Studies Quarterly. 43 (1). Feminist Press: 66–82. doi:10.1353/wsq.2015.0022. JSTOR 43958468. S2CID 86464092. Retrieved October 24, 2020. Blue, Morgan Genevieve (September 1, 2013). "The Best of Both Worlds? Youth, gender, and a post-feminist sensibility in Disney's Hannah Montana". Female Media Studies. 13 (4). doi:10.1080/14680777.2012.724024. S2CID 147354770. Retrieved January 24, 2022. Cyrus, Miley; Liftin, Hilary (2009). Miles to Go. New York City: Disney Hyperion Books. ISBN 978-1-4231-1992-0. Kennedy, Melanie (July 25, 2012). "Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: 'becoming' a woman, 'becoming' a star". Celebrity Studies. 5 (3): 225–241. doi:10.1080/19392397.2013.839349. hdl:2381/45803. S2CID 191487395. Mayes-Elma, Ruthann (2011). "From Miley merchandising to pop princess peddling: the Hannah Montana phenomenon". In Steinberg, Shirley R. (ed.). Kinderculture: The Corporate Construction of Childhood. Routledge. pp. 173–186. doi:10.4324/9780429495090-8. ISBN 978-0-429-96364-3. Retrieved October 24, 2020. Pugh, Tison (2018). "Allegory, Queer Authenticity, and Marketing Tween Sexuality in Hannah Montana". The Queer Fantasies of the American Family Sitcom. Rutgers University. pp. 134–160. doi:10.2307/j.ctt1trkkgj. ISBN 978-0-8135-9172-8. JSTOR j.ctt1trkkgj.8. S2CID 189994401. Retrieved January 23, 2022. Steinberg, Shirley (2011). "The Celluloid Sexuality Curriculum: Deconstructing Teen Films". Counterpoints. 392. Peter Lang: 217–230. JSTOR 42981027. Retrieved January 24, 2022. External links Hannah Montana at IMDb Hannah Montana at TV Guide Hannah Montana on Disney+

Two seasons after Demar Derozan was traded to the San Antonio Spurs, who was the leading scorer for the fifth place team in the Western Conference?

Luka Dončić

Numerical reasoning | Tabular reasoning | Multiple constraints | Temporal reasoning

DeMar Darnell DeRozan (born August 7, 1989) is an American professional basketball player for the Sacramento Kings of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the USC Trojans and was selected ninth overall by the Toronto Raptors in the 2009 NBA draft. He is a six-time NBA All-Star and a three-time All-NBA Team member. He spent nine seasons with the Raptors, including five playoff runs, before being traded to the San Antonio Spurs in the summer of 2018 and the Chicago Bulls in 2021. He was traded to the Sacramento Kings in the summer of 2024. DeRozan won a gold medal with the United States national team in the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics. DeRozan is currently sixth among all active NBA players on the all-time scoring list. High school career DeRozan attended Compton High School and was ranked as one of the top college recruits in the nation from the class of 2008. He was ranked No. 3 in the nation by Rivals.com and No. 6 by Scout.com. He played on the varsity basketball team for all four years of high school. As a freshman, he averaged 26.1 points and 8.4 rebounds. During his sophomore year, he averaged 22.6 points and 8.4 rebounds, while as a junior he averaged 22.3 points, 7.8 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 3.2 steals. As a senior averaging 29.2 points and 7.9 rebounds per game, DeRozan led Compton High School to a 26–6 record, a second consecutive Moore League championship and the CIF Division IAA Southern Section quarter-finals. For his efforts he was awarded the Moore League Most Valuable Player Award and named to the California All-State team. DeRozan was a member of the 2008 McDonald's All-American Team, and also won the 2008 McDonald's All-American Slam Dunk Competition. He was also invited to play in the 2008 Jordan Brand Classic at Madison Square Garden and the Nike Hoop Summit, where he scored a team-high 17 points. DeRozan's achievements on the court in his senior year saw him earn first-team Parade All-American honors and First Team Best in the West honors. College career In November 2007, DeRozan signed a letter of intent to play basketball at USC. He chose USC over Arizona State and North Carolina. In his first game for the Trojans, DeRozan scored a team-high 21 points with seven rebounds in an exhibition game against Azusa Pacific, an 85–64 victory at the Galen Center. DeRozan had 14 points in his first career regular season game in a win over UC Irvine. He scored 21 points along with a career-high 13 rebounds against UCLA in the Pac-10 Tournament semifinals, before scoring a career-high 22 points on 10-for-16 shooting to lead his team to a 61-49 win over Arizona State in the Pac-10 Tournament final. His efforts in the tournament saw him earn First Team Pac-10 All-Freshman honors in addition to being named Pac-10 Tournament MVP. The Trojans went to the 2009 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament as a 10th seed, where they lost in the 2nd round to Michigan State. DeRozan started all 35 season games for the Trojans, scoring in double figures 28 times and posting four double-doubles. He ranked third on team in points (13.9 ppg), second in rebounds (5.7 rpg), third in assists (1.5 apg), and second in field-goal percentage (.523, eighth-best in conference). DeRozan followed his regular-season efforts by averaging 19.8 points in USC's five postseason games. His 485 points ranks third all-time and his 201 rebounds is fourth all-time for a USC freshman. Professional career Toronto Raptors (2009–2018) Early years (2009–2013) On April 8, 2009, DeRozan announced his decision to enter the 2009 NBA draft and forgo his final three years of eligibility at USC. On June 25, 2009, he was selected ninth overall by the Toronto Raptors in the 2009 draft. He stated that part of the reason he left for the NBA after only one year at USC was to help take better care of his mother, who suffers from lupus. On July 9, 2009, DeRozan signed his rookie scale contract with the Raptors. As the fourth contestant in the 2010 Sprite Slam Dunk Competition, DeRozan lost in the final round against three-time champion Nate Robinson. The final percentage was 51% to 49%. DeRozan was selected to compete for the 2011 Sprite Slam Dunk Competition as a replacement for injured guard Brandon Jennings. He finished in third place. On December 31, 2010, DeRozan scored a then career-high 37 points against the Houston Rockets. He matched that career high two more times over the next three years—against the Utah Jazz on November 12, 2012, and against the Chicago Bulls on November 15, 2013. First All-Star appearance (2013–2014) On January 22, 2014, DeRozan scored a then career-high 40 points against the Dallas Mavericks, shooting 15-of-22 from the field. On January 30, DeRozan was selected for the 2014 NBA All-Star Game as a reserve guard for the Eastern Conference All-Star team. He finished the game with 8 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 assists in 15 minutes. On February 1, he recorded a 36 points and a career-high 12 assists in a loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. On March 28, he led the Raptors to a playoff berth for the first time since 2008, with a victory over the Boston Celtics. He scored 30 points in the win, along with 3 rebounds, 4 assists, and 1 steal. On April 13, he scored 30 points against the Detroit Pistons to lead the Raptors to tie a franchise record of 47 wins. DeRozan's 2013–14 season was a breakout year, averaging career-highs of 22.7 points, 4.3 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 30% from beyond the arc, and finished fourth in total free-throws made and seventh in attempts. He led the Raptors to a 48–34 record and a third-seed finish in the Eastern Conference. In DeRozan's first playoff game against the Brooklyn Nets on April 19, 2014, DeRozan scored 14 points on a 3-of-13 shooting as the game resulted in a loss. In Game 2, DeRozan bounced back and scored 30 points on 9-of-21 shooting in a 100–95 win. On April 25, he recorded 30 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists in a loss. That 30-point game made DeRozan the first Raptor to score 30 points in back-to-back playoffs games, and the first Raptor to score 30 in multiple playoff games since Vince Carter. The Raptors went on to lose to the Nets in seven games. In the Raptors' season opening game of the 2014–15 season against the Atlanta Hawks in Toronto, DeRozan recorded career-highs with 11 rebounds and six steals, along with 15 points, in a 109–102 win. On November 29, 2014, he was ruled out indefinitely with a torn left adductor longus tendon. He sustained the injury the night before at the 8:23 mark of the third quarter against the Dallas Mavericks and did not return. On January 14, 2015, he returned to action, scoring 20 points on 9-of-14 shooting in a 100–84 win over the Philadelphia 76ers. On March 2, he scored a season-high 35 points in a 114–103 win over the Philadelphia 76ers. On March 30, DeRozan scored a career-high 42 points in a 99–96 win over the Houston Rockets. On April 17, he was named Eastern Conference Player of the Month for April, joining Kyle Lowry (December 2014) and Chris Bosh (January 2007) as the only players in team history to be named Player of the Month. On April 24, in Game 3 of the Raptors' first-round playoff series with the Washington Wizards, DeRozan scored a playoff career-high 32 points while scoring a franchise playoff-record 20 points in the first quarter, surpassing Vince Carter's previous record of 19 points in a first quarter of a playoff game. Conference Finals loss (2015–2016) On November 10, 2015, DeRozan scored a then season-high 29 points in a loss to the New York Knicks. Reaching the 15-point mark for the eighth straight game to start the season, he became the first Raptor since Chris Bosh in 2009–10 to accomplish the feat. On December 14, DeRozan was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week for games played December 7–13, earning the honor for the first time in his seven-year career and became the seventh player in team history to be named Player of the Week. On January 8, he scored a then season-high 35 points in a 97–88 win over the Washington Wizards. On January 28, he was named an Eastern Conference All-Star reserve for the 2016 NBA All-Star Game, earning his second All-Star nod in three years. On February 2, DeRozan and teammate Kyle Lowry were selected as co-winners for Eastern Conference Player of the Month for January. The pair helped the Raptors go 12–2 during the month and recorded a franchise-record 11-game win streak. On February 22, he became the winningest player in Raptors history, passing Chris Bosh and Morris Peterson with his 233rd career win. With 22 points, he helped the Raptors defeat the New York Knicks 122–95. On March 4, he scored a season-high 38 points in a 117–115 win over the Portland Trail Blazers. In that game, he set an NBA record with 24 consecutive free throws made in one game. On March 12, he tied his season-high of 38 points while also recording 10 rebounds and seven assists in a 112–104 overtime win over the Miami Heat. On March 30, he scored 26 points in a 105–97 win over the Atlanta Hawks, helping the Raptors record a 50-win season for the first time in franchise history. On April 10, he scored 27 points in a 93–89 win over the New York Knicks in New York, setting a franchise record with 23 road victories in a season. DeRozan also moved ahead of Vince Carter for second on the Raptors' career scoring list, trailing only Chris Bosh. The Raptors finished the regular season as the second seed in the Eastern Conference with a 56 – 26 record. In the first round of the playoffs, the Raptors faced the seventh-seeded Indiana Pacers, and in a Game 5 win on April 26, DeRozan scored 34 points to help the Raptors take a 3–2 series lead. In Game 7 of the series, DeRozan scored 30 points to help the Raptors win a best-of-seven series for the first time in franchise history. With a 4–3 series victory over the Pacers, the Raptors moved on to the second round to face the Miami Heat. In Game 5 of the Raptors' series with the Heat, DeRozan again scored 34 points to help the Raptors take a 3–2 series lead with a 99–91 win. In Game 7 of the series, he scored 28 points in a 116–89 win over the Heat, helping the Raptors advance to the conference finals for the first time in franchise history. In Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers, DeRozan scored 32 points to help the Raptors win 105–99 and tie the series at 2–2. The Raptors went on to lose the next two games to bow out of the playoffs with a 4–2 defeat. First All-NBA selection (2016–2017) On July 14, 2016, DeRozan re-signed with the Raptors to a five-year, $139 million contract. In the Raptors' season opener on October 26, 2016, DeRozan had his third career 40-point outing in a 109–91 win over the Detroit Pistons. Two days later, he had a 32-point effort in a 94–91 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers. DeRozan's combined 72 points bested Vince Carter's franchise record of 65 for the most points through the first two games of a season, set in the 2003–04 season. With a 33-point effort on October 31 against the Denver Nuggets, DeRozan became the first ever Raptor with three straight 30-point games to begin a season. With 40 points against the Washington Wizards on November 2, DeRozan tied Mike James' franchise record with four consecutive 30-point games. He passed that mark two days later, scoring 34 points in a 96–87 win over the Miami Heat. His five straight 30-point games set the best such start to a season since Michael Jordan did it for six straight games to open the 1986–87 season. On November 12, he scored 33 points against the New York Knicks for his eighth 30-point game in nine games, becoming only the fourth player to register 30-plus points in eight of the first nine games of a season, joining Michael Jordan, World B. Free, and Tiny Archibald. With 34 points against the Golden State Warriors on November 16, DeRozan became the first NBA player with nine 30-point games in his team's first 11 games since Jordan in 1987–88. DeRozan's six field goals against the Los Angeles Lakers on December 2 saw him pass Vince Carter (3,536) for second on the franchise's all-time list; Chris Bosh still led at the time with 3,614. On December 28, he scored 29 points against Golden State and became Toronto's career scoring leader (10,290), passing Bosh's 10,275 points. On January 8, 2017, DeRozan scored 36 points in a 129–122 loss to the Houston Rockets, setting a career high with his 18th 30-plus-point game of the season. Two days later, he recorded a season-high 41 points and a career-high 13 rebounds in a 114–106 win over the Boston Celtics. On January 19, DeRozan was named a starter on the Eastern Conference All-Star team for the 2017 NBA All-Star Game, becoming the fourth Raptors player to be named a starter after Vince Carter, Chris Bosh and Kyle Lowry. On February 6, 2017, after missing seven of the team's previous eight games with a sprained ankle, DeRozan shot 50 percent from the field and put up 31 points in a 118–109 win over the Los Angeles Clippers. On February 24, he scored a career-high 43 points to help the Raptors rally from a 17-point deficit to beat the Boston Celtics 107–97. DeRozan shot 15 of 28 from the floor as he surpassed his 42-point effort against the Houston Rockets on March 30, 2015. After scoring 42 points against Chicago on March 21, DeRozan scored 40 points against Miami two days later, thus registering back-to-back 40-point games for the first time in his career. On March 31, he scored 40 points in a 111–100 win over the Indiana Pacers. It was DeRozan's seventh 40-point game of the season and 30th game of 30 points or more, tying Vince Carter's 2000–01 franchise mark. With 38 points against Miami on April 7, DeRozan broke Carter's franchise record with his 31st 30-point game of the season. On April 9, DeRozan shot 11-for-15 from the field for 35 points against the New York Knicks and became the second player in franchise history with a 2,000-point season—Carter scored 2,107 in 1999–00 and 2,070 in 2000–01. The win over the Knicks was the Raptors' 50th of the season and helped them lock up at least the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference. DeRozan finished the season with a career-high 2,020 points, while his 27.3 average marked the second highest in franchise history—Carter averaged 27.6 in 2000–01. On April 27, 2017, DeRozan scored 32 points in a 92–89 win over the Milwaukee Bucks, helping the Raptors take their first-round playoff series in six games. The Raptors went on to lose in a clean sweep to the Cavaliers in the second round. DeRozan appeared in all 10 playoff games, averaging 22.4 points, 4.9 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.4 steals per game. On May 18, 2017, DeRozan was named in the All-NBA Third Team for the first time in his career. Final year in Toronto (2017–2018) On November 3, 2017, DeRozan scored 37 points in a 109–100 win over the Utah Jazz, with 17 points and his third career four-point play coming in the third quarter. On December 13, 2017, he matched his season high with 37 points in a 115–109 win over the Phoenix Suns. On December 21, 2017, he set a career high with 45 points in a 114–109 win over the Philadelphia 76ers. He also set a career high with six 3-pointers in nine attempts. On January 1, 2018, DeRozan scored a franchise-record 52 points to help the Raptors beat the Milwaukee Bucks 131–127 in overtime, matching the team record with their 12th consecutive home victory. DeRozan was the first player in NBA history to score 50+ points on New Years Day. He also became the third player in Raptors history to score 50 or more in a single game—the others being Vince Carter and Terrence Ross, who each had 51. On January 8, 2018, he scored 35 points, including a go-ahead three-point play with 26.1 seconds left in overtime, to lift the Raptors to a 114–113 win over the Brooklyn Nets. On January 13, 2018, he had a 42-point effort in a 127–125 loss to the Golden State Warriors. On January 18, 2018, DeRozan was chosen to as an NBA All-Star starter for the second consecutive season, marking his fourth overall selection to the game, leaving him third overall in franchise history behind Vince Carter and Chris Bosh at the time , both of whom had been selected on five occasions. DeRozan joined Carter and Kyle Lowry as the only player with consecutive NBA All-Star Starter selections. On February 1, 2018, he was named Eastern Conference Player of the Month for January. On February 2, 2018, he scored 35 points in a 130–105 win over the Portland Trail Blazers. DeRozan made 11 of 22 shots and matched his career high by making six 3-pointers to finish 6 for 10 from long range. On March 7, 2018, he scored 42 points in a 121–119 overtime win over the Detroit Pistons. In Game 2 of the Raptors' first-round playoff series against the Washington Wizards, DeRozan matched his career playoff-high with 37 points, as Toronto took a 2–0 lead in a playoff series for the first time in franchise history with a 130–119 win. It was his 12th career 30-point game in the postseason. In Game 4, DeRozan recorded 35 points, six assists, and six rebounds in a 106–98 loss. The Raptors went on to win the series in six games. In the second round, the Raptors were once again swept by the Cleveland Cavaliers. To add insult to injury, DeRozan was ejected for a flagrant 2 foul on Jordan Clarkson late in the 4th quarter in Game 4. This was his final game with Toronto. For the season, DeRozan was named to the All-NBA Second Team. DeRozan finished the 2017–18 season as the franchise leader in a number of categories, including regular season games played, wins, total minutes, field goals both attempted and made, and free throws both made and attempted. DeRozan received intensive criticism for his benching in Toronto's game 3 loss to Cleveland where Toronto would make a comeback with DeRozan on the bench. San Antonio Spurs (2018–2021) First-round playoff exit (2018–2019) On July 18, 2018, DeRozan was traded, along with Jakob Poeltl and a protected 2019 first round draft pick, to the San Antonio Spurs in exchange for Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green. The trade was controversial because DeRozan was a fan favorite in Toronto and had not been consulted about the trade by Raptors president Masai Ujiri beforehand; however, there was a perception that DeRozan was not a strong playoff performer, and trading away DeRozan's large contract freed up significant salary cap space. In his debut for the Spurs in their season opener on October 17, 2018, DeRozan had 28 points in a 112–108 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. On October 22, he had 32 points and 14 assists in a 143–142 overtime win over the Los Angeles Lakers. On October 29, he had 34 points and nine assists in a 113–108 overtime win over the Dallas Mavericks. On November 3, he scored 26 points in a 109–95 win over the New Orleans Pelicans, thus scoring at least 25 points in seven of the team's first eight games. The only other San Antonio player to do so was George Gervin in 1978–79. On December 2, he had a season-high 36 points in a 131–118 win over the Portland Trail Blazers. On December 7, he recorded 36 points and nine assists in a 133–120 win over the Lakers. On January 3, he recorded his first career triple-double with 21 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists in a 125–107 win over his former team, the Toronto Raptors. DeRozan also recorded his first double-double in a half. On February 22, he played his first game in Toronto in a Spurs uniform. He finished the game with 23 points, 4 rebounds and 8 assists. On April 16, 2019, during Game 2 of the first round of the playoffs, DeRozan scored 31 points in a 105–114 loss to the Denver Nuggets. The Spurs would go on to lose the series in seven games. Back-to-back postseason absences (2019–2021) On January 29, 2020, DeRozan scored a season-high 38 points, alongside five assists, in a 127–120 win over the Utah Jazz. On March 10, he logged a season-high 12 assists, along with 13 points, in a 119–109 win over the Dallas Mavericks. After the NBA season was suspended in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Spurs were one of 22 teams invited to the NBA Bubble. However, after finishing with a record of 32–39, the team failed to qualify for the playoffs, marking the first time since 2013 that DeRozan's team did not reach the postseason. On April 26, 2021, DeRozan scored a season-high 37 points, alongside ten assists, in a 146–143 overtime win over the Washington Wizards. Four days later, he logged a career-high tying 14 assists in a 140–143 overtime loss to the Boston Celtics. Although they qualified for the newly implemented play-in tournament, the Spurs suffered a 96–100 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on May 19, eliminating the team from playoff contention for the second straight season. Chicago Bulls (2021–2024) Bounce-back and third All-NBA selection (2021–2022) On August 11, 2021, DeRozan was traded to the Chicago Bulls in a sign-and-trade deal; the Bulls sent Thaddeus Young, Al-Farouq Aminu, a protected first-round draft pick, and two second-round draft picks to the Spurs in exchange. DeRozan chose to wear number 11 with the Bulls as his usual number 10 had been retired by the team in honor of Bob Love. On October 20, DeRozan made his Bulls debut, putting up 17 points, seven rebounds, two assists, and three steals in a 94–88 win over the Detroit Pistons. On November 1, he scored a then season-high 37 points on 15-of-20 shooting, along with 7 rebounds, to lead the Bulls to a 128–114 comeback victory over the Boston Celtics, overcoming a 19-point deficit on the road. He would match those 37 points two days later, while grabbing 10 rebounds, in a 103–98 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers. On December 31, DeRozan hit a game-winning one-legged three at the buzzer to award the Bulls a 108–106 road victory over the Indiana Pacers, on a night where he recorded 28 points and six assists. On January 1, 2022, DeRozan had 28 points, and made yet another game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer, giving Chicago a 120–119 road victory over the Washington Wizards, and becoming the first player in NBA history with a game-winning buzzer beater on consecutive days. On January 23, DeRozan scored a then season-high 41 points on 15-of-21 shooting from the field in a 114–95 loss to the Orlando Magic. On January 27, DeRozan was selected to his 5th NBA All-Star Game, his third start and his first All-Star Selection since 2018 where he started in his hometown for the 2018 NBA All-Star Game. On February 6, DeRozan scored a then season-high 45 points, along with 9 rebounds and 7 assists, in a 119–108 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers. On February 14, DeRozan scored 19 of his 40 points in the fourth quarter and delivered 7 assists in a 120–109 win over his former team, the San Antonio Spurs. This was his sixth straight 35-point game, breaking Michael Jordan's franchise record of five straight 35-point games; he also tied Wilt Chamberlain's record of the longest consecutive streaks of such games while shooting at least 50 percent (DeRozan shot 50, 59.3, 60, 63.6, 66.7, and 68.4 percent). On February 16, in a 125–118 victory over the Sacramento Kings, DeRozan broke the record by scoring 38 points, with 6 rebounds and 6 assists, to become the first player in NBA history to score 35 or more points and shoot 50 percent or better in seven consecutive games. By the end of February, the Bulls were in contention for the best record in the East and DeRozan was considered a MVP frontrunner. The 2022 NBA All-Star Game in Cleveland was DeRozan's third time as a starter and the first since 2018, and fifth selection overall. Selected by LeBron James, his squad defeated Kevin Durant's 163–160. On February 24, in a 112–108 victory over the Atlanta Hawks, DeRozan scored 37 points, including the winning basket, and he pushed his league mark of scoring at least 35 points while shooting 50% or better to eight consecutive games. On February 27, DeRozan scored 31 points and grabbed 7 rebounds in a 116–110 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies; it marked DeRozan's tenth consecutive 30-point game, the longest such streak by a Bulls player since Michael Jordan in 1990–91; as DeRozan shot 10 of 29 from the field, this game ending his NBA-record run of eight games of scoring at least 35 while shooting 50% or better, and was ejected in the closing seconds. On March 3, DeRozan was named Eastern Conference Player of the Month for February; it was his fourth career Player of the Month nod. On March 31, DeRozan scored 27 of his season-high 50 points in the 4th quarter and overtime (just two points shy of his career high), along with 5 rebounds and 6 assists, in a 135–130 overtime win over the Los Angeles Clippers. DeRozan finished the regular season as the NBA leading scorer in the fourth quarter with 612 points. On April 20, during Game 2 of the first round of the playoffs, DeRozan scored a career playoff-high 41 points in a 114–110 win over the reigning champions Milwaukee Bucks. The Bulls would go on to lose to the Bucks in five games. 20,000 points (2022–2024) Since the 2022 NBA Season, DeRozan has joined an elite group of players to reach 20,000 points in their career. On October 19, DeRozan posted 37 points, 6 rebounds, and 9 assists in a 116–108 win over the Miami Heat, making him and Michael Jordan the only players in Bulls history to tally at least 35 points, five rebounds, and five assists in a season opener. On October 28, DeRozan scored 33 points in a 129–124 loss against his former team, the San Antonio Spurs, and he became just the 50th player in NBA history to achieve 20,000 career points. On November 4, DeRozan scored a then season-high 46 points in a 123–119 loss to the Boston Celtics. On December 28, DeRozan recorded 42 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks in an 119–113 overtime win over the Milwaukee Bucks. On January 2, 2023, DeRozan scored 44 points in a 145–134 overtime loss against the Cleveland Cavaliers. On February 2, DeRozan was selected to play as an Eastern Conference reserve in the 2023 NBA All-Star Game, his second consecutive selection as a member of the Bulls. On March 17, DeRozan put up season highs 49 points and 14 rebounds, while Zach LaVine put up 39 points, in a 139–131 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. Their 88 combined points surpassed Michael Jordan and Horace Grant's previous record of 85, to become the most points scored in a game by a duo in Bulls history. On December 12, 2023, DeRozan passed Clyde Drexler for 35th in the NBA All-Time Scoring List in loss to the Denver Nuggets. On March 13, 2024, DeRozan scored a season-high 46 points and grabbed 9 rebounds in a 132–129 overtime win over the Indiana Pacers. He also passed Elgin Baylor, Dwyane Wade, and Adrian Dantley to enter 32nd place on the NBA All-Time Scoring List. Sacramento Kings (2024–present) On July 8, 2024, DeRozan was traded to the Sacramento Kings in a sign-and-trade deal that also involved the San Antonio Spurs, sending Chris Duarte, RaiQuan Gray and draft considerations to Chicago and Harrison Barnes to San Antonio. Career statistics NBA Regular season Play-in Playoffs College NBA career records Toronto Raptors franchise records Regular season Most games played (675) Most minutes played (22,986) Most points scored (13,296) Most field goals (4716) Most 2-point field goals (4391) Most free throws made (3539) Awards and honors High school and college 2006 All-Moore League First Team 2007 All-Moore League First Team 2007 Named to the Los Angeles Times First Team 2008 Parade Magazine All-America First Team 2008 Long Beach Press-Telegram's Best in the West First Team 2008 McDonald's High School All-American 2008 Jordan Brand All-American Classic 2008 Southern California Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Association I-AA Player of the Year (tied with two others) 2008 All-State Team 2009 Pac-10 Tournament Champion 2009 Named Most Outstanding Player in Pac-10 Tournament No. 10 retired by USC Trojans NBA achievements All-NBA Second Team: 2018, 2022 All-NBA Third Team: 2017 NBA All-Star: 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2022, 2023 NBA All-Star Rising Star: 2011 NBA Eastern Conference Player of the Month: April 2015, January 2016, January 2018, February 2022 NBA Eastern Conference Player of the Week: December 7–13, 2015; November 7–13, 2016; December 12–18, 2016; January 9–15, 2017; March 20–26, 2017; November 13–19, 2017; December 18–24, 2017; January 1–7, 2018; February 26 – March 4, 2018; November 29 - December 5, 2021; December 27, 2021 - January 2, 2022; February 7–13, 2022; March 4–10, 2024 NBA Western Conference Player of the Week: January 6–12, 2020 National team career DeRozan was a member of the United States national team that won the gold medal in the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup. In nine games, he averaged 4.8 points, 1.0 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game. He made a second appearance for Team USA at the 2016 Summer Olympics. DeRozan averaged 6.6 points, 1.4 rebounds and 0.9 assists in seven games for Team USA in helping them win the Olympic gold medal. Personal life DeRozan is the son of Frank and Diane DeRozan. DeRozan's mother was diagnosed with lupus when he was little. While with the Raptors, DeRozan helped raise awareness and educate Canadians on the disease in part by partnering with Lupus Canada. DeRozan lost his father Frank DeRozan on February 19, 2021 after battling several longtime health issues. He said he would regularly fly to Los Angeles from San Antonio or any city he was playing in to be by his side throughout his last moments. DeRozan has a daughter born in 2013 named Diar, who gained national attention in 2023 after consistently shrieking during free throws in the Bulls' play-in tournament game against the Toronto Raptors. The Raptors shot just 18-of-36 from the free throw line, with many calling Diar an integral piece of the Bulls' 109–105 victory. After the game, Raptors forward Scottie Barnes admitted that the screaming had an impact on Toronto's free throw shooting. DeRozan also suffers from depression, and is an advocate for others suffering with it. After DeRozan and fellow NBA player Kevin Love spoke publicly on mental health it prompted the NBA to add a new rule that requires a team to have at least one full time licensed mental health professional on their staff. The duo also appeared in a PSA video by the NBA that launched the new mental health professional program alongside a new website with various mental health resources. DeRozan is nicknamed "Deebo" after the character from the 1995 film Friday. He received the name as a sixth grader when he beat up an eighth grader during a basketball game at school. DeRozan has reflected on the awareness of his neighborhood nickname: "When people call me that, you have to know me from back home, so when it started carrying over to the NBA, I was just like I don't know how it got to the league." Demar appeared in the music video for Kendrick Lamar's song Not Like Us, a diss track directed at Canadian rapper Drake in July 2024, giving dap to Lamar and crouching, staring at the camera. He appeared during a part of the song where Lamar states "glad De-Roz (a nickname for DeRozan) came home, y'all didn't deserve him neither," in reference to DeRozan's time with the Toronto Raptors, the team for which Drake is considered global ambassador. See also List of NBA career scoring leaders List of NBA franchise career scoring leaders List of NBA career minutes played leaders References External links Career statistics and player information from NBA.com and Basketball-Reference.com DeMar DeRozan at Team USA (archive) DeMar DeRozan at Olympics.com DeMar DeRozan at Olympedia Official website at the Wayback Machine (archived October 18, 2016)

What William Wyler movie debuted the same year that the chairman for the 1982–83 Wolverhampton Wanderers season was born?

Jezebel

Multiple constraints

Alexander Derek Dougan (20 January 1938 – 24 June 2007) was a Northern Ireland international footballer, football manager, football chairman, pundit, and writer. He was also known by his nickname, "The Doog". He was capped by Northern Ireland at schoolboy, youth, Amateur, and 'B' team level, before he won 43 caps in a 15-year career for the senior team from 1958 to 1973, scoring eight international goals and featuring in the 1958 FIFA World Cup. He also played in the Shamrock Rovers XI v Brazil exhibition match in July 1973, which he also helped to organise. A strong and physical forward, he began his career at Distillery in his native Belfast. He helped Distillery to win the Irish Cup in 1956, before he won a £4,000 move to English First Division side Portsmouth in August 1957. He was sold on to Blackburn Rovers in March 1959 for a fee of £15,000 and played for the club in the 1960 FA Cup Final despite handing in a transfer request the day before the final. He moved on to Aston Villa for £15,000 in July 1961 but struggled with injuries during a two-season stay at Villa Park. He dropped into the Third Division to join Peterborough United in 1963, who paid a £21,000 transfer fee. He returned to the top flight in November 1965 after being sold to Leicester City for £26,000. He was sold to Wolverhampton Wanderers for a £50,000 fee in March 1967 and helped the club to win promotion out of the Second Division in 1966–67, to lift the Texaco Cup in 1970 and the League Cup in 1974, and also played on the losing side of the 1972 UEFA Cup final. He also spent two summers in the United States playing for the club's sister teams, the Los Angeles Wolves and the Kansas City Spurs, who he helped to win the United Soccer Association and NASL International Cup respectively. He retired in 1975, scoring 279 goals in 661 league and cup appearances across 18 seasons in the Football League. He was appointed player-manager at Southern League Premier Division side Kettering Town in 1975, a position he retained for two years. He negotiated the first shirt sponsorship deal in English football at the club. He chaired the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) from 1970 to 1978, and helped to further players' rights and set up the first PFA player awards in 1974. Also, throughout the 1970s, he became a football pundit and writer and became particularly well known for his part in ITV's coverage of the 1970 and 1974 FIFA World Cup. After fronting a consortium that took Wolverhampton Wanderers out of liquidation, he served the club as chairman from August 1982 to January 1985. He stood as an independent politician in the Belfast East constituency in 1997 and later became involved in the UK Independence Party. Club career Distillery Alexander Derek Dougan was born in Belfast on 20 January 1938, the son of Jackie and Josie Dougan. His father worked at Belfast docks. His grandfather, Sandy, had played at half-back for Linfield, and two of Sandy's brothers also played for some of the leading clubs in Belfast. As a child, Dougan would usually spend between four and eight hours a day playing football in the street. His family were poor, and later in life Dougan joked that "on the street where I lived, if you paid your rent three weeks on the trot, the police used to come and see where you got the money from". As a teenager he spent 18 months working at a toy factory whilst playing amateur football for Cregagh Boys. He also trained with Linfield, but could not break into any of their junior teams. He instead joined Distillery in 1953. Manager Jimmy McIntosh handed him his first team debut on 5 February 1955, in a 0–0 Irish Cup first round draw with Glentoran. Maurice Tadman, who succeeded McIntosh as the club's manager in the summer of 1955, preferred to use Dougan as a target man centre-forward, as Dougan's height made him adept at winning and flicking on headers in the opposition penalty area. Whilst playing part-time for Distillery, he also worked at the Harland and Wolff shipbuilding company. Though the maximum wage in England discouraged many of Belfast's top players from leaving their hometown, Dougan was determined to leave for the English Football League at the earliest opportunity, particularly so following the death of his mother in June 1955. He began to attract scouts from England after helping Distillery beat Glentoran 1–0 in the second replay of the 1956 final of the Irish Cup at Windsor Park. He played mostly at half-back in the 1956–57 season as Distillery finished sixth in the Irish League and ended up as runners-up in the Ulster Cup, City Cup, and County Antrim Shield. Portsmouth Dougan had trials at Preston North End and Bury before he was signed by Portsmouth for a fee of £4,000 in August 1957. "Pompey" struggled to a 20th-place finish in the First Division in the 1957–58 season. Some of his teammates resented Dougan for what he felt was the constructive criticism he offered in the dressing room. He made his first team debut, providing an assist for Jackie Henderson in a 3–0 victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford. He scored his first senior goal for the club in a 1–1 draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers. New manager Freddie Cox, who succeeded Eddie Lever at Fratton Park in 1958, took the club to relegation with a last-place finish in 1958–59 season. However, Dougan would miss much of the season with an ankle injury. Blackburn Rovers Dougan was sold to Blackburn Rovers for a fee of £15,000 in March 1959. He scored on his Rovers debut in a 1–1 draw away to Arsenal at Highbury. He scored twice on the opening day of the 1959–60 season, a 4–0 victory over Fulham, which began a sequence of five wins and a draw from Rovers's first six matches, at the end of which the club were in second-place and Dougan tallied eleven goals, four of which came in a 6–2 victory over West Ham United. Though their league campaign petered out to an eventual 17th-place finish, Rovers reached the 1960 FA Cup Final at Wembley after Dougan scored the winning goal past Sheffield Wednesday in the semi-finals. However, he did not enjoy his time at Ewood Park, and later wrote that "the dourness of the club matched that of the town. I could not shake off the depression that caused me to wake each day regretting that I had to go to the ground. Life was grey and monotonous". This led to him handing in a transfer request the day before the final, which he later admitted was an occasion where his "vanity triumphed over common sense". He was not at full fitness in the final itself, and had a quiet game as Blackburn lost 3–0 to Wolverhampton Wanderers. He opened the 1960–61 season with a hat-trick in a 3–0 win over Manchester United and went on to withdraw his transfer request. Aston Villa Dougan was signed by Aston Villa in July 1961 for a fee of £15,000. He was signed by manager Joe Mercer as a replacement for Gerry Hitchens, who had been sold on to Inter Milan earlier in the summer for £85,000. Teammate Peter McParland later commented that "when Derek came to us at Aston Villa I think it was at a time when he was not taking the game particularly seriously". After returning from watching his "Villans" teammates win the 1961 League Cup Final at Villa Park on 5 September, Dougan was a passenger in a car accident which killed fellow passenger Malcolm Williams and left Dougan with a broken arm and head injuries; driver and teammate Bobby Thomson was charged but found 'Not Guilty' of careless driving. In November 2010 – three years after Dougan's death, Thomson claimed that Dougan had drunkenly pulled a deerstalker hat over his eyes, causing him to crash the car. Dougan recovered after three months on the sidelines and ended the 1961–62 season with 12 goals in 27 matches. He twisted his knee midway through the 1962–63 campaign after slipping in the street, and ended the season with 14 goals from 33 games. Peterborough United Dougan dropped down to the Third Division to join Peterborough United for a £21,000 fee in the summer of 1963. He later admitted that "I had made a mistake in going to the Third Division when I was a First Division player". The move did though have its benefits, as the club's physiotherapist managed to diagnose and eventually correct an ankle injury that had troubled Dougan for the previous five years. He scored 20 goals in 38 league games in the 1963–64 season, and at the end of the campaign manager Jack Fairbrother was replaced by Gordon Clark, who Dougan said "renewed my sense of vocation". He then scored seven goals in the club's 1964–65 run to the sixth round of the FA Cup, including one in their 2–1 win over top-flight Arsenal at London Road. Peterborough's league promotion campaign failed despite their cup exploits, causing Dougan to remark that "after playing at Stamford Bridge it was not easy to go to places like Gillingham on a cold Tuesday evening, where they are waiting for you with their sleeves rolled up". Leicester City Dougan returned to the First Division when he signed for Leicester City in May 1965 for a £26,000 fee. However, he had a difficult relationship with manager Matt Gillies despite being the first choice striker at Filbert Street. He scored 19 goals in 37 league games in the 1965–66 season to help the team to a seventh-place finish. He scored 21 goals in 35 league and cup games in the 1966–67 season, but his 'free spirit' nature frustrated Gillies, who sanctioned Dougan's sale despite his good form. Wolverhampton Wanderers In March 1967, Dougan dropped into the Second Division after being signed by Wolverhampton Wanderers manager Ronnie Allen for a £50,000 fee. He marked his home debut on 25 March by scoring a hat-trick against Hull City. He ended the 1966–67 season with nine goals in 11 games for Wolves, and helped the club to secure promotion to the First Division. He spent the summer of 1967 in the United States playing for the Los Angeles Wolves in the United Soccer Association, scoring three goals in 11 games to help Wolves to win the West Division title and then captained the side and scored a goal as they beat the Washington Whips 6–5 in the USA Final at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Strike partner Ernie Hunt was sold to Everton for £80,000 in September 1967, which reduced the effectiveness of the Wolves attack, though Dougan still managed to finish as the club's top-scorer with 17 goals in 40 appearances across the 1967–68 campaign as Wolves retained their top-flight status with a 17th-place finish. In November 1968, Bill McGarry replaced Allen as manager, and Dougan later described the seven years he spent playing for McGarry as "the most traumatic of my career". Nevertheless, Dougan's form remained good, and he finished the 1968–69 season with 14 goals from 44 games as Wolves posted a 16th-place finish. He spent the summer of 1969 in the United States as the club again entered the American leagues, this time calling themselves the Kansas City Spurs and playing in the North American Soccer League, where they won the NASL International Cup. Wolves enjoyed an excellent start to the 1969–70 season, winning seven of their opening eight games, but fell away to a mid-table finish after the shock retirement of 24-year old forward Peter Knowles, who left the game to become a full-time Jehovah's Witness volunteer. Dougan had a poor season, limited to just ten goals in 33 games due to injuries and an eight-week suspension, then the longest ban of the post-war era, for verbally abusing a linesman in a home defeat to Everton. The sending off by referee Keith Walker caused upheaval in the stands, occasioning the injury of 84 people. In the return fixture at Goodison Park, he suffered a clash of heads with full-back Keith Newton and had to undergo major reconstructive surgery and was out of action for two months. McGarry did not speak to Dougan during his two-month absence, but Dougan decided against issuing a transfer request as he did not want to further his reputation as a journeyman player. Wolves finished fourth in the 1970–71 season, with Dougan claiming 12 goals from 25 league games as he was rotated throughout the campaign with Hugh Curran and Bobby Gould. Wolves also won the inaugural Texaco Cup after beating Heart of Midlothian 3–2 on aggregate in the final. The following season, he formed an understanding with John Richards that teammate Derek Parkin described as the "best partnership in Europe", which helped to boost Dougan's scoring tally and make Wolves one of the top teams in the country during the early 1970s. They qualified for the UEFA Cup, and Dougan scored a hat-trick in a first round 7–1 aggregate victory over Portuguese side Académica. Wolves then progressed past Dutch side Den Haag by the same score, beat East German side Carl Zeiss Jena 4–0 on aggregate, and overcome Italian giants Juventus 3–2 on aggregate before knocking out Ferencváro of Hungary 4–3 on aggregate to reach the final. There they lost 3–2 on aggregate to fellow English side Tottenham Hotspur, "Spurs" goalkeeper Pat Jennings putting in many saves at White Hart Lane to deny Dougan and Richards from levelling the tie after the first leg at Molineux ended in a 2–1 defeat. Wolves finished ninth in the league in the 1971–72 season, but managed to beat Leeds United on the final day of the season to prevent them from reaching league champions Derby County's point tally, Dougan scoring his 24th goal of the season to secure a 2–1 win at Molineux. He scored 19 goals in 51 appearances in the 1972–73 campaign, helping the club to a fifth-place league finish and the semi-finals of the FA Cup and League Cup. They went on to beat Arsenal 3–1 at Highbury in the FA Cup third-place play-off match, which was the penultimate match of an unsuccessful five-year experiment. He scored 15 goals in 50 appearances in the 1973–74 season, and helped Wolves to finally win a trophy. They beat Halifax Town, Tranmere Rovers (after a replay), Exeter City, Liverpool, and Norwich City to reach the League Cup final. They beat Manchester City 2–1 in the final to secure the club's first trophy in 14 years. Dougan struggled with back injuries in the 1974–75 campaign. After being limited to just six appearances throughout the season, he announced his retirement in 1975. He was granted a testimonial game against a Don Revie International XI in October 1975, which ended in a 0–0 draw. Kettering Town Dougan was appointed player-manager at Southern League Premier Division side Kettering Town in 1975, and immediately set on former Wolves teammate Brian Thompson as his assistant. Goalkeeper Gordon Livsey remembered Dougan as a great motivator, but tactically limited. Dougan negotiated a four-figure shirt sponsorship with Kettering Tyres, which was the first such deal in England. After its use in the Southern League Premier Division match against Bath City on 24 January 1976 the FA demanded that the club remove the sponsor's logo threatening a fine of £1000, and were not impressed when Dougan initially attempted to circumvent the FA's demands by shortening the branding 'Kettering Tyres' to simply 'Kettering T'. The logo was removed, though in June 1977 the FA decreed that a 2.5 square inch logo would be permitted in the future provided it was not "detrimental to the image of the game". He led the "Poppies" to a third-place league finish and the Third Round of the FA Cup in 1976–77. He helped to improve the career prospects of many of his players, particularly Billy Kellock, who went on to play over 250 games in the Football League after leaving Kettering in 1979. Dougan left the club after chairman John Nash resigned in June 1977. International career Dougan represented Northern Ireland at schoolboy, youth, amateur and 'B' level as a wing-half and centre-defender. He made his senior international debut under Peter Doherty in a 1–0 win over Czechoslovakia during the 1958 FIFA World Cup on 8 June 1958. He had won nine caps before he joined Peterborough in 1962 when the drop to Third Division football left him out of international contention for the next three years. Bertie Peacock returned him to the team following his transfer to First Division Leicester City in 1965, and he missed just three of the next 37 internationals. He was named as captain when Terry Neill succeeded Billy Bingham as manager in 1971. He made his final appearance for Northern Ireland on 14 February 1973 in a 1974 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Cyprus. He won a total of 43 senior caps and scored eight goals in a 15-year international career. Despite playing alongside George Best for nine years, Northern Ireland did not qualify for a major tournament after the 1958 FIFA World Cup. An advocate of an All-Ireland soccer team, Dougan was also one of six Northern Ireland internationals to feature in the Shamrock Rovers XI v Brazil exhibition match in July 1973; the "Shamrock Rovers XI" was a pseudonym for an All-Ireland team, which also featured Republic of Ireland internationals. He scored one of the goals for Rovers in the 4–3 defeat. Both the Northern Ireland-based Irish Football Association and the Republic of Ireland-based Football Association of Ireland had been "implacably opposed" to the staging of the game, which was why the team had to be called a "Shamrock Rovers XI". Meanwhile, Dougan, who had helped organise the match, subsequently alleged that his involvement meant that he never played for Northern Ireland again. Though it is arguable that it was at least as much a case of his Northern Ireland career having already effectively been ended, since he had been dropped from the team after a 1–0 defeat away to Cyprus the previous season and hadn't been selected for any of Northern Ireland's subsequent five matches before the Shamrock Rovers XI game, by which time he was already 35. Style of play Dougan was a combative centre-forward who relied on his speed, strength and awareness to score and create goals. Former Peterborough United teammate Peter Deakin said that "his biggest strength was his ability in the air. If enough balls went into the area he would be on the end of 80 per cent of them". He had an excellent left-foot and was described as "streetwise" and "crafty", but was not a great passer of the ball. Opposition defenders did not like playing against him as he was strong and very difficult to defend against. Media career In 1967, Dougan represented Leicester City on the television show Quizball. A fan of psychedelic rock, he cut his own single, "A Goal for Dougie", in 1968. In 1969 published his first autobiography, Attack!. His media appearances became more frequent in the 1970s, and he was asked to make up part of ITV's four man panel to provide coverage of the 1970 FIFA World Cup, along with Malcolm Allison, Pat Crerand and Bob McNab. Presenter Brian Moore said that the panel "gave football punditry a fresh intoxicating sparkle". Dougan went on to host a half-hour show on BBC Radio Birmingham, which previewed the weekend's football. He published a second autobiography, The Sash He Never Wore, in 1972 (in 1997, he republished the book under the name The Sash He Never Wore – 25 Years On). In 1974, he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews for an episode of This Is Your Life. Later in the year he published a novel, The Footballer. Author Melvyn Bragg wrote that The Footballer was "predictable" with "thinly drawn" characters, but praised the dialogue and the "narrative flair". Dougan reprised his role in ITV's World Cup coverage for the 1974 FIFA World Cup, with Brian Clough and Jack Charlton replacing Crerand and McNab. In 1976, Dougan assisted historian Percy M. Young in producing On the Spot: Football as a Profession, a social history book that included anecdotes and insight from Dougan to complement Young's research. He published a third autobiography in 1980, entitled Doog, which revealed his disdain for Bill McGarry. The following year he published How Not to Run Football, which condemned the footballing authorities for what Dougan termed a "Victorian-Edwardian" attitude. In 1983, he co-authored Matches of the Day with Pat Murphy. Football administration PFA chairmanship Dougan succeeded Terry Neill – his future Northern Ireland manager – as chairman of the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) in 1970. He advocated the belief that players should control their own destiny and used his position as Chairman of the PFA to further players' rights. He oversaw the inaugural PFA awards in 1973–74, which included the PFA Players' Player of the Year, PFA Young Player of the Year, PFA Team of the Year, and PFA Merit Award. He pushed for freedom of contract for players, and in 1978 accepted a compromise deal that allowed players to switch clubs at the end of their contracts, providing that the player's new club and old club could agree on a transfer fee, with a tribunal agreeing on a fee in cases where clubs could not agree. [Dougan] led the PFA, along with my predecessor Cliff Lloyd, all through negotiations in establishing a constitution and a collective bargaining agreement which have stood the test of time. at times he was a very controversial character, never frightened of taking on authority, which got him into trouble in his playing career and, needless to say, off the field as well. He led as chairman and brought in the players' right to move, which was the frontrunner of Bosman." Chairmanship of Wolves In August 1982, he fronted a consortium – funded by Saudi brothers Mahmud and Mohammad Bhatti of the company Allied Properties – that took Wolverhampton Wanderers out of liquidation, beating a rival bid from Doug Ellis. The brothers wanted anonymity, and were only revealed to the public after investigation by journalists. He sacked manager Ian Greaves. He replaced him with former Wolves teammate Graham Hawkins. However, the council rejected planning permission for the club to construct a supermarket, and the Bhattis were unwilling or unable to provide further funding for the club. Wolves won promotion out of the Second Division in 1982–83, but were relegated out of the First Division in last place in 1983–84, and Dougan sacked Hawkins and replaced him with Tommy Docherty. Dougan resigned mid-season in January 1985 with Wolves going on to suffer a second successive relegation in the 1984–85 season. Later life Dougan stood as an independent 'Former Captain NI Football Team' candidate for the East Belfast constituency in the 1997 UK general election, but got only 541 votes and finished seventh out of the nine candidates. In April 2000, he was cleared of aggravated burglary following a trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court; the incident had been alleged to have taken place at the home of Patricia Thompson, a former lover. He was also cleared of assaulting a Vietnam War veteran with a pool cue, who had been at the home with Patricia Thompson at the time of the alleged burglary incident. In another court case, again in April 2000, Dougan failed to attend a hearing where he had been charged with driving carelessly and failing to comply with a red traffic signal; he said he had been unable to attend because he had a dental appointment. In December 2005, he was a pallbearer at the funeral of George Best. On 14 June 2006, he appeared on the BBC political show Question Time, as a representative of the UK Independence Party. An opinionated and driven man, his partner noted how Dougan "loved a cause", and in his later years spent much of his time organising charity events and legal representation for retired footballers. He married Jutta, a German woman with whom he had two sons: Alexander (born 1965) and Nicholas (born 1967). He separated from Jutta and spent the last three years of his life with Merlyn Humphreys. Dougan died on 24 June 2007 from a heart attack at his home in Wolverhampton, at the age of 69. His funeral was held on 5 July at St Peter's Collegiate Church, and the service was transmitted to a crowd of mourners outside the church with loudspeakers. Speaking at his funeral, Nick Owen described Dougan as "controversial, fiery, humorous and passionate". He was inducted into the Wolverhampton Wanderers Hall of Fame in 2010, alongside former teammate Kenny Hibbitt. Career statistics Club Source: International Honours Distillery Irish Cup: 1955–56 Blackburn Rovers FA Cup runner-up: 1959–60 Wolverhampton Wanderers Football League Cup: 1973–74 Texaco Cup: 1970–71 UEFA Cup runner-up: 1971–72 Football League Second Division second-place promotion: 1966–67 Los Angeles Wolves United Soccer Association: 1967 Kansas City Spurs NASL International Cup: 1969 References General Gordos, Steve; David, Harrison (2008), The Doog: The Incredible Story of Derek Dougan – Football's Most Controversial Figure, Know the Score, ISBN 978-1-84818-502-9 Tossell, David (2012), In Sunshine Or In Shadow: A Journey Through the Life of Derek Dougan, Pitch, ISBN 978-1-908051-39-4 Specific

William Wyler (; born Willi Wyler (German: [ˈvɪli ˈvi:lɐ]); July 1, 1902 – July 27, 1981) was a German-born American film director and producer. Known for his work in numerous genres over five decades, he received numerous awards and accolades, including three Academy Awards. He holds the record of twelve nominations for the Academy Award for Best Director. For his oeuvre of work, Wyler was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, the Directors Guild of America Lifetime Achievement Award, and the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award. Wyler immigrated to the United States in 1921 where he worked first for Universal Studios in New York before moving to Los Angeles. By 1925, he was the youngest director at Universal, and in 1929 he directed Hell's Heroes, Universal's first sound production filmed entirely on location. Wyler went on to win the Academy Award for Best Director three times, for Mrs. Miniver (1942), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), and Ben-Hur (1959), all of which also won for Best Picture. He was Oscar-nominated for Dodsworth (1936), Wuthering Heights (1939), The Letter (1940), The Little Foxes (1941), The Heiress (1949), Detective Story (1952), Roman Holiday (1953), Friendly Persuasion (1956), and The Collector (1965). Film historian Ian Freer calls Wyler a "bona fide perfectionist", whose penchant for retakes and an attempt to hone every last nuance "became the stuff of legend.": 57  His ability to direct a string of classic literary adaptations into huge box-office and critical successes made him one of "Hollywood's most bankable moviemakers" from the 1930s to the 1960s. Through his talent for staging, editing, and camera movement, he turned dynamic theatrical spaces into cinematic ones. Wyler is also known for his work as an actors' director, often propelling them to stardom. Early life Wyler was born to a Jewish family: 1220  in Mulhouse, Alsace (then part of the German Empire).: 3  His Swiss-born father, Leopold, started as a traveling salesman but later became a thriving haberdasher in Mulhouse.: 37  His mother, Melanie (née Auerbach; died February 13, 1955, Los Angeles, aged 77), was German-born, and a cousin of Carl Laemmle, founder of Universal Pictures. During Wyler's childhood, he attended a number of schools and developed a reputation as "something of a hellraiser", being expelled more than once for misbehavior.: 1222  His mother often took him and his older brother Robert to concerts, opera, and the theatre, as well as the early cinema. Sometimes at home his family and their friends would stage amateur theatricals for personal enjoyment.: 1223  Wyler was supposed to inherit the family haberdashery business in Mulhouse, France. After World War I, he spent a dismal year working in Paris at 100.000 Chemises selling shirts and ties. He was so poor that he often spent his time wandering around the Pigalle district. After realizing that Willy was not interested in the haberdashery business, his mother, Melanie, contacted her distant cousin, Carl Laemmle, who owned Universal Studios, about opportunities for him. Laemmle was in the habit of coming to Europe each year, searching for promising young men who would work in America. In 1921, Wyler, while traveling as a Swiss citizen (his father's status automatically conferred Swiss citizenship on his sons), met Laemmle who hired him to work at Universal Studios in New York. As Wyler said: "America seemed as far away as the moon." Booked onto a ship to New York with Laemmle for his return voyage, Wyler met a young Czech man, Paul Kohner (later the famous independent agent), aboard the same ship. Their enjoyment of the first class trip was short-lived, however, as they found they had to repay the cost of the passage out of their $25 weekly income as messengers to Universal Pictures. After working in New York for several years, and even serving in the New York Army National Guard for a year, Wyler moved to Hollywood to become a director.: 37 Career 1923–1929: Early work and silent films Around 1923, Wyler arrived in Los Angeles and began work on the Universal Studios lot in the swing gang, cleaning the stages and moving the sets. His break came when he was hired as a second assistant editor. But his work ethic was uneven, and he would often sneak off and play billiards in a pool hall across the street from the studio, or organize card games during working hours. After some ups and downs (including getting fired), Wyler put all his efforts into becoming a director. He started as a third assistant director and by 1925 he became the youngest director on the Universal lot directing the westerns that Universal was famed for turning out. Wyler was so engrossed in his work that he would dream about "different ways (for an actor) to get on a horse". In several of the one-reelers, he would join the posse in the inevitable chase of the 'bad man'. He directed his first non-Western, the lost Anybody Here Seen Kelly?, in 1928. This was followed by his first part-talkie films, The Shakedown and The Love Trap. He proved himself an able craftsman. In 1928 he became a naturalized United States citizen.: 73  His first all-talking film, and Universal's first sound production to be filmed entirely on location, was Hell's Heroes, filmed in the Mojave Desert in 1929. 1930–1949: Career acclaim and stardom In the early 1930s Wyler directed a wide variety of films at Universal, ranging from high-profile dramas such as The Storm with Bebe Daniels, A House Divided with Walter Huston, and Counsellor at Law with John Barrymore, to comedies like Her First Mate with Zasu Pitts and The Good Fairy with Margaret Sullavan. He became well known for his insistence on multiple retakes, resulting in often award-winning and critically acclaimed performances from his actors. After leaving Universal he began a long collaboration with Samuel Goldwyn for whom he directed such classics as Dodsworth (1936) where he earned his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director. The film starred Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton and Mary Astor, "sparking a 20-year run of almost unbroken greatness.": 24  He also directed These Three (1936) with Miriam Hopkins and Merle Oberon, Dead End (1937) with Humphrey Bogart, Wuthering Heights (1939) with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon, The Westerner (1940) with Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan, The Little Foxes (1941) with Bette Davis, and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) with Myrna Loy and Fredric March. Wyler's visual style pioneered long, uncut takes in what has come to be called deep-focus cinematography - the use of lenses which can take in the entire depth of a room, keeping everything in focus, i.e. depth of field, and thus can contain dramatic changes in lighting and characters' movements in the same shot. In this, he collaborated with the pathbreaking young cinematographer of 1940's Citizen Kane, Gregg Toland. Gregg Toland shot three of the director's most celebrated films: Wuthering Heights (1939), where Toland's use of low angles, dark shadows and diffusion won him the Oscar for best cinematography; next in Lillian Hellman's adaptation of her searing stage play, The Little Foxes, into Wyler's 1941 film, which had Wyler and Toland working closely together to bring the hard-edged deep focus from Citizen Kane to bear on another tale of soul-destroying family wealth - including inventing a totally white make-up scheme for its star, Bette Davis, conveying her soullessness. Third, and most famously, is Toland's work in one of the cinematographer's last films, Wyler's heart-wrenching masterpiece, The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). This story of three American servicemen struggling to adjust to civilian life after fighting in World War 2 hit a chord with postwar audiences. Memorable examples of deep focus here include the complex scene in which the three men wind up at the same bar, unable to stay at home, and, in its powerful closing shot, a crowded family wedding disperses, leaving only two young lovers staring at one another across the expanse of an empty living room, as stunned in place, seemingly, as the camera. All three films were decorated with multiple Oscars (see the following section). Bette Davis received three Oscar nominations for her screen work under Wyler, and won her second Oscar for her performance in Wyler's 1938 film Jezebel. She told Merv Griffin in 1972 that Wyler trained her with that film to be a "far, far better actress" than she had been. She recalled a scene that was only a bare paragraph in the script, but "without a word of dialog, Willy created a scene of power and tension. This was moviemaking on the highest plane," she said. "A scene of such suspense that I never have not marveled at the direction of it.": 162  During her acceptance speech when she received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1977, she thanked him. Laurence Olivier, whom Wyler directed in Wuthering Heights (1939) for his first Oscar nomination, credited Wyler with teaching him how to act for the screen, despite clashing with Wyler on multiple occasions. Olivier would go on to hold the record for the most nominations in the Best Actor category at nine, tied with Spencer Tracy. Critic Frank S. Nugent wrote in the New York Times, "William Wyler has directed it magnificently. It is, unquestionably, one of the most distinguished pictures of the year.": 88  Variety described Olivier's performance as "fantastic... he not only brings conviction to his portrayal but translates intelligently its mystical quality.": 93  Five years later, in 1944, while visiting London, Wyler met with Olivier and his actress wife, Vivien Leigh. She invited him to see her performance in The Doctor's Dilemma, and Olivier asked him to direct him in his planned film, Henry V. But Wyler said he was "not a Shakespearian" and turned down the offer. In 1950, Wyler and Olivier made a second film together, Carrie, which was not a commercial success. However, some critics state that it nonetheless contains Olivier's finest film performance, but because of its old-fashioned story, the film was very under-appreciated:: 128  In critic Michael Billington's opinion: If there were any justice in the world, Laurence Olivier would have got an Oscar for his unforgettable performance in Carrie.: 137  Director and screenwriter John Huston had been a close friend of Wyler during his career. When he was twenty-eight and penniless, sleeping in parks in London, Huston returned to Hollywood to see if he could find work. Wyler, four years his senior, had met Huston when he was directing his father, Walter Huston, in A House Divided in 1931, and they got along well. Wyler read dialogue suggestions that Huston had given to his father Walter and hired John to work on the dialogue for the script. He later inspired Huston to become a director and became his "early mentor.": xiii  When America entered World War II in 1941, Wyler, Huston, Anatole Litvak and Frank Capra, by then all directors, enlisted at the same time. Later in his career, Huston recalled his friendship with Wyler during an interview: Willy was certainly my best friend in the industry.... We seemed instantly to have many things in common.... Willy liked the things that I liked. We'd go down to Mexico. We'd go up in the mountains. And we'd gamble. He was a wonderful companion....He was equally capable of playing Beethoven on his violin, speeding around town on his motorcycle, or schussing down steep virgin snow trails. Wyler and the Second World War In 1941, Wyler directed Mrs. Miniver, based on the 1940 novel; it was the story of a middle-class English family adjusting to the war in Europe and the bombing blitz in London. It starred Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon. Pidgeon originally had doubts about taking on the role, until fellow actor Paul Lukas told him, "You will find working with Wyler to be the most delightful experience you ever had, and that's the way it turned out." Pidgeon recalled: "One thing that would have been a terrific regret in my life is if I had succeeded in getting out of doing Mrs. Miniver": 335  He received his first Oscar nomination for his role, while his co-star, Greer Garson, won her first and only Academy Award for her performance. The film idea was controversial because it was intended to cause the United States to be less isolationist. It was thought that by seeing the suffering of British citizens depicted in fiction story, Americans might be made more willing to aid Britain during their war effort. The film succeeded in its propagandistic aims, eliciting sympathy for the British people by showing Britain during its darkest days of the war.: 145  Years later, having been in the war himself, Wyler said that the film "only scratched the surface of war... It was incomplete.": 228  U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom Joseph Kennedy told the studios to stop making pro-British and anti-German films, because he believed that British defeat was imminent. But MGM producer Eddie Mannix disagreed, saying that "someone should salute England. And even if we lose $100,000, that'll be okay.": 344  Mrs. Miniver went on to win six Academy Awards, becoming the top box office hit of 1942. It was Wyler's first Academy Award for Best Director. President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill both loved the film, said historian Emily Yellin, and Roosevelt wanted prints rushed to theaters nationwide. The Voice of America radio network broadcast the minister's speech from the film, magazines reprinted it, and it was copied onto leaflets and dropped over German-occupied countries. Churchill sent MGM chief Louis B. Mayer a telegram claiming that "Mrs. Miniver is propaganda worth 100 battleships." Bosley Crowther wrote in his New York Times review that Mrs. Miniver was the finest film yet made about the war, "and a most exalting tribute to the British." Between 1942 and 1945, Wyler volunteered to serve as a major in the United States Army Air Forces and directed a pair of documentaries: The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress (1944), about a Boeing B-17 and its U.S. Army Air Force crew; and Thunderbolt! (1947), highlighting a P-47 fighter-bomber squadron in the Mediterranean. Wyler filmed The Memphis Belle at great personal risk, flying over enemy territory on actual bombing missions in 1943; on one flight, Wyler lost consciousness from lack of oxygen. Wyler's associate, cinematographer Harold J. Tannenbaum, a First Lieutenant, was shot down and perished during the filming. Director Steven Spielberg describes Wyler's filming of Memphis Belle in the 2017 Netflix series, Five Came Back. Before being assigned to the Air Force, Wyler was hired to direct the documentary The Negro Soldier on African-Americans in the United States Armed Forces. Working on Thunderbolt! Wyler was exposed to such loud noise that he passed out. When he awoke, he found he was deaf in one ear. Partial hearing with the aid of a hearing aid eventually came back years later. Wyler returned from the War a lieutenant colonel and a disabled veteran. Returning from the War and unsure whether he could work again, Wyler turned to a subject that he knew well and directed a film which captured the mood of the nation as it turned to peace after the war, The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). This story of the homecoming of three veterans from World War II dramatized the problems of returning veterans in their adjustment back to civilian life. Arguably his most personal film, Best Years drew on Wyler's own experience returning home to his family after three years at the front. The Best Years of Our Lives won the Academy Award for Best Director (Wyler's second) and Academy Award for Best Picture, as well as six other Academy Awards including one Academy Honorary Award. In 1949 Wyler directed The Heiress, which earned Olivia de Havilland her second Oscar and garnered additional Oscars for Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, and Best Music. The film is considered by some to be a highlight in her career, "that could strike envy even in the most versatile and successful actress," according to one critic. De Havilland had seen the play in New York and felt she could play the lead perfectly. She then called Wyler to convince him to have Paramount buy the film rights. He flew to New York to see the play and moved by the story,persuaded the studio to buy it. Along with de Havilland, he managed to get Montgomery Clift and Ralph Richardson to co-star.: 265 1950–1959: Established director In 1951, Wyler produced and directed Kirk Douglas and Eleanor Parker in Detective Story, portraying a day in the lives of the various people in a detective squad. Lee Grant and Joseph Wiseman made their screen debuts in the film, which was nominated for four Academy Awards, including one for Grant. Critic Bosley Crowther lauded the film, describing it as "a brisk, absorbing film by producer-director William Wyler, with the help of a fine, responsive cast." Carrie was released in 1952 starring Jennifer Jones in the title role and Laurence Olivier as Hurstwood. Eddie Albert played Charles Drouet. Carrie received two Academy Award nominations: Costume Design (Edith Head), and Best Art Direction (Hal Pereira, Roland Anderson, Emile Kuri). Wyler was reluctant to cast Jennifer Jones, and the filming was subsequently plagued by a variety of troubles. Jones had not revealed that she was pregnant; Wyler was mourning the death of his year-old son; Olivier had a painful leg ailment, and he developed a dislike for Jones. Hollywood was reeling under the effects of McCarthyism, and the studio was afraid to distribute a film that could be attacked as immoral. Ultimately, the ending was changed and the film was cut to make it more positive in tone. During the immediate postwar period, Wyler directed a handful of critically acclaimed and influential films. Roman Holiday (1953) introduced Audrey Hepburn to U.S. audiences in her first starring role, winning her an Academy Award for Best Actress. Wyler said of Hepburn years later, when describing truly great actresses, "In that league there's only ever been Garbo, and the other Hepburn, and maybe Bergman. It's a rare quality, but boy, do you know when you've found it." The film was an instant hit, also winning for Best Costume Design (Edith Head), and Best Writing (Dalton Trumbo). Hepburn would eventually do three movies with Wyler, who her son said was one of the most important directors in her career. Friendly Persuasion (1956) was awarded the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) at the Cannes Film Festival. And in 1959, Wyler directed Ben-Hur, which won 11 Oscars, a feat unequaled until Titanic in 1997 and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2003. He had also assisted in the production of the 1925 version. Wyler and its star, Charlton Heston, both knew what the film meant for MGM, which had massive investments in its outcome, with the film's budget having gone from $7 million to $15 million, and the fact that MGM was already in dire financial straits. They were aware that if it failed at the box office, MGM might go bankrupt. The film, like many epics, was difficult to make. When Heston was asked which scene he enjoyed doing most, he said "I didn't enjoy any of it. It was hard work." Part of the reason for that was the financial stress placed on making the film a success. With a cast of fifteen thousand extras, a leading star, and shot on 70mm film with stereophonic tracks, it was the most expensive film ever made at that time. The nine-minute chariot race, for example, took six months to film. Ben-Hur became a great box office success. Wyler won his third Academy Award for Best Director and Charlton Heston his first and only Academy Award as its star. Heston recalled in his autobiography that at first he had doubts about playing the role. But his agent advised him otherwise: "Don't you know that actors take parts with Wyler without even reading the damn script? I'm telling you, you have to do this picture!" Kirk Douglas had lobbied Wyler, who directed him in Detective Story in 1951, for the title role, but only after Wyler had already decided on Heston. He offered him instead the role of Messala, which Douglas rejected. Douglas then went on to star in Spartacus (1960). Ben-Hur cost $15 million to produce but earned $47 million by the end of 1961 and $90 million worldwide. Audiences mobbed movie theaters in the months after it opened. Critic Pauline Kael praised Wyler's achievement: I admire the artist who can make something good for the art house audience; but I also applaud the commercial heroism of a director who can steer a huge production and keep his sanity and perspective and decent human feelings beautifully intact.: 96 1960–1970: Later work and final films In 1961 he became a director for 20th Century Fox and also cast James Garner in The Children's Hour with Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine. Garner had beaten Warner Bros. in a lawsuit, enabling him to leave the television series Maverick, and had been briefly graylisted as a result but Wyler broke the graylist by casting him; the following year, Garner played a leading role in four major motion pictures. In 1968 he directed Barbra Streisand in her debut film, Funny Girl, costarring Omar Sharif, which became a huge financial success.: 385  It was nominated for eight Academy Awards, and like Audrey Hepburn in her first starring role, Streisand won as Best Actress, becoming the thirteenth actor to win an Oscar under his direction.: 385  Streisand had already starred in the Broadway musical of Funny Girl, with seven hundred performances. And although she knew the part well, Wyler still had to mold her stage role for the screen. She naturally wanted to be involved in the film's production, often asking Wyler questions, but they got along well. "Things were ironed out when she discovered some of us knew what we were doing," kidded Wyler. What originally attracted him to direct Streisand was similar to what attracted him to Audrey Hepburn, who had also been new to film audiences. He met with Streisand during her musical run and became excited at the prospect of guiding another new star into an award-winning performance. He sensed and admired that Streisand had the same kind of dedication to being an actress as did Bette Davis, early in her career. "It just needed to be controlled and toned down for the movie camera." Wyler said afterwards, "I'm terribly fond of her. She was very professional, very good, a hard worker, too hard at times. She would work day and night if you would let her. She is absolutely tireless". Wyler was hired to direct Patton (1970), but quit before the beginning of production in 1969. The last film Wyler directed was The Liberation of L.B. Jones, released in 1970. Style and technique Visual style Wyler had worked with cinematographer Gregg Toland for six of his films, mostly in the 1930s. Toland used deep focus photographic technique for most of them, whereby he could keep all objects on the screen, whether foreground or background, in sharp focus at the same time. The technique gives the illusion of depth and therefore makes the scene more true to life.: 77  A perfectionist, Wyler earned the nickname "40-take Wyler". On the set of Jezebel, Wyler forced Henry Fonda through 40 takes of one particular scene, his only guidance being "Again!" after each take. When Fonda asked for more direction, Wyler responded, "It stinks." Similarly, when Charlton Heston quizzed the director about the supposed shortcomings of his performance in Ben-Hur, Wyler simply told Heston "Be better!" However, Heston notes that by the time a scene is done, regardless of how hard it was to do, it always came off well: The only answer I have is that his taste is impeccable and every actor knows it. Your faith in his taste and what it will do for your performance is what makes casting a Wyler picture a cinch...doing a film for Wyler is like getting the works in a Turkish bath. You darn near drown, but you come out smelling like a rose.: 351 Actors director He helped propel a number of actors to stardom, including finding and directing Audrey Hepburn in her debut starring role, Roman Holiday (1953), and directing Barbra Streisand in her debut film, Funny Girl (1968), with both actresses winning Academy Awards. Olivia de Havilland and Bette Davis both won their second Oscars in Wyler films, de Havilland for The Heiress (1949) and Davis for Jezebel (1938). Davis said Wyler made her a "far, far better actress" than she had ever been, while Laurence Olivier, who received his first Oscar nomination for Wyler's Wuthering Heights (1939), credited Wyler with teaching him how to act for the screen. Wyler's three Best Picture-winning films each featured a Best Actress or Actor Oscar winner - Greer Garson in Mrs Miniver, Fredric March in The Best Years of Our Lives, and Charlton Heston in Ben-Hur. Other popular Wyler films include: The Westerner (1940) with Gary Cooper, The Letter (1940) again with Davis, Detective Story (1951) with Kirk Douglas, Friendly Persuasion (1956) with Cooper and Dorothy McGuire, The Big Country (1958) with Gregory Peck and Heston, The Children's Hour (1961) with Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine and James Garner, and How to Steal a Million (1966) with Hepburn and Peter O'Toole. Legacy Fourteen actors won Oscars under Wyler's direction, including Bette Davis in Jezebel (1938) and her nomination for The Letter (1940). Davis summed up their work together: "It was he who helped me to realize my full potential as an actress. I met my match in this exceptionally creative and talented director.": 79  Other Oscar winners were Olivia de Havilland in The Heiress (1949), Audrey Hepburn in her debut film, Roman Holiday (1953), Charlton Heston in Ben-Hur (1959), and Barbra Streisand in her debut film, Funny Girl (1968). Wyler's films garnered more awards for participating artists and actors than any other director in the history of Hollywood. He received 12 Oscar nominations for Best Director, while dozens of his collaborators and actors won Oscars or were nominated. In 1965, Wyler won the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for career achievement. Eleven years later, he received the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award. In addition to his Best Picture and Best Director Oscar wins, 13 of Wyler's films earned Best Picture nominations. Other late Wyler films include The Children's Hour (1961), which was nominated for five Academy Awards. Later films included The Collector (1963), Funny Girl (1968), and his final film, The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970). Many of Wyler's home movies are held by the Academy Film Archive; the archive preserved a number of them in 2017. Personal life and death Wyler was briefly married to actress Margaret Sullavan (from November 25, 1934 – March 13, 1936) and married actress Margaret "Talli" Tallichet on October 23, 1938. The couple remained together until his death. They had five children: Catherine, Judith, William Jr., Melanie and David. Catherine said during an interview that her mother played an important part in his career, often being his "gatekeeper" and his reader of scripts presented to him. On July 24, 1981, Wyler gave an interview with his daughter, Catherine, for Directed by William Wyler, a PBS documentary about his life and career. Three days later, he died from a heart attack. He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park in Glendale, California. Wyler was a Freemason. Filmography Honors and awards Wyler is the most nominated director in Academy Awards history with twelve nominations. He won the Academy Award for Best Director on three occasions, for Mrs. Miniver (1942), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), and Ben-Hur (1959). He is tied with Frank Capra and behind John Ford, who won four Oscars in this category. He is also the only director in Academy history to direct three Best Picture-winning films (the three for which he won Best Director), and shares with Steven Spielberg the record for directing the greatest number of Best Picture nominees (thirteen). He has the distinction of having directed more actors to Oscar-nominated performances than any other director in history: thirty-six. Out of these nominees, fourteen went on to win Oscars, also a record. He received the fourth AFI Life Achievement Award in 1976. Among those who thanked him for directing her in her debut film, was Barbra Streisand. For his contributions to the motion picture industry, on February 8, 1960, Wyler has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1731 Vine Street. In 1961, Wyler was chosen as one of 50 outstanding Americans of meritorious performance in the fields of endeavor, to be honored as a Guest of Honor to the first annual Banquet of the Golden Plate in Monterey, California. The honor was awarded by vote of the National Panel of Distinguished Americans of the Academy of Achievement. References External links William Wyler at IMDb William Wyler bibliography via UC Berkeley Media Resources Center In Loving Memory Of William Wyler Archived February 28, 2021, at the Wayback Machine Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database "The Little Foxes" and Wyler's screen collaborations with playwright Lillian Hellman Margaret Tallichet and William Wyler remembered at Alabama festival The Fighting Lady William Wyler papers, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences William Wyler on Encyclopædia Britannica

How many more letters does the name of the city that the director of "Whiplash" (2014) was born in have compared the name of the city in which the film first premiered?

2

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Whiplash is a 2014 American psychological drama film written and directed by Damien Chazelle, starring Miles Teller, J. K. Simmons, Paul Reiser, and Melissa Benoist. It focuses on an ambitious music student and aspiring jazz drummer (Teller), who is pushed to his limit by his abusive instructor (Simmons) at the fictional Shaffer Conservatory in New York City. The film was produced by Bold Films, Blumhouse Productions, and Right of Way Films. Sony Pictures acquired distribution rights for most of the world, releasing the film under Sony Pictures Classics in North America, Germany, and Australia, and Stage 6 Films in select international territories. Chazelle completed the script in 2013, drawing upon his experiences in a "very competitive" jazz band in high school. Soon after, Right of Way and Blumhouse helped Chazelle turn fifteen pages of the script into an eighteen-minute short film, also titled Whiplash. The short film received acclaim after debuting at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, which attracted investors to produce the complete version of the script. Filming took place in September 2013 throughout Los Angeles over twenty days. The film explores concepts of perfectionism, dedication, and success and deconstructs the concept of ambition. Whiplash premiered in competition at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival on January 16, as the festival's opening film; it won the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize for drama. The film opened in limited release domestically in the United States and Canada on October 10, 2014, gradually expanding to over 500 screens and finally closing on March 26, 2015. The film received acclaim for its screenplay, direction, editing, sound mixing, and performances. It grossed $49 million on a $3.3 million budget during its original theatrical run, making it Chazelle's highest-grossing feature until La La Land (2016). The film received multiple accolades, winning Academy Awards for Best Film Editing and Best Sound Mixing, and was nominated for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. Simmons's performance won the Academy, BAFTA, Critics' Choice, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild awards for Best Supporting Actor. It has since been assessed as one of the best films of the 2010s, the 21st century, and of all time. Plot Jazz drummer Andrew Neiman attends the prestigious Shaffer Conservatory in New York City, hoping to leave a legacy like that of his childhood idol Buddy Rich. Terence Fletcher, the conductor of the Shaffer Conservatory Studio Band, recruits him to play in the Studio ensemble as an alternate for core drummer Carl Tanner. Andrew discovers that Fletcher, although encouraging at first, is relentlessly strict and verbally and physically abusive towards his students. When Andrew fails to keep tempo during his first ensemble rehearsal of Hank Levy's "Whiplash", Fletcher throws a chair at him, slaps his face, and berates him. Determined to impress Fletcher, Andrew excessively practices, often until his hands blister and bleed. After their first set at a jazz competition, Andrew misplaces Tanner's sheet music. Tanner cannot play without the sheets, so Andrew replaces him to perform "Whiplash" from memory, which leads Fletcher to promote him to core drummer. However, Andrew is taken aback when Fletcher abruptly reassigns the position to Ryan Connolly, a drummer from a lower-level ensemble within Shaffer. Because of his single-mindedness toward music, Andrew clashes with his family and breaks up with his girlfriend, Nicole, to focus on his ambitions. One day, Fletcher begins rehearsal by announcing that Sean Casey, a former member of the Studio Band, died in a car accident. Fletcher then pushes the three drummers to play at a faster tempo on "Caravan", keeping them for a grueling five-hour practice before Andrew earns back the core position. On the way to the next competition, Andrew's bus gets a flat tire. He rents a car but arrives late and forgets his drumsticks at the rental office, irritating Fletcher. Andrew races back and retrieves them, but his car is hit by a truck on the way back. Heavily injured, he crawls from the wreckage and runs to the theater, arriving bloodied and weak just as the ensemble enters the stage. He fails at playing "Caravan", and Fletcher halts the performance to dismiss him from the band. Enraged, Andrew attacks Fletcher onstage and as a result is expelled from Shaffer. At his father Jim's request, Andrew meets a lawyer representing the parents of the late Sean Casey, who, it is revealed, had actually hanged himself after suffering from depression and anxiety inflicted by Fletcher's abuse. Casey's parents want Fletcher held accountable, and Andrew reluctantly agrees to testify anonymously, leading Shaffer to terminate Fletcher. Andrew abandons drumming but encounters Fletcher months later playing piano at a jazz club. Over a drink, Fletcher admits his teaching methods were harsh but insists they were necessary to motivate his students. Citing a story where Jo Jones allegedly threw a cymbal at Charlie Parker as an example, Fletcher says that the next jazz musician to live up to Parker's legacy would never let discouragement stop them. He invites Andrew to perform with his professional band at a New York JVC Jazz Festival, playing the same songs from the Shaffer Studio Band; Andrew accepts. Andrew calls Nicole to invite her to the performance but learns she is in a new relationship. At the festival, Fletcher tells Andrew he knows he testified against him. As revenge, Fletcher leads the band into a song Andrew does not know. After a disastrous performance, Andrew walks offstage, humiliated. Jim embraces him backstage, but Andrew returns, reclaims the drum kit, and cuts off Fletcher's introduction to the next tune by cueing the band into "Caravan". Initially angered, Fletcher resumes conducting. As the piece finishes, Andrew continues into an unexpected improvised solo. Impressed, Fletcher nods in approval before cueing the final chord. Cast Miles Teller as Andrew Neiman, an ambitious young jazz drummer at Shaffer Conservatory J. K. Simmons as Terence Fletcher, a ruthless jazz instructor at Shaffer Paul Reiser as Jim Neiman, Andrew's father, a writer turned high school teacher Melissa Benoist as Nicole, a movie theater employee who briefly dates Andrew Austin Stowell as Ryan Connolly, another drummer in Fletcher's band Nate Lang as Carl Tanner, another drummer in Fletcher's band Chris Mulkey as Uncle Frank Neiman, Andrew's uncle Damon Gupton as Mr. Kramer, Andrew's first instructor before being recruited by Fletcher Production Development While attending Princeton High School, writer-director Damien Chazelle was in a "very competitive" Studio Band and drew on the dread he felt in those years. He based the conductor, Terence Fletcher, on his former band instructor (who died in 2003) but "pushed it further", adding elements of Buddy Rich and other band leaders known for their harsh treatment. Chazelle wrote the film "initially in frustration" while trying to get his musical La La Land off the ground. Right of Way Films and Blumhouse Productions helped Chazelle turn fifteen pages of his original screenplay into a short film starring Johnny Simmons as Neiman and J. K. Simmons (no relation) as Fletcher. The eighteen-minute short film received acclaim after debuting at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, winning the short film Jury Award for fiction, which attracted investors to produce the complete version of the script. The feature-length film was financed for $3.3 million by Bold Films. In August 2013, Miles Teller signed on to star in the role originated by Johnny Simmons; J. K. Simmons remained attached to his original role. Early on, Chazelle gave J. K. Simmons direction that "I want you to take it past what you think the normal limit would be," telling him: "I don't want to see a human being on-screen any more. I want to see a monster, a gargoyle, an animal." Many of the band members were real musicians or music students, and Chazelle tried to capture their expressions of fear and anxiety when Simmons pressed them. Chazelle said that, between takes, Simmons was "as sweet as can be", which he credits for keeping "the shoot from being nightmarish". Filming Principal photography began in September 2013, with filming taking place throughout Los Angeles, including the Hotel Barclay, Palace Theater, and the Orpheum Theatre. The film was shot in nineteen days, with a schedule of fourteen hours of filming per day. Chazelle was involved in a serious car accident in the third week of filming and was hospitalized with possible concussion, but he returned to set the following day to wrap the shoot on time. Having taught himself to play drums at age fifteen, Teller performed much of the drumming seen in the film. Supporting actor and jazz drummer Nate Lang, who plays Neiman's rival Carl in the film, trained Teller in the specifics of jazz drumming; this included changing his grip from matched to traditional. For certain scenes, professional drummer Kyle Crane served as Teller's drum double. Music The soundtrack album was released on October 7, 2014, via the Varèse Sarabande label. The soundtrack consists of 24 tracks divided in three different parts: original jazz pieces written for the film, original underscore parts written for the film, and classic jazz standards written by Stan Getz, Duke Ellington, and other musicians. The actual drummer was Bernie Dresel. On March 27, 2020, an expanded deluxe edition was released on double CD and 2-LP gatefold sleeve vinyl with new cover art, and featured original music by Justin Hurwitz, plus bonus track and remixes by Timo Garcia, Opiuo, Murray A. Lightburn, and more. Reception Box office In North America, the film opened in a limited release on October 10, 2014, in six theaters, grossing $135,388 ($22,565 per theater) and finishing 34th at the box office. It expanded to 88 locations, then 419 locations. After three months on release, it had earned $7 million, and finally expanded nationwide to 1000 locations to capitalize on receiving five Academy Awards nominations. As of September 26, 2024, Whiplash grossed $13.7 million in the U.S. and Canada and $36.3 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $50 million against a budget of $3.3 million. Critical response On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film scored 94% based on 307 reviews, with an average rating of 8.6/10. The site's critical consensus states, "Intense, inspiring, and well-acted, Whiplash is a brilliant sophomore effort from director Damien Chazelle and a riveting vehicle for stars J. K. Simmons and Miles Teller." On Metacritic the film has a score of 89 out of 100, based on reviews from 49 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Simmons received wide praise for his performance and won the 2015 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Peter Debruge, in his review for Variety, said that the film "demolishes the cliches of the musical-prodigy genre, investing the traditionally polite stages and rehearsal studios of a topnotch conservatory with all the psychological intensity of a battlefield or sports arena." Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter praised the performances of Teller and Simmons, writing: "Teller, who greatly impressed in last year's Sundance entry The Spectacular Now, does so again in a performance that is more often simmering than volatile ... Simmons has the great good fortune for a character actor to have here found a co-lead part he can really run with, which is what he excitingly does with a man who is profane, way out of bounds and, like many a good villain, utterly compelling." Whiplash also won the 87th Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing and the 87th Academy Award for Best Film Editing. Amber Wilkinson of The Daily Telegraph praised the direction and editing, writing: "Chazelle's film has a sharp and gripping rhythm, with shots beautifully edited by Tom Cross... often cutting to the crash of Andrew's drums." James Rocchi of Indiewire gave a positive review and said, "Whiplash is ... full of bravado and swagger, uncompromising where it needs to be, informed by great performances and patient with both its characters and the things that matter to them." Henry Barnes of The Guardian gave the film a positive review, calling it a rare film "about music that professes its love for the music and its characters equally." Forrest Wickman of Slate said the film distorted jazz history and promoted a misleading idea of genius, adding, "In all likelihood, Fletcher isn't making a Charlie Parker. He's making the kind of musician that would throw a cymbal at him." In The New Yorker, Richard Brody said, "Whiplash honors neither jazz nor cinema." Top ten lists The film appeared on many critics' end-of-year lists. Metacritic collected lists published by major film critics and publications and in their analysis, recorded that Whiplash appeared on 57 lists and in 1st place on 5 of those lists. Overall the film was ranked in 5th place for the year by Metacritic. Accolades The film received the top audience and grand jury awards in the U.S. dramatic competition at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival; Chazelle's short film of the same name took home the jury award in the U.S. fiction category one year prior. The film also took the grand prize and the audience award for its favorite film at the 40th Deauville American Film Festival. Whiplash was originally planned to compete for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, but on January 6, 2015, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) announced that the film would instead be competing in the Adapted Screenplay category to the surprise of many including Chazelle, due to the short film premiering at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival (one year before the feature film's release), even though the feature film's script was written first and the short was made to attract investors into producing the feature-length film. Although the Writers Guild of America categorized the screenplay as original, AMPAS classed it as an adaptation of the 2013 short version. At the 87th Academy Awards, J. K. Simmons received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance, Tom Cross won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing while Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins, and Thomas Curley won the Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing. In December 2015, the score received a Grammy nomination, and the film was nominated for the NME Award for Best Film. Legacy In 2020, it ranked 13 on Empire's list of "The 100 Greatest Movies Of The 21st Century." In 2024, it topped the list of the Sundance Film Festival's Top 10 Films of All Time as the result of a survey conducted with 500 filmmakers and critics in honor of the festival's 40th anniversary. To celebrate the film's 10th anniversary, a new 4K remaster of the film was released theatrically on September 20, 2024, following a special anniversary screening at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival on September 9. References External links Whiplash at IMDb Whiplash at Rotten Tomatoes

Damien Sayre Chazelle (; born January 19, 1985) is a French-American filmmaker. He directed the psychological drama Whiplash (2014), the musical romantic drama La La Land (2016), the biographical drama First Man (2018), and the period film Babylon (2022). For Whiplash, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. His biggest commercial success came with La La Land, which was nominated for 14 Academy Awards, winning six including Best Director, making him the youngest person to win the award at age 32. He has directed two episodes of the Netflix limited series The Eddy (2020). Early life and education Chazelle was born in Providence, Rhode Island to a Catholic family. His French-American father, Bernard Chazelle, is the Eugene Higgins Professor of computer science at Princeton University. His mother, Celia, is from an English-Canadian family based in Calgary, Alberta, and teaches medieval history at The College of New Jersey. Chazelle was raised in Princeton, New Jersey, where, although a Catholic, he attended a Hebrew school for four years due to his parents' dissatisfaction with his religious education at a church Sunday school. Chazelle has a sister, Anna Chazelle, who is an actress. Their English-born maternal grandfather, John Martin, is the son of stage actress Eileen Earle. Filmmaking was Chazelle's first love, but he subsequently wanted to be a musician and struggled to make it as a jazz drummer at Princeton High School. He has said that he had an intense music teacher in the Princeton High School Studio Band, who was the inspiration for the character of Terence Fletcher (J. K. Simmons) in Chazelle's breakout film Whiplash. Unlike the film's protagonist Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller), Chazelle stated that he knew instinctively that he never had the talent to be a great drummer and after high school, pursued filmmaking again. He studied filmmaking in the Visual and Environmental Studies department at Harvard University and graduated in 2007. At Harvard, he lived in Currier House as roommates with composer and frequent collaborator Justin Hurwitz. The two were among the original members of the indie-pop group Chester French, formed during their freshman year. Career 2008–2013: Early work and career beginnings Chazelle wrote and directed his debut feature, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, as part of his senior thesis project with classmate Justin Hurwitz at Harvard. The film premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in 2009 and received various awards on the festival circuit, before being picked up by Variance Films for limited release and opening to critical acclaim. After graduation, Chazelle moved to Los Angeles with the ultimate goal of attracting interest to produce his musical romantic drama La La Land. He worked as a freelance writer in Hollywood; among his writing credits are The Last Exorcism Part II (2013) and Grand Piano (2013). He was also brought in by J. J. Abrams' Bad Robot to re-write a draft of 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) with the intention of also directing, but Chazelle ultimately chose to direct Whiplash instead. 2014–2019: Breakthrough, acclaim and accolades Chazelle initially described Whiplash as a writing reaction to being stuck on another script: "I just thought, that's not working, let me put it away and write this thing about being a jazz drummer in high school." He stated he initially did not want to show the script around, as it felt too personal, and "I put it in a drawer". Although nobody was initially interested in producing the film, his script was featured on The Black List in 2012 as one of the best unmade films of that year. The project was eventually picked up by Right of Way Films and Blumhouse Productions, who suggested that Chazelle turn a portion of his script into a short film as proof-of-concept. The 18-minute short was accepted at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, where it was well-received; financing was then raised for the feature film, and, in 2014, it was released to a positive critical reaction. Whiplash received numerous awards on the festival circuit and earned five Oscar nominations, including Best Adapted Screenplay for Chazelle, winning three. Thanks to the success of Whiplash, Chazelle was able to attract financiers for his musical romantic drama La La Land. The film opened the Venice International Film Festival on August 31, 2016, and began a limited release in the United States on December 9, 2016, with a wider release on December 16, 2016. It received universal acclaim and numerous awards. Chazelle received praise for his work on the film and received several top honors, including a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Director, making Chazelle the youngest director to win each award, at age 32. A stage musical adaptation of the film is in development, with Ayad Akhtar and Matthew Decker adapting from Chazelle's script and Hurwitz, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul returning as songwriters after winning Golden Globes and Academy Awards for the score and original song "City of Stars". Marc Platt, another collaborator of Chazelle who produced this film and Babylon, will also return to produce the stage adaptation. Chazelle next directed the biographical drama First Man (2018) for Universal Pictures. With a screenplay by Josh Singer, the biopic is based on author James R. Hansen's First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong, written about the astronaut. The film starred Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong and Claire Foy as Janet Armstrong. The film received positive reviews, with Owen Gleiberman of Variety writing that "Chazelle orchestrates a dashingly original mood of adventure drenched in anxiety". It earned four Academy Award nominations for Best Production Design, Best Sound Editing, and Best Sound Mixing, winning for Best Visual Effects at the 91st Academy Awards. In December 2019, he listed the films that inspired him for LaCinetek, a French streaming platform that collects lists of favorite films from filmmakers. Featuring 64 films, his selection includes works by Jacques Demy (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg), Stanley Kubrick (Eyes Wide Shut, Barry Lyndon) and Richard Linklater (Before Sunset). 2020–present Chazelle directed the first two episodes of the May 2020-released Netflix musical drama television miniseries The Eddy. The series is written by Jack Thorne, with Grammy-winning songwriter Glen Ballard and Alan Poul attached as executive producers. The series starred André Holland and Joanna Kulig and was set in Paris consisting of eight episodes. In July 2019, Variety reported that his next film, called Babylon, set in 1920s Hollywood, was scheduled to be released in 2021, co-produced by his wife, Olivia Hamilton. Chazelle was eyeing Emma Stone to star; In December 2020, it was reported that Margot Robbie was in talks to replace Stone. The Hollywood Reporter reported that Babylon would have a limited release on December 25, 2022, before expanding into wide release on January 6, 2023. The film's final cast included Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt, Li Jun Li, Jovan Adepo and Jean Smart. The film was a box office bomb receiving $4.5 million opening weekend. Many industry experts predicted that the film would need to make $250 million just to break even against its $80 million budget and marketing costs. The film received polarizing reviews. Manhola Dargis of The New York Times wrote, "Throughout this disappointing movie, what's missing is the one thing that defined the silent era at its greatest and to which Chazelle remains bafflingly oblivious: its art." At the same time, Wall Street Journal film critic Kyle Smith called the movie "one of the year's most ambitious and impressive works." In December 2022, Chazelle and Hamilton signed a first-look deal with Paramount Pictures. The film, set to be released in 2025, will be produced by Chazelle alongside his wife Hamilton under their Wild Chickens Productions banner. Personal life Chazelle married producer Jasmine McGlade in 2010; they divorced in 2014. In October 2017, Chazelle and actress Olivia Hamilton, a Princeton University graduate and former McKinsey & Company consultant, announced their engagement, and they married September 22, 2018. They have a son who was born in November 2019. Their second child was born in December 2022. Chazelle is fluent in French. Filmography Film Short film Television Awards and nominations See also List of oldest and youngest Academy Award winners and nominees – Youngest winners for Best Director References External links Damien Chazelle at IMDb

The 2014 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 16, 2014 until January 26, 2014 in Park City, Utah, United States, with screenings in Salt Lake City, Ogden, and Sundance Resort in Utah. The festival opened with Whiplash directed by Damien Chazelle and closed with musical drama Rudderless directed by William H. Macy. The festival honored late Roger Ebert and premiered Life Itself by Steve James, a biographical documentary film based on Ebert's 2011 memoir titled as Life Itself: A Memoir on 19 January 2014. The festival introduced a new film category titled Sundance Kids, which will help to introduce independent films to a younger generation of audiences. It is also a first category at the festival dedicated to children's films. The festival also hosted several events and discussion panels around themes of success through failure titled Free Fail, which included the screening of Bottle Rocket turned down by the Sundance Film Festival in 1996 and later become independently successful. The festival had more than 700 sponsors and 1,830 volunteers. About the festival A record 12,218 films were submitted, 72 more films than the 2013 festival. Of the 4,057-plus feature films were submitted, 2,014 were from the U.S. and 2,043 were international, and 121 were selected from 37 countries (with 100 of them being world premieres). Of the 8,161 short films submitted, 66 were selected (59 more than for the 2013 Festival). There were 54 directors, who made their directorial debut at the festival, 35 of whom have films in competition. Sixteen films were selected each for the U.S. Dramatic and U.S. Documentary competition sections, and twelve films each for the World Cinema Dramatic and World Cinema Documentary sections. This year's festival marked the 30th anniversary of the festival since its foundation in 1981 by Robert Redford. In celebration of 30th anniversary of the festival, the screening of the most groundbreaking films of the past three decades took place at the festival. Some of the films which were shown are Beasts of the Southern Wild, Fruitvale Station, Little Miss Sunshine, An Education, Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Reservoir Dogs, The Cove, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, An Inconvenient Truth, Precious and Napoleon Dynamite. An Artist at the Table event was also hosted at the 30th anniversary of the festival, which was attended by Festival board members, patrons and artists visiting the festival including Mark Ruffalo, Katie Couric and Doug Aitken. Music was major part of the festival. Most of the movies in the festival had musical themes. The opening night film Whiplash used music to explore human nature and identity. God Help the Girl, a coming of age drama with musical theme directed by Stuart Murdoch. Memphis starring musician Willis Earl Beal as an artist. Australian musician Flea appears in Low Down, a biopic about American jazz pianist Joe Albany. Only Lovers Left Alive follows a musician and his lover while his world is collapsing down. Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory, a documentary about a man who wanted to help the Alzheimer's patient with music. Frank, comedy about a young musician, starring Michael Fassbender. 20,000 Days on Earth, a documentary narrating a day in the life of Nick Cave including cameos by Kylie Minogue and Ray Winstone. Also the closing night film of the festival Rudderless, told the story of a father who formed a rock and roll band to perform his late son's music. Awards The awards ceremony was held on January 26, 2014 at the Basin Recreation Fieldhouse in Park City, Utah, and was hosted by Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally. U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary - Rich Hill U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic - Whiplash World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary - The Return to Homs World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic - To Kill a Man Audience Award: U.S. Documentary - Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic - Whiplash Audience Award: World Cinema Documentary - The Green Prince Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic - Difret Audience Award: Best of NEXT - Imperial Dreams Directing Award: U.S. Documentary - The Case Against 8 Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic - Fishing Without Nets Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary - 20,000 Days on Earth Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic - 52 Tuesdays Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: U.S. Dramatic - The Skeleton Twins Screenwriting Award: World Cinema Dramatic - Blind Editing Award: U.S. Documentary - Watchers of the Sky Editing Award: World Cinema Documentary - 20,000 Days on Earth Cinematography Award: U.S. Documentary - E-Team Cinematography Award: U.S. Dramatic - Low Down Cinematography Award: World Cinema Documentary - Happiness Cinematography Award: World Cinema Dramatic - Lilting U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Achievement for Use of Animation - Watchers of the Sky U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Achievement for Intuitive Filmmaking - The Overnighters U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Musical Score - The Octopus Project for Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Talent - Justin Simien for Dear White People World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award - God Help the Girl World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Cinematic Bravery - We Come as Friends Short Film Audience Award - Chapel Perilous Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize - I Origins Additional awards were presented at separate ceremonies. The Shorts Awards were presented January 21, 2014 at the ceremony in Park City, Utah. Short Film Grand Jury Prize - Of God and Dogs Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction - Gregory Go Boom Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction - The Cut, Geneviève Dulude-De Celles Short Film Jury Award: Non-fiction - I Think This Is the Closest to How the Footage Looked Short Film Jury Award: Animation - Yearbook Short Film Special Jury Award for Unique Vision - Rat Pack Rat Short Film Special Jury Award for Direction and Ensemble Acting - Burger Short Film Special Special Jury Award for Non-fiction - Love. Love. Love. Sundance Institute/Mahindra Global Filmmaking Awards - Hong Khaou for Monsoon, Tobias Lindholm for A War, Ashlee Page for Archive and Neeraj Ghaywan for Fly Away Solo. Sundance Institute/NHK Filmmaker Award - Mark Elijah Rosenberg for Ad Inexplorata Hilton Worldwide LightStay Sustainability Award - Ben Kalina for Shored Up (and $25,000 grant) 2014 Red Crown Producer's Award - Elisabeth Holm for Obvious Child (and $10,000 grant) Juries Jury members, for the U.S. Documentary Jury, were announced on December 18, 2013. The rest of the jury members including the Alfred P. Sloan Jury, which will also take part in the Science in Film Forum Panel, were announced on January 9, 2014. Presenters of awards are followed by asterisks: Others who presented awards included Felicity Huffman, William H. Macy and Nick Offerman. Films For a full list of films appeared at the festival, see List of films at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. Festival theaters The number of seats available at the festival theaters, where films were shown is listed below: Park City Eccles Theatre - 1,270 seats Egyptian Theatre - 282 seats Holiday Village Cinema 1 - 162 seats Holiday Village Cinema 2 - 154 seats Holiday Village Cinema 2 - 154 seats Holiday Village Cinema 4 - 162 seats Library Center Theatre - 486 seats The MARC Theatre - 550 seats Prospector Square Theatre - 324 seats Redstone Cinema 1 - 188 seats Redstone Cinema 2 - 175 seats Redstone Cinema 7 - 176 seats Temple Theatre - 318 seats Yarrow Hotel Theatre - 295 seats Salt Lake City Broadway Cinema 3 - 243 seats Broadway Cinema 6 - 245 seats Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center - 495 seats SLC Library - 300 seats Tower Theatre - 349 seats Sundance Resort Sundance Resort Screening Room - 164 seats Ogden Peery's Egyptian Theatre - 840 seats Sundance Film Festival U.S.A. In late January, 2014 the festival sent 9 filmmakers to 9 cities across the US to screen and discuss their films. The cities and films are: Ann Arbor, Michigan at Michigan Theater - Infinitely Polar Bear Boston, Massachusetts at Coolidge Corner Theatre - WHITEY: United States of America v. James J. Bulger Chicago, Illinois at Music Box Theatre - Happy Christmas Houston, Texas at Sundance Cinemas Houston - Cold in July Nashville, Tennessee at The Belcourt Theatre - Low Down Orlando, Florida at Enzian Theater - Little Accidents San Francisco, California at Sundance Kabuki Cinemas - Camp X-Ray Seattle, Washington at Sundance Cinemas Seattle - The Skeleton Twins Tucson, Arizona at The Loft - Young Ones Acquisitions Acquisitions at the festival included the following: Domestic Rights CNN Films and Lionsgate Dinosaur 13 Focus Features Wish I Was Here Pivot and Univision News Cesar's Last Fast A24 Laggies Obvious Child Lionsgate Cooties Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions The Skeleton Twins IFC Films God's Pocket Cold in July Fox Searchlight Pictures Calvary Sony Pictures Classics Love Is Strange Whiplash iTunes Sepideh – Reaching for the Stars Netflix Mitt RADiUS-TWC Fed Up Samuel Goldwyn Films Ivory Tower Drafthouse Films The Overnighters The Orchard and Independent Lens Rich Hill Music Box Films Watchers of the Sky Participant Media and FilmBuff The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz Drafthouse 20,000 Days on Earth International Rights Sony Pictures Worldwide Whiplash Magnolia Pictures and Paramount Pictures Happy Christmas Fox Searchlight Pictures I Origins Sony Pictures Worldwide The Skeleton Twins Sony Pictures Classics Land Ho! RADiUS-TWC The One I Love Sony Pictures Classics and Pretty Pictures Love Is Strange Paramount Pictures Ivory Tower References External links Media related to 2014 Sundance Film Festival at Wikimedia Commons Festival webpage Archived 2011-07-27 at the Wayback Machine

The Brihadeeswarar Temple was built by an Indian emperor. The emperor’s only sister‘s husband is a king of another Dynasty. Name the Dynasty and state how many known kings ruled within that Dynasty.

Bana Kingdom. 10 Kings.

Multiple constraints

Brihadishvara Temple, called Rajarajesvaram (lit. 'Lord of Rajaraja') by its builder, and known locally as Thanjai Periya Kovil (lit. 'Thanjavur Big Temple') and Peruvudaiyar Kovil, is a Shaivite Hindu temple built in a Chola architectural style located on the south bank of the Cauvery river in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India. It is one of the largest Hindu temples and an exemplar of Tamil architecture. It is also called Dakshina Meru (Meru of the South). Built by Chola emperor Rajaraja I between 1003 and 1010 CE, the temple is a part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the "Great Living Chola Temples", along with the Chola-era Gangaikonda Cholapuram temple and Airavatesvara temple, which are about 70 kilometres (43 mi) and 40 kilometres (25 mi) to its northeast respectively. The original monuments of this 11th-century temple were built around a moat. It included gopura, the main temple, its massive tower, inscriptions, frescoes, and sculptures predominantly related to Shaivism, but also of Vaishnavism and Shaktism. The temple was damaged in its history and some artwork is now missing. Additional mandapam and monuments were added in the centuries that followed. The temple now stands amidst fortified walls that were added after the 16th century. Built using granite, the vimana tower above the shrine is one of the tallest in South India. The temple has a massive colonnaded prakara (corridor) and one of the largest Shiva lingas in India. It is also famed for the quality of its sculpture, as well as being the location that commissioned the brass Nataraja, Shiva as the lord of dance, in the 11th century. The complex includes shrines for Nandi, Parvati, Murugan, Ganesha, Sabhapati, Dakshinamurti, Chandeshvara, Varahi, Thiyagarajar of Thiruvarur, Siddhar Karuvoorar and others. The temple is one of the most visited tourist attractions in Tamil Nadu. Nomenclature Rajaraja Chola, who commissioned the temple, called it Rajarajeshvaram (Rajarājeśvaram), literally "the temple of the god of Rajaraja". A later inscription in the Brihannayaki shrine calls the temple's deity Periya Udaiya Nayanar, which appears to be the source of the modern names Brihadisvara and Peruvudaiyar Kovil. Location The Peruvudaiyar Temple is located in the city of Thanjavur, about 350 kilometres (220 mi) southwest of Chennai. The city is connected daily to other major cities by the network of Indian Railways, Tamil Nadu bus services and the National Highways 67, 45C, 226 and 226 Extn. The nearest airport with regular services is Tiruchirappalli International Airport (IATA: TRZ), about 55 kilometres (34 mi) away. The city and the temple though inland, are at the start of the Kaveri River delta, thus with access to the Bay of Bengal and through it to the Indian Ocean. Along with the temples, the Tamil people completed the first major irrigation network in the 11th century for agriculture, for movement of goods and to control the water flow through the urban center. History A spectrum of dravidian temple styles continued to develop from the fifth to the ninth century over the Chalukya era rule as evidenced in Aihole, Badami and Pattadakal, and then with the Pallava era as witnessed at Mamallapuram and other monuments. Thereafter, between 850 and 1280, Cholas emerged as the dominant dynasty. The early Chola period saw a greater emphasis on securing their geopolitical boundaries and less emphasis on architecture. In the tenth century, within the Chola empire emerged features such as the multifaceted columns with projecting square capitals. This, states George Michell, signaled the start of the new Chola style. This South Indian style is most fully realized both in scale and detail in the Brihadeshwara temple built between 1003 and 1010 by the Chola king Rajaraja I. Additions, renovations and repairs The main temple along with its gopurams is from the early 11th century. The temple also saw additions, renovations, and repairs over the next 1,000 years. The raids and wars, particularly between Muslim Sultans who controlled Madurai and Hindu kings who controlled Thanjavur caused damage. These were repaired by Hindu dynasties that regained control. In some cases, the rulers attempted to renovate the temple with faded paintings, by ordering new murals on top of the older ones. In other cases, they sponsored the addition of shrines. The significant shrines of Kartikeya (Murugan), Parvati (Amman) and Nandi are from the 16th and 17th-century Nayaka era. Similarly the Dakshinamurti shrine was built later. It was well maintained by Marathas of Thanjavur. Description Architecture The Peruvudaiyar temple's plan and development utilizes the axial and symmetrical geometry rules. It is classified as Perunkoil (also called Madakkoil), a big temple built on a higher platform of a natural or man-made mounds. The temple complex is a rectangle that is almost two stacked squares, covering 240.79 metres (790.0 ft) east to west, and 121.92 metres (400.0 ft) north to south. In this space are five main sections: the sanctum with the towering superstructure (sri vimana), the Nandi hall in front (Nandi-mandapam) and in between these the main community hall (mukhamandapam), the great gathering hall (mahamandapam) and the pavilion that connects the great hall with the sanctum (Antrala). The temple complex integrates a large pillared and covered veranda (prakara) in its spacious courtyard, with a perimeter of about 450 metres (1,480 ft) for circumambulation. Outside this pillared veranda there are two walls of enclosure, the outer one being defensive and added in 1777 by the French colonial forces with gun-holes with the temple serving as an arsenal. They made the outer wall high, isolating the temple complex area. On its east end is the original main gopuram or gateway that is barrel vaulted. It is less than half the size of the main temple's vimana. Additional structures were added to the original temple after the 11th century, such as a mandapa in its northeast corner and additional gopurams (gateways) on its perimeters to allow people to enter and leave from multiple locations. Some of the shrines and structures were added during the Pandya, Nayaka, Vijayanagara and Maratha era, before the colonial era started, and these builders respected the original plans and symmetry rules. Inside the original temple courtyard, along with the main sanctum and Nandi-mandapam are two major shrines, one for Kartikeya and for Parvati. The complex has additional smaller shrines. The Peruvudaiyar temple continued the Hindu temple traditions of South India by adopting architectural and decorative elements, but its scale significantly exceeded the temples constructed before the 11th century. The Chola era architects and artisans innovated the expertise to scale up and build, particularly with heavy stone and to accomplish the 63.4 metres (208 ft) high towering vimana. The temple faces east, and once had a water moat around it. This has been filled up. The fortified wall now runs around this moat. The two walls have ornate gateways called the gopurams. These are made from stone and display entablature. The main gateways are on the east side. The first one is called the Keralantakan tiruvasal, which means the "sacred gate of the Keralantakan". The word Keralantakan was the surname of king Rajaraja who built it. About a 100 metres (330 ft) ahead is the inner courtyard gopuram called the Rajarajan tiruvasal. This is more decorated than the Keralantakan tiruvasal, such as with its adhishthanam relief work narrating scenes from the Puranas and other Hindu texts. The inner eastern gopuram leads to a vast courtyard, in which the shrines are all signed to east–west and north-west cardinal directions. The complex can be entered either on one axis through a five-story gopuram or with a second access directly to the huge main quadrangle through a smaller free-standing gopuram. The gopuram of the main entrance is 30 m high, smaller than the vimana. The main temple-related monuments and the great tower is in the middle of this courtyard. Around the main temple that is dedicated to Shiva, are smaller shrines, most of which are aligned axially. These are dedicated to his consort Parvati, his sons Murugan and Ganesha, Nandi, Varahi, Karuvur deva (the guru of Rajaraja Chola), Chandeshvara and Nataraja. The Nandi mandapam has a monolithic seated bull facing the sanctum. In between them are stairs leading to a columned porch and community gathering hall, then an inner mandapa connecting to the pradakshina patha, or circumambulation path. The Nandi (bull) facing the mukh-mandapam weighs about 25 tonnes. It is made of a single stone and is about 2 m in height, 6 m in length and 2.5 m in width. The image of Nandi is a monolithic one and is one of the largest in the country. Preservation & Restoration As a world heritage monument, the temple and the premises comes under the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) which falls under the Ministry of Culture of the Government of India, to ensure safety, preservation and restoration. The surrounding facilities have been upgraded to create an ambience worthy of the grandeur of this ancient marvel with lighting, signage and facilities for devotees and visitors. The lighting of the monument is designed to enhance the natural color of the stone along with the sculptural forms adorning all corners of the temple. The restoration has been undertaken by the Archaeological Survey of India that commissioned Sheila Sri Prakash Indian architect and designer to lead the design. Sanctum and the Sri-vimana The sanctum is at the center of the western square. It is surrounded by massive walls that are divided into levels by sharply cut sculptures and pilasters providing deep bays and recesses. Each side of the sanctuary has a bay with iconography. The interior of the sanctum sanctorum hosts an image of the primary deity, Shiva, in the form of a huge stone linga. It is called Karuvarai, a Tamil word that means "womb chamber". This space is called garbha griha in other parts of India. Only priests are allowed to enter this inner-most chamber. In the Tamizhan style, the sanctum takes the form of a miniature vimana. It has the inner wall together with the outer wall creating a path around the sanctum for circumambulation (pradakshina). The entrance is highly decorated. The inside chamber is the sanctum sanctorum, which houses the brihad linga. The main Vimana (Shikhara) is a massive 16 storeys tower of which 13 are tapering squares. It dominates the main quadrangle. It sits above a 30.18 metres (99.0 ft) sided square. The tower is elaborately articulated with Pilaster, piers (a raised structure), and attached columns which are placed rhythmically covering every surface of the vimana. Deities and Natya Sastra dance mudras The temple is dedicated to Shiva in the form of a huge linga, his abstract aniconic representation. It is 29 feet (8.7 m) high, occupying two storeys of the sanctum. It is one of the largest monolithic linga sculptures in India. The Shaivism temple celebrates all major Hindu traditions by including the primary deities of the Vaishnavism and Shaktism tradition in the great mandapa of the main temple. The distribution of the deities is generally symmetric, except for the east entrance side which provide for the door and walkway. In addition to the main deities, each side provides for dvarapalas (guardians), and various other sculptures. The vestibule has three stone sculptures that is intricately carved, and mural paintings. The ground floor level sanctum walls have the following sculptures: East wall: Lingodbhava, standing Shiva, Pashupata-murti, plus two dvarapalas flanking the pathway from ardha-mandapam South wall: Bhikshatana, Virabhadra, Dakshinamurti, Kalantaka, Nataraja plus two dvarapalas West wall: Harihara (half Shiva, half Vishnu), Lingodbhava, Chandrashekhara without prabhavali, Chandrashekhara with prabhavali, plus two dvarapalas North wall: Ardhanarishvara (half Shiva, half Parvati), Gangadhara without Parvati, Pashupata-murti, Shiva-alingana-murti, plus two dvarapalas On the second floor, Shiva's Tripurantaka form in different postures is depicted corresponding to these sculptures. Above these floors, the sri-vimana towers above in thirteen storeys (talas). Above these storeys is a single square block of granite weight 80 tons, and 7.77 metres (25.5 ft) side. On top of this block, at its corners are Nandi pairs each about 1.98 metres (6 ft 6 in) by 1.68 metres (5 ft 6 in) in dimension. Above the center of this granite block rises the griva, the sikhara and the finial (stupi) of Tamil Hindu temple architecture. This stupi is 3.81 metres (12.5 ft) in height, and was originally covered with gold (no longer). The sikhara at the top is cupola-shaped and weighs 25 tons. Each storey of this tower is decorated with kutas and salas. The shrinking squares tower architecture of this temple differs from the tower at the Chola temple at Gangaikondasolisvaram, because this is straight in contrast to the latter which is curvilinear. The temple's sri-vimana magnitude has made it a towering landmark for the city. The upper storey corridor wall of the aditala is carved with 81 of the 108 dance karanas – postures of Natya Sastra. This text is the basis of the Bharathanatyam, the classical dance of Tamil Nadu. The 27 unrepresented karanas are blank blocks of stone, and it is unclear why these were not carved. The 81 postures carved suggest the significance of this classical Indian dance form by early 11th century. The garbhagriha is square and sits on a plinth. This is moulded and 0.5 metres (1 ft 8 in) thick. It consists of upapitham and adhishthanam, respectively 140 cm and 360 cm thick. Mandapa The two mandapa, namely maha-mandapa and mukha-mandapa, are square plan structures axially aligned between the sanctum and the Nandi mandapa. The maha-mandapa has six pillars on each side. This too has artwork. The Vitankar and Rajaraja I bronze are here, but these were added much later. The maha-mandapa is flanked by two giant stone dvarapalas. It is linked to the mukha-mandapa by stairs. The entrance of the mukha-mandapa also has dvarapalas. With the mandapa are eight small shrines for dikpalas, or guardian deities of each direction such as Agni, Indra, Varuna, Kubera and others. These were installed during the rule of Chola king Rajendra I. Inscriptions indicate that this area also had other iconography from major Hindu traditions during the Chola era, but these are now missing. The original eight shrines included those for Surya (the sun god), Saptamatrikas (seven mothers), Ganesha, Murugan, Jyeshtha, Chandra (the moon god), Chandeshvara and Bhairava. Similarly, in the western wall cella was a massive granite Ganesha built during Rajaraja I era, but who is now found in the tiruch-churru-maligai (southern veranda). Of the Shaktism tradition's seven mothers, only Varahi survives in a broken form. Her remnants are now found in a small modern era brick "Varahi shrine" in the southern side of the courtyard. The original version of the others along with their original Chola shrines are missing. Murals The temple has an underneath layer of Chola frescoes on the sanctum walls along the circumambulatory pathway. These frescoes which cover floor to ceiling, were discovered in 1931 by S. K. Govindasami of the Annamalai University. The painters used natural pigments and infused it into the wet limestone layer as it was setting in. The Chola frescoes were largely of Shaivism themes. These were restored in the 2000s. The total Chola fresco area is about 670 square metres (7,200 sq ft), of which about 112 square metres (1,210 sq ft) had been uncovered as of 2010 in a method that preserves both paintings, a technique developed by Archaeological Survey of India. The frescoes narrate Hindu mythology. According to Balasubrahmanyam, most frescoes are related to Shiva, but the 11th century Chola frescoes also show Vishnu, Durga and others, as well as scenes of Chola royalty, courtly and common life. The later constructions, additions and modifications to the temple curtailed the amount of natural light inside the temple. The frescoes were thus photographed in a limited way and interpreted. According to Sriraman, a complete imaging with better photographic equipment suggests that these historic interpretations were incorrect. For example, a fresco that was previously interpreted as Dakshinamurti Shiva is actually a secular scene of a royal guru meditating under a banyan tree. On the tree are shown peacocks, birds, monkeys, squirrels and owls, plus a cobra. The animals and birds are shown as worried of the cobra, the ones closer to the snake are shown to be more worried. Other parts of the panel similarly show a court listening to a saint. Other show women in different dresses in different dance mudra. Some of the paintings in the sanctum sanctorum and the walls in the passage had been damaged because of the soot that had deposited on them once upon a time. Owing to the continuous exposure to smoke and soot from the lamps and burning of camphor in the sanctum sanctorum over a period of centuries certain parts of the Chola paintings on the circumambulatory passage walls had been badly damaged. The Archaeological Survey of India, for the first time in the world, used its unique de-stucco process to restore 16 Nayak paintings, which were superimposed on 1000-year-old Chola frescoes. These 400-year-old paintings have been mounted on fibre glass boards, displayed at a separate pavilion. Inscriptions The temple walls have numerous inscriptions in Tamil and Grantha scripts. Many of these begin with customary Sanskrit and Tamil language historical introduction to the king who authorized it, and predominant number of them discuss gifts to the temple or temple personnel, in some cases residents of the city. The temple complex has sixty four inscriptions of Rajaraja Chola I, twenty nine inscriptions of Rajendra Chola I, one each of Vikrama Chola, Kulottunga I and Rajamahendra (Rajendra II), three of a probable Pandyan king, two of Nayaka rulers namely, Achyutappa Nayaka and Mallapa Nayaka. Temple personnel An inscription on the north wall of enclosure, dated 1011 CE, gives a detailed accounts of people employed and supported by the temple. The inscription gives their wages, roles and names. It includes over 600 names including those of priests, lamp lighters, washermen, tailors, jewelers, potters, carpenters, sacred parasol bearers, dance gurus, dancing girls, singers, male and female musicians, superintendents of performance artists, accountants among others. Their wages was in parcels of land, so their temple employment was likely part-time. The temple employed devadasis who were dancers and singers of devotional hymns. Among its numerous inscriptions are frequent gifts that state, "to provide for worship, for food to assembly of sannyasis (monks or ascetics) and for repairs". According to George Michell, the Thanjavur temple was a major charity institution in its history. It provides free meal for pilgrims, devotees and wayfarers on a daily basis. On the days of Hindu festivals, these meals were elaborate and when brahmins were particularly invited and fed. Millennium commemoration Built in the year 1010 CE by Chola emperor Rajaraja I in Thanjavur, the temple is popularly known as the Big Temple. It turned 1,000 years old in September 2010. To celebrate the 1000th year of the grand structure, the state government and the town held many cultural events. It was to recall the 275th day of his 25th regal year (1010 CE) when Rajaraja I (985–1014 CE) handed over a gold-plated kalasam (copper pot or finial) for the final consecration to crown the vimana, the 59.82-metre tall tower above the sanctum. Bharathanatyam Yajna To mark the occasion, the state government organised a Bharathanatyam Yajna, classical dance show under noted dancer Padma Subramaniam. It was jointly organised by the Association of Bharatanatyam Artistes of India (ABHAI) and the Brhan Natyanjali Trust, Thanjavur. To mark the 1000th anniversary of the building, 1,000 dancers from New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Singapore, Malaysia and the US danced in concert to the recorded 11 verses of divine music Thiruvisaippa (ninth volume of Thirumurai) composed by Karuvur deva (the guru of Rajaraja). The small town turned into a cultural hub for two days beginning 26 September 2010 as street performers and dancers performed throughout the town. Commemorative stamps and coins On 26 September 2010 (Big Temple's fifth day of millennium celebrations), as a recognition of Big Temple's contribution to the country's cultural, architectural, epigraphical history, a special ₹ 5 postage stamp featuring the 66 metres (216 ft) tall giant Raja Gopuram was released by India Post. The Reserve Bank of India commemorated the event by releasing a ₹ 5 coin with the model of temple embossed on it. A Raja, Cabinet Minister of Communications and Information Technology released the esteemed Brihadeeswarar temple special stamp, the first of which was received by G K Vasan, Cabinet Minister of Shipping. Mumbai Mint issued Rs 1,000 Commemorative Coin with the same picture as on the Rs 5 coin. It was the first 1,000 Rupees coin to be released in the Republic of India coinage. This coin was a Non Circulative Legal Tender (NCLT). On 1 April 1954, the Reserve Bank of India released a ₹ 1,000 currency note featuring a panoramic view of the Brihadeeswar temple marking its cultural heritage and significance. In 1975, the then government led by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi demonetised all ₹ 1,000 currency notes in an effort to curtail black money. These notes are now popular among collectors. In 2010, the then Tamil Nadu chief minister, M Karunanidhi renamed Semmai Rice, a type of high productivity paddy variant, as Raja Rajan-1,000 to mark the millennial year of the constructor of the temple, Rajaraja Chola. Reception The temple "testifies the brilliant achievements of the Chola in architecture, sculpture, painting and bronze casting". The temple finds mention in many of the contemporary works of the period like Muvar Ula and Kalingathuparani. According to Chatterjee, the Dravidian architecture attained its supreme form of expression in the temple and it successor, the Brihadeeswarar Temple, Gangaikonda Cholapuram. The temple has been declared as a heritage monument by the Government of India and administered by the Archaeological Survey of India as a protected monument. The temple is one of the most visited tourist attractions in Tamil Nadu. The temple was declared as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, along with the Brihadeeswara Temple at Gangaikondacholapuram and Airavatesvara temple at Darasuram that are referred as the Great Living Chola Temples. These three temples have similarities, but each has unique design and sculptural elements. All of the three temples were built by the Cholas between the 10th and 12th centuries CE and they have continued to be supported and used by Hindus. The temples are classified as "Great Living" as the temples are active in cultural, pilgrimage and worship practises in modern times. Cultural events The Brihadishvara temple at Thanjavur is the site of annual dance festivals around February, around the Mahashivratri. Major classical Indian dance form artists, as well as regional teams, perform their repertoire at this Brahan Natyanjali festival over 10 days. Car festival The Temple car was rolled out on its trial run from opposite to Sri Ramar temple on 20 April 2015 witnessed by a large number of people. Nine days later, the maiden procession of the temple car was held. This was the first such procession in this temple held in the past hundred years, according to news reports. Novels Kalki Krishnamurthy, a renowned Tamil novelist, has written a historical novel named Ponniyin Selvan, based on the life of Rajaraja. Balakumaran, another Tamil author has written a novel named Udaiyar themed on the life of Rajaraja I and the construction of the temple. Administration The temple is currently administered and managed by Babaji Bhonsle, the head of the Thanjavur Maratha royal family. He serves as the hereditary trustee of the palace Devasthanam which continues to manage 88 Chola temples including the Brihadeeswara temple. Tamil groups have been unsuccessfully petitioning the Tamil Nadu government to revoke these rights as he is not of Chola or Tamil lineage. According to one of the protesters, who also happens to be the coordinator of the Big Temple Rights Retrieval Committee, Babaji Bhonsle is also not the legal heir of the Maratha kings of Thanjavur. Gallery The temple features many sculptures, reliefs and murals: See also Penneswaraar Temple Thanjavur Chariot festival Raja Raja Chola I Chola Dynasty List of largest monoliths List of tallest structures built before the 20th century Great Living Chola Temples Notes References Bibliography External links Tanjavur Brihadisvara Temple, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Government of India Brihadeeswara Temple, Tamil Nadu tourism Dakshina Meru: The Brihadeswara Temple, Government of India Photos on art-and-archaeology web site Unesco Great Living Chola Temples

Rajaraja I (Middle Tamil: Rājarāja Cōḻaṉ; Classical Sanskrit: Rājarāja Śōḷa; 3 November 947 – January/February 1014), also known as Rajaraja the Great, was a Chola emperor who reigned from 985 CE to 1014 CE. He is known for his conquests of South India and parts of Sri Lanka, and increasing Chola influence across the Indian Ocean. Rajaraja's empire encompassed vast territories, including regions of the Pandya country, the Chera country, and northern Sri Lanka. He also extended his influence over strategic islands such as Lakshadweep, Thiladhunmadulu atoll, and parts of the Maldives in the Indian Ocean. His conquests weren't limited to the south; he also launched successful campaigns against the Western Gangas and the Western Chalukyas, extending Chola authority as far as the Tungabhadra River. In the east, Rajaraja faced fierce opposition from the Telugu Chola king Jata Choda Bhima over control of Vengi. This region held significant strategic importance due to its access to resources and trade routes. The conflict between the two rulers intensified as they vied for dominance in the region, resulting in significant battles and shifting allegiances. Rajaraja I also left a significant mark through his architectural and cultural achievements. He commissioned the construction of the Rajarajeshwaram Temple in the Chola capital of Thanjavur, which is revered as one of the most prominent examples of medieval South Indian architectural style. Additionally, during his reign, important Tamil literary works by poets such as Appar, Sambandar, and Sundarar were gathered and compiled into a single collection known as the Thirumurai. This earned him the title of 'Thirumurai Kanda Cholar,' meaning The One Who Found Thirumurai. He initiated a project of land survey and assessment in 1000 CE which led to the reorganisation of Tamil country into individual units known as valanadus. Rajaraja died in 1014 CE, and was succeeded by his son Rajendra Chola I. Early life Rajaraja was a son of the Chola king Parantaka II (alias Sundara) and queen Vanavan Mahadevi. According to the Thiruvalangadu copper-plate inscription, his birth name was Arun Mozhi Varman, literally "The Word of Sun Clan". He was born around 947 CE in the Aipassi month, on the day of Sadhayam star. The Government of Tamil Nadu recognizes his birthdate as 3 November 947. He had an elder brother – Aditha II, and an elder sister – Kundavai. Rajaraja's ascension ended a period of rival claims to the throne, following the death of his great-grandfather Parantaka I. After Parantaka I, his elder son Gandaraditya ascended the throne. At the time of Gandaraditya's death, his son Madhurantakan was a minor, so the throne passed on to Parantaka I's younger son Arinjaya. Arinjaya died soon and was succeeded by his son Parantaka II, also known as Sundara Chola. It was decided that the throne would pass on to Madhurantakan after Sundara: this decision was most probably that of Sundara himself, although the Thiruvalangadu inscription of Rajaraja's son Rajendra I claims that it was made by Rajaraja. Aditha died under mysterious circumstances; inscriptions hint at him being assassinated. Sundara died soon after, clearing the way for Madhurantakan to be king under the title Uttama Chola. After the death of Uttama, Rajaraja finally ascended the throne in June–July 985. Known as Arumoḷi Varman until this point, he adopted the regnal name Rajaraja, which means "King among Kings". Military conquests When Rajaraja came into power, he inherited a kingdom that was only centered around the Thanjavur-Tiruchirappalli region, which was the heart of traditional Chola territory. However, this kingdom was not very large, and it was still recovering from attacks by the Rashtrakutas in previous years. Rajaraja changed this by transforming the kingdom into a well-organized empire with a powerful army and navy. Under his rule, the northern kingdom of Vengi became closely allied with the Cholas, and their influence expanded along the eastern coast all the way up to Kalinga in the north. In the Thanjavur inscriptions, various regiments are noted. These regiments were organized into units of elephants, cavalry, and infantry. Each of these units operated independently and had the authority to give gifts or construct temples as they saw fit. Against Kandalur Salai Rajaraja's earliest inscriptions commemorate a significant triumph at Kandalur Salai, located in present-day Kerala, around 988 CE. He is acclaimed as "Kāndalūr śālai Kalam-arutta," which translates to 'the one who destroyed Kandalur Salai.'. He is hailed as "Kāndalūr śālai Kalam-arutta," meaning 'the one who destroyed Kandalur Salai.' Originally, this area was under the control of the Ay chief, who served as a vassal to the Pandya king of Madurai. However, it remains uncertain whether warriors from the Chera or Pandya dynasties were involved in this conflict. The Thiruvalangadu inscription suggests that Rajaraja's general captured Vizhinjam (Viḷinam), which could have been part of the Kandalur Salai campaign. It appears that this engagement involved the Chola navy, or possibly a joint operation involving both the navy and the army. Conquest of Kerala and the Pandyas Rajaraja's inscriptions begin to appear in Kanyakumari district in the 990s and in Thiruvananthapuram district in the early 1000s. The Chola subjugation of Kerala can be dated to the early years of the 11th century. The Senur inscription dated to 1005 CE, attributed to Rajaraja, records his military achievements. It mentions the destruction of the Pandya capital, Madurai, as well as the conquest of several regions. These include defeating the formidable rulers of Kollam (Venad), Kolla-desham (Mushika), and Kodungallur (the Chera Perumals of Makotai).Certain triumphs in the region of Malainadu were possibly achieved by Prince Rajendra Chola I on behalf of his father, Rajaraja Chola. Following his victory over the Pandyas, Rajaraja assumed the title of Pandya Kulashani, which translates to 'Thunderbolt to the Race of the Pandyas.' As a result of his conquest, the territory of the Pandyas became recognized as "Rajaraja Mandalam" or "Rajaraja Pandinadu." When recounting Rajaraja's military expedition in Trisanku Kastha (the southern region), the Thiruvalangadu Grant of Rajendra I mentions the capture of a certain royal figure named Amarabhujanga. However, the specific identity of this individual—whether he was a prince of the Pandya dynasty, a general serving the Pandya king, or a prince of the Kongu Chera dynasty—remains a matter of debate and has not been conclusively resolved. According to the Kongu Desa Rajakkal, a historical record of the Kongu Nadu region, it is suggested that this general eventually changed his loyalty to Rajaraja. He is said to have participated in the ritual of kanakabhisheka, where gold is poured over the Chola king, symbolizing an act of royal anointment or coronation. Once Rajaraja had consolidated his authority in the southern regions, he took on the title of Mummudi Chola. This title, which means "three Crowned," symbolized his power over three important Tamil kingdoms: the Cholas, the Pandyas, and the Cheras. Conquest of Sri Lanka During the reign of King Mahinda V, the Sinhalese kingdom of Anuradhapura experienced a significant military revolt around the year 982 AD, primarily as a consequence of the monarch's economic policies. The armed forces of the Anuradhapura capital predominantly consisted of Tamil mercenaries recruited from coastal regions. By 882 CE, tensions escalated into a full-fledged uprising led by these mercenaries, resulting in a protracted civil conflict. The ensuing turmoil compelled the vulnerable Sinhala ruler to seek refuge in the Rohana principality, thereby plunging the capital city of Anuradhapura into an extended period of civil unrest lasting approximately eleven years, marked by widespread disorder and lawlessness. The disruption of central governance exacerbated the financial strain on the kingdom, particularly in meeting the obligations to the Tamil mercenaries. Consequently, the mercenaries, feeling aggrieved and disillusioned, turned their allegiance towards the Chola empire. This strategic shift left Anuradhapura vulnerable to the incursions of the Chola forces, who exploited the internal strife to mount invasions in the year 993. These events, documented in historical sources, underscore the intricate interplay of economic policies, military dynamics, and regional power struggles during this period in the history of Anuradhapura. In 993 CE, Rajaraja achieved the conquest of Anuradhapura, known as Pihiti rata in local context, situated in Sri Lanka. This territory was subsequently designated as Ila-mandalam in Chola historical records. The military campaign led to the sacking of Anuradhapura by the Chola army, resulting in the acquisition of the northern portion of Sri Lanka by the Chola empire. As part of their administrative efforts, the Cholas established a provincial capital at the strategic military outpost of Polonnaruwa, renaming it Jananathamangalam in honor of Rajaraja's title. Under Chola administration, the official Tali Kumaran oversaw the construction of a significant Shiva temple known as Rajarajeshwara, meaning "Lord of Rajaraja," within the town of Mahatirtha, now recognized as modern-day Mantota. Consequently, Mahatirtha was renamed Rajarajapura in commemoration of the Chola monarch's conquest and establishment of authority in the region. To commemorate their victory, the Chola administrator Tali Kumaran supervised the construction of a notable Shiva temple named Rajarajeshwara, signifying "Lord of Rajaraja," within the precincts of Mahatirtha. Presently acknowledged as modern Mantota, this temple assumed a pivotal role as a representation of Chola hegemony and religious fervor. The transformation of Mahatirtha into Rajarajapura, in homage to the Chola sovereign, further underscores the symbolic and cultural import of the Chola conquest of Anuradhapura and their subsequent governance in the northern expanse of Sri Lanka. The Thiruvalangadu Plates directly compare Raja Raja's campaign to the invasion of Lanka by the legendary hero Rama: "Rama built with the aid of monkeys, a causeway across the sea, and then with great difficulties defeated the king of Lanka using sharp-edged arrows. But Rama was excelled by this king whose powerful army crossed the ocean by ships and burnt up the king of Lanka." In 1017 CE, Rajaraja's successor, Rajendra I, finalized the Chola conquest of Sri Lanka. The Chola reign over Sri Lanka persisted until 1070, when Vijayabahu I successfully vanquished and expelled them from the island. Chalukyan conflict In 998 CE, Rajaraja annexed Gangapadi, Nolambapadi, and Tadigaipadi (present-day Karnataka). During this campaign, Raja Chola subdued the Nolambas, who were previously vassals of the Ganga dynasty. These territories were initially under the suzerainty of the Rashtrakutas, who had been defeated by the Western Chalukyas in 973 CE. Consequently, the Cholas found themselves in direct conflict with the Chalukyas. An inscription of Irivabedanga Satyashraya from Dharwar describes him as a vassal of the Western Chalukyas and acknowledges the Chola onslaught. An inscription attributed to Irivabedanga Satyashraya from Dharwar acknowledges his allegiance to the Western Chalukyas and highlights the Chola incursion. He accuses Rajendra Chola of leading a massive force of 955,000 soldiers and causing havoc in Donuwara, blurring the ethical boundaries of warfare prescribed by the Dharmasastras. Historians such as James Heitzman and Wolfgang Schenkluhn interpret this confrontation as indicative of personal animosity between the rulers of the Chola and Chalukya kingdoms, akin to historical conflicts between the Chalukyas of Badami and the Pallavas of Kanchi. By the year 1004 CE, Rajaraja had successfully conquered the Gangavadi province. He established control over the western part of Gangavadi, ruled by the Changalvas, and over Kodagu, governed by the Kongalvas, who were then made vassals of the Chola Empire. Panchavan Maraya, a Chola general, played a significant role in defeating the Changalvas in the battle of Ponnasoge and was duly rewarded with the territory of Arkalgud Yelusuvira-7000 and the esteemed title of Kshatriyasikhamani. Similarly, in recognition of the valor displayed by Manya, a Kongalva leader, the estate of Malambi (Coorg) was granted to them, along with the title of Kshatriyasikhamani. Meanwhile, the Vengi kingdom was under the rule of Jata Choda Bhima, a member of the Eastern Chalukyas Dynasty. However, Rajaraja emerged victorious in battle against Bhima, and Saktivarman was appointed as a viceroy under the Chola Dynasty. Despite a brief period of Bhima's recapture of Kanchi in 1001 CE, Rajaraja swiftly restored Saktivarman to power, even expelling and eliminating an Andhra king named Bhima. Notably, Rajaraja cemented an alliance between the Chola Dynasty and the Eastern Chalukya Kingdom by arranging the marriage of his daughter, Kundavai, to the next viceroy of Vengi, Vimaladitya. This strategic union ensured the future succession of Rajaraja's descendants to the throne of the Eastern Chalukya Kingdom. Hoysala conflicts There were hostile encounters between the Cholas and the Hoysalas, a group who were vassals of the Western Chalukyas. An inscription from the Gopalakrishna temple at Narasipur, dated to 1006, records that Rajaraja's general Aprameya killed Hoysala generals and a minister identified as Naganna. Additionally, a similar inscription in Channapatna describes Rajaraja defeating the Hoysalas. Kalinga conquest The invasion of the kingdom of Kalinga occurred after the conquest of Vengi. This conquest marked the northern boundary of the Chola Empire at that time and established their control over the entirety of South and South-East India. Conquest of Kuda-malai-nadu In multiple historical accounts, there are mentions of King Rajaraja's conquest of a place called "Kuda-malai-nadu" around the year 1000 CE. In certain inscriptions found in Karnataka, the term "Kudagu-malai-nadu" is used instead of "Kuda-malai-nadu." Scholars generally believe that this region corresponds to Coorg (Kudagu). The king's conquest of Malainadu is described in the Vikrama Chola Ula, where it is said that he achieved it in just one day, crossing 18 mountain passes. According to the Kulottunga Chola Ula, King Rajaraja was depicted as beheading 18 people and burning down Udagai. Additionally, the Kalingathupparani references the establishment of Chadaya Nalvizha in Udiyar Mandalam, the seizure of Udagai, and the plundering of several elephants from the area. The Tiruppalanam inscription from 999 CE records the king's offering of an idol obtained as spoils from Malainadu. Naval expedition "A naval campaign led to the conquest of the Maldive Islands, the Malabar Coast, and northern Sri Lanka, all of which were essential to the Chola control over trade with Southeast Asia and with Arabia and eastern Africa. These were the transit areas, ports of call for the Arab traders and ships to Southeast Asia and China, which were the source of the valuable spices sold at a high profit to Europe." One of the last conquests of Rajaraja was the naval conquest of the islands of Maldives ("the Ancient Islands of the Sea Numbering 1200"). The naval campaign was a demonstration of the Chola naval power in the Indian Ocean. The Cholas controlled the area around Bay of Bengal with Nagapattinam as the main port. The Chola Navy also played a major role in the invasion of Sri Lanka. The success of Rajaraja allowed his son Rajendra Chola to lead the Chola invasion of Srivijaya, carrying out naval raids in South-East Asia and briefly occupying Kadaram. Personal life Rajaraja married several women, including the following: Vanathi aka Thiripuvāna Mādēviyār, Dantisakti Vitanki aka Lokamadevi, Panchavan Madeviyar, Chola Mahadevi, Trailokya Mahadevi, Lata Mahadevi, Prithvi Mahadevi, Meenavan Mahadevi, Viranarayani and Villavan Mahadevi. He had at least three daughters and two sons. The older son, Rajendra, was born to Thiripuvāna Mādēviyār. The younger son was named Araiyan Rajarajan, and the identiey of his mother is unknown. He had his first daughter Kundavai with Lokamadev who eventually married Chalukya prince Vimaladithan. Rajaraja had two other daughters.. Rajaraja died in 1014 CE in the Tamil month of Maka and was succeeded by Rajendra Chola I. Administration Before the reign of Rajaraja I, portions of the Chola territory were ruled by hereditary lords and princes who were in a loose alliance with the Chola rulers. Rajaraja initiated a project of land survey and assessment in 1000 CE which led to the reorganization of the empire into units known as valanadus. From the reign of Rajaraja I until the reign of Vikrama Chola in 1133 CE, the hereditary lords and local princes were either replaced or turned into dependent officials. This led to the king exercising closer control over the different parts of the empire. Rajaraja strengthened the local self-governments and installed a system of audit and control by which the village assemblies and other public bodies were held to account while retaining their autonomy. To promote trade, he sent the first Chola mission to China. Furthermore, his elder sister Kundavai assisted him in the administration and management of temples. Officials Rajendra Chola I was appointed as a co-regent towards the end of Rajaraja's reign. He held the position of supreme commander over the northern and northwestern territories. Under Raja Chola's rule, there was a notable expansion of the administrative system, resulting in a greater number of offices and officials documented in Chola records compared to previous eras. Villavan Muvendavelan, one of the top officials of Rajaraja figures in many of his inscriptions. The names of other officials found in the inscriptions are the Bana prince Narasimhavarman, a general Senapathi Krishnan Raman, the Samanta chief Vallavaraiyan Vandiyadevan, the revenue official Irayiravan Pallavarayan and Kuruvan Ulagalandan, who organised the country-wide land surveys. Religious policy Rajaraja was a follower of Shaivism sect of Hinduism but he also dedicated several temples to Vishnu. The Chudamani Vihara, a Buddhist monastery, was constructed in the 11th century CE in Nagapattinam. It was named Chudamani or Chulamani Vihara after King Sri Mara's father. The monastery was built by the Sailendra king of Srivijaya, Sri Mara Vijayattungavarman, with the support of Rajaraja I. According to the small Leyden grant, this Vihara was known as Rajaraja-perumpalli during the reign of Kulottunga I. Rajaraja dedicated the proceeds of the revenue from the village of Anaimangalam towards the upkeep of this Vihara. Rajaraja called himself Shivapada Shekhara (IAST: Śivapāda Śekhara), literally, "the one who places his crown at the feet of Shiva". Arts and architecture Rajaraja embarked on a mission to recover the hymns after hearing short excerpts of Thevaram in his court. He sought the help of Nambi Andar Nambi. It is believed that by divine intervention Nambi found the presence of scripts, in the form of cadijam leaves half eaten by white ants in a chamber inside the second precinct in Thillai Nataraja Temple, Chidambaram. The brahmanas (Dikshitars) in the temple opposed the mission, but Rajaraja intervened by consecrating the images of the saint-poets through the streets of Chidambaram. Rajaraja thus became known as Tirumurai Kanda Cholan meaning one who saved the Tirumurai. In his work Nambiyandar Nambi Puranam alias Tirumurai Kanda Puranam, Nambi identifies his patron as Rasarasamannan-Abhayakula-sekharan, that is king Rajaraja, the best of the race of Abhaya. At that time, Shiva temples only had images of god forms, but after the advent of Rajaraja, the images of the Nayanar saints were also placed inside the temple. Nambi organized the hymns of three saint poets—Sambandar, Appar, and Sundarar—as the first seven books. He included Manickavasagar's Tirukovayar and Tiruvacakam as the 8th book, and the hymns of nine other saints as the 9th book. The Tirumandiram of Tirumular was designated as the 10th book, while 40 hymns by 12 other poets constituted the 11th book. Additionally, Nambi added Tirutotanar Tiruvanthathi, the sacred anthathi of the labors of the 63 nayanar saints, along with his own hymns as the 12th book. The initial seven books were later recognized as Tevaram. With the addition of Sekkizhar's Periya Puranam (1135) as the twelfth book, the entire Saiva canon became known as Tirumurai, the holy scripture. Consequently, Saiva literature now encompasses approximately 600 years of religious, philosophical, and literary development. There are no existing contemporary portraits or statues of Rajaraja. The bronze figure purportedly depicting him at the Thanjavur temple is spurious and of recent origin. Brihadisvara Temple During 1010 CE, Rajaraja built the Brihadisvara Temple in Thanjavur and dedicated it to Lord Shiva. The temple, also known as Periya Kovil, RajaRajeswara Temple and Rajarajeswaram, and the capital were centres of both religious and economic activity. The temple, which turned 1000 years old in 2010, is one of the largest temples in India and is an example of Dravidian architecture of the Chola period. Along with Gangaikonda Cholapuram temple and Airavatesvara temple, Brihadisvara is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the "Great Living Chola Temples". The temple tower, called the vimanam, stands at a remarkable height of 216 feet (66 meters), making it the tallest in the world. At the very top sits the Kumbam, a bulbous structure, which is carved entirely from a single rock and weighs approximately 80 tons. At the entrance stands a sizable statue of Nandi, the sacred bull, carved from a single rock, measuring about 16 feet in length and 13 feet in height. The entire temple structure is crafted from granite, obtained from sources located approximately 60 kilometers to the west of the temple. This temple is widely renowned as one of the premier tourist attractions in Tamil Nadu. Coins Prior to Rajaraja's reign, Chola coins featured the tiger emblem on the obverse, along with the fish and bow emblems representing the Pandya and Chera Dynasties, while the reverse side displayed the name of the King. However, a new type of coin emerged during Rajaraja's rule. These new coins showcased the figure of the standing king on the obverse side, while the reverse side depicted a seated goddess. The coins spread across much of southern India and were copied by Sri Lankan kings. Inscriptions Due to Rajaraja's desire to record his military achievements, he recorded the important events of his life in stone. An inscription in Tamil from Mulbagal in Karnataka shows his accomplishments as early as the 19th year. An excerpt from such a Meikeerthi, an inscription recording great accomplishments, follows: Hail Prosperity! In the 21st year of (the reign of) the illustrious Ko Raja Rajakesari Varma, alias the illustrious Rajaraja Deva, who, while both the goddess of fortune and the great goddess of the earth, who had become his exclusive property, gave him pleasure, was pleased to destroy the kalam at Kandalur and conquered by his army, which was victorious in great battles, Vengai-nadu, Ganga-padi, Nulamba-padi, Tadigai-padi, Kudamalai-nadu, Kollam, Kalingam and Ira-mandalam, which is famed in the eight directions; who, while his beauty was increasing, and while he was resplendent (to such an extent) that he was always worthy to be worshipped, deprived the Seriyas of their splendour, and (in words) in the twenty-first year of Chola Arumoli, who possesses the river Ponni, whose waters are full of waves. Rajaraja recorded all the grants made to the Thanjavur temple and his achievements. He also preserved the records of his predecessors. An inscription of his reign found at Tirumalavadi records an order of the king to the effect that the central shrine of the Vaidyanatha temple at the place should be rebuilt and that, before pulling down the walls, the inscriptions engraved on them should be copied in a book. The records were subsequently re-engraved on the walls from the book after the rebuilding was finished. Another inscription from the Gramardhanathesvara temple in the southern area of Arcot, dating back to the seventh year of the king, mentions the fifteenth year of his predecessor, Uttama Choladeva. Uttama Choladeva is described in the inscription as the son of Sembiyan-Madeviyar. In popular culture Ponniyin Selvan: I, a 2022 film based on Kalki Krishnamurthy's 1955 novel Ponniyin Selvan, deals with the succession troubles during the reign of Sundara Chola and the death of the elder prince Aditha Karikalan. The role of the younger prince Arulmoli Varman, also known as Ponniyin Selvan (the future Rajaraja I) is played by the Tamil cinema actor Jayam Ravi. The sequel Ponniyin Selvan: II was released in 2023. Rajaraja Cholan, is a 1973 Tamil film starring Sivaji Ganesan. Ponniyin Selvan, a novel by Kalki, revolves around the early life of Rajaraja, the mysteries surrounding the death of Aditha Karikalan and the subsequent accession of Uttama to the Chola throne. Nandipurathu Nayagi by Vembu Vikiraman revolves around the ascension of Uttama Chola to the throne and Rajaraja's naval expedition. Rajaraja Cholan by Kathal Ramanathan. Kandalur Vasantha Kumaran Kathai by Sujatha which deals with the situations leading Rajaraja to invade Kandalur. Rajakesari and Cherar Kottai by Gokul Seshadri deal with the Kandalur invasion and its after-effects. Bharat Ek Khoj, a 1988 historical drama in its episodes 22 and 23 depicts Rajaraja Chola. The role was played by late actor Om Puri. Kaviri Mainthan, is a 2007 novel by Anusha Venkatesh. Udayaar, is a book by Tamil author Balakumaran which deals with RajaRaja's later years and Rajendra Chola I's ascension. See also List of Tamil monarchs References Bibliography External links Media related to Rajaraja I at Wikimedia Commons

The Bana or Vana was a dynasty based in South India, who claimed descent from king Mahabali. The dynasty takes its name from Bana, the son of Mahabali. The Banas faced opposition from several neighbouring dynasties and served some major dynasties such as the Chalukyas Cholas and Pandyas as feudatories, sometimes after they were subjugated by them. They also served as Samantas to some dynasties. The Banas had their capital at various places at different times, including Kolar and Gudimallam. History The earliest mention of the Banas in authentic historical records is in the middle of the fourth century AD, and as the feudatories of the Satavahana and early Pallavas. But from the actual literature history (Mysore State Gazetteer 1968), The Mahavalis or Brihadbanas who ruled the present Kolar and Chikkaballapur districts of Karnataka are the descendants of King Banasura or King Bana, son of King Mahabali. King Brihadbana was the grandson of Mahabali. Last known ruling king of this generation was King Sambayya. They were in constant conflicts with Nolambas and Western Gangas of the Kolar region. They had Vaidumbas as their allies. They had the present day Avani region (a village in Kolar District) as their capital. The Bana dynasty had a distinctive emblem, featuring a black flag and a bull crest. An inscription discovered in Mulbagal Taluk dating back to the year 339 AD, written in Sanskrit, begins by praising Shiva, whose throne is said to be on the mountain peak called Nandi. This peak is believed to be the present-day Nandidurga, which is considered to personify Nandi, the bull of Shiva. The inscription documents the grant of the village of Mudiyanur (also known as Chudagrama, a Sanskritized form of Mudiyanur) to 25 Brahmins by Vadhuvallabha-Malladeva-Nandivarma, the son of Vijayaditya Deva and grandson of Nandivarma, a notable figure from Mahabali's dynasty. The king, who was in the town of Avanya (Avani), is credited with bringing prosperity to the Bana dynasty and has been compared to Bodhisattva. The Banas seem to have been a strong power almost until the decline at the end of the 9th century. In the battle of Soremati about 874, Banas they, together with the Vaidumbas, are said to have defeated the Gangas and the Nolambas. Further, their inscriptions of 898, 905 and 909 A.D. mention no overlord. But all the same, the Banas had adversaries on all sides, and their power was continually being undermined since the close of the 9th century. They ultimately appear to have lost their independence by the first half of the 1Oth century at the latest. If the Nolamba king Mahendra (c. 870-897) is described as the cunning king who has ended the Mahabali family, the Chola king Viranarayana or Parantaka claims in 921 to have uprooted by force two Bana kings and conferred the title of Banadhiraja on the Ganga prince Prithvipathi II, who helped him in this task. In 961, which is the date of the latest Bana inscription in this district, we find one King Sambayya ruling a small district under the Pallava king Iriva or Dilipa. But the Banas did not disappear altogether from the political history, as is evident from the references to them in some later literary works and inscriptions. Stray Bana records have been found outside this district, particularly in the south, as late as the first quarter of the 16th century AD. The history of the Banas, who, during a period of more than a thousand years, moved from district to district, from the Andhra-desha in the north to the Pandya country in the far south where they were governors of Madurai under the Pandya kings, is particularly interesting in that it illustrates the long survival of a dynasty by migrations. Boundaries The Bana kingdom was made up of various regions at different points in time and was known by the following names: Perumbanappadi (the great Bana country), of the Sangam period. It is the Tamil equivalent of the 'Country of Brihad-Bana' or 'country of the Brihad (great) Bana'. Perumbanappadi was a large tract of land which lay to the west of Andhrapatha. It had Punganur, Kolar and Srisailam in the west, Kalahasti and Sholingur in the east, while the river Palar formed its Southern boundary. Its capital was Thiruvallam also known as Vanapuram. Perumbanappadi formed a part of the province of Jayakonda Sola Mandalam and also represented the north-western portions of Thondai-Mandalam. Balikula Nadu (kingdom of the Banas). It was made up of parts of modern Chittor, Ananthapur and Cuddapah districts. A portion of Balikula Nadu later included parts of Nellore. The Banas were located in the said regions as early as the 7th century AD and were affiliated with the Tamil Cholas. Andhrapatha (aka Andhra-desa or Province of the Andhras) traditionally between the Godavari and Krishna rivers. This Bana kingdom, known as Andhrapatha, originally extended as far as Kalahasti in the west and covered the whole of present-day North Arcot district. It also included present day Guntur and flourished under the Satavahanas. Andhrapatha was known to the Tamils as Vadugavalli, Vadugavalli Merku or Vadugavalli 12,000. Andhrapatha was developed into Andhramandala by a grant given by the Bana king, Vadhuvallaba Malladeva Nandivarman in AD 338. Andhrapatha was ruled by Ikshvaku kings, such as Virapurshadatta. In Medieval South India The Western Ganga dynasty king, Prithivipati II was conferred the title "lord of the Banas" by Parantaka I Chola after he defeated the Banas. After the Chola King, Parantaka I deprived the Banas of their Andhrapatha kingdom between 909 and 916 AD, the Banas were subsequently found ruling various parts, such as Nellore, Guntur and Anantapur, as chieftains in medieval Andhra. In Nellore An inscription discovered in Sannamur revealed the existence of a Bana dynasty that ruled the northern part of Nellore district in the 11th century AD. The Bana king at that time was named Aggaparaju (also known as Aggraparaju alias Aggappa), who claimed his descent from Mahabali and asserted lordship over Paravipura and Nandagiri. While nothing is known about his predecessors, it is believed that Aggappa may have ruled as a vassal of the Chalukya prince, Vimaladitya. In Konidena Churrabali I or Churaballiraja I of the Banas was ruling in Konidena in the 12th century AD. Churaballi II alias Churabbiraju II, served as a Mahamandaleshwara and bore a long prasasti and titles similar to that of Aggapparaju. Hence it is suggested that he was a descendant of Aggappa Raju. Churabbiraju's only record from Konidena dated 1151 AD mentions him as "Mahamandalesvara Berbaha Churraballi Raju". His epithets mention he belonged to Vashista gotra. He claimed lordship over Paravipura and Nandagiri and ruled in a part of Kammanadu. Other Banas Chittarasa, figuring in a record of 1122 AD record of Anantapur, was perhaps of Bana lineage. In the time of Prataparudra of the Kakatiya Dynasty, some Banas are heard of in the Telugu country. They have been mentioned in the work 'Prataparudra Yashobhushana' written by Vidyanatha. Trivikramadeva claimed a Bana descent and flourished in the 15th century. He wrote Trivikrama Vritti, a work on Prakrit grammar. The last date for the Vijayanagar Viceroys (Nayaks) of Madurai claiming a Bana descent is 1546 AD. Brihatphala Based on the copper plates of Jayavarman Brihat-Phalayana, it has been suggested that Brihat-Phala means the same as Brihad-Bana, where 'phala' and 'bana' both have the same meaning as 'arrowhead'. The Brihat-phalayanas ruled in regions around Masulipatnam around the 3rd century AD. Additionally, the Saka Mahakshatrapas of Ujjain claimed Brihatphala (Bahaphala) gotra and were linked with the Ikshvakus. A record of the Ikshvakus of the Guntur-Krishna region mentions that a queen named Varma Bhatarika, the wife of Maharaja Ehuvula Chantamula, and daughter-in-law of Maharaja Chantamula, is said to have belonged to Bahapala (that is, Brihat-phala or Brihatphalayana) gotra and is said to have been the daughter of a Mahakshatrapa. It may therefore be surmised that Brihatphala was possibly used as a gotra name to indicate descent from Brihad-Bana. Bana kings Some Bana kings mentioned in various historical sources are: Jayanandivarman Vijayaditya I, son of Jayanandivarman Malladeva, son of Vijayaditya I Bana Vidhyadhara, son of Malladeva (Married a granddaughter of the Ganga King Siva Maharaja, who reigned between 1000 and 1016 AD) Prabhumerudeva, son of Banavidhyadhara Vikramaditya I, son of Prabhumerudeva Vikramaditya II or Pugalvippavar-Ganda, son of Vikramaditya I Vijayabahu Vikramaditya II, son of Vikramaditya II Aragalur Udaiya Ponparappinan Rajarajadevan alias Magadesan (Magadai Mandalam chief) of Aragalur Vallavaraiyan Vandiyadevan In Sangam literature An ancient Tamil poem of the Sangam period, describes a scene in front of a Vanar Palace thus: Poets are leaving the palace with plenty of gifts from the King, while the arrested rulers of smaller regions of the kingdom, who have failed to pay tribute to the King and waiting for the King's pardon happen to see the poets leaving with expensive gifts which are actually things seized by the King from them. One of them, seeing the gifts, says that it is his horse that one the poet takes away, while another one points out to his elephant, similarly and so on goes the poem, capturing the might of ancient Vanars. This poem explains the wealth and power of Southern Vanars. Kalki, in his historic novel Ponniyin Selvan, describes a scene in which the protagonist, Vallavaraiyan Vandiyadevan, who he claims to be of Vanar descent, broods over the fall of his clan, singing this poem. Titles The Bana Chieftains held various titles in different regions and at different times, including Vanar, Vanara, Vanavarayar, Vanakovarayar, Ponparappinan, and some claimed titles such as "Vaana-Kulothoman," "Ganga-kula-uthaman," and "Kaangeyar," among others. See also Perumpāṇāṟṟuppaṭai == References ==

Of the 'Big Four' of Thrash Metal, whose debut full-length was released first?

Metallica

Multiple constraints

Thrash metal (or simply thrash) is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music characterized by its overall aggression and fast tempo. The songs usually use fast percussive beats and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead guitar work. The genre emerged in the early 1980s as musicians began fusing the double bass drumming and complex guitar stylings of the new wave of British heavy metal (NWOBHM) with the speed and aggression of hardcore punk and the technicality of progressive music. Philosophically, thrash metal developed as a backlash against both the conservatism of the Reagan era and the much more moderate, pop-influenced, and widely accessible heavy metal subgenre of glam metal which also developed concurrently in the 1980s. The early thrash metal movement revolved around independent record labels, including Megaforce, Metal Blade, Combat, Roadrunner, and Noise, and the underground tape trading industry in both Europe and North America. The genre was commercially successful from approximately 1985 through 1991, bringing prominence to Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax, all grouped together as the "Big Four" of U.S. thrash metal. Other U.S. bands, such as Overkill, Metal Church, and Bay Area acts Exodus, Testament and Death Angel, never achieved the popularity of the "Big Four" but also had considerable success during the late 1980s and early 1990s, particularly on the strength of airplay on MTV's Headbangers Ball. Some of the most successful international thrash metal bands from this era were Brazil's Sepultura, Canada's Voivod, and the genre's "Big Teutonic Four": Kreator, Destruction, Sodom, and Tankard. The thrash metal genre had declined in popularity by the mid-1990s, due to the commercial success of numerous genres such as alternative rock, grunge, and later pop-punk and nu metal. In response, some bands either disbanded or moved away from their thrash metal roots and more towards groove metal or alternative metal. The genre has seen a resurgence in popularity since the 2000s, with the arrival of various bands such as Bonded by Blood, Evile, Hatchet, Havok, Lamb of God, Municipal Waste, and Warbringer, who have all been credited for leading the so-called "thrash metal revival" scene. Characteristics Thrash metal generally features fast tempos, low-register, complex guitar riffs, high-register guitar solos, and double bass drumming. The rhythm guitar parts are played with heavy distortion and often palm muted to create a tighter and more precise sound. Vocally, thrash metal can employ anything from melodic singing to shouted or screamed vocals. Most guitar solos are played at high speed and technically demanding, as they are usually characterized by shredding, and use advanced techniques such as sweep picking, legato phrasing, alternate picking, tremolo picking, string skipping, and two-hand tapping. David Ellefson, the original bassist of Megadeth, described thrash metal as "a combination of the attitude from punk rock but the riffs and complexities of traditional metal." The guitar riffs often use chromatic scales and emphasize the tritone and diminished intervals, instead of using conventional single-scale-based riffing. For example, the intro riff of Metallica's "Master of Puppets" (the title track of the namesake album) is a chromatic descent, followed by a chromatic ascent based on the tritone. Speed, pacing, and time changes also define thrash metal. Thrash tends to have an accelerating feel which may be due in large part to its aggressive drumming style. For example, drummers often use two bass drums, or a double-bass pedal to create a relentless, driving beat. Cymbal stops/chokes are often used to transition from one riff to another or to precede an acceleration in tempo. Some common characteristics of the genre are fast guitar riffs with aggressive picking styles and fast guitar solos, and extensive use of two bass drums as opposed to the conventional use of only one, typical of most rock music. To keep up with the other instruments, many bassists use a plectrum (pick). However, some prominent thrash metal bassists have used their fingers, such as Frank Bello, Greg Christian, Steve Di Giorgio, Robert Trujillo, and Cliff Burton. Several bassists use a distorted bass tone, an approach popularized by Burton and Motörhead's Lemmy. Lyrical themes in thrash metal include warfare, corruption, injustice, murder, suicide, isolation, alienation, addiction, and other maladies that afflict the individual and society. In addition, politics, particularly pessimism and dissatisfaction towards politics, are common themes among thrash metal bands. Humor and irony can occasionally be found (Anthrax for example), but they are limited, and are an exception rather than a rule. History Roots (1970s–early 1980s) Queen's 1974 song "Stone Cold Crazy" and Black Sabbath's 1975 song "Symptom of the Universe" are often referred to as compelling early influences on thrash; the latter of which was a direct inspiration for Diamond Head's pioneering song "Am I Evil?". The new wave of British heavy metal (NWOBHM) bands emerging from Britain in the late 1970s further influenced the development of early thrash. The early work of artists such as Diamond Head, Iron Maiden, Venom, Motörhead, Tygers of Pan Tang, Raven, and Angel Witch, among others, introduced the fast-paced and intricate musicianship that became core aspects of thrash. Phil Taylor's double-bass drumming featured in Motörhead's 1979 song "Overkill" has been acknowledged by many thrash drummers, most notably Lars Ulrich, as a primary influence on their playing. Thrash metal bands have also taken inspiration from Judas Priest, with Slayer guitarist Kerry King saying that, "There would be no Slayer without Priest." Metal Blade Records executive Brian Slagel played a key role in bringing the NWOBHM to a larger audience, as he was responsible for discovering both Metallica and Slayer and producing their earliest studio recordings. In addition to the NWOBHM and the late 1960s and 1970s hard rock and heavy metal scenes, progressive rock has been cited as an important influence on the creation of thrash metal and its subgenre technical thrash metal (or "progressive thrash metal"), the latter of which adds elements of progressive, jazz or classical music. Greg Prato of Ultimate Guitar noted: "Although the thrash movement seemed to have much more in common with punk than prog fashion-wise (leather jackets vs. capes), musically, there were certainly moments when thrash leaned more towards the prog side of things." The thrash metal genre is also strongly influenced by the 1970s and early 1980s punk rock scene, including that of the New York Dolls, the Ramones, the Sex Pistols and the Dead Boys, as well as late 1970s/early 1980s hardcore punk bands Discharge, GBH, Black Flag, the Misfits, the Dead Kennedys, and Bad Brains. The Ramones' 1976 self-titled debut album in particular has been noted as a key influence on the genre, due to its sound, which introduced the three-chord thrash style of guitar. Void has been credited as one of the earliest examples of hardcore/heavy metal crossover, whose chaotic musical approach is often cited as particularly influential. Their 1982 split LP with fellow Washington band The Faith showed both bands exhibiting quick, fiery, high-speed punk rock. It has been argued that those recordings laid the foundation for early thrash metal, at least in terms of selected tempos, and that thrash is essentially hardcore punk with the technical proficiency missing from that genre. The crossover with hardcore punk has also been cited as important influence on thrash, especially the English hardcore punk band Discharge, whose "influence on heavy metal is incalculable and metal superstars such as Metallica, Anthrax, Machine Head, Sepultura, Soulfly, Prong and Arch Enemy have covered Discharge's songs in tribute." The eponymous debut albums by D.R.I. and Suicidal Tendencies, both released in 1983, have been credited for paving the way for thrashcore. In Latin America, this genre also gained a lot of strength, and its creation is also attributed to it, since it began to gain popularity due to the dictatorships that many countries faced at that time, with bands like V8 (1979) with their debut albums Demo 1982 or Luchando por el metal, and Bloke (1980) from Argentina, Transmetal (1987) from México, also the band Massakre (1985) in Chile. In Europe, the earliest band of the emerging thrash movement was Venom from Newcastle upon Tyne, formed in 1979. Their 1982 album Black Metal has been cited as a major influence on many subsequent genres and bands in the extreme metal world, such as Bathory, Hellhammer, Slayer, and Mayhem. The European scene was almost exclusively influenced by the most aggressive music Germany and England were producing at the time. British bands such as Tank and Raven, along with German bands Accept (whose 1982 song "Fast as a Shark" is often credited as one of the first-ever thrash/speed metal songs) and Living Death, motivated musicians from central Europe to start bands of their own, eventually producing groups such as Sodom, Kreator, and Destruction from Germany, as well as Switzerland's Celtic Frost (formed by two-thirds of Hellhammer), Coroner and Carrion (who later became Poltergeist) and Denmark's Artillery. Thrash metal in the 1980s Birth and underground expansion (1981–1983) In 1981, Los Angeles band Leather Charm wrote a song entitled "Hit the Lights". Leather Charm soon disbanded and the band's primary songwriter, vocalist/rhythm guitarist James Hetfield, met drummer Lars Ulrich through a classified advertisement. Together, Hetfield and Ulrich formed Metallica, one of the "Big Four" thrash bands, with lead guitarist Dave Mustaine, who would later form Megadeth, another of the "Big Four" originators of thrash, and bassist Ron McGovney. McGovney would be replaced by Cliff Burton (formerly of Trauma), and Mustaine was later replaced by Kirk Hammett of the then-unsigned Bay Area thrash metal act Exodus, and at Burton's insistence, the band relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area. Before Metallica had even settled on a definitive lineup, Metal Blade Records executive Brian Slagel asked Hetfield and Ulrich (credited as "Mettallica") to record "Hit the Lights" for the first edition of his Metal Massacre compilation in 1982. An updated version of "Hit the Lights" would later open their first studio album, Kill 'Em All, released in mid-1983. The term "thrash metal" was first used in the music press by Kerrang! magazine's journalist Malcolm Dome while referring to another of the "Big Four", Anthrax (who, like Metallica, formed in 1981), and their song "Metal Thrashing Mad". Before this, Metallica frontman James Hetfield referred to his band's sound as speed metal or power metal. Another "Big Four" thrash band formed in Los Angeles in 1981, when guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King met while auditioning for the same band and subsequently decided to form a band of their own. Hanneman and King recruited vocalist/bassist Tom Araya and drummer Dave Lombardo, and Slayer was formed. Slayer was discovered by Metal Blade Records executive Brian Slagel; the band's live performance of Iron Maiden's "Phantom of the Opera" so impressed him that he promptly signed them to his label. In December 1983, five months after the release of Metallica's debut Kill 'Em All, Slayer released their debut album, Show No Mercy. To the north, Canada produced influential thrash and speed metal bands such as Annihilator, Anvil, Exciter, Razor, Sacrifice, and Voivod. Mainstream popularity (1984–1989) First wave (1984–1986) The popularity of thrash metal increased in 1984 with the release of Metallica's sophomore record Ride the Lightning, as well as Anthrax's debut Fistful of Metal and Metal Church's eponymous debut album. Slayer and Overkill released extended plays on independent labels during this era, Haunting the Chapel and Overkill respectively. This led to a heavier-sounding form of thrash, which was reflected in Exodus' debut album Bonded by Blood, Slayer's Hell Awaits and Anthrax's Spreading the Disease, all three released in 1985. Several other debut albums were released that same year, including Megadeth's Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good!, Overkill's Feel the Fire, Kreator's Endless Pain, Destruction's Infernal Overkill, Possessed's Seven Churches, Celtic Frost's To Mega Therion, Watchtower's Energetic Disassembly and the Sepultura EP Bestial Devastation. Seven Churches and To Mega Therion are often credited for pioneering and popularizing the mid-1980s extreme metal scene (as well as the then-developing genres of death metal and black metal, respectively), while Energetic Disassembly has been cited as the first progressive/technical thrash metal album. From a creative standpoint, the year 1986 was perhaps the pinnacle of thrash metal, as a number of critically acclaimed and genre-defining albums were released. Metallica's major label debut Master of Puppets was released in March, becoming the first thrash album to be certified platinum, being certified 6× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA); it would be the band's last album to feature bassist Cliff Burton, who was killed in a bus accident six months after its release. Kreator released Pleasure to Kill in April 1986, which would later be a major influence on the death metal scene. Megadeth released Peace Sells... but Who's Buying? in September, an album which proved to be the band's commercial and critical breakthrough and which AllMusic later cited as "a classic of early thrash". Slayer, regarded as one of the most sinister thrash metal bands of the early 1980s, released Reign in Blood in October, an album considered by some to have single-handedly inspired the death metal genre. Also in October, Nuclear Assault released their debut album Game Over, followed a month later by Dark Angel's Darkness Descends, which marked the debut of renowned drummer Gene Hoglan. Flotsam and Jetsam's debut album Doomsday for the Deceiver (released on the Fourth of July in 1986) received some attention as well, due to the album being "the first of only a handful" to ever receive a 6K rating from Kerrang! magazine, and it is also notable for featuring a then-unknown Jason Newsted, who, not long after the album's release, joined Metallica as Burton's replacement. Also during the mid-to-late 1980s, bands such as Suicidal Tendencies, D.R.I., S.O.D. (who featured three-fifths of Anthrax), and Corrosion of Conformity paved the way to what became known as crossover thrash, a fusion genre that lies on a continuum between heavy metal and hardcore punk, and is arguably faster and more aggressive than thrash metal. Second wave (1987–1989) By the mid-to-late 1980s, thrash metal began to achieve major mainstream success worldwide, with many bands of the genre receiving heavy rotation on MTV's Headbangers Ball, and radio stations such as KNAC in Long Beach and Z Rock in Dallas, as well as coverage on numerous publications, including Kerrang! and RIP Magazine. These outlets not only played a major role in the crossover success of thrash metal during this time, but helped push album sales of the genre's "Big Four" and similar bands, or moved them from playing clubs to arenas and stadiums. Anthrax made its mainstream breakthrough in 1987 with the release of their gold-certified album Among the Living, which borrowed elements from their two previous releases, with fast guitar riffs and pounding drums. Shortly after the release of Among the Living, three Bay Area bands, Testament, Death Angel and Heathen, respectively released their debut albums The Legacy, The Ultra-Violence and Breaking the Silence. All of the "Big Four" of Teutonic thrash metal also released albums in 1987: Kreator's Terrible Certainty, Destruction's Release from Agony, Sodom's Persecution Mania and Tankard's Chemical Invasion; these albums cemented their reputations as top-tier German thrash metal bands. In response to thrash metal's growing popularity during this period, several hardcore punk bands began changing their style to a more heavier direction, including Suicidal Tendencies, who are often considered to be one of the "fathers of crossover thrash", and became more recognized as a thrash metal band in the late 1980s (thanks in large part to the presence of guitarists Rocky George and Mike Clark); the band would reach new heights of success with their first two major-label albums, How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can't Even Smile Today (1988) and Controlled by Hatred/Feel Like Shit... Déjà Vu (1989). D.R.I.'s music took a similar direction with their last three albums of the 1980s, Crossover (1987), 4 of a Kind (1988), and Thrash Zone (1989), and other bands would follow suit, including The Exploited, Excel (from Suicidal Tendencies' hometown of Venice) and New York hardcore acts M.O.D. (fronted by former S.O.D. singer Billy Milano), the Cro-Mags and the Crumbsuckers. From 1987 to 1989, Overkill released Taking Over, Under the Influence, and The Years of Decay, three albums considered their best. Each of the "Big Four" of thrash metal bands released albums in 1988: Slayer released South of Heaven, Megadeth released So Far, So Good... So What!, Anthrax released State of Euphoria while Metallica's ...And Justice for All spawned the band's first video and Top 40 hit, the World War I–themed song "One". That same year, Metallica joined Van Halen, Scorpions, Dokken and Kingdom Come on the two-month-long arena and stadium tour Monsters of Rock in North America. In the spring of 1989, Anthrax teamed up with Exodus and Helloween on a US arena tour sponsored by Headbangers Ball. Sepultura's third album, Beneath the Remains (1989), earned them some mainstream appeal as it was released by Roadrunner Records. Testament's second and third albums The New Order (1988) and Practice What You Preach (1989), nearly gained them the same level of popularity as the "Big Four", while Exodus' third album Fabulous Disaster (1989) garnered the band their first music video and one of their most recognized songs, the mosh-pit anthem "The Toxic Waltz". Vio-lence, Forbidden, and Sadus, three relative latecomers to the Bay Area thrash metal scene, released their debut albums Eternal Nightmare, Forbidden Evil, and Illusions, respectively, in 1988; the latter album demonstrated a sound that was primarily driven by the fretless bass of Steve Di Giorgio. Also in 1988, Blind Illusion released its only studio album for more than two decades, The Sane Asylum, which received some particular attention as it was produced by Kirk Hammett, and is also notable for featuring bassist Les Claypool and former Possessed guitarist Larry LaLonde; after its release, the two would later team up together in Claypool's then-upcoming band Primus. Canadian thrashers Annihilator released their highly technical debut Alice in Hell in 1989, which was praised for its fast riffs and extended guitar solos. In Germany, Sodom released Agent Orange, and Kreator would release Extreme Aggression. Several highly acclaimed albums associated with the sub-genre of technical thrash metal were also released in 1989, including Coroner's No More Color, Dark Angel's Leave Scars, Toxik's Think This, and Watchtower's Control and Resistance, which has been recognized and acknowledged as one of the cornerstones of jazz-metal fusion and a major influence on the technical death metal genre, while Forced Entry's debut album Uncertain Future helped pioneer the late 1980s Seattle music scene. Thrash metal in the 1990s Continued popularity (1990–1991) A number of more typical but technically sophisticated albums were released in 1990, including Megadeth's Rust in Peace, Anthrax's Persistence of Time, Slayer's Seasons in the Abyss, Suicidal Tendencies' Lights...Camera...Revolution!, Testament's Souls of Black, Kreator's Coma of Souls, Destruction's Cracked Brain, Forbidden's Twisted into Form, Exodus' Impact Is Imminent, Sacred Reich's The American Way, Prong's Beg to Differ, Pantera's Cowboys from Hell and Exhorder's Slaughter in the Vatican; the latter three are often credited for being an integral part of the then-developing groove metal genre. All of those albums were commercial high points for the aforementioned artists. During this period, Megadeth and Slayer co-headlined one of the most successful tours in thrash metal history called the Clash of the Titans; the first leg in Europe included support from Testament and Suicidal Tendencies, while the second leg in North America had Anthrax and then-emerging Seattle band Alice in Chains, who were the supporting act. Several albums, some of which had come to be known as technical thrash metal, were released in 1991, including Overkill's Horrorscope, Heathen's Victims of Deception, Dark Angel's Time Does Not Heal, Sepultura's Arise, Coroner's Mental Vortex, Prong's Prove You Wrong and Forced Entry's As Above, So Below. In 1991, Metallica released their eponymous fifth studio album, known as "The Black Album". The album marked a stylistic change in the band, eliminating much of the speed and longer song structures of the band's previous work, and instead focusing on more concise and heavier songs. The album was a change in Metallica's direction from the thrash metal style of the band's previous four studio albums towards a more contemporary heavy metal sound with original hard rock elements, but still had remnant characteristics of thrash metal. It would go on to become the band's best-selling album and began a wave of thrash metal bands releasing more garage-oriented albums, or else more experimental ones. Decline (1991–1999) The era of 1991–1992 marked the beginning of the end of thrash metal's commercial peak, due to the rising popularity of the alternative metal and grunge movements (the latter spearheaded by Washington-based bands Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam). In response to this climate change, many thrash metal bands that had emerged from the previous decade had called it quits or went on hiatus during the 1990s, while half of the "Big Four" and other veteran bands began changing to more accessible, radio-friendly styles. Metallica was a notable example of this shift, particularly with their mid–to–late 1990s albums Load, and ReLoad, which displayed minor blues and southern rock influences, and were seen as a major departure from the band's earlier sound. Megadeth took a more accessible heavy metal route starting with their 1992 album Countdown to Extinction. Testament, Exodus and Flotsam and Jetsam all took a melodic/progressive approach with the albums The Ritual, Force of Habit, and Cuatro, respectively. One of the pioneers of crossover thrash, Corrosion of Conformity, began changing their sound into a slower and Black Sabbath-influenced heavy metal direction with their post-1980s output, adapting influences and textures of sludge, doom metal, blues, and southern rock on several of their albums, including Blind (1991), Deliverance (1994) and Wiseblood (1996). In the wake of the success of groove metal, instigated by Pantera (who went on to become one of the most successful heavy metal bands of the 1990s), several thrash metal established bands started to expand their sound by adding elements and influences from the groove metal genre. Anthrax, who had recently replaced Joey Belladonna with John Bush as their singer, began stepping away from their previously established thrash metal formula to a more accessible alternative/groove metal approach for the remainder of their 1990s output, starting with and including Sound of White Noise (1993). Sacred Reich, Overkill, Coroner, Prong, Testament, and Forbidden followed this trend with their respective albums Independent, I Hear Black, Grin, Cleansing, Low, and Distortion. Sepultura's 1993 album Chaos A.D. also marked the beginning of their transition away from death/thrash metal to groove metal which had influenced then-up-and-coming bands like Korn, who reciprocally became the inspiration behind the nu metal style of the band's next album Roots (1996). Roots would influence a generation of bands from Linkin Park to Slipknot, which during the 1990s meant the replacement of death, thrash, and speed, by nu metal and metalcore as popular epicenters of the hardest metal scene. Staying away from this new commercial mainstream of groove metal, metalcore, and especially nu metal, the second wave of black metal emerged as an opposed underground music scene, initially in Norway. This crop of new bands differenced themselves from the "first wave" by totally distilling black metal from the combined origins with thrash metal, but they preserved from all these sub-genres the emphasis on atmosphere over rhythm. As further extreme metal genres came to prominence in the 1990s (industrial metal, death metal, and black metal each finding their own fanbase), the heavy metal "family tree" soon found itself blending aesthetics and styles. For example, bands with all the musical traits of thrash metal began using death growls, a vocal style borrowed from death metal, while black metal bands often utilized the airy feel of synthesizers, popularized in industrial metal. Today the placing of bands within distinct sub-genres remains a source of contention for heavy metal fans, however, little debate resides over the fact that thrash metal is the sole proprietor of its respective spin-offs. Revivals (2000–present) A few thrash metal bands from the 1980s and early 1990s, particularly the genre's U.S. "big four", continued recording and touring with success in the 2000s. In 2003, Anthrax released their first studio album in five years We've Come for You All, followed a month later by Metallica's double platinum-certified album St. Anger. After experimenting further with a commercialized sound on their previous few albums, Megadeth returned to its heavier sound with their ninth album The World Needs a Hero (2001). It would be the band's final album before disbanding in the following year, due to an arm injury that had left Dave Mustaine unable to play guitar; he would eventually reform Megadeth for a handful albums, including The System Has Failed (2004) which was originally going to be released as a solo album by him, before reuniting with co-founding member and bassist David Ellefson in 2010. Slayer released three albums in the 2000s: God Hates Us All (2001), which saw a return to their signature thrash metal sound, followed by Christ Illusion (2006) and World Painted Blood (2009), both of which marked their first studio albums with drummer Dave Lombardo in nearly two decades. Although their career had declined from its peak in the 1990s, Overkill was perhaps one of the most-active thrash metal groups outside of the "Big Four", having never disbanded or taken longer breaks in-between records, and with 2000's Bloodletting, they were the first band in the genre to release more than ten studio albums. Overkill's popularity was reignited in the 2010s, with three of their albums, The Electric Age (2012), White Devil Armory (2014) and The Grinding Wheel (2017), all entering the Top 100 on the Billboard charts. The resurgence of interest in the thrash metal genre during the early 2000s was widely attributed to the Thrash of the Titans festival, which was held in August 2001 as a co-benefit concert for Testament singer Chuck Billy and Death's Chuck Schuldiner, who were both battling cancer. The show is also notable for seeing several of Testament's Bay Area thrash metal contemporaries, including Exodus, Death Angel, Vio-lence, Forbidden Evil, Sadus and Legacy (a precursor to Testament), reunited. Many thrash metal bands from outside of the Bay Area would subsequently reunite, including Anthrax (twice with Joey Belladonna and briefly with John Bush), Dark Angel, Nuclear Assault, Sacred Reich, UK bands Onslaught, Sabbat, and Xentrix, and Canada's Sacrifice, renewing interest in previous decades. The term "thrash-revivalists" has been applied to such bands as Lamb of God, Municipal Waste, Evile, Havok, Warbringer, Vektor, Bonded by Blood, Hatchet, and Power Trip. Evile's 2007 debut album Enter the Grave, produced by former Metallica producer and engineer Flemming Rasmussen, received considerable praise for its sound, which combined elements of the sounds of Slayer and the Bay Area scene (particularly Exodus and Testament). Los Angeles-based bands Warbringer and Bonded by Blood took a similar approach on their respective debut albums, War Without End and Feed the Beast, both released in 2008. Perhaps the most commercially successful band from the 2000s and 2010s thrash metal revival movement is Lamb of God, who are also considered a key part of the new wave of American heavy metal movement, have received two gold-certified albums in the U.S., and continue to play from small clubs to arenas and stadiums. Notable bands returned to their roots with releases such as Kreator's Violent Revolution (2001), Metallica's Death Magnetic (2008), Megadeth's Endgame (2009), Slayer's World Painted Blood (2009), Exodus' Exhibit B: The Human Condition (2010), Overkill's Ironbound (2010), Anthrax's Worship Music (2011), Testament's Dark Roots of Earth (2012), and Flotsam and Jetsam's Ugly Noise (2012). More recent bands of the genre, such as Havok and Legion of the Damned have turned their focus towards a more aggressive rendition of thrash metal, incorporating elements of melodic death metal. Spin-off genres Thrash metal is directly responsible for the development of underground metal genres, such as death metal, black metal, and groove metal. In addition to this, metalcore, grindcore, and deathcore employ similar riffs in their composition, the former with more focus on melody rather than chromaticism. The blending of punk ethos and metal's brutal nature led to even more extreme, underground styles after thrash metal began gaining mild commercial success in the late 1980s. With gorier subject matter, heavier down tuning of guitars, more consistent use of blast beat drumming, and darker, atonal death growls, death metal was established in the mid-1980s. Black metal, also related to thrash metal, emerged at the same time, with many black metal bands taking influence from thrash metal bands such as Venom. Black metal continued deviating from thrash metal, often providing more orchestral overtones, open tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, shrieked or raspy vocals and pagan or occult-based aesthetics to distinguish itself from thrash metal. Thrash metal would later combine with its spinoffs, thus giving rise to genres like blackened thrash metal and deathrash. Groove metal takes the intensity and sonic qualities of thrash metal and plays them at mid-tempo, with most bands making only occasional forays into fast tempo, but since the early 1990s, it started to favor a more death metal–derived sound. Thrash metal with stronger punk elements is called crossover thrash. Its overall sound is more punk-influenced than traditional thrash metal but has more heavy metal elements than hardcore punk and thrashcore. The most progressive and technical subgenre of thrash metal is called technical thrash metal, which is a combination of the aggression of thrash metal and complexity of progressive music. This subgenre is influenced by mostly progressive rock and jazz fusion, and also uses elements of progressive metal. Technical thrash metal has been cited as one of the main influences to the style of technical death metal. Regional scenes Thrash metal emerged predominantly from a handful of regional scenes, each of which was generally distinguished by the unique characteristics of its bands. Bay Area thrash metal, also known as West Coast thrash metal: In addition to being the most commercially successful, the West Coast's thrash metal, as well as the Northwest and Southwest regions (including California, Washington and Arizona), tended to be the most progressive and technical of the major regional thrash scenes, being strongly NWOBHM influenced. Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Testament, Exodus, Metal Church, Dark Angel, Sacred Reich, Suicidal Tendencies, Possessed, Deliverance, Death Angel, Attitude Adjustment, Lȧȧz Rockit, Vio-lence, Forbidden, Flotsam and Jetsam, Defiance, Sadus, Hirax, Mordred, Evildead and Blind Illusion are prominent examples of bands to emerge from this region. Although half of the aforementioned bands (specifically including Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Dark Angel and Suicidal Tendencies) were technically not from the Bay Area, they are often credited for popularizing and contributing to the thrash metal scene in Northern California during the 1980s by frequently playing shows there, especially early in their careers and/or before they received their first record deal. East Coast thrash metal: Centered in New York City, the East Coast's thrash metal tended to display a sound that incorporated a strong hardcore punk influence. An emphasis was placed on aggression and speed rather than technicality. Anthrax, Overkill, Carnivore, Nuclear Assault, Meanstreak, Warzone, Prong, Toxik, Whiplash and Wrathchild America exemplified the style to emerge from this regional scene. Gulf Coast thrash metal: While not as popular as the West Coast and East Coast regions, the Gulf Coast spawned at least three thrash metal scenes (including Texas, Louisiana and Florida) during the late 1980s and early 1990s, which saw a number of bands develop a style that was influenced by punk rock and/or the early-to-mid 1980s heavy metal scene. The most notable bands from the Gulf Coast are Atheist, Solstice, Juggernaut, Opprobrium (formerly named Incubus), Watchtower, Rigor Mortis, D.R.I., Absu, Nasty Savage, Verbal Abuse, Angkor Wat, Dead Horse, Pantera and Exhorder, the latter of the two (along with New York's Prong) are often credited for developing and popularizing the groove metal genre in the early 1990s. British thrash metal: The British thrash scene originated from NWOBHM bands like Raven, Jaguar, Warfare and Dragonslayer (originally called Slayer) beginning to play accelerated heavy metal. This led to British thrash metal bands leaning towards a more traditional heavy metal approach, often heavier though less aggressive than their American counterparts. Additionally, crust punk is an integral part of the British thrash metal scene. The most notable bands from this scene are Onslaught, Cancer, Amebix, Sabbat, Detritus, Xentrix, Sacrilege, Nightlord, Atomkraft, Hellbastard, Cerebral Fix, Seventh Angel, Acid Reign and Lawnmower Deth. Brazilian thrash metal: The Brazilian thrash scene is notable for producing a handful of bands that would become principal parts of thrash metal's prevalence in the early 1990s. There were three scenes where Brazilian thrash metal originated: Belo Horizonte (the most prominent), São Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro. The most notable bands from this scene are Sepultura, Dorsal Atlântica, Executer, Mutilator, Chakal, Korzus, Holocausto, Claustrofobia, Torture Squad, Ratos de Porão, Sagrado Inferno, Vulcano and Sarcófago. Teutonic thrash metal: The German and Swiss regions have spawned dozens of bands since the mid-1980s that developed their own style. Their style was more aggressive than American and Canadian thrash. The most prominent bands from this scene are Kreator, Destruction, Sodom, Tankard, Celtic Frost, Holy Moses, Desaster, Coroner, Exumer, Despair, Paradox, Messiah, Assassin, Poltergeist, Living Death and Sieges Even (who were originally called Sodom). Canadian thrash metal: The Canadian region has seen numerous thrash metal bands create a unique blend of speed metal, progressive and hardcore punk into their music, influenced by a variety of acts such as Rush, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Motörhead and D.R.I., as well as fellow American thrash metal bands like Metallica and Slayer. Anvil and Exciter are considered to be the pioneers of this scene, while Voivod, Sacrifice, Razor, and Annihilator are often referred to as the country's "Big Four". Notable crossover bands from the Hardcore Punk scene include West Coast bands Death Sentence and Beyond Possession. Other notable Canadian thrash metal bands include Infernäl Mäjesty, Anonymus, Eudoxis, Piledriver, Slaughter, DBC and Obliveon. Australian thrash metal: While not considered a "major" part of the worldwide thrash metal scene due to distance from the major Bay Area and Teutonic scenes, Australian thrash metal has had a fairly substantial following in overseas markets, while local audiences have always been difficult to gather. The most notable Australian thrash metal bands from the 1980s are Mortal Sin, Nothing Sacred and Hobbs' Angel of Death. See also List of thrash metal bands References Bibliography Ekeroth, Daniel (2008). Swedish Death Metal. Bazillion Points Books. ISBN 978-0-9796163-1-0. Pillsbury, Glenn (2006). Damage Incorporated: Metallica and the Production of Musical Identity. Routledge. ISBN 1-136-09122-X. Sharpe-Young, Garry (2007a). Thrash Metal. Zonda Books Limited. ISBN 978-0-9582684-3-1. Sharpe-Young, Garry (2007b). Metal: A Definitive Guide. New Plymouth: Jawbone. ISBN 978-1-906002-01-5. Weinstein, Deena (2000). Heavy Metal: The Music and Its Culture. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-80970-5.

Metallica is an American heavy metal band. It was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist and guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrumentals and aggressive musicianship made them one of the founding "big four" bands of thrash metal, alongside Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer. Metallica's current lineup comprises founding members and primary songwriters Hetfield and Ulrich, longtime lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo. Guitarist Dave Mustaine, who formed Megadeth after being fired from Metallica, and bassists Ron McGovney, Cliff Burton and Jason Newsted are former members of the band. Metallica first found commercial success with the release of its third album, Master of Puppets (1986), which is cited as one of the heaviest metal albums and the band's best work. The band's next album, ...And Justice for All (1988), gave Metallica its first Grammy Award nomination. Its fifth album, Metallica (1991), was a turning point for the band that saw them transition from their thrash roots; it appealed to a more mainstream audience, achieving substantial commercial success and selling more than 16 million copies in the United States to date, making it the best-selling album of the SoundScan era. After experimenting with different genres and directions in subsequent releases, Metallica returned to its thrash metal roots with its ninth album, Death Magnetic (2008), which drew similar praise to that of the band's earlier albums. The band's eleventh and most recent album, 72 Seasons, was released in 2023. In 2000, Metallica led the case against the peer-to-peer file sharing service Napster, in which the band and several other artists filed lawsuits against the service for sharing their copyright-protected material without consent, eventually reaching a settlement. Metallica was the subject of the acclaimed 2004 documentary film Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, which documented the troubled production of the band's eighth album, St. Anger (2003), and the internal struggles within the band at the time. In 2009, Metallica was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The band co-wrote the screenplay for and starred alongside Dane DeHaan in the 2013 concert film Metallica: Through the Never, in which the band performed live against a fictional thriller storyline. Metallica has released eleven studio albums, four live albums (including two performances with the San Francisco Symphony), twelve video albums, one cover album, two extended plays, 37 singles and 39 music videos. The band has won ten Grammy Awards from 26 nominations and had six consecutive studio albums – from Metallica through Hardwired... to Self-Destruct (2016) – debut at number one on the Billboard 200. Metallica ranks as one of the most commercially successful bands of all time, having sold more than 125 million albums worldwide as of 2018. Metallica has been listed as one of the greatest artists of all time by magazines such as Rolling Stone, which ranked the band in 61st place on its list of 100 greatest artists of all time. As of 2017, Metallica is the third-best-selling music artist since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991, selling 58 million albums in the United States. History 1981–1984: Formation, early years, and Kill 'Em All Metallica was formed in Los Angeles in late 1981 when Danish drummer Lars Ulrich placed an advertisement in a Los Angeles newspaper, The Recycler, which read, "Drummer looking for other metal musicians to jam with Tygers of Pan Tang, Diamond Head and Iron Maiden." Guitarists James Hetfield and Hugh Tanner of Leather Charm answered the advertisement. Although he had not formed a band, Ulrich asked Metal Blade Records founder Brian Slagel if he could record a song for the label's upcoming compilation album, Metal Massacre. Slagel accepted, and Ulrich recruited Hetfield to sing and play rhythm guitar. The band was officially formed on October 28, 1981, five months after Ulrich and Hetfield first met. The band name came from Ulrich's friend Ron Quintana, who was brainstorming names for a fanzine and was considering MetalMania or Metallica. After hearing the two names, Ulrich wanted the latter for his band, so he suggested Quintana use MetalMania instead. Dave Mustaine replied to an advertisement for a lead guitarist; Ulrich and Hetfield recruited him after seeing his expensive guitar equipment. In early 1982, Metallica recorded its first original song, "Hit the Lights", for the Metal Massacre I compilation. Hetfield sang and played both bass and rhythm guitar, while Lars Ulrich played drums and Lloyd Grant was credited with a guitar solo. Metal Massacre I was released on June 14, 1982; early pressings listed the band incorrectly as "Mettallica", angering the band. The song generated word of mouth, and the band played its first live performance on March 14, 1982, at Radio City in Anaheim, California, with newly recruited bassist Ron McGovney. Their first live success came early; they were chosen to open for British heavy metal band Saxon at one gig of their 1982 U.S. tour. This was Metallica's second gig. Metallica recorded its first demo, Power Metal, whose name was inspired by Quintana's early business cards, in early 1982. The term "thrash metal" was coined in February 1984 by Kerrang! journalist Malcolm Dome in reference to Anthrax's song "Metal Thrashing Mad". Prior to this, Hetfield referred to Metallica's sound as "power metal". In late 1982, Ulrich and Hetfield attended a show at the West Hollywood nightclub Whisky a Go Go, which featured bassist Cliff Burton in the band Trauma. The two were "blown away" by Burton's use of a wah-wah pedal and asked him to join Metallica. Hetfield and Mustaine wanted McGovney to leave because they thought he "didn't contribute anything, he just followed." Although Burton initially declined the offer, by the end of the year, he had accepted on the condition that the band move to El Cerrito in the San Francisco Bay Area. Metallica's first live performance with Burton was at the nightclub The Stone in March 1983, and the first recording to feature Burton was the Megaforce demo (1983). Metallica was ready to record their debut album, but when Metal Blade was unable to cover the cost, they began looking for other options. Concert promoter Jonathan "Jonny Z" Zazula, who had heard the demo No Life 'til Leather (1982), offered to broker a record deal between Metallica and New York City–based record labels. After those record labels showed no interest, Zazula borrowed enough money to cover the recording budget and signed Metallica to his own label, Megaforce Records. In May 1983, Metallica traveled to Rochester, New York, to record its debut album, Metal Up Your Ass, which was produced by Paul Curcio. The other members decided to eject Mustaine from the band because of his drug and alcohol abuse and violent behavior just before the recording sessions on April 11, 1983. Exodus guitarist Kirk Hammett replaced Mustaine the same afternoon. Metallica's first live performance with Hammett was on April 16, 1983, at a nightclub in Dover, New Jersey, called The Showplace; the support act was Anthrax's original lineup, which included Dan Lilker and Neil Turbin. This was the first time the two bands performed live together. Mustaine, who went on to form Megadeth, has expressed his dislike for Hammett in interviews, saying Hammett "stole" his job. Mustaine was "pissed off" because he believes Hammett became popular by playing guitar leads that Mustaine had actually written. In a 1985 interview with Metal Forces, Mustaine said, "It's real funny how Kirk Hammett ripped off every lead break I'd played on that No Life 'til Leather tape and got voted No. 1 guitarist in your magazine." On Megadeth's debut album, Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good! (1985), Mustaine included the song "Mechanix", which Metallica had previously reworked and retitled "The Four Horsemen" on Kill 'Em All. Mustaine said he did this to "straighten Metallica up" because Metallica referred to Mustaine as a drunk and said he could not play guitar. Because of conflicts with its record label and the distributors' refusal to release an album titled Metal Up Your Ass, the album was renamed Kill 'Em All. It was released on Megaforce Records in the U.S. and on Music for Nations in Europe, and peaked at number 155 on the Billboard 200 in 1986. Although the album was not initially a financial success, it earned Metallica a growing fan base in the underground metal scene. To support the release, Metallica embarked on the Kill 'Em All for One tour with Raven. In February 1984, Metallica supported Venom on the Seven Dates of Hell tour, during which the bands performed in front of 7,000 people at the Aardschok Festival in Zwolle, Netherlands. 1984–1986: Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets, and Burton's death Metallica recorded its second studio album, Ride the Lightning, at Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen, Denmark, from February to March 1984. It was released in August 1984 and reached number 100 on the Billboard 200. A French printing press mistakenly printed green covers for the album, which are now considered collectors' items. Mustaine received writing credit for "Ride the Lightning" and "The Call of Ktulu". Elektra Records A&R director Michael Alago and co-founder of Q-Prime Management Cliff Burnstein attended a Metallica concert in September 1984; they were impressed with the performance, signed Metallica to Elektra and made the band a client of Q-Prime Management. Metallica's growing success was such that the band's British label, Music for Nations, released "Creeping Death" as a limited-edition single, which sold 40,000 copies as an import in the U.S. Two of the three songs on the record – cover versions of Diamond Head's "Am I Evil?" and Blitzkrieg's "Blitzkrieg" – appeared on the 1988 Elektra reissue of Kill 'Em All. Metallica embarked on its first major European tour with Tank to an average crowd of 1,300. Returning to the U.S., it embarked on a co-headlining tour with W.A.S.P. and support from Armored Saint. Metallica played its largest show at the Monsters of Rock festival at Donington Park, England, on August 17, 1985, with Bon Jovi and Ratt, playing to 70,000 people. At a show in Oakland, California, at the Day on the Green festival, the band played to a crowd of 60,000. Metallica's third studio album, Master of Puppets, was recorded at Sweet Silence Studios from September to December 1985 and released in March 1986. The album reached number 29 on the Billboard 200 and spent 72 weeks on the chart. It was the band's first album to be certified Gold on November 4, 1986, and was certified six times Platinum in 2003. Steve Huey of AllMusic considered the album "the band's greatest achievement". Following the release of the album, Metallica supported Ozzy Osbourne on a U.S. tour. Hetfield broke his wrist while skateboarding; he continued with the tour, performing vocals, with guitar technician John Marshall playing rhythm guitar. On September 27, 1986, during the European leg of Metallica's Damage, Inc. Tour, members drew cards to determine which bunks on the tour bus they would sleep in. Burton won and chose to sleep in Hammett's bunk. At around sunrise near Dörarp, Sweden, the bus driver lost control and skidded, which caused the bus to overturn several times. Ulrich, Hammett and Hetfield sustained no serious injuries; however, Burton was pinned under the bus and died. Hetfield said: I saw the bus lying right on him. I saw his legs sticking out. I freaked. The bus driver, I recall, was trying to yank the blanket out from under him to use for other people. I just went, "Don't fucking do that!" I already wanted to kill the [bus driver]. I don't know if he was drunk or if he hit some ice. All I knew was, he was driving and Cliff wasn't alive anymore. 1986–1994: Newsted joins, ...And Justice for All and Metallica Burton's death left Metallica's future in doubt. The three remaining members decided Burton would want them to carry on, and with the Burton family's blessings, the band sought a replacement. Roughly 40 people – including Hammett's childhood friend, Les Claypool of Primus; Troy Gregory of Prong; and Jason Newsted, formerly of Flotsam and Jetsam – auditioned for the band to fill Burton's spot. Newsted learned Metallica's entire setlist; after the audition, Metallica invited him to Tommy's Joynt in San Francisco. Hetfield, Ulrich and Hammett decided on Newsted as Burton's replacement; his first live performance with Metallica was at the Country Club in Reseda, California. The members initiated Newsted by tricking him into eating a ball of wasabi. The band finished its tour in February 1987. After Newsted joined Metallica, the band left their El Cerrito practice space – a suburban house formerly rented by sound engineer Mark Whitaker and dubbed "the Metalli-mansion" – and relocated to the adjacent cities of Berkeley and Albany before eventually settling in the Marin County city of San Rafael, north of San Francisco. In March 1987, Hetfield again broke his wrist while skateboarding, forcing the band to cancel an appearance on Saturday Night Live. In August 1987, an all-covers extended play (EP), titled The $5.98 E.P. - Garage Days Re-Revisited, was released. The EP was recorded in an effort to use the band's newly constructed recording studio, test Newsted's talents, and to relieve grief and stress following the death of Burton. A video titled Cliff 'Em All commemorating Burton's three years in Metallica was released in 1987; the video included bass solos, home videos and pictures. Metallica's first studio album since Burton's death, ...And Justice for All, was recorded from January to May 1988 and released in September. The album was a commercial success, reaching number 6 on the Billboard 200, and was the band's first album to enter the top 10. The album was certified Platinum nine weeks after its release. There were complaints about the production, however; Steve Huey of AllMusic said Ulrich's drums were clicking more than thudding, and the guitars "buzz thinly". To promote the album, Metallica embarked on a tour called Damaged Justice. In 1989, Metallica received its first Grammy Award nomination for ...And Justice for All in the new Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrument category. Metallica was the favorite to win, but the award was given to Jethro Tull for the album Crest of a Knave. The award was controversial with fans and the press; Metallica was standing off-stage waiting to receive the award after performing the song "One". Jethro Tull had been advised by its manager not to attend the ceremony because he was expecting Metallica to win. The award was named in Entertainment Weekly's "Grammy's 10 Biggest Upsets" list. Following the release of ...And Justice for All, Metallica released its debut music video for the song "One", which the band performed in an abandoned warehouse. The footage was remixed with the film Johnny Got His Gun. Rather than organize an ongoing licensing deal, Metallica purchased the rights to the film. The remixed video was submitted to MTV with an alternative, performance-only version that was held back in case MTV banned the remixed version. MTV accepted the remixed version; the video was viewers' first exposure to Metallica. In 1999, it was voted number 38 in MTV's "Top 100 Videos of All Time" countdown and was featured on the network's 25th-anniversary edition of ADD Video, which showcased the most popular videos on MTV in the last 25 years. In October 1990, Metallica entered One on One Recording's studio in North Hollywood to record its next album. Bob Rock, who had worked with Aerosmith, The Cult, Bon Jovi and Mötley Crüe, was hired as the producer. Metallica – also known as The Black Album – was remixed three times, cost US$1 million, and ended Hammett and Ulrich's marriages. Although the release was delayed until 1991, Metallica debuted at number one in 10 countries, selling 650,000 units in the U.S. during its first week. The album brought Metallica mainstream attention; it has been certified 16 times Platinum in the U.S., which makes it the 25th-best-selling album in the country. The making of Metallica and the following tour was documented in A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica. The tour in support of the album, called the Wherever We May Roam Tour, lasted 14 months and included dates in the U.S., Japan and the U.K. In September 1991, 1.6 million rock music fans converged in Moscow to enjoy the first open-air rock concert to be held in the Soviet Union; it was part of the Monsters of Rock series. However, in a June 2020 interview, Lars estimated the attendance at about a half million during their time slot. In April 1992, Metallica appeared at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert and performed a three-song set. Hetfield later performed "Stone Cold Crazy" with the remaining members of Queen and Tony Iommi. On August 8, 1992, during the co-headlining Guns N' Roses/Metallica Stadium Tour at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Hetfield suffered second- and third-degree burns to his arms, face, hands and legs. There had been some confusion with the new pyrotechnics setup, which resulted in Hetfield walking into a 12-foot (3.7 m) flame during "Fade to Black". Newsted said Hetfield's skin was "bubbling like on The Toxic Avenger". Metallica returned to the stage 17 days later with guitar technician and Metal Church member John Marshall replacing Hetfield on guitar for the remainder of the tour, although Hetfield was able to sing. Later in 1993, Metallica went on the Nowhere Else to Roam Tour, playing five shows in Mexico City. Live Shit: Binge & Purge, the band's first box set, was released in November 1993. The collection contains three live CDs, three home videos, and a book filled with riders and letters. 1994–2001: Load, Reload, Napster controversy and Newsted's departure After almost three years of touring to promote Metallica, including a headlining performance at Woodstock '94, Metallica returned to the studio to write and record its sixth studio album. The band went on a brief hiatus in the summer of 1995 and played a short tour, Escape from the Studio '95, which comprised three outdoor shows, including a headline show at Donington Park supported by Slayer, Skid Row, Slash's Snakepit, Therapy? and Corrosion of Conformity. The band spent about a year writing and recording new songs, resulting in the release of Load in 1996. Load debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and ARIA Charts; it was the band's second number one album. The cover art, Blood and Semen III, was created by Andres Serrano, who pressed a mixture of his own semen and blood between sheets of plexiglass. The release marked another change in the band's musical direction and a new image; the band members' hair was cut. While Load was a commercial success, the band's change in style had polarized their fanbase. Metallica headlined the alternative rock festival Lollapalooza festival in mid-1996. During early production of the album, the band had recorded enough material to fill a double album. It was decided that half of the songs were to be released; the band would continue to work on the remaining songs and release them the following year. This resulted in follow-up album, titled Reload. The cover art was again created by Serrano, this time using a mixture of blood and urine. Reload, too, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and reached number two on the Top Canadian Album chart. Hetfield said in the 2004 documentary film Metallica: Some Kind of Monster that the band initially thought some of the songs on these albums were of average quality; these were "polished and reworked" until judged releasable. To promote Reload, Metallica performed "Fuel" and "The Memory Remains" with Marianne Faithfull on NBC's Saturday Night Live in December 1997. In 1998, Metallica compiled a double album of cover songs, titled Garage Inc. The first disc contained newly recorded covers of songs by Diamond Head, Killing Joke, the Misfits, Thin Lizzy, Mercyful Fate, Black Sabbath and others, and the second disc featured the original version of The $5.98 E.P. – Garage Days Re-Revisited, which had become a scarce collectors' item. The album entered the Billboard 200 at number two. On April 21 and 22, 1999, Metallica recorded two performances with the San Francisco Symphony, which was conducted by Michael Kamen, who had previously worked with producer Rock on "Nothing Else Matters". Kamen approached Metallica in 1991 with the idea of pairing the band's music with a symphony orchestra. Kamen and his staff of over 100 composed additional orchestral material for Metallica songs. Metallica wrote two new Kamen-scored songs for the event: "No Leaf Clover" and "-Human". The audio recording and concert footage were released in 1999 as the album and concert film S&M. It entered the Billboard 200 at number two and the Australian ARIA charts and Top Internet Albums chart at number one. In 2000, Metallica discovered that a demo of its song "I Disappear", which was supposed to be released in combination with the Mission: Impossible II soundtrack, was receiving radio airplay. Tracing the source of the leak, the band found the file on the Napster peer-to-peer file-sharing network and also found that the band's entire catalogue was freely available. Metallica filed a lawsuit at the U.S. District Court, Central District of California, alleging that Napster violated three areas of the law: copyright infringement, unlawful use of digital audio interface device and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). Ulrich provided a statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding copyright infringement on July 11, 2000. Federal Judge Marilyn Hall Patel ordered the site to place a filter on the program within 72 hours or be shut down. A settlement between Metallica and Napster was reached when German media conglomerate Bertelsmann BMG showed interest in purchasing the rights to Napster for $94 million. Under the terms of settlement, Napster agreed to block users who shared music by artists who do not want their music shared. On June 3, 2002, Napster filed for Chapter 11 protection under U.S. bankruptcy laws. On September 3, 2002, an American bankruptcy judge blocked the sale of Napster to Bertelsmann and forced Napster to liquidate its assets, according to Chapter 7 of the U.S. bankruptcy laws. At the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards, Ulrich appeared with host Marlon Wayans in a skit that criticized the idea of using Napster to share music. Wayans played a college student listening to Metallica's "I Disappear". Ulrich walked in and asked for an explanation, and he responded to Wayans' excuse that using Napster was just "sharing" by saying that Wayans' idea of sharing was "borrowing things that were not yours without asking." He called in the Metallica road crew, who proceeded to confiscate all of Wayans' belongings, leaving him almost naked in an empty room. Napster creator Shawn Fanning responded later in the ceremony by presenting an award wearing a Metallica shirt that read: "I borrowed this shirt from a friend. Maybe, if I like it, I'll buy one of my own." Ulrich was later booed on stage at the award show when he introduced the final musical act, Blink-182. Newsted left Metallica on January 17, 2001, just as plans were being made to enter the recording studio. He said he left the band for "private and personal reasons, and the physical damage I have done to myself over the years while playing the music that I love." During a Playboy interview with Metallica, Newsted said he wanted to release an album with his side project, Echobrain. Hetfield was opposed to the idea and said, "When someone does a side project, it takes away from the strength of Metallica" and that a side project is "like cheating on your wife in a way." Newsted said Hetfield had recorded vocals for a song used in the film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, and appeared on two Corrosion of Conformity albums. Hetfield replied: "My name isn't on those records. And I'm not out trying to sell them" and raised questions such as, "Where would it end? Does he start touring with it? Does he sell shirts? Is it his band?" 2001–2006: Some Kind of Monster, St. Anger, and Trujillo joins In April 2001, filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky began following Metallica to document the recording process of the band's next studio album. Over two years they recorded more than 1,000 hours of footage. On July 19, 2001, before preparations to enter the recording studio, Hetfield entered rehab to treat his "alcoholism and other addictions". All recording plans were put on hold and the band's future was in doubt. Hetfield left rehab on December 4, 2001, and the band returned to the recording studio on April 12, 2002. Hetfield was required to limit his work to four hours a day between noon and 4 pm, and to spend the rest of his time with his family. The footage recorded by Berlinger and Sinofsky was compiled into the documentary Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2004. In the documentary, Newsted said his former bandmates' decision to hire a therapist to help solve their problems which he felt they could have solved on their own was "really fucking lame and weak". In June 2003, Metallica's eighth studio album, St. Anger, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, and drew mixed reactions from critics. Ulrich's "steely" sounding snare drum and the absence of guitar solos received particular criticism. Kevin Forest Moreau of Shakingthrough.net said, "the guitars stumble in a monotone of mid-level, processed rattle; the drums don't propel as much as struggle to disguise an all-too-turgid pace; and the rage is both unfocused and leavened with too much narcissistic navel-gazing". Brent DiCrescenzo of Pitchfork described it as "an utter mess". However, Blender magazine called it the "grimiest and grimmest of the band's Bob Rock productions", and New York Magazine called it "utterly raw and rocking". The title track, "St. Anger", won the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 2004; it was used as the official theme song for WWE's SummerSlam 2003. For the duration of St. Anger's recording period, producer Bob Rock played bass on the album and in several live shows at which Metallica performed during that time. Once the record was completed, the band started to hold auditions for Newsted's permanent replacement. Bassists Pepper Keenan, Jeordie White, Scott Reeder, Eric Avery, Danny Lohner, and Chris Wyse—among others—auditioned for the role. After three months of auditions, Robert Trujillo, formerly of Suicidal Tendencies and Ozzy Osbourne's band, was chosen as the new bassist. Newsted, who had joined Canadian thrash metal band Voivod by that time, was Trujillo's replacement in Osbourne's band during the 2003 Ozzfest tour, which included Voivod. Before the band's set at the 2004 Download Festival, Ulrich was rushed to the hospital after having an anxiety seizure and was unable to perform. Hetfield searched for last-minute volunteers to replace Ulrich. Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo and Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison volunteered. Lombardo performed "Battery" and "The Four Horsemen", Ulrich's drum technician Flemming Larsen performed "Fade to Black", and Jordison performed the remainder of the set. Having toured for two years in support of St. Anger on the Summer Sanitarium Tour 2003 and the Madly in Anger with the World Tour, with multi-platinum rock band Godsmack in support, Metallica took a break from performing and spent most of 2005 with friends and family. The band opened for The Rolling Stones at SBC Park in San Francisco on November 13 and 15, 2005. 2006–2013: Death Magnetic and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction In February 2006, Metallica announced on its official website that after 15 years, long-time producer Bob Rock would not be producing the band's next studio album. Instead, the band chose to work with producer Rick Rubin. Around the same time, a petition signed by 1,500 fans was posted online in an attempt to encourage the band to prohibit Rock from producing Metallica albums, saying he had too much influence on the band's sound and musical direction. Rock said the petition hurt his children's feelings; he said, "sometimes, even with a great coach, a team keeps losing. You have to get new blood in there." In December 2006, Metallica released a DVD titled The Videos 1989–2004, which sold 28,000 copies in its first week and entered the Billboard Top Videos chart at number three. Metallica recorded a guitar-based interpretation of Ennio Morricone's "The Ecstasy of Gold" for a tribute album titled We All Love Ennio Morricone, which was released in February 2007. The track received a Grammy nomination at the 50th Grammy Awards for the category "Best Rock Instrumental Performance". A recording of "The Ecstasy of Gold" has been played to introduce Metallica's performances since the 1980s. Metallica scheduled the release of the album Death Magnetic as September 12, 2008, and the band filmed a music video for the album's first single, "The Day That Never Comes". On September 2, 2008, a record store in France began selling copies of Death Magnetic nearly two weeks before its scheduled worldwide release date, which resulted in the album being made available on peer-to-peer clients. This prompted the band's UK distributor Vertigo Records to officially release the album on September 10, 2008. Rumors of Metallica or Warner Bros. taking legal action against the French retailer were unconfirmed, though drummer Lars Ulrich responded to the leak by saying, "...We're ten days from release. I mean, from here, we're golden. If this thing leaks all over the world today or tomorrow, happy days. Happy days. Trust me", and, "By 2008 standards, that's a victory. If you'd told me six months ago that our record wouldn't leak until 10 days out, I would have signed up for that." Death Magnetic marked a return to the band's traditional thrash metal sound. The album debuted at number one in the U.S., selling 490,000 units; Metallica became the first band to have five consecutive studio albums debut at number one in the history of the Billboard 200. A week after its release, Death Magnetic remained at number one on the Billboard 200 and the European album chart; it also became the fastest selling album of 2008 in Australia. Death Magnetic remained at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart for three consecutive weeks. Metallica was one of two artists whose album—the other being Jack Johnson's album Sleep Through the Static—remained on the Billboard 200 for three consecutive weeks at number one in 2008. Death Magnetic also remained at number one on Billboard's Hard Rock, Modern Rock/Alternative and Rock album charts for five consecutive weeks. The album reached number one in 32 countries outside the U.S., including the UK, Canada, and Australia. In November 2008, Metallica's record deal with Warner Bros. ended and the band considered releasing its next album through the internet. On January 14, 2009, it was announced that Metallica would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 4, 2009, and that former bassist Jason Newsted—who left the band in 2001—would perform with the band at the ceremony. Initially, it was announced that the matter had been discussed and that bassist Trujillo had agreed not to play because he "wanted to see the Black Album band". However, during the band's set of "Master of Puppets" and "Enter Sandman", both Trujillo and Newsted were on stage. Ray Burton, father of the late Cliff Burton, accepted the honor on his behalf. Although he was not to be inducted with them, Metallica invited Dave Mustaine to take part in the induction ceremony. Mustaine declined because of his touring commitments in Europe. Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax performed on the same bill for the first time on June 16, 2010, at Warsaw Babice Airport, Poland, as a part of the Sonisphere Festival series. The show in Sofia, Bulgaria, on June 22, 2010, was broadcast via satellite to cinemas. The bands also played concerts in Bucharest on June 26, 2010, and Istanbul on June 27, 2010. On June 28, 2010, Death Magnetic was certified double platinum by the RIAA. Metallica's World Magnetic Tour ended in Melbourne on November 21, 2010. The band had been touring for more than two years in support of Death Magnetic. To accompany the final tour dates in Australia and New Zealand, a live, limited edition EP of past performances in Australia called Six Feet Down Under was released. The EP was followed by Six Feet Down Under (Part II), which was released on November 12, 2010. Part 2 contains a further eight songs recorded during the first two Oceanic Legs of the World Magnetic Tour. On November 26, 2010, Metallica released a live EP titled Live at Grimey's, which was recorded in June 2008 at Grimey's Record Store, just before the band's appearance at Bonnaroo Music Festival that year. In a June 2009 interview with Italy's Rock TV, Ulrich said Metallica was planning to continue touring until August 2010, and that there were no plans for a tenth album. He said he was sure the band would collaborate with producer Rick Rubin again. According to Blabbermouth.net, the band was considering recording its next album in the second half of 2011. In November 2010, during an interview with The Pulse of Radio, Ulrich said Metallica would return to writing in 2011. Ulrich said, "There's a bunch of balls in the air for 2011, but I think the main one is we really want to get back to writing again. We haven't really written since, what, '06, '07, and we want to get back to kind of just being creative again. Right now we are going to just chill out and then probably start up again in, I'd say, March or April, and start probably putting the creative cap back on and start writing some songs." On November 9, 2010, Metallica announced it would be headlining the Rock in Rio festival in Rio de Janeiro on September 25, 2011. On December 13, 2010, the band announced it would again play as part of the "big four" during the Sonisphere Festival at Knebworth House, Hertfordshire, on July 8, 2011. It was the first time all of the "big four" members played on the same stage in the UK. On December 17, 2010, Another "big four" Sonisphere performance that would take place in France on July 9 was announced. On January 25, 2011, another "big four" performance on April 23, 2011, at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, was announced. It was the first time all of the "big four" members played on the same stage in the U.S. On February 17, 2011, a show in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, on July 2, 2011, was announced. On February 22, a "big four" show in Milan on July 6, 2011, was announced. On March 2, 2011, another "big four" concert, which took place in Gothenburg on July 3, 2011, was announced. The final "big four" concert was in New York City, at Yankee Stadium, on September 14, 2011. In an interview at the April 2011 Big Four concert, Robert Trujillo said Metallica will work with Rick Rubin again as producer for the new album and were "really excited to write some new music. There's no shortage of riffage in Metallica world right now." He added, "The first album with Rick was also the first album for me, so in a lot of ways, you're kind of testing the water. Now that we're comfortable with Rick and his incredible engineer, Greg Fidelman, who worked with Slayer, actually, on this last record—it's my hero—it's a great team. And it's only gonna better; I really believe that. So I'm super-excited." In June 2011, Rubin said Metallica had begun writing its new album. On June 15, 2011, Metallica announced that recording sessions with singer-songwriter Lou Reed had concluded. The album, which was titled Lulu, was recorded over several months and comprised ten songs based on Frank Wedekind's "Lulu" plays Earth Spirit and Pandora's Box. The album was released on October 31, 2011. The recording of the album was problematic at times; Lars Ulrich later said Lou Reed challenged him to a "street fight". On October 16, 2011, Robert Trujillo confirmed that the band was back in the studio and writing new material. He said, "The writing process for the new Metallica album has begun. We've been in the studio with Rick Rubin, working on a couple of things, and we're going to be recording during the most of next year." Metallica was due to make its first appearance in India at the "India Rocks" concert, supporting the 2011 Indian Grand Prix. However, the concert was canceled when the venue was proven to be unsafe. Fans raided the stage during the event and the organizers were later arrested for fraud. Metallica made its Indian debut in Bangalore on October 30, 2011. On November 10, it was announced that Metallica would headline the main stage on Saturday June 9, 2012, at the Download Festival at Donington Park and that the band would play The Black Album in its entirety. Metallica celebrated its 30th anniversary by playing four shows at the Fillmore in San Francisco in December 2011. The shows were exclusive to Met Club members and tickets were charged at $6 each or $19.81 for all four nights. The shows consisted of songs from the band's career and featured guest appearances by artists who had either helped or had influenced Metallica. These shows were notable because Lloyd Grant, Dave Mustaine, Jason Newsted, Glenn Danzig, Ozzy Osbourne, Jerry Cantrell, Apocalyptica, members of Diamond Head, and King Diamond joined Metallica on stage for all appropriate songs. In December 2011, Metallica began releasing songs that were written for Death Magnetic but were not included on the album online. On December 13, 2011, the band released Beyond Magnetic, a digital EP release exclusively on iTunes. It was released on CD in January 2012. On February 7, 2012, Metallica announced that it would start a new music festival called Orion Music + More, which took place on June 23 and 24, 2012, in Atlantic City. Metallica also confirmed that it would headline the festival on both days and would perform two of its most critically acclaimed albums in their entirety: The Black Album on one night, and Ride the Lightning on the other. In a July 2012 interview with Canadian radio station 99.3 The Fox, Ulrich said Metallica would not release its new album until at least early 2014. In November 2012, Metallica left Warner Bros. Records and launched an independent record label, Blackened Recordings, which will produce the band's future releases. The band acquired the rights to all of its studio albums, which were all reissued through the new label. Blackened releases were licensed through Warner subsidiary Rhino Entertainment in North America and internationally through Universal Music. On September 20, 2012, Metallica announced via its official website that a new DVD containing footage of shows it performed in Quebec in 2009 would be released that December; fans would get the chance to vote for two setlists that would appear on the DVD. The film, titled Quebec Magnetic, was released in the U.S. on December 10, 2012. 2013–2019: Metallica: Through the Never and Hardwired... to Self-Destruct In an interview with Classic Rock on January 8, 2013, Ulrich said regarding the band's upcoming album, "What we're doing now certainly sounds like a continuation [of Death Magnetic]". He also said, "I love Rick [Rubin]. We all love Rick. We're in touch with Rick constantly. We'll see where it goes. It would stun me if the record came out in 2013." Also in 2013, the band starred in a 3D concert film titled Metallica: Through the Never, which was directed by Antal Nimród and was released in IMAX theaters on September 27. In an interview dated July 22, 2013, Ulrich told Ultimate Guitar, "2014 will be all about making a new Metallica record"; he said the album will most likely be released during 2015. Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo later confirmed the band's intention to enter the studio. At the second Orion Music + More festival held in Detroit, the band played under the name "Dehaan"—a reference to actor Dane DeHaan, who starred in Metallica: Through the Never. The band performed its debut album Kill 'Em All in its entirety, celebrating the 30th anniversary of its release. On December 8, 2013, the band played a show called "Freeze 'Em All" in Antarctica, becoming the first band to play on all seven continents. The performance was filmed and released as a live album the same month. At the 56th Annual Grammy Awards in January 2014, Metallica performed "One" with Chinese pianist Lang Lang. In March 2014, Metallica began a tour called "Metallica By Request", in which fans request songs for the band to perform. A new song, titled "Lords of Summer" was written for the concerts and released as a "first take" demo in June 2014. In June 2014, the band headlined the Glastonbury Festival in an attempt to attract new fans. Ulrich said, "We have one shot, you never know if you'll be invited back". In November 2014, Metallica performed at the closing ceremony of BlizzCon 2014. In January 2015, Metallica announced a "Metallica Night" with the San Jose Sharks, which featured a Q&A session with the band and a charity auction benefiting the San Francisco Bay Chapter of the Sierra Club, but no performances. They were announced to headline Lollapalooza in March 2015, returning to perform there for the first time in 20 years. On May 2, 2015, Metallica performed their third annual Metallica Day at AT&T Park. Metallica were also announced to play at X Games for the first time at X Games Austin 2015 in Austin, Texas. On June 14, 2015, Hetfield and Hammett performed The Star-Spangled Banner live via electric guitars prior to game 5 of the NBA Finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors at Oracle Arena in Oakland, California. In late October, the band unveiled a new website with an introduction from Ulrich containing footage from the studio of the band working on new material. On November 2, Metallica were announced to play "The Night Before" Super Bowl 50 at AT&T Park. Metallica announced they would be opening the U.S. Bank Stadium on August 20, 2016, with Avenged Sevenfold and Volbeat as support. In April 2016, during the week leading up to Record Store Day, for which the band was its ambassador for 2016, Ulrich told Billboard that the band's expanded role within the music industry had played a part in the amount of time that it had taken to write and record the album. "The way we do things now is very different than the way we did things back in the days of Kill 'Em All and Ride the Lightning. Nowadays we like to do so many different things." Ulrich was also optimistic that production of the album had almost reached its completion. "Unless something radical happens it would be difficult for me to believe that it won't come out in 2016". On August 18, 2016, the band announced via their website that their tenth studio album, Hardwired... to Self-Destruct, would be released worldwide on November 18, 2016, via their independent label, Blackened Recordings. They also unveiled the track listing, album artwork, and released a music video for the album's first single, "Hardwired". The album was released as scheduled and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. Metallica announced they would be touring the US and Canada in summer of 2017 for the WorldWired Tour. The stadium tour also includes Avenged Sevenfold, Volbeat and Gojira as supporting acts. On August 7, 2017, Metallica was invited by the San Francisco Giants again for the fifth annual "Metallica Night" with Hammett and Hetfield performing the national anthem. In January 2018, the band announced that they would be reissuing The $5.98 E.P. – Garage Days Re-Revisited on April 13 for Record Store Day, and the sixth annual "Metallica Night" was also announced a few weeks later, this time in April, with all proceeds going to the All Within My Hands Foundation, which the band created in late 2017. In February 2018, the band announced a second set of North American tour dates, most of which for cities that they had not visited in up to thirty years. 2019–2023: S&M2 and 72 Seasons In an interview with Australian magazine The Music's official podcast in March 2019, Trujillo said that Metallica had begun jamming on new material for its next studio album. "I'm excited about the next record because I believe it will also be a culmination of the two [previous] records and another journey. There's no shortage of original ideas, that's the beauty of being in this band." He estimated that the album would be released "a lot sooner than the previous two did... this time around I think we'll be able to jump on it a lot quicker and jump in the studio and start working. We've all vowed to get this one going sooner than later." In an interview with Australian magazine Mixdown the following month, Hammett said that the band had tentative plans to enter the studio after the conclusion of its WorldWired Tour. He stated, "We're in our third year since Hardwired. Maybe we can get a bit more focus and go into the studio a bit sooner." After not contributing any writing to Hardwired... to Self-Destruct, Hammett said regarding his ideas for the new album, "I have a ton of material. I've over-compensated, so I'm ready to go anytime." In March 2019, Metallica announced that its WorldWired Tour would continue into Australia and New Zealand in October with Slipknot in support. Later that month, the band announced that it would perform at the grand opening of San Francisco's new Chase Center with the San Francisco Symphony in September to celebrate the twenty-year anniversary of S&M. The commemorative shows, titled S&M2, were screened in more than 3,000 theaters worldwide on October 9; the event featured arrangements from the original S&M concerts as well as new arrangements for songs recorded since then and a cover of the Alexander Mosolov piece Iron Foundry, and were conducted by Edwin Outwater and San Francisco Symphony music director Michael Tilson Thomas. S&M2 went on to earn $5.5 million at the box office, making it the biggest global rock event cinema release of all time; a second screening was later announced for October 30 as a result. In August 2020, the band announced that they would release the S&M2 performances as an album, DVD and box set. In July 2019, Metallica announced a set of South American tour dates for April 2020 with Greta Van Fleet in support. In September, ahead of that year's Global Citizen Festival, it was announced that Metallica would perform at the following year's festival in September 2020 alongside artists such as Billie Eilish, Miley Cyrus and Coldplay, in what would be the final event of Global Poverty Project's year-long Global Goal Live: The Possible Dream campaign. The following day, on September 27, Metallica announced that Hetfield had re-entered a rehabilitation program and that its Australia/New Zealand tour would be postponed. In a statement by Ulrich, Hammett and Trujillo, the band spoke of the devastation of the news, saying that Hetfield "[had] been struggling with addiction on and off for many years" and that all tickets would be fully refunded. Ulrich later added that Hetfield was "in the process of healing himself", and that the band hoped to return to Australia and New Zealand in 2020. The band's other commitments, including a benefit concert in March 2020, were still expected to continue as planned; a further five US festival appearances were announced in October. These shows were later postponed or cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and to support Hetfield's recovery. In March 2020, the band began a series on YouTube and Facebook called #MetallicaMondays, where they streamed full archived shows every Monday to relieve boredom while staying home and social distancing amid the pandemic. In May 2020, while in quarantine, Metallica performed a virtual acoustic version of "Blackened", titled "Blackened 2020", which was later made available for download. In an interview with Marc Benioff in April 2020, Ulrich stated that Metallica could work on its next studio album while in quarantine. Trujillo told The Vinyl Guide in June that the band was "excited about cultivating new ideas" for its new album. "We communicate every week, which is really great, so we have our connection intact [...] what we've started doing is basically just really concentrating on our home studios and being creative from our homes and navigating through ideas and building on new ideas. And that's where we're at right now". He also said that the band was working towards eventually entering a studio to record the album. On August 10, 2020, Metallica played a show at Gundlach-Bundschu Winery in Sonoma, California, which was only attended by a few crew members, and it was recorded and played for drive-in movies across the U.S. and Canada on August 29. In May 2021, the band announced that they would do one more #MetallicaMondays on May 24 to benefit their All Within My Hands Foundation. The concert dates to September 6, 2018, in Lincoln, Nebraska. On Labor Day, September 6, 2021, the band's All Within My Hands Foundation raised $377,450. Metallica teamed up with workwear brand Carhartt on the initiative, with the clothing brand donating all of their sales proceeds on the holiday to the band's Metallica Scholars initiative, which provides opportunities to people interested in pursuing essential workforce jobs. On November 28, 2022, the band released the single "Lux Æterna". On January 19, 2023, Metallica released the second single titled "Screaming Suicide". On March 1, 2023, Metallica released the third single titled "If Darkness Had a Son". On March 30, 2023, Metallica released a music video for the album's title track, "72 Seasons". The band released their eleventh studio album 72 Seasons on April 14, 2023. Metallica promoted the album with a-year-and-a-half-long tour, titled the M72 World Tour, which began on April 27, 2023, in Amsterdam and is set to conclude on September 29, 2024, in Mexico City. 2023–present: Future plans In an interview on Loudwire Nights radio program in April 2023, Ulrich stated that "there [were] some ideas [Metallica] could start with" for the follow-up to 72 Seasons, adding, "I'm looking forward to going live and being in sharing mode for the next couple of years. The beauty of being with these guys, I kind of joke, James writes more riffs when he's tuning his guitar than most people do in a lifetime. That's the beauty of being in band with these guys and I'm eternally grateful. I'm dumbfounded by it." When asked about "leftovers" that could be used for the next Metallica album, Ulrich said, "There's always a few riffs in the riff tank." In May 2024, Hetfield confirmed that he has been "writing lots of music, playing guitar pretty much every day." Style and lyrical themes Metallica played thrash and speed metal on their first four albums before changing their sound to traditional heavy metal on 1991's Black Album. Load and Reload, released in 1996 and 1997 respectively, saw the band move towards hard rock. 2008's Death Magnetic saw them returning to a more thrash-influenced sound. Metallica was influenced by early heavy metal and hard rock bands and artists Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Kiss, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Ted Nugent, AC/DC, Rush, Aerosmith, and Judas Priest and by new wave of British heavy metal (NWOBHM) bands Raven, Venom, Motörhead, Saxon, Diamond Head, Blitzkrieg, and Iron Maiden as well as European bands Scorpions, Accept, and Mercyful Fate. Early punk rock bands Ramones, Sex Pistols, and the Misfits also influenced Metallica's style as did post-punk band Killing Joke and hardcore punk acts Discharge, GBH, and Suicidal Tendencies. Lars Ulrich has cited Iron Maiden as probably the biggest influence on Metallica's career. The band's early releases contained fast tempos, harmonized leads, and nine-minute instrumental tracks. Steve Huey of AllMusic said Ride the Lightning featured "extended, progressive epics; tight, concise groove-rockers". He also said Metallica expanded its compositional technique and range of expression to take on a more aggressive approach in following releases, and lyrics dealt with personal and socially conscious issues. Religious and military leaders, rage, insanity, monsters, and drugs—among other themes—were explored on Master of Puppets. In 1991, Huey said Metallica with new producer Bob Rock simplified and streamlined its music for a more commercial approach to appeal to mainstream audiences. Robert Palmer of Rolling Stone said the band abandoned its aggressive, fast tempos to expand its music and expressive range. The change in direction proved commercially successful; Metallica was the band's first album to peak at number one on the Billboard 200. Metallica noticed changes to the rock scene created by the grunge movement of the early-1990s. In Load—an album that has been described as having "an almost alternative rock" approach—the band changed musical direction again and focused on non-metal influences. Metallica's new lyrical approach moved away from drugs and monsters, and focused on anger, loss, and retribution. Some fans and critics were not pleased with this change, which included haircuts, the cover art of Load, and headlining the Lollapalooza festival of 1996. David Fricke of Rolling Stone described the move as "goodbye to the moldy stricture and dead-end Puritanism of no-frills thrash", and called Load the heaviest record of 1996. With the release of ReLoad in 1997, the band displayed blues and early hard rock influences, incorporating more rhythm and harmony in song structures. St. Anger marked another large change in the band's sound. Guitar solos were excluded from the album, leaving a "raw and unpolished sound". The band used drop C tuning; Ulrich's snare drum received particular criticism. New York Magazine's Ethan Brown said it "reverberates with a thwong". The album's lyrics deal with Hetfield's drug rehabilitation and include references to the devil, anti-drug themes, claustrophobia, impending doom, and religious hypocrisy. At the advice of producer Rick Rubin, for its ninth studio album Death Magnetic, the band returned to standard tuning and guitar solos. As a return to Metallica's thrash roots, Death Magnetic was a riff-oriented album featuring intense guitar solos and subtle lyrics about suicide and redemption. All Within My Hands Foundation In February 2017, Metallica launched All Within My Hands Foundation, "dedicated to creating sustainable communities by supporting workforce education, the fight against hunger, and other critical local services". For example, the group works with various selected charities to organize volunteer projects at food banks. It also works with workforce training institutions on its Metallica Scholars grant program to help chosen students learn new trade skills. The Foundation has also donated and further raised funds for World Central Kitchen's Ukraine war relief efforts and granted $200,000 for relief efforts after the destructive August 2023 Maui, Hawaii fire. The band has also performed fundraising concerts for the Foundation. Legacy and influence Metallica has become one of the most influential heavy metal bands of all time and is credited as one of the "big four" of thrash metal, along with Slayer, Anthrax, and Megadeth. The band has sold more than 125 million records worldwide, including an RIAA-certified 66 million and Nielsen SoundScan-reported 58 million in the US, making Metallica one of the most commercially successful bands of all time. The writers of The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll said Metallica gave heavy metal "a much-needed charge". Stephen Thomas Erlewine and Greg Prato of Allmusic said Metallica "expanded the limits of thrash, using speed and volume not for their own sake, but to enhance their intricately structured compositions", and called the band "easily the best, most influential heavy metal band of the '80s, responsible for bringing the music back to Earth". Jonathan Davis of Korn said he respects Metallica as his favorite band; he said, "I love that they've done things their own way and they've persevered over the years and they're still relevant to this day. I think they're one of the greatest bands ever." Godsmack drummer Shannon Larkin said Metallica has been the biggest influence on the band, stating, "they really changed my life when I was 16 years old—I'd never heard anything that heavy". Chuck Billy of Testament has also cited Metallica as an influence on the band, as well as Hetfield as "an inspiration with clever lyrics"; he added, "When I first started hearing Metallica it was something new to me the way his cadence of vocal styles sang to the music." Vocalist and guitarist Robb Flynn of Machine Head said that when creating the band's 2007 album, The Blackening, "What we mean is an album that has the power, influence and epic grandeur of that album Master of Puppets—and the staying power—a timeless record like that". Gojira lead guitarist Christian Andreu said it was while listening to Ride the Lightning that he started making music; saying "we find on the album 'Fade to Black', 'For Whom the Bell Tolls', emblematic pieces". Trivium guitarists Corey Beaulieu and Matt Heafy said that when they heard Metallica they wanted to start playing guitar. M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold said touring with Metallica was the band's career highlight, and said, "Selling tons of records and playing huge shows will never compare to meeting your idols Metallica". God Forbid guitarists Doc and Dallas Coyle were inspired by Metallica as they grew up, and the band's bassist John Outcalt admires Burton as a "rocker". Ill Niño drummer Dave Chavarri said he finds early Metallica releases are "heavy, raw, rebellious. It said, 'fuck you'", and Adema drummer Kris Kohls said the band is influenced by Metallica. On April 4, 2009, Metallica were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. They entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the second year they were eligible and first year they were nominated. Metallica's induction into the Hall included its current lineup, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Robert Trujillo, and Lars Ulrich, and former members Jason Newsted and Cliff Burton. MTV ranked Metallica the third "Greatest Heavy Metal Band in History". Metallica was ranked 42nd on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of All Time", was listed fifth on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock", and the band was number one on VH1's "20 Greatest Metal Bands" list. Rolling Stone placed the band 61st on its list of "The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time"; its albums Master of Puppets and Metallica were ranked at numbers 167 and 252 respectively on the magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Master of Puppets was named in Q Magazine's "50 Heaviest Albums of All Time", and was ranked number one on IGN's "Top 25 Metal Albums", and number one on Metal-rules.com's "Top 100 Heavy Metal Albums" list. "Enter Sandman" was ranked number 399 on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Kerrang! released a tribute album titled Master of Puppets: Remastered with the April 8, 2006, edition of the magazine to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Master of Puppets. The album featured cover versions of Metallica songs by Machine Head, Bullet for My Valentine, Chimaira, Mastodon, Mendeed, and Trivium—all of which are influenced by Metallica. At least 15 Metallica tribute albums have been released. On September 10, 2006, Metallica guest starred on The Simpsons' eighteenth-season premiere, "The Mook, the Chef, the Wife and Her Homer". Hammett's and Hetfield's voices were used in three episodes of the animated television series Metalocalypse. Finnish cello metal band Apocalyptica released a tribute album titled Plays Metallica by Four Cellos, which features eight Metallica songs played on cellos. A parody band named Beatallica plays music using a combination of The Beatles and Metallica songs. Beatallica faced legal troubles when Sony, which owns The Beatles' catalog, issued a cease and desist order, claiming "substantial and irreparable injury" and ordering the group to pay damages. Ulrich, a fan of Beatallica, asked Metallica's lawyer Peter Paterno to help settle the case. On March 7, 1999, Metallica was inducted into the San Francisco Walk of Fame. The mayor of San Francisco, Willie Brown, proclaimed the day "Official Metallica Day". The band was awarded the MTV Icon award in 2003, and a concert paying tribute to the band with artists performing its songs was held. Performances included Sum 41 and a medley of "For Whom the Bell Tolls", "Enter Sandman", and "Master of Puppets". Staind covered "Nothing Else Matters", Avril Lavigne played "Fuel", hip-hop artist Snoop Dogg performed "Sad but True", Korn played "One", and Limp Bizkit performed "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)". The Guitar Hero video game series included several of Metallica's songs. "One" was used in Guitar Hero III. The album Death Magnetic was later released as purchasable, downloadable content for the game. "Trapped Under Ice" was featured in the sequel, Guitar Hero World Tour. In 2009, Metallica collaborated with the game's developers to make Guitar Hero: Metallica, which included a number of Metallica's songs. Harmonix' video game series Rock Band included "Enter Sandman" and "Battery"; "Ride the Lightning", "Blackened", and "...And Justice for All" were released as downloadable tracks. In 2013, due to expiring content licenses, "Ride the Lightning", "Blackened", and "...And Justice for All" are no longer available for download. Fortnite Festival, a 2023 rhythm game developed by Harmonix as part of Fortnite, held a Metallica-centric season from June to August 2024 which included "One", "Lux Æterna", and "Master of Puppets". Metallica also performed virtually in Fortnite in "Metallica: Fuel. Fire. Fury.", with cosmetics based on Hetfield, Ulrich, Hammett and Trujillo being added to the game. In October 2020, Miley Cyrus announced that she was planning on recording a Metallica covers album and on January 7, 2021, she announced that she has recorded a cover version of "Nothing Else Matters" that would feature Elton John on piano, drummer Chad Smith from Red Hot Chili Peppers and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. This version was produced by Andrew Watt, and was released as a promotional single for the tribute album The Metallica Blacklist. Feuds Dave Mustaine/Megadeth Former lead guitarist and Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine has been involved in a historic feud with Metallica. During his time as a founding member during the first two years of the band, Mustaine's tenure was marred by his alcoholism and even a physical altercation with James Hetfield. Mustaine continued to make numerous inflammatory statements against his former band in the press due to buried tension primarily stemming from his firing in 1983 among other issues such as existing songwriting credits across Metallica's first three albums. By the late 1980s, it was believed that the feud had largely subsided; later confirmed after Megadeth were hired to open for Metallica on numerous European dates in 1993. Despite this, Mustaine expressed his anger at Metallica during his appearance in the band's documentary Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, in a scene he later disapproved of as he felt he was mischaracterized, and that it did not represent the full extent of what happened during the meeting. The two bands would again find themselves on friendlier terms in 2011 when they took part in the lauded 'Big 4 Tour', alongside Slayer and Anthrax. That same year, Mustaine took part in Metallica's exclusive 30th anniversary show in San Francisco which invited other former members: Ron McGovney, Lloyd Grant, and Jason Newsted. Mötley Crüe Often clashing during the early 1980s, both bands were fighting for dominance in the Los Angeles rock scene during Metallica's primitive years prior to their relocation to the Bay Area. Both James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich expressed their hatred of the hair metal scene in Los Angeles during the time and frequently attacked multiple up-and-coming local bands in multiple interviews, including Mötley Crüe. Ulrich and Mötley Crüe's bassist Nikki Sixx had allegedly been involved in a spat prior to a show at the Troubadour in Hollywood in 1982. Though despite their public disdain for glam metal, Metallica were impressed by the production and commercial success of Dr. Feelgood in 1989, later hiring the album's producer Bob Rock to produce their self-titled fifth album in 1991. Several years later; both Sixx and Ulrich would reignite the feud after Ulrich accused Mötley Crüe of performing to a backing track at the 1997 American Music Awards. Sixx responded via an online forum in which he insulted numerous band members and also attacked Metallica's then-recent album Load. Despite this, Sixx would praise Metallica's then-latest album St. Anger during a 2003 interview, contrary to the negative attention it received upon release. In 2006, both Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, and former bassist Jason Newsted took part in a reality show entitled Rock Star: Supernova as they would both participate in creating a supergroup while the show's premise revolved around finding a frontman via contest. During a 2011 meet-and-greet in Mexico City, Hetfield was approached by a fan attacking Mötley Crüe due to their public image and frequent appearances in tabloids. Hetfield refused to directly respond to the fan's comments towards Mötley Crüe but laughed in his insults toward the band. In 2015, drummer Lee reignited the feud when he tweeted a picture of Ulrich with the words "Straight Outta Tempo" superimposed over his face. Following the post by Lee, Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil had stated online that he was unaware of the feud with Metallica; however, during a later interview with an Oregon radio show, Neil was again asked about the band's current relationship with Metallica and hung up on the show's host. Things were alleged to have calmed down by 2017, when Hetfield appeared on Sixx's radio show 'Sixx Sense'. During an interview in 2021, Sixx applauded Metallica's longevity and praised several of their releases during an interview. Jason Newsted Following his hiring in 1986, former bassist Jason Newsted had regularly experienced incidents of hazing and a perceived lack of acceptance from his bandmates despite his strong efforts in a majority of the band's live performances. Many fans and outlets cite the band's fourth album's unusual mixing to drown the bass tracks as a possible effort by Hetfield and Ulrich to minimize Newsted's involvement. This sentiment was further exacerbated by the fact that Newsted was only given songwriting credits on three songs during his 14-year span in the band which also saw him perform on four studio albums. Tensions between Hetfield and Newsted reached a breaking point in 2000 after Hetfield repeatedly blocked Newsted's request to venture into his side project Echobrain. Discussions broke down and Newsted abruptly left the band in January 2001 prior to the recording of St. Anger. Despite Newsted's animosity surrounding his decision, he was later inducted into the hall of fame as a member of the band in 2009 and also appeared at the band's 30th anniversary show in San Francisco in 2011. In August 2021, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of the band's self-titled album, Newsted was given a box set of the reissue to open for an unboxing video, which was uploaded to the band's YouTube channel. Band members Timeline Discography Studio albums Kill 'Em All (1983) Ride the Lightning (1984) Master of Puppets (1986) ...And Justice for All (1988) Metallica (1991) Load (1996) Reload (1997) St. Anger (2003) Death Magnetic (2008) Hardwired... to Self-Destruct (2016) 72 Seasons (2023) Tours Awards and nominations Grammy Awards 1990: Best Metal Performance – "One" 1991: Best Metal Performance – "Stone Cold Crazy" 1992: Best Metal Performance – Metallica 1999: Best Metal Performance – "Better than You" 2000: Best Hard Rock Performance – "Whiskey in the Jar" 2001: Best Rock Instrumental Performance – "The Call of Ktulu" (with Michael Kamen and the San Francisco Symphony) 2004: Best Metal Performance – "St. Anger" 2009: Best Metal Performance – "My Apocalypse" 2009: Best Recording Package – Death Magnetic 2024: Best Metal Performance – "72 Seasons" See also List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart List of bands from the San Francisco Bay Area List of best-selling music artists List of heavy metal bands List of highest-grossing live music artists List of people from California List of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees List of thrash metal bands Notes References General sources External links Official website Metallica at AllMusic Metallica discography at Discogs Metallica discography at MusicBrainz

Slayer is an American thrash metal band from Huntington Park, California, formed in 1981 by guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman, drummer Dave Lombardo and bassist/vocalist Tom Araya. Slayer's fast and aggressive musical style made them one of the "big four" bands of thrash metal, alongside Metallica, Megadeth, and Anthrax. Slayer's current lineup consists of King, Araya, drummer Paul Bostaph and guitarist Gary Holt, who initially joined as a touring member in 2011 before joining the band permanently after Hanneman's death in 2013. Drummer Jon Dette was also a member of the band. In the original lineup, King, Hanneman and Araya contributed to the band's lyrics, and all of the band's music was written by King and Hanneman. The band's lyrics and album art, which cover topics such as serial killers, torture, genocide, organized crime, secret societies, occultism, terrorism, religion or antireligion, fascism, racism and war, have generated album bans, delays, lawsuits and criticism from religious groups. However, its music has been highly influential, being cited by many bands as an influence musically, visually and lyrically; the band's third album, Reign in Blood (1986), has been described as one of the heaviest and most influential thrash metal albums. Slayer released twelve studio albums, three live albums, a box set, six music videos, two extended plays and a cover album. Four of the band's studio albums have received gold certification in the United States. Slayer sold 5 million copies in the United States from 1991 to 2013, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The band has received five Grammy Award nominations, winning one in 2007 for the song "Eyes of the Insane" and one in 2008 for the song "Final Six", both of which were from the album Christ Illusion (2006). After more than three decades of recording and performing, Slayer announced in January 2018 that it would embark on a farewell tour, which took place from May 2018 to November 2019, after which the band disbanded. Slayer later announced some reunion shows in February 2024. History Early years (1981–1983) Slayer was formed in 1981 by Kerry King, Jeff Hanneman, Dave Lombardo and Tom Araya in Huntington Park, California. The group started out playing covers of songs by bands such as Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Venom at parties and clubs in Southern California. The band's early image relied heavily on Satanic themes that featured pentagrams, make-up, spikes, and inverted crosses. Rumors that the band was originally known as Dragonslayer, after the 1981 film of the same name, were denied by King, as he later stated: "We never were; it's a myth to this day." According to Lombardo, the original band name was to be Wings of Fire before they settled in with Slayer. It was he who designed the iconic logo. For inspiration, Lombardo thought in a perspective of a murderer of how they would carve out the logo with a knife and since he's lefthanded, the logo is unintentionally slanted to the right. In 1983, Slayer was invited to open for the band Bitch at the Woodstock Club in Anaheim, California, to perform eight songs, six of which were covers. The band was spotted by Brian Slagel, a former music journalist who had recently founded Metal Blade Records. Impressed with Slayer, he met with the band backstage and asked them to record an original song for his upcoming Metal Massacre III compilation album. The band agreed and their song "Aggressive Perfector" created an underground buzz upon its release in mid 1983, which led to Slagel offering the band a recording contract with Metal Blade. Show No Mercy, Haunting the Chapel and Hell Awaits (1983–1986) Without any recording budget, the band had to self-finance its debut album. Combining the savings of Araya, who was employed as a respiratory therapist, and money borrowed from King's father, the band entered the studio in November 1983. The album was rushed into release, stocking shelves three weeks after tracks were completed. Show No Mercy, released in December 1983 by Metal Blade Records, generated underground popularity for the band. The group began a club tour of California to promote the album. The tour gave the band additional popularity and sales of Show No Mercy eventually reached more than 20,000 in the US and another 20,000 worldwide. In February 1984, King briefly joined Dave Mustaine's new band Megadeth. Hanneman was worried about King's decision, stating in an interview, "I guess we're gonna get a new guitar player." While Mustaine wanted King to stay on a permanent basis, King left after five shows, stating Mustaine's band was "taking too much of my time." The split caused a rift between King and Mustaine, which evolved into a long running feud between the two bands. In June 1984, Slayer released a three-track EP called Haunting the Chapel. The EP featured a darker, more thrash-oriented style than Show No Mercy, and laid the groundwork for the future direction of the band. The opening track, "Chemical Warfare", has become a live staple, played at nearly every show since 1984. Later that year, Slayer began their first national club tour, traveling in Araya's Camaro towing a U-Haul trailer. The band recorded the live album Live Undead in November 1984 while in New York City. In March 1985, Slayer began a national tour with Venom and Exodus, resulting in their first live home video dubbed Combat Tour: The Ultimate Revenge. The video featured live footage filmed at the Studio 54 club. The band then made its live European debut at the Heavy Sound Festival in Belgium opening for UFO. Also in 1985, Slayer toured or played selected shows with bands like Megadeth, Destruction, D.R.I., Possessed, Agent Steel, S.O.D., Nasty Savage and Metal Church. Show No Mercy had sold over 40,000 copies, which led to the band returning to the studio to record their second full-length album. Metal Blade financed a recording budget, which allowed the band to hire producer Ron Fair. Released in April 1985, Slayer's second full-length album, Hell Awaits, expanded on the darkness of Haunting the Chapel, with hell and Satan as common song subjects. The album was the band's most progressive offering, featuring longer and more complex song structures. The intro of the title track is a backwards recording of a demonic-sounding voice repeating "Join us", ending with "Welcome back" before the track begins. The album was a hit, with fans choosing Slayer for best band, best live band, Hell Awaits, as 1985's best album, and Dave Lombardo as best drummer in Metal Forces' 1985 Readers Poll. Reign in Blood, Lombardo's brief hiatus and South of Heaven (1986–1989) Following the success of Hell Awaits, Slayer was offered a recording contract with Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin's newly founded Def Jam Records, then-a largely hip hop-based label. The band accepted, and with an experienced producer and major label recording budget, the band underwent a sonic makeover for their third album Reign in Blood, resulting in shorter, faster songs with clearer production. The complex arrangements and long songs featured on Hell Awaits were ditched in favor of stripped down, hardcore punk influenced song structures. Def Jam's distributor, Columbia Records, refused to release the album due to the song "Angel of Death" which detailed Holocaust concentration camps and the human experiments conducted by Nazi physician Josef Mengele. The album was distributed by Geffen Records on October 7, 1986. However, due to the controversy, Reign in Blood did not appear on Geffen Records' release schedule. Although the album received virtually no radio airplay, it became the band's first to enter the Billboard 200, peaking at number 94, and the band's first album certified gold in the United States. Slayer embarked on the Reign in Pain world tour, with Overkill in the US from October to December 1986, and Malice in Europe in April and May 1987. They also played with other bands such as Agnostic Front, Testament, Metal Church, D.R.I., Dark Angel and Flotsam and Jetsam. The band was added as the opening act on W.A.S.P.'s US tour, but just one month into it, drummer Lombardo left the band: "I wasn't making any money. I figured if we were gonna be doing this professionally, on a major label, I wanted my rent and utilities paid." To continue with the tour, Slayer enlisted Tony Scaglione of Whiplash. However, Lombardo was convinced by his wife to return in 1987. At the insistence of Rubin, Slayer recorded a cover version of Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" for the film Less than Zero. Although the band was not happy with the final product, Hanneman deeming it "a poor representation of Slayer" and King labeling it "a hunk of shit", it was one of their first songs to garner radio airplay. In late 1987, Slayer returned to the studio to record their fourth studio album. To contrast the speed of Reign in Blood, the band consciously decided to slow down the tempos, and incorporate more melodic singing. According to Hanneman, "We knew we couldn't top Reign in Blood, so we had to slow down. We knew whatever we did was gonna be compared to that album, and I remember we actually discussed slowing down. It was weird—we've never done that on an album, before or since." Released in July 1988, South of Heaven received mixed responses from both fans and critics, although it was Slayer's most commercially successful release at the time, debuting at number 57 on the Billboard 200, and their second album to receive gold certification in the United States. Press response to the album was mixed, with AllMusic citing the album as "disturbing and powerful", and Kim Neely of Rolling Stone calling it "genuinely offensive satanic drivel". King said "that album was my most lackluster performance", although Araya called it a "late bloomer" which eventually grew on people. Slayer toured from August 1988 to January 1989 to promote South of Heaven, supporting Judas Priest in the US on their Ram It Down tour, and touring Europe with Nuclear Assault and the US with Motörhead and Overkill. Seasons in the Abyss and Lombardo's second departure (1990–1993) Slayer returned to the studio in early 1990 with co-producer Andy Wallace to record its fifth studio album. Following the backlash created by South of Heaven, Slayer returned to the "pounding speed of Reign in Blood, while retaining their newfound melodic sense." Seasons in the Abyss, released on October 9, 1990, was the first Slayer album to be released under Rubin's new Def American label, as he had parted ways with Def Jam owner Russell Simmons over creative differences. The album debuted at number 44 on the Billboard 200, and was certified gold in 1992. The album spawned Slayer's first music video for the album's title track, which was filmed in front of the Giza pyramids in Egypt. Slayer returned as a live act in September 1990 to co-headline the European Clash of the Titans tour with Megadeth, Suicidal Tendencies, and Testament. During the sold out European leg of this tour, tickets had prices skyrocket to 1,000 Deutschmark (US$680) on the black market. With the popularity of American thrash at its peak, the band toured with Testament again in early 1991 and triple-headlined the North American version of the Clash of the Titans tour that summer with Megadeth, Anthrax, and opening act Alice in Chains. The band released a double live album, Decade of Aggression in 1991, to celebrate ten years since their formation. The compilation debuted at number 55 on the Billboard 200. In May 1992, Lombardo left the band due to conflicts with the other members, as well as his desire to be off tour for the birth of his first child. Lombardo formed his own band Grip Inc., with Voodoocult guitarist Waldemar Sorychta, and Slayer recruited former Forbidden drummer Paul Bostaph to fill in the drummer position. Slayer made its debut appearance with Bostaph at the 1992 Monsters of Rock festival at Castle Donington. Bostaph's first studio effort was a medley of three Exploited songs, "War", "UK '82", and "Disorder", with rapper Ice-T, for the Judgment Night movie soundtrack in 1993. Divine Intervention, Undisputed Attitude and Diabolus in Musica (1994–2000) On September 27, 1994, Slayer released Divine Intervention, the band's first album with Bostaph on the drums. The album featured songs about Reinhard Heydrich, an architect of the Holocaust, and Jeffrey Dahmer, an American serial killer and sex offender. Other themes included murder, the evils of church, and the lengths to which governments went to wield power, Araya's interest in serial killers inspired much of the content of the lyrics. Slayer geared up for a world tour in 1995, with openers Biohazard and Machine Head. A video of concert footage, Live Intrusion was released, featuring a joint cover of Venom's "Witching Hour" with Machine Head. Following the tour, Slayer was billed third at the 1995 Monsters of Rock festival, headlined by Metallica. In 1996, Undisputed Attitude, an album of punk covers, was released. The band covered songs by Minor Threat, T.S.O.L., Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, D.I., Verbal Abuse, Dr. Know, and The Stooges. The album featured three original tracks, "Gemini", "Can't Stand You", "Ddamm"; the latter two were written by Hanneman in 1984–1985 for a side project entitled Pap Smear. Bostaph left Slayer shortly after the album's recording to work on his own project, Truth About Seafood. With Bostaph's departure, Slayer recruited Testament drummer Jon Dette, and headlined the 1996 Ozzfest alongside Ozzy Osbourne, Danzig, Biohazard, Sepultura, and Fear Factory. Dette was fired after a year, due to a fallout with band members. After that, Bostaph returned to continue the tour. Diabolus in Musica (Latin for "The Devil in Music") was released in 1998, and debuted at number 31 on the Billboard 200, selling over 46,000 copies in its first week. It was complete by September 1997, and scheduled to be released the following month, but got delayed by nine months after their label was taken over by Columbia Records. The album received a mixed critical reception, and was criticized for adopting characteristics of nu metal music such as tuned down guitars, murky chord structures, and churning beats. Blabbermouth.net reviewer Borivoj Krgin described the album as "a feeble attempt at incorporating updated elements into the group's sound, the presence of which elevated the band's efforts somewhat and offered hope that Slayer could refrain from endlessly rehashing their previous material for their future output", while Ben Ratliff of The New York Times had similar sentiments, writing on June 22, 1998, that: "Eight of the 11 songs on Diabolus in Musica, a few of which were played at the show, are in the same gray key, and the band's rhythmic ideas have a wearying sameness too." The album was the band's first to primarily feature dropped tuning, making use of the tritone interval referred to in the Middle Ages as the Devil's interval. Slayer teamed up with digital hardcore group Atari Teenage Riot to record a song for the Spawn soundtrack titled "No Remorse (I Wanna Die)". The band paid tribute to Black Sabbath by recording a cover of "Hand of Doom" for the second of two tribute albums, titled Nativity in Black II. A world tour followed to support the new album, with Slayer making an appearance at the United Kingdom Ozzfest 1998. God Hates Us All (2001–2005) During mid-2001, the band joined Morbid Angel, Pantera, Skrape and Static-X on the Extreme Steel Tour of North America, which was Pantera's last major tour. After delays regarding remixing and artwork, including slip covers created to cover the original artwork as it was deemed "too graphic", Slayer's next album, God Hates Us All, was released on September 11, 2001. The band received its first Grammy nomination for the lead track "Disciple", although the Grammy was awarded to Tool, for "Schism". The September 11 attacks on America jeopardized the 2001 European tour Tattoo the Planet originally set to feature Pantera, Static-X, Cradle of Filth, Biohazard and Vision of Disorder. The dates in the United Kingdom were postponed due to flight restrictions, with a majority of bands deciding to withdraw, leaving Slayer and Cradle of Filth remaining for the European leg of the tour. Pantera, Static-X, Vision of Disorder and Biohazard were replaced by other bands depending on location; Amorphis, In Flames, Moonspell, Children of Bodom, and Necrodeath. Biohazard eventually decided to rejoin the tour later on, and booked new gigs in the countries, where they missed a few dates. Drummer Bostaph left Slayer before Christmas in 2001, due to a chronic elbow injury, which would hinder his ability to play. Since the band's European tour was unfinished at that time, the band's manager, Rick Sales, contacted original drummer Dave Lombardo and asked if he would like to finish the remainder of the tour. Lombardo accepted the offer, and stayed as a permanent member. Slayer toured playing Reign in Blood in its entirety throughout the fall of 2003, under the tour banner "Still Reigning". Their playing of the final song, "Raining Blood", culminated with the band drenched in a rain of stage blood. Live footage of this was recorded at the Augusta Civic Center in Augusta, Maine, on July 11, 2004, and released on the 2004 DVD Still Reigning. The band also released War at the Warfield and a box set, Soundtrack to the Apocalypse featuring rarities, live CD and DVD performances and various Slayer merchandise. From 2002 to 2004, the band performed over 250 tour dates, headlining major music festivals including H82k2, Summer tour, Ozzfest 2004 and a European tour with Slipknot. While preparing for the Download Festival in England, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich was taken to a hospital with an unknown and mysterious illness, and was unable to perform. Metallica vocalist James Hetfield searched for volunteers at the last minute to replace Ulrich; Lombardo and Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison volunteered, with Lombardo performing the songs "Battery" and "The Four Horsemen". Christ Illusion (2006–2008) The next studio album, Christ Illusion, was originally scheduled for release on June 6, 2006, and would be the first album with original drummer Lombardo since 1990's Seasons in the Abyss. However, the band decided to delay the release of the record, as they did not want to be among the many, according to King, "half-ass, stupid fucking loser bands" releasing records on June 6, although USA Today reported the idea was thwarted because the band failed to secure sufficient studio recording time. Slayer released Eternal Pyre on June 6 as a limited-edition EP. Eternal Pyre featured the song "Cult", a live performance of "War Ensemble" in Germany and video footage of the band recording "Cult". Five thousand copies were released and sold exclusively through Hot Topic chain stores, and sold out within hours of release. On June 30, Nuclear Blast Records released a 7" vinyl picture disc version limited to a thousand copies. Christ Illusion was eventually released on August 8, 2006, and debuted at number 5 on the Billboard 200, selling over 62,000 copies in its first week. The album became Slayer's highest charting, improving on its previous highest charting album, Divine Intervention, which had debuted at number 8. However, despite its high positioning, the album dropped to number 44 in the following week. Three weeks after the album's release, Slayer were inducted into the Kerrang! Hall of Fame for their influence to the heavy metal scene. A worldwide tour dubbed The Unholy Alliance Tour, was undertaken to support the new record. The tour was originally set to launch on June 6 in San Diego, but was postponed to June 10, as Araya had to undergo gall bladder surgery. In Flames, Mastodon, Children of Bodom, Lamb of God, and Thine Eyes Bleed (featuring Araya's brother, Johnny) and Ted Maul (London Hammersmith Apollo) were supporting Slayer. The tour made its way through America and Europe and the bands who participated, apart from Thine Eyes Bleed, reunited to perform at Japan's Loudpark Festival on October 15, 2006. The video for the album's first single, "Eyes of the Insane", was released on October 30, 2006. The track was featured on the Saw III soundtrack, and won a Grammy-award for "Best Metal Performance" at the 49th Grammy Awards, although the band was unable to attend due to touring obligations. A week later, the band visited the 52nd Services Squadron located on the Spangdahlem U.S. Air Force Base in Germany to meet and play a show. This was the first visit ever to a military base for the band. The band made its first network TV appearance on the show Jimmy Kimmel Live! on January 19, playing the song "Eyes of the Insane", and four additional songs for fans after the show (although footage from "Jihad" was cut due to its controversial lyrical themes). In 2007, Slayer toured Australia and New Zealand in April with Mastodon, and appeared at the Download Festival, Rock Am Ring, and a summer tour with Marilyn Manson and Bleeding Through. World Painted Blood (2009–2011) In 2008, Araya stated uncertainty about the future of the band, and that he could not see himself continuing the career at a later age. He said that once the band finished its upcoming album, which was the final record in their contract, the band would sit down and discuss its future. King was optimistic that the band would produce at least another two albums before considering to disband: "We're talking of going in the studio next February [2009] and getting the next record out so if we do things in a timely manner I don't see there's any reason why we can't have more than one album out." Slayer, along with Trivium, Mastodon, and Amon Amarth, teamed up for a European tour titled 'The Unholy Alliance: Chapter III', throughout October and November 2008. Slayer headlined the second Mayhem Festival in the summer of 2009. Slayer, along with Megadeth, also co-headlined Canadian Carnage, the first time they performed together in more than 15 years when they co-headlined four shows in Canada in late June 2009 with openers Machine Head and Suicide Silence. The band's eleventh studio album, World Painted Blood, was released by American Recordings. It was available on November 3 in North America and November 2 for the rest of the world. The band stated that the album takes elements of all their previous works including Seasons in the Abyss, South of Heaven, and Reign in Blood. Slayer, along with Metallica, Megadeth, and Anthrax performed on the same bill for the first time on June 16, 2010, at Bemowo Airport, in Warsaw, Poland. One of the following Big 4 performances in (Sofia, Bulgaria, June 22, 2010) was sent via satellite in HD to cinemas. They also went on to play several other dates as part of the Sonisphere Festival. Megadeth and Slayer joined forces once again for the American Carnage Tour from July to October 2010 with opening acts Anthrax and Testament, and European Carnage Tour in March and April 2011. The "Big Four" played more dates at Sonisphere in England and France for the first time ever. Slayer returned to Australia in February and March 2011 as part of the Soundwave Festival and also played in California with the other members of the "Big Four". In early 2011, Hanneman was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis. According to the band, doctors said that it likely originated from a spider bite. Araya said of Hanneman's condition: "Jeff was seriously ill. Jeff ended up contracting a bacteria that ate away his flesh on his arm, so they cut open his arm, from his wrist to his shoulder, and they did a skin graft on him, they cleaned up ... It was a flesh-eating virus, so he was really, really bad. So we'll wait for him to get better, and when he's a hundred percent, he's gonna come out and join us." The band decided to play their upcoming tour dates without Hanneman. Gary Holt of Exodus was announced as Hanneman's temporary replacement. Cannibal Corpse guitarist Pat O'Brien filled in for Holt during a tour in Europe. On April 23, 2011, at the American Big 4 show in Indio, California, Hanneman rejoined his bandmates to play the final two songs of their set, "South of Heaven" and "Angel of Death". This turned out to be Hanneman's final live performance with the band. Hanneman's death, Lombardo's third split, and Repentless (2011–2016) When asked if Slayer would make another album, Lombardo replied "Yes absolutely; Although there's nothing written, there are definitely plans." However, Araya said Slayer would not begin writing a new album until Hanneman's condition improved. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Reign In Blood, the band performed all of the album's tracks at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival at the Alexandra Palace in London. In November 2011, Lombardo posted a tweet that the band had started to write new music. This presumably meant that Hanneman's condition improved, and it was believed he was ready to enter the studio. King had worked with Lombardo that year and they completed three songs. The band planned on entering the studio in either March or April 2012 and were hoping to have the album recorded before the group's US tour in late May and release it by the summer of that year. However, King said the upcoming album would not be finished until September and October of that year, making a 2013 release likely. In July 2012, King revealed two song titles for the upcoming album, "Chasing Death" and "Implode". In February 2013, Lombardo was fired right before Slayer was to play at Australia's Soundwave festival due to an argument with band members over a pay dispute. Slayer and American Recordings released a statement, saying "Mr. Lombardo came to the band less than a week before their scheduled departure for Australia to present an entirely new set of terms for his engagement that were contrary to those that had been previously agreed upon", although Lombardo claimed there was a gag order in place. Dette returned to fill in for Lombardo for the Soundwave dates. It was confirmed that Lombardo was officially out of Slayer for the third time, and, in May, Bostaph rejoined the band. King said in February 2024 that he had severed ties with Lombardo ever since, adding that "he's dead to me." On May 2, 2013, Hanneman died due to liver failure in a local hospital near his home in Southern California's Inland Empire; the cause of death was later determined to be alcohol-related cirrhosis. King confirmed that the band would continue, saying "Jeff is going to be in everybody's thoughts for a long time. It's unfortunate you can't keep unfortunate things from happening. But we're going to carry on – and he'll be there in spirit." However, Araya felt more uncertain about the band's future, expressing his belief that "After 30 years [with Hanneman active in the band], it would literally be like starting over", and doubting that Slayer's fanbase would approve such a change. Despite the uncertainty regarding the band's future, Slayer still worked on a followup to World Painted Blood. Additionally, it was reported that the new album would still feature material written by Hanneman. At the 2014 Revolver's Golden Gods Awards ceremony, Slayer debuted "Implode", its first new song in five years. The group announced that they had signed with Nuclear Blast, and planned to release a new album in 2015. It was reported that Holt would take over Hanneman's guitar duties full-time, although Holt did not participate in the songwriting. In February, Slayer announced a seventeen-date American tour to start in June featuring Suicidal Tendencies and Exodus. In 2015, Slayer headlined the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival for the second time. Repentless, the band's twelfth studio album, was released on September 11, 2015. Slayer toured for 2+1⁄2 years in support of Repentless. The band toured Europe with Anthrax and Kvelertak in October and November 2015, and embarked on three North American tours: one with Testament and Carcass in February and March 2016, then with Anthrax and Death Angel in September and October 2016, and with Lamb of God and Behemoth in July and August 2017. A lone date in Southeast Asia in 2017 was held in the Philippines. Cancelled thirteenth studio album, Final World Tour and split (2016–2019) In August 2016, guitarist Kerry King was asked if Slayer would release a follow-up to Repentless. He replied, "We've got lots of leftover material from the last album, 'cause we wrote so much stuff, and we recorded a bunch of it too. If the lyrics don't change the song musically, those songs are done. So we are way ahead of the ballgame without even doing anything for the next record. And I've been working on stuff on my downtime. Like, I'll warm up and a riff will come to mind and I'll record it. I've gotten a handful of those on this run. So wheels are still turning. I haven't worked on anything lyrically yet except for what was done on the last record, so that's something I've gotta get on. But, yeah, Repentless isn't quite a year old yet." King also stated that Slayer was not expected to enter the studio until at least 2018. In an October interview on Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta's podcast, King stated that he was "completely open" to having guitarist Gary Holt (who had no songwriting contributions on Repentless) involved in the songwriting process of the next Slayer album. He explained, "I'm entirely open to having Gary work on something. I know he's gotta work on an Exodus record and I've got tons already for this one. But, you know, if he's gonna stick around... I didn't want it on the last one, and I knew that. I'm completely open to having that conversation. I haven't talked to Tom about it, I haven't talked to Gary open about it, but I'm open. That's not saying it is or isn't gonna happen. But my ears are open." In a June 2017 interview with the Ultimate Guitar Archive, Holt said that he was ready to contribute with the songwriting for the next album. When speaking to Revolver, King was asked if there were any plans in place for the band to begin working on the album, he said, "Funny thing is, Repentless isn't even two years old yet, though it seems like it is. But from that session, there are six or eight songs that are recorded—some with vocals, some with leads, but all with keeper guitar, drums and bass. So when those songs get finished lyrically, if the lyrics don't change the songs, they'll be ready to be on the next record. So we already have more than half a record complete, if those songs make it." He also gave conceivable consideration that it could be released next year, "I'm certainly not gonna promise it, because every time I do, I make a liar of myself! [Laughs]" When asked about any plans or the timeline the band would like to release the album, King said, "It depends on touring—getting time to rehearse, getting time to make up new stuff. We haven't even done Australia on this run yet at all. We're hitting Japan finally later this year. But if things go well, I'd like to record next year. But timelines change all the time." In an October 2017 interview, Holt once again expressed his desire to contribute to the songwriting for the next Slayer album, saying, "When that time comes and we are ready for the next album, if Kerry wants me to contribute, I've got riffs. I've got stuff right now that I've written that I am not using for Exodus, because it was kind of maybe just unintentional subconscious thing, like, 'It sounds a little too Slayer.'" Plans for a new album were ultimately scrapped when on January 22, 2018, Slayer announced their farewell world tour through a video featuring a montage of press clippings, early posters and press photos spanning the band's entire career. Although the members of Slayer have never publicly explained why they were retiring, it was thought that one of the reasons behind this decision was Tom Araya's desire not to tour anymore and to spend more time with his family; Araya hinted at the possibility of retiring in a 2016 interview. This was confirmed by former drummer Dave Lombardo in a 2019 interview, who said: "Apparently, from what I hear. Tom has been wanting to retire when I was in the band—he wanted to stop. He had the neck issues. He's been wanting to retire for a long time now. So now that he's got it, I'm happy for him, and I hope he gets what he wants out of life and his future." The farewell tour began with a North American trek in May and June 2018, supported by Lamb of God, Anthrax, Behemoth and Testament. The second leg of the North American tour took place in July and August, with Napalm Death replacing Behemoth, followed in November and December by a European tour with Lamb of God, Anthrax and Obituary. The farewell tour continued into 2019, with plans to visit places such as South America, Australia and Japan; in addition to European festivals such as Hellfest and Graspop, the band toured the United States in May 2019 with Lamb of God, Amon Amarth and Cannibal Corpse. Slayer also played one show in Mexico at Force Fest in October 2018. On December 2, 2018, Holt announced that he would not perform the remainder of the band's European tour to be with his dying father. Vio-lence and former Machine Head guitarist Phil Demmel would fill in for him as a result. Holt had stated that Slayer would not release a new album before the end of the farewell tour. On how long the tour would last, Holt's Exodus bandmate Steve "Zetro" Souza commented, "I'm speculating it's gonna take a year and a half or two years to do the one final thing, but I believe it's finished. Everybody knows what I know; just because I'm on the outside, I have no insight on that." The final North American leg of the tour, dubbed "The Last Campaign", took place in November 2019, and also included support from Primus, Ministry and Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals. Despite being referred to as a farewell tour for Slayer, their manager Rick Sales has stated that "the band is not breaking up, they made a decision to stop touring. That doesn't mean the end of the band. It’s just the end of touring". Kristen Mulderig, who works with Rick Sales Entertainment Group, has also been quoted as saying that there would be Slayer-related activities following the tour's conclusion. However, within two days after the tour's completion, King's wife Ayesha stated on her Instagram page that there is "not a chance in hell" that Slayer would ever reunite to perform more shows or release new music. Post-breakup (2020–2024) In March 2020, when talking to Guitar World about his latest endorsement with Dean Guitars, King hinted that he would continue to make music outside of Slayer, simply saying, "Dean didn't sign me for nothing!" King stated in an August 2020 interview on the Dean Guitars YouTube channel that he had "more than two records' worth of music" for his yet-to-be disclosed new project. Bostaph later confirmed that he and King were working on a new project that would "sound like Slayer without it being Slayer—but not intentionally so." This project was later revealed to be King's solo debut album, From Hell I Rise, released on May 17, 2024, and the lineup of the album includes King, Bostaph, Death Angel vocalist Mark Osegueda, Hellyeah bassist Kyle Sanders, and former Vio-lence and Machine Head guitarist Phil Demmel. In addition to King and Bostaph, the other members of Slayer have remained musically active. Holt continues to record and perform with Exodus, releasing a new album, Persona Non Grata, in 2021. Lombardo has been involved with various acts since his third split with Slayer in 2013, such as Suicidal Tendencies, Dead Cross, the Misfits, Mr. Bungle and Testament, the latter of where he had previously served as the drummer for the band's 1999 album The Gathering and rejoined in March 2022, only to leave again in the following April. Jon Dette has been a member of at least two bands, Animetal USA and Meshiaak, and performed with Anthrax and Volbeat as a fill-in drummer. Araya, aside from an appearance in the Bay Area thrash metal documentary film Murder in the Front Row, had not been publicly active in the music industry nor given any interviews between the conclusion of Slayer's final tour and the band's 2024 reunion. The members of Slayer had expressed mixed opinions about a reunion. When asked by the Let There Be Talk podcast in June 2020 about the possibility of the band ever reforming, Holt stated, "If it does, if it ever happens, it has nothing to do with me. Someone else would call and say, 'We wanna [do this].' To my knowledge, it's done. And I think it should be that way. The band went out fucking on a bang, went out on Slayer's terms, and how many people get to say they did that?". Holt stated in March 2021 that he was open to a potential Slayer reunion, but it was unlikely to happen in the near future: "Look, if the powers that be ever—like, in a year or something—said, 'Hey, you know what? We feel like playing some shows,' I'm there to do it. But those aren't decisions for me to make, or even me to really speculate on. As far as my knowledge, the band is over, and the final show was November 30, 2019. And I'm full speed ahead with Exodus now." In October 2021, King expressed regret that Slayer had retired "too early." While congratulating Machine Head on their 30th anniversary as a band, he said, "Apparently, it's 30 years, which is quite an achievement. Not a lot of bands get there. We did, and then we quit too early. Fuck us. Fuck me. I hate fucking not playing." When interviewed two months later by Metal Hammer, King did not rule out the possibility of any more "Big Four" shows with Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax, but expressed doubt that a Slayer reunion would ever happen: "The way that I'm moving forward is I don't think Slayer are ever going to play again. There's no business of me playing by myself!" King's wife Ayesha has also ruled out the possibility of a Slayer reunion, insisting that her husband and Araya would "never be Slayer again". In a February 2024 interview with Rolling Stone, King clarified that a reunion of the band was unlikely: "Could Slayer play a show again? I'm sure there's a scenario. Am I looking for it? No, I'm just getting ready to start my career. So if that happens, it happens. But I'm going to be doing this [solo band] for the next 10 years at least." King revealed in the same interview that he has not spoken to Araya since the band's split. King also says that his relationship with Araya is positive, but his relation with that of former drummer Dave Lombardo is estranged. Talking about that situation, King said that Lombardo "was listening to this woman that was his attorney at the time, and she thought we had Metallica money, which we've never had fucking Metallica money. So she's just blowing shit in his ear, and he thinks he should be getting more than he should be getting." Reunion (2024–present) On February 21, 2024, Slayer announced that they would play their first show since disbanding at Riot Fest on September 22, and play their second show five days later at Louder Than Life. However, due to weather conditions caused by Hurricane Helene, Louder Than Life canceled their Friday shows, which included Slayer in the lineup. The lineup of this reunion is the 2013–2019 lineup of bassist/vocalist Tom Araya, guitarists Kerry King and Gary Holt and drummer Paul Bostaph. They will also headline the first of four nights of the Aftershock Festival in Sacramento on October 10, 2024, and while announcing this show, the band said in a statement, "There's been a lot of excited fans out there about our playing a couple of festival dates, so it's great to be able to add this last one." In an interview with Metal Hammer, King indicated that the planned shows were a one-off and that the reunion is "not going to translate into recording and it's not going to translate into touring", clarifying that "it's three shows marking five years since our final shows, a fun, 'Hey, remember us from before the pandemic?' celebration." In a May 2024 interview on Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk, King said that, while he would be open to doing more shows as Slayer in the future, his solo career was his main priority now. Musical style Slayer is generally considered a thrash metal band. In an article from December 1986 by the Washington Post, writer Joe Brown described Slayer as speed metal, a genre he defined as "an unholy hybrid of punk rock thrash and heavy metal that attracts an almost all-male teen-age following". Describing Slayer's music, Brown wrote: "Over a jackhammer beat, Slayer's stun guitars created scraping sheets of corrosive metal noise, with occasional solos that sounded like squealing brakes, over which the singer-bassist emitted a larynx-lacerating growl-yowl." In an article from September 1988 by the New York Times, writer Jon Pareles also described Slayer as speed metal, additionally writing that the band "brings the sensational imagery of tabloids and horror movies" and has lyrics that "revel in death, gore and allusions to Satanism and Nazism." Pareles also described other "Big Four" thrash metal bands Metallica and Megadeth as speed metal bands. Slayer's early works were praised for their "breakneck speed and instrumental prowess", combining the structure of hardcore punk tempos and speed metal. The band released fast, aggressive material. The album Reign in Blood is the band's fastest, performed at an average of 220 beats per minute; the album Diabolus in Musica was the band's first to feature C♯ tuning; God Hates Us All was the first to feature drop B tuning and seven-string guitars tuned to B♭. AllMusic cited the album as "abandoning the extravagances and accessibility of their late-'80s/early-'90s work and returning to perfect the raw approach", with some fans labeling it as nu metal. King and Hanneman's dual guitar solos have been referred to as "wildly chaotic", and "twisted genius". Original drummer Lombardo would use two bass drums (instead of a double pedal, which is used on a single bass drum). Lombardo's speed and aggression earned him the title of the "godfather of double bass" by Drummerworld. Lombardo stated his reasons for using two bass drums: "When you hit the bass drum, the head is still resonating. When you hit it in the same place right after that, you kinda get a 'slapback' from the bass drum head hitting the other pedal. You're not letting them breathe." When playing the two bass drums, Lombardo would use the "heel-up" technique. In the original lineup, King, Hanneman and Araya contributed to the band's lyrics, and King and Hanneman wrote the music with additional arrangement from Lombardo, and sometimes Araya. Araya formed a lyric writing partnership with Hanneman, which sometimes overshadowed the creative input of King. Hanneman stated that writing lyrics and music was a "free-for-all": "It's all just whoever comes up with what. Sometimes I'll be more on a roll and I'll have more stuff, same with Kerry – it's whoever's hot, really. Anybody can write anything; if it's good, we use it; if not, we don't." When writing material, the band would write the music first before incorporating lyrics. King or Hanneman used a 24-track and drum machine to show band members the riff that they created, and to get their opinion. Either King, Hanneman or Lombardo would mention if any alterations could be made. The band played the riff to get the basic song structure, and figured out where the lyrics and solos would be placed. Legacy Slayer is one of the most influential bands in heavy metal history. Steve Huey of AllMusic believes the musical style of Slayer makes the band stronger than the other members of the "Big Four" thrash metal bands Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax, all of which rose to fame during the 1980s. Slayer's "downtuned rhythms, infectious guitar licks, graphically violent lyrics and grisly artwork set the standard for dozens of emerging thrash bands" and their "music was directly responsible for the rise of death metal" states MTV, ranking Slayer as the sixth "greatest metal band of all time", ranking number 50 on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock. Hanneman and King ranked number 10 in Guitar World's "100 greatest metal guitarists of all time" in 2004, and were voted "Best Guitarist/Guitar Team" in Revolver's reader's poll. Original drummer Lombardo was also voted "Best Drummer" and the band entered the top five in the categories "Best Band Ever", "Best Live Band", "Album of the Year" (for Christ Illusion) and "Band of the Year". Music author Joel McIver considers Slayer very influential in the extreme metal scene, especially in the development of the death metal and black metal subgenres. According to John Consterdine of Terrorizer, without "Slayer's influence, extreme metal as we know it wouldn't exist." Kam Lee of Massacre and former member of Death stated: "there wouldn't be death metal or black metal or even extreme metal (the likes of what it is today) if not for Slayer." Johan Reinholdz of Andromeda said that Slayer "were crucial in the development of thrash metal which then became the foundation for a lot of different subgenres. They inspired generations of metal bands." Alex Skolnick of Testament declared: "Before Slayer, metal had never had such razor-sharp articulation, tightness, and balance between sound and stops. This all-out sonic assault was about the shock, the screams, the drums, and [...] most importantly the riffs." Groups who cited Slayer among their major influences include Cannibal Corpse, Pantera, Kreator, Sepultura, Children of Bodom, Mayhem, Darkthrone, Avenged Sevenfold, Bullet for My Valentine, Trivium, As I Lay Dying, All That Remains, System of a Down, Killswitch Engage, Slipknot, Machine Head, DevilDriver, Lamb of God, Gojira, Behemoth, Evile and Lacuna Coil. Steve Asheim, drummer for Deicide, declared that "there obviously would not have been a Deicide as we know it without the existence of Slayer." Sepultura guitarist Andreas Kisser affirmed that "without Slayer, Sepultura would never be possible." Weezer mentions them in the song "Heart Songs" from their 2008 self-titled "Red" album. The verse goes: "Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Slayer taught me how to shred..." Dave Grohl recalled, "Me and my friends, we just wanted to listen to fucking Slayer and take acid and smash stuff." The band's 1986 release Reign in Blood has been an influence to extreme and thrash metal bands since its release and is considered the record which set the bar for death metal. It had a significant influence on the genre leaders such as Death, Obituary, Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel and Napalm Death. The album was hailed the "heaviest album of all time" by Kerrang!, a "genre-definer" by Stylus, and a "stone-cold classic upon its release" by AllMusic. In 2006, Reign in Blood was named the best metal album of the last 20 years by Metal Hammer. According to Nielsen SoundScan, Slayer sold 4,900,000 copies in the United States from 1991 to 2013. Controversy A lawsuit was brought against the band in 1996, by the parents of Elyse Pahler, who accused the band of encouraging their daughter's murderers through their lyrics. Pahler was drugged, strangled, stabbed, trampled on, and raped as a sacrifice to the devil by three fans of the band. The case was unsealed by the court on May 19, 2000, stating Slayer and related business markets distribute harmful products to teens, encouraging violent acts through their lyrics, and "none of the vicious crimes committed against Elyse Marie Pahler would have occurred without the intentional marketing strategy of the death-metal band Slayer". The lawsuit was dismissed in 2001, for multiple reasons including "principles of free speech, lack of a duty and lack of foreseeability". A second lawsuit was filed by the parents, an amended complaint for damages against Slayer, their label, and other industry and label entities. The lawsuit was again dismissed. Judge E. Jeffrey Burke stated, "I do not consider Slayer's music obscene, indecent or harmful to minors." Slayer has been accused of holding Nazi sympathies, due to the band's eagle logo bearing resemblance to the Eagle atop swastika and the lyrics of "Angel of Death". "Angel of Death" was inspired by the acts of Josef Mengele, the doctor who conducted human experiments on prisoners during World War II at the Auschwitz concentration camp, and was dubbed the "Angel of Death" by inmates. Slayer's cover of Minor Threat's "Guilty of Being White" raised questions about a possible message of white supremacy in the band's music. The controversy surrounding the cover involved the changing of the refrain "guilty of being white" to "guilty of being right", at the song's ending. This incensed Minor Threat frontman Ian MacKaye, who stated "that is so offensive to me". King said it was changed for "tongue-in-cheek" humor as he thought the allegation of racism at the time was "ridiculous". In a 2004 interview with Araya, when asked, "Did critics realize you were wallowing in parody?". Araya replied, "No. People thought we were serious!...back then you had that PMRC, who literally took everything to heart, when in actuality you're trying to create an image. You're trying to scare people on purpose." Araya also denied rumors that Slayer members are Satanists, but they find the subject of Satanism interesting and "we are all on this planet to learn and experience". The song "Jihad" of the album Christ Illusion sparked controversy among families of the September 11 victims. The song deals with the attack from the perspective of a religious terrorist. The band stated the song is spoken through perspective without being sympathetic to the cause, and supports neither side. Seventeen bus benches promoting the same album in Fullerton, California, were deemed offensive by city officials. City officials contacted the band's record label and demanded that the ads be removed. All benches were eliminated. In India, Christ Illusion was recalled by EMI India after protests with Christian religious groups due to the nature of the graphic artwork. The album cover was designed by Slayer's longtime collaborator Larry Carroll and features Christ in a "sea of despair", with amputated arms, missing an eye, while standing in a sea of blood with severed heads. Joseph Dias of the Mumbai Christian group Catholic Secular Forum in India took "strong exception" to the original album artwork, and issued a memorandum to Mumbai's police commissioner in protest. On October 11, 2006, EMI announced that all stocks had been destroyed, noting it had no plans to re-release the record in India in the future. Band members Timeline Discography Studio albums Show No Mercy (1983) Hell Awaits (1985) Reign in Blood (1986) South of Heaven (1988) Seasons in the Abyss (1990) Divine Intervention (1994) Undisputed Attitude (1996) Diabolus in Musica (1998) God Hates Us All (2001) Christ Illusion (2006) World Painted Blood (2009) Repentless (2015) Awards and nominations Footnotes Citations Further reading McIver, Joel (2008). The Bloody Reign of Slayer. Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-85712-038-0. Ferris, D.X. (2008). Reign in Blood. 33⅓ Series. Continuum Books. ISBN 978-0-8264-2909-4. Szubrycht, Jarosław (2006). Bez litości. Prawdziwa historia zespołu Slayer (No mercy. The true history of Slayer). Kagra. ISBN 83-87598-48-8. External links Official website Slayer at AllMusic Slayer - Wikipedia Fact or Fiction at Loudwire

Megadeth is an American thrash metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1983 by vocalist/guitarist Dave Mustaine. Known for their technically complex guitar work and musicianship, Megadeth is one of the "big four" of American thrash metal along with Metallica, Anthrax, and Slayer, responsible for the genre's development and popularization. Their music features complex arrangements and fast rhythm sections, dual lead guitars, and lyrical themes of war, politics, religion, death, and personal relationships. In 1985, Megadeth released their debut album, Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good!, on the independent record label Combat Records, to moderate success. It caught the attention of bigger labels, which led to Megadeth signing with Capitol Records. Their first major-label album, Peace Sells... but Who's Buying?, was released in 1986 and was a major hit with the underground metal scene. Band members' substance abuse issues and personal disputes had brought Megadeth negative publicity during the late 1980s. Nonetheless, the band went on to release a number of platinum-selling albums, including So Far, So Good... So What! (1988), Rust in Peace (1990), and Countdown to Extinction (1992). These albums, along with worldwide tours, brought them public recognition. Megadeth's most recent album, The Sick, the Dying... and the Dead!, was released in 2022. Megadeth has undergone multiple lineup changes throughout its 41-year career, with Mustaine being the sole consistent member of the band. The band temporarily disbanded in 2002 when Mustaine suffered an arm injury and re-established in 2004 without longtime bassist David Ellefson, who had taken legal action against Mustaine. Ellefson settled out of court and rejoined the band in 2010, but was fired in 2021 amid allegations of sexual misconduct. Megadeth's current lineup includes Mustaine, bassist James LoMenzo, guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari and drummer Dirk Verbeuren. Megadeth earned platinum certifications in the United States for five of its sixteen studio albums, and has received twelve Grammy nominations. Megadeth won its first Grammy Award in 2017 for the song "Dystopia" in the Best Metal Performance category. The band's mascot, Vic Rattlehead, regularly appears on album artwork and live shows. Megadeth has hosted its own music festival, Gigantour, several times since July 2005, and held its first MegaCruise in October 2019. As of 2023, the band sold more than 50 million albums worldwide. History 1983–1985: Formation and Killing Is My Business On April 11, 1983, Dave Mustaine was fired from Metallica just prior to the band recording their debut album Kill 'Em All due to substance abuse and personal conflicts with James Hetfield kicking his dog. As Metallica's lead guitarist since 1981, Mustaine had composed some of the group's early songs and helped hone the band into a tight live unit. Afterward, Mustaine vowed revenge by forming a band that was faster and heavier than Metallica. On the bus trip back to Los Angeles, Mustaine found a pamphlet by California senator Alan Cranston that read: "The arsenal of megadeath can't be rid no matter what the peace treaties come to." The term "Megadeath" stuck with Mustaine and he wrote a song with that title with the spelling slightly changed to Megadeth, which, according to Mustaine, represented the annihilation of power. After arriving back in Los Angeles, Mustaine began the search for new bandmates for his band. He formed the band Fallen Angels, which included Lor Kane on vocals, Robby McKinney on guitar and Matt Kisselstein on bass, in April 1983. The band's name was changed to Megadeth on Kane's recommendation. As the founder, Mustaine added his new neighbors David Ellefson and Greg Handevidt to the band, who had moved from Minnesota to Los Angeles and played bass and guitar, respectively. A demo was recorded by the lineup (which had expanded to include Richard Girod on drums), though the band realized that they would have to retool some of the songs following the release of Metallica's debut album, in July 1983. The only Metallica-era song that ended up on Megadeth's debut album was "Mechanix". Songs from that time period included "No Time", "Self Destruct", "Hair Pin Trigger", "Speak No Evil", "Eye for Eye" and "Heaven Knows". "Speak No Evil" was the original title of "Looking Down the Cross", while "No Time" was an early title for "Set the World Afire" and "Self Destruct" was the original title for "Mary Jane." While Handevidt would only last a few months, Mustaine and Ellefson formed a tight musical bond. Despite his enthusiasm, Mustaine had trouble finding other members to fill out the lineup. He and Ellefson auditioned about 15 drummers, hoping to find one who understood meter changes in music. After briefly playing with Dijon Carruthers, they selected Lee Rauch. Following six months of trying to find a lead singer, Mustaine decided to perform lead vocals himself. Singers who temporarily joined the band included Billy Bonds and John Cyriis, who would found Agent Steel after his firing from Megadeth. In 1984, Megadeth recorded a three-song demo tape featuring Mustaine, Ellefson, and Rauch. The demo tape, Last Rites, was released on March 9, 1984. It featured early versions of "Last Rites/Loved to Death", "The Skull Beneath the Skin", and "Mechanix", all of which appeared on the band's debut album. The band was unable to find a compatible second guitarist. Kerry King of Slayer filled in on rhythm guitar for several shows in the San Francisco area in 1984, starting with the debut gig on February 17 at Ruthie's Inn in Berkeley, California, as well as a gig at The Keystone in Berkeley that April and would play five shows in total with the band. Afterwards, King went back to Slayer and Megadeth replaced Rauch with jazz fusion drummer Gar Samuelson; he officially joined Megadeth on October 24, 1984. Samuelson had previously been in the jazz band The New Yorkers with guitarist Chris Poland. After seeing Samuelson perform with Megadeth as a trio, Poland went backstage and suggested an impromptu audition as lead guitarist for the band; he joined Megadeth in December 1984. After considering several labels, Mustaine signed the band to Combat Records, a New York-based Independent record label that offered Megadeth the highest budget to record and tour. In 1985, Combat Records gave the band $8,000 to record and produce its debut album. After spending $4,000 of the budget on drugs, alcohol, and food, the band fired the original producer and finished the recording themselves. Despite its low-fidelity sound, Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good! was relatively successful in underground metal circles and attracted major-label interest. The band was calling itself State Of The Art Speed Metal. Music writer Joel McIver praised its "blistering technicality" and stated that the album "raised the bar for the whole thrash metal scene, with guitarists forced to perform even more accurately and powerfully". The front cover marked the debut of band mascot Vic Rattlehead, who regularly appeared on subsequent album artwork. Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good! features "Mechanix", a song Mustaine wrote during his time with Metallica. Though Mustaine told the band after his dismissal not to use the music he had written, Metallica recorded a different version of the song, "The Four Horsemen", with a slower tempo and a melodic middle section. The album also included a cover of Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made for Walkin' ", at a faster tempo and with altered lyrics. Megadeth's version generated controversy during the 1990s, when its writer, Lee Hazlewood, called Mustaine's changes "vile and offensive". Under threat of legal action, the song was removed from pressings released from 1995 to 2001. In mid-1985, on a bill with Canadian speed metal band Exciter, Megadeth played its first North American tour: the Killing for a Living Tour. Guitarist Mike Albert replaced Poland, who was battling drug addiction. Although Albert was originally supposed to be a permanent replacement, Poland rejoined Megadeth in October 1985, shortly before the group began recording its second album for Combat. 1986–1987: Peace Sells... but Who's Buying? According to Mustaine, Megadeth was under pressure to deliver another successful album: "That sophomore offering is the 'be-all or end-all' of any band. You either go to the next level, or it's the beginning of the nadir." Mustaine composed the music for the album, with the other members adding arrangement ideas. The album was produced on a $25,000 budget from Combat Records. Dissatisfied with its financial limitations, the band left Combat and signed with Capitol Records. Capitol bought the rights to the album, and hired producer Paul Lani to remix the earlier recordings. Released in late 1986, Peace Sells... but Who's Buying? has clearer production and more sophisticated songwriting. Mustaine wanted to write socially conscious lyrics, unlike mainstream heavy metal bands who sang about "hedonistic pleasures". The album was noted for its political commentary and helped Megadeth expand its fanbase. The title track was the album's second single, and was accompanied by a music video that received regular airplay on MTV. In February 1987, Megadeth was the opening act on Alice Cooper's Constrictor tour, and the following month began its first headlining world tour in the United Kingdom. The 72-week tour was supported by Overkill and Necros, and continued in the United States. During the tour, Mustaine and Ellefson considered firing Samuelson for his drug abuse. According to Mustaine, Samuelson had become too much to handle when intoxicated. Drummer Chuck Behler traveled with Megadeth for the last dates of the tour as the other band members feared Samuelson would not be able to continue. Poland quarreled with Mustaine, and was accused of selling band equipment to buy heroin. As a result, Samuelson and Poland were asked to leave Megadeth in 1987, with Behler becoming the band's full-time drummer. Poland was initially replaced by Jay Reynolds of Malice, but as the band began working on its next record, Reynolds was replaced by his guitar teacher, Jeff Young, when Megadeth was six weeks into the recording of its third album. 1988–1989: So Far, So Good... So What! With a major-label budget, the Paul Lani-produced So Far, So Good... So What! took over five months to record. The production was plagued with problems, partially due to Mustaine's struggle with drug addiction. Mustaine later said: "The production of So Far, So Good... So What! was horrible, mostly due to substances and the priorities we had or didn't have at the time." Mustaine clashed with Lani, beginning with Lani's insistence that the drums be recorded separately from the cymbals, an unheard-of process for rock drummers. Mustaine and Lani became estranged during the mixing, and Lani was replaced by Michael Wagener, who remixed the album. So Far, So Good... So What! was released in January 1988 and was well received by fans and critics. The album featured a cover version of the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the U.K."; Mustaine changed the lyrics, later saying that he had simply heard them incorrectly. To support the album, Megadeth embarked on a world tour that lasted for nearly eight months. The band (along with Savatage) opened for Dio on the Dream Evil tour and supported Iron Maiden on their Seventh Son of a Seventh Son tour, both in the United States. They also headlined a North American tour with Warlock and Sanctuary (whose debut album Refuge Denied was produced by Mustaine), and a European trek with Testament, Nuclear Assault, Flotsam and Jetsam and Sanctuary. In June 1988, Megadeth appeared in Penelope Spheeris' documentary The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years. The documentary chronicled the Los Angeles heavy metal scene of the late 1980s, and Spheeris, who had directed Megadeth in the video for "Wake Up Dead", decided to include them to feature a more serious band in contrast to the glam metal groups. Mustaine remembered the film as a disappointment, as it aligned Megadeth with "a bunch of shit bands". In August, the band appeared at the Monsters of Rock festival at Castle Donington in the United Kingdom, performing to an audience of more than 100,000. One show featured a guest appearance by Metallica drummer (and Mustaine's former bandmate) Lars Ulrich. The band was added to the Monsters of Rock European tour, but left after the first show due to Ellefson's drug problems, for which he was treated immediately. Megadeth was replaced by Testament. Shortly after the Monsters of Rock appearance, Mustaine fired Behler and Young and canceled Megadeth's Australian tour. "On the road, things escalated from a small border skirmish into a full-on raging war," Mustaine later recalled. "I think a lot of us were inconsistent because of [drugs]." During the tour, Mustaine noticed problems developing with Behler and brought in drummer Nick Menza as Behler's drum technician. As with Samuelson, Menza was expected to take over if Behler could not continue the tour. Menza replaced Behler in 1989. Young's dismissal resulted from Mustaine's suspicions that he was having an affair with Mustaine's then-girlfriend, an allegation Young denied. The band was unable to quickly find a suitable replacement for Young. Although 1989 marked the first time since its inception that Megadeth did not tour nor perform at least one show, they recorded a cover version of Alice Cooper's "No More Mr. Nice Guy" which appeared on the soundtrack to the Wes Craven horror movie Shocker. The video was directed by Penelope Spheeris, who recalled the filming as a "Herculean task" as Mustaine was unable to play guitar because of his drug addiction. During the March 1989 auditions for a new lead guitarist, Mustaine was arrested for driving under the influence and possession of narcotics after crashing into a parked vehicle occupied by an off-duty police officer. Mustaine entered court-ordered drug rehabilitation shortly afterwards, and became drug-free for the first time in ten years. 1990–1991: Rust in Peace With Mustaine sober, Megadeth continued searching for a new lead guitarist. Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash had been jamming with Mustaine and Ellefson, and although it seemed that he might join Megadeth, he remained with Guns N' Roses. Dimebag Darrell of Pantera was offered the job, but the deal fell through after Mustaine refused his request to recruit his brother, Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul, as he had already hired Menza. The offer was also extended to Criss Oliva who also declined as he did not want to leave Savatage. Jeff Loomis, who would later go on to form progressive metal titans Nevermore, also auditioned though Mustaine deemed him too young to join as Loomis was only 18 at the time. Marty Friedman filled the guitarist position at the recommendation of Ron Laffitte, a member of Capitol management. Laffitte had heard Dragon's Kiss, a solo recording by Friedman when he was in Cacophony. Mustaine and Ellefson were satisfied with Friedman's style and thought that he understood Megadeth's music. With Friedman in the group, the band completed what fans consider the definitive Megadeth lineup. The revitalized band entered the studio at Rumbo Recorders in March 1990 with co-producer Mike Clink to begin Megadeth's most critically acclaimed album, Rust in Peace. Clink was the first producer to complete a Megadeth album without being fired. Its recording was documented in Rusted Pieces, a home video released in 1991 with six music videos and an interview with the band. Released in September 1990, Rust in Peace debuted at number 23 in the United States and number eight in the United Kingdom. Mustaine had developed a writing style with a rhythmically complex, progressive edge, and the songs featured longer guitar solos and frequent tempo changes. Described as a genre-defining work by Decibel, the album solidified Megadeth's reputation in the music industry. It features the singles "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due" and "Hangar 18", both of which were accompanied by music videos and became live staples. Rust in Peace received a Grammy nomination in 1991 for Best Metal Performance, and was the group's third platinum album, certified in December 1994. Early in 1990, Megadeth joined Slayer, Testament, and Suicidal Tendencies for the successful European Clash of the Titans tour, featuring several American thrash metal bands. An American leg began the following year featuring Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax, with Alice in Chains as a supporting act. The tour was considered a multi-headliner, as the three main bands alternated time slots. In addition to the Clash of the Titans tour, Megadeth (along with Testament) supported Judas Priest on their Painkiller tour in North America late in 1990 and appeared at the second Rock in Rio festival in January 1991. In July 1991 the song "Go to Hell" was featured in the film Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey and on its soundtrack. 1992–1993: Countdown to Extinction The music for Megadeth's fifth studio album was written in two different sessions. The first session occurred after the conclusion of the Clash of the Titans tour, while the second session happened in the fall of 1991 following a one-month break. Recording sessions for the album began in January 1992 at Enterprise Studios in Burbank, California. Max Norman was chosen to produce, as the band was pleased with his mixing of Rust in Peace. Megadeth spent nearly four months in the studio with Norman, writing and recording what became the band's most commercially successful album, Countdown to Extinction. The album, whose title was suggested by Menza, features songwriting contributions from each band member. Ellefson explained that the band changed its approach to songwriting for this album, beginning to write more melodic songs. Released in July 1992, Countdown to Extinction entered the Billboard 200 chart at number two and was certified double platinum in the United States. It received a nomination for Best Metal Performance at the 1993 Grammy Awards, and its title track won a Genesis Award from the Humane Society in 1993 for raising awareness for animal rights issues. Ellefson later said that he and Friedman were disappointed that Megadeth did not win the Grammy: "It was such a bizarre moment, because it was as if the amount of work it had taken to ramp up to that hopeful night was literally gone in a second." A world tour in support of the album was launched in late 1992, with Pantera and White Zombie as supporting acts. The tour included a North American leg in early 1993, with Stone Temple Pilots as the opening act. One month into the leg, the remaining shows, including dates in Japan, were canceled when Mustaine returned to substance abuse, ending up in a hospital emergency room. After seven weeks in rehab, Mustaine emerged sober again and the band returned to the studio to record "Angry Again". The song is featured on the soundtrack of the 1993 film Last Action Hero and received a Grammy nomination in 1994. During mid-1993, Megadeth performed at a number of shows with Metallica in Europe. The first was at Milton Keynes Bowl in England, and included Diamond Head. In July, Megadeth was added as the opening act for Aerosmith's Get a Grip Tour, but was removed from the bill after three shows. Aerosmith said that Megadeth was "dumped" because of Mustaine's erratic behavior, while Capitol Records said it was due to "artistic restrictions". After the canceled US tour, Megadeth returned to the studio to record "99 Ways to Die", which appeared on The Beavis and Butt-Head Experience, a compilation album released in November featuring songs interspersed with commentary by the main characters of the animated series Beavis and Butt-Head. The song was nominated for Best Metal Performance at the 1995 Grammy Awards. During these sessions, Megadeth recorded a cover version of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid", which appeared on the Black Sabbath tribute album Nativity in Black; it was nominated for a Grammy the following year. 1994–1995: Youthanasia In early 1994, Megadeth reunited with producer Max Norman for the follow-up to Countdown to Extinction. With three band members living in Arizona, initial work began at Phase Four Studios in Phoenix. A few days into pre-production, problems with Phase Four's equipment forced the band to look for another studio. Mustaine insisted on recording in Arizona, but no suitable recording facility could be found. At Norman's request, the band built its own recording studio in Phoenix in a rented warehouse, later called "Fat Planet in Hangar 18". During the studio's construction, much of the pre-production songwriting and arrangements were done at Vintage Recorders in Phoenix. At Norman's suggestion, the tracks on Youthanasia had a slower tempo than previous albums, at about 120 beats per minute. The band abandoned the progressive approach from its previous albums and focused on stronger vocal melodies and more accessible, radio-friendly arrangements. For the first time, Megadeth wrote and arranged the entire album in the studio, including basic tracks recorded live by the entire band. The album's recording was video recorded and released as Evolver: The Making of Youthanasia in 1995. After eight months of studio work, Youthanasia was released in November 1994. It debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 and charted in several European countries. The album was certified gold in Canada the day it was released, and was certified platinum in the US two months later. Megadeth hired fashion photographer Richard Avedon to enhance the band's image. Avedon had the band members exchange their jeans and T-shirts for a more conscious appearance. To promote Youthanasia, the band played a Halloween show in New York City called "Night of the Living Megadeth", which was broadcast live on MTV. In November, the band performed twice on the Late Show with David Letterman, playing "Train of Consequences" on the first appearance and "A Tout le Monde" on the second. An eleven-month tour began in South America in November 1994. In 1995, Megadeth played in Europe and North America with several opening acts, including Corrosion of Conformity, Korn and Fear Factory. The tour culminated with an appearance at the Monsters of Rock festival in Brazil, co-headlining with Alice Cooper and Ozzy Osbourne. In January 1995, Megadeth appeared on the soundtrack of the horror movie Demon Knight with the song "Diadems". In July, Megadeth released Hidden Treasures, an extended play featuring songs which originally appeared on movie soundtracks and tribute albums. 1996–1999: Cryptic Writings and Risk After completing the extensive world tour in support of Youthanasia, Megadeth took time off in most of 1996 and nearly broke up. During this period, Mustaine began work on MD.45, a side project with vocalist Lee Ving of Fear. The majority of the songs on the album were intended for Megadeth, but due to the band almost disbanding, Mustaine decided to use them for MD.45 instead. The duo hired drummer Jimmy DeGrasso, who had played with Alice Cooper on the South American Monsters of Rock tour earlier that year. Marty Friedman built a studio in his new home in Phoenix and completed his fourth solo album, released in April 1996. In September 1996, Megadeth went to London to work on songs for the next album. The songwriting was closely supervised by new manager Bud Prager, who contributed musical ideas and lyrics; many lyrics and song titles were changed at his request. Regarding Prager's influence, Mustaine later wrote: "I figured maybe this guy [Prager] could help me get that intangible number one record I so badly wanted." The album, recorded in Nashville, was Megadeth's first collaboration with country pop producer Dann Huff, who had met Mustaine in 1990. Cryptic Writings was released in June 1997. The album peaked at number ten on the Billboard 200, and was eventually certified gold in the United States. Its lead single, "Trust", became Megadeth's highest charting song on the Mainstream Rock Tracks at number five, and was nominated for Best Metal Performance at the 1998 Grammy Awards. Although all four singles from the album entered the top 20 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, press response to the album was mixed. The album featured a diverse set of songs which the Los Angeles Times described as a "rousing balance" between older material and experimental songs. Asked about the album's eclecticism, Mustaine said that Cryptic Writings was divided into thirds. One part was based around faster, more aggressive material, another was "radio-orientated music like Youthanasia", and the final third was more melodic. After more than a year since the band's last concert, Megadeth returned as a live act in June 1997, beginning a world tour with the Misfits and touring in the United States with Life of Agony and Coal Chamber. In July, the band participated in Ozzfest '98 but, halfway through the tour, Menza reportedly discovered a tumor on his knee and left to undergo surgery. Jimmy DeGrasso, who had collaborated with Mustaine in MD.45, was hired to replace Menza for the remainder of the tour. Though initially meant to be a temporary replacement, DeGrasso joined the band permanently after the tour. Mustaine later said that he dismissed Menza from the band because he believed the drummer had lied about having cancer. Following the band's mainstream radio success with Cryptic Writings, Megadeth again worked with Dann Huff on its eighth studio album. The band began writing in January 1999, supervised by manager Bud Prager, who was credited with co-writing five of the album's twelve songs. With high expectations following the chart success of "Trust", Prager convinced Mustaine to grant Huff even more control over the album's recording, a decision Mustaine later regretted. Risk, released in August 1999, was a critical and commercial failure and led to backlash from many longtime fans. Although its two predecessors incorporated rock elements alongside a more traditional heavy metal sound, Risk was virtually devoid of metal. About the band's musical direction, Dave Mustaine said: "We hit the nadir of our career with Risk, and I vowed after that we were going to get back to our roots. It took a little bit of time to do that." Despite this, Risk was certified gold in the United States. The album's lead single, "Crush 'Em", appeared on the soundtrack for Universal Soldier: The Return and was used as an entrance theme for NHL hockey games and professional wrestling events. On July 14, 1999, former drummer Gar Samuelson died of liver failure at age 41 in Orange City, Florida. Eleven days later, during Megadeth's performance at Woodstock 1999, Mustaine dedicated "Peace Sells" to Samuelson's memory. That month, Megadeth also recorded a cover version of the Black Sabbath's "Never Say Die" for the second Nativity in Black tribute album. The band began a world tour in support of Risk in September, playing with Iron Maiden during the European leg. Three months into the tour, Friedman announced his resignation from Megadeth, citing musical differences. Mustaine later said: "I told [Marty] after Risk that we had to go back to our roots and play metal, and he quit." 2000–2002: The World Needs a Hero, breakup, and hiatus In January 2000, guitarist Al Pitrelli, formerly of Savatage and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, became Friedman's replacement. Megadeth returned to the studio in April to work on its ninth studio album. A month into production, the band received an offer to join the Maximum Rock tour with Anthrax and Mötley Crüe. Megadeth put the recording on hold and toured North America during the second quarter of 2000. Early in the tour, Anthrax was removed from the bill, allowing Megadeth to play an extended co-headlining set. The tour, however, suffered from poor ticket sales. After 15 years with Capitol Records, Megadeth left the label in July 2000. According to Mustaine, the departure was due to ongoing tensions with Capitol management. Capitol returned the band's newest recordings and released a greatest hits album, Capitol Punishment: The Megadeth Years, with two new tracks: "Kill the King" and "Dread and the Fugitive Mind". In November, Megadeth signed with Sanctuary Records. The band returned to the studio in October to finish its next album, The World Needs a Hero, which was near completion when Megadeth joined the Maximum Rock tour six months earlier. Following the negative response to Risk, Mustaine fired Bud Prager and produced the album himself. The songs were written by Mustaine alone, except for "Promises", which had contributions from Pitrelli. Two days before the release of The World Needs a Hero, Megadeth appeared in an episode of VH1's Behind the Music showcasing Mustaine, Ellefson, several past members, and Mustaine's old Metallica bandmates James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich. The World Needs a Hero was released in May 2001 and debuted at number sixteen on the Billboard 200. It was banned in Malaysia when the national government determined that the album's artwork was "unsuitable for the nation's youth". Consequently, the band canceled its concert of August 2 in Kuala Lumpur. The album marked Megadeth's return to a more aggressive sound after the stylistic variations of its previous two albums, but critics felt it fell short of expectations. Mustaine compared the album to a huge ship at sea, turning and trying to right itself to get back on course. Its lead single, "Moto Psycho", reached number 22 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. A European tour with AC/DC in support of The World Needs a Hero began in mid-2001, followed by an American tour with Iced Earth and Endo in September. Mustaine allowed fans to choose the setlist in each American city. However, the tour was cut short following the September 11 attacks; all dates were canceled, including a DVD shoot in Argentina. The band instead played two shows in Arizona on November 16 and 17, which were filmed and released as Megadeth's first live release, Rude Awakening. That year, Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good! was remixed and remastered; the reissue featured modified artwork and several bonus tracks. In January 2002, Mustaine was hospitalized for the removal of a kidney stone and was administered pain medication that triggered a relapse of his drug addiction. Following his stay, Mustaine checked himself into a treatment center in Texas. While there, Mustaine fell asleep with his left arm over the back of a chair, causing compression of the radial nerve. He was subsequently diagnosed with radial neuropathy, which left him unable to grasp or make a fist with his left hand. On April 3, Mustaine announced in a press release that he was disbanding Megadeth, as his arm injury rendered him unable to play guitar. For the next four months, he had physical therapy five days a week, and slowly began to "re-teach" his left hand. To fulfill contract obligations to Sanctuary, Megadeth released the compilation album Still Alive... and Well?. The first half of the album contains live tracks recorded at the Web Theatre in Phoenix, and the second half has studio recordings from The World Needs a Hero. Following nearly a year of recovery, including physical and electroshock therapy, Mustaine began work on what was to have been his first solo album. The new material was recorded with session musicians Vinnie Colaiuta and Jimmie Lee Sloas in October 2003. The project was put on hold when Mustaine agreed to remix and remaster Megadeth's eight-album back catalog on Capitol Records, re-recording portions that were missing or altered without his knowledge in the original mixing. 2004–2005: Reformation and The System Has Failed In May 2004, Mustaine returned to his solo project. Contractual obligations to the band's European label, EMI, resulted in the recording's release as a Megadeth album. Mustaine reformed the band and contacted the fan-favorite Rust in Peace lineup to re-record backing tracks. While drummer Nick Menza agreed to return, both Marty Friedman and David Ellefson were unable to come to an agreement with Mustaine. Menza was sent home shortly after rehearsals began, a few days before the start of a tour supporting Megadeth's upcoming album. Mustaine said Menza was insufficiently prepared for the physical demands of a US tour, and "it just didn't work out". This was the first album without Ellefson. Chris Poland, who played lead guitar on Megadeth's first two albums, was hired to contribute guitar solos to the new album, working with Mustaine for the first time since the 1980s. Poland opted to serve only as a session musician, wanting to remain focused on his jazz fusion project OHM. The System Has Failed was released in September 2004. Critics heralded it as a return to form; Revolver gave the album a favorable review, calling it "Megadeth's most vengeful, poignant and musically complex offering since 1992's Countdown to Extinction". The album marked a shift toward the band's earlier sound; journalist Amy Sciarretto of CMJ New Music Report wrote that the album contained "neo-thrash riffing with biting, politically charged lyrics". The System Has Failed debuted at number eighteen on the Billboard 200 and was led by "Die Dead Enough", which reached number 21 on the US Mainstream Rock chart. Mustaine announced that the album would be the band's last and would be followed by a farewell tour, after which he would focus on a solo career. Megadeth began the Blackmail the Universe world tour in October, enlisting touring bassist James MacDonough of Iced Earth and guitarist Glen Drover of Eidolon and King Diamond. Five days before the first show, Menza was replaced by Shawn Drover, who remained with the band as a regular member. The band toured the US with Exodus and Europe with Diamond Head and Dungeon. In June 2005, Capitol released a greatest-hits compilation, Greatest Hits: Back to the Start, featuring remixed and remastered versions of songs chosen by fans from Megadeth's Capitol albums. In mid-2005, Mustaine organized an annual thrash metal festival tour, Gigantour. Megadeth headlined the inaugural tour with acts such as Dream Theater, Nevermore, Anthrax, and Fear Factory. Performances at the Montreal and Vancouver shows were filmed and recorded for a live DVD-and-CD set released in the second quarter of 2006. On October 9, following the successes of The System Has Failed and the Blackmail the Universe world tour, Mustaine announced to a sold-out crowd at the Pepsi Music Rock Festival in Argentina that Megadeth would continue to record and tour. The concert, held at Obras Sanitarias stadium in Buenos Aires in front of 25,000 fans, was filmed and released on DVD as That One Night: Live in Buenos Aires in 2007. 2006–2008: United Abominations In February 2006, bassist James MacDonough left the band over "personal differences". He was replaced by James LoMenzo, who had worked with David Lee Roth, White Lion, and Black Label Society. The new Megadeth lineup made its live debut headlining the Dubai Desert Rock Festival in the United Arab Emirates with Testament. In March, Capitol released a two-disc DVD, Arsenal of Megadeth, which included archive footage, interviews, live shows, and many of the band's music videos. Due to licensing issues, soundtrack and non-Capitol videos were not included. The second Gigantour began during the third quarter of 2006; Megadeth again headlined, this time with Lamb of God, Opeth, Arch Enemy and Overkill. The 2006 tour included three dates in Australia, supported by Soulfly, Arch Enemy, and Caliban. In May 2006, Megadeth announced that its eleventh studio album, United Abominations, was near completion. Originally scheduled for release in October, Mustaine said that the band was "putting the finishing touches on it" and postponed its release to May of the following year. He commented on the release: "Metal needs a really good old-school record again. I believe I have delivered." United Abominations was the band's first album to feature Glen Drover, Shawn Drover, and James Lomenzo. It also has a newer version of "A Tout le Monde" entitled "À Tout le Monde (Set Me Free)". The 2007 version is a duet with Cristina Scabbia of Lacuna Coil; it was recorded at a slightly faster tempo than the original and contains an extended solo. Released in May 2007, United Abominations debuted at number eight on the Billboard 200, selling 54,000 copies in the first week. In March, Megadeth began a North American tour opening for the newly reformed Heaven & Hell. The band played with Down for Canadian shows and with Machine Head for the US dates. A European summer festival tour followed. Late in the year, Megadeth returned to the United States to headline its Tour of Duty. In November, the band brought Gigantour to Australia with a lineup including Static-X, DevilDriver and Lacuna Coil. In January 2008, Glen Drover quit Megadeth, stating that he was tired of the frequent touring and wanted to spend more time with his family. He also cited personal issues with other band members. Drover was replaced by Chris Broderick, formerly of Nevermore and Jag Panzer. Broderick was initially asked by Mustaine's management company at the end of 2007 if he would be interested in auditioning for Megadeth. After an informal meeting at Mustaine's house, Broderick was introduced as the band's new guitarist. Mustaine complimented Broderick's playing skills and called him "the best guitarist Megadeth has ever had". Broderick's former Nevermore bandmate, Van Williams, congratulated Megadeth on "getting one hell of a good player, more importantly they're getting a great guy to hang out with and a true friend". The new lineup made its live debut at the Helsinki Ice Hall on February 4. The 2008 Gigantour, with 29 North American dates, began shortly afterwards. Mustaine wanted a shorter lineup, allowing each band a chance to perform well. The third tour featured In Flames, Children of Bodom, Job for a Cowboy and High on Fire. Megadeth continued the Tour of Duty in South America and Mexico in May and June. A compilation album, Anthology: Set the World Afire, was released in September 2008. 2009–2010: Endgame and Ellefson's return In February 2009, Megadeth and Testament were scheduled on the European "Priest Feast" tour, with Judas Priest as headliners. At this time, Metallica, who had been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, invited Mustaine to attend the ceremony. Mustaine was informed that he would not be inducted to the Hall of Fame because such honors were granted only to those members who received recording credit on a Metallica album. Mustaine congratulated the group respectfully, and honored his commitment to the European tour with Judas Priest. In April, Megadeth and Slayer co-headlined the Canadian Carnage. This was the first time they had performed together in more than 15 years. Machine Head and Suicide Silence opened for the four shows that occurred later in June. In May, Megadeth finished recording its twelfth album, Endgame. The release date for Endgame was announced on the Megadeth official website, and Metal Hammer was the first to review the album track-by-track. Megadeth began its Endgame tour in October, and finished it in December. The tour featured a number of supporting acts, including Machine Head, Suicide Silence, and Warbringer. In January 2010, Megadeth was set to embark on the American Carnage tour with Slayer and Testament, but the tour was postponed due to Tom Araya's back surgery. Several weeks later, Megadeth's "Head Crusher" was nominated for Best Metal Performance at the 2010 Grammy Awards, the band's eighth Grammy nomination in 19 years. In March, Megadeth embarked on the Rust in Peace 20th Anniversary Tour, which took place in North America and had support from Testament and Exodus. During the tour, Megadeth played Rust in Peace in its entirety. Prior to the start of the tour in early 2010, original bassist David Ellefson rejoined Megadeth after eight years. In an interview for Classic Rock, he stated that Shawn Drover contacted him, informing him that bassist LoMenzo was leaving the band, saying "if ever there was a time for you and Dave [Mustaine] to talk, now is it". Megadeth, along with Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax, collectively known as the "big four" of thrash metal, agreed to perform on the same bill during mid-2010. These performances were part of the Sonisphere Festival and were held in a number of European countries. One such performance in Sofia, Bulgaria, was filmed and released as a full-length video entitled The Big Four: Live from Sofia, Bulgaria. These shows continued the following year in the United States. The first took place in Indio, California, and was the only scheduled show in the United States at the time, although a second American production was held at Yankee Stadium in New York City shortly afterwards. In July 2010, after the European "big four" shows, Megadeth and Slayer commenced the first leg of the American Carnage Tour, where Megadeth played Rust in Peace in its entirety, while Slayer performed its album Seasons in the Abyss, both of which were released in 1990. From these shows onward, Vic Rattlehead started making sustained onstage appearances, to improve the visual facet of Megadeth's live performances. Shortly afterward, the two bands united with Anthrax for the Jägermeister Music Tour in late 2010. During the final show of the tour, Kerry King joined Megadeth on stage at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Hollywood to perform Megadeth's "Rattlehead". It was the first time that King had performed onstage with Megadeth since 1984. Megadeth and Slayer again shared the stage for the European Carnage Tour in March and April 2011. Megadeth also headlined the fourth annual Rockstar Mayhem Festival in July and August the same year. In September, the band released the DVD album Rust in Peace Live, recorded at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles. Later that month, Megadeth released "Sudden Death" for the video game Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock. The song was commissioned by the publishers of the Guitar Hero franchise, who wanted the track to feature dark lyrics and multiple guitar solos. It was nominated for Best Metal Performance at the 2011 Grammy ceremony. 2011–2014: Thirteen and Super Collider Megadeth returned to its own Vic's Garage studio in 2011 to record its thirteenth album, to be produced by Johnny K, because Andy Sneap, the producer of Megadeth's previous two albums, was unavailable. The album was titled Thirteen and featured previously released tracks such as "Sudden Death" and "Never Dead". The album was released in November 2011, and charted at number eleven on the Billboard 200; its lead single "Public Enemy No. 1" received a Grammy nomination for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance, but did not win. Shortly after the album was released, Dave Mustaine stated that, after a four-year hiatus, there would be a new Gigantour tour in early 2012. The lineup consisted of Motörhead, Volbeat, and Lacuna Coil alongside Megadeth. After the conclusion of Gigantour, Rob Zombie and Megadeth embarked on a nine-date co-headlining US tour in the summer of 2012. In September 2012, it was announced that Megadeth would re-release Countdown to Extinction in honor of the album's 20th anniversary. To mark the occasion, Megadeth launched a tour in which the band performed the album live in its entirety. One performance, filmed at the Pomona Fox Theater, was released as a live album, Countdown to Extinction: Live, the following year. Another track from Thirteen, "Whose Life (Is It Anyways?)", was nominated for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance at the 2013 Grammy Awards, but lost to Halestorm's "Love Bites (So Do I)". In August, Megadeth announced the recording of its fourteenth album with producer Johnny K. At the start of 2013, Megadeth left Roadrunner Records for Mustaine's newly founded label, Tradecraft, distributed through Universal Music Group. The album, Super Collider, was released in June and debuted at number six on the Billboard 200, the band's highest chart position since 1994's Youthanasia. Critical reaction to the album, however, was largely negative, with criticism directed towards the album's deviation from the band's traditional metal sound. Shortly after the release of Super Collider, Mustaine stated that he had already started thinking about a fifteenth Megadeth album. He said this had been spurred by the death of Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman, which gave him a sense of mortality. Mustaine elaborated: "You know, time is short. Nobody knows how long they're gonna live. You see what happened with Jeff Hanneman, so I wanna write as much as I can while I can." The 2013 edition of Gigantour featured Black Label Society, Hellyeah, Device, and Newsted as opening bands. At the final show, Jason Newsted, Metallica's former bassist, joined Megadeth onstage to perform "Phantom Lord", a song Mustaine had co-written during his stint with Metallica. Early in 2014, Megadeth was slated to play the Soundwave festival in Australia, but pulled out over a disagreement with tour promoter A. J. Maddah concerning the band's sideshows with Newsted. Icon, an eleven-song compilation of Megadeth's Capitol-era material, was released as part of Universal Music's Icon series in February. Megadeth encountered several setbacks throughout 2014. After Ellefson's brother died of cancer in May, the band cancelled its June tour dates to allow him to mourn. A planned August concert in Tel Aviv was canceled due to an armed conflict between Israel and Gaza. Megadeth was scheduled to appear on Motörhead's Motörboat cruise in late September, but withdrew because of Mustaine's complications following his cervical spine surgery. In late November, Drover quit the band after ten years, wanting to pursue his own musical interests, but has said he is grateful for the career Mustaine gave him. This was quickly followed by the departure of Broderick, due to artistic and musical differences. Ellefson denied rumors that Megadeth would disband, and said he and Mustaine would continue working on new music. Mustaine later said one of the reasons for Broderick and Drover leaving was their frustration over Megadeth's fan base demanding a reunion with Friedman and Menza. 2015–2018: Dystopia Lamb of God drummer Chris Adler and guitarist Kiko Loureiro of Angra were brought in to perform on Megadeth's fifteenth studio album after Mustaine unsuccessfully attempted to reunite the Rust in Peace lineup. In October 2015, Megadeth streamed "Fatal Illusion" off the album Dystopia, which was released in January 2016. In support of Dystopia, Megadeth embarked on a North American tour in February and March with Suicidal Tendencies, Children of Bodom and Havok (though Havok was soon removed from the tour by Megadeth's management following a dispute over a contract). Mustaine announced that Adler, who was performing with both Lamb of God and Megadeth, was no longer in the band due to scheduling conflicts between the two bands. He was replaced by Dirk Verbeuren from Soilwork, on Adler's recommendation. A second US tour took place in September and October, with support from Amon Amarth, Suicidal Tendencies, Metal Church, and Butcher Babies. Former drummer Menza died of a heart attack on May 21, 2016, while performing with OHM at a jazz club in Los Angeles. Asked about any further Big Four gigs, Mustaine called for "the powers-that-be" to help put together a new Big Four tour in 2017 as all the respective bands were promoting new albums. Dystopia's title track won the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance at the 2017 Grammy Awards, the band's first win after 12 nominations. Mustaine, Loureiro, Ellefson, and Verbeuren attended the ceremony; however, album drummer and award recipient Chris Adler did not. While accepting the award, the house band played Mustaine's former band Metallica's "Master of Puppets" causing some controversy among fans. In a June 2017 interview with No Brown M&Ms, Mustaine said that Megadeth would enter the studio at the end of the year to begin working on their sixteenth studio album. A month later, Mustaine stated on Twitter that he had begun "collecting ideas" for the new album, but stated that they would "probably" enter the studio in mid-2018 to begin recording it for a 2019 release. The band joined with Scorpions for a co-headlining tour in the fall of 2017. In 2018, Megadeth marked their 35th anniversary by re-releasing their 1985 debut album Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good!, dubbed Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good! - The Final Kill on June 8, 2018, as a deluxe package containing remastered versions of all songs to Mustaine's intended vision, a re-cut version of "These Boots" lyrically adjusted to Lee Hazlewood's version, rare live performances of songs off the album during Alice Cooper's Live in the Flesh Tour and the 1984 three song demo. 2019–2023: Ellefson's second departure and The Sick, the Dying... and the Dead! On May 10, 2019, Megadeth entered the studio in Franklin, Tennessee, to begin pre-production of the next album, once again teaming up with Dystopia co-producer Chris Rakestraw. On June 17, the band announced that all shows scheduled in 2019 (with the exception of the MegaCruise) would be cancelled due to Mustaine being diagnosed with throat cancer; of all the cancelled dates, the band was scheduled to support Ozzy Osbourne on the North American leg of the No More Tours II tour, which had been postponed from the summer of 2019 to the summer of 2020 due to Osbourne sustaining an injury while dealing with pneumonia. They were replaced by Marilyn Manson instead. Despite Mustaine's illness, the band vowed to continue working on their new album. On November 6, Mustaine shared a video on Instagram teasing a track from the band's upcoming album, which was originally set for release in 2019. On July 17, Megadeth announced their partnership with Gimme Radio and Richard Childress Racing on the No. 2 Gimme Radio Chevrolet Camaro, which was driven by Xfinity Series driver Tyler Reddick at the New Hampshire 200 on July 20. On August 21, the band announced that they would embark on their first tour since Mustaine's illness in January and February 2020, with Five Finger Death Punch and Bad Wolves supporting on the European tour. The band was originally scheduled to perform on the first-ever MegaCruise to coincide with the release of the next album, due to sail on October 13, 2019, from Los Angeles and hit ports of San Diego and Ensenada before returning on October 18, including performances by heavy metal acts such as Lamb of God, Anthrax, Testament, Overkill, Corrosion of Conformity, Queensrÿche, Armored Saint, Metal Church, Suicidal Tendencies, DragonForce, Doro, John 5, Death Angel and Toothgrinder, however, Mustaine was not present due to his illness. It was instead a live performance featuring members of each respective band playing Kiss songs. Megadeth was originally scheduled to embark on a co-headlining tour in North America with Lamb of God dubbed "The Metal Tour of the Year" in the summer of 2020, with Trivium and In Flames as support acts, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The tour was rescheduled for the summer of 2021, with Hatebreed replacing In Flames due to the latter being forced to withdraw from the line-up due to international visa issues caused by the pandemic. Megadeth re-entered the studio in Nashville in mid-2020 to resume recording their new album, tentatively planned for release in 2021. While hosting a Masterclass "Front Row Live" for fans via Zoom on January 9, 2021, Mustaine announced the title of the band's sixteenth album would be called The Sick, the Dying... and the Dead!, however he indicated that the title might be subject to change. In May 2021, sexually explicit videos of Ellefson were leaked to social media. The videos, reportedly recorded by a 19-year-old fan who was in correspondence with Ellefson, led to initial accusations of child grooming. Ellefson and the fan denied these claims in separate statements and maintained their encounters were consensual. On May 24, Megadeth issued a statement announcing Ellefson's dismissal from the band. Ellefson later confirmed that he had actually been dismissed ten days earlier on May 14; the videos originally surfaced on May 10. Following the controversy, Mustaine said there would be no chance for Ellefson to rejoin the band, while Ellefson said he would pursue legal action against the leaked videos. On Mustaine's Gimme Radio program The Dave Mustaine Show on June 17, he said that the bass tracks recorded by Ellefson in May 2020 would not appear on the upcoming album and would be re-recorded by a different bassist, which was completed a short time later, but did not say who it was. He also revealed a song title from the album called "The Dogs of Chernobyl". Mustaine confirmed soon after that a new bassist was chosen with a picture showing the neck of the bass guitar and the unknown member being shown on the floor behind a chair, however, he did not reveal the name, but would announce it soon. Former bassist James LoMenzo filled in for the band's upcoming tour with Lamb of God, while Steve Di Giorgio of Testament performed as a session bassist on The Sick, the Dying... and the Dead!, which was released in September 2022. LoMenzo was announced as the band's official bassist in May 2022. After several teasers, "We'll Be Back", the first single from the record, was released on June 23, along with the tracklist, followed by next singles "Night Stalkers" and "Soldier On!", released on July 22 and August 12 respectively. In November 2022, the band released a cover of a Judas Priest song titled "Delivering The Goods" from their 1978 album, Killing Machine. On February 27, 2023, Megadeth was joined by former guitarist Marty Friedman where they performed three songs at the Budokan in Japan. This marked Friedman's first performance with the band since 2000. On June 23, former drummer Lee Rausch died at the age of 58. 2023–present: Kiko Loureiro's departure and upcoming seventeenth studio album On September 6, 2023, it was announced that lead guitarist Kiko Loureiro would temporarily be leaving the North American portion of the tour and that he would be replaced by Teemu Mäntysaari. On November 20, 2023, Mäntysaari joined Megadeth as their lead guitarist, after Loureiro announced he would be extending his absence from the band. Loureiro said in a November 28, 2023 podcast interview that he was no longer in the band. Loureiro explained his departure in a January 2024 interview with Guitar World, saying: “I had two viable options: to be in Megadeth or not. I chose my personal life. No regrets”. In a December 2023 interview on The SDR Show, Mustaine revealed his intention to release at least three more studio albums as Megadeth, with the first to be released in 2025: "If it takes two years between an album — let's just say it does, if I'm able to put them out fast — it'll probably be three years, but let's just say it's two years. And I put an album out. We've still got about a year left on this one, at least. So that'll take us into '25." Controversies Mustaine has made numerous inflammatory statements in the press, usually regarding issues with former Metallica bandmates. The feud stemmed from his ejection from the band, how it was conducted, and disagreements on songwriting credits. Mustaine expressed his anger in the movie Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, in a scene he later disapproved of as he felt he was mischaracterized, and that it did not represent the full extent of what happened during the meeting. During a live performance of "Anarchy in the U.K." at a 1988 show in Antrim, Northern Ireland, Mustaine dedicated the song to "the cause" of "giving Ireland back to the Irish!" Before the final song, Mustaine said, "This one's for the cause! Give Ireland back to the Irish!" This elicited a riot and fighting among the audience between Irish Nationalists, the majority of whom are Catholic, and the predominantly Protestant, British Unionists in attendance. The band had to travel in a bulletproof bus back to Dublin. This incident served as inspiration for the song "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due". Controversial or misinterpreted lyrics have caused complications for the band. In 1988, MTV deemed that the song "In My Darkest Hour" encouraged suicide and banned the video. The station banned the video for "A Tout le Monde" for the same reason, though Mustaine said the song was written from the perspective of a dying man saying his last words to his loved ones. According to him, MTV considered the videos for "Skin o' My Teeth" and "Symphony of Destruction" a "little bit too harsh" and refused to play them. During a world tour in 2001, the Malaysian government canceled the band's show in the nation's capital because the authorities had a negative perception of the group's image and music. The government deemed the band's mascot, Vic Rattlehead, as inappropriate and told the members that they would be arrested if they performed. Dave Mustaine responded: "I recognize what the Malaysian government is trying to do, and it is admirable of them trying to protect the young people in the country. But it just shows the degree of ignorance and apathy that the government has toward the problem." In 2003, after recovering from an arm injury that threatened to end his career, Mustaine became a born-again Christian. Minor controversy was sparked by Mustaine's announcement that Megadeth would not play certain songs live due to his conversion. In May 2005, Mustaine allegedly threatened to cancel shows in Greece and Israel with extreme metal bands Rotting Christ and Dissection due to the bands' anti-Christian beliefs. This caused the two bands to cancel appearances. In July 2004, former bassist Ellefson sued Mustaine for $18.5 million in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Ellefson alleged that Mustaine short-changed him on profits including tour merchandise and publishing royalties. The suit was dismissed in 2005, and Mustaine filed a countersuit alleging that Ellefson had used the band's name in an advertisement for musical equipment; the suit was settled out of court. On May 10, 2021, sexually explicit videos of Ellefson were posted on Twitter. The videos, reportedly recorded by a fan that Ellefson was in correspondence with, initially led to accusations of child grooming. However, Ellefson and the other party both denied the accusations, and the fan publicly claimed they were a consenting adult and the videos were unknowingly released by a third party. The Scottsdale Police Department (SPD) was contacted by Ellefson, who sought charges for revenge porn. Ellefson took a polygraph test to affirm his claims and presented police with a photo of the fan's driver's license to prove their age. He also shared screen shots of Snapchat and WhatsApp messages related to the allegations. Ellefson's partner admitted that she had shared the video with some friends but wasn't sure how it got leaked out to others. The SPD report states the fan "was remorseful and agreed to send out a social media statement on...Instagram" that they were "a willing consenting adult during their mutual virtual sexual encounter." Ellefson then posted her statement and one of his own on May 10, asserting that the allegations of grooming were false. Ellefson stated he has not been extorted in any way, and he believes the videos of their consensual adult encounter were not intentionally leaked. An official statement released the next day from Megadeth stated that the situation was being "watched closely". Mustaine announced on May 24, 2021, that Ellefson was fired from the band. Artistry Influences and style Traditional heavy metal bands such as UFO, Black Sabbath, Budgie, Judas Priest, new wave of British heavy metal (NWOBHM) bands such as Raven, Motörhead, Iron Maiden, Diamond Head, and Venom, and punk rock bands such as the Sex Pistols and Ramones had a significant influence on Megadeth's sound. Hard rock bands such as AC/DC, Queen, Led Zeppelin, and Rush, as well as German acts like Scorpions and Accept, were also influential on the group's guitar style. Although the music has roots in punk, university professor Jason Bivins wrote that Megadeth followed the basic blueprint of Motörhead and Iron Maiden. He described the style as a mix of "the instrumental virtuosity of the NWOBHM with the speed and aggression of hardcore punk", while also drawing lyrical inspiration from the horror-themed punk band Misfits. Mustaine has also listed albums by the Beatles and David Bowie as recordings that influenced him. Mustaine is the band's primary songwriter. He develops songs starting with a particular riff that, with modifications, becomes the central part of the song. He has said that song fragments are composed separately, and then the band makes a compact structure from them. Drummer Shawn Drover stated that Mustaine had saved many riffs over the years and that some recent material is based on those demo recordings. Ellefson stated that the band constantly creates new material, and that making a recording begins with exchanging ideas after which the band enters the studio and discusses the concept, direction, artwork, and song titles. The lyrics are usually written after the music is arranged. Discussing the band's lyrics, Mustaine said that many of the themes are derived from literature, such as the novels of George Orwell. The music of Megadeth and its underground metal contemporaries from the 1980s featured harsh vocals, double bass drum patterns, staccato riffing, power chords, tremolo picking, and screeching lead guitar work; albums from this period were produced on low budgets. After forming Megadeth, Mustaine followed the thrash metal style of his previous band, Metallica, with more emphasis on speed and intensity. When asked to describe Megadeth's guitar style, Mustaine answered: "When you go to a show and see a guitar player who just stands there, that's a guitar player. A thrash guitar player is a guy who plays like he wants to beat the guitar's guts out." Most of the songs are recorded in standard guitar tuning as Mustaine believes it to provide a superior melody to alternative methods of tuning. In 2017, David Ellefson talked in an interview about how the band recently started to use a lower tuning saying: "it's just natural with age, for singers it can be a struggle, so rather than quit, than not play, how do you work it around? Well, let's drop the guitars, let's find a way to work around it." During the band's early days, Mustaine was the rhythm guitarist, while Chris Poland played lead. Poland performed only on Megadeth's first two albums at the time of the book's release; (he would go on to play on the 2004 album The System Has Failed); music journalists Pete Prown and Harvey P. Newquist credit him with making the music more colorful because of his jazz influences. According to former Metal Maniacs editor Jeff Wagner, the band's songwriting techniques peaked with the fourth album, Rust in Peace, which he described as a "flurry of precision and fluidity, making good on Megadeth's claim to being the world's state-of-the-art speed metal band". Musicologist Glenn Pillsbury stated the guitar work on the album was a mixture of Mustaine's "controlled chaos" and the "technical brilliance" of Marty Friedman. Studio efforts released in the mid- and late 1990s featured songs with compact structures and less complicated riffing. Megadeth's lyrics often focus on death, war, politics, and religion. The lyricism centers on nihilistic themes, but occasionally deals with topics such as alienation and social problems. The earliest releases featured themes such as occultism, graphic violence, and Satanism. Nuclear warfare and government conspiracy were preoccupations on albums such as Rust in Peace and Countdown to Extinction. During Megadeth's commercial peak, Mustaine elaborated on more personal themes such as addiction and intimate relationships. For the lyrics on Cryptic Writings, Mustaine said that he wanted to write songs that had more appeal to a wider audience. The title of United Abominations is a satiric play on the name of the United Nations; Mustaine criticized the organization's ineffectiveness on a number of songs on that album. Legacy Having sold more than 50 million units worldwide, Megadeth is one of the few bands from the 1980s American underground metal scene to have achieved mass commercial success. Along with contemporaries Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax, Megadeth is regarded as one of the core founding groups of thrash metal. These bands are often referred to as the "big four" of thrash metal, responsible for the genre's development and popularization. Loudwire ranked Megadeth the third best thrash metal band of all time, praising the group's "provoking lyrics and mind-warping virtuosity". CMJ New Music Report called the band's debut album a seminal release and a representative of "the golden age of speed metal". Billboard called the band's second album Peace Sells... but Who's Buying? a "landmark of the thrash movement" whose lyrics it found still relevant. MTV also recognized the band as an influential metal act, highlighting the technical aspect of the early albums. Megadeth is considered one of the most musically influential groups that originated in the 1980s. As part of the early American thrash metal movement, the band's music was a direct influence on death metal. Sociologist Keith Kahn-Harris wrote that the mainstream success of Megadeth was one of the reasons for the expansion of extreme metal to countries where it had previously been unknown. The band's sound and album artwork influenced a number of thrash metal bands in the 21st century, including Toxic Holocaust and Warbringer. According to Nielsen SoundScan, Megadeth has sold 9.2 million copies of its albums in the United States between 1991 and 2014. Band members Current members Dave Mustaine – guitars, lead vocals (1983–2002, 2003–present) James LoMenzo – bass, backing vocals (2006–2010, 2022–present) Dirk Verbeuren – drums (2016–present) Teemu Mäntysaari – guitars, backing vocals (2023–present) Discography Studio albums Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good! (1985) Peace Sells... but Who's Buying? (1986) So Far, So Good... So What! (1988) Rust in Peace (1990) Countdown to Extinction (1992) Youthanasia (1994) Cryptic Writings (1997) Risk (1999) The World Needs a Hero (2001) The System Has Failed (2004) United Abominations (2007) Endgame (2009) Thirteen (2011) Super Collider (2013) Dystopia (2016) The Sick, the Dying... and the Dead! (2022) Accolades Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards: 2014: Metal Guru – Dave Mustaine Clio Awards: 2016: Silver Winner – "The Megadeth VR Experience" Genesis Awards: 1993: Doris Day Music Award – Countdown to Extinction Grammy Awards: 2017: Best Metal Performance – "Dystopia" Loudwire Music Awards: 2011: Metal Album of the Year – Thirteen 2011: Metal Song of the Year – "Public Enemy No. 1" Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards: 2007: Riff Lord – Dave Mustaine 2015: Golden God – Dave Mustaine Revolver Golden Gods Awards: 2009: Golden God – Dave Mustaine Footnotes References Bibliography External links Official website Megadeth, Arizona – Reconstructed site from circa 2000 Megadeth at Curlie Megadeth at AllMusic Megadeth discography at Discogs Megadeth at IMDb

Anthrax is an American thrash metal band from New York City, formed in 1981 by rhythm guitarist Scott Ian and bassist Dan Lilker. The group is considered one of the leaders of the thrash metal scene from the 1980s and is part of the "Big Four" of the genre, along with Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer. They were also one of the first thrash metal bands (along with Overkill and Nuclear Assault) to emerge from the East Coast. The band's current lineup consists of Scott Ian, drummer Charlie Benante, bassist Frank Bello, vocalist Joey Belladonna and lead guitarist Jonathan Donais. Anthrax's lineup has changed numerous times over their career, leaving Ian as the only constant member of the band. Ian and Benante (who replaced one-time drummer Greg D'Angelo in 1983) are the only two members to appear on all of Anthrax's albums, while Bello has been a member of Anthrax since 1984, replacing Lilker. After cycling through a number of members, Anthrax released their debut album, Fistful of Metal (1984), with singer Neil Turbin. Turbin was replaced by Joey Belladonna later that year, stabilizing the band's lineup. Anthrax's third album Among the Living (1987), which brought the band mainstream success for the first time, is recognised as one of the greatest thrash metal albums. The band's next two outings, State of Euphoria (1988) and Persistence of Time (1990), further cemented their reputation as one of the most successful thrash metal bands, with the latter giving Anthrax their first Grammy Award nomination. In 1992, Anthrax signed to Elektra Records for $10 million and Belladonna was replaced by John Bush of Armoured Saint. Bush's first album with Anthrax, Sound of White Noise (1993), reached number seven on the Billboard 200 chart (their greatest chart success) and spawned the radio hit "Only". Anthrax's subsequent albums with Bush would experience less critical and commercial success; the band would part ways with Elektra following the release of Stomp 442 (1995) due to a lack of promotional support, and Volume 8: The Threat is Real (1998) suffered from the bankruptcy of their record label. Bush left Anthrax in 2005, after which the band reunited with Belladonna and lead guitarist Dan Spitz. After Belladonna and Spitz's departure in 2007, Anthrax recruited singer Dan Nelson and commenced work on a new album, although Nelson would part ways with the band in 2009. Following a short-lived reunion with Bush, Belladonna rejoined the band for a third time in 2010. Anthrax's first album with Belladonna in 21 years, Worship Music (2011) was released to critical and commercial success, reaching number twelve on the Billboard 200. The band's most recent album to date, For All Kings, was released in 2016. Anthrax has released 11 studio albums, several other albums, and 26 singles, including collaborating on a single with American hip hop group Public Enemy. Four of the band's studio albums (Among the Living, State of Euphoria, Persistence of Time and Sound of White Noise) have also achieved gold certifications by the RIAA. According to Nielsen SoundScan, Anthrax sold 2.5 million records in the United States from 1991 to 2004, with total worldwide sales of ten million. History Formation (1981–1982) Anthrax was formed in Queens, New York City, on July 18, 1981, by guitarists Scott Ian and Dan Lilker, with Ian's friend Dave Weiss on drums. The band was named after the disease of the same name which Ian saw in a biology textbook, chosen because it sounded "sufficiently evil". Lilker originally intended for Scott Setari to play bass in the band, during their early phases as a cover band. Anthrax's initial lineup was completed by singer John Connelly, and bassist Paul Kahn. Kahn was briefly replaced by bassist Kenny Kushner before Lilker took over on bass. Future Hittman singer Dirk Kennedy replaced Connelly for a few months and the band brought in lead guitarist Greg Walls. Weiss was then replaced early on by drummer Greg D'Angelo, who was recommended to the band by Walls. Ian's younger brother Jason Rosenfeld had been a temporary vocalist until Ian's former schoolmate Neil Turbin joined the band in late August 1982. Turbin joined the band partly because of guitarist Walls, who Turbin later said was "the best guitarist Anthrax ever had". The band recorded its first demo tape during this time. Neil Turbin era and debut album (1982–1984) The band's first performance with Neil Turbin was at Great Gildersleeves, a New York club, in September 1982. This lineup played regularly in the New York–New Jersey area over the next several months. Anthrax was also on the same bill as then-up-and-coming Metallica for several shows in the spring of 1983. Guitarist Walls left Anthrax that summer because of friction with Ian, and drummer D'Angelo left a month later. Turbin said he was seriously considering leaving because of the loss of Walls and D'Angelo, but he stuck it out for another year. Walls was replaced by Bob Berry, who was recommended to Turbin by Rhett Forrester of Riot. Berry was in turn soon replaced by Dan Spitz, who was previously a member of the New Jersey thrash band Overkill. Drummer Charlie Benante replaced D'Angelo in September 1983 after a several-month courtship by Ian. By this time, Ian and Lilker had befriended New Jersey record store owner Jon Zazula, to whom they had given their demo tapes to critique. Zazula's new record label Megaforce Records had recently released Metallica's debut album Kill 'Em All to great success. In late 1983, Zazula agreed to sign Anthrax and the band recorded the "Soldiers of Metal" single, which was produced by Ross the Boss of Manowar. The B-side was the song "Howling Furies" which was taken from a previous demo with Greg D'Angelo on drums (his only Anthrax recording). Anthrax released their debut album Fistful of Metal in January 1984. Former guitarist Walls said he was shocked that the album was released without giving credit to Walls as the primary songwriter on "Panic" and "Metal Thrashing Mad", as well as smaller songwriting contributions throughout the album. Tensions were building between Lilker and the rest of the band for various reasons, eventually leading to the band firing Lilker. He would soon form the band Nuclear Assault with former Anthrax roadie / vocalist John Connelly. Lilker was replaced by Benante's nephew and roadie Frank Bello. The band then went on a successful US tour opening for Raven and others to support Fistful of Metal. In August 1984, Turbin and Anthrax went their separate ways after long-standing personal issues. In his book Eddie Trunk's Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal, music journalist Eddie Trunk admits pressuring Jon Zazula, Scott Ian and Anthrax into firing Turbin because of his personal taste in vocals. Singer Matt Fallon was briefly hired in late 1984, but he and the band soon parted ways. The remaining members decided to play live shows as a four-piece billed as "The Diseased" with Scott Ian on vocals, performing hardcore punk covers until a permanent singer could be found. Joey Belladonna era (1984–1992) In 1984, Joey Belladonna was chosen as the new vocalist. The Armed and Dangerous EP marked Belladonna's recording debut with Anthrax. The 1992 reissue of the EP included the two songs from the "Soldiers of Metal" single that had Neil Turbin performing on them. Anthrax's second album Spreading the Disease was released in October 1985. It was well-received as both a technical leap forward from Fistful of Metal and as a more original effort, and remains one of the band's most highly regarded albums. With leftover studio time from these sessions, Ian, Benante and former bandmate Dan Lilker collaborated with vocalist Billy Milano to form the side project Stormtroopers of Death, and recorded the album Speak English or Die in three days. It was released in August 1985 and is now considered a pioneering crossover thrash release, featuring one of the earliest examples of a blast beat on record. Afterwards, the project was put on hold as Ian and Benante turned their focus back on Anthrax. The US tour to support Spreading the Disease opening for Black Sabbath was canceled after four dates due to Sabbath singer Glenn Hughes' voice problems. In April 1986, Anthrax attempted its first tour of Europe beginning in Bochum, Germany, supported by Overkill and Agent Steel. The tour included a show near Chernobyl, Ukraine, immediately after the Chernobyl disaster. Later that year, Anthrax toured Europe with Metallica. The tour began on September 10 at St David's Hall and ended on September 26 in Solnahallen, Sweden. The Swedish show was Anthrax's last performance before the bus accident the following day, which killed Metallica bassist Cliff Burton. The band's third studio album Among the Living was released in March 1987, and is often considered by both the band and critics to be a major breakthrough for Anthrax. Produced by Eddie Kramer, it showcased the band's humorous, experimental side and began a lyrical trend focusing on movies, politics, comic books and Stephen King novels. The album was dedicated to Cliff Burton's memory. Propelled by the singles "Indians" and "I Am the Law", the success of Among the Living not only turned Anthrax into a household name (along with the remaining "big four" of thrash metal–Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer), but eventually earned them one of their first certified-gold records by the RIAA. "I Am the Law", which was released as the album's second single, was backed with a rap-metal hybrid "I'm the Man" as its B-side. Anthrax further indulged its appreciation for rap by appearing on the title track of U.T.F.O.'s album, Lethal, and their worship for the genre was also attributed to Ian wearing a t-shirt of Public Enemy both on stage and for publicity photo shoots; in response, Public Enemy name-checked Anthrax in the lyrics to their 1988 single "Bring the Noise". Anthrax toured for over a year to promote Among the Living, touring Europe again with Metallica, the United States with Metal Church, Testament, D.R.I., Exodus and Celtic Frost, and supporting Kiss on their Crazy Nights tour. Anthrax released their fourth album State of Euphoria in September 1988, and it was produced by Mark Dodson, who had previously worked with Judas Priest, U.D.O. and Metal Church. While the album was not quite as well-received as Among the Living, owing to its "rushed" finish, State of Euphoria was certified gold about five months after its release, and one of the singles "Antisocial", originally by French heavy metal band Trust, became an MTV staple as part of the rotation on Headbangers Ball. By 1989, Anthrax was starting to play at arenas as a headlining or opening act, first supporting Ozzy Osbourne on his No Rest for the Wicked tour in North America, and then headlining European tours with Living Colour, Suicidal Tendencies and King's X, and the U.S. Headbangers Ball Tour with Exodus and Helloween. Also in 1989, MTV sponsored a contest in which the winner had her home trashed by the band. This would later inspire Anthrax's 1992 appearance on the television series Married... with Children, in which the Bundys win a similar TV contest. Anthrax returned to the studio at the end of 1989 to work on their fifth album, again with Dodson as the producer. Released in August 1990, Persistence of Time was written and recorded during a period of turmoil for Anthrax, as Ian had recently been divorced from his first wife, and the middle of the recording session was interrupted by a fire that caused the band to lose more than $100,000 worth of gear and their rehearsal studio. The band members also claimed it was during this period that there were talks of potentially working with a different singer, a situation that Belladonna was unaware of at the time. Considered by fans to be their serious effort, Persistence of Time was darker, more technical and more progressive than the band's previous work, striking a chord with metal fans wary of Anthrax's "silly" side. The most successful single from the album was a cover of Joe Jackson's "Got the Time", which Jackson said he enjoyed. Persistence of Time was certified gold by the RIAA in early 1991, and the band toured for nearly two years to promote the album, opening for Iron Maiden on their No Prayer for the Dying tour in Europe and North America, and appearing on the Clash of the Titans tour with Megadeth, Slayer and opening act Alice in Chains. In 1991, Anthrax collaborated with Public Enemy on a version of "Bring the Noise". This was a hit, and a successful tour with Public Enemy followed. "Bring the Noise" has been a live staple for Anthrax since they first played it in concert in 1989. The compilation Attack of the Killer B's was released in 1991, and featured three tracks from their 1989 EP Penikufesin, a new version of "I'm the Man" and a cover of "Bring the Noise" on which Ian did some vocals. John Bush era (1992–2005) In early 1992, shortly after signing a $10 million record deal with Elektra Records and following their appearance in Married... with Children, Belladonna was fired from Anthrax over creative and stylistic differences. After firing Belladonna, the remaining members of Anthrax auditioned several vocalists including Mark Osegueda of Death Angel and Spike Xavier of Mind Over Four. However, Armored Saint vocalist John Bush was the standout favorite and had in fact been floated as a potential replacement for Belladonna a few years earlier, due to questions about his reliability stemming from drug and alcohol abuse. The band's first album with Bush and for Elektra, Sound of White Noise, was released in 1993. Produced by Dave Jerden (then-known for his work with Jane's Addiction and Alice in Chains), the album marked a change from Anthrax's earlier work, with a dark sound influenced by alternative rock, and it received mostly positive reviews. Critic Dave Connolley of AllMusic wrote that Bush "has a lower-register voice than Belladonna, and the result is menacing, premeditated, and sinister." The song "Only" was released as the album's first single. In the liner notes for Return of the Killer A's, Ian said that James Hetfield told him it was a "perfect song". In keeping with the band's eye for unlikely collaborations, classical composer Angelo Badalamenti provided music for "Black Lodge" (a nod to Twin Peaks). This album demonstrated that Anthrax had fully shed its cartoonish persona in favor of mature, thoughtful songwriting, which began with Persistence of Time. The success of Sound of White Noise dissolved any fan worries that the band would not recover from their split with Belladonna; it was certified gold by the RIAA nearly two months after its release, and gave Anthrax their highest chart position to date at number seven on the Billboard 200. The album also saw Anthrax continuing to headline arenas and theaters or amphitheaters, taking several bands such as Suicidal Tendencies, White Zombie, Quicksand, Fight and Clawfinger out as supporting acts. After Sound of White Noise longtime guitarist Dan Spitz left the band to become a watchmaker, leaving Anthrax a quartet temporarily. In 1995, Anthrax released their seventh studio album Stomp 442, on which Charlie Benante played most of the lead-guitar parts. Benante was assisted by Paul Crook, who later became the band's touring lead guitarist for several years, and Dimebag Darrell of Pantera. The album's release followed a shake-up at Elektra the year before, which saw the firing of the label's president, Bob Krasnow, who was replaced by Sylvia Rhone. During a meeting with the band, Rhone told Anthrax that she wouldn't have signed their record deal. Elektra did not promote Stomp 442, and it was less commercially successful than its predecessor. Frustrated by this, Anthrax severed its ties with the label. In late 1997, Anthrax signed with Ignition Records, an independent label distributed by Tommy Boy Records. The label released Volume 8: The Threat Is Real in July 1998. As on Stomp 442, Benante performed lead guitar parts along with Crook and Darrell. The album also features Pantera vocalist Phil Anselmo making a guest vocal appearance. Towards the end of 1998, Tommy Boy ended its distribution deal with Ignition, after which the label went bankrupt, disrupting its distribution. Anthrax then signed with Beyond Records, who released the greatest-hits album Return of the Killer A's (1999), after which Beyond went out of business as well. During this period a two-vocalist tour with Belladonna and Bush was planned, but Belladonna decided not to participate at the last minute; however, on the mentioned Return of the Killer A's compilation, a cover of The Temptations song "Ball of Confusion" was recorded with the then-current lineup of the band (Ian/Benante/Bello/Bush/Crook), in addition to former vocalist Belladonna and former bassist Lilker. This is the only song to feature both Belladonna and Bush on co-vocals. Despite hardships and legal entanglements over album rights, Anthrax continued. In 2001, Rob Caggiano joined the band on lead guitar. During the 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States the band changed its website, providing information about the disease after people began searching "anthrax.com" on internet search engines. Amid a potential PR nightmare, Anthrax issued a press release on October 10, 2001, joking that the band's name would be changed to "something more friendly, like 'Basket Full of Puppies'." Anthrax dispelled any name-change rumors derived from the press release at the November 2001 New York Steel 9/11 benefit concert, when they took the stage in boiler suits with a different word on each one which ultimately read "We're not changing our name". Bello has stated they did so after receiving support from members of the NYPD and FDNY, who believed that changing the name of the band would send the wrong message. A picture of the band in the suits is on the inner tray card of We've Come for You All. In 2003, the band signed to Sanctuary Records and released their ninth studio album We've Come for You All, praised by metal journalists as a return to form. The band then spent the summer of 2003 on tour with Motörhead. In early 2004, Anthrax released The Greater of Two Evils, a "live in the studio" re-recording of the earlier work with the band's then-current lineup. Bassist Frank Bello announced shortly afterwards that he was leaving the band to join Helmet, and was replaced by Fates Warning and Armored Saint member Joey Vera. Reunions with Belladonna and Bush (2005–2010) In April 2005, Anthrax announced that the "classic" lineup of Scott Ian, Charlie Benante, Dan Spitz, Joey Belladonna and Frank Bello would reform. At some shows on the following tour, they played Among the Living in its entirety. Although the lineup was expected to record a new album after the tour, in January 2007 Ian said that Belladonna had not agreed to a reunion. John Bush also said he wasn't ready to re-commit to Anthrax and said he had been asked to return but had declined. Asked if he wanted to rejoin the band when Belladonna left, Bush said that he "just didn't feel right to do that." In December 2007, it was announced that the band's new vocalist would be Dan Nelson, formerly of Devilsize, and Rob Caggiano would return as lead guitarist. In May 2008, Anthrax played its first show in 19 months at Double Door in Chicago. In his monthly Food Coma column posted in December 2008, Scott Ian wrote that he had "been in the studio working on the new Anthrax album", promising to be "giving birth to a really pissed off, loud, fast and heavy child." He later wrote that the album was being mixed by Dave Fortman, who had worked with Evanescence and Slipknot. In early 2009, Anthrax began a brief tour opening for Iron Maiden in South America. In July, band manager Izvor Zivkovic confirmed the departure of Dan Nelson due to illness. Nelson denied this, saying that he was fired. All subsequent performances were canceled except the August UK Sonisphere Festival, which featured John Bush on vocals. Fan response after his performance led to a "Bring Back Bush" campaign, which was endorsed by Ian. Soon afterwards, Benante said that Bush had rejoined the band. In February 2010, Anthrax performed five shows as part of Soundwave in Australia. After the Australian shows, Bush said the band intended to re-record the vocals of several tracks from the upcoming album. Worship Music and For All Kings (2010–2017) In late 2009, Anthrax confirmed their participation in several "Big Four" concerts with Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer as part of the 2010 Sonisphere Festival dates in Europe. John Bush decided that he did not want to commit to the band full-time, and left Anthrax for the second time. Joey Belladonna returned to the band in early 2010 for the Sonisphere dates as well as committing to record a new studio album with the band. In June 2010 Anthrax, Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer performed on the same bill for the first time ever at seven Sonisphere shows. The Sofia, Bulgaria show was broadcast in cinemas and later released on DVD and Blu-ray. The bands would also play a few shows in the U.S. the following year, including a concert at Yankee Stadium in September 2011. In April 2011, Anthrax headlined in the Philippines for the first time at the annual Pulp Summer Slam with Death Angel and Hellyeah. The band also headlined the Jägermeister side stage at the Mayhem Festival of 2012, co-headlined by Slayer and Slipknot, and toured with Testament and Death Angel. In June Anthrax released the single "Fight 'Em 'Til You Can't" from the then-upcoming new album on their website as a free download to thank fans for their patience in waiting several years for new material. Worship Music was released on September 12, 2011, and debuted at #12 on the Billboard Top 200 album charts, their highest chart position since Sound of White Noise in 1993. In January 2013, Anthrax announced that lead guitarist Rob Caggiano had left the band to join Volbeat. It was announced shortly afterwards that Jonathan Donais of Shadows Fall had been hired as the band's touring lead guitarist. Donais was confirmed as an official member in August of that year. In March, Anthrax released the Anthems EP featuring cover versions of 1970s rock songs as well as two new versions of the song "Crawl" from Worship Music. According to Ian, the band began working on its next studio album in late 2013. They released a live DVD, Chile on Hell in 2014 which featured the band's 2013 performance at the Teatro Caupolican in Santiago, Chile. In early 2015, the band confirmed that they had recorded new material and embarked on a tour with Volbeat. Since Belladonna's return to Anthrax, the band has been nominated for three Grammys, in 2012, 2013, and 2014. The band began 2016 with a short US tour with Lamb of God and released their eleventh studio album For All Kings on February 26, 2016. The album debuted on the Billboard 200 charts at number 9, surpassing the number 12 debut of Worship Music. In March, they opened for Iron Maiden on the Latin American leg of their The Book of Souls World Tour. Anthrax spent the summer playing festivals in Europe before embarking on a fall US and Canadian tour with Slayer and Death Angel. The band continued to tour within the next two years, embarking on The Killthrax Tour with Killswitch Engage twice (in 2017 and 2018), and along with Lamb of God, Behemoth, Testament, Napalm Death and Obituary, they supported Slayer on their final world tour from May to December 2018. On February 1, 2017, the band embarked on the 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise. They played two sets and became the first of the "Big Four" to attend the open seas festival. During the theater set, they played a cover of Stormtroopers of Death's "March of the S.O.D." and debuted the song "Blood Eagle Wings". Upcoming twelfth studio album (2017–present) Anthrax released the live album and DVD Kings Among Scotland in 2018 which was recorded during their Glasgow, Scotland show on the For All Kings tour. In a March 2017 interview, drummer Charlie Benante hinted that Anthrax would begin working on their twelfth studio album that summer. He also revealed that there are a few unreleased tracks from the For All Kings sessions that could serve as a genesis for the follow-up album, stating, "I think there are two or three that we could dust off and use as a starting point." When asked in May 2018 if they were working on the album, guitarist Scott Ian stated, "Very, very, very preliminary stages. There's a couple of really great riffs. Charlie's sent around some really great ideas. But we haven't actually started working on anything. We've just been too busy touring." A month later, bassist Frank Bello claimed that Anthrax had intended to be back in the studio by mid-2018, but because they agreed to open for Slayer on their farewell tour, they were not expected to start writing their new album until at 2019 at the earliest. In a November 2020 interview with Full Metal Jackie, Ian stated that Anthrax would "certainly be ready to make a record next year", but added that its release date could be pushed back to 2022: "In my brain, I don't wanna put a record out until I can play shows." He later stated that "at some point there should be a [new Anthrax] record" in 2023. In April 2023, Benante said the band would begin recording the new album in two weeks for a 2024 release. Frontman Joey Belladonna began recording his vocals on November 5, 2023. The band's recording of "Antisocial" was prominently featured in the 2017 movie It but was not included on its official soundtrack release. Anthrax – alongside Testament, Corrosion of Conformity, Armored Saint, DevilDriver, John 5, Doro and Metal Church – participated in Megadeth's first-ever cruise called "Megacruise", which took place in October 2019. They resumed live activity during the summer and fall of 2021, with a livestream performance that saw the band celebrate its 40th anniversary, as well as appearances at U.S. festivals such as Aftershock and Welcome to Rockville. Although 2021 marked the band's 40th anniversary, the planned global anniversary tour was delayed due to travel complications arising from the COVID-19 pandemic; instead, the band performed a livestream concert on July 16 of that year. The tour was delayed to 2022, with a North American leg beginning on July 16 with Black Label Society and Hatebreed as support, followed by a European tour to begin on September 27 with Municipal Waste, and then they toured North America again in January and February 2023 with Black Label Society and Exodus. The band also released the full livestream setlist as a live album under the title XL on July 15, 2022. On March 28, 2024, it was announced that original Anthrax bassist Dan Lilker would be performing with the band for the first time in 40 years on their spring 2024 tour dates by filling in for Bello, who was unable to perform due to "personal reasons". In support of their upcoming twelfth studio album, Anthrax will co-headline a European tour with Kreator in November and December 2024, with Testament as the opening act. Ex-members incidents In 2012, Anthrax and former vocalist Dan Nelson reached an undisclosed settlement after the vocalist was fired during a 2009 tour. In October 2014, ex-vocalist Neil Turbin accused guitarist Scott Ian of "fabricating lies" about his split with the band in 1984 to "draw attention" to Ian's autobiography. In October 2015, former guitarist Dan Spitz took issue with a 2004 Guitar.com article (since offline) which suggested that the band's drummer, Charlie Benante, was responsible for laying down lead guitar on many of the group's classic songs. In a 2016 interview with Metal Voice, and again in a video that he uploaded to YouTube in December 2020, former guitarist Greg Walls claimed that he had contributed to the writing of the songs on the band's first album, Fistful of Metal, specifically claiming to have written all the music to "Metal Thrashing Mad" and the majority of "Panic" but the band copyrighted the songs without his credit. In the same videos, Walls also claimed that he told Scott to drop the name "Rosenfeld" and simply go by "Scott Ian". Musical style, influences, and legacy Anthrax is one of the bands responsible for the emergence of speed metal and thrash metal. It exhibited a typical thrash metal sound on its early albums and was known for humor and comic book references in the lyrics, distinguishing the band from its contemporaries. According to Rolling Stone, Anthrax was one of the few heavy metal bands to receive critical praise and redefine the genre during the 1980s. Original guitarists Scott Ian and Dan Spitz' styles were described as "aggressive and head pounding", with power chords and "chugging" pedal points providing the sonic drive. Author Thomas Harrison wrote that Anthrax played metal at a faster tempo because of its punk influences. It is said that many pioneering thrash musicians, such as Anthrax, were influenced equally by heavy metal and punk rock. In 1989, Brad Tolinski of Guitar World magazine noted that, "If Exodus is a speed metal equivalent of the Rolling Stones, then New York-based Anthrax must surely be the genre's Beatles." The band's sixth album, 1993's Sound of White Noise (its first with singer John Bush), incorporated grunge and alternative metal influences in a darker vein. Critics consider the band's studio releases from the Bush era as having a more alternative metal, grunge and groove metal sound. The album Worship Music marked a return to thrash metal and the return of singer Joey Belladonna. Although the songs are credited to the whole band, since Spreading the Disease the music has been written almost entirely by Charlie Benante and the lyrics by Scott Ian, although John Bush made some lyrical contributions during his tenure in the band. Anthrax has been influenced by a variety of music, including classic rock and hard rock acts as Rush, Cheap Trick, AC/DC, Kiss, Queen, Thin Lizzy, Boston and Journey, all of whom the band had covered on its EP Anthems. Their other influences include heavy metal bands such as Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Accept, Motörhead, Exodus, UFO, Saxon, and Raven, as well as hardcore punk bands such as Bad Brains, D.R.I., Suicidal Tendencies, and GBH. Anthrax is a member of the "big four" of thrash metal with Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer, and often credited as one of the first bands of the genre to emerge from the East Coast, along with Overkill and Nuclear Assault. The band has been credited for laying the groundwork for rap metal and nu metal. According to Nielsen SoundScan, Anthrax sold 2.5 million records in the United States from 1991 to 2004, and 10 million worldwide. Anthrax has influenced multiple bands such as Pantera, Sepultura, Cannibal Corpse, Testament, Death Angel, Korn, Limp Bizkit, 311, Papa Roach, Killswitch Engage, Sevendust, Terror and Insane Clown Posse. Anthrax has been known to reference or draw influences from numerous sources in popular culture. "I Am the Law" is about the comic book character Judge Dredd. The title track to the album Among the Living is based on the Stephen King novel The Stand, in particular the character of villain Randall Flagg, while "A Skeleton in the Closet" is based on King's novella Apt Pupil and "Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.)" pays tribute to actor and original Saturday Night Live cast member John Belushi. The song "The Constant" is based on an episode of Lost. The band, for a period of time, used a caricature of a bald man's face as a mascot; he was colloquially christened the "Not Man". The face itself comes from a rubber kids toy called "Magic Monster". Band members Scott Ian – rhythm guitar, backing vocals (1981–present), lead guitar (1981) Charlie Benante – drums (1983–present) Frank Bello – bass, backing vocals (1984–2004, 2005–present) Joey Belladonna – lead vocals (1984–1992, 2005–2007, 2010–present) Jon Donais – lead guitar, backing vocals (2013–present) Gallery Discography Studio albums Fistful of Metal (1984) Spreading the Disease (1985) Among the Living (1987) State of Euphoria (1988) Persistence of Time (1990) Sound of White Noise (1993) Stomp 442 (1995) Volume 8: The Threat Is Real (1998) We've Come for You All (2003) Worship Music (2011) For All Kings (2016) Awards and accolades California Music Awards Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards Grammy Awards Kerrang! Awards Loudwire Music Awards Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards Metal Storm Awards Revolver Music Awards (formerly known as Revolver Golden Gods Awards) References Further reading Ian, Scott (2014). Wiederhorn, Jon (ed.). I'm The Man: The Story of That Guy of Anthrax. Foreword by Kirk Hammett. Boston, MA: Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-82334-3. LCCN 2014015428. OCLC 1302076125 – via the Internet Archive. External links Official website Anthrax at AllMusic

Show No Mercy is the debut studio album by American thrash metal band Slayer, released in December 1983 by Metal Blade Records. Brian Slagel signed the band to the label after watching them perform an Iron Maiden cover. The band self-financed their full-length debut, combining the savings of vocalist Tom Araya, who was employed as a respiratory therapist, and money borrowed from guitarist Kerry King's father. Touring extensively promoting the album, the band brought close friends and family members along the trip, who helped backstage with lighting and sound. Although the album was criticized for its poor production quality, it became Metal Blade's highest-selling release, producing the songs "The Antichrist", "Die by the Sword" and "Black Magic", which were played at Slayer's live shows regularly. Recording Slayer was the opening act for Bitch at the Woodstock Club in Los Angeles, performing eight songs—six being covers. While performing an Iron Maiden cover, the band was spotted by Brian Slagel, a former music journalist who had recently founded Metal Blade Records. Slagel met with the band backstage and asked if they would like to be featured on the label's upcoming Metal Massacre III compilation; the band agreed. The band's appearance on the compilation created underground buzz, which led to Slagel signing the band with Metal Blade Records. Recorded in Los Angeles, Show No Mercy was financed by vocalist Tom Araya, who used his earnings as a respiratory therapist, and money borrowed from guitarist Kerry King's father. King says the album is "fuckin' Iron Maiden here and there". Vocalist Araya asserts Venom, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Mercyful Fate were big influences on the record, as guitarist King was into the Satanic image. Lombardo said in 2015 that he was not pleased with how the drums were recorded. The engineer at the time had difficulties getting the right mix between the toms and the cymbals because they were too loud. The solution was to dampen the cymbals with towels and record the toms and cymbals separately. As such, Lombardo called Show No Mercy his least favorite Slayer album, although he emphasized that the songs were great, just not his performance. Gene Hoglan, later known as the drummer for bands like Dark Angel and Death, provided backing vocals on the song "Evil Has No Boundaries". "Back at the time it was Jeff [Hanneman] and Kerry doing the 'Evil!' You know, it didn't sound too heavy and I mentioned to like Tom or Jeff or somebody like, 'You know you guys should consider...maybe consider doing like big gang vocals on that, make it sound evil like demons and stuff,' and they were like 'Good idea.' But how about now, we got about eight dudes sitting around in the studio, and now everybody jumped up and yelled 'EVIL!!!' So I was like 'Cool' because I'm like, 'I wanna sing on this record somehow, that's how I can do it,' totally unplanned you know?! Sure enough they were like, 'Fuck we have the time, let's do it.' So I was like 'Yeah, I got to sing on it!'" On recording the drums, Slagel wanted drummer Dave Lombardo to play without using cymbals due to the amount of noise they made, as he was unsure if he could siphon the noise out, which he eventually did. The band used Satanic themes in both lyrics and live performances to gain notice among the metal community and "to fuck with people". The back cover featured 'side 666' and inverted crosses, with Hanneman playing his guitar. Due to the imagery and lyrical content, Slayer received mail from the Parents Music Resource Center telling the band to stop releasing records. Araya comments, "Back then you had that PMRC, who literally took everything to heart. When in actuality you're trying to create an image. You're trying to scare people on purpose." The album produced the songs "The Antichrist", "Die by the Sword", and "Black Magic", which were played at Slayer's live shows regularly. Touring The band went on their first tour of the United States after the album's release—Slagel gave the band a list of addresses and contact numbers of the venues. Araya was still working at the hospital, and called the members saying, "Today's the day. Are we gonna do this?" The band knew if they did not tour now, they never would. So they set out taking Araya's Camaro and U-Haul. During the first leg of the tour, Slayer had no manager; Doug Goodman, who had met the band when he was first in line for their first show in Northern California (opening for Lȧȧz Rockit) took a vacation from his job at a grocery store to help out on the tour, eventually becoming the band's "tour guide". Goodman now tour manages acts such as Green Day and Beck. Kevin Reed, a friend of the band, set up the drums and lighting when touring with the band. Reed's father, Lawrence R. Reed, drew the Minotaur with a sword on the album's cover. Araya's younger brother, Johnny Araya, who was thirteen or fourteen at the time, was a roadie who set up the back line and sound. The band hardly made enough money to sustain themselves, only buying the "essentials" such as food, gas, and beer. Araya asserts, "We basically used whatever money we got to get from point A to point B. When we got back, Brian was like, 'So, where's the money?' And we were like, 'What money?' At that time, we didn't realize that you had to ask for money up front. I think he got a lot of money sent directly to him, and we were supposed to pick up the rest." The band performed in a hotel in Winnipeg, where the basement was the club. Araya comments, "We stayed there for like four or five days, I think. We saw Verbal Abuse play there. Then we played a place in Boston called the Lizard Lounge. In fact, a car had run into the front of the building, and it was all boarded up, but we still played there." When one of the guitarists broke a string Araya would hand them the bass, Hanneman stating, "We'd argue about it, too—like, 'I wanna play bass for a while!'" Reception Although the band did not have enough time to sell any records while touring, the album became Metal Blade Records' highest selling release. Five thousand copies was the label's average. Show No Mercy went on to sell between 15,500 and 20,000 copies in the United States; it also went on to sell more than 15,000 overseas, as Metal Blade had worldwide rights. The success of the album led to Slagel wanting the band to release a new record and an extended play. Show No Mercy was met with polarized opinions and reviews mostly leaning on the negative side when it was issued, but in some recent reviews it came to be considered a classic album. In 1984, Dave Dickson of Kerrang! crushed the album defining it "pure, unadulterated junk", while Bernard Doe of Metal Forces called the record "one of the heaviest, fastest, most awesome albums of all time!" The German magazine Rock Hard gave Show No Mercy a positive review, which remarked how Slayer were "actually the hardest and fastest" in comparison with their contemporaries Metallica and Exciter, and defined their music as "heavy metal punk." AllMusic reviewer Jeremy Ulrey had mixed feelings towards the album, saying that even though the musicianship and production were "amateurish" compared to Slayer's later releases, the album remains a "solid, if inessential, part of the Slayer legacy". Users voted 4/5 at AllMusic. Sputnikmusic staff member Hernan M. Campbell described the album as "fast, heavy, and mean, inducing an inescapable atmosphere of utter atrocity." He noted that the "lo-fi" production quality gives the album a "classic" feeling. Canadian journalist Martin Popoff praised Show No Mercy for being as "seminal" as Metallica's Kill 'Em All "in defining state-of-the-art speed metal" and for inspiring new bands to "expand the limits of metal." However, he "found the record stiff and one dimensional", with "its style laid down in stifling arrangements." Fenriz, drummer for Darkthrone, cited Show No Mercy as the inspiration for the band's "current style of fusing NWOBHM with black metal". Terry Butler of Obituary and former member of Death defined the album as "the blueprint for the beginning of death metal" and said: "When I heard Show No Mercy I wanted to play that way....It was a whole new level of mayhem. I wanted to play that way". System of a Down's Daron Malakian has praised Show No Mercy as an influential album that helped shape him as a person and artist. He claimed he introduced heavy metal to the people of Iraq with this album when he lived there at age 14. Track listing The 1987 re-issue also features songs from the Haunting the Chapel EP. Personnel Slayer Tom Araya – bass, vocals Kerry King – guitars Jeff Hanneman – guitars Dave Lombardo – drums Additional Performer Gene Hoglan – backing vocals on "Evil Has No Boundaries" Production Brian Slagel – executive production Bill Metoyer – engineering, mixing Charts == References ==

What is the date of the movie directed by Gordon Douglas that featured an American decathlete who was a part of the 1984 Summer Olympic Torch Relay and first African American to light the cauldron?

April 2, 1961

Multiple constraints

The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the second time that Los Angeles had hosted the Games, the first being in 1932. This was the first of two consecutive Olympic Games to be held in North America with Calgary, Alberta, Canada hosting the 1988 Winter Olympics. California was the home state of the incumbent U.S. President Ronald Reagan, who officially opened the Games. These were the first Summer Olympic Games under the IOC presidency of Juan Antonio Samaranch. The 1984 Games were boycotted by fourteen Eastern Bloc countries, including the Soviet Union and East Germany, in response to the American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Russia, in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan; Romania was the only Soviet-aligned state that opted to attend the Games. Albania, Iran and Libya also chose to boycott the Games, but for unrelated reasons. Despite the field being depleted in certain sports due to the boycott, 140 National Olympic Committees took part in the 1984 Games, a record number at the time. The United States won the most gold and overall medals, followed by Romania and West Germany. The 1984 Summer Olympics are widely considered to be the most financially successful modern Olympics, serving as an example on how to run an Olympic Games. As a result of low construction costs, due to the use of existing sport infrastructure, coupled with a reliance on private corporate funding, the 1984 Games generated a profit of over US$250 million. On July 18, 2009, a 25th anniversary celebration of the 1984 Games was held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The celebration included a speech by former Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee president Peter Ueberroth, as well as a re-enactment of the lighting of the Olympic cauldron. Los Angeles will host the Summer Olympics for the third time in 2028. Host selection After the terrorist attack at the 1972 Summer Olympics, the significant financial debts of Montreal (1976), and various boycotts by National Olympic Committees, few cities by the late 1970s were willing to bid for the Summer Olympics. Only two cities (Tehran and Los Angeles) made serious bids for the 1984 Summer Games, but before the final selection of a winning city in 1978, the bid from Tehran was withdrawn in June 1975. Hence, the selection process for the 1984 Summer Olympics consisted of a single finalized bid from Los Angeles, which the International Olympic Committee (IOC) accepted. The selection was officially made at the 80th IOC Session in Athens on May 18, 1978. Los Angeles had unsuccessfully bid for the two previous Summer Olympic Games (1976 and 1980, which went to Montreal and Moscow, respectively). The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) had submitted at least one bid for every Olympics since 1944 but had not succeeded since the Los Angeles Olympics in 1932, the previous time only a single bid had been issued for the Summer Olympics. Torch relay The 1984 Olympic Torch Relay began in New York City and ended in Los Angeles, traversing 33 states and the District of Columbia. Unlike later torch relays, the torch was continuously carried by runners on foot. The route covered more than 9,320 mi (15,000 km) and involved 3,636 runners. Noted athlete O. J. Simpson was among the runners, carrying the torch up the California Incline in Santa Monica. Gina Hemphill, a granddaughter of Jesse Owens, carried the torch into the Coliseum, completed a lap around the track, then handed it off to the final runner, Rafer Johnson, winner of the decathlon at the 1960 Summer Olympics. With the torch, he touched off the flame which passed through a specially designed flammable Olympic logo, igniting all five rings. Johnson became the first person of African descent to light the cauldron in Olympic history. The flame then passed up to the cauldron atop the peristyle and remained aflame for the duration of the Games. Music John Williams composed the theme for the Olympiad, "Los Angeles Olympic Theme" later also known as "Olympic Fanfare and Theme". This piece won a Grammy for Williams and became one of the most well-known musical themes of the Olympic Games, along with Leo Arnaud's "Bugler's Dream"; the latter is sometimes attached to the beginning of Olympic Fanfare and Theme. Composer Bill Conti also wrote a song to inspire the weightlifters called "Power". An album, The Official Music of the XXIII Olympiad—Los Angeles 1984, featured those three tracks along with sports themes written for the occasion by popular musical artists including Foreigner, Toto, Loverboy, Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones, Christopher Cross, Philip Glass, Paul Engemann and Giorgio Moroder. "Reach Out" was the main soundtrack and is the official theme song of the 1984 Summer Olympics. The Brazilian composer Sérgio Mendes also produced a special song for the 1984 Olympic Games, "Olympia," from his 1984 album Confetti. A choir of approximately one thousand voices was assembled of singers in the region. All were volunteers from nearby churches, schools and universities. Etta James performed "When the Saints Go Marching In" at the Opening Ceremony. Vicki McClure, along with the International Children's Choir of Long Beach, sang "Reach Out and Touch". Alongside Williams and the house orchestra, 84 pianists performed an abridged version of George Gershwin's composition Rhapsody in Blue. Lionel Richie performed a special extended 9-minute version of his hit single "All Night Long" at the closing ceremonies. Mascot The mascot was a bald eagle named Sam the Olympic Eagle. Highlights Arts Festival The 1984 Summer Olympics was preceded by the 10-week-long adjunct Los Angeles Olympic Arts Festival, which opened on June 2 and ended on August 12. It provided more than 400 performances by 146 theater, dance and music companies, representing every continent and 18 countries. It was organized by then-CalArts President Robert Fitzpatrick. General The 1984 Summer Olympics marked the first time that all athletes lived together in a single Olympic Village, as opposed to being divided by gender and sometimes even political blocs which was the case previously. The opening ceremony featured the arrival of Bill Suitor by means of the Bell Aerosystems rocket pack (also known as a Jet Pack). The United States Army Band formed the Olympic rings to start the opening ceremony. The United States topped the medal count for the first time since 1968, winning a record 83 gold medals and surpassing the Soviet Union's total of 80 golds at the 1980 Summer Olympics. As a result of an IOC agreement designating the Republic of China (Taiwan) as Chinese Taipei, the People's Republic of China returned to the Summer Olympics for the first time since Helsinki 1952. The Military anthem of China was played for both teams during the opening ceremony. Local Los Angeles artist Rodolfo Escalera was commissioned to create nine paintings depicting the Summer Games that would later be turned into collectible plates and presented as "The Official Gift of the 1984 Olympics". The Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee named Ernie Barnes "Sports Artist of the 1984 Olympic Games". LAOOC President Peter V. Ueberroth said Barnes and his art "captured the essence of the Olympics" and "portray the city's ethnic diversity, the power and emotion of sports competition, the singleness of purpose and hopes that go into the making of athletes the world over." Barnes was commissioned to create five Olympic-themed paintings and serve as an official Olympic spokesman to encourage inner-city youth. Track and field Carl Lewis of the United States, making his first of four appearances at the Olympics, equaled the 1936 performance of Jesse Owens by winning four gold medals, in the 100 m, 200 m, 4 × 100 m relay and long jump. Edwin Moses of the United States won the gold medal in the 400m hurdles 8 years after winning in 1976. Joaquim Cruz of Brazil won the 800 meter run with a time of 1:43.00 to set an Olympic record. Nawal El Moutawakel of Morocco became the first female Olympic champion of a Muslim nation—and the first of her country—in the 400 m hurdles. Carlos Lopes, from Portugal, won the Marathon at the age of 37, with a time of 2:09:21, an Olympic record that stood for 24 years. It was the first gold medal ever for Portugal. Gold medal favorite, World Record holder and the then World Champion, Robert de Castella from Australia, finished in 5th place, 1:48 behind Lopes. A marathon for women was held for the first time at the Olympics (won by Joan Benoit of the U.S.). The event was also remembered for Swiss runner Gabriela Andersen-Schiess, who – suffering from heat exhaustion – entered the stadium for the final lap in a state of almost total exhaustion, barely able to walk but eventually completing the race, collapsing at the finishing line and being immediately treated by medical personnel. Daley Thompson of Great Britain apparently missed a new world record in winning his second consecutive gold medal in the decathlon; the next year, his score was retroactively raised to 8847, giving him the record. Sebastian Coe of Great Britain became the first man to win consecutive gold medals in the 1500m. Maricica Puică of Romania won the 3000 meters, known for the Mary Decker vs. Zola Budd rivalry. World champion and heavy favorite Decker fell after a controversial collision with Budd. However, Puică had the best annual time at the distance, easily run away from silver medalist Wendy Sly of Great Britain and appeared to have more to give if it had been necessary. Puică was injured during the very first Track and Field World Championships in Helsinki the year before, in which Decker had won both the 1500 meters and the 3000 meters. Other sports The first gold medal to be awarded at the Los Angeles Olympics was also the first-ever medal to be won by an athlete from China when Xu Haifeng won the 50 m Pistol event. Archer Neroli Fairhall from New Zealand was the first paraplegic Olympian at any Olympic Games, coming 35th in the Women's individual event. Synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics debuted in Los Angeles as Olympic events, as did wind surfing. Li Ning from the People's Republic of China won 6 medals in gymnastics, 3 gold, 2 silver, and 1 bronze, earning him the nickname "Prince of Gymnasts" in China. Li would later light the Olympic Cauldron at the 2008 Olympics. Steve Redgrave of Great Britain won his first title in rowing of the record five he would go on to win in five Olympic competitions. Victor Davis of Canada set a new world record in winning the gold medal in the 200-meter breaststroke in swimming. Mary Lou Retton of the United States became the first gymnast outside Eastern Europe to win the gymnastics all-around competition. In men's gymnastics, the American team won the gold medal. France won the Olympic association football (soccer) tournament, defeating Brazil 2–0 in the final. Olympic football was unexpectedly played before massive crowds throughout America, with several sell-outs at the 100,000+ seat Rose Bowl. This interest eventually led to the U.S. hosting the 1994 FIFA World Cup. The Soviet-led boycott affected weightlifting more than any other sport: 94 of the world's top 100 ranked lifters were absent, as were 29 of the 30 medalists from the recent world championships. All 10 of the defending world champions in the 10 weight categories were absent. The success of the Eastern Bloc countries might be explained by state-run doping programs that had been developed there. Future Dream Team members Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, and Chris Mullin were on the team that won the gold medal in basketball. The 1984 U.S. men's Olympic basketball team was coached by Indiana Hoosiers head coach Bobby Knight. Connie Carpenter-Phinney of the United States became the first woman to win an Olympic cycling event when she won the women's individual road race. In the judo open division, four-time world champion Yasuhiro Yamashita of Japan tore a right calf muscle in the preliminary match against Arthur Schnabel. This put Yamashita at a huge disadvantage since he executed his throws by pivoting on his right leg. Though he managed to win the match with an Okuri-Eri-Jime, the injury caused him to visibly limp during the semi-final match against Laurent Del Colombo. Yamashita was thrown with an Osoto Gari only 30 seconds into the match, but managed to return an Osoto Gari and won the match with a Yoko-Shiho-Gatame (side four-quarter hold). He played the final match against Mohamed Ali Rashwan of Egypt. Yamashita won the final and the gold medal despite his injury. The match witnessed a remarkable fair play act from Rashwan who did not aim for Yamashita's right leg. Rashwan was even given an award from the International Fairplay Committee. Venues Venues in the city of Los Angeles Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum – opening/closing ceremonies, athletics Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena – boxing Dodger Stadium – baseball Pauley Pavilion, University of California, Los Angeles – gymnastics Eagle's Nest Arena, California State University, Los Angeles – judo Olympic Swim Stadium, University of Southern California – swimming, diving, synchronized swimming Olympic Village (athlete housing), University of Southern California Los Angeles Tennis Center, University of California, Los Angeles – tennis Athletes Village, University of California, Los Angeles Albert Gersten Pavilion, Loyola Marymount University, Westchester, California – weightlifting Streets of Los Angeles – athletics (marathon) Venues in Southern California El Dorado Park, Long Beach, California – archery The Forum, Inglewood, California – basketball and team handball finals Lake Casitas, Ventura County, California – canoeing, rowing Olympic Velodrome, California State University, Dominguez Hills, Carson, California – cycling (track) Mission Viejo, Orange County, California – cycling (individual road race) Santa Anita Park, Arcadia, California – equestrian Fairbanks Ranch Country Club, Rancho Santa Fe, California, California – equestrian sports (eventing endurance) Long Beach Convention Center, Long Beach, California – fencing Rose Bowl, Pasadena, California – football (final) Titan Gymnasium, California State University, Fullerton, Fullerton, California – handball Weingart Stadium, East Los Angeles College, Monterey Park, California – field hockey Coto de Caza, Orange County, California – modern pentathlon (fencing, riding, running, shooting) Olympic Shooting Range, Prado Recreational Area, Chino, California – shooting Long Beach Arena, Long Beach, California – volleyball Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool, Pepperdine University, Malibu, California – water polo Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, California – wrestling Long Beach Shoreline Marina, Long Beach, California – sailing Artesia Freeway – cycling (road team time trial) Heritage Park Aquatic Center, Irvine, California – modern pentathlon (swimming) Santa Monica College, Santa Monica, California – athletics (marathon start) Santa Monica, California – athletics (marathon) Other venues Harvard Stadium, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts – football preliminaries Navy–Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland – football preliminaries Stanford Stadium, Stanford University, Stanford, California – football preliminaries Sports The 1984 Summer Olympic program featured 221 events in the following 21 sports: Demonstration sports Baseball (16) Tennis (4) Calendar All times are in Pacific Daylight Time (UTC-7); the other two cities, Boston and Annapolis use Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4) Medal count These are the top ten nations that won medals at the 1984 Games. Participating National Olympic Committees Athletes from 140 states competed at the 1984 Summer Olympics. Eighteen states made their Olympic debut: Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, British Virgin Islands, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, The Gambia, Grenada, Mauritania, Mauritius, North Yemen, Oman, Qatar, Rwanda, Western Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and the United Arab Emirates. Zaire had previously competed at the 1968 Summer Olympics as Congo-Kinshasa. The People's Republic of China made its first appearance in a Summer Olympics since 1952, while for the first time the Republic of China team participated under the politically contrived name of Chinese Taipei. The Soviet Union led the Warsaw Pact members and other Communist countries in a boycott of the Los Angeles Olympics, in retaliation for the U.S.-led boycott of the Moscow Olympics four years earlier (over the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan in 1979). The pretexts for the 1984 Soviet-led boycott were concerns over security, "chauvinistic sentiments" and "an anti-Soviet hysteria ... being whipped up" in the United States. However, a handful of communist countries disregarded the boycott and attended the Games anyway, among them Yugoslavia (host of the 1984 Winter Olympics), the People's Republic of China, and Romania (the only Warsaw Pact country that had opted to ignore the Soviet demands). The Romanian team received a particularly warm reception from the United States; when the Romanian athletes entered during the opening ceremonies, they were greeted by a standing ovation from the spectators, who were mostly U.S. citizens. This would turn out to be Romania's most successful Olympic Games – they won 53 medals, including 20 golds. In the table below, the number of athletes representing each state is shown in parentheses. Number of athletes by National Olympic Committees Boycotting countries Fifteen countries took part in the Soviet-led boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics: Afghanistan Angola Bulgaria Cuba Czechoslovakia East Germany Ethiopia Hungary Laos Mongolia North Korea Poland Soviet Union South Yemen Vietnam Albania, Iran, Libya and Upper Volta (changed to Burkina Faso following August 4) also missed the Los Angeles Olympics, citing political reasons, but these countries were not a part of the Soviet-led boycott. Albania and Iran were the only two countries to boycott both the 1980 and 1984 Summer Games. Albania Iran Libya / Upper Volta/Burkina Faso Soviet doping plan Documents obtained in 2016 revealed the Soviet Union's plans for a statewide doping system in track and field in preparation for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Dated prior to the country's decision to boycott the Games, the document detailed the existing steroids operations of the program, along with suggestions for further enhancements. The communication, directed to the Soviet Union's head of track and field, was prepared by Dr. Sergei Portugalov of the Institute for Physical Culture. Portugalov was also one of the main figures involved in the implementation of the Russian doping program prior to the 2016 Summer Olympics. Filmmaker and director of 2017 movie Icarus Bryan Fogel has said that stricter doping controls might have been the main reason for the Soviet boycott. Financial success of Los Angeles as host city Following the news of the massive financial losses of the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, the only two cities to express a genuine interest in hosting the 1984 Games were Los Angeles and New York. Given that only one city per country is allowed to bid for any one Games, the USOC vote for the American bid city was effectively the deciding vote for the 1984 Olympics host city. In this case, the Los Angeles bid received 55 votes compared with New York's 39 votes – this is the closest that the city of New York has ever come to being selected to host the Olympic Games, coming closer in 1984 than they did in their 2012 bid (when they lost to London). Ambitious construction projects for the two previous Summer Olympics, Montreal 1976 and Moscow 1980, had burdened organizers with substantial debts as expenses greatly exceeded revenues. Furthermore, the 1976 and 1980 Olympics were entirely government-funded. Unlike Montreal and Moscow, Los Angeles 1984 was privately funded, with strict controls imposed on expenditure; rather than constructing new venues with overly ambitious designs, the organizers chose instead to utilize existing venues and facilities wherever possible. The main example of this was the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which was also the Olympic Stadium for the 1932 Summer Olympics. The only two new venues constructed specifically for the 1984 Summer Olympics were secured with the backing of corporate sponsors: the Olympic Velodrome was largely funded by the 7-Eleven corporation and the Olympic Swim Stadium by McDonald's. In addition to corporate support, the Olympic committee also used the income from the exclusive television rights, and for the first time these contracts would prove to be a significant source of revenue. Adjusted for inflation, the Los Angeles Games secured twice the amount of income received by the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics and four times that of the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics. The low level of interest among potential host cities for the 1984 Games had been viewed as a major threat to the future of the Olympic Games. However, after the financial success of the Los Angeles Games, cities began to show a renewed interest in bidding to become host again. The Los Angeles and Montreal Games are seen as examples of best and worst practice when organizing the Olympics and serve as valuable lessons to prospective host cities. Following the success of the 1984 Games, the Los Angeles OCOG, led by Peter Ueberroth, used the profits to create the LA84 Foundation for promoting youth sports in Southern California, educating coaches and maintaining a sports library. In popular culture The games were the subject of the 1983–84 United States commemorative coin series. American fast food chain McDonald's ran a promotion titled, "When the U.S. Wins, You Win" where customers scratched off a ticket with the name of an Olympic event on it. If the U.S. won a medal in that event, then they would be given a free menu item: a Big Mac for a gold medal, an order of french fries for a silver medal, and a Coca-Cola for a bronze medal. The promotion became more popular than expected due to the Soviet boycott which led to the U.S. winning far more Olympic medals than expected. This promotion was parodied in The Simpsons episode "Lisa's First Word", where Krusty Burger runs a similar offer. The promotion was intended to be rigged so that prizes would only be offered in events dominated by the Eastern Bloc, but the Soviet-led boycott causes Krusty to personally lose $44 million. He vehemently promises "to spit in every fiftieth burger," to which Homer retorts "I like those odds!" Chief Wiggum also exclaims that he could kiss Carl Lewis, who won four gold medals at the Games. On NCIS, Tim McGee has an obsession with jet packs, stemming from having attended the 1984 Olympic ceremony as a child and having Bill Suitor fly over his head in his jet pack. This storyline is based on the real experience of executive producer and writer Jesse Stern. Pop-punk band Bowling for Soup references the games in the song "I Can't Stand LA". During a section showing appreciation for the city, the song states, "thank you for hair metal and the '84 Olympics." Jilly Cooper's novel Riders has a storyline set at the show jumping event at the 1984 Summer Olympics. In the Seinfeld episode "The Gymnast", Jerry dates a woman who competed in the 1984 Olympics and won a silver medal for Romania. In American Horror Story: 1984, the characters watch it together on the TV in the girls cabin. In the same week that the Games began, British pop star Howard Jones released a single called Like to Get to Know You Well which eventually made number 4 on the UK Singles Chart and number 49 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. On the sleeve, the record was "dedicated to the original spirit of the Olympic Games". See also 1984 Summer Paralympics 1984 Winter Paralympics 1984 Winter Olympics Olympic Games held in the United States 1904 Summer Olympics – St. Louis 1932 Summer Olympics – Los Angeles 1932 Winter Olympics – Lake Placid 1960 Winter Olympics – Squaw Valley 1980 Winter Olympics – Lake Placid 1984 Summer Olympics – Los Angeles 1996 Summer Olympics – Atlanta 2002 Winter Olympics – Salt Lake City 2028 Summer Olympics – Los Angeles 2034 Winter Olympics – Salt Lake City Olympic Games with significant boycotts 1976 Summer Olympics – Montreal – African boycott 1980 Summer Olympics – Moscow – United States-led boycott 1984 Summer Olympics – Los Angeles – Soviet-led boycott List of IOC country codes Use of performance-enhancing drugs in the Olympic Games — 1984 Los Angeles 16 Days of Glory – official film References External links "Los Angeles 1984". Olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Olympic Review 1984 – Official results Archived June 25, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Official Report Vol. 1 Official Report Vol. 2 Video of President Reagan declaring games open, and torch-lighting by Rafer Johnson on YouTube Egyptian judoka refused to attack his opponent's clearly injured right leg Further reading Dyreson, Mark. "Global television and the transformation of the Olympics: The 1984 Los Angeles Games." International Journal of the History of Sport 32.1 (2015): 172–184. Edelman, Robert Simon. "The Russians are not coming! The Soviet withdrawal from the games of the XXIII Olympiad." International Journal of the History of Sport 32.1 (2015): 9-36. Henry, Bill (1984). An Approved History of the Olympic Games. Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games. ISBN 0-88284-243-9. Llewellyn, Matthew, John Gleaves, and Wayne Wilson. "The Historical Legacy of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games." International Journal of the History of Sport 32#1 (2015) : 1–8. Llewellyn, Matthew, John Gleaves, and Wayne Wilson, eds. The 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games: Assessing the 30-Year Legacy (Routledge, 2017). Greenberg, Stan (2004). Whitakers Olympic Almanack. A. & C. Black. ISBN 0-7136-6724-9.

Rafer Lewis Johnson (August 18, 1934 – December 2, 2020) was an American decathlete and film actor. He was the 1960 Olympic gold medalist in the decathlon, having won silver in 1956. He had previously won a gold at the 1955 Pan American Games. Johnson was the U.S. team's flag bearer at the 1960 Olympics and lit the Olympic cauldron at the Los Angeles Games in 1984. In 1968, Johnson, football player Rosey Grier, and journalist George Plimpton tackled Sirhan Sirhan moments after he had fatally shot Robert F. Kennedy. After he retired from athletics, Johnson turned to acting, sportscasting, and public service and was instrumental in creating the California Special Olympics. His acting career included appearances in The Sins of Rachel Cade (1961), the Elvis Presley film Wild in the Country (1961), Pirates of Tortuga (1961), None but the Brave (1965), two Tarzan films with Mike Henry, The Last Grenade (1970), Soul Soldier (1970), Roots: The Next Generations (1979), the James Bond film Licence to Kill (1989), and Think Big (1990). Biography Johnson was born in Hillsboro, Texas on August 18, 1934. His family moved to Kingsburg, California, when he was aged nine. For a while, they were the only black family in the town. A versatile athlete, he played on Kingsburg High School's soccer, baseball and basketball teams. He was also elected class president in both junior high and high school. The summer between his sophomore and junior years in high school (age 16), his coach Murl Dodson drove Johnson 24 miles (40 km) to Tulare and watched Bob Mathias compete in the 1952 U.S. Olympic decathlon trials. Johnson told his coach, "I could have beaten most of those guys." Dodson and Johnson drove back a month later to watch Mathias's victory parade. Weeks later, Johnson competed in a high school invitational decathlon and won the event. He also won the 1953 and 1954 California state high school decathlon meets. In 1954, as a freshman at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), his progress in the event was impressive; he broke the world record in his fourth competition. He pledged Pi Lambda Phi fraternity, America's first non-sectarian fraternity, and was class president at UCLA. In 1955, in Mexico City, he won the title at the Pan American Games. Johnson qualified for both the decathlon and the long jump events for the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. However, he was hampered by an injury and forfeited his place in the long jump. Despite this handicap, he managed win silver in the decathlon behind compatriot Milt Campbell. It would turn out to be his last defeat in the event. Due to injury, Johnson missed the 1957 and 1959 seasons (the latter due to a car accident), but he broke the world record in 1958 and again in 1960. The crown to his career came at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. His most serious rival was Yang Chuan-Kwang (C. K. Yang) of Taiwan. Yang also studied at UCLA; the two trained together under UCLA track coach Elvin C. "Ducky" Drake and had become friends. In the decathlon, the lead swung back and forth between them. Finally, after nine events, Johnson led Yang by a small margin, but Yang was known to be better in the final event, the 1500 m. According to The Telegraph (UK), "legend has it" that Drake gave coaching to both men, with him advising Johnson to stay close to Yang and be ready for "a hellish sprint" at the end, and advising Yang to put as much distance between himself and Johnson before the final sprint as possible. Johnson ran his personal best at 4:49.7 and finished just 1.2 sec slower than Yang, winning the gold by 58 points with an Olympic record total of 8,392 points. Both athletes were exhausted and drained and came to a stop a few paces past the finish line leaning against each other for support. With this victory, Johnson ended his athletic career. At UCLA, Johnson also played basketball under legendary coach John Wooden and was a starter for the Bruins on their 1958–59 team. Wooden considered Johnson a great defensive player, but sometimes regretted holding back his teams early in his coaching career, remarking, "imagine Rafer Johnson on the [fast] break." Johnson was selected by the Los Angeles Rams in the 28th round (333rd overall) of the 1959 NFL draft as a running back. While training for the 1960 Olympics, his friend Kirk Douglas told him about a part in Spartacus that Douglas thought might make him a star: the Ethiopian gladiator Draba, who refuses to kill Spartacus (played by Douglas) after defeating him in a duel. Johnson read for and got the role, but was forced to turn it down because the Amateur Athletic Union told him it would make him a professional and therefore ineligible for the Olympics under the rules of the time. The role eventually went to another UCLA great, Woody Strode. In 1960, Johnson began acting in motion pictures and working as a sportscaster. He made several film appearances, mostly in the 1960s. Johnson worked full-time as a sportscaster in the early 1970s. He was a weekend sports anchor on the local NBC affiliate in Los Angeles, KNBC, but seemed uncomfortable in that position and eventually moved on to other things. Johnson worked on the presidential election campaign of United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and on June 5, 1968, with the help of Rosey Grier, he apprehended Sirhan Sirhan immediately after Sirhan had assassinated Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. Kennedy died the following day at Good Samaritan Hospital. Johnson discussed the experience in his autobiography, The Best That I Can Be (published in 1999 by Galilee Trade Publishing and co-authored with Philip Goldberg). Johnson served on the organizing committee for the first Special Olympics competition in Chicago in 1968, hosted by Special Olympics founder, Eunice Kennedy Shriver and the next year he led the founding of the California Special Olympics. Johnson, along with a small group of volunteers, founded California Special Olympics in 1969 by conducting a competition at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for 900 individuals with intellectual disabilities. Following the first California Games in 1969, Johnson became one of the original members of the board of directors. The board worked together to raise funds and offer a modest program of swimming and track and field. In 1983, Rafer ran for President of the Board to increase Board participation, reorganize the staff to most effectively use each person's talents, and expand fundraising efforts. He was elected president and served in the capacity until 1992, when he was named chairman of the Board of Governors. Family Johnson married Elizabeth Thorsen in 1971. They had two children and four grandchildren. Johnson's brother Jimmy was a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and his daughter Jennifer competed in beach volleyball at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney following her collegiate career at UCLA. His son Joshua Johnson followed his father into track and field and had a podium finish in the javelin throw at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Johnson participated in the Art of the Olympians program. Death Rafer Johnson died after suffering a stroke on December 2, 2020, in Sherman Oaks, California. He was 86. Achievements Johnson was named Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year in 1958 and won the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States in 1960, breaking that award's color barrier. In 1962, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. He was chosen to ignite the Olympic Flame during the opening ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, becoming the first Black athlete in Olympic history to do so. In 1994, he was elected into the first class of the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame. In 1998, Johnson was named one of ESPN's 100 Greatest North American Athletes of the 20th Century. In 2006, the NCAA named him one of the 100 Most Influential Student Athletes of the past 100 years. On August 25, 2009, Governor Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver announced that Johnson would be one of 13 California Hall of Fame inductees in The California Museum's yearlong exhibit. The induction ceremony was on December 1, 2009, in Sacramento, California. Johnson was a member of The Pigskin Club of Washington, D.C. National Intercollegiate All-American Football Players Honor Roll. Rafer Johnson Junior High School in Kingsburg, California is named in his honor, as are Rafer Johnson Community Day School and Rafer Johnson Children's Center, both in Bakersfield, California. The latter school, which has classes for special education students from the ages of birth-5, also puts on an annual Rafer Johnson Day. Every year Johnson himself spoke at the event and cheered on hundreds of students with special needs as they participated in a variety of track and field events. In 2010, Johnson received the Fernando Award for Civic Accomplishment from the Fernando Foundation and in 2011, he was inducted into the Bakersfield City School District Hall of Fame. Additionally, Rafer acted as the athletic advisor to Dan Guerrero, Director of Athletics at UCLA. He was Inducted into the Texas Track and Field Coaches Hall of Fame, Class of 2016. In November 2014, Johnson received the Athletes in Excellence Award from The Foundation for Global Sports Development, in recognition of his community service efforts and work with youth. In 2005, Johnson was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (L.H.D.) degree from Whittier College. Filmography Actor The Sins of Rachel Cade (1960) – Kosongo Sergeant Rutledge (1960) - uncredited Wild in the Country (1961) – Davis Pirates of Tortuga (1961) – John Gammel The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1963) (Season 2 Episode 8: "The Cadaver") - Ed Blair None but the Brave (1965) – Private Johnson Daniel Boone (1965) (Season 2 Episode 4: "My Name Is Rawls") – Rawls Tarzan and the Great River (1967) – Barcuma, Afro-Brazilian leader of the Jaguar Cult Tarzan and the Jungle Boy (1968) – Nagambi, villain who hinders Tarzan's search for the Jungle Boy The Last Grenade (1970) – Joe Jackson Soul Soldier (1970) – Private Armstrong The Games (1970) – Commentator Mission Impossible (1971) – Jack Tully Roots: The Next Generations (1979) Licence to Kill (1989) – Mullens Think Big (1990) – Johnson Source: Production roles Billie (1965, technical advisor) The Black Six (1973, associate producer) Notes References Further reading Maraniss, David (2008). Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed The World. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4165-3408-2. Johnson, Rafer (1998). The Best That I Can Be: An Autobiography. Doubleday. ISBN 0-3854-8760-6. External links Rafer Johnson at the Team USA Hall of Fame (archive July 20, 2023) Rafer Johnson at Olympics.com Rafer Johnson at Olympic.org (archived) Video clip from 1984 Summer Olympics, including Rafer Johnson lighting the Olympic Flame at Olympic.org Rafer Johnson at Olympedia Rafer Johnson at IMDb Rafer Johnson at Find a Grave

The Sins of Rachel Cade is a 1961 drama film directed by Gordon Douglas and starring Angie Dickinson in the title role, as well as Peter Finch and Roger Moore who compete for her love. Plot During World War II, Protestant medical missionary Rachel comes to the village of Dibela in the Belgian Congo. Widowed military administrator Colonel Derode is initially skeptical about her work, but eventually is romantically attracted to Rachel. One of her patients is Paul Wilton, an American doctor with the Royal Air Force (RAF). She makes love with Paul the night before he is to leave, and becomes pregnant. Cast Angie Dickinson as Rachel Cade Peter Finch as Colonel Henry Derode Roger Moore as Paul Wilton Errol John as Kulu Woody Strode as Muwango Juano Hernández as Kalanumu Frederick O'Neal as Buderga Mary Wickes as Marie Grieux Scatman Crothers as Musinga Rafer Johnson as Kosongo Charles Wood as Mzimba Douglas Spencer as Doctor Bikel Background The film is loosely based on the 1956 novel by Charles Mercer, Rachel Cade, published by G. P. Putnam's Sons. Film rights were bought prior to publication by William Dozier who was head of production at RKO. In September 1956 he announced that Stanley Rubin would produce and the film would be made in Africa with John Wayne. It would be part of a five-picture slate from Rubin worth $12 million starting with The Girl Most Likely. Katharine Hepburn was announced as a possible star. Then Dozier offered the lead to Deborah Kerr. Stirling Silliphant signed to write the script. In October Dozier said the film would be one of fifteen RKO would make the following year, others including Stage Struck, Bangkok, Ten Days in August, Three Empty Rooms, Affair in Portifino, Sex and Miss McAdoo, Pakistan, Galveston, On My Honor, The Naked and the Dead, Cash MCad, Far Alert, Journey to the Center of the Earth and Curtain Going Up. RKO wound up as a company – most of the fifteen films listed were not made. Film rights went to Warner Bros who in November 1958 announced they would make the film. In March 1959 Edward Anhalt was assigned to write the script and Henry Blanke was to produce. Blanke had also produced The Nun's Story (1959), starring Audrey Hepburn. The Sins of Rachel Cade had some familiarities to that story particularly with the lead character: a religious female working to help during wartime. Also, Peter Finch plays an atheistic authority figure in both films. In June Warners announced that Carroll Baker would star and Gordon Douglas would direct. Peter Finch was announced as the male star. However Baker refused to make the movie and Warners gave the lead to Angie Dickinson, who had just made Rio Bravo and The Bramble Bush for the studio. In August Peter Finch arrived in Hollywood for filming, which began August 27. He called his role "a good, rather cynical part with some excellent dialogue." Rafer Johnson signed in September. Roger Moore's casting was announced in October – he was then making The Alaskans for Warner Bros. Notes External links The Sins of Rachel Cade at IMDb The Sins of Rachel Cade at AllMovie The Sins of Rachel Cade at the TCM Movie Database The Sins of Rachel Cade at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films The Sins of Rachel Cade at Rotten Tomatoes

A 1986 song by Peter Gabriel shares the name with a tool. What is the name of the tool and how does it look?

Sledgehammer: A tool with a large, flat, often metal head, attached to a long handle.

Multiple constraints

Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English singer, songwriter and human rights activist. He was the original lead singer of the progressive rock band Genesis. After leaving the band in 1975, he launched a solo career with "Solsbury Hill" as his first single. His fifth studio album, So (1986), is his best-selling release and is certified triple platinum in the UK and five times platinum in the US. The album's most successful single, "Sledgehammer", won a record nine MTV Awards at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards and, according to a report in 2011, it was MTV's most played music video of all time. Gabriel has been a champion of world music for much of his career. He co-founded the WOMAD festival in 1982. He has continued to focus on producing and promoting world music through his Real World Records label. He has pioneered digital distribution methods for music, co-founding OD2, one of the first online music download services. Gabriel has also been involved in numerous humanitarian efforts. In 1980, he released the anti-apartheid single "Biko". He has participated in several human-rights benefit concerts, including Amnesty International's Human Rights Now! tour in 1988, and co-founded the Witness human rights organisation in 1992. Gabriel developed The Elders with Richard Branson, which was launched by Nelson Mandela in 2007. Gabriel has won three Brit Awards—winning Best British Male in 1987, six Grammy Awards, thirteen MTV Video Music Awards, the first Pioneer Award at the BT Digital Music Awards, the Q magazine Lifetime Achievement, the Ivor Novello Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the Polar Music Prize. He was made a BMI Icon at the 57th annual BMI London Awards for his "influence on generations of music makers". In recognition of his many years of human rights activism, he received the Man of Peace award from the Nobel Peace Prize laureates in 2006, and Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2008. AllMusic described Gabriel as "one of rock's most ambitious, innovative musicians, as well as one of its most political". He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis in 2010, and as a solo artist in 2014. In March 2015, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of South Australia in recognition of his achievements in music. Early life Peter Brian Gabriel was born on 13 February 1950 in Chobham, Surrey, England, son of Ralph Parton Gabriel (1912–2012) and Edith Irene (1921–2016), daughter of Colonel Edward Allen, chairman of the Civil Service Department Store on the Strand, London. Gabriel's father was an electrical engineer and dairy farm-owner from a long-established family of London timber importers and merchants, and his mother was from a musical family. Gabriel was raised at Deep Pool Farm, Coxhill, a Victorian manor just outside Chobham. His great-great-great-uncle, Sir Thomas Gabriel, 1st Baronet, was Lord Mayor of London from 1866 to 1877. Gabriel attended Cable House, a private primary school in Woking, Surrey, followed by St Andrews Preparatory School for Boys in Horsell, Surrey. During his time at the latter, his teachers noticed his singing talent, but he opted for piano lessons from his mother and developed an interest in drumming. At age 10, he purchased a floor tom-tom. Gabriel remarked of his early influences, "Hymns played quite a large part. They were the closest I came to soul music before I discovered soul music. There are certain hymns that you can scream your lungs out on, and I used to love that. It was great when you used to get the old shivers down the back." At age 12, Gabriel wrote his first song, "Sammy the Slug". Around this time, an aunt gave him money for professional singing lessons, but he used it to buy the Beatles' debut studio album Please Please Me (1963). In September 1963, he started at Charterhouse, a public school in Godalming, Surrey. There, he was a drummer and vocalist for his first band: the trad jazz outfit the Milords (or M'Lords). This was followed by a holiday band called the Spoken Word. In 1965, Gabriel formed Garden Wall with school friends Tony Banks on piano and Chris Stewart on drums. Banks had started at Charterhouse at the same time as Gabriel; the two were uninterested in school activities but bonded over music and started to write songs. At a final concert before they broke up, Gabriel, dressed in a kaftan and beads, showered the audience with petals he had picked from neighbouring gardens. Career 1967–1975: Genesis In 1967, after Garden Wall had disbanded, Gabriel, Banks and Stewart were invited by fellow pupils Anthony Phillips and Mike Rutherford to work on a demo tape of songs. Gabriel and Banks contributed "She Is Beautiful", the first song they wrote together. The tape was sent to former Charterhouse pupil turned musician Jonathan King, who was immediately enthusiastic largely due to Gabriel's vocals. He signed the group and suggested a band name of Gabriel's Angels, but it was unpopular with the other members. They settled on King's other suggestion, Genesis. After King suggested they stick to more straightforward pop, Gabriel and Banks wrote "The Silent Sun" as a pastiche of the Bee Gees, one of King's favourite bands. It became Genesis's first single, released in 1968. It was included on their debut studio album, From Genesis to Revelation (1968), which saw Gabriel play the flute. After the commercial failure of From Genesis to Revelation, the band went their separate ways, and Gabriel continued his studies at Charterhouse. In September 1969, Gabriel, Banks, Rutherford and Phillips decided to drop their plans and make Genesis a full-time working band. In early 1970, Gabriel played the flute on Mona Bone Jakon (1970) by Cat Stevens. The second studio album by Genesis, Trespass (1970), marked Gabriel expanding his musical output with the accordion, tambourine and bass drum, and incorporating his soul music influences. He wrote the lyrics to "The Knife" as a parody of a protest song. The album sold little and at one point, Gabriel secured a place at London School of Film Technique because Genesis "seemed to be dying." Genesis recruited guitarist Steve Hackett and drummer Phil Collins. Their next studio album, Nursery Cryme (1971), features Gabriel playing the oboe. Its opener, "The Musical Box", was their first song in which Gabriel incorporated a story and characters into the lyrics. The shows featuring Foxtrot (1972) marked a key development in Gabriel's stage performance. He had started to recite stories to introduce numbers as a way to cover the silence between songs, while the band tuned their instruments, or while technical faults were being fixed. During a gig in Dublin in September 1972, he disappeared from the set during the instrumental section of "The Musical Box" and reappeared in his wife's red dress and a fox's head, mimicking the album's cover. He kept the idea to himself as he felt the band would have voted against it. Despite some initial doubts from his bandmates, the incident received front-page coverage in Melody Maker, giving them national exposure which allowed the group to double their performance fee. One of Gabriel's stories was printed on the liner notes of their live album, Genesis Live (1973). By late 1973, following the success of Selling England by the Pound (1973), which centred on English themes and literary and materialistic references, a typical Genesis show had Gabriel wear fluorescent make-up, a cape, and bat wings for "Watcher of the Skies", a helmet, chest plate, and a shield for "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight", various costumes for "Supper's Ready", and an old-man mask for "The Musical Box". The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974) was Gabriel's final studio album with Genesis. He devised its story of the spiritual journey of Rael, a Puerto Rican youth living in New York City, and the bizarre incidents and characters he meets on the way. Tensions increased during this period as Gabriel wanted to write all of the lyrics himself, and split with the band after film director William Friedkin had invited him to work on a screenplay. The project dissolved, and Gabriel returned to work with Genesis. Matters were complicated further with the difficult birth of Gabriel's first daughter, resulting in periods of time away from the band. In the end, Gabriel was late to deliver the lyrics and relied on contributions from Banks and Rutherford. In the liner notes, Gabriel is credited with "experiments with foreign sounds". He had Brian Eno provide additional electronic effects. During a stop in Cleveland, Ohio, early into the album's tour, Gabriel informed the band of his intention to leave at its conclusion. Music critics often focused their reviews on Gabriel's theatrics and took the band's musical performance as secondary, which irritated the rest of the band. The tour ended in May 1975, after which Gabriel wrote a piece for the press on 15 August, entitled "Out, Angels Out", about his departure, his disillusion with the business, and his desire to spend time with his family. The news stunned fans of the group and left commentators wondering if the band could survive without him. His exit resulted in drummer Phil Collins reluctantly taking over on lead vocals after 400 singers were fruitlessly auditioned. 1975–1985: Solo debut with four self-titled albums Gabriel described his break from the music business as his "learning period", during which he took piano and music lessons. He had recorded demos by the end of 1975, the fruits of a period of writing around 20 songs with his friend Martin Hall. After preparing material for a studio album Gabriel recorded his solo debut, Peter Gabriel, in 1976 and 1977 in Toronto and London, with producer Bob Ezrin. Gabriel did not title his first four studio albums. All were labelled Peter Gabriel, using the same typeface, with designs by Hipgnosis. "The idea is to do it like a magazine, which will only come out once a year," he remarked in 1978. "So it's the same title, the same lettering in the same place; only the photo is different." Each album has, however, been given a nickname by fans, usually relating to the album cover. Peter Gabriel (a.k.a. Peter Gabriel 1: Car) was released in February 1977 and reached No. 7 in the UK and No. 38 in the US. Its lead single, "Solsbury Hill", is an autobiographical song about a spiritual experience on top of Solsbury Hill in Somerset. "It's about being prepared to lose what you have for what you might get ..." said Gabriel. "It's about letting go." Gabriel toured the album with an 80-date tour from March to November 1977 with a band that included guitarist Robert Fripp of King Crimson often playing off stage and introduced as "Dusty Rhodes". In late 1977, Gabriel started recording the second Peter Gabriel studio album (a.k.a. Peter Gabriel 2: Scratch) in the Netherlands, with Fripp as producer. Its "Mother of Violence" was written by Gabriel and his first wife Jill. Released in June 1978, the album went to No. 10 in the UK and No. 45 in the US. Gabriel's tour for the album lasted from August to December 1978. On this tour, Gabriel and his band shaved their heads. Gabriel recorded the third Peter Gabriel studio album (a.k.a. Peter Gabriel 3: Melt) in England in 1979. He had developed an interest in African music and drum machines and later hailed the record as his breakthrough. The album has been credited as the first to use gated reverb on the drums, creating a distinct sound. While recording drums on "Intruder", one of the tracks featuring Phil Collins, Gabriel had Collins play various rhythms without using cymbals for several minutes as a basis to develop the song further. Collins used the gated effect on his debut solo single "In the Air Tonight" which became a signature sound in the 1980s and beyond. Atlantic Records—Gabriel's US distributor, which had released his first two studio albums—refused to put it out. "An American A&R person came over in the middle of recording and—other than attempting to make one track sound like the Doobie Brothers, which he failed considerably to do—he was convinced that the thing was much too [adopts American accent] 'esoteric, Peter'... He wasn't convinced then that they would want to do anything with it. And, sure enough, when it was sent over there, it was given the big elbow." Gabriel signed a recording contract with Mercury Records. Released in May 1980, the album went to No. 1 in the UK for three weeks. In the US, it peaked at No. 22. The single "Games Without Frontiers" went to No. 4 and "Biko" went to No. 36 in the UK. After a handful of shows in 1979, Gabriel toured the album from February to October 1980. The tour marked Gabriel's first instance of crowd surfing when he fell back into the audience in a crucifix position. The stunt became a staple of his live shows. On Peter Gabriel four (a.k.a. Peter Gabriel 4: Security), Gabriel took on greater responsibility over the production than before. He recorded it in 1981 and 1982, solely on digital tape, with a mobile studio parked at his home, Ashcombe House, in Somerset. Gabriel utilized a Fairlight CMI digital sampling synthesizer and incorporated electronic instrumentation with sampling world beat percussion. "Over the course of the last two albums," he observed, "I've got back into a rhythm consciousness. And the writing—particularly with the invention of these drum machines—is fantastic. You can store in their memories rhythms that interest you and excite you. And then the groove will carry on without you, and the groove will be exactly what you want it to be, rather than what a drummer thinks is appropriate for what you're doing." The fourth Peter Gabriel, released in September 1982, hit No. 6 in the UK and No. 28 in the US. The second single, "Shock the Monkey", became Gabriel's first top 40 hit in the US, reaching No. 29. To handle American distribution, Gabriel signed with Geffen Records, which—initially unbeknown to Gabriel—titled the album Security to differentiate it from the first three. Gabriel's 1982 tour lasted a year and became his first to make a profit. Recordings from the tour were released on Gabriel's debut live release, Plays Live (1983). Gabriel produced versions of the third and fourth Peter Gabriel albums with German lyrics. The third consisted of the studio recordings, overdubbed with new vocals. The fourth was remixed, with several tracks extended or altered. In 1983, Gabriel developed the soundtrack for Alan Parker's drama film Birdy (1984), co-produced with Daniel Lanois. This consisted of new material, without lyrics, as well as remixed instrumentals from his previous studio album. 1985–1997: So and Us After finishing the soundtrack to Birdy, Gabriel shifted his musical focus from rhythm and texture, as heard on Peter Gabriel four and Birdy, towards more straightforward songs. In 1985, he recorded his fifth studio album, So (also co-produced with Lanois). So was released in May 1986 and reached No. 1 in the UK and No. 2 in the US. It remains Gabriel's best-selling album with over five million copies sold in the US alone. It produced three UK top 20 singles: "Sledgehammer", "Big Time" and "Don't Give Up", a duet with Kate Bush. The first went to No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100, Gabriel's only single of his career to do so. It knocked "Invisible Touch" by Genesis, his former band, out of the top spot, which was also their only US number one hit. In the UK, the single went to No. 4. In 1990, Rolling Stone ranked So at No. 14 on its list of "Top 100 Albums of the Eighties". "Sledgehammer" was particularly successful, dealing with sex and sexual relations through lyrical innuendos. Its famed music video was a collaboration between director Stephen R. Johnson, Aardman Animations, and the Brothers Quay and won a record nine MTV Video Music Awards in 1987. In 1998, it was named MTV's number one animated video of all time. So earned Gabriel two wins at the 1987 Brit Awards for Best British Male Solo Artist and Best British Video (for "Sledgehammer"). He was nominated for four Grammy Awards: Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year for "Sledgehammer", and Album of the Year for So. Gabriel toured worldwide to support So with the This Way Up Tour, from November 1986 to October 1987. In 1988, Gabriel became involved as composer for Martin Scorsese's film The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). Scorsese had contacted Gabriel about the project since 1983 and wished, according to Gabriel, to present "the struggle between the humanity and divinity of Christ in a powerful and original way". Gabriel used musicians from WOMAD to perform instrumental pieces with focus on rhythm and African, Middle Eastern and European textures, using the National Sound Archive in London for additional inspiration. The initial plan had dedicated ten weeks for recording before it was cut to three, leaving Gabriel unable to finish all the pieces he originally wanted to record. When the film was finished, Gabriel worked on the soundtrack for an additional four months to develop more of his unfinished ideas. Its soundtrack was released as Passion in June 1989. It won Gabriel a Grammy Award for Best New Age Performance and a nomination for a Golden Globe for Best Original Score – Motion Picture. In 1990, Gabriel put out his first compilation album, Shaking the Tree: Sixteen Golden Greats, which sold 2 million copies in the US. Up until 1989, Gabriel was managed by Gail Colson. From 1989 to 1992, Gabriel recorded his follow-up to So, titled Us. The album saw Gabriel address personal themes, including his failed first marriage, psychotherapy, and the growing distance between him and his eldest daughter at the time. Gabriel's introspection within the context of the album Us can be seen in the first single release "Digging in the Dirt" directed by John Downer. Accompanied by a video featuring Gabriel covered in snails and various foliage, this song made reference to the psychotherapy which had taken up much of Gabriel's time since the previous studio album. Gabriel describes his struggle to get through to his daughter in "Come Talk to Me" directed by Matt Mahurin, which featured backing vocals by Sinéad O'Connor. O'Connor also lent vocals to "Blood of Eden", directed by Nichola Bruce and Michael Coulson, the third single to be released from the album, and once again dealing with relationship struggles, this time going right back to Adam's rib for inspiration. The album is one of Gabriel's most personal. It met with less success than So, reaching No. 2 in the album chart on both sides of the Atlantic, and making modest chart impact with the singles "Digging in the Dirt" and the funkier "Steam", which evoked memories of "Sledgehammer". Gabriel followed the release of the album with the Secret World Tour, first using touring keyboardist Joy Askew to sing O'Connor's part, then O'Connor herself for a few months. O'Connor quit the tour, and was replaced by Paula Cole, the latter appearing on the tour recordings: a double album Secret World Live, and a concert video also called Secret World Live, both released in 1994. The film received the 1996 Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video, naming director Francois Girard and producer Robert Warr. Gabriel employed an innovative approach in the marketing of the Us album. Not wishing to feature only images of himself, he asked artist filmmakers Nichola Bruce and Michael Coulson to co-ordinate a marketing campaign using contemporary artists. Artists such as Helen Chadwick, Rebecca Horn, Nils-Udo, Andy Goldsworthy, David Mach and Yayoi Kusama collaborated to create original artworks for each song on the multi-million-selling CD. Coulson and Bruce documented the process on Hi-8 video. Bruce left Real World and Coulson continued with the campaign, using the documentary background material as the basis for a promotional EPK, the long-form video All About Us and the interactive CD-ROM Xplora1: Peter Gabriel's Secret World. Gabriel won three more Grammy Awards, all in the Music Video category. He won the Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video in 1993 and 1994 for the videos to "Digging in the Dirt" and "Steam", respectively. Gabriel also won the 1996 Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video for his Secret World Live video. 1997–2009: OVO and Up In 1997, Gabriel was invited to participate in the direction and soundtrack of the Millennium Dome Show, a live multimedia performance staged in the Millennium Dome in London throughout 2000. Gabriel said the team were given free rein, which contributed to the various problems they encountered with it, such as a lack of proper budgeting. He also felt that management, while succeeding to get the building finished on time, failed to understand the artistic side of the show and its content. Gabriel's soundtrack was released as OVO in June 2000. The Story of OVO was released in the CD-booklet-shaped comic book which was part of the CD edition with the title "OVO The Millennium Show". Around that same time, the Genesis greatest hits album, Turn It On Again: The Hits (1999), featured Gabriel sharing vocals with Phil Collins on a new version of "The Carpet Crawlers" entitled "The Carpet Crawlers 1999", produced by Trevor Horn. In 2002 he stuck with soundtrack work for his next project, scoring for the Australian film Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) with worldbeat music. Released in June 2002, Long Walk Home: Music from the Rabbit-Proof Fence received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Original Score – Motion Picture. Later in 2002, Up, Gabriel's first full-length studio album in a decade, was released in September 2002. He started work on it in 1995 before production halted three years later to focus time on other projects and collaborations. Work resumed in 2000, by which time Gabriel had 130 potential songs for the album, and spent almost two years on it before management at Virgin Records pushed Gabriel to complete it. Up reached No. 9 in the US and No. 11 in the UK, and supported with a world tour with a band that included Gabriel's daughter Melanie on backing vocals. The tour was documented with two live DVDs: Growing Up Live (2003) and Still Growing Up: Live & Unwrapped (2005). In 2004, Gabriel met with his former Genesis bandmates to discuss the possibility of staging The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974) as a reunion tour. He ultimately dismissed the idea, paving the way for Banks, Rutherford and Collins to organise the Turn It On Again: The Tour. Gabriel produced and performed at the Eden Project Live 8 concert in July 2005. He joined Cat Stevens on stage to perform "Wild World" during Nelson Mandela's 46664 concert. In 2005, FIFA asked Gabriel and Brian Eno to organise an opening ceremony for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, but FIFA cancelled the idea in January 2006. At the opening ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Gabriel performed John Lennon's "Imagine". In November 2006, the Seventh World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Rome presented Gabriel with the Man of Peace award. The award, presented by former General Secretary of the USSR and Nobel Peace Prize winner Mikhail Gorbachev and Walter Veltroni, Mayor of Rome, was an acknowledgement of Gabriel's extensive contribution and work on behalf of human rights and peace. The award was presented in the Giulio Cesare Hall of the Campidoglio in Rome. At the end of the year, he was awarded the Q magazine Lifetime Achievement Award, presented to him by American musician Moby. In an interview published in the magazine to accompany the award, Gabriel's contribution to music was described as "vast and enduring." Gabriel took on a project with the BBC World Service's competition "The Next Big Thing" to find the world's best young band. Gabriel judged the final six young artists with William Orbit, Geoff Travis and Angélique Kidjo. In June 2008, Gabriel released Big Blue Ball, an album of various artists collaborating with each other at his Real World Studios across three summers in the 1990s. He planned its release in the US without assistance from a label; he raised £2 million towards the recording and distribution of the album with Ingenious Media with the worldwide release handled through Warner Bros. Records. Gabriel appeared on a nationwide tour for the album in 2009. Gabriel was a judge for the 6th and 8th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists. Gabriel contributed to the Pixar film WALL-E soundtrack in 2008 with Thomas Newman, including the film's closing song, "Down to Earth", for which they received the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. The song was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and an Academy Award for Best Original Song. In February 2009, Gabriel announced that he would not be performing on the 2008 Academy Awards telecast because producers of the show were limiting his performance of "Down to Earth" from WALL-E to 90 seconds. According to Gabriel, his window was reduced to 65 seconds. John Legend and the Soweto Gospel Choir performed the song in his stead. Gabriel's 2009 tour appearances included Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Venezuela. His first ever performance in Peru was held in Lima on 20 March 2009, during his second visit to the country. On 25 July 2009, he played at WOMAD Charlton Park, his only European performance of the year, to promote Witness. The show included two tracks from the then-forthcoming Scratch My Back: Paul Simon's "The Boy in the Bubble" and the Magnetic Fields' "The Book of Love". 2009–2019: Scratch My Back, New Blood and further side projects In 2009, Gabriel recorded Scratch My Back, an album of cover songs by various artists including David Bowie, Lou Reed, Arcade Fire, Radiohead, Regina Spektor and Neil Young. The original concept was for Gabriel to cover an artists' song if they, in turn, covered one of his for an album simultaneously released as I'll Scratch Yours, but several participants later declined or were late to deliver and it was placed on hold. Gabriel avoided using drums and guitar in favour of orchestral arrangements, and altered his usual songwriting method by finishing the vocals first and then the song, for which he collaborated with John Metcalfe. Released in February 2010, Scratch My Back reached No. 12 in the UK. Gabriel toured worldwide with the New Blood Tour from March 2010 to July 2012 with a 54-piece orchestra and his daughter Melanie and Norwegian singer-songwriter Ane Brun on backing vocals. The follow-up, And I'll Scratch Yours, was released in September 2013. During the New Blood Tour, Gabriel decided to expand on the Scratch My Back concept and, with Metcalfe's assistance, re-record a collection of his own songs with an orchestra. The result, New Blood, was released in October 2011. In September 2012, Gabriel kicked off his Back to Front Tour which featured So (1986) performed in its entirety with the original musicians who played on the album, to mark its 25th anniversary. When the opening leg finished a month later, Gabriel took one year off to travel the world with his children. The tour resumed with a European leg from September 2013 to December 2014. In 2014, Gabriel was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist by Coldplay frontman Chris Martin. They performed Gabriel's "Washing of the Water" together. Gabriel performed "Heroes" by David Bowie with an orchestra at a concert in Berlin to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 2014. In 2016, he was featured on the song "A.I." by American pop rock band OneRepublic from their fourth studio album Oh My My. In June 2016, Gabriel released the single "I'm Amazing". The song was written several years prior, in part as a tribute to boxer Muhammad Ali. That month, he embarked on a joint tour with Sting titled The Rock Paper Scissors North American Tour. Gabriel re-emerged in 2019 with the release of Rated PG, a compilation of songs that were created for film soundtracks throughout his career. The song selection spans over 30 years and includes tracks that had never been released on an official Gabriel album previously, including "Down to Earth" (from WALL-E) and "That'll Do" (from Babe: Pig in the City), an Oscar-nominated collaboration with Randy Newman. Initially only released on vinyl for Record Store Day on 13 April, the album was eventually released on digital streaming services later that month. Later that same year, Gabriel issued another digital release on 13 September titled Flotsam and Jetsam, a collection of B-sides, remixes and rarities that span Gabriel's entire solo career from 1976 to 2016, including his first solo recording, a cover of the Beatles' song "Strawberry Fields Forever". 2022–present: I/O and possible follow-up album By 2002, Gabriel had been continually working on what he had given the tentative title of I/O, his tenth studio album, which he had begun work on as early as 1995. It was originally set to be released 18 months after Up, but touring pushed the release far away. He did an interview with Rolling Stone in 2005 stating that he had 150 songs in various stages. From 2013 to 2016, he posted regularly on social media about recording the new album. In 2019, he spoke on BBC Radio 6 about how he had taken a hiatus from making music due to his wife being sick, but he had begun to return to it now that she had recovered. In 2021, he was interviewed multiple times about his new album, and revealed that he had been recording with Manu Katché, Tony Levin and David Rhodes on 17 new songs. He posted multiple photos to his Facebook and Instagram of these sessions. In June 2022, Katché told the French magazine L'Illustré that the album was nearly complete and would be released later that year, pending an official announcement. In November 2022, Gabriel announced his upcoming "I/O The Tour" for the spring of 2023 across several European cities, with later dates to be confirmed for the North America leg of the tour for the late summer/fall of 2023. This announcement also confirmed the name of the upcoming album to be stylised as I/O. The first single from the album, "Panopticom", was released digitally on 6 January 2023. A new piece from the album will be released on the date of each full moon in 2023, as well as a different mix of the song on each new moon in 2023, starting with the Dark Side Mix of "Panopticom". On 5 February, Gabriel released "The Court", the second single from the album. On 7 March, Gabriel released the third single, "Playing for Time". A basic arrangement of the song featuring only Gabriel on piano and Levin on bass had already opened the shows on the Back to Front Tour, by the name of "Daddy Long Legs". The title track "I/O" was the fourth single released on 6 April. On 5 May, Peter Gabriel released the fifth single from the album, "Four Kinds of Horses", a track which is a collaboration with Brian Eno and Richard Russell. The sixth single, "Road to Joy", was released on 4 June. Six more singles were released, separately, within the next six months—"So Much", "Olive Tree", "Love Can Heal", "This Is Home", "And Still" and "Live and Let Live"—before I/O was finally released on 1 December 2023. One day prior to I/O's release, Gabriel told The New York Times that he does not expect a follow-up album (which he described as his "brain project") to take another 21 years, saying that "there's a lot of stuff in the can" but added that the material is not yet finished. Additionally, Gabriel stated in his November 2023 Full Moon update video that the track "What Lies Ahead" will be on "the next record". He performed "What Lies Ahead" several times in 2023 and it was a contender for I/O. Artistry Stylistically, Gabriel's music has been alternately described by music writers as progressive rock, art rock, art pop, worldbeat, post-progressive and progressive soul. According to Rolling Stone journalist Ryan Reed, Gabriel has developed in all as an "art-rock innovator, soul-pop craftsman, [and] 'world music' ambassador" over the course of his career, while music scholar Gregg Akkermann argues that, despite his progressive rock origins, he has "managed to attract fans from across the spectrum: prog rock, alternative rock, world beat, blue-eyed soul, dance music, the college crowd, the teens, Americans and Europeans". More broadly, AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine says Gabriel emerged during the 1980s as "one of rock's most ambitious, innovative musicians", as well as "an international pop star". Gabriel has worked with a relatively stable crew of musicians and recording engineers throughout his solo career. Bass and Stick player Tony Levin has performed on every Gabriel studio album and every live tour except for Scratch My Back (2010), the soundtracks Passion (1989) and Long Walk Home (2002), and the New Blood Tour. Guitarist David Rhodes has been Gabriel's guitarist of choice since 1979. Prior to So (1986), Jerry Marotta was Gabriel's preferred drummer, both in the studio and on the road. (For the So and Us albums and tours Marotta was replaced by Manu Katché, who was then replaced by Ged Lynch on parts of the Up album and all of the subsequent tour). Gabriel is known for choosing top-flight collaborators, from co-producers such as Ezrin, Fripp, Lillywhite and Lanois to musicians such as Natalie Merchant, Elizabeth Fraser, L. Shankar, Trent Reznor, Youssou N'Dour, Larry Fast, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Sinéad O'Connor, Kate Bush, Ane Brun, Paula Cole, John Giblin, Dave Gregory, Peter Hammill, Papa Wemba, Manu Katché, Bayete, Milton Nascimento, Phil Collins, Stewart Copeland and OneRepublic. Over the years, Gabriel has collaborated with singer Kate Bush several times; Bush provided backing vocals for Gabriel's "Games Without Frontiers" and "No Self Control" in 1980, and female lead vocal for "Don't Give Up" (a top 10 hit in the UK) in 1986, and Gabriel appeared on her television special. Their duet of Roy Harper's "Another Day" was discussed for release as a single, but never appeared. He also collaborated with avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson on two versions of her composition "Excellent Birds"—one for her second album Mister Heartbreak (1984), and another version called "This is the Picture (Excellent Birds)", which appeared on cassette and CD versions of So. Gabriel sang (along with Jim Kerr of Simple Minds) on "Everywhere I Go", from the Call's 1986 studio album, Reconciled. On Toni Childs' 1994 studio album, The Woman's Boat, Gabriel sang on the track, "I Met a Man". In 1998, Gabriel appeared on the soundtrack of Babe: Pig in the City as the lead vocalist of the song "That'll Do", written by Randy Newman. The song was nominated for an Academy Award, and Gabriel and Newman performed it at the following year's Oscar telecast. He performed a similar soundtrack appearance for the 2004 film Shall We Dance?, singing a cover version of "The Book of Love" by the Magnetic Fields. In 1987, Gabriel appeared on Robbie Robertson's self-titled solo studio album, singing on "Fallen Angel"; co-wrote two Tom Robinson singles; and appeared on Joni Mitchell's 1988 studio album Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm, on the opening track "My Secret Place". In 2001, Gabriel contributed lead vocals to the song "When You're Falling" on Afro Celt Sound System's Volume 3: Further in Time. In the summer of 2003, Gabriel performed in Ohio with a guest performance by Uzbek singer Sevara Nazarkhan. Gabriel collaborated on tracks with electronic musician BT, who also worked on the OVO soundtrack with him. The tracks were never released, as the computers they were contained on were stolen from BT's home in California. He also sang the lyrics for Deep Forest on their theme song for the movie Strange Days (1995). In addition, Gabriel has appeared on Angelique Kidjo's 2007 studio album Djin Djin, singing on the song "Salala". Gabriel has recorded a cover of the Vampire Weekend single "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" with Hot Chip, where his name is mentioned several times in the chorus. He substitutes the original line "But this feels so unnatural / Peter Gabriel too / This feels so unnatural/ Peter Gabriel too" with "It feels so unnatural / Peter Gabriel too / and it feels so unnatural / to sing your own name." Gabriel collaborated with Arcade Fire on their 2022 studio album, We. He sang backing vocals on the track "Unconditional II (Race and Religion)". WOMAD and other projects Gabriel's interest in world music was first apparent on his third solo studio album. According to Spencer Kornhaber in The Atlantic in 2019: "When Peter Gabriel moved toward 'world music' four decades ago, he not only evangelized sounds that were novel to Western pop. He also set a radio template: majestic, with flourishes meant to read as 'exotic,' and lyrics meant to change lives." This influence has increased over time, and he is the driving force behind the World of Music, Arts and Dance (WOMAD) movement. Gabriel said: The first time I really got into music from another culture was as a result of the shifting of Radio 4, which I used to wake up to. I'd lost it on medium wave and was groping around in the morning on the dial, trying to find something that I could listen to, and came across a Dutch radio station who were playing the soundtrack from some obscure Stanley Baker movie called Dingaka. That had quite a lot of stuff from—I think it was—Ghana. I can't remember now, but it really moved me. One of the songs I heard on that was a thing called 'Shosholoza', which I recorded on the b-side of the 'Biko' single. Gabriel created the Real World Studios and record label to facilitate the creation and distribution of such music by various artists, and he has worked to educate Western culture about such musicians as Yungchen Lhamo, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Youssou N'dour. He has a longstanding interest in human rights and launched Witness, a charity that trains human rights activists to use video and online technologies to expose human rights abuses. In 2006, his work with WITNESS and his long-standing support of peace and human rights causes was recognised by the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates with the Man of Peace award. In the 1990s, with Steve Nelson of Brilliant Media and director Michael Coulson, he developed advanced multimedia CD-ROM-based entertainment projects, creating Xplora (the world's largest-selling music CD-ROM), and subsequently the EVE CD-ROM. EVE was a music and art adventure game directed by Michael Coulson and co-produced by the Starwave Corporation in Seattle; it won the Milia d'Or award Grand Prize at the Cannes in 1996. In 1990, Gabriel lent his backing vocals to Ugandan political exile Geoffrey Oryema's "Land of Anaka", appearing on Oryema's first studio album Exile, released on Gabriel's Real World label. In 1994, Gabriel starred in Breck Eisner's short film Recon as a detective who enters the minds of murder victims to find their killer's identity. Gabriel helped pioneer a new realm of musical interaction in 2001, visiting Georgia State University's Language Research Center to participate in keyboard jam sessions with bonobo apes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (This experience inspired the song "Animal Nation", which was performed on Gabriel's 2002 "Growing Up" tour and was featured on the Growing Up Live DVD and The Wild Thornberrys Movie soundtrack.) Gabriel's desire to bring attention to the intelligence of primates also took the form of ApeNet, a project that aimed to link great apes through the internet, enabling the first interspecies internet communication. He was one of the founders of on Demand Distribution (OD2), one of the first online music download services. Prior to its closure in 2009, its technology had been used by over 100 music download sites including MSN Music UK, MyCokeMusic, Planet Internet (KPN), Wanadoo and CD WOW!. OD2 was bought by US company Loudeye in June 2004 and subsequently by Finnish mobile giant Nokia in October 2006 for $60 million. Gabriel is co-founder (with Brian Eno) of a musicians union called Mudda, short for "magnificent union of digitally downloading artists." In 2000, Gabriel collaborated with Zucchero, Anggun and others in a charity for kids with AIDS. Erick Benzi wrote words and music and Patrick Bruel, Stephan Eicher, Faudel, Lokua Kanza, Laam, Nourith, Axelle Red have accepted to sing it. In 2003, Gabriel contributed a song for the video game Uru: Ages Beyond Myst. In 2004, Gabriel contributed another song ("Curtains") and contributed voice work on another game in the Myst franchise, Myst IV: Revelation. In June 2005, Gabriel and broadcast industry entrepreneur David Engelke purchased Solid State Logic, a manufacturer of mixing consoles and digital audio workstations. In 2017, the company was sold to the Audiotonix Group. In May 2008, Gabriel's Real World Studios, in partnership with Bowers & Wilkins, started the Bowers & Wilkins Music Club—later known as Society of Sound—a subscription-based music retail site. Albums are currently available in either Apple Lossless or FLAC format. He is one of the founding supporters of the annual global event Asteroid Day. Activist for humanitarian causes In 1986, he started what has become a longstanding association with Amnesty International, becoming a pioneering participant in all 28 of Amnesty's Human rights concerts—a series of music events and tours staged by the US Section of Amnesty International between 1986 and 1998. He performed during the six-concert A Conspiracy of Hope US tour in June 1986; the twenty-concert Human Rights Now! world tour in 1988; the Chile: Embrace of Hope Concert in 1990 and at The Paris Concert for Amnesty International in 1998. He also performed in Amnesty's Secret Policeman's Ball benefit shows in collaboration with other artists and friends such as Lou Reed, David Gilmour of Pink Floyd and Youssou N'Dour; Gabriel closed those concerts performing his anti-apartheid anthem "Biko". He spoke of his support for Amnesty on NBC's Today Show in 1986. Inspired by the social activism he encountered in his work with Amnesty, in 1992, Gabriel co-founded WITNESS, a non-profit organisation that equips, trains and supports locally based organisations worldwide to use video and the internet in human rights documentation and advocacy. In 1995, Gabriel and Cape Verdean human rights activist Vera Duarte were awarded the North–South Prize in its inaugural year. In the late 1990s, Gabriel and entrepreneur Richard Branson discussed with Nelson Mandela their idea of a small, dedicated group of leaders, working objectively and without any vested personal interest to solve difficult global conflicts. On 18 July 2007, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Nelson Mandela announced the formation of a new group, The Elders, in a speech he delivered on the occasion of his 89th birthday. Kofi Annan served as Chair of the Elders and Gro Harlem Brundtland as deputy chair. The other members of the group are Martti Ahtisaari, Ela Bhatt, Lakhdar Brahimi, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Jimmy Carter, Hina Jilani, Graça Machel, Mary Robinson and Ernesto Zedillo. Desmond Tutu was an Honorary Elder, as was Nelson Mandela. The Elders is independently funded by a group of donors, including Branson and Gabriel. The Elders use their collective skills to catalyse peaceful resolutions to long-standing conflicts, articulate new approaches to global issues that are causing or may later cause immense human suffering, and share wisdom by helping to connect voices all over the world. They work together to consider carefully which specific issues to approach. In November 2007, Gabriel's non-profit group WITNESS launched The Hub, a participatory media site for human rights. In September 2008, Gabriel was named as the recipient of Amnesty International's 2008 Ambassador of Conscience Award. In the same month, he received Quadriga United We Care award of Werkstatt Deutschland along with Boris Tadić, Eckart Höfling and Wikipedia. The award was presented to him by Queen Silvia of Sweden. In 2010, Gabriel lent his support to the campaign to release Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, an Iranian Azeri woman who was sentenced to death by stoning after being convicted of committing adultery. In December 2013, Gabriel posted a video message in tribute to the deceased former South African president and anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela. Gabriel was quoted: To come out of 27 years in jail and to immediately set about building a Rainbow Nation with your sworn enemy is a unique and extraordinary example of courage and forgiveness. In this case, Mandela had seen many of his people beaten, imprisoned and murdered, yet he was still willing to trust the humanity and idealism of those who had been the oppressors, without whom he knew he could not achieve an almost peaceful transition of power. There is no other example of such inspirational leadership in my lifetime. Gabriel has criticised Air France for their continued transport of monkeys to laboratories. In a letter to the airline, Gabriel wrote that in laboratories, "primates are violently force-fed chemicals, inflicted with brain damage, crippled, addicted to cocaine or alcohol, deprived of food and water, or psychologically tormented and ultimately killed." In March 2014, Gabriel publicly supported #withsyria, a campaign to rally support for victims of the Syrian Civil War. In November 2014, Gabriel, along with Pussy Riot and Iron & Wine supported Hong Kong protesters at Hong Kong's Lennon Wall in their efforts. In March 2015, Gabriel was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of South Australia in recognition of his commitment to creativity and its transformational power in building peace and understanding. He composed the song "The Veil" for Oliver Stone's film Snowden (2016). Political views Gabriel has been described as one of rock's most political musicians by AllMusic. In 1992, on the 20th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday massacre, Gabriel joined Peter Hain, Jeremy Corbyn, Tony Benn, Ken Loach, John Pilger and Adrian Mitchell in voicing his support for a demonstration in London calling for British withdrawal from Northern Ireland. At the 1997 general election, he declared his support for the Labour Party, which won that election by a landslide after 18 years out of power, led by Tony Blair. In 1998, he was named in a list of the biggest private financial donors to Labour. He subsequently distanced himself from the Labour government following Tony Blair's support for George W. Bush and Britain's involvement in the Iraq War, which he strongly opposed. Gabriel later explained his decision for funding Labour, saying, "after all those years of Thatcher, that was the only time I've put money into a political party because I wanted to help get rid of the Tory government of that time." In 2005, Gabriel gave a Green Party of England and Wales general election candidate special permission to record a cover of his song "Don't Give Up" for his campaign. In 2010, The Guardian described Gabriel as "a staunch advocate of proportional representation." In 2013, he stated that he had become more interested in online petitioning organisations to effect change than traditional party politics. In 2012, Gabriel condemned the use of his music by the American conservative talk radio personality Rush Limbaugh during a controversial segment in which Limbaugh vilified Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke. A statement on behalf of Gabriel read: "Peter was appalled to learn that his music was linked to Rush Limbaugh's extraordinary attack on Sandra Fluke. It is obvious from anyone that knows Peter's work that he would never approve such a use. He has asked his representatives to make sure his music is withdrawn and especially from these unfair, aggressive and ignorant comments." In 2016, Gabriel supported the UK's continued membership of the European Union in the referendum on the issue. Gabriel has declared his support for the two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. In 2014, he contributed songs to a new compilation album to raise funds for humanitarian organisations aiding Palestinian Arabs in Gaza. Gabriel was quoted: "I am certain that Israelis and Palestinians will both benefit from a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders. We have watched Palestinians suffer for too long, especially in Gaza. I am not, and never was, anti-Israeli or anti-Semitic, but I oppose the policy of the Israeli government, oppose injustice and oppose the occupation ... I am proud to be one of the voices asking the Israeli government: 'Where is the two-state solution that you wanted so much?' and clearly say that enough is enough." In 2019, Gabriel was among 50 artists who urged the BBC to ask for the Eurovision Song Contest to be moved out of Israel, citing human rights concerns. In 2023, Gabriel signed the Artists4Ceasefire open letter to President Joe Biden calling for a ceasefire during the Israeli bombardment of Gaza. Gabriel has been in support of the Armenian genocide recognition. In October 2020, he posted a message on social media in support of Armenia and Artsakh in regards to the Nagorno-Karabakh war. He said, "The fighting that has now broken out between Azerbaijan and Armenia is really horrific and we need to lobby whoever we can to encourage a ceasefire, but hearing reports that President Erdoğan has now lined up 80,000 Turkish troops on the Armenian border is a terrifying prospect, full of the dark echoes of history." In popular culture Gabriel's music featured prominently on the popular 1980s television show Miami Vice. The songs include "The Rhythm of the Heat" and "Biko" (from "Evan"), "Red Rain" (from "Stone's War"), "Mercy Street" (from "Killshot"), "Sledgehammer" (from "Better Living Through Chemistry"), "We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)" (from "Forgive Us Our Debts" and "Deliver Us from Evil") and "Don't Give Up" (from "Redemption in Blood"). With seven songs used total, Gabriel had the most music featured by a solo artist in the series, and he is the only artist to have had a song used in four of Vice's five seasons. Five of the nine tracks on his most popular album So (1986) were used in the series. Gabriel’s song "In Your Eyes" features twice in the teen romance drama Say Anything (1989). It is the song playing on Lloyd Dobler’s boombox as he serenades Diane, creating the film’s most iconic scene. Gabriel's cover of David Bowie's "Heroes" was featured in the fourth season finale of Big Love, as well as the first season and the ending scene of Stranger Things season 3 and the ending credits of Lone Survivor. The song also features in 'Children of Mars', a 2020 episode of the web series Star Trek: Short Treks. A series of spoof documentaries about the fictitious rock star Brian Pern were based loosely on Gabriel. In 2021, Northern Irish post-punk band Invaderband released their second studio album entitled 'Peter Gabriel'. The sleeve was a painting of Gabriel by Luke Haines. Personal life Gabriel has married twice and has four children. In 1971, at age 21, he married Jill Moore, daughter of Baron Philip Moore. They had two daughters, one of whom, Anna-Marie, is a filmmaker who filmed and directed Gabriel's live DVDs Growing Up on Tour: A Family Portrait (2003), Still Growing Up: Live & Unwrapped (2005) and some of his music videos. Melanie is a musician who had been a backing vocalist in her father's band in 2002–2011. Both daughters appear in the final sequence of the video for their father's song "Sledgehammer". Gabriel's marriage became increasingly strained, culminating in Moore's affair with David Lord, the co-producer of Gabriel's fourth studio album. After the couple divorced in 1987, Gabriel fell into a period of depression and attended therapy sessions for six years. For a time after his divorce, Gabriel lived with American actress Rosanna Arquette. In 2021, Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor said that she maintained an on-and-off relationship with Gabriel in the wake of his divorce. She ended the relationship because of her frustration with his lack of commitment, which inspired her single "Thank You for Hearing Me". Gabriel married Meabh Flynn in 2002, with whom he has two sons. Gabriel has resided in Wiltshire for many years and runs Real World Studios from Box, Wiltshire. He previously lived in the Woolley Valley near Bath, Somerset. In 2010, he joined a campaign to stop agricultural development in the valley, which had also inspired his first solo single, "Solsbury Hill", in 1977. Discography Studio albums Peter Gabriel (1977; known as Peter Gabriel 1 and Car) Peter Gabriel (1978; known as Peter Gabriel 2 and Scratch) Peter Gabriel (1980; known as Peter Gabriel 3 and Melt) Peter Gabriel (1982; known as Peter Gabriel 4 and Security) So (1986) Us (1992) Up (2002) Scratch My Back (2010) New Blood (2011) I/O (2023) Soundtracks Birdy (1985) Passion (1989) OVO (2000) Long Walk Home (2002) Awards and nominations See also List of ambient music artists List of artists who reached number one in the United States List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance Club Songs chart List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart List of best-selling music artists 24997 Petergabriel References Citations Works cited Banks, Tony; Collins, Phil; Gabriel, Peter; Hackett, Steve; Rutherford, Mike (2007). Dodd, Philipp (ed.). Genesis. Chapter and Verse. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-297-84434-1. Bowler, Dave; Dray, Bryan (1992). Genesis: A Biography. Sidgwick & Jackson. ISBN 978-0-283-06132-5. Easlea, Daryl (2018). Without Frontiers: The Life & Music of Peter Gabriel (Revised and Updated ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-1-787-59082-3. Frame, Pete (1983). The Complete Rock Family Trees. Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-7119-0465-1. External links Official website Peter Gabriel at AllMusic Peter Gabriel discography at Discogs Peter Gabriel at IMDb Peter Gabriel on the Music-Map

So is the fifth studio album by English singer-songwriter Peter Gabriel, released on 19 May 1986 by Charisma Records and Virgin Records. After working on the soundtrack to the film Birdy (1984), producer Daniel Lanois was invited to remain at Gabriel's Somerset home during 1985 to work on his next solo project. Initial sessions for So consisted of Gabriel, Lanois and guitarist David Rhodes, although these grew to include a number of percussionists. Although Gabriel continued to use the pioneering Fairlight CMI digital sampling synthesizer, songs from these sessions were less experimental than his previous material. Nevertheless, Gabriel drew on various musical influences, fusing pop, soul, and art rock with elements of traditional world music, particularly African and Brazilian styles. It is Gabriel's first non-eponymous album, So representing an "anti-title" that resulted from label pressure to "properly" market his music. Gabriel toured So on the This Way Up tour (1986–1987), with some songs performed at human rights and charity concerts during this period. Often considered his best and most accessible album, So was an immediate commercial success and transformed Gabriel from a cult artist into a mainstream star, becoming his best-selling solo release. It has been certified fivefold platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America and triple platinum by the British Phonographic Industry. The album's lead single, "Sledgehammer", was promoted with an innovative animated music video and achieved particular success, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and subsequently winning a record of nine MTV Video Music Awards. It was followed by four further singles, "Don't Give Up" (a duet with Kate Bush), "Big Time", "In Your Eyes", and "Red Rain". The album received positive reviews from most critics, who praised its songwriting, melodies and fusion of genres, although some retrospective reviews have criticised its overt commercialism and 1980s production sounds. So was nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1987 but lost to Paul Simon's Graceland. It has appeared in lists of the best albums of the 1980s, and Rolling Stone included the album in their 2003 and 2020 editions of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2000 it was voted number 82 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums. So was remastered in 2002, partially re-recorded for Gabriel's 2011 orchestral project New Blood and issued as a box set in 2012. Recording Since 1978, Gabriel had composed his music at Ashcombe House, including his album Security (1982) and the Birdy soundtrack (1984). He had an inexpensive studio in the adjacent barn consisting of two rooms, one where Gabriel would produce his vocals and work on lyrics, and another where the music would be assembled. Preparing for So, Gabriel considered Bill Laswell and Chic's Nile Rodgers as potential producers. He eventually asked his Birdy collaborator Daniel Lanois to stay at Ashcombe and work with him further. Work on the album began in earnest in February 1985, with "We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)" as the first song. Some of the initial sessions consisted of Gabriel, Lanois and guitarist David Rhodes playing together: Gabriel had begun work on some songs and provided Lanois and Rhodes with chord structures, around which they improvised compositions. Lanois recalled they had "a nice starting point [as] in that kind of scenario, it's not a good idea to have a lot of people around because you get nervous that you're wasting other people's time". Consequently, there was a relaxed atmosphere surrounding these sessions and the trio would jokingly refer to themselves as the "Three Stooges". This also involved the wearing of construction site hard hats as they had a "turning up for work humour". As sessions grew, engineer/mixer Kevin Killen, bassist Tony Levin, and drummer Jerry Marotta became significant contributors, and were aided by percussionists Manu Katché and Stewart Copeland and violinist L. Shankar. The studio's basic equipment consisted of "two analog 24-track machines, a Studer A80, and a Studer A80 shell that had been modified by a local electronics wizard, with its own audio cards and transport controls". To record vocals a Neumann U47 tube microphone and a Decca compressor were used without equalization. All of So's songs were made in a similar format. Gabriel would record demo parts on a modified "B machine" - using mainly a Yamaha piano and Prophet-5 over a Linn 9000 drum beat - and play this to the band. During rehearsals, the band would listen to the B machine through headphones and record their output onto the "A machine"; parts of Gabriel's demo would also be transferred to the A machine at this stage. Subsequent takes of the song were then put onto the B machine in order for the band to hear what they had played with the demo, as well as the song's new and old takes. Other equipment included the "groundbreaking" Fairlight CMI synthesizer, which Gabriel said in an interview for Billboard meant "more human imagination is involved". He added, "the creative decision-making process has become more important than technique. You have a wider range of tools, a wider range of decisions". Although remaining continually inspired to produce new music, he often struggled to write lyrics and would procrastinate. His proclivity to being dissatisfied with them required Killen to isolate certain vocal performances as the master track, in order to keep other tracks available so new lyrics could be edited in. Lanois took adverse measures to encourage his writing, such as destroying his much-used telephone in the nearby woods and, on one occasion, nailed the studio door shut to lock him inside. Towards the end of recording, Gabriel became "obsessed" with the track listing and created an audio cassette of all the song's beginnings and ends to hear how the sounds blended together. He wanted to have "In Your Eyes" as the final track, but its prominent bassline meant it had to be placed earlier on the vinyl edition as there is more room for the stylus to vibrate. With later CD releases, this restriction was removed and the track was placed at the end of the album. So was completed in February 1986 and cost £200,000 to make. It was over-dubbed at Power Station Studios in New York (as well as all horn section parts having been recorded there), despite Gabriel considering sending it via a computer-telephone set up, reasoning, "that's a lot of information to send via phone. Isn't it amazing though? You can send a song idea around the world to musicians then beam parts back by satellite". It was mastered by Ian Cooper in mid-February 1986 at London's Townhouse Studios. Composition So has been described as Gabriel's most commercially accessible and least experimental album, one that features pop songs and incorporates art pop and progressive pop throughout. Like his previous albums, its basis is in art rock, although on So, Gabriel develops an increased focus on melody and combines this with elements of soul and African music. "With a song like (the previous album's) 'The Rhythm of the Heat' or 'The Family and the Fishing Net', if I were to strum that along on a guitar or piano, the song might not work very well ... whereas more of the things on this album do work just as lyric, melody and chords in a more traditional sense." The songs are highly influenced by traditional world music, particularly African and Brazilian music, with Gabriel incorporating rhythms and drum beats from these regions. In a 2011 interview for Uncut, Gabriel said, "I'd had my fill of instrumental experimenting for a while, and I wanted to write proper pop songs, albeit on my own terms." Jon Pareles of The New York Times notes that Gabriel "doesn't just add on African drums or Indian violin to ordinary songs; they are part of the foundation." Chris Roberts of Classic Rock also notes that the album "[takes] the Fairlight synth and [adds] a palatable dash of world music to art pop." Daniel Lanois' production was noted as textured, replete with ambient details and "immaculate warmth giving each note room to breathe, its textures lavish (in the preferred style of the time) without being sterile". Side one Gabriel wanted the album to "crash open at the front". Despite disliking "metal" percussion instruments, he was persuaded by Lanois to allow the Police's Stewart Copeland to play cymbals and hi-hat on its opener, "Red Rain". Gabriel sings – in his upper register, with a throaty, gravelly texture – of a destructive world with social problems such as torture and kidnapping. Its concept originated from a dream in which he envisaged the parting of a vast, red sea and human-like glass bottles filling up with blood. It was also intended to continue the story of Mozo, a recurring character on Gabriel's first and second albums. "Sledgehammer" was the final track to be conceived. Most of Gabriel's band had packed away their equipment and were ready to leave the studio, but he asked them to reassemble to quickly run through a song he had an idea for. "Sledgehammer" was partially inspired by the music of Otis Redding, and Gabriel sought out Wayne Jackson, whom Gabriel had seen on tour with Redding in the 1960s, to record horns for the track. Opened by a shakuhachi bamboo flute, its beat is dominated by brass instruments, particularly Jackson's horn, and features lyrics abundant with sexual euphemisms. Manu Katché's drums were recorded in one take as he believed any subsequent version would be inferior to his original interpretation of the music. So's most political statement, "Don't Give Up", was fuelled by Gabriel's discontent with rising unemployment during Margaret Thatcher's premiership and Dorothea Lange's photograph "Migrant Mother". The track began as a Linn drum machine pattern of slow, low-pitched tom-tom drums that Gabriel made, and Lanois believed could serve as the centrepiece of a song. Tony Levin added bass to create a more harmonious sound, and during the second half of the track, put a nappy behind his bass strings to dampen the sound. Gabriel ensured the song, which follows a narrative of an unemployed man and his lover, was written as a conversational piece. He initially sought Dolly Parton to portray the woman; although Parton declined, his friend Kate Bush agreed to feature. Bush serves as the song's respondent, she assumes a comforting role and with delicate vocals, sings lines such as "Rest your head/ you worry too much". The album's first side culminates with "That Voice Again", in which Gabriel explores the concept of conscience, examining the "parental voice in our heads that either helps or defeats us". Co-written with David Rhodes, who plays guitar over Katché and Levin's input, the song was written after Gabriel's initial discussions with Martin Scorsese about scoring The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). Side two "In Your Eyes" has been described as Gabriel's greatest love song. Inspired by the Sagrada Família and its architect Antoni Gaudí, Gabriel sings over a drumbeat of only feeling complete in the eyes of his lover. The track's powerful atmosphere is created through the singing of Senegalese musician Youssou N'Dour, who sings in his native Wolof. Gabriel became interested in the late American poet Anne Sexton after reading the anthology To Bedlam and Part Way Back. He dedicated So's sixth track to her, calling it "Mercy Street" after "45 Mercy Street", a poem released in another posthumous collection. "Mercy Street" is set to one of several Forró-inspired percussion compositions that Gabriel recorded in Rio de Janeiro. When these compositions were unearthed in the studio, they were accidentally played back ten per cent slower than the original recording, giving them a grainy quality that Gabriel and Lanois thought highlighted the cymbal and guitars. It features two harmonious Gabriel vocals; one a shadow vocal an octave below the main vocal. Intended to give a sensual, haunting effect, this was hard to capture except when Gabriel first woke up. The dance song "Big Time" has funk influences and is built on a "percussive bass sound". Its lyrics satirise the yuppie culture of the 1980s, materialism and consumerism and are the result of Gabriel's self-examination, after he considered whether he may have desired fame after all. "We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)" was recorded for Peter Gabriel or "Melt" and is described as an interlude. It references the experiment on obedience carried out by American social psychologist Stanley Milgram, intended as a reference to the obedience citizens show to dictators during times of war. Marotta's drums on the song – said to resemble "a heartbeat heard from the womb" – were coupled with Shankar's violin and "two overdubbed guitar tracks by Rhodes". While "We Do What We're Told" was the final song on initial LP versions of the album, the cassette and CD releases close with "This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds)", which Gabriel decided to include only forty-eight hours before the album's submission. "Excellent Birds" was composed with American musician Laurie Anderson. They recorded the song and the filmed music video over a period of three days - which was relatively quick by Gabriel's standards - for inclusion on the 1984 global satellite television broadcast Good Morning, Mr. Orwell. This was interpolated into a recording called "This Is the Picture", on which Nile Rodgers plays rhythm guitar. According to Anderson, she and Gabriel "could never agree on what a bassline was. (I think I probably don’t hear so well down there.) I wanted to learn from him, but it turned into a standoff and so we each put out our own version of the song." However, Gabriel remembered it slightly differently: both of them quite liked the song such that they agreed to release it on their own albums. Anderson's version, with Gabriel on additional vocals, appeared on her 1984 album Mister Heartbreak, which is closer to the version premiered on Good Morning, Mr. Orwell. Gabriel's own version was based on the groove, while Anderson's version was "more fragmented". Release So is Gabriel's first non-eponymous album. Gabriel has noted his dislike for titling albums, mainly because it distracts from the sleeve design. In an interview for Rolling Stone, he explained that his American label Geffen Records refused to release Peter Gabriel IV until it was retitled Security. He elaborated that for So "[he] decided to go for the anti-title ... It can be more a piece of graphic, if you like, as opposed to something with meaning and intention. And that's what I've done ever since". When the album was profiled in the Classic Albums documentary series, Gabriel quipped that its short title meant it could be enlarged and useful when marketing it. Before the album was eventually named So, it was meant to be entitled Good. The album's cover is a portrait of Gabriel photographed by Trevor Key, who was then most famous for capturing the bell artwork for Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells (1973). The sleeve was designed by Peter Saville and Brett Wickens; Saville was best known for designing several sleeves for Factory Records artists and was paid £20,000 for his work on So. According to Saville, the cover was based on the one he designed for New Order's album Low-Life the previous year, utilizing a similar method of taking Polaroid photos to produce a "groovy" portrait of the artist; Saville described the results as "contemporary, young but grown up, mature." Gabriel recalled: "The only compromise I made was to go with Peter Saville's idea for a retro-style portrait. I was told my usual obscure LP sleeves alienated women." Saville, meanwhile, stated that the cover was influenced by the impassioned tone and unusually accessible nature of the music, following a nighttime drive where he witnessed a car crash, then reluctantly started playing a test cassette of the album and was moved to tears by Gabriel's performance. The cover was partly influenced by photographer David Bailey's work. So was released on 19 May 1986. It topped the charts of seven countries worldwide, including the United Kingdom, where it became Gabriel's second number one album. In the United States, So became one of Geffen Records' most commercially successful releases, peaking at number two and remaining on the chart for ninety-three weeks. In April 1986, "Sledgehammer" was released as the album's lead single and became Gabriel's first and only number one on the Billboard Hot 100, displacing Genesis' first and only US number one "Invisible Touch". The track reached number four in the United Kingdom, where it ties with "Games Without Frontiers" as his highest-charting single, and peaked at number one in Canada. The success of "Sledgehammer" can be seen, in part, due to its hugely popular and innovative stop motion music video, designed by Aardman Animations. Gabriel would go on to say in an interview for Rolling Stone that he believed the video exposed So's songs to a wider audience, bolstering the album's success. Two high-charting singles followed, "Don't Give Up", which rose to number nine on the UK Singles Chart and a less successful seventy-nine in America, while "Big Time" peaked at number thirteen in the UK and number eight in America. "In Your Eyes" saw moderate success in America, where it reached twenty-six on the Hot 100, while "Red Rain" peaked at forty-six in the United Kingdom. Bono contacted Gabriel to perform at A Conspiracy of Hope, a series of Live Aid-inspired concerts that intended to spread awareness of human rights issues in light of Amnesty International's twenty-fifth anniversary. Gabriel accepted and in June 1986, he performed alongside Sting, the Police, Lou Reed, and Joan Baez, with a set that opened with "Red Rain" and featured "Sledgehammer". Gabriel described it as "the best tour [he'd] ever been on". In the same month, Gabriel performed at London's Clapham Common, along with Boy George and Elvis Costello, for Artists Against Apartheid. Gabriel eventually embarked on the ninety-three date This Way Up tour to support So, beginning in Rochester, New York on 7 November 1986. One of the dates was a special two-night residency (20–21 December) at Tokyo's Meiji Jingu Stadium to fund a global computer system for the University for Peace, a United Nations project. The tour suspended in early 1987 until June when it reached Europe, before going on to America and finishing at the Lycabettus Amphitheatre in Athens in October. Gabriel partially performed So at The Prince's Trust Concert and at Human Rights Now! Tour in 1988. Critical reception So received mostly favourable reviews from music critics. Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote "only a handful of Western rock musicians have managed to use exotic rhythms and instruments with so much ingenuity and conviction". Pareles also praised his vocals, describing them as "grainy but not bluesy, ageless and joyless, the voice of some ancient mariner recounting disasters". Tim Holmes of Rolling Stone described the album as "a record of considerable emotional complexity and musical sophistication" and was pleased that it would assist exposing Gabriel to mainstream pop music. Terry Atkinson of Los Angeles Times viewed the album as offering "an amazing variety of tones, moods and topics, and a consistently powerful level of expression". Although disliking "Big Time", Atkinson concluded So was "a great album, possibly Gabriel's best". Steve Hochman, also of Los Angeles Times, praised Gabriel's reinvention too, describing it as "real progress" compared to the contemporaneous work of other progressive rock acts such as Genesis, GTR and Marillion. Chicago Tribune's Lynn Van Matre praised the album's "wave of funky rhythms" and called for more appreciation of Gabriel's talent, but noted a lack of "quirkiness" and said there were no tracks as impactful as his 1980 single "Biko". Robert Christgau was also lukewarm in The Village Voice, writing that "Gabriel's so smart he knows rhythm is what makes music go, which relieves him of humdrum melodic responsibilities but doesn't get him up on the one—smart guys do go for texture in a pinch." So has continued to perform well in most retrospective reviews. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic commended So as the "catchiest, happiest record he ever cut". Erlewine particularly praised Gabriel's fusion of art rock with African music and soul. Jude Rogers of the BBC wrote "once you look past the bombast of "Sledgehammer", ... you notice how easily its artful ideas slipped inside the 80s mainstream". The Quietus' Wyndham Wallace praised So's sincerity and called it "a heartfelt journey through intense emotional territory, assembled and arranged with intricacy and commitment, laboured over with such care that it sounds effortless". Ryan Bray, writer for Consequence of Sound, concluded So was an "all-too-rare record that manages to have it both ways, earning its richly deserved critical and commercial respect without giving so much as an artistic inch". He added that "it still stands on its own two feet as one of the consensus best records of the 80s". Mark Blake of Q described the album as "carbon-dated to 1986 thanks to those blaring saxes and Fairlight CMI digital sampling synths". He added that "Gabriel crafted an album of user-friendly pop that was still reassuringly odd." Terry Staunton of Classic Rock wrote "Red Rain was familiarly pensive and politically charged, but the radio waves completely surrendered to the record's muscular dance rock and slower tempo eloquence." Staunton concluded that Gabriel had displayed "a masterful confidence, delivering a satisfyingly unified whole". In a less positive retrospective review, Mojo's David Buckley contrasted the album with Gabriel's earlier, more experimental work, stating "on 1986's So, he switched tack to write pop, and write big. The results are mixed. 'Sledgehammer', echoing both Stevie Wonder's 'Superstition' and David Bowie's 'Fame', retains its punch. Elsewhere, Gabriel sounds airbrushed on 'Mercy Street', 'Red Rain' and 'In Your Eyes', with only 'We Do What We're Told' a reminder of a daring past." In a mostly positive 8/10 review for Uncut, John Lewis also directed criticism at the album. He praised its state-of-the-art production in parts, highlighting "Big Time" and "Sledgehammer" as standout tracks, but stated elsewhere it interfered, such as the Fairlight CMI synthesizer on "That Voice Again" and whistling ambient accompaniment on "Mercy Street". Legacy At the 29th Annual Grammy Awards, So was nominated for Album of the Year, losing to Paul Simon's Graceland (1986), while "Sledgehammer" received nominations for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. At the sixth Brit Awards, hosted by Jonathan King at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London, Gabriel won Best British Male Artist and "Sledgehammer" won Best British Music Video. Gabriel was most successful at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards where he was honoured with the Video Vanguard Award and "Sledgehammer" won an additional nine awards including Video of the Year, a record that has not been challenged. Its video is the most played music video in the history of MTV. So is often regarded as Gabriel's best album, as well as one of the best albums of the 1980s. It enabled Gabriel to transform from a cult artist, acclaimed for his cerebral, experimental solo work, into a mainstream, internationally known star. Rolling Stone placed So at 187 (2003 edition) and 297 (2020 edition) on its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and at 14 on its 100 Best Albums of the 1980s, noting that "despite its mass appeal, however, So also presented compelling challenges." Stereogum placed it at number one on its list of Gabriel's best albums, writing, "Peter Gabriel's fifth studio album is a mesmerizing dichotomy: simultaneously hooky and experimental; timeless, yet completely crystallizing its moment in history ... It's a masterpiece. So has been profiled in the Classic Albums series and featured in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Slant Magazine listed the album at 41 on its list of the 100 Best Albums of the 1980s, describing it as "Gabriel's most accessible yet ambitious work. A chronicle of political, emotional, and artistic exploration, the album [attempts] to balance standard pop orthodoxy with his still-rumbling desire for sonic experimentation". Jim Allen wrote for Ultimate Classic Rock, "What makes So important is the way he seamlessly blended peerless pop savvy with an iconoclast’s adventurous artistic instincts. His slightly twisted pop songs packed enough emotional impact, sonic surprises and catchy melodies to make for one of the era’s most consistently rewarding records." Conversely, in 2002 The Guardian's lead critic Alexis Petridis stated that Gabriel had "suffered a musical mid-life crisis", lampooning it as "an album packed with ultra-commercial priapic cod-funk" and calling it "a ruthless bid for mainstream success, yet he emerged without a stain on his avant-garde credentials". So is Gabriel's best-selling album, having been certified fivefold platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and triple platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).[1] In 2002, So was re-issued and remastered. In 2011, several of tracks from So were featured on Gabriel's ninth studio release New Blood, a project of orchestral re-recordings from Gabriel's discography. In 2012, for the album's twenty-fifth anniversary, a limited edition box set was released. It includes the remastered So album, the Live at Athens (1987) album and a So DNA album which examines its production, as well as new liner notes, photographs, vinyl collectibles and the So: Classic Albums documentary. In the same year, Gabriel embarked on the Back to Front Tour where Gabriel plays every song on the So album with several of the session musicians from its recording. Michael Glabicki of the American band Rusted Root acknowledges this album as a key influence on his own career exploring worldbeat music, saying, "I just kind of got locked into that sound. Peter Gabriel's So kind of gave everyone the go-ahead that this could work in a popular fashion. For people like me who were exploring those sounds, the wonder of if it's going to work or not just went away at that point." English musician Steven Wilson said, "People think the 80s were a shallow, superficial era", but he cited So as an album that was "really smart". Track listing All songs written by Peter Gabriel, except "That Voice Again" written with David Rhodes and "This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds)" written with Laurie Anderson. Notes: "This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds)" did not appear on vinyl pressings until 2002. "In Your Eyes" appears as side 2, track 5 (track 9 on CD) on all pressings from 2002 and later. Personnel Credits adapted from So's liner notes. The track numbers correspond to the original release. Peter Gabriel – lead and backing vocals, CMI (all tracks), Prophet synthesizer (all except tracks 5 & 9), piano (all except tracks 7 & 9), Linn 9000 (tracks 3 & 7), synthesizer (tracks 5 & 7), percussion (track 4), Yamaha CS-80 (track 6), LinnDrum (track 9), Synclavier (track 9) Tony Levin – bass guitar (tracks 1–5), drumstick bass (fretting only) (track 7) David Rhodes – guitar (all except tracks 6 & 9), backing vocals (tracks 1 & 5) Jerry Marotta – drums (tracks 1 & 8), additional drums (track 5), bass guitar (drumming only) (track 7) Manu Katché – drums (tracks 2–5), percussion (tracks 3–5), talking drum (tracks 5 & 9) Chris Hughes – electronic drums, programming (track 1) Stewart Copeland – hi-hat (track 1), drums (track 7) Daniel Lanois – guitar (tracks 1, 2 & 4), tambourine (track 2), surf guitar (track 7), twelve-string guitar (track 9) Wayne Jackson – trumpet (tracks 2 & 7), cornet (track 7) Mark Rivera – tenor saxophone (tracks 2 & 7), processed saxophone (track 6), alto saxophone, baritone saxophone (track 7) Don Mikkelsen – trombone (tracks 2 & 7) P. P. Arnold – backing vocals (tracks 2 & 7) Coral Gordon – backing vocals (tracks 2 & 7) Dee Lewis – backing vocals (tracks 2 & 7) Richard Tee – piano (tracks 3, 5 & 6) Simon Clark – keyboards, backing vocals (track 3), Hammond organ, programming, bass guitar (track 7) Kate Bush – vocals (track 3) L. Shankar – violin (tracks 4 & 8) Larry Klein – bass guitar (tracks 5 & 6) Youssou N'Dour – backing vocals (track 5) Michael Been – backing vocals (track 5) Jim Kerr – backing vocals (track 5) Ronnie Bright – bass vocals (track 5) Djalma Correa – surdo, congas, triangle (track 6) Jimmy Bralower – programming kick (track 7) Bill Laswell – bass guitar (track 9) Nile Rodgers – guitar (track 9) Laurie Anderson – synthesizer and vocals (track 9) Greg Fulginiti – mastering Charts Certifications References Notes Citations Sources

A sledgehammer is a tool with a large, flat, often metal head, attached to a long handle. The long handle combined with a heavy head allows the sledgehammer to gather momentum during a swing and apply a large force compared to hammers designed to drive nails. Along with the mallet, it shares the ability to distribute force over a wide area. This is in contrast to other types of hammers, which concentrate force in a relatively small area. Etymology The word sledgehammer is derived from the Old-English "slægan", which, in its first sense, means "to strike violently". The English words "slag", "slay", and "slog" are cognates. Uses The handle can range from 50 centimetres (1 ft 8 in) to a full 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) long, depending on the mass of the head. The head mass is usually 1 to 9 kilograms (2.2 to 19.8 lb). Modern heavy duty sledgehammers come with 10-to-20-pound (4.5–9.1 kg) heads. Sledgehammers usually require two hands and a swinging motion involving the entire torso, in contrast to smaller hammers used for driving in nails. The combination of a long swinging range, and heavy head, increases the force of the resulting impact. Sledgehammers are often used in demolition work, for breaking through drywall or masonry walls. Sledgehammers were formerly widely used in mining operations, particularly hand steel, but are rarely used in modern mining. Sledgehammers are also used when substantial force is necessary to dislodge a trapped object (often in farm or oil field work), or for fracturing concrete. Another common use is for driving fence posts into the ground. Sledgehammers are used by police forces in raids on property to gain entry by force, commonly through doors. They were and still are commonly used by blacksmiths to shape heavy sections of iron. The British SAS counter terrorist team used sledgehammers to gain access to rooms during the 1980 Iranian Embassy Siege. However, today they use a tool called a "dynamic hammer". Another use of sledgehammers is for driving railroad spikes into wooden sleepers during rail construction. When the two ends of the Union Pacific railroad were joined at Promontory, Utah, Leland Stanford hammered a golden spike into a sleeper with a silver hammer. Sledges used to drive spikes for rails had curved heads that came down to a "beak" that was only about one inch across. The shape meant that drivers needed to be accurate, and spot where the spike hit was often not much larger than a small coin, as anything larger would hit the plate or the sleeper. The curved head kept the handle away from the rail, as the spikes were driven with the rail between the spike and the driver. These are often called spike mauls. Drilling hammer A drilling hammer, club hammer, lump hammer, crack hammer, mini-sledge or thor hammer is a small sledgehammer whose relatively light weight and short handle allow one-handed use. It is useful for light demolition work, driving masonry nails, and for use with a steel chisel when cutting stone or metal. In this last application, its weight drives the chisel more deeply into the material being cut than lighter hammers. Club hammers are common on the British inland waterways for driving mooring pins into the towpath or canal bank. Scouts BSA has adopted the shorter sledgehammer, commonly referred to as an engineer's hammer, as an unofficial tool referred to as the scout hammer, as a complement to the pocket knife and hand axe. The handle is 12–18 inches (30–46 cm) long with a head weighing 2 to 6 lb (0.91–2.72 kg). The hammer is used for a variety of purposes such as driving tent stakes, establishing temporary fencing using wood or metal rebar, splitting wood in conjunction with a wedge, or straightening all that is bent. Post maul Post mauls are similar to sledgehammers in shape, but are meant to drive wooden fence posts or tree stakes into the earth. Newer mauls have broad, flat circular faces that are significantly larger in diameter than the body of the head (where the handle attaches). Older post mauls are significantly larger than sledgehammers like their newer counterparts except the outside diameter (body) of older post maul designs remained the same large diameter as that of the faces of the hammer from one side to the other side. Sledgehammers usually have octagonal faces that are the same diameter or slightly smaller than the body of the head, and they are not nearly as large in overall diameter as a post maul. References == External links ==

How old was the author of Dragon Ball when the manga was first released?

29

Temporal reasoning

Dragon Ball (Japanese: ドラゴンボール, Hepburn: Doragon Bōru) is a Japanese media franchise created by Akira Toriyama in 1984. The initial manga, written and illustrated by Toriyama, was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1984 to 1995, with the 519 individual chapters collected in 42 tankōbon volumes by its publisher Shueisha. Dragon Ball was originally inspired by the classical 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West, combined with elements of Hong Kong martial arts films. Dragon Ball characters also use a variety of East Asian martial arts styles, including karate and Wing Chun (kung fu). The series follows the adventures of protagonist Son Goku from his childhood through adulthood as he trains in martial arts. He spends his childhood far from civilization until he meets a teen girl named Bulma, who encourages him to join her quest in exploring the world in search of the seven orbs known as the Dragon Balls, which summon a wish-granting dragon when gathered. Along his journey, Goku makes several other friends, becomes a family man, discovers his alien heritage, and battles a wide variety of villains, many of whom also seek the Dragon Balls. Toriyama's manga was adapted and divided into two anime series produced by Toei Animation: Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, which together were broadcast in Japan from 1986 to 1996. Additionally, the studio has developed 21 animated feature films and three television specials, as well as an anime sequel series titled Dragon Ball GT (1996–1997) and an anime midquel series titled Dragon Ball Super (2015–2018). From 2009 to 2015, a revised version of Dragon Ball Z aired in Japan under the title Dragon Ball Kai, as a recut that follows the manga's story more faithfully by removing most of the material featured exclusively in the anime. Several companies have developed various types of merchandise based on the series leading to a large media franchise that includes films (both animated and live-action), collectible trading card games, action figures, collections of soundtracks, and numerous video games. Dragon Ball has become one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time. The Dragon Ball manga has been sold in over 40 countries and the anime has been broadcast in more than 80 countries. The manga's 42 collected tankōbon volumes have over 160 million copies sold in Japan and 260 million copies sold worldwide, making it one of the best-selling manga series of all time. Reviewers have praised the art, characterization, and humor of the story. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential manga series ever made, with many manga artists citing Dragon Ball as a source of inspiration for their own now-popular works. The anime, particularly Dragon Ball Z, is also highly popular around the world and is considered one of the most influential in boosting the popularity of Japanese animation in Western culture. It has had a considerable impact on global popular culture, referenced by and inspiring numerous artists, athletes, celebrities, filmmakers, musicians, and writers around the world. Setting Earth, known as the Dragon World (ドラゴンワールド) and designated as "Planet 4032-877" by the celestial hierarchy, is the main setting for the entire Dragon Ball series, as well as related media such as Dr. Slump, Neko Majin, and Jaco the Galactic Patrolman. It is mainly inhabited by Earthlings (地球人, Chikyūjin), a term used inclusively to refer to all of the intelligent races native to the planet, including humans, anthropomorphic beings, and monsters. Starting from the Dragon Ball Z series, various extraterrestrial species such as the Saiyans (サイヤ人, Saiya-jin) and Namekians (ナメック星人, Namekku-seijin) have played a more prominent role in franchise media. The narrative of Dragon Ball predominantly follows the adventures of the Saiyan Son Goku; upon meeting Bulma at the beginning of the series, the two embark on an adventure to gather the seven Dragon Balls, a set of orbs that summon the wish-granting dragon Shenlong.[ch. 1] Goku later receives martial arts training from Kame-Sen'nin, meets his lifelong friend Kuririn, and enters the Tenkaichi Budōkai (天下一武道会, lit. "Strongest Under the Heavens Martial Arts Tournament") to fight the world's strongest warriors. When Piccolo Daimao, and later his offspring Piccolo, tries to conquer the planet, Goku receives training from Earth's deities to defeat them. Goku later sacrifices his life to save the planet from his estranged brother Raditz,[ch. 205] but is revived after training in the afterlife under the tutelage of the North Kaio to combat the other incoming Saiyans, Nappa and Vegeta. He later becomes a Super Saiyan and defeats the powerful alien tyrant Freeza; this sets the tone of the rest of the series, with each enemy the characters face becoming stronger than the last, requiring them to attain further training. Dragon Ball Super establishes that the franchise is set in a multiverse composed of twelve numbered universes, with the majority of the Dragon Ball series taking place in Universe 7 (第７宇宙, Dai-Nana Uchū, lit. "Number Seven Universe"). Each universe is ruled by a number of benevolent and malevolent deities, respectively called Kaioshin and Gods of Destruction who are appointed by a higher being called Zeno, who watches over the multiverse. Production Akira Toriyama was a fan of Hong Kong martial arts films, particularly Bruce Lee films such as Enter the Dragon (1973) and Jackie Chan films such as Drunken Master (1978), and wanted to create a manga inspired by martial arts films. This led to Toriyama creating the 1983 one-shot manga Dragon Boy, which he later redeveloped into Dragon Ball. Toriyama loosely modeled the plot and characters of Dragon Ball on the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West, with Goku being Sun Wukong ("Son Goku" in Japanese), Bulma as Tang Sanzang, Oolong as Zhu Bajie, and Yamcha being Sha Wujing. Toriyama wanted to create a story with the basic theme of Journey to the West, but with "a little kung fu" by combining the novel with elements from the kung fu films of Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee. The title Dragon Ball was inspired by Enter the Dragon and later Bruceploitation knockoff kung fu films which frequently had the word "Dragon" in the title, and the fighting scenes were influenced by Jackie Chan movies. Since it was serialized in a shōnen manga magazine, he added the idea of the Dragon Balls to give it a game-like activity of gathering something, without thinking of what the characters would wish for. His concept of the Dragon Balls was inspired by the epic Japanese novel Nansō Satomi Hakkenden (1814–1842) from the late Edo period, which involves the heroes collecting eight Buddhist prayer beads, which Toriyama adapted into collecting seven Dragon Balls. He originally thought it would last about a year or end once the Dragon Balls were collected. Toriyama stated that although the stories are purposefully easy to understand, he specifically aimed Dragon Ball at readers older than those of his previous serial Dr. Slump. He also wanted to break from the Western influences common in Dr. Slump, deliberately going for Chinese scenery, referencing Chinese buildings and photographs of China his wife had bought. Toriyama wanted to set Dragon Ball in a fictional world largely based on Asia, taking inspiration from several Asian cultures including Japanese, Chinese, South Asian, Central Asian, Arabic and Indonesian cultures. The island where the Tenkaichi Budōkai is held is modeled after Bali (in Indonesia), which he, his wife and assistant visited in mid-1985, and for the area around Bobbidi's spaceship he consulted photos of Africa. Toriyama was also inspired by the jinn (genies) from The Arabian Nights. During the early chapters of the manga, Toriyama's editor, Kazuhiko Torishima, commented that Goku looked rather plain. To combat this, he added several characters like Kame-Sen'nin and Kuririn, and created the Tenkaichi Budōkai martial arts tournament to focus the storyline on fighting. It was when the first Tenkaichi Budōkai began that Dragon Ball truly became popular, having recalled the races and tournaments in Dr. Slump. Anticipating that readers would expect Goku to win the tournaments, Toriyama had him lose the first two while planning an eventual victory. This allowed for more character growth as the manga progressed. He said that Muscle Tower in the Red Ribbon Army storyline was inspired by the video game Spartan X (called Kung-Fu Master in the West), in which enemies appear very fast as the player ascends a tower (the game was in turn inspired by Jackie Chan's Wheels on Meals and Bruce Lee's Game of Death). He then created Piccolo Daimao as a truly evil villain, and as a result called that arc the most interesting to draw. Once Goku and company had become the strongest on Earth, they turned to extraterrestrial opponents including the Saiyans (サイヤ人, Saiya-jin); and Goku himself was retconned from an Earthling to a Saiyan who was sent to Earth as a baby. Freeza, who forcibly took over planets to resell them, was created around the time of the Japanese economic bubble and was inspired by real estate speculators, whom Toriyama called the "worst kind of people." Finding the escalating enemies difficult, he created the Ginyu Force to add more balance to the series. When Toriyama created the Super Saiyan (超(スーパー)サイヤ人, Sūpā Saiya-jin) transformation during the Freeza arc, he was initially concerned that Goku's facial expressions as a Super Saiyan made him look like a villain, but decided it was acceptable since the transformation was brought about by anger. Goku's Super Saiyan form has blonde hair because it was easier to draw for Toriyama's assistant (who spent a lot of time blacking in Goku's hair), and has piercing eyes based on Bruce Lee's paralyzing glare. Dragon Ball Z anime character designer Tadayoshi Yamamuro also used Bruce Lee as a reference for Goku's Super Saiyan form, stating that, when he "first becomes a Super Saiyan, his slanting pose with that scowling look in his eyes is all Bruce Lee." Toriyama later added time travel during the Cell arc, but said he had a hard time with it, only thinking of what to do that week and having to discuss it with his second editor Yu Kondo. After Cell's death, Toriyama intended for Gohan to replace Goku as the series' protagonist, but later felt the character was not suited for the role and changed his mind. Going against the normal convention that the strongest characters should be the largest in terms of physical size, he designed many of Dragon Ball's most powerful characters with small statures, including the protagonist, Goku. Toriyama later explained that he had Goku grow up as a means to make drawing fight scenes easier, even though his first editor Kazuhiko Torishima was initially against it because it was rare to have the main character of a manga series change drastically. When including fights in the manga, Toriyama had the characters go to uninhabited locations to avoid difficulties in drawing residents and destroyed buildings. Toriyama said that he did not plan the details of the story, resulting in strange occurrences and discrepancies later in the series, including changing the colors of the characters mid-story and few characters having screentone because he found it difficult to use. Since the completion of Dragon Ball, Toriyama has continued to add to its story, mostly background information on its universe, through guidebooks published by Shueisha. During the second half of the series, Toriyama has said that he had become more interested in coming up with the story than actually drawing it, and that the battles became more intense with him simplifying the lines. In 2013, he stated that because Dragon Ball is an action manga the most important aspect is the sense of speed, so he did not draw very elaborate, going so far as to suggest one could say that he was not interested in the art. He also once said that his goal for the series was to tell an "unconventional and contradictory" story. In 2013, commenting on Dragon Ball's global success, Toriyama said, "Frankly, I don't quite understand why it happened. While the manga was being serialized, the only thing I wanted as I kept drawing was to make Japanese boys happy.", "The role of my manga is to be a work of entertainment through and through. I dare say I don't care even if [my works] have left nothing behind, as long as they have entertained their readers." Manga Written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama, Dragon Ball was serialized in the manga anthology Weekly Shōnen Jump from December 3, 1984, to June 5, 1995, when Toriyama grew exhausted and felt he needed a break from drawing. The 519 individual chapters were collected in 42 tankōbon volumes by Shueisha from September 10, 1985, through August 4, 1995. Between December 4, 2002, and April 2, 2004, the chapters were re-released in a collection of 34 kanzenban volumes, which included a slightly rewritten ending, new covers, and color artwork from its Weekly Shōnen Jump run. The February 2013 issue of V Jump, which was released in December 2012, announced that parts of the manga will be fully colored and re-released in 2013. 20 volumes, beginning from chapter 195 and grouped by story arcs, were released between February 4, 2013, and July 4, 2014. 12 volumes covering the first 194 chapters were published between January 4 and March 4, 2016. A sōshūhen edition that aims to recreate the manga as it was originally serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump with color pages, promotional text, and next chapter previews, was published in 18 volumes between May 13, 2016, and January 13, 2017. Spin-offs Another manga penned by Ōishi, the three-chapter Dragon Ball: Episode of Bardock that revolves around Bardock, Goku's father, was published in the monthly magazine V Jump from August and October 2011. The final chapter of Toriyama's 2013 manga series Jaco the Galactic Patrolman revealed that it is set before Dragon Ball, with several characters making appearances. Jaco's collected volumes contain a bonus Dragon Ball chapter depicting Goku's mother. In December 2016, a spin-off manga titled Dragon Ball Side Story: The Case of Being Reincarnated as Yamcha began in Shueisha's Shōnen Jump+ digital magazine. Written and illustrated by Dragon Garow Lee, it is about a high school boy who after an accident wakes up in the body of Yamcha in the Dragon Ball manga. Crossovers Toriyama also created a short series, Neko Majin (1999–2005), that became a self-parody of Dragon Ball. In 2006, a crossover between Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kōen-mae Hashutsujo (or Kochikame) and Dragon Ball by Toriyama and Kochikame author Osamu Akimoto appeared in the Super Kochikame (超こち亀, Chō Kochikame) manga. That same year, Toriyama teamed up with Eiichiro Oda to create a crossover chapter of Dragon Ball and One Piece titled Cross Epoch. Reception Dragon Ball is one of the most popular manga series of all time, and it continues to enjoy high readership today. Dragon Ball is credited as one of the main reasons manga circulation was at its highest between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s. During Dragon Ball's initial run in Weekly Shōnen Jump, the manga magazine reached an average circulation of 6.53 million weekly sales, the highest in its history. During Dragon Ball's serialisation between 1984 and 1995, Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine had a total circulation of over 2.9 billion copies, with those issues generating an estimated ¥554 billion ($6.9 billion) in sales revenue. Dragon Ball also sold a record number of collected tankōbon volumes for its time. By 2000, more than 126 million tankōbon copies had been sold in Japan alone. It sold over 150 million copies in Japan by 2008, making it the best-selling manga ever at the time. By 2012, its sales in Japan had grown to pass 156 million, making it the second best-selling Weekly Shōnen Jump manga of all time, behind One Piece. Dragon Ball's tankobon volumes sold 159.5 million copies in Japan by February 2014, and have sold over 160 million copies in Japan as of 2016. The manga is similarly popular overseas, having been translated and released in over 40 countries worldwide. The total number of tankōbon volumes sold have reached 350 million copies worldwide. not including unofficial pirated copies; when including pirated copies, an estimated total of more than 400 million official and unofficial copies have been sold worldwide. For the 10th anniversary of the Japan Media Arts Festival in 2006, Japanese fans voted Dragon Ball the third greatest manga of all time. In a survey conducted by Oricon in 2007 among 1,000 people, Son Goku, the main character of the franchise, ranked first place as the "Strongest Manga Character of All Time." Goku's journey and his ever-growing strength resulted in the character winning "the admiration of young boys everywhere". Manga artists, such as One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda and Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto, have stated that Goku inspired their series' main protagonists as well as series structure. Manga critic Jason Thompson stated in 2011 that "Dragon Ball is by far the most influential shōnen manga of the last 30 years, and today, almost every Shōnen Jump artist lists it as one of their favorites and lifts from it in various ways." He says the series "turns from a gag/adventure manga to an nearly-pure fighting manga", and its basic formula of "lots of martial arts, lots of training sequences, a few jokes" became the model for other shōnen series, such as Naruto. Thompson also called Toriyama's art influential and cited it as a reason for the series' popularity. James S. Yadao, author of The Rough Guide to Manga, claims that the first several chapters of Dragon Ball "play out much like Saiyuki with Dr. Slump-like humour built in" and that Dr. Slump, Toriyama's previous manga, has a clear early influence on the series. He feels the series "established its unique identity" after the first occasion when Goku's group disbands and he trains under Kame-Sen'nin, when the story develops "a far more action-packed, sinister tone" with "wilder" battles with aerial and spiritual elements and an increased death count, while humor still makes an occasional appearance. Yadao claims that an art shift occurs when the characters "lose the rounded, innocent look that he established in Dr. Slump and gain sharper angles that leap off the page with their energy and intensity." Animerica felt the series had "worldwide appeal", using dramatic pacing and over-the-top martial arts action to "maintain tension levels and keep a crippler crossface hold on the audience's attention spans". In Little Boy: The Art of Japan's Exploding Subculture, Takashi Murakami commented that Dragon Ball's "never-ending cyclical narrative moves forward plausibly, seamlessly, and with great finesse." Ridwan Khan from Animefringe.com commented that the manga had a "chubby" art style, but as the series continued the characters got more refined, leaner, and more muscular. Khan prefers the manga over the slow pacing of the anime counterparts. Allen Divers of Anime News Network praised the story and humor of the manga as being very good at conveying all of the characters' personalities. Divers also called Viz's translation one of the best of all the English editions of the series due to its faithfulness to the original Japanese. D. Aviva Rothschild of Rationalmagic.com remarked the first manga volume as "a superior humor title". They praised Goku's innocence and Bulma's insistence as one of the funniest parts of the series. The content of the manga has been controversial in the United States. In November 1999, Toys "R" Us removed Viz's Dragon Ball from their stores nationwide when a Dallas parent complained the series had "borderline soft porn" after he bought them for his four-year-old son. Commenting on the issue, Susan J. Napier explained it as a difference in culture. After the ban, Viz reluctantly began to censor the series to keep wide distribution. However, in 2001, after releasing three volumes censored, Viz announced Dragon Ball would be uncensored and reprinted due to fan reactions. In October 2009, Wicomico County Public Schools in Maryland banned the Dragon Ball manga from their school district because it "depicts nudity, sexual contact between children and sexual innuendo among adults and children." Anime Additionally, Dragon Ball is an anime television metaseries. Dragon Ball (1986–89), Dragon Ball Z (1989–96), and Dragon Ball Super (2015–18) are set in a uniform main continuity, while Dragon Ball GT (1996–97) and Super Dragon Ball Heroes (since 2018) explore several alternate continuities. Dragon Ball Toei Animation produced an anime television series based on the first 194 manga chapters, also titled Dragon Ball. The series premiered in Japan on Fuji TV on February 26, 1986, and ran until April 19, 1989, lasting 153 episodes. It is broadcast in 81 countries worldwide. Dragon Ball Z Instead of continuing the anime as Dragon Ball, Toei Animation decided to carry on with their adaptation under a new name and asked Akira Toriyama to come up with the title. Dragon Ball Z (ドラゴンボールZ(ゼット), Doragon Bōru Zetto, commonly abbreviated as DBZ) picks up five years after the first series left off and adapts the final 325 chapters of the manga. It premiered in Japan on Fuji TV on April 26, 1989, taking over its predecessor's time slot, and ran for 291 episodes until its conclusion on January 31, 1996. Two television specials based on the Z series were aired on Fuji TV in Japan. The first, The One True Final Battle ~The Z Warrior Who Challenged Frieza – Son Goku's Father~, renamed Bardock – The Father of Goku by Funimation, was shown on October 17, 1990. The second special, Defiance in the Face of Despair!! The Remaining Super-Warriors: Gohan and Trunks, renamed The History of Trunks by Funimation, is based on a special chapter of the original manga and aired on February 24, 1993. Dragon Ball GT Dragon Ball GT (ドラゴンボールGT(ジーティー), Doragon Bōru Jī Tī, G(rand) T(ouring)) premiered on Fuji TV on February 7, 1996, and ran until November 19, 1997, for 64 episodes. Unlike the first two anime series, it is not based on Akira Toriyama's original Dragon Ball manga, being created by Toei Animation as a sequel to the series or as Toriyama called it, a "grand side story of the original Dragon Ball." Toriyama designed the main cast, the spaceship used in the show, the design of three planets, and came up with the title and logo. In addition to this, Toriyama also oversaw production of the series, just as he had for the Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z anime. The television special episode, Goku's Side Story! The Proof of his Courage is the Four-Star Ball, or A Hero's Legacy as Funimation titled it for their dub, aired on March 26, 1997, between episodes 41 and 42, serving as a kind of precursor to the epilogue to the series shown at the end of episode 64. Dragon Ball Z Kai In February 2009, Dragon Ball Z celebrated its 20th anniversary, with Toei Animation announcing that it would broadcast a re-edited and remastered version of the Dragon Ball Z anime under the name Dragon Ball Kai (ドラゴンボール改, Doragon Bōru Kai, lit. "Dragon Ball Revised"). The footage would be re-edited to follow the manga more closely, eliminating scenes and episodes which were not featured in the original manga, resulting in a more faithful adaptation, as well as in a faster-moving, and more focused story. The episodes were remastered for HDTV, with rerecording of the vocal tracks by most of the original cast, and featuring updated opening and ending sequences. On April 5, 2009, the series premiered in Japan airing in Fuji TV. Dragon Ball Z Kai reduced the episode count to 159 episodes (167 episodes internationally), from the original footage of 291 episodes. Damaged frames were removed, resulting in some minor shots being remade from scratch in order to fix cropping, and others to address continuity issues. The majority of the international versions, including Funimation Entertainment's English dub, are titled Dragon Ball Z Kai. Dragon Ball Super On April 28, 2015, Toei Animation announced Dragon Ball Super (ドラゴンボール超, Doragon Bōru Sūpā), the first all-new Dragon Ball television series to be released in 18 years. It debuted on July 5 and ran as a weekly series at 9:00 am on Fuji TV on Sundays until its series finale on March 25, 2018, after 131 episodes. Masako Nozawa reprises her roles as Goku, Gohan, and Goten. Most of the original cast reprise their roles as well. Koichi Yamadera and Masakazu Morita also reprise their roles, as Beerus and Whis, respectively. The story of the anime is set after the defeat of Majin Buu, when the Earth has become peaceful once again. Akira Toriyama is credited as the original creator, as well for "original story and character design concepts." It is also being adapted into a parallel manga. Super Dragon Ball Heroes In 2018, an anime to promote the Super Dragon Ball Heroes card and video game series was announced with a July 1 premiere. The series' announcement included a brief synopsis: Trunks returns from the future to train with Goku and Vegeta. However, he abruptly vanishes. The mysterious man "Fu" suddenly appears, telling them that Trunks has been locked up on the "Prison Planet", a mysterious facility in an unknown location between universes. The group searches for the Dragon Balls to free Trunks, but an unending super battle awaits them! Will Goku and the others manage to rescue Trunks and escape the Prison Planet? Other installments The short film Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!! was created for the Jump Super Anime Tour, which celebrated Weekly Shōnen Jump's 40th anniversary, and debuted on September 21, 2008. A short animated adaptation of Naho Ōishi's Bardock spinoff manga, Dragon Ball: Episode of Bardock, was shown on December 17–18, 2011, at the Jump Festa 2012 event. A two-episode original video animation (OVA) titled Dragon Ball Z Side Story: Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans was created in 1993 as strategy guides for the Famicom video game of the same name. A remake titled Dragon Ball: Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans was created as a bonus feature for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video game Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2, which was released on November 11, 2010. A two-part hour-long crossover special between Dragon Ball Z, One Piece and Toriko, referred to as Dream 9 Toriko & One Piece & Dragon Ball Z Super Collaboration Special!! aired on April 7, 2013. Reception The anime adaptations have also been very well-received and are better known in the Western world than the manga, with Anime News Network saying, "Few anime series have mainstreamed it the way Dragon Ball Z has. To a certain generation of television consumers its characters are as well known as any in the animated realm, and for many it was the first step into the wilderness of anime fandom." In a survey conducted by Oricon, "Japanese anime that I think is world-class" and "world-class Manga & Anime" "Dragon Ball" was selected as No. 1 with an overwhelming number of votes in both surveys. In 2000, satellite TV channel Animax together with Brutus, a men's lifestyle magazine, and Tsutaya, Japan's largest video rental chain, conducted a poll among 200,000 fans on the top anime series, with Dragon Ball coming in fourth. "Dragon Ball" won first place in the "100 Best Anime in Japan that has advanced to the world" questionnaire on TV Asahi 's " Decision! This is Japan's Best ". TV Asahi conducted two polls in 2005 on the Top 100 Anime, Dragon Ball came in second in the nationwide survey conducted with multiple age-groups and in third in the online poll. Dragon Ball is one of the most successful franchises in animation history. The anime series is broadcast in more than 80 countries worldwide. In Japan, the first sixteen anime films up until Dragon Ball Z: Wrath of the Dragon (1995) sold 50 million tickets and grossed over ¥40 billion ($501 million) at the box office, in addition to selling over 500,000 home video units, by 1996. Later DVD releases of the Dragon Ball anime series have topped Japan's sales charts on several occasions. In the United States, the anime series sold over 25 million DVD units by January 2012, and has sold more than 30 million DVD and Blu-ray units as of 2017. In Latin America, public screenings of the Dragon Ball Super finale in 2018 filled public spaces and stadiums in cities across the region, including stadiums holding tens of thousands of spectators. Dragon Ball Z also proved to be a rating success in the United States, outperforming top shows such as Friends and The X-Files in some parts of the country in sweeps ratings during its first season. The premiere of season three of Dragon Ball Z in 1999, done by Funimation's in-house dub, was the highest-rated program ever at the time on Cartoon Network. In 2002, in the week ending September 22, Dragon Ball Z was the #1 program of the week on all of television with tweens 9–14, boys 9–14 and men 12–24, with the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday telecasts of Dragon Ball Z ranked as the top three programs in all of television, broadcast or cable, for delivery of boys 9–14. Dragon Ball GT has also had high ratings In 2001, it was reported that the official website of Dragon Ball Z recorded 4.7 million hits per day and included 500,000+ registered fans. Dragon Ball Z topped the Lycos 50 list of 'most searched' items for the second consecutive year—the first time that any topic has ever been able to repeat its dominance over a two-year period. Dragon Ball ranked second overall in the search number ranking for the past 10 years released by LYCOS in 2005. and ranked 3rd in Yahoo! in 2002 with PlayStation 2 topping the list Even after it ended, the "Dragon Ball" series continues to maintain a high level of popularity, surpassing that of new anime, and is also often being rebroadcast, making the "Dragon Ball" series Funimation's most important anime license The audience rating of the first Dragon Ball Kai episode on Nicktoons is the highest since the station opened Carl Kimlinger of Anime News Network summed up Dragon Ball as "an action-packed tale told with rare humor and something even rarer—a genuine sense of adventure." Both Kimlinger and colleague Theron Martin noted Funimation's reputation for drastic alterations of the script, but praised the dub. However, some critics and most fans of the Japanese version have been more critical with Funimation's English dub and script of Dragon Ball Z over the years. Jeffrey Harris of IGN criticized the voices, including how Freeza's appearance combined with the feminine English voice left fans confused about Freeza's gender. Carlos Ross of T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews considered the series' characters to be different from stereotypical stock characters and noted that they undergo much more development. Despite praising Dragon Ball Z for its cast of characters, they criticized it for having long and repetitive fights. Dragon Ball Z is well-known, and often criticized, for its long, repetitive, dragged-out fights that span several episodes, with Martin commenting "DBZ practically turned drawing out fights into an art form." However, Jason Thompson of io9 explained that this comes from the fact that the anime was being created alongside the manga. Dragon Ball Z was listed as the 78th best animated show in IGN's Top 100 Animated Series, and was also listed as the 50th greatest cartoon in Wizard magazine's Top 100 Greatest Cartoons list. Harris commented that Dragon Ball GT "is downright repellent", mentioning that the material and characters had lost their novelty and fun. He also criticized the GT character designs of Trunks and Vegeta as being goofy. Zac Bertschy of Anime News Network also gave negative comments about GT, mentioning that the fights from the series were "a very simple childish exercise" and that many other anime were superior. The plot of Dragon Ball GT has also been criticized for giving a formula that was already used in its predecessors. Other media Anime films Twenty animated theatrical films based on the Dragon Ball series have been released in Japan. The most recent films, Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods (2013), Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' (2015), Dragon Ball Super: Broly (2018), and Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero (2022), were produced as full-length feature films and were given stand-alone theatrical releases in Japan (as well as limited theatrical releases in the U.S.). They've also been the first movies to have original creator Akira Toriyama deeply involved in their production; Battle of Gods and Resurrection 'F' were remade into the first and second arcs of the Dragon Ball Super anime, which told the same stories as the two films in expanded detail. The 1996 feature film, Dragon Ball: The Path to Power, was also a full-length theatrical release with a running time of 80 minutes, and was produced to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the anime as a re-imagining of the first few arcs of the series. All previous films were mostly below feature length (around 45–60 minutes each), making them only slightly longer than one or two episodes of the TV series; this is due to them being originally shown as back-to-back presentations alongside other Toei film productions. These films are also mostly alternate re-tellings of certain story arcs (like The Path to Power), or extra side-stories that do not correlate with the continuity of the series. The first three films, along with The Path to Power, are based on the original Dragon Ball anime series. The remaining thirteen older films are based on Dragon Ball Z. The first five films were shown at the Toei Manga Festival (東映まんがまつり, Tōei Manga Matsuri), while the sixth through seventeenth films were shown at the Toei Anime Fair (東映アニメフェア, Toei Anime Fea). Live-action film An American live-action film titled Dragonball Evolution was produced by 20th Century Fox after it acquired the feature film rights to the Dragon Ball franchise in March 2002. Previous to the film, two unofficial live-action films had been produced decades prior. The first was a Korean film titled Dragon Ball: Ssawora Son Goku, Igyeora Son Goku (드래곤볼 싸워라 손오공 이겨라 손오공; Deulaegonbol Ssawola Son Ogong Igyeola Son Ogong; lit. Dragon Ball: Fight Son Goku, Win Son Goku), while the second was a Taiwanese film titled Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins (新七龍珠; Xīn qī lóng zhū), which was also dubbed in English. The film was directed by James Wong and produced by Stephen Chow, it was released in the United States on April 10, 2009. The film was meant to lead into sequels, which were cancelled, after the film flopped at the box office and became universally heralded as one of the worst adaptations of all time, being considered by the fans as being unfaithful to the source material. Franchise creator Akira Toriyama also criticized the film adding he was completely left out of the creative process, despite having himself offered to help, going as far as saying: "the result was a movie, I couldn't even call Dragon Ball". Years after its release, the writer of the film, Ben Ramsey, released a public apology in which he admitted to have written the film "chasing for a payday" instead of "as a fan of the franchise". With the news of 20th Century Fox selling itself, its assets, which include the film rights to the Dragon Ball franchise, will now be owned by its purchaser, The Walt Disney Company. However, there have been no plans made by The Walt Disney Company to create a new live-action Dragon Ball movie. Theme park attractions "Dragon Ball Z: The Real 4D" debuted at Universal Studios Japan in the summer of 2016. It features a battle between Goku and Freeza. Unlike most Dragon Ball animation, the attraction is animated with CGI. A second attraction titled "Dragon Ball Z: The Real 4-D at Super Tenkaichi Budokai" debuted at Universal Studios Japan in the summer of 2017, which featured a battle between the heroes and Broly. Video games The Dragon Ball franchise has spawned multiple video games across various genres and platforms. Earlier games of the series included a system of card battling and were released for the Famicom following the storyline of the series. Starting with the Super Famicom and Mega Drive, most of the games were from the fighting genre or RPG (role-playing game), such as the Super Butoden series. The first Dragon Ball game to be released in the United States was Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout for the PlayStation in 1997. For the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable games the characters were redone in 3D cel-shaded graphics. These games included the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai series and the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi series. Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit was the first game of the franchise developed for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Dragon Ball Xenoverse was the first game of the franchise developed for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. A massively multiplayer online role-playing game called Dragon Ball Online was available in South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan until the servers were shut down in 2013. A few years later fans started recreating the game. Today, "Dragon Ball Online Global" is a new, European version of Dragon Ball Online and it is being developed, while open beta server is running. The mobile game Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle (2015) has received over 350 million downloads worldwide, as of 2021. A notable recent release is Dragon Ball FighterZ (2018), a fighting game developed by Arc System Works. The game received massive fan and critical acclaim for its fast paced frantic 3v3 battles and great visuals, also winning Best Fighting Game of 2018 at The Game Awards and many other awards and other nominations. It also has a large eSports scene, where it is one of the most popular fighting games. It also did very well commercially, selling 4 million units across all platforms. Merchandise In 1994, the licensee Bandai earned $140 million annually from sales of licensed Dragon Ball toys, video games and other character goods in Japan. In 1996, Dragon Ball Z grossed $2.95 billion in merchandise sales worldwide. As of early 1996, more than 100 companies outside Japan applied for character goods. Bandai sold over 2 billion Dragon Ball Carddass cards in Japan by 1998, and over 1 million Dragon Stars action figures in the Americas and Europe as of 2018. In 2000, Burger King sponsored a toy promotion to distribute 20 million Dragon Ball Z figures across North America. By 2011, the franchise had generated $5 billion in merchandise sales. In 2012, the franchise grossed ¥7.67 billion ($96.13 million) from licensed merchandise sales in Japan. Soundtracks Myriad soundtracks were released in the anime, movies and the games. The music for the first two anime Dragon Ball and Z and its films was composed by Shunsuke Kikuchi, while the music from GT was composed by Akihito Tokunaga and the music from Kai was composed by Kenji Yamamoto and Norihito Sumitomo. For the first anime, the soundtracks released were Dragon Ball: Music Collection in 1985 and Dragon Ball: Complete Song Collection in 1991, although they were reissued in 2007 and 2003, respectively. For the second anime, the soundtrack series released were Dragon Ball Z Hit Song Collection Series. It was produced and released by Columbia Records of Japan from July 21, 1989, to March 20, 1996, the show's entire lifespan. On September 20, 2006, Columbia re-released the Hit Song Collection on their Animex 1300 series. Other CDs released are compilations, video games and films soundtracks as well as music from the English versions. Companion books There have been numerous companion books to the Dragon Ball franchise. Chief among these are the Daizenshuu (大全集) series, comprising seven hardback main volumes and three supplemental softcover volumes, covering the manga and the first two anime series and their theatrical films. The first of these, Dragon Ball: The Complete Illustrations (Daizenshuu volume 1), first published in Japan in 1995, is the only one that was released in English, being printed in 2008 by Viz Media. It contains all 264 colored illustrations Akira Toriyama drew for the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazines' covers, bonus giveaways and specials, and all the covers for the 42 tankōbon. It also includes an interview with Toriyama on his work process. The remainder have never been released in English, and all are now out of print in Japan. From February 4 to May 9, 2013, condensed versions of the Daizenshuu with some updated information were released as the four-volume Chōzenshū (超全集) series. For Dragon Ball GT, the Dragon Ball GT Perfect Files were released in May and December 1997 by Shueisha's Jump Comics Selection imprint. They include series information, illustration galleries, behind-the-scenes information, and more. They were out of print for many years, but were re-released in April 2006 (accompanying the Japanese DVD release of Dragon Ball GT) and this edition is still in print. Coinciding with the 34-volume kanzenban re-release of the manga, and the release of the entire series on DVD for the first time in Japan, four new guidebooks were released in 2003 and 2004. Dragon Ball Landmark and Dragon Ball Forever cover the manga, using volume numbers for story points that reference the kanzenban release, while Dragon Ball: Tenkaichi Densetsu (ドラゴンボール 天下一伝説) and Dragon Ball Z: Son Goku Densetsu (ドラゴンボールZ 孫悟空伝説) cover the Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z anime, respectively. Much of the material in these books is reused from the earlier Daizenshuu volumes, but they include new textual material including substantial interviews with the creator, cast and production staff of the series. Son Goku Densetsu in particular showcases previously unpublished design sketches of Goku's father Bardock, drawn by character designer Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru prior to creator Akira Toriyama's revisions that resulted in the final version. Following the release of Dragon Ball Kai in Japan, four new guidebooks were released: the two-volume Dragon Ball: Super Exciting Guide (ドラゴンボール 超エキサイティングガイド) in 2009, covering the manga, and two-volume Dragon Ball: Extreme Battle Collection (ドラゴンボール　極限バトルコレクション) in 2010, covering the anime series. Despite the TV series airing during this time being Kai, the Extreme Battle Collection books reference the earlier Z series in content and episode numbers. These books also include new question-and-answer sessions with Akira Toriyama, revealing a few new details about the world and characters of the series. 2010 also saw the release of a new artbook, Dragon Ball: Anime Illustrations Guide – The Golden Warrior (ドラゴンボール アニメイラスト集 「黄金の戦士」); a sort of anime-counterpart to the manga-oriented Complete Illustrations, it showcases anime-original illustrations and includes interviews with the three principal character designers for the anime. Each of the Japanese "Dragon Box" DVD releases of the series and movies, which were released from 2003 to 2006, as well as the Blu-ray boxed sets of Dragon Ball Kai, released 2009 to 2011, come with a Dragon Book guide that contains details about the content therein. Each also contains a new interview with a member of the cast or staff of the series. These books have been reproduced textually for Funimation's release of the Dragon Ball Z Dragon Box sets from 2009 to 2011. Collectible cards Collectible cards based on the Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT series have been released by Bandai. These cards feature various scenes from the manga and anime stills, plus exclusive artwork from all three series. Bandai released the first set in the United States in July 2008. Tabletop role-playing game Dragon Ball Z: The Anime Adventure Game, a tabletop role-playing game produced by R. Talsorian Games, was published in 1999. Cultural impact Since its debut, Dragon Ball has had a considerable impact on global popular culture. In 2015, the Japan Anniversary Association officially declared May 9 as "Goku Day" (悟空の日, Gokū no Hi); in Japanese, the numbers five and nine can be pronounced as "Go" and "Ku". It is similarly influential in international popular culture across other parts of the world. In the Philippines, a children's musical titled Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z: Myth, Magic, Music, was staged in June 1996. Dragon Ball is widely referenced in American popular culture, from television and music to celebrities and athletes, and the show has been celebrated with Goku making an appearance at the 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2022 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parades, and with Dragon Ball murals appearing in cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Kansas City and Denver. Dragon Ball is also immensely popular in other regions of the world, such as Latin America, where public screenings of the Dragon Ball Super finale in 2018 filled public spaces and stadiums in cities across the region, including stadiums holding tens of thousands of spectators. Illegal screenings the 2018 finale even caused a diplomatic incident between Mexico and Japan. Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama was decorated a Chevalier or "Knight" of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in May 2019 for his contributions to the arts, particularly for Dragon Ball which has been credited with popularizing manga in France. Vegeta's quote "It's Over 9000!" from the Saiyan Saga in the English dub of Dragon Ball Z is a popular Internet meme. Goku has been identified as a superhero, as well as Gohan with his Great Saiyaman persona. Motorola's Freescale DragonBall and DragonBall EZ/VZ microcontroller processors, released in 1995, are named after Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, respectively. Comics and animation Dragon Ball has been cited as inspiration across various different media. Dragon Ball is credited with setting trends for popular shōnen manga and anime since the 1980s, with manga critic Jason Thompson in 2011 calling it "by far the most influential shōnen manga of the last 30 years." Successful shōnen manga authors such as Eiichiro Oda (One Piece), Masashi Kishimoto (Naruto), Tite Kubo (Bleach), Hiro Mashima (Fairy Tail) and Kentaro Yabuki (Black Cat) have cited Dragon Ball as an influence on their own now popular works. According to Thompson, "almost every Shōnen Jump artist lists it as one of their favorites and lifts from it in various ways." Ian Jones-Quartey, a producer of the American animated series Steven Universe, is a fan of Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump, and uses Toriyama's vehicle designs as a reference for his own. He also stated that "We're all big Toriyama fans on [Steven Universe], which kind of shows a bit." Comic book artist André Lima Araújo cited Dragon Ball, along with several other manga and anime, as a major influence on his work, which includes Marvel Comics such as Age of Ultron, Avengers A.I., Spider-Verse and The Inhumans. Filipino comic artist Dexter Soy, who has worked on Marvel and DC Comics such as Captain America, cited Dragon Ball as a major inspiration. Tony Stark: Iron Man #11 (2019) makes references to Dragon Ball Z, including Miles Morales as Spider-Man referencing the Super Saiyan transformation. Film and television In December 1990, an unofficial live-action Korean film adaptation Dragon Ball: Ssawora Son Goku, Igyeora Son Goku was released. Another unofficial live-action film adaptation of the series, Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins, was released in Taiwan in November 1991, and was later released in 2007 as an "Ultimate Edition," with new effects added à la Star Wars. Action film star Jackie Chan is a fan of the franchise, and said Goku is his favorite Dragon Ball character. In 1995, Chan had expressed some interest in adapting Dragon Ball into a film, but said it would require "a lot of amazing special effects and an enormous budget." Later in 2013, Toriyama said his ideal live-action Goku would have been a young Jackie Chan, stating that "nobody could play Goku but him." The Matrix franchise echoes Dragon Ball Z in several action scenes, including the climactic fights of the 2003 films The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. Filipino-American film storyboard artist Jay Oliva has cited Dragon Ball as a major inspiration on his work, particularly the action scenes of 2013 Superman film Man of Steel, which launched the DC Extended Universe. Several films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have also been visually influenced by Dragon Ball Z. Erik Killmonger's battle armour in Black Panther (2018) bears a resemblance to Vegeta's battle armour, which actor Michael B. Jordan (himself a Dragon Ball fan) said may have inspired Killmonger's battle armor. The fiery look of Carol Danvers' Binary powers in Captain Marvel (2019) also drew some influence from Dragon Ball Z. In Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), Katy refers to one of Shang-Chi's techniques as a "Kamehameha fireball"; the film's director Destin Daniel Cretton cited Dragon Ball Z as an inspiration behind the film's climactic fight scene. A key characteristic that set Dragon Ball Z (and later other anime shows) apart from American television shows at the time was a serialization format, in which a continuous story arc stretches over multiple episodes or seasons. Serialization has since also become a common characteristic of American streaming television shows during the "Peak TV" era. Music and sports Dragon Ball has been channeled and referenced by numerous musicians. It is popular in the hip hop community, and has been referenced in numerous hip hop songs by rappers and artists such as Chris Brown, Chance the Rapper, Big Sean, Lil Uzi Vert, G-Mo Skee, The Weeknd, Childish Gambino, Denzel Curry, Thundercat, B.o.B, Soulja Boy, Drake, Frank Ocean, and Sese. Mark Sammut of TheGamer notes that Gohan occasionally performs the dab move (as the Great Saiyaman), decades before it became a popular hip-hop dance move in American popular culture. Numerous athletes have also channeled and referenced Dragon Ball, including NBA basketball players such as Sacramento Kings guard De'Aaron Fox, Utah Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen, Golden State Warriors player Jordan Bell, and Chicago Bulls guard Lonzo Ball, American football NFL stars such as Cleveland Browns players Darren Fells and David Njoku, mixed martial artist Ronda Rousey, and WWE wrestlers such as The New Day. Japanese kickboxer Panchan Rina took her nickname from the Dragon Ball character Pan. Japanese mixed martial artist Itsuki Hirata is nicknamed "Android 18" due to her resembling the Dragon Ball character. Canadian mixed martial artist Carlos Newton dubbed his fighting style "Dragon Ball jiu-jitsu" in tribute to the series. Other mixed martial artists inspired by Dragon Ball include Kana Watanabe, Yushin Okami, Yoshihiro Akiyama and Yuya Wakamatsu. The French group Yamakasi cited Dragon Ball as an influence on their development of parkour, inspired by how the heroes attain extraordinary abilities through hard work. Video games The producer of the Tekken video game series, Katsuhiro Harada, said that Dragon Ball was one of the first works to visually depict chi and thereby influenced numerous Japanese video games, especially fighting games such as Tekken and Street Fighter. Masaaki Ishikawa, art director of the video game Arms, said that its art style was largely influenced by Dragon Ball and Akira. French video game designer Éric Chahi also cited Dragon Ball as an influence on his 1991 cinematic platformer Another World. Other video game industry veterans who were inspired by Dragon Ball include Suda51, SWERY, Insomniac Games, Nina Freeman, Heart Machine, Iron Galaxy, and Mega64. Notes References External links Official Dragon Ball Site (in Japanese, Spanish, English, French, and German) Dragon Ball official website at Viz Media Dragon Ball official manga website at Manga Plus Dragon Ball (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia

Akira Toriyama (Japanese: 鳥山明, Hepburn: Toriyama Akira, April 5, 1955 – March 1, 2024) was a Japanese manga artist and character designer. He first achieved mainstream recognition for creating the popular manga series Dr. Slump, before going on to create Dragon Ball (his most famous work) and acting as a character designer for several popular video games such as the Dragon Quest series, Chrono Trigger, and Blue Dragon. Toriyama came to be regarded as one of the most important authors in the history of manga with his works highly influential and popular, particularly Dragon Ball, which many manga artists cite as a source of inspiration. He earned the 1981 Shogakukan Manga Award for best shōnen/shōjo manga with Dr. Slump, and it went on to sell over 35 million copies in Japan. It was adapted into a successful anime series, with a second anime created in 1997, 13 years after the manga ended. His next series, Dragon Ball, would become one of the most popular and successful manga in the world. Having sold 260 million copies worldwide, it is one of the best-selling manga series of all time and is considered a key work in increasing manga circulation to its peak in the mid-1980s and mid-1990s. Overseas, Dragon Ball's anime adaptations have been more successful than the manga and are credited with boosting anime's popularity in the Western world. In 2019, Toriyama was decorated a Chevalier of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contributions to the arts. Early life Akira Toriyama was born in the town of Kiyosu, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. He had a younger sister. Toriyama drew pictures since a young age, mainly of the animals and vehicles that he was fond of. He related being blown away after seeing One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), and said he was drawn deeper into the world of illustration by hoping to draw pictures that good. He was shocked again in elementary school when he saw the manga collection of a classmate's older brother, and again when he saw a television set for the first time at a neighbor's house. He cited Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy (1952–1968) as the original source for his interest in manga. Toriyama recalled that when he was in elementary school all of his classmates drew imitating anime and manga, as a result of not having many forms of entertainment. He believed that he began to advance above everyone else when he started drawing pictures of his friends. Despite being engrossed with manga in elementary school, Toriyama said he took a break from it in middle school, probably because he became more interested in films and TV shows. When asked if he had any formative experiences with tokusatsu entertainment, Toriyama said he enjoyed the Ultraman TV show and Gamera series of kaiju films. Toriyama said it was a "no-brainer" that he would attend a high school focused on creative design, but admitted he was more interested in having fun with friends. Although he still did not read much manga, he would draw one himself every once in a while. Despite his parents' strong opposition, Toriyama was confident about going into the work force upon graduation instead of continuing his education. He worked at an advertising agency in Nagoya designing posters for three years. Although Toriyama said he adapted to the job quickly, he admitted that he was often late because he was not a "morning person" and got reprimanded for dressing casually. Resenting the routine, he became sick of the environment and quit. Career Early work and Dr. Slump (1978–1983) After quitting his job at the age of 23 and asking his mother for money while unemployed, Toriyama entered the manga industry by submitting a work to an amateur contest in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine, which he had randomly picked up in a coffee shop. The timing did not line up for that contest, but another manga magazine, Weekly Shōnen Jump, accepted submissions for their Newcomer Award every month. Kazuhiko Torishima, who would become his editor, read and enjoyed Toriyama's manga, but it was not eligible to compete because it was a parody of Star Wars instead of an original work. Torishima sent the artist a telegram and encouraged him to keep drawing and sending him manga. This resulted in Wonder Island, which became Toriyama's first published work when it appeared in Weekly Shōnen Jump in 1978. It finished last place in the readers survey. Toriyama later said that he had planned to quit manga after getting paid, but because Wonder Island 2 (1978) was also a "flop", his stubbornness would not let him and he continued to draw failed stories for a year; claiming around 500 pages' worth, including the published Today's Highlight Island (1979). He said he learned a lot during this year and even had some fun. When Torishima told him to draw a female lead character, Toriyama hesitantly created 1979's Tomato the Cutesy Gumshoe, which had some success. Feeling encouraged, he decided to draw another female lead and created Dr. Slump. Dr. Slump, which was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1980 to 1984, was a huge success and made Toriyama a household name. It follows the adventures of a perverted professor and his small but super-strong robot Arale. In 1981, Dr. Slump earned Toriyama the Shogakukan Manga Award for best shōnen or shōjo manga series of the year. An anime adaptation began airing that same year, during the prime time Wednesday 19:00 slot on Fuji TV. Adaptations of Toriyama's work would occupy this time slot continuously for 18 years—through Dr. Slump's original run, Dragon Ball and its two sequels, and finally a rebooted Dr. Slump concluding in 1999. By 2008, the Dr. Slump manga had sold over 35 million copies in Japan. Although Dr. Slump was popular, Toriyama wanted to end the series within roughly six months of creating it, but publisher Shueisha would only allow him to do so if he agreed to start another serial for them shortly after. So he worked with Torishima on several one-shots for Weekly Shōnen Jump and the monthly Fresh Jump. In 1981, Toriyama was one of ten artists selected to create a 45-page work for Weekly Shōnen Jump's Reader's Choice contest. His manga Pola & Roid took first place. Toriyama was selected to participate in the contest again in 1982 and submitted Mad Matic. His one-shot Pink was published in the December issue of Fresh Jump. Selected to participate in Weekly Shōnen Jump's Reader's Choice contest for a third time, Toriyama had the bad luck of drawing the first slot and had to work over New Year's on 1983's Chobit. Angry that it was unpopular, he decided to try again and created Chobit 2 (1983). An official Toriyama fan club, Akira Toriyama Hozonkai (鳥山明保存会, "Akira Toriyama Preservation Society"), was established in 1982. Its newsletters were called Bird Land Press and were sent to members until the club closed in 1987. Toriyama founded Bird Studio in the early 1980s, which is a play on his name; "tori" (鳥) meaning "bird". He began employing an assistant, mostly to work on backgrounds. Dragon Ball and international success (1983–1997) Torishima suggested that, as Toriyama enjoyed kung fu films, he should create a kung fu shōnen manga. This led to the two-part Dragon Boy, published in the August and October 1983 issues of Fresh Jump. It follows a boy, adept at martial arts, who escorts a princess on a journey back to her home country. Dragon Boy was well-received and evolved to become the serial Dragon Ball in 1984. But before that, The Adventure of Tongpoo was published in Weekly Shōnen Jump's 52nd issue of 1983 and also contained elements that would be included in Dragon Ball. Serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1984 to 1995 and having sold 159.5 million tankōbon copies in Japan alone, Dragon Ball is one of the best-selling manga series of all time. It began as an adventure/gag manga but later turned into a martial arts fighting series, considered by many to be the "most influential shōnen manga". Dragon Ball was one of the main reasons for the magazine's circulation hitting a record high of 6.53 million copies (1995). At the series' end, Toriyama said that he asked everyone involved to let him end the manga, so he could "take some new steps in life". During that near-11-year period, he produced 519 chapters that were collected into 42 volumes. Moreover, the success of the manga led to five anime adaptations, several animated films, numerous video games, and mega-merchandise. Aside from its popularity in Japan, Dragon Ball was successful internationally as well, including Asia, Europe, and the Americas, with 300–350 million copies of the manga sold worldwide. While Toriyama was serializing Dragon Ball weekly, he continued to create the occasional one-shot manga. In 1986, Mr. Ho was published in the 49th issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump. The following year saw publication of Young Master Ken'nosuke, which had a Japanese jidaigeki setting. Toriyama published two Weekly Shōnen Jump one-shots in 1988; The Elder and Little Mamejiro. Karamaru and the Perfect Day followed in issue #13 of 1989. Also during Dragon Ball's serialization, Torishima recruited him to work as character designer for the 1986 role-playing video game Dragon Quest. The artist admitted he was pulled into it without even knowing what an RPG was and that it made his already busy schedule even more hectic, but he was happy to have been a part after enjoying the finished game. Toriyama continued to work on every installment in the Dragon Quest series until his death. He also served as the character designer for the Super Famicom RPG Chrono Trigger (1995) and for the fighting games Tobal No. 1 (1996) and Tobal 2 (1997) for the PlayStation. The September 23, 1988, festival film Kosuke & Rikimaru: The Dragon of Konpei Island marked the first time Toriyama made substantial contributions to an animation. He came up with the original story idea, co-wrote the screenplay with its director Toyoo Ashida, and designed the characters. It was screened at the Jump Anime Carnival, which was held to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Weekly Shōnen Jump. Short stories and other projects (1996–2011) A third anime adaptation based on Dragon Ball, entitled Dragon Ball GT, began airing in 1996, though this was not based on Toriyama's manga directly. He was involved in some overarching elements, including the name of the series and designs for the main cast. Toriyama continued drawing manga in this period, predominantly one-shots and short (100–200-page) pieces, including Cowa! (1997–1998), Kajika (1998), and Sand Land (2000). On December 6, 2002, Toriyama made his only promotional appearance in the United States at the launch of Weekly Shōnen Jump's North American counterpart, Shonen Jump, in New York City. Toriyama's Dragon Ball and Sand Land were published in the magazine in the first issue, which also included an in-depth interview with him. Toriyama also wrote a short self-parody of Dragon Ball entitled Neko Majin, in the form of eight one-shots released sporadically from 1999 to 2005. The eight chapters were collected into a single volume and published in April 2005. On March 27, 2005, CQ Motors began selling an electric car designed by Toriyama. The one-person QVOLT is part of the company's Choro-Q series of small electric cars, with only 9 being produced. It cost 1,990,000 yen (about $19,000 US), has a top speed of 30 km/h (19 mph) and was available in five colors. Toriyama stated that the car took over a year to design, "but due to my genius mini-model construction skills, I finally arrived at the end of what was a very emotional journey." He worked on a 2006 one-shot called Cross Epoch, in cooperation with One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda. The story is a short crossover that presents characters from both Dragon Ball and One Piece. Toriyama was the character designer and artist for the 2006 Mistwalker Xbox 360 exclusive RPG Blue Dragon, working with Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu, both of whom he had previously worked with on Chrono Trigger. At the time, Toriyama felt the 2007 Blue Dragon anime might potentially be his final work in animation. In 2008, he collaborated with Masakazu Katsura, his good friend and creator of I"s and Zetman, for the Jump SQ one-shot Sachie-chan Good!!. It was later published in North America in the free SJ Alpha Yearbook 2013, which was mailed out to annual subscribers of the digital manga magazine Shonen Jump Alpha in December 2012. The two worked together again in 2009, for the three-chapter one-shot Jiya in Weekly Young Jump. Toriyama was engaged by 20th Century Fox as a creative consultant on Dragonball Evolution, an American live-action film adaptation of Dragon Ball. He was also credited as an executive producer on the 2009 film, which failed both critically and financially. Toriyama later stated in 2013 that he had felt the script did not "capture the world or the characteristics" of his series and was "bland" and not interesting, so he cautioned them and gave suggestions for changes. But the Hollywood producers did not heed his advice, "And just as I thought, the result was a movie I cannot call Dragon Ball." Avex Trax commissioned Toriyama to draw a portrait of pop singer Ayumi Hamasaki, and it was printed on the CD of her 2009 single "Rule", which was used as the theme song to the film. Toriyama drew a 2009 manga titled Delicious Island's Mr. U for Anjō's Rural Society Project, a nonprofit environmental organization that teaches the importance of agriculture and nature to young children. They originally asked him to do the illustrations for a pamphlet, but Toriyama liked the project and decided to expand it into a story. It is included in a booklet about environmental awareness that is distributed by the Anjō city government. As part of Weekly Shōnen Jump's "Top of the Super Legend" project, a series of six one-shots by famed Jump artists, Toriyama created Kintoki for its November 15, 2010, issue. He collaborated with Weekly Shōnen Jump to create a video to raise awareness and support for those affected by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. Return to Dragon Ball (2012–2024) In 2012, Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods was announced to be in development, with Toriyama involved in its creation. The film marked the series' first theatrical film in 17 years, and the first time Toriyama had been involved in one as early as the screenwriting stages. The film opened on March 30, 2013. A special "dual ticket" that could be used to see both Battle of Gods and One Piece Film: Z was created with new art by both Toriyama and Eiichiro Oda. On March 27, 2013, the "Akira Toriyama: The World of Dragon Ball" exhibit opened at the Takashimaya department store in Nihonbashi, garnering 72,000 visitors in its first nineteen days. The exhibit was separated into seven areas. The first provided a look at the series' history, the second showed the 400-plus characters from the series, the third displayed Toriyama's manga manuscripts from memorable scenes, the fourth showed special color illustrations, the fifth displayed rare Dragon Ball-related materials, the sixth included design sketches and animation cels from the anime, and the seventh screened Dragon Ball-related videos. It was there until April 15, when it moved to Osaka from April 17 to 23, and ended in Toriyama's native Nagoya from July 27 to September 1. To celebrate the 45th anniversary of Weekly Shōnen Jump, Toriyama launched a new manga series in its July 13, 2013, issue titled Jaco the Galactic Patrolman. Viz Media began serializing it in English in their digital Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, beginning just two days later. The final chapter reveals that the story is set before the events of Dragon Ball and features some of its characters. It would become the final manga that Toriyama wrote and illustrated himself. The follow-up film to Battle of Gods, Resurrection 'F', released on April 18, 2015, features even more contributions from Toriyama, who personally wrote its original script. Toriyama provided the basic story outline and some character designs for Dragon Ball Super, which began serialization in V Jump in June 2015 with an anime counterpart following in July. Although the anime ended in 2018, he continued to provide story ideas for the manga while Toyotarou illustrated it. Dragon Ball Super: Broly, released in theaters on December 14, 2018, and Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, released on June 11, 2022, continued Toriyama's deep involvement with the films. In January 2024, a logo Toriyama designed to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his hometown of Kiyosu was unveiled. Toriyama created a new story arc for the 2024 original net animation adaptation of his manga Sand Land. He also created the story and character designs for the upcoming Dragon Ball Daima anime series. Toriyama's final contribution to Dragon Ball was directing Toyotarou to redraw the end of chapter 103 of Dragon Ball Super, so that a departing Piccolo appears to wave back at the reader. A short tribute was included at the bottom of the page when it was published on March 28, 2024. Personal life Toriyama married Yoshimi Katō (加藤由美) on May 2, 1982. She is a former manga artist from Nagoya under the pen name "Nachi Mikami" (みかみなち), and occasionally helped Toriyama and his assistant on Dr. Slump when they were short on time. They had two children: a son named Sasuke (佐助) born on March 23, 1987, and a daughter named Kikka born in October 1990. Toriyama lived in his home studio in Kiyosu. He was a well-known recluse, who avoided appearing in public or media. In an extension to his shyness, Toriyama had used an avatar called "Robotoriyama" since December 1980 to represent himself in manga and interviews. Toriyama had a love of cars and motorcycles, something he inherited from his father who used to race motorbikes and operated an auto repair business for a brief time, although he did not understand the mechanics himself. The author was an animal lover, having kept many different species of birds, dogs, cats, fish, lizards, and bugs as pets since childhood. Some were used as models for characters he created such as Karin and Beerus. Toriyama had a lifelong passion for plastic models, and designed several for the Fine Molds brand. He also collected autographs of famous manga artists, having over 30 including Yudetamago and Hisashi Eguchi, a hobby he gave to the character Peasuke Soramame. Death On March 1, 2024, Toriyama died of an acute subdural hematoma, at the age of 68. A funeral was held privately with only his family in attendance. His death was announced by his production company Bird Studio one week later on March 8. According to sources close to Toriyama, he had planned to undergo surgery for a brain tumor in February 2024. The news of his death caused an outpouring of grief among admirers of his works, who took to social media to express their condolences and celebrate his legacy. On Twitter, the trending topics of Akira Toriyama and Dragon Ball surpassed United States President Joe Biden's State of the Union address, which was held at the same time the news of Toriyama's death was announced. Tributes to the artist were given by One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda, Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto, Bleach creator Tite Kubo, My Hero Academia creator Kōhei Horikoshi, Yu Yu Hakusho and Hunter × Hunter creator Yoshihiro Togashi, Video Girl Ai creator Masakazu Katsura, and video game designer Yuji Horii, who worked with Toriyama on Dragon Quest and Chrono Trigger. In Tokyo, fans publicly mourned while visiting a life-sized statue of Dragon Ball protagonist Goku located outside the headquarters of toy manufacturer Bandai. Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi credited Toriyama and his work with playing an "extremely important role in demonstrating Japan's soft power" around the world. International response French President Emmanuel Macron shared a photo of an autographed illustration Toriyama gave him as a gift and paid tribute to him and his fans on social media. French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal also paid tribute and commented that not even "the [Dragon Balls] and Shenron" could revive him. The foreign ministries of China and El Salvador issued statements of condolences over Toriyama's death. Justin Chatwin, who portrayed Goku in the live-action film Dragonball Evolution, apologized for the quality of the film by posting on his Instagram story, "sorry we messed up that adaptation so badly". Several Mexican voice actors who dubbed Dragon Ball characters in Spanish for Latin America also lamented Toriyama's death via social media. A large gathering was held at the Plaza de la Constitución in Mexico City, where hundreds of fans did the Genki-dama hand motion (arms up, palm facing the zenith, pooling energy together) to honor the artist. During the 18th Seiyu Awards on March 9, a moment of silence was held for Toriyama and voice actress Tarako, who died on March 4, in recognition of their contributions to the anime industry. On March 10, in Argentina, thousands of fans gathered at the Obelisco monument to remember Toriyama. In Lima, Peru, over 40 artists led by "Peko" painted a mural tribute to Toriyama, which showcases characters from Dragon Ball as well as Toriyama himself, spanning six meters high and over 110 meters long. Style Toriyama admired Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy and was impressed by Walt Disney's One Hundred and One Dalmatians, which he remembered for its high-quality animation. He was a fan of Hong Kong martial arts films, especially Bruce Lee films such as Enter the Dragon (1973) and Jackie Chan films such as Drunken Master (1978), which went on to have a large influence on his later work. He also cited the science fiction films Alien (1979) and Galaxy Quest (1999) as influences. Toriyama stated he was influenced by animator Toyoo Ashida and the anime television series adaptation of his own Dragon Ball, from which he learned that separating colors instead of blending them makes the art cleaner and coloring illustrations easier. It was Toriyama's sound effects in Mysterious Rain Jack that caught the eye of Kazuhiko Torishima, who explained that usually they are written in katakana, but Toriyama used the Roman alphabet, which he found refreshing. Torishima has stated that Toriyama aimed to be a gag manga artist because the competitions that he submitted to early on required entries in the gag category to only be 15 pages long, compared to story manga entries which had to be 31. In his opinion, Toriyama excelled in black and white, utilizing black areas as a result of not having had the money to buy screentone when he started drawing manga. He also described Toriyama as a master of convenience and "sloppy, but in a good way." For instance, in Dragon Ball, destroying scenery in the environment and giving Super Saiyans blond hair were done in order to have less work in drawing and inking. Torishima claimed that Toriyama drew what he found interesting and was not mindful of what his readers thought, nor did he get much inspiration from other comics, as he chose not to re-read previous works or read manga made by other artists, a practice that Torishima supported. Furthermore, the book A History of Modern Manga (2023) describes Toriyama as "a perfectionist at heart" who "didn't hesitate to redraw entire panels under the worried eye of his editor at Jump". Dr. Slump is mainly a comedy series, filled with puns, toilet humor, and sexual innuendos. But it also contained many science fiction elements: aliens, anthropomorphic characters, time travel, and parodies of works such as Godzilla, Star Wars, and Star Trek. Toriyama also included many real-life people in the series, such as his assistants, wife, and colleagues (such as Masakazu Katsura), but most notably his editor Kazuhiko Torishima as the series' main antagonist, Dr. Mashirito. A running gag in Dr. Slump that utilizes feces has been reported as an inspiration for the Pile of Poo emoji. When Dragon Ball began, it was loosely based on the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West, with Goku being Sun Wukong and Bulma as Tang Sanzang. It was also inspired by Hong Kong martial arts films, particularly those of Jackie Chan, and was set in a fictional world based on Asia, taking inspiration from several Asian cultures including Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Central Asian, Arabic, and Indonesian cultures. Toriyama continued to use his characteristic comedic style in the beginning, but over the course of serialization this slowly changed, with him turning the series into a "nearly-pure fighting manga" later on. He did not plan out in advance what would happen in the series, instead choosing to draw as he went. This, coupled with him simply forgetting things he had already drawn, caused him to find himself in situations that he had to write himself out of. Toriyama was commissioned to illustrate the characters and monsters for the first Dragon Quest video game (1986) in order to separate it from other role-playing games of the time. He worked on every installment in the series until he died. For each game Yuji Horii first sends rough sketches of the characters with their background information to Toriyama, who then re-draws them. Lastly, Horii approves the finished work. Toriyama explained in 1995 that for video games, because the sprites are so small, as long as they have a distinguishing feature so people can tell which character it is, he can make complex designs without concern of having to reproduce it like he usually would in manga. Besides the character and monster designs, Toriyama also does the games' packaging art and, for Dragon Quest VIII, the boats and ships. In 2016, Toriyama revealed that because of the series' established time period and setting, his artistic options are limited, which makes every iteration harder to design for than the last. The series' Slime character, which has become a mascot for the franchise, is considered to be one of the most recognizable figures in gaming. Manga critic Jason Thompson declared Toriyama's art influential, saying that his "extremely personal and recognizable style" was a reason for Dragon Ball's popularity. He points out that the popular shōnen manga of the late 1980s and early 1990s had "manly" heroes, such as City Hunter and Fist of the North Star, whereas Dragon Ball starred the cartoonish and small Goku, thus starting a trend that Thompson says continues to this day. Toriyama himself said he went against the normal convention that the strongest characters should be the largest in terms of physical size, designing many of the series' most powerful characters with small statures. Thompson concluded his analysis by saying that only Akira Toriyama drew like this at the time and that Dragon Ball is "an action manga drawn by a gag manga artist." James S. Yadao, author of The Rough Guide to Manga, points out that an art shift does occur in the series, as the characters gradually "lose the rounded, innocent look that [Toriyama] established in Dr. Slump and gain sharper angles that leap off the page with their energy and intensity." Legacy and accolades Patrick St. Michel of The Japan Times compared Toriyama to animator Walt Disney and Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee, "All three of these individuals, Toriyama included, had a personal artistic style that has become the shorthand for their respective media." Speaking of Dragon Ball, David Brothers of ComicsAlliance wrote that: "Like Osamu Tezuka and Jack Kirby before him, Toriyama created a story with his own two hands that seeped deep into the hearts of his readers, creating a love for both the cast and the medium at the same time." Thompson stated in 2011 that "Dragon Ball is by far the most influential shonen manga of the last 30 years, and today, almost every Shōnen Jump artist lists it as one of their favorites and lifts from it in various ways." Patrick W. Galbraith, an associate professor at the School of International Communication at Senshu University, similarly said, "One can sense the DNA of Toriyama's work in all subsequent shōnen releases." In a rare 2013 interview, commenting on Dragon Ball's global success, Toriyama admitted, "Frankly, I don't quite understand why it happened. While the manga was being serialized, the only thing I wanted as I kept drawing was to make Japanese boys happy." He had previously stated in 2010, "The truth is, I didn't like being a manga artist very much. It wasn't until relatively recently that I realized it's a wonderful job." Many artists have named Toriyama and Dragon Ball as influences, including One Piece author Eiichiro Oda, Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto, Fairy Tail and Rave author Hiro Mashima, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations illustrator Mikio Ikemoto, Venus Versus Virus author Atsushi Suzumi, Bleach creator Tite Kubo, Black Cat author Kentaro Yabuki, and Mr. Fullswing author Shinya Suzuki. German comic book artist Hans Steinbach was strongly influenced by Toriyama, and Thai cartoonist Wisut Ponnimit cited Toriyama as one of his favorite cartoonists. St. Michel wrote that the impact Toriyama and Dragon Ball had extends beyond inspiring newer artists, "he influenced the style of anime as a whole and revealed new economic potential, as the comic series mutated into an anime, video games and infinite merchandise." Ian Jones-Quartey, a producer of the American animated series Steven Universe, is a fan of both Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump, and uses Toriyama's vehicle designs as reference for his own. He also stated that "We're all big Toriyama fans on [Steven Universe], which kind of shows a bit." French director Pierre Perifel cited Toriyama and Dragon Ball as influences on his DreamWorks Animation film The Bad Guys. In 2008, Oricon conducted a poll of people's favorite manga artists, with Toriyama coming in second, behind only Nana author Ai Yazawa. He was number one among male respondents and among those over 30 years of age. They held a poll on the Mangaka that Changed the History of Manga in 2010, mangaka being the Japanese word for a manga artist. Toriyama came in second, after only Osamu Tezuka, due to his works being highly influential and popular worldwide. Toriyama won the Special 40th Anniversary Festival Award at the 2013 Angoulême International Comics Festival, honoring his years in cartooning. He actually received the most votes for the festival's Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême award that year, though the selection committee chose Willem as the recipient. In a 2014 NTT Docomo poll for the manga artist that best represents Japan, Toriyama came in third place. That same year, entomologist Enio B. Cano named a new species of beetle, Ogyges toriyamai, after Toriyama, and another, Ogyges mutenroshii, after the Dragon Ball character Muten Roshi. Toriyama was decorated a Chevalier or "Knight" of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government on May 30, 2019, for his contributions to the arts. He was also a 2019 nominee for entry into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame. Toriyama was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2024 Tokyo Anime Awards Festival. Due to his video game design work, IGN named Toriyama number 74 on their list of the Top 100 Game Creators of All Time. Works Besides Dr. Slump (1980–1984) and Dragon Ball (1984–1995), Toriyama predominantly drew one-shot manga and short (100–200-page) pieces, including Pink (1982), Go! Go! Ackman (1993–1994), Cowa! (1997–1998), Kajika (1998), Sand Land (2000) and Jaco the Galactic Patrolman (2013). Many of his one-shots were collected in his three-volume anthology series, Akira Toriyama's Manga Theater (1983–1997). He also collaborated with other manga artists, such as Katsura and Oda, to produce one-shots and crossover shorts. Toriyama also created many character designs for various video games such as the Dragon Quest series (1986–2023), Chrono Trigger (1995), Blue Dragon (2006), and some Dragon Ball video games. He also designed several characters and mascots for various manga magazines property of Shueisha, his career-long employer and Japan's largest publishing company. Besides manga-related works, Toriyama also created various illustrations, album and book covers, model kits, mascots and logos. For example, he sketched several versions of the Dragon Ball Z logo, which Toei Animation then refined into a definitive design. Explanatory notes References Further reading Richard, Olivier (2011). Akira Toriyama: le maître du manga (in French). 12 bis. ISBN 978-2-35648-332-4. External links Akira Toriyama at Anime News Network's encyclopedia

I'm thinking of a dam. Here are some clues: -It had two official names in its history. -Construction was ordered to begin by the husband of the President of The Girl Scouts of the USA in 1936.

Hoover Dam (briefly known as Boulder Dam)

Multiple constraints

Girl Scouts of the United States of America (GSUSA), commonly referred to as Girl Scouts, is a youth organization for girls in the United States and American girls living abroad. It was founded by Juliette Gordon Low in 1912, a year after she had met Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting (formally Boy Scouts). The stated mission of the Girl Scouts is to "[build] girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place" through activities involving camping, community service, and practical skills such as first aid. Members can earn badges by completing certain tasks and mastering skills. More senior members may be eligible for awards, such as the Bronze, Silver, and Gold Awards. Membership is organized according to grade level, with activities designed for each level. The organization is a member of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS). History Girl Guides of America Girl Scouting in the United States began on March 12, 1912, when founder Juliette Gordon Low organized the first Girl Guide troop meeting in Savannah, Georgia. It has since grown to near 3.7 million members. From its inception, the Girl Scouts has been organized and run exclusively for girls. Low was the granddaughter of Juliette Magill Kinzie and John Harris Kinzie, whose childhood family was one of the earliest settlers of Chicago. Juliette Kinzie wrote about her experiences in the Northwest Territory (now the state of Wisconsin) in her book Wau-Bun: The Early Day. Low incorporated some of her grandmother's experiences on the frontier into the traditions of Girl Scouts. In late 1912, Low sought various mergers with similar organizations, including Camp Fire Girls and the Des Moines-based Girl Scouts of America, but was unsuccessful in any merging. Girl Scouts of the United States In 1913, the organization was renamed to Girl Scouts of the United States. Its headquarters was subsequently moved to Washington, D.C. In 1915, the organization was incorporated, and its headquarters was moved to New York City. The organization was renamed for the final time to Girl Scouts of the United States of America in 1947. The organization received a congressional charter on March 16, 1950. By 1920, the organization reached nearly 70,000 members. In 1930, that number had expanded to over 200,000 members. As of 2013, there were over 3.2 million Girl Scouts: 2.3 million youth members and 890,000 adult members. More than 50 million American women have participated in Girl Scouts throughout its history. In 1923, Girl Scouts were organized into patrols, troops, local councils, and a National Council. Initially, troops had a high degree of independence, but over time, councils were formed between troops. Today there are over 100 councils across the UniCounciltes. The Juliette Gordon Low Historic District in Savannah, Georgia, became the national Girl Scout program center in 1956. Upon Low's death in 1927, she willed her carriage house, at 330 Drayton Street, which eventually became The Girl Scout First Headquarters, to the local Savannah Girl Scouts for continued use. Desegregation Most Girl Scout units were originally segregated by race according to state and local laws and customs. The first troop for African American girls was founded in 1917; the first American Indian troop was formed in New York State in 1921; and the first troop for Mexican Americans was formed in Houston, Texas, in 1922. In 1933, Josephine Groves Holloway founded unofficial African American troops in Tennessee. She also fully desegregated the Cumberland Valley council in 1962. The first official African American troop in the South was founded in 1932 in Richmond, Virginia. It was created by Lena B. Watson, but was led by Lavnia Banks, a teacher from Armstrong High School. It first met in Hartshorn Hall at Virginia Union University. By the 1950s, GSUSA had begun significant national efforts to desegregate the camps and maintain racial balance. One of the first desegregations, accomplished by Murray Atkins Walls in 1956, was at Camp Shattuck in Kentucky. Later the same year, Martin Luther King Jr. described Girl Scouts as "a force for desegregation". In 1969, a Girl Scout initiative called Action 70 was created that aimed to eliminate prejudice. Gloria D. Scott, an African American, was elected national president of GSUSA in 1975. Wing Scouts The Wing Scouts was a Senior Girl Scout program for girls interested in aviation. It was started in 1941 and ended in the 1970s. In July 1942, 29 troop leaders from 15 states met in Philadelphia for Wing Scout leadership training. They returned to their councils and began the creation of Wing Scout troops. In 1959, the council in San Mateo County, California was presented with an offer from United Airlines to start an aviation program for Senior Girl Scouts. A highlight of the Wing Scout program was a courtesy flight provided to Senior Girl Scouts using United Airlines aircraft. For many of the girls, the flight was their first time being in an airplane. Senior Girl Scouts who had been in the program for three years were given the opportunity to temporarily take control of a small aircraft during flight. The program was discontinued after United Airlines experienced financial issues in the 1970s. Age levels In 1938, the age divisions consisted of Brownies (ages 7 through 9), Intermediates (ages 10 through 13), and Seniors (ages 14 through 18). In 1965, the age divisions were changed to include Brownies (ages 7 and 8, or 2nd and 3rd grade), Juniors (ages 9 through 11, or 4th through 6th grade), Cadettes (ages 11 through 14, or 7th through 9th grade), and Seniors (ages 14 through 18, or 10th through 12th grade). In the early 1970s, the Brownie level was extended to include girls six years old or in the first grade. The Daisy program for kindergarten-age girls was started in 1984. The Daisy program succeeded a 1976 pilot program known as Pixies. In 2003, the Studio 2B program was introduced for Cadettes and Seniors. Under the Studio 2B programs, girls were able to work on traditional badges as well as Studio 2B activities, and the Silver Award and Gold Award requirements were altered to require both. Studio 2B activities differed from badges in that each booklet focused on a topic such as environmentalism or self-confidence rather than being skill-based like a badge. On October 1, 2008, all levels were renamed to begin with "Girl Scout" (e.g., Girl Scout Brownies instead of Brownie Girl Scouts). Additionally, levels were changed to an exclusively grade-based system, A new level, Girl Scout Ambassadors, was created for girls in grades 11 and 12. Sixth grade girls were reclassified from Junior level to Cadette level in order to conform with the broad reclassification of 6th grade as a middle school grade. The new levels were tested in approximately six councils during the spring of 2008 and were instituted nationally after October 1, 2008. Although troop membership is the most common way to participate in Girl Scouting, girls who do not have a local troop, or those who are unable or unwilling to participate in their local troop, can still sign up as individual Girl Scouts. Individual Girl Scouts were known in the early years of Girl Scouting as Lone Scouts and later as Juliettes; they attend activities independently and work individually on badges and awards. In 2001, Stefanie Argus, an eighth-grade student, created Juliettes, an official designation for independent Girl Scouts, as her Silver Award Project. "I wanted to create something to tell other girls who left their troops they belong to the Girl Scouts," Argus said. In 2015–2016, the term Juliette was phased out at the national level, in favor of the term Independent Girl Scouts, although some councils still use the term, Juliette. Mariner Scouts The 20th National Council of GSUSA launched the Mariner Girl Scout program in October 1934. Similar to the Boy Scouts of America's Sea Scouting, the program was designed for older Girl Scouts interested in outdoor water-based activities. By the end of 1934, 12 Mariner ships were registered and the first two handbooks, launching a Girl Scout Mariner Ship and Charting the Course of a Girl Scout Mariner Ship, were published. The Mariner Girl Scout program remains active but in a smaller form; most girls have instead joined Sea Scouting, which has been coed since 1971. Special programs There are programs for girls in very unusual situations that make it difficult for them to participate in the standard given programs. The Girl Scouts "Beyond Bars program" helps daughters of incarcerated mothers connect with their mothers and helps mothers participate in Girl Scout activities. Another program, Girl Scouting in Detention Centers, allows girls who are themselves in detention centers to participate in Scouting. Other initiatives try to help girls in rural areas or in public housing. There are also programs for American girls living overseas, and girls whose families are experiencing homelessness or are living in temporary housing. Organizational structure The national organization is headquartered in New York City. It is headed by a chief executive officer and a 30-member board of directors. Bonnie Barczykowski currently serves as the chief executive officer and was officially appointed in February 2023. The president of the board of directors is Noorain Khan. Councils operate below the national leadership; they usually cover a large portion of a state or geographic region. Some councils own and run camps for the troops within their area of responsibility. Councils are usually subdivided into areas, variously known as neighborhoods, service units, or associations. These are program delivery areas that consist of troops at all age levels in a smaller area, such as a town. The basic unit is the troop which may or may not be sponsored. In contrast to Boy Scout troop-chartered organizations, Girl Scout troop sponsors do not own the troop. Troops range in size from as small as 5 to as large as 30 or more girls and may be divided into several patrols of 8 or fewer girls. Realignment In 2004, Girl Scouts of the USA hired a consultant "to help Girl Scouts develop a strategy to ensure our future success and growth." Six "gap teams" looked at ways Girl Scouts could improve its structure in order to ensure the future growth and success of the organization. This followed declines in both membership and revenue, as well as challenges in subsidizing programs in urban areas. The governance gap team found that consolidation decreased confusion and provided economies of scale and recommended an optimal council size of approximately 10,000 girls. This left 312 regional Girl Scout councils, which administrate 236,000 local troops and other groups. In 2004, the board of directors consolidated the 312 councils into 109 councils. In response to the consolidation, the Manitou Girl Scout council in Wisconsin sued GSUSA in the district court, alleging a breach of the Girl Scout charter. The suit was summarily dismissed with prejudice. The Seventh U.S. Circuit of Appeals overturned the decision, stating that a Girl Scout council agreement "was no different than a Dunkin' Donuts franchise." The decision of the appeals court maintained the status of the Manitou council. As a result, there are 112 Girl Scout councils in the United States. Insignia Promise, Law, Motto, and Slogan Promise The Girl Scout Promise can be communicated in English, Spanish, or in American Sign Language, carrying the same meaning: The Promise is often recited at Girl Scout troop meetings while holding up the three middle fingers of the right hand, forming the Girl Scout sign. Girl Scout policy states that the organization does not endorse or promote any particular philosophy or religious belief. The movement is nonsectarian and secular. In this context, the word "God" may be interpreted by each Girl Scout depending on her individual spiritual beliefs, and Girl Scouts are free to substitute the word consistent with their beliefs, such as "Creator", "my faith", "Allah", etc. Many Girl Scouts use the word "Community" or "Good" as a substitution. Law The current version of the Girl Scout Law reads as follows: The Girl Scout Law has been changed several times since 1912. The original Girl Scout Law written by Juliette Gordon Low was: Motto Be prepared. Slogan Do a good turn daily. Girl Scout uniforms For girls ages 5 to 14, the unifying look includes wearing a choice of a tunic, vest, sash for displaying official pins and awards, combined with their own solid white shirts and khaki pants or skirts. Girl Scouts in high school can also wear a scarf that unites their look with the sisterhood of Girl Scouts around the world. For adult members the unifying look of the uniform is a Girl Scout official scarf or tie for men, worn with the official membership pins, combined with their own navy-blue business attire. Girl Scouts at the Daisy and Brownie levels will continue to have a full uniform ensemble available. Girl Scout uniforms have changed significantly over the years from the original navy blue in 1912, to khaki in 1914, to the familiar green. The evolution has included uniforms with the specificity to designate each age level of Girl Scouting. Since 2008, Girl Scouts at each level have one required element (tunic, sash or vest) for the display of official pins and awards which will be required when girls participate in ceremonies or officially represent the Girl Scout Movement. For all levels, earned awards go on the front of the vest or sash following official placements. Fun patches can be displayed on the back of a vest or sash. Girl Scout Daisies can choose a blue vest or a smock with a full uniform or white shirt and khaki pants and skirt. They have their own Daisy pin and a choice of accessories. Girl Scout Brownies can choose a traditional brown vest or sash to be worn with the historic Brownie pin and other uniform pieces or white shirt and khaki pants or skirts. Girl Scout Juniors wear their official vest or sash to display insignia including awards, coupled with a white shirt and khaki pants or skirt. Girl Scout Cadettes, Seniors, and Ambassadors can choose a khaki sash or vest to go with khaki pants or skirt and a white shirt. The adult uniform also changed, with registered women and men wearing navy blue business attire, again from their regular wardrobes. Also available for women are official sweaters and an insignia scarf, while men have the option of an official tie. Logos The emblem designed by Juliette Low was the only emblem used for Girl Scout pins through 1980. At the 1978 GSUSA National Convention, the use of two logos was voted on, allowing Girl Scouts to pick which they wanted to wear as their Girl Scout pin (for Girl Scout Juniors and up). The current Girl Scouts of the USA logo is a rejuvenation of the original logo based on Saul Bass' 1978 design, Bass being a graphic designer known for his motion picture title sequences and design of various other well-known logos. In 2010, the hair and facial styles were updated by Jennifer Kinnon and Bobby C. Martin Jr. of The Original Champions of Design. Activities and programs One of the original and continuing attractions of Girl Scouts is that girls become proficient campers and participate in many outdoor activities such as canoeing or backpacking with their troops. Troops do service projects such as carrying out flag ceremonies, collecting food for food drives, visiting nursing homes, and Christmas caroling or other community services. Troops may also plan and take extended trips within the United States or even to another country. Troops may organize cultural or learning events such as first-aid training or attending live theater. The Girl Scout activity most familiar to the general public may be the annual sale of Girl Scout Cookies, which started in 1917 as a money-earning opportunity for councils and troops. Girl Scouts and STEM Girl Scouts has incorporated STEM-related programs and badges to encourage more interest in Scouts in STEM fields. From 2005 to 2007, more than 8.6 million STEM-related badges were earned. The first STEM-related Girl Scout badges, though, can be traced back to the 1913 Electrician and Flyer Badges. The first computer-related badges appeared in the 1980s. In 2001, The Girl Scout Research Institute, published a 36-page report about the need for more encouragement to get girls into the field of technology. An even larger push for STEM programs came after a 2012 study by the Girl Scout Research Institute reported that 74% of teenage girls were interested in courses in STEM subjects while only 25% of STEM industry jobs were held by women. Recent endeavors to encourage interest in STEM fields amongst Girl Scouts includes partnerships with companies like NASA, AT&T, and Lockheed Martin. NASA specifically paired the Girl Scouts with the SETI Institute to create a 5-year space education program called "Reaching for the Stars: NASA Science for Girl Scouts." The most recent push to help Girl Scouts imagine a future in STEM was the Girl Scout's appearance at the International Consumer Electronics Show in January 2016 to show off Digital Cookie 2.0, a website made in partnership with Dell and Visa, that helps Girl Scouts manage their cookie business online. There are four Girl Scout FIRST Robotics Competition teams: Space Cookies Team 1868, Lady Cans Team 2881, Gadget Girls Team 4816, and Tin Mints Team 4574. The Space Cookies are based at NASA Ames Research Center and were the first all-girls team to reach the finals at FRC world championships. They are known for their extensive community outreach and work to expand menstrual equity and eliminate period poverty. The Space Cookies helped launch the Girl Scout STEM Pledge, a national initiative to reduce the gender gap in STEM fields by bringing millions of girls into the STEM pipeline. Girl Scouts currently has 127 badges and journeys under the STEM category. In 2020, Girl Scouts announced the addition of 24 new badges in STEM, entrepreneurship, and leadership. The Automotive, Coding for Good, Cybersecurity, Mechanical Engineering, and Robotics badges are all series of three awards that cover different areas in their respective topics. These badges can be earned separately but are all related by the topic that they cover. Additionally, these badges mostly have the same name across levels, but have unique requirements for each level that get more complex and in-depth through the different age levels. In June 2017, Girl Scouts announced a partnership with Palo Alto Networks to create 18 cybersecurity badges by September 2018. International convention Every three years Girl Scouts holds an international convention, featuring voting on policies and procedures, as well as guest speakers and activities and events for upwards of 10,000 girls and Girl Scout alums. The 2020 convention was conducted virtually due to concerns about COVID-19, and the next convention will be held in 2023 at Walt Disney World in Florida. Destinations Once known as "Wider Opportunities" or Wider Ops, Destinations are travel opportunities for individual older Girl Scouts. Destinations are held within the United States and in other countries. Destinations are primarily international, outdoor, science, people, or apprenticeship oriented, such as kayaking in Alaska, or career oriented such as learning about working for NASA. A "Destination" may be a trip to one of the WAGGGS World Centers: Our Cabaña in Cuernavaca, Mexico Our Chalet in Adelboden, Switzerland Pax Lodge in London, England Sangam World Centre in Pune, India Kusafiri in Africa Traditions The Girl Scouts of the USA have many customs and traditions: camping, community service, singing, and money earning to support their activities. The Girl Scout Handshake and the Girl Scout signal for silence are two shared by WAGGGS member organizations. Other traditions include the Friendship Circle with "the squeeze," taking bandanas and homemade sit-upons on camping trips, and the buddy system. "Bridging" is the process of going from one level to another. Bridging is usually done at the troop level, although area bridgings are often held. The girls that are bridging walk across a bridge to their new level and are greeted with the Girl Scout Handshake. There is a notable bridging ceremony held in San Francisco, as GS Juniors bridge to GS Cadettes over the Golden Gate Bridge. World Thinking Day and "Girl Scouts' Own" are traditions throughout the world of Girl Scouting. World Thinking Day has occurred annually since 1926 on February 22, the birthday of both Robert Baden-Powell and Olave Baden-Powell. On World Thinking Day, Girl Scouts and Guides around the world think about their sisters in other lands; Councils or local service units (associations) hold a celebration on or near this day, in which each participating troop gives a presentation of the culture and customs of a country selected by the troop. Many Girl Scouts in America celebrate Juliette Gordon Low's birthday on October 31, Founder's Day. The parties often include the girls dressing up in Halloween costumes and serving birthday cake. A "Girl Scouts' Own" is a special ceremony that expresses the spirit of Girl Scouting when the girls reflect upon their feelings about Girl Scouting and the world around them. A "Girl Scouts' Own" can have any theme, or none at all. It is a solemn time given for Girl Scouts to create a moment of their very own. It can be held at any time and include the girls' troop or be held at any inter-troop gathering. Badges and other awards All levels of Girl Scouts can earn badges. Each level has specific badges that can be earned. Daisies earn badges shaped like flowers. Brownies earn badges shaped like triangles. Juniors earn badges shaped like circles. Cadettes earn badges shaped like diamonds. Seniors earn badges shaped like rectangles. Ambassadors earn badges shaped like squares. Earned Badges and Awards are worn on the front of a Girl Scout's vest (or sash). Fun Patches are worn on the back of the vest. Daisies wear blue vests. Brownies wear brown vests. Juniors wear green vests. Cadettes, Seniors, and Ambassadors wear khaki vests. For Cadettes, Seniors, and Ambassadors, a Girl Scout may choose to wear the same khaki vest for all three levels. Active Girl Scouts, who earn a lot of badges, may opt to get a new khaki vest when they change levels, so they have more room to display their awards. Skill building badges Journey awards Each level of Girl Scouting has multiple Journey programs. A Journey is a series of lessons on a particular topic. The Journeys are made up of multiple parts and all parts of the Journey must be earned for it to be complete. A Girl Scout who completes three Journeys at one level earns a Summit Pin. Before beginning work on a Bronze, Silver, or Gold Award project, a Girl Scout must complete one Journey at her level. A Girl Scout who did not earn her Silver Award must complete two Journeys at her current level, instead of one, to work on her Gold Award. Additional awards Girl Scouts can earn other awards, usually represented by pins. Some of these awards are: Leadership Torch, Community Service Bar, Service to Girl Scouting Bar, Bronze Cross, Medal of Honor, Cookie Activity Pin, Safety Pin, My Promise My Faith Pin, Counselor in Training I & II, Volunteer in Training, World Thinking Day Award, and Global Action Award. Girl Scouts can also earn and display on their uniform awards from outside organizations, such as the religious emblems from religious organizations, or the President's Volunteer Service Award. Highest awards The highest achievement in Girl Scouting is the Girl Scout Gold Award, which can only be earned by Girl Scout Seniors and Ambassadors. The highest award for Girl Scout Cadettes is the Silver Award, and Bronze Award is the highest award for Girl Scout Juniors. These awards require large-scale service projects showing leadership along with service hours. The Gold Award is the highest honor a Girl Scout can earn. This award can be earned by Girl Scout Seniors and Girl Scout Ambassadors. This prestigious award represents a Girl Scout's dedication and commitment to Girl Scouting and to her community. Earning the Girl Scout Gold Award requires hard work and a willingness to take on significant responsibility. For many, the leadership and organizational skills and sense of community and commitment that come from earning the Gold Award set the foundation for a lifetime of active citizenship. The Gold Award project takes a minimum of 80 hours to complete. The Silver Award, the highest honor a Girl Scout Cadette can earn, gives girls the chance to do big things and make their community better in the process. The Silver Award takes the participants through a seven-step process: identify an issue, build a Girl Scout Silver Award team, explore the community needs, choose a project, develop the project, make a plan, and put it into motion. The Silver Award project takes a minimum of 50 hours to complete. The Bronze Award, the highest honor a Girl Scout Junior can earn, requires girls to learn the leadership and planning skills necessary to follow through on a project that makes a positive impact on her community. Working toward this award demonstrates a Girl Scout's commitment to helping others, improving her community and the world, and becoming the best she can be. The Bronze Award project takes a minimum of 20 hours to complete. Adult recognition There are also GS awards for adults including: Outstanding Volunteer, Outstanding Leader, Appreciation Pin, Honor Pin, Thanks Badge, and Thanks Badge II. Outstanding Volunteer is awarded for Outstanding service as Girl Scout volunteer (other than a leader). Outstanding Leader is awarded for Outstanding service as Girl Scout leader. Appreciation Pin is awarded for exceptional performance beyond expectations for the position. The Honor Pin recognizes an adult member who has delivered exceptional service beyond expectations to two or more geographic areas, service units or program delivery audiences in a way that furthers the council's goals. Thanks Badge recognizes outstanding service for a Council as a whole or the Girl Scout Movement as a whole. Different GS councils use different terminology for regions within their council. Thanks Badge II is awarded where the recipient has received the Thanks Badge and the recipient's service continues to merit further recognition. At least one nomination, two endorsements, and a review of the forms is required for each of these awards. Effect on American life Among the many famous American Girl Scouts are Taylor Swift, Sonia Sotomayor, Dakota Fanning, Lucille Ball, Katie Couric, and Elizabeth Dole. Many Girl Scouts have become successful leaders in numerous professional fields such as law, medicine, politics, journalism, and science. Beginning with Lou Henry Hoover, the incumbent First Lady has served as the Honorary President of GSUSA. Lou Henry Hoover was also the actual President of the Girl Scouts from 1922 to 1925 and Chairman of the National board of directors from 1925 to 1928. A 1994 Chronicle of Philanthropy poll showed Girl Scouts ranked by the public as the eighth "most popular charity/non-profit in America" among more than 100 charities. During World War I and World War II, girls involved in Scouts helped the Allied forces by selling defense bonds, growing victory gardens, and collecting waste fat and scrap iron. Girl Scouts also spread their values into their communities through community service projects such as soup kitchens and food drives. Over twenty of NASA's female career astronauts were former Girl Scouts. The first American woman to spacewalk was a former Girl Scout, Dr. Kathryn Sullivan. The American Girl The Girl Scouts published their own magazine from 1917 to 1979. The name changed from The Rally (1917–1920) to The American Girl (eventually dropping "The"). Circulation exceeded 200,000 in the 1940s, and reached as high as 510,000 per month by 1949. It can be confused with American Girl magazine, 1992–2019. Girl Scout Senior Roundups International Girl Scout gatherings named Senior Roundups were held every three years from 1956 until 1965: Milford, Michigan (1956) attended by 5,000 girls Colorado Springs, Colorado, from July 3, 1959, to July 12, 1959, with 10,000 girls Button Bay, Vermont from July 18, 1962, to July 31, 1962, with 9,000 girls Farragut Reservation, Idaho, from July 17, 1965, to July 26, 1965, with 12,000 girls Issues Religion Non-sectarian founding When the Girl Scouts were first organized, the organization claimed to be "non-sectarian in practice as well as theory". By the early 1920s, Catholic Girl Scout units had been founded in New York, Philadelphia, Washington and other cities. In the 1920s, about 2,000 Girl Scouts were Catholic. During this time, the organization upheld standards which were consistent with the beliefs of the Catholic religion. From its founding in 1912, it had Jewish leaders and scouts. "To serve God" in the Promise Since 1993, Girl Scouts have been able to substitute something appropriate to their own beliefs for the phrase "To serve God" in the Girl Scout Promise. This option appears in the guidelines distributed to adult volunteers but not in the actual girls' books. Official volunteer documentation contains this note: Girl Scouts of the USA makes no attempt to define or interpret the word "God" in the Girl Scout Promise. It looks to individual members to establish for themselves the nature of their spiritual beliefs. When making the Girl Scout Promise, individuals may substitute wording appropriate to their own spiritual beliefs for the word "God." This note or a shorter variant also frequently appears on local council web pages. Volunteers are reminded "to be sensitive to the spiritual beliefs of the girls in your group and to make sure that everyone in the group feels comfortable and included in Girl Scouting" and to feel free to share the policy with the girls' families. The policy change was prompted by lawsuits and attempts to be more inclusive. Atheist parents sued the Boy Scouts of America in 1991 for denying membership in the Cub Scouts to their sons. Considering this news, the Totem Girl Scout Council of Seattle attempted to change the Girl Scout Promise to make mention of "God" optional, which would be more inclusive of local non-theist Native American and Southeast Asian girls. After the national organization asserted this could not be changed locally, the Seattle council advocated that the change be adopted nation-wide. In November 1992, the parents of Nitzia Cuevas-Macias sued for their daughter to be permitted to participate in the Girl Scouts even though she refused to promise to serve God. On October 23, 1993, at the Girl Scouts of the USA annual national convention, delegates voted 1,560 "yes" against 375 "no" to permit individuals to substitute another word or phrase for "God" in their promise. The convention gave this explanation: For some individuals, the word "God", no matter how broadly interpreted, does not appropriately reflect their spiritual beliefs. Since the belief in a spiritual principle is fundamental to Girl Scouting, not the word used to define that belief, it is important that individuals have the opportunity to express that belief in wording meaningful to them. It is essential to maintain the spiritual foundation of Girl Scouting, yet be inclusive of the full range of spiritual beliefs. This [policy change] does not take the word "God" out of the Girl Scout Promise. It gives those individuals who wish to do so the option to state their commitment to the spiritual concepts fundamental to the Movement with a word or words more appropriate to their own beliefs. For instance, an individual may say "my faith" or "Allah" or "the Creator". This policy change settled the Cuevas-Macias lawsuit. Some consider that the Girl Scouts of the USA have not gone far enough in making Scouting open to non-theists; others that they have gone too far in removing God or that they are violating the constitution of the WAGGGS. In 2017, some parents still find the perceived religious aspects of the Girl Scouts enough of a reason not to sign up their daughters to participate. The WAGGGS constitution requires member societies to maintain membership standards to include a promise similar to the one established by Baden-Powell, which includes the concept of duty to God. The GSUSA policy adopted in 1993 led to the 1995 formation of an alternative organization, the American Heritage Girls that accepts only leaders and chartering organizations that agree with a specific Christian statement of faith. The organization had a little over 5,000 members in 2006. According to the organization, membership as of 2017 is over 43,000. Prayer at meetings The official Girl Scout policy does not ban or require prayer. The Girl Scout organization does not endorse or promote any particular philosophy or religious belief. Our movement is secular and is founded on American democratic principles, one of which is freedom of religion. Although Girl Scouts has policies supporting religious diversity, there is no policy by Girl Scouts of the USA that prohibits or requires the saying or singing of a grace, blessing, or invocation before meals by Girl Scout members in a troop/group setting, in a resident or day camp, or at meetings, conferences, and other large events. The decision to say a grace, blessing, or invocation is made locally at the troop or group level, and should be sensitive to the spiritual beliefs of all participants. Religious pin Girl Scouts of the USA has an optional "My Promise, My Faith" pin which girls in all grades may earn. Girls may also do religious recognition programs and wear the resulting emblem on their uniform; however, these are created and administered by the religious organizations and not by the Girl Scouts directly. Sexuality and gender issues Girl Scouts of the USA stated in an October 1991 letter: As a private organization, Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. respects the values and beliefs of each of its members and does not intrude into personal matters. Therefore, there are no membership policies on sexual preference. However, Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. has firm standards relating to the appropriate conduct of adult volunteers and staff. The Girl Scout organization does not condone or permit sexual displays of any sort by its members during Girl Scout activities, nor does it permit the advocacy or promotion of a personal lifestyle or sexual preference. These are private matters for girls and their families to address. GSUSA upholds a "don't ask, don't evangelize" policy on sexuality. The debate over this issue is split between those who feel that the policy should avoid and prevent discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, and those who question the inclusion of lesbians. In October 2011, the Girl Scouts of Colorado council publicly stated, "If a child identifies as a girl and the child's family presents her as a girl, Girl Scouts of Colorado welcomes her as a Girl Scout", when overturning a local troop's rejection of a seven-year-old transgender girl. In July 2015, the Girl Scouts of Western Washington returned a $100,000 donation after the donor stipulated that the money could not be used to support services for transgender Scouts. The group then set up an online fundraising campaign to recoup the lost funds, ultimately raising $250,000. In January 2012, a teen in California created a video calling for the boycott of Girl Scout Cookies in response to the Girl Scouts' policy of inclusion for transgender girls. The viral video became a rallying cry for both supporters and opponents of the group's stance on transgender members. In February 2016, Robert James Carlson, the Roman Catholic archbishop of St. Louis, urged parishioners to cut ties with the Girl Scouts over the group's embrace of LGBT rights. The Girl Scouts themselves defended their actions against this. "For 100 years, Girl Scouts has prided itself on being an inclusive organization serving girls from all walks of life. We handle cases involving transgender children on a case-by-case basis, with a focus on ensuring the welfare and best interests of the child in question and the other girls in the troop as our highest priority." Local objections to sex education sponsored by Planned Parenthood in Waco, Texas GSUSA is not aligned with and does not endorse, at the national level, the reproductive health organization Planned Parenthood; Girl Scout councils may choose to have or not have connections with Planned Parenthood. In 2003, in Waco, Texas, the local Bluebonnet Council was listed as a co-sponsor, with the Girl Scouts logo printed on the promotional flyer, of the Planned Parenthood of Central Texas event titled "Nobody's Fool '03: Dating, Love, Sex & HIV." In 2004, the same Council promoted a Planned Parenthood education event without providing money nor sending Girl Scouts to it. This was criticized by some anti-abortion movement supporters and social conservatives, resulting in a local attempt to boycott Girl Scout cookies sold by the Bluebonnet Council. Waco residents responded to the announced boycott by purchasing a record number of cookies, and the Bluebonnet Council dropped promotion of the event. A month later, GSUSA CEO Kathy Cloninger went on NBC's Today show, defending the Bluebonnet Council's decision to sever ties with Planned Parenthood. The Radical Brownies In 2014, Marilyn Hollinquest and Ana Yvette Martinez, both women of color, founded the Radical Brownies, a community group for girls of color in Oakland, California. Similar to the GSUSA, but created specifically for girls of color, the Radical Brownies endeavors to "empower and encourage" girls of color and cultivate sisterhood and community bonds between them. According to the Radical Brownies' mission statement at the time of its founding, its aim was to empower young girls of color to "step into their collective power" and to make the world a more "radical" place. The Radical Brownies wear brown berets and vests in homage to the Brown Berets and Black Panther movements. The group's members, ages 8–12 years old, can earn badges in "radical beauty," "food justice," and "radical self-love." Name controversy In February 2015, despite Radical Brownies co-founder Hollinquest clarifying that the group claimed no affiliation with the GSUSA, the GSUSA contacted the Radical Brownies organization and informed them that their troop's name and uniforms caused "some confusion" among GSUSA membership. According to GSUSA Chief Communications Officer Kelly Parisi, once the founders of the Radical Brownies were notified of the misunderstanding, they offered to change the group's name. In May that same year, the Radical Brownies renamed themselves the Radical Monarchs. Presidents Juliette Gordon Low (1915–1920) Anne Hyde Choate (1920–1922) Lou Henry Hoover (1922–1925) (1935–1937) Sarah Louise Arnold (1925–1943) (first Dean of Simmons College, 1902–1921) Mira Hoffman (1926–1930) (Mrs. William H. Hoffman) Birdsall Otis Edey (1930–1935) (Mrs. Frederick Edey) (after ceasing to be president she became National Commissioner for the Girl Scouts until her death in 1940) Henrietta Bates Brooke (1937–1939) (Mrs. Frederick H. Brooke) (died 1967, her husband was the architect Frederick H. Brooke who designed the District of Columbia War Memorial) Mildred Mudd (1939–1941) (she later supported the founding of Harvey Mudd College named after her husband, Harvey Seeley Mudd) Helen Means (1941–1945) (Mrs. Alan H. Means) Later chairwoman of the World Board (WAGGGS) (1952–1957) Harriet Rankin Ferguson (1946–1951) (Mrs. Vaughan C. Ferguson) Olivia Cameron Higgins Layton (1951–1957) (Mrs. Roy F. Layton) (died 1975) Marjorie Mehne Culmer (1958–1963) (Mrs. Charles U. Culmer) (later chair of WAGGGS, died in 1994) Margaret W. Price (1963–1969) (Mrs. Holton R. Price Jr.) (died in 1973) Grace M. S. McKittrick MacNeil (1969–1972) (Mrs. Douglas H. MacNeil) (died in 2000) Marjorie Motch (1972–1975) Gloria Randle Scott (1975–1978) Jane C. Shields Freeman (1978–1984) (her husband is Orville Freeman) Betty Fuller Pilsbury (1984–1990), she received the Silver Buffalo Award in 1986. B. LaRae Orullian (1990–1996) Elinor Johnstone Ferdon (1996–1999) Connie L. Matsui (1999–2002) Cynthia B. Thompson (2002–2005) Patricia Diaz Dennis (2005–2008) Connie L. Lindsey (2008–2013) Kathy Hopinkah Hannan (2014–2020) Karen P. Layng (2020–2023) Noorain Khan (2023–present) Chief executive officers The title has changed over the years. National Secretaries: Edith D. Johnston (June 1913 – June 1914) Cora Neal (June 1914 – June 1916) Montague Gammon (June 1916 – August 1917) National Directors: Abby Porter Leland (August 1917 – February 1919) Jane Deeter Rippin (February 1919 – November 1930) Josephine Schain (November 1930 – September 1935) Constance Rittenhouse (September 1935 – December 1950) National Executive Directors: Dorothy C. Stratton (December 1950 – July 1960) Sally Stickney Cortner (July 1960 – May 1961) (Interim) Louise A. Wood (May 1961 – April 1972) Dr. Cecily Cannan Selby (April 1972 – September 1975) Frank H. Kanis (September 1975 – July 1976) (Interim) Frances Hesselbein (July 1976– February 1990) was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998 in part for her work in Girl Scouts. Mary Rose Main (February 1990– October 1997) Joel E. Becker (October 1997– January 1998) (Interim) Marsha Johnson Evans (January 1998– July 2002): retired rear admiral, left the Girl Scouts to become president of the American Red Cross Chief executive officers: Jackie Barnes (July 2002– October 2003) (Interim) Kathy Cloninger (October 2003– November 2011) Anna Maria Chávez (November 2011– June 2016) Sylvia Acevedo (July 2016– August 2020) (Served in interim capacity from July 2016– May 2017) Judith Batty (August 16, 2020– January 27, 2022) (Interim) Sofia Chang (January 27, 2022 – February 2023) Bonnie Barczykowski (February 2023–present) 100th anniversary GSUSA celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding by Juliette Low with a "Bridge to the Second Century" event on November 13, 2011, at the GS National Convention in Houston and other sites around the country. The Anniversary was also celebrated by participation in the world-famous Pasadena, California Tournament of Roses Parade of 2012, featuring the Girl Scouts 100th Anniversary float, which was designed and decorated by Girl Scouts. US President Barack Obama signed the "Girl Scouts of the USA Commemorative Coin Act" for the 100th Anniversary celebration. The act authorized the minting of 350,000 silver dollar coins in honor of Girl Scouts and the achievements of the 50 million women influenced by Girl Scouting during the last 100 years. Colorado staged a vigorous campaign to create a special license plate to honor the Girl Scout Centennial. The Girl Scouts of Minnesota and Wisconsin River Valleys hosted "The Great Girl Gathering", a Centennial Celebration on March 10 and 11, 2012 for 140,000 girls at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. Build-A-Bear Workshop had a limited-edition Girl Scout bear and outfits for the 100th anniversary. The Girl Scout Council of the Nation's Capital in Washington, DC hosted a 100th Anniversary Sing-Along on the National Mall, on June 9, 2012, called Girl Scouts Rock the Mall: 100th Anniversary Sing-Along. The Rock the Mall event drew more than 200,000 people to the national mall to celebrate Girl Scouting and cost $2 million. Girl life-sized Scouts of Citrus, in partnership with Walt Disney World, held a special 100th anniversary bridging event on May 25–28, 2012. The Bridging into the Next Century event provides Girl Scouts from all over the country an opportunity to celebrate the spirit of Girl Scouting at Epcot. Cincinnati Museum Center held a daytime and overnight event to celebrate in partnership with the Girl Scouts of Western Ohio, who Ohio designed an exhibit, which was on display for free until May 13, 2012. The exhibit displays old uniforms, literature and discussed the role of the Girl Scouts for the last 100 years. GSUSA made a new cookie called Savannah Smiles to commemorate the anniversary. The Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas hosted the Girl Scouts national exhibition at the 2012 State Fair of Texas in the historic Hall of State. At the State Fair of Texas, visitors were able to indulge on a Fried Samoa, be part of a virtual campfire, walk through a life – sized cookie box and see a replica of Juliette Gordon Low's house. In Savannah, Georgia where Girl Scouting was founded, they hosted a "Party in the Park" in Forsyth Park where there was a Centennial Honor Guard consisting of girls wearing vintage uniforms from the Girl Scout First Headquarters. The uniforms were; from 1912 (replica) 1914 1928 1940s 1960s 1970s 1980s and the current. The city of Savannah closed part of the Talmadge Bridge so girls could walk the bridge and "Bridge to the next century. "Savannah also had a "Sunrise Service" with the CEO, Anna Maria Chavez. The Honor guard from the park carried the Eternal Flame. The city of Savannah dedicated their annual "Georgia Day" to Juliette. Similar organizations Camp Fire Girls was founded in 1910, two years prior to the Girl Scouts, by some of the creators of the Boy Scouts of America. In 1975, the group became co-educational and soon afterwards changed its name to "Camp Fire Boys and Girls". The name was changed to Camp Fire USA in 2001 and to Camp Fire in 2012. As of 2009, the group has a membership of about 750,000. Various religious groups have established their own youth clubs such as Missionettes (now Mpact Girls) for the Assemblies of God. Little Flowers Girls' Club is a Catholic-focused girls club. GEMS Girls' Clubs is a non-denominational group with a Calvinist/Reformed background. Pioneer Girls started as a Methodist group but is non-denominational. The Masonic Lodge which requires belief in a Supreme Being has their own set of service organizations targeted at young and teenage girls, The International Order of the Rainbow for Girls and Job's Daughters International. One youth group explicitly set up as a Christian alternative to the Girl Scouts is the American Heritage Girls (AHG), started in 1995 in West Chester, Ohio, by a group of parents upset with available female Scouting organizations. AHG is a Christian organization that states that it is "a nonprofit organization dedicated to the mission of building women of integrity through service to God, family, community and country." As of 2020, it claims a membership (adult and youth) of over 50,000. See also Scouting portal United States portal Explanatory notes References Further reading Anderson, Erin K.; Behringer, Autumn (2010). "Girlhood in the Girl Scouts". Girlhood Studies. 3 (2): 89–108. doi:10.3167/ghs.2010.030206. Arneil, Barbara (2010). Gender, Diversity, and Organizational Change: The Boy Scouts vs. Girl Scouts of America. Perspectives on Politics. Vol. 8. pp. 53–68. Block, Nelson R.; Proctor, Tammy M. (2009). Scouting Frontiers: Youth and the Scout Movement's First Century. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4438-0450-9. Cordery, Stacy A. (2012). The Remarkable Founder of the Girl Scouts: Juliette Gordon Low. New York: Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-02330-1. Corey, Shana (2012). Here Come the Girl Scouts! The Amazing, All-True Story of Juliette "Daisy" Gordon Low and Her Great Adventure. New York: Scholastic. ISBN 978-0-545-34278-0. Degenhardt, Mary; Kirsch, Judith (2005). Girl Scout Collector's Guide: A History of Uniforms, Insignia, Publications, and Memorabilia (2nd ed.). Texas Tech. ISBN 978-0-89672-546-1. Hahner, Leslie (2008). "Practical Patriotism: Camp Fire Girls, Girl Scouts, and Americanization". Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies. 5 (2): 113–134. doi:10.1080/14791420801989702. S2CID 143730086. Inness, Sherrie A. (1997). "Chapter 5: Girl Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, and Woodcraft Girls: The Ideology of Girls' Scouting Novels, 1910–1935". In Inness, Sherrie A. (ed.). Nancy Drew and Company: Culture, Gender, and Girls' Series. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press. pp. 89–100. ISBN 9780879727369. Lawson, Katheryn (2017). "Girl Scout Contrafacta and Symbolic Soldiering in the Great War". American Music. 35 (3): 375–411. doi:10.5406/americanmusic.35.3.0375. JSTOR 10.5406/americanmusic.35.3.0375. S2CID 194899430. Low, Juliette (1919). "Girl Scouts as an Educational Force" (PDF). Bulletin. 33. Bureau of Education, US Department of the Interior. Proctor, Tammy M. (2009). Scouting for Girls: A Century of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9780313381140. Revzin, Rebekah E. (1998). "American Girlhood in the Early Twentieth Century: The Ideology of Girl Scout Literature, 1913–1930". Library Quarterly. 68 (3): 261–275. doi:10.1086/602982. S2CID 141165674. Rothschild, Mary Aickin (1981). "To Scout or to Guide? The Girl Scout–Boy Scout Controversy, 1912–1941". Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies. 6 (3): 115–121. doi:10.2307/3346224. JSTOR 3346224. Strickland, Charles (1979). "Juliette Low, the Girl Scouts, and the Role of American Women". In Mary Kelley (ed.). Woman's Being, Woman's Place: Female Identity and Vocation in Amencan History. Boston: G. K. Hall. pp. 252–264. ISBN 9780816183241. OCLC 470987797. Wadsworth, Ginger (2012). First Girl Scout: The Life of Juliette Gordon Low. New York: Clarion Books. ISBN 978-0-547-24394-8. External links Official website Girl Scout Uniform, ca. 1917, in the Staten Island Historical Society Online Collections Database Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace Works by Girl Scouts of the United States of America at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Girl Scouts of the USA at the Internet Archive Works by Girl Scouts of the USA at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) All Things Girl Scouts

Lou Henry Hoover (March 29, 1874 – January 7, 1944) was an American philanthropist, geologist, and the first lady of the United States from 1929 to 1933 as the wife of President Herbert Hoover. She was active in community organizations and volunteer groups throughout her life, including the Girl Scouts of the USA, which she led from 1922 to 1925 and from 1935 to 1937. Throughout her life, Hoover supported women's rights and women's independence. She was a proficient linguist, fluent in Mandarin and well-versed in Latin, and was the primary translator from Latin to English of the complex 16th-century metallurgy text De re metallica. Hoover was raised in California while it was part of the American frontier. She attended Stanford University, and became the first woman to receive a degree in geology from the institution. She met fellow geology student Herbert Hoover at Stanford, and they married in 1899. The Hoovers first resided in China; the Boxer Rebellion broke out later that year, and they were at the Battle of Tientsin. In 1901 they moved to London, where Hoover raised their two sons and became a popular hostess between their international travels. During World War I, the Hoovers led humanitarian efforts to assist war refugees. The family moved to Washington, D.C. in 1917, when Herbert was appointed head of the Food and Drug Administration, and Lou became a food conservation activist in support of his work. Hoover became the First Lady of the United States when her husband was inaugurated as president in 1929. Her invitation of Jessie De Priest to the White House for tea was controversial for its implied support of racial integration and civil rights. She refused to give interviews to reporters, but she became the first first lady to give regular radio broadcasts. Hoover was responsible for refurbishing the White House during her tenure, and saw to the construction of a presidential retreat at Rapidan Camp. She minimized her public role as White House hostess, dedicating her time as first lady to her volunteer work. Hoover's reputation declined alongside her husband's during the Great Depression as she was portrayed as uncaring of the struggles faced by Americans. Both the public and those close to her were unaware of her extensive charitable work to support the poor while serving as first lady, as she believed that publicizing generosity was improper. After Herbert lost his reelection campaign in 1932, the Hoovers returned to California, and they moved to New York City in 1940. Hoover was bitter about her husband's loss, blaming dishonest reporting and underhanded campaigning tactics, and she strongly opposed the Roosevelt administration. She worked to provide humanitarian support with her husband during World War II until her sudden death of a heart attack in 1944. Early life and education Lou Henry was born in Waterloo, Iowa, on March 29, 1874. Her mother was Florence Ida (née Weed), a former schoolteacher, and her father was Charles Delano Henry, a banker. She was the older of two daughters, raised in Waterloo before moving to Texas, Kansas, and California. Most of her childhood was spent in the California towns of Whittier and Monterey. While she was a child, her father educated her in outdoorsmanship, and she learned to camp and ride. She took up sports, including baseball, basketball, and archery. Her parents taught her other practical skills, such as bookkeeping and sewing. Her family was nominally Episcopalian, but Lou sometimes attended Quaker services. As a child, Henry attended Bailey Street School in Whittier until 1890. She was well-liked in school, known for the science and literature clubs she organized and for her tendency to ignore gender norms by engaging in athletics and outdoor activities. When she was ten, she was the editor of her school newspaper. She began her postsecondary schooling at the Los Angeles Normal School (now the University of California, Los Angeles). While in Los Angeles, she was a member of the school's Dickens Club that studied and collected specimens of plants and animals. She later transferred to San José Normal School (now San José State University), obtaining a teaching credential in 1893. She took a serious interest in politics during her college years; she joined the Republican Party based on its progressive platform, and she strongly supported women's suffrage. After her graduation in 1893, Henry took a job at her father's bank as well as working as a substitute teacher. The following year, she attended a lecture by geologist John Casper Branner. Fascinated by the subject, she enrolled in Branner's program at Stanford University to pursue a degree in geology. It was there that Branner introduced her to her future husband, Herbert Hoover, who was then a senior. They bonded over their shared Iowa heritage and their common interests in science and outdoorsmanship, and their friendship developed into a courtship. She studied geology with the intention of doing field work, but she and Branner were unable to find any employers willing to accept a female geologist. She maintained her interest in sports while at Stanford, serving as president of the Stanford Women's Athletic Club in her final year. In 1898, Hoover became the first woman to receive a bachelor's degree in geology from Stanford, and she was one of the first women in the United States to hold such a degree. She continued to work with Branner, conducting research on his behalf and requesting geological samples for Stanford's collection. Branner credited her with making it one of the largest collections in the world. After graduating, Henry volunteered with the Red Cross to support American soldiers during the Spanish–American War. Marriage and travels Marriage and travel to China In 1897, Herbert was offered an engineering job in Australia. Before leaving, he had dinner with the Henrys and their engagement was informally agreed upon. Lou and Herbert maintained a long-distance relationship while he was in Australia. Herbert was hired as chief engineer of the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company the following year, and he sent her a marriage proposal by cable, reading "Going to China via San Francisco. Will you go with me?". They were married in the Henrys' home on February 10, 1899. Lou also announced her intention to change her religious faith from Episcopalian to her husband's Quaker religion, but there was no Quaker Meeting in Monterey. Instead, they were married in a civil ceremony performed by a Spanish Roman Catholic priest. The day after their marriage, Lou Hoover and her husband boarded a ship from San Francisco, and they briefly honeymooned at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu. While on route, they read extensively about China and its history. They arrived in Shanghai on March 8, spending four days in the Astor House Hotel. Hoover stayed with a missionary couple in the foreign colony in Tientsin (now Tianjin) while her husband was working, and they moved into a home of their own the following September. It was their first home as a married couple, a Western-style brick house at the edge of the colony. It was here that Hoover began homemaking and interior decoration; she managed a staff and entertained for guests. She also took up typing while in China, purchasing a typewriter and writing scientific articles on Chinese mining with her husband. Hoover worked closely with her husband, through both writing and field work. She also started a collection of Chinese porcelain that she would maintain throughout her life. The Boxer Rebellion began while the Hoovers were in China; despite her husband's pleas, Lou refused to leave the country. As foreigners, they were both potential targets of the Boxer movement. During the Battle of Tientsin in 1900, Lou worked as a nurse and managed food supplies while Herbert organized barricades. For a month, Hoover carried a revolver while she ran supplies to soldiers on her bicycle. In one incident, a bullet struck her tire while she was riding. In another, shells struck around her home, but once it was clear the shelling was over, she calmly returned to her game of solitaire. At least one obituary was mistakenly published for her. The Hoovers left China after the end of the Boxer Rebellion that summer, traveling to London to make arrangements regarding control of Chinese mines. They returned to China once more with Lou's sister Jean for several months in 1901. London and World War I The Hoovers made their home in London in November 1901 after Herbert was offered a partnership with a British mining company. Their work took them throughout Europe and to many other countries, including Australia, Burma, Ceylon, Egypt, India, Japan, New Zealand, and Russia. Because of their travels, Hoover spent much of her time on steamboats. The trips were relatively comfortable, as they traveled in first class. She passed time on these months-long voyages by reading or by hosting social visits with other travelers using portable tea sets and tables. The Hoovers had two sons who accompanied them as they traveled: Herbert Hoover Jr. was born in 1903, and Allan Hoover was born in 1907. The Hoovers became extremely wealthy after Herbert's decision to become an independent consultant in 1908. Lou's expertise in geology allowed her to participate in business talk with Herbert and his colleagues, and she thoroughly enjoyed this. The Hoovers played a role in standardizing the modern mining industry, particularly in regard to human management and business ethics. When they were in London, Lou often entertained large crowds. Their home became a social hub for their fellow expatriates and for Herbert's colleagues in the mining industry. The Hoovers engaged in philanthropy during their time in London, and Lou saw to it that her servants had their needs addressed. She joined the Friends of the Poor to work directly with people in poverty, and she joined social clubs such as the Society of American Women, the British affiliate of the General Federation of Women's Clubs; she participated in and eventually led the society's philanthropic committee. When World War I began, the Hoovers had already spent time back in the United States and were preparing to move back permanently. Upon hearing that war had broken out, the Hoovers instead became involved with London relief efforts. When Herbert was chosen to direct relief efforts for Belgian refugees, Lou became heavily involved as well. She also reorganized the Society of American Women as a humanitarian group to facilitate the transport of Americans stranded in Britain. She traveled regularly to the United States and back to give speeches and collect donations for relief efforts, despite the danger of crossing the North Atlantic during the war. Her involvement with refugee assistance earned her a position on the American relief committee as the only female member, and she was the chairwoman of the women's American relief committee. Other projects of hers included the creation of a Red Cross hospital for British soldiers, a knitting factory in London to provide jobs for displaced women, and a maternity hospital in Belgium. As her humanitarian efforts increased, she found herself responsible for so many projects that she had to delegate several of them to other women. For her work, she was decorated in 1919 by King Albert I of Belgium. The Hoovers returned to the United States in January 1917. When the U.S. entered World War I three months later, Herbert was appointed head of the Food and Drug Administration, and the Hoovers made their home in Washington, D.C. As with Herbert's previous endeavors, Lou worked closely alongside him. She joined her husband in promoting food conservation, traveling to give speeches promoting the cause. The Hoovers effectively became the public faces of the conservation movement. She also organized the construction of a home for her and her husband by Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, but this was seen as selfish by the public amid her humanitarian work, and she delayed the project until the end of the war. The war brought thousands of women to Washington to work as civil servants. The poor economic security of these women led Hoover to found women's groups and provide housing for the women that worked in her husband's department. She expanded her support for these women's groups to include medical treatment during the Spanish flu. Hoover paid for these programs with her own funds, describing them as loans but asking that they be repaid to someone that needed it more. After the war, Hoover continued her fundraising work in the U.S. while her husband was in Europe administrating relief efforts. Cabinet member's wife The Hoovers returned to Washington when Herbert was appointed Secretary of Commerce in 1921. Drawing from her experience as a hostess, Hoover made their new Washington home into a social hub, allowing her husband to build relationships in the city. She found the practice of calling on her fellow cabinet wives to be a waste of time, and her refusal to do so contributed to the end of the practice. As the wife of a cabinet member, Hoover sought involvement in many women's organizations, including the Girl Scouts of the USA, the Camp Fire Girls, the General Federation of Women's Clubs, and the League of Women Voters. By the time Hoover was a cabinet wife, she emphasized a distinction between her work and her husband's, refusing to answer reporters' questions about her husband's work in Washington. When Calvin Coolidge ascended to the presidency, Hoover became close friends with the new first lady, Grace Coolidge. The two of them began a tradition of exchanging flowers on Easter, and Hoover invited Coolidge to participate in Girl Scouts events. Hoover had begun her involvement with the Girl Scouts in 1917, wishing to continue her work with children that she had begun in her war relief efforts. She was chosen as the group's president in 1922, and she held the position until 1925. She emphasized a "lead from behind" structure for Girl Scout troops in which she recommended that troop leaders "don't forget joy". Hoover's reforms, as well as her own personal popularity, led to a significant increase in membership and funds for the organization. She convinced first lady Edith Wilson to accept a position as honorary head of the Girl Scouts, establishing a tradition that Hoover herself would eventually take on as first lady. For girls living in rural areas, she founded the Lone Scout program so they could participate without a troop in their area. She also founded racially integrated Girl Scout troops in Washington and Palo Alto. Hoover was also heavily involved with the National Amateur Athletic Foundation, and she was the only woman to serve as vice president within the organization. She first began working with the group in 1922, and she played an active role until her husband's election as president in 1928. With this position, she created a Women's Division that outlasted the original organization. The women's division was created with the goal of moving women's sports away from the practices of men's sports, which they argued were too competitive and failed to prioritize the well-being of the athletes. Hoover believed that sports were essential for one's health and she wished to see all young girls participate in a sport. As with her participation in the Girl Scouts, she used her skill for fundraising to greatly expand the organization's resources. When Herbert was considered as a candidate for the 1928 presidential election, Lou did not approve of active campaigning, and Herbert often refrained from political talk when she was present. Though she accompanied her husband on his campaign, she refused to comment on the election or say anything that might be considered political. The 1928 election brought more attention to the candidates' wives than those of previous years. When her husband was chosen as the Republican Party's nominee, she found herself frequently compared to Catherine Smith, the wife of Democratic nominee Al Smith. Hoover was relatively popular compared to Mrs. Smith, who was an urbanite, a Catholic, and an alleged alcoholic—all things that made her unpopular with voters. Hoover was seen as better fit for the role, being athletic and well-traveled. After Herbert was elected president, Lou accompanied him on a goodwill tour of Latin America. First Lady of the United States White House hostess Hoover was not as successful in her role as White House hostess as she was in other projects; she was not eager to participate in Washington society except on her own terms, and her social position became increasingly precarious as the Hoovers' reputation diminished during the Great Depression. She did not prioritize public presentations as first lady, and when she took up the role, she declined to purchase new clothes or learn any new skills as incoming first ladies often did. She was often reclusive, ending the practice of greeting thousands of people during the New Year's Day reception because she deemed it unpleasant. Her husband later said that it was only her "rigid sense of duty" that prevented her from abolishing other receptions as well. She made sure to accommodate pregnant women, rejecting the social expectation of the time that pregnancy not be visible in public. Hoover was more willing to invite individual guests to the White House, and such guests were present at every meal. Some days included additional teas to accommodate the constant flow of guests to the White House. On several occasions, White House staff found that due to last-minute invitations, they had to prepare and serve meals for several times as many people as originally expected. Unlike previous first ladies, Hoover emphasized political advantage when selecting guests, setting a precedent for future first ladies. At the beginning of her tenure, Hoover spent large sums of money to ensure that the White House had "the best of everything", using all of the funds allocated by Congress and then supplementing it with the family's personal funds. She expressed her love of music by inviting several renowned musicians to the White House, and she introduced the tradition of inviting a guest musician to play for visiting foreign leaders after she had her friend Mildred Dilling play for the King of Siam. The Great Depression brought an end to the White House's more extravagant social events as Hoover reduced her spending to serve as an example for the American people. When African American candidate Oscar Stanton De Priest was elected to Congress, Hoover initiated a meeting for tea at the White House with his wife Jessie De Priest, as was tradition for the wives of all incoming Congressmen. Hoover was responsible for planning the event to ensure its success. She arranged the scheduling so that only women she trusted would attend, and she alerted White House security that Mrs. De Priest was to be expected and not barred entry. Hoover chose not to publicize the details of De Priest's attendance until after it occurred so as to avoid interruptions. The event became part of a larger debate on racial issues as Southern voters protested the invitation of a Black woman. It further complicated Hoover's relationship with the press, as she deemed Southern newspapers to be responsible for the criticism. The Hoovers reinforced the precedent by inviting other non-white musicians to play at the White House, including the Tuskegee Institute Choir. Management of the White House During her time as first lady, Hoover oversaw refurbishing of the White House, importing art and furniture to decorate the building. She worked in conjunction with a committee that had been formed in the previous administration to decorate the White House, though she sometimes declined to consult them and made her own changes. She hired her own assistant at personal expense to catalogue what already existed in the White House, creating the first full compilation for the history of the White House's furnishings. Her refurbishments included the reconstruction of the studies of Abraham Lincoln and James Monroe, which would later be converted into the Lincoln Bedroom and the Treaty Room, respectively. She also had a movie projector installed in the White House. Hoover's many projects meant that she frequently held meetings of her own in the White House, and she had bedrooms converted into sitting rooms so she and the president could both see several people each day. Hoover played a critical role in designing and overseeing the construction of a rustic presidential retreat at Rapidan Camp in Madison County, Virginia. After the location was chosen, the Hoovers discovered the poverty in the area and added the construction of a school building to their project. Once Rapidan Camp was established as a second presidential home, the Hoovers stayed there each weekend. Hoover often practiced horseback riding while at the camp, where she often outpaced the military horsemen that accompanied her. The Hoovers undertook another philanthropic construction project in 1930 to build a Quaker Meeting House in Washington D.C. The Hoovers' relationship with their staff is the subject of debate. Memoirs of staff members have portrayed them in a negative light, but it is unclear how much of this depiction originates from the books' ghostwriters. Hoover required the staff to remain out of sight, and a bell would be rung before she or her husband entered a room, signaling for the staff to leave the area. While managing White House events, she would use hand signals to communicate with the staff. Many innocuous gestures, such as raising a finger or dropping a handkerchief, indicated a command for them to follow. Even slight deviations from expected behavior, such as scraping plates or breaking composure when standing during mealtimes, risked a rebuke. Though she was strict, she also treated the staff generously, frequently paying for their food and other personal expenses. Besides the White House staff, Hoover had her own personal first lady staff. She had four women working directly for her, more than any previous first lady. Politics and activism Hoover was her husband's frequent adviser while he was president. Throughout her tenure, she refused to give interviews to the press, seeing them as intrusive and error-prone. Instead, she spoke to the public by giving speeches over the radio, and she was the first woman to make radio broadcasts as first lady. She took pride in her broadcasts, rehearsing them in a dedicated room and practicing her speaking technique. These broadcasts often used plain language and advocated feminist ideals. Hoover continued her involvement with volunteer and activist work, though much of it was reduced or ignored in favor of her responsibilities as first lady. She remained directly active with the Girl Scouts, continuing her oversight of its organizational and financial operations, and she touted it as an example of the volunteerism she felt was necessary to combat the Great Depression. Hoover also became a patron of the arts as first lady, particularly in her support of aspiring musicians. Using her influence as first lady, Hoover encouraged her husband to hire more women in his administration, and she expressed support for an executive order to ban sex discrimination in civil service appointments. She generally avoided any strong political statements or affiliations that might have interfered with her husband's administration. During the Great Depression, Hoover regularly received requests for assistance from citizens who were struggling. She referred each one to a local charity organization or a person who could help so that each would get the needed assistance. Whenever she was unable to find a charity or a donor that could help, she sent her own money. She refused to publicize or draw attention to her charitable work, consistent with her lifelong belief that private generosity should not be promotional. Often she sent the money anonymously through a proxy so her name would not be associated with it. She also became responsible for the financial situation of her and her husband's relatives and family friends. Serving as a point of contact between her husband and those suffering poverty, she presented an image of empathy to contrast with the president's perceived aloofness. Hoover also helped organize fundraiser concerts for the American Red Cross with pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski. She was deeply affected by the criticisms leveled against her husband during the Great Depression, furious that a man whom she saw as caring and charitable was being criticized as the opposite. In support of her husband's stance on the economy, her radio broadcasts during the Great Depression focused on volunteerism, emphasizing women's role in volunteer work. She accompanied her husband on a presidential campaign again in 1932, but he was defeated in the 1932 presidential election. Later life and death After leaving the White House, the Hoovers took their first true vacation in many years, driving through the Western United States. Hoover continued to receive letters requesting assistance, though far fewer than she had addressed while serving as first lady. She did not share her husband's desire to return to politics, but she was active in Republican Party women's groups. In 1935, she took up a project to purchase and restore her husband's birthplace cottage in Iowa. She also returned to the Girl Scouts the same year to serve as its president for another year. Hoover became involved with the Salvation Army to support its fundraising operations in 1937. The same year, she returned to Stanford University to develop the Friends of Music program, with which she was active for the rest of her life. She also supported a physical therapy program that she hoped would prove beneficial should the United States go to war. She maintained an active lifestyle throughout her later years, including a weeks-long horseback tour of the Cascade Range while she was in her sixties. Hoover disapproved of the actions of the Roosevelt administration, and she became affiliated with the Pro-America movement that opposed the New Deal. At the onset of World War II, she once again worked to provide relief for war refugees with her husband, reminiscent of their work in World War I. She was enraged by the Japanese invasion of China, a place with which she always felt a personal connection. Despite this, she took an isolationist stance, hoping that the U.S. would not enter the second World War as it had entered the first. During the 1940 presidential election, the Hoovers campaigned on behalf of Republican candidate Wendell Willkie. They moved to New York in December 1940, as Herbert had been spending an increasing amount of time there on business. Hoover died of a heart attack on January 7, 1944, while staying at the Waldorf Astoria New York. She was found by her husband when he returned to their room. Two services were held for her. The first, a joint Episcopalian-Quaker service in New York, was attended by about one thousand people, including two hundred girl scouts. The second was held in Palo Alto, where she was buried. After her death, her family found many checks she had received to repay her for her charity but which she had declined to cash. She was later reinterred in her husband's grave in West Branch, Iowa. Political beliefs During her early life and career, Hoover was not politically vocal. She preferred to speak to nonpartisan issues, and she wished to avoid saying anything that might have political ramifications for her husband. To present a unified stance with her husband, she rarely expressed political ideas of her own except on women's issues. Hoover supported civil rights and deplored racism, though she was susceptible to the racial stereotyping that was common at the time, and she was unaware of problems faced by the African American community. One of the few issues on which she disagreed with her husband was her support for the prohibition of alcohol. She disposed of her husband's wine collection, and she refused to attend any event that served alcohol illegally. Throughout her life, Hoover worked to support women's causes. She was an advocate of women's employment, encouraging housewives to start careers as well as keeping house. Her support for women's causes came about early in life, and she wrote school essays on the subject. She was a member of several women's groups, many of which engaged in philanthropic efforts to support women. When the Nineteenth Amendment guaranteed women's suffrage in the United States in 1920, Hoover said that women's responsibilities extended to civic duty. She chastised women who lived purely domestic lives as "lazy", arguing that household chores did not preclude a career. She was also critical of politically active women who focused exclusively on women's and children's rights issues, believing that women should participate in governance more broadly. Hoover was a strong believer in philanthropy and business ethics, supporting her husband's decision to reimburse his employees at personal expense after a fellow partner defrauded them. She also ensured that the culprit's family was cared for financially after he fled the country. She believed that private charity was preferable to public assistance programs. Hoover was not vocal about her beliefs on philanthropy, believing that it was something that should be practiced privately. She opposed publicized philanthropy, and she gave funds to the needy throughout her life without telling others. The full extent of her philanthropy was not known until records were discovered after her death. She held a similar philosophy regarding religion, believing that practice was more important than sectarian identification. While her husband was the head of the Food and Drug Administration, Hoover took up the cause of food conservation. She began a tradition of leaving one chair empty as a reminder of child starvation whenever she entertained company. In 1918, she invited reporters into her home for a special "Dining with the Hoovers" interview in which she detailed their household's dining habits and conservation strategies. The practice of self-imposed dietary restrictions to conserve, such as going one day a week without meat, became known as "Hoovering". She provided lessons and recipes for Americans that wished to grow or prepare their own food. Amid the corruption of the Teapot Dome scandal, Hoover took an active stance in favor of government accountability. The scandal led her to call for more women in law enforcement, and she headed the Women's Conference on Law Enforcement in 1924. As first lady, Hoover provided indirect support to disabled veterans of the Bonus Army, though she believed that the able-bodied veterans had no claim to the additional support they were requesting. She was highly sensitive to political criticism as first lady, and she was strongly affected by remarks against her husband's presidency. Hoover became more conservative after her tenure as first lady, and she was critical of the Roosevelt administration. Hoover had a low opinion of the Roosevelts, believing that they caused her husband to be politically smeared and cost him a second term in the White House. She also felt that many of President Roosevelt's actions were unconstitutional. Later in life, she made political statements deploring the spread of communism and fascism. Languages Hoover spoke five languages by the time she became first lady. She began her study of Mandarin Chinese while on the ship to China after her marriage. She took up instruction under a Chinese Christian scholar, eventually surpassing him in her Chinese vocabulary. She sometimes served as her husband's translator while they lived in China, and she would continue to practice Chinese with him afterward so that he would retain the little that he knew. When she wished to speak privately with her husband in the White House, Hoover would engage with him in Mandarin. Her Chinese name was 'Hoo Loo' (古鹿; Pinyin: Gǔ Lù【胡潞，Hú Lù】), derived from the sound of her name in English. Hoover was also well versed in Latin, which she studied while at Stanford. She collaborated with her husband in translating Georgius Agricola's De re metallica, a 16th-century encyclopedia of mining and metallurgy. Lou was responsible for the linguistic translation, while Herbert applied his knowledge of the subject matter and carried out physical experiments based on what they discerned from the text. The book had previously been considered unusable due to the difficulty of translating its technical language, some of which had been invented by its author. After its translation, the Hoovers published it at their own expense and donated copies to students and experts of mining. In recognition of their work, they received the gold medal of the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America in 1914. They dedicated the book to Dr. Branner, the instructor who had introduced Lou to geology and to Herbert. Legacy During her tenure as first lady, Hoover was variously seen as a homemaker, as was common for first ladies, and as an activist. Her reputation, along with that of her husband, languished as the Hoover administration was criticized for its response to the Great Depression. Hoover is often seen as a counterbalance to her husband as she took up the social responsibilities of their work in and out of the White House, her charisma and tact balancing his reputation of being shy and sometimes arrogant. She has since been consistently ranked in the upper half of first ladies in periodic polling of historians. Hoover set an early precedent for the political role of first ladies in the 20th century by expressing an interest in women's issues and supporting her husband's platform with her own projects. Despite their political differences, Hoover has been compared to her successor Eleanor Roosevelt in their common approaches to political engagement and women's issues. Hoover's use of radio broadcasts proved similar to her successor's own use of media over the following years. The first biography about Hoover was Lou Henry Hoover: Gallant First Lady, written by her friend Helen B. Pryor in 1969. Her husband requested that her papers remained sealed for twenty years after his own death, preventing any significant scholarly analysis of her life or her role as first lady until then. They were opened in 1985, allowing for increased scholarship on her life and her work. Her papers are relatively comprehensive for historical figures of the period, including over 220,000 items and encompassing every period of her life. Historical study of Hoover has been complicated by her private nature, as she would often refuse media attention and burn personal letters. The Stanford home that Hoover designed was donated to the university by her husband, who requested that it be named the Lou Henry Hoover House. Two elementary schools were named in her honor: Lou Henry Hoover Elementary School of Whittier, California, in 1938 and Lou Henry Elementary School of Waterloo, Iowa, in 2005. Lou Henry Hoover Memorial Hall was built in 1948 at Whittier College. One of the brick dormitories at San Jose State University was named "Hoover Hall" in her honor until its demolition in 2016. Camp Lou Henry Hoover in Middleville, New Jersey, is named for her. In May 2017, the Lou Henry Hoover Sculpture Park was dedicated in Waterloo, Iowa on the site of her torn down birthplace home. There are two statues of her in the Sculpture Park, one of her as a child & young lady and one of her as First Lady. See also Margaret Hoover – Hoover's great-granddaughter Notes References Allen, Anne Beiser (2000). An Independent Woman: The Life of Lou Henry Hoover. Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-31466-7. Anthony, Carl Sferrazza (1990). First Ladies: The Saga of the Presidents' Wives and Their Power, 1789–1961. William Morrow and Company. ISBN 978-0-688-11272-1. Boller, Paul F. Jr. (1988). Presidential Wives. Oxford University Press. pp. 270–283. ISBN 978-0-19-503763-0. Caroli, Betty Boyd (2010). First Ladies: From Martha Washington to Michelle Obama. Oxford University Press, USA. pp. 176–188. ISBN 978-0-19-539285-2. Cottrell, Debbie Mauldin (1996). "Lou Henry Hoover". In Gould, Lewis L. (ed.). American First Ladies: Their Lives and Their Legacy. Garland Publishing. pp. 409–421. ISBN 978-0-8153-1479-0. Mayer, Dale C., ed. (1994). Lou Henry Hoover: Essays on a Busy Life. High Plains Publishing Company. ISBN 978-1-881019-04-6. Carroll, Rosemary F. "Lou Henry Hoover: The Emergence of a Leader, 1874–1916". In Mayer (1994), pp. 13–34. Christian, Rebecca. "'Don't Forget Joy!': Lou Henry Hoover and the Girl Scouts". In Mayer (1994), pp. 35–48. Beran, Jan. "Lou Henry Hoover and Women's Sports". In Mayer (1994), pp. 49–62. Gould, Lewis L. "A Neglected First Lady: A Reappraisal of Lou Henry Hoover". In Mayer (1994), pp. 63–78. Seale, William. "Lou Henry Hoover and the White House". In Mayer (1994), pp. 79–98. Kirk, Elise. "Lou Henry Hoover: First Lady in the Arts". In Mayer (1994), pp. 99–112. Smith, Richard Norton. "Carrying On: Lou Henry Hoover as a Former First Lady". In Mayer (1994), pp. 113–125. Schneider, Dorothy; Schneider, Carl J. (2010). "Lou Henry Hoover". First Ladies: A Biographical Dictionary (3rd ed.). Facts on File. pp. 220–229. ISBN 978-1-4381-0815-5. Strock, Ian Randal (2016). Ranking the First Ladies. Carrel Books. ISBN 978-1-631-44060-1. Watson, Robert P. (2001). "Lou Henry Hoover". First Ladies of the United States. Lynne Rienner Publishers. pp. 212–217. doi:10.1515/9781626373532. ISBN 978-1-62637-353-2. S2CID 249333854. Whyte, Kenneth (2017). Hoover: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-307-74387-9. Young, Nancy Beck (2004). Lou Henry Hoover: Activist First Lady. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-1357-1. Young, Nancy Beck (2016). "The Historiography of Lou Henry Hoover". In Sibley, Katherine A. S. (ed.). A Companion to First Ladies. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 423–438. ISBN 978-1-118-73218-2. Further reading Jeansonne, Glen; Luhrssen, David (2016). Herbert Hoover: A Life. Penguin. ISBN 978-1-101-99100-8. Pryor, Helen (1969). Lou Henry Hoover: Gallant First Lady. Dodd, Mead. ISBN 978-0-396-05992-9. Walch, Timothy, ed. (2003). Uncommon Americans: The Lives and Legacies of Herbert and Lou Henry Hoover. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-0-275979-96-6. External links Lou Hoover at C-SPAN's First Ladies: Influence & Image Lou Henry Hoover Papers Works by Lou Henry Hoover at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Lou Henry Hoover at the Internet Archive

Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States, serving from 1929 to 1933. He was a member of the Republican Party, and held office during the onset of the Great Depression. A wealthy mining engineer before his presidency, Hoover led the wartime Commission for Relief in Belgium and was the director of the U.S. Food Administration, followed by post-war relief of Europe. In the 1920s, he served as the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. Born to a Quaker family in West Branch, Iowa, Hoover grew up in Oregon. He was one of the first graduates of the new Stanford University in 1895. Hoover took a position with a London-based mining company working in Australia and China. He rapidly became a wealthy mining engineer. In 1914, the outbreak of World War I, he organized and headed the Commission for Relief in Belgium, an international relief organization that provided food to occupied Belgium. When the U.S. entered the war in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Hoover to lead the Food Administration. He became famous as his country's "food czar". After the war, Hoover led the American Relief Administration, which provided food to the starving millions in Central and Eastern Europe, especially Russia. Hoover's wartime service made him a favorite of many progressives, and he unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination in the 1920 U.S. presidential election. Hoover served as the secretary of commerce under Presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge. Hoover was an unusually active and visible Cabinet member, becoming known as "Secretary of Commerce and Under-Secretary of all other departments." He was influential in the development of air travel and radio. Hoover led the federal response to the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. He won the Republican nomination in the 1928 presidential election and defeated Democratic candidate Al Smith in a landslide. In 1929, Hoover assumed the presidency. However, during his first year in office, the stock market crashed, signaling the onset of the Great Depression, which dominated Hoover's presidency until its end. His response to the depression was widely seen as lackluster and he scapegoated Mexican Americans for the economic crisis. Approximately 1.5-2 million Mexican Americans were forcibly "repatriated" to Mexico in a forced migration campaign known as the Mexican Repatriation even though a majority of them were born in the United States. In the midst of the Great Depression, he was decisively defeated by Democratic nominee Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential election. Hoover's retirement was over 31 years long, one of the longest presidential retirements. He authored numerous works and became increasingly conservative in retirement. He strongly criticized Roosevelt's foreign policy and the New Deal. In the 1940s and 1950s, public opinion of Hoover improved, largely due to his service in various assignments for Presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower, including chairing the influential Hoover Commission. Critical assessments of his presidency by historians and political scientists generally rank him as a significantly below-average president, although Hoover has received praise for his actions as a humanitarian and public official. Early life and education Herbert Clark Hoover was born on August 10, 1874, in West Branch, Iowa. His father, Jesse Hoover, was a blacksmith and farm implement store owner of German, Swiss, and English ancestry. Hoover's mother, Hulda Randall Minthorn, was raised in Norwich, Ontario, Canada, before moving to Iowa in 1859. Like most other citizens of West Branch, Jesse and Hulda were Quakers. Around age two "Bertie", as he was called during that time, contracted a serious bout of croup, and was momentarily thought to have died until resuscitated by his uncle, John Minthorn. As a young child he was often referred to by his father as "my little stick in the mud" when he repeatedly got trapped in the mud crossing the unpaved street. Herbert's family figured prominently in the town's public prayer life, due almost entirely to mother Hulda's role in the church. As a child, Hoover consistently attended schools, but he did little reading on his own aside from the Bible. Hoover's father, noted by the local paper for his "pleasant, sunshiny disposition", died in 1880 at the age of 34 of a sudden heart attack. Hoover's mother died in 1884 of typhoid, leaving Hoover, his older brother, Theodore, and his younger sister, May, as orphans. Hoover lived the next 18 months with his uncle Allen Hoover at a nearby farm. In November 1885, Hoover was sent to Newberg, Oregon, to live with his uncle John Minthorn, a Quaker physician and businessman whose own son had died the year before. The Minthorn household was considered cultured and educational, and imparted a strong work ethic. Much like West Branch, Newberg was a frontier town settled largely by Midwestern Quakers. Minthorn ensured that Hoover received an education, but Hoover disliked the many chores assigned to him and often resented Minthorn. One observer described Hoover as "an orphan [who] seemed to be neglected in many ways". Hoover attended Friends Pacific Academy (now George Fox University), but dropped out at the age of thirteen to become an office assistant for his uncle's real estate office (Oregon Land Company) in Salem, Oregon. Though he did not attend high school, Hoover learned bookkeeping, typing, and mathematics at a night school. Hoover was a member of the inaugural "Pioneer Class" of Stanford University, entering in 1891 despite failing all the entrance exams except mathematics. During his freshman year, he switched his major from mechanical engineering to geology after working for John Casper Branner, the chairman of Stanford's geology department. During his sophomore year, to reduce his costs, Hoover co-founded the first student housing cooperative at Stanford, "Romero Hall". Hoover was a mediocre student, and he spent much of his time working in various part-time jobs or participating in campus activities. Though he was initially shy among fellow students, Hoover won election as student treasurer and became known for his distaste for fraternities and sororities. He served as student manager of both the baseball and football teams, and helped organize the inaugural Big Game versus the University of California. During the summers before and after his senior year, Hoover interned under economic geologist Waldemar Lindgren of the United States Geological Survey; these experiences convinced Hoover to pursue a career as a mining geologist. Mining engineer Bewick, Moreing When Hoover graduated from Stanford in 1895, the country was in the midst of the Panic of 1893 and he initially struggled to find a job. He worked in various low-level mining jobs in the Sierra Nevada Mountains until persuading prominent mining engineer Louis Janin to hire him. After working as a mine scout for a year, Hoover was hired by Bewick, Moreing & Co. ("Bewick"), a London-based company that operated gold mines in Western Australia. He first went to Coolgardie, then the center of the Eastern Goldfields, which was actually in Western Australia, receiving a $5,000 salary (equivalent to $183,120 in 2023). Conditions were harsh in the goldfields; Hoover described the Coolgardie and Murchison rangelands on the edge of the Great Victoria Desert as a land of "black flies, red dust and white heat". Hoover traveled constantly across the Outback to evaluate and manage the company's mines. He convinced Bewick to purchase the Sons of Gwalia gold mine, which proved to be one of the most successful mines in the region. Partly due to Hoover's efforts, the company eventually controlled approximately 50 percent of gold production in Western Australia. Hoover brought in many Italian immigrants to cut costs and counter the labour movement of the Australian miners. During his time with the mining company, Hoover became opposed to measures such as a minimum wage and workers' compensation, feeling that they were unfair to owners. Hoover's work impressed his employers, and in 1898 he was promoted to junior partner. An open feud developed between Hoover and his boss, Ernest Williams, but Bewick's leaders defused the situation by offering Hoover a compelling position in China. Upon arriving in China, Hoover developed gold mines near Tianjin on behalf of Bewick and the Chinese-owned Chinese Engineering and Mining Company. He became deeply interested in Chinese history, but gave up on learning the language to a fluent level. He publicly warned that Chinese workers were inefficient and racially inferior. He made recommendations to improve the lot of the Chinese worker, seeking to end the practice of imposing long-term servitude contracts and to institute reforms for workers based on merit. The Boxer Rebellion broke out shortly after the Hoovers arrived in China, trapping them and numerous other foreign nationals until a multi-national military force defeated Boxer forces in the Battle of Tientsin. Fearing the imminent collapse of the Chinese government, the director of the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company agreed to establish a new Sino-British venture with Bewick. After they established effective control over the new Chinese mining company, Hoover became the operating partner in late 1901. In this role, Hoover continually traveled the world on behalf of Bewick, visiting mines operated by the company on different continents. Beginning in December 1902, the company faced mounting legal and financial issues after one of the partners admitted to having fraudulently sold stock in a mine. More issues arose in 1904 after the British government formed two separate royal commissions to investigate Bewick's labor practices and financial dealings in Western Australia. After the company lost a lawsuit Hoover began looking for a way to get out of the partnership, and he sold his shares in mid-1908. Sole proprietor After leaving Bewick, Moreing, Hoover worked as a London-based independent mining consultant and financier. Though he had risen to prominence as a geologist and mine operator, Hoover focused much of his attention on raising money, restructuring corporate organizations, and financing new ventures. He specialized in rejuvenating troubled mining operations, taking a share of the profits in exchange for his technical and financial expertise. Hoover thought of himself and his associates as "engineering doctors to sick concerns", and he earned a reputation as a "doctor of sick mines". He made investments on every continent and had offices in San Francisco; London; New York City; Paris; Petrograd; and Mandalay, British Burma. By 1914, Hoover was a very wealthy man, with an estimated personal fortune of $4 million (equivalent to $121.67 million in 2023). Hoover co-founded the Zinc Corporation to extract zinc near the Australian city of Broken Hill, New South Wales. The Zinc Corporation developed the froth flotation process to extract zinc from lead-silver ore and operated the world's first selective ore differential flotation plant. Hoover worked with the Burma Corporation, a British firm that produced silver, lead, and zinc in large quantities at the Namtu Bawdwin Mine.: 90–96, 101–102  He also helped increase copper production in Kyshtym, Russia, through the use of pyritic smelting. He also agreed to manage a separate mine in the Altai Mountains that, according to Hoover, "developed probably the greatest and richest single body of ore known in the world".: 102–108  In his spare time, Hoover wrote. His lectures at Columbia and Stanford universities were published in 1909 as Principles of Mining, which became a standard textbook. The book reflects his move towards progressive ideals, as Hoover came to endorse eight-hour workdays and organized labor. Hoover became deeply interested in the history of science, and he was especially drawn to the De re metallica, an influential 16th century work on mining and metallurgy by Georgius Agricola. In 1912, Hoover and his wife published the first English translation of De re metallica. Hoover also joined the board of trustees at Stanford, and led a successful campaign to appoint John Branner as the university's president. Marriage and family During his senior year at Stanford, Hoover became smitten with a classmate named Lou Henry, though his financial situation precluded marriage at that time. The daughter of a banker from Monterey, California, Lou Henry decided to study geology at Stanford after attending a lecture delivered by John C. Branner. Immediately after earning a promotion in 1898, Hoover cabled Lou Henry, asking her to marry him. After she cabled back her acceptance of the proposal, Hoover briefly returned to the United States for their wedding. They would remain married until Lou Henry Hoover's death in 1944. Hoover was the first president to be a widower since Woodrow Wilson. Though his Quaker upbringing strongly influenced his career, Hoover rarely attended Quaker meetings during his adult life. Hoover and his wife had two children: Herbert Hoover Jr. (born in 1903) and Allan Henry Hoover (born in 1907). The Hoover family began living in London in 1902, though they frequently traveled as part of Hoover's career. After 1916, the Hoovers began living in the United States, maintaining homes in Stanford, California, and Washington, D.C. Hoover's elder brother Theodore also studied mining engineering at Stanford, and returned there to become dean of the engineering school. In retirement, Theodore bought a large property on the remote north coast of Santa Cruz County. The Theodore J. Hoover Natural Preserve is now part of Big Basin State Park. World War I and aftermath Relief in Europe World War I broke out in August 1914, pitting Germany and its allies against France and its allies. The German Schlieffen plan was to achieve a quick victory by marching through neutral Belgium to envelop the French Army east of Paris. The maneuver failed to reach Paris but the Germans did control nearly all of Belgium for the entire war. Hoover and other London-based American businessmen established a committee to organize the return of the roughly 100,000 Americans stranded in Europe. Hoover was appointed as the committee's chairman and, with the assent of Congress and the Wilson administration, took charge of the distribution of relief to Americans in Europe. Hoover later stated, "I did not realize it at the moment, but on August 3, 1914, my career was over forever. I was on the slippery road of public life." By early October 1914, Hoover's organization had distributed relief to at least 40,000 Americans. The German invasion of Belgium in August 1914 set off a food crisis in Belgium, which relied heavily on food imports. The Germans refused to take responsibility for feeding Belgian citizens in captured territory, and the British refused to lift their blockade of German-occupied Belgium unless the U.S. government supervised Belgian food imports as a neutral party in the war. With the cooperation of the Wilson administration and the CNSA, a Belgian relief organization, Hoover established the Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB). The CRB obtained and imported millions of tons of foodstuffs for the CNSA to distribute, and helped ensure that the German army did not appropriate the food. Private donations and government grants supplied the majority of its $11-million-a-month budget, and the CRB became a veritable independent republic of relief, with its own flag, navy, factories, mills, and railroads. Hoover worked 14-hour days from London, administering the distribution of over two million tons of food to nine million war victims. In an early form of shuttle diplomacy, he crossed the North Sea forty times to meet with German authorities and persuade them to allow food shipments. He also convinced British Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George to allow individuals to send money to the people of Belgium, thereby lessening workload of the CRB. At the request of the French government, the CRB began delivering supplies to the people of German-occupied Northern France in 1915. American diplomat Walter Page described Hoover as "probably the only man living who has privately (i.e., without holding office) negotiated understandings with the British, French, German, Dutch, and Belgian governments". U.S. Food Administration War upon Germany was declared in April 1917, and American food was essential to Allied victory. With the U.S. mobilizing for war, President Wilson appointed Hoover to head the U.S. Food Administration, which was charged with ensuring the nation's food needs during the war. Hoover had hoped to join the administration in some capacity since at least 1916, and he obtained the position after lobbying several members of Congress and Wilson's confidant, Edward M. House. Earning the appellation of "food czar", Hoover recruited a volunteer force of hundreds of thousands of women and deployed propaganda in movie theaters, schools, and churches. He carefully selected men to assist in the agency leadership—Alonzo E. Taylor (technical abilities), Robert Taft (political associations), Gifford Pinchot (agricultural influence), and Julius Barnes (business acumen). World War I had created a global food crisis that dramatically increased food prices and caused food riots and starvation in the countries at war. Hoover's chief goal as food czar was to provide supplies to the Allied Powers, but he also sought to stabilize domestic prices and to prevent domestic shortages. Under the broad powers granted by the Food and Fuel Control Act, the Food Administration supervised food production throughout the United States, and the administration made use of its authority to buy, import, store, and sell food. Determined to avoid rationing, Hoover established set days for people to avoid eating specified foods and save them for soldiers' rations: meatless Mondays, wheatless Wednesdays, and "when in doubt, eat potatoes". These policies were dubbed "Hooverizing" by government publicists, in spite of Hoover's continual orders that publicity should not mention him by name. The Food Administration shipped 23 million metric tons of food to the Allied Powers, preventing their collapse and earning Hoover great acclaim. As head of the Food Administration, Hoover gained a following in the United States, especially among progressives who saw in Hoover an expert administrator and symbol of efficiency. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society during his tenure. Post-war relief in Europe World War I came to an end in November 1918, but Europe continued to face a critical food situation; Hoover estimated that as many as 400 million people faced the possibility of starvation. The United States Food Administration became the American Relief Administration (ARA), and Hoover was charged with providing food to Central and Eastern Europe. In addition to providing relief, the ARA rebuilt infrastructure in an effort to rejuvenate the economy of Europe. Throughout the Paris Peace Conference, Hoover served as a close adviser to President Wilson, and he largely shared Wilson's goals of establishing the League of Nations, settling borders on the basis of self-determination, and refraining from inflicting a harsh punishment on the defeated Central Powers. The following year, the famed British economist John Maynard Keynes wrote in The Economic Consequences of the Peace that if Hoover's realism, "knowledge, magnanimity and disinterestedness" had found wider play in the councils of Paris, the world would have had "the Good Peace". After U.S. government funding for the ARA expired in mid-1919, Hoover transformed the ARA into a private organization, raising millions of dollars from private donors. He also established the European Children's Fund, which provided relief to fifteen million children across fourteen countries. Despite the opposition of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge and other Republicans, Hoover provided aid to the defeated German nation after the war, as well as relief to famine-stricken Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Hoover condemned the Bolsheviks but warned President Wilson against an intervention in the Russian Civil War, as he viewed the White Russian forces as little better than the Bolsheviks and feared the possibility of a protracted U.S. involvement. The Russian famine of 1921–22 claimed six million people, but the intervention of the ARA likely saved millions of lives. When asked if he was not helping Bolshevism by providing relief, Hoover stated, "twenty million people are starving. Whatever their politics, they shall be fed!" Reflecting the gratitude of many Europeans, in July 1922, Soviet author Maxim Gorky told Hoover that "your help will enter history as a unique, gigantic achievement, worthy of the greatest glory, which will long remain in the memory of millions of Russians whom you have saved from death". In 1919, Hoover established the Hoover War Collection at Stanford University. He donated all the files of the Commission for Relief in Belgium, the U.S. Food Administration, and the American Relief Administration, and pledged $50,000 as an endowment (equivalent to $878,695 in 2023). Scholars were sent to Europe to collect pamphlets, society publications, government documents, newspapers, posters, proclamations, and other ephemeral materials related to the war and the revolutions that followed it. The collection was renamed the Hoover War Library in 1922 and is now known as the Hoover Institution Library and Archives. During the post-war period, Hoover also served as the president of the Federated American Engineering Societies. 1920 election Hoover had been little known among the American public before 1914, but his service in the Wilson administration established him as a contender in the 1920 presidential election. Hoover's wartime push for higher taxes, criticism of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer's actions during the First Red Scare, and his advocacy for measures such as the minimum wage, forty-eight-hour workweek, and elimination of child labor made him appealing to progressives of both parties. Despite his service in the Democratic administration of Woodrow Wilson, Hoover had never been closely affiliated with either the Democrats or the Republicans. He initially sought to avoid committing to any party in the 1920 election, hoping that either of the two major parties would draft him for president at their national conventions. In March 1920, he changed strategy and declared himself a Republican; he was motivated in large part by the belief that the Democrats had little chance of winning. Despite his national renown, Hoover's service in the Wilson administration had alienated farmers and the conservative Old Guard of the GOP, and his presidential candidacy fizzled out after his defeat in the California primary by favorite son Hiram Johnson. At the 1920 Republican National Convention, Warren G. Harding emerged as a compromise candidate after the convention became deadlocked between supporters of Johnson, Leonard Wood, and Frank Orren Lowden. Hoover backed Harding's successful campaign in the general election, and he began laying the groundwork for a future presidential run by building a base of strong supporters in the Republican Party. Secretary of Commerce (1921–1928) After his election as president in 1920, Harding rewarded Hoover for his support, offering to appoint him as either Secretary of the Interior or Secretary of Commerce. Secretary of Commerce was considered a minor Cabinet post, with limited and vaguely defined responsibilities, but Hoover decided to accept the position. Hoover's progressive stances, continuing support for the League of Nations, and recent conversion to the Republican Party aroused opposition to his appointment from many Senate Republicans. To overcome this opposition, Harding paired Hoover's nomination with that of conservative favorite Andrew Mellon as Secretary of the Treasury, and the nominations of both Hoover and Mellon were confirmed by the Senate. Hoover would serve as Secretary of Commerce from 1921 to 1929, serving under Harding and, after Harding's death in 1923, President Calvin Coolidge. While some of the most prominent members of the Harding administration, including Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty and Secretary of Interior Albert B. Fall, were implicated in major scandals, Hoover emerged largely unscathed from investigations into the Harding administration. Hoover envisioned the Commerce Department as the hub of the nation's growth and stability. His experience mobilizing the war-time economy convinced him that the federal government could promote efficiency by eliminating waste, increasing production, encouraging the adoption of data-based practices, investing in infrastructure, and conserving natural resources. Contemporaries described Hoover's approach as a "third alternative" between "unrestrained capitalism" and socialism, which was becoming increasingly popular in Europe. Hoover sought to foster a balance among labor, capital, and the government, and for this, he has been variously labeled a corporatist or an associationalist. A high priority was economic diplomacy, including promoting the growth of exports, as well as protection against monopolistic practices of foreign governments, especially regarding rubber and coffee. Hoover demanded, and received, authority to coordinate economic affairs throughout the government. He created many sub-departments and committees, overseeing and regulating everything from manufacturing statistics to air travel. In some instances, he "seized" control of responsibilities from other Cabinet departments when he deemed that they were not carrying out their responsibilities well; some began referring to him as the "Secretary of Commerce and Under-Secretary of all other departments". In response to the Depression of 1920–21, he convinced Harding to assemble a presidential commission on unemployment, which encouraged local governments to engage in countercyclical infrastructure spending. He endorsed much of Mellon's tax reduction program but favored a more progressive tax system and opposed the treasury secretary's efforts to eliminate the estate tax. Radio regulation and air travel Between 1923 and 1929, the number of families with radios grew from 300,000 to 10 million, and Hoover's tenure as Secretary of Commerce heavily influenced radio use in the United States. In the early and mid-1920s, Hoover's radio conferences played a key role in the organization, development, and regulation of radio broadcasting. Hoover also helped pass the Radio Act of 1927, which allowed the government to intervene and abolish radio stations that were deemed "non-useful" to the public. Hoover's attempts at regulating radio were not supported by all congressmen, and he received much opposition from the Senate and from radio station owners. Hoover was also influential in the early development of air travel, and he sought to create a thriving private industry boosted by indirect government subsidies. He encouraged the development of emergency landing fields, required all runways to be equipped with lights and radio beams, and encouraged farmers to make use of planes for crop dusting. He also established the federal government's power to inspect planes and license pilots, setting a precedent for the later Federal Aviation Administration. As Commerce Secretary, Hoover hosted national conferences on street traffic collectively known as the National Conference on Street and Highway Safety. Hoover's chief objective was to address the growing casualty toll of traffic accidents, but the scope of the conferences grew and soon embraced motor vehicle standards, rules of the road, and urban traffic control. He left the invited interest groups to negotiate agreements among themselves, which were then presented for adoption by states and localities. Because automotive trade associations were the best organized, many of the positions taken by the conferences reflected their interests. The conferences issued a model Uniform Vehicle Code for adoption by the states and a Model Municipal Traffic Ordinance for adoption by cities. Both were widely influential, promoting greater uniformity between jurisdictions and tending to promote the automobile's priority in city streets. Hoover's image building Phillips Payson O'Brien argues that Hoover had a Britain problem. He had spent so many years living in Britain and Australia, as an employee of British companies, there was a risk that he would be labeled a British tool. There were three solutions, all of which he tried in close collaboration with the media, which greatly admired him. First came the image of the dispassionate scientist, emotionally uninvolved but always committed to finding and implementing the best possible solution. The second solution was to gain the reputation of a humanitarian, deeply concerned with the world's troubles, such as famine in Belgium, as well as specific American problems which he had solved as food commissioner during the world war. The third solution to was to fall back on that old tactic of twisting the British tail. He employed that solution in 1925–1926 in the worldwide rubber crisis. The American auto industry consumed 70% of the world's output, but British investors controlled much of the supply. Their plan was to drastically cut back on output from British Malaya, which had the effect of tripling rubber prices. Hoover energetically gave a series of speeches and interviews denouncing the monopolistic practice and demanding that it be ended. The American State Department wanted no such crisis and compromised the issue in 1926. By then Hoover had solved his image problem, and during his 1928 campaign he successfully squelched attacks that alleged he was too close to British interests. Other initiatives With the goal of encouraging wise business investments, Hoover made the Commerce Department a clearinghouse of information. He recruited numerous academics from various fields and tasked them with publishing reports on different aspects of the economy, including steel production and films. To eliminate waste, he encouraged standardization of products like automobile tires and baby bottle nipples. Other efforts at eliminating waste included reducing labor losses from trade disputes and seasonal fluctuations, reducing industrial losses from accident and injury, and reducing the amount of crude oil spilled during extraction and shipping. He promoted international trade by opening overseas offices to advise businessmen. Hoover was especially eager to promote Hollywood films overseas. His "Own Your Own Home" campaign was a collaboration to promote ownership of single-family dwellings, with groups such as the Better Houses in America movement, the Architects' Small House Service Bureau, and the Home Modernizing Bureau. He worked with bankers and the savings and loan industry to promote the new long-term home mortgage, which dramatically stimulated home construction. Other accomplishments included winning the agreement of U.S. Steel to adopt an eight-hour workday, and the fostering of the Colorado River Compact, a water rights compact among Southwestern states. Mississippi flood The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 broke the banks and levees of the lower Mississippi River in early 1927, resulting in the flooding of millions of acres and leaving 1.5 million people displaced from their homes. Although disaster response did not fall under the duties of the Commerce Department, the governors of six states along the Mississippi River specifically asked President Coolidge to appoint Hoover to coordinate the response to the flood. Believing that disaster response was not the domain of the federal government, Coolidge initially refused to become involved, but he eventually acceded to political pressure and appointed Hoover to chair a special committee to help the region. Hoover established over one hundred tent cities and a fleet of more than six hundred vessels and raised $17 million (equivalent to $298.18 million in 2023). In large part due to his leadership during the flood crisis, by 1928, Hoover had begun to overshadow President Coolidge himself. Though Hoover received wide acclaim for his role in the crisis, he ordered the suppression of reports of mistreatment of African Americans in refugee camps. He did so with the cooperation of black American leader Robert Russa Moton, who was promised unprecedented influence once Hoover became president. Presidential election of 1928 Hoover quietly gathered support for a future presidential bid throughout the 1920s, but he carefully avoided alienating Coolidge, who possibly could have run for another term in the 1928 presidential election. Along with the rest of the nation, he was surprised when Coolidge announced in August 1927 that he would not seek another term. With the impending retirement of Coolidge, Hoover immediately emerged as the front-runner for the 1928 Republican nomination, and he quickly put together a strong campaign team led by Hubert Work, Will H. Hays, and Reed Smoot. Coolidge was unwilling to anoint Hoover as his successor; on one occasion he remarked that, "for six years that man has given me unsolicited advice—all of it bad". Despite his lukewarm feelings towards Hoover, Coolidge had no desire to split the party by publicly opposing the popular Commerce Secretary's candidacy. Many wary Republican leaders cast about for an alternative candidate, such as Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon or former secretary of state Charles Evans Hughes. However, Hughes and Mellon declined to run, and other potential contenders like Frank Orren Lowden and Vice President Charles G. Dawes failed to garner widespread support. Hoover won the presidential nomination on the first ballot of the 1928 Republican National Convention. Convention delegates considered re-nominating Vice President Charles Dawes to be Hoover's running mate, but Coolidge, who hated Dawes, remarked that this would be "a personal affront" to him. The convention instead selected Senator Charles Curtis of Kansas. Hoover accepted the nomination at Stanford Stadium, telling a huge crowd that he would continue the policies of the Harding and Coolidge administrations. The Democrats nominated New York governor Al Smith, who became the first Catholic major party nominee for president. Hoover submitted his resignation as Commerce Secretary on July 7, but Coolidge kept him on until August 21 to wind up pending business. Hoover centered his campaign around the Republican record of peace and prosperity, as well as his own reputation as a successful engineer and public official. Averse to giving political speeches, Hoover largely stayed out of the fray and left the campaigning to Curtis and other Republicans. Smith was more charismatic and gregarious than Hoover, but his campaign was damaged by anti-Catholicism and his overt opposition to Prohibition. Hoover had never been a strong proponent of Prohibition, but he accepted the Republican Party's plank in favor of it and issued an ambivalent statement calling Prohibition "a great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far-reaching in purpose". In the South, Hoover and the national party pursued a "lily-white" strategy, removing black Republicans from leadership positions in an attempt to curry favor with white Southerners. Hoover maintained polling leads throughout the 1928 campaign, and he decisively defeated Smith on election day, taking 58 percent of the popular vote and 444 of the 531 electoral votes. Historians agree that Hoover's national reputation and the booming economy, combined with deep splits in the Democratic Party over religion and Prohibition, guaranteed his landslide victory. Hoover's appeal to Southern white voters succeeded in cracking the "Solid South", and he won five Southern states. Hoover's victory was positively received by newspapers; one wrote that Hoover would "drive so forcefully at the tasks now before the nation that the end of his eight years as president will find us looking back on an era of prodigious achievement". Hoover's detractors wondered why he did not do anything to reapportion congress after the 1920 United States census which saw an increase in urban and immigrant populations. The 1920 census was the first and only decennial census where the results were not used to reapportion Congress, which ultimately influenced the 1928 Electoral College and impacted the presidential election. Presidency (1929–1933) Hoover saw the presidency as a vehicle for improving the conditions of all Americans by encouraging public-private cooperation—what he termed "volunteerism". He tended to oppose governmental coercion or intervention, as he thought they infringed on American ideals of individualism and self-reliance. The first major bill that he signed, the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1929, established the Federal Farm Board in order to stabilize farm prices. Hoover made extensive use of commissions to study issues and propose solutions, and many of those commissions were sponsored by private donors rather than by the government. One of the commissions started by Hoover, the Research Committee on Social Trends, was tasked with surveying the entirety of American society. He appointed a Cabinet consisting largely of wealthy, business-oriented conservatives, including Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon. Lou Henry Hoover was an activist First Lady. She typified the new woman of the post–World War I era: intelligent, robust, and aware of multiple female possibilities. Great Depression On taking office, Hoover said that "given the chance to go forward with the policies of the last eight years, we shall soon with the help of God, be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this nation". Having seen the fruits of prosperity brought by technological progress, many shared Hoover's optimism, and the already bullish stock market climbed even higher on Hoover's accession. This optimism concealed several threats to sustained U.S. economic growth, including a persistent farm crisis, a saturation of consumer goods like automobiles, and growing income inequality. Most dangerous of all to the economy was excessive speculation that had raised stock prices far beyond their value. Some regulators and bankers had warned Coolidge and Hoover that a failure to curb speculation would lead to "one of the greatest financial catastrophes that this country has ever seen," but both presidents were reluctant to become involved with the workings of the Federal Reserve System, which regulated banks. In late October 1929, the stock market crashed, and the worldwide economy began to spiral downward into the Great Depression. The causes of the Great Depression remain a matter of debate, but Hoover viewed a lack of confidence in the financial system as the fundamental economic problem facing the nation. He sought to avoid direct federal intervention, believing that the best way to bolster the economy was through the strengthening of businesses such as banks and railroads. He also feared that allowing individuals on the "dole" would permanently weaken the country. Instead, Hoover strongly believed that local governments and private giving should address the needs of individuals. Early policies Though he attempted to put a positive spin on Black Tuesday, Hoover moved quickly to address the stock market collapse. In the days following Black Tuesday, Hoover gathered business and labor leaders, asking them to avoid wage cuts and work stoppages while the country faced what he believed would be a short recession similar to the Depression of 1920–21. Hoover also convinced railroads and public utilities to increase spending on construction and maintenance, and the Federal Reserve announced that it would cut interest rates. In early 1930, Hoover acquired from Congress an additional $100 million to continue the Federal Farm Board lending and purchasing policies. These actions were collectively designed to prevent a cycle of deflation and provide a fiscal stimulus. At the same time, Hoover opposed congressional proposals to provide federal relief to the unemployed, as he believed that such programs were the responsibility of state and local governments and philanthropic organizations. Hoover had taken office hoping to raise agricultural tariffs in order to help farmers reeling from the farm crisis of the 1920s, but his attempt to raise agricultural tariffs became connected with a bill that broadly raised tariffs. Hoover refused to become closely involved in the congressional debate over the tariff, and Congress produced a tariff bill that raised rates for many goods. Despite the widespread unpopularity of the bill, Hoover felt that he could not reject the main legislative accomplishment of the Republican-controlled 71st Congress. Over the objection of many economists, Hoover signed the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act into law in June 1930. Canada, France, and other nations retaliated by raising tariffs, resulting in a contraction of international trade and a worsening of the economy. Progressive Republicans such as Senator William E. Borah of Idaho were outraged when Hoover signed the tariff act, and Hoover's relations with that wing of the party never recovered. Later policies By the end of 1930, the national unemployment rate had reached 11.9 percent, but it was not yet clear to most Americans that the economic downturn would be worse than the Depression of 1920–21. A series of bank failures in late 1930 heralded a larger collapse of the economy in 1931. While other countries left the gold standard, Hoover refused to abandon it; he derided any other monetary system as "collectivism". Hoover viewed the weak European economy as a major cause of economic troubles in the United States. In response to the collapse of the German economy, Hoover marshaled congressional support behind a one-year moratorium on European war debts. The Hoover Moratorium was warmly received in Europe and the United States, but Germany remained on the brink of defaulting on its loans. As the worldwide economy worsened, democratic governments fell; in Germany, Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler assumed power and dismantled the Weimar Republic. By mid-1931, the unemployment rate had reached 15 percent, giving rise to growing fears that the country was experiencing a depression far worse than recent economic downturns. A reserved man with a fear of public speaking, Hoover allowed his opponents in the Democratic Party to define him as cold, incompetent, reactionary, and out-of-touch. Hoover's opponents developed defamatory epithets to discredit him, such as "Hooverville" (the shanty towns and homeless encampments), "Hoover leather" (cardboard used to cover holes in the soles of shoes), and "Hoover blanket" (old newspaper used to cover oneself from the cold). While Hoover continued to resist direct federal relief efforts, Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York launched the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration to provide aid to the unemployed. Democrats positioned the program as a kinder alternative to Hoover's alleged apathy towards the unemployed, despite Hoover's belief that such programs were the responsibility of state and local governments. The economy continued to worsen, with unemployment rates nearing 23 percent in early 1932, and Hoover finally heeded calls for more direct federal intervention. In January 1932, he convinced Congress to authorize the establishment of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), which would provide government-secured loans to financial institutions, railroads, and local governments. The RFC saved numerous businesses from failure, but it failed to stimulate commercial lending as much as Hoover had hoped, partly because it was run by conservative bankers unwilling to make riskier loans. The same month the RFC was established, Hoover signed the Federal Home Loan Bank Act, establishing 12 district banks overseen by a Federal Home Loan Bank Board in a manner similar to the Federal Reserve System. He also helped arrange passage of the Glass–Steagall Act of 1932, emergency banking legislation designed to expand banking credit by expanding the collateral on which Federal Reserve banks were authorized to lend. As these measures failed to stem the economic crisis, Hoover signed the Emergency Relief and Construction Act, a $2 billion public works bill, in July 1932. Budget policy After a decade of budget surpluses, the federal government experienced a budget deficit in 1931. Though some economists, like William Trufant Foster, favored deficit spending to address the Great Depression, most politicians and economists believed in the necessity of keeping a balanced budget. In late 1931, Hoover proposed a tax plan to increase tax revenue by 30 percent, resulting in the passage of the Revenue Act of 1932. The act increased taxes across the board, rolling back much of the tax cut reduction program Mellon had presided over during the 1920s. Top earners were taxed at 63 percent on their net income, the highest rate since the early 1920s. The act also doubled the top estate tax rate, cut personal income tax exemptions, eliminated the corporate income tax exemption, and raised corporate tax rates. Despite the passage of the Revenue Act, the federal government continued to run a budget deficit. Civil rights and Mexican Repatriation Hoover seldom mentioned civil rights while he was president. He believed that African Americans and other races could improve themselves with education and individual initiative. Hoover appointed more African Americans to federal positions than Harding and Coolidge combined, but many African American leaders condemned various aspects of the Hoover administration, including Hoover's unwillingness to push for a federal anti-lynching law. Hoover also continued to pursue the lily-white strategy, removing African Americans from positions of leadership in the Republican Party in an attempt to end the Democratic Party's dominance in the South. Though Robert Moton and some other black leaders accepted the lily-white strategy as a temporary measure, most African American leaders were outraged. Hoover further alienated black leaders by nominating conservative Southern judge John J. Parker to the Supreme Court; Parker's nomination ultimately failed in the Senate due to opposition from the NAACP and organized labor. Many black voters switched to the Democratic Party in the 1932 election, and African Americans would later become an important part of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal coalition. As part of his efforts to limit unemployment, Hoover sought to cut immigration to the United States, and in 1930 he promulgated an executive order requiring individuals to have employment before migrating to the United States. The Hoover Administration began a campaign to prosecute illegal immigrants in the United States, which most strongly affected Mexican Americans, especially those living in Southern California. Many of the deportations were overseen by state and local authorities who acted on the encouragement of the Hoover Administration. During the 1930s, approximately one million Mexican Americans were forcibly "repatriated" to Mexico; approximately sixty percent of those deported were birthright citizens. According to legal professor Kevin R. Johnson, the repatriation campaign meets the modern legal standards of ethnic cleansing, as it involved the forced removal of a racial minority by government actors. Hoover reorganized the Bureau of Indian Affairs to limit exploitation of Native Americans. Prohibition On taking office, Hoover urged Americans to obey the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act, which had established Prohibition across the United States. To make public policy recommendations regarding Prohibition, he created the Wickersham Commission. Hoover had hoped that the commission's public report would buttress his stance in favor of Prohibition, but the report criticized the enforcement of the Volstead Act and noted the growing public opposition to Prohibition. After the Wickersham Report was published in 1931, Hoover rejected the advice of some of his closest allies and refused to endorse any revision of the Volstead Act or the Eighteenth Amendment, as he feared doing so would undermine his support among Prohibition advocates. As public opinion increasingly turned against Prohibition, more and more people flouted the law, and a grassroots movement began working in earnest for Prohibition's repeal. In January 1933, a constitutional amendment repealing the Eighteenth Amendment was approved by Congress and submitted to the states for ratification. By December 1933, it had been ratified by the requisite number of states to become the Twenty-first Amendment. Foreign relations According to Leuchtenburg, Hoover was "the last American president to take office with no conspicuous need to pay attention to the rest of the world". Nevertheless, during Hoover's term, the world order established in the immediate aftermath of World War I began to crumble. As president, Hoover largely made good on his pledge made prior to assuming office not to interfere in Latin America's internal affairs. In 1930, he released the Clark Memorandum, a rejection of the Roosevelt Corollary and a move towards non-interventionism in Latin America. Hoover did not completely refrain from the use of the military in Latin American affairs; he thrice threatened intervention in the Dominican Republic, and he sent warships to El Salvador to support the government against a left-wing revolution. Notwithstanding those actions, he wound down the Banana Wars, ending the occupation of Nicaragua and nearly bringing an end to the occupation of Haiti. Hoover placed a priority on disarmament, which he hoped would allow the United States to shift money from the military to domestic needs. Hoover and Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson focused on extending the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty, which sought to prevent a naval arms race. As a result of Hoover's efforts, the United States and other major naval powers signed the 1930 London Naval Treaty. The treaty represented the first time that the naval powers had agreed to cap their tonnage of auxiliary vessels, as previous agreements had only affected capital ships. At the 1932 World Disarmament Conference, Hoover urged further cutbacks in armaments and the outlawing of tanks and bombers, but his proposals were not adopted. In 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria, defeating the Republic of China's National Revolutionary Army and establishing Manchukuo, a puppet state. The Hoover administration deplored the invasion, but also sought to avoid antagonizing the Japanese, fearing that taking too strong a stand would weaken the moderate forces in the Japanese government and alienate a potential ally against the Soviet Union, which he saw as a much greater threat. In response to the Japanese invasion, Hoover and Secretary of State Stimson outlined the Stimson Doctrine, which held that the United States would not recognize territories gained by force. Bonus Army Thousands of World War I veterans and their families demonstrated and camped out in Washington, DC, during June 1932, calling for immediate payment of bonuses that had been promised by the World War Adjusted Compensation Act in 1924; the terms of the act called for payment of the bonuses in 1945. Although offered money by Congress to return home, some members of the "Bonus Army" remained. Washington police attempted to disperse the demonstrators, but they were outnumbered and unsuccessful. Shots were fired by the police in a futile attempt to attain order, and two protesters were killed while many officers were injured. Hoover sent U.S. Army forces led by General Douglas MacArthur to the protests. MacArthur, believing he was fighting a Communist revolution, chose to clear out the camp with military force. Though Hoover had not ordered MacArthur's clearing out of the protesters, he endorsed it after the fact. The incident proved embarrassing for the Hoover administration and hurt his bid for re-election. 1932 re-election campaign By mid-1931 few observers thought that Hoover had much hope of winning a second term in the midst of the ongoing economic crisis. The Republican expectations were so bleak that Hoover faced no serious opposition for re-nomination at the 1932 Republican National Convention. Coolidge and other prominent Republicans all passed on the opportunity to challenge Hoover. Franklin D. Roosevelt won the presidential nomination on the fourth ballot of the 1932 Democratic National Convention, defeating the 1928 Democratic nominee, Al Smith. The Democrats attacked Hoover as the cause of the Great Depression, and for being indifferent to the suffering of millions. As Governor of New York, Roosevelt had called on the New York legislature to provide aid for the needy, establishing Roosevelt's reputation for being more favorable toward government interventionism during the economic crisis. The Democratic Party, including Al Smith and other national leaders, coalesced behind Roosevelt, while progressive Republicans like George Norris and Robert La Follette Jr. deserted Hoover. Prohibition was increasingly unpopular and wets offered the argument that states and localities needed the tax money. Hoover proposed a new constitutional amendment that was vague on particulars. Roosevelt's platform promised repeal of the 18th Amendment. Hoover originally planned to make only one or two major speeches and to leave the rest of the campaigning to proxies, as sitting presidents had traditionally done. However, encouraged by Republican pleas and outraged by Democratic claims, Hoover entered the public fray. In his nine major radio addresses Hoover primarily defended his administration and his philosophy of government, urging voters to hold to the "foundations of experience" and reject the notion that government interventionism could save the country from the Depression. In his campaign trips around the country, Hoover was faced with perhaps the most hostile crowds ever seen by a sitting president. Besides having his train and motorcades pelted with eggs and rotten fruit, he was often heckled while speaking, and on several occasions, the Secret Service halted attempts to hurt Hoover, including capturing one man nearing Hoover carrying sticks of dynamite, and another already having removed several spikes from the rails in front of the president's train. Hoover's attempts to vindicate his administration fell on deaf ears, as much of the public blamed his administration for the depression. In the electoral vote, Hoover lost 59–472, carrying six states. Hoover won 39.6 percent of the popular vote, a plunge of 18.6 percentage points from his result in the 1928 election. Post-presidency (1933–1964) Roosevelt administration Opposition to New Deal Hoover departed from Washington in March 1933, bitter at his election loss and continuing unpopularity. As Coolidge, Harding, Wilson, and Taft had all died during the 1920s or early 1930s and Roosevelt died in office, Hoover was the sole living former president from 1933 to 1953. He and his wife lived in Palo Alto until her death in 1944, at which point Hoover began to live permanently at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City. During the 1930s, Hoover increasingly self-identified as a conservative. He closely followed national events after leaving public office, becoming a constant critic of Franklin Roosevelt. In response to continued attacks on his character and presidency, Hoover wrote more than two dozen books, including The Challenge to Liberty (1934), which harshly criticized Roosevelt's New Deal. Hoover described the New Deal's National Recovery Administration and Agricultural Adjustment Administration as "fascistic", and he called the 1933 Banking Act a "move to gigantic socialism". Only 58 when he left office, Hoover held out hope for another term as president throughout the 1930s. At the 1936 Republican National Convention, Hoover's speech attacking the New Deal was well received, but the nomination went to Kansas governor Alf Landon. In the general election, Hoover delivered numerous well-publicized speeches on behalf of Landon, but Landon was defeated by Roosevelt. Though Hoover was eager to oppose Roosevelt at every turn, Senator Arthur Vandenberg and other Republicans urged the still-unpopular Hoover to remain out of the fray during the debate over Roosevelt's proposed Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937. At the 1940 Republican National Convention, he again hoped for the presidential nomination, but it went to the internationalist Wendell Willkie, who lost to Roosevelt in the general election. Hoover remained the latest president to run for re-election after leaving office until 2022 when Donald Trump, following his win in 2016 and loss in 2020, announced his bid for 2024 presidential election. World War II During a 1938 trip to Europe, Hoover met with Adolf Hitler and stayed at Hermann Göring's hunting lodge. He expressed dismay at the persecution of Jews in Germany and believed that Hitler was mad, but did not present a threat to the U.S. Instead, Hoover believed that Roosevelt posed the biggest threat to peace, holding that Roosevelt's policies provoked Japan and discouraged France and the United Kingdom from reaching an "accommodation" with Germany. After the September 1939 invasion of Poland by Germany, Hoover opposed U.S. involvement in World War II, including the Lend-Lease policy. He was active in the isolationist America First Committee. He rejected Roosevelt's offers to help coordinate relief in Europe, but, with the help of old friends from the CRB, helped establish the Commission for Polish Relief. After the beginning of the occupation of Belgium in 1940, Hoover provided aid for Belgian civilians, though this aid was described as unnecessary by German broadcasts. In December 1939, sympathetic Americans led by Hoover formed the Finnish Relief Fund to donate money to aid Finnish civilians and refugees after the Soviet Union had started the Winter War by attacking Finland, which had outraged Americans. By the end of January, it had already sent more than two million dollars to the Finns. During a radio broadcast on June 29, 1941, one week after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, Hoover disparaged any "tacit alliance" between the U.S. and the USSR, stating, "if we join the war and Stalin wins, we have aided him to impose more communism on Europe and the world... War alongside Stalin to impose freedom is more than a travesty. It is a tragedy." Much to his frustration, Hoover was not called upon to serve after the United States entered World War II due to his differences with Roosevelt and his continuing unpopularity. He did not pursue the presidential nomination at the 1944 Republican National Convention, and, at the request of Republican nominee Thomas E. Dewey, refrained from campaigning during the general election. In 1945, Hoover advised President Harry S. Truman to drop the United States' demand for the unconditional surrender of Japan because of the high projected casualties of the planned invasion of Japan, although Hoover was unaware of the Manhattan Project and the atomic bomb. In 1943, Hoover expressed his support for Zionism. He advocated population transfers of Palestinians to Iraq. Post-World War II Following World War II, Hoover befriended President Truman despite their ideological differences. Because of Hoover's experience with Germany at the end of World War I, in 1946 Truman selected the former president to tour Allied-occupied Germany and Rome, Italy to ascertain the food needs of the occupied nations. After touring Germany, Hoover produced a number of reports critical of U.S. occupation policy. He stated in one report that "there is the illusion that the New Germany left after the annexations can be reduced to a 'pastoral state.' It cannot be done unless we exterminate or move 25,000,000 people out of it." On Hoover's initiative, a school meals program in the American and British occupation zones of Germany was begun on April 14, 1947; the program served 3,500,000 children. Even more important, in 1947 Truman appointed Hoover to lead the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government a new high level study. Truman accepted some of the recommendations of the "Hoover Commission" for eliminating waste, fraud, and inefficiency, consolidating agencies, and strengthening White House control of policy. Though Hoover had opposed Roosevelt's concentration of power in the 1930s, he believed that a stronger presidency was required with the advent of the Atomic Age. During the 1948 presidential election, Hoover supported Republican nominee Thomas Dewey's unsuccessful campaign against Truman, but he remained on good terms with Truman. Hoover favored the United Nations in principle, but he opposed granting membership to the Soviet Union and other Communist states. He viewed the Soviet Union to be as morally repugnant as Nazi Germany and supported the efforts of Richard Nixon and others to expose Communists in the United States. In 1949, New York governor Thomas E. Dewey offered Hoover the Senate seat vacated by Robert F. Wagner. It was a matter of being senator for only two months and he declined. Hoover backed conservative leader Robert A. Taft at the 1952 Republican National Convention, but the party's presidential nomination instead went to Dwight D. Eisenhower, who went on to win the 1952 election. Though Eisenhower appointed Hoover to another presidential commission, Hoover disliked Eisenhower, faulting the latter's failure to roll back the New Deal. Hoover's public work helped to rehabilitate his reputation, as did his use of self-deprecating humor; he occasionally remarked that "I am the only person of distinction who's ever had a depression named after him." In 1958, Congress passed the Former Presidents Act, offering a $25,000 yearly pension (equivalent to $264,014 in 2023) to each former president. Hoover took the pension even though he did not need the money, possibly to avoid embarrassing Truman, whose allegedly precarious financial status played a role in the law's enactment. In the early 1960s, President John F. Kennedy offered Hoover various positions; Hoover declined the offers but defended The Kennedy administration after the Bay of Pigs invasion, Cuban Missile Crisis and was personally distraught by Kennedy's assassination in 1963. Hoover wrote several books during his retirement, including The Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson, in which he strongly defended Wilson's actions at the Paris Peace Conference. In 1944, he began working on Freedom Betrayed, which he often referred to as his "magnum opus". In Freedom Betrayed, Hoover strongly critiques Roosevelt's foreign policy, especially Roosevelt's decision to recognize the Soviet Union in order to provide aid to that country during World War II. The book was published in 2012 after being edited by historian George H. Nash. Death Hoover faced three major illnesses during the last two years of his life, including an August 1962 operation in which a growth on his large intestine was removed. He died in New York City on October 20, 1964, following massive internal bleeding. just 6 months after the death of his former Army chief of staff. General Douglas Macarthur Though Hoover's last spoken words are unknown, his last-known written words were a get-well message to his friend former President Harry S. Truman, six days before his death, after he heard that Truman had sustained injuries from slipping in a bathroom: "Bathtubs are a menace to ex-presidents for as you may recall a bathtub rose up and fractured my vertebrae when I was in Venezuela on your world famine mission in 1946. My warmest sympathy and best wishes for your recovery." Two months earlier, on August 10, Hoover reached the age of 90, only the second U.S. president (after John Adams) to do so. When asked how he felt on reaching the milestone, Hoover replied, "Too old." At the time of his death, Hoover had been out of office for over 31 years (11,553 days all together). This was the longest retirement in presidential history until Jimmy Carter broke that record in September 2012. Hoover was honored with a state funeral in which he lay in state in the United States Capitol rotunda. President Lyndon Johnson and First Lady Lady Bird Johnson attended, along with former presidents Truman and Eisenhower. Then, on October 25, he was buried in West Branch, Iowa, near his presidential library and birthplace on the grounds of the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site. Afterwards, Hoover's wife, Lou Henry Hoover, who had been buried in Palo Alto, California, following her death in 1944, was re-interred beside him. Hoover was the last surviving member of the Harding and Coolidge cabinets. John Nance Garner (the speaker of the House during the second half of Hoover's term) was the only person in Hoover's United States presidential line of succession he did not outlive. Legacy Historical reputation Hoover was extremely unpopular when he left office after the 1932 election, and his historical reputation would not begin to recover until the 1970s. According to Professor David E. Hamilton, historians have credited Hoover for his genuine belief in voluntarism and cooperation, as well as the innovation of some of his programs. However, Hamilton also notes that Hoover was politically inept and failed to recognize the severity of the Great Depression. Nicholas Lemann writes that Hoover has been remembered "as the man who was too rigidly conservative to react adeptly to the Depression, as the hapless foil to the great Franklin Roosevelt, and as the politician who managed to turn a Republican country into a Democratic one". Polls of historians and political scientists have generally ranked Hoover in the bottom third of presidents. A 2018 poll of the American Political Science Association's Presidents and Executive Politics section ranked Hoover as the 36th best president. A 2017 C-SPAN poll of historians also ranked Hoover as the 36th best president. Although Hoover is generally regarded as having had a failed presidency, he has also received praise for his actions as a humanitarian and public official. Biographer Glen Jeansonne writes that Hoover was "one of the most extraordinary Americans of modern times," adding that Hoover "led a life that was a prototypical Horatio Alger story, except that Horatio Alger stories stop at the pinnacle of success". Biographer Kenneth Whyte writes that, "the question of where Hoover belongs in the American political tradition remains a loaded one to this day. While he clearly played important roles in the development of both the progressive and conservative traditions, neither side will embrace him for fear of contamination with the other." Historian Richard Pipes, on his actions leading the American Relief Administration, said of him: "Many statesmen occupy a prominent place in history for having sent millions to their death; Herbert Hoover, maligned for his performance as President, and soon forgotten in Russia, has the rare distinction of having saved millions." Views of race Although racist remarks and humor were common at the time, Hoover never indulged in them while president, and deliberate discrimination was anathema to him. Like many of his peers, Hoover considered white people to be inherently superior to black people, considering the "mixture of bloods disadvantageous". He did think education and work would improve black people's standing, hence his support for the Tuskegee Institute. His wife Lou Henry Hoover broke the color bar as first lady by inviting Jessie De Priest, wife of the first black congressman elected in several decades, to a traditional tea for the wives of congressmen, as well as later inviting the Tuskegee Institute choir (then under the direction of William Dawson). Although he thought of himself as a friend to black people and an advocate for their progress, many of his black contemporaries had a different view. W. E. B. Du Bois described him as an "undemocratic racist who saw blacks as a species of 'sub-men'". Some historians trace the disaffection of African-Americans with the Republican party to his time in office especially due to his attempt to remove African-Americans from leadership in the Republican party in the South. Hoover's time in China shaped his views of Asian people and Asian-Americans. He erroneously wrote that "no world-startling mechanical invention" had come from China, claiming this was due to Chinese people not possessing the same mechanical instincts as Europeans. This may have influenced his decision to reduce immigration through restrictions on visas. Memorials The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum is located in West Branch, Iowa next to the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site. The library is one of thirteen presidential libraries run by the National Archives and Records Administration. The Hoover–Minthorn House, where Hoover lived from 1885 to 1891, is located in Newberg, Oregon. His Rapidan fishing camp in Virginia, which he donated to the government in 1933, is now a National Historic Landmark within the Shenandoah National Park. The Lou Henry and Herbert Hoover House, built in 1919 in Stanford, California, is now the official residence of the president of Stanford University, and a National Historic Landmark. Also located at Stanford is the Hoover Institution, a think tank and research institution started by Hoover. Hoover has been memorialized in the names of several things, including the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River and numerous elementary, middle, and high schools across the United States. Two minor planets, 932 Hooveria and 1363 Herberta, are named in his honor. The Polish capital of Warsaw has a square named after Hoover, and the historic townsite of Gwalia, Western Australia contains the Hoover House Bed and Breakfast, where Hoover resided while managing and visiting the mine during the first decade of the twentieth century. A medicine ball game known as Hooverball is named for Hoover; it was invented by White House physician Admiral Joel T. Boone to help Hoover keep fit while serving as president. Other honors Hoover was inducted into the National Mining Hall of Fame in 1988 (inaugural class). His wife was inducted into the hall in 1990. Hoover was inducted into the Australian Prospectors and Miners' Hall of Fame in the category Directors and Management. Hoover was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Charles University in Prague and University of Helsinki in March 1938. The ceremonial sword is today on display in the lobby of the Hoover tower. See also Progressive Era Roaring Twenties Explanatory notes References Citations Works cited Further reading Biographical Scholarly studies Primary sources External links Works by Herbert Hoover at Project Gutenberg Appearances on C-SPAN Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum Archived May 28, 2020, at the Wayback Machine Herbert Hoover National Historic Site, National Park Service Herbert Hoover: The Man and His Work (1920) by Vernon Lyman Kellogg Herbert Hoover collected news and commentary at The New York Times Herbert Hoover at IMDb Works by Herbert Hoover at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) Works by or about Herbert Hoover at the Internet Archive

Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona. Constructed between 1931 and 1936, during the Great Depression, it was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Its construction was the result of a massive effort involving thousands of workers, and cost over 100 lives. In bills passed by Congress during its construction, it was referred to as the Hoover Dam, after President Herbert Hoover, but was named the Boulder Dam by the Roosevelt administration. In 1947, the name Hoover Dam was restored by Congress. Since about 1900, the Black Canyon and nearby Boulder Canyon had been investigated for their potential to support a dam that would control floods, provide irrigation water, and produce hydroelectric power. In 1928, Congress authorized the project. The winning bid to build the dam was submitted by a consortium named Six Companies, Inc., which began construction in early 1931. Such a large concrete structure had never been built before, and some of the techniques used were unproven. The torrid summer weather and lack of facilities near the site also presented difficulties. Nevertheless, Six Companies turned the dam over to the federal government on March 1, 1936, more than two years ahead of schedule. Hoover Dam impounds Lake Mead and is located near Boulder City, Nevada, a municipality originally constructed for workers on the construction project, about 30 mi (48 km) southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada. The dam's generators provide power for public and private utilities in Nevada, Arizona, and California. Hoover Dam is a major tourist attraction, with 7 million tourists a year. The heavily traveled U.S. Route 93 (US 93) ran along the dam's crest until October 2010, when the Hoover Dam Bypass opened. Background Search for resources As the United States developed the Southwest, the Colorado River was seen as a potential source of irrigation water. An initial attempt at diverting the river for irrigation purposes occurred in the late 1890s, when land speculator William Beatty built the Alamo Canal just north of the Mexican border; the canal dipped into Mexico before running to a desolate area Beatty named the Imperial Valley. Though water from the Alamo Canal allowed for the widespread settlement of the valley, the canal proved expensive to operate. After a catastrophic breach that caused the Colorado River to fill the Salton Sea, the Southern Pacific Railroad spent $3 million in 1906–07 to stabilize the waterway, an amount it hoped in vain that it would be reimbursed for by the federal government. Even after the waterway was stabilized, it proved unsatisfactory because of constant disputes with landowners on the Mexican side of the border. As the technology of electric power transmission improved, the Lower Colorado was considered for its hydroelectric-power potential. In 1902, the Edison Electric Company of Los Angeles surveyed the river in the hope of building a 40-foot (12 m) rock dam which could generate 10,000 horsepower (7,500 kW). However, at the time, the limit of transmission of electric power was 80 miles (130 km), and there were few customers (mostly mines) within that limit. Edison allowed land options it held on the river to lapse—including an option for what became the site of Hoover Dam. In the following years, the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR), known as the Reclamation Service at the time, also considered the Lower Colorado as the site for a dam. Service chief Arthur Powell Davis proposed using dynamite to collapse the walls of Boulder Canyon, 20 miles (32 km) north of the eventual dam site, into the river. The river would carry off the smaller pieces of debris, and a dam would be built incorporating the remaining rubble. In 1922, after considering it for several years, the Reclamation Service finally rejected the proposal, citing doubts about the unproven technique and questions as to whether it would, in fact, save money. Planning and agreements In 1922, the Reclamation Service presented a report calling for the development of a dam on the Colorado River for flood control and electric power generation. The report was principally authored by Davis and was called the Fall-Davis report after Interior Secretary Albert Fall. The Fall-Davis report cited use of the Colorado River as a federal concern because the river's basin covered several states, and the river eventually entered Mexico. Though the Fall-Davis report called for a dam "at or near Boulder Canyon", the Reclamation Service (which was renamed the Bureau of Reclamation the following year) found that canyon unsuitable. One potential site at Boulder Canyon was bisected by a geologic fault; two others were so narrow there was no space for a construction camp at the bottom of the canyon or for a spillway. The Service investigated Black Canyon and found it ideal; a railway could be laid from the railhead in Las Vegas to the top of the dam site. Despite the site change, the dam project was referred to as the "Boulder Canyon Project". With little guidance on water allocation from the Supreme Court, proponents of the dam feared endless litigation. Delph Carpenter, a Colorado attorney, proposed that the seven states which fell within the river's basin (California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming) form an interstate compact, with the approval of Congress. Such compacts were authorized by Article I of the United States Constitution but had never been concluded among more than two states. In 1922, representatives of seven states met with then-Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover. Initial talks produced no result, but when the Supreme Court handed down the Wyoming v. Colorado decision undermining the claims of the upstream states, they became anxious to reach an agreement. The resulting Colorado River Compact was signed on November 24, 1922. Legislation to authorize the dam was introduced repeatedly by two California Republicans, Representative Phil Swing and Senator Hiram Johnson, but representatives from other parts of the country considered the project as hugely expensive and one that would mostly benefit California. The 1927 Mississippi flood made Midwestern and Southern congressmen and senators more sympathetic toward the dam project. On March 12, 1928, the failure of the St. Francis Dam, constructed by the city of Los Angeles, caused a disastrous flood that killed up to 600 people. As that dam was a curved-gravity type, similar in design to the arch-gravity as was proposed for the Black Canyon dam, opponents claimed that the Black Canyon dam's safety could not be guaranteed. Congress authorized a board of engineers to review plans for the proposed dam. The Colorado River Board found the project feasible, but warned that should the dam fail, every downstream Colorado River community would be destroyed, and that the river might change course and empty into the Salton Sea. The Board cautioned: "To avoid such possibilities, the proposed dam should be constructed on conservative if not ultra-conservative lines." On December 21, 1928, President Coolidge signed the bill authorizing the dam. The Boulder Canyon Project Act appropriated $165 million for the project along with the downstream Imperial Dam and All-American Canal, a replacement for Beatty's canal entirely on the U.S. side of the border. It also permitted the compact to go into effect when at least six of the seven states approved it. This occurred on March 6, 1929, with Utah's ratification; Arizona did not approve it until 1944. Design, preparation and contracting Even before Congress approved the Boulder Canyon Project, the Bureau of Reclamation was considering what kind of dam should be used. Officials eventually decided on a massive concrete arch-gravity dam, the design of which was overseen by the Bureau's chief design engineer John L. Savage. The monolithic dam would be thick at the bottom and thin near the top and would present a convex face towards the water above the dam. The curving arch of the dam would transmit the water's force into the abutments, in this case the rock walls of the canyon. The wedge-shaped dam would be 660 ft (200 m) thick at the bottom, narrowing to 45 ft (14 m) at the top, leaving room for a highway connecting Nevada and Arizona. On January 10, 1931, the Bureau made the bid documents available to interested parties, at five dollars a copy. The government was to provide the materials, and the contractor was to prepare the site and build the dam. The dam was described in minute detail, covering 100 pages of text and 76 drawings. A $2 million bid bond was to accompany each bid; the winner would have to post a $5 million performance bond. The contractor had seven years to build the dam, or penalties would ensue. The Wattis Brothers, heads of the Utah Construction Company, were interested in bidding on the project, but lacked the money for the performance bond. They lacked sufficient resources even in combination with their longtime partners, Morrison-Knudsen, which employed the nation's leading dam builder, Frank Crowe. They formed a joint venture to bid for the project with Pacific Bridge Company of Portland, Oregon; Henry J. Kaiser & W. A. Bechtel Company of San Francisco; MacDonald & Kahn Ltd. of Los Angeles; and the J.F. Shea Company of Portland, Oregon. The joint venture was called Six Companies, Inc. as Bechtel and Kaiser were considered one company for purposes of Six in the name. The name was descriptive and was an inside joke among the San Franciscans in the bid, where "Six Companies" was also a Chinese benevolent association in the city. There were three valid bids, and Six Companies' bid of $48,890,955 was the lowest, within $24,000 of the confidential government estimate of what the dam would cost to build, and five million dollars less than the next-lowest bid. The city of Las Vegas had lobbied hard to be the headquarters for the dam construction, closing its many speakeasies when the decision maker, Secretary of the Interior Ray Wilbur, came to town. Instead, Wilbur announced in early 1930 that a model city was to be built in the desert near the dam site. This town became known as Boulder City, Nevada. Construction of a rail line joining Las Vegas and the dam site began in September 1930. Construction Labor force Soon after the dam was authorized, increasing numbers of unemployed people converged on southern Nevada. Las Vegas, then a small city of some 5,000, saw between 10,000 and 20,000 unemployed descend on it. A government camp was established for surveyors and other personnel near the dam site; this soon became surrounded by a squatters' camp. Known as McKeeversville, the camp was home to men hoping for work on the project, together with their families. Another camp, on the flats along the Colorado River, was officially called Williamsville, but was known to its inhabitants as "Ragtown". When construction began, Six Companies hired large numbers of workers, with more than 3,000 on the payroll by 1932 and with employment peaking at 5,251 in July 1934. "Mongolian" (Chinese) labor was prevented by the construction contract, while the number of black people employed by Six Companies never exceeded thirty, mostly lowest-pay-scale laborers in a segregated crew, who were issued separate water buckets. As part of the contract, Six Companies, Inc. was to build Boulder City to house the workers. The original timetable called for Boulder City to be built before the dam project began, but President Hoover ordered work on the dam to begin in March 1931 rather than in October. The company built bunkhouses, attached to the canyon wall, to house 480 single men at what became known as River Camp. Workers with families were left to provide their own accommodations until Boulder City could be completed, and many lived in Ragtown. The site of Hoover Dam endures extremely hot weather, and the summer of 1931 was especially torrid, with the daytime high averaging 119.9 °F (48.8 °C). Sixteen workers and other riverbank residents died of heat prostration between June 25 and July 26, 1931. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or "Wobblies"), though much-reduced from their heyday as militant labor organizers in the early years of the century, hoped to unionize the Six Companies workers by capitalizing on their discontent. They sent eleven organizers, several of whom were arrested by Las Vegas police. On August 7, 1931, the company cut wages for all tunnel workers. Although the workers sent the organizers away, not wanting to be associated with the "Wobblies", they formed a committee to represent them with the company. The committee drew up a list of demands that evening and presented them to Crowe the following morning. He was noncommittal. The workers hoped that Crowe, the general superintendent of the job, would be sympathetic; instead, he gave a scathing interview to a newspaper, describing the workers as "malcontents". On the morning of the 9th, Crowe met with the committee and told them that management refused their demands, was stopping all work, and was laying off the entire work force, except for a few office workers and carpenters. The workers were given until 5 p.m. to vacate the premises. Concerned that a violent confrontation was imminent, most workers took their paychecks and left for Las Vegas to await developments. Two days later, the remainder were talked into leaving by law enforcement. On August 13, the company began hiring workers again, and two days later, the strike was called off. While the workers received none of their demands, the company guaranteed there would be no further reductions in wages. Living conditions began to improve as the first residents moved into Boulder City in late 1931. A second labor action took place in July 1935, as construction on the dam wound down. When a Six Companies manager altered working times to force workers to take lunch on their own time, workers responded with a strike. Emboldened by Crowe's reversal of the lunch decree, workers raised their demands to include a $1-per-day raise. The company agreed to ask the Federal government to supplement the pay, but no money was forthcoming from Washington. The strike ended. River diversion Before the dam could be built, the Colorado River needed to be diverted away from the construction site. To accomplish this, four diversion tunnels were driven through the canyon walls, two on the Nevada side and two on the Arizona side. These tunnels were 56 ft (17 m) in diameter. Their combined length was nearly 16,000 ft, or more than 3 miles (5 km). The contract required these tunnels to be completed by October 1, 1933, with a $3,000-per-day fine to be assessed for any delay. To meet the deadline, Six Companies had to complete work by early 1933, since only in late fall and winter was the water level in the river low enough to safely divert. Tunneling began at the lower portals of the Nevada tunnels in May 1931. Shortly afterward, work began on two similar tunnels in the Arizona canyon wall. In March 1932, work began on lining the tunnels with concrete. First the base, or invert, was poured. Gantry cranes, running on rails through the entire length of each tunnel were used to place the concrete. The sidewalls were poured next. Movable sections of steel forms were used for the sidewalls. Finally, using pneumatic guns, the overheads were filled in. The concrete lining is 3 feet (1 m) thick, reducing the finished tunnel diameter to 50 ft (15 m). The river was diverted into the two Arizona tunnels on November 13, 1932; the Nevada tunnels were kept in reserve for high water. This was done by exploding a temporary cofferdam protecting the Arizona tunnels while at the same time dumping rubble into the river until its natural course was blocked. Following the completion of the dam, the entrances to the two outer diversion tunnels were sealed at the opening and halfway through the tunnels with large concrete plugs. The downstream halves of the tunnels following the inner plugs are now the main bodies of the spillway tunnels. The inner diversion tunnels were plugged at approximately one-third of their length, beyond which they now carry steel pipes connecting the intake towers to the power plant and outlet works. The inner tunnels' outlets are equipped with gates that can be closed to drain the tunnels for maintenance. Groundworks, rock clearance and grout curtain To protect the construction site from the Colorado River and to facilitate the river's diversion, two cofferdams were constructed. Work on the upper cofferdam began in September 1932, even though the river had not yet been diverted. The cofferdams were designed to protect against the possibility of the river's flooding a site at which two thousand men might be at work, and their specifications were covered in the bid documents in nearly as much detail as the dam itself. The upper cofferdam was 96 ft (29 m) high, and 750 feet (230 m) thick at its base, thicker than the dam itself. It contained 650,000 cubic yards (500,000 m3) of material. When the cofferdams were in place and the construction site was drained of water, excavation for the dam foundation began. For the dam to rest on solid rock, it was necessary to remove accumulated erosion soils and other loose materials in the riverbed until sound bedrock was reached. Work on the foundation excavations was completed in June 1933. During this excavation, approximately 1,500,000 cu yd (1,100,000 m3) of material was removed. Since the dam was an arch-gravity type, the side-walls of the canyon would bear the force of the impounded lake. Therefore, the side-walls were also excavated to reach virgin rock, as weathered rock might provide pathways for water seepage. Shovels for the excavation came from the Marion Power Shovel Company. The men who removed this rock were called "high scalers". While suspended from the top of the canyon with ropes, the high-scalers climbed down the canyon walls and removed the loose rock with jackhammers and dynamite. Falling objects were the most common cause of death on the dam site; the high scalers' work thus helped ensure worker safety. One high scaler was able to save a life in a more direct manner: when a government inspector lost his grip on a safety line and began tumbling down a slope towards almost certain death, a high scaler was able to intercept him and pull him into the air. The construction site had become a magnet for tourists. The high scalers were prime attractions and showed off for the watchers. The high scalers received considerable media attention, with one worker dubbed the "Human Pendulum" for swinging co-workers (and, at other times, cases of dynamite) across the canyon. To protect themselves against falling objects, some high scalers dipped cloth hats in tar and allowed them to harden. When workers wearing such headgear were struck hard enough to inflict broken jaws, they sustained no skull damage. Six Companies ordered thousands of what initially were called "hard boiled hats" (later "hard hats") and strongly encouraged their use. The cleared, underlying rock foundation of the dam site was reinforced with grout, forming a grout curtain. Holes were driven into the walls and base of the canyon, as deep as 150 feet (46 m) into the rock, and any cavities encountered were to be filled with grout. This was done to stabilize the rock, to prevent water from seeping past the dam through the canyon rock, and to limit "uplift"—upward pressure from water seeping under the dam. The workers were under severe time constraints due to the beginning of the concrete pour. When they encountered hot springs or cavities too large to readily fill, they moved on without resolving the problem. A total of 58 of the 393 holes were incompletely filled. After the dam was completed and the lake began to fill, large numbers of significant leaks caused the Bureau of Reclamation to examine the situation. It found that the work had been incompletely done, and was based on less than a full understanding of the canyon's geology. New holes were drilled from inspection galleries inside the dam into the surrounding bedrock. It took nine years (1938–47) under relative secrecy to complete the supplemental grout curtain. Concrete The first concrete was poured into the dam on June 6, 1933, 18 months ahead of schedule. Since concrete heats and contracts as it cures, the potential for uneven cooling and contraction of the concrete posed a serious problem. Bureau of Reclamation engineers calculated that if the dam were to be built in a single continuous pour, the concrete would take 125 years to cool, and the resulting stresses would cause the dam to crack and crumble. Instead, the ground where the dam would rise was marked with rectangles, and concrete blocks in columns were poured, some as large as 50 ft square (15 m) and 5 feet (1.5 m) high. Each five-foot form contained a set of 1-inch (25 mm) steel pipes; cool river water would be poured through the pipes, followed by ice-cold water from a refrigeration plant. When an individual block had cured and had stopped contracting, the pipes were filled with grout. Grout was also used to fill the hairline spaces between columns, which were grooved to increase the strength of the joints. The concrete was delivered in huge steel buckets 7 feet high (2.1 m) and almost 7 feet in diameter; Crowe was awarded two patents for their design. These buckets, which weighed 20 short tons (18.1 t; 17.9 long tons) when full, were filled at two massive concrete plants on the Nevada side, and were delivered to the site in special railcars. The buckets were then suspended from aerial cableways which were used to deliver the bucket to a specific column. As the required grade of aggregate in the concrete differed depending on placement in the dam (from pea-sized gravel to 9 inches [230 mm] stones), it was vital that the bucket be maneuvered to the proper column. When the bottom of the bucket opened up, disgorging 8 cu yd (6.1 m3) of concrete, a team of men worked it throughout the form. Although there are myths that men were caught in the pour and are entombed in the dam to this day, each bucket deepened the concrete in a form by only 1 inch (25 mm), and Six Companies engineers would not have permitted a flaw caused by the presence of a human body. A total of 3,250,000 cubic yards (2,480,000 cubic meters) of concrete was used in the dam before concrete pouring ceased on May 29, 1935. In addition, 1,110,000 cu yd (850,000 m3) were used in the power plant and other works. More than 582 miles (937 km) of cooling pipes were placed within the concrete. Overall, there is enough concrete in the dam to pave a two-lane highway from San Francisco to New York. Concrete cores were removed from the dam for testing in 1995; they showed that "Hoover Dam's concrete has continued to slowly gain strength" and the dam is composed of a "durable concrete having a compressive strength exceeding the range typically found in normal mass concrete". Hoover Dam concrete is not subject to alkali–silica reaction (ASR), as the Hoover Dam builders happened to use nonreactive aggregate, unlike that at downstream Parker Dam, where ASR has caused measurable deterioration. Dedication and completion With most work finished on the dam itself (the powerhouse remained uncompleted), a formal dedication ceremony was arranged for September 30, 1935, to coincide with a western tour being made by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The morning of the dedication, it was moved forward three hours from 2 p.m. Pacific time to 11 a.m.; this was done because Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes had reserved a radio slot for the President for 2 p.m. but officials did not realize until the day of the ceremony that the slot was for 2 p.m. Eastern Time. Despite the change in the ceremony time, and temperatures of 102 °F (39 °C), 10,000 people were present for the President's speech, in which he avoided mentioning the name of former President Hoover, who was not invited to the ceremony. To mark the occasion, a three-cent stamp was issued by the United States Post Office Department—bearing the name "Boulder Dam", the official name of the dam between 1933 and 1947. After the ceremony, Roosevelt made the first visit by any American president to Las Vegas. Most work had been completed by the dedication, and Six Companies negotiated with the government through late 1935 and early 1936 to settle all claims and arrange for the formal transfer of the dam to the Federal Government. The parties came to an agreement and on March 1, 1936, Secretary Ickes formally accepted the dam on behalf of the government. Six Companies was not required to complete work on one item, a concrete plug for one of the bypass tunnels, as the tunnel had to be used to take in irrigation water until the powerhouse went into operation. Construction deaths There were 112 deaths reported as associated with the construction of the dam. The first was Bureau of Reclamation employee Harold Connelly who died on May 15, 1921, after falling from a barge while surveying the Colorado River for an ideal spot for the dam. Surveyor John Gregory ("J.G.") Tierney, who drowned on December 20, 1922, in a flash flood while looking for an ideal spot for the dam was the second person. The official list's final death occurred on December 20, 1935, when Patrick Tierney, electrician's helper and the son of J.G. Tierney, fell from one of the two Arizona-side intake towers. Included in the fatality list are three workers who took their own lives on site, one in 1932 and two in 1933. Of the 112 fatalities, 91 were Six Companies employees, three were Bureau of Reclamation employees, and one was a visitor to the site; the remainder were employees of various contractors not part of Six Companies. Ninety-six of the deaths occurred during construction at the site. Not included in the official number of fatalities were deaths that were recorded as pneumonia. Workers alleged that this diagnosis was a cover for death from carbon monoxide poisoning (brought on by the use of gasoline-fueled vehicles in the diversion tunnels), and a classification used by Six Companies to avoid paying compensation claims. The site's diversion tunnels frequently reached 140 °F (60 °C), enveloped in thick plumes of vehicle exhaust gases. A total of 42 workers were recorded as having died from pneumonia and were not included in the above total; none were listed as having died from carbon monoxide poisoning. No deaths of non-workers from pneumonia were recorded in Boulder City during the construction period. Architectural style The initial plans for the facade of the dam, the power plant, the outlet tunnels and ornaments clashed with the modern look of an arch dam. The Bureau of Reclamation, more concerned with the dam's functionality, adorned it with a Gothic-inspired balustrade and eagle statues. This initial design was criticized by many as being too plain and unremarkable for a project of such immense scale, so Los Angeles-based architect Gordon B. Kaufmann, then the supervising architect to the Bureau of Reclamation, was brought in to redesign the exteriors. Kaufmann greatly streamlined the design and applied an elegant Art Deco style to the entire project. He designed sculpted turrets rising seamlessly from the dam face and clock faces on the intake towers set for the time in Nevada and Arizona—both states are in different time zones, but since Arizona does not observe daylight saving time, the clocks display the same time for more than half the year. At Kaufmann's request, Denver artist Allen Tupper True was hired to handle the design and decoration of the walls and floors of the new dam. True's design scheme incorporated motifs of the Navajo and Pueblo tribes of the region. Although some were initially opposed to these designs, True was given the go-ahead and was officially appointed consulting artist. With the assistance of the National Laboratory of Anthropology, True researched authentic decorative motifs from Indian sand paintings, textiles, baskets and ceramics. The images and colors are based on Native American visions of rain, lightning, water, clouds, and local animals—lizards, serpents, birds—and on the Southwestern landscape of stepped mesas. In these works, which are integrated into the walkways and interior halls of the dam, True also reflected on the machinery of the operation, making the symbolic patterns appear both ancient and modern. With the agreement of Kaufmann and the engineers, True also devised for the pipes and machinery an innovative color-coding which was implemented throughout all BOR projects. True's consulting artist job lasted through 1942; it was extended so he could complete design work for the Parker, Shasta and Grand Coulee dams and power plants. True's work on the Hoover Dam was humorously referred to in a poem published in The New Yorker, part of which read, "lose the spark, and justify the dream; but also worthy of remark will be the color scheme". Complementing Kaufmann and True's work, sculptor Oskar J. W. Hansen designed many of the sculptures on and around the dam. His works include the monument of dedication plaza, a plaque to memorialize the workers killed and the bas-reliefs on the elevator towers. In his words, Hansen wanted his work to express "the immutable calm of intellectual resolution, and the enormous power of trained physical strength, equally enthroned in placid triumph of scientific accomplishment", because "[t]he building of Hoover Dam belongs to the sagas of the daring." Hansen's dedication plaza, on the Nevada abutment, contains a sculpture of two winged figures flanking a flagpole. Surrounding the base of the monument is a terrazzo floor embedded with a "star map". The map depicts the Northern Hemisphere sky at the moment of President Roosevelt's dedication of the dam. This is intended to help future astronomers, if necessary, calculate the exact date of dedication. The 30-foot-high (9.1 m) bronze figures, dubbed Winged Figures of the Republic, were both formed in a continuous pour. To put such large bronzes into place without marring the highly polished bronze surface, they were placed on ice and guided into position as the ice melted. Hansen's bas-relief on the Nevada elevator tower depicts the benefits of the dam: flood control, navigation, irrigation, water storage, and power. The bas-relief on the Arizona elevator depicts, in his words, "the visages of those Indian tribes who have inhabited mountains and plains from ages distant." Operation Power plant and water demands Excavation for the powerhouse was carried out simultaneously with the excavation for the dam foundation and abutments. The excavation of this U-shaped structure located at the downstream toe of the dam was completed in late 1933 with the first concrete placed in November 1933. Filling of Lake Mead began February 1, 1935, even before the last of the concrete was poured that May. The powerhouse was one of the projects uncompleted at the time of the formal dedication on September 30, 1935; a crew of 500 men remained to finish it and other structures. To make the powerhouse roof bombproof, it was constructed of layers of concrete, rock, and steel with a total thickness of about 3.5 feet (1.1 m), topped with layers of sand and tar. In the latter half of 1936, water levels in Lake Mead were high enough to permit power generation, and the first three Allis Chalmers built Francis turbine-generators, all on the Nevada side, began operating. In March 1937, one more Nevada generator went online and the first Arizona generator by August. By September 1939, four more generators were operating, and the dam's power plant became the largest hydroelectricity facility in the world. The final generator was not placed in service until 1961, bringing the maximum generating capacity to 1,345 megawatts at the time. Original plans called for 16 large generators, eight on each side of the river, but two smaller generators were installed instead of one large one on the Arizona side for a total of 17. The smaller generators were used to serve smaller communities at a time when the output of each generator was dedicated to a single municipality, before the dam's total power output was placed on the grid and made arbitrarily distributable. Before water from Lake Mead reaches the turbines, it enters the intake towers and then four gradually narrowing penstocks which funnel the water down towards the powerhouse. The intakes provide a maximum hydraulic head (water pressure) of 590 ft (180 m) as the water reaches a speed of about 85 mph (140 km/h). The entire flow of the Colorado River usually passes through the turbines. The spillways and outlet works (jet-flow gates) are rarely used. The jet-flow gates, located in concrete structures 180 feet (55 m) above the river and also at the outlets of the inner diversion tunnels at river level, may be used to divert water around the dam in emergency or flood conditions, but have never done so, and in practice are used only to drain water from the penstocks for maintenance. Following an uprating project from 1986 to 1993, the total gross power rating for the plant, including two 2.4 megawatt Pelton turbine-generators that power Hoover Dam's own operations is a maximum capacity of 2080 megawatts. The annual generation of Hoover Dam varies. The maximum net generation was 10.348 TWh in 1984, and the minimum since 1940 was 2.648 TWh in 1956. The average power generated was 4.2 TWh/year for 1947–2008. In 2015, the dam generated 3.6 TWh. The amount of electricity generated by Hoover Dam has been decreasing along with the falling water level in Lake Mead due to the prolonged drought since year 2000 and high demand for the Colorado River's water. By 2014 its generating capacity was downrated by 23% to 1592 MW and was providing power only during periods of peak demand. Lake Mead fell to a new record low elevation of 1,071.61 feet (326.63 m) on July 1, 2016, before beginning to rebound slowly. Under its original design, the dam would no longer be able to generate power once the water level fell below 1,050 feet (320 m), which might have occurred in 2017 had water restrictions not been enforced. To lower the minimum power pool elevation from 1,050 to 950 feet (320 to 290 m), five wide-head turbines, designed to work efficiently with less flow, were installed. Water levels were maintained at over 1,075 feet (328 m) in 2018 and 2019, but fell to a new record low of 1,071.55 feet (326.61 m) on June 10, 2021 and were projected to fall below 1,066 feet (325 m) by the end of 2021. Control of water was the primary concern in the building of the dam. Power generation has allowed the dam project to be self-sustaining: proceeds from the sale of power repaid the 50-year construction loan, and those revenues also finance the multimillion-dollar yearly maintenance budget. Power is generated in step with and only with the release of water in response to downstream water demands. Lake Mead and downstream releases from the dam also provide water for both municipal and irrigation uses. Water released from the Hoover Dam eventually reaches several canals. The Colorado River Aqueduct and Central Arizona Project branch off Lake Havasu while the All-American Canal is supplied by the Imperial Dam. In total, water from Lake Mead serves 18 million people in Arizona, Nevada, and California and supplies the irrigation of over 1,000,000 acres (400,000 ha) of land. In 2018, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) proposed a $3 billion pumped-storage hydroelectricity project—a "battery" of sorts—that would use wind and solar power to recirculate water back up to Lake Mead from a pumping station 20 miles (32 km) downriver. Power distribution Electricity from the dam's powerhouse was originally sold pursuant to a fifty-year contract, authorized by Congress in 1934, which ran from 1937 to 1987. In 1984, Congress passed a new statute which set power allocations to southern California, Arizona, and Nevada from the dam from 1987 to 2017. The powerhouse was run under the original authorization by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and Southern California Edison; in 1987, the Bureau of Reclamation assumed control. In 2011, Congress enacted legislation extending the current contracts until 2067, after setting aside 5% of Hoover Dam's power for sale to Native American tribes, electric cooperatives, and other entities. The new arrangement began on October 1, 2017. The Bureau of Reclamation reports that the energy generated under the contracts ending in 2017 was allocated as follows: Spillways The dam is protected against over-topping by two spillways. The spillway entrances are located behind each dam abutment, running roughly parallel to the canyon walls. The spillway entrance arrangement forms a classic side-flow weir with each spillway containing four 100-foot-long (30 m) and 16-foot-wide (4.9 m) steel-drum gates. Each gate weighs 5,000,000 pounds (2,300 metric tons) and can be operated manually or automatically. Gates are raised and lowered depending on water levels in the reservoir and flood conditions. The gates cannot entirely prevent water from entering the spillways but can maintain an extra 16 ft (4.9 m) of lake level. Water flowing over the spillways falls dramatically into 600-foot-long (180 m), 50-foot-wide (15 m) spillway tunnels before connecting to the outer diversion tunnels and reentering the main river channel below the dam. This complex spillway entrance arrangement combined with the approximate 700-foot (210 m) elevation drop from the top of the reservoir to the river below was a difficult engineering problem and posed numerous design challenges. Each spillway's capacity of 200,000 cu ft/s (5,700 m3/s) was empirically verified in post-construction tests in 1941. The large spillway tunnels have only been used twice, for testing in 1941 and because of flooding in 1983. Both times, when inspecting the tunnels after the spillways were used, engineers found major damage to the concrete linings and underlying rock. The 1941 damage was attributed to a slight misalignment of the tunnel invert (or base), which caused cavitation, a phenomenon in fast-flowing liquids in which vapor bubbles collapse with explosive force. In response to this finding, the tunnels were patched with special heavy-duty concrete and the surface of the concrete was polished mirror-smooth. The spillways were modified in 1947 by adding flip buckets, which both slow the water and decrease the spillway's effective capacity, in an attempt to eliminate conditions thought to have contributed to the 1941 damage. The 1983 damage, also due to cavitation, led to the installation of aerators in the spillways. Tests at Grand Coulee Dam showed that the technique worked, in principle. Roadway and tourism There are two lanes for automobile traffic across the top of the dam, which formerly served as the Colorado River crossing for U.S. Route 93. In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, authorities expressed security concerns and the Hoover Dam Bypass project was expedited. Pending the completion of the bypass, restricted traffic was permitted over Hoover Dam. Some types of vehicles were inspected prior to crossing the dam while semi-trailer trucks, buses carrying luggage, and enclosed-box trucks over 40 ft (12 m) long were not allowed on the dam at all, and were diverted to U.S. Route 95 or Nevada State Routes 163/68. The four-lane Hoover Dam Bypass opened on October 19, 2010. It includes a composite steel and concrete arch bridge, the Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, 1,500 ft (460 m) downstream from the dam. With the opening of the bypass, through traffic is no longer allowed across Hoover Dam; dam visitors are allowed to use the existing roadway to approach from the Nevada side and cross to parking lots and other facilities on the Arizona side. Hoover Dam opened for tours in 1937 after its completion but following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, it was closed to the public when the United States entered World War II, during which only authorized traffic, in convoys, was permitted. After the war, it reopened September 2, 1945, and by 1953, annual attendance had risen to 448,081. The dam closed on November 25, 1963, and March 31, 1969, days of mourning in remembrance of Presidents Kennedy and Eisenhower. In 1995, a new visitors' center was built, and the following year, visits exceeded one million for the first time. The dam closed again to the public on September 11, 2001; modified tours were resumed in December and a new "Discovery Tour" was added the following year. Today, nearly a million people per year take the tours of the dam offered by the Bureau of Reclamation. Increased security concerns by the government have led to most of the interior structure's being inaccessible to tourists. As a result, few of True's decorations can now be seen by visitors. Visitors can only purchase tickets on-site and have the options of a guided tour of the whole facility or only the power plant area. The only self-guided tour option is for the visitor center itself, where visitors can view various exhibits and enjoy a 360-degree view of the dam. Environmental impact The changes in water flow and use caused by Hoover Dam's construction and operation have had a large impact on the Colorado River Delta. The construction of the dam has been implicated in causing the decline of this estuarine ecosystem. For six years after the construction of the dam, while Lake Mead filled, virtually no water reached the mouth of the river. The delta's estuary, which once had a freshwater-saltwater mixing zone stretching 40 miles (64 km) south of the river's mouth, was turned into an inverse estuary where the level of salinity was higher close to the river's mouth. The Colorado River had experienced natural flooding before the construction of the Hoover Dam. The dam eliminated the natural flooding, threatening many species adapted to the flooding, including both plants and animals. The construction of the dam devastated the populations of native fish in the river downstream from the dam. Four species of fish native to the Colorado River, the Bonytail chub, Colorado pikeminnow, Humpback chub, and Razorback sucker, are listed as endangered. Naming controversy During the years of lobbying leading up to the passage of legislation authorizing the dam in 1928, the press generally referred to the dam as "Boulder Dam" or as "Boulder Canyon Dam", even though the proposed site had shifted to Black Canyon. The Boulder Canyon Project Act of 1928 (BCPA) never mentioned a proposed name or title for the dam. The BCPA merely allows the government to "construct, operate, and maintain a dam and incidental works in the main stream of the Colorado River at Black Canyon or Boulder Canyon". When Secretary of the Interior Ray Wilbur spoke at the ceremony starting the building of the railway between Las Vegas and the dam site on September 17, 1930, he named the dam "Hoover Dam", citing a tradition of naming dams after Presidents, though none had been so honored during their terms of office. Wilbur justified his choice on the ground that Hoover was "the great engineer whose vision and persistence ... has done so much to make [the dam] possible". One writer complained in response that "the Great Engineer had quickly drained, ditched, and dammed the country." After Hoover's election defeat in 1932 and the accession of the Roosevelt administration, Secretary Ickes ordered on May 13, 1933, that the dam be referred to as Boulder Dam. Ickes stated that Wilbur had been imprudent in naming the dam after a sitting president, that Congress had never ratified his choice, and that it had long been referred to as Boulder Dam. Unknown to the general public, Attorney General Homer Cummings informed Ickes that Congress had indeed used the name "Hoover Dam" in five different bills appropriating money for construction of the dam. The official status this conferred to the name "Hoover Dam" had been noted on the floor of the House of Representatives by Congressman Edward T. Taylor of Colorado on December 12, 1930, but was likewise ignored by Ickes. When Ickes spoke at the dedication ceremony on September 30, 1935, he was determined, as he recorded in his diary, "to try to nail down for good and all the name Boulder Dam." At one point in the speech, he spoke the words "Boulder Dam" five times within thirty seconds. Further, he suggested that if the dam were to be named after any one person, it should be for California Senator Hiram Johnson, a lead sponsor of the authorizing legislation. Roosevelt also referred to the dam as Boulder Dam, and the Republican-leaning Los Angeles Times, which at the time of Ickes' name change had run an editorial cartoon showing Ickes ineffectively chipping away at an enormous sign "HOOVER DAM", reran it showing Roosevelt reinforcing Ickes, but having no greater success. In the following years, the name "Boulder Dam" failed to fully take hold, with many Americans using both names interchangeably and mapmakers divided as to which name should be printed. Memories of the Great Depression faded, and Hoover to some extent rehabilitated himself through good works during and after World War II. In 1947, a bill passed both Houses of Congress unanimously restoring the name "Hoover Dam." Ickes, who was by then a private citizen, opposed the change, stating, "I didn't know Hoover was that small a man to take credit for something he had nothing to do with." Recognition Hoover Dam was recognized as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1984. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981 and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985, cited for its engineering innovations. See also Ralph Luther Criswell, lobbyist on behalf of the dam Glen Canyon Dam Hoover Dam Police List of dams in the Colorado River system List of largest hydroelectric power stations List of largest hydroelectric power stations in the United States List of National Historic Landmarks in Arizona List of National Historic Landmarks in Nevada St. Thomas, Nevada, ghost town with site now under Lake Mead. Water in California Hoover Dam in popular culture Citations Bibliography Cited works Bureau of Reclamation (2006). Reclamation: Managing Water in the West: Hoover Dam. US Department of the Interior. Cummings, Homer (1939). Selected Papers of Homer Cummings. New York: Scribners. Dunar, Andrew J.; McBride, Dennis (2001) [1993]. Building Hoover Dam: An Oral History of the Great Depression. Reno, Nev.: University of Nevada Press. ISBN 978-0-87417-489-2. Hiltzik, Michael A. (2010). Colossus: Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century. New York: Free Press. ISBN 978-1-4165-3216-3. The Story of the Hoover Dam. Las Vegas: Nevada Publications, Inc. 2006. ISBN 978-0-913814-79-6. Rogers, Jerry; Wiltshire, Richard; Gilbert, David (2011). "Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of Hoover Dam: Highlights of the October 20–22, 2010, ASCE Hoover Dam 75th Anniversary History Symposium/Tours/Proceedings". In R. Edward Beighley II; Mark W. Killgore (eds.). World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2011: Bearing Knowledge for Sustainability. doi:10.1061/41173(414)200. ISBN 978-0-7844-1173-5. Stevens, Joseph E. (1988). Hoover Dam: An American Adventure. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-2283-0. True, Jere; Kirby, Victoria Tupper (2009). Allen Tupper True: An American Artist. San Francisco: Canyon Leap. ISBN 978-0-9817238-1-5. Other sources Arrigo, Anthony F. (2014). Imaging Hoover Dam: The Making of a Cultural Icon. Reno, NV: University of Nevada Press. Bartojay, Katie; Joy, Westin (October 21–22, 2010). Wiltshire, Richard L.; Gilbert, David R.; Rogers, Jerry R. (eds.). Long-Term Properties of Hoover Dam Mass Concrete. Hoover Dam 75th Anniversary History Symposium. Las Vegas, Nevada: American Society of Civil Engineers. pp. 74–84. ISBN 978-0-7844-1141-4. Cohn, Jeffrey P. (December 2001). "Resurrecting the Dammed: A Look at Colorado River Restoration". BioScience. 51 (12): 998–1003. doi:10.1641/0006-3568(2001)051[0998:RTDALA]2.0.CO;2. Fiedler, William R. (October 21–22, 2010). Wiltshire, Richard L.; Gilbert, David R.; Rogers, Jerry R. (eds.). Performance of Spillway Structures Using Hoover Dam Spillways as a Benchmark. Hoover Dam 75th Anniversary History Symposium. Las Vegas, Nevada: American Society of Civil Engineers. pp. 267–287. ISBN 978-0-7844-1141-4. Glenn, Edward P.; Lee, Christopher; Felger, Richard; Zengel, Scott (August 1996). "Effects of Water Management on the Wetlands of the Colorado River Delta, Mexico". Conservation Biology. 10 (4): 1175–1186. Bibcode:1996ConBi..10.1175G. doi:10.1046/j.1523-1739.1996.10041175.x. JSTOR 2387153. Minckley, W. L.; Marsh, Paul C.; Deacon, James E.; Dowling, Thomas E.; Hedrick, Philip W.; Matthews, William J.; Mueller, Gordon (2003). "A Conservation Plan for Native Fishes of the Lower Colorado River". BioScience. 53 (3): 219–234. doi:10.1641/0006-3568(2003)053[0219:ACPFNF]2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0006-3568. Rodriguez, C. A.; Flessa, K. W.; Téllez-Duarte, M. S.; Dettman, D. L.; Ávila-Serrano, G. A. (2001). "Macrofaunal and isotopic estimates of the former extent of the Colorado River estuary, upper Gulf of California, México" (PDF). Journal of Arid Environments. 49 (1): 183–193. Bibcode:2001JArEn..49..183R. doi:10.1006/jare.2001.0845. Retrieved January 13, 2012. Rogers, J. David (October 21–22, 2010). Wiltshire, Richard L.; Gilbert, David R.; Rogers, Jerry R. (eds.). Hoover Dam: Evolution of the Dam's Design. Hoover Dam 75th Anniversary History Symposium. Las Vegas, Nevada: American Society of Civil Engineers. pp. 85–123. ISBN 978-0-7844-1141-4. Schmidt, John C.; Webb, Robert H.; Valdez, Richard A.; Marzolf, G. Richard; Stevens, Lawrence E. (September 1998). "Science and Values in River Restoration in the Grand Canyon". BioScience. 48 (9): 735–747. doi:10.2307/1313336. JSTOR 1313336. External links Official website Hoover Dam – Visitors Site Historic Construction Company Project – Hoover Dam Hoover Dam at Structurae The short film "Boulder Dam" is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive. The short film "Boulder Dam (Part I) (1931) is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive. The short film "Boulder Dam (Parts III and IV) (1931)" is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive. The short film "The story of Hoover Dam" is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive. Hoover Dam – An American Experience Documentary Boulder City/Hoover Dam Museum official site

I am the narrator character in the final novel written by the recipient of the 1963 Hugo Award for Best Novel. Who am I?

Angel Archer.

Tabular reasoning | Multiple constraints

The Hugo Award for Best Novel is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published in, or translated to, English during the previous calendar year. The novel award is available for works of fiction of 40,000 words or more; awards are also given out in the short story, novelette, and novella categories. The Hugo Awards have been described as "a fine showcase for speculative fiction", and "the best known literary award for science fiction writing". The Hugo Award for Best Novel has been awarded annually by the World Science Fiction Society since 1953, except in 1954 and 1957. In addition, beginning in 1996, Retrospective Hugo Awards or "Retro-Hugos" have been available for works published 50, 75, or 100 years prior. Retro-Hugos may only be awarded for years after 1939 in which no awards were originally given. Retro-Hugo awards have been given for novels for 1939, 1941, 1943–1946, 1951, and 1954. Hugo Award nominees and winners are chosen by supporting or attending members of the annual World Science Fiction Convention, or Worldcon, and the presentation evening constitutes its central event. The final selection process is defined in the World Science Fiction Society Constitution as instant-runoff voting with six nominees, except in the case of a tie. The novels on the ballot are the six most-nominated by members that year, with no limit on the number of stories that can be nominated. The 1953, 1955, and 1958 awards did not include a recognition of runner-up novels, but since 1959 all final candidates have been recorded. Initial nominations are made by members from January through March, while voting on the ballot of six nominations is performed roughly from April through July, subject to change depending on when that year's Worldcon is held. Prior to 2017, the final ballot was five works; it was changed that year to six, with each initial nominator limited to five nominations. Worldcons are generally held in August or early September, and are held in a different city around the world each year. During the 78 nomination years, 169 authors have had works nominated and 54 have won (including co-authors, ties, and Retro-Hugos). Two translators have been noted along with the author of a novel written in a language other than English: Ken Liu, in 2015 and 2017, for translations of two works from Chinese; and Rita Barisse, in 2019, who was retroactively noted as the translator of a 1963 French novel. Robert A. Heinlein has won the most Hugos for Best Novel, and also received the most nominations; he has six wins (four Hugos and two Retro-Hugos) on twelve nominations. Lois McMaster Bujold has received four Hugos on ten nominations. Five authors have won three times: Isaac Asimov and Fritz Leiber (with two Hugos and one Retro-Hugo each), N. K. Jemisin, Connie Willis, and Vernor Vinge. Nine other authors have won the award twice. The next-most nominations by a winning author are held by Robert J. Sawyer and Larry Niven, who have been nominated nine and eight times, respectively, and have each only won once. With nine nominations, Robert Silverberg has the greatest number of nominations without winning any. Three authors have won the award in consecutive years: Orson Scott Card (1986 and 1987), Lois McMaster Bujold (1991 and 1992), and N. K. Jemisin (2016, 2017, and 2018). Winners and nominees In the following table, the years correspond to the date of the ceremony, rather than when the novel was first published. Each year links to the corresponding "year in literature". Entries with a yellow background have won the award; those with a grey background are the nominees on the short-list. * Winners and joint winners Retro-Hugos Beginning with the 1996 Worldcon, the World Science Fiction Society created the concept of "Retro-Hugos", in which the Hugo award could be retroactively awarded for 50, 75, or 100 years prior. Retro-Hugos may only be awarded for years after 1939 (the year of the first Worldcon) in which no Hugos were originally awarded. Retro-Hugos have been awarded eight times, for 1939, 1941, 1943–46, 1951, and 1954. See also Nebula Award for Best Novel List of joint winners of the Hugo and Nebula awards List of literary awards Locus Award for Best Novel Notes References External links Hugo Award official site Archived 2012-07-22 at the Wayback Machine Original proposal for the award in Philcon II program book Archived 2021-07-12 at the Wayback Machine

Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928 – March 2, 1982), often referred to by his initials PKD, was an American science fiction writer and novelist. He wrote 44 novels and about 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime. His fiction explored varied philosophical and social questions such as the nature of reality, perception, human nature, and identity, and commonly featured characters struggling against elements such as alternate realities, illusory environments, monopolistic corporations, drug abuse, authoritarian governments, and altered states of consciousness. He is considered one of the most important figures in 20th-century science fiction. Born in Chicago, Dick moved to the San Francisco Bay Area with his family at a young age. He began publishing science fiction stories in 1952, at age 23. He found little commercial success until his alternative history novel The Man in the High Castle (1962) earned him acclaim, including a Hugo Award for Best Novel, when he was 33. He followed with science fiction novels such as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) and Ubik (1969). His 1974 novel Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Following years of drug abuse and a series of mystical experiences in 1974, Dick's work engaged more explicitly with issues of theology, metaphysics, and the nature of reality, as in novels A Scanner Darkly (1977), VALIS (1981), and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer (1982). A collection of his speculative nonfiction writing on these themes was published posthumously as The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick (2011). He died in 1982 in Santa Ana, California, at the age of 53, due to complications from a stroke. Following his death, he became "widely regarded as a master of imaginative, paranoid fiction in the vein of Franz Kafka and Thomas Pynchon". Dick's posthumous influence has been widespread, extending beyond literary circles into Hollywood filmmaking. Popular films based on his works include Blade Runner (1982), Total Recall (adapted twice: in 1990 and in 2012), Screamers (1995), Minority Report (2002), A Scanner Darkly (2006), The Adjustment Bureau (2011), and Radio Free Albemuth (2010). Beginning in 2015, Amazon Prime Video produced the multi-season television adaptation The Man in the High Castle, based on Dick's 1962 novel; and in 2017 Channel 4 produced the anthology series Electric Dreams, based on various Dick stories. In 2005, Time named Ubik (1969) one of the hundred greatest English-language novels published since 1923. In 2007, Dick became the first science fiction writer included in The Library of America series. Early life Dick and his twin sister, Jane Charlotte Dick, were born six weeks prematurely on December 16, 1928, in Chicago, Illinois, to Dorothy (née Kindred; 1900–1978) and Joseph Edgar Dick (1899–1985), who worked for the United States Department of Agriculture. His paternal grandparents were Irish. Jane's death on January 26, 1929, six weeks after their birth, profoundly affected Philip's life, leading to the recurrent motif of the "phantom twin" in his books. Dick's family later moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. When he was five, his father was transferred to Reno, Nevada, and when Dorothy refused to move, she and Joseph divorced. Both fought for custody of Philip, which was awarded to Dorothy. Determined to raise Philip alone, she took a job in Washington, D.C., and moved there with her son. Philip was enrolled at John Eaton Elementary School (1936–1938), completing the second through fourth grades. His lowest grade was a "C" in Written Composition, although a teacher said he "shows interest and ability in story telling". He was educated in Quaker schools. In June 1938, Dorothy and Philip returned to California, and it was around this time that he became interested in science fiction. Dick stated that he read his first science fiction magazine, Stirring Science Stories, in 1940. Dick attended Berkeley High School in Berkeley, California. He and fellow science fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin were members of the class of 1947 but did not know each other at the time. He claimed to have hosted a classical music program on KSMO Radio in 1947. From 1948 to 1952, he worked at Art Music Company, a record store on Telegraph Avenue. He attended the University of California, Berkeley from September 1949 to November 11, 1949, ultimately receiving an honorable dismissal dated January 1, 1950. He did not declare a major and took classes in history, psychology, philosophy, and zoology. Dick dropped out because of ongoing anxiety problems, according to his third wife Anne's memoir. She also says he disliked the mandatory ROTC training. At Berkeley, he befriended poet Robert Duncan and poet and linguist Jack Spicer, who gave Dick ideas for a Martian language. Through his studies in philosophy, he believed that existence is based on internal human perception, which does not necessarily correspond to external reality. He described himself as "an acosmic panentheist", which he explained as meaning that "I don't believe that the universe exists. I believe that the only thing that exists is God and he is more than the universe. The universe is an extension of God into space and time. That's the premise I start from in my work, that so-called "reality" is a mass delusion that we've all been required to believe for reasons totally obscure". After reading the works of Plato and pondering the possibilities of metaphysical realms, he came to the conclusion that, in a certain sense, the world is not entirely real and there is no way to confirm whether it is truly there. That question was a theme in many of his novels. Career Early writing Dick sold his first story, "Roog"—about "a dog who imagined that the garbagemen who came every Friday morning were stealing valuable food which the family had carefully stored away in a safe metal container"—in 1951, when he was 22. From then on he wrote full-time. During 1952, his first speculative fiction publications appeared in July and September numbers of Planet Stories, edited by Jack O'Sullivan, and in If and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction that year. His debut novel, Solar Lottery, was published in 1955 as half of Ace Double #D-103 alongside The Big Jump by Leigh Brackett. The 1950s were a difficult and impoverished time for Dick, who once lamented, "We couldn't even pay the late fees on a library book." He published almost exclusively within the science fiction genre but dreamed of a career in mainstream fiction. During the 1950s, he produced a series of non-genre, relatively conventional novels. In 1960, Dick wrote that he was willing to "take twenty to thirty years to succeed as a literary writer". The dream of mainstream success formally died in January 1963 when the Scott Meredith Literary Agency returned all of his unsold mainstream novels. Only one of them, Confessions of a Crap Artist, was published during Dick's lifetime, in 1975 by Paul Williams' Entwhistle Books. In 1963 Dick won the Hugo Award for The Man in the High Castle. Although he was hailed as a genius in the science fiction world, the mainstream literary world was unappreciative, and he could publish books only through low-paying science fiction publishers such as Ace. He said in a 1977 interview that were it not for interest by a French publishing company in the mid-1960s, which decided to publish all of his catalog to date, he would not have been able to continue as a writer. But even in his later years, he continued to have financial troubles. In the introduction to the 1980 short story collection, The Golden Man, he wrote: "Several years ago, when I was ill, Heinlein offered his help, anything he could do, and we had never met; he would phone me to cheer me up and see how I was doing. He wanted to buy me an electric typewriter, God bless him—one of the few true gentlemen in this world. I don't agree with any ideas he puts forth in his writing, but that is neither here nor there. One time when I owed the IRS a lot of money and couldn't raise it, Heinlein loaned the money to me. I think a great deal of him and his wife; I dedicated a book to them in appreciation. Robert Heinlein is a fine-looking man, very impressive and very military in stance; you can tell he has a military background, even to the haircut. He knows I'm a flipped-out freak and still he helped me and my wife when we were in trouble. That is the best in humanity, there; that is who and what I love." Flight to Canada, mental health and suicide attempt In 1971, Dick's marriage to Nancy Hackett broke down, and she moved out of their house in Santa Venetia, California. He had abused amphetamine for much of the previous decade, stemming in part from his need to maintain a prolific writing regimen due to the financial exigencies of the science fiction field. He allowed other drug users to move into the house. Following the release of 21 novels between 1960 and 1970, these developments were exacerbated by unprecedented periods of writer's block, with Dick ultimately failing to publish new fiction until 1974. One day, in November 1971, Dick returned to his home to discover it had been burglarized, with his safe blown open and personal papers missing. The police could not determine the culprit, and even suspected Dick of having done it himself. Shortly thereafter, he was invited to be guest of honor at the Vancouver Science Fiction Convention in February 1972. Within a day of arriving at the conference and giving his speech, The Android and the Human, he informed people that he had fallen in love with a woman named Janis whom he had met there and announced that he would be remaining in Vancouver. A conference attendee, Michael Walsh, movie critic for the local newspaper The Province, invited Dick to stay in his home, but asked him to leave two weeks later due to his erratic behavior. Janis then ended their relationship and moved away. On March 23, 1972, Dick attempted suicide by taking an overdose of the sedative potassium bromide. Subsequently, after deciding to seek help, Dick became a participant in X-Kalay (a Canadian Synanon-type recovery program), and was well enough by April to return to California. In October 1972, Dick wrote a letter to the FBI about science fiction writer Thomas Disch. Dick said he had been approached by a covert Anti-American organization which attempted to recruit him. Dick said he recognized their ideology in a book Disch wrote. On relocating to Orange County, California at the behest of California State University, Fullerton professor Willis McNelly (who initiated a correspondence with Dick during his X-Kalay stint), he donated manuscripts, papers and other materials to the university's Special Collections Library, where they are in the Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Collection in the Pollak Library. During this period, Dick befriended a circle of Fullerton State students that included several aspiring science fiction writers, including K. W. Jeter, James Blaylock and Tim Powers. Jeter would later continue Dick's Bladerunner series with three sequels. Dick returned to the events of these months while writing his novel A Scanner Darkly (1977), which contains fictionalized depictions of the burglary of his home, his time using amphetamines and living with addicts, and his experiences of X-Kalay (portrayed in the novel as "New-Path"). A factual account of his recovery program participation was portrayed in his posthumously released book The Dark Haired Girl, a collection of letters and journals from the period. Paranormal experiences On February 20, 1974, while recovering from the effects of sodium pentothal administered for the extraction of an impacted wisdom tooth, Dick received a home delivery of Darvon from a young woman. When he opened the door, he was struck by the dark-haired girl's beauty, and was especially drawn to her golden necklace. He asked her about its curious fish-shaped design. As she was leaving, she replied: "This is a sign used by the early Christians." Dick called the symbol the "vesicle pisces". This name seems to have been based on his conflation of two related symbols, the Christian ichthys symbol (two intersecting arcs delineating a fish in profile), which the woman was wearing, and the vesica piscis. Dick recounted that as the sun glinted off the gold pendant, the reflection caused the generation of a "pink beam" of light that mesmerized him. He came to believe the beam imparted wisdom and clairvoyance, and also believed it to be intelligent. On one occasion, he was startled by a separate recurrence of the pink beam, which imparted the information that his infant son was ill. The Dicks rushed the child to the hospital, where the illness was confirmed by professional diagnosis. After the woman's departure, Dick began experiencing strange hallucinations. Although initially attributing them to side effects from medication, he considered this explanation implausible after weeks of continued hallucination. He told Charles Platt: "I experienced an invasion of my mind by a transcendentally rational mind, as if I had been insane all my life and suddenly I had become sane." Throughout February and March 1974, Dick experienced a series of hallucinations which he referred to as "2-3-74", shorthand for February–March 1974. Aside from the "pink beam", he described the initial hallucinations as geometric patterns, and, occasionally, brief pictures of Jesus and ancient Rome. As the hallucinations increased in duration and frequency, Dick claimed he began to live two parallel lives—one as himself, "Philip K. Dick", and one as "Thomas", a Christian persecuted by Romans in the first century AD. He referred to the "transcendentally rational mind" as "Zebra", "God" and "VALIS" (an acronym for Vast Active Living Intelligence System). He wrote about the experiences, first in the semi-autobiographical novel Radio Free Albemuth, then in VALIS, The Divine Invasion, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer and the unfinished The Owl in Daylight (the VALIS trilogy). In 1974, Dick wrote a letter to the FBI, accusing various people, including University of California, San Diego professor Fredric Jameson, of being foreign agents of Warsaw Pact powers. He also wrote that Stanisław Lem was probably a false name used by a composite committee operating on orders of the Communist party to gain control over public opinion. At one point, Dick felt he had been taken over by the spirit of the prophet Elijah. He believed that an episode in his novel Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said was a detailed retelling of a biblical story from the Book of Acts, which he had never read. He documented and discussed his experiences and faith in a private journal he called his "exegesis", portions of which were later published as The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick. The last novel he wrote was The Transmigration of Timothy Archer; it was published shortly after his death in 1982. Personal life Dick was married five times: Jeanette Marlin (May to November 1948) Kleo Apostolides (June 14, 1950, to 1959) Anne Williams Rubinstein (April 1, 1959, to October 1965) Nancy Hackett (July 6, 1966, to 1972) Leslie "Tessa" Busby (April 18, 1973, to 1977) Dick had three children, Laura Archer Dick (born February 25, 1960, to Dick and his third wife, Anne Williams Rubenstein), Isolde Freya Dick (now Isa Dick Hackett) (born March 15, 1967, to Dick and his fourth wife, Nancy Hackett), and Christopher Kenneth Dick (born July 25, 1973, to Dick and his fifth wife, Leslie "Tessa" Busby). In 1955, Dick and his second wife, Kleo Apostolides, received a visit from the FBI, which they believed to be the result of Kleo's socialist views and left-wing activities. He physically fought with Anne Williams Rubinstein, his third wife. Dick wrote to a friend that he and Anne had "dreadful violent fights...slamming each other around, smashing every object in the house." In 1963, Dick told his neighbors that his wife was attempting to kill him and had her involuntarily committed to a psychiatric institution for two weeks. After filing for divorce in 1964, Dick moved to Oakland to live with a fan, author and editor Grania Davis. Shortly after, he attempted suicide by driving off the road while she was a passenger. Politics Early in life, Dick attended Communist Party USA meetings, but shifted more towards anti-communism and libertarianism as time passed. In an interview, Dick once described himself as a "religious anarchist". Dick generally tried to stay out of the political scene because of high societal turmoil from the Vietnam War. Still, he did show some anti-Vietnam War and anti-governmental sentiments. In 1968, he joined the "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest", an anti-war pledge to pay no U.S. federal income tax, which resulted in the confiscation of his car by the IRS. Dick was a critic of the U.S. federal government, regarding it to be just as "bad as the Soviet Union", and cheered on "a great decentralization of the government". Dick's politics occasionally influenced his literature. Dick's 1967 short story "Faith of Our Fathers" is critical of communism. Dick's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? condemns the eugenics movement. In 1974, as a response to the Roe v. Wade decision, Dick also published "The Pre-persons", a satirical anti-abortion and anti-Malthusianism short story. Following the story's publication, Dick stated that he received death threats from feminists. Death On February 17, 1982, after completing an interview, Dick contacted his therapist, complaining of failing eyesight, and was advised to go to a hospital immediately, but did not. The following day, he was found unconscious on the floor of his Santa Ana, California, home, having suffered a stroke. On February 25, 1982, Dick suffered another stroke in the hospital, which led to brain death. Five days later, on March 2, 1982, he was disconnected from life support. After his death, Dick's father, Joseph, took his son's ashes to Riverside Cemetery in Fort Morgan, Colorado (section K, block 1, lot 56), where they were buried next to his twin sister Jane, who died in infancy. Her tombstone had been inscribed with both of their names at the time of her death, 53 years earlier. Philip died four months before the release of Blade Runner, the film based on his novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Style and works Themes Dick's stories typically focus on the fragile nature of what is real and the construction of personal identity. His stories often become surreal fantasies, as the main characters slowly discover that their everyday world is actually an illusion assembled by powerful external entities, such as the suspended animation in Ubik, vast political conspiracies or the vicissitudes of an unreliable narrator. "All of his work starts with the basic assumption that there cannot be one, single, objective reality", writes science fiction author Charles Platt. "Everything is a matter of perception. The ground is liable to shift under your feet. A protagonist may find himself living out another person's dream, or he may enter a drug-induced state that actually makes better sense than the real world, or he may cross into a different universe completely." Alternate universes and simulacra are common plot devices, with fictional worlds inhabited by common, working people, rather than galactic elites. "There are no heroes in Dick's books", Ursula K. Le Guin wrote, "but there are heroics. One is reminded of Dickens: what counts is the honesty, constancy, kindness and patience of ordinary people." Dick made no secret that much of his thinking and work was heavily influenced by the writings of Carl Jung. The Jungian constructs and models that most concerned Dick seem to be the archetypes of the collective unconscious, group projection/hallucination, synchronicities, and personality theory. Many of Dick's protagonists overtly analyze reality and their perceptions in Jungian terms (see Lies, Inc.). Dick identified one major theme of his work as the question, "What constitutes the authentic human being?" In works such as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, beings can appear totally human in every respect while lacking soul or compassion, while completely alien beings such as Glimmung in Galactic Pot-Healer may be more humane and complex than their human peers. Understood correctly, said Dick, the term "human being" applies "not to origin or to any ontology but to a way of being in the world." This authentic way of being manifests itself in compassion that recognizes the oneness of all life. "In Dick's vision, the moral imperative calls on us to care for all sentient beings, human or nonhuman, natural or artificial, regardless of their place in the order of things. And Dick makes clear that this imperative is grounded in empathy, not reason, whatever subsequent role reason may play." The figure of the android depicts those who are deficient in empathy, who are alienated from others and are becoming more mechanical (emotionless) in their behaviour. "In general, then, it can be said that for Dick robots represent machines that are becoming more like humans, while androids represent humans that are becoming more like machines." Mental illness was a constant interest of Dick's, and themes of mental illness permeate his work. The character Jack Bohlen in the 1964 novel Martian Time-Slip is an "ex-schizophrenic". The novel Clans of the Alphane Moon centers on an entire society made up of descendants of lunatic asylum inmates. In 1965, he wrote the essay titled "Schizophrenia and the Book of Changes". Drug use (including religious, recreational, and abuse) was also a theme in many of Dick's works, such as A Scanner Darkly and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. Dick himself was a drug user for much of his life. According to a 1975 interview in Rolling Stone, Dick wrote all of his books published before 1970 while on amphetamines. "A Scanner Darkly (1977) was the first complete novel I had written without speed", said Dick in the interview. He also experimented briefly with psychedelics, but wrote The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965), which Rolling Stone dubs "the classic LSD novel of all time", before he had ever tried them. Despite his heavy amphetamine use, however, Dick later said that doctors told him the amphetamines never actually affected him, that his liver had processed them before they reached his brain. Summing up all these themes in Understanding Philip K. Dick, Eric Carl Link discussed eight themes or "ideas and motifs":: 48  Epistemology and the Nature of Reality, Know Thyself, The Android and the Human, Entropy and Pot Healing, The Theodicy Problem, Warfare and Power Politics, The Evolved Human, and "Technology, Media, Drugs and Madness".: 48–101 Pen names Dick had two professional stories published under the pen names Richard Phillipps and Jack Dowland. "Some Kinds of Life" was published in October 1953 in Fantastic Universe under byline Richard Phillipps, apparently because the magazine had a policy against publishing multiple stories by the same author in the same issue; "Planet for Transients" was published in the same issue under his own name. The short story "Orpheus with Clay Feet" was published under the pen name Jack Dowland. The protagonist desires to be the muse for fictional author Jack Dowland, considered the greatest science fiction author of the 20th century. In the story, Dowland publishes a short story titled "Orpheus with Clay Feet" under the pen name Philip K. Dick. The surname Dowland refers to Renaissance composer John Dowland, who is featured in several works. The title Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said directly refers to Dowland's best-known composition, "Flow, my tears". In the novel The Divine Invasion, the character Linda Fox, created specifically with Linda Ronstadt in mind, is an intergalactically famous singer whose entire body of work consists of recordings of John Dowland compositions. Selected works The Man in the High Castle (1962) is set in an alternative history in which the United States is ruled by the victorious Axis powers. It is the only Dick novel to win a Hugo Award. In 2015 this was adapted into a television series by Amazon Studios. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965) utilizes an array of science fiction concepts and features several layers of reality and unreality. It is also one of Dick's first works to explore religious themes. The novel takes place in the 21st century, when, under UN authority, mankind has colonized the Solar System's every habitable planet and moon. Life is physically daunting and psychologically monotonous for most colonists, so the UN must draft people to go to the colonies. Most entertain themselves using "Perky Pat" dolls and accessories manufactured by Earth-based "P.P. Layouts". The company also secretly creates "Can-D", an illegal but widely available hallucinogenic drug allowing the user to "translate" into Perky Pat (if the drug user is a woman) or Pat's boyfriend, Walt (if the drug user is a man). This recreational use of Can-D allows colonists to experience a few minutes of an idealized life on Earth by participating in a collective hallucination. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) is the story of a bounty hunter policing the local android population. It occurs on a dying, poisoned Earth de-populated of almost all animals and all "successful" humans; the only remaining inhabitants of the planet are people with no prospects off-world. The 1968 novel is the literary source of the film Blade Runner (1982). It is both a conflation and an intensification of the pivotally Dickian question: "What is real, what is fake? What crucial factor defines humanity as distinctly 'alive', versus those merely alive only in their outward appearance?" Ubik (1969) employs extensive psychic telepathy and a suspended state after death in creating a state of eroding reality. A group of psychics is sent to investigate a rival organisation, but several of them are apparently killed by a saboteur's bomb. Much of the following novel flicks between different equally plausible realities and the "real" reality, a state of half-life and psychically manipulated realities. In 2005, Time magazine listed it among the "All-TIME 100 Greatest Novels" published since 1923. Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said (1974) concerns Jason Taverner, a television star living in a dystopian near-future police state. After being attacked by an angry ex-girlfriend, Taverner awakens in a dingy Los Angeles hotel room. He still has his money in his wallet, but his identification cards are missing. This is no minor inconvenience, as security checkpoints (staffed by "pols" and "nats", the police and National Guard) are set up throughout the city to stop and arrest anyone without valid ID. Jason at first thinks that he was robbed, but soon discovers that his entire identity has been erased. There is no record of him in any official database, and even his closest associates do not recognize or remember him. For the first time in many years, Jason has no fame or reputation to rely on. He has only his innate charm and social graces to help him as he tries to find out what happened to his past while avoiding the attention of the pols. The novel was Dick's first published novel after years of silence, during which time his critical reputation had grown, and this novel was awarded the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. It is the only Philip K. Dick novel nominated for both a Hugo and a Nebula Award. In an essay written two years before his death, Dick described how he learned from his Episcopal priest that an important scene in Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said – involving its other main character, the eponymous Police General Felix Buckman, was very similar to a scene in Acts of the Apostles, a book of the New Testament. Film director Richard Linklater discusses this novel in his film Waking Life, which begins with a scene reminiscent of another Dick novel, Time Out of Joint. A Scanner Darkly (1977) is a bleak mixture of science fiction and police procedural novels; in its story, an undercover narcotics police detective begins to lose touch with reality after falling victim to Substance D, the same permanently mind-altering drug he was enlisted to help fight. Substance D is instantly addictive, beginning with a pleasant euphoria which is quickly replaced with increasing confusion, hallucinations and eventually total psychosis. In this novel, as with all Dick novels, there is an underlying thread of paranoia and dissociation with multiple realities perceived simultaneously. It was adapted to film by Richard Linklater. The Philip K. Dick Reader is an introduction to the variety of Dick's short fiction. VALIS (1980) is perhaps Dick's most postmodern and autobiographical novel, examining his own unexplained experiences. It may also be his most academically studied work, and was adapted as an opera by Tod Machover. Later works like the VALIS trilogy were heavily autobiographical, many with "two-three-seventy-four" (2-3-74) references and influences. The word VALIS is the acronym for Vast Active Living Intelligence System. Later, Dick theorized that VALIS was both a "reality generator" and a means of extraterrestrial communication. A fourth VALIS manuscript, Radio Free Albemuth, although composed in 1976, was posthumously published in 1985. This work is described by the publisher (Arbor House) as "an introduction and key to his magnificent VALIS trilogy". Regardless of the feeling that he was somehow experiencing a divine communication, Dick was never fully able to rationalize the events. For the rest of his life, he struggled to comprehend what was occurring, questioning his own sanity and perception of reality. He transcribed what thoughts he could into an eight-thousand-page, one-million-word journal dubbed the Exegesis. From 1974 until his death in 1982, Dick spent many nights writing in this journal. A recurring theme in Exegesis is Dick's hypothesis that history had been stopped in the first century AD, and that "the Empire never ended". He saw Rome as the pinnacle of materialism and despotism, which, after forcing the Gnostics underground, had kept the population of Earth enslaved to worldly possessions. Dick believed that VALIS had communicated with him, and anonymously others, to induce the impeachment of U.S. President Richard Nixon, whom Dick believed to be the current Emperor of Rome incarnate. In a 1968 essay titled "Self Portrait", collected in the 1995 book The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick, Dick reflects on his work and lists which books he feels "might escape World War Three": Eye in the Sky, The Man in the High Castle, Martian Time-Slip, Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb, The Zap Gun, The Penultimate Truth, The Simulacra, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (which he refers to as "the most vital of them all"), Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, and Ubik. In a 1976 interview, Dick cited A Scanner Darkly as his best work, feeling that he "had finally written a true masterpiece, after 25 years of writing". Adaptations Films Several of Dick's stories have been made into films. Dick himself wrote a screenplay for an intended film adaptation of Ubik in 1974, but the film was never made. Many film adaptations have not used Dick's original titles. When asked why this was, Dick's ex-wife Tessa said, "Actually, the books rarely carry Phil's original titles, as the editors usually wrote new titles after reading his manuscripts. Phil often commented that he couldn't write good titles. If he could, he would have been an advertising writer instead of a novelist." Films based on Dick's writing had accumulated a total revenue of over US$1 billion by 2009. Blade Runner (1982), based on Dick's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Sean Young and Rutger Hauer. A screenplay had been in the works for years before Scott took the helm, with Dick being extremely critical of all versions. Dick was still apprehensive about how his story would be adapted for the film when the project was finally put into motion. Among other things, he refused to do a novelization of the film. But contrary to his initial reactions, when he was given an opportunity to see some of the special effects sequences of Los Angeles 2019, Dick was amazed that the environment was "exactly as how I'd imagined it!", though Ridley Scott has mentioned he had never even read the source material. Following the screening, Dick and Scott had a frank but cordial discussion of Blade Runner's themes and characters, and although they had wildly differing views, Dick fully backed the film from then on, stating that his "life and creative work are justified and completed by Blade Runner". Dick died from a stroke less than four months before the release of the film. Total Recall (1990), based on the short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale", directed by Paul Verhoeven and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Confessions d'un Barjo (1992), titled Barjo in its English-language release, a French film based on the non-science-fiction novel Confessions of a Crap Artist. Screamers (1995), based on the short story "Second Variety", directed by Christian Duguay and starring Peter Weller. The location was altered from a war-devastated Earth to a distant planet. A sequel, titled Screamers: The Hunting, was released straight to DVD in 2009. Minority Report (2002), based on the short story "The Minority Report", directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise. Impostor (2002), based on the 1953 story "Impostor", directed by Gary Fleder and starring Gary Sinise, Vincent D'Onofrio and Madeleine Stowe. The story was also adapted in 1962 for the British television anthology series Out of This World. Paycheck (2003), directed by John Woo and starring Ben Affleck, based on Dick's short story of the same name. A Scanner Darkly (2006), directed by Richard Linklater and starring Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, and Robert Downey Jr., based on Dick's novel of the same name. The film was produced using the process of rotoscoping: it was first shot in live-action and then the live footage was animated over. Next (2007), directed by Lee Tamahori and starring Nicolas Cage, loosely based on the short story "The Golden Man". Radio Free Albemuth (2010), directed by John Alan Simon loosely based on the novel Radio Free Albemuth. The Adjustment Bureau (2011), directed by George Nolfi and starring Matt Damon, loosely based on the short story "Adjustment Team". Total Recall (2012), directed by Len Wiseman and starring Colin Farrell, second film adaptation of the short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale". Future films based on Dick's writing include a film adaptation of Ubik which, according to Dick's daughter, Isa Dick Hackett, is in advanced negotiation. Ubik was set to be made into a film by Michel Gondry. In 2014, however, Gondry told French outlet Telerama (via Jeux Actu), that he was no longer working on the project. In November 2021, it was announced that Francis Lawrence will direct a film adaptation of Vulcan's Hammer, with Lawrence's about:blank production company, alongside New Republic Pictures and Electric Shepherd Productions, producing. An animated adaptation of The King of the Elves from Walt Disney Animation Studios was in production and was set to be released in the spring of 2016 but it was cancelled following multiple creative problems. The Terminator series prominently features the theme of humanoid assassination machines first portrayed in Second Variety. The Halcyon Company, known for developing the Terminator franchise, acquired right of first refusal to film adaptations of the works of Philip K. Dick in 2007. In May 2009, they announced plans for an adaptation of Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said. Television It was reported in 2010 that Ridley Scott would produce an adaptation of The Man in the High Castle for the BBC, in the form of a miniseries. A pilot episode was released on Amazon Prime Video in January 2015 and season 1 was fully released in ten episodes of about 60 minutes each on November 20, 2015. Premiering in January 2015, the pilot was Amazon's "most-watched since the original series development program began." The next month Amazon ordered episodes to fill out a ten-episode season, which was released in November, to positive reviews. A second season of ten episodes premiered in December 2016, and a third season was released on October 5, 2018. The fourth and final season premiered on November 15, 2019. In late 2015, Fox aired Minority Report, a television series sequel adaptation to the 2002 film of the same name based on Dick's short story "The Minority Report" (1956). The show was cancelled after one 10-episode season. In May 2016, it was announced that a 10-part anthology series was in the works. Titled Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams, the series was distributed by Sony Pictures Television and premiered on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom and Amazon Prime Video in the United States. It was written by executive producers Ronald D. Moore and Michael Dinner, with executive input from Dick's daughter Isa Dick Hackett, and stars Bryan Cranston, also an executive producer. Stage and radio Four of Dick's works have been adapted for the stage. One was the opera VALIS, composed and with libretto by Tod Machover, which premiered at the Pompidou Center in Paris on December 1, 1987, with a French libretto. It was subsequently revised and readapted into English, and was recorded and released on CD (Bridge Records BCD9007) in 1988. Another was Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, adapted by Linda Hartinian and produced by the New York-based avant-garde company Mabou Mines. It premiered in Boston at the Boston Shakespeare Theatre (June 18–30, 1985) and was subsequently staged in New York and Chicago. Productions of Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said were also staged by the Evidence Room in Los Angeles in 1999 and by the Fifth Column Theatre Company at the Oval House Theatre in London in the same year. A play based on Radio Free Albemuth also had a brief run in the 1980s. In November 2010, a production of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, adapted by Edward Einhorn, premiered at the 3LD Art and Technology Center in Manhattan. A radio drama adaptation of Dick's short story "Mr. Spaceship" was aired by the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yleisradio) in 1996 under the name Menolippu Paratiisiin. Radio dramatizations of Dick's short stories Colony and The Defenders were aired by NBC in 1956 as part of the series X Minus One. In January 2006, a theatre adaptation of The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (English for Trzy stygmaty Palmera Eldritcha) premiered in Stary Teatr in Kraków, with an extensive use of lights and laser choreography. In June 2014, the BBC broadcast a two-part adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? on BBC Radio 4, starring James Purefoy as Rick Deckard. Comics Marvel Comics adapted Dick's short story "The Electric Ant" as a limited series which was released in 2009. The comic was produced by writer David Mack (Daredevil) and artist Pascal Alixe (Ultimate X-Men), with covers provided by artist Paul Pope. "The Electric Ant" had earlier been loosely adapted by Frank Miller and Geof Darrow in their 3-issue mini-series Hard Boiled published by Dark Horse Comics in 1990–1992. In 2009, BOOM! Studios started publishing a 24-issue miniseries comic book adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Blade Runner, the 1982 film adapted from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, had previously been adapted to comics as A Marvel Comics Super Special: Blade Runner. In 2011, Dynamite Entertainment published a four-issue miniseries Total Recall, a sequel to the 1990 film Total Recall, inspired by Philip K. Dick's short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale". In 1990, DC Comics published the official adaptation of the original film as a DC Movie Special: Total Recall. Alternative formats In response to a 1975 request from the National Library for the Blind for permission to make use of The Man in the High Castle, Dick responded, "I also grant you a general permission to transcribe any of my former, present or future work, so indeed you can add my name to your 'general permission' list." Some of his books and stories are available in braille and other specialized formats through the NLS. As of December 2012, thirteen of Philip K. Dick's early works in the public domain in the United States are available in ebook form from Project Gutenberg. As of December 2019, Wikisource has three of Philip K. Dick's early works in the public domain in the United States available in ebook form which is not from Project Gutenberg. Influence and legacy Lawrence Sutin wrote a 1989 biography of Dick, titled Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick. In 1993, French writer Emmanuel Carrère published I Am Alive and You Are Dead: A Journey into the Mind of Philip K. Dick (French: Je suis vivant et vous êtes morts), which the author describes in his preface in this way:The book you hold in your hands is a very peculiar book. I have tried to depict the life of Philip K. Dick from the inside, in other words, with the same freedom and empathy – indeed with the same truth – with which he depicted his own characters. The book omits fact checking, sourcing, notes and index. It can be considered a non-fiction novel about his life. Dick has influenced many writers, including Jonathan Lethem and Ursula K. Le Guin. The prominent literary critic Fredric Jameson proclaimed Dick the "Shakespeare of Science Fiction", and praised his work as "one of the most powerful expressions of the society of spectacle and pseudo-event". The author Roberto Bolaño also praised Dick, describing him as "Thoreau plus the death of the American dream". Dick has also influenced filmmakers, his work being compared to films such as the Wachowskis' The Matrix, David Cronenberg's Videodrome, eXistenZ, and Spider, Spike Jonze's Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Alex Proyas's Dark City, Peter Weir's The Truman Show, Andrew Niccol's Gattaca, In Time, Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys, Alejandro Amenábar's Open Your Eyes, David Fincher's Fight Club, Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky, Darren Aronofsky's Pi, Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko and Southland Tales, Rian Johnson's Looper, Duncan Jones' Source Code, Christopher Nolan's Memento and Inception, and Owen Dennis' Infinity Train The Philip K. Dick Society was an organization dedicated to promoting the literary works of Dick and was led by Dick's longtime friend and music journalist Paul Williams. Williams also served as Dick's literary executor for several years after Dick's death and wrote one of the first biographies of Dick, entitled Only Apparently Real: The World of Philip K. Dick. The Philip K. Dick estate owns and operates the production company Electric Shepherd Productions, which has produced the film The Adjustment Bureau (2011), the TV series The Man in the High Castle and also a Marvel Comics 5-issue adaptation of Electric Ant. Dick was recreated by his fans in the form of a simulacrum or remote-controlled android designed in his likeness. Such simulacra had been themes of many of Dick's works. The Philip K. Dick simulacrum was included on a discussion panel in a San Diego Comic Con presentation about the film adaptation of the novel, A Scanner Darkly. In February 2006, an America West Airlines employee misplaced the android's head, and it has not yet been found. In January 2011, it was announced that Hanson Robotics had built a replacement. Film BBC2 released in 1994 a biographical documentary as part of its Arena arts series called Philip K. Dick: A Day in the Afterlife. The Gospel According to Philip K. Dick was a documentary film produced in 2001. The Penultimate Truth About Philip K. Dick was another biographical documentary film produced in 2007. The 1987 film The Trouble with Dick, in which Tom Villard plays a character named "Dick Kendred" (cf. Philip Kindred Dick), who is a science fiction author The dialogue of Nikos Nikolaidis' 1987 film Morning Patrol contains excerpts taken from published works authored by Philip K. Dick. The Spanish feature film Proxima (2007) by Carlos Atanes, where the character Felix Cadecq is based on Dick A 2008 film titled Your Name Here, by Matthew Wilder, features Bill Pullman as science fiction author William J. Frick, a character based on Dick The 2010 science fiction film 15 Till Midnight cites Dick's influence with an "acknowledgment to the works of" credit. The Prophets of Science Fiction episode, Philip K Dick. 2011 Documentary In fiction Michael Bishop's The Secret Ascension (1987; currently published as Philip K. Dick Is Dead, Alas), which is set in an alternative universe where his non-genre work is published but his science fiction is banned by a totalitarian United States in thrall to a demonically possessed Richard Nixon. The Faction Paradox novel Of the City of the Saved ... (2004) by Philip Purser-Hallard The short story "The Transmigration of Philip K" (1984) by Michael Swanwick (to be found in the 1991 collection Gravity's Angels) In Ursula K. Le Guin's 1971 novel The Lathe of Heaven, whose characters alter reality through their dreams. Two made-for-TV films based on the novel have been made: The Lathe of Heaven (1980) and Lathe of Heaven (2002) In Thomas M. Disch's The Word of God (2008) The comics magazine Weirdo published "The Religious Experience of Philip K. Dick" by cartoonist Robert Crumb in 1986. Though this is not an adaptation of a specific book or story by Dick, it incorporates elements of Dick's experience which he related in short stories, novels, essays, and the Exegesis. The story parodies the form of a Chick tract, a type of evangelical comic, many of which relate the story of an epiphany leading to a conversion to fundamentalist Christianity. In the Batman Beyond episode "Sentries of the Last Cosmos", the character Eldon Michaels claims a typewriter on his desk to have belonged to Philip K. Dick. In the 1976 alternate history novel The Alteration by Kingsley Amis, one of the novels-within-a-novel depicted is The Man in the High Castle (mirroring The Grasshopper Lies Heavy in the real-life novel), still written by Philip K. Dick. Instead of the novel being set in 1962 in an alternate universe where the Axis Powers won the Second World War and named for Hawthorne Abendsen, the author of its novel-within-a-novel, it depicts an alternate universe where the Protestant Reformation occurred (events including the continuation of Henry VIII's Schismatic policies by his son, Henry IX, and the creation of an independent North America in 1848), with one character speculating that the titular character was a wizard. In the Japanese science fiction anime Psycho-Pass, Dick's works are referred to as recommended reading material to help reflect on the current state of affairs of those characters world. The short film trilogy Code 7 written and directed by Nacho Vigalondo starts with the line "Philip K. Dick presents". The story also contains some other references to Philip K. Dick's body of work. In the 2022 web anime Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, the character, Rebecca, has the words "PK DICK" tattooed on her right thigh. Music "Flow My Tears" is the name of an instrumental by bassist Stuart Hamm, inspired by Dick's novel of the same name. The track is found on his album Radio Free Albemuth, also named after a Dick novel. "Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said" and other seminal Ph. K. Dick novels inspired the electronic music concept album "The Dowland Shores of Philip K. Dick's Universe" by Levente "Flow My Tears the Spider Said" is the final song on They Were Wrong, So We Drowned, the second album by experimental Los Angeles punk-rock outfit Liars. "Nowhere Nothin' Fuckup", the fifth song on Built to Spill's album Ultimate Alternative Wavers, is the title of a song by the main character, Jason Taverner, in Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said. "Listen to the Sirens", the first song on Tubeway Army's 1978 debut album has as its first line "flow my tears, the new police song". American rapper and producer El-P is a noted fan of Dick and other science fiction, as many of Dick's themes, such as paranoia and questions about the nature of reality, feature in El-P's work. A song on the 2002 album Fantastic Damage is titled "T.O.J." and the chorus makes reference to the Dick work Time Out of Joint. English singer Hugh Cornwell included an instrumental called "Philip K. Ridiculous" on his 2008 album "Hooverdam". The World/Inferno Friendship Society's 2011 album The Anarchy and the Ecstasy includes a song entitled "Canonize Philip K. Dick, OK". Bloc Party's 2012 album Four contains several references to Dick's work, including a song entitled "V.A.L.I.S.". German singer Pohlmann included a song called "Roy Batty (In Tribute to Philip K. Dick)" on his 2013 album Nix ohne Grund. Sister, a Sonic Youth album, "was in part inspired by the life and works of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick". Bad Religion's song titled "Beyond Electric Dreams", from their 2004 album The Empire Strikes First, alludes to Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? "What You See" is a song by Faded Paper Figures that pays homage to the literary work of Dick. The first song on Japancakes' debut album If I Could See Dallas is titled 'Now Wait For Last Year'. Janelle Monáe's song "Make the Bus" in her album The ArchAndroid has the lyrics "You've got 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' under your pillow" at the end of the first stanza. Blind Guardian's song "Time What is Time" from the 1992 album "Somewhere Far Beyond" is loosely based on the book "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?". The Weeknd's song "Snowchild" in his album After Hours has the lyrics "Futuristic sex give her Philip K dick" at the beginning of the second stanza. American band Trivium's 2020 album What the Dead Men Say and its title track, are a direct reference the short story of the same name. American band Clutch's song, "X-Ray Visions" features images of Dick in their official music video. Additionally, Neil Fallon said "[Dick's] general philosophy and questions have always crept into my lyrics, because I share an interest in it. On Earth Rocker, 'Crucial Velocity' was definitely a Philip K. Dick song for me. On this record, 'X-Ray Visions' certainly is." Radio In June 2014, BBC Radio 4 broadcast The Two Georges by Stephen Keyworth, inspired by the FBI's investigation of Phil and his wife Kleo in 1955, and the subsequent friendship that developed between Phil and FBI Agent Scruggs. Theater The short play Kindred Blood in Kensington Gore (1992) by Brian W. Aldiss A 2005 play, 800 Words: the Transmigration of Philip K. Dick by Victoria Stewart, which re-imagines Dick's final days. Contemporary philosophy Postmodernists such as Jean Baudrillard, Fredric Jameson, Laurence Rickels and Slavoj Žižek have commented on Dick's writing's foreshadowing of postmodernity. Jean Baudrillard offers this interpretation: "It is hyperreal. It is a universe of simulation, which is something altogether different. And this is so not because Dick speaks specifically of simulacra. SF has always done so, but it has always played upon the double, on artificial replication or imaginary duplication, whereas here the double has disappeared. There is no more double; one is always already in the other world, an other world which is not another, without mirrors or projection or utopias as means for reflection. The simulation is impassable, unsurpassable, checkmated, without exteriority. We can no longer move 'through the mirror' to the other side, as we could during the golden age of transcendence." For his anti-government skepticism, Philip K. Dick was afforded minor mention in Mythmakers and Lawbreakers, a collection of interviews about fiction by anarchist authors. Noting his early authorship of The Last of the Masters, an anarchist-themed novelette, author Margaret Killjoy expressed that while Dick never fully sided with anarchism, his opposition to government centralization and organized religion has influenced anarchist interpretations of gnosticism. Video games The 3.0 update for the grand strategy video game Stellaris is named the "Dick" update, following the game's trend of naming updates after science fiction authors. The 2016 video game Californium was developed as a tribute to Philip K. Dick and his writings to coincide with an Arte's documentary series. Awards and honors The Science Fiction Hall of Fame inducted Dick in 2005. During his lifetime he received numerous annual literary awards and nominations for particular works. Hugo Awards Best Novel 1963 – winner: The Man in the High Castle 1975 – nominee: Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said Best Novelette 1968 – nominee: Faith of Our Fathers Nebula Awards Best Novel 1965 – nominee: Dr. Bloodmoney 1965 – nominee: The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch 1968 – nominee: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? 1974 – nominee: Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said 1982 – nominee: The Transmigration of Timothy Archer John W. Campbell Memorial Award Best Novel 1975 – winner: Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said British Science Fiction Association Award Best Novel 1978 – winner: A Scanner Darkly Graoully d'Or (Festival de Metz, France) 1979 – winner: A Scanner Darkly Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis 1985 – winner VALIS Philip K. Dick Award The Philip K. Dick Award is a science fiction award that annually recognizes the previous year's best SF paperback original published in the U.S. It is conferred at Norwescon, sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society, and since 2005 supported by the Philip K. Dick Trust. Winning works are identified on their covers as Best Original SF Paperback. It is currently administered by, John Silbersack, and Gordon Van Gelder. The award was inaugurated in 1983, the year after Dick's death. It was founded by Thomas Disch with assistance from David G. Hartwell, Paul S. Williams, and Charles N. Brown. Past administrators include Algis J. Budrys and David Alexander Smith. See also Consensus reality Cyberpunk Paranoid fiction Transcendental idealism Bibliography Primary bibliography Precious Artifacts : A Philip K. Dick Bibliography, United States of America and United Kingdom Editions, 1955 – 2012. Compiled by Henri Wintz and David Hyde. (Wide Books 2012). www.wide-books.com Precious Artifacts 2: A Philip K. Dick Bibliography, The Short Stories, United States, United Kingdom and Oceania, 1952 – 2014. Compiled by Henri Wintz and David Hyde (Wide Books 2014). www.wide-books.com Precious Artifacts 3 // Precieuses Reliques: A Philip K. Dick Bibliography, The French Editions, 1959–2018 (bi-lingual). Compiled by Henri Wintz and David Hyde. (Wide Books 2019). www.wide-books.com Secondary bibliography Philip K. Dick bibliography: Book-length critical studies Robinson, Kim Stanley (1989). The Novels Of Philip K. Dick (Dissertation) (Reprint ed.). UMI Research Press. ISBN 9780835720144. Retrieved November 14, 2020. References External links Works by Philip K. Dick in eBook form at Standard Ebooks Works by Philip K. Dick at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Philip K. Dick at the Internet Archive Works by Philip K. Dick at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) Works by Philip K. Dick at Open Library Philip K. Dick at IMDb Philip K. Dick at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database Philip K. Dick at the Internet Book List "Philip K. Dick biography". Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. Philip K. Dick at Find a Grave Ebooks by Philip K. Dick - Standard Ebooks Dark Roasted Blend: Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Experience: Philip K. Dick Philip K. Dick at Library of Congress, with 164 library catalog records 1977 interview with Philip K. Dick on YouTube

The Transmigration of Timothy Archer is a 1982 novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. As his final work, the book was published shortly after his death in March 1982, although it was written the previous year. The novel draws on autobiographical details of Dick's friendship with the controversial Episcopal bishop James Pike, on whom the title character is loosely based. It continues Dick's investigation into the religious and philosophical themes of VALIS. The novel was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1982. Plot Set in the late 1960s and 1970s, the story describes the efforts of Episcopal bishop Timothy Archer, who must cope with the theological and philosophical implications of the newly discovered Gnostic Zadokite scroll fragments. The character of Bishop Archer is loosely based on the controversial, iconoclastic Episcopal bishop James Pike, who in 1969 died of exposure while exploring the Judean Desert near the Dead Sea in the West Bank. As the novel opens, it is 1980. On the day that John Lennon is shot and killed, Angel Archer visits the houseboat of Edgar Barefoot, (a guru based on Alan Watts), and reflects on the lives of her deceased relatives. During the sixties, she was married to Jeff Archer, son of the Episcopal Bishop of California Timothy Archer. She introduced Kirsten Lundborg, a friend, to her father-in law, and the two began an affair. Kirsten has a son, Bill, from a previous relationship, who has schizophrenia, although he is knowledgeable as an automobile mechanic. Tim is already being investigated for his allegedly heretical views about the Holy Ghost. Jeff commits suicide due to his romantic obsession with Kirsten. However, after poltergeist activity, he manifests to Tim and Kirsten at a seance, also attended by Angel. Angel is skeptical about the efficacy of astrology, and believes that the unfolding existential situation of Tim and Kirsten is akin to Friedrich Schiller's German Romanticism era masterpiece, the Wallenstein trilogy (insofar as their credulity reflects the loss of rational belief in contemporary consensual reality). The three are told that Kirsten and Tim will die. As predicted, Kirsten loses her remission from cancer, and also commits suicide after a barbiturate overdose. Tim travels to Israel to investigate whether or not a psychotropic mushroom was associated with the resurrection, but his car stalls, he becomes disoriented, falls from a cliff, and dies in the desert. On the houseboat, Angel is reunited with Bill, Kirsten's son who has schizophrenia. He claims to have Tim's reincarnated spirit within him, but is soon institutionalized. Angel agrees to care for Bill, in return for a rare record (Koto Music by Kimio Eto) that Edgar offers her. The Transmigration of Timothy Archer is one of Dick's most overtly philosophical and intellectual works. While Dick's novels usually employ multiple narrators or an omniscient perspective, this story is told in the first person by a single narrator: Angel Archer, Bishop Archer's daughter-in-law. Characters Angel Archer: Narrator, manager of a Berkeley record store, widow of Jeff Archer. Timothy Archer: Bishop of California; father of the late Jeff Archer and father-in-law of Angel. Dies in Israel, searching for psychotropic mushroom connected with Zadokite sect. Based on James Albert Pike, Dick's personal friend, who was an American Episcopalian bishop. Kirsten Lundborg: Timothy Archer's secretary and lover. Dies from barbiturate overdose after loss of remission from cancer. Bill Lundborg: Kirsten's son who has schizophrenia, and who is obsessed with cars. Edgar Barefoot: Houseboat guru, radio personality, lecturer. Based on Alan Watts. Jeff Archer: Son of Timothy Archer, and deceased husband of Angel. A professional student who was romantically obsessed with Kirsten. Other works The Transmigration of Timothy Archer is thematically related to Dick's unfinished VALIS trilogy of novels: VALIS (1981) The Divine Invasion (1981) The novel has been included in several omnibus editions of the trilogy as a stand-in for the unwritten final volume. The Transmigration of Timothy Archer was not intended by Dick to be part of the trilogy; however, the book fits with the two finished volumes and Dick himself called the three novels a trilogy, saying "the three do form a trilogy constellating around a basic theme." The book was originally titled Bishop Timothy Archer. Criticism Frasca, Gabriele, “Come rimanere rimasti: La trasmigrazione di Timothy Archer”, Trasmigrazioni: I mondi di Philip K. Dick, eds. De Angelis and Rossi, Firenze, Le Monnier, 2006, pp. 237–60. Zaleski, Philip (August 10, 1982). "Getting metaphysical: The transcendental world of Philip Kendred Dick". The Boston Phoenix. Retrieved September 13, 2024. See also Radio Free Albemuth References External links The Transmigration of Timothy Archer at Worlds Without End

Who developed the first effective vaccine against the disease that killed the father of a famous Hungarian composer born in 1811?

Almroth Edward Wright

Multiple constraints

This is an alphabetical list of Hungarian composers. A Ábrányi, Kornél (1822–1903) Ádám, Jenő (1896–1982) Aggházy, Károly (1855–1918) B Bakfark, Bálint (1507–1576), also Valentin Bakfark, Bacfarc, Bakfarc, Bakfarkh, Bakffark, Backuart Bárdos, Lajos (1899–1986) Bartók, Béla (1881–1945) Bernáth, Ferenc (born 1981) C Cziffra, György (1921–1994), in French Georges Cziffra D Dohnányi, Ernő (1877–1960) Doppler, Ferenc (1821–1883), German Albert Franz Doppler Durkó, Zsolt (1934–1997) E Egressy, Béni (1814–1851), born Galambos Benjámin Eötvös, Péter (born 1944) Erkel, Ferenc (1810–1893) Esterházy, Pál (1635–1713), full name Paul I, Prince Esterházy of Galántha F Farkas, Ferenc (1905–2000) Fusz, János (1777–1819), German Johann Evangelist Fuss G Gárdonyi, Zoltán (1906–1986) Goldmark, Károly (1830–1915), German Karl Goldmark Gulya, Róbert (*1973) H Hidas, Frigyes (1928–2007) Horváth, Balázs (1976) Hubay, Jenő (1852–1937) J Jeney, Zoltán (born 1943) Joachim, Joseph (1831–1907) K Kálmán, Emmerich (1882–1953) Kéler, Béla (1820–1882) Kocsár, Miklós (1933–2019) Kodály, Zoltán (1882–1967) Kozma, József (1905-1969), French Joseph Kosma Kurtág, György (born 1926) L Lajtha, László (1892–1963) Lehár, Ferenc (1870–1948), German Franz Lehár Ligeti, György (1923–2006) Liszt, Ferenc (1811–1886), German Franz Liszt M Márta István (born 1962) Melis, László (1953–2018) Emánuel Moór (1863–1931) O Orbán, György (born 1947) R Ránki, György (1907–1992) Rózsa, Miklós (1907–1995) S Sárközy, István (1920–2002) Sáry, László (born 1940) Sugár, Miklós (born 1952) Szervánszky, Endre (1911–1977) Szokolay, Sándor (1931–2013) Szőllősy, András (1921–2007) Szőnyi, Erzsébet (1924–2019) T Tinódi Lantos, Sebestyén (1510–1556) Takács, Jenő (1902–2005) V Vajda, János (born 1949) Vecsey, Ferenc (1893–1935), German Franz von Vecsey, Italian Ferenc de Vecsey W Weiner, Leó (1885–1960) == References ==

Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic period. With a diverse body of work spanning more than six decades, he is considered to be one of the most prolific and influential composers of his era, and his piano works continue to be widely performed and recorded. Liszt achieved success as a concert pianist from an early age, and received lessons from esteemed musicians Carl Czerny and Antonio Salieri. He gained further renown for his performances during tours of Europe in the 1830s and 1840s, developing a reputation for technical brilliance as well as physical attractiveness. In a phenomenon dubbed "Lisztomania", he rose to a degree of stardom and popularity among the public not experienced by the virtuosos who preceded him. During this period and into his later life, Liszt was a friend, musical promoter and benefactor to many composers of his time, including Hector Berlioz, Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann and Richard Wagner, among others. Liszt coined the terms "transcription" and "paraphrase", and would perform arrangements of his contemporaries' music to popularise it. Alongside Wagner, Liszt was one of the most prominent representatives of the New German School, a progressive group of composers involved in the "War of the Romantics" who developed ideas of programmatic music and harmonic experimentation. Liszt taught piano performance to hundreds of students throughout his life, many of whom went on to become notable performers. He left behind an extensive and diverse body of work that influenced his forward-looking contemporaries and anticipated 20th-century ideas and trends. Among Liszt's musical contributions were the concept of the symphonic poem, innovations in thematic transformation and Impressionism in music, and the invention of the masterclass as a method of teaching performance. In a radical departure from his earlier compositional styles, many of Liszt's later works also feature experiments in atonality, foreshadowing developments in 20th-century classical music. Today he is best known for his original piano works, such as the Hungarian Rhapsodies, Années de pèlerinage, Transcendental Études, "La campanella", and the Piano Sonata in B minor. Life Early life Franz Liszt was born to Anna Liszt (née Maria Anna Lager) and Adam Liszt on 22 October 1811, in the village of Doborján (German: Raiding) in Sopron County, in the Kingdom of Hungary, Austrian Empire. Liszt's father was a land steward in the service of Prince Nikolaus II Esterházy; a keen amateur musician, he played the piano, cello, guitar and flute, and knew Haydn and Hummel personally. Franz began to improvise at the piano from before the age of five, and his father diligently encouraged his progress. Franz also found exposure to music through attending Mass, as well as travelling Romani bands that toured the Hungarian countryside. His first public concert was in Sopron in 1820 at the age of nine; its success led to further appearances in Pressburg and for Prince Nikolaus' court in Eisenstadt. The publicity led to a group of wealthy sponsors offering to finance Franz's musical education in Vienna. There, Liszt received piano lessons from Carl Czerny, who in his own youth had been a student of Beethoven and Hummel. Czerny, already extremely busy, had only begrudgingly agreed to hear Liszt play, and had initially refused to entertain the idea of regular lessons. Being so impressed by the initial audition, however, Czerny taught Liszt regularly, free of charge, for the next eighteen months, at which point he felt he had nothing more to teach. Liszt remained grateful to his former teacher, later dedicating to him the Transcendental Études on their 1830 republication. Liszt also received lessons in composition from Antonio Salieri, the accomplished music director of the Viennese court who had previously taught Beethoven and Schubert. Like Czerny, Salieri was highly impressed by Liszt's improvisation and sight-reading abilities. Liszt's public debut in Vienna on 1 December 1822 was a great success. He was greeted in Austrian and Hungarian aristocratic circles and met Beethoven and Schubert. To build on his son's success, Adam Liszt decided to take the family to Paris, the centre of the artistic world. At Liszt's final Viennese concert on 13 April 1823, Beethoven was reputed to have walked onstage and kissed Liszt on the forehead, to signify a kind of artistic christening. There is debate, however, on the extent to which this story is apocryphal. The family briefly returned to Hungary, and Liszt played a concert in traditional Hungarian dress, in order to emphasise his roots, in May 1823. In 1824 a piece Liszt had written at the age of 11 – his Variation on a Waltz by Diabelli (S. 147) – appeared in Part II of Vaterländischer Künstlerverein as his first published composition. This volume, commissioned by Anton Diabelli, includes 50 variations on his waltz by 50 different composers (Part I being taken up by Beethoven's 33 variations on the same theme, which are now separately better known simply as his Diabelli Variations). Liszt was the youngest contributor to the project, described in it as "a boy of eleven years old"; Czerny was also a participant. Paris Having made significant sums from his concerts, Liszt and his family moved to Paris in 1823, with the hope of his attending the Conservatoire de Paris. The director Luigi Cherubini refused his entry, however, as the Conservatoire did not accept foreigners. Nevertheless, Liszt studied under Anton Reicha and Ferdinando Paer, and gave a series of highly successful concerts debuting on 8 March 1824. Paer was involved in the Parisian theatrical and operatic scene, and through his connections Liszt staged his only opera, Don Sanche, which premiered shortly before his fourteenth birthday. The premiere was warmly received, but the opera only ran for four performances, and is now obscure. Accompanied by his father, Liszt toured France and England, where he played for King George IV. Adam Liszt died suddenly of typhoid fever in the summer of 1827, and for the next eight years Liszt continued to live in Paris with his mother. He gave up touring, and in order to earn money, he gave lessons on piano and composition, often from early morning until late at night. His students were scattered across the city and he had to cover long distances. Because of this, he kept uncertain hours and also took up smoking and drinking, habits he would continue throughout his life. During this period Liszt fell in love with one of his pupils, Caroline de Saint-Cricq, the daughter of Charles X's minister of commerce, Pierre de Saint-Cricq. Her father, however, insisted that the affair be broken off. Liszt fell very ill, to the extent that an obituary notice was printed in a Paris newspaper, and he underwent a long period of religious doubts and introspection. He stopped playing the piano and giving lessons, and developed an intense interest in religion, having many conversations with Abbé de Lamennais and Chrétien Urhan, a German-born violinist who introduced him to the Saint-Simonists. Lamennais dissuaded Liszt from becoming a monk or priest. Urhan was an early champion of Schubert, inspiring Liszt's own lifelong love of Schubert's songs. Much of Urhan's emotive music which moved beyond the Classical paradigm, such as Elle et moi, La Salvation angélique and Les Regrets, may have helped to develop Liszt's taste and style. During this period Liszt came into contact with many of the leading authors and artists of his day, including Victor Hugo, Alphonse de Lamartine, George Sand and Alfred de Vigny. He composed practically nothing in the years between his father's death and the July Revolution of 1830, which inspired him to sketch a symphony based on the events of the "three glorious days" (this piece was left unfinished, and later reworked as Héroïde funèbre). Liszt met Hector Berlioz on 4 December 1830, the day before the premiere of the Symphonie fantastique. Berlioz's music made a strong impression on Liszt, and the two quickly became friends. Liszt also befriended Frédéric Chopin around this time. After attending a concert featuring Niccolò Paganini in April 1832, Liszt resolved to become as great a virtuoso on the piano as Paganini was on the violin. He dramatically increased his practice, sometimes practising for up to fourteen hours a day, and in 1838 published the six Études d'exécution transcendante d'après Paganini (later revised as Grandes études de Paganini), aiming to represent Paganini's virtuosity on the keyboard. The process of Liszt completely redeveloping his technique is often described as a direct result of attending Paganini's concert, but it is likely that he had already begun this work previously, during the period 1828–1832. Touring Europe Affair with Countess Marie d'Agoult In 1833, Liszt began a relationship with the Countess Marie d'Agoult, who was married to a French cavalry officer but living independently. In order to escape scandal they moved to Geneva in 1835; their daughter Blandine was born there on 18 December. Liszt taught at the newly founded Geneva Conservatoire and contributed essays for L'Artiste and the Revue et gazette musicale de Paris. For the next four years, Liszt and the countess lived together. In 1835 and 1836 they travelled around Switzerland, and from August 1837 until November 1839 they toured Italy. It was these travels that later inspired the composer to write his cycle of piano collections entitled Années de pèlerinage (Years of Pilgrimage). Their daughter, Cosima, was born in Como on 24 December 1837, and their son Daniel on 9 May 1839 in Rome. That autumn relations between them became strained. Liszt heard that plans for a Beethoven Monument in Bonn were in danger of collapse for lack of funds and pledged his support, raising funds through concerts. The countess returned to Paris with the children, while Liszt gave six concerts in Vienna, then toured Hungary. Liszt would later spend holidays with Marie and their children on the island of Nonnenwerth on the Rhine in the summers of 1841 and 1843. In May 1844, the couple finally separated. The Ivory Duel Swiss pianist Sigismond Thalberg moved to Paris in 1835 after several successful years of touring. His concerts there were extremely well received, and Liszt, at the time living in Geneva, received news of them from his friends in Paris. In the autumn of 1836 Liszt published an unfavourable review of several of Thalberg's compositions in the Gazette musicale, calling them "boring" and "mediocre". A published exchange of views ensued between Liszt and Thalberg's supporter, the critic François-Joseph Fétis. Liszt heard Thalberg perform for the first time at the Paris Conservatoire in February 1837, and to settle the disagreement the two pianists each arranged a performance for the public to compare them the following month. Liszt performed his own Grande fantaisie sur des motifs de Niobe and Weber's Konzertstück in F minor. This was considered to be inconclusive, so the two agreed to perform at the same concert for comparison on 31 March, at the salon of the Princess of Belgiojoso, in aid of Italian refugees. Thalberg opened with his Fantasia on Rossini's "Moses", then Liszt performed his Niobe fantasy. The result of this "duel" is disputed. Critic Jules Janin's report in Journal des débats asserted that there was no clear winner: "Two victors and no vanquished; it is fitting to say with the poet 'et adhuc sub judice lis est". Belgiojoso declined to declare a winner, famously concluding that "Thalberg is the first pianist in the world – Liszt is unique." The biographer Alan Walker, however, believes that "Liszt received the ovation of the evening and all doubts about his supremacy were dispelled. As for Thalberg, his humiliation was complete. He virtually disappeared from the concert platform after this date." Lisztomania After his separation from Marie, Liszt continued to tour Europe. His concerts in Berlin in the winter of 1841–1842 marked the start of a period of immense public enthusiasm and popularity for his performances, dubbed "Lisztomania" by Heinrich Heine in 1844. In a fashion that has been described as similar to "the mass hysteria associated with revivalist meetings or 20th-century rock stars", women fought over his cigar stubs and coffee dregs, and his silk handkerchiefs and velvet gloves, which they ripped to shreds as souvenirs. This atmosphere was fuelled in great part by the artist's mesmeric personality and stage presence: he was regarded as handsome, and Heine wrote of his showmanship during concerts: "How powerful, how shattering was his mere physical appearance". It is estimated that Liszt appeared in public well over one thousand times during this eight-year period. Moreover, his great fame as a pianist, which he would continue to enjoy long after he had officially retired from the concert stage, was based mainly on his accomplishments during this time. Adding to his reputation was that Liszt gave away much of the proceeds of his work to charity and humanitarian causes. He donated large sums to the building fund of Cologne Cathedral and St. Stephen's Basilica in Pest, and made private donations to public services such as hospitals and schools, as well as charitable organizations such as the Leipzig Musicians Pension Fund. After the Great Fire of Hamburg in May 1842, he gave concerts in aid of those left homeless. During a tour of Ukraine in 1847, Liszt played in Kiev, where he met the Polish Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein. For some time he had been considering retiring from the life of a travelling virtuoso to concentrate on composition, and at this point he made the decision to take up a court position in Weimar. Having known Liszt for only a few weeks, Carolyne resolved to join him there. After a tour of Turkey and Russia that summer, Liszt gave the final paid concert of his career at Elizabetgrad in September, then spent the winter with the princess at her estate in Woronińce. By retiring from the concert platform at the age of 35, while still at the height of his powers, Liszt succeeded in keeping the legend of his playing untarnished. Weimar In July 1848 Liszt settled in Weimar, where he had been appointed the honorary title of "Kapellmeister Extraordinaire" six years previously. He acted as the official court kapellmeister at the expense of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia until 1859, jointly with Hippolyte André Jean Baptiste Chélard until his retirement in 1852. During this period Liszt acted as conductor at court concerts and on special occasions at the theatre, arranged several festivals celebrating the work of Berlioz and Wagner, and produced the premiere of Lohengrin. He gave lessons to a number of pianists, including the great virtuoso Hans von Bülow, who married Liszt's daughter Cosima in 1857 (she would later marry Wagner). Liszt's work during this period made Weimar a nexus for modern music. As kapellmeister Liszt was required to submit every programme to the court Intendant for prior approval. This did not cause large problems until the appointment of Franz von Dingelstedt in 1857, who reduced the number of music productions, rejected Liszt's choices of repertoire, and even organised a demonstration against Liszt's 1858 premiere of Der Barbier von Bagdad. Faced with this opposition, Liszt resigned in 1858. At first, after arriving in Weimar, Princess Carolyne lived apart from Liszt, in order to avoid suspicions of impropriety. She wished eventually to marry Liszt, but since her husband, Russian military officer Prince Nicholas von Sayn-Wittgenstein, was still alive, she had to convince the Roman Catholic authorities that her marriage to him had been invalid. Her appeal to the Archbishop of St Petersburg for an annulment, lodged before leaving Russia, was ultimately unsuccessful, and the couple abandoned pretence and began to live together in the autumn of 1848. Nicholas was aware that the couple's marriage had effectively ended, and Carolyne and Nicholas reached an agreement to annul in 1850 whereby the prince would receive some of Carolyne's estates. However, this arrangement was struck down in 1851 by the consistory court of Zhytomyr. Throughout the decade the couple would continue to negotiate through the complex situation. The New German School and the War of the Romantics In 1859 Franz Brendel coined the name "New German School" in his publication Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, to refer to the musicians associated with Liszt while he was in Weimar. The most prominent members other than Liszt were Wagner and Berlioz (although Wagner rejected the label), and the group also included Peter Cornelius, Hans von Bülow and Joachim Raff. The School was a loose confederation of progressive composers, mainly grouped together as a challenge to supposed conservatives such as Mendelssohn and Brahms, and so the term is considered to be of limited use in describing a particular movement or set of unified principles. What commonalities the composers had were around the development of programmatic music, harmonic experimentation, wide-ranging modulation and formal innovations such as the use of leitmotifs and thematic transformation. The disagreements between the two factions is often described as the "War of the Romantics". The "war" was largely carried out through articles, essays and reviews. Each side claimed Beethoven as its predecessor. A number of festivals were arranged to showcase the music of the New German School, notably in Leipzig in 1859 and Weimar in 1861. The Allgemeine Deutsche Musikverein, intrinsically linked to the School, was founded at this time, with Liszt becoming its honorary president in 1873. However, as most of Liszt's work from the 1860s and 1870s received little attention, and Brendel and Berlioz died in the late 1860s, the focus of the progressive movement in music moved to Bayreuth with Wagner in the 1870s, who definitively moved on from the School and the Neue Zeitschrift. Rome After a visit to Rome and an audience with Pope Pius IX in 1860, Carolyne finally secured an annulment. It was planned that she and Liszt would marry in Rome, on 22 October 1861, Liszt's 50th birthday. Liszt arrived in Rome on 21 October, but a Vatican official had arrived the previous day in order to stop the marriage. This was a result of the machinations of Cardinal Hohenlohe, who wanted to protect a complex inheritance agreement brokered by Tsar Alexander II. Carolyne subsequently gave up all attempts to marry Liszt, even after her husband's death in 1864; she became a recluse, working for the rest of her life on a long work critical of the Catholic Church. The 1860s were a period of great sadness in Liszt's private life. On 13 December 1859, he lost his 20-year-old son Daniel to an unknown illness. On 11 September 1862 his 26-year-old daughter Blandine also died, having contracted sepsis after surgery on a breast growth which developed shortly after giving birth to a son she named in memory of Daniel. In letters to friends, Liszt announced that he would retreat to a solitary living. He moved to the monastery Madonna del Rosario, just outside Rome, where on 20 June 1863 he took up quarters in a small, spartan apartment. He had a piano in his cell, and he continued to compose. He had already joined the Third Order of Saint Francis previously, on 23 June 1857. On 25 April 1865 he received the tonsure at the hands of Cardinal Hohenlohe, who had previously worked against Carolyne's efforts to secure an annulment; the two men became close friends. On 31 July 1865 Liszt received the four minor orders of porter, lector, exorcist and acolyte. After this ordination he was often called "Abbé Liszt". On 14 August 1879, he was made an honorary canon of Albano. In 1867 Liszt was commissioned to write a piece for the coronation ceremony of Franz Joseph and Elisabeth of Bavaria, and he travelled to Budapest to conduct it. The Hungarian Coronation Mass was performed on 8 June 1867, at the coronation ceremony in the Matthias Church by Buda Castle in a six-section form. After the first performance, the Offertory was added and, two years later, the Gradual. "Tripartite existence" Grand Duke Charles Alexander had been attempting to arrange Liszt's return to Weimar ever since he had left, and in January 1869 Liszt agreed to a residency to give masterclasses in piano playing. He was based in the Hofgärtnerei (court gardener's house), where he taught for the next seventeen years. From 1872 until the end of his life, Liszt made regular journeys between Rome, Weimar and Budapest, continuing what he called his vie trifurquée ("tripartite existence"). It is estimated that he travelled at least 4,000 miles a year during this period in his life – an exceptional figure given his advancing age and the rigors of road and rail in the 1870s. Liszt's time in Budapest was the result of efforts from the Hungarian government in attracting him to work there. The plan of the foundation of the Royal Academy of Music was agreed upon by the Hungarian Parliament in 1873, and in March 1875 Liszt was nominated its president. The academy was officially opened on 14 November 1875 with Liszt's colleague Ferenc Erkel as director and Kornél Ábrányi and Robert Volkmann on the staff. Liszt himself only arrived to deliver lessons in March 1876. From 1881 when in Budapest he would stay in an apartment in the Academy, where he taught pupils in much the same way as he did in Weimar. In 1925 the institution was renamed in honour of Liszt. Final years Liszt fell down a flight of stairs at the Hofgärtnerei in July 1881, and remained bedridden for several weeks after this accident. He had been in good health up to that point, but a number of ailments subsequently manifested, such as a cataract in the left eye, dental issues and fatigue. Since around 1877 he had become increasingly plagued by feelings of desolation, despair and preoccupation with death—feelings that he expressed in his works from this period. As he told Lina Ramann, "I carry a deep sadness of the heart which must now and then break out in sound." On 13 January 1886, while Claude Debussy was staying at the Villa Medici in Rome, Liszt met him there with Paul Vidal and Ernest Hébert, director of the French Academy. Liszt played "Au bord d'une source" from Années de pèlerinage, as well as his arrangement of Schubert's Ave Maria for the musicians. Debussy in later years described Liszt's pedalling as "like a form of breathing." Liszt travelled to Bayreuth in the summer of 1886. This was in order to support his daughter Cosima, who was running the festival but struggling to generate sufficient interest. The festival was dedicated to the works of her husband Richard Wagner, and had opened ten years previously; Wagner had died in 1883. Already frail, in his final week of life Liszt's health deteriorated further, as he experienced a fever, cough and delirium. He died during the festival, near midnight on 31 July 1886, at the age of 74—officially as a result of pneumonia, which he had contracted prior to arriving in Bayreuth, although the true cause of death may have been a heart attack. He was buried on 3 August 1886, in the municipal cemetery of Bayreuth, according to Cosima's wishes; despite controversy over this as his final resting place, Liszt's body was never moved. Relationships with other composers Hector Berlioz Berlioz and Liszt first met on 4 December 1830, the day before the premiere of Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique. The two quickly became very close friends, exchanging intimate letters on their respective love lives, which also reveal that Liszt was aware of Berlioz's fixation on suicide. Liszt acted as a witness at Berlioz's wedding to Harriet Smithson in 1833, despite cautioning Berlioz against it, and they worked together at several concerts over the following three years, and again in 1841 and 1844. In Weimar the two composers revised Benvenuto Cellini, and Liszt organised a "Berlioz Week", which included Roméo et Juliette and part of La damnation de Faust, later dedicated to Liszt (in return, Liszt dedicated his Faust Symphony to Berlioz). The orchestration of Berlioz had an influence on Liszt, especially with regards to his symphonic poems. Berlioz saw orchestration as part of the compositional process, rather than a final task to undertake after the music had already been written. Berlioz joined Liszt and Wagner as a figurehead of the New German School, but an unwilling one, as he was unconvinced by Wagner's ideas about the "music of the future". Frédéric Chopin Chopin and Liszt first met in the early 1830s, both moving in the same circles of artists residing in Paris. Liszt attended Chopin's first Paris performance at the Salle Pleyel on 26 February 1832, which he admired greatly, and by mid-1833 the two had become close friends. They performed together a number of times, often for charity, and since Chopin only performed in public about 12 times, these events comprise a large proportion of his total appearances. Their relationship cooled in the early 1840s, and several reasons have been suggested for this, including that Marie d'Agoult was infatuated with Chopin, or Liszt with George Sand, or that Liszt used Chopin's home for a rendezvous with Marie Pleyel, the wife of Chopin's friend Camille. The two musicians had very different personalities, with Liszt being extroverted and outgoing while Chopin was more introverted and reflective, so it is possible that the two never had an extremely close friendship to begin with, and the fact that they did not live physically close together would have been another barrier. On the topic, Liszt commented to Chopin's biographer Frederick Niecks that Marie d'Agoult and George Sand had frequently disagreed, and the musicians had felt obliged to side with their respective partners. Alex Szilasi suggests that Chopin took offence at an equivocal 1841 review by Liszt, and was perhaps jealous of Liszt's popularity, while Liszt in turn may have been jealous of Chopin's reputation as a serious composer. Very shortly after Chopin's death in 1849, Liszt had a monument erected in his memory and began to write a biography. Chopin's relatives and friends found the timing of this insensitive, and many declined to help with Liszt's enquiries. Scholars disagree on the extent to which Chopin and Liszt influenced each others' compositions. Charles Rosen identifies similarities between Chopin's Étude Op. 10, No. 9 and the early version of Liszt's Transcendental Étude No. 10, but Alan Walker argues that no such connection exists. Stylistic similarities between other studies, Chopin's Nocturnes and Liszt's Consolations, and even an influence on the ornamentation and fingering of Liszt's works, have been proposed. Robert and Clara Schumann In 1837 Liszt wrote a positive review of Robert Schumann's Impromptus and piano sonatas no. 1 and no. 3. The two began to correspond, and the following year he met Schumann's fiancée Clara Wieck, to whom he dedicated the early version of Grandes études de Paganini. Schumann in turn dedicated Fantasie in C to Liszt. The two met for the first time in Dresden in 1840. Schumann resigned as editor of the music journal Neue Zeitschrift für Musik in 1844, ten years after founding it. The journal was taken over the following year by Franz Brendel, who used it to publicise and support Liszt's New German School, to Schumann's chagrin. In 1848 Liszt attended a performance of the Piano Trio No. 1 being held in his honour in the Schumanns' home. Liszt arrived two hours late with Wagner (who had not been invited), derided the piece, and spoke ill of the recently deceased Mendelssohn. This upset the Schumanns, and Robert physically assaulted Liszt. The relationship between Liszt and the couple remained frosty. Liszt dedicated his 1854 piano sonata to Robert, who had by that point been committed to a mental institution in Endenich. Clara asked for Liszt's help that year in finding a performance venue in order to earn an income. Liszt arranged an all-Schumann concert with Clara as the star performer and published an extremely positive review, but Clara did not express any gratitude. In a posthumous edition of Robert's works, Clara changed the dedication of the Fantasie from Liszt to herself. After Liszt's death, she wrote in her diary "He was an eminent keyboard virtuoso but a dangerous example for the young. ... As a composer he was terrible." Richard Wagner Wagner first met Liszt in Paris in 1841, while living in poverty after fleeing Riga to escape creditors. Liszt was at this point a famous pianist, whereas Wagner was unknown; unlike Wagner, Liszt did not remember the meeting. In 1844 Liszt attended a performance of Wagner's first major success, the opera Rienzi, in Dresden. The two met in Berlin at the instigation of Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, and Wagner later sent Liszt the scores of Rienzi and Tannhäuser in an attempt to elicit approval. Liszt settled in Weimar in 1848, and the two grew close, Wagner still being located in Dresden. Wagner wrote to Liszt a number of times soliciting financial help. In 1849 Liszt sheltered Wagner after the latter's involvement in the failed May Uprising in Dresden. Liszt arranged a false passport and lent Wagner money to allow him to escape Germany for Switzerland, and for the next ten years continued to send money and visit, as well as petition officials for a pardon which eventually came in 1860. To publicise Wagner's music, Liszt staged Tannhäuser in 1849, for the first time outside Dresden, and published two transcriptions from it, writing to Wagner "Once and for all, number me in future among your most zealous and devoted admirers; near or far, count on me and make use of me." In 1850 he arranged the premiere of Lohengrin, which Wagner dedicated to Liszt, and he also mounted performances of Der fliegende Holländer. Liszt had intended to dedicate the 1857 Dante Symphony to Wagner, but upon being told this Wagner replied that, while a fine piece, he would prefer to receive money. Liszt was offended by this comment, and did not publish the dedication. By 1864 Wagner had begun an affair with Liszt's daughter Cosima, who was married to Liszt's erstwhile pupil Hans von Bülow. Liszt disapproved of the relationship and broke off contact with the couple for a number of years, only learning of their 1870 marriage from the newspapers. Nevertheless the relationship recovered: Liszt contributed financially to the building of the Bayreuth Festspielhaus in 1871, and he began to correspond with Wagner and Cosima again, frequently visiting their home Wahnfried. Liszt died in 1886 while at the latest incarnation of the Bayreuth Festival, dedicated to Wagner's work, Wagner having died three years previously. Similarities have been suggested between Wagner's Faust Overture and Liszt's Faust Symphony, but Liszt claimed that the likenesses of the themes were coincidental. Scholars also note a similarity between the opening of Liszt's song "Lorelei" and the famous "Tristan chord" from the opening of Wagner's later opera Tristan und Isolde, although there is no consensus on whether Wagner was influenced by the song. There are similarities in their musical languages, however, and Wagner once even commented to Cosima that he was looking at The Bells of the Strasbourg Cathedral to ensure he had not overtly plagiarised the work, the opening theme of Parsifal being very similar to that cantata. Both composers were also prominent members of the New German School. Pianist At his performing peak Liszt was considered the greatest pianist of his time, and was perhaps one of the greatest who ever lived. His popularity during the "Lisztomania" period of the 1840s was unrivalled, and the critic Peter G. Davis has written that "Perhaps [Liszt] was not the most transcendent virtuoso who ever lived, but his audiences thought he was, and no pianist since has seriously challenged the legend." Performing style Liszt's performance style changed throughout his life, in his interpretive decisions as well as his physicality (the young Liszt was extremely animated at the keyboard, but in old age he was very still). No recordings of Liszt exist, so to get an impression of his style scholars must go by contemporary writings and the output of his pupils, while allowing for a certain amount of mythologising around his extraordinary talent. From a young age Liszt had displayed an aptitude for improvisation and sight reading. Czerny observed that Liszt was a natural who played according to feeling—"one saw that Nature herself had formed a pianist." Liszt's fourteen months under Czerny solidified his technical skills as he enthusiastically studied exercises and works. In later life, however, he would express the opinion that despite his work under Czerny his early training had been unfocused, and he had excelled mainly "by force of personality". Reviews of his early concerts especially praise the brilliance, strength, and precision in his playing. At least one also mentions his ability to keep absolute tempo. One of the most detailed descriptions of his playing from that time comes from the diary entries of Caroline Boissier-Butini, whose daughter Valerie was a pupil of Liszt's from 1831 to 1832, when he was earning a living primarily as a teacher in Paris: Boissier records that Liszt did not keep his hands 'in a rounded position' nor were they 'altogether flat', but rather his fingers were 'so flexible as to possess no fixed position'. ... Mme Boissier writes that Liszt's 'hand is never unwieldy, for he moves it with grace according to his fancy', then she stresses that 'he does not play with his arms or shoulders'. In a later lesson, Liszt instructed Valerie to play 'without exception, entirely with a wrist action' ... without any interference by the arm ... Crucially, Liszt emphasised the role of the wrist, not the arm, in producing a full tone for individual notes, and did so not just in relation to octaves or chords. During his performance career Liszt took unusually bold liberties with the score, changing tempo and adding embellishment at will. In one instance he decided on "a sudden, drastic slowing down" while performing the Scherzo movement of Beethoven's Sixth Symphony. In a regretful letter to George Sand from 1837 Liszt admitted that he made such decisions to gain public acclaim: [I]n order to wring bravos from the public that is always slow, in its awesome simplicity, to comprehend beautiful things, I had no qualms about changing the tempos of the pieces or the composers' intentions. In my arrogance I even went so far as to add a host of rapid runs and cadenzas, which, by securing ignorant applause for me, sent me off in the wrong direction—one that I fortunately knew enough to abandon quickly. ... Now I no longer divorce a composition from the era in which it was written, and any claim to embellish or modernize the works of earlier periods seems just as absurd for a musician to make as it would be for an architect, for example, to place a Corinthian capital on the columns of an Egyptian temple. Despite his apparent contrition, however, Liszt did continue to make large interpretive changes while performing, although he would be more concerned with fidelity to the score and composer's intentions later in life. He would be more open to pupils revising his own compositions, and he himself often produced different versions of his works over the course of his lifetime. This attitude was in keeping with the shift in audience preferences that began in the 1830s, which started to favour a faithfully rendered memorised performance over the improvisation that Liszt employed in these years. Certain information about Liszt's style can be inferred from the writings of his many pupils. Musicologist Kenneth Hamilton identifies several themes which occurred through Liszt's teachings, including avoiding excessive sentimentality, imagining the orchestration of the piece, flexibility of tempo, and the importance of a sense of music. Amy Fay studied under Liszt in his later life, 1869–1875, and her writings align with Boissier's four decades earlier. She also notes that Liszt kept his fingers close to the keyboard to achieve a better legato, and that Liszt discouraged unnecessary hand movements, in contrast to his flamboyant gestures during his prime. Notes by his pupil Pauline Fichtener in the 1870s again stress freedom and flexibility of the wrist. Concert repertoire Up to 1840, most concerts featuring a solo pianist included other acts, such as an orchestra, singers and ballet. The increasing prominence of the solo piano virtuoso in the 1830s led to other acts on the bill being described as "assistant artists", with Liszt declaring his pre-eminence in a letter to a friend dated June 1839: "Le concert, c'est moi". Liszt is credited as the first pianist to give solo recitals in the modern sense of the word; the term was first applied to Liszt's concert at the Hanover Square Rooms in London on 9 June 1840. During his years as a travelling virtuoso Liszt performed an enormous amount of music, usually from memory. He was the first to include the full range of repertoire, from J. S. Bach to Chopin. His concerts included original compositions such as Grand galop chromatique, Fantaisie romantique sur deux mélodies suisses and Grande Valse di Bravura; and his transcriptions of Schubert's Schwanengesang, Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz and Beethoven's sixth symphony. Liszt would champion Beethoven's work throughout his life, and his concerts helped popularise the Hammerklavier sonata and Diabelli Variations. Instruments After arriving in Paris in 1823, Sébastien Érard presented Liszt with a grand piano featuring his newly patented double escapement mechanism, a key development in piano technology allowing for faster note repetition. Among the composer's pianos in Weimar were an Érard, a Bechstein, the Beethovens' Broadwood grand and a Boisselot. It is known that Liszt was using Boisselot pianos in his Portugal tour and then later in 1847 in a tour to Kiev and Odessa. Liszt kept the piano at his Villa Altenburg residence in Weimar. The earliest records of Liszt playing the organ date from 1836. He developed an interest in J. S. Bach's organ music in the early 1840s, probably due to Mendelssohn's influence. Later, Liszt commissioned a "piano-organ" from the Paris company Alexandre Père et Fils. The instrument was made in 1854 under Berlioz's supervision, using an 1853 Érard piano, and was a combination of piano and harmonium with three manuals and a pedal board. The company called it a "Liszt piano-harmonium" and installed it in Villa Altenburg in July 1854; the instrument is now exhibited in the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde collection in Vienna. Liszt owned two other organs which were installed later in his Budapest residence. The first was a "piano-orgue": this was a smaller version of Weimar's instrument, a combination of a 1864 Érard piano and a harmonium, with two independent manuals, the upper for the piano and lower for the harmonium, built again by Alexandre Père et Fils in 1865. The second was a "cabinet organ", a large concert harmonium built by the American company Mason & Hamlin and given to Liszt in 1877. Works Liszt was a prolific composer. He is best known for his piano music, which forms the majority of his oeuvre, but he also wrote for orchestra and for other ensembles. His piano works are often marked by their difficulty. Some of his works are programmatic, based on extra-musical inspirations such as poetry or art. Liszt is credited with the creation of the symphonic poem. Keyboard music Piano The best-known portion of Liszt's music is his original piano work. During the Weimar period he composed the first 15 Hungarian Rhapsodies, themselves revisions of his earlier Magyar Dalok/Rhapsódiák, which were influenced by the Romani bands he heard while visiting Hungary. Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, also the result of a long gestation, was published around the same time, and dedicated to Princess Carolyne. Likewise, the six Grandes Études de Paganini were revised from an earlier 1840 edition and published in 1851; these include the famous piece "La campanella". Other notable pieces include the thoroughly revised collections of Années de pèlerinage ("Years of Pilgrimage"), inspired by his travels around Europe; the Piano Sonata in B minor, which has been described as "one of the most original contributions to sonata form to come out of the 19th century"; and the Transcendental Études, which are stylistically varied, technically difficult, and have been described as "Liszt at his most Lisztian". Organ Liszt wrote his two largest organ works between 1850 and 1855 while he was living in Weimar, a city with a long tradition of organ music, most notably that of J. S. Bach. Humphrey Searle calls these works – the Fantasy and Fugue on the chorale "Ad nos, ad salutarem undam" and the Fantasy and Fugue on the Theme B-A-C-H – Liszt's "only important original organ works"; Derek Watson considered them among the most significant organ works of the nineteenth century, heralding the work of such key organist-musicians as Reger, Franck and Saint-Saëns, among others. Liszt also wrote the monumental set of variations on the first section of the second movement chorus from Bach's cantata Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, BWV 12 (which Bach later reworked as the Crucifixus in the Mass in B minor), which he composed after the death of his daughter in 1862. He also wrote a Requiem for organ solo, intended to be performed liturgically during the service of the spoken Requiem Mass. Transcriptions and paraphrases Liszt coined the terms "transcription" and "paraphrase", the former being a faithful reproduction of the source material and the latter a more free reinterpretation. He wrote substantial quantities of both over the course of his life, and they form a large proportion of his total output—up to half of his solo piano output from the 1830s and 1840s is transcription and paraphrase, and of his total output only approximately a third is completely original. In the mid-19th century, orchestral performances were much less common than they are today and were not available at all outside major cities; thus, Liszt's transcriptions played a major role in popularising a wide array of music such as Beethoven's symphonies. Liszt's transcriptions of Italian opera, Schubert songs and Beethoven symphonies are also significant indicators of his artistic development, the opera allowing him to improvise in concert and the Schubert and Beethoven influence indicating his compositional development towards the Germanic tradition. He also transcribed his own orchestral and choral music for piano in an attempt to make it better known. In addition to piano transcriptions, Liszt also transcribed about a dozen works for organ, such as Otto Nicolai's Ecclesiastical Festival Overture on the chorale "Ein feste Burg", Orlando di Lasso's motet Regina coeli and excerpts of Bach's Cantata No. 21 and Wagner's Tannhäuser. Songs Today, Liszt's songs are relatively obscure. There are 137 secular vocal pieces, 82 of which were original songs with piano accompaniment, mostly composed in the 1840s. In most cases the lyrics are in German, but there are also some in Italian and French, three in Hungarian and one in each of Russian and English. The influence of Italian opera can be seen in the songs' use of arioso and recitative styles. While in Weimar Liszt coached the Court Opera singers, and several prominent musicians sang his songs, including Rosa and Hans von Milde. Program music Liszt coined the term "program music" in an 1855 essay on Berlioz's Harold in Italy, referring to pieces which are "driven by an overarching poetic image or narrative" (in the case of Harold in Italy, the piece "describes" the scenes witnessed by the character Harold as he travels through Italy). This is presented in opposition to absolute music, which stands for itself and is intended to be appreciated without any particular reference to the outside world. This was not a new idea – such pieces had been written since the early 18th century, and Liszt himself had written works such as the early version of Années de pèlerinage which invoked his experiences travelling – but he presented the novel argument that program music was artistically superior, counter to the prevailing view that such work was unserious. This developed into the idea that the historical development of music as an art form was destined to move from absolute to representational: Beethoven's symphonies had mostly been non-representational, but his ninth symphony had included some extramusical elements, and Berlioz had taken this further with Harold in Italy and Symphonie fantastique. Wagner saw these developments as a stepping stone to the all-encompassing Gesamtkunstwerk, and in this sense Liszt's programmatic works were part of his vision of the "Music of the Future". Liszt's main contribution to program music was his thirteen symphonic poems, one-movement orchestral works in which some extramusical program or idea provides a narrative or illustrative element. The first twelve of these were written between 1848 and 1858, and the most well-known are Les préludes and Mazeppa. The symphonic poems were poorly received by critics, especially in Weimar, where Liszt was residing at the time—they criticised Liszt's compositional style as well as the whole idea of program music as the future of music. Believing in the power of music to transcend people's typical quotidian existence, with his program music Liszt attempted to "elevate listeners to a higher realm of consciousness". He argued that its purpose was less to do with depicting a specific scene or experience, and more about allowing the listener to reach a higher state of existence. Such music would act as a more direct method of communication than language, allowing people to share exactly their own experiences. This view was endorsed by Franz Brendel, Wagner and Friedrich Theodor Vischer. Late works Liszt's final period is considered to have started from about 1869, during which he wrote a number of short and independent works, such as the collection Weihnachtsbaum and a piano version of Via crucis, although he did continue to write transcriptions and paraphrases as well as sacred vocal music. Studies of his output from this period typically focus on pieces which display a willingness to push the boundaries of tonality and have an association with death and mourning, such as La lugubre gondola and Unstern!. The morbid focus on loss may be ascribed to Liszt's mental state in his final decade, when he suffered episodes of depression. Many of these pieces remained unpublished in Liszt's lifetime. Liszt's experimentation can be seen in his 1881 piece Nuages gris. Its key signature is G minor, but ends in an ambiguous tonality; its texture is generated by a collection of fragments rather than a distinct melody and harmony; and it uses chromaticism and dissonance such as the tritone. Additional examples include Czardas macabre, which repeatedly uses a single melodic motif and rhythm accompanied dissonantly or with open fifths, and "Csárdás obstinée", which makes extensive use of false relations. Some of his sacred vocal music also shows this type of experimentation, such as Via crucis, which contains some movements without key signatures and with ambiguous tonality. Writings Liszt published a number of prose works and letters over the course of his life, including his 1863 Life of Chopin. Many scholars have doubted that he was their sole author, suggesting that the writings ascribed to Liszt were written partly or solely by Countess Marie d'Agoult or Princess Carolyne, but there is no consensus on this matter. It is known that the programs for some of his symphonic poems were ghost-written. One of Liszt's notable written works was his biography of Chopin, started less than a month after Chopin's funeral. F. Chopin was serialised in the journal La France musicale in 1851 and published in book form the following year, having been edited by Carolyne. The book was poorly received. Liszt had approached Chopin's sister Ludwika and pupil Jane Stirling for information, but they had been uncooperative, finding the timing of his enquiries so soon after Chopin's death to be insensitive. As a result the work contained several factual inaccuracies. Nevertheless George Sand, who features prominently in one of the chapters, admired the book. English translations garnered attention in the US and UK over the subsequent two decades, leading to a second edition in 1879. Once again Liszt asked Carolyne to help, but her contribution was so extensive that Liszt considered it over-involvement, going so far as to describe the book as having been "written by Carolyne". One significant essay by Liszt is "De la situation des artistes" ("On the situation of artists"), which was serialised in the Parisian Gazette musicale in 1835. This work calls for the reform of theatres: Liszt perceived the physical buildings to be unsafe and unpleasant, and their managers to be incompetent. He argues that they would book the cheapest variety of acts without concern for artistic merit, leading to subpar concert experiences. Furthermore, owners would blacklist performers who had appeared at a rival venue. Liszt was also concerned about the lack of professionalism of educational institutions, which were run by unqualified teachers and charged high tuition. In his view, their courses lacked rigour, and had an undue preference for older music over that of living composers. During his Weimar years, Liszt wrote essays for audiences on Harold in Italy, Lohengrin and Alfonso und Estrella. In addition he wrote the book Des Bohémiens et de leur musique en Hongrie (translated as The Gypsy in Music) about the Romani and their influence on Hungarian folk music. This work proved controversial in the country, with Hungarians disputing Liszt's assertion that Romani communities were responsible for a large contribution to the native music. The second edition, published in 1881, contains antisemitic passages included by Princess Carolyne. Liszt also worked until at least 1885 on a treatise on modern harmony entitled Sketches for a Harmony of the Future. Arthur Friedheim, a pupil of Liszt's at the time, remembered seeing it among Liszt's papers at Weimar. Liszt told Friedheim that the time was not yet ripe to publish the manuscript. This treatise has since been lost. Legacy Compositions Romantic music generally fell out of favour during the first half of the 20th century, as composers such as Stravinsky, Schoenberg and Bartók took the art form in new directions. Liszt's music seemed "flamboyant and excessive" in contrast with their leaner styles, and his work had neither become part of the established canon nor received credit for being avant-garde. His piano music received attention from few pianists during this period, and only a few select popular pieces such as the Liebesträume and Hungarian Rhapsodies were published in collections. Two notable champions were Ferruccio Busoni, who delivered all-Liszt recitals in Berlin in 1904–1905 and 1911, and Humphrey Searle, who organised concerts of Liszt's chamber and orchestral music in the 1930s and 1940s. Of his orchestral works, only Les préludes and the Faust Symphony were performed regularly. During the Romantic Revival of the 1950s Liszt's works and writings received greater attention, and scholars now appreciate the wide range and originality of his compositions. In the decades since, recordings of the vast majority of his output have become available, and a complete edition of scores is being published, to modernise the previous such collection published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1907–1936. Liszt competitions occur across the world, and Liszt societies promote his work. Scholar James Deaville writes that "few composers of the nineteenth century, except possibly Wagner, had the same influence upon succeeding generations as Liszt did. Indeed, one is hard-pressed to think of an innovative composer of the early twentieth century who was not influenced by Liszt's music, especially in its departures from traditional harmonies and novel approaches to form and formal unity". Prokofiev admired Liszt's concertos, which influenced his own, and Stravinsky remarked that he had "admiration for the great Liszt whose immense talent in composition is underrated." Liszt's piano music had a strong influence on the Impressionistic music of Debussy and Ravel; one example is Debussy's L'isle joyeuse, which has clear similarities with Les jeux d'eaux à la villa d'Este, a piece he heard Liszt perform in 1884. Liszt also had a marked influence on early 20th-century Hungarian composers, especially Kodály with his Psalmus Hungaricus, Dohnányi in his second string quartet, and Bartók, who admired Liszt's works greatly. Liszt's method of using Hungarian folk music in his compositions was developed further by these composers and their successors, who integrated such themes more subtly and valued the authenticity of the source material to a greater extent. It is now held that many of Liszt's late compositions, such as Nuages gris, Les jeux d'eaux à la villa d'Este and Czardas macabre, anticipated future developments. Their use of parallel fifths, the whole-tone scale, unresolved dissonances and parallel diminished and augmented triads, predates similar compositional techniques used by Ravel and Bartók. Liszt also pioneered a tonal language of building chords in fourths, which was a technique later used by Schoenberg. However, many of Liszt's late works were not available until the publication of José Vianna da Motta's final volume of Liszt's solo pieces in 1927, so much of his more radical experimentation cannot have influenced composers before then. Liszt's invention of the symphonic poem had an impact across Europe from the last years of his life through to the 1920s. His friend Saint-Saëns wrote Le Rouet d'Omphale in 1869 and La jeunesse d'Hercule in 1877; Smetana, another friend, wrote Má vlast in the 1870s. Franck, d'Indy, Dvořák and Debussy all wrote symphonic poems in the 1880s and 1890s. Sibelius was introduced to the music of Liszt through his teacher Martin Wegelius, and the influence of Liszt's symphonic poems is seen in Sibelius' Kullervo and En saga. Richard Strauss also wrote his notable collection of tone poems around this time, and these are similarly indebted to Liszt. Liszt is also credited with several proto-cinematic innovations which anticipate Wagner's more widely-recognised status as the 'father of cinema', such as audio-visual performance practices and cinematic listening. Teaching From 1827 until the last month of his life, Liszt gave lessons in composition and piano playing. He wrote in 1829 that his schedule was "so full of lessons that each day, from half-past eight in the morning till 10 at night, I have scarcely breathing time". Estimates of the total number of pupils he taught range as high as over 400, although some of these may only have had one lesson, or perhaps even none at all. In Weimar Liszt pioneered the concept of the masterclass, in which he would instruct each pupil in turn while the others observed. Students from this time included Karl Tausig, Hans von Bülow, Karl Klindworth and Hans Bronsart von Schellendorff. Members of these classes would also accompany Liszt to concerts and other events. In later years some in Weimar would criticise the masterclasses as a vanity club more interested in praising Liszt than in learning pianistic excellence, although Carl Lachmund commented that the success of many of its pupils, such as Arthur Friedheim, Moriz Rosenthal, Frederic Lamond and Alexander Siloti, proved the groups' effectiveness. Liszt offered his students little technical advice, expecting them to "wash their dirty linen at home", as he phrased it. Instead, he focused on musical interpretation with a combination of anecdote, metaphor, and wit. He advised one student tapping out the opening chords of Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata, "Do not chop beefsteak for us." To another who blurred the rhythm in Liszt's Gnomenreigen: "There you go, mixing salad again." Liszt also wanted to avoid creating carbon copies of himself, believing instead in preserving his pupils' artistic individuality. This was in contrast to his contemporaries, who focused on drilling students in a uniform approach. Liszt did not charge for lessons. He was troubled when German newspapers revealed that pedagogue Theodor Kullak had earned more than one million marks from teaching: "As an artist, you do not rake in a million marks without performing some sacrifice on the altar of Art". He wrote an open letter to Kullak's sons, published in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, urging them to create an endowment for needy musicians, as Liszt himself frequently did. References Notes Citations Sources External links American Liszt Society "Discovering Liszt". BBC Radio 3. Scores Free scores by Franz Liszt at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP) Free scores by Franz Liszt in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki) Franz Liszt at the Musopen project Books Works by Franz Liszt at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Franz Liszt at the Internet Archive Works by Franz Liszt at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)

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Typhoid is caused by the bacterium Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhi growing in the intestines, Peyer's patches, mesenteric lymph nodes, spleen, liver, gallbladder, bone marrow and blood. Typhoid is spread by eating or drinking food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person. Risk factors include limited access to clean drinking water and poor sanitation. Those who have not yet been exposed to it and ingest contaminated drinking water or food are most at risk for developing symptoms. Only humans can be infected; there are no known animal reservoirs. Salmonella Typhi which causes typhoid fever is different than the other Salmonella bacteria that usually cause salmonellosis, a common type of food poisoning. Diagnosis is performed by culturing and identifying S. enterica typhi from patient samples or detecting an immune response to the pathogen from blood samples. Recently, new advances in large-scale data collection and analysis have allowed researchers to develop better diagnostics, such as detecting changing abundances of small molecules in the blood that may specifically indicate typhoid fever. Diagnostic tools in regions where typhoid is most prevalent are quite limited in their accuracy and specificity, and the time required for a proper diagnosis, the increasing spread of antibiotic resistance, and the cost of testing are also hardships for under-resourced healthcare systems. A typhoid vaccine can prevent about 40% to 90% of cases during the first two years. The vaccine may have some effect for up to seven years. For those at high risk or people traveling to areas where it is common, vaccination is recommended. Other efforts to prevent it include providing clean drinking water, good sanitation, and handwashing. Until an infection is confirmed as cleared, the infected person should not prepare food for others. Typhoid is treated with antibiotics such as azithromycin, fluoroquinolones, or third-generation cephalosporins. Resistance to these antibiotics has been developing, which has made treatment more difficult. In 2015, 12.5 million new typhoid cases were reported. The disease is most common in India. Children are most commonly affected. Typhoid decreased in the developed world in the 1940s as a result of improved sanitation and the use of antibiotics. Every year about 400 cases are reported in the U.S. and an estimated 6,000 people have typhoid. In 2015, it resulted in about 149,000 deaths worldwide – down from 181,000 in 1990. Without treatment, the risk of death may be as high as 20%. With treatment, it is between 1% and 4%. Typhus is a different disease, caused by unrelated species of bacteria. Owing to their similar symptoms, they were not recognized as distinct diseases until the 1800s. "Typhoid" means "resembling typhus". Signs and symptoms Classically, the progression of untreated typhoid fever has three distinct stages, each lasting about a week. Over the course of these stages, the patient becomes exhausted and emaciated. In the first week, the body temperature rises slowly, and fever fluctuations are seen with relative bradycardia (Faget sign), malaise, headache, and cough. A bloody nose (epistaxis) is seen in a quarter of cases, and abdominal pain is also possible. A decrease in the number of circulating white blood cells (leukopenia) occurs with eosinopenia and relative lymphocytosis; blood cultures are positive for S. enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhi. The Widal test is usually negative. In the second week, the person is often too tired to get up, with high fever in plateau around 40 °C (104 °F) and bradycardia (sphygmothermic dissociation or Faget sign), classically with a dicrotic pulse wave. Delirium can occur, where the patient is often calm, but sometimes becomes agitated. This delirium has given typhoid the nickname "nervous fever". Rose spots appear on the lower chest and abdomen in around a third of patients. Rhonchi (rattling breathing sounds) are heard in the base of the lungs. The abdomen is distended and painful in the right lower quadrant, where a rumbling sound can be heard. Diarrhea can occur in this stage, but constipation is also common. The spleen and liver are enlarged (hepatosplenomegaly) and tender, and liver transaminases are elevated. The Widal test is strongly positive, with antiO and antiH antibodies. Blood cultures are sometimes still positive. In the third week of typhoid fever, possible complications include: The fever is still very high and oscillates very little over 24 hours. Dehydration ensues along with malnutrition, and the patient is delirious. A third of affected people develop a macular rash on the trunk. Intestinal haemorrhage due to bleeding in congested Peyer's patches occurs; this can be very serious, but is usually not fatal. Intestinal perforation in the distal ileum is a very serious complication and often fatal. It may occur without alarming symptoms until septicaemia or diffuse peritonitis sets in. Respiratory diseases such as pneumonia and acute bronchitis Encephalitis Neuropsychiatric symptoms (described as "muttering delirium" or "coma vigil"), with picking at bedclothes or imaginary objects. Metastatic abscesses, cholecystitis, endocarditis, and osteitis. Low platelet count (thrombocytopenia) is sometimes seen. Causes Bacteria The Gram-negative bacterium that causes typhoid fever is Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhi. Based on MLST subtyping scheme, the two main sequence types of the S. Typhi are ST1 and ST2, which are widespread globally. Global phylogeographical analysis showed dominance of a haplotype 58 (H58), which probably originated in India during the late 1980s and is now spreading through the world with multi-drug resistance. A more detailed genotyping scheme was reported in 2016 and is now being used widely. This scheme reclassified the nomenclature of H58 to genotype 4.3.1. Transmission Unlike other strains of Salmonella, humans are the only known carriers of typhoid. S. enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhi is spread by the fecal-oral route from people who are infected and from asymptomatic carriers of the bacterium. An asymptomatic human carrier is someone who is still excreting typhoid bacteria in stool a year after the acute stage of the infection. Diagnosis Diagnosis is made by any blood, bone marrow, or stool cultures and with the Widal test (demonstration of antibodies against Salmonella antigens O-somatic and H-flagellar). In epidemics and less wealthy countries, after excluding malaria, dysentery, or pneumonia, a therapeutic trial time with chloramphenicol is generally undertaken while awaiting the results of the Widal test and blood and stool cultures. Widal test The Widal test is used to identify specific antibodies in the serum of people with typhoid by using antigen-antibody interactions. In this test, the serum is mixed with a dead bacterial suspension of Salmonella with specific antigens. If the patient's serum contains antibodies against those antigens, they get attached to them, forming clumps. If clumping does not occur, the test is negative. The Widal test is time-consuming and prone to significant false positives. It may also be falsely negative in recently infected people. But unlike the Typhidot test, the Widal test quantifies the specimen with titres. Rapid diagnostic tests Rapid diagnostic tests such as Tubex, Typhidot, and Test-It have shown moderate diagnostic accuracy. Typhidot Typhidot is based on the presence of specific IgM and IgG antibodies to a specific 50Kd OMP antigen. This test is carried out on a cellulose nitrate membrane where a specific S. typhi outer membrane protein is attached as fixed test lines. It separately identifies IgM and IgG antibodies. IgM shows recent infection; IgG signifies remote infection. The sample pad of this kit contains colloidal gold-anti-human IgG or gold-anti-human IgM. If the sample contains IgG and IgM antibodies against those antigens, they will react and turn red. The typhidot test becomes positive within 2–3 days of infection. Two colored bands indicate a positive test. A single control band indicates a negative test. A single first fixed line or no band at all indicates an invalid test. Typhidot's biggest limitation is that it is not quantitative, just positive or negative. Tubex test The Tubex test contains two types of particles: brown magnetic particles coated with antigen and blue indicator particles coated with O9 antibody. During the test, if antibodies are present in the serum, they will attach to the brown magnetic particles and settle at the base, while the blue indicator particles remain in the solution, producing a blue color, which means the test is positive. If the serum does not have an antibody in it, the blue particles attach to the brown particles and settle at the bottom, producing a colorless solution, which means the test is negative. Prevention Sanitation and hygiene are important to prevent typhoid. It can spread only in environments where human feces can come into contact with food or drinking water. Careful food preparation and washing of hands are crucial to prevent typhoid. Industrialization contributed greatly to the elimination of typhoid fever, as it eliminated the public-health hazards associated with having horse manure in public streets, which led to a large number of flies, which are vectors of many pathogens, including Salmonella spp. According to statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the chlorination of drinking water has led to dramatic decreases in the transmission of typhoid fever. Vaccination Two typhoid vaccines are licensed for use for the prevention of typhoid: the live, oral Ty21a vaccine (sold as Vivotif by Crucell Switzerland AG) and the injectable typhoid polysaccharide vaccine (sold as Typhim Vi by Sanofi Pasteur and Typherix by GlaxoSmithKline). Both are efficacious and recommended for travelers to areas where typhoid is endemic. Boosters are recommended every five years for the oral vaccine and every two years for the injectable form. An older, killed whole-cell vaccine is still used in countries where the newer preparations are not available, but this vaccine is no longer recommended for use because it has more side effects (mainly pain and inflammation at the site of the injection). To help decrease rates of typhoid fever in developing nations, the World Health Organization (WHO) endorsed the use of a vaccination program starting in 1999. Vaccination has proven effective at controlling outbreaks in high-incidence areas and is also very cost-effective: prices are normally less than US$1 per dose. Because the price is low, poverty-stricken communities are more willing to take advantage of the vaccinations. Although vaccination programs for typhoid have proven effective, they alone cannot eliminate typhoid fever. Combining vaccines with public-health efforts is the only proven way to control this disease. Since the 1990s, the WHO has recommended two typhoid fever vaccines. The ViPS vaccine is given by injection, and the Ty21a by capsules. Only people over age two are recommended to be vaccinated with the ViPS vaccine, and it requires a revaccination after 2–3 years, with a 55%–72% efficacy. The Ty21a vaccine is recommended for people five and older, lasting 5–7 years with 51%–67% efficacy. The two vaccines have proved safe and effective for epidemic disease control in multiple regions. A version of the vaccine combined with a hepatitis A vaccine is also available. Results of a phase 3 trial of typhoid conjugate vaccine (TCV) in December 2019 reported 81% fewer cases among children. Treatment Oral rehydration therapy The rediscovery of oral rehydration therapy in the 1960s provided a simple way to prevent many of the deaths of diarrheal diseases in general. Antibiotics Where resistance is uncommon, the treatment of choice is a fluoroquinolone such as ciprofloxacin. Otherwise, a third-generation cephalosporin such as ceftriaxone or cefotaxime is the first choice. Cefixime is a suitable oral alternative. Properly treated, typhoid fever is not fatal in most cases. Antibiotics such as ampicillin, chloramphenicol, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, amoxicillin, and ciprofloxacin have been commonly used to treat it. Treatment with antibiotics reduces the case-fatality rate to about 1%. Without treatment, some patients develop sustained fever, bradycardia, hepatosplenomegaly, abdominal symptoms, and occasionally pneumonia. In white-skinned patients, pink spots, which fade on pressure, appear on the skin of the trunk in up to 20% of cases. In the third week, untreated cases may develop gastrointestinal and cerebral complications, which may prove fatal in 10%–20% of cases. The highest case fatality rates are reported in children under 4. Around 2%–5% of those who contract typhoid fever become chronic carriers, as bacteria persist in the biliary tract after symptoms have resolved. Surgery Surgery is usually indicated if intestinal perforation occurs. One study found a 30-day mortality rate of 9% (8/88), and surgical site infections at 67% (59/88), with the disease burden borne predominantly by low-resource countries. For surgical treatment, most surgeons prefer simple closure of the perforation with drainage of the peritoneum. Small-bowel resection is indicated for patients with multiple perforations. If antibiotic treatment fails to eradicate the hepatobiliary carriage, the gallbladder should be resected. Cholecystectomy is sometimes successful, especially in patients with gallstones, but is not always successful in eradicating the carrier state because of persisting hepatic infection. Resistance As resistance to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, and streptomycin is now common, these agents are no longer used as first–line treatment of typhoid fever. Typhoid resistant to these agents is known as multidrug-resistant typhoid. Ciprofloxacin resistance is an increasing problem, especially in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Many centres are shifting from ciprofloxacin to ceftriaxone as the first line for treating suspected typhoid originating in South America, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, or Vietnam. Also, it has been suggested that azithromycin is better at treating resistant typhoid than both fluoroquinolone drugs and ceftriaxone. Azithromycin can be taken by mouth and is less expensive than ceftriaxone, which is given by injection. A separate problem exists with laboratory testing for reduced susceptibility to ciprofloxacin; current recommendations are that isolates should be tested simultaneously against ciprofloxacin (CIP) and against nalidixic acid (NAL), that isolates sensitive to both CIP and NAL should be reported as "sensitive to ciprofloxacin", and that isolates sensitive to CIP but not to NAL should be reported as "reduced sensitivity to ciprofloxacin". But an analysis of 271 isolates found that around 18% of isolates with a reduced susceptibility to fluoroquinolones, the class which CIP belongs (MIC 0.125–1.0 mg/L), would not be detected by this method. Epidemiology In 2000, typhoid fever caused an estimated 21.7 million illnesses and 217,000 deaths. It occurs most often in children and young adults between 5 and 19 years old. In 2013, it resulted in about 161,000 deaths – down from 181,000 in 1990. Infants, children, and adolescents in south-central and Southeast Asia have the highest rates of typhoid. Outbreaks are also often reported in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. In 2000, more than 90% of morbidity and mortality due to typhoid fever occurred in Asia. In the U.S., about 400 cases occur each year, 75% of which are acquired while traveling internationally. Before the antibiotic era, the case fatality rate of typhoid fever was 10%–20%. Today, with prompt treatment, it is less than 1%, but 3%–5% of people who are infected develop a chronic infection in the gall bladder. Since S. enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhi is human-restricted, these chronic carriers become the crucial reservoir, which can persist for decades for further spread of the disease, further complicating its identification and treatment. Lately, the study of S. enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhi associated with a large outbreak and a carrier at the genome level provides new insight into the pathogenesis of the pathogen. In industrialized nations, water sanitation and food handling improvements have reduced the number of typhoid cases. Third world nations have the highest rates. These areas lack access to clean water, proper sanitation systems, and proper health-care facilities. In these areas, such access to basic public-health needs is not expected in the near future. In 2004–2005 an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo resulted in more than 42,000 cases and 214 deaths. Since November 2016, Pakistan has had an outbreak of extensively drug-resistant (XDR) typhoid fever. In Europe, a report based on data for 2017 retrieved from The European Surveillance System (TESSy) on the distribution of confirmed typhoid and paratyphoid fever cases found that 22 EU/EEA countries reported a total of 1,098 cases, 90.9% of which were travel-related, mainly acquired during travel to South Asia. Outbreaks Plague of Athens (suspected) Cocoliztli epidemics (suspected) "Burning Fever" outbreak among indigenous Americans. Between 1607 and 1624, 85% of the population at the James River died from a typhoid epidemic. The World Health Organization estimates the death toll was over 6,000 during this time. Maidstone, Kent outbreak in 1897–1898: 1,847 patients were recorded to have typhoid fever. This outbreak is notable because it was the first time a typhoid vaccine was deployed during a civilian outbreak. Almoth Edward Wright's vaccine was offered to 200 healthcare providers, and of the 84 individuals who received the vaccine, none developed typhoid whereas 4 who had not been vaccinated became ill. American army in the Spanish-American war: government records estimate over 21,000 troops had typhoid, resulting in 2,200 deaths. In 1902 guests at mayoral banquets in Southampton and Winchester, England became ill and four died, including the Dean of Winchester, after consuming oysters. The infection was due to oysters sourced from Emsworth, where the oyster beds had been contaminated with raw sewage. Jamaica Plain neighborhood, Boston in 1908 – linked to milk delivery. See history section, "carriers" for further details. Outbreak in upperclass New Yorkers who employed Mary Mallon – 51 cases and 3 deaths from 1907 to 1915. Aberdeen, Scotland, in summer 1964 – traced back to contaminated canned beef sourced from Argentina sold in markets. More than 500 patients were quarantined in the hospital for a minimum of four weeks, and the outbreak was contained without any deaths. Dushanbe, Tajikistan, in 1996–1997: 10,677 cases reported, 108 deaths. Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, in 2004: 43,000 cases and over 200 deaths. A prospective study of specimens collected in the same region between 2007 and 2011 revealed about one third of samples obtained from patient samples were resistant to multiple antibiotics. Kampala, Uganda in 2015: 10,230 cases reported. History Early descriptions The plague of Athens, during the Peloponnesian War, was most likely an outbreak of typhoid fever. During the war, Athenians retreated into a walled-in city to escape attack from the Spartans. This massive influx of humans into a concentrated space overwhelmed the water supply and waste infrastructure, likely leading to unsanitary conditions as fresh water became harder to obtain and waste became more difficult to collect and remove beyond the city walls. In 2006, examining the remains for a mass burial site from Athens from around the time of the plague (~430 B.C.) revealed that fragments of DNA similar to modern day S. Typhi DNA were detected, whereas Yersinia pestis (plague), Rickettsia prowazekii (typhus), Mycobacterium tuberculosis, cowpox virus, and Bartonella henselae were not detected in any of the remains tested. It is possible that the Roman emperor Augustus Caesar had either a liver abscess or typhoid fever, and survived by using ice baths and cold compresses as a means of treatment for his fever. There is a statue of the Greek physician, Antonius Musa, who treated his fever. Definition and evidence of transmission The French doctors Pierre-Fidele Bretonneau and Pierre-Charles-Alexandre Louis are credited with describing typhoid fever as a specific disease, unique from typhus. Both doctors performed autopsies on individuals who died in Paris due to fever – and indicated that many had lesions on the Peyer's patches which correlated with distinct symptoms before death. British medics were skeptical of the differentiation between typhoid and typhus because both were endemic to Britain at that time. However, in France only typhoid was present circulating in the population. Pierre-Charlles-Alexandre Louis also performed case studies and statistical analysis to demonstrate that typhoid was contagious – and that persons who already had the disease seemed to be protected. Afterward, several American doctors confirmed these findings, and then Sir William Jenner convinced any remaining skeptics that typhoid is a specific disease recognizable by lesions in the Peyer's patches by examining sixty-six autopsies from fever patients and concluding that the symptoms of headaches, diarrhea, rash spots, and abdominal pain were present only in patients who were found to have intestinal lesions after death; these observations solidified the association of the disease with the intestinal tract and gave the first clue to the route of transmission. In 1847 William Budd learned of an epidemic of typhoid fever in Clifton, and identified that all 13 of 34 residents who had contracted the disease drew their drinking water from the same well. Notably, this observation was two years prior to John Snow first publishing an early version of his theory that contaminated water was the central conduit for transmitting cholera. Budd later became health officer of Bristol and ensured a clean water supply, and documented further evidence of typhoid as a water-borne illness throughout his career. Cause Polish scientist Tadeusz Browicz described a short bacillus in the organs and feces of typhoid victims in 1874. Browicz was able to isolate and grow the bacilli but did not go as far as to insinuate or prove that they caused the disease. In April 1880, three months prior to Eberth's publication, Edwin Klebs described short and filamentous bacilli in the Peyer's patches in typhoid victims. The bacterium's role in disease was speculated but not confirmed. In 1880, Karl Joseph Eberth described a bacillus that he suspected was the cause of typhoid. Eberth is given credit for discovering the bacterium definitively by successfully isolating the same bacterium from 18 of 40 typhoid victims and failing to discover the bacterium present in any "control" victims of other diseases. In 1884, pathologist Georg Theodor August Gaffky (1850–1918) confirmed Eberth's findings. Gaffky isolated the same bacterium as Eberth from the spleen of a typhoid victim, and was able to grow the bacterium on solid media. The organism was given names such as Eberth's bacillus, Eberthella Typhi, and Gaffky-Eberth bacillus. Today, the bacillus that causes typhoid fever goes by the scientific name Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi. Chlorination of water Most developed countries had declining rates of typhoid fever throughout the first half of the 20th century due to vaccinations and advances in public sanitation and hygiene. In 1893 attempts were made to chlorinate the water supply in Hamburg, Germany and in 1897 Maidstone, England, was the first town to have its entire water supply chlorinated. In 1905, following an outbreak of typhoid fever, the City of Lincoln, England, instituted permanent water chlorination. The first permanent disinfection of drinking water in the US was made in 1908 to the Jersey City, New Jersey, water supply. Credit for the decision to build the chlorination system has been given to John L. Leal. The chlorination facility was designed by George W. Fuller. Outbreaks in traveling military groups led to the creation of the Lyster bag in 1915; a bag with a faucet which can be hung from a tree or pole, filled with water, and comes with a chlorination tablet to drop into the water. The Lyster bag was essential for the survival of American soldiers in the Vietnam War. Direct transmission and carriers There were several occurrences of milk delivery men spreading typhoid fever throughout the communities they served. Although typhoid is not spread through milk itself, there were several examples of milk distributors in many locations watering their milk down with contaminated water, or cleaning the glass bottles the milk was placed in with contaminated water. Boston had two such cases around the turn of the 20th century. In 1899 there were 24 cases of typhoid traced to a single milkman, whose wife had died of typhoid fever a week before the outbreak. In 1908, J.J. Fallon, who was also a milkman, died of typhoid fever. Following his death and confirmation of the typhoid fever diagnosis, the city conducted an investigation of typhoid symptoms and cases along his route and found evidence of a significant outbreak. A month after the outbreak was first reported, the Boston Globe published a short statement declaring the outbreak over, stating "[a]t Jamaica Plain there is a slight increase, the total being 272 cases. Throughout the city there is a total of 348 cases." There was at least one death reported during this outbreak: Mrs. Sophia S. Engstrom, aged 46. Typhoid continued to ravage the Jamaica Plain neighborhood in particular throughout 1908, and several more people were reported dead due to typhoid fever, although these cases were not explicitly linked to the outbreak. The Jamaica Plain neighborhood at that time was home to many working-class and poor immigrants, mostly from Ireland. The most notorious carrier of typhoid fever, but by no means the most destructive, was Mary Mallon, known as Typhoid Mary. Although other cases of human-to-human spread of typhoid were known at the time, the concept of an asymptomatic carrier, who was able to transmit disease, had only been hypothesized and not yet identified or proven. Mary Mallon became the first known example of an asymptomatic carrier of an infectious disease, making typhoid fever the first known disease being transmissible through asymptomatic hosts. The cases and deaths caused by Mallon were mainly upper-class families in New York City. At the time of Mallon's tenure as a personal cook for upper-class families, New York City reported 3,000 to 4,500 cases of typhoid fever annually. In the summer of 1906 two daughters of a wealthy family and maids working in their home became ill with typhoid fever. After investigating their home water sources and ruling out water contamination, the family hired civil engineer George Soper to conduct an investigation of the possible source of typhoid fever in the home. Soper described himself as an "epidemic fighter". His investigation ruled out many sources of food, and led him to question if the cook the family hired just prior to their household outbreak, Mallon, was the source. Since she had already left and begun employment elsewhere, he proceeded to track her down in order to obtain a stool sample. When he was able to finally meet Mallon in person he described her by saying "Mary had a good figure and might have been called athletic had she not been a little too heavy." In recounts of Soper's pursuit of Mallon, his only remorse appears to be that he was not given enough credit for his relentless pursuit and publication of her personal identifying information, stating that the media "rob[s] me of whatever credit belongs to the discovery of the first typhoid fever carrier to be found in America." Ultimately, 51 cases and 3 deaths were suspected to be caused by Mallon. In 1924 the city of Portland, Oregon, experienced an outbreak of typhoid fever, consisting of 26 cases and 5 deaths, all deaths due to intestinal hemorrhage. All cases were concluded to be due to a single milk farm worker, who was shedding large amounts of the typhoid pathogen in his urine. Misidentification of the disease, due to inaccurate Widal test results, delayed identification of the carrier and proper treatment. Ultimately, it took four samplings of different secretions from all of the dairy workers in order to successfully identify the carrier. Upon discovery, the dairy worker was forcibly quarantined for seven weeks, and regular samples were taken, most of the time the stool samples yielding no typhoid and often the urine yielding the pathogen. The carrier was reported as being 72 years old and appearing in excellent health with no symptoms. Pharmaceutical treatment decreased the amount of bacteria secreted, however, the infection was never fully cleared from the urine, and the carrier was released "under orders never again to engage in the handling of foods for human consumption." At the time of release, the authors noted "for more than fifty years he has earned his living chiefly by milking cows and knows little of other forms of labor, it must be expected that the closest surveillance will be necessary to make certain that he does not again engage in this occupation." Overall, in the early 20th century the medical profession began to identify carriers of the disease, and evidence of transmission independent of water contamination. In a 1933 American Medical Association publication, physicians' treatment of asymptomatic carriers is best summarized by the opening line "Carriers of typhoid bacilli are a menace". Within the same publication, the first official estimate of typhoid carriers is given: 2 to 5% of all typhoid patients, and distinguished between temporary carriers and chronic carriers. The authors further estimate that there are four to five chronic female carriers to every one male carrier, although offered no data to explain this assertion of a gender difference in the rate of typhoid carriers. As far as treatment, the authors suggest: "When recognized, carriers must be instructed as to the disposal of excreta as well as to the importance of personal cleanliness. They should be forbidden to handle food or drink intended for others, and their movements and whereabouts must be reported to the public health officers". Today, typhoid carriers exist all over the world, but the highest incidence of asymptomatic infection is likely to occur in South/Southeast Asian and Sub-Saharan countries. The Los Angeles County department of public health tracks typhoid carriers and reports the number of carriers identified within the county yearly; between 2006 and 2016 0–4 new cases of typhoid carriers were identified per year. Cases of typhoid fever must be reported within one working day from identification. As of 2018, chronic typhoid carriers must sign a "Carrier Agreement" and are required to test for typhoid shedding twice yearly, ideally every 6 months. Carriers may be released from their agreements upon fulfilling "release" requirements, based on completion of a personalized treatment plan designed with medical professionals. Fecal or gallbladder carrier release requirements: 6 consecutive negative feces and urine specimens submitted at 1-month or greater intervals beginning at least 7 days after completion of therapy. Urinary or kidney carrier release requirements: 6 consecutive negative urine specimens submitted at 1-month or greater intervals beginning at least 7 days after completion of therapy. Due to the nature of asymptomatic cases, many questions remain about how individuals are able to tolerate infection for long periods of time, how to identify such cases, and efficient options for treatment. Researchers are currently working to understand asymptomatic infection with Salmonella species by studying infections in laboratory animals, which will ultimately lead to improved prevention and treatment options for typhoid carriers. In 2002, John Gunn described the ability of Salmonella sp. to form biofilms on gallstones in mice, providing a model for studying carriage in the gallbladder. Denise Monack and Stanley Falkow described a mouse model of asymptomatic intestinal and systemic infection in 2004, and Monack went on to demonstrate that a sub-population of superspreaders are responsible for the majority of transmission to new hosts, following the 80/20 rule of disease transmission, and that the intestinal microbiota likely plays a role in transmission. Monack's mouse model allows long-term carriage of Salmonella in mesenteric lymph nodes, spleen and liver. Vaccine development British bacteriologist Almroth Edward Wright first developed an effective typhoid vaccine at the Army Medical School in Netley, Hampshire. It was introduced in 1896 and used successfully by the British during the Second Boer War in South Africa. At that time, typhoid often killed more soldiers at war than were lost due to enemy combat. Wright further developed his vaccine at a newly opened research department at St Mary's Hospital Medical School in London from 1902, where he established a method for measuring protective substances (opsonin) in human blood. Wright's version of the typhoid vaccine was produced by growing the bacterium at body temperature in broth, then heating the bacteria to 60 °C to "heat inactivate" the pathogen, killing it, while keeping the surface antigens intact. The heat-killed bacteria was then injected into a patient. To show evidence of the vaccine's efficacy, Wright then collected serum samples from patients several weeks post-vaccination, and tested their serum's ability to agglutinate live typhoid bacteria. A "positive" result was represented by clumping of bacteria, indicating that the body was producing anti-serum (now called antibodies) against the pathogen. Citing the example of the Second Boer War, during which many soldiers died from easily preventable diseases, Wright convinced the British Army that 10 million vaccine doses should be produced for the troops being sent to the Western Front, thereby saving up to half a million lives during World War I. The British Army was the only combatant at the outbreak of the war to have its troops fully immunized against the bacterium. For the first time, their casualties due to combat exceeded those from disease. In 1909, Frederick F. Russell, a U.S. Army physician, adopted Wright's typhoid vaccine for use with the Army, and two years later, his vaccination program became the first in which an entire army was immunized. It eliminated typhoid as a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in the U.S. military. Typhoid vaccination for members of the American military became mandatory in 1911. Before the vaccine, the rate of typhoid fever in the military was 14,000 or greater per 100,000 soldiers. By World War I, the rate of typhoid in American soldiers was 37 per 100,000. During the second world war, the United States army authorized the use of a trivalent vaccine – containing heat-inactivated Typhoid, Paratyphi A and Paratyphi B pathogens. In 1934, discovery of the Vi capsular antigen by Arthur Felix and Miss S. R. Margaret Pitt enabled development of the safer Vi Antigen vaccine – which is widely in use today. Arthur Felix and Margaret Pitt also isolated the strain Ty2, which became the parent strain of Ty21a, the strain used as a live-attenuated vaccine for typhoid fever today. Antibiotics and resistance Chloramphenicol was isolated from Streptomyces by David Gotlieb during the 1940s. In 1948 American army doctors tested its efficacy in treating typhoid patients in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Individuals who received a full course of treatment cleared the infection, whereas patients given a lower dose had a relapse. Asymptomatic carriers continued to shed bacilli despite chloramphenicol treatment – only ill patients were improved with chloramphenicol. Resistance to chloramphenicol became frequent in Southeast Asia by the 1950s, and today chloramphenicol is only used as a last resort due to the high prevalence of resistance. Terminology The disease has been referred to by various names, often associated with symptoms, such as gastric fever, enteric fever, abdominal typhus, infantile remittant fever, slow fever, nervous fever, pythogenic fever, drain fever, and low fever. Society and culture Notable people Emperor Augustus of Rome (suspected based on historical record but not confirmed), survived. Albert, Prince Consort, husband of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, died in 24 days after first record of "feeling horribly ill". Died 14 December 1861 after suffering loss of appetite, insomnia, fever, chills, profuse sweating, vomiting, rash spots, delusions, inability to recognize family members, worsening rash on abdomen, a change in tongue color, then finally a state of extreme fatigue. Attending physician William Jenner, an expert on typhoid fever at the time, diagnosed him. Edward VII of the UK, son of Queen Victoria, while still Prince of Wales, had a near fatal case of typhoid fever. Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, survived, illness was circa 1900–1901. Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands may have had an abortion in 1902 because of a typhoid infection she survived. William Henry Harrison, the 9th President of the United States of America, died 32 days into his term, in 1841. This is the shortest term served by a United States President. Wilbur Wright, co-inventor of the airplane with his brother Orville, died from typhoid in 1912 at the age of 45. Orville had typhoid in 1896, during which time Wilbur would read aloud to him, books by Otto Lilienthal, a German pioneer in human flight. This started the two men on their own pursuit of creating an airplane. Stephen A. Douglas, political opponent of Abraham Lincoln in 1858 and 1860, died of typhoid on June 3, 1861. Ignacio Zaragoza, Mexican general and politician, died at the age of 33 of typhoid fever on September 8, 1862. Franz Schubert, songwriter and composer died of typhoid at age 31 on November 19, 1828. William Wallace Lincoln, the son of US president Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, died of typhoid in 1862. Princess Leopoldina of Brazil, daughter of Emperor Pedro II, died of typhoid in 1871. Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, mother of president Theodore Roosevelt and paternal grandmother of Eleanor Roosevelt, died of typhoid fever in 1884. Mary Mallon, "Typhoid Mary" – see history section, "carriers" for further details Leland Stanford Jr., son of American tycoon and politician A. Leland Stanford and eponym of Leland Stanford Junior University, died of typhoid fever in 1884 at the age of 15. Three of Louis Pasteur's five children died of typhoid fever. Gerard Manley Hopkins, English poet, died of typhoid fever in 1889. Lizzie van Zyl, South African child inmate of the Bloemfontein concentration camp during the Second Boer War, died of typhoid fever in 1901. Dr HJH 'Tup' Scott, captain of the 1886 Australian cricket team that toured England, died of typhoid in 1910. Arnold Bennett, English novelist, died in 1932 of typhoid, two months after drinking a glass of water in a Paris hotel to prove it was safe. Hakaru Hashimoto, Japanese medical scientist, died of typhoid fever in 1934. John Buford, Union cavalry officer during the Civil War, died of typhoid fever on December 16, 1863. References == Further reading ==

What was the last prose book written by the poet who referred to Wyndham Lewis as "that lonely old volcano of the Right."?

Forewords and Afterwords (1973)

Multiple constraints

Percy Wyndham Lewis (18 November 1882 – 7 March 1957) was a British writer, painter and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited BLAST, the literary magazine of the Vorticists. His novels include Tarr (1918) and The Human Age trilogy, composed of The Childermass (1928), Monstre Gai (1955) and Malign Fiesta (1955). A fourth volume, titled The Trial of Man, was unfinished at the time of his death. He also wrote two autobiographical volumes: Blasting and Bombardiering (1937) and Rude Assignment: A Narrative of my Career Up-to-Date (1950). Life and career Early life Lewis was born on 18 November 1882, reputedly on his father's yacht off the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. His English mother, Anne Stuart Lewis (née Prickett), and American father, Charles Edward Lewis, separated about 1893. His mother subsequently returned to England. Lewis was educated in England at Rugby School and then, from 16, the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, but left for Paris without finishing his course. He spent most of the 1900s travelling around Europe and studying art in Paris. While in Paris, he attended lectures by Henri Bergson on process philosophy. Early work and development of Vorticism (1908–1915) In 1908, Lewis moved to London, where he would reside for much of his life. In 1909, he published his first work, accounts of his travels in Brittany, in Ford Madox Ford's The English Review. He was a founding member of the Camden Town Group, which brought him into close contact with the Bloomsbury Group, particularly Roger Fry and Clive Bell, with whom he soon fell out. In 1912, Lewis exhibited his work at the second Postimpressionist exhibition: Cubo-Futurist illustrations to Timon of Athens and three major oil paintings. In 1912, he was commissioned to produce a decorative mural, a drop curtain, and more designs for The Cave of the Golden Calf, an avant-garde cabaret and nightclub on Heddon Street. From 1913 to 1915, Lewis developed the style of geometric abstraction for which he is best known today, which his friend Ezra Pound dubbed "Vorticism". Lewis sought to combine the strong structure of Cubism, which he found was not "alive", with the liveliness of Futurist art, which lacked structure. The combination was a strikingly dramatic critique of modernity. In his early visual works, Lewis may have been influenced by Bergson's process philosophy. Though he was later savagely critical of Bergson, he admitted in a letter to Theodore Weiss (19 April 1949) that he "began by embracing his evolutionary system." Nietzsche was an equally important influence. Lewis had a brief tenure at Roger Fry's Omega Workshops, but left after a quarrel with Fry over a commission to provide wall decorations for the Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition, which Lewis believed Fry had misappropriated. He and several other Omega artists started a competing workshop called the Rebel Art Centre. The Centre operated for only four months, but it gave birth to the Vorticist group and its publication, BLAST. In BLAST, Lewis formally expounded the Vorticist aesthetic in a manifesto, distinguishing it from other avant-garde practices. He also wrote and published a play, Enemy of the Stars. It is a proto-absurdist, Expressionist drama. Lewis scholar Melania Terrazas identifies it as a precursor to the plays of Samuel Beckett. World War I (1915–1918) In 1915, the Vorticists held their only U.K. exhibition before the movement broke up, largely as a result of World War I. Lewis himself was posted to the western front and served as a second lieutenant in the Royal Artillery. Much of his time was spent in Forward Observation Posts looking down at apparently deserted German lines, registering targets and calling down fire from batteries massed around the rim of the Ypres Salient. He made vivid accounts of narrow misses and deadly artillery duels. After the Third Battle of Ypres, Lewis was appointed an official war artist for both the Canadian and British governments. For the Canadians, he painted A Canadian Gun-pit (1918) from sketches made on Vimy Ridge. For the British, he painted one of his best-known works, A Battery Shelled (1919), drawing on his own experience at Ypres. Lewis exhibited his war drawings and some other paintings of the war in an exhibition, "Guns", in 1918. Although the Vorticist group broke up after the war, Lewis's patron, John Quinn, organized a Vorticist exhibition at the Penguin Club in New York in 1917. His first novel, Tarr, was serialized in The Egoist during 1916–17 and published in book form in 1918. It is widely regarded as one of the key modernist texts. Lewis later documented his experiences and opinions of this period of his life in the autobiographical Blasting and Bombardiering (1937), which covered his life up to 1926. Tyros and writing (1918–1929) After the war, Lewis resumed his career as a painter with a major exhibition, Tyros and Portraits, at the Leicester Galleries in 1921. "Tyros" were satirical caricatures intended to comment on the culture of the "new epoch" that succeeded the First World War. A Reading of Ovid and Mr Wyndham Lewis as a Tyro are the only surviving oil paintings from this series. Lewis also launched his second magazine, The Tyro, of which there were only two issues. The second (1922) contained an important statement of Lewis's visual aesthetic: "Essay on the Objective of Plastic Art in our Time". It was during the early 1920s that he perfected his incisive draughtsmanship. By the late 1920s, he concentrated on writing. He launched yet another magazine, The Enemy (1927–1929), largely written by himself and declaring its belligerent critical stance in its title. The magazine and other theoretical and critical works he published from 1926 to 1929 mark a deliberate separation from the avant-garde and his previous associates. He believed that their work failed to show sufficient critical awareness of those ideologies that worked against truly revolutionary change in the West, and therefore became a vehicle for these pernicious ideologies. His major theoretical and cultural statement from this period is The Art of Being Ruled (1926). Time and Western Man (1927) is a cultural and philosophical discussion that includes penetrating critiques of James Joyce, Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound that are still read. Lewis also attacked the process philosophy of Bergson, Samuel Alexander, Alfred North Whitehead, and others. By 1931 he was advocating the art of ancient Egypt as impossible to surpass. Fiction and political writing (1930–1936) Between the years 1907–11 Lewis wrote a modernist novel entitled Tarr which was revised and expanded in 1914–15 and first serialized in the magazine The Egoist from April 1916 until November 1917. The American version was published in 1918. In 1930 Lewis published The Apes of God, a biting satirical attack on the London literary scene, including a long chapter caricaturing the Sitwell family. Richard Aldington, however, found it "the greatest piece of writing since Ulysses", by James Joyce. In 1937 Lewis published The Revenge for Love, set in the period leading up to the Spanish Civil War and regarded by many as his best novel. It is strongly critical of communist activity in Spain and presents English intellectual fellow travellers as deluded. Despite serious illness necessitating several operations, he was very productive as a critic and painter. He produced a book of poems, One-Way Song, in 1933, and a revised version of Enemy of the Stars. An important book of critical essays also belongs to this period: Men without Art (1934). It grew out of a defence of Lewis's satirical practice in The Apes of God and puts forward a theory of "non-moral", or metaphysical, satire. The book is probably best remembered for one of the first commentaries on Faulkner and a famous essay on Hemingway. Return to painting (1936–1941) After becoming better known for his writing than his painting in the 1920s and early 1930s, he returned to more concentrated work on visual art, and paintings from the 1930s and 1940s constitute some of his best-known work. The Surrender of Barcelona (1936–37) makes a significant statement about the Spanish Civil War. It was included in an exhibition at the Leicester Galleries in 1937 that Lewis hoped would re-establish his reputation as a painter. After the publication in The Times of a letter of support for the exhibition, asking that something from the show be purchased for the national collection (signed by, among others, Stephen Spender, W. H. Auden, Geoffrey Grigson, Rebecca West, Naomi Mitchison, Henry Moore and Eric Gill) the Tate Gallery bought the painting, Red Scene. Like others from the exhibition, it shows an influence from Surrealism and de Chirico's Metaphysical Painting. Lewis was highly critical of the ideology of Surrealism, but admired the visual qualities of some Surrealist art. During this period, Lewis also produced many of his most well-known portraits, including pictures of Edith Sitwell (1923–1936), T. S. Eliot (1938 and 1949), and Ezra Pound (1939). His 1938 portrait of Eliot was rejected by the selection committee of the Royal Academy for their annual exhibition and caused a furore. Augustus John resigned in protest. World War II and North America (1941–1945) Lewis spent World War II in the United States and Canada. In 1941, in Toronto, he produced a series of watercolour fantasies centred on themes of creation, crucifixion and bathing. He grew to appreciate the cosmopolitan and "rootless" nature of the American melting pot, declaring that the greatest advantage of being American was to have "turned one's back on race, caste, and all that pertains to the rooted state." He praised the contributions of African-Americans to American culture, and regarded Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and José Clemente Orozco as the "best North American artists," predicting that when "the Indian culture of Mexico melts into the great American mass to the North, the Indian will probably give it its art." He returned to England in 1945. Later life and blindness (1945–1951) By 1951, he was completely blinded by a pituitary tumor that placed pressure on his optic nerve. It ended his artistic career, but he continued writing until his death. He published several autobiographical and critical works: Rude Assignment (1950), Rotting Hill (1951), a collection of allegorical short stories about his life in "the capital of a dying empire"; The Writer and the Absolute (1952), a book of essays on writers including George Orwell, Jean-Paul Sartre and André Malraux; and the semi-autobiographical novel Self Condemned (1954). The BBC commissioned Lewis to complete his 1928 work The Childermass, which was published as The Human Age and dramatized for the BBC Third Programme in 1955. In 1956, the Tate Gallery held a major exhibition of his work, "Wyndham Lewis and Vorticism", in the catalogue to which he declared that "Vorticism, in fact, was what I, personally, did and said at a certain period"—a statement which brought forth a series of "Vortex Pamphlets" from his fellow BLAST signatory William Roberts. Personal life From 1918 to 1921, Lewis lived with Iris Barry, with whom he had two children. He is said to have shown little affection for them. In 1930, Lewis married Gladys Anne Hoskins (1900–1979), who was affectionately known as Froanna. They lived together for 10 years before marrying and never had children. Lewis kept Froanna in the background, and many of his friends were unaware of her existence. It seems that Lewis was extraordinarily jealous and protective of his wife, owing to her youth and beauty. Froanna was patient and caring toward her husband through financial troubles and his frequent illnesses. She was the model for some of Lewis's more tender and intimate portraits as well as a number of characters in his fiction. In contrast to his earlier, impersonal portraits, which are purely concerned with external appearance, the portraits of Froanna show a preoccupation with her inner life. Always interested in Roman Catholicism, he never converted. He died in 1957 and was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium. By the time of his death, Lewis had written 40 books in all. Political views In 1931, after a visit to Berlin, Lewis published Hitler (1931), a book presenting Adolf Hitler as a "man of peace", with members of his party being threatened by communist street violence. His unpopularity among liberals and anti-fascists grew, especially after Hitler came to power in 1933. Following a second visit to Germany in 1937, Lewis changed his views and began to retract his previous political comments. He recognized the reality of Nazi treatment of Jews after a visit to Berlin in 1937. In 1939, he published an attack on anti-semitism titled The Jews, Are They Human?, which was favourably reviewed in The Jewish Chronicle. He also published The Hitler Cult (1939), which firmly revoked his earlier support for Hitler. Politically, Lewis remained an isolated figure through the 1930s. In Letter to Lord Byron, W. H. Auden called Lewis "that lonely old volcano of the Right." Lewis thought there was what he called a "left-wing orthodoxy" in Britain in the 1930s. He believed it was against Britain's self-interest to ally with the Soviet Union, "which the newspapers most of us read tell us has slaughtered out-of-hand, only a few years ago, millions of its better fed citizens, as well as its whole imperial family." In Anglosaxony: A League that Works (1941), Lewis reflected on his earlier support for fascism:Fascism – once I understood it – left me colder than communism. The latter at least pretended, at the start, to have something to do with helping the helpless and making the world a more decent and sensible place. It does start from the human being and his suffering. Whereas fascism glorifies bloodshed and preaches that man should model himself upon the wolf.His sense that America and Canada lacked a British-type class structure had increased his opinion of liberal democracy, and in the same pamphlet, Lewis defends liberal democracy's respect for individual freedom against its critics on both the left and right. In America and Cosmic Man (1949), Lewis argued that Franklin Delano Roosevelt had successfully managed to reconcile individual rights with the demands of the state. Legacy In recent years, there has been renewed critical and biographical interest in Lewis and his work, and he is now regarded as a major British artist and writer of the twentieth century. Rugby School hosted an exhibition of his works in November 2007 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his death. The National Portrait Gallery in London held a major retrospective of his portraits in 2008. Two years later, held at the Fundación Juan March (Madrid, Spain), a large exhibition (Wyndham Lewis 1882–1957) featured a comprehensive collection of Lewis's paintings and drawings. As Tom Lubbock pointed out, it was "the retrospective that Britain has never managed to get together.". In 2010, Oxford World Classics published a critical edition of the 1928 text of Tarr, edited by Scott W. Klein of Wake Forest University. The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University held an exhibition entitled "The Vorticists: Rebel Artists in London and New York, 1914–18" from 30 September 2010 through 2 January 2011. The exhibition then travelled to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice (29 January – 15 May 2011: "I Vorticisti: Artisti ribellia a Londra e New York, 1914–1918") and then to Tate Britain under the title "The Vorticists: Manifesto for a Modern World" between 14 June and 4 September 2011. Several readings by Lewis are collected on The Enemy Speaks, an audiobook CD published in 2007 and featuring extracts from "One Way Song" and The Apes of God, as well as radio talks titled "When John Bull Laughs" (1938), "A Crisis of Thought" (1947) and "The Essential Purposes of Art" (1951). A blue plaque now stands on the house in Kensington, London, where Lewis lived, No. 61 Palace Gardens Terrace. Critical reception In his essay "Good Bad Books", George Orwell presents Lewis as the exemplary writer who is cerebral without being artistic. Orwell wrote, "Enough talent to set up dozens of ordinary writers has been poured into Wyndham Lewis's so-called novels… Yet it would be a very heavy labour to read one of these books right through. Some indefinable quality, a sort of literary vitamin, which exists even in a book like [1921 melodrama] If Winter Comes, is absent from them." In 1932, Walter Sickert sent Lewis a telegram in which he said that Lewis's pencil portrait of Rebecca West proved him to be "the greatest portraitist of this or any other time." Anti-semitism For many years, Lewis's novels have been criticised for their satirical and hostile portrayals of Jews. Tarr was revised and republished in 1928, giving a new Jewish character a key role in making sure a duel is fought. This has been interpreted as an allegorical representation of a supposed Zionist conspiracy against the West. His literary satire The Apes of God has been interpreted similarly, because many of the characters are Jewish, including the modernist author and editor Julius Ratner, a portrait which blends anti-semitic stereotype with historical literary figures John Rodker and James Joyce. A key feature of these interpretations is that Lewis is held to have kept his conspiracy theories hidden and marginalized. Since the publication of Anthony Julius's T. S. Eliot, Anti-Semitism, and Literary Form (1995), where Lewis's anti-semitism is described as "essentially trivial", this view is no longer taken seriously. Books Tarr (1918) (novel) The Caliph's Design : Architects! Where is Your Vortex? (1919) (essay) The Art of Being Ruled (1926) (essays) The Wild Body: A Soldier of Humour And Other Stories (1927) (short stories) The Lion and the Fox: The Role of the Hero in the Plays of Shakespeare (1927) (essays) Time and Western Man (1927) (essays) The Childermass (1928) (novel) Paleface: The Philosophy of the Melting Pot (1929) (essays) Satire and Fiction (1930) (criticism) The Apes of God (1930) (novel) Hitler (1931) (essay) The Diabolical Principle and the Dithyrambic Spectator (1931) (essays) Doom of Youth (1932) (essays) Filibusters in Barbary (1932) (travel; later republished as Journey into Barbary) Enemy of the Stars (1932) (play) Snooty Baronet (1932) (novel) One-Way Song (1933) (poetry) Men Without Art (1934) (criticism) Left Wings over Europe; or, How to Make a War about Nothing (1936) (essays) Blasting and Bombardiering (1937) (autobiography) The Revenge for Love (1937) (novel) Count Your Dead: They are Alive!: Or, A New War in the Making (1937) (essays) The Mysterious Mr. Bull (1938) The Jews, Are They Human? (1939) (essay) The Hitler Cult and How it Will End (1939) (essay) America, I Presume (1940) (travel) The Vulgar Streak (1941) (novel) Anglosaxony: A League that Works (1941) (essay) America and Cosmic Man (1949) (essay) Rude Assignment (1950) (autobiography) Rotting Hill (1951) (short stories) The Writer and the Absolute (1952) (essay) Self Condemned (1954) (novel) The Demon of Progress in the Arts (1955) (essay) Monstre Gai (1955) (novel) Malign Fiesta (1955) (novel) The Red Priest (1956) (novel) The Letters of Wyndham Lewis (1963) (letters) The Roaring Queen (1973; written 1936 but unpublished) (novel) Unlucky for Pringle (1973) (short stories) Mrs Duke's Million (1977; written 1908–10 but unpublished) (novel) Creatures of Habit and Creatures of Change (1989) (essays) Paintings The Theatre Manager (1909), watercolour The Courtesan (1912), pen and ink, watercolour Indian Dance (1912), chalk and watercolour Russian Madonna (also known as Russian Scene) (1912), pen and ink, watercolour Lovers (1912), pen and ink, watercolour Mother and Child (1912), oil on canvas, now lost The Dancers (study for Kermesse) (1912), black ink and watercolour, (image) Composition (1913), pen and ink, watercolour, (image) Plan of War (1913–14), oil on canvas Slow Attack (1913–14), oil on canvas New York (1914), pen and ink, watercolour Argol (1914), pen and ink, watercolour The Crowd (1914–15), oil paint and graphite on canvas, (image) Workshop (1914–15), oil on canvas, (image) Vorticist Composition (1915), gouache and chalk, (image) A Canadian Gun-pit (1919), oil on canvas, (image) A Battery Shelled (1919), oil on canvas, (image) Mr Wyndham Lewis as a Tyro (1920–21), oil on canvas, (image) A Reading of Ovid (Tyros) (1920–21), oil on canvas, (image) Seated Figure (c.1921) (image) Mrs Schiff (1923–24), oil on canvas, (image) Edith Sitwell (1923–1935), oil on canvas, (image) Bagdad (1927–28), oil on wood, (image} Three Veiled Figures (1933), oil on canvas, (image) Creation Myth (1933–1936, oil on canvas, (image) Red Scene (1933–1936), oil on canvas, (image) One of the Stations of the Dead (1933–1837), oil on canvas, (image} The Surrender of Barcelona (1934–1937), oil on canvas, (image) Panel for the Safe of a Great Millionaire (1936–37), oil on canvas, (image) Newfoundland (1936–37), oil on canvas, (image) Pensive Head (1937), oil on canvas, (image) Portrait of T. S. Eliot (1938), oil on canvas La Suerte (1938), oil on canvas, (image) John Macleod (1938), oil on canvas (image) Ezra Pound (1939), oil on canvas, (image) Mrs R.J. Sainsbury (1940–41), oil on canvas, (image) A Canadian War Factory (1943), oil on canvas, (image) Nigel Tangye (1946), oil on canvas, (image) Notes and references Further reading Ayers, David. (1992) Wyndham Lewis and Western Man. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan. Chaney, Edward (1990) "Wyndham Lewis: The Modernist as Pioneering Anti-Modernist", Modern Painters (Autumn, 1990), III, no. 3, pp. 106–09. Edwards, Paul. (2000) Wyndham Lewis, Painter and Writer. New Haven and London: Yale U P. Edwards, Paul and Humphreys, Richard. (2010) "Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957)". Madrid: Fundación Juan March Gasiorek, Andrzej. (2004) Wyndham Lewis and Modernism Wyndham Lewis and Modernism. Tavistock: Northcote House. Gasiorek, Andrzej, Reeve-Tucker, Alice, and Waddell, Nathan. (2011) Wyndham Lewis and the Cultures of Modernity. Aldershot: Ashgate. Grigson, Geoffrey (1951). A Master of Our Time: A Study of Wyndham Lewis. London: Methuen. Hammer, Martin (1981) Out of the Vortex: Wyndham Lewis as Painter, in Cencrastus No. 5, Summer 1981, pp. 31–33, ISSN 0264-0856. Jaillant, Lise. "Rewriting Tarr Ten Years Later: Wyndham Lewis, the Phoenix Library and the Domestication of Modernism." Journal of Wyndham Lewis Studies 5 (2014): 1–30. Jameson, Fredric. (1979) Fables of Aggression: Wyndham Lewis, the Modernist as Fascist. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press. Kenner, Hugh. (1954) Wyndham Lewis. New York: New Directions. Klein, Scott W. (1994) The Fictions of James Joyce and Wyndham Lewis: Monsters of Nature and Design. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Leavis, F.R. (1964). "Mr. Eliot, Mr. Wyndham Lewis and Lawrence." In The Common Pursuit, New York University Press. Michel, Walter. (1971) Wyndham Lewis: Paintings and Drawings. Berkeley: University of California Press. Meyers, Jeffrey. (1980) The Enemy: A Biography of Wyndham Lewis. London and Henley: Routledge & Keegan Paul. Morrow, Bradford and Bernard Lafourcade. (1978) A Bibliography of the Writings of Wyndham Lewis. Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press. Normand, Tom. (1993) Wyndham Lewis the Artist: Holding the Mirror up to Politics. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. O'Keeffe, Paul. (2000) Some Sort of Genius: A Biography of Wyndham Lewis. London: Cape. Orage, A. R. (1922). "Mr. Pound and Mr. Lewis in Public." In Readers and Writers (1917–1921), London: George Allen & Unwin, Ltd. Rothenstein, John (1956). "Wyndham Lewis." In Modern English Painters. Lewis To Moore, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode. Rutter, Frank (1922). "Wyndham Lewis." In Some Contemporary Artists, London: Leonard Parsons. Rutter, Frank (1926). Evolution in Modern Art: A Study of Modern Painting, 1870–1925, London: George G. Harrap. Schenker, Daniel. (1992) Wyndham Lewis: Religion and Modernism. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama Press. Spender, Stephen (1978). The Thirties and After: Poetry, Politics, People (1933–1975), Macmillan. Stevenson, Randall (1982), The Other Centenary: Wyndham Lewis, 1882–1982, in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.), Cencrastus No. 10, Autumn 1982, pp. 18–21, ISSN 0264-0856 Waddell, Nathan. (2012) Modernist Nowheres: Politics and Utopia in Early Modernist Writing, 1900–1920. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Wagner, Geoffrey (1957). Wyndham Lewis: A Portrait of the Artist as the Enemy, New Haven: Yale University Press. Woodcock, George, ed. Wyndham Lewis in Canada. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Publications, 1972. External links Wyndham Lewis Society Wyndham Lewis at IMDb Wyndham Lewis at Encyclopaedia Britannica Works by Wyndham Lewis at Project Gutenberg Time and Western Man essay by Kirsty Dootson Works by Wyndham Lewis at Faded Page (Canada) Wyndham Lewis: The Enemy Speaks audiobook CD Wyndham Lewis Collection at Cornell University Library Wyndham Lewis: Self Condemned essay in The Walrus 36 artworks by or after Wyndham Lewis at the Art UK site Cyril J. Fox-Wyndham Lewis collection at the University of Victoria Wyndham Lewis collection (1945-1956) at the University of Victoria Works by Wyndham Lewis at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) Portraits of Wyndham Lewis at the National Portrait Gallery, London "Long Live the Vortex!" and "Our Vortex" (1914) at the Poetry Foundation Wyndham Lewis Collection at Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections, York University Wyndham Lewis Art Collection 1898-1949 and 1915-1977, undated at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin

Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry is noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in tone, form, and content. Some of his best known poems are about love, such as "Funeral Blues"; on political and social themes, such as "September 1, 1939" and "The Shield of Achilles"; on cultural and psychological themes, such as The Age of Anxiety; and on religious themes, such as "For the Time Being" and "Horae Canonicae". Auden was born in York and grew up in and near Birmingham in a professional, middle-class family. He attended various English independent (or public) schools and studied English at Christ Church, Oxford. After a few months in Berlin in 1928–29, he spent five years (1930–1935) teaching in British private preparatory schools. In 1939, he moved to the United States; he became an American citizen in 1946, retaining his British citizenship. Auden taught from 1941 to 1945 in American universities, followed by occasional visiting professorships in the 1950s. Auden came to wide public attention in 1930 with his first book, Poems; it was followed in 1932 by The Orators. Three plays written in collaboration with Christopher Isherwood between 1935 and 1938 built his reputation as a left-wing political writer. Auden moved to the United States partly to escape this reputation, and his work in the 1940s, including the long poems "For the Time Being" and "The Sea and the Mirror", focused on religious themes. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his 1947 long poem The Age of Anxiety, the title of which became a popular phrase describing the modern era. From 1956 to 1961, he was Professor of Poetry at Oxford; his lectures were popular with students and faculty and served as the basis for his 1962 prose collection The Dyer's Hand. Auden was a prolific writer of prose essays and reviews on literary, political, psychological, and religious subjects, and he worked at various times on documentary films, poetic plays, and other forms of performance. Throughout his career he was both controversial and influential. Critical views on his work ranged from sharply dismissive (treating him as a lesser figure than W. B. Yeats and T. S. Eliot) to strongly affirmative (as in Joseph Brodsky's statement that he had "the greatest mind of the twentieth century"). After his death, his poems became known to a much wider public through films, broadcasts, and popular media. Life Childhood Auden was born at 54 Bootham, York, England, to George Augustus Auden (1872–1957), a physician, and Constance Rosalie Auden (née Bicknell; 1869–1941), who had trained (but never served) as a missionary nurse. He was the third of three sons; the eldest, George Bernard Auden (1900–1978), became a farmer, while the second, John Bicknell Auden (1903–1991), became a geologist. The Audens were minor gentry with a strong clerical tradition, originally of Rowley Regis, later of Horninglow, Staffordshire. Auden, whose grandfathers were both Church of England clergymen, grew up in an Anglo-Catholic household that followed a "high" form of Anglicanism, with doctrine and ritual resembling those of Catholicism. He traced his love of music and language partly to the church services of his childhood. He believed he was of Icelandic descent, and his lifelong fascination with Icelandic legends and Old Norse sagas is evident in his work. His family moved to Homer Road in Solihull, near Birmingham, in 1908, where his father had been appointed the School Medical Officer and Lecturer (later Professor) of Public Health. Auden's lifelong psychoanalytic interests began in his father's library. From the age of eight he attended boarding schools, returning home for holidays. His visits to the Pennine landscape and its declining lead-mining industry figure in many of his poems; the remote decaying mining village of Rookhope was for him a "sacred landscape", evoked in a late poem, "Amor Loci". Until he was fifteen he expected to become a mining engineer, but his passion for words had already begun. He wrote later: "words so excite me that a pornographic story, for example, excites me sexually more than a living person can do." Education Auden attended St Edmund's School, Hindhead, Surrey, where he met Christopher Isherwood, later famous in his own right as a novelist. At thirteen he went to Gresham's School in Holt, Norfolk; there, in 1922, when his friend Robert Medley asked him if he wrote poetry, Auden first realised his vocation was to be a poet. Soon after, he "discover(ed) that he (had) lost his faith" (through a gradual realisation that he had lost interest in religion, not through any decisive change of views). In school productions of Shakespeare, he played Katherina in The Taming of the Shrew in 1922, and Caliban in The Tempest in 1925, his last year at Gresham's. A review of his performance as Katherina noted that despite a poor wig, he had been able "to infuse considerable dignity into his passionate outbursts". His first published poems appeared in the school magazine in 1923. Auden later wrote a chapter on Gresham's for Graham Greene's The Old School: Essays by Divers Hands (1934). In 1925 he went up to Christ Church, Oxford, with a scholarship in biology; he changed to English by his second year, and was introduced to Old English poetry through the lectures of J. R. R. Tolkien. Friends he met at Oxford include Cecil Day-Lewis, Louis MacNeice, and Stephen Spender - Auden and these three were commonly though misleadingly identified in the 1930s as the "Auden Group" for their shared (but not identical) left-wing views. Auden left Oxford in 1928 with a third-class degree. Auden was reintroduced to Christopher Isherwood in 1925 by his fellow student A. S. T. Fisher. For the next few years Auden sent poems to Isherwood for comments and criticism; the two maintained a sexual friendship in intervals between their relations with others. In 1935–39 they collaborated on three plays and a travel book. From his Oxford years onward, Auden's friends uniformly described him as funny, extravagant, sympathetic, generous, and, partly by his own choice, lonely. In groups he was often dogmatic and overbearing in a comic way; in more private settings he was diffident and shy except when certain of his welcome. He was punctual in his habits, and obsessive about meeting deadlines, while living amidst physical disorder. Britain and Europe, 1928–1938 In late 1928 Auden left Britain for nine months, going to Berlin, perhaps partly as an escape from English repressiveness. In Berlin, he first experienced the political and economic unrest that became one of his central subjects. Around the same time, Stephen Spender privately printed a small pamphlet of Auden's Poems in an edition of about 45 copies, distributed among Auden's and Spender's friends and family; this edition is usually referred to as Poems [1928] to avoid confusion with Auden's commercially published 1930 volume. On returning to Britain in 1929 he worked briefly as a tutor. In 1930 his first published book, Poems (1930), was accepted by T. S. Eliot for Faber and Faber, and the same firm remained the British publisher of all the books he published thereafter. In 1930, he began five years as a schoolmaster in boys' schools: two years at the Larchfield Academy in Helensburgh, Scotland, then three years at the Downs School in the Malvern Hills, where he was a much-loved teacher. At the Downs, in June 1933, he experienced what he later described as a "Vision of Agape", while sitting with three fellow teachers at the school, when he suddenly found that he loved them for themselves, that their existence had infinite value for him; this experience, he said, later influenced his decision to return to the Anglican Church in 1940. During these years Auden's erotic interests focused, as he later said, on an idealised "Alter Ego" rather than on individual people. His relationships (and his unsuccessful courtships) tended to be unequal either in age or intelligence; his sexual relations were transient, although some evolved into long friendships. He contrasted these relationships with what he later regarded as the "marriage" (his word) of equals that he began with Chester Kallman in 1939, based on the unique individuality of both partners. In 1935 Auden married Erika Mann (1905–1969), the lesbian novelist daughter of Thomas Mann when it became apparent that the Nazis were intending to strip her of her German citizenship. Mann had asked Christopher Isherwood if he would marry her so she could become a British citizen. He declined but suggested she approach Auden, who readily agreed to a marriage of convenience. Mann and Auden never lived together, but remained on good terms throughout their lives and were still married when Mann died in 1969. She left him a small bequest in her will. In 1936, Auden introduced actress Therese Giehse, Mann's lover, to the writer John Hampson and they too married so that Giehse could leave Germany. From 1935 until he left Britain early in 1939, Auden worked as freelance reviewer, essayist, and lecturer, first with the GPO Film Unit, a documentary film-making branch of the post office, headed by John Grierson. Through his work for the Film Unit in 1935 he met and collaborated with Benjamin Britten, with whom he also worked on plays, song cycles, and a libretto. Auden's plays in the 1930s were performed by the Group Theatre, in productions that he supervised to varying degrees. His work now reflected his belief that any good artist must be "more than a bit of a reporting journalist". In 1936, Auden spent three months in Iceland where he gathered material for a travel book Letters from Iceland (1937), written in collaboration with Louis MacNeice. In 1937, he went to Spain intending to drive an ambulance for the Republic in the Spanish Civil War, but was put to work writing propaganda at the Republican press and propaganda office, where he felt useless and left after a week. He returned to England after a brief visit to the front at Sarineña. His seven-week visit to Spain affected him deeply, and his social views grew more complex as he found political realities to be more ambiguous and troubling than he had imagined. Again attempting to combine reportage and art, he and Isherwood spent six months in 1938 visiting China amid the Sino-Japanese War, working on their book Journey to a War (1939). On their way back to England they stayed briefly in New York and decided to move to the United States. Auden spent late 1938 partly in England, partly in Brussels. Many of Auden's poems during the 1930s and after were inspired by unconsummated love, and in the 1950s he summarised his emotional life in a famous couplet: "If equal affection cannot be / Let the more loving one be me" ("The More Loving One"). He had a gift for friendship and, starting in the late 1930s, a strong wish for the stability of marriage; in a letter to his friend James Stern he called marriage "the only subject." Throughout his life, Auden performed charitable acts, sometimes in public, as in his 1935 marriage of convenience to Erika Mann, but, especially in later years, more often in private. He was embarrassed if they were publicly revealed, as when his gift to his friend Dorothy Day for the Catholic Worker movement was reported on the front page of The New York Times in 1956. United States and Europe, 1939–1973 Auden and Isherwood sailed to New York City in January 1939, entering on temporary visas. Their departure from Britain was later seen by many as a betrayal, and Auden's reputation suffered. In April 1939, Isherwood moved to California, and he and Auden saw each other only intermittently in later years. Around this time, Auden met the poet Chester Kallman, who became his lover for the next two years (Auden described their relation as a "marriage" that began with a cross-country "honeymoon" journey). In 1941 Kallman ended their sexual relationship because he could not accept Auden's insistence on mutual fidelity, but he and Auden remained companions for the rest of Auden's life, sharing houses and apartments from 1953 until Auden's death. Auden dedicated both editions of his collected poetry (1945/50 and 1966) to Isherwood and Kallman. In 1940–41 Auden lived in a house at 7 Middagh Street in Brooklyn Heights, that he shared with Carson McCullers, Benjamin Britten, and others, which became a famous centre of artistic life, nicknamed "February House". In 1940, Auden joined the Episcopal Church, returning to the Anglican Communion he had abandoned at fifteen. His reconversion was influenced partly by what he called the "sainthood" of Charles Williams, whom he had met in 1937, and partly by reading Søren Kierkegaard and Reinhold Niebuhr; his existential, this-worldly Christianity became a central element in his life. After Britain declared war on Germany in September 1939, Auden told the British embassy in Washington that he would return to the UK if needed. He was told that, among those his age (32), only qualified personnel were needed. In 1941–42 he taught English at the University of Michigan. He was called for the draft in the United States Army in August 1942, but was rejected on medical grounds. He had been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for 1942–43 but did not use it, choosing instead to teach at Swarthmore College in 1942–45. In mid-1945, after the end of World War II in Europe, he was in Germany with the US Strategic Bombing Survey, studying the effects of Allied bombing on German morale, an experience that affected his postwar work as his visit to Spain had affected him earlier. On his return, he settled in Manhattan, working as a freelance writer, a lecturer at The New School for Social Research, and a visiting professor at Bennington, Smith, and other American colleges. In 1946, he became a naturalised citizen of the US. In 1948 Auden began spending his summers in Europe, together with Chester Kallman, first in Ischia, Italy, where he rented a house. Starting in 1958 he began spending his summers in Kirchstetten, Austria, where he bought a farmhouse with the prize money of the Premio Feltrinelli awarded to him in 1957. He said that he shed tears of joy at owning a home for the first time. His later poetry, mostly written in Austria, includes his sequence "Thanksgiving for a Habitat" about his Kirchstetten home. Auden's letters and papers sent to his friend the translator Stella Musulin (1915–1996), available online, provide insights into his Austrian years. In 1956–61 Auden was Professor of Poetry at Oxford University, where he was required to give three lectures each year. This fairly light workload allowed him to continue to spend winter in New York, where he lived at 77 St. Mark's Place in Manhattan's East Village, and to spend summer in Europe, spending only three weeks each year lecturing in Oxford. He earned his income mostly from readings and lecture tours, and by writing for The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, and other magazines. In 1963 Kallman left the apartment he shared in New York with Auden, and lived during the winter in Athens while continuing to spend his summers with Auden in Austria. Auden spent the winter of 1964-1965 in Berlin through an artist-in-residence program of the Ford Foundation. Following some years of lobbying by his friend David Luke, Auden's old college, Christ Church, in February 1972 offered him a cottage on its grounds to live in; he moved his books and other possessions from New York to Oxford in September 1972, while continuing to spend summers in Austria with Kallman. He spent only one winter in Oxford before his death in 1973. Auden died at 66 of heart failure at the Altenburgerhof Hotel in Vienna overnight on 28–29 September 1973, a few hours after giving a reading of his poems for the Austrian Society for Literature at the Palais Pálffy. He had intended to return to Oxford the following day. He was buried on 4 October in Kirchstetten, and a memorial stone was placed in Westminster Abbey in London a year later. Work Auden published about four hundred poems, including seven long poems (two of them book-length). His poetry was encyclopaedic in scope and method, ranging in style from obscure twentieth-century modernism to the lucid traditional forms such as ballads and limericks, from doggerel through haiku and villanelles to a "Christmas Oratorio" and a baroque eclogue in Anglo-Saxon meters. The tone and content of his poems ranged from pop-song clichés to complex philosophical meditations, from the corns on his toes to atoms and stars, from contemporary crises to the evolution of society. He also wrote more than four hundred essays and reviews about literature, history, politics, music, religion, and many other subjects. He collaborated on plays with Christopher Isherwood and on opera libretti with Chester Kallman, and worked with a group of artists and filmmakers on documentary films in the 1930s and with the New York Pro Musica early music group in the 1950s and 1960s. About collaboration he wrote in 1964: "collaboration has brought me greater erotic joy . . . than any sexual relations I have had." Auden controversially rewrote or discarded some of his most famous poems when he prepared his later collected editions. He wrote that he rejected poems that he found "boring" or "dishonest" in the sense that they expressed views he had never held but had used only because he felt they would be rhetorically effective. His rejected poems include "Spain" and "September 1, 1939". His literary executor, Edward Mendelson, argues in his introduction to Selected Poems that Auden's practice reflected his sense of the persuasive power of poetry and his reluctance to misuse it. (Selected Poems includes some poems that Auden rejected and early texts of poems that he revised.) Early work, 1922–1939 Up to 1930 Auden began writing poems in 1922, at 15, mostly in the styles of 19th-century romantic poets, especially Wordsworth, and later poets with rural interests, especially Thomas Hardy. At 18 he discovered T. S. Eliot and adopted an extreme version of Eliot's style. He found his own voice at 20 when he wrote the first poem later included in his collected work, "From the very first coming down". This and other poems of the late 1920s tended to be in a clipped, elusive style that alluded to, but did not directly state, their themes of loneliness and loss. Twenty of these poems appeared in his first book Poems (1928), a pamphlet hand-printed by Stephen Spender. In 1928 he wrote his first dramatic work, Paid on Both Sides, subtitled "A Charade", which combined style and content from the Icelandic sagas with jokes from English school life. This mixture of tragedy and farce, with a dream play-within-a-play, introduced the mixed styles and content of much of his later work. This drama and thirty short poems appeared in his first published book Poems (1930, 2nd edition with seven poems replaced, 1933); the poems in the book were mostly lyrical and gnomic meditations on hoped-for or unconsummated love and on themes of personal, social, and seasonal renewal; among these poems were "It was Easter as I walked", "Doom is dark", "Sir, no man's enemy", and "This lunar beauty". A recurrent theme in these early poems is the effect of "family ghosts", Auden's term for the powerful, unseen psychological effects of preceding generations on any individual life (and the title of a poem). A parallel theme, present throughout his work, is the contrast between biological evolution (unchosen and involuntary) and the psychological evolution of cultures and individuals (voluntary and deliberate even in its subconscious aspects). 1931–1935 Auden's next large-scale work was The Orators: An English Study (1932; revised editions, 1934, 1966), in verse and prose, largely about hero-worship in personal and political life. In his shorter poems, his style became more open and accessible, and the exuberant "Six Odes" in The Orators reflect his new interest in Robert Burns. During the next few years, many of his poems took their form and style from traditional ballads and popular songs, and also from expansive classical forms like the Odes of Horace, which he seems to have discovered through the German poet Hölderlin. Around this time his main influences were Dante, William Langland, and Alexander Pope. During these years much of his work expressed left-wing views, and he became widely known as a political poet although he was privately more ambivalent about revolutionary politics than many reviewers recognised, and Mendelson argues that he expounded political views partly out of a sense of moral duty and partly because it enhanced his reputation, and that he later regretted having done so. He generally wrote about revolutionary change in terms of a "change of heart", a transformation of a society from a closed-off psychology of fear to an open psychology of love. His verse drama The Dance of Death (1933) was a political extravaganza in the style of a theatrical revue, which Auden later called "a nihilistic leg-pull." His next play The Dog Beneath the Skin (1935), written in collaboration with Isherwood, was similarly a quasi-Marxist updating of Gilbert and Sullivan in which the general idea of social transformation was more prominent than any specific political action or structure. The Ascent of F6 (1937), another play written with Isherwood, was partly an anti-imperialist satire, partly (in the character of the self-destroying climber Michael Ransom) an examination of Auden's own motives in taking on a public role as a political poet. This play included the first version of "Funeral Blues" ("Stop all the clocks"), written as a satiric eulogy for a politician; Auden later rewrote the poem as a "Cabaret Song" about lost love (written to be sung by the soprano Hedli Anderson, for whom he wrote many lyrics in the 1930s). In 1935, he worked briefly on documentary films with the GPO Film Unit, writing his famous verse commentary for Night Mail and lyrics for other films that were among his attempts in the 1930s to create a widely accessible, socially conscious art. 1936–1939 In 1936 Auden's publisher chose the title Look, Stranger! for a collection of political odes, love poems, comic songs, meditative lyrics, and a variety of intellectually intense but emotionally accessible verse; Auden hated the title and retitled the collection for the 1937 US edition On This Island. Among the poems included in the book are "Hearing of harvests", "Out on the lawn I lie in bed", "O what is that sound", "Look, stranger, on this island now" (later revised versions change "on" to "at"), and "Our hunting fathers". Auden was now arguing that an artist should be a kind of journalist, and he put this view into practice in Letters from Iceland (1937) a travel book in prose and verse written with Louis MacNeice, which included his long social, literary, and autobiographical commentary "Letter to Lord Byron". In 1937, after observing the Spanish Civil War he wrote a politically engaged pamphlet poem Spain (1937); he later discarded it from his collected works. Journey to a War (1939) a travel book in prose and verse, was written with Isherwood after their visit to the Sino-Japanese War. Auden's last collaboration with Isherwood was their third play, On the Frontier, an anti-war satire written in Broadway and West End styles. Auden's shorter poems now engaged with the fragility and transience of personal love ("Danse Macabre", "The Dream", "Lay your sleeping head"), a subject he treated with ironic wit in his "Four Cabaret Songs for Miss Hedli Anderson" (which included "Tell Me the Truth About Love" and the revised version of "Funeral Blues"), and also the corrupting effect of public and official culture on individual lives ("Casino", "School Children", "Dover"). In 1938, he wrote a series of dark, ironic ballads about individual failure ("Miss Gee", "James Honeyman", "Victor"). All these appeared in Another Time (1940), together with poems including "Dover", "As He Is", and "Musée des Beaux Arts" (all of which were written before he moved to America in 1939), and "In Memory of W. B. Yeats", "The Unknown Citizen", "Law Like Love", "September 1, 1939", and "In Memory of Sigmund Freud" (all written in America). The elegies for Yeats and Freud are partly anti-heroic statements, in which great deeds are performed, not by unique geniuses whom others cannot hope to imitate, but by otherwise ordinary individuals who were "silly like us" (Yeats) or of whom it could be said "he wasn't clever at all" (Freud), and who became teachers of others, not awe-inspiring heroes. Middle period, 1940–1957 1940–1946 In 1940 Auden wrote a long philosophical poem "New Year Letter", which appeared with miscellaneous notes and other poems in The Double Man (1941). At the time of his return to the Anglican Communion he began writing abstract verse on theological themes, such as "Canzone" and "Kairos and Logos". Around 1942, as he became more comfortable with religious themes, his verse became more open and relaxed, and he increasingly used the syllabic verse he had learned from the poetry of Marianne Moore. Auden's work in this era addresses the artist's temptation to use other persons as material for his art rather than valuing them for themselves ("Prospero to Ariel") and the corresponding moral obligation to make and keep commitments while recognising the temptation to break them ("In Sickness and Health"). From 1942 through 1947 he worked mostly on three long poems in dramatic form, each differing from the others in form and content: "For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio", "The Sea and the Mirror: A Commentary on Shakespeare's The Tempest" (both published in For the Time Being, 1944), and The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue (published separately in 1947). The first two, with Auden's other new poems from 1940 to 1944, were included in his first collected edition, The Collected Poetry of W. H. Auden (1945), with most of his earlier poems, many in revised versions. 1947–1957 After completing The Age of Anxiety in 1946 he focused again on shorter poems, notably "A Walk After Dark", "The Love Feast", and "The Fall of Rome". Many of these evoked the Italian village where he spent his summers between 1948 and 1957, and his next book, Nones (1951), had a Mediterranean atmosphere new to his work. A new theme was the "sacred importance" of the human body in its ordinary aspect (breathing, sleeping, eating) and the continuity with nature that the body made possible (in contrast to the division between humanity and nature that he had emphasised in the 1930s); his poems on these themes included "In Praise of Limestone" (1948) and "Memorial for the City" (1949). In 1947-1948, Auden and Kallman wrote the libretto for Igor Stravinsky's opera The Rake's Progress, and later collaborated on two libretti for operas by Hans Werner Henze. Auden's first separate prose book was The Enchafèd Flood: The Romantic Iconography of the Sea (1950), based on a series of lectures on the image of the sea in romantic literature. Between 1949 and 1954 he worked on a sequence of seven Good Friday poems, titled "Horae Canonicae", an encyclopaedic survey of geological, biological, cultural, and personal history, focused on the irreversible act of murder; the poem was also a study in cyclical and linear ideas of time. While writing this, he also wrote "Bucolics", a sequence of seven poems about man's relation to nature. Both sequences appeared in his next book, The Shield of Achilles (1955), with other short poems, including the book's title poem, "Fleet Visit", and "Epitaph for the Unknown Soldier". In 1955–56 Auden wrote a group of poems about "history", the term he used to mean the set of unique events made by human choices, as opposed to "nature", the set of involuntary events created by natural processes, statistics, and anonymous forces such as crowds. These poems included "T the Great", "The Maker", and the title poem of his next collection Homage to Clio (1960). Later work, 1958–1973 In the late 1950s Auden's style became less rhetorical while its range of styles increased. In 1958, having moved his summer home from Italy to Austria, he wrote "Good-bye to the Mezzogiorno"; other poems from this period include "Dichtung und Wahrheit: An Unwritten Poem", a prose poem about the relation between love and personal and poetic language, and the contrasting "Dame Kind", about the anonymous impersonal reproductive instinct. These and other poems, including his 1955–66 poems about history, appeared in Homage to Clio (1960). His prose book The Dyer's Hand (1962) gathered many of the lectures he gave in Oxford as Professor of Poetry in 1956–61, together with revised versions of essays and notes written since the mid-1940s. Among the new styles and forms in Auden's later work were the haiku and tanka that he began writing after translating the haiku and other verse in Dag Hammarskjöld's Markings. A sequence of fifteen poems about his house in Austria, "Thanksgiving for a Habitat" (written in various styles that included an imitation of William Carlos Williams) appeared in About the House (1965), together with other poems that included his reflection on his lecture tours, "On the Circuit". In the late 1960s he wrote some of his most vigorous poems, including "River Profile" and two poems that looked back over his life, "Prologue at Sixty" and "Forty Years On". All these appeared in City Without Walls (1969). His lifelong passion for Icelandic legend culminated in his verse translation of The Elder Edda (1969). Among his later themes was the "religionless Christianity" he learned partly from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the dedicatee of his poem "Friday's Child". A Certain World: A Commonplace Book (1970) was a kind of self-portrait made up of favourite quotations with commentary, arranged in alphabetical order by subject. His last prose book was a selection of essays and reviews, Forewords and Afterwords (1973). His last books of verse, Epistle to a Godson (1972) and the unfinished Thank You, Fog (published posthumously, 1974) include reflective poems about language ("Natural Linguistics", "Aubade"), philosophy and science ("No, Plato, No", "Unpredictable but Providential"), and his own aging ("A New Year Greeting", "Talking to Myself", "A Lullaby" ["The din of work is subdued"]). His last completed poem was "Archaeology", about ritual and timelessness, two recurring themes in his later years. Reputation and influence Auden's stature in modern literature has been contested. Probably the most common critical view from the 1930s onward ranked him as the last and least of the three major twentieth-century poets of the UK or Ireland—behind Yeats and Eliot—while a minority view, more prominent in recent years, ranks him as the highest of the three. Opinions have ranged from those of Hugh MacDiarmid, who called him "a complete wash-out"; F. R. Leavis, who wrote that Auden's ironic style was "self-defensive, self-indulgent or merely irresponsible"; and Harold Bloom, who wrote "Close thy Auden, open thy [Wallace] Stevens," to the obituarist in The Times, who wrote: "W.H. Auden, for long the enfant terrible of English poetry... emerges as its undisputed master." Joseph Brodsky wrote that Auden had "the greatest mind of the twentieth century". Critical estimates were divided from the start. Reviewing Auden's first book, Poems (1930), Naomi Mitchison wrote "If this is really only the beginning, we have perhaps a master to look forward to." But John Sparrow, recalling Mitchison's comment in 1934, dismissed Auden's early work as "a monument to the misguided aims that prevail among contemporary poets, and the fact that... he is being hailed as 'a master' shows how criticism is helping poetry on the downward path." Auden's clipped, satiric, and ironic style in the 1930s was widely imitated by younger poets such as Charles Madge, who wrote in a poem "there waited for me in the summer morning / Auden fiercely. I read, shuddered, and knew." He was widely described as the leader of an "Auden group" that comprised his friends Stephen Spender, Cecil Day-Lewis, and Louis MacNeice. The four were mocked by the poet Roy Campbell as if they were a single undifferentiated poet named "Macspaunday." Auden's propagandistic poetic plays, including The Dog Beneath the Skin and The Ascent of F6, and his political poems such as "Spain" gave him the reputation as a political poet writing in a progressive and accessible voice, in contrast to Eliot; but this political stance provoked opposing opinions, such as that of Austin Clarke who called Auden's work "liberal, democratic, and humane", and John Drummond, who wrote that Auden misused a "characteristic and popularizing trick, the generalized image", to present ostensibly left-wing views that were in fact "confined to bourgeois experience." Auden's departure for America in 1939 was debated in Britain (once even in Parliament), with some seeing his emigration as a betrayal. Defenders of Auden such as Geoffrey Grigson, in an introduction to a 1949 anthology of modern poetry, wrote that Auden "arches over all". His stature was suggested by book titles such as Auden and After by Francis Scarfe (1942) and The Auden Generation by Samuel Hynes (1977). In the US, starting in the late 1930s, the detached, ironic tone of Auden's regular stanzas became influential; John Ashbery recalled that in the 1940s Auden "was the modern poet". Auden's formal influences were so pervasive in American poetry that the ecstatic style of the Beat Generation was partly a reaction against his influence. From the 1940s through the 1960s, many critics lamented that Auden's work had declined from its earlier promise; Randall Jarrell wrote a series of essays making a case against Auden's later work, and Philip Larkin's "What's Become of Wystan?" (1960) had a wide impact. The first full-length study of Auden was Richard Hoggart's Auden: An Introductory Essay (1951), which concluded that "Auden's work, then, is a civilising force." It was followed by Joseph Warren Beach's The Making of the Auden Canon (1957), a disapproving account of Auden's revisions of his earlier work. The first systematic critical account was Monroe K. Spears' The Poetry of W. H. Auden: The Disenchanted Island (1963), "written out of the conviction that Auden's poetry can offer the reader entertainment, instruction, intellectual excitement, and a prodigal variety of aesthetic pleasures, all in a generous abundance that is unique in our time." Auden was one of three candidates recommended by the Nobel Committee to the Swedish Academy for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1963 and 1965 and six recommended for the 1964 prize. By the time of his death in 1973 he had attained the status of a respected elder statesman, and a memorial stone for him was placed in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey in 1974. The Encyclopædia Britannica writes that "by the time of Eliot's death in 1965... a convincing case could be made for the assertion that Auden was indeed Eliot's successor, as Eliot had inherited sole claim to supremacy when Yeats died in 1939." With some exceptions, British critics tended to treat his early work as his best, while American critics tended to favour his middle and later work. Another group of critics and poets has maintained that unlike other modern poets, Auden's reputation did not decline after his death, and the influence of his later writing was especially strong on younger American poets including John Ashbery, James Merrill, Anthony Hecht, and Maxine Kumin. Typical later evaluations describe him as "arguably the [20th] century's greatest poet" (Peter Parker and Frank Kermode), who "now clearly seems the greatest poet in English since Tennyson" (Philip Hensher). Public recognition of Auden's work sharply increased after his "Funeral Blues" ("Stop all the clocks") was read aloud in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994); subsequently, a pamphlet edition of ten of his poems, Tell Me the Truth About Love, sold more than 275,000 copies. An excerpt from his poem "As I walked out one evening" was recited in the film Before Sunrise (1995). After 11 September 2001, his 1939 poem "September 1, 1939" was widely circulated and frequently broadcast. Public readings and broadcast tributes in the UK and US in 2007 marked his centenary year. Overall Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in tone, form and content. Memorial stones and plaques commemorating Auden include those in Westminster Abbey; at his birthplace at 55 Bootham, York; near his home on Lordswood Road, Birmingham; in the chapel of Christ Church, Oxford; on the site of his apartment at 1 Montague Terrace, Brooklyn Heights; at his apartment in 77 St. Marks Place, New York (damaged and now removed); at the site of his death at Walfischgasse 5 in Vienna; and in the Rainbow Honor Walk in San Francisco. In his house in Kirchstetten, his study is open to the public upon request. In 2023, newly declassified UK government files revealed that Auden was considered as a candidate to be the new Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom in 1967 following the death of John Masefield. He was rejected due to having taken American citizenship. Published works The following list includes only the books of poems and essays that Auden prepared during his lifetime; for a more complete list, including other works and posthumous editions, see W. H. Auden bibliography. Dates refer to first publication or first performance, not of composition. In the list below, works reprinted in the Complete Works of W. H. Auden are indicated by footnote references. Books Poems (London, 1930; second edn., seven poems substituted, London, 1933; includes poems and Paid on Both Sides: A Charade) (dedicated to Christopher Isherwood). The Orators: An English Study (London, 1932, verse and prose; slightly revised edn., London, 1934; revised edn. with new preface, London, 1966; New York 1967) (dedicated to Stephen Spender). The Dance of Death (London, 1933, play) (dedicated to Robert Medley and Rupert Doone). Poems (New York, 1934; contains Poems [1933 edition], The Orators [1932 edition], and The Dance of Death). The Dog Beneath the Skin (London, New York, 1935; play, with Christopher Isherwood) (dedicated to Robert Moody). The Ascent of F6 (London, 1936; 2nd edn., 1937; New York, 1937; play, with Christopher Isherwood) (dedicated to John Bicknell Auden). Look, Stranger! (London, 1936, poems; US edn., On This Island, New York, 1937) (dedicated to Erika Mann) Letters from Iceland (London, New York, 1937; verse and prose, with Louis MacNeice) (dedicated to George Augustus Auden). On the Frontier (London, 1938; New York 1939; play, with Christopher Isherwood) (dedicated to Benjamin Britten). Journey to a War (London, New York, 1939; verse and prose, with Christopher Isherwood) (dedicated to E. M. Forster). Another Time (London, New York 1940; poetry) (dedicated to Chester Kallman). The Double Man (New York, 1941, poems; UK edn., New Year Letter, London, 1941) (Dedicated to Elizabeth Mayer). For the Time Being (New York, 1944; London, 1945; two long poems: "The Sea and the Mirror: A Commentary on Shakespeare's The Tempest", dedicated to James and Tania Stern, and "For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio", in memoriam Constance Rosalie Auden [Auden's mother]). The Collected Poetry of W. H. Auden (New York, 1945; includes new poems) (dedicated to Christopher Isherwood and Chester Kallman). Full text. The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue (New York, 1947; London, 1948; verse; won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry) (dedicated to John Betjeman). Collected Shorter Poems, 1930–1944 (London, 1950; similar to 1945 Collected Poetry) (dedicated to Christopher Isherwood and Chester Kallman). The Enchafèd Flood (New York, 1950; London, 1951; prose) (dedicated to Alan Ansen). Nones (New York, 1951; London, 1952; poems) (dedicated to Reinhold and Ursula Niebuhr) The Shield of Achilles (New York, London, 1955; poems) (won the 1956 National Book Award for Poetry) (dedicated to Lincoln and Fidelma Kirstein). Homage to Clio (New York, London, 1960; poems) (dedicated to E. R. and A. E. Dodds). The Dyer's Hand (New York, 1962; London, 1963; essays) (dedicated to Nevill Coghill). About the House (New York, London, 1965; poems) (dedicated to Edmund and Elena Wilson). Collected Shorter Poems 1927–1957 (London, 1966; New York, 1967) (dedicated to Christopher Isherwood and Chester Kallman). Collected Longer Poems (London, 1968; New York, 1969). Secondary Worlds (London, New York, 1969; prose) (dedicated to Valerie Eliot). City Without Walls and Other Poems (London, New York, 1969) (dedicated to Peter Heyworth). A Certain World: A Commonplace Book (New York, London, 1970; quotations with commentary) (dedicated to Geoffrey Grigson). Epistle to a Godson and Other Poems (London, New York, 1972) (dedicated to Orlan Fox). Forewords and Afterwords (New York, London, 1973; essays) (dedicated to Hannah Arendt). Thank You, Fog: Last Poems (London, New York, 1974) (dedicated to Michael and Marny Yates). Film scripts and opera libretti Coal Face (1935, closing chorus for GPO Film Unit documentary). Night Mail (1936, narrative for GPO Film Unit documentary, not published separately except as a programme note). Paul Bunyan (1941, libretto for operetta by Benjamin Britten; not published until 1976). The Rake's Progress (1951, with Chester Kallman, libretto for an opera by Igor Stravinsky). Elegy for Young Lovers (1961, with Chester Kallman, libretto for an opera by Hans Werner Henze). The Bassarids (1966, with Chester Kallman, libretto for an opera by Hans Werner Henze based on The Bacchae of Euripides). Runner (1962, documentary film narrative for National Film Board of Canada) Love's Labour's Lost (1973, with Chester Kallman, libretto for an opera by Nicolas Nabokov, based on Shakespeare's play). Musical collaborations Our Hunting Fathers (1936, song cycle written for Benjamin Britten) Hymn to St Cecilia (1942, choral piece composed by Benjamin Britten) An Evening of Elizabethan Verse and its Music (1954 recording with the New York Pro Musica Antiqua, director Noah Greenberg; Auden spoke the verse texts) The Play of Daniel (1958, verse narration for a production by the New York Pro Musica Antiqua, director Noah Greenberg) References Citations General and cited sources Auden, W. H.; ed. by Katherine Bucknell and Nicholas Jenkins (1990) "The Map of All My Youth": early works, friends and influences (Auden Studies 1). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-812964-5. Auden, W. H.; ed. by Katherine Bucknell and Nicholas Jenkins (1994). "The Language of Learning and the Language of Love": uncollected writings, new interpretations (Auden Studies 2). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-812257-8. Auden, W. H.; ed. by Katherine Bucknell and Nicholas Jenkins (1995). "In Solitude, For Company": W. H. Auden after 1940: unpublished prose and recent criticism (Auden Studies 3). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-818294-5. Carpenter, Humphrey (1981). W. H. Auden: A Biography. London: George Allen & Unwin. ISBN 0-04-928044-9. Clark, Thekla (1995). Wystan and Chester: A Personal Memoir of W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-17591-0. Davenport-Hines, Richard (1996). Auden. London: Heinemann. ISBN 0-434-17507-2. Farnan, Dorothy J. (1984). Auden in Love. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-50418-5. Fuller, John (1998). W. H. Auden: A Commentary. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-19268-8. Haffenden, John, ed. (1983). W. H. Auden: The Critical Heritage. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. ISBN 0-7100-9350-0. Kirsch, Arthur (2005). Auden and Christianity. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-10814-1. Mendelson, Edward (1981). Early Auden. New York: Viking. ISBN 0-670-28712-1. Mendelson, Edward (1999). Later Auden. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 0-374-18408-9. Mendelson, Edward (2017). Early Auden, Later Auden: A Critical Biography. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-17249-1. Mitchell, Donald (1981), Britten and Auden in the Thirties: the year 1936. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-11715-5. Myers, Alan and Forsythe, Robert (1999), W. H. Auden: Pennine Poet Archived 9 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Nenthead: North Pennines Heritage Trust. ISBN 0-9513535-7-8. Pamphlet with map and gazetteer. Sharpe, Tony, ed. (2013). W. H. Auden in Context Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-19657-4. Smith, Stan, ed. (2004). The Cambridge Companion to W. H. Auden Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-53647-2. Spears, Monroe K. (1963). The Poetry of W. H. Auden: The Disenchanted Island. New York: Oxford University Press. Further reading Costello, Bonnie (2015). Auden At Work. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-137-45292-4. Hecht, Anthony (1993). The Hidden Law: The Poetry of W.H. Auden. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-39006-7. Huddleston, Robert (25 February 2015). "'Poetry Makes Nothing Happen' W. H. Auden's Struggle with Politics". Boston Review. Mendelson, Edward (2015). Moral Agents: Eight Twentieth-Century American Writers. New York Review Books. ISBN 978-1-59017-776-1. Osborne, Charles (1979). W. H. Auden: The Life of a Poet. Methuen. ISBN 978-0-87131-788-9. Spender, Stephen, ed. (1975). W.H. Auden: A Tribute. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-76884-0. Stroll, John E. (1970). W. H. Auden: A Reading. Ball State University. Wright, George Thaddeus (1969). W. H. Auden. Twayne Publishers. ISBN 0-8057-7346-0. External links W. H. Auden material Archived 9 December 2022 at the Wayback Machine at the British Library W. H. Auden material at the UK National Archives W. H. Auden Society Works by W. H. Auden at Open Library Poetry by W. H. Auden at the Academy of American Poets Auden Musulin Papers: A Digital Edition of W. H. Auden's Letters to Stella Musulin at the Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage

What was the age difference between the inventor of Barbie and the inventor of Hot Wheels?

6 months and 26 days.

Numerical reasoning | Post processing | Temporal reasoning

Barbie is a fashion doll created by American businesswoman Ruth Handler, manufactured by American toy and entertainment company Mattel and introduced on March 9, 1959. The toy was based on the German Bild Lilli doll which Handler had purchased while in Europe. The figurehead of an eponymous brand that includes a range of fashion dolls and accessories, Barbie has been an important part of the toy fashion doll market for over six decades. Mattel has sold over a billion Barbie dolls, making it the company's largest and most profitable line. The brand has expanded into a multimedia franchise since 1984, including video games, animated films, television/web series, and a live-action film. Barbie and her male counterpart, Ken, have been described as the two most popular dolls in the world. Mattel generates a large portion of Barbie's revenue through related merchandise —accessories, clothes, friends, and relatives of Barbie. Writing for Journal of Popular Culture in 1977, Don Richard Cox noted that Barbie has a significant impact on social values by conveying characteristics of female independence, and with her multitude of accessories, an idealized upscale lifestyle that can be shared with affluent friends. History Development Ruth Handler watched her daughter Barbara play with paper dolls, and noticed that she often enjoyed giving them adult roles. At the time, most children's toy dolls were representations of infants. Realizing that there could be a gap in the market, Handler suggested the idea of an adult-bodied doll to her husband Elliot, a co-founder of the Mattel toy company. He was unenthusiastic about the idea, as were Mattel's directors. During a trip to Switzerland in 1956 with her children Barbara and Kenneth, Ruth Handler came across a German toy doll called Bild Lilli. The adult-figured doll was exactly what Handler had in mind, so she purchased three of them. She gave one to her daughter and took the others back to Mattel. The Lilli doll was based on a popular character appearing in a satirical comic strip drawn by Reinhard Beuthin for the newspaper Bild. The Lilli doll was first sold in West Germany in 1955, and although it was initially sold to adults, it became popular with children who enjoyed dressing her up in outfits that were available separately. Upon her return to the United States, Handler redesigned the doll (with help from local inventor-designer Jack Ryan) and the doll was given a new name, Barbie, after Handler's daughter Barbara. The doll made its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York City on March 9, 1959. This date is also used as Barbie's official birthday. Launch The first Barbie doll wore a black-and-white zebra striped swimsuit and signature topknot ponytail, and was available as either a blonde or brunette. The doll was marketed as a "Teen-age Fashion Model", with her clothes created by Mattel fashion designer Charlotte Johnson. Analysts expected the doll to perform poorly due to her adult appearance and widespread assumptions about consumer preferences at the time. Ruth Handler believed it was important for Barbie to have an adult appearance, but early market research showed that some parents were unhappy about the doll's chest, which had distinct breasts. Barbie sold about 350,000 units in her first year, beating market expectations and generating upside risk for investors. Sales of Barbie exceeded Mattel's ability to produce her for the first three years of her run. The market stabilized for the next decade while volume and margin increased by exporting refurbished dolls to Japan. Barbie was manufactured in Japan during this time, with her clothes hand-stitched by Japanese homeworkers. Louis Marx and Company sued Mattel in March 1961. After licensing Lilli, they claimed that Mattel had "infringed on Greiner & Hausser's patent for Bild-Lilli's hip joint", and also claimed that Barbie was "a direct take-off and copy" of Bild-Lilli. The company additionally claimed that Mattel "falsely and misleadingly represented itself as having originated the design". Mattel counter-claimed and the case was settled out of court in 1963. In 1964, Mattel bought Greiner & Hausser's copyright and patent rights for the Bild-Lilli doll for $21,600. Barbie's appearance has been changed many times, most notably in 1971 when the doll's eyes were adjusted to look forwards rather than having the demure sideways glance of the original model. This would be the last adjustment Ruth would make to her own creation as, three years later, she and her husband Elliot were removed from their posts at Mattel after an investigation found them guilty of issuing false and misleading financial reports. Barbie was one of the first toys to have a marketing strategy based extensively on television advertising, which has been copied widely by other toys. In 2006, it was estimated that over a billion Barbie dolls had been sold worldwide in over 150 countries, with Mattel claiming that three Barbie dolls are sold every second. Sales of Barbie dolls declined sharply from 2014 to 2016. According to MarketWatch, the release of the 2023 film Barbie is expected to create "significant growth" for the brand until at least 2030. As well as reinvigorated sales, the release of the film triggered a fashion trend known as "Barbiecore" and a film-related cultural phenomena named Barbenheimer. Appearances in media Since 1984, in response to a rise of digital and interactive media and a gradual decline in toys and doll sales at that time, Barbie has been featured in an eponymous media franchise beginning with the release of two eponymous video games, one that year and another in 1991 and two syndicated television specials released in 1987; Barbie and the Rockers: Out of This World and its sequel. She then began to appear as a virtual actress in a series of direct-to-video animated feature films with Barbie in the Nutcracker in 2001, which were also broadcast on Nickelodeon in the United States as promotional specials until 2017. Since 2017, the film series were revamped as streaming television films, branded as animated "specials" and released through streaming media services, primarily on Netflix. At the time of the release of Barbie in the Pink Shoes on February 26, 2013, the film series have sold over 110 million units globally. Since 2012, she has appeared in several television and web series; including Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse, Barbie: Dreamtopia, Barbie: Dreamhouse Adventures, Barbie: It Takes Two and Barbie: A Touch of Magic. Aside in lead roles, she has appeared as a supporting character in the Toy Story films between its second and third sequels with a cameo at the fourth and the My Scene media franchise. In 2015, Barbie began appearing as a vlogger on YouTube called Barbie Vlogger where she talks about her fictional life, fashion, friends and family, and even charged topics such as mental health and racism. She was portrayed by Australian actress Margot Robbie in a live-action film adaptation released on July 21, 2023, by Warner Bros. Pictures in the United States. Fictional biography Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts and her parents' names are given as George and Margaret Roberts from the fictional town of Willows, Wisconsin, in a series of novels published by Random House in the 1960s. In those novels, Barbie attended Willows High School; while in the Generation Girl books, published by Golden Books in 1999, she attended the fictional Manhattan International High School in New York City (based on the real-life Stuyvesant High School). She has an on-off romantic relationship with her then-boyfriend Ken (full name "Kenneth Sean Carson"), who first appeared in 1961. A news release from Mattel in February 2004 announced that Barbie and Ken had decided to split up, but in February 2006, they were hoping to rekindle their relationship after Ken had a makeover. In 2011, Mattel launched a campaign for Ken to win Barbie's affections back. The pair officially reunited in Valentine's Day 2011. Beginning with Barbie Dreamhouse Adventures in 2018, the pair are seen as just friends or next-door neighbors until a brief return to pre-2018 aesthetics in the 2023 television show, Barbie: A Touch of Magic. Mattel has created a range of companions and relatives for Barbie. She has three younger sisters: Skipper, Stacie, and Chelsea (named Kelly until 2011). Her sisters have co-starred in many entries of the Barbie film series, starting with Barbie & Her Sisters in A Pony Tale from 2013. 'Retired' members of Barbie's family included Todd (twin brother to Stacie), Krissy (a baby sister), and Francie (cousin). Barbie's friends include Hispanic Teresa, Midge, African American Christie, and Steven (Christie's boyfriend). Barbie was also friendly with Blaine, an Australian surfer, during her split with Ken in 2004. Barbie has had over 40 pets including cats and dogs, horses, a panda, a lion cub, and a zebra. She has owned a wide range of vehicles, including pink Beetle and Corvette convertibles, trailers, and Jeeps. She also holds a pilot's license, and operates commercial airliners in addition to serving as a flight attendant. Barbie's careers are designed to show that women can take on a variety of roles in life, and the doll has been sold with a wide range of titles including Miss Astronaut Barbie (1965), Doctor Barbie (1988), and Nascar Barbie (1998). Legacy and influence Barbie has become a cultural icon and has been given honors that are rare in the toy world. In 1974, a section of Times Square in New York City was renamed Barbie Boulevard for a week. The Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris at the Louvre held a Barbie exhibit in 2016. The exhibit featured 700 Barbie dolls over two floors as well as works by contemporary artists and documents (newspapers, photos, video) that contextualize Barbie. In 1986, the artist Andy Warhol created a painting of Barbie. The painting sold at auction at Christie's, London for $1.1 million. In 2015, The Andy Warhol Foundation then teamed up with Mattel to create an Andy Warhol Barbie. Outsider artist Al Carbee took thousands of photographs of Barbie and created countless collages and dioramas featuring Barbie in various settings. Carbee was the subject of the 2013 feature-length documentary Magical Universe. Carbee's collage art was presented in the 2016 Barbie exhibit at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris in the section about visuals artists who have been inspired by Barbie. In 2013, in Taiwan, the first Barbie-themed restaurant called "Barbie Café" opened under the Sinlaku group. The Economist has emphasized the importance of Barbie to children's imagination:From her early days as a teenage fashion model, Barbie has appeared as an astronaut, surgeon, Olympic athlete, downhill skier, aerobics instructor, TV news reporter, vet, rock star, doctor, army officer, air force pilot, summit diplomat, rap musician, presidential candidate (party undefined), baseball player, scuba diver, lifeguard, fire-fighter, engineer, dentist, and many more. [...] When Barbie first burst into the toy shops, just as the 1960s were breaking, the doll market consisted mostly of babies, designed for girls to cradle, rock and feed. By creating a doll with adult features, Mattel enabled girls to become anything they want. On September 7, 2021, following the debut of the streaming television film Barbie: Big City, Big Dreams on Netflix, Barbie joined forces with Grammy Award-nominated music producer, songwriter, singer and actress Ester Dean and Girls Make Beats – an organization dedicated to expanding the female presence of music producers, DJs and audio engineers – to inspire more girls to explore a future in music production. Mattel Adventure Park In 2023, Mattel broke ground on a theme park near Phoenix, Arizona. The park is to open in 2024 and highlights Mattel's toys, including a Barbie Beach House, a Thomas & Friends themed ride, and a Hot Wheels go-kart race track. The theme park will take place at the VAI Resort complex, located 15 miles (24 km) west of Phoenix, Arizona. 50th anniversary In 2009, Barbie celebrated her 50th birthday. The celebrations included a runway show in New York for the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. The event showcased fashions contributed by fifty well-known haute couturiers including Diane von Fürstenberg, Vera Wang, Calvin Klein, Bob Mackie, and Christian Louboutin. Barbie Dream Gap Project In 2019, Mattel launched the "Barbie Dream Gap Project" to raise awareness of the phenomenon known as the "Dream Gap": beginning at the age of five, girls begin to doubt their own intelligence, where boys do not. This leads to boys pursuing careers requiring a higher intelligence, and girls being underrepresented in those careers. As an example, in the U.S., 33% of sitting judges are female. This statistic inspired the release of Judge Barbie in four different skin tones and hairstyles with judge robes and a gavel accessory. Thank You Heroes In May 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mattel announced a new line of career dolls modeled after the first responders and essential workers of 2020. For every doll purchased, Mattel donated a doll to the First Responders Children's Foundation. Habitat for Humanity In February 2022, Mattel celebrated its 60-year anniversary of the Barbie Dreamhouse by partnering with Habitat for Humanity International. Mattel committed to taking on 60 projects, including new construction, home preservation, and neighborhood revitalization. Bad influence concerns In July 1992, Mattel released Teen Talk Barbie, which spoke a number of phrases including "Will we ever have enough clothes?", "I love shopping!", and "Wanna have a pizza party?" Each doll was programmed to say four out of 270 possible phrases, so that no two given dolls were likely to be the same (the number of possible combinations is 270!/(266!4!) = 216,546,345). One of these 270 phrases was "Math class is tough!", which led to criticism from the American Association of University Women; about 1.5% of all the dolls sold said the phrase. The doll was often erroneously misattributed in the media as having said "Math is hard!" In October 1992, Mattel announced that Teen Talk Barbie would no longer say "Math class is tough!", and offered a swap to anyone who owned a doll that did. In 2002, Mattel introduced a line of pregnant Midge (and baby) dolls, but this Happy Family line was quickly pulled from the market due to complaints that she promoted teen pregnancy, though Midge was supposed to be a married adult. In September 2003, the Middle Eastern country of Saudi Arabia outlawed the sale of Barbie dolls and franchises, stating that they did not conform to the ideals of Islam. The Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice warned, "Jewish Barbie dolls, with their revealing clothes and shameful postures, accessories and tools are a symbol of decadence to the perverted West. Let us beware of her dangers and be careful." The 2003 Saudi ban was temporary. In Muslim-majority nations, there is an alternative doll called Fulla, which was introduced in November 2003 and is equivalent to Barbie, but is designed specifically to represent traditional Islamic values. Fulla is not manufactured by Mattel (although Mattel still licenses Fulla dolls and franchises for sale in certain markets), and (as of January 2021) the "Jewish" Barbie brand is still available in other Muslim-majority countries including Egypt and Indonesia. In Iran, the Sara and Dara dolls, which were introduced in March 2002, are available as an alternative to Barbie, even though they have not been as successful. In November 2014, Mattel received criticism over the book I Can Be a Computer Engineer, which depicted Barbie as personally inept at computers, requiring her two male friends complete all of the necessary tasks to restore two laptops after she accidentally infects her and her sister's laptop with a malware-laced USB flash drive, before ultimately getting credit for recovering her sister's school project. Critics felt that the characterization of Barbie as a software designer lacking low-level technical skills was sexist, as other books in the I Can Be... series depicted Barbie as someone who was totally competent in those jobs and did not require outside assistance from others. Mattel later removed the book from sale on Amazon in response to the criticism, and the company released a "Computer Engineer Barbie" doll who was a game programmer rather than game designer. Diversity "Colored Francie" made her debut in 1967, and she is sometimes described as the first African-American Barbie doll. However, she was produced using the existing head molds for the white Francie doll and lacked distinct African characteristics other than dark skin. The first African-American doll in the Barbie range is usually regarded as Christie, who made her debut in 1968. Black Barbie was launched in 1980 but still had Caucasian features. In 1990, Mattel created a focus group with African-American children and parents, early childhood specialists, and clinical psychologist, Darlene Powell Hudson. Instead of using the same molds for the Caucasian Barbies, new ones were created. In addition, facial features, skin tones, hair texture, and names were all altered. The body shapes looked different, but the proportions were the same to ensure clothing and accessories were interchangeable. In September 2009, Mattel introduced the So In Style range, which was intended to create a more realistic depiction of African-American people than previous dolls. Starting in 1980, it produced Hispanic dolls, and later came models from across the globe. For example, in 2007, it introduced "Cinco de Mayo Barbie" wearing a ruffled red, white, and green dress (echoing the Mexican flag). Hispanic magazine reports that:[O]ne of the most dramatic developments in Barbie's history came when she embraced multi-culturalism and was released in a wide variety of native costumes, hair colors and skin tones to more closely resemble the girls who idolized her. Among these were Cinco De Mayo Barbie, Spanish Barbie, Peruvian Barbie, Mexican Barbie and Puerto Rican Barbie. She also has had close Hispanic friends, such as Teresa. Professor Emilie Rose Aguilo-Perez argued that over time, Mattel shifted from ambiguous Hispanic presentations in their dolls to one that is more assertive in its "Latinx" marketing and product labeling. Mattel has responded to criticisms pointing to a lack of diversity in the line. In 2016, Mattel expanded the So In Style line to include seven skin tones, twenty-two eye colors, and twenty-four hairstyles. Part of the reason for this change was due to declining sales. The brand now offers over 22 skin tones, 94 hair colors, 13 eye colors and five body types. Mattel teamed up with Nabisco to launch a cross-promotion Barbie doll with Oreo cookies in 1997 and 2001. While the 1997 release of the doll was only released in a white version, for the 2001 release Mattel manufactured both a white and a black version. The 2001 release Barbie Oreo School Time Fun was marketed as someone with whom young girls could play after class and share "America's favorite cookie". Critics argued that in the African American community, Oreo is a derogatory term meaning that the person is "black on the outside and white on the inside", like the chocolate sandwich cookie itself. In May 1997, Mattel introduced Share a Smile Becky, a doll in a pink wheelchair. Kjersti Johnson, a 17-year-old high school student in Tacoma, Washington with cerebral palsy, pointed out that the doll would not fit into the elevator of Barbie's $100 Dream House. Mattel announced that it would redesign the house in the future to accommodate the doll. In July 2024, Mattel released the first blind Barbie in collaboration with the American Foundation for the Blind. Alongside this, the company also launched a black Barbie with Down syndrome. Role model Barbies In March 2018, in time for International Women's Day, Mattel unveiled the "Barbie Celebrates Role Models" campaign with a line of 17 dolls, informally known as "sheroes", from diverse backgrounds "to showcase examples of extraordinary women". Mattel developed this collection in response to mothers concerned about their daughters having positive female role models. Dolls in this collection include Frida Kahlo, Patti Jenkins, Chloe Kim, Nicola Adams, Ibtihaj Muhammad, Bindi Irwin, Amelia Earhart, Misty Copeland, Helene Darroze, Katherine Johnson, Sara Gama, Martyna Wojciechowska, Gabby Douglas, Guan Xiaotong, Ava Duvernay, Yuan Yuan Tan, Iris Apfel, Ashley Graham and Leyla Piedayesh. In 2020, the company announced a new release of "shero" dolls, including Paralympic champion Madison de Rozario, and world four-time sabre champion Olga Kharlan. In July 2021, Mattel released a Naomi Osaka Barbie doll as a part of the 'Barbie Role Model' series. Osaka originally partnered with Barbie two years earlier. A month earlier, a Julie Bishop doll was released to acknowledge the former Australian politician, as was one for general practitioner Kirby White for her work during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. In August 2021 a Barbie modelled after European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti was released. Collecting The standard range of Barbie dolls and related accessories are manufactured to approximately 1/6 scale, which is also known as playscale. The standard dolls are approximately 11+1⁄2 inches (29 cm) tall. Mattel estimates that there are well over 100,000 avid Barbie collectors. Ninety percent are women, at an average age of 40, purchasing more than twenty Barbie dolls each year. Forty-five percent of them spend upwards of $1000 a year. Vintage Barbie dolls from the early years are the most valuable at auction, and while the original Barbie was sold for $3.00 in 1959, a mint boxed Barbie from 1959 sold for $3552.50 on eBay in October 2004. On September 26, 2006, a Barbie doll set a world record at auction of £9,000 sterling (US$17,000) at Christie's in London. The doll was a Barbie in Midnight Red from 1965 and was part of a private collection of 4,000 Barbie dolls being sold by two Dutch women, Ietje Raebel and her daughter Marina. In recent years, Mattel has sold a wide range of Barbie dolls aimed specifically at collectors, including porcelain versions, vintage reproductions, and depictions of Barbie as a range of characters from film and television series such as The Munsters and Star Trek. There are also collector's edition dolls depicting Barbie dolls with a range of different ethnic identities. In 2004, Mattel introduced the Color Tier system for its collector's edition Barbie dolls including pink, silver, gold, and platinum, depending on how many of the dolls are produced. In 2020, Mattel introduced the Dia De Los Muertos collectible Barbie doll, the second collectible released as part of the company's La Catrina line which was launched in 2019. Parodies and lawsuits Barbie has frequently been the target of parody: Mattel sued artist Tom Forsythe over a 1999 series of photographs called Food Chain Barbie in which Barbie winds up in a blender. Mattel lost the lawsuit and was forced to pay Forsythe's legal costs. On the 25th episode of In Living Color, in December 1990, a Homey D. Clown sketch found HDC filling in for Santa Claus at a shopping mall. A little girl (Kelly Coffield) asks for a Malibu Barbie & Condominium playset; instead, "Homey Claus" gives her "Compton Carlotta" (a crude doll made of sticks and bottlecaps) with a slum-apartment (a milk carton). When the girl complains, Homey raises his signature blackjack and wishes her a Merry Christmas; taking the hint, she thanks him and hastily retires. In Latin America, notable controversies include a 2018 legal dispute involving the Panama-based Frida Kahlo Corporation's allegations that Frida Kahlo's great-niece in Mexico had wrongly licensed the Frida Kahlo trademark for the "Frida Kahlo Barbie" doll. Mattel filed a lawsuit in 2004 in the U.S. against Barbara Anderson-Walley, a Canadian business owner whose nickname is Barbie, over her website, which sells fetish clothing. The lawsuit was dismissed. In 2011, Greenpeace parodied Barbie, calling on Mattel to adopt a policy for its paper purchases that would protect the rainforest. Four months later, Mattel adopted a paper sustainability policy. Saturday Night Live aired a parody of the Barbie commercials featuring "Gangsta Bitch Barbie" and "Tupac Ken". In 2002, the show also aired a skit, which starred Britney Spears as Barbie's sister Skipper. In November 2002, a New York judge refused an injunction against the British-based artist Susanne Pitt, who had produced a "Dungeon Barbie" doll in bondage clothing. Aqua's song "Barbie Girl" was the subject of the lawsuit Mattel v. MCA Records, which Mattel lost in 2002, with Judge Alex Kozinski saying that the song was a "parody and a social commentary". Two commercials by automobile company Nissan featuring dolls similar to Barbie and Ken was the subject of another lawsuit in 1997. In the first commercial, a female doll is lured into a car by a doll resembling G.I. Joe to the dismay of a Ken-like doll, accompanied by Van Halen's "You Really Got Me". In the second commercial, the "Barbie" doll is saved by the "G.I. Joe" doll after she is accidentally knocked into a swimming pool by the "Ken" doll to Kiss's "Calling Dr. Love". The makers of the commercial said that the dolls' names were Roxanne, Nick and Tad. Mattel claimed that the commercial did "irreparable damage" to its products, but settled. In 1999, Canadian nude model Barbie Doll Benson was involved in a trademark infringement case over her domain name, BarbieBenson.com. In 1993, a group calling itself the Barbie Liberation Organization secretly modified a group of Barbie dolls by implanting voice boxes from G.I. Joe dolls, then returning the Barbies to the toy stores from where they were purchased. Malibu Stacy from The Simpsons 1994 episode "Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy". Savior Barbie refers to a satirical Instagram account. Savior Barbie is depicted as being in Africa where she runs an NGO that provides drinking water to locals and makes sure to provide footage that depicts her glorious acts of goodness. The account is likely to have inspired others such as "Hipster Barbie" and "Socality Barbie". Competition from Bratz dolls In May 2001, MGA Entertainment launched the Bratz series of dolls, a move that gave Barbie her first serious competition in the fashion doll market. In 2004, sales figures showed that Bratz dolls were outselling Barbie dolls in the United Kingdom, although Mattel maintained that in terms of the number of dolls, clothes, and accessories sold, Barbie remained the leading brand. In 2005, figures showed that sales of Barbie dolls had fallen by 30% in the United States, and by 18% worldwide, with much of the drop being attributed to the popularity of Bratz dolls. In December 2006, Mattel sued MGA Entertainment for $1 billion, alleging that Bratz creator Carter Bryant was working for Mattel when he developed the idea for Bratz. On July 17, 2008, a federal jury agreed that the Bratz line was created by Carter Bryant while he was working for Mattel and that MGA and its chief executive officer Isaac Larian were liable for converting Mattel property for their own use and intentionally interfering with the contractual duties owed by Bryant to Mattel. On August 26, the jury found that Mattel would have to be paid $100 million in damages. On December 3, 2008, U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson banned MGA from selling Bratz. He allowed the company to continue selling the dolls until the winter holiday season ended. On appeal, a stay was granted by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; the Court also overturned the District Court's original ruling for Mattel, where MGA Entertainment was ordered to forfeit the entire Bratz brand. Mattel Inc. and MGA Entertainment Inc. returned to court on January 18, 2011, to renew their battle over who owns Bratz, which this time included accusations from both companies that the other side stole trade secrets. On April 21, 2011, a federal jury returned a verdict supporting MGA. On August 5, 2011, Mattel was also ordered to pay MGA $310 million for attorney fees, stealing trade secrets, and false claims rather than the $88.5 million issued in April. In August 2009, MGA introduced a range of dolls called Moxie Girlz, intended as a replacement for Bratz dolls. Effects on body image From the start, some have complained that "the blonde, plastic doll conveyed an unrealistic body image to girls." Criticisms of Barbie are often centered around concerns that children consider Barbie a role model and will attempt to emulate her. One of the most common criticisms of Barbie is that she promotes an unrealistic idea of body image for a young woman, leading to a risk that girls who attempt to emulate her will become anorexic. Unrealistic body proportions in Barbie dolls have been connected to some eating disorders in children. A standard Barbie doll is 11.5 inches (29 cm) tall, giving a height of 5 feet 9 inches (1.75 m) at 1/6 scale. Barbie's vital statistics have been estimated at 36 inches (91 cm) (chest), 18 inches (46 cm) (waist) and 33 inches (84 cm) (hips). According to research by the University Central Hospital in Helsinki, Finland, she would lack the 17 to 22 percent body fat required for a woman to menstruate. In 1963, the outfit "Barbie Baby-Sits" came with a book titled How to Lose Weight which advised: "Don't eat!" The same book was included in another ensemble called "Slumber Party" in 1965 along with a pink bathroom scale permanently set at 110 pounds (50 kg), which would be underweight for a woman 5 feet 9 inches (1.75 m) tall. Mattel said that the waist of the Barbie doll was made small because the waistbands of her clothes, along with their seams, snaps, and zippers, added bulk to her figure. In 1997, Barbie's body mold was redesigned and given a wider waist, with Mattel saying that this would make the doll better suited to contemporary fashion designs. In 2016, Mattel introduced a range of new body types: 'tall', 'petite', and 'curvy', releasing them exclusively as part of the Barbie Fashionistas line. 'Curvy Barbie' received a great deal of media attention and even made the cover of Time magazine with the headline "Now Can We Stop Talking About My Body?". Despite the curvy doll's body shape being equivalent to a US size 4 in clothing, some children reportedly regarded her as "fat". Although Barbie had been criticized for its unrealistic-looking "tall and petite" dolls, the company has been offering more dolls set to more realistic standards in order to help promote a positive body image. "Barbie syndrome" "Barbie syndrome" is a term that has been used to depict the desire to have a physical appearance and lifestyle representative of the Barbie doll. It is most often associated with pre-teenage and adolescent girls but is applicable to any age group or gender. A person with Barbie syndrome attempts to emulate the doll's physical appearance, even though the doll has unattainable body proportions. This syndrome is seen as a form of body dysmorphic disorder and results in various eating disorders as well as an obsession with cosmetic surgery. Ukrainian model Valeria Lukyanova has received attention from the press, due in part to her appearance having been modified based on the physique of Barbie. She stated that she has only had breast implants and relies heavily on make up and contacts to alter her appearance. Similarly, Lacey Wildd, an American reality television personality frequently referred to as "Million Dollar Barbie", has also undergone 12 breast augmentation surgeries to become "the extreme Barbie". Jessica Alves, prior to coming out as transgender, underwent over £373,000 worth of cosmetic procedures to match the appearance of Barbie's male counterpart, garnering her the nickname the "Human Ken Doll". These procedures have included multiple nose jobs, six pack ab implants, a buttock lift, and hair and chest implants. Sporting the same nickname, Justin Jedlica, the American businessman, has also received multiple cosmetic surgeries to enhance his Ken-like appearance. In 2006, researchers Helga Dittmar, Emma Halliwell, and Suzanne Ive conducted an experiment testing how dolls, including Barbie, affect self-image in young girls. Dittmar, Halliwell, and Ive gave picture books to girls age 5–8, one with photos of Barbie and the other with photos of Emme, a doll with more realistic physical features. The girls were then asked about their ideal body size. Their research found that the girls who were exposed to the images of Barbie had significantly lower self-esteem than the girls who had photos of Emme. However, Benjamin Radford noted that the answer may not be this simple since this research also showed that the age of the girl was a significant factor in the influence the doll had on her self esteem. Notable designers Kitty Black Perkins, creator of Black Barbie Carol Spencer, Barbie fashion designer from 1963 to 1999 See also Creatable World Lammily – a crowd funded alternative developed by Nickolay Lamm List of Barbie animated films List of Barbie video games Sindy Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story The Most Popular Girls in School Totally Hair Barbie Notes References Further reading Best, Joel. "Too Much Fun: Toys as Social Problems and the Interpretation of Culture", Symbolic Interaction 21#2 (1998), pp. 197–212. DOI: 10.1525/si.1998.21.2.197 in JSTOR BillyBoy* (1987). Barbie: Her Life & Times. Crown. ISBN 978-0-517-59063-8. Cox, Don Richard. "Barbie and her playmates." Journal of Popular Culture 11#2 (1977): 303–307. Forman-Brunell, Miriam. "Barbie in" LIFE": The Life of Barbie." Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth 2#3 (2009): 303-311. online Gerber, Robin (2009). Barbie and Ruth: The Story of the World's Most Famous Doll and the Woman Who Created Her. Collins Business. ISBN 978-0-06-134131-1. Karniol, Rachel, Tamara Stuemler-Cohen, and Yael Lahav-Gur. "Who Likes Bratz? The Impact of Girls’ Age and Gender Role Orientation on Preferences for Barbie Versus Bratz." Psychology & Marketing 29#11 (2012): 897-906. Knaak, Silke, "German Fashion Dolls of the 50&60". Paperback www.barbies.de. Lord, M. G. (2004). Forever Barbie: the unauthorized biography of a real doll. New York: Walker & Co. ISBN 978-0-8027-7694-5. Plumb, Suzie, ed. (2005). Guys 'n' Dolls: Art, Science, Fashion and Relationships. Royal Pavilion, Art Gallery & Museums. ISBN 0-948723-57-2. Rogers, Mary Ann (1999). Barbie culture. London: SAGE Publications. ISBN 0-7619-5888-6. Sherman, Aurora M., and Eileen L. Zurbriggen. "'Boys can be anything': Effect of Barbie play on girls’ career cognitions." Sex roles 70.5-6 (2014): 195-208. online Singleton, Bridget (2000). The Art of Barbie. London: Vision On. ISBN 0-9537479-2-1. Weissman, Kristin Noelle. Barbie: The Icon, the Image, the Ideal: An Analytical Interpretation of the Barbie Doll in Popular Culture (1999). Wepman, Dennis. "Handler, Ruth" American National Biography (2000) online External links Official website St. Petersburg Times Floridian: "The doll that has everything – almost", an article by Susan Taylor Martin about the "Muslim Barbie" USA Today: Barbie at number 43 on the list of The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived The Telegraph: Doll power: Barbie celebrates 50th anniversary and toy world dominance NPR Audio Report: Pretty, Plastic Barbie: Forever What We Make Her Lawmaker Wants Barbie Banned in W.Va.; Local Residents Quickly React Archived February 27, 2014, at the Wayback Machine March 3, 2009 New York Times: Barbie: Doll, Icon Or Sexist Symbol? December 23, 1987 Barbie's 50th Archived November 10, 2010, at the Wayback Machine – slideshow by The First Post BBC News: Mattel shuts flagship Shanghai Barbie concept store March 7, 2011 BBC News 1: Making Cindy into Barbie? - BBC News, HEALTH (21 September 1998) CBS News: Becoming Barbie: Living Dolls, Real Life Couple Are Models Of Plastic Perfection - by Rebecca Leung (Aug. 6, 2004) CBS News Glowka; et al. (2001). "Among the New Words". American Speech. 76 (1). Project MUSE: 79–96. doi:10.1215/00031283-76-1-79. Anna Hart, Introducing the new, realistic Barbie: 'The thigh gap has officially gone', The Telegraph website, January 28, 2016

Hot Wheels is an American media franchise and brand of scale model cars invented by Elliot Handler and introduced by his company Mattel on May 18, 1968. It was the primary competitor of Matchbox until Mattel bought Matchbox owner Tyco Toys in 1997. Many automobile manufacturers have since licensed Hot Wheels to make scale models of their cars, allowing the use of original design blueprints and detailing. Although Hot Wheels were originally intended to be children's toys, they have become popular with adult collectors, for whom limited edition models are now made available. History 1968 The original Hot Wheels were made by Elliot Handler. Handler discovered his son Kenneth playing with Matchbox cars and decided to create a line to compete with Matchbox. Hot Wheels were originally conceived by Handler to be more like "hot rod" cars (i.e., customized/modified or even caricaturized or fantasy cars, often with big rear tires, superchargers, flame paint-jobs, outlandish proportions, hood blowers, etc.), as compared to Matchbox cars which were generally small-scale models of production cars. He began producing the cars with assistance from fellow engineer Jack Ryan. The Sweet 16 The first line of Hot Wheels cars, known as The Original Sweet 16 was manufactured in 1967. These were the first of the Red Line Series, named for the tires which had a red pin stripe on their sides. There were sixteen castings released, eleven of them designed by Harry Bentley Bradley with assistance from Handler and Ryan. The first one produced was a dark blue "Custom Camaro". Bradley was from the car industry and had designed the body for the (full-sized) Dodge Deora concept car and the Custom Fleetside, (based on his own customized 1966 El Camino). Racing track set In addition to the cars themselves, Mattel produced a racing track set (sold separately). Though it would be updated throughout the years, the original track set consists of a series of bright orange road sections (pieced together to form an oblong, circular race track), with one (or sometimes two) "superchargers" (faux service stations through which cars passed on the tracks, featuring battery-powered spinning wheels, which would propel the cars along the tracks). Hot Wheels' use of wide, hard-plastic tires created much less friction and tracked more smoothly than the narrow metal or plastic wheels used on contemporary Matchbox cars. Hot Wheels cars were designed to roll easily and at high speeds, which was a great innovation at the time. 1968 The Hot Wheels brand was a staggering success. The series completely disrupted the industry for small die-cast car models from 1968 onward, forcing the competition at Matchbox and elsewhere to completely rethink their concepts, and to scramble to try to recover lost ground. Harry Bentley Bradley did not think that would be the case and had quit Mattel to go back to the car industry. When the company asked him to come back, he recommended a good friend, Ira Gilford. Gilford, who had just left Chrysler, quickly accepted the job of designing the next Hot Wheels models. Some of Hot Wheels' greatest cars, such as the Twin Mill and Splittin' Image, came from Ira Gilford's drawing board. The Twin Mill was introduced in 1969 and was used to create the company's first full-scale replica car in 2001. The success of the 1968 line was solidified and consolidated with the 1969 releases, with which Hot Wheels effectively established itself as the hottest brand of small toy car models in the USA. Splittin' Image, Torero, Turbofire, and Twin Mill were part of the "Show & Go" series and are the very first original in-house designs by Hot Wheels. The initial prototypes of the Beach Bomb were faithful to the shape of a real VW Type 2 "bus", and had two surfboards sticking out the back window, in a nod to the VW's perceived association with the surfing community and the slang term for a person who spends much time surfing—a "beach bum". During the fledgling Hot Wheels era, Mattel wanted to make sure that each of the cars could be used with any of the playsets and stunt track sets. Unfortunately, testing showed that this early version (now known among collectors as the Rear-Loader Beach Bomb, or "RLBB") was too narrow to roll effectively on Hot Wheels track or be powered by the Super Charger, and was too top-heavy to negotiate high-speed corners. Hot Wheels designers Howard Rees and Larry Wood modified the casting, extending the side fenders to accommodate the track width, as well as providing a new place on the vehicle to store each of the plastic surfboards. The roof was also cut away and replaced by a full-length sunroof, to lower the center of gravity. Nicknamed the Side-loader by collectors, this was the production version of the Beach Bomb. The Rear-Loader Beach Bomb is widely considered the "Holy Grail", or ultimate pinnacle, of a serious Hot Wheels collection. An unknown number were made as test subjects and given to employees. A regular production Beach Bomb may be worth up to $600, depending on condition. Market prices on RLBBs however, have easily reached the five-figure plateau, ranging from $70,000 to $120,000. The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles had a pink RLBB in its Hot Wheels exhibit, displayed alone on a rotating platform under glass. The Hot Wheels Collectors Club released a new, updated version of the Rear Loading Beach Bomb in 2002 as a limited edition. 1970s 1970 was a very successful year for Hot Wheels, so Mattel came up with a new advertising slogan for the cars: "Go With the Winner". 43 new cars appeared that year, including the Sizzlers and Heavyweights lines. Howard Rees, who worked with Ira Gilford, was tired of designing cars. He wanted to work on the Major Matt Mason action figure toy line-up. Rees had a good friend by the name of Larry Wood, whom he worked with at Ford designing cars. When Wood found out about Hot Wheels at a party Rees was holding, Rees offered him the job of designing Hot Wheels models. Wood accepted, and, by the end of the week, Wood was working at Mattel, where his first design was the Tri-Baby. Larry Wood retired in 2019 after over 40 years of designing cars. Another designer, Paul Tam, joined Wood and Gilford. Tam's first design was the Whip Creamer. Tam continued to work for Mattel until 1973. Among the many fantastic designs Tam thought up for Hot Wheels, some of the collector's favorites include Evil Weevil (a Volkswagen Beetle with two engines), Open Fire (an AMC Gremlin with six wheels), Six Shooter (another six-wheeled car), and the rare Double Header (co-designed with Larry Wood). The year 1970 introduced "the Snake and the Mongoose", a manufactured 'rivalry' between two professional drag racers calling themselves "the Snake" and "the Mongoose" for the purposes of publicity. This was notably drag racing's first major non-automotive corporate sponsor, and the beginning of the NHRA’s booming popularity with large-budget teams and championships. 1970 also introduced the first 'Silver Series', which contained three silver-painted models: the Boss Hoss, the Heavy Chevy, and the King 'Kuda, which were only obtainable through a mail-in offer that included a membership to the Hot Wheels Club. These three cars featured "supercharged" engines (featuring large Roots blowers) without hoods, and open exhaust headers, after the style of drag racing cars of the era. Popular among children, these 'Silver Cars' were considered faster than the rest of the Hot Wheels lineup, because they were supposedly heavier than the other gravity models, but the accuracy of this claim has never been tested under scientific conditions. However, 1972 and 1973 were slow years. Only seven new models were made in 1972. Of the 24 models appearing for 1973, only three were new models. Also the cars changed from Mattel's in-house Spectraflame colors to mostly drab, solid enamel colors, which mainstream Hot Wheels cars still use today. Due to low sales, and the fact that the majority of the castings were not re-used in later years, the 1972-3 models are known to be very collectible. In 1974, Hot Wheels introduced its 'Flying Colors' line, and added flashy decals and "tampo-printed" paint designs which helped revitalize sales. As with the lower-friction wheels in 1968, this innovation was revolutionary in the industry, and—although far less effective in terms of sales impact than in 1968—was copied by the competition, who did not want to be outmaneuvered again by Mattel product strategists. In 1977, the 'Redline Wheel' was phased out, with the red lines no longer being printed on the wheels. This cut costs, but also reflected that the prototypical "red line tires" popular on high-speed-rated automotive tires during the era of muscle cars and Polyglas tires were no longer popular. During this period, there was a trend away from wild hot rods and fantastic cars, and a move to more realistic cars and trucks, like the competitor Matchbox. 1977–1988: The 'Blackwalls' era In 1981, Hot Ones wheels were introduced, which had gold-painted hubs, and claimed to have thinner axles for greater speed, along with additional suspension compliance that older production Hot Wheels lacked. Ultra Hot Wheels were introduced in 1984, and looked something like the cast alloy wheels found on a 1980s-era high-trim Renault Fuego or a Mazda 626, with three parallel dark lines cutting diagonally across the flat chrome face of the wheel, all three broken in the center to form six individual shorter lines. These new "Ultra Hots" claimed further speed improvements. Hot Wheels started offering models based on 1980s-era sports and economy cars, like the Pontiac Fiero or Dodge Omni 024, in addition to their typical 'hot rod' and muscle car style offerings. In 1983, a new style of wheel called Real Riders was introduced, which featured real rubber tires. Despite the fact that they were very popular, the Real Riders line was short-lived, because of high production costs. In the late 1980s, the so-called Blue Card blister pack color scheme was introduced, which would become the basis of Hot Wheels colors still used today (original blister packs were red and yellow). Two other innovations were introduced briefly in Hot Wheels cars in the 1980s – Thermal Color Change paint, and rotating 'crash panel' vehicles ("Crack-Ups"). The former was able to change color on exposure to hot or cold water, and there was an initial release of 20 different cars, available as sets of three vehicles. The latter were vehicles with a panel that, on contact, would rotate to reveal a reverse side that appeared to be heavily dented. Variations in crash panels included front, rear and side panels, the last of whose mechanism has proven to be the most durable. In the 1980s, Hot Wheels had gotten into a controversy with General Motors' Chevrolet Motors Division. In 1982, the Chevrolet Corvette had ended the curvaceous "Mako Shark" body style that had been in production for almost 15 years, and GM announced that the Corvette would be redesigned. In 1983, Chevrolet started to produce the all-new C4 Corvette but had assembly line problems which pushed production back 6 months causing GM's Marketing Department to label all 1983s as 1984s once they got production perfected so it would seem to the public that the all-new C4 Corvette came out early rather than late. But Hot Wheels saw what the new model of Corvette was going to look like before GM's official unveiling, and they designed a die-cast version of the 1984 Corvette. GM was angered and almost pulled its licensing with Mattel, but this controversy helped Corvette enthusiasts see what the new Corvette was going to look like. The 1984 Corvette production ran for 1.5 model years covering half of the remaining 1983 model year and ending on time for the 1985 model year. In conjunction with Epyx Software, Mattel released a computer game edition of Hot Wheels for various 8-bit platforms in 1985, as part of the Computer Activity Toys series. 1989–1994: The collector number era In 1989, Mattel released collector numbers. Each car had its own number. The cards were all blue, for all blister packs released from 1989 to 1994. Numbers included went as high as 274; however, these were skip numbered, and numbers such as 48, 61, and 173 were not used. 1995–1999: The Treasure Hunt era The year 1995 brought a major change to the Hot Wheels line, where the cars were split up into series. One was the 1995 Model Series, which included all of that year's new castings. In 1996, the Model Series was renamed to First Editions. 1995 also saw the introduction of the Treasure Hunt Series (see below). The rest of the series included four cars with paint schemes that followed a theme. For example, the Pearl Driver cars all had pearlescent paint. Sales for the series models soared with another program also introduced that year called the Bonus Car program, causing stores across the nation to have shortages. Purchasing the four car sets and sending in the packaging backs plus a handling fee gave you the opportunity to collect the bonus cars, 1 each released for each quarter of the year starting in 1996 through at least 2000. Several new wheel designs were also introduced in the 1990s. Mattel bought Tyco Toys in 1997. Along with the purchase came the company's old competitor Matchbox. Arguably the two dominant companies in matchbox-sized cars were now under one roof. In 1998, Mattel celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Hot Wheels brand by replicating various cars and individual packaging from its 30-year history and packaging these replicated vehicles in special 30th Anniversary boxes. In 1999, Hot Wheels Interactive was launched. 2000s A new generation of Hot Wheels Designers came in. Eric Tscherne and Fraser Campbell along with former designer Paul Tam's son, Alec Tam, joined the design team. Tscherne's Seared Tuner (formerly Sho-Stopper) graced the mainline packaging from 2000 to 2003. The Deora II, one of only two Hot Wheels concept cars ever made into full-size, functional cars, was also released this year. In 2001, Mattel created a Hot Wheels collectors website. Also in 2001, Mattel issued 240 mainline releases consisting of 12 Treasure Hunts, 36 First Editions, 12 Segment Series with four cars each, and 144 open stock cars. Popular models that debuted include the HyperMite and FrightBike. For 2002, the mainline consisted of 12 Treasure Hunts, 42 First Editions, 15 Segment Series of 4 cars each, and 126 open stock cars. Popular new models included the `68 Cougar and the Nissan Skyline GT-R. Some cars from the first editions series are the Backdraft, Overbored 454, and Super Tsunami. 2003 Hot Wheels celebrated its 35th anniversary with a full-length animated film called Hot Wheels Highway 35 World Race. This movie tied into the Highway 35 line of cars that featured 35 classic Hot Wheels cars with special graphics and co-molded wheels. 2004 In 2004, Hot Wheels unveiled its "Hot 100" line of 100 new models. These included mostly short-lived lines of cartoonish vehicles such as 'Tooned (vehicles based on the larger Hot Tunerz line of Hot Wheels created by Eric Tscherne), Blings (boxy bodies and big wheels), Hardnoze (enlarged fronts), Crooze (stretched out bodies), and Fatbax (super-wide rear wheels and short bodies). Fatbax models included vehicles such as the Toyota Supra and Corvette C6. These vehicles did not sell as well as Mattel expected, and many could still be found in stores throughout 2005. Mattel also released 2004 First Editions cars with unpainted Zamac bodies. They were sold through Toys 'R' Us and were made in limited numbers. 2005 and 2006 In 2005, Hot Wheels continued with new "extreme" castings for the 2nd year, debuting the Torpedoes line (skinny bodies and outboard wheels) and Drop Tops (flattened rooflines and wheel arches that extend above the car's roofline), in addition to 20 "Realistix" models. The rest of the line included the standard 12 Treasure Hunts, 10 Track Aces, 50 Segment Series Cars, and 50 Open Stock Models. Four Volkswagen "Mystery Cars" were offered as a special mail-in promo. Each Mystery Car came with a special voucher. Upon collection of all 4 vouchers, one was able to send away for a special 13th Treasure Hunt, a VW Drag Bus. Hot Wheels also unveiled its new "Faster than Ever" line of cars, which had special nickel-plated axles, along with bronze-colored Open-Hole 5 Spoke wheels. These adjustments supposedly reduce friction dramatically, resulting in cars that are called the "Faster than Ever" series. The first run of these cars were available for a limited time only, from the beginning of October towards the end of November 2005. Also, a continuation of the movie Highway 35 called Hot Wheels AcceleRacers was created, taking place two years after the events of Highway 35. It is featured in four movies and many short segments where the drivers (old ones, gangs, like Teku, Metal Maniacs, the evil Racing Drones, and the stealthy Silencerz). All of the shorts and previews of the movies were placed on a temporary website that was deleted shortly after the last movie. 2006 was the final year of the First Editions series consisting of 38 cars for that year including a Toyota AE86, 2006 Honda Civic Si, Plymouth Superbird and 2007 Cadillac Escalade alongside with fantasy models like the Nerve Hammer, Pharodox, Semi-Psycho as well as the fan-favourite Bone Shaker, Larry Wood's most popular design to date. 2007 and 2008 In 2007, Mattel released 36 New Models (formerly First Editions), 12 Treasure Hunts (with a hard-to-find regular version and even rarer "Super Treasure Hunt" version of each with rubber Real Rider tires and Spectraflame paint), 12 'Teams' of 4 cars each (formerly Segment Series), 24 Code Cars (codes imprinted inside the packaging that can be used to unlock web content), 12 Track Stars (formerly Track Aces), 24 Mystery Cars (packaged on a card with an opaque blister, so the buyer cannot see which car is inside without opening it), and 24 All-Stars (formerly Open Stock). In late 2006, a new package design for 2007 was released. Some 2006 cars and all 2007 cars are packaged on a blister card with the new design. Hot Wheels released a series called Modifighters, which are similar to Transformers except for the fact that they were originally cars and were modified into robots. The Modifighters names are: Streetwyse, Skullface, Live Wire, Bedlam, Nightlife, Mr. Big, and Quick-Tyme. In 2008, all the series and vehicles were relatively similar to 2007's cars. Approximately 180 to 200 new vehicles were released. 2009 and 2010 In 2009, Mattel released 42 New Models, 12 Treasure Hunts, 12 Track Stars, 24 Mystery Cars, 10 Segment Series of 10 cars, and introduced the Indy Car Series drivers. Mattel released its first-ever animated episodic television series called Hot Wheels Battle Force 5, which was a co-production between Canadian animation giants Nelvana and WildBrain. The US version of the series debuted on Cartoon Network on August 29, 2009.. 2011 2011 saw the release of 244 cars beginning with the 2011 New Car Series which includes the Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera, Custom 2011 Camaro, and the DeLorean time machine from the Back to the Future series. This was followed by the 15-car Treasure Hunt series with 1957 Chevy and 1958 Chevy Impala, 15 Track Stars including the 2010 Formula Street series, the 10x10 series, the Thrill Racers series, and 22 HW Video Game Heroes which were packaged with codes for an internet computer game. The new series "Team Hot Wheels" appear in late 2011. 2012 2012 saw the release of 247 cars, beginning with the 2012 New Car Series which includes the Lamborghini Aventador, Ford Mustang Boss 302 Laguna Seca, KITT from Knight Rider, and the ever-popular Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine. 2012 also saw the release of two vehicles from the Angry Birds video game franchise, consisting of the Red Bird and the green Minion Pig. 2013 2013 saw the release of 250 cars including Stunt, Racing, Imagination, City, and Showroom, all of which contain sub-series. 2013 also saw a change in the look of the packaging cards which includes a quartet of helmeted motorcycle riders standing behind the flame logo and the Treasure Hunt series cards no longer marked with a treasure chest. Some of those cars include Rodzilla, Fangula, Twin Mill III (3), Bone Shaker and Baja Bone Shaker. General Motors also released a special Chevrolet Camaro Hot Wheels Edition, which was a blue convertible that offered various Hot-Wheels-themed decorations throughout the car. 2014 2014 saw 250 mainstream cars released with similar segments to 2013. Various playsets and other non-car merchandise were also released this year. 2014 also marked the end of the license agreement between Mattel and Ferrari, meaning the 2014 release of Ferrari 5 Pack would be the last for Mattel, and the 2015 black Ferrari 599XX was the last Ferrari model appearing in mainstream, both regular model and its Treasure Hunt variant. 2016 2016 lineup was similar to 2015 and 2014 in terms of segments, and the design of the card was overhauled. Some car names were TBD (To Be Determined) or 2016 (Coming Soon). They're now divided into mini collections with their corresponding segments and their icons printed on the card. Some of them include HW Showroom, BMW (100th anniversary of BMW), HW Screen Time (Cars and characters seen on television, video games, and movies), and HW Snow Stormers. New models include the Cruise Bruiser, Side Ripper, Grass Chomper, and the '16 Acura NSX, while other models first see their release in the mainline series, such as the '52 Hudson Hornet. 2017–present 2017 saw a major change in casting numbering. Since that moment, recolors are named with a different number than the original, thus causing the number limit of cars to expand to 365. The idea of numbering a casting with a number corresponding to their own series was also aborted. There were also some new mainline series introduced, such as Experimotors (cars with moving parts, or a secondary purpose), Holiday Racers (cars that have a holiday based theme), Factory Fresh (a series including newer, sometimes older castings with fabric painting) and Camaro Fifty (a series dedicated to the Chevrolet Camaro, and its 50th anniversary). In 2018, Hot Wheels celebrated its 50th anniversary. The style of the blister cards were changed again, depicting a city in the background of the car, thus emulating a "Hot Wheels City" theme. For that year, each blister card had a 50th Anniversary logo. Hot Wheels also launched several collector-focused lines for that year, including Favorites, which was a series that consisted of 11 highly detailed vehicles (which were based on real cars), all with metal bodies and rubber tires. For this year, Hot Wheels also launched a display case, which could hold up to 48 cars, and could either stand up on its own (via attachable "feet") or be mounted on a wall. Each display case came with an exclusive car. On October 4, 2018, Hot Wheels filed a new trademark for the motto it's not the same without the flame. In 2019, a seal was added in the bottom left corner of the blister card with the motto. On February 18, 2021, the Hot Wheels Mars Perseverance Rover was released; a die-cast scale model latest vehicle in its Space mini-collections inspired by the NASA-launched Perseverance rover. Hot Wheels designer Ryu Asada died on March 23, 2021, at age 42, after years of suffering from cancer. That same year, Hot Wheels began a partnership with Milestone S.r.l. to release their first game, Hot Wheels Unleashed, in which came out on September 30, 2021. On March 7, 2023, NBC ordered a reality competition series known as Hot Wheels: Ultimate Challenge with Rutledge Wood as host which premiered on May 30. On September 28, 2023, Netflix announced Hot Wheels Let's Race, a new animated series adaptation which premiered on March 4, 2024. Hot Wheels Legends Tour Starting in 2018, Hot Wheels launched a new program called the Hot Wheels Legends Tour. This program was originally launched to commemorate Hot Wheels's 50th anniversary. Each year, there are 18 Legends Tour events that are held at various Walmart locations across the United States. Over 111,000 people attend and about 5,000 cars are entered at those events. At each event, one car is picked to be recreated as a potential new Hot Wheels casting. After all the events for that year conclude, one finalist is then picked to be the winner, and their car then gets recreated as a new Hot Wheels casting next year. Hot Wheels are looking for vehicles that embody the fun and creative spirit of Hot Wheels, which is their main selling point. Hot Wheels Legends Tour winners 2018: Custom built "2JetZ", built by Luis Rodriguez 2019: 1957 Nash Metropolitan "The Nash", built by Greg Salzillo and Dave Ford 2020: 1970 Pontiac Trans Am, built by Riley Stair. 2021: 1969 Volvo P1800 "Ain't No Saint", built by Lee Johnstone. 2022: 1992 Autozam Scrum "Texas Toot", built by Craig Meaux 2023: 1990 Mazda MX-5 Roadster "Chimera", built by Chris Watson "Sweet 16" line The Sweet 16 was the first production line of Hot Wheels for the year 1968. The lineup consisted of the following: Notes Collectables Through the years, Hot Wheels cars have been collected mostly by children. However, since the late 1990s, there has been an increase in the number of adult collectors. Mattel estimates that 41 million children grew up playing with the toys, the average collector has over 1,550 cars, and children between the ages of 5 and 15 have an average of 41 cars. Most believe the collecting craze started with the Treasure Hunts in 1995. Mike Strauss has been called the father of Hot Wheels collecting; he has organized two collectors' events each year in some form since 1986. The first event was the Annual Hot Wheels Collectors Convention, normally held each year in the fall. The convention occurred in various locations around the country until 2001, when the first Annual Hot Wheels Collectors Nationals was put together. Since then, the Conventions are held each year in southern California. The Hot Wheels Collectors Nationals rotate among cities outside of California during the spring. Strauss has also published the quarterly Hot Wheels Newsletter since 1986 and was one of the first to unite collectors all over the world. He also writesTomart's Price Guide To Hot Wheels, a book listing history, car descriptions and values, which is used by almost every collector to learn more about the hobby and their collection. Strauss sold his collection in 2011 and retired from the Hot Wheels Newsletter. There are hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of web pages dedicated to Hot Wheels collecting. Collectors are seeking everything related to Hot Wheels, from only new castings to only Red Lines and everything in between. For the most part, it is a relatively inexpensive hobby, when compared with coin collecting, stamp collecting or Barbie collecting, with mainline cars costing about $0.97-$1.08 (USD) at retail. The price has not changed much in almost 40 years, although in real terms the models have dropped significantly in price (a Hot Wheels car cost $0.98 in 1968 and costs $0.98 today, in spite of inflation). After the cars are no longer available at retail the cost can vary significantly. A common car may sell for less than retail, while some of the more difficult cars can sell for many hundred or even thousands of dollars. The highest price paid for a Hot Wheels car was close to $70,000 in 2000 for a pre-production version of a Volkswagen Rear Loader Beach Bomb (the asking price was $72,000). The Beach Bomb is a VW microbus with a pair of surfboards poking out the rear window. This design failed initial testing, proving to be top-heavy and not functional with the Power Booster track accessory. A widened version with the surfboards mounted in side slots was designed and released for the 1969 model year, making the "rear loader" version a rarity and very sought-after piece. As of 2018, there are about 50 "rear loaders" known to exist. Dates on cars The date on the base of a Hot Wheels car (Example: ©2008 Mattel) is the copyright date for the casting of the car, not a production date or release year. The date is usually the year before the car was first released, but not always. For example, a car in the 2001 First Editions series called Evil Twin, was released in 2001 but the year dated on the bottom of the car is 2000. Sometimes, the copyright will be the same year as the casting's first release. This usually happens with cars released toward the end of a model year. There are a few cases where the copyright is several years before a car's first release. The copyright date will usually not change through the lifetime of a casting. For example, the Twin Mill, first released in 1969, still had a 1969 copyright date on the 2019 mainline releases of the car. If the tooling for a car has a major change at some point in its life, the copyright date might be changed or amended to reflect the change. For example, Quick Bite, first released in 1984 as the Good Humor Truck, had a tooling update before 2018, so its date reads 1983, '17 on the base of the 2018 release. There are a few exceptions where the copyright date applies only to the base of a car instead of to the entire car. Those exceptions are mostly funny car castings where the same base was used with various different bodies over the years. Since the year 2008, Hot Wheels cars have had a code stamped or printed on the base. This is a "base code". This base code can be used to identify exactly when an individual car was produced in the Hot Wheels factory. The code begins with a letter, followed by a two-digit number. The letter for the year 2018 was "L". The letter is then followed by two numbers, which represent the week of that particular year the car was manufactured. For example, a car with the date stamp of "L42" was produced on the forty-second week of 2018. Some cars have 4-digit date codes on the base. These date codes are more specific than the 3-digit codes as they indicate the day a car was made instead of just the week. For the 4-digit codes, the first 3 digits indicate the day of the year and the last digit is the year. A date code of 1987 would indicate the car was made on the 198th day of 2017 (July 17). A code of 0250 would be the 25th day of 2010 (or 2020; depending on the car). Date codes only indicate when a specific car was made. They do not necessarily reflect the model release year of a particular car. Mainline production changes to the next model year right around the middle of the calendar year at the end of June/beginning of July. Premiums and other special series lines often run later in the calendar year before changing production to the next year. Hot Wheels Classics The Hot Wheels Classics line was an immediate hit with enthusiasts everywhere. The new line focused on muscle cars, hot rods, and other offbeat vehicles (such as a go-kart, a motor home and even an airplane), many from the company's first ten years (1968–78) of production. The series is also used to debut several different castings, such as the 1965 Chevy Malibu or the 1972 Ford Ranchero. Series 1 from 2005 consisted of 25 models, each with all-metal body and chassis, decked out with Spectraflame paint, in packages similar to those used from 1968 to 1972. Each car had a retail price of about three to four dollars (USD) and each of the 25 cars were released with 7 or 8 different colors. Models included the 1957 Chevy Bel Air (pictured at the right), the 1963 Ford T-Bird, and the 1965 Pontiac GTO. There were also track sets in similar retro packaging, and 1:18 scale Hot Wheels Classics. The Classics version of the Purple Passion was released with Real Riders tires at San Diego Comic-Con. Mattel also produced a Classics Olds 442 in Spectraflame blue for the 2005 Toy Fair. In late 2005, Series 2 now consisted of 30 models including the 1967 Camaro Convertible, the 1969 Dodge Charger, and a 1965 Mustang GT. There was also supposed to be a separate Mustang Funny Car (as listed on the blisterpack rear checklist) but this was apparently changed to a Plymouth Barracuda Funny Car during production. In 2006, a Series 3 line of Classics was introduced, again containing 30 models with multiple colors of each vehicle. Models included the '69 Pontiac Firebird, a Meyers Manx dune buggy, and the Richard Petty '70 Plymouth "Superbird". In 2007, Series 4 debuted with just fifteen models. However, in recognition of the 40th anniversary there were two packaging versions available - models came with a collectible metal badge (featuring a portrait of the involved vehicle) or were sold alone as in the previous three series. Models included a VW Karmann Ghia, a '68 Mercury Cougar, and the "Red Baron" hot rod. For its 40th anniversary in 2008, Hot Wheels celebrated the making of its four billionth car with the production of a diamond-studded model worth US$140,000. It had 2,700 diamond chips, a total of almost 23 karats, and was cast in white gold, with rubies serving as taillights. In 2009, Series 5 has 30 models. For the first time, there are chase cars in the classics series. These cars feature Real Riders rubber tires. A few models included are Copper Stopper, 1970 Pontiac GTO, and Hammer Sled. Special model lines Hot Wheels has also released slightly larger, more detailed models, such as the original Gran Toros (1/43 scale) from 1970, and the Dropstars line (a model line of "blinged" cars). Also in this larger scale are the HIN (Hot Import Nights), G-Machines and Customs lines. These lines were introduced in 2004–2005. Hot Wheels has produced many replica scale models in the industry standard 1/43, 1/24 and 1/18 scales. In 2004, it released a 1/12 scale replica of the C6 Corvette. Hot Wheels also in the early 1990s introduced a series known as the California Customs. A line of cars that had a California theme. Other lines from Hot Wheels include: R-R-Rumblers & Chopcycles (motorcycles introduced in 1971), Hotbirds (metal airplanes), Sizzlers, XV Racers, Hot Tunerz and Stockerz. Over the years, Mattel has also teamed up with other retail organizations to produce special models available through those retailers. The list of retailers includes Avon, Chuck E. Cheese, Dinty Moore, FAO Schwarz, Full Grid, General Mills, Getty, HEB, Hills, Hormel, Hughes Family Markets, JC Penney, JC Whitney, Kay-Bee Toys, K-Mart, Kellogg's, Kool-Aid, Kroger, Lexmark, Liberty Promotions (contracted the series of special models for Jiffy Lube and Penske), Little Debbie Snacks, Malt-O-Meal, McDonald's, Mervyn's, Otter Pops, Rose's Discount Stores, Shell, Target, Tony's Pizza, Toys "R" Us, Union 76, Valvoline, Van de Kamp's, Walmart, and White's Guide to Collecting, as well as several Major League Baseball franchises to name a few. In 2016, Hot Wheels released a special collection for the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ 1966 song “Yellow Submarine.” The collections includes five cars, a VW microbus and a yellow submarine. Made by other companies In some cases, Hot Wheels dies have been sold or acquired by other companies once Mattel has finished using them. One example were early dies that made their way to Argentina and were reproduced as Mukys, though not with spectra-flame paints or the same quality as seen in Mattel's products. Hot Wheels Elite and Hot Wheels Mattel Hot Wheels have a series named Hot Wheels Elite and Hot Wheels Mattel. The Elite Hot Wheels are 1:18, 1:43 and 1:50 highly detailed diecast; the majority of them being based on Ferraris. They are more expensive than the Mattel models which aren't as highly detailed. The Elite versions are licensed by Ferrari. The Hot Wheels Elite series have a "mini" series which can be seen on the website. Two of the popular limited 1:18 Hot Wheels Elite series' are the Ferrari in Music and Cult Classics. The music series features singers' and rappers' Ferraris, including Jamiroquai's Jay Kay's Black Enzo Ferrari. Car Culture In 2016, Hot Wheels started a new line of Collector's models, in a line called Car Culture. Car Culture is Hot Wheels' line of Premium 1:64 models with metal bodies and bases, two-piece wheels with rubber tires, and more detailed decorations. Intended for adult collectors primarily, these models retail for roughly 6-7 times the cost of a mainstream 1:64 Hot Wheels model. These cars retail for over three times the retail price of a "basic" car, and are produced in significantly fewer numbers. This line debuted with the release of "Japan Historics", a set of five Japanese sports cars. Every year at least four more sets are introduced. All Car Culture sets have five cars, and often have new castings created for the sets. The number five spot in the set is usually reserved for the newest casting in the set. Car Culture cars are typically based on real automobiles; however in 2018, Hot Wheels introduced a set called "Team Transport", which included some fantasy truck castings. The fact that some of the trucks are unlicensed allows the castings to be universally used in any Team Transport set regardless of theme (for example, a Chevrolet-branded truck would not make sense in a Ford-themed set). Although "Team Transport" is labeled under the Car Culture line, they are a separate category of Car Culture vehicles than the usual 5-car sets, possessing different barcodes and prices. In 2018, for Hot Wheels' 50th Anniversary, Car Culture card sizes were increased, along with the amount of decorations on the cars. A Hot Wheels "50th anniversary" logo was also placed beside the set's name on the packaging. Treasure Hunt series Treasure Hunt (sometimes T-Hunt) is a line of Hot Wheels cars, introduced by Mattel in 1995. It consisted of 12 cars every year (15 beginning in 2011) with one or two released per month. The original production run was 10,000 of each car worldwide; that number has since risen due to the increasing demand for and popularity of Hot Wheels as a collector's item. Treasure Hunt vehicles are identifiable by a label on the package. The blister card said "Treasure Hunt" or "T-Hunt" on a green bar, sometimes with an illustration of a treasure chest. Since 2013, Treasure Hunts do not have the green stripe anymore; instead, the cars are recognizable with a "flame in a circle logo" on the vehicle and behind it on the card. The cars were decorated with flashy designs and special "rubber" wheels before 2007. In 2007, Mattel introduced a two-tiered Treasure Hunt system. A regular Treasure Hunt will feature normal enamel paint and normal wheels like other Hot Wheels cars. The production of these is rumored to be greater than previous T-Hunts. "Super" Treasure Hunts are much harder to find. Like Treasure Hunts of the past, a Super Treasure Hunt features premium wheels and Spectraflame paint, as well as (starting in 2015), a golden-colored circle-flame logo printed on the card behind the car. Many Hot Wheels collectors have noticed in recent times that the US Basic mixes are more likely to have a Super Treasure Hunt in them compared to International Mixes. Before 2013, all 12 Treasure Hunt cars of a year were released in both regular and super versions. In 2012, Super Treasure Hunts came with special paint and wheels, but with series designation on the card. However, the regular T-hunts retained a special T-Hunt series card. Mattel stopped using special cards for all Treasure Hunts in 2013. Some U.S. releases in 2014 had the phrase "This symbol on the vehicle lets you know it is hard to find and highly collectible". However, in 2016, this was changed to "Congratulations! This symbol means you just found a collectable treasure-hunt car!". This would be under a silver flame logo on the card for T-Hunts. In 2015, Supers featured a gold logo on the card. Generally, Hot Wheels has targeted both kids and adults with the T-Hunt series, focusing more on the adult collecting market with Supers. Live-action film adaptation On January 30, 2003, Columbia Pictures announced they had gained exclusive rights to developing a feature film based on the toy line Hot Wheels with McG attached to direct. Although unwritten, the premise involved a young man "trying to reconcile with his father. It's a kid who steals his dad's racecar and ends up going through a sort of Back to the Future portal into this world, and he has to reconcile his relationship with his father." In 2006, McG said that he dropped out as director and chose to produce instead. The film was to be produced by Columbia Pictures, Flying Glass of Milk Films and Silver Pictures, under license to Mattel. In 2009, with no recent developments, the film was put into turnaround, and the rights were handed over to Warner Bros. Pictures. Joel Silver took over producing with Matt Nix writing the script. On June 17, 2011, it was announced that Legendary Pictures was developing a film based on Hot Wheels due to the success of Fast Five by developing an edgier film. On July 10, 2013, Simon Crane and Juan Carlos Fresnadillo were named as the frontrunners to direct the film, with Art Marcum and Matt Holloway writing the film, intended to be more Mission: Impossible than The Fast and the Furious. On September 28, 2016, Justin Lin signed on to direct the film, which will be produced through his production company Perfect Storm Entertainment. On August 1, 2017, Lin revealed that the film was still in development. It was speculated that the film would be released as an animated direct sequel to 2003's Hot Wheels: World Race and will be receive additional animation development from Playground Games who collaborated with Mattel in 2017 to create the Forza Horizon 3: Hot Wheels video game. However the option expired and returned to Mattel. In late January 2019, Mattel Films and Warner Bros. Pictures agreed to partner on a Hot Wheels film. It was announced on September 25, 2020, by The Hollywood Reporter that Warner Bros. has hired Neil Widener and Gavin James to write the film. On April 25, 2022, it was announced that Bad Robot will produce the film. On January 23, 2023, Dalton Leeb and Nicholas Jacobson-Larson were announced to write the film. Sizzlers The Sizzlers were a 1970s Hot Wheels spin off with a built-in motor and a tiny rechargeable battery. (The X-V racers of the 1990s were similar.) They were introduced in 1970 and became immediately popular. Sizzlers run on the regular "orange" Hot Wheels track, and Mattel created special race sets with U-Turns, multi-level spirals and loops to take advantage of the cars' electric motor. Two lane race sets such as the California/8 race set were developed that allowed Sizzlers to race side-by side, until Mattel created the black Fat Track which is three lanes wide with steep banked curves and designed to allow Sizzlers to run free. In action, Sizzlers supposedly display a unique, competitive "passing action" when running on the Fat Track, as if each car were piloted by an impatient driver trying to jockey ahead of the rest. The Fat Track sets included the "Big O", "California 500", and "Super Circuit" race sets, and accessories such as the "Scramble Start" (a four-car starting gate), "Lap Computer" four car lap counter, and "Race-Timer" stop watch. Six cars were made in 1970, 12 cars were made in 1971, and 4 cars were made in 1972. The "Fat Daddy" Sizzlers (oversized bodies with huge tires) were introduced in 1973. Mattel put the Sizzlers on a hiatus after that year, and in 1976 they created Sizzlers II. That next year, the Night Ridin' Sizzlers (which had headlights you could turn on or off) were created. Mattel permanently stopped Sizzlers production in 1978. They were replaced by another spin off named Scorchers. The Scorchers were "pull back" cars which wound a clock spring when pulled backwards a short distance, which then propelled them forward for several feet. Sizzlers are charged with four or two D battery chargers called the Juice Machine and Goose Pump respectively. Later, the Power Pit was introduced—which was an electric charger that plugged into any household AC outlet and resembled a race track garage or pit stop. A 90-second charge of the tiny internal NiCad battery gives up to five minutes of useful run time. It was claimed by advertisers that the 90-second charge time was "the longest minute and a half in a kid's life" as they waited impatiently for the car to charge sufficiently to get back into the race. The Sizzler electric technology spun off into the Hotline Trains, which ran on track similar to regular Hot Wheels, and the Earthshakers construction vehicles. Both lines of vehicles were charged using the Sizzler Juice Machine or Power Pit. In the 1990s, Mattel's trademark on the "Sizzlers" name had lapsed and toy company Playing Mantis released a new Sizzlers line based around NASCAR stock car models and copied the Fat Track as the "Stocker 400" and "Mach 500" track sets to capitalize on the booming popularity of NASCAR in that decade. The Juice Machine was renamed the "Mega-Charger" and incorporated a more efficient "trickle charge" rather than the "dump charge" of the original machines. Interest in the toys began to increase once again. They were taken off the market after Mattel filed a lawsuit against Playing Mantis. However, Sizzlers returned again in 2006, when Mattel struck an exclusive deal with Target stores to re-release Sizzlers cars, the "Big O" Fat track, Juice Machine and car carrying case—all in the original packaging from the 1970s. As of January 2009, the Sizzlers line has been discontinued by Target. In 2011, Sizzlers have been re-released as Cars 2 characters, and were sold at Target stores. This line was called Charge Ups and released under the Mattel brand name but not as part of the Hot Wheels line. Promotion and sponsorships Hot Wheels appeared in the 2016 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Motorsports Starting in 1970, professional drag racers Don Prudhomme ("The Snake") and Tom McEwen ("The Mongoose") were sponsored by Hot Wheels, and later on, Hot Wheels created the Snake and Mongoose Drag Set in 1970. Later somewhere in 1972, the second versions of both driver's self-titled funny cars were released, when McEwen had the Mongoose 2, and Prudhomme had the Snake 2. The drag set remained the same. Then, Hot Wheels made rail-type dragster versions of them, based on the actual funny cars and was featured in the Wild Wheelie Set. Later in Hot Wheels' lifespan, the normal drag set with Snake and Mongoose were still being produced. The latest set with the Snake and Mongoose is in the Drag-Strip Demons lineup. In 1970, Hot Wheels sponsored Trans-Am Series driver Dan Gurney and his All American Racers car. In 1992, Hot Wheels sponsored the Trans-Am car of Jack Baldwin as he went on to win that year's championship. Hot Wheels signed a sponsorship deal in 1997 with NASCAR driver Kyle Petty and the No. 44 PE2 Motorsports car and thus began making replicas of NASCAR stock cars. Three years later, Hot Wheels joined the Craftsman Truck Series team of Carlos Contreras and the No. 12 truck. In 2004, Hot Wheels sponsored the No. 99 car of Jeff Burton for one race at Darlington Raceway. Six years later, the company returned to NASCAR to sponsor the No. 7 JR Motorsports car of Danica Patrick at Michigan International Speedway. Hot Wheels made another one-off sponsorship in 2021 for NASCAR driver Jade Buford's No. 48 Big Machine Racing Team car at Darlington Raceway; Buford's paint scheme for the race was modeled after Gurney's Trans-Am car. In 1999, Hot Wheels partnered with five Formula One teams to manufacture scale model Formula One cars. In 2016, Hot Wheels opened the Race to Win exhibit at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis to promote the 100th Indianapolis 500. From 1999 to 2018, Hot Wheels had a Monster Jam license to release monster truck diecasts and field a Hot Wheels-themed truck in the real-life shows. The partnership ended in 2019 after Feld Entertainment signed a new ten year toy licensing deal with Spin Master for Monster Jam, diecast production stopped and the Hot Wheels team retired. Soon after, Hot Wheels created the Hot Wheels Monster Trucks line and the Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live show with the non-Monster Jam owned version of the Bigfoot truck as a competitor. Monster Jam claimed this as a plagiarism, causing controversy. At the 2002 24 Hours of Le Mans, Hot Wheels logos appeared on the sidepods of the pair of MG-Lola EX257 prototypes entered by MG Sport & Racing. Hot Wheels is a partner and sponsor of the Australian stunt rider Matt Mingay's Stuntz Inc team, and also sponsors him in the Stadium Super Trucks. After Mingay suffered serious facial injuries at the Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix in 2016, Robby Gordon drove the No. 2 Hot Wheels truck at the Townsville Street Circuit. Hot Wheels and Castrol returned to support Mingay when he made his racing return in 2020. Video games Various video games based on Hot Wheels have been released for numerous consoles, PC's and mobile devices: Pinball A coin-operated pinball machine based on Hot Wheels cars and the Hot Wheels City YouTube series was released by American Pinball in June 2020. See also Model car Hotwheels sisyphus, a species of ground spider named for the brand References External links Official website

Ruth Marianna Handler (née Mosko; November 4, 1916 – April 27, 2002) was an American business magnate and inventor. She is best known for inventing the Barbie doll in 1959, and being co-founder of toy manufacturer Mattel with her husband Elliot, as well as serving as the company's first president from 1945 to 1975. The Handlers were forced to resign from Mattel in 1975 after the Securities and Exchange Commission investigated the company for falsifying financial documents. Handler was prominently characterized in the 2023 film Barbie. Early life Ruth Marianna Mosko was born on November 4, 1916 in Denver, Colorado, to Polish-Jewish immigrants Jacob Moskowicz, a blacksmith, and Ida Moskowicz (née-Rubenstein). She was the youngest of ten children. When she was six months old, her parents sent her to live with her older sister Sarah. She stayed with Sarah until she was 19 and developed an enthusiasm for business by working at Sarah’s drugstore/soda fountain. In 1932, Ruth fell in love with Izzy Handler, an art student. The summer of her sophomore year at University of Denver, she went to Los Angeles and landed a job at Paramount Studio. Ruth and Izzy married in 1938 in Denver. Returning to California, Ruth encouraged her husband to become known by his middle name, Elliot. Ruth returned to work at Paramount and Elliot was employed as a lighting fixture designer. Mattel Elliot became interested in furniture-making, and decided to make furniture from two plastics, Lucite and Plexiglas. At Ruth's suggestion, they started a furniture business where Ruth was in charge of sales, and she landed contracts with businesses such as Douglas Aircraft Company. Business executive Harold "Matt" Matson joined the Handlers' company, which they renamed Mattel by combining "Matson" and "Elliot". (Elliot later said that they were unable to think of a way to include Ruth's name.) When sales fell during World War II, Mattel began making toy furniture. Its success spurred the company's transition to toy manufacturing. Barbie Observing her daughter Barbara and friends having fun with paper dolls and role-play adult scenarios, Ruth noticed a market void. Dolls available at that time were mainly babies and toddlers; no dolls were available that resembled adults. During a trip to Europe in 1956 with Barbara and her son Kenneth, Ruth came across Bild Lilli, a German doll. In an interview with Mary G. Lord, author of Forever Barbie, Handler said that she saw the doll in Lucerne, Switzerland. However, the book points out that on other occasions Handler said that she saw it in Zürich or Vienna. The adult-figured doll was exactly what Ruth had in mind. She purchased three, gave one to her daughter, and took the others to Mattel. The Lilli doll was based on a popular character in a satirical comic strip drawn by Reinhard Beuthin for the newspaper Bild. The Lilli doll was first sold in 1955 in Germany, and although initially sold to adults, it became popular with children who enjoyed dressing it in outfits that were available separately. On return to the US, Handler redesigned the doll with help from local inventor-designer Jack Ryan. She named the doll Barbie after her daughter Barbara, and said that Barbie was from Willows, Wisconsin. Premiering on March 9, 1959 at the American International Toy Fair in New York City, the first Barbie doll cost $3 and was an instant hit. In its first year, 300,000 were sold. The Handlers and Mattel later added a boyfriend for Barbie, named Ken after the Handlers' son. Eventually a huge range of Barbie dolls was released, portrayed with more than 125 careers, and Barbie became known for her versatility and fashion. The Handlers added cars, sports gear, clothes, and doll furniture to their Barbie products. Later years Handler was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1970. She had a modified radical mastectomy, which was often done at the time to combat the disease. She spent less time at Mattel to focus on improving her health. Her loss of self-esteem affected her leadership, and she lost control of her business. In a 1980 interview, she said: "When I conceived Barbie, I believed it was important to a little girl’s self-esteem to play with a doll that [had] breasts. Now I find it even more important to return that self-esteem to women who have lost theirs.” Due to difficulties in finding a good breast prosthesis, Handler decided to make her own. With the help of new business partner Peyton Massey, and under her new company, Ruthton Corp., she manufactured a more realistic version of a woman's breast called Nearly Me, aiming to boost women's confidence regardless of their health. The invention became quite popular; first lady Betty Ford was fitted for one after a mastectomy. Handler received various awards for her philanthropy and business activities. She was chosen Woman of the Year in Business by the Los Angeles Times, inducted into the Toy Industry Hall of Fame by the Toy Manufacturers of America, received the Volunteer Achievement Award from the American Cancer Society, and was the inaugural Woman of Distinction of the United Jewish Appeal. Following several investigations into fraudulent financial reports, Handler resigned from Mattel in 1975. Investigations continued, and she was charged with fraud and false reporting by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. She pleaded no contest and was fined $57,000 (equivalent to $270,000 in 2023) and sentenced to 2,500 hours of community service. She blamed her illness for making her "unfocused" on her business. Handler died on April 27, 2002 in California from complications during surgery for colon cancer. She was 85. In popular culture Handler is portrayed in the 2023 film Barbie by actress Rhea Perlman. In the film, the ghost of an elderly Handler resides in an office on the 17th floor of Mattel headquarters in Los Angeles. There she meets the movie's stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie). Later, while advising Barbie, Handler tells her about her creation and how it related to her daughter, Barbara. Barbie then takes the name "Barbara Handler" as her own. The film stirred a wave of media coverage of Handler. References Further reading Forman-Brunell, Miriam. "Barbie in" LIFE": The Life of Barbie." Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth 2.3 (2009): 303-311. online Gerber, Robin. Barbie and Ruth: The Story of the World's Most Famous Doll and the Woman Who Created Her. Harper/Collins, 2008. Weissman, Kristin Noelle. Barbie: The Icon, the Image, the Ideal: An Analytical Interpretation of the Barbie Doll in Popular Culture (1999). Wepman, Dennis. "Handler, Ruth" American National Biography (2000) online External links Ruth Handler at IMDb doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1002288

Elliot Handler (April 9, 1916 – July 21, 2011) was an American inventor, business magnate, and the co-founder of Mattel. With his wife, Ruth Handler, he developed some of the biggest-selling toys in American history, including Barbie, Chatty Cathy, Creepy Crawlers, and Hot Wheels. Early life Isadore "Izzy" Elliot Handler was born to a Jewish family in Chicago, Illinois, on April 9, 1916. Handler's parents were Ukrainian Jews who largely spoke Yiddish within their household. The family moved out of Chicago, and Handler grew up on the west side of Denver, Colorado. He studied industrial design at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. In 1929, he met his future wife Ruth Mosko at a B'nai B'rith dance for teenagers. They dated on and off for years, and were married in June 1938. Shortly after their marriage, his new wife Ruth requested he change his name: partially due to her preferring his middle name "Elliot" over "Izzy", and partially from her fears of American antisemitism toward an obviously Jewish name like Isadore. He complied. The couple had two children: Barbara, who was the namesake of Barbie dolls; and Kenneth, the namesake of Ken dolls. While a struggling art student and designer of light fixtures, Handler partnered with Harold Matson to design a realistic-looking miniature piano that received roughly 300,000 orders; however, they mispriced the product and lost a dime on each one produced. Mattel Mattel received its name from business partners Harold "Matt" Matson and Elliot Handler in 1945. Elliot's wife, Ruth, took Matson's role when the Handlers bought his share in the late 1940s. Handler holds credit for developing the first talking doll Chatty Cathy, using a pull string talking mechanism, revolutionizing the toy industry. Mattel continued to develop a number of talking toys, including Chatty Baby, Tiny Chatty Baby, and Charmin' Chatty. Toys were made for cartoon favorites such as Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig, and for television characters such as Herman Munster and Mr. Ed. When Handler's daughter Barbara married Allan Segal, they created Allan, Ken's friend. The 1965 talking doll Baby Cheryl was named after the Handlers' first grandchild, and the Todd doll in the Barbie line was named after their grandson. Handler was primarily responsible for two additional Mattel product lines. In 1966, Mattel introduced smaller dolls called Liddle Kiddles. Handler claimed he wanted them to resemble little children in neighborhoods across America. They were sculpted by doll artist Martha Armstrong-Hand. Kiddles were a great success and continued to be produced in different versions until the early 1970s. Another product line was Hot Wheels, introduced in 1968, which gave rise to 10,000 different models. First called Mattel Creations, the company has become the largest toy maker in the world in terms of revenue. In April 2006, Mattel honored Handler with a 90th birthday party at its headquarters in El Segundo, California. Guests included his daughter Barbara Segal, the namesake of the Barbie doll. Personal life Handler died of heart failure at home in Century City, a district of Los Angeles, California, at age 95 on July 21, 2011. Ruth Handler, Elliot's wife, died in 2002; their son Ken died in 1994. Notes == References ==

This deceased American singer and songwriter who's song about censorship was nominated for a Grammy Award (for Best Hard Rock Performance) in the same year that was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. How many letters are in his name?

11 (Layne Staley)

Numerical reasoning | Tabular reasoning | Multiple constraints | Temporal reasoning

Layne Thomas Staley (born Layne Rutherford Staley; August 22, 1967 – April 5, 2002) was an American singer and songwriter who was the original lead vocalist of Alice in Chains, which rose to international fame in the early 1990s as part of Seattle's grunge movement. He was known for his distinctive vocal style as well as his harmonizing with bandmate Jerry Cantrell. Prior to his success with Alice in Chains, Staley was also a member of the glam metal bands Sleze and Alice N' Chains. He was also a part of the supergroups Mad Season and Class of '99. "Man in the Box", the second single from Alice in Chains' debut album, Facelift (1990), garnered Staley critical recognition for his vocal style. Alice in Chains' EP Jar of Flies (1994), debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, making it Alice in Chains' first record—and the first-ever EP—to top the chart. However, Staley's deteriorating condition due to heroin abuse led him to enter a rehabilitation clinic. He began to work on a side project with several Seattle musicians, Mike McCready of Pearl Jam, Barrett Martin of Screaming Trees, and John Baker Saunders of The Walkabouts, which came to be Mad Season, while Alice in Chains went into hiatus. During Alice in Chains' hiatus, reports of Staley's drug addiction began to gain widespread circulation in fan and media communities, in part due to changes in his physical condition brought on by prolonged heroin abuse. On April 10, 1996, the band returned with a performance on MTV Unplugged in New York; it was Alice in Chains' first concert in two-and-a-half years. The band performed three more shows, supporting Kiss on their reunion tour, with Staley's final live performance on July 3, 1996 in Kansas City, Missouri. Aside from recording two more songs with Alice in Chains – "Get Born Again" and "Died" – and a cover of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" with Class of '99 during 1998, Staley had been out of the public spotlight by the late 1990s. Staley struggled with drug addiction for much of his adult life; he later died from a speedball overdose on April 5, 2002, at the age of 34. He was ranked at No. 27 on Hit Parader's list of "Heavy Metal's All-Time Top 100 Vocalists" in 2006, and at No. 42 on Complex's magazine list of "The 50 Best Lead Singers of All Time" in 2012. Seattle officially declared August 22, 2019 as "Layne Staley Day". Staley earned six Grammy Award nominations as a member of Alice in Chains. Early life Staley was born on August 22, 1967, at Overlake Hospital in Bellevue, Washington. His parents are Phillip Blair "Phil" Staley and Nancy Elizabeth Staley (née Layne). Staley disliked his middle name "Rutherford" and would get angry every time someone called him by this name. He legally changed his middle name to "Thomas" during his teens because he was a fan of Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee. Staley joined a rhythm band in Bellevue when he was two or three years old, and was the youngest in the group. At nine years old, he wrote in his Dr. Seuss book, All About Me, that he wanted to be a singer. Staley was seven years old when his parents divorced, after which he was raised by his mother and stepfather, Jim Elmer. He took his stepfather's surname while enrolled in Meadowdale High School in Lynnwood, and was known for some time as Layne Elmer. Staley was raised as a Christian Scientist. However, he was critical of religion in his adult life, stating in a 1991 interview: "I have a fascination with how brainwashed people get with religion and how they'll give up their money, their time and their whole life for a cause that they're sure is right, but I'm sure is wrong. I think there's a lot of people who are scared of life and living and they want to make sure they get to Heaven or whatever. I try to stay away from it as much as I can. I was raised in the church until I was 16 and I've disagreed with their beliefs as long as I can remember, so when I had the choice I chose not to believe in anything apart from myself." Staley also stated in a 1999 interview that the song "Get Born Again" is about "religious hypocrisy". He approached music through his parents' collection, listening to Black Sabbath (regarded by him as his first influence) and Deep Purple. Other favorite bands include hard rock and metal bands like The Stooges, Anthrax, Judas Priest, Saxon, Rainbow, Mercyful Fate, Twisted Sister, Van Halen, and industrial/new wave acts such as Ministry, The Lords of the New Church and Skinny Puppy. He also cited Prince and David Bowie as two of his biggest idols. Staley began playing drums at age 12; he played in several glam bands in his early teens, but by this point, Staley had aspirations of becoming a singer. In 1984, Staley joined a group of Shorewood High students in a band called Sleze, which also featured future members of The Dehumanizers and Second Coming. In 1985, Staley and his band Sleze made a cameo in Father Rock, a low-budget movie from Seattle's Public Access Channel. In 1986, Sleze morphed into Alice N' Chains, a band which Staley said "dressed in drag and played speed metal." The new band performed around the Seattle area playing Slayer and Armored Saint covers. Career Alice in Chains and Mad Season Staley met guitarist Jerry Cantrell at a party in Seattle while working at Music Bank rehearsal studios in 1987. A few months before that, Cantrell had watched Staley performing with his then-band, Alice N' Chains, in his hometown at the Tacoma Little Theatre, and was impressed by his voice. Cantrell was homeless after being kicked out of his family's house, so Staley invited Cantrell to live with him at the Music Bank. The two fast friends lived as roommates for over a year in the dilapidated rehearsal space they shared. Alice N' Chains soon disbanded and Staley joined a funk band, which at the time also required a guitarist. He asked Cantrell to join as a sideman. Cantrell agreed on condition that Staley join his band, which at the time did not have a name and included drummer Sean Kinney and bassist Mike Starr. They started auditioning terrible lead singers in front of Staley to send a hint, which made him angry. The final straw for Staley was when they auditioned a male stripper in front of him – he decided to join the band after that. Cantrell said this about Staley's voice: "I knew that voice was the guy I wanted to be playing with. It sounded like it came out of a 350-pound biker rather than skinny little Layne. I considered his voice to be my voice." Eventually the funk project broke up, and in 1987, Staley joined Cantrell's band on a full-time basis. The band had names like "Fuck" and "Diamond Lie", the latter being the name of Cantrell's previous band. Two weeks after the band's formation, they were playing a gig at the University of Washington, trying to fill out a 40-minute set with a couple of original songs along with Hanoi Rocks and David Bowie covers. Diamond Lie gained attention in the Seattle area and eventually took the name of Staley's previous band, Alice N' Chains, then renamed Alice in Chains. Staley got permission from his former bandmates to use the name. Local promoter Randy Hauser became aware of Alice in Chains at a concert and offered to pay for demo recordings. However, one day before the band was due to record at the Music Bank studio in Washington, police shut down the studio during the biggest cannabis raid in the history of the state. The final demo, completed in 1988, was named The Treehouse Tapes and found its way to the music managers Kelly Curtis and Susan Silver, who also managed the Seattle-based band Soundgarden. Curtis and Silver passed the demo on to Columbia Records' A&R representative Nick Terzo, who set up an appointment with label president Don Ienner. Based on The Treehouse Tapes, Terzo signed Alice in Chains to Columbia in 1989. The band also recorded another untitled demo over a three-month period in 1989. This recording can be found on the bootleg release Sweet Alice. Alice in Chains released its debut album Facelift on August 21, 1990, shaping the band's signature style. The second single, "Man in the Box", with lyrics written by Staley, became a huge hit. "Man in the Box" is widely recognized for its distinctive "wordless opening melody, where Staley's peculiar, tensed-throat vocals are matched in unison with an effects-laden guitar" followed by "portentous lines like: 'Jesus Christ/Deny your maker' and 'He who tries/Will be wasted' with Cantrell's drier, and less-urgent voice." Facelift has since been certified double platinum by the RIAA for sales of two million copies in the United States. The band toured in support of the album for two years before releasing the acoustic EP Sap in early 1992. Alice in Chains made a cameo in Cameron Crowe's 1992 film Singles, performing the songs "It Ain't Like That" and "Would?". In September 1992, Alice in Chains released Dirt. The critically acclaimed album, also the band's most successful, debuted at number six on the Billboard 200, and was certified quadruple platinum. Staley designed the sun logo on the album's inlay. During the Dirt tour in Brazil in 1993, Staley saved Starr's life after he had overdosed. Because of Staley's drug addiction, the band did not tour in support of Dirt for very long. Cantrell wrote almost all of the music and lyrics for Alice in Chains, but as time went on, Staley contributed more lyrics. Eventually, Staley would receive credit for about half the lyrics from the entire Alice in Chains catalog prior to the release of Black Gives Way to Blue in 2009. He also wrote the music and the lyrics to "Hate to Feel", "Angry Chair" and "Head Creeps", and melodies to other songs. Staley's lyrics are largely viewed as having dealt with his personal troubles, such as drug use and depression. Staley also played guitar on "Angry Chair" and "Hate to Feel". Cantrell said of "Angry Chair" on the liner notes of the 1999 Music Bank box set: Such a brilliant song. I'm very proud of Layne for writing it. When I've stepped up vocally in the past he's been so supportive, and here was a fine example of him stepping up with the guitar and writing a masterpiece. In 1994, Alice in Chains released their third EP, Jar of Flies. It debuted at number one, making it the first Alice in Chains release—and the first-ever EP—to do so. The other members of Alice in Chains, seeing Staley's deteriorating condition, opted not to tour in support of Jar of Flies. Following the album's release, Staley entered a rehabilitation clinic and began to work on a side project with several Seattle musicians, Mike McCready of Pearl Jam, Barrett Martin of Screaming Trees and John Baker Saunders of The Walkabouts. The band worked on material for several months and played its first show on October 12, 1994, at the Crocodile Cafe in Seattle under the name "The Gacy Bunch". Within a few weeks, the band changed its name to Mad Season. In January 1995, Mad Season performed two songs on Pearl Jam's Self-Pollution satellite radio broadcast, "Lifeless Dead" and "I Don't Know Anything". The band completed an album, titled Above, which was released in March 1995. The first single, "River of Deceit", became a modest success on alternative radio. A live performance filmed at the Moore Theatre in Seattle was released in August 1995 as a home video, Live at the Moore. During Alice in Chains' hiatus, reports of Staley's addiction began to gain widespread circulation in fan and media communities, in part due to changes in his physical condition brought on by prolonged heroin abuse. Alice in Chains regrouped to record Alice in Chains, sometimes referred to as "Tripod", which was released in November 1995. The album debuted at the top of the U.S. charts, and has since been awarded — along with Facelift and Jar of Flies — double platinum status. With the exceptions of "Grind", "Heaven Beside You", and "Over Now", the lyrics were all written by Staley, making this album his greatest lyrical contribution to the band's catalogue. To accompany the album, the band released a home video, The Nona Tapes, but the band lapsed again, failing to complete tours planned in support of the album. When asked about the frustration of not touring to support the record, Cantrell provided some insight into how Staley's addictions led to tensions within the band: "Very frustrating, but we stuck it out. We rode the good times together, and we stuck together through the hard times. We never stabbed each other in the back and spilled our guts and [did] that kind of bullshit that you see happen a lot." "Drugs worked for me for years", Staley told Rolling Stone in February 1996, "and now they're turning against me, now I'm walking through hell and this sucks. I didn't want my fans to think that heroin was cool. But then I've had fans come up to me and give me the thumbs up, telling me they're high. That's exactly what I didn't want to happen." One of Staley's last shows with Alice in Chains was the MTV Unplugged performance in New York on April 10, 1996. The recording of Unplugged came after a long period of inactivity for the band; it was their first concert in two-and-a-half years. Staley made his last performance on July 3, 1996, in Kansas City, Missouri, while Alice in Chains was touring with Kiss. Other projects Staley shared lead vocals with Ann Wilson for a cover of Bob Dylan's "Ring Them Bells", featured on Heart's 1993 album Desire Walks On. The song "It's Coming After" from Second Coming's 1994 debut album L.O.V.Evil features Staley on lead vocals. Second Coming features Staley's bandmates from Alice N' Chains, his former band. One of the last songs that Staley recorded was a cover of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" with the supergroup Class of '99, featuring guitarist Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, bassist Martyn LeNoble, drummer Stephen Perkins, both from Jane's Addiction and Porno for Pyros, and keyboardist Matt Serletic. In November 1998, the group recorded the song for Robert Rodriguez's 1998 horror/sci-fi film The Faculty. A music video was also released. While the other members of the band were filmed specifically for the video, Staley's appearance consisted of footage pulled from Mad Season's 1995 Live at the Moore video. A song titled "Things You Do" featuring Staley on vocals was part of the soundtrack to the 2012 film Grassroots. In the film, the song was credited to "The Bondage Boys featuring Layne Staley", but the song had been credited to "Layne Staley and The Aftervibes" and "Layne Staley and Second Coming" when it leaked on the internet years before. Personal life In the early 1990s, Staley enrolled in several rehab programs, but he failed to stay clean for long. At one point, the other members of Alice in Chains flew to Los Angeles for weekly therapy at Staley's rehab. During the Dirt tour, Alice in Chains' manager, Susan Silver, hired bodyguards to keep Staley away from people who might try to pass him drugs, but he ended up relapsing on alcohol and drugs during the tour. Screaming Trees' Mark Lanegan recalled partying with Staley on tour and said that, "off stage, it was an insane, dark, drug and alcohol-fuelled frat party from start to finish, with Layne [Staley] and I raising hell, behaving like teenagers, staying up for days on end. We partook of whatever drugs came our way. Heroin, cocaine, painkillers, anything." Kurt Cobain's death in April 1994 scared Staley into temporary sobriety, but soon he was back into his addiction. Alice in Chains' managers turned down lucrative touring possibilities and kept the band off the road, hoping that would help Staley. Pearl Jam lead guitarist Mike McCready also tried to help Staley by inviting him to his side project, Mad Season. McCready had hoped that playing with sober musicians would encourage Staley. On October 29, 1996, Staley's former fiancée, Demri Lara Parrott, died of a drug related heart condition. Staley was placed on a 24-hour suicide watch, according to NME, which quoted a friend saying Staley was taking Parrott's death "extremely badly" and had fallen into a deep depression. Lanegan told Rolling Stone in 2002, "He never recovered from Demri's death. After that, I don't think he wanted to go on." Final years: 1997–2002 On February 26, 1997, Staley and the other members of Alice in Chains attended the Grammy Awards after the song "Again" was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance. In April of that same year, Staley purchased a 1,500 sq ft (140 m2), three-bedroom condominium in Seattle's University District via a trust. Toby Wright, the producer of Alice in Chains' third album, set up a home recording system for him there. In 1998, amid rumors that Staley rarely left his apartment, had contracted gangrene, and had lost the ability to ingest food and was living on a diet of Ensure, Jerry Cantrell told Kerrang! that the members of Alice in Chains regularly hung out at Staley's house. On June 22, 1998, Staley made a phone call to radio program Rockline and gave a rare interview while Cantrell was promoting his first solo album, Boggy Depot. Staley called the show to talk to Cantrell and stated that he had loved the album. In October 1998, Staley re-emerged to record two tracks with Alice in Chains, "Get Born Again" and "Died", which were released on the Music Bank box set in 1999. Additional reports of Staley's deteriorating condition persisted in the midst of the sessions. Dirt producer Dave Jerden—originally chosen by the band for the production—said, "Staley weighed 80 pounds…and was white as a ghost." Studio engineer Elan Trujillo commented that Layne "definitely didn't look like how he used to look" and noticed Staley had, in addition to no teeth, atrophy in his legs. Cantrell refused to comment on the singer's appearance, and band manager Susan Silver said she had not seen him since "last year". Staley made his final public appearance on October 31, 1998, when he attended a Jerry Cantrell solo concert in Seattle. He declined Cantrell's request to sing with him on stage. A photo taken of Staley backstage at this show is the most recent photo of him that has been publicly released. Thereafter, Staley was thought to have left behind his "self-imposed rock & roll exile", when in November 1998 he laid down additional vocal tracks as part of a supergroup called Class of '99, featuring members of Rage Against the Machine, Jane's Addiction, and Porno for Pyros. On July 19, 1999, the radio program Rockline was hosting Cantrell, Inez, and Kinney for a discussion on the release of Nothing Safe: Best of the Box, when, unexpectedly, Staley called in to participate. This was Staley's last interview. From 1999 to 2002, Staley became more reclusive and depressed, rarely leaving his Seattle condo; little is known about the details of his life during this period. Staley was rumored to spend most of his days creating art, playing video games, or nodding off on drugs. Staley's one-time roommate and friend Morgen Gallagher later said that around 2001 Staley said he was asked to audition for Audioslave; this claim was later debunked by Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello. Staley's mother, Nancy McCallum, told The Seattle Times in 2007 that despite his isolation, he was never far from the love of his family and friends, who filled his answering machine and mailbox with messages and letters. "Just because he was isolated doesn't mean we didn't have sweet moments with him." McCallum has also claimed that she saw Staley on Thanksgiving of 2001, and again just around Valentine's Day of 2002, when he visited his sister's baby. This was the last time that McCallum saw her son. Sean Kinney has commented on Staley's final years and isolation period: It got to a point where he'd kept himself so locked up, both physically and emotionally. I kept trying to make contact...Three times a week, like clockwork, I'd call him, but he'd never answer. Every time I was in the area, I was up in front of his place yelling for him ... Even if you could get in his building, he wasn't going to open the door. You'd phone and he wouldn't answer. You couldn't just kick the door in and grab him, though there were so many times I thought about doing that. But if someone won't help themselves, what, really, can anyone else do? Staley's physical appearance had become even worse than before: he had lost several teeth, his skin was sickly pale, and he was severely emaciated. Close friends such as Matt Fox said, "If no one heard from him for weeks, it wasn't unusual". Staley grew increasingly disconnected from his friends and bandmates who repeatedly tried to get him into rehab, but Staley refused. Staley's close friend Mark Lanegan said, "He didn't speak to anybody as of late… It's been a few months since I talked to him. But for us to not talk for a few months is par for the course." Death On April 19, 2002, Staley's accountants contacted his former manager, Susan Silver, and informed her that no money had been withdrawn from the singer's bank account in two weeks. Silver then contacted Staley's mother, Nancy McCallum, who placed a call with 911 to say she had not heard from him "in about two weeks". The police went with McCallum and her ex-husband, Jim Elmer, to Staley's home. It was reported that the 6-foot (183 cm) Staley weighed only 86 pounds (39 kg) when his body was discovered. Staley's body was partially decomposed when he was found. Medical examiners had to identify the body by comparing dental records. Years later, McCallum revealed that two days before Staley's body was found, she went to his apartment to let him know about the death of Demri Parrott's brother, but there was no answer. When she got the phone call to check on her son two days later, she was not surprised that Staley had not responded. There was some mail by his door. Staley owned a cat named Sadie at the time, who was usually quiet; upon hearing Sadie meow, McCallum became worried it was a call of distress. Still not receiving an answer from Staley, McCallum called 911. The autopsy and toxicology report on Staley's body revealed that he died from a mixture of heroin and cocaine, known as a speedball. The autopsy concluded that Staley died two weeks before his body was found, on April 5—the same day fellow grunge musician Kurt Cobain died eight years prior. Staley's death was classified as "accidental". Staley's Alice in Chains bandmates issued the following statement: It's good to be with friends and family as we struggle to deal with this immense loss … and try to celebrate this immense life. We are looking for all the usual things: comfort, purpose, answers, something to hold on to, a way to let him go in peace. Mostly, we are feeling heartbroken over the death of our beautiful friend. He was a sweet man with a keen sense of humor and a deep sense of humanity. He was an amazing musician, an inspiration, and a comfort to so many. He made great music and gifted it to the world. We are proud to have known him, to be his friend, and to create music with him. For the past decade, Layne struggled greatly—we can only hope that he has at last found some peace. We love you, Layne. Dearly. And we will miss you … endlessly. In 2010, in an interview on VH1's Celebrity Rehab with Staley's mother, Nancy McCallum, former Alice in Chains bass player Mike Starr said that he was the last person to see Staley alive and had spent time with him the day before his death, on Starr's birthday, April 4. Starr claimed that Staley was very sick but would not call 911. They briefly argued, which ended with Starr storming out. Starr stated that Staley called after him as he left and said: "Not like this, don't leave like this." Staley died the following day, April 5. Starr expressed regret for not calling 911 to save his life, and said that Staley had threatened to sever their friendship if he did. Starr regretted being high on benzodiazepines that night and having walked out of the door. The interview ended with Starr apologizing to McCallum for not calling 911, but she was insistent that neither she nor anyone in her family blamed Starr for Staley's death. She also told Starr: "Layne would forgive you. He'd say, 'Hey, I did this. Not you.'" Starr still blamed himself for the death of Staley. Starr kept this story a secret until his appearance on Celebrity Rehab in February 2010. During this same interview, McCallum also said that Staley had attempted rehab 14 times, although it is not clear whether any of these attempts were during his reclusive years. Starr was found dead on March 8, 2011, as a result of prescription drug overdose. Aftermath An informal memorial was held for Staley on the night of April 20, 2002, at the Seattle Center, which was attended by at least 100 fans and friends, including Alice in Chains bandmates Cantrell, Starr, Inez and Kinney, and Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell. Staley's body was cremated and a private memorial service was held for him on April 28, 2002, on Bainbridge Island in Washington's Puget Sound. During her appearance on Celebrity Rehab in 2010, Staley's mother said she has her son's ashes in a box. Staley's private memorial was attended by his family and friends, along with his Alice in Chains bandmates, the band's manager Susan Silver and her then-husband Chris Cornell, as well as other music personalities. Chris Cornell, joined by Heart's Ann and Nancy Wilson, sang a rendition of The Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses" at the funeral. They also performed The Lovemongers' song "Sand". Jerry Cantrell dedicated his solo album, Degradation Trip, released two months after Staley's death, to his memory. Cantrell also took in Staley's cat, Sadie, who he and the family took care of until Sadie's death in 2010, at the age of 18. Shortly after Staley's death, his parents Nancy McCallum and Phil Staley started receiving donations from fans all over the world. Nancy and Phil worked with Seattle's Therapeutic Health Services clinic to create the Layne Staley Memorial Fund to help other heroin addicts and their families in the Seattle music community. Alice in Chains remained inactive following Staley's death. For the next several years, the band refused to perform together, out of respect for him. In 2005, Cantrell, Kinney, and Inez reunited for a benefit concert for victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, with several vocalists filling in for Staley. Following positive response, the band decided to reunite formally in 2006. Comes with the Fall vocalist William DuVall, a member of Cantrell's solo touring band who often sang Staley's parts on the Alice in Chains songs that Cantrell performed, was announced to sing Staley's part for the reunion shows. In an interview with MTV News, Kinney noted that the band would use the reunion concerts to pay tribute to the songs and to Staley. The band used to have an intermission to include a five-minute filmed tribute to Staley in between sets. DuVall has since become Staley's full-time replacement in the band, contributing to three full-length releases. Tributes and influence Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins stated that Staley "had an amazing voice that had such a beautiful, sad, haunting quality about it. He was different because his heaviness was in that voice." The song "Bleeding The Orchid" from The Smashing Pumpkins' 2007 album Zeitgeist was indirectly inspired by the death of Staley. Cold's song "The Day Seattle Died" from their 2003 album Year of the Spider was an ode to Staley, as well as fellow grunge figurehead Kurt Cobain. That same year Staind featured a song called "Layne" in memory to the singer on their album 14 Shades of Grey. In their 2004 album Hangover Music Vol. VI, Black Label Society also included a tribute to Staley, titled "Layne". Kat Bjelland, formerly of Babes in Toyland, wrote the song “Layne to Rest” about him on her band Katastrophy Wife’s 2004 album All Kneel. Eddie Vedder, lead singer of Pearl Jam, wrote a song eulogizing Staley, titled "4/20/02" (the day Vedder heard the news). The song featured only Vedder singing and playing the guitar in a ukulele-inspired tuning, and was released as a hidden track on Pearl Jam's 2003 B-sides and rarities album, Lost Dogs, roughly four minutes and twenty seconds after the conclusion of the final listed song, "Bee Girl". Vedder also paid tribute to Staley during a Pearl Jam concert in Chicago on August 22, 2016, which would have been Staley's 49th birthday, and dedicated the song "Man of the Hour" to his late friend. Jerry Cantrell said Staley gave him the self-assurance to sing. "Layne was really responsible for giving me the confidence to become more of a singer. He'd say, 'You wrote this song, this means something to you, sing it.' He kicked my ass out of the nest. Over the years I continued to grow, and Layne started to play guitar, and we inspired each other". Since 2002, Seattle has hosted an annual tribute concert for Staley on his birthday. Venues such as the Moore Theatre, The Showbox The Fenix, and The Crocodile have hosted the event. The show proceeds benefit the Layne Staley Memorial Fund. Staley ranked at No. 27 on Hit Parader magazine's list of "Heavy Metal's All-Time Top 100 Vocalists" published in the November 2006 issue, and at No. 42 on Complex's magazine list of "The 50 Best Lead Singers of All Time" in 2012. Staley was an inspiration for the title of Metallica's 2008 album, Death Magnetic. The band recorded a song in tribute to him, titled "Rebel of Babylon". In 2009, Alice in Chains released their first studio album in 14 years, Black Gives Way to Blue, with Cantrell and then-new vocalist and rhythm guitarist William DuVall sharing lead vocals. The title track is a tribute to Staley. Cantrell invited Elton John to join Alice in Chains and pay tribute to Staley playing the piano in "Black Gives Way to Blue", the closing song in the album. The song was written and sung by Cantrell, who described it as the band's goodbye to Staley. The first concert that Staley attended was Elton John's and he was blown away by it. According to Cantrell, the album's cover art featuring a heart surrounded by a black background was inspired by the heartbreak of Staley's death. Staley's former bandmates also thanked him in the album's liner notes. On September 6, 2011, Hank Williams III released his Attention Deficit Domination album and dedicated it to Staley. Staley's Alice in Chains bandmates have stated that one of the saddest aspects of his legacy is to hear him remembered primarily for his drug use rather than the other aspects of his personality. Kinney and Cantrell have also expressed their frustration over the Grammys ignoring Staley during their annual tribute to the musicians who have died in the past year. In 2013, Alice in Chains' drummer, Sean Kinney, added the initials "LSMS" on his drum kit, a tribute to Staley and the band's former bassist, Mike Starr, who died in 2011. The music video for Alice in Chains' 2013 single, "Voices", features a picture of Staley next to a photo of Nirvana's frontman, Kurt Cobain, at the 2:20 mark. Since Alice in Chains reunited, Jerry Cantrell started paying tribute to Staley before performing the song "Nutshell". Since 2011, Cantrell pays tribute to both Staley and Mike Starr before performing the song at concerts. In April 2017, Nancy Wilson revealed that she started writing the song "The Dragon" for Staley in the '90s. The song was recorded in 2016 and is part of the EP of Wilson's new band, Roadcase Royale, released in 2017. On what would've been Staley's 50th birthday, August 22, 2017, Alice in Chains released a video paying tribute to him, featuring Jerry Cantrell, Ann Wilson, Mike McCready, and Barrett Martin. William DuVall revealed that he was thinking about Staley, his grandmother and the Soundgarden lead vocalist Chris Cornell while writing the Alice in Chains' song "Never Fade", from their 2018 album, Rainier Fog. The album's title track, written by Cantrell, is partly a tribute to Staley and Mike Starr. Layne Staley Day in Seattle On August 22, 2019, which would have been Staley's 52nd birthday, Seattle mayor Jenny Durkan officially proclaimed that day as "Layne Staley Day" in the city in honor of Staley's contributions to the world of music. The day was also a call to attention to the Layne Staley Memorial Fund, established by his parents in 2002. Books Two biographies have been written about Staley, both authored by Adriana Rubio—Layne Staley: Angry Chair released in 2003, which contains an alleged final interview of Staley that Rubio claimed to have conducted less than three months before his death, and Layne Staley: Get Born Again, released in 2009, a revised and updated version of her earlier book. Staley's family has disputed Rubio's work, stating they do not believe she interviewed him in 2002. When questioned about the authenticity of the book, Rubio refused to confirm the interview was genuine. Staley's last interview was for the radio program Rockline on July 19, 1999, promoting the release of the compilation album Nothing Safe: Best of the Box with the other members of Alice in Chains. The content of Rubio's book, including what she referred to as Staley's final interview, was called into question in journalist David De Sola's 2015 book Alice in Chains: The Untold Story. De Sola questions not only the content of the interview, which portrays Staley as using his lyrics in casual conversation, it also indicates that Rubio never spoke to him, citing her refusal to release the tape with the interview and the fact that not even her publisher had access to the tape. One of Staley's sisters, Liz Coats, likewise doubted the veracity of the book. Staley was featured on the books Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music (2009) by Greg Prato, and Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge (2011) by Mark Yarm. Both books explored the history of grunge in detail and touch upon Alice in Chains and Staley's life and death via interviews with Staley's mother, friends and bandmates, including Cantrell, Kinney, Starr and Inez. In August 2015, journalist David de Sola released the biography Alice in Chains: The Untold Story, which is mainly focused on Staley and features interviews with his friends and relatives; the surviving members of Alice in Chains did not partake in interviews for this book. Discography Alice in Chains Staley appeared on all Alice in Chains releases from We Die Young up to the song "Died", later taking part in reissues and compilations containing material from his time in the band. Other appearances References External links Official website Alice In Chains - Official Site Layne Staley discography at Discogs Layne Staley at AllMusic Layne Staley at IMDb Archive Seattle Police incident report at The Smoking Gun

"Man in the Box" is a song by the American rock band Alice in Chains. It was released as a single in January 1991 after being featured on the group's debut studio album, Facelift (1990). It peaked at No. 18 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance in 1992. The song was included on the compilation albums Nothing Safe: Best of the Box (1999), Music Bank (1999), Greatest Hits (2001), and The Essential Alice in Chains (2006). "Man in the Box" was the second most-played song of the decade on mainstream rock radio between 2010 and 2019. Origin and recording In the liner notes of 1999's Music Bank box set collection, guitarist Jerry Cantrell said of the song; "That whole beat and grind of that is when we started to find ourselves; it helped Alice become what it was." The song makes use of a talk box to create the guitar effect. The idea of using a talk box came from producer Dave Jerden, who was driving to the studio one day when Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" started playing on the radio. The original Facelift track listing credited only vocalist Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell with writing the song. All post-Facelift compilations credited the entire band. It is unclear as to why the songwriter credits were changed. Composition and music "Man in the Box" is a grunge, alternative metal, hard rock, and alternative rock song that is widely recognized by its distinctive "wordless opening melody, where Layne Staley's peculiar, tensed-throat vocals are matched in unison with an effects-laden guitar" followed by "portentous lines like: 'Feed my eyes, can you sew them shut?', 'Jesus Christ, deny your maker' and 'He who tries, will be wasted' with Cantrell's drier, less-urgent voice," along with harmonies provided by both Staley and Cantrell in the lines 'Won't you come and save me'. Lyrics In a 1992 interview with Rolling Stone, Layne Staley explained the origins of the song's lyrics: I started writing about censorship. Around the same time, we went out for dinner with some Columbia Records people who were vegetarians. They told me how veal was made from calves raised in these small boxes, and that image stuck in my head. So I went home and wrote about government censorship and eating meat as seen through the eyes of a doomed calf. Jerry Cantrell said of the song: But what it's basically about is, is how government and media control the public's perception of events in the world or whatever, and they build you into a box by feeding it to you in your home, ya know. And it's just about breaking out of that box and looking outside of that box that has been built for you. In a recorded interview with MuchMusic in 1991, Staley stated that the lyrics are loosely based on media censorship, and "I was really really stoned when I wrote it, so it meant something different then", he said laughing. Release and reception "Man in the Box" was released as a single in 1991. It is widely considered to be one of Alice in Chains' signature songs, reaching number 18 on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart at the time of its release. Loudwire and Kerrang both named "Man in the Box" as Alice in Chains' greatest song. The song was number 19 on VH1's "40 Greatest Metal Songs", and its solo was rated the 77th greatest guitar solo by Guitar World in 2008. It was number 50 on VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of the 90s" in 2007. The song was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance in 1992. Steve Huey of AllMusic called the song "an often overlooked but important building block in grunge's ascent to dominance" and "a meeting of metal theatrics and introspective hopelessness." According to Nielsen Music's year-end report for 2019, "Man in the Box" was the second most-played song of the decade on mainstream rock radio with 142,000 spins. Music video The MTV music video for the track was released in 1991 and was directed by Paul Rachman, who later directed the first version of the "Sea of Sorrow" music video for the band and the 2006 feature documentary American Hardcore. The music video was nominated for Best Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Video at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards. The video is available on the home video releases Live Facelift and Music Bank: The Videos. The video shows the band performing in what is supposedly a barn, where throughout the video, a mysterious man wearing a black hooded cloak is shown roaming around the barn. Then, after the unknown hooded figure is shown, he is shown again looking around inside a stable where many animals live where he suddenly discovers and shines his flashlight on a man (Layne Staley) that he finds sitting in the corner of the barnhouse. At the end of the video, the hooded man finally pulls his hood down off of his head, only to reveal that his eyelids were sewn together with stitches the whole time. This part of the video depicts on the line of the song, "Feed my eyes, now you've sewn them shut". The man with his eyes sewn shut was played by a friend of director Paul Rachman, Rezin, who worked in a bar parking lot in Los Angeles called Small's. The music video was shot on 16mm film and transferred to tape using a FDL 60 telecine. At the time this was the only device that could sync sound to picture at film rates as low as 6FPS. This is how the surreal motion was obtained. The sepia look was done by Claudius Neal using a daVinci color corrector. Layne Staley tattooed on his back the Jesus character depicted in the video with his eyes sewn shut. Live performances At Alice in Chains' last concert with Staley on July 3, 1996, they closed with "Man in the Box". Live performances of "Man in the Box" can be found on the "Heaven Beside You" and "Get Born Again" singles and the live album Live. A performance of the song is also included on the home video release Live Facelift and is a staple of the band's live show due to the song's popularity. Personnel Layne Staley – lead vocals Jerry Cantrell – guitar, talk box, backing vocals Mike Starr – bass Sean Kinney – drums Chart positions Weekly charts Facelift version Live version Decade-end charts Certifications Cover versions Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine covered "Man in the Box" in a lounge style on their 2005 album Aperitif for Destruction. Platinum-selling recording artist David Cook covered the song during his 2009 Declaration Tour. Angie Aparo recorded a cover version for his album Weapons of Mass Construction. Apologetix parodied the song as "Man on the Cross" on their 2013 album Hot Potato Soup. Metal artist Chris Senter released a parody titled "Cat in the Box" in March 2015, featuring a music video by animator Joey Siler. Les Claypool's bluegrass project Duo de Twang covered the song on their debut album Four Foot Shack. In 2020, music group The Merkins posted a parody of the song on their YouTube channel, featuring singer Joey Siler as Pinhead from the Hellraiser film series. In popular culture Professional wrestler Tommy Dreamer used the song as his entrance music in Extreme Championship Wrestling from 1995 to 2001, and with his own wrestling promotion, House of Hardcore, since 2012. The song appeared as a playable track in the video games Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero Live. "Man in the Box" has been featured in films such as Lassie (1994), The Perfect Storm (2000), Funny People (2009) and Always Be My Maybe (2019). The song has been featured in TV shows including Beavis and Butt-Head (1993), Dead at 21 (1994), Cold Case (season 2, episode 13, "Time to Crime" in 2005), and Supernatural (season 12, episode 6, "Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox" in 2016). References External links Review of "Man in the Box" at AllMusic "Man in the Box" official music video on YouTube

1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1992nd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 992nd year of the 2nd millennium, the 92nd year of the 20th century, and the 3rd year of the 1990s decade. 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. January 6 The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is proclaimed by the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh. 1991–92 Georgian coup d'état: President of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia flees the country as a result of the military coup. January 7 – 1992 European Community Monitor Mission helicopter downing: A Yugoslav Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 attacks two Italian Army Agusta-Bell AB-206L LongRanger helicopters carrying observers from the European Community Monitor Mission. One crashes, killing five people on board. The other helicopter crash-lands, but its occupants survive. January 9 Bosnian Serbs declare their own republic within Bosnia and Herzegovina, in protest at the decision by Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats to seek recognition by the European Communities. First confirmed detection of exoplanets with announcement of the discovery of several terrestrial-mass planets orbiting the pulsar PSR B1257+12, by radio astronomers Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail working in the United States. January 15 – The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia begins to break up; Slovenia and Croatia gain independence and international recognition in some Western countries. January 16 – El Salvador officials and rebel leaders sign the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City, ending the 12-year Salvadoran Civil War that claimed at least 75,000 lives. January 19 In the Bulgarian presidential election, the first held by direct vote, Zhelyu Zhelev, leader of the Union of Democratic Forces, retains office. Paramount Leader of China Deng Xiaoping speaks in Shenzhen during his southern tour, a move that would return China on its right-wing march towards free market economics. January 22 – Rebel forces occupy Zaire's national radio station in Kinshasa and broadcast a demand for the government's resignation. January 24 – China and Israel establish diplomatic relations. January 26 Boris Yeltsin announces that Russia will stop targeting cities of the United States and its allies with nuclear weapons. In return President George H. W. Bush announces that the United States and its allies will stop targeting Russia and the remaining communist states with nuclear weapons. In Mauritania, security forces open fire on violent extremist opponents of President of Mauritania Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya, allegedly killing at least four people. January 27 – First Nagorno-Karabakh War: in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, fighting between Armenians and Azeris leaves at least 60 people dead. January 30 – North Korea signs an accord with the International Atomic Energy Agency allowing for international inspections of North Korea's nuclear power plants. February February 1 – President of the United States George H. W. Bush meets with President of Russia Boris Yeltsin at Camp David, where they formally declare that the Cold War is over. February 3 – South African State President F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela, African National Congress leader, are jointly awarded the Felix Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris. February 4 – In Venezuela, Hugo Chávez leads an unsuccessful coup attempt against President of Venezuela Carlos Andrés Pérez. February 6 – Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms celebrates her Ruby Jubilee, marking 40 years since her accession to the thrones of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. February 7 – The Maastricht Treaty is signed, founding the European Union. February 8 – The opening ceremony for the 1992 Winter Olympics is held in Albertville, France. February 9 – Algerian Civil War: The government of Algeria declares a state of emergency and begins a crackdown on the Islamic Salvation Front. February 14 – Ukraine and four other nations in the Commonwealth of Independent States reject Russia's proposal to maintain unified armed forces. Ukraine, Moldova and Azerbaijan announce they will go ahead with plans to create their own military forces. February 16 – In Lebanon, Israeli helicopter gunships assassinate Abbas al-Musawi, the leader of Hezbollah, and his son, in retaliation for a February 14 raid that killed three Israeli soldiers. February 18 – Iraq disarmament crisis: The Executive Chairman of UNSCOM details Iraq's refusal to abide by UN Security Council disarmament resolutions. February 21 – The United Nations Security Council approves Resolution 743 to send a UNPROFOR peacekeeping force to Yugoslavia. February 25–26 – 613 Azerbaijani civilians are massacred in Khojaly. February 26 – The Supreme Court of Ireland rules that a 14-year-old rape victim may travel to the United Kingdom to have an abortion. February 28 – Ownership of the port town of Walvis Bay is transferred from South Africa to Namibia. March March 1 – The first victims of the Bosnian War are a Serb bridegroom's father and an Orthodox priest in a Sarajevo shooting. In the Bosnian independence referendum, held from February 29 to March 1 and boycotted by Bosnian Serbs, the majority of the Bosniak and Bosnian Croat communities have voted for Bosnia-Herzegovina's independence. March 2 – In Dubăsari, Moldova, escalating tensions turn into open hostilities and the beginning of the Transnistria War. March 4 – The Supreme Court of Algeria bans the Islamic Salvation Front, which is poised to win control of the Parliament of Algeria in runoff elections. March 12 – Mauritius becomes a republic while remaining a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. March 13 – The 6.7 Mw Erzincan earthquake affects eastern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing 498–652 and injuring around 2,000. March 18 – White South Africans vote in favour of political reforms which will end the apartheid regime and create a power-sharing multi-racial government. March 22 In French regional elections, the conservative Rally for the Republic and the centre-right Union for French Democracy win in a landslide, capturing 20 of 22 metropolitan regional presidencies. STS-45: Space Shuttle Atlantis takes off from Cape Canaveral carrying instruments designed to study global warming. March 24 – The Treaty on Open Skies is signed in Helsinki, Finland, to establish a program of unarmed surveillance flights over the 34 member states. It went into effect on January 1, 2002. March 25 – The International Atomic Energy Agency orders Iraq to destroy an industrial complex at Al Atheer that is being used to manufacture nuclear weapons. March 31 – The Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act of Singapore comes into force. April April 5 The Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina (without the presence of Serb political delegates) proclaims independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Bosnian War: Serb troops, following a mass rebellion of Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina against the Bosnian declaration of independence from Yugoslavia, besiege the city of Sarajevo. President of Peru Alberto Fujimori issues Decree Law 25418, dissolving the Congress of the Republic of Peru, imposing censorship and having opposition politicians arrested, setting off the 1992 Peruvian constitutional crisis. April 6 – The Republic of Ilirida is proclaimed by Albanian Macedonian activists in Struga, Republic of Macedonia. April 7 – The United States recognizes the independence of Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The European Communities also recognizes Bosnia and Herzegovina. April 9 A jury in Miami, USA, convicts former Panamanian ruler Manuel Noriega of assisting Colombia's cocaine cartel. In the United Kingdom general election the Conservative Party led by Prime Minister of the United Kingdom John Major narrowly retains power. April 10 First Nagorno-Karabakh War: Maraga massacre – At least 43 Armenian civilians are killed as their village of Maraga, Azerbaijan, is captured and destroyed by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces. A Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb explodes at the Baltic Exchange in the City of London; three are killed, 91 injured. April 13 – The 5.3 Mw Roermond earthquake affects the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong). April 15 – The National Assembly of Vietnam adopts the 1992 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. April 16 – President of Afghanistan Mohammad Najibullah is ousted and detained by Muslim rebels moving towards Kabul, setting the stage for the civil war in Afghanistan (1992–96). April 20 – The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, held at Wembley Stadium, London, is televised live to over one billion people and raises millions of dollars for AIDS research. April 21 – The death of Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia results in a succession dispute between Nicholas Romanov, Prince of Russia and Vladimir's daughter Maria for the leadership of the Imperial Family of Russia. April 22 – Fuel leaking into a sewer causes a series of explosions in Guadalajara, Mexico; 215 are killed, 1,500 injured. April 27 – Betty Boothroyd becomes the first woman elected Speaker of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. April 28 – The two remaining constituent republics of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia – Serbia and Montenegro – form a new state, named the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (which in 2003 becomes Serbia and Montenegro), bringing to an end the official state union of Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Montenegrins, Bosniaks and Macedonians that has existed since 1918 (with the exception of an occupation period during World War II). April 29 Los Angeles riots: The acquittal of four police officers in the Rodney King beating criminal trial triggers massive rioting in Los Angeles. The riots will last for six days resulting in 63 deaths and over $1 billion in damages before order is restored by the military. In Sierra Leone, a group of young soldiers launch a military coup that sends president Joseph Saidu Momoh into exile in Guinea, and the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) is established with 25-year-old Captain Valentine Strasser as its chairman and Head of State of the country. April 30 – Brčko bridge massacre: around 100 Croat and Bosniak civilians are blown up while crossing the bridge across the Sava in Brčko, Bosnia and Herzegovina. May May 1 – Lithuania introduces a new temporary currency, the talonas. May 5 Russian leaders in Crimea declare their separation from Ukraine as a new republic. They withdraw the secession on May 10. Armand Césari Stadium disaster in Bastia on Corsica: 18 people are killed and 2,300 are injured when one of the terraces collapses before a football match between SC Bastia and Olympique de Marseille. May 7 STS-49: Space Shuttle Endeavour makes its maiden flight, as a replacement for Space Shuttle Challenger. In the Sydney River McDonald's murders in Nova Scotia, Canada, three McDonald's employees are killed and a fourth is left permanently disabled during a botched robbery. May 9 The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is adopted in New York. The Westray Mine in Plymouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, explodes, killing all 26 miners working the night shift. May 10 – Sweden wins the Ice Hockey World Championships in Czechoslovakia defeating Finland, 5–2, in the final game in Prague. May 13 – Falun Gong is introduced by Li Hongzhi in China. May 15 – The Collective Security Treaty Organization is established by six post-Soviet states belonging to the Commonwealth of Independent States (effective April 20, 1994). May 16–17 – Bosnian War: U.N. peacekeepers withdraw from Sarajevo. May 17 – Protests begin in Bangkok, Thailand, against the government of General Suchinda Kraprayoon, sparking a bloody crackdown. May 23 – Capaci bombing: A Mafia bomb on the autostrada in Sicily kills five people, including Italian anti-Mafia judge Giovanni Falcone. May 24 In Thailand, Suchinda Kraprayoon agrees to resign. Parliamentary election held in Burkina Faso, for the first time since 1978. May 30 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 757 imposes economic sanctions on Yugoslavia in an effort to end its attacks on Bosnia and Herzegovina. June June 2 – In a national referendum Denmark rejects the Maastricht Treaty by a narrow margin. June 3–14 – The Earth Summit is held in Rio de Janeiro. June 8 – The first World Oceans Day is celebrated, coinciding with the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. June 10–26 – Sweden hosts the UEFA Euro 1992 football tournament, which is won by Denmark. June 16 – A "Joint Understanding" agreement on arms reduction is signed by U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin (this is later codified in START II). June 17 Two German relief workers held since 1989, Thomas Kemptner and Heinrich Struebig, are handed over to the German authorities after their release; they are the last Western hostages in Lebanon. Violence breaks out between the African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom Party in Boipatong, South Africa, leaving 46 dead. June 18 – Ireland votes for the Eleventh Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland to accept the Maastricht Treaty with a popular vote of over 69%. June 20 Estonia adopts the kroon as currency, becoming the first former Soviet Republic to replace the Soviet rouble. In Paraguay the National Constituent Assembly approves the new Constitution of Paraguay. June 21 – Nelson Mandela announces that the African National Congress will halt negotiations with the government of South Africa following the Boipatong massacre of June 17. June 23 – The Israeli legislative election is won by the Israeli Labor Party under the leadership of Yitzhak Rabin, ousting a Likud government. June 25 – The Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) is founded. June 26 – Denmark beats Germany 2–0 in the final to win the 1992 UEFA European Football Championship at Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg, Sweden. June 28 – Estonia holds a referendum on its constitution, which will come into effect on July 3. July July 6–8 – The 18th G7 summit is held in Munich. July 6–29 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq refuses a U.N. inspection team access to the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture. UNSCOM claims that it has reliable information that the site contains archives related to illegal weapons activities. U.N. inspectors stage a 17-day "sit-in" outside of the building, but leave when their safety is threatened by Iraqi soldiers. July 10 In Miami, former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega is sentenced to 40 years in prison for participating in the illegal drug trade and racketeering. The Giotto spacecraft flies past Comet 26P/Grigg–Skjellerup, gathering measurements about the comet. July 13 – Yitzhak Rabin becomes prime minister of Israel. July 16 – At the 1992 Democratic National Convention, Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton accepts his party's presidential nomination on behalf of the "forgotten middle class". July 17 – The Slovak National Council declares Slovakia an independent country, signaling the breakup of Czechoslovakia. July 19 Via D'Amelio bombing: A car bomb placed by the Sicilian Mafia (with the collaboration of Italian intelligence) kills judge Paolo Borsellino and five members of his police escort. The Cabinet of Israel approves a freeze on new Israeli settlement in the occupied territories, a move expected to reinvigorate the Middle East Peace Process. July 20 – Václav Havel resigns as president of Czechoslovakia. July 21 – Transnistria War ends with a ceasefire. July 22 – Near Medellín, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar escapes from his luxury prison, fearing extradition to the United States. July 23 – Abkhazia declares independence from Georgia. July 25–August 9 – The 1992 Summer Olympics are held in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. July 26 – Iraq agrees to allow U.N. weapons inspectors to search the Iraqi Agricultural Ministry building in Baghdad. When inspectors arrive on July 28 and 29, they find nothing and voice suspicions that Iraqi records have been removed. July 31 Georgia becomes the 179th member of the United Nations after seceding from the Soviet Union the previous year. Thai Airways International Flight 311, an Airbus A310-300, crashes into a mountain north of Kathmandu, Nepal killing all 113 people on board. China General Aviation Flight 7552 bound for Xiamen crashes soon after taking off from Nanjing Dajiaochang Airport, killing 108 of the 116 people on board. August August 3–4 – Millions of black South Africans participate in a general strike called by the African National Congress to protest the lack of progress in negotiations with the government of State President of South Africa F. W. de Klerk. August 12 – Canada, Mexico and the United States announce that a deal has been reached on the North American Free Trade Agreement; this will be formally signed on December 17. August 18 – Prime Minister of the United Kingdom John Major announces the creation of Iraqi no-fly zones (→ Operation Southern Watch). August 24 Concordia University massacre: Valery Fabrikant murders four colleagues and seriously wounds another in a shooting at Concordia University, in Montreal, Quebec. China and South Korea establish diplomatic relations. August 24–28 – Hurricane Andrew hits south Florida and Louisiana and dissipates over the Tennessee valley when it merges with a storm system; 23 are killed. August 29 – In Rostock, Germany, tens of thousands rally to protest neo-Nazi attacks on refugees and immigrants begun on August 22. September September 1 – In Beijing, police arrest Shen Tong for his role in organizing the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. September 2 – The 7.7 Mw Nicaragua earthquake affects the west coast of Nicaragua. With a Ms –Mw  disparity of half a unit, this tsunami earthquake triggers a tsunami that causes most of the damage and casualties, with at least 116 killed. Average runup heights are 3–8 meters (9.8–26.2 ft). September 7 In Ciskei, members of the Ciskei Defence Force loyal to dictator Oupa Gqozo open fire into a crowd of anti-Gqozo protestors organized by the African National Congress, killing at least 28 people and wounding nearly 200. President of Tajikistan Rahmon Nabiyev is forced to resign following weeks of clan and religious warfare that have left nearly 2,000 people dead. September 12 – In Peru, police arrest Abimael Guzmán, the leader of the Shining Path guerilla movement, who has evaded capture for 12 years. September 16 – Black Wednesday: The pound sterling and the Italian lira are forced out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. September 20 – French voters narrowly approve the Maastricht Treaty in the French Maastricht Treaty referendum. September 21 – Mexico establishes diplomatic relations with Vatican City, ending a break that has lasted over 130 years. September 28 Law enforcement officials in the United States, Colombia and Italy announce that they have arrested more than 165 people on money laundering charges related to cocaine trafficking. Pakistan International Airlines Flight 268 crashes into a mountain while on approach to Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal. All 167 occupants on board were killed. The crash of PIA Flight 268 occurred just 2 months after Thai Airways International Flight 311 crashed into a mountain near Kathmandu under similar circumstances, killing all 113 occupants on board. September 29 – The Chamber of Deputies of Brazil votes to impeach President of Brazil Fernando Collor, the country's first democratically elected leader in 29 years. Vice President Itamar Franco becomes acting president. October October 2 – A riot breaks out in the Carandiru Penitentiary in São Paulo, Brazil, resulting in the Carandiru massacre. October 3 – After performing a song protesting against alleged Catholic Church child sexual abuse, Irish singer-songwriter Sinéad O'Connor rips up a photograph of Pope John Paul II on the US television programme Saturday Night Live, causing huge controversy. October 4 The government of Mozambique signs the Rome General Peace Accords with leaders of RENAMO, ending the 16-year-old Mozambican Civil War. Israeli cargo plane El Al Flight 1862 crashes into residential buildings in Amsterdam's Bijlmermeer, Netherlands, after taking off from Schiphol Airport and losing two engines, killing all 4 people on board and 39 on the ground. October 6 – Lennart Meri becomes the first President of Estonia after regaining independence. The Estonian Government in Exile resigns on the next day. October 7 – In Peru, Shining Path leader Abimael Guzmán is convicted of treason and sentenced to life in prison. October 11 – The Catechism of the Catholic Church is promulgated by Pope John Paul II with his apostolic constitution, Fidei depositum. October 12 In the Dominican Republic, Pope John Paul II celebrates the 500th anniversary of the meeting of two cultures. The 5.8 mb Cairo earthquake affects the city with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), leaving 545 dead and 6,512 injured. October 19 – The Chinese Communist Party promotes several market-oriented reformers to the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, signaling a defeat for hard-line ideologues. October 20 – The last Yugoslav Army troops leave Croatia. October 21 – 150,000 coal miners march in London to protest government plans to close coal mines and reduce the number of miners. October 23 – Emperor of Japan Akihito begins the first imperial visit to China, telling a Beijing audience he feels deep sorrow for the suffering of the Chinese people during World War II. October 25 – Lithuania holds a referendum on its first constitution after declaring independence from the Soviet Union in 1990. October 26 – In a national referendum, voters in Canada reject the Charlottetown Accord. October 31 – Pope John Paul II issues an apology and lifts the 1633 edict of the Inquisition against Galileo Galilei. November November 3 – In the 1992 United States presidential election, Democratic Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton defeats Republican President George H. W. Bush and Independent Ross Perot. November 8 – More than 350,000 people rally in Berlin to protest right-wing violence against immigrants; stones and eggs are thrown at President of Germany Richard von Weizsäcker and Chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl. November 11 – The Church of England votes to allow women to become priests. November 13 The government of Peru announces it has arrested a small group of army officers who were plotting the assassination of President Alberto Fujimori. A report by the World Meteorological Organization reports an unprecedented level of ozone depletion in both the Arctic and Antarctic. November 14 – In poor conditions caused by Cyclone Forrest, Vietnam Airlines Flight 474 crashes near Nha Trang, killing 30. November 15 – The Lithuanian parliamentary election sees the Communists of the Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania, led by Algirdas Brazauskas, return to power. November 18 – Russian President Boris Yeltsin releases the flight data recorder (FDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR) of Korean Air Flight 007, which was shot down by the Soviets in 1983. November 24 – In China, China Southern Airlines Flight 3943, a China Southern Airlines domestic flight, crashes, killing all 141 people on board. November 25 The Czechoslovakia Federal Assembly votes to split the country into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, starting on January 1, 1993. In a national referendum related to abortion, voters in Ireland reject the proposed Twelfth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 1992 but approve the Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland and the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland. November 27 – The government of Venezuela puts down a coup attempt by a group of Air Force officers who have bombed the presidential palace. December December 1 – South Korea and South Africa reestablish diplomatic relations. South Korea previously had diplomatic relations with South Africa from 1961 to 1978, when they were severed by the former due to the latter's policy of apartheid. December 3 – UN Security Council Resolution 794 is unanimously passed, approving a coalition of United Nations peacekeepers led by the United States to form UNITAF, tasked with ensuring that humanitarian aid gets distributed and establishing peace in Somalia. December 4 – U.S. military forces land in Somalia. December 6 – Demolition of Babri Masjid: Extremist Hindu activists in India demolish Babri Masjid – a 16th-century mosque in Ayodhya which has been used as a temple since 1949 – leading to widespread communal violence, including the Bombay riots, in all killing over 1,500 people. December 12 – The 7.8 Mw Flores earthquake affects the Lesser Sunda Islands in Indonesia with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe) leaving at least 2,500 dead. A destructive tsunami with wave heights of 25 m (82 ft) follows. December 16 – The Czech National Council adopts the Constitution of the Czech Republic. December 18 – The South Korean presidential election is won by Kim Young-sam, the first non-military candidate elected since 1961. December 21 – President of Serbia Slobodan Milošević defeats Milan Panić in the Serbian presidential election. December 22 – The Archives of Terror are discovered by Martín Almada in Asunción, detailing the fates of thousands of Latin Americans who have been secretly kidnapped, tortured and killed by the security services of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay in Operation Condor. Births and deaths Nobel Prizes Physics – Georges Charpak Chemistry – Rudolph A. Marcus Medicine – Edmond H. Fischer, Edwin G. Krebs Literature – Derek Walcott Peace – Rigoberta Menchú Economics – Gary Becker References Sources 1992 House by Bill Frolick – article about 1992 from The New Yorker magazine.

The Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance was an award presented to recording artists at the Grammy Awards from 1990 to 2011. The academy recognized hard rock music artists for the first time at the 31st Grammy Awards in 1989. The category was originally presented as Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrumental, combining two of the most popular music genres of the 1980s. Jethro Tull won that award for the album Crest of a Knave, beating Metallica, who were expected to win with the album ...And Justice for All. This choice led to widespread criticism of the academy, as journalists suggested that the music of Jethro Tull did not belong in the hard rock or heavy metal genres. In response, the academy created the categories Best Hard Rock Performance and Best Metal Performance, separating the genres. The band Living Colour was presented the first award for Best Hard Rock Performance in 1990. From 1992 to 1994, the award was presented as the Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal. The bands Foo Fighters, Living Colour, and the Smashing Pumpkins share the record for the most wins, with two each. American artists were presented with the award more than any other nationality, though it was also presented to musicians or groups originating from Australia twice and from the United Kingdom once. Alice in Chains holds the record for the most nominations without a win, with eight. The award was discontinued in 2012 due to a major overhaul of Grammy categories. In 2012 and 2013, quality hard rock performances were honored in the Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance category. However, in 2014, the category was split, returning the stand-alone Best Metal Performance category and recognizing quality hard rock performances in the Best Rock Performance category. According to the Recording Academy, "It was determined that metal has a very distinctive sound, and hard rock more closely aligns with rock and can exist comfortably as one end of the rock spectrum." Recipients ^[I] Each year is linked to the article about the Grammy Awards held that year. Multiple wins Multiple nominations References External links Official site of the Grammy Awards Archived 2014-05-07 at the Wayback Machine Rock on the Net – Grammy Awards: Best Hard Rock Performance Archived 2013-03-12 at the Wayback Machine

In 2020, the Italian curling team won the Moscow Classic annual bonspiel. One of the members of that four-person team was not born in Italy. As of August 1, 2024, what are the colors of the national flag of their country of origin?

Red and White (Switzerland, Joël Retornaz)

Multiple constraints

The Red Square Classic and the Moscow Classic are annual bonspiels (curling tournaments) on the men's World Curling Tour (WCT). The Red Square Classic is played outdoors at Red Square, while the Moscow Classic is played at the New League curling club in Moscow, Russia. Both events are held in early February within a week of each other. The Red Square Classic ran as a solo event from 2014 to 2017. It was replaced by the Moscow Classic in 2018. In 2019, the event returned to Red Square, and in 2020 both events were held for the first time. In 2021, the events were cancelled and replaced by a mixed doubles event. Past champions Mixed doubles Moscow first held a mixed doubles tour event in December 2019 called the ISS WCT Moscow Mixed Doubles. == References ==

Amos Mosaner (born 12 March 1995 in Trento) is an Italian curler from Cembra. He is an Olympic gold medallist, having won the mixed doubles event at the 2022 Winter Olympics with partner Stefania Constantini. Career Juniors As a junior curler, Mosaner represented Italy in four World Junior Curling Championships. He played third for Italy at the 2012 World Junior Curling Championships on a team skipped by Andrea Pilzer. The team finished 9th. Mosaner then became skip of the Italian junior team for the next three World Juniors. At the 2013 World Junior Curling Championships, Mosaner led his team of Pilzer, Daniele Ferrazza, and Roberto Arman to a 6th-place finish (5-4 record). At the 2014 World Junior Curling Championships, he led his team of Sebastiano Arman, Ferrazza, and Roberto Arman to a 5th-place finish, losing in a tie-breaker to Switzerland. Finally, at the 2015 World Junior Curling Championships, he was less successful, leading his team of Sebastiano Arman, Carlo Gottardi and Fabio Ribotta to an 8th-place finish (3-6). While Mosaner played in four World Juniors, the highlight of his junior career came at the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics, where he skipped Italy to a silver medal finish. After a 4-3 round robin record, he led his team of Denise Pimpini, Alessandro Zoppi, and Adriana Losano to playoff wins against the United States and Canada before losing to Switzerland in the final. Men's During his junior career, Mosaner also skipped the Italian men's team. He led his teammates of Pilzer, Ferrazza, and Roberto Arman to a 12th-place finish at the 2013 European Curling Championships. His team had much more success at the 2014 European Curling Championships. After finishing the round robin in 2nd place with a 7-2 record, they lost all of their playoff games, including the bronze medal match, settling for 4th. This placement qualified Italy to play in the 2015 Ford World Men's Curling Championship. The team would add veteran Joel Retornaz to skip the team for the Worlds, with Mosaner throwing last rocks. There, the team finished 10th. The following season, the team finished 8th at the 2015 European Curling Championships, failing to qualify the country for the Worlds. For the 2016-17 season, Mosaner moved to the third position on the team. They finished 7th at the 2016 European Curling Championships and qualified for the 2017 World Men's Curling Championship. Mosaner resumed his position, throwing fourth rocks on the team, which finished 9th overall. The team finished 8th at the 2017 European Curling Championships but had much more success a month later at the 2018 Winter Olympic Qualification Event. The team won the event, qualifying Italy for the 2018 Winter Olympics, where they finished 9th. They finished the season finishing 8th at the 2018 World Men's Curling Championship. Mosaner played third for Italy at the 2018 European Curling Championships, where the country won its first medal at the event since 1979, picking up a bronze. He played third for Italy again at the 2019 World Men's Curling Championship, finishing in 7th place. Later that month, after winning the 2019 Italian Mixed Doubles Curling Championship, he competed in the 2019 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship for the first time with partner Alice Cobelli. The pair finished the round robin with a 5-2 record, in third place in their group. The pair missed out on the playoffs as their draw shot challenge (DSC) record was not good enough compared to the other third-place teams. In January 2020, Mosaner, together with Alice Cobelli, won 2020 Italian Mixed Doubles Curling Championship and was supposed to represent Italy on 2020 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship before the event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After the 2020 World Men's Curling Championship was canceled due to the pandemic, Team Retornaz represented Italy at the 2021 World Men's Curling Championship in Calgary, Alberta where they finished with a 7–6 record, just missing the playoffs. Personal life In 2015, Mosaner was employed as a farmer. He is now a full-time curler. He was in a relationship with fellow curler Alice Cobelli. References External links Amos Mosaner at World Curling Amos Mosaner at Olympics.com Amos Mosaner at Olympedia Amos Mosaner at the Italian National Olympic Committee (in Italian)

Sebastiano Arman (born 17 January 1997) is an Italian curler from Cembra. He competed at the 2015 Ford World Men's Curling Championship in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, as alternate for the Italian team. References External links Sebastiano Arman at World Curling Sebastiano Arman at Olympics.com Sebastiano Arman at Olympedia

Simone Gonin (born 23 August 1989) is an Italian curler from Pinerolo. He represented Italy at the 2018 and 2022 Winter Olympics. He was ejected from a game against the Czech Republic at the 2022 World Men's Curling Championship after smashing his broom. The head of the brush popped off, and landed on the adjacent sheet in front of U.S. skip Korey Dropkin while he was throwing. Gonin was apologetic when he retrieved his brush head, and Dropkin made his shot anyway. Despite the incident, Gonin was awarded the Collie Campbell Memorial Award for sportsmanship at the event. The Italian team also won the bronze medal that year, the first medal for Italy at the World Men's Championship. Personal life Gonin is employed as a curling instructor and manager. References External links Simone Gonin at World Curling Simone Gonin at Olympics.com Simone Gonin at Olympedia

The national flag of Switzerland displays a white cross in the center of a square red field. The white cross is known as the Swiss cross or the federal cross. Its arms are equilateral, and their ratio of length to width is 7:6. The size of the cross in relation to the field was set in 2017 as 5:8. Alongside the flag of Vatican City, the Swiss flag is one of only two square national flags in the world. The white cross has been used as the field sign (attached to the clothing of combatants and to the cantonal war flags in the form of strips of linen) of the Old Swiss Confederacy since its formation in the late 13th or early 14th century. Its symbolism was described by the Swiss Federal Council in 1889 as representing "at the same the Christian cross symbol and the field sign of the Old Confederacy". As a national ensign, it was first used during the Napoleonic Wars by general Niklaus Franz von Bachmann, and as regimental flag of all cantonal troops from 1841. The federal coat of arms (eidgenössisches Wappen) was defined in 1815 for the Restored Confederacy as the white-on-red Swiss cross in a heraldic shield. The current design was used together with a cross composed of five squares until 1889, when its dimensions were officially set. The civil and state ensign of Switzerland, used by Swiss ships, boats and non-governmental bodies, is rectangular in shape and has the more common proportions of 2:3. The emblem of the Red Cross is the Swiss flag with switched colours. Design According to the 2017 flag law (SR 232.21), "the Swiss flag shows a Swiss cross on a square background". Special provisions are made for the naval ensign and for civil aircraft identification. The Swiss cross is defined as "a white, upright, free-standing cross depicted against a red background, whose arms, which are all of equal size, are one-sixth longer than they are wide." Swiss Standard German consistently uses Fahne (cognate with vane) rather than the term Flagge used for national flags in Germany. The name of the flag of the Swiss Confederation is a nominal compound, Schweizerfahne. The flag is emblazoned in English as, "Gules, a cross coupée argent." Proportions While the proportions of the cross have been fixed since 1889, the size of the cross relative to the flag (the width of the margin separating the cross couped from the edge of the flag) had not been officially fixed prior to 2017. The annex to the flag law provides an image specifying that the margin is to be of the same width as the cross arms, so that the total height of the cross is fixed at 20:32 = 5:8 of the height of the flag (in other words, the width of the margin is 6:32 = 3:16). This ratio is also given as a "vexillological recommendation" in the flag regulation used by the Swiss Armed Forces. Flags with a cross of larger relative widths than the prescribed 20:32 = 62.5% remain in wide use; common ratios include 20:26 ≈ 76.9% and 20:28 ≈ 71.4%. For the ensign, the ratio of the size of the cross to the height is likewise 5:8, so that the ratio of cross to flag width is 5:12. Colors The shade of red used in the flag was not defined by law prior to 2017. Since then, the colour of the flag is defined as pure red, with the color values as follows: History Middle Ages The ultimate origin of the white cross is attributed by three competing legends: to the Theban Legion, to the Reichssturmfahne (Imperial War Banner) attested from the 12th century, and to the Arma Christi that were especially venerated in the three forest cantons, and which they were allegedly allowed to display on the formerly uniformly red battle flag from 1289 by King Rudolph I of Habsburg at the occasion of a campaign to Besançon. Use of a white cross as a mark of identification of the combined troops of the Old Swiss Confederacy is first attested in the Battle of Laupen (1339), where it was sewn on combatants' clothing as two stripes of textile, contrasting with the red St. George's cross of Habsburg Austria, and with the St. Andrew's cross used by Burgundy and Maximilian I. The first flag used as a field sign representing the confederacy rather than the individual cantons may have been used in the Battle of Arbedo in 1422 (notably without the participation of the Canton of Schwyz). This was a triangular red flag with an elongated white cross. The white cross was thus in origin a field mark attached to combatants for identification, and later also to cantonal flags. The Lucerne chronicle of 1513, in battle scenes of the Burgundy wars of the 1470s shows cantonal flags with an added white cross. In this context, the solid-red war flag of Schwyz with the addition of the white cross appears much like the later flag of Switzerland. Other depictions in the illustrated chronicles show a flag of Schwyz with an asymmetrical white cross, drawn in greater detail. The symbol of the confederation as it developed during 1450-1520 was thus the white cross itself, not necessarily in a red field, but attached to existing flags, so that it appeared before a red background in those cantonal flags that contained red, notably the solid-red flag of Schwyz. Early modern The first explicit mention of a separate flag representing the Confederacy dates to 1540, in the context of an auxiliary force sent by the Swiss to aid their associate, the city of Rottweil, in a feud against the lords of Landenberg. The Tagsatzung decided that the Swiss auxiliaries sent to Rottweil should receive "a red flag with a white upright cross". The first mention of the term Confederate Cross (Eidgenossen Crütz) dates to 1533. Because of the Swiss pledge of neutrality, there was no military conflict in which the Swiss confederate troops participated after 1540. Consequently, the confederate field sign fell out of use. At the same time, the former field sign develops into a representation of the Confederacy during this time, without achieving the full status as official heraldic emblem. The cross is shown as a symbol of the Swiss Confederacy on the Patenmedallie cast by Jacob Stampfer and given by the Confederacy as a baptismal gift to Princess Claude of France in 1547. The cross appears on similar medals and on throughout the early modern period, but most symbolic depictions of the Confederacy in the 17th century do without the federal cross. Beginning in the later 16th century, forces of the individual cantons adopted a type of flag which was based on a white cross design. These flags usually showed a white cross drawn to the edge of the field in front of a background striped in the respective cantonal colours. From this type, the flammé military flag develops in the 17th century, which also came to be used by Swiss mercenary regiments by the end of the 17th century. The flammé design remained popular for military flags of the 18th and 19th centuries. A flammé flag was introduced as ordonnance for the Bernese troops in 1703. Napoleonic period and Restored Confederacy After the French invasion of Swiss territory in 1798 and the subsequent collapse of the Confederation, the authorities of the newly proclaimed Helvetic Republic confiscated all earlier flags, replacing them with a green-red-yellow tricolour. General Niklaus Franz von Bachmann used the white cross in a red field his campaigns of 1800 and 1815. The term Schweizer-Fahne (later spelling Schweizerfahne) is in use for the flag from this time, recorded in a poem on the Battle of Näfels by one J. Hottinger published in 1808. The Tagsatzung (Swiss Diet) re-introduced the white cross in the red field for the seal of the Confederacy in 1814. The commission for drafting a federal constitution on 16 May 1814 recommended the adoption of a seal of the Confederacy based on the "field sign of the old Swiss". On 4 July 1815, the Diet accepted the design of the commission, adopted as the provisional seal described as "in the center, the federal red shield with the white cross as common federal heraldic emblem, surrounded by a simple circular Gothic ornament, on the outside of which the inscription 'Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft' with the year number MDCCCXV, and in an outer circle all XXII cantonal coat of arms in circular fields, according to their federal order of precedence; around all, a simple wreath". This decision remained in force after the formation of the federal state in 1848, as was recognized by the Federal Council in 1889. As opposed to the definition of an official seal or coat of arms, it was not, at the time, usual to specify a "national flag". However, the white cross in a red field had seen frequent use on flags flown by private organizations during the Regeneration period (1830s), especially shooting, singing and gymnastics associations which at the time were a pool for progressive or "radical" agitation. The canton of Aargau introduced the flag for its troops in 1833. General Guillaume-Henri Dufour proposed use of the flag for all federal forces in 1839. The Tagsatzung on 2 September 1839 passed a resolution prescribing the use of a unified flag design for all cantonal infantry regiments. In a first circular sent to the cantonal authorities, the flag was described as a red flag with a cross touching the edges, but in 1841, the Tagsatzung opted for a proposal by Carl Stauffer, which was announced to the cantons on 11 October 1841. The 1841 flag shows a bold cross suspended in the center of the square field. The proportions of the cross arm are 1:1, i.e. the cross is composed of five squares. The absolute width of the flag is given as 4.5 feet (105 cm), that of the cross as 3 feet (90 cm), for a ratio of cross to flag width of 2:3 ≈ 66.7% (as opposed to the modern 5:8 = 62.5%). The specifications include the flag pole and the ribbon with the cantonal colours attached to the pole (the example depicted is the flag of the Zürich battalion). The flag itself is described as of good silk cloth, four feet five inches squared, scarlet, in the center a white cross, arms measuring one foot by three feet. Modern Switzerland The Swiss constitution of 1848 did not name a national flag, but it prescribes the federal flag for all federal troops. The last flammé flags still used by Landwehr units were replaced by the modern design in 1865. In November 1889, the Federal Council published a "communication regarding the federal coat of arms", detailing the history of the use of the Swiss cross since the 15th century. Seals produced from 1815 onward, and cantonal coins minted from 1826 showed the arms of the cross in the 7:6 length to width ratio. Later in the 19th century, there was a trend of depicting the cross as composed of five equal squares. The two competing designs were controversially discussed in the late 19th century, especially after the introduction of the new design for the five franks coin, which showed the Swiss coat of arms in a Baroque-style heraldic shield. The Federal Council in 1889 introduced the 7:6 ratio as official. The associated communication explains that "our heraldic cross is not a mathematical figure, but at the same the Christian cross symbol and the field sign of the Old Confederacy". The 1889 law explicitly avoids specification of the shape of the shield, which was to be left to the "tastes of the current time and practical necessity". The proposed legislation defining the Swiss federal coat of arms was passed on 12 December 1889 (SR 111). The rectangular variant of the flag is used as a naval ensign only, officially introduced with a federal law passed 23 September 1953. The current flag law of the Swiss Confederacy is the Wappenschutzgesetz (WSchG, SR 232.21) of 2013 (in force since 2017). This law replaced the flag law of 1931 (last revised in 2008). The 2013 law for the first time defines both the Swiss flag and the Swiss coat of arms based on an image, declared as authoritative in the text. Use in Switzerland Private use The flag is flown around the year from private and commercial buildings as a display of patriotism, particularly in rural areas and often together with the cantonal and municipal flag. On Swiss National Day, 1 August, the streets and buildings are traditionally festooned in celebration with Swiss flags and banners. Prominent display of the Swiss flag on clothing and apparel has become more frequent with the "Swissness" fashion trend in the first decade of the 21st century, while such use of the flag had previously been largely limited to conservative and right-wing circles. The flag and coat of arms are also often used (frequently in contravention of federal law, see below) as design elements on merchandise, particularly on high-quality goods or on merchandise aimed at tourists; for example, the emblem of Victorinox, manufacturer of Swiss Army knives and the sole purveyor of these knives to the Swiss army, is based on the Swiss coat of arms. Official use The display of the flag on federal, cantonal and municipal public buildings follows no uniform pattern or regulation. Many public buildings are equipped with flag posts (most often one each for the federal, cantonal and municipal flag), but the flag(s) may only be flown during part of the year or only on National Day. In Bern, the flag is flown on the cupola of the Federal Palace while the Federal Assembly is in session. Legal protection Destruction, removal or desecration of a Swiss, cantonal or municipal flag or coat of arms that has been installed by a public authority is punishable by a monetary penalty or imprisonment of up to three years according to the federal penal code. The commercial use of the Swiss cross, Swiss flag or Swiss coat of arms was technically prohibited by the 1931 Federal Act for the protection of public coats of arms and other public insignia, but that prohibition was not enforced. Increasing commercial use of the Swiss coat of arms prompted a number of federal regulations, dubbed "Swissness regulation" (Swissness-Verordnung), in force since 2017. The "Coat of Arms Protection Act" of 2017 (Wappenschutzgesetz, Loi sur la protection des armoiries, SR 232.21) now prohibits the commercial use of the Swiss coat of arms (defined as "a Swiss cross in a triangular shield"). Use of the Swiss flag is generally permitted with the provision that such use "is neither misleading nor contrary to public policy, morality or applicable law". Provisions are made for a "right to continued use" for trademarks registered before 2010. Influence The Red Cross symbol used by the International Committee of the Red Cross, a red cross on white background, was the original protection symbol declared at the first Geneva Convention, the Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field of 1864. According to the ICRC the design was based on the Swiss flag by reversing of the colours of that flag, in order to honour Switzerland, where the first Geneva Convention was held, and its inventor and co-founder, the Swiss Henry Dunant. The modern banner of the Pontifical Swiss Guard was designed in 1912–14 by commander Jules Repond. The design has a Swiss cross design based on the 18th-century regimental flags of the Swiss Guards, with the papal coat of arms of the reigning pope in the upper hoist and the Della Rovere coat of arms of Julius II in the lower fly, and a vignette with the commander's coat of arms in the centre. See also Coat of arms of Switzerland Flags and arms of cantons of Switzerland Flags and arms of municipalities of Switzerland Flag of the Red Cross Notes References Bibliography Theodor von Liebenau, Das Schweizerkreuz, Schweizer Archiv für Heraldik 14.4 (1900), 121–128. Swiss Army (2008). Reglement 51.340 d: Der Umgang mit Fahnen, Standarten und Fanions (Fahnenreglement) (in German and French). Swiss cross in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland. Flags in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland. Wappen, Siegel und Verfassung der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft und der Kantone", Schweizerischee Bundeskanzlei, Bern, 1948. Louis Mühlemann, "Wappen und Fahnen der Schweiz", Bühler-Verlag AG, Lengnau (1991) Peter M. Mäder, Günter Mattern, "Fahnen und ihre Symbole", Schweizerisches Landesmuseum, Bildband 4, Zürich, 1993. ISBN 3-908025-24-9. "Schweizer Wappen und Fahnen", 5 vols. Stiftung Schweizer Wappen und Fahnen, Zug/Luzern, 1987ff. External links Emil Dreyer, Die Geschichte der Fahne (fahnenwelt.ch) Switzerland at Flags of the World Federal Act on the Protection of the Swiss Coat of Arms and Other Public Signs

When was the song Cold Blow and the Rainy Night featured on a daily list of folk songs recorded by Jon Boden?

February 5, 2011

Numerical reasoning

"Cold Blow and a Rainy Night" (also known as "Cold Haily Windy Night", Let Me In This Ae Nicht", or "The Laird o’ Windy Wa's") is an English folk song which has been recorded by numerous musicians and musical groups, including James Bowie (Blind Jimmie), Jeannie Robertson, Steeleye Span, Martin Carthy, Planxty, and the Exiles. It is a typical "night-visiting song". The song has been documented through EFDSS and Mainly Norfolk. The song has been recorded by Jon Boden and Oli Steadman for inclusion in their respective lists of daily folk songs "A Folk Song A Day" and "365 Days Of Folk". == References ==

A Folk Song a Day was a project by the English folk singer and musician and Bellowhead member Jon Boden where he recorded and released a folk song each day for one year. The project ended on 24 June 2011. About The project started on 24 June 2010. It has resulted in 12 digital albums (one for each month). Boden hopes that it will promote social singing and be a resource for those looking for inspiration. The songs can be bought in the form of digital download from Amazon or from iTunes. The project reached number one in the iTunes music podcast in its first week. The songs A Folk Song A Day 1: July 2010 Tyne Of Harrow 05:18 The Hunt Is Up 03:06 I Wish That The Wars Were All Over 02:45 Blackwaterside 02:03 Barbara Allen 05:18 Cruel Mother 05:49 Chickens In The Garden 02:20 Across The Line 02:54 Pretty Cock / As I Stood Under My Love's Window 02:27 Banks Of Green Willow 04:24 Danny Dever 04:41 Mercedes Benz 01:56 Rambling Sailor 02:42 Yellow Roses 03:20 Big Steamers 02:24 Lucy Wan 03:30 Come Write Me Down 02:52 The Bloody Gardener 03:42 Go And Leave Me 03:26 Rain It Rains 03:26 Stonecutter Boy 01:49 Sally Free And Easy 03:19 Young Edward In The Lowlands 03:54 Old Tom Moor 05:00 Tha' Lowks A Proper Swell 05:18 Banks Of Red Roses 02:20 A Blacksmith Courted Me 03:22 Maid Of Australia 04:27 Child Morris 07:04 The Old Songs 04:23 Tom Padget 03:49 A Folk Song A Day 2: August 2010 (Now) Westlin Winds 03:43 Two Young Brethren 02:09 The Land 06:14 Greenland Whale Fishery 03:22 Brown Adam 04:24 Shepherd of the Downs 04:09 Derry Gaol 03:04 Frankie's Trade 04:26 Ca the Ewes 02:51 Two Pretty Boys 02:26 Cruel Knife 02:42 Nostradamus 05:32 Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy 03:28 Bold Sir Rylas 03:07 Dream of Napoleon 03:34 Live Not Where I Love 03:45 Polly Vaughan 02:35 Saucy Sailor 02:53 Abroad for Pleasure 01:43 Oggy Man 02:21 Golden Glove 03:51 Country Life 01:45 Rolling Down to Old Maui 03:41 Jordan Is a Hard Road 02:59 Leave Her Johnny 02:40 Doleful Dance of Death 02:58 Randal 03:38 Bonny House of Airlie 03:20 Yorkshire Couple 02:26 William Taylor 03:09 Yarmouth Town 02:32 A Folk Song A Day 3: September 2010 The Prentice Boy 02:49 Light Dragoon 02:57 London Waterman 02:14 Noah's Ark Shanty 02:11 King of Rome 02:56 On a Monday Morning 02:29 Fakenham Fair 03:30 Rambling Robin 01:45 In the Shade of the Old Harris Mill 02:34 Sleep On Beloved 03:08 Hey John Barleycorn 03:05 Fathom the Bowl 03:07 Water Is Wide 02:47 The Rigs of the Time 02:53 On Board 98 04:20 Oats and Beans and Barley Grows 00:49 The Irish Ballad (Rickety Tickety Tin) 02:20 The Bush Girl 04:10 The Lord Will Provide 02:19 NaCl 01:56 Down Where the Drunkards Roll 03:25 The Trees They Do Grow High 02:25 Blood Red Roses 02:13 A-Begging I Will Go 02:51 10,000 Miles Away 02:13 Sparrow 01:42 Three Ravens 03:04 Waltzing Matilda 03:21 Brisk Young Widow 01:57 All of a Row 02:14 Barbaree (Bonus Song) 03:32 A Folk Song A Day 4: October 2010 Prickle-Eye Bush 03:06 The Huntsman 05:10 Deep Blue Sea 03:38 New York Girls 03:12 Jersey Girl 04:07 The Poor Man's Labours 01:46 Bay of Biscay 02:46 Gallant Hussar 03:18 The Constant Lovers 05:17 Hunting the Hare 01:12 Courting Too Slow 03:51 The Dawn of the Day 02:40 The Sheepstealer 02:30 Marrowbones 02:47 Old Joe Clark 01:49 Bill Brown 04:19 Johnny's Gone to Hilo 03:23 Sea Coal 03:49 Pretty Nancy of Yarmouth 03:06 Close the Coalhouse Door 02:38 All for Me Grog 02:24 Santa Fe Trail 04:51 Jock Stewart 02:07 The Death of Queen Jane 03:27 Good Old Way 02:52 Doffing Mistress 01:30 Blackleg Miner 01:55 Goodnight Irene 02:31 Mad Family 01:35 Dig My Grave 01:05 Tam Lin 09:59 A Folk Song A Day 5: November 2010 Spectre Review 05:10 His Name Is Andrew 05:05 London Town 02:49 Spencer the Rover 03:15 Cob a Coalin 01:59 South Australia 01:53 Love At the Five and Dime 04:46 Boston Harbour 02:05 Mary Ann 02:48 A Chat With Your Mother 04:03 If You Want to See the General 03:09 Bruton Town 03:36 Rose of Tralee 03:04 I'll Go With Him Wherever He Goes 02:41 See See the Cape's In View 02:39 Hard Times 02:52 Unfortunate Lass 03:41 Cholera Camp 06:09 I Once Was a Fisherman 02:37 My Johnny Was a Shoemaker 01:29 Jacob's Well 03:38 Poor Fellows 05:04 Warlike Lads of Russia 03:31 Fire Marengo 02:44 Grey Goose and Gander 03:37 The Hand Weaver and the Factory Maid 02:43 Sweep Chimney Sweep 02:08 Farewell to Old Bedford 01:58 Cold Blows the Wind 03:26 Brown Girl 03:15 A Folk Song A Day 6: December 2010 Babes In The Wood 02:46 Hark Hark 01:53 Snow Falls 01:52 While Shepherds Watched (Pentonville) 03:06 While Shepherds Watched (Sweet Chiming Bells) 02:50 Come All You Weary Travellers 02:43 Mistletoe Bough 04:08 Cells 04:14 Boar's Head Carol 01:45 A Roving On A Winter's Night 03:07 Spout Cottage 02:10 Poor Little Jesus 02:36 All Hail The Power Of Jesus' Name (Diadem) 02:53 The Holly & The Ivy 02:23 Remember O Thou Man 03:30 Jingle Bells 03:53 Mount Moriah 02:14 We Wish You A Merry Christmas 01:51 Awake Arise Good Christians 02:37 While Shepherds Watched (Lyngham) 02:38 Stannington 02:12 Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer 02:09 The First Noel 02:58 Shepherds Arise 03:31 On Christmas Day 01:38 The King 01:31 O Little Town Of Bethlehem 02:21 Little Pot Stove 04:47 I'd Like To Tell To You 01:45 Rocking Me Babies 02:16 Cornish Wassail Song 05:05 A Folk Song A Day 7: January 2011 January Man 03:19 Daddy Fox 02:54 Old Brown's Daughter 03:36 Peggy Bann 03:44 Apple Tree Wassail Song 02:39 Pilgrim On the Pennine Way 03:49 Captain Ward 03:21 Otago 03:39 Peggy Gordon 02:59 In the Month of January 02:58 The Snow It Melts the Soonest 02:25 Off to Epsom Races 01:45 Ruins By the Shore 02:54 Days Gone By 03:00 Smugglers Song 03:29 Lowlands 03:17 Five Hundred Miles 02:20 Maria's Gone 02:45 Ballina Whalers 05:03 The Last Leviathan 02:48 The Cuckoo 02:47 John Ball 03:46 I Drew My Ship 02:24 Two Magicians 04:07 Some Tyrant Has Stolen My True Love Away 02:15 Bungay Roger 02:15 My Son John 01:28 Banks of the Nile 03:05 Anachie Gordon 06:57 I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen 03:23 Dark As a Dungeon 02:43 A Folk Song A Day 8: February 2011 Sheffield Apprentice 04:47 Won't You Go My Way 01:19 Clyde Water 04:41 German Musicianer 03:18 Cold Blow and the Rainy Night 02:45 When First I Came to Caledonia 03:35 King Henry Was King James' Son 01:24 Queenie 01:35 Simon John 04:30 Rolling Down to Rio 01:53 Hanging Johnny 01:14 Butter and Cheese and All 03:16 Don't Go Out Tonight Dear Father 03:36 Cupid's Garden 03:23 Young Banker 02:31 Donkey Riding 01:32 I Sowed the Seeds of Love 03:14 Over the Hills and Far Away 03:03 Bird In the Bush 02:55 Shoals of Herring 02:59 Grey Funnel Line 03:06 A Pilgrims Way 04:21 Widow's Curse 05:08 Maid and the Palmer 03:18 Sir Patrick Spens 04:39 Fiddlers Green 04:52 Captain Wedderburn 05:26 Oor Hamlet 04:21 A Folk Song A Day 9: March 2011 Lakes of Pontchartrain 03:33 Four Angels 03:32 Willie's Lady 05:46 Worcester City 02:58 Swansea Barracks 04:36 Wife of the Soldier 01:36 Bold Fisherman 04:11 Sweet Mossom 02:28 Corduroy 03:03 Weaver's Daughter 02:22 Plains of Mexico 02:05 Farewell Sweet Lovely Nancy 01:40 Take This Hammer 03:18 Dalesman's Litany 03:50 Billy Don't You Weep for Me 03:42 Springfield Mountain 02:03 The Green Fields of America 04:09 Jack Orion 04:08 Turkey Rhubarb 00:34 Horn Fair 01:55 Lovely On the Water 03:03 Hail a Brighter Day 05:18 Adam and Eve 00:39 Scarborough Fair 02:35 Turtle Dove 02:08 Tommy 04:01 Ye Mariners All 01:36 Whiskey Is the Life of Man 03:33 Maid On the Shore 04:15 Juniper, Gentle and Rosemary 04:22 Lemady 02:31 A Folk Song A Day 10: April 2011 On One April Morning 02:56 Rose In April 03:58 There Once Was a Lover and He Loved a Lass 01:43 Brave Wolfe 04:00 The Banks of the Tees 02:29 Gaol Song 03:04 The Roman Centurion's Song 04:01 Amsterdam 04:17 Palaces of Gold 03:47 Lord Bateman 03:08 Payday 02:28 John Blunt 01:57 John Barleycorn 03:35 Gentleman Soldier 02:54 Copshawholme Fair 04:27 Seven Yellow Gypsies 05:23 A Week Before Easter 03:19 Sister Josephine 03:51 Bellman 03:44 Maid In Bedlam 03:55 Dust to Dust 03:46 Recruited Collier 02:40 I Am a Youth That's Inclined to Ramble 02:57 Pace Egging 04:49 Sheepshearing 02:04 I Know My Love By His Way of Talking 02:39 Geordie 03:34 New York Mining Disaster 03:19 Auld Triangle 04:17 Reynardine 04:12 A Folk Song A Day 11: May 2011 Hail, Hail the First of May 02:50 Hal and Tow 02:45 The Outlandish Knight 05:21 The Verdant Braes of Skreen 03:00 Bonny Bunch of Roses 04:44 Broomfield Hill 04:04 Death and the Lady 03:12 Gathering Rushes 05:22 Down the Moor 05:01 As I Roved Out 03:41 Searching for Lambs 03:56 My Husband's Got No Courage In Him 01:54 Sweet Nightingale 03:36 The Gardener 03:07 Oh What a Beautiful Morning 03:16 Charming Molly 01:52 P Stands for Paddy 03:31 Gypsy Rover 04:23 Lillibulero 03:17 Big Rock Candy Mountain 03:08 Roseville Fair 03:25 House Carpenter 05:37 Farewell to the Gold 03:48 Little Sally Racket 02:02 Rout of the Blues 02:11 Banks of the Ohio 04:14 Birds Upon the Trees 02:33 Banks of Fordie 06:54 Icarus 05:29 Little Musgrave 10:15 Claudy Banks 03:49 A Folk Song A Day 12: June 2011 Just As The Tide Was Flowing 04:13 Beggar Laddie 04:29 Garden Hymn 02:29 Streams Of Lovely Nancy 02:31 Let Union Be In All Our Hearts 03:41 After The Ball 00:43 Innocent When You Dream 04:04 Poverty Knock 04:04 Abe Carman 03:33 Lock Keeper 03:25 Ghost Song 04:03 Exile Song 01:07 Wild Mountain Thyme 03:25 Rag Fair 01:58 Rose of Allendale 04:04 Farmer's Boy 03:55 Grand Conversation On Napoleon 04:44 Plains Of Waterloo 03:29 Roll Alabama 03:52 Bold Archer 02:55 Road Through The Woods 02:20 Banks Of Sweet Primroses 03:05 Fortune Turns The Wheel 04:12 The Larks They Sang Melodious 04:16 Farners Toast 03:58 Young Roger Esquire 01:53 One Night As I Lay 02:16 Earl Richard 04:01 White Cockade 03:15 Rose In June 07:14 In popular culture Jon Boden's A Folk Song A Day has inspired other spinoffs, most notably the Australian Folk Song A Day project featuring 367 folk renditions on a daily basis between 26 January 2011 and 26 January 2012 by John Thompson. Other similar projects include Fifty-Two Folk Songs, Oli Steadman’s 365 Days Of Folk, and a A Liverpool Folk Song a Week. See also Music podcast References External links Official website

What album by the band named 'The Band' was released on the same day as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was opened for signature?

Music from Big Pink

Tabular reasoning

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament. Between 1965 and 1968, the treaty was negotiated by the Eighteen Nation Committee on Disarmament, a United Nations-sponsored organization based in Geneva, Switzerland. Opened for signature in 1968, the treaty entered into force in 1970. As required by the text, after twenty-five years, NPT parties met in May 1995 and agreed to extend the treaty indefinitely. More countries are parties to the NPT than any other arms limitation and disarmament agreement, a testament to the treaty's significance. As of August 2016, 191 states have become parties to the treaty, though North Korea, which acceded in 1985 but never came into compliance, announced its withdrawal from the NPT in 2003, following detonation of nuclear devices in violation of core obligations. Four UN member states have never accepted the NPT, three of which possess or are thought to possess nuclear weapons: India, Israel, and Pakistan. In addition, South Sudan, founded in 2011, has not joined. The treaty defines nuclear-weapon states as those that have built and tested a nuclear explosive device before 1 January 1967; these are the United States (1945), Russia (1949), the United Kingdom (1952), France (1960), and China (1964). Four other states are known or believed to possess nuclear weapons: India, Pakistan, and North Korea have openly tested and declared that they possess nuclear weapons, while Israel is deliberately ambiguous regarding its nuclear weapons status. The NPT is often seen to be based on a central bargain: the NPT non-nuclear-weapon states agree never to acquire nuclear weapons and the NPT nuclear-weapon states in exchange agree to share the benefits of peaceful nuclear technology and to pursue nuclear disarmament aimed at the ultimate elimination of their nuclear arsenals. The treaty is reviewed every five years in meetings called Review Conferences. Even though the treaty was originally conceived with a limited duration of 25 years, the signing parties decided, by consensus, to unconditionally extend the treaty indefinitely during the Review Conference in New York City on 11 May 1995, in the culmination of U.S. government efforts led by Ambassador Thomas Graham Jr. At the time the NPT was proposed, there were predictions of 25–30 nuclear weapon states within 20 years. Instead, over forty years later, five states are not parties to the NPT, and they include the only four additional states believed to possess nuclear weapons. Several additional measures have been adopted to strengthen the NPT and the broader nuclear nonproliferation regime and make it difficult for states to acquire the capability to produce nuclear weapons, including the export controls of the Nuclear Suppliers Group and the enhanced verification measures of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Additional Protocol. Critics argue that the NPT cannot stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons or the motivation to acquire them. They express disappointment with the limited progress on nuclear disarmament, where the five authorized nuclear weapons states still have 13,400 warheads in their combined stockpile. Several high-ranking officials within the United Nations have said that they can do little to stop states using nuclear reactors to produce nuclear weapons. Treaty structure The NPT consists of a preamble and eleven articles. Although the concept of "pillars" is not expressed anywhere in the NPT, the treaty is nevertheless sometimes interpreted as a three-pillar system, with an implicit balance among them: non-proliferation, disarmament, and the right to peacefully use nuclear technology. These pillars are interrelated and mutually reinforcing. An effective nonproliferation regime whose members comply with their obligations provides an essential foundation for progress on disarmament and makes possible greater cooperation on the peaceful use of nuclear energy. With the right to access the benefits of peaceful nuclear technology comes the responsibility of nonproliferation. Progress on disarmament reinforces efforts to strengthen the nonproliferation regime and to enforce compliance with obligations, thereby also facilitating peaceful nuclear cooperation. The "pillars" concept has been questioned by some who believe that the NPT is, as its name suggests, principally about nonproliferation, and who worry that "three pillars" language misleadingly implies that the three elements have equivalent importance. First pillar: Non-proliferation Under Article I of the NPT, nuclear-weapon states pledge not to transfer nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices to any recipient or in any way assist, encourage or induce any non-nuclear-weapon state in the manufacture or acquisition of a nuclear weapon. Under Article II of the NPT, non-nuclear-weapon states pledge not to acquire or exercise control over nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices and not to seek or receive assistance in the manufacture of such devices. Under Article III of the Treaty, non-nuclear-weapon states pledge to accept IAEA safeguards to verify that their nuclear activities serve only peaceful purposes. Five states are recognized by the NPT as nuclear weapon states (NWS): China (signed 1992), France (1992), the Soviet Union (1968; obligations and rights now assumed by the Russian Federation), the United Kingdom (1968), and the United States (1968), which also happen to be the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. These five NWS agree not to transfer "nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices" and "not in any way to assist, encourage, or induce" a non-nuclear weapon state (NNWS) to acquire nuclear weapons (Article I). NNWS parties to the NPT agree not to "receive", "manufacture", or "acquire" nuclear weapons or to "seek or receive any assistance in the manufacture of nuclear weapons" (Article II). NNWS parties also agree to accept safeguards by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to verify that they are not diverting nuclear energy from peaceful uses to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices (Article III). The five NWS parties have made undertakings not to use their nuclear weapons against a non-NWS party except in response to a nuclear attack, or a conventional attack in alliance with a Nuclear Weapons State. However, these undertakings have not been incorporated formally into the treaty, and the exact details have varied over time. The U.S. also had nuclear warheads targeted at North Korea, a non-NWS, from 1959 until 1991. The previous United Kingdom Secretary of State for Defence, Geoff Hoon, has also explicitly invoked the possibility of the use of the country's nuclear weapons in response to a non-conventional attack by "rogue states". In January 2006, President Jacques Chirac of France indicated that an incident of state-sponsored terrorism on France could trigger a small-scale nuclear retaliation aimed at destroying the "rogue state's" power centers. Security provided by extended nuclear deterrence has been a factor limiting incentives for some NNWS to acquire nuclear weapons. Second pillar: Disarmament Under Article VI of the NPT, all Parties undertake to pursue good-faith negotiations on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race, to nuclear disarmament, and to general and complete disarmament. Article VI of the NPT represents the only binding commitment in a multilateral treaty to the goal of disarmament by the nuclear-weapon states. The NPT's preamble contains language affirming the desire of treaty signatories to ease international tension and strengthen international trust so as to create someday the conditions for a halt to the production of nuclear weapons, and treaty on general and complete disarmament that liquidates, in particular, nuclear weapons and their delivery vehicles from national arsenals. The wording of the NPT's Article VI arguably imposes only a vague obligation on all NPT signatories to move in the general direction of nuclear and total disarmament, saying, "Each of the Parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament." Under this interpretation, Article VI does not strictly require all signatories to actually conclude a disarmament treaty. Rather, it only requires them "to negotiate in good faith". On the other hand, some governments, especially non-nuclear-weapon states belonging to the Non-Aligned Movement, have interpreted Article VI's language as constituting a formal and specific obligation on the NPT-recognized nuclear-weapon states to disarm themselves of nuclear weapons, and argue that these states have failed to meet their obligation. The International Court of Justice (ICJ), in its advisory opinion on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, issued 8 July 1996, unanimously interprets the text of Article VI as implying that There exists an obligation to pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict and effective international control. The ICJ opinion notes that this obligation involves all NPT parties (not just the nuclear weapon states) and does not suggest a specific time frame for nuclear disarmament. Critics of the NPT-recognized nuclear-weapon states (the United States, Russia, China, France, and the United Kingdom) sometimes argue that what they view as the failure of the NPT-recognized nuclear weapon states to disarm themselves of nuclear weapons, especially in the post–Cold War era, has angered some non-nuclear-weapon NPT signatories of the NPT. Such failure, these critics add, provides justification for the non-nuclear-weapon signatories to quit the NPT and develop their own nuclear arsenals. Other observers have suggested that the linkage between proliferation and disarmament may also work the other way, i.e., that the failure to resolve proliferation threats in Iran and North Korea, for instance, will cripple the prospects for disarmament. No current nuclear weapons state, the argument goes, would seriously consider eliminating its last nuclear weapons without high confidence that other countries would not acquire them. Some observers have even suggested that the very progress of disarmament by the superpowers—which has led to the elimination of thousands of weapons and delivery systems—could eventually make the possession of nuclear weapons more attractive by increasing the perceived strategic value of a small arsenal. As one U.S. official and NPT expert warned in 2007, "logic suggests that as the number of nuclear weapons decreases, the 'marginal utility' of a nuclear weapon as an instrument of military power increases. At the extreme, which it is precisely disarmament's hope to create, the strategic utility of even one or two nuclear weapons would be huge." Third pillar: Peaceful use of nuclear energy NPT Article IV acknowledges the right of all Parties to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and to benefit from international cooperation in this area, in conformity with their nonproliferation obligations. Article IV also encourages such cooperation. This so-called third pillar provides for the transfer of nuclear technology and materials to NPT Parties for peaceful purposes in the development of civilian nuclear energy programs in those countries, subject to IAEA safeguards to demonstrate that their nuclear programs are not being used for the development of nuclear weapons. As the commercially popular light water reactor nuclear power station uses enriched uranium fuel, it follows that states must be able either to enrich uranium or purchase it on an international market. Mohamed ElBaradei, then Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has called the spread of enrichment and reprocessing capabilities the "Achilles' heel" of the nuclear nonproliferation regime. As of 2007, 13 states have an enrichment capability. During the 1960s and 1970s many states, almost 60, were supplied with research reactors fuelled by weapon grade highly enriched uranium (HEU) through the United States Atoms for Peace program and a similar Soviet Union program. In the 1980s a program to convert HEU research reactors to use low enriched fuel was started in the United States due to proliferation concerns. However 26 states possessed more than 1 kg of civilian HEU in 2015, and as of 2016 the stocks of HEU for civilian research were 60 tonnes, with 74 research reactors still using HEU. Because the availability of fissile material has long been considered the principal obstacle to, and "pacing element" for, a country's nuclear weapons development effort, it was declared a major emphasis of U.S. policy in 2004 to prevent the further spread of uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing (a.k.a. "ENR") technology. Countries possessing ENR capabilities, it is feared, have what is in effect the option of using this capability to produce fissile material for weapons use on demand, thus giving them what has been termed a "virtual" nuclear weapons program. The degree to which NPT members have a "right" to ENR technology notwithstanding its potentially grave proliferation implications, therefore, is at the cutting edge of policy and legal debates surrounding the meaning of Article IV and its relation to Articles I, II, and III of the treaty. Countries that have become Parties to the NPT as non-nuclear-weapon States have a strong record of not building nuclear weapons, although some tried and one eventually left the NPT and acquired nuclear weapons. Iraq was found by the IAEA to have violated its safeguards obligations and subject to punitive sanctions by the UN Security Council. North Korea never came into compliance with its NPT safeguards agreement and was cited repeatedly for these violations, and later withdrew from the NPT and tested multiple nuclear devices. Iran was found in non-compliance with its NPT safeguards obligations in an unusual non-consensus decision because it "failed in a number of instances over an extended period of time" to report aspects of its enrichment program. In 1991, Romania reported previously undeclared nuclear activities by the former regime and the IAEA reported this non-compliance to the Security Council for information only. Libya pursued a clandestine nuclear weapons program before abandoning it in December 2003. The IAEA reported Syria's safeguards non-compliance to the UN Security Council, which did not take action. In some regions, the fact that all neighbors are verifiably free of nuclear weapons reduces any pressure individual states might feel to build those weapons themselves, even if neighbors are known to have peaceful nuclear energy programs that might otherwise be suspicious. In this, the treaty works as designed. In 2004, Mohamed ElBaradei said that by some estimates thirty-five to forty states could have the knowledge to develop nuclear weapons. Key articles Article I: Each nuclear-weapons state (NWS) undertakes not to transfer, to any recipient, nuclear weapons, or other nuclear explosive devices, and not to assist any non-nuclear weapon state to manufacture or acquire such weapons or devices. Article II: Each non-NWS party undertakes not to receive, from any source, nuclear weapons, or other nuclear explosive devices; not to manufacture or acquire such weapons or devices; and not to receive any assistance in their manufacture. Article III: Each non-NWS party undertakes to conclude an agreement with the IAEA for the application of its safeguards to all nuclear material in all of the state's peaceful nuclear activities and to prevent diversion of such material to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices. Article IV: 1. Nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination and in conformity with Articles I and II of this Treaty. 2. All the Parties to the Treaty undertake to facilitate, and have the right to participate in, the fullest possible exchange of equipment, materials and scientific and technological information for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Parties to the Treaty in a position to do so shall also co-operate in contributing alone or together with other States or international organizations to the further development of the applications of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, especially in the territories of non-nuclear-weapon States Party to the Treaty, with due consideration for the needs of the developing areas of the world. Article VI: Each party "undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a Treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control". Article IX: "For the purposes of this Treaty, a nuclear-weapon State is one which has manufactured and exploded a nuclear weapon or other nuclear explosive device prior to 1 January 1967." Article X: Establishes the right to withdraw from the Treaty giving 3 months' notice. It also establishes the duration of the Treaty (25 years before 1995 Extension Initiative). History The impetus behind the NPT was concern for the safety of a world with many nuclear weapon states. It was recognized that the Cold War deterrent relationship between just the United States and the Soviet Union was fragile. Having more nuclear-weapon states would reduce security for all, multiplying the risks of miscalculation, accidents, unauthorized use of weapons, escalation in tensions, and nuclear conflict. Moreover, since the use of nuclear weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, it has been apparent that the development of nuclear capabilities by States could enable them to divert technology and materials for weapons purposes. Thus, the problem of preventing such diversions became a central issue in discussions on peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Initial efforts, which began in 1946, to create an international system enabling all States to have access to nuclear technology under appropriate safeguards, were terminated in 1949 without the achievement of this objective, due to serious political differences between the major Powers. By then, both the United States and the former Soviet Union had tested nuclear weapons, and were beginning to build their stockpiles. In December 1953, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in his "Atoms for Peace" proposal, presented to the eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly, urged that an international organization be established to disseminate peaceful nuclear technology, while guarding against development of weapons capabilities in additional countries. His proposal resulted in 1957 in the establishment of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which was charged with the dual responsibility for promotion and control of nuclear technology. IAEA technical activities began in 1958. An interim safeguards system for small nuclear reactors, put in place in 1961, was replaced in 1964 by a system covering larger installations and, over the following years, was expanded to include additional nuclear facilities. In recent years, efforts to strengthen the effectiveness and improve the efficiency of the IAEA safeguards system culminated in the approval of the Model Additional Protocol by the IAEA Board of Governors in May 1997. Within the framework of the United Nations, the principle of nuclear non-proliferation was addressed in negotiations as early as 1957. The NPT process was launched by Frank Aiken, Irish Minister for External Affairs, in 1958. The NPT gained significant momentum in the early 1960s. The structure of a treaty to uphold nuclear non-proliferation as a norm of international behaviour had become clear by the mid-1960s, and by 1968 final agreement had been reached on a Treaty that would prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons, enable cooperation for the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament. It was opened for signature in 1968, with Finland the first State to sign. Accession became nearly universal after the end of the Cold War and of South African apartheid. In 1992, The People's Republic of China and France acceded to the NPT, the last of the five nuclear powers recognized by the treaty to do so. The treaty provided, in article X, for a conference to be convened 25 years after its entry into force to decide whether the treaty should continue in force indefinitely, or be extended for an additional fixed period or periods. Accordingly, at the NPT Review and Extension Conference in May 1995, state parties to the treaty agreed—without a vote—on the treaty's indefinite extension, and decided that review conferences should continue to be held every five years. After Brazil acceded to the NPT in 1998, the only remaining non-nuclear-weapon state which had not signed was Cuba, which joined the NPT (and the Treaty of Tlatelolco NWFZ) in 2002. Several NPT states parties have given up nuclear weapons or nuclear weapons programs. South Africa undertook a nuclear weapons program, but has since renounced it and acceded to the treaty in 1991 after destroying its small nuclear arsenal; after this, the remaining African countries signed the treaty. The former Soviet Republics where nuclear weapons had been based, namely Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan, transferred those weapons to Russia and joined the NPT by 1994 following the signature of the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances. Successor states from the Breakup of Yugoslavia and Dissolution of Czechoslovakia also joined the treaty soon after their independence. Montenegro and East Timor were the last countries to accede to the treaty on their independence in 2006 and 2003; the only other country to accede in the 21st century was Cuba in 2002. The three Micronesian countries in Compact of Free Association with the USA joined the NPT in 1995, along with Vanuatu. Major South American countries Argentina, Chile, and Brazil joined in 1995 and 1998. Arabian Peninsula countries included Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in 1988, Qatar and Kuwait in 1989, UAE in 1995, and Oman in 1997. The European states of Monaco and Andorra joined in 1995–6. Also acceding in the 1990s were Myanmar in 1992 and Guyana in 1993. United States–NATO nuclear weapons sharing At the time the treaty was being negotiated, NATO had in place secret nuclear weapons sharing agreements whereby the United States provided nuclear weapons to be deployed by, and stored in, other NATO states. Some argue this is an act of proliferation violating Articles I and II of the treaty. A counter-argument is that the U.S. controlled the weapons in storage within the NATO states, and that no transfer of the weapons or control over them was intended "unless and until a decision were made to go to war, at which the treaty would no longer be controlling", so there is no breach of the NPT. These agreements were disclosed to a few of the states, including the Soviet Union, negotiating the treaty, but most of the states that signed the NPT in 1968 would not have known about these agreements and interpretations at that time. As of 2005, it is estimated that the United States still provides about 180 tactical B61 nuclear bombs for use by Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey under these NATO agreements. Many states, and the Non-Aligned Movement, now argue this violates Articles I and II of the treaty, and are applying diplomatic pressure to terminate these agreements. They point out that the pilots and other staff of the "non-nuclear" NATO states practice handling and delivering the U.S. nuclear bombs, and non-U.S. warplanes have been adapted to deliver U.S. nuclear bombs which must have involved the transfer of some technical nuclear weapons information. NATO believes its "nuclear forces continue to play an essential role in war prevention, but their role is now more fundamentally political". U.S. nuclear sharing policies were originally designed to help prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons—not least by persuading West Germany not to develop an independent nuclear capability by assuring it that West Germany would be able, in the event of war with the Warsaw Pact, to wield (U.S.) nuclear weapons in self-defense. (Until that point of all-out war, however, the weapons themselves would remain in U.S. hands.) The point was to limit the spread of countries having their own nuclear weapons programs, helping ensure that NATO allies would not choose to go down the proliferation route. (West Germany was discussed in U.S. intelligence estimates for a number of years as being a country with the potential to develop nuclear weapons capabilities of its own if officials in Bonn were not convinced that their defense against the Soviet Union and its allies could otherwise be met.) Preparations for Russia's weapon deployment in Belarus On 27 February 2022, shortly after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, a referendum was staged in Belarus to remove a constitutional prohibition on basing nuclear weapons on its territory. On 25 June 2022, President of Belarus Lukashenko met Russian President Putin to discuss the deployment of Russian short-range nuclear-capable missiles on the territory of Belarus. The transfer of nuclear warheads would require a further decision, possibly after a number of years, and could be tied to future NATO decisions. In Belarus, Russia plans to deploy nuclear-capable Iskander-M missile systems. Both conventional and nuclear versions of the missile would be provided under the plans. Additionally, Putin said that he would facilitate the modifications necessary for Belarusian Su-25 bombers to carry nuclear missiles. On 14 June 2023, president Lukashenko said that Russia had started moving tactical nuclear weapons into Belarus's territory. The Russian president had said the weapons were moved "as a deterrence measure" against threats to Russian statehood, and would not be controlled by Belarus. NATO saw no evidence in a change in Russia's nuclear position, while Ukrainian intelligence said that not a single warhead had yet been transferred. Non-parties Four states—India, Israel, Pakistan, and South Sudan—have never signed the treaty. India and Pakistan have publicly disclosed their nuclear weapon programs, and Israel has a long-standing policy of deliberate ambiguity with regards to its nuclear program (see List of states with nuclear weapons). India India has detonated nuclear devices, first in 1974 and again in 1998. It is estimated to have enough fissile material for more than 150 warheads and was among the few countries to have a no first use policy, a pledge not to use nuclear weapons unless first attacked by an adversary using nuclear weapons, however India's former NSA Shivshankar Menon signaled a significant shift from "no first use" to "no first use against non-nuclear weapon states" in a speech on the occasion of Golden Jubilee celebrations of the National Defence College in New Delhi on 21 October 2010, a doctrine Menon said reflected India's "strategic culture, with its emphasis on minimal deterrence". India argues that the NPT creates a club of "nuclear haves" and a larger group of "nuclear have-nots" by restricting the legal possession of nuclear weapons to those states that tested them before 1967, but the treaty never explains on what ethical grounds such a distinction is valid. India's then External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said during a visit to Tokyo in 2007: "If India did not sign the NPT, it is not because of its lack of commitment for non-proliferation, but because we consider NPT as a flawed treaty and it did not recognize the need for universal, non-discriminatory verification and treatment." Although there have been unofficial discussions on creating a South Asian nuclear weapons free zone, including India and Pakistan, this is considered to be highly unlikely for the foreseeable future. In early March 2006, India and the United States finalized an agreement, in the face of criticism in both countries, to restart cooperation on civilian nuclear technology. Under the deal India has committed to classify 14 of its 22 nuclear power plants as being for civilian use and to place them under IAEA safeguards. Mohamed ElBaradei, then Director General of the IAEA, welcomed the deal by calling India "an important partner in the non-proliferation regime." In December 2006, United States Congress approved the United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act, endorsing a deal that was forged during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to the United States in July 2005 and cemented during President Bush's visit to India earlier in 2006. The legislation allows for the transfer of civilian nuclear material to India. Despite its status outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, nuclear cooperation with India was permitted on the basis of its clean non-proliferation record, and India's need for energy fueled by its rapid industrialization and a billion-plus population. On 1 August 2008, the IAEA approved the India Safeguards Agreement and on 6 September 2008, India was granted the waiver at the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) meeting held in Vienna, Austria. The consensus was arrived after overcoming misgivings expressed by Austria, Ireland and New Zealand and is an unprecedented step in giving exemption to a country, which has not signed the NPT and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). While India could commence nuclear trade with other willing countries. The U.S. Congress approved this agreement and President Bush signed it on 8 October 2008. When China announced expanded nuclear cooperation with Pakistan in 2010, proponents of arms control denounced both the deals, claiming that they weakened the NPT by facilitating nuclear programmes in states which are not parties to the NPT. As of January 2011, Australia, a top three uranium producer and home to world's largest known reserves, had continued its refusal to export uranium to India despite diplomatic pressure from India. In November 2011, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced a desire to allow exports to India, a policy change which was authorized by her party's national conference in December. The following month, Gillard overturned Australia's long-standing ban on exporting uranium to India. She further said, "We should take a decision in the national interest, a decision about strengthening our strategic partnership with India in this the Asian century," and said that any agreement to sell uranium to India would include strict safeguards to ensure it would only be used for civilian purposes, and not end up in nuclear weapons. On 5 September 2014 Tony Abbott, Gillard's successor as Australian Prime Minister, sealed a civil nuclear deal to sell uranium to India. "We signed a nuclear cooperation agreement because Australia trusts India to do the right thing in this area, as it has been doing in other areas," Abbott told reporters after he and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed a pact to sell uranium for peaceful power generation. Pakistan In May 1998, following India's nuclear tests earlier that month, Pakistan conducted two sets of nuclear tests, the Chagai-I and Chagai-II. Although there is little confirmed information in public, as of 2015, Pakistan was estimated to have as many as 120 warheads. According to analyses of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Stimson Center, Pakistan has enough fissile material for 350 warheads. Pakistani officials argue that the NPT is discriminatory. When asked at a briefing in 2015 whether Islamabad would sign the NPT if Washington requested it, Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry was quoted as responding "It is a discriminatory treaty. Pakistan has the right to defend itself, so Pakistan will not sign the NPT. Why should we?" Until 2010, Pakistan had always maintained the position that it would sign the NPT if India did so. In 2010, Pakistan abandoned this historic position and stated that it would join the NPT only as a recognized nuclear-weapon state. The NSG Guidelines currently rule out nuclear exports by all major suppliers to Pakistan, with very narrow exceptions, since it does not have full-scope IAEA safeguards (i.e. safeguards on all its nuclear activities). Pakistan has sought to reach an agreement similar to that with India, but these efforts have been rebuffed by the United States and other NSG members, on the grounds that Pakistan's track record as a nuclear proliferator makes it impossible for it to have any sort of nuclear deal in the near future. By 2010, China reportedly signed a civil nuclear agreement with Pakistan, using the justification that the deal was "peaceful". The British government criticized this, on the grounds that 'the time is not yet right for a civil nuclear deal with Pakistan'. China did not seek formal approval from the nuclear suppliers group, and claimed instead that its cooperation with Pakistan was "grandfathered" when China joined the NSG, a claim that was disputed by other NSG members. Pakistan applied for membership on 19 May 2016, supported by Turkey and China However, many NSG members opposed Pakistan's membership bid due to its track record, including the illicit procurement network of Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan, which aided the nuclear programs of Iran, Libya and North Korea. Pakistani officials reiterated the request in August 2016. Israel Israel has a long-standing policy of deliberate ambiguity with regards to its nuclear program (see List of countries with nuclear weapons). Israel has been developing nuclear technology at its Dimona site in the Negev since 1958, and some nonproliferation analysts estimate that Israel may have stockpiled between 100 and 200 warheads using reprocessed plutonium. The position on the NPT is explained in terms of "Israeli exceptionality", a term coined by Professor Gerald M. Steinberg, in reference to the perception that the country's small size, overall vulnerability, as well as the history of deep hostility and large-scale attacks by neighboring states, require a deterrent capability. The Israeli government refuses to confirm or deny possession of nuclear weapons, although this is now regarded as an open secret after Israeli junior nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu—subsequently arrested and sentenced for treason by Israel—published evidence about the program to the British Sunday Times in 1986. On 18 September 2009, the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency called on Israel to open its nuclear facilities to IAEA inspection and adhere to the non-proliferation treaty as part of a resolution on "Israeli nuclear capabilities", which passed by a narrow margin of 49–45 with 16 abstentions. The chief Israeli delegate stated that "Israel will not co-operate in any matter with this resolution." However, similar resolutions were defeated in 2010, 2013, 2014, and 2015. As with Pakistan, the NSG Guidelines currently rule out nuclear exports by all major suppliers to Israel. Other states North Korea North Korea acceded to the treaty on 12 December 1985 in order to obtain assistance from the Soviet Union in the construction of four light-water reactors, but was ruled be in noncompliance with its IAEA safeguards agreement after a series of inspections in 1992-93 which determined that North Korea had not fully declared its history of reprocessing spent fuel at the Yongbyon nuclear facility. North Korea responded by announcing its intent to withdraw from the treaty on 12 March 1993, and President Bill Clinton responded by announcing sanctions and considering military action. The crisis ended with the Agreed Framework negotiated by former US President Jimmy Carter in which North Korea agreed to an IAEA-monitored freeze of plutonium production facilities and construction of new reactors in exchange for two light-water reactors and heavy fuel oil shipments through the US-led Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization consortium. North Korea also abandoned its withdrawal from the NPT. During the late 1990s and the early 2000s critics of the agreement, as well as Clinton's successor George W. Bush, expressed skepticism on North Korean compliance to the Agreed Framework. During 2002 negotiations US Assistant Secretary of State James A. Kelly accused North Korea of a secret highly enriched uranium program; North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok-ju and Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan responded by denying the allegations but asserting that North Korea had a right to nuclear weapons. The U.S. subsequently halted fuel oil shipments to North Korea in December 2002 and the DPRK government again gave notice of withdrawal from NPT on 10 January 2003. The withdrawal became effective 10 April 2003 making North Korea the first state ever to withdraw from the treaty. In April 2003, North Korea agreed to the multilateral six-party talks to find a diplomatic solution to the issue hosted by China and including the United States, South Korea, Russia, and Japan. North Korea initially demanded resumption of fuel shipments, while the United States demanded the "complete, verifiable, and irreversible dismantlement" of the North Korean nuclear program. On 10 February 2005, North Korea publicly declared that it possessed nuclear weapons and pulled out of the six-party talks. "We had already taken the resolute action of pulling out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and have manufactured nuclear arms for self-defence to cope with the Bush administration's evermore undisguised policy to isolate and stifle the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea]," a North Korean Foreign Ministry statement said regarding the issue. Six-party talks resumed in July 2005. On 19 September 2005, North Korea announced that it would agree to a preliminary accord. Under the accord, North Korea would scrap all of its existing nuclear weapons and nuclear production facilities, rejoin the NPT, and readmit IAEA inspectors. The difficult issue of the supply of light water reactors to replace North Korea's indigenous nuclear power plant program, as per the 1994 Agreed Framework, was left to be resolved in future discussions. On the next day North Korea reiterated its known view that until it is supplied with a light water reactor it will not dismantle its nuclear arsenal or rejoin the NPT. The six-party talks eventually collapsed before a final agreement could be negotiated after the U.S. State Department sanctioned Banco Delta Asia under Section 311 of the Patriot Act for money-laundering involving North Korean accounts. On 2 October 2006, the North Korean foreign minister announced that his country was planning to conduct a nuclear test "in the future", although it did not state when. On Monday, 9 October 2006 at 01:35:28 (UTC) the United States Geological Survey detected a magnitude 4.3 seismic event 70 km (43 mi) north of Kimchaek, North Korea indicating a nuclear test. The North Korean government announced shortly afterward that they had completed a successful underground test of a nuclear fission device. After United Nations Security Council Resolution 1718 imposed sanctions on North Korea, the six-party talks resumed. In February 2007 the parties agreed to the Initial Actions for the Implementation for the Joint Statement in which North Korea would dismantle its nuclear weapons programs, including the Yongbyon reactor, in exchange for the return of frozen funds at Banco Delta Asia and foreign energy assistance. However, the agreement failed due to verification problems and North Korea fully withdrew from the six-party talks in 2009 after the other members condemned the 2009 North Korean missile tests, expelling all US and IAEA inspectors from the country. The UN responded by adopting United Nations Security Council Resolution 1874 expanding the sanctions regime. In 2007, reports from Washington suggested that the 2002 CIA reports stating that North Korea was developing an enriched uranium weapons program, which led to North Korea leaving the NPT, had overstated or misread the intelligence. On the other hand, even apart from these press allegations, there remains some information in the public record indicating the existence of a uranium effort. Quite apart from the fact that North Korean First Vice Minister Kang Sok-ju at one point admitted the existence of a uranium enrichment program, Pakistan's then-President Musharraf revealed that the A.Q. Khan proliferation network had provided North Korea with a number of gas centrifuges designed for uranium enrichment. Additionally, press reports have cited U.S. officials to the effect that evidence obtained in dismantling Libya's WMD programs points toward North Korea as the source for Libya's uranium hexafluoride (UF6)—which, if true, would mean that North Korea has a uranium conversion facility for producing feedstock for centrifuge enrichment. North Korea formally announced the existence of a uranium enrichment program in September 2009. In 2011, after rising tensions over the North Korean nuclear program, the ROKS Cheonan sinking, and the bombardment of Yeonpyeong, North Korea began to express interest in returning to the six-party talks. Bilateral negotiations between North Korea and the United States after the death of Kim Jong-il led to the 29 February 2012 "Leap Day Agreement" in which North Korea would agree to allow IAEA inspections and resume the six-party talks. However, these diplomatic gains were quickly undercut by launching the Unha-3 rocket, leading the United States to suspend food aid. North Korea conducted further nuclear tests in 2013, January 2016, September 2016, and 2017, and announced that it was developing miniaturized warheads and intercontinental ballistic missiles. It also claimed that it had successfully detonated thermonuclear weapons in the January 2016 and 2017 tests. The North Korean nuclear weapons development led to the 2017–2018 North Korea crisis which nearly led to war, with both North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump threatening military action. The crisis was averted after a series of meetings between Kim Jong-un, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in finally culminating with the 2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit between Trump and Kim, the first face-to-face meeting between the US and North Korean heads of state. The IAEA has called for North Korea to rejoin it and the NPT since 2013. Iran Iran is a party to the NPT since 1970 but was found in non-compliance with its NPT safeguards agreement, and the status of its nuclear program remains in dispute. In November 2003 IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei reported that Iran had repeatedly and over an extended period failed to meet its safeguards obligations under the NPT with respect to: reporting of nuclear material imported to Iran; reporting of the subsequent processing and use of imported nuclear material; declaring of facilities and other locations where nuclear material had been stored and processed. After about two years of EU3-led diplomatic efforts and Iran temporarily suspending its enrichment program, the IAEA Board of Governors, acting under Article XII.C of the IAEA Statute, found in a rare non-consensus decision with 12 abstentions that these failures constituted non-compliance with the IAEA safeguards agreement. This was reported to the UN Security Council in 2006, after which the Security Council passed a resolution demanding that Iran suspend its enrichment. Instead, Iran resumed its enrichment program. The IAEA has been able to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material in Iran, and is continuing its work on verifying the absence of undeclared activities. In February 2008, the IAEA also reported that it was working to address "alleged studies" of weaponization, based on documents provided by certain Member States, which those states claimed originated from Iran. Iran rejected the allegations as "baseless" and the documents as "fabrications". In June 2009, the IAEA reported that Iran had not "cooperated with the Agency in connection with the remaining issues ... which need to be clarified to exclude the possibility of military dimensions to Iran's nuclear program." The United States concluded that Iran violated its Article III NPT safeguards obligations, and further argued based on circumstantial evidence that Iran's enrichment program was for weapons purposes and therefore violated Iran's Article II nonproliferation obligations. The November 2007 US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) later concluded that Iran had halted an active nuclear weapons program in the fall of 2003 and that it had remained halted as of mid-2007. The NIE's "Key Judgments", however, also made clear that what Iran had actually stopped in 2003 was only "nuclear weapon design and weaponization work and covert uranium conversion-related and uranium enrichment-related work"-namely, those aspects of Iran's nuclear weapons effort that had not by that point already been leaked to the press and become the subject of IAEA investigations. Since Iran's uranium enrichment program at Natanz—and its continuing work on a heavy water reactor at Arak that would be ideal for plutonium production—began secretly years before in conjunction with the very weaponization work the NIE discussed and for the purpose of developing nuclear weapons, many observers find Iran's continued development of fissile material production capabilities distinctly worrying. Particularly because fissile material availability has long been understood to be the principal obstacle to nuclear weapons development and the primary "pacing element" for a weapons program, the fact that Iran has reportedly suspended weaponization work may not mean very much. As The Bush Administration's Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Mike McConnell put it in 2008, the aspects of its work that Iran allegedly suspended were thus "probably the least significant part of the program." Iran stated it has a legal right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes under the NPT, and further says that it had "constantly complied with its obligations under the NPT and the Statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency". Iran also stated that its enrichment program has been part of its civilian nuclear energy program, which is allowed under Article IV of the NPT. The Non-Aligned Movement has welcomed the continuing cooperation of Iran with the IAEA and reaffirmed Iran's right to the peaceful uses of nuclear technology. Early during his tenure as United Nations Secretary General, between 2007 and 2016, Ban Ki-moon welcomed the continued dialogue between Iran and the IAEA. He urged a peaceful resolution of the issue. In April 2010, during the signing of the U.S.-Russia New START Treaty, President Obama said that the United States, Russia, and other nations were demanding that Iran face consequences for failing to fulfill its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, saying "We will not tolerate actions that flout the NPT, risk an arms race in a vital region, and threaten the credibility of the international community and our collective security." In 2015, Iran negotiated a nuclear deal with the P5+1, a group of countries that consisted of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) plus Germany. On 14 July 2015, the P5+1 and Iran concluded the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, lifting sanctions on Iran in exchange for constraints and on Iran's nuclear activities and increased verification by the IAEA. On 8 May 2018, President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the JCPOA and reimposed sanctions on Iran. South Africa South Africa is the only country that developed nuclear weapons by itself and later dismantled them—unlike the former Soviet states Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan, which inherited nuclear weapons from the former USSR and also acceded to the NPT as non-nuclear weapon states. During the days of apartheid, the South African government developed a deep fear of both a black uprising and the threat of communism. This led to the development of a secret nuclear weapons program as an ultimate deterrent. South Africa has a large supply of uranium, which is mined in the country's gold mines. The government built a nuclear research facility at Pelindaba near Pretoria where uranium was enriched to fuel grade for the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station as well as weapon grade for bomb production. In 1991, after international pressure and when a change of government was imminent, South African Ambassador to the United States Harry Schwarz signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. In 1993, the then president Frederik Willem de Klerk openly admitted that the country had developed a limited nuclear weapon capability. These weapons were subsequently dismantled before South Africa acceded to the NPT and opened itself up to IAEA inspection. In 1994, the IAEA completed its work and declared that the country had fully dismantled its nuclear weapons program. Libya Libya had signed (in 1968) and ratified (in 1975) the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and was subject to IAEA nuclear safeguards inspections, but undertook a secret nuclear weapons development program in violation of its NPT obligations, using material and technology provided by the A.Q. Khan proliferation network—including actual nuclear weapons designs allegedly originating in China. Libya began secret negotiations with the United States and the United Kingdom in March 2003 over potentially eliminating its WMD programs. In October 2003, Libya was embarrassed by the interdiction of a shipment of Pakistani-designed centrifuge parts sent from Malaysia, also as part of A. Q. Khan's proliferation ring. In December 2003, Libya announced that it had agreed to eliminate all its WMD programs, and permitted U.S. and British teams (as well as IAEA inspectors) into the country to assist this process and verify its completion. The nuclear weapons designs, gas centrifuges for uranium enrichment, and other equipment—including prototypes for improved SCUD ballistic missiles—were removed from Libya by the United States. (Libyan chemical weapons stocks and chemical bombs were also destroyed on site with international verification, with Libya joining the Chemical Weapons Convention.) Libya's non-compliance with its IAEA safeguards was reported to the U.N. Security Council, but with no action taken, as Libya's return to compliance with safeguards and Article II of the NPT was welcomed. In 2011, the Libyan government of Muammar al-Gaddafi was overthrown in the Libyan Civil War with the assistance of a military intervention by NATO forces acting under the auspices of UN Security Council Resolution 1973. Gaddafi's downfall 8 years after the disarmament of Libya, in which Gaddafi agreed to eliminate Libya's nuclear weapons program, has been repeatedly cited by North Korea, which views Gaddafi's fate as a "cautionary tale" that influences North Korea's decision to maintain and intensify its nuclear weapons program and arsenal despite pressure to denuclearize. Syria Syria is a state party to the NPT since 1969 and has a limited civil nuclear program. Before the advent of the Syrian Civil War it was known to operate only one small Chinese-built research reactor, SRR-1. Despite being a proponent of a Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone in the Middle East the country was accused of pursuing a military nuclear program with a reported nuclear facility in a desert Deir ez-Zor Governorate. The reactor's components had likely been designed and manufactured in North Korea, with the reactor's striking similarity in shape and size to the North Korean Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center. That information alarmed Israeli military and intelligence to such a degree that the idea of a targeted airstrike was conceived. It resulted in Operation Orchard, that took place on 6 September 2007 and saw as many as eight Israeli Air Force aircraft taking part. The Israeli government is said to have bounced the idea of the operation off of the US Bush administration, although the latter declined to participate. The nuclear reactor was destroyed in the attack, which also killed about ten North Korean workers. The attack did not cause an international outcry or any serious Syrian retaliatory moves as both parties tried to keep it secret: Despite a half-century state of war declared by surrounding states, Israel did not want publicity as regards its breach of the ceasefire, while Syria was not willing to acknowledge its clandestine nuclear program. Ukraine Ukraine acceded to the NPT in 1994 as a non-nuclear-weapon state, and committed to remove all nuclear weapons from its territory. In recognition of Ukraine's decision, the UK, the United States and Russia provided security assurances to Ukraine under the Budapest Memorandum of 1994. In 1993, political scientist John Mearsheimer argued that the United States should encourage Ukraine to retain a nuclear deterrent against potential Russian expansion, and to reduce the danger of war. After the Russian invasion of 2014 Andreas Umland, an analyst from the Swedish Institute of International Affairs, argued that Ukraine had been unwise to give up its arsenal, as Russia breaking the treaty only had limited consequences, and demonstrated that only a nuclear arsenal guarantees a country's sovereignty in the face of aggression from a nuclear power. However, Mariana Budjeryn of Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center, argued that it was unclear whether Ukraine's nuclear arsenal would have kept it safe from Russian aggression. Establishing operative control and maintaining the missiles would have been challenging for Ukraine, which might have faced sanctions had it refused to give up its arsenal. Leaving the treaty Article X allows a state to leave the treaty if "extraordinary events, related to the subject matter of this Treaty, have jeopardized the supreme interests of its country", giving three months' (ninety days') notice. The state is required to give reasons for leaving the NPT in this notice. NATO states argue that when there is a state of "general war" the treaty no longer applies, effectively allowing the states involved to leave the treaty with no notice. This is a necessary argument to support the NATO nuclear weapons sharing policy. NATO's argument is based on the phrase "the consequent need to make every effort to avert the danger of such a war" in the treaty preamble, inserted at the behest of U.S. diplomats, arguing that the treaty would at that point have failed to fulfill its function of prohibiting a general war and thus no longer be binding. See United States–NATO nuclear weapons sharing above. North Korea has also caused an uproar by its use of this provision of the treaty. Article X.1 only requires a state to give three months' notice in total, and does not provide for other states to question a state's interpretation of "supreme interests of its country". In 1993, North Korea gave notice to withdraw from the NPT. However, after 89 days, North Korea reached agreement with the United States to freeze its nuclear program under the Agreed Framework and "suspended" its withdrawal notice. In October 2002, the United States accused North Korea of violating the Agreed Framework by pursuing a secret uranium enrichment program, and suspended shipments of heavy fuel oil under that agreement. In response, North Korea expelled IAEA inspectors, disabled IAEA equipment, and, on 10 January 2003, announced that it was ending the suspension of its previous NPT withdrawal notification. North Korea said that only one more day's notice was sufficient for withdrawal from the NPT, as it had given 89 days before. The IAEA Board of Governors rejected this interpretation. Most countries held that a new three-months withdrawal notice was required, and some questioned whether North Korea's notification met the "extraordinary events" and "supreme interests" requirements of the treaty. The Joint Statement of 19 September 2005 at the end of the Fourth Round of the Six-Party Talks called for North Korea to "return" to the NPT, implicitly acknowledging that it had withdrawn. Recent and coming events The main outcome of the 2000 Conference was the adoption by consensus of a comprehensive Final Document, which included among other things "practical steps for the systematic and progressive efforts" to implement the disarmament provisions of the NPT, commonly referred to as the Thirteen Steps. On 18 July 2005, US President George W. Bush met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and declared that he would work to change US law and international rules to permit trade in US civilian nuclear technology with India. At the time, British columnist George Monbiot argued that the U.S.-India nuclear deal, in combination with US attempts to deny Iran (an NPT signatory) civilian nuclear fuel-making technology, might destroy the NPT regime. In the first half of 2010, it was strongly believed that China had signed a civilian nuclear deal with Pakistan claiming that the deal was "peaceful". Arms control advocates criticised the reported China-Pakistan deal as they did in case of U.S.-India deal claiming that both the deals violate the NPT by facilitating nuclear programmes in states which are not parties to the NPT. Some reports asserted that the deal was a strategic move by China to balance US influence in South-Asia. According to a report published by U.S. Department of Defense in 2001, China had provided Pakistan with nuclear materials and has given critical technological assistance in the construction of Pakistan's nuclear weapons development facilities, in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, of which China even then was a signatory. At the Seventh Review Conference in May 2005, there were stark differences between the United States, which wanted the conference to focus on non-proliferation, especially on its allegations against Iran, and most other countries, who emphasized the lack of serious nuclear disarmament by the nuclear powers. The non-aligned countries reiterated their position emphasizing the need for nuclear disarmament. The 2010 Review Conference was held in May 2010 in New York City, and adopted a final document that included a summary by the Review Conference President, Ambassador Libran Capactulan of the Philippines, and an Action Plan that was adopted by consensus. The 2010 conference was generally considered a success because it reached consensus where the previous Review Conference in 2005 ended in disarray. Many attributed the success of the 2010 conference to U.S. President Barack Obama's commitment to nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament. Some have warned that this success raised unrealistically high expectations that could lead to failure at the next Review Conference in 2015. The "Global Summit on Nuclear Security" took place 12–13 April 2010. The summit was proposed by President Obama in Prague and was intended to strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in conjunction with the Proliferation Security Initiative and the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism. Forty seven states and three international organizations took part in the summit, which issued a communiqué and a work plan. For further information see 2010 Nuclear Security Summit. In a major policy speech at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on 19 June 2013, Obama outlined plans to further reduce the number of warheads in the U.S. nuclear arsenal. According to Foreign Policy, Obama proposed a "one-third reduction in strategic nuclear warheads—on top of the cuts already required by the New START treaty—bringing the number of deployed warheads to about 1,000". Obama is seeking to "negotiate these reductions with Russia to continue to move beyond Cold War nuclear postures," according to briefing documents provided to Foreign Policy. In the same speech, Obama emphasized his administration's efforts to isolate any nuclear weapons capabilities emanating from Iran and North Korea. He also called for a renewed bipartisan effort in the United States Congress to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and called on countries to negotiate a new treaty to end the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons. On 24 April 2014, it was announced that the nation of the Marshall Islands has brought suit in The Hague against the United States, the former Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel seeking to have the disarmament provisions of the NPT enforced. The 2015 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was held at the United Nations in New York from 27 April to 22 May 2015 and presided over by Ambassador Taous Feroukhi of Algeria. The Treaty, particularly article VIII, paragraph 3, envisages a review of the operation of the Treaty every five years, a provision which was reaffirmed by the States parties at the 1995 NPT Review and Extension Conference and the 2000 NPT Review Conference. At the 2015 NPT Review Conference, States parties examined the implementation of the Treaty's provisions since 2010. Despite intensive consultations, the Conference was not able to reach agreement on the substantive part of the draft Final Document. The Tenth Review Conference convened 1–26 August 2022, after a two-year postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and concluded without adopting a final document. Contentious negotiations came close to consensus on a text, but ultimately Russia blocked consensus over issues related to its invasion of Ukraine, including references to the safety of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the draft text. On June 23, 2023, The US Department of State issued a statement that the United States hosted the meeting on June 13–14 in Cairo among the five nuclear weapons states, describing it as "an ongoing exchange in the context of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)." Criticism and responses Over the years the NPT has come to be seen by many Third World states as "a conspiracy of the nuclear 'haves' to keep the nuclear 'have-nots' in their place". This argument has roots in Article VI of the treaty which "obligates the nuclear weapons states to liquidate their nuclear stockpiles and pursue complete disarmament. The non-nuclear states see no signs of this happening". Some argue that the NWS have not fully complied with their disarmament obligations under Article VI of the NPT. Some countries such as India have criticized the NPT, because it "discriminated against states not possessing nuclear weapons on 1 January 1967," while Iran and numerous Arab states have criticized Israel for not signing the NPT. There has been disappointment with the limited progress on nuclear disarmament, where the five authorized nuclear weapons states still have 13,400 warheads (as of February 2021) among them. As noted above, the International Court of Justice, in its advisory opinion on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, stated that "there exists an obligation to pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict and effective international control". Some critics of the nuclear-weapons states contend that they have failed to comply with Article VI by failing to make disarmament the driving force in national planning and policy with respect to nuclear weapons, even while they ask other states to plan for their security without nuclear weapons. The United States responds to criticism of its disarmament record by pointing out that, since the end of the Cold War, it has eliminated over 13,000 nuclear weapons, and eliminated over 80% of its deployed strategic warheads and 90% of non-strategic warheads deployed to NATO, in the process eliminating whole categories of warheads and delivery systems and reducing its reliance on nuclear weapons. U.S. officials have also pointed out the ongoing U.S. work to dismantle nuclear warheads. By the time accelerated dismantlement efforts ordered by President George W. Bush were completed, the U.S. arsenal was less than a quarter of its size at the end of the Cold War, and smaller than it had been at any point since the Eisenhower administration, well before the drafting of the NPT. The United States has also purchased many thousands of weapons' worth of uranium formerly in Soviet nuclear weapons for conversion into reactor fuel. As a consequence of this latter effort, it has been estimated that the equivalent of one lightbulb in every ten in the United States is powered by nuclear fuel removed from warheads previously targeted at the United States and its allies during the Cold War. The U.S. Special Representative for Nuclear Nonproliferation agreed that nonproliferation and disarmament are linked, noting that they can be mutually reinforcing but also that growing proliferation risks create an environment that makes disarmament more difficult. The United Kingdom, France and Russia likewise defend their nuclear disarmament records, and the five NPT NWS issued a joint statement in 2008 reaffirming their Article VI disarmament commitments. According to Thomas Reed and Danny Stillman, the "NPT has one giant loophole": Article IV gives each non-nuclear weapon state the "inalienable right" to pursue nuclear energy for the generation of power. A "number of high-ranking officials, even within the United Nations, have argued that they can do little to stop states using nuclear reactors to produce nuclear weapons". A 2009 United Nations report said that: The revival of interest in nuclear power could result in the worldwide dissemination of uranium enrichment and spent fuel reprocessing technologies, which present obvious risks of proliferation as these technologies can produce fissile materials that are directly usable in nuclear weapons. According to critics, those states which possess nuclear weapons, but are not authorized to do so under the NPT, have not paid a significant price for their pursuit of weapons capabilities. Also, the NPT has been explicitly weakened by a number of bilateral deals made by NPT signatories, notably the United States. Based on concerns over the slow pace of nuclear disarmament and the continued reliance on nuclear weapons in military and security concepts, doctrines and policies, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted in July 2017 and was subsequently opened for signature on 20 September 2017. Entering into force on 22 January 2021, it prohibits each state party from the development, testing, production, stockpiling, stationing, transfer, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons, as well as assistance to those activities. It reaffirms in its preamble the vital role of the full and effective implementation of the NPT. Ineffective enforcement of territorial integrity and rule of law in the 21st century could undermine the credibility of the security assurances that are part of the current global nuclear order. See also 13 steps (an important section in the Final Document of the 2000 Review Conference of the Treaty) Chemical Weapons Convention Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) Nuclear deterrence Humanitarian Initiative Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism (GICNT) Missile Technology Control Regime (MNuclear blackmailTCR) New Agenda Coalition (NAC) Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Initiative (NPDI) Nuclear armament Nuclear blackmail Nuclear warfare Nuclear-weapon-free zone Multi-country zones African Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty (Treaty of Pelindaba) Central Asian Nuclear Weapon Free Zone (Treaty of Semei) South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty (Treaty of Rarotonga) Southeast Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty (Treaty of Bangkok) Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (Treaty of Tlatelolco) Other UN-recognized zones Mongolian Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone Outer Space Treaty Seabed Arms Control Treaty Nuclear Terrorism Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT) Tragedy of the commons Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (also known as the Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty) Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD) Zangger Committee List of states with nuclear weapons List of weapons of mass destruction treaties References External links Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (PDF) – IAEA UN Office of Disarmament Affairs NPT section Procedural history, related documents and photos on the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in the Historic Archives of the United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law Membership/Signatories Annotated Bibliography on the NPT from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues Compilation of speeches and papers relevant to NPT Review Cycle, U.S. Department of State Annotated bibliography for the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues

The Band was a Canadian-American rock band formed in Toronto, Ontario, in 1967. It consisted of Canadians Rick Danko (bass, guitar, vocals, fiddle), Garth Hudson (organ, keyboards, accordion, saxophone), Richard Manuel (piano, drums, vocals), Robbie Robertson (guitar, songwriting, vocals, piano, percussion), and American Levon Helm (drums, vocals, mandolin, guitar, bass). The Band combined elements of Americana, folk, rock, jazz, country, influencing musicians such as George Harrison, Elton John, the Grateful Dead, Eric Clapton and Wilco. Between 1958 and 1963, the group was known as the Hawks, a backing band for rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins. In the mid-1960s, they gained recognition for backing Bob Dylan and the 1966 concert tour was notable as Dylan's first with an electric band. After leaving Dylan and changing their name to The Band, they released several records to critical and popular acclaim, including their debut album Music from Big Pink in 1968. According to AllMusic, the album's influence on several generations of musicians has been substantial: musician Roger Waters called Music from Big Pink the second-most influential record in the history of rock and roll, and music journalist Al Aronowitz called it "country soul ... a sound never heard before". Their most popular songs included "The Weight", "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", and "Up on Cripple Creek". The Band performed their farewell concert on November 25, 1976. Footage from the event was released in 1978 as the concert film The Last Waltz, directed by Martin Scorsese. It would be the last performance of the original five members. After five years apart, Danko, Hudson, Helm, and Manuel reunited in 1983 (without Robertson) for a reunion tour. Robertson had taken up a second career as a successful producer and composer for film soundtracks. Manuel died in 1986, but the remaining three members would continue to tour and occasionally release new albums of studio material until 1999, when, upon the death of Danko, the remaining members decided to break up for good. Helm would go on to a successful solo career, winning multiple Grammy Awards in the folk and Americana categories until his 2012 death, while Hudson found a second career as a featured session musician. Robertson died in 2023, leaving Hudson as the only living member of the original lineup. Music critic Bruce Eder described The Band as "one of the most popular and influential rock groups in the world, their music embraced by critics ... as seriously as the music of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones." The Band was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1989 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked them 50th on its list of the 100 greatest artists of all time, and ranked "The Weight" 41st on its list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. In 2008, the group received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2014, they were inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. History 1957–1964: The Hawks The members of The Band gradually came together in the Hawks, the backing group for Toronto-based rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins. Levon Helm began playing with the group in 1957, then became their fulltime drummer after graduating from high school in 1958. Helm journeyed with Hawkins from Arkansas to Ontario, where they were joined by Robertson, Danko, Manuel, and finally Hudson. Latter-day Band member Stan Szelest was also in the group at that time. Hawkins's act was popular in and around Toronto and nearby Hamilton, and he had an effective way of eliminating his musical competition: when a promising band appeared, Hawkins would hire their best musicians for his own group; Robertson, Danko, and Manuel came under Hawkins's tutelage this way. While most of the Hawks were eager to join Hawkins's group, getting Hudson to join was a different story. He had earned a college degree, planned on a career as a music teacher, and was interested in playing rock music only as a hobby. The Hawks admired his wild, full-bore organ style and asked him repeatedly to join. Hudson finally agreed, under the condition that the Hawks each pay him $10 per week to be their instructor and purchase a new state-of-the-art Lowrey organ; all music theory questions were directed to Hudson. With Hawkins, they recorded a few singles in this period and became well known as the best rock group in the thriving Toronto music scene. Hawkins regularly convened all-night rehearsals following long club shows, with the result that the young musicians quickly developed great technical prowess on their instruments. In late 1963, the group split from Hawkins over personal differences. They were tired of playing the same songs so often and wanted to perform original material, and they were wary of Hawkins's heavy-handed leadership. He would fine the Hawks if they brought their girlfriends to the clubs (fearing it might reduce the numbers of "available" girls who came to performances) or if they smoked marijuana. Robertson later said, "Eventually, [Hawkins] built us up to the point where we outgrew his music and had to leave. He shot himself in the foot, really, by sharpening us into such a crackerjack band that we had to go on out into the world, because we knew what his vision was for himself, and we were all younger and more ambitious musically." Upon leaving Hawkins, the group was briefly known as the Levon Helm Sextet, with sixth member sax player Jerry Penfound, and then as Levon and the Hawks after Penfound's departure. In 1965, they released a single on Ware Records under the name the Canadian Squires, but they returned as Levon and the Hawks for a recording session for Atco later that year. Also in 1965, Helm and the band met blues singer and harmonica player Sonny Boy Williamson. They wanted to record with him, offering to become his backing band, but Williamson died not long after their meeting. Later in 1965, Bob Dylan hired them for his U.S. tour in 1965 and world tour in 1966. Following the 1966 tour, the group moved with help from Dylan and his manager, Albert Grossman, to Saugerties, New York, where they made the informal 1967 recordings that became The Basement Tapes, the basis for their 1968 debut album, Music from Big Pink. Because they were always "the band" to various frontmen and the locals in Woodstock, Helm said the name The Band worked well when the group came into its own. The group began performing as The Band in 1968 and went on to release ten studio albums. Dylan continued to collaborate with The Band over the course of their career, including a joint 1974 tour. 1965–1967: With Bob Dylan In late summer 1965, Bob Dylan was looking for a backup band for his first U.S. "electric" tour. Levon and the Hawks were recommended by blues singer John P. Hammond, who earlier that year had recorded with Helm, Hudson and Robertson on his Vanguard album So Many Roads. Around the same time, one of their friends from Toronto, Mary Martin, was working as secretary to Dylan's manager, Albert Grossman. She told Dylan to visit the group at Le Coq d'Or Tavern, a club on Yonge Street, in Toronto—though Robertson recollects it was the Friar's Tavern, just down the street. Her advice to Dylan: "You gotta see these guys." After hearing The Band play and meeting with Robertson, Dylan invited Helm and Robertson to join his backing band. After two concerts backing Dylan, Helm and Robertson told Dylan of their loyalty to their bandmates and told him that they would continue with him only if he hired all of the Hawks. Dylan accepted and invited Levon and the Hawks to tour with him. The group was receptive to the offer, knowing it could give them the wider exposure they craved. They thought of themselves as a tightly rehearsed rock and rhythm and blues group and knew Dylan mostly from his early acoustic folk and protest music. Furthermore, they had little inkling of how internationally popular Dylan had become. With Dylan, the Hawks played a series of concerts from September 1965 through May 1966, billed as "Bob Dylan and the Band". The tours were marked by Dylan's reportedly copious use of amphetamines. Some, though not all, of the Hawks joined in the excesses. Most of the concerts were met with heckling and disapproval from folk music purists. Helm was so affected by the negative reception that he left the tour after a little more than one month and sat out the rest of that year's concerts, as well as the world tour in 1966. Helm spent much of this period working on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. During and between tours, Dylan and the Hawks attempted several recording sessions, but with less than satisfying results. Sessions in October and November yielded just one usable single ("Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?"), and two days of recording in January 1966 for what was intended to be Dylan's next album, Blonde on Blonde, resulted in "One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)", which was released as a single a few weeks later and was subsequently selected for the album. On "One of Us Must Know", Dylan was backed by drummer Bobby Gregg, bassist Danko (or Bill Lee), guitarist Robbie Robertson, pianist Paul Griffin, and Al Kooper (who was more a guitarist than an organist) playing organ. Frustrated by the slow progress in the New York studio, Dylan accepted the suggestion of producer Bob Johnston and moved the recording sessions to Nashville. In Nashville, Robertson's guitar was prominent on the Blonde on Blonde recordings, especially "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat", but the other members of the Hawks did not attend the sessions. During the European leg of their 1966 world tour, Mickey Jones replaced Sandy Konikoff on drums. Dylan and the Hawks played at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester on May 17, 1966. The gig became legendary when, near the end of Dylan's electric set, an audience member shouted "Judas!" After a pause, Dylan replied, "I don't believe you. You're a liar!" He then turned to the Hawks and said, "Play it fucking loud!" With that, they launched into an acidic version of "Like a Rolling Stone". The Manchester performance was widely bootlegged (and mistakenly placed at the Royal Albert Hall). In a 1971 review for Creem, critic Dave Marsh wrote, "My response is that crystallization of everything that is rock'n'roll music, at its finest, was to allow my jaw to drop, my body to move, to leap out of the chair ... It is an experience that one desires simply to share, to play over and over again for those he knows thirst for such pleasure. If I speak in an almost worshipful sense about this music, it is not because I have lost perspective, it is precisely because I have found it, within music, yes, that was made five years ago. But it is there and unignorable." When it finally saw official release in 1998, critic Richie Unterberger declared the record "an important document of rock history." On July 29, 1966, while on a break from touring, Dylan was injured in a motorcycle accident that precipitated his retreat into semi-seclusion in Woodstock, New York. For a while, the Hawks returned to the bar and roadhouse touring circuit, sometimes backing other singers, including a brief stint with Tiny Tim. Dylan invited the Hawks to join him in Woodstock in February 1967, and Danko, Hudson, and Manuel rented a large pink house, which they named "Big Pink", in nearby West Saugerties, New York. The next month (initially without Helm) they commenced recording a much-bootlegged and influential series of demos, initially at Dylan's house in Woodstock and later at Big Pink, which were released partially on LP as The Basement Tapes in 1975 and in full in 2014. A track-by-track review of the bootleg was detailed by Jann Wenner in Rolling Stone, in which the band members were explicitly named and given the collective name "the Crackers". While Helm was not involved in the initial recording, he did perform in later sessions and in overdubs recorded in 1975 before the album's release. 1968–1972: Initial success The sessions with Dylan ended in October 1967, with Helm having rejoined the group by that time, and the Hawks began writing their own songs at Big Pink. When they went into the recording studio, they still did not have a name for themselves. Stories vary as to the manner in which they ultimately adopted the name "The Band". In The Last Waltz, Manuel claimed that they wanted to call themselves either "the Honkies" or "the Crackers" (which they used when backing Dylan for a January 1968 concert tribute to Woody Guthrie), but these names were vetoed by their record label; Robertson suggests that during their time with Dylan everyone just referred to them as "the band" and the name stuck. Initially they disliked the moniker, but eventually they grew to like it, thinking it both humble and presumptuous. In 1969, Rolling Stone referred to them as "the band from Big Pink". Their debut album, Music from Big Pink (1968) was widely acclaimed. It included three songs written or co-written by Dylan ("This Wheel's on Fire", "Tears of Rage" and "I Shall Be Released") as well as "The Weight", which became one of their best-known songs after it was used in the film Easy Rider. While a continuity ran through the music, the style varied from song to song. In early 1969, after the success of Music from Big Pink, The Band went on tour, starting with an appearance at Winterland Ballroom. They performed at the Woodstock Festival (their performance was not included in the famed Woodstock film because of legal complications), and later that year they performed with Dylan at the UK Isle of Wight Festival (several songs from which were subsequently included on Dylan's Self Portrait album). That same year, they left for Los Angeles to record their follow-up, The Band (1969). From their rustic appearance on the cover to the songs and arrangements within, the album stood in contrast to other popular music of the day. Several other artists made similar stylistic moves about the same time, notably Dylan, on John Wesley Harding, which was written during the Basement Tapes sessions, and the Byrds, on Sweetheart of the Rodeo, which featured two Basement Tapes covers. The Band featured songs that evoked old-time rural America, from the Civil War in "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" to the unionization of farm workers in "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)". These first two records were produced by John Simon, who was practically a group member: he aided in arrangements in addition to playing occasional piano and tuba. Simon reported that he was often asked about the distinctive horn sections featured so effectively on the first two albums: people wanted to know how they had achieved such memorable sounds. Simon stated that, besides Hudson (an accomplished saxophonist), the others had only rudimentary horn skills, and achieved their sound simply by creatively using their limited technique. Rolling Stone lavished praise on The Band in this era, giving them more attention than perhaps any other group in the magazine's history; Greil Marcus's articles contributed to The Band's mystique. The Band was also featured on the cover of Time (January 12, 1970), the first rock group after the Beatles, over two years earlier, to achieve this rare distinction. David Attie's unused photographs for this cover—among the very few studio portraits taken during the Band's prime—have only recently been discovered, and were featured in Daniel Roher's Robbie Robertson documentary Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band, as well as having their own four-page spread in Harvey Kubernik and Ken Kubernik's “The Story of the Band: From Big Pink to The Last Waltz” (Sterling Publishing, 2018). A critical and commercial triumph, The Band, along with works by the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers, established a musical template (dubbed country rock) that paved the way to the Eagles. Both Big Pink and The Band also influenced their musical contemporaries. Eric Clapton and George Harrison cited The Band as a major influence on their musical direction in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Clapton later revealed that he wanted to join the group. While he never did join, he recruited all of the members of The Band as well as other roots rock performers for his 1976 album No Reason to Cry. Following their second album, The Band embarked on their first tour as a lead act. The anxiety of fame was clear, as the group's songs turned to darker themes of fear and alienation: the influence on their next work is self-explanatory. Stage Fright (1970) was engineered by musician-engineer-producer Todd Rundgren and recorded on a theatre stage in Woodstock. As with their previous, self-titled record, Robertson was credited with most of the songwriting. Initial critical reaction was positive, but it was seen as a letdown from the previous two albums for various reasons. After recording Stage Fright, The Band was among the acts participating in the Festival Express, an all-star rock concert tour of Canada by train that also included Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead and future Band member Richard Bell (at the time he was a member of Joplin's band). In the concert documentary film, released in 2003, Danko can be seen participating in a drunken jam session with Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, John Dawson, and Joplin while singing "Ain't No More Cane". At about this time, Robertson began exerting greater control over The Band, a point of contention between him and Helm. Helm charges Robertson with authoritarianism and greed, while Robertson suggests his increased efforts in guiding the group were largely because Danko, Helm, and Manuel were becoming more unreliable due to their heroin usage. Robertson insists he did his best to coax Manuel into writing more songs, only to see him descend into addiction. Despite mounting problems among the group members, The Band forged ahead with their next album, Cahoots (1971). Cahoots featured Dylan's "When I Paint My Masterpiece", "4% Pantomime" (with Van Morrison), and "Life Is a Carnival", the last featuring a horn arrangement by Allen Toussaint. Toussaint's contribution was a critical addition to The Band's next project, and the group would later record two songs written by Toussaint: "Holy Cow" on Moondog Matinee and "You See Me" on Jubilation. In late December 1971, The Band recorded the live album Rock of Ages, which was released in the summer of 1972. On Rock of Ages, they were bolstered by the addition of a horn section, with arrangements written by Toussaint. Dylan appeared on stage on New Year's Eve and performed four songs with the group, including a version of "When I Paint My Masterpiece". 1973–1975: Move to Shangri-La In 1973, The Band released the covers album Moondog Matinee. There was no tour in support of the album, which garnered mixed reviews. However, on July 28, 1973, they played at the legendary Summer Jam at Watkins Glen, a massive concert that took place at the Grand Prix Raceway outside Watkins Glen, New York. The event, which was attended by over 600,000 fans, also featured the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers Band. It was during this event that discussions began about a possible tour with Bob Dylan, who had moved to Malibu, California, along with Robertson. By late 1973, Danko, Helm, Hudson and Manuel had joined them, and the first order of business was backing Dylan on his album Planet Waves. The album was released concurrently with their joint 1974 tour, in which they played 40 shows in North America during January and February 1974. Later that year, the tour was documented on the live album Before the Flood,. During this time, The Band brought in Planet Waves producer Rob Fraboni to help design a music studio for the group. By 1975, the studio, Shangri-La, was completed. That year, The Band recorded and released Northern Lights – Southern Cross, their first album of all-new material since 1971. All eight songs were written exclusively by Robertson. Despite comparatively poor record sales, the album is favored by critics and fans. Levon Helm regards this album highly in his book, This Wheel's on Fire: "It was the best album we had done since The Band." The album also produced more experimentation from Hudson, switching to synthesizers, showcased on "Jupiter Hollow". 1976–1978: The Last Waltz By the mid-1970s, Robbie Robertson was weary of touring. After Northern Lights – Southern Cross failed to meet commercial expectations, much of the group's 1976 tour was confined to theaters and smaller arenas in secondary markets (including the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, the Long Island Arena and the Champlain Valley Expo in Essex Junction, Vermont), culminating in an opening slot for the ascendant ZZ Top at the Nashville Fairgrounds in September. In early September, Richard Manuel suffered a severe neck injury in a boating accident in Texas, prompting Robertson to urge The Band to retire from live performances after staging a massive "farewell concert" known as The Last Waltz. Following an October 30 appearance on Saturday Night Live, the event, including turkey dinner for the audience of 5,000, was held on November 25 (Thanksgiving Day) of 1976 at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, California, and featured a horn section with arrangements by Allen Toussaint and an allstar lineup of guests, including Canadian artists Joni Mitchell and Neil Young. Two of the guests were fundamental to The Band's existence and growth: Ronnie Hawkins and Bob Dylan. Other guests they admired (and in most cases had worked with before) included Muddy Waters, Dr. John, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Ron Wood, Bobby Charles, Neil Diamond, and Paul Butterfield. The concert was filmed by Robertson's friend, filmmaker Martin Scorsese. In 1977, The Band released their seventh studio album Islands, which fulfilled their record contract with Capitol so that a planned Last Waltz film and album could be released on the Warner Bros. label. Islands contained a mix of originals and covers, and was the last with The Band's original lineup. That same year, the group recorded soundstage performances with country singer Emmylou Harris ("Evangeline") and gospel-soul group the Staple Singers ("The Weight"); Scorsese combined these new performances—as well as interviews he had conducted with the group—with the 1976 concert footage. The resulting concert film–documentary was released in 1978, along with a three-LP soundtrack. Helm later wrote about The Last Waltz in his autobiography, This Wheel's on Fire, in which he made the case that it had been primarily Robbie Robertson's project and that Robertson had forced The Band's breakup on the rest of the group. Robertson offered a different take in a 1986 interview: "I made my big statement. I did the movie, I made a three-record album about it—and if this is only my statement, not theirs, I'll accept that. They're saying, 'Well, that was really his trip, not our trip.' Well, fine. I'll take the best music film that's ever been made, and make it my statement. I don't have any problems with that. None at all." The original quintet would perform together one last time: on March 1, 1978 after the late set of a Rick Danko solo show at The Roxy, the group performed "Stage Fright", "The Shape I'm In", and "The Weight" for an encore. Although the members of the group intended to continue working on studio projects, they drifted apart after the release of Islands in March 1977. 1983–1989: Reformation and the death of Richard Manuel The Band resumed touring in 1983 without Robertson. Accomplished musician from Woodstock, NY, Jim Weider became lead guitarist. Robertson had found success with a solo career and as a Hollywood music producer. As a result of their diminished popularity, they performed in theaters and clubs as headliners and took support slots in larger venues for onetime peers such as the Grateful Dead and Crosby, Stills and Nash. After a performance in Winter Park, Florida, on March 4, 1986, Manuel hanged himself, aged 42, in his motel room. He had suffered for many years from alcoholism and drug addiction and had been clean and sober for several years beginning in 1978 but had begun drinking and using drugs again by 1984. Manuel's position as pianist was filled by old friend Stan Szelest (who died not long after) and then by Richard Bell. Bell had played with Ronnie Hawkins after the departure of the original Hawks, and was best known from his days as a member of Janis Joplin's Full Tilt Boogie Band. The Band was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame at the 1989 Juno Awards, where Robertson was reunited with original members Danko and Hudson. With Canadian country rock superstars Blue Rodeo as a back-up band, Music Express called the 1989 Juno appearance a symbolic "passing of the torch" from The Band to Blue Rodeo. 1990–1999: Return to final recording and the death of Rick Danko In 1990, Capitol Records began to re-release the records from the 1970s. The remaining three members continued to tour and record albums with a succession of musicians filling Manuel's and Robertson's roles. The Band appeared at Bob Dylan's 30th anniversary concert in New York City in October 1992, where they performed their version of Dylan's "When I Paint My Masterpiece". In 1993, the group released their eighth studio album, Jericho. Without Robbie Robertson as primary lyricist, much of the songwriting for the album came from outside of the group. Also that year, The Band, along with Ronnie Hawkins, Bob Dylan, and other performers, appeared at U.S. President Bill Clinton's 1993 "Blue Jean Bash" inauguration party. In 1994, The Band performed at Woodstock '94. Later that year Robertson appeared with Danko and Hudson as the Band for the second time since the original group broke up. The occasion was the induction of The Band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Helm, who had been at odds with Robertson for years over accusations of stolen songwriting credits, did not attend. In February 1996, The Band with the Crickets recorded "Not Fade Away", released on the tribute album Not Fade Away (Remembering Buddy Holly). The Band released two more albums after Jericho: High on the Hog (1996) and Jubilation (1998), the latter of which included guest appearances by Eric Clapton and John Hiatt. Helm was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1998 and was unable to sing for several years but he eventually regained the use of his voice. In 1998, the group revealed they were working on a follow-up album to Jubilation that has not been released. The final song the group recorded together was their 1999 version of Bob Dylan's "One Too Many Mornings", which they contributed to the Dylan tribute album Tangled Up in Blues. On December 10, 1999, Rick Danko died in his sleep at the age of 55. Following his death, The Band broke up for good. The final configuration of the group included Richard Bell (piano), Randy Ciarlante (drums), and Jim Weider (guitar). 2000–present In 2002, Robertson bought all other former members' financial interests in the group (with the exception of Helm's), giving him major control of the presentation of the group's material, including latter-day compilations. Richard Bell died of multiple myeloma in June 2007. The Band received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award on February 9, 2008, but there was no reunion of former members. In honor of the event, Helm held a Midnight Ramble in Woodstock. He continued to perform and released several albums. On April 17, 2012, it was announced via Helm's official website that he was in the "final stages of cancer"; he died two days later. In December 2020, it was announced that the third album of The Band, Stage Fright, would get an expanded reissue. The album has alternate versions of some songs. Robbie Robertson died at the age of 80 on August 9, 2023, after battling prostate cancer. With Robertson's death, Garth Hudson is the last living original member of the group. Members' other endeavours In 1977, Rick Danko released his eponymous debut solo album, which featured the other four members of The Band on various tracks. In 1984, Danko joined members of the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and others in the huge touring company that made up "The Byrds Twenty-Year Celebration". Several members of the tour performed solo songs to start the show, including Danko, who performed "Mystery Train". Danko also released two collaboraive albums with Eric Andersen and Jonas Fjeld, along with some live and compilation albums in the 1990s and 2000s; many of the latter records were produced by Aaron L. Hurwitz and are on the Breeze Hill/Woodstock Records Label. In the late 1970s and 1980s, Helm released several solo albums and toured with a band called Levon Helm and the RCO Allstars. He also began an acting career with his role as Loretta Lynn's father in Coal Miner's Daughter. Helm received praise for his narration and supporting role opposite Sam Shepard in 1983's The Right Stuff. In 1997, a CD by Levon Helm and the Crowmatix, Souvenir, was released. Beginning sometime in the 1990s, Helm regularly performed Midnight Ramble concerts at his home and studio in Woodstock, New York, and toured. In 2007 Helm released a new album, an homage to his southern roots called Dirt Farmer, which was awarded a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album on February 9, 2008. Electric Dirt followed in 2009 and won the inaugural Grammy Award for Best Americana Album. His 2011 live album Ramble at the Ryman won in the same category. After he left The Band, Robbie Robertson became a music producer and wrote film soundtracks (including acting as music supervisor for several of Scorsese's films) before beginning a solo career with his Daniel Lanois-produced eponymous album in 1987. Robertson continued mostly scoring films until his death in 2023. Hudson has released two solo CDs, The Sea to the North in 2001, produced by Aaron (Professor Louie) Hurwitz, and Live at the Wolf in 2005, both featuring his wife, Maud, on vocals. He has also kept busy as an in-demand studio musician. He is featured extensively on recordings of the Call and country-indie star Neko Case. Hudson contributed an original electronic score to an off-Broadway production of Dragon Slayers, written by Stanley Keyes and directed by Brad Mays in 1986 at the Union Square Theatre in New York, which was restaged with a new cast in Los Angeles in 1990. In 2010, Hudson released Garth Hudson Presents: A Canadian Celebration of The Band, featuring Canadian artists covering songs that were recorded by The Band. In 2012, Jim Weider launched The Weight Band, performing covers of The Band's music, alongside former members of the Levon Helm Band and Rick Danko Group. The Weight Band performed in a nationally broadcast PBS special, Infinity Hall Live, featuring new music. Following the show, the band announced a self-titled album of new music. The Weight Band also hosts Camp Cripple Creek, which celebrates the legacy of the Woodstock Sound. Past guests have included Jackie Greene, Music from Big Pink producer John Simon and John Sebastian. Manuel had few projects outside The Band; he and the rest of The Band contributed to Eric Clapton's 1976 album No Reason to Cry. It included an original composition by Manuel and featured his vocals and drumming on several tracks. Manuel later worked on several film scores with Hudson and Robertson, including Raging Bull and The Color of Money. Whispering Pines: Live at the Getaway was released in 2002. Musical style The Band's music fused many elements: primarily old country music and early rock and roll, though the rhythm section often was reminiscent of Stax- or Motown-style rhythm and blues, and Robertson cites Curtis Mayfield and the Staple Singers as major influences, resulting in a synthesis of many musical genres. Singers Manuel, Danko, and Helm each brought a distinctive voice to The Band: Helm's Southern accent was prevalent in his raw and powerful vocals, Danko sang tenor with a distinctively choppy enunciation, and Manuel alternated between falsetto and a soulful baritone. The singers regularly blended in harmonies. Though the singing was more or less evenly shared among the three, both Danko and Helm have stated that they saw Manuel as The Band's "lead" singer. Every member was a multi-instrumentalist. There was little instrument-switching when they played live, but when recording, the musicians could make up different configurations in service of the songs. Hudson in particular was able to coax a wide range of timbres from his Lowrey organ. Helm's drumming was often praised: critic Jon Carroll declared that Helm was "the only drummer who can make you cry," while prolific session drummer Jim Keltner admits to appropriating several of Helm's techniques. Producer John Simon is often cited as a "sixth member" of The Band for producing and playing on Music from Big Pink, co-producing and playing on The Band, and playing on other songs up through The Band's 1993 reunion album Jericho. Copyright controversy Robertson is credited as writer or co-writer of the majority of The Band's songs and, as a result, has received most of the songwriting royalties generated from the music. This would become a point of contention, especially for Helm. In his 1993 autobiography, This Wheel's on Fire: Levon Helm and the Story of the Band, Helm disputed the validity of the songwriting credits as listed on the albums and explained that the Band's songs were developed in collaboration with all members. Danko concurred with Helm: "I think Levon's book hits the nail on the head about where Robbie and Albert Grossman and some of those people went wrong and when The Band stopped being The Band ... I'm truly friends with everybody but, hey—it could happen to Levon, too. When people take themselves too seriously and believe too much in their own bullshit, they usually get in trouble." Robertson denied that Helm had written any of the songs attributed to Robertson. The studio albums recorded by Levon Helm as a solo artist—Levon Helm (1978), American Son, Levon Helm (1982), Dirt Farmer, and Electric Dirt—contain only one song crediting him as songwriter ("Growin' Trade", co-written with Larry Campbell). Legacy The Band has influenced numerous bands, songwriters and performers, including the Grateful Dead; Eric Clapton; George Harrison; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; Led Zeppelin; Elvis Costello; Elton John; Phish; and Pink Floyd. The album Music from Big Pink, in particular, is credited with contributing to Clapton's decision to leave the supergroup Cream. In his introduction of The Band during the Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary Concert, Clapton announced that in 1968 he had heard the album, "and it changed my life." The band Nazareth took their name from a line in "The Weight". Guitarist Richard Thompson has acknowledged the album's influence on Fairport Convention's Liege and Lief, and journalist John Harris has suggested that The Band's debut also influenced the spirit of the Beatles' back-to-basics album Let It Be as well as the Rolling Stones' string of roots-infused albums that began with Beggars Banquet. George Harrison said that his song "All Things Must Pass" was heavily influenced by The Band and that, while writing the song, he imagined Levon Helm singing it. Meanwhile, the Music from Big Pink song "The Weight" has been covered numerous times, and in various musical styles. In a 1969 interview, Robbie Robertson remarked on the group's influence, "We certainly didn't want everybody to go out and get a banjo and a fiddle player. We were trying to calm things down a bit though. What we're going to do now is go to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and record four sides, four psychedelic songs. Total freak-me songs. Just to show that we have no hard feelings. Just pretty good rock and roll." In the 1990s, a new generation of bands influenced by The Band began to gain popularity, including Counting Crows, the Wallflowers, and the Black Crowes. Counting Crows indicated this influence with their tribute to the late Richard Manuel, "If I Could Give All My Love (Richard Manuel Is Dead)", from their album Hard Candy. The Black Crowes frequently cover songs by The Band during live performances, such as "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", which appears on their DVD/CD Freak 'n' Roll into the Fog. They have also recorded at Helm's studio in Woodstock. The inspiration for the classic rock-influenced band The Hold Steady came while members Craig Finn and Tad Kubler were watching The Last Waltz. Rick Danko and Robbie Robertson are name-checked in the lyrics of "The Swish" from the Hold Steady's 2004 debut album Almost Killed Me. Also that year, southern rock-revivalists Drive-By Truckers released the Jason Isbell penned track "Danko/Manuel" on the album The Dirty South. The Band also inspired Grace Potter, of Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, to form the band in 2002. In an interview with the Montreal Gazette, Potter said, "The Band blew my mind. I thought if this is what Matt [Burr] meant when he said 'Let's start a rock 'n' roll band,' ... that was the kind of rock 'n' roll band I could believe in." A tribute album, entitled Endless Highway: The Music of the Band, released in January 2007, included contributions from My Morning Jacket, Death Cab for Cutie, Gomez, Guster, Bruce Hornsby, Jack Johnson and ALO, Lee Ann Womack, the Allman Brothers Band, Blues Traveler, Jakob Dylan, Rosanne Cash, and others. Members of Wilco, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, the Shins, Dr Dog, Yellowbirds, Ween, Furthur, and other bands staged The Complete Last Waltz in 2012 and 2013. Their performances included all 41 songs from the original 1976 concert in sequence, even those edited out of the film. Musical director Sam Cohen of Yellowbirds claims "the movie is pretty ingrained in me. I've watched it probably 100 times." An incarnation of the Band's legacy, The Weight Band, originated inside the barn of Levon Helm in 2012 when Jim Weider and Randy Ciarlante, both former members of The Band, were performing "Songs of the Band" with Garth Hudson, Jimmy Vivino and Byron Isaacs. In July 2017, PBS's Infinity Hall Live program began airing a televised performance by The Weight Band, featuring Band covers and new music by the band. Every year on the Wednesday before and the Friday after Thanksgiving, Dayton, Ohio NPR affiliate WYSO and The Dayton Art Institute host a tribute to The Last Waltz. Frequently selling out, the show features more than 30 local musicians. A similar event takes place annually in Madison, Wisconsin, on the Saturday night after Thanksgiving. The Band are the subjects of the 2019 documentary film Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band, which premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. The Band is the subject of an extensive historical podcast, The Band: A History, currently covering the entire history of the group. Members Rick Danko – bass guitar, vocals, guitar, double bass, fiddle (1965–1977, 1983–1999; his death) Levon Helm – drums, vocals, mandolin, guitar, percussion, bass (1967–1977, 1983–1999; died 2012) Garth Hudson – keyboards, organ, saxophone, accordion, woodwinds, brass (1965–1977, 1983–1999) Richard Manuel – piano, drums, organ, vocals (1965–1977, 1983–1986; his death) Robbie Robertson – guitars, vocals, percussion, piano (1965–1977; died 2023) Jim Weider – guitar, backing vocals, bass, mandolin (1985–1999) Stan Szelest – keyboards (1990–1991; his death) Randy Ciarlante – drums, percussion, vocals (1990–1999) Richard Bell – keyboards (1992–1999; died 2007) Additional musicians John Simon – baritone horn, electric piano, piano, tenor saxophone, tuba (1968–1977) Terry Cagle – drums, backing vocals (1983–1985, 1986–1989; died 2023) Earl Cate – guitars (1983–1985) Ernie Cate – keyboards (1983–1985) Ron Eoff – bass (1983–1985) Buddy Cage – pedal steel guitar (1986–1989; died 2020) Fred Carter, Jr. – guitars (1986–1989; died 2010) Jack Casady – bass (1986–1989) Blondie Chaplin – guitars, drums, backing vocals (1986–1989) Jorma Kaukonen – guitars (1986–1989) Sredni Vollmer – harmonica (1986–1989, 1990–1991; died 2013) Billy Preston - keyboards, backing vocals (1991; died 2006) Aaron L. Hurwitz – accordion, organ, piano (1992–1999) Line-ups Timeline Discography See also American rock Canadian rock Music of Canada Music of the United States Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band Cate Brothers Notes References Sources Gray, Michael (2006). The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia. New York: Continuum. ISBN 0-8264-6933-7. Helm, Levon; Davis, Stephen (2000). This Wheel's on Fire: Levon Helm and the Story of the Band. 2nd ed, Chicago: A Cappella. ISBN 1-55652-405-6. Hoskyns, Barney (1993). Across the Great Divide: The Band and America. New York: Hyperion. ISBN 1-56282-836-3. Marcus, Greil (1998). Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes. New York: H. Holt & Company. ISBN 0-8050-5842-7. Further reading Bochynski, Kevin J. (1999). "The Band". In Hochman, Steve. Popular Musicians. Pasadena, California: Salem Press. pp. 61–64. ISBN 0893569879. External links The Band at Curlie The Band – A Musical History, official site from Capitol Records The Band web site, extensive fan-operated site The Band discography at Discogs The Band at AllMusic The Band at IMDb First article at thecanadianencyclopedia.ca Second article at thecanadianencyclopedia.ca Article at canadianbands.com "The Band". Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Fan Art at Kerry Smith Art: Off The Record collection

Music from Big Pink is the debut studio album by the Band. Released in 1968, it employs a distinctive blend of country, rock, folk, classical, R&B, blues, and soul. The music was composed partly in "Big Pink", a house shared by bassist/singer Rick Danko, pianist/singer Richard Manuel and organist Garth Hudson in West Saugerties, New York. The album itself was recorded in studios in New York and Los Angeles in 1968, and followed the band's backing of Bob Dylan on his 1966 tour (as the Hawks) and time spent together in upstate New York recording material that was officially released in 1975 as The Basement Tapes, also with Dylan. The cover artwork is a painting by Dylan. In 2000 the album was rereleased with additional outtakes from the recording sessions, and in 2018 a "50th Anniversary Super Deluxe" edition was released with a new stereo mix by Bob Clearmountain. Background and Big Pink house The Band's members included Danko, Manuel, Hudson, guitarist Robbie Robertson and drummer/singer Levon Helm. They began to create their distinctive sound during 1967 when they improvised and recorded with Bob Dylan a huge number of cover songs and original Dylan material in the basement of a pink house in West Saugerties, New York, located at 56 Parnassus Lane (formerly 2188 Stoll Road). The house was built by Ottmar Gramms, who bought the land in 1952. The house was newly built when Rick Danko found it as a rental. Danko moved in along with Garth Hudson and Richard Manuel in February 1967. The house became known locally as "Big Pink" for its pink siding. The house was subsequently sold by Gramms in 1977, and since 1998, it has been a private residence. Widely bootlegged at the time, initially as Great White Wonder in July 1969, some of the recordings Dylan and the Band made were officially released in 1975 on The Basement Tapes, and then in their totality in 2014 on The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete. By the end of 1967 the Band felt it was time to step out of Dylan's shadow and make their own statement. Recording The Band's manager Albert Grossman (who was also Dylan's manager) approached Capitol Records to secure a record deal for a group still informally described as "Dylan's backing band". Alan Livingston at Capitol signed the Band, initially under the name the Crackers. Armed with news of a recording deal for the group, they lured Levon Helm back from the oil rigs where he had been working to Woodstock where he took up his crucial position in the Band, singing and playing drums. Helm's return coincided with a ferment of activity in Big Pink as the embryonic Band not only recorded with Dylan but also began to write their own songs. After meeting with producer John Simon, the Band started to record their debut album in Manhattan at A&R Studios, at 799 7th Avenue in the early months of 1968. The Band recorded "Tears of Rage", "Chest Fever", "We Can Talk", "This Wheel's On Fire" and "The Weight" in two sessions. Robertson has said that when Simon asked them how they wanted it to sound, they replied, "Just like it did in the basement." Capitol, pleased with the initial recording session, suggested that the group move to Los Angeles to finish recording their first album at Capitol Studios. They also cut some material at Gold Star Studios on Santa Monica Boulevard. The songs on Big Pink recorded in L.A. were "In A Station", "To Kingdom Come", "Lonesome Suzie", "Long Black Veil" and "I Shall Be Released". Artwork Dylan offered to sing on the album, but ultimately realized it was important for the Band to make their own statement. Instead, Dylan signified his presence by contributing a cover painting. Barney Hoskyns has written that it is significant the painting depicts six musicians. The cover of Music from Big Pink was intended to establish the group as having a different outlook from the psychedelic culture of 1968. Photographer Elliott Landy flew to Toronto to photograph the assembled Danko, Manuel, Robertson, and Hudson families on the Danko chicken farm. A photo was inserted of Diamond and Nell Helm, who lived in Arkansas. The photo appeared on the cover with the caption "Next of Kin". The overall design of the sleeve is by Milton Glaser (who also did the poster that was packed with the 1967 Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits). Reception The initial reception to the album was positive. It received praise for the organic quality of the instrumentation, which had been recorded live without overdubbing. In Rolling Stone, Al Kooper's rave review of Big Pink ended with the words, "This album was recorded in approximately two weeks. There are people who will work their lives away in vain and not touch it." This helped to draw public attention to it (Rolling Stone even referred to them as "the band from Big Pink" instead of just "the Band"). The fact that Bob Dylan wrote one and co-wrote two of the songs on the album also attracted attention. Robert Christgau was less enthusiastic in The Village Voice, while crediting the music's original evocation of "country-soul feeling without imitating it" and the "human roughness around the edges", but stating: he "always admired that album" but "from a distance". In 1968, "The Weight" peaked at No. 63 on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart in the US. The song was a bigger hit elsewhere, peaking at No. 35 in Canada, and No. 21 in the UK. The album peaked at No. 18 in Canada and reached No. 30 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart in 1968, and then recharted as a No. 8 hit on the Top Internet Albums chart in 2000. "The Weight" gained widespread popularity from the Band's performance of it at Woodstock on August 17, 1969, and due partially to its inclusion in the film Easy Rider, though it was omitted from the soundtrack because of licensing issues. A cover version by the band Smith was included on the soundtrack album instead. The laid-back feel of the album attracted the attention of other major artists. For example, Eric Clapton cites the album's roots rock style as what convinced him to quit Cream, and engage Delaney and Bonnie and friends as "Derek and the Dominos" on his debut solo album. George Harrison was also impressed by the album's musicianship and sense of camaraderie, and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd called it the second "most influential record in the history of rock and roll", after the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and said that it "affected Pink Floyd deeply, deeply, deeply". According to Terry Burrows, the album spawned the Americana genre, while music academic Chris Smith said its songs laid the groundwork for roots rock music. Music from Big Pink was voted No. 452 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000). In 2003, it was ranked 34th on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, a ranking it maintained on the magazine's 2012 revised list, before dropping to number 100 in a 2020 revised list. On Metacritic, the expanded 50th anniversary edition of the album receives an aggregate score of 99 out of 100, based on seven reviews, a rating that the website defines as indicating "universal acclaim". Re-releases The original LP record issue included a gatefold cover in 1968, duplicated 40 years later in 2008 as a remastered 180 gm LP. On compact disc, it was remastered as a gold CD in 1989, as a DVD-audio in 2001 and as a remastered numbered edition SACD in 2009. On August 29, 2000, it was reissued by EMI Records as a standard compact disc with nine bonus tracks. In 2012, Mobile Fidelity released a remastered, numbered, limited edition, Half-speed Mastering from the original master tapes, 180g LP pressed at RTI. In 2018, a 50th Anniversary Edition was released with an entirely new stereo mix and 5.1 mix by Bob Clearmountain, mastered by Bob Ludwig. It also included some of the additional tracks from the 2000 re-release, and a new vocal-only mix of "I Shall Be Released". Track listing Sides one and two were combined as tracks 1–11 on CD reissues. Personnel The Band Rick Danko – bass guitar, fiddle, vocals Levon Helm – drums, tambourine, vocals Garth Hudson – organ, piano, clavinet, soprano and tenor saxophones Richard Manuel – piano, organ, vocals Robbie Robertson – electric and acoustic guitars, vocals Additional personnel John Simon – producer, baritone horn, tenor saxophone, piano, tambourine Don Hahn – engineer Tony May – engineer Shelly Yakus – engineer Bob Dylan – cover painting Elliott Landy – photography 2018 remix Bob Clearmountain – 2018 Stereo and 5.1 Surround mix Bob Ludwig – remastering References Sources Hoskyns, Barney (1993). Across The Great Divide: The Band and America. Viking. ISBN 0-670-841447. Landy, Elliott (2015). The Band Photographs 1968-1969. Backbeat Books. ISBN 978-1-4950-2251-7. External links Sheet music Music From Big Pink on Discogs

In the year the first UK winner of Big Brother was born, who was the Prime Minister?

Sir Edward Heath

Post processing | Temporal reasoning

Big Brother is a reality competition television franchise created by John de Mol Jr., first broadcast in the Netherlands in 1999 and subsequently syndicated internationally. The show features contestants called "housemates" or "HouseGuests" who live together in a specially constructed house that is isolated from the outside world. The name is inspired by Big Brother from George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, and the housemates are continuously monitored during their stay in the house by live television cameras as well as personal audio microphones. Throughout the course of the competition, they are voted out (usually on a weekly basis) until only one remains and wins the cash prize. As of 5 August 2023, there have been 508 seasons of Big Brother in over 63 franchise countries and regions. English-language editions of the program are often referred to by its initials BB. Premise At regular intervals, the housemates privately nominate a number of their fellow housemates whom they wish to be evicted from the house. The housemates with the most nominations are then announced, and viewers are given the opportunity to vote via telephone for the nominee they wish to be evicted or saved from eviction. The last person remaining is declared the winner. Some more recent editions have since included additional methods of voting, such as voting through social media and smartphone applications. Occasionally, non-standard votes occur, where two houseguests are evicted at once or no one is voted out. In the earlier series of Big Brother, there were 10 contestants with evictions every two weeks. However, the UK version introduced a larger number of contestants with weekly evictions. Most versions of Big Brother follow the weekly eviction format, broadcast over approximately three months for 16 contestants. The contestants are required to do housework and are assigned tasks by the producers of the show (who communicate with the housemates via the omnipresent authority figure known to them only as "Big Brother"). The tasks are designed to test their teamwork abilities and community spirit. In some countries, the housemates' shopping budget or weekly allowance (to buy food and other essentials) depends on the outcome of assigned tasks. History Name The term Big Brother originates from George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, with its theme of continuous oppressive surveillance. The program also relies on other techniques, such as a stripped back-to-basic environment, evictions, weekly tasks and competitions set by Big Brother, and the "Diary Room" (or "Confession Room") where housemates convey their private thoughts to the camera and reveal their nominees for eviction. Creation The first version of Big Brother was broadcast in 1999 on Veronica in the Netherlands. In the first season of Big Brother, the house was very basic. Although essential amenities such as running water, furniture, and a limited ration of food were provided, luxury items were often forbidden. This added a survivalist element to the show, increasing the potential for social tension. Nearly all later series provide a modern house for the contest with a Jacuzzi, sauna, VIP suite, loft, and other luxuries. International expansion The format has become an international TV franchise. While each country or region has its own variation, the common theme is that the contestants are confined to the house and have their every action recorded by cameras and microphones and that no contact with the outside world is permitted. Most international versions of the show remain quite similar: their main format remains true to the original fly on the wall observational style with an emphasis on human relationships, to the extent that contestants are usually forbidden from discussing nominations or voting strategy. In 2001, the American version adopted a different format since the second season, where the contestants are encouraged to strategize to advance in the game; in this format, the contestants themselves vote to evict each other and a Jury of Evicted contestants vote for the winner. Occasionally, individual game twists and format changes may allow for some viewer voting, usually to give a game advantage to the Housemates selected by the viewer vote. Big Brother Canada, introduced in 2013, also follows the American format, while the Australian series also used an American-styled format when the series was rebooted in 2020, with the winner being decided by Australia's vote among the Finalist. Other international versions have included aspects of the American format. In 2011, the UK version controversially adopted the discussion of nominations before reversing this rule after a poll by Big Brother broadcaster Channel 5. Reception Overview From a sociological and demographic perspective, Big Brother allows an analysis of how people react when forced into close confinement with people outside of their comfort zone (having different opinions or ideals, or from a different socioeconomic group). The viewer has the opportunity to see how a person reacts from the outside (through the constant recording of their actions) and the inside (in the Diary or Confession Room). The Diary Room is where contestants can privately express their feelings about the game, strategy and the other contestants. The results range from violent or angry confrontations to genuine and tender connections (often including romantic interludes). In 2011, Brazilian sociologist Silvia Viana Rodrigues wrote a thesis at University of São Paulo analyzing reality shows as spectacles that proliferate rituals of suffering. She analyzes such rituals in various cultural products from Hollywood and Brazilian television, with special attention to Big Brother Brasil. When investigating the openly eliminatory and cruel face of the game, Silvia Viana points out that such characteristics are liable to be entertainment with great and crucial public engagement because such processes of elimination, competition, exclusion, the affirmation of the war of all against all, of self-management and personal self-control through socio-emotional skills, entrepreneurship, the banality of evil, the naturalization of torture, the "battle for survival" logic and the incorporation of Nazi language and elements are already part of contemporary social life, especially in the context of work under neoliberalism. The thesis was later published as a book. The show is notable for involving the Internet. Although the show typically broadcasts daily updates during the evening (sometimes criticized by viewers and former contestants for heavy editing by producers), viewers can also watch a continuous feed from multiple cameras on the Web in most countries. These websites were successful, even after some national series began charging for access to the video stream. In some countries, Internet broadcasting was supplemented by updates via email, WAP and SMS. The house is shown live on satellite television, although in some countries there is a 10–15 minutes delay to allow libelous or unacceptable content (such as references to people not participating in the program who have not consented to have personal information broadcast) to be removed. Contestants occasionally develop sexual relationships; the level of sexual explicitness allowed to be shown in broadcast and Internet-feed varies according to the country's broadcasting standards. Isolation Big Brother contestants are isolated in the house, without access to television, radio, or the Internet. They are not permitted routine communication with the outside world. This was an important issue for most earlier series of the show. In more-recent series, contestants are occasionally allowed to view televised events (usually as a reward for winning at a task). In most versions of the program, books and writing materials are also forbidden, although exceptions are sometimes made for religious materials such as the Bible, Tanakh or the Qur'an. Some versions ban all writing implements, even items that can be used to write (such as lipstick or eyeliner). Despite the housemates' isolation, some contestants are occasionally allowed to leave the house as part of tasks. Contestants are permitted to leave the house in an emergency. News from the outside world may occasionally be given as a reward. Additionally, news of extraordinary events from the outside world may be given to the Housemates if such information is considered important, such notable past examples include that of national election results, (along with Housemates being able participate in said elections, for countries with compulsory voting) the September 11 attacks, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Contestants have regularly scheduled interactions with the show's host on eviction nights. Throughout each day, the program's producer, in the "Big Brother" voice, issues directives and commands to contestants. Some versions of the show allow private counselling sessions with a psychologist. These are allowed at any time and are often conducted by telephone from the Diary Room. Format changes and twists Regional versions Due to the intelligibility of certain languages across several nations, it has been possible to make regional versions of Big Brother. All of these follow the normal Big Brother rules, except that contestants must come from each of the countries in the region where it airs: Big Brother Albania of Albania and Kosovo, Big Brother Angola e Moçambique of Angola and Mozambique, Big Brother Africa of Africa (includes Angola, Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe), Big Brother: الرئيس of the Middle East (includes Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Syria and Tunisia), Gran Hermano del Pacífico of South America (includes Chile, Ecuador and Peru), Big Brother of Scandinavia (includes Norway and Sweden) and Veliki brat of the Balkans (includes Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia). The British version of the show previously accepted Irish applicants, however the terms and conditions of ITV2's reboot state you must reside in the UK. On the other hand, some countries have multiple franchises based on language. Bigg Boss of India has the most regional-based versions Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Bengali, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam language versions; Canada has French- and English-language versions; and the United States has English- and Spanish-language versions of the show. The Pakistani television program Tamasha recently became a part of the franchise. Initially produced by ARY Digital, a Pakistani TV channel, the reality show's first season garnered significant success and audience engagement, with its different twists and tasks being the main concept of the show. During its second season, the show officially adopted the original format of Big Brother. As of 2023, it stands as the sole franchise of the Big Brother format in Pakistan, with the show being conducted exclusively in the Urdu language. Twists involving single franchises Multiple areas and houses In 2001, Big Brother 3 of the Netherlands introduced the "Rich and Poor" concept, in which the house is separated into a luxurious half and a poor half, and two teams of housemates compete for a place in the luxurious half. The Dutch version continued this concept to the end of its fourth season. Other versions later followed and introduced a similar concept, of which some have their own twists: Africa (in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013), Albania (in 2010), Australia (in 2003 and 2013), Balkan States (in VIP 2010 and 2011), Brazil (2009–present), Canada (2013–present), Denmark (in 2003), Finland (in 2009 and 2014), France (in 2009, 2011–2017), Germany (in 2003, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2008, 2008–09 and since Celebrity 2014), Greece (in 2003), India (in 2012 and 2013), Israel (in 2009), Italy (in 2006 and 2007), Norway (in 2003), Philippines (in 2009, Teen 2010 and 2011), Poland (in 2002), Portugal (in VIP 2013 and 2016), Slovakia (in 2005), Slovenia (in 2008, 2015 and 2016), Scandinavia (in 2005), South Africa (in 2014), Spain (in VIP 2004, 2008, 2009–10 and 2010), United Kingdom (in 2002, Celebrity 2007, 2008, Celebrity 2013 and 2016), United States (2009–present) and Tamil Nadu, India (2023–24) In 2011–12, the seventh Argentine series added La Casa de al Lado ("The House Next Door"), a smaller, more luxurious house which served multiple functions. The first week it hosted 4 potential housemates, and the public voted for two of them to enter the main house. The second week, two pairs of twins competed in the same fashion, with only one pair allowed in. Later, the 3rd, 4th and 5th evicted contestants were given the choice of staying on their way out and they competed for the public's vote to reenter the house. Months later, after one of the contestants left the house voluntarily, the House Next Door reopened for four contestants who wanted to reenter and had not been in such a playoff before. The House Next Door was also used in other occasions to accommodate contestants from the main house for limited periods of time, especially to have more privacy (which of course could be seen by the public). The ninth Brazilian season featured the "Bubble": a glass house in a shopping mall in Rio de Janeiro where four potential housemates lived for a week. Later in the season, a bubble was built inside the Big Brother house, with another two housemates living in it for a week until they were voted in and the glass house dismantled. The Glass House was reused in the eleventh season, featuring five evicted housemates competing for a chance to join the house again, and in the thirteenth season, with six potential housemates competing for two places in the main house. A dividing wall from the ninth season was reused in the fourteenth Brazilian season, when mothers and aunts of the housemates entered for International Women's Day and stayed in the house for 6 days, though they could not be seen by the housemates. Every season brings back the glass house. Some editions also featured an all-white panic room, where contestants were held until one of them decided to quit the show. In the fourth English-Canadian season, two house guests were evicted and moved into a special suite where they were able to watch the remaining house guests. A week later, the houseguests were required to unanimously decide which of them to bring back into the house. Evil Big Brother In 2004, the fifth British series introduced a villainous Big Brother with harsher punishments, such as taking away prize money, more difficult tasks and secret tricks. This concept has also been used in Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, South America, Scandinavia, Serbia, Spain, Thailand, Philippines and Mexico. Twin or triplet housemates In 2004, the fifth American season introduced twins who were tasked with secretly switching back and forth in the house; they were allowed to play the game as individual house guests after succeeding at the deception for four weeks. This twist was reused in the seventeenth American season without the deception element – the pair simply needed to survive five weeks without being evicted. HouseGuests who discovered this twist could use the twins to their strategic advantage. This twin or triplet twist was used in several countries. Some made modifications to this twist; others have had twins in the house together without this element of secrecy. The following are the countries that have featured twins or triplets: Australia (in 2005), Germany (in 2005–06), Brazil (in 2006 and 2015), Bulgaria (in 2006, 2012 and VIP 2017), United Kingdom (in 2007, Celebrity 2011, Celebrity 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016 and Celebrity 2017), France (in 2007, 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2016), Spain (in 2007 and 2013), Poland (in 2007 and 2019), India (in 2008), Africa (in 2009), Balkan Region (in 2009 and 2013), Philippines (in 2009, Teen 2012 and 2014), Portugal (in 2010 and 2012), Israel (in 2011), Ukraine (in 2011), Argentina (in 2011 and 2016), Albania (in 2013, 2017, Celebrity 2021–22 and Celebrity 2022–23), Greece (in 2020) and Kosovo (in Celebrity 2022–23). Pairs competitions Several versions of the program feature variations of the housemates competing in pairs: In the sixth American season, each HouseGuest had a secret partner with whom had a pre-existing relationship, with each pair being informed that they were the only secret pair. While each player was nominated and evicted as an individual, each pair had the goal of reaching being the Final 2 HouseGuests remaining. Should a secret pair succeed in this goal, the prize money awarded to the winner and runner-up would jackpot – the winner's prize doubling from $500,000 to $1,000,000 and the runner-up's prize quintupling from $50,000 to $250,000. During the tenth week of the seventh British series, the housemates were paired with their "best friend" in the house and had to nominate and face eviction as couples. The ninth American season added a romantic theme by pairing up the HouseGuests with their "Soulmate" and having them compete as couples. This twist was active for the first 3 weeks of the season. The 13th American season featured a further twist to the pairs format by introducing the "Dynamic Duos" twist, where contestants formed pairs that would be nominated together but evicted separately. The nominee not evicted would be immune from further nomination until there were 10 HouseGuests remaining, at which point the pairs were dissolved. This twist was repeated in 24th American season, except with the surviving partner joining another pair to compete alongside. The second season of the Philippine teen edition also featured the parents or guardians of the teens staying in the house; if a teen housemate was evicted, the coinciding parent or guardian would also be evicted. A similar twist was used on the fourth Greek season was dubbed Big Mother; it featured housemates accompanied by their mothers. In the ninth season of Indian Big Brother, Big Boss: Double Trouble, contestants entered the house tied up in pairs by the waist. They had joint chairs, beds, spoons, and even mugs. The twelfth season of Indian Big Brother, Bigg Boss 12 also featured jodis (pairs) who were Teacher-Student, Policeman-Lawyer, sister-sister, etc. In the ninth Albania season, all the housemates wherever were in couples and for the first time in the history of Big Brother Albania, the winner was a couple (Danjel Dedndreaj and Fotini Derxho). Secret missions Secret missions are a common element of the show since their introduction during the sixth British series. During these missions, one or more housemates are set a task from Big Brother with the reward of luxuries for the household and/or a personal reward if the task is successful. Some versions of Big Brother have secret tasks presented by another character who lives in plain sight of the housemate. Such characters include Marsha the Moose (from BB Canada) and Surly the Fish (from BB Australia). The third Belgian season introduced a mole. This housemate was given secret missions by Big Brother. The eighth American season introduced "America's Player", where a selected house guest must complete various tasks (determined by public vote) in secret for the duration of their stay in the house in exchange for a cash reward. It was repeated in the tenth American season for a week. The eleventh American season featured Pandora's Box, in which the winning head of household was tempted to open a box, with unintended consequences for the house. The twelfth American season featured a saboteur, who entered the house to wreak havoc with tasks suggested by viewers. The sixteenth American season featured "Team America", in which 3 houseguests were selected to work as a team to complete tasks (determined by public voting) for a cash reward; this continued for the entire season despite the eviction of a team member. The fourth Argentine series added a telephone in the living room. This telephone rang once a week for ten seconds, and the person to pick up the receiver was given an order or news from Big Brother (which typically no other housemate could hear). The order could be beneficial or detrimental, but a refused order resulted in the nomination for eviction. If nobody picked up the call, the whole house would be nominated for eviction. Opening night twists Since Big Brother 2, the British series has opened with a twist. This has included having potential Housemates being voted upon by the public for one to enter the house (Big Brother 2 & Big Brother 13); public voting for least-favourite housemates, with the housemates choosing between two nominees to evict (Big Brother 3); first-night nominations (Big Brother 4 & Big Brother 13); suitcase nominations (Big Brother 5); Unlucky Housemate 13 (Big Brother 6); Big Brother Hood (Big Brother 7); an all-female house and a set of twins as contestants (Big Brother 8); a couple entering as housemates, who must hide their relationship (Big Brother 9); housemates having to earn housemate status (Big Brother 10); a mole entering the house with an impossible task (Big Brother 11); Pamela Anderson entering as a guest for 5 days (Big Brother 12); a professional actor posing as a housemate and a mother and daughter as contestants (Big Brother 14); one contestant gets a pass to the final (Big Brother 15); first night eviction (Big Brother 16); two houses with "the other house" featuring enemies from the main house housemates past (Big Brother 17); Jackie Stallone entering a house containing her son's ex-wife Brigitte Nielsen (Celebrity Big Brother 3); a "fake celebrity" (a civilian contestant pretending to be a celebrity) in a celebrity edition (Celebrity Big Brother 4); a visit from Jade Goody's family (Celebrity Big Brother 5) and unlocked bedrooms allowing housemates to immediately claim beds with the last housemate becoming the Head of House (Celebrity Big Brother 6). A common opening twist is to only introduce a cast of a single sex on the premiere of the show while having members of the opposite sex introduced over the next few days. The eighth British series first used this twist with an initial all-female house, adding a male housemate two days later. The same twist was used in the fourth Bulgarian series, and an all-male premiere was used on Big Brother Africa 4. The second Belgian season was used a similar twist in 2001, where eleven male housemates and one female housemate entered the house on launch night and the second female housemate entered the house on the third day. Fake evictions The fifth British series introduced fake evictions, where Big Brother misleads housemates that eviction has taken place, only for the "evicted" housemate to reenter the house sometime later. In the eighth British series, one housemate was evicted, interviewed and sent back into the house. In the fifth Philippine season, four housemates were fake-evicted and stayed in a place called bodega. In the second batch of the eight Philippine season, four housemates were fake-evicted due to losing their duel challenge and temporarily stayed in a secret room. In the adult edition of the tenth Philippine season, two housemates, and later three more, were fake evicted after failing in two different Ligtask challenges and temporarily stayed in the task room until the end of their weekly task. The concept of the fake-eviction was incorporated into the Australian series for the first time in the sixth Australian season, when housemates Camilla Severi and Anna Lind-Hansen were both fake-evicted in Day 8 and were moved into a secret room in the house, the Revenge Room. Severi and Lind-Hansen could see who nominated them for eviction and were given the opportunity to wreak havoc upon the house and those who nominated them by constructing extravagant tasks for the housemates to complete and for making mess in the house when they were not looking. Severi and Lind-Hansen returned to the house in a live special on Day 10. In the tenth Australian season, Benjamin Zabel was fake evicted for 24 hours before being returned to the house with immunity from eviction for that week. In the eleventh Australian season Travis Lunardi was fake-evicted and received advice from Benjamin Zabel for 24 hours; Travis returned to the house after a 3-day absence with immunity from eviction for that week. In the thirteenth Brazilian series, Anamara Barreira was fake evicted. She was removed and put into a small private apartment without the other housemates knowing she was still in the house. After 24 hours, she returned to the house as Head of Household and with immunity from eviction that week. In the sixteenth Brazilian series, Ana Paula Renault was similarly fake evicted, put into a small private apartment, and returned after 48 hours with immunity from eviction that week. In the eighteen Brazilian series, Gleici Damasceno was similarly fake evicted, put into a small private apartment, and returned after 72 hours with immunity from eviction and with the power to put someone to eviction. In the first Turkish series, there is a fake eviction in week 10. The Indian version Bigg Boss sees frequent fake evictions. In Bigg Boss Kannada season 4, winner Pratham and co-contestant Malavika were kept in secret room after fake eviction for one week and they were both allowed in the Bigg Boss house. Similarly, in Bigg Boss Kannada season 5, firstly Jaya Srinivasan and Sameer Acharya were put into the secret room after fake eviction for one week and then Sameer Acharya was allowed into the house, but Jaya Srinivasan was evicted from the secret room itself. In the same season, the runner up Divakar was put into the secret room after fake eviction for one week. Coaches The fourteenth American season had four house guests from past seasons return to coach twelve new house guests, playing for a separate prize of $100,000. However, in a reset twist, they opted to join the normal game alongside the other house guests. Red button The seventh Argentine series incorporated a red button into the Confession Room, which would sound an alarm throughout the house. This button was to be used when a contestant wanted to leave the house voluntarily, and the contestant would be given five minutes to leave the house. A red button is also used in Secret Story series, however, in this case whoever presses the button will try to guess someone's secret. Legacy rewards or penalties In Celebrity Hijack UK, evicted housemates were given the opportunity to choose if a "ninja" delivered good or bad gifts to the house. Later that year, the eighth Australian series introduced the Housemate Hand Grenade, where an evicted housemate decided which remaining housemate received a penalty. A similar punishment used on Big Brother Africa was called the Molotov Cocktail, Dagger or Fuse. Most valuable player The fifteenth American season allowed viewers to vote for a house guest to be made M.V.P., who then secretly nominates a third houseguest for eviction (in addition to the two selected by the Head of Household). In a further twist introduced part-way through the MVP twist, the viewers themselves decided who the third nominee would be, with the HouseGuests still thinking one of their own is the MVP. Like many such twists, this was ended halfway into the season as the pool of contestants shrank. Multiple heads of household The sixteenth and seventeenth American seasons featured two Heads of Household every week and had four houseguests nominated for eviction. There was also a "Battle of the Block" competition where the two sets of nominees competed to save themselves; the winning pair not only saved themselves but dethroned the Head of Household who nominated them, who was then vulnerable as a replacement nominee if a veto was used. It is also used in specific weeks in Brazil since Big Brother Brasil 16 where the HOH's have to choose which HoH will get R$10,000 and who is the one that will win immunity. America's Favorite HouseGuest In the American version, each season there are three cash prizes: $750,000 for the winner, $75,000 for second, and $50,000 for who was voted by the viewers to be America's Favorite HouseGuest. Multiple winners In 2011, Big Brother Africa season 6 was the first season of Big Brother to have two winners, each getting US$200,000. In 2012, the four finalists from Gran Hermano 12+1 (Spain) were given the chance to choose a formerly evicted housemate to be their partner. The companion of the winner became the "+1 winner" and received a secondary prize of €20,000. In 2015, the sixth Philippine season, also had two winners; one from the teens and one from the regular adults. Each of which received PHP1,000,000. Bigg Boss 8 (India) ended with a twist, where the top five contestants were crowned 'champions'. The season was extended by 35 days (total 135) as a spin-off called Bigg Boss Halla Bol, where ex-contestants from previous seasons entered the house to compete with the five champions. Reserve housemates The fourth Philippine season introduced the concept of having reserved housemates, those of whom are short-listed auditioners who were given a chance to be a housemate by completing tasks assigned by Big Brother. It was eventually done also in the eighth Philippine season where the reserved housemates were placed in a camp (a separate House but is just adjacent to the Main House) and that reserved housemate must compete amongst other reserved housemates while gaining points by participating in various tasks, including those that required the participation of doing such tasks outside of the Big Brother House premises. As the eviction was done weekly, once an official housemate is evicted from the Main House, the housemate(s) with the most points earned for that particular week crossovers to the Main House and becomes an official housemate. These reserved housemates twist was also used in Argentina's seventh season and Brazil's ninth season. Big Brother Zoom In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Big Brother Portugal revival started with a twist, where all the contestants were isolated in different apartments for 14 days, in line with World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations. Cameras were filming them 24 hours a day as usual, and they were able to communicate with each other and host Cláudio Ramos using tablets. Twists involving multiple franchises Housemate exchanges In 2002, the Mexican and Spanish editions (BBM1 and GH3) made temporary housemate exchanges. Mexico's Eduardo Orozco swapped with Spain's Andrés Barreiro for 7 days. In 2010, the first 2-housemate exchange was held by Spain and Italy (GH11 and GF10). Gerardo Prager and Saray Pereira from Spain were swapped with Carmela Gualtieri and Massimo Scattarella of Italy for 7 days. In later years, several housemate exchanges were done around the world: Argentina (GH3) and Spain (GH4), Ecuador (GH1) and Mexico (BBM2), and Africa (BBA1) and United Kingdom (BB4) in 2003; Scandinavia (BB2) and Thailand (BBT2) in 2006; Philippines (PBB2) and Slovenia (BB1), and Argentina (GH5) and Spain (GH9) in 2007; Africa (BBA3) and Finland (BB4) in 2008; Finland (BB5) and Philippines (PBB3) in 2009; Finland (BB6) and Slovenia (BBS1) in 2010; Spain (GH12) and Israel (HH3) in 2010–11; Finland (BB7) and Norway (BB4) in 2011; Argentina (GH7) and Israel (HH4) in 2012; Mexico (BB4) and Spain (GH16) in 2015; and Spain (GHVIP5) and Brazil (BBB17) in 2017. Evicted housemate exchanges In 2003, Mexico's Isabel Madow (BB VIP2) and Spain's Aída Nízar (GH5) were swapped for 7 days. This twist was also done between Russia (BBR1) and Pacific (GHP1) in 2005, and Argentina (GH4) and Brazil (BBB7) in 2007. Other exchanges In 2009, as part of the casting process for Italy's GF9, Doroti Polito and Leonia Coccia visited Spain's GH10. In 2012, four contestants from Denmark's BB4 visited Sweden's BB6 and competed in a Viking-themed challenge. The Danish team won and 'kidnapped' Swedish contestant Annica Englund to the Denmark house for the following week. In 2012, evicted housemate Laisa Portella of Brazil (from BBB12) was a guest on Spain's Gran Hermano 13 for a week; the following week, non-evicted Noemí Merino of GH13 stayed in the Brazilian Big Brother house for 5 days. In 2016, Big Brother UK housemate Nikki Grahame and Big Brother Australia housemate Tim Dormer were voted in by Canada to be houseguests on the 4th season of Big Brother Canada. Similarly, Big Brother UK housemate Jade Goody appeared as a housemate on the 2nd season of Bigg Boss Hindi. Big Brother Australia (2015) contestant Priya Malik joined Bigg Boss 9 (India) the same year as a wild card. In 2017, GHVIP5 contestant Elettra Lamborghini visited Brazil's BBB17. In 2019, the winner of Italy's GF15, Alberto Mezzetti visited Brazil's BBB19. In 2022, Bindhu Madhavi, 4th Runner-up of Bigg Boss Tamil 2017 made her entry as a contestant in a Telugu back to win spin-off named Bigg Boss Non-Stop and emerged as the winner of that show respectively. After winning the debut season of Bigg Boss Marathi (regional version of Big Brother), winner Megha Dhade made her entry in Bigg Boss season 12 as a wild card contestant. After winning season 2 of Bigg Boss Marathi (regional version of Big Brother), winner Shiv Thakare made her entry in Bigg Boss 16. Evicted housemate visits Anouska Golebiewski, an evicted housemate from the United Kingdom (housemate from BB4) visited Australia (BB3) in 2003. In 2005, United Kingdom (Nadia Almada of BB5) visited Australia (BB5) again. In 2006, United Kingdom (Chantelle Houghton of CBB4) visited Germany (BBG6). This twist was used in later years by other countries: Africa (Ricardo Ferreira of BBA3) visited Brazil (BBB9) in 2009; Germany (Annina Ucatis and Sascha Schwan of BBG9) visited the Philippines (PBB3), and Italy (George Leonard and Veronica Ciardi of GF10) visited Albania (BB3) in 2010; Sweden (Martin Granetoft and Peter OrrmyrSara Jonsson of BB5) visited Norway (BB4) in 2011; Brazil (Rafael Cordeiro of BBB12) visited Spain (GH12), and Argentina (Agustín Belforte of GH4) visited Colombia (GH2) in 2012; United States (Dan Gheesling of BB10/BB14) visited Canada (BB1 and the BB2 Jury) in 2013; Canada (Emmett Blois of BB1) visited South Africa (BBM3) in 2014; and Spain (Paula Gonzalez of GH 15) visited Mexico (BBM4) in 2015. A similar event took place between the United States and Canada in 2014 wherein Rachel Reilly (from BB12/BB13) made a video chat to Canada (BB2). Rachel Reilly also appeared on Big Brother Canada's side show, which airs after the eviction episode. Housemates competing in another country There were occasions that a former housemate from one franchise participated and competed in a different franchise: Daniela Martins of France (SS3) competed in Portugal (SS1); Daniel Mkongo of France (SS5) competed in Italy (GF12); Brigitte Nielsen of Denmark (BB VIP) competed in the United Kingdom (CBB3); Jade Goody of the United Kingdom (BB3, BB Panto, and CBB5) competed in India (BB2); Sava Radović of Germany (BB4) competed in the Balkan States (VB1); Nikola Nasteski of the Balkan States (VB4) competed in Bulgaria (BB All-Stars 1); Žarko Stojanović of France (SS5) competed in the Balkan States (VB VIP5); Željko Stojanović of France (SS5) competed in the Balkan States (VB VIP5); Kelly Baron of Brazil (BBB13) competed in Portugal (BB VIP); Lucy Diakovska of Bulgaria (VIP B4) competed in Germany (PBB1); Leila Ben Khalifa of Italy (GF6) competed in France (SS8); Priya Malik of Australia (BB11) competed in India (BB9); Tim Dormer of Australia (BB10) and Nikki Grahame of the United Kingdom (BB7, UBB) competed in Canada (BB4) after beating Jase Wirey of the United States (BB5, BB7) and Veronica Graf of Italy (GF13) in a public vote; Leonel Estevao-Luto of Africa (BB4) competed in Angola & Mozambique (BB3); Frankie Grande of the United States (BB16) competed in the United Kingdom (CBB18); Fanny Rodrigues of Portugal (SS2) competed in France (SS10); and Tucha Anita of Angola (BB3); Amor Romeira of Spain (GH9) competed in Portugal (SS6) and Alain Rochette of Spain (GH17) competed in France (SS11); Despite being American, Brandi Glanville competed first in the United Kingdom (CBB20) then later competed in first Celebrity series in the United States (CBB1); Aída Nizar of Spain (GH5 and GHVIP5) competed in Italy (GF15); Ivana Icardi of Argentina (GH9) competed in Italy (GF16); Gianmarco Onestini of Italy (GF16) competed in Spain (GHVIP7); Michael Terlizzi of Italy (GF16) competed in Spain (GHVIP8). Multiple-franchise competitions Eurovision Song Contest Special editions Celebrity and VIP Big Brother The Big Brother format has been adopted in some countries; the housemates are local celebrities, and the shows are called Celebrity Big Brother or Big Brother VIP. In some countries, the prize money normally awarded to the winning housemate is donated to a charity, and all celebrities are paid to appear in the show as long as they do not voluntarily leave before their eviction or the end of the series. The rest of the rules are nearly the same as those of the original version. Variations The 2006 Netherlands series was entitled Hotel Big Brother. This variation introduced a group of celebrity hoteliers and a Big Boss, who run a hotel and collect money for charity without nominations, evictions or a winner. Another variation appeared in the UK in early 2008, entitled Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack. Instead of being housemates the celebrities became Big Brother himself, creating tasks and holding nominations with the help of Big Brother. The housemates were considered by the producers "Britain's most exceptional and extraordinary" 18- to 21-year-olds. The prize for the winner of the series was £50,000. In 2009, VIP Brother 3 Bulgaria introduced the concept of celebrities competing for charitable causes, which changed each week. Housemates were sometimes allowed to leave the house to raise money for the charity. Ten out of Thirteen seasons of Bigg Boss (the Indian version of Big Brother) have been celebrity-only seasons. The 10th season of Big Boss had celebrities put up against commoners, where a commoner ultimately won. American format The American and Canadian versions of Big Brother differ from most global versions of the series. The American series began in 2000 with the original Dutch format—i.e., housemates, or HouseGuests, as they are styled in the US, nominating each other for eviction and the public voting on evictions and the eventual winner. But due to both poor ratings and the concurrent popularity of Survivor, a gameplay-oriented format was introduced in the second season, with HouseGuests allowed to strategize, politic and collude to survive eviction, with the entire nomination and eviction process being determined by the HouseGuest themselves. Each week the HouseGuests compete in several competitions in order to win power and safety inside the house, before voting off one of the HouseGuests during the eviction. The main elements of the format are as follows: Head of Household (HoH): At the start of each week in the house, the HouseGuests compete for the title of Head of Household, often shortened to simply HoH. The Head of Household for each week is given luxuries such as their own personal bedroom and the use of an MP3 player but is responsible for nominating two of their fellow HouseGuests for eviction. The Head of Household would not be able to compete in the following week's Head of Household competition; this excludes the final Head of Household competition of the season. Power of Veto (PoV): After the nominees are determined, the Power of Veto competition is played, with the winner receiving the Power of Veto. If a HouseGuest chooses to exercise the Power of Veto, the Head of Household is responsible for naming a replacement nominee. The holder of the Power of Veto is saved from being nominated as the replacement nominee. Only six of the HouseGuests compete for the Power of Veto each week; the Head of Household and both nominations compete, as well as three others selected by a random draw. The PoV was introduced in the third American season Eviction: On eviction night, all HouseGuests must vote to evict one of the nominees, with the exception of the nominees and the Head of Household. The eviction vote is by secret ballot, with HouseGuests casting their votes orally in the Diary Room. In the event of a tied vote, the Head of Household will cast a tie-breaking vote publicly. The nominee with the majority of the votes is evicted from the house. Before the sixteenth American season, HouseGuests competed in a Have/Have-Not challenge similar to the shopping tasks on Big Brother UK and other international editions. The winners become Haves and enjoy a full pantry of food, while Have-Nots, will be left with a staple diet of "slop" (fortified oatmeal), sleep in designated uncomfortable beds and take cold showers. In later seasons, the Haves & Have-Nots are determined either by the HoH themself or by the results of the HoH Competition. When only two contestants remain, a jury formed of the most recently evicted HouseGuests (generally seven or nine) votes which of the two finalists wins the grand prize. Beginning in the fourth (2003) US season, jury members were sequestered off-site so that they would not be privy to the day-to-day goings-on in the house. (Celebrity Big Brother US does not sequester its jury members—all evicted celebrity HouseGuests vote on the winner.). The final Head of Household competition is split into three parts; the winners of the first two rounds compete in the third and final round. Once only two HouseGuests remain, the members of the jury cast their votes for who should win the series. In addition, American and Canadian Big Brother do not air a live launch show, as is customary in international editions—by the time the network show and live online feeds begin airing, it is not uncommon for at least one HouseGuest to already have been evicted. Also, the North American editions currently air only three times a week, compared with daily or six days a week for the recently rebooted British franchise. As a result, the TV episodes focus primarily on the main events regarding the gameplay and house politics versus the day-to-day goings-on in the house; to see the latter, watching the live feeds is necessary. In 2013, English-speaking Canada introduced its own version of the show on the cable channel Slice; the series moved to Global TV for its third (2015) season. The show followed the American format but with more elaborate twists and greater viewer participation in the game. Secret tasks were introduced, usually presented by the show's mascot, "Marsha the Moose"; also, as in most global franchises, Big Brother was a distinct character who interacted with the HouseGuests. The French Canadian version mostly followed the American/Anglophone Canadian format, but the public could evict a housemate on some occasions and decided the winner. The 2020 revival of the Big Brother Australia series adopted a slightly altered version of the American format (having previously used the international format) while pre-recording the series months in advance. A "Nomination Challenge" is held to determine who holds the power to nominate for that round, with the winner naming three Nominations for Eviction. During each eviction, all Housemates (excluding the Nominating Housemate) vote to evict. There is no rule prohibiting individuals holding Nomination Power in consecutively between weeks and no Power of Veto is held. Additionally, the Australian public still decided the winner between the final 3. Big Brother Brasil combines the American/Canada and international formats. Brazil votes on evictions and the winner, but housemates compete for HoH, Power of Immunity, and Power of Veto; there is also a weekly shopping competition. HoH nominates one housemate for eviction, while the rest of the house nominates a second housemate. The winner of the Power of Immunity competition gets to choose someone to be safe from nomination. The pilot for Big Brother China, which premiered exclusively online in 2015, had housemates voting on evictions but the public voting for the winner. A similar format was used for Big Brother: Over the Top, an online-only spin-off of the American series that ran in 2016. The nineteenth series of Big Brother UK saw the adaption of the "Game Changer" competition which is very similar to the Power of Veto competition. The winner of this competition has the opportunity to save a nominee from eviction. Like the PoV, there are six people that play in the "Game Changer" competition. The process of how the contestants are chosen is different as the people who have been nominated play in the competition along with the richest housemate. If there are empty left in the competition, then the richest housemate hand picks who will playing in that weeks "Game Changer" competition. The winner of the competition, like the PoV, has the option to save housemate from eviction for the week or not use the power at all. Unlike the PoV however, if the winner does save someone then no replacement nominee was named leaving the remaining nominees up for eviction and facing the public vote. Other editions The Big Brother format has been otherwise modified in some countries: Big Brother: All-Stars (Belgium, 21 days; Bulgaria: Season 1–5, 27–29 days; United States, 72 days; United Kingdom, 18 days; French Canada, 64 days; Africa, 91 days; Spain, 56 days; Portugal Secret Story: Season 1–4, 22–50 days): Previous housemates from previous seasons compete. Belgium was the first country to have an All-Stars season (2003). Bulgaria was the first country to complete 3 All-Stars seasons (2014). Portugal was the first country to complete 4 All-Stars seasons (2015). Portugal was the first country to complete 5 All-Stars seasons (2017). Portugal was the first country to complete 6 All-Stars seasons (2018). Big Brother: Reality All-Stars (Sweden, 6 days; Denmark, 32 days; Spain, 56 days): Contestants from different reality shows, including Big Brother, compete. Big Brother: You Decide / Big Brother: Back in the House / Big Brother: Try Out (Poland: Season 1–2, 7–13 days; Norway, 9 days; Serbia, 7 days): Housemates, new or old, compete for a spot in the next regular season without nominations or evictions. Teen Big Brother (United Kingdom, 10 days; Philippines: Season 1–4, 42–91 days): Teenagers 13 and older compete. Big Brother: All In (Philippines: Season 11, 13): A mix of teenagers, regular adults, and celebrities compete in one season. A variation, Big Brother: Lucky 7 and Big Brother: Otso, has three to four batches of housemates stay inside until a number for each batch is left and is joined by other members of other batches to form one new batch. Secret Story (France, Lithuania, Portugal, Netherlands, Peru, Albania, Spain and Africa): Each housemate has a secret. Big Brother Panto (United Kingdom, 11 days): Housemates from the previous series spent time in the Big Brother House to perform a pantomime at the series' end. Big Brother – The Village (Germany: Season 6, 363 days): The village had a class system of bosses, assistants and servants, living in separate houses, who competed in mixed teams; winning bosses could promote employees, while losing bosses became servants. Cash prizes were awarded weekly in an ongoing contest. Big Brother Family (Bulgaria: 81 days): Whole families entered the house with their spouses, children and relatives. They received a salary for their stay and the winning family received a cash prize, a car and an apartment. There are also "test runs", with a group of celebrities (or journalists) living in the house for several days to test it. There are occasions where people who have auditioned for the show are also put in the house, most notably in the British edition, where many housemates claim to have met before. These series have been televised in Argentina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Mexico, the Pacific region, the Philippines and Spain. In some cases, it is not broadcast, but in others, such as the American edition, it is used as a promotional tool. Versions As of 30 September 2024, Big Brother has produced 510 winners in over 63 franchises. Currently airing (10) An upcoming season (14) Status unknown (10) No longer airing (31) Big Brother: The Game On 5 May 2020, Endemol Shine Group announced that an official Big Brother mobile game named Big Brother: The Game was being developed by Irish gaming company 9th Impact, with a worldwide release expected later that year. The game uses the US format, with competitions determining the Head of Household and Power of Veto holders, with an eviction cycle occurring each day. Players must form alliances with one another to stay in the game and advance to the next tier. Other users may spectate other games, but outside interference is strictly forbidden. Players were able to win up to $1,000,000 in prizes. A trial season took place in the Republic of Ireland during the summer of 2020. The player Aoife Cheung won a €5000 prize after surviving four evictions. The game was officially launched on 15 October 2020 worldwide for both iOS, Android devices and PC platforms. The first season concluded on 29 July 2021 and was won by Amy Elizabeth, a 31-year-old special education teacher from Delaware who won a grand prize of $33,270. On March 7, 2023, a third season of the game was announced to launch later that year on mobile and PC platforms, including Steam. The grand prize was stated to be for up to $1,000,000, with new features being added in response to fan feedback. However, no global third season took place, with a special UK and Ireland-only version launching to coincide with the show returning to ITV2 and ITVX, in an official partnership with the broadcaster. This version featured overhauled graphics, with Banijay announcing that previous games had reached 500K players. Controversies Legal In April 2000, Castaway, an independent production company, filed a lawsuit against John de Mol and Endemol for stealing the concepts of their own show called Survive!, a reality television show where contestants are placed on a deserted island and have to take care of themselves alone. These contestants were also filmed by cameras around them. The court later dismissed the lawsuit filed by Castaway against de Mol and Endemol. The Survive! reality television format was later turned into Survivor. In 2000, the estate of George Orwell sued CBS Television and Endemol for copyright and trademark infringement, claiming that the program infringed on the Orwell novel 1984 and its trademarks. After a series of court rulings adverse to the defendants (CBS and Endemol), the case was settled for an undisclosed amount of money on the evening of the trial. Sexual assault There have been three documented occurrences of possible rape happening during the show. In Big Brother South Africa, a male housemate was accused of assaulting a fellow housemate while she was asleep. The pair were filmed kissing and cuddling in bed before the cameras moved away and the male housemate reportedly claimed to housemates the next day that he had intercourse with the contestant. However, the female housemate was apparently shocked by the claims and informed female housemates that she had not consented to have sex with him (under South African law, this act would be constituted as rape). This male housemate was expelled immediately after the allegations surfaced and was later arrested pending investigation, while the female housemate was removed from the house for her own protection and counselling. After this incident, the other housemates were warned not to attempt any further obscene actions, or they would be subject to a penalty of 43 years in prison and immediate expulsion from the house. In Big Brother Brasil, many viewers reported that they watched a male housemate allegedly force himself on a female housemate while she was passed-out drunk after a "boozy party". Soon after, the Polícia Federal entered the house and arrested the offending housemate, who was later banned from ever appearing on the show again. Additionally, an incident of sexual assault occurred in the Australian Big Brother house in 2006, during the show's sixth season. Contestant Michael "John" Bric held down fellow contestant Camilla Severi in her bed while a second man, Michael "Ashley" Cox, "slapped" her in the face with his penis, an indecent act illegal under Australian law. The incident was shown on the 'Adults-only' late-night segment, Big Brother: Adults Only, leading to the show's cancellation. Both men involved in the incident were removed from the house. References Bibliography Johnson-Woods, Toni (2002). Big Brother: Why Did That Reality TV Show Become Such a Phenomenon?. Australia: University of Queensland Press. ISBN 0-7022-3315-3. External links Media related to Big Brother (franchise) at Wikimedia Commons

Craig Phillips (born 16 October 1971) is an English television personality and builder. He is known for winning the first series of Big Brother in 2000. He is trained as a bricklayer, and has appeared in numerous television series related to building since winning Big Brother. Early life The younger of two children and born in Liverpool, his family moved to Newport, Shropshire, in the late 1980s. At 18, Phillips secured a day release bricklayers apprenticeship whilst employed with Wrekin Council's construction department. He also attended further night school classes in advanced brickwork and civil engineering. Having qualified with a City & Guilds, Phillips went on to set up his own building company. In the 1990s, he presented Renovation Street with Linda Robson for Carlton ITV before being brought in as the DIY expert for the BBC on an exclusive contract in 2001. Career after Big Brother After leaving Big Brother as the first winner, Phillips announced he was giving his £70,000 prize fund to his friend Joanne Harris, who had Down syndrome, to pay for her heart and lung transplant. He had begun raising money with friends for Harris sometime before entering Big Brother, raising only small amounts of money towards the £250,000 needed for her operation, but within 6 days of winning, he achieved the target required for her life saving operation thanks to public support and donations from celebrities. Harris died in April 2008. He has featured in comedy series Bo' Selecta! and appeared in the reality series Back To Reality, raising £40,000 for Macmillan Cancer Trust. At Christmas 2000, Phillips released the charity single, "At This Time of Year" through Warner Music. The single went to Number 14 in the UK Singles Chart, achieving silver disc status, and raising over £40,000 for the Down's Syndrome Association. It stayed in the top 40 for three weeks. Since then, he appeared in videos for two other Xmas singles – Bo Selecta!'s Proper Crimbo which reached No. 4 in 2003 and Ricky Tomlinson's "Christmas My A*se" which reached 25 in 2006. In 2001, Phillips appeared on Lily Savage's Blankety Blank; in 2003, Phillips appeared on the fifth series of Fort Boyard. Phillips has presented numerous televisions programmes, including Housecall, Housecall in the Country, Builders Sweat and Tears, Our House, Trading Up, Big Strong Boys, Boyz in the Wood, Big Strong Boys in the Sun, Renovation Street, Trading Up in the Sun, House Trap and Craig’s Trade Tips. He also has a production company called Avent Productions. For Avent, he has presented Conversion; a 10-part series for Discovery Realtime, and the sixth series of Hung, Drawn & Broke, a 6-part series filmed for British Forces Broadcasting Service. The company also produces corporate productions many of these for building companies. In 2007, Phillips joined the team of 60 Minute Makeover for ITV. He appeared in 80 episodes in 2008. In February 2009, Phillips appeared in Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway in "Escape from Takeaway Prison" for six weeks. In summer 2009, he released his debut autobiography. In July 2009, Phillips returned to the Big Brother house to help celebrate the show's tenth anniversary. In 2010, Phillips appeared on Big Brother again, and competed in a shed building task. He also appeared in Dermot's Last Supper, a special to celebrate the ending of Big Brother. In April 2011, he hosted a show called Celebrity DIY with Craig Phillips for Home. In June 2011, he also hosted If It's Broke, Fit It for Home. In June 2020, he made a guest appearance on Big Brothers's Best Shows on E4, where he talked about watching his series back. Since 2018, Phillips has worked as a presenter for his own YouTube channel Mr and Mrs DIY, covering a variety of essential home and garden maintenance jobs through easy-to-follow online tutorials. Personal life In 2018, Phillips married Laura Sherriff at Peckforton Castle, Cheshire, after the couple had dated for two years. Rather than asking for gifts from guests, he and Sherriff asked that the attendants donate to hospice charities instead. The couple have two children: Nelly (born March 2019), and Lennon (born December 2020). The couple featured in Channel 5's (S1 Ep1) "Millionaire Age Gap Love" in 2020. References External links Craig Phillips at IMDb

Sir Edward Richard George Heath (9 July 1916 – 17 July 2005), commonly known as Ted Heath, was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975. Heath also served for 51 years as a Member of Parliament from 1950 to 2001. Outside politics, Heath was a yachtsman, a musician, and an author. Born in Broadstairs, Kent, Heath was the son of a chambermaid and carpenter. He attended Chatham House Grammar School in Ramsgate, Kent, and became a leader within student politics while studying at Balliol College at the University of Oxford. During World War II, Heath served as an officer in the Royal Artillery. He worked briefly in the Civil Service, but resigned in order to stand for Parliament, and was elected for Bexley at the 1950 election. He was promoted to become Chief Whip by Anthony Eden in 1955, and in 1959 was appointed to the Cabinet by Harold Macmillan as Minister of Labour. He later held the role of Lord Privy Seal and in 1963, was made President of the Board of Trade by Alec Douglas-Home. After the Conservatives were defeated at the 1964 election, Heath was elected as Leader of the Conservative Party in 1965, becoming Leader of the Opposition. Although he led the Conservatives to a landslide defeat at the 1966 election, he remained in the leadership, and at the 1970 election led his party to an unexpected victory. During his time as prime minister, Heath oversaw the decimalisation of British coinage in 1971, and in 1972 he led the reformation of local government, significantly reducing the number of local authorities and creating several new metropolitan counties, much of which remains to this day. A strong supporter of British membership of the European Economic Community (EEC), Heath's "finest hour" came in 1973, when he led the United Kingdom into membership of what would later become the European Union. However, his premiership also coincided with the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, with his approval of internment without trial and subsequent suspension of the Stormont Parliament seeing the imposition of direct British rule. Unofficial talks with Provisional Irish Republican Army delegates were unsuccessful, as was the Sunningdale Agreement of 1973, which led the MPs of the Ulster Unionist Party to withdraw from the Conservative whip. Heath also tried to reform British trade unionism with the Industrial Relations Act, and hoped to deregulate the economy and make a transfer from direct to indirect taxation. However, a miners' strike at the start of 1974 severely damaged the Government, causing the implementation of the Three-Day Week to conserve energy. Attempting to resolve the situation, Heath called an election for February 1974, attempting to obtain a mandate to face down the miners' wage demands, but this instead resulted in a hung parliament, with the Conservatives losing their majority. Despite gaining fewer votes, the Labour Party won four more seats, and Heath resigned as Prime Minister on 4 March after talks with the Liberal Party to form a coalition government were unsuccessful. After losing a second successive election in October 1974, Heath's leadership was challenged by Margaret Thatcher and, on 4 February, she narrowly outpolled him in the first round. Heath chose to resign the leadership rather than contest the second round, returning to the backbenches, where he would remain until 2001. In 1975, he played a major role in the referendum on British membership of the EEC, campaigning for the eventually successful "remain" vote. Heath would later become an embittered critic of Thatcher during her time as prime minister, speaking and writing against the policies of Thatcherism. Following the 1992 election, he became Father of the House, until his retirement from the Commons in 2001. He died in 2005, aged 89. Heath is one of four British prime ministers never to have married. He has been described by the BBC as "the first working-class meritocrat" to become Conservative leader in "the party's modern history" and "a One Nation Tory in the Disraeli tradition who rejected the laissez-faire capitalism that Thatcher would enthusiastically endorse." Early life Heath was born at 54 Albion Road, Broadstairs, Kent, on 9 July 1916, the son of William George Heath (1888–1976), a carpenter who built airframes for Vickers during the First World War, and was subsequently employed as a builder and Edith Anne Heath (née Pantony; 1888–1951), a lady's maid. His father was later a successful small businessman after taking over a building and decorating firm. Heath's paternal grandfather had run a small dairy business, and when that failed worked as a porter at Broadstairs Station on the Southern Railway. Edward was four years old when his younger brother, John, was born; there was no question that Edward was the "favoured brother". Heath was known as "Teddy" as a young man. He was educated at Chatham House Grammar School in Ramsgate, and in 1935 with the aid of a county scholarship he went up to study at Balliol College, Oxford. In later years, Heath's peculiar accent, with its "strangulated" vowel sounds, combined with his non-Standard pronunciation of "l" as "w" and "out" as "eout", was satirised by Monty Python in the audio sketch "Teach Yourself Heath" (released on a 7" flexi-disc single included with initial copies of their 1972 LP Monty Python's Previous Record). Heath's biographer John Campbell speculates that his speech, unlike that of his father and younger brother, who both spoke with Kent accents, must have undergone "drastic alteration on encountering Oxford", although retaining elements of Kent speech. Oxford A talented musician, Heath won the college's organ scholarship in his first term (he had previously tried for the organ scholarships at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, and Keble College, Oxford) which enabled him to stay at the university for a fourth year; he eventually graduated with a Second Class Honours BA in Philosophy, politics and economics in 1939. While at university Heath became active in Conservative Party politics. On the key political issue of the day, foreign policy, he opposed the Conservative-dominated government of the day ever more openly. His first Paper Speech (i.e. a major speech listed on the Order Paper along with the visiting guest speakers) at the Oxford Union, in 1936, was in opposition to the appeasement of Germany by returning her colonies, confiscated during the First World War. In June 1937 he was elected President of the Oxford University Conservative Association as a pro-Spanish Republic candidate, in opposition to the pro-Franco John Stokes (himself later a Conservative MP). In 1937–38 Heath was chairman of the national Federation of University Conservative Associations, and in the same year (his third at university) he was Secretary and then Librarian of the Oxford Union. At the end of the year he was defeated for the Presidency of the Oxford Union by another Balliol candidate, Alan Wood, on the issue of whether the Chamberlain government should give way to a left-wing Popular Front. On that occasion, Heath supported the government. In his final year Heath was President of Balliol College Junior Common Room, an office held in subsequent years by his near-contemporaries Denis Healey, who would become a lifelong friend and political rival and Roy Jenkins, and as such was invited to support the Master of Balliol Alexander Lindsay, who stood as an anti-appeasement 'Independent Progressive' candidate against the official Conservative candidate, Quintin Hogg, in the 1938 Oxford by-election. Heath, who had himself applied to be the Conservative candidate for the by-election, accused the government in an October Union Debate of "turning all four cheeks" to Adolf Hitler, and was elected as President of the Oxford Union in November 1938, sponsored by Balliol, after winning the Presidential Debate that "This House has No Confidence in the National Government as presently constituted". He was thus President in Hilary term 1939; the visiting Leo Amery described him in his diaries as "a pleasant youth". As an undergraduate, Heath travelled widely in Europe. His opposition to appeasement was nourished by his witnessing first-hand a Nuremberg Rally in 1937, where he met leading Nazis Hermann Göring, Joseph Goebbels, and Heinrich Himmler at an SS cocktail party. He later described Himmler as "the most evil man I have ever met". He was in Germany for two months to learn German but did not keep up any fluency in the language in later life. In 1938 he visited Barcelona, then under attack from Spanish Nationalist forces during the Spanish Civil War. On one occasion a car in which he was travelling came under machine-gun fire, while on another a bomb hit his hotel whilst he was observing an air raid from outside. In the summer of 1939, accompanied by his Jewish friend Madron Seligman, he travelled to Danzig and Poland. They made the return journey by hitchhiking and rail across Germany through mobilising troops, returning to Britain just before the declaration of war. Second World War Heath spent late 1939 and early 1940 on a debating tour of the United States before being called up. On 22 March 1941, he received an emergency commission as a second lieutenant in the Royal Artillery. During the war he initially served with heavy anti-aircraft guns around Liverpool (which suffered heavy German bombing raids in May 1941) and by early 1942 was regimental adjutant, with the substantive rank of captain. Heath participated as an adjutant in the Normandy landings, where he met Maurice Schumann, French Foreign Minister under Pompidou. As a temporary major commanding a battery of his own, he provided artillery support during the Allied campaigns in France and Germany in 1944–45, for which he received a mention in despatches on 8 November 1945. Heath later remarked that "[it's] one thing to be in the war, and you see the enemy on the other side and so you bombard them, and then later on when you pass over their ground, you see dead bodies lying around". In September 1945 he commanded a firing squad that executed a Polish soldier convicted of rape and murder. He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, Military Division (MBE) on 24 January 1946. He was demobilised in August 1946 and promoted to the substantive rank of lieutenant-colonel on 1 May 1947. Heath joined the Honourable Artillery Company as a lieutenant-colonel on 1 September 1951, in which he remained active throughout the 1950s, rising to commanding officer of the Second Battalion; a portrait of him in full dress uniform still hangs in the HAC's Long Room. In April 1971, as prime minister, he wore his lieutenant-colonel's insignia to inspect troops. Post-war, 1945–1950 Before the war, Heath had won a scholarship to Gray's Inn and had begun making preparations for a career at the Bar, but after the war he was placed in joint top position in the civil service examinations. He then became a civil servant in the Ministry of Civil Aviation (he was disappointed not to be posted to the Treasury, but declined an offer to join the Foreign Office, fearing that foreign postings might prevent him from entering politics). Heath joined a team under Alison Munro tasked with drawing up a scheme for British airports using some of the many Second World War RAF bases, and was specifically charged with planning the home counties. Years later she attributed his evident enthusiasm for Maplin Airport to this work. Then much to the surprise of civil service colleagues, he sought adoption as the prospective parliamentary candidate for Bexley and resigned in November 1947. After working as news editor of the Church Times from February 1948 to September 1949, Heath worked as a management trainee at the merchant bankers Brown, Shipley & Co. until his election as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bexley in the February 1950 general election. In the election he defeated an old contemporary from the Oxford Union, Ashley Bramall, by a margin of 133 votes. Early political career (1950–1965) Member of Parliament Heath made his maiden speech in the House of Commons on 26 June 1950, in which he appealed to the Labour government to participate in the Schuman Plan. As MP for Bexley, he gave enthusiastic speeches in support of the young candidate for neighbouring Dartford, Margaret Roberts, later Margaret Thatcher. He was appointed as an opposition whip by Winston Churchill in February 1951. He remained in the whips' office after the Conservatives won the 1951 general election, rising rapidly to Joint Deputy Chief Whip, Deputy Chief Whip and, in December 1955, Government Chief Whip under Anthony Eden. Journalist Geoffrey Wheatcroft has observed that "Of all government jobs, this requires firmness and fairness allied to tact and patience and Heath's ascent seems baffling in hindsight". In office Due to the convention that whips did not speak in Parliament, Heath managed to keep out of the controversy over the Suez Crisis. On the announcement of Eden's resignation, Heath submitted a report on the opinions of the Conservative MPs regarding Eden's possible successors. This report favoured Harold Macmillan and helped to secure Macmillan the premiership in January 1957. Macmillan later appointed Heath Minister of Labour, a Cabinet Minister—as Chief Whip Heath had attended Cabinet, but had not been formally a member—after winning the October 1959 election. In 1960 Macmillan appointed Heath Lord Privy Seal with responsibility for the negotiations to secure the UK's first attempt to join the European Communities (or Common Market, as it was then more widely known). After extensive negotiations, involving detailed agreements about the UK's agricultural trade with Commonwealth countries such as New Zealand, British entry was vetoed by the French President, Charles de Gaulle, at a press conference in January 1963 – much to the disappointment of Heath, who was a firm supporter of European common market membership for the United Kingdom. He oversaw a successful application when serving as prime minister a decade later. After this setback, a major humiliation for Macmillan's foreign policy, Heath was not a contender for the party leadership on Macmillan's retirement in October 1963. Under prime minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home he was President of the Board of Trade and Secretary of State for Industry, Trade and Regional Development, and oversaw the abolition of retail price maintenance, as well as the move of the August Bank Holiday to extend the holiday season and reduce congestion. Leader of the Opposition (1965–1970) Party leadership After the Conservative Party lost the general election of 1964, the defeated Home changed the party leadership rules to allow for a ballot by MPs and then in July 1965, he resigned. Heath—who was Shadow Chancellor at the time, and had recently won favourable publicity for leading the fight against Labour's Finance Bill—unexpectedly won the party's leadership contest, gaining 150 votes to Reginald Maudling's 133 and Enoch Powell's 15. Heath became the Conservatives' youngest leader and retained office following the party's defeat in the general election of 1966. In April 1968, Enoch Powell made his controversial "Rivers of Blood" speech, which criticised immigration to the United Kingdom. Soon afterwards, Heath telephoned Margaret Thatcher to inform her that he was going to sack Powell from the Shadow cabinet; she recalled that she "really thought that it was better to let things cool down for the present rather than heighten the crisis". The next day, Heath sacked Powell. Several Conservatives on the right protested against Powell's sacking. According to Heath, he never spoke to Powell again. 1970 election With another general election approaching in 1970 a Conservative policy document emerged from the Selsdon Park Hotel that offered free-market–oriented policies as solutions to the country's unemployment and inflation problems. Heath stated that the Selsdon weekend only reaffirmed policies that had actually been evolving since he became leader of the Conservative Party. The Labour prime minister, Harold Wilson, thought the document a vote-loser and dubbed it the product of Selsdon Man – after the supposedly prehistoric Piltdown Man – to portray it as reactionary. Heath's Conservative Party won the general election of 1970 with 330 seats to Labour's 287. The new cabinet included the future prime minister Margaret Thatcher (Education and Science), William Whitelaw (Leader of the House of Commons) and the former prime minister Alec Douglas-Home (Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs). Prime minister (1970–1974) Welfare state During Heath's first year in office, higher charges were introduced for benefits of the welfare state such as school meals, spectacles, dentistry, and prescriptions. Entitlement to State Sickness Benefit was also changed so that it would only be paid after the first three days of sickness. In 1971 a series of measures was introduced designed to limit the availability of supplementary benefit. In particular, as noted by one study, "tax rebates and strike pay were treated as resources, subject to a £4 disregard." From April 1972 a man returning from work after being on strike had to pay back any supplementary benefit received to tide him over during the first 15 days at work before he got his pay. In February 1973, the rules about help in urgent cases were made more stringent. As a result of the squeeze in the education budget, the provision of free school milk was ended for 8- to 11-year-olds (it had already been ended for older children by Harold Wilson); the tabloid press christened Margaret Thatcher, the then Education Secretary as "Margaret Thatcher: Milk Snatcher". Despite these measures, the Heath government encouraged a significant increase in welfare spending, and Thatcher blocked Macleod's other posthumous education policy: the abolition of the Open University, which had recently been founded by the preceding Labour government. In addition, despite the end of cheap milk provision however, 700,000 school children remained entitled to free milk. The Legal Advice and Assistance Act 1972 provided for better facilities for advice and assistance at an early stage in a dispute. The Social Needs (Grants) Act 9NI) 1970 "made provision for the authorisation of the payment of grants towards expenditure incurred due to special social need in urban areas." In January 1973, the Criminal Justice Act 1972 came into effect in England and Wales. It extended the court's power "to order an offender to pay compensation for personal injury, loss, or damage." In June 1973 a new lower rate of attendance allowance was introduced for those aged 16 to 64, while lower rates "for the aged under 15 and those over 65 were introduced on 1 October and 3 December respectively." Another change allowed for small claims of less than £75 to be dealt with in a less formal manner within the County Court system. Rules of evidence and requirements of legal representation were relaxed to make it viable to claim such small sums under the County Court Act 1959 as amended by the Administration of Justice Act (E&W) 1973. Provision was made under the National Insurance (Old Persons' and Widows' Pensions and Attendances Allowances) Act 1970 for pensions to be paid to old people who had been excluded from the pre-1948 pension schemes and were accordingly excluded from the comprehensive scheme that was introduced in 1948. About 100,000 people were affected by this change, half of whom were receiving Supplementary Benefit under the social security scheme. The Act also made improvements to the Widow's Pension scheme by introducing a scale that started at 30 shillings a week for women widowed at the age of 40 and rose to the full rate of £5 at the age of 50. Considerable support was provided for nursery school building, and a long-term capital investment programme in school building was launched. A Family Fund was set up to assist families with children who had congenital conditions, while new benefits were introduced benefiting hundreds of thousands of disabled persons whose disabilities had been caused neither by war nor by industrial injury. An Attendance Allowance was introduced for those needing care at home, together with Invalidity Benefit for the long-term sick, while a higher Child Allowance was made available where invalidity allowance was paid. Widow's Benefits were introduced for those aged between forty and fifty years of age, improved subsidies for slum clearance were made available, while Rent Allowances were introduced for private tenants. In April 1971, the right to education was given to all children with Down's syndrome for the first time. The school leaving age was raised to 16, while Family Income Supplement was introduced to boost the incomes of low-income earners. Families who received this benefit were exempted from NHS charges while the children in such families were eligible for free school meals. Non-contributory pensions were also introduced for all persons aged eighty and above, while the Social Security Act 1973 was passed which introduced benefit indexation in the United Kingdom for the first time by index-linking benefits to prices to maintain their real value. An amendment to the Social Security Act of 1973 required the secretary of state to publicize benefits for the disabled. The National Insurance Act of 1971 introduced a special addition with no means test for all pensioners over 80, while in 1972 a £10 Christmas bonus was introduced. Annual upratings for all pensioners was also introduced. From October 1973 onwards a higher ' long – term rate ' of supplementary benefit "was paid to those who had received supplementary benefit for a continuous period." That same year, a basic short-term rates were introduced for everyone else; the short-term sick and unemployed in the main. From 1972 onwards, "while there is no statutory commitment to this effect, the same cash increases have been made in the leading supplementary benefit scale rates as in their national insurance counterparts." In 1973, a statutory commitment to uprate national insurance benefits in line with prices was introduced in 1973. The Industrial Relations Act of 1971 gave employees "the right, depending on a minimum qualifying period, to appeal to an industrial tribunal, where compensation for unfair dismissal could be awarded based on length of service," and in 1972 preservation of accrued pension benefits after 5 or more years' service was introduced. The Legal Advice and Assistance Act 1972 set up a Green Form scheme under which advice of up to two hours, free of charge to the poorest or at reduced rates to those of modest means, became available. The Housing Finance Act 1972 "introduced a national formula for rent increases in the public sector and a mandatory system of local rent and rate rebates that survived subsequent legislation." The Supplementary Benefit (Determination of Requirements) Regulations 1972 increased the rent addition for non-householders and removed the present age qualification. The Students' Dependents' Allowances Regulations 1973 enabled the Secretary of State "to pay allowances to students attending first degree university etc. courses and courses for the training of teachers." A social security amendment of 1973 provided for allowing the Supplementary Benefits Commission "to make payments to cover funeral expenses without having regard to the powers of local authorities, so that the commission will not be inhibited by the fact that local authorities have certain powers concerning the disposal of bodies." Subsequently, the Commission "revised its policy on payments towards funeral expenses . Claimants are no longer advised to ask the Local Authority to make funeral arrangements, and the Commission will consider paying towards the costs of a private funeral under its powers to meet exceptional needs." The Redundant Mineworkers and Concessionary Coal (Payments Schemes) Order 1973 provided for three new types of benefits, including "lump sums based on length of service for men redundant between age 35 and 55, and for men over 55 who due to lack of service in the industry do not qualify for basic benefit; a new benefit equivalent to the current rate of unemployment benefit to be paid to men when they have exhausted their 156 weeks of basic benefit until they reach age 65; and concessionary coal benefits for men made redundant between age 55 and 60, and certain men redundant over age 60. (Most men redundant over age 60 already receive concessionary coal under existing arrangements.) In addition, "The amount of benefit which a beneficiary may retain if he obtains other employment has also been increased." The Employment and Training Act 1973 included various provisions. For instance, as specified in the text of the Act, "The Secretary of State may— pay to any person appointed in pursuance of the preceding paragraph such subsistence and travelling allowances and such compensation for loss of remunerative time as the Secretary of State may determine with the approval of the Minister for the Civil Service." In addition, "An industrial training board may— pay maintenance and travelling allowances to persons attending courses provided or approved by the board ; make grants or loans to persons providing courses or other facilities approved by the board, to persons who make studies for the purpose of providing such courses or facilities and to persons who maintain arrangements to provide such courses or facilities which are not for the time being in use ; pay fees to persons providing further education in respect of persons who receive it in association with their training in courses provided or approved by the board; make payments to persons in connection with arrangements under which they or employees of theirs make use of courses or other facilities provided or approved by the board." The Redundant Mineworkers (Payments Scheme) Order 1972 was intended to be make available for 3 years "to any miner who is made redundant after he has reached 55 to help him to adjust to the new situation and to the difficulties which confront him." It included a number of provisions for miners and their dependents including the addition of cost of living increments, a basic scheme benefit, an increase from £3 to £6 a week to the benefit "which can be kept if a redundant mineworker finds a new job and enters new employment, because if he did he would probably incur income tax, perhaps National Insurance contributions, travelling expenses and other expenses which might well have exceeded the £3 which he would have been able to draw if he had continued to draw that from the redundant mineworkers payment scheme." The rent allowance which is payable to a redundant mineworker was made transferable to a new house if he were to move his home, the rules regarding the offsetting of State and other coal industry benefits against the total of the mineworkers' redundancy payment benefit were eased, and the scheme was changed "so that in the event of a second redundancy—if a miner is made redundant a second time—his earnings are computed on the wages paid in the year immediately before the second redundancy as opposed to his previous level of earnings." Also, "these last three concessions will apply to men who are in the existing scheme, not only to miners who might be made redundant in future, but to all those who are part of the existing scheme at the present time." The scheme also provided that the general increases in benefits, such as the special hardship allowance and workmen's compensation supplementation would not be offset as at present, and also provided for increases in benefits paid to men on workmen's compensation as a result of becoming total or major incapacity cases, award of special hardship allowance in respect of an accident or disease sustained after redundancies. In addition, "any general increase in unemployment benefit between 6th April, 1972, and 6th April, 1973, will be offset against the benefit of men made redundant after 6th April, 1973." Also, "the maximum amount of benefit that can be kept by those who get a job is increased from £3 to £6" weekly, and "the table of basic benefit appropriate to the various ranges of pre-redundancy earnings set out in Appendix 4 has been recalculated so that the basic benefit, plus the 1971 rate of unemployment benefit for a man and one adult dependant, equals, after tax and on average over the three years, 90 per cent. of previous take-home pay." Other provisions included service in the coal industry "before nationalisation can now count towards the 10 qualifying years" and that women "who are not paying the full National Insurance stamp will be able to get some benefit despite not being eligible for unemployment benefit." In addition, "days of absence from home which disqualify a person from unemployment benefit, and also from 72 scheme benefit, will be counted as days rather than one day in a week resulting in a whole week's disqualification as at present." Also, "a man made redundant within the terms of the scheme and reemployed in the coal industry for more than a year and then made redundant a second time can choose on which of the two pre-redundancy earnings he wishes his benefit to be calculated." In addition, "the requirement that in order to continue getting the rent allowance a person must continue to live in the same house in which he was living when he was made redundant, and that this house must continue to be owned by the board, is removed." Also, "the relevant tax year on which pre-redundancy earnings are based will now be the previous tax year for everybody, instead of being two years ago for those made redundant during April." Also, as noted by one MP, "Following the introduction of the first redundant mineworkers payments scheme in 1968, which provided benefits for men aged 55 or over on redundancy who otherwise satisfied the requirements of the scheme, there was pressure to enhance the terms available to enable such men to receive concessionary coal as though they had reached normal retirement age. The Government responded to this pressure in the Coal Industry Act 1973, amending the power to make schemes benefiting redundant mineworkers in the 1967 Act." Also in 1973, the first concessionary coal payments scheme was introduced by order, which provided for reimbursement to the National Coal Board "of the full cost of concessionary coal to men aged 55 to 59 who qualified for benefits under the redundant mineworkers payments scheme from 14 December 1969, and half the cost of providing concessionary coal to such men age 60 to 65." A number of new superannuation provisions were introduced for various categories of workers. For those in the NHS, this included years and days used in benefit calculations instead of years and half years, the introduction of practitioner dynamising introduced i.e. 1.4% pensions, best of the last 3 years Total Superannuable Remuneration introduced instead of average of last 3 years, 3 x lump sum introduced for post 24 March 1972 service (married men), the introduction of a half rate widow's pension (was previously 1/3), a new rate of Child Allowance, a reduction in the qualifying period for pensions from 10 years to 5 years, the abolition of the qualifying period for Death Gratuities (DG), the introduction of double incapacity build up for service between 5 years and 9 years 364 days (or to age 65 if less), the introduction of 3 months initial widows pension, the introduction of widows limited pension (for 3, 4.5 or 6 months) for those widows who do not have title to continuing widows pensions, the introduction of a Limited Child Allowance, the introduction of automatic payment of benefits at age 70, the introduction of Added Years purchase, "Pensions Increase Supplement may apply" from January 1973 to October 1975, the extension of service to take account of untaken annual leave introduced for ancillary staff, and "Part time service may be superannuable provided half or more of the w/t basic is worked." The Pensions (Increase) Act of 1971 provided for regular increases in public service pensions by statutory instrument. The Act was later amended in 1972 and 1974 "to lower the minimum qualifying age for pensions increase from 60 to 55 and to provide for all pensions paid to widows of scheme members to be increased." The Superannuation Act of 1972 provided for new arrangements for premature retirement on grounds of limited efficiency, granted civil servants rights to their pensions and established the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme, the Civil Service Additional Voluntary Contribution Scheme (CSAVCS), the Civil Service Compensation Scheme (CSCS) and the Civil Service Injury Benefits Scheme (CSIBS). The Local Government (Retirement of Chief Officers) Regulations 1973 provided "for persons identified as chief officers and deputy chief officers of local authorities, and certain other persons affected by local government reorganisation, to elect for early retirement on enhanced pension terms and thereby forgo any right to claim compensation which might otherwise have been exercised under section 259 of the Local Government Act 1972." Section 27 of the Water Act 1973 empowered water authorities to establish and administer pension schemes and funds. The Social Security Act of 1973 made further provisions "for occupational pensions, established the Occupational Pensions Board and the contributory reserve pension scheme under a Reserve Pension Board for not recognised pensionable employment." Scottish nationalism Scottish nationalism grew as a political force, while the decimalisation of British coinage, begun under the previous Labour government, was completed eight months after Heath came to power. The Central Policy Review Staff was established by Heath in February 1971, while the Local Government Act 1972 changed the boundaries of the counties of England and Wales and created Metropolitan Counties around the major cities (e.g. Merseyside around Liverpool): this caused significant public anger. Heath did not divide England into regions, choosing instead to await the report of the Crowther Commission on the constitution; the 10 Government Office Regions were eventually set up by the Major government in 1994. Economic policy Chancellor of the Exchequer Iain Macleod died and was replaced on 20 July 1970 by Anthony Barber. Heath's planned economic policy changes (including a significant shift from direct to indirect taxation) remained largely unimplemented: the Selsdon policy document was more or less abandoned as unemployment increased considerably by 1972. By January that year, the number of unemployed reached a million, the highest level for more than two decades. Opposed to unemployment on moral grounds, Heath encouraged a famous "U-Turn" in economic policy that precipitated what became known as the "Barber Boom". This was a two-range process involving the budgets of 1972 and 1973, the former of which pumped £2.5 billion into the economy in increased pensions and benefits and tax reductions. By early 1974, as a result of this Keynesian economic strategy, unemployment had fallen to under 550,000. The economic boom did not last, and the Heath government implemented various cuts that led to the abandonment of policy goals such as a planned expansion of nursery education. Trade unions Much of the government's attention, as well as the media and public opinion, focused on deteriorating labour relations, as the government sought to weaken the economic power of the trade unions, which had grown steadily since 1945. The Industrial Relations Act 1971 set up a special court under the judge Lord Donaldson. Its imprisonment of striking dockworkers was a public relations disaster and became an object lesson for the Thatcher government of the 1980s. Thatcher relied instead on confiscating the assets of unions that courts found to have violated anti-strike laws. The trade unions responded with a full-scale counterattack on a government hobbled by inflation and high unemployment. Especially damaging to the government's credibility were the two miners' strikes of 1972 and 1974, the latter of which resulted in much of the country's industry working a Three-Day Week in an attempt to conserve energy. The National Union of Mineworkers won its case but the energy shortages and the resulting breakdown of domestic consensus contributed to the eventual downfall of his government. Unemployment There was a steep rise in unemployment for the first two years of the Heath ministry, but it was then reversed. Labour in 1964 had inherited an unemployment count of around 400,000 but saw unemployment peak at 631,000 in early 1967. At election time in June 1970, the unemployment numbers were still high at 582,000. Heath and the Conservatives were pledged to "full employment" but within a year it became clear that they were losing that battle, as the official unemployment count crept towards 1,000,000 and some newspapers suggested that it was even higher. In January 1972 it was officially confirmed that unemployment had risen above 1,000,000 – a level not seen for more than 30 years. Various other reports around this time suggested that unemployment was higher still, with The Times newspaper claiming that "nearly 3,000,000" people were jobless by March of that year. Foreign policy Upon entering office in June 1970, Heath immediately set about trying to reverse Wilson's policy of ending Britain's military presence East of Suez. Heath took the United Kingdom into Europe on 1 January 1973, following passage in Parliament of the European Communities Act 1972 in October. He publicly supported the massive U.S. bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong in December 1972. According to John McEvoy and Mark Curtis of Declassified UK, his government quickly recognised the military regime of Augusto Pinochet in Chile and maintained good relations with it, despite the illegal nature of the Pinochet regime's coup d'état. In October 1973 he placed a British arms embargo on all combatants in the Arab-Israeli Yom Kippur War, which mostly affected the Israelis by preventing them obtaining spares for their Centurion tanks. Heath refused to allow US intelligence gathering from British bases in Cyprus, resulting in a temporary halt in the US signals intelligence tap. He favoured links with the People's Republic of China, visiting Mao Zedong in Beijing in 1974 and 1975 and remaining an honoured guest in China on frequent visits thereafter and forming a close relationship with Mao's successor Deng Xiaoping. Heath realised that to become closer to Europe he needed to be further from the United States, so he downplayed the Special Relationship that had long knitted the two nations together. The two nations differed on such major crises as Britain's EC membership, the Nixon economic "shocks" of 1971, the Bangladesh Liberation War, détente with Soviet Union, Kissinger's Year of Europe and the Middle East crisis of 1973. Northern Ireland Heath served as Prime Minister during an especially violent period of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Events such as the Falls Curfew, Operation Motorman and Bloody Sunday led to the near-collapse in relations between the Irish Catholic community and British security forces. In 1971, Heath sent MI6 officer Frank Steele to hold talks with the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and find common ground to begin official negotiations. In July 1972, Heath permitted the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, William Whitelaw, to hold unofficial talks in London with an IRA delegation by Seán Mac Stíofáin. In the aftermath of these unsuccessful talks, Heath pushed for a peaceful settlement with Northern Irish political parties exclusively committed to nonviolence. The 1973 Sunningdale Agreement, which proposed a power-sharing deal, was strongly repudiated by many Unionists, including the Ulster Unionist Party, which withdrew its MPs at Westminster from the Conservative whip. The proposal was finally brought down by the Unionist Ulster Workers' Council strike in 1974, by which time Heath was no longer in office. Heath was targeted by the IRA for introducing internment without trial in Northern Ireland. In December 1974, an IRA active service unit threw a bomb onto the first-floor balcony of his home in Wilton Street, Belgravia where it exploded. Heath had been conducting a Christmas carol concert at Broadstairs and arrived home 10 minutes after the bomb exploded. No one was injured in the attack, but a landscape painted by Winston Churchill – given to Heath as a present – was damaged. In January 2003, Heath gave evidence to the Saville Inquiry and stated that he had never sanctioned unlawful lethal force in Northern Ireland. Fall from power 1974 general elections Heath tried to bolster his government by calling a general election for 28 February 1974, using the election slogan "Who governs Britain?". The result of the election was inconclusive with no party gaining an overall majority in the House of Commons; the Conservatives had the most votes but Labour had slightly more seats. Heath began negotiations with Jeremy Thorpe, leader of the Liberal Party, but when these failed, he resigned as prime minister on 4 March 1974, and was replaced by Wilson's minority Labour government, eventually confirmed, though with a tiny majority, in a second election in October. To date, Heath is the last British Prime Minister to have both assumed and lost their term of office by means of a general election. Rise of Thatcher Heath came to be seen as a liability by many Conservative MPs, party activists and newspaper editors. His personality was considered cold and aloof, annoying even to his friends. Alan Watkins observed in 1991 that his "brusqueness, his gaucherie, his lack of small or indeed any talk, his sheer bad manners" were among the factors costing him the support of Conservative backbenchers in the subsequent Conservative leadership election. He resolved to remain Conservative leader, even after losing the October 1974 general election, and at first it appeared that by calling on the loyalty of his front-bench colleagues he might prevail. In the weeks following the second election defeat, Heath came under tremendous pressure to concede a review of the rules and agreed to establish a commission to propose changes and to seek re-election. There was no clear challenger after Enoch Powell had left the party and Keith Joseph had ruled himself out after controversial statements implying that the working classes should be encouraged to use more birth control. Joseph's close friend and ally Margaret Thatcher, who believed that an adherent to the philosophy of the Centre for Policy Studies should stand, joined the leadership contest in his place alongside the outsider Hugh Fraser. Aided by Airey Neave's campaigning among backbench MPs — whose earlier approach to William Whitelaw had been rebuffed, out of loyalty to Heath — she emerged as the only serious challenger. The new rules permitted new candidates to enter the ballot in a second round of voting should the first be inconclusive, so Thatcher's challenge was considered by some to be that of a stalking horse. Neave deliberately understated Thatcher's support to attract wavering votes from MPs who were keen to see Heath replaced even though they did not necessarily want Thatcher to replace him. On 4 February 1975, Thatcher defeated Heath in the first ballot by 130 votes to 119, with Fraser coming in a distant third with 16 votes. This was not a big enough margin to give Thatcher the 15% majority necessary to win on the first ballot, but having finished in second place Heath immediately resigned and did not contest the next ballot. His favoured candidate, William Whitelaw, lost to Thatcher in the second vote one week later (Thatcher 146, Whitelaw 79, Howe 19, Prior 19, Peyton 11). The vote polarised along right-left lines, with in addition the region, experience and education of the MP having their effects. Heath and Whitelaw were stronger on the left, among Oxbridge and public school graduates, and in MPs from Northern England or Scotland. Thatcher had promised Heath a seat in the Shadow Cabinet and planned to offer him whatever post he wanted. His advisors agreed he should wait at least six months, so he declined. He never relented and his refusal was called "the incredible sulk". Thatcher visited Heath at his home shortly after her election as leader and had to stay for coffee with his PPS Timothy Kitson so the waiting press would not realise how brief the visit had been. Heath claimed that he had simply declined her request for advice about how to handle the press, whilst Thatcher claimed that she offered him any Shadow Cabinet position he wanted and asked him to lead the Conservative campaign in the imminent EEC referendum, only to be rudely rebuffed. Later career (1975–2001) For many years, Heath persisted in criticism of the party's new ideological direction. At the time of his defeat, he was still popular with rank-and-file Conservative members and was warmly applauded at the 1975 Conservative Party Conference. He played a leading role in the 1975 referendum campaign in which the UK voted to remain part of the EEC, and he remained active on the international stage, serving on the Brandt Commission investigation into developmental issues, particularly on North–South projects (Brandt Report). His relations with Thatcher remained poor, and in 1979–80, he turned down her offers of the positions of Ambassador to the United States and Secretary General of NATO. He continued as a central figure on the left of the party and, at the 1981 Conservative Party conference, openly criticised the government's economic policy of monetarism, which had seen inflation rise from 13% in 1979 to 18% in 1980 then fall to 4% by 1983, but had seen unemployment double from around 1.5 million to a postwar high of 3.3 million during that time. In 1990, he flew to Baghdad to attempt to negotiate the release of aircraft passengers on British Airways Flight 149 and other British nationals taken hostage when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. After the events of Black Wednesday in 1992, he stated in the House of Commons that government should build a fund of reserves to counter currency speculators. In 1987, he was nominated in the election for the Chancellorship of the University of Oxford but lost to Roy Jenkins as a result of splitting the Conservative vote with Lord Blake. Heath continued to serve as a backbench MP for the London constituency of Old Bexley and Sidcup and was, from 1992, the longest-serving MP ("Father of the House") and the oldest British MP. As Father of the House, he oversaw the election of two Speakers of the Commons, Betty Boothroyd and Michael Martin. Heath was created a Knight Companion of the Garter on 23 April 1992. He retired from Parliament at the 2001 general election. Heath and Tony Benn were the last two serving MPs to have been elected during the reign of George VI, with Heath serving continuously since 1950. Heath maintained business links with several companies including a Saudi think tank, two investment funds and a Chinese freight operator, mainly as an adviser on China or a member of the governing board. According to Chris Patten, the last Governor of Hong Kong, his commercial interests in China could have been one of the reasons why he denounced the democratic reforms introduced in the run-up to the handover of Hong Kong. Parliament broke with precedent by commissioning a bust of Heath while he was still alive. Commentators have noted how the statue of Margaret Thatcher appears to overshadow Heath's bust. The 1993 bronze work, by Martin Jennings, was moved to the Members' Lobby in 2002. On 29 April 2002, in his eighty-sixth year, he made a public appearance at Downing Street alongside the then–prime minister Tony Blair and the three other surviving former prime ministers at the time (James Callaghan, Margaret Thatcher and John Major), as well as relatives of deceased prime ministers, for a dinner which was part of the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II. This was to be one of his last public appearances, as the following year saw a decline in his health. Personal life Private residence In the 1960s, Heath had lived in Albany, off Piccadilly; at the unexpected end of his premiership, the French couple living there refused his demand that they move out so that he could have his flat back ("So much for European Unity!" Heath later wrote in his memoirs). For four months, Heath took the flat of Conservative MP Timothy Kitson; Kitson declined his offer to pay rent but later recalled an occasion when his own watch broke, and Heath in response invited him to take one of a large collection that he had been given on his travels. In July 1974, the Duke of Westminster, a major London landowner and ardent Europhile, allowed Heath to rent a property in Wilton Street, Belgravia, for an annual rent of £1,250 (£16,454 at 2024 prices), a tenth of the market value. The house had three storeys and a basement flat for Heath's housekeeper, and he continued to use it as his London home until old age prevented him from climbing the stairs. In February 1985, Heath acquired a Wiltshire home, Arundells, in the Cathedral close at Salisbury, where he resided until his death twenty years later. In January 2006, it was announced that Heath had placed his house and contents, valued at £5 million in his will, in a charitable foundation, the Sir Edward Heath Charitable Foundation, to conserve the house as a museum to his career. The house is open to the public for guided tours from March to October; displayed therein is a large collection of personal effects as well as Heath's personal library, photo collections, and paintings by Winston Churchill. In his will, Heath, who had no descendants, left only two legacies: £20,000 to his brother's widow, and £2,500 to his housekeeper. Yachting Heath was a keen yachtsman. He bought his first yacht Morning Cloud in 1969 and won the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race that year. He captained Britain's winning team for the Admiral's Cup in 1971 – while prime minister – and also captained the team in the 1979 Fastnet race. He was a member of the Broadstairs Sailing Club, where he learnt to sail on a Snipe and a Fireball before moving on to success in larger boats. Classical music Heath maintained an interest in classical music as a pianist, organist and orchestral conductor, famously installing a Steinway grand in 10 Downing Street – bought with his £450 Charlemagne Prize money, awarded for his unsuccessful efforts to bring Britain into the EEC in 1963, and chosen on the advice of his friend, the pianist Moura Lympany – and conducting Christmas carol concerts in Broadstairs every year from his teens until old age. Heath conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, notably at a gala concert at the Royal Festival Hall in November 1971, at which he conducted Sir Edward Elgar's overture Cockaigne (In London Town). He also conducted the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the English Chamber Orchestra, as well as orchestras in Germany and the United States. During his premiership, Heath invited musician friends, such as Isaac Stern, Yehudi Menuhin, Clifford Curzon and the Amadeus Quartet, to perform either at Chequers or 10 Downing Street. Heath was the founding President of the European Community Youth Orchestra (in 1976), now the European Union Youth Orchestra. In 1988, Heath recorded Beethoven's Triple Concerto, Op. 56 (with members of the Trio Zingara as soloists) and Boccherini's Cello Concerto in G major, G480. Football Heath was a supporter of the Lancashire football club Burnley, and just after the end of his term as prime minister in 1974 he opened the £450,000 Bob Lord Stand at the club's Turf Moor stadium. Author Heath wrote several books in the second half of the 1970s: Sailing, Music, and Travels. He also compiled a collection of carols called The Joy of Christmas, published in 1978 by Oxford University Press, which contained the music and lyrics to a wide variety of Christmas carols, each accompanied by a reproduction of a piece of religious art and a short introduction by Heath. Heath's autobiography, The Course of My Life, appeared in 1998. According to his obituary in The Daily Telegraph, this "had involved dozens of researchers and writers (some of whom he never paid) over many years". "Grocer Heath" In 1964, despite substantial opposition from many Conservative MPs and independent grocers and shopkeepers, Heath led a successful fight to abolish resale price maintenance. Private Eye, a satirical current affairs magazine, thereupon persistently ridiculed him as "Grocer Heath". The magazine also parodied him as the managing director of a struggling small company, "Heathco". Sexuality Heath never married. He had been expected to marry childhood friend Kay Raven, who was reportedly tired of waiting and married an RAF officer whom she met on holiday in 1950. In a four-sentence paragraph of his memoirs, Heath claimed that he had been too busy establishing a career after the war and had "perhaps ... taken too much for granted". In a 1998 TV interview with Michael Cockerell, Heath said that he had kept her photograph in his flat for many years afterwards. His interest in music kept him on friendly terms with female musicians, including pianist Moura Lympany. When Heath was prime minister she was approached by the Conservative MP Tufton Beamish, who said: "Moura, Ted must get married. Will you marry him?" She said she would have done but was in love with someone else. She later said the most intimate thing Heath had done was to put his arm around her shoulder. Bernard Levin wrote at the time in The Observer that the UK had to wait until the emergence of the permissive society for a prime minister who was a virgin. In later life, according to his official biographer Philip Ziegler, at dinner parties Heath was "apt to relapse into morose silence or completely ignore the woman next to him and talk across her to the nearest man"; others at the time claimed Heath was just not talkative at parties. There were many innuendos in Private Eye about it and chants insinuating he was homosexual could be heard outside Downing Street during protests by trade unionists against his Industrial Relations Bill. John Campbell, who published a biography of Heath in 1993, devoted four pages to a discussion of the evidence concerning Heath's sexuality. While acknowledging that Heath was often assumed by the public to be gay, not least because it is "nowadays ... whispered of any bachelor", he found "no positive evidence" that this was so "except for the faintest unsubstantiated rumour" (the footnote refers to a mention of a "disturbing incident" at the beginning of the Second World War in a 1972 biography by Andrew Roth). Campbell ultimately concluded that the most significant aspect of Heath's sexuality was his complete repression of it. Brian Coleman, the Conservative Party London Assembly member for Barnet and Camden, claimed in 2007 that Heath, to protect his career, had stopped cottaging in the 1950s. Coleman said it was "common knowledge" among Conservatives that Heath had been given a stern warning by police when he underwent background checks for the post of privy counsellor. Heath's biographer Philip Ziegler wrote in 2010 that Coleman was able to provide "little or no information" to back up this statement, that no man had ever claimed to have had a sexual relationship with Heath, nor was any trace of homosexuality to be found in his papers, and that "those who knew him well" insist that he had no such inclination. He believes Heath to have been asexual, although he does mention a letter from one "Freddy", who seems hurt that "Teddie" had spurned his advances (chapter 2 of his book). Lord Armstrong of Ilminster, who was Heath's friend and former private secretary, stated his belief that Heath was asexual, saying that he "never detected a whiff of sexuality in relation to men, women or children." Another friend and confidant, Sara Morrison, former vice-chairman of the Conservative Party, said Heath had "effectively" told her "that he was sexless". Charles Moore, in his authorised biography of Margaret Thatcher, said that Bill Deedes believed that Thatcher "seem[ed] convinced" Heath was gay, whilst Moore believed it is "possible" that Thatcher's reference, in interview in 1974, to Heath not having a family, was a deliberate hint that he was gay, in order to discredit him. Thatcher certainly seems to have disliked Heath. "When I look at him and he looks at me," she once remarked, according to Ziegler (Chapter 4), "it doesn't feel like a man looking at a woman, more like a woman looking at another woman." When he moved to Arundells in 1985, Heath hired Derek Frost, life partner of Jeremy Norman, to modernise and redecorate the house in Salisbury. He became friends with the couple, though never close. When they asked Heath why he had not supported homosexual law reform (he was either absent from the debates in the 1960s or voted against Lord Arran's first Bill in May 1965), he replied that he had always been in favour but that "the rank and file of the party would never have stood for it." Norman's view is that Heath was "a deeply closeted gay man" who "decided early in life to sublimate his sexuality to his political ambitions." In later life, Heath voted for the lowering of the age of same-sex consent to eighteen and then sixteen. Similarly, Michael McManus, who was Heath's private secretary in the 1990s and helped with his memoirs, writes in his book on gay conservative politicians that he "was left in no doubt whatsoever that Heath was a gay man who had sacrificed his personal life to his political career, exercising iron self-control and living a celibate existence as he climbed the 'greasy pole' of preferment." Allegations of child sexual abuse In April 2015, a rape claim against Heath was investigated by the Metropolitan Police but was dropped. In August 2015, several police forces were investigating allegations of child sexual abuse by Heath. Hampshire, Jersey, Kent, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Thames Valley constabularies and London's Metropolitan Police investigated such claims. It was reported that a man had claimed that at the age of 12 years he had been raped by Heath in a Mayfair flat in 1961, after he had run away from home. Allegations about Heath were investigated as part of Operation Midland, the Metropolitan Police inquiry into claims of historic child abuse and related homicides. A witness called "Nick" was introduced to the police by the former Exaro website, who had asked him about alleged child sexual abuse by prominent figures at the Dolphin Square apartment complex in Pimlico, London; Heath was reported to be one of the figures. In 2018 "Nick", whose real name is Carl Beech, was arrested and charged over child pornography offences and in January 2019 he pleaded guilty. Beech, who had fabricated allegations against Heath and other prominent politicians and civil servants, was sentenced in July 2019 to eighteen years in prison. Also in August 2015, Sky News reported that Jersey police were investigating allegations against Heath as part of Operation Whistle, and a similar investigation, Operation Conifer, was launched by Wiltshire Police at the same time. The Sir Edward Heath Charitable Foundation, which operates the museum at Arundells, his home in Salisbury, said it welcomed the investigation. In November 2016, criminologist Richard Hoskins said that the evidence used against Heath in Operation Conifer, including discredited allegations of satanic ritual abuse, was "preposterous", "fantastical" and gained through the "controversial" practice of recovered-memory therapy. Operation Conifer was closed in March 2017, having cost a reported £1.5 million over two years, as no corroborating evidence had been found in any of the 42 allegations by 40 individuals (including three different names used by one person). In September 2017, it was announced that the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse would review the police investigation into Heath. Police said that if Heath were still alive they would have interviewed him under caution in relation to seven out of the 42 allegations, but nothing should be inferred about his guilt or innocence. In his summary report, Chief Constable Mike Veale confirmed that "no further corroborative evidence was found" to support the satanic abuse claims. Illness and death In August 2003, at the age of 87, Heath suffered a pulmonary embolism while on holiday in Salzburg, Austria. He never fully recovered, and owing to his declining health and mobility made very few public appearances in the last two years of his life. His last appearance was at the unveiling of a set of gates at St Paul's Cathedral dedicated to Churchill on 30 November 2004. In his final public statement, Heath paid tribute to James Callaghan, who died on 26 March 2005, saying "James Callaghan was a major fixture in the political life of this country during his long and varied career. When in opposition he never hesitated to put firmly his party's case. When in office he took a smoother approach towards his supporters and opponents alike. Although he left the House of Commons in 1987 he continued to follow political life and it was always a pleasure to meet with him. We have lost a major figure from our political landscape." Just under four months later, Sir Edward Heath died at his home from pneumonia at 7.30 pm on 17 July 2005, at the age of 89, the day after his spokesman said he was 'nearing the end of his life'. He was cremated on 25 July 2005 at a funeral service attended by 1,500 people. On the day after his death, the BBC Parliament channel showed the BBC results coverage of the 1970 election. A memorial service was held for Heath in Westminster Abbey on 8 November 2005, which was attended by 2,000 people. Three days later his ashes were interred in Salisbury Cathedral. In a tribute to him, the then-prime minister Tony Blair stated "He was a man of great integrity and beliefs he held firmly from which he never wavered". Honours Heath received several accolades and honours. Coat of arms Honorary degrees and fellowships Heath was awarded a number of honorary degrees: Awards Including the year of award. Order of the Garter (1992) Member of the Order of the British Empire, Military Division (MBE) (1946) Mentioned in dispatches (1945) Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (1993) Order of the Aztec Eagle (1994) Order of the Rising Sun, Grand Cordon (1998) Bangladesh Liberation War Honour (Bangladesh Muktijuddho Sanmanona) (2012, posthumous award) Books by Heath Heath, Edward (1970). Old World, New Horizons: Britain, Europe, and the Atlantic Alliance. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674492493. Heath, Edward (1975). Sailing: A Course of My Life. Stein and Day. ISBN 978-1135465292. Heath, Edward (1976). Music: A Joy for Life. Sidgwick & Jackson. ISBN 978-0283983498. Heath, Edward (1977). Travels: People and Places in My Life. Sidgwick & Jackson. ISBN 978-0283984143. Heath, Edward (1977). The Joy of Christmas: A Selection of Carols. Sidgwick & Jackson. ISBN 978-0195200812. Heath, Edward (1998). The Course of My Life. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 978-0340708521. References Further reading External links Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Edward Heath Obituary, The Guardian (London). Retrieved 9 December 2014. Sir Edward Heath chronology, badley.info. Retrieved 9 December 2014. Profile of Arundells, Sir Edward Heath's home, arundells.org. Retrieved 9 December 2014. Ziegler, Philip. "Charles Moore reviews 'Edward Heath'". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022. Retrieved 9 December 2014. Portraits of Sir Edward Heath at the National Portrait Gallery, London "Archival material relating to Edward Heath". UK National Archives. (registration required) Edward Heath interview on BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs, 23 December 1988 Appearances on C-SPAN Bronze bust of Sir Edward Heath in the UK Parliamentary Collections

The lead actress of the television show The Good Place who played protagonist Eleanor Shellstop, is married to a man who has been in many TV series and Films in his career. What was the name of the character he provided the voice for in a 2021 animated movie?

Ruben

Tabular reasoning | Multiple constraints

The Good Place is an American fantasy-comedy television series created by Michael Schur. It premiered on NBC on September 19, 2016, and concluded on January 30, 2020, after four seasons and 53 episodes. Although the plot evolves significantly over the course of the series, the initial premise of the series follows Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell), a dead woman who is placed in a Heaven-esque utopian afterlife designed and supervised by afterlife "architect" Michael (Ted Danson). However, Eleanor knows she did not deserve to get into the Good Place, as she led a dishonorable life. To avoid being found out and sent to the Bad Place, Eleanor attempts to hide her morally imperfect past behavior while trying to become a more ethical person. William Jackson Harper, Jameela Jamil, and Manny Jacinto co-star as other residents of the Good Place, with D'Arcy Carden as Janet, an artificial being who assists the residents. The Good Place received critical acclaim for its originality, writing, acting, setting, and tone. The first season's twist ending and the show's exploration and creative use of ethics and philosophy were specifically praised. Among its accolades, the series received a Peabody Award and four Hugo Awards for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form. It was nominated for 14 Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Comedy Series for its third and fourth seasons. Premise and synopsis The series is centered on an afterlife in which humans are sent to "the Good Place" or "the Bad Place" after death. All humans are assigned a numerical score based on the morality of their conduct in life, and only those with the very highest scores are sent to the Good Place, where they enjoy eternal happiness with their every wish granted, guided by an artificial intelligence named Janet; all others experience an eternity of torture in the Bad Place. In the first season, amoral loner Eleanor and small-time criminal Jason believe that they have been sent to the Good Place incorrectly. Eleanor's assigned soulmate, Chidi, a moral philosopher, attempts to teach them ethics so they can earn their presence there. Jason's soulmate, wealthy socialite Tahani, attempts to help Michael, the kindly designer of their neighborhood, deal with the chaos apparently caused by Eleanor and Jason's presence. In the twist ending of the first season finale, Eleanor realizes that the four humans have actually been in an experimental section of the Bad Place all along, selected by Michael (a demon) to torture each other emotionally and psychologically for eternity. In the second season, Michael repeatedly erases the humans' memories to try to restart their psychological torture, but they figure out the truth each time. Over the following centuries, Michael's failures result in him being blackmailed by another demon who wants his job, so Michael convinces the humans to help him fool his boss in exchange for passage to the real Good Place. When Michael sees that humans can improve their goodness after they die, he appeals their case to the eternal Judge, who rules that the humans may be returned to their lives on Earth, with no memory of the afterlife, to attempt to prove their moral development. Back on Earth in the third season, the group participates in a research study led by Chidi and his colleague Simone. Once they learn the truth about the afterlife, they try to help others improve their moral behavior. Eventually they discover that no one has been admitted to the Good Place in centuries. They propose that the points system is fundamentally flawed and set up an experimental simulated Good Place to test their thesis that humans can develop morally with proper support. In the final season, the year-long experiment eventually proves that humans can show moral improvement in the afterlife. The group institutes a new system whereby deceased humans will earn their way into the Good Place by passing tests of moral development; and then, to avoid becoming numbed by the ennui of eternal bliss, humans may choose to exit the Good Place and peacefully end their afterlife. In the final episode, Jason, Chidi, and Eleanor eventually choose to exit; Tahani becomes a designer of afterlife environments, and Michael is allowed to be sent to Earth to live as a human. Cast and characters Main Kristen Bell as Eleanor Shellstrop, a deceased selfish American pharmaceutical saleswoman from Phoenix, Arizona, who seemingly winds up in the Good Place in error after being mistaken for a lawyer (also named Eleanor Shellstrop) who exonerated innocent clients facing death sentences. In order to earn her spot, she recruits Chidi to teach her the fundamentals of becoming a better person. Eleanor is bisexual. William Jackson Harper as Chidi Anagonye, a deceased French-speaking Nigerian-Senegalese professor of ethics and moral philosophy who taught at the Sorbonne and St. John's University in Australia. Although he has a kind and supportive nature, his inability to make choices frequently leaves him overanxious and indecisive, often resulting in poor decision-making. Assigned as Eleanor's soulmate in Michael's first Good Place experiment, he gives her ethics lessons in an attempt to make her a better person. Jameela Jamil as Tahani Al-Jamil, a deceased wealthy British philanthropist and fashion model who believes she belongs in the Good Place. She forms an unlikely friendship with Eleanor, who initially dislikes her positive attitude, condescending way of speaking, and tendency to name-drop. D'Arcy Carden as Janet, a programmed guide and knowledge bank who acts as the Good Place's main source of information and can provide its residents with whatever they desire. She is described as a foundational mainframe for all neighborhoods across the Good and Bad Places. Later, Janet gains a more humanlike disposition and begins to act differently from the way she was designed. Carden also portrays multiple Janet iterations throughout the series. Among them are "Bad Janet", a Bad Place counterpart specifically designed by the demons to respond to residents in an inappropriate and impolite manner; "Neutral Janet", an impartial, robotic version of Janet that works in the Accountant's Office; "Disco Janet" who is "fun, but a lot" and, in "Janet(s)", Janet-versions of Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, and Jason. Manny Jacinto as Jason Mendoza, a deceased Filipino American amateur disc jockey and drug dealer from Jacksonville, Florida, who seemingly winds up in the Good Place by mistake. He is introduced as Jianyu Li, a Taiwanese Buddhist monk who took a vow of silence. Later, Jason proves to be an immature and simple, yet kindhearted, Jacksonville Jaguars and Blake Bortles fan. Ted Danson as Michael, a Bad Place architect who runs the Good Place neighborhood in which Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, and Jason reside. Michael has a fascination with the mundane aspects of human life, like playing with paper clips or searching for one's car keys. In the first-season finale, it is revealed that he has been tricking the four humans all along and is actually a demon torturing them, though he later teams up with and befriends them. "Michael" is a Hebrew name meaning "who is like God". The character of Michael was based on the archangel Michael. Recurring Demons Tiya Sircar as Vicky, a Bad Place demon who portrays the "real Eleanor Shellstrop", whose position in the Good Place Eleanor supposedly stole in the first season. In the second season, when Michael's plans repeatedly fail, she tries to blackmail Michael into giving her control over the neighborhood. Late in the series, Michael places her in charge of introducing the other demons to the revised afterlife system. Adam Scott as Trevor, a cruel Bad Place demon who bullies the main group. He makes a return in the third season posing as an overenthusiastic member of Chidi's academic study on Earth, only to be later exiled by the Judge upon being discovered. Marc Evan Jackson as Shawn, Michael's wicked boss. Shawn gives Michael two chances to pull off the torture experiment and later turns against him when he finds out about Michael's betrayal. He is also the main character of the spin-off web series The Selection. Luke Guldan as Chris Baker, a muscular Bad Place demon assigned as Eleanor's soulmate in the second attempt. Chris was sent to the experimental Good Place disguised as "Linda". His mission was to distract Eleanor and the others so the Bad Place could kidnap Good Janet and replace her with a Bad Janet. Jama Williamson as Val, a demon and Shawn's secretary. Amy Okuda as Gayle, a Bad Place demon pretending to be a Good Place resident by the name of Jessica. She shows a lack of interest in the humans, despite Shawn's obsession. Steve Berg as Chuck, a Bad Place demon pretending to be a Good Place resident by the name of Gunnar. His preferred form of punishment is chewing. Bambadjan Bamba as Bambadjan, a Bad Place demon pretending to be a lawyer in the Good Place. He is among the more cunning of Shawn's demons. Josh Siegal as Glenn, a Bad Place demon pretending to be a cheerfully dopey Good Place resident. He is among the few demons to show actual concern for another being. He blows up in "Tinker, Tailor, Demon, Spy", although Michael stated that he would reconstitute himself with time, having to relive the life cycle of a demon. Joe Mande as the voice of Toddrick "Todd" Hemple, a lava monster who refuses to wear a human suit. Humans Maribeth Monroe as Mindy St. Claire, a deceased corporate lawyer and addict who died in the process of founding a charity she had planned during a cocaine high. The charity generated enough good points after her death that her point total exceeded that required to enter the Good Place. As a compromise, the Judge ruled that she would receive her own private Medium Place, where everything is mediocre and grounded in the 1980s. Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Simone Garnett, an Australian neuroscientist and, briefly, Chidi's girlfriend. She is also the second test subject to be sent to the experimental Good Place, although she initially believed that she was experiencing a brain-death hallucination. Eugene Cordero as Steven "Pillboi" Peleaz, Jason's best friend and partner in crime. Jason, Tahani and Michael manage to convince him to avoid criminal behaviour and focus on his career in elder care so that he could get into the Good Place. Ben Lawson as Larry Hemsworth, Tahani's former boyfriend and the fictional fourth Hemsworth brother. Despite being a very attractive, successful paediatric surgeon, he constantly berates himself. Rebecca Hazlewood as Kamilah Al-Jamil, Tahani's exceedingly successful and competitive younger sister. Tahani died attempting to humiliate her. Ajay Mehta as Waqas Al-Jamil, Tahani's father. Anna Khaja as Manisha Al-Jamil, Tahani's mother. Leslie Grossman as Donna Shellstrop, Eleanor's cruel, self-centered, negligent mother. In the third season, it is revealed that she faked her death in Arizona and has found peace as a PTA mom in a Nevada suburb. Angela Trimbur as Madison, Eleanor's roommate. Meryl Hathaway as Brittany, Eleanor's roommate. Dominic Burgess as Henry, Chidi's colleague in Australia who purchased a pair of red cowboy boots. Mitch Narito as Donkey Doug, Jason's dopey father. Jason, Tahani and Michael's plan to get him into the Good Place by convincing him to become a qualified electrician fails after Donkey Doug plans several robberies as part of a get-rich-quick scheme involving a combined energy drink and body spray product. Keston John as Uzo, Chidi's best friend. He had long suffered from Chidi's indecisiveness and witnessed Chidi's original death. Brandon Scott Jones as John Wheaton, the first test subject sent to the experimental Good Place. In life, he was a gossip columnist and published trashy articles, especially about Tahani. Ben Koldyke as Brent Norwalk, a bigoted and arrogant corporate chief executive, and the fourth test subject sent to the experimental Good Place. Michael McKean and Noah Garfinkel as Doug Forcett. Michael keeps a picture of Garfinkel as Forcett on his office wall as a reminder of the human who, during a magic mushroom high, almost understood the afterlife points system (with many major religions only understanding about five percent of it). In a later episode, Michael McKean appears as an older Forcett trying to live the best life possible on Earth, much to the detriment of his own happiness. Garfinkel appears as Forcett in the final episode. Other celestial beings Jason Mantzoukas as Derek, a malfunctioning artificial rebound boyfriend created by Janet. Gifted by the humans to Mindy for helping them escape the fake Good Place, he was repeatedly rebooted for privacy or amusement. He serves as a template for the 'Janet baby' Good Place residents for Eleanor and Michael's experiment. Maya Rudolph as Gen, the judge who rules on interdimensional matters between the Good Place and the Bad Place. Mike O'Malley as Jeff the Doorman, the gatekeeper of the doorway between the afterlife and Earth. He has an affinity for frogs. Brad Morris as Matt, a suicidal accountant who works in a neutral office between the Good Place and the Bad Place. He is assigned as the accountant for Eleanor and Michael's experiment. He had been formerly assigned to evaluating "Weird Sex Things" in Accounting, which accounted for nearly all case studies of unprecedented human behavior. Paul Scheer as Chuck, leader of the Good Place committee. Ostensibly wanting to help Eleanor and her friends, he is very hesitant to take any actual action and is overly deferential to any demands by the Bad Place in negotiations. Chuck and the rest of the committee abandon the Good Place after inducting Michael as a resident (and its new leader), having run out of ideas of how to lift the sense of ennui hanging over its residents. Stephen Merchant as Neil, the manager in the Accounting office where all the life points are calculated. He reveals that nobody has been sent to the Good Place for about 500 years. Nicole Byer as Gwendolyn, an optimistic and bubbly mailwoman who works at the Good Place Correspondent Center. She is naive and was quick to believe that the main group had won a raffle to a free tour of the Good Place. She also guided Michael how to contact the Good Place committee. Despite being quietly furious after she realized the group was lying to her, she was still able to kindly wave them goodbye as they joined the Judge to IHOP. Episodes Production Casting NBC issued a press release on August 13, 2015, announcing it had given the then-untitled show a 13-episode order based purely on a pitch by Michael Schur. On January 12, 2016, it was announced that Kristen Bell and Ted Danson had been cast in the lead roles for the series. The first synopsis of the show was also released, stating that it would revolve around Eleanor designing her own self-improvement course with Michael as her guide – although the afterlife element had always been a part of the series, as Bell stated she was aware of the first-season finale twist when she signed on. William Jackson Harper was cast as Chris on February 11, 2016, though the character was renamed Chidi. Jameela Jamil was cast as Tessa on February 25, 2016, and her character was renamed Tahani. On March 3, 2016, Manny Jacinto was revealed to have been cast as a "sweet and good-natured Jason" whose "dream is to make a living as a DJ in Southern Florida". On March 14, 2016, D'Arcy Carden was cast as a series regular announced as "Janet Della-Denunzio, a violin salesperson with a checkered past" – although writer Megan Amram later admitted that this was a hoax. Development The show's final premise, including the afterlife element, was announced on May 15, 2016, when NBC announced its 2016–17 TV season. According to Schur, they originally planned to include religious elements after doing research on various faiths and groups. Instead, he decided on a more diverse concept that included all faiths and was free of religious views. "I stopped doing research because I realized it's about versions of ethical behavior, not religious salvation," he says. "The show isn't taking a side, the people who are there are from every country and religion." He also pointed out that the setting (shot in San Marino, California's Huntington Gardens) already had the feeling of a pastiche of different cultures, and said the neighborhoods would feature people who were part of nondenominational and interdenominational backgrounds who interacted with each other regardless of religion. The series' setting and premises, as well as the serialized cliffhangers, were modeled on Lost, a favorite of Schur's. One of the first people he called when he developed the series was Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof. "I took him to lunch and said, 'We're going to play a game [of] 'Is this anything?'" He then added "I imagine this going in the Lost way, with cliffhangers and future storylines." The first season's surprise twist, that the Good Place was the Bad Place, and Chidi, Eleanor, Jason and Tahani were chosen because they were best suited to torture each other indefinitely, is very similar in premise to philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre's stage play No Exit, where three strangers die and are escorted to a single room by a friendly bellhop and informed they must co-exist. They ultimately determine they are entirely incompatible and reach the conclusion that "hell is other people". Danson and Bell were the only actors who knew the ultimate premise from the start. Critics have also suggested similarities to 1960s surreal TV show The Prisoner in its isolated, rule-bound setting. Broadcast and release The series premiered September 19, 2016. On January 30, 2017, NBC renewed the series for a second season of 13 episodes, which premiered on September 20, 2017, with an hour-long opening episode. On November 21, 2017, NBC renewed the series for a 13-episode third season, which premiered on September 27, 2018. On December 4, 2018, NBC renewed the series for a fourth season, which premiered on September 26, 2019. On June 7, 2019, it was announced that the fourth season would be the last. International In several international territories, the show is distributed on Netflix. The first season was released September 21, 2017, and episodes of subsequent seasons became available within 24 hours of their U.S. broadcast. Home media Home media releases for The Good Place were distributed by the Shout! Factory. The first season was released on DVD in region 1 on October 17, 2017, the second on July 17, 2018, and the third on July 30, 2019. The complete series was released on Blu-ray on May 19, 2020. Reception Ratings Critical response On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season has a rating of 92%, based on 74 reviews, with an average rating of 7.80/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Kristen Bell and Ted Danson knock it out of the park with supremely entertaining, charming performances in this absurd, clever and whimsical portrayal of the afterlife." On Metacritic, the first season has a score of 78 out of 100, based on reviews from 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". The editors of TV Guide placed The Good Place second among the top ten picks for the most anticipated new shows of the 2016–17 season. In its review from writer Liam Matthews, "NBC's new comedy has an impressive pedigree" (referring to Mike Schur and stars, Kristen Bell and Ted Danson, the latter cited as "arguably the greatest sitcom actor of all time"). Matthews concludes, "The hope is that their combined star power can restore NBC's tarnished comedy brand to its former glory. It won't be the next Friends, but it's something even better: a network comedy that feels different than anything that's come before." On Rotten Tomatoes, the second season has a rating of 100%, based on 59 reviews, with an average rating of 9.0/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "By voluntarily blowing up its premise, The Good Place sets up a second season that proves even funnier than its first." On Metacritic, the second season has a score of 87 out of 100, based on reviews from 10 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". On Rotten Tomatoes, the third season has a rating of 98%, based on 47 reviews, with an average rating of 8.35/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Charming and curious as ever, The Good Place remains a delightfully insightful bright spot on the television landscape." On Metacritic, the third season has a score of 96 out of 100, based on reviews from five critics, indicating "universal acclaim". On Rotten Tomatoes, the fourth season has a rating of 100%, based on 52 reviews, with an average rating of 8.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "A wild philosophical ride to the very end, The Good Place brings it home with a forking good final season." Several critics have commended the show for its exploration and creative use of ethics and philosophy. Featured topics include the trolley problem thought experiment originally devised by Philippa Foot, the categorical imperative first formulated by Immanuel Kant, T. M. Scanlon's What We Owe to Each Other, and the works of Aristotle and Søren Kierkegaard. Andrew P. Street of The Guardian wrote that "moral philosophy is the beating heart of the program" and that the show "made philosophy seem cool." Elizabeth Yuko of The Atlantic noted that "The Good Place stands out for dramatizing actual ethics classes onscreen, without watering down the concepts being described, and while still managing to be entertaining." For their part, several philosophers have celebrated the show's largely accurate popularization of their line of work, while noting some minor inaccuracies. Several critics have noted that The Good Place often eschews antiheroes and cynical themes in favor of likable characters and positive messages. James Poniewozik of The New York Times said, "The most refreshing thing about The Good Place, in an era of artistic bleakness, is its optimism about human nature. It's made humane and sidesplittingly entertaining television out of the notion that people – and even the occasional immortal demon – are redeemable." Jenna Scherer of Rolling Stone wrote that The Good Place proved that "slapstick and banter can coexist alongside tragedy and hardship – that a show doesn't need to be self-serious to be serious-minded." Erik Adams of The A.V. Club praised the show as portraying an "uncommonly decent TV world". Stuart Heritage of The Guardian called The Good Place "relentlessly optimistic", a quality which Stephanie Palumbo of Vulture called "a salve for despair in the Trump era". In 2019, The Good Place was ranked 69th on The Guardian's list of the 100 best TV shows of the 21st century. Critics' top-ten lists Accolades During its airing, The Good Place received many awards and nominations. It received fourteen Primetime Emmy Award nominations during its run, including two nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series for its third and fourth seasons. It also received two Golden Globe Award nominations in 2019, including a nomination for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy. In genre awards, the show has won four Hugo Awards for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form for "The Trolley Problem", "Janet(s)", "The Answer", and "Whenever You're Ready"; it has also been nominated two other times in the category. The show also received three consecutive nominations from the Saturn Awards for Best Fantasy Television Series and three nominations from the Nebula Awards for the Ray Bradbury Award, winning once for the latter. In 2017, the American Film Institute named the show as one of its top 10 television programs of the year, and in 2019, the show received a Peabody Award for its contributions to entertainment. Several cast members have received awards for their performances on the show. Danson received three Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance as Michael. He has also been nominated for three Critics' Choice Television Awards (winning one in 2018), two Satellite Awards, and a TCA Award for his work. Bell was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy for her performance as Eleanor, as well as one Critics' Choice Television Award, two People's Choice Awards (winning one in 2019), one Teen Choice Award, and one TCA Award. Maya Rudolph has received three Emmy nominations for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, and Harper, Jamil, Carden, and Adam Scott have all received nominations for awards for their work on the show. Philosophical inspirations The Good Place makes use of many different theories of moral philosophy and ethics through the character of Chidi Anagonye, the moral philosophy professor. Within the show, there is reference to John Locke, Tim Scanlon, Peter Singer, and Derek Parfit, and "the show has covered everything from Jonathan Dancy's theory of moral particularism, to Aristotelian virtue ethics, to Kantian deontology, to moral nihilism." UCLA philosophy professor Pamela Hieronymi and Clemson philosophy professor Todd May served as consultants to the show. They both made cameo appearances in the final episode. The beginning of The Good Place takes its inspiration from the idiom "Hell is other people" from Jean-Paul Sartre's play No Exit. In the play three people are trapped in Hell, represented as one room, and they torture one another psychologically while reflecting upon the sins that got them there. The concept "Hell is other people" is an often-misunderstood philosophical idiom meant to reflect that "Hell is other people because you are, in some sense, forever trapped within them, subject to their apprehension of you." The second season's philosophy is most closely related to that of Aristotle, with Schur in particular highlighting Aristotle's "practice-makes-perfect" attitude to acting ethically. Chidi's impenetrable 4,000 page ethical treatise was inspired by Parfit's On What Matters – which attempts "to propose a grand unified theory of all ethical theories". Schur was unable to finish reading due to its length. Tim Scanlon's What We Owe to Each Other "forms the spine of the entire show" according to Schur. The book presents the idea of contractualism: the idea is that "to act morally is to abide by principles that no one could reasonably reject". The show and the relationships between the characters act as an investigation into contractualism with the four main humans, Michael, and Janet forming their own society whereby they must act in ways that no one could reasonably reject even when that goes against the rules and tenets of higher powers. The overarching thesis of the show, greatly influenced by the contractualist theory, is "the point of morality ... isn't to accumulate goodness points, as in the elaborate point system the organizers of the Good Place and its corresponding Bad Place employ to determine who goes to which upon death. It's to live up to our duties to each other." The Selection In September 2019, prior to the release of the fourth season of The Good Place, NBC released a six-episode web series on their website, app, and their YouTube channel, titled The Selection (full title: The Good Place Presents: The Selection), directed by Eric Kissack. The series, set during an ellipsis taking place during the season 3 episode 11: "Chidi Sees the Time-Knife", follows Michael's former demon boss Shawn as he and his underlings decide which four people to pick for Michael's new incarnation of "the Good Place". Marc Evan Jackson, Josh Siegal, Bambadjan Bamba, Amy Okuda, and Jama Williamson form the main cast by reprising their roles from The Good Place as Shawn and his underlings, with Joe Mande reprising his role as Toddrick "Todd" Hemple in the third episode. At the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards, the series was nominated for Outstanding Short Form Comedy or Drama Series. See also "A Nice Place to Visit" – episode of The Twilight Zone with a similar premise and plot twist Notes References External links Official website The Good Place at IMDb

Kristen Anne Bell (born July 18, 1980) is an American actress. She began her acting career starring in stage productions, while attending the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. She made her Broadway stage debut as Becky Thatcher in the comedy musical The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and appeared in a Broadway revival of The Crucible the following year. She later appeared in the action thriller film Spartan (2004) and received praise for her performance in the television drama film Gracie's Choice (2004). Bell received a Saturn Award for Best Actress on Television for her performance as the title character in the television series Veronica Mars (2004–2007). She reprised the eponymous role in the 2014 film and the 2019 revival. During her time on Veronica Mars, she starred as Mary Lane in the musical film Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical (2005), a role she would later reprise in the New York musical of the same name. She later starred as Elle Bishop in the superhero drama series Heroes from 2007 to 2008. She voiced the titular narrator in the teen drama series Gossip Girl, reprising the role in the 2021 sequel, and starred as Jeannie van der Hooven, the female lead on the Showtime comedy series House of Lies. She starred in the lead role of Eleanor Shellstrop on the critically acclaimed NBC comedy series The Good Place, receiving a Golden Globe Award nomination for her role. In addition, Bell portrayed the lead role in streaming series The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window. Her major breakout film role was the lead role for the horror movie Pulse (2006), then as the title character in Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008). She has since appeared in a number of comedy films, including Couples Retreat (2009), When in Rome (2010), You Again (2010), The Boss (2016), Bad Moms (2016), and A Bad Moms Christmas (2017). Bell received further recognition for voicing Princess Anna in the Disney animated films Frozen (2013), Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018), and Frozen II (2019). Early life and family Bell was born and raised in Huntington Woods, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. Her mother, Lorelei (née Frygier), was a registered nurse, and her father, Tom Bell, was a television news director in Las Vegas. Her mother is of Polish descent, and her father has German, Scottish and Irish ancestry. At the age of four, Bell stated that she did not like her first name, so her mother encouraged her to use her middle name, Anne, which she used until she attended high school. Just before her first year of high school, Bell's parents decided to remove her from the public school system. She attended Shrine Catholic High School in nearby Royal Oak, where she took part in the drama and music clubs. Before attending Shrine, she attended Burton Elementary School and Norup Middle School (now known as Norup International School), part of the Berkley School District. At Shrine, she won the starring role in the school's 1997 production of The Wizard of Oz as Dorothy Gale, and appeared in productions of Fiddler on the Roof (1995), Lady, Be Good (1996), and Li'l Abner (1998). In 1998, the year she graduated, she was named the yearbook's "Best Looking Lil' Lady" by senior class vote. Shortly after her high school graduation, Bell moved to New York City to attend New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, studying musical theater. In 2002, during her senior year, she left a few credits shy of graduating to take a role in the Broadway musical version of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Career 1992–2003: Early work In 1992, Bell went to her first audition and won a dual role as a banana and a tree in a suburban Detroit theater's production of Raggedy Ann and Andy. Her mother had established her with an agent before Bell was 13, which allowed her to appear in newspaper advertisements for several Detroit retailers and television commercials. She began private acting lessons. In 1998, she had an uncredited role in the film Polish Wedding. In 2001, Bell left New York University to play Becky Thatcher in the short-lived Broadway musical of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. That year, she made her credited film debut in Pootie Tang. Her single line of dialogue was cut, and she appears only during the credits. In 2002, she appeared in the Broadway revival of The Crucible with Liam Neeson, Angela Bettis and Laura Linney. Bell moved to Los Angeles in 2002 because of her friendship with writers Kevin Murphy and Dan Studney, and appeared in a handful of television shows as a special guest, finding trouble gaining a recurring role in a television series. Bell said she "tested like eight times and booked nothing and every show [she] tested for got picked up", including auditions for Skin and a Norm Macdonald series. In 2003, Bell appeared in FX's The Shield, season 2, episode 1, which aired on January 7, 2003. She appeared in Everwood, season 2 episode 2 as a cheerleader. She co-starred in the film The King and Queen of Moonlight Bay as Alison, a 17-year-old girl who travels to Arizona to reconnect with the father who abandoned her family. 2004–2006: Veronica Mars and other roles In 2004, Bell earned acclaim for her starring role in the Lifetime television film Gracie's Choice, which received one of the network's highest ratings. She made her debut in a theatrically released film with David Mamet's action thriller Spartan, as Laura Newton, the kidnapped daughter of the U.S. president, acting alongside Val Kilmer. Bell guest-starred on the HBO period drama series Deadwood, in a two-episode story arc ("Bullock Returns to the Camp" and "Suffer the Little Children"). At 24, she won the role of the title character in the UPN noir drama series Veronica Mars, which was launched in the fall of 2004. Created by Rob Thomas, the series starred Bell as the seventeen-year-old anti-establishment high school student and private detective. Bell drew on the parallels between the character of Veronica and her own life, since Bell's parents had divorced and her best friend had also died. The series earned acclaim from critics. Bell's performance earned her the Saturn Award for Best Actress on Television and a nomination for the TCA Award for Individual Achievement in Drama, among numerous others. Some critics asserted that her performance was overlooked, and deserved consideration for a Primetime Emmy Award. Aside from working on Veronica Mars, Bell starred in Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical, reprising the role she played in the short-lived 2001 Off-Broadway musical. The musical was a spoof of Reefer Madness, the 1936 exploitation film of the same name. Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical debuted on the Showtime network on April 16, 2005. Also in April, Bell starred as Gracie in Fifty Pills, an entry for the Tribeca Film Festival. She appeared in a short independent film called The Receipt and the horror film Roman, which was directed by her Crucible co-star Angela Bettis. Released on August 11, 2006, Pulse starred Bell as the lead Mattie. A remake of the Japanese horror film Kairo, the film grossed US$27.9 million worldwide but garnered negative response from critics. Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter commented, "despite the starring presence of Kristen Bell, [the] young actress has far less interesting material to work with here than she does as [the character] 'Veronica Mars.'" 2007–2011: Film breakthrough and Gossip Girl Veronica Mars continued on UPN for a second season; for the third season, the show was renewed and appeared on the newly created The CW. On January 19, 2007, CW Entertainment President Dawn Ostroff announced that while she was pleased with the gradual improvement of Veronica Mars's ratings, the series would be put on hiatus after February sweeps to air a new reality series, Pussycat Dolls Present. On May 17, 2007, Ostroff announced the cancelation of the series. A two-hour series finale aired in the United States on May 22, 2007, and on June 11, 2007, Thomas officially announced in an email to TV Guide's Michael Ausiello that Veronica Mars had been canceled by the CW. A Veronica Mars feature film and comic book series continuation had been discussed, and for a short time there was talk of another collaboration between Bell and creator Thomas that would be unrelated to the Veronica Mars series. Following the cancellation of Veronica Mars, Bell voiced interest in appearing on Heroes because she was a fan. On July 29, 2007, during a train ride back to Los Angeles from San Diego Comic-Con with Heroes actors Zachary Quinto and Masi Oka, and writers from the series, the writers had mentioned that if she "ever want[ed] to come on Heroes, give us [writers] a call," to which Bell said she would "love to". Meanwhile, there were discussions about a role on Lost, but Bell turned down the role of Charlotte Staples Lewis. Bell portrayed Elle Bishop on Heroes, a "mysterious young lady" with an "awesome power". She did not have to audition for the role of Elle, who made her first appearance in an October 2007 episode, and appeared in twelve episodes during the run of the series. The casting of Bell, Heroes creator Tim Kring explained, "was not easy to pull off", but because of the large ensemble cast of the series and multiple story arcs, "we found a way to jump into a small window in [Bell's] schedule." Bell lent her voice to the CW series Gossip Girl; she voiced the title character in every episode of the series, appearing in person only for a surprise cameo in the final episode, portraying herself. Shortly after the cancelation of Veronica Mars in early 2007, Bell filmed on location in Hawaii for a starring role as the title character in the Judd Apatow comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall. She regarded the improvisational comedy in the film as "a lovely experience". The film, written by and also starring Jason Segel, was released theatrically on April 18, 2008, and greatly increased Bell's profile. Bell lent her voice and likeness to the video game Assassin's Creed, which was released in November 2007 for consoles and April 2008 for the PC. Bell reprised her role of Lucy in Assassin's Creed II, released in November 2009, and again in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, released in November 2010. In the spring of 2006, she finished filming the Star Wars-themed comedy Fanboys. Director Kyle Newman received additional funding to shoot new scenes, but the busy schedules of the actors only allowed for filming in September 2007. As a result, the release was delayed until January 14, 2008. Bell starred in the 2009 comedies Serious Moonlight, alongside Meg Ryan, and Couples Retreat, which chronicles four couples who partake in therapy sessions at a tropical island resort. Jason Bateman played her husband. She provided the voice for Cora in Astro Boy. On March 31, 2008, Bell began shooting the Mark Steven Johnson-written Disney film When in Rome on location in Rome and New York; the film was released in 2010. Bell reprised her role as Sarah Marshall for a cameo appearance in the film Get Him to the Greek, a spin-off sequel from Forgetting Sarah Marshall, released June 4, 2010. Bell co-starred alongside singers Christina Aguilera and Cher in the backstage musical film Burlesque, which was released in November 2010. She had a cameo appearance alongside Anna Paquin in the slasher horror film Scream 4, which was released on April 15, 2011. 2012–2019: Frozen and The Good Place In 2012, Bell starred in the family drama film Big Miracle. She appeared in the music video for "Madder Red" by Brooklyn experimental rock band Yeasayer. Bell portrayed Mary Magdalene in The Truth & Life Dramatized Audio New Testament Bible, a 22-hour, celebrity-voiced, dramatized audio adaptation of the New Testament that uses the RSV-CE translation. Bell starred as Jeannie van der Hooven, the female lead on the Showtime comedy series House of Lies, which premiered on January 8, 2012. The series ended on June 12, 2016. Bell appeared in a supporting role in the science-fiction comedy Safety Not Guaranteed (2012). She starred in the drama film The Lifeguard, written and directed by Liz W. Garcia, which began filming in July 2012 and was released in August 2013. She voiced Anna in Frozen, which was released on November 27, 2013. In 2013, for multiple episodes, Bell played Ingrid de Forest, an Eagleton City Councilwoman, on Parks and Recreation. On March 13, 2013, it was confirmed that a Veronica Mars film would be coming to fruition. Bell and series creator Rob Thomas launched a fundraising campaign to produce the film through Kickstarter and attained the $2 million goal in less than ten hours. The main cast members of the series all reprised their roles in the feature film. Production of the film took place during summer 2013, and it was released theatrically and on video-on-demand on March 14, 2014. In September 2014, Bell starred with her husband, Dax Shepard, in a commercial for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S. It was so popular (with over 20 million YouTube views) that they did another for the holiday season. The ad agency McKinney was behind both. In 2016, Bell voiced the sloth Priscilla in the animated comedy film Zootopia, and starred as Claire in the comedy film The Boss. Bell starred as Kiki in the 2016 comedy film Bad Moms, a role she reprised in the 2017 sequel, A Bad Moms Christmas. In 2016, Bell began starring as Eleanor Shellstrop in the NBC comedy series The Good Place. For her performance, she received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy, the TCA Award for Individual Achievement in Comedy, and the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series, among numerous others. Also in 2017, she appeared in the biographical comedy-drama The Disaster Artist, the action comedy CHiPs and the comedy How to Be a Latin Lover. In November 2017, she played a housewife (with Dax Shepard as her husband) preparing for a Christmas party in Sia's music video for "Santa's Coming for Us". In 2018, she began hosting the web series Momsplaining with Kristen Bell, with episodes airing on the Ellen DeGeneres video platform Ellentube. In the series, Bell gives new and expecting mothers tips about motherhood. The title of the series is a pun on the commonly used term "mansplaining". Bell later had the leading role in the Netflix comedy-drama film Like Father. She voiced the character of Jade Wilson in the animated comedy film Teen Titans Go! To the Movies and reprised her voice role as Princess Anna in the animated comedy sequel film Ralph Breaks the Internet. On September 20, 2018, Hulu confirmed that Bell would reprise her role of Veronica Mars in an 8-episode fourth season of the drama series Veronica Mars, which would premiere in July 2019. In 2019, she again reprised her role of Princess Anna in the video game Kingdom Hearts III and the sequel Frozen II which was released on November 22, 2019. Bell served as host and executive producer on the Disney+ docuseries Encore!, which premiered in November 2019. She made her directorial debut with the eighth episode of the fourth season of The Good Place. The series concluded after its fourth season, airing its final episode in January 2020. At the 25th Critics' Choice Awards, Bell received the #SeeHer Award, which recognizes women who "push boundaries on changing stereotypes and acknowledge the importance of authentic portrayals of women across the entertainment landscape". Since 2020: Established actress In 2020, Bell published the children's book The World Needs More Purple People, which she co-wrote with Benjamin Hart. Also in 2020, Bell voiced Molly Tillerman in the Apple TV+ animated musical comedy series Central Park, which reunited her with Frozen co-star Josh Gad and Bad Moms co-star Kathryn Hahn. Central Park received a two-season order from Apple and the series premiered on May 29, 2020. In June 2020, it was announced that Bell, who is white, would no longer voice the biracial character of Molly. The role would be re-cast with a black or mixed race actress, with Bell voicing a new role. In 2021, Bell produces and voices a lead character in the Amazon Prime Video animated musical pre-school series Do, Re, & Mi. She returned to narrate as the titular character of the HBO Max teen drama series Gossip Girl, a soft reboot and sequel to the 2007–2012 series of the same name. Bell starred alongside Kirby Howell-Baptiste as a pair of housewives who created a multi-million dollar coupon scam in the comedy film Queenpins. The film was released to Paramount+ on September 10, 2021. Her miniseries The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window was released on Netflix on January 28, 2022. In November 2022, Bell starred in the Amazon Prime movie The People We Hate at the Wedding. Bell appeared in three episodes of The Tiny Chef Show and serves as the show's executive producer. Public image In 2006 and again in 2013, Bell was selected "World's Sexiest Vegetarian" on PETA's yearly poll. She was placed 68 on Maxim's 2005 "Hot 100" list, 11 in Maxim's 2006 "Hot 100" list, and 46 in Maxim's 2007 "Hot 100" list in which she was stated to have "single-handedly saved The CW from becoming the worst network ever". In 2006, Maxim also placed Bell at the top of the "Fall TV's Criminally Sexy Investigators" List. In 2008, she was ranked 59 on AskMen's Top 99 Women of 2008 List. Reflecting on her admitted popularity with "geeks", Bell was voted the fourth-sexiest woman on TV by the staff at Wizard magazine. Bell stated she never thought of herself as womanly because "I always play and look and act 10 years younger than I am." However, she said, "Something magical happened when I turned 25—I looked in the mirror and was like, 'You might not get carded for an R-rated movie anymore.' Like I didn't have a little stick figure anymore." Bell has said that many of her characters are tomboys because she was "not homely enough to play the nerdy girl and not nearly pretty enough to play the pretty girl". Bell has been associated with the idea that "nerdy is the new cool", and she explained, "what was previously perceived as nerdy is now viewed as original. What I like about nerdiness, geekiness, is it doesn't really matter what you're into—it just means you're not a follower." She has also said, "I love nerds. Comic-Con junkies are the tastemakers of tomorrow. Isn't that funny? The tables have turned." Vanessa Juarez of Entertainment Weekly commented that Bell's roles on Veronica Mars, Heroes and as a Star Wars fanatic in Fanboys have "solidif[ied] her placement at the center of the geek universe," while Rodney Rothman stated, "I guess she's cornered the market on losers." Bell's work is often compared to Sarah Michelle Gellar's portrayal of the title character on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter stated that Bell was "arguably the television successor [to Gellar's portrayal of Buffy] when it comes to fighting bad guys." Bell is sometimes confused with Lauren Conrad from The Hills. "Yeah, sometimes fans yell, 'Hey, Lauren' to me, but usually from a distance," said Bell. Despite "new celebrity" status, Bell claimed that she was not concerned because "no one ever recognizes me anyway". She has said that her friend Hayden Panettiere is more famous than she is and attracts more attention; as Bell explained, "I hang out with Hayden quite a bit—they never take pictures of me. I just step to the side, and I push myself in front of her when she wants to get out of it, or put her in the car." Bell was a recurring guest on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, appearing in interviews as well as sketches. On The Late Late Show, she shows a humorous hostility towards Craig Ferguson's robot skeleton sidekick Geoff Peterson, claiming that she had wanted to be Ferguson's sidekick on his show and taking it upon herself to cut Peterson down every chance she gets. Both Bell and Peterson appeared with Ferguson during the five Late Late Show episodes filmed in France. In January 2011, it was announced that Bell would be the new face of Neutrogena. In 2014, Bell posed nude for the May issue of Allure magazine – alongside Jenna Dewan, Minnie Driver, and Nia Long. In April 2019, Bell was featured on the cover of Entrepreneur magazine's April–May issue. In the article, she discussed her snack bar company, This Bar Saves Lives, which donates its sales to help feed malnourished children around the globe. In November 2019, Bell and Idina Menzel, who play sisters in Disney's Frozen franchise, received neighboring stars—Bell's was the 2681st and Menzel's was the 2682nd—on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Personal life Relationships and family In 2007, Bell ended a five-year relationship with former fiancé Kevin Mann. She later told Complex magazine that dating "makes me want to vomit. And not out of grossness—OK, a little bit out of grossness, but just nerves... I've always been a serial monogamist." In late 2007, Bell began dating actor Dax Shepard, who is also from Metro Detroit. They announced their engagement in January 2010. They decided to delay marriage until the state of California passed legislation legalizing same-sex marriage. They co-starred in the 2010 film When in Rome, the 2012 film Hit and Run, and the 2017 film CHiPs. After section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on June 26, 2013, Bell asked Shepard to marry her through Twitter, which he accepted. They were married at the Beverly Hills County Clerk's Office on October 16, 2013. They have two daughters, born in March 2013, and December 2014. Beliefs, interests, and charity work At age 11, Bell became a vegetarian. In an interview with PETA, Bell stated, "I have always been an animal lover. I had a hard time disassociating the animals I cuddled with—dogs and cats, for example—from the animals on my plate, and I never really cared for the taste of meat. I always loved my Brussels sprouts!". By 2012 Bell had become vegan with Shepard after watching the documentary Forks Over Knives. During her first pregnancy, she returned to eating dairy products and eggs, however. During her time in Michigan, Bell fostered animals from the Michigan Humane Society, and she now supports the San Diego–based Helen Woodward Animal Center. Bell often attends fundraisers for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and other non-profit organizations dedicated to protecting animals. She has had several dogs, including a Welsh Corgi-Chow Chow mix named Lola, a Welsh Corgi-Chihuahua mix named Shakey and a black Labrador Retriever named Sadie, who was 11 years old when she was rescued from Hurricane Katrina and adopted by Bell in 2005. Bell has stated she is non-religious and identifies as a humanist. She and her husband Dax Shepard are pro-vaccination. Bell showed support for the Writers Guild of America in the writers' strike, appearing in the picket lines in December 2007, stating, "the writers are just looking for some fairness". Bell and other Veronica Mars cast members, including Ryan Hansen, are involved with the charity Invisible Children, Inc. The goal of the organization is to create awareness of the plight of Northern Ugandans who are caught in the midst of a civil war between the government and Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army. Bell supported and campaigned for Barack Obama during the 2008 United States presidential election. Along with Rashida Jones, she visited college campuses in Missouri to discuss the candidates and encourage voter registration. In 2013, Kristen Bell, along with actors Ryan Devlin, Todd Grinnell, and Ravi Patel, founded the granola bar company This Bar Saves Lives to help fight malnutrition. The business donates food aid in the form of nutrition packets to children in Haiti, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia. Since its launch, the company has donated more than 10 million packets as of February 2019. In 2014, Bell launched a Prizeo campaign offering fans a chance to win a date with her in return for donating to Invisible Children, Inc. In 2018, Bell participated in a television advertisement for bone marrow donations, specifically the Gift of Life Marrow Registry. Her actions resulted in several matches that are documented on the Gift of Life website. Bell won a 2020 Webby Special Achievement Award. In 2023, Bell revealed that she had taken up Brazilian jiu-jitsu and was training under Cesalina Gracie in mother-daughter classes alongside her daughter. Mental health In May 2016, Bell stated that she has received treatment for depression and anxiety. She said, "It's important for me to be candid about this so people in a similar situation can realize that they are not worthless and that they do have something to offer." In an interview with Jimmy Kimmel in August 2018, Bell discussed why she wears scuba gloves while swimming. She stated that she fears the sensation of touching things with water-immersed, wrinkled fingers, otherwise known as "pruney fingers". The gloves have allowed her to swim with her children without fearing touching them. Entrepreneurship In 2019, Bell and her husband founded the company Hello Bello that markets plant-based baby care products said to be environmentally friendly and affordable. As of 2021, Hello Bello's estimated annual revenue was $26.1 million a year with 104 employees. In 2020, she partnered to start Happy Dance, a line of vegan CBD products such as eye cream and hand moisturizers. In 2023, Hello Bello filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, blaming years of declining sales and the financial startup crisis. The company is set to be acquired by private equity firm Hildred Capital Management. Filmography Discography Awards and nominations References External links Kristen Bell at IMDb Kristen Bell at the Internet Broadway Database Kristen Bell at the TCM Movie Database Kristen Bell at AllMovie

Dax Randall Shepard (born January 2, 1975) is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker and podcaster. Since 2018, he has hosted Armchair Expert, a podcast in which he interviews celebrities, journalists, and academics about their lives. Shepard has appeared in the feature films Without a Paddle (2004), Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005), Employee of the Month (2006), Idiocracy (2006), Let's Go to Prison (2006), Hit and Run (2012), and CHiPs (2017), the last two of which he also wrote and directed. Shepard portrayed Crosby Braverman in the NBC comedy-drama series Parenthood from 2010 to 2015. He also played Luke Matthews in the Netflix show The Ranch, co-starred in ABC's Bless This Mess and acted in the MTV practical joke reality series Punk'd (2003). He is also a co-founder of the diaper and baby product company Hello Bello with his wife Kristen Bell. Early life and education Shepard was born in Ypsilanti, Michigan at Beyer Hospital, in Washtenaw County, Michigan, in suburban Detroit. He is the son of Laura LaBo, who worked at General Motors (GM), and David Robert "Dave" Shepard Sr., who was a car salesman. His parents divorced when he was 3 years old. Shepard was sexually abused at age 7, which he believes was a major underlying cause of his later substance abuse issues. He did not reveal the abuse to anyone for 12 years after it occurred. Shepard's mother had developed a substantial business by the time he was in high school. She worked car shows with traveling events at racetracks. She started as a janitor on the midnight shift at GM, then worked in fleet management at the GM proving grounds in Milford, Michigan, then hosted hospitality days for all the GM family members, eventually moving into public relations at an ad agency. She returned to GM, becoming the owner of four shops that managed publicity events for magazine journalists. From 14 to 18, Shepard worked for his mother on the road, going from racetrack to racetrack. For about two years, Shepard had a stepfather who was an engineer on the Corvette. Shepard's mother has been married four times; Shepard said he'd had three stepfathers. According to Shepard, his mother named him for the rich playboy Dax (Diogenes Alejandro Xenos), in Harold Robbins' novel The Adventurers. He has an older brother, David Shepard Jr., who lives in Oregon, and a younger half-sister, Carly Hatter, whom he cast in two films: 2012's Hit and Run and 2017's CHiPs. Through marriage, he is distantly related to George Washington on his mother's side. Shepard has said that he was raised in Milford, although he lived in a lot of places in suburban Detroit, growing up primarily in Walled Lake, Michigan. Shepard is dyslexic and said it inspired his acting career. He graduated from Walled Lake Central High School in 1993 before enrolling in The Groundlings school. After attending Santa Monica College and West Los Angeles College, Shepard transferred to UCLA, where he graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in anthropology. He had a deal with his mother that if he went to college she would pay his rent. Career After a year in Santa Barbara, California, Shepard moved to Los Angeles in 1996. He found out about The Groundlings improv troupe from a friend from Santa Barbara, Kareem Elseify, who ended up auditioning (the first time he acted) and took classes while attending UCLA. After about five years of classes, he got into the Sunday Company of The Groundlings—in a group that included Melissa McCarthy, Fortune Feimster, Tate Taylor, and Nat Faxon. From 2003 onwards, Shepard appeared in the improv Candid Camera-type show Punk'd, with Ashton Kutcher. When the show had its 2012 revival, he continued to appear. Shepard said he auditioned for Punk'd and, while doing the pilot, became friendly with Kutcher, who arranged for him to get an agent. He had auditioned unsuccessfully for ten years before landing the role in Punk'd, his first. In 2004, Shepard starred in the comedy Without a Paddle, alongside Seth Green and Matthew Lillard. The film received negative reviews and was a commercial success that as of 2009 had grossed more than US$65 million worldwide. In 2005, he starred as The Astronaut in Zathura: A Space Adventure, a science fiction adventure fantasy film. In 2006, he appeared with Dane Cook and Jessica Simpson in the comedy Employee of the Month and in Mike Judge's film Idiocracy as the character Frito. During the same time, Shepard began appearing in more films and landed his first main character role in Let's Go to Prison (2006), alongside Will Arnett and Chi McBride. He had a main role in the 2008 comedy Baby Mama, starring opposite Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Shepard wrote the script for the Paramount venture Get 'Em Wet, where he again appeared with Arnett. In 2010, he wrote, directed, and starred in the low-budget satirical mockumentary feature Brother's Justice; the film won an Audience Award at the 2010 Austin Film Festival. He had a supporting role in the 2010 romantic comedy film When in Rome, which starred his future wife Kristen Bell. From 2010 to 2015, Shepard was part of the main cast of the NBC drama Parenthood, playing Crosby Braverman. Shepard wrote, produced, co-directed, and starred in the 2012 low-budget film Hit and Run alongside Bell and his close friend Bradley Cooper. He said the movie, which includes numerous car chases and fast driving scenes, allowed him to live out his Smokey and the Bandit fantasy. Shepard had a supporting role in the 2014 film The Judge, which starred Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall and Vera Farmiga. In September 2014, Shepard starred with his wife, Kristen Bell, in a commercial for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S. It was so popular (with over 20 million YouTube views) that they did another commercial for the holiday season. The ad agency McKinney was behind both. Shepard wrote and directed a feature-length film called CHiPs, based on the 1977 to 1983 American crime drama of the same name, where he starred as Officer Jon Baker alongside Michael Peña as Frank "Ponch" Poncherello. The project was released by Warner Bros. on March 24, 2017, to negative reviews. On February 14, 2018, Shepard launched the podcast Armchair Expert with cohost Monica Padman. The show explores the stories of their guests. Featured guests on the show have included Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Kristen Bell, Ashton Kutcher, Will Ferrell, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and hundreds of others. On June 7, 2018, the show released their first episode of "Experts on Expert", in which Shepard and Padman interview experts in their fields. Featured experts on the show have included psychologist Wendy Mogel, comedian and author David Sedaris, and speechwriter Jon Favreau. The show was the most popular new podcast on iTunes in 2018. On December 3, 2019, it was revealed that Shepard will be a host of the revived Top Gear America, which premiered on Motor Trend in January 2021. In 2024, the company secured a first-look deal with Wondery, a unit of Amazon, after the success of the podcast show Armchair Expert. Personal life Relationships Shepard met actress Kristen Bell, also a native of Detroit's northern suburbs, at the birthday party of a mutual friend; they began dating in late 2007. The couple announced their engagement in January 2010; they decided to delay marriage until the state of California passed legislation legalizing same-sex marriage. After section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on June 26, 2013, Bell asked Shepard through Twitter to marry her, which he accepted. They were married at the Beverly Hills County Clerk's Office on October 17, 2013. They have two daughters, born in March 2013 and December 2014. Substance use disorder Shepard has said that, except for a year in high school when he used drugs, he did not have a substance abuse problem until he was 18 years old. After struggling for years with alcohol, cocaine, and pills, Shepard achieved sobriety in September 2005. On September 25, 2020, in a special episode of his podcast, Armchair Expert, Shepard revealed he had relapsed while recovering from an accident by using painkillers to augment a prescription. He announced that he was again sober, with seven days of sobriety as of the recording date (September 21, 2020). Interests and charity work Shepard races motorcycles at Buttonwillow Raceway Park, including his Ducati Hypermotard 1100S and Suzuki GSX-R1000. He donates much of his time to the Hollenbeck Youth Center, an after-school program that provides opportunity to at-risk inner-city youth. He has served as their official Master of Ceremonies, along with his friend Tom Arnold, for the Inner-City Games and Hollenbeck Youth Center's Miracle on 1st Street Toy Giveaway Program in East Los Angeles. He is an avid car enthusiast. He owns the 1967 Lincoln Continental that was featured in the movie Hit and Run, and races off-road. Shepard and his wife were advocates of California Senate Bill 606, called "no-kids paparazzi". Bell said: "We're not saying that we can't be newsworthy. We're saying that our child is not newsworthy." California Senate Bill 606 passed in 2013, with testimony by actresses Halle Berry and Jennifer Garner. Shepard practices Transcendental Meditation. Filmography Film Television Awards and nominations References External links Dax Shepard at IMDb

PAW Patrol: The Movie is a 2021 Canadian animated action-adventure comedy film based on the television series PAW Patrol created by Keith Chapman. It was directed by Cal Brunker, who co-wrote the screenplay with Billy Frolick and Bob Barlen from a story by Frolick. Several cast members from the main series reprised their roles, including Kingsley Marshall (voicing Marshall), Keegan Hedley (voicing Rubble), Shayle Simons (voicing Zuma), Lilly Bartlam (voicing Skye), and Ron Pardo (voicing both Cap'n Turbot and Mayor Humdinger). They are joined by Iain Armitage (voicing Chase), Marsai Martin, Yara Shahidi, Kim Kardashian, Randall Park, Dax Shepard, Jimmy Kimmel, Tyler Perry, and introducing Will Brisbin in his film debut as Ryder. In the film, Ryder and the Paw Patrol pups are called to Adventure City in order to stop the recently-elected Mayor Humdinger from wreaking havoc. Ronnen Harary announced that Spin Master Entertainment was "considering whether to extend the Paw Patrol franchise into feature films at some point in the next 12 to 24 months" in November 2017. Development for the feature film based on the Paw Patrol television series began in February 2020, with Brunker attached to direct, and Barlen and Frolick attached to write the screenplay. From October 2020 to May 2021, the voice casting call began. Production was done remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. The film was produced almost entirely in Canada; according to Brunker, "95 percent of everything" happened in Canada, with the exception being some audio recording. Paw Patrol: The Movie premiered at the Vue Leicester Square in London on August 8, 2021, and also premiered in the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on August 14, and was theatrically released in both Canada by Elevation Pictures and the United States by Paramount Pictures on August 20, 2021. It was also made available on Paramount+ on the same day in the United States. The film received generally positive reviews from critics for its animation, themes, characterization, soundtrack, and action sequences, but criticized for its writing, pacing, and focusing on the show's merchandising arm, and became a box office success, grossing over $151 million worldwide against a production budget of $26 million. A sequel titled Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie was released on September 29, 2023, featuring elements from the Mighty Movie sub-theme of the main show and a third film is scheduled for release on July 31, 2026. Plot In Adventure Bay, a truck driver named Gus crashes and hangs over the town’s suspension bridge; Cap’n Turbot arrives on the scene and calls the Paw Patrol to help rescue him. After the save, a dachshund named Liberty alerts the Paw Patrol that their arch-nemesis Mayor Humdinger has just become mayor in nearby Adventure City. Chase initially refuses to go, due to PTSD from the city when he was younger, but reluctantly agrees to go after Ryder says everything will be fine. On a rainy day as Ryder and the pups are settling into their new headquarters, Humdinger goes to a meteorology laboratory and insists on testing out the "Cloud Catcher", a device designed by Dr. Kendra Wilson to collect clouds for research. That night, Humdinger is giving a fireworks display to celebrate his election, but the show goes awry and Ryder and the pups suit up to respond with the help of Liberty. During the response, Chase sees some citizens trapped on a balcony and parachutes down to rescue them, but he forgets to take off his parachute and gets blown over the railing by a wind gust, causing him to feel distress. The next day, Humdinger unveils a loop-the-loop extension he has designed for a subway train, which breaks down and leaves the train trapped at the top of the last loop. While trying to stop the train from falling, Ryder sends Chase up to a rooftop to zip-line to the train cars so the passengers can be saved, but ends up freezing due to his fear of heights. Skye saves Chase, while Marshall rescues the passengers instead. After the rescue is finished, Ryder advises Chase to take a break, but a heartbroken Chase accuses him of breaking his trust and runs away, only to be captured by Humdinger's henchmen, Butch and Ruben, and taken to an obedience school which Humdinger has turned into a dog pound. There, Chase meets his cellmates who had also been kidnapped. To help save Chase, Liberty deliberately gets herself captured by knocking over a stage piece during a live interview of Humdinger. She is taken to the pound, and there, she meets a poodle named Delores and speaks with Chase. Ryder and the rest of the Paw Patrol follow, allowing them to break into the pound and set the other dogs free. As the other pups return to Adventure City HQ, Ryder takes Chase to an intersection where he had found him as a puppy and explains to Chase that he adopted him because he saw bravery in him. Later, Humdinger reveals an extension he has added to the city's tallest skyscraper, putting his office at the very top. Just then, the Cloud Catcher becomes overfilled and goes critical, having not been designed to run nonstop or be used for controlling weather as Kendra fails to have Mayor Humdinger bring it back down. It begins leaking clouds with weeks worth of nasty weather, placing a massive hurricane-strength storm over all of Adventure City. Kendra contacts the Paw Patrol and they respond in a flash, with Ryder making Liberty an official member and giving her a motor scooter. As the pups help the citizens take cover, Ryder ascends to Humdinger's office and convinces him to evacuate by getting on the elevator. Ryder manually releases the elevator cables to quickly lower Humdinger and his kittens to the ground, and then starts rappelling down the shaft, but the tower gets blown over sideways and Ryder gets trapped. Having seen the tower fall, a horrified Chase rushes to rescue him by using suction-cupped tires on his car's detachable motorcycle to ride straight up the side of the windows. Upon seeing the glow from a safety light on Ryder's suit, Chase rushes to a gap where the tower has split. He becomes worried about getting across when he has to ditch his grappling hook, but then remembers Ryder's words about his bravery and takes a leap of faith across the gap, managing to make it to the other side. Soon he reaches Ryder and helps him get unstuck before they both escape from the building, while Skye uses a kamikaze-style attack to sacrifice her helicopter and destroy the Cloud Catcher. As the weather is cleared and sunny again, Chase arrests Humdinger for gross negligence, public endangerment, and "dognapping" and gets him removed from office. Later that day, the PAW Patrol is given the key to Adventure City in a major ceremony held by Kendra and news reporter Marty Muckraker as Ryder gives Liberty her own pup tag and collar to make her a true member, finally fulfilling her dreams. The film ends with the team being called off for another rescue by one of the dogs from the pound. Voice cast Iain Armitage as Chase, an ambitious 7-year-old German Shepherd is the main protagonist of the movie who serves as a police pup. He grew up on the streets of Adventure City, giving him a "strong character arc for the film". Armitage found the role special and enjoyable. He said, "It's a new challenge because you don't get to convey anything with your body movements… that's all the animator's job," he then explained: "You can only use your voice to convey whatever you're trying to show. But it's really fun to do animation." Armitage replaces Justin Kelly from the series. Marsai Martin as Liberty, a spirited long-haired Dachshund who grew up and lives in Adventure City and becomes the newest member of the Paw Patrol. She considers the team to be her heroes and works hard to keep the city clean, she also dreams of becoming the team's member before joining them. She is outspoken and often snarks at other people. Martin said this particular role was unique because it hits close to home. Martin expressed her feelings about her role, "She's so wild and a free spirit. She's so energetic and fun, and I feel like she'd actually make a perfect fit into the Paw Patrol because of how amazing and wild she is." Yara Shahidi as Dr. Kendra Wilson, a scientist who works at a university and quotes things in scientific terms that have to be repeated in normal terms until Rubble understands what she said. She invented the Cloud Catcher, a tool that Mayor Humdinger would use to clear the weather. Kim Kardashian as Delores, a sassy Poodle who is working at an animal shelter after being jailed in the Fuzzy Buddies obedience school. Kardashian said she was excited to voice the part, thrilled that her children now consider her a "cool mom". Randall Park as Butch, a burly man and one of Mayor Humdinger's security guards who attempt to keep the pups out of Adventure City. Dax Shepard as Ruben, a skinny man and another of Mayor Humdinger's security guards. On voicing his character role, Shepard stated that Paw Patrol "was the first show he was forced to watch after becoming a dad but admitted that he actually enjoys it", adding: "that earned him some serious cred with his kids". He concluded: "I get to reintroduce my kids to that experience of going to the movies that I valued so much growing up". Tyler Perry as Gus, a truck driver in the midst of transporting Canadian maple syrup to its destination when he is saved by Chase after his truck swerves off a bridge to avoid hitting a baby sea turtle. Perry, on his role, saying that his 6-year-old son Aman is also thrilled that his father is involved in the film. "He loves Skye and Chase and Zuma. I know the theme song like the back of my mind," he stated in an interview. "...That's the reason I said yes. I really wanted to be a part of something that he could appreciate as much as I do." Jimmy Kimmel as Marty Muckraker, the wig-wearing news anchor of the Adventure City News Network. Kimmel also had trouble convincing his kids, 4-year-old Billy and 7-year-old Jane, of his role in the film. "I have been telling them, trying to explain to them that Daddy's in the Paw Patrol movie," the late-night host jokes. "I'm hopeful this will make me a big shot, at least for a couple of days." Will Brisbin as Ryder, a 10-year-old boy who serves as the leader of the Paw Patrol. With his leadership, Ryder confidently sends the group on their mission to save Adventure City from dog-hating Mayor Humdinger and also having a complicated relationship with Chase. Brisbin had to keep his role a closely-guarded secret for some time, which he found difficult as his nine-year-old brother is a huge Paw Patrol fan. Brisbin replaces Beckett Hipkiss from the series. Keegan Hedley as Rubble, a wisecracking 5-year-old English Bulldog who serves as a construction pup. He becomes the main comic relief character in the film as opposed to the series, so Hedley was encouraged to make up his own dialogue during his recording. After recording, director Cal Brunker says that his personality is a mix of Disney/Pixar comic-relief sidekicks such as The Seven Dwarfs, Jiminy Cricket, the Genie, Timon and Pumbaa, Mushu, Dory, Mater, Olaf, Ducky and Bunny, giving him a personality change from being a tough pup to a funny comic-relief character in this film. Lilly Bartlam as Skye, a sweet 7-year-old Cockapoo who serves as an aviator pup. Kingsley Marshall as Marshall, a cuddly 6-year-old Dalmatian who serves as a firefighting pup. Callum Shoniker as Rocky, a clever 6-year-old mixed-breed dog who serves as a recycling pup. Shoniker previously voiced the Copycat from the Mighty Pups, Charged Up sub-series and replaces Jackson Reid from the series. Shayle Simons as Zuma, an energetic 5-year-old chocolate Labrador who serves as an aquatic rescue pup. Ron Pardo as: Mayor Humdinger, the Paw Patrol's arch-nemesis from Foggy Bottom who is elected the mayor of nearby Adventure City due to his name being the only one on the ballot and the other candidate somehow withdrawing from the election. Though Humdinger despises the Paw Patrol pups, he has shown a general dislike for dogs in general because he prefers cats. Pardo said he drew inspiration for Mayor Humdinger's voice from mixing impressions of a Dudley Do-Right cartoon character with a well-known American entertainer from the 1930s-1950s. Cap'n Turbot, a sea captain and animal expert who is one of the Paw Patrol's closest friends. Kim Roberts as Mayor Goodway, the Mayor of Adventure Bay. Paul Braunstein as a tough guy on a subway who Liberty scolds for littering. Richard Arnold provides the voice of the tough guy in the UK dub. Neil Crone as Tony, the proprietor of the namesake of his grocery store. Monique Alvarez as Carmen, Liberty's friend who works at a bodega. Jamillah Ross as a camerawoman working for Marty Muckraker. Josh Robert Thompson as the fireworks technician that Mayor Humdinger enlisted to pull off his fireworks show. Josh Graham as the computer voice that is heard in the Paw Patrol's vehicles and their satellite headquarters in Adventure City. Joe Pingue as Barney, an Old English Sheepdog and inmate at Fuzzy Buddies obedience school. Charles Gallant as Harris, a Labrador Retriever and inmate at Fuzzy Buddies obedience school. Ronan Keating provides the voice of Harris in the UK dub. Richard Binsley as Rocket, a Jack Russell Terrier and inmate at Fuzzy Buddies obedience school who often chases his tail. Tom Fletcher provides the voice of Rocket in the UK dub. Raoul Bhaneja as Dad Saara Chaudry as Daughter Kevin Duhaney as a window washer Five side characters from the original series also make non-speaking cameo appearances in the film during the rescue of Gus: Francois Turbot, Katie, Mr. Porter, Farmer Al, and Farmer Yumi. Production Development In November 2017, Ronnen Harary confirmed that Spin Master was "currently considering whether to extend the Paw Patrol franchise into feature films at some point in the next 12 to 24 months". Animation tests were conducted in 2017 to measure how the characters "would translate onto the big screen" and the company developed a film script. Development of the film was confirmed on February 21, 2020, with Cal Brunker attached as director while Spin Master Entertainment's president, Jennifer Dodge serves as the film's producer. Production was done in both the United States and Canada. On March 13, 2021, an exclusive first look of the film was shown during the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards 2021. Dodge stated that they were excited about the partnership with Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies to bring the franchise to the big screen. She adds, "This first foray into the arena of feature film marks a significant strategic expansion for Spin Master Entertainment and our properties. This demonstrates our commitment to harnessing our own internal entertainment production teams to develop and deliver IP in a motion picture format and allows us to connect our characters to fans through shared theatrical experiences." Dodge said, "For us, it was important to be able to tell a deeper character story than what they've been able to do with the series." She also explained, "And to tell it in a way that a child really can understand and relate to, and maybe even their parents get a deeper meaning from it. You can have a hard day at school or daycare and you can rise above those difficulties and you can come through on the other side. It doesn't mean you're never scared, it doesn't mean you don't doubt yourself. But, if at the end of the day, you really believe in yourself and you have people around you who believe in you, you can overcome it." "When the chance came to pitch my take on the movie, I was able to bring all of their experience and what my kids loved about the show to the pitch, and I think that really helped," says Brunker. "Our take was, we really wanted to build this around the emotional journey of one character, so it felt like more of a theatrical experience. You go on a journey with one of these characters overcoming their struggles, and the whole team is involved, but we felt that that was the best way to bring an audience deeper into the story." Casting On October 15, 2020, Iain Armitage, Marsai Martin, Yara Shahidi, Kim Kardashian, Randall Park, Dax Shepard, Tyler Perry, and Jimmy Kimmel were announced as part of the cast. On May 3, 2021, the cast and characters were announced. Adam Levine, Perry and Kardashian joined the cast because their respective children were fans of the show. For the role of Ryder, more than 1,000 people auditioned before Will Brisbin a 15-years old actor from Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada, got the role. On July 14, it was announced that Ronan Keating, Richard Arnold, Sam Faiers and Tom Fletcher were added to the cast as part of the voice cameos for the dubs in the UK and Ireland. During an interview with Collider, Brunker spoke about enjoying the voice cast overall. "The core cast of pups and Ryder are all kids, and that was new for us and really wonderful. We really worked with them to try to get true, meaningful performances out of all the characters, and I thought they did an amazing job. The character of Chase, played by Iain [Armitage], goes on such a wonderful emotional journey that's a little bit unexpected, and he just brought so much to it. He broke our hearts in some moments. You really end up rooting for him. In terms of improvisation, I would say Marsai's deliveries were the things that were most surprising. She almost couldn't do anything bad. When we were going through the takes, it was like, "This is great. This is great in a different way. And this is great in a different way." She was wonderful and brought so much energy to it. Everybody was wonderful. Dax [Shepard] is the nicest guy, who was game on for everything. Tyler Perry was thrilled to be a part of it. His son is a big fan, and he certainly loves to improvise and do lots of takes. We couldn't have had a better cast or a better experience for recording them." In an interview with Screen Rant, Iain Armitage spoke about the film and how he aspires to be like his canine counterpart Chase, ahead of the film's home entertainment release. He stated about the film's main character, "Chase is a fun, funny, smart, brave, loyal dog. And he's a police dog, and he's sort of the, I don't think he's the head of the team, but he's really on top of things. I think he's very cool under pressure. He's very helpful. And he always loves to help other people. And he's always very kind, which I think is very important. And I think I try to be like him in everyday life. I don't always succeed, but I try." According to Armitage, "The cool thing about voice-over is, you can't convey things with your body because, of course, they don't see it. So you sort of have to have everything that you're going to be doing for the character come through in your voice, which is hard, but it's also kind of fun. It's a fun challenge, but on the upside, you can show up to work in pajamas, and they won't get mad at you. So that balances out. But I think just trying to really bring emotion into my voice in some of those scenes and to really make it clear that I care about Ryder [Will Brisbin] and my fellow pups on the team." Writing On February 21, 2020, Bob Barlen announced that he would co-write the screenplay with Billy Frolick. Director Cal Brunker, who also wrote the film along with his childhood friend Bob Barlen and Billy Frolick, came to the film with a solid understanding of the characters thanks to his own kids. Screenwriter Barlen described the main character to be focused on in the film: "Chase is kind of like the quarterback. Chase sort of seems like the main character, and so being able to expand and kind of have a character who fails and who has to overcome an obstacle is important. We were able to do more than the TV show time allows. Starting in Adventure Bay, you see him as that same perfect pup from the show where he's executing things flawlessly. That's really where we were able to expand on his backstory and create something that would be worthy of the feature film. So, you're seeing him for the first time really ever make mistakes and mess up and come to terms with not being perfect, and then pushing through and overcoming that fear. That was really something that we were excited about in terms of telling a story." Brunker adds, "At its core, the movie is about what it means to be scared, and how to overcome your fears. It felt really important to be doing something that we could share with people at this time as the movie comes out. I think people are coming out of this time of fear and uncertainty, and I think the movie has a lot to say about that. And we really feel proud that hopefully this is going to be one of the first movies that people get to see in theaters again." The film also represented the fulfillment of a lifetime dream for Bob Barlen and Cal Brunker, who had been making films together for decades. Brunker had known Barlen since they attended high school, and would make films with him later into their respective careers: "Back before we ever got a chance to make a movie, Bob and I went to Hollywood for the first time, and we actually paid to go on the Paramount lot tour. You know, you get to see behind the gates. We said to each other, wouldn't it be amazing if one day we were making a movie for Paramount? Well, we're six or seven weeks away from our first movie for Paramount coming out. And to be entrusted with such a beloved brand for so many people and to be able to share that with the world, this is a dream come true for us. It's been something we've been working towards for a long time and, and it's a real gift." Animation On November 8, 2019, it was announced that Mikros Image in Montreal would handle the animation. There are 250 filmmakers with a team of about 60 devoted to the animation. Their biggest challenge was creating high-quality theatrical animation that didn't lose the style of the series. They were also especially interested in creating action scenes that had more of a realistic quality. While they wanted to focus on the backstory of one character, it was also important to them to add a new female pup to the crew, since the character Skye is usually the only female on the team. New pups often appear in the series for a specific adventure to round out the team, but then are not necessarily in every episode going forward. Barlen stated about adding a new pup to the film: "For us, in terms of actually creating Liberty, it was really fun because one of the nice things was that we were able to create a character that maybe was a bit different than the other pups. All the pups in the PAW Patrol are perfect and they're great. They're a certain way, but Liberty has got a little bit of an edge to her, which is nice. Having her experience and seeing her experiencing the film from her point of view, as she relates to the Paw Patrol, is really fun. And then, in terms of Marsai Martin who plays her, she's such an incredible actress. It was such a gift that she agreed to do it because she really brings the character to life. We couldn't imagine her being played in a better way by a better character, so we were really looking to have her on." Brunker says that Liberty is a new character, which allows them to write differently for her than the other pups. They also knew when she grow up in Adventure City, it justifies her having a little bit 'thicker' skin and a tougher way of talking. He stated that it is fun to juxtapose with the attitudes that the other people used to from the regular core team of pups. Brunker stated: "For me, it started really young with drawing and being a visual thinker and expressing myself visually. The idea of being able to create almost anything you can imagine in animation is something that I find incredibly attractive..." while Barlen agrees, saying, "One of the nice things about animated movies, just from growing up on animated films and loving them well past when I was grown, is that it's so many people coming together and being able to make a film on a large scale that goes out so wide across the world. One of the exciting things about being a filmmaker is that your work is seen by hundreds of thousands or millions of people. Animation allows us to work at a scale where we can do something spectacular and really special on screen." "My daughter is a huge Skye fan", says Brunker. "She was four when we started making this movie. So, we wanted to give Skye some really big, exciting moments. We also felt, just in terms of bringing something fresh and new to the team, a new girl pup would be wonderful. Because she's new for the movie, we wanted to make her stand out. We thought that because she was from the city we could make her a little tougher, a little more rough around the edges than the other pups are, and that would bring something fresh to that world as well." Dodge and Brunker both thought the style of the animation needed to remain true to the series, but with some significant adjustments to give it a more theatrical feel. According to Brunker, they wanted to redesign some things noticed in the movie: "The back legs of the dogs actually look and function like real dog legs and in the TV show they're kind of more cartoony; just kind of stick legs. We felt it would allow them to move more like real dogs, and if we could push the realism of the movement, then it would make the fact that they're doing these great big rescues and all this heroic stuff even more exciting." At a reported budget of $26 million, the CGI animation is more polished and textured than the series, with Brunker and his team reshaping and rebuilding every character, vehicle and environment from scratch. Aside from some voice recording in Los Angeles (including recordings from most of the cast remotely) and orchestral scoring in Nashville, "95 percent of everything" happened in Canada, according to Brunker. Music Heitor Pereira composed the music for the film. He previously collaborated with director Brunker on The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature. On June 2, 2021, it was confirmed that Maroon 5 lead singer Adam Levine had provided an original song, titled "Good Mood". It was written by Shellback, Savan Kotecha, Oscar Görres and Adam Levine; Shellback and Oscar Görres are the producers, while Savan Kotecha serves as the executive producer. The track was officially released on August 6, and sent to Italian radio on October 1, 2021. Another song, titled "The Use in Trying", was announced on August 2, 2021, as well as the official release on August 10, co-written by Alessia Cara (who performs the track) and Jon Levine, who additionally serves as producer. Levine stated that "her one-of-a-kind voice weaves a beautiful song that captures the sadness and uncertainty during a pinnacle moment in the film". Original songs performed for the film include: Release Theatrical and streaming During Spin Master's first quarter 2019 earnings conference call, an animated theatrical film based on the series was announced to be "in the works" with an August 2021 theatrical release date. On April 24, 2020, the film's theatrical release was announced to be August 20, 2021. The film was also available to stream on Paramount+ in the U.S. on the same day it released in theaters. Because Canadian distribution is handled by Elevation Pictures, the Canadian version of Paramount+ did not initially offer the movie, and it is unknown if it will. In July 2024, the film was made available to stream on Netflix in the United States. In July 2021, Paramount Pictures UK and Ireland announced that the film would be released in British and Irish theatres on August 9, 2021. This version also retained the voice actors of the British dub. The film had its red carpet premiere at the Vue Leicester Square in London on August 8, 2021. Paw Patrol: The Movie was released in China on January 14, 2022. Marketing By October 2020, the number of UK marketing partners have signed to promote Paw Patrol: The Movie. It includes Spin Master, Play by Play, Crayola, VTech, Sambro, RMS International, Kiddieland, Blues, Fashion UK, Aykroyd TDP, Amscan, Character World, Worlds Apart, Kinnerton, Seabrook, Yoplait, Beiersdorf, Signature Gifts, Egmont, Danilo, and DNC. On April 26, 2021, it was announced that Jakks Pacific and Disguise acquired the new rights as the toy and costume partner based on the film. The Halloween costumes and accessories from Disguise was available online, at retailers and Halloween specialty stores was also available in fall 2021. On June 30, 2021, Mattel purchased rights to create a selection of items under its Mega Bloks and Uno brands which include more than 10 products featuring the characters from the film. The line of products was available in fall 2021. A series of books based on the film was published on July 13, 2021. A line of action figures and toys collection by Spin Master was released on August 1, 2021, after July 15 presale. In June 2021, PetPlate announced its partnership for the launch of the film. In July, Marston's made a deal with Paramount Pictures to launch the exclusive meal deal and collectible mask offer across 270 pubs ahead of the film release in the UK. The kids' meal deal offer ran throughout August, and it also includes the merchandise, such as six collectible character masks and activity sheets. Additional marketing partners for the film included Build-A-Bear, Hasbro, Kellogg's, Campbell's, Kraft Heinz, and Random House Children's Books, while ViacomCBS has partnered with retailers such as Walmart, Target, Amazon, Kroger, and LIDL. Home media Paramount Home Entertainment released Paw Patrol: The Movie on digital on October 26, 2021, then on DVD and Blu-ray on November 2, 2021. The digital release features hours of entertainment with exclusive bonus content, including a look at the team, additional news reports with reporter Marty Muckraker (voiced by Jimmy Kimmel) and a sing-along with a reimagined Paw Patrol theme song lyric video. It also includes the bonus episodes with one never-before-seen episode from the popular Nickelodeon series, and a never-before-seen episode of Blaze and the Monster Machines. When the film was released on disc, it entered the national NPD VideoScan First Alert sales chart at No. 2, debuting at No. 3 on the dedicated Blu-ray Disc chart. Television broadcasts Paw Patrol: The Movie aired on Nickelodeon on November 18, 2022. Following its debut, Paw Patrol: The Movie encored on the following Saturday (Nov. 19) and Sunday (Nov. 20). Reception Box office Paw Patrol: The Movie grossed $40.1 million in the United States and Canada, and $111.3 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $151.4 million. In the United States and Canada, Paw Patrol: The Movie was released alongside Reminiscence, The Night House, and The Protégé as well as the limited release of Flag Day and was initially projected to gross around $7–9 million from 3,184 theaters in its opening weekend. After making $4.5 million on its first day, estimates were increased to $12–14 million. It went on to debut to $13 million, finishing second behind holdover Free Guy; 88% of the audience was made up of families, 63% being under the age of 25. The opening was noteworthy because Regal Cinemas, the second-largest chain in the U.S., refused to carry the film due to its day-and-date release. The film fell 50% in its second weekend to $6.6 million, finishing in third. It then made $4 million in its third weekend, declining 40% and finishing in fifth place. Worldwide, Paw Patrol: The Movie debuted in six markets, making $5.8 million in its first weekend, including a $2.3 million opening in France and a $3.2 million opening in the United Kingdom. In its second weekend, the film made $12.8 million in 39 markets; the top countries were Germany ($2.6 million), the Netherlands ($1.1 million), Mexico ($864,000), France, and the United Kingdom. It also had a South Korean opening in a mere 240 theaters, a decision by the Korea Theater Association to release local titles instead. In its third, the film was screened in 46 markets and grossed $10.3 million, which included #1 openings in Spain, Argentina, and Chile. Critical response On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 80% based on 51 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 50 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported 81% of audience members gave it a positive score, with 66% saying they would definitely recommend it. Randy Myers of The Mercury News gave the film three stars out of four and said, "This old-fashioned, G-rated animated children's film (young children, that is, not teens or tweens) does everything it intends to do. And does it well." Kristen Page-Kirby of The Washington Post gave two and a half stars out of four and said, "A better movie than it needs to be, with some neat visuals, an outstanding score and a story that, while simple, is well told." Glenn Kenny of The New York Times called the film, "Entirely toddler-friendly and irony-free". Nate Adams of The Only Critic gave the film a B, and wrote in his review, "I think three to six-year-olds are going to wince with glee at the sight of their favorite puppers saving the day, but the parents who are forced to go along for the ride will appreciate the film's cheery sense of humor and educational elements." Lisa Giles-Keddie of HeyUGuys gave the film four stars out of five and said, "A relentlessly entertainment big screen outing for the familiar pups. A perfect slice of summer cinema for all the family." James Mottram of South China Morning Post gave the film three stars out of five, saying "Paw Patrol: The Movie is a solidly entertaining film for kids, with plenty of crash-bang action." Nell Minow of RogerEbert.com gave the film two and a half stars out of four, saying "Parents will appreciate the way the pups tackle problem-solving, working together to make the best use of each character's talents." Courtney Howard of Variety found that, "Any crass consumerism is eclipsed by disarming, demonstrable themes and meaningful sentiments woven throughout the film's textured fabric." Yolanda Machado of TheWrap gave the film a positive review, stating "Brunker and his co-writers find a way to deliver a multi-layered story that can grab toddlers while keeping older viewers entertained and not groaning at some propagandized messaging." Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter called the film, "Harmless fun for its target audience". Reviews were not uniformly positive. Some critics were critical in the film for lazy and lackluster writing, poor pacing and focusing too much on the franchise's merchandising arm. Sarah Bea Milner of Screen Rant gave the film a negative review, saying, "Paw Patrol has enough action to keep young fans entertained, but parents will likely be bored by the dragging pace and convoluted plot." Jude Dry of IndieWire gave the film a D, and wrote in her review, "While it's doubtful the humorless dirge of a movie will make enough of an impression to mold young minds in any lasting way, the critique of PAW Patrol is useful as an amalgamation of certain favorite Hollywood themes that ought to be retired." Writing for The A.V. Club, Jesse Hassenger criticized the film's merchandise and gave the film a C− saying, "The film version feels most energized when it's amping up to sell toys: fetishizing the clicking of plastic into plastic, and supersizing the characters' armor and vehicles with a deranged zeal matched only by real police departments around the country." Writing for Los Angeles Times, Michael Ordoña criticized the film for writing under the parents despite 'its awesomeness' for very young audiences. He stated, "To very young kids who like cartoon dogs driving shiny vehicles, "PAW Patrol: The Movie" may be awesome. To grown-ups, it may be an aggressively under-written, 88-minute toy commercial." He felt that the voice actors were "unremarkable" and criticized the script, writing, "The dialogue is fairly represented by the line: 'Where is it? There's so many buildings. I wonder which one it is.'" Accolades Other media Video game A video game based on the film was announced on June 10, 2021, titled Paw Patrol The Movie: Adventure City Calls. Developed by Drakhar Studio and published by Outright Games, it was released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows and Stadia on August 13, 2021. The game received mixed reviews. It was the third video game based on the series overall; this game is set before the events of the film where the pups including Chase, Skye, Marshall and the new city girl Liberty embarks on a mission to save Adventure City from Mayor Humdinger who becomes a mayor in a buzzing metropolis with his selfish scheming. Rocky and Zuma are the playable characters, but they are not featured in the box art. While Liberty was not wearing in the box art, she does wear during the games played. Future Sequels and spin-off In August 2021, director Cal Brunker stated that he would like to make a sequel to the film. "We've certainly thought about it. There are other stories that we would be excited about telling. But for us, it's really about seeing if people love this one, and then taking it from there." On November 3, 2021, Spin Master officially announced that a sequel, titled Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie was in development, with Cal Brunker confirming that he would direct the sequel, while Jennifer Dodge confirmed that she would serve as a producer along with Laura Clunie and Toni Stevens. Six months later, Taraji P. Henson joined the cast in a new role as a meteor-obsessed mad scientist named Victoria Vance. On January 25, 2023, the film's voice cast was announced, with actors including Kristen Bell, Christian Convery, Mckenna Grace, Lil Rel Howery, James Marsden, Serena Williams, Alan Kim, Brice Gonzalez, North West, Christian Corrao (reprising his role as the voice of Marshall from the show replacing Kingsley Marshall from the first movie), and Nylan Parthipan. It was also announced that Finn Lee-Epp would replace Will Brisbin as the voice of Ryder and Luxton Handspiker would reprise his role as the voice of Rubble from Rubble & Crew replacing Keegan Hedley from the first movie, and that Marsai Martin, Kim Kardashian, Ron Pardo, and Callum Shoniker would be reprising their roles as Liberty, Delores, Mayor Humdinger, and Rocky. It was additionally announced that Pinar Toprak would compose the film's score, replacing Heitor Pereira. The sequel was released on September 29, 2023. On March 25, 2022, following the success of the episode focusing on Liberty, Spin Master announced that a spin-off was revealed to be in development. On April 27, 2023, the title and plot was revealed, and it is set to release in 2025. On February 22, 2024, Deadline Hollywood reported that the show will be released on June 6, 2025. On September 26, 2023, Spin Master announced that a third film is in development, scheduled to be released on July 31, 2026. References External links Official website Paw Patrol: The Movie at IMDb

Andy Warhol made the painting Marilyn Diptych from a publicity photo of Marilyn Monroe for a film. What was the name of Monroe's character in that film?

Rose Loomis

Multiple constraints

The Marilyn Diptych (1962) is a silkscreen painting by American pop artist Andy Warhol depicting Marilyn Monroe. The monumental work is one of the artist's most noted of the movie star. The painting consists of 50 images. Each image of the actress is taken from the single publicity photograph from the film Niagara (1953). The underlying publicity photograph that Warhol used as a basis for his many paintings and prints of Marilyn, and the Marilyn Diptych, was owned and distributed by her movie studio. Marilyn Diptych was completed just weeks after Marilyn Monroe's death in August 1962. Silk-screening was the technique used to create this painting. The twenty-five images on the left are painted in color, the right side is black and white. The Marilyn Diptych is in the collection of the Tate. Analysis It has been suggested that the relation between the left side of the canvas and the right side of the canvas is evocative of the relation between the celebrity's life and death. The work has received praise from writers such as American academic and cultural critic Camille Paglia, who wrote in 2012's Glittering Images lauding how it shows the "multiplicity of meanings" in Monroe's life and legacy. In a December 2, 2004, article in The Guardian, the painting was named the third most influential piece of modern art in a survey of 500 artists, critics, and others. The artwork was also ranked ninth in the past 1,000 years by Kathleen Davenport, Director, Rice University Art Gallery, Houston. Appropriation and fair use Warhol is regarded as an artist known for the appropriation of images and he often made use of publicity photographs and publicly available photographs and motifs not owned by him, which often brought him into conflict with the owners of the source material. An example of this is Warhol's Marilyn series including the Marilyn Diptych, which resulted in a settlement with the owner of the Marilyn Monroe publicity photograph which he used as the source material for the paintings. Warhol and his estate have settled many copyright disputes including with regard to his famous flowers paintings and paintings of Jackie Kennedy, as discussed in detail in "Andy The Appropriator: The Copyright Battles You Won't Hear About at The Whitney's Warhol Exhibit" from The Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts: "Although some of Warhol’s work was commissioned by individuals or companies, much of it was appropriated from other artists, photographers, and brands. Two of his most famous pieces, Marilyn Diptych and the collection of Campbell’s soup cans, are examples of his habit of appropriation. For the Marilyn series, Warhol took a promotional photograph of Marilyn Monroe and transferred it onto silkscreen print using different colors. He did not own the promotional photograph that he used and he did not have permission to use it. The resulting work was transformative enough that a strong fair use argument could be made today, but Warhol’s appropriation is undeniable. Similarly, Warhol used the Campbell’s Soup logo without permission from the company for dozens of silkscreen prints. Eventually, Campbell’s Soup tacitly approved of his use because of the free marketing they were receiving, but Warhol’s use of their logo without initial permission was still appropriation." See also Gold Marilyn Monroe, another 1962 work by Warhol featuring Monroe Diptych References External links Analysis of Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe Series (1967), including Maryiln Diptych (1962)

Niagara is a 1953 American film-noir thriller film directed by Henry Hathaway, produced by Charles Brackett, and written by Brackett, Richard L. Breen and Walter Reisch. The film stars Marilyn Monroe, Joseph Cotten, Jean Peters, and Max Showalter (credited as Casey Adams). It was one of 20th Century Fox's biggest box-office hits that year. Unlike other films noir of the time, which were typically black-and-white, Niagara was filmed in "three-strip" Technicolor (one of the last films to be made at Fox in that format, as a few months later Fox began converting to CinemaScope, which had compatibility problems with three-strip but not with Eastmancolor). Monroe was given top billing in Niagara, which elevated her to star status. Her next two films, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) and How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), were even bigger successes. Plot Ray and Polly Cutler, a couple on a delayed honeymoon, arrive at Niagara Falls. Ray goes to call his boss, Mr. Kettering, whom he expected to find waiting for him. However, it appears that Mr. Kettering and his wife have not arrived yet. Meanwhile, Polly finds their reserved cabin occupied by another couple, George and Rose Loomis. When Mr. Qua, the cabin owner, asks Rose to check out, Rose tells them that George is asleep and had been recently been discharged from an Army mental hospital after his service in the Korean War and that she doesn't want to wake him, as he is not quite himself. The Cutlers politely accept another cabin without a view of the Falls, and the two couples become acquainted. George and Rose have a troubled and volatile marriage. She is younger and seductively attractive. He is jealous, depressed and irritable. While touring the Falls the following day, Polly sees Rose passionately kissing another man, her lover Ted Patrick. That evening, Rose joins an impromptu outdoor party and requests that a record of her favorite song, "Kiss", be played. George storms out of their cabin and breaks the record, suspecting the song has a secret meaning for Rose. Seeing that George has cut his hand with the record, Polly visits his room to apply mercurochrome and bandages. George confides that he was a sheep rancher whose luck turned for the worse after he married Rose, whom he met when she was a barmaid. The next day, Rose lures George into following her to the dark tourist tunnel underneath the Falls, where Ted is waiting to kill him. To let Rose know that George is dead, Ted will request the Rainbow Tower Carillon play "Kiss." When she hears the song being played on the carillon bells, Rose assumes that George is dead. However, it is George who has killed Ted, thrown his body into the Falls, and collected Ted's shoes at the exit instead of his own. This leads the police to believe that George is the victim. The body is retrieved and the police bring Rose to identify George's body. When the cover is lifted from the face and she recognizes the dead man, she collapses before saying anything and is admitted to the hospital. Mr. Qua moves the Cutlers' belongings to the Loomises' cabin. George comes to the cabin seeking revenge on Rose but finds Polly sleeping there instead. She wakes and sees him before he runs away. She tells the police, who launch a dragnet. During the Cutlers' second visit to the Falls, George finds Polly alone for a moment. Trying to escape, she slips, but he saves her from falling over the edge into the waterfall torrent. He explains to her that he killed Ted in self-defense and begs her to "let me stay dead." Polly leaves without answering. Later that day, she tells the police detective that she believes George is alive. George has the carillon play "Kiss" again to panic Rose, who flees the hospital, intending to cross the border back to the United States. Finding George waiting at the border for her, she flees and tries to hide in the carillon bell tower. In a fit of anger, George catches her and strangles her beneath the silent bells. He tries to flee but realizes that he is locked in the building. Realizing what he has done, he sits down next to Rose's body and remorsefully tells her that he loved her. After a trash man unlocks the door, George flees the tower and heads for the Falls. The Cutlers go fishing with the Ketterings in a launch on a section of the Niagara River above the Falls. When the speedboat moors in Chippawa for gasoline and other supplies, George steals it to try and cross the Canada–United States border, but Polly returns to the boat before he can depart. Seeing George's hat on the table, Polly realizes he is on board. She tries to stop him from leaving, but he shoves her away, and she falls to the ground. Before George can remove Polly from the boat, the boatman sees him on board, so George has no choice but to depart with Polly on board. Polly tells him to give himself up to the police as he killed Ted in self-defense, but he tells her he cannot because he has killed Rose. Polly is horrified. After the boatman reports the stolen boat, the police set out in pursuit. However, the boat runs out of gas and drifts towards the Falls. The police are unable to help as the boat is too close to the edge. As they near the edge, George scuttles the boat to try and ground it, to no avail. However, this slows it down enough for him to get Polly onto a large rock before he goes over the Falls to his death. A devastated Polly is rescued from the rock by a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter. She and Ray are reunited and leave the Falls together. Cast Production Walter Reisch said producer Charles Brackett wanted to make a film set around Niagara Falls and Reisch suggested it be a murder mystery. Reisch said, "Anybody hearing the name Niagara thinks of honeymoon couples and of some sentimental story of a girl walking out on her husband on their wedding night and their getting together again. It would be foolish to start up with Sonja Henie tricks here or Esther Williams-type swimming extravaganzas. I would like to make it a mystery story, with a real murder in it." Reisch said he came up with the story but wrote the script with Richard Breen and Brackett. Head of Fox Darryl F. Zanuck wanted to cast Monroe in the film. According to Reisch, "we thought that was a nice idea, until there came a second telephone call that he wanted her to be the villainess, not the girl... My God! Here was the prettiest girl in the whole United States of America! But he insisted it was a great idea, so we finally did it. We didn't know whether she would like it, but she had no objection, whatsoever—on the contrary." Peters replaced Anne Baxter in the role of Polly. Shooting of Niagara took place from early June to mid-July 1952. Peters' character was initially the leading role, but the film eventually became a vehicle for Monroe, who was by that time more successful. Reisch says there are "major sequences missing" from the final film. "After he'd seen it, Zanuck simply couldn't accept the fact that the police at Niagara Falls were of Canadian extraction. We had British actors playing Canadian police commissioners and detectives and various cops, and he just abhorred it. He wouldn't let us go back to the stages to finish it or to repair it—no, he just took it out! The American audience, he said, does not know, does not understand, that the Niagara Falls are bisected by the border . . . and we should have used Americans. And [director Henry] Hathaway, who didn't like the idea either, sided with him. So there are big holes in the story." Henry Hathaway said the film would have been better had his original choice James Mason played the lead male role. He says Mason was going to play the role but his daughter was sick of seeing him die in movies so the actor turned the role down. "Cotten's a good actor but doesn't have the smouldering edge that Mason has; he's a little flat," said Hathaway. "Kiss" was composed by Lionel Newman, with lyrics by Haven Gillespie—both of whom are uncredited—and performed by Monroe. Reception Critical response Upon the film's release, A. W. of The New York Times praised the film, if not the acting, writing, "Obviously ignoring the idea that there are Seven Wonders of the World, Twentieth Century-Fox has discovered two more and enhanced them with Technicolor in Niagara... For the producers are making full use of both the grandeur of the Falls and its adjacent areas as well as the grandeur that is Marilyn Monroe... Perhaps Miss Monroe is not the perfect actress at this point. But neither the director nor the gentlemen who handled the cameras appeared to be concerned with this. They have caught every possible curve both in the intimacy of the boudoir and in equally revealing tight dresses. And they have illustrated pretty concretely that she can be seductive—even when she walks. As has been noted, Niagara may not be the place to visit under these circumstances but the falls and Miss Monroe are something to see." Also in 1953, a reviewer at Variety wrote, "Niagara is a morbid, clichéd expedition into lust and murder. The atmosphere throughout is strained and taxes the nerves with a feeling of impending disaster. Focal point of all this is Marilyn Monroe, who's vacationing at the Falls with hubby Joseph Cotten.... The camera lingers on Monroe's sensuous lips, roves over her slip-clad figure and accurately etches the outlines of her derrière as she weaves down a street to a rendezvous with her lover. As a contrast to the beauty of the female form is another kind of nature's beauty—that of the Falls. The natural phenomena have been magnificently photographed on location." Later critics have also praised the film. In 2001, Robert Weston wrote, "Niagara is a good movie for noir fans who crave something a little different. Be warned, the film was shot in glorious Technicolor, not black and white, but still boasts an ample share of shadows and style.... Undoubtedly, the best reason to see Niagara is just as trailer promised: for the scenery. There's some terrific location work that showcases the breathtaking aspects of the Falls before the city evolved into a tawdry Canadian answer to Atlantic City; and of course, there's a gal named Marilyn Monroe, burgeoning at her humble beginnings." On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 78% based on 23 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. Noir themes A major theme is that of sex and its destructiveness. Rose is a femme fatale, seductively dressed in tight clothes revealing her sensual figure. Her relationship (combining the sexual, hypocritical, and scornful) with George is contrasted with the more normal relationship of the Cutlers, which also has sexual elements hinted at by the film. Ray Cutler does not fail to notice Rose's sexual charms, but his and Polly's reactions to their interactions with George and Rose demonstrate the conventionality of their attitudes. Legacy In the weeks after Monroe's death in August 1962, Andy Warhol used a publicity photo from Niagara as the basis for his silkscreen painting Marilyn Diptych. References External links Niagara at IMDb Niagara at AllMovie Niagara at Rotten Tomatoes Niagara at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films Niagara at the TCM Movie Database Niagara film trailer on YouTube

Out of every team that has won at least one official global Valorant tournament, which team has also won at least one League of Legends World Championship and at least one CS:GO Major Championship as of 2024?

Fnatic

Tabular reasoning | Multiple constraints

The Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) is a global competitive esports tournament series for the video game Valorant organised by Riot Games, the game's developers. The series runs multiple events throughout each season, culminating in Valorant Champions, the top-level event of the tour. The VCT was announced in 2020, with its inaugural season taking place in 2021. History 2021–2022: Open-qualifiers era In November 2020, Riot Games announced the first Valorant Champions Tour, a tournament series divided into three tiers: Challengers, Masters, and Champions. Challengers would act as the lowest tier, split into seven regions: North America, Brazil, Latin America (Hispanic America), EMEA, Southeast Asia (later included South Asia and Oceania, become to Asia-Pacific), Korea, Japan. Teams that advance past Challengers would move on to Masters, where teams would not be divided by regions anymore, and the top 16 teams from Masters would move on to Champions, the final tournament of VCT. In February 2021, they announced the VCT Game Changers, a supplementary tournament initiative for women and marginalized genders. Riot hired esports infrastructure company Nerd Street Gamers as operators and producers for all North American Challengers and Masters events. They also hired several third-party companies to broadcast their events, such as Liga de Videojuegos Profesional (LVP) for their Spanish-language broadcasts and LetsPlay.Live for their Oceania broadcasts. The 2021 Champions tournament took place on December 1–12 at the Verti Music Hall in Berlin, Germany, concluding with team Acend defeating Gambit Esports in the grand finals by a score of 3–2. Over 10,000 teams competed in the VCT in 2021. Outside of Champions, VCT saw its highest viewership at the Reykjavík Masters tournament in May, with a peak viewership of 1,085,850. The Champions grand finals match in December reached a peak viewership of 1,089,068, making it the VCT's highest peak viewership. Riot made several changes to the format of VCT for its second iteration. While the overall structure of Challengers, Masters, and Champions remained unchanged, it reduced the number of stages of Challengers and Masters events from three to two. VCT Challengers began on February 11, 2022. The 2022 Champions Tournament took place from September 1 to 18 in Istanbul, Turkey. 2023–present: Partnerships era Riot Games announced a new format starting in 2023. The season will be split into three international regions – Americas, EMEA, and Pacific instead of the 7 regions format used in previous years. Each international region will have its own International League that replaces the Challengers to become the domestic competitions to qualify for Masters and Champions. On September 21, 2022, Riot Games announced the thirty teams that had been selected as part of their new partnership format. For China, Riot Games showed favor towards players here by given Chinese teams a number of direct slots to participate in global tournaments (Masters and Champions) through third parties competitions in Hong Kong server, instead of having to play through Pacific league. In a June 2023 press conference, Riot COO Whalen Rozelle confirmed that Valorant would launch in China in July under the name 无畏契约 ("Fearless Contract"), with hopes to launch a VCT league there in 2024. Shortly after in August, Riot announced an own regional league for China, and raising the number of partnered teams to 40. Leagues and format Franchised leagues International Leagues As of 2023, 30 teams are selected to be partner teams in International Leagues for five years with 10 teams per region. Non-partner teams compete in many sub-regions of Challengers events to qualify for "Ascension" events. The Ascension events will have one winner per region, which earns them a two-year promotion into their regions' International League. The promoted teams will have a chance to qualify for the global tournaments (Masters and Champions), as well as get benefits provided to other partnered teams. Each year through the Challengers promotion system, the three International Leagues will expand by one team each, until they reach a cap of 12 teams in each region in 2025 (beforehand this was supposed to be a 14-team cap by 2027). Teams in each International League will play on LAN in a centralized local: the Riot Games Arena in Los Angeles for VCT Americas, Riot Games Arena in Berlin for VCT EMEA, and Seoul for VCT Pacific. The Americas and EMEA venues are shared with the League of Legends regional leagues' League Championship Series (LCS) and League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) respectively. China League Right from global launch, although Valorant had not been licensed for release in China, Riot Games showed favor towards Chinese players by allowed Chinese teams to participate in global tournaments (Masters and Champions) through achievements in domestic tournaments organized by third parties, played at Hong Kong server. Since 2024, with Valorant licensed for release servers in mainland, Riot launched the VCT CN specifically for the only country that they considers a pro region on the same level as the three International Leagues for many countries, as well as competition slots for only teams from China at Masters and Champions. They also announced the second Masters event of the year to take place in Shanghai and released a new Chinese agent Iso alongside previous agent Sage. The China League is based at the VCT CN Arena in Shanghai. Valorant Masters The Valorant Masters is an biannual Valorant international tournament organized by Riot Games in the middle of years since 2021. Similar to the Mid-Season Invitational for League of Legends, it is the second most important international Valorant tournament after Champions. Teams must place near the top of their regional league to qualify for Masters. Valorant Champions The Valorant Champions is the annual professional Valorant world championship tournament hosted by Riot Games and is the culmination of each VCT season. Teams compete for the world champion title of Valorant esports. Non-franchised leagues Challengers and Ascension Non-partner teams compete in Challengers events of sub-regions in Americas, EMEA and Pacific to qualify for "Ascension", the yearly promotion event to the respective International Leagues. Originally, it was announced that teams would have two-year stays in their International League after winning Ascension, with one team promoted every year until 2026, when two teams would be promoted every year until 2028. The leagues would have 14 teams each, totaling to 42 teams across the three leagues. On June 21, 2024, Riot announced changes to the Ascension format from 2025, with teams promoted to the International Leagues for one-year stays instead, after which they would be relegated to Challengers again if they did not finish in the top 8 in their region's International League; if they qualified for Champions however, they get to stay for another year; if they finished between 5th and 8th in the International League, they qualify for that year's Ascension for a chance to keep their place in the league. In 2023-24, there are 23 minor regional leagues across the three international territories. From 2025, decreased to 15. Valorant Game Changers Valorant Game Changers is a series of domestic competitions for women and other marginalized genders within Valorant esports. Teams that finish in top places qualify for the Valorant Game Changers Championship, the world championship event of Game Changers, and also earn the chance to be promoted to their region's Challengers league. Results International Leagues & China League winners Global tournaments Teams won titles * Team or organization no longer participates in Valorant esports. Regions' titles Ascension winners Valorant Game Changers Championship Awards Masters The original masters trophy was unveiled by Riot at a May 2021 media preview event in the build up to Masters Reykjavik. It features a metal bottom and a glass top. The trophy was redesigned in 2023, again by Volpin Props, to be reusable for Masters tournaments in multiple regions. It stands at 18 inches (46 cm) and features a swappable 'Radianite' core. For Masters Tokyo, it featured duelist Yoru's ultimate Oni mask. The body of the trophy is palladium-plated with plastic components. Champions The Valorant Champions trophy was first unveiled ahead of Valorant Champions 2021. Also designed and built by Volpin Props of Atlanta, Georgia, it stands at 2 feet (61 cm) tall and is partially 3D-printed, with 24 karat gold decoration overlayed. Notes References External links Official website

The League of Legends World Championship (commonly abbreviated as Worlds) is the annual professional League of Legends world championship tournament hosted by Riot Games and is the culmination of each season. Teams compete for the champion title, the 44-pound (20-kilogram) Summoner's Cup, and a multi-million-dollar championship prize. In 2018, the final was watched by 99.6 million people, breaking 2017's final's viewer record. The tournament has been praised for its ceremonial performances, while receiving attention worldwide due to its dramatic and emotional nature. The League of Legends World Championships has gained tremendous success and popularity, making it among the world's most prestigious and watched tournaments, as well as the most watched esports event in the world. The tournament rotates its venues across different major countries and regions each year. South Korea's T1 is the most successful team in the tournament's history, having won four world championships. History Season 1 (2011) The Season 1 Championship was held in June 2011 at Dreamhack Summer 2011, and featured a US$100,000 tournament prize pool. 8 teams from Europe, North America, Southeast Asia participated in the championship. Over 1.6 million viewers watched the streaming broadcast of the event, with a peak of over 210,069 simultaneous viewers in the final. Maciej "Shushei" Ratuszniak of the winning team Fnatic was named the most valuable player (MVP) of the tournament. Season 2 (2012) After Season 1, Riot announced that US$5,000,000 would be paid out over Season 2. Of this $5 million, $2 million went to Riot's partners including the IGN Pro League and other major esports associations. Another $2 million went to Riot's Season 2 qualifiers and championship. The final $1 million went to other organizers who applied to Riot to host independent League of Legends tournaments. The Season 2 World Championship was held in early October 2012 in Los Angeles, California to conclude the US$5 million season. Twelve qualifying teams from around the world participated in the championship, which boasted the largest prize pool in the history of esports tournaments at the time at US$2 million, with US$1 million going to the champions. The group stage, quarterfinal, and semifinal matches took place between 4 and 6 October. The grand final took place a week after, on 13 October in the University of Southern California's Galen Center in front of 10,000 fans, and were broadcast in 13 different languages. In the grand final, Taiwan's professional team Taipei Assassins triumphed over South Korea's Azubu Frost 3 to 1 and claimed the US$1 million in prize money. Over 8 million viewers tuned in to the Season 2 World Championship broadcast, with a maximum of 1.1 million concurrent viewers during the grand finale, making the Season 2 World Championship the most watched esports event in history at the time. Season 3 (2013) The Season 3 World Championship was held in late 2013 in Los Angeles, California. 14 teams from North America, Korea, China, Southeast Asia, Europe, and one of the emerging League of Legends territories measured up at the World Playoffs after having qualified through their regional competitions. The grand final was held in the Staples Center on 4 October 2013, where Korean team SK Telecom T1 defeated the Chinese team Royal Club, granting them the title of the Season 3 world champions, the Summoner's Cup and the $1 million prize. The Season 3 World Championship grand final broadcast on 4 October was watched by 32 million people with a peak concurrent viewership of 8.5 million. The numbers once again beat the previous records for esports viewership. 2014 The 2014 World Championship featured 16 teams competing for a $2.13 million prize pool, with 14 teams qualifying from the primary League of Legends regions (China, Europe, North America, Korea and Taiwan/SEA) and two international wildcard teams. Riot stopped numbering seasons and instead simply used the year for the 2014 and future championships. The group stage began on 18 September in Taipei and concluded on 28 September in Singapore with eight teams advancing to the bracket stage. The bracket stage started on 3 October in Busan, South Korea, and concluded on 19 October with the grand final hosted at the 45,000-seats Seoul World Cup Stadium, where South Korean team Samsung Galaxy White beat the Chinese team Star Horn Royal Club to become the 2014 League of Legends world champions. Support player Cho "Mata" Se-hyeong was named the tournament most valuable player (MVP). American band Imagine Dragons contributed the theme song "Warriors" for the tournament, and performed live on the grand final stage in South Korea. All games were made available for free via live streaming. The 2014 World Championship games were streamed live by 40 broadcast partners and cast in 19 languages. The grand final was watched by 27 million people, with concurrent viewership peaking at over 11 million viewers. 2015 After the 2014 season, Riot Games introduced a number of changes to competitive League of Legends. The number of teams in the League Championship Series was increased from 8 to 10 in both the North America and Europe regions. A second Riot Games official international tournament was announced, the Mid-Season Invitational, which took place in May 2015, and featured a single team from each major region and one international wildcard. Additionally, starting from 2015, all teams are required to field a head coach in their competitive matches, who will stay on stage and speak with the team via voice-chat in the pick–ban phase of the game. This change makes the head coach an officially recognized member of the team. The 2015 World Championship concluded the 2015 season and was held at several venues across Europe in October 2015. Like the 2014 World Championship, the 2015 World Championship was a multi-city, multi-country event. 2015 Worlds was won by SK Telecom T1, their second title, as they won the 2013 Worlds too. SKT top laner Jang "MaRin" Gyeong-hwan was named the tournament most valuable player (MVP). The final was watched by 36 million people, with a peak concurrent viewership of 14 million viewers. 2016 The various stages of the 2016 Worlds were held throughout the United States in Chicago, San Francisco, New York City, and the final in Los Angeles. The groups of teams were decided through a live group draw show on 10 September. The games were played on the 6.18 patch of the game with Yorick disabled, and Aurelion Sol disabled for days 1–3. There were 16 teams and 4 groups that consisted of 4 teams. The group stage was Bo1 and the top two teams from each group would advance to the Knockout Stage. The Knockout Stage was Bo5 and the #1 vs #2 teams from each group would face each other in the bracket. The total prize pool was US$5,070,000 and it was spread among the teams. The first place (SK Telecom T1) took $2,028,000, the second team (Samsung Galaxy) took $760,500, and the third and fourth place (ROX Tigers and H2K) took $380,250 divided among the 2 teams. The rest of the prize pool was distributed among the 5th–16th places. SKT won 3–2 versus Samsung Galaxy in the 2016 World Championship final, with Faker winning the MVP award. The final was watched by 43 million people, with a peak concurrent viewership of 14.7 million viewers, breaking 2015's final's viewer records. 2017 The 2017 World Championship series started in September 2017, and concluded in November 2017. It was held in 4 different locations throughout China: Wuhan (play-in and groups), Guangzhou (quarterfinals), Shanghai (semifinals), and Beijing (final). It was played on patch 7.18, with the newest champion Ornn being disabled. Patch 7.18 is slightly older than patches 7.19 and 7.20, which are the new standard for online matches during the September - November period. The most notable difference being the stronger Ardent Censer support meta with patch 7.18. A total of 24 teams participated in the tournament: 3 teams from South Korea, China, North America, Europe and Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau; 1 team from Brazil, Latin America North, Latin America South, Japan, Oceania, Turkey, Southeast Asia and CIS/Russia; and 1 team from the Wildcard region with the highest rank finish at the 2017 Mid-Season Invitational (GPL in Southeast Asia, due to Gigabyte Marines from Vietnam prevailing there, and Vietnam received 1 more slot for VCS's second seed to participate GPL 2017 summer split). Samsung Galaxy reversed the previous year's result and defeated SK Telecom T1 3–0 in the 2017 World Championship final. Park "Ruler" Jae-hyuk, the AD carry of Samsung, was named MVP. The final was watched by 60 million people, breaking 2016's final's viewer records. The tournament is widely praised for its high quality of plays and amazing ceremonial performances, while receiving worldwide attention for its dramatic and emotional series. It is currently the most watched tournament in League of Legends' history and is lauded as one of the best. 2018 The 2018 World Championship was held from 1 October to 3 November, 2018, in 4 cities across South Korea: Seoul (play-in), Busan (groups & quarterfinals), Gwangju (semifinals), and Incheon (final). Twenty four teams qualified for the tournament based on their placement in regional circuits such as those in North America, Europe, South Korea, and China, with twelve of those teams having to reach the group stage via a play-in round. The 2018 World Championship was played on Patch 8.19. Notably, champions Aatrox, Alistar and Urgot were extremely prevalent in the tournament, with the three characters being picked or banned in over 90 percent of the 78 games played. The World Championship final was played between Invictus Gaming and Fnatic. Invictus Gaming won 3–0 against Fnatic, granting China and the LPL their first World Championship. Gao "Ning" Zhenning was named the MVP of the series in their victory. The final was watched by 99.6 million unique viewers, with concurrent viewership reaching a peak of 44 million viewers, breaking 2017's final's viewership record. 2019 The 2019 World Championship was held between 2 October to 10 November 2019, in three countries and cities in Europe: Berlin (play-in & groups), Madrid (quarterfinals and semifinals), and Paris (final). Twenty-four teams qualified to participate at the World Championship based on placement within their own regional leagues and previous regional results in international play. The 2019 World Championship was played on Patch 9.19 from start to finish. The World Championship final was played on 10 November 2019 between LPL's FunPlus Phoenix and LEC's G2 Esports at AccorHotels Arena in Paris. FunPlus Phoenix won 3–0 against G2 Esports, granting China and the LPL back-to-back World Championships. Gao "Tian" Tianliang was named the MVP of the series in their victory. The final was watched by more than 100 million viewers, peaking at 44 million concurrent views. 2020 The 2020 World Championship was held from 25 September to 31 October 2020 in Shanghai, China. 22 teams qualified to participate at the World Championship based on placement within their own regional leagues and previous regional results in international play. As a result of travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the two teams that qualified from the Vietnam Championship Series were unable to attend the event. All games leading up to the final were hosted in the Shanghai Media Tech Studio with no fans in attendance. The final was hosted in the Pudong Football Stadium as the building's inaugural event, hosting a limited number of 6,312 fans due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The final was played on 31 October 2020 between Suning, from China's League of Legends Pro League, and Damwon Gaming, from League of Legends Champions Korea, with Damwon Gaming winning the championship 3–1. During the second game, Suning's top laner Chen "Bin" Zebin achieved the first "Pentakill" in the final of a World Championship. Damwon Gaming's jungler, Kim "Canyon" Geon-bu, was named the MVP of the series. Damwon's win ended the LPL's back-to-back streak of world championship victories. The final was watched at its peak by 46.07 million viewers. 2021 The 2021 World Championship was held from 5 October to 6 November 2021 in Reykjavík, Iceland. In line with last year's iteration, 22 teams qualified to participate at the World Championship based on placement within their own regional leagues and previous regional results in international play. As a result of travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the two teams that qualified from the Vietnam Championship Series were once again unable to attend the event. All games of the tournament were hosted in the Laugardalshöll, with no fans in attendance due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Iceland. The final was played on 6 November 2021 between Edward Gaming, from China's League of Legends Pro League, and defending champions DWG KIA (formerly Damwon Gaming), from League of Legends Champions Korea, with Edward Gaming winning the championship 3–2, ending DWG KIA's chance to win back-to-back world championships. Edward Gaming's mid laner, Lee "Scout" Ye-chan, was named the MVP of the series. The final had an average audience of 30.6 million, peaking at 73.86 million concurrent viewers. 2022 The 2022 World Championship was held from 29 September to 5 November, 2022, with the event taking place in 4 cities across North America: Mexico City (play-in), New York City (groups & quarterfinals), Atlanta (semifinals) and San Francisco (finals). Twenty-four teams qualified to participate at the World Championship based on placement within their own regional leagues and previous regional results in international play. As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the League of Legends Continental League from the CIS region was unable to send a representative to participate in the event. The finals was played at the Chase Center on 5 November 2022 between T1 and DRX, both from the League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK). Riot Games collaborated with Lil Nas X to release STAR WALKIN' for the finals. He appeared at the Chase Center in San Francisco, California, and he was broadcast through over 20 music stations live for tens of millions of people. In the final, DRX defeated T1 3–2 in a close series, becoming the first team to win the championship after starting from the play-in stage. DRX's top laner, Hwang "Kingen" Seong-hoon, was named the MVP of the series. Their victory was considered a Cinderella and underdog success story, as they had come from the play-in stage as Korea's fourth seed representative, and had beaten some of the more favored and accomplished teams along the way, including the previous worlds champions Edward Gaming in a 3–2 reverse sweep in the quarterfinals, and defeating the LCK Summer Split champions Gen.G 3–1 in the semifinals. 2023 The 2023 World Championship was held from 10 October to 19 November 2023, with the event taking place in two cities across South Korea: Seoul and Busan. Twenty-two teams qualified to participate at the World Championship based on placement within their own regional leagues and previous regional results in international play. Albeit, one team qualified for the event through the newly inaugurated Worlds Qualifying Series between the fourth-seeded teams from the LEC and LCS. The format for the event differed to the previous editions, with the introduction of a play-in stage, consisting of eight teams who are split into two double elimination brackets. There, three teams qualified to the second stage of the event where the qualifying teams, along with thirteen other teams, faced off in a swiss-system tournament to determine the qualifiers to the knockout stage, with the eventual champions being crowned at the conclusion of the single-elimination knockout stage. The finals was played at the Gocheok Sky Dome on 19 November 2023 between Weibo Gaming from the League of Legends Pro League (LPL), and previous years' finalist T1 from the League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK). In the final, T1 defeated Weibo Gaming 3–0, extending their record for the most world championships won by single team with four titles. T1's top laner, Choi "Zeus" Woo-je, was named the MVP of the series, while teammate Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok became the first player to win four World Championships. 2024 The 2024 World Championship will be held from 25 September to 2 November 2024, with the event taking place in three cities across Europe: Berlin, Paris and London. Twenty-two teams will qualify to participate at the World Championship based on placement within their own regional leagues and results gained in this years' Mid-Season Invitational (MSI), with the LCK and LPL's 4th seeds in the Swiss stage reallocated to the winner and a team from the best performing region of the event. It was revealed during the finals' broadcast of the 2023 World Championship, that the finals of this years' Worlds is set to take place in London at The O2 Arena on 2 November 2024. 2025 Details about the 2025 World Championship's location and dates are yet to be known. However, this edition of the tournament will feature 17 teams in total, with the MSI slots being kept and three teams from each of League's new competitive regions (Americas, EMEA, Korea, China and Asia-Pacific) qualifying on top. One best-of-5 play-in match will be held before the swiss stage between two teams. Trophy Riot Games, which owns League of Legends, commissioned the winner's trophy as the Summoner's Cup. Riot specified that it should weigh 70 pounds (about 32 kilograms), though the actual weight of the finished cup was reduced so it would not be too heavy to lift in victory. The World Championship Cups for 2012 and for 2014 were created by Thomas Lyte. In 2022, Riot Games announced the formation of a multi-year partnership with American jewelry brand Tiffany & Co., producing a newly designed Summoner's Cup with a weight of 44 pounds (about 20 kilograms). Results By year By region By team Italics indicates a team/organization has been disbanded, acquired or no longer participates in the regional league. Notes == References ==

Counter-Strike Major Championships, commonly known as the Majors, are Counter-Strike (CS) esports tournaments sponsored by Valve, the game's developer. The first Valve-recognized Major took place in 2013 in Jönköping, Sweden and was hosted by DreamHack with a total prize pool of US$250,000 split among 16 teams. This, along with the following 18 Majors, was played in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. As of the 2023 release of Counter-Strike 2 (CS2), Counter-Strike esports, including the Majors, are played in CS2. Since then, the Major circuit has expanded significantly, with recent tournaments advertising a US$2,000,000 prize pool and featuring twenty-four teams from around the world. The Majors are considered to be the most important and prestigious tournaments in the Counter-Strike scene. The current champions are Natus Vincere, who won their second Major at PGL Major Copenhagen 2024, the first to be held in Counter-Strike 2. Astralis hold the record for the most Major titles with four. History Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by Hidden Path Entertainment and Valve. It is the fourth game in the Counter-Strike series. The first game in the series, Counter-Strike 1.6, was officially released in 2000 and competitive play began soon after. The first significant international tournament was the 2001 Cyberathlete Professional League Winter Championship, considered the first "Major". The CPL Summer and Winter Championships, along with the World Cyber Games, Electronic Sports World Cup and Intel Extreme Masters World Championships, were considered Majors by the community, although Valve did not sponsor or give any official designation to the tournaments. Swedish teams, most notably SK Gaming, dominated early Majors but the Polish roster known as the Golden Five were the most successful lineup. Many teams from other parts of the world would win Majors, including Team 3D from the United States at CPL Winter 2002 and WCG 2004, NoA from Norway at CPL Winter 2004, mibr from Brazil at ESWC 2006, and WeMade FOX from South Korea at WEM 2010. On September 16, 2013, a year after the release of Global Offensive, Valve announced a US$250,000 community-funded prize pool for the first official CS:GO Major. The money was partially community-funded through the game's Arms Deal update, which allowed players to buy in-game skins. Valve announced the tournament would take place in Sweden and would be hosted by DreamHack. The tournament took place in late November and was won by the Swedish team Fnatic who upset Ninjas in Pyjamas in the finals. After Dreamhack 2013, Valve announced they would partner with tournament organizers to host three Majors per year. These Majors are the most prestigious events in the competitive CS:GO scene, and the professional players' legacies are often judged by their performances at these tournaments. The early Majors were dominated by Swedish teams, as Fnatic and NiP combined to win the four of the first six Majors. NiP would play in five of the first six grand finals. When Fnatic won Cologne 2015, they became the first team to win back to back Majors, and the first to win a third Major in total. Only the Danish team Astralis has since matched that total. At the end of 2015, Valve announced that MLG would host the first Major in North America. On February 23, 2016, with MLG Columbus 2016 coming up, Valve announced a permanent increase in the prize pool from US$250,000 to US$1,000,000. However, Valve reduced the number of Majors per year from three to two. Luminosity Gaming, a Brazilian team, won the event to becomes the first non-European team to win a Major. This roster would also go on to win back to back Majors, with their second as SK Gaming at ESL One Cologne 2016. Gambit Esports, made up primarily of players from Kazakhstan, won PGL Major Kraków 2017 to become the first Asian and CIS team to win a Major. On December 13, 2017, the general manager of ELEAGUE, the hosts of the ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018, announced a revised format designed by Valve and ELEAGUE that would expand the number of teams in the Major from sixteen to twenty-four. This was also the first Major to take place in multiple cities, as the group stages took place in Atlanta at the Turner Studios. Cloud9, an American team, won the event to become the first North American team to win a Major. After Boston 2018, the Danish team Astralis became the top team in CS:GO and one of the best teams in Counter-Strike history. With wins at London 2018, Katowice 2019, and Berlin 2019, Astralis become the first team to win three Majors in a row and four majors total. After Berlin 2019, Valve and ESL announced the following Major, ESL One Rio 2020, which was to be the first Major to be hosted in South America. Rio 2020, originally scheduled for May, was then postponed to November due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The November Major was announced with a US$2,000,000 prize pool, combining the amounts that would have been set aside for both Majors. In September 2020, the Rio Major was officially canceled due to COVID-19. In December 2020, Valve moved the 2021 Major from May to October and November, citing concerns over the pandemic. On January 14, 2021, Valve announced that the championship would be held between October 23 and November 7 in Stockholm. Over two years after the last Major, PGL Major Stockholm 2021 took place, with favourites Natus Vincere dominating the tournament and becoming the first team in CS:GO history to win a Major without dropping a single map throughout the tournament. PGL Major Stockholm 2021 surpassed the long-standing Counter-Strike viewership record 4 times; reaching 2.75 million concurrent viewers in the final. FaZe Clan won the PGL Major Antwerp 2022, defeating Natus Vincere 2-0, and becoming the first international team in CS:GO history to win a Major. The previously cancelled ESL One Rio 2020 Major was replaced with IEM Rio Major 2022 and was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on October 31 - November 13, 2022. Outsiders, a neutral name for esports organization Virtus.pro due to ties with the Russian government in light of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, won the tournament defeating Heroic in the grand final 2-0. BLAST Paris Major 2023 was held in Paris on May 8 - May 21, 2023 with a prize pool of $1,250,000 USD. Shortly after the announcement of Counter-Strike 2, the official CS:GO twitter account announced that the BLAST Paris Major would be the last CS:GO Major with the next major happening in March 2024 in CS2. Team Vitality, a French organization with native star player Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut, defeated dark horse GamerLegion by 2-0 to clinch the final CS:GO Major title. The first Counter-Strike 2 Major was announced to be the PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024 which was held from March 17-31 in the Royal Arena. On November 12, 2023, Perfect World, who are responsible for distributing Counter-Strike 2 in China, announced the second major following the release of Counter-Strike 2, taking place in Shanghai between December 1-15, 2024. Format Qualification Starting after Dreamhack 2013, the top eight teams from each Major (those who made it to the playoff stage) earned automatic berths to the next Major. These teams are called "Legends". The other eight teams, called "Challengers", were decided by regional qualifiers, mainly from Europe and North America. A small number of teams have been directly invited or earned attendance from a last chance qualifier to fill final open spots when necessary. Beginning with the DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015 qualification cycle, Valve created a single 16-team main qualifier before the Major. The bottom eight teams from the previous Major earn automatic berths to the newly formed Major qualifier, and the regional qualifiers now send teams to the main qualifier, instead of directly to the Major. For MLG Columbus 2016 the regional qualifiers, leading into the Major qualifier, were replaced by "Minors". The Columbus Minor system involved four regional qualifiers and two "last chance" qualifiers, and results in invites going to one team from the Americas, two Asian teams, one CIS team, one European team, and three last chance qualifier spots. The system was simplified in the following Major, ESL One Cologne 2016, with the removal of the last chance qualifiers. Four Minors—Asia, CIS, Europe, Americas—were used. Two teams from each qualifier would go to the Major qualifier, joining the bottom eight teams from the previous Major. The top eight teams from the 16-team Major qualifier advance to the Major. At ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018, the Major qualifier was integrated into the full Major as the first of three phases, expanding the number of teams in each Major to 24. The Major qualifier was renamed the "Challengers Stage", the former group stage was renamed the "Legends Stage", and the playoff stage was named the "Champions Stage". This increased the number of teams getting automatic invites to Majors to 16, while retaining the Minor system to fill the remaining eight spots in phase one of the Major. The Legends—still made up of the teams who reach the playoff stage—earn an automatic invitation to the Legends Stage of the following Major, while the teams placing 9-16 earn automatic invitations to the Challengers Stage of the following Major. On August 28, 2018, shortly before the start of the FACEIT Major: London 2018, Valve announced that they were reducing the number of automatic Major invites to fourteen, starting with the London 2018 Major: the two teams that go winless in the first phase must go through the Minors to get back to the next Major. From the PGL Major Stockholm 2021 onwards, no automatic berths have been given to any team regardless of their record in the previous Major. Instead, a Regional Major Ranking (RMR) system has been used, which at first was a yearly points circuit where each region would have three qualifying tournaments where teams can receive points towards qualifying for the Major, which included Contenders, Challengers and Legends distinctions (As well as the Legends bye) for the top teams within each region. Despite initially being used for the ESL One Rio Major 2020, the event's cancellation would mean that PGL Major Stockholm 2021 was the first Major that utilized the RMR system. The very next Major, PGL Major Antwerp 2022, would scrap the points circuit in favor of qualifying tournaments that bear the RMR name, initially (and still) 2 for Europe (which included the CIS region), 1 for the Americas and 1 for Asia-Pacific. Teams qualify for their regional RMRs via being the top teams in their region in the Valve rankings (before the Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024, the teams who placed in the Legends Stage of the previous Major would qualify automatically for the RMRs) or via online qualifying made up of Open Qualifiers (if needed) and Closed Qualifiers, where the next-best ranked teams compete for the remaining RMR spots. In addition, regions can gain or lose Challengers and Legends spots in the Major based on the region's results from the previous Major, with 3 Challengers spots reserved for Europe and the Americas and 2 for Asia-Pacific. For example, after PGL Major Copenhagen 2024, the Americas region would go from 1 Legends spot and 4 Challengers spot, to 7 Challengers spots for Perfect World Shanghai, after 4 teams from the Americas qualified for the Elimination Stage, with none making the Playoff stage. Unlike traditional sports or other esports leagues, Valve considers the players in each team to have the Major spots, rather than the organization itself. For instance, at the ELEAGUE Major 2017, Team EnVyUs placed ninth, meaning it would have an automatic berth at the next Major qualifier. However, before the next Major, three of EnVyUs's players transferred to G2 Esports, meaning Team EnVyUs lost its spot at the Major qualifier. Tournament format Although the playoff stage of the Majors has generally followed a standard 8-team single-elimination format, the group stages have changed multiple times. From 2013 to 2016, Majors used a four group GSL format for the group stage. In each four-team group, the two higher seeds would initially face the two lower seeds. The two winners from the first round of matches would then play to determine which team gets the top seed. The two losers would also play to eliminate one team. After this second round of matches, the remaining two teams play to determine which team takes the final playoff spot. All group stage games at the first Majors were best-of-ones. The last Major of 2015 and both Majors in 2016 featured a best-of-three decider in the final match of each group. The group stage of ESL One Cologne 2015 worked differently. Initially, the first three matches of the group stage started out the same way as the standard GSL format, determining the group winner. However, teams were then reassigned afterwards so that the two losers played from different groups and then the decider match would also be teams from different groups. Beginning in 2017, the group stage has featured a Swiss-system group stage. Before the tournament, teams are divided into four pots, with pot one having the four highest seeds, pot two having the next four highest seeds, and so on. A randomly selected team from pot one would face off against a randomly selected team from pot four. The same process is done with the pots two and three. After the initial seeded match, teams play five rounds against randomly drawn teams with the same record. No two teams play twice unless necessary. If a team wins three matches, then that team moves on to the next stage. If a team loses three matches, that team is eliminated. All games were best-of-one until the London 2018 Major. The Boston 2018 Major featured two Swiss group stages; the stage formerly known as the offline Major qualifier was now called the New Challengers stage and the group stage was now rebranded as the New Legends stage. The London 2018 Major used a slightly different form of the Swiss system, called the Buchholz system, in which matchups were seeded instead of random and the last round featured best-of-three sets. The next Major, Katowice 2019, featured a crowdsourced Elo system, in which participating teams ranked the 15 other teams before the Legends Stage to create a seeding system for each round of the Swiss system. The Copenhagen 2024 Major will have the names of the two Swiss stages changed, with the Challengers Stage becoming the Opening Stage and the Legends Stage becoming the Elimination Stage, while the first round match-up seeding for the Swiss stages will be tweaked. The Playoffs, known as the New Champions stage and Champions stage beforehand, have featured eight teams at all Majors. All matches are best-of-three, single-elimination series. When the GSL format was used for group stages, group winners earned top seeds and group runner-ups earned bottom seeds. Each top seed played a bottom seed in quarterfinals. With current Swiss format seeding, the two teams that finish undefeated in the group stage earn the highest seeds. Two of the three lowest seeds from the group stage (teams that advance with two losses) are randomly selected to play against the high seeds. Two of the three middle seeds (teams that advance with one loss) are randomly selected to play each other, and the remaining two teams face each other to finalize the bracket. Banned players Valve has banned players from attending the Majors for violations of competitive integrity. A Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) ban is the most common way players get banned. VAC is an anti-cheat program designed by Valve to detect cheats running in various games, including Counter-Strike. If cheats are detected, the account is given a permanent lifetime ban from playing on VAC-secured servers. Other server providers, such as FACEIT and ESEA, have their own anti-cheat systems and work with Valve to detect new cheats. One of the most high-profile VAC bans was given to Hovik "KQLY" Tovmassian. KQLY, along with several other professional players, was banned while playing for France's best team, Titan. Valve has also banned players from Valve-sponsored events for match fixing. The first Valve ban for match fixing was a response to the iBUYPOWER match fixing scandal, in which esports journalist Richard Lewis revealed that one of North America's best teams, iBUYPOWER, had thrown a match for high-value skins. Valve indefinitely banned seven players who were involved in the scandal from attending any Majors. Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham was the only iBUYPOWER player not to be banned, as he did not receive any payment after the game. Valve would later make the bans permanent, causing some controversy in the Counter-Strike community. Although tournament organizers ESL and DreamHack lifted their own bans on the former iBUYPOWER players in 2017, the Major ban effectively ended the high level careers of two of North America's best in-game leaders (Sam "DaZeD" Marine and Joshua "steel" Nissan) and Braxton "swag" Pierce. Skadoodle would go on to win a Major with Cloud9. Following the iBUYPOWER ban, there have been two other match fixing bans, resulting in nine other players being barred from the Majors. List of Major Championships Titles by organization Titles by players Features Stickers Stickers are virtual items in the game which players can buy or get from sticker capsules. The stickers can then be applied to in-game gun skins. Valve has released a sticker design for each team attending a Major since Katowice 2014, and a sticker for each professional player's signature since Cologne 2015. These two types of stickers come in a variety of styles: paper, glitter, holographic, foil, and gold. With each sticker purchase, half of the proceeds go to the player or team and half go to Valve. These sticker capsules are unique for each tournament and can only be purchased at the time of the tournament. Because of this forced rarity, stickers from early majors tend to become more expensive over time. After initially costing less than US$10, a "Titan" holographic sticker from Katowice 2014 sold on secondary markets for US$80,000 in 2023, making it the most expensive public sticker trade in the game's history. Souvenir packages Souvenir packages are virtual packages containing a gun skin that are exclusive to CS:GO Majors. These "souvenir skins" can rank among the most expensive skins in the game because of their rarity. After Cloud9 became the first ever North American CS:GO Major champion at Boston 2018, a souvenir skin with the signature of the finals MVP, Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham, sold for US$61,000. In-game tributes After certain significant or iconic moments in Global Offensive Majors, Valve has added in-game memorials to the location of the event, usually in the form of graffiti or signs. Thus far, there have been six moments in Majors that have been memorialized by Valve, though one graffiti was removed when Dust II was updated. Notes == References ==

How old was the New-York born comic book writer who created the character Catwoman when he died?

83

Multiple constraints

Catwoman is a character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, she debuted as "the Cat" in Batman #1 (spring 1940). She has become one of the superhero Batman's most prominent enemies, belonging to the collective of adversaries that make up his rogues gallery, as well as Batman's best known and most enduring love interest, with many stories depicting their complex love–hate relationship. Since 1993, Catwoman has had her own ongoing series, Catwoman. Catwoman is the alter ego of Selina Kyle, a burglar in Gotham City who usually wears a skintight bodysuit and uses a bullwhip for a weapon. She was originally characterized as a supervillain and adversary of Batman, but has been featured in an eponymous series since the 1990s that portrays her as an antiheroine, often with a utilitarian moral philosophy. The character thrived in her earliest appearances, but she took an extended hiatus from September 1954 to November 1966 due to the developing Comics Code Authority in 1954. These issues involved the rules regarding the development and portrayal of female characters that were in violation of the Comics Code, a code which is no longer in use. In the comics, Holly Robinson and Eiko Hasigawa have both adopted the Catwoman identity, apart from Selina Kyle. Catwoman has been adapted in various media incarnations, having been portrayed in film by Lee Meriwether in Batman (1966), Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns (1992), Halle Berry in Catwoman (2004), Anne Hathaway in The Dark Knight Rises (2012), and Zoë Kravitz in The Batman (2022). On television, she has been played by Julie Newmar and Eartha Kitt in Batman, where the name Selina Kyle was never used; and Camren Bicondova and Lili Simmons in Gotham. Catwoman was ranked 11th on IGN's list of the "Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time", and 51st on Wizard magazine's "100 Greatest Villains of All Time" list. Conversely, she was ranked 20th on IGN's "Top 100 Comic Book Heroes of All Time" list. Character and publication history Creation Batman co-creator Bob Kane was a great movie fan and his love for film provided the impetus for several Batman characters, among them, Catwoman. Kane's inspiration for Catwoman was drawn from multiple sources to include actresses Jean Harlow, Hedy Lamarr, and his cousin, Ruth Steele. Kane and Finger wanted to give their comic book sex appeal, as well as a character who could appeal to female readers; they thus created a "friendly foe who committed crimes but was also a romantic interest in Batman's rather sterile life." Catwoman was meant to be a love interest and to engage Batman in a chess game, with him trying to reform her. At the same time, this character was meant to be different from other Batman villains like the Joker in that she was never a killer or evil. As for using cat imagery with the character, Kane stated that he and Finger saw cats as "kind of the antithesis of bats". I felt that women were feline creatures and men were more like dogs. While dogs are faithful and friendly, cats are cool, detached, and unreliable. I felt much warmer with dogs around me—cats are as hard to understand as women are. Men feel more sure of themselves with a male friend than a woman. You always need to keep women at arm's length. We don't want anyone taking over our souls, and women have a habit of doing that. So there's a love-resentment thing with women. I guess women will feel that I'm being chauvinistic to speak this way, but I do feel that I've had better relationships with male friends than women. With women, once the romance is over, somehow they never remain my friends. Fictional character biography Golden Age Catwoman, then called "the Cat", first appeared in Batman #1 (spring 1940) as a mysterious burglar and jewel thief, revealed at the end of the story to be a young, attractive (unnamed) woman, having disguised herself as an old woman during the story and been hired to commit a burglary. Although she does not wear her iconic cat-suit, the story establishes her core personality as a femme fatale who both antagonizes and attracts Batman. It is implied Batman may have deliberately let her get away by blocking Robin as he tried to leap after her. She next appears in Batman #2 in a story also involving the Joker but escapes Batman in the end. In Batman #3 she wears a fur mask and again succeeds in escaping Batman. Batman #62 (December 1950) reveals that Catwoman was an amnesiac flight attendant who turned to crime after suffering a prior blow to the head during a plane crash she survived. She reveals this in the Batcave after being hit on the head by a piece of rubble while saving Batman while he was chasing her. However, in The Brave and the Bold #197 (April 1983), she later admits that she made up the amnesia story because she wanted a way out of her past life of crime. She reforms for several years, helping out Batman in Batman #65 (June 1951) and 69 (February 1952), until she decides to return to a life of crime in Detective Comics #203 (January 1954), after a newspaper publishes stories of Batman's past adventures and some crooks mock her about it. However, Catwoman prevents her thugs from murdering Batman once he is later found knocked out, but quickly claims she wants him as a hostage. Catwoman appears again as a criminal in Batman #84 (June 1954) and Detective Comics #211 (September 1954), which were her two final appearances until 1966. This was mostly due to her possible violation of the developing Comics Code Authority's rules for portrayal of female characters that started in 1954. Silver Age Catwoman made her first Silver Age appearance in Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #70-71 (November–December 1966); afterward, she continued to make appearances across the various Batman comics. Several stories in the 1970s featured Catwoman committing murder, something that neither the Earth-One nor Earth-Two versions of her would ever do. This version of Catwoman was later assigned to the alternate world of Earth-B, an alternate Earth that included stories that could not be considered canonical on Earth-One or Earth-Two. Modern Age Tangled origins Catwoman's origin—and, to an extent, her character—was revised in 1987 when writer Frank Miller and artist David Mazzucchelli published Batman: Year One, a revision of Batman's origin. She worked as a dominatrix for the pimp Stan to survive and also sheltered a child prostitute named Holly Robinson working for him. Selina got into a fight with a disguised Bruce after he grabbed Holly, who had stabbed him during a fight with Stan, but was knocked out. As the story progresses, Selina decides to leave prostitution and takes Holly with her. She gets into burglary to make money and starts robbing the rich and powerful men of Gotham, donning a catsuit costume while committing her heists. While trying to rob Carmine Falcone, she gets rescued by Batman but is irked of being thought of as his sidekick by the media. The 1989 Catwoman limited series, written by Mindy Newell and with art by J.J. Birch, expanded upon Miller's Year One origin. This storyline, known as "Her Sister's Keeper", explores Selina's early life as a dominatrix and the start of her career as Catwoman. The story culminates with Selina's former pimp, Stan, abducting and beating her sister Maggie, who, in contrast to Selina, is a nun. Selina kills Stan to save her sister, and gets away with it. Most of this is revealed in the former series, but is expanded upon in "Her Sister's Keeper". Catwoman (vol. 2) #69 provides details about Selina's childhood and neglects Maggie's existence. Maria Kyle is a distant parent who preferred to spend her time with cats, and commits suicide when Selina is very young. Her alcoholic father, Brian, is cold to Selina for resembling her mother, whom he resents for dying, and eventually drinks himself to death. To survive, Selina takes to the streets for a time before getting caught and sent first to an orphanage, then juvenile detention center, "where Selina began to see how hard the world could really be". Maggie's fate at this point in the timeline is not alluded to. However, when Ed Brubaker reintroduces her into the comic, he implies that Maggie may have directly entered an orphanage and promptly been adopted. When she is 13 years old, Selina discovers that the detention center's administrator has been embezzling funds, and she confronts her. In an attempt to cover up her crime, the administrator puts Selina in a bag and drops her in a river to drown (like a cat). She escapes and returns to the orphanage, where she steals documents exposing the administrator's corruption. She uses these to blackmail the administrator into erasing "Selina Kyle" from the city's records, then steals the administrator's diamond necklace and escapes from the orphanage. Selina eventually finds herself in "Alleytown – a network of cobblestone streets that form a small borough between the East End and Old Gotham." Selina is taken in by Mama Fortuna, the elderly leader of a gang of young thieves, and is taught how to steal. Fortuna treats her students like slaves, keeping their earnings for herself. Selina eventually runs away, accompanied by her friend Sylvia. However, the two have difficulty surviving on their own, and in desperation try to support themselves by working as prostitutes. The two drift apart afterward, with Sylvia coming to resent Selina for not inquiring about what had happened to her at the hands of her abusive first client. In the Catwoman: Year One story, Selina, who is now an adult, achieves some success as a thief. Following a disastrous burglary, however, she accepts an offer to "lie low" as a dominatrix employed by a pimp named Stan. They plan to trick men into divulging information that might be used in future crimes. According to this storyline, Selina trains under the Armless Master of Gotham City, receiving education in martial arts and culture. During this time, a client gives her a cat o' nine tails, which Selina keeps as a trophy. Batman: Dark Victory, the sequel to Batman: The Long Halloween, implies that Catwoman suspects she is the illegitimate daughter of Mafia boss Carmine Falcone, although she finds no definitive proof. Selina's connection to the Falcone crime family is further explored in the miniseries Catwoman: When in Rome. Though the story adds more circumstantial evidence to the theory of Selina's Falcone heritage, establishing that the Falcones' second-born daughter was put up for adoption in America, it also supplies no definitive proof. During Batman: The Long Halloween, Selina (out of costume) develops a relationship with Bruce Wayne, even leading her to save Bruce from Poison Ivy. However, this relationship appears to end on the Fourth of July when Bruce rejects her advances twice; once as Bruce and once as Batman. She leaves him for good and also leaves Gotham for a while in Batman: Dark Victory, after he stands her up on two holidays. When the two meet at an opera many years later, during the events of Batman: Hush, Bruce comments that the two no longer have a relationship as Bruce and Selina. Catwoman also appears in the Batman: Knightfall saga, where she is approached by Bane's henchmen while robbing a house. Bane asks her to work for him, but she refuses, as she is repulsed by the criminal who "broke" Batman. Later in the story, she boards a plane with Bruce Wayne to fly to Santa Prisca. She next appears in the Batman: Knightquest saga, where Azrael is masquerading as Batman. She is one of the few to recognize that this Batman is an impostor, later being present when the true Batman returns to the fold as he struggles against his successor, his willingness to save even criminals confirming his true identity for Selina. Catwoman solo series In 1993, Catwoman was given her first ongoing comic book series. This series, written by an assortment of writers, but primarily penciled by Jim Balent, generally depicted the character as an international thief (and occasional bounty hunter) with an ambiguous moral code. Story-lines include her adoption of teenage runaway and former sidekick, Arizona; aiding Bane, whom she later betrays to Azrael; and a stint as a reluctant government operative. The series also delves into her origin, revealing her beginnings as a young thief, her difficult period in juvenile incarceration, and her training with Ted "Wildcat" Grant. Moving to New York City, Selina becomes corporate vice president of Randolf Industries, a Mafia-influenced company and then becomes its CEO through blackmail. She plans to use this position to run for Mayor of New York City, but her hopes are dashed when the Trickster inadvertently connects her to her criminal alter ego. After her time in New York City, Selina returns to Gotham City, which at this time is in the midst of the "No Man's Land" storyline. As Catwoman, she assists Batman against Lex Luthor in the reconstruction of the city. After being arrested by Commissioner Gordon, she escapes from prison. Later that year, during the "Officer Down" storyline in the Batman titles, Catwoman is initially the chief suspect. Although later cleared, she displays increasingly erratic behavior throughout the story, with her series later revealing that she has developed a form of personality disorder after exposure to the Scarecrow's fear gas, causing her to act as herself and an identity that appears to be her sister Maggie pretending to be her. Soon afterward, she disappears and is believed to have been killed by the assassin Deathstroke the Terminator, ending her series at issue #94. Catwoman then appears in a series of back-up stories in Detective Comics #759–762 (August–November 2001). In the back-up storyline "Trail of the Catwoman", by writer Ed Brubaker and artist Darwyn Cooke, private detective Slam Bradley attempts to find out what really happened to Selina Kyle. This storyline leads into the newest Catwoman series in late 2001 (written by Brubaker initially with Cooke, later joined by artist Cameron Stewart). In this series, Selina Kyle, joined by new supporting cast members Holly and Slam Bradley (a character from the early Golden Age DC Comics), becomes protector of the residents of Gotham's East End, while still carrying out an ambitious career as a cat burglar. During the Batman: Hush storyline, Batman and Catwoman briefly work together and have a romantic relationship, during which he reveals his true identity to her. At the end, he breaks off their relationship when he suspects it has been manipulated by the Riddler and Hush. This is the second story to establish that she knows Batman's true identity. In an early 1980s storyline, Selina and Bruce develop a relationship. The concluding story features a closing panel in which she refers to Batman as "Bruce". A change in the editorial team at that point, however, brought a swift end to that storyline and, apparently, all that transpired during the story arc. In the Justice League story arc "Crisis of Conscience", Catwoman fights alongside Batman and the Justice League against the old Secret Society of Super Villains, of which she had once briefly been a member. Mindwiping revelations Catwoman appears to be completely reformed, and her love for Batman is true (although brash and unpredictable). However, she has learned her reformation was the result of a mindwipe by Zatanna, a procedure known to deeply affect and, in at least one case, physically incapacitate its victims. Zatanna gives no reason for her actions, but in a flashback, it is shown that she had acted with the consent and aid of five of the seven JLA members who had helped her mindwipe Dr. Light and Batman. Catwoman's response to this revelation is unequivocal: she gags Zatanna with duct tape, rendering her powerless, and pushes her out a window. Afterward, she is seen covering her bed with past versions of her Catwoman costume. Still unbalanced and uncertain of herself in issue #52, Selina is forced to decide whether to kill a supervillain. Black Mask, in an attempt to "improve himself", threatens the most important people in Selina's life, from Slam Bradley to Holly. The villain had also previously tortured Selina's sister Maggie by drilling out her husband's eyeballs and feeding them to Maggie, which drove her insane. Black Mask learns Selina's identity through his earlier alliance with Selina's childhood friend Sylvia, who still harbors a grudge against Selina. Still thinking that Selina adheres to a strict no-kill rule, Black Mask is caught by surprise when Selina shoots him in the head. This action continues to haunt her throughout the "One Year Later" storyline, and it is suggested that this might have been the first time she had ever directly taken a life. As a mother Following the events of Infinite Crisis, the DC Universe jumps forward in time. After "One Year later", Selina Kyle is no longer Catwoman, she has left the East End, and has given birth to a daughter named Helena. The father of her new daughter is initially unrevealed; however, Batman demonstrates great concern for the child and at one point asks to have Helena stay at his mansion. Selina attempts to live a safe and somewhat normal life, and gives up her more dangerous ways of living as Catwoman. Holly Robinson takes over as the new Catwoman while Selina, living under the alias Irena Dubrovna, turns her attention to caring for her daughter (Selina's alias was inspired by the name of the main character in the 1942 film Cat People). Though she takes her role as a new mother quite seriously, Selina dons the costume for a run through the East End some days after Helena's birth. Having gained a few pounds, Selina finds that her costume is now tighter. In addition, she is easily distracted by a common criminal. Although the situation is defused through Holly's opportune arrival, the sight of two Catwomen active simultaneously in the city is caught on video. Selina returns home from her adventure to find that the mysterious movie aficionado the Film Freak has deduced her alias, teamed up with the Angle Man, and grabbed Helena. After rescuing her daughter, Selina convinces Zatanna to mindwipe the Film Freak and the Angle Man in order to preserve her secret identity. Following the procedure, the Angle Man turns himself in to the authorities; the Film Freak, however, embarks upon a murderous rampage. A twist occurs when Wildcat informs Selina that Holly has been arrested for the murder of Black Mask. Selina infiltrates the police station and frees Holly. Finally defeating the Film Freak, Selina returns home to find that Bradley has deduced that Helena is the daughter of his son Sam Bradley, Jr., and therefore his granddaughter (although it is still strongly hinted that Bruce Wayne may be the father). Batman asks Catwoman to infiltrate the violent tribe of the Bana Amazons during the Amazons Attack! crossover. Posing as a criminal, Selina gains the Bana's trust and thwarts a terror attack aimed at causing mass casualties in Gotham City. Selina questions whether she should be raising a daughter when her life as Catwoman has already proven to be such a danger to the child. After enlisting Batman's help in faking the death of both herself and her daughter, Selina puts Helena up for adoption. A month after Helena is placed with a new family, Catwoman asks Zatanna to erase her memories of Helena and change her mind back to a criminal mentality. Zatanna refuses, judging that such an act would be cruel to both mother and daughter. She tells Selina that she could never reverse Selina's mindset, since she was on the path to becoming a hero on her own. Believing she can no longer function as a criminal, Selina decided to become one of Batman's Outsiders. She quickly quits, however, and is replaced by Batgirl. Salvation Run In Salvation Run #2, Catwoman is sent to the Prison Planet. She allies herself with Lex Luthor in an attempt to return to Earth, and mistakenly ends up on an alternate universe-Earth where Catwoman is a notorious villain. It is later revealed that this Earth is a creation of her own mind, and she has not left the Prison Planet. When accused of being a traitor by Luthor, she reveals the Martian Manhunter is posing as the Blockbuster, which would soon lead to the hero's death. Using the trust she regained in Luthor's eyes, she earns a passage to the 'real' Earth, in a jerry-rigged teleport machine built by Luthor for letting the villains escape. On Earth, she resumes being a hero, with occasional lapses into thievery by commission, simply for the thrill of it. Heart of Hush Later, in Detective Comics, Selina is quite uncertain about pursuing a romantic relationship with Batman. She talks with Bruce about Jezebel Jet, his current girlfriend, and then has a quick pep talk with Zatanna, whom she believes is also courting Bruce. Zatanna confirms and admits her feelings, adding that she has since chosen to forget them, but extremely encourages Selina to open her heart to Bruce Wayne before Jet is able to "seal the deal". Hush eavesdrops on the conversation, targeting both women as a way to hurt his enemy, Bruce Wayne. In Detective Comics #848 (November 2008), Hush attacks Selina as she is in her apartment, kidnapping her and surgically removing her heart. She is delivered anonymously to a Gotham hospital. Batman receives word of her situation, and while he goes in search of Hush, he leaves Selina in the care of Doctor Mid-Nite, who is considered the superhero community's chief doctor. Batman recovers her heart, and Dr. Mid-Nite restores it to her body; however, the doctor also makes a prognosis on whether she can still return to her former life swinging through rooftops. While Selina is still in a coma, she encounters Zatanna, who apologizes for not warning her about Hush. She tells Selina that she was so happy about her relationship with Bruce that she ignored the other warnings in the cards. Zatanna gives her a little bottle supposedly containing aloe vera for her post-op scars. It is hinted that there is a little magic in there to help Selina with her recovery. Selina is sad that she might end up alone again. In the meantime, Bruce enters the recovery room and, believing her unconscious, launches into a soliloquy. He ends by telling Selina that he will always love her, when she opens her eyes and reveals to him that she was awake all the time and heard his confession. Batman R.I.P. During the events of Batman R.I.P., Selina and Bruce's romance lasts only for a night because Bruce must continue to pose as Jezebel's lover to bring down the Black Glove. While still recuperating, she pulls off one more heist and exacts her revenge on Hush. With the help of a few allies on both sides; the Oracle, Holly Robinson, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and Slam Bradley, Selina taps into Hush's assets, leaving him penniless and suffering from wounds inflicted by Batman. Battle for the Cowl In Batman: Battle for the Cowl, Selina is seen as one of the members of Nightwing and Robin's contingency team known as "the Network", where she is seen taking down a gang of thugs before seeing Tim Drake dressed in a Batman uniform and is initially taken by surprise. Batman: Reborn and Gotham City Sirens In the first issue of Gotham City Sirens, Selina runs into the Bonebuster, a new villain trying to make a name for himself, and is saved by Poison Ivy. Selina, fearing the many dangers of a post-Batman Gotham, proposes that she, Ivy, and Harley Quinn team up, living together at a single base in an abandoned animal shelter. Ivy agrees under one condition: using home-grown drugs to weaken Selina's resistance, Ivy demands the identity of the true Batman. Selina flashes back three years to when Talia al Ghul requested her presence in Tibet. There, Talia made it so that Selina would not relinquish the true identity of Batman under any circumstances. After the interrogation is over, Selina sees Harley with Bruce Wayne on TV. Selina tells Ivy that she knows it is Hush in disguise. Blackest Night During the events of Blackest Night, Selina is attacked by Black Mask after he has been reborn as a member of the Black Lantern Corps. After he tells her that he plans on getting an emotional response before killing her, Selina steals a car and heads to the mental institution where Maggie is held, believing Black Mask is coming for her. Black Mask attacks the institution, and somehow awakens Maggie from her coma. Selina arrives in time to help her sister flee into the sewers. While on the run, Maggie angrily tells Selina that she ruined both of their lives the day she decided to become Catwoman. Devastated by her sister's statement, Selina fails to realize they have both been heading into a trap. Just as Black Mask is about to gouge Maggie's eyes out and shove them down Selina's throat, Harley and Ivy arrive and defeat the Black Lantern by trapping him in the stomach of a man-eating plant. Selina is helped to her feet by her friends, who tell her that Maggie has fled the scene. The next day, the staff members of the mental institution are shown discussing Maggie's escape, also mentioning that a nun that works at the hospital had been found beaten and stripped of her uniform. Maggie is then shown in the depths of the Gotham City sewers clad in the bloodied nun robes, muttering about her plan to kill Catwoman in order to free Selina's soul. Now calling herself Sister Zero, Maggie attempts to kill Selina, but ultimately flees after being defeated by the Sirens. She is last seen going over her options, now realizing that she cannot murder her own sister, and therefore must personally exorcise the "cat demon" from within Selina's body. The Return of Bruce Wayne In the build-up to The Return of Bruce Wayne, the Sirens help Zatanna put out a massive fire at a local park near their home, only for them to be ambushed by a creature made of mud. After being dragged underneath the soil by the creature, Catwoman awakens bound and gagged on the floor of a dark room, and is quickly forced into an illusion by her unseen captors. Back in reality, Talia reveals to the Sirens that just a few hours prior, an unknown benefactor had offered up a massive reward to whoever could kidnap and deliver Catwoman to him, with the hopes that he could penetrate her mind and learn Batman's secret identity. Before the knowledge can be ripped from her mind, Selina's captors (revealed to be the Shrike and a new villain named the Sempai), are eventually defeated by the other Sirens. Once Selina is freed, Talia orders Zatanna to wipe Bruce's identity from her memory, reasoning that her kidnapping has proved that the knowledge is too dangerous for her to handle. The two women initially restrain Selina and attempt to remove the knowledge from her, but Zatanna refuses at the last moment and ends up fighting Talia in order to protect Selina. Talia tries to kill Selina before vanishing, but she survives and ultimately reunites with Bruce, who had recently returned to the present. After stealing the contents of a safe belonging to the Falcone crime family, Selina returns home to find Kitrina, a teenaged escape artist and Carmine Falcone's long-lost daughter, breaking into her room. She attacks and subdues Kitrina, who tells Selina that she had unknowingly stolen a map that details the location of the new Black Mask's underground bunker. Realizing that she could use the map to capture Black Mask and claim the 50 million dollar bounty on his head, Selina leaves Kitrina bound in a locked room so that she can keep the map for herself. She later calls Batman to her house in order to turn the would-be thief over to the police, but discovers that Kitrina had managed to free herself and steal back the map. This impresses Selina, who mentions that she had tied up the child using an "inescapable" knot that Bruce had shown her years earlier. Following a battle with Black Mask and his henchmen, which ends with neither woman being able to claim the bounty, Selina agrees to take on Kitrina as her new sidekick, Catgirl. Once Bruce Wayne returns from his time in the past, he establishes Batman Incorporated, a global team of Batmen. Selina accompanies Batman on a mission to break into Doctor Sivana's armory, and later travels with him to Tokyo in order to recruit a Japanese representative for Batman Inc. Catwoman teams up with Batman to stop Harley Quinn from breaking the Joker out of Arkham Asylum. After defeating Harley and the Joker, Catwoman tells Poison Ivy that they are no longer friends, this after Ivy drugged her in an attempt to uncover Batman's secret identity. Shortly afterwards, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn have escaped and set off to pursue revenge on Catwoman for leaving them behind. The two of them found Catwoman and fought her. While they were fighting, Catwoman says that she saw good in them and only wanted to help them. Batman was about to arrest them, but Catwoman helped the two of them escape. The New 52 / Catwoman (vol. 4) In 2011, DC Comics relaunched its main line of superhero titles under the umbrella The New 52, which revised and updated the fictional history of its superhero characters. Catwoman's new monthly title now focused on Selina's earlier days as Catwoman, though not the identity's origins. The series begins with Selina frantically escaping from unknown masked men who are invading her apartment. After flitting from rooftop to rooftop, Selina looks back just in time to see her apartment blown apart by explosives. She turns to her informant, Lola, who often supplies Catwoman with information and various jobs. In this instance, Lola tips Selina off to an unoccupied penthouse where Selina can lie low for a few weeks, as well as a job stealing a painting from Russian mobsters. For this job, Selina infiltrates a Russian club by posing as the bartender. There, she recognizes a man who murdered a friend of hers, and she takes her revenge. Once her cover is blown, Selina dons her Catwoman outfit and fights her way out of the club. It is revealed through Selina's inner monologue that she and Batman are lovers, and the premiere issue ends with the first sex scene between the two. Her revised origin in Catwoman (vol. 4) #0 draws from Batman Returns. Catwoman is later confronted by Steve Trevor, who offers her a spot on Amanda Waller's new Justice League of America. Selina initially refuses, but accepts the offer after Trevor promises to help her track down a woman who has apparently been posing as Selina. It is later revealed that Catwoman was chosen specifically to take down Batman should the JLA ever need to defeat the original Justice League. The teams eventually come into conflict in the publisher's "Trinity War" crossover. In the Earth-Two continuity, Selina Kyle and Bruce Wayne are married, and their daughter, Helena Wayne, is that universe's Robin. In this universe, either Selina has reformed or was never a supervillain in the first place. It is revealed in issue #0 of Worlds' Finest that this Selina was killed while trying to stop what she believed was a human trade ring. Keeper of the Castle and Inheritance From 2014 to 2015, science fiction writer Genevieve Valentine took over the series and penned a 10-issue story arc focused on Selina Kyle's reign as a Gotham City crime boss. Following events from Batman Eternal and preceding those in Batman #28, Selina takes over control of the Calabrese crime family, after being revealed as the daughter of Rex Calabrese. During this time she stops wearing the Catwoman costume, prompting Eiko Hasigawa, heir to the rival Hasigawa family, to replace her in the role. The women confront each other several times, discussing Eiko's motivations to dress as Catwoman and whether Selina's plans for Gotham and the families are worth the sacrifices required. During one of their encounters, Selina and Eiko kiss, establishing their relationship as a romantic one. DC Universe In June 2016, the DC Rebirth event again relaunched DC Comics' entire line of superhero comic book titles with partial revisions of their characters' fictional histories. Catwoman assumes a prominent role in the third volume of Batman. In December 2017, DC Comics ended the DC Rebirth branding, opting to include everything under a larger DC Universe banner and naming, and Catwoman continues to be featured in the third volume of Batman. The series reveals Selina Kyle's origin through a series of flashbacks and letters exchanged between her and Bruce. Selina's parents died when she was young, and she hardly remembers them. She is sent to the Thomas and Martha Wayne Home For the Boys and Girls of Gotham, and even after being placed in various foster homes, Selina would escape to return to the orphanage. Eventually, Selina takes on the Catwoman persona. During one of her heists, she is approached by the Kite Man to aide the Joker in a gang war against the Riddler, which she refuses. She later aides Batman, with whom she already has a romantic relationship, to spy on the Joker. She is shot from a window, but is unharmed. At some point in the future, her childhood orphanage is bombed by a terrorist group called the Dogs of War. Batman reluctantly arrests Catwoman after all 237 of them are killed, despite Catwoman's insistence on her guilt. Catwoman's first appearance following the start of DC Rebirth is in Batman (vol. 3) #9, where she is revealed to be imprisoned in Arkham Asylum for the alleged murders of the Dogs of War. Batman is determined to prove her innocence, and makes a deal with Amanda Waller to get her off death row in exchange for her help on a mission to Santa Prisca. The mission to find the Psycho-Pirate is a success, and Batman and Catwoman return to Gotham City. Before Batman can return her to custody, she escapes. Batman investigates the murders of the terrorists that she has been charged with, and deduces that it was in fact Holly Robinson who committed the murders after the terrorists burned down the orphanage she and Selina were raised in. After being attacked by Holly Robinson, Batman is rescued by Catwoman. Bruce proposes to Selina at the end of Batman (vol. 3) #24. In issue #32, Selina asks Bruce to propose to her again, to which she says, "Yes". The two leave Gotham for Khadym to where Holly Robinson has fled to in order to clear Selina's name, ultimately facing Talia al Ghul. Batman Annual (vol. 3) #2 (January 2018) centers on a romantic storyline between Batman and Catwoman, beginning with their initial meetings and acceptance of their shared mutual attraction towards one and another. Towards the end, the story is flash-forwarded to the future, in which Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle are a married couple in their golden years. Bruce receives a terminal medical diagnosis, and Selina cares for him until his death. On the day of their wedding, Selina decides to call off the wedding as she realises that marrying Bruce would ultimately take away what makes him Batman. This is later revealed to be due to the manipulations of Holly under the instructions of Bane as to finally break Batman of both spirit and will. Subsequently, Selina leaves Gotham and starts a new life in the city of Villa Hermosa, California (Catwoman (vol. 5) #1). She faces opposition from the power-hungry Creel family who run Villa Hermosa, specifically First Lady Raina Creel. She reappears in the "City of Bane" storyline, reuniting with Bruce following his defeat against both Bane and his father Thomas Wayne from the Flashpoint reality. They proceed to go to Paris for Bruce to recover, before going to disrupt a shipment of Venom under the jurisdiction of Bane's lieutenant, the Magpie. During this, they reconcile and finally determine when they actually first met (Batman believed it to be on a boat when they first met under their alter-egos; whilst Catwoman believed it to be in the streets as their true identities, reminiscent of their meeting in Batman: Year One). They subsequently go back to Gotham and defeat all of Batman's enemies who had sided with Bane before taking on and defeating Bane himself, at which point the two are taken by Thomas who, in an attempt to finally break Bruce's spirit, shows him the corpse of the recently murdered Alfred. However, both Bruce and Selina then defeat Thomas utilizing both Scarface and the Psycho-Pirate. Equipment Weapons During the Silver Age, Catwoman, like most Batman villains, used a variety of themed weapons, vehicles, and equipment, such as a custom cat-themed car called the "Cat-illac". This usage also appeared in the 1960s Batman television series. In her Post-Crisis appearances, Catwoman's favored weapon is a whip. She wields both a standard bullwhip and a cat o' nine tails with expert proficiency. She uses the whip because it is a weapon that the user must be trained to use, and therefore it can not be taken from her and used against her in a confrontation. She can also be seen using a pistol against people if her whip is taken from her. Catwoman uses caltrops as an anti-personnel weapon and bolas to entangle opponents at a distance. Catwoman has also been shown to have various items to restrain her victims, such as rope for binding hands and feet, and a roll of duct tape used to gag her targets, as she has done with various victims during her robberies over the years. Often, especially in the TV series, she uses sleeping gas or knockout darts to subdue victims. Catwoman's attractiveness and feminine wiles have also allowed her to take advantage of male opponents. Costume Catwoman, in her first appearance, wore no costume or disguise at all. It was not until her next appearance that she donned a mask, which was a theatrically face-covering cat-mask that had the appearance of a real cat, rather than a more stylized face mask seen in her later incarnations. Later, she wore a dress with a hood that came with ears, and still later, a catsuit with attached boots and either a domino or glasses-mask. In the 1960s, Catwoman's catsuit was green, which was typical of villains of that era. In the 1990s, she usually wore a mostly purple, skintight catsuit before switching to a black catsuit similar to Michelle Pfeiffer's costume in Batman Returns, except not haphazardly stitched together. In recent years, artists have typically depicted Catwoman in some variation of a tight, black bodysuit. Ed Brubaker, the writer behind the 2001 revamp of the character, has stated that Selina's current costume was inspired by Emma Peel's iconic leather catsuit in The Avengers television series. It has a more high tech look, with domino-shaped infrared goggles on her cowl. Many of her costumes have incorporated retractable metal claws on the fingertips of her gloves and sometimes on the toes of her boots. On rare occasions, she has also sported a cat's tail. On May 21, 2018, DC Comics unveiled Selina's revamped Catwoman costume designed by comic book writer and artist Joëlle Jones. The new costume is black with openings under her arms and shoulders for mobility along with reinforcement in the middle. Gone are the goggles in favor of a cowl and sleeker, more stylish gloves and boots. Jones, who had been drawing the covers and interior art for DC Rebirth's Batman was announced as the writer and artist of a new solo Catwoman series (volume 5). Holly Robinson uses the same costume Selina used prior to Infinite Crisis. Other versions Earth-Two In the 1970s comics, the Catwoman of Earth-Two (the parallel Earth that was retroactively declared as the home of DC's Golden Age characters) has the same history as her Golden Age counterpart. Selina later reformed in the 1950s (after the events of Batman #69) and had married Bruce Wayne; soon afterward, she gave birth to the couple's only child, Helena Wayne (the Huntress). The Brave and the Bold #197 (April 1983) elaborates upon the Golden Age origin of Catwoman given in Batman #62, after Selina reveals that she never suffered from amnesia. It is revealed that Selina Kyle had been in a bad marriage, and eventually decided to leave her husband. However, her husband kept her jewelry in his private vault, and she had to break into it to retrieve it. Selina enjoyed this experience so much she decided to become a professional costumed cat burglar, and thus began a career that repeatedly led to her encountering Batman. The Earth-Two/Golden Age Selina Kyle eventually dies in the late 1970s after being blackmailed by her former underling "Silky" Cernak into going into action again as Catwoman, as shown in DC Super-Stars #17 (December 1977). She was killed when Cernak henchman's gun went off and hit her on the chest enough for her to fall from the fourth floor mezzanine. She died in Bruce's arms claiming "I did it all for you". This incident led to Helena Wayne becoming Huntress and bringing Cernak to justice. The Dark Knight Returns Selina Kyle appears as an aging and somewhat overweight madam in Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns four times; all are brief. The first time is in a phone message to Bruce ("Selina. Bruce, I'm lonely."). Next, she is attacked by the Joker, who uses a mind control drug to convince her to send one of her prostitutes to use the same substance on a governor. The Joker then beats her, dresses her in a Wonder Woman outfit, ties her up and gags her, leaving her for Batman to find. Selina's final appearance in the book is at Bruce Wayne's funeral, where she yells at Superman, telling him that she knows who killed Bruce. She does not appear in Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again, Miller's follow-up story, although she is referred to in the prologue written for the trade paperback version, but in the book, Carrie Kelley's moniker of "Catgirl" is an homage to Catwoman. Prose books Two 1990s prose books feature Catwoman: The Further Adventures of Batman: Volume 3 featuring Catwoman, a short story anthology with stories written by various authors, and Catwoman: Tiger Hunt, a novel. Both books feature a Batman: Year One-influenced Catwoman who wears a gray cat costume and was once a prostitute. Kingdom Come Catwoman also made a small cameo in Kingdom Come, mostly accompanying the Riddler; she is predominantly seen, but not much heard in the series. She is not dressed in costume, but appears in the very dress she first wore in Batman #1 as the Cat. According to the novelization by Elliot S. Maggin, she runs a multibillion-dollar cosmetics company. An armored, metahuman successor called "Catwoman II" is also featured in the story as one of the "new heroes" who follow the new "man of tomorrow" Magog's anti-heroic, violent example. Batman: Digital Justice In the all-digital graphic novel Batman: Digital Justice, which is set some time in the future long after the original Batman has died, Sheila Romero, also known as the hit pop music star Gata (the Spanish female noun for "cat") and daughter of the Mayor of Gotham City, is jealous of the new Batman, James Gordon, because media coverage of his activities have been cutting into her airtime. Setting out to learn as much about Batman and his enemies as she can, Gata becomes the new Catwoman. Near the end of the story, Gata and her followers face off against Batman, but the two later fall in love, and Maria Romero, also known as Madame X, tells Sheila that she is really a clone of Maria. Maria confesses that she had planned to transplant her brain into Gata's body, but she could not bring herself to do it because she loved her "daughter" too much. Maria then dies in Sheila's arms. Elseworlds In the Elseworlds tale Catwoman: Guardian of Gotham, Selina Kyle is the daughter of millionaires Thomas and Martha Kyle. Walking home after seeing the film Cat People, the young Selina chases after an alley cat and watches in horror as her parents are gunned down by a robber. Selina learns that the crook has stolen a ring she found in a Cracker Jack box and had given to her mother. Years later she becomes Catwoman, the defender of Gotham City, operating out of a Catcave beneath Kyle Manor, aided by a young maid named Brooks (this universe's version of Alfred Pennyworth). Her major enemy is a psychopathic criminal named Batman, who beats her entire rogues gallery half-to-death just to get rid of the competition. In the Elseworlds tale Batman: Nine Lives, where Batman and his supporting characters are re-invented as a pulp noir detective story, an African-American Selina Kyle is a murdered owner of the bankrupt Kit Kat Club who was blackmailing many of the city's most powerful figures. She is nicknamed "the Catwoman". In the Elseworlds tale Batman/Tarzan: Claws of the Cat-woman, set in the 1930s, explorer and adventurer Finnegan Dent is revealed to be stealing the sacred artifacts of an African tribe. During an encounter with Batman and Tarzan, a female thief, dressed as a cat, is revealed to be the princess of the tribe, as well as the priestess of its cat-cult, trying to reclaim the artifacts. In the Elseworlds tale JLA: The Nail, featuring a world where costumed heroes have no symbol of inspiration as Superman was never recovered by the Kents, Catwoman is diagnosed by the head warden of Arkham Asylum as not being a true "criminal", but simply enjoying playing a "cat-and-mouse" game with Batman, donning her costume simply to attract his attention. During her time in Arkham, the Joker attacks the asylum armed with Kryptonian gauntlets provided by the story's secret villain, forcing the inmates to fight each other—Catwoman being the last one standing—before Batman arrives. Although the Joker uses his gauntlets to brutally murder Robin and Batgirl while forcing Batman to watch, Catwoman distracts him long enough for Batman to escape the Joker's hold and destroy the gauntlets. He then proceeds to kill the Joker in a trauma-induced rage, taking the gauntlets and Catwoman back to the Batcave. With Selina and Alfred having broken through Batman's grief, Selina becomes Batwoman and joins Batman in rescuing the JLA from captivity. Although Batman resigns from the League after he is cleared of the Joker's murder, even Catwoman's support cannot help him past his grief until the events of JLA: Another Nail, where the two briefly travel into the afterlife to investigate recent supernatural disturbances with the aid of Deadman, with Batgirl and Robin's spirits appearing to forgive their mentor for his failure to save them before he returns to life. In the Elseworlds tale Batman: In Darkest Knight, featuring a world if Bruce Wayne discovered the body of dying alien Abin Sur, instead of Green Lantern Hal Jordan, also features familiar Batman characters mixed with some of Green Lantern's enemies. Selina Kyle (recognized by Bruce as "that night in the East End", a reference to Batman: Year One"), along with Harvey Dent are corrupted by Sinestro, who absorbs the mind of the Waynes' killer Joe Chill and became crazed. The two known as Star Sapphire (Selina) and Binary Star (Harvey) team with Sinestro to take out Green Lantern, but are stopped. Batman: Bloodstorm In Batman: Bloodstorm, the first of two sequels to Batman & Dracula: Red Rain, where Batman was forced to become a vampire to save Gotham from an attack by Dracula, Selina is turned into a werecat after being bitten by one of the remaining vampires. Hunting for the monster that transformed her, Selina encounters Batman as he hunts for the remaining vampires, the two subsequently joining forces to eliminate the vampire horde. As they fight together, Batman finds that Selina's selfless love for him allows him to control his thirst for blood that had begun to consume him. She sacrifices herself to save him from the Joker, who had become the leader of the remaining vampires after Dracula's death, taking a crossbow bolt to the heart that the Joker had fired at Batman. Batman's grief and rage over her death causes him to finally lose control of his bloodlust as he drinks the Joker's blood. In the second and final sequel, Batman: Crimson Mist, the corrupted Batman reflects grimly that he can no longer understand Selina's noble sacrifice after his psyche has become increasingly corrupted by his surrender to his vampire side. Thrillkiller In Howard Chaykin's Thrillkiller, Selina Kyle is a stripper in a cat-themed strip club. She acts as an informant for GCPD detective Bruce Wayne. Dark Allegiances In Howard Chaykin's Dark Allegiances, Selina Kyle becomes a film star under the stage name of Kitty Grimalkin. Prior to becoming a star, she was an alcoholic whose actions during one of her "blackouts" were recorded into an underground porn film. The stills from the film are used to blackmail her into stealing information from Wayne Enterprises. Batman: Shadow of the Bat In Alan Grant's Batman: Shadow of the Bat Annual #2, Vikki Vale, a reporter for Wayne Media, is Catwoman. She is hired by Anarky to steal information, but she gets caught and is tortured by Jonathan Crane, whom she calls a "demented scarecrow". All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder In Frank Miller's All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder, Catwoman expresses interest when the Joker's invites her to join him in "some mischief". She may be involved in sadomasochism, as she first advises the Joker — who has just murdered his latest lover—that "I've heard rumors on how you handle women — and even I don't play it that rough". Two issues later, however, Catwoman is found brutally beaten and cut, bleeding badly. She struggles to tell Batman, "Juh... Juh... It was Juh..." Batman: Two Faces In Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning's Batman: Two Faces, Selina Kyle is a madame in 19th century Gotham, who defends streetwalkers in a mask, bustier, and fishnets and occasionally works with amateur detective Bruce Wayne. The Joker attacks and paralyzes her, much like he does to Barbara Gordon in Batman: The Killing Joke. Batman: Leatherwing In Detective Comics Annual #7 ("Batman: Leatherwing") by Chuck Dixon, set in the 18th century Caribbean, Capitana Felina is a Spanish Contessa turned pirate, who rails against the chauvinism of her own crew. She initially teams up with the Laughing Man (the Joker) against the English freebooter Captain Leatherwing (Batman), before turning to Leatherwing's side, and eventually marrying him. Batman Beyond A futuristic Catwoman appears in Batman Beyond (vol. 3). Like the current Batman, Terry McGinnis, the new Catwoman sports a high-tech costume complete with advanced gadgetry. The new Hush hires her to plant a tracking device on Batman, only for Hush to begin strangling her after "paying" her with a box full of playing cards, regarding her death as a continuation of his efforts to destroy Batman's "family" by killing his rogues gallery. Bruce Wayne saves her with 'Bat-Wraith' robots. She is revealed to be the daughter of the villain Multiplex; she inherits her father's ability to self-duplicate, but can only create nine copies of herself, explaining her adoption of the Catwoman moniker. She is later revealed to be intimately involved with Dick Grayson. Flashpoint In the alternate timeline of the Flashpoint event, Selina Kyle becomes the Oracle, having been apparently paralyzed under unspecified circumstances. Batman: Earth One In the second volume of the Batman: Earth One graphic novel series, Selena Kyle appears and helps Batman tending his wounds after chasing the Riddler, pretending to be a single mother who lives in the apartment building where he was injured. Batman later discovers that she is neither the apartment's tenant or a mother, but a burglar who was robbing the building at the time. Scooby-Doo Team-Up During a crossover with the cast of Scooby-Doo, Catwoman poses as a ghost in order to con Harley and Ivy out of the Opal of Isis, a rare artifact. After the members of Mystery, Inc. unravel her scam, Catwoman tries to flee with the opal. She is soon found bound and gagged, with Batgirl having managed to defeat her and reclaim the opal off-screen. Earth 2 In 2011, The New 52 revised and relaunched DC Comics superhero titles, including revisions to the alternate-universe stories and characters of "Earth-Two"—renamed "Earth-2". The Earth 2 version of Catwoman is married to Batman and is the mother of Helena Wayne. Catwoman trained her daughter in crimefighting so that she can one day aid her father, who is busy protecting the world from bigger threats. Batman found out about the outing and got angry, only for Catwoman to calm him down and kiss him. Helena later came to her father's aid and found that soldiers from another world killed Catwoman as Batman mourns her death. Batman '89 In 2021, DC announced that it would be releasing a comic book continuation of Tim Burton's first two Batman films, Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992), Batman '89, written by Sam Hamm, and illustrated by Joe Quinones. The book picks following the events of Batman Returns (1992) and includes the return of Michelle Pfeiffer's Selina Kyle / Catwoman. In other media Catwoman made her live-action debut in the 1966 Batman television series, portrayed by Julie Newmar; she was also portrayed by Lee Meriwether in the film adaptation and Eartha Kitt in the third season. The character later appeared in Tim Burton's Batman Returns, portrayed by Michelle Pfeiffer. A solo Catwoman film was released in 2004 in which she was portrayed by Halle Berry. Anne Hathaway portrayed the character in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises. She was voiced by Zoë Kravitz in the 2017 animated film the Lego Batman Movie, and in 2022, she portrayed the character in Matt Reeves' live-action film The Batman. Catwoman has also appeared in the television series Gotham (2014–2019), in which she was portrayed by Camren Bicondova and Lili Simmons (adult). Reception Catwoman was ranked 11th on IGN's "Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time" list, and 51st on Wizard magazine's "100 Greatest Villains of All Time" list. Conversely, she was ranked 20th on IGN's "Top 100 Comic Book Heroes of All Time" list, as well as 23rd in Comics Buyer's Guide's "100 Sexiest Women in Comics" list. Bibliography List of Catwoman titles Catwoman (miniseries) #1–4 (1989) Catwoman: Defiant (1992) Materiał From Showcase '93 #1–4 (1993) Materiał From Showcase '95 #4 (1995) Catwoman (vol. 2) #1–94 (1993–2001) Catwoman (vol. 2) #0 (1994) Catwoman #1,000,000 (1998) Catwoman Annual #1–4 (1994–1997) Catwoman/Vampirella: The Furies (1997) Catwoman Plus/Scream Queen #1 (1997) (with Scream Queen) Catwoman/Wildcat #1–4 (1998) Catwoman: Guardian of Gotham #1–2 (1999) Catwoman (vol. 3) #1–83 (2002–2008, 2010) Catwoman: Secret Files and Origins #1 (2003) Catwoman: When in Rome #1–6 (2004) Batman/Catwoman: Trail of the Gun #1–2 (2004) Gotham City Sirens #1–26 (2009–2011) (Catwoman co-stars in the title alongside Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn) Catwoman (vol. 4) #1–52 (2011–2016) Catwoman (vol. 4) #0 Catwoman: Futures End #1 Catwoman Annual (vol. 2) #1–2 (2013 and 2014) Catwoman (vol. 5) #1–ongoing (2018–present) Catwoman Annual (vol. 3) #1 (2019) Catwoman: Lonely City #1–4 (2021–2022) Novels Catwoman: Tiger Hunt, Warner Books, September 1992, ISBN 978-0-446-36043-2 Graphic novels Catwoman: Selina's Big Score, DC Comics, ISBN 978-1-56389-922-5 (SC, August 2003), ISBN 978-1-56389-897-6 (HC, July 2002) Collected editions Other collected editions Batman: Knightfall Vol. 2: Knightquest (Catwoman (vol. 2) #6–7) Batman: Knightfall Vol. 3: KnightsEnd (Catwoman (vol. 2) #12–13) Batman: Contagion (Catwoman (vol. 2) #31–35) Batman: Legacy (Catwoman (vol. 2) #35–36) Batman/Wildcat (Catwoman/Wildcat #1-4) Batman: Cataclysm (Catwoman (vol. 2) #56) Batman: No Man's Land Vol. 2 (Catwoman (vol. 2) #72–74) Batman: No Man's Land Vol. 4 (Catwoman (vol. 2) #75–77) Batman: New Gotham Vol. 2 – Officer Down (Catwoman (vol. 2) #90) Batman: War Games Act 1 (Catwoman (vol. 3) #34) Batman: War Games Act 2 (Catwoman (vol. 3) #35) Batman: War Games Act 3 (Catwoman (vol. 3) #36) Batman: Night of the Owls (Catwoman (vol. 4) #9) The Joker: Death of the Family (Catwoman (vol. 4) #13–14) DC Comics: Zero Year (Catwoman (vol. 4) #25) See also List of Batman supporting characters List of Batman family enemies References External links Official website Catwoman Through the Years – slideshow by Life magazine "Catwoman (of Batman: The Animated Series) from BatmanTAS.com". Archived from the original on March 23, 2012. Retrieved 2005-11-26. Catwoman on DC Database, a DC Comics wiki "Girls With Gauntlets". Archived from the original on February 18, 2012. Retrieved 2006-01-07. – the influence of Catwoman upon female action heroes of the 1990s Moore, Booth (January 24, 2011). "Catching up with the original Catwoman, Julie Newmar". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 24, 2011.

Milton "Bill" Finger (February 8, 1914 – c. January 18, 1974) was an American comic strip, comic book, film and television writer who was the co-creator (with Bob Kane) of the DC Comics character Batman. Despite making major (sometimes, signature) contributions as an innovative writer, visionary mythos/world builder and illustration architect, Finger (like other creators of his era) was often relegated to ghostwriter status on many comics—including those featuring Batman, and the original Green Lantern, Alan Scott. While Kane privately admitted in a 1980s audio interview with his autobiographer that Finger was responsible for "50–75% of all the creativity in Batman," he publicly denied Finger had been anything more than a subcontractor executing Kane's ideas for decades. As a result, Finger died in obscurity and poverty while the Batman brand, and Kane, amassed international fame and wealth. In the 2000s, Finger biographer Marc Tyler Nobleman's research uncovered previously unknown heirs. At the urging of Nobleman, the online comics fan community and others, Finger's granddaughter revived the fight to restore his lost legacy, which continued for years. In 2015, DC Comics's parent company conditionally agreed to recognize Finger's intellectual property claim as co-creator of the Batman characters and mythos, officially adding his name, going forward, to the "created by" credit line Kane had been contractually guaranteed in 1939. Early life Bill Finger was born in Denver, Colorado, in 1914 to an Ashkenazi Jewish family. His father, Louis Finger, was born in Austria-Hungary in 1890 and emigrated to the U.S. in 1907. Little is known about his biological mother Rosa Rosenblatt. His stepmother Tessie was born in 1892 in New York City. The family also included two daughters (or possibly nieces raised as daughters), Emily and Gilda. The family moved to The Bronx, New York City, where during the Great Depression Louis Finger was forced to close his tailor shop. Finger graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in The Bronx in 1933. Career Comics An aspiring writer and a part-time shoe salesman, Finger joined Bob Kane's nascent studio in 1938 after having met Kane, a fellow DeWitt Clinton alumnus, at a party. Kane later offered him a job ghost writing the strips Rusty and Clip Carson. Batman Early the following year, National Comics' success with the seminal superhero Superman in Action Comics prompted editors to scramble for similar heroes. In response, Kane conceived the "Bat-Man". Finger recalled Kane ... had an idea for a character called 'Batman', and he'd like me to see the drawings. I went over to Kane's, and he had drawn a character who looked very much like Superman with kind of ... reddish tights, I believe, with boots ... no gloves, no gauntlets ... with a small domino mask, swinging on a rope. He had two stiff wings that were sticking out, looking like bat wings. And under it was a big sign ... BATMAN. Finger offered such suggestions as giving the character a cowl with pointed bat-ears instead of the domino mask, a cape instead of wings, adding gloves, and changing the red sections of the costume to gray. Finger later said his suggestions to have his eyes covered by white lenses was influenced by Lee Falk's popular The Phantom, a syndicated newspaper comic strip character with which Kane was also familiar, and that he devised the name Bruce Wayne for the character's secret identity. Finger said, "Bruce Wayne's first name came from Robert Bruce, the Scottish patriot. Wayne, being a playboy, was a man of gentry. I searched for a name that would suggest colonialism. I tried Adams, Hancock ... then I thought of Mad Anthony Wayne." Kane decades later in his autobiography described Finger as "a contributing force on Batman right from the beginning ... I made Batman a superhero-vigilante when I first created him. Bill turned him into a scientific detective." Nobleman said, "Bob [Kane] showed Bat-Man to [editor] Vin [Sullivan]—without Bill. Vin promptly wanted to run Bat-Man, and Bob negotiated a deal—without including Bill." Finger wrote both the initial script for Batman's debut in Detective Comics #27 (May 1939) and the character's second appearance in Detective Comics #28 (June 1939), while Kane provided art. Batman proved a breakout hit, and Finger went on to write many of the early Batman stories, including making major contributions to the Joker character. Batman background artist and letterer George Roussos recalled: What was good about Bill was that whenever he wrote a plot, he did a lot of research for it. Whether the setting was a railroad station or a factory, he would find a photo reference, usually from National Geographic, and give Bob all the research to draw from. He was very orderly and methodical. His only problem was that he couldn't sustain the work ... he couldn't produce material regularly enough. Robin was introduced as Batman's sidekick in Detective Comics #38 (April 1940). When Kane wanted Robin's origin to parallel Batman's, Finger made Robin's parents circus performers murdered while performing their trapeze act. Finger recalled: Robin was an outgrowth of a conversation I had with Bob. As I said, Batman was a combination of Douglas Fairbanks and Sherlock Holmes. Holmes had his Watson. The thing that bothered me was that Batman didn't have anyone to talk to, and it got a little tiresome always having him thinking. I found that as I went along Batman needed a Watson to talk to. That's how Robin came to be. Bob called me over and said he was going to put a boy in the strip to identify with Batman. I thought it was a great idea". Comics historian Jim Steranko wrote in 1970 that Finger's slowness as a writer led Batman editor Whitney Ellsworth to suggest Kane replace him, a claim reflected in Joe Desris' description of Finger as "notoriously tardy". During Finger's absence, Gardner Fox contributed scripts that introduced Batman's early "Bat-" arsenal (the utility belt, the Bat-gyro/-plane and the Batarang). Upon his return, Finger is credited with providing the name "Gotham City". Finger wrote the debut issue of Batman's self-titled comic book series which introduced the Joker and the Catwoman. Among the things that made his stories distinctive were a use of giant-sized props: enlarged pennies, sewing machines, or typewriters. Finger seemed to avoid having Batman operate out of a cave in the early stories, to circumvent being too similar to the Phantom and Zorro. Instead Finger indicated that Wayne merely used "underground hangars" on the property to store vehicles. The Batcave first appeared in the 1943 Columbia serial starring Lewis Wilson and the comics followed suit thereafter. Donald Clough Cameron created the concept of Batman having a trophy section in the Batcave. One of the prevalently featured trophies in Batman's Batcave, the giant replica of a Lincoln penny, was introduced in a story written by Finger. He was one of the writers of the syndicated Batman comic strip from 1943 to 1946. Eventually, Finger left Kane's studio to work directly for DC Comics, where he supplied scripts for characters including Batman and Superman. A part of the Superman mythos which had originated on the radio program made its way into the comic books when kryptonite was featured in a story by Finger and Al Plastino in Superman #61 (Nov. 1949). As writer of the Superboy series, Finger created Lana Lang, a love-interest for the teenage superhero. Continuing his Batman work, he and artist Sheldon Moldoff introduced Ace the Bat-Hound in Batman #92 (June 1955), Bat-Mite in Detective Comics #267 (May 1959), Clayface in Detective Comics #298 (December 1961), and Betty Kane, the original Bat-Girl in Batman #139 (April 1961). Finger wrote for other companies, including Fawcett Comics, Quality Comics and Marvel Comics' 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics. Finger created the All-Winners Squad in All Winners Comics #19 (Fall 1946) for Timely. Batman villains Finger provided an account on the creation of Joker in 1966, though admittedly unsure if it was Robinson or Kane who initiated the initial concept: I got a call from Bob Kane ... He had a new villain. When I arrived he was holding a playing card. Apparently Jerry Robinson or Bob, I don't recall who, looked at the card and they had an idea for a character ... the Joker. Bob made a rough sketch of it. At first it didn't look much like the Joker. It looked more like a clown. But I remembered that Grosset & Dunlap formerly issued very cheap editions of classics by Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo ... The volume I had was The Man Who Laughs — his face had been permanently operated on so that he will always have this perpetual grin. And it looked absolutely weird. I cut the picture out of the book and gave it to Bob, who drew the profile and gave it a more sinister aspect. Then he worked on the face; made him look a little clown-like, which accounted for his white face, red lips, green hair. And that was the Joker! Finger also asserted that the creation of Penguin was fully his in the same interview, outright refuting Kane's claims: Oh, he never came off a package of Kools...I happened to be looking at an old copy of the old Saturday Evening Post that had an article on the Emperor Penguin. It had photograghs of Emperor Penguins waddling about. To me they looked exactly like portly Englishmen on their way to their private clubs. Naturally when you think of an Englishman, you think of the perpetual umbrella. So, I decided to make a character who...well, it can't be just an umbrella. I decided to gimmick them. I gave him a tophat, make him looking like the Englishman, and gave him a thousand umbrellas, gimmicked. Alas, we have the Penguin. Finger created the Scarecrow and it is believed that Kane penciled his first appearance. Kane created Two-Face and Finger expanded his characterization in the first script for Detective Comics #66 (Aug. 1942). The Riddler was created by Finger and designed by Dick Sprang in issue #140 (Oct. 1948). The Calendar Man was another villain created by Finger without input from Kane. Green Lantern Finger collaborated with artist and character creator Martin Nodell on the original Green Lantern, Alan Scott, who debuted in All-American Comics #16 (July 1940). Both writer and artist received a byline on the strip, with Nodell in the earliest issues using the pseudonym "Mart Dellon". According to Nodell, Finger was brought in to write scripts after Nodell had already conceived the character. Nodell recalled in an undated, latter-day interview: When I sent it in, I waited into the second week before I heard the word to come in. I was ushered into Mr. [Max] Gaines' office, publisher, and after sitting a long time and flipping through the pages of my presentation, he announced, "We like it!" And then, "Get to work!" I did the first five pages of an eight-page story, and then they called in Bill Finger to help. We worked on it for seven years [through 1947]. Screenwriter As a screenwriter, Finger wrote or co-wrote the films Death Comes to Planet Aytin, The Green Slime, and Track of the Moon Beast, and contributed scripts to the TV series' Hawaiian Eye and 77 Sunset Strip. He and Charles Sinclair wrote the two-part episode "The Clock King's Crazy Crimes / The Clock King Gets Crowned", airing October 12–13, 1966, in season two of the live-action Batman TV series. It was his first public credit for any Batman story. Credit Artist Bob Kane negotiated a contract with National Comics (the future DC Comics) that signed away ownership of the character in exchange for, among other compensations, a sole mandatory byline on all Batman comics (and adaptations thereof). Finger's name, in contrast, did not appear as an official credit on Batman stories or films until 2015. Finger began receiving limited acknowledgment for his writing work in the 1960s; the letters page of Batman #169 (Feb. 1965), for example, features editor Julius Schwartz naming Finger as creator of the Riddler. Additionally, Finger did receive credit for his work for National's sister company, All-American Publications, during that time. For example, the first Wildcat story, in Sensation Comics #1 (Jan. 1942), has the byline "by Irwin Hasen and Bill Finger", and the first Green Lantern story (see above) is credited to "Mart Dellon and Bill Finger". National later absorbed All-American. National's practice in the 1950s made formal bylines rare in comics, with DC regularly granting credit only to Kane; William Moulton Marston, creator of Wonder Woman, under his pseudonym of Charles Moulton; and to Sheldon Mayer. In 1989, Kane acknowledged Finger as "a contributing force" in the character's creation, and wrote, "Now that my long-time friend and collaborator is gone, I must admit that Bill never received the fame and recognition he deserved. He was an unsung hero ... I often tell my wife, if I could go back fifteen years, before he died, I would like to say. 'I'll put your name on it now. You deserve it.'" Comics historian Ron Goulart referred to Batman as the "creation of artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger". Finger's contemporary, artist and writer Jerry Robinson, who worked with Kane from the beginning, said, "[Bill] had more to do with the molding of Batman than Bob. He just did so many things at the beginning, ... creating almost all the other characters, ... the whole persona, the whole temper." Batman inker George Roussos, another contemporary, said, "Bob Kane had rough ideas, but Bill was the man behind Batman." A DC Comics press release in 2007 said, "Kane, along with writer Bill Finger, had just created Batman for DC predecessor National Comics." Likewise, DC editor Paul Levitz wrote, "The Darknight [sic] Detective debuted in [Detective] #27, the creation of Bob Kane and Bill Finger." Writer John Broome and penciler Gil Kane created the comic-book villain William Hand, a.k.a. Black Hand, as a tribute to Finger, on whom the character's name and likeness were based. In September 2015, DC Entertainment announced Finger would receive credit on the 2016 superhero film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and the second season of Gotham, following a deal between the Finger family and DC. Finger received his first formal credit as a creator of Batman in the October 2015 comic books Batman and Robin Eternal #3 and Batman: Arkham Knight Genesis #3. The updated acknowledgement for the character appeared as "Batman created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger". Awards Finger was posthumously inducted into the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1999. In 1985, DC Comics named Finger as one of the honorees in the company's 50th anniversary publication Fifty Who Made DC Great. In his honor, Comic-Con International established in 2005 the Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing, which is given annually to "two recipients — one living and one deceased — who have produced a significant body of work in the comics field". Finger posthumously received an Inkpot Award in 2014. Legacy On December 8, 2017, the southeast corner of East 192nd Street and the Grand Concourse in the Bronx was named "Bill Finger Way". The corner was chosen for its proximity to Poe Park, where Finger and Kane used to meet to discuss their Batman character. Finger is the subject of the Hulu original documentary, Batman & Bill, which premiered in 2017. Personal life Finger married twice. He and his first wife, Portia, had a son: Frederick (nicknamed "Fred"). After their divorce, Finger married Edith "Lyn" Simmons in the late 1960s, but they were no longer married when he died in 1974. Finger was last seen alive on January 16, 1974. His friend and longtime writing partner Charles Sinclair found Finger dead at his home on January 18 at the condominium Allen House at 340 East 51st Street in Manhattan. The cause of death was occlusive coronary atherosclerosis. His death was not widely reported at the time. Finger had suffered three heart attacks, in 1963, 1970, and 1973. Although it was long believed by Sinclair and others, that Finger was buried in an unmarked potter's field grave, his body was actually claimed by his son, Fred, who honored his wish to be cremated, and spread his ashes in the shape of a bat on a beach in Oregon. The first story of the issue Batman #259 in December 1974 would be dedicated to Finger's memory. Fred Finger had a daughter, Athena, born two years after Bill Finger's death. Fred died of complications from AIDS on January 13, 1992. Athena and her son are his only known living heirs, and her attempts (at the prompting of Nobleman and comics fans, and aided by her attorney half-sister) to restore Bill's legacy resulted in Warner Bros.'s 2015 decision to officially recognize Finger as co-creator of Batman on film and TV projects going forward. References Argott, Don and Joyce, Sheena M. (co-directors) (2017). Batman & Bill (Motion picture). United States: 9.14 Pictures and Thruline Entertainment. External links Bill Finger at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original) Bill Finger at IMDb Bill Finger at Mike's Amazing World of Comics Comic Book Artist #3 (Winter 1999): "The Bob Kane Letter" (September 14, 1965, open letter by Bob Kane) Cronin, Brian (July 27, 2012). "Comic Book Legends Revealed". (Column #377), Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on October 22, 2012. Retrieved August 18, 2012. Bill Finger at Library of Congress, with 22 library catalog records

Robert Kane (né Kahn ; October 24, 1915 – November 3, 1998) was an American comic book writer, animator and artist who co-created Batman (with Bill Finger) and most early related characters for DC Comics. He was inducted into the comic book industry's Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1993 and into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1996. Early life Robert Kahn was born in New York City, New York. His parents, Augusta and Herman Kahn, an engraver, were of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. A high school friend of fellow cartoonist and future Spirit creator Will Eisner, Robert Kahn graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School and then legally changed his name to Robert Kane. He studied art at Cooper Union before joining the Max Fleischer Studio as a trainee animator in the year of 1934. Comics He entered the comics field two years later, in 1936, freelancing original material to editor Jerry Iger's comic book Wow, What a Magazine!, including his first pencil and ink work on the serial Hiram Hick. The following year, Kane began to work at Iger's subsequent studio, Eisner & Iger, which was one of the first comic book "packagers" that produced comics on demand for publishers entering the new medium during its late-1930s and 1940s Golden Age. Among his work there was the talking animal feature "Peter Pupp"—which belied its look with overtones of "mystery and menace"—published in the U.K. comic magazine Wags and reprinted in Fiction House's Jumbo Comics. Kane also produced work through Eisner & Iger for two of the companies that would later merge to form DC Comics, including the humor features "Ginger Snap" in More Fun Comics, "Oscar the Gumshoe" for Detective Comics, and "Professor Doolittle" for Adventure Comics. For that last title he went on to do his first adventure strip, "Rusty and his Pals". Batman In early 1939, DC's success with the seminal superhero Superman in Action Comics prompted editors to scramble for more such heroes. In response, Bob Kane conceived "the Bat-Man." Kane said his influences for the character included actor Douglas Fairbanks's film portrayal of the swashbuckler Zorro; Leonardo da Vinci's diagram of the ornithopter, a flying machine with huge bat-like wings; and the 1930 film The Bat Whispers, based on Mary Rinehart's mystery novel The Circular Staircase (1908). Bill Finger joined Bob Kane's nascent studio in 1938. An aspiring writer and part-time shoe salesperson, he had met Kane at a party, and Kane later offered him a job ghost writing the strips Rusty and Clip Carson. He recalled that Kane ...had an idea for a character called 'Batman', and he'd like me to see the drawings. I went over to Kane's, and he had drawn a character who looked very much like Superman with kind of ... reddish tights, I believe, with boots ... no gloves, no gauntlets ... with a small domino mask, swinging on a rope. He had two stiff wings that were sticking out, looking like bat wings. And under it was a big sign ... BATMAN. Finger said he offered such suggestions as giving the character a cowl and scalloped cape instead of wings; adding gloves; leaving the mask's eyeholes blank to connote mystery; and removing the bright red sections of the original costume, suggesting instead a gray-and-black color scheme. Finger additionally said his suggestions were influenced by Lee Falk's The Phantom, a syndicated newspaper comic strip character with which Kane was familiar as well. Finger, who said he also devised the character's civilian name, Bruce Wayne, wrote the first Batman story, while Kane provided art. Kane, who had already submitted the proposal for Batman at DC and held a contract, is the only person given an official company credit for Batman's creation. Comics historian Ron Goulart, in Comic Book Encyclopedia, refers to Batman as the "creation of artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger". According to Kane, "Bill Finger was a contributing force on Batman right from the beginning. He wrote most of the great stories and was influential in setting the style and genre other writers would emulate ... I made Batman a superhero-vigilante when I first created him. Bill turned him into a scientific detective. The character debuted in Detective Comics #27 (May 1939) and proved a breakout hit. Within a year, Kane hired art assistants Jerry Robinson (initially as an inker) and George Roussos (backgrounds artist and letterer). Though Robinson and Roussos worked out of Kane's art studio in The New York Times building, Kane himself did all his drawing at home. Shortly afterward, when DC wanted more Batman stories than Kane's studio could deliver, the company assigned Dick Sprang and other in-house pencilers as "ghost artists", drawing uncredited under Kane's supervision. Future Justice League writer Gardner Fox wrote some early scripts, including the two-part story "The Monk" that introduced some of The Batman's first "Bat-" equipment. In 1943, Kane left the Batman comic books to focus on penciling the daily Batman newspaper comic strip. DC Comics artists ghosting the comic-book stories now included Jack Burnley and Win Mortimer, with Robinson moving up as penciler and Fred Ray contributing some covers. After the strip finished in 1946, Kane returned to the comic books but, unknown to DC, had hired his own personal ghosts, including Lew Schwartz and Sheldon Moldoff from 1953 to 1967. Robin Bill Finger recalled that Robin was an outgrowth of a conversation I had with Bob. As I said, Batman was a combination of [Douglas] Fairbanks and Sherlock Holmes. Holmes had his Watson. The thing that bothered me was that Batman didn't have anyone to talk to, and it got a little tiresome always having him thinking. I found that as I went along Batman needed a Watson to talk to. That's how Robin came to be. Bob called me over and said he was going to put a boy in the strip to identify with Batman. I thought it was a great idea. Kane, who had previously created a sidekick for Peter Pupp, proposed adding a boy named Mercury who would have worn a "super-costume". Robinson suggested a normal human, along with the name "Robin", after Robin Hood books he had read during boyhood, and noting in a 2005 interview he had been inspired by one book's N. C. Wyeth illustrations. The impetus came from Bill's wanting to extend the parameters of the story potential and of the drama. He saw that adding a sidekick would enhance the drama. Also, it enlarged the readership identification. The younger kids could then identify with Robin, which they couldn't with Batman, and the older ones with Batman. It extended the appeal on a lot of levels. The new character, an orphaned circus performer named Dick Grayson, came to live with Bruce Wayne as his young ward in Detective Comics #38 (April 1940) and would inspire many similar sidekicks throughout the Golden Age of comic books. The Joker Batman's nemesis the Joker was introduced near that same time, in Batman #1 (Spring 1940). Credit for that character's creation is disputed. Kane's position is that Bill Finger and I created the Joker. Bill was the writer. Jerry Robinson came to me with a playing card of the Joker. That's the way I sum it up. [The Joker] looks like Conrad Veidt—you know, the actor in The Man Who Laughs, [the 1928 movie based on the novel] by Victor Hugo. ... Bill Finger had a book with a photograph of Conrad Veidt and showed it to me and said, 'Here's the Joker'. Jerry Robinson had absolutely nothing to do with it. But he'll always say he created it till he dies. He brought in a playing card, which we used for a couple of issues for him [the Joker] to use as his playing card. Robinson, whose original Joker playing card was on public display in the exhibition "Masters of American Comics" at the Jewish Museum in New York City, New York, from September 16, 2006 to January 28, 2007, and the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum in Atlanta, Georgia from October 24, 2004 to August 28, 2005, has countered that: Bill Finger knew of Conrad Veidt because Bill had been to a lot of the foreign films. Veidt ... had this clown makeup with the frozen smile on his face (classic). When Bill saw the first drawing of the Joker, he said, 'That reminds me of Conrad Veidt in The Man Who Laughs.' He said he would bring in some shots of that movie to show me. That's how that came about. I think in Bill's mind, he fleshed out the concept of the character. Robinson added, however, "If you read the Batman historian [E. Nelson] Bridwell, he had one interview where he interviewed Bill Finger and he said no, the Joker was created by me—an acknowledgement. He can be credited and Bob himself, we all played a role in it. ... He wrote the script of that, so he really was co-creator, and Bob and I did the visuals, so Bob was also." Other characters According to comics historian Les Daniels, "nearly everyone seems to agree that Two-Face was Kane's brainchild exclusively". Catwoman, originally introduced by Kane with no costume as "the Cat", was partially inspired by his cousin, Ruth Steel. Kane, a frequent moviegoer, mentioned that Jean Harlow was a model for the design and added that "I always felt that women were feline". Kane created the Scarecrow and drew his first appearance, which was scripted by Finger. Kane also created the original incarnation of Clayface. According to Kane, he drew the Penguin after being inspired by the then advertising mascot of Kool cigarettes—a penguin with a top hat and cane. Finger, however, claimed that he created the villain as a caricature of the aristocratic type, because "stuffy English gentlemen" reminded him of emperor penguins. Later life and career In 1966, Kane retired from DC Comics, choosing to focus on fine art. As Kane's comic-book work tapered off in the 1960s, he parlayed his Batman status into minor celebrity. He enjoyed a post-comics career in television animation, creating the characters Courageous Cat and Cool McCool, and as a painter showed his work in art galleries, although some of these paintings were produced by ghost artists. DC Comics named Kane in 1985 as one of the honorees in the company's 50th anniversary publication Fifty Who Made DC Great. In 1989, Kane published the autobiography Batman and Me, with an updated edition Batman and Me: The Saga Continues, in 1996. Kane worked as a consultant on the 1989 film Batman and its three sequels with directors Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher. Stan Lee interviewed Kane in the documentary series The Comic Book Greats. Personal life Kane married his first wife, Beverly, in the 1940s, and the two divorced in 1957. They had a daughter, Deborah. Kane married his second wife, actress Elizabeth Sanders Kane, in 1987. Death Kane died November 3, 1998, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, at age 83. He is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, California. Awards and honors Kane was a recipient of the Inkpot Award in 1977, was inducted into the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1996. He was added to the National Comics Awards' Roll of Honour in 1999. On October 21, 2015, for his work in motion pictures, he posthumously received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6764 Hollywood Boulevard. Kane's work is housed in collections in New York City's Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, and St. John's University. References Further reading Goulart, Ron, Over 50 Years of American Comic Books (BDD Promotional Books Company, 1991), ISBN 0-7924-5450-2; ISBN 978-0-7924-5450-2 External links Bob Kane at IMDb Comic Book Artist #3 (Winter 1999): "The Bob Kane Letter" (September 14, 1965 open letter by Bob Kane)

How long did Steve Jobs live, percentage wise, compared to the average lifespan of a person in the United States in 1984? Round each number to the nearest whole integer before calculating your answer. Then round your answer the nearest hundredth.

75.68%

Numerical reasoning | Tabular reasoning | Multiple constraints | Post processing | Temporal reasoning

This is a list of countries showing past life expectancy, ranging from 1950 to 2015 in five-year periods, as estimated by the 2017 revision of the World Population Prospects database by the United Nations Population Division. Life expectancy equals the average number of years a person born in a given country is expected to live if mortality rates at each age were to remain steady in the future. The life expectancy is shown as the average of males and females. List of countries 1950 to 2015 (United Nations) Asterisk (*) indicates "Health in LOCATION" links. References External links United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs – Population Division – World Population Prospects, the 2017 Revision Our World in Data, Life expectancy https://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/history-of-life-expectancy

Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology company Apple Inc. Jobs was also the founder of NeXT and chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar. He was a pioneer of the personal computer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, along with his early business partner and fellow Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Jobs was born in San Francisco in 1955 and adopted shortly afterwards. He attended Reed College in 1972 before withdrawing that same year. In 1974, he traveled through India, seeking enlightenment before later studying Zen Buddhism. He and Wozniak co-founded Apple in 1976 to further develop and sell Wozniak's Apple I personal computer. Together, the duo gained fame and wealth a year later with production and sale of the Apple II, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputers. Jobs saw the commercial potential of the Xerox Alto in 1979, which was mouse-driven and had a graphical user interface (GUI). This led to the development of the unsuccessful Apple Lisa in 1983, followed by the breakthrough Macintosh in 1984, the first mass-produced computer with a GUI. The Macintosh launched the desktop publishing industry in 1985 (for example, the Aldus Pagemaker) with the addition of the Apple LaserWriter, the first laser printer to feature vector graphics and PostScript. In 1985, Jobs departed Apple after a long power struggle with the company's board and its then-CEO, John Sculley. That same year, Jobs took some Apple employees with him to found NeXT, a computer platform development company that specialized in computers for higher-education and business markets, serving as its CEO. In 1986, he helped develop the visual effects industry by funding the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm that eventually spun off independently as Pixar, which produced the first 3D computer-animated feature film Toy Story (1995) and became a leading animation studio, producing 28 films since. In 1997, Jobs returned to Apple as CEO after the company's acquisition of NeXT. He was largely responsible for reviving Apple, which was on the verge of bankruptcy. He worked closely with British designer Jony Ive to develop a line of products and services that had larger cultural ramifications, beginning with the "Think different" advertising campaign, and leading to the iMac, iTunes, Mac OS X, Apple Store, iPod, iTunes Store, iPhone, App Store, and iPad. Jobs was also a board member at Gap Inc. from 1999 to 2002. In 2003, Jobs was diagnosed with a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor. He died of tumor-related respiratory arrest in 2011; in 2022, he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Since his death, he has won 141 patents; Jobs holds over 450 patents in total. Early life Family Steven Paul Jobs was born in San Francisco, California, on February 24, 1955, to Joanne Carole Schieble and Abdulfattah "John" Jandali (Arabic: عبد الفتاح الجندلي). Abdulfattah Jandali was born in a Muslim household to wealthy Syrian parents, the youngest of nine siblings. After obtaining his undergraduate degree at the American University of Beirut, Jandali pursued a PhD in political science at the University of Wisconsin. There, he met Joanne Schieble, an American Catholic of Swiss-German descent whose parents owned a mink farm and real estate in Green Bay. The two fell in love but faced opposition from Schieble's father due to Jandali's Muslim faith. When Schieble became pregnant, she arranged for a closed adoption, and travelled to San Francisco to give birth. Schieble requested that her son be adopted by college graduates. A lawyer and his wife were selected, but they withdrew after discovering that the baby was a boy, so Jobs was instead adopted by Paul Reinhold and Clara (née Hagopian) Jobs. Paul Jobs, an American of German descent, was the son of a dairy farmer from Washington County, Wisconsin. After dropping out of high school, he worked as a mechanic, then joined the US Coast Guard. When his ship was decommissioned at San Francisco, he bet he could find a wife within two weeks. He then met Clara Hagopian, an American of Armenian descent, and the two were engaged ten days later, in March 1946, and married that same year. The couple moved to Wisconsin, then Indiana, where Paul Jobs worked as a machinist and later as a car salesman. Since Clara missed San Francisco, she convinced Paul to move back. There, Paul worked as a repossession agent, and Clara became a bookkeeper. In 1955, after having an ectopic pregnancy, the couple looked to adopt a child. Since they lacked a college education, Schieble initially refused to sign the adoption papers, and went to court to request that her son be removed from the Jobs household and placed with a different family, but changed her mind after Paul and Clara promised to pay for their son's college tuition. Infancy In his youth, Jobs's parents took him to a Lutheran church. When Steve was in high school, Clara admitted to his girlfriend, Chrisann Brennan, that she "was too frightened to love [Steve] for the first six months of his life ... I was scared they were going to take him away from me. Even after we won the case, Steve was so difficult a child that by the time he was two I felt we had made a mistake. I wanted to return him." When Chrisann shared this comment with Steve, he stated that he was already aware, and later said that he had been deeply loved and indulged by Paul and Clara. Jobs would "bristle" when Paul and Clara were referred to as his "adoptive parents", and he regarded them as his parents "1,000%". Jobs referred to his biological parents as "my sperm and egg bank. That's not harsh, it's just the way it was, a sperm bank thing, nothing more." Childhood Paul Jobs worked in several jobs that included a try as a machinist, several other jobs, and then "back to work as a machinist". Paul and Clara adopted Jobs's sister Patricia in 1957, and by 1959 the family had moved to the Monta Loma neighborhood in Mountain View, California. Paul built a workbench in his garage for his son in order to "pass along his love of mechanics". Jobs, meanwhile, admired his father's craftsmanship "because he knew how to build anything. If we needed a cabinet, he would build it. When he built our fence, he gave me a hammer so I could work with him ... I wasn't that into fixing cars ... but I was eager to hang out with my dad." Jobs had difficulty functioning in a traditional classroom, tended to resist authority figures, frequently misbehaved, and was suspended a few times. He frequently played pranks on others at Monta Loma Elementary School in Mountain View. His father Paul (who was abused as a child) never reprimanded him, however, and instead blamed the school for not challenging his brilliant son. Jobs skipped the 5th grade and transferred to the 6th grade at Crittenden Middle School in Mountain View, where he became a "socially awkward loner". Jobs was often "bullied" at Crittenden Middle, and in the middle of 7th grade, he gave his parents an ultimatum: either they would take him out of Crittenden or he would drop out of school. The Jobs family was not affluent, and only by expending all their savings were they able to buy a new home in 1967, allowing Steve to change schools. The new house (a three-bedroom home on Crist Drive in Los Altos, California) was in the better Cupertino School District, in Cupertino, California. The house was declared a historic site in 2013, as the first site of Apple Computer. As of 2013, it was owned by Jobs's sister, Patty, and occupied by his stepmother, Marilyn. When he was 13, in 1968, Jobs was given a summer job by Bill Hewlett (of Hewlett-Packard) after Jobs cold-called him to ask for parts for an electronics project. Homestead High The location of the Los Altos home meant that Jobs would be able to attend nearby Homestead High School, which had strong ties to Silicon Valley. He began his first year there in late 1968 along with Bill Fernandez, who introduced Jobs to Steve Wozniak, and would become Apple's first employee. Neither Jobs nor Fernandez (whose father was a lawyer) came from engineering households and thus decided to enroll in John McCollum's Electronics I class. Jobs had grown his hair long and become involved in the growing counterculture, and the rebellious youth eventually clashed with McCollum and lost interest in the class. Jobs underwent a change during mid-1970. He later noted to his official biographer that "I started to listen to music a whole lot, and I started to read more outside of just science and technology — Shakespeare, Plato. I loved King Lear ... when I was a senior I had this phenomenal AP English class. The teacher was this guy who looked like Ernest Hemingway. He took a bunch of us snowshoeing in Yosemite." During his last two years at Homestead High, Jobs developed two different interests: electronics and literature. These dual interests were particularly reflected during Jobs's senior year, as his best friends were Wozniak and his first girlfriend, the artistic Homestead junior Chrisann Brennan. In 1971, after Wozniak began attending University of California, Berkeley, Jobs would visit him there a few times a week. This experience led him to study in nearby Stanford University's student union. Instead of joining the electronics club, Jobs put on light shows with a friend for Homestead's avant-garde jazz program. He was described by a Homestead classmate as "kind of brain and kind of hippie ... but he never fit into either group. He was smart enough to be a nerd, but wasn't nerdy. And he was too intellectual for the hippies, who just wanted to get wasted all the time. He was kind of an outsider. In high school everything revolved around what group you were in, and if you weren't in a carefully defined group, you weren't anybody. He was an individual, in a world where individuality was suspect." By his senior year in late 1971, he was taking a freshman English class at Stanford and working on a Homestead underground film project with Chrisann Brennan. Around that time, Wozniak designed a low-cost digital "blue box" to generate the necessary tones to manipulate the telephone network, allowing free long-distance calls. He was inspired by an article titled "Secrets of the Little Blue Box" from the October 1971 issue of Esquire. Jobs decided then to sell them and split the profit with Wozniak. The clandestine sales of the illegal blue boxes went well and perhaps planted the seed in Jobs's mind that electronics could be both fun and profitable. In a 1994 interview, he recalled that it took six months for him and Wozniak to design the blue boxes. Jobs later reflected that had it not been for Wozniak's blue boxes, "there wouldn't have been an Apple". He states it showed them that they could take on large companies and beat them. By his senior year of high school, Jobs began using LSD. He later recalled that on one occasion he consumed it in a wheat field outside Sunnyvale, and experienced "the most wonderful feeling of my life up to that point". In mid-1972, after graduation and before leaving for Reed College, Jobs and Brennan rented a house from their other roommate, Al. Reed College In September 1972, Jobs enrolled at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. He insisted on applying only to Reed, although it was an expensive school that Paul and Clara could ill afford. Jobs soon befriended Robert Friedland, who was Reed's student body president at that time. Brennan remained involved with Jobs while he was at Reed. After just one semester, Jobs dropped out of Reed College without telling his parents. Jobs later explained this was because he did not want to spend his parents' money on an education that seemed meaningless to him. He continued to attend by auditing his classes, including a course on calligraphy that was taught by Robert Palladino. In a 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University, Jobs stated that during this period, he slept on the floor in friends' dorm rooms, returned Coke bottles for food money, and got weekly free meals at the local Hare Krishna temple. In that same speech, Jobs said: "If I had never dropped in on that single calligraphy course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts". 1974–1985 Pre-Apple In February 1974, Jobs returned to his parents' home in Los Altos and began looking for a job. He was soon hired by Atari, Inc. in Los Gatos, California, as a computer technician. Back in 1973, Steve Wozniak designed his own version of the classic video game Pong and gave its electronics board to Jobs. According to Wozniak, Atari only hired Jobs because he took the board down to the company, and they thought that he had built it himself. Atari's cofounder Nolan Bushnell later described him as "difficult but valuable", pointing out that "he was very often the smartest guy in the room, and he would let people know that". Jobs traveled to India in mid-1974 to visit Neem Karoli Baba at his Kainchi ashram with his Reed College friend and eventual Apple employee Daniel Kottke, searching for spiritual teachings. When they got to the Neem Karoli ashram, it was almost deserted because Neem Karoli Baba had died in September 1973. Then they made a long trek up a dry riverbed to an ashram of Haidakhan Babaji. After seven months, Jobs left India and returned to the US ahead of Daniel Kottke. Jobs had changed his appearance; his head was shaved, and he wore traditional Indian clothing. During this time, Jobs experimented with psychedelics, later calling his LSD experiences "one of the two or three most important things [he had] done in [his] life". He spent a period at the All One Farm, a commune in Oregon that was owned by Robert Friedland. During this time period, Jobs and Brennan both became practitioners of Zen Buddhism through the Zen master Kōbun Chino Otogawa. Jobs engaged in lengthy meditation retreats at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, the oldest Sōtō Zen monastery in the US. He considered taking up monastic residence at Eihei-ji in Japan, and maintained a lifelong appreciation for Zen, Japanese cuisine, and artists such as Hasui Kawase. Jobs returned to Atari in early 1975, and that summer, Bushnell assigned him to create a circuit board for the arcade video game Breakout in as few chips as possible, knowing that Jobs would recruit Wozniak for help. During his day job at HP, Wozniak drew sketches of the circuit design; at night, he joined Jobs at Atari and continued to refine the design, which Jobs implemented on a breadboard. According to Bushnell, Atari offered $100 (equivalent to about $600 in 2023) for each TTL chip that was eliminated in the machine. Jobs made a deal with Wozniak to split the fee evenly between them if Wozniak could minimize the number of chips. Much to the amazement of Atari engineers, within four days Wozniak reduced the TTL count to 45, far below the usual 100, though Atari later re-engineered it to make it easier to test and add a few missing features. According to Wozniak, Jobs told him that Atari paid them only $750 (instead of the actual $5,000), and that Wozniak's share was thus $375. Wozniak did not learn about the actual bonus until ten years later but said that if Jobs had told him about it and explained that he needed the money, Wozniak would have given it to him. Jobs and Wozniak attended meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club in 1975, which was a stepping stone to the development and marketing of the first Apple computer. According to a document released by the United States Department of Defense, Jobs claimed that in 1975, he was arrested in Eugene, Oregon, after being questioned for being a minor in possession of alcohol. Jobs alleged that he "didn't have any alcohol", but police questioned him, and subsequently determined that he had an outstanding arrest warrant for an unpaid speeding ticket. Jobs claimed he then paid the $50 fine. The arrest allegedly occurred "behind a store". Apple (1976–1985) By March 1976, Wozniak completed the basic design of the Apple I computer and showed it to Jobs, who suggested that they sell it; Wozniak was at first skeptical of the idea but later agreed. In April of that same year, Jobs, Wozniak, and administrative overseer Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer Company (now called "Apple Inc.") as a business partnership in Jobs's parents' Crist Drive home on April 1, 1976. The operation originally started in Jobs's bedroom and later moved to the garage. Wayne stayed briefly, leaving Jobs and Wozniak as the active primary cofounders of the company. The two decided on the name "Apple" after Jobs returned from the All One Farm commune in Oregon and told Wozniak about his time in the farm's apple orchard. Jobs originally planned to produce bare printed circuit boards of the Apple I and sell them to computer hobbyists for $50 (equivalent to about $270 in 2023) each. To fund the first batch, Wozniak sold his HP scientific calculator and Jobs sold his Volkswagen van. Later that year, computer retailer Paul Terrell purchased 50 fully assembled Apple I units for $500 each. Eventually about 200 Apple I computers were produced in total. A neighbor on Crist Drive recalled Jobs as an odd individual who would greet his clients "with his underwear hanging out, barefoot and hippie-like". Another neighbor, Larry Waterland, who had just earned his PhD in chemical engineering at Stanford, recalled dismissing Jobs's budding business compared to the established industry of giant mainframe computers with big decks of punch cards: "Steve took me over to the garage. He had a circuit board with a chip on it, a DuMont TV set, a Panasonic cassette tape deck and a keyboard. He said, 'This is an Apple computer.' I said, 'You've got to be joking.' I dismissed the whole idea." Jobs's friend from Reed College and India, Daniel Kottke, recalled that as an early Apple employee, he "was the only person who worked in the garage ... Woz would show up once a week with his latest code. Steve Jobs didn't get his hands dirty in that sense." Kottke also stated that much of the early work took place in Jobs's kitchen, where he spent hours on the phone trying to find investors for the company. They received funding from a then-semi-retired Intel product marketing manager and engineer named Mike Markkula. Scott McNealy, one of the cofounders of Sun Microsystems, said that Jobs broke a "glass age ceiling" in Silicon Valley because he'd created a very successful company at a young age. Markkula brought Apple to the attention of Arthur Rock, which, after looking at the crowded Apple booth at the Home Brew Computer Show, started with a $60,000 investment and went on the Apple board. Jobs was not pleased when Markkula recruited Mike Scott from National Semiconductor in February 1977 to serve as the first president and CEO of Apple. After Brennan returned from her own journey to India, she and Jobs fell in love again, as Brennan noted changes in him that she attributes to Kobun (whom she was also still following). It was also at this time that Jobs displayed a prototype Apple II computer for Brennan and his parents in their living room. Brennan notes a shift in this time period, where the two main influences on Jobs were Apple Inc. and Kobun. In April 1977, Jobs and Wozniak introduced the Apple II at the West Coast Computer Faire. It is the first consumer product to have been sold by Apple Computer. Primarily designed by Wozniak, Jobs oversaw the development of its unusual case and Rod Holt developed the unique power supply. During the design stage, Jobs argued that the Apple II should have two expansion slots, while Wozniak wanted eight. After a heated argument, Wozniak threatened that Jobs should "go get himself another computer". They later agreed on eight slots. The Apple II became one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products in the world. As Jobs became more successful with his new company, his relationship with Brennan grew more complex. In 1977, the success of Apple was now a part of their relationship, and Brennan, Daniel Kottke, and Jobs moved into a house near the Apple office in Cupertino. Brennan eventually took a position in the shipping department at Apple. Brennan's relationship with Jobs deteriorated as his position with Apple grew, and she began to consider ending the relationship. In October 1977, Brennan was approached by Rod Holt, who asked her to take "a paid apprenticeship designing blueprints for the Apples". Both Holt and Jobs believed that it would be a good position for her, given her artistic abilities. Holt was particularly eager that she take the position and puzzled by her ambivalence toward it. Brennan's decision, however, was overshadowed by the fact that she realized she was pregnant, and that Jobs was the father. It took her a few days to tell Jobs, whose face, according to Brennan, "turned ugly" at the news. At the same time, according to Brennan, at the beginning of her third trimester, Jobs said to her: "I never wanted to ask that you get an abortion. I just didn't want to do that." He also refused to discuss the pregnancy with her. Brennan turned down the internship and decided to leave Apple. A few weeks before she was due to give birth, Brennan was invited to deliver her baby at the All One Farm. She accepted the offer. When Jobs was 23 (the same age as his biological parents when they had him) Brennan gave birth to her baby, Lisa Brennan, on May 17, 1978. Jobs went there for the birth after he was contacted by Robert Friedland, their mutual friend and the farm owner. While distant, Jobs worked with her on a name for the baby, which they discussed while sitting in the fields on a blanket. Brennan suggested the name "Lisa" which Jobs also liked and notes that Jobs was very attached to the name "Lisa" while he "was also publicly denying paternity". She would discover later that during this time, Jobs was preparing to unveil a new kind of computer that he wanted to give a female name (his first choice was "Claire" after St. Clare). She stated that she never gave him permission to use the baby's name for a computer and he hid the plans from her. Jobs worked with his team to come up with the phrase, "Local Integrated Software Architecture" as an alternative explanation for the Apple Lisa. Decades later, however, Jobs admitted to his biographer Walter Isaacson that "obviously, it was named for my daughter". When Jobs denied paternity, a DNA test established him as Lisa's father. It required him to pay Brennan $385 (equivalent to about $1,200 in 2023) monthly in addition to returning the welfare money she had received. Jobs paid her $500 (equivalent to about $1,500 in 2023) monthly at the time when Apple went public and made him a millionaire. Later, Brennan agreed to interview with Michael Moritz for Time magazine for its Time Person of the Year special, released on January 3, 1983, in which she discussed her relationship with Jobs. Rather than name Jobs the Person of the Year, the magazine named the generic personal computer the "Machine of the Year". In the issue, Jobs questioned the reliability of the paternity test, which stated that the "probability of paternity for Jobs, Steven... is 94.1%". He responded by arguing that "28% of the male population of the United States could be the father". Time also noted that "the baby girl and the machine on which Apple has placed so much hope for the future share the same name: Lisa". In 1978, at age 23, Jobs was worth over $1 million (equivalent to $4.67 million in 2023). By age 25, his net worth grew to an estimated $250 million (equivalent to $838 million in 2023). He was also one of the youngest "people ever to make the Forbes list of the nation's richest people—and one of only a handful to have done it themselves, without inherited wealth". In 1982, Jobs bought an apartment on the top two floors of The San Remo, a Manhattan building with a politically progressive reputation. Although he never lived there, he spent years renovating it thanks to I. M. Pei. In 1983, Jobs lured John Sculley away from Pepsi-Cola to serve as Apple's CEO, asking, "Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want a chance to change the world?". In 1984, Jobs bought the Jackling House and estate and resided there for a decade. Thereafter, he leased it out for several years until 2000 when he stopped maintaining the house, allowing weathering to degrade it. In 2004, Jobs received permission from the town of Woodside to demolish the house to build a smaller, contemporary styled one. After a few years in court, the house was finally demolished in 2011, a few months before he died. Jobs took over development of the Macintosh in 1981, from early Apple employee Jef Raskin, who had conceived the project. Wozniak and Raskin had heavily influenced the early program, and Wozniak was on leave during this time due to an airplane crash earlier that year, making it easier for Jobs to take over the project. On January 22, 1984, Apple aired a Super Bowl television commercial titled "1984", which ended with the words: "On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like 1984." On January 24, 1984, an emotional Jobs introduced the Macintosh to a wildly enthusiastic audience at Apple's annual shareholders meeting held in the Flint Auditorium at De Anza College. Macintosh engineer Andy Hertzfeld described the scene as "pandemonium". The Macintosh was inspired by the Lisa (in turn inspired by Xerox PARC's mouse-driven graphical user interface), and it was widely acclaimed by the media with strong initial sales. However, its low performance and limited range of available software led to a rapid sales decline in the second half of 1984. Sculley's and Jobs's respective visions for the company greatly differed. Sculley favored open architecture computers like the Apple II, targeting education, small business, and home markets less vulnerable to IBM. Jobs wanted the company to focus on the closed architecture Macintosh as a business alternative to the IBM PC. President and CEO Sculley had little control over chairman of the board Jobs's Macintosh division; it and the Apple II division operated like separate companies, duplicating services. Although its products provided 85% of Apple's sales in early 1985, the company's January 1985 annual meeting did not mention the Apple II division or employees. Many left, including Wozniak, who stated that the company had "been going in the wrong direction for the last five years" and sold most of his stock. Though frustrated with the company's and Jobs's dismissal of the Apple II in favor of the Macintosh, Wozniak left amicably and remained an honorary employee of Apple, maintaining a lifelong friendship with Jobs. By early 1985, the Macintosh's failure to defeat the IBM PC became clear, and it strengthened Sculley's position in the company. In May 1985, Sculley—encouraged by Arthur Rock—decided to reorganize Apple, and proposed a plan to the board that would remove Jobs from the Macintosh group and put him in charge of "New Product Development". This move would effectively render Jobs powerless within Apple. In response, Jobs then developed a plan to get rid of Sculley and take over Apple. However, Jobs was confronted after the plan was leaked, and he said that he would leave Apple. The Board declined his resignation and asked him to reconsider. Sculley also told Jobs that he had all of the votes needed to go ahead with the reorganization. A few months later, on September 17, 1985, Jobs submitted a letter of resignation to the Apple Board. Five additional senior Apple employees also resigned and joined Jobs in his new venture, NeXT. The Macintosh's struggle continued after Jobs left Apple. Though marketed and received in fanfare, the expensive Macintosh was hard to sell.: 308–309  In 1985, Bill Gates's then-developing company, Microsoft, threatened to stop developing Mac applications unless it was granted "a license for the Mac operating system software. Microsoft was developing its graphical user interface ... for DOS, which it was calling Windows and didn't want Apple to sue over the similarities between the Windows GUI and the Mac interface.": 321  Sculley granted Microsoft the license which later led to problems for Apple.: 321  In addition, cheap IBM PC clones that ran Microsoft software and had a graphical user interface began to appear. Although the Macintosh preceded the clones, it was far more expensive, so "through the late 1980s, the Windows user interface was getting better and better and was thus taking increasingly more share from Apple".: 322  Windows-based IBM-PC clones also led to the development of additional GUIs such as IBM's TopView or Digital Research's GEM,: 322  and thus "the graphical user interface was beginning to be taken for granted, undermining the most apparent advantage of the Mac...it seemed clear as the 1980s wound down that Apple couldn't go it alone indefinitely against the whole IBM-clone market".: 322 1985–1997 NeXT computer Following his resignation from Apple in 1985, Jobs founded NeXT Inc. with $7 million. A year later he was running out of money, and he sought venture capital with no product on the horizon. Eventually, Jobs attracted the attention of billionaire Ross Perot, who invested heavily in the company. The NeXT computer was shown to the world in what was considered Jobs's comeback event, a lavish invitation-only gala launch event that was described as a multimedia extravaganza. The celebration was held at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, California, on Wednesday, October 12, 1988. Steve Wozniak said in a 2013 interview that while Jobs was at NeXT he was "really getting his head together". NeXT workstations were first released in 1990 and priced at $9,999 (equivalent to about $23,000 in 2023). Like the Apple Lisa, the NeXT workstation was technologically advanced and designed for the education sector but was largely dismissed as cost prohibitive. The NeXT workstation was known for its technical strengths, chief among them its object-oriented software development system. Jobs marketed NeXT products to the financial, scientific, and academic community, highlighting its innovative, experimental new technologies, such as the Mach kernel, the digital signal processor chip, and the built-in Ethernet port. Making use of a NeXT computer, English computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1990 at CERN in Switzerland. The revised, second generation NeXTcube was released in 1990. Jobs touted it as the first "interpersonal" computer that would replace the personal computer. With its innovative NeXTMail multimedia email system, NeXTcube could share voice, image, graphics, and video in email for the first time. "Interpersonal computing is going to revolutionize human communications and groupwork", Jobs told reporters. Jobs ran NeXT with an obsession for aesthetic perfection, as evidenced by the development of and attention to NeXTcube's magnesium case. This put considerable strain on NeXT's hardware division, and in 1993, after having sold only 50,000 machines, NeXT transitioned fully to software development with the release of NeXTSTEP/Intel. The company reported its first yearly profit of $1.03 million in 1994. In 1996, NeXT Software, Inc. released WebObjects, a framework for Web application development. After NeXT was acquired by Apple Inc. in 1997, WebObjects was used to build and run the Apple Store, MobileMe services, and the iTunes Store. Pixar and Disney In 1986, Jobs funded the spinout of The Graphics Group (later renamed Pixar) from Lucasfilm's computer graphics division for the price of $10 million, $5 million of which was given to the company as capital and $5 million of which was paid to Lucasfilm for technology rights. The first film produced by Pixar with its Disney partnership, Toy Story (1995), with Jobs credited as executive producer, brought financial success and critical acclaim to the studio when it was released. Over the course of Jobs's life, under Pixar's creative chief John Lasseter, the company produced box-office hits A Bug's Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Monsters, Inc. (2001), Finding Nemo (2003), The Incredibles (2004), Cars (2006), Ratatouille (2007), WALL-E (2008), Up (2009), Toy Story 3 (2010), and Cars 2 (2011). Brave (2012), Pixar's first film to be produced since Jobs's death, honored him with a tribute for his contributions to the studio. Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up, Toy Story 3, and Brave each received the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, an award introduced in 2001. In 2003 and 2004, as Pixar's contract with Disney was running out, Jobs and Disney chief executive Michael Eisner tried but failed to negotiate a new partnership, and in January 2004, Jobs announced that he would never deal with Disney again. In October 2005, Bob Iger replaced Eisner at Disney, and Iger quickly worked to mend relations with Jobs and Pixar. On January 24, 2006, Jobs and Iger announced that Disney had agreed to purchase Pixar in an all-stock transaction worth $7.4 billion. When the deal closed, Jobs became The Walt Disney Company's largest single shareholder with approximately seven percent of the company's stock. Jobs's holdings in Disney far exceeded those of Eisner, who holds 1.7%, and of Disney family member Roy E. Disney, who until his 2009 death held about 1% of the company's stock and whose criticisms of Eisner—especially that he soured Disney's relationship with Pixar—accelerated Eisner's ousting. Upon completion of the merger, Jobs received 7% of Disney shares, and joined the board of directors as the largest individual shareholder. Upon Jobs's death his shares in Disney were transferred to the Steven P. Jobs Trust led by Laurene Jobs. After Jobs's death, Iger recalled in 2019 that many warned him about Jobs, "that he would bully me and everyone else". Iger wrote, "Who wouldn't want Steve Jobs to have influence over how a company is run?", and that as an active Disney board member "he rarely created trouble for me. Not never but rarely." He speculated that they would have seriously considered merging Disney and Apple had Jobs lived. Floyd Norman, of Pixar, described Jobs as a "mature, mellow individual" who never interfered with the creative process of the filmmakers. In early June 2014, Pixar cofounder and Walt Disney Animation Studios President Edwin Catmull revealed that Jobs once advised him to "just explain it to them until they understand" in disagreements. Catmull released the book Creativity, Inc. in 2014, in which he recounts numerous experiences of working with Jobs. Regarding his own manner of dealing with Jobs, Catmull writes: In all the 26 years with Steve, Steve and I never had one of these loud verbal arguments, and it's not my nature to do that. ... but we did disagree fairly frequently about things. ... I would say something to him and he would immediately shoot it down because he could think faster than I could. ... I would then wait a week ... I'd call him up, and I give my counterargument to what he had said, and he'd immediately shoot it down. So I had to wait another week, and occasionally this went on for months. But ultimately one of three things happened. About a third of the time he said, "Oh, I get it, you're right", and that was the end of it. And it was another third of the time in which [I'd] say, "Actually I think he is right". The other third of the time, where we didn't reach consensus, he just let me do it my way, never said anything more about it. 1997–2011 Return to Apple In 1996, Jobs's former company Apple was struggling and its survival depended on completing its next operating system. After failed negotiations to purchase Be Inc., Apple eventually came to a deal with NeXT in December for $400 million; the deal was finalized in February 1997, bringing Jobs back to the company he had cofounded. Jobs became de facto chief after then-CEO Gil Amelio was ousted in July 1997. He was formally named interim chief executive on September 16. In March 1998, to concentrate Apple's efforts on returning to profitability, Jobs terminated several projects, such as Newton, Cyberdog, and OpenDoc. In the coming months, many employees developed a fear of encountering Jobs while riding in the elevator, "afraid that they might not have a job when the doors opened. The reality was that Jobs's summary executions were rare, but a handful of victims was enough to terrorize a whole company." Jobs changed the licensing program for Macintosh clones, making it too costly for the manufacturers to continue making machines. With the purchase of NeXT, much of the company's technology found its way into Apple products, most notably NeXTSTEP, which evolved into Mac OS X. Under Jobs's guidance, the company increased sales significantly with the introduction of the iMac and other new products; since then, appealing designs and powerful branding have worked well for Apple. At the 2000 Macworld Expo, Jobs officially dropped the "interim" modifier from his title at Apple and became permanent CEO. Jobs quipped at the time that he would be using the title "iCEO". The company subsequently branched out, introducing and improving upon other digital appliances. With the introduction of the iPod portable music player, iTunes digital music software, and the iTunes Store, the company made forays into consumer electronics and music distribution. On June 29, 2007, Apple entered the cellular phone business with the introduction of the iPhone, a multi-touch display cell phone, which also included the features of an iPod and, with its own mobile browser, revolutionized the mobile browsing scene. While nurturing open-ended innovation, Jobs also reminded his employees that "real artists ship". Jobs had a public war of words with Dell Computer CEO Michael Dell, starting in 1987, when Jobs first criticized Dell for making "un-innovative beige boxes". On October 6, 1997, at a Gartner Symposium, when Dell was asked what he would do if he ran the then-troubled Apple Computer company, he said: "I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders". Then, in 2006, Jobs emailed all employees when Apple's market capitalization rose above Dell's. It read: Team, it turned out that Michael Dell wasn't perfect at predicting the future. Based on today's stock market close, Apple is worth more than Dell. Stocks go up and down, and things may be different tomorrow, but I thought it was worth a moment of reflection today. Steve. Jobs was both admired and criticized for his consummate skill at persuasion and salesmanship, which has been dubbed the "reality distortion field" and was particularly evident during his keynote speeches (colloquially known as "Stevenotes") at Macworld Expos and at Apple Worldwide Developers Conferences. Jobs usually went to work wearing a black long-sleeved mock turtleneck made by Issey Miyake, Levi's 501 blue jeans, and New Balance 991 sneakers. Jobs told his biographer Walter Isaacson "...he came to like the idea of having a uniform for himself, both because of its daily convenience (the rationale he claimed) and its ability to convey a signature style". In 2001, Jobs was granted stock options in the amount of 7.5 million shares of Apple with an exercise price of $18.30. It was alleged that the options had been backdated, and that the exercise price should have been $21.10. It was further alleged that Jobs had thereby incurred taxable income of $20,000,000 that he did not report, and that Apple overstated its earnings by that same amount. As a result, Jobs potentially faced a number of criminal charges and civil penalties. The case was the subject of active criminal and civil government investigations, though an independent internal Apple investigation completed on December 29, 2006, found that Jobs was unaware of these issues and that the options granted to him were returned without being exercised in 2003. In 2005, Jobs responded to criticism of Apple's poor recycling programs for e-waste in the US by lashing out at environmental and other advocates at Apple's annual meeting in Cupertino in April. A few weeks later, Apple announced it would take back iPods for free at its retail stores. The Computer TakeBack Campaign responded by flying a banner from a plane over the Stanford University graduation at which Jobs was the commencement speaker. The banner read "Steve, don't be a mini-player—recycle all e-waste". In 2006, he further expanded Apple's recycling programs to any US customer who buys a new Mac. This program includes shipping and "environmentally friendly disposal" of their old systems. The success of Apple's unique products and services provided several years of stable financial returns, propelling Apple to become the world's most valuable publicly traded company in 2011. Jobs was perceived as a demanding perfectionist who always aspired to position his businesses and their products at the forefront of the information technology industry by foreseeing and setting innovation and style trends. He summed up this self-concept at the end of his keynote speech at the Macworld Conference and Expo in January 2007, by quoting ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky: There's an old Wayne Gretzky quote that I love. "I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been". And we've always tried to do that at Apple. Since the very, very beginning. And we always will. On July 1, 2008, a $7 billion class action suit was filed against several members of the Apple board of directors for revenue lost because of alleged securities fraud. In a 2011 interview with biographer Walter Isaacson, Jobs revealed that he had met with US President Barack Obama, complained about the nation's shortage of software engineers, and told Obama that he was "headed for a one-term presidency". Jobs proposed that any foreign student who got an engineering degree at a US university should automatically be offered a green card. After the meeting, Jobs commented, "The president is very smart, but he kept explaining to us reasons why things can't get done ... It infuriates me". Health problems In October 2003, Jobs was diagnosed with cancer. In mid 2004, he announced to his employees that he had a cancerous tumor in his pancreas. The prognosis for pancreatic cancer is very poor; Jobs stated that he had a rare, less aggressive type, known as islet cell neuroendocrine tumor. Jobs resisted his doctors' recommendations for medical intervention for nine months, in favor of alternative medicine. Other doctors agree that Jobs's diet was insufficient to address his disease. However, cancer researcher and alternative medicine critic David Gorski wrote that "it's impossible to know whether and by how much he might have decreased his chances of surviving his cancer through his flirtation with woo. My best guess was that Jobs probably only modestly decreased his chances of survival, if that." Barrie R. Cassileth, the chief of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center's integrative medicine department, on the other hand, said, "Jobs's faith in alternative medicine likely cost him his life ... He had the only kind of pancreatic cancer that is treatable and curable ... He essentially committed suicide." According to biographer Walter Isaacson, "for nine months he refused to undergo surgery for his pancreatic cancer – a decision he later regretted as his health declined". "Instead, he tried a vegan diet, acupuncture, herbal remedies, and other treatments he found online, and even consulted a psychic. He was also influenced by a doctor who ran a clinic that advised juice fasts, bowel cleansings and other unproven approaches, before finally having surgery in July 2004." He underwent a pancreaticoduodenectomy (or "Whipple procedure") that appeared to remove the tumor successfully. Jobs did not receive chemotherapy or radiation therapy. During Jobs's absence, Tim Cook, head of worldwide sales and operations at Apple, ran the company. In January 2006, only Jobs's wife, his doctors, and Iger knew that his cancer had returned. Jobs told Iger privately that he hoped to live to see his own son Reed's high school graduation in 2010. In early August 2006, Jobs delivered the keynote for Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference. His "thin, almost gaunt" appearance and unusually "listless" delivery, together with his choice to delegate significant portions of his keynote to other presenters, inspired a flurry of media and internet speculation about the state of his health. In contrast, according to an Ars Technica journal report, Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) attendees who saw Jobs in person said he "looked fine". Following the keynote, an Apple spokesperson said that "Steve's health is robust". Two years later, similar concerns followed Jobs's 2008 WWDC keynote address. Apple officials stated that Jobs was victim to a "common bug" and was taking antibiotics, while others surmised his cachectic appearance was due to the Whipple procedure. During a July conference call discussing Apple earnings, participants responded to repeated questions about Jobs's health by insisting that it was a "private matter". Others said that shareholders had a right to know more, given Jobs's hands-on approach to running his company. Based on an off-the-record phone conversation with Jobs, The New York Times reported, "While his health problems amounted to a good deal more than 'a common bug', they weren't life-threatening and he doesn't have a recurrence of cancer". On August 28, 2008, Bloomberg mistakenly published a 2500-word obituary of Jobs in its corporate news service, containing blank spaces for his age and cause of death. News carriers customarily stockpile up-to-date obituaries to facilitate news delivery in the event of a well-known figure's death. Although the error was promptly rectified, many news carriers and blogs reported on it, intensifying rumors concerning Jobs's health. Jobs responded at Apple's September 2008 Let's Rock keynote by paraphrasing Mark Twain: "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." At a subsequent media event, Jobs concluded his presentation with a slide reading "110/70", referring to his blood pressure, stating he would not address further questions about his health. On December 16, 2008, Apple announced that marketing vice-president Phil Schiller would deliver the company's final keynote address at the Macworld Conference and Expo 2009, again reviving questions about Jobs's health. In a statement given on January 5, 2009, on Apple.com, Jobs said that he had been suffering from a "hormone imbalance" for several months. On January 14, 2009, Jobs wrote in an internal Apple memo that in the previous week he had "learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought". He announced a six-month leave of absence until the end of June 2009, to allow him to better focus on his health. Tim Cook, who previously acted as CEO in Jobs's 2004 absence, became acting CEO of Apple, with Jobs still involved with "major strategic decisions". In 2009, Tim Cook offered a portion of his liver to Jobs, since both share a rare blood type, and the donor liver can regenerate tissue after such an operation. Jobs yelled, "I'll never let you do that. I'll never do that." In April 2009, Jobs underwent a liver transplantation at Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute in Memphis, Tennessee. Jobs's prognosis was described as "excellent". Resignation On January 17, 2011, a year and a half after Jobs returned to work following the liver transplant, Apple announced that he had been granted a medical leave of absence. Jobs announced his leave in a letter to employees, stating his decision was made "so he could focus on his health". As it did at the time of his 2009 medical leave, Apple announced that Tim Cook would run day-to-day operations and that Jobs would continue to be involved in major strategic decisions at the company. While on leave, Jobs appeared at the iPad 2 launch event on March 2, the WWDC keynote introducing iCloud on June 6, and before the Cupertino City Council on June 7. On August 24, 2011, Jobs announced his resignation as Apple's CEO, writing to the board, "I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come." Jobs became chairman of the board and named Tim Cook as his successor as CEO. Jobs continued to work for Apple until the day before his death six weeks later. Death Jobs died at his home in Palo Alto, California, around 3 p.m. (PDT) on October 5, 2011, due to complications from a relapse of his previously treated islet-cell pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor, which resulted in respiratory arrest. He had lost consciousness the day before and died with his wife, children, and sisters at his side. His sister, Mona Simpson, described his death thus: "Steve's final words, hours earlier, were monosyllables, repeated three times. Before embarking, he'd looked at his sister Patty, then for a long time at his children, then at his life's partner, Laurene, and then over their shoulders past them. Steve's final words were: 'Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.' " He then lost consciousness and died several hours later. A small private funeral was held on October 7, 2011, the details of which, out of respect for Jobs's family, were not made public. Both Apple and Pixar issued announcements of his death. Apple announced on the same day that they had no plans for a public service, but were encouraging "well-wishers" to send their remembrance messages to an email address created to receive such messages. Apple and Microsoft both flew their flags at half-staff throughout their respective headquarters and campuses. Bob Iger ordered all Disney properties, including Walt Disney World and Disneyland, to fly their flags at half-staff from October 6 to 12, 2011. For two weeks following his death, Apple displayed on its corporate Web site a simple page that showed Jobs's name and lifespan next to his portrait in grayscale. On October 19, 2011, Apple employees held a private memorial service for Jobs on the Apple campus in Cupertino. It was attended by Jobs's widow, Laurene, and by Tim Cook, Bill Campbell, Norah Jones, Al Gore, and Coldplay. Some of Apple's retail stores closed briefly so employees could attend the memorial. A video of the service was uploaded to Apple's website. California Governor Jerry Brown declared Sunday, October 16, 2011, to be "Steve Jobs Day". On that day, an invitation-only memorial was held at Stanford University. Those in attendance included Apple and other tech company executives, members of the media, celebrities, politicians, and family and close friends of Jobs. Bono, Yo-Yo Ma, and Joan Baez performed at the service, which lasted longer than an hour. There was high security with guards at all of the university's gates, and a helicopter overhead from an area news station. Each attendee was given a small brown box as a "farewell gift" from Jobs, containing a copy of the Autobiography of a Yogi (1946) by Paramahansa Yogananda. Childhood friend and fellow Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, former owner of what would become Pixar, George Lucas, his competitor Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and President Barack Obama all made statements in response to his death. At his request, Jobs was buried in an unmarked grave at Alta Mesa Memorial Park, the only nonsectarian cemetery in Palo Alto. Innovations and designs Jobs's design aesthetic was influenced by philosophies of Zen and Buddhism. In India, he experienced Buddhism while on his seven-month spiritual journey, and his sense of intuition was influenced by the spiritual people with whom he studied. Jobs gained insights regarding industrial designs from Richard Sapper. According to Apple co-founder Wozniak, "Steve didn't ever code. He wasn't an engineer and he didn't do any original design...". Daniel Kottke, one of Apple's earliest employees and a college friend of Jobs, stated: "Between Woz and Jobs, Woz was the innovator, the inventor. Steve Jobs was the marketing person." He is listed as either primary inventor or co-inventor in 346 United States patents or patent applications related to a range of technologies from actual computer and portable devices to user interfaces (including touch-based), speakers, keyboards, power adapters, staircases, clasps, sleeves, lanyards, and packages. His contributions to most of his patents were to "the look and feel of the product". He and his industrial design chief Jonathan Ive are named for 200 of the patents. Most of these are design patents as opposed to utility patents or inventions; they are specific product designs such as both original and lamp-style iMacs, and PowerBook G4 Titanium. He holds 43 issued US patents on inventions. The patent on the Mac OS X Dock user interface with "magnification" feature was issued the day before he died. Although Jobs had little involvement in the engineering and technical side of the original Apple computers, Jobs later used his CEO position to directly involve himself with product design. Involved in many projects throughout his career was his long-time marketing executive and confidant Joanna Hoffman, known as one of the few employees at Apple and NeXT who could successfully stand up to Jobs while also engaging with him. Even while terminally ill in the hospital, Jobs sketched new devices that would hold the iPad in a hospital bed. He despised the oxygen monitor on his finger, and suggested ways to revise the design for simplicity. Apple I The Apple I was designed entirely by Wozniak, but Jobs had the idea of selling the computer, which led to the founding of Apple Computer in 1976. Jobs and Wozniak constructed several of the Apple I prototype by hand, funded by selling some of their belongings. Eventually, 200 units were produced. One of the main innovations of the Apple I was that it included video display terminal circuitry on its circuit board, allowing it to connect to a low-cost composite video monitor or television, instead of an expensive computer terminal, compared to most existing computers at the time. Apple II The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Wozniak. Jobs oversaw the development of the Apple II's unusual case and Rod Holt developed the unique power supply. It was introduced in 1977 at the West Coast Computer Faire by Jobs and Wozniak as the first consumer product sold by Apple. The Apple II was first sold on June 10, 1977. Lisa The Lisa is a personal computer developed by Apple from 1978 and sold in the early 1980s to business users. It is the first personal computer with a graphical user interface. The Lisa sold poorly at 100,000 units, but despite being considered a commercial failure, it received technical acclaim, introducing several advanced features that reappeared on the Macintosh and eventually IBM PC compatibles. In 1982, after Jobs was forced out of the Lisa project, he took over the Macintosh project, adding inspiration from Lisa. The final Lisa 2/10 was modified and sold as the Macintosh XL. Macintosh Once he joined the Macintosh team, Jobs took over the project after Wozniak had experienced a traumatic airplane accident and temporarily left the company. Jobs launched the Macintosh on January 24, 1984, as the first mass-market personal computer featuring an integral graphical user interface and mouse. This first model was later renamed to Macintosh 128k among the prolific series. Since 1998, Apple has phased out the Macintosh name in favor of "Mac", though the product family has been nicknamed "Mac" or "the Mac" since inception. The Macintosh was introduced by a US$1.5 million Ridley Scott television commercial, "1984". It aired during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984, received as a "watershed event" and a "masterpiece". Regis McKenna called the ad "more successful than the Mac itself". It uses an unnamed heroine to represent the coming of the Macintosh (indicated by a Picasso-style picture of the computer on her white tank top) to save humanity from the conformity of IBM's domination of the computer industry. The ad alludes to George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, which describes a dystopian future ruled by a televised "Big Brother". The Macintosh, however, was expensive, which hindered its ability to be competitive in a market already dominated by the Commodore 64 for consumers, and the IBM Personal Computer and its accompanying clone market for businesses. Macintosh systems still found success in education and desktop publishing and kept Apple as the second-largest PC manufacturer for the next decade. NeXT Computer After Jobs was forced out of Apple in 1985, he started NeXT, a workstation computer company. The NeXT Computer was introduced in 1988 at a lavish launch event. Using the NeXT Computer, Tim Berners-Lee created the world's first web browser, the WorldWideWeb. The NeXT Computer's operating system, named NeXTSTEP, begat Darwin, which is now the foundation of most of Apple's operating systems such as Macintosh's macOS and iPhone's iOS. iMac Apple's iMac G3 was introduced in 1998 and its innovative design is directly the result of Jobs's return to Apple. Apple boasted "the back of our computer looks better than the front of anyone else's". Described as "cartoonlike", the first iMac, clad in Bondi Blue plastic, was unlike any personal computer that came before. In 1999, Apple introduced the Graphite gray Apple iMac and since has varied the shape, color and size considerably while maintaining the all-in-one design. Design ideas were intended to create a connection with the user such as the handle and a "breathing" light effect when the computer went to sleep. The Apple iMac sold for $1,299 at that time. The iMac's forward-thinking changes include eschewing the floppy disk drive and moving exclusively to USB for connecting peripherals. Through the iMac's success, USB was popularized among third-party peripheral makers—as evidenced by the fact that many early USB peripherals were made of translucent plastic to match the iMac design. iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, online radio broadcaster, and mobile device management application developed by Apple. It is used to play, download, and organize digital audio and video on personal computers running the macOS and Microsoft Windows operating systems. The iTunes Store is also available on the iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad. Through the iTunes Store, users can purchase and download music, music videos, television shows, audiobooks, podcasts, movies, and movie rentals in some countries, and ringtones, available on the iPhone and iPod Touch (fourth generation onward). Application software for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch can be downloaded from the App Store. iPod The first generation of iPod was released October 23, 2001. The major innovation of the iPod was its small size achieved by using a 1.8" hard drive compared to the 2.5" drives common to players at that time. The capacity of the first-generation iPod ranged from 5 GB to 10 GB. The iPod sold for US$399 and more than 100,000 iPods were sold before the end of 2001. The introduction of the iPod resulted in Apple becoming a major player in the music industry. Also, the iPod's success prepared the way for the iTunes music store and the iPhone. After the first few generations of iPod, Apple released the touchscreen iPod Touch, the reduced-size iPod Mini and iPod Nano, and the screenless iPod Shuffle in the following years. iPhone Apple began work on the first iPhone in 2005 and the first iPhone was released on June 29, 2007. The iPhone created such a sensation that a survey indicated six out of ten Americans were aware of its release. Time declared it "Invention of the Year" for 2007 and included it in the All-TIME 100 Gadgets list in 2010, in the category of Communication. The completed iPhone had multimedia capabilities and functioned as a quad-band touch screen smartphone. A year later, the iPhone 3G was released in July 2008 with three key features: support for GPS, 3G data and tri-band UMTS/HSDPA. In June 2009, the iPhone 3GS, whose improvements included voice control, a better camera, and a faster processor, was introduced by Phil Schiller. The iPhone 4 was thinner than previous models, had a five megapixel camera capable of recording video in 720p HD, and added a secondary front-facing camera for video calls. A major feature of the iPhone 4s, introduced in October 2011, was Siri, a virtual assistant capable of voice recognition. iPad The iPad is an iOS-based line of tablet computers designed and marketed by Apple. The first iPad was released on April 3, 2010. The user interface is built around the device's multi-touch screen, including a virtual keyboard. The iPad includes built-in Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity on select models. As of April 2015, more than 250 million iPads have been sold. Personal life Marriage In 1989, Jobs first met his future wife, Laurene Powell, when he gave a lecture at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she was a student. Soon after the event, he stated that Laurene "was right there in the front row in the lecture hall, and I couldn't take my eyes off of her ... kept losing my train of thought, and started feeling a little giddy". After the lecture, he met her in the parking lot and invited her out to dinner. From that point forward, they were together, with a few minor exceptions, for the rest of his life. Jobs proposed on New Year's Day 1990; they married on March 18, 1991, in a Buddhist ceremony at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park. Fifty people, including Jobs's father, Paul, and his sister Mona, attended. The ceremony was conducted by Jobs's guru, Kobun Chino Otogawa. The vegan wedding cake was in the shape of Yosemite's Half Dome, and the wedding ended with a hike and Laurene's brothers' snowball fight. Jobs reportedly said to Mona: "You see, Mona [...], Laurene is descended from Joe Namath, and we're descended from John Muir". Jobs's and Powell's first child, a son named Reed, was born in 1991. Jobs's father, Paul, died a year and a half later, on March 5, 1993. Jobs's childhood home remains a tourist attraction and is currently owned by his stepmother (Paul's second wife), Marilyn Jobs. Jobs and Powell had two more children, daughters Erin (b. 1995) and Eve Jobs (b. 1998), who is a fashion model. The family lived in Palo Alto, California. Although a billionaire, Jobs made it known that, like Gates, he had stipulated that most of his monetary fortune would not be left to his children. Both men had limited their children's access, age appropriate, to social media, computer games, and the Internet. Family Chrisann Brennan notes that after Jobs was forced out of Apple, "he apologized many times over for his behavior" towards her and Lisa. She said Jobs "said that he never took responsibility when he should have, and that he was sorry". By this time, Jobs had developed a strong relationship with Lisa and when she was nine, Jobs had her name on her birth certificate changed from "Lisa Brennan" to "Lisa Brennan-Jobs". Jobs and Brennan developed a working relationship to co-parent Lisa, a change which Brennan credits to the influence of his newly found biological sister, Mona Simpson, who worked to repair the relationship between Lisa and Jobs. Jobs had found Mona after first finding his birth mother, Joanne Schieble Simpson, shortly after he left Apple. Jobs did not contact his birth family during his adoptive mother Clara's lifetime, however. He would later tell his official biographer Walter Isaacson: "I never wanted [Paul and Clara] to feel like I didn't consider them my parents, because they were totally my parents [...] I loved them so much that I never wanted them to know of my search, and I even had reporters keep it quiet when any of them found out". However, in 1986, when Jobs was 31, Clara was diagnosed with lung cancer. He began to spend a great deal of time with her and learned more details about her background and his adoption, information that motivated him to find his biological mother. Jobs found on his birth certificate the name of the San Francisco doctor to whom Schieble had turned when she was pregnant. Although the doctor did not help Jobs while he was alive, he left a letter for Jobs to be opened upon his death. As he died soon afterwards, Jobs was given the letter which stated that "his mother had been an unmarried graduate student from Wisconsin named Joanne Schieble". Jobs only contacted Schieble after Clara died in early 1986 and after he received permission from his father, Paul. In addition, out of respect for Paul, he asked the media not to report on his search. Jobs stated that he was motivated to find his birth mother out of both curiosity and a need "to see if she was okay and to thank her, because I'm glad I didn't end up as an abortion. She was twenty-three and she went through a lot to have me." Schieble was emotional during their first meeting (though she wasn't familiar with the history of Apple or Jobs's role in it) and told him that she had been pressured into signing the adoption papers. She said that she regretted giving him up and repeatedly apologized to him for it. Jobs and Schieble would develop a friendly relationship throughout the rest of his life and would spend Christmas together. During this first visit, Schieble told Jobs that he had a sister, Mona, who was not aware that she had a brother. Schieble then arranged for them to meet in New York where Mona worked. Her first impression of Jobs was that "he was totally straightforward and lovely, just a normal and sweet guy". Simpson and Jobs then went for a long walk to get to know each other. Jobs later told his biographer that "Mona was not completely thrilled at first to have me in her life and have her mother so emotionally affectionate toward me ... As we got to know each other, we became really good friends, and she is my family. I don't know what I'd do without her. I can't imagine a better sister. My adopted sister, Patty, and I were never close." Jobs then learned his family history. Six months after he was given up for adoption, Schieble's father died, she wed Jandali, and they had a daughter, Mona. Jandali states that after finishing his PhD he returned to Syria to work, and then Schieble left him. They divorced in 1962 and he said then he lost contact with Mona for a time: I also bear the responsibility for being away from my daughter when she was four years old, as her mother divorced me when I went to Syria, but we got back in touch after 10 years. We lost touch again when her mother moved and I didn't know where she was, but since 10 years ago we've been in constant contact, and I see her three times a year. I organized a trip for her last year to visit Syria and Lebanon and she went with a relative from Florida. A few years later, Schieble married an ice-skating teacher, George Simpson. Mona Jandali took her stepfather's last name, as Mona Simpson. In 1970, after divorcing her second husband, Schieble took Mona to Los Angeles and raised her alone. When Simpson found that their father, Abdulfattah Jandali, was living in Sacramento, California, Jobs had no interest in meeting him as he believed Jandali did not treat his children well and according to the San Francisco Chronicle, this was because of finding a Seattle Times article about Jandali's abandonment of his students on a trip to Egypt in 1974. Simpson went to Sacramento alone and met Jandali, who worked in a small restaurant. They spoke for several hours, and he told her that he had left teaching for the restaurant business. He said he and Schieble had given another child away for adoption but that "we'll never see that baby again. That baby's gone." He said he once managed a Mediterranean restaurant near San Jose and that "all of the successful technology people used to come there. Even Steve Jobs ... oh yeah, he used to come in, and he was a sweet guy and a big tipper". At the request of Jobs, Simpson did not reveal to Jandali that his own story meant that he had actually already met his son. After hearing about the visit, Jobs recalled that "it was amazing ... I had been to that restaurant a few times, and I remember meeting the owner. He was Syrian. Balding. We shook hands." However, Jobs still did not want to meet Jandali because "I was a wealthy man by then, and I didn't trust him not to try to blackmail me or go to the press about it ... I asked Mona not to tell him about me". Jandali later discovered his relationship to Jobs through an online blog. He then contacted Simpson and asked, "what is this thing about Steve Jobs?". Simpson told him that it was true and later commented, "My father is thoughtful and a beautiful storyteller, but he is very, very passive ... He never contacted Steve". Because Simpson herself researched her Syrian roots and began to meet the family, she assumed that Jobs would eventually want to meet their father, but he never did. Jobs also never showed an interest in his Syrian heritage or the Middle East. Simpson fictionalized the search for their father in her 1992 novel The Lost Father. Malek Jandali is their cousin. Philanthropy Jobs's views and actions on philanthropy and charity are a public mystery. He maintained privacy even over what few of these actions were publicly known. He has been a key figure in public discussions about societal obligations of the wealthy and powerful. Through his career, the media investigated and criticized him and Apple as unusually and inexplicably mysterious or absent among powerful leaders and especially billionaires. His name is absent from the Million Dollar List of all large global philanthropy. Some have speculated about his possible secret role in large anonymous donations. Mark Vermilion, former charitable leader for Joan Baez, Apple, and Jobs, attributed Jobs's lifelong minimization of direct charity to his perfectionism and limited time. Jobs, Vermilion, and supporters said over the years that corporate products were Jobs's superior contributions to culture and society instead of direct charity. In 1985, Jobs said, "You know, my main reaction to this money thing is that it's humorous, all the attention to it, because it's hardly the most insightful or valuable thing that's happened to me." Shortly after leaving Apple, he formed the charitable Steven P. Jobs Foundation, led by Mark Vermilion, hired away from Apple's community leadership. Jobs wanted a focus on nutrition and vegetarianism, but Vermilion wanted social entrepreneurship. That year, Jobs soon launched NeXT and closed the foundation with no results. Upon his 1997 return to Apple, Jobs optimized the failing company to the core, such as eliminating all philanthropic programs, never to be restored. In 2007, Stanford Social Innovation Review magazine listed Apple among "America's least philanthropic companies". A few months after another unflattering news report, Apple started a program to match employees' charitable gifts. Jobs declined to sign The Giving Pledge, launched in 2010 by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates for fellow billionaires. He donated $50 million to Stanford hospital and contributed to efforts to cure AIDS. Bono reported "tens of millions of dollars" given by Apple while Jobs was CEO, to AIDS and HIV relief programs in Africa, which inspired other companies to join. Honors and awards 1985: awarded National Medal of Technology (with Steve Wozniak) by US President Ronald Reagan, the country's highest honor for technological achievements 1987: Jefferson Award for Public Service 1989: Entrepreneur of the Decade by Inc. 1991: Howard Vollum Award from Reed College 2004–2010: listed among the Time 100 Most Influential People in the World on five separate occasions 2007: named the most powerful person in business by Fortune magazine 2007: inducted into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts 2012: Grammy Trustees Award, an award for those who have influenced the music industry in areas unrelated to performance 2012: posthumously honored with an Edison Achievement Award for his commitment to innovation throughout his career 2013: posthumously inducted as a Disney Legend 2017: Steve Jobs Theater opens at Apple Park 2022: posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by US President Joe Biden, the country's highest civilian honor In popular culture See also Seva Foundation Timeline of Steve Jobs media References Bibliography Brennan, Chrisann (2013). The Bite in the Apple: A Memoir of My Life with Steve Jobs. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-1-250-03876-0. Isaacson, Walter (2011). Steve Jobs (1st ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4516-4853-9. Linzmayer, Owen W. (2004). Apple Confidential 2.0: The Definitive History of the World's Most Colorful Company. No Starch Press. ISBN 978-1-59327-010-0. Schlender, Brent; Tetzeli, Rick (2015). Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader. Crown Business. ISBN 978-0-7710-7914-6. Smith, Alexander (2020). They Create Worlds: The Story of the People and Companies That Shaped the Video Game Industry, Volume 1: 1971–1982. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. ISBN 978-1-138-38992-2. External links Steve Jobs official memorial page at Apple Steve Jobs discography at Discogs Steve Jobs at IMDb Steve Jobs profile at Forbes Steven Paul Jobs The Vault at FBI Records Steve Jobs at Andy Hertzfeld's The Original Macintosh (folklore.org) Steve Jobs at Steve Wozniak's woz.org 2011: "Steve Jobs: From Garage to World's Most Valuable Company." Computer History Museum 2005: Steve Jobs commencement speech at Stanford University 1995: Steve Jobs, Founder, NeXT Computer, excerpts from an Oral History Interview at Smithsonian Institution, April 20, 1995 1994: Steve Jobs in 1994: The Rolling Stone Interview in Rolling Stone 1990: Steve Jobs Archived December 16, 2014, at the Wayback Machine – memory and imagination "What a computer is to me is it's the most remarkable tool that we've ever come up with, and it's the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds" 1983: The "Lost" Steve Jobs Speech from 1983; Foreshadowing Wireless Networking, the iPad, and the App Store (audio clip) History of Steve Jobs (Full Documentary) on YouTube

What Indian Empire was overrun by Huns 24 years after conventionally accepted date of the fall of the Western Roman Empire?

Gupta Empire

Numerical reasoning | Multiple constraints

The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Romans conquered most of this during the Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of effective sole rule in 27 BC. The western empire collapsed in 476 AD, but the eastern empire lasted until the fall of Constantinople in 1453. By 100 BC, Rome had expanded its rule to most of the Mediterranean and beyond. However, it was severely destabilized by civil wars and political conflicts, which culminated in the victory of Octavian over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, and the subsequent conquest of the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Egypt. In 27 BC, the Roman Senate granted Octavian overarching military power (imperium) and the new title of Augustus, marking his accession as the first Roman emperor. The vast Roman territories were organized into senatorial provinces, governed by proconsuls who were appointed by lot annually, and imperial provinces, which belonged to the emperor but were governed by legates. The first two centuries of the Empire saw a period of unprecedented stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana (lit. 'Roman Peace'). Rome reached its greatest territorial extent under Trajan (r. 98–117 AD), but a period of increasing trouble and decline began under Commodus (r. 180–192). In the 3rd century, the Empire underwent a 50-year crisis that threatened its existence due to civil war, plagues and barbarian invasions. The Gallic and Palmyrene empires broke from the state away and a series of short-lived emperors led the Empire, which was later reunified under Aurelian (r. 270–275). The civil wars ended with the victory of Diocletian (r. 284–305), who set up two different imperial courts in the Greek East and Latin West. Constantine the Great (r. 306–337), the first Christian emperor, moved the imperial seat from Rome to Byzantium in 330, and renamed it Constantinople. The Migration Period, involving large invasions by Germanic peoples and by the Huns of Attila, led to the decline of the Western Roman Empire. With the fall of Ravenna to the Germanic Herulians and the deposition of Romulus Augustus in 476 by Odoacer, the Western Empire finally collapsed. The Eastern Roman Empire survived for another millennium with Constantinople as its sole capital, until the city's fall in 1453. Due to the Empire's extent and endurance, its institutions and culture had a lasting influence on the development of language, religion, art, architecture, literature, philosophy, law, and forms of government across its territories. Latin evolved into the Romance languages while Medieval Greek became the language of the East. The Empire's adoption of Christianity resulted in the formation of medieval Christendom. Roman and Greek art had a profound impact on the Italian Renaissance. Rome's architectural tradition served as the basis for Romanesque, Renaissance and Neoclassical architecture, influencing Islamic architecture. The rediscovery of classical science and technology (which formed the basis for Islamic science) in medieval Europe contributed to the Scientific Renaissance and Scientific Revolution. Many modern legal systems, such as the Napoleonic Code, descend from Roman law. Rome's republican institutions have influenced the Italian city-state republics of the medieval period, the early United States, and modern democratic republics. History Transition from Republic to Empire Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the Roman Republic in the 6th century BC, though not outside the Italian Peninsula until the 3rd century BC. Thus, it was an "empire" (a great power) long before it had an emperor. The Republic was not a nation-state in the modern sense, but a network of self-ruled towns (with varying degrees of independence from the Senate) and provinces administered by military commanders. It was governed by annually elected magistrates (Roman consuls above all) in conjunction with the Senate. The 1st century BC was a time of political and military upheaval, which ultimately led to rule by emperors. The consuls' military power rested in the Roman legal concept of imperium, meaning "command" (typically in a military sense). Occasionally, successful consuls or generals were given the honorary title imperator (commander); this is the origin of the word emperor, since this title was always bestowed to the early emperors. Rome suffered a long series of internal conflicts, conspiracies, and civil wars from the late second century BC (see Crisis of the Roman Republic) while greatly extending its power beyond Italy. In 44 BC Julius Caesar was briefly perpetual dictator before being assassinated by a faction that opposed his concentration of power. This faction was driven from Rome and defeated at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC by Mark Antony and Caesar's adopted son Octavian. Antony and Octavian divided the Roman world between them, but this did not last long. Octavian's forces defeated those of Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. In 27 BC the Senate gave him the title Augustus ("venerated") and made him princeps ("foremost") with proconsular imperium, thus beginning the Principate, the first epoch of Roman imperial history. Although the republic stood in name, Augustus had all meaningful authority. During his 40-year rule, a new constitutional order emerged so that, upon his death, Tiberius would succeed him as the new de facto monarch. As Roman provinces were being established throughout the Mediterranean, Italy maintained a special status which made it domina provinciarum ("ruler of the provinces"), and – especially in relation to the first centuries of imperial stability – rectrix mundi ("governor of the world") and omnium terrarum parens ("parent of all lands"). Pax Romana The 200 years that began with Augustus's rule is traditionally regarded as the Pax Romana ("Roman Peace"). The cohesion of the empire was furthered by a degree of social stability and economic prosperity that Rome had never before experienced. Uprisings in the provinces were infrequent and put down "mercilessly and swiftly". The success of Augustus in establishing principles of dynastic succession was limited by his outliving a number of talented potential heirs. The Julio-Claudian dynasty lasted for four more emperors—Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero—before it yielded in 69 AD to the strife-torn Year of the Four Emperors, from which Vespasian emerged as victor. Vespasian became the founder of the brief Flavian dynasty, followed by the Nerva–Antonine dynasty which produced the "Five Good Emperors": Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius. Transition from classical to late antiquity In the view of contemporary Greek historian Cassius Dio, the accession of Commodus in 180 marked the descent "from a kingdom of gold to one of rust and iron", a comment which has led some historians, notably Edward Gibbon, to take Commodus' reign as the beginning of the Empire's decline. In 212, during the reign of Caracalla, Roman citizenship was granted to all freeborn inhabitants of the empire. The Severan dynasty was tumultuous; an emperor's reign was ended routinely by his murder or execution and, following its collapse, the Empire was engulfed by the Crisis of the Third Century, a period of invasions, civil strife, economic disorder, and plague. In defining historical epochs, this crisis sometimes marks the transition from Classical to Late Antiquity. Aurelian (r. 270–275) stabilised the empire militarily and Diocletian reorganised and restored much of it in 285. Diocletian's reign brought the empire's most concerted effort against the perceived threat of Christianity, the "Great Persecution". Diocletian divided the empire into four regions, each ruled by a separate tetrarch. Confident that he fixed the disorder plaguing Rome, he abdicated along with his co-emperor, but the Tetrarchy collapsed shortly after. Order was eventually restored by Constantine the Great, who became the first emperor to convert to Christianity, and who established Constantinople as the new capital of the Eastern Empire. During the decades of the Constantinian and Valentinian dynasties, the empire was divided along an east–west axis, with dual power centres in Constantinople and Rome. Julian, who under the influence of his adviser Mardonius attempted to restore Classical Roman and Hellenistic religion, only briefly interrupted the succession of Christian emperors. Theodosius I, the last emperor to rule over both East and West, died in 395 after making Christianity the state religion. Fall in the West and survival in the East The Western Roman Empire began to disintegrate in the early 5th century. The Romans fought off all invaders, most famously Attila, but the empire had assimilated so many Germanic peoples of dubious loyalty to Rome that the empire started to dismember itself. Most chronologies place the end of the Western Roman Empire in 476, when Romulus Augustulus was forced to abdicate to the Germanic warlord Odoacer. Odoacer ended the Western Empire by declaring Zeno sole emperor and placing himself as Zeno's nominal subordinate. In reality, Italy was ruled by Odoacer alone. The Eastern Roman Empire, called the Byzantine Empire by later historians, continued until the reign of Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last Roman emperor. He died in battle in 1453 against Mehmed II and his Ottoman forces during the siege of Constantinople. Mehmed II adopted the title of caesar in an attempt to claim a connection to the former Empire. His claim was soon recognized by the Patriarchate of Constantinople, but not by most European monarchs. Geography and demography The Roman Empire was one of the largest in history, with contiguous territories throughout Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. The Latin phrase imperium sine fine ("empire without end") expressed the ideology that neither time nor space limited the Empire. In Virgil's Aeneid, limitless empire is said to be granted to the Romans by Jupiter. This claim of universal dominion was renewed when the Empire came under Christian rule in the 4th century. In addition to annexing large regions, the Romans directly altered their geography, for example cutting down entire forests. Roman expansion was mostly accomplished under the Republic, though parts of northern Europe were conquered in the 1st century, when Roman control in Europe, Africa, and Asia was strengthened. Under Augustus, a "global map of the known world" was displayed for the first time in public at Rome, coinciding with the creation of the most comprehensive political geography that survives from antiquity, the Geography of Strabo. When Augustus died, the account of his achievements (Res Gestae) prominently featured the geographical cataloguing of the Empire. Geography alongside meticulous written records were central concerns of Roman Imperial administration. The Empire reached its largest expanse under Trajan (r. 98–117), encompassing 5 million km2. The traditional population estimate of 55–60 million inhabitants accounted for between one-sixth and one-fourth of the world's total population and made it the most populous unified political entity in the West until the mid-19th century. Recent demographic studies have argued for a population peak from 70 million to more than 100 million. Each of the three largest cities in the Empire – Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch – was almost twice the size of any European city at the beginning of the 17th century. As the historian Christopher Kelly described it: Then the empire stretched from Hadrian's Wall in drizzle-soaked northern England to the sun-baked banks of the Euphrates in Syria; from the great Rhine–Danube river system, which snaked across the fertile, flat lands of Europe from the Low Countries to the Black Sea, to the rich plains of the North African coast and the luxuriant gash of the Nile Valley in Egypt. The empire completely circled the Mediterranean ... referred to by its conquerors as mare nostrum—'our sea'. Trajan's successor Hadrian adopted a policy of maintaining rather than expanding the empire. Borders (fines) were marked, and the frontiers (limites) patrolled. The most heavily fortified borders were the most unstable. Hadrian's Wall, which separated the Roman world from what was perceived as an ever-present barbarian threat, is the primary surviving monument of this effort. Languages Latin and Greek were the main languages of the Empire, but the Empire was deliberately multilingual. Andrew Wallace-Hadrill says "The main desire of the Roman government was to make itself understood". At the start of the Empire, knowledge of Greek was useful to pass as educated nobility and knowledge of Latin was useful for a career in the military, government, or law. Bilingual inscriptions indicate the everyday interpenetration of the two languages. Latin and Greek's mutual linguistic and cultural influence is a complex topic. Latin words incorporated into Greek were very common by the early imperial era, especially for military, administration, and trade and commerce matters. Greek grammar, literature, poetry and philosophy shaped Latin language and culture. There was never a legal requirement for Latin in the Empire, but it represented a certain status. High standards of Latin, Latinitas, started with the advent of Latin literature. Due to the flexible language policy of the Empire, a natural competition of language emerged that spurred Latinitas, to defend Latin against the stronger cultural influence of Greek. Over time Latin usage was used to project power and a higher social class. Most of the emperors were bilingual but had a preference for Latin in the public sphere for political reasons, a "rule" that first started during the Punic Wars. Different emperors up until Justinian would attempt to require the use of Latin in various sections of the administration but there is no evidence that a linguistic imperialism existed during the early Empire. After all freeborn inhabitants were universally enfranchised in 212, many Roman citizens would have lacked a knowledge of Latin. The wide use of Koine Greek was what enabled the spread of Christianity and reflects its role as the lingua franca of the Mediterranean during the time of the Empire. Following Diocletian's reforms in the 3rd century CE, there was a decline in the knowledge of Greek in the west. Spoken Latin later fragmented into the incipient romance languages in the 7th century CE following the collapse of the Empire's west. The dominance of Latin and Greek among the literate elite obscure the continuity of other spoken languages within the Empire. Latin, referred to in its spoken form as Vulgar Latin, gradually replaced Celtic and Italic languages. References to interpreters indicate the continuing use of local languages, particularly in Egypt with Coptic, and in military settings along the Rhine and Danube. Roman jurists also show a concern for local languages such as Punic, Gaulish, and Aramaic in assuring the correct understanding of laws and oaths. In Africa, Libyco-Berber and Punic were used in inscriptions into the 2nd century. In Syria, Palmyrene soldiers used their dialect of Aramaic for inscriptions, an exception to the rule that Latin was the language of the military. The last reference to Gaulish was between 560 and 575. The emergent Gallo-Romance languages would then be shaped by Gaulish. Proto-Basque or Aquitanian evolved with Latin loan words to modern Basque. The Thracian language, as were several now-extinct languages in Anatolia, are attested in Imperial-era inscriptions. Society The Empire was remarkably multicultural, with "astonishing cohesive capacity" to create shared identity while encompassing diverse peoples. Public monuments and communal spaces open to all—such as forums, amphitheatres, racetracks and baths—helped foster a sense of "Romanness". Roman society had multiple, overlapping social hierarchies. The civil war preceding Augustus caused upheaval, but did not effect an immediate redistribution of wealth and social power. From the perspective of the lower classes, a peak was merely added to the social pyramid. Personal relationships—patronage, friendship (amicitia), family, marriage—continued to influence politics. By the time of Nero, however, it was not unusual to find a former slave who was richer than a freeborn citizen, or an equestrian who exercised greater power than a senator. The blurring of the Republic's more rigid hierarchies led to increased social mobility, both upward and downward, to a greater extent than all other well-documented ancient societies. Women, freedmen, and slaves had opportunities to profit and exercise influence in ways previously less available to them. Social life, particularly for those whose personal resources were limited, was further fostered by a proliferation of voluntary associations and confraternities (collegia and sodalitates): professional and trade guilds, veterans' groups, religious sodalities, drinking and dining clubs, performing troupes, and burial societies. Legal status According to the jurist Gaius, the essential distinction in the Roman "law of persons" was that all humans were either free (liberi) or slaves (servi). The legal status of free persons was further defined by their citizenship. Most citizens held limited rights (such as the ius Latinum, "Latin right"), but were entitled to legal protections and privileges not enjoyed by non-citizens. Free people not considered citizens, but living within the Roman world, were peregrini, non-Romans. In 212, the Constitutio Antoniniana extended citizenship to all freeborn inhabitants of the empire. This legal egalitarianism required a far-reaching revision of existing laws that distinguished between citizens and non-citizens. Women in Roman law Freeborn Roman women were considered citizens, but did not vote, hold political office, or serve in the military. A mother's citizen status determined that of her children, as indicated by the phrase ex duobus civibus Romanis natos ("children born of two Roman citizens"). A Roman woman kept her own family name (nomen) for life. Children most often took the father's name, with some exceptions. Women could own property, enter contracts, and engage in business. Inscriptions throughout the Empire honour women as benefactors in funding public works, an indication they could hold considerable fortunes. The archaic manus marriage in which the woman was subject to her husband's authority was largely abandoned by the Imperial era, and a married woman retained ownership of any property she brought into the marriage. Technically she remained under her father's legal authority, even though she moved into her husband's home, but when her father died she became legally emancipated. This arrangement was a factor in the degree of independence Roman women enjoyed compared to many other cultures up to the modern period: although she had to answer to her father in legal matters, she was free of his direct scrutiny in daily life, and her husband had no legal power over her. Although it was a point of pride to be a "one-man woman" (univira) who had married only once, there was little stigma attached to divorce, nor to speedy remarriage after being widowed or divorced. Girls had equal inheritance rights with boys if their father died without leaving a will. A mother's right to own and dispose of property, including setting the terms of her will, gave her enormous influence over her sons into adulthood. As part of the Augustan programme to restore traditional morality and social order, moral legislation attempted to regulate conduct as a means of promoting "family values". Adultery was criminalized, and defined broadly as an illicit sex act (stuprum) between a male citizen and a married woman, or between a married woman and any man other than her husband. That is, a double standard was in place: a married woman could have sex only with her husband, but a married man did not commit adultery if he had sex with a prostitute or person of marginalized status. Childbearing was encouraged: a woman who had given birth to three children was granted symbolic honours and greater legal freedom (the ius trium liberorum). Slaves and the law At the time of Augustus, as many as 35% of the people in Roman Italy were slaves, making Rome one of five historical "slave societies" in which slaves constituted at least a fifth of the population and played a major role in the economy. Slavery was a complex institution that supported traditional Roman social structures as well as contributing economic utility. In urban settings, slaves might be professionals such as teachers, physicians, chefs, and accountants; the majority of slaves provided trained or unskilled labour. Agriculture and industry, such as milling and mining, relied on the exploitation of slaves. Outside Italy, slaves were on average an estimated 10 to 20% of the population, sparse in Roman Egypt but more concentrated in some Greek areas. Expanding Roman ownership of arable land and industries affected preexisting practices of slavery in the provinces. Although slavery has often been regarded as waning in the 3rd and 4th centuries, it remained an integral part of Roman society until gradually ceasing in the 6th and 7th centuries with the disintegration of the complex Imperial economy. Laws pertaining to slavery were "extremely intricate". Slaves were considered property and had no legal personhood. They could be subjected to forms of corporal punishment not normally exercised on citizens, sexual exploitation, torture, and summary execution. A slave could not as a matter of law be raped; a slave's rapist had to be prosecuted by the owner for property damage under the Aquilian Law. Slaves had no right to the form of legal marriage called conubium, but their unions were sometimes recognized. Technically, a slave could not own property, but a slave who conducted business might be given access to an individual fund (peculium) that he could use, depending on the degree of trust and co-operation between owner and slave. Within a household or workplace, a hierarchy of slaves might exist, with one slave acting as the master of others. Talented slaves might accumulate a large enough peculium to justify their freedom, or be manumitted for services rendered. Manumission had become frequent enough that in 2 BC a law (Lex Fufia Caninia) limited the number of slaves an owner was allowed to free in his will. Following the Servile Wars of the Republic, legislation under Augustus and his successors shows a driving concern for controlling the threat of rebellions through limiting the size of work groups, and for hunting down fugitive slaves. Over time slaves gained increased legal protection, including the right to file complaints against their masters. A bill of sale might contain a clause stipulating that the slave could not be employed for prostitution, as prostitutes in ancient Rome were often slaves. The burgeoning trade in eunuchs in the late 1st century prompted legislation that prohibited the castration of a slave against his will "for lust or gain". Roman slavery was not based on race. Generally, slaves in Italy were indigenous Italians, with a minority of foreigners (including both slaves and freedmen) estimated at 5% of the total in the capital at its peak, where their number was largest. Foreign slaves had higher mortality and lower birth rates than natives, and were sometimes even subjected to mass expulsions. The average recorded age at death for the slaves of the city of Rome was seventeen and a half years (17.2 for males; 17.9 for females). During the period of republican expansionism when slavery had become pervasive, war captives were a main source of slaves. The range of ethnicities among slaves to some extent reflected that of the armies Rome defeated in war, and the conquest of Greece brought a number of highly skilled and educated slaves. Slaves were also traded in markets and sometimes sold by pirates. Infant abandonment and self-enslavement among the poor were other sources. Vernae, by contrast, were "homegrown" slaves born to female slaves within the household, estate or farm. Although they had no special legal status, an owner who mistreated or failed to care for his vernae faced social disapproval, as they were considered part of the family household and in some cases might actually be the children of free males in the family. Freedmen Rome differed from Greek city-states in allowing freed slaves to become citizens; any future children of a freedman were born free, with full rights of citizenship. After manumission, a slave who had belonged to a Roman citizen enjoyed active political freedom (libertas), including the right to vote. His former master became his patron (patronus): the two continued to have customary and legal obligations to each other. A freedman was not entitled to hold public office or the highest state priesthoods, but could play a priestly role. He could not marry a woman from a senatorial family, nor achieve legitimate senatorial rank himself, but during the early Empire, freedmen held key positions in the government bureaucracy, so much so that Hadrian limited their participation by law. The rise of successful freedmen—through political influence or wealth—is a characteristic of early Imperial society. The prosperity of a high-achieving group of freedmen is attested by inscriptions throughout the Empire. Census rank The Latin word ordo (plural ordines) is translated variously and inexactly into English as "class, order, rank". One purpose of the Roman census was to determine the ordo to which an individual belonged. Two of the highest ordines in Rome were the senatorial and equestrian. Outside Rome, cities or colonies were led by decurions, also known as curiales. "Senator" was not itself an elected office in ancient Rome; an individual gained admission to the Senate after he had been elected to and served at least one term as an executive magistrate. A senator also had to meet a minimum property requirement of 1 million sestertii. Not all men who qualified for the ordo senatorius chose to take a Senate seat, which required legal domicile at Rome. Emperors often filled vacancies in the 600-member body by appointment. A senator's son belonged to the ordo senatorius, but he had to qualify on his own merits for admission to the Senate. A senator could be removed for violating moral standards. In the time of Nero, senators were still primarily from Italy, with some from the Iberian peninsula and southern France; men from the Greek-speaking provinces of the East began to be added under Vespasian. The first senator from the easternmost province, Cappadocia, was admitted under Marcus Aurelius. By the Severan dynasty (193–235), Italians made up less than half the Senate. During the 3rd century, domicile at Rome became impractical, and inscriptions attest to senators who were active in politics and munificence in their homeland (patria). Senators were the traditional governing class who rose through the cursus honorum, the political career track, but equestrians often possessed greater wealth and political power. Membership in the equestrian order was based on property; in Rome's early days, equites or knights had been distinguished by their ability to serve as mounted warriors, but cavalry service was a separate function in the Empire. A census valuation of 400,000 sesterces and three generations of free birth qualified a man as an equestrian. The census of 28 BC uncovered large numbers of men who qualified, and in 14 AD, a thousand equestrians were registered at Cádiz and Padua alone. Equestrians rose through a military career track (tres militiae) to become highly placed prefects and procurators within the Imperial administration. The rise of provincial men to the senatorial and equestrian orders is an aspect of social mobility in the early Empire. Roman aristocracy was based on competition, and unlike later European nobility, a Roman family could not maintain its position merely through hereditary succession or having title to lands. Admission to the higher ordines brought distinction and privileges, but also responsibilities. In antiquity, a city depended on its leading citizens to fund public works, events, and services (munera). Maintaining one's rank required massive personal expenditures. Decurions were so vital for the functioning of cities that in the later Empire, as the ranks of the town councils became depleted, those who had risen to the Senate were encouraged to return to their hometowns, in an effort to sustain civic life. In the later Empire, the dignitas ("worth, esteem") that attended on senatorial or equestrian rank was refined further with titles such as vir illustris ("illustrious man"). The appellation clarissimus (Greek lamprotatos) was used to designate the dignitas of certain senators and their immediate family, including women. "Grades" of equestrian status proliferated. Unequal justice As the republican principle of citizens' equality under the law faded, the symbolic and social privileges of the upper classes led to an informal division of Roman society into those who had acquired greater honours (honestiores) and humbler folk (humiliores). In general, honestiores were the members of the three higher "orders", along with certain military officers. The granting of universal citizenship in 212 seems to have increased the competitive urge among the upper classes to have their superiority affirmed, particularly within the justice system. Sentencing depended on the judgment of the presiding official as to the relative "worth" (dignitas) of the defendant: an honestior could pay a fine for a crime for which an humilior might receive a scourging. Execution, which was an infrequent legal penalty for free men under the Republic, could be quick and relatively painless for honestiores, while humiliores might suffer the kinds of torturous death previously reserved for slaves, such as crucifixion and condemnation to the beasts. In the early Empire, those who converted to Christianity could lose their standing as honestiores, especially if they declined to fulfil religious responsibilities, and thus became subject to punishments that created the conditions of martyrdom. Government and military The three major elements of the Imperial state were the central government, the military, and the provincial government. The military established control of a territory through war, but after a city or people was brought under treaty, the mission turned to policing: protecting Roman citizens, agricultural fields, and religious sites. The Romans lacked sufficient manpower or resources to rule through force alone. Cooperation with local elites was necessary to maintain order, collect information, and extract revenue. The Romans often exploited internal political divisions. Communities with demonstrated loyalty to Rome retained their own laws, could collect their own taxes locally, and in exceptional cases were exempt from Roman taxation. Legal privileges and relative independence incentivized compliance. Roman government was thus limited, but efficient in its use of available resources. Central government The Imperial cult of ancient Rome identified emperors and some members of their families with divinely sanctioned authority (auctoritas). The rite of apotheosis (also called consecratio) signified the deceased emperor's deification. The dominance of the emperor was based on the consolidation of powers from several republican offices. The emperor made himself the central religious authority as pontifex maximus, and centralized the right to declare war, ratify treaties, and negotiate with foreign leaders. While these functions were clearly defined during the Principate, the emperor's powers over time became less constitutional and more monarchical, culminating in the Dominate. The emperor was the ultimate authority in policy- and decision-making, but in the early Principate, he was expected to be accessible and deal personally with official business and petitions. A bureaucracy formed around him only gradually. The Julio-Claudian emperors relied on an informal body of advisors that included not only senators and equestrians, but trusted slaves and freedmen. After Nero, the influence of the latter was regarded with suspicion, and the emperor's council (consilium) became subject to official appointment for greater transparency. Though the Senate took a lead in policy discussions until the end of the Antonine dynasty, equestrians played an increasingly important role in the consilium. The women of the emperor's family often intervened directly in his decisions. Access to the emperor might be gained at the daily reception (salutatio), a development of the traditional homage a client paid to his patron; public banquets hosted at the palace; and religious ceremonies. The common people who lacked this access could manifest their approval or displeasure as a group at games. By the 4th century, the Christian emperors became remote figureheads who issued general rulings, no longer responding to individual petitions. Although the Senate could do little short of assassination and open rebellion to contravene the will of the emperor, it retained its symbolic political centrality. The Senate legitimated the emperor's rule, and the emperor employed senators as legates (legati): generals, diplomats, and administrators. The practical source of an emperor's power and authority was the military. The legionaries were paid by the Imperial treasury, and swore an annual oath of loyalty to the emperor. Most emperors chose a successor, usually a close family member or adopted heir. The new emperor had to seek a swift acknowledgement of his status and authority to stabilize the political landscape. No emperor could hope to survive without the allegiance of the Praetorian Guard and the legions. To secure their loyalty, several emperors paid the donativum, a monetary reward. In theory, the Senate was entitled to choose the new emperor, but did so mindful of acclamation by the army or Praetorians. Military After the Punic Wars, the Roman army comprised professional soldiers who volunteered for 20 years of active duty and five as reserves. The transition to a professional military began during the late Republic and was one of the many profound shifts away from republicanism, under which an army of conscript citizens defended the homeland against a specific threat. The Romans expanded their war machine by "organizing the communities that they conquered in Italy into a system that generated huge reservoirs of manpower for their army". By Imperial times, military service was a full-time career. The pervasiveness of military garrisons throughout the Empire was a major influence in the process of Romanization. The primary mission of the military of the early empire was to preserve the Pax Romana. The three major divisions of the military were: the garrison at Rome, comprising the Praetorian Guard, the cohortes urbanae and the vigiles, who functioned as police and firefighters; the provincial army, comprising the Roman legions and the auxiliaries provided by the provinces (auxilia); the navy. Through his military reforms, which included consolidating or disbanding units of questionable loyalty, Augustus regularized the legion. A legion was organized into ten cohorts, each of which comprised six centuries, with a century further made up of ten squads (contubernia); the exact size of the Imperial legion, which was likely determined by logistics, has been estimated to range from 4,800 to 5,280. After Germanic tribes wiped out three legions in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD, the number of legions was increased from 25 to around 30. The army had about 300,000 soldiers in the 1st century, and under 400,000 in the 2nd, "significantly smaller" than the collective armed forces of the conquered territories. No more than 2% of adult males living in the Empire served in the Imperial army. Augustus also created the Praetorian Guard: nine cohorts, ostensibly to maintain the public peace, which were garrisoned in Italy. Better paid than the legionaries, the Praetorians served only sixteen years. The auxilia were recruited from among the non-citizens. Organized in smaller units of roughly cohort strength, they were paid less than the legionaries, and after 25 years of service were rewarded with Roman citizenship, also extended to their sons. According to Tacitus there were roughly as many auxiliaries as there were legionaries—thus, around 125,000 men, implying approximately 250 auxiliary regiments. The Roman cavalry of the earliest Empire were primarily from Celtic, Hispanic or Germanic areas. Several aspects of training and equipment derived from the Celts. The Roman navy not only aided in the supply and transport of the legions but also in the protection of the frontiers along the rivers Rhine and Danube. Another duty was protecting maritime trade against pirates. It patrolled the Mediterranean, parts of the North Atlantic coasts, and the Black Sea. Nevertheless, the army was considered the senior and more prestigious branch. Provincial government An annexed territory became a Roman province in three steps: making a register of cities, taking a census, and surveying the land. Further government recordkeeping included births and deaths, real estate transactions, taxes, and juridical proceedings. In the 1st and 2nd centuries, the central government sent out around 160 officials annually to govern outside Italy. Among these officials were the Roman governors: magistrates elected at Rome who in the name of the Roman people governed senatorial provinces; or governors, usually of equestrian rank, who held their imperium on behalf of the emperor in imperial provinces, most notably Roman Egypt. A governor had to make himself accessible to the people he governed, but he could delegate various duties. His staff, however, was minimal: his official attendants (apparitores), including lictors, heralds, messengers, scribes, and bodyguards; legates, both civil and military, usually of equestrian rank; and friends who accompanied him unofficially. Other officials were appointed as supervisors of government finances. Separating fiscal responsibility from justice and administration was a reform of the Imperial era, to avoid provincial governors and tax farmers exploiting local populations for personal gain. Equestrian procurators, whose authority was originally "extra-judicial and extra-constitutional", managed both state-owned property and the personal property of the emperor (res privata). Because Roman government officials were few, a provincial who needed help with a legal dispute or criminal case might seek out any Roman perceived to have some official capacity. Law Roman courts held original jurisdiction over cases involving Roman citizens throughout the empire, but there were too few judicial functionaries to impose Roman law uniformly in the provinces. Most parts of the Eastern Empire already had well-established law codes and juridical procedures. Generally, it was Roman policy to respect the mos regionis ("regional tradition" or "law of the land") and to regard local laws as a source of legal precedent and social stability. The compatibility of Roman and local law was thought to reflect an underlying ius gentium, the "law of nations" or international law regarded as common and customary. If provincial law conflicted with Roman law or custom, Roman courts heard appeals, and the emperor held final decision-making authority. In the West, law had been administered on a highly localized or tribal basis, and private property rights may have been a novelty of the Roman era, particularly among Celts. Roman law facilitated the acquisition of wealth by a pro-Roman elite. The extension of universal citizenship to all free inhabitants of the Empire in 212 required the uniform application of Roman law, replacing local law codes that had applied to non-citizens. Diocletian's efforts to stabilize the Empire after the Crisis of the Third Century included two major compilations of law in four years, the Codex Gregorianus and the Codex Hermogenianus, to guide provincial administrators in setting consistent legal standards. The pervasiveness of Roman law throughout Western Europe enormously influenced the Western legal tradition, reflected by continued use of Latin legal terminology in modern law. Taxation Taxation under the Empire amounted to about 5% of its gross product. The typical tax rate for individuals ranged from 2 to 5%. The tax code was "bewildering" in its complicated system of direct and indirect taxes, some paid in cash and some in kind. Taxes might be specific to a province, or kinds of properties such as fisheries; they might be temporary. Tax collection was justified by the need to maintain the military, and taxpayers sometimes got a refund if the army captured a surplus of booty. In-kind taxes were accepted from less-monetized areas, particularly those who could supply grain or goods to army camps. The primary source of direct tax revenue was individuals, who paid a poll tax and a tax on their land, construed as a tax on its produce or productive capacity. Tax obligations were determined by the census: each head of household provided a headcount of his household, as well as an accounting of his property. A major source of indirect-tax revenue was the portoria, customs and tolls on trade, including among provinces. Towards the end of his reign, Augustus instituted a 4% tax on the sale of slaves, which Nero shifted from the purchaser to the dealers, who responded by raising their prices. An owner who manumitted a slave paid a "freedom tax", calculated at 5% of value. An inheritance tax of 5% was assessed when Roman citizens above a certain net worth left property to anyone outside their immediate family. Revenues from the estate tax and from an auction tax went towards the veterans' pension fund (aerarium militare). Low taxes helped the Roman aristocracy increase their wealth, which equalled or exceeded the revenues of the central government. An emperor sometimes replenished his treasury by confiscating the estates of the "super-rich", but in the later period, the resistance of the wealthy to paying taxes was one of the factors contributing to the collapse of the Empire. Economy The Empire is best thought of as a network of regional economies, based on a form of "political capitalism" in which the state regulated commerce to assure its own revenues. Economic growth, though not comparable to modern economies, was greater than that of most other societies prior to industrialization. Territorial conquests permitted a large-scale reorganization of land use that resulted in agricultural surplus and specialization, particularly in north Africa. Some cities were known for particular industries. The scale of urban building indicates a significant construction industry. Papyri preserve complex accounting methods that suggest elements of economic rationalism, and the Empire was highly monetized. Although the means of communication and transport were limited in antiquity, transportation in the 1st and 2nd centuries expanded greatly, and trade routes connected regional economies. The supply contracts for the army drew on local suppliers near the base (castrum), throughout the province, and across provincial borders. Economic historians vary in their calculations of the gross domestic product during the Principate. In the sample years of 14, 100, and 150 AD, estimates of per capita GDP range from 166 to 380 HS. The GDP per capita of Italy is estimated as 40 to 66% higher than in the rest of the Empire, due to tax transfers from the provinces and the concentration of elite income. Economic dynamism resulted in social mobility. Although aristocratic values permeated traditional elite society, wealth requirements for rank indicate a strong tendency towards plutocracy. Prestige could be obtained through investing one's wealth in grand estates or townhouses, luxury items, public entertainments, funerary monuments, and religious dedications. Guilds (collegia) and corporations (corpora) provided support for individuals to succeed through networking. "There can be little doubt that the lower classes of ... provincial towns of the Roman Empire enjoyed a high standard of living not equaled again in Western Europe until the 19th century". Households in the top 1.5% of income distribution captured about 20% of income. The "vast majority" produced more than half of the total income, but lived near subsistence. Currency and banking The early Empire was monetized to a near-universal extent, using money as a way to express prices and debts. The sestertius (English "sesterces", symbolized as HS) was the basic unit of reckoning value into the 4th century, though the silver denarius, worth four sesterces, was also used beginning in the Severan dynasty. The smallest coin commonly circulated was the bronze as, one-tenth denarius. Bullion and ingots seem not to have counted as pecunia ("money") and were used only on the frontiers. Romans in the first and second centuries counted coins, rather than weighing them—an indication that the coin was valued on its face. This tendency towards fiat money led to the debasement of Roman coinage in the later Empire. The standardization of money throughout the Empire promoted trade and market integration. The high amount of metal coinage in circulation increased the money supply for trading or saving. Rome had no central bank, and regulation of the banking system was minimal. Banks of classical antiquity typically kept less in reserves than the full total of customers' deposits. A typical bank had fairly limited capital, and often only one principal. Seneca assumes that anyone involved in Roman commerce needs access to credit. A professional deposit banker received and held deposits for a fixed or indefinite term, and lent money to third parties. The senatorial elite were involved heavily in private lending, both as creditors and borrowers. The holder of a debt could use it as a means of payment by transferring it to another party, without cash changing hands. Although it has sometimes been thought that ancient Rome lacked documentary transactions, the system of banks throughout the Empire permitted the exchange of large sums without physically transferring coins, in part because of the risks of moving large amounts of cash. Only one serious credit shortage is known to have occurred in the early Empire, in 33 AD; generally, available capital exceeded the amount needed by borrowers. The central government itself did not borrow money, and without public debt had to fund deficits from cash reserves. Emperors of the Antonine and Severan dynasties debased the currency, particularly the denarius, under the pressures of meeting military payrolls. Sudden inflation under Commodus damaged the credit market. In the mid-200s, the supply of specie contracted sharply. Conditions during the Crisis of the Third Century—such as reductions in long-distance trade, disruption of mining operations, and the physical transfer of gold coinage outside the empire by invading enemies—greatly diminished the money supply and the banking sector. Although Roman coinage had long been fiat money or fiduciary currency, general economic anxieties came to a head under Aurelian, and bankers lost confidence in coins. Despite Diocletian's introduction of the gold solidus and monetary reforms, the credit market of the Empire never recovered its former robustness. Mining and metallurgy The main mining regions of the Empire were the Iberian Peninsula (silver, copper, lead, iron and gold); Gaul (gold, silver, iron); Britain (mainly iron, lead, tin), the Danubian provinces (gold, iron); Macedonia and Thrace (gold, silver); and Asia Minor (gold, silver, iron, tin). Intensive large-scale mining—of alluvial deposits, and by means of open-cast mining and underground mining—took place from the reign of Augustus up to the early 3rd century, when the instability of the Empire disrupted production. Hydraulic mining allowed base and precious metals to be extracted on a proto-industrial scale. The total annual iron output is estimated at 82,500 tonnes. Copper and lead production levels were unmatched until the Industrial Revolution. At its peak around the mid-2nd century, the Roman silver stock is estimated at 10,000 t, five to ten times larger than the combined silver mass of medieval Europe and the Caliphate around 800 AD. As an indication of the scale of Roman metal production, lead pollution in the Greenland ice sheet quadrupled over prehistoric levels during the Imperial era and dropped thereafter. Transportation and communication The Empire completely encircled the Mediterranean, which they called "our sea" (Mare Nostrum). Roman sailing vessels navigated the Mediterranean as well as major rivers. Transport by water was preferred where possible, as moving commodities by land was more difficult. Vehicles, wheels, and ships indicate the existence of a great number of skilled woodworkers. Land transport utilized the advanced system of Roman roads, called "viae". These roads were primarily built for military purposes, but also served commercial ends. The in-kind taxes paid by communities included the provision of personnel, animals, or vehicles for the cursus publicus, the state mail and transport service established by Augustus. Relay stations were located along the roads every seven to twelve Roman miles, and tended to grow into villages or trading posts. A mansio (plural mansiones) was a privately run service station franchised by the imperial bureaucracy for the cursus publicus. The distance between mansiones was determined by how far a wagon could travel in a day. Carts were usually pulled by mules, travelling about 4 mph. Trade and commodities Roman provinces traded among themselves, but trade extended outside the frontiers to regions as far away as China and India. Chinese trade was mostly conducted overland through middle men along the Silk Road; Indian trade also occurred by sea from Egyptian ports. The main commodity was grain. Also traded were olive oil, foodstuffs, garum (fish sauce), slaves, ore and manufactured metal objects, fibres and textiles, timber, pottery, glassware, marble, papyrus, spices and materia medica, ivory, pearls, and gemstones. Though most provinces could produce wine, regional varietals were desirable and wine was a central trade good. Labour and occupations Inscriptions record 268 different occupations in Rome and 85 in Pompeii. Professional associations or trade guilds (collegia) are attested for a wide range of occupations, some quite specialized. Work performed by slaves falls into five general categories: domestic, with epitaphs recording at least 55 different household jobs; imperial or public service; urban crafts and services; agriculture; and mining. Convicts provided much of the labour in the mines or quarries, where conditions were notoriously brutal. In practice, there was little division of labour between slave and free, and most workers were illiterate and without special skills. The greatest number of common labourers were employed in agriculture: in Italian industrial farming (latifundia), these may have been mostly slaves, but elsewhere slave farm labour was probably less important. Textile and clothing production was a major source of employment. Both textiles and finished garments were traded and products were often named for peoples or towns, like a fashion "label". Better ready-to-wear was exported by local businessmen (negotiatores or mercatores). Finished garments might be retailed by their sales agents, by vestiarii (clothing dealers), or peddled by itinerant merchants. The fullers (fullones) and dye workers (coloratores) had their own guilds. Centonarii were guild workers who specialized in textile production and the recycling of old clothes into pieced goods. Architecture and engineering The chief Roman contributions to architecture were the arch, vault and dome. Some Roman structures still stand today, due in part to sophisticated methods of making cements and concrete. Roman temples developed Etruscan and Greek forms, with some distinctive elements. Roman roads are considered the most advanced built until the early 19th century. Roman bridges were among the first large and lasting bridges, built from stone (and in most cases concrete) with the arch as the basic structure. The largest Roman bridge was Trajan's bridge over the lower Danube, constructed by Apollodorus of Damascus, which remained for over a millennium the longest bridge to have been built. The Romans built many dams and reservoirs for water collection, such as the Subiaco Dams, two of which fed the Anio Novus, one of the largest aqueducts of Rome. The Romans constructed numerous aqueducts. De aquaeductu, a treatise by Frontinus, who served as water commissioner, reflects the administrative importance placed on the water supply. Masonry channels carried water along a precise gradient, using gravity alone. It was then collected in tanks and fed through pipes to public fountains, baths, toilets, or industrial sites. The main aqueducts in Rome were the Aqua Claudia and the Aqua Marcia. The complex system built to supply Constantinople had its most distant supply drawn from over 120 km away along a route of more than 336 km. Roman aqueducts were built to remarkably fine tolerance, and to a technological standard not equalled until modern times. The Romans also used aqueducts in their extensive mining operations across the empire. Insulated glazing (or "double glazing") was used in the construction of public baths. Elite housing in cooler climates might have hypocausts, a form of central heating. The Romans were the first culture to assemble all essential components of the much later steam engine: the crank and connecting rod system, Hero's aeolipile (generating steam power), the cylinder and piston (in metal force pumps), non-return valves (in water pumps), and gearing (in water mills and clocks). Daily life City and country The city was viewed as fostering civilization by being "properly designed, ordered, and adorned". Augustus undertook a vast building programme in Rome, supported public displays of art that expressed imperial ideology, and reorganized the city into neighbourhoods (vici) administered at the local level with police and firefighting services. A focus of Augustan monumental architecture was the Campus Martius, an open area outside the city centre: the Altar of Augustan Peace (Ara Pacis Augustae) was located there, as was an obelisk imported from Egypt that formed the pointer (gnomon) of a horologium. With its public gardens, the Campus was among the most attractive places in Rome to visit. City planning and urban lifestyles was influenced by the Greeks early on, and in the Eastern Empire, Roman rule shaped the development of cities that already had a strong Hellenistic character. Cities such as Athens, Aphrodisias, Ephesus and Gerasa tailored city planning and architecture to imperial ideals, while expressing their individual identity and regional preeminence. In areas inhabited by Celtic-speaking peoples, Rome encouraged the development of urban centres with stone temples, forums, monumental fountains, and amphitheatres, often on or near the sites of preexisting walled settlements known as oppida. Urbanization in Roman Africa expanded on Greek and Punic coastal cities. The network of cities (coloniae, municipia, civitates or in Greek terms poleis) was a primary cohesive force during the Pax Romana. Romans of the 1st and 2nd centuries were encouraged to "inculcate the habits of peacetime". As the classicist Clifford Ando noted: Most of the cultural appurtenances popularly associated with imperial culture—public cult and its games and civic banquets, competitions for artists, speakers, and athletes, as well as the funding of the great majority of public buildings and public display of art—were financed by private individuals, whose expenditures in this regard helped to justify their economic power and legal and provincial privileges. In the city of Rome, most people lived in multistory apartment buildings (insulae) that were often squalid firetraps. Public facilities—such as baths (thermae), toilets with running water (latrinae), basins or elaborate fountains (nymphea) delivering fresh water, and large-scale entertainments such as chariot races and gladiator combat—were aimed primarily at the common people. The public baths served hygienic, social and cultural functions. Bathing was the focus of daily socializing. Roman baths were distinguished by a series of rooms that offered communal bathing in three temperatures, with amenities that might include an exercise room, sauna, exfoliation spa, ball court, or outdoor swimming pool. Baths had hypocaust heating: the floors were suspended over hot-air channels. Public baths were part of urban culture throughout the provinces, but in the late 4th century, individual tubs began to replace communal bathing. Christians were advised to go to the baths only for hygiene. Rich families from Rome usually had two or more houses: a townhouse (domus) and at least one luxury home (villa) outside the city. The domus was a privately owned single-family house, and might be furnished with a private bath (balneum), but it was not a place to retreat from public life. Although some neighbourhoods show a higher concentration of such houses, they were not segregated enclaves. The domus was meant to be visible and accessible. The atrium served as a reception hall in which the paterfamilias (head of household) met with clients every morning. It was a centre of family religious rites, containing a shrine and images of family ancestors. The houses were located on busy public roads, and ground-level spaces were often rented out as shops (tabernae). In addition to a kitchen garden—windowboxes might substitute in the insulae—townhouses typically enclosed a peristyle garden. The villa by contrast was an escape from the city, and in literature represents a lifestyle that balances intellectual and artistic interests (otium) with an appreciation of nature and agriculture. Ideally a villa commanded a view or vista, carefully framed by the architectural design. Augustus' programme of urban renewal, and the growth of Rome's population to as many as one million, was accompanied by nostalgia for rural life. Poetry idealized the lives of farmers and shepherds. Interior decorating often featured painted gardens, fountains, landscapes, vegetative ornament, and animals, rendered accurately enough to be identified by species. On a more practical level, the central government took an active interest in supporting agriculture. Producing food was the priority of land use. Larger farms (latifundia) achieved an economy of scale that sustained urban life. Small farmers benefited from the development of local markets in towns and trade centres. Agricultural techniques such as crop rotation and selective breeding were disseminated throughout the Empire, and new crops were introduced from one province to another. Maintaining an affordable food supply to the city of Rome had become a major political issue in the late Republic, when the state began to provide a grain dole (Cura Annonae) to citizens who registered for it (about 200,000–250,000 adult males in Rome). The dole cost at least 15% of state revenues, but improved living conditions among the lower classes, and subsidized the rich by allowing workers to spend more of their earnings on the wine and olive oil produced on estates. The grain dole also had symbolic value: it affirmed the emperor's position as universal benefactor, and the right of citizens to share in "the fruits of conquest". The annona, public facilities, and spectacular entertainments mitigated the otherwise dreary living conditions of lower-class Romans, and kept social unrest in check. The satirist Juvenal, however, saw "bread and circuses" (panem et circenses) as emblematic of the loss of republican political liberty: The public has long since cast off its cares: the people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions and all else, now meddles no more and longs eagerly for just two things: bread and circuses. Health and disease Epidemics were common in the ancient world, and occasional pandemics in the Empire killed millions. The Roman population was unhealthy. About 20 percent—a large percentage by ancient standards—lived in cities, Rome being the largest. The cities were a "demographic sink": the death rate exceeded the birth rate and constant immigration was necessary to maintain the population. Average lifespan is estimated at the mid-twenties, and perhaps more than half of children died before reaching adulthood. Dense urban populations and poor sanitation contributed to disease. Land and sea connections facilitated and sped the transfer of infectious diseases across the empire's territories. The rich were not immune; only two of emperor Marcus Aurelius's fourteen children are known to have reached adulthood. The importance of a good diet to health was recognized by medical writers such as Galen (2nd century). Views on nutrition were influenced by beliefs like humoral theory. A good indicator of nutrition and disease burden is average height: the average Roman was shorter in stature than the population of pre-Roman Italian societies and medieval Europe. Food and dining Most apartments in Rome lacked kitchens, though a charcoal brazier could be used for rudimentary cookery. Prepared food was sold at pubs and bars, inns, and food stalls (tabernae, cauponae, popinae, thermopolia). Carryout and restaurants were for the lower classes; fine dining appeared only at dinner parties in wealthy homes with a chef (archimagirus) and kitchen staff, or banquets hosted by social clubs (collegia). Most Romans consumed at least 70% of their daily calories in the form of cereals and legumes. Puls (pottage) was considered the food of the Romans, and could be elaborated to produce dishes similar to polenta or risotto. Urban populations and the military preferred bread. By the reign of Aurelian, the state had begun to distribute the annona as a daily ration of bread baked in state factories, and added olive oil, wine, and pork to the dole. Roman literature focuses on the dining habits of the upper classes, for whom the evening meal (cena) had important social functions. Guests were entertained in a finely decorated dining room (triclinium) furnished with couches. By the late Republic, women dined, reclined, and drank wine along with men. The poet Martial describes a dinner, beginning with the gustatio ("tasting" or "appetizer") salad. The main course was kid, beans, greens, a chicken, and leftover ham, followed by a dessert of fruit and wine. Roman "foodies" indulged in wild game, fowl such as peacock and flamingo, large fish (mullet was especially prized), and shellfish. Luxury ingredients were imported from the far reaches of empire. A book-length collection of Roman recipes is attributed to Apicius, a name for several figures in antiquity that became synonymous with "gourmet". Refined cuisine could be moralized as a sign of either civilized progress or decadent decline. Most often, because of the importance of landowning in Roman culture, produce—cereals, legumes, vegetables, and fruit—were considered more civilized foods than meat. The Mediterranean staples of bread, wine, and oil were sacralized by Roman Christianity, while Germanic meat consumption became a mark of paganism. Some philosophers and Christians resisted the demands of the body and the pleasures of food, and adopted fasting as an ideal. Food became simpler in general as urban life in the West diminished and trade routes were disrupted; the Church formally discouraged gluttony, and hunting and pastoralism were seen as simple and virtuous. Spectacles When Juvenal complained that the Roman people had exchanged their political liberty for "bread and circuses", he was referring to the state-provided grain dole and the circenses, events held in the entertainment venue called a circus. The largest such venue in Rome was the Circus Maximus, the setting of horse races, chariot races, the equestrian Troy Game, staged beast hunts (venationes), athletic contests, gladiator combat, and historical re-enactments. From earliest times, several religious festivals had featured games (ludi), primarily horse and chariot races (ludi circenses). The races retained religious significance in connection with agriculture, initiation, and the cycle of birth and death. Under Augustus, public entertainments were presented on 77 days of the year; by the reign of Marcus Aurelius, this had expanded to 135. Circus games were preceded by an elaborate parade (pompa circensis) that ended at the venue. Competitive events were held also in smaller venues such as the amphitheatre, which became the characteristic Roman spectacle venue, and stadium. Greek-style athletics included footraces, boxing, wrestling, and the pancratium. Aquatic displays, such as the mock sea battle (naumachia) and a form of "water ballet", were presented in engineered pools. State-supported theatrical events (ludi scaenici) took place on temple steps or in grand stone theatres, or in the smaller enclosed theatre called an odeon. Circuses were the largest structure regularly built in the Roman world. The Flavian Amphitheatre, better known as the Colosseum, became the regular arena for blood sports in Rome. Many Roman amphitheatres, circuses and theatres built in cities outside Italy are visible as ruins today. The local ruling elite were responsible for sponsoring spectacles and arena events, which both enhanced their status and drained their resources. The physical arrangement of the amphitheatre represented the order of Roman society: the emperor in his opulent box; senators and equestrians in reserved advantageous seats; women seated at a remove from the action; slaves given the worst places, and everybody else in-between. The crowd could call for an outcome by booing or cheering, but the emperor had the final say. Spectacles could quickly become sites of social and political protest, and emperors sometimes had to deploy force to put down crowd unrest, most notoriously at the Nika riots in 532. The chariot teams were known by the colours they wore. Fan loyalty was fierce and at times erupted into sports riots. Racing was perilous, but charioteers were among the most celebrated and well-compensated athletes. Circuses were designed to ensure that no team had an unfair advantage and to minimize collisions (naufragia), which were nonetheless frequent and satisfying to the crowd. The races retained a magical aura through their early association with chthonic rituals: circus images were considered protective or lucky, curse tablets have been found buried at the site of racetracks, and charioteers were often suspected of sorcery. Chariot racing continued into the Byzantine period under imperial sponsorship, but the decline of cities in the 6th and 7th centuries led to its eventual demise. The Romans thought gladiator contests had originated with funeral games and sacrifices. Some of the earliest styles of gladiator fighting had ethnic designations such as "Thracian" or "Gallic". The staged combats were considered munera, "services, offerings, benefactions", initially distinct from the festival games (ludi). To mark the opening of the Colosseum, Titus presented 100 days of arena events, with 3,000 gladiators competing on a single day. Roman fascination with gladiators is indicated by how widely they are depicted on mosaics, wall paintings, lamps, and in graffiti. Gladiators were trained combatants who might be slaves, convicts, or free volunteers. Death was not a necessary or even desirable outcome in matches between these highly skilled fighters, whose training was costly and time-consuming. By contrast, noxii were convicts sentenced to the arena with little or no training, often unarmed, and with no expectation of survival; physical suffering and humiliation were considered appropriate retributive justice. These executions were sometimes staged or ritualized as re-enactments of myths, and amphitheatres were equipped with elaborate stage machinery to create special effects. Modern scholars have found the pleasure Romans took in the "theatre of life and death" difficult to understand. Pliny the Younger rationalized gladiator spectacles as good for the people, "to inspire them to face honourable wounds and despise death, by exhibiting love of glory and desire for victory". Some Romans such as Seneca were critical of the brutal spectacles, but found virtue in the courage and dignity of the defeated fighter—an attitude that finds its fullest expression with the Christians martyred in the arena. Tertullian considered deaths in the arena to be nothing more than a dressed-up form of human sacrifice. Even martyr literature, however, offers "detailed, indeed luxuriant, descriptions of bodily suffering", and became a popular genre at times indistinguishable from fiction. Recreation The singular ludus, "play, game, sport, training", had a wide range of meanings such as "word play", "theatrical performance", "board game", "primary school", and even "gladiator training school" (as in Ludus Magnus). Activities for children and young people in the Empire included hoop rolling and knucklebones (astragali or "jacks"). Girls had dolls made of wood, terracotta, and especially bone and ivory. Ball games include trigon and harpastum. People of all ages played board games, including latrunculi ("Raiders") and XII scripta ("Twelve Marks"). A game referred to as alea (dice) or tabula (the board) may have been similar to backgammon. Dicing as a form of gambling was disapproved of, but was a popular pastime during the festival of the Saturnalia. After adolescence, most physical training for males was of a military nature. The Campus Martius originally was an exercise field where young men learned horsemanship and warfare. Hunting was also considered an appropriate pastime. According to Plutarch, conservative Romans disapproved of Greek-style athletics that promoted a fine body for its own sake, and condemned Nero's efforts to encourage Greek-style athletic games. Some women trained as gymnasts and dancers, and a rare few as female gladiators. The "Bikini Girls" mosaic shows young women engaging in routines comparable to rhythmic gymnastics. Women were encouraged to maintain health through activities such as playing ball, swimming, walking, or reading aloud (as a breathing exercise). Clothing In a status-conscious society like that of the Romans, clothing and personal adornment indicated the etiquette of interacting with the wearer. Wearing the correct clothing reflected a society in good order. There is little direct evidence of how Romans dressed in daily life, since portraiture may show the subject in clothing with symbolic value, and surviving textiles are rare. The toga was the distinctive national garment of the male citizen, but it was heavy and impractical, worn mainly for conducting political or court business and religious rites. It was a "vast expanse" of semi-circular white wool that could not be put on and draped correctly without assistance. The drapery became more intricate and structured over time. The toga praetexta, with a purple or purplish-red stripe representing inviolability, was worn by children who had not come of age, curule magistrates, and state priests. Only the emperor could wear an all-purple toga (toga picta). Ordinary clothing was dark or colourful. The basic garment for all Romans, regardless of gender or wealth, was the simple sleeved tunic, with length differing by wearer. The tunics of poor people and labouring slaves were made from coarse wool in natural, dull shades; finer tunics were made of lightweight wool or linen. A man of the senatorial or equestrian order wore a tunic with two purple stripes (clavi) woven vertically: the wider the stripe, the higher the wearer's status. Other garments could be layered over the tunic. Common male attire also included cloaks and in some regions trousers. In the 2nd century, emperors and elite men are often portrayed wearing the pallium, an originally Greek mantle; women are also portrayed in the pallium. Tertullian considered the pallium an appropriate garment both for Christians, in contrast to the toga, and for educated people. Roman clothing styles changed over time. In the Dominate, clothing worn by both soldiers and bureaucrats became highly decorated with geometrical patterns, stylized plant motifs, and in more elaborate examples, human or animal figures. Courtiers of the later Empire wore elaborate silk robes. The militarization of Roman society, and the waning of urban life, affected fashion: heavy military-style belts were worn by bureaucrats as well as soldiers, and the toga was abandoned, replaced by the pallium as a garment embodying social unity. Arts Greek art had a profound influence on Roman art. Public art—including sculpture, monuments such as victory columns or triumphal arches, and the iconography on coins—is often analysed for historical or ideological significance. In the private sphere, artistic objects were made for religious dedications, funerary commemoration, domestic use, and commerce. The wealthy advertised their appreciation of culture through artwork and decorative arts in their homes. Despite the value placed on art, even famous artists were of low social status, partly as they worked with their hands. Portraiture Portraiture, which survives mainly in sculpture, was the most copious form of imperial art. Portraits during the Augustan period utilize classical proportions, evolving later into a mixture of realism and idealism. Republican portraits were characterized by verism, but as early as the 2nd century BC, Greek heroic nudity was adopted for conquering generals. Imperial portrait sculptures may model a mature head atop a youthful nude or semi-nude body with perfect musculature. Clothed in the toga or military regalia, the body communicates rank or role, not individual characteristics. Portraiture in painting is represented primarily by the Fayum mummy portraits, which evoke Egyptian and Roman traditions of commemorating the dead with realistic painting. Marble portrait sculpture were painted, but traces have rarely survived. Sculpture and sarcophagi Examples of Roman sculpture survive abundantly, though often in damaged or fragmentary condition, including freestanding statuary in marble, bronze and terracotta, and reliefs from public buildings and monuments. Niches in amphitheatres were originally filled with statues, as were formal gardens. Temples housed cult images of deities, often by famed sculptors. Elaborately carved marble and limestone sarcophagi are characteristic of the 2nd to 4th centuries. Sarcophagus relief has been called the "richest single source of Roman iconography", depicting mythological scenes or Jewish/Christian imagery as well as the deceased's life. Painting Initial Roman painting drew from Etruscan and Greek models and techniques. Examples of Roman paintings can be found in palaces, catacombs and villas. Much of what is known of Roman painting is from the interior decoration of private homes, particularly as preserved by the eruption of Vesuvius. In addition to decorative borders and panels with geometric or vegetative motifs, wall painting depicts scenes from mythology and theatre, landscapes and gardens, spectacles, everyday life, and erotic art. Mosaic Mosaics are among the most enduring of Roman decorative arts, and are found on floors and other architectural features. The most common is the tessellated mosaic, formed from uniform pieces (tesserae) of materials such as stone and glass. Opus sectile is a related technique in which flat stone, usually coloured marble, is cut precisely into shapes from which geometric or figurative patterns are formed. This more difficult technique became especially popular for luxury surfaces in the 4th century (e.g. the Basilica of Junius Bassus). Figurative mosaics share many themes with painting, and in some cases use almost identical compositions. Geometric patterns and mythological scenes occur throughout the Empire. In North Africa, a particularly rich source of mosaics, homeowners often chose scenes of life on their estates, hunting, agriculture, and local wildlife. Plentiful and major examples of Roman mosaics come also from present-day Turkey (particularly the (Antioch mosaics), Italy, southern France, Spain, and Portugal. Decorative arts Decorative arts for luxury consumers included fine pottery, silver and bronze vessels and implements, and glassware. Pottery manufacturing was economically important, as were the glass and metalworking industries. Imports stimulated new regional centres of production. Southern Gaul became a leading producer of the finer red-gloss pottery (terra sigillata) that was a major trade good in 1st-century Europe. Glassblowing was regarded by the Romans as originating in Syria in the 1st century BC, and by the 3rd century, Egypt and the Rhineland had become noted for fine glass. Performing arts In Roman tradition, borrowed from the Greeks, literary theatre was performed by all-male troupes that used face masks with exaggerated facial expressions to portray emotion. Female roles were played by men in drag (travesti). Roman literary theatre tradition is represented in Latin literature by the tragedies of Seneca, for example. More popular than literary theatre was the genre-defying mimus theatre, which featured scripted scenarios with free improvisation, risqué language and sex scenes, action sequences, and political satire, along with dance, juggling, acrobatics, tightrope walking, striptease, and dancing bears. Unlike literary theatre, mimus was played without masks, and encouraged stylistic realism. Female roles were performed by women. Mimus was related to pantomimus, an early form of story ballet that contained no spoken dialogue but rather a sung libretto, often mythological, either tragic or comic. Although sometimes regarded as foreign, music and dance existed in Rome from earliest times. Music was customary at funerals, and the tibia, a woodwind instrument, was played at sacrifices. Song (carmen) was integral to almost every social occasion. Music was thought to reflect the orderliness of the cosmos. Various woodwinds and "brass" instruments were played, as were stringed instruments such as the cithara, and percussion. The cornu, a long tubular metal wind instrument, was used for military signals and on parade. These instruments spread throughout the provinces and are widely depicted in Roman art. The hydraulic pipe organ (hydraulis) was "one of the most significant technical and musical achievements of antiquity", and accompanied gladiator games and events in the amphitheatre. Although certain dances were seen at times as non-Roman or unmanly, dancing was embedded in religious rituals of archaic Rome. Ecstatic dancing was a feature of the mystery religions, particularly the cults of Cybele and Isis. In the secular realm, dancing girls from Syria and Cadiz were extremely popular. Like gladiators, entertainers were legally infames, technically free but little better than slaves. "Stars", however, could enjoy considerable wealth and celebrity, and mingled socially and often sexually with the elite. Performers supported each other by forming guilds, and several memorials for theatre members survive. Theatre and dance were often condemned by Christian polemicists in the later Empire. Literacy, books, and education Estimates of the average literacy rate range from 5 to over 30%. The Roman obsession with documents and inscriptions indicates the value placed on the written word. Laws and edicts were posted as well as read out. Illiterate Roman subjects could have a government scribe (scriba) read or write their official documents for them. The military produced extensive written records. The Babylonian Talmud declared "if all seas were ink, all reeds were pen, all skies parchment, and all men scribes, they would be unable to set down the full scope of the Roman government's concerns". Numeracy was necessary for commerce. Slaves were numerate and literate in significant numbers; some were highly educated. Graffiti and low-quality inscriptions with misspellings and solecisms indicate casual literacy among non-elites. The Romans had an extensive priestly archive, and inscriptions appear throughout the Empire in connection with votives dedicated by ordinary people, as well as "magic spells" (e.g. the Greek Magical Papyri). Books were expensive, since each copy had to be written out on a papyrus roll (volumen) by scribes. The codex—pages bound to a spine—was still a novelty in the 1st century, but by the end of the 3rd century was replacing the volumen. Commercial book production was established by the late Republic, and by the 1st century certain neighbourhoods of Rome and Western provincial cities were known for their bookshops. The quality of editing varied wildly, and plagiarism or forgery were common, since there was no copyright law. Collectors amassed personal libraries, and a fine library was part of the cultivated leisure (otium) associated with the villa lifestyle. Significant collections might attract "in-house" scholars, and an individual benefactor might endow a community with a library (as Pliny the Younger did in Comum). Imperial libraries were open to users on a limited basis, and represented a literary canon. Books considered subversive might be publicly burned, and Domitian crucified copyists for reproducing works deemed treasonous. Literary texts were often shared aloud at meals or with reading groups. Public readings (recitationes) expanded from the 1st through the 3rd century, giving rise to "consumer literature" for entertainment. Illustrated books, including erotica, were popular, but are poorly represented by extant fragments. Literacy began to decline during the Crisis of the Third Century. The emperor Julian banned Christians from teaching the classical curriculum, but the Church Fathers and other Christians adopted Latin and Greek literature, philosophy and science in biblical interpretation. As the Western Roman Empire declined, reading became rarer even for those within the Church hierarchy, although it continued in the Byzantine Empire. Education Traditional Roman education was moral and practical. Stories were meant to instil Roman values (mores maiorum). Parents were expected to act as role models, and working parents passed their skills to their children, who might also enter apprenticeships. Young children were attended by a pedagogue, usually a Greek slave or former slave, who kept the child safe, taught self-discipline and public behaviour, attended class and helped with tutoring. Formal education was available only to families who could pay for it; lack of state support contributed to low literacy. Primary education in reading, writing, and arithmetic might take place at home if parents hired or bought a teacher. Other children attended "public" schools organized by a schoolmaster (ludimagister) paid by parents. Vernae (homeborn slave children) might share in-home or public schooling. Boys and girls received primary education generally from ages 7 to 12, but classes were not segregated by grade or age. Most schools employed corporal punishment. For the socially ambitious, education in Greek as well as Latin was necessary. Schools became more numerous during the Empire, increasing educational opportunities. At the age of 14, upperclass males made their rite of passage into adulthood, and began to learn leadership roles through mentoring from a senior family member or family friend. Higher education was provided by grammatici or rhetores. The grammaticus or "grammarian" taught mainly Greek and Latin literature, with history, geography, philosophy or mathematics treated as explications of the text. With the rise of Augustus, contemporary Latin authors such as Virgil and Livy also became part of the curriculum. The rhetor was a teacher of oratory or public speaking. The art of speaking (ars dicendi) was highly prized, and eloquentia ("speaking ability, eloquence") was considered the "glue" of civilized society. Rhetoric was not so much a body of knowledge (though it required a command of the literary canon) as it was a mode of expression that distinguished those who held social power. The ancient model of rhetorical training—"restraint, coolness under pressure, modesty, and good humour"—endured into the 18th century as a Western educational ideal. In Latin, illiteratus could mean both "unable to read and write" and "lacking in cultural awareness or sophistication". Higher education promoted career advancement. Urban elites throughout the Empire shared a literary culture imbued with Greek educational ideals (paideia). Hellenistic cities sponsored schools of higher learning to express cultural achievement. Young Roman men often went abroad to study rhetoric and philosophy, mostly to Athens. The curriculum in the East was more likely to include music and physical training. On the Hellenistic model, Vespasian endowed chairs of grammar, Latin and Greek rhetoric, and philosophy at Rome, and gave secondary teachers special exemptions from taxes and legal penalties. In the Eastern Empire, Berytus (present-day Beirut) was unusual in offering a Latin education, and became famous for its school of Roman law. The cultural movement known as the Second Sophistic (1st–3rd century AD) promoted the assimilation of Greek and Roman social, educational, and esthetic values. Literate women ranged from cultured aristocrats to girls trained to be calligraphers and scribes. The ideal woman in Augustan love poetry was educated and well-versed in the arts. Education seems to have been standard for daughters of the senatorial and equestrian orders. An educated wife was an asset for the socially ambitious household. Literature Literature under Augustus, along with that of the Republic, has been viewed as the "Golden Age" of Latin literature, embodying classical ideals. The three most influential Classical Latin poets—Virgil, Horace, and Ovid—belong to this period. Virgil's Aeneid was a national epic in the manner of the Homeric epics of Greece. Horace perfected the use of Greek lyric metres in Latin verse. Ovid's erotic poetry was enormously popular, but ran afoul of Augustan morality, contributing to his exile. Ovid's Metamorphoses wove together Greco-Roman mythology; his versions of Greek myths became a primary source of later classical mythology, and his work was hugely influential on medieval literature. The early Principate produced satirists such as Persius and Juvenal. The mid-1st through mid-2nd century has conventionally been called the "Silver Age" of Latin literature. The three leading writers—Seneca, Lucan, and Petronius—committed suicide after incurring Nero's displeasure. Epigrammatist and social observer Martial and the epic poet Statius, whose poetry collection Silvae influenced Renaissance literature, wrote during the reign of Domitian. Other authors of the Silver Age included Pliny the Elder, author of the encyclopedic Natural History; his nephew, Pliny the Younger; and the historian Tacitus. The principal Latin prose author of the Augustan age is the historian Livy, whose account of Rome's founding became the most familiar version in modern-era literature. The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius is a primary source for imperial biography. Among Imperial historians who wrote in Greek are Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Josephus, and Cassius Dio. Other major Greek authors of the Empire include the biographer Plutarch, the geographer Strabo, and the rhetorician and satirist Lucian. From the 2nd to the 4th centuries, Christian authors were in active dialogue with the classical tradition. Tertullian was one of the earliest prose authors with a distinctly Christian voice. After the conversion of Constantine, Latin literature is dominated by the Christian perspective. In the late 4th century, Jerome produced the Latin translation of the Bible that became authoritative as the Vulgate. Around that same time, Augustine wrote The City of God against the Pagans, considered "a masterpiece of Western culture". In contrast to the unity of Classical Latin, the literary esthetic of late antiquity has a tessellated quality. A continuing interest in the religious traditions of Rome prior to Christian dominion is found into the 5th century, with the Saturnalia of Macrobius and The Marriage of Philology and Mercury of Martianus Capella. Latin poets of late antiquity include Ausonius, Prudentius, Claudian, and Sidonius Apollinaris. Religion The Romans thought of themselves as highly religious, and attributed their success to their collective piety (pietas) and good relations with the gods (pax deorum). The archaic religion believed to have come from the earliest kings of Rome was the foundation of the mos maiorum, "the way of the ancestors", central to Roman identity. Roman religion was practical and contractual, based on the principle of do ut des, "I give that you might give". Religion depended on knowledge and the correct practice of prayer, ritual, and sacrifice, not on faith or dogma, although Latin literature preserves learned speculation on the nature of the divine. For ordinary Romans, religion was a part of daily life. Each home had a household shrine to offer prayers and libations to the family's domestic deities. Neighbourhood shrines and sacred places such as springs and groves dotted the city. The Roman calendar was structured around religious observances; as many as 135 days were devoted to religious festivals and games (ludi). In the wake of the Republic's collapse, state religion adapted to support the new regime. Augustus justified one-man rule with a vast programme of religious revivalism and reform. Public vows now were directed at the wellbeing of the emperor. So-called "emperor worship" expanded on a grand scale the traditional veneration of the ancestral dead and of the Genius, the divine tutelary of every individual. Upon death, an emperor could be made a state divinity (divus) by vote of the Senate. The Roman imperial cult, influenced by Hellenistic ruler cult, became one of the major ways Rome advertised its presence in the provinces and cultivated shared cultural identity. Cultural precedent in the Eastern provinces facilitated a rapid dissemination of Imperial cult, extending as far as Najran, in present-day Saudi Arabia. Rejection of the state religion became tantamount to treason. The Romans are known for the great number of deities they honoured. As the Romans extended their territories, their general policy was to promote stability among diverse peoples by absorbing local deities and cults rather than eradicating them, building temples that framed local theology within Roman religion. Inscriptions throughout the Empire record the side-by-side worship of local and Roman deities, including dedications made by Romans to local gods. By the height of the Empire, numerous syncretic or reinterpreted gods were cultivated, among them cults of Cybele, Isis, Epona, and of solar gods such as Mithras and Sol Invictus, found as far north as Roman Britain. Because Romans had never been obligated to cultivate one god or cult only, religious tolerance was not an issue. Mystery religions, which offered initiates salvation in the afterlife, were a matter of personal choice, practiced in addition to one's family rites and public religion. The mysteries, however, involved exclusive oaths and secrecy, which conservative Romans viewed with suspicion as characteristic of "magic", conspiracy (coniuratio), and subversive activity. Thus, sporadic and sometimes brutal attempts were made to suppress religionists. In Gaul, the power of the druids was checked, first by forbidding Roman citizens to belong to the order, and then by banning druidism altogether. However, Celtic traditions were reinterpreted within the context of Imperial theology, and a new Gallo-Roman religion coalesced; its capital at the Sanctuary of the Three Gauls established precedent for Western cult as a form of Roman-provincial identity. The monotheistic rigour of Judaism posed difficulties for Roman policy that led at times to compromise and granting of special exemptions. Tertullian noted that Judaism, unlike Christianity, was considered a religio licita, "legitimate religion". The Jewish–Roman wars resulted from political as well as religious conflicts; the siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD led to the sacking of the temple and the dispersal of Jewish political power (see Jewish diaspora). Christianity emerged in Roman Judaea as a Jewish religious sect in the 1st century and gradually spread out of Jerusalem throughout the Empire and beyond. Imperially authorized persecutions were limited and sporadic, with martyrdoms occurring most often under the authority of local officials. Tacitus reports that after the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64, the emperor attempted to deflect blame from himself onto the Christians. A major persecution occurred under the emperor Domitian and a persecution in 177 took place at Lugdunum, the Gallo-Roman religious capital. A letter from Pliny the Younger, governor of Bithynia, describes his persecution and executions of Christians. The Decian persecution of 246–251 seriously threatened the Christian Church, but ultimately strengthened Christian defiance. Diocletian undertook the most severe persecution of Christians, from 303 to 311. From the 2nd century onward, the Church Fathers condemned the diverse religions practiced throughout the Empire as "pagan". In the early 4th century, Constantine I became the first emperor to convert to Christianity. He supported the Church financially and made laws that favored it, but the new religion was already successful, having moved from less than 50,000 to over a million adherents between 150 and 250. Constantine and his successors banned public sacrifice while tolerating other traditional practices. Constantine never engaged in a purge, there were no "pagan martyrs" during his reign, and people who had not converted to Christianity remained in important positions at court.: 302  Julian attempted to revive traditional public sacrifice and Hellenistic religion, but met Christian resistance and lack of popular support. Christians of the 4th century believed the conversion of Constantine showed that Christianity had triumphed over paganism (in Heaven) and little further action besides such rhetoric was necessary. Thus, their focus was heresy. According to Peter Brown, "In most areas, polytheists were not molested, and apart from a few ugly incidents of local violence, Jewish communities also enjoyed a century of stable, even privileged, existence".: 641–643  There were anti-pagan laws, but they were not generally enforced; through the 6th century, centers of paganism existed in Athens, Gaza, Alexandria, and elsewhere. According to recent Jewish scholarship, toleration of the Jews was maintained under Christian emperors. This did not extend to heretics: Theodosius I made multiple laws and acted against alternate forms of Christianity, and heretics were persecuted and killed by both the government and the church throughout Late Antiquity. Non-Christians were not persecuted until the 6th century. Rome's original religious hierarchy and ritual influenced Christian forms, and many pre-Christian practices survived in Christian festivals and local traditions. Legacy Several states claimed to be the Roman Empire's successor. The Holy Roman Empire was established in 800 when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne as Roman emperor. The Russian Tsardom, as inheritor of the Byzantine Empire's Orthodox Christian tradition, counted itself the Third Rome (Constantinople having been the second), in accordance with the concept of translatio imperii. The last Eastern Roman titular, Andreas Palaiologos, sold the title of Emperor of Constantinople to Charles VIII of France; upon Charles' death, Palaiologos reclaimed the title and on his death granted it to Ferdinand and Isabella and their successors, who never used it. When the Ottomans, who based their state on the Byzantine model, took Constantinople in 1453, Mehmed II established his capital there and claimed to sit on the throne of the Roman Empire. He even launched an invasion of Otranto with the purpose of re-uniting the Empire, which was aborted by his death. In the medieval West, "Roman" came to mean the church and the Catholic Pope. The Greek form Romaioi remained attached to the Greek-speaking Christian population of the Byzantine Empire and is still used by Greeks. The Roman Empire's control of the Italian Peninsula influenced Italian nationalism and the unification of Italy (Risorgimento) in 1861. In the United States, the founders were educated in the classical tradition, and used classical models for landmarks in Washington, D.C.. The founders saw Athenian democracy and Roman republicanism as models for the mixed constitution, but regarded the emperor as a figure of tyranny. See also Outline of ancient Rome List of political systems in France List of Roman dynasties Daqin ("Great Qin"), the ancient Chinese name for the Roman Empire; see also Sino-Roman relations Imperial Italy Byzantine Empire under the Justinian dynasty Notes References Citations Sources External links BBC: What the Romans Did for Us Roman Archaeological Sites Roman-Empire.net, learning resources and re-enactments The Historical Theater in the Year 400 AD, in Which Both Romans and Barbarians Resided Side by Side in the Eastern Part of the Roman Empire

Recognized great powers came about first in Europe during the post-Napoleonic era. The formalization of the division between small powers and great powers came with the signing of the Treaty of Chaumont in 1814. A great power is a nation or state that, through economic, political and military strength, is able to exert power and influence over not only its own region, but beyond to others. The historical terms "Great Nation", a distinguished aggregate of people inhabiting a particular country or territory, and "Great Empire", a considerable group of states or countries under a single supreme authority, are colloquial conversations (historical jargon). Ancient Western Asia Sumer and Akkad Sumer (or Šumer) was one of the early civilizations of the Ancient Near East, located in the southern part of Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) from the time of the earliest records in the mid 4th millennium BC until the rise of Babylonia in the late 3rd millennium BC. The term "Sumerian" applies to all speakers of the Sumerian language. Sumer (together with Ancient Egypt and the Indus Valley civilization) is considered the first settled society in the world to have manifested all the features needed to qualify fully as a "civilization", eventually expanding into the first empire in history, the Akkadian Empire. Hurrians The Hurrians refer to a people who inhabited northern Mesopotamia beginning approximately 2500 BC. The Hurrian kingdoms of the Ancient Near East was in Northern Mesopotamia and its people lived in the adjacent regions during the Bronze Age. The largest and most influential Hurrian nation was the kingdom of Mitanni. The population of the Hittite Empire in Anatolia to a large part consisted of Hurrians, and there is significant Hurrian influence in Hittite mythology. By the Early Iron Age, the Hurrians had been assimilated with other peoples, except perhaps in the kingdom of Urartu. The Hurrian peoples were not incredibly united, existing as quasi-feudal kingdoms. The kingdom of Mitanni was at its height towards the close of the 14th century BC. By the 13th century BC, the Hurrian kingdoms had been conquered by foreign powers, chiefly the Assyrians. Babylonia The profound political, social, and cultural influence imposed upon the Near East by the civilization known as the Ancient Babylonian Empire was the most pervasive in this historical period. The city itself, Babylon, positioned itself as a center of pivotal historical developments for centuries. There were 3 major Babylonian Dynasties: Amorite, Kassite, and Chaldean. This political entity was most predominate within the southern portion of Mesopotamia. It existed as an unremitting rival of the northern Assyrian Mesopotamians. Although it was assaulted and militarily overcome on several occasions, it did exist as a stalwart presence from the later 3rd millennium BC to the middle of the 6th century BC. After the fall of the Assyrian Empire in 612 BC, the Babylonian Empire was the most powerful state in the ancient world. Its capital, Babylon, was beautifully adorned by King Nebuchadnezzar, who erected several famous buildings. Even after the Babylonian Empire had been overthrown by the Persian king Cyrus the Great in 539 BC, the city itself remained an important cultural center. This period would be considered the zenith of Babylon's dominance in its two-and-a-half millennium history. Ancient Babylon was officially conquered by the Achaemenid Persian Empire in the late 6th century BC. Assyria In early times, the term Assyria referred to a region on the Upper Tigris river, named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur. Later, as a nation and empire that came to control all of the Fertile Crescent, Egypt and much of Anatolia, the term "Assyria proper" referred to roughly the northern half of Mesopotamia (the southern half being Babylonia), with Nineveh as its capital. The Assyrian homeland was located near a mountainous region, extending along the Tigris as far as the high Gordiaean or Carduchian mountain range of Armenia, sometimes known as the "Mountains of Ashur". The Assyrian kings controlled a large kingdom at three different times in history. These are called the Old, Middle, and Neo-Assyrian kingdoms, or periods. The most powerful and best-known nation of these periods is the Neo-Assyrian Empire, 934–609 BC. Shalmaneser III (858–823 BC) attacked and reduced Babylonia to vassalage, and defeated Aramea, Israel, Urartu, Phoenicia and the Neo-Hittite states, forcing all of these to pay tribute to Assyria. Shamshi-Adad V (822–811 BC) inherited an empire beset by civil war which he took most of his reign to quell. He was succeeded by Adad-nirari III who was merely a boy. The Empire was thus ruled by the famed queen Semiramis until 806 BC. In that year Adad-nirari III took the reins of power. After his premature death, Assyria failed to expand further during the reigns of Shalmaneser IV (782–773 BC), Ashur-dan III (772–755 BC) and Ashur-nirari V (754–746 BC). Under Ashurbanipal (669–627 BC) its domination spanned from the Caucasus Mountains in the north to Nubia, Egypt and Arabia in the south, and from Cyprus and Antioch in the west to Persia in the east. Ashurbanipal destroyed Elam and smashed a rebellion led by his own brother Shamash-shum-ukim who was the Assyrian king of Babylon, exacting savage revenge on the Chaldeans, Nabateans, Arabs and Elamites who had supported him. Persia and Media were regarded as vassals of Ashurbanipal. He built vast libraries and initiated a surge in the building of temples and palaces. Hittites The Hittites were an ancient people who spoke an Indo-European language, and established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia from the 18th century BC. In the 14th century BC, the Hittite Empire was at its height, encompassing central Anatolia, northwestern Syria as far as Ugarit, and upper Mesopotamia. After 1180 BC, the empire disintegrated into several independent "Neo-Hittite" city-states, some surviving until as late as the 8th century BC. The Hittites were also famous for their skill in building and using chariots, as the Battle of Kadesh demonstrated. The Hittites were pioneers of the Iron Age, manufacturing iron artifacts from as early as the 14th century BC, making them possibly even the first to do so. The Hittites passed much knowledge and lore from the Ancient Near East to the newly arrived Greeks in Europe. Hittite prosperity was mostly dependent on control of the trade routes and metal sources. Because of the importance of northern Syria to the vital routes linking the Cilician Gates with Mesopotamia, defense of this area was crucial, and was soon put to the test by Egyptian expansion under Pharaoh Rameses II. The outcome of the Battle of Kadesh is uncertain, though it seems that the timely arrival of Egyptian reinforcements prevented total Hittite victory. The Egyptians forced the Hittites to take refuge in the fortress of Kadesh, but their own losses prevented them from sustaining a siege. This battle took place in the fifth year of Rameses II (c. 1274 BC by the most commonly used chronology). Phoenicia Phoenicia was a major power over the Mediterranean between 1200 BC and 539 BC. This ancient Semitic thalassocratic civilization was situated on the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent and centered on the coastline of modern Lebanon. All major Phoenician cities were on the coastline of the Mediterranean, some colonies reaching the Western Mediterranean. It was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1550 BC to 300 BC. The Phoenicians used the galley, a man-powered sailing vessel, and are credited with the invention of the bireme. They were famed in Classical Greece and Rome as 'traders in purple', referring to their monopoly on the precious purple dye of the Murex snail, used, among other things, for royal clothing, and for the spread of their alphabets, from which almost all modern phonetic alphabets are derived. Carthaginian Empire The Carthaginian Empire, also known as the Carthaginian Republic (alternatively "Carthaginian hegemony", or simply "Carthage") was the Phoenician city-state of Carthage and its sphere of influence, which included much of the coast of North Africa as well as substantial parts of coastal Iberia and the islands of the western Mediterranean from 814 to 146 BC.Tunisia Ancient Iran Elam Elam was situated just to the east of Mesopotamia and was one of the oldest recorded civilizations. Elam was centered in the far west and southwest of modern-day Iran, stretching from the lowlands of Khuzestan and Ilam Province (which takes its name from Elam), as well as a small part of southern Iraq. In the Old Elamite period (Middle Bronze Age), Elam consisted of kingdoms on the Iranian plateau, centered in Anshan, and from the mid-2nd millennium BC, it was centered in Susa in the Khuzestan lowlands. Elam was part of the early cities of the Ancient Near East during the Chalcolithic (Copper Age). The emergence of written records from around 3000 BC also parallels Mesopotamian history where writing was used slightly earlier. Elamite strength was based on an ability to hold various areas together under a coordinated government that permitted the maximum interchange of the natural resources unique to each region. Traditionally, this was done through a federated governmental structure. Elamite culture played a crucial role in the Persian Empire, especially during the Achaemenid dynasty that succeeded it, when the Elamite language remained among those in official use. The Elamite language is generally treated as a language isolate. As such, the Elamite period is considered a starting point for the history of Iran. Medes The Median Empire was the first empire on the territory of Persia. By the 6th century BC, after having together with the Babylonians defeated the Neo-Assyrian Empire. In Greek references to "Median" people there is no clear distinction between the "Persians" and the "Medians"; in fact for a Greek to become "too closely associated with Iranian culture" was "to become medianized, not persianized". The Median kingdom was a short-lived Iranian state and the textual and archaeological sources of that period are rare and little could be known from the Median culture which nevertheless made a "profound, and lasting, contribution to the greater world of Iranian culture". The Medes were able to establish their own empire, the largest of its day, lasting for about sixty years, from the sack of Nineveh in 612 BC until 549 BC when Cyrus the Great established the Achaemenid Empire by defeating his overlord and grandfather, Astyages, king of Media. Achaemenid Empire 550 BC–330 BC The Achaemenid Empire was the first of the Persian Empires to become a world empire. At the height of its power, the Empire spanned over three continents, namely Europe, Asia, and Africa, and was the most powerful empire of its time. It also eventually, either quickly in its earliest days or steadily over time, incorporated the following territories: in the north and west all of Asia Minor (modern Turkey), parts of the Balkan peninsula - Thrace, Macedon and Paeonia, and most of the Black Sea coastal regions or present day southern and eastern Bulgaria, northern Greece, and Macedonia; in the west and southwest the territories of modern Iraq, northern Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, all significant population centers of ancient Egypt and as far west as portions of Libya; in the east modern Afghanistan and beyond into central Asia, and parts of Pakistan. Encompassing approximately 5.5 million square kilometers at its height in 500 BC, the Achaemenid Empire was territorially the largest empire of antiquity. In its time it had political power over neighboring countries, and had high cultural and economic achievements during its lengthy rule over a vast region from its picturesque capital at Persepolis. Alexander the Great (Alexander III of Macedon) defeated the Persian armies at Granicus (334 BC), followed by Issus (333 BC), and lastly at Gaugamela (331 BC). Afterwards, he marched on Susa and Persepolis which surrendered in early 330 BC. From Persepolis, Alexander headed north to Pasargadae where he visited the tomb of Cyrus the Great. Armenia Great Armenia 331 BC–428 AD The Kingdom of Armenia was one of the first Armenian Empires. At the height of its power, the Empire spanned over many parts of countries, namely the modern-day countries of Turkey, Iran, Syria and Lebanon. The Kingdom of Armenia has three distinct dynasties - the Orontid dynasty, the Artaxiad dynasty, and the Arsacid dynasty of Armenia. During the reign of the Orontid dynasty, Armenia became independent from the Achaemenids. During the reign of the Artaxiad dynasty, Armenia has reached the peak of its power. During the reign of the Arsacid dynasty, Armenia became the first country in the world to adopt Christianity as an official religion. In 387, the Kingdom of Armenia was split between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Sassanid Empire. Western Armenia first became a province of the Roman Empire under the name of Armenia Minor, and later Byzantine Armenia; Eastern Armenia remained a kingdom within Persia until, in 428, the local nobility overthrew the king, and the Sassanids installed a marzban (governor) in his place, beginning the Marzpanate period over Persian Armenia. Iran Parthian Empire The Parthian Empire was the third Iranian Empire. At the height of its power, the empire ruled most of Greater Iran, Mesopotamia and Armenia. But unlike most other Iranian monarchies, the Parthian followed a vassal system, which they adopted from the Seleucids. The Arsacid culture was not a single coherent state, but instead made up of numerous tributary (but otherwise independent) kingdoms. The Parthians largely adopted the art, architecture, religious beliefs, and royal insignia of their culturally heterogeneous empire, which encompassed Persian, Hellenistic, and regional cultures. For about the first half of its existence, the Arsacid court adopted elements of Greek culture, though it eventually saw a gradual revival of Iranian traditions. The Arsacid rulers were titled the 'King of Kings', as a claim to be the heirs to the Achaemenid Empire; indeed, they accepted many local kings as vassals where the Achaemenids would have had centrally appointed, albeit largely autonomous, satraps. The court did appoint a small number of satraps, largely outside Iran, but these satrapies were smaller and less powerful than the Achaemenid potentates. With the expansion of Arsacid power, the seat of central government shifted from Nisa, Turkmenistan to Ctesiphon along the Tigris (south of modern Baghdad, Iraq), although several other sites also served as capitals. Although the Parthian Arsacids made way for a new Iranian dynasty, the Arsacid family continued to exist through the Arsacid dynasty of Armenia, the Arsacid dynasty of Iberia, and the Arsacid Dynasty of Caucasian Albania; all eponymous branches of the Parthian Arsacids. Sasanian Empire The Sasanian Empire is the name used for the fourth Iranian dynasty, and the second Persian Empire (226–651). The empire's territory encompassed all of today's Iran, Iraq, Armenia, Afghanistan, eastern parts of Turkey, and parts of Syria, Pakistan, and large parts of Caucasia, Central Asia and Arabia. During Khosrow II's rule in 590–628 Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon were also briefly annexed to the Empire, as well as far west as western Asia Minor. The Sassanid era, encompassing the length of the Late Antiquity period, is considered to be one of the most important and influential historical periods in Iran. In many ways the Sassanid period witnessed the highest achievement of Persian civilization. The empire is furthermore known for being the arch-rival of the neighboring Roman–Byzantine Empire for a period of over 400 years. As the Parthians were replaced by the Sassanids, they carried on the already century long lasting Roman–Persian Wars, which would eventually become the longest conflict in human history. The empire constituted the last great Iranian Empire before the Muslim conquest and adoption of Islam. The climactic Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 had drastically exhausted both the Byzantines as well as the Sassanids, laying the way open for an easy conquest. The Sassanids, heavily weakened, never mounted a truly effective resistance to the pressure applied by the initial Arab armies. Ctesiphon fell after a prolonged siege. Yazdegerd fled eastward from Ctesiphon, leaving behind him most of the Empire's vast treasury. The Arabs captured Ctesiphon shortly afterward, leaving the Sassanid government strapped for funds and acquiring a powerful financial resource for their own use. A number of Sassanid governors attempted to combine their forces to throw back the invaders, but the effort was crippled by the lack of a strong central authority, and the governors were defeated at the Battle of Nihawānd. The empire, with its military command structure non-existent, its non-noble troop levies decimated, its financial resources effectively destroyed, and the Asawaran knightly caste destroyed piecemeal, was utterly helpless in the face of the invaders. Upon hearing the defeat, Persian nobilities fled further inland to the eastern province of Khorasan. Ancient Africa Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt was one of the world's first civilizations, with its beginnings in the fertile Nile valley around 3150 BC. Ancient Egypt reached the zenith of its power during the New Kingdom (1570–1070 BC) under great pharaohs. Ancient Egypt was a great power to be contended with by both the ancient Near East, the Mediterranean and sub-Saharan Africa. The empire expanded far south into Nubia and held wide territories across the ancient Near East. The combination of a fertile river valley, natural borders that made an invasion unfeasible, and a military able to rise to the challenge when needed, turned Egypt into a major power. It was one of the first nations to have a system of writing and large scale construction projects. However, as neighboring civilizations developed militaries capable of crossing Egypt's natural barriers, the Egyptian armies were not always able to repel them and so by 1000 BC Egyptian influence as an independent civilization waned. Early Dynastic Period The Archaic or Early Dynastic Period of Egypt is the era immediately following the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt c. 3100 BC. It is generally taken to include the First and Second Dynasties, lasting from the end of the Naqada III archaeological period until about 2686 BC, or the beginning of the Old Kingdom. With the First Dynasty, the capital moved from Thinis to Memphis with a unified Egypt ruled by an Egyptian god-king. Abydos remained the major holy land in the south. The hallmarks of ancient Egyptian civilization, such as art, architecture and many aspects of religion, took shape during the Early Dynastic period. During the Early Dynastic period, the pharaohs established the earliest Central Government in the world. Old Kingdom The Old Kingdom is the period spanning c. 2686–2181 BC. It is also known as the "Age of the Pyramids" or the "Age of the Pyramid Builders", as it encompasses the reigns of the great pyramid builders of the Fourth Dynasty—King Sneferu perfected the art of pyramid-building and the pyramids of Giza were constructed under the kings Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure. Egypt attained its first sustained peak of civilization—the first of three so-called "Kingdom" periods (followed by the Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom) which mark the high points of civilization in the lower Nile Valley. During the Old Kingdom, the pyramid building in ancient Egypt began during the Third Dynasty under the rule of king Djoser when he built the Step Pyramid of Djoser (Egypt's first Pyramid) and peaked during Fourth Dynasty during the construction of the Giza Pyramids. During the Fifth Dynasty the pyramid building declined in Egypt. The Pyramid Texts, the oldest ritual texts from ancient Egypt first appeared in the late fifth Dynasty. Middle Kingdom The Middle Kingdom of Egypt (also known as "The Period of Reunification") is the period in the history of ancient Egypt following a period of political division known as the First Intermediate Period. The Middle Kingdom lasted from around 2050 BC to around 1710 BC, stretching from the reunification of Egypt under the reign of Mentuhotep II of the Eleventh Dynasty to the end of the Twelfth Dynasty. The Eleventh Dynasty ruled from Thebes and the Twelfth Dynasty ruled from el-Lisht. The middle kingdom reached its peak under the pharaohs Senusret III and Amenemhat III. Senusret III was a great pharaoh of the Twelfth Dynasty and is considered to be the greatest pharaoh in the middle kingdom. However, The reign of Amenemhat III was the height of Middle Kingdom economic prosperity. His reign is remarkable for the degree to which Egypt exploited its resources. New Kingdom Core Regions Territorial control The New Kingdom began around 1550 B.C when king Ahmose I became the king of Egypt, defeated the Hyksos and reunified Egypt. The pharaohs of the new kingdom established a period of unprecedented prosperity by securing their borders and strengthening diplomatic ties with their neighbors. Military campaigns waged under Tuthmosis I and his grandson Tuthmosis III extended the influence of the pharaohs to the largest empire Egypt had ever seen. Tuthmosis III is recorded to have captured 350 cities during his rule and conquered much of the Near East from the Euphrates to Nubia during seventeen known military campaigns. During the reign of Amenhotep III, Egypt entered a period of unprecedented prosperity and artistic splendour, Egypt reached the peak of its artistic and international power in his reign. Amenhotep IV ascended the throne and instituted a series of radical and chaotic reforms. Changing his name to Akhenaten, he touted the god Aten as the supreme deity, suppressed the worship of other deities, and attacked the power of the priestly establishment. Moving the capital to the new city of Akhetaten, he turned a deaf ear to foreign affairs and absorbed himself in his new religion and artistic style. After his death, the religion of the Aten was quickly abandoned, and the subsequent pharaohs erased all mention of Akhenaten's Egyptian heresy, now known as the Amarna Period. Ramesses the Great ascended the throne, and went on to build more temples, erect more statues and obelisks, and sire more children than any other pharaoh in history. One of the greatest construction projects conducted by Ramesses was the city of Pi-Ramesses. The city covered an area of 18 km2 (as big as Rome). At its peak, The city was home to a population of 160,000-300,000. This would make Pi-Ramesses 2-4 times bigger than Yinxu (Second largest city at that time). Ramesses led his army against the Hittites in the Battle of Kadesh and, after fighting to a stalemate, finally agreed to the first recorded peace treaty. Egypt's wealth, however, made it a tempting target for invasion, particularly by the Libyans and the Sea Peoples. Initially, the military was able to repel these invasions during the reign of Ramesses III, but Egypt eventually lost control of Syria and Palestine. The impact of external threats was exacerbated by internal problems such as corruption, tomb robbery and civil unrest. The high priests at the temple of Amun in Thebes accumulated vast tracts of land and wealth, and their growing power splintered the country during the Third Intermediate Period. Third Intermediate Period The Third Intermediate Period of Ancient Egypt began with the death of Pharaoh Ramesses XI in 1070 BC, ending the New Kingdom, and was eventually followed by the Late Period. Various points are offered as the beginning for the latter era, though it is most often regarded as dating from the foundation of the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty by Psamtik I in 664 BC. The first Dynasty of the Ancient Egyptian Third Intermediate Period is the Twenty-first Dynasty. Its first ruler is king Smendes who ruled only in Lower Egypt. The most powerful pharaohs of the Twenty-first dynasty were psusennes I and Siamun who built extensively compared to the other pharaohs of the dynasty. The Pharaohs of the Twenty-first Dynasty transported all the old Ramesside temples, obelisks, stelae, statues and sphinxes from Pi-Ramesses to the new capital Tanis. The obelisks and statues, the largest weighing over 200 tons, were transported in one piece while major buildings were dismantled into sections and reassembled at Tanis. The country was firmly reunited by the Twenty-Second Dynasty founded by Shoshenq I in 945 BC (or 943 BC), who descended from Meshwesh immigrants, originally from Ancient Libya. Upon unifying Egypt, king Shoshenq I started campaigning in the Levante . This brought stability to the country for well over a century and made Egypt a superpower again, but after the reign of Osorkon II, particularly, the country had effectively split into two states, with Shoshenq III of the Twenty-Second Dynasty controlling Lower Egypt by 818 BC while Takelot II and his son Osorkon (the future Osorkon III) ruled Middle and Upper Egypt. Late Period The Late Period of ancient Egypt refers to the last flowering of native Egyptian rulers after the Third Intermediate Period beginning with the 26th Saite Dynasty founded by Psamtik I. The 26th Dynasty of Egypt managed to regain Egypt's power for a short time before the Achaemenid conquest of Egypt lad by Cambyses II in 525 BC. However, the Egyptians managed to gain independence from the Persians during a rebellion led by the rebel Pharaoh Amyrtaeus around 404 B.C who established the Twenty-eighth Dynasty of Egypt. Egypt remained independent during the Twenty-ninth Dynasty and Thirtieth Dynasty until the Persians invaded it again in 343 B.C. During that time, the Egyptians managed to repel several attacks from the Achaemenid Empire. The most famous attack of them occurred in around 351 BC, when Artaxerxes III embarked on a campaign to recover Egypt, which had revolted under his father, Artaxerxes II. Levying a vast army, Artaxerxes marched into Egypt, and engaged Nectanebo II the founder of the Thirtieth Dynasty of Egypt. After a year of fighting the Egyptian Pharaoh, Nectanebo inflicted a crushing defeat on the Persians with the support of mercenaries led by the Greek generals Diophantus and Lamius. Artaxerxes successfully reconquered Egypt in 340 or 339 B.C. The Late period of ancient Egypt ends when Alexander the Great took Egypt from the Persians without war around 332 B.C. Legacy The many achievements of the ancient Egyptians include the quarrying, surveying and construction techniques that facilitated the building of monumental pyramids, temples, and obelisks; a system of mathematics, a practical and effective system of medicine, irrigation systems and agricultural production techniques, the first known ships, Egyptian faience and glass technology, new forms of literature, and the earliest known peace treaty. Egypt left a lasting legacy. Its art and architecture were widely copied, and its antiquities carried off to far corners of the world. Its monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of travellers and writers for centuries. A new-found respect for antiquities and excavations in the early modern period led to the scientific investigation of Egyptian civilization and a greater appreciation of its cultural legacy, for Egypt and the world. Kerma The Kerma culture was an early civilization which flourished from around 2500 BC to about 1600 BC in Nubia, present day Sudan, centered at Kerma. It seems to have been one of a number of Sudanese states during the Middle Kingdom period of Ancient Egypt. In its latest phase, lasting from about 1700–1500 BC, it absorbed the Sudanese kingdom of Sai and became a sizable, populous empire rivaling Egypt. Around 1500 BC, it was absorbed into the Egyptian Empire, but rebellions continued for centuries. By the 11th century BC, the more 'Egyptianized' Kingdom of Kush emerged, apparently from Kerma, and regained the region's independence from Egypt. Kush The Kingdom of Kush was the earliest of the Subsaharan states in Africa as well as the first to implement iron weapons. It was heavily influenced by Egyptian colonists, but in 1070 BC it became not only independent of Egypt but a fierce rival. It successfully fought off attempts by Egypt to reconquer it, and it began to extend influence over Upper Egypt. By the end of King Kashta's reign in 752 BC, Thebes was under Kushite control. A slew of able successors took the rest of Egypt and reigned as the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt stretching Kushite control from central Sudan to modern-day Israel. The Kushites did not maintain this empire for long and were beaten back by the Assyrians in 653 BC. However, Kush remained a powerful entity in the region. It continued to meddle in Egyptian affairs and control trade resources originating in Subsaharan Africa. It waged a hard-fought campaign against the Roman Empire (27 BC - 22 BC) under the leadership of Queen Amanirenas, and achieved a more than amicable peace with the young Augustus Caesar. The two states worked as allies, with Kush lending cavalry support to Rome in its conquest of Jerusalem in 70 AD. The kingdom of Kush maintained its status as a regional power until its conquest by the Aksumite Empire in 350. Macrobia The Macrobians were an ancient people and kingdom situated in the Horn of Africa (Somalia) around the 1st millennium BC. According to Herodotus, the Macrobians practiced an elaborate form of embalming. This, in turn, suggested a knowledge on their part of anatomy and, at the very least, a grasp of the basics of chemistry. The Macrobians preserved the bodies of the dead by first extracting moisture from the corpses, then overlaying the bodies with a type of plaster, and finally decorating the exterior in vivid colors in order to imitate the deceased as realistically as possible. They then placed the body in a hollow crystal pillar, which they kept in their homes for a period of about a year. Macrobia was also noted for its gold, which was so plentiful that the Macrobians shackled their prisoners in golden chains. The Ancient city-states located in northern Somalia, had a steady trade link with the Ancient Egyptians and exported precious natural resources such as myrrh, frankincense and gum. This trade network continued all the way into the classical era. The city states of Mossylon, Malao, Mundus and Tabae in Somalia engaged in a lucrative trade network connecting Somali merchants with Phoenicia, Ptolemaic Egypt, Greece, Parthian Persia, Saba, Nabataea and the Roman Empire. Somali sailors used the ancient Somali maritime vessel known as the 'beden' to transport their cargo. Kingdom of Aksum The Kingdom of Aksum was an important trading nation originating from Northern Ethiopia in northeastern Africa, growing from the proto-Aksumite period ca. 4th century BC to achieve prominence by the 1st century AD. It was a major player in the commerce between the Roman Empire and Ancient India and the Aksumite rulers facilitated trade by minting their own currency. The state established its hegemony over the declining Kingdom of Kush and regularly entered the politics of the kingdoms on the Arabian peninsula, and would eventually extend its rule over the region with the conquest of the Himyarite Kingdom. At its peak it controlled Much of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia. It was considered by historians as one of the most powerful military powers in the world. Ancient India Several Indian empires including Maurya Empire and Gupta Empire were able to expand across southern Asia, incorporating much of the region, as well as beyond. The subcontinent was conquered by the Mauryan Empire during the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. Various parts of India was ruled by numerous Middle kingdoms for the next 1,500 years, among which the Gupta Empire united India in the 4th and 5th century CE . Southern India saw the rule of the Chalukyas, Cholas, Pallavas, Pandyas and Cheras. This period, witnessing a Hindu religious and intellectual resurgence, is known as the classical or "Golden Age of India". During this period, aspects of Indian civilisation, administration, culture, and religion (Hinduism and Buddhism) spread to much of Asia, while kingdoms in Southern India had maritime business links with the Roman Empire from around 77 AD. Maurya Empire The Mauryan Empire was the first political entity to unite India and expand into Central Asia. Its cultural influence also extended west into Egypt and Syria, and east into Thailand, China and Burma. The Empire was founded in 322 BC by Chandragupta Maurya. Chandragupta waged a war against the nearby Greek powers and won, forcing the Greeks to surrender large amounts of land. Under the reign of Ashoka the Great, the empire turned to spreading its soft power in the form of Buddhism. The Empire was divided into four provinces, which one of the four, look like a giant crescents. with the imperial capital at Pataliputra. From Ashokan edicts, the names of the four provincial capitals are Tosali (in the east), Ujjain in the west, Suvarnagiri (in the south), and Taxila (in the north). The head of the provincial administration was the Kumara (royal prince), who governed the provinces as king's representative. The kumara was assisted by Mahamatyas and council of ministers. This organizational structure was reflected at the imperial level with the Emperor and his Mantriparishad (Council of Ministers). Historians theorize that the organization of the Empire was in line with the extensive bureaucracy described by Kautilya in the Arthashastra: a sophisticated civil service governed everything from municipal hygiene to international trade. According to Megasthenes, the empire wielded a military of 600,000 infantry, 30,000 cavalry, and 9,000 war elephants. A vast espionage system collected intelligence for both internal and external security purposes. Having renounced offensive warfare and expansionism, Ashoka nevertheless continued to maintain this large army, to protect the Empire and instill stability and peace across South Asia. Chola Empire The Chola dynasty ruled parts of southern India. The Indian dynasty which was one of the longest-ruling dynasties in southern India. The earliest datable references to this Indian dynasty are in inscriptions from the 3rd century BC left by Ashoka the Great, of Maurya Empire; as one of the Three Crowned Kings, the dynasty continued to govern over varying territory until the 13th century AD. By the 9th century, under Rajaraja Chola and his son Rajendra Chola, the Cholas rose as a notable power in south Asia. The Chola Empire stretched as far as Bengal. At its peak, the empire spanned almost 3,600,000 km2 (1,400,000 sq mi). Rajaraja Chola conquered all of peninsular South India and parts of the Sri Lanka. Rajendra Chola's navies went even further, occupying coasts from Burma (now Myanmar) to Vietnam, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Sumatra, Java, Malaya in South East Asia and Pegu islands. He defeated Mahipala, the king of the Bengal, and to commemorate his victory he built a new capital and named it Gangaikonda Cholapuram. The heartland of the Cholas was the fertile valley of the Kaveri River, but they ruled a significantly larger area at the height of their power from the later half of the 9th century till the beginning of the 13th century. The whole country south of the Tungabhadra was united and held as one state for a period of two centuries and more. Under Rajaraja Chola I and his son Rajendra Chola I, the dynasty became a military, economic and cultural power in South Asia and South-east Asia. The power of the new empire was proclaimed to the eastern world by the celebrated expedition to the Ganges which Rajendra Chola I undertook and by the overthrow after an unprecedented naval war of the maritime empire of Srivijaya, as well as by the repeated embassies to China. During the period 1010–1200, the Chola territories stretched from the islands of the Maldives in the south to as far north as the banks of the Godavari River in Andhra Pradesh. Rajaraja Chola conquered peninsular Southern India, annexed parts of what is now Sri Lanka and occupied the islands of the Maldives. Rajendra Chola sent a victorious expedition to Northern India that touched the river Ganges and defeated the Pala ruler of Pataliputra, Mahipala. He also successfully invaded kingdoms of the Malay Archipelago. The Chola dynasty went into decline at the beginning of the 13th century with the rise of the Pandyas, who ultimately caused their downfall. The Cholas left a lasting legacy. Their patronage of Tamil literature and their zeal in building temples has resulted in some great works of Tamil literature and architecture. The Chola kings were avid builders and envisioned the temples in their kingdoms not only as places of worship but also as centres of economic activity. They pioneered a centralised form of government and established a disciplined bureaucracy. Gupta Empire In the 4th and 5th centuries, the Gupta Empire unified India. This period is called the Golden Age of India and was marked by extensive achievements in science, technology, engineering, art, dialectic, literature, logic, mathematics, astronomy, religion and philosophy that crystallized the elements of what is generally known as Indian culture. Chandragupta I, Samudragupta, and Chandragupta II were the most notable rulers of the Gupta dynasty. The high points of this cultural creativity are magnificent architectures, sculptures and paintings. The Gupta period produced scholars such as Kalidasa, Aryabhata, Varahamihira, Vishnu Sharma, and Vatsyayana who made great advancements in many academic fields. Science and political administration reached new heights during the Gupta era. Strong trade ties also made the region an important cultural center and set the region up as a base that would influence nearby kingdoms and regions in Burma, Sri Lanka, Indonesian Archipelago and Indochina. Ancient China Shang dynasty The Shang dynasty (Chinese: 商朝; pinyin: Shāng cháo) or Yin dynasty (Chinese: 殷代; pinyin: Yīn dài), according to traditional historiography, ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, succeeding the Xia dynasty and followed by the Zhou dynasty. The classic account of the Shang comes from texts such as the Classic of History, Bamboo Annals and Records of the Grand Historian. According to the traditional chronology based upon calculations made approximately 2,000 years ago by Liu Xin, the Shang ruled from 1766 BC to 1122 BC, but according to the chronology based upon the "current text" of Bamboo Annals, they ruled from 1556 BC to 1046 BC. The Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project dated them from c. 1600 BC to 1046 BC. At its peak 1122 BC it covered an area of 1,250,000 km2. Zhou dynasty The Zhou dynasty (c. 1046–256 BC; Chinese: 周朝; pinyin: Zhōu Cháo; Wade–Giles: Chou1 Ch'ao2 [tʂóʊ tʂʰɑ̌ʊ]) was a Chinese dynasty that followed the Shang dynasty and preceded the Qin dynasty. Although the Zhou dynasty lasted longer than any other dynasty in Chinese history, the actual political and military control of China by the dynasty, surnamed Ji (Chinese: 姬), lasted only until 771 BC, a period known as the Western Zhou. This period of Chinese history produced what many consider the zenith of Chinese bronze-ware making. The dynasty also spans the period in which the written script evolved into its modern form with the use of an archaic clerical script that emerged during the late Warring States period. Qin dynasty The Qin dynasty was preceded by the feudal Zhou dynasty and followed by the Han dynasty in China. The unification of China in 221 BC under the First Emperor Qin Shi Huang marked the beginning of Imperial China, a period which lasted until the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1912. In 214 BC Qin Shihuang secured his boundaries to the north with a fraction (100,000 men) of his large army, and sent the majority (500,000 men) south to seize still more land. Prior to the events leading to Qin dominance over China, they had gained possession of much of Sichuan to the southwest. The Qin army was unfamiliar with the jungle terrain, and it was defeated by the southern tribes' guerrilla warfare tactics with over 100,000 men lost. However, in the defeat Qin was successful in building a canal to the south, which they used heavily for supplying and reinforcing their troops during their second attack to the south. Building on these gains, the Qin armies conquered the coastal lands surrounding Guangzhou, and took the provinces of Fuzhou and Guilin. They struck as far south as Hanoi. After these victories in the south, Qin Shihuang moved over 100,000 prisoners and exiles to colonize the newly conquered area. In terms of extending the boundaries of his empire, the First Emperor was extremely successful in the south. Despite its military strength, the Qin dynasty did not last long. When the first emperor died in 210 BC, his son was placed on the throne by two of the previous emperor's advisers, in an attempt to influence and control the administration of the entire country through him. The advisors squabbled among themselves, however, which resulted in both their deaths and that of the second Qin emperor. Popular revolt broke out a few years later, and the weakened empire soon fell to a Chu lieutenant, who went on to found the Han dynasty. Despite its rapid end, the Qin dynasty influenced future Chinese regimes, particularly the Han, and the European name for China is derived from it. Han dynasty The Han dynasty (202 BC – AD 220), lasting 400 years, is commonly considered within China to be one of the greatest periods in the history of China. At its height, the Han empire extended over a vast territory of 6 million km2 and housed a population of approximately 55 million. During this time period, China became a military, economic, and cultural powerhouse. The empire extended its political and cultural influence over Korea, Japan, Mongolia, Vietnam, and Central Asia before it finally collapsed under a combination of domestic and external pressures. The Han Empire was divided into areas directly controlled by the central government, known as commanderies, and a number of semi-autonomous kingdoms. These kingdoms gradually lost all vestiges of their independence, particularly following the Rebellion of the Seven States. The Xiongnu, a nomadic confederation which dominated the eastern Eurasian Steppe, defeated the Han army in battle in 200 BC. Following the defeat, a political marriage alliance was negotiated in which the Han became the de facto inferior partner. When, despite the treaty, the Xiongnu continued to raid Han borders, Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141–87 BC) launched several military campaigns against them. The ultimate Han victory in these wars eventually forced the Xiongnu to accept vassal status as Han tributaries. These campaigns expanded Han sovereignty into the Tarim Basin of Central Asia and helped establish the vast trade network known as the Silk Road, which reached as far as the Mediterranean world. Han forces managed to divide the Xiongnu into two competing nations, the Southern and Northern Xiongnu, and forced the Northern Xiongnu across the Ili River. Despite these victories, the territories north of Han's borders were quickly overrun by the nomadic Xianbei confederation. Jin dynasty The Jin dynasty (simplified Chinese: 晋朝; traditional Chinese: 晉朝; pinyin: Jìn Cháo; Wade–Giles: Chin⁴-ch'ao², IPA: [tɕîn tʂʰɑ̌ʊ];), was a dynasty in Chinese history, lasting between the years 265 and 420 AD. There are two main divisions in the history of the dynasty, the first being Western Jin (西晉, 265–316) and the second Eastern Jin (東晉, 317–420). Western Jin was founded by Sima Yan, with its capital at Luoyang, while Eastern Jin was begun by Sima Rui, with its capital at Jiankang. The two periods are also known as Liang Jin (兩晉; literally: two Jin) and Sima Jin (司馬晉) by scholars, to distinguish this dynasty from other dynasties that use the same Chinese character, such as the Later Jin dynasty (後晉). Ancient Europe Ancient Greece Ancient Greece is the civilization belonging to the period of Greek history lasting from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to 146 BC and the Roman conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth. At the center of this time period is Classical Greece, which flourished during the 5th to 4th centuries BC, at first under Athenian leadership successfully repelling the military threat of Persian invasion. The Athenian Golden Age ends with the defeat of Athens at the hands of Sparta in the Peloponnesian War in 404 BC. Following the conquests of Alexander the Great, Hellenistic civilization flourished from Central Asia to the western end of the Mediterranean Sea. Classical Greek culture had a powerful influence on the Roman Empire, which carried a version of it to many parts of the Mediterranean region and Europe, for which reason Classical Greece is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the foundation of Western civilization. Athens, after a tyranny in the second half of the 6th century, established ancient Europe's first democracy as a radical solution to prevent the aristocracy from regaining power. A citizens' assembly (the Ecclesia), for the discussion of city policy, had existed since the reforms of Draco; all citizens were permitted to attend after the reforms of Solon, but the poorest citizens could not address the assembly or run for office. With the establishment of the democracy, the assembly became the de jure mechanism of government; all citizens had equal privileges in the assembly. However, non-citizens, foreigners living in Athens, slaves and women had no political rights at all. After the rise of the democracy in Athens, other city-states founded democracies. However, many retained more traditional forms of government. As so often in other matters, Sparta was a notable exception to the rest of Greece, ruled through the whole period by not one, but two hereditary monarchs. This was a form of diarchy. Athens Ancient Athens was inhabited around 3,000 years ago. Athens has one of the longest histories of any city in Europe and in the world. It became the leading city of Ancient Greece in the first millennium BC. Its cultural achievements during the 5th century BC laid the foundations of western civilization. During the Middle Ages, Athens experienced decline and then a recovery under the Byzantine Empire. Athens was relatively prosperous during the Crusades, benefiting from medieval Italian trade. Fifth-century Athens refers to the Greek city-state Athens in the period of roughly 480 BC-404 BC. This was a period of Athenian political hegemony, economic growth and cultural flourishing known as the Golden Age of Athens or Age of Pericles. The period began in 480 BC when an Athenian-led coalition of city-states, known as the Delian League, defeated the Persians at Salamis. As the fifth century wore on, what started as an alliance of independent city-states gradually became an Athenian empire. Eventually, Athens abandoned the pretense of parity among its allies and relocated the Delian League treasury from Delos to Athens, where it funded the building of the Athenian Acropolis. With its enemies under its feet and its political fortunes guided by legendary statesman and orator Pericles, Athens as a center of literature, philosophy (see Greek philosophy) and the arts (see Greek theatre). Some of the most important figures of Western cultural and intellectual history lived in Athens during this period: the dramatists Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Euripides and Sophocles, the philosophers Aristotle, Plato and Socrates. Sparta Sparta was a Dorian Greek military state, originally centered in Laconia. As a city-state devoted to military training, Sparta possessed the most formidable army in the Greek world, and after achieving notable victories over the Athenian and Persian Empires, regarded itself as the natural protector of Greece. Laconia or Lacedaemon (Λακεδαίμων) was the name of the wider city-state centered at the city of Sparta, though the name "Sparta" is now used for both. Following the victories in the Messenian Wars (631 BC), Sparta's reputation as a land-fighting force was unequaled. In 480 BC a small Spartan unit under King Leonidas made a legendary last stand against a massive, invading Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae. One year later, Sparta assembled at full strength and led a Greek alliance against the Persians at Plataea. There, a decisive Greek victory put an end to the Greco-Persian War along with Persian ambition of expanding into Europe. Even though this war was won by a pan-Hellenic army, credit was given to Sparta, who, besides being the protagonist at Thermopylae and Plataea, had been the nominal leader of the entire Greek expedition. In later Classical times, Sparta along with Athens, Thebes and Persia had been the main regional powers fighting for supremacy against each other. As a result of the Peloponnesian War, Sparta, a traditionally continental culture, became a naval power. At the peak of her power, she subdued many of the key Greek states and even managed to overpower the powerful Athenian navy. By the end of the 5th century, she stood out as a state which had defeated at war both the Persian and Athenian Empires, a period which marks the Spartan Hegemony. Sparta was, above all, a militarist state, and emphasis on military fitness began virtually at birth. Macedonia Macedonia was the name of an ancient kingdom in the northernmost part of ancient Greece, bordering Epirus to the west and the ancient thracian Odrysian kingdom to the east. For a brief period it became the most powerful state in the world after Alexander the Great conquered most of the known world, including the entire Achaemenid Empire, inaugurating the Hellenistic period of Greek history. The rise of Macedon, from a small kingdom at the periphery of Classical Greek affairs, to one which came to dominate the entire Hellenic world (and beyond), occurred in the space of just 25 years, between 359 and 336 BC. This ascendancy is largely attributable to the personality and policies of Philip II of Macedon. Philip's military skills and expansionist vision of Macedonian greatness brought him early success. He had however first to re-establish a situation which had been greatly worsened by the defeat against the Illyrians in which King Perdiccas himself had died. The Paionians and the Thracians had sacked and invaded the eastern regions of the country, while the Athenians had landed, at Methoni on the coast, a contingent under a Macedonian pretender called Argeus. Using diplomacy, Philip pushed back Paionians and Thracians promising tributes, and crushed the 3,000 Athenian hoplites (359). Momentarily free from his opponents, he concentrated on strengthening his internal position and, above all, his army. His most important innovation was doubtless the introduction of the phalanx infantry corps, armed with the famous sarissa, an exceedingly long spear, at the time the most important army corps in Macedonia. Philip's son, Alexander the Great, managed to briefly extend Macedonian power not only over the central Greek city-states, but also to the Persian empire, including Egypt and lands as far east as the fringes of India. Alexander's adoption of the styles of government of the conquered territories was accompanied by the spread of Greek culture and learning through his vast empire. Although the empire fractured into multiple Hellenic regimes shortly after his death, his conquests left a lasting legacy, not least in the new Greek-speaking cities founded across Persia's western territories, heralding the Hellenistic period. In the partition of Alexander's empire among the Diadochi, Macedonia fell to the Antipatrid dynasty, which was overthrown by the Antigonid dynasty after only a few years. Hellenistic states Alexander had made no special preparations for his succession in his newly founded empire and the Apocrypha of his death state that on his death-bed he willed it to those that performed actions well and powerfully. The result was the wars of the Diadochi between his generals (the Diadochi, or 'Successors'), which lasted for forty years before a more-or-less stable arrangement was established, consisting of four major domains: The Antigonid dynasty in Macedon and central Greece; The Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt based at Alexandria; The Seleucid dynasty in Syria and Mesopotamia based at Antioch; The Attalid dynasty in Anatolia based at Pergamum. A further two kingdoms later emerged, the so-called Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek kingdom. Hellenistic culture thrived in its preservation of the past. The states of the Hellenistic period were deeply fixated with the past and its seemingly lost glories. Athens retained its position as the most prestigious seat of higher education, especially in the domains of philosophy and rhetoric, with considerable libraries. Alexandria was a center of Greek learning and the Library of Alexandria had 700,000 volumes. The city of Pergamon became a major center of book production, possessing a library of some 200,000 volumes, second only to Alexandria's. The island of Rhodes boasted a famous finishing school for politics and diplomacy. Antioch was founded as a metropolis and center of Greek learning which retained its status into the era of Christianity. Seleucia replaced Babylon as the metropolis of the lower Tigris. Ancient Rome and the Roman Empire Ancient Rome is widely known as ancient Europe's largest and most powerful civilization. After the second Punic war Rome was already one of the biggest empires on the planet but its expansion continued with the invasions of Greece, Asia Minor and later Gaul. By 27 BC Rome had control over half of Europe as well as Northern Africa and large amounts of the Middle East. Rome also had a developed culture, building on the earlier Greek culture. From the time of Augustus to the Fall of the Western Empire, Rome dominated Western Eurasia, comprising the majority of its population. Roman expansion began long before the state was transformed into a de facto monarchy and reached its zenith under emperor Trajan with the conquest of Mesopotamia and Armenia from 113 to 117. The period of the "Five Good Emperors" saw a successions of peaceful years and the Empire was prosperous. Each emperor of this period was adopted by his predecessor. The Nerva–Antonine dynasty was a dynasty of seven consecutive Roman Emperors who ruled over the Roman Empire from 96 to 192. These Emperors are Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus, and Commodus. The last two of the "Five Good Emperors" and Commodus are also called Antonines. After his accession, Nerva, who succeeded Domitian, set a new tone: he restored much confiscated property and involved the Roman Senate in his rule. Starting in 101, Trajan undertook two military campaigns against the gold rich Dacia, which he finally conquered in 106 (see Trajan's Dacian Wars). In 112, Trajan marched on Armenia and annexed it to the Roman Empire. Then he turned south into Parthia, taking several cities before declaring Mesopotamia a new province of the empire, and lamenting that he was too old to follow in the steps of Alexander the Great. During his rule, the Roman Empire expanded to its largest extent, and would never again advance so far to the east. Hadrian's reign was marked by a general lack of major military conflicts, but he decided to defend the vast territories that Trajan had acquired. At its territorial peak in the year 117, the Roman Empire controlled approximately 5,000,000 km2 (1,900,000 sq mi) of land surface. After Trajans reign the Empire continued to grow stronger until the reign of Marcus Aurelius. After the death of Marcus Aurelius his son, Commodus would take power. The reign of Commodus marked the beginning of the decline of the Roman Empire . Ancient Rome's influence upon the culture, law, technology, arts, language, religion, government, military, and architecture of Western civilization continues to this day even outside latin countries . It would fall to Odoacer in 476, but its eastern half will still be alive until it fell in 1453. Thracian States The Odrysian Kingdom proper was a Thracian kingdom that existed from the early 5th century BC at least until the mid-3rd century BC. It consisted mainly of present-day Bulgaria and parts of Southeastern Romania (Northern Dobruja), Northern Greece and European Turkey. Dominated by the eponymous Odrysian people, it was the largest and most powerful Thracian realm and the first larger political entity of the eastern Balkans. Before the foundation of Seuthopolis in the late 4th century it had no fixed capital. The Odrysian kingdom was founded by king Teres I, exploiting the collapse of the Persian presence in Europe due to failed invasion of Greece in 480-79. Teres and his son Sitalces pursued a policy of expansion, making the kingdom one of the most powerful of its time. Throughout much of its early history it remained an ally of Athens and even joined the Peloponnesian War on its side. By 400 the state showed first signs of fatigue, although the skilled Cotys I initiated a brief renaissance that lasted until his murder in 360. The Getae, a northern Thracian people located between the northeastern foothills of the Haemus range and the lower Danube and the Black Sea, had been part of the Odrysian realm since Teres I, even though it is not clear how tightly they were actually incorporated into the state. When and how the Getae became independent is not discussed in the available sources. Perhaps they became independent during the rule of Cotys I or after his death in 360. Rich funeral treasures from the second half of the 4th century, like those of Agighiol, Peretu or Borovo, attest to the increasing wealth of the Getic elite. Several artefacts seem to have originated in the Odrysian kingdom and may well have been prestige gifts. By the middle of the 4th century there existed a Getic kingdom that was to thrive for a century. The Getic capital was Helis, which has been identified with the archaeological site of Sboryanovo, which was founded in the 330s or early 320s and housed around 10.000 inhabitants. It seems that the Getae also became active in Muntenia north of the Danube, a region that would come to constitute a part of the "Dacia" of imperial Roman historiography. The first Getic king to appear in the sources was Cothelas, who married his daughter Meda to Philip II, thus concluding an alliance between the two states. This probably happened during or shortly after Philip's conquest of the Odrysians. The kingdom survived two wars with Lysimachus and the Celtic invasion in around 280, but eventually disintegrated a few decades later. Helis/Sboryanovo was completely destroyed by an earthquake in the middle of the 3rd century. With Alexander's absence in Asia, the Strategoi of Thrace engaged in rebellions and failed expeditions against the Getae, greatly unsettling the country in the process. At the end of the 330s or in the mid-320s (the dating is not entirely clear), a certain Seuthes, later known as Seuthes III, instigated a Thracian rebellion. He seems to have been an Odrysian and may have been associated with the royal house of Cersebleptes, although his social background must remain speculation. Seuthes' goal seems to have been the revival of an independent Odrysian state. Seuthes ruled in the interior, what is Thrace north of the Rhodopes, but not the coastal regions of the Aegean and Black Sea. Probably after the death of Alexander in 323, he founded the capital town of Seuthopolis, on the Tonzos river, near modern Kazanlak, and named after himself. The Dacian Kingdom reached its greatest territorial extent under Burebista's rule (82BC-44BC). During his rule, he conquered territories from Central Europe to the Balkans, reaching the Aegean sea. He is well known by the Greek scholars as the "Celtic Slayer", because he defeated and killed many Celtic tribes from the Balkans (Scordisci) and the Central Europe (Boii & Taurisci). In 48BC Burebista tried to influence the Roman politics, during the Roman civil war by allying with Pompey Magnus against the victorious Julius Caesar. But Pompey was defeated and later killed in Ptolemaic Egypt. After all of that, Julius Caesar viewed Burebista's Empire as a threat and he planned to invade it along with the Parthian Empire. But he was assassinated in 44 BC. Burebista's state collapsed into various kingdoms. It will never be unified until Decebalus becomes the last King in 87AD. The Thracian kingdom, also known as the Sapaean kingdom, was the continuation of the Thracian state from the middle of the 1st century BC to 46 AD. It was dominated by the Sapaean tribe, who ruled from their capital Bizye in what is now northwestern Turkey. Initially only of limited relevance, its power grew significantly after the battle of Actium in 31 BC, when Emperor Augustus installed a new dynasty that proved to be highly loyal and expansive. Conquering and ruling much of Thrace on Roman behalf, it lasted until 46 AD, when Emperor Claudius annexed the kingdom and made Thrace a Roman province. Seleucid Empire The Seleucid Empire was a Hellenistic empire, and the eastern remnant of the former Achaemenid Persian Empire following its breakup after Alexander the Great's invasion. The Seleucid Empire was centered in the near East. It was a center of Hellenistic culture which maintained the Greek customs and Greek-speaking Macedonian elite. Seleucid expansion into Greece was abruptly halted after decisive defeats at the hands of the Roman army. Much of the eastern part of the empire was conquered by the Parthians under Mithridates I of Parthia in the mid-2nd century BC, yet the Seleucid kings continued to rule a rump state from Syria until the invasion by Armenian king Tigranes the Greatand their ultimate overthrow by the Roman general Pompey. Ptolemaic Empire The Ptolemaic dynasty, sometimes also known as the Lagids, was a Greek royal family which ruled the Ptolemaic Empire in Egypt during the Hellenistic period. Ptolemy, one of the seven somatophylakes (bodyguards) who served as Alexander the Great's generals and deputies, was appointed satrap of Egypt after Alexander's death in 323 BC. In 305 BC, he declared himself King Ptolemy I, later known as "Soter" (saviour). The Egyptians soon accepted the Ptolemies as the successors to the pharaohs of independent Egypt. Ptolemy's family ruled Egypt until the Roman conquest of 30 BC. All the male rulers of the dynasty took the name Ptolemy. Ptolemaic Egypt began when Ptolemy I Soter declared himself Pharaoh of Egypt in 305 BC and ended with the death of queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt and the Roman conquest in 30 BC. The Ptolemaic Kingdom was a powerful Hellenistic state, extending from southern Syria in the east, to Cyrene to the west, and south to the frontier with Nubia. Alexandria became the capital city and a center of Greek culture and trade. To gain recognition by the native Egyptian populace, they named themselves as the successors to the Pharaohs. The later Ptolemies took on Egyptian traditions, had themselves portrayed on public monuments in Egyptian style and dress, and participated in Egyptian religious life. Hellenistic culture continued to thrive in Egypt well after the Muslim conquest. The Ptolemies faced rebellions of native Egyptians often caused by an unwanted regime and were involved in foreign and civil wars that led to the decline of the kingdom and its annexation by Rome. Ancient Eurasian Steppe Scythia Ancient Greeks gave the name Scythia (or Great Scythia) to all the lands north-east of Europe and the northern coast of the Black Sea. According to Oxford University authors Samuel Arrowsmith, B. Fellowes and Luke Graves Hansard in their 1832 book A Grammar of Ancient Geography, Scythia had two parts, Scythia Intra Imaum and Scythia Extra Imaum both covering a combined area of 1,129,000 mi2 or 2,924,096 km2. The Scythians – the Greeks' name for this nomadic people – inhabited Scythia from at least the 11th century BC to the 2nd century AD. Its location and extent varied over time but usually extended farther to the west than is indicated on the map opposite. Sarmatia The Sarmatians (Latin: Sarmatæ or Sauromatæ, Greek: Σαρμάται, Σαυρομάται) were an Iranian people during classical antiquity, flourishing from about the 5th century BC to the 4th century AD. They spoke Scythian, an Indo-European language from the Eastern Iranian family. Originating in Central Asia, the Sarmatians started their westward migration around the 6th century bc, coming to dominate the closely related Scythians by the 2nd century bc. The Sarmatians differed from the Scythians in their veneration of the god of fire rather than god of nature, and their women's prominent role in warfare, which possibly served as the inspiration for the Amazons. At their greatest reported extent, around the 1st century AD, these tribes ranged from the Vistula River to the mouth of the Danube and eastward to the Volga, bordering the shores of the Black and Caspian seas as well as the Caucasus to the south. Their territory, which was known as Sarmatia to Greco-Roman ethnographers, corresponded to the western part of greater Scythia (mostly modern Ukraine and Southern Russia, also to a smaller extent north eastern Balkans around Moldova). According to authors Arrowsmith, Fellowes and Graves Hansard in their book A Grammar of Ancient Geography published in 1832, Sarmatia had two parts, Sarmatia Europea and Sarmatia Asiatica covering a combined area of 503,000 sq mi or 1,302,764 km2. Xiongnu Xiongnu (Hsiung nu) was a nomadic empire that flourished in the central Asia. Their origin is debatable, but they probably spoke either an Iranian, Proto-Turkic, Proto-Mongolic, or Yeniseian language. They conquered most of modern Mongolia under their leader Toumen (220–209 BC) in the 3rd century BC. During Modu's reign (209–174 BC) they defeated both the Donghu in the east and Yuezhi in the west and they began threatening Han China. The Great Wall of China had been constructed to protect Chinese towns from the Xiongnu attacks. While the Chinese were trying to bring the Xiongnu under control, something of high significance happened: cross-cultural encounters. A large variety of people (such as traders, ambassadors, hostages, parents in cross-cultural marriages, etc.) served as helpers that passed on ideas, values, and techniques across cultural boundary lines. These encounters helped cultures learn from other cultures. The Xiongnu Empire disintegrated into two parts during the 1st century; eventually the Xiongnu fell due to their defeat in the Han–Xiongnu War. Huns Huns were nomadic people who were known for their hordes of mounted archers. Their language seems to be Turkic; but Mongolic, Yeniseian, Uralic etc., are also postulated. After 370 under a certain Balamber they founded an empire in the East Europe defeating Alans and Goths. They triggered the great migration which eventually caused the collapse of the West Roman Empire. The death of Rugila in 434 left the sons of his brother Mundzuk, Attila and Bleda, in control of the united Hun tribes. Attila the Hun ruled of the Huns from 434 until his death in 453. Under his rule and leader of the Hunnic Empire, the empire stretched from Germany to the Ural River and from the Danube River to the Baltic Sea. Hunnic khagan Atilla invaded Europe. The rise of the Huns around 370 overwhelmed the Gothic kingdoms. Many of the Goths migrated into Roman territory in the Balkans, while others remained north of the Danube under Hunnic rule. During Attila the Hun's rule, he was one of the most fearsome enemies of the Western and Eastern Roman Empire. He invaded the Balkans twice and marched through Gaul (modern France) as far as Orléans before being defeated at the Battle of Châlons. Although his invasion of Gaul was checked at Chalons, he appeared in North Italy in the next year. After Atilla's death in 453, the Hunnic Empire collapsed. The Huns seem to have been absorbed by other ethnic groups such as the Bulgars. Kim, however, argues that the Huns continued under Ernak, becoming the Kutrigur and Utigur Hunno-Bulgars. This conclusion is still subject to some controversy. Some scholars also argue that another group identified in ancient sources as Huns, the North Caucasian Huns, were genuine Huns. The rulers of various post-Hunnic steppe peoples are known to have claimed descent from Attila in order to legitimize their right to the power, and various steppe peoples were also called "Huns" by Western and Byzantine sources from the fourth century onward. See also List of medieval great powers List of modern great powers Great power Middle power Superpower General topics History of warfare Political science Power in international relations, Expansionism General Lists List of largest empires, List of transcontinental countries, List of former transcontinental countries References == Bibliography ==

The Gupta Empire was an ancient Indian empire on the Indian subcontinent which existed from the mid 3rd century CE to mid 6th century CE. It was the seventh ruling dynasty of Magadha. At its zenith, from approximately 319 to 467 CE, it covered much of the Indian subcontinent. This period has been considered as the Golden Age of India by historians, although this characterisation has been disputed by some other historians. The ruling dynasty of the empire was founded by Gupta and the most notable rulers of the dynasty were Chandragupta I, Samudragupta, Chandragupta II, Kumaragupta I and Skandagupta. The high points of this period are the great cultural developments which took place primarily during the reigns of Samudragupta, Chandragupta II and Kumaragupta I. Many Hindu epics and literary sources, such as Mahabharata and Ramayana, were canonised during this period. The Gupta period produced scholars such as Kalidasa, Aryabhata, Varahamihira and Vatsyayana, who made great advancements in many academic fields. Science and political administration reached new heights during the Gupta era. The period, sometimes described as Pax Gupta, gave rise to achievements in architecture, sculpture, and painting that "set standards of form and taste [that] determined the whole subsequent course of art, not only in India but far beyond her borders". Strong trade ties also made the region an important cultural centre and established the region as a base that would influence nearby kingdoms and regions in India and Southeast Asia. The Puranas, earlier long poems on a variety of subjects, are also thought to have been committed to written texts around this period. Hinduism was followed by the rulers and the Brahmins flourished in the Gupta empire but the Guptas were tolerant towards people of other faiths as well. The empire eventually died out because of factors such as substantial loss of territory and imperial authority caused by their own erstwhile feudatories, as well as the invasion by the Huna peoples (Kidarites and Alchon Huns) from Central Asia. After the collapse of the Gupta Empire in the 6th century, India was again ruled by numerous regional kingdoms. Origin The homeland of the Guptas is uncertain. According to one theory, they originated in the present-day lower-Doab region of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, where most of the inscriptions and coin hoards of the early Gupta emperors have been discovered. This theory is also supported by the Purana, as argued by the proponents, that mention the territory of the early Gupta emperors as Prayaga, Saketa, and Magadha areas in the Ganges basin. Another prominent theory locates the Gupta homeland in the present-day Bengal region in Ganges basin, based on the account of the 7th-century Chinese Buddhist monk Yijing. According to Yijing, king Che-li-ki-to (identified with the dynasty's founder Shri Gupta) built a temple for Chinese pilgrims near Mi-li-kia-si-kia-po-no (apparently a transcription of Mriga-shikha-vana). Yijing states that this temple was located more than 40 yojanas east of Nalanda, which would mean it was situated somewhere in the modern Bengal region. Another proposal is that the early Gupta kingdom extended from Prayaga in the west to northern Bengal in the east. The Gupta records do not mention the dynasty's varna (social class). Some historians, such as A.S. Altekar, have theorised that they were of Vaishya origin, as certain ancient Indian texts prescribe the name "Gupta" for the members of the Vaishya varna. According to historian R. S. Sharma, the Vaishyas – who were traditionally associated with trade – may have become rulers after resisting oppressive taxation by the previous rulers. Critics of the Vaishya-origin theory point out that the suffix Gupta features in the names of several non-Vaishyas before as well as during the Gupta period, and the dynastic name "Gupta" may have simply derived from the name of the dynasty's first king Gupta. Some scholars, such as S. R. Goyal, theorise that the Guptas were Brahmins, because they had matrimonial relations with Brahmins, but others reject this evidence as inconclusive. Based on the Pune and Riddhapur inscriptions of the Gupta princess Prabhavatigupta, some scholars believe that the name of her paternal gotra (clan) was "Dharana", but an alternative reading of these inscriptions suggests that Dharana was the gotra of her mother Kuberanaga. History Early rulers Gupta (Gupta script: gu-pta, fl. late 3rd century CE) is the earliest known king of the dynasty: different historians variously date the beginning of his reign from mid-to-late 3rd century CE. Gupta founded the Gupta Empire c. 240-280 CE, and was succeeded by his son, Ghatotkacha, c. 280-319 CE, followed by Ghatotkacha's son, Chandragupta I, c. 319-335 CE. "Che-li-ki-to", the name of a king mentioned by the 7th century Chinese Buddhist monk Yijing, is believed to be a transcription of "Shri-Gupta" (IAST: Śrigupta), "Shri" being an honorific prefix. According to Yijing, this king built a temple for Chinese Buddhist pilgrims near "Mi-li-kia-si-kia-po-no" (believed to be a transcription of Mṛgaśikhāvana). In the Allahabad Pillar inscription, Gupta and his successor Ghatotkacha are described as Maharaja ("Great King"), while the next king Chandragupta I is called a Maharajadhiraja ("King of Great Kings"). In the later period, the title Maharaja was used by feudatory rulers, which has led to suggestions that Gupta and Ghatotkacha were vassals (possibly of Kushan Empire). However, there are several instances of paramount sovereigns using the title Maharaja, in both pre-Gupta and post-Gupta periods, so this cannot be said with certainty. That said, there is no doubt that Gupta and Ghatotkacha held a lower status and were less powerful than Chandragupta I. Chandragupta I married the Licchavi princess Kumaradevi, which may have helped him extend his political power and dominions, enabling him to adopt the prestigious title Maharajadhiraja. According to the dynasty's official records, he was succeeded by his son Samudragupta. However, the discovery of the coins issued by a Gupta emperor named Kacha have led to some debate on this topic: according to one theory, Kacha was another name for Samudragupta; another possibility is that Kacha was a rival claimant to the throne. Samudragupta Samudragupta succeeded his father around 335 or 350 CE, and ruled until c. 375 CE. The Allahabad Pillar inscription, composed by his courtier Harisena, credits him with extensive conquests. The inscription asserts that Samudragupta uprooted 8 kings of Āryāvarta, the northern region, including the Nagas. It further claims that he subjugated all the kings of the forest region, which was most probably located in central India. It also credits him with defeating 12 rulers of Dakshinapatha, the southern region: the exact identification of several of these kings is debated among modern scholars, but it is clear that these kings ruled areas located on the eastern coast of India. The inscription suggests that Samudragupta advanced as far as the Pallava kingdom in the south, and defeated Vishnugopa, the Pallava regent of Kanchi. During this southern campaign, Samudragupta most probably passed through the forest tract of central India, reached the eastern coast in present-day Odisha, and then marched south along the coast of the Bay of Bengal. The Allahabad Pillar inscription mentions that rulers of several frontier kingdoms and tribal aristocracies paid Samudragupta tributes, obeyed his orders, and performed obeisance before him. The frontier kingdoms included Samatata, Davaka, Kamarupa, Nepal and Karttripura. The tribal aristocracies and kingdoms included Malavas, Arjunayanas, Yaudheyas, Madrakas, and Abhiras, among others. Finally, the inscription mentions that several foreign kings tried to please Samudragupta by personal attendance; offered him their daughters in marriage (or according to another interpretation, gifted him maidens); and sought the use of the Garuda-depicting Gupta seal for administering their own territories. This is an exaggeration: for example, the inscription lists the King of Simhala among these kings. It is known that from Chinese sources that the Simhala king Meghavarna sent rich presents to the Gupta emperor requesting his permission to build a Buddhist monastery at Bodh Gaya: Samudragupta's panegyrist appears to have described this act of diplomacy as an act of subservience. Samudragupta appears to have been Vaishnavite, as attested by his Eran inscription, and performed several Brahmanical ceremonies. The Gupta records credit him with making generous donations of cows and gold. He performed the Ashvamedha ritual (horse sacrifice), which was used by the ancient Indian kings and emperors to prove their imperial sovereignty, and issued gold coins (see Coinage below) to mark this performance. The Allahabad Pillar inscription presents Samudragupta as a wise king and strict administrator, who was also compassionate enough to help the poor and the helpless. It also alludes to the king's talents as a musician and a poet, and calls him the "king of poets". Such claims are corroborated by Samudragupta's gold coins, which depict him playing a veena. Samudragupta appears to have directly controlled a large part of the Indo-Gangetic Plain in present-day India, as well as a substantial part of central India. Besides, his empire comprised a number of monarchical and tribal tributary states of northern India, and of the south-eastern coastal region of India. Ramagupta Ramagupta is known from a sixth-century play, the Devichandragupta, in which he surrenders his queen to the enemy Sakas and his brother Chandragupta has to sneak into the enemy camp to rescue her and kill the Saka king. The historicity of these events is unclear, but Ramagupta's existence is confirmed by three Jain statues found at Durjanpur, with inscriptions referring to him as the Maharajadhiraja. A large number of his copper coins also have been found from the Eran-Vidisha region and classified in five distinct types, which include the Garuda, Garudadhvaja, lion and border legend types. The Brahmi legends on these coins are written in the early Gupta style. Chandragupta II "Vikramaditya" According to the Gupta records, among his sons, Samudragupta nominated prince Chandragupta II, born of queen Dattadevi, as his successor. Chandragupta II, Vikramaditya (Brave as the Sun), ruled from 375 until 415. He married a Kadamba princess of Kuntala and of Naga lineage (Nāgakulotpannnā), Kuberanaga. His daughter Prabhavatigupta from this Naga queen was married to Rudrasena II, the Vakataka king of Deccan. His son Kumaragupta I was married to a Kadamba princess of the Karnataka region. Chandragupta II expanded his realm westwards, defeating the Saka Western Kshatrapas of Malwa, Gujarat and Saurashtra in a campaign lasting until 409. His main opponent Rudrasimha III was defeated by 395, and he crushed the Bengal chiefdoms. This extended his control from coast to coast, established a second capital at Ujjain and was the high point of the empire. Kuntala inscriptions indicate rule of Chandragupta II in Kuntala country of Karnataka. Hunza inscription also indicate that Chandragupta was able to rule north western Indian subcontinent and proceeded to conquer Balkh, although some scholars have also disputed the identity of the Gupta emperor. Chalukya king Vikramaditya VI (r. 1076 – 1126 CE) mentions Chandragupta with his title and states: "Why should the glory of the Kings Vikramaditya and Nanda be a hindrance any longer ? He with a loud command abolished that (era), which has the name of Saka, and made that (era) which has the Chalukya counting". Despite the creation of the empire through war, the reign is remembered for its very influential style of Hindu art, literature, culture and science, especially during the reign of Chandragupta II. Some excellent works of Hindu art such as the panels at the Dashavatara Temple in Deogarh serve to illustrate the magnificence of Gupta art. Above all, it was the synthesis of elements that gave Gupta art its distinctive flavour. During this period, the Guptas were supportive of thriving Buddhist and Jain cultures as well, and for this reason, there is also a long history of non-Hindu Gupta period art. In particular, Gupta period Buddhist art was to be influential in most of East and Southeast Asia. Many advances were recorded by the Chinese scholar and traveller Faxian in his diary and published afterwards. The court of Chandragupta II was made even more illustrious by the fact that it was graced by the Navaratna (Nine Jewels), a group of nine who excelled in the literary arts. Among these men was Kālidāsa, whose works dwarfed the works of many other literary geniuses, not only in his own age but in the years to come. Kalidasa was mainly known for his subtle exploitation of the shringara (romantic) element in his verse. Chandragupta II's campaigns against foreign tribes The 4th century Sanskrit poet Kalidasa credits Chandragupta Vikramaditya with conquering about twenty-one kingdoms, both in and outside India. After finishing his campaign in East and West India, Vikramaditya (Chandragupta II) proceeded northwards, subjugated the Parasika, then the Huna and Kamboja tribes located in the west and east Oxus valleys respectively. Thereafter, the king proceeded into the Himalaya mountains to reduce the mountain tribes of the Kinnaras, Kiratas, as well as India proper. In one of his works Kalidasa also credits him with the removal of the Sakas from the country. He wrote 'Wasn't it Vikramaditya who drove the Sakas out from the lovely city of Ujjain?'. The Brihatkathamanjari of the Kashmiri writer Kshemendra states, King Vikramaditya (Chandragupta II) had "unburdened the sacred earth of the barbarians like the Sakas, Mlecchas, Kambojas, Greeks, Tusharas, Saka-Greeks, Hunas, and others, by annihilating these sinful Mlecchas completely". Faxian Faxian, a Chinese Buddhist monk, was one of the pilgrims who visited India during the reign of the Gupta emperor Chandragupta II. He started his journey from China in 399 CE and reached India in 405 CE. During his stay in India up to 411 CE, he went on a pilgrimage to Mathura, Kannauj, Kapilavastu, Kushinagar, Vaishali, Pataliputra, Kashi, and Rajagriha, and made careful observations about the empire's conditions. Faxian was pleased with the mildness of administration. The penal code was mild, and offences were punished by fines only. From his accounts, the Gupta Empire was a prosperous period. His writings form one of the most important sources for the history of this period. Faxian on reaching Mathura comments––"The snow and heat are finely tempered, and there is neither hoarfrost nor snow. The people are numerous and happy. They have not to register their households. Only those who cultivate the royal land have to pay (a portion of) the gain from it. If they want to go, they go. If they want to stay on, they stay on. The king governs without decapitation or (other) corporal punishments. Criminals are simply fined according to circumstances. Even in cases of repeated attempts at wicked rebellion, they only have their right-hand cut off. The king's bodyguards & attendants all have salaries. Throughout the whole country, the people do not kill any living creature, not drink any intoxicating liquor, nor eat onions or garlic." Kumaragupta I Chandragupta II was succeeded by his second son Kumaragupta I, born of Mahadevi Dhruvasvamini. Kumaragupta I assumed the title, Mahendraditya. He ruled until 455. Towards the end of his reign a tribe in the Narmada valley, the Pushyamitras, rose in power to threaten the empire. The Kidarites as well probably confronted the Gupta Empire towards the end of the rule of Kumaragupta I, as his son Skandagupta mentions in the Bhitari pillar inscription his efforts at reshaping a country in disarray, through reorganisation and military victories over the Pushyamitras and the Hunas. He was the founder of Nalanda University which on 15 July 2016 was declared as a UNESCO world heritage site. Kumaragupta I was also a worshipper of Kartikeya. Skandagupta Skandagupta, son and successor of Kumaragupta I is generally considered to be the last of the great Gupta emperors. He assumed the titles of Vikramaditya and Kramaditya. He defeated the Pushyamitra threat, but then was faced with invading Kidarites (sometimes described as the Hephthalites or "White Huns", known in India as the Sweta Huna), from the northwest. He repelled a Huna attack around 455 CE, but the expense of the wars drained the empire's resources and contributed to its decline. The Bhitari Pillar inscription of Skandagupta, the successor of Chandragupta, recalls the near annihilation of the Gupta Empire following the attacks of the Kidarites. The Kidarites seem to have retained the western part of the Gupta Empire. Skandagupta died in 467 and was succeeded by his agnate brother Purugupta. Decline of the empire Following Skandagupta's death, the empire was clearly in decline, and the later Gupta coinage indicates their loss of control over much of western India after 467–469. Skandagupta was followed by Purugupta (467–473), Kumaragupta II (473–476), Budhagupta (476–495), Narasimhagupta (495–530), Kumaragupta III (530–540), Vishnugupta (540–550), two lesser known kings namely, Vainyagupta and Bhanugupta. In the late 490's the Alchon Huns under Toramana and Mihirakula broke through the Gupta defences in the northwest, and much of the empire in the northwest was overrun by the Huns by 500. According to some scholars the empire disintegrated under the attacks of Toramana and his successor Mihirakula. It appears from inscriptions that the Guptas, although their power was much diminished, continued to resist the Huns. The Hun invader Toramana was defeated by Bhanugupta in 510. The Huns were defeated and driven out of India in 528 by King Yashodharman from Malwa, and possibly Gupta emperor Narasimhagupta. These invasions, although only spanning a few decades, had long term effects on India, and in a sense brought an end to Classical Indian civilisation. Soon after the invasions, the Gupta Empire, already weakened by these invasions and the rise of local rulers such as Yashodharman, ended as well. Following the invasions, northern India was left in disarray, with numerous smaller Indian powers emerging after the crumbling of the Guptas. The Huna invasions are said to have seriously damaged India's trade with Europe and Central Asia. In particular, Indo-Roman trade relations, which the Gupta Empire had greatly benefited from. The Guptas had been exporting numerous luxury products such as silk, leather goods, fur, iron products, ivory, pearl, and pepper from centres such as Nasik, Paithan, Pataliputra, and Benares. The Huna invasion probably disrupted these trade relations and the tax revenues that came with them. Furthermore, Indian urban culture was left in decline, and Buddhism, gravely weakened by the destruction of monasteries and the killing of monks by the hand of the vehemently anti-Buddhist Shaivist Huna king Mihirakula, started to collapse. Great centres of learning were destroyed, such as the city of Taxila, bringing cultural regression. During their rule of 60 years, the Alchons are said to have altered the hierarchy of ruling families and the Indian caste system. For example, the Hunas are often said to have become the precursors of the Rajputs. The succession of the 6th-century Guptas is not entirely clear, but the tail end recognised ruler of the dynasty's main line was King Vishnugupta, reigning from 540 to 550. In addition to the Huna invasion, the factors, which contribute to the decline of the empire include competition from the Vakatakas and the rise of Yashodharman in Malwa. The last known inscription by a Gupta emperor is from the reign of Vishnugupta (the Damudarpur copper-plate inscription), in which he makes a land grant in the area of Kotivarsha (Bangarh in West Bengal) in 542/543 CE. This follows the occupation of most of northern and central India by the Aulikara King Yashodharman c. 532 CE. A 2019 study by archaeologist Shanker Sharma has concluded that the cause of the Gupta Empire's downfall was a devastating flood which happened around the middle of the 6th century in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Post-Gupta successor dynasties In the heart of the former Gupta Empire, in the Gangetic region, the Guptas were succeeded by the Maukhari dynasty and the Pushyabhuti dynasty. The coinage of the Maukharis and Pushyabhutis followed the silver coin type of the Guptas, with portrait of the ruler in profile (although facing in the reverse direction compared to the Guptas, a possible symbol of antagonism) and the peacock on the reverse, the Brahmi legend being kept except for the name of the ruler. In the western regions, they were succeeded by Gurjaradesa, the Gurjara-Pratiharas, and later the Chaulukya-Paramara dynasties, who issued so-called Indo-Sasanian coinage, on the model of the coinage of the Sasanian Empire, which had been introduced in India by the Alchon Huns. Military organisation In contrast to the Mauryan Empire, the Guptas introduced several military innovations to Indian warfare. Chief among these was the use of siege engines, heavy cavalry archers and heavy sword cavalry. The heavy cavalry formed the core of the Gupta Army and were supported by the traditional Indian Army elements of war elephants and light infantry. The utilisation of horse archers in the Gupta period is evidenced on the coinage of Chandragupta II, Kumaragupta I and Prakasaditya (postulated to be Purugupta) that depicts the kings as horse-archers. There is a paucity of contemporary sources detailing the tactical operations of the Imperial Gupta Army. The best extant information comes from the Sanskrit mahakavya (epic poem) Raghuvaṃśa written by the Classical Sanskrit writer and dramatist Kalidasa. Many modern scholars put forward the view that Kalidasa lived from the reign of Chandragupta II to the reign of Skandagupta and that the campaigns of Raghu – his protagonist in the Raghuvaṃśa – reflect those of Chandragupta II. In Canto IV of the Raghuvamsa, Kalidasa relates how the king's forces clash against the powerful, cavalry-centric, forces of the Persians and later the Yavanas (probably Huns) in the North-West. Here he makes special mention of the use horse-archers in the king's army and that the horses needed much rest after the hotly contested battles. The five arms of the Gupta military included infantry, cavalry, chariotry, elephantry and ships. Gunaighar copper plate inscription of Vainya Gupta mentions ships but not chariots. Ships had become integral part of Indian military in the 6th century CE. Religion The Guptas were traditionally a Hindu dynasty. They were patronizers of Brahmanism and allowed followers of Buddhism and Jainism to practice their religions. Sanchi remained an important centre of Buddhism. Kumaragupta I (455 CE) is said to have founded Nalanda. Modern genetic studies indicate that it was during the Gupta period that Indian caste groups ceased to intermarry (started practising/enforcing endogamy). Some later rulers however seem to have especially promoted Buddhism. Narasimhagupta Baladitya (c. 495–?), according to contemporary writer Paramartha, was brought up under the influence of the Mahayanist philosopher, Vasubandhu. He built a sangharama at Nalanda and also a 300 ft (91 m) high vihara with a Buddha statue within which, according to Xuanzang, resembled the "great Vihara built under the Bodhi tree". According to the Manjushrimulakalpa (c. 800 CE), King Narasimhsagupta became a Buddhist monk, and left the world through meditation (Dhyana). The Chinese monk Xuanzang also noted that Narasimhagupta Baladitya's son, Vajra, who commissioned a sangharama as well, "possessed a heart firm in faith".: 45 : 330 Gupta administration A study of the epigraphical records of the Gupta Empire shows that there was a hierarchy of administrative divisions from top to bottom. It was divided into 26 provinces, which were called Bhukti, Desha or Rajya. Provinces were also divided into vishayas or pradeshas (districts) and put under the control of Vishayapatis (district lords). A Vishayapati administered the Vishaya with the help of the Adhikarana (council of representatives), which comprised four representatives: Nagarasreshesthi, Sarthavaha, Prathamakulika and Prathama Kayastha. A part of the Vishaya was called Vithi. The Gupta also had trading links with the Sassanid and Byzantine Empires. The four-fold varna system was observed under the Gupta period but caste system was fluid. Brahmins followed non-Brahmanical professions as well. Kshatriyas were involved in trade and commerce. The society largely coexisted among themselves. Urbanization Gupta administration proved to be highly conducive for the rapid growth of urban centers. The Chinese author Faxian described Magadha as a prosperous country with rich towns and large populations. Ayodhya was regarded as the second capital. Chandragupta Vikramaditya took personal interest in the development of Ujjain as a major cultural center after its conquest. Legacy Mathematics Indian mathematics flourished during the Gupta Empire. The Indian numerals which were the first positional base 10 numeral systems in the world originated from Gupta India. The Surya Siddhanta contains the Sine table. Aryabhata, wrote the Aryabhatiya, making significant contributions to mathematics including developing a Place value system, an approximation of π of 4 decimal places, trignimotric functions, and Squared triangular numbers. Varāhamihira wrote the Pancha Siddhanta developing various formulas relating sine and cosine functions. Yativṛṣabha made contributions on units of measurement. Virahanka described Fibonacci numbers. Astronomy Indian astronomy also saw progress in this era. The names of the seven days in a week appeared at the start of the Gupta period based on Hindu deities and planets corresponding to the Roman names. Aryabhata made several contributions such as assigning the start of each day to midnight. the earth's rotation on its axis, westward motion of the stars. Aryabhata also mentioned that reflected sunlight is the cause behind the shining of the Moon. In his book, Aryabhata, he suggested that the Earth was sphere, containing a circumference of 24,835 miles (39,967 km). Varāhamihira approximates the method for determination of the meridian direction from any three positions of the shadow using a gnomon. Medicine The Sushruta Samhita, which is a Sanskrit redaction text on all of the major concepts of Ayurveda medicine with innovative chapters on surgery, dates to the Gupta period. Metallurgy and Engineering The Iron Pillar of Delhi high resistance to corrosion . The corrosion resistance results from an even layer of crystalline iron(III) hydrogen phosphate hydrate forming on the high-phosphorus-content iron, which serves to protect it from the effects of the corrosion The earliest evidence of the cotton gin was found in the fifth century, in the form of Buddhist paintings depicting a single-roller gin in the Ajanta Caves. The gins consisted of a single roller made of iron or wood and a flat piece of stone or wood. Education Various Mahavihara operated throughout the Gupta Empire serving as centuries of education. Nalanda played a vital role in promoting the patronage of arts and academics during the 5th and 6th century CE. Literature The highest point of Sanskrit literature is also said to have belonged to this period. Harisena was an early writer of Kāvya poetry. his works include Apabramsa Dharmapariksa, Karpuraprakara (Suktavall), the medical treatise Jagatsundari-Yogamaladhikara, Yasodharacanta, Astahnikakatha and Brhatkathakosa. Amarasimha wrote various on Sanskrit grammar. Kalidasa, a playwright, wrote plays such as the Abhijnanashakuntalam and Shakuntala. Bhartṛhari published major works including the Trikāṇḍī and Śatakatraya. Leisure Chess is said to have developed in this period, where its early form in the 6th century was known as caturaṅga, which translates as "four divisions [of the military]" – infantry, cavalry, chariotry, and elephantry – represented by the pieces that would evolve into the modern pawn, knight, rook, and bishop respectively. Doctors also invented several medical instruments, and even performed surgical operations. The ancient Gupta text Kama Sutra by the Indian scholar Vatsyayana is widely considered to be the standard work on human sexual behaviour in Sanskrit literature. Art and architecture The Gupta period is generally regarded as a classic peak of North Indian art for all the major religious groups. Although painting was evidently widespread, the surviving works are almost all religious sculptures. The period saw the emergence of the iconic carved stone deity in Hindu art, as well as the Buddha-figure and Jain tirthankara figures, the latter often on a very large scale. The two great centres of sculpture were Mathura and Gandhara, the latter the centre of Greco-Buddhist art. Both exported sculpture to other parts of northern India. The most famous remaining monuments in a broadly Gupta style, the caves at Ajanta, Elephanta, and Ellora (respectively Buddhist, Hindu, and mixed including Jain) were in fact produced under later dynasties, but primarily reflect the monumentality and balance of Gupta style. Ajanta contains by far the most significant survivals of painting from this and the surrounding periods, showing a mature form which had probably had a long development, mainly in painting palaces. The Hindu Udayagiri Caves actually record connections with the dynasty and its ministers, and the Dashavatara Temple at Deogarh is a major temple, one of the earliest to survive, with important sculpture. Family tree and List of rulers See also Abhira-Gupta dynasty (Nepal) Uchchhakalpa dynasty Notes References Bibliography External links Media related to Gupta Empire at Wikimedia Commons Coins of Gupta Empire

Which album by the band Paramore came out after the death of Michael Jackson and before the death of Amy Winehouse?

Brand New Eyes

Multiple constraints

Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a four-decade career, his contributions to music, dance, and fashion, along with his publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture. Jackson influenced artists across many music genres. Through stage and video performances, he popularized street dance moves such as the moonwalk, which he named, and the robot. He was the eighth child of the Jackson family, and made his public debut in 1964 with his older brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon as a member of the Jackson 5 (later known as the Jacksons). The Jackson 5 signed with Motown in 1968 and achieved worldwide success with Michael as lead singer. Jackson began his solo career in 1971 while at Motown and recorded multiple successful singles. He became a global solo star with his 1979 album Off the Wall. His music videos, including those for "Beat It", "Billie Jean", and "Thriller" from his 1982 album Thriller, are credited with breaking racial barriers and transforming the medium into an art form and promotional tool. He helped popularize MTV and continued to innovate with videos for his albums Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991), HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I (1995), and Invincible (2001). Thriller is the best-selling album of all time, while Bad was the first album to produce five US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles. From the late 1980s, Jackson became a figure of controversy and speculation due to his changing appearance, relationships, behavior, and lifestyle. In 1993, he was accused of sexually abusing the child of a family friend. The lawsuit was settled out of civil court; Jackson was not indicted due to lack of evidence. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted of further child sexual abuse allegations and several other charges. The Federal Bureau of Investigation found no evidence of criminal conduct by Jackson. In 2009, while he was preparing for a series of comeback concerts, This Is It, Jackson died from an overdose of propofol administered by his personal physician, Conrad Murray, who was convicted in 2011 of involuntary manslaughter for his involvement in Jackson's death. His death triggered reactions around the world, creating unprecedented surges of internet traffic and a spike in sales of his music. Jackson's televised memorial service, held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, was estimated to have been viewed by more than 2.5 billion people. Jackson is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with estimated sales of over 500 million records worldwide. He had 13 Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles (the fourth-highest of any artist in the Hot 100 era) and was the first artist to have a top-ten single on the Billboard Hot 100 in five different decades. His honors include 15 Grammy Awards, six Brit Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and 39 Guinness World Records, including the "Most Successful Entertainer of All Time". Jackson's inductions include the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (twice), the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Dance Hall of Fame (making him the only recording artist to be inducted) and the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame. Life and career Early life and the Jackson 5 (1958–1975) Michael Joseph Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana, on August 29, 1958. He was the eighth of ten children in the Jackson family, a working-class African-American family living in a two-bedroom house on Jackson Street. His mother, Katherine Esther Jackson (née Scruse), played clarinet and piano, had aspired to be a country-and-western performer, and worked part-time at Sears. She was a Jehovah's Witness. His father, Joseph Walter "Joe" Jackson, a former boxer, was a crane operator at US Steel and played guitar with a local rhythm and blues band, the Falcons, to supplement the family's income. Joe's great-grandfather, July "Jack" Gale, was a US Army scout; family lore held that he was also a Native American medicine man. Michael grew up with three sisters (Rebbie, La Toya, and Janet) and five brothers (Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Randy). A sixth brother, Marlon's twin Brandon, died shortly after birth. In 1964, Michael and Marlon joined the Jackson Brothers—a band formed by their father which included Jackie, Tito and Jermaine—as backup musicians playing congas and tambourine. Michael said his father told him he had a "fat nose", and physically and emotionally abused him during rehearsals. He recalled that Joe often sat in a chair with a belt in his hand as he and his siblings rehearsed, ready to punish any mistakes. Joe acknowledged that he regularly whipped Michael. Katherine said that although whipping came to be considered abuse, it was a common way to discipline children when Michael was growing up. Jackie, Tito, Jermaine and Marlon denied that their father was abusive and said that the whippings, which had a deeper impact on Michael because he was younger, kept them disciplined and out of trouble. Michael said that during his youth he was lonely and isolated. Later in 1965, Michael began sharing lead vocals with Jermaine, and the group's name was changed to the Jackson 5. In 1965, the group won a talent show; Michael performed the dance to Robert Parker's 1965 song "Barefootin'" and sang the Temptations' "My Girl". From 1966 to 1968, the Jacksons 5 toured the Midwest; they frequently played at a string of black clubs known as the Chitlin' Circuit as the opening act for artists such as Sam & Dave, the O'Jays, Gladys Knight and Etta James. The Jackson 5 also performed at clubs and cocktail lounges, where striptease shows were featured, and at local auditoriums and high school dances. In August 1967, while touring the East Coast, they won a weekly amateur night concert at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. The Jackson 5 recorded several songs for a Gary record label, Steeltown Records; their first single, "Big Boy", was released in 1968. Bobby Taylor of Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers brought the Jackson 5 to Motown after they opened for Taylor at Chicago's Regal Theater in 1968. Taylor produced some of their early Motown recordings, including a version of "Who's Lovin' You". After signing with Motown, the Jackson family relocated to Los Angeles. In 1969, Motown executives decided Diana Ross should introduce the Jackson 5 to the public — partly to bolster her career in television — sending off what was considered Motown's last product of its "production line". The Jackson 5 made their first television appearance in 1969 in the Miss Black America pageant, performing a cover of "It's Your Thing". Rolling Stone later described the young Michael as "a prodigy" with "overwhelming musical gifts" who "quickly emerged as the main draw and lead singer". In January 1970, "I Want You Back" became the first Jackson 5 song to reach number one on the US Billboard Hot 100; it stayed there for four weeks. Three more singles with Motown topped the chart: "ABC", "The Love You Save", and "I'll Be There". In May 1971, the Jackson family moved into a large house at Hayvenhurst, a 2-acre (0.81 ha) estate in Encino, California. During this period, Michael developed from a child performer into a teen idol. Between 1972 and 1975, he released four solo studio albums with Motown: Got to Be There (1972), Ben (1972), Music & Me (1973) and Forever, Michael (1975). "Got to Be There" and "Ben", the title tracks from his first two solo albums, sold well as singles, as did a cover of Bobby Day's "Rockin' Robin". Michael maintained ties to the Jackson 5. The Jackson 5 were later described as "a cutting-edge example of black crossover artists". They were frustrated by Motown's refusal to allow them creative input. Jackson's performance of their top five single "Dancing Machine" on Soul Train popularized the robot dance. Move to Epic and Off the Wall (1975–1981) The Jackson 5 left Motown in 1975, signing with Epic Records and renaming themselves the Jacksons. Their younger brother Randy joined the band around this time; Jermaine stayed with Motown and pursued a solo career. The Jacksons continued to tour internationally, and released six more albums between 1976 and 1984. Michael, the group's main songwriter during this time, wrote songs such as "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)" (1978), "This Place Hotel" (1980), and "Can You Feel It" (1980). In 1977, Jackson moved to New York City to star as the Scarecrow in The Wiz, a musical film directed by Sidney Lumet, alongside Diana Ross, Nipsey Russell, and Ted Ross. The film was a box-office failure. Its score was arranged by Quincy Jones, who later produced three of Jackson's solo albums. During his time in New York, Jackson frequented the Studio 54 nightclub, where he heard early hip hop; this influenced his beatboxing on future tracks such as "Working Day and Night". In 1978, Jackson unsatisfied with his nose, decided to have a rhinoplasty. He was referred to Steven Hoefflin, who performed Jackson's operations. Jackson's fifth solo album, Off the Wall (1979), established him as a solo performer and helped him move from the bubblegum pop of his youth to more complex sounds. It produced four top 10 entries in the US: "Off the Wall", "She's Out of My Life", and the chart-topping singles "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and "Rock with You". The album reached number three on the US Billboard 200 and sold over 20 million copies worldwide. In 1980, Jackson won three American Music Awards for his solo work: Favorite Soul/R&B Album, Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist, and Favorite Soul/R&B Single for "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough". He also won a Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for 1979 with "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough". In 1981, Jackson was the American Music Awards winner for Favorite Soul/R&B Album and Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist. Jackson felt Off the Wall should have made a bigger impact, and was determined to exceed expectations with his next release. In 1980, he secured the highest royalty rate in the music industry: 37 percent of wholesale album profit. Thriller and Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever (1982–1983) Jackson recorded with Queen's lead singer Freddie Mercury from 1981 to 1983, recording demos of "State of Shock", "Victory" and "There Must Be More to Life Than This". The recordings were intended for an album of duets but, according to Queen's manager Jim Beach, the relationship soured when Jackson brought a llama into the recording studio, and Jackson was upset by Mercury's drug use. "There Must Be More to Life Than This" was released in 2014. Jackson went on to record "State of Shock" with Mick Jagger for the Jacksons' album Victory (1984). In 1982, Jackson contributed "Someone in the Dark" to the audiobook for the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Jackson's sixth album, Thriller, was released in late 1982. It was the bestselling album worldwide in 1983, and became the bestselling album of all time in the US and the best-selling album of all time worldwide, selling an estimated 70 million copies. It topped the Billboard 200 chart for 37 weeks and was in the top 10 of the 200 for 80 consecutive weeks. It was the first album to produce seven Billboard Hot 100 top-10 singles, including "Billie Jean", "Beat It", and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'". On March 25, 1983, Jackson reunited with his brothers for Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, an NBC television special. The show aired on May 16 to an estimated audience of 47 million, and featured the Jacksons and other Motown stars. Jackson's solo performance of "Billie Jean" earned him his first Emmy Award nomination. Wearing a glove decorated with rhinestones, he debuted his moonwalk dance, which Jeffrey Daniel had taught him three years earlier, and it became his signature dance in his repertoire. Jackson had originally turned down the invitation to the show, believing he had been doing too much television. But at the request of Motown founder Berry Gordy, he performed in exchange for an opportunity to do a solo performance. Rolling Stone reporter Mikal Gilmore called the performance "extraordinary". Jackson's performance drew comparisons to Elvis Presley's and the Beatles' appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. Anna Kisselgoff of The New York Times praised the perfect timing and technique involved in the dance. Gordy described being "mesmerized" by the performance. At the 26th Annual Grammy Awards, Thriller won eight awards, and Jackson won an award for the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial storybook. Winning eight Grammys in one ceremony is a record he holds with the band Santana. Jackson and Quincy Jones won the award for Producer of the Year (Non-Classical). Thriller won Album of the Year (with Jackson as the album's artist and Jones as its co-producer), and the single won Best Pop Vocal Performance (Male) award for Jackson. "Beat It" won Record of the Year and Best Rock Vocal Performance (Male). "Billie Jean" won two Grammy awards: Best R&B Song and Best R&B Vocal Performance (Male), with Jackson as songwriter and singer respectively. Thriller won the Grammy for Best Engineered Recording (Non Classical), acknowledging Bruce Swedien for his work on the album. At the 11th Annual American Music Awards, Jackson won another eight awards and became the youngest artist to win the Award of Merit. He also won Favorite Male Artist, Favorite Soul/R&B Artist, and Favorite Pop/Rock Artist. "Beat It" won Favorite Soul/R&B Video, Favorite Pop/Rock Video and Favorite Pop/Rock Single. The album won Favorite Soul/R&B Album and Favorite Pop/Rock Album. Thriller's sales doubled after the release of an extended music video, Michael Jackson's Thriller, which sees Jackson dancing with a horde of zombies. The success transformed Jackson into a dominant force in global pop culture. Jackson had the highest royalty rate in the music industry at that point, with about $2 for every album sold (equivalent to $6 in 2023), and was making record-breaking profits. Dolls modeled after Jackson appeared in stores in May 1984 for $12 each. In the same year, The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller, a documentary about the music video, won a Grammy for Best Music Video (Longform). Time described Jackson's influence at that point as "star of records, radio, rock video. A one-man rescue team for the music business. A songwriter who sets the beat for a decade. A dancer with the fanciest feet on the street. A singer who cuts across all boundaries of taste and style and color too." The New York Times wrote "in the world of pop music, there is Michael Jackson and there is everybody else". Pepsi incident, "We Are the World" and other commercial activities (1984–1985) In November 1983, Jackson and his brothers partnered with PepsiCo in a $5 million promotional deal that broke records for a celebrity endorsement (equivalent to $15.3 million in 2023). The first Pepsi campaign, which ran in the US from 1983 to 1984 and launched its "New Generation" theme, included tour sponsorship, public relations events, and in-store displays. Jackson helped to create the advertisement, and suggested using his song "Billie Jean", with revised lyrics, as its jingle. On January 27, 1984, Michael and other members of the Jacksons filmed a Pepsi commercial overseen by Phil Dusenberry, a BBDO ad agency executive, and Alan Pottasch, Pepsi's Worldwide Creative Director, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. During a simulated concert before a full house of fans, pyrotechnics accidentally set Jackson's hair on fire, causing second-degree burns to his scalp. Jackson underwent treatment to hide the scars and had his third rhinoplasty shortly thereafter. Pepsi settled out of court, and Jackson donated the $1.5 million (equivalent to $4.4 million in 2023) settlement to the Brotman Medical Center in Culver City, California; its now-closed Michael Jackson Burn Center was named in his honor. Jackson signed a second agreement with Pepsi in the late 1980s for $10 million (equivalent to $26.8 million in 2023). The second campaign covered 20 countries and provided financial support for Jackson's Bad album and 1987–88 world tour. Jackson had endorsements and advertising deals with other companies, such as LA Gear, Suzuki, and Sony, but none were as significant as his deals with Pepsi. The Victory Tour of 1984 headlined the Jacksons and showcased Jackson's new solo material to more than two million Americans. It was the last tour he did with his brothers. Following controversy over the concert's ticket sales, Jackson donated his share of the proceeds, an estimated $3 to 5 million, to charity. During the last concert of the Victory Tour at the Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Jackson announced his split from the Jacksons during "Shake Your Body". With Lionel Richie, Jackson co-wrote the charity single "We Are the World" (1985), which raised money for the poor in the US and Africa. It earned $63 million (equivalent to $178 million in 2023), and became one of the best-selling singles of all time, with 20 million copies sold. It won four Grammy Awards in 1985, including Song of the Year for Jackson and Richie. Jackson, Jones, and the promoter Ken Kragen received special awards for their roles in the song's creation. Jackson collaborated with Paul McCartney in the early 1980s, and learned that McCartney was making $40 million a year from owning the rights to other artists' songs. By 1983, Jackson had begun buying publishing rights to others' songs, but he was careful with his acquisitions, only bidding on a few of the dozens that were offered to him. Jackson's early acquisitions of music catalogs and song copyrights such as the Sly Stone collection included "Everyday People" (1968), Len Barry's "1-2-3" (1965), and Dion DiMucci's "The Wanderer" (1961) and "Runaround Sue" (1961). In 1984, Robert Holmes à Court announced he was selling the ATV Music Publishing catalog comprising the publishing rights to nearly 4,000 songs, including most of the Beatles' material. In 1981, McCartney had been offered the catalog for £20 million ($40 million) (equivalent to $134 million in 2023). Jackson submitted a bid of $46 million (equivalent to $135 million in 2023) on November 20, 1984. When Jackson and McCartney were unable to make a joint purchase, McCartney did not want to be the sole owner of the Beatles' songs, and did not pursue an offer on his own. Jackson's agents were unable to come to a deal, and in May 1985 left talks after having spent more than $1 million and four months of due diligence work on the negotiations. In June 1985, Jackson and Branca learned that Charles Koppelman's and Marty Bandier's The Entertainment Company had made a tentative offer to buy ATV Music for $50 million; in early August, Holmes à Court contacted Jackson and talks resumed. Jackson's increased bid of $47.5 million (equivalent to $135 million in 2023) was accepted because he could close the deal more quickly, having already completed due diligence. Jackson agreed to visit Holmes à Court in Australia, where he would appear on the Channel Seven Perth Telethon. His purchase of ATV Music was finalized on August 10, 1985. Increased tabloid speculation (1986–1987) Jackson's skin had been medium-brown during his youth, but from the mid-1980s gradually grew paler. The change drew widespread media coverage, including speculation that he had been bleaching his skin. His dermatologist, Arnold Klein, said he observed in 1983 that Jackson had vitiligo, a condition characterized by patches of the skin losing their pigment. He also identified discoid lupus erythematosus in Jackson. He diagnosed Jackson with lupus that year, and with vitiligo in 1986. Vitiligo's drastic effects on the body can cause psychological distress. Jackson used fair-colored makeup, and possibly skin-bleaching prescription creams, to cover up the uneven blotches of color caused by the illness. The creams would depigment the blotches, and, with the application of makeup, he could appear very pale. Jackson said he had not purposely bleached his skin and could not control his vitiligo, adding, "When people make up stories that I don't want to be who I am, it hurts me." He became friends with Klein and Klein's assistant, Debbie Rowe. Rowe later became Jackson's second wife and the mother of his first two children. In his 1988 autobiography and a 1993 interview, Jackson said he had had two rhinoplasty surgeries and a cleft chin surgery but no more than that. He said he lost weight in the early 1980s because of a change in diet to achieve a dancer's body. Witnesses reported that he was often dizzy, and speculated he was suffering from anorexia nervosa. Periods of weight loss became a recurring problem later in his life. After his death, Jackson's mother said that he first turned to cosmetic procedures to remedy his vitiligo, because he did not want to look like a "spotted cow". She said he had received more than the two cosmetic surgeries he claimed and speculated that he had become addicted to them. In 1986, it was reported that Jackson slept in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber to slow aging. He denied the story, although it was alleged that Jackson leaked an image of him sleeping in a glass chamber (according to Jackson, this was a promotional shot from an upcoming space opera featuring himself) to The National Enquirer. It was also reported that Jackson took female hormone shots to keep his voice high and facial hair wispy, proposed to Elizabeth Taylor and possibly had a shrine of her, and had cosmetic surgery on his eyes. Jackson's manager Frank DiLeo denied all of them, except for Jackson having a chamber. DiLeo added "I don't know if he sleeps in it. I'm not for it. But Michael thinks it's something that's probably healthy for him. He's a bit of a health fanatic." When Jackson took his pet chimpanzee Bubbles to tour in Japan, the media portrayed Jackson as an aspiring Disney cartoon character who befriended animals. It was also reported that Jackson had offered to buy the bones of Joseph Merrick (the "Elephant Man"). In June 1987, the Chicago Tribune reported Jackson's publicist bidding $1 million for the skeleton to the London Hospital Medical College on his behalf. The college maintained the skeleton was not for sale. DiLeo said Jackson had an "absorbing interest" in Merrick, "purely based on his awareness of the ethical, medical and historical significance." In September 1986, using the oxygen chamber story, the British tabloid The Sun branded Jackson "Wacko Jacko", a name Jackson came to despise. The Atlantic noted that the name "Jacko" has racist connotations, as it originates from Jacko Macacco, a monkey used in monkey-baiting matches at the Westminster Pit in the early 1820s, and "Jacko" was used in Cockney slang to refer to monkeys in general. Jackson worked with George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola on the 17-minute $30 million 3D film Captain EO, which ran from 1986 at Disneyland and Epcot, and later at Tokyo Disneyland and Euro Disneyland. After having been removed in the late 1990s, it returned to the theme park for several years after Jackson's death. In 1987, Ebony reported that Jackson had disassociated himself from the Jehovah's Witnesses. Katherine Jackson said this might have been because some Witnesses strongly opposed the Thriller video, which Michael denounced in a Witness publication in 1984. In 2001, Jackson told an interviewer he was still a Jehovah's Witness. Bad, autobiography, and Neverland (1987–1990) Jackson's first album in five years, Bad (1987), was highly anticipated, with the industry expecting another major success. It became the first album to produce five US number-one singles: "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "Bad", "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Man in the Mirror", and "Dirty Diana". Another song, "Smooth Criminal", peaked at number seven. Bad won the 1988 Grammy for Best Engineered Recording – Non Classical and the 1990 Grammy Award for Best Music Video, Short Form for "Leave Me Alone". Jackson won an Award of Achievement at the American Music Awards in 1989 after Bad generated five number-one singles, became the first album to top the charts in 25 countries and the bestselling album worldwide in 1987 and 1988. By 2012, it had sold between 30 and 45 million copies worldwide. The Bad World Tour ran from September 12, 1987, to January 27, 1989. In Japan, the tour had 14 sellouts and drew 570,000 people, nearly tripling the previous record for a single tour. The 504,000 people who attended seven sold-out shows at Wembley Stadium set a new Guinness World Record. In 1988, Jackson released his autobiography, Moonwalk, with input from Stephen Davis and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. It sold 200,000 copies, and reached the top of the New York Times bestsellers list. Jackson discussed his childhood, the Jackson 5, and the abuse from his father. He attributed his changing facial appearance to three plastic surgeries, puberty, weight loss, a strict vegetarian diet, a change in hairstyle, and stage lighting. In June, Jackson was honored with the Grand Vermeil Medal of the City of Paris by the then Mayor of Paris Jacques Chirac during his stay in the city as part of the Bad World Tour. On July 20, Jackson became the first commoner in history to enter London's Guildhall through the building's Royal Entrance. In October, Jackson released a film, Moonwalker, which featured live footage and short films starring Jackson and Joe Pesci. In the US it was released direct-to-video and became the bestselling video cassette in the country. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified it as eight times Platinum in the US. In March 1988, Jackson purchased 2,700 acres (11 km2) of land near Santa Ynez, California, to build a new home, Neverland Ranch, at a cost of $17 million (equivalent to $44 million in 2023). He installed a Ferris wheel, a carousel, a movie theater and a zoo. A security staff of 40 patrolled the grounds. Shortly afterwards, he appeared in the first Western television advertisement in the Soviet Union. Jackson became known as the "King of Pop", a nickname that Jackson's publicists embraced. When Elizabeth Taylor presented him with the Soul Train Heritage Award in 1989, she called him "the true king of pop, rock and soul." President George H. W. Bush designated him the White House's "Artist of the Decade". At the 38th BMI Awards in 1990, Jackson was the first person to be honored with an award named after its recipient. From 1985 to 1990, Jackson donated $455,000 to the United Negro College Fund, and all profits from his single "Man in the Mirror" went to charity. His rendition of "You Were There" at Sammy Davis Jr.'s 60th birthday celebration won Jackson a second Emmy nomination. Jackson was the bestselling artist of the 1980s. Dangerous and public social work (1991–1993) In March 1991, Jackson renewed his contract with Sony for $65 million (equivalent to $145 million in 2023), a record-breaking deal, beating Neil Diamond's renewal contract with Columbia Records. In 1991, he released his eighth album, Dangerous, co-produced with Teddy Riley. It was certified eight times platinum in the US, and by 2018 had sold 32 million copies worldwide. In the US, the first single, "Black or White", was the album's highest-charting song; it was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks and achieved similar chart performances worldwide. The second single, "Remember the Time" peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. At the end of 1992, Dangerous was the bestselling album of the year worldwide and "Black or White" the bestselling single of the year worldwide at the Billboard Music Awards. In 1993, he performed "Remember the Time" at the Soul Train Music Awards in a chair, saying he twisted his ankle during dance rehearsals. In the UK, "Heal the World" made No. 2 on the charts in 1992. Jackson founded the Heal the World Foundation in 1992. The charity brought underprivileged children to Jackson's ranch to use the theme park rides, and sent millions of dollars around the globe to help children threatened by war, poverty, and disease. That July, Jackson published his second book, Dancing the Dream, a collection of poetry. The Dangerous World Tour ran between June 1992 and November 1993 and grossed $100 million (equivalent to $210 million in 2023); Jackson performed for over 3.5 million people in 70 concerts, all of which were outside the US. Part of the proceeds went to Heal the World Foundation. Jackson sold the broadcast rights of the tour to HBO for $20 million, a record-breaking deal that still stands. Following the death of HIV/AIDS spokesperson and friend Ryan White, Jackson pleaded with the Clinton administration at Bill Clinton's inaugural gala to give more money to HIV/AIDS charities and research and performed "Gone Too Soon", a song dedicated to White, and "Heal the World" at the gala. Jackson visited Africa in early 1992; on his first stop in Gabon he was greeted by more than 100,000 people, some of them carrying signs that read "Welcome Home Michael", and was awarded an Officer of the National Order of Merit from President Omar Bongo. During his trip to Ivory Coast, Jackson drew larger crowds than Pope John Paul II on his previous visits. He was crowned "King Sani" by a tribal chief in the Ivorian village of Krindjabo, where he thanked the dignitaries in French and English, signed documents formalizing his kingship, and sat on a golden throne while presiding over ceremonial dances. In January 1993, Jackson performed at the Super Bowl XXVII halftime show in Pasadena, California. The NFL sought a big-name artist to keep ratings high during halftime following dwindling audience figures. With 133.4 million viewers, it was the first Super Bowl whose halftime show drew greater audience figures than the game. Jackson played "Jam", "Billie Jean", "Black or White", and "Heal the World". Dangerous rose 90 places in the US albums chart after the performance. Jackson gave a 90-minute interview with Oprah Winfrey on February 10, 1993. He spoke of his childhood abuse at the hands of his father; he believed he had missed out on much of his childhood, and said that he often cried from loneliness. He denied tabloid rumors that he had bought the bones of the Elephant Man, slept in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, or bleached his skin, and stated for the first time that he had vitiligo. After the interview, Dangerous re-entered the US albums chart in the top 10, more than a year after its release. The interview itself became the most-watched television interview in United States history to date, with more than 90 million viewers. In January 1993, Jackson won three American Music Awards: Favorite Pop/Rock Album (Dangerous), Favorite Soul/R&B Single ("Remember the Time"), and was the first to win the International Artist Award of Excellence. In February, he won the "Living Legend Award" at the 35th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. He attended the award ceremony with Brooke Shields. Dangerous was nominated for Best Vocal Performance (for "Black or White"), Best R&B Vocal Performance ("Jam") and Best R&B Song ("Jam"), and Bruce Swedien and Teddy Riley won the Grammy for Best Engineered – Non Classical. First child sexual abuse accusations and first marriage (1993–1995) In August 1993, Jackson was accused of child sexual abuse by a 13-year-old boy, Jordan Chandler, and his father, Evan Chandler. Jordan said he and Jackson had engaged in acts of kissing, masturbation and oral sex. While Jordan's mother initially told police that she did not believe Jackson had molested him, her position wavered a few days later. Evan was recorded discussing his intention to pursue charges, which Jackson used to argue that he was the victim of a jealous father trying to extort money. Jackson's older sister La Toya accused him of being a pedophile; she later retracted this, saying she had been forced into it by her abusive husband. Police raided Jackson's home in August and found two legal large-format art books featuring young boys playing, running and swimming in various states of undress. Jackson denied knowing of the books' content and claimed if they were there someone had to send them to him and he did not open them. Jordan Chandler gave police a description of Jackson's genitals. A strip search was made, and the jurors felt the description was not a match. In January 1994, Jackson settled with the Chandlers out of court for a reported total sum of $23 million. The police never pressed criminal charges. Citing a lack of evidence without Jordan's testimony, the state closed its investigation on September 22, 1994. Jackson had been taking painkillers for his reconstructive scalp surgeries, administered due to the Pepsi commercial accident in 1984, and became dependent on them to cope with the stress of the sexual abuse allegations. On November 12, 1993, Jackson canceled the remainder of the Dangerous World Tour due to health problems, stress from the allegations and painkiller addiction. He thanked his close friend Elizabeth Taylor for support, encouragement and counsel. The end of the tour concluded his sponsorship deal with Pepsi. In late 1993, Jackson proposed to Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis Presley, over the phone. They married in La Vega, Dominican Republic, in May 1994 by civil judge Hugo Francisco Álvarez Pérez. The tabloid media speculated that the wedding was a publicity stunt to deflect away from Jackson's sexual abuse allegations and jump-start Presley's career as a singer. Their marriage ended little more than a year later, and they separated in December 1995. Presley cited "irreconcilable differences" when filing for divorce the next month and only sought to reclaim her maiden name as her settlement. After the divorce, Judge Pérez said, "They lasted longer than I thought they would. I gave them a year. They lasted a year and a half." Presley later said she and Jackson had attempted to reconcile intermittently for four years following their divorce, and that she had traveled the world to be with him. Jackson composed music for the Sega Genesis video game Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (1994), but left the project around the time the sexual abuse allegations surfaced and went uncredited. The Sega Technical Institute director Roger Hector and the Sonic co-creator Naoto Ohshima said that Jackson's involvement was terminated and his music reworked following the allegations. However, Jackson's musical director Brad Buxer and other members of Jackson's team said Jackson went uncredited because he was unhappy with how the Genesis replicated his music. HIStory, second marriage, fatherhood and Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix (1995–1997) In June 1995, Jackson released the double album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I. The first disc, HIStory Begins, is a greatest hits album (reissued in 2001 as Greatest Hits: HIStory, Volume I). The second disc, HIStory Continues, contains 13 original songs and two cover versions. The album debuted at number one on the charts and has been certified for eight million shipments in the US. It is the bestselling multi-disc album of all time, with 20 million copies (40 million units) sold worldwide. HIStory received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. The New York Times reviewed it as "the testimony of a musician whose self-pity now equals his talent". The first single from HIStory was "Scream/Childhood". "Scream", a duet with Jackson's youngest sister Janet, protests the media's treatment of Jackson during the 1993 child abuse allegations against him. The single reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100, and received a Grammy nomination for "Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals". The second single, "You Are Not Alone", holds the Guinness world record for the first song to debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It received a Grammy nomination for "Best Pop Vocal Performance" in 1995. In 1995 the Anti-Defamation League and other groups complained that "Jew me, sue me, everybody do me/ Kick me, kike me, don't you black or white me", the original lyrics of "They Don't Care About Us", were antisemitic. Jackson released a revised version of the song. In late 1995, Jackson was admitted to a hospital after collapsing during rehearsals for a televised performance, caused by a stress-related panic attack. In November, Jackson merged his ATV Music catalog with Sony's music publishing division, creating Sony/ATV Music Publishing. He retained ownership of half the company, earning $95 million up front (equivalent to $190 million in 2023) as well as the rights to more songs. "Earth Song" was the third single released from HIStory, and topped the UK Singles Chart for six weeks over Christmas 1995. It became the 87th-bestselling single in the UK. At the 1996 Brit Awards, Jackson's performance of "Earth Song" was disrupted by Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker, who was protesting what Cocker saw as Jackson's "Christ-like" persona. Jackson said the stage invasion was "disgusting and cowardly". In 1996, Jackson won a Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form, for "Scream" and an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist. In July 1996, Jackson performed for Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah's fiftieth birthday at Jerudong Park Amphitheater, which was specifically built for that birthday concert. Jackson was reportedly paid $17 million (equivalent to $33 million in 2023). Jackson promoted HIStory with the HIStory World Tour, from September 7, 1996, to October 15, 1997. He performed 82 concerts in five continents, 35 countries and 58 cities to over 4.5 million fans, his most attended tour. It grossed $165 million. During the tour, in Sydney, Australia, Jackson married Debbie Rowe, a dermatology assistant, who was six months pregnant with his first child. Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. (commonly known as Prince) was born on February 13, 1997. His sister Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson was born on April 3, 1998. Jackson and Rowe divorced in 2000, Rowe conceded custody of the children, with an $8 million settlement (equivalent to $14.6 million in 2023). In 2004, after the second child abuse allegations against Jackson, she returned to court to reclaim custody. The suit was settled in 2006. In 1997, Jackson released Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix, which contained remixes of singles from HIStory and five new songs. Worldwide sales stand at 6 million copies, making it the best-selling remix album. It reached number one in the UK, as did the single "Blood on the Dance Floor". In the US, the album reached number 24 and was certified platinum. Label dispute and Invincible (1997–2002) From October 1997 to September 2001, Jackson worked on his tenth solo album, Invincible, which cost $30 million (equivalent to $51.6 million in 2023) to record, making it the most expensive album of all time. In June 1999, Jackson joined Luciano Pavarotti for a War Child benefit concert in Modena, Italy. The show raised a million dollars for refugees of the Kosovo War, and additional funds for the children of Guatemala. Later that month, Jackson organized a series of "Michael Jackson & Friends" benefit concerts in Germany and Korea. Other artists involved included Slash, The Scorpions, Boyz II Men, Luther Vandross, Mariah Carey, A. R. Rahman, Prabhu Deva Sundaram, Shobana, Andrea Bocelli and Luciano Pavarotti. The proceeds went to the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, the Red Cross and UNESCO. In 1999, Jackson was presented with the "Outstanding Humanitarian Award" at Bollywood Movie Awards in New York City where he noted Mahatma Gandhi to have been an inspiration for him. From August 1999 to 2000, he lived in New York City at 4 East 74th Street. At the turn of the century, Jackson was awarded with the Artist of the 1980s Decade Award at the 27th American Music Awards, and the Best-Selling Pop Male Artist of the Millennium Award at the 12nd World Music Awards. In 2000, Guinness World Records recognized him for supporting 39 charities, more than any other entertainer. In September 2001, two concerts were held at Madison Square Garden to mark Jackson's 30th year as a solo artist. Jackson performed with his brothers for the first time since 1984. The show also featured Mýa, Usher, Whitney Houston, Destiny's Child, Monica, Liza Minnelli and Slash. The first show was marred by technical lapses, and the crowd booed a speech by Marlon Brando. 45 million people watched the television broadcast of the shows in November according to Nielsen Media Research. After the September 11 attacks (in which Jackson narrowly avoided death by oversleeping and missing a scheduled meeting at the World Trade Center), Jackson helped organize the United We Stand: What More Can I Give benefit concert at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington, D.C., on October 21, 2001. Jackson performed "What More Can I Give" as the finale. The release of Invincible was preceded by a dispute between Jackson and his record label, Sony Music Entertainment. Jackson had expected the licenses to the masters of his albums to revert to him in the early 2000s, after which he would be able to promote the material however he pleased and keep the profits, but clauses in the contract set the revert date years into the future. Jackson sought an early exit from his contract. Invincible was released on October 30, 2001. It was Jackson's first full-length album in six years, and the last album of original material he released in his lifetime. It debuted at number one in 13 countries, and went on to sell eight million copies worldwide, receiving double-platinum certification in the US. On January 9, 2002, Jackson won his 22nd American Music Award for Artist of the Century. Later that year, an anonymous surrogate mother gave birth to his third child, Prince Michael Jackson II (nicknamed "Blanket"), who had been conceived by artificial insemination. On November 20, Jackson briefly held Blanket over the railing of his Berlin hotel room, four stories above ground level, prompting widespread criticism in the media. Jackson apologized for the incident, calling it "a terrible mistake". On January 22, promoter Marcel Avram filed a breach of contract complaint against Jackson for failing to perform two planned 1999 concerts. In March, a Santa Maria jury ordered Jackson to pay Avram $5.3 million. On December 18, 2003, Jackson's attorneys dropped all appeals on the verdict and settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed amount. On April 24, 2002, Jackson performed at Apollo Theater. The concert was a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee and former President Bill Clinton. The money collected would be used to encourage citizens to vote. It raised $2.5 million. The concert was called Michael Jackson: Live at the Apollo and was one of Jackson's final on-stage performances. In July 2002, at Al Sharpton's National Action Network in Harlem, Jackson called the Sony Music chairman Tommy Mottola "a racist, and very, very, very devilish", and accused him of exploiting black artists for his own gain. The accusation prompted Sharpton to form a coalition investigating whether Mottola exploited black artists. Jackson charged that Mottola had called his colleague Irv Gotti a "fat nigger". Sony issued a statement calling the accusations "ludicrous, spiteful, and hurtful" and said Mottola had championed Jackson's career for years. Sony refused to renew Jackson's contract and said that a $25 million promotional campaign had failed because Jackson refused to tour in the US for Invincible. Documentary, Number Ones, second child abuse allegations and acquittal (2002–2005) Beginning in May 2002, a documentary film crew led by Martin Bashir followed Jackson for several months. The documentary, broadcast in February 2003 as Living with Michael Jackson, showed Jackson holding hands and discussing sleeping arrangements with a twelve-year-old boy. He said that he saw nothing wrong with having sleepovers with minors and sharing his bed and bedroom with various people, which aroused controversy. He insisted that the sleepovers were not sexual and that his words had been misunderstood. In October 2003, Jackson received the Key to the City of Las Vegas from Mayor Oscar Goodman. On November 18, 2003, Sony released Number Ones, a greatest hits compilation. It was certified five times platinum by the RIAA, and ten times platinum in the UK, for shipments of at least 3 million units. On December 18, 2003, Santa Barbara authorities charged Jackson with seven counts of child molestation and two counts of intoxicating a minor with alcoholic drinks. Jackson denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty. The People v. Jackson trial began on January 31, 2005, in Santa Maria, California, and lasted until the end of May. Jackson found the experience stressful and it affected his health. If convicted, he would have faced up to twenty years in prison. On June 13, 2005, Jackson was acquitted on all counts. FBI files on Jackson, released in 2009, revealed the FBI's role in the 2005 trial and the 1993 allegations, and showed that the FBI found no evidence of criminal conduct on Jackson's behalf. Final years, financial problems, Thriller 25 and This Is It (2005–2009) After the trial, Jackson became reclusive. In June 2005, he moved to Bahrain as a guest of Sheikh Abdullah. In early 2006, it was announced that Jackson had signed a contract with a Bahrain startup, Two Seas Records. Nothing came of the deal, and the Two Seas CEO, Guy Holmes, later said it was never finalized. Holmes also found that Jackson was on the verge of bankruptcy and was involved in 47 ongoing lawsuits. By September 2006, Jackson was no longer affiliated with Two Seas. In April 2006, Jackson agreed to use a piece of his ATV catalog stake, then worth about $1 billion, as collateral against his $270 million worth of loans from Bank of America. Bank of America had sold the loans to Fortress Investments, an investment company that buys distressed loans, the year before. As part of the agreement, Fortress Investments provided Jackson a new loan of $300 million with reduced interest payments (equivalent to $450 million in 2023). Sony Music would have the option to buy half of his stake, or about 25% of the catalog, at a set price. Jackson's financial managers had urged him to shed part of his stake to avoid bankruptcy. The main house at Neverland Ranch was closed as a cost-cutting measure, while Jackson lived in Bahrain at the hospitality of Abdullah. At least thirty of Jackson's employees had not been paid on time and were owed $306,000 in back wages. Jackson was ordered to pay $100,000 in penalties. Jackson never returned to Neverland after his acquittal. In mid-2006, Jackson moved to Grouse Lodge, a residential recording studio near Rosemount, County Westmeath, Ireland. There, he began work on a new album with the American producers will.i.am and Rodney Jenkins. That November, Jackson invited an Access Hollywood camera crew into the studio in Westmeath. On November 15, Jackson briefly joined in on a performance of "We Are the World" at the World Music Awards in London, his last public performance, and accepted the Diamond Award for sales of 100 million records. He returned to the US in December, settling in Las Vegas. That month, he attended James Brown's funeral in Augusta, Georgia, where he gave a eulogy calling Brown his greatest inspiration. In 2007, Jackson and Sony bought another music publishing company, Famous Music LLC, formerly owned by Viacom. The deal gave Jackson the rights to songs by Eminem and Beck, among others. In a brief interview, Jackson said he had no regrets about his career despite his problems and "deliberate attempts to hurt [him]". That March, Jackson visited a US Army post in Japan, Camp Zama, to greet more than 3,000 troops and their families. As of September, Jackson was still working on his next album, which he never completed. In 2008, for the 25th anniversary of Thriller, Jackson and Sony released Thriller 25, with two remixes released as singles: "The Girl Is Mine 2008" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' 2008". For Jackson's 50th birthday, Sony BMG released a series of greatest hits albums, King of Pop, with different tracklists for different regions. That July, Fortress Investments threatened to foreclose on Neverland Ranch, which Jackson had used as collateral for his loans. Fortress sold Jackson's debts to Colony Capital LLC. In November, Jackson transferred Neverland Ranch's title to Sycamore Valley Ranch Company LLC, a joint venture between Jackson and Colony Capital LLC. The deal earned him $35 million. In 2009, Jackson arranged to sell a collection of his memorabilia of more than 1,000 items through Julien's Auction House, but canceled the auction in April. In March 2009, amid speculation about his finances and health, Jackson announced a series of comeback concerts, This Is It, at a press conference at the O2 Arena. The shows were to be his first major concerts since the HIStory World Tour in 1997. Jackson suggested he would retire after the shows. The initial plan was for ten concerts in London, followed by shows in Paris, New York City and Mumbai. Randy Phillips, the president and chief executive of AEG Live, predicted the first ten dates would earn Jackson £50 million. The London residency was increased to fifty dates after record-breaking ticket sales; more than one million were sold in less than two hours. The concerts were to run from July 13, 2009, to March 6, 2010. Jackson moved to Los Angeles, where he rehearsed in the weeks leading up to the tour under the direction of the choreographer Kenny Ortega, whom he had worked with during his previous tours. Rehearsals took place at the Forum and the Staples Center owned by AEG. By this point, Jackson's debt had grown to almost $500 million. By the time of his death, he was three or four months behind payments on his home in San Fernando Valley. The Independent reported that Jackson planned a string of further ventures designed to recoup his debts, including a world tour, a new album, films, a museum and a casino. Death On June 25, 2009, less than three weeks before his concert residency was due to begin in London, with all concerts sold out, Jackson died from cardiac arrest, caused by a propofol and benzodiazepine overdose. Conrad Murray, his personal physician, had given Jackson various medications to help him sleep at his rented mansion in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles. Paramedics received a 911 call at 12:21 pm Pacific time (19:21 UTC) and arrived at the property four minutes later. Jackson was not breathing and CPR was performed. Resuscitation efforts continued en route to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, and for more than an hour after Jackson's arrival there, but were unsuccessful, and Jackson was pronounced dead at 2:26 pm Pacific time (21:26 UTC). Murray had administered propofol, lorazepam, and midazolam; Jackson's death was caused by a propofol overdose. News of his death spread quickly online, causing websites to slow down and crash from user overload, and it put unprecedented strain on many services and websites including Google, AOL Instant Messenger, Twitter and Wikipedia. Overall, web traffic rose by between 11% and 20%. MTV and BET aired marathons of Jackson's music videos, and Jackson specials aired on television stations around the world. MTV briefly returned to its original music video format, and they aired hours of Jackson's music videos, with live news specials featuring reactions from MTV personalities and other celebrities. Memorial service Jackson's memorial was held on July 7, 2009, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, preceded by a private family service at Forest Lawn Memorial Park's Hall of Liberty. Over 1.6 million fans applied for tickets to the memorial; the 8,750 recipients were drawn at random, and each received two tickets. The memorial service was one of the most watched events in streaming history, with an estimated US audience of 31.1 million and a worldwide audience of an estimated 2.5 to 3 billion. Mariah Carey, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, Jennifer Hudson, and Shaheen Jafargholi performed at the memorial, and Smokey Robinson and Queen Latifah gave eulogies. Al Sharpton received a standing ovation with cheers when he told Jackson's children: "Wasn't nothing strange about your daddy. It was strange what your daddy had to deal with. But he dealt with it anyway." Jackson's 11-year-old daughter Paris Katherine, speaking publicly for the first time, wept as she addressed the crowd. Lucious Smith provided a closing prayer. On September 3, 2009, the body of Jackson was entombed at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. Criminal investigation and prosecution of Conrad Murray In August 2009, the Los Angeles County Coroner ruled that Jackson's death was a homicide. Law enforcement officials charged Murray with involuntary manslaughter on February 8, 2010. In late 2011, he was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and held without bail to await sentencing. Murray was sentenced to four years in prison, but was released after one year and eleven months. Posthumous sales At the 2009 American Music Awards, Jackson won four posthumous awards, including two for his compilation album Number Ones, bringing his total American Music Awards to 26. In the year after his death, more than 16.1 million copies of Jackson's albums were sold in the US alone, and 35 million copies were sold worldwide, more than any other artist in 2009. He became the first artist to sell one million music downloads in a week, with 2.6 million song downloads. Thriller, Number Ones and The Essential Michael Jackson became the first catalog albums to outsell any new album. Jackson also became the first artist to have four of the top-20 bestselling albums in a single year in the US. Within the year following his death, Jackson sold over 75 million records worldwide. By the end of 2013, Jackson had sold over 50 million albums worldwide since his death. Following the surge in sales, in March 2010, Sony Music signed a $250 million deal (equivalent to $350 million in 2023) with the Jackson estate to extend their distribution rights to Jackson's back catalog until at least 2017; it had been due to expire in 2015. It was the most expensive music contract for a single artist in history. They agreed to release ten albums of previously unreleased material and new collections of released work. The deal was extended in 2017. That July, a Los Angeles court awarded Quincy Jones $9.4 million of disputed royalty payments for Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad. In July 2018, Sony/ATV bought the estate's stake in EMI for $287.5 million. In 2014, Jackson became the first artist to have a top-ten single in the Billboard Hot 100 in five different decades. The following year, Thriller became the first album to be certified for 30 million shipments by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). A year later, it was certified 33× platinum after Soundscan added streams and audio downloads to album certifications. In February 2024, Sony Music acquired half of Jackson's publishing rights and recording masters for an estimated $600 million. The deal includes assets from Jackson's Mijac publishing catalog, but excludes royalties from several Jackson-related productions, including the MJ Broadway musical and the Michael biopic. The deal is possibly the largest transaction ever for a single musician's work. Posthumous releases and productions Jackson's posthumous releases and productions are administered by the estate of Michael Jackson, which owns Jackson's trademarks and rights to his name, image and likeness. The first posthumous Jackson song, "This Is It", co-written in the 1980s with Paul Anka, was released in October 2009. The surviving Jackson brothers reunited to record backing vocals. It was followed by a documentary film about the rehearsals for the canceled This Is It tour, Michael Jackson's This Is It, and a compilation album. Despite a limited two-week engagement, the film became the highest-grossing documentary or concert film ever, with earnings of more than $260 million worldwide. Jackson's estate received 90% of the profits. In late 2010, Sony released the first posthumous album, Michael, and the lead single "Hold My Hand", a duet with Akon. The Jackson collaborator will.i.am expressed disgust, saying that Jackson would not have approved the release. The video game developer Ubisoft released a music game featuring Jackson for the 2010 holiday season, Michael Jackson: The Experience. It was among the first games to use Kinect and PlayStation Move, the motion-detecting camera systems for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. In April 2011, Mohamed Al-Fayed, the chairman of Fulham Football Club, unveiled a statue of Jackson outside the club stadium, Craven Cottage. It was moved to the National Football Museum in Manchester in May 2014, and removed from display in March 2019 following renewed sexual assault allegations. In October 2011, the theater company Cirque du Soleil launched Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour, a $57-million production, in Montreal, with a permanent show resident in Las Vegas. A larger and more theatrical Cirque show, Michael Jackson: One, designed for residency at the Mandalay Bay resort in Las Vegas, opened on May 23, 2013, in a renovated theater. In 2012, in an attempt to end a family dispute, Jackson's brother Jermaine retracted his signature on a public letter criticizing executors of Jackson's estate and his mother's advisors over the legitimacy of his brother's will. T.J. Jackson, the son of Tito Jackson, was given co-guardianship of Michael Jackson's children after false reports of Katherine Jackson going missing. Xscape, an album of unreleased material, was released on May 13, 2014. The lead single, a duet between Jackson and Justin Timberlake, "Love Never Felt So Good", reached number 9 on the US Billboard Hot 100, making Jackson the first artist to have a top-10 single on the chart in five different decades. Later in 2014, Queen released a duet recorded with Jackson in the 1980s. A compilation album, Scream, was released on September 29, 2017. A jukebox musical, MJ the Musical, premiered on Broadway in 2022. Myles Frost won the 2022 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Jackson. On November 18, 2022, Epic released a 40th-anniversary edition reissue of Thriller. A biographical film based on Jackson's life, Michael, directed by Antoine Fuqua, is scheduled for April 2025. Jackson is played by his nephew Jaafar Jackson. Deadline Hollywood reported that the film "will not shy away from the controversies of Jackson's life". Posthumous child sexual abuse allegations In 2013, choreographer Wade Robson filed a lawsuit alleging that Jackson had sexually abused him for seven years, beginning when he was seven years old (1989–1996). In 2014, a case was filed by James Safechuck, alleging similar sexual abuse over a four-year period starting when Safechuck was ten (1988–1992). Both had previously testified in Jackson's defense during the 1993 allegations; Robson did so again in 2005. In 2015, Robson's case against Jackson's estate was dismissed as it had been filed too late. Safechuck's claim was also time-barred. In 2017, it was ruled that Jackson's corporations could not be held accountable for his alleged past actions. The rulings were appealed. On October 20, 2020, Safechuck's lawsuit against Jackson's corporations was again dismissed. The judge ruled that there was no evidence that Safechuck had had a relationship with Jackson's corporation, nor was it proven that there was a special relationship between the two. On April 26, 2021, Robson's case was dismissed because of a lack of supporting evidence that the defendants exercised control over Jackson. Robson and Safechuck's allegations were the subject of the documentary film Leaving Neverland, released in March 2019. Radio stations in New Zealand, Canada, the UK and the Netherlands removed Jackson's music from their playlists. Jackson's family condemned the film as a "public lynching", and the Jackson estate released a statement calling the film a "tabloid character assassination [Jackson] endured in life, and now in death". Close associates of Jackson, such as Corey Feldman, Aaron Carter, Brett Barnes, and Macaulay Culkin, defended Jackson in the wake of the documentary's release, saying that Jackson had never molested them. Documentaries such as Square One: Michael Jackson, Neverland Firsthand: Investigating the Michael Jackson Documentary and Michael Jackson: Chase the Truth, presented information countering the claims suggested by Leaving Neverland. Jackson's album sales increased following the documentary screenings. Billboard senior editor Gail Mitchell said she and a colleague interviewed about thirty music executives who believed Jackson's legacy could withstand the controversy. In late 2019, some New Zealand and Canadian radio stations re-added Jackson's music to their playlists, citing "positive listener survey results". On February 21, 2019, the Jackson estate sued HBO for breaching a non-disparagement clause from a 1992 contract. The suit sought to compel HBO to participate in a non-confidential arbitration that could result in $100 million or more in damages awarded to the estate. HBO said they did not breach a contract and filed an anti-SLAPP motion against the estate. In September 2019, Judge George H. Wu denied HBO's motion to dismiss the case, allowing the Jackson estate to arbitrate. HBO appealed, but in December 2020 the appeals court affirmed Wu's ruling. In 2020, a state law passed in California which granted plaintiffs in child sex abuse cases an additional period to file lawsuits. In October 2020 and again in April 2021, the Los Angeles County Superior Court ruled that MJJ Productions Inc. and MJJ Ventures Inc. employees were not legally obligated to protect the two men from Jackson. In August 2023, California's Second District Court of Appeal overturned the ruling, and the case was approved to move forward to trial court. Legacy Jackson has been referred to as the "King of Pop" for having transformed the art of music videos and paving the way for modern pop music. For much of Jackson's career, he had an unparalleled worldwide influence over the younger generation. His influence extended beyond the music industry; he impacted dance, led fashion trends, and raised awareness for global affairs. Jackson's music and videos fostered racial diversity in MTV's roster and steered its focus from rock to pop music and R&B, leading to the discontinuation of the album-oriented rock format previously dominant on the channel. In songs such as "Black or White", "Heal the World", "Earth Song" and "They Don't Care About Us", Jackson's music emphasized racial integration and environmentalism and protested injustice. He is recognized as the Most Successful Entertainer of All Time by Guinness World Records. Jackson has also appeared on Rolling Stone's lists of the Greatest Singers of All Time. He is considered one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century, and his contributions to music, dance, and fashion, along with his publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades.Trying to trace Michael Jackson's influence on the pop stars that followed him is like trying to trace the influence of oxygen and gravity. So vast, far-reaching and was his impact—particularly in the wake of Thriller's colossal and heretofore unmatched commercial success—that there weren't a whole lot of artists who weren't trying to mimic some of the Jackson formula. Danyel Smith, chief content officer of Vibe Media Group and the editor-in-chief of Vibe, described Jackson as "the greatest star". Steve Huey of AllMusic called him "an unstoppable juggernaut, possessed of all the skills to dominate the charts seemingly at will: an instantly identifiable voice, eye-popping dance moves, stunning musical versatility and loads of sheer star power". BET said Jackson was "quite simply the greatest entertainer of all time" whose "sound, style, movement and legacy continues to inspire artists of all genres". In 1984, Time pop critic Jay Cocks wrote that "Jackson is the biggest thing since the Beatles. He is the hottest single phenomenon since Elvis Presley. He just may be the most popular black singer ever." He described Jackson as a "star of records, radio, rock video. A one-man rescue team for the music business. A songwriter who sets the beat for a decade. A dancer with the fanciest feet on the street. A singer who cuts across all boundaries of taste and style, and color too." In 2003, The Daily Telegraph writer Tom Utley described Jackson as "extremely important" and a "genius". At Jackson's memorial service on July 7, 2009, Motown founder Berry Gordy called Jackson "the greatest entertainer that ever lived". In a June 28, 2009 Baltimore Sun article, Jill Rosen wrote that Jackson's legacy influenced fields including sound, dance, fashion, music videos and celebrity. Pop critic Robert Christgau wrote that Jackson's work from the 1970s to the early 1990s showed "immense originality, adaptability, and ambition" with "genius beats, hooks, arrangements, and vocals (though not lyrics)", music that "will stand forever as a reproach to the puritanical notion that pop music is slick or shallow and that's the end of it". During the 1990s, as Jackson lost control of his "troubling life", his music suffered and began to shape "an arc not merely of promise fulfilled and outlived, but of something approaching tragedy: a phenomenally ebullient child star tops himself like none before, only to transmute audibly into a lost weirdo". In the 2000s, Christgau wrote: "Jackson's obsession with fame, his grotesque life magnified by his grotesque wealth, are such an offense to rock aesthetes that the fact that he's a great musician is now often forgotten". Philanthropy and humanitarian work Jackson is widely regarded as having been a prolific philanthropist and humanitarian. Jackson's early charitable work has been described by The Chronicle of Philanthropy as having "paved the way for the current surge in celebrity philanthropy", and by the Los Angeles Times as having "set the standard for generosity for other entertainers". By some estimates, he donated over $500 million, not accounting for inflation, to various charities over the course of his life. In 1992, Jackson established his Heal the World Foundation, to which he donated several million dollars in revenue from his Dangerous World Tour. Jackson's philanthropic activities went beyond just monetary donations. He also performed at benefit concerts, some of which he arranged. He gifted tickets for his regular concert performances to groups that assist underprivileged children. He visited sick children in hospitals around the world. He opened his own home for visits by underprivileged or sick children and provided special facilities and nurses if the children needed that level of care. Jackson donated valuable, personal and professional paraphernalia for numerous charity auctions. He received various awards and accolades for his philanthropic work, including two bestowed by presidents of the United States. The vast breadth of Jackson's philanthropic work has earned recognition in the Guinness World Records. On May 14, 1984, President Ronald Reagan gave Jackson an award recognizing his support of alcohol and drug abuse charities, and in recognition of his support for the Ad Council's and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Drunk Driving Prevention campaign. Jackson allowed the campaign to use "Beat It" for its public service announcements. Artistry Influences Jackson was influenced by musicians including James Brown, Little Richard, Jackie Wilson, Diana Ross, Fred Astaire, Sammy Davis Jr., Gene Kelly, and David Ruffin. Little Richard had a substantial influence on Jackson, but Brown was his greatest inspiration. When Jackson was a small child, his mother would wake him whenever Brown appeared on television. Jackson described being "mesmerized". Jackson's vocal technique was influenced by Diana Ross; his use of the oooh interjection from a young age was something Ross had used on many of her songs with the Supremes. She was a mother figure to him, and he often watched her rehearse. He said he had learned a lot from watching how she moved and sang, and that she had encouraged him to have confidence in himself. Choreographer David Winters, who met Jackson while choreographing the 1971 Diana Ross TV special Diana!, said that Jackson watched the musical West Side Story almost every week, and it was his favorite film; he paid tribute to it in "Beat It" and the "Bad" video. Vocal style Jackson sang from childhood, and over time his voice and vocal style changed. Between 1971 and 1975, his voice descended from boy soprano to lyric tenor. He was known for his vocal range. With the arrival of Off the Wall in the late 1970s, Jackson's abilities as a vocalist were well regarded; Rolling Stone compared his vocals to the "breathless, dreamy stutter" of Stevie Wonder, and wrote that "Jackson's feathery-timbred tenor is extraordinarily beautiful. It slides smoothly into a startling falsetto that's used very daringly." By the time of 1982's Thriller, Rolling Stone wrote that Jackson was singing in a "fully adult voice" that was "tinged by sadness". The turn of the 1990s saw the release of the introspective album Dangerous. The New York Times noted that on some tracks, "he gulps for breath, his voice quivers with anxiety or drops to a desperate whisper, hissing through clenched teeth" and he had a "wretched tone". When singing of brotherhood or self-esteem the musician would return to "smooth" vocals. Of Invincible, Rolling Stone wrote that, at 43, Jackson still performed "exquisitely voiced rhythm tracks and vibrating vocal harmonies". Joseph Vogel notes Jackson's ability to use non-verbal sounds to express emotion. Neil McCormick wrote that Jackson's unorthodox singing style "was original and utterly distinctive". Musicianship Jackson had no formal music training and could not read or write music notation. He is credited for playing guitar, keyboard, and drums, but was not proficient in them. When composing, he recorded ideas by beatboxing and imitating instruments vocally. Describing the process, he said: "I'll just sing the bass part into the tape recorder. I'll take that bass lick and put the chords of the melody over the bass lick and that's what inspires the melody." The engineer Robert Hoffman recalled that after Jackson came in with a song he had written overnight, Jackson sang every note of every chord to a guitar player. Hoffman also remembered Jackson singing string arrangements part by part into a cassette recorder. Dance Jackson danced from a young age as part of the Jackson 5, and incorporated dance extensively in his performances and music videos. According to Sanjoy Roy of The Guardian, Jackson would "flick and retract his limbs like switchblades, or snap out of a tornado spin into a perfectly poised toe-stand". The moonwalk, taught to him by Jeffrey Daniel, was Jackson's signature dance move and one of the most famous of the 20th century. Jackson is credited for coining the name "moonwalk" for this street dance move, previously known as the "backslide". His other moves included the robot, crotch grab, and the "anti-gravity" lean of the "Smooth Criminal" video. Themes and genres Jackson explored genres including pop, soul, rhythm and blues, funk, rock, disco, post-disco, dance-pop and new jack swing. Steve Huey of AllMusic wrote that Thriller refined the strengths of Off the Wall; the dance and rock tracks were more aggressive, while the pop tunes and ballads were softer and more soulful. Its tracks included the ballads "The Lady in My Life", "Human Nature", and "The Girl Is Mine", the funk pieces "Billie Jean" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'", and the disco set "Baby Be Mine" and "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)". With Off the Wall, Jackson's "vocabulary of grunts, squeals, hiccups, moans, and asides" vividly showed his maturation into an adult, Robert Christgau wrote in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981). The album's title track suggested to the critic a parallel between Jackson and Stevie Wonder's "oddball" music personas: "Since childhood his main contact with the real world has been on stage and in bed." With Thriller, Christopher Connelly of Rolling Stone commented that Jackson developed his long association with the subliminal theme of paranoia and darker imagery. AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted this on the songs "Billie Jean" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'". In "Billie Jean", Jackson depicts an obsessive fan who alleges he has fathered her child, and in "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" he argues against gossip and the media. "Beat It" decried gang violence in a homage to West Side Story, and was Jackson's first successful rock cross-over piece, according to Huey. He observed that "Thriller" began Jackson's interest with the theme of the supernatural, a topic he revisited in subsequent years. In 1985, Jackson co-wrote the charity anthem "We Are the World"; humanitarian themes later became a recurring theme in his lyrics and public persona.In Bad, Jackson's concept of the predatory lover is seen on the rock song "Dirty Diana". The lead single "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" is a traditional love ballad, and "Man in the Mirror" is a ballad of confession and resolution. "Smooth Criminal" is an evocation of bloody assault, rape and likely murder. AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine states that Dangerous presents Jackson as a paradoxical person. The first half of the record is dedicated to new jack swing, including songs like "Jam" and "Remember the Time". It was the first Jackson album in which social ills became a primary theme; "Why You Wanna Trip on Me", for example, protests world hunger, AIDS, homelessness and drugs. Dangerous contains sexually charged songs such as "In the Closet". The title track continues the theme of the predatory lover and compulsive desire. The second half includes introspective, pop-gospel anthems such as "Will You Be There", "Heal the World" and "Keep the Faith". In the ballad "Gone Too Soon", Jackson gives tribute to Ryan White and the plight of those with AIDS. HIStory creates an atmosphere of paranoia. In the new jack swing-funk rock tracks "Scream" and "Tabloid Junkie", and the R&B ballad "You Are Not Alone", Jackson retaliates against the injustice and isolation he feels, and directs his anger at the media. In the introspective ballad "Stranger in Moscow", Jackson laments his "fall from grace"; "Earth Song", "Childhood", "Little Susie" and "Smile" are operatic pop songs. In "D.S.", Jackson attacks lawyer Thomas W. Sneddon Jr., who had prosecuted him in both child sexual abuse cases; he describes Sneddon as a white supremacist who wanted to "get my ass, dead or alive". Invincible includes urban soul tracks such as "Cry" and "The Lost Children", ballads such as "Speechless", "Break of Dawn", and "Butterflies", and mixes hip hop, pop, and R&B in "2000 Watts", "Heartbreaker" and "Invincible". Music videos and choreography Jackson released "Thriller", a 14-minute music video directed by John Landis, in 1983. The zombie-themed video "defined music videos and broke racial barriers" on MTV, which had launched two years earlier. Before Thriller, Jackson struggled to receive coverage on MTV, allegedly because he was African American. Pressure from CBS Records persuaded MTV to start showing "Billie Jean" and later "Beat It", which led to a lengthy partnership with Jackson, and helped other black music artists gain recognition. The popularity of his videos on MTV helped the relatively new channel's viewing figures, and MTV's focus shifted toward pop and R&B. His performance on Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever changed the scope of live stage shows, making it acceptable for artists to lip-sync to music video on stage. The choreography in Thriller has been copied in Indian films and prisons in the Philippines. Thriller marked an increase in scale for music videos, and was named the most successful music video ever by the Guinness World Records. In "Bad"'s 19-minute video—directed by Martin Scorsese—Jackson used sexual imagery and choreography, and touched his chest, torso and crotch. When asked by Winfrey in the 1993 interview about why he grabbed his crotch, he said it was spontaneously compelled by the music. Time magazine described the "Bad" video as "infamous". It featured Wesley Snipes; Jackson's later videos often featured famous cameo roles. For the "Smooth Criminal" video, Jackson experimented with leaning forward at a 45-degree angle, beyond the performer's center of gravity. To accomplish this live, Jackson and designers developed a special shoe to lock the performer's feet to the stage, allowing them to lean forward. They were granted U.S. patent 5,255,452 for the device. The video for "Leave Me Alone" was not officially released in the US, but in 1989 was nominated for three Billboard Music Video Awards and won a Golden Lion Award for its special effects. It won a Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form. He received the MTV Video Vanguard Award in 1988; in 2001 the award was renamed in his honor. The "Black or White" video simultaneously premiered on November 14, 1991, in 27 countries with an estimated audience of 500 million people, the largest audience ever for a music video at the time. Along with Jackson, it featured Macaulay Culkin, Peggy Lipton, and George Wendt. It helped introduce morphing to music videos. It was controversial for scenes in which Jackson rubs his crotch, vandalizes cars, and throws a garbage can through a storefront. He apologized and removed the final scene of the video. "In the Closet" featured Naomi Campbell in a courtship dance with Jackson. "Remember the Time" was set in ancient Egypt, and featured Eddie Murphy, Iman, and Magic Johnson. The video for "Scream", directed by Mark Romanek and production designer Tom Foden, gained a record 11 MTV Video Music Award Nominations, and won "Best Dance Video", "Best Choreography", and "Best Art Direction". The song and its video are Jackson's response to being accused of child molestation in 1993. A year later, it won a Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form. It has been reported as the most expensive music video ever made, at $7 million; Romanek has contradicted this. The "Earth Song" video was nominated for the 1997 Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form. Michael Jackson's Ghosts, a short film written by Jackson and Stephen King and directed by Stan Winston, premiered at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. At over 38 minutes long, it held the Guinness world record for the longest music video until 2013, when it was eclipsed by the video for the Pharrell Williams song "Happy". The 2001 video for "You Rock My World" lasts over 13 minutes, was directed by Paul Hunter, and features Chris Tucker and Marlon Brando. It won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Music Video in 2002. In December 2009, the Library of Congress selected "Thriller" as the only music video to be preserved in the National Film Registry, as a work of "enduring importance to American culture". Huey wrote that Jackson transformed the music video into an artform and a promotional tool through complex story lines, dance routines, special effects and famous cameos, while breaking down racial barriers. Honors and awards Jackson is one of the best-selling music artists in history, with sales estimated around 500 million records worldwide.[Note 2] He had 13 number-one singles in the US in his solo career—more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era until Drake tied with Jackson with First Person Shooter. He was invited and honored by a president of the United States at the White House three times. In 1984, he was honored with a "Presidential Public Safety Commendation" award by Ronald Reagan for his humanitarian endeavors. In 1990, he was honored as the "Artist of the Decade" by George H. W. Bush. In 1992, he was honored as a "Point of Light Ambassador" by Bush for inviting disadvantaged children to his Neverland Ranch. Jackson won hundreds of awards, making him one of the most-awarded artists in popular music. His awards include 39 Guinness World Records, including the Most Successful Entertainer of All Time, 13 Grammy Awards, as well as the Grammy Legend Award and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and 26 American Music Awards, including the Artist of the Century and Artist of the 1980s. He also received the World Music Awards' Best-Selling Pop Male Artist of the Millennium and the Bambi Pop Artist of the Millennium Award. Jackson was inducted onto the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1980 as a member of the Jacksons, and in 1984 as a solo artist. He was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Vocal Group Hall of Fame as a member of the Jackson 5 in 1997 and 1999, respectively, and again as a solo artist in 2001. In 2002, he was added to the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2010, he was the first recording artist to be inducted into the Dance Hall of Fame, and in 2014, he was posthumously inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame. In 2021, he was among the inaugural inductees into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame. In 1988, Fisk University honored him with an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters. In 1992, he was invested as a titular king of Sanwi, a traditional kingdom located in the south-east of Ivory Coast. In July 2009, the Lunar Republic Society named a crater on the Moon after Jackson. In August, for what would have been Jackson's 51st birthday, Google dedicated their Google Doodle to him. In 2012, the extinct hermit crab Mesoparapylocheles michaeljacksoni was named in his honor. In 2014, the British Council of Cultural Relations deemed Jackson's life one of the 80 most important cultural moments of the 20th century. World Vitiligo Day has been celebrated on June 25, the anniversary of Jackson's death, to raise awareness of the auto-immune disorder that Jackson suffered from. Earnings In 1989, Jackson's annual earnings from album sales, endorsements, and concerts were estimated at $125 million. Forbes placed Jackson's annual income at $35 million in 1996 and $20 million in 1997. Jackson has been one of the wealthiest musical artists; estimates of Jackson's net worth during his life range from negative $285 million to positive $350 million for 2002, 2003 and 2007. Forbes reported in August 2018 that Jackson's total career pretax earnings in life and death were $4.2 billion. Sales of his recordings through Sony's music unit earned him an estimated $300 million in royalties. He may have earned another $400 million from concerts, music publishing (including his share of the Beatles catalog), endorsements, merchandising and music videos. In 2013, the executors of Jackson's estate filed a petition in the United States Tax Court as a result of a dispute with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over US federal estate taxes. The executors claimed that it was worth about $7 million, while the IRS that it was worth over $1.1 billion. In February 2014, the IRS reported that Jackson's estate owed $702 million; $505 million in taxes, and $197 million in penalties. A trial was held from February 6 to 24, 2017. In 2021, the Tax Court issued a ruling in favor of the estate, ruling that the estate's total combined value of the estate was $111.5 million and that the value of Jackson's name and likeness was $4 million (not the $61 million estimated by the IRS's outside expert witness). In 2016, Forbes estimated annual gross earnings by the Jackson Estate at $825 million, the largest ever recorded for a celebrity, mostly due to the sale of the Sony/ATV catalog. In 2018, the figure was $400 million. It was the eighth year since his death that Jackson's annual earnings were reported to be over $100 million, thus bringing Jackson's postmortem total to $2.4 billion. Forbes has consistently recognized Jackson as one of the top-earning dead celebrities since his death, and placed him at the top spot from 2013 to 2023. Discography Got to Be There (1972) Ben (1972) Music & Me (1973) Forever, Michael (1975) Off the Wall (1979) Thriller (1982) Bad (1987) Dangerous (1991) HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I (1995) Invincible (2001) Filmography The Wiz (1978) Michael Jackson's Thriller (1983) Captain EO (1986) Moonwalker (1988) Michael Jackson's Ghosts (1997) Men in Black II (2002) Miss Cast Away and the Island Girls (2004) Michael Jackson's This Is It (2009) Bad 25 (2012) Michael Jackson's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall (2016) Thriller 40 (2023) Tours Bad World Tour (1987–1989) Dangerous World Tour (1992–1993) HIStory World Tour (1996–1997) MJ & Friends (1999) See also List of dancers Notes References Citations Print sources Further reading Hidalgo, Susan; Weiner, Robert G. (2010). "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin': MJ in the Scholarly Literature: A Selected Bibliographic Guide" (PDF). The Journal of Pan African Studies. 3 (7). How Michael Jackson Changed Dance History – biography.com External links Official website Michael Jackson at Amazon Music Michael Jackson at Curlie Michael Jackson at the FBI's website Michael Jackson at IMDb

Amy Jade Winehouse (14 September 1983 – 23 July 2011) was a British singer and songwriter known for her deep, expressive contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres, including soul, rhythm and blues, reggae, and jazz. Winehouse was a member of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra in her youth, signing to Simon Fuller's 19 Management in 2002 and soon recording a number of songs before signing a publishing deal with EMI. She also formed a working relationship with producer Salaam Remi through these record publishers. Winehouse's debut album, Frank, was released in 2003. Many of the album's songs were influenced by jazz and, apart from two covers, were co-written by Winehouse. Frank was a critical and commercial success in the UK, and beyond, and was nominated for the UK's Mercury Prize. The song "Stronger Than Me" won her the Ivor Novello Award for Best Contemporary Song from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors. Winehouse released her follow-up album, Back to Black, in 2006. The album went on to become a huge international success and one of the best-selling albums of all time, as well as one of the best-selling albums in UK history. At the 2007 Brit Awards, it was nominated for British Album of the Year and Winehouse received the award for British Female Solo Artist. The song "Rehab" won her a second Ivor Novello Award. At the 50th Grammy Awards in 2008, she won five awards, tying the then record for the most wins by a female artist in a single night and becoming the first British woman to win five Grammys. These included three of the General Field "Big Four" Grammy Awards: Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year (for "Rehab"), as well as Best Pop Vocal Album. Winehouse struggled throughout her life with substance abuse, mental illness and addiction. She died, at her Camden Square home in London, of alcohol poisoning on 23 July 2011, at the age of 27. Her brother believed that bulimia was also a factor. After her death, Back to Black briefly became the UK's best-selling album of the 21st century. VH1 ranked Winehouse 26th on their list of the 100 Greatest Women in Music. Her life and career was dramatised in a 2024 biopic, Back to Black, directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson. Early life Amy Jade Winehouse was born on 14 September 1983 at Chase Farm Hospital in Gordon Hill, Enfield, to Jewish parents. Her father, Mitchell "Mitch" Winehouse, was a window panel installer and taxi driver; her mother, Janis Winehouse (née Seaton), was a pharmacist. Her mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2003. Winehouse's great-great-grandfather Harris Winehouse emigrated from Minsk, Belarus, to London in 1891. She had an older brother, Alex (born 1979). The family lived in London's Southgate area, where she attended Osidge Primary School and then secondary at Ashmole School. Winehouse attended a Jewish Sunday school while she was a child. During an interview following her rise to fame, she expressed her disapproval towards the school by saying that she used to beg her father to permit her not to go and that she learned nothing about being Jewish by going anyway. In the same interview, Winehouse said she only went to a synagogue once a year on Yom Kippur "out of respect". Many of Winehouse's maternal uncles were professional jazz musicians. Amy's paternal grandmother, Cynthia, had been a singer and had dated the English jazz saxophonist Ronnie Scott. She and Amy's parents influenced Amy's interest in jazz. Her father, Mitch, often sang Frank Sinatra songs to her, and whenever she was chastised at school, she would sing "Fly Me to the Moon" before going up to the headmistress to be told off. Winehouse's parents separated when she was nine, and she lived with her mother in Whetstone, London and stayed with her father and his girlfriend in Hatfield Heath, Essex on weekends. In 1992, her grandmother Cynthia suggested that Amy attend the Susi Earnshaw Theatre School, where she went on Saturdays to further her vocal education and to learn to tap dance. She attended the school for four years and founded a short-lived rap group called Sweet 'n' Sour, with Juliette Ashby, her childhood friend, before seeking full-time training at Sylvia Young Theatre School. Several years later it was reported that Winehouse had been expelled at 14 for "not applying herself" and also for piercing her nose, however these claims were denied by Sylvia Young: "She changed schools at 15 ... I've heard it said she was expelled; she wasn't. I'd never have expelled Amy." Mitch Winehouse also denied the claims. An English teacher at the Sylvia Young Theatre School remembered Amy as a gifted writer, predicting that she would become a novelist or journalist. She attended the Mount School, Mill Hill and the BRIT School in Selhurst, Croydon, dropping out at age 16. After toying around with her brother Alex's guitar, Winehouse bought her own guitar when she was 14 and began writing music shortly afterwards. Soon after, she began working for a living as an entertainment journalist for the World Entertainment News Network and also singing with local group the Bolsha Band. In July 2000, she became the featured female vocalist with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. At home she learned from and practised singing songs by Frank Sinatra, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan and Minnie Ripperton—singers who she said "will get under the song" and remake it as their own rather than sing it straight as written. Winehouse's best friend, soul singer Tyler James, sent her demo tape to an A&R person. Career 2002–2005: Career beginnings and Frank Winehouse was signed to Simon Fuller's 19 Management in 2002 and was initially paid £250 a week against future earnings. While being developed by the management company, Winehouse was kept as a recording industry secret, although she was a regular jazz standards singer at the Cobden Club. Her future A&R representative at Island, Darcus Beese, heard of her by chance when the manager of the Lewinson Brothers showed him some productions of his clients, which featured Winehouse as key vocalist. When he asked who the singer was, the manager told him he was not allowed to say. Having decided that he wanted to sign her, it took several months of asking around for Beese to eventually discover who the singer was. However, by that time Winehouse had already recorded a number of songs, signed a publishing deal with EMI, and formed a working relationship with producer Salaam Remi. Beese introduced Winehouse to his boss, Island head Nick Gatfield, who shared his enthusiasm in signing the young artist. Winehouse was signed to Island while rival interest in her had started to build with representatives of EMI and Virgin Records starting to make moves. Beese told HitQuarters that he felt the excitement over an artist who was an atypical pop star for the time was due to a backlash against reality TV music shows, whose audiences starved for fresh, genuine young talent. Winehouse's debut album, Frank, was released on 20 October 2003. Produced mainly by Salaam Remi, many of the songs were influenced by jazz and, apart from two covers, Winehouse co-wrote every song. The album received wide critical acclaim with compliments given to the "cool, critical gaze" in its lyrics. Winehouse's voice was compared with those of Sarah Vaughan and Macy Gray, among others. The album entered the upper reaches of the UK Albums Chart in 2004 when it was nominated for the Brit Awards in the categories of British Female Solo Artist and British Urban Act. It went on to achieve platinum sales. Later in 2004, she and Remi won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Contemporary Song, for their first single together, "Stronger Than Me." The album was also shortlisted for the 2004 Mercury Music Prize. In the same year, she performed at the Glastonbury Festival (on the Jazz World stage), the V Festival and the Montreal International Jazz Festival. After the release of the album, Winehouse commented that she was "only 80 percent behind [the] album" because Island Records had overruled her preferences for the songs and mixes to be included. The further singles from the album were "Take the Box," "In My Bed"/"You Sent Me Flying" and "Pumps"/"Help Yourself." 2006–2008: Back to Black and international success After the release of her first jazz-influenced album, Winehouse's focus shifted to the girl groups of the 1950s and 1960s. Winehouse hired New York singer Sharon Jones's longtime band, the Dap-Kings, to back her up in the studio and on tour. Mitch Winehouse relates in Amy, My Daughter how fascinating watching her process was: her perfectionism in the studio and how she would put what she had sung on a CD and play it in his taxi outside to know how most people would hear her music. In May 2006, Winehouse's demo tracks such as "You Know I'm No Good" and "Rehab" appeared on Mark Ronson's New York radio show on East Village Radio. These were some of the first new songs played on the radio after the release of "Pumps" and both were slated to appear on her second album. The 11-track album, completed in five months, was produced entirely by Salaam Remi and Ronson, with the production credits being split between them. Ronson said in a 2010 interview that he liked working with Winehouse because she was blunt when she did not like his work. She in turn thought that when they first met, he was a sound engineer and that she was expecting an older man with a beard. Promotion of Back to Black soon began and, in early October 2006 Winehouse's official website was relaunched with a new layout and clips of previously unreleased songs. Back to Black was released in the UK on 30 October 2006. It went to number one on the UK Albums Chart for two weeks in January 2007, dropping then climbing back for several weeks in February. In the US, it entered at number seven on the Billboard 200. It was the best-selling album in the UK of 2007, selling 1.85 million copies over the course of the year. The first single released from the album was the Ronson-produced "Rehab". The song reached the top ten in the UK and the US. Time magazine named "Rehab" the Best Song of 2007. Writer Josh Tyrangiel praised Winehouse for her confidence, saying, "What she is is mouthy, funny, sultry, and quite possibly crazy" and "It's impossible not to be seduced by her originality. Combine it with production by Mark Ronson that references four decades worth of soul music without once ripping it off, and you've got the best song of 2007." The album's second single and lead single in the US, "You Know I'm No Good," was released in January 2007 with a remix featuring rap vocals by Ghostface Killah. It ultimately reached number 18 on the UK singles chart. The title track, "Back to Black," was released in the UK in April 2007 and peaked at number 25, but was more successful across mainland Europe. "Tears Dry on Their Own," "Love Is a Losing Game" were also released as singles, but failed to achieve the same level of success. A deluxe edition of Back to Black was also released on 5 November 2007 in the UK. The bonus disc features B-sides, rare, and live tracks, as well as "Valerie". Winehouse's debut DVD I Told You I Was Trouble: Live in London was released the same day in the UK and 13 November in the US. It includes a live set recorded at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire and a 50-minute documentary charting the singer's career over the previous four years. Frank was released in the United States on 20 November 2007 to positive reviews. The album debuted at number 61 on the Billboard 200 chart. In addition to her own album, she collaborated with other artists on singles. Winehouse was a vocalist on the song "Valerie" on Ronson's solo album Version. The song peaked at number two in the UK, upon its October single release. "Valerie" was nominated for a 2008 Brit Award for British Single of the Year. Her work with ex-Sugababe Mutya Buena, "B Boy Baby," was released on 17 December 2007. It served as the fourth single from Buena's debut album, Real Girl. Winehouse was also in talks of working with Missy Elliott for her album Block Party. Winehouse promoted the release of Back to Black with headline performances in late 2006, including a Little Noise Sessions charity concert at the Union Chapel in Islington, London. On 31 December 2006, Winehouse appeared on Jools Holland's Annual Hootenanny and performed a cover of Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" along with Paul Weller and Holland's Rhythm and Blues Orchestra. She also performed Toots and the Maytals' "Monkey Man". At his request, actor Bruce Willis introduced Winehouse before her performance of "Rehab" at the 2007 MTV Movie Awards in Universal City, California, on 3 June 2007. During the summer of 2007, she performed at various festivals, including Glastonbury Festival and Lollapalooza in Chicago. The rest of her tour, however, did not go as well. In November 2007, the opening night of a 17-date tour was marred by booing and walkouts at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham. A critic for the Birmingham Mail said it was "one of the saddest nights of my life ... I saw a supremely talented artist reduced to tears, stumbling around the stage and, unforgivably, swearing at the audience." Other concerts ended similarly, with, for example, fans at her Hammersmith Apollo performance in London saying that she "looked highly intoxicated throughout," until she announced on 27 November 2007, that her performances and public appearances were cancelled for the remainder of the year, citing her doctor's advice to take a complete rest. A statement issued by concert promoter Live Nation blamed "the rigours involved in touring and the intense emotional strain that Amy has been under in recent weeks" for the decision. Mitch Winehouse wrote about her nervousness before public performances in his 2012 book, Amy, My Daughter. On 13 January 2008, Back to Black held the number-one position on the Billboard Pan European charts for the third consecutive week. On 10 February 2008, Winehouse received five Grammy Awards, winning in the following categories: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for the single "Rehab", and Best Pop Vocal Album. The singer also earned a Grammy as Best New Artist, earning her an entry in the 2009 edition of the Guinness Book of Records for Most Grammy Awards won by a British Female Act. Additionally, Back to Black was nominated for Album of the Year. Ronson's work with her won the Grammy Award for Producer of the Year, in the non-classical category. She ended her acceptance speech for Record of the Year with, "This is for London because Camden Town ain't burning down," in reference to the 2008 Camden Market fire. Performing "You Know I'm No Good" and "Rehab" via satellite from London's Riverside Studios at 3 a.m. UK time, she couldn't be at the ceremony in Los Angeles as her visa approval had not been processed in time. After the Grammys, the album's sales increased, catapulting Back to Black to number two on the US Billboard 200, after it initially peaked in the seventh position. On 20 February 2008, Winehouse performed at the 2008 Brit Awards at Earls Court in London, performing "Valerie" with Mark Ronson, followed by "Love Is a Losing Game". She urged the crowd to "make some noise for my Blake." A special deluxe edition of Back to Black topped the UK album charts on 2 March 2008. Meanwhile, the original edition of the album was ranked at number 30 in its 68th week on the charts, while Frank charted at number 35. In Paris, she performed what was described as a "well-executed 40-minute" set at the opening of a Fendi boutique in early March. By 12 March, the album had sold a total of 2,467,575 copies—318,350 copies had been sold in the previous 10 weeks—putting the album on the UK's top-10 best-selling albums of the 21st century for the first time. On 7 April, Back to Black was in the top position of the pan-European charts for the sixth consecutive and thirteenth aggregate week. Amy Winehouse – The Girl Done Good: A Documentary Review, a 78-minute DVD, was released on 14 April 2008. The documentary features interviews with those who knew her at a young age, people who helped her achieve success, jazz music experts, and music and pop culture specialists. At the 2008 Ivor Novello Awards in May, Winehouse became the first-ever artist to receive two nominations for the top award: Best Song Musically & Lyrically. She won the award for "Love Is a Losing Game" and was nominated for "You Know I'm No Good". "Rehab", a Novello winner for best contemporary song in 2006, also received a 2008 nomination for best-selling British song. Winehouse was also nominated for a 2008 MTV Europe Music Award in the Act of the Year category. Although her father, manager and various members of her touring team reportedly tried to dissuade her, Winehouse performed at the Rock in Rio Lisboa festival in Portugal in May 2008. Although the set was plagued by a late arrival and problems with her voice, the crowd warmed to her. In addition to her own material she performed two Specials covers. Winehouse performed at Nelson Mandela's 90th Birthday Party concert at London's Hyde Park on 27 June 2008, and the next day at the Glastonbury Festival. On 12 July, at the Oxegen Festival in Ireland she performed a well-received 50-minute set which was followed the next day by a 14-song set at T in the Park. On 16 August she played at the Staffordshire leg of the V Festival, and the following day played the Chelmsford leg of the festival. Organisers said that Winehouse attracted the biggest crowds of the festival. Audience reaction was reported as mixed. On 6 September, Winehouse was Bestival's Saturday headliner, where she started 40 minutes late and was on stage for 35 minutes, before her performance was terminated because of a curfew. A clip of Winehouse's music was included in the "Roots and Influences" area that looked at connections between different artists at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex NYC, which opened in December 2008. One thread started with Billie Holiday, continued with Aretha Franklin and Mary J. Blige, and then finished with Winehouse. Back to Black was the world's seventh-biggest-selling album of 2008. The album's sales meant that the market performance of Universal Music Group's recorded music division did not drop to levels experienced by the overall music market. 2009–2011: Final projects before death In a 2009 poll of U.S. residents conducted for VisitBritain by Harris Interactive, one-fifth of the participants indicated they had listened to Winehouse's music during the previous year. She performed with Rhythms del Mundo on their cover of the Sam Cooke song "Cupid" for an Artists Project Earth benefit album released in July that year. Winehouse and Ronson contributed a cover of Lesley Gore's "It's My Party" to the Quincy Jones tribute album Q Soul Bossa Nostra, released in November 2010. She had agreed to form a group with Questlove of the Roots, but her problems obtaining a visa delayed their working together. Salaam Remi had already created some material with Winehouse as part of the project. According to The Times, Universal Music pressed her for new material in 2008, but as of 2 September that year she had not been near a recording studio. In late October, Winehouse's spokesman was quoted as saying that Winehouse had not been given a deadline to complete her third album, for which she was learning to play drums. In May 2009, Winehouse returned to performing at a jazz festival in Saint Lucia amid torrential downpours and technical difficulties. During her set, it was reported she was unsteady on her feet and had trouble remembering lyrics. She apologised to the crowd for being "bored" and ended the set in the middle of a song. During her stay in Saint Lucia, however, she worked on new music with Remi. On 23 August that year, Winehouse sang with the Specials at the V Festival on their songs "You're Wondering Now" and "Ghost Town". Island claimed that a new album would be due for release in 2010. Island co-president Darcus Beese said, "I've heard a couple of song demos that have absolutely floored me." In July 2010, Winehouse was quoted as saying her next album would be released no later than January 2011, saying: "It's going to be very much the same as my second album, where there's a lot of jukebox stuff and songs that are... just jukebox, really." Ronson, however, said at that time that he had not started to record the album. She performed "Valerie" with Ronson at a movie premiere but forgot some of the song's lyrics. In October, Winehouse performed a four-song set to promote her fashion line. In December 2010, she played a 40-minute concert at a Russian oligarch's party in Moscow, with the tycoon hand-selecting the songs. In January 2011, Winehouse played five dates in Brazil, with opening acts of Janelle Monáe and Mayer Hawthorne. While performing in Florianópolis, Winehouse forgot the lyrics of her songs several times and had to be aided by the public and her band. During the concert, she only drank from a water bottle, but even so, in two occasions, she left the stage in the midst of the show for a period of circa 5 minutes. Upon her return, the crowd showed strong compassion for her and praised Winehouse for continuing the performance. The following month she cut a performance in Dubai short following booing from the audience. Winehouse was reported to be tired, distracted and "tipsy" during the performance. On 18 June 2011, Winehouse started her twelve-leg European tour in Belgrade. Local media described her performance as a scandal and disaster; she was booed off the stage due to her apparently being too drunk to perform. Serbian defence minister Dragan Šutanovac called Winehouse's performances "a huge shame and a disappointment". It was reported that she was unable to remember the city she was in, the lyrics of her songs or the names of the members of her band. The local press also claimed that Winehouse was forced to perform by her bodyguards, who did not allow her to leave the stage when she tried to do so. She then pulled out of performances in Istanbul and Athens, which had been scheduled for the following week. On 21 June, it was announced that she had cancelled all shows of her tour and would be given "as long as it takes" to sort herself out. Winehouse's last public appearance took place at Camden's Roundhouse on 20 July 2011, when she made a surprise appearance on stage to support her goddaughter Dionne Bromfield, who was singing "Mama Said" with the Wanted. Winehouse died three days later. Her last recording was a duet with American singer Tony Bennett for his album Duets II, released on 20 September 2011. Their single from the album, "Body and Soul", was released on 14 September 2011 on MTV and VH1 to commemorate what would have been her 28th birthday. Other ventures Activism and philanthropy Throughout her life Winehouse donated her money, music and time to numerous charities and causes, particularly those concerned with children. She joined a campaign to stop a block of flats being built beside the George Tavern, a famous London East End music venue. Campaign supporters feared the residential development would end the spot's lucrative sideline as a film and photo location, on which it relies to survive. As part of a breast cancer awareness campaign, Winehouse appeared in a revealing photograph for the April 2008 issue of Easy Living magazine. In 2009, she appeared on a CD called Classics alongside musicians such as the Rolling Stones, the Killers and many Cuban musicians to raise awareness of climate change. Winehouse loaned a vintage dress used in her video for "Tears Dry on Their Own" as well as a DVD to the British Music Experience, a new museum dedicated to the history of British pop music. The museum, located at the O2 Arena in London, opened on 9 March 2009. In March 2011, Winehouse donated over £20,000 worth of clothes to a local charity shop in London. A Caribbean man, Julian Jean DeBaptiste, revealed that Winehouse had paid for his urgent surgery costing £4,000 during her stay in Saint Lucia in 2009. "I had surgery on 1 July 2009... it cost a fortune and Amy paid for the whole thing. I tried to thank her but she just hugged me and told me not to say anything. Her generosity gave me my life back." Business Winehouse had an estimated £10m fortune, tying her for tenth place in the 2008 The Sunday Times listing of the wealth of musicians under age 30. The following year her fortune had dropped to an estimated £5m. Her finances are run by Mitch and Janis Winehouse. It was reported she earned about £1m singing at two private parties during Paris Fashion Week as well as another £1m to perform at a Moscow Art Gallery for Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. In January 2009, Winehouse announced that she was launching her own record label. The first act on her Lioness Records is Winehouse's 13-year-old goddaughter Dionne Bromfield. Her first album, featuring covers of classic soul records, was released on 12 October 2009. Winehouse is the backing singer on several tracks on the album and she performed backing vocals for Bromfield on the BBC's television programme Strictly Come Dancing on 10 October. Winehouse and her family are the subject of a 2009 documentary shot by Daphne Barak titled Saving Amy. Winehouse entered into a joint venture in 2009 with EMI to launch a range of wrapping paper and gift cards containing song lyrics from her album Back to Black. On 8 January 2010, a television documentary, My Daughter Amy, aired on Channel 4. Saving Amy was released as a paperback book in January 2010. Winehouse was a notable fan of the brand Fred Perry. She collaborated on a 17-piece fashion collection with the label, which was released for sale in October 2010. According to Fred Perry's marketing director "We had three major design meetings where she was closely involved in product style selection and the application of fabric, colour and styling details," and gave "crucial input on proportion, colour and fit". The collection consists of "vintage-inspired looks including Capri pants, a bowling dress, a trench coat, pencil skirts, a longline argyle sweater and a pink-and-black checkerboard-printed collared shirt." At the behest of her family, three forthcoming collections up to and including autumn/winter 2012 that she had designed prior to her death were released. Following Winehouse's death, Fred Perry has donated 20% of the net revenue from the Amy Winehouse collection to the charity set up in Winehouse's name, the Amy Winehouse Foundation. Media image Winehouse's greatest love was 1960s girl groups. Her hairdresser, Alex Foden, borrowed her distinctive beehive hairdo (a weave) from the Ronettes and she borrowed her Cleopatra makeup from the same group. Her imitation was so successful, as The Village Voice reports: "Ronnie Spector—who, it could be argued, all but invented Winehouse's style in the first place when she took the stage at the Brooklyn Fox Theater with her fellow Ronettes more than 40 years ago—was so taken aback at a picture of Winehouse in the New York Post that she exclaimed, "I don't know her, I never met her, and when I saw that pic, I thought, 'That's me!' But then I found out, no, it's Amy! I didn't have on my glasses." The New York Times style reporter, Guy Trebay, discussed the multiplicity of influences on Winehouse's style after her death. Trebay noted, "her stylish husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, may have influenced her look." Additionally, Trebay observed: She was a 5-foot-3 almanac of visual reference, most famously to Ronnie Spector of the Ronettes, but also to the white British soul singer Mari Wilson, less famous for her sound than her beehive; to the punk god Johnny Thunders...; to the fierce council-house chicks... (see: Dior and Chanel runways, 2007 and 2008) ... to a lineage of bad girls, extending from Cleopatra to Louise Brooks's Lulu and including Salt-n-Pepa, to irresistible man traps that always seemed to come to the same unfortunate end. Former Rolling Stone editor Joe Levy, who had put her on the magazine's cover, broke her look down this way: Just as her best music drew on sampling – assembling sonic licks and stylistic fragments borrowed from Motown, Stax, punk and early hip-hop – her personal style was also a knowing collage. There was a certain moment in the '90s when, if you were headed downtown and turned left, every girl looked like Bettie Page. But they did not do what Winehouse did, mixing Bettie Page with Brigitte Bardot and adding that little bit of Ronnie Spector. Winehouse's use of bold red lipstick, thick eyebrows and heavy eyeliner came from Latinas she saw in Miami, on her trip there to work with Salaam Remi on Back to Black. Her look was repeatedly denigrated by the British press. At the same time that the NME Awards nominated Winehouse in the categories of "Best Solo Artist" and "Best Music DVD" in 2008, they awarded her "Worst Dressed Performer". Winehouse was also ranked number two on Richard Blackwell's 48th annual "Ten Worst Dressed Women" list, behind Victoria Beckham. Controversies Winehouse's dichotomous public image of critical and commercial success versus personal turmoil prompted significant media comment. The New Statesman called Winehouse "a filthy-mouthed, down-to-earth diva", while Newsweek called her "a perfect storm of sex kitten, raw talent and poor impulse control". Karen Heller with The Philadelphia Inquirer summarised the maelstrom this way: She's only 24 with six Grammy nominations, crashing headfirst into success and despair, with a codependent husband in jail, exhibitionist parents with questionable judgement, and the paparazzi documenting her emotional and physical distress. Meanwhile, a haute designer Karl Lagerfeld appropriates her dishevelled style and eating issues to market to the elite while proclaiming her the new Bardot. By 2008, her drug problems threatened her career. As Nick Gatfield, the president of Island Records, toyed with the idea of releasing Winehouse "to deal with her problems", he said, "It's a reflection of her status [in the US] that when you flick through the TV coverage [of the Grammys] it's her image they use." Post-Grammys, some questioned whether Winehouse should have been honoured with the awards given her recent personal and drug problems, including Natalie Cole, who introduced Winehouse at the ceremony and who herself battled substance-abuse problems while winning a Grammy for Best New Artist in 1975. Winehouse was prevented from travelling to and performing at the Grammy Awards ceremony in the US due to failing a drug test, and the executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa, said that the alleged drug habits of Winehouse and other celebrities sent a bad message "to others who are vulnerable to addiction" and undermine the efforts of other celebrities trying to raise awareness of problems in Africa, now that more cocaine used in Europe passes through that continent. Winehouse's spokesperson noted that "Amy has never given a quote about drugs or flaunted it in any way. She's had some problems and is trying to get better. The U.N. should get its own house in order." In January 2008, her record label stated it believed the extensive media coverage she had received increased record sales. In an April 2008 poll conducted by Sky News, Winehouse was named the second-greatest "ultimate heroine" by the UK population at large, topping the voting for that category of those polled under 25 years old. Psychologist Donna Dawson commented that the results demonstrated that women like Winehouse who had "a certain sense of vulnerability or have had to fight against some adversity in their lives" received recognition. In July 2008, BBC Radio Scotland's head, Jeff Zycinski, stated that the BBC, and media in general, were complicit in undermining celebrities, including Winehouse. He said that public interest in the singer's lifestyle did not make her lifestyle newsworthy. Rod McKenzie, editor of the BBC Radio One programme Newsbeat, replied: "If you play [Amy Winehouse's] music to a certain demographic, those same people want to know what's happening in her private life. If you don't cover it, you're insulting young licence fee payers." In The Scotsman, British singer and songwriter Lily Allen was quoted to have said – "I know Amy Winehouse very well. And she is very different to what people portray her as being. Yes, she does get out of her mind on drugs sometimes, but she is also a very clever, intelligent, witty, funny person who can hold it together. You just don't see that side." Personal life Winehouse was raised Jewish and expressed pride in being Jewish, although she was not religious. During one interview, Winehouse said: "[B]eing Jewish to me is about being together as a real family. It's not about lighting candles and saying a bracha." Winehouse also frequently performed with a Star of David medallion. In 2013, in memory of Winehouse, the Jewish Museum London ran an exhibition titled "Amy Winehouse: A Family Portrait". The museum researched her paternal great-great-grandfather's arrival from Minsk in 1890, and how the family finally settled in London, starting out in working-class jobs before gradually moving to middle-class jobs. Winehouse had 14 known tattoos, including "Daddy's Girl" on her left arm for her father and a pin-up girl with the name "Cynthia" on her right arm in memory of her Jewish grandmother. In 2011, there were reports that Winehouse was in the process of adopting a 10-year-old girl from St. Lucia named Dannika Augustine. According to Dannika and her family, Amy had formed a strong bond with the poverty-stricken girl during her lengthy stays on the Caribbean island. Dannika referred to Amy as her mother and said they had a close, loving relationship. Her grandmother, Marjorie Lambert, confirmed that Amy had expressed a strong desire to adopt Dannika and was even willing to move to St. Lucia to be her full-time mother. However, Winehouse's representative denied these claims, stating that the adoption story was not true. Relationships Winehouse dated chef-musician Alex Clare in 2006, while on a break from her on–off boyfriend and future husband, Blake Fielder-Civil. She and Clare lived together briefly, and in a pattern that Fielder-Civil would later repeat, Clare sold his story to the News of the World, which published it under the headline "Bondage Crazed Amy Just Can't Beehive in Bed." Fielder-Civil, a former video production assistant, had dropped out of Bourne Grammar School and, aged 16, moved to London from his native Lincolnshire. He married Winehouse on 18 May 2007, in Miami Beach, Florida. In a June 2007 interview, Winehouse admitted she could sometimes be violent toward him after she had been drinking, saying: "If he says one thing I don't like, then I'll chin him." In August 2007, they were photographed, bloodied and bruised, in the streets of London after an alleged fight, although she contended her injuries were self-inflicted. Winehouse's parents and in-laws publicly reported their numerous concerns, the latter citing fears that the two might commit suicide. Fielder-Civil's father encouraged fans to boycott Winehouse's music, and Mitch Winehouse said this would not help. Fielder-Civil was quoted in a British tabloid as saying he introduced Winehouse to crack cocaine and heroin. During a visit with Mitch Winehouse at the prison in July 2008, Fielder-Civil reportedly said that he and Winehouse would cut themselves to ease the pain of withdrawal. From 21 July 2008 to 25 February 2009, Fielder-Civil was imprisoned following his guilty plea on charges of trying to pervert the course of justice and of grievous bodily harm with intent. The incident, in July 2007, involved his assault of a pub landlord that broke the victim's cheekbone, and also saw Winehouse briefly arrested in connection with it. According to the prosecution, the landlord accepted £200,000 as part of a deal to "effectively throw the [court] case and not turn up", and he testified that the money belonged to Winehouse, but she pulled out of a meeting with the men involved in the plot, to attend an awards ceremony. Mitch Winehouse, as manager of his daughter's money, has denied the payoff came from her. When Winehouse was spotted with aspiring actor Josh Bowman on holiday in Saint Lucia, in early January 2009, she said she was "in love again, and I don't need drugs." She commented that her "whole marriage was based on doing drugs" and that "for the time being I've just forgotten I'm even married." On 12 January, Winehouse's spokesman confirmed that "papers have been received" for what Fielder-Civil's solicitor said were divorce proceedings based on a claim of adultery. In March, Winehouse was quoted in a magazine as saying, "I still love Blake and I want him to move into my new house with me—that was my plan all along ... I won't let him divorce me. He's the male version of me and we're perfect for each other." Nonetheless, an uncontested divorce was granted on 16 July 2009 and became final on 28 August 2009. Fielder-Civil received no money in the settlement. Winehouse was in a relationship with a British writer and film director Reg Traviss, from early 2010 until her death. According to media reports and a biography written by Winehouse's father, Traviss and Winehouse had planned to marry and intended to have children. In July 2008, when Rolling Stone reporter Claire Hoffman asked Winehouse if she was in a relationship with Pete Doherty, she replied: "We're just good friends", and added: "I asked Pete to do a concept EP, and he made this face, he looked at me like I'd pooed on the floor. He wouldn't do it. We're just really close". However, after Winehouse's death, Doherty said that he and Winehouse had been lovers at one point. Substance abuse and mental illness Winehouse's troubles with substance abuse were the subject of much media attention over the years. In 2005, she went through a period of drinking, heavy drug use, and weight loss. People who saw her during the end of that year and early 2006 reported a rebound that coincided with the writing of Back to Black. Her family believes that the mid-2006 death of her grandmother, who was a stabilising influence, set her off into addiction. In August 2007, Winehouse cancelled a number of shows in the UK and Europe, citing exhaustion and ill health. She was hospitalised during this period for what was reported as an overdose of heroin, ecstasy, cocaine, ketamine and alcohol. In various interviews, she admitted to having problems with self-harm, depression, and eating disorders. Winehouse told the Los Angeles Times that the drugs were to blame for her hospitalisation and that "I really thought that it was over for me then." Soon afterwards, Winehouse's father commented that when he had made public statements regarding her problems he was using the media because it seemed the only way to get through to her. In an interview with The Album Chart Show on British television, Winehouse said she was manic depressive and not alcoholic, adding that that sounded like "an alcoholic in denial". A US reporter writes that Winehouse was a "victim of mental illness in a society that doesn't understand or respond to mental illness with great effectiveness." According to Forensic physician Dr Jason Payne-James, Winehouse may have suffered from borderline personality disorder (BPD). He explained she shows some symptoms for disorder such as extreme reactions to trauma like abandonment (when described as a symptom "frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment"), impulsive or reckless behaviours like substance use disorders, binge eating, recurrent suicidal ideation, self-cutting or self-harm, rapidly shifting intense emotional dysregulation, chronic feelings of emptiness or boredom, unstable and chaotic interpersonal relationships, often characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation, also known as "splitting", inappropriate, intense anger that can be difficult to control. Before her death Winehouse had been examined by a psychiatrist and psychologist and doctors recommended that she undergo dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT). DBT is based upon the biosocial theory of mental illness and is the first therapy that has been experimentally demonstrated to be generally effective in treating borderline personality disorder. In December 2007, Winehouse's spokesman reported that the singer was in a physician-supervised programme and was channelling her difficulties by writing a lot of music. In January 2008, the British tabloid The Sun posted a video Winehouse, apparently smoking crack cocaine and speaking of having taken ecstasy and Valium. The event took place on Friday 18 January, in the early hours of the morning. Later that morning, Winehouse attended a remand hearing for her husband Blake Fielder-Civil, who was then awaiting trial on charges of perverting the course of justice. Shortly after the alleged crack cocaine incident, Winehouse's father moved in with her, to keep her under '24-hour watch'. At this time, Island Records, her record label, announced the abandonment of plans for an American promotion campaign on her behalf. On 23 January 2008, the video was passed on to the Metropolitan Police, who questioned her on 5 February. No charges were brought. In late January, Winehouse reportedly entered a rehabilitation facility for a two-week treatment program. On 26 March, Winehouse's spokesman said she was "doing well". Her record company reportedly believed that her recovery remained fragile. By late April 2008, her erratic behaviour—including an allegation of assault—caused fear that her drug rehabilitation efforts had been unsuccessful. Winehouse's father and manager then sought to have her detained under the Mental Health Act of 1983. Her dishevelled appearance during and after a scheduled club night in September 2008 prompted new rumours of a relapse. Photographers were quoted as saying she appeared to have cuts on her arms and legs. According to her physician, Winehouse quit using illegal substances in 2008. In an October 2010 interview, speaking of her decision to quit drugs, Winehouse said, "I literally woke up one day and was like, 'I don't want to do this any more.'" However, alcohol emerged as a problem, with Winehouse abstaining for a few weeks and then lapsing into alcohol abuse. Her physician said that Winehouse was treated with Librium for alcohol withdrawal and anxiety and underwent psychological and psychiatric evaluations in 2010, but refused psychological therapy. Violence and legal difficulties In 2006, Winehouse admitted to punching a female fan in the face for criticising her having taken Blake Fielder-Civil as a husband. She then attacked her own spouse as he attempted to calm her down, kneeing him in the crotch. In October 2007, Winehouse and Fielder-Civil were arrested in Bergen, Norway, for possession of seven grams of cannabis. The couple were later released and fined 3850 kroner (around £350). Winehouse first appealed the fines, but later dropped the appeal. On 26 April 2008, Winehouse was cautioned after she admitted to police she slapped a 38-year-old man in the face, a "common assault" offence, her first of two. She voluntarily turned herself in and was held overnight. Police said, at her arrival she was "in no fit state" to be interviewed. Ten days later, Winehouse was arrested on suspicion of possessing drugs after a video of her apparently smoking crack cocaine was passed to the police in January, but was released on bail a few hours later because they could not confirm, from the video, what she was smoking. The Crown Prosecution Service considered charging her, but cleared her when it could not establish that the substance in the video was a controlled drug. Some members of Parliament criticised the decision not to bring charges. Two London residents were subsequently convicted of conspiracy to supply cocaine and ecstasy to Winehouse, leading to a two-year prison sentence for one, and a two-year community order. On 5 March 2009, Winehouse was arrested and charged with common assault following a claim by dancer Sherene Flash that Winehouse hit her in the eye at the September 2008 Prince's Trust charity ball. Winehouse's spokesperson announced the cancellation of the singer's US Coachella Festival appearance in light of the new legal issue, and Winehouse pleaded not guilty in court on 17 March. At her trial on 23–24 July she was charged with "deliberate and unjustifiable violence" while appearing to be under the influence of alcohol or another substance. She testified that she did not punch Flash, but tried to push her away because she was scared of her; she cited her worry that Flash would sell her story to a tabloid, Flash's height advantage, and Flash's "rude" behaviour. On 24 July Winehouse was found not guilty, citing that all but two of the witnesses were intoxicated at the time, and that medical evidence did not show "the sort of injury that often occurs when there is a forceful punch to the eye." On 19 December 2009, Winehouse was arrested for a third time on charges of common assault and public order offence after assaulting the front-of-house manager of the Milton Keynes Theatre when he asked her to move to a different seat after noisy participation in the pantomime playing, and advised her not to drink more than she already had. Winehouse pleaded guilty, and was given a conditional discharge. Paparazzi With the paparazzi taking photographs of her wherever they could, Winehouse obtained an injunction against a leading paparazzi agency, Big Pictures, under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997; the resultant court order issued by the High Court in 2009 banned them from following her. Photographers were also banned from following her within 100 metres of her London home and photographing Winehouse in her home or the homes of her friends and relatives. According to a newspaper report, sources close to the singer said legal action was taken out of concern for the safety of Winehouse and those close to her. Respiratory and other health problems On 23 June 2008, Winehouse's publicist corrected earlier misstatements by Mitch Winehouse that his daughter had early-stage emphysema, saying that she instead had signs of what could lead to early-stage emphysema. Mitch Winehouse had also stated that his daughter's lungs were operating at 70 percent capacity and that she had an irregular heartbeat. He said that these problems had been caused by her chain smoking crack cocaine. The singer's father also reported that doctors had warned Winehouse that, if she continued smoking crack cocaine, she would have to wear an oxygen mask and would eventually die. In a radio interview, Mitch Winehouse said the singer was responding "fabulously" to treatment, which included being covered with nicotine patches. British Lung Foundation spokesman Keith Prowse noted that this type of condition could be managed with treatment. Prowse also said the condition was not normal for a person her age but "heavy smoking and inhaling other substances like drugs can age the lungs prematurely." Norman H. Edelman of the American Lung Association explained that if she stopped smoking, her lung functions would decline at the rate of a normal person, but continued smoking would lead to a more rapid decline in lung function. Winehouse was released from the London Clinic 24 hours after returning from a temporary leave to perform at Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday celebration and at a concert in Glastonbury, and continued receiving treatment as an outpatient. In July 2008, Winehouse stated that she had been diagnosed with "some areas of emphysema" and said she was getting herself together by "eating loads of healthy food, sleeping loads, playing my guitar, making music and writing letters to my husband every day." She also kept a vertical tanning bed in her flat. Winehouse began precautionary testing on her lungs and chest on 25 October 2008 at the London Clinic for what was reported as a chest infection, leaving and returning at will. She returned to the hospital on 23 November 2008 due to a reported reaction to her medication. Death Winehouse's bodyguard said that he had arrived at her residence three days before her death and felt she had been somewhat intoxicated. Two days after, her mother likewise admitted she had acted "out of it." This was the same day Winehouse had visited her doctor for one of her routine check-ups due to her fragile state, although no abnormalities were noted: "The doctor was happy with her condition. When he left on Friday night he had no concerns. Less than 24 hours later she was found dead." After the check-up, Winehouse had called her doctor to confess her feelings regarding her codependency, stating: "I don't want to die", alongside how she had attempted sobriety, but could not achieve it. These were Winehouse's last recorded words, while her bodyguard's final conversation with her included the quote: "If I could, I would give it back just to walk down the street with no hassle." Her bodyguard continued to observe her drinking moderately over the next few days since his arrival, and later said she had been "laughing, listening to music and watching TV at 2 a.m. the day of her death". Another source claims she was watching old re-runs of past performances and reminiscing. At 10 a.m. BST on 23 July 2011, he observed her lying on her bed and tried (unsuccessfully) to rouse her. This did not raise much suspicion because she usually slept late after a night out. According to the bodyguard, shortly after 3 p.m., he checked on her again and observed her lying in the same position as before, leading to a further check, in which he concluded that she was not breathing and had no pulse; he said he called emergency services. At 3:54 p.m., two ambulances reached Winehouse's home in Camden, London. Winehouse was pronounced dead at the scene. Shortly afterwards, the Metropolitan Police confirmed that she had died. Her death at age 27 prompted media comparisons to other musician deaths at the same age, collectively named the 27 Club. After her death was announced, media and camera crews appeared near Winehouse's residence. Forensic investigators entered the flat as police cordoned off the street outside; they recovered one small and two large bottles of vodka from her room. After her death, the singer broke her second Guinness World Record: for the most songs by a woman to simultaneously appear on the UK singles chart, with eight. Winehouse's record label, Universal Republic, released a statement that read in part: "We are deeply saddened at the sudden loss of such a gifted musician, artist and performer." With initially little verified information regarding the causes of Winehouse's death, there was considerable speculation on the subject. Various reports speculated on a fatal Class A drug, such as ecstasy overdose, or a lethal cocktail. Winehouse's father Mitch denied these claims, stating: "Three years ago, Amy conquered her drug dependency. She was the happiest she has been for years." By the following month, August 2011, speculation about substance abuse being a factor in Winehouse's death had been disproven by an official toxicology report released to the public which showed that no illegal substances had been identified in Winehouse's system. The coroner's report was released in October 2011, and it stated that Winehouse's blood alcohol content was 416 mg per 100 ml (0.416%) at the time of her death, more than five times the legal drink-drive limit. According to the coroner, the "unintended consequence" of so much drink was her "sudden and unexpected death", as it reached a 'death by misadventure' verdict. Another inquest was ordered when it was ruled that the first coroner was 'not qualified' for the role". The second inquest, delivered in January 2013, matched the conclusions of the first inquest, with coroner Dr. Shirley Radcliffe finding that "She (Winehouse) voluntarily consumed alcohol, a deliberate act that took an unexpected turn in that it caused her death." The second inquest reached the verdict of misadventure due to alcohol poisoning, stated in an interview with The Guardian. On 17 December 2012, British authorities reopened the probe into Winehouse's death. On 8 January 2013, a second inquest confirmed that Winehouse died of an accidental alcohol overdose. In a June 2013 interview, Alex Winehouse shared his belief that his sister's eating disorder, and the consequent physical weakness, was the primary cause of her death: She suffered from bulimia very badly. That's not, like, a revelation – you knew just by looking at her... She would have died eventually, the way she was going, but what really killed her was the bulimia... I think that it left her weaker and more susceptible. Had she not had an eating disorder, she would have been physically stronger.Winehouse's funeral was held on 26 July 2011 at Edgwarebury Lane Cemetery in North London, it was a private ceremony attended by family and friends. Her mother and father, Janis and Mitch Winehouse, close friends Nick Grimshaw and Kelly Osbourne, producer Mark Ronson, goddaughter Dionne Bromfield and her boyfriend Reg Traviss were among those in attendance at the private service led by Rabbi Frank Hellner. Her father delivered the eulogy, saying "Goodnight, my angel, sleep tight. Mummy and Daddy love you ever so much." Carole King's "So Far Away" closed the service with mourners singing along as it was one of Winehouse's favourite songs. She was later cremated at Golders Green Crematorium. The family planned to sit a two-day shiva. On 16 September 2012, Winehouse's ashes were buried alongside those of her grandmother Cynthia Levy at Edgwarebury Lane Cemetery. Legacy Achievements and critical appraisal At the time of her death, Winehouse had sold over 1.75 million singles and over 3.98 million albums in the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, she had sold about 3.4 million tracks and 2.7 million albums in the United States as of the same date. Among the awards and recognition for her debut album Frank, Winehouse earned an Ivor Novello Award from the British Academy of Songwriters for Best Contemporary Song ("Stronger Than Me"), a Brit Award nomination for Best British Female Solo Artist, and an inclusion in Robert Dimery's 2006 book, 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Her second studio album, Back to Black, produced numerous nominations, including two Brit Awards (Best British Album, and won her Best British Female Solo Artist), six Grammy Awards (including five wins), four Ivor Novello Awards, four MTV Europe Music Awards, three MTV Video Music Awards, three World Music Awards, and it was nominated for the Mercury Prize (Album of the Year) and a MOBO Awards (Best UK Female). During her career, Winehouse received 23 awards from 60 nominations. Winehouse was known for her deep, expressive contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres, including soul, (sometimes labelled as blue-eyed soul and neo soul), rhythm and blues, and jazz. The BBC's Garry Mulholland called Winehouse "the pre-eminent vocal talent of her generation". According to AllMusic's Cyril Cordor, she was one of the UK's premier singers during the 2000s. "Fans and critics alike embraced her rugged charm, brash sense of humor, and distinctively soulful and jazzy vocals". In The Guardian, Caroline Sullivan later wrote that "her idolisation of Dinah Washington and the Ronettes distinguished her from almost all newly minted pop singers of the early 2000s, and her exceptionally-susceptible-to-heartbreak voice did the rest". Soon after Winehouse's death, a number of prominent critics assessed the singer's legacy. Maura Johnston from The Village Voice said, "When she was on, Winehouse had few peers—she wasn't an octave-jumper like other big divas of the moment, but her contralto had a snap to it that enriched even the simplest syllables with a full spectrum of emotion". Sasha Frere-Jones of The New Yorker proclaimed, "Nobody can match Winehouse's unique transitions or her utterly weird phrasings. She sounded like an original sixties soul star, developed when the landscape had no rules. But now untrammelled traditionalism is in the lead and her beautiful footnote has been cut short. American soul—through visionaries like Erykah Badu and Janelle Monáe and Jill Scott—had moved on. But Winehouse was a fine shepherd of the past." On 13 February 2012, Winehouse was ranked 26th on VH1's 100 Greatest Women in Music list. In March 2017, singer-songwriter Bob Dylan said he was enjoying listening to Winehouse's last record (Back to Black), and called her "the last real individualist around". In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Winehouse at number 83 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time. Influence Adele has credited Winehouse's success in making her and fellow British singer Duffy's journey to the United States "a bit smoother." Lady Gaga credited Winehouse with paving the way for her rise to the top of the charts, explaining that Winehouse made it easier for unconventional women to have mainstream pop success. Raphael Saadiq, Anthony Hamilton and John Legend said "Amy Winehouse was produced by people who wanted to create a marketing coup. The positive side is that it reacquainted an audience with this music and played an introductory role for others. This reinvigorated the genre by overcoming the vintage aspect." Other artists that have credited Winehouse as an influence or for paving the way for them include Bruno Mars, Tove Lo, Jessie J, Emeli Sandé, Victoria Justice, Paloma Faith, Lana Del Rey, Sam Smith, Florence Welch, Halsey, Alessia Cara, Estelle, Daya, Jorja Smith, Lauren Jauregui and Billie Eilish. After the release of Back to Black, record companies sought out female artists with a similar sound and fearless and experimental female musicians in general. Adele and Duffy were the second wave of artists with a sound similar to Winehouse's. A third wave of female musicians that has emerged since the album was released are led by V V Brown, Florence and the Machine, La Roux and Little Boots. In March 2011, the New York Daily News ran an article attributing the continuing wave of British female artists that have been successful in the United States to Winehouse and her absence. Spin magazine music editor Charles Aaron was quoted as saying "Amy Winehouse was the Nirvana moment for all these women," "They can all be traced back to her in terms of attitude, musical styles or fashion." According to Keith Caulfield, chart manager for Billboard, "Because of Amy, or the lack thereof, the marketplace was able to get singers like Adele, Estelle and Duffy," "Now those ladies have brought on the new ones, like Eliza Doolittle, Rumer and Ellie." Amy Winehouse Foundation After the singer's death by alcohol intoxication in July 2011, the Amy Winehouse Foundation was set up by Winehouse's family and launched on 14 September 2011 (which would have been Winehouse's 28th birthday). Its aim is to help vulnerable or disadvantaged young people, and it works with other charitable organisations to provide frontline support. Its central office is in North London, but it also has an office in New York (operating under the name 'The Amy Winehouse Foundation US'). Jon Snow is a patron for the charity, with Barbara Windsor also before she died in 2020, and ambassadors include Jess Glynne, Patsy Palmer, Jessie Wallace, Keira Chaplin and Mica Paris. In October 2015 Mark Ronson became a patron. Amy's brother Alex works full-time for the foundation, having given up his career as an online music journalist. The charity itself works to prevent the effects of drug and alcohol misuse on young people and it also aims to support, inform and inspire vulnerable and disadvantaged young people to help them reach their full potential. On 12 March 2013, with the help of ex-addict Russell Brand, the Foundation launched the Amy Winehouse Foundation Resilience Programme For Schools across the UK which aims to provide effective education around drugs, alcohol and dealing with emotional issues. Tributes Artworks and exhibits London's Mall Galleries opened an exhibition in May 2008 that included a sculpture of Winehouse, titled Excess. The piece, created by Guy Portelli, had a miniature of the singer lying on top of a cracked champagne bottle, with a pool of spilled liquid underneath. The body was covered with what appeared to be tiny pills, while one outstretched hand held a glass. Another piece, a print titled Celebrity 1 by artist Charlotte Suckling, was shown in the same exhibition. Winehouse was immortalised at the world-famous London Madame Tussauds on 23 July 2008. Winehouse herself had expressed surprise at plans to make a waxwork of her, stating that she believed a person 'had to be dead' before a waxwork was made of them. Winehouse did not make herself available for sittings for the Madame Tussauds waxwork, which was instead done from photos. A sculpture by Marco Perego, titled The Only Good Rock Star Is a Dead Rock Star, that depicts Winehouse lying in a pool of blood with an apple and a bullet hole in her head after being shot by American novelist and Beat poet William S. Burroughs (in a recreation of the accidental killing of his wife Joan Vollmer), went on on display in New York's Half Gallery on 14 November 2008 with a sale price of US$100,000. Perego said of the sculpture: "Rock stars are the sacrificial animals of society." Winehouse was not supportive of Peregro's work, with her spokesperson stating: "It's a funny kind of tribute. The artist seems in thrall to a tabloid persona that is not the real Amy. People often use her image to sell their work." Initial reports after her death stated that Winehouse had left a will, which had been altered after her divorce from Blake Fielder-Civil. However it transpired that Winehouse had not left a will; her estate, worth around £4 million, was inherited by her parents. Winehouse's parents set up the Amy Winehouse Foundation to prevent harm from drug misuse among young people, with her brother Alex as an employee. In 2012, Winehouse was among the British cultural icons selected by artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork – the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover – to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life that he most admires. On 14 September 2014 (which would have been Winehouse's 31st birthday), a statue of her by sculptor Scott Eaton was unveiled at Stables Market in Camden Town, North London. Fans and relatives gathered for the unveiling in Camden's Stable Market. London-based Eaton, who sculpted the piece after being introduced to Winehouse's father Mitch, said the statue was meant to capture her "attitude and strength, but also give subtle hints of insecurity." Her father Mitch said of the statue: "Now Amy will oversee the comings and goings of her home town forever... Amy was in love with Camden and it is the place her fans from all over the world associate her with." An exhibit of Winehouse's personal items, co-curated by her brother and sister-in-law, titled Amy Winehouse: A Family Portrait, was on display at the Jewish Museum London from 3 July 2013 until 15 September 2013, and later exhibited in San Francisco, 23 July 2015 to 1 November 2015. Display items, such as books and music, were featured together with captions written by Winehouse's brother. In 2018, the artist Dan Llywelyn Hall's portrait of the singer, Amy's Glance, was exhibited at the London Art Fair. In March 2020, Winehouse's name on a stone was unveiled on the new Music Walk of Fame in Camden, with her parents Mitch and Janis in attendance at the ceremony. In 2020, an exhibition titled Beyond Black – The Style of Amy Winehouse opened at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. The exhibit mainly focused on Winehouse's style and fashion, displaying outfits such as her iconic dresses, shoes, hair accessories, makeup bag as well as Winehouse's personal belongings including her Grammy awards from 2008, handwritten lyrics, records and unseen home videos. The exhibition went on display in the U.S. from 17 January 2020 until 13 April 2020. A follow-up exhibition Amy: Beyond the Stage opened on 26 November 2021 until 10 April 2022 at the Design Museum in Kensington, London which also presented some of Winehouse's personal belongings and focus on her fashion sense, as well as paying homage to her musical career. Also in November 2021, various of Winehouse's personal items and famous dresses would later be auctioned at Julien's Auctions in Los Angeles and made more than £3m, 30% going to the Amy Winehouse Foundation. Many musical artists have since paid tribute to Winehouse including Nicki Minaj, M.I.A., Lady Gaga, Kelly Osbourne, Rihanna, George Michael, Adele, Dita Von Teese, Courtney Love, and the rock band Green Day, who wrote a song in her tribute titled "Amy". In her 2012 album Banga, singer Patti Smith released "This Is the Girl", written as an homage to Winehouse. Mark Ronson dedicated his UK number-one album Uptown Special to Winehouse, stating: "I'm always thinking of you and inspired by you." Films and memoirs In late 2011, there were reports that Winehouse's former boyfriend, Reg Traviss, was developing a film about her. Winehouse's father Mitch Winehouse, who owns the copyright to his daughter's music, said he would not authorise the use of her music for the film. Winehouse's parents have each written memoirs about their daughter and donated the proceeds from both books to the Amy Winehouse Foundation. In the introduction to Mitch Winehouse's biography, titled Amy: My Daughter (2012), he explained: "Apart from being her father, I was also her friend, confidant and adviser—not that she always took my advice, but she always heard me out." Her mother Janis published Loving Amy: A Mother's Story, in 2014. A documentary film, Amy (2015), directed by Asif Kapadia and produced by James Gay-Rees, was released on 3 July 2015. The film covers Winehouse's life, her relationships, her struggles with substance abuse both before and after her career blossomed, and which eventually caused her death. The film received its première at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival on 16 May and has been reviewed as "a tragic masterpiece", "brilliant", "heartbreaking" and "unmissable". The soundtrack of the same name was released on 30 October 2015, along with the DVD that includes music featured in the documentary by film composer Antônio Pinto and classic and some unreleased tracks by Winehouse. The film was highly acclaimed and received various accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 2016 Oscars, Best Music Film at the 2016 Grammy Awards, the BAFTA for Best Documentary, the MTV Movie Award for Best Documentary, in addition to a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best British Film. On 9 October 2017, it was announced by Winehouse's father Mitch that a West End/Broadway musical on Amy is in the works. Mitch Winehouse revealed the news at the Amy Winehouse Foundation Gala event in London. In 2018, a documentary film based on Winehouse's album Back to Black, Amy Winehouse – Back to Black, was released. It contains new interviews as well as archival footage. It was made by Eagle Vision and produced by Gil Cang. Released on DVD on 2 November 2018, the film features interviews by producers Ronson & Remi, who worked half and half on the album, along with the Dap Kings, Remi's music team, Ronnie Spector from the Ronettes and close ones to Winehouse, including Nick Shymansky, Juliette Ashby and Dionne Bromfield. The film is accompanied by An Intimate Evening in London, footage of a show Winehouse gave at Riverside Studios, London in 2008. In February 2019, Salaam Remi released a compilation album including the song "Find My Love" which is a posthumous collaboration between Winehouse and rapper Nas. As the years passed since her death, talk began to grow of a film biopic of Amy Winehouse's life. In October 2018, it was announced that Winehouse's estate had signed a multi-million pound deal to make a film biopic about her life and career. In August 2021 it was reported that a film based on Daphne Barak's 2010 book, Saving Amy, which chronicles the late singer's final years, had been greenlighted by Halcyon Studios. However, in September 2021, Amy's father and estate executor, Mitch, stated that was “100% not allowed.” In July 2021, a new documentary titled Reclaiming Amy aired on BBC Two to mark the 10th anniversary of Winehouse's death. The film was primarily based on the perspective and narrated by her mother Janis Winehouse-Collins and included intimate stories of those who were close to Winehouse until the end of her life, including close friends Naomi Parry (Winehouse's stylist), Catriona Gourlay and Chantelle Dusette. In July 2022, it was reported that a feature film biopic, entitled Back To Black (2024) was to be produced by StudioCanal UK, distributed by Focus Features and directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson—who previously made a biopic of The Beatles star John Lennon, Nowhere Boy (2009)—and directed Fifty Shades of Grey (2015). The script was written by Matt Greenhalgh and it was to be made with the full cooperation of Amy's father Mitch, and her estate. In January 2023, it was revealed that British actress Marisa Abela would play the leading role of Winehouse and filming commenced later that month in London. In January 2024, a trailer for Back to Black was released along with a debut release date of April 12 in the UK. The film was moderately successful at the box office, with a worldwide total of $51.1 million. The film attracted mixed reviews, with criticism for a selective depiction of Winehouse's life, including the complete omission of Reg Traviss, and over-sympathetic depictions of Mitch Winehouse, and Blake Fielder-Civil, but praise for the acting. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 34% of 175 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "Back to Black's sympathetic approach to its subject's story is an overdue antidote to the tabloid treatment she often received in life, even if the end results are disappointingly pedestrian." Discography Frank (2003) Back to Black (2006) See also List of deaths through alcohol References Sources Winehouse, Mitch (2012). Amy, My Daughter. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-219139-7. Further reading Winehouse, Janis (2014). Loving Amy: A Mother's Story. Random House. ISBN 978-1-4735-0816-3. External links Official website Amy Winehouse at AllMusic Amy Winehouse at Curlie Amy Winehouse collected news and commentary at The Guardian Amy Winehouse collected news and commentary at The New York Times Amy Winehouse Foundation - Charity Commission for England and Wales

Paramore is an American rock band formed in Franklin, Tennessee, in 2004. Since 2017, the band's lineup includes lead vocalist Hayley Williams, lead guitarist Taylor York, and drummer Zac Farro. Williams and Farro are founding members of the group, while York, a high school friend of the original lineup, joined in 2007. Williams is the only member to appear on all six of Paramore's studio albums. The band was signed to Fueled by Ramen, a subsidiary of Atlantic Records. (Both are owned by Warner Music Group.) Williams was signed to Atlantic separately, as she was scouted when she was a teenager. They were the only label to let her stay in the band instead of going solo, but Atlantic said the rest of the band had to sign to Fueled by Ramen. The group's debut album, All We Know Is Falling (2005), reached number 30 on Billboard's Heatseekers Chart in 2006 and number four on the UK Rock Chart in 2009. The band's second album, Riot! (2007) became a mainstream success thanks to the success of the singles "Misery Business", "Crushcrushcrush", and "That's What You Get". The album was certified Platinum in the US and the band received a Best New Artist nomination at the 2008 Grammy Awards. Their 2009 follow-up, Brand New Eyes, reached number two on the Billboard 200 and became the band's second-highest-charting album to date. It produced the top-forty single "The Only Exception" and went platinum in Ireland and the UK. Following the departure of Zac and Josh Farro in 2010, the band released their self-titled fourth album in 2013. Paramore gave the band their first number one song on the US Billboard 200 and was also the number one album in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico. It included the singles "Still Into You" and "Ain't It Fun", with the latter winning the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song for Williams and York as songwriters, making it Paramore's first Grammy win. The band's lineup changed once again after this album, with bassist Jeremy Davis leaving the band near the end of 2015 and former drummer Zac Farro rejoining the band in 2017. Their fifth and sixth studio albums, After Laughter and This Is Why, were released in May 2017 and February 2023, respectively, to critical acclaim. History 2002–2004: Formation and early years In 2002, at age 13, vocalist Hayley Williams moved from her hometown Meridian, Mississippi, to Franklin, Tennessee, where she met brothers Josh Farro and Zac Farro at a weekly supplemental program for home-schooled students. Shortly after arriving, she began taking vocal lessons with Brett Manning. Prior to forming Paramore, Williams and bassist Jeremy Davis, along with friend Kimee Read, took part in a funk cover band called the Factory, while Josh and Zac Farro had practiced together after school. The other members of what was soon to be Paramore had been "edgy about the whole female thing" of having Williams as vocalist, but, because they were good friends, she started writing for them. Williams said of the members when she first met them, "They were the first people I met who were as passionate about music as I was." Williams was originally signed to Atlantic Records as a solo artist in 2003. She had been introduced to Atlantic A&R Tom Storms by Kent Marcus and Jim Zumwalt, lawyers of managers Dave Steunebrink and Richard Williams, and then eventually signed to Atlantic by Jason Flom. Steunebrink and Richard Williams had originally discovered and signed her to a production deal that was later bought out by Atlantic. The original plan of the label was to turn her into a pop singer, but Williams resisted, saying that she wanted to play alternative rock music with a band. In an interview with HitQuarters the band's A&R at Atlantic, Steve Robertson, said, "She wanted to make sure that we didn't look at her as some straight to Top 40 pop princess. She wanted to make sure that she and her band got the chance to show what they can do as a rock band writing their own songs." Label president Julie Greenwald and the label staff decided to go with her wishes. The original management team for the band was Dave Steunebrink, Creed manager Jeff Hanson, and Hanson's assistant Mark Mercado. The band was officially formed by Josh Farro (lead guitar/backing vocals), Zac Farro (drums), Davis (bass guitar) and Williams (lead vocals) in 2004, with the later addition of Williams' neighbor Jason Bynum (rhythm guitar). When Davis showed up, he was stunned to find out the drummer was only fourteen years old. He admitted "I had very, very, very, little faith in everyone in the band because of their age. I remember thinking, 'This is not going to work because this kid is way too young,' but that first day of practice was amazing. I knew we were on to something." According to Williams, the name "Paramore" came from the maiden name of the mother of one of their first bass players. Once the group learned the meaning of the homophone paramour ('secret lover'), they decided to adopt the name, using the Paramore spelling. Paramore was originally supposed to release their music on Atlantic Records, but the label's marketing department decided it would be better for the image of the band to not have them attached to a major label. Instead, they released their music through the niche label Fueled by Ramen. Lyor Cohen, the head of Warner Music Group, had already identified Fueled by Ramen as a label they should partner with. It was decided the rock label would make an ideal match for Paramore. According to Robertson, when the band was presented to Fueled by Ramen's CEO John Janick, "he got the vision of the band immediately." Janick went to a Taste of Chaos performance in Orlando, Florida, to see the band perform live. In April 2005, after a smaller private performance at a warehouse, the band was signed to Atlantic Records and Fueled By Ramen. The band's first song written together was "Conspiracy", which was later used on their debut album. At this time, they were touring the Southeast, usually being driven by Williams' parents. She commented that "Back then, I guess we were all thinking, after school, we'll go to the house and practice. It was what we loved to do for fun, and still do! I don't think any of us really knew this would turn out to be what it's become." 2005–2006: All We Know Is Falling Paramore traveled back to Orlando, Florida, but shortly after arriving, Jeremy Davis left the band, citing personal reasons. The remaining four members of Paramore continued with the album, writing "All We Know" about his departure, and later deciding to base All We Know Is Falling around the concept. The album artwork also reflected Paramore's grief, as Hayley Williams explains, "The couch on the cover of All We Know is Falling with no one there and the shadow walking away; it's all about Jeremy leaving us and us feeling like there's an empty space." Before touring, the band added John Hembree (bass) to their lineup to replace Davis. During that summer, Paramore was featured on the Shiragirl stage of the 2005 Warped Tour. After being asked by the band, Jeremy Davis returned to Paramore after five months apart, replacing Hembree. All We Know Is Falling was released on July 26, 2005, and reached No. 30 on Billboard's Heatseekers Chart. Paramore released "Pressure" as its first single, with a video directed by Shane Drake, but the song failed to chart. The video featured the band performing in a warehouse, eventually getting sprayed with water sprinklers as the storyline of a conflicted couple occurs. In July, "Emergency" was released as the second single, the video again reuniting the band with director Shane Drake and featuring Hunter Lamb (rhythm guitar), who replaced Jason Bynum in December 2005. The video for "Emergency" showcased Paramore in another performance, this time fixing the members' bloody costumes. The third single, "All We Know", was released with limited airtime, with the video consisting of a collection of live performances and backstage footage. After the band's later success, All We Know Is Falling and "Pressure" were certified Gold by the RIAA. In January 2006, the band took part in the Winter Go West tour, where they played alongside Seattle bands Amber Pacific and the Lashes. In February, Hayley Williams was featured on "Keep Dreaming Upside Down" by October Fall. In spring of 2006, Paramore was an opening act on tours for both Bayside and the Rocket Summer. The band then covered Foo Fighters' "My Hero" for the Sound of Superman soundtrack. During the summer of 2006, Paramore played a portion of Warped Tour, primarily on the Volcom and Hurley Stages. During the band's time at Warped Tour, they released The Summer Tic EP, which was sold exclusively during the tour. Paramore's first US headlining tour began on August 2, 2006, to a sold-out audience with support from This Providence, Cute Is What We Aim For, and Hit the Lights. That year they were voted "Best New Band", and Hayley Williams was voted as No. 2 "Sexiest Female", by readers of the British magazine Kerrang!. In 2007, Lamb left the group to get married, and Paramore continued onward as a quartet. Paramore was then named by British magazine NME as one of ten bands to watch out for in their "New Noise 2007" feature. Paramore was featured in Kerrang! magazine once more; however, Hayley Williams believed the article was an untrue portrayal of the band, particularly because it focused on her as the main component. Afterwards, Williams addressed the issue in the band's LiveJournal, with a post saying, "we could've done without a cover piece. sorry, if it offends anyone at Kerrang! but I don't think there was one bit of truth in that article." In April, Hayley Williams' vocals were featured in "Then Came To Kill" by the Chariot. They headlined a tour in April through May 2007 with This Providence, the Almost, and Love Arcade. The Almost and Love Arcade were replaced by Quietdrive for the second half of the tour. 2007–2008: Riot! Before work began on the band's next album, Davis was expelled from the band due to "his lack of work ethic and participation in things that Zac, Hayley and I didn't agree with", according to Josh Farro. After an agreement involving the remaining three members, Davis was reinstated as bassist, and Taylor York became the band's new guitarist. York had been in a band with the Farro brothers before the two met Williams. After being courted by producers Neal Avron and Howard Benson, Paramore opted to record the album with producer David Bendeth in New Jersey, who had previously worked with Your Vegas and Breaking Benjamin. The album, titled Riot!, was released on June 12, 2007, entering the Billboard 200 at number 20 and the UK charts at number 24. The album sold 44,000 units its first week in the United States. The name Riot! had been chosen because it meant "a sudden outburst of uncontrolled emotion", and it was a word that "summed it all up". "Misery Business" was released as the first single from the album. According to when discussing what Misery Business was about, Williams stated, "When I was 13 or 14 and I had a crush on Josh, he didn't like me back," Williams said. "He would go hang out with his girlfriend, who I wrote 'Misery Business' about because I was a dick." In the summer of 2007, Paramore participated in their third Warped Tour, and they posted journals of their experiences on yourhereblog for MTV. On October 11, 2007, the music video for "Crushcrushcrush" debuted on the United States television as the next single from Riot!. The video for "Crushcrushcrush" featured the band playing a performance in a barren desert, being spied upon, and later destroying their equipment. The single was released in the United States on November 19 and made available in the United Kingdom on November 12, 2007. Hayley Williams recorded guest vocals for the tracks "The Church Channel" and "Plea" for the Say Anything concept album In Defense of the Genre, released on October 23, 2007. The group performed live in an acoustic style in Boston on November 29, 2007, for FNX Radio. On December 31, 2007, Paramore performed on the MTV New Year's Eve program which ran from 11:30 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. Paramore was featured on the cover of February 2008 issue of Alternative Press magazine and voted "Best Band Of 2007" by the readers. The band was nominated for "Best New Artist" at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards, presented on February 10, 2008. Early 2008 saw Paramore touring the United Kingdom, supporting their album Riot!, along with New Found Glory. In early February 2008, the band began a tour in Europe; however, on February 21, 2008, the band announced that they had canceled six shows due to personal issues. Williams wrote on the band's web site that "the break will give that band 'a chance to get away and work out our personal issues'". MTV.com reported that fans of Paramore were speculating about the future of the band and reported rumors of trouble had begun earlier in the month, when Josh Farro expressed his anger against the media's focus on Hayley Williams. The band, however, returned to their hometown to record the music video for the fourth single "That's What You Get", which was then released on March 24, 2008. The band toured with Jimmy Eat World in the United States in April and May 2008. The band headlined the Give it a Name festival in the United Kingdom on May 10 and 11, 2008. Paramore played their first Ireland show at the RDS in Dublin on June 2, 2008, followed by the 2008 Vans Warped Tour from July 1–6. Starting on July 28, Paramore embarked on a tour named "The Final Riot!". They were joined by Jack's Mannequin, Phantom Planet, and Paper Route on the tour. The band released a live album named The Final Riot! on November 25, 2008. The album includes a bonus DVD with a full concert recorded in Chicago, as well as a behind the scenes documentary. As of April 9, 2009, The Final Riot! is certified gold in the United States. 2009–2011: Brand New Eyes, departure of the Farros, and Singles Club In September 2008, Williams announced that the band were planning on releasing their third studio album in summer 2009. On November 18, 2008, the band announced they were in the process of writing their next album. Paramore spent six weeks in pre-production at Emac Studios in their hometown of Franklin, the first time they had undergone pre-production without the guidance of a producer. The band was visited by record producer Rob Cavallo who reassured the band that they were on the right track. The band subsequently felt that the album and that their new material had the potential to surpass the success of their previous work. The band originally planned to record in Nashville, but ended up recording in Calabasas, California, with Cavallo in March 2009. The first single from the album was "Ignorance" and was released July 7, 2009. Paramore was the special guest with Bedouin Soundclash, The Sounds and Janelle Monáe at the No Doubt Summer Tour 2009, starting in May 2009 in outdoor amphitheaters and arenas across the US and Canada. The official music video for "Ignorance" aired on all MTV platforms, networks, and websites on August 13, 2009. Paramore, along with Paper Route and The Swellers, toured in support of Brand New Eyes in the fall of 2009. Some tour dates were postponed due to Hayley Williams becoming infected with laryngitis. "Brick By Boring Brick", "The Only Exception", "Careful" and "Playing God" were the album's following singles. To promote the album, the band recorded a performance for MTV Unplugged. Paramore then played a sold out 15-date European tour with You Me At Six, Paper Route and Now Now Every Children. Their stadium tour culminated at London's Wembley Arena, to an audience of 12,500. The band performed in 2010 in the Australian Soundwave Festival along with bands such as Faith No More, AFI, You Me at Six, All Time Low, A Day to Remember, and Taking Back Sunday. Shortly before the tour, lead guitarist Josh Farro announced that he was engaged and stayed behind to plan his wedding. Justin York, brother of Taylor York, filled in for him on the tour. The band, with Farro returned, embarked on a spring tour of the U.S. in late April. The band headlined the 2010 Honda Civic Tour, which began on July 23 in Raleigh, NC and closed on September 19 in Anaheim, CA. After a short United Kingdom tour in November 2010, the band announced, on December 2, 2010, the official dates for a South American tour to take place during February and March 2011. The band were set to take a break after their South American Tour in 2011 to write for their fourth studio album. On December 18, 2010, a message was released through Paramore.net stating that Josh and Zac Farro were leaving the band. The band also confirmed the scheduled South American tour would still happen. Josh Farro wrote a statement on the departure on his Blogger, claiming that the band was "a manufactured product of a major-label". He accused Hayley Williams of being manipulated by her management, treating the rest of the group as her solo project, and claimed she was the only member of the band who was signed to Atlantic Records, while her bandmates were simply "riding on the coattails of her dream". On December 30, 2010, MTV News interviewed Williams, York and Davis in Franklin, Tennessee, regarding their reactions to Farro's response. The band members confirmed many of Farro's statements, notably that Williams was indeed the only member of the band actually signed to Atlantic. They added that they felt the statement was irrelevant, and claimed they had addressed many of the Farro's critiques already throughout the course of their career. On January 10, 2011, in an interview with MTV, Hayley Williams said that despite the band losing two of its founding members, they would release new music in 2011, although they had not confirmed if it would be a full album for release or just a small number of songs. The singer also admitted that Paramore's style was likely to change with the new lineup, but clarified that the band would still retain their core signature sound. Paramore later confirmed they were entering a studio in Los Angeles with producer Rob Cavallo to record what would be the Singles Club. On June 3, 2011, Paramore released the single "Monster", featured on the Transformers: Dark of the Moon soundtrack. This is the first song that the band released without the Farro brothers. On June 9, 2011, Hayley Williams announced that the band had started to write their fourth album, which they hoped to start recording at the end of the year, with an early 2012 release. On October 11, 2011, Paramore announced that they would release a new song for each of the remaining months of 2011. The band set up the Singles Club on their website which gave fans the chance to purchase the singles when they were released, as they were released exclusively through the Singles Club and were therefore not sold elsewhere. A song called "Renegade", premiered the day of the announcement, with "Hello Cold World" following on November 7, and "In the Mourning" on December 5. In 2011, former member, Josh Farro, formed Novel American, with Zac Farro later joining the band. 2012–2015: Paramore and Davis' third exit On April 18, 2012, Williams announced that the producer for their fourth album was Justin Meldal-Johnsen. Former Lostprophets and current Angels & Airwaves and Nine Inch Nails drummer Ilan Rubin was confirmed to be the session drummer for the recording of the album. Paramore was officially released on April 5, 2013, and a #1 at US albums chart Billboard 200. The first single from the album, titled "Now", was released online on January 22, 2013, and the album's second single, "Still Into You", was released on March 14, 2013, achieving commercial success. The third single, "Daydreaming", was released on December 2, 2013. The album's fourth single, "Ain't It Fun", was released on February 4, 2014, eventually becoming the band's highest-charting song in the United States and a winner for Best Rock Song at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards. On November 24, 2014, Paramore: Self-Titled Deluxe was released, which includes a remake of "Hate to See Your Heart Break", a song originally on Paramore, featuring Joy Williams; this is the band's first collaboration on a song. The band embarked on an intimate tour with Copeland, they said in a blog post that "It feels right to bring the Self-Titled era to a close. We've had a very personal and hugely triumphant journey with this one. What wouldn't feel right is saying goodbye to this time in the band's career and not celebrating it with our fans in some special way." On December 14, 2015, bassist Jeremy Davis left the band. In March 2016, Davis was involved in a legal battle with Paramore, claiming to be eligible to enjoy the benefits of a business partnership with Hayley Williams as a co-owner of the band. This was quickly dismissed and he was again involved in a legal battle with Hayley Williams and Taylor York over a breach of contract entitling him to ownership and authorship of songs on their self-titled record, including "Ain't It Fun", and again, claiming to be eligible to enjoy the benefits of the earnings the two received from these songs and album. Davis reached a settlement with the band in May 2017. During this period, lead singer Williams later revealed that she suffered from depression and mental health issues following the departure of Davis as well as a divorce with her ex-husband Chad Gilbert. In an interview with Zane Lowe on Beats 1 Radio, shes described it as "torment" and mentioned that she "didn't laugh for a long time". As a result, Williams privately left the band for a short period in 2015, briefly leaving York as the only remaining member of the group. 2016–2019: Zac Farro's return and After Laughter On January 19, 2016, Williams announced that the band was in the process of writing their fifth album. On June 8, 2016, the band posted a short video of themselves in the studio to their social media. This was preceded by a number of images which all included both former drummer Zac Farro and producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen, leading fans and various media outlets to speculate the return of Farro. On June 17, Farro was featured yet again in a picture uploaded to social media, this time behind a drum set, confirming that he would be recording drums for the album, though he later clarified that he was only recording drums for the album and that he had not rejoined the band as a full member. Despite this, on February 2, 2017, the band announced that Farro would return as the official drummer of the band. On April 19, 2017, Paramore released "Hard Times" as the lead single from their album After Laughter, which they announced would be released on May 12, 2017. On May 3, a second single was released, titled "Told You So". A music video for the song "Fake Happy" was released on November 17, 2017. On February 5, 2018, a music video for "Rose-Colored Boy" was released, which is also the album's fourth single. The music video for "Caught in the Middle", the album's fifth single, was released on June 26, 2018. On September 7, 2018, Hayley Williams announced during a concert that the band will play the song "Misery Business" "for the last time for a really long time", mainly due to a line from the second verse that was perceived to be sexist, though this decision was reversed in 2022. 2020–present: This Is Why On May 11, 2020, Williams teased a potential return to a more guitar-driven sound on the band's sixth album, commenting, "We've found ourselves listening to a lot of older music that we grew up being inspired by." In January 2022, it was confirmed that the band had entered the studio to work on their upcoming sixth studio album. The band described the album as more "guitar heavy". On January 18, the band was announced to headline the newly founded Las Vegas–based When We Were Young festival alongside My Chemical Romance on October 22, 2022, which was one of the first live performances the band had played since September 2018. On May 10, it was announced that the band would headline the Austin City Limits Festival in Austin, Texas, during October on the 9th and 16th of the same year, alongside Red Hot Chili Peppers, P!nk and Lil Nas X. On July 15, 2022, it was announced that Paramore would be embarking on a tour in October and November 2022. On September 28, 2022, the band released the song "This Is Why" as the lead single from This Is Why, released on February 10, 2023. In November 2022, the band changed the album cover for their 2013 self-titled album to a picture of Hayley Williams from behind. On December 8, 2022, the band released the second single, "The News". On January 12, 2023, the band released the third single, "C'est Comme Ça". Paramore was nominated for Favorite Music Group at the 2023 Kids' Choice Awards. On February 6, 2023, the band debuted the song "Running Out of Time" at their album release show in Nashville. On February 16, 2023, the band released a music video for the album's fourth single, "Running Out of Time". The band's song, "This is Why", was nominated for "Best Alternative" at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards. The band began teasing an upcoming remix album, Re: This Is Why in late September 2023, posting audio snippets from the album on their official Discord server. The album was officially announced on October 2. The album is set for release on October 6. Described as "almost a remix album", Re: This Is Why features reworked, remixed, and rewritten versions of songs from the band's 2023 album This Is Why, as well as an unreleased B-side demo. For the 66th Annual Grammy Awards, This Is Why was nominated for Best Rock Album and the album's title track was nominated for Best Alternative Music Performance. On December 27, 2023, Paramore wiped their social media accounts and the band's website became inaccessible. A week later, they canceled a co-headlining appearance in Anaheim at iHeartRadio's Alter Ego festival scheduled for January 13, 2024, "due to unforeseen circumstances". In their place, Fall Out Boy was announced. Stereogum said that Paramore's label contract had expired. On January 10, 2024, A24 announced a tribute album for the Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense, which will feature a cover of "Burning Down The House" by Paramore as the leading track. In January 2024, the band were nominated for Best International Group at the 2024 BRIT Awards. On January 31, their cover of "Burning Down The House" was released as a single. On February 4, 2024, the band won two Grammy awards at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards with their album, This Is Why winning Best Rock Album and the title track winning Best Alternative Music Performance. On February 10, 2024, Paramore were announced as the ambassador for Record Store Day 2024 and confirmed that they would continue as an independent band after the end of their contract with Atlantic Records. On March 1, 2024, a music video for "Thick Skull" was released. In September 2024, during an interview with Dork, Williams revealed that Paramore has already started making new music, with demos made before they went on tour with Taylor Swift. Musical style and influences Paramore's music style has generally been regarded as pop-punk, emo, pop rock, alternative rock, power pop, emo pop, new wave, punk rock, pop, grunge, electropop, and synth-pop. Joshua Martin had written after an interview with Hayley Williams, "The band isn't just a short pop-punk girl with red hair and a spunky attitude. Their music is like them, it's aged differently. It's sped up, and slowed down. It's emo without being whiny, or bratty. Almost a very literal anti-Avril Lavigne." Alternative Press magazine had commented that the band was "young-sounding", while consistently being "honest". Paramore's first album All We Know is Falling had an arguably more "formulaic pop-punk" sound that was "delivered particularly well" and the combination of the two had created a "refined rock infused pop/punk album". The band's second release, Riot! was said to explore a 'diverse range of styles," however, not straying far from "their signature sound". The band's later albums, such as Paramore and After Laughter, included more of a new wave and synth-pop sound. The band's sixth studio album, This Is Why went for more of a post-punk and dance-punk sound. Alternative Press and various other reviewers have noted that the band's stage performances have helped boost them to larger fame. Alternative Press states that Williams "has more charisma than singers twice her age, and her band aren't far behind in their chops, either." Singer-songwriter John Mayer had praised Williams' voice in a blog in October 2007, calling her "The great orange hope"; "orange" in reference to her hair color. Due to the female-fronted aspect of the band, Paramore has gained comparisons to Kelly Clarkson and the aforementioned Avril Lavigne, to which one reviewer said was "sorely unfounded". Reviewer Jonathan Bradley noted that "Paramore attacks its music with infectious enthusiasm." However, he also explained that "there isn't a whole lot of difference between Riot! and the songs from Kelly Clarkson or Avril Lavigne." A reviewer at NME had likened Paramore's sound to that of "No Doubt (stripped of all the ska bollocks)" and "Kelly Clarkson's wildest dreams". Hayley Williams has gone on to comment about the female aspect of the band saying that Paramore is not "this girl-fronted band" and it makes "music for people to enjoy music, not so people can talk about my sexuality." Paramore has expressed appreciation for Weezer, Hum, Failure, Far, No Doubt, Deftones, the Smiths, Blink-182, Death Cab for Cutie, Jimmy Eat World, Sunny Day Real Estate, and New Found Glory. Hayley Williams has cited her personal influences as MewithoutYou, Elvis Presley, the Shirelles, the Angels, the Ramones, Jawbreaker, Freddie Mercury, Karen O, Josh Scogin, Blondie, Bloc Party, NSYNC, Aaliyah, the Smiths, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Cure, and Etta James. Williams named many singers as heroines: "I love Debbie Harry and Siouxsie Sioux. I grew up listening to The Distillers [...] Girl groups are really important to me, but the Shangri-Las especially". Williams also explained that bands such as U2, "who are massive, and do whatever they want, write whatever they want and they stand for something," Jimmy Eat World, "who I don't think ever disappoint their fans," and No Doubt, who "have done amazing things", act as a pattern for the path in which Paramore would like to take their career. In 2012, Williams contributed vocals to MewithoutYou's fifth studio album, Ten Stories. The band members identified themselves as Christians in the past and in an interview with the BBC, Josh Farro stated "Our faith is very important to us. It's obviously going to come out in our music because if someone believes something, then their worldview is going to come out in anything they do. But we're not out here to preach to kids, we're out here because we love music." Farro later cited differing views on Christianity between him, his brother and Williams as one of the reasons for their departure in 2010. In a 2022 interview, Williams described herself, York, and Zac Farro as being "at different stages of unravelling their relationship to faith". Live appearances In 2007, the band played an acoustic set for the grand opening of a Warped Tour exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the dress Hayley Williams wore in the video for "Emergency" was also put on display in the exhibit. In June 2007, they were declared by Rolling Stone as "Ones to Watch". In August 2007, Paramore was featured in television spots on MTV, performing acoustic versions of their songs or acting in short accompaniments to MTV program commercials. As "MTV Artists of the Week", the band filmed the faux camping-themed spots in Queens, New York, all written and directed by Evan Silver and Gina Fortunato. MTV.com also has a collection of short videos with the band to promote Riot! as well. For weeks in August 2007, the "Misery Business" video was the number one streamed video at MTV.com. On October 8, Paramore played "Misery Business" live on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. In August, Paramore participated in New Found Glory's music video for their cover of Sixpence None the Richer's song "Kiss Me". From September 29 to November 1, 2009, the band held a tour in North America to support Brand New Eyes. The tour for their self-titled fourth album, known as The Self-Titled Tour, took place in North America from October 15 to November 27, 2013. From June 19 through August 17, 2014, the band also supported the album with the Monumentour. Appearances in films and video games In 2005, Paramore made its first video game appearance with the song "Pressure" being featured in the console versions of the video game The Sims 2. In March 2008, Paramore made its first rhythm game appearance with "Crushcrushcrush" as a downloadable track in the Rock Band games and later being a playable song in Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades. Later that year, Rock Band 2 was released with the song "That's What You Get" included as a playable track. The video game Guitar Hero World Tour featured the song "Misery Business" along with Hayley Williams participating in motion capture sessions for the game. She is featured as an unlockable character in the game as well. "Misery Business" was also featured as a playable track on Rock Band 3, while "Pressure", "The Only Exception", "Brick by Boring Brick", and "Ignorance" are available as DLC for the game. In 2015, the song "Still Into You" was featured as an on-disc song for Rock Band 4. Paramore's song "Decode" was the lead single for the novel-based Twilight film. Another song called "I Caught Myself" is also featured on the film's soundtrack. "Decode" was released on October 1, 2008, on the Paramore Fan Club site as well as Stephenie Meyer's website. The music video premiered on November 3. Hot Topic hosted listening parties for the soundtrack on October 24, 2008, and the album was released on November 4, 2008. "Misery Business" is also featured in Saints Row 2, and the soundtrack for EA Sports NHL 08. The music video for "Decode", along with the Twilight film trailer, was shown in the North American Home Theater of PlayStation Home from December 11, 2008, to December 18, 2008. The video premiered in full through MTV and its subsidiaries on November 3, 2008, one day ahead of the release of the soundtrack on which the song is featured. Paramore's song "Now" is featured as a song for the game Rocksmith 2014. In March 2024, "Misery Business" was added as a playable track to Fortnite Festival. Band members Timeline Discography All We Know Is Falling (2005) Riot! (2007) Brand New Eyes (2009) Paramore (2013) After Laughter (2017) This Is Why (2023) Tours Headlining tours The Final Riot! Tour (2008) Brand New Eyes World Tour (2009–2012) The Self-Titled Tour (2013–2015) After Laughter Tour (2017–2018) This Is Why Tour (2022–2023) Co-headlining tours Honda Civic Tour (2010) Monumentour (2014) Opening acts Summer Tour 2009 (2009) 21st Century Breakdown World Tour (2010) The Eras Tour (2023–2024) See also List of awards and nominations received by Paramore List of songs recorded by Paramore List of alternative rock artists Notes References External links Official website Paramore at AllMusic Paramore discography at Discogs Paramore discography at MusicBrainz

Brand New Eyes (stylized in all lowercase) is the third studio album by the American rock band Paramore, released on September 29, 2009, through Fueled by Ramen in the United States and Canada. The album was produced by Rob Cavallo and recorded in Hidden Hills, California from January to March 2009. It was written by band members Hayley Williams and Josh Farro, with guitarist Taylor York who co-wrote on four tracks, as a follow-up to Riot! (2007). Praised by critics for its songwriting and the band's increased maturity, the album won Best Album at the Kerrang! Awards 2010, and "The Only Exception" received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. Several publications included Brand New Eyes in their year-end lists. The album produced five singles: "Ignorance", "Brick by Boring Brick", "The Only Exception", "Careful", and "Playing God", all of which have been commercially successful in the United States and internationally. Brand New Eyes debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 selling 175,000 copies in its first week, becoming their biggest album on that chart, until their self-titled album debuted at number one in 2013. The album topped the charts in many countries across the world including Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and the United Kingdom, making it the band's second-highest charting album to date. The album was certified platinum in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the United Kingdom by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), and Australia by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). It was also certified gold in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand. The band promoted the album with the Brand New Eyes World Tour, playing shows in North America, Asia, Europe, etc., as well as with festival appearances. Brand New Eyes was the final album recorded by Paramore before Josh and Zac Farro departed the band in 2010. Zac Farro would later rejoin in 2017. Background and production After the release of Riot! (2007), a blog post in early 2008 was posted stating that Paramore were having "internal issues." Coupled with a week of cancelled shows, speculation arose that the band was going to break up. Not long after, it was resolved and claimed to be an issue of the members never having time to talk about things such as how they "were all growing up, and sometimes, when you're growing up, you're not always growing together". Further struggles to write new material had singer Hayley Williams expressing doubts about songwriting and meeting the expectations placed on the band after the success of Riot!. In September 2008, Williams revealed that the band might release their next album in summer 2009. On November 18, 2008, the band announced they were writing their next album, again mentioning that it might be out in summer 2009. Paramore spent six weeks in pre-production at Emac Studios in their hometown of Franklin, the first time they had undergone pre-production without the guidance of a producer. A visit from record producer Rob Cavallo reassured the band that they were on the right track. "The album totally rocks," Cavallo said, "yet it's also very subtle." The band subsequently felt that the album and that their new material had the potential to surpass the success of their previous work. Although it was originally planned to record the album close to home in Nashville, the band commenced recording in Calabasas, California with Cavallo at the end of March 2009. They then added to the original material written at home with additional tunes written with the help of Cavallo after the move to Calabasas. Similar to most rock records, the band mostly tracked the drums first, followed by the rest of the members recording scratch tracks that they later overdubbed. Paramore finished production by May 2009. Composition The album's sound has been described as alternative rock, pop-punk, emo pop, and emo. Williams was concerned about lyrics that involved current issues, as opposed to resolved issues that she had written about in the past. "I was like, 'This isn't a feel-good song, because I'm writing about something I'm going through right now, and it's still painful,'" she continued. "And I confused that with actually not liking the songs, when actually I was prouder of them than I've ever been before. They're heavier emotions for me... I'm still going through some of this stuff, and these songs are really healing to me." The band as a whole treated the writing as a therapeutic experience, which helped them hash out old differences. Now that "all those words were out on the table", they were able to have their first real conversations in a long time, resolving the internal struggles they had been facing, by going back to the reasons why they started the band and had wanted to play music in the first place. Consequently, Paramore decided to name the record Brand New Eyes because of the allusion to seeing things from a whole new perspective, "Just trying to let go of whatever we might have struggled with the past and just see each other in a new way," explained Williams. The band soon felt that they were onto the right track, and, retrospectively looking back on Riot!, Paramore guitarist, Josh Farro, said "Riot! was a kiddie album, but we had to do that to get to this point." Promotion and release On April 29, 2009, it was revealed that the band's next album would be released in September. The first single from the album was "Ignorance", which was made available via digital download on July 7, on the same date the album became available for pre-order on Paramore's official website. Brand New Eyes was released on September 29 through Fueled by Ramen. The album's cover, an image of a butterfly divided from its wings, inspired the line "The angles were all wrong / Now she's ripping wings off of butterflies". Two versions of the album were made available: a standard CD edition as well as a deluxe, limited edition package that has sold out worldwide. The deluxe version included the album on CD with the acoustic versions of Where The Lines Overlap and Ignorance, a 40-page hardcover journal written by Hayley Williams, an exclusive poster that comes with only the box set, a booklet with the lyrics from all the songs from Brand New Eyes, a color vinyl 7-inch single with the acoustic versions of Ignorance and Where The Lines Overlap, one picture of each band member, a certificate of authenticity, and a DVD featuring a 30 minute long exclusive 'making-of' documentary. The CD was also one of the first to use iTunes LP. "Brick by Boring Brick" was confirmed to be the second single from the album, released in November 2009. In December, the group went on a headlining UK tour with support from You Me at Six. In November 2010, the group went on a headlining UK tour. The fifth single from the album, "Playing God", was released on the November 16. To assist with promotion of the single, a music video for "Playing God", was also released. The album was released in high resolution (96 kHz/24bit) on HDtracks.com in 2012. The high res version has a greater dynamic range than the CD release. In January 2015 another deluxe edition of the album was released in high resolution (96 kHz/24bit) on the US store of the British company 7digital: this edition includes the acoustic version of Ignorance (also featured on the physical 2009 deluxed edition mentioned above) and two new, previously unreleased, acoustic versions of Brick by Boring Brick and Turn It Off (both later included in the iTunes deluxe edition bundle). Critical reception According to Metacritic, Brand New Eyes holds a score of 73 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews", based on 18 reviews through October 1, 2009. AbsolutePunk.net writer Julia Conny scored the album at 82% and praised frontwoman Hayley Williams, "Simultaneously down-to-earth and on top of the world, there is something about this Williams character that makes an album like Brand New Eyes more than another notch on that bitchy pop-rock bedpost. Just imagine what will happen when the band hits their mid-twenties." Andrew Leahey of AllMusic gave the album a positive review, stating, Brand New Eyes presents Paramore as a stronger, leaner, and altogether more consistent band." Evan Lucy of Billboard also wrote a favorable review, saying, "Although the new set may lack the wide-eyed naiveté that made the group's past efforts so endearing, the newfound maturity makes for a compelling set of songs." Big Cheese magazine awarded a maximum five star rating and Cathy Reay wrote, "Brand New Eyes is a huge milestone for an intelligent, honest young band that deserve far more mainstream recognition than they get." Alternative Press awarded the album 4.5 out of 5 and Scott Heisel praised the improvement of the album over its predecessor; "Riot! was ridiculously top-loaded, with an unmemorable second half. Eyes astonishes from start to finish, with the bouncy and confessional "Looking Up" and the immensely powerful track "All I Wanted" showing up as diamonds in an already gem-covered rough". Sarah Bee, journalist for the BBC gave a largely favorable review and summarized, "If you didn't like Paramore before, their third album is unlikely to sway you. They make the kind of forceful, commercial emo-pop that music lovers love to hate. However, as forceful, commercial emo-pop goes – and it does – Brand New Eyes is very good. It is brash and gauche, but charming." Rock Sound however, went on to laud the slower efforts. "The album's big surprise comes in the form of the stripped-down closing tracks 'Misguided Ghosts' and 'All I Wanted', which see the fragility of Hayley's vocals laid against sparse instrumentation with truly immaculate results." Reviewer Faye Lewis went on to summarize, "Paramore are a young band growing up in the public glare, and although that would send many to the funny farm, it's made this quintet even stronger and Brand New Eyes is by far their best record yet". Jon Dolan of Rolling Stone scored the album at three stars out of five. Much like Leonie Cooper of NME, he was critical of slower moments: "But some of the sweeping moments blunt the band's fresh-faced immediacy — as if the cute kids from the sticks have had a hard time turning pro." Spin magazine awarded four stars out of five in their review and complimented the band for standing out in a generic genre. "Paramore's follow-up, Brand New Eyes, which, at a moment of wet-and-wild Warped Tour cynicism (see Cobra Starship and 3OH!3), offers a principled reminder of a more earnest, honest age." Drowned In Sound awarded the album eight out of ten and while writer Paul Stephen Gettings stated the record isn't "pushing any boundaries", he praised its longevity: "[...] if you're already a critic, this isn't going to convince you otherwise. This is a realization, and an affirmation, of Paramore's musical craftmanship and potential longevity. They have allowed themselves to grow and still retain the innocence and optimism that makes them so irresistible." Kerrang! reviewer Dan Slessor gave the album 4 Ks (4/5) and claimed, "...in Brand New Eyes they have arguably delivered the most accomplished and affecting record of their career." NME were also favorable in their review. Although being critical of the album's slower moments, Leonie Cooper praised the record as a whole; "Sure, the two slower tracks might make for a break in the relentless pace, but who needs the rest? If you just so happen to be one of the best in the up-tempo pop-smattered emo-punk game, why bother slowing down? For this lot, more is most certainly more." Accolades Commercial performance Commercially, Brand New Eyes was a major success. In the United States, the album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, selling 175,000 copies. The following week the album slipped to number nine, selling an additional 44,000 copies. The album stayed on the main album chart for 32 weeks. In addition to the Billboard 200, the album managed to peak at number one on the Billboard Rock and Alternative Albums charts. On January 19, 2010, less than six months after the album was released, Brand New Eyes was certified gold by the RIAA for shipments of 500,000 albums and platinum on March 22, 2016 for shipments of 1,000,000 albums. The tracks "Ignorance", "Brick by Boring Brick" and "Where the Lines Overlap" also made the Pazz & Jop Singles List. Tour Paramore went on tour with No Doubt between mid-May and early August 2009. The band announced their North American tour for Brand New Eyes on their official site, with The Swellers and Paper Route joining them as opening acts. The first show of the tour was played at a packed Fox Theatre in Pomona, California, on September 29, 2009 (the day of the album's release). During "Decode", Williams lost her voice. Lead guitarist Josh Farro spoke to the crowd and although their set was cut short, the band played "Misery Business" instrumentally while the crowd sang Williams's vocal parts. The tour, which previously went from September 29 to November 1, 2009, was later officially postponed on October 2, 2009, due to a case of laryngitis for singer Williams. The full tour resumed on October 10, 2009, in Chicago. The band also announced that they would be doing a European tour starting off in Helsinki, Finland, on November 29, 2009, with You Me at Six, Paper Route, and Now, Now Every Children supporting all UK tour dates. They performed in February 2010 in the Australian Soundwave Festival, along with bands such as You Me at Six, Taking Back Sunday, All Time Low and Alexisonfire. They performed at the Soundwave Festival before they did the Brand New Eyes Tour in Australia. Then in the first week of March they performed two concerts in New Zealand, one to a sell out crowd of 5,000 in Auckland and the other in Christchurch. They also performed in Singapore and the Philippines, respectively, as the last two legs of their Pacific Rim Tour. Paramore have supported Green Day on their tour. They opened the concerts of Green Day in Dublin, Ireland, on June 23, 2010 and in Paris, France, on June 26, 2010. In July, August and September 2010, the band announced a tour in the Honda Civic Tour 2010. In May 2010, the band had a short UK tour for November 2010. After just one day of being on sale they added a second date at the O2 arena due to huge demand for tickets. They later added 2 extra dates to take it up to 8 concerts instead of the original 5. In June 2010, the band announced a short Australia Tour for October. In November 2010, the band announced a short in South American Tour for February and March 2011, and the band announced a short in American tour for December. In July 2011, the band had a short Europe tour. Track listing Limited edition bonus DVD "Making the Album" documentary – 30:00 In-studio footage Interviews Paramore.net episodes: (Cocky) Basketball Ping Pong Cribz, Part 1 Cribz, Part 2 Zac and Kevin Z and T Presents "Baby Come Back 2 Me" Photo gallery (exclusive in-studio) Personnel Charts Certifications Release history See also List of number-one albums of 2009 (Australia) List of number-one albums of 2009 (Ireland) List of number-one albums from the 2000s (New Zealand) List of UK Albums Chart number ones of the 2000s References External links Brand New Eyes at YouTube (streamed copy where licensed) "一般社団法人 日本レコード協会｜各種統計". Riaj.or.jp. Retrieved December 4, 2010. "Paramore interview". Retrieved April 21, 2011. Brand New Eyes at MusicBrainz (list of releases)

What song topped Billboard magazine's Top 30 chart in the same year that the first documented case of a person being hit and surviving a meteorite occurred?

Little Things Mean a Lot by Kitty Kallen

Tabular reasoning | Multiple constraints | Temporal reasoning

Ann Elizabeth Fowler Hodges (also known as Mrs. Hodges, Mrs. Hewlett Hodges, and Mrs. Huelitt Hodges; February 2, 1920 – September 10, 1972) was an American woman known for being the first documented individual not only to be struck by a meteorite, but also to live through the encounter. Meteorite impact At 12:46 PM (CST) on November 30, 1954, a meteorite fell through the skies of Sylacauga, Alabama. It split into at least three fragments, with one of the fragments falling through a roof and then landing on Hodges, who was napping on her couch. She recalled the meteorite came through her roof around 2:00 PM local time, although the official time the meteorite fell was 12:46 PM. The meteorite left a 3-foot (91 cm) wide hole in the roof of her house, bounced off a radio, and hit her on her upper thigh and hand, giving her a large bruise. Hodges and her mother, who was in the house at the time, thought the chimney had collapsed as there was a lot of dust and debris. Once they noticed the large rock, they called both the police and fire department. Hodges' husband, Eugene Hodges, came home later that evening at about 6:00 PM local time, unaware of what had happened to his wife. She told him there was a "little excitement." That night she did not sleep well and ended up going to the hospital the next day due to being distressed by the incident, rather than for her physical injury, which was said to be only the large bruise on her upper thigh. After the incident Members from the Maxwell Air Force Base went to the Hodges home to look at and confiscate the meteorite. They confirmed its identity as a chondrite meteorite. The Mayor of Sylacauga, Ed J. Howard, originally intended to give it to the Alabama Museum of Natural History (AMNH) of the University of Alabama. Mr. Hodges stated that he had "enough evidence that the thing fell in my house" and the meteorite was eventually given back to the Hodges. Although the meteorite had crashed through the Hodges home and hit Mrs. Hodges, the owner of the house, Birdie Guy, declared ownership. After a year-long legal battle, Mrs. Guy and the Hodgeses agreed on a $500 settlement and Mrs. Hodges was able to keep the meteorite. Ann Hodges had immense, although short-term, notoriety for the incident. About 200 reporters were waiting to talk to her outside of her house, most of whom were unwelcome. Ann was invited to and attended the game show I’ve Got a Secret hosted by Garry Moore. Mrs. Hodges also received lots of fan mail and questions, although she did not reply to them. Mr. Hodges indicated they had received several offers for the meteorite while it was at the Air Force Base, but could not accept offers since it was not in their possession. One offer, he states, was close to $5,500. By the time the meteorite was returned to Ann following the legal battle with Mrs. Guy, they could not find a buyer, since the excitement of the event had dwindled. In 1956, Mrs. Hodges decided to sell the meteorite to the Alabama Museum of Natural History, against her husband's wishes, and as he recalled, for about $25. Personal life Eugene claimed that following the incident, Ann's behavior changed. Her health problems worsened, her shyness became social anxiety, and she suffered from what appeared to be PTSD. Ann and Eugene Hodges would later get divorced in 1964, and they had no children. Death Hodges died in a nursing home from kidney failure on September 10, 1972. Her ex-husband, Eugene Hodges, died in 2012. Legacy The meteorite that flew through the sky that night was named the Sylacauga meteorite and the fragment that hit Hodges was aptly named the Hodges Fragment. Another fragment from the original meteorite was sold to the Smithsonian, while the Hodges Fragment remains on exhibit at the Alabama Museum of Natural History. The radio that was hit by the meteorite was later loaned to the American Museum of Natural History in 2005 by Eugene Hodges, fifty years after the impact event. The titular poem in Space Struck by Paige Lewis was inspired by the event, describing its aftermath from Hodges' point of view. The November 20th episode of the History Channel's podcast, History This Week, "A Meteorite Hits Ann Hodges" was devoted to her story. References External links Exhibits - Alabama Museum of Natural History

This is a list of Billboard magazine's Top 30 popular songs of 1954 according to retail sales. See also 1954 in music List of Billboard number-one singles of 1954 == References ==

How much bigger was Ford Motor Company's market share of US Sales the year Matthew McConaughey won his first MTV Movie Award than the year Zac Efron won his?

10.30%

Numerical reasoning | Tabular reasoning | Multiple constraints

Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobiles and commercial vehicles under the Ford brand, and luxury cars under its Lincoln brand. The company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and is controlled by the Ford family. They have minority ownership but a plurality of the voting power. Ford introduced methods for large-scale manufacturing of cars and large-scale management of an industrial workforce using elaborately engineered manufacturing sequences typified by moving assembly lines. By 1914, these methods were known around the world as Fordism. Ford's former UK subsidiaries Jaguar and Land Rover, acquired in 1989 and 2000, respectively, were sold to the Indian automaker Tata Motors in March 2008. Ford owned the Swedish automaker Volvo from 1999 to 2010. In the third quarter of 2010, Ford discontinued the Mercury brand, under which it had marketed upscale cars in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Middle East since 1938. Ford is the second-largest U.S.-based automaker, behind General Motors, and the sixth-largest in the world, behind Toyota, Volkswagen Group, Hyundai Motor Group, Stellantis, and General Motors, based on 2022 vehicle production. At the end of 2010, Ford was the fifth-largest automaker in Europe. The company went public in 1956 but the Ford family, through special Class B shares, retain 40 percent of the voting rights. During the 2008–2010 automotive industry crisis, the company struggled financially but did not have to be rescued by the federal government, unlike the other two major US automakers. Ford Motors has since returned to profitability, and was the eleventh-ranked overall American-based company in the 2018 Fortune 500 list, based on global revenues in 2017 of $156.7 billion. In 2023, Ford produced 4.4 million automobiles, and employed about 177,000 employees worldwide. The company operates joint ventures in China (Changan Ford), Taiwan (Ford Lio Ho), Thailand (AutoAlliance Thailand), and Turkey (Ford Otosan). Ford owns a 32% stake in China's Jiangling Motors. History 20th century The Henry Ford Company was Henry Ford's first attempt at a car manufacturing company and was established on November 3, 1901. This became the Cadillac Motor Company on August 22, 1902, after Ford left with the rights to his name. In 1903, the Ford Motor Company was launched in a converted factory, with $28,000, equivalent to $950,000 in 2023, in cash from twelve investors, most notably John and Horace Dodge, who later founded the Dodge Brothers Motor Vehicle Company. The first president was not Ford, but local banker John S. Gray, who was chosen in order to assuage investors' fears that Ford would leave the new company the way he had left its predecessor. During its early years, the company produced just a few cars a day at its factory on Mack Avenue and later at its factory on Piquette Avenue in Detroit, Michigan. Groups of two or three men worked on each car, assembling it from parts made mostly by supplier companies contracting for Ford. Within a decade the company led the world in the expansion and refinement of the assembly line concept, and Ford soon brought much of the part production in-house, via vertical integration. Henry Ford was 39 years old when he founded the Ford Motor Company, which became one of the world's largest and most profitable companies. It has been in continuous family control for over 100 years, and is one of the largest family-controlled companies in the world. The first gasoline-powered automobile was created in 1885 by the German inventor Karl Benz, with his Benz Patent-Motorwagen. More efficient production methods were needed to make automobiles affordable for middle class people. To which Ford contributed by, for instance, introducing the first moving assembly line in 1913 at the Ford factory in Highland Park. Between 1903 and 1908, Ford produced the Models A, B, C, F, K, N, R, and S. Hundreds or a few thousand of most of these were sold per year. In 1908, Ford introduced the mass-produced Model T, which totaled millions sold over nearly 20 years. In 1927, Ford replaced the T with the Model A, the first car with safety glass in the windshield. Ford launched the first low-priced car with a V8 engine in 1932. In an attempt to compete with General Motors' mid-priced Pontiac, Oldsmobile, and Buick, Ford created the Mercury in 1939 as a higher-priced companion car to Ford. Henry Ford purchased the Lincoln Motor Company in 1922, in order to compete with such brands as Cadillac and Packard for the luxury segment of the automobile market. In 1929, Ford was contracted by the government of the Soviet Union to set up the Gorky Automobile Plant in Russia initially producing Ford Model A and AAs, thereby playing an important role in the industrialization of that country and consequently the Soviet war effort during World War II. To that end, in 1944, Stalin wrote a letter to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce stating that Henry Ford was "one of the world's greatest industrialists". During World War II, the United States Department of War picked Ford to mass-produce the Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber at its Willow Run assembly plant. Ford Werke and Ford SAF, Ford's subsidiaries in Germany and France, respectively, produced military vehicles and other equipment for Nazi Germany's war effort. Some of Ford's operations in Germany at the time were run using forced labor. The creation of a scientific laboratory in Dearborn, Michigan, in 1951, doing unfettered basic research, led to Ford's involvement in superconductivity research. In 1964, Ford Research Labs made a key breakthrough with the invention of a superconducting quantum interference device or SQUID. Ford offered the Lifeguard safety package from 1956, which included such innovations as a standard deep-dish steering wheel, optional front, and, for the first time in a car, rear seatbelts, and an optional padded dash. Ford introduced child-proof door locks into its products in 1957, and, in the same year, offered the first retractable hardtop on a mass-produced six-seater car. In late 1955, Ford established the Continental division as a separate luxury car division. This division was responsible for the manufacture and sale of the famous Continental Mark II. At the same time, the Edsel division was created to design and market that car starting with the 1958 model year. Due to limited sales of the Continental and the Edsel disaster, Ford merged Mercury, Edsel, and Lincoln into "M-E-L," which reverted to "Lincoln-Mercury" after Edsel's November 1959 demise. The Ford Mustang was introduced on April 17, 1964, during the 1964 New York World's Fair, where Ford had a pavilion made by The Walt Disney Company. In 1965, Ford introduced the seat belt reminder light. With the 1980s, Ford introduced several highly successful vehicles around the world. During the 1980s, Ford began using the advertising slogan, "Have you driven a Ford, lately?" to introduce new customers to their brand and make their vehicles appear more modern. In 1990 and 1994, respectively, Ford also acquired Jaguar Cars and Aston Martin. During the mid-to-late 1990s, Ford continued to sell large numbers of vehicles, in a booming American economy with a soaring stock market and low fuel prices. With the dawn of the new century, legacy health care costs, higher fuel prices, and a faltering economy led to falling market shares, declining sales, and diminished profit margins. Most of the corporate profits came from financing consumer automobile loans through Ford Motor Credit Company. 21st century By 2005, both Ford and GM's corporate bonds had been downgraded to junk status as a result of high U.S. health care costs for an aging workforce, soaring gasoline prices, eroding market share, and an overdependence on declining SUV sales. Profit margins decreased on large vehicles due to increased "incentives" (in the form of rebates or low-interest financing) to offset declining demand. In the latter half of 2005, Chairman Bill Ford asked newly appointed Ford Americas Division President Mark Fields to develop a plan to return the company to profitability. Fields previewed the plan, named The Way Forward, at the board meeting of the company on December 7, 2005, and it was unveiled to the public on January 23, 2006. "The Way Forward" included resizing the company to match market realities, dropping some unprofitable and inefficient models, consolidating production lines, closing 14 factories and cutting 30,000 jobs. Ford moved to introduce a range of new vehicles, including "Crossover SUVs" built on unibody car platforms, rather than more body-on-frame chassis. In developing the hybrid electric powertrain technologies for the Ford Escape Hybrid SUV, the company licensed similar Toyota hybrid technologies in order to avoid patent infringements. Ford announced that it would team up with electricity supply company Southern California Edison (SCE) to examine the future of plug-in hybrids in terms of how home and vehicle energy systems will work with the electrical grid. Under the multimillion-dollar, multi-year project, Ford is to convert a demonstration fleet of Ford Escape Hybrids into plug-in hybrids, and SCE is to evaluate how the vehicles might interact with the home and the utility's electrical grid. Some of the vehicles are to be evaluated "in typical customer settings", according to Ford. William Clay Ford Jr., great-grandson of Henry Ford (and better known by his nickname "Bill"), was appointed executive chairman in 1998, and also became chief executive officer of the company in 2001, with the departure of Jacques Nasser, becoming the first member of the Ford family to head the company since the retirement of his uncle, Henry Ford II, in 1982. Ford sold motorsport engineering company Cosworth to Gerald Forsythe and Kevin Kalkhoven in 2004, the start of a decrease in Ford's motorsport involvement. Upon the retirement of president and chief operations officer Jim Padilla in April 2006, Bill Ford assumed his roles as well. Five months later, in September, Ford named Alan Mulally as president and CEO, with Ford continuing as executive chairman. In December 2006, the company raised its borrowing capacity to about $25 billion, placing substantially all corporate assets as collateral. Chairman Bill Ford has stated that "bankruptcy is not an option". Ford and the United Auto Workers, representing approximately 46,000 hourly workers in North America, agreed to a historic contract settlement in November 2007 giving the company a substantial break in terms of its ongoing retiree health care costs and other economic issues. The agreement included the establishment of a company-funded, independently run Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA) trust to shift the burden of retiree health care from the company's books, thereby improving its balance sheet. This arrangement took effect on January 1, 2010. As a sign of its currently strong cash position, Ford contributed its entire current liability (estimated at US$5.5 billion as of December 31, 2009) to the VEBA in cash, and also pre-paid US$500 million of its future liabilities to the fund. The agreement also gave hourly workers the job security they were seeking by having the company commit to substantial investments in most of its factories. The automaker reported the largest annual loss in company history in 2006 of $12.7 billion, and estimated that it would not return to profitability until 2009. However, Ford surprised Wall Street in the second quarter of 2007 by posting a $750 million profit. Despite the gains, the company finished the year with a $2.7 billion loss, largely attributed to finance restructuring at Volvo. On June 2, 2008, Ford sold its Jaguar and Land Rover operations to Tata Motors for $2.3 billion. During congressional hearings held in November 2008 at Washington D.C., Ford's Alan Mulally stated that "We at Ford are hopeful that we have enough liquidity. But we also must prepare ourselves for the prospect of further deteriorating economic conditions". He went on to state that "The collapse of one of our competitors would have a severe impact on Ford" and that Ford Motor Company supported both Chrysler and General Motors in their search for government bridge loans during the 2008–2010 automotive industry crisis. Together, the three companies presented action plans for the sustainability of the industry. Mulally stated that "In addition to our plan, we are also here today to request support for the industry. In the near-term, Ford does not require access to a government bridge loan. However, we request a credit line of $9 billion as a critical backstop or safeguard against worsening conditions as we drive transformational change in our company". GM and Chrysler received government loans and financing through T.A.R.P. legislation funding provisions. On December 19, the cost of credit default swaps to insure the debt of Ford was 68 percent of the sum insured for five years, in addition to annual payments of 5 percent. That meant $6.8 million paid upfront to insure $10 million in debt, in addition to payments of $500,000 per year. In January 2009, Ford reported a $14.6 billion loss in the preceding year, a record for the company. The company retained sufficient liquidity to fund its operations. Through April 2009, Ford's strategy of debt-for-equity exchanges erased $9.9 billion in liabilities (28% of its total) in order to leverage its cash position. These actions yielded Ford a $2.7 billion profit in fiscal year 2009, the company's first full-year profit in four years. In 2012, Ford's corporate bonds were upgraded from junk to investment grade again, citing sustainable, lasting improvements. On October 29, 2012, Ford announced the sale of its climate control components business, its last remaining automotive components operation, to Detroit Thermal Systems LLC for an undisclosed price. On November 1, 2012, Ford announced that CEO Alan Mulally would stay with the company until 2014. Ford also named Mark Fields, its president of operations in the Americas, as its new chief operating officer Mulally was paid a compensation of over $174 million in his previous seven years at Ford since 2006. The generous amount has been a sore point for some workers of the company. In April 2016, Ford announced a plan to modernize its Dearborn engineering and headquarters campuses through a ten-year building project. The result would see the number of Ford employees working in these areas doubling, to 24,000. During construction, some 2000 of the employees were relocated out of the campus to a temporary location in a disused section of the local shopping mall. Facilities would also be altered to allow ride-sharing and electric and self-driving vehicles. Estimates of the construction cost were $1.2 billion. On January 3, 2017, Ford CEO Mark Fields announced that in a "vote of confidence" because of the pro-business climate being fostered in part by President-elect Donald Trump, Ford had canceled plans to invest $1.6 billion in a new plant in Mexico to manufacture the Ford Focus; instead, the company would invest $700 million in Michigan, which it planned to use to create 700 new jobs. The Focus would now be manufactured in the existing plant in Mexico. Also in 2017, Ford began development of a new mixed-use urban campus in the Corktown neighborhood of Detroit, with its purchase, renovation, and occupation of The Factory at Michigan and Rosa Parks. The new site was expected to have a major focus on the development of autonomous vehicle and electric vehicle technology. Ford later began buying up other parcels of land in Corktown including a very high-profile purchase of Michigan Central Station which is planned to become the hub of their Corktown campus, and the adjacent Roosevelt Warehouse. Ford expects to move 2,500 of its employees, roughly 5 percent of its southeast Michigan workforce, to the campus with space for an additional 2,500 entrepreneurs, technology companies and partners. Bill Ford envisioned the first-floor concourse of the train station to be a public gathering place with retail outlets and restaurants. In February 2017, Ford Motor Co. acquired majority ownership of Argo AI, a self-driving car startup. In May 2017, Ford announced cuts to its global workforce amid efforts to address the company's declining share price and to improve profits. The company is targeting $3 billion in cost reduction and a nearly 10% reduction in the salaried workforce in Asia and North America to enhance earnings in 2018. Jim Hackett was announced to replace Mark Fields as CEO of Ford Motor. Mr. Hackett most recently oversaw the formation of Ford Smart Mobility, a unit responsible for experimenting with car-sharing programs, self-driving ventures and other programs aimed at helping Ford better compete with Uber, Alphabet Inc. and other tech giants looking to edge in on the auto industry. On April 25, 2018, Ford announced that it would discontinue passenger cars in the North American market in the next four years, except for the Mustang, due to declining demand and profitability. The Focus Active, a crossover SUV based on the newly unveiled fourth-generation Focus, was also intended to be marketed in the United States. Due to the vehicle being manufactured in China, Ford later announced that it would not release the Focus Active in the United States, due to tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on Chinese exports. In March 2020, the Detroit United Auto Workers union announced that after discussion with the leaders of General Motors, Ford, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, the carmakers would partially shut down factories on a "rotating" basis to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic. On March 24, representatives of Ford announced that production in the US, Canada, and Mexico would not resume on March 30 as originally planned, amid the further coronavirus pandemic spread. In the first quarter of 2020, Ford's sales dropped by 15%, entailing the loss of $2 billion. With the change in the demand for the sport vehicles, on January 6, 2021, Ford reported a sales fall of 9.8% in the fourth quarter, selling 542,749 vehicles, compared to 601,862 in 2019. In April 2021, Ford said that it would provide COVID-19 vaccines for its employees, who were to obtain them at the company; at the beginning the vaccination program would be in southeast Michigan, Missouri and Ohio, but it was to be expanded later on to other locations. In March 2022, Ford announced that it would restructure the company into three separate divisions. Ford Model E is to focus on electric vehicles; Ford Blue is to focus on internal combustion vehicles; and the existing commercial division is to be rebranded as Ford Pro, to focus on vehicle distribution and service. In August 2022, Ford announced it planned layoffs of roughly 3,000 employees and contract workers, confirming earlier reporting. The cuts would mostly affect divisions in the US, Canada, and India, which Jim Farley said would allow the company to prepare for the future of electric, software-heavy vehicles. In February 2023, Ford announced that it was going to cut 3,800 jobs across Europe, with the job cuts mainly focusing on their German and British workforce. Ford will be cutting 2,300 jobs from Germany, 1,300 from the United Kingdom, and an additional 200 jobs in the rest of Europe, according to the head of Ford Germany, Martin Sander. The cuts will mainly be done to the company's engineers. Ford also announced during the year that their electric vehicle business had lost $3 billion before taxes over the past two years and will lose a similar amount in 2023 as the company looks to significantly invest in Electric Technology. The Ford Model E is expected to be profitable by 2026. In April 2023, United Kingdom ministers approved Ford's BlueCruise technology. Because of this assisted driving technology, Ford drivers can now legally take their hands off the wheel on certain roads. Its top speed is 129 km/h (80 mph). BlueCruise uses sensors and cameras to regulate the car's speed and to keep track of speed limits and road signs. It also monitors and keeps a safe distance from other vehicles. It also comes equipped with an eye-tracking system. If the driver stops looking at the road then the car will gradually reduce its speed. This technology will initially be offered in Ford's 2023 model of the electric Mustang Mach-E SUV. According to Thatcham Research, an automotive research company, this model is not a self-driving car. It is classified as a level 2 or partial automation assistance system. This means that technology controls two or more driving aspects but still requires human driver control in cases of emergencies. The driver is still legally responsible for accidents. In August 2024 Pennsylvania State Police filed charges against a driver that killed two men while using BlueCruise. Logo history Corporate affairs Business trends The key trends for the Ford Motor Company are (as of the financial year ending December 31): Executive management Members of the Ford board as of March 2023 are: William Clay Ford Jr. (executive chairman), Jim Farley (president and CEO), Kimberly Casiano, Alexandra Ford English (daughter of William Clay Ford Jr.), Henry Ford III (son of Edsel Ford II), William W. Helman IV, Jon Huntsman Jr., William E. Kennard, John C. May, Beth E. Mooney, John L. Thornton, John Veihmeyer, Lynn Vojvodich Radakovich, and John S. Weinberg. Jim Farley succeeded Jim Hackett as the chief executive officer of the company in August 2020; he previously served as Ford's chief operating officer. Hackett stayed in the company as an advisor until the second quarter of 2021. Ownership Ford is mainly owned by institutional investors, who own around 60% of shares. The largest shareholders in December 2023 were: The Vanguard Group (8.71%) BlackRock (7.20%) State Street Corporation (4.46%) Newport Trust (3.98%) Charles Schwab Corporation (2.25%) Geode Capital Management (1.94%) Fisher Investments (1.52%) Morgan Stanley (1.31%) Norges Bank (1.00%) Northern Trust (0.94%) Ford Philanthropy The Ford Philanthropy, formerly known as the Ford Motor Company Fund (also known as Ford Fund, not affiliated with the Ford Foundation), based in Dearborn, Michigan, is the philanthropic arm of the Ford Motor Company. Established in 1949 by Henry Ford II, the organization is a nonprofit corporate foundation financed by contributions from Ford Motor Company. In 2017, it contributed $63 million to various causes with a focus on education, driving safely and community building. The Ford Driving Skills for Life program is a driver safety program aimed at teens that were developed together with the Governors Highway Safety Association and safety experts. The Ford Volunteer Corps allows Ford employees and retirees to sign up for volunteering work on local projects in more than 40 countries. The organization invests $18 million annually in education in the United States and around the world, but accepts applications only from nonprofit organizations registered in the U.S. Education programs and scholarships include Alan Mulally Engineering Scholarship, Ford Blue Oval Scholars Program, Ford College Community Challenge (Ford C3), Ford Driving Dreams Tour, Ford Fund/Detroit Free Press Journalism Scholarship, Ford Next Generation Learning (Ford NGL), Grants to Individuals Program, HBCU Community Challenge, Smithsonian Latino Center Young Ambassadors Program, and William Clay Ford Automotive Design Scholarship. On April 29, 2024, the Ford Fund announced its official name has changed to Ford Philanthropy. Operations Ford has had manufacturing operations worldwide, including in the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, India, the United Kingdom, Germany, Turkey, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, and South Africa. Ford also helped the Soviet Union to construct Russian automaker GAZ. North America In May 2010, Ford reported that its sales increased 23% for the month, and that 37% of its sales came from fleet sales. In June 2010, sales to individual customers at dealerships increased 13% while fleet sales rose by 32%. In the first seven months of 2010, fleet sales of Ford for the same period rose 35% to 386,000 units while retail sales increase 19%. Fleet sales account for 39 percent of Chrysler's sales and 31 percent for GM's. Europe At first, Ford in Germany and Ford in Britain built different models from one another until 1965, when the Ford Transit and later the Ford Escort and the Ford Capri became common to both companies. In 1970, the Ford Taunus and the Ford Cortina came into production with a common base construction, both models being produced in left hand drive and right hand drive. Later on, the models became identical and the respective models right- and left-hand-drive exclusively. Rationalisation of model ranges meant that production of many models in the UK switched to elsewhere in Europe, including Belgium and Spain as well as Germany. The Ford Sierra replaced the Taunus and Cortina in 1982, drawing criticism for its radical aerodynamic styling, which was soon given nicknames, the "Jellymould" and "The Salesman's Spaceship". In February 2002, Ford ended car production in the UK. It was the first time in 90 years that Ford cars had not been made in Britain, although production of the Transit van continued at the company's Southampton facility until mid-2013, engines at Bridgend and Dagenham, and transmissions at Halewood. Development of European Ford is broadly split between Dunton in Essex (powertrain, Fiesta/Ka, and commercial vehicles) and Cologne (body, chassis, electrical, Focus, Mondeo) in Germany. Ford also produced the Thames range of commercial vehicles, although the use of this brand name was discontinued with the introduction of the Ford Transit in 1965. Elsewhere in continental Europe, Ford assembles the Mondeo, Galaxy, S-Max and Kuga in Valencia (Spain), Fiesta in Cologne (Germany), Focus in Saarlouis (Germany), Ecosport and Puma in Craiova (Romania). Ford also owns a joint-venture production plant in Turkey. Ford Otosan, established in the 1970s, manufactures the Transit Connect compact panel van as well as the "Jumbo" and long-wheelbase versions of the full-size Transit. This new production facility was set up near Kocaeli in 2002, and its opening marked the end of Transit assembly in Genk. Another joint venture plant near Setúbal in Portugal, set up in collaboration with Volkswagen, formerly assembled the Galaxy people-carrier as well as its sister ships, the VW Sharan and SEAT Alhambra. With the introduction of the third generation of the Galaxy, Ford has moved the production of the people-carrier to the Genk plant, with Volkswagen taking over sole ownership of the Setúbal facility. In 2008, Ford acquired a majority stake in Automobile Craiova, Romania. Starting 2009, the Ford Transit Connect was Ford's first model produced in Craiova, followed, in 2012, by low-capacity car engines and a new small class car, the B-Max. In 2022, Ford Romania was acquired by Ford Otosan and in 2023, production of the Ford Transit Courier/Tourneo Courier started at the facility. Its 1959 Anglia two-door saloon was one of the most quirky-looking small family cars in Europe at the time of its launch, but buyers soon became accustomed to its looks and it was hugely popular with British buyers in particular. It was still selling well when replaced by the more practical Escort in 1967. The third incarnation of the Ford Escort was launched in 1980 and marked the company's move from rear-wheel-drive saloons to front-wheel-drive hatchbacks in the small family car sector. The fourth-generation Escort was produced from 1990 until 2000, although its successor—the Focus—had been on sale since 1998. On its launch, the Focus was arguably the most dramatic-looking and fine-handling small family cars on sale and sold in huge volumes right up to the launch of the next-generation Focus at the end of 2004. The 1982 Ford Sierra—replacement for the long-running and massively popular Cortina and Taunus models—was a style-setter at the time of its launch. Its ultramodern aerodynamic design was a world away from a boxy, sharp-edged Cortina, and it was massively popular just about everywhere it was sold. A series of updates kept it looking relatively fresh until it was replaced by the front-wheel-drive Mondeo at the start of 1993. The rise in popularity of small cars during the 1970s saw Ford enter the mini-car market in 1976 with its Fiesta hatchback. Most of its production was concentrated at Valencia in Spain, and the Fiesta sold in huge figures from the very start. An update in 1983 and the launch of an all-new model in 1989 strengthened its position in the small car market. On October 24, 2012, Ford announced that it would close its Genk assembly plant in eastern Belgium by the end of 2014. In 2015, Ford announced that it took control of Ford Sollers, Ford's joint venture with Russian company Sollers. In September 2018, at the IAA Commercial Vehicles show in Hannover, Germany, Ford introduced an electric tractor-trailer concept vehicle dubbed the F-Vision, which would have Level 4 autonomous driving capability. On March 1, 2022, Ford announced that it was suspending its Sollers joint venture operation in Russia, in response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. On October 26, 2022, Ford sold its 49 percent share in the joint venture, and exited the Russian market, adding that it retains the option to buy them back within a 5-year period "should the global situation change". East and Southeast Asia Ford formed its first passenger-vehicle joint venture in China in 2001, six years behind GM and more than a decade after VW. It has spent as of 2013 $4.9 billion to expand its lineup and double production capacity in China to 600,000 vehicles. This includes Ford's largest-ever factory complex in the southwestern city of Chongqing. Ford had 2.5% of the Chinese market in 2013, while VW controlled 14.5% and GM had 15.6%, according to consultant LMC Automotive. GM outsells Ford in China by more than six-to-one. Ford's presence in Asia has traditionally been much smaller, confined to Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Taiwan, where Ford has had a joint venture with Lio Ho since the 1970s. Ford began assembly of cars in Thailand in 1960, but withdrew from the country in 1976, and did not return until 1995 when it formed a joint venture with Mazda called Auto Alliance. Now based in the Bo-win Sub District of the Sriracha District in Chonburi, the factory still produces passenger automobiles. The factory, built in 1941 in Singapore, was soon taken over by the Japanese during the war and was the site of a surrender of the British to the Japanese, at the factory site which is now a national monument in Singapore. On April 30, 2013, Ford Motor Co. launched their car and pickup truck line in Myanmar. Previously, heavy importation taxes had stifled imported car purchases in Myanmar, but due to currency reform, lifting of previous import restrictions, and the abolishment of shadow currency, Myanmar's car market had grown in demand. South Korea In 1967, Ford partnered with the South Korean company Hyundai, and at the new factory in Ulsan, South Korea, built the European Ford Cortina until 1974 when Hyundai introduced their all-new Hyundai Pony in 1975. Ford then developed a relationship with Korea's oldest car manufacturer Kia which built vehicles co-engineered with Mazda, later selling the Ford Festiva from 1988 to 1993, and the Ford Aspire from 1994 to 1997 for export to the United States. With the acquisition of a stake in Japanese manufacturer Mazda in 1979, Ford began selling Mazda's Familia and Capella as the Ford Laser and Telstar throughout the region, replacing the European-sourced Escort and Cortina. From 1989 to 1996, Kia imported the Mercury Sable from Ford in the U.S. and sold them in South Korea as the Kia Sable. Though the Sable was branded and marketed as a Kia, it retained the Mercury badges and emblem. Ford lost their Kia interest to Hyundai in 1998 after the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Kia had declared bankruptcy in 1997; in 1998, Hyundai Motor Company acquired 51% of the company, outbidding Ford which had owned an interest in Kia Motors since 1986. After subsequent divestments, Hyundai Motor Company owns less than 50% of the company but remains Kia's largest stakeholder. As of 2020, Ford sells the Explorer, Mondeo, and Mustang, as well as the Lincoln Aviator, Continental, Corsair, MKZ, and Nautilus in South Korea. South and West Asia Ford India began production in 1998 at Chennai, Tamil Nadu, with its Ford Escort model, which was later replaced by the locally produced Ford Ikon in 2001. It has since added the Fusion, Fiesta, Mondeo and Endeavour models to its product line. On March 9, 2010, Ford launched its first made-for-India compact car. Starting at ₹349,900, the Figo was Ford's first car designed and priced for the mass Indian market. On July 28, 2011, Ford India signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the State of Gujarat for the construction of an assembly and engine plant in Sanand and planned to invest approximately US$1 billion on a 460-acre site. In 2019, the company and Mahindra & Mahindra formed a joint venture to develop, market and distribute Ford-branded vehicles in India. In September 2021 Ford India announced plans to shut down both its assembly plants. The company said that it intends to maintain its parts and service network. Ford's market presence in the Middle East has traditionally been small, partly due to previous Arab boycotts of companies dealing with Israel. Ford and Lincoln vehicles are currently marketed in ten countries in the region. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates are the biggest markets. Ford also established itself in Egypt in 1926 but faced an uphill battle during the 1950s due to the hostile nationalist business environment. Ford's distributor in Saudi Arabia announced in February 2003 that it had sold 100,000 Ford and Lincoln vehicles since commencing sales in November 1986. Half of the Ford and Lincoln vehicles sold in that country were Ford Crown Victorias. In 2004, Ford sold 30,000 units in the region, falling far short of General Motors' 88,852 units and Nissan Motors' 75,000 units. South America In South America, Ford's primary operations are in Brazil, Argentina, and Ford Andina (Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela). Ford employs over 18,000 people and operates seven assembly or other plants in the region. In 1987, Ford Brasil and Ford Motor Argentina merged their operations with the Brazilian and Argentine operations of Volkswagen Group, forming a new joint-venture company called Autolatina with a shared model range. Autolatina was dissolved in 1995. In early 2021, Ford's Brazil branch announced it would completely cease production in the country over the course of a few months. Africa In Africa, Ford's market presence has traditionally been strongest in South Africa and neighbouring countries, with only trucks being sold elsewhere on the continent. Ford in South Africa began by importing kits from Canada to be assembled at its facility in Port Elizabeth; the company later sourced its models from the UK and Australia, with local versions of the Ford Cortina including the XR6, with a 3.0 V6 engine, and a Cortina-based 'bakkie' or pick-up, which was exported to the UK. In the mid-1980s Ford merged with a rival company, owned by Anglo American, to form the South African Motor Corporation (Samcor). Following international condemnation of apartheid, Ford divested from South Africa in 1988, and sold its stake in Samcor, although it licensed the use of its brand name to the company. Samcor began to assemble Mazdas as well, which affected its product line-up and saw the European Fords like the Escort and Sierra replaced by the Mazda-based Laser and Telstar. Ford bought a 45 per cent stake in Samcor following the demise of apartheid in 1994, and this later became, once again, a wholly owned subsidiary, the Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa. Ford now sells a local sedan version of the Fiesta (also built in India and Mexico), and the Focus. The Falcon model from Australia was also sold in South Africa, but was dropped in 2003; the Mondeo, after briefly being assembled locally, was dropped in 2005. The Mondeo was later reintroduced in 2015, badged as the Fusion, but was dropped in 2017. Research Ford Research and Innovation Center is the name of the technology research facilities of Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan Palo Alto, California Aachen, Germany Nanjing, China The Ford Research and Innovation Center in Palo Alto was first opened in 2012, and in January 2015, announced plans to significantly expand its operations. Former operations East and Southeast Asia Ford decided to shut down their entire operations in Indonesia, including their dealer network by second half of 2016. Ford of Japan Ford established a manufacturing facility in the port city of Yokohama in February 1925, where Model T vehicles were assembled using imported knock-down kits. The factory subsequently produced 10,000 Model A's up to 1936. Production ceased in 1940 as a result of political tensions between Japan and the United States. After World War II, Ford did not have a presence in Japan, as the Ford facility was appropriated by the Japanese Government until 1958 when property was returned as a possession of the Ford Motor Company and became a research and development location for Ford partner Mazda. In 1979, Ford acquired a 24.5% ownership stake in Mazda, and in 1982, Ford and Mazda jointly established a sales channel to sell Ford products in Japan, including vehicles manufactured in North America, at a dealership called Autorama (Japanese). The Autorama sales channel was renamed Ford Sales of Japan in 1997. Vehicles sold at Autorama locations were the North American assembled Ford Explorer, Probe (1989–1998), Mustang, Taurus (1989–1997), Thunderbird (1990–1993), Lincoln Continental, and Lincoln LS. Ford products manufactured in Europe that were sold in Japan were the Ford Mondeo, Ka, Focus, Focus C-MAX, Fiesta, and the Galaxy. Mazda manufactured Ford vehicles in Japan and sold them as Fords at the Autorama locations. They were the Ford Telstar (Mazda Capella), Laser, Festiva, Festiva Mini Wagon, Ixion (Mazda Premacy), Freda (Mazda Bongo Friendee), Spectron (Mazda Bongo), and commercial trucks J80 and the J100 (Mazda Bongo truck). Ford increased its shareholding in Mazda to 33.4% in 1996, but as of July 2016, it is listed at 11%. Ford did sell a small range of vehicles in Japan; as of October 2010, the Ford Mustang, Escape, Explorer (and Explorer pickup truck), Ford Kuga, Lincoln Navigator, Lincoln MKX, and more recently, the Ford Ecosport were available in Japan. As of February 2016, Ford no longer maintains a regional office in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, and sales of new cars in Japan have ended. Oceania In Australia and New Zealand, the popular Ford Falcon (1960–2016) had long been considered the average family car and is considerably larger than the Mondeo, Ford's largest car sold in Europe. Between 1960 and 1972, the Falcon was based on a U.S. model of the same name, but since then has been entirely designed and manufactured in Australia until 2016, occasionally being manufactured in New Zealand. Like its General Motors rival, the Holden Commodore, the Falcon used a rear-wheel-drive layout. High-performance variants of the Falcon running locally built engines produce up to 362 hp (270 kW). A ute (short for "utility", known in the U.S. as pickup truck) version is also available with the same range of drivetrains. In addition, Ford Australia sold highly tuned limited-production Falcon sedans and utes through its performance car division, Ford Performance Vehicles until it closed in 2014. In Australia, the Commodore and Falcon had traditionally outsold all other cars and constituted over 20% of the new car market. In New Zealand, Ford was second in market share in the first eight months of 2006 with 14.4%. More recently, Ford has axed its Falcon-based LWB variant of its lineup– the Fairlane and LTD ranges. Ford discontinued the Fairlane in 2007 and LTD in 2008. Ford had announced that their Geelong engine manufacturing plant would be shut down between 2013 and 2016. They had earlier announced local manufacturing of the Focus small car starting from 2011, but instead decided to import the model from Ford's plant in Thailand. In Australia, the Laser was one of Ford Australia's most successful models and was manufactured in Ford's Homebush West plant from 1981 until the plant's closure in September 1994. It outsold the Mazda 323, despite being almost identical to it because the Laser was manufactured in Australia and Ford was perceived as a local brand. According to research carried out by Ford Australia in 1984, a third of Laser buyers were unaware that the Ford model was based on the Mazda 323. In New Zealand, the Ford Laser and Telstar were assembled alongside the Mazda 323 and 626 until 1997, at the Vehicle Assemblers of New Zealand (VANZ) plant in Wiri, Auckland. The Sierra wagon was also assembled in New Zealand, owing to the popularity of station wagons in that market. The scheduled closure of Ford's Australian manufacturing base in 2016 was confirmed on May 23, 2013. Headquartered in the Victorian suburb of Broadmeadows, the company had registered losses worth AU$600 million over the five years prior to the announcement. It was noted that the corporate fleet and government sales that account for two-thirds of large, local car sales in Australia are insufficient to keep Ford's products profitable and viable in Australia. The decision will affect 1200 Ford workers—over 600 employees in Geelong and more than 500 in Broadmeadows—who will lose their jobs by October 2016. The closure of Ford's plants in Norlane Geelong and Broadmeadows Melbourne occurred on October 7, 2016. Products and services Automobiles Ford Motor Company sells a broad range of automobiles under the Ford marque worldwide, and an additional range of luxury automobiles under the Lincoln marque in the United States. The company has sold vehicles under a number of other marques during its history. The Mercury brand was introduced by Ford in 1939, continuing in production until 2011 when poor sales led to its discontinuation. In 1958, Ford introduced the Edsel brand, but poor sales led to its discontinuation in 1960. In 1985, the Merkur brand was introduced in the United States to market products produced by Ford of Europe; it was discontinued in 1989. Ford acquired the British sports car maker Aston Martin in 1989, later selling it on March 12, 2007, although retaining an 8% stake. Ford purchased Volvo Cars of Sweden in 1999, selling it to Zhejiang Geely Holding Group in 2010. In November 2008, it reduced its 33.4% controlling interest in Mazda of Japan to a 13.4% non-controlling interest. On November 18, 2010, Ford reduced their stake further to just 3%, citing the reduction of ownership would allow greater flexibility to pursue growth in emerging markets. Ford and Mazda remain strategic partners through exchanges of technological information and joint ventures, including an American joint venture plant in Flat Rock, Michigan called Auto Alliance. In 2015, Ford sold its remaining 3% stake in Mazda. Ford sold the United Kingdom-based Jaguar and Land Rover companies and brands to Tata Motors of India in March 2008. On April 25, 2018, Ford announced that it planned to phase out all but one of its North American automobile models (the Mustang will be the sole surviving model) to focus primarily on pickup trucks and SUVs. Ford had also planned to introduce an "Active" crossover version of the next-generation Focus, but canceled those plans due to tariff issues between the United States and China. Trucks Ford has produced trucks since 1908, beginning with the Ford Model TT, followed by the Model AA, and the Model BB. Countries where Ford commercial vehicles are or were formerly produced include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada (also badged as Mercury), France, Germany, India, Netherlands, Philippines, Spain (badged Ebro too), Turkey, UK (badged also Fordson and Thames), and the United States. From the 1940s to the late 1970s, Ford's Ford F-Series was used as the base for light trucks for the North American market. Most of these ventures are now extinct. The European one that lasted longest was the lorries arm of Ford of Britain, which became part of the Iveco group in 1986. Ford had a minority share in the new company and Iveco took over sales and production of the Ford Cargo range. Ford's last significant European truck models were the Transcontinental and the Cargo. At the end of 1996, Ford sold the rights to its heavy trucks division to the Freightliner Trucks division of Daimler AG, with Ford producing the Cargo, Louisville, and Aeromax, through the 1998 model year. During the 1998 model year, Freightliner began production of its own versions of Ford-developed trucks in St. Thomas, Ontario, launching the Sterling truck brand. Slotted between Freightliner and Western Star, Sterling trucks were produced through 2009. Line of heavy trucks made by Ford for the North American market: Ford F-Series "Big Job" (1951–1957) "Super Duty/Extra Heavy Duty (1958–1962) Ford N-Series (1963–1969) Ford L-Series trucks (1970–1998) aka Ford "Louisville Line" Ford Aeromax (1988–1998) Ford Louisville (1996–1998) Sterling (1998–2009) Ford C-Series (1957–1990) Ford Cargo/CF-Series (1986–1997) Ford H-Series (1961–1966) aka "Two-story Falcon" Ford W-Series (1966–1977) Ford CL-Series (1978–1995) For 1999, Ford briefly withdrew from production of medium-duty trucks. For the 2001 model year, the company entered into a joint venture with Navistar International (the supplier of diesel engines for 1-ton F-Series trucks), named Blue Diamond Truck Company LLC. As part of the joint venture, sharing a common truck chassis, the two companies would produce medium-duty (Class 6–7) trucks in a Navistar facility in Mexico, with each manufacturer supplying its own powertrain and bodywork, with the Ford F-650/F-750 Super Duty and International 4000/DuraStar sharing an assembly line. In 2006, the joint venture debuted the Ford LCF/International CityStar. Using a modified F-Series chassis adopted to fit a Mazda Titan cab, the LCF was a low-cab forward truck that was sold through 2009. In Europe, Ford manufactures the Ford Transit jumbo van, which is classed as a Large Goods Vehicle and has a payload of up to 2,265 kg; there are options of a panel van, pickup or chassis cab. The Ford Transit is also available as a light van called the Ford Transit Connect and the Ford Ranger pickup is available. Buses Ford manufactured complete buses in the company's early history, but today the role of the company has changed to that of a second stage manufacturer. In North America, the E-Series is still used as a chassis for small school buses and the F-650 is used in commercial bus markets. In the 1980s and 1990s, the medium-duty B700 was a popular chassis used by school bus body manufacturers including Thomas Built, Ward, and Blue Bird, but Ford lost its market share due to industry contraction and agreements between body manufacturers. Older bus models included: Prior to 1936, Ford buses were based on truck bodies: Model B – 1930s Model T – 1920s F-105 school bus In 1936, Ford introduced the Ford Transit Bus, a series of small transit buses with bodies built by a second party. Originally a front-engine design, it was modified to a rear-engine design in 1939. About 1,000 to 1,200 of the original design were built, and around 12,500 of the rear-engine design, which was in production until 1947 (rebranded as the Universal Bus in 1946). Rear-engine Transit Bus chassis model numbers: 09-B/19-B City transit bus – 1939–1941 19-B/29-B City transit bus – 1941–1942 49-B/79-B City transit bus – 1944–1947 69-B City transit bus – 1946–1947 29-B City transit bus – 1946–1947 72-T transit bus – 1944–1945 After 1946 the Transit City bus was sold as the Universal Bus with the roof changed from fabric/wood to all-metal: 79-B Universal transit bus – 1946–1947 Succeeding the Ford Transit Bus was the Ford 8M buses: 8MB transit bus – with Wayne Works 1948–? Following World War II and from the 1950s onwards, Ford lost out to General Motors. This led to the end of transit buses for Ford in North America. B500 or B-series – 1950–1990s based on Ford F-series truck chassis used by school bus body manufacturers In Europe, Ford manufactures the Ford Transit Minibus which is classed in Europe as a Passenger Carrying Vehicle and there are options of 12-, 15-, or 17-seaters. In the past, European models included: EM N-138 D series buses (Australia) Tractors The "Henry Ford and Son Company" began making Fordson tractors in Henry's hometown of Springwells (later part of Dearborn), Michigan, from 1907 to 1928, from 1919 to 1932, at Cork, Ireland, and between 1933 and 1964 at Dagenham, England, later transferred to Basildon. They were also produced in Leningrad beginning in 1924. Ford reentered the tractor market in 1939 with the Ford N-series tractors. The Ford 8N, introduced in 1947, became the most popular tractor of all time in North America. Production of the N line of models ended in 1952. The Ford NAA tractor was introduced as an entirely new model in 1953. It was a replacement for the Ford N-Series tractors. Larger than the 8N, with a four-cylinder engine, and streamlined styling. In 1986, Ford expanded its tractor business when it purchased the Sperry-New Holland skid-steer loader and hay baler, hay tools and implement company from Sperry Corporation and formed Ford-New Holland which bought out Versatile tractors in 1988. This company was bought by Fiat in 1993 and the name changed from Ford New Holland to New Holland. New Holland is now part of CNH Global. Financial services Ford offers automotive finance through Ford Motor Credit Company. Automotive components Ford's FoMoCo parts division sells aftermarket parts under the Motorcraft brand name. It has spun off its parts division under the name Visteon. FordWorks Program Ford Motor Company created the FordWorks program in 2016 with the aim to bring people with disabilities back into the workforce. It was the first automotive program to focus on bringing people with autism in the workforce in the US. They targeted people with autism but have expanded their criteria to people with other disabilities. Ford has partnered with Upbound to broaden their hiring under the FordWorks program. Marques Current marques Former marques Motorsport FIA World Championships Along with Shelby and Chevrolet, Ford is one of only three American constructors to win titles on the international scene at the FIA World Championships. As a constructor, Ford won the World Sportscar Championship three times in 1966 (both sports prototype category and Grand Touring (GT) category), 1967 (GT category), and 1968 (sports prototype category), and at the World Rally Championship Ford won 4 World Drivers' Championships (in 1979, 1981, 2017 and 2018) as well as 4 World Manufacturers' Championships (in 1979, 2006, 2007 and 2017). As an engine supplier, Ford also won 13 Formula One World Drivers' Championships and 10 Formula One World Constructors' Championships. Ford is also one of only three constructors to complete the Triple Crown of Motorsport (wins at the Indianapolis 500, 24 Hours of Le Mans, and Monaco Grand Prix), a feat that Ford achieved as an engine manufacturer by winning the 1968 Monaco Grand Prix. Open-wheel racing IndyCar IndyCars with Ford engines first competed in 1935 using a production-based Ford V8 in the Miller-Ford racer. A pushrod Ford V8 raced with Lotus in 1963, and Ford's first Indy win was in 1965 with a DOHC V8. Ford motors, including the Ford-sponsored DFX engine developed by Cosworth, have won the Indianapolis 500 eighteen times. On May 12, 1996, Arie Luyendyk, while driving an IndyCar powered by a Ford Cosworth XB engine, broke the Indianapolis 500 records for fastest qualification lap (237.498 mph; 382.216 km/h) and fastest qualification four-lap average (236.986 mph; 381.392 km/h). These speed records still stand as of 2022. Formula Ford Formula Ford, conceived in the UK in 1966, is an entry-level type of formula racing with wingless single-seater cars. Many of today's formula racing drivers started their car racing careers in this category. Formula One Ford was heavily involved in Formula One for many years and supplied engines to a large number of teams from 1967 until 2004. These engines were designed and manufactured by Cosworth, the racing division that was owned by Ford from 1998 to 2004. Ford-badged engines won 176 Grands Prix between 1967 and 2003 for teams such as Team Lotus and McLaren. Ford entered Formula One as a constructor in 2000 under the Jaguar Racing name, after buying the Stewart Grand Prix team which had been its primary 'works' team in the series since 1997. Jaguar achieved little success in Formula One, and after a turbulent five seasons, Ford withdrew from the category after the 2004 season, selling both Jaguar Racing (which became Red Bull Racing) and Cosworth (to Gerald Forsythe and Kevin Kalkhoven). Ford has announced that it will return to Formula One in 2026 following a partnership with Red Bull Powertrains, supplying power units to Red Bull Racing and their second team RB. Stock car racing Ford is one of three manufacturers in NASCAR's three major series: the Cup Series, Xfinity Series, and Truck Series. Major teams include RFK Racing, Team Penske, Stewart-Haas Racing, and Wood Brothers Racing. Ford is represented by the Mustang GT in the Cup Series, and the Xfinity Series and by the F-150 in the Truck Series. Some of the most successful NASCAR Fords were the aerodynamic fastback Ford Torino, Ford Torino Talladega, Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II, and Mercury Montegos, and the aero-era Ford Thunderbirds. The Ford nameplate has won eight manufacturer's championships in Sprint Cup while Mercury has won one. In the Sprint Cup Series, Ford earned its 1,000th victory in the 2013 Quicken Loans 400. The Ford Fusion is also used in the ARCA Racing Series. Rally Ford has a long history in rallying and has been active in the World Rally Championship since the beginning of the world championship, the 1973 season. Ford took the 1979 manufacturers' title with Hannu Mikkola, Björn Waldegård, and Ari Vatanen driving the Ford Escort RS1800. In the Group B era, Ford achieved success with Ford RS200. Since the 1999 season, Ford has used various versions of the Ford Focus WRC to much success. In the 2006 season, BP-Ford World Rally Team secured Ford its second manufacturers' title, with the Focus RS WRC 06 built by M-Sport and driven by "Flying Finns" Marcus Grönholm and Mikko Hirvonen. Continuing with Grönholm and Hirvonen, Ford successfully defended the manufacturers' world championship in the 2007 season. Ford is the only manufacturer to score in the points for 92 consecutive races; since the 2002 season opener Monte Carlo Rally. In March 1951, the Henri Loos and Henri Berney broke the cross-Africa record of the Algiers-Cape Town Rally with a 1950 Ford V8, from Cape Town to Paris. Rallycross Ford has competed in rallycross with its Ford Fiesta and Ford Focus. Tanner Foust won the Global RallyCross Championship in 2011 and 2012 and was runner-up in the FIA European Rallycross Championship in 2011 and 2012. Toomas Heikkinen won the Global RallyCross Championship title in 2013 and Joni Wiman won it in 2014. Other notable Ford drivers include Marcus Grönholm, Ken Block, and Brian Deegan. Sports cars Ford sports cars have been visible in the world of sports car racing since 1964. Most notably the Ford GT40 won the 24 Hours of Le Mans four times (in 1966, 1967, 1968 and 1969) and is the only American car to ever win overall at this prestigious event. Ford also won four titles at the World Sportscar Championship with the GT40. Swiss team Matech GT Racing, in collaboration with Ford Racing, opened a new chapter with the Ford GT, winning the Teams title in the 2008 FIA GT3 European Championship. Ford Mustang The Ford Mustang has arguably been Ford's most successful sports car. Jerry Titus won the 1965 SCCA Pro B National Championship with a Mustang and the model went on to earn Ford the SCCA Trans-Am Championship title in both 1966 and 1967. Ford won the Trans-Am Championship again in 1970 with Parnelli Jones and George Follmer driving Boss 302 Mustangs for Bud Moore Engineering. Ford took the 1985 and 1986 IMSA GTO Championship with Mustangs driven by John Jones and Scott Pruett before returning to Trans-Am glory with a championship in 1989 with Dorsey Schroeder. Ford dominated Trans-Am in the 1990s with Tommy Kendall winning championships in 1993, 1995, 1996, and 1997 with Paul Gentilozzi adding yet another title in 1999. In 2005 the Ford Mustang FR500C took the championship in the Rolex Koni Challenge Series in its first year on the circuit. In 2007, Ford added a victory in the GT4 European Championship. 2008 was the first year of the Mustang Challenge for the Miller Cup, a series that pits a full field of identical factory-built Ford Mustang race cars against each other. Also, in 2008, Ford won the manufacturers championship in the Koni Challenge Series and HyperSport drivers Joe Foster and Steve Maxwell won the drivers title in a Mustang GT. Ford and Michelin teamed up to provide custom-engineered tires for the Ford Performance vehicle lineup. Ford Performance director Dave Pericak said: "That confidence extends from our upcoming racing effort at Le Mans in 2016 with the all-new Ford GT, to the Ford Performance vehicle lineup, including the Shelby GT350 and F-150 Raptor". Touring cars Ford has campaigned touring cars such as the Mustang, Focus, Falcon, and Contour/Mondeo and the Sierra Cosworth in many different series throughout the years. Notably, Mondeo drivers finished 1, 2, and 3 in the 2000 British Touring Car Championship and Falcon drivers placed 1, 2, and 3 in the 2005 V8 Supercar Championship Series. Drag racing In drag racing, John Force Racing drivers John Force, Tony Pedregon, and Robert Hight have piloted Ford Mustang Funny Cars to several NHRA titles in recent seasons. Teammates Tim Wilkerson and Bob Tasca III also drive Mustangs in Funny Car. Drifting Ford has branched out into drifting with the introduction of the new model Mustang. Most noticeable is the Turquoise and Blue Falken Tires Mustang driven by Vaughn Gittin, Jr., (A.K.A. "JR") that produces 750 RWHP (Rear Wheel Horsepower). Environmental initiatives Compressed natural gas The alternative fossil fuel vehicles, such as some versions of the Crown Victoria especially in fleet and taxi service, operate on compressed natural gas—or CNG. Some CNG vehicles have dual fuel tanks—one for gasoline, the other for CNG—the same engine can operate on either fuel via a selector switch. Flexible fuel vehicles Flexible fuel vehicles are designed to operate smoothly using a wide range of available ethanol fuel mixtures—from pure gasoline to bioethanol-gasoline blends such as E85 (85% ethanol and 15% gasoline) or E100 (neat hydrous ethanol) in Brazil. Part of the challenge of successful marketing alternative and flexible fuel vehicles in the U.S. is the general lack of establishment of sufficient fueling stations, which would be essential for these vehicles to be attractive to a wide range of consumers. Significant efforts to ramp up production and distribution of E85 fuels are underway and expanding. Current Ford E100 Flex sold in the Brazilian market are the Courier, Ford EcoSport, Ford Fiesta, Ford Focus, and Ford Ka. Electric drive vehicles Hybrid electric vehicles In 2004, Ford and Toyota agreed a patent-sharing accord that granted Ford access to certain hybrid technology patented by Toyota; in exchange, Ford licensed some of its own patents to Toyota. In 2004, Ford introduced the Escape Hybrid. With this vehicle, Ford was third to the automotive market with a hybrid electric vehicle and the first hybrid electric SUV to market. This was also the first hybrid electric vehicle with a flexible fuel capability to run on E85. The Escape's platform mate Mercury Mariner was also available with the hybrid-electric system in the 2006 model year—a full year ahead of schedule. The similar Mazda Tribute will also receive a hybrid-electric powertrain option, along with many other vehicles in the Ford vehicle line. In 2005, Ford announced a goal to make 250,000 hybrids a year by 2010, but by mid-2006 announced that it would not meet that goal, due to excessively high costs and the lack of sufficient supplies of the hybrid-electric batteries and drivetrain system components. Instead, Ford has committed to accelerating development of next-generation hybrid-electric power plants in Britain, in collaboration with Volvo. This engineering study is expected to yield more than 100 new hybrid-electric vehicle models and derivatives. In September 2007, Ford announced a partnership with Southern California Edison (SCE) to examine how plug-in hybrids will work with the electrical grid. Under the multimillion-dollar, multi-year project, Ford will convert a demonstration fleet of Ford Escape Hybrids into plug-in hybrids, and SCE will evaluate how the vehicles might interact with the home and the utility's electrical grid. Some of the vehicles will be evaluated "in typical customer settings", according to Ford. On June 12, 2008, USDOE expanded its own fleet of alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles with the addition of a Ford Escape Plug-In Hybrid Flex-Fuel Vehicle. The vehicle is equipped with a 10-kilowatt (13 hp) lithium-ion battery supplied by Johnson Controls-Saft that stores enough electric energy to drive up to 30 miles (48 km) at speeds of up to 40 mph (64 km/h). In March 2009, Ford launched hybrid versions of the Ford Fusion Hybrid and the Mercury Milan Hybrid in the United States, both as 2010 models. As of November 2014, Ford has produced for retail sales the following hybrid electric vehicles: Ford Escape Hybrid (2004–2012), Mercury Mariner Hybrid (2005–2010), Mercury Milan Hybrid (2009–2010), Ford Fusion Hybrid (2009–present), Lincoln MKZ Hybrid (2010–present), Ford C-Max Hybrid (2012–present), and Ford Mondeo Hybrid (2014–present). By June 2012, Ford had sold 200,000 full hybrids in the U.S. since 2004, and, as of September 2014, the carmaker has sold over 344,000 hybrids in the United States. The top selling hybrids in the U.S. market are the Fusion Hybrid with 127,572 units, followed by Escape Hybrid with 117,997 units, and the C-Max Hybrid with 54,236. As of November 2014, Ford is the world's second-largest manufacturer of hybrids after Toyota Motor Corporation, with 400,000 hybrid electric vehicles produced since their introduction in 2004. Plug-in electric vehicles As of April 2024, Ford currently produces the following plug-in electric vehicles: the Ford Escape/Kuga PHEV, Ford Ranger PHEV, Ford Mustang Mach-E, Ford F-150 Lightning, Ford Explorer EV (Europe), Ford E-Transit/Tourneo Courier, Ford E-Transit Custom and the Ford E-Transit. Bill Ford was one of the first top industry executives to make regular use of a battery electric vehicle, a Ford Ranger EV, while the company contracted with the United States Postal Service to deliver electric postal vans based on the Ranger EV platform. Ford discontinued a line of electric Ranger pickup trucks and ordered them destroyed, though it reversed in January 2005, after environmentalist protest. The all-electric pickup truck leased 205 units to individuals and 1,500 units to fleets in the U.S. from 1998 to 2002. From 2009 to 2011, Ford offered the Ford TH!NK car. Ford ended production and ordered all the cars repossessed and destroyed, even as many of the people leasing them begged to be able to buy the cars from Ford. After an outcry from the lessees and activists in the U.S. and Norway, Ford returned the cars to Norway for sale. Four hundred and forty units were leased in the U.S. from 1999 until 2003. In 2017, Ford CEO Mark Fields announced that the company would invest $4.5 billion in further development of plug-in electric vehicles by 2020. The 2010–2012 Azure Transit Connect Electric is an all-electric van that was developed as a collaboration between Azure Dynamics and Ford Motor Company, but Azure was the official manufacturer of record. The 2011–2018 Ford Focus Electric is based on the third-generation Focus internal combustion vehicle, converted to an all-electric propulsion system as a production electric car by Magna International, and retail sales began in the U.S. in December 2011. The 2012–2017 Ford C-Max Energi is a plug-in hybrid released in the U.S. in October 2012. It is followed by the Ford Fusion Energi that was produced in 2013–2020. Both Energi models share the same powertrain technology. In October 2017, Ford announced its Team Edison battery electric vehicle group to lead the company's renewed efforts into the EV market, which had plans for a small 300-mile range SUV by 2020. The new team will be headquartered in Detroit and have offices in Europe and Asia. On November 17, 2019, the Mustang Mach-E was introduced which later went on sale December 2020 as a 2021 model. The Mustang Mach-E is assembled at Cuautitlán Assembly in Cuautitlán Izcalli, Mexico. According to former Ford CEO Jim Hackett, assembling the vehicle in Mexico allows Ford to make a profit from the first vehicle, unlike other electric vehicles. In June 2022, the CFO of Ford announced that the Mustang Mach-E was no longer profitable due to increases in the cost of raw materials. On May 19, 2021, Ford revealed a new electric pickup truck, the F-150 Lightning. The first F-150 Lightning was manufactured on April 18, 2022, with first delivery in the US on May 26. Ford adjusted its 2024 production plans for the F-150 Lightning, cutting them in half from an anticipated 3,200 weekly units to around 1,600 weekly units due to sales below expectations. In 2022, Ford began manufacturing its E-Transit electric cargo vans at its plant in Kansas City, Missouri. As the result of 2019 Ford-VW global alliance cooperation agreement, Ford began developing electric vehicles for the European market using the Volkswagen Group MEB platform along with batteries supplied by Volkswagen. The first Ford product based on the MEB is the Ford Explorer EV, which was introduced in March 2023. It is produced in the Cologne plant in Germany, which previously manufactured the Fiesta small car. In August 2023, Ford delayed the Explorer EV deliveries to 2024 due to new battery regulations. In March 2022, Ford increased its focus in battery electric vehicles by establishing Ford Model E, a division for Ford's electric vehicle business. Ford Model E is expected to be profitable by 2026, and the company said the division "should be seen as a startup". In June 2022, Ford announced its intention to restructure its dealership model, including building an e-commerce platform where customers can buy electric vehicles at non-negotiable prices in an effort to match Tesla"s profit margins. Ford also stated in June 2022 that it planned to spend $3.7 billion to hire 6,200 union workers to staff several assembly plants in Michigan, Ohio and Missouri in a bid to sell 2 million electric vehicles annually by 2026. In May 2023, Ford announced its plans to integrate the North American Charging Standard (NACS) system into their electric vehicles, following Tesla's decision to open and rename its proprietary charging standard to NACS. Newly built Ford electric vehicles after 2024 will have native NACS charging ports on the vehicle. Existing Ford electric models will be able to connect to the NACS system and its chargers by use of an adapter. Both will thus have access to the extensive NACS charging network with more than 12,000 chargers in North America. Hydrogen Ford also continues to study fuel cell-powered electric powertrains and has demonstrated hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engine technologies, as well as developing the next-generation hybrid-electric systems. Compared with conventional vehicles, hybrid vehicles and/or fuel cell vehicles decrease air pollution emissions as well as sound levels, with favorable impacts upon respiratory health and decrease of noise health effects. Ford has launched the production of hydrogen-powered shuttle buses, using hydrogen instead of gasoline in a standard internal combustion engine, for use at airports and convention centers. At the 2006 Greater Los Angeles Auto Show, Ford showcased a hydrogen fuel cell version of its Explorer SUV. The Fuel cell Explorer has a combined output of 174 hp (130 kW). It has a large hydrogen storage tank which is situated in the center of the car taking the original place of the conventional model's automatic transmission. The centered position of the tank assists the vehicle reach a notable range of 350 miles (563 km), the farthest for a fuel cell vehicle so far. The fuel cell Explorer the first in a series of prototypes partly funded by the United States Department of Energy to expand efforts to determine the feasibility of hydrogen-powered vehicles. The fuel cell Explorer is one of several vehicles with green technology being featured at the L.A. show, including the 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid, PZEV emissions compliant Fusion and Focus models and a 2008 Ford F-Series Super Duty outfitted with Ford's clean diesel technology. Increased fuel efficiency In July 2008, Ford Motor Company announced that it would accelerate its plans to produce more fuel-efficient cars, changing both its North American manufacturing plans and its lineup of vehicles available in the United States. In terms of North American manufacturing, the company planned to convert three existing pickup truck and sport utility vehicle (SUV) plants for small car production, with the first conversion at its Michigan Truck Plant. In addition, Ford's assembly plants near Mexico City, Mexico, and in Louisville, Kentucky, were to be converted from pickups and SUVs to small cars, including the Ford Fiesta, by 2011. Ford then also planned to introduce to North America six of its European small vehicles, including two versions of the Ford Fiesta, by the end of 2012. Ford of Europe developed the ECOnetic programme to address the market and legislative need for higher fuel efficiency and lower CO2 emissions. As opposed to the hybrid engine technology used in competitor products such as the Toyota Prius, ECOnetic improves existing technology. Using lower-consuming Duratorq TDCi diesel engines, and based on a combination of improved aerodynamics, lower resistance, and improved efficiency, the Ford Fiesta was the lowest-emitting mass-produced car in Europe while the 2012 Ford Focus ECOnetic will have better fuel consumption than the Prius or the Volkswagen Golf BlueMotion. ECOnetic is not presently planned to be sold in North American due to current perceived lower consumer demand. Ford has challenged University teams to create a vehicle that is simple, durable, lightweight, and comes equipped with a base target price of only $7,000. The students from Aachen University created the "2015 Ford Model T". In 2000, under the leadership of the current Ford chairman, William Clay Ford, the company announced a planned 25 percent improvement in the average mileage of its SUVs—to be completed by the 2005 calendar year. In 2003, Ford announced that competitive market conditions and technological and cost challenges would prevent the company from achieving this goal. For the 2007 model year, Ford had thirteen U.S. models that achieve 30 miles per gallon or better (based on the highway fuel economy estimates of the EPA) and several of Ford's vehicles were recognized in the EPA and Department of Energy Fuel Economy Guide for best-in-class fuel economy. Ford claimed to have eliminated nearly three million pounds of smog-forming emissions from their U.S. cars and light trucks over the 2004 to 2006 model years. However, the United States Environmental Protection Agency has linked Ford to 54 Superfund toxic waste sites, twelve of which have been cleaned up and deleted from the list. Efficient buildings As part of a renovation of the Ford River Rouge Complex, in 2010 Ford unveiled a 10.4-acre (42,000 m2) living roof covering part of the Dearborn Truck plant, consisting of sedum, a low-growing groundcover. The sedum retains and cleanses rainwater and moderates the internal temperature of the building, saving energy. In 2016, Ford announced a ten-year renovation plan for its Dearborn campus. The plan features consolidation of office and lab spaces in to fewer and much larger buildings, which will be built to LEED standards, and will feature extensive use of wetlands and park spaces. The new campus features new multi-story parking decks with solar power-generating roofs, and a new natural gas power plant. The DTE Ford Central Energy Plant is a 34MW combined heat-and-power plant which features a high efficiency design and LEED Gold buildings. Sponsorships Ford sponsors numerous events and sports facilities around the U.S., most notably the Ford Center in downtown Evansville, Indiana, and Ford Field in downtown Detroit. The company has also been a major sponsor of the UEFA Champions League for over two decades, and is also a longtime sponsor of the Sky media channel's coverage of Premier League football. Between 1994 and 1999, Ford was the main kit sponsor of German Bundesliga club 1. FC Köln. Sales numbers See also References Further reading External links Official website Ford Motor Company records are archived at the American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming. Ford Motor Company companies grouped at OpenCorporates Business data for Ford Motor Company:

Matthew McConaughey is an American actor and producer who rose to prominence with his role in the 1993 ensemble comedy film Dazed and Confused. The film was well received by critics. Since then, McConaughey has received various awards and nominations, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award, two Critics' Choice Awards, an MTV Movie Award and a People’s Choice Award. He has also been nominated for five Teen Choice Awards and two Emmys. Three years after his role in Dazed and Confused, in 1996, McConaughey played the lead role of a lawyer in the movie A Time to Kill, for which he won the MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance. His next appearances—in the science fiction drama Contact (1997), alongside Jodie Foster, and the war film U-571 (2000)—garnered him two Blockbuster Entertainment Award nominations. In the early 2000s, he starred in multiple romantic comedies, including The Wedding Planner (2001) and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003), for which he received four Teen Choice Award nominations. He received two more nominations and the People's Choice Award for Favorite Male Action Star for his role in the 2005 action-comedy film Sahara. McConaughey received the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Bernie (2011) and Magic Mike (2012) and was also awarded the Critics' Choice Movie Award in the same category for the latter. He played the role of a hit man in the black comedy crime film Killer Joe (2011) for which he was awarded the Saturn Award for Best Actor. In the same year, McConaughey starred in Mud (2012), which earned him the Independent Spirit Robert Altman Award. The following year, McConaughey played lead role of Ron Woodroof, a real life AIDS patient in the 1980s, in the biopic drama Dallas Buyers Club to critical acclaim. He won the Academy Award, Critics' Choice Movie Award, Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award for his role in the film. In 2014, he starred in the epic sci-fi Interstellar for which he received a Saturn Award for Best Actor nomination. In November of the same year, he was inducted to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. McConaughey co-produced and acted in the crime anthology television series True Detective, which earned him Lead Actor nominations for a Screen Actors Guild Award, Critics' Choice Television Award and a Golden Globe. He also received two Primetime Emmy nominations, one for his role as an actor and other for his role as an executive producer as well as a Producers Guild of America Award nomination. For his roles in the war film Free State of Jones and Gold (both 2016), he was nominated for the Women Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor and the Saturn Award for Best Actor, respectively. Awards and nominations Other honors References Notes Sources External links List of awards and nominations at the Internet Movie Database

Zachary David Alexander Efron (; born October 18, 1987) is an American actor. Efron began acting professionally in the early 2000s and rose to prominence as a teen idol for his leading role as Troy Bolton in the High School Musical trilogy (2006–2008). During this time, he also starred in the musical film Hairspray (2007) and the comedy film 17 Again (2009). Efron had starring roles in the films New Year's Eve (2011), The Lucky One (2012), The Paperboy (2012), Neighbors (2014), Dirty Grandpa (2016), Baywatch (2017), and The Greatest Showman (2017). He played Ted Bundy in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019) and Kevin Von Erich in The Iron Claw (2023). In 2021, he won a Daytime Emmy Award for hosting the Netflix travel show Down to Earth with Zac Efron (2020–2022). Early life Zachary David Alexander Efron was born on October 18, 1987, and grew up in Arroyo Grande, California. His father, David Efron, is an electrical engineer at Diablo Canyon Power Plant, and his mother, Starla Baskett, is an administrative assistant who also works at Diablo Canyon. Efron has a younger brother, Dylan, and had, as he has described, a "normal childhood" in a middle-class family. His surname originates from Hebrew. His paternal grandfather is Jewish. Efron has described himself as Jewish, though he was raised agnostically and did not practice religion as a child. He has said that he would "flip out" if he got a "B" and not an "A" in school, and was a class clown there. Efron subsequently worked at The Great American Melodrama and the Vaudeville theaters, and began taking singing lessons. He performed in shows such as Gypsy; Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up; Little Shop of Horrors; and The Music Man. He was recommended to an agent in Los Angeles by his drama teacher, Robyn Metchik, the mother of actor Aaron Michael Metchik. Efron was later signed to the Creative Artists Agency. Efron graduated from Arroyo Grande High School in 2006 and was then accepted into the University of Southern California but did not enroll. He also attended Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts, a theater company operating out of Allan Hancock College, a community college located in Santa Maria, California, where he performed in 2000 and 2001. Career 2002–2009: Early career and High School Musical Efron began acting in the early 2000s with guest roles on several television series including Firefly, ER, and The Guardian. In 2004, he began appearing as a recurring character in the first season of the WB series Summerland. For the show's second season, which aired in 2005, he was promoted to the main cast. He also appeared in some films, including the Lifetime television film Miracle Run (2004), for which he earned a Young Artist Award nomination for his performance as one of two autistic twins. Efron's career reached a turning point with the teen musical television film High School Musical (2006), which premiered on the Disney Channel in January 2006. The film, which has been described as a modern adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, saw Efron playing the male lead Troy Bolton, a high school basketball player who feels conflicted when he finds himself interested in participating in the school musical with Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Hudgens), a girl from the scholastic decathlon team. The film became a major success and helped Efron gain recognition among teenage audiences. The film's soundtrack was certified quadruple platinum by the RIAA, and was one of the best-selling albums of the year in the United States. However, Efron's recordings of the film's songs were not included in the final cut, and the majority of his parts were sung by Drew Seeley; the Troy Bolton role had been intended for a tenor before Efron's casting and Efron was a baritone. In his subsequent musical films, Efron did his own singing. Efron was next seen as Link Larkin in the musical comedy film Hairspray (2007), based on the 2002 Broadway musical of the same name. Production conflicted with the High School Musical concert tour, which prevented Efron from joining; Drew Seeley filled in. The film became a major commercial and critical success upon its release in July 2007. Later that year, he reprised his role of Troy Bolton in High School Musical 2 (2007), which aired on the Disney Channel in August 2007. Efron again reprised his role in High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008), the first film in the High School Musical franchise to receive a theatrical release. The film became a major blockbuster at the box office, and received mixed to positive reviews from critics. He followed this with the commercially successful comedy 17 Again (2009) about a 37-year-old man who is transformed into his 17-year-old self (Efron) after a chance accident. 2009–present: Other roles and mainstream success Efron's next release was Richard Linklater's period drama Me and Orson Welles, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2008 and received a wide release in late 2009. The film earned mostly positive reviews from critics. He then played the title role in the supernatural romantic drama Charlie St. Cloud (2010), which became a moderate success at the box office despite receiving mostly negative reviews from critics. Efron appeared as a part of the large ensemble cast in Garry Marshall's New Year's Eve (2011), which depicted a series of holiday vignettes of different groups of characters. The film received almost unanimously negative reviews from critics, but became a major success at the box office. He also played a supporting role in the critically successful Liberal Arts (2012), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2012 and received a limited release later that year. He also starred in The Paperboy (2012), which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2012 and received a wider release later that year. The film received mixed to negative reviews from critics. After lending his voice to the animated film The Lorax (2012), he appeared as the male lead in the romantic drama The Lucky One (2012), based on the novel of the same name by Nicholas Sparks. The film became a major box office success despite negative reviews from critics. He also starred in the drama At Any Price, which premiered at the 2012 Venice International Film Festival, and the historical drama Parkland, which premiered at the 2013 Venice International Film Festival. Both films received mixed reviews from critics. Efron's first release of 2014 was the romantic comedy That Awkward Moment, for which he also served as an executive producer. The film, which starred Efron as one of three bachelors in New York City, became a moderate commercial success despite receiving mostly negative reviews from critics. Later in 2014, Efron was seen in the adult comedy Neighbors (2014). The film revolved around a young couple who struggle to raise their baby daughter while living next to the house of a wild fraternity led by its president, played by Efron. The film became a major commercial success and earned mostly positive reviews from critics, who also added that he had successfully shed his "Disney pretty boy" image. Efron's only release in 2015 was the moderately successful We Are Your Friends (2015), in which he played a struggling DJ. In January 2016, he starred in the adult comedy Dirty Grandpa as a straitlaced young man who begrudgingly indulges his grandfather's unhinged personality by taking him on a vacation to Florida. The film received mostly negative reviews from critics for its crude humor but became a commercial success upon its release. He subsequently starred in the comedy sequel Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, which became a commercial and critical success upon its release in May 2016. The film followed the same couple who team up with their former rival (Efron) to take down a hard-partying sorority led by a freshman. His third 2016 comedy, released in July, was Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates. In 2017, Efron starred in Baywatch, an action comedy film version of the television series of the same name, released in May. Also in 2017, Efron had a supporting role in two biographical films released in December: The Disaster Artist, a comedy-drama directed by and starring James Franco, and as Phillip in the musical The Greatest Showman. Both films were nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. In 2019, Efron played a drug-addled libertine in the Harmony Korine film The Beach Bum. He also starred as serial killer Ted Bundy in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. The film premiered at Sundance in early 2019 and was released by Netflix on May 3. In 2020, Efron voiced Fred Jones in Warner Bros.' Scooby-Doo animated film, Scoob! In 2021, he won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Daytime Program Host for the Netflix web documentary series Down to Earth with Zac Efron. In 2022, he starred in the survival thriller Gold, directed by Anthony Hayes and headlined the horror film Firestarter, a remake of the 1984 film based upon the novel of the same name by Stephen King, directed by Keith Thomas. Also that year, he starred in Peter Farrelly's Vietnam War–set comedy The Greatest Beer Run Ever, which received mixed reviews. In 2023, he starred as Kevin Von Erich in Sean Durkin's The Iron Claw, about the Von Erich family of wrestlers. Other work In 2010, Efron started his own production company under Warner Bros., Ninjas Runnin' Wild. The company played a part in the production of his films Dirty Grandpa, That Awkward Moment, and Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. In 2019, Efron's brother Dylan, who also plays a role in the company, stated that Ninjas Runnin' Wild has started to produce more digital content in addition to their traditional film work. Efron announced the creation of his YouTube channel in March 2019. The video sharing platform hosts two weekly series. "Off the Grid" follows Efron and his brother Dylan as they participate in outdoor activities and trips without electronic devices—with the exception of a video camera in order to document their experiences. "Gym Time" spotlights fitness and nutrition, with Efron informing his viewers that he plans to "train with celebrities, athletes, and interesting people". YouTube received backlash for promoting Efron's new channel in a post made from their official Twitter account. Some YouTube users accused the platform of promoting a mainstream celebrity's account, which they feared would overshadow lesser known creators. Personal life Efron was on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list in 2008 at number 92, with estimated earnings of $5.8 million from June 2007 to June 2008. In April 2009, his personal wealth equaled about $10 million. In May 2015, Efron's net worth was $18 million. In March 2014, Efron engaged in a fight with a homeless man on Skid Row. Law enforcement officials did not make any arrests because they viewed it as mutual combat. Efron turned to transcendental meditation (TM) to help decompress after struggling to separate himself from his role as serial killer Ted Bundy in his movie. "I really love TM, transcendental meditation. I did TM on the way home. Not while driving, but when you're shooting a movie, one thing we can afford is a ride home, so on the way home I just do some TM and try to phase out of it." Efron moved to Australia after selling his Los Angeles home in early 2021 and purchased a property in Byron Bay while working on a number of projects there. Health issues Efron sought treatment in early 2013 after struggling with alcoholism and substance abuse. He has been sober since June 2013. In November 2013, Efron had to have his jaw wired shut after breaking it in a fall at home. He revealed in 2022 that he almost died during this incident, and that it was responsible for his facial swelling, apparent in a viral 2021 video for Bill Nye's Earth Day Musical. In December 2019, Efron contracted a serious and potentially life-threatening illness, a "form of typhoid or similar bacterial infection", while filming his adventure series Killing Zac Efron in Papua New Guinea. He was flown to St Andrews War Memorial Hospital in Brisbane, Australia, and was treated before flying back home on December 25. He recovered with little issue. Efron was a vegan for two years until 2022, when he began intermittent fasting, and reintroduced meat into his diet after undergoing a series of food sensitivity tests. In 2022, Efron opened up about his struggles with mental illnesses including insomnia, agoraphobia, and depression. He developed insomnia and depression after taking diuretics for a long period to prepare for his role in Baywatch. In August 2024, Efron was rushed to hospital after being found unconscious in a swimming pool in Ibiza. According to TMZ, he was discovered by two villa employees who pulled him out of the water. The hospitalization was described as a "precautionary measure" and the incident as "minor". Efron aspirated a significant amount of water into his lungs and had x-rays taken to ensure his lungs were clear before being discharged the following day. Filmography Film Television Music videos Discography Singles Other charted songs Awards and nominations References External links Zac Efron at IMDb

At the time of their publication, who was the editor of the magazine that published the two short stories that first developed the World Urslula LeGuinn would use for the first of the two books Harold Bloom would later call her masterpieces?

Cele Goldsmith (or Cele Goldsmith Lalli, once she married)

Multiple constraints

Ursula Kroeber Le Guin ( KROH-bər lə GWIN; née Kroeber; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author. She is best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the Earthsea fantasy series. Her work was first published in 1959, and her literary career spanned nearly sixty years, producing more than twenty novels and over a hundred short stories, in addition to poetry, literary criticism, translations, and children's books. Frequently described as an author of science fiction, Le Guin has also been called a "major voice in American Letters". Le Guin said she would prefer to be known as an "American novelist". Le Guin was born in Berkeley, California, to author Theodora Kroeber and anthropologist Alfred Louis Kroeber. Having earned a master's degree in French, Le Guin began doctoral studies but abandoned these after her marriage in 1953 to historian Charles Le Guin. She began writing full-time in the late 1950s and achieved major critical and commercial success with A Wizard of Earthsea (1968) and The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), which have been described by Harold Bloom as her masterpieces. For the latter volume, Le Guin won both the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel, becoming the first woman to do so. Several more works set in Earthsea or the Hainish universe followed; others included books set in the fictional country of Orsinia, several works for children, and many anthologies. Cultural anthropology, Taoism, feminism, and the writings of Carl Jung all had a strong influence on Le Guin's work. Many of her stories used anthropologists or cultural observers as protagonists, and Taoist ideas about balance and equilibrium have been identified in several writings. Le Guin often subverted typical speculative fiction tropes, such as through her use of dark-skinned protagonists in Earthsea, and also used unusual stylistic or structural devices in books such as the experimental work Always Coming Home (1985). Social and political themes, including race, gender, sexuality, and coming of age were prominent in her writing. She explored alternative political structures in many stories, such as in the philosophical short story "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" (1973) and the anarchist utopian novel The Dispossessed (1974). Le Guin's writing was enormously influential in the field of speculative fiction, and has been the subject of intense critical attention. She received numerous accolades, including eight Hugos, six Nebulas, and twenty-five Locus Awards, and in 2003 became the second woman honored as a Grand Master of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The U.S. Library of Congress named her a Living Legend in 2000, and in 2014, she won the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Le Guin influenced many other authors, including Booker Prize winner Salman Rushdie, David Mitchell, Neil Gaiman, and Iain Banks. After her death in 2018, critic John Clute wrote that Le Guin had "presided over American science fiction for nearly half a century", while author Michael Chabon referred to her as the "greatest American writer of her generation". Life Childhood and education Ursula Kroeber was born in Berkeley, California, on October 21, 1929. Her father, Alfred Louis Kroeber, was an anthropologist at the University of California, Berkeley. Le Guin's mother, Theodora Kroeber (born Theodora Covel Kracaw), had a graduate degree in psychology, but turned to writing in her sixties, developing a successful career as an author. Among her works was Ishi in Two Worlds (1961), a biographical volume about Ishi, an Indigenous American who had been studied by Alfred Kroeber. Ishi was the last known member of the Yahi tribe after the rest of its members died or (mostly) were killed by white colonizers. Le Guin had three older brothers: Karl, who became a literary scholar, Theodore, and Clifton. The family had a large book collection, and the siblings all became interested in reading while they were young. The Kroeber family had a number of visitors, including well-known academics such as Robert Oppenheimer; Le Guin would later use Oppenheimer as the model for Shevek, the physicist protagonist of The Dispossessed. The family divided its time between a summer home in the Napa Valley, and a house in Berkeley during the academic year. Le Guin's reading included science fiction and fantasy: she and her siblings frequently read issues of Thrilling Wonder Stories and Astounding Science Fiction. She was fond of myths and legends, particularly Norse mythology, and of Native American legends that her father would narrate. Other authors she enjoyed were Lord Dunsany and Lewis Padgett. Le Guin also developed an early interest in writing; she wrote a short story when she was nine, and submitted her first short story to Astounding Science Fiction when she was eleven. The piece was rejected, and she did not submit anything else for another ten years. Le Guin attended Berkeley High School. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Renaissance French and Italian literature from Radcliffe College of Harvard University in 1951, and graduated as a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. As a child she had been interested in biology and poetry, but had been limited in her choice of career by her difficulties with mathematics. Le Guin undertook graduate studies at Columbia University, and earned a Master of Arts degree in French in 1952. Soon after, she began working towards a PhD, and won a Fulbright grant to continue her studies in France from 1953 to 1954. Married life and death In 1953, while traveling to France aboard the Queen Mary, Ursula met historian Charles Le Guin. They married in Paris in December 1953. According to Le Guin, the marriage signaled the "end of the doctorate" for her. While her husband finished his doctorate at Emory University in Georgia, and later at the University of Idaho, Le Guin taught French: first at Mercer University, then at the University of Idaho after their move. She also worked as a secretary until the birth of her daughter Elisabeth in 1957. A second daughter, Caroline, was born in 1959. Also in that year, Charles became an instructor in history at Portland State University, and the couple moved to Portland, Oregon, where their son Theodore was born in 1964. They would live in Portland for the rest of their lives, although Le Guin received further Fulbright grants to travel to London in 1968 and 1975. Le Guin's writing career began in the late 1950s, but the time she spent caring for her children constrained her writing schedule. She would continue writing and publishing for nearly 60 years. She also worked as an editor, and taught undergraduate classes. She served on the editorial boards of the journals Paradoxa and Science Fiction Studies, in addition to writing literary criticism herself. She taught courses at Tulane University, Bennington College, and Stanford University, among others. In May 1983, she delivered a commencement speech entitled "A Left-handed Commencement Address" at Mills College in Oakland, California. It is listed as No. 82 in American Rhetoric's Top 100 Speeches of the 20th Century, and was included in her nonfiction collection Dancing at the Edge of the World. Le Guin died on January 22, 2018, at her home in Portland, at the age of 88. Her son said that she had been in poor health for several months, and stated that it was likely she had had a heart attack. Private memorial services for her were held in Portland. A public memorial service, which included speeches by the writers Margaret Atwood, Molly Gloss, and Walidah Imarisha, was held in Portland on June 13, 2018. Views and advocacy Le Guin refused a Nebula Award for her story "The Diary of the Rose" in 1977, in protest at the Science Fiction Writers of America's revocation of Stanisław Lem's membership. Le Guin attributed the revocation to Lem's criticism of American science fiction and willingness to live in the Eastern Bloc, and said she felt reluctant to receive an award "for a story about political intolerance from a group that had just displayed political intolerance". Le Guin once said she was "raised as irreligious as a jackrabbit". She expressed a deep interest in Taoism and Buddhism, saying that Taoism gave her a "handle on how to look at life" during her adolescent years. In 1997, she published a translation of the Tao Te Ching. In December 2009, Le Guin resigned from the Authors Guild in protest over its endorsement of Google's book digitization project. "You decided to deal with the devil", she wrote in her resignation letter. "There are principles involved, above all the whole concept of copyright; and these you have seen fit to abandon to a corporation, on their terms, without a struggle." In a speech at the 2014 National Book Awards, Le Guin criticized Amazon and the control it exerted over the publishing industry, specifically referencing Amazon's treatment of the Hachette Book Group during a dispute over ebook publication. Her speech received widespread media attention within and outside the United States, and was broadcast twice by National Public Radio. Chronology of writings Early work Le Guin's first published work was the poem "Folksong from the Montayna Province" in 1959, while her first published short story was "An die Musik", in 1961; both were set in her fictional country of Orsinia. Between 1951 and 1961 she also wrote five novels, all set in Orsinia, which were rejected by publishers on the grounds that they were inaccessible. Some of her poetry from this period was published in 1975 in the volume Wild Angels. Le Guin turned her attention to science fiction after a lengthy period of receiving rejections from publishers, knowing that there was a market for writing that could be readily classified as such. Her first professional publication was the short story "April in Paris" in 1962 in Fantastic Science Fiction, and seven other stories followed in the next few years, in Fantastic or Amazing Stories. Among them were "The Dowry of Angyar", which introduced the fictional Hainish universe, and "The Rule of Names" and "The Word of Unbinding", which introduced the world of Earthsea. These stories were largely ignored by critics. Ace Books released Rocannon's World, Le Guin's first published novel, in 1966. Two more Hainish novels, Planet of Exile and City of Illusions were published in 1966 and 1967, respectively, and the three books together would come to be known as the Hainish trilogy. The first two were each published as half of an "Ace Double": two novels bound into a paperback and sold as a single low-cost volume. City of Illusions was published as a standalone volume, indicating Le Guin's growing name recognition. These books received more critical attention than Le Guin's short stories, with reviews being published in several science fiction magazines, but the critical response was still muted. The books contained many themes and ideas also present in Le Guin's better known later works, including the "archetypal journey" of a protagonist who undertakes both a physical journey and one of self-discovery, cultural contact and communication, the search for identity, and the reconciliation of opposing forces. When publishing her story "Nine Lives" in 1968, Playboy magazine asked Le Guin whether they could run the story without her full first name, to which Le Guin agreed: the story was published under the name "U. K. Le Guin". She later wrote that it was the first and only time she had experienced prejudice against her as a woman writer from an editor or publisher, and reflected that "it seemed so silly, so grotesque, that I failed to see that it was also important." In subsequent printings, the story was published under her full name. Critical attention Le Guin's next two books brought her sudden and widespread critical acclaim. A Wizard of Earthsea, published in 1968, was a fantasy novel written initially for teenagers. Le Guin had not planned to write for young adults, but was asked to write a novel targeted at this group by the editor of Parnassus Press, who saw it as a market with great potential. A coming of age story set in the fictional archipelago of Earthsea, the book received a positive reception in both the U.S. and Britain. Her next novel, The Left Hand of Darkness, was a Hainish universe story exploring themes of gender and sexuality on a fictional planet where humans have no fixed sex. The book was Le Guin's first to address feminist issues, and according to scholar Donna White, it "stunned the science fiction critics"; it won both the Hugo and the Nebula Awards for best novel, making Le Guin the first woman to win these awards, and a number of other accolades. A Wizard of Earthsea and The Left Hand of Darkness have been described by critic Harold Bloom as Le Guin's masterpieces. She won the Hugo Award again in 1973 for The Word for World Is Forest. The book was influenced by Le Guin's anger over the Vietnam War, and explored themes of colonialism and militarism: Le Guin later described it as the "most overt political statement" she had made in a fictional work. Le Guin continued to develop themes of equilibrium and coming-of-age in the next two installments of the Earthsea series, The Tombs of Atuan and The Farthest Shore, published in 1971 and 1972, respectively. Both books were praised for their writing, while the exploration of death as a theme in The Farthest Shore also drew praise. Her 1974 novel The Dispossessed again won both the Hugo and the Nebula awards for best novel, making her the first person to win both awards for each of two books. Also set in the Hainish universe, the story explored anarchism and utopianism. Scholar Charlotte Spivack described it as representing a shift in Le Guin's science fiction towards discussing political ideas. Several of her speculative fiction short stories from the period, including her first published story, were later anthologized in the 1975 collection The Wind's Twelve Quarters. The fiction of the period 1966 to 1974, which also included The Lathe of Heaven, the Hugo Award-winning "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" and the Nebula Award-winning "The Day Before the Revolution", constitutes Le Guin's best-known body of work. Wider exploration Le Guin published a variety of work in the second half of the 1970s. This included speculative fiction in the form of the novel The Eye of the Heron, which, according to Le Guin, may be a part of the Hainish universe. She also published Very Far Away from Anywhere Else, a realistic novel for adolescents, as well as the collection Orsinian Tales and the novel Malafrena in 1976 and 1979, respectively. Though the latter two were set in the fictional country of Orsinia, the stories were realistic fiction rather than fantasy or science fiction. The Language of the Night, a collection of essays, was released in 1979, and Le Guin also published Wild Angels, a volume of poetry, in 1975. Between 1979, when she published Malafrena, and 1994, when the collection A Fisherman of the Inland Sea was released, Le Guin wrote primarily for a younger audience. In 1985 she published the experimental work Always Coming Home. She wrote 11 children's picture books, including the Catwings series, between 1979 and 1994, along with The Beginning Place, an adolescent fantasy novel, released in 1980. Four more poetry collections were also published in this period, all of which were positively received. She also revisited Earthsea, publishing Tehanu in 1990: coming eighteen years after The Farthest Shore, during which Le Guin's views had developed considerably, the book was grimmer in tone than the earlier works in the series, and challenged some ideas presented therein. It received critical praise, won Le Guin a third Nebula Award for Best Novel, and led to the series being recognized among adult literature. Later writings Le Guin returned to the Hainish Cycle in the 1990s after a lengthy hiatus with the publication of a series of short stories, beginning with "The Shobies' Story" in 1990. These stories included "Coming of Age in Karhide" (1995), which explored growing into adulthood and was set on the same planet as The Left Hand of Darkness. It was described by scholar Sandra Lindow as "so transgressively sexual and so morally courageous" that Le Guin "could not have written it in the '60s". In the same year she published the story suite Four Ways to Forgiveness, and followed it up with "Old Music and the Slave Women", a fifth, connected, story in 1999. All five of the stories explored freedom and rebellion within a slave society. In 2000 she published The Telling, which would be her final Hainish novel, and the next year released Tales from Earthsea and The Other Wind, the last two Earthsea books. The latter won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 2002. From 2002 onwards several collections and anthologies of Le Guin's work were published. A series of her stories from the period 1994–2002 was released in 2002 in the collection The Birthday of the World and Other Stories, along with the novella Paradises Lost. The volume examined unconventional ideas about gender, as well as anarchist themes. Other collections included Changing Planes, also released in 2002, while the anthologies included The Unreal and the Real (2012), and The Hainish Novels and Stories, a two-volume set of works from the Hainish universe released by the Library of America. Other works from this period included Lavinia (2008), based on a character from Virgil's Aeneid, and the Annals of the Western Shore trilogy, consisting of Gifts (2004), Voices (2006), and Powers (2007). Although Annals of the Western Shore was written for an adolescent audience, the third volume, Powers, received the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 2009. In her final years, Le Guin largely turned away from fiction, and produced a number of essays, poems, and some translation. Her final publications included the non-fiction collections Dreams Must Explain Themselves and Ursula K Le Guin: Conversations on Writing, and the poetry volume So Far So Good: Final Poems 2014–2018, all of which were released after her death. Style and influences Influences Le Guin read both classic and speculative fiction widely in her youth. She later said that science fiction did not have much impact on her until she read the works of Theodore Sturgeon and Cordwainer Smith, and that she had sneered at the genre as a child. Authors Le Guin describes as influential include Victor Hugo, William Wordsworth, Charles Dickens, Boris Pasternak, and Philip K. Dick. Le Guin and Dick attended the same high-school, but did not know each other; Le Guin later described her novel The Lathe of Heaven as an homage to him. She also considered J. R. R. Tolkien and Leo Tolstoy to be stylistic influences, and preferred reading Virginia Woolf and Jorge Luis Borges to well-known science-fiction authors such as Robert Heinlein, whose writing she described as being of the "white man conquers the universe" tradition. Several scholars state that the influence of mythology, which Le Guin enjoyed reading as a child, is also visible in much of her work: for example, the short story "The Dowry of Angyar" is described as a retelling of a Norse myth. The discipline of cultural anthropology had a powerful influence on Le Guin's writing. Her father Alfred Kroeber is considered a pioneer in the field, and was a director of the University of California Museum of Anthropology: as a consequence of his research, Le Guin was exposed to anthropology and cultural exploration as a child. In addition to myths and legends, she read such volumes as The Leaves of the Golden Bough by Elizabeth Grove Frazer, a children's book adapted from The Golden Bough, a study of myth and religion by her husband James George Frazer. She described living with her father's friends and acquaintances as giving her the experience of the other. The experiences of Ishi, in particular, were influential on Le Guin, and elements of his story have been identified in works such as Planet of Exile, City of Illusions, and The Word for World Is Forest and The Dispossessed. Several scholars have commented that Le Guin's writing was influenced by Carl Jung, and specifically by the idea of Jungian archetypes. In particular, the shadow in A Wizard of Earthsea is seen as the Shadow archetype from Jungian psychology, representing Ged's pride, fear, and desire for power. Le Guin discussed her interpretation of this archetype, and her interest in the dark and repressed parts of the psyche, in a 1974 lecture. She stated elsewhere that she had never read Jung before writing the first Earthsea books. Other archetypes, including the Mother, Animus, and Anima, have also been identified in Le Guin's writing. the planetary forests featured in multiple Hainish works are described as a metaphor for the mind, and of Jungian "collective unconscious. Philosophical Taoism had a large role in Le Guin's world view, and the influence of Taoist thought can be seen in many of her stories. Many of Le Guin's protagonists, including in The Lathe of Heaven, embody the Taoist ideal of leaving things alone. The anthropologists of the Hainish universe try not to meddle with the cultures they encounter, while one of the earliest lessons Ged learns in A Wizard of Earthsea is not to use magic unless it is absolutely necessary. Taoist influence is evident in Le Guin's depiction of equilibrium in the world of Earthsea: the archipelago is depicted as being based on a delicate balance, which is disrupted by somebody in each of the first three novels. This includes an equilibrium between land and sea, implicit in the name "Earthsea", between people and their natural environment, and a larger cosmic equilibrium, which wizards are tasked with maintaining. Another prominent Taoist idea is the reconciliation of opposites such as light and dark, or good and evil. A number of Hainish novels, The Dispossessed prominent among them, explored such a process of reconciliation. In the Earthsea universe, it is not the dark powers, but the characters' misunderstanding of the balance of life, that is depicted as evil, in contrast to conventional Western stories in which good and evil are in constant conflict. Genre and style Although Le Guin is primarily known for her works of speculative fiction, she also wrote realistic fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and several other literary forms, and as a result her work is difficult to classify. Her writings received critical attention from mainstream critics, critics of children's literature, and critics of speculative fiction. Le Guin herself said that she would prefer to be known as an "American novelist". Le Guin's transgression of conventional boundaries of genre led to literary criticism of Le Guin becoming "Balkanized", particularly between scholars of children's literature and speculative fiction. Commentators have noted that the Earthsea novels specifically received less critical attention because they were considered children's books. Le Guin herself took exception to this treatment of children's literature, describing it as "adult chauvinist piggery". In 1976, literature scholar George Slusser criticized the "silly publication classification designating the original series as 'children's literature'", while in Barbara Bucknall's opinion Le Guin "can be read, like Tolkien, by ten-year-olds and by adults. These stories are ageless because they deal with problems that confront us at any age." Several of her works have a premise drawn from sociology, psychology, or philosophy. As a result, Le Guin's writing is often described as "soft" science fiction, and she has been described as the "patron saint" of this sub-genre. A number of science fiction authors have objected to the term "soft science fiction", describing it as a potentially pejorative term used to dismiss stories not based on problems in physics, astronomy, or engineering, and also to target the writing of women or other groups under-represented in the genre. Le Guin suggested the term "social science fiction" for some of her writing, while pointing out that many of her stories were not science fiction at all. She argued that the term "soft science fiction" was divisive, and implied a narrow view of what constitutes valid science fiction. The influence of anthropology can be seen in the setting Le Guin chose for a number of her works. Several of her protagonists are anthropologists or ethnologists exploring a world alien to them. This is particularly true in the stories set in the Hainish universe, an alternative reality in which humans did not evolve on Earth, but on Hain. The Hainish subsequently colonized many planets, before losing contact with them, giving rise to varied but related biology and social structure. Examples include Rocannon in Rocannon's World and Genly Ai in The Left Hand of Darkness. Other characters, such as Shevek in The Dispossessed, become cultural observers in the course of their journeys on other planets. Le Guin's writing often examines alien cultures, and particularly the human cultures from planets other than Earth in the Hainish universe. In discovering these "alien" worlds, Le Guin's protagonists, and by extension the readers, also journey into themselves, and challenge the nature of what they consider "alien" and what they consider "native". Several of Le Guin's works have featured stylistic or structural features that were unusual or subversive. The heterogeneous structure of The Left Hand of Darkness, described as "distinctly post-modern", was unusual for the time of its publication. This was in marked contrast to the structure of (primarily male-authored) traditional science fiction, which was straightforward and linear. The novel was framed as part of a report sent to the Ekumen by the protagonist Genly Ai after his time on the planet Gethen, thus suggesting that Ai was selecting and ordering the material, consisting of personal narration, diary extracts, Gethenian myths, and ethnological reports. Earthsea also employed an unconventional narrative form described by scholar Mike Cadden as "free indirect discourse", in which the feelings of the protagonist are not directly separated from the narration, making the narrator seem sympathetic to the characters, and removing the skepticism towards a character's thoughts and emotions that are a feature of more direct narration. Cadden suggests that this method leads to younger readers sympathizing directly with the characters, making it an effective technique for young-adult literature. A number of Le Guin's writings, including the Earthsea series, challenged the conventions of epic fantasies and myths. Many of the protagonists in Earthsea were dark-skinned individuals, in comparison to the white-skinned heroes more traditionally used; some of the antagonists, in contrast, were white-skinned, a switching of race roles that has been remarked upon by multiple critics. In a 2001 interview, Le Guin attributed the frequent lack of character illustrations on her book covers to her choice of non-white protagonists. She explained this choice, saying: "most people in the world aren't white. Why in the future would we assume they are?" Her 1985 book Always Coming Home, described as "her great experiment", included a story told from the perspective of a young protagonist, but also included poems, rough drawings of plants and animals, myths, and anthropological reports from the matriarchal society of the Kesh, a fictional people living in the Napa valley after a catastrophic global flood. Themes Gender and sexuality Gender and sexuality are prominent themes in a number of Le Guin's works. The Left Hand of Darkness, published in 1969, was among the first books in the genre now known as feminist science fiction, and is the most famous examination of androgyny in science fiction. The story is set on the fictional planet of Gethen, whose inhabitants are ambisexual humans with no fixed gender identity, who adopt female or male sexual characteristics for brief periods of their sexual cycle. Which sex they adopt can depend on context and relationships. Gethen was portrayed as a society without war, as a result of this absence of fixed gender characteristics, and also without sexuality as a continuous factor in social relationships. Gethenian culture was explored in the novel through the eyes of a Terran, whose masculinity proves a barrier to cross-cultural communication. Outside the Hainish Cycle, Le Guin's use of a female protagonist in The Tombs of Atuan, published in 1971, was described as a "significant exploration of womanhood". Le Guin's attitude towards gender and feminism evolved considerably over time. Although The Left Hand of Darkness was seen as a landmark exploration of gender, it also received criticism for not going far enough. Reviewers pointed to its usage of masculine gender pronouns to describe its androgynous characters, the lack of androgynous characters portrayed in stereotypical feminine roles, and the portrayal of heterosexuality as the norm on Gethen. Le Guin's portrayal of gender in Earthsea was also described as perpetuating the notion of a male-dominated world; according to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, "Le Guin saw men as the actors and doers in the [world], while women remain the still centre, the well from which they drink". Le Guin initially defended her writing; in a 1976 essay "Is Gender Necessary?" she wrote that gender was secondary to the primary theme of loyalty in The Left Hand of Darkness. Le Guin revisited this essay in 1988, and acknowledged that gender was central to the novel; she also apologized for depicting Gethenians solely in heterosexual relationships. Le Guin responded to these critiques in her subsequent writing. She intentionally used feminine pronouns for all sexually latent Gethenians in her 1995 short story "Coming of Age in Karhide", and in a later reprinting of "Winter's King", which was first published in 1969. "Coming of Age in Karhide" was later anthologized in the 2002 collection The Birthday of the World, which contained six other stories featuring unorthodox sexual relationships and marital arrangements. She also revisited gender relations in Earthsea in Tehanu, published in 1990. This volume was described as a rewriting or reimagining of The Tombs of Atuan, because the power and status of the female protagonist Tenar are the inverse of what they were in the earlier book, which was also focused on her and Ged. During this later period she commented that she considered The Eye of the Heron, published in 1978, to be her first work genuinely centered on a woman. Moral development Le Guin explores coming of age, and moral development more broadly, in many of her writings. This is particularly the case in those works written for a younger audience, such as Earthsea and Annals of the Western Shore. Le Guin wrote in a 1973 essay that she chose to explore coming-of-age in Earthsea since she was writing for an adolescent audience: "Coming of age ... is a process that took me many years; I finished it, so far as I ever will, at about age thirty-one; and so I feel rather deeply about it. So do most adolescents. It's their main occupation, in fact." She also said that fantasy was best suited as a medium for describing coming of age, because exploring the subconscious was difficult using the language of "rational daily life". The first three Earthsea novels together follow Ged from youth to old age, and each of them also follow the coming of age of a different character. A Wizard of Earthsea focuses on Ged's adolescence, while The Tombs of Atuan and The Farthest Shore explore that of Tenar and the prince Arren, respectively. A Wizard of Earthsea is frequently described as a Bildungsroman, in which Ged's coming of age is intertwined with the physical journey he undertakes through the novel. To Mike Cadden the book was a convincing tale "to a reader as young and possibly as headstrong as Ged, and therefore sympathetic to him". Reviewers have described the ending of the novel, wherein Ged finally accepts the shadow as a part of himself, as a rite of passage. Scholar Jeanne Walker writes that the rite of passage at the end was an analogue for the entire plot of A Wizard of Earthsea, and that the plot itself plays the role of a rite of passage for an adolescent reader. Each volume of Annals of the Western Shore also describes the coming of age of its protagonists, and features explorations of being enslaved to one's own power. The process of growing up is depicted as seeing beyond narrow choices the protagonists are presented with by society. In Gifts, Orrec and Gry realize that the powers their people possess can be used in two ways: for control and dominion, or for healing and nurturing. This recognition allows them to take a third choice, and leave. This wrestling with choice has been compared to the choices the characters are forced to make in Le Guin's short story "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas". Similarly, Ged helps Tenar in The Tombs of Atuan to value herself and to find choices that she did not see, leading her to leave the Tombs with him. Political systems Alternative social and political systems are a recurring theme in Le Guin's writing. Critics have paid particular attention to The Dispossessed and Always Coming Home, although Le Guin explores related themes in a number of her works, such as in "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas". The Dispossessed is an anarchist utopian novel, which according to Le Guin drew from pacifist anarchists, including Peter Kropotkin, as well as from the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s. Le Guin has been credited with "[rescuing] anarchism from the cultural ghetto to which it has been consigned", and helping to bring it into the intellectual mainstream. Fellow author Kathleen Ann Goonan wrote that Le Guin's work confronted the "paradigm of insularity toward the suffering of people, other living beings, and resources", and explored "life-respecting sustainable alternatives". The Dispossessed, set on the twin planets of Urras and Anarres, features a planned anarchist society depicted as an "ambiguous utopia". The society, created by settlers from Urras, is materially poorer than the wealthy society of Urras, but more ethically and morally advanced. Unlike classical utopias, the society of Anarres is portrayed as neither perfect nor static; the protagonist Shevek finds himself traveling to Urras to pursue his research. Nonetheless, the misogyny and hierarchy present in the authoritarian society of Urras is absent among the anarchists, who base their social structure on cooperation and individual liberty. The Eye of the Heron, published a few years after The Dispossessed, was described as continuing Le Guin's exploration of human freedom, through a conflict between two societies of opposing philosophies: a town inhabited by descendants of pacifists, and a city inhabited by descendants of criminals. Always Coming Home, set in California in the distant future, examines a warlike society, resembling contemporary American society, from the perspective of the Kesh, its pacifist neighbors. The society of the Kesh has been identified by scholars as a feminist utopia, which Le Guin uses to explore the role of technology. Scholar Warren Rochelle stated that it was "neither a matriarchy nor a patriarchy: men and women just are". "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas", a parable depicting a society in which widespread wealth, happiness, and security, comes at the cost of the continued misery of a single child, has also been read as a critique of contemporary American society. The Word for World is Forest explored the manner in which the structure of society affects the natural environment; in the novel, the natives of the planet of Athshe have adapted their way of life to the ecology of the planet. The colonizing human society, in contrast, is depicted as destructive and uncaring; in depicting it, Le Guin also critiqued colonialism and imperialism, driven partly by her disapproval for U.S. intervention in the Vietnam War. Other social structures are examined in works such as the story cycle Four Ways to Forgiveness, and the short story "Old Music and the Slave Women", occasionally described as a "fifth way to forgiveness". Set in the Hainish universe, the five stories together examine revolution and reconstruction in a slave-owning society. According to Rochelle, the stories examine a society that has the potential to build a "truly human community", made possible by the Ekumen's recognition of the slaves as human beings, thus offering them the prospect of freedom and the possibility of utopia, brought about through revolution. Slavery, justice, and the role of women in society are also explored in Annals of the Western Shore. Reception and legacy Reception Le Guin received rapid recognition after the publication of The Left Hand of Darkness in 1969, and by the 1970s she was among the best known writers in the field. Her books sold many millions of copies, and were translated into more than 40 languages; several remain in print many decades after their first publication. Her work received intense academic attention; she has been described as being the "premier writer of both fantasy and science fiction" of the 1970s, the most frequently discussed science fiction writer of the 1970s, and over her career, as intensively studied as Philip K. Dick. Later in her career, she also received recognition from mainstream literary critics: in an obituary, Jo Walton stated that Le Guin "was so good that the mainstream couldn't dismiss SF any more". According to scholar Donna White, Le Guin was a "major voice in American letters", whose writing was the subject of many volumes of literary critique, more than two hundred scholarly articles, and a number of dissertations. Le Guin was unusual in receiving most of her recognition for her earliest works, which remained her most popular; a commentator in 2018 described a "tendency toward didacticism" in her later works, while John Clute, writing in The Guardian, stated that her later writing "suffers from the need she clearly felt to speak responsibly to her large audience about important things; an artist being responsible can be an artist wearing a crown of thorns". Not all of her works received as positive a reception; The Compass Rose was among the volumes that had a mixed reaction, while the Science Fiction Encyclopedia described The Eye of the Heron as "an over-diagrammatic political fable whose translucent simplicity approaches self-parody". Even the critically well-received The Left Hand of Darkness, in addition to critique from feminists, was described by Alexei Panshin as a "flat failure". Her writing was recognized by the popular media and by commentators. The Los Angeles Times commented in 2009 that after the death of Arthur C. Clarke, Le Guin was "arguably the most acclaimed science fiction writer on the planet", and went on to describe her as a "pioneer" of literature for young people. In an obituary, Clute described Le Guin as having "presided over American science fiction for nearly half a century", and as having a reputation as an author of the "first rank". In 2016, The New York Times described her as "America's greatest living science fiction writer". Praise for Le Guin frequently focused on the social and political themes her work explored, and for her prose; literary critic Harold Bloom described Le Guin as an "exquisite stylist", saying that in her writing, "Every word was exactly in place and every sentence or line had resonance". According to Bloom, Le Guin was a "visionary who set herself against all brutality, discrimination, and exploitation". The New York Times described her as using "a lean but lyrical style" to explore issues of moral relevance. Prefacing an interview in 2008, Vice magazine described Le Guin as having written "some of the more mind-warping [science fiction] and fantasy tales of the past 40 years". Le Guin's fellow authors also praised her writing. After Le Guin's death in 2018, writer Michael Chabon referred to her as the "greatest American writer of her generation", and said that she had "awed [him] with the power of an unfettered imagination". Author Margaret Atwood hailed Le Guin's "sane, smart, crafty and lyrical voice", and wrote that social injustice was a powerful motivation through Le Guin's life. Her prose, according to Zadie Smith, was "as elegant and beautiful as any written in the twentieth century". Academic and author Joyce Carol Oates highlighted Le Guin's "outspoken sense of justice, decency, and common sense", and called her "one of the great American writers and a visionary artist whose work will long endure". China Miéville described Le Guin as a "literary colossus", and wrote that she was a "writer of intense ethical seriousness and intelligence, of wit and fury, of radical politics, of subtlety, of freedom and yearning". Awards and recognition The accolades Le Guin has received include numerous annual awards for individual works. She won eight Hugo Awards from twenty-six nominations, and six Nebula Awards from eighteen nominations, including four Nebula Awards for Best Novel from six nominations, more than any other writer. Locus Magazine subscribers have voted Le Guin to receive 25 Locus Awards. At the time of her death she was third for total wins, as well as second behind Neil Gaiman for awards for fiction. For her novels alone she won five Locus Awards, four Nebula Awards, two Hugo Awards, and one World Fantasy Award, and won each of those awards in short fiction categories as well. Her third Earthsea novel, The Farthest Shore, won the 1973 National Book Award for Young People's Literature, and she was a finalist for ten Mythopoeic Awards, nine in Fantasy and one for Scholarship. Her 1996 collection Unlocking the Air and Other Stories was one of three finalists for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Other awards won by Le Guin include three James Tiptree Jr. Awards, and three Jupiter Awards. She won her final Hugo award a year after her death, for a complete edition of Earthsea, illustrated by Charles Vess; the same volume also won a Locus award. Other awards and accolades have recognized Le Guin's contributions to speculative fiction. She was voted a Gandalf Grand Master Award by the World Science Fiction Society in 1979. The Science Fiction Research Association gave her its Pilgrim Award in 1989 for her "lifetime contributions to SF and fantasy scholarship". At the 1995 World Fantasy Convention she won the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, a judged recognition of outstanding service to the fantasy field. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame inducted her in 2001, its sixth class of two deceased and two living writers. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America named her its 20th Grand Master in 2003: she was the second, and at the time of death one of only six, women to receive that honor. In 2013, she was given the Eaton Award by the University of California, Riverside, for lifetime achievement in science fiction. Later in her career Le Guin also received accolades recognizing her contributions to literature more generally. In April 2000, the U.S. Library of Congress named Le Guin a Living Legend in the "Writers and Artists" category for her significant contributions to America's cultural heritage. The American Library Association granted her the annual Margaret Edwards Award in 2004, and also selected her to deliver the annual May Hill Arbuthnot Lecture. The Edwards Award recognizes one writer and a particular body of work: the 2004 panel cited the first four Earthsea volumes, The Left Hand of Darkness and The Beginning Place. The panel said that Le Guin "has inspired four generations of young adults to read beautifully constructed language, visit fantasy worlds that inform them about their own lives, and think about their ideas that are neither easy nor inconsequential". A collection of Le Guin's works was published by the Library of America in 2016, an honor only rarely given to living writers. The National Book Foundation awarded Le Guin its Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in 2014, stating that she had "defied conventions of narrative, language, character, and genre, and transcended boundaries between fantasy and realism to forge new paths for literary fiction". The American Academy of Arts and Letters made her a member in 2017. On July 27, 2021, Le Guin was honored by the US Postal Service with the 33rd stamp in the Postal Service's Literary Arts series. The stamp features a portrait of the author taken from a 2006 photograph against a background image inspired by her book The Left Hand of Darkness. The stamp was designed by Donato Gionacola. Legacy and influence Le Guin had a considerable influence on the field of speculative fiction; Jo Walton argued that Le Guin played a large role in both broadening the genre and helping genre writers achieve mainstream recognition. The Earthsea books are cited as having a wide impact, including outside the field of literature. Atwood considers A Wizard of Earthsea one of the "wellsprings" of fantasy literature, and modern writers have credited the book for the idea of a "wizard school", later made famous by the Harry Potter series of books, and with popularizing the trope of a boy wizard, also present in Harry Potter. The notion that names can exert power is a theme in the Earthsea series; critics have suggested that this inspired Hayao Miyazaki's use of the idea in his 2001 film Spirited Away. Le Guin's writings set in the Hainish universe also had a wide influence. Le Guin coined the name "ansible" for an instantaneous interstellar communication device in 1966; the term was later adopted by several other writers, including Orson Scott Card in the Ender Series and Neil Gaiman in a script for a Doctor Who episode. Suzanne Reid wrote that at the time The Left Hand of Darkness was written, Le Guin's ideas of androgyny were unique not only to science fiction, but to literature in general. That volume is specifically cited as leaving a large legacy; in discussing it, literary critic Harold Bloom wrote "Le Guin, more than Tolkien, has raised fantasy into high literature, for our time". Bloom followed this up by listing the book in his The Western Canon (1994) as one of the books in his conception of artistic works that have been important and influential in Western culture. This view was echoed in The Paris Review, which wrote that "No single work did more to upend the genre's conventions than The Left Hand of Darkness", while White argued that it was one of the seminal works of science fiction, as important as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818). Commentators have also described Le Guin as being influential in the field of literature more generally. Literary critic Elaine Showalter suggested that Le Guin "set the pace as a writer for women unlearning silence, fear, and self-doubt", while writer Brian Attebery stated that "[Le Guin] invented us: science fiction and fantasy critics like me but also poets and essayists and picture book writers and novelists". Le Guin's own literary criticism proved influential; her 1973 essay "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie" led to renewed interest in the work of Kenneth Morris, and eventually to the publication of a posthumous novel by Morris. Le Guin also played a role in bringing speculative fiction into the literary mainstream by supporting journalists and scholarly endeavors examining the genre. Several prominent authors acknowledge Le Guin's influence on their own writing. Jo Walton wrote that "her way of looking at the world had a huge influence on me, not just as a writer but as a human being". Other writers she influenced include Booker Prize winner Salman Rushdie, as well as David Mitchell, Gaiman, Algis Budrys, Goonan, and Iain Banks. Mitchell, author of books such as Cloud Atlas, described A Wizard of Earthsea as having a strong influence on him, and said that he felt a desire to "wield words with the same power as Ursula Le Guin". Le Guin is also credited with inspiring several female science fiction authors in the 1970s, including Vonda McIntyre. When McIntyre established a writers' workshop in Seattle in 1971, Le Guin was one of the instructors. Film-maker Arwen Curry began production on a documentary about Le Guin in 2009, filming "dozens" of hours of interviews with the author as well as many other writers and artists who have been inspired by her. Curry launched a successful crowdfunding campaign to finish the documentary in early 2016 after winning a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. In October 2021, the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction was announced. The award is managed by the Ursula K. Le Guin Literary Trust and a panel of jurors. The prize is worth US$25,000 and will be awarded annually to "a single book-length work of imaginative fiction." The inaugural shortlist was announced on July 28, 2022. The prize's inaugural winner was announced on October 21, 2022, Le Guin's birthday. Adaptations of her work Le Guin's works have been adapted for radio, film, television, and the stage. Her 1971 novel The Lathe of Heaven has been released on film twice, in 1979 by WNET with Le Guin's participation, and then in 2002 by the A&E Network. In a 2008 interview, she said she considered the 1979 version as "the only good adaptation to film" of her work to date. In the early 1980s Hayao Miyazaki asked to create an animated adaptation of Earthsea. Le Guin, who was unfamiliar with his work and anime in general, initially turned down the offer, but later accepted after seeing My Neighbor Totoro. The third and fourth Earthsea books were used as the basis of Tales from Earthsea, released in 2006. Rather than being directed by Hayao Miyazaki himself, the film was directed by his son Gorō, which disappointed Le Guin. Le Guin was positive about the aesthetic of the film, writing that "much of it was beautiful", but was critical of the film's moral sense and its use of physical violence, and particularly the use of a villain whose death provided the film's resolution. In 2004, the Sci Fi Channel adapted the first two books of the Earthsea trilogy as the miniseries Legend of Earthsea. Le Guin was highly critical of the miniseries, calling it a "far cry from the Earthsea I envisioned", objecting to the use of white actors for her red-, brown-, and black-skinned characters. Le Guin's novel The Left Hand of Darkness was adapted for the stage in 1995 by Chicago's Lifeline Theatre. Reviewer Jack Helbig at the Chicago Reader wrote that the "adaptation is intelligent and well crafted but ultimately unsatisfying", in large measure because it is extremely difficult to compress a complex 300-page novel into a two-hour stage presentation. Paradises Lost was adapted into an opera by the opera program of the University of Illinois. The opera was composed by Stephen A. Taylor; the libretto has been attributed both to Kate Gale and to Marcia Johnson. Created in 2005, the opera premiered in April 2012. Le Guin described the effort as a "beautiful opera" in an interview, and expressed hopes that it would be picked up by other producers. She also said she was better pleased with stage versions, including Paradises Lost, than screen adaptations of her work to that date. In 2013, the Portland Playhouse and Hand2Mouth Theatre produced a play based on The Left Hand of Darkness, directed and adapted by Jonathan Walters, with text written by John Schmor. The play opened May 2, 2013, and ran until June 16, 2013, in Portland, Oregon. Written works Le Guin's career as a professional writer spanned nearly sixty years, from 1959 to 2018. During this period, she wrote more than twenty novels, more than a hundred short stories, more than a dozen volumes of poetry, five translations, and thirteen children's books. Her writing encompassed speculative fiction, realistic fiction, non-fiction, screenplays, librettos, essays, poetry, speeches, translations, literary critiques, chapbooks, and children's fiction. Le Guin's first published work was the poem "Folksong from the Montayna Province" in 1959, while her first published short story was "An die Musik", in 1961. Her first professional publication was the short story "April in Paris" in 1962, while her first published novel was Rocannon's World, released by Ace Books in 1966. Her final publications included the non-fiction collections Dreams Must Explain Themselves and Ursula K Le Guin: Conversations on Writing, both released after her death. Her best-known works include the six volumes of the Earthsea series, and the many novels of the Hainish Cycle. See also List of American novelists List of fantasy authors List of science fiction authors Citations Sources Further reading External links Official website Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin. PBS American Masters. August 2, 2019. Ursula K. Le Guin papers at the University of Oregon Libraries Interviews An audio interview with Ursula K. Le Guin (MP3 format) from Hour 25 Jaggi, Maya (December 17, 2005). "The Magician". The Guardian. "Oregon Art Beat: Author Ursula Le Guin". OPB FM. Archived from the original on December 12, 2017. Retrieved July 30, 2013. Ursula Le Guin Bookworm Interviews (Audio) with Michael Silverblatt: January 1992, March 2001 Speeches "Ursula K Le Guin's speech at National Book Awards: 'Books aren't just commodities'". The Guardian. November 20, 2014. "Ursula K. Le Guin on speaking truth to power at National Book Awards". Los Angeles Times. November 20, 2014.

A Wizard of Earthsea is a fantasy novel written by American author Ursula K. Le Guin and first published by the small press Parnassus in 1968. It is regarded as a classic of children's literature and of fantasy, within which it is widely influential. The story is set in the fictional archipelago of Earthsea and centers on a young mage named Ged, born in a village on the island of Gont. He displays great power while still a boy and joins a school of wizardry, where his prickly nature drives him into conflict with a fellow student. During a magical duel, Ged's spell goes awry and releases a shadow creature that attacks him. The novel follows Ged's journey as he seeks to be free of the creature. The book has often been described as a bildungsroman, or coming-of-age story, as it explores Ged's process of learning to cope with power and come to terms with death. The novel also carries Taoist themes about a fundamental balance in the universe of Earthsea, which wizards are supposed to maintain, closely tied to the idea that language and names have power to affect the material world and alter this balance. The structure of the story is similar to that of a traditional epic, although critics have also described it as subverting this genre in many ways, such as by making the protagonist dark-skinned in contrast to more typical white-skinned heroes. A Wizard of Earthsea received highly positive reviews, initially as a work for children and later among a general audience. It won the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award in 1969 and was one of the final recipients of the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1979. Margaret Atwood called it one of the "wellsprings" of fantasy literature. Le Guin wrote five subsequent books that are collectively referred to as the Earthsea Cycle, together with A Wizard of Earthsea: The Tombs of Atuan (1971), The Farthest Shore (1972), Tehanu (1990), The Other Wind (2001), and Tales from Earthsea (2001). George Slusser described the series as a "work of high style and imagination", while Amanda Craig said that A Wizard of Earthsea was "the most thrilling, wise, and beautiful children's novel ever". Background Early concepts for the Earthsea setting were developed in two short stories, "The Rule of Names" (1964) and "The Word of Unbinding" (1964), both published in Fantastic. The stories were later collected in Le Guin's anthology The Wind's Twelve Quarters (1975). Earthsea was also used as the setting for a story she wrote in 1965 or 1966, which was never published. In 1967, Herman Schein (the publisher of Parnassus Press and the husband of Ruth Robbins, the illustrator of the book) asked Le Guin to try writing a book "for older kids", giving her complete freedom over the subject and the approach. She had no previous experience specifically with the genre of young adult literature, which rose in prominence during the late 1960s. Drawing from her short stories, she began work on A Wizard of Earthsea. She has said that the book was in part a response to the image of wizards as ancient and wise, and to wondering where they come from. She later said that she chose the medium of fantasy, and the theme of coming of age, with her intended adolescent audience in mind. The short stories published in 1964 introduced the world of Earthsea and important concepts in it, such as Le Guin's treatment of magic. "The Rule of Names" also introduced Yevaud, a dragon who features briefly in A Wizard of Earthsea. Her depiction of Earthsea was influenced by her familiarity with Native American legends as well as Norse mythology. Her knowledge of myths and legends, as well as her familial interest in anthropology, have been described by scholar Donna White as allowing her to create "entire cultures" for the islands of Earthsea. The influence of Norse lore in particular can be seen in the characters of the Kargs, who are blonde and blue-eyed, and worship two gods who are brothers. The influence of Taoist thought on Le Guin's writing is also visible in the idea of a cosmic "balance". Book Setting Earthsea itself is an archipelago, or group of islands. In the fictional history of this world, the islands were raised from the ocean by a being called Segoy. The world is inhabited by both humans and dragons, and most or all humans have some innate magical gift, some are more gifted sorcerers or wizards. The world is shown as being based on a delicate balance, which most of its inhabitants are aware of, but which is disrupted by somebody in each of the original trilogy of novels. Earthsea is pre-industrial and has diverse cultures within the widespread archipelago. Most of the characters are of the Hardic peoples, who are dark-skinned, and who populate most of the islands. Four large eastern islands are inhabited by the white-skinned Kargish people, who despise magic and see the Hardic folk as evil sorcerers: the Kargs, in turn, are viewed by the Hardic people as barbarians. The far western regions of the archipelago are the realm of the dragons. Plot summary The novel follows a young boy called Duny, nicknamed "Sparrowhawk", born on the island of Gont. Discovering that the boy has great innate power, his aunt, a witch, teaches him the little magic she knows. When his village is attacked by Kargish raiders, Duny summons a fog to conceal the village and its inhabitants, enabling the residents to drive off the Kargs. Hearing of this, the powerful mage Ogion takes him as an apprentice, and later gives him his "true name"—Ged. Ogion tries to teach Ged about the "equilibrium", the concept that magic can upset the natural order of the world if used improperly. In an attempt to impress a girl, however, Ged searches Ogion's spell books and inadvertently summons a strange shadow, which has to be banished by Ogion. Sensing Ged's eagerness to act and impatience with his slow teaching methods, Ogion asks if he would rather go to the renowned school for wizards on the island of Roke. Ged loves Ogion, but decides to go to the school. At the school, Ged meets Jasper, and is immediately on bad terms with him. He is befriended by an older student named Vetch, but generally remains aloof from anyone else. Ged's skills inspire admiration from teachers and students alike. He finds a small creature—an otak, named Hoeg, and keeps it as a pet. During a festival, Jasper acts condescendingly towards Ged, provoking the latter's proud nature. Ged challenges him to a duel of magic, and casts a powerful spell intended to raise the spirit of a legendary dead woman. The spell goes awry and instead releases a shadow creature, which attacks him and scars his face. The Archmage Nemmerle drives the shadow away, but at the cost of his life. Ged spends many months healing before resuming his studies. The new Archmage, Gensher, describes the shadow as an ancient evil that wishes to possess Ged, and warns him that the creature has no name. Ged eventually graduates and receives his wizard's staff. He then takes up residence in the Ninety Isles, providing the poor villagers protection from the dragons that have seized and taken up residence on the nearby island of Pendor, but discovers that he is still being sought by the shadow. Knowing that he cannot guard against both threats at the same time, he sails to Pendor and gambles his life on a guess of the adult dragon's true name. When he is proved right, the dragon offers to tell him the name of the shadow, but Ged instead extracts a promise that the dragon and his offspring will never threaten the archipelago. Chased by the shadow, Ged flees to Osskil, having heard of the stone of the Terrenon. He is attacked by the shadow, and barely escapes into the Court of Terrenon. Serret, the lady of the castle, and the same girl that Ged had tried to impress, shows him the stone, and urges Ged to speak to it, claiming it can give him limitless knowledge and power. Recognizing that the stone harbors one of the Old Powers—ancient, powerful, malevolent beings—Ged refuses. He flees and is pursued by the stone's minions, but transforms into a swift falcon and escapes. He loses his otak. Ged flies back to Ogion on Gont. Unlike Gensher, Ogion insists that all creatures have a name and advises Ged to confront the shadow. Ogion is proved right; when Ged seeks out the shadow, it flees from him. Ged pursues it in a small sailboat, until it lures him into a fog where the boat is wrecked on a reef. Ged recovers with the help of an elderly couple marooned on a small island since they were children; the woman gives Ged part of a broken bracelet as a gift. Ged patches his boat and resumes his pursuit of the creature into the East Reach. On the island of Iffish, he meets his friend Vetch, who insists on joining him. They journey east far beyond the last known lands before they finally come upon the shadow. Naming it with his own name, Ged merges with it and joyfully tells Vetch he is healed and whole. Illustrations The first edition of the book, published in 1968, was illustrated by Ruth Robbins. The cover illustration was in color, and the interior of the book contained a map of the archipelago of Earthsea. In addition, each chapter had a black-and-white illustration by Robbins, similar to a woodcut image. The images represented topics from each chapter; for instance, the very first image depicted the island of Gont, while the illustration for the chapter "The Dragon of Pendor" pictured a flying dragon. The image shown here depicts Ged sailing in his boat Lookfar, and was used in the 10th chapter, "The Open Sea", in which Ged and Vetch travel from Iffish eastward past all known lands to confront the shadow creature. Publication A Wizard of Earthsea was first published in 1968 by Parnassus Press in Berkeley, a year before The Left Hand of Darkness, Le Guin's watershed work. It was a personal landmark for Le Guin, as it represented her first attempt at writing for children; she had written only a handful of other novels and short stories prior to its publication. The book was also her first attempt at writing fantasy, rather than science fiction. A Wizard of Earthsea was the first of Le Guin's books to receive widespread critical attention, and has been described as her best known work, as part of the Earthsea series. The book has been released in numerous editions, including an illustrated Folio Society edition released in 2015. It was also translated into a number of other languages. An omnibus edition of all of Le Guin's Earthsea works was released on the 50th anniversary of the publication of A Wizard of Earthsea in 2018. Le Guin originally intended for A Wizard of Earthsea to be a standalone novel, but decided to write a sequel after considering the loose ends in the first book, and The Tombs of Atuan was released in 1971. The Farthest Shore was written as a third volume after further consideration, and was published in 1972. The Tombs of Atuan tells of the story of Ged's attempt to make whole the ring of Erreth Akbe, half of which is buried in the tombs of Atuan in the Kargish lands, from where he must steal it. There, he meets the child priestess Tenar, on whom the book focuses. In The Farthest Shore, Ged, who has become Archmage, tries to combat a dwindling of magic across Earthsea, accompanied by Arren, a young prince. The first three books are together seen as the "original trilogy"; in each of these, Ged is shown as trying to heal some imbalance in the world. They were followed by Tehanu (1990), Tales from Earthsea (2001), and The Other Wind (2001), which are sometimes referred to as the "second trilogy". Reception As children's literature Initial recognition for the book was from children's-book critics, among whom it garnered acclaim. A Wizard of Earthsea received an even more positive response in the United Kingdom when it was released there in 1971, which, according to White, reflected the greater admiration of British critics for children's fantasy. In her 1975 annotated collection Fantasy for Children, British critic Naomi Lewis described it in the following terms: "[It is not] the easiest book for casual browsing, but readers who take the step will find themselves in one of the most important works of fantasy of our time." Similarly, literary scholar Margaret Esmonde wrote in 1981 that "Le Guin has ... enriched children's literature with what may be its finest high fantasy", while a review in The Guardian by author and journalist Amanda Craig said it was "The most thrilling, wise and beautiful children's novel ever, [written] in prose as taut and clean as a ship's sail." In discussing the book for a gathering of children's librarians, Eleanor Cameron praised the world building in the story, saying "it is as if [Le Guin] herself has lived on the archipelago." Author David Mitchell called the titular character Ged a "superb creation", and argued that he was a more relatable wizard than those featured in prominent works of fantasy at the time. According to him, characters such as Gandalf were "variants on the archetype of Merlin, a Caucasian scholarly aristocrat amongst sorcerers" with little room to grow, whereas Ged developed as a character through his story. Mitchell also praised the other characters in the story, who he said seemed to have a "fully thought-out inner life" despite being fleeting presences. The 1995 Encyclopedia of Science Fiction said that the Earthsea books had been considered the finest science fiction books for children in the post-World War II period. As fantasy Commentators have noted that the Earthsea novels in general received less critical attention because they were considered children's books. Le Guin herself took exception to this treatment of children's literature, describing it as "adult chauvinist piggery". In 1976, literary scholar George Slusser criticized the "silly publication classification designating the original series as 'children's literature'". Barbara Bucknall stated that "Le Guin was not writing for young children when she wrote these fantasies, nor yet for adults. She was writing for 'older kids.' But in fact she can be read, like Tolkien, by ten-year-olds and by adults. These stories are ageless because they deal with problems that confront us at any age." Only in later years did A Wizard of Earthsea receive attention from a more general audience. Literary scholar Tom Shippey was among the first to treat A Wizard of Earthsea as serious literature, assuming in his analysis of the volume that it belonged alongside works by C. S. Lewis and Fyodor Dostoevsky, among others. Margaret Atwood said that she saw the book as "a fantasy book for adults", and added that the book could be categorized as either young adult fiction or as fantasy, but since it dealt with themes such as "life and mortality and who are we as human beings", it could be read and enjoyed by anybody older than twelve. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction echoed this view, saying the series's appeal went "far beyond" the young adults for whom it was written. It went on to praise the book as "austere but vivid", and said the series was more thoughtful than the Narnia books by C. S. Lewis. In his 1980 history of fantasy, Brian Attebery called the Earthsea trilogy "the most challenging and richest American fantasy to date". Slusser described the Earthsea cycle as a "work of high style and imagination", and the original trilogy of books a product of "genuine epic vision". In 1974, critic Robert Scholes compared Le Guin's work favorably to that of C. S. Lewis, saying, "Where C. S. Lewis worked out a specifically Christian set of values, Ursula LeGuin works not with a theology but with an ecology, a cosmology, a reverence for the universe as a self-regulating structure." He added that Le Guin's three Earthsea novels were themselves a sufficient legacy for anybody to leave. In 2014, David Pringle called it "a beautiful story—poetic, thrilling, and profound". Accolades A Wizard of Earthsea won or contributed to several awards for Le Guin. It won the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award in 1969, and was one of the last winners of the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award ten years later. In 1984 it won the Złota Sepulka or the "Golden Sepulka" in Poland. In 2000 Le Guin was given the Margaret A. Edwards Award by the American Library Association for young adult literature. The award cited six of her works, including the first four Earthsea volumes, The Left Hand of Darkness, and The Beginning Place. A 1987 poll in Locus ranked A Wizard of Earthsea third among "All-Time Best Fantasy Novels", while in 2014 Pringle listed it at number 39 in his list of the 100 best novels in modern fantasy. Influence The book has been seen as widely influential within the genre of fantasy. Margaret Atwood has called A Wizard of Earthsea one of the "wellsprings" of fantasy literature. The book has been compared to major works of high fantasy such as J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The notion that names can exert power is also present in Hayao Miyazaki's 2001 film Spirited Away; critics have suggested that that idea originated with Le Guin's Earthsea series. Novelist David Mitchell, author of books such as Cloud Atlas, described A Wizard of Earthsea as having a strong influence on him, and said that he felt a desire to "wield words with the same power as Ursula Le Guin". Modern writers have credited A Wizard of Earthsea for introducing the idea of a "wizard school", which would later be made famous by the Harry Potter series of books, and with popularizing the trope of a boy wizard, also present in Harry Potter. Reviewers have also commented that the basic premise of A Wizard of Earthsea, that of a talented boy going to a wizard's school and making an enemy with whom he has a close connection, is also the premise of Harry Potter. Ged also receives a facial scar from the shadow, as Harry Potter does from Voldemort. Commenting on the similarity, Le Guin said that she did not feel that J. K. Rowling "ripped her off", but that Rowling's books received too much praise for supposed originality, and that Rowling "could have been more gracious about her predecessors. My incredulity was at the critics who found the first book wonderfully original. She has many virtues, but originality isn't one of them. That hurt." Themes Coming of age A Wizard of Earthsea focuses on Ged's adolescence and coming of age, and along with the other two works of the original Earthsea trilogy forms a part of Le Guin's dynamic portrayal of the process of growing old. The three novels together follow Ged from youth to old age, and each of them also follow the coming of age of a different character. The novel is frequently described as a Bildungsroman. Scholar Mike Cadden stated that the book is a convincing tale "to a reader as young and possibly as headstrong as Ged, and therefore sympathetic to him". Ged's coming of age is also intertwined with the physical journey he undertakes through the novel. Ged is depicted as proud and yet unsure of himself in multiple situations: early in his apprenticeship he believes Ogion to be mocking him, and later, at Roke, feels put upon by Jasper. In both cases, he believes that others do not appreciate his greatness, and Le Guin's sympathetic narration does not immediately contradict this belief. Cadden writes that Le Guin allows young readers to sympathize with Ged, and only gradually realize that there is a price to be paid for his actions, as he learns to discipline his magical powers. Similarly, as Ged begins his apprenticeship with Ogion, he imagines that he will be taught mysterious aspects of wizardry, and has visions of transforming himself into other creatures, but gradually comes to see that Ogion's important lessons are those about his own self. The passage at the end of the novel, wherein Ged finally accepts the shadow as a part of himself and is thus released from its terror, has been pointed to by reviewers as a rite of passage. Jeanne Walker, for example, wrote that the rite of passage at the end was an analogue for the entire plot of A Wizard of Earthsea, and that the plot itself plays the role of a rite of passage for an adolescent reader. Walker goes on to say, "The entire action of A Wizard of Earthsea ... portrays the hero's slow realization of what it means to be an individual in society and a self in relation to higher powers." Many readers and critics have commented on similarities between Ged's process of growing up and ideas in Jungian psychology. The young Ged has a scary encounter with a shadow creature, which he later realizes is the dark side of himself. It is only after he recognizes and merges with the shadow that he becomes a whole person. Le Guin said that she had never read Jung before writing the Earthsea novels. Le Guin described coming of age as the main theme of the book, and wrote in a 1973 essay that she chose that theme since she was writing for an adolescent audience. She stated that "Coming of age ... is a process that took me many years; I finished it, so far as I ever will, at about age thirty-one; and so I feel rather deeply about it. So do most adolescents. It's their main occupation, in fact." She also said that fantasy was best suited as a medium for describing coming of age, because exploring the subconscious was difficult using the language of "rational daily life". The coming of age that Le Guin focused on included not just psychological development, but moral changes as well. Ged needs to recognize the balance between his power and his responsibility to use it well, a recognition which comes as he travels to the stone of Terrenon and sees the temptation that that power represents. Equilibrium and Taoist themes The world of Earthsea is depicted as being based on a delicate balance, which most of its inhabitants are aware of, but which is disrupted by somebody in each of the original trilogy of novels. This includes an equilibrium between land and sea (implicit in the name Earthsea), and between people and their natural environment. In addition to physical equilibrium, there is a larger cosmic equilibrium, which everybody is aware of, and which wizards are tasked with maintaining. Describing this aspect of Earthsea, Elizabeth Cummins wrote, "The principle of balanced powers, the recognition that every act affects self, society, world, and cosmos, is both a physical and a moral principle of Le Guin's fantasy world." The concept of balance is related to the novel's other major theme of coming of age, as Ged's knowledge of the consequences of his own actions for good or ill is necessary for him to understand how the balance is maintained. While at the school of Roke, the Master Hand tells him: But you must not change one thing, one pebble, one grain of sand, until you know what good and evil will follow on that act. The world is in balance, in Equilibrium. A wizard's power of Changing and of Summoning can shake the balance of the world. It is dangerous, that power. It is most perilous. It must follow knowledge, and serve need. To light a candle is to cast a shadow. The influence of Taoism on Le Guin's writing is evident through much of the book, especially in her depiction of the "balance". At the end of the novel, Ged may be seen to embody the Taoist way of life, as he has learned not to act unless absolutely necessary. He has also learned that seeming opposites, like light and dark or good and evil, are actually interdependent. Light and dark themselves are recurring images within the story. Reviewers have identified this belief as evidence of a conservative ideology within the story, shared with much of fantasy. In emphasizing concerns over balance and equilibrium, scholars have argued, Le Guin essentially justifies the status quo, which wizards strive to maintain. This tendency is in contrast to Le Guin's science fiction writing, in which change is shown to have value. The nature of human evil forms a significant related theme through A Wizard of Earthsea as well as the other Earthsea novels. As with other works by Le Guin, evil is shown as a misunderstanding of the balance of life. Ged is born with great power in him, but the pride that he takes in his power leads to his downfall; he tries to demonstrate his strength by bringing a spirit back from the dead, and in performing this act against the laws of nature, releases the shadow that attacks him. Slusser suggests that although he is provoked into performing dangerous spells first by the girl on Gont and then by Jasper, this provocation exists in Ged's mind. He is shown as unwilling to look within himself and see the pride that drives him to do what he does. When he accepts the shadow into himself, he also finally accepts responsibility for his own actions, and by accepting his own mortality he is able to free himself. His companion Vetch describes the moment by saying that Ged had neither lost nor won but, naming the shadow of his death with his own name, had made himself whole: a man: who, knowing his whole true self, cannot be used or possessed by any power other than himself, and whose life therefore is lived for life's sake and never in the service of ruin, or pain, or hatred, or the dark. Thus, although there are several dark powers in Earthsea (like the stone of Terrenon and the Nameless Ones of Atuan), the true evil was not one of these powers, or even death, but Ged's actions that went against the balance of nature. This is contrary to conventional Western and Christian storytelling, in which light and darkness are often considered opposites, and are seen as symbolizing good and evil, which are constantly in conflict. On two different occasions, Ged is tempted to try to defy death and evil, but eventually learns that neither can be eliminated: instead, he chooses not to serve evil, and stops denying death. True names In Le Guin's fictional universe, to know the true name of an object or a person is to have power over it. Each child is given a true name when they reach puberty, a name which they share only with close friends. Several of the dragons in the later Earthsea novels, like Orm Embar and Kalessin, are shown as living openly with their names, which do not give anybody power over them. In A Wizard of Earthsea, however, Ged is shown to have power over Yevaud. Cadden writes that this is because Yevaud still has attachment to riches and material possessions, and is thus bound by the power of his name. Wizards exert their influence over the equilibrium through the use of names, thus linking this theme to Le Guin's depiction of a cosmic balance. According to Cummins, this is Le Guin's way of demonstrating the power of language in shaping reality. Since language is the tool we use for communicating about the environment, she argues that it also allows humans to affect the environment, and the wizards' power to use names symbolizes this. Cummins went on to draw an analogy between the wizards' use of names to change things with the creative use of words in fictional writing. Shippey wrote that Earthsea magic seems to work through what he called the "Rumpelstiltskin theory", in which names have power. He argued that this portrayal was part of Le Guin's effort to emphasize the power of words over objects, which, according to Shippey, was in contrast to the ideology of other writers, such as James Frazer in The Golden Bough. Esmonde argued that each of the first three Earthsea books hinged on an act of trust. In A Wizard of Earthsea, Vetch trusts Ged with his true name when the latter is at his lowest ebb emotionally, thus giving Ged complete power over him. Ged later offers Tenar the same gift in The Tombs of Atuan, thereby allowing her to learn trust. Style and structure Language and mood A Wizard of Earthsea and other novels of the Earthsea cycle differ notably from Le Guin's early Hainish cycle works, although they were written at a similar time. George Slusser described the Earthsea works as providing a counterweight to the "excessive pessimism" of the Hainish novels. He saw the former as depicting individual action in a favorable light, in contrast to works such as "Vaster than Empires and More Slow". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction said the book was pervaded by a "grave joyfulness". In discussing the style of her fantasy works, Le Guin herself said that in fantasy it was necessary to be clear and direct with language, because there is no known framework for the reader's mind to rest upon. The story often appears to assume that readers are familiar with the geography and history of Earthsea, a technique which allowed Le Guin to avoid exposition: a reviewer wrote that this method "gives Le Guin's world the mysterious depths of Tolkien's, but without his tiresome back-stories and versifying". In keeping with the notion of an epic, the narration switches from looking ahead into Ged's future and looking back into the past of Earthsea. At the same time, Slusser described the mood of the novel as "strange and dreamlike", fluctuating between objective reality and the thoughts in Ged's mind; some of Ged's adversaries are real, while others are phantoms. This narrative technique, which Cadden characterizes as "free indirect discourse", makes the narrator of the book seem sympathetic to the protagonist, and does not distance his thoughts from the reader. Myth and epic A Wizard of Earthsea has strong elements of an epic; for instance, Ged's place in Earthsea history is described at the very beginning of the book in the following terms: "some say the greatest, and surely the greatest voyager, was the man called Sparrowhawk, who in his day became both dragonlord and Archmage." The story also begins with words from the Earthsea song "The Creation of Éa", which forms a ritualistic beginning to the book. The teller of the story then goes on to say that it is from Ged's youth, thereby establishing context for the rest of the book. In comparison with the protagonists of many of Le Guin's other works, Ged is superficially a typical hero, a mage who sets out on a quest. Reviewers have compared A Wizard of Earthsea to epics such as Beowulf. Scholar Virginia White argued that the story followed a structure common to epics in which the protagonist begins an adventure, faces trials along the way, and eventually returns in triumph. White went on to suggest that this structure can be seen in the series as a whole, as well as in the individual volumes. Le Guin subverted many of the tropes typical to such "monomyths"; the protagonists of her story were all dark-skinned, in comparison to the white-skinned heroes more traditionally used; the Kargish antagonists, in contrast, were white-skinned, a switching of race roles that has been remarked upon by multiple critics. Critics have also cited her use of characters from multiple class backgrounds as a choice subversive to conventional Western fantasy. At the same time, reviewers questioned Le Guin's treatment of gender in A Wizard of Earthsea, and the original trilogy as a whole. Le Guin, who later became known as a feminist, chose to restrict the use of magic to men and boys in the first volume of Earthsea. Initial critical reactions to A Wizard of Earthsea saw Ged's gender as incidental. In contrast, The Tombs of Atuan saw Le Guin intentionally tell a female coming-of-age story, which was nonetheless described as perpetuating a male-dominated model of Earthsea. Tehanu (1990), published as the fourth volume of Earthsea 18 years after the third, has been described both by Le Guin and her commentators as a feminist re-imagining of the series, in which the power and status of the chief characters are reversed, and the patriarchal social structure questioned. Commenting in 1993, Le Guin wrote that she could not continue [Earthsea after 1972] until she had "wrestled with the angels of the feminist consciousness". Several critics have argued that by combining elements of epic, Bildungsroman, and young adult fiction, Le Guin succeeded in blurring the boundaries of conventional genres. In a 1975 commentary Francis Molson argued that the series should be referred to as "ethical fantasy", a term which acknowledged that the story did not always follow the tropes of heroic fantasy, and the moral questions that it raised. The term did not become popular. A similar argument was made by children's literature critic Cordelia Sherman in 1985; she argued that A Wizard of Earthsea and the rest of the series sought "to teach children by dramatic example what it means to be a good adult". Adaptations A condensed, illustrated version of the first chapter was printed by World Book in the third volume of Childcraft in 1989. Multiple audio versions of the book have been released. BBC Radio produced a radioplay version in 1996 narrated by Judi Dench, and a six-part series adapting the Earthsea novels in 2015, broadcast on Radio 4 Extra. In 2011, the work was produced as an unabridged recording performed by Robert Inglis. Two screen adaptations of the story have also been produced. An original mini-series titled Legend of Earthsea was broadcast in 2004 on the Sci Fi Channel. It is based very loosely on A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan. In an article published in Salon, Le Guin expressed strong displeasure at the result. She stated that by casting a "petulant white kid" as Ged (who has red-brown skin in the book) the series "whitewashed Earthsea", and had ignored her choice to write the story of a non-white character, a choice she said was central to the book. This sentiment was shared by a review in The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fantasy, which said that Legend of Earthsea "totally missed the point" of Le Guin's novels, "ripping out all the subtlety, nuance and beauty of the books and inserting boring cliches, painful stereotypes and a very unwelcome 'epic' war in their place". Studio Ghibli released an adaptation of the series in 2006 titled Tales from Earthsea. The film very loosely combines elements of the first, third, and fourth books into a new story. Le Guin commented with displeasure on the film-making process, saying that she had acquiesced to the adaptation believing Hayao Miyazaki would be producing the film himself, which was eventually not the case. Le Guin praised the imagery of the film, but disliked the use of violence. She also expressed dissatisfaction with the portrayal of morality, and in particular the use of a villain who could be slain as a means of resolving conflict, which she said was antithetical to the message of the book. The film received generally mixed responses. References Bibliography Further reading External links A Wizard of Earthsea title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

"The Rule of Names" is a short story by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin, first published in the April 1964 issue of Fantastic and reprinted in collections such as The Wind's Twelve Quarters. This story and "The Word of Unbinding" convey Le Guin's initial concepts for the Earthsea realm, including its places and physical manifestation. Most of the characters from the novels do not make an appearance, with the exception of the dragon Yevaud. Both stories help explain the foundations of the Earthsea realm, in particular the importance of true names to magic. Plot summary Sattins Island (among the Islands of Earthsea, though this is not mentioned in the original story) contains a rustic village and a resident wizard, nicknamed "Underhill" because he lives in a cave below a hill. Fat, shy, and largely incompetent, Underhill mostly uses simple magic to help the villagers with day-to-day minor medical and agricultural difficulties. Meanwhile, the village's teacher, the pretty Palani, introduces the concept of naming to her schoolchildren: each citizen of Earthsea has one name as a child, which they abandon at puberty in favor of their "true name", but this name must be kept private as it can be used by ill-intentioned magicians to control the individual. One day, a lone handsome stranger from the distant Archipelago arrives on the island. The locals dub him Blackbeard. He hires a village lad called Birt to guide him to Underhill's home. Speaking to Birt, Blackbeard reveals his purpose: he is a powerful magician searching for his ancestors' treasure, which was stolen by a dragon. He believes Underhill to be a wizard who defeated the dragon and made off with the treasure. Birt and Blackbeard arrive at Underhill's home. There, Blackbeard confronts Underhill, culminating in a battle in which the two magicians shapeshift into different animals and natural forces. After Underhill transforms into a massive dragon, Blackbeard reveals that he knows Underhill's true name, Yevaud, and that speaking the name will lock Underhill into his true form. This proves effective, but not as Blackbeard expected; Underhill explains that he is in fact the dragon who stole the treasure of Blackbeard's ancestors, and so his true form is indeed that of a dragon. Blackbeard, stunned, is hastily dispatched by Yevaud. Meanwhile, Birt flees the island, taking his love Palani with him. As he does so, Yevaud, embracing his predatory dragon nature, prepares to devour the villagers of Sattins Island. In A Wizard of Earthsea, Ged knows this tale as an ancient bit of lore and makes a desperate gamble based on it. Literary significance and criticism Susan Wood points out that it was during the early 1960s, when Ursula K. Le Guin was selling stories such as "The Word of Unbinding" and "The Rule of Names", that she "was an accomplished writer, expressing valuable insights with grace and humour". The story underscores the importance of language to the entire Earthsea Cycle. In particular, the use of "names" in the title, along with the use of "word" in "The Word of Unbinding", solidifies this message in the first two Earthsea stories. Specifically, within the Earthsea realm, knowing another man's or dragon's true name gives one power over them; as a result, sharing one's true name with another is an act of complete trust. In later parts of the Earthsea Cycle, the concept of humans and dragons being akin and having been originally one species is developed, and some persons such as Tehanu have a dual human-dragon nature. However, there is no hint of that in this early story. Yevaud had turned himself into a human being for the purpose of hiding, as Ged turned into a bird in A Wizard of Earthsea and Festin into a fish in "The Word of Unbinding", and there is no suggestion that being human was inherent to him in any way. References Sources External links The Rule of Names title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Fantastic was an American digest-size fantasy and science fiction magazine, published from 1952 to 1980. It was founded by the publishing company Ziff Davis as a fantasy companion to Amazing Stories. Early sales were good, and the company quickly decided to switch Amazing from pulp format to digest, and to cease publication of their other science fiction pulp, Fantastic Adventures. Within a few years sales fell, and Howard Browne, the editor, was forced to switch the focus to science fiction rather than fantasy. Browne lost interest in the magazine as a result and the magazine generally ran poor-quality fiction in the mid-1950s, under Browne and his successor, Paul W. Fairman. At the end of the 1950s, Cele Goldsmith took over as editor of both Fantastic and Amazing Stories, and quickly invigorated the magazines, bringing in many new writers and making them, in the words of one science fiction historian, the "best-looking and brightest" magazines in the field. Goldsmith helped to nurture the early careers of writers such as Roger Zelazny and Ursula K. Le Guin, but was unable to increase circulation, and in 1965 the magazines were sold to Sol Cohen, who hired Joseph Wrzos as editor and switched to a reprint-only policy. This was financially successful, but brought Cohen into conflict with the newly formed Science Fiction Writers of America. After a turbulent period at the end of the 1960s, Ted White became editor and the reprints were phased out. White worked hard to make the magazine successful, introducing artwork from artists who had made their names in comics, and working with new authors such as Gordon Eklund. His budget for fiction was low, but he was occasionally able to find good stories from well-known writers that had been rejected by other markets. Circulation continued to decline, however, and in 1978, Cohen sold out his half of the business to his partner, Arthur Bernhard. White resigned shortly afterwards, and was replaced by Elinor Mavor, but within two years Bernhard decided to close down Fantastic, merging it with Amazing Stories, which had always enjoyed a slightly higher circulation. Publishing history In 1938, Ziff Davis, a Chicago-based publisher looking to expand into the pulp magazine market, acquired Amazing Stories. The number of science fiction magazines grew quickly, and several new titles appeared over the next few years, among them Fantastic Adventures, which was launched by Ziff Davis in 1939 as a companion to Amazing. Under the editorship of Raymond Palmer, the magazines were reasonably successful but published poor-quality work; when Howard Browne took over as editor of Amazing in January 1950, he decided to try to move the magazine upmarket. Ziff Davis agreed to back the new magazine, and Browne put together a sample copy, but, when the Korean War broke out, Ziff Davis cut their budgets and the project was abandoned. Browne did not give up, and in 1952 received the go-ahead to try a new magazine instead, focused on high-quality fantasy, a genre which had recently become more popular. The first issue of Fantastic, dated Summer 1952, appeared on March 21 of that year. Early years Sales were very good, and Ziff Davis was sufficiently impressed after only two issues to move the magazine from a quarterly to a bimonthly schedule, and to switch Amazing from pulp format to digest-size to match Fantastic. Shortly afterwards the decision was taken to eliminate Fantastic Adventures: the March 1953 issue was the last, and the May–June 1953 issue of Fantastic added a mention of Fantastic Adventures to the masthead, though this ceased with the following issue. Payment started at two cents per word for all rights, but could go up to ten cents at the editor's discretion; this put Fantastic in the second echelon of magazines, behind titles such as Astounding and Galaxy. The experiment with quality fiction did not last. Circulation dropped, which led to budget cuts, and in turn the quality of the fiction fell. Browne had wanted to separate Fantastic from Amazing's pulp roots, but now found he had to print more science fiction (sf) and less fantasy in order to attract Amazing's readers to its sister magazine. Fantastic's poor results were probably a consequence of an overloaded sf-magazine market: far more magazines appeared in the early 1950s than the market was able to support. Ziff Davis sales staff were able to help sell Fantastic and Amazing along with the technical magazines that it published, and the availability of a national sales network, even though it was not focused solely on Fantastic, undoubtedly helped the magazine to survive. In May 1956, Browne left Ziff Davis to become a screenwriter. Paul W. Fairman took over as editor of both Fantastic and Amazing. In 1957, Bernard Davis left Ziff Davis; it had been Davis who had suggested the acquisition of Amazing in 1939, and he had stayed involved with the sf magazines throughout the time he spent there. With his departure Amazing and Fantastic stagnated; they were still issued monthly, but drew no attention from the management of Ziff Davis. Mid-1950s to late 1960s In November 1955, Ziff Davis hired an assistant, Cele Goldsmith, who began by helping with two new magazines under development, Dream World and Pen Pals. She also read the slush piles for all the magazines, and was quickly given more responsibility. In 1957, she was made managing editor of both Amazing and Fantastic, doing administrative chores and reading unsolicited manuscripts. At the end of 1958, she became editor, replacing Fairman, who had left to become managing editor of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. Goldsmith—who became Cele Lalli when she married in 1964—stayed as editor for six and a half years. Circulation dropped for both Amazing and Fantastic: in 1964, Fantastic had a paid circulation of only 27,000. In 1965, Sol Cohen, who at that time was Galaxy's publisher, set up his own publishing company, Ultimate Publishing, and bought both Amazing and Fantastic from Ziff Davis. Cohen had decided to make the magazines as profitable as possible by filling them only with reprints. This was possible because Ziff Davis had acquired second serial rights for all stories they had published, and since Cohen had bought the backfile of stories he was able to reprint them using these rights. Using reprints in this way saved Cohen about $8,000 a year between the two magazines. Lalli decided that she did not want to work for Cohen, and stayed with Ziff Davis. Her last issue was June 1965. Cohen replaced Lalli with Joseph Wrzos, who used the name "Joseph Ross" on the magazines. Cohen had met Wrzos at the Galaxy offices not long before; Wrzos was teaching English full-time, but had worked for Gnome Press as an assistant editor in 1953–1954. Cohen also launched a series of reprint magazines, drawing from the backfile of both Amazing and Fantastic, again using the second serial rights he had acquired from Ziff Davis. The first reprint magazine was Great Science Fiction; the first issue, titled Great Science Fiction from Amazing, appeared in August 1965. By early 1967 this had been joined by The Most Thrilling Science Fiction Ever Told and Science Fiction Classics. These increased the workload on Wrzos, though Cohen made the selection of stories, and Wrzos found himself able to work on Fantastic and Amazing only part-time. Cohen hired Herb Lehrman to help with the other magazines. Although Cohen felt that his deal with Ziff Davis gave him the reprint rights he needed, the newly formed Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) received complaints about Cohen's refusal to pay anything for the reprints. He was also reportedly not responding to requests for reassignment of copyright. SFWA organized a boycott of Cohen's magazines; after a year Cohen agreed to pay a flat fee for the reprints, and in August 1967 he agreed to a graduated scale of payments, and the boycott was withdrawn. Harry Harrison had been involved in the negotiations between SFWA and Cohen, and when the agreement was reached in 1967 Cohen asked Harrison if he would take over as editor of both magazines. Harrison was available because SF Impulse, which he had been editing, had ceased publication in early 1967. Cohen agreed to phase out the reprints by the end of the year, and Harrison took the job. Cohen added Harrison's name to the masthead of two issues of Great Science Fiction, although Harrison had had nothing to do with that magazine, but the reprints in Fantastic and Amazing continued and Harrison decided to quit in February 1968. He recommended Barry Malzberg as his replacement. Cohen had worked with Malzberg at the Scott Meredith Literary Agency, and felt Malzberg would be more cooperative than Harrison. Malzberg, however, turned out to be just as unwilling as Harrison to work with Cohen if the reprints continued, and soon regretted taking the job. In October 1968 Cohen refused to pay for a cover that Malzberg had commissioned; Malzberg insisted, threatening to resign if Cohen did not agree. Cohen contacted Robert Silverberg, then the president of SFWA, and told him (falsely) that Malzberg had actually resigned. Silverberg recommended Ted White as a replacement. Cohen secured White's agreement and then fired Malzberg; White took over in October 1968, but because there was a backlog of stories Malzberg had acquired, the first issue on which he was credited as editor was the June 1969 issue. 1970s to present Like his immediate predecessors, White took the job on condition that the reprints would be phased out. It was some time before this was achieved: there was at least one reprinted story in every issue until the end of 1971. The February 1972 issue contained some artwork reprinted from 1939, and after that the reprints ceased. Fantastic's circulation was about 37,000 when White took over; only about 4 percent of this was subscription sales. Cohen's wife filled the subscriptions from their garage, and according to White, Cohen regarded this as a burden, and never tried to increase the subscription base. Despite White's efforts, Fantastic's circulation fell, from almost 37,000 when he took over as editor to less than 24,000 in the summer of 1975. Cohen was rumored to be interested in selling both Fantastic and Amazing; among other possibilities, both Roger Elwood, at that time an active science fiction anthology editor, and Edward Ferman, the editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, approached Cohen with a view to acquiring the titles. Nothing came of it, however, and White was not aware of the possible sales. He was working at a low salary, with unpaid help from friends to read unsolicited submissions—at one point he introduced a 25-cent reading fee for manuscripts from unpublished writers; the fee would be refunded if White bought the story. White sometimes found himself at odds with Cohen's business partner, Arthur Bernhard, due to their different political views. White's unhappiness with his working conditions culminated in his resignation after Cohen refused his proposal to publish Fantastic as a slick magazine, with larger pages and higher quality paper. White commented in an article in Science Fiction Review that he had brought to the magazines "a lot of energy and enthusiasm and a great many ideas for their improvement ...Well, I have put into effect nearly every idea which I was allowed to follow through on ... and have spent most of my energy and enthusiasm." Cohen was able to persuade him to stay for another year; in the event White stayed for another three. White was unable to completely halt the slide in circulation, though it rose a little in 1977. That year Cohen lost $15,000 on the magazines, and decided to sell. He spent some time looking for a new publisher—editor Roy Torgeson was one of those interested—but on September 15, 1978, he sold his half of the business to Arthur Bernhard, his partner. White renewed his suggestions for improving the format of the magazine: he wanted to make Fantastic the same size as Time, and believed he could avoid the mistakes that had been made by other sf magazines that had tried that approach. White also proposed an increase in the budget and asked for a raise. Bernhard not only turned down White's ideas, but also stopped paying him: White responded by resigning. His last official day as editor was November 9; the last issue of Fantastic under his control was the January 1979 issue. He returned all submissions to their authors, saying that he had been told to do so by Bernhard; Bernhard denied this. Bernhard brought in Elinor Mavor to edit both Amazing and Fantastic. Mavor had previously edited Bill of Fare, a restaurant trade journal, and was a long-time science fiction reader, but she had little knowledge of the history of the magazines. She was unaware, for example, that she was not the first woman to edit them, and so adopted a male pseudonym—"Omar Gohagen"—for a while. She suggested a campaign to increase circulation, and went so far as to gather information about costs while on a trip to New York in 1979. Bernhard decided instead to merge the two magazines. Circulation was continuing to drop; the figures for the last two years are not available, but sf historian Mike Ashley estimates that Fantastic's paid circulation may have been as low as 13,000. Bernhard felt that since Fantastic had never been profitable, whereas Amazing had made money, it was best to keep Amazing. Until the March 1985 issue, Amazing included a mention of Fantastic on the spine and on the contents page. In 1999, the fiction magazine formerly known as Pirate Writings revived the Fantastic title and Cele Goldsmith-era logotype for several issues, ultimately unsuccessfully, though this was not intended as a continuation of the original magazine. In August 2014, Warren Lapine, former editor of Absolute Magnitude, Realms of Fantasy, and Weird Tales, revived the Fantastic logotype of Fantastic Stories of the Imagination as a free webzine. Contents and reception Browne and Fairman The first issue of Fantastic was impressive, with a cover that sf historian Mike Ashley has described as "one of the most captivating of all first issues"; the painting, by Barye Phillips and Leo Summers, illustrated Kris Neville's "The Opal Necklace". The fiction included some stories by well known names; in particular, Raymond Chandler's "Professor Bingo's Snuff" would have caught readers' eyes—the story had appeared the year before in Park East magazine, but would have been new to most readers. It was a short mystery in which the fantasy element was invisibility, achieved by magical snuff. Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury also contributed stories, and the issue led with "Six and Ten Are Johnny", by Walter M. Miller. The rear cover reprinted Pierre Roy's painting "Danger on the Stairs", which depicted a snake on a staircase; it was an odd choice, but subsequent back covers were more natural fits for a fantasy magazine. The quality of the fiction continued to be high for the first year; sf historian Mike Ashley comments that almost every story in the first seven issues was of high quality, and historian David Kyle regards it as an "outstandingly successful experiment". Science fiction bibliographer Donald Tuck dissents, however, regarding the first few years as containing "little of note", and James Blish wrote a contemporary review of the second issue which found it lacking: Blish dismissed three of the seven stories in the Fall 1952 issue as being essentially crime stories written for the sf market, and commented that of the remaining four, only two were "reasonably competent and craftsmanlike". Other well-known writers appeared in the early issues, including Shirley Jackson, B. Traven, Truman Capote and Evelyn Waugh. Mickey Spillane had written a story called "The Woman With Green Skin", but had been unable to sell it; Browne offered to buy it on condition that he had permission to rewrite it as he wished. This was agreed and Browne scrapped Spillane's text completely, writing a new story called "The Veiled Woman" and publishing it as by Spillane in the November–December 1952 issue. The issue sold so well it was reprinted, with over 300,000 copies sold. The emphasis was on fantasy, and much of it was "slick" fantasy—the sort of genre fiction that the upmarket slick magazines, such as The Saturday Evening Post, were willing to buy. Some science fiction appeared as well in the first couple of years, including Isaac Asimov's "Sally", which portrays a world in which cars have been given robotic brains and are intelligent. In 1955 it was decided to move the focus from fantasy to sf: in Browne's words, "Stories of straight fantasy were largely eliminated and straight science-fiction substituted, cover subject matter became of a scientific nature, the words "science fiction" appeared under the title, interior artwork was tightened up to replace the loose, 'arty' kind of drawing we had been using." Sales rose 17% within two issues. Browne was uninterested in science fiction, however, and the quality of the fiction soon dropped, with a small stable of writers producing much of Fantastic's fiction under house names over the next couple of years. By the start of 1956 the fiction in Fantastic was, in the opinion of sf historian Mike Ashley, "[in] a trough of hack predictability", but there was some inventiveness evident from newer writers such as Robert Silverberg, Harlan Ellison and Randall Garrett. Although Browne had been unable to make Fantastic successful by specializing in fantasy, he was still interested in the fantasy genre, and experimented in the December 1955 issue with the theme of wish fulfilment. He dropped the words "Science Fiction" from the cover, and published five stories, all of which dealt with male fantasies in one form or another. The cover showed a man walking through a wall to find a woman undressing; the art was by Ed Valigursky and illustrated Paul Fairman's "All Walls Were Mist". Reader reaction, according to Browne, was almost entirely favorable, and he continued to publish occasional stories on the wish-fulfilment theme. The experiment was repeated with the October 1956 issue, which again ran without "Science Fiction" on the cover, and contained stories on the theme of "Incredible Powers". Once again the cover illustrated a male fantasy: this time it showed a man materializing in a bath house where women were showering. Browne had left Ziff Davis by the time this issue appeared, but Browne's plans for a magazine around these themes were well advanced, and Fairman, who by this time was editing both Fantastic and Amazing, was given Dream World to edit as well. It ran for three quarterly issues, starting in February 1957, but proved too narrow a market to succeed. Fairman devoted the July 1958 issue of Fantastic to the Shaver Mystery—a lurid set of beliefs propounded by Richard Shaver in the late 1940s that told of "detrimental robots", or "deros", who were behind many of the disasters that befell humanity. Most of these stories had run in Amazing, though the editor at that time, Ray Palmer, had been forced to drop Shaver by Ziff Davis when the stories began to attract ridicule in the press. Fantastic's readers were no kinder, complaining vigorously. Goldsmith When Goldsmith took over as editor, there was some concern at Ziff Davis that she might not be able to handle the job. A consultant, Norman Lobsenz, was brought in to help her; Lobsenz's title was "editorial director", but in fact Goldsmith made the story selections. Lobsenz provided blurbs and editorials, read the stories Goldsmith bought, and met with Goldsmith every week or so. Goldsmith was not a long-time sf reader, and knew little about the field; she simply looked for good quality fiction and bought what she liked. In Mike Ashley's words, "the result, between 1961 and 1964, was the two most exciting and original magazines in the field". New writers whose first story appeared in Fantastic during this period included Phyllis Gotlieb, Larry Eisenberg, Ursula K. Le Guin, Thomas M. Disch, and Piers Anthony. The November 1959 issue was dedicated to Fritz Leiber; it included "Lean Times in Lankhmar", one of Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories. Goldsmith published another half-dozen stories in the series over the next six years, along with other similar (and sometimes imitative) fiction such as early work by Michael Moorcock, and John Jakes' early stories of Brak the Barbarian. This helped to invigorate the nascent sword and sorcery subgenre. Goldsmith obtained an early story by Cordwainer Smith, "The Fife of Bodidharma", which ran in the June 1959 issue, but shortly thereafter Pohl at Galaxy reached an agreement to get first refusal on all Smith's work. During the early 1960s Goldsmith managed to make Fantastic and Amazing, in the words of Mike Ashley, "the best-looking and brightest" magazines around. This applied both to the covers, where Goldsmith used artists such as Alex Schomburg and Leo Summers, and the content. Ashley also describes Fantastic as the "premier fantasy magazine" during Goldsmith's tenure—at that time the only other magazine focused specifically on fantasy fiction was the British Science Fantasy. Goldsmith's tastes were too diverse for Fantastic to be limited to genre fantasy, however, and her willingness to buy fiction she liked, regardless of genre expectations, allowed many new writers to flourish on the pages of both Amazing and Fantastic. Writers such as Ursula K. Le Guin, Roger Zelazny and Thomas M. Disch sold regularly to her at the start of their careers Le Guin later commented that Goldsmith was "as enterprising and perceptive an editor as the science fiction magazines ever had". Not all Goldsmith's choices were universally popular with the magazine's subscribers: she regularly published fiction by David R. Bunch, for example, to mixed reviews from the readership. Reprint era Wrzos persuaded Cohen that both Amazing and Fantastic should carry a new story in every issue, rather than running nothing but reprints; Goldsmith had left a backlog of unpublished stories, and Wrzos was able to stretch these out for some time. One such story was Fritz Leiber's "Stardock", another Fafhrd and Gray Mouser story, which appeared in the September 1965 issue; it was subsequently nominated for a Hugo Award. The reprints were well received by the fans, because Wrzos was able to find good quality stories that were unavailable except in the original magazines, meaning that to many of Fantastic's readers they were fresh material. Wrzos also reprinted "The People of the Black Circle", a Robert E. Howard story from Weird Tales, in 1967, when Howard's Conan stories were becoming popular. In addition to the backlog of new stories from the Ziff Davis era, Wrzos was able to acquire some new material. He was especially glad to acquire "For a Breath I Tarry", by Roger Zelazny; however, he had to wait for Cohen's approval for his acquisitions. Cohen, perhaps uncertain because of the story's originality, delayed until it appeared in the British magazine New Worlds before agreeing to publish it. Wrzos commented years later that he would "never forgive him [Cohen] his timidity at that time". Wrzos bought Doris Piserchia's first story, "Rocket to Gehenna", and was the first editor to acquire a story by Dean Koontz. He had to work with Koontz to improve it, and the delay this caused, in addition to the slow publishing schedule for new material, meant that Koontz appeared in print with "Soft Come the Dragons", in the August 1967 Fantasy & Science Fiction, before "A Darkness in My Soul" appeared in the January 1968 Fantastic. After Wrzos's departure, Harrison and Malzberg had little opportunity to reshape the magazine as between them they only took responsibility for a handful of issues before Ted White took over. However, Harrison did print James Tiptree's first sale, "Fault", in the August 1968 issue; again the slow schedule meant that this was not Tiptree's first appearance in print. Harrison added a science column by Leon Stover, but was unable to change Cohen's position on the reprints, and so could not print much new fiction. When Malzberg took over from Harrison he published John Sladek, Thomas M. Disch, and James Sallis, all of whom were associated with New Wave science fiction, but his tenure was too short for him to have a significant impact on the magazine. White and Mavor White was only able to offer his writers one cent per word, which was substantially lower than the leading magazines in the field—Analog Science Fiction and Fact paid five cents, and Galaxy and Fantasy & Science Fiction paid three. Most stories would only be submitted to White once the higher-paying markets had rejected them, but among the rejects White was sometimes able to find experimental material that he liked. For example, Piers Anthony had been unable to sell an early fantasy novel, Hasan; White saw a review of the manuscript and promptly acquired it for Fantastic, where it was serialized starting in the December 1969 issue. White also took care to establish relationships with newer writers. White bought Gordon Eklund's first story, "Dear Aunt Annie", it appeared in the April 1970 issue and was nominated for a Nebula Award. Eklund was unwilling to become a full-time writer, despite this success, because of the financial risks, so White agreed to buy anything Eklund wrote, on condition that Eklund himself believed it was a good story. The result was that much of Eklund's fiction appeared in Amazing and Fantastic over the next few years. In addition to experimental work, White was able to obtain material by some of the leading sf writers of the day, including Brian Aldiss and John Brunner. White also acquired some early work by writers who became better known in other fields: Roger Ebert sold two stories in the early 1970s to Fantastic; the first, "After the Last Mass", appeared in the February 1972 issue; and in 1975 White bought Ian McEwan's second story, "Solid Geometry". It was included in First Love, Last Rites, McEwan's first short story collection, which won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1976. White had been an active science fiction fan before he became professionally involved in the field, and although he estimated that only 1 in 30 readers were active sf fans, he tried to use this fan base to help by urging the readership to give him feedback and to help with distribution by checking local newsstands for the magazines. White wanted to introduce established artists from outside the sf field, such as Jeff Jones, Vaughn Bodē, and Steve Hickman; however, the company was saddled with cheap artwork acquired from European magazines to be used for the cover and he was instructed to make use of them. He commissioned a comic strip from Vaughn Bodé, but was outbid by Judy-Lynn Benjamin at Galaxy; he subsequently told his readers that he'd signed up Bodé again for interior artwork, but this never materialized. Instead a four-page comic strip by Jay Kinney appeared in December 1970; a second strip, by Art Spiegelman, was planned, but never published. Eventually White was allowed to commission original cover art; he published early work by Mike Hinge, and Mike Kaluta made his first professional sale to Fantastic. He tried to hire Hinge as art director, but this fell through and White filled the role himself, sometimes using the pseudonym "J. Edwards". Because of poor distribution, Fantastic was never able to benefit from the increasing popularity of the fantasy genre, though White was able to publish several stories by well-known writers in the field, including a sword and sorcery novella by Dean R. Koontz, which appeared in the October 1970 issue, and an Elric story by Michael Moorcock in February 1972. A revival of Robert E. Howard's character Conan, in stories by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter, was successful at increasing sales; the first of these stories appeared in August 1972, and White reported that sales of that issue were higher than for any other issue of Amazing or Fantastic that year. Each Conan story, according to White, increased sales of that issue by 10,000 copies. White also published several of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories, and added "Sword and Sorcery" to the cover in 1975. In the same year a companion magazine, Sword & Sorcery Annual, was launched, but the first issue was the only one to appear. The quality of the magazine remained high even as the financial stress was mounting in the late 1970s. White acquired cover artwork by Stephen Fabian and Douglas Beekman, and stories by some of the new generation of sf writers, such as George R. R. Martin and Charles Sheffield. White departed in November 1978, but the first issue of Fantastic under Elinor Mavor's editorial control was April 1979. Because White had returned unsold stories she had very little to work with and was forced to fill the magazine with reprints. This led to renewed conflict with the sf community, which she did her best to defuse. At a convention in 1979 she met Harlan Ellison, who complained about the reprint policy; she explained that it was temporary and was able to get him to agree to contribute stories, publishing two pieces by him in Amazing over the next three years. The January 1980 issue of Fantastic (Mavor's fourth issue) was the last to contain reprinted stories. Once the reprints had been phased out, Mavor was able to find new writers to work with, including Brad Linaweaver and John E. Stith, both of whom sold their first stories to Fantastic. The last year of Fantastic showed "a steady improvement in content", according to Mike Ashley, who cites in particular Daemon, a serialized graphic story, illustrated by Stephen Fabian. However, at the end of 1980 Fantastic's independent existence ceased, and it was merged with Amazing. Publication details Editors The list below gives the person who was acting as editor. In some cases, such as at the start of Cele Goldsmith's stint, the official editor was not the same person; details are given above. Howard Browne (Summer 1952 – August 1956). Paul Fairman (October 1956 – November 1958). Cele Goldsmith (December 1958 – June 1965). Goldsmith used her married name, Cele G. Lalli, from July 1964. Joseph Ross (September 1965 – November 1967). Harry Harrison (January 1968 – October 1968). Barry N. Malzberg (December 1968 – April 1969). Ted White (June 1969 – January 1979) Elinor Mavor (April 1979 – October 1980) Other bibliographic details The title changed multiple times, and was frequently inconsistently given between the cover, spine, indicia, and masthead. The following table shows which issues appeared from which publisher. A British edition published by Thorpe & Porter ran for eight bimonthly issues from December 1953 to February 1955; the issues were not dated on the cover. These correspond to the US issues from September/October 1953 to December 1954, and were numbered volume 1, numbers 1 through 8. Fantastic was digest-sized throughout its life. The page count began at 160 but dropped to 144 with the September/October 1953 issue, and then again to 128 pages with the very next issue, November/December 1953. The July 1960 issue had 144 pages, but apart from that one issue the page count stayed at 128 until September 1965, when it increased to 160. In January 1968 it went back down to 144 pages, and it dropped to 128 pages from February 1971 through the end of its run. The first issue was priced at 35 cents; thereafter the price went up as follows: 50 cents in May 1963, 60 cents in December 1969, 75 cents in July 1974, $1.00 in October 1975, $1.25 in April 1978, and finally $1.50 from April 1979 until the last issue. Derivative anthologies Three anthologies of stories from Fantastic have been published. Note that Time Untamed contains stories that were published in Fantastic during its reprint years, but which did not necessarily first appear there. Notes References Sources Ashley, Mike (2000). The Time Machines: The Story of the Science-Fiction Pulp Magazines from the beginning to 1950. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 0-85323-865-0. Ashley, Mike (2005). Transformations: The Story of the Science Fiction Magazines from 1950 to 1970. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 0-85323-779-4. Ashley, Mike (2007). Gateways to Forever: The Story of the Science-Fiction Magazines from 1970 to 1980. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 978-1-84631-003-4. Atheling Jr., William (1967). The Issue at Hand. Chicago: Advent, Inc. Clute, John; Grant, John (1997). The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. New York: St. Martin's Press, Inc. ISBN 0-312-15897-1. Clute, John; Peter Nicholls (1993). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-09618-6. de Camp, L. Sprague (1953). Science-Fiction Handbook: The Writing of Imaginative Fiction. New York: Hermitage House. del Rey, Lester (1979). The World of Science Fiction: 1926–1976: The History of a Subculture. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-25452-X. Kyle, David (1977). The Pictorial History of Science Fiction. London: Hamlyn. ISBN 0-600-38193-5. Pohl, Frederik (1979). The Way the Future Was. London: Gollancz. ISBN 0-575-02672-3. Tuck, Donald H. (1982). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Volume 3. Chicago: Advent. ISBN 0-911682-26-0. Tymn, Marshall B.; Mike Ashley (1985). Science Fiction, Fantasy and Weird Fiction Magazines. West: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-21221-X. External links Media related to Fantastic (magazine) at Wikimedia Commons Fantastic at Internet Speculative Fiction Database